Masters of the Wheat-Lands Part 40

"You remember me?" he asked.

"Of course," answered Mrs. Hastings, with impatience in her tone.

"Where's Harry?"

The skipper spread a hard hand out, and sat down heavily.

"That," he said, "is what I have to tell you. He asked me to."

"He asked you to?" questioned Agatha, and though her voice was strained there was relief in it.

Dampier made a gesture, which seemed to beseech her patience.

"Yes," he said, "if--anything went wrong--he told me I was to come here to Mrs. Hastings."

Agatha turned her head away, but Mrs. Hastings saw that she caught her breath before she cried:

"Then something has gone wrong!"

"About as wrong as it could." Dampier met her gaze gravely. "Wyllard and two other men are drowned."

He paused as if watching for words that might soften the dire meaning of his message, and Mrs. Hastings saw Agatha shiver. The girl turned slowly around with a drawn white face. It was, however, Hastings who spoke, almost sternly.

"Go on," he said.

"I'm to tell you all?"

This time it was Agatha who broke in.

"Yes," she replied, with a steadiness that struck the others as being strained and unnatural, "you must tell us all."

Dampier, who appeared to shrink from his task, began awkwardly, but he gained coherence and force of expression as he proceeded. He made them understand something of the grim resolution which had animated Wyllard.

He pictured, in terse seaman's words, the little schooner plunging to windward over long phalanxes of icy seas, or crawling white with snow through the blinding fog. His listeners saw the big combers tumbling ready to break short upon the dipping bows, and half-frozen men struggling for dear life with folds of madly thrashing sail. The pictures were necessarily somewhat blurred and hazy, for after all only an epic poet could fittingly describe the things that must be done and borne at sea, and epic poets are not bred in the forecastle. When he reached the last scene he gained dramatic power, and Agatha's face grew white and tense. She saw the dim figures pulling the boat through the flying spray beneath the wall of ice.

"We ran her in," he told them, "with the snow blinding us. It was working up for a heavy blow, and as we'd have to beat her out we couldn't take sail off her. We stood on until we heard the sea along the edge of the ice, and then there was nothing to do but jam her on the wind and thrash her clear. There was only a plank or two of the boat, an oar, and Charly's cap, when we came back again!"

"After all, though the boat was smashed, they might have gotten out,"

Hastings suggested.

"Well," said Dampier simply, "it didn't seem likely. The ice was sharp and ragged, and there was a long wash of sea. A man's not tough enough to stand much of that kind of hammering."

Agatha's face grew whiter, but Dampier went on again.

"Anyway," he said, "they didn't turn up at the inlet as we'd fixed, and that decided the thing. If Wyllard had been alive, he surely would have been there."

"Isn't it just possible that he might have fallen into the hands of the Russians?" asked Hastings.

"I naturally thought of that, but so far as the chart shows there isn't a settlement within leagues of the spot. Besides, supposing the Russians had got him, how could I have helped him? They'd have sent him off in the first place to one of the bigger settlements in the South, and if the authorities couldn't have connected him with any illegal sealing they'd no doubt have managed to send him across to j.a.pan by and by. In that case, he'd have gotten home without any trouble."

Dampier paused, and it was significant that he turned to Agatha with a deprecatory gesture.

"No," he added, "there was nothing I could do."

It was evident that Agatha acquitted him, but she asked a question.

"Captain Dampier," she said, "had you any expectation of finding those three men when you sailed the second time?"

"No," acknowledged the bronzed sailor, with an impressive calmness, "I hadn't any, and I don't think Wyllard had either. Still, he meant to make quite certain. He felt he had to."

The skipper gazed at Agatha, and saw comprehension in her eyes.

"Yes," she observed with an unsteady voice, "and when you have said that, you could say very little more of any man."

She turned her head away from them, and for a few moments there was a heavy silence in the room. It cost the girl a painful effort to sit still, apparently unmoved, but there was strength in her, and she would not betray her distress. She felt that her grief must be endured bravely.

It was almost overwhelming, but there was mingled with it a faint consolatory thrill of pride, for it was clear that the man who had loved her had done a splendid thing. He had given all that had been given him--she knew she would never forget that phrase of his--willingly, and it seemed to her that the traits with which he had been endowed were rare and precious ones. She recognized the steadfast, unflinching courage, and the fine sense of honor which had sent him out on that forlorn hope.

Unyielding and undismayed he had gone down to death--she felt sure of that--amid the blinding snow.

Mrs. Hastings set food before Dampier. By and by Sproatly and Winifred arrived and they heard the story. After that Dampier, who had promised to stay with them a day or two, left Wyllard's friends for an hour.

"It seems to me you'll naturally want to talk over things," he said; "if you'll excuse me, I'll take a stroll across the prairie."

He went out, and Hastings looked at each member of the little group with hasty scrutiny.

"Harry's friends are numerous, but we're, perhaps, the nearest, and, as Dampier said, we have to consider things," he observed, speaking with deliberation. "To begin with, there's a certain possibility that he has escaped, after all."

He saw the quick movement that Agatha made, and went on more quickly.

"Gregory, of course, has control of the Range until we have proof of Harry's death, though Wyllard made a proviso that if there was no word of the party within eighteen months after he had sailed, or within six months of the time Dampier had landed him, we could a.s.sume it, after which the will he handed me would take effect. This, it is evident, leaves Gregory in charge for some months yet, but it seems to me it's our duty to see he doesn't fling away Harry's property. I've reasons for believing that he has been doing it lately."

He looked at Sproatly, who sat silent a moment or two.

"I'm rather awkwardly placed," Sproatly remarked. "You see, there's no doubt that I'm indebted to Gregory."

Winifred turned to him with impatience in her eyes. "Then," she said severely, "you certainly shouldn't have been, and it ought to be quite clear that n.o.body wishes you to do anything that would hurt him." She looked at Hastings. "In case the will takes effect, who does the property go to?"

Hastings appeared embarra.s.sed. "That," he objected, "is a thing I'm not warranted in telling you now."

A suggestive gleam flashed into Winifred's eyes, but it vanished and her manner became authoritative when she turned back to Sproatly.

"Jim," she said, "you will tell Mr. Hastings all you know."

Sproatly made a gesture of resignation. "After all," he admitted, "I think it's necessary. Gregory, as I've told you already, put a big mortgage on his place, and, in view of the price of wheat and the state of his crop, it's evident that he must have had some difficulty in meeting the interest, unless--and one or two things suggest this--he paid it with Harry's money. Of course, as Harry gave him a share, there's no reason why he shouldn't do this so long as he does not overdraw that share. There's no doubt, however, that he has lost a good deal of money on the wheat market."

"Has he lost any of Harry's?" Mrs. Hastings asked.

Sproatly hesitated. "I'm afraid it's practically certain."

Winifred broke in. "Yes," she a.s.serted, "he has lost a great deal.

Hamilton knows almost everything that's going on, and I got it out of him. He's a friend of Wyllard's, and seems vexed with Gregory."