British -- Canada -- Fiction; Love stories; Ranchers -- Canada, Western -- Fiction
"Then we'll fix the terms. Until one of us gives the other notice that
he lets up on this agreement, you will do just what I tell you. Pay will
be about the usual thing for whatever you're set to do. It would be
reasonably high if I put you on to anything in the cities."
"Is that likely?"
"I've a notion that we might get you into a place where you could watch
Devine's game for me. I want to feel quite sure of it before I take any
chances with that kind of man. If I struck him for anything worth while,
you would have a share."
Brooke's face flushed just a trifle, and again he sat silent a moment or
two. Then he laughed somewhat curiously.
"Well," he said, "I suppose there are no other means, and the man robbed
me."
Saxton smiled. "If we pull off the deal I'm figuring on, your share
might 'most work up to those six thousand dollars. They're yours."
Brooke realized that it was a clever man he was dealing with, but in his
present state of mind the somewhat vague arrangement commended itself to
him. He was, he decided, warranted in getting his six thousand dollars
back by any means that were open to him. More he did not want, for he
still retained in a slight degree the notions instilled into him in
England, which had, however, since he was seldom able to indulge in
them, not tended to make him happier.
"There is a point you don't seem to have grasped," he said. "Since I am
not to be particular, can't you conceive that it would not be pleasant
for you if Devine went one better?"
Saxton laughed. "I've met quite a few Englishmen--of your
kind--already," he said. "That's why I feel that when you've taken my
dollars you're not going to go back on me without giving me warning.
Besides, Devine would be considerably more likely to fix you up in quite
another way. Now, I want an answer. Is it a deal?"
"It is," said Brooke, who, in spite of the fashion in which he had
expressed himself during the last few minutes, felt a slight warmth in
his face. Though he could not afford to be particular, there was one
aspect of the arrangement which did not commend itself to him.
Saxton nodded. "Then, as you'll want to know a little about mining,
we'll put you on now, helping the drillers, at $2.50 a day. You'll get
considerably more by-and-by. Take this little treatise on the minerals
of the province, and keep it by you."
V.
BARBARA RENEWS AN ACQUAINTANCE.
There was an amateur concert for a commendable purpose in the Vancouver
opera-house, which, since the inhabitants of the mountain province do
not expect any organized body to take over their individual
responsibilities, was a somewhat unusual event, and Miss Barbara
Heathcote, who had not as yet found it particularly entertaining, was
leaning back languidly in her chair.
"There are really one or two things they do a little better in the Old
Country," she said.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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