“She’s a rising religious reformer who has taken several towns on Puget Sound by storm,” said the surveyor, “and it has cost somebody considerable to bring her here. That protégé of yours is clearly a crank, but he’s also more of a man than he looks, and, if it can be done unofficially, I’m inclined to back him. No, I’m not a teetotaler, and as a rule we’re a sober people in Western Canada, but they’re a 140 tolerably hard crowd down at Cedar, and if once the man who runs the Magnolia takes hold with his tables we’ll have chaos in this camp. I’m not prejudiced, but if they must have excitement I’d sooner see the boys whooping round a temperance meeting than a gaming bank.”
“Are you going, Ralph?” asked Harry. “I’m not altogether fond of the man, but in a measure we are responsible for him.”
I did not answer at first as I looked down upon the roofs of Cedar Crossing. The old trail, which would be useless presently, came winding down through the passes into it, and I knew that while the average British Columbian is a sturdy law-abiding citizen, a love of excitement characterizes the miner, and after being driven out of the central town site by an energetic reform committee, a few adventurers of both sexes and indifferent morals had foregathered at Cedar Crossing, with the Magnolia saloon as headquarters.
Then I said, “Yes, I’m going”; and, as he departed, the surveyor observed dryly:
“I’d take along a few picked men with axes. They might come in handy.”
Bright starlight shone coldly on the dim white peaks when Harry and I stumbled among the boulders by Cedar Lake, in whose clear depths it lay reflected with a silvery glitter. But it was warm down in the valley, and the drowsy breath of cedars filled the air, until a reek of kerosene replaced it, and presently a ruddy glare broke out among the giant trunks. When we halted under the blinking torches and two petroleum cressets outside the Magnolia, it seemed as if all the staff of the railroad had gathered there.
“They’re both here,” said Harry, and I saw Lee standing beside a slender figure in unbecoming dress among a group of men in blue shirts and quaintly mended jackets; 141 also that some planks had been laid across two barrels close by.
“Don’t crowd upon the lady!” said a voice. “Order! the circus is going to begin; we’re only waiting for the chairman. What’s that? Ain’t got no such luxuries; well, he can take the barrel.”
After this, to our astonishment, Johnston, neatly attired, stood aloft upon an overturned barrel.
“I’m glad to see so many of you, boys,” he said. “Now I’m not a teetotaler myself, and this is the first time I’ve occupied such a platform; but we’re all open to conviction, and I want you to remember we’ve a lady here who has traveled three hundred miles to talk to you. All we ask is that you will give her and the old man a fair show.”