“I just packed everything that I thought you would need and had Sam fetch it up,” said Christina. “No, you can’t go down to the town until things have quieted a little. There was fighting last night, and Dan O’Leary has been shot.”
“Just through the leg,” Sam reassured them, seeing Nancy’s horrified face. “Dan has been foreman of one of the ditching gangs, but he owns the livery-stable and one of the stores, so being a property holder makes him more careful than the rest. He’s hot-headed enough, though, and was leader of all the workmen until this fellow out of Russia, Thorvik, came to town. He goes Dan one better, and there is no knowing what he won’t stir up.”
“Is the strike going to last long?” Beatrice asked.
Sam chuckled.
“It’s not a strike; that’s just where the pinch is. While they were holding their meeting last night, and arguing about how soon they should quit, there comes word from the company that the work is shut down until further notice. Something has gone wrong with the money end of the business, people say, and there’s nothing to go on with. Anyway, there’s no strike; the men higher up beat them to it. Christina is right. The City of Ely is no place for young ladies to be going just now.”
He carried in the boxes and went down the path for more.
“There’s room in the shed for your horse, Miss Beatrice,” he announced, when he had made his last trip. “I can bring him up if you like, only you would have to take care of him yourself. We can haul up enough feed to keep him, and there’s some grazing land higher up the hill.”
Accordingly it was settled that Buck, also, was to be a part of their establishment, although Beatrice felt a little appalled at the prospect of taking care of a horse single-handed.
“Bless you, he’s that wise he can almost take care of himself,” Sam reassured her. “He’s a little light on his feet when you go to saddle him, but beyond that he hasn’t a fault. It will be a good thing to have a horse on the place.”
Toward noon the two girls, with Christina’s assistance, began to bring some order out of the confusion. The cabin possessed four rooms downstairs; the large living-room, into which the front door opened; the bedroom off it; the lean-to kitchen; and, wonder of wonders, a tiny bath-room with a shining white porcelain tub.