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Winston of the Prairie by Harold Bindloss

H >> Harold Bindloss >> Winston of the Prairie




Maud Barrington glanced at the flask. "I wonder if that is connected
with the explanation, but I will wait. Now, you have not lighted your
cigar."

Winston understood that the topic was dismissed, and sat thoughtfully
still while the girl nestled against the birch logs close beside him
under the same furs, for the wind went through the building and the
cold was unbearable a few feet from the stove. The birch rafters shook
above their heads, and every now and then it seemed that a roaring gust
would lift the roof from them. Still the stove glowed and snapped, and
close in about it there was a drowsy heat, while presently the girl's
eyes grew heavy. Finally, for there are few who can resist the desire
for sleep in the cold of the Northwest, her head sank back, and
Winston, rising very slowly, held his breath as he piled the furs about
her. That done, he stooped and looked down upon her while the blood
crept to his face. Maud Barrington lay very still, the long dark
lashes resting on her cold tinted cheek, and the patrician serenity of
her face was even more marked in her sleep. Then he turned away
feeling like one who had committed a desecration, knowing that he had
looked too long already upon the sleeping girl who believed he had been
an outcast and yet had taken his word, for it was borne in upon him
that a time would come when he would try her faith even more severely.
Moving softly he paced up and down the room.

Winston afterwards wondered how many miles he walked that night, for
though the loghouse was not longer than thirty feet, the cold bit deep;
but at last he heard a sigh as he glanced towards the stove, and
immediately swung round again. When he next turned, Miss Barrington
stood upright, a little flushed in face but otherwise very calm, and
the man stood still, shivering in spite of his efforts and blue with
cold. The wind had fallen, but the sting of the frost that followed it
made itself felt beside the stove.

"You had only your deerskin jacket--and you let me sleep under all the
furs," she said.

Winston shook his head, and hoped he did not look as guilty as he felt,
when he remembered that it must have been evident to his companion that
the furs did not get into the position they had occupied themselves.

"I only fancied you were a trifle drowsy and not inclined to talk," he
said, with an absence of concern, for which Miss Barrington, who did
not believe him, felt grateful. "You see,"--and the inspiration was a
trifle too evident--"I was too sleepy to notice anything myself.
Still, I am glad you are awake now, because I must make my way to the
Grange."

"But the snow will be ever so deep, and I could not come," said Maud
Barrington.

Winston shook his head. "I'm afraid you must stay here, but I will be
back with Colonel Barrington in a few hours at latest."

The girl deemed it advisable to hide her consternation. "But you might
not find the trail," she said. "The ravine would lead you to Graham's
homestead."

"Still," said Winston slowly, "I am going to the Grange."

Then Maud Barrington remembered, and glanced aside from him. It was
evident this man thought of everything, and she made no answer when
Winston, who thrust more billets into the stove, turned to her with a
little smile.

"I think we need remember nothing when we meet again, beyond the fact
that you will give me a chance of showing that the Lance Courthorne
whose fame you know has ceased to exist."

Then he went out, and the girl stood with flushed cheeks looking down
at the furs he had left behind him.




CHAPTER XI

MAUD BARRINGTON'S PROMISE

Daylight had not broken across the prairie when, floundering through a
foot of dusty snow, Winston reached the Grange. He was aching from
fatigue and cold, and the deerskin jacket stood out from his numbed
body stiff with frost, when, leaning heavily on a table, he awaited
Colonel Barrington. The latter, on entering, stared at him, and then
flung open a cupboard and poured out a glass of wine.

"Drink that before you talk. You look half-dead," he said.

Winston shook his head. "Perhaps you had better hear me first."

Barrington thrust the glass upon him. "I could make nothing of what
you told me while you speak like that. Drink it, and then sit still
until you get used to the different temperature."

Winston drained the glass, and sank limply into a chair. As yet his
face was colorless, though his chilled flesh tingled horribly as the
blood once more crept into the surface tissues. Then he fixed his eyes
upon his host as he told his story. Barrington stood very straight
watching his visitor, but his face was drawn, for the resolution which
supported him through the day was less noticeable in the early morning,
and it was evident now at least that he was an old man carrying a heavy
load of anxiety. Still, as the story proceeded, a little blood crept
into his cheeks, while Winston guessed that he found it difficult to
retain his grim immobility.

"I am to understand that an attempt to reach the Grange through the
snow would have been perilous?" he said.

"Yes," said Winston quietly.

The older man stood very still regarding him intently, until he said,
"I don't mind admitting that it was distinctly regrettable!"

Winston stopped him with a gesture. "It was at least unavoidable, sir.
The team would not face the snow, and no one could have reached the
Grange alive."

"No doubt you did your best--and, as a connection of the family, I am
glad it was you. Still--and there are cases in which it is desirable
to speak plainly--the affair, which you will, of course, dismiss from
your recollection, is to be considered as closed now."

Winston smiled, and a trace of irony he could not quite repress was
just discernible in his voice. "I scarcely think that was necessary,
sir. It is, of course, sufficient for me to have rendered a small
service to the distinguished family which has given me an opportunity;
of proving my right to recognition, and neither you, nor Miss
Barrington, need have any apprehension that I will presume upon it!"

Barrington wheeled round. "You have the Courthorne temper, at least,
and perhaps I deserved this display of it. You acted with commendable
discretion in coming straight to me--and the astonishment I got drove
the other aspect of the question out of my head. If it hadn't been for
you, my niece would have frozen."

"I'm afraid I spoke unguardedly, sir, but I am very tired. Still, if
you will wait a few minutes, I will get the horses out without
troubling the hired man."

Barrington made a little gesture of comprehension, and then shook his
head. "You are fit for nothing further, and need rest and sleep."

"You will want somebody, sir," said Winston. "The snow is very loose
and deep."

He went out, and Barrington, who looked after him with a curious
expression in his face, nodded twice as if in approval. Twenty minutes
later, he took his place in the sleigh that slid away from the Grange,
which lay a league behind it when the sunrise flamed across the
prairie. The wind had gone, and there was only a pitiless brightness
and a devastating cold, while the snow lay blown in wisps, dried dusty
and fine as flour by the frost. It had no cohesion, the runners sank
in it, and Winston was almost waist-deep when he dragged the
floundering team through the drifts. A day had passed since he had
eaten anything worth mention, but he held on with an endurance which
his companion, who was incapable of rendering him assistance, wondered
at. There were belts of deep snow the almost buried sleigh must be
dragged through, and tracts from which the wind had swept the dusty
covering, leaving bare the grasses the runners would not slide over,
where the team came to a standstill, and could scarcely be urged to
continue the struggle.

At last, however, the loghouse rose, a lonely mound of whiteness, out
of the prairie, and Winston drew in a deep breath of contentment when a
dusky figure appeared for a moment in the doorway. His weariness
seemed to fall from him, and once more his companion wondered at the
tirelessness of the man, as floundering on foot beside them he urged
the team through the powdery drifts beneath the big birch bluff.
Winston did not go in, however, when they reached the house, and when,
five minutes later, Maud Barrington came out, she saw him leaning with
a drawn face very wearily against the sleigh. He straightened himself
suddenly at the sight of her, but she had seen sufficient, and her
heart softened towards him. Whatever the man's history had been he had
borne a good deal for her.

The return journey was even more arduous, and now and then Maud
Barrington felt a curious throb of pity for the worn-out man, who
during most of it walked beside the team; but it was accomplished at
last, and she contrived to find means of thanking him alone when they
reached the Grange.

Winston shook his head, and then smiled a little. "It isn't nice to
make a bargain," he said. "Still, it is less pleasant now and then to
feel under an obligation, though there is no reason why you should."

Maud Barrington was not altogether pleased, but she could not blind
herself to facts, and it was plain that there was an obligation. "I am
afraid I cannot quite believe that, but I do not see what you are
leading to."

Winston's eyes twinkled. "Well," he said reflectively, "I don't want
you to fancy that last night commits you to any line of conduct in
regard to me. I only asked for a truce, you see."

Maud Barrington was a trifle nettled. "Yes?" she said.

"Then, I want to show you how you can discharge any trifling obligation
you may fancy you may owe me, which of course would be more pleasant to
you. Do not allow your uncle to sell any wheat forward to you, and
persuade him to sow every acre that belongs to you this spring."

"But however would this benefit you?" asked the girl.

Winston laughed. "I have a fancy that I can straighten up things at
Silverdale, if I can get my way. It would please me, and I believe
they want it. Of course a desire to improve anything appears curious
in me!"

Maud Barrington was relieved of the necessity of answering, for the
Colonel came up just then, but, moved by some sudden impulse, she
nodded as if in agreement.

It was afternoon when she awakened from a refreshing sleep, and
descending to the room set apart for herself and her aunt, sat
thoughtfully still a while in a chair beside the stove. Then,
stretching out her hand, she took up a little case of photographs and
slipped out one of them. It was a portrait of a boy and pony, but
there was a significance in the fact that she knew just where to find
it. The picture was a good one, and once more Maud Barrington noticed
the arrogance, which did not, however, seem out of place there in the
lad's face. It was also a comely face, but there was a hint of
sensuality in it that marred its beauty. Then with a growing
perplexity she compared it with that of the weary man who had plodded
beside the team. Winston was not arrogant, but resolute, and there was
no stamp of indulgence in his face. Indeed, the girl had from the
beginning recognized the virility in it that was tinged with asceticism
and sprang from a simple strenuous life of toil in the wind and sun.

Just then there was a rustle of fabric, and she laid down the
photograph a moment too late, as her aunt came in. As it happened, the
elder lady's eyes rested on the picture, and a faint flush of annoyance
crept into the face of the girl. It was scarcely perceptible, but Miss
Barrington saw it, and though she felt tempted, did not smile.

"I did not know you were down," she said. "Lance is still asleep. He
seemed very tired."

"Yes," said the girl. "That is very probable. He left the railroad
before daylight, and had driven round to several farms before he came
to Macdonald's, and he was very considerate. He made me take all the
furs, and, I fancy, walked up and down all night long, with nothing on
but his indoor clothing, though the wind went through the building, and
one could scarcely keep alive a few feet from the stove."

Again the faint flicker of color crept into the girl's cheek, and the
eyes that were keen as well as gentle noticed it.

"I think you owe him a good deal," said Miss Barrington.

"Yes," said her niece, with a little laugh which appeared to imply a
trace of resentment. "I believe I do, but he seemed unusually anxious
to relieve me of that impression. He was also good enough to hint that
nothing he might have done need prevent me being--the right word is a
trifle difficult to find--but I fancy he meant unpleasant to him if I
wished it."

There was a little twinkle in Miss Barrington's eyes. "Are you not a
trifle hard to please, my dear? Now, if he had attempted to insist on
a claim to your gratitude you would have resented it."

"Of course," said the girl reflectively. "Still, it is annoying to be
debarred from offering it. There are times, aunt, when I can't help
wishing that Lance Courthorne had never come to Silverdale. There are
men who leave nothing just as they found it, and whom one can't ignore."

Miss Barrington shook her head. "I fancy you are wrong. He has
offended, after all?"

She was pleased to see her niece's face relax into a smile that
expressed unconcern. "We are all exacting now and then," said the
girl. "Still, he made me promise to give him a fair trial, which was
not flattering, because it suggested that I had been unnecessarily
harsh, and then hinted this morning that he had no intention of holding
me to it. It really was not gratifying to find he held the concession
he asked for of so small account. You are, however, as easily swayed
by trifles as I am, because Lance can do no wrong since he kissed your
hand."

"I really think I liked him the better for it," said the little
silver-haired lady. "The respect was not assumed, but wholly genuine,
you see, and whether I was entitled to it or not, it was a good deal in
Lance's favor that he should offer it to me. There must be some good
in the man who can be moved to reverence anything, even if he is
mistaken."

"No man with any sense could help adoring you," said Maud Barrington.
"Still, I wonder why you believe I was wrong in wishing he had not come
to Silverdale?"

Miss Barrington looked thoughtful. "I will tell you, my dear. There
are few better men than my brother, but his thoughts, and the
traditions he is bound by, are those of fifty years ago, while the
restless life of the prairie is a thing of to-day. We have fallen too
far behind it at Silverdale, and a crisis is coming that none of us are
prepared for. Even Dane is scarcely fitted to help my brother to face
it, and the rest are either over-fond of their pleasure or untrained
boys. Brave lads they are, but none of them have been taught that it
is only by mental strain, or the ceaseless toil of his body, the man
without an inheritance can win himself a competence now. This is why
they want a leader who has known hardship and hunger, instead of ease,
and won what he holds with his own hand in place of having it given
him."

"You fancy we could find one in such a man as Lance has been?"

Miss Barrington looked grave. "I believe the prodigal was afterwards a
better as well as a wiser man than the one who stayed at home, and I am
not quite sure that Lance's history is so nearly like that of the son
in the parable as we have believed it to be. A residence in the sty is
apt to leave a stain which I have not found on him, though I have
looked for it."

The eyes of the two women met, and, though nothing more was said, each
realized that the other was perplexed by the same question, while the
girl was astonished to find her vague suspicions shared. While they
sat silent, Colonel Barrington came in.

"I am glad to see you looking so much better, Maud," he said, with a
trace of embarrassment. "Courthorne is still resting. Now, I can't
help feeling that we have been a trifle more distant than was needful
with him. The man has really behaved very discreetly. I mean in
everything."

This was a great admission, and Miss Barrington smiled. "Did it hurt
you very much to tell us that?" she asked.

The Colonel laughed. "I know what you mean, and if you put me on my
mettle, I'll retract. After all, it was no great credit to him,
because blood will tell, and he is, of course, a Courthorne."

Almost without her intention, Maud Barrington's eyes wandered towards
the photograph, and then looking up she met those of her aunt, and once
more saw the thought that troubled her in them.

"The Courthorne blood is responsible for a good deal more than
discretion," said Miss Barrington, who went out quietly.

Her brother appeared a trifle perplexed. "Now, I fancied your aunt had
taken him under her wing, and when I was about to suggest that,
considering the connection between the families, we might ask him over
to dinner occasionally, she goes away," he said.

The girl looked down a moment, for realizing that her uncle recognized
the obligation he was under to the man he did not like, she remembered
that she herself owed him considerably more, and he had asked for
something in return. It was not altogether easy to grant, but she had
tacitly pledged herself, and turning suddenly she laid a hand on
Barrington's arm.

"Of course, but I want to talk of something else just now," she said.
"You know I have very seldom asked you questions about my affairs, but
I wish to take a little practical interest in them this year."

"Yes?" said Barrington, with a smile. "Well, I am at your service, my
dear, and quite ready to account for my stewardship. You are no longer
my ward, except by your own wishes."

"I am still your niece," said the girl, patting his arm. "Now, there
is, of course, nobody who could manage the farming better than you do,
but I would like to raise a large crop of wheat this season."

"It wouldn't pay," and the Colonel grew suddenly grave. "Very few men
in the district are going to sow all their holding. Wheat is steadily
going down."

"Then if nobody sows there will be very little, and shouldn't that put
up the prices?"

Barrington's eyes twinkled. "Who has been teaching you commercial
economy? You are too pretty to understand such things, and the
argument is fallacious, because the wheat is consumed in Europe; and
even if we have not much to offer, they can get plenty from California,
Chile, India, and Australia."

"Oh, yes--and Russia," said the girl. "Still, you see, the big mills
in Winnipeg and Minneapolis depend upon the prairie. They couldn't
very well bring wheat in from Australia."

Barrington was still smiling with his eyes, but his lips were set. "A
little knowledge is dangerous, my dear, and if you could understand me
better, I could show you where you were wrong. As it is, I can only
tell you that I have decided to sell wheat forward and plow very
little."

"But that was a policy you condemned with your usual vigor. You really
know you did."

"My dear," said the Colonel, with a little impatient gesture, "one can
never argue with a lady. You see--circumstances alter cases
considerably."

He nodded with an air of wisdom as though that decided it, but the girl
persisted. "Uncle," she said, drawing closer to him with lithe
gracefulness, "I want you to let me have my own way just for once, and
if I am wrong, I will never do anything you do not approve of again.
After all, it is a very little thing, and you would like to please me."

"It is a trifle that is likely to cost you a good deal of money," said
the Colonel dryly.

"I think I could afford it, and you could not refuse me."

"As I am only your uncle, and no longer a trustee, I could not," said
Barrington. "Still, you would not act against my wishes?"

His eyes were gentle, unusually so, for he was not as a rule very
patient when any one questioned his will, but there was a reproach in
them that hurt the girl. Still, because she had promised, she
persisted.

"No," she said. "That is why it would be ever so much nicer if you
would just think as I did."

Barrington looked at her steadily. "If you insist, I can at least hope
for the best," he said, with a gravity that brought a faint color to
the listener's cheek.

It was next day when Winston took his leave, and Maud Barrington stood
beside him, as he put on his driving furs.

"You told me there was something you wished me to do, and, though it
was difficult, it is done," she said. "My holding will be sown with
wheat this spring."

Winston turned his head aside a moment, and apparently found it needful
to fumble at the fastenings of the furs, while there was a curious
expression in his eyes when he looked round again.

"Then," he said, with a little smile, "we are quits. That cancels any
little obligation which may have existed."

He had gone in another minute, and Maud Barrington turned back into the
stove-warmed room very quietly. Her lips were, however, somewhat
closely set.




CHAPTER XII

SPEED THE PLOW

Winter had fled back beyond the barrens to the lonely North at last,
and though here and there a little slushy snow still lay soaking the
black loam in a hollow, a warm wind swept the vast levels, when one
morning Colonel Barrington rode with his niece and sister across the
prairie. Spring comes suddenly in that region, and the frost-bleached
sod was steaming under an effulgent sun, while in places a hardy flower
peeped through. It was six hundred miles to the forests on the
Rockies' eastern slope, and as far to the Athabascan pines, but it
seemed to Maud Barrington that their resinous sweetness was in the
glorious western wind, which awoke a musical sighing from the sea of
rippling grass. It rolled away before her in billows of lustrous
silver-gray, and had for sole boundary the first upward spring of the
arch of cloudless blue, across which the vanguard of the feathered host
pressed on, company by company, towards the Pole.

The freshness of it all stirred her blood like wine, and the brightness
that flooded the prairie had crept into her eyes, for those who bear
the iron winter of that lonely land realize the wonder of the
reawakening, which in a little space of days dresses the waste, that
has lain for long months white and silent as the dead, in living green.
It also has its subtle significance that the grimmest toiler feels, and
the essence of it is hope eternal and triumphant life. The girl felt
the thrill of it, and gave thanks by an answering brightness, as the
murmuring grasses and peeping flowerets did, but there was behind her
instinctive gladness a vague wonder and expectancy. She had read
widely, and seen the life of the cities with understanding eyes, and
now she was to be provided with the edifying spectacle of the gambler
and outcast turned farmer.

Had she been asked a few months earlier whether the man who had, as
Courthorne had done, cast away his honor and wallowed in the mire,
could come forth again and purge himself from the stain, her answer
would have been coldly skeptical, but now with the old familiar miracle
and what it symbolized before her eyes, the thing looked less
improbable. Why this should give her pleasure she did not know, or
would not admit that she did, but the fact remained that it was so.

Trotting down the slope of the next rise, they came upon him, as he
stood by a great breaker plow with very little sign of dissolute living
upon him. In front of him, the quarter-mile furrow led on beyond the
tall sighting poles on the crest of the next rise, and four splendid
horses, of a kind not very usual on the prairie, were stamping the
steaming clods at his side. Bronzed by frost and sun, with his
brick-red neck and arch of chest revealed by the coarse blue shirt
that, belted at the waist, enhanced his slenderness, the repentant
prodigal was at least a passable specimen of the animal man, but it was
the strength and patience in his face that struck the girl, as he
turned towards her, bareheaded, with a little smile in his eyes. She
also noticed the difference he presented with his ingrained hands and
the stain of the soil upon him, to her uncle, who sat his horse,
immaculate as usual, with gloved hand on the bridle, for the Englishmen
at Silverdale usually hired other men to do their coarser work for them.

"So you are commencing in earnest in face of my opinion?" said
Barrington. "Of course, I wish you success, but that consummation
appears distinctly doubtful."

Winston laughed as he pointed to a great machine which, hauled by four
horses, rolled towards them, scattering the black clods in its wake.
"I'm doing what I can to achieve it, sir," he said. "In fact, I'm
staking somewhat heavily. That team with the gang plows and
cultivators cost me more dollars than I care to remember."

"No doubt," said Barrington dryly. "Still, we have always considered
oxen good enough for breaking prairie at Silverdale."

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