To The West Part 64

"No, sir."

"And have you any capital to buy land, and stock it?"

"Only a few pounds left, sir."

"Oh, you have a few pounds. Well, yours seems a lively position, and I suppose you both see that you have very little chance of getting on."

"Oh, I don't know, sir," said Esau. "We've seen lots of places where we could build a hut to begin with, and get on by degrees."

"Your eyes want opening a little wider, my lad. Suppose you took up one of the beautiful patches of land you saw near the river."

"Yes, sir, quite close, where we could catch salmon same as the Indians do, and dry them. I don't see if the Indians can live why we couldn't."

"For the simple reason that you are not Indians--savages, my lad. Do you know that if you did as you propose, some night you would have to climb for your life, and cling in the branches of a huge pine, while the flooded river swept away your hut."

"Don't sweep away your huts," said Esau, sulkily.

"Because they are two hundred feet above the river. Well, what are you going to do?"

"Start back again, sir, at once," I replied.

"And then?"

"Try to get work somewhere."

"And what am I to say to my sister and her husband when they come?"

"That we found out we had made a mistake, sir, and had set to work at once to try and remedy it."

"You will sleep here to-night though, of course?"

I looked at Esau, and his eyes flashed back my opinion.

"No sir," I said. "We thank you for what you have done, but we shall start back directly, and sleep where we made our camp in the middle of the day."

"Don't be hasty, my lad," said our host. "It's wise sometimes to sleep on a determination."

"It can't be here, sir," I said bitterly, "so goodbye, and thank you.

Come, Esau, we can get on for a couple of hours before it is quite dark."

"All right," said Esau, st.u.r.dily; "and we can find our way back if we didn't know it coming."

"Well, perhaps you are right," said Mr Raydon; "but of course you understand that you are going back alone. Mr Gunson will be on his way into the mountains, and I dare say that China boy will follow him."

"I suppose he will, sir," I said. "Better sleep on it, my lad."

"No, sir," I said, firmly. "I would rather not."

"Too proud to accept the hospitality of the man who has told you such home-truths?"

"Yes, sir; but more so to stay where I feel that we are not welcome."

"But you are welcome, my lads, as visitors. Is not your friend and leader very unreasonable, young man?" he continued, turning suddenly to Esau; and I listened eagerly in dread, lest he should be won over to ask for shelter for the night.

"Not a bit," said Esau, with a scowl. "He's all right, and knows what's best, and always did. If it hadn't been for him I should have been stupid enough to have gone for a soldier."

"Indeed!"

"Yes, indeed!" cried Esau; "and I tried all I could to get him to go too, only he knew better. Now then, Mr Gordon, I'm 'bout tired of talking. When you're ready, I am."

He moved toward the door and I followed him, having no words to say for the moment; but as I reached the door they came, and I faced around to see Mr Raydon's clear eyes fixed upon me.

"Good-bye, sir," I said, "and thank you. When Mr John and dear Mrs John come, don't scold them and talk to them as you have to me. It would only upset her, and she is sure to be still very delicate. Tell them I have gone to make a start for myself, and as soon as I am doing well I shall try and write to her. Good-bye."

"Good-bye," said Esau, defiantly; and he put his hands in his pockets, began to whistle, and turned to me, to point to the head of a mountain sheep with enormous curled horns.

"Pretty good load for a thing to carry," he said, as we reached the door.

"Stop!"

That word seemed to cut its way into our brains, it sounded so fierce and sharp, and its effect was to make us both face round wonderingly, and look inquiringly at the speaker.

"I should have thought, sir, that it would have been more decent if you had offered to shake hands with your host before you went."

"I beg your pardon, sir," I said, holding out my hand. "Good-night-- good-bye!"

His large firm long fingers closed tightly on mine, and held my hand prisoned so hardly that he gave me a good deal of pain.

"One minute, my lad," he said. "Your father and mother were both English, were they not?"

The mention of them made me wince.

"Both dead, I think my sister said?"

"Yes," I said huskily, and I tried to drag my hand away, but he held it fast.

"So you are true English?" he said; "and a pretty opinion you have of your fellow-countryman."

"I--I don't understand you, sir."

"To think after you have struggled up here so pluckily, and in so manly a way, he would be such an inhuman brute as to let you go."

"Mr Raydon!" I cried, huskily.

"And your friend, my lad, I hope, for my sister's sake and your own too, if you justify the impression you have made. There, you came to me quite a stranger, and I wanted to see whether you had the manliness and courage to refuse to stay, and I know that you have both, and would have gone back. Come," he said, pressing my hand warmly, "let what has pa.s.sed during the past few minutes go. Sit here for a bit, both of you.

To-morrow we'll have a chat over what is to be done."

He smiled at me, gave Esau a nod, and went out.