"It"s not more than an hour or so until supper. Your friend will come with you?"
Supper is usually served at six o"clock in that country, and in no way differs from the other meals of the day; while n.o.body acquainted with its customs would have considered it an unusual thing for the rancher to extend the invitation to Jimmy"s companion. Jordan once more glanced down the road to New Westminster, and, though none of them knew it, a good deal was to depend on the fact that he elected to stay.
"Well," he said, turning to Jimmy, "I don"t want to worry you, but the fact is, one of the lumber people yonder has been writing me about my gang-saw frame, and, after thinking the thing out last night, I"d sooner hold him off a while. I"d have to call on the man if I drove into town, and, after all, it might be wiser to keep clear of him."
"Then you had better get down," said Forster. "While Miss Wheelock talks to her brother you can walk round the ranch with me. I don"t see many strangers, and I"m by no means busy."
Jordan got down, and, after spending an hour with Forster, was somewhat astonished when he was presented to Miss Wheelock in the big general room of the ranch. It was roughly paneled with cedar, very simply furnished, and had, as usual, an uncovered floor, while the sunlight that streamed through the uncurtained window fell upon the girl. She stood still a moment looking at him when she had acknowledged his greeting, and for once, at least, the sawmiller felt almost embarra.s.sed, for Eleanor Wheelock possessed, as her brother did not, a somewhat striking personality.
Jimmy might have pa.s.sed for a quiet Englishman; but his sister was typically Western in everything but speech--tall, wiry, and a trifle straight of figure, but with something that was almost imperious in her att.i.tude. She had light hair like Jimmy"s, but there was a reddish gleam in it, and her eyes which had a glint in them were of a paler blue, while her skin was of a curious colorless purity. Jordan could not a.n.a.lyze her features, but he felt that she was beautiful, and there was a suggestion of vigor about her that further attracted him. One would scarcely have called her domineering, but she had not, as her brother recognized, the quiet graciousness and composure which half-concealed Anthea Merril"s strength of character. Jordan, however, was not too discriminating. He liked vigor in any guise, and he noticed that one of the two little girls who had entered with her clung to her hand.
"I think I pa.s.sed you twice in Vancouver one day a month or two ago,"
she said.
Jordan made her a little inclination, and his Western candor was free alike from awkwardness or any hint of presumption.
"Then I didn"t see you. If I had done so, I should certainly have remembered it."
Eleanor laughed, and turned to the others. "It"s ten minutes since Jake called you. Will you sit here, Jimmy, with Mr. Jordan next to you? Mrs.
Forster is away just now."
She moved to the head of the table, and the usual ranch supper of pork, potatoes, flapjacks, hot cakes, desiccated fruits, and green tea was brought in. Forster, who appeared to be a man of education, made an excellent host, but it was Eleanor and Jordan who led most of the conversation, and there was delicacy as well as keenness in their badinage. Almost an hour had pa.s.sed before the party rose, which was a very unusual thing in that country, for the Westerner seldom wastes much time over his meals. Then, as it happened, it was Jimmy who walked round the ranch with Forster, while Jordan sat on the veranda with Eleanor and the little girls while the shadows of the firs crept slowly up to it. They talked about a good many things, while each felt that they were just skirting a confidence, until the little girl who sat next to Jordan looked up at him gravely.
"Why don"t you go and see the cows with father and the other man?" she asked.
Jordan laughed, but he looked at Eleanor. "Well," he said, "for one thing, I guess it"s a good deal nicer here."
Miss Wheelock met his glance with a directness which, had his disposition and training been different, he might have found disconcerting. She was, like himself, absolutely devoid of affectation, and he felt that she was quietly making an estimate of him. Still, there was not a great deal in his character that he had occasion to hide from any one, and the evident sincerity of his observation was in itself an excuse for it. It was characteristic of the girl that she let it pa.s.s, not with the obvious intention of ignoring it because that appeared advisable, but as though she had never heard it. When a thing did not appeal to Eleanor Wheelock, she simply brushed it aside.
"Have you met the Miss Merril Jimmy mentioned?" she asked. "I almost fancy she is the girl I used to see now and then when I was in Toronto.
What is she like?"
Jordan, who had met Anthea Merril in Vancouver, told her as well as he was able, and Eleanor"s lips set in a straight line.
"One could fancy you were not fond of Miss Merril," he said.
"I have never spoken to her; but I have no great reason to feel well-disposed toward anybody of that family."
"Ah!" said Jordan; "that means Jimmy has told you what Merril is doing.
I"m no friend of that man"s either, but I"m not quite sure one could reasonably hold the girl responsible for her father."
"Especially when she"s pretty? Still, she is his daughter, and must be like him in some respects."
Jordan"s eyes twinkled. "Do you consider yourself like your father?"
Eleanor flashed a swift glance at him. "You are keener than I expected.
In reality I am not like him in the least, though I don"t know why I should trouble to admit it. In any case, I think the rule generally holds good."
She dismissed the subject abruptly, with a laugh. "After all, our affairs can"t interest you. You can"t have seen very much of my brother."
Jordan appeared to consider this. "I"m not sure that counts," he said.
"I seem to have been a friend of Jimmy"s quite a long while. There are people who make you feel that, even when it isn"t so, although they may not consciously want to. One can"t tell how they do it--but I think you have the power in you."
"I don"t know," said Eleanor. "I am, however, by no means certain that I was ever very anxious to make friends with anybody."
"That"s comprehensible. You would sooner they wanted to make friends with you, and if no one did, you would be sufficient for yourself."
Eleanor looked at him with a chilly smile. "You have a certain penetration, but I don"t know that there is any reason why I should confess to you. How do you come to know anything about Mr. Merril?"
Jordan, who appeared to have no doubt as to her ability to understand him, in which he was warranted, told her.
"Well," she said, "suppose this man"s influence is too strong for you, and you have to break your connection with the mill?"
"There are two or three other things I could turn to."
"One would suppose as much;" and Jordan took it as a compliment, which perhaps it was, especially as the girl had not said it with the least desire to gratify him. "Still, that is not what I mean. Would you try to find any means of retaliating?"
"If he afterward got in my way--that is, thrust himself between me and something I wanted to do--I would try all I could to get my foot on him, and then perhaps keep it there a little longer than was necessary."
"You would go no further?"
Jordan knew what she meant, though he could not grasp her purpose in pressing the point. "It wouldn"t be business if I did. When a man starts out to make money he can"t afford to load himself up with purely personal grievances. If another man tries to get the things you want you naturally have to fight, but it"s wiser to grin and bear it when he"s too smart for you. Still, there are cases when the feeling that you would like to get even afterward is apt to be "most too much for human nature."
"And in some respects you could be very human?"
Jordan turned to her with the twinkle still in his eyes. "Well," he said, "if I let any weakness of that kind master me in the present case, I should be very much like the black-tail deer that turned around on the man with the rifle. Still, one can"t invariably be wise."
His manner was whimsical, but it seemed to Eleanor there was something behind it, for when he broke off a faint glint which she understood crept into his eyes.
"Sometimes accidents happen to the man with the rifle," she said. "In the meanwhile, I rather fancy Jimmy is making signs to you."
"Then," said Jordan gravely, "I"m not sure I"m much obliged to him. But before I go there"s something I want to ask: would it be a liberty if I came back here with him some day?"
"You would like to come?"
"Of course. Why do I ask?"
Eleanor laughed. "That is what I was wondering. I almost think a man likely to get even with Mr. Merril would do what he wanted. Anyway, you know the customs of the country as well as I do, and I scarcely think Forster and his wife would mind."
Jordan rose, and kissed the child he picked up and held high in his arms. "Well," he said, "since--Forster and his wife--wouldn"t mind, I shall very probably come along again by and by."
He turned and went down the veranda stairway, while the little girl looked at her companion gravely.
"I like that man. He"s nice," she said. "You like him too, don"t you?"
Eleanor was beckoning Jimmy, but the child went on. "Well," she said, "he thinks you nice, I know. I could tell it by the way he looked at you. Perhaps you didn"t see him, but I did."
Eleanor laughed, for she had naturally noticed every glance Jordan had cast in her direction, and had understood it. That, however, did not count for very much with her. She recognized in Jordan something that pleased her, and she had a vague fancy that there were things he might be able to do for Jimmy and her father in the difficulties she foresaw.
There was, she admitted reluctantly, after all, a good deal that a woman could not do; but in the meanwhile the feeling went no further. Then while Jordan and Forster harnessed the team, Jimmy joined her.