“You must trust me still Ralph,” she said wearily. “I am troubled, and often long for the wisdom to decide rightly what I ought to do, but when I feel I can do so I will come. Twice my father and I had words at Vancouver, and sometimes I blame myself bitterly for what I said. Wait still until the harvest; perhaps the difficulties may vanish then. Meanwhile, because I am Grace Carrington, and he would not receive you if he were here, you must come no more to the Manor while my father is away. Besides, each hour is precious in spring, and now you must spend it well for me.”
I had perforce to agree. Grace was always far above the petty duplicity which even some excellent women delight in, and she added gently: “Some day you will be glad, Ralph, that we acted in all things openly; but a fortnight to-morrow I intend riding to Lone Hollow, from which I return at noon. Then, as a reward of virtue, you may meet me.” 333
It was with buoyant spirits that I rode homeward under the starlight across the wide, dim plain, for the cool air stirred my blood, and the great stillness seemed filled with possibilities. The uncertainty had vanished, the time was drawing in, and something whispered that before another winter draped white the prairie Grace would redeem her promise. Counted days as a rule pass slowly, but that fortnight fled, for there was little opportunity to think of anything but the work in hand in the hurry of the spring campaign, and one night Raymond Lyle, of Lone Hollow, and another of the Carrington colonists spent an hour with us. Since Aline honored Fairmead with her presence we had frequent visits from the younger among them. Aline was generally piquant, and these visitors, who, even if a few were rather feather-brained, were for the most part honest young Englishmen, seemed to find much pleasure in her company. Lyle, however, was a somewhat silent and thoughtful man, for whom I had a great liking, and he had come to discuss business.
“Listen to me, Lorimer, while I talk at length for once,” he said. “A few of the older among us have been considering things lately, and it doesn’t please us to recognize that while nearly every outsider can make money, or at least earn a living on the prairie, farming costs most of us an uncertain sum yearly. We are by no means all millionaires, and our idea is not to make this colony a pleasure ground for the remittance-man. We have the brains, the muscle, and some command of money; we were born of landowning stock; and we don’t like to be beaten easily by the raw mechanic, the laborer, or even the dismissed clerk. Still, while these farm at a profit we farm at a loss.”
“I belong to the latter class,” I said; “and here are a few reasons. We are plowing and grain-hauling while you shoot prairie-chicken or follow the coyote hounds. We work 334 late and early, eat supper in dusty garments, and then go on again; while you take your hand at nap after a formal dinner, and—excuse me—you look on farming as an amusement, while the land demands the best that any man can give it—brain and body. Besides, you are lacking in what one might call commercial enterprise.”
“I agree with you,” said Lyle, “especially the latter. Anyway, we have had almost sufficient of farming as a luxury, and mean to make it pay. Colonel Carrington’s ideal of an exclusive semi-feudal Utopia is very pretty, but I fear it will have to go. Now I’m coming to the point. You and Jasper have shown us the way to make something out of buying young Western stock; but we’re going one better. Breeding beef is only one item. What about the dairy? We couldn’t well drink up all the milk, even if we liked it; and we have definitely decided on a Carrington creamery, with a Winnipeg agency for our cheese and butter.”
“Bravo!” said Harry. “Ralph, that should pay handsomely. Only one rival in all this district! I see big chances in it.”
Then Raymond chuckled as he continued: “Specifications have been got out for a wooden building, a location chosen, and, in short, we want you two to cut the timber and undertake the erection. We want a man we know, Lorimer, whom we can discuss things with in a friendly way. It can’t be ready this summer, and you can take your own time doing it. The rest say they should prefer you to an outsider; and your railroad building is a sufficient guarantee.”
I lighted my pipe very deliberately, to gain time to think. Neither Harry nor I was a mechanic; but in the Western Dominion the man without money must turn his hand to many trades, and we had learned a good deal, 335 railroad building. Neither need it interfere too much with the farming, for we could hire assistants, even if we brought them from Ontario; and here was another opening to increase our revenue.
“Subject to approved terms, we’ll take it—eh, Harry?—on the one condition that Colonel Carrington does not specifically object to me,” I said. “Where is the site?”