CHAPTER IV

HALLAM OF THE TYEE

The morning was still and warm when the driver of the wagon pulled up his team where four trails met in the shadow of the bush.  Miss Deringham had somewhat to her astonishment passed the night very comfortably and enjoyed the breakfast their companion provided.  The bracing cold of sunrise, when all the bush was steeped in fragrance and a wonderful freshness came down from the snow, had also brought her a curious exhilaration, as well as a tinge of colour into her cheeks, and now she was sensible of a faint regret and irritation when the man glanced towards her deprecatingly.

“It would please me to drive you straight through to the settlement, but there’s a load of things I want at Calhoun’s up yonder,” he said.

He pointed to a trail that turned off sharply, and the girl glanced at her father somewhat blankly.  “And what are we to do?” said she.

“Well,” said the man, “you can wait here until Barscombe comes along.  He’ll be riding in to the settlement presently, and would be glad to take you for a dollar or two.”

“But we might have to wait a long time,” said the girl with a trace of imperiousness.  “It would suit us considerably better to go on with you.”

“Sorry!” said the man gravely.  “I can’t take you.  Calhoun’s a busy man, and he’ll be waiting up at the ranch for me.  I told him I was coming.”

There was now no doubt about the colour in Miss Deringham’s face.  Few of her wishes bad been denied her hitherto, and most of the men she had met had been eager to do her bidding, while the scarcely qualified refusal of this one came as a painful astonishment.  The fact that she should be left in the lonely forest to avoid keeping some rude rancher waiting was distinctly exasperating.

Deringham, however, smiled a little as he took a wallet from his pocket.  “I can understand it, because I am also a busy man when I’m at home,” he said.  “It is a question of the value of your time and Mr. Calhoun’s apparently?”

Though he possibly did not realize it Deringham’s tone was a trifling condescending, and there was something in it which suggested that he believed anything could be bought with money.  He was, however, a little astonished when the man regarded him gravely out of eyes that closed a trifle.

“That’s just where you’re wrong,” said he.  “If I could have taken you on to save the lady waiting it would have pleased me.  As it is, I can’t, you see.”

He said nothing more, but dismounting pulled the boxes out of the wagon and laid some travelling wraps upon one of them, while Miss Deringham affected not to see what he was doing.  “And how long will it be before Barscombe passes?” said she.

“It can’t be more than two hours,” said the teamster quietly.  “All you have to do is to sit there and wait for him.”