Vane of the Timberlands

Vane of the Timberlands

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Title: Vane of the Timberlands
Author: Harold Bindloss
Release Date: January, 2006 [EBook #9778] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on October 15,
2003]
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Language: English

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Vane of The Timberlands
BY HAROLD BINDLOSS

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I. A FRIEND IN NEED II. A BREEZE OF WIND III. AN
AFTERNOON ASHORE IV. A CHANGE OF ENVIRONMENT V.
THE OLD COUNTRY VI. UPON THE HEIGHTS VII.
STORM-STAYED VIII. LUCY VANE IX. CHISHOLM PROVES
AMENABLE X. WITH THE OTTER HOUNDS XI. VANE
WITHDRAWS XII. IN VANCOUVER XIII. A NEW PROJECT XIV.
VANE SAILS NORTH XV. THE FIRST MISADVENTURE XVI.
THE BUSH XVII. VANE POSTPONES THE SEARCH XVIII. JESSY
CONFERS A FAVOR XIX. VANE FORESEES TROUBLE XX. THE
FLOOD XXI. VANE YIELDS A POINT XXII. EVELYN GOES FOR
A SAIL XXIII. VANE PROVES OBDURATE XXIV. JESSY
STRIKES XXV. THE INTERCEPTED LETTER XXVI. ON THE
TRAIL XXVII. THE END OF THE SEARCH XXVIII. CARROLL
SEEKS HELP XXIX. JESSY'S CONTRITION XXX. CONVINCING
TESTIMONY XXXI. VANE IS REINSTATED

VANE OF THE TIMBERLANDS

CHAPTER I

A FRIEND IN NEED
A light breeze, scented with the smell of the firs, was blowing down the
inlet, and the tiny ripples it chased across the water splashed musically
against the bows of the canoe. They met her end-on, sparkling in the
warm sunset light, gurgled about her sides, and trailed away astern in
two divergent lines as the paddles flashed and fell. There was a thud as
the blades struck the water, and the long, light hull forged onward with
slightly lifted, bird's-head prow, while the two men swung forward for
the next stroke with a rhythmic grace of motion. They knelt, facing
forward, in the bottom of the craft, and, dissimilar as they were in
features and, to some extent, in character, the likeness between them
was stronger than the difference. Both bore the unmistakable stamp of a
wholesome life spent in vigorous labor in the open. Their eyes were
clear and, like those of most bushmen, singularly steady; their skin was
clean and weather-darkened; and they were leanly muscular.
On either side of the lane of green water giant firs, cedars and balsams
crept down the rocky hills to the whitened driftwood fringe. They
formed part of the great coniferous forest which rolls west from the wet
Coast Range of Canada's Pacific Province and, overleaping the straits,
spreads across the rugged and beautiful wilderness of Vancouver Island.
Ahead, clusters of little frame houses showed up here and there in
openings among the trees, and a small sloop, toward which the canoe
was heading, lay anchored near the wharf.
The men had plied the paddle during most of that day, from inclination
rather than necessity, for they could have hired Siwash Indians to
undertake the labor for them, had they been so minded. They were,
though their appearance did not suggest it, moderately prosperous; but
their prosperity was of recent date; they had been accustomed to doing
everything for themselves, as are most of the men who dwell among
the woods and ranges of British Columbia.
Vane, who knelt nearest the bow, was twenty-seven years of age. Nine
of those years he had spent chopping trees, driving cattle, poling canoes
and assisting in the search for useful minerals among the snow-clad
ranges. He wore a wide, gray felt hat, which had lost its shape from

frequent wettings, an old shirt of the same color, and blue duck trousers,
rent in places; but the light attire revealed a fine muscular symmetry.
He had brown hair and brown eyes; and a certain warmth of coloring
which showed through the deep bronze of his