For all that, she did not mean to give up. She had fought hard for Bob and was resolved to win, while there was a ray of comfort. The woman she had at first thought a danger was her best friend, and she felt for Helen Festing a grateful admiration that sometimes moved her deeply.
Helen had many advantages that she could not have combated had they been used against her: grace, polish, and a knowledge of the world in which Bob had lived. But Helen was on her side. Sadie"s admiration was perhaps warranted, but she undervalued her own patience and courage.
At length she got drowsy and forgot her troubles. She did not think she really went to sleep, but after a time she got up with a start. A beat of hoofs and rattle of wheels had roused her, and she saw a rig coming towards the house. For a minute or two she stood shivering and trying to brace herself. If Bob was driving, things might be better than she thought; but when the horses stopped another man got down.
"Perhaps you"d better rouse out your hired man, Mrs. Charnock," he said awkwardly. "I"ve got your husband here, but it"s going to take two of us to bring him in."
Sadie brought a lamp and, with her mouth firmly set, looked into the rig. Bob lay upon some sacks in an ungainly att.i.tude, and the jolting had not broken his heavy sleep. It was some time since he had come home like this, and Sadie felt dejected and tired. Then with an effort she went to waken the hired man.
They carried Charnock in, and when she had given the driver some money she sat down and indulged her pa.s.sionate indignation. Wilkinson had sent the rig, but had not been prompted by kindness when he told the man to drive Bob back; it was his revenge for his defeat. He had found Bob, made him drunk, when there was nothing to be gained by doing so, and sent him home like this. The fellow was poison-mean, but she thought him rash. He had struck her a cruel blow, but she did not mean to sit still and nurse the wound. She must strike back with all the force she could use and make him sorry he had provoked her to fight. Then, putting off her half-formed plans until next day, she went to bed.
CHAPTER XVI
A COUNTER-STROKE
When Sadie got up next morning she ordered the buggy to be brought round, and then went to look at Charnock. He was asleep, of which she was rather glad, because there was something to be said and she was highly strung. She could not trust her temper yet and might go too far. Bob was generally docile, particularly when repentant; but it was possible to drive him into an obstinate mood when nothing could be done with him. She was angry, but her anger was mainly directed against Wilkinson.
After breakfast she drove off across the plain. It was about eight o"clock, but the sun was hot. The breeze was not so fresh as usual, and a bank of dark clouds rolled up above the prairie"s edge. They looked solid and their rounded ma.s.ses shone an oily black, and she wondered whether they promised one of the thunder-storms that often broke upon the plains on summer afternoons. She would have welcomed the savage downpour, even if it had spoiled her clothes.
Sadie was getting anxious about the crop. Its failure would mean a serious loss, and she hated to see labor and money wasted; but this was not all. Knowing the risks the farmer ran on newly-broken land, she had not adventured too much of her capital on the first year"s harvest; but success might encourage Bob, while failure would certainly daunt him.
He would work for an object he was likely to gain, but if disappointed, regretted the exertions he had made, and refused, with humorous logic, to be stirred to fresh effort.
"I"m not convinced that farming"s my particular duty," he once said.
"When I plow it"s in the expectation of cashing the elevator warrants for the grain. If I"m not to reap the crop, it seems to me that working fourteen hours a day is a waste of time that might be agreeably employed in shooting or riding about."
Sadie urged that one got nothing worth having without a struggle. Bob rejoined: "If you get the thing you aim at, the struggle"s justified; if you don"t you think of what you"ve missed while you were uselessly employed. Of course, if you like a struggle, you have the satisfaction of following your bent; but hustling is a habit that has no charm for me."
Sadie reflected that the last remark was true. Bob never hustled; his talk and movements were marked by a languid grace that sometimes pleased and sometimes irritated her. It was difficult to make him angry, and she was often silenced by his whimsical arguments when she knew she was right. But he was her husband, and she meant to baulk the man who hoped to profit by his carelessness.
Then she urged the horse. It was a long drive to the settlement where she had kept the hotel, and she had not been there for some time. The goods she and her neighbors bought came from the new settlement on the railroad, which was not far off; but she had an object in visiting the other. It was noon when she reached the hotel and sat down to dinner in the familiar room. She did not know if she was pleased or disappointed to find the meal served as well as before, but her thoughts were not cheerful while she ate. She remembered her ambitions and her resolve to leave the dreary plains and make her mark in Toronto or Montreal. Now her dreams had vanished and she must grapple with dull realities that jarred her worse than they had done.
The dining-room was clean, but unattractive, with its varnished board walls, bare floor, and wire-mesh filling the skeleton door, which a spring banged to before the mosquitoes could get in. There were no curtains or ventilator-fans, the room was very hot, and the glaring sunshine emphasized its ugliness. Then it was full of flies that fell upon boards and tables from the poisonous papers, and a big gramophone made a discordant noise. Sadie remembered Keller"s pride in the machine and how he had bought it, to amuse the boys, after hearing an electric organ in a Montreal restaurant. Yet she knew her craving for society must be gratified at such places as this; a rare visit to the settlement was the only change from monotonous toil.
When she offered her meal-ticket at the desk the clerk shook his head.
"You don"t need to open your wallet in this house. The boss left word he"d be glad to see you at the store."
Sadie, who had meant to see the proprietor, complied, and found him and his wife in the back office, where she and Bob had often sat. The woman gave Sadie a friendly smile.
"I hope they served you well. When you"re in town we want you to use the house like it still belonged to you."
Sadie made a suitable reply. She had charged a good price for the business, but had stuck to the Keller traditions and made a straight deal. Stock and furniture had been justly valued, and when the buyers examined the accounts she had frankly told them which debts were doubtful and which were probably bad. It was about these things they wished to talk to her, and she meant to indulge them.
"How"s trade?" she asked, to give them a lead.
"In one way, it"s good," replied the man. "We"re selling out as fast as we can get the truck; but there"s a point I want your views about. The cheque I gave you wiped off most all the capital I had, wholesalers put up their prices if you make them wait, and a number of the boys have a bad habit of letting their bills run on. Now, if you can give me some advice----."
"Certainly," said Sadie, who thought the woman looked anxious. "Suppose you read out the names and what they owe?"
The man opened a ledger, and she told him what she knew about his customers; whom he could trust and whom he had better refuse further credit. Then she looked thoughtful when he said: "Wilkinson, of the range--"
"He didn"t deal with us."
"But you know everybody round here and can tell me if he"s likely to make good," the man urged.
"How much does he owe you?" Sadie asked.
The man named a rather large sum and she pretended to consider.
"Well," she replied, "the boys have probably told you that Wilkinson"s not a friend of mine, and since that"s so I"m not going to say much about his character."
"It"s not his character we"re curious about. Do you know how he"s fixed?"
Sadie was silent for a few moments. The others were young and newly married and had admitted that the purchase of the business had strained their resources. It was plain that a large bad debt might involve them in difficulties. Wilkinson had forced her to fight, and she meant to show him no mercy, but she must say nothing that could afterwards be brought up against her.
"Character counts for as much as dollars," she remarked. "That was my father"s motto, and he was never afraid to take steep chances by backing an honest man. Although he had debts on his books for three or four years, it was seldom a customer let him down. But he cut out a crook as soon as he suspected what the fellow was. However, you want to know how Wilkinson stands? Well, it"s a sure thing he finds dollars tight."
"Anyhow, a man can"t disown his debts in this country."
"That"s so; but if he"s a farmer, the homestead laws stop your seizing his house and land and part of his stock, unless he has mortgaged them to you. If somebody else holds a mortgage, you generally get stung."
"The trouble is that if you"re too hard on a customer, he tells his friends, and the opposition gets his trade and theirs."
"Sure," said Sadie, "Keller"s let the opposition have that kind of trade. A crook"s friends are generally like himself, and there"s not much profit in selling goods to folk who don"t mean to pay."
"Has Wilkinson given a mortgage?" the man asked.
"If he had, it"s got to be registered. You can find out at the record office, and I guess it would pay you to go and see."
"Well, I hear he"s just sold a good bunch of horses. That means he"ll have some money for a while."
"Then you had better take your bills over and get them paid before the money"s gone," Sadie answered in a meaning tone.
"If you had the store, would you risk his being able to pay all right and afterwards dropping you?"
"I certainly would," said Sadie. "I"d harness my team and start for the range right now."
The woman looked at her husband. "That"s my notion, Tom; you"d better go," she said, and turned to Sadie. "It would hit us hard if Wilkinson"s bill got much longer and he let us down."
Sadie left them and went to a new store farther up the street, after which she called on an implement dealer who occasionally speculated in real estate and mortgages, and one or two others. She knew them all, and they knew that on business matters her judgment was sound. It was plain that they were suspicious about Wilkinson, but, so far, undecided what to do. They had doubts, but hesitated to admit that they had been rash, and shrank from using means that might cost them a customer. Sadie gave one information she had gathered from another, and added hints of what she herself knew. The tact she used prevented their guessing that she had an object, and she did little more than bring their own suspicions to a head; but she was satisfied when she returned to the hotel.
When the horse had rested she drove out of the settlement. For some distance a wire fence ran along the dusty, graded road, but it ended at a hollow, seamed by deep ruts that united on the other side, where a trail emerged. Then for a mile or two, she pa.s.sed new scattered homesteads with their windmills and wooden barns, until these dropped behind and she drove across the empty wilderness. No rain had fallen, the sky was getting clear and green, and a vivid crimson sunset burned on the edge of the gra.s.s. The air was now cool, and although she was anxious about the weather, Sadie felt more cheerful than when she had come.
She had no scruples about what she had done. For one thing, she had kept to the truth when she might have made her hints more damaging by a little exaggeration. Her antagonist had struck her a treacherous blow; he was dangerous, and must be downed. Then she smiled with grim humor as she admitted that she had perhaps done enough for a time. Wilkinson"s creditors were on his track; it would be amusing to watch them play her game.
It was dark when she reached the farm and found Charnock waiting on the veranda. He looked dull but not embarra.s.sed, and there was nothing to indicate that he had been disturbed by her absence. Sadie did not tell him where she had been and did not talk much. She had found out that it was better not to make things too easy for Bob.