“Here’s better fortune to farmer Witham!” he said.
The officer stared at him. “No, sir,” he said “If the old folks taught me aright, Witham’s in——”
A curious smile flickered in the farmer’s eyes. “No,” he said slowly. “He was tolerably near it once or twice when he was alive, and, because of what he went through then, there may be something better in store for him.”
His companion appeared astonished, but said nothing further until he brought out the cards. They played for an hour beside the snapping stove, and then, when Witham flung a trump away, the officer groaned.
“I guess,” he said disgustedly, “you’re not well to-night, or something is worrying you.”
Witham looked up with a little twinkle in his eyes. “I don’t know that there’s very much wrong with me.”
“Then,” said the officer decisively, “if the boys down at Regent know enough to remember what trumps are, you’re not Lance Courthorne. Now after what I’d heard of you, I’d have put up fifty dollars for the pleasure of watching your game—and it’s not worth ten cents when I’ve seen it.”
Witham laughed. “Sit down and talk,” he said. “One isn’t always in his usual form, and there are folks who get famous too easily.”
They talked until nearly midnight, sitting close to the stove, while a doleful wind that moaned without drove the dust of snow pattering against the windows, and the shadows grew darker in the corners of the great log-walled room each time the icy draughts set the lamp flickering. Then the officer, rising, expressed the feelings of his guest as he said, “It’s a forsaken country, and I’m thankful one can sleep and forget it.”
He had, however, an honourable calling, and a welcome from friend and kinsman awaiting him when he went East again, to revel in the life of the cities, but the man who followed him silently to the sleeping-room had nothing but a half-instinctive assurance that the future could not well be harder or more lonely than the past had been. Still, farmer Witham was a man of courage with a quiet belief in himself, and in ten minutes he was fast asleep.