Part 8 (1/2)
During the rest of that day Boyd was conscious several times of being regarded with scrutinizing eyes by Cherry. At dinner, and afterward in the living-room while Fraser talked, he surprised the same questioning look on her face. Again she played for him, but he refused to sing, maintaining an unbroken taciturnity. After they retired she sat long alone, her brows furrowed as if wrestling with some knotty problem. ”I wonder if he would do it!” she said, at last. ”I wonder if he _could_ do it!” She rose, and began to pace the floor; then added, as if in desperation: ”Well, I must do _something_, for this can't last. Who knows--perhaps this is my chance; perhaps he has been sent.”
There are times when momentous decisions are influenced by the most trivial circ.u.mstances; times when affairs of the greatest importance are made or marred by the lift of an eyebrow or the tone of a voice; times when life-long a.s.sociations are severed and new ties contracted purely upon intuition, and this woman felt instinctively that such an hour had now struck for her. It was late before she finally came to peace with the conflict in her mind and lay herself down to rest.
On the following morning she told Constantine to hitch up her team and have it waiting when breakfast was finished. Then she turned to Emerson, who came into the room, and said, quietly:
”I have something to show you if you will take a short ride with me.”
The young man, impressed by the gravity of her manner, readily consented.
Half an hour later he wrapped her up in the sledge-robe and took station at the rear, whip in hand. Constantine freed the leader, and they went off at a mad run, whisking out from the buildings and swooping down the steep bank to the main-travelled trail. When they had gained the level and the dogs were straightened into their gait, they skimmed over the snow with the flight of a bird.
”That's a wonderful team you have,” Boyd observed, as he glanced over the double row of undulating gray backs and waving plume-like tails.
”The best in the country,” she smiled back at him. ”They are good for a hundred miles a day.”
The young man gave himself up to the unique and rather delightful experience of being transported through an unknown country to an unknown destination by a charming girl of whom he also knew nothing. He watched her in silence; but when he forebore to question her, she turned, exposing a rounded, ravis.h.i.+ng cheek, glowing against the white fur of her hood.
”Have you no curiosity, sir?”
”None! Nothing but satisfaction,” he observed.
It was his first attempt at gallantry, and she flashed him a bright, approving glance. Then, as if suddenly checked by second thought, she frowned slightly and turned away. She had mapped out a course of action during the night in which it was her purpose to use this man if he proved amenable, but the success of her plan would depend largely on a continuance of their present friendly relations. In order, therefore, to forestall any possible change of base, she began to unfold her scheme in a business-like tone:
”Yesterday you seemed to be taken by the fis.h.i.+ng business.”
”I certainly was until you told me there were no cannery sites left.”
”There is one. When I came here a year ago the whole river was open, so on an outside chance I located a site, the best one available. When Willis Marsh learned of it, he took up all of the remaining places, and, although at the time I had no idea what I was going to do with my property, I have hung on to it.”
”Is that where we are going?”
”Yes. You seemed eager yesterday to get in on a new chance, so I am taking you out to look over the ground.”
”What's the use? I can't buy your site.”
”n.o.body asked you to,” she smiled. ”I wouldn't sell it to you if you had the money; but if you will build a cannery on it, I'll turn in the ground for an interest.”
Emerson meditated a moment, then replied: ”I can't say yes or no. It's a pretty big proposition--two hundred thousand dollars, you said?”
”Yes. It's a big opportunity. You can clean up a hundred per cent. in a year. Do you think you could raise the money to build a plant?”
”I might. I have some wealthy friends,” he said, cautiously. ”But I am not sure.”
”At least you can try? That's all anybody can do.”
”But I don't know anything about the business. I couldn't make it succeed.”
”I've thought of all that, and there's a way to make success certain. I believe you have executive ability and can handle men.”
”Oh yes; I've done that sort of thing.” His broad shoulders went up as he drew a long breath. ”What's your plan?”