Winston of the Prairie | Page 7

many estimable
qualities from your point of view, but if they all didn't go quite straight
they never went slow, and they had a few prejudices, which is why I
found it advisable to leave the old country. Still, I've had my fill of all
that life can offer most folks out here, while you scarcely seem to have
found virtue pay you. They told me at the settlement things were bad
with you."
Winston, who was usually correct in his deductions, surmised that his
companion had an object, and expected something in return for this
confidence. There was also no need for reticence when every farmer in
the district knew all about his affairs, while something urged him to
follow Courthorne's lead.
"Yes," he said quietly. "They are. You see, when I lost my cattle in the
blizzard, I had to sell out or mortgage the place to the hilt, and during

the last two years I haven't made the interest. The loan falls due in
August, and they're going to foreclose on me."
"Then," said Courthorne, "what is keeping you here when the result of
every hour's work you put in will go straight into another man's
pocket?"
Winston smiled a little. "In the first place, I've nowhere else to go, and
there's something in the feeling that one has held on to the end. Besides,
until a few days ago I had a vague hope that by working double tides, I
might get another crop in. Somebody might have advanced me a little
on it because the mortgage only claims the house and land."
Courthorne looked at him curiously. "No. We are not alike," he said.
"There's a slow stubborn devil in you, Winston, and I think I'd be afraid
of you if I ever did you an injury. But go on."
"There's very little more. My team ran away down the ravine, and I had
to put one beast out of its misery. I can't do my plowing with one horse,
and that leaves me stranded for the want of the dollars to buy another
with. It's usually a very little thing that turns the scale, but now the end
has come, I don't know that I'm sorry. I've never had a good time, you
see, and the struggle was slowly crushing the life out of me."
Winston spoke quietly, without bitterness, but Courthorne, who had
never striven at all but stretched out his hand and taken what was
offered, the more willingly when it was banned alike by judicial and
moral law, dimly understood him. He was a fearless man, but he knew
his courage would not have been equal to the strain of that six years'
struggle against loneliness, physical fatigue, and adverse seasons,
during which disaster followed disaster. He looked at the bronzed
farmer as he said, "Still, you would do a little in return for a hundred
dollars that would help you to go on with the fight?"
A faint sparkle crept into Winston's eyes. It was not hope, but rather the
grim anticipation of the man offered a better weapon when standing
with his back to the wall.

"Yes," he said slowly. "I would do almost anything."
"Even if it was against the law?"
Winston sat silent for almost a minute, but there was no indecision in
his face, which slightly perplexed Courthorne. "Yes," he said. "Though
I kept it while I could, the law was made for the safe-guarding of
prosperous men, but with such as I am it is every man for his own hand
and the devil to care for the vanquished. Still, there is a reservation."
Courthorne nodded. "It's unlawful, but not against the unwritten code."
"Well," said Winston quietly. "When you tell me what you want I
should have a better opinion."
Courthorne laughed a little, though there was something unpleasant in
his eyes. "When I first came out to this country I should have resented
that," he said. "Now, it seems to me that I'm putting too much in your
hands if I make the whole thing clear before you commit yourself in
any way."
Winston nodded. "In fact, you have got to trust me. You can do so
safely."
"The assurance of the guileless is astonishing and occasionally hard to
bear," said Courthorne. "Why not reverse the position?"
Winston's gaze was steady, and free from embarrassment. "I am," he
said, "waiting for your offer."
"Then," said Courthorne dryly, "here it is. We are running a big load
through to the northern settlements and the reserves to-morrow, and
while there's a good deal of profit attached to the venture, I have a
notion that Sergeant Stimson has had word of it. Now, the Sergeant
knows just how I stand with the rustlers though he can fasten no