Part 5 (1/2)
Except when the snow lies deep one has scanty leisure on the prairie, and when Adams departed Thorn and I hurriedly recommenced our task. We had lost time to make up, and vied with each other; for I had discovered that, even in a country where all work hard, much more is done for the master who can work himself. Pitching heavy trusses into a wagon is not child's play at that temperature, but just then the exertion brought relief, and I was almost sorry when Thorn went off with the lurching vehicle, leaving me to the mower and my thoughts. The latter were not overpleasant just then. Still, the machine needed attention, and the horses needed both restraint and encouragement, for at times they seemed disposed to lie down, and at others, maddened by the insects, inclined to kick the rusty implement into fragments, and I grew hoa.r.s.e with shouting, while the perspiration dripped from me.
It was towards six o'clock, and the slanting sunrays beat pitilessly into my face, which was thick with fibrous grime, when, with Thorn lagging behind, I tramped stiffly beside the wagon towards my house. My blue s.h.i.+rt was rent in places; the frayed jean jacket, being minus its b.u.t.tons, refused to meet across it; and n.o.body new to the prairie would have taken me for the owner of such a homestead as Gaspard's Trail.
Thick dust, through which mounted figures flitted, rolled about the dwelling, and a confused bellowing mingled with the human shouts that rose from behind the long outbuildings.
”It's Henderson's boys bringing s.h.i.+pping stock along. Somebody's been squeezing him for money or he wouldn't sell at present,” said Thorn, who rejoined me. ”They'll camp here to-night and clean up the larder. I guess most everybody knows how Henderson feeds them.”
There are disadvantages attached to the prairie custom of free hospitality, and I surmised that Henderson's stock riders might have pushed on to the next homestead if they had not known that we kept a good table at Gaspard's Trail. Nevertheless, I was thankful that no stranger need ever leave my homestead hungry, and only wondered whether my cook's comments would be unduly sulphurous. When I reached the wire-fenced corral, which was filled with circling cattle and an intolerable dust, a horseman flung his hand up in salute.
”We're bound for the Indian Spring Bottom with an H triangle draft,” he said. ”The gra.s.s is just frizzled on the Blackfeet run, and we figured we'd camp right here with you to-night.”
”That's all right; but couldn't you have fetched Carson's by dusk without breaking anybody's neck; and yonder beasts aren't branded triangle H,” I said.
The horseman laughed silently in prairie fas.h.i.+on. ”Well, we might and we mightn't; but Carson's a close man, and I've no great use for stale flapjacks and glucose drips. No, sir, I'm not greedy, and we'll just let Carson keep them for himself. Those beasts marked dash circle are the best of the lot. Lane's put the screw on Redmond, and forced him to part. Redmond's down on his luck. He's crawling round here somewhere, cussing Lane tremendous.”
”Lane seems to own all this country,” I answered irritably. ”Has he got a hold on your master, too? I told him and Redmond I was saving that strip of sweet prairie for myself.”
”He will own all the country, if you bosses don't kick in time,” was the dry answer. ”I don't know how ours is fixed, but he's mighty short in temper, and you've no monopoly of unrecorded prairie. Say, it might save your boys a journey if we took your stock along with us and gave them a chance before this draft cleans all the sweet gra.s.s up. Redmond told me to mention it.”
The offer was opportune, and I accepted it; then hurried towards the galvanized iron shed which served as summer quarters for the general utility man who acted as cook. He was a genius at his business, though he had learned it on board a sailing s.h.i.+p. He was using fiery language as he banged his pans about. ”It's a nice state of things when a cattle-whacking loafer can walk right in and tell me what he wants for his supper,” he commenced. ”General Jackson! it's bad enough when a blame cowboy outfit comes down on one like the locusts and cleans everything up, but it's worse just when I'm trying to fix a special high-grade meal.”
”I'm not particular. What is good enough for a cowboy is good enough for a rancher any time,” I said; and the cook, who was despotic master of his own domain, jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the house. ”Guess it mightn't be to-night. Get out, and give me a fair show. You're blocking up the light.”
I went on towards the house, wondering what he could mean, but halted on the threshold of our common room, a moment too late. We had worked night and day during spring and early summer, and the sparely-furnished room was inches deep in dust. Guns, harness I had no time to mend, and worn-out garments lay strewn about it, save where, in a futile attempt to restore order, I had hurled a pile of sundries into one corner.
Neither was I in exactly a condition suitable for feminine society, and Beatrice Haldane, who had by some means preserved her dainty white dress immaculate, leaned back in an ox-hide chair regarding me with quiet amus.e.m.e.nt. Her father lounged smoking in the window seat, and it was his younger daughter who, when I was about to retreat, came forward and mischievously greeted me.
”I believe you were ready to run away, Mr. Ormesby, and you really don't seem as much pleased to see us as you ought to be,” she said. ”You know you often asked us to visit you, so you have brought this surprise party on your own head.”
”I hope you will not suffer for your rashness, but you see those men out there. They generally leave famine behind them when they come,” I said.
The girl nodded. ”They are splendid. I have been talking to them, and made one sit still while I drew him. Please don't trouble about supper.
I have seen cookie, and he's going to make the very things I like.”
Miss Haldane's eyebrows came down just a trifle, and I grew uneasy, wondering whether it was the general state of chaos or my own appearance which had displeased her; but Haldane laughed heartily before he broke in: ”Lucille is all Canadian. She has not been to Europe yet, and I am not sure that I shall send her. She has examined the whole place already, and decided that you must be a very----”
The girl's lips twitched with suppressed merriment, but she also reddened a little; and I interposed: ”A very busy man, was it not? Now you must give me ten minutes in which to make myself presentable.”
I was glad to escape, and, for reasons, withdrew sideways in crab fas.h.i.+on, while what suspiciously resembled smothered laughter followed me. By good luck, and after upsetting the contents of two bureaus upon the floor, I was able to find garments preserved for an occasional visit to the cities, and, flinging the window open, I hailed a man below to bring me a big pail of water. He returned in ten minutes with a very small one, and with the irate cook expostulating behind him, while I feared his comments would be audible all over the building.
”Cook says the well's playing out, and was.h.i.+ng's foolishness this weather. The other pail's got dead gophers in it, and Jardine allows he caught cookie fis.h.i.+ng more of them out of the water he used for the tea.”
”Fling them out, and for heaven's sake let me have the thing. I'm getting used to gophers, and dead ones can't bite you,” I said, fearing that if the indignant cook got to close quarters the precious fluid might be spilled. Then while I completed my toilet Cotton came in.
”Perhaps I was hardly civil this morning,” he commenced. ”I'm out for four days' fire-guard inspecting, and thought I'd come round and tell you----”
”That you saw the Bonaventure wagon heading in this direction,” I interposed. ”Well, you're always welcome at Gaspard's Trail, and I presume you won't feel tempted to draw the line at my present guests.”
Cotton dropped into my one sound chair. ”I suppose I deserve it, Ormesby. We shall not get such opportunities much longer, and one can't help making the most of them,” he said.
We went down together; and there was no doubt that the cook had done his best, while Haldane laughed and his younger daughter looked very demure when, as we sat down at table, I stared about my room. It had lost its bare appearance, the thick dust had gone, and there was an air of comfort about it I had never noticed before.