The Long Portage Part 17

They found Bella in the hall, and when her brother went to get-his coat she walked out on to the terrace with Lisle.

"Thank you," she said gratefully when they were out of sight from the hall. "It was a relief to see you had succeeded in getting him away."

"I'm sorry I was unable to do so sooner," Lisle replied.

"Ah! Then he has been losing heavily again?"

"I'm afraid so. I couldn't make my interference too marked." Obeying some impulse, he laid his hand on her arm. "Rather a handful for you, isn't he?"

Bella nodded, making no attempt to shake off his grasp.

"Yes," she acknowledged with some bitterness; "but I can hardly complain that I have no control over him. It would be astonishing if I had." She broke into a little harsh laugh. "Anyway, I manage to keep my head, and do not deceive myself, as he does. I know what our welcome's worth and what the few people whose opinion counts for anything think of us."

"Well," offered Lisle, "if I can be of service in any respect--"

"Thanks," she interrupted, and turned back toward the door.

When they reached the hall she glanced at her companion as the light fell on his face.

"Your offer's genuine," she said impulsively. "I can't see what you expect in return."

Lisle was puzzled by her expression. She was variable in her moods, generally somewhat daring, and addicted to light mockery. He could not tell whether she spoke in bitterness or in mischief.

"No," he replied gravely, "nor do I."

She left him with a laugh; and a little later he drove her and her companions away and afterward returned to Nasmyth's house to find that his host had retired. Lisle followed his example and rising early the next morning they set off for the river, up which the sea-trout were running. They were busy all morning and it was not until noon, when they lay in the sunshine eating their lunch on a bank of gravel, that either of them made any allusion to the previous evening.

"Did you enjoy yourself last night?" Nasmyth asked.

"Fairly," Lisle responded, smiling. "I've already confessed that you people interest me. At the same time, I had my difficulties--first of all to explain to the Marples why you didn't come. The reasons you gave didn't sound convincing."

"They were good enough. It's probable that Marple understood them. Like most of my neighbors, I go once or twice in a year; his subscription to the otter hounds ent.i.tles him to that."

"We don't look at things in that way in the parts of Canada I'm acquainted with," laughed Lisle.

"Then I've no doubt you'll come to it," Nasmyth replied with some dryness. "They've done so already in the older cities. Now--since you're fond of candor--you have been glad to earn a dollar or two a day by chopping and shoveling, haven't you? Have you felt left out in the cold at all during the little while you have spent among us?"

"Not in the least," Lisle owned.

"Then you can infer what you like from that. In this country, we take a good deal for granted and avoid explanations. But you haven't said anything about the proceedings at Marple's. I suppose you were invited to take a hand at cards?"

"I invited myself; result, sixty dollars to the bad in half an hour. I used to hold my own in our mining camps, and I hadn't the worst cards."

Nasmyth laughed with unconcealed enjoyment.

"The only fault I have to find with you Westerners is that you're rather apt to overrate yourselves. I suppose they let young Crestwick in a good deal deeper?"

"That," laughed Lisle, "is what you have been leading up to from the beginning."

"I'll admit it. As I've hinted, one of the differences between an American and an Englishman is that the former usually expresses more or less forcibly what he thinks, unless, of course, he's a financier or a politician; while you have often to learn by experience what the latter means. Better use your own methods in telling me what took place."

Lisle did so, omitting any reference to Bella, and Nasmyth looked disturbed and disgusted.

"Crestwick's as devoid of sense as he is of manners; he deserves to lose.

What I can't get over is that fellow Batley's staying in what was once George Gladwyne's house, with Clarence standing sponsor for him."

Lisle fancied he could understand. Nasmyth had his failings, but he had also his simple, drastic code, and it was repugnant to him that a man of his own caste, one of a family he had long known and respected, should countenance an outsider of Batley's kind and a.s.sist him in fleecing a silly vicious lad.

"You have no reason to think well of Gladwyne," Lisle reminded him.

"I haven't," Nasmyth owned. "Still, though the man has made one very bad break, I hardly expected him to exceed every limit. At present it looks as if he might do so; he'll probably be forced to."

"I don't quite understand."

"Then I'll have to explain. It's unpleasant, but here the thing is, as I see it--Batley's not the kind of man Clarence would willingly a.s.sociate with, and to give Clarence his dues, all his instinct must make him recoil from the fellow's game with Crestwick. Considering that he's apparently making no protest against it, this is proof to me that Batley has some pretty firm hold on him."

"What's Batley's profession?"

"I suspect he's something in the smart money-lending line; one of the fellows who deal with minors and others on post-obits."

"Post-obits?"

"Promises to pay after somebody's dead. Suppose there should be only an invalid or an old man between you and a valuable property; you could borrow on the strength of your expectations. Now, what Crestwick told you shows that the person who left him his money very wisely handed it to trustees, with instructions to pay him only an allowance until he's twenty-four. It's a somewhat similar case to the one I've instanced--he's drawing on a capital he can't get possession of for two or three years, and no doubt paying an extortionate interest. So far as I know, no respectable bank or finance broker would handle that kind of business."

"But if the boy died before he succeeded to the property?"

"Batley could cover the risk by making Crestwick take out an insurance policy in his favor."

Lisle's face grew stern, and Nasmyth lay smoking in silence for a while.

Then he broke out again:

"It's intolerable! George Gladwyne's successor abetting that fellow in robbing the lad, luring him into wagers and reckless play with the result that most of the borrowed money goes straight back into the hands of the man who lent it!"

"Have you any suspicion that Gladwyne gets a share?"

"No," replied Nasmyth, with signs of strong uneasiness; "I can't believe he benefits in that manner--if he did, I'd feel it my duty to denounce him. Still, I expect he wins a little now and then, incidentally."

Again there was silence for a while, broken finally by Lisle.

"When I'd been here a week or two I began to see that my task wasn't quite so simple as it had appeared--you can't attack a man situated as Gladwyne is without hurting innocent people. Indeed, I've spent hours wondering how, when the time comes, I can clear Vernon's memory, with the least possible damage--that is my business, not the punishing of Gladwyne, though he deserves no consideration. As you say, a man may make a bad break and pull up again, but this one has had his chance and has gone in deeper. What he's doing now--helping to ruin that lad in cold-blood--is almost worse than the other offense."

Nasmyth made an acquiescent gesture.

"It's true; let it go at that. I don't see how the thing can be stopped.

There's a fish rising in the slack yonder!"

Lisle saw a silvery gleam in a strip of less-troubled water behind a boulder and taking up his rod he cast the gaudy fly across the ripple.

There was a jar, a musical clinking of the reel, and when Nasmyth waded in with ready net all thought of Gladwyne pa.s.sed out of the Canadian's mind.