The Mistress of Bonaventure

"There are two points I am not clear about," I said. "We have not the stock to sell; and wouldn't it be a trifle hard on innocent shareholders?"

"We are finding out your capacities by degrees," said Haldane, with a quizzical glance at me. "In the first place, we take the risk of being able to procure the stock when frightened holders rush on the market. If they don't – well, there will be a difficulty. In the second place, there are no innocent holders, or only a very few. The corporation is a semi-private concern – combination of second-rate sharpers of your friend's own kidney; and the few outsiders are professional speculators who take such risks as they come – they are only now thinking of an appeal to the general public. Here is the latest balance sheet, and I presume you are not anxious to see a continuance of that dividend wrung out of your friends on the prairie."

My anger flamed up once more as I glanced at the figures. I had seen how that profit was earned – not by the company's agents, but by careworn men and suffering women, who toiled under a steadily increasing burden, which was crushing the life out of them. I had also received a laconic message from a combination of such as these: "Have paid in – dollars to the B. O. M. We'll sell our boots to back you if Haldane's standing in. Do the best you can."

Then I brought my fist down on the table as I said: "I'd walk out a beggar to-morrow before that should happen. If this concern lives only by such plunder, for heaven's sake let us demolish it. I can't eat another morsel. Isn't it time to begin?"

Haldane smiled, and touched a bell. "My principal broker should be waiting."

A little, spectacled man, with a shrill voice and insignificant appearance, was ushered in, and, as I inspected him, Haldane's choice reminded me of the Hebrew shepherd's sling. He appeared a very feeble weapon to use against the giant who had oppressed us so grievously. "Territories have been offering at several dollars' reduction," he said. "Don't know why, unless it's the railroad uncertainty. You couldn't get hold of one under full premium until lately."

The speaker, in spite of his declared ignorance, answered Haldane's smile; and the latter said: "You can begin at a further five dollars down. Come round in the afternoon and tell us how you are progressing. Isn't there a race meeting somewhere about this place to-day?"

The broker said there was; and I was astonished when Haldane suggested that we might as well attend it, for this part of the conflict was evidently to be fought on wholly novel lines. We drove to the meeting, and after the monotony of Crane Valley the sight of the light-hearted crowd, the hum of voices and laughter, the gay dresses, and, above all, the horses, was exhilarating. Nevertheless, it was some time before the scene compelled my whole attention, for the issues of the business which had brought me to Winnipeg appeared far too serious to justify such trifling. By degrees, however, I yielded to the influence of the stirring spectacle, and was at length amazed to find myself shouting wildly with the rest when a handsome chestnut broke out from the ruck of galloping horses a furlong from the post. Then, indeed, for a few seconds I was oblivious of everything but the silk-clad figure and the beautiful animal rushing past the dim sea of faces in the blaze of sunshine behind, while the roar of hoofs and the human clamor set me quivering. It was all so different from anything I had heard or seen on the silent prairie. Boone returned presently, and I stared at the silver coins he placed in my palm.

"You don't look satisfied, Ormesby, with the result of your few dollars. Are you sorry I did not lay a decent stake, or have you been infected by Lane?" he said; and I answered him dryly: "I'm sorry that, without telling me, you staked anything at all. It is so long since I had any money to risk on such amusements – and it does not seem fair to the anxious men waiting on the prairie."

Haldane laughed. "It is generally wise to make the most of a pleasant interlude, because the average man does not get too many of them. If this strikes you as trifling, Ormesby, you will find grim enough amusement before we are through."

It was afternoon when we returned to the city, and we recommenced the campaign by a sumptuous lunch, during which the broker came in. "I've been offering Territories until I'm hoarse," he said. "There was some surprise and talking, but nobody wanted to buy; and, while it's an honor to serve you, I don't see much of a commission in this."

"You will, if I know my opponents," said Haldane significantly. "Take off two more dollars, and, if there are any buyers, don't let them think you're not in earnest. You can put another of your friends on."

The broker departed and left me wondering. It struck me that to reduce the value by open quotations should have been enough, without saddling ourselves with contracts when we did not hold the stock; but it seemed that cautious slowness was not Haldane's way. He next insisted on playing billiards with me, and he played as well as I did badly, for my fingers had grown stiff from the grip of the plow-stilts and bridle, and we had small opportunity for such amusements on the prairie. Nothing of importance happened during the remainder of the day, but I have a clear recollection of how the throb of life from the busy city reacted on me as we sat together on a balcony outside the smoking-room after dinner. It was a hot night, and the streets were filled with citizens seeking coolness in the open air. The place seemed alive with moving figures that came and went endlessly under the glare of the great arc lights, while the stir and brilliancy appeared unreal to me. The air throbbed with voices, the clank of great freight trains in the station, and the hum of trolley cars; while only one narrow strip of sky appeared between the rows of stores, and that strip was barred by a maze of interlacing wires. I felt as though I had awakened from a century's sleep on the prairie.

"Somewhat different from Crane Valley," said Haldane, pointing with his cigar towards the crowded wires. "I wonder how many of those are charged with our business – it is tolerably certain that some of them are. We have cheerfully thrown down the glove, and now the forces of fire and air and water are all pressed into the service of spreading our challenge across the continent. There's a mammoth printing machine in yonder building reeling it off by the thousands of copies every hour in its commercial reports, and those papers will be rushed east and west to warn holders in Quebec or Vancouver to-night. Also, by this time, Lane, wherever he is, will be spending money like water to keep the wires humming. Feel uneasy about the explosion now that you have helped to fire the train?"

"I feel curious both as to why you should take so much trouble to help us, sir, and as to the enemy's first move," I said.

"To keep myself from rusting, for one thing, and because Lane is one man too many down our way," was the careless answer. "If that does not appear a sufficient motive I may perhaps mention another when we have won. As to the other affair, Lane will, so long as his means hold out, buy – or urge his friends to – while we sell. Just how far can you and the men behind you go?"

I named a sum, which Haldane noted. "With what Boone and I have decided to put up it will be enough if all goes well. If not – but we will not trouble about that. This contract strikes me as a trifle too big for Lane," he said.

I retired early, but scarcely slept all night. I felt that the struggle would commence in earnest on the morrow, and Haldane's words had warned me that our nerve and treasury might be taxed to the utmost before we made good the challenge we had so lightly, it seemed to me, sent broadcast across the Dominion.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE TURNING OF THE TIDE

I rose early next morning, and a stroll through the awakening city, which was cool and fresh as yet, braced me for the stress of the day. Haldane looked thoughtful at breakfast; Boone was silent and suspiciously stolid, for he betrayed himself by the very slowness with which he folded back the newspaper brought him to expose the commercial reports. He handed it to Haldane, who nodded, saying nothing. It was a relief to me, at least, when the meal was over, but afterwards the morning passed very heavily, for I spent most of it haunting a dark telephone box, where Haldane received and dispatched cabalistic messages. I did not approve of conflict of this description, in which the uninitiated could neither follow the points lost or won nor see the enemy, and I should have preferred the hay-fork and a background of sunlit prairie.

Noon seemed a very long time coming, and the report of the broker who arrived with it far from reassuring. "We have sold a fair block of stock, and I brought you the contracts to sign," he said. "Settlement and all conditions as usual. Each time that we offered a round lot Graham's salesman and another man took them up."

"Lane is taking hold. He has stirred up his allies," said Haldane. "I'll put my name to these papers, and you can call down another few dollars when you start again. I suppose there is no other person selling?"

"No," said the broker. "There were a good many other men curious about our game, and I fancy one or two of them had instructions; but they did nothing. We'll work up a sensation during the afternoon."

It would have greatly pleased me to hear of other persons parting with their shares; but Haldane still looked confident, and Boone appeared to place implicit faith in his generalship. I, however, grew more and more anxious as the afternoon dragged by, for my sense of responsibility to the men behind me increased when each tinkle of the telephone bell was followed by a message reporting further sales. Somebody was steadily taking up the stock we offered, and when, for the fourth time, Haldane had answered my question, "Any sign of weakness yet?" in the negative, I could stay indoors no longer, and found it a relief to stride briskly through the busy streets towards a grain buyer's offices.

My own personal risk was heavy enough, but I knew also what it had cost my prairie neighbors to raise the sum they had credited me with, and I felt that, if beaten, I dare not return and face them with the news that, losing all in an unsuccessful gamble, we had left them doubly helpless at the mercy of a triumphant enemy. The interview with the grain merchant was, however, in a measure comforting. He admitted that prices were improving, stated approximate figures which almost surprised me, and volunteered the information that when my crop should be gathered he would be glad to make me an offer. Although prospects were good in Western Canada, cereals were scarce everywhere else; and I returned so involved in mental calculations that I walked into several citizens, one of whom swore fluently. He wore toothpick-pointed shoes, and in my abstraction I had, it seemed, trodden cruelly on his toes.

Boone came up while I attempted to apologize, and tapped me on the shoulder. "What do you think of this amusement, Ormesby? It seems to have had the effect of dazing you," he said. "You were walking right past the hotel as though your eyes were shut."

"To be candid, I think very little of it," I said. "Still, I was puzzling over a slightly complicated sum to ascertain how much – counting every remaining beast, salable implement, and load of grain – would, when I have paid off Lane, remain my own."

"Planning your campaign for next year?" asked Boone, with a trace of dryness.

"No," I answered. "It will not be a great deal, but I'm open to stake the last cent on beating Lane."

"Good man!" said Boone. "We are going to beat him; and, to show that I am prepared to back my convictions, I may say that I have already hypothecated every pennyworth of my English property."

Haldane was waiting for us when we came in. "Our men have had a busy afternoon. All the shares they offered were bought up, and there is no sign of any weakness yet," he said.

We formed a somewhat silent company during the earlier portion of the evening. Haldane sat busy, pencil in hand, and finally passed a page of his notebook across to us. "I don't quite know who is backing Lane, but his purse is a tolerably long one," he said. "You see, we must produce shares, or the difference between their value at that time and the price we sold at, to this extent on settling day, Ormesby."

"Of which nobody would apparently sell us one," I answered ruefully.

Haldane nodded. "You mean, of course, to-day. A good many people may be willing to do so before this hour to-morrow – if not it will be time then to consider seriously. Meanwhile, the best we can do is to seek innocent relaxation, and I see that Miss Redmond is singing at the opera house."

I was hardly in the mood to enjoy a concert, though I was curious to hear Redmond's daughter; but inaction had grown almost insufferable and when we took our places in the crowded building I felt glad that I had come. The sight of the close-packed multitude and the hum of many voices helped to hold in check my nervous restlessness. Nevertheless, though a lover of music, I scarcely heard a word of the first three songs, and only became intent when a clapping of hands rolled round the building as a dark-haired girl stood forward in the glare of the footlights. It was evidently she who had drawn the perspiring crowd together, and that alone was an eloquent testimonial, considering the temperature.

Ailin Redmond was very plainly dressed, and she smiled her acknowledgments with a simplicity that evidently pleased the audience, while perhaps in compliment to them she wore as sole adornment a few green maple leaves. Then I settled myself to listen, and continued almost spell-bound to the end of the song, wondering where the girl I had seen herding cattle barefooted not very long ago had acquired such power. She was not, from a technical view, perhaps, a finished singer; but Western audiences can feel, if, for the most part, they cannot criticise; and I think she drove the full meaning of the old Irish ballad home to the hearts of all of them. A wailing undertone rang through it, and the effect of the whole was best expressed as uncanny. It was no doubt the strangeness of her themes, and the contrast she presented to her stereotyped rivals, which had led to the girl's success.

In any case the applause was vociferous, and continued until the singer returned and stood still, with hands lightly clasped, looking, not at the expectant audience, but directly at us. There was a curious expression in her eyes, which were fixed steadily on myself and Haldane beside me. Then I gained understanding as she commenced to sing, for there was no mistaking the fact that she meant the song for us. It was a clever resetting of such an old-world ballad as I think no Anglo-Saxon could have written; its burden was a mourning over ancient wrongs and hunger for revenge; but the slender, dark-haired girl held the power to infuse her spirit into me. My lips and hands closed tight as I saw, what I think she wished me to, Helen Boone dying in a sod hovel, and the wagon that bore the dead man rolling through murky blackness across the prairie.

Then I shook all misgivings from me, feeling that though every acre and bushel of grain must go, and we failed, they would be well spent in an attempt to pull down the man who had brought about such things. That others might suffer with him counted little then. They had clutched at their dividends – dividends wrung by him out of the agony of poor men; and their ignorance, which was scarcely possible, did not free them from responsibility.

There was dead stillness for several seconds between the accompanist's final chord and the tumultuous applause which the slightly puzzled audience accorded, while, when it died away, I saw that Boone's forehead was beaded and his lips slightly quivering. Even Haldane appeared less than usually at ease.

"Miss Redmond is a young lady of uncommon and even uncomfortable gifts," he said. "Women, as you will discover some day, Ormesby, are responsible for most of the mischief that goes on, as well as a large amount of good. For instance, it was the encouragement of one of them which helped to start me on this campaign, and now, when slightly doubtful respecting the wisdom of the step, another must sing eerie songs to me with a purpose. I think we will walk round and call on her."

We did so, and Redmond's daughter did not keep us waiting long. She sailed down a broad stairway and stood smiling under the glaring lamps, very slight and slim and graceful, so that it seemed fitting Haldane should bend over the hand she gave him.

"There is no need for my poor compliments after the verdict of the multitude; but did you sing that song to us?" he said.

"Yes," said the girl quietly, while the smile sank out of her eyes. "We have a good many friends and hear much gossip, so I knew at once who was directing the attack on Lane's company. As to the song – I had some slight education down East, you know – its choice was not without a meaning. You will remember how, on the eve of battle, Shakespeare's ghosts prophesied to one man ruin and to another victory?"

"Yes," said Haldane, looking puzzled, "I think I do."

"Then" – and Ailin Redmond seemed to shiver a little – "do you think there are no ghosts on the prairie?"

"I have not met any of them," said Haldane; and the girl answered with infectious gravity: "That does not prove there are none; and, even if you call it a childish fancy, I felt as I sang that they will bring you victory to-morrow."

"You are far too clever and pretty to fill your head with such fancies, my dear," said Haldane. And when we went out into the open he repeated, with a shrug of his shoulders: "In spite of her talents, that is a most uncomfortable young woman; but heaven send her prophecy comes true."

Again I passed a restless night, but our agent procured us admission into the inner precincts of the exchange on the morrow, and as I listened to the eager shouting and watched the excited groups surge about the salesmen, I began to comprehend the fascination that speculation wields over its votaries. Our little spectacled broker, however, held my eye as he flitted to and fro, and now and then with a strident cry gathered a mob of gesticulating men about him. Somebody accepted his offers on each occasion, and he approached us with an almost dismayed expression when the market closed at noon.

"You are an old hand at this business, sir, but I feel it's my duty to warn you that things don't look well," he said. "Your friends of the opposition are evidently able to stand considerable hammering. The sum you mentioned would be no use now to pull us straight; and unless there's a break pretty soon they'll squeeze you like a screw vice on settling day. It would be hard to figure the price they'll make you pay."