Part 12 (1/2)

”I feel that it must have been forty, but you shall have a rest to-morrow; and you don't look as comfortable as you ought to now. Would you mind standing up a minute?”

Hetty rose, hiding the effort it cost her, and when he had shaken up the cedar twigs into a softer cus.h.i.+on sank gratefully down on them. Then she turned her face aside that he might not see the little flush that crept into it as he gravely tucked the coa.r.s.e brown blanket round her.

”Now,” he said, ”I think that ought to be a good deal nicer. You're too patient, Hetty, and I'm almost afraid we don't take enough care of you.”

The girl saw his face in the firelight, and sighed as she noticed the gentleness in it. She knew exactly how far his concern for her went.

Leger noticed it, but his shrewdness failed him now and then.

”He will make somebody a good husband by and by,” he said. ”She will have a good deal to thank you for, Hetty.”

Ingleby smiled with an absence of embarra.s.sment which had its significance for one of the party.

”There are, after all, a good many advantages attached to being a single man, and I shall probably have to be content with them,” he said.

”Of course!” said Hetty softly. ”It is no use crying for the moon.”

”What do you mean by that?”

”Nothing in particular,” and Hetty glanced reflectively at the fire.

”Still, I don't think you would be content with any girl likely to look at you, and most of us would like to have a good deal more than we ever get.”

Ingleby was a trifle disconcerted, though Hetty had an unpleasant habit of astonis.h.i.+ng him in this fas.h.i.+on, but Leger laughed.

”It probably wouldn't be good for us to have it. At least, that is the orthodox view, and, after all, one can always do without.”

”Of course!” said Hetty, with a curious little inflection in her voice.

”Still, it is a little hard now and then. Isn't it, Walter?”

”Is there any special reason why you should ask me?”

Hetty appeared reflective. ”Perhaps there isn't. I really don't know. Do you hear a sound in the valley, Tom?”

They listened, and a beat of hoofs came out of the sliding mists below.

For the last week they had met n.o.body upon the trail, but now several men and horses were apparently scrambling up the hillside, for they could hear the gravel rattling away beneath them. The sound grew louder, and at last a man called to them.

”Lead that beast of yours out of the trail,” he said.

Ingleby glanced at his comrade, for the voice was English and had a little imperious ring in it, and Leger smiled.

”There is no doubt where that man comes from, but I scarcely think there's any great need of haste,” he said.

”Do you mean to keep us waiting?” the voice rose again sharply. ”It's some of your slouching prospectors, Major. Get down and cut that beast's tether, trooper.”

Ingleby rose and moved out into the trail, and had just led the pack-horse clear of it when a horseman rode up. He was dressed in what appeared to be cavalry uniform and was, Ingleby surmised, that worn by the Northwest Police, a detachment of which had lately been dispatched to the new mining districts of the far North. It was also evident that he held a commission, for the firelight, which forced it up out of the surrounding gloom, showed the imperiousness in his face. It also showed Ingleby standing very straight in front of him with his head tilted backwards a trifle. Then there was a jingle of accoutrements as the young officer, turning half-round in his saddle with one hand on his hip, glanced backward down the trail.

”Look out for the low branch as you come up, sir,” he said.

Ingleby stood still, nettled by the fas.h.i.+on in which the man ignored him, for no freighter or prospector would have pa.s.sed without at least a friendly greeting, and while he waited it happened that Leger stirred the fire. A brighter blaze sprang up and flashed upon the officer's accoutrements and spurs, and then there was a pounding of hoofs, and a horse reared suddenly in the stream of ruddy light. The officer wheeled his beast with a warning shout, but Ingleby had seen the shadowy form in the habit, and seized the horse's bridle.