And never more for me the helmet's flash,
The trumpet's summons—Oh, the crumbling ash
Of life is hope's fruition: Fall
The wither'd friendships, and they all
Are sleeping! Fast away
The fabrics of our lives decay,
And change unseen and melt away—
Ay, perish like the accents of a call,
Like those last notes of all: 'Lights out!' 'Lights out!'"
CHAPTER XVI
The Blackguard was a terror to evil-minded horses, heavy enough when he chose to almost break their backs, strong enough to inflict most merciless punishment, alert to outwit all manner of devilry, because he had the gift of seeing things from the horse point of view. When they submitted, he could be gentle enough, but that they had to find out by surrendering first to his mastery. He had a wonderful way of disarming the fears and winning the confidence of frightened colts, so that, while the dangerous animals feared him, the gentler beasts found him the best of friends. There is no doubt that from the very start he was the best "buck hero" ever known in Kootenay. Too heavy for a cowboy, he was an excellent teamster, a fairly good hand with an axe, so that General Buster's only misgiving was the fear of losing him.
But he was not happy—a big tree hauled out by the roots cannot be expected to have a very joyful time just at first. Besides that, a thirty years' habit of being bad is stronger than a four months' habit of being good. It seemed now that to be virtuous was to lose all the fun. He would drift a little, and haul up with a jerk; he would rebuke with hard fists some champion of the cowboys; then, thinking that he had done something wrong, look up the Selkirk foothills as though he hoped for further guidance from the Throne. From the skin outwards this Blackguard was an epitome of hardened wickedness, inwardly like a big child. After being thirty years or so without a soul, he was bewildered with the new possession which had delicate little sympathies to be exercised, a kindliness toward men and beasts past all restraint, a weakness for Miss Violet Burrows far stronger than himself. So far as he could see, with limited powers of introspection, his internal anatomy consisted of love and whims. In his bewilderment he wrote to the Padre describing these symptoms, a letter which was received by the Curate with howls of laughter.
If the Blackguard's troubles were comic in the valley, Miss Violet's were tragic upon the mountain. Mr. Burrows had begun to fancy himself as a disciplinarian, confined Miss Violet to the house, and explained his views at great length every evening.
"I will have no more of this nonsense. Your business, Mr. Ramsay, is mining machinery, not the perpetration of matrimony. Matrimony, sir, is a nuisance—early matrimony an utter absurdity. I have always disapproved of"—
"I may mention," said the Tenderfoot, bristling, "that with your consent I am engaged to Miss Violet."
"Booh!" said Miss Violet softly all to herself, looking out upon these lords of creation from behind the sitting-room door. So far as Mr. Burrows knew, the wicked girl was locked up for the night in her own chamber, but then, Mr. Burrows knew very little about anything human, nor did he perceive the elementary facts about a woman. It never occurred to Miss Violet that she was other than very sleepy until he turned the key for her safe keeping. Then she became wide-awake, tried the door, poked about in the lock with a bent hairpin, and to her utter astonishment found that she could release the bolt. So, dressed like an angel in fluttering white, with bare pink feet and mane of streaming hair, she crept across the sitting-room, wondered what the men were plotting in the verandah, and took her station in the shadow behind the door. She stood on one leg timorously, thus leaving only five toes to be preyed upon by imaginary mice, the other foot being curled up because it was cold. Then, when the Tenderfoot announced himself to her Uncle as still engaged to be married, Miss Violet whispered "Booh!"
"Moreover," continued Mr. Ramsay loftily, "my immediate marriage was included in the terms of our agreement as to the mine."