Joan of Arc of the North Woods Part 23

"Ordered by Mrs. Everett to hand it to you," reported Brophy, sourly.

"She wanted to see you last time you were down, but it slipped my mind to tell you."

Latisan read the note. The lady of the parlor entreated him to come to her on a matter of business, no matter how late the hour might be. He tore up the paper on his way to the fireplace and tossed the bits on the embers.

"Same room for me?" he asked Brophy.

"Yes, but Mrs. Everett said for me----"

"d.a.m.n Mrs. Everett! I'm going to bed."

It consoled him a little, as he walked upstairs, to reflect that he was not dominated by all the women in the world, even if he was in the way of making himself a fool over one.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Latisan, going to sleep, hoped that he would awake with a saner viewpoint.

He did admit to himself in the morning that if Echford Flagg should show the right spirit of compromise the thing could be patched up on terms which would allow the drive master to be his own man instead of being a spanked youngster.

The girl seized an opportunity to speak to him when she brought his breakfast. "Things look better this morning--I'm sure they do. Tell me.

I worried half the night. I must not be the cause of trouble."

"Yes, they look better."

"And you're starting back to-day for the drive?" Her voice was low but eager. "Tell me that you are!"

His smouldering suspicion! Red tongues of fire darted up from it!

"I'm afraid you won't be able to get rid of me to-day. Business is keeping me here."

Her entreating smile faded; she backed way from him as if she had received a rude thrust, and then she went about her work.

There was a real sensation in the tavern that morning! The exclusive star boarder of the parlor came into the public room to eat her breakfast. Her charms were enhanced by a becoming morning wrap, and, following out her liberal code governing the relations of s.e.x in modern days, she seated herself at Latisan's table, greeting him with a mingling of bright good humor and gentle rebuke.

"Give me a good reason why you have not been the advising friend you promised to be, and I may not be too angry, Mr. Latisan."

"I--I thought I'd wait till this morning----"

"Thank you! Then I'm welcome at your table."

She lowered her voice after that. She was engrossed with ordinary topics whenever the waitress's duties brought Lida to the table. If there was to be rivalry between the operatives of Vose-Mern, Miss Elsham decided that her tactics with the Flagg drive master should not be known. She did the talking and Latisan gave the appearance of being an earnest listener. At a matter of fact, he played up strongly his affectation of devoted interest. Ingenuous amateur that he was in the subtleties of love, he was trying out a method which he had heard commended; he was wondering how much an aroused jealousy might accomplish in the case of Miss Patsy Jones.

He cast side glances and saw that she seemed to be disturbed. He bestowed on Mrs. Everett more profound attention. He even allowed himself to say when the waitress was within earshot, "I think I'll know by to-morrow whether I'm to keep on at the head of the drive. If I don't and if matters allow, I'll be glad to take charge of your trip into the north country."

Latisan, boyishly crude in his methods, felt that Miss Jones would have an interpretation of her own for "matters" and would do some earnest thinking before she turned him over to the companions.h.i.+p of a rich young widow, even in the humble role of a chief guide.

In spite of Brophy's sign, "No Smoking in This Dining Room"--a restriction intended for woodsmen--Miss Elsham lighted a cigarette in her satisfaction; her failure to interest the man of the woods even to the extent of a second interview had been worrying the seductress de luxe of the Vose-Mern establishment after her unbroken successes with the men of the city.

She went out of the room chatting with Latisan, and found an opportunity to sweep Miss Kennard with a patronizing glance.

Latisan spent the forenoon on the tavern porch, smoking his pipe and waiting--even hoping--for a message from Echford Flagg. Rickety d.i.c.k pa.s.sed the place several times on his usual errands. Flagg, therefore, would be informed that the drive master was loafing in the village. But old d.i.c.k did not bring any word from the big house to Latisan.

To be sure, the split of the evening before had seemed discouragingly final. But after the girl's rebuke and appeal Ward was ashamed of the persisting stubbornness which was making him an idler in that exacting period when the thunderous Noda waters were sounding a call to duty. He did not want her to think of him as vindictive in his spirit, and still less did he desire her to consider him petty in his motives and notions.

On the other hand, the proposition was strictly a man-to-man affair, and Echford Flagg had made relations unendurable.

Ward wished devoutly that he could clear his thoughts; they were muddled. Back of the inertia which was hiding him in Adonia there seemed to be reasons other than the new animosity toward his employer. Really, he confessed to himself, he would like to go to Flagg and win to a manlike and mutual understanding which would serve both of them. But he muttered when he looked up at the big house, and he kept on waiting for the master to offer an opening.

He confessed that his was a childish att.i.tude toward an employer. Had he allowed his infatuation to twist him into this being who was putting the burden of an offer of compromise upon a poor old stricken man who ought to be protected from his own intolerance?

However, the drive master was aware of a certain satisfaction in being on hand to watch and weigh affairs in Adonia that day.

The raffle man, as the villagers called Crowley, seemed to have a great deal on his mind, Latisan reflected. Crowley made several trips to the telegraph office at the railroad station.

At dinner Miss Jones averted her eyes from Latisan and there was no talk between them. Latisan tried to comfort himself, by the thought that jealousy was operating. He saw her go out in the afternoon for a walk, but he did not offer to accompany her. His nave conviction was that his indifference and the threat of interest in Mrs. Everett would suffice to bring Miss Patsy Jones down from her coquette's pedestal.

He was tempted to leap up and follow when he saw Crowley trailing after the waitress; but Crowley went only a little distance, and then he came back and went into the tavern and upstairs.

Again in midafternoon old d.i.c.k pa.s.sed, but he brought no word to the waiting drive master.

This insulting indifference, as Latisan considered it, indicated that Echford Flagg was no longer depending on Ward as champion. There had been no misunderstanding of language. Latisan had quit--and Flagg was contented to let him stay quit.

The young man felt more acutely cheap and small. He had been setting himself up as the one man who could drive down the Flagg logs. The fact that he could not bring himself to break away instanter and go north to his duty--without orders from Flagg and without considering further his entanglement with a girl--was a fact that steadily lessened his self-esteem. He had been able to go straightforwardly in all matters till then; this new inability to handle complex affairs and to untangle the situation made him distrust himself and wonder whether he was much of a man, anyway!

Then came night--and he went to his room to brood.

At supper the girl of his thoughts had been conspicuously rude in the manner with which she banged down dishes in front of him.

Lida had been doing some pondering of her own. She would not admit that she had been piqued by his attentions to Elsham and by his partial promise to that complacent young lady. But she was finding him to be very much of a child, she told herself. He needed to be protected from himself at that juncture. And he needed to be convinced that he was wasting his time just then by staying away from duty and playing the lover. Lida's first thought was that if he found no profit in lovemaking he would go back to his work in spite of what he had told her. She could not bring herself to believe that a man like Latisan would succ.u.mb to Elsham's wiles.

In that mood, both as protectress and as stanch believer in his uprightness, she found that her interest in him was becoming more vivid than she had realized. Her warming heart sent a flush into her cheeks when she remembered the pa.s.sionate embrace. She noted that flush when she looked into her mirror. She was making herself ready for slumber.

"Don't be a fool!" she warned the reflection in the mirror.

Having clarified the situation to that extent in her thoughts before going to sleep, she awoke and began the new day with better confidence.

The spirit of the Open Places certainly did make folks honest, she told herself! She felt that the morning must have brought common sense to Latisan, as it had to her.

From her window she saw him walking to and fro in front of the tavern.

The early dawn was flus.h.i.+ng the east. His being abroad at that hour suggested that he was going back to his work instead of playing the idling lover. She decided to be frank with him; she dressed in haste, hurried down and faced him, and told him how glad she was that he had come into his right senses; she had determined that her best course was to take his reformed mental state for granted.

"Yes, I'm sensible enough to quit being a boss bulldog for a man like Eck Flagg." He was sorry after he said it. But there was no word from Flagg--and her insistence, as if she wanted to be rid of him, rasped his raw temper.

"But you're going back to the drive!" she gasped.

"I am not."