I was ashamed of the speech afterwards, especially the latter part of it, but it was wholly involuntary, and the events of the past few hours had drawn, as it were, a bond of close comradeship between my companion in peril and myself.
"I think you are wrong, but I am glad you have spoken, because I wanted to express my sympathy, and feared to intrude," she said. "We heard that bad times had overtaken you and your neighbors, and were very sorry. Still, they cannot last forever, and you will not be beaten. You must not be, to justify the belief father and I have in you."
The words were very simple, but there was a naïve sincerity about them which made them strangely comforting, while I noticed that Mrs. Leyland, who came in just then, looked at us curiously. I sat out upon the veranda until late that night, filled with a contentment I could not quite understand. To have rendered some assistance to Beatrice Haldane's sister and won her father's goodwill seemed, however, sufficient ground for satisfaction, and I decided that this must be the cause of it.
The rest of the party returned overland next day, and during the afternoon Haldane said to me: "I may as well admit that I have heard a little about your difficulties, and Leyland has been talking to me. If you don't mind the plain speaking, one might conclude that you are somewhat hardly pressed. Well, it seems to me that certain incidents have given me a right to advise or help you, and if you are disposed to let the mortgaged property go, I don't think there would be any great difficulty in finding an opening for you. There are big homesteads in your region financed by Eastern capital."
He spoke with sincerity and evident goodwill; but unfortunately Haldane was almost the last person from whom I could accept a favor. "I am, while grateful, not wholly defeated, and mean to hold on," I said. "Would you, for instance, quietly back out of a conflict with some wealthy combine and leave your opponents a free hand to collect the plunder?"
Haldane smiled dryly. "It would depend on circumstances; but in a general way I hardly think I should," he said. "You will, however, remember advice was mentioned, and I believe there are men who would value my counsel."
I shook my head. "Heaven knows what the end will be; but I must worry through this trouble my own way," I said.
Haldane was not offended, and did not seem surprised. "You may be wrong, or you may be right; but if you and your neighbors are as hard to plunder as you are slow to take a favor, the other gentlemen will probably earn all they get," he said. "I presume you have no objections to my wishing you good luck?"
It was the next evening when I met Beatrice Haldane beside the lake. "And so you are going back to-morrow to your cattle?" she said.
"Yes," I answered. "It is the one course open to me, and the only work for which I am fitted." And Miss Haldane showed a faint trace of impatience.