The Gold Trail

The Gold Trail, by Harold
Bindloss

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Title: The Gold Trail
Author: Harold Bindloss

Release Date: April 23, 2007 [eBook #21205]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLD
TRAIL***
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THE GOLD TRAIL
by
HAROLD BINDLOSS
Author of The Cattle Baron's Daughter, The Greater Power, Winston of
the Prairie, Etc.

New York Grosset & Dunlap Publishers
Copyright, 1910, by Frederick A. Stokes Company All rights reserved
May, 1910

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.
BOTTOMLESS SWAMP II. THE PACKER III. THE MODEL IV.
IDA'S FIRST ASCENT V. IDA'S CONFIDENCE VI. KINNAIRD
STRIKES CAMP VII. GRENFELL'S MINE VIII. IN THE RANGES
IX. A FRUITLESS SEARCH X. THE HOTEL-KEEPER XI. IN THE
MOONLIGHT XII. THE COPPER-MINE XIII. STIRLING LETS
THINGS SLIDE XIV. IDA ASSERTS HER AUTHORITY XV. THE
ROCK POOL XVI. ON THE LAKE XVII.
SCARTHWAITE-IN-THE-FOREST XVIII. WESTON'S ADVOCATE
XIX. ILLUMINATION XX. IDA CLAIMS AN ACQUAINTANCE
XXI. THE BRÛLÉE XXII. GRENFELL GOES ON XXIII. THE
LODE XXIV. A QUALIFIED SUCCESS XXV. STIRLING GIVES
ADVICE XXVI. THE JUMPERS XXVII. SAUNDERS TAKES
PRECAUTIONS XXVIII. WESTON STANDS FAST XXIX. THE
FIRE XXX. DEFEAT XXXI. HIGH-GRADE ORE XXXII.
GRENFELL'S GIFT

THE GOLD TRAIL
CHAPTER I
BOTTOMLESS SWAMP
It was Construction Foreman Cassidy who gave the place its name
when he answered his employer's laconic telegram. Stirling, the great
contractor, frequently expressed himself with forcible terseness; but
when he flung the message across to his secretary as he sat one
morning in his private room in an Ottawa hotel, the latter raised his
eyebrows questioningly. He knew his employer in all his moods; and
he was not in the least afraid of him. There was, though most of those
who did business with him failed to perceive it, a vein of almost
extravagant generosity in Stirling's character.
"Well," said the latter, "isn't the thing plain enough?"
The secretary smiled.
"Oh, yes," he said. "Still, I'm not sure they'll send it over the wires in
quite that form."
His employer agreed to the modification he suggested, and the message
as despatched to Cassidy read simply, "Why are you stopping?"
After that the famous contractor busied himself about other matters
until he got the answer, "No bottom to this swamp."
Then his indignation boiled over, as it sometimes did, for Stirling was a
thick-necked, red-faced man with a fiery temper and an indomitable
will. He had undertaken a good deal of difficult railroad work in
western Canada and never yet had been beaten. What was more to the
purpose, he had no intention of being beaten now, or even delayed, by a
swamp that had no bottom. He had grappled with hard rock and sliding
snow, had overcome professional rivals, and had made his influence
felt by politicians; and, though he had left middle-age behind, he still

retained his full vigor of body and freedom of speech. When he had
explained what he thought of Cassidy he turned again to his secretary.
"Arrange for a private car," he said. "I'll go along to-morrow and make
them jump."
The secretary, who fancied there would be trouble in the construction
camp during the next few days, felt inclined to be sorry for Cassidy as
he went out to make the necessary arrangements for his employer's
journey west.
Stirling had spent a busy morning when he met his daughter Ida and
her friends at lunch. He did not belong to Ottawa. His offices were in
Montreal; but as Ottawa is the seat of the government he had visited it
at the request of certain railroad potentates and other magnates of
political influence. With him he had brought his daughter and three of
her English friends, for Ida had desired to show them the capital. He
had no great opinion of the man and the two women in question. He
said that they made him tired, and sometimes in confidence to his
secretary he went rather further than that; but at the same time he was
willing to bear with them, if the fact that he did so afforded Ida any
pleasure. Ida Stirling was an unusually fortunate young woman, in so
far, at least, as that she had only to mention any desire that it was in her
father's power to gratify. He was a strenuous man, whose work was his
life; subtle where that work was concerned when force, which he
preferred, was not advisable, but crudely