“Because the freighters should leave the Hudson Bay post to-morrow with their dog-teams. It’s the only chance of sending out a letter I may get for a long while, and I want to write to Nasmyth.”
Crestwick shivered, glancing disconsolately at the snow; he shrank from the prospect of a two days’ hurried march. Had Lisle suggested this when he first came out, the lad would have rebelled, but by degrees the stern discipline of the wilds had had its effect on him. He was learning that the weariness of the flesh must be disregarded when it is necessary that anything shall be done.
“Oh, well,” he acquiesced, “I’ll try to make it. If I can’t, you’ll have to drop me where there’s some shelter.”
He ate the best possible breakfast, for as wood was scarce in parts of the country, and making a fire difficult, it was very uncertain when he would get another meal. Then he slipped the pack-straps over his stiff shoulders, and got ready to start with a burden he did not think he would have been capable of carrying for a couple of hours when he left England.
“Now we’ll pull out,” he said. “But wait a moment: I’d better look for a dry place to put this paper currency.”
“Where did you get it? You told me at the last settlement that you had hardly a dollar left.”
Crestwick grinned.
“Oh, some of the boys offered to teach me a little game they were playing when we thawed out that claim. I didn’t find it difficult, though I must own that I had very good luck. It was three or four months since I’d touched a card, and there’s a risk of reaction in too drastic reform. Anyhow, I’m glad I saw that game; one fellow had a way of handling trumps that almost took me in. If I can remember, it should come in useful.”
Lisle made no comment; restraint, he thought, was likely to prove more effective if it were not continually exercised. They started and for several hours plodded up the white highway of the river, leaving it only for a while when the ice grew fissured where the current ran more swiftly. White hills rose above them, relieved here and there by a somber clump of cedars or leafless willows and birches in a ravine. The snow crunched beneath their feet, and scattered in a fine white powder when they broke the crust; more of it fell at intervals, but blew away again; and they held on with a nipping wind in their faces and a low gray sky hanging over them.
Lisle, however, noticed little; he pushed forward with a steady and apparently tireless stride, thinking bitterly. Since his return to Canada, his mind had dwelt more or less continuously on Millicent. He recognized that in leaving her with his regard for her undeclared he had been sustained by the possibility that he might by determined effort achieve such a success as would enable him to return and in claiming her to offer most of the amenities of life to which she had been accustomed. Though it had not been easy, he had to some extent accomplished this. On reaching Victoria, he had found his business associates considering one or two bold and risky schemes for the extension of their mining interests, which he had carried out in the face of many difficulties. The new claims he had taken over promised a favorable yield upon development; he had arranged for the more profitable working of others by the aid of costly plant; and his affairs were generally prospering.