Part 24 (2/2)

It was a minute before Nasmyth, who stood up stiffly, quite understood him, and then the blood rose to his face as he crept into the shelter and touched the girl. She sprang to her feet with a little cry and clutched his arm. Then she suddenly let her hand fall back, and her cheeks flushed crimson.

”The steamer's close by,” said Nasmyth rea.s.suringly. ”They have sent for us at last.”

They went out together, and it was a minute or two later when they came upon Wisbech and Acton in the Bush. Nasmyth entered into confused explanations as they proceeded towards the beach. The sky was a little lighter when they reached it, and standing near the sinking fire, they could dimly see the gig plunging amidst the froth and spray. Then George's voice reached them.

”Can't you let us have them, Mr. Acton? It's most all we can do to keep her off the beach,” he said.

Acton glanced at the strip of tumbling foam--through which he had waded waist-deep--between them and the boat, and Nasmyth turned towards Miss Hamilton, who, to his astonishment, recoiled from him.

Acton, however, made him a sign of command.

”I guess,” he said, ”she'd be safer with you.”

Nasmyth said nothing, but he picked the girl up, as unconcernedly as he could, for the second time that day, and staggered down the rough beach with her. He contrived to keep his footing when a frothing sea broke against him, and, floundering through the seething water, reached the lurching boat. George seized his burden, and gently deposited it in one of the seats. Scrambling on board, Nasmyth groped for an oar, and in another minute or two they laboriously drove the gig out towards the blinking lights of the _Tillic.u.m_.

CHAPTER XVIII

TRANQUILLITY

The afternoon was very hot when Nasmyth plodded down a steep hillside through the thick red dust of the waggon trail. A fire had swept the undergrowth away, and there was no shade among the trees which, stripped of their branches, towered about him, great charred and blackened columns. Close ahead the primeval Bush rose in an unbroken sombre ma.s.s, and Nasmyth, who quickened his pace a trifle, sat down with a gasp of satisfaction when he reached the first of the shadow.

It was fresh and cool there. The Bush was scented with the odours of pine and cedar, and filled with the soft murmur of falling water, while he knew that just beyond it Bonavista stood above the sparkling sea.

He was on his way from the railroad depot. It was just a fortnight since he had left the _Tillic.u.m_ at the little mining town, on the day after the one he and Violet Hamilton had spent on the beach, and he had not seen her before he went. Now he fancied that a welcome awaited him, and he felt sincerely pleased to be back again. As he sat beneath a great cedar filling his pipe, it seemed to him only appropriate that he should approach Bonavista through that belt of cool, sweet-scented Bush. It made it easier to feel that he had left behind him all that a.s.sociated him with the strife and bustle of the hot and noisy cities.

At Bonavista were leisure, comfort, and tranquillity, which were, after all, things that made a strong appeal to one side of his nature, and he had made no progress in the city. There was also no doubt that both Mr. and Mrs. Acton were glad to entertain him for a time. He sat still a few minutes, and then went on slowly beneath the towering redwoods and cedars until he came out of the forest, and saw the sunlight stream down on the s.h.i.+ngled roof of Bonavista close ahead.

The house appeared to be empty, and he had shed his dusty city clothes in his room and had dressed again before he came upon Mrs. Acton, sitting half asleep on a secluded strip of veranda. She roused herself and smiled when she saw him.

”So you have come back at last. We have been expecting you all the past week,” she said.

”That,” returned Nasmyth, ”was remarkably good of you. In fact, I have wondered now and then, with some misgivings, whether you have not seen too much of me already.”

Mrs. Acton laughed. ”You needn't worry yourself on that point. We have all our little hobbies. My husband's is the acquisition of dollars and the opening of mines and mills. Mine is the amusing of my friends, or, rather, the permitting them to amuse themselves, which is why I had Bonavista built. I make only one stipulation--it is that when you stay with us, you are amused.”

With a little sigh of content, Nasmyth settled himself in a canvas chair, and glanced out between the slender pillars of the cool veranda at the wall of dusky forest and the flas.h.i.+ng sea.

”Ah,” he replied, ”can you doubt it, my dear lady? After logging camp and mine and city, this is an enchanted land. I think it is always summer afternoon at Bonavista.”

Mrs. Acton smiled at him graciously. ”That,” she observed, ”was quite nice of you. Things haven't gone just as you would have liked them to go, in the city?”

”They haven't,” admitted Nasmyth whimsically. ”As a matter of fact, they very seldom do. Still, I wouldn't like you to think that was the only reason I am glad to get back.”

Mrs. Acton's eyes twinkled. ”I imagine I am acquainted with the other.

You were rather tactful in going away.”

”I went because Mr. Acton handed me a letter which said that a business man in Victoria would like a talk with me.”

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