Vane of the Timberlands | Page 3

Siwash to take her home while we
rode across the island and got the train to Victoria. Besides, there's that
steamboat coming down the coast to-night."
"Either way would cost a good deal extra."
"That's true," Carroll agreed with an amused expression; "but you could
charge it to the company."
Vane laughed.
"You and I have a big stake in the concern; and I haven't got used to

spending money unnecessarily yet, I've been mighty glad to earn a
couple dollars by working from sunup until dark, though I didn't always
get it afterward. So have you."
"How are you going to dispose of your money, then? You have a nice
little balance in cash, besides the shares."
"It has occurred to me that I might spend a few months in the Old
Country. Have you ever been over there?"
"I was across some time ago; but, if you like, I'll go along with you. We
could start as soon as we've arranged the few matters left open in
Vancouver."
Vane was glad to hear it. He knew little about Carroll's antecedents, but
his companion was obviously a man of education, and they had been
staunch comrades for the last three years. They had plodded through
leagues of rain-swept bush, had forded icy rivers, had slept in wet fern
and sometimes slushy snow, and had toiled together with pick and drill.
During that time they had learned to know and trust each other and to
bear with each other's idiosyncrasies.
Filling his pipe again as he lay in the fading sunlight, Vane looked back
on the nine years he had passed in Canada, and, allowing for the
periods of exposure to cold and wet and the almost ceaseless toil, he
admitted that he might have spent them more unpleasantly. He had a
stout heart and a muscular body, and the physical hardships had not
troubled him. What was more, he had a quick, almost instinctive,
judgment and the faculty for seizing an opportunity.
Having quarreled with his relatives and declined any favors from them,
he had come to Canada with only a few pounds and had promptly set
about earning a living with his hands. When he had been in the country
several years, a friend of the family had, however, sent him a small sum,
and the young man had made judicious use of the money. The lot he
bought outside a wooden town doubled in value, and the share he took
in a new orchard paid him well; but he had held aloof from the cities,
and his only recklessness had been his prospecting journeys into the

wilderness. Prospecting for minerals is at once an art and a gamble.
Skill, acquired by long experience or instinctive--and there are men
who seem to possess the latter--counts for much, but chance plays a
leading part. Provisions, tents and packhorses are expensive, and
though a placer mine may be worked by two partners, a reef or lode can
be disposed of only to men with means sufficient to develop it. Even in
this delicate matter, in which he had had keen wits against him, Vane
had held his own; but there was one side of life with which he was
practically unacquainted.
There are no social amenities on the rangeside or in the bush, where
women are scarce. Vane had lived in Spartan simplicity, practising the
ascetic virtues, as a matter of course. He had had no time for sentiment,
his passions had remained unstirred; and now he was seven and twenty,
sound and vigorous of body, and, as a rule, level of head. At length,
however, there was to be a change. He had earned an interlude of
leisure, and he meant to enjoy it without, so he prudently determined,
making a fool of himself.
Presently Carroll took his pipe from his mouth.
"Are you going ashore again to the show to-night?"
"Yes," Vane answered. "It's a long while since I've struck an
entertainment of any kind, and that yellow-haired mite's dancing is one
of the prettiest things I've seen."
"You've been twice already," Carroll hinted. "The girl with the blue
eyes sings her first song rather well."
"I think so," Vane agreed with a significant absence of embarrassment.
"In this case a good deal depends on the singing--the interpretation,
isn't it? The thing's on the border, and I've struck places where they'd
have made it gross; but the girl only brought out the mischief. Strikes
me she didn't see there was anything else in it"
"That's curious, considering the crowd she goes about with. Aren't you
cultivating a critical faculty?"

Vane disregarded the ironical question.
"She's Irish; that accounts for a good deal."
He paused and looked thoughtful.
"If I knew how to do it, I'd like to give five or ten