The Protector Part 4

"No," she said decidedly. "It wouldn't do."

The man knitted his brows, though he fancied that she was right. "Well,"

he replied, "I don't want to be officious--but how can I help?"

"You can't help at all."

Vane, who saw that she meant it, lay smoking in silence for a minute or two. Then Carroll came up with Mrs. Marvin and the child, and he felt strongly stirred when the little girl walked up to him shyly with a basket filled with sh.e.l.ls. He drew her down beside him, with an arm about her waist, while he examined her treasures, and then glancing up met Kitty's eyes and felt his face grow hot with an emotion he failed to a.n.a.lyse. The child was delicate; life had scanty pleasure to offer her, but now she was happy.

"They're so pretty, and there are lots of them," she said. "Can't we stay here longer and gather some more?"

"Yes," said Vane, conscious that Carroll, who had heard the question, was watching him. "You shall stay and get as many as you want. I'm afraid you don't like the sloop."

"No," replied the child gravely, "I don't like it when it jumps. After I woke up it jumped all the time."

"Never mind," said Vane. "The boat will keep still to-night, and I don't think there'll be any waves to roll her about to-morrow. We'll bring you ash.o.r.e first thing in the morning."

He talked to her for a few minutes, and then strolled along the beach with Carroll.

"Why did you promise that child to stay here?" Carroll asked.

"Because I felt like doing so."

"I needn't remind you that you've an appointment with Horsfield about the smelter, and there's a meeting of the board next day. If we started now and caught the first steamer across, you wouldn't have much time to spare."

"That's correct. I shall have to wire from Victoria that I've been detained."

Carroll laughed expressively. "Do you mean to keep your directors waiting to please a child?"

"I suppose that's one reason. Anyway, I don't propose to hustle the little girl and her mother on board the steamer helpless with sea sickness," He paused and a gleam of humour crept into his eyes. "As I told you, I've no objection to letting the directors wait my pleasure."

"But they set the concern on its feet."

"Just so," said Vane coolly. "On the other hand, they got excellent value for their services--and I found the mine. What's more, during the preliminary negotiations most of them treated me very casually."

"Well?" said Carroll.

"There's going to be a difference now, I've a board of directors; one way or another, I've had to pay for the privilege pretty dearly; but I don't intend that they should run the Clermont mine."

Carroll glanced at him with open amus.e.m.e.nt. There had been a marked change in Vane since he had floated the company, but it was one that did not astonish his comrade. Carroll had long suspected him of latent capabilities, which had suddenly sprung to life.

"You ought to see Horsfield before you meet the board," he pointed out.

"I'm not sure," Vane answered. "In fact, I'm uncertain whether I'll give Horsfield the contract, even if we decide about the smelter. I don't want a man with too firm a hold up against me."

"But if he put his money in with the idea of getting certain pickings?"

"He didn't explain his intentions, and I made no promises," Vane answered dryly. "He'll get his dividends; that'll satisfy him."

They rejoined the others, and when the white mists crept lower down from the heights above and the chill of the dew was in the air, Vane launched the canoe.

"It's getting late, and there's a long run in front of us to-morrow," he informed his pa.s.sengers. "The sloop will lie as still as if moored in a pond, and you'll have her all to yourselves. Carroll and I are going to camp ash.o.r.e."

He paddled them off to the boat, and coming back with some blankets cut a few armfuls of spruce twigs in a ravine and spread them out beside the fire. Then sitting down just clear of the scented smoke, he lighted his pipe and asked an abrupt question: "What do you think of Kitty Blake?"

"Well," said Carroll cautiously, "I must confess that I've taken some interest in the girl; partly because you were obviously doing so. In a general way, what I noticed rather surprised me. It wasn't what I expected."

"You smart folks are as often wrong as the rest of us. I suppose you looked for cold-blooded a.s.surance, tempered by what one might call experienced coquetry?"

"Something of the kind," Carroll agreed. "As you say, I was wrong. There are only two ways of explaining Miss Blake, and the first's the one that would strike most people. That is, she's acting a part, possibly with an object; holding her natural self in check, and doing it cleverly."

Vane laughed scornfully. "I wouldn't have entertained that idea for five minutes."

"Then," said Carroll, "there's the other explanation. It's simply that the girl's life hasn't affected her. Somehow she has kept fresh and wholesome."

"There's no doubt of it," said Vane shortly.

"You offered to help her in some way?"

"I did; I don't know how you guessed it. I said I'd find her a situation. She wouldn't hear of it."

"She was wise," said Carroll. "Vancouver isn't a very big place yet, and the girl has more sense than you have. What did you say?"

"Nothing. You interrupted us. But I'm going to sleep."

He rolled himself up in his blanket and lay down among the soft spruce twigs, but Carroll sat still in the darkness and smoked his pipe out.

Then he glanced at his comrade, who lay still, breathing evenly.

"No doubt you'll be considered fortunate," he said, apostrophizing him half aloud. "You've had power and responsibility thrust upon you. What will you make of them?"

Then he, too, lay down, and only the soft splash of the tiny ripples broke the silence while the fire sank lower.

They sailed next morning and eventually arrived in Victoria after the boat which crossed the Strait had gone, but the breeze was fair from the westwards, and after dispatching a telegram Vane put to sea again. The sloop made a quick pa.s.sage, and for most of the time her pa.s.sengers lounged in the suns.h.i.+ne on her gently-slanted deck. It was evening when they ran through the Narrows into Vancouver's land-locked harbour.

Half an hour later, Vane landed his pa.s.sengers, and it was not until he had left them they discovered that he had thrust a roll of paper currency into the little girl's hand. Then he and Carroll set off for the C.P.R. hotel.

CHAPTER IV

A CHANGE OF ENVIRONMENT.

On the evening after his arrival in Vancouver, Vane, who took Carroll with him, paid a visit to one of his directors and, in accordance with the invitation, reached the latter's dwelling some little time before the arrival of other guests, whose acquaintance it was considered advisable that he should make.

Vane and his companion were ushered into a small room with an uncovered floor and simple, hardwood furniture. It was obviously a working room, for, as a rule, the work of the Western business man goes on continuously except when he is asleep; but a somewhat portly lady with a good-humoured face reclined in a rocking-chair. A gaunt, elderly man of rugged appearance rose from his seat at a writing-table as his guests entered.

"So ye have come at last," he said. "I had you shown in here, because this room is mine, and I can smoke when I like. The rest of the house is Mrs. Nairn's, and it seems that her friends do not appreciate the smell of my cigars. I'm not sure that I can blame them."