He had noted everything as the girl had come down the gangway. The height, the graceful carriage in the long plucked-beaver coat which terminated just above the trim ankles in their silken, almost transparent, hose. Not even at Captain Hardy"s p.r.o.nouncement of her name had he yielded a sign. And yet--
"Miss--Nancy McDonald?"
Bat"s tone had lost its usual roughness. His mind had leapt back over many years to a time when he had been concerned for that name in a way that had stirred him to great warmth. He smiled. It was a baffling, somewhat derisive smile.
"You"re the lady representing the--Skandinavia?" he added.
"Why, yes," Nancy cried, "and I feel I want to thank you for the privilege of obtaining even an outside view of your wonderful, wonderful place here."
Bat raked thoughtfully at the stubble on his chin.
"If you feel that way, Miss, it"ll hand me pleasure to show you and tell you about things," he said. "You come right out of what the folks around here like to call the enemy camp, but it don"t matter a little bit. Not a little bit. The whole of Sachigo"s standin" wide open for you to walk through." Then he dashed his hand across his face to clear the voracious mosquitoes. "But if we stop around here mor"n ha"f another minute, the memory you"ll mostly carry away with you from Labrador"ll be skitters--an" nothing much else. Will you come right along up to Mr.
Sternford"s office? It"s quite a piece up the hill, which helps to keep it clear of skitters an" things?"
Nancy laughed. Her early impression of the super-lumberjack had pa.s.sed.
The man"s smile was beyond words in its kindliness. His deep, twinkling eyes were full of appeal.
"Why, surely," she a.s.sented. "If you"ll show me the way I"ll be glad.
The flies and things are certainly thick, and as I intend leaving Sachigo with happy memories, well--"
"Come right along. I"m here for just that purpose."
As they made their way up the woodland trail they talked together with an easy intimacy. Nancy was young. She was full of the joy of life, full of real enthusiasm. And this rough creature with his ready smile appealed to her. His frank, open way was something so far removed from that which prevailed under the Skandinavia"s rule.
For Bat, the walk up from the quayside was one of the many milestones in his chequered life. He talked readily. He listened, too. But under it all his thought was busy. The mystery of Father Adam"s letter was no longer a mystery. He understood. But he was also puzzled. How had this thing come about? How had Father Adam learned of this visit? How had this girl become representative of the Skandinavia? A hundred questions flashed through his mind, for none of which he could find a satisfactory answer. But he smiled to himself as he thought of that last line in Father Adam"s letter. "Treat her gently--firmly, yes--but very gently.
You see, she"s a--woman."
It was a moment likely to live with both in the years to come. For Nancy it was at least the final stage of her apprenticeship, the pa.s.sing of the portal beyond which opened out the world she so completely desired to take her place in. Did it not mean the moment of shouldering the great burden of responsibility she had so steadfastly trained herself to bear? For Bull Sternford it had no such meaning. His powers had long since been tested. As a meeting with the representative of a rival enterprise it was merely an incident in the life to which he had become completely accustomed. Its significance lay in quite another direction.
Bat had taken his departure. He had witnessed the meeting of Nancy with this protege Father Adam had sent him from the dark world of the forests. And his witness of it had been with twinkling eyes, and the happy sense of an amus.e.m.e.nt he had never looked to discover in the presence of a representative of the Skandinavia. In an unexpressed fashion he realised he was gazing upon something in the nature of a stage play.
He had found Bull transformed. The office suit was gone. The man"s hair was carefully brushed. He even suspected the liberal use of soap and water. And then, too, the heavy, rough boots had given place to shining patent leather. The youth and human nature of it pleased him. So he had departed to the workshops below with a voiceless chuckle, and a greater appreciation of the inevitability of the things of life.
Apart from Nancy"s appreciation of that meeting, the woman in her sought to appraise the man she beheld. Her impression was far deeper than she knew. The height and muscular girth she beheld left her with a feeling that she was gazing upon one of the pictures her school-girl mind had created for the great men of Greek and Roman history. The clean-shaven, clear-cut face, with its fine eyes and broad brow, its purposeful mouth; these were details that had to be there, and were there. And somehow, as she realised them, and the sense of the man"s power and personality forced itself upon her, her original confidence still further lessened, and she wondered not a little anxiously as to the outcome of this interview she had sought.
As for the man, his eyes had calmly smiled his spoken greeting. His handshake had been conventionally firm. But behind the mask of it all was one great surge of feeling. The vision of a beautiful, fur-coated figure, with the peeping lure of pretty ankles, the warm cap pressed low on the girl"s head as though endeavouring to hide up the radiant framing of the sweetest, most beautiful face he felt he had ever seen, dealt all his preconceived purpose for the interview one final, smashing blow.
"I"m real glad to welcome you to Sachigo," he had begun. Then in a moment, the conventional gave place to the man in him. "But say," he added with a pleasant laugh, "we"ve a big piece of talk to make. You best let me help you remove that coat. The stove we always need to keep going here on Labrador makes this shanty hot as--very hot."
The manner of it sent convention, caution, business pose, scattering to the winds. The girl laughed and yielded.
"Why, thanks," she said readily. "I"m glad you reckon we"re to make a big talk. You see," she added slyly, "I"ve been looking out of the window, and there"s quite a drop below. Up to now I felt my fur might--be useful."
Bull laughed as he laid the coat aside. He had drawn up a comfortable lounging chair which Nancy was prompt to accept. For himself he stood at the window.
"Why, yes." He smiled. "I"d say it"s a wise general who looks to his retreat before the encounter. I"d sort of half forgotten you come from the--Skandinavia."
"But I hadn"t."
"No."
They both laughed. Nancy leant back in her chair. Her pose was all unconscious. She had toiled hard to keep pace with the st.u.r.dy gait of Bat in the ascent from the quay. Now she was glad of the ease the chair afforded.
"Why did you say that?" Nancy asked a moment later.
Bull spread out his great hands.
"The Skandinavia don"t usually let folks forget they"re behind them."
"Now that"s just too bad. It--it isn"t generous," the girl said half seriously.
"Isn"t it?"
Bull left the window and took the chair that was usually Bat"s. He set it so that he could feast his eyes on the beauty he found so irresistible.
"You see," he went on, "I"ve got a right to say that all the same. It"s not the--the challenge of a--what"ll I say--compet.i.tor? I once had the honour of drawing a few bucks a month on the paysheets of the Skandinavia. And folks reckoned, and I guess I was amongst "em, that Skandinavia said to its people: "Make good or--beat it." That being so it makes it a sure thing they"re not liable to leave you forgetting who"s behind you."
His smile had gone. He was simply serious. This man had worked for her people, and Nancy felt he was ent.i.tled to his opinion.
"That"s going to make my talk harder," she said. "I"m sorry. But there,"
she went on. "It doesn"t really matter, does it? Anyway I want to tell you right away of the craze the sight of your splendid Sachigo has started buzzing in my head. Say, Mr. Sternford, it beats anything I ever dreamed, and I want to say that there"s no one in the Skandinavia, from Mr. Peterman downwards, has the littlest notion of it. It"s not a mill.
It"s a world of real, civilised enterprise. And it"s set here where you"d look for the roughest of forest life. I just had no idea."
It was all said spontaneously. And the pleasure it gave was obvious in the man"s eyes. He nodded.
"Yes," he said. "The construction of this mill, here on Labrador, isn"t short of genius by a yard. And the genius of it lies where you won"t guess."
Nancy"s pretty eyes were mildly searching.
"You"re the head of Sachigo," she suggested.
Bull"s eyes lit.
"Sure," he cried, "an" I"m mighty proud that"s so. But I"m not the genius of this great mill. No. That grizzled, tough old lumberman who toted you along up from the quayside is the brain of this organisation.
He"s a--wonder. There"s times I want to laff when I think of it. There"s times I"m most ready to cry. You see, you don"t know that great feller.
I"m just beginning to guess I do. He"s a heart as big as a house, and the manner to scare a "hold-up." He"s the grit of a reg"ment of soldiers and the mutton softness of a kid girl. He"s the brain of a Solomon, and the illiteracy of a one day school kid. He"s all those things, and he"s the biggest proposition in men I"ve ever heard tell about. It"s kind of tough. Don"t you feel that way? He"ll suck a pint of tobacco juice in the day, and blaspheme till your ears get on edge. And while your folks are guessing he"ll put through a proposition that "ud leave ha"f the world gasping."
Nancy stirred. This man"s whole-hearted appreciation of another was something rather fine in her simple philosophy. The last thing she had contemplated in approaching the head of a rival enterprise was such talk as this. But somehow it seemed to fit the man. Somehow as she noted the squarely gazing eyes, and the power in every line of his features, she realised that whatever lines he chose to talk on, nothing could change the decision lying behind it all. She liked him all the better for that, and found herself drawing comparison between him and Elas Peterman to the latter"s detriment.
"I like that," she cried impulsively. Then the colour rose in her cheeks at the thought of her temerity. "I guess he"s all you say. Maybe some day I"ll hear his side of things. I"d like to. You see--I felt I"d known him years when he brought me in here. Maybe you won"t understand what that implies."
"I think I do."
Bull stood up from his chair and pa.s.sed round his desk.
"Here, say, Miss McDonald," he went on, in his keen fashion. "You come from Skandinavia. And I guess you come on a pretty stiff proposition.
It"s going to be difficult for you to hand it me. Maybe you"re young in the game. Well, it doesn"t matter a thing. Now we"re going to start right in talking that proposition, and I"m going to help you. But before that starts I just want to say this. You, I guess, are going right back on the _Myra_ and she sails to-morrow, sundown. That means you"ll stay a night in Sachigo--"