Chapter 10

MISS DERINGHAM FEELS SLIGHTED

The morning was still and almost unpleasantly warm, but Miss Deringham looked very fresh and cool in her long white dress as she lay in a deerhide chair on the verandah of the Somasco ranch. She had hung her hat on the back of the chair, and a shaft of sunlight called up an answering brightness from the coils of lustrous hair. One foot in the scantiest form of slipper rested on the lowest rail of the balustrade, and she had slightly curled herself up in the chair in a fashion which implied a languid content with her surroundings, and that there was no longer any need for ceremony between herself and her companion. It is possible that Miss Deringham was aware of this, even if she had not intended to convey that impression.

Alton, who now wore a new jean jacket buttoned right up to the neck, leaned against a pillar, answering the questions of the girl, who glanced at him with a smile occasionally. He had, as usual, a good deal to do that day, and now and then turned his eyes towards the sun, as though noticing its height above the cedars, which did not, of course, escape Miss Deringham's attention. Still, he lingered upon the verandah, and what she deduced from this was not unpleasant to the girl. Though it still returned at increasing intervals, she had almost forgotten her antipathy to the man, and the fact that he was rapidly yielding to her refining and sometimes chastening influence was indirectly flattering. Miss Deringham experienced the more gratification in using it because he was quick-witted, and a veiled rebuke would bring a little darker colour into his sun-darkened face, and she could forgive his offences, which were indeed not frequent, for the sake of his penitence.

"You have been very patient," she said at length.

"No," said Alton with a twinkle in his eyes, "I don't think that is a thing anybody could bring up against me."

"Still," said the girl, "you have been an hour here talking to me, when you must have been dying to get away."

Alton laughed, and Miss Deringham found something pleasant in his naive directness. "Now, that's not fair. If I had been I should have gone," said he. "It would please me to stay right here and talk to you all day."

Miss Deringham shook her head reproachfully. "One should imply such things and not put them into words. Still, I scarcely think you will much longer have an opportunity. We are going on to Vancouver very shortly."

Alton's face grew clouded. "Why?" he said.

The girl laughed softly. "We have inconvenienced Mrs. Margery a good deal already, and it is evident that we cannot stay here for ever."

Alton moved abruptly, and his companion fancied she heard a stifled sigh. "No," he said gravely. "It's a pity; but you could wait for another month or two."

Alice Deringham smiled a little. "You and Charley will miss us, then?"

Alton nodded gravely, but there was a subdued brightness in his eyes, and the girl wished he would open them fully. She fancied he was putting considerable restraint upon himself. "I don't know about Charley. He can talk better than I can for himself, but I shall miss you all the time," he said. "This has been a revelation to me, and I feel that it is good for me to talk to you. Then, before you came I had a kind of bitter feeling against all my father's folks in England. I figured they were wrapped up in their cast-iron pride, and ready to trample on anybody who got in their way; but you have started me thinking differently, and it seems my duty to know more of them. After all, I am an Alton of Carnaby."

The girl smiled again. "You fancy you may have been wrong?"

The man's face flushed a little, and there was once more evidence of the self-restraint. "Yes," he said simply. "I know I was a fool."

He might have said a good deal more, and lessened the effect, for Miss Deringham had seen his face and read the respect in it. Its sincerity touched her, and she felt with a vague uneasiness that it would not be pleasant to face his contempt if he found it misplaced.

"And yet you take your father's part?" he said.

"Of course," said Alton simply. "What would any son do? But it seems to me there might be a little allowance for my grandfather, too, and I think he and my father have fixed up that quarrel long ago."

"They are both dead," said the girl with a little curiosity.

"Yes," said Alton, "and they kept their word, and died unyielding. Well, I think they were each right from their way of looking at the thing, and that being so they could only do what they did, and would respect each other for it when they meet where the long trail ends. My father was right in holding to the woman who loved him, and I think Tristan Alton knew it when he left Carnaby to me."

Miss Deringham seemed thoughtful. The man's grim code of honour, inflexible as it was primitive, caused her, for no apparent reason, indefinite misgivings, and she made a little gesture of weariness. "I think," she said, "it would be better if we did not talk of Carnaby, and I was wondering if it would be possible to catch a trout if there is a little more wind presently."

This was scarcely a correct rendering of her thoughts, for she was in reality desirous of ascertaining whether the man would, to afford her pleasure, thrust his work aside.

"Well," he said eagerly, "I shouldn't wonder if it would. Now, there's the planer to fix up, but that could wait a little, and--but here's someone coming!"

Miss Deringham was conscious of a trace of annoyance when a girl rode out of the orchard on a wiry little pony. She was dressed neatly and rode well, though the somewhat scanty skirt was evidently not the work of a habitmaker and had seen lengthy service, while the plain straw hat could not at the limit have cost more than a dollar; nor did she wear any gloves, and her hands were brown, while her face betokened exposure to frost and wind and sun. It was, however, a comely face, and Miss Deringham noticed that the girl carried herself gracefully. It was also curious that she was not wholly pleased when Alton went forward to greet the newcomer with his hat in his hand, and, she fancied, offered more assistance than was absolutely necessary in helping her down. Then they entered the verandah together, and Alice Deringham smiled in a fashion which did not pledge her to any extreme good-will when Alton presented the stranger.

"Miss Townshead, from the ranch back yonder," he said.

Miss Deringham said something of no importance, and waited with slightly unusual curiosity for the girl's answer, which somewhat astonished her. The voice was nicely modulated, and the intonation free from Western harshness and unmistakably English.

"You will come over and see us. It is a long time since we had a visit from anybody from England," she said. "Are you pleased with this country?"

Miss Deringham glanced at Alton. "I grow almost enthusiastic about it at times," she said. "Its inhabitants are also especially kind."

The man did not, however, respond as he might have done. "It's a tolerably good country," he said gravely, and then glanced at the stranger. "Nothing wrong at the ranch, I hope, Miss Nellie?"

"No,", said the girl. "We have, however, heard that Jack is seriously ill, and I rode over because the spotted steer has broken away, and I found the trail led into the Somasco valley. It was one of the beasts father was sending down to sell."

Alton became suddenly intent. "Then it has not gone far. I saw its trail an hour ago," he said. "Well, we must head the beast off before it gets into the thick timber under the range, and there's no time to lose. I'll be ready in two minutes. Would you like to follow with Charley, Miss Deringham?"

The time had scarcely been exceeded when he led a horse out of the stable, held his hand out for Miss Townshead to mount by, and then swung himself to the saddle. Then he and the girl swung across the clearing at a gallop, and Alice Deringham endeavoured to assure herself that she was not angry. It appeared that her angling was of considerably less importance than the capture of the steer.

It was possibly for this reason that she was unusually gracious to Seaforth, who came along just then, and though evidently in some haste, stopped to talk to her; while when she had promised to accompany him to witness the chase, and he strode away towards the stable, her father sauntered out of the house and glanced in her direction whimsically.

"It occurs to me that one of us is responsible for some irregularity in the work upon this ranch, and that the beast it a trifle uncertain in his moods," said he.

"It is," said his daughter, "a little difficult to understand you."

Deringham pointed to the two mounted figures just entering the brush, and the girl fancied that something had ruffled him. He could be unpleasant when that happened.

"Alton of Somasco is a somewhat busy man, but both he and his partner seem to have suspended their energies this morning," he said. "No doubt wild-beast taming has its fascination, but one might fancy it was apt to prove a somewhat disconcerting and perilous amusement."

"Yes?" said the girl in a tone of languid inquiry.

Deringham nodded. "One can never tell when the beast may revert to his primitive instincts, and do something unpleasant," he said. "This one is also evidently of somewhat uncertain temperament. We are told that Una had a lion, but the effect of the story would have been diminished if it had been recorded that the king of the forest divided his allegiance."

Miss Deringham was now convinced that her father was not pleased. "I have not noticed anything especially leonine about Mr. Seaforth," she said.

"No," said Deringham dryly. "The Honourable Charley appears to be an admirable young man of the domestic feline species, but I don't know of any reason that would make it advisable to waste powder and shot over him."

Miss Deringham rose languidly, but her father felt he had gone as far as was desirable, and went back to grapple with a financial difficulty from which he could see only one escape, while she rode away with Seaforth, who led out the horse reserved for her use. Alice Deringham could ride, but when they left the clearing and plunged into the bush she found that all she had been taught in England was not much use in British Columbia. There was no perceptible trail, and the horses floundered round great fallen trees, and plunged smashing through thickets of black raspberry and barberry. In places their flanks were brushed by tall, black-stemmed fern, and where the forest was more open treacherous gravel slipped beneath the hoofs that sank from sight amidst the blood-red clusters of the little wineberry. After an hour of it the girl was shaken and breathless, and she contemplated her habit somewhat ruefully when Seaforth drew bridle. Somewhere far up on a hill shoulder there was a smashing in the bush.

"Are you sure you have not lost the way?" she said. "It seems impossible for horses or cattle to get through this forest."

Seaforth laughed. "The bush is really thin here," he said. "Anybody used to it could get through at a gallop, while a good bushman could scarcely make five miles a day walking where it's tolerably thick. I wonder if you know that the ox was originally a denizen of the bush. I didn't until Harry told me. It always seemed to me a tranquil beast adapted for sober locomotion on nice green grass."

"And isn't it?" said the girl with indifference in her eyes. "Mr. Alton is an authority on cattle?"

"Harry," said Seaforth, smiling, "is, although one might not always fancy so, a complete encyclopaedia on everything useful. Anyway, from the sound up yonder you will presently see some of the primitive habits of the genus _bos_, and the spectacle may be the more interesting because the beast will if possible head away up that valley into fastnesses where only a prehistoric man with a tail could follow it."

Alice Deringham said nothing further and was glad of the rest. They had pulled their horses up on the slope of a hill which formed one side of a hollow out of which several valleys opened. There were great trees about them, and it was only here and there a ray of sunlight pierced the dim green shadow, while below them a stream went frothing down a miniature canon whose banks were cumbered by fallen timber. It was, the girl fancied, an especially difficult place for a horseman to pick his way through.

Meanwhile the sound above grew louder, and presently an object apparently travelling like a thunderbolt came out of the shadow. It was, notwithstanding the speed it made, gambolling playfully, with head tossed sideways and tail in the air, and when Miss Deringham fancied it must turn aside for a tangled brake, went smashing straight through it. As it emerged with an exultant flourish of head and tail two other objects became visible behind it, and Seaforth pushed forward when the mounted figures came sweeping down the mountain side. Here and there they swung wide round a fallen tree, but they rode straight through raspberry-canes and breast-high fern, and Alice Deringham wondered when she saw that one of them was a girl. She had left her hat somewhere in the bush, her hair streamed about her, the skirt was blown aside; but she held on with set lips and two vivid spots of colour in her warm-tinted face, a length or two behind her companion. He was riding hard, and there was a red smear across his face where a branch had smote him.

Miss Deringham turned to watch them, realizing that whatever the steer risked, its pursuers were in peril of life and limb. Sometimes one horse rose above fern and thicket, or twisted, apparently with the sinuosity of a snake, in and out amidst the clustered trunks, while once the girl lurched forward. Miss Deringham gasped, but part of the fluttering skirt was rent away, and the little lithe figure swept on again. The pair were, it was evident, closing with the steer, and the latter apparently cut off from the valley it made for by the ravine. This was not, however, to prove an insuperable obstacle, for as Miss Deringham with difficulty edged her horse nearer, the beast charged straight at the hollow, and dropped into it. Then, while she regarded its capture as certain, it rose into view again, and floundered up the almost vertical slope on the other side with no very obvious difficulty. Miss Deringham, who found this riding down of a Canadian steer almost as exciting as anything she had seen when following the English hounds, regretted that the ravine with its fringe of undergrowth and litter of netted branches must apparently put a stop to the pursuit. Though the width was not great, no horse, she fancied, would be expected to face it, and she watched the two figures flitting amidst the trunks to see when they would pull up.

There was, however, no sign that they intended to do so, and Miss Deringham gasped a little when Alton glanced for a moment over his shoulder.

"Pull him!" his voice reached her hoarsely, and she held her breath as she saw the man's hand move on the bridle and his heels pressed home. The horse swung clear of the thicket, plunged with head down, flung it up, and straightened itself again; there was a drumming of hoofs, and man and beast had shot forward from the bank. It seemed an appreciable time before they came down amidst the fern, and then Miss Deringham drew in her breath with a little sibilant sigh.

"Oh!" she said softly, and there was a great smashing as man and beast reeled through a brake on the other side.

"Yes," said Seaforth, "it was a tolerably risky thing, but it takes a good deal to turn Harry. Where's Nellie Townshead now?"

"There," said Miss Deringham, instinctively clenching her bridle. "Surely the girl cannot be going to try it."

"Good Lord!" said Seaforth under his breath, and the second figure rushed with streaming skirt and hair at the gap cleared by Alton's passage.

Then the man turned his head, and it was a moment before he looked round again, very white in face. "Thank Heaven!" he said hoarsely. "She's over."

Miss Deringham glanced at him curiously, and then laughed a little. "Miss Townshead is evidently a determined young woman," she said, with something in her manner which led Seaforth to fancy that this was not intended as a compliment. "But what is Mr. Alton doing?"

"Getting the rope ready," said Seaforth. "It's scarcely used in this country, but Harry once did some stock-riding on the prairie. We'll push on a little."

It became evident as they did so that the position favoured the pursuers now. A rock it was apparently incapable of climbing prevented the flight of the steer in one direction, and Miss Townshead had ridden forward ready to turn the beast if it attempted escape in another. It stopped with lowered head as though meditating an onslaught upon her, then wheeled again and came back towards Alton, who rose a trifle in his stirrups, whirling the rope about his head. It shot forward presently, uncoiling in a curve, and then the man swung backwards, wheeling his horse, and there was a crash as the steer went down amidst the fern.

"That should take a good deal of the friskiness out of it," said Seaforth. "We'll go across and join them. There's a way over somewhere."

The steer was roped to a tree when they came up with the pair, and Seaforth noticed with some inward amusement the way in which the two girls glanced at each other, and the contrast between them. Miss Deringham was almost too serene, and, he fancied, might have stepped out of a picture. Miss Townshead's cheeks were crimson, her skirt was rent, and, though she had evidently found opportunity to effect some alteration, loose wisps of hair still hung about her shoulders. They were, however, of a fine silky brown, and it seemed to Seaforth, might have been arranged in a more unbecoming fashion.

"I wonder if I might venture to congratulate you. We seldom witness horsemanship of this description in England," said Miss Deringham, with an inflection in her voice which Seaforth guessed the meaning of, and seemed to bring a slightly warmer tinge into the already carmine cheeks of the girl.

Still, she looked at the speaker with a little smile. "There is a difference between the two countries, and the scarcity of dollars in this one explains a good deal," she said.

Alton glanced at both of them with a slightly bewildered expression. "Of course!" said he. "The thing's quite simple. That steer is worth so many dollars to Miss Townshead's father, and he couldn't afford to lose them."

Alice Deringham turned aside with a just perceptible gesture of impatience, which Seaforth noticed and fancied he understood, though it was not apparent to the others, and while she rode on with him, Alton appeared thoughtful as he did something to his bridle. When he had finished it he saw that his companion was smiling at him.

"It seems to me there are a good many things I don't know," said he.

"Of course," said the girl lightly. "Still, I don't think I would worry over them if I were you. They are very trivial!"

Alton nodded sagely, and odd fragments of his conversation reached Miss Deringham. "We'll send someone back for the steer," he said. "Jack's no better?"

"No," said the girl, with a little quiver in her voice. "I am afraid the work is too hard for him up there."

Alton seemed thoughtful. "I wonder if he would come down and do something for me," he said. "I could find a use for another man or two, you see."

Again the little flush of crimson crept into Miss Townshead's cheeks. "I don't think so; he seems to fancy he can get into the C.P.R. service when he is better."

"Well," said Alton, "I'm going to take a liberty. Jack wouldn't have gone up yonder if you hadn't wanted the dollars?"

Nellie Townshead looked down a moment, then swiftly raised her head, and though her fingers seemed to tighten on the bridle there was a curious steadiness in her eyes. "There is," she said, "no use in denying what everybody knows."

Alton nodded. "I know that kind of worry, and it's a bad one. Has Hallam got a hold upon the ranch?"

Miss Townshead appeared astonished, and did not answer for a moment. "I fancied you did not know, but he has," she said. "He came up to see my father a week ago, and that is why we are selling the stock."

Alton's face darkened. "That man's of the same breed as the panther, only the panther lets up when he's full. Well, you needn't tell me any more. Interest's high in this country, but it's a pity your father------"

He stopped a moment, and appeared a trifle embarrassed when the girl regarded him with a little flash in her eyes. "My father has done his best," she said.

"Of course!" said Alton hastily. "Well, now, Hallam wants your ranch, and when that man wants a thing it's bad to keep him from getting it, but it wouldn't please me to see him take the ranch. I wonder if you can figure what his next move will be?"

The girl's fingers trembled, but there was patience and courage in her eyes. "I am afraid I can," said she. "We shall be sold up and driven out very shortly."

Alton shook his head. "I wouldn't count too much on that. Hallam's bad all through, but there are one or two other men who will have a finger in what's going to be made out of this country, and it would be a favour if when he shuts down on you, you send word to me."

The girl did not look at the man, but rode silent for a while. "I think I understand you, and you are very kind--but it is impossible."

"No," said Alton grimly. "You don't understand me. There's not room enough up here for Hallam and me, and I've a deal to square off with him already. Now when you get your notice you will send word to me?"

"Yes," said the girl, as one making a swift decision, and there was a sudden flash of hope in her eyes.

"That is a bargain," said Alton, with the little soft laugh of his. "Then when the deal's fixed up all the winnings will not be counted over by Mr. Hallam."

Miss Deringham heard nothing further, and understood very little of what had reached her, while though unusually gracious to Seaforth she found him distinctly unresponsive.

She, however, lent Miss Townshead a hat when they reached the ranch, and made no comment when Seaforth rode home with her. It was late that night when the latter found Alton smoking in a somewhat dubious mood upon the verandah.

"Is there anything worrying you?" said he.

"Oh, yes," said Alton grimly. "There's work of all kinds waiting, and nothing done to-day. Somehow women seem to play the devil with a man's plans, Charley."

"Yes," said Seaforth, "they not infrequently do."

"Well," said Alton, "I wouldn't mind so much if I'd pleased anybody, but I haven't, you see. I was talking at large about something after we'd got the steer, when Miss Nellie turned right round on me. Then I came back here, and Miss Deringham didn't seem pleased with me."

"Did she tell you so?" said Seaforth, smiling, and Alton turned upon him savagely.

"No, sir, she did not," said he. "Anyway, it wasn't necessary. You understand these folks from the old country, Charley?"

"It is," said Seaforth dryly, "a tolerably bold venture to assert that one understands anybody."

"Well," said Alton, "you know what I mean. Now do you think Miss Deringham was vexed because she didn't get that fishing? You see she is tolerably keen on it. Of course, if I had thought of it I might have sent you with her."

"No," said Seaforth, smiling. "I should scarcely fancy that was the reason, and I don't fancy the arrangement suggested would have given Miss Deringham any great pleasure. Nor do I think I should have gone."

"No?" said Alton inquiringly.

"No," said Seaforth dryly. "I'm not Alton of Somasco--and Carnaby--you see."

Alton regarded him sternly out of half-closed eyes. "There are jokes that don't please me, Charley," he said, and then laughed softly. "I'm a fool with a red-hot temper, but it's a consolation that I know a bigger one than me."

"You need not be bashful, Harry. You mean me?"

Alton nodded as he turned upon his heel, and Seaforth watched him meditatively. "I wish I was as sure of it as you seem to be," said he. "Well, I'm occasionally thankful I'm not a rich man, nor much of a beauty."