Part 33 (1/2)
”Wheelock to Jordan. Friends of yours?” he said. ”You would probably meet them at Austerly's.”
”Yes,” said Anthea, ”I think I may say they are.”
It was essentially characteristic of Merril that he showed no displeasure. He was indulgent to his daughter, and one who very seldom allowed himself to be led away by either personal liking or rancor. For a moment he stood still looking down at her with a dry smile, and, because no father and daughter can be wholly dissimilar, Anthea bore his scrutiny with perfect composure.
”Well,” he said, ”they're both men of some ability, with signs of grit in them, though I don't know that it would have troubled me if I had heard no more of the _Shasta_. Now I'm a little late, and it will be to-night before I'm back from the city.”
He turned away, and once more Anthea became sensible of a faint repulsion for her father. Every word Eleanor Wheelock had uttered in Forster's ranch had impressed itself on her memory, and she knew now that his interests clashed with those of the _Shasta_ Company. It would not have astonished her if he had shown some sign of resentment, but this complete indifference appeared unnatural, and troubled her. He was, it seemed, as devoid of anger as he was, if Eleanor Wheelock and several others were to be believed, of pity. Then she felt that she must, to a certain extent, at least, confide in some one, and she set out to call on Nellie Austerly.
It happened that morning that Jimmy stood on the _Shasta_'s bridge as she steamed up the softly gleaming straits. Ahead a dingy smoke-cloud was moving on toward him, and he took his gla.s.ses from the box when the black shape of a steamer grew out of it. She rose rapidly higher, and Jimmy guessed that she was considerably larger than the _Shasta_ and steaming three or four knots faster. Then he made out that her deck was crowded with pa.s.sengers, and, though the beaver ensign floated over her stern, their destination was evident when he glanced at the flag at the fore. The only American soil north of them was Alaska.
She drew abreast, a beautiful vessel of old and almost obsolete model, with the clear green water frothing high beneath her outward curve of prow. There was no forecastle forward to break the sweeping line of rail, and the broad quarter-deck that overhung her slender stern had also its suggestiveness to a seaman's eye. The smoke-cloud at her funnel further hinted that her speed was purchased by a consumption of coal that would have been considered intolerable in a modern boat. Then the strip of bunting at her mainmast head fixed Jimmy's attention.
”Merril's hard on our trail,” he said. ”She's taking a big crowd of miners north. That's his flag.”
Fleming, who stood beneath the bridge, looked up with a little nod. ”I would not compliment him on his sense,” he said. ”A beautiful boat, but the man who runs her will want a coal-mine of his own. Got her cheap, I figure, but it's only at top-freights she could make a living. Guess Merril's s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g all he can out of those miners, but those rates won't last when the C.P.R. and the Americans cut in, and if I had a boat of that kind I'd put up a big insurance and then scuttle her.”
Then one of the two or three bronzed prospectors who had come down with the _Shasta_ approached the bridge.
”Can't you let the boys who are going up know we've been there?” he said. ”It might encourage them to see that somebody has come out alive.”
Jimmy called to his quartermaster before he answered the man. ”Well,” he said, ”in a general way the signal wouldn't quite mean that, but it's very likely they'll understand it.”
Merril's boat was almost alongside, when the quartermaster broke out the stars and stripes at the _Shasta_'s masthead. A roar of voices greeted the snapping flag, and the heads grew thick as cedar twigs in the shadowy bush along the stranger's rail; while the men who stood higher aft upon her ample quarter-deck flung their hats and arms aloft. Jimmy could see them plainly, and their faces and garments proclaimed that most of them were from the cities. There were others whose skin was darkened and who wore older clothes; but these did not shout, for they were men who had been at close grips with savage nature already, and had some notion of what was before them. Jimmy blew his whistle and dipped the beaver flag, while a curious little thrill ran through him as the sonorous blast hurled his greeting across the clear green water. He knew what these men would have to face who were going up, the vanguard of a great army, to grapple with the wilderness, and it was clear that nature would prove too terrible for many of them who would never drag their bones out of it again.
Once more the voices answered him with a storm of hopeful cries, for the soft-handed men of the cities had also the courage of their breed. It was the careless, optimistic courage of the Pacific Slope, and store-clerk and hotel-lounger cheered the _Shasta_ gaily as, reckless of what was before them, they went by. When the time came to face screaming blizzard and awful cold they would, for the most part, do it willingly, and go on unflinching in spite of flood and frost until they dropped beside the trail. Jimmy, who realized this vaguely, felt the thrill again, and was glad that he had sped them on their way with a message of good-will; but there was no roar from their steamer's whistle, and the beaver flag blew out undipped at her stern. Then, as she drew away from him, his face hardened, and the engineer looked at him with a grin.
”Merril's skipper's like him, and that's 'most as mean as he could be,”
he said.
Jimmy glanced toward his masthead. ”If there were many of his kind among my countrymen, I'd feel tempted to s.h.i.+ft that flag aft, and keep it there,” he said. ”The boys from Puget Sound could cheer.”
One of the prospectors who stood below broke into a little soft laugh.
”Oh, yes,” he said, ”it's in them, and all the snow up yonder won't melt it out. Still, it's your quiet bushmen and ours who'll do the getting there. Guess they could raise a smile for you--and they did; but when it comes to shouting, they haven't breath to spare.”
He turned and looked after the steamer growing smaller to the northward amidst her smoke-cloud. ”One in every twenty may bottom on paying gold, and you might figure on three or four more making grub and a few ounces on a hired man's share. The snow and the river will get the rest.”
Then he strolled away, and when Jimmy looked around again there was only a smoke-trail on the water, for the steamer had sunk beneath the verge of the sea. His attention also was occupied by other things that concerned him more than the steamer, for another two or three hours would bring him to Vancouver Inlet, which he duly reached that afternoon, and found Jordan and a crowd through which the latter could scarcely struggle awaiting him on the wharf. Still, he got on board, and poured out tumultuous questions while he wrung Jimmy's hand, and it was twenty minutes at least before Jimmy had supplied him with the information he desired. Then he sat down and smiled.
”Well,” he said, ”we'll go into the other points to-morrow, and to-night you're coming to Austerly's with me. Got word from Miss Nellie that I was to bring you sure. She wanted me to send a team over for Eleanor.”
”Then why didn't you?” asked Jimmy.
Jordan's manner became confidential. ”Nellie Austerly contrived to mention that Miss Merril would be there too, and it seemed to me that Eleanor mightn't quite fit in. She has her notions, and when she gets her program fixed I just stand clear of her and let her go ahead. It's generally wiser. Anyway, I felt that I could afford to do the straight thing by you and Austerly.”
”Thanks!” said Jimmy, with a dry smile. ”Of course, there is nothing to be gained by pretending that Eleanor is fond of Miss Merril.”
Jordan sighed. ”Well, I guess other men's sisters have their little fancies now and then, and though she has scared me once or twice, Eleanor's probably not very different from the rest of them. I was a trifle played out--driven too hard and anxious--while you were away, and she was awfully good to me--gentle as an angel; but for all that, I feel one couldn't trust her alone with Miss Merril on a dark night if she had a sharp hatpin or anything of that kind. And as for Merril, I believe she wouldn't raise any objections if it were in our power to have him skinned alive. Now, I like a girl with grit in her.”