Part 41 (1/2)

Vane did not respond with the same freedom this time. He was inclined to think he had spoken too unrestrainedly.

”Yes,” he agreed, smiling; ”you can walk about them--where you won't disturb the grouse--and they're grand enough; but if you look down you can see the motor dust trails and the tourist coaches in the valleys.”

”But why shouldn't people enjoy themselves in that way?”

”I can't think of any reason. No doubt most of them have earned the right to do so. But you can't rip up those hills with giant-powder where you feel inclined, or set to work to root out some miles of forest. The Government encourages that kind of thing here.”

”And that's the charm?”

”Yes; I suppose it is.”

”I'd better explain,” Carroll interposed. ”Men of a certain temperament are apt to fall a prey to fantasies in the newer lands; any common sense they once possessed seems to desert them. After that, they're never happy except when they're ripping things--such as big rocks and trees--to pieces, and though they'll tell you it's only to get out minerals or to clear a ranch, they're wrong. Once they get the mine or ranch, they don't care about it; they set to work wrecking things again. Isn't that true, Mrs. Nairn?”

”There are such crazy bodies,” agreed the lady. ”I know one or two; but if I had my way with them, they should find one mine, or build one sawmill.”

”And then,” supplied Carroll, ”you would chain them up for good by marrying them.”

”I would like to try, but I'm no sure it would act in every case. I have come across some women as bad as the men; they would drive their husbands on.”

She smiled in a half wistful manner.

”Maybe,” she added, ”it's as well to do something worth the remembering when ye are young. There's a long while to sit still in afterward.”

Half in banter and half in earnest, they had given Evelyn a hint of the master pa.s.sion of the true colonist, whose pride is in his burden.

Afterward, Mrs. Nairn led the conversation until Carroll laid out in the saloon a somewhat elaborate lunch which he had brought from the hotel.

Then the others went below, leaving Vane at the helm. When they came up again, Carroll looked at his comrade ruefully.

”I'm afraid Miss Chisholm's disappointed,” he said.

”No,” declared Evelyn; ”that would be most ungrateful. I only expected a more characteristic example of sea cookery. After what Mr. Vane told us, a lunch like the one you provided, with gla.s.s and silver, struck me as rather an anachronism.”

”It's better to be broken in to sea cookery gently,” Vane interposed with some dryness.

Evelyn laughed.

”It's a poor compliment to take it for granted that we're afraid of a little hards.h.i.+p. Besides, I don't think you're right.”

Vane left the helm to Carroll and went below.

”He won't be long,” Carroll informed the girl, with a smile. ”He hasn't got rid of all his primitive habits yet. I'll give him ten minutes.”

When Vane came up, he glanced about him before he resumed the helm and noticed that it was blowing fresher. They were also drawing out from the land and the short seas were getting bigger; but he held on to the whole sail, and an hour or so afterward a white iron bark, light in ballast, with her rusty load-line high above the water, came driving up to meet them. She made a striking picture, Evelyn thought, with the great curve of her forecourse, which was still set, stretching high above the foam that spouted about her bows and tier upon tier of gray canvas diminis.h.i.+ng aloft. With the wind upon her quarter, she rode on an even keel, and the long iron hull, gleaming snowily in the suns.h.i.+ne, drove on, majestic, through a field of white-flecked green and azure. Abreast of one quarter, a propeller tug that barely kept pace with her belched out a cloud of smoke.

”Her skipper's been up here before--he's no doubt coming for salmon,” Vane explained. Then he turned to Carroll. ”We'd better pa.s.s to lee of her.”

Carroll let a foot or two of a rope run out and the sloop's bows swung round a little. Her rail was just awash, and she was sailing very fast.

Then her deck slanted more sharply and the low rail became submerged in rus.h.i.+ng foam.