Part 45 (1/2)

Neither of them said much more, and shortly afterward Jimmy went back to the _Shasta_. Next morning he stood on his bridge watching the _Sorata_ slide out of harbor. Valentine, sitting at her tiller, waved his hat to him, and Jimmy was glad that he had hurled a blast of the whistle after him when some months later he heard that the _Sorata_ and her skipper had gone down together in a wild westerly gale.

In the meanwhile he proceeded to Vancouver, and after an interview with Jordan, who formally offered him command of the big new boat, took the first east-going train and reached Toronto five days later. An hour after he got there he hired a pulling skiff at the water-front, and drove her out with st.u.r.dy strokes into the blue lake across which a little cutter was creeping a mile or so away. He came up with her, hot and breathless, and the girl at the tiller rose quietly when he swung himself on deck, though there was a depth of tenderness in her eyes.

”Jimmy!” she said, ”why didn't you tell me?”

Jimmy laughed. ”You should have expected me,” he said. ”The six months are up.”

Anthea turned to the young man and the girl who were sitting in the c.o.c.kpit. ”Captain Wheelock. My cousin Muriel, and Graham Hoyle.”

The young man smiled at Jimmy, who was, however, conscious that the girl was surveying him with critical curiosity. Then she asked him a question concerning his journey, and they discussed the Canadian railroads for the next ten minutes, until she flashed a suggestive glance at the young man.

”What a beautiful morning for a row!” she said.

Hoyle rose to his feet. ”I dare say I could pull you ash.o.r.e in Captain Wheelock's boat,” he said. ”There's just wind enough to bring the yacht after us if he gets the topsail up.”

Jimmy did not get the topsail up when they rowed away, but sat down on the coaming with his arm around Anthea's shoulder.

”I have just two weeks before I go north in our big new boat,” he said.

”It isn't very long, but I want to take you with me.”

He was some little time overruling Anthea's objections one by one, and then she turned and looked up at him with a flush in her face.

”Jimmy,” she said, ”I suppose you realize that I haven't a dollar. Some provision was to have been made for me--but I felt I couldn't profit by the arrangement.”

Jimmy laughed. ”If it's any consolation to you, I haven't very much, either. Still, I think I'm going to get it. I was creeping through the blinding fog six months ago, but the mists have blown away and the sky is brightening to windward now.”

Then he turned and pointed to the strip of dusky blue that moved across the gleaming lake. ”If anything more is wanted, there's the fair wind.”

They ran back before it under a blaze of suns.h.i.+ne with the little frothy ripples splas.h.i.+ng merrily after them, and then Jimmy had to exert himself again before he could induce Anthea's aunt to believe that it was possible for her niece to be married at two weeks' notice. Still, he accomplished it, and on the fifteenth day he and Anthea Wheelock stood on the platform of a big dusty car as the Pacific express ran slowly into the station at Vancouver.

Leeson stood waiting with Forster, and Jordan was already running toward the car, but Jimmy's lips set tight when he saw Eleanor with Mrs.

Forster. In a moment or two Jordan handed Anthea down, and then stood aside as Eleanor came impulsively forward. To her brother's astonishment, she laid her hand on Anthea's shoulder and kissed her on each cheek.

”Now,” she said, ”you will have to forgive me.”

Jimmy did not hear what his wife said, for Mrs. Forster was greeting him, and then Leeson and the rancher seized him; but five minutes later Eleanor stood at his side.