The Protector Part 19

"I'm going to locate it, if the thing's anyway possible." Vane shook hands with the man. "I expect to get off up the Strait very shortly."

The prospector looked at him with relief and grat.i.tude in his eyes, "You're white--and I guess you'd be mighty hard to beat."

Vane touched Drayton's arm, and when they reached the street, his companion glanced at him with open admiration.

"I'm glad I brought you across," he broke out. "You have a way of getting hold of folks, making them believe in you. Hartley hasn't a word in writing, but he knows you mean to act square with him. Kitty felt the same thing--it was why she came down in the sloop with you."

Vane smiled, though there was a trace of embarra.s.sment in his manner.

"Now you mention it, you were equally confiding. We have only arrived at a rather indefinite understanding about your share yet."

"We'll leave it at that," said the other. "I haven't struck anybody else in this city who would hear about the thing. Anyway, I'd prefer a few shares in the concern, as mentioned, instead of money. If you get the thing on foot, I guess it will go."

During the rest of the day Vane was busy on board the sloop, but in the evening he walked over to Horsfield's house with Mrs. Nairn, and found Jessie and her brother at home. Horsfield presently took him to his smoking-room.

"About that smelter," he said. "Haven't you make your mind up yet?"

"Isn't it a matter for the board?" Vane asked suggestively. "There are several directors."

Horsfield laughed. "We'll face the fact; they'll do what you decide upon."

Vane did not reply to this. "Well," he said, "at present we couldn't keep a smelter big enough to be economical going, and I'm doubtful if we would get much ore from the other properties you were talking to Nairn about."

"Did he say it was my idea?"

"He didn't: I'd reasons for a.s.suming it. Those properties, however, are of no account."

Horsfield waited expectantly, and Vane went on: "If it seems possible that we can profitably increase our output later by means of further capital, we'll put up a smelter. But in that case it might be economical to do the work ourselves."

"Who would superintend it?"

"I would, if necessary."

Horsfield smiled in a significant manner. "Aren't you inclined to take hold of too much? When you have plenty in your hands, it's good policy to leave a little for somebody else. Sometimes the person who benefits is willing to reciprocate."

The hint was plain, and Nairn had said sufficient on another occasion to make it clearer; but Vane did not respond.

"If we gave the work out, it would be an open tender," he said. "There would be no reason why you shouldn't make a bid."

Horsfield found it difficult to conceal his disgust. He had no desire to bid on an open tender, which would prevent his obtaining anything beyond the market price.

"The question must stand over until I come back," Vane resumed. "I'm going up the west coast shortly and may be away some little time."

They left the smoking-room soon afterwards, and when they strolled back to the other, Vane sat down near Jessie.

"I hear you are going away," she began.

"Yes," said Vane; "I'm going to look for pulping timber."

"But why do you want pulping timber?"

"It can sometimes be converted into dollars."

"Isn't there every prospect of your obtaining a good many already? Are you never satisfied?"

"I suppose I'm open to take as many as I can get," Vane answered with an air of humorous consideration. "The reason probably is that I've had very few until lately. Still, I don't think it's altogether the dollars that are driving me."

"If it's the restlessness you once spoke of, you ought to put a check on it and try to be content. There's danger in the longing to be always going on."

"It's a common idea that a small hazard gives a thing an interest."

Jessie shot a swift glance at him, and she had, as he noticed, expressive eyes.

"Be careful!" she said. "After all, it's wiser to keep within safe limits, and not climb over too many fences." She hesitated, and her voice grew softer. "You have friends who would be sorry if you got hurt."

The man was a little stirred; she was alluring physically, while something in her voice had its effect on him. Evelyn, however, still occupied his thoughts, and he smiled at his companion.

"Thank you," he said. "I like to believe it."

CHAPTER XIV

VANE SAILS NORTH.

It was growing dusk on the evening of Vane's departure when he walked out of Nairn's room. His host was with him, and when they entered an adjacent room, where a lamp was burning, the older man's face relaxed into a smile as he saw Jessie Horsfield talking to his wife. Vane stopped a few minutes to speak to them, and it was Jessie who gave the signal for the group to break up.

"I must go," she said to Mrs. Nairn. "I've already stayed longer than I intended. I'll let you have those patterns back in a day or two."

"Mair patterns!" Nairn exclaimed with dry amus.e.m.e.nt. "It's the second lot this week; ye're surely industrious, Jessie. Women"--he addressed Vane--"have curious notions of economy. They will spend a month knitting a thing to give to somebody who does not want it, when they could buy it for half a dollar done better by machinery. I'm no saying, however, that it does not keep them out of mischief."

Jessie laughed. "I don't think many of us are industrious in that, way now. After all, isn't it a pity that so many of the beautiful old handicrafts are dying out? No loom, for instance, could turn out some of the things your wife makes. They're matchless."

"She has an aumrie--ye can translate it trunk--full of them," said Nairn. "It's no longer customary to scatter them ower the house."

Mrs. Nairn's smile was half a sigh. "There were no books, and no mony amus.e.m.e.nts, when I was young," she said to Jessie. "We sat through the long winter forenights, counting st.i.tches, at Burnfoot, under the Scottish moors. That, my dear, was thirty years ago."

She shook hands with Vane, who left the house with Jessie, and watched them cross the lawn.

"I'm thinking ye'll no see so much of Jessie for the next few weeks,"

Nairn, who had accompanied her to the door, remarked. "Has she shown ye any of yon knick-knacks when she finished them."

His wife shook her head at him reproachfully. "Alec," she said, "ye're now and then hasty in jumping at conclusions."

"Maybe," replied Nairn. "I'm no infallible, but the fault ye mention is no common in the land where we were born. I'm no denying that Jessie has enterprise, but how far it will carry her in this case is mair than I can tell."

He smiled as he recalled a scene at the station some time ago, and Mrs.