Part 33 (1/2)
Her hand fell, she gave him her sweeping look and moved to join the waiting group.
Banks came to meet them. ”We've stayed to the limit; my, yes, it's the last call,” he explained in his tense key. ”There's a couple of places we don't want to see ourselves caught in when the thaw strikes. And they're getting a heavy rain down at the Springs now; likely up at the tunnel it's snow or hail.” He paused, turning to send a final glance into the mist, then said: ”Less than ten minutes ago I had a sight of that train, but you see now she's wiped off the map. It'll be a close race, my, yes. Give me that stick, ma'am; you can make better time on the down-grade holding on to me.”
With this, he offered his able hand to Mrs. Weatherbee and, followed by the rest of the party, helped her swiftly down the slope. But clearly his mind was on the stalled train. ”Likely, hugging the mountainside, they don't see how the snow crowds overhead,” he said. ”And I'd ought to have taken time to run over and give 'em a tip. I'm going to, I'm going to, soon's I get you down to that old railroad track where you can make it alone.”
”Do you mean the Limited is in danger?” she asked, springing and tripping to his stride.
And Banks nodded grimly. ”Yes, ma'am. It's a hard proposition, even to a man like Tisdale, who is used to breaking his own trail. He knows he's got to fight shy of the slides along that burned over switchback, but if he saw the box that train is in, he would just hike around to this side of the canyon, where the pitches are shorter, and the green trees stand some show to hold the snow, and work down to the old track to the Springs.”
”Is Mr. Tisdale”'--her voice broke a little--”Mr. Hollis Tisdale on that train?”
”Likely, yes. He was s...o...b..und on her in the Rockies, last I heard, and 'feeling fit as a moose.' Being penned up so long, he'd likely rather take a hike down to the hotel than not. It would be good for his health.” And the little man piped his high, mirthless laugh.
She stumbled, and he felt the hand in his tremble, but the abrupt incline of the glacier had opened before them, and he believed she dreaded to re-cross the ice. ”Keep cool,” he admonished, releasing her to uncoil the rope again, ”Stand steady. Just recollect if you came over this, you can get back.”
But when, presently, the difficult pa.s.sage safely made, they rounded the crag and gained the level shoulder where they had lunched, they seemed to have arrived at a different place. The lower canyon, which not two hours before had stretched into blue distance below them, was lost in the creeping sea of cloud; the abyss at their feet gathered immensity, and the top of the timbered ridge lifted midway like a strange, floating garden.
The station at Cascade tunnel, all the opposite mountain, was obscured, then, while Banks stood re-coiling his rope, the sounds that had disturbed the guests at Scenic Hot Springs those previous nights rose, reverberating, through the hidden gorge. The Chinook had resumed its work.
The way below the spur broke in easy steps to the long and gradual slope that terminated above the cleaver of rock and, anxious to reach the unfortunate train, Banks hurried on. Marcia and Elizabeth trailed quickly after, but Mrs. Weatherbee remained seated on the shelving ledge at the foot of the crag. Frederic sank heavily into the place beside her and took out the flask.
”You are all in,” he said. ”Come, take this; it's diluted this time with snow.”
But she gave him no attention, except to push aside the cup. She waited, listening, leaning forward a little as though her wide eyes could penetrate the pall. Then, torn by cross currents of wind, the cloud parted, and the mountain loomed like a phantom peak over the gulf. She started up and stood swaying gently on her feet while the trees, tall and spectral and cloaked in snow, opened rank on rank like a uniformed company. Lower still, the steep roofs of the station reflected a shaft of the sun, and the long line of cars appeared clearly defined, waiting still on the tracks outside the portal.
The rent in the cloud closed. She turned with a great, sighing breath.
”Did you see?” she said. ”The train is safe.”
”Of course.” And again, having himself taken the bracer, Frederic rose and returned the flask to his pocket. ”So, that was troubling you; thought that train might have been struck. Guess if an avalanche had come down there, we'd have heard some noise. It's safe enough here,” he added. ”Top of this crag was built to shed snow like a church steeple.”
”But why are we waiting?” And glancing around, she exclaimed in dismay: ”The others have gone. See! They are almost out of sight.”
She began to walk swiftly to the lower rim of the shoulder, and Frederic followed. Down the slope his sisters and Banks seemed to be moving through a film. They mingled with it indistinctly as the figures in faded tapestry. But Morganstein laid his hand on her arm to detain her. ”What's your hurry?” he asked thickly. ”All we got to do now is keep their trail.
Tracks are clear as day.”
”We shall delay them; they will wait.”
She tried to pa.s.s him, but they had reached the step from the spur, and he swung around to block the narrow way. ”Not yet,” he said. ”This is the moment I've been waiting for. First time in months you've given me a fair chance to speak to you. Always headed me off. I'm tired of being held at arm's length. I've been patient to the limit. I'm going to know now, to-day, before we go down from this mountain, how soon you are going to marry me.”
She tried again to pa.s.s him but, taking incautious footing, slipped, and his arm saved her. ”I don't care how soon it is,” he went on, ”or where.
Quietly at your apartments, or a big church wedding. On board the first boat sailing for Yokohama, after those coal cases are settled, suits me.”
She struggled to free herself, then managed to turn and face him, with her palms braced against his breast. His arm relaxed a little, so that he was able to look down in her lifted face. What he saw there was not altogether anger, though aversion was in her eyes; not surprise, not wholly derision, though her lips suggested a smile, but an indefinable something that baffled, mastered him. His arm fell. ”j.a.pan is fine in the spring,” he said. ”And we could take our time, coming back by way of Hawaii to see the big volcano, with another stop-over at Manila. Get home to begin housekeeping at the villa in midsummer.”
”Oh,” she exclaimed at last, ”do you think I am a silly girl to be dazzled and tempted? Who knows nothing of marriage and the cost?”
”No,” he responded quickly. ”I think you are a mighty clever woman. But you've got to the point where you can't hedge any more. Banks has gone back on that option. If he won't buy, n.o.body else will. And it takes ready money to run a big ranch like that, even after the improvements are in.
You can't realize on your orchards, even in the Wenatchee country, short of four years. So you'll have to marry me; only way out.”
She gave him her swift, sweeping look, and the blue lights blazed in her eyes. ”I will remember you are Elizabeth's brother,” she said. ”I will try to remember that. But please don't say any more. Every moment counts; come.”
Morganstein laughed. As long as she parried, as long as she did not refuse outright to marry him, he must keep reasonably cool. He stooped to pick up the alpenstock she had dropped, then offered his hand down the step from the spur. ”Sorry I put it just that way,” he said. ”I'm a plain business man; used to coming straight to the point; but I guess you've known how much I thought of you all these years. Had to keep on a high check-rein while Weatherbee lived, and tried my best, afterwards, to give him a year's grace, but you knew just the same. Know--don't you?--I might take my pick out of the dozen nicest girls in Seattle to-day. Only have to say the word. Not one in the bunch would turn me down. But I wouldn't have one of 'em for second choice. n.o.body but you will do.” He paused, then added with his narrow look: ”And what I want, you ought to know that too, I get.”
She met the look with a shake of the head and forced a smile. ”Some things are not to be bought at any price. But, of course, I have seen--a woman does--” she went on hurriedly, withdrawing her hand. ”There was a time, I confess, when I did consider--your way out. But I dared not take it; even then, I dared not.”