Joan of Arc of the North Woods Part 28

He demurred.

"It's the door of a public inn. You must open it."

He obeyed, standing ready to repel intruders.

She walked straight out and through the crowd of hostile natives, who parted to allow her to pa.s.s; her chin was up and her eyes were level in meeting the gaze of any man who stared at her.

She had made up her mind where she was going, and the thought of that intended destination put some of the spirit of old Echford Flagg in her.

When she was free from the crowd she began to run; instinct of the homing sort impelled her to hasten. She had not settled in her mind what she would say or do when she got there, but there seemed to be no other place in all the world for her right then except the big house on the ledges.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Lida did not wait to be admitted to her grandfather's house in the conventional manner; she did not dare to test her new resolution by a pause on the steps, and she was afraid that Rickety d.i.c.k would enforce the Flagg injunction against a woman.

Gasping for breath after her run across the ledges, she flung herself into the presence of her grandfather.

d.i.c.k was holding a flaming splint of wood to the bowl of Flagg's pipe.

Startled, he dropped the splint, and the fire burned out unheeded on the bare floor.

She held on to the cap and the jacket and with her free hand she beat upon her breast and tried to pour out a confession of her part in the mischief which had been done. She could not tell Flagg who she was; she was telling him what she was. She made herself a part of the Vose-Mern conspiracy; that seemed to be the best way. She did not try to make herself better than her a.s.sociates; she admitted that she was an operative; in no other way could she account for her presence in the north country; and the old man's keen eyes warned her that a less plausible statement would endanger her secret. Therefore, she arraigned herself bitterly as the cause of Latisan's undoing, and to explain her new att.i.tude she pleaded love and resulting repentance. There seemed to be no other way of giving Flagg a good reason why she was interested in speeding the fortunes of Latisan and the Flagg drive.

She began to babble rather incoherently. His silence troubled her. His gaze was intent.

After a time, allowing her to talk on, he ordered d.i.c.k to bring more fire for the pipe, and then he puffed and listened a little longer.

At last he jabbed his pipe stem toward the door, and d.i.c.k obeyed the silent command and left the room.

"Now, my girl, hold up a moment and get your breath. Sit down!" She obeyed.

"I see that you're hanging on to Latisan's cap and jacket. Did he pull himself out of the jacket whilst you were clinging to his collar?" In spite of the seriousness of the news which she had brought to him, there was a touch of dry humor in his tone. "He must have had a pretty desperate change of heart to run away from such a girl, after what he told me of his feelings this morning."

He talked on, allowing her to recover. "Your words have been tumbling along like logs coming down the Hulling Machine Falls, but I reckon I understand that a detective agency sent you up here to Delilah my Samson. I've just been reading about that case in the Old Testament. And you're sorry, eh? It's a start in the right direction--being sorry. He told me this morning that he was going back to the drive in spite of me--he said it was because you had torched him on to do so. I'll admit I haven't got over being thankful to you for that help. And now it's all tipped upside down, eh? I'm not surprised. It's the Latisan nature to blow up! I knew his grandfather well--and I remember! We seem to have made a bad mess of it, you and I. I'll own to it that I haven't been careful in the management of my tongue where he's concerned. If I had, all the girls this side o' Tophet couldn't have made him jump his job in this style. You see, I'm willing to admit my mistake, and that makes me feel kinder toward you, now that you admit yours."

Her courage was coming back to her. Only a veritable frenzy of despair had forced her into the presence of that old man who had declared his unalterable hostility to her and hers. She found him singularly and surprisingly mild in this crisis. Wreathed in the tobacco smoke, his countenance was full of sympathy. It was an amazing alteration in Echford Flagg, so those who knew him would have stated, had they been there to behold.

"I suppose you have to slap on a lot of deceit in that detective business."

"I'm done with deceit. I've left that work forever."

"So I reckoned whilst I looked at you and heard you talk. I've got quite an eye for a change of heart in persons. I hate to see young folks in trouble. 'Most always I'm pretty hard on people. I've grown to be that way. Had good reasons! But you seem to have caught me to-day in a different frame of mind. I didn't get a good look at you last evening.

I've just been telling myself that you remind me very much of somebody I used to know. There was a time," he went on, wrinkling his forehead, "when I would have ordered you out of this house, simply on your looks.

But to-day, somehow, I like to keep my eyes on you. Old age has a lot of whims, you know."

She did not venture to speak. Tears were rolling down her cheeks.

"It's too bad, sis! Too bad! 'Tis a tough thing to work out, this Latisan matter. You have started the old John devil a-roaring in him!

And I reckon that now you're falling in love with the fool, even if you did come up-country to do something mean to him!"

She nodded; her emotions were too deeply stirred to permit evasion or more deceit.

"I have to depend on hired help, sis. And the trouble with any other drive master than Latisan is that the opposition crowd can hire away what Latisan wouldn't sell--I'll say that for the boy! It's a matter of principle with him--this fight for the independents."

"But your men will keep on working, won't they, sir?"

"They'll work--yes! But they won't fight without Latisan to lead 'em.

That's why the Three C's folks are so hot on the trail of one man.

They're going to trig my drive at the Skulltree dam unless we are through ahead of 'em. Conservation of water, that's what they will call it when they make their play for a court order," he snarled. "But it's only devilish theft of the rights I hold in common--and that's where lawyers have their chance to argue, when rights are common." He found himself becoming garrulous in his emotion. He frowned. "But why talk such matters to you; you can't understand!"

"No," she admitted, sadly. "I haven't any knowledge about drives. I can only understand that through me a great mischief has been done."

"Well, it might have been worse for young Latisan if they hadn't got rid of him by this underhand way. Now that he has quit and has gone larruping off on his own hook, you may as well get what comfort out of it you can," he said, trying to ameliorate her distress. "There's no telling what they might have been savage enough to do to him if he had stayed to make the fight as he intended to make it."

"Do you give up the fight?"

With the left hand he lifted his helpless right arm across his knees.

"It's a two-fisted proposition this year. I guess I'm licked. They'll buy in my logs at what price they have a mind to pay and will turn 'em into paper. The sawmills will have to shut down, and the chap who wants to build a home will keep on cussing the price of lumber. I have made a good try of it, sis, but the big combinations are bound to have their way in the end."

"It isn't right for anybody to have his own way without giving the other man a square deal," she cried, adding, with bitterness, "though I'm the last person ent.i.tled to preach on that subject."

"It's all in the way of progress, so the syndicate fellows tell us," he remarked, dryly. "Maybe they know. Whilst they're grabbing in all the money, they may be getting control of all the brains, too."

She flung up her arms and accused herself, pa.s.sionately: "I have been a fool. I'd give my very heart to make matters right again!"

"I think so," he admitted. "I reckon you're in earnest."

Again his fixed, appraising stare was disturbing her.

"About Mr. Latisan----" she hurried on. "I can't believe that he'll stay away long."

"I guess you know as little about the ways of men up here as you know about the drives, my girl. There's plenty of iron in their natures, but there isn't much bra.s.s in their cheeks. He's done--he can't face the Big Laugh. He's seen what it has done to others. But you city folks don't understand woods ways and notions!"

She set her firm teeth over her lower lip to control its quivering. Then she ventured. It was a resolve born out of her desperate desire to redeem, if she were able. There was one thing she could do--it seemed a natural thing to do, in that extremity.

"I have something to ask of you. Please don't be angry! I'm trying to square myself!"

"Go ahead! I'm ready now to be pretty easy natured when somebody is really in earnest about helping me."

"Give me your permission to go north and explain to your men why Mr.

Latisan isn't on the drive! I'll tell them everything. I'll open my soul to those men. They'll understand."

"It's not a girl's job," he declared, sternly.

"I have been trained in a hard school, sir. I have been forced to study men and to deal with men. I have been sorry because I have been obliged to do the things I have done. But my knowledge of men may help your affairs. I am glad I have been through my trials. Let me go north to your crews! I beg it of you!"