“That’s a wise man,” he said, “and I can guess what he told you. Lorimer, I know I’m sinking fast, and if you 283 leave me here I’ll die before you can send a doctor up. Probably I’ll also die in Vancouver, but every man is justified in making a fight for his life—and there’s another reason why I should get there first.”
We hired a light wagon, for a passable trail led to the railroad, and perhaps because time was scanty, or the jolting of the wagon was more trying than the swing of the litter, our patient grew worse, and I was thankful at last to see him safe in a berth of the sleeper on the Pacific express. I had grown almost as impatient as Ormond, and I recollect nothing of the journey except that when the lights of Port Moody glittered across the forest-shrouded inlet he said: “Lorimer, I’ve a stupid prejudice against a hospital. Please take me to Wilson’s instead. He lives alone, and I did him several services—you can tell him that it will not be for long.”
So when we reached the station Harry volunteered to find the best doctor in the timber city—for hewn stone had only begun to replace sawn lumber then—and arrange for transit to Wilson’s house; because he said that it was my particular duty to tell Colonel Carrington and Grace. An hour passed before I traced them, and then I found them at a function given to celebrate the starting of some new public enterprise, and it was with hesitation that, followed by Calvert, I entered the vestibule of the brilliantly lighted hall. We gave a message to a bland Chinese attendant, and waited until returning he beckoned us through a crimson curtain, which swung to behind, and I found myself standing bewildered under a blaze of light in a ball-room.
There was a crash of music, a swishing of colored dresses, and then, as the orchestra ceased, we stood before the astonished assembly just as we had left the bush, in tattered fur wrappings and torn deerskin, with the stains of leagues of travel on our leggings, while I recollect that a creeper-spike 284 on my heel made holes in the polished marquetry. All eyes were turned toward us.
“This is considerably more than I bargained for,” growled Calvert. “I feel guiltily like the man who brought the news to Edinburgh after Flodden. What did you play this confounded trick upon us for, John?”
“John savvy Miss Callington,” said the unblushing Mongolian; and Calvert added savagely:
“Then hide us somewhere, and tell her, before I twist your heathen neck for you.”
I noticed Martin Lorimer moving toward me; but before he reached us Grace came up, a dazzling vision of beauty.
“I am thankful to see you back safe, Ralph, and hear you have news for me,” she said. “Lawrence Calvert, the same applies to you.”
It was bravely done, for few women would have cared to link themselves publicly with such a gaunt and tattered scarecrow as I undoubtedly was then; but Grace was born with high courage and a manner which made all she did appear right. When Calvert said that he would send for Colonel Carrington, she calmly placed her hand within my arm, and added: