country seems to appeal to one kind of Englishman, but I changed my mind when you showed your anxiety to get upon the Gladwyne party’s trail.”
“You were right. I knew the Gladwynes in England; the one who died was an old and valued friend of mine. I could give you the history of their march, though I hardly think that’s needful. You seem remarkably well acquainted with it.”
Lisle’s face hardened. With the exception of one man, he knew more than anybody else about the fatal journey a party of four had made a year earlier through the region he and Nasmyth were approaching.
“I am,” he said. “There’s a cause for it; but I’ll ask you to tell me what you know.”
He threw more branches on the fire and a crackling blaze sprang aloft, forcing up the ragged spruce boughs out of the surrounding gloom.
“This is the survivor’s narrative. I heard it from his own lips more than once,” began Nasmyth. “I dare say most of it’s a kind of story that’s not unusual in the North.”
“It’s one that has been repeated with local variations over and over again. But go on.”
“There were two Gladwynes—cousins. George, the elder of the two, was a man of means and position; Clarence, the younger, had practically nothing—two or three hundred pounds a year. They were both sportsmen—George was a bit of a naturalist—and they made the expedition with the idea of studying the scarcer game. Well, their provisions were insufficient; an Indian packer deserted them; they were delayed here and there; and when they reached the river that we are making for they were badly worn out and winter was closing in. Knowing it was dangerous to go any farther, they started down-stream to strike their outgoing trail, but not long afterward they wrecked their canoe in a rapid and lost everything except a few pounds of provisions. To make things worse, George had fallen from a slippery rock at the last portage and badly hurt his leg. After making a few leagues with difficulty, he found he could go no farther, and they held a council. They were already suffering from want of food, but their guide estimated that by a forced march overland they might reach a place where some skin-hunters were supposed to be camped. There was a Hudson Bay post farther away. On coming up they had cached some provisions in two places on opposite sides of the river—they kept crossing to pole through the easiest slack. George accordingly insisted that the others go on; each was to follow a different bank and the first to find the provisions was to try to communicate with the other and hurry back with food. If they were unable to locate the caches they were to leave the river and push on in search of help. They agreed; but deep snow had fallen and Clarence Gladwyne failed to find the cache. He reached the hunters’ camp famishing, and they went back with him. He found his cousin dead.”
“And the guide?”
“It’s rather an ugly story. You must have heard it.”
“I haven’t heard the one Gladwyne told in England.”
“The guide reached the Hudson Bay post—a longer journey than the one Gladwyne made—in the last stage of exhaustion. He had taken very little food with him—Gladwyne knew exactly how much—and the Hudson Bay agent decided that it was impossible he could have covered the distance on the minute quantity. There was only one inference.”
“That he had found the cache?” Lisle’s face grew very stern.
Nasmyth nodded.
“In a way, there was some slight excuse for him. Think of it—a worn-out, famishing man, without blankets or means of making a fire, who had struggled over icy rocks and through leagues of snow, finding a few cans of provisions and a little moldy flour! Even when he had satisfied his hunger, he was, no doubt, unequal to making the return journey to rejoin a man who was probably already dead.”
“If that man had found a scrap of food, he would have tried!”
Lisle’s voice had a curious ring in it, and Nasmyth looked at him hard.
“You seem convinced.”
“I am; I knew him well.”
Nasmyth was startled and he showed it, but afterward he looked thoughtful.
“I believe I understand,” he said.
For a minute or two there was silence which was broken only by the snapping of the branches on the fire and the hollow roar of the rapid. The latter had a curious, irritating effect on Nasmyth, who hitherto had scarcely noticed the insistent pulsatory clamor. At length Lisle spoke again, laying a strong restraint upon himself.
“Our mutual friend called me Lisle at the Empress Hotel. I don’t think he mentioned my first name, Vernon; and as that was the name of Gladwyne’s guide I kept it in the background. I was anxious to take you with me; I wanted an Englishman of some standing in the old country whose word would be believed. What was more, I wanted an honest man who would form an unbiased opinion. I didn’t know then that you were a friend of Gladwyne’s.”
Nasmyth made a slight gesture which suggested the acknowledgment of a compliment.
“I’ll try to be just—it’s sometimes hard.” His voice had a throb of pain in it as he went on: “I was the friend of George Gladwyne—the one who perished. I had a strong regard for him.”
Something in his expression hinted that this regard had not been shared by the Gladwyne who survived.
“When my father first came out to British Columbia, new to the bush ways,” Lisle resumed, “a neighbor, Vernon, was of great help to him—lent him teams, taught him how to chop, and what cattle to raise. He died before my father, and I was named for him; but he left a son, older than I, who grew up like him—I believe he was the finest chopper and trailer I have ever come across. He died, as you have heard, from exposure and exhaustion, a few days after he reached the Hudson Bay post—before he could clear himself.”
Lisle broke off for a moment and seemed to have some difficulty in continuing.
“When my father died, Vernon took charge of the ranch, at my mother’s request—I was rather young and she meant to launch me in some profession. Vernon had no ambition—he loved the bush—and he tried to give me enough to finish my education while he ran both ranches with a hired man. I think my mother never suspected that he handed her over more than she was entitled to, but I found it out and I’ve been glad ever since that I firmly prevented his continuing the sacrifice. For all that, I owe him in many ways more than I could ever have repaid.” He clenched one hand tight as he concluded: “I can at least clear his memory.”
Nasmyth nodded in sympathy.
“You called me an honest man; you have my word—I’ll see the right done.”
Quietly as it was spoken, Lisle recognized that it was no light thing his companion promised him. In the Dominion, caste stands by caste, and Lisle, having seen and studied other Englishmen of his friend’s description, knew that the feeling was stronger in the older country. To expose a man of one’s own circle to the contempt and condemnation of outsiders is, in any walk of life, a strangely repugnant thing.
“Well,” he said, “to-morrow we’ll pull out and portage across the divide to strike the Gladwynes’ trail. And now I’ll fry the trout and we’ll have supper.”
They let the subject drop by tacit agreement during the meal, and soon after it was over a shout from the crest of the ridge above, followed by a smashing of underbrush, announced that their packer was making for the camp. Lisle answered, and a cry came down:
“Got a deer, and there are duck on the lake ahead! We’ll try for some as we go up!”
Nasmyth’s smile betokened deep satisfaction.
“That’s a weight off my mind,” he declared. “I’ll smoke one pipe, and then I think I’ll go to sleep. We’ll make a start with the first loads as soon as it’s light enough.”
CHAPTER II