The Mistress of Bonaventure Part 13

"I spent all my spare time as a youngster helping to sail small craft on the English coast, and was considered a fair helmsman for my age," I said; and Caryl patted my shoulder approvingly.

"It's a mercy, because I know just next to nothing. Put up as a yacht club member, and bought this craft--she's a daisy--for five hundred dollars to give the girls a sail. Brought them down, with a light fair wind, smart enough, but though it's gone round, the thing don't steer the way she ought to in a breeze. So I've been getting mighty anxious as to how I'm to take them home again, and feel too scared to say so."

I looked at the craft, which was a half-decked boat, evidently fitted with a center-board, of the broad-beamed shallow type common on the American coast. She carried no bowsprit, her lofty mast was stepped almost in her bows, and the combination of heavy spars, short body, and wide, flat stern, presaged difficulties for an unskilled helmsman when running before any strength of breeze. "I think you have some reason for your misgivings," I said. "If the wind freshens much I should almost recommend you to camp here all night."

We had by this time approached the fire, and I noticed, with a slight inward hesitation, that Haldane's daughter and an elderly lady were busy preparing tea. Perhaps it was this which prevented Beatrice from noticing me, but Lucille came forward and greeted us. "You have arrived at an opportune moment. Supper is just about ready, and if it is not so good as the one you gave us at Gaspard's Trail, we will try to do our best for you," she said.

"Have you not forgotten that evening yet?" I asked. A transitory expression I did not quite comprehend became visible in the girl's face when she answered my smile. It was pleasant to think she recalled the evening of which I had not forgotten the smallest incident.

"It was something so new to me, and you were all so kind," she said.

There was dismay when Caryl announced my opinion, though the rest decided to postpone a decision in the hope that the weather might improve, and it seemed useless to inform them that the reverse appeared more probable. A pine forest rolled down to the water's edge, and when the meal had been dispatched I lounged with my back against a tree, when Leyland came up. "You look uncommonly lazy--more played out than I. We want you to enjoy your stay with us, and I hope I have not tired you,"

he said.

I laughed a little, because Leyland was hardly likely to tire any man fresh from the arduous life of the prairie. "It's an oasis in the desert, and you have made me so comfortable that I shall almost shrink from going back," I said, truthfully enough; for, before I left, the strain at Gaspard's Trail had grown acute.

"Then what do you want to go back for, anyway?" asked Leyland, who during the afternoon had made several pertinent inquiries concerning my affairs. "There are chances for a live man in the cities--in fact I know of one or two. No doubt for a time it's experience, but it strikes me that this cattle roasting and losing of grain crops must mean a big loss of opportunities as well as grow monotonous."

Leyland, I fancied, had not previously noticed that Miss Haldane was seated on a fallen log close beside us, and in the circ.u.mstances I was by no means pleased when he turned to her. "Don't you think everybody should make the most of all that's in them?" he asked.

Somewhat to my surprise the girl looked straight at me as she answered: "Considering the question in the abstract, I agree with you. It seems to me the duty of every man with talents to take the place he was meant for among his peers instead of frittering them away."

There was an unusual earnestness in what she said, which both surprised me and reminded me of the days in England; for Beatrice Haldane's conversation had latterly been marked by a somewhat cynical languidness.

Nevertheless, the inference nettled me.

"Talent is a somewhat vague term; but suppose any unprofessional person possessed it, what career among the thick of his fellows would you recommend--the acquisition of money on the markets, or politics? Both are closed to the poor man," I said.

It may have been fancy, but a faint angry sparkle seemed to creep into Miss Haldane's eyes as she answered: "Are there no others? It seems to me the place for such a person is where civilization moves fastest in the cities. Whether we progress towards good or evil you cannot move back the times, and it is force of intellect, or successful scheming if you will, which commands the best the world can offer now. As an outside observer, it seems to me that, considering the tendency towards centralization and combinations of capital, the individual who, refusing to accept the altered conditions, insists on remaining an independent unit, must soon go under or take a helot's place. Don't you think so, Mr. Leyland?"

"That's what I mean, but you have put it more clearly," said Leyland approvingly. "I was hoping Ormesby might see it that way."

Understanding my host's manner I guessed that if I hinted at acquiescence this would lead up to a definite offer, and it appeared that both, in their own way, were bent on persuading me. The temptation was alluring, when disaster appeared imminent, and I afterwards wondered how it was I did not yield. Wounded pride or sheer obstinacy may, however, have restrained me, for one of the most bitter things is to own one's self beaten; but even then I felt that my place was on the prairie. On the one hand there was only the prospect of grinding care and often brutal labor, which wore the body to exhaustion and blunted the mental faculties; on the other, at least some rest and leisure, contact with culture and refinement, and perhaps even yet a vague possibility of drawing nearer to the woman beside me. At that moment, however, Lucille Haldane halted in front of us, and the trifling incident helped to turn the scale. Young as she was, her views were mine, and for some unfathomable reason I shook off what seemed a weak tendency to yield when I met her gaze.

"It will be a bad day for the Dominion when what is happening across the frontier becomes general here," I said. "It is the number of independent units which makes for the real prosperity of this country, and the suggestion that there is only scope for intellect and force of will in the cities can hardly pa.s.s unchallenged. The smallest wheat grower has to use the same foresight in his degree as a railroad financier, and it probably requires more stamina to hold out against bad seasons and the oppression of scheming land-grabbers than is requisite, say, in engineering a grain corner against adverse markets. Then, if one gets back to principles, does it not appear that the poorest breaker of virgin land who calls wheat up out of the idle sod is of more use to the community than the gambler in his produce who creates nothing?"

"There is no use arguing with any man who thinks that way," said Leyland solemnly, and Beatrice Haldane laughed; but whether at his comment or at my opinion did not appear.

"Here is an ally for you. You are looking very wise, Lucille," she said languidly.

"I did not hear all you said, but I think Mr. Ormesby is partly right,"

was the frank answer. "I just stopped on my way to the boat to get some wrappings. It soon grows chilly."

The girl refused our offers of a.s.sistance. Somebody called Leyland away, and I was left alone, possibly against both our wishes, in Beatrice Haldane's company. Still, it was an opportunity that might not occur again, and I determined to turn it to good account.

"Although you expressed strong disapproval not long ago, one could have fancied you were not speaking from a wholly impersonal standpoint and meant to give me good advice," I said.

The spirit which had carried Haldane triumphantly through commercial panic was not lacking in either of his daughters, and the elder one quietly took up the challenge. "Perhaps the other could not be thrust aside, and I have wondered whether you are wise in staking all your future on the chances of success on the prairie. There are greater possibilities in the busy world that lies before you now, but presently habit and the force of a.s.sociations will bind you to the soil, and you must remain a raiser of cattle and sower of grain. Is it not possible for the monotony and drudgery to drag one down to a steadily sinking level?"

The words stung me. I had done my best in my vocation, and it seemed had failed therein. Neither was it impossible that the last sentence possessed a definite meaning, and suppressed longing and resentment against the pressure of circ.u.mstances held me silent after I had managed to check the rash answer that rose to my lips. Then a shout broke through the pause which followed, and Beatrice Haldane sprang to her feet. "Lucille has set the boat adrift! Go and help her if you can!" she said.

A glance showed me the catboat sliding out towards open water before the angry white ripples that crisped the little bay, for here the wind, deflected by a hollow, blew freshly off-sh.o.r.e. A slight white-clad figure stood on the fore deck, and I shouted: "Jump down and fling the anchor over!"

"There is no anchor!" the answer reached me faintly; and I set off across a strip of s.h.i.+ngle and boulders at a floundering run.

The rest of the company were gathered in dismay upon a rocky ledge when I came up, and Caryl tore off his jacket. Leyland turned to me, with consternation in his face, as he said: "Ted must have tied some fool knot and she's blowing right out across the lake. None of us can swim."

"It's my fault, and I'm going to try, anyway. The water cannot be deep inside here," gasped the valiant Caryl.

I saw that, for inland waters, a tolerable sea was running where the true wind blew straight down the lake, sufficient to endanger the catboat if she drifted without control athwart it. There was evidently no time to lose, and I turned angrily upon Caryl. "If you jump in here you will certainly drown, and that will help n.o.body," I said.

Then, seeing some feet of water below the ledge, I launched myself out headforemost. The ripples ran white behind me when I rose, and there was no great difficulty in swimming down-wind, even when c.u.mbered by clothing; but the boat's side and mast exposed considerable surface to the blast, and she had blown some distance to leeward before I overtook her. It also cost me time and labor to crawl on board--an operation difficult in deep water--but it was accomplished, and, turning to the girl, I said cheerfully: "You need not be frightened. We shall beat back in a few minutes if you will help me."

Lucille Haldane showed the courage she had showed one snowy night at Bonaventure, for there was confidence in her face as she answered: "I will do whatever you tell me, and I'm not in the least afraid."

CHAPTER XI

IN PERIL OF THE WATERS

Again I hazarded a glance about me. The shallow-draughted craft had already drifted a distance off-sh.o.r.e, and was listing over under the pressure of the wind upon her lofty mast. The white ripples had grown to short angry surges, and because darkness was approaching and the narrow bay difficult to work into, it was evident we must lose no time in getting back again. There was no anchor on board, and if I reefed the sail (or rolled up the foot of it to reduce the area) the boat would meanwhile increase her distance from the beach. It therefore seemed necessary to attempt to thrash back under the whole mainsail.

"Will you shove the centerboard down by the iron handle, and then take hold of the tiller, Miss Haldane?" I said.

The girl, stooping, thrust at the handle projecting from the trunk containing the drawn-up center keel. The iron plate should have dropped at a touch, but did not, and I sprang to her side when she said: "Something must be holding it fast."

She was right. Caryl had either bent the plate by striking a rock or a piece of driftwood had jammed into the opening, for, do what I would, the iron refused to fall more than a third of its proper distance, and it was with a slight shock of dismay I relinquished the struggle. A sailing craft of any description will only work to windward in zigzags diagonally to the breeze, and then only provided there is enough of her under water to provide lateral resistance, which the deep center keel should have supplied. As it was, I must attempt to remedy the deficiency by press of canvas at the risk of a capsize.

Fortunately my companion was quick-witted and cool, and, standing at the helm, followed my instructions promptly, while I dragged at the halliards, and the loose folds of sailcloth rose thras.h.i.+ng overhead. I was breathless when the sail was set, but sprang aft to the helm, lifted the girl to the weather deck, and perched myself as high on that side as I could, with the mainsheet round my left wrist and my right hand on the tiller, wondering if the mast would bear the strain. The boat swayed down until her leeward deck was buried in a rush of foam and her bending mast slanted half way to the horizontal. Little clouds of spray shot up from her weather bow as, gathering way, she swept ahead, and then they gave place to sheets of water, which lashed our faces, and, sluicing deep along the decks, poured over the coaming ledge into the open well.

Still, we were in comparatively smooth water where one could risk a little, and while the straining mainsheet, which I dare not make fast, sawed into my wrist, I glanced at my companion. Her hat was sodden--already her hair clung in soaked cl.u.s.ters to her forehead, and her wet face showed white against the dark water which raced past us.

Yet it was still confident, and her voice was level as she said: "Let me help you. That rope is cutting your wrist."

I could have smiled at the thought of those slender fingers sharing that strain; but thinking it would be well to keep her attention occupied, nodded, and was a trifle surprised at the relief when the girl seized the hard wet hemp. "If I say--let go--lift your hands at once," I said.

We were now tearing through the water at such pace that the boat flung a good deal of what she displaced all over her, but a glance at the dark pines ash.o.r.e showed that she was making very little to windward, while, when I looked over my shoulder at the boiling wake astern, it was too plainly evident that, owing to the loss of the centerboard, we were driving bodily sideways as well as ahead. Also the snowy froth which lapped higher up the lee deck was perilously near the coaming protecting the open well. Still, our expectant friends stood cl.u.s.tered among the boulders fringing one horn of the bay, and I saw that Caryl held a rope in his hand. We might just pa.s.s within reach of it on the next tack.

"We must come round. Slip down, and climb up on the opposite side as the sail swings over," I said, carefully shoving the tiller down.

There was a thras.h.i.+ng of canvas as the boat came round, and I breathed more easily as, gathering way on the opposite tack, she headed well up for the boulder point where Caryl was somewhat awkwardly swinging the coil of rope. The point drew nearer and nearer, and I could see Beatrice Haldane standing rigidly still against the somber pines, when, as ill-luck would have it, the dark branches set up a roaring as a wild gust swept down. The boat swayed further over. Most of her forward was buried in a rush of foam, and the water poured steadily into the well; but I still held fast the sheet which would have loosed the sail, for we might reach the rope in another two minutes. The gust increased in violence. Foam and water poured over the coamings in cataracts, and, seeing that otherwise a capsize was inevitable, I released the sheet.

The canvas rattled furiously, the craft swayed upright and commenced to blow away sternforemost like a feather, while I dropped into the bottom of her, ankle deep in water.

"There is no help for it--we must reef. Take the tiller, and hold it--so," I said.

It was not without an effort I tied the tack, or forward corner of the mainsail, down; then, floundering aft, hauled the afterside of it down to the boom. That accomplished and the sail thus reduced by some two feet all along its foot, there remained to be tied the row of short lines, or reef points, which would hold the discarded portion when rolled up; and when part of these were knotted it was with misgivings I leaped up on the after-deck. The long, jerking boom projected a fathom beyond the stern, and I must hold on by my toes while leaning out over the water as I pulled the reef points at that end together.

"I am going to trust you with the safety of both of us, Miss Haldane," I said. "When you see the boom swing inwards pull the tiller towards you before it flings me off."