The Greater Power Part 46

"From what you say, they can't well be here for another hour or two,"

he said, and there was a determined glint in his eyes. "I fancy we'll be through by then."

He swung around, and raised a hand to the men. "Boys, you'll get the last holes filled with giant-powder as quick as you can, and couple up the firing battery. We'll lift that rock right out when you're ready."

He turned again to Laura. "I'm not sure you understand all that you have done," he said. "For one thing, I think, you have saved us from being beaten when what we have fought for was almost in our hand."

He paused for a moment, and then his voice became hoa.r.s.e as he indicated the cl.u.s.tering men with a little forceful gesture.

"They have come in to see the last shot fired. We had arranged to put in a few more sticks of powder, and then lower the river once for all in another hour or two. Some of the boys are now getting a big supper ready to celebrate the occasion, but if you hadn't brought us the warning, it's scarcely likely that any of us would have felt much inclined for festivity. In all probability, those strangers are bringing an order to restrain me from going any further. Once it was in my hands, I could not have fired the shot. All we have done would have been thrown away."

"Ah!" cried Laura, "that would be intolerable!"

Nasmyth laughed significantly.

"Any way," he declared, "until the papers are served on me, my charter stands. We'll have scattered the last strip of rock when those men ride in."

He made her a grave little bow. "You set us to work," he said. "It is only fitting that you should once more hold the firing battery."

He moved away abruptly from her and crawled into the heading. It was half an hour later when he came back, and almost every man who had a share in the undertaking gathered upon the strip of shingle. n.o.body spoke, however, and there was tense expectancy in the bronzed faces.

Nasmyth beckoned to Laura and moved forward with Gordon, and Wheeler, who carried the battery. Nasmyth swung his battered hat off as he held out his hand, and Laura, clinging to him, climbed to a shelf of rock where she stood still a moment or two, looking about her.

In front the white spray of the fall whirled beneath the tremendous wall of rock, and about her stood groups of hard-handed men, who had driven the heading with strenuous, insistent toil. She knew what the work had cost them, and could understand the look in their steady eyes. They had faced the river in the depths of the tremendous rift, borne with the icy winter, and patiently grappled with obstacle after obstacle. Their money had not sufficed to purchase them costly machines. They had pitted steadfast courage and hardened muscle against the vast primeval forces of untrammelled Nature. Laura felt deeply stirred as she glanced at them. They were simple men, but they had faced and beaten roaring flood and stinging frost, caring little for the hazard to life or limb as they played their part in that tremendous struggle with axe and drill.

Suddenly Laura became conscious that Nasmyth, who held up a little box from which trailed a couple of wires, was speaking.

"Our last dollars bought that powder. Wish us good luck," he said.

Laura stretched out her hands for the box, and standing upon the rock shelf, with one shoe burst and her skirt badly rent, raised her voice as she had done in that spot once before.

"Boys," she said, "you have stood fast against very heavy odds. May all that you can wish for--orchards, oat-fields, wheat, and cattle--be yours. The prosperity of this country is founded on such efforts as you have made."

With a little smile in her eyes, she fitted in the firing-plug, and in another moment a streak of flame that seemed to expand into a bewildering brilliancy flashed through the spray of the fall. The flash of light was lost in rolling smoke and a tremendous eruption of flying rock that rang with deafening detonations against the side of the canon. The smoke rolled higher, and still great shattered fragments came whirling out of it, striking boulder and shingle with a heavy crash, until the roar of the liberated river rose in tumultuous clamour and drowned all other sound.

A great foaming wave swept forward, washing high along the bank, and poured seething down the rapid. Shingle and boulder were lost in it.

It drove on tumultuously, and a mad turgid flood came on behind. Then it slowly fell away again, and a man, clambering out, in peril of being swept away, beneath the dripping rock, flung up a hand. His voice rang harsh and exultant through the sinking roar of the beaten river.

"We've cut the last ledge clean away," he said.

A great shout went up, and Nasmyth held out his hand to Laura.

"I owe it all to you," he said with a curious gleam in his eyes.

The men trooped about them both, and, though they were not as a rule effusive, some of them thumped Nasmyth's shoulder and some wrung his hand. Half an hour had slipped by before he was free of them.

He and Laura went slowly back up the climbing gully. It was growing dark, but a light still streamed down between the pines, and Nasmyth, who pointed to a tree that had fallen, stood close by, looking down upon the girl.

"I will ride back with you presently, but you must rest first; and I have something to say, though if we had not beaten the river I think I should never have had courage enough," he said. "When you found me lying in the snow, you took me in; you nursed me back to life, gave me a purpose, and set me on my feet again."

He paused for a moment. A flush dyed his worn face, and his voice was strained when he went on again.

"One result was that I went back to the world I once belonged to--it was really you who sent me--and you know what befell me there," he said. "I don't think I quite forgot what I owed to you, but I was carried away. Still, she recognized her folly and discarded me."

He stopped again, and Laura looked at him steadily with a tinge of colour in her face.

"Well," he continued, "that was when I commenced to understand exactly what you had been all along to me. I don't know what came upon me at Bonavista; but though the thing must seem preposterous, I believe I was in love with you then. Now I have nothing to bring you. You know all my weak points, and I could not complain if you would not listen to me. But I have come back to you again."

"Ah!" answered Laura very softly, "after all, it was fortunate that you went away. I think it was a relief to me when Wisbech took you to the city."

Nasmyth looked at her in surprise, and she smiled at him. "Derrick,"

she said, "once or twice when you were building the dam you fancied that you loved me. I, however, didn't want you to fancy. That was only going far enough to hurt me."

Nasmyth stooped toward her. "In the height of my folly I had an uneasy consciousness that I belonged to you. Afterwards I was sure. It was a very real thing, but I naturally shrank from coming to you. I don't quite know how I have gathered the courage now."

Laura sat still, and he laid a hand on her shoulder. Then she turned and looked up at him.

"Well," she confessed very simply, "I think I loved you in the days when you were building the dam."

He bent down and kissed her, and neither of them ever remembered exactly what they said.

A few minutes later there was a clatter in the shadow above them, and two men came scrambling down, each leading a jaded horse. Nasmyth rose and turned toward them when they stopped close in front of him.

"You have some business with me?" he inquired.

One of them handed him a sealed paper, and he opened it with deliberation.

"I may as well tell you that I expected this," he said. He glanced at Laura. "I am summoned to attend in Victoria and show cause why I should not be restrained from injuring the holding of a rancher at the head of the valley. In the meantime I am instructed to carry on the operations in the canon no further."

He turned to the men. "You should have come along an hour or two ago.

I don't propose to do anything further in the canon; in fact, I have accomplished the purpose I had in hand."

As his meaning dawned on them, the men gazed at each other in evident consternation, until one of them turned to Laura.

"Well," he commented, "in that case I guess it's quite a pity we didn't, but I begin to understand the thing. This is the young lady who told us the trail. She must have taken a shorter way."

Laura smiled at him. "You," she reminded him, "seemed anxious to go by the easiest one."

The other man looked at Nasmyth. "I'm acting for Hutton, and it seems you have got ahead of him," he observed. "Still, we're both out on business, and I don't bear you any ill-will. In fact, if you're open to make any arrangement, I should be glad to talk to you."

Nasmyth smiled as he answered: "You can at least come and get some supper. I expect the boys will fix you and your horses for the night."

They went down the gully together, and a few minutes later walked into the flickering light of a great fire, near which a rudely bountiful supper had been laid out. Nasmyth pointed to the strangers.

"Boys," he said, "these are the men we expected, but I don't think they mean to worry us now, and they've had a long ride." He turned to the strangers. "Won't you sit down?"

There was a great burst of laughter, and one of the strangers smiled.

"We're in your hands, but I don't know any reason why you shouldn't be generous, boys," he said.