Masters of the Wheat-Lands Part 50

Hastings did not seem surprised. "Ah!" he said, "I guess it's over that mortgage of his. It would be awkward for you and Gregory if Edmonds took the homestead and turned him out."

Sally's face grew white, but she met his gaze steadily.

"Oh," she replied, "that's not what I would mind the most."

Hastings reflected a moment or two. He thought that it was a very difficult admission for the girl to make, and that she had made it suggested that Hawtrey might become involved in more serious difficulties. He had also a strong suspicion of what they were likely to be.

"Sally," questioned Hastings quietly, "you are afraid of Edmonds making him do something you would not like?"

Though she did not answer directly, he saw the shame in the girl's face, and remembered that he was one of Wyllard's trustees.

"I must raise that money--now--and I don't know where to get more than five hundred dollars from. I might manage that," she said.

"Well," answered Hastings, "you want me to lead you then, and I'm not sure that I can. Still, if you'll wait a few minutes I'll see what I can do."

Sally left him, and he turned to his wife, whose expression suggested that she had overheard part of what was said and had guessed the rest.

"You mean to raise that money? After all, we are friends of his, and it may save him from letting Edmonds get his grip upon the Range," she said.

Hastings made a sign of reluctant a.s.sent. "I don't quite know how I can do it personally, in view of the figure wheat is standing at, and I don't think much of any security that Gregory could offer me. Still, there is, perhaps, a way in which it could be arranged, and it's one that, considering everything, is more or less admissible. I think I'll wait here for Agatha."

Agatha was in the wagon driven by Sproatly. When Sproatly had helped her and Winifred to alight, Hastings, who walked to the house with them, drew Agatha into an unoccupied room.

"I'm afraid that Gregory's in rather serious trouble. Sally seems very anxious about him," he said. "It's rather a delicate subject, but I understand that in a general way you are on good terms with both of them?"

Agatha met his embarra.s.sed gaze with a smile. She knew that what he really wished to discover was whether she still felt any bitterness against Gregory or blamed him for pledging himself to Sally.

"Yes," she answered, "Sally and I are good friends, and I am very sorry to hear that Gregory is in any difficulty."

Hastings still seemed embarra.s.sed, and she was becoming puzzled by his manner.

"Once upon a time you would have done anything possible to make things easier for him," he said. "I wonder if I might ask if to some extent you have that feeling still?"

"Of course. If he is in serious trouble I should be glad to do anything within my power to help him."

"Even if it cost, we will say, about six hundred English pounds?"

Agatha gazed at him in bewilderment.

"There are some twenty dollars in my possession which your wife handed me not long ago," she remarked in a puzzled tone.

"Still, if you had the money, you would be glad to help him--and would not regret it afterwards?"

"No," a.s.serted Agatha decisively; "if I had the means, and the need was urgent, I should be glad to do what I could." Then she laughed. "I can't understand in the least how this is to the purpose."

"If you will wait for the next two or three months I may be able to explain it to you," replied Hastings. "In the meanwhile, there are one or two things I have to do."

When he left her, Agatha sat still, wondering what he could have meant, but feeling that she would be willing to do what she could for Gregory.

Hastings' suggestion that it was possible that she still cherished any sense of grievance against him because he was going to marry Sally, brought a scornful smile to her lips. It was easy to forgive Gregory that, for she now saw him as he was--shallow, careless, shiftless, a man without depth of character. He had a few surface graces, and on occasion a certain half-insolent forcefulness of manner which in a curious fashion was almost becoming. There was, however, nothing beneath the surface. He was, it seemed, quite willing that a woman should help him out of the trouble in which he had involved himself, for she had no doubt that Sally had sent Hastings on his incomprehensible errand.

Then a clear voice came in through the window, and turning towards it Agatha discovered that a young lad clad in blue duck was singing as he drove his binder through the grain. The song was a simple one which had some vogue just then upon the prairie, but her eyes grew suddenly hazy as odd s.n.a.t.c.hes of it reached her through the beat of hoofs, the clash of the binder's arms and the rustle of the flung-out sheaves.

"My Bonny lies over the ocean, My Bonny lies over the sea."

The youth called to his horses, and it was a few moments before she heard again--

"Bring back my Bonny to me."

A quiver ran through her as she leaned upon the window frame. There was a certain pathos in the simple strain, and she could fancy that the lad, who was clearly English, as an exile felt it, too. Once more as the jaded horses and clashing machine grew smaller down the edge of the great sweep of yellow grain, his voice came faintly up to her with its haunting thrill of longing and regret--

"Bring back my Bonny to me."

This in her case was more than anyone could do, and as she stood listening a tear splashed upon her closed hands. The man, by comparison with whom Gregory appeared a mere lay figure, was in all probability lying still far up in the solitudes of the frozen North, with his last grim journey done. This time, however, he had not carried her picture with him. Gregory was to blame for that, and it was the one thing she could not forgive him.

She leaned against the window for another minute, struggling with an almost uncontrollable longing, and looking out upon the sweep of golden wheat and whitened gra.s.s with br.i.m.m.i.n.g eyes, until there was a rattle of wheels, and she saw Edmonds drive away. She heard voices in the corridor, and it became evident that Hastings was speaking to his wife.

"I've got rid of the man, and it's reasonable to expect that Gregory will keep clear of him after this," he said.

"Don't you mean that Agatha did it?"

It was Mrs. Hastings who asked the question, and Agatha became intent as she heard her name. She did not, however, hear the answer, and Mrs.

Hastings spoke again.

"Allen," she said, "you don't keep a secret badly, though Harry pledged you not to tell. Still, all that caution was a little unnecessary. It was, of course, just the kind of thing he would do."

"What did he do?" Hastings asked, and Agatha heard Mrs. Hastings' soft laugh, for they were just outside the door now.

"Left the Range, or most of it, to Agatha in case he didn't come back again."

They went on, and Agatha, turning from the window, sat down limply with the blood in her face and her heart beating fast. Wyllard's last care, it seemed, had been to provide for her, and that fact brought her a curious sense of solace. In an unexplainable fashion it took the bitterest sting out of her grief, though how far he had succeeded in his intentions did not seem to matter in the least.. It was sufficient to know that amid all the haste of his preparation he had not forgotten her.

Becoming a little calmer, she understood what had been in Hastings' mind during the interview that had puzzled her, and was glad that she a.s.sured him of her willingness to sacrifice anything that might be hers if it was needed to set Gregory free. It was, she felt, what Wyllard would have done with the money. He had said that Gregory was a friend of his, and that, she knew, meant a great deal to him.

She suddenly realized that she must join the others if she did not wish her absence to excite comment. Going out, she came face to face with Sally in the corridor. The girl stopped, and saw the sympathy in her eyes.

"Yes," she said impulsively, "I've saved him. Edmonds has gone. Hastings bought him off, and, though I don't quite know how, you helped him. He stayed behind to wait for you."

Agatha smiled. The vibrant relief in her companion's voice stirred her, and she realized once more that in choosing this half-taught girl Gregory had acted with a wholly unusual wisdom. It was with a sense of half-contemptuous amus.e.m.e.nt at her own folly that she remembered how she had once fancied that Gregory was marrying beneath him. Sally was far from perfect, but in the essentials the man was not fit to brush her shoes.

"My dear," responded Agatha, "I really don't know exactly what I--have--done, but if it amounts to anything it is a pleasure to me."

They went together into the big general room where Gregory was talking to Winifred somewhat volubly. Agatha, however, judged from his manner that he had, at least, the grace to feel ashamed of himself. Supper, she heard Mrs. Nansen say, would be ready very shortly, and feeling in no mood for general conversation, she sat near a window looking out across the harvest field until she heard a distant shout, and saw a wagon appear on the crest of the hill. To her astonishment, two of the binders stopped, and she saw the men who sprang down from them run to meet the wagon. In another moment or two more of the teams stopped, and a faint clamor of cries went up, while here and there little running figures straggled up the slope. All the occupants of the room cl.u.s.tered about her at the window, and Winifred turned to Hastings.

"What are they shouting for?" she asked. "They are all crowding about the wagon now."

Agatha felt suddenly dazed and dizzy, for she knew what the answer to that question must be even before Mrs. Hastings spoke.

"It's Harry coming back!" she gasped.