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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 MICRCCOr-V RESOLUTION TEST CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) 1.0 I.I 2.8 m 15.0 If i^ lao 2.5 2.2 2£ 1.8 1.4 1.6 ^ APPLIED IM^GE Inc 1653 East Main Street Rochester, New York H609 USA (716) 482 - 0300 - Phone (716) 288 - 5989 - Fax A THE BLACKGUARD. BY ROGER POCOCK. WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED, LONDON, NEW YORK, & MELBOURNE. THE BLACKGUARD -f— CHAPTER I ** Think of your sins, What made you a soldier a-servin^ the Queen : God save the Queen, And God save the duffer who thinks of to- morrow. God save the man who remembers his sorrow, God save the man who can think of the past, Sundown at last : Here's rest for the past, and here's hope for the morrow ! " That is exactly what the bugle said to a man who was sitting- on the edge of the bench-land in the evening calm. He was a very big man, dressed in a grey woollen undershirt, worn-out riding- breeches with a two-inch yellow stripe down the legs, and jack-boots. By his 5 <^ ^^^^ The Blackguard side lay a broad grey slouch-hat, such as cowboys wear ; on his knees a bath- towel — dry ; and in his neighbourhood lingered a faint aroma of stables. The man's bare arms were like the thighs of an average sinner, his shoulders, thighs, breast, neck, all of gigantic strength and beauty, a sight that would have appealed to any athlete as beyond the loveliness of women. The setting sun just touched his wavy, crisp, black hair with a lustre of metal. Again, his face, still, strong, silent, had an odd suggestiveness of a bronze statue, that of something Greek but uncanny, a faun, perhaps, or a satyr. The hair, sweeping low over his brows, might almost conceal incipient horns ; his ears might have been tufted ; his features defy- ing all the rules — stuck on anyhow ; the subtle devilry of his deep black eyes, the ugly fascination, the whimsical dignity ; the bearing lofty, defiant, almost mag- nificent ; and again, n . air, indefinite enough, of sorrowful majesty ; — how well everything about the man fitted one name — the Blackguard. That was La Mancha's name, by con- 6 The Blackguard sent of the five troops of the Mounted Police ; and somehow the common use of it conveyed no sense of reproach but rather of endearment. From the Com- missioner down to the smallest recruit the whole five hundred were half-afraid of him, except one man ; yet no civilian ventured to speak ill of the Blackguard, or he would have had his head punched. To say bad things about the Blackguard was to slight the Force. And the one man who did not fear this latter-day satyr, who rulr-' him as mind rules matter, was a certain nttle Corporal, who, with a neat briar pipe well alight,' was picking his dainty way over the gravel— coming down from the camp in the evening calm. This was Corporal Dandy Irvine, with a sunburnt face, a neatly-pointed moustache, the buttons of his scarlet jacket glowing like gold in the light, whose clothes always fitted, whose forage-cap was correctly poised on three hairs, whose boots and spurs were always brilliantly polished. And now he just touched the Blackguard to show that he was present, and sat down beside him without any remarks whatever. So, for 7 * ! The Blackguard five minutes, the two looked gravely out over the valley like Dignity and Impu- dence, both too lazy to speak. They were looking across the Kootenay Valley — the upper Kootenay, from a tong-ue of the bench-land made by the deep g-ulch of Wild Horse Creek where it came down from the mountains. At their backs rose the huge timbered foot- hills of the Rocky Mountains ; opposite, across the vast Kootenay trench, rose the still mightier foothills of the Selkirks, and high above the deepening purple of the forests soared the clear cool azure of the snows up into the silence of those sharp-cut Alps, reaching away forever and forever to north and south against the roseate translucent afterglow. Down yonder the river wandered crimson through misty prairies, where the trees stood in clusters pointing up, as the sentinel stars came one by one on guard. "Dandy," said the Blackguard, with- out stirring, " lend me five dollars." Without comment the little Corporal took from his breast-pocket a slender roll of notes, one of which he surrendered. 8 I & The Blackguard the'Trilonf"" ^"^ B'-I^^uard took knee ? f '^"'' '^''"'^'"^ '" ""' "P°n his Knee. I ^as wondering- whethpr tl,» Vouvl't '° '*« ^'^'^kguard.-stick to it Vou ve been fined a month-s pay everv tniyourtiL-s^LtrrtoltT ""-'' II keep up the motion," said th. sparest off I f rn^r"- ^^^^ ""'t Jo"y wen proved TharthereTn-ra^^'T house in the Tp,-r:f„ • ' '^ S"'^'"^' hoId«eoverIi;h^""^'^°"^'^"-^'^'° The Corporal chuckled ** H^„ u number five cell at ReJ„a?""°"^''°"' Number five cell be r. „,, • months last time." ' "«'^^"'"e monttltiJkr'in''' '''"•^''" ''"^^ "- tn ho u ""y g'-zzai-d. I ouo-ht off the .erL''""''^''^''^''" ^^ '-^ing doube chev L '' '* ^''''^'^ "^"^^ hi! Chevron as corporal, Dandy could 9 1 The Blackguard surrender the protection given by his rank, and become a plain trooper like the Blackguard. The summons was a challenge to fight. '' I'll keep on my serge," said Dandy ; ** you're too big. Blackguard." ** Then don't talk rot about number five cell. Here's Pup La Mancha, my brother, deserting, and you and me and that fool Pocock overtaking him at Lane's stop- ping-place. Suppose you let him go. Shifty Lane reports you at headquarters. Suppose you don't let him go, you get my brother, the Pup, a year in the cells. Suppose I let him escape and take his place, I get nine months. After all, v^rhat's uine months? I shall be blazing drunk to-night, and maybe get it again ! " " Why can't you behave yourself? " " Why should I, Dandy? Now you've got a mother. Dandy, who gets a letter from you every week. ** • Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, Lead Thou me on.' She's the kindly light, I suppose, but mine went out. And you've got a girl, lO 3 The Blackguard Dandy, who believes you're a brass saint withatm halo, which you're not, and who loves you except when she happens o love some other Johnny, which is all Je same thmg. IVe been in love, too, with heaps of girls, two or three at a Xm ""T^^P''- I have a photograph- a bum-you ve seen it in my kit-bag-of sma r col. . ''" """''y '°-^' ^-4t a small collecon which got burnt up in a les for""'" u '?' '° ^' ^°°^' ""^e or Smet:d'.°an'>^'''=^P'-''-'''^y to.e.ab,y "sfr^,.;:; --":: Lrr^i rcrd.''^'°'^^'--'^'''--er;; ''I care," said Dandy moodily. whiff a ^°l "^""'J '°""'- '^°"''''= °"'y a «fh.ff, a sp,t, and a damn like a Russian cigarette. "Russian ;; But you have people-your family." Ves, I ve got a brother in London an awful snob,-also a sister " " paper'' fuT^'t ' T ''^ "''"'^ ''" ^"-"^ -W h A k' "'-^""^^ °f Something Spanish Ambassador to the Court of St. James '-but, Blackguard ! "_ II ( The Blackguard 1 ** Is that your" ;;^es that's the Snob." i>ut from what I saw ho awful bad lot." """'t be an The Blackguard's eve^ R. u . °"^Iy- " Drop that rr ''^'^ °"^'"- about my people n. . ^°" '^"^ ''^'^ you into"^ th'T r ver tT^ '" <=""<='< wet." • -^"en you'J] get *'And you'll be snrr,. A people such swells?" ^' "^ ^" 3^our ^oi* answer the Ri^ i from beneath his Iw ^"^''^ '^'^^ -Wch hung from a ?'':' " ^''"^'fi'' gold about"^ h " eck "-rl "l""'" "' ""•^ of my reIations'"_he .'■'' '''°'" reverentlv _« T<,,K n ' '^ '"ssed it of Spain.^: J-^bella-God bless her- "Why, Blackg-uard -ir. BIood-RoyaI_a prince .. '• ^°" °^ ">« " Not quite thof r ;^^bou,d I Lo?dt7;j.r 7 i^"^"^" Number ,,07, Constable la 3"^'^"'^^ lord-ahem— you are .h . *^^"cha, my on the night'ofThe ,8^ 7'"'^^'"^- drunk, and assault^^fu '"''^"'' been Having, on thTnth^f-^^-l- With 12 b ' me same mstant, i rd The Blackguard * must be an ashed omin- >" talk bad ' to chuck you'll get ^^ all your ^ard drew a crucifix ■ chain of "^at's from kissed it less her— >" of the " English egimental "cha, my ^ having, ^nt, been also with ■ instant, set the guard-room on fire ; also with havmg, on the same night, ./ cetera.- bounds well,— eh, Dandy ? " The Corporal laughed. ''We've been together four years now, and this is the first time you told me a word about yourself. We have lots of gentle- men m the ranks - 1 suppose I'm a gentleman myself if it comes to that, " A fat lot of use it is, eh ? " ' ' That's so. What were you doing all those years in England » " I hl^""''T ^''^"^^ ^' '^^ Legation until I had my last big row with the Snob, ^ou see, I met a woman at a Foreign found ''"'^'"'"-^ ^-^"lar cat -and found her out for a she-spy in the secret service of -let's say Russia. When the Snob took to fooling around after her I warned him ; but he only thought I was jealous, and called me names. So we had a row, and I gave h.m a black eye, Eton style, fhen I had to give him another to make over between us. I took some keys off h.m, plundered the safe, told him what 13 1 The Blackguard train J shm.M anouid catch *L °b sonow he's tKmh ' "°^* '"'" his '"e Blacky.,,,. ;,f,'r/--^ora„Cr. ^oor devil ' »' ^ ^s, poor devil " ff"ard cheerfu„„ ' ^r"'"* ""^ ^'ack- «":fch hi„,sei/' tfA;:,,«°°'l up to " Nothing much -' Tu y fr^^h?" .^■■"^hing ,o„, "=;• T^e Corpora, was breeches. " There's a ^"'f- ''°'" Ms officers' mess, cam! f ""''^" at the H"; 'Duches'Tnd ?°''^«"Cityb; Wmdermerc H„. u "'"''^ over L^ Mine... " "^ ^ """"d for the Thfo„^ The BlackP-uarrl i . --"ey and sawo„f J; °'^^^ . ^-^ss the "P °" the mounta'nShT''r ^ '•■^''' ^^^ Tlirone Mine. '"^-t^e |,g.ht of the "'^^"'" he said «„ canteen." '^"'' " ''m off to the " Don't be a fn I . P°ker in my tent.'' ^^'"^ a"d p,ay What's the use P " tu ,, f'^ '"■^ hand on nJ^.^'^'^'^^uard ^""'■•e a good f^now^^f, shoulder. 14 • ^ know jolJy 1 ard "ame of the chance if ^g • We didn't ^ cost him his sador and I'm >> The Blackguard "'tl'!!!^^'' r" "''^"' ^"' ^'^^ ^^' a devil Mo?h:;Srr^ - ^PP-tment with awlj!" '^' ^''^'^''' '"'"^^ sorrowfully 'd the BJack- ^tood up to ^S fresh ? " 'Oi*Poral was '. ^'•om his ^an at the ^en City by over from the Throne cross the ? ^''ght far ■^it of the ff to the ind play ^ckg-uard houJder. ^W jolly 15 I if' 1^' ¥ I ^»APTER n " Women and «,■ ^'"e crown fh . • ^"d wine^ '"^ and war ! ^ ' ^°'"--dwine::j4";',;«n,ebe.. ^° ^ang- the Slant The Blackguard ^oys, said the Black^uarrl a u wouldn't be a soldier at fifty S Z and die for a living ! •' ^ ' ^ "^^^ BircSuld^"" ^r ' ^'^"•' y°" drink. 5^'ackguard, without making speeche-; ? Why, the smell of a rnrt . "P^^'^l^s ? Vou'd talkthe leffsoffah^ ^? °'^- " What I ^^°Y '^^^ monkey ! " What I say is," shouted Mutinv wants to take th^t '^ hofficer ».v^ LdKe tnat orse awav frnm ':«, and -e bucks stiff-legged -what r ' air on 'im ' " ^' ' *^^ '«> "Oh, keep it till the break of day. " ' ^°""=" and wine and war ' • Eh Mother Darkness? Come and be Mrs.^Blackguard. Boys, celebrate our '7 I !i 'U :l I. THe Blackguard " f Oarknes-, is ,„ . "Redding-, fo^ .^7-"-id .hare mv r 2""<^" °f the ;fc^ ''octedt an" f"f "^^^'^ '-'^-> while °:%-"' '"""•^"V "iordy ; ''a"y scar^^ ^ "Wecrow in-_i.„ . ,..,,•' "<^arecrow fm- " nave a So while the dr? , ^""-''"sted. " "'•^ Andalusian dance-1 '°*"^ ^«nd " Sing wiih me Carita ; ' ^^n<^e with me, '-'">- -ad woHd':- , £'-'>«wlhme'"'°''"'^^'«'iness. Carita ; * MerriJie, ,3 '^^^^^-^^^^e..orour.a.„essr« /^ rcJ "[^^^'ns, for ^'een of th^ 6"t straight, '" washing-,* ^^ce, while J'll have a " shouted ^nd round ' poverty. ^ for the 1 »» nd once up his 2 grand Illness ! less! " The lilackguiird The log-cabin allowed but snacp .„ swmg: a cat, as the sayi,v' "LST u I nobody had ever swunrc^at i,, "*''' 't« erection a month L kLI k " motherly „e,,ress, enterprisin^^'^L ^.h^ srin'ro? "°"^^"'°" ^" ' '"«°'d' the V y'dete ;Th' ^"',f ^-"^ P'ayed to the nC who 1' '"'^'" "r '^- A. We. round tUt.-r%^rrdt ne s wllf ";^ '^'^^'^'^ '° Mother Dark- been in"' d o„:°";;:' fj ^-^-^ »>- ou.ht to have"^abri'„:d"Vor thf t^l^ wh,ch passed current at a shilling a dfnt for whisky; but then-the shanrv by proclan,ation « out of bounds^"'"toT found ,n it meant a heavy fine •' to h drink iJlIr;^ r Punishment, and to wa^s everv ind " '"^^^ "^ ■"-' 'here Anr ^merToV^""'"^"'^"^'- "^en. lo the stature and 19 I II ■II Hi 1 i I I I T'le Blackguard st'-eng'th of an English r Y ^ ^dd the intelligence ' Guardsman dence of a Black W;^^"''^ ' """ ™P"- the North- West M "* constable of - not in an tt E^L^'' '^°"'^^- ^^-e l°/P^ than this widel^sealrT 'P'^"^^ °f>.'-'-eg-ular cavalry in H .^'^ '^^'""'•^^ framed, half.„,,«7jj; *''"« ofpeacehare- P°vver of human conlo,' " '"^""^ '^e ■"^tant danger appro" j V" """"^ " "'«« °f '*"ce, utter loyakv 1 !, . °'' ''^■■" ^ndur- These men T ft! "u '''^^'""S" courage -•^ht with son! and tT'' ^''"^ 't 'hem done great deeds ofT' ''^ ""''^ -' "^'^'^y in authority or T' '°'" ^'^''^h fvenasmuchasa'.Th °f''^'"^''«e had tale has been told at m. ^°"-" ^he .h°- a constable was sit'' ' "'"^^ «■■«' ^°^n a mad Indian ,.1 .°"'''' *° track faten his children T 1"' '^'"^^ and the Officer Command; "'^ afterwards '"" -as interrupted "f 1' """^ ^^-o- "'"^ter parade by a h .' ""'^^^ "^ a •■aRs, who walked up to 'h '^ '''^'^'"'" '" at three paces with a . " ^"^ ''alted , " What the deuce do '■''' '""'^• 'he Officer Comma„di7°" "«"'•'" -id Guardsman ^'id impu- a"> and you onstabJe of C6. There ^e splendid ^ reg-iment >eace hare- >eyond the K a time of -rn endur- ■ courage, k^'ng- the ^ each of or which Jse had The mp fire, o track ^ed and ■rvvards 'dmon- t of a iiian in halted said The Blackguard **Come to report, sir." '' Who the devil are you ? " "Constable Saunders, sir,-got my prisoner m the guard-room." tr J^H Z^" .^"'^"^ ^^""^^^^' ^ho had tracked h,s victim fearlessly into goodness knows what awful recesses of the north! ern forest, who had been struck off the strength ofthe Force as -missing," but until he earned out an almost impossible order and vmdicated the majesty of British Justice by making the most extra- ordmary arrest in all the annals of the E-mpire. Tribulation Jones, now arguing with Mutmy about a horse, was one of the seventy.five men who took part in the Poundmalcer Racket," when Crozier's froop, confronted by thousands of armed Indians charged, rode them down wheeled, charged again, scattered them and earned off a necessary prisoner, and all without a single shot being fired Old Kmg Cole," once drove a team two hundred and ten miles in two days without kilhng h,s horses, and in the darkest days ■"^v The Blackguard of the Nonh-We^t d u ■ Mackinaw Bob J« • ;^^« f anty wal, 'je !^""\'>-k against ^f-^ thirty men who in p *",' ^^^ °"e of ^"•^ three days the T ' ^^''^'' defied |r- --^. to : , iri; ^"ciian ar4' f 'tting Bull, when thev . "'' *'°""'' of t-"tory triumphan al;,r '° ^^"-^■■an General Custer's ,th r '^ Massacre of T''« Blackguard p'r^'--^- g-^ard's sto/irthe "'^ ^'ack- Present writing- u \ ^"''PO'-t of j^is ^ad o,d song cf;,ed"f ,.tt 'T" "" ^^ naughty verses, strun^^ ?"'' °^ "any tune- strung to an idiotic "Ho, there was = WT-o got ,„ .•:f:j°-<=°'"- at MaCeod ^.r---e':f .-- V . ^ ^ shroud, ^ah, there was . quarters." ^ ^'^^«' hearts at head- 22 carried enemy's ag-ainst one of defied army :es of adian -re of iack- this the lany otic i- The Blackguard *'Boys, who's this Tenderfoot they've got at the officers' mess ? " ** I found the duffer," said one of the boys just in from Windermere patrol,- " he'd strayed like a something Maverick —didn't know who he was or where he belonged to-lost his led horse with all his dunnage. I rounded him up and headed him in towards camp. His name's Ramsay." *' Is he any g-ood.?" *'No. Puts on enough side for a (governor -General, called me my good fellah-the blawsted Henglish jumped- up, copper-bottomed, second-hand, brass- bound swine." ** Where is he going to sleep ? " J Colonel's tent, I guess, unless the old man turns up unexpected ; but he's still at the mess with a brandy-and-soda and two blanked adjectived Inspectors I want to know what we've done that he should be palmed off on a white man's camp instead of old Isadore's Reserve the rat-tailed, lop-eared, pigeon-livered son of a — ** Boys, Providence has sent him here to be kicked, and shall we dispute the 23 i 'iif' TJie Blackguard wjsdom of Providence? r,, , fel'ows ; and now unll ^^^ '° ■'- you -edit with «y future :rr\'°''^'^ ^°' et us close tl,e exerlT' k '•"'" """k^- °»d voice the wordrof ^h""^'"^ '" ^ summons known as 1 ' ^'"^^^le Salute.'" a^ the 'General '«• a^?r:n'uTuV::eoLf •^°°''^'"-^-e P«"^ '■" an uproar r"' °^ beaten moniumi. "P™*"^ Worthy of Pande. "^°«' here comes the r and spieen, ^^^--al, aU venom ^na he rides like = «-s head's ft,.; „f ^ ' y" * all woe, '^^^■"'=". and his heart's S° 'present ' while ,h ^ "•e Queen !■■■ " ''^"'' P'ays 'God save I ^4 o ^*t, you dy's got drinks, ^g in a nerabJe General easure beaten *ande- venom string- eart's save CHAPTER III "Soldier, soldier, where are your breeches, pray ? Soldier, soldier, get up and dust ; Where the deuce have you hidden your brains away ? Soldier, soldier, get up and dust. Busted the bugler? Send him to hospital; Can't you shut up that confounded row? Show a leg, and no damned profanity- Get out and sweat for a shiUin' a day." When the bugle had concluded making these remarks, when the echoes of the hills were calling back their greeting, the valley stirred under its blanket of mist, the Alps blushed red to the sun's first kiss, and the shadows of night ran to covert among the scented pines. The bugler was raking up a fire in front of the guard-tent with a view to his morning coffee, the picket was lounging drowsily 2q The Blackguard f ^ome from the horse /;« 'ent ca^e s,eep, eTJS^ ^^°'" ^"^ 5>how a leg there t r^ y°" •• Who the -!! tl ^" « -"ove on 7 '^Ss ! Reveille - oh ^°" '° "''^"^ »" »vho said Reveille ? •• ' ^""= "' « --est ; The bug-ier sounded ■< r, there was a further stt.' ""' ' " ""^ Ja'f the tents wouid het 'rtL'^ '"-.'h ^- '"« the canvas flan!"' °"« .°Pen. as men came out f Ir*"" *'"-°»"' '" search of tin T • "^'"^ "^eir towel. T"-. it seemed b "rfe^^""^^-^"^ "-S "^'■^^. the bug,e, ,et tT "l""'*^^ ^ft^-"- --- to his .i to^aVstwesr 'or- A"d groom them a JJhi some hay, ^'^'^^ ^"^ g-ive them "CVll to pay " At that the troop fell In h'« curry-comb and b'ush ' "'^" ^'"th J^il^ets, some without on! '" '^^"^as ^k-n coats, all with Ion °b„°:: '"° '" •^«^'- 26 n long boots, and other- The Blackguard wise compromising their civilian appear- ance with traces of uniform, except the Orderly Sergeant, who wore correct un- dress. He had to bring parade to atten- tion and call the roll, then, after a smart numbering off, to give the '' Fours right quick march ! " which sent the column briskly away to the horse lines. Half an hour sufficed to water horses, clean up bedding, groom and feed, then the beasts were left in charge of a picket detailed to herd them to pasture for the day. The parade was dismissed, and the men strolled home to their tents thinking audibly on the subject of breakfast. ** Constable La Mancha," the Orderly Sergeant had been consulting his notes *'WeIl.?" ** Consider yourself under arrest." '' Kiss my socks ! " said the Blackguard. " Why, what have I done ? " he continued innocently. '' Done ? You'll find out soon enough." *'Yes, Sergeant— but which charge in particuU. -I've got to prepare my de- fence." *'Oh, give us a rest! Get off to breakfast,— I'm busy." 27 I'll' i The Blackguard " T"^*" ^"^^ thus ! •• said the Black- guard sorrowfully. "Thank goodness he Colonel-s away." But evfn as h^ turned abruptly towards the tents a mounted man coming up from behind barely avo.ded riding over him. " What Blackguard angrily. The rider swerved gracefulyclearwithatouchofthereTn. a hard-featured, clear-eyed veteran, gre; w.th long service, sitting his horse wi h tier ctoth'^"'*^' ""''''" '■" ^°"^h fron. t^er clothes, weary, travel-stained-the Colonel himself. LaMancha saluted in haste, startling the horse into a succession of desperate £T\"-'"^*"'^^'"y'"'='<.'" groaned he Blackguard, and would have gone on towards the camp fires of his mess, bu" the Colonel, a^hting now before his tent on the far side of the parade ground called to him, " La Mancha ' " teni.^''' "' ' " '^' ^^^^^Suard ran to the sadd-jr' '^^l""^ ^°''^ *° '^^ '■'««. un- saddle, g,ve h,m a rub down, th.n water, and send my servant." So^^the Blackguard was busy, and The Blackguard cursing until long after the breakfast bugle; but the Colonel, refreshed by a wash and a hasty change into uniform, made his way to the table set under an awning for the officers' mess. ** Good-morning, gentlemen." His kindly grey eyes had noted a civilian sitting with his two officers at breakfast, a handsome English youngster neatly built but small, perhaps twenty years old, to judge by the light down of an incipient moustache ; unused to the world, as might be known from the awkward self - consciousness of manners; very green, to judge by the ridiculous hour- geois attempt at a riding costume. The two Inspectors had risen, big Fraser Gaye, late of Carrington's Horse in South Africa, and little Gunby, from the Kingston Military School. ** Good hunting, sir?" asked the one, but the other was kicking the Englishman furtively to make him stand up. '* Good- morning, sir;" he was kicking strenuously, his face reddened with the exertion,— -'Met me present Mr. Ramsay." ** You're welcome, Mr. Ramsay. Glad to see you ;— sit down." 29 The Blackguard The Colonel had taken a chair at the say a°nd T "'' °'^^^^^"* °^ ^^- R-- Why, he wondered, " must a green youngster try to hide his ignorance w.th JZ,U^'''''''''r' ««'« speechless "No"^thV , ^ .'■"'"'""^ indifference." Mo, the Colonel turned suddenly upon Fraser Gaye, talking to give his guest" chance of cooling off, ■' the huntiSwas onl T"" T""^- •'""^ '^ ^ ''^'^ month when one has to respect the game laws. Do you know what game is alwav^ ;„ „ Mr. Ramsay? " ^ " '^^'°"> The Colonel-s winning smile meant, as h.s subalterns knew, the advent of his very oldest joke. " No. ^" for Mr. Ram' say was still speechless. ' " "None, sir." ^^ th,'.' *^°"''^^'^ '^ Mancha, are you aware that your defaulter sheet i- ("he Blackguard answered with a smile of .nnocent frankness which would ha e disarmed a grizzly bear. ^ expires, otherwise, for continuous mis recorr''H ' ^'°"'' ''^ compelled ;■ recommend your discharge. I cannot have my whole division lemorali^ed by guard"" .gr horse drink, Mr. Ramsay did haLd'T' "°- "I''""'"^ ^''^^ "^^ had halted h,s animal so far forward that the water went down muddy and foul for he other. The Blackguard favoured him on If :r'''°^ ''""'' ''"^"^^"-•^' and went on a httle. On the far bank there was more hum„i,ti,„_,i^^^^^^. ,, ^esinch the saddles after the western custom, the short of his own stirrup leathers beUer'^Le":"""'"^'' '''" ^™^ ^ ""'^ "Blackguard," said IMr. Ramsay, meanmg to be distantly affable, as be came their social relations; but the soldier looked round to favour him with deerbSi"^^^- ''''"' '----^ '^ "If you want to call me, don't trouble to speak, just whistle— so "— At the whistle a dog came leaping out from some bushes by the river. " Whv .t^s Powder - Come along, then, dear oW So for some time, while they paced slowly over the meadows and climbed the 39 The Blackguard and.. ^ T'^' '^^ '=°"'"°" soldier and the dog made perfect company, while the Tenderfoot rode behind full of bitter- ness. "^'Ltcr . '.'^y Srood man," he said at last ■rntably, drawing abreast, -the day before yesterday I left Windermere on horseback-l'd never been on the back of a horse in all my life." "So I see." said the Blackguard friticiZ ''' ''' -^- --'^^ -Aching " ' ^^' Wgrhtened to death, but what- ever you think of me I can keep my cowardice to myself." "So I observe. Sure sign of i thoroughbred!" said the Blackguard gravely. .-Now, if you pick up pfwder by the tail, he won't let out a whimper/' Mr. Ramsay looked at the animal which was piebald red and white Tike a cow, exhibited in its person symptoms of about eighteen different kinds of dog and had not the slightest vestige of a taf' not even a bud. The TenderfL tried to be treezingly polite. "Fit for the Dop-s' Hon^p r c,t,„ rj think." ' ®' ' "^"^^^ 40 er le r- t, y n if The Blackguard "No," said the Blackguard, -he's very rare-thoroughbred of his kind- the only known specimen. He's g-etting- sick of this expedition already. So you home. Powder ! " .' " you Powder, assumini^- an expression of d,sda,n hopped ofFlanguidly on three legs. Hes official dog- to D Troop," ex- Plamed the Blackguard; "draws his rations out of the hindquarters of every civilian dog within ten miles " Mr. Ramsay took a case from his pocket, and with much gravity md puppyish affectation drew o^ut a 'cigar which h vigorous balancing in^th; saddle, he managed to light, throwing the flaming match beside the trail. Ihe Blackguard, greatly amused, pulled up dismounted, quenched an incipient fire with his foot, then, swinging easily into or s'e'tt ' ir'""''' "P^" ^^"-" P--"-s tor setting the country alight Mr. Ramsay maintained "a scornful sdence. Neither this, nor the distan affability nor the freezing politeness had been q te a success, but there was still a trace of condescension in his voice when he remarked experimentally upon the 41 The Blackguard shot-gun slung in place of a carbine on the horn of La Mancha's saddle. ''Ah, my good fellow, what kind of shooting do you expect ? " '' Side-hill hens," the Blackguard waxed serious. "What are they? We have none at home." **Oh, in this mountain country the prairie chickens have one leg shorter than the other, so that they can graze along the slopes." "But then, they could only go omt way ! It sounds like nonsense." " Quite true, though ; they keep to the right. I'll show you their notice-boards presently. Then higher up we may get a few chiffons, or a brace of fichus." "I never heard of your local game. Very inferior sport, I should suppose." "Yes. The chiffon is only a four- legged bird— grows fur and teeth." " Of course, you mean it's an animal ? " ' * No— plain bird. And the fichu is more curious still. We only get hen birds now, because the cock birds are all extinct." "Aw — nonsense! How could they breed ? " 42 The Blackguard **They don't," said the Blackguard sorrowfully. By this t'me Mr. Ramsay was full of misgivings, but gaining the top of the bench-land, the Blackguard led off at a trot which soon shook not only misgivings out of the Tenderfoot, but also several vital organs, and even one or two dis- tinctly profane remarks when he lost the cigar. He was so sore after yesterday's travelling that every jerk spelt agony, and nothing but courage withheld I'.im from crying aloud. *'Sore tail, eh?" said La Mancha at last, and, loosing rein, let his horse break into a fresh pace, the delightfully easy canter known in the west as a 'Mope." ''Is that better?" *' Haw ! I could keep this up all day. You need not consider me." So they went on across the gently rolling grass land, past many a graceful thorp of pines and bluff of tremulous aspen, through meadow lands ablaze with big yellow daisies and swaying acres bright with golden rod. The air was rich with perfume from the woods, where un- seen birds rang out ecstatic songs ; canaries 43 The Blackguard flaunted their gorg-eous hues from branch to branch, and humming-birds whirring each like an emerald in his mist of wings over the blossoms of rich scented briar. Great gardens of wild roses mile by mile, steeped with intoxicating perfume, then cedars towering out of the dreamy heat, then of a sudden they entered a green twilight of forest, cool, still, mysterious, like some ghostly sea where coral red along the misty aisles great trees went up into a cloUd of leaves. So the Black- guard drew rein as though it were irre- verent to canter into church, and mile after mile the trail went upward into the shadow, steeper and steeper as they neared the hills. Suddenly the green gloaming parted ahead, framing the blue haze of an abrupt mountain ; then, as though out of some submarine cavern, the riders came into an open glade at the very base of the Selkirk range, where the afternoon sun half-blinded them. On either hand steep wooded heights shot up into mid-sky— between them a winding meadow barred just ahead with a great snake fence, save where there came forth a rumbling stream, 44 h The Blackguard milk-white because it had sprunLr full- grown from the mills of the g-ods-from the far-away glacier of the Throne. The Blackg-uard let out a long ' « halloo " answered at once by a rifle shot ; and the Tenderfoot was just in time to see a whiff of blue smoke against the big snake rence. ''Two cowboys in camp," explained the Blackguard as they rode forward • ''they've made the fence to corrall old General Buster's bulls." ''Aw— a pretty rough lot, I suppose." *'Be civil, or they'll eat you," the Blackguard grinned ; ''they always shoot at sight unless you halloo their password That's why I yelped. They're cannibals too Have you much money on you .^ Well, It s too late to save it now— so hone for the best." Thus prejudiced against the cowboys, Mr. Ramsay found their appearance dis- pleasmg. Both men wore blue shirts with large pearl buttons arranged in a shield pattern on the breast, and heavy leather - chaparejos " leggings, suspended from a revolver belt ; one pair with leather fringes all down the outer seam, the other 45 The Blackguard completely faced with the hairy black bearskin. Black Bear was a swarthy Mexican, ominously scowling, and adorned with large gold earrings ; Leather, who answered to the uncouth name Arra- pahoe Bill, was a lengthy hard fair sinner, whose tawny hair curled down well over his neck. **Ho-la, the Blackguard ! " was Black Bear's greeting, followed by a torrent in guttural Spanish, while the horses were being rapidly unsaddled and turned loose to graze within the fence. As to Arra- pahoe Bill, one glance at the Tenderfoot's baggy breeches reduced him to ominous silence. ''Well, Bill— how's tricks?" said the Blackguard afterwards, lying at ease before the tent, while he watched the Mexican's cookery of coffee and venison. I' Tricks?" growled Arrapahoe Bill, pointing at Mr. Ramsay,—* ' where did you get//^«/?" "Oh, let me introduce you, — this is Mr. Ramsay from— Clapham Junction." " How do ? " said the cowboy stiffly. *' Come, Bill," the Blackguard seemed amused, <«a cheerful specimen you are, 46 The Blackguard you confounded old grizzly. Wake up and be civil." ^ '' Mistah Ramsay from Clapham June tion, said the cowboy with difficulty, as though his tongue was stiff, "there ain't no civility whar I come from, but white men are always welcome, sah, amon^r gentlemen." ** "I am not, as you suppose, from Clap- ham Junction," said the Tenderfoot, t^hinking thus to mitigate the situation, but-thanks all the same," he added lamely. ''Mistah Ramsay," continued the Blackguard, with a malicious grin, "is an English capitalist going up to see the Throne Mine." " Huh ! " the Mexican chuckled with a snarling laugh, " the outfit of the Throne Mine is gone /oco.'' ^^ '^That means," explained La Mancha, that the people at the Throne are lunatics." "Really?" "All yesterday they fire off guns-they have a >./«." Then followed another torrent of guttural Spanish. ^*A birthday party," explained La 47 The Blackguard Mancha. '' 'Ware petticoats ! It seems that they've got a woman up there— the Burrows girl, they call her ; arrived since I was this way before." "Perhaps," suggested the Tenderfoot stiffly, <'Mr. Burrows has a niece or a daughter." ''Anyway, she's a good-looking piece, by all accounts. Wish I'd been up there for the birthday,-— I like girls." /'Come, Mr. Tenderfoot." Arrapahoe Bill was cleaning his sheath knife by stabbing it into the earth. '* Soldier the kettle's a-boil. Sling in that coffee.'' The soldier slung coffee and sugar into the camp kettle, let it boil a minute, then served the scalding stuff into four tin cups. Meanwhile Black Bear was busy filling four tin plates with a stew of reindeer. So the meal commenced, for three ra- venous frontiersmen and one doubtful Britisher who had never before tasted venison, nor knew what manner of beast had furnished it. *' More girl deer," said the Black Bear in his dubious English. " More what ? " The Tenderfoot cast a glance of extreme suspicion at the stew. 48 ii I The Blackguard IS le ;e »t a ') e e y ) 1 "Dear girl, he means," explained the Blackguard,-'" dear little Indian eirlshn? yesterday. " ^ " ^"°' The Englishman, ghastly white P-ot „„ du c^ng his breast with b'oth ha^fs "aTd walked away w.th great dignity in*; the paho7Bni,rtr":ti-: ^;°"ir ^^^- ^Hen knowing tha^t tT ^l' ^f awful jest was beyond all fear of snake he tri ""'" ''"^''^'^- ""-' even wh!; the Blackguard relished the flavour ZZ joke came its bitter aftertaste, which froze 'don't be a fool - That^dis? my VZ' ad was venison, the meat of ;he cariboo ■IP -ndeer. Vou know what venison The Englishman turned slowly looking over h,s shoulder with a ela^ce .f ^ and rap-p << i i '«" s'ance of scorn saw ,-nf ; °^ ^''^' y°" are," he said m a low even voirp uii you are now." ^" """"'- I know what "A blackguard, yes, I k„o,,. a„, 49 k , The Blackguard yet — and yet— you needn't make such a fuss about it." The Eng-lishman turned full upon him, quite quiet, though the sweat stood upon his forehead in white drops. <'I am a Tenderfoot— you laugh at me— think I'm afraid of you. T don't know your ways here, but I've read of them in books. There is one thing in common between us two. Will you fight ? " " No, — you're too small." *'I don't; mean with fists. Go and borrow for me a revolver from those friends of yours — you have your own." " You're a brave man," said the Black- guard, bantering, '' but you see, my dear fellow, I can't fight, because my business is to keep you out of mischief." '' You needn't try to shuffle out of it now — fetch that revolver." *' Little stranger, I am a dead shot, I have killed men — worse luck — before now ; while you never fired a gun in all your life." ** I choose your own weapons, you coward ! " ''Little man, over all this country, from sea to sea, there's a flag" — the 50 The Blackguard Blackguard took off his hat-'- which does not allow any nonsense. We're not in the Un,ted States just now. I beg your pardon I Don Jose Santa Maria lebas- t'an lago las Morenas de la Mancha otherwise known as the Blackguard i; your^pardon. Come, don't L a 'sHIy It was not what La Mancha said nor :rffurs"'\'"''"='"^-P°''«-'hece;tar„ scornful s.mphcty as of a great aristocrat wh.ch moved the Englishman. Rather ; Zn's'e^sT"""""' ''"''' ''^•^' ■" the .nd tlTt'''' '"'"'' ''""' °"' instinctively, and the tw .en were friends. SI n CHAPTER V ' ' Do you know my side of life— London ? " asked the Tenderfoot haughtily, as he followed La Mancha by a corkscrew trail up the lower foothills. *' Rather," said the Blackguard,—'' the mare's a great pal of mine." ''The Lord Mayor, I suppose, you mean ? " '*No, the grey mare — horse's old woman, you know. Besides, I know the place well. The Grand Trunk passes through it ; there's quite i station." *'Why, hundreds of lines go to London." ''Well, I don't know about hundreds. There's the Grand Trunk, and perhaps they carry a line of portmanteaux or hat- boxes. But I always take the Grand Trunk. More commodious. Besides, one has to have a lot of clothes for a big 52 II 1 l»l The Blackguard place like London ; it has ten thousand people. " '* Five millions, you mean." '*Oh, come off; there are not that number in the whole of Ontario, or Canada, for that matter." ''London, Ontario.? But I was talk- ing of the real London." ''I see; another place, I suppose, of the same name— called after it, most likely. Oh yes, I know, of course." The Tenderfoot raged furiously. *'A11 right, keep on your shirt," said the Blackguard ; '* I'll be quite serious if you like. Yes, I know Town— lots of relations there." *' What name ? " asked the Tenderfoot innocently. '' Where do they live ? " ''All over the place— different branches of the family, you know, but you can always tell them by their coat-of-arms— the Medici arms, three golden globes and a side door. They're mostly uncles." In spite of himself, Mr. Ramsay laughed. ''I know them. What made you say I came from Clapham Junction ? " " Where do you live, then ? " "Balham." 53 The Blackguard , I was only two miles wronj^ mv friend; it's written on you." ^' ^ ''Written on me?" - Yes, it will rub off in time, that brand of the respectable suburbs. Good old southern suburbs ! " ^ "I don't see what you mean, but vou know 3 our London. " ^ " Ves, Tenderfoot, but notj/^..,- London Mme was the jolly old London of dress rei hearsas, actors' dressing .r^^^^ au s, i^ord s, Sunday at Rich- mend Monday with the Vagabondsrat Kow, m Mayfa,r, ,n Whitechapel, on the orTe'de .''"'^'^''''"^•"P'-Spo't or the deuce knov/s where." "I never saw that London," said tne Tenderfoot gravely. '' What was your London, then ? " Oh, the City, the City all day, and or my „, Exeter Hanf becaus' "J father s that sort of man ; and in t^e evemngs, parlour games, lawn tennis! parfes.-mymother's that kindof « oman • lecturmg on minerals at the Polytechn.cs' debatmg at the mock Parlian,ent,slumming 1 Jd Id u I. s » The Blackguard in Southwark. Lord, how sick I was ot t aii-_oh, how sick and tired ! But now these woods, this life, if I could only understand,-meeting: men, real men like you, with bodies instead of only souls " "Poor little beggar! Yet I suppose here were things you liked even in your London ? " -^ "Yes, cycling, boating, the debates, the lectunng, thinking, reading, finding out thmgs. After all, it's a wonderful pk.ce, the centre of everything, the middle or the whole world." "Give me the outside edge," said the Blackguard "the jumping- off place where you look out into the dark occa- or°he '';. '"'' .'"!?' ^ ^""P^^ °f heaven or hell through the window." " That sounc";; like poetry " " And it feels like life. IVe never read a book, but I've lived-you bet, I've lived ! Great gods, it's better than books ; it's better than London, as you'll see when you get to live. You don't understand things yet. You don't know what it is to be in danger, to feel your heart jump with excitement, to feel your blood dance at the order to fire, to kill men, to be SS The Blackguard shot at. I used to like a bull feast once in Spain, but that's tame ; to fight in our insurrections— that was better. Even a dead nation must have a little fun, and so, because we're not strong enough to fig-ht our neighbours, we have comical msurrections among ourselves. We are quite bloodthirsty, and some people really get hurt. But there's not even that these last few years. Poor old Spain ! Once she was mistress of the earth, once we Spaniards lived for Wctr and wine and love, and had it all until we were satisfied. Now there are one or two live Spaniards like me, but to live as our fathers lived we have to serve under another flag. ''When you wake up, when you've forgotten all about that infernal old Balham, you'll see that there's another London, the centre of the Empire, which has stolen the fire from heaven that once belonged to Spain. We're making that Empire, we cowboys and miners, magis- trates and mounted police of the frontier, --making the new empire in Australia, in Canada, in Africa, in India. That's what It means, the frontier which you've been 56 I K:l if - The Blackguard trying, after your little Balham way, to live in these last few days." Then the Blackguard relapsed into a shamefaced chuckle. <' By Jove, I didn't think I had It in me. I'm going to preach to the boys when I get back to camp. I'll make 'em sit up, and if they laugh I'll punch their heads till they're sick." The hillside was clothed beneath the pmes with a dense wet jungle of rotting deadfall, fruit bushes gorgeous with blossom, and the immense leaves poised on viciously barbed stems of the devil- dub. After climbing for a very long time, the riders came to the brow of this lowest spur of the mountains, from whence the trail wound on through big timber for many a weary mile, gently rising save where there was an occasional abrupt slope to be surmounted. The top of the ridge was a gigantic stairway, and It was sundown before the Tenderfoot and his guide c?me to the base of the upper foothills. "I say," said the Tenderfoot, as they breathed their horses before breasting the zig-zag trail up this mountain,— *' I've been too much ashamed to say anything, 57 The Blackguard but will these people at the Throne mind my coming- without any luggage ? " **They won't mind, if you don't." " I set off from Windermere driving a pack-horse in front of me." *'I see, and the horse went back to Wmdermere ? They'll send it along with the mail or our next patrol. I'll tell Grab-a-ruot, the Quartermaster." ''I say, you've rum names in this country — Grab-a-root, Dandy, Mutiny, Tribulation, Arrapahoe Bill, The Black- g-uard. Does everybody have a nick- name? " "No; only men who are pretty well liked— or hated." "Have I one?" *'Oh, you're only a Tenderfoot,— you don't count." The youngster sighed. -They called me Charlie at home; but here— I see now." " Poor old Charlie ! " "And Mr. Burrows up yonder?" "The Lunatic, eh? We must be getting on." "Is it very far?" the lad sighed pitifully. 58 J / The Blackguard ** A mile or two. Come on." The big- timber insensibly g-ave place to pines scattering up the slope of ever- iessenmg g-jrth and stature, sharp, slender cones, black like funeral torches. It seemed ten weary miles to the top of this upper foothill. The summit was a de- solate moor, streaked with snow in its hollows, stony, with patches of grassy swamp and scattered torches twisted in uncouth torture, very small, yet looming monstrous against the waning light Ahead was a stony ridge speckled with jumper bushes, and on its brow two spots like jutting rocks. '* Look," said the Blackguard, pointing to a tmy glimmer under one of these spots; -they're lighting their lamp at the Throne." 59 / CHAPTER VI The Burrows girl was .sittini- on a soao box outside .he Throne cabin. Supper was over, the dishes were just washed of mathematics, so the Burrows frirl could enjoy the cool solitude of the hills -atchmg the afterglow. She knew she was ruddy, sunburned, and freckled ; she also knew that the effect was rather becommg, that week by week her dainty s'de^le"" '"'''"^ ''"^"'"y -"'h con": of wh.ch gave very good cause for con- tentment. As vet man ^o i . in h„. „ J- , "'^'^ "°' appeared ■n her parad.se, because so far a month's observat,o„ had convinced her that no„ s. ffi. "'^'^hbouring prospectors were she had h '""'^' '° '=°""'- ^' ^"^""o' she had been three times in love with men seen distantly in church or street The Blackguard but these had all gone blindly by, and were probably fools. Now, according to all her text-books, which were mostly novels, to every maid there comes in time a man. This man takes himself seriously as a lord of creation, but is really not at all so formidable as he looks, being a vulnerable creature, prone to make an ass of himself on the smallest provocation from a woman. The greater the lord of creation, the more abject his 'Enslavement, the more complete the co ique^c. There was one story about a yoi n;r lad -, called Una, leading a growling lio.- Mrr ^nd with a string. **I want my lion to be very growly indeed," said the Burrows girl to the stars; whereat the stars, seeing two young men toiling painfully up the trail, began to wink. ''Why," said the Burrows girl, ''there's something moving yonder. Two men, I declare, on horseback, coming up to the cabin. Uncle ! " she called,—'' Uncle ! " ''Well, my dear.?" An elderly man in a velveteen jacket came lounging to the door and stood against the lamplight. " Visitors, Uncle ! Oh, bother ! " con- 6i The Blackguard tinued the Burrows girl fretfully ; '* they'll be wanting supper." "The duties of hospitality," said the man sententiously, ''must" "Oh, drat the duties ! You never have to wash up." Then, to appease him : 'M don't want any company, Uncle— except you. I wonder who are they? Not prospectors, anyway. The big one looks like a soldier." "Mounted police." "And the httle one.^" she spoke under her breath.^ '"In this style three and sixpence,'— I've seen lots like him; but the big one is ' positively thrown away at a guinea.' " "Good evening, gentlemen." "Same to you," said the big man, reining up close before the cabin. "I had orders to deliver this package with the talking end up." " Mr. Burrows, I think," said the little man, drawing nearer. "My name's Ramsay, and my father asked me to deliver this letter of introduction." "What! From Augustus Ramsay & Co. .^ This is indeed fortunate. Wel- come ; most heartily welcome, Mr. 62 The Blackofuard > * i 4 Ramsay. Let me present to you my niece, Miss Violet." For some minutes the Blackguard sat his horse impatient, holding Ramsay's rein while compliments flew thick — Balham compliments, bourgeois civilities. He was the "common soldier" once more, Ramsay's soldier-servant from the Burrows' point of view. Then the girl came to him, rather ashamed, he thought, asked him to "get down," hoped he was not very tired, led him off to a shed which served for a stable, showed him the water-hole, the oats, the lantern, the compressed hay, and finally ran off to light up her kitchen stove for a scjond supper. "She's almost a. lady," thought the Blackguard, while he groomed and watered and fed the exhausted horses. Within the cabin Mr. Burrows was holding forth while his niece laid the table. From his talk one would have supposed that he spoke from some rostrum, possibly from a throne. " Look at me," he said majestically, — "do I look like a fool?" The Tenderfoot blushed. 63 The Blackguard Til "Answer this. Doe>: m •'"g-g-est insanity ? " ^ appearance The^Tenderfoo't went on blushing g-iven forth toX"! T"^'''"''' ^ave thae because ^/ttloatorf"""^"-^ from theirs, I am n^,^ "'"§^ ^^'Ter lunatic." ^ "°"^'"8^ better than a other day I asked on; of^^' °"'^ "'^ meant by but „T *" ^''^t he overlobif wha't th;v '"' ' "'" '^'^°^'' '° these prospectors oTwXt .H^''^'' ^"' ."'oHd outside, which^ ever L ^'■'"'^'• .'mprovements, and looked '^""'"''^ mventor as a publir .„ "P°" 'he with Gaiiieo, C StTpllU' 7 t^ —contempt, disDarpo-« ' '^^''aday -hile they hVedf hfr^H' ''''''''''>"' °f want, a commemoraV " '^'^ ^'«d -y part, I desirTno statue "'T' ^°^ ^'"^niorates rather the Se '°"- '■ving- than the ereatn» '"*"^«« of the -erlook such sCfe^n" I '''; '^-^^ ' -beneath my noticrtrrdi^;^. I Wearance fling. ors have bourhood 'ing differ -*" than a "^d treat -at them ^niy the w^hat he afford to ter all, greater esented •n the Ls thus araday nation, y died For com- 'f the d. I they ! you The Blackguard ^.^Z'^^'^l ^"PP-•^ Ah I-a second supper. This mountain air has the adv ant ^, ^ ^^^^^^^^^^ ^^ ^ ^^ Jhe supper. I entirely approve of mountain So ?>."V^' ^^""^ "^^"' ^^ ^he table." the lIhL ^^.'" '' ''' '"^"" ^"^ beans, the T^ H T ^'^^^"^^^"^ monotonously he Tenderfoot exchanging first flirtation signals with the Burrows girl as sh^ waited on them, while the Bhcklald just outside splashed cumbrously over f c ubh"" '"' " "^^^^ brickbat of scrubbing- soap. "Ah ! " Mr. Burrows sighed over hi.. second helping, which left seemingly bu a scanty remainder for the big himerv man outside. "These considerations^o'f d,et^ my young friend, "-and so on! With a last wrench at the roller towel ^ith'gtat''' ^t"*^^' °^'^^ ^"'^ '^'-" ^"' ZuA^r '^"^'^=''="0". .e Blackguard rolled down the sleeves of his grey under shirt w he, , ^^^^ ^^ .^^y unde a jacket, since he was to be the guest of a woman, and strode with loud-cfank ni spurs across the doorstep. '^'^""""g: "Ah, Constable," said Lunatic Burrows -d-fferently,..! had forgotten. I Tole 65 The Blackguard Miss Burrows has reserved some supper for you in the kitchen." The Blackguard's face looked black and threatening as he drew up his shoulders, his head almost touching the beams. ''I only came in," he said haughtily, *'to tell this youngster not to trouble about the horses — I've seen to them." *' I've kept your supper in the oven," said Miss Burrows anxiously. *' You'll forgive us for beginning without you ? " La Mancha bowed stiffly, but his eyes were tender at once when he saw the girl's real courtesy. '*I hope you'll excuse me, Miss Burrows. Fact is, I have friends at the Tough Nut Claim who want me to stay over night." Then he turned to her Uncle: ''You needn't disturb yourself. Burrows." "Oh yes — certainly — very proper, I'm sure. Your friends at the Tough Nut will"— . " For shame, Uncle," cried the girl indignantly ; and the Tenderfoot stood up. " I hope you'll excuse me too, Mr. 66 .1 ■;4 i The Blackguard supper black ip his ng the e said :er not seen to oven," ' You'll ou?" is eyes aw the Miss at the to stay to her ourself, •er, I'm p^h Nut he girl t stood )0, Mr. 7i Burrows if I say good-night. I'm going with my friend." ^ Mr. Burrows turned to him in speech- less astonishment, but the Blackguard came at once to the rescue. - Sit down again, youngster," he said gently; we II make a man of you yet. Good- night. Miss Burrows; good - night, youngster; so-long, Burrows,-see vou again m the morning." Then he turned on his heel and walked out. *'I think it's too bad," said the girl : I never felt so shamed in all my life " ** Ah, well, you see," drawled Lunatic Burrows, with a sigh of relief. '^ \ few more beans, Mr. Ramsay-just a few more. " Who is he ?" asked the girl "Why, that's Mr. La Mancha." "La Mancha-is that the Black- guard? Miss Burrows went to the door, looking out into the clear starlight on the hills. "I've heard of him. They say he's a tremendous swell. What a splendid man ! " "A swell?" drawled Mr. Burrows, awakenmg as though from some dream. 67 k,'4 The Blackguard ♦'Dear, doar, you really ought to have warned me. It's all your fault, Violet. How W3S I to know ? Run after him— bring hi i back at once." Miss Violet turned her back on him, and went off Lo the kitchen. I i 68 to have Violet. r him — on him, CHAPTER VII Just behind the Burrows' cabin the ground fell away with startling- abrupt- ness. There were just two or three juniper bushes and a patch of dirty snow, then the rough edge— then space. One looked down almost terrified into a blue mist ; and full three thousand feet below were the tops of big pine trees in another climate— almost in another world. Op- posite there rose another granite preci- pice, smooth, grey, gigantic, the valley between reaching away on the right, round a bend, to the meadow where Arrapahoe Bill and Black Bear guarded their bulls. On the left was the head of the gorge, with its glacier breaking over a cliff, and the broken river, roaring down the wall, fell into a lake deep blue as the very sky. This was the Throne glacier, the seat of 69 ill The Blackguard what seemed like a chair, with the lake at its feet, the enormous cliffs on either side for arms, the back an Alp, ice-clad, but splintering upward into needle spires, now touched with the roseate glow of sunrise. All along the westward sky glimmered the awakening summits of the Selkirks ; eastwards, across the Kootenay trench, the Rocky Mountains hung like a belt of azure mist against the sunrise ; but La Mancha, sitting on the verge of that huge; precipice behind the cabins, took no thc'tght of the day or of the morrow. A little wreath of smoke rose straight up from his pipe into the thin air, and the awful mp :?nificence of the Alps had no existence for him while he thought of a woman. Her face was before him in a dream— the face of a sweet maid, bright with impudence, a wholesome nut-brown maiden innocent. Her innocence made the Blackguard want to protect her ; the frank brown eyes made him desirous of study, that in their depths he might see what it was to be good. The Black- guard had tasted all the joys of life, save this one thing— purity. The aftertaste 70 ,.:* * i I The Blackguard of pleasure was sour upon his lips, but happiness seemed yet ever so far away. 'Mf I were only good," he said to his pipe, <* but I'm not ; wherefore she would find me out, then hate me." So he sat at the edge of the cliff, perched like a fly on a wall, until presently there came another fly stealing up softly behind ; a female fly this, full as her little body could hold of wanton mischief, to wit, the Burrows girl, who clapped her dainty hands over both La Mancha's eyes. ''You must be Love," laughed the Blackguard, ^'blinding a chap like that. What nice soft fingers— Um ! Get away, you minx, or I'll kiss you." "Ugh!" said the minx, suddenly releasing him. ''Now, sit down here. Impudence, and tell me who taught you your manners." "I couldn't help it," she said in justification. ."My Uncle is talking that poor boy to death in the cabin. Oh ! so grave, so solemn ; I wanted to scream ; I got desperate ! So I came out." "Sit down. Impudence." Impudence sat down a yard off, blush- 71 The Blackguard < i 1 f ; i i 1 i ing hotly, her childlike face full of reproach that she had been led astray from last night's fine ideals. So this was the way she was playing the part of a grown woman. Pretty chance there was if she behaved as a schoolgirl of being Una with a growl' ow! "Miss Burro. >, «. the Blackguard, ''ain't you asliamed of yourself? You've interrupted the most serious thoughts, you've rumpled my hair, you've put out my pipe, you've damaged n)^ ^^mpiexion. Nice sort of girl you are ! " She looked at his wicked bronzed face — his complexion, indeed ! Then she laugh ^^d, not knowing that every note of her happiness went through the man like an arrow. " Do you know, young lady, that I'm dangerous, that I'm a bad lot, that your mother, if you have one, would be afraid to see you sitting near me, eh ? " "You needn't be conceited about it, anyway." It was evidently no use trying to warn her — she did not 'relieve in evi , this sweet maid, but trustee herself in his bad company — ay, and trusted him. 72 The Blackguard full of I astray this was ^rt of a lere was jf being ikguard, You've loughts, put out iplexion. ized face len she ^ note of man like that I'm hat your )e afraid ibout it, to warn lis sweet his bad Clever women had played with him— had played with fire, but the v ^se ladies had been badly burned. Her v enceless littleness was not like their stron-- towers. They incited to attack, she to defence! ''Little woman," he said, ''it's time for me to be g-oing." "Oh, but the sun's only just up, and T must make amends for my Uncle's manners. I am going- to make him apologise to you— I am indeed. He shall go down on his bended knees. You must stay for dinner. " "But if I am not back in camp by noon I shall be put ui.Jer arrest, then awful things will happen." "What kind of things?" "They'll clip my ears like a dog, they'll chain me up, and give me bones to maw. It isn't as if I had a good char .-ter. A man with a good character can g^L drunk whenever he likes, smash things, r inch people's heads, have a good time ; mi m -I'm the Blackguard, so if I look cros lys at the Colonel's tent it's mutiny." " Ha, ha !~how I'd like to see you gnawing bones ! " 73 I ^■ ■ ' gW ■■■ ^UB ' — ii . -^rw " 'I The BlackgUcird •* I'll kis:-» you unless you're civil." ♦•You daren't!" 'Eh?" The Blackg-uard sprang up as she fled like the wind before him alon^ the edge of the cliff; but then she turned, laughing over her shoulder — the little flirt, at which he drew himself up, saluting as though she were the Queen. "I forgot," said tl' ; Blackguard regret- fully. "What?" asked the girl in fearless innocence. "Why, that my horse is whinnying for me. He just loves to be saddled up and ridden all day. Come, make friends with the Devil while I saddle him." li 74 /il." )ranfc up fore him then she Ider — the mself up, e Queen, d regret- 1 fearless i^hinnying iddled up ke friends m. I CHAPTKR VIII The Tenderfoot must see the Blackguard a mile or so on his way, but La Mancha took him by a new route which sloped down quickly into the timber. The boy's heart beat high because the Black- guard treated him now as an equal, almost as a chum, and this, which he would have disdained yesterday morn- ing, seemed a great condescension to- day. In his heart of hearts Mr. Ramsay felt a new thing— a craving for the rough frontier life, for the romance of savagery. A real Britisher is nev r thoroughly civil- ised ; inside the veneer of the university lurks the schoolboy barbarian, blessed with the hereditary instinct of clenched fists, which gives world-mastery to the Dorninant Race, that blood-thirst of the Vikings, that chivalry of the Middle Ages, that headlong courage of the sea 75 Il ' The Blackguard 1 lii heroes who took to water in the great days of Elizabeth, that masterfulness which afterwards created the most glori- ous empire the world has ever seen. Britain is not in Fleet Street, or Mayfair, or the City, but at heart a rough race of conquerors and rulers. So this Tender- foot from Balham, awakening in one short day, shook off the garments of conventionalism, worshipping the Black- guard because he was brave and strong, hung furtively a pace behind him as they walked, that he might gloat upon a pair of big rowelled spurs, a glittering cartridge belt, and a big sheathed revolver. That is the way of an English lad since the very beginning, and that must be the way until the time when we fall to rise no more. ''Why don't we ride?" he asked, for the Blackguard was leading both horses, tied head to tail. " Because horses weren't built to carry a weight down hill. Their knees are weak." Said the Tenderfoot fatuously, ''But you're a Spaniard, they say." "And what of that?" "I thought Spaniards were always beastly cruel." 76 1 ^;!! e great rfulness t glori- r seen, layfair, race of Tender- in one ents of Black- strong, as they I pair of irtridge . That the very ay until ore. ced, for horses, ) carry a ! weak." \ "But always The Blackguard Yesterday the Blackguard would have s struck any man living for saying much. Now he grinned. '* YouVe improving, Charlie. You'll be getting damaged presently for cheek. If I were all Spaniard I'd ride down here at a gallop. I'd ride over you to begin with, just to see the blood squirting. As it is, the Spanish end of me isn't over safe to fool with, though the English end of me rather fancies your confounded impudence." ** So you're half English ? " ** My mother was English." **Oh!" Presently the Blackguard asked a ques- tion, watching narrowly what the effect would be. '' I suppose, Charlie, you'll be flirting with Miss Burrows up yonder ? " The lad blushed hotly. "I thought so, Charlie. Halt; look me square in the eyes, if you can. The Spanish end of me wanted to ride you down just now ; it got jealous, but the English end of me thinks it only common decency to warn you. I may be flirting with that girl myself,— I suppose because I oughtn't to think of her on a regular month's fine of my pay and Government 77 «*m The Blackguard rations. You needn't look like a frost- bitten chipmunk, — the betting is ten to one on you, because you're a presentable candidate, and I'm not, worse luck. The betting is a hundred to one on you, be- cause you've got the field all to yourself, you brat. Besides that, you're good- looking in a way, with those infernally frank blue eyes, while I look like the very devil. We've each got to take our chance, and when she makes her choice, the devil take the hindmost. You understand ? " *'But it's not that way at all." Mr. Ramsay was blushing. " She's an awfully nice girl —but— fact is," he drew himself up, and added with slow magni- ficence, *' I'm not a marrying man." The Blackguard laughed. '< Well, let's drop that and get down to the Tough Nut Claim before dinner-time. By the way, when you meet these pro- spectors, take care not to let them sus- pect why you came to this country, because, if they think you represent money in London, they'll make it a point of honour to sell you a wild-cat claim." " Why did you bring me this way ? " "When that cad Burrows has talked 78 I! The Blackguard you blind you'll need a friend or so to lead you about. Come on, we'll have dinner at the Claim." Among the torchlike pines they came to a httle log-cabin, with a door and window in front, shaded by an extension of the ndge roof, and at the back a chimney of sticks wattled over with clay Just beyond, a cutting had been made into the hill, this being the entrance to a tunnel, the waste rock from which had been spread out into a terrace, or dump, littered with heaps of silver-bearing lead, all glittering in the sunlight. From within the tunnel came the steady clang of a sledge-hammer beating a bar of steel iTu ^7,.^°^^' but the Blackguard tethered his horses to a stump, and the two men sat down in a rough smithy -What's this ? " Mr. Ramsay sniffed disdainfully. - It looks like some black- smith's shop." '*It is," said La Mancha, lighting his pipe. -They use it for sharpening the points of the drills. Look here, young- ster, for fear of trouble when you meet these prospectors, I'm going to give you a dose of etiquette, 79 mm -!|l' The Blackguard ** If you meet a westerner, call him * my good man.' *' When you dine with him, criticise the food, ask how much there's to pay, and look on while he washes up. "Always make him keep his distance, and, if he won't take the hint, talk about your big relations — your friend, the Duchess of Balham, and so forth. ''When you light your cigar, don't offer him one first. "Afterwards, when you meet, give him your finger-tips to shake, or don't even notice him. "Always" — " Stop," cried the Tenderfoot, hot with rage and shame. "Do you think I'm such an awful cad as that ? " "You were yesterday, my buck, when you left camp. " For instance, just now you set off to walk this way with me because you were too uneasy to say good-bye. You thought you ought to offer me a tip, but you didn't dare." "Suppose I had?" asked the other sulkily. " I'd have thrashed you to a jelly. I 80 all him criticise to pay, [Stance, k about id, the , don't ive him I't even ot with ik I'm :, when t oflf to u were hought ut vou i The Blackguard always over-exert myself when I lose my temper." ^ For a minute or so the Blackguard watched a gaily -striped squirrfl, a chipmunk," which was playing ^ith some nut-shells by the forge. '.Cheep," sa,d La Mancha, with a queer click of the tongue. ^J*^''*=^P'" responded the animal, still "Cheep," said La Mancha again, where- upon the dainty little beast sat on end, Tnd , 7/f '"''' "P "^ f-'-y back ^ and looked from one to the other to see ~ which spoke. * J'^u^''^'" "^'^ ^^ ^'""=''^' ^' which the chipmunk glanced derisively at the Enghshman's riding-breeches, then ran up the big man's boot and perched on his knee. Hows the nut business, eh, little nian i "Cheep, cheep," clicked the chip, munk ; then, disdaining any further over- tures of friendship, scuttled off to play again with his nut-shells. Mr Ramsay sat in high dudgeon, b ooding oyer his wrongs, much tf the Blackguard's amusement as he smoked " 81 ^'"T !W ! i The Blackguard peacefully until the prospectors should be ready to knock off work at the dinner- hour. The clang of the sledge-hammer had ceased, a willowy man in long boots and a muddy complexion crossed from the tunnel to the cabin, the dinner smoke began to float up from the chimney, from within the tunnel came a sound of tapping, then thumping, then silence. ''Tamping in the charges," muttered La Mancha ; ''there'll be blasting soon. Cheer up, Charlie ; Long Leslie saw us when he went to the cabin, or he wouldn't have made a dinner fire on a hot day like this." Mr. Ramsay disdained to answer, so La Mancha smoked peacefully, watching the chipmunk at play. A second muddy man came running from the tunnel, dodging behind the ore bank, yelling "Look out! " A volley of stones came flying out after him ; a dull explosion shook the hillside. " All right?" called the second muddy man, now eagerly examining the frag- ments just thrown out. "I'll be with you. Blackguard, in a jiffy." Mr. Ramsay had picked up a yellow 82 mi m^^ i be mer- imer oots from loke from )ing, ered oon. V us Idn't like o La f the ning ; ore ey of dull uddy frag- with illow 4 # The Blackguard object from the bench beside him, some- thmg which might have been a very big stick of barley sugar, yet felt rather like wax. ''Give that to me," said the Black- guard; then, seeing that the other re- sented his tone of command, he made a rapid grab at the stick. Indignant because of the treatment he received at the hands of a man who had unconsciously flattered him into a feeling of equality and friendship, the Tenderfoot swung the yellow stick over his head with a rapid aim at the squirrel. "Take care," said the Blackguard,— "that's dynamite." It was too late. The stick had already flown from the youngster's hand, was swirling across the smithy. Then a red flower seemed to bud in the air, which became a gigantic blossom growing- filling all the world, scorching hot. The Blackguard opened one eye, then the other, lazily observant of the two prospectors, who were lifting away the ruins of their smithy. ' ' How's that Tenderfoot ? Is he dead ? " 83 If I 1^ The Blackguard Shorty answered, with a gulp in his throat, "So, you're aHve ? That's good." "But the Tenderfoot ? " ** Oh, we got him out all right." Shorty was wrenching at a small beam which lay across La Mancha's shoulder. " No bones broken ; but he hasn't woke up. Here, that takes the weight off you. How do you feel ? " " Middling," said the Blackguard, clos- ing his eyes again. "Are the horses all right?" " Only scared." "Ride up, one of you ; fetch the Burrows girl with some tintacks and the family gum-pot. Right arm broken above the elbow. Just like my con- founded luck. They'll fine me another month's pay for — breaking — leave." And then he fainted. • ••••• The Blackguard groaned as he woke up. " Beg pardon, didn't mean to," he said; then opening his eyes, "Are you the Burrows girl, or a Christmas-card angel ? " Miss Violet's eyes were red as she bent over him, holding a half-empty flask. 84 The Blackguard •• If you're a woman," he said, '* please kiss me." She did. "Thanks. You're a very nice girl. Do you know how to do what you're told ? " She nodded, trying to smile, which was difficult, because her lips would curl the wrong way. '^Then," he said, ''take two sticks of wood, cover them all over with cotton wool, bind it down even with bandages, then strap them on either side of my arm, while Shorty and Long Leslie pull the bones out straight. Under- stand ? " 'Tm awfully frightened," whispered Miss Violet. "Be frightened afterwards, not now. 1 always come to grief whenever I try to be good, i promise I won't ever do it again ; but be quick, my dear, and while you're making the splints get somebody to pour cold water on the swelling." "How's that silly ass.^" he asked tenderly, while the work went forward ; and it was the Tenderfoot who answered tearfully, ''The silly ass is ashamed." S5 Jf'f . m '■: :■ m 'J* CHAPTER IX "Sir,— I have the honour to inform you that Mr. Ramsay has been delivered in good condition at he Throne Mine. I regret to add that he has broken my left arm with a stick of dynamite which he threw at a chipmunk, now deceased. 1 will report to-morrow. "I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, Jose las MoRfiNAs de la Mancha, Constable. " The Officer Commanding, Wild Horse Cree)i, Kootenay, R G " This letter, written with pain and diffi- culty on a piece of wrapping paper, was put, by the Blackguard's directions, into one of the saddle-bags of Mr. Ramsay's horse. '* Mako her head fast by a check-rein to the horn of the saddle," he said 86 > ^ u. The Blackguard '' :.ash the animal on the hindquarters, then turn her loose on the down trail. Since she can't feed until the check-rein's unfastened, she'll go straight to camp, unless she's a born fool." He was sitting in front of the log-cabin, his arm in splints and a sling, while the prospectors, Long Leslie and Shorty, fol- lowed these instructions as to the horse. When the mare was gone, to the extre- disgust of La Mancha's huge black ch ger, he looked from one to the other ^i the two miners. ''Prospectors' luck," he said regret- fully. ''Your hipmunk, now demised, had a nibble of Hour a day, while I eat bv the bushel." ^ '' I guess we can stand it," said Shorty; ''you needn't growl till your told." "Prospectors' luck," said Long Leslie wistfully, - brings a jolly good fellow to remind us we're still alive. It's your turn. Shorty, to wash up— I'm going to smoke." So he sat down beside the Blackguard, not the less enjoying his after-supper pipe because his partner must do the dirty work of the day. "We've been getting lonesome these 87 MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) 1.0 I.I 1.25 4.5 5.0 163 2.8 i;^ SitAU 3.2 M 4.0 1.4 i2.5 2.2 2.0 1.8 1.6 A APPLIED IIVMGE Inc ~^ 1653 East Main Street g%JS Rochester, New York 14609 USA '-^ (716) 482 -0.300- Phone ^= Cie) 288- 5989 -Fax '^1 til i m The Blackguard last few months," he said,— '' since the Lunatic came." " He's a cad ! " said the Blackguard. ''It's not so much that, although a Chmaman would be better company. Shorty doesn't mind, he's used to it ; but I g-et thinking, and thinking. What does it all amount to — this life? " '* It's jolly good fun while it lasts." ''For you—yes. I used to say the same in my college days, but now— Do you know. Miss Burrows talked with me to-day for the first time. Before that her greetings were like mine to a horse when I stroke its nose. I'm not thirty yet, but from her point of view I don't count." '' I think," said the Blackguard, '' that the symptoms demand a pill. How is our tongue .^— our pulse ? Um ! —ah !— we shall get over it. But seriously, why don't you scratch up a fight with some- body-say, with Shorty? That would do you a world of good." *' You're a rare good sort. Blackguard, but you don't seem to understand. This Tough Nut Claim is as good as claims go—nme feet of passable wet ores run- 88 The Blackofuard the ning a steady average of thirty-five dollars a ton ; but until we get shipping facilities It might as well be at the North Pole. There'll be a railroad through the valley in, say, ten years. Suppose we sell out then at fifty thousand— I shall be forty then, and the only reading matter mean- while is the JVcw Fork Police Gazette, with a number of the Century perhaps once in six months. It isn't good enough." " By George, when a prospector gets the blues he's worse than an old soldier. Go on, if it does you good." ** I should have been all right but for Burrows yonder, with plenty of cariboo, not a few grizzlies ; and these summits would knock the spots out of the Alpine Club. But the Lunatic, as we call him, has put us all out of date. It's all very well sneering at new ideas, out his me- thods are further above our heads than American quartz-mining is above the fuddling of the old Spanish colonists. They had ladder shafts, buckets for pump- ing, an arastra for milling; we have common sense tunnelling, and send sorted ores to the smelter. Burrows 89 I* ; fit The Blackguard sneers at our fissure veins, and quarries the bare country granite. Of course, I knew all along- that whole mountain ranges run a dollar and a half to the ton, but I didn't care while milling cost two dollars a ton. This man is a heaven-born genms, who can mine, mill, and render his gold into ingots for only a dollar a ton." The Blackguard whistled. '< If that's true," he said, *' the man's got a corner on gold— why, it's awful ! " *' Archimedes said that he could capsize the planet if he had leverage. This man ha> leverage ; capitalise his idea, get the place in the Sierras where there are the best conditions of labour, power, freight- ing, gradients, and a seaport ; then turn him loose because he has the philosopher's stone which can transmute whole ranges of mountains into gold." *' He's such a cad, too," said the Black- guard. *' But howdid you find him out?" ''Worked in his mill last winter until he sacked me for calling him a maniac. I did that to draw him out, and once he started bragging in self-defence I had the key to his machinery. He has two 90 The Blackguard rotary fans which get up a small cyclone between them. Into that cyclone he throws scraps of rock, and the dust of sharp-edged granite crystals cuts the stones to powder before they have time to drop. He put in a crowbar once, and I actually saw that inch-thick steel shat- tered into dust." '' Seems to me," said the Blackguard, " that my Tenderfoot is in for something good." *'So I suspected, but would capitalists send out a young fool like that ? " *' Oh, I don't know. He's full of ig- norance and bliss, but he learns quickly, doesn't get scared, keeps his mouth shut. Besides, he's honest." Something made La Mancha look round, and there in the twilight, coming down out of the woods, were Miss Bur- rows and Mr. Ramsay, hand-in-hand. e infantile innocence of their faces maU^ him laugh : the willowy prospector, rather than embarrass any approaching fun, dodged into the shanty ; so, when the enraptured couple stood before him, the Blackguard sat alone. '*We thought we ought to tell you 9t i) . The Blackguard first," the Tenderfoot simpered, blushing hotly ah over,—'' we are engaged." ''Oh!" said the Blackguard gravely, " since when? " '< Why, ever so long ago," Miss Bur- rows sighed, "this afternoon. Won't you congratulate us? " "Next week," said the Blackguard, "if you are still of the same mind, you shall receive my blessing. Have you told Mr. Burrows ? " " No, he was too busy— but we thought that you would "— Then the girl's face flushed with a sudden indignation. ' ' You said he would, Charlie, but he doesn't— he's a beast! " " I know," said the Blackguard; "that is the nature of the animal. Do you think, my dear, that this young man is worthy of you ? " " I don't know," pondered the little flirt, coyly enough ; but, perhaps to prove his ardour, dropped Mr. Ramsay's hand. " Do you know, my dear," — the Black- guard was quite paternal,— "you are going to be very beautiful ? How can I com- mend this young gentleman's suit while I love you myself? I am jealous of my 92 The Blackguard ushing ravely, s Bur- Won't guard, id, you ^e you hought I's face "You lesn't — ; *ne ; but what he said or what the Curate answered belongs to them- selves and to the Almighty. 03 i!li CHAPTER XI One of the Blackguard's endearing- traits had always been his generosity — bound- less in that when he had nothing of his own to give he lent and gave things that were not his own, causing thereby much internecine strife. The only time he had ever been known to be worsted in fair fight was after lending to an intending deserter the shot-gun which he had bor- rowed from Buckeye Blossom, heavy- weight champion of Medicine Hat. But now he had got religion, and had fought two pitched battles for the right to read his Bible. Not that the boys cared much what was his choice of literature, it being all the same to the crowd whether he amused himself with the Bible, or a dictionary, or the Neia York Police Gazette.^ provided that he kept it to him- self; but the Blackguard, for want of 104 ii! i The Blackguard practice in the art, found it convenient to read like a schoolboy, aloud. Hence the pitched battles, which resulted in undis- turbed readings from the Gospels, mingled with a running commentary, so naive, so quamt, and so exceedingly funny, that the audience waxed daily in numbers, until, for peace and quiet, the reader betook himself to the shelter of the woods. Here he read daily, expounding the Scriptures to an audience of disdainful squirrels and song-birds. But to return to the matter of his generosity. The immediate outcome of his queer religion was that the Blackguard became more avaricious than Shylock. When his chum, Dandy Irvine, sent him that box of cigars from Windermere, instead of giving them all away to his friends, he sold them two for a shilling. Some brought cash, with which, and a little credit, he bought a further supply ; but for the most part the boys accepted the trading as a joke, running up accounts which they imagined to be purely fictitious. 1 hen pay-day came, when the Blackguard was able for the first time to partially 105 In 1 1'll! The Blackguard release his left arm, when, also for the first time, he had staff-pay not hypothe- cated by any previous fine. After the parade he went to all his debtors. *' Little Murphy, you owe me one dollar for cigars." ** Oh, come off," said little Murphy innocently. '' What game do you think you're playing at ? " ** Pay or fight," said the Blackguard. Murphy paid, also all the others, big and little, when the Blackguard went about smiling grimly upon his customers. But if he was ruthless in exacting cash or black eyes. La Mancha was punctilious as to the payment of his own debts — in cigars. He became wholesale dealer to the sergeants' mess and the canteen, im- ported pipes, dealt in shot-guns, orna- mental revolvers, books, and musical instruments. His mouth organs, tin whistles, and concertinas became if far worse nuisance in the valley than ever the Indians had been, but even these had comparatively little to say compared with La Mancha's pigs. Possibly the story of Daniel led to the cornet, concertina, Jews' harp, mouth organ, penny whistle, oboe, 1 06 i i ilii J sill The Blackguard and all kinds of music ; by La Mancha's own confession, the matter of the Gada- rene swine suggested a litter of pip-s bought cheap from a rancher, raised on the cook's hitherto misapplied slops, and ultimately sold at a handsome profit to the Quartermaster. All this was a matter of time, but under enormous dis- advantages, despite the delay and incon- venience caused by almost incessant travelling on duty, the Blackguard was reputed long before autumn to be the richest man in D Troop. But to return to a much earlier date When the Tenderfoot's luggage was brought over from Windermere, Dandy Irvine, who was then at headquarters, volunteered its safe delivery at the Throne Mine in consideration of leave for hunting- between Saturday and Monday. It was then that the Blackguard wrote his first letter to Miss Violet Burrows. Letter- writing in camp is always a serious matter, because the needful materials must be borrowed or improvised. When a recruit first joins, he is apt to write mainly to frighten his mother with the assumption of mythical surroundings 107 I Hit I I ill ' The Blackguard borrowed from inexpensive fiction, thus : — " Dear Mother,— ♦' I write in the saddle, on the summit of the Rocky Mountains, surrounded by hostile Indians, a sword in one hand and a revolver m the other." [Then the young imagmation flags. '' There is no news, but please write soon,-and send some money, as washing is awfully ex- P^"^^^*^- - Your Loving Son." * But a hardened sinner like the Black- cruard writes seldom or never, finding the pen awkward after shovel, axe, and gun ; so the epistle to Miss Burrows, of course a strictly private communication, was delivered painfully, tongue in cheek, head askew, with a perhaps too copious dis- charge of ink. ,. J • Miss Violet read it with such a disdain- ful tilt of her little pert nose that the blotted characters were well-nigh out of range. She was sitting during the Sun- day rest at the cliff edge, with Dandy Irvine on one side and Mr. Ramsay, jeal- ously observant, on the other. ' ' Humph, she looked sideways at the glowing scarlet of Dandy's serge jacket, then at his shin- ing boots and glittering spurs, -he came io8 >> t The :ackguard up here," she said, -in an undershirt and one of those flappy hats. Besides, he was all dusty." *'But then, you see," explained the Blackguard's champion, -he can afford to please himself as to appearances. If I were a great aristocrat I might do the same." *' A great what?" '' Don't you know? His brother is a Duke, Ambassador from Spain to the Court of St. James' ; La Mancha's cousins are mostly emperors, kings, and grand dukes ; the Cid was one of his ancestors, not to mention Charles the Fifth and Phihp the Second. Of course, he's only a Don, which means ' My lord,' but "— ''There," cried Miss Violet. - Oh won't I give my Uncle beans— I'll teach him ! " A T-^''".."'"^^ """^ "^^^^^^ your filial duties, Miss Burrows ; you must brin^ him up m the way he should go ; it's vour duty." -^ ** Tell me some more." " I will. Who let him leave the moun- tain before his arm was properly set p When he got back to camp he just 109 ill t Hi!!! -■iS The Blackguard managed to report to the Orderly Ser- geant, then rolled off his horse in a dead swoon. You ought to have kept him here for a month." Miss Burrows turned upon the Tender- foot in withering scorn. '* Your fault entirely ! " After that the Tenderfoot sulked. " Tell me some more," said the lady. *'Well, two years ago, when we had our first scrapping match with the half- breeds, we got an awful thrashing. You've heard of Duck Lake Fight ? " "Sit up and listen." Miss Violet brought the Tenderfoot to attention with a very small pebble, which missed. " Oh, this is awfully jolly, — do go on ! " "There were ninety-four of us, police and civilians, caught in a trap by three hundred and sixty rebels. They were all round us under cover in a sort of horse- shoe position, with a detachment stealing quietly through the bush to cut off our rear. We police unharnessed, drew up the sleighs in line by way of shelter, with one seven-pounder on the right, all in a mortal funk. Joe McKay, our half-breed interpreter, rode forward with Crozier to no i f The Blackguard meet an Indian who came out with a white rag to talk. We thought they would argue all day, but suddenly the Indian made a grab at McKay's rifle; and Joe drew his revolver and riddled him. Then Crozier gave the order to fire, but Joe Howe, in charge of the gun yelled out, * You're right in our way, sir'' '-Never mind me!' said Crozier. Then the rifles began to crackle on both Sides, and our thirty-five civilians were detached ofi^ up a lane on the right. One of the police boys was sent to recall them, because the snow was waist-deep when once they got off" the trail. The way was a sort of lane, with a fence on the left, bush on the right shutting oflall view of the main crowd, and a log-house at the end full of loop-holes pouring out a most awful fire. You see, the half-breeds had filled that little house with all their crack marksmen, while our boys had nothing to aim at but logs and smoke. Men were falling thick, the snow was too deep for a charge, and there was no particular use for getting to that house anyway. At last, what was left of the party fell back, fighting hard, leaving their dead in the HI The BHckguard snow. Hul one o m wa9n*t dead, only wounded, >*nd thai was the police- man who hmi followed the civilians out of shelter. He saw the half-breeds swarming" down from the cabin, Indians swinging theii clhnHed rifles to mak sure of those who were down by cracking skulls. I guess that policeman was too far gone to care ; he watched them lazily through a sort of haze, forgetting all about the full revolver slung on his belt. Of course, there were no white men left in sight, but Indians and half-breeds were swarming out from cover as our whole outfit, police and civilian, harnessed their te ns f'^r the retreat. But one of the police remembered having seen his own chum ^o out after the fools' charge of civilians, and never come back. Any other man would have tried his best to forget, but this chap broke away through the bush, waded in deep snow to where his chum lay among the dead, fired a few revolver shots to keep back the Indians, slung the wounded man over his shoulder, and brought him back to the main road just as the last sleigh was passing under cover of the rear-guard." 112 dead, pulice'^ ns out breeds ndians mak acking as too 1 lazily ng all is belt. , left in > were whole d their of the is own irge of Any best to hrough » where d a few ndians, oulder, in road ^ under The Blackguard ;; What a hero! "cried the Tenderfoot. th. '^ f "^''' ^^'^ B'ackguard, and the wounded man was mc," ^ '^Charlie," said Miss Violet after that inter^v.ew, - why are you only a Tender- *' You're always flinging that in my face. How cm I help it?" ''Don't br cross. A Romeo by any other nan..^ would-. No, a quotation IS worse than a rat-trap. But there is somethmg wrong with yoa ; I know Ike Mr. Irvme, you don't write me beau- titul blotty love-letters like the Black- guard." ' 'How can"— - Now, there you are again, flying at me like a sittmg hen when I poke too hard. I took you to worship me on approval you don't suit -you're too horrid ; I shall give you a month's notice -so there ! Now, as to giving you a character.' Of course, I don't want to be hard-so you be very good this month ^ra — 1 II see about it." H "3 CHAPTER XII Mr. Burrows was gravely disturbed. Sufficient had been his responsibility ever since a dying sister bequeathed to him the guardianship of her child. At first he had not taken the matter very seriously. The girl was at school, doubtless being well cared for, but presently, although every dollar he could raise was needed for costly mining machinery, he had to pay her tuition fees. Then the Lady Super- intendent wrote, hinting deftly that her pupil had reached an age when the chaperon might have a more desirable influence than a teacher. He never read between the lines, he was too little a man of the world to realise that a paying pupil would not be unacceptable to any lady superintendent so long as the young person was docile. The young person in question was anything but docile, as Mr. Burrows found to his grief when Miss 114 urbed. ty ever lim the he had . The ig well 1 every led for to pay Super- lat her en the ;sirable er read : a man paying to any ! young ;rson in as Mr. in Miss The Blackguard Violet came to rule himself and his mine w th d of .ron. Certainly she cost lis late rh °^ '''^"'"^'^ "^^"^ than h.s late Chmese cook ; but then, she was such a nuisance. He loved her not at aH h.s affections being wholly devoted to cer am patented steel fans in a cylinder Unhke the steel fans, she set his wilfa; his beautifully machine-made precepts distracted him with interruptions, puHed his ear demanded new frocks whi;h were quite beyond his means, and finallyrto crown her misdemeanours, fell in j^ve ceived so indelicate aline of action, would certainly refrain from two severll and concurrent flirtations. Miss Violet seemed bound by no rules subject to no conceivable Iaws,^herefore like that nonsensical abstraction, Religion stuV^'^NotT' *'^ ^^'^ °^ --°-^'e study. Not being acquainted with the actors of the love problem, or dealing „' the abstruse mathematics of whims, Mr Burrows blandly ignored the who!e subjec for SIX weeks ; consequently, when circum stances compelled him to bring to bear the "5 ni The Blackguard forces of his intellect, he was just six weeks too late. So far as he could see, which was not quite to the end of his nose, he then found the facts somewhat as follows. Miss Violet was in love, but whether with young Ramsay, or with that big policeman, or with both at once, was a matter of no moment. Inasmuch as Mr. Burrows had reached the age of fifty without loving anybody better than him- self, Miss Violet's behaviour was at once ridiculous and unnatural. She was only nineteen, a child fresh from school, her vocation in life to cook his meals, make his bed, keep her tongue from chatter and her fingers from his ears. (The fact that his ears were large and seductively ugly could not palliate the young woman's mania for stroking them.) In short. Miss Violet had no right to love, and, as to marrying, her duty was to himself. Al- most with tears in his eyes he pictured the loneliness to which she would selfishly consign him if she married. She should not marry — it would not be good for her. Then there was the big policeman, who never failed to spend his Sundays hard by at the Tough Nut Claim. Mr. Burrows, Ii6 lix weeks hich was , he then »ws. whether that big e, was a :h as Mr. I of fifty ;han him- j at once was only hool, her als, make latter and fact that ively ugly woman's lort, Miss .nd, as to iself. Al- :tured the I selfishly he should d for her. man, who i^s hard by Burrows, The Blackguard priding himself on his powers of observa- tion, found something furtive, something- underhand and dishonourable in the way that policeman avoided his own hospitality He had written to the Officer Commanding at Wild Horse Creek, protesting on be- half of the '* mining population" against weekly visits of a disreputable character to the Throne Mining Camp. This took effect upon the Colonel, who counted any dis- paragement of his men as a personal affront to himself, and, pending the chastisement ot the writer, saw that La Mancha never asked m vain for Sunday's leave. And, last element of the love problem, Mr. Ramsay, who should have been makinc^ an exhaustive study of mine and mill for his father's firm, spent the time sulking about the hills. A workhouse pauper who has dropped a penny down a grating could not have looked more forlorn. So two months went by. Miss Violet very demure, like a kitten after its first mouse ; the Blackguard spending every Saturday and Sunday night in the saddle to snatch brief hours for courtship ; the Tenderfoot perched in desolate places brooding on suicide. 117 I ir { I The Blackguard Then of a sudden Mr. Ramsay became demurely expectant, and Miss Violet un- naturally gay. Some new absurdity was in the wind, so Mr. Burrows, with the gingerly air of one broaching a gift of untasted wine, had a few words with his niece. **Come here, Violet." ** Yes, Uncle." ** What does all this mean ? " *' Nothing, Uncle." ** That policeman did not come to the Tough Nut Claim on Sunday." ''Didn't he. Uncle?" ''Why didn't he come?" " I'm sure I don't know. He doesn't belong to me. Do you want him very much, Uncle? " " Want him? Of course, I don't want him. What should I want him for? Now, answer me this — what are your intentions with regard to Mr. Ramsay ? " " I was just thinking about that." She perched on the table beside him. "The saucepan's too small, you see. Would you like him poached ? " Since there was but little change to be got out of Miss Violet, Mr. Burrows ii8 illlii &^ •i k fill ay became Violet un- ardity was with the a gift of s with his me to the He doesn't ; him very don't want him for ? are your R.amsay ? " hat." She im. ''The le. Would ange to be •. Burrows The Blackguard jnt off fuming and fussing in search of his guest, who was discovered in L . V '""°^^"t bliss, fishing with rod and hne from the edge of thf great precipice. ^ *' What aye you doing ? " ol^Tl' ^■°"'" ''''^'"'■'^ ^''^ swallows. One of them pecked my worm " s^t^r~''^V''^''"^" ^'- Burrows M ster Ramsay, I know that the^e T r-l'l d«"=ate, and require to be dealt with by a man of tact " at a^fly.-'" "''^ ^°~'^'^ ^^"'' ^^^" 'ook "I am not alluding to birds, Mr. are with regard to my niece ? " other sideways. " I say, would you mind very much f I were tn t„ „. . were 10 — to pay mv ad- dresses to Miss Violet ?" "Certainly not, my dear Mr. Ramsay. The human affection always meets with my warmest approbation-the-in fact my very warmest approbation. Let me shake you by the hand." " I wouldn't, if I were you-fact is- 119 i i i 1 '■ \ ' t I The Blackguard worms, you know. I hope you're not sitting on any of them ? " Mr. Burrows' approbation of the human affections was suddenly mitigated ; he jumped up with a sudden but strictly philosophical remark — but seeing that this matter of the worms was a false alarm, he breathed more freely, and, grunting a in, sat down. J ** No, that's all right ! " the Tenderfoot felt very much relieved. *'You haven't spoilt one of them. I ought to tell you, though, — you were so busy I didn't like to mention it before,— that we're engaged. "^^ " Since when, my dear young friend? " *'Oh, months ago— it must be supper time. Why don't they bite ? I love her desperately." '< Your sentiments do you justice. The alliance between our families will do much, my young friend, to strengthen the material bonds which are about to so closely unite my interests to those of your respected father. The brilliant future in store for the Burrows-Ramsay Mining & Milling Syndicate Limited "— **By George," cried the Tenderfoot joyfully, while the rod jerked in his hand, *« I've got a bite !" 1 20 you're not the human abated ; he lut strictly eeing that as a false -eely, and, Tenderfoot ou haven't to tell you, idn't like to engaged." ig friend ? " : be supper I love her istice. The es will do engthen the bout to so lose of your tit future in say Mining Tenderfoot in his hand. sk CHAPTER XIII Down by the American boundary a stream called Eagle Creek has cut a ravine two hundred feet deep in the plateau at the base of the Rockies carving the banks into a medley of grotesque and isolated mounds strewn with boulders, nearly void of grass whose eccentric shapes give the view from the bottom a most singular and impressive contour. The stream itself had dwindled under the autumn heat, leaving only a string of miry ponds, whose stagnant waters fed the few fruit- laden shrubs upon their margins, and be- side them was half an acre left of pleasant grass. Here were round patches, traces of camp-fires, by which many travellers in that lonely way had been wont to rest. How waggons got aown the trail to the bottom without accident is one of the many wonders of the West. 121 JXA ! ; I iii in The Blackguard The sun was set behind the Selkirks, the wind was sinking, the air had a blue dryness blown from some forest fire ; heavy, sultry enough lo make all nature sulk. Foxes were dodging about from cover to cover, a crane stood melancholy in the untroubled water, meditating on one leg, hopeless of even a desultory minnow by way of supper. A cloud of dust arose behind the southern boundary of the ravine, the crane flapped sorrow- fully away, hearing a distant tramp of horses, and presently a mounted man in bright cavalry uniform rode to the edge of the hills, standing out against the deepening sky a beautiful silhouette, motionless as a statue. Then, two by two, came twenty mounted men, each with a rifle poised on the horn of his Mexican saddle, and many a glittering point of brass and steel about his harness. At a word of command they dismounted to advance, leading their horses down the slope ; while behind them appeared five waggons, each carrying two men, and a rear-guard of two, who lingered a bit to be clear of the dust which arose in clouds from the groaning wheels of the 122 The Blackguard Selkirks, id a blue est fire ; 11 nature 3ut from ilancholy ating" on desultory cloud of boundary I sorrow- tramp of i man in the edge Linst the ilhouette, , two by en, each rn of his glittering ; harness, smounted down the jared five nen, and red a bit arose in ;ls of the transport. Some of these riders wore canvas clothes adorned with brass buttons some buckskin suits, or blue flannel shirts,' or old red jackets, according to thepleasure of the wearers. All had riding-boots spurs, leather belts carryinga row of brass cartridges, and big revolvers with a Ian- yard buckled to the butts, and passing over one shoulder. ^ Reaching the level land at the bottom the mounted men formed up in line, and the waggons drew up behind them, forty feet apart ; a rope was stretched alon^ the waggon line, then, leaving his saddle at the dismounting point, each trooper had made his horse fast to the -ope before ever the teams were unharnessed. Mean- while three men from the transport had selected a spot by some bushes where an iron bar was set on uprights five feet apart ; and, before the sound of axes had ceased in the bush behind, three full camp kettles swung over a roaring fire. A bell tent was pitched for the ofiicer in command Inspector Fraser Gaye ; the horses wero watered, groomed, fed with a liberal ration of oats ; then, at a last merry call from the bugle, there was a general dash to the 123 The Blackguard I n Ml!' III. "5'i|f1 waggons for plates and cups, and knives were whipped from belt or bootleg, ready for an astonishing slaughter of fried pork and hard tack, mitigated with lashings of scalding tea. The meal was followed by an uplifting of delicate grey smoke toward the clouds, and a lively fire of chaif in most of the British and American dialects. At times the whole crowd would turn upon one or two who dared to converse in their native French-Canadian patois, •* A wuss Nitchie! Can't you talk white? Get away back to your reserve, or behave like a whi^e man, you mongrel ! " But all this was silenced presently, because the horses must be hobbled, or picketed out for the night, and a guard of three men was detailed to watch by turns until sunrise. Blankets were beinsr spread out along the saddle line, and in and under the waggons ; first post sounded, last post sounded, then the third of the bugle melodies. ''That's all, boys. Dream of the girls you've lost. Lights — out ! " So the last sad notes echoed away along the sterile hills, and there was silence under the starlight. 124 I ! M'l; The Blackguard The horses were pullinp- it tu^ I or roving about with^ qdfk Ih^ ^^1' ^^ ueastS, so the '* n clrpf " .^ n , back to the dying fire dr^nt ,..\"^°"'^d '" h.s p,pe, and stood thinking. H Vo^v i ^"^-"^^ g^ig^antic against the l! ht his fa^^ rpottst/h- "."^ "^''' ^"'■"™-<^^ "Po la^iir h blks ;r^-^^',r ""^ he kicked fi,„ a 7 "'^ smouldering logs till 8-uard ! His thoughts were bitter that fid ''CT/"'' "' ''^ -nnocent-seemtg trusted In r^^" '° '°^<^- =^"d stiU trusted lovmgly, until under the P-irl'« frank aue-h hp hu.^ , ^irl s flirting 11 '^'^" "'^ woman's ""-ting. She was a woman-playinr. fa,t and loose-Miss Violet the Vixen jrf sponsible The Blackguard's St waj u. fpTrit' o^ '" "."^-^'-'^-^. a wonder- lui spint of passionate tenderness com pass,onateforgiveness,andIargetoerancT The surface of him waq ^n u .uaint devilry, the^I^h of hil^^ Ueh' 12^ The Blackguard I i!| !M'i love and curious wisdom. She had tried to play with him the game of cat and mouse ; so, smiling inly at her mistake, he had gone away, sending no word or giving any sign. When the cat wanted her mouse again, when she longed for him and could not do without him, she would send him a sign. If not — the Blackguard sighed over his pipe. Perhaps he had been good through these summer months to no purpose ; a lot of genuine religion had very likely, it seemed, been wasted, desperate efforts after wealth and respectability all thrown away. In that case, a couple of weeks hence, when his five years expired, he would spend the money he had made and saved in giving the " boys " a lively night or two, then re-enlist and be as bad as he pleased. But yet, if she would send a sign. He looked up, hearing the crackle of a twig. ** Halt — who goes there ? " he cried. "All right !" came a shaky voice out of the darkness. *' Advance, and be recognised ! " "Eh?" 126 i> '■ The Blackgiard '^Advance, or I fire !" "Oh, ^ive us a rest ' "Allriyht," he said "Arl„. be damned. Who are you >^ ' ""'^ "Hello, Blackfi-uard ' Ti,„ I want-r« Lonjf Lesi;; •. ^""^ '"•''" oit down, old chin n i the tea kettle. wT u "^ y°"'''^"'°'" " 1'^ r ■ ' ''°^ are thin.rs > " I m fencing for General Buster " " • . • Leshe, — " o-nt t,^ ^„ ""ouster, said the T;ugh Nut." °"'' '''""=■■ ^'"^ •" "How's the claim 5" streaktrat th'^"!!' °" ^ ^P'-^"^ P-'X -tact pVposSLt^r ",,-"• ^'-- assessments, anyway o.^'^^^ ^°«h are both ^^orkiZat^J'' """^ "'" I heard your bTgL f,r;r "',"'"-•" stroll over n thouyhc I'd Plains .P" ""^ "P '■"■"■n Tobacco "Ves, bound north again." J guessed you were win, tu- "Thanks, ofd man" ^''°""''- "I hear that Arrapahoe ' Bill is ;„ 127 ♦ I r 1 III ■ill '4 I »ll m 'I lOlli >l I'fll' !l( The Blackguard trouble up at the bull pasture on Throne Creek." •* What's the old tough gaoled for this time ? " '*Not that. He seems to have been having a scrapping match with a grizzly bear, but I haven't heard if he'll live." *' Poor devil ! Any other news ? " **Oh yes, that Tenderfoot of yours is making the fur fly." '' What fur?— the Burrows girl ? " *' Yes ; they're to be married before the month end, according to the Lunatic. By the way, I've got something of yours. She asked me to hand it over if I met you. Here." A Mounted Police button dropped into La Mancha's hand, but he said nothing. ** The bush fires are bad this fall on the upper Kootenay." '* Yes, and on the Mooyie. Bitt's was burned out last week." '' Serve him right for a good-for-nothing greaser. Well, I must be getting home. Long day to-morrow. Kind regards to the boys. Good-night, old chap." "Good-night." When the time came the Blackguard 128 >n Throne 3d for this lave been I a grizzly live." f yours is irl ? " before the atic. By 3f yours, if I met 3ped into nothing. all on the Jitt's was r-nothing ig home, gards to The Blackguard ). >> Lckguard '"■■" was the morninrw fu '^^^ ^^ose "'S-ht on account ofTi ""^'' '''^t smoke from burning P""g-ent dry they gave up the r "f , "°°^^' ''"t -hen the meadow was conl f ""'"^ ''''om "7^' '• f"" of dreaT-k:" ^^^"'"^^ ^ only have seen thl 1' '^ °"^ ~"W •children, pretty ' ;*' f .°''' °^ "'■<=« parents, who had pnl '"'^^Pectable Mounted Police "whTirth" '^" °" '''^ duty. "^""e they were off kefrea'^tremble' S""' "-^"^''"^ the -oHd, and losinicoh^'^'"^. 'he summer hills, reveille rang ouf^ '' '" ''' "'''^"^ hurst of triumphant un. '*"'^ "''"^P' ^ -d the ni^htVa^Vonr^"'''^ '""^-- -e"nld:ra;:l;?r^'!-''^.h> n Yes, you say. It's always you — * I'll this, or I'll that. It's my wish — I — I — I.' You're made of I's. There's nothing else in you but ' I.' Now, you listen to what little me says — I hate you, and if I marry 132 m .liiiaji:: The Blackguard you I'll make you as miserable as I am you toad." "' "My dear, I love you." " No, you don't-you only love your- self; but IVe grot to marry you to get away from ",y Uncle. He gets on my nerves. Gu away ! " ^ Mr. Ramsay stared. "Go away!" Mr. Ramsay went mournfully away down towards the mill, where Mr Burrows was saying his Sunday after- noon prayers to the steel cylinder. Half- way among the trees, and just out of s.ght from the cabin, was a big wooden flume carrymg water-power for a plant of turbmes which turned the Burrows' generators, which actuated the fans JnM ^1°?'^ "■' ''°"^' '''^^"^ held the gold, which was to pay for the Park Lane house-for that is the stuff which dreams are made of. Mr. Ramsay sat down on the flume feeling very miserable. «ut he felt wori;e than miserable presently when he saw a horseman ride up to the mill whom he recognised to 1 u '^'^^"^' ^^ ^^^ Blackguard. Hello, Burrows ! " La Mancha's big 133 The Blackguard voice rang out through the woods. **Want a word with you, Burrows. Come out and talk like a white man. You won't?— ah, well, I'll talk while you keep your mouth shut. Are you in charge of Miss Violet Burrows? You are, eh? All right. I'm paying my addresses to Miss Violet, and if she'll have me I'm going to marry her. D'you hear ? Yes, marry her. I didn't ask for your consent— i only ask favours from gentlemen. All right. Burrows, be good to yourself." So, having propitiated her guardian, La Mancha turned his horse uphill to propose to the lady. Meanwhile Mr. Ramsay was consider- ably ahead, out of sight, running through the trees for dear life, determined to get the lady out of his reach. ** Violet," he cried hysterically, coming up before the cabin, ''come with me— there's a great big cariboo grazing up on the spur." He ran into the cabin, snatching up his rifle. " Come— by the back way — quick ! " **You saw a cariboo?" said Miss Violet calmly. **You were down in in The Blackguard the timber and you saw him up on the spur?" '* Come quick ! " he cried in an ecstacy of excitement. But she would not move from her seat. Then the Blackguard emerged from the timber, riding steadily up the slope. ^ '' I see," said Miss Violet. '* Be quick Charlie, or you'll lose your cariboo ; I'll stay here." Mad with excitement, Mr. Ramsay seized her forcibly by the wrists, and half dragged, half t rried her into the cabin. ''You shan't meet him," he cried. '* You shan't !— you shan't ! " Flushed with a sudden rage. Miss Violet wrenched herself loose, struck him violently across the face, then ran out of the cabin and breathless down the hill When the Blackguard jumped from'his horse at the sight of her, she, scarce knowing what she did, flung herself into his arms. ''My love," he said gently, -what's the matter ?-poor little woman, who frigiitened you ? " She was crying like a frightened child, 135 11 Mi The Blackguard clinging to him, swaying to and fro, while the big sobs shook her little body. Then suddenly she stopped short, and looked up in his face v ery much surprised. '' What was I doing? " she said. '' Breaking my heart with your trouble —poor little woman. Tell me who hurt you, and I'll kill him at once. Why, your wrists are all bruised and red. Who dared to touch you ? " But she would not say. **Then I won't bully you by asking questions, dear. I love you too much for that. I came the first moment i could when I got the button." '*What button?" she asked with the frankest innocence. **What button!" he laughed. *'A little bit of brass that said ' Come back ' —that said *I love you. Blackguard, though you are a bad lot.' " *' You are, you know." ''I was until I loved you, dear; but now— by the mercy that is in love— I'm good again. Do you know what is the loveliest thing God ever made?— Laughter and tears mixed up in a woman's face. And you've confessed you love me ! " 136 The Blackguard *' Don't be silly." "That means, don't wait," and so ^« kissed her on the lips. '*I don't think I quite love you, after all ; you've never put on your uniform yet when you've come to see me. I suppose I'm not worth all that trouble, though." *' I will next time," he said,—'* for our wedding-day." ** Our what?" *' Sit down and I'll tell you." '' Won't your horse run away ? " *'Who could run away when you're in sight, Violet ? " ''That's quite nice. They say things like that in a novel." She sat down beside him, and they two watched the black horse smelling the local grass with an air of disparage- ment. ''It's very silly of you to marry a Blackguard, Violet." "I never said I would." ''They only say it in books. In life they mean it. Do you know, I've nothing to marry on but three pigs, a few boxes of cigars, one hundred dollars, and the chance of a job breaking horses? Now, ^Z7 I' !!■! The Blackguard I suppose you could do much better than that, eh?" "A house in Park Lane," she said, "and dinners for City people in the evenings ; but I mustn't interrupt him while he's busy." Her hand stole into his, and he kissed it after the manner, perhaps, of the Spanish Court. Then he thought — after ; the manner of the Blackguard— that lips were not so cold, and more responsive. They were. "Do you know," she said, half frightened, "that this moss is very damp?" " My lips are still very dry." At that she sprang up, laughing. "Catch me," she cried; "catch me," and she ran for the woods. 138 CHAPTER XV Since the Blackguard's time had nearly expired, the Colonel sent for him. **Sit down, La Mancha ; I want a few words with you." ** Thank you, sir." The Blackguard removed his forage cap, and sat down on a camp-stool just within the tent. '' The Sergeant-Major tells me that you do not wish to * take on ' again. We have served together some years now. La Mancha." *' And jolly good years they were, sir." The Colonel smiled. *' Well, I don't grudge them— we've had a good mistress to serve, besides fine work to do for her, breaking in this rough young country ; but perhaps it's just as well to think of the future." ** I hear, sir, that you've bought a big ranche near Macleod." 139 It I'll 'i f' I The Blackguard ** Yes, I hope to serve as a citizen for the rest of my time. If ever you come that way I can promise you a welcome." ** Thank you, Colonel; I shall remember that." " You see, La Mancha, all my best men have left me one by one. Two of them fell during the Rebellion, one shot him- self, Peters died of mountain fever at Battleford, Buster Joe is ranching- in Mon- tana, Jones the Less writes to me from London, where he is doing well, and— but you know. One can't take such an inter- est in the recruits— shave-tails, you call them, and so forth ; and now that things are settling tamely down, we're not so necessary as we uere. New times, new manners— I don't blame you for taking your freedom. What are your plans, La Mancha ? " *' First, I'm going to marry." ''Indeed? " " Yes, sir, the Burrows girl up at the Throne. At first I hope to do something at breaking horses, then take land down the valley. Her life won't be rougher than it is now." The Colonel smiled, because at last he 140 The Blackguard knew the secret of La Mancha's reforma- tion. '* May I congratulate you ? I do most heartily, for I'm told that she's the nicest and prettiest girl in Kootenay." ** Will you come to the wedding, sir, on the twenty-fifth, at the Mission ? The Padre says he'll be ready for me at noon." " I would like to come very much " said the Colonel ; '« but among other details— mind I know you well— have you the young lady's consent ? " "She says I'm not half good enough for her— that looks all right, sir,— eh ? " The Colonel laughed. ** I'll be there if I can." ** And give the bride away, sir?" ** But how about Burrows ? " " Hang Burrows— he'll have tf ake a back seat." *' One thing more, La Mancha. In this particularly risky business has it occurred to you that you ought to have steady employment ? " "Til have to turn * road agent ' other- wise." '' Rather than that, I'll give you a note to my friend General Buster, who, I know, 141 The Blackguard is looking- out for a good man. Ride down and see to-morrow, and while you're about it take a two weeks' furlough up to the date of your discharge. Why, that's the twenty-fifth, your wedding-day ! " '* It's awfully good of you, sir." *' Don't mention it. I'll send you the letter by the Orderly Corporal. Ask him to step this way." '* Oh, you poor devils," said the Black- guard, lymg at ease on his blankets, to half a dozen men at work in the tent cleaning their accoutrements for to-mor- row's muster parade. - Sweat, you poor workers; ram your button-sticks down your throats for coolness." One of the boys heaved a boot brush at him, which he caught deftly. ** Now I'm richer," he said -by a brush. Gentle- men this brush of solid squat root, bristled out of the Quartermaster's private beard, heavy with valuable black- ing,— how much am I offered for this brush ? " *' Damn you and your brush." *' One damn for the brush. Gentlemen, I am offered one for this priceless object of virtue— one damn I am offered,— goin^ 142 ^ The Blackguard at one— g-oing-going— positively thrown away ! " and he flung it at the owner's head, making a bull's-eye. The victim had not time to be resentful but, wipmg his eye with the back of the brush, went on polishing his boot-tops vmdictively. ^'Lick, spit and polish," laughed the Blackguard. - Every day has its dog- • but I'm a free nigger to-morrow. No more parades, no more pack-drill, no more guards, no more cells, no more fatigues ' save this bed-fatigue, which suits my temperament. I'm a free wolf and It's my night to howl ; I come from Bitter Creek-the higher up the worse the waters-and I'm from the source. 00 It, you pigeon-livered shave-tails- clean your harness, you poor-souled re- cruities, you pemmican-eaters, you raven- ous pie-biters, you ring-tailed snorters. 1 his IS my song of victory after five years without beer-five years h-1 without benefit of clergy, five years everybody's dog on Government rations ! **The Blackguard was taken youn^ and raised on hard tack, was full of skilly beans, and sow-belly ; sweated on parade* H3 W '*' 'I 11 The Blackguard rode hell-for-leather after horse-thieves ; but now he's going to have a good time being alive, and don't you forget it ! " By this time missiles vi^ere flying at him from all directions, but the Blackguard wriggled away, rolled out under the flap of the tent, and went off to chaft' Dandy Irvine. '* Look here. Dandy," he burst into the next tent, but his chum was not there. '\ Not there. Lord, how I shall miss him," thought the Blackguard, strolling miserably towards the river. *'Ah, there he is, sitting just where we sat the night before I turned good. What a fool I was to do it." He sat down beside the little Corporal. *' Did the Colonel give you a letter for me ? " * * Yes—here it is. You have two weeks' leave from to-night." La Mancha told him all that the Colonel had said. ** You're in luck, old chap." " Now, don't you get mawkish," said the Blackguard roughly. " The Colonel was bad enough, but I won't stand any rot from you. After all these years,— ye 144 The Blackguard gods, what a wrench it is ! I'm as weak as a kitten, and all my bones feel sick. Come over to the lines-I'm going to take my horse these last two weeks, whether they like it or not." '^There'll be an awful row," said Dandy anxiously. ^ '*So much the better. Trouble and I are twins, but I'll have my horse." ^' I guess I can stand the racket," said iJandy, as they walked to the lines. Last post was sounding while La Man- cha saddled, and in the mids. of his work he turned on Dandy. '' Don't look at me like that ! It's all your fault for making ^ ^. ^-n respectable. Its against Nature. What would the civilians think if all of you turned into brass-mounted saints like me .^ Why they would be sending their sons into the Force for convent training, and adul- terate the grandest cavalry in the world. 1 here -he loosed his horse and flung him- self into the saddle. - Cut it short," for Dandy could not let go his hand. - Say good-bye to the boys for me. Good-ni^ht —good-bye, and be hanged to you " So he rode out of the camp at a head- ^45 1*1 t r ,1 :. 1 ill The Blackguard long: gallop ; but half a mile away drew rein, for '* Lights out " was sounding. He took off his hat, and brushed his sleeve across his eyes, because there seemed to be a mist between him and the tents, while through his mind there swept the music of an old-time song which belongs to the Mounted Police — "The sentry challenged at the open gate, Who pass'd him by, because the hour was late — 'Halt! Who goes there ? '— * A friend'— 'All's well.' ' A friend, old chap ! '—a friend's farewell, And I had pass'd the gate. And then the long last notes were shed, The echoing call's last notes were dead — And sounded sadly as I stood without Those last sad notes of all : ' Lights out ! ' ' Lights out ! Good-bye, you fellows ! We have side by side Watch'd history's lengthen'd shadows past us glide, And worn the scarlet, laughed at pain, And buried comrades lowly lain. And let the long years glide ; And toil and hardship have we borne, And followed where the flag had gone — But all the echoes answ'ring round about Have bidden you to sleep : * Lights out ! ' * Lights out 1 ' 146 The Blackguard And never more for me the helmets flash, The trumpets summons_Oh, the erumbling ash ** Of life is hope's fruition : Fall The witherd friendships, and they all Are sleeping- ! Fast away The fabrics of our lives decay And change unseen and melt away- Ay, pensh like the accents of a call Like those last notes of all : ' Light^ out ! ■ ' L'gfhts out ! ' " H7 M I 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 punish- ment, alerc 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 148 The Blackguard 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 ex- pected 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, in- wardly like a big child. After being thirty years or so without a soul, he was bewildered with the new possession which Iiad delicate little sympathies to be exer- cised, a kindliness toward men and beasts past all restraint, a weakness for Miss Violet Burrows far stronger than him- self. So far as he could see, with limited powers of introspection, his internal anatomy consisted of love and whims. 149 II I , ^ The Blackguard 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 matri- mony. 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 tne night in her own chamber, but then, Mr. Burrows knew very little about anything human, nor did he perceive the elementary 150 The Blackguard 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 m 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 OH 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 him- self 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." ** How dare you dictate to me ? " '' You'll see how I dare. Look here, I The Blackguard Burrows, your accounts, as I showed you to-day, are all botched up." Mr. Burrows calmed down partially. " Bah ! a trifling oversight like that is not of the slightest consequence. Besides, I would have you realise that I am no mere accountant." ** So I'm writing to the firm at home. They'll turn loose a mere actuary over there." Mr. Burrows gasped. ** To the best of my knowledge and belief" — '*You submit a false balance-sheet backed by an affidavit, — which is perjury in London, Burrows, perjury." ** Bosh ! Of course, I must look over the figures before they are actually sent off." ** No, you don't," muttered Mr. Ramsay, who was not half such a fool as he looked. *' What do you say? " **Oh, nothing. Have you another cigar with you ? " ** Here ; let me light it for you." There was a pause for the ceremony. *' Yes," continued Mr. Burrows, " there is, as you say, much room for discussion 152 The Blackguard on both sides. I cannot disguise from you my own anxiety as to the fate of my niece should this disreputable character succeed, as you anticipate, in " — "A runaway match?" Mr. Ramsay pressed home his advantage. "Of course, you sneered and sneered, although I've warned you again and again that his plans are well-nigh completed. This must be prevented, Mr. Burrows." ** What do you suggest ? " ** Well, this experimental mill of yours has got to be wrecked and abandoned anyway. On that the firm insists, and your excuses for delay are getting too thin, Burrows,— altogether too thin." Mr. Burrows groaned. **This business of yours. Burrows, must be reported as an utter failure, or we shall find the new ground held at fancy prices. We could have the mill burned to-night by accident, the wedding to-morrow at the Mission ; then, you see, Miss Violet would be safe from the Blackguard." Miss Violet had heard enough, in all conscience, yet for a moment she could not move. Her curled-up foot went 153 li The Blackguard boldly down among the imaginary mice upon the floor, for this was more exciting even than live rats. She shivered a little, partly in compliment to the autumn chill, but more with cold fright. Then her growing resentment made the warm blood race through her veins. She flushed with indignation, and in another minute, boiling over with rage, would have rushed out upon her enemies. But no ; on second thoughts, she had a man to do her fighting, a big brave man, whose wickedness would be turned toward her adversaries, whose love toward herself. ** Blackguard," she whispered into the air,—'* dear true Blackguard, you might be ever so bad, but you're not a coward like this Charlie." Silently she crept across the room, in breathless terror unlocked the back door of the cabin and looked out. The chill struck her instantly. She glanced doubt- fully at her bare feet, then, because she could hardly feel respectable even by starlight no better dressed than one of the angels, she stole to her bedroom for clothes. There panic seized her, so, grabbing up a cloak and a pair of slippers, 154 The Blackguard she fled out Into the solitude of the hills. Across the open she ran from cover to cover, from rock to rock, stopping- at times, holding: her breath as she looked back, lest some crackling twig should betray her. One slipper was lost already m a morass, but she went on, her poor bare foot bleeding with a cut from some stone. Her long hair caught among the branches when she had gained the woor;, and all the shadov/s of the trees we e full of awful (yes, of staring spectres, ol nameless beasts who would spring out upon her if she looked. Down the long hills she fled, stumbling, falling, tearing her cloak, suffering agonies from thorns and stones, and greater agonies from things unseen. And so the poor child came sobbing to the Tough Nut cabin. The good prospectors would take a message for her ; they need not see her, because she would hide, and when she had roused them with her cries would speak to them out of the very deep shadows. But when she called and called there was no answer ; when at last she dared come nearer, creeping up with many a 155 The Blackguard start of sudden fright, she saw a padlock glimmering on the door. The cabin was empty, the prospectors were away. ''Shorty!" she cried. '^ Oh, Long Leslie, where are you ? Help ! Help ! " The silence sank down heavily upon the woods, all the spaces of the hills lay in a breathless slumber, from the black sky dead Alps looked down like ghosts, and the stars were so far away. ''What shall I do, dearest? How shall I bring you to me. Oh, my love, my love ! " She sank down sobbing upon the ground, the ground which was all covered with gleaming pine chips left by the miners' axes, the chips which they always used to kindle fires. To kindle fires? She looked up, wiping the tears away with her long hair. They used these scented chips to kindle fires, and she would kindle such a blaze that night that the news of it should go forth all over the valley. Then the Blackguard would come to see what was the matter. So she set off along the hillside, racked with miserable cold, with bitter pain, the tears dried stiff upon her cheeks, and 156 f " I The Blackguard dragged herself to the mill, the mill which was to be burned in any case. There should be no doubt as to the mill. She opened the lower door, the office door— there upon the table were papers. He had been working there all day— had been very tired— had forgotten this once to put them into the safe. There was a bunch of matches beside them, and on the ground outside bushels of chips to make the fire burn up, and in the corner of the office a five-gallon can of lamp oil. So she piled up her fuel against the outer wall. That night there was a blaze upon the mountains, the mill and the woods were all afire. So news went out along the valley. 157 il CHAPTER XVII The Blackg:uard, coming to the mill at high noon, found it a smouldering ruin, and the woods above a smoking waste, full of charred trunks. Going round b; way of the Tough Nut Claim, he gained the upper moorland, wrapped in a choking d.-y mist, out of which rose the Throne cabins, gaunt, spectral, desolate. The doors were locked, the windows barred hastily across with a few rough planks, the stable empty. Down the hills he rode his black horse lathered with sweat, his face haggard as he followed the trail of hree riders. Ramsay had led. Miss Violet followed. Burrows taking the rear, a 1 down the swaying curves of the steep places, and along the sinuous path through heavy timber. They had not stayed to even pack their clothes ; they had not watered their horses at the sprin- ; they had moved before daybreak, to judge by the blundering course, and Miss Violet •58 The Blackguard had left here and there tokens, as though he needed any further incentive, shreds of white among fallen leaves, torn from a handkerchief. At last the Blackguard drew rein at the toot of the mountains. He looked to- wards the camp where lay Arrapahoe Bill tended by the Mexican, recovering from an interview with a grizzly bear; he looked along the trail toward the Mis- sion, whither, to judge by the scraps of cambric, Miss Violet had been carried much against her will ; and he looked across the valley to where the tents of the Mounted Police encampment glim- mered white in the afternoon sun. It was useless to trouble the cowboys, use- less to ride to the Mission unless he 'ad some sort of authority for interference ; better to get help from the camp. Trust- ing that the Padre would have sense enough to delay the travellers, he set off at a hand-gallop for Wild Horse Creek. By mid-afternoon he gained the camp, an hour later rode out again on a fresh horse, accompanied by Dandy Irvine. Both men were armed, both in uniform, tor they rode this time on Her Majesty's service. I^Q The Blackguard **Do you know," said Dandy, while they splashed across the ford, **that this was to have been j'our wedding-day ? " * * Was to have been ? It is my wedding- day." ^ *'Do you know that the Colonel went off alone this morning, bound for the Mission ? " **To give the bride away," said the Blackguard, grinning. '* I knew he would keep his promise." Gaining the top of the bench-land, they rode off at a canter across the valley, through meadows scathed with an early frost, by poplar bush, where the leaves hung sere and yellov;, or fluttered dead to earth. The wind was keen from the north, the sky was overcast with wintry cloud, and distant woods loomed faint in a bluish haze. "How do you knovv," asked Dandy, ** that they fired the mill ? It might have been accident." "I'm not quite blind," answered the Blackguard. "There was a five-gallon can of kerosene lying outside the ruins." "Well?" " It was empty." " What of that ? " i6o The Blackguard " It was new, without a dint from bein- knocked about, or any dirt from havin" been used for filling lamps. Whoeve'r burned the m,ll poured five gallons of oil over the kindlings, then chucked the empty can out through the door " "What else?" " Beside the can lay a half-burned torch of paper, thrown away as the blessed incendiary ran for his blessed life." '' Did you keep the torch and can ? " Left them untouched for evidence. U ye take me for a two-months' rootie ? " No ; but I'm just about half sorry for the great inventor." Night had fallen when the two policemen rodeuptotheMission-house. Within,Miss Burrows, the Colonel, and the Curate were p ay.ng an innocent game of cards ; without, in the porch, sat Mr. Burrows and the Tenderfoot disputing hotly, but they brought their discussion to an abrupt close at the sight of Mounted Police Bu'rro^"''"''?'"^' ^'- '™"«'" said Burrows easily, as the Corporal dis- mounted, handing his rein to La Mancha. ^oull find your commanding officer ins.de the house, playing with my niece a game called animal grab " .6, The Blackguard The Tenderfoot was star'r^g* hard at La Mancha as he led the he ses away. ''I'm sorry, Mr. Burrows,"— the Cor- poral produced two blue documents from his breast-pocket, — ** the game I have come to play here is called human grab. You, Mr. Burrows, and you, Mr. Ram- say, are my prisoners." *«What?" Dandy Irvine presented the warrants, but the violent expostulation? of the prisoners brought the Curati and the Colonel hurriedly to the door. ** What's all this?" said the C;<.>baeL *'Whyj Corporal Irvine, surely you've made bome mistake ? " Dandy salu ed. '*Will you look at the warrants, sir ? '' The Colonel tuok one, glanced at it by the lamplight within, and handed it back to Corporal Irvine. ' - This is very serious, Mr. Burrows, — a charge of arson cannot be lightly passed over, and Corporal Irvine has only carried out his orders." The prisoners were loudly protesting their innocence, Mr. Burrows declaiming on points of law and usage ; Mr. Ramsay almost in tears ; but the Colonel required their silence. 162 The Blackguard at '* Are you alone, Irvine ? " **No, sir. Constable La Mancha is with me. He has taken the horses round to the cor rail." '*Go, then, tell him to saddle the piisoners' horses and my own. I will be responsible till you return. Padre," he turned to the Curate, *'may Miss Bur- rows remain as your guest?" Constable La Mancha was at the back door embracing Miss Burrows when Dandy called him away. **Come, none of that," he said briefly ; '* I want you at the stables." **A11 right, Corporal,"— La Mancha went on embracing Miss Burrows,— *' be with you in a minute." ** Don't cry, dear, there's nothing to frighten you; but I had to get your Uncle out of the way." * * But he's innocent ! " she cried. * * You ought to take me to prison for burning the mill. It was me." ** The deuce!" ** You know, dear, I had to make some sort of signal." **To bring me, eh? Well, I don't object to signalling— at least, not very much. Now, after we've gone, you make 163 4) ii III II I ! , ;, I The Blackguard it all right with the Padre. Tell him the whole story, and get him up very early In the morning. I'll be back by sunrise for the wedding." " By sunrise?" she blushed hotly; '*I never said I'd marry you, though." *' No, I was much too big a blackguard, but now it's different, Miss Violet, quite diflferent, you minx. I never burned my Uncle's mill. I was never half so wicked. " She laughed with delight at her own wickedness. *' Kiss me," he said, and that fhe did right heartily. "Come, Blackguard," Dandy was quivering with impatience. ** You fool, you're spoiling the whole game. Hurry up ! " So La Mancha was dragged away to the stables, where in due course the prisoners' horses were saddled, also the Colonel's grey charger. Then came the champing of horses' bits, the mounting of men, farewells, and the filing-off of a solemn procession into the night. But Miss Violet was left behind for safe keeping, who, with her humble confession, her tears, and a very few smiles, softened the Padre's heart. 164 i CHAPTER XVIII Great was the stir and turmoil at Wild Horse Creek. Long before daylight, while all the gear was stiff with a rime of frost, tents were struck, kit bags loaded, blankets rolled ; and after break- fast these, together with the Quarter- master's stores, mess kit, nosebags, and all the equipments of a summer camp, were bestowed upon the transport wag- gons. At noon the troop was to march on the first short stage of a journey across the Rocky Mountains by the Crow's Nest Pass to the winter station, the divisional headquarters on the Great Plains. But the wheels of routine were jarred long before mid-day. The Colonel had, as a magistrate, to hear the charge of incendiarism brought against the prison- ers, Burrows and Ramsay. Moreover, Regimental Number 1107, Constable La Mancha, on the expiration of his term of service, was to "turn in" his kit, to 165 i The Blackguard I receive his discharge, and to be struck off the strength of the Force. But neither could the arson case be examined '' lack of the chief witness, nor could La Mancha be discharged until ho had surrendered his horse, arms, accoutre- ments, and clothing. And the Black- guard was absent without leave. The Colonel was furious, reviled the Sergeant-Major, placed thr Corporal of the Guard under arrest, also the picket for permitting La Man* ha's midnight defection ; the Sergeant-iSIajor hurt the cook's feelings by the tone in which he ordered the unpacking of camp equipment for dinner ; the men waited comfortless beside their horses ; and all with one accord reviled the Blackguard. But when the culprit rode in at noon, accompanied by a lady whom he blandly presented to the Sergeant-Major as the Sefiora La Mancha, D Troop char ??d its mind, greeting the Blackguard w.th three rousing cheers. From the Colone^ to the troop dog all realised that the presence of a lady in camp had changed the situation, particularly as the lady was obviously attractive — a maid so sweetly shy that everytiiing must be i66 The Blackguard done to set her at ease, to smooth the rougfhness of her surroundings, to show D Troop on its best behaviour. Leaving his wife in charge of Dandy- Irvine, as the niost presentable man in the division, La Mancha went about the camp raking up ill-conditioned rags and worn-out garments to represent his kit, which was to be delivered over to the authorities, together with his arms and ac- coutrements. At another time theQuarter- master would have asked what scarecrow had been robbed, ncAv he received the whole mess of rubbish with his blandest smile. Changing into his cowboy equip- ment, \e Blackgi ard gave away his Government clothes to all who would accept them i his parting gift, reserving only a fine buffalo o rcoat, a set of blankets, and some ui Jerwe for future use. The Colonel hastily, sitting as magis- trate, found means to discharge his prisoners on the ground of insufficient evidence. Then the Sergeant - Major presented La Mancha's discharge, filled in v^rith the obvious falsehood that his character and behaviour were both, and had always been, ** very good." The Blackguard •' Now, La Mancha," said the Colonel, *' besides your pay you are entitled to transport and sustenance to your place of enlistment- Winnipeg-. Will you have cash or a requisition?" *'Cash, sir." The Colonel wrote out a che( ue to cover the costs of this imaginary journey of twelve hundred miles, a secon(' cheque for La Mancha's pay up to date, and a third in lieu of a wedding present from the officers of the division. Dinner followed. Dandy and all the non-commissioned officers fighting among- themselves for the right to serve the Senora La Mancha, who sat in state upon a buffalo coat near their camp fire, all smiles and blushes. This was her wedding breakfast, served under the frosty blue sky by a swarm of soldiers, who one and all would have offered with the beef and bread their hearts and hands, but for the prior claims of their comrade. Meanwhile the Blackguard, respect- fully declining invitations from the Officers' and Sergeants' Messes, dined for the last time with the troop, and afterwards, when pipes were lit before the saddling, accepted a wedding present 1 68 The Blackguard from D Division which would materially help in his provision for married life. Only Mr. Burrows and Mr. Ramsay, discharged from their arrest and wel- comed by the Officers' Mess, were dis- contented with the wintry sunlight, the dry bright wind, the scent of the dying summer. Outwitted by the Blackguard, humiliated in their summary treatment by the law, their grievance received hilariously as a huge joke, they were only too glad to excuse themselves with a plea of pressing business at the Throne, while their crestfallen departure after dinner provoked the troop to a burst of ironical cheering. But the Blackguard and his Senora, mounted on horses lent by the Sergeant- Major, rode out with the troop on its first stage down the valley, an adventure which Violet La Mancha will ever re- member as the most delightful thing in her life. Indeed, it was a sight to stir one's blood, that march of frontier cavalry, to see the big bronzed men sitting their horses with careless grace, the tough, wiry bronchos walking sedately after a canter, the transport lumbering briskly in the midst, and all IKJKJ 'If The Blackguard down the long double line of riders the gleam of blue rifle barrels, a glitter of ^elts, a glow of scarlet. The valley reached away on every side in all its loveliness of bush and prairie, on either side hung white Alps above the misty blue of distant forest, and over all were soft little clouds like herds of driven sheep, while the sun raced westward to his setting through dim immensities of sky. **See," said the Blackguard proudly to his wife, ''yonder, right at the foot of the hills, I've built a cabin for you of great big logs, and the chinks are all filled in with moss to make it cosy. The hearth is in the snuggest corner, and all the furniture is made with an axe of clean red cedar, smelling ever so fresh, like pencils. You can look out among the pine trees down to the creek, which is full of trout for our supper, and I've chopped away the bush, so that when we sit by the door after sundown we can see right away across the valley to the great high peaks above the Crow's Nest Pass. Will you be contented, little one ?'* *'Yes, I shall always be content, because I have you, my great big Black, guard— and I love you." 170 ."i: ,n, CHAPTER XIX Deep lay the snow in Kootenay. All across the prairies the great drifts were like ocean rollers frozen,— against the clumps of timber they were heaped like winter surf, around the cabin curled over to windward Hke a breaking wave. One could stand upon the comb of that wave, so solid was it ; indeed, the Senora La Mancha had chosen the point of vantage from whence to search the trail for some sign of her husband's coming, because he was late afield after stray cattle, and It was long past supper time. Grey clouds were trailing across the moon, casting shadows down which might have been moving men or beasts among the timber; but when the light shone clear again on glittering frosty pines and dead white drifts, it left an aching emptiness as far as the eye could reach against the 171 The Blackguard izi::'"'/"- '" ""^ -'° "^^-^ below guarded by a robe of beaver skins from that the moonhght caught her hair with an icy lustre, and her congealed brlth was wafted hark fii • sc-ks Why, some men keep all that for the '■ttle wife. Sit down, Blackguard, weVe .. • ' ' ''^ ''^^" ^^e-- so lonely S " cowbo^TwTf^^toSv"'''"^^^^"^^ be lonelier sti!i .YS^rcLgi;;''-!^ time three months ago. " m."!'"'? """ths! three whole bie months flown like a dream. Only think^ you ve cheated me out of three long months of my life, you darling. Now tache, or how can I possibly kiss you » " moth?" ^''"'"^""^''^^P-'^- months m heaven, and only had fresh meat once in all that time." "Love and fresh meat, 'that's wh.f men are made of.' " """ '75 Irl' II The Blackguard So they supped merrily, and washed up afterwards, both talking at once, and all the time of cattle and domestic details mixed; and then she filled and lit his pipe, he growling amiably of her manifest mcompetence in these arts, she being a woman. ** Has the mail come?" he asked. ** Yes ; only one wretched paper." **Give me the wretched paper." He read a little, while she set a bucket to peel potatoes, using hot water lest the ice should form under her knife. " Here," he said, " I'm sleepy with the heat of that confounded stove. You take the paper. I'll keep awake best if I peel the potatoes for you." She looked up, tears swimming in her eyes. «' When I was up at the Throne, Mr. Ramsay liked to watch me peeling potatoes." ''What a cad ! Well, he gets his de- serts—wealth from the Burrows' inven- tions beyond the very dreams of avarice, and much good may it do him." "And I have a log-cabin, a nest to keep warm for my big true Blackguard 174 The Blackguard and thanks to say on my knees to God for love. What does it matter all this stuff in the paper?" She laid it on her lap, watching his comic clumsiness at the peeling. **The world outside doesn't matter one little bit to us." **Read anyway," he said, grinning, ** or you'll drop into poetry next." ** * Horrible Murder,' " she read, yawn- ing. <*Oh, I wish it was bedtime. 'Suicide of a Vegetarian.' 'Fuss, Box, & Co. in Bankruptcy.' « The Railroad Horror.' Hello, here, under the Cavalry heading, there's Dandy Irvine—Sergeant Irvine—got a commission. They've made him an Inspector." **Good old Dandy! We'll drink his health next time I can buy the in- gredients." **I don't want ingredients," she said, pouting; ''he's such a little dear, and you can never keep tidy, however I dust you and scrub. Must I read any more ? Well, here's the British Empire column. 'London, February 6 — Death of the Spanish Ambassador. We regret to say,'"— The Blackguard whistled softly. 175 The Blackguard *^ Well," she looked up, -what's the matter ? Did you know him ? " ''Why, that's the Snob." "The what?" /'My brother. I asked him once whether he'd have a long life or his habits. He had the habits, and I hope he^ enjoyed them. Poor Snob, I guess hes left nie the reversion of his debts." Ihe Blackguard finished peeling the last potato, and handed over the pan. <* Will your Grace be pleased to put these pota- toes away.^" *' What do you mean .^ " "Only, my little wife, that you are a iJuchess now." "A Duchess .P What nonsense!" Coming across to his chair, she kissed him tenderly upon the forehead. -I'm nothing," she said, with a gay little laugh, - but Mrs. Blackguard." PRINTED BV MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED, EDINBURGH If