Ranching for Sylvia Part 52

"I don't expect he'll leave the farm during the next few weeks," said Edgar.

Then one of the constables looked in.

"Conductor says he can't hold up the train."

"I'll be off," said Edgar, with a smile at Flett. "This should mean promotion; it's a fine piece of work."

He jumped down as the train pulled out and hurried back to the store where Miss Taunton was eagerly awaiting news. Soon afterward he left; and as he rode up to the homestead day was breaking, but he found George already at work in the stable.

"It's lucky we don't need your horse. If you're going to keep up this kind of thing, you had better buy an automobile," he remarked.

Edgar laughed.

"I don't feel remarkably fresh, but I'll hold out until to-night.

There's the fallowing to be got on with; I suppose nothing must interfere with that. But aren't you up a little earlier than usual?"

"I want to haul in the posts for the new fence. Grierson has his hands full, and now that there are four of us, Jake spends so much time in cooking."

"A reckless waste of precious minutes!" Edgar exclaimed ironically.

"If one could only get over these troublesome bodily needs, you could add hours of work to every week and make Sylvia Marston rich. By the way, Jake's cooking is getting awful."

He put up his horse and busied himself with several tasks before he went in to breakfast. When it was finished, and the others went out, he detained George.

"What did you think of that meal?" he asked.

"Well," said George, "it might have been better."

Edgar laughed scornfully.

"It would take some time to tell you my opinion, but I may as well point out that you're paying a big bill for stores to Taunton, though we never get anything fit to eat. Helen and I were talking over your account, and she wondered what we did with the things, besides giving me an idea. It's this--why don't you tell Grierson to bring out his wife?"

"I never thought of it. She might not come; and she may not cook much better than Jake."

"She certainly couldn't cook worse! I expect she would save her wages, and she would set a hired man free. Jake can drive a team."

"It's a good idea," George agreed. "Send Grierson in."

The man came a few minutes later.

"We get on pretty well; I suppose you are willing to stay with me?"

George said to him.

Grierson hesitated and looked disturbed.

"The fact is, I'd be very sorry to leave; but I'm afraid I'll have to by and by. You see, I've got to find a place I can take my wife to."

"Can she cook?"

"Yes," said Grierson, indicating the remnants on the table with contempt. "She would do better than this with her eyes shut! Then,"

he continued eagerly, "she can wash and mend clothes. I've noticed that you and Mr. West throw half your things away long before you need to."

"That's true," Edgar admitted. "It's the custom of the country; time's too valuable to spend in mending anything, though I've noticed that one or two of the people who tell you about the value of time get through a good deal of it lounging round the Sachem. Anyway, amateur laundering's an abomination, and I'm most successful in washing the b.u.t.tons and wrist-bands off." He turned to his companion. "George, you'll have to send for Mrs. Grierson."

The matter was promptly arranged, and when Grierson went out with a look of keen satisfaction, Edgar laughed.

"I feel like pointing out how far an idea can go. Helen only thought of making me a little more comfortable, and you see the result of it--Grierson and his wife united, things put into shape here, four people content! Of course, one could cite a more striking example; I mean when Sylvia Marston thought you had better go out and look after her farm. There's no need to mention the far-reaching consequences that opinion had."

"I volunteered to go out," George corrected him.

"Well," said Edgar, "I quite believe you did so. But you're no doubt pining to get at the fence."

They went off to work, but Edgar, driving the gang-plow through the stubble under a scorching sun, thought that Sylvia's idea might bear more fruit than she had calculated on, and that it would be bitter to her. His mind, however, was chiefly occupied with a more attractive person, and once when he turned the heavy horses at the end of the furrows he said softly, "May I deserve her!" and looked up with a tense expression in his hot face, as if making some firm resolve, which was a procedure that would have astonished even those who knew him well.

A week pa.s.sed, each day growing brighter and hotter, until the glare flung back by sandy soil and whitening gra.s.s became painful, and George and his a.s.sistants discarded most of their clothing when they went about their tasks. The oats began to show a silvery gleam as they swayed in the strong light; the wheat was changing color, and there were warm coppery gleams among the heavy ears; horses and cattle sought the poplars' shade. Then one evening when the Grants had driven over, Flett arrived at the homestead, and, sitting on the stoop as the air grew cooler, related his adventures.

"I guess my chiefs wouldn't be pleased to hear me; we're not encouraged to talk, but there's a reason for it, as you'll see when I'm through,"

he said, and plunged abruptly into his narrative.

It proved to be a moving tale of weary rides in scorching heat and in the dusk of night, of rebuffs and daunting failures. Flett, as he admitted, had several times been cleverly misled and had done some unwise things, but he had never lost his patience nor relaxed his efforts. Slowly and doggedly, picking up sc.r.a.ps of information where he could, he had trailed his men to the frontier, where his real troubles had begun. Once that he crossed it, he had no authority, and the American sheriffs and deputies were not invariably sympathetic.

Some, he concluded, were unduly influenced by local opinion, which was not in favor of interfering with people who confined their depredations to Canadian horses. Others, who acknowledged past favors from Regina, foresaw troublesome complications before he could be allowed to deport the offenders; but some, with a strong sense of duty, offered willing help, and that was how he had been able to make the arrests on Canadian soil.

"Now," he concluded, "we tracked these men from point to point and I've evidence to prove most of their moves, but they never had the four horses in a bunch until they made Montana, which is a point against us.

We can show they were working as a gang, that they were altogether with the horses on American soil, but as we haven't corralled the only man Mr. Grant could swear to, there's only one way of proving how they got them. You see where all this leads?"

"It looks as if you depended on my evidence for a conviction," said George.

Flett nodded.

"You saw Mr. Grant attacked and the horses run off. You can identify one man, and we'll connect him with the rest."

He took out a paper and handed it to George.

"It's my duty to serve you with this; and now that it's done, I'll warn you to watch out until after the trial. If we can convict these fellows, we smash the crowd, but we'd be helpless without you."

George opened the doc.u.ment and found it a formal summons to attend the court at Regina on a date specified. Then he produced another paper and gave it to Flett with a smile.

"The opposition seem to recognize my importance, and they move more quickly than the police."

The trooper took the letter, which was typed and bore no date or name of place.

"'Keep off this trial and you'll have no more trouble,'" he read aloud.

"'Back up the police and you'll be sorry. If you mean to drop them, drive over to the b.u.t.te, Thursday, and get supper at the Queen's.'"

"Yesterday was Thursday, and I didn't go," George said after a moment's silence.

The quiet intimation was not a surprise to any of them, and Flett nodded as he examined the letter.

"Not much of a clue," he remarked. "Toronto paper that's sold at every store; mailed two stations down the line. n.o.body would have met you at the Queen's, but most anybody in town would know if you had been there.

Anyway, I'll take this along." He rose. "I can't stop, but I want to say we're not afraid of your backing down."