Isolation
marks him
for its own.
for its own.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v19 - Oli to Phi
- Pierre, you lie!
" was the
sharp and threatening reply. The significance of this last state-
ment had been often attested on the prairies by the piercing
emphasis of a six-chambered revolver. It was evident that Young
Aleck was in earnest. Pierre's eyes glowed in the shadow, but
he idly replied:-
"I do not remember quite who said it Well, mon ami,
perhaps I lie; perhaps. Sometimes we dream things, and these
dreams are true. You call it a lie: bien! Sergeant Fones, he
dreams perhaps Old Aleck sells whisky against the law to men
you call whisky runners, sometimes to Indians and half-breeds-
half-breeds like Pretty Pierre. That was a dream of Sergeant
Fones; but you see he believes it true. It is good sport, eh?
Will you not take-what is it? -a silent partner? Yes; a silent
partner, Old Aleck. Pretty Pierre has spare time, a little to
make money for his friends and for himself, eh? "
When did not Pierre have time to spare? He was a gam-
bler. Unlike the majority of half-breeds, he had a pronounced
French manner, nonchalant and debonair. The Indian in him
gave him coolness and nerve. His cheeks had a tinge of deli-
cate red under their whiteness, like those of a woman. That
was why he was called Pretty Pierre. The country had, how-
ever, felt a kind of weird menace in the name. It was used to
snakes whose rattle gave notice of approach or signal of danger.
But Pretty Pierre was like the death-adder, small and beautiful,
silent and deadly. At one time he had made a secret of his
trade, or thought he was doing so. In those days he was often
to be seen at David Humphrey's home, and often in talk with
Mab Humphrey; but it was there one night that the man who
was ha'sh gave him his true character, with much candor and no
comment.
Afterwards Pierre was not seen at Humphrey's ranch. Men
prophesied that he would have revenge some day on Sergeant
Fones; but he did not show anything on which this opinion could
## p. 11052 (#264) ##########################################
GILBERT PARKER
11052
be based.
gambler.
Young Aleck had inherited some money through his dead
mother from his grandfather, a Hudson's Bay factor. He had
been in the East for some years, and when he came back he
brought his "little pile" and an impressionable heart with him.
The former, Pretty Pierre and his friends set about to win; the
latter, Mab Humphrey won without the trying. Yet Mab gave
Young Aleck as much as he gave her. More. Because her love
sprang from a simple, earnest, and uncontaminated life. Her
purity and affection were being played against Pierre's designs
and Young Aleck's weakness. With Aleck cards and liquor went
together. Pierre seldom drank.
But what of Sergeant Fones? If the man that knew him
best the Commandant - had been asked for his history, the
reply would have been: "Five years in the Service, rigid dis-
ciplinarian, best non-commissioned officer on the Patrol of the
Cypress Hills. " That was all the Commandant knew.
A soldier-policeman's life on the frontier is rough, solitary,
and severe. Active duty and responsibility are all that makes it
endurable. To few is it fascinating. A free and thoughtful
nature would however find much in it, in spite of great hard-
ships, to give interest and even pleasure. The sense of breadth
and vastness, and the inspiration of pure air, could be a very
gospel of strength, beauty, and courage, to such a one-for a
time. But was Sergeant Fones such a one? The Command-
ant's scornful reply to a question of the kind would have been:
"He is the best soldier on the Patrol. "
-
He took no umbrage at being called Pretty Pierre the
But for all that he was possessed of a devil.
And so, with hard gallops here and there after the refugees
of crime or misfortune, or both, who fled before them like deer
among the passes of the hills, and like deer at bay, often fought.
like demons to the death; with border watchings, and protection
and care and vigilance of the Indians; with hurried marches.
at sunrise, the thermometer at fifty degrees below zero often in
winter, and open camps beneath the stars, and no camp at all,
as often as not, winter and summer; with rough barrack fun and
parade and drill and guard of prisoners; and with chances now
and then to pay homage to a woman's face,-the Mounted Force
grew full of the Spirit of the West and became brown, val-
iant, and hardy, with wind and weather. Perhaps some of them
## p. 11053 (#265) ##########################################
GILBERT PARKER
11053
longed to touch, oftener than they did, the hands of children, and
to consider more the faces of women, for hearts are hearts even
under a belted coat of red on the Fiftieth Parallel,- but men of
nerve do not blazon their feelings.
No one would have accused Sergeant Fones of having a heart.
Men of keen discernment would have seen in him the little Bis-
marck of the Mounted Police. His name carried farther on the
Cypress Hills Patrol than any other; and yet his officers could
never say that he exceeded his duty or enlarged upon the orders
he received. He had no sympathy with crime. Others of the
force might wink at it; but his mind appeared to sit severely
upright upon the cold platform of Penalty, in beholding breaches
of the Statutes. He would not have rained upon the unjust as the
just if he had had the directing of the heavens. As private Gel-
latly put it: "Sergeant Fones has the fear o' God in his heart,
and the law of the land across his saddle, and the newest breech-
loading at that! " He was part of the great machine of Order,
the servant of Justice, the sentinel in the vestibule of Martial
Law. His interpretation of duty worked upward as downward.
Officers and privates were acted on by the force known as
Sergeant Fones. Some people, like Old Brown Windsor, spoke
hardly and openly of this force. There were three people who
never did,— Pretty Pierre, Young Aleck, and Mab Humphrey.
Pierre hated him; Young Aleck admired in him a quality lying.
dormant in himself,-decision; Mab Humphrey spoke unkindly
of no one. Besides- But no!
―――――
-
What was Sergeant Fones's country? No one knew. Where
had he come from? No one asked him more than once. He
could talk French with Pierre,-a kind of French that sometimes
made the undertone of red in the Frenchman's cheeks darker.
He had been heard to speak German to a German prisoner;
and once when a gang of Italians were making trouble on a line
of railway under construction, he arrested the leader, and in a
few swift, sharp words in the language of the rioters settled the
business. He had no accent that betrayed his nationality.
He had been recommended for a commission. The officer
in command had hinted that the sergeant might get a Christmas
present. The officer had further said, "And if it was something
that both you and the patrol would be the better for, you couldn't
object, sergeant. " But the sergeant only saluted, looking steadily
into the eyes of the officer. That was his reply.
## p. 11054 (#266) ##########################################
11054
GILBERT PARKER
Private Gellatly, standing without, heard Sergeant Fones say,
as he passed into the open air, and slowly bared his forehead to
the winter sun:
"Exactly. "
And Private Gellatly cried with revolt in his voice, "Divils
me own, the word that a't to have been full o' joy was like the
clip of a rifle breech. "
Justice in a new country is administered with promptitude
and vigor, or else not administered at all. Where an officer
of the Mounted Police Soldiery has all the powers of a magis-
trate, the law's delay and the insolence of office has little space
in which to work. One of the commonest slips of virtue in the
Canadian West was selling whisky contrary to the law of prohi-
bition which prevailed. Whisky runners were land smugglers.
Old Brown Windsor had somehow got the reputation of being
connected with the whisky runners; not a very respectable busi-
ness, and thought to be dangerous. Whisky runners were in-
clined to resent intrusion of their privacy, with a touch of that
biting inhospitableness which a moonlighter of Kentucky uses
toward an inquisitive, unsympathetic marshal. On the Cypress
Hills Patrol, however, the erring servants of Bacchus were hav-
ing a hard time of it. Vigilance never slept there in the days of
which these lines bear record. Old Brown Windsor had, in words,
freely espoused the cause of the sinful. To the careless spectator
it seemed a charitable siding with the suffering; a proof that the
old man's heart was not so cold as his hands. Sergeant Fones
thought differently; and his mission had just been to warn the
storekeeper that there was menacing evidence gathering against
him, and that his friendship with Golden Feather, the Indian
chief, had better cease at once. Sergeant Fones had a way of
putting things. Old Brown Windsor endeavored for a moment
to be sarcastic. This was the brief dialogue in the domain of
sarcasm:-
"I s'pose you just lit round in a friendly sort of way, hopin'
that I'd kenoodle with you later. "
"Exactly. "
There was an unpleasant click to the word. The old man's
hands got colder. He had nothing more to say.
Before leaving, the sergeant said something quietly and
quickly to Young Aleck. Pierre observed, but could not hear.
Young Aleck was uneasy; Pierre was perplexed.
The sergeant
## p. 11055 (#267) ##########################################
GILBERT PARKER
11055
turned at the door, and said in French, "What are your chances
for a Merry Christmas at Pardon's Drive, Pretty Pierre ? » Pierre
said nothing. He shrugged his shoulders, and as the door closed,
muttered, "Il est le Diable. " And he meant it. What should
Sergeant Fones know of that intended meeting at Pardon's Drive
on Christmas day? And if he knew, what then? It was not
against the law to play euchre. Still it perplexed Pierre. Before
the Windsors, father and son, however, he was, as we have seen,
playfully cool.
After quitting Old Brown Windsor's store, Sergeant Fones
urged his stout broncho to a quicker pace than usual. The bron-
cho was, like himself, wasteful of neither action nor affection.
The sergeant had caught him wild and independent, had brought
him in, broken him, and taught him obedience. They understood
each other; perhaps they loved each other. But about that, even
Private Gellatly had views in common with the general sentiment
as to the character of Sergeant Fones. The private remarked
once on this point, "Sarpints alive! the heels of the one and the
law of the other is the love of them. They'll weather together
like the Divil and Death. "
The sergeant was brooding; that was not like him.
He was
hesitating; that was less like him. He turned his broncho round
as if to cross the Big Divide and to go back to Windsor's store;
but he changed his mind again, and rode on toward David Hum-
phrey's ranch. He sat as if he had been born in the saddle.
His was a face for the artist,-strong and clear, and having
a dominant expression of force. The eyes were deep-set and
watchful. A kind of disdain might be traced in the curve of the
short upper lip, to which the mustache was clipped close-a
good fit, like his coat. The disdain was more marked this morn-
ing.
The first part of his ride had been seen by Young Aleck, the
second part by Mab Humphrey. Her first thought on seeing him
was one of apprehension for Young Aleck and those of Young
Aleck's name. She knew that people spoke of her lover as a
ne'er-do-weel; and that they associated his name freely with that
of Pretty Pierre and his gang. She had a dread of Pierre; and
only the night before, she had determined to make one last great
effort to save Aleck, and if he would not be saved-strange that,
thinking it all over again, as she watched the figure on horse-
back coming nearer, her mind should swerve to what she had
## p. 11056 (#268) ##########################################
11056
GILBERT PARKER
heard of Sergeant Fones's expected promotion. Then she fell to
wondering if any one had ever given him a real Christmas pres-
ent; if he had any friends at all; if life meant anything more to
him than carrying the law of the land across his saddle. Again
he suddenly came to her in a new thought, free from apprehen-
sion, and as the champion of her cause to defeat the half-breed
and his gang, and save Aleck from present danger or future
perils.
She was such a woman as prairies nurture,- in spirit broad
and thoughtful and full of energy; not so deep as the mount-
ain woman, not so imaginative, but with more persistency, more
daring. Youth to her was a warmth, a glory. She hated excess
and lawlessness, but she could understand it. She felt some-
times as if she must go far away into the unpeopled spaces, and
shriek out her soul to the stars from the fullness of too much
life. She supposed men had feelings of that kind too, but that
they fell to playing cards and drinking instead of crying to the
stars. Still, she preferred her way.
Once Sergeant Fones, on leaving the house, said grimly
after his fashion, "Not Mab but Ariadne — excuse a soldier's
bluntness. . . . Good-by! " and with a brusque salute he had
ridden away.
What he meant she did not know and could
not ask. The thought instantly came to her mind: Not Sergeant
Fones; but-who? She wondered if Ariadne was born on the
prairie. What knew she of the girl who helped Theseus, her
lover, to slay the Minotaur? What guessed she of the Slopes of
Naxos ? How old was Ariadne? Twenty? For that was Mab's
age. Was Ariadne beautiful? - She ran her fingers loosely
through her short brown hair, waving softly about her Greek-
shaped head, and reasoned that Ariadne must have been present-
able or Sergeant Fones would not have made the comparison.
She hoped Ariadne could ride well, for she could.
But how white the world looked this morning! and how proud
and brilliant the sky! Nothing in the plane of vision but waves
of snow stretching to the Cypress Hills; far to the left a solitary
house, with its tin roof flashing back the sun, and to the right
the Big Divide. It was an old-fashioned winter, not one in
which bare ground and sharp winds make life outdoors inhos-
pitable. Snow is hospitable-clean, impacted snow; restful and
silent. But there is one spot in the area of white, on which
Mab's eyes are fixed now, with something different in them
## p. 11057 (#269) ##########################################
GILBERT PARKER
11057
from what had been there. Again it was a memory with which
Sergeant Fones was associated. One day in the summer just
past she had watched him and his company put away to rest,
under the cool sod where many another lay in silent company,
a prairie wanderer,- some outcast from a better life gone by.
Afterwards, in her home, she saw the sergeant stand at the
window, looking out toward the spot where the waves in the
sea of grass were more regular and greener than elsewhere, and
were surmounted by a high cross. She said to him,- for she of
all was never shy of his stern ways,-
"Why is the grass always greenest there, Sergeant Fones? "
He knew what she meant, and slowly said, "It is the Bar-
racks of the Free. "
She had no views of life save those of duty and work and
natural joy and loving a ne'er-do-weel, and she said, "I do not
understand that. "
And the sergeant replied, "Free among the Dead, like unto
them that are wounded and lie in the grave, who are out of re-
membrance. "
But Mab said again, "I do not understand that either. "
The sergeant did not at once reply. He stepped to the door
and gave a short command to some one without, and in a mo-
ment his company was mounted in line: handsome, dashing fel-
lows; one the son of an English nobleman, one the brother of an
eminent Canadian politician, one related to a celebrated English
dramatist. He ran his eye along the line, then turned to Mab,
raised his cap with machine-like precision, and said, "No, I sup-
pose you do not understand that. Keep Aleck Windsor from
Pretty Pierre and his gang. Good-by. "
Then he mounted and rode away. Every other man in the
company looked back to where the girl stood in the doorway; he
did not. Private Gellatly said with a shake of the head, as she
was lost to view, "Devils bestir me, what a widdy she'll make! "
It was understood that Aleck Windsor and Mab Humphrey were
to be married on the coming New Year's Day. What connection.
was there between the words of Sergeant Fones and those of
Private Gellatly? None, perhaps.
Mab thinks upon that day as she looks out, this December
morning, and sees Sergeant Fones dismounting at the door.
David Humphrey, who is outside, offers to put up the sergeant's
horse; but he says, "No, if you'll hold him just a moment, Mr.
XIX-692
## p. 11058 (#270) ##########################################
11058
GILBERT PARKER
Humphrey, I'll ask for a drink of something warm, and move on.
Miss Mab is inside, I suppose? "
"She'll give you a drink of the best to be had on your patrol,
sergeant," was the laughing reply.
"Thanks for that, but tea or coffee is good enough for me,"
said the sergeant. Entering, the coffee was soon in the hand of
the hardy soldier. Once he paused in his drinking and scanned
Mab's face closely. Most people would have said the sergeant
had an affair of the law in hand, and was searching the face of
a criminal; but most people are not good at interpretation. Mab
was speaking to the chore-girl at the same time and did not see
the look. If she could have defined her thoughts when she, in
turn, glanced into the sergeant's face a moment afterwards, she
would have said, "Austerity fills this man.
Isolation marks him
for its own. " In the eyes were only purpose, decision, and com-
mand. Was that the look that had been fixed upon her face a
moment ago? It must have been. His features had not changed
a breath. Mab began their talk.
"They say you are to get a Christmas present of promotion,
Sergeant Fones. "
"I have not seen it gazetted," he answered enigmatically.
"You and your friends will be glad of it. "
"I like the service. "
"You will have more freedom with a commission. "
He made no reply, but rose and walked to the window, and
looked out across the snow, drawing on his gauntlets as he
did so.
She saw that he was looking where the grass in summer was
the greenest!
He turned and said:
:-
"I am going to barracks now. I suppose young Aleck will
be in quarters here on Christmas Day, Miss Mab?
>>
"I think so," and she blushed.
"Did he say he would be here? "
"Yes. "
"Exactly. "
He looked toward the coffee. Then:-
"Thank you.
. . Good-by. "
Sergeant->
((
"Miss Mab-»
་་
"Will you not come to us on Christmas Day? ”
## p. 11059 (#271) ##########################################
GILBERT PARKER
11059
His eyelids closed swiftly and opened again.
"I shall be on duty. "
"And promoted? "
"Perhaps. "
"And merry and happy? "-she smiled to herself to think of
Sergeant Fones being merry and happy.
"Exactly. "
The word suited him.
He paused a moment with his fingers on the latch, and turned
round as if to speak; pulled off his gauntlet, and then as quickly
put it on again. Had he meant to offer his hand in good-by?
He had never been seen to take the hand of any one except with
the might of the law visible in steel.
He opened the door with the right hand, but turned round as
he stepped out, so that the left held it while he faced the warmth
of the room and the face of the girl.
The door closed.
Mounted, and having said good-by to Mr. Humphrey, he
turned toward the house, raised his cap with soldierly brusque-
ness, and rode away in the direction of the barracks.
The girl did not watch him. She was thinking of Young
Aleck, and of Christmas Day, now near. The sergeant did not
look back.
Meantime the party at Windsor's store was broken up. Pretty
Pierre and Young Aleck had talked together, and the old man
had heard his son say:
"Remember, Pierre, it is for the last time. "
Then they talked after this fashion:-
"Ah, I know, mon ami; for the last time! Eh, bien! You
will spend Christmas Day with us too—
No! You surely will
not leave us on the day of good fortune? Where better can you
take your pleasure-for the last time? One day is not enough
for farewell. Two, three; that is the magic number. You will,
eh? no? Well, well, you will come to-morrow-and- eh, mon
ami, where do you go the next day? Oh, pardon, I forgot, you
spend the Christmas Day-I know. And the day of the New
Year? Ah, Young Aleck, that is what they say,-the Devil for
the Devil's luck. So! "
"Stop that, Pierre. There was fierceness in the tone. « I
spend the Christmas Day where you don't, and as I like, and the
rest doesn't concern you. I drink with you, I play with you-
bien! As you say yourself, bien! isn't that enough? »
## p. 11060 (#272) ##########################################
11060
GILBERT PARKER
"Pardon! We will not quarrel. No: we spend not the
Christmas Day after the same fashion, quite; then, to-morrow at
Pardon's Drive! Adieu! "
Pretty Pierre went out of one door, a malediction between
his white teeth, and Aleck went out of another door with a male-
diction upon his gloomy lips. But both maledictions were leveled
at the same person. Poor Aleck!
«< Poor Aleck! " That is the way we sometimes think of a
good nature gone awry; one that has learned to say cruel male-
dictions to itself, and against which demons hurl their maledic-
tions too. Alas for the ne'er-do-weel!
That night a stalwart figure passed from David Humphrey's
door, carrying with him the warm atmosphere of a good woman's
love. The chilly outer air of the world seemed not to touch
him, Love's curtains were drawn so close. Had one stood within
"the Hunter's Room," as it was called, a little while before, one
would have seen a man's head bowed before a woman, and her
hand smoothing back the hair from the handsome brow where
dissipation had drawn some deep lines. Presently the hand
raised the head until the eyes of the woman looked full into the
eyes of the man.
"You will not go to Pardon's Drive again, will you, Aleck? "
"Never again after Christmas Day, Mab. But I must go
to-morrow. I have given my word. "
"I know. To meet Pretty Pierre and all the rest, and for
what? O Aleck, isn't the suspicion about your father enough,
but you must put this on me as well? "
"My father must suffer for his wrong-doing if he does wrong,
and I for mine. "
There was a moment's silence. He bowed his head again.
"And I have done wrong to us both. Forgive me, Mab. "
She leaned over and fondled his hair. "I forgive you, Aleck. "
A thousand new thoughts were thrilling through him. Yet
this man had given his word to do that for which he must ask
forgiveness of the woman he loved. But to Pretty Pierre, for-
given or unforgiven, he would keep his word. She understood
it better than most of those who read this brief record can.
Every sphere has its code of honor and duty peculiar to itself.
"You will come to me on Christmas morning, Aleck? "
"I will come on Christmas morning. "
"And no more after that of Pretty Pierre ? »
"And no more of Pretty Pierre. "
## p. 11061 (#273) ##########################################
GILBERT PARKER
11061
She trusted him; but neither could reckon with unknown
forces.
Sergeant Fones, sitting in the barracks in talk with Private
Gellatly, said at that moment in a swift silence:--
"Exactly. "
Pretty Pierre, at Pardon's Drive, drinking a glass of brandy
at that moment, said to the ceiling:-
"No more of Pretty Pierre after to-morrow night, monsieur!
Bien! If it is for the last time, then it is for the last time.
So . . . so! "
He smiled. His teeth were amazingly white.
The stalwart figure strode on under the stars, the white night.
a lens for visions of days of rejoicing to come. All evil was far
from him. The dolorous tide rolled back in this hour from his
life, and he reveled in the light of a new day.
"When I've played my last card to-morrow night with Pretty
Pierre, I'll begin the world again," he whispered.
And Sergeant Fones in the barracks said just then, in response
to a further remark of Private Gellatly:-
"Exactly. "
Young Aleck is singing now:—
"Out from your vineland come
Into the prairies wild;
Here will we make our home,-
Father, mother, and child;
Come, my love, to our home,—
Father, mother, and child,
Father, mother, and
He fell to thinking again-"and child—and child,”—it was in
his ears and in his heart.
But Pretty Pierre was singing softly to himself in the room
at Pardon's Drive:-
"Three good friends with the wine at night —
Vive la compagnie!
Two good friends when the sun grows bright—
Vive la compagnie!
Vive la, vive la, vive la mort!
Vive la, vive la, vive la mort!
Three good friends, two good friends—
Vive la compagnie! "
## p. 11062 (#274) ##########################################
11062
GILBERT PARKER
What did it mean?
Private Gellatly was cousin to Idaho Jack, and Idaho Jack
disliked Pretty Pierre, though he had been one of the gang.
The cousins had seen each other lately, and Private Gellatly had
had a talk with the man who was ha'sh. It may be that others
besides Pierre had an idea of what it meant.
In the house at Pardon's Drive the next night sat eight men,
of whom three were Pretty Pierre, Young Aleck, and Idaho
Jack. Young Aleck's face was flushed with bad liquor and
the worse excitement of play. This was one of the unreckoned
forces. Was this the man that sang the tender song under the
stars last night? Pretty Pierre's face was less pretty than usual:
the cheeks were pallid, the eyes were hard and cold. Once he
looked at his partner as if to say, "Not yet. " Idaho Jack saw
the look: he glanced at his watch; it was eleven o'clock. At that
moment the door opened, and Sergeant Fones entered. All started
to their feet, most with curses on their lips; but Sergeant Fones
never seemed to hear anything that could make a feature of his
face alter. Pierre's hand was on his hip, as if feeling for some-
thing. Sergeant Fones saw that; but he walked to where Aleck
stood, with his unplayed cards still in his hand, and laying a
hand on his shoulder, said, "Come with me. "
"Why should I go with you? " this with a drunken man's
bravado.
"You are my prisoner. "
Pierre stepped forward. "What is his crime? " he exclaimed.
"How does that concern you, Pretty Pierre ? »
――――
"He is my friend. "
"Is he your friend, Aleck? "
What was there in the eyes of Sergeant Fones that forced
the reply, "To-night, yes; to-morrow, no"?
"Exactly.
It is near to-morrow; come. "
Aleck was led towards the door. Once more Pierre's hand
went to his hip; but he was looking at the prisoner, not at the
sergeant. The sergeant saw, and his fingers were at his belt.
He opened the door. Aleck passed out. He followed. Two
horses were tied to a post. With difficulty Aleck was mounted.
Once on the way, his brain began slowly to clear; but he grew
painfully cold. It was a bitter night.
It was a bitter night. How bitter it might have
been for the ne'er-do-weel let the words of Idaho Jack, spoken
in a long hour's talk next day with Old Brown Windsor, show.
## p. 11063 (#275) ##########################################
GILBERT PARKER
11063
Pretty Pierre, after the two were gone, said, with a shiver of
curses, 'Another hour and it would have been done and no one
to blame. He was ready for trouble. His money was nearly
finished. A little quarrel easily made, the door would open, and
he would pass out. His horse would be gone, he could not come
back; he would walk. The air is cold, quite, quite cold; and the
snow is a soft bed. He would sleep well and sound, having seen.
Pretty Pierre for the last time. And now! " The rest was
French and furtive.
From that hour Idaho Jack and Pretty Pierre parted com-
pany.
Riding from Pardon's Drive, Young Aleck noticed at last that
they were not going toward the barracks.
He said, "Why do you arrest me? "
The sergeant replied: "You will know that soon enough.
You are now going to your own home. To-morrow you will
keep your word and go to David Humphrey's place; the next
day I will come for you. Which do you choose: to ride with
me to-night to the barracks and know why you are arrested,
or go unknowing, as I bid you, and keep your word with the
girl? "
«<
-
―――
Through Aleck's fevered brain there ran the words of the
song he sang before:
"Out from your vineland come
Into the prairies wild;
Here will we make our home,-
Father, mother, and child. "
He could have but one answer.
At the door of his home the sergeant left him with the words,
"Remember you are on parole. "
Aleck noticed, as the sergeant rode away, that the face of the
sky had changed, and slight gusts of wind had come up.
At any
other time his mind would have dwelt upon the fact. It did not
do so now.
Christmas Day came. People said that the fiercest night since
the blizzard day of 1863 had been passed. But the morning
was clear and beautiful. The sun came up like a great flower
expanding. First the yellow, then the purple, then the red, and
then a mighty shield of roses. The world was a blanket of drift,
and down, and glistening silver.
## p. 11064 (#276) ##########################################
11064
GILBERT PARKER
·
Mab Humphrey greeted her lover with such a smile as only
springs to a thankful woman's lips. He had given his word and
had kept it; and the path of the future seemed surer.
sharp and threatening reply. The significance of this last state-
ment had been often attested on the prairies by the piercing
emphasis of a six-chambered revolver. It was evident that Young
Aleck was in earnest. Pierre's eyes glowed in the shadow, but
he idly replied:-
"I do not remember quite who said it Well, mon ami,
perhaps I lie; perhaps. Sometimes we dream things, and these
dreams are true. You call it a lie: bien! Sergeant Fones, he
dreams perhaps Old Aleck sells whisky against the law to men
you call whisky runners, sometimes to Indians and half-breeds-
half-breeds like Pretty Pierre. That was a dream of Sergeant
Fones; but you see he believes it true. It is good sport, eh?
Will you not take-what is it? -a silent partner? Yes; a silent
partner, Old Aleck. Pretty Pierre has spare time, a little to
make money for his friends and for himself, eh? "
When did not Pierre have time to spare? He was a gam-
bler. Unlike the majority of half-breeds, he had a pronounced
French manner, nonchalant and debonair. The Indian in him
gave him coolness and nerve. His cheeks had a tinge of deli-
cate red under their whiteness, like those of a woman. That
was why he was called Pretty Pierre. The country had, how-
ever, felt a kind of weird menace in the name. It was used to
snakes whose rattle gave notice of approach or signal of danger.
But Pretty Pierre was like the death-adder, small and beautiful,
silent and deadly. At one time he had made a secret of his
trade, or thought he was doing so. In those days he was often
to be seen at David Humphrey's home, and often in talk with
Mab Humphrey; but it was there one night that the man who
was ha'sh gave him his true character, with much candor and no
comment.
Afterwards Pierre was not seen at Humphrey's ranch. Men
prophesied that he would have revenge some day on Sergeant
Fones; but he did not show anything on which this opinion could
## p. 11052 (#264) ##########################################
GILBERT PARKER
11052
be based.
gambler.
Young Aleck had inherited some money through his dead
mother from his grandfather, a Hudson's Bay factor. He had
been in the East for some years, and when he came back he
brought his "little pile" and an impressionable heart with him.
The former, Pretty Pierre and his friends set about to win; the
latter, Mab Humphrey won without the trying. Yet Mab gave
Young Aleck as much as he gave her. More. Because her love
sprang from a simple, earnest, and uncontaminated life. Her
purity and affection were being played against Pierre's designs
and Young Aleck's weakness. With Aleck cards and liquor went
together. Pierre seldom drank.
But what of Sergeant Fones? If the man that knew him
best the Commandant - had been asked for his history, the
reply would have been: "Five years in the Service, rigid dis-
ciplinarian, best non-commissioned officer on the Patrol of the
Cypress Hills. " That was all the Commandant knew.
A soldier-policeman's life on the frontier is rough, solitary,
and severe. Active duty and responsibility are all that makes it
endurable. To few is it fascinating. A free and thoughtful
nature would however find much in it, in spite of great hard-
ships, to give interest and even pleasure. The sense of breadth
and vastness, and the inspiration of pure air, could be a very
gospel of strength, beauty, and courage, to such a one-for a
time. But was Sergeant Fones such a one? The Command-
ant's scornful reply to a question of the kind would have been:
"He is the best soldier on the Patrol. "
-
He took no umbrage at being called Pretty Pierre the
But for all that he was possessed of a devil.
And so, with hard gallops here and there after the refugees
of crime or misfortune, or both, who fled before them like deer
among the passes of the hills, and like deer at bay, often fought.
like demons to the death; with border watchings, and protection
and care and vigilance of the Indians; with hurried marches.
at sunrise, the thermometer at fifty degrees below zero often in
winter, and open camps beneath the stars, and no camp at all,
as often as not, winter and summer; with rough barrack fun and
parade and drill and guard of prisoners; and with chances now
and then to pay homage to a woman's face,-the Mounted Force
grew full of the Spirit of the West and became brown, val-
iant, and hardy, with wind and weather. Perhaps some of them
## p. 11053 (#265) ##########################################
GILBERT PARKER
11053
longed to touch, oftener than they did, the hands of children, and
to consider more the faces of women, for hearts are hearts even
under a belted coat of red on the Fiftieth Parallel,- but men of
nerve do not blazon their feelings.
No one would have accused Sergeant Fones of having a heart.
Men of keen discernment would have seen in him the little Bis-
marck of the Mounted Police. His name carried farther on the
Cypress Hills Patrol than any other; and yet his officers could
never say that he exceeded his duty or enlarged upon the orders
he received. He had no sympathy with crime. Others of the
force might wink at it; but his mind appeared to sit severely
upright upon the cold platform of Penalty, in beholding breaches
of the Statutes. He would not have rained upon the unjust as the
just if he had had the directing of the heavens. As private Gel-
latly put it: "Sergeant Fones has the fear o' God in his heart,
and the law of the land across his saddle, and the newest breech-
loading at that! " He was part of the great machine of Order,
the servant of Justice, the sentinel in the vestibule of Martial
Law. His interpretation of duty worked upward as downward.
Officers and privates were acted on by the force known as
Sergeant Fones. Some people, like Old Brown Windsor, spoke
hardly and openly of this force. There were three people who
never did,— Pretty Pierre, Young Aleck, and Mab Humphrey.
Pierre hated him; Young Aleck admired in him a quality lying.
dormant in himself,-decision; Mab Humphrey spoke unkindly
of no one. Besides- But no!
―――――
-
What was Sergeant Fones's country? No one knew. Where
had he come from? No one asked him more than once. He
could talk French with Pierre,-a kind of French that sometimes
made the undertone of red in the Frenchman's cheeks darker.
He had been heard to speak German to a German prisoner;
and once when a gang of Italians were making trouble on a line
of railway under construction, he arrested the leader, and in a
few swift, sharp words in the language of the rioters settled the
business. He had no accent that betrayed his nationality.
He had been recommended for a commission. The officer
in command had hinted that the sergeant might get a Christmas
present. The officer had further said, "And if it was something
that both you and the patrol would be the better for, you couldn't
object, sergeant. " But the sergeant only saluted, looking steadily
into the eyes of the officer. That was his reply.
## p. 11054 (#266) ##########################################
11054
GILBERT PARKER
Private Gellatly, standing without, heard Sergeant Fones say,
as he passed into the open air, and slowly bared his forehead to
the winter sun:
"Exactly. "
And Private Gellatly cried with revolt in his voice, "Divils
me own, the word that a't to have been full o' joy was like the
clip of a rifle breech. "
Justice in a new country is administered with promptitude
and vigor, or else not administered at all. Where an officer
of the Mounted Police Soldiery has all the powers of a magis-
trate, the law's delay and the insolence of office has little space
in which to work. One of the commonest slips of virtue in the
Canadian West was selling whisky contrary to the law of prohi-
bition which prevailed. Whisky runners were land smugglers.
Old Brown Windsor had somehow got the reputation of being
connected with the whisky runners; not a very respectable busi-
ness, and thought to be dangerous. Whisky runners were in-
clined to resent intrusion of their privacy, with a touch of that
biting inhospitableness which a moonlighter of Kentucky uses
toward an inquisitive, unsympathetic marshal. On the Cypress
Hills Patrol, however, the erring servants of Bacchus were hav-
ing a hard time of it. Vigilance never slept there in the days of
which these lines bear record. Old Brown Windsor had, in words,
freely espoused the cause of the sinful. To the careless spectator
it seemed a charitable siding with the suffering; a proof that the
old man's heart was not so cold as his hands. Sergeant Fones
thought differently; and his mission had just been to warn the
storekeeper that there was menacing evidence gathering against
him, and that his friendship with Golden Feather, the Indian
chief, had better cease at once. Sergeant Fones had a way of
putting things. Old Brown Windsor endeavored for a moment
to be sarcastic. This was the brief dialogue in the domain of
sarcasm:-
"I s'pose you just lit round in a friendly sort of way, hopin'
that I'd kenoodle with you later. "
"Exactly. "
There was an unpleasant click to the word. The old man's
hands got colder. He had nothing more to say.
Before leaving, the sergeant said something quietly and
quickly to Young Aleck. Pierre observed, but could not hear.
Young Aleck was uneasy; Pierre was perplexed.
The sergeant
## p. 11055 (#267) ##########################################
GILBERT PARKER
11055
turned at the door, and said in French, "What are your chances
for a Merry Christmas at Pardon's Drive, Pretty Pierre ? » Pierre
said nothing. He shrugged his shoulders, and as the door closed,
muttered, "Il est le Diable. " And he meant it. What should
Sergeant Fones know of that intended meeting at Pardon's Drive
on Christmas day? And if he knew, what then? It was not
against the law to play euchre. Still it perplexed Pierre. Before
the Windsors, father and son, however, he was, as we have seen,
playfully cool.
After quitting Old Brown Windsor's store, Sergeant Fones
urged his stout broncho to a quicker pace than usual. The bron-
cho was, like himself, wasteful of neither action nor affection.
The sergeant had caught him wild and independent, had brought
him in, broken him, and taught him obedience. They understood
each other; perhaps they loved each other. But about that, even
Private Gellatly had views in common with the general sentiment
as to the character of Sergeant Fones. The private remarked
once on this point, "Sarpints alive! the heels of the one and the
law of the other is the love of them. They'll weather together
like the Divil and Death. "
The sergeant was brooding; that was not like him.
He was
hesitating; that was less like him. He turned his broncho round
as if to cross the Big Divide and to go back to Windsor's store;
but he changed his mind again, and rode on toward David Hum-
phrey's ranch. He sat as if he had been born in the saddle.
His was a face for the artist,-strong and clear, and having
a dominant expression of force. The eyes were deep-set and
watchful. A kind of disdain might be traced in the curve of the
short upper lip, to which the mustache was clipped close-a
good fit, like his coat. The disdain was more marked this morn-
ing.
The first part of his ride had been seen by Young Aleck, the
second part by Mab Humphrey. Her first thought on seeing him
was one of apprehension for Young Aleck and those of Young
Aleck's name. She knew that people spoke of her lover as a
ne'er-do-weel; and that they associated his name freely with that
of Pretty Pierre and his gang. She had a dread of Pierre; and
only the night before, she had determined to make one last great
effort to save Aleck, and if he would not be saved-strange that,
thinking it all over again, as she watched the figure on horse-
back coming nearer, her mind should swerve to what she had
## p. 11056 (#268) ##########################################
11056
GILBERT PARKER
heard of Sergeant Fones's expected promotion. Then she fell to
wondering if any one had ever given him a real Christmas pres-
ent; if he had any friends at all; if life meant anything more to
him than carrying the law of the land across his saddle. Again
he suddenly came to her in a new thought, free from apprehen-
sion, and as the champion of her cause to defeat the half-breed
and his gang, and save Aleck from present danger or future
perils.
She was such a woman as prairies nurture,- in spirit broad
and thoughtful and full of energy; not so deep as the mount-
ain woman, not so imaginative, but with more persistency, more
daring. Youth to her was a warmth, a glory. She hated excess
and lawlessness, but she could understand it. She felt some-
times as if she must go far away into the unpeopled spaces, and
shriek out her soul to the stars from the fullness of too much
life. She supposed men had feelings of that kind too, but that
they fell to playing cards and drinking instead of crying to the
stars. Still, she preferred her way.
Once Sergeant Fones, on leaving the house, said grimly
after his fashion, "Not Mab but Ariadne — excuse a soldier's
bluntness. . . . Good-by! " and with a brusque salute he had
ridden away.
What he meant she did not know and could
not ask. The thought instantly came to her mind: Not Sergeant
Fones; but-who? She wondered if Ariadne was born on the
prairie. What knew she of the girl who helped Theseus, her
lover, to slay the Minotaur? What guessed she of the Slopes of
Naxos ? How old was Ariadne? Twenty? For that was Mab's
age. Was Ariadne beautiful? - She ran her fingers loosely
through her short brown hair, waving softly about her Greek-
shaped head, and reasoned that Ariadne must have been present-
able or Sergeant Fones would not have made the comparison.
She hoped Ariadne could ride well, for she could.
But how white the world looked this morning! and how proud
and brilliant the sky! Nothing in the plane of vision but waves
of snow stretching to the Cypress Hills; far to the left a solitary
house, with its tin roof flashing back the sun, and to the right
the Big Divide. It was an old-fashioned winter, not one in
which bare ground and sharp winds make life outdoors inhos-
pitable. Snow is hospitable-clean, impacted snow; restful and
silent. But there is one spot in the area of white, on which
Mab's eyes are fixed now, with something different in them
## p. 11057 (#269) ##########################################
GILBERT PARKER
11057
from what had been there. Again it was a memory with which
Sergeant Fones was associated. One day in the summer just
past she had watched him and his company put away to rest,
under the cool sod where many another lay in silent company,
a prairie wanderer,- some outcast from a better life gone by.
Afterwards, in her home, she saw the sergeant stand at the
window, looking out toward the spot where the waves in the
sea of grass were more regular and greener than elsewhere, and
were surmounted by a high cross. She said to him,- for she of
all was never shy of his stern ways,-
"Why is the grass always greenest there, Sergeant Fones? "
He knew what she meant, and slowly said, "It is the Bar-
racks of the Free. "
She had no views of life save those of duty and work and
natural joy and loving a ne'er-do-weel, and she said, "I do not
understand that. "
And the sergeant replied, "Free among the Dead, like unto
them that are wounded and lie in the grave, who are out of re-
membrance. "
But Mab said again, "I do not understand that either. "
The sergeant did not at once reply. He stepped to the door
and gave a short command to some one without, and in a mo-
ment his company was mounted in line: handsome, dashing fel-
lows; one the son of an English nobleman, one the brother of an
eminent Canadian politician, one related to a celebrated English
dramatist. He ran his eye along the line, then turned to Mab,
raised his cap with machine-like precision, and said, "No, I sup-
pose you do not understand that. Keep Aleck Windsor from
Pretty Pierre and his gang. Good-by. "
Then he mounted and rode away. Every other man in the
company looked back to where the girl stood in the doorway; he
did not. Private Gellatly said with a shake of the head, as she
was lost to view, "Devils bestir me, what a widdy she'll make! "
It was understood that Aleck Windsor and Mab Humphrey were
to be married on the coming New Year's Day. What connection.
was there between the words of Sergeant Fones and those of
Private Gellatly? None, perhaps.
Mab thinks upon that day as she looks out, this December
morning, and sees Sergeant Fones dismounting at the door.
David Humphrey, who is outside, offers to put up the sergeant's
horse; but he says, "No, if you'll hold him just a moment, Mr.
XIX-692
## p. 11058 (#270) ##########################################
11058
GILBERT PARKER
Humphrey, I'll ask for a drink of something warm, and move on.
Miss Mab is inside, I suppose? "
"She'll give you a drink of the best to be had on your patrol,
sergeant," was the laughing reply.
"Thanks for that, but tea or coffee is good enough for me,"
said the sergeant. Entering, the coffee was soon in the hand of
the hardy soldier. Once he paused in his drinking and scanned
Mab's face closely. Most people would have said the sergeant
had an affair of the law in hand, and was searching the face of
a criminal; but most people are not good at interpretation. Mab
was speaking to the chore-girl at the same time and did not see
the look. If she could have defined her thoughts when she, in
turn, glanced into the sergeant's face a moment afterwards, she
would have said, "Austerity fills this man.
Isolation marks him
for its own. " In the eyes were only purpose, decision, and com-
mand. Was that the look that had been fixed upon her face a
moment ago? It must have been. His features had not changed
a breath. Mab began their talk.
"They say you are to get a Christmas present of promotion,
Sergeant Fones. "
"I have not seen it gazetted," he answered enigmatically.
"You and your friends will be glad of it. "
"I like the service. "
"You will have more freedom with a commission. "
He made no reply, but rose and walked to the window, and
looked out across the snow, drawing on his gauntlets as he
did so.
She saw that he was looking where the grass in summer was
the greenest!
He turned and said:
:-
"I am going to barracks now. I suppose young Aleck will
be in quarters here on Christmas Day, Miss Mab?
>>
"I think so," and she blushed.
"Did he say he would be here? "
"Yes. "
"Exactly. "
He looked toward the coffee. Then:-
"Thank you.
. . Good-by. "
Sergeant->
((
"Miss Mab-»
་་
"Will you not come to us on Christmas Day? ”
## p. 11059 (#271) ##########################################
GILBERT PARKER
11059
His eyelids closed swiftly and opened again.
"I shall be on duty. "
"And promoted? "
"Perhaps. "
"And merry and happy? "-she smiled to herself to think of
Sergeant Fones being merry and happy.
"Exactly. "
The word suited him.
He paused a moment with his fingers on the latch, and turned
round as if to speak; pulled off his gauntlet, and then as quickly
put it on again. Had he meant to offer his hand in good-by?
He had never been seen to take the hand of any one except with
the might of the law visible in steel.
He opened the door with the right hand, but turned round as
he stepped out, so that the left held it while he faced the warmth
of the room and the face of the girl.
The door closed.
Mounted, and having said good-by to Mr. Humphrey, he
turned toward the house, raised his cap with soldierly brusque-
ness, and rode away in the direction of the barracks.
The girl did not watch him. She was thinking of Young
Aleck, and of Christmas Day, now near. The sergeant did not
look back.
Meantime the party at Windsor's store was broken up. Pretty
Pierre and Young Aleck had talked together, and the old man
had heard his son say:
"Remember, Pierre, it is for the last time. "
Then they talked after this fashion:-
"Ah, I know, mon ami; for the last time! Eh, bien! You
will spend Christmas Day with us too—
No! You surely will
not leave us on the day of good fortune? Where better can you
take your pleasure-for the last time? One day is not enough
for farewell. Two, three; that is the magic number. You will,
eh? no? Well, well, you will come to-morrow-and- eh, mon
ami, where do you go the next day? Oh, pardon, I forgot, you
spend the Christmas Day-I know. And the day of the New
Year? Ah, Young Aleck, that is what they say,-the Devil for
the Devil's luck. So! "
"Stop that, Pierre. There was fierceness in the tone. « I
spend the Christmas Day where you don't, and as I like, and the
rest doesn't concern you. I drink with you, I play with you-
bien! As you say yourself, bien! isn't that enough? »
## p. 11060 (#272) ##########################################
11060
GILBERT PARKER
"Pardon! We will not quarrel. No: we spend not the
Christmas Day after the same fashion, quite; then, to-morrow at
Pardon's Drive! Adieu! "
Pretty Pierre went out of one door, a malediction between
his white teeth, and Aleck went out of another door with a male-
diction upon his gloomy lips. But both maledictions were leveled
at the same person. Poor Aleck!
«< Poor Aleck! " That is the way we sometimes think of a
good nature gone awry; one that has learned to say cruel male-
dictions to itself, and against which demons hurl their maledic-
tions too. Alas for the ne'er-do-weel!
That night a stalwart figure passed from David Humphrey's
door, carrying with him the warm atmosphere of a good woman's
love. The chilly outer air of the world seemed not to touch
him, Love's curtains were drawn so close. Had one stood within
"the Hunter's Room," as it was called, a little while before, one
would have seen a man's head bowed before a woman, and her
hand smoothing back the hair from the handsome brow where
dissipation had drawn some deep lines. Presently the hand
raised the head until the eyes of the woman looked full into the
eyes of the man.
"You will not go to Pardon's Drive again, will you, Aleck? "
"Never again after Christmas Day, Mab. But I must go
to-morrow. I have given my word. "
"I know. To meet Pretty Pierre and all the rest, and for
what? O Aleck, isn't the suspicion about your father enough,
but you must put this on me as well? "
"My father must suffer for his wrong-doing if he does wrong,
and I for mine. "
There was a moment's silence. He bowed his head again.
"And I have done wrong to us both. Forgive me, Mab. "
She leaned over and fondled his hair. "I forgive you, Aleck. "
A thousand new thoughts were thrilling through him. Yet
this man had given his word to do that for which he must ask
forgiveness of the woman he loved. But to Pretty Pierre, for-
given or unforgiven, he would keep his word. She understood
it better than most of those who read this brief record can.
Every sphere has its code of honor and duty peculiar to itself.
"You will come to me on Christmas morning, Aleck? "
"I will come on Christmas morning. "
"And no more after that of Pretty Pierre ? »
"And no more of Pretty Pierre. "
## p. 11061 (#273) ##########################################
GILBERT PARKER
11061
She trusted him; but neither could reckon with unknown
forces.
Sergeant Fones, sitting in the barracks in talk with Private
Gellatly, said at that moment in a swift silence:--
"Exactly. "
Pretty Pierre, at Pardon's Drive, drinking a glass of brandy
at that moment, said to the ceiling:-
"No more of Pretty Pierre after to-morrow night, monsieur!
Bien! If it is for the last time, then it is for the last time.
So . . . so! "
He smiled. His teeth were amazingly white.
The stalwart figure strode on under the stars, the white night.
a lens for visions of days of rejoicing to come. All evil was far
from him. The dolorous tide rolled back in this hour from his
life, and he reveled in the light of a new day.
"When I've played my last card to-morrow night with Pretty
Pierre, I'll begin the world again," he whispered.
And Sergeant Fones in the barracks said just then, in response
to a further remark of Private Gellatly:-
"Exactly. "
Young Aleck is singing now:—
"Out from your vineland come
Into the prairies wild;
Here will we make our home,-
Father, mother, and child;
Come, my love, to our home,—
Father, mother, and child,
Father, mother, and
He fell to thinking again-"and child—and child,”—it was in
his ears and in his heart.
But Pretty Pierre was singing softly to himself in the room
at Pardon's Drive:-
"Three good friends with the wine at night —
Vive la compagnie!
Two good friends when the sun grows bright—
Vive la compagnie!
Vive la, vive la, vive la mort!
Vive la, vive la, vive la mort!
Three good friends, two good friends—
Vive la compagnie! "
## p. 11062 (#274) ##########################################
11062
GILBERT PARKER
What did it mean?
Private Gellatly was cousin to Idaho Jack, and Idaho Jack
disliked Pretty Pierre, though he had been one of the gang.
The cousins had seen each other lately, and Private Gellatly had
had a talk with the man who was ha'sh. It may be that others
besides Pierre had an idea of what it meant.
In the house at Pardon's Drive the next night sat eight men,
of whom three were Pretty Pierre, Young Aleck, and Idaho
Jack. Young Aleck's face was flushed with bad liquor and
the worse excitement of play. This was one of the unreckoned
forces. Was this the man that sang the tender song under the
stars last night? Pretty Pierre's face was less pretty than usual:
the cheeks were pallid, the eyes were hard and cold. Once he
looked at his partner as if to say, "Not yet. " Idaho Jack saw
the look: he glanced at his watch; it was eleven o'clock. At that
moment the door opened, and Sergeant Fones entered. All started
to their feet, most with curses on their lips; but Sergeant Fones
never seemed to hear anything that could make a feature of his
face alter. Pierre's hand was on his hip, as if feeling for some-
thing. Sergeant Fones saw that; but he walked to where Aleck
stood, with his unplayed cards still in his hand, and laying a
hand on his shoulder, said, "Come with me. "
"Why should I go with you? " this with a drunken man's
bravado.
"You are my prisoner. "
Pierre stepped forward. "What is his crime? " he exclaimed.
"How does that concern you, Pretty Pierre ? »
――――
"He is my friend. "
"Is he your friend, Aleck? "
What was there in the eyes of Sergeant Fones that forced
the reply, "To-night, yes; to-morrow, no"?
"Exactly.
It is near to-morrow; come. "
Aleck was led towards the door. Once more Pierre's hand
went to his hip; but he was looking at the prisoner, not at the
sergeant. The sergeant saw, and his fingers were at his belt.
He opened the door. Aleck passed out. He followed. Two
horses were tied to a post. With difficulty Aleck was mounted.
Once on the way, his brain began slowly to clear; but he grew
painfully cold. It was a bitter night.
It was a bitter night. How bitter it might have
been for the ne'er-do-weel let the words of Idaho Jack, spoken
in a long hour's talk next day with Old Brown Windsor, show.
## p. 11063 (#275) ##########################################
GILBERT PARKER
11063
Pretty Pierre, after the two were gone, said, with a shiver of
curses, 'Another hour and it would have been done and no one
to blame. He was ready for trouble. His money was nearly
finished. A little quarrel easily made, the door would open, and
he would pass out. His horse would be gone, he could not come
back; he would walk. The air is cold, quite, quite cold; and the
snow is a soft bed. He would sleep well and sound, having seen.
Pretty Pierre for the last time. And now! " The rest was
French and furtive.
From that hour Idaho Jack and Pretty Pierre parted com-
pany.
Riding from Pardon's Drive, Young Aleck noticed at last that
they were not going toward the barracks.
He said, "Why do you arrest me? "
The sergeant replied: "You will know that soon enough.
You are now going to your own home. To-morrow you will
keep your word and go to David Humphrey's place; the next
day I will come for you. Which do you choose: to ride with
me to-night to the barracks and know why you are arrested,
or go unknowing, as I bid you, and keep your word with the
girl? "
«<
-
―――
Through Aleck's fevered brain there ran the words of the
song he sang before:
"Out from your vineland come
Into the prairies wild;
Here will we make our home,-
Father, mother, and child. "
He could have but one answer.
At the door of his home the sergeant left him with the words,
"Remember you are on parole. "
Aleck noticed, as the sergeant rode away, that the face of the
sky had changed, and slight gusts of wind had come up.
At any
other time his mind would have dwelt upon the fact. It did not
do so now.
Christmas Day came. People said that the fiercest night since
the blizzard day of 1863 had been passed. But the morning
was clear and beautiful. The sun came up like a great flower
expanding. First the yellow, then the purple, then the red, and
then a mighty shield of roses. The world was a blanket of drift,
and down, and glistening silver.
## p. 11064 (#276) ##########################################
11064
GILBERT PARKER
·
Mab Humphrey greeted her lover with such a smile as only
springs to a thankful woman's lips. He had given his word and
had kept it; and the path of the future seemed surer.
