Corporal Cameron of the North West Mounted Police Part 74

Small wonder, then, that twenty times a day he cursed the luck that had transferred him from the comparatively peaceful environment of the Police Post at Fort Macleod to the maddening whirl of conflicting desires and duties attendant upon the Service in the railroad construction camps. A letter from his friend Inspector d.i.c.kson accentuated the contrast.

"Great doings, my boy," wrote the Inspector, evidently under the spell of overmastering excitement. "We have Little Thunder again in the toils, this time to stay, and we owe this capture to your friend Raven. A week ago Mr. Raven coolly walked into the Fort and asked for the Superintendent. I was down at stables at the time. As he was coming out I ran into him and immediately shouted 'Hands up!'

"'Ah, Mr. Inspector,' said my gentleman, as cool as ice, 'delighted to see you again.'

"'Stand where you are!' I said, and knowing my man and determined to take no chances, I ordered two constables to arrest him. At this the Superintendent appeared.

"'Ah, Inspector,' he said, 'there is evidently some mistake here.'

"'There is no mistake, Superintendent,' I replied. 'I know this man. He is wanted on a serious charge.'

"'Kindly step this way, Mr. Raven,' said the Superintendent, 'and you, Inspector. I have something of importance to say to you.'

"And, by Jove, it was important. Little Thunder had broken his pledge to Raven to quit the rebellion business and had perfected a plan for a simultaneous rising of Blackfeet, Bloods, Piegans, and Sarcees next month. Raven had stumbled upon this and had deliberately put himself in the power of the Police to bring this information. 'I am not quite prepared,' he said, 'to hand over this country to a lot of bally half-breeds and b.l.o.o.d.y savages.' Together the Superintendent and he had perfected a plan for the capture of the heads of the conspiracy.

"'As to that little matter of which you were thinking, Inspector d.i.c.kson,' said my Chief, 'I think if you remember, we have no definite charge laid against Mr. Raven, who has given us, by the way, very valuable information upon which we must immediately act. We are also to have Mr. Raven's a.s.sistance.'

"Well, we had a glorious hunt, and by Jove, that man Raven is a wonder.

He brought us right to the bunch, walked in on them, cool and quiet, pulled two guns and held them till we all got in place. There will be no rebellion among these tribes this year, I am confident."

And though it does not appear in the records it is none the less true that to the influence of Missionary Macdougall among the Stonies and to the vigilance of the North West Mounted Police was it due that during the Rebellion of '85 Canada was spared the unspeakable horrors of an Indian war.

It was this letter that deepened the shadow upon Cameron's face and sharpened the edge on his voice as he looked in upon his hospital friends one bright winter morning.

"You are quite unbearable!" said the little nurse after she had listened to his grumbling for a few minutes. "And you are spoiling us all."

"Spoiling you all?"

"Yes, especially me, and--Nurse Haley."

"Nurse Haley?"

"Yes. You are disturbing her peace of mind."

"Disturbing her? Me?"

A certain satisfaction crept into Cameron's voice. Nothing is so calculated to restore the poise of the male mind as a consciousness of power to disturb the equilibrium of one of the imperious s.e.x.

"And you must not do it!" continued the little nurse. "She has far too much to bear now."

"And haven't I been just telling you that?" said Cameron savagely. "She never gets off. Night and day she is on the job. I tell you, I won't--it should not be allowed." Cameron was conscious of a fine glow of fraternal interest in this young girl. "For instance, a day like this!

Look at these white mountains, and that glorious sky, and this wonderful air, and not a breath of wind! What a day for a walk! It would do her--it would do you all a world of good."

"Wait!" cried the little nurse, who had been on duty all night. "I'll tell her what you say."

Apparently it took some telling, for it was a full precious quarter of an hour before they appeared again.

"There, now, you see the effect of your authority. She would not budge for me, but--well--there she is! Look at her!"

There was no need for this injunction. Cameron's eyes were already fastened upon her. And she was worth any man's while to look at in her tramping costume of toque and blanket coat. Tall, she looked, beside the little nurse, lithe and strong, her close-fitting Hudson Bay blanket coat revealing the swelling lines of her budding womanhood. The dainty white toque perched upon the ma.s.ses of gold-brown hair accentuated the girlish freshness of her face. At the nurse's words she turned her eyes upon Cameron and upon her face, pale with long night watches, a faint red appeared. But her eyes were quiet and steady and kind; too quiet and too kind for Cameron, who was looking for other signals. There was no sign of disturbance in that face.

"Come on!" he said impatiently. "We have only one hour."

"Oh, what a glorious day!" cried Nurse Haley, drawing a deep breath and striding out like a man to keep pace with Cameron. "And how good of you to spare me the time!"

"I have been trying to get you alone for the last two weeks," said Cameron.

"Two weeks?"

"Yes, for a month! I wanted to talk to you."

"To talk with me? About what?"

"About--well--about everything--about yourself."

"Me?"

"Yes. I don't understand you. You have changed so tremendously."

"Oh," exclaimed the girl, "I am so glad you have noticed that! Have I changed much?"

"Much? I should say so! I find myself wondering if you are the Mandy I used to know at all."

"Oh," she exclaimed, "I am so glad! You see, I needed to change so much."

"But how has it happened?" exclaimed Cameron. "It is a miracle to me."

"How a miracle?"

For a few moments they walked on in silence, the tote road leading them into the forest. After a time the nurse said softly,

"It was you who began it."

"I?"

"Yes, you--and then the nurse. Oh, I can never repay her! The day that you left--that was a dreadful day. The world was all black. I could not have lived, I think, many days like that. I had to go into town and I couldn't help going to her. Oh, how good she was to me that day! how good! She understood, she understood at once. She made me come for a week to her, and then for altogether. That was the beginning; then I began to see how foolish I had been."

"Foolish?"

"Yes, wildly foolis.h.!.+ I was like a mad thing, but I did not know then, and I could not help it."

"Help what?"

"Oh, everything! But the nurse showed me--she showed me--"

"Showed you?"

"Showed me how to take care of myself--to take care of my body--of my dress--of my hair. Oh, I remember well," she said with a bright little laugh, "I remember that hair-dresser. Then the doctor came and gave me books and made me read and study--and then I began to see. Oh, it was like a fire--a burning fire within me. And the doctor was good to me, so very patient, till I began to love my profession; to love it at first for myself, and then for others. How good they all were to me those days!--the nurses in the hospital, the doctors, the students--everyone seemed to be kind; but above them all my own nurse here and my own doctor."