Part 31 (1/2)

They made some four knots in each of the next thirty hours, with the gale on their starboard bow. When at last it broke, Jimmy, who got an observation, headed the _Shasta_ southeastward, and a day or two later ran her in behind an island. Then two boats pulled ash.o.r.e across a sluice of tide, and came back some hours later when it had slackened a little, loaded rather deeper than was safe with sawn-up pines. Fleming also brought two very rude saws with him, and invited Jimmy's attention to one of them.

”Saws,” he said, ”are in a general way made of steel, and you can't expect too much from soft plate-iron. The boys did well; there's not a man among the crowd of them can get his back straight. You'd understand the reason if you had tried to cut down big trees with an instrument that has an edge like a nutmeg-grater.”

Jimmy smiled, for he considered it very likely. ”Well,” he said, ”what are you going to do to make them serviceable?”

”Sit up all night re-gulletting them with a file. I want four loads of billets before we start again; but we'll take another axe ash.o.r.e in the morning.”

They went off early, when the tide was slack, taking an extra axe along, while it was noon when they came back, with one man who had badly cut his leg lying upon the billets. Fleming, however, insisted on his four loads, and it was evening when he brought the last two off. The men were almost too wearied to pull across the tide, and only the handles attached to them suggested that the two worn strips of iron they pa.s.sed up had been meant for saws.

”That,” said Fleming, who held one up before Jimmy, ”says a good deal for the boys; but if I drove them the same way any longer there would be a mutiny.”

Jimmy laughed, and told him to raise steam enough to take the _Shasta_ to sea. She made six knots most of that night; and two days later the men went ash.o.r.e again. Fleming, at least, never forgot the rest of that trip down the wild West Coast. He mixed his resinous billets with saturated coal-dust and broken hemlock bark, but in spite of it he stopped the _Shasta_ every now and then when his boilers gave him water instead of steam.

Still, she crept on south, and at last all of them were sincerely glad when the pithead gear of the Dunsmore mines rose up against the forests of Vancouver Island over the starboard hand. An hour or two later Fleming stood blackened all over amidst a gritty cloud while the coal that was to free him from his cares clattered into the _Shasta_'s bunkers, and Jimmy sat in the room beneath her bridge with one of the coaling clerks writing out a telegram.

”I'll get it sent off for you right away,” said the coaling man. ”Guess it will be a big relief to somebody. It seems they've 'most given you up in Vancouver.”

Jimmy laughed. ”Well,” he said, ”we have brought her here. Still, I think there were times when my engineer felt that the contract was almost too big for him.”

CHAPTER XXIII

ANTHEA GROWS ANXIOUS

The afternoon was hot, but Jordan failed to notice it as he swung along, as fast as he could go without actually running, down a street in Vancouver. He walked in the glaring sunlight, because there was more room there, as everybody else was glad to seek the shadow cast across one sidewalk by the tall stores and offices, and he appeared unconscious of the remarks flung after him by the irate driver of an express wagon which had almost run over him. Jordan was one of the men who are always desperately busy, but there were reasons why his activity was a little more evident than usual just then. His a.s.sociates had contrived to raise sufficient money to purchase a boat to take up the _Shasta_'s usual trip, but the finances of the Company were in a somewhat straitened condition as the result of it, and he was beset with a good many other difficulties of the kind the struggling man has to grapple with.

For all that, he stopped abruptly when he saw Forster's driving-wagon, a light four-wheeled vehicle, standing outside a big dry-goods store. He was aware that Mrs. Forster seldom went to Vancouver without taking Eleanor with her, which appeared sufficient reason for believing that the girl was then inside the store. If anything further were needed to indicate the probability of this, there was a well-favored and very smartly-dressed man standing beside the wagon, and Jordan's face grew suddenly hard as he looked at him. As it happened, the man glanced in his direction just then, and Jordan found it difficult to keep a due restraint upon himself when he saw the sardonic twinkle in his eyes. It was more expressive than a good many words would have been.

Jordan had for some time desired an interview with him, but, warm-blooded and somewhat primitive in his notions upon certain points as he was, he had sense enough to realize that he was not likely to gain anything by an altercation in a busy street, which would certainly not advance him in Eleanor's favor. Besides this, it was probable that somebody would interfere if he found it necessary to resort to physical force. Jordan, who was by no means perfect in character, had, like a good many other men brought up as he had been in the forests of the Pacific Slope, no great aversion to resorting to the latter when he considered that the occasion warranted it.

Still, he held himself in hand, and strode into the store where, as it happened, he came upon Mrs. Forster. There was a faint smile in her eyes when she turned to him, for she was a lady of considerable discernment; but she held out her hand graciously. She liked the impulsive man.

”It is some time since we have seen anything of you,” she said.

”That,” said Jordan, ”is just what I was thinking, though it's quite likely there are people who wouldn't let it grieve them. In fact, I was wondering whether you would mind if I asked myself over to supper with your husband this evening?”

Mrs. Forster laughed.

”I really don't think it would trouble me very much, and I have no doubt that Forster would enjoy a talk with you,” she said. ”I wonder whether you know that Mr. Carnforth is coming?”

”I do;” and Jordan looked at her steadily with a trace of concern in his manner. ”In fact, that was one of my reasons for asking you.”

The lady shook her head. ”So I supposed,” she said. ”Still, while everybody is expected to know his own business best, I'm not sure you're wise. You see, I really don't think Eleanor is very much denser than I am, though you can tell her you have my invitation to supper.”

Jordan, who expressed his thanks, strode across the store and came upon Eleanor standing by a counter with several small parcels before her. She turned at his approach, and he found it difficult to believe that his appearance afforded her any great pleasure. While he gathered up the parcels, she made him a little imperious gesture, and they moved away toward a quieter part of the big store. Then she turned to him again.

”Charley,” she said sharply, ”what are you doing here?”

”I saw Forster's wagon outside, and that reminded me that it was at least a week since I had seen you.”

Eleanor smiled somewhat curiously, for it was, of course, clear to her that he could not have seen the wagon without seeing Carnforth too.