Corliss pondered, and the colonel went on.
"But I can"t grasp Lucile"s side of it. What she can see in St.
Vincent--"
"Her taste is no worse than--than that of the rest of the women," Vance broke in hotly. "I am sure that--"
"Frona could not display poor taste, eh?" Corliss turned on his heel and walked out, and left Colonel Trethaway smiling grimly.
Vance Corliss never knew how many people, directly and indirectly, had his cause at heart that Christmas week. Two men strove in particular, one for him and one for the sake of Frona. Pete Whipple, an old-timer in the land, possessed an Eldorado claim directly beneath French Hill, also a woman of the country for a wife,--a swarthy _breed_, not over pretty, whose Indian mother had mated with a Russian fur-trader some thirty years before at Kutlik on the Great Delta. Bishop went down one Sunday morning to yarn away an hour or so with Whipple, but found the wife alone in the cabin. She talked a b.a.s.t.a.r.d English gibberish which was an anguish to hear, so the pocket-miner resolved to smoke a pipe and depart without rudeness. But he got her tongue wagging, and to such an extent that he stopped and smoked many pipes, and whenever she lagged, urged her on again. He grunted and chuckled and swore in undertones while he listened, punctuating her narrative regularly with _h.e.l.ls_! which adequately expressed the many shades of interest he felt.
In the midst of it, the woman fished an ancient leather-bound volume, all scarred and marred, from the bottom of a dilapidated chest, and thereafter it lay on the table between them. Though it remained unopened, she constantly referred to it by look and gesture, and each time she did so a greedy light blazed in Bishop"s eyes. At the end, when she could say no more and had repeated herself from two to half a dozen times, he pulled out his sack. Mrs. Whipple set up the gold scales and placed the weights, which he counterbalanced with a hundred dollars" worth of dust. Then he departed up the hill to the tent, hugging the purchase closely, and broke in on Corliss, who sat in the blankets mending moccasins.
"I"ll fix "m yet," Del remarked casually, at the same time patting the book and throwing it down on the bed.
Corliss looked up inquiringly and opened it. The paper was yellow with age and rotten from the weather-wear of trail, while the text was printed in Russian. "I didn"t know you were a Russian scholar, Del,"
he quizzed. "But I can"t read a line of it."
"Neither can I, more"s the pity; nor does Whipple"s woman savve the lingo. I got it from her. But her old man--he was full Russian, you know--he used to read it aloud to her. But she knows what she knows and what her old man knew, and so do I."
"And what do the three of you know?"
"Oh, that"s tellin"," Bishop answered, coyly. "But you wait and watch my smoke, and when you see it risin", you"ll know, too."
Matt McCarthy came in over the ice Christmas week, summed up the situation so far as Frona and St. Vincent were concerned, and did not like it. Dave Harney furnished him with full information, to which he added that obtained from Lucile, with whom he was on good terms.
Perhaps it was because he received the full benefit of the sum of their prejudice; but no matter how, he at any rate answered roll-call with those who looked upon the correspondent with disfavor. It was impossible for them to tell why they did not approve of the man, but somehow St. Vincent was never much of a success with men. This, in turn, might have been due to the fact that he shone so resplendently with women as to cast his fellows in eclipse; for otherwise, in his intercourse with men, he was all that a man could wish. There was nothing domineering or over-riding about him, while he manifested a good fellowship at least equal to their own.
Yet, having withheld his judgment after listening to Lucile and Harney, Matt McCarthy speedily reached a verdict upon spending an hour with St.
Vincent at Jacob Welse"s,--and this in face of the fact that what Lucile had said had been invalidated by Matt"s learning of her intimacy with the man in question. Strong of friendship, quick of heart and hand, Matt did not let the gra.s.s grow under his feet. ""Tis I"ll be takin" a social fling meself, as befits a mimber iv the n.o.ble Eldorado Dynasty," he explained, and went up the hill to a whist party in Dave Harney"s cabin. To himself he added, "An" belike, if Satan takes his eye off his own, I"ll put it to that young cub iv his."
But more than once during the evening he discovered himself challenging his own judgment. Probe as he would with his innocent wit, Matt found himself baffled. St. Vincent certainly rang true. Simple, light-hearted, unaffected, joking and being joked in all good-nature, thoroughly democratic. Matt failed to catch the faintest echo of insincerity.
"May the dogs walk on me grave," he communed with himself while studying a hand which suffered from a plethora of trumps. "Is it the years are tellin", puttin" the frost in me veins and chillin" the blood? A likely lad, an" is it for me to misjudge because his is a-takin" way with the ladies? Just because the swate creatures smile on the lad an" flutter warm at the sight iv him? Bright eyes and brave men! "Tis the way they have iv lovin" valor. They"re shuddered an"
shocked at the cruel an" b.l.o.o.d.y dades iv war, yet who so quick do they lose their hearts to as the brave butcher-bye iv a sodger? Why not?
The lad"s done brave things, and the girls give him the warm soft smile. Small reason, that, for me to be callin" him the devil"s own cub. Out upon ye, Matt McCarthy, for a crusty old sour-dough, with vitals frozen an" summer gone from yer heart! "Tis an ossification ye"ve become! But bide a wee, Matt, bide a wee," he supplemented.
"Wait till ye"ve felt the fale iv his flesh."
The opportunity came shortly, when St. Vincent, with Frona opposite, swept in the full thirteen tricks.
"A rampse!" Matt cried. "Vincent, me lad, a rampse! Yer hand on it, me brave!"
It was a stout grip, neither warm nor clammy, but Matt shook his head dubiously. "What"s the good iv botherin"?" he muttered to himself as he shuffled the cards for the next deal. "Ye old fool! Find out first how Frona darlin" stands, an" if it"s pat she is, thin "tis time for doin"."
"Oh, McCarthy"s all hunky," Dave Harney a.s.sured them later on, coming to the rescue of St. Vincent, who was getting the rough side of the Irishman"s wit. The evening was over and the company was putting on its wraps and mittens. "Didn"t tell you "bout his visit to the cathedral, did he, when he was on the Outside? Well, it was suthin"
like this, ez he was explainin" it to me. He went to the cathedral durin" service, an" took in the priests and choir-boys in their surplices,--_parkas_, he called "em,--an" watched the burnin" of the holy incense. "An" do ye know, Dave, he sez to me, "they got in an"
made a smudge, and there wa"n"t a darned mosquito in sight.""
"True, ivery word iv it." Matt unblushingly fathered Harney"s yarn.
"An" did ye niver hear tell iv the time Dave an" me got drunk on condensed milk?"
"Oh! Horrors!" cried Mrs. Schoville. "But how? Do tell us."
""Twas durin" the time iv the candle famine at Forty Mile. Cold snap on, an" Dave slides into me shack to pa.s.s the time o" day, and glues his eyes on me case iv condensed milk. "How"d ye like a sip iv Moran"s good whiskey?" he sez, eyin" the case iv milk the while. I confiss me mouth went wet at the naked thought iv it. "But what"s the use iv likin"?" sez I, with me sack bulgin" with emptiness." "Candles worth tin dollars the dozen," sez he, "a dollar apiece. Will ye give six cans iv milk for a bottle iv the old stuff?" "How"ll ye do it?" sez I.
"Trust me," sez he. "Give me the cans. "Tis cold out iv doors, an"
I"ve a pair iv candle-moulds."
"An" it"s the sacred truth I"m tellin" ye all, an" if ye run across Bill Moran he"ll back me word; for what does Dave Harney do but lug off me six cans, freeze the milk into his candle-moulds, an" trade them in to bill Moran for a bottle iv tanglefoot!"
As soon as he could be heard through the laughter, Harney raised his voice. "It"s true, as McCarthy tells, but he"s only told you the half.
Can"t you guess the rest, Matt?"
Matt shook his head.
"Bein" short on milk myself, an" not over much sugar, I doctored three of your cans with water, which went to make the candles. An" by the bye, I had milk in my coffee for a month to come."
"It"s on me, Dave," McCarthy admitted. ""Tis only that yer me host, or I"d be shockin" the ladies with yer nortorious disgraces. But I"ll lave ye live this time, Dave. Come, spade the partin" guests; we must be movin"."
"No ye don"t, ye young laddy-buck," he interposed, as St. Vincent started to take Frona down the hill, ""Tis her foster-daddy sees her home this night."
McCarthy laughed in his silent way and offered his arm to Frona, while St. Vincent joined in the laugh against himself, dropped back, and joined Miss Mortimer and Baron Courbertin.
"What"s this I"m hearin" about you an" Vincent?" Matt bluntly asked as soon as they had drawn apart from the others.
He looked at her with his keen gray eyes, but she returned the look quite as keenly.
"How should I know what you have been hearing?" she countered.
"Whin the talk goes round iv a maid an" a man, the one pretty an" the other not unhandsome, both young an" neither married, does it "token aught but the one thing?"
"Yes?"
"An" the one thing the greatest thing in all the world."
"Well?" Frona was the least bit angry, and did not feel inclined to help him.
"Marriage, iv course," he blurted out. ""Tis said it looks that way with the pair of ye."
"But is it said that it _is_ that way?"
"Isn"t the looks iv it enough ?" he demanded.
"No; and you are old enough to know better. Mr. St. Vincent and I--we enjoy each other as friends, that is all. But suppose it is as you say, what of it?"
"Well," McCarthy deliberated, "there"s other talk goes round, "Tis said Vincent is over-thick with a jade down in the town--Lucile, they speak iv her."
"All of which signifies?"
She waited, and McCarthy watched her dumbly.