Grant and his daughter had called when driving back from a distant farm, and Trooper Flett had returned to the homestead after a futile3 search for the liquor smugglers. He was not characterized by mental brilliancy, but his persevering4 patience atoned5 for that, and his superior officers considered him a sound and useful man. Sitting lazily in an easy chair after a long day's ride in the nipping frost, he discoursed6 upon the situation.
"Things aren't looking good," he said. "We've had two cases of cattle-killing in the last month, besides some horses missing, and a railroad contractor7 knocked senseless with an empty bottle; and nobody's locked up yet."
"I don't think you have any reason to be proud of it," Edgar broke in.
Flett spread out his hands in expostulation.
"It's not our fault. I could put my hands on half a dozen men who're at the bottom of the trouble; but what would be the use of that, when the blamed jury would certainly let them off? In a case of this kind, our system of justice is mighty8 apt to break down. It's a pet idea of mine."
"How would you propose to alter it?" Edgar asked, to lead him on.
"If we must have a jury, I'd like to pick them, and they'd be men who'd lost some stock. You could depend on them."
"There's something to be said for that," Grant admitted with a dry smile.
"This is how we're fixed9," Flett went on. "We're up against a small, but mighty smart, hard crowd; we know them all right, but we can't get after them. You must make good all you say in court, and we can't get folks to help us. They'd rather mind the store, have a game of pool, or chop their cordwood."
"I can think of a few exceptions," Edgar said. "Mrs. Nelson, for example. One could hardly consider her apathetic10."
"That woman's dangerous! When we were working up things against Beamish, she must make him look like a persecuted11 victim. She goes too far; the others won't go far enough. Guess they're afraid of getting hurt."
"You couldn't say that of Mr. Hardie," Flora12 objected.
"No. But some of his people would like to fire him, and he's going to have trouble about his pay. Anyhow, this state of things is pretty hard on us. There's no use in bringing a man up when you've only got unwilling13 witnesses."
"What you want is a dramatic conviction," said Edgar sympathetically.
"Sure. It's what we're working for, and we'd get it if everybody backed us up as your partner and Mr. Grant are doing." He turned to George. "My coming back here is a little rough on you."
George smiled.
"I dare say it will be understood by the opposition14, but I don't mind.
It looks as if I were a marked man already."
A few minutes later Flett went out to attend to his horse; George took Grant into a smaller room which he used for an office; and Edgar and Flora were left alone. The girl sat beside the stove, with a thoughtful air, and Edgar waited for her to speak. Flora inspired him with an admiration15 which was largely tinged16 with respect, though, being critical, he sometimes speculated about the cause for this. She was pretty, but her style of beauty was rather severe. She had fine eyes and clearly-cut features, but her face was a little too reposeful17 and her expression usually somewhat grave; he preferred animation18 and a dash of coquetry. Her conversation was to the point—she had a way of getting at the truth of a matter—but there was nevertheless a certain reserve in it and he thought it might have been more sparkling. He had discovered some time ago that adroit19 flattery and hints that his devotion was hers to command only afforded her calm amusement.
"Mr. Lansing looks a little worried," she said at length.
"It strikes me as only natural," Edgar replied, "He has had a steer20 killed since the rustlers shot the bull; we have foiled one or two more attempts only by keeping a good lookout21, and he knows that he lies open to any new attack that may be made on him. His position isn't what you could call comfortable."
"I hardly think that would disturb your comrade very much."
Edgar saw that she would not be put off with an inadequate22 explanation, and he was a little surprised that she did not seem to mind displaying her interest in George.
"Then," he said, "for another thing, he's disappointed about having to give up an English visit he had looked forward to."
He saw a gleam that suggested comprehension in her eyes.
"You mean that he is badly disappointed?"
"Yes," said Edgar; "I really think he is."
He left her to make what she liked of this, and he imagined that there was something to be inferred from it. He thought it might be wise to give her a hint that George's affections were already engaged.
"Besides," he resumed, "it's no secret that the loss of his harvest hit him pretty hard. We'll have to curtail24 our spring operation in several ways and study economy."
Flora glanced toward the door of the room her father had entered with George. Edgar thought she had done so unconsciously; but it was somewhat suggestive, though he could not see what it implied.
"Well," she said, "I'm inclined to believe that he'll get over his difficulties."
"So am I," Edgar agreed. "George isn't easy to defeat."
In the meanwhile Grant sat in the next room, smoking thoughtfully and asking George rather direct questions about his farming.
"I've made some inquiries25 about that new wheat your English botanist26 friend reported on," he said at length. "Our experimental farm people strongly recommend it, and there's a man I wrote to who can't say enough in its favor. You'll sow it this spring?"
"I'm afraid I'll have to stick to the common kinds," George said gloomily. "I've a pretty big acreage to crop and that special seed is remarkably27 dear."
"That's so," Grant agreed. "As a matter of fact, they haven't quite made their arrangements for putting it on the market yet, and the surest way to get some is to bid for a round lot. After what I'd heard, I wired a Winnipeg agent and he has promised to send me on what looks like more than I can use. Now I'll be glad to let you have as much as you want for your lightest land."
George felt grateful. He did not think that this methodical man had made any careless mistake over his order; but he hesitated.
"Thanks," he said. "Still, it doesn't get over the main difficulty."
"I guess it does. You would have had to pay money down for the seed, and I'll be glad to let the thing stand over until you have thrashed out. The price doesn't count; you can give me back as many bushels as you get."
"Then," said George with a slight flush, "you're more generous than wise. They haven't produced a wheat yet that will stand drought and hail. Suppose I have another year like last? I'm sorry I can't let you run this risk."
"We'll quit pretending. I owe a little to the country that has made me what I am, and these new hardy28 wheats are going to play a big part in its development. I want to see them tried on the poorest land."
"That's a good reason. I believe it goes some way, but I hardly think it accounts for everything."
His companion looked at him with fixed directness.
"Then, if you must be satisfied, you're my neighbor; you have had blamed hard luck and I like the way you're standing29 up to it. If anybody's on meaner soil than yours I want to see it. Anyway, here's the seed; take what you need, pay me back when you're able. Guess you're not too proud to take a favor that's gladly offered."
"I'd be a most ungrateful brute30 if I refused," George replied with feeling.
"That's done with," Grant said firmly; and soon afterward31 he and George returned to the other room.
After a while he went out with Edgar to look at a horse, and George turned to Flora.
"Your father has taken a big weight off my mind, and I'm afraid I hardly thanked him," he said.
"Then it was a relief?" she asked, and it failed to strike him as curious that she seemed to know what he was alluding32 to.
"Yes," he declared; "I feel ever so much more confident now that I can get that seed. The fact that it was offered somehow encouraged me."
"You never expected anything of the kind? I've sometimes thought you're apt to stand too much alone. You don't attach enough importance to your friends."
"Perhaps not," admitted George. "I've been very wrong in this instance; but I suppose one naturally prefers to hide one's difficulties."
"I don't think the feeling's universal. But you would, no doubt, be more inclined to help other people out of their troubles."
George looked a little embarrassed, and she changed the subject with a laugh.
"Come and see us when you can find the time. On the last occasion, you sent your partner over."
"I'd made an appointment with an implement33 man when I got your father's note. Anyway, I should have fancied that Edgar would have made a pretty good substitute."
"Mr. West is a favorite of ours; he's amusing and excellent company, as far as he goes."
Her tone conveyed a hint that Edgar had his limitations and he was not an altogether satisfactory exchange for his partner; but George laughed.
"He now and then goes farther than I would care to venture."
Flora looked at him with faint amusement.
"Yes," she said. "That's one of the differences between you; you're not assertive34. It has struck me that you don't always realize your value."
"Would you like one to insist on it?"
"Oh," she said, "there's a happy medium; but I'm getting rather personal, and I hear the others coming."
She drove away a little later, and when Flett had gone to bed George and Edgar sat talking a while beside the stove.
"Grant's a staunch friend, and I'm more impressed with Flora every time I see her," said the lad. "She's pleasant to talk to, she can harness and handle a team with any one; but for all that, you recognize a trace of what I can only call the grand manner in her. Though I understand that she has been to the old country, it's rather hard to see how she got it."
George signified agreement. Miss Grant was undoubtedly35 characterized by a certain grace and now and then by an elusive36 hint of stateliness. It was a thing quite apart from self-assertion; a gracious quality, which he had hitherto noticed only in the bearing of a few elderly English ladies of station.
"I suppose you thanked her for that seed?" Edgar resumed.
"I said I was grateful to her father."
"I've no doubt you took the trouble to mark the distinction. It might have been more considerate if you had divided your gratitude37."
"What do you mean?"
"It's hardly likely that the idea of helping38 you in that particular way originated with Alan Grant, though I shouldn't be surprised if he had been allowed to think it did."
George looked surprised and Edgar laughed.
"You needn't mind. It's most improbable that Miss Grant either wished or expected you to understand. She's a very intelligent young lady."
"It strikes me that you talk too much," George said severely39.
He went out, feeling a little disturbed by what Edgar had told him, but unable to analyze40 his sensations. Putting on his furs, he proceeded to look around the stable, as he had fallen into a habit of doing before he went to rest. There was a clear moon in the sky, and although the black shadow of the buildings stretched out across the snow, George on approaching one noticed a few footprints that led toward it. There were numerous other tracks about, but he thought that those he was looking at had been made since he had last entered the house. This, however, did not surprise him, for Flett had recently visited the stable.
On entering the building, George stopped to feel for a lantern which was kept on a shelf near the door. The place was very dark and pleasantly warm by contrast with the bitter frost outside, and he could smell the peppermint41 in the prairie hay. Familiar sounds reached him—the soft rattle42 of a shaking rope, the crackle of crushed straw—but they were rather more numerous than usual, and while he listened one or two of the horses began to move restlessly.
The lantern was not to be found; George wondered whether Flett had carelessly forgotten to replace it. He felt his way from stall to stall, letting his hand fall on the hind43 quarters of the horses as he passed. They were all in their places, including Flett's gray, which lashed44 out at him when he touched it; there was nothing to excite suspicion, but when he reached the end of the row he determined45 to strike a match and look for the lantern. He was some time feeling for the match-box under his furs, and while he did so he heard a soft rustling46 in the stall nearest the door. This was curious, for the stall, being a cold one, was unoccupied, and there was something significantly stealthy in the sound; but it ceased, and while he listened with strained attention a horse moved and snorted. Then, while he fumbled47 impatiently at a button of his skin coat which would not come loose, an icy draught49 stole into the building.
It was obvious that the door was open; he had left it shut.
Breaking off his search for the matches, he made toward the entrance and sprang out. There was nobody upon the moonlit snow, and the shadows were hardly deep enough to conceal50 a lurking51 man. He ran toward the end of the rather long building; but, as it happened, he had to make a round to avoid a stack of wood and a wagon52 on the way. When he turned the corner, the other side of the stable was clear in the moonlight and, so far as he could see, the snow about it was untrodden. It looked as if he had made for the wrong end of the building, and he retraced53 his steps toward a barn that stood near its opposite extremity54. Running around it, he saw nobody, nor any footprints that seemed to have been recently made; and while he stood wondering what he should do next, Grierson appeared between him and the house.
"Were you in the stables a minute or two ago?" George called to him,
"No," said the other approaching. "I'd just come out for some wood when I saw you run round the barn."
George gave him a brief explanation, and the man looked about.
"Perhaps we'd better search the buildings; if there was any stranger prowling round, he might have dodged55 you in the shadow. It's hardly likely he'd make for the prairie; the first clump56 of brush big enough to hide a man is a quarter of a mile off."
They set about the search, but found nobody, and George stopped outside the last building with a puzzled frown on his face.
"It's very strange," he said. "I left the door shut; I couldn't be mistaken."
"Look!" cried Grierson, clutching his arm. "There's no mistaking about that!"
Turning sharply, George saw a dim mounted figure cross the crest57 of a low rise some distance away and vanish beyond it.
"The fellow must have run straight for the poplar scrub, keeping the house between you and him," Grierson explained. "He'd have left his horse among the brush."
"I suppose that was it," George said angrily. "As there's no chance of overtaking him, we'll have a look at the horses, with a light, and then let Flett know."
There was nothing wrong in the stable, where they found the lantern George had looked for flung down in the empty stall, and in a very short space of time after they had called him Flett appeared. He walked round the buildings and examined some of the footprints with a light, and then he turned to George.
"Looks like an Indian by his stride," he said. "Guess I'll have to saddle up and start."
"You could hardly come up with the fellow; he'll have struck into one of the beaten trails, so as to leave no tracks," Edgar pointed23 out.
"That's so," said Flett. "I don't want to come up with him. It wouldn't be any use when your partner and Grierson couldn't swear to the man."
"What could have been his object?" George asked. "He seems to have done no harm."
"He wanted to see if my gray was still in the stable," Flett said dryly. "His friends have some business they'd sooner I didn't butt48 into fixed up somewhere else."
"But you have no idea where?"
"I haven't; that's the trouble. There are three or four different trails I'd like to watch, and I quite expect to strike the wrong one. Then, if the man knows you saw him, he might take his friends warning to change their plans. All the same, I'll get off."
He rode away shortly afterward, and as the others went back toward the house Edgar laughed.
"I don't think being a police trooper has many attractions in winter," he remarked. "Hiding in a bluff58 for several hours with the temperature forty degrees below, on the lookout for fellows who have probably gone another way, strikes me as a very unpleasant occupation."
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1
permeated
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| 弥漫( permeate的过去式和过去分词 )； 遍布； 渗入； 渗透 | |
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resinous
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| adj.树脂的，树脂质的，树脂制的 | |
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futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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persevering
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| a.坚忍不拔的 | |
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5
atoned
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| v.补偿，赎（罪）( atone的过去式和过去分词 )；补偿，弥补，赎回 | |
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discoursed
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| 演说（discourse的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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contractor
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| n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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apathetic
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| adj.冷漠的，无动于衷的 | |
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persecuted
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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12
flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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16
tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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reposeful
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| adj.平稳的，沉着的 | |
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animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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adroit
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| adj.熟练的，灵巧的 | |
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steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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curtail
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| vt.截短，缩短；削减 | |
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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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botanist
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| n.植物学家 | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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alluding
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| 提及，暗指( allude的现在分词 ) | |
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implement
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| n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行 | |
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34
assertive
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| adj.果断的，自信的，有冲劲的 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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elusive
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| adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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40
analyze
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| vt.分析，解析 (=analyse) | |
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41
peppermint
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| n.薄荷，薄荷油，薄荷糖 | |
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42
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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43
hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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44
lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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45
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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rustling
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| n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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47
fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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48
butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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49
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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50
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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51
lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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52
wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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53
retraced
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| v.折回( retrace的过去式和过去分词 )；回忆；回顾；追溯 | |
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54
extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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55
dodged
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| v.闪躲( dodge的过去式和过去分词 )；回避 | |
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56
clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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57
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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58
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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