The Long Portage Part 38

"Here's something else," Crestwick proceeded; "about Miss Gladwyne. Bella thinks you'd be interested to hear that there's a prospect of--"

"Go on!" cried Lisle, dropping his pipe.

"I can't see," said Crestwick. "You might stir the fire."

Lisle threw on some fresh wood and poked the fire savagely with a branch, and the lad continued, reading with difficulty while the pungent smoke obscured the light.

"It seems that she saw Gladwyne and his mother and Millicent together in town, and she afterward spent a week with Flo Marple at somebody's house.

Flo told her that it looks as if the long-deferred arrangement was to be brought about at last." He laid down the letter. "If that means she's to marry Gladwyne, it ought to be prevented!"

They looked at each other curiously, and Lisle, struggling to command himself, noticed the lad's strained expression.

"Why?" he asked with significant shortness.

Crestwick seemed on the verge of some vehement outbreak and Lisle saw that it was with an effort he refrained.

"Oh, well," he answered, "the man's not half good enough. He's a dangerous rotter."

"Dangerous?"

"Yes," returned Crestwick dryly; "I think that describes it."

There was an impressive silence, while each wondered how far he might have betrayed himself. Then Lisle spoke.

"Read the rest of the letter. See if Bella says anything further."

"No announcement made," Crestwick informed him a little later. "All the same, Flo's satisfied that the engagement will be made known before long." He looked up at Lisle with uncertainty and anger in his face. "It almost makes me forget Bella's other news. What can be done?"

"What do you want to do?"

"Don't fence!" said Crestwick. "I'm not smart at it. Don't you know a reason why Miss Gladwyne shouldn't marry the fellow?"

"Yes. It has nothing to do with you."

"Perhaps not," replied Crestwick. "I can only say that the match ought to be broken off. It isn't to be contemplated!"

"Well," Lisle responded with forced quietness, "if it's any relief to you, I'll write to Nasmyth the first chance I get, asking what he's heard. Now we'll drop the subject. Is there anything else of general interest in your letter?"

"Bella says her wedding won't be until the early summer and she's thinking of making Carew bring her out to Banff or Glacier--he came out shooting or climbing once before. Then she'll endeavor to look us up."

He lighted his pipe and they sat in silence for a while. Then Crestwick rose and bringing a blanket from the tent wrapped it about him and lay down in the lee of the boulder near the fire. A few minutes later he was sound asleep; but Lisle sat long awake, thinking hard, while the snow drove by above him.

CHAPTER XXIII

A FORCED MARCH

When Crestwick awakened, very cold, and cramped, a little before daylight the next morning, it was still snowing, but Lisle was up and busy preparing breakfast.

"That looks like marching; I thought we were going to lie off to-day,"

observed the lad.

"How do you feel?" Lisle inquired.

"Horribly stiff; but that's the worst. Why are you going on?"

"Because the freighters should leave the Hudson Bay post to-morrow with their dog-teams. It's the only chance of sending out a letter I may get for a long while, and I want to write to Nasmyth."

Crestwick shivered, glancing disconsolately at the snow; he shrank from the prospect of a two days' hurried march. Had Lisle suggested this when he first came out, the lad would have rebelled, but by degrees the stern discipline of the wilds had had its effect on him. He was learning that the weariness of the flesh must be disregarded when it is necessary that anything shall be done.

"Oh, well," he acquiesced, "I'll try to make it. If I can't, you'll have to drop me where there's some shelter."

He ate the best possible breakfast, for as wood was scarce in parts of the country, and making a fire difficult, it was very uncertain when he would get another meal. Then he slipped the pack-straps over his stiff shoulders, and got ready to start with a burden he did not think he would have been capable of carrying for a couple of hours when he left England.

"Now we'll pull out," he said. "But wait a moment: I'd better look for a dry place to put this paper currency."

"Where did you get it? You told me at the last settlement that you had hardly a dollar left."

Crestwick grinned.

"Oh, some of the boys offered to teach me a little game they were playing when we thawed out that claim. I didn't find it difficult, though I must own that I had very good luck. It was three or four months since I'd touched a card, and there's a risk of reaction in too drastic reform.

Anyhow, I'm glad I saw that game; one fellow had a way of handling trumps that almost took me in. If I can remember, it should come in useful."

Lisle made no comment; restraint, he thought, was likely to prove more effective if it were not continually exercised. They started and for several hours plodded up the white highway of the river, leaving it only for a while when the ice grew fissured where the current ran more swiftly. White hills rose above them, relieved here and there by a somber clump of cedars or leafless willows and birches in a ravine. The snow crunched beneath their feet, and scattered in a fine white powder when they broke the crust; more of it fell at intervals, but blew away again; and they held on with a nipping wind in their faces and a low gray sky hanging over them.

Lisle, however, noticed little; he pushed forward with a steady and apparently tireless stride, thinking bitterly. Since his return to Canada, his mind had dwelt more or less continuously on Millicent. He recognized that in leaving her with his regard for her undeclared he had been sustained by the possibility that he might by determined effort achieve such a success as would enable him to return and in claiming her to offer most of the amenities of life to which she had been accustomed.

Though it had not been easy, he had to some extent accomplished this. On reaching Victoria, he had found his business a.s.sociates considering one or two bold and risky schemes for the extension of their mining interests, which he had carried out in the face of many difficulties. The new claims he had taken over promised a favorable yield upon development; he had arranged for the more profitable working of others by the aid of costly plant; and his affairs were generally prospering.

Then, when he was satisfied with the result of his exertions, Crestwick's news had struck him a crushing blow. He was wholly unprepared for it.

Nasmyth had spoken of a match between Millicent and Gladwyne as probable, but the latter had devoted himself to Bella, who had openly encouraged him. The change in the girl's demeanor had escaped Lisle's notice, because he had been kept indoors by his injury. Now the success he had attained counted for almost nothing; he had n.o.body to share it with.

The subject, however, had another aspect; he could have borne the shock better had Millicent yielded to a worthy suitor, but it was unthinkable that she should marry Gladwyne. She must be saved from that at any cost, though he thought her restored liberty would promise nothing to him. Even if her attachment to Gladwyne were free from pa.s.sion, as Nasmyth had hinted, she must cherish some degree of affection and regard for the man.

His desertion of her brother could not be forgiven, but the revelation of his baseness would not incline her favorably toward the person who made it, as it would seem to be merely for the purpose of separating her from him.

Lisle set his lips as he looked back on what he now considered his weakness in withholding the story of Gladwyne's treachery. Had he declared it at the beginning, Mrs. Gladwyne would have suffered no more than she must do, and it would have saved Millicent and himself from the pain that must fall upon them. He bitterly regretted that he had, for once, departed from his usual habit of simply and resolutely carrying out an obvious task without counting the cost. Still, he could write to Nasmyth, and to do that he must reach the Hudson Bay post on the morrow.

He trudged on over the snow at a pace that kept Crestwick breathless.

The bitter wind chilled them through in spite of their exertion, and it had increased by noon, when Lisle halted for a minute or two to look about him.

They were in the bottom of a valley walled in by barren hills; the bank of the frozen river was marked out by snow-covered stones, but none of them was large enough to rest behind, and one could not face the wind, motionless, in the open. While he stood, a stinging icy powder lashed his cheeks, and his hands grew stiff in their mittens.

"There's not even a gulch we could sit down in," he said. "We'll have to go on; and I'm not sorry, for one reason. There's not much time to spare."

Crestwick's eyes were smarting from the white glare; having started when weary from a previous journey, his legs and shoulders ached; but he had no choice between freezing and keeping himself slightly warm by steady walking. It would, he knew, be harder by and by, when his strength began to fail and the heat died out of his exhausted body.