Part 17 (1/2)

”Not at all,” the young officer agreed politely. ”Still I think some frankness might pay. My companion is warden Douglas, from the reserve, and the game laws are strict, but it's possible some allowance would be made for tourists who did not know the rules. If Miss Stannard does reply, it might help.”

”Very well,” said Laura. ”My father and a party went shooting and he brought back two big-horn heads, but I'm satisfied he did not know he trespa.s.sed on a game reserve.”

”His partners were Leyland and Deering,” warden Douglas remarked. ”I expect they took a guide, although they didn't hire up the men at the hotel.”

”Mr. Leyland's man, Okanagan, went.”

Douglas looked at the officer and smiled meaningly. ”Now I get it! I reckon Bob _played_ them fellers.”

”Mr. Stannard is again in the mountains?” the officer said to Laura. ”I don't urge you to reply, but although my duty's to find out all I can, I don't think your frankness will hurt your father.”

Laura said Stannard had gone to climb a famous peak and admitted that he had taken Okanagan.

”They'll hit the range near the head of the reserve and a hefty gang could get down the Wolf Creek gulch,” Douglas observed. ”Looks as if Bob had gone back for another lot! I guess an English sport would put up fifty dollars for a good head.”

”Thank you, Miss Stannard,” said the officer. ”The department will claim the heads and perhaps demand a fine, but the sum will depend upon Mr.

Stannard's statements. This, however, is not my business.”

He bowed and went off, but he stopped Douglas on the veranda.

”If you want to go after the party, I'll give you trooper Simpson.”

”I'm going after Okanagan and I mean to get him,” said Douglas grimly.

”I reckon he fooled the tourists, but they've got to pay the fine. Can't you give me a bushman trooper? Okanagan's a tough proposition and he doesn't like me.”

The officer said he had not another man and must go off to make inquiries about a forest fire. He sent for his horse and the group on the terrace saw him ride down the trail.

”I'm sorry for Father and know he'll hate to give up the heads; but I think the men were satisfied Jimmy's helper cheated him,” Laura remarked.

A few days afterwards, Stannard's party stopped one evening at a small, empty homestead. Thin forest surrounded the clearing, but on one side the trees were burned and the bare rampikes shone in the sun. In places the crooked fence had fallen down, tall fern grew among the stumps, and willows had run across the cultivated ground. For all that, the loghouse was good, and since the horses could not go much farther, Stannard resolved to use the ranch for a supply depot. On the rocks the climbing party could not carry heavy loads.

When the sun got low they sat on the veranda and smoked. They did not talk much, and Jimmy felt the brooding calm was melancholy. Somebody, perhaps with high hope, had cleared the ground the forest now was taking back. Labor and patience had gone for nothing; the gra.s.s was already smothered by young trees. It looked as if the wilderness triumphed over human effort.

”How long do you think its owner was chopping out the ranch? And why did he let it go?” Jimmy asked.

”I reckon nine or ten years,” Deering replied. ”Maybe he speculated on somebody's starting a sawmill or a mine. Maybe the block carried a mortgage and he pulled out to earn the interest. As a rule, the small homesteader takes any job he can get, and when his wallet's full comes back to chop, but a railroad construction gang's the usual stunt and some don't come back. I expect the fellow was blown up by dynamite or a rock fell on him. Anyhow, when you hit a deserted ranch, the owner's story is something like that. Canada's not the get-rich country land boomers state.”

Then Deering turned to Stannard. ”Did you find a good line to the ridge from which we reckon to make the peak?”

”I found a line I think will go. You follow the ridge until a big b.u.t.tress breaks the top some distance above the snow level. A _col_ goes down to a glacier and one might get across to another ridge that would help us up the peak. Still I doubt if our map's accurate, and my notion is to climb the b.u.t.tress.”

Deering took the map. ”Good maps of the back country are not numerous, but if the _col_'s where you locate it, I reckon the old-time miners shoved up the glacier when they came in from the plains. Some made the Caribou diggings from Alberta long before the railroad was built.”

”Their road was rough,” said Stannard and lighted his pipe.

He was not keen to talk. For one thing, he was tired, and he did not yet know where to get the sum he needed. The sum, however, must be got. So long as he belonged to one or two good clubs and visited at fas.h.i.+onable country houses, the allowance on which he lived would be paid; but if he did not satisfy his creditor he must give up his clubs and would not be wanted at shooting parties.

By and by Deering turned to Bob, who was cleaning a rifle.