XXII
ON THE SPUR-TRACK
At the precise moment when Gertrude and Brockway, pausing in theirbreath-cutting scramble up the bowlder-strewn mountain-side, werecasting about for a suitable place in which to eat their luncheon,President Vennor and his guests were rising from the table after arather early midday meal in car Naught-fifty. When the ladies had goneto their staterooms, the President sent Quatremain upon a whollyunnecessary errand to the post-office, and drew up a chair to smoke acigar with Fleetwell.
It was not for nothing that he banished the secretary. The forenoontrain from Clear Creek Canyon had arrived without bringing Gertrude; andthe wires, which he had waited upon with increasing disquietude, stillremained churlishly silent. A crisis in Gertrude's affair seemedimminent, and, as a last resort, Mr. Vennor had resolved to admonishFleetwell, to the end that the collegian's wooing might be judiciouslyaccelerated.
"I am afraid you have been lukewarm with Gertrude once too often,Chester, my boy," he began, with studied bluntness. "You ought by allmeans to have gone up in the mountains with her to-day."
Fleetwell tried to look properly aggrieved, and succeeded fairly well."That's rather hard on me, isn't it? when I didn't so much as know shewas going?"
"That is precisely the point I wished to arrive at," the Presidentasserted, blandly. "You should have known. You can scarcely expect herto thrust her confidence upon you."
In his way, Fleetwell could be quite as plain-spoken as his hard-eyedcousin, and he answered the President's implication without pretendingto misunderstand it.
"You mean that I've been shirking; that I haven't been properly readingmy lines in the little comedy planned by my grandfather; is that it?"
"Well, not exactly shirking, perhaps, but the most observant personwould never suspect that you and Gertrude were anything more thancivilly tolerant cousins. I know her better than you do, my boy, and Ican assure you that she's not to be so lightly won. Ours is a fairlypractical family. I think I may say, but there is a streak of romance init which comes to the surface now and then in the women, and Gertrudehas her full share of it. Moreover, she doesn't care a pin for theprovisions of the will."
"Confound the will!" said the collegian. "I don't see why the oldgentleman had to fall back on a medieval dodge that always defeatsitself."
"Nor I; the matter would have been very much simplified if he had not.But, unfortunately, we have to do with the fact."
"It strikes me that we've had to do with it all along. I used to thinkGertrude was rather fond of me, but since this money affair has come up,I'm not so sure of it."
"Have you ever asked her?" inquired the President, with an apparent lackof interest which was no index to his anxiety.
"Why--no; not in so many words, I believe. But how the deuce is a fellowto make love to a girl when his grandfather has done it for him?"
"That, my dear Chester, is a question you ought to be able to answer foryourself. You can hardly expect Gertrude to beg you to save her littlepatrimony for her."
It was an unfortunate way of putting it, and Mr. Vennor regretted hisunwisdom when Fleetwell carried the thought to its legitimateconclusion.
"There it is again, you see. That cursed legacy tangles the thing everytime you make a rush at it. I can understand just how she feels aboutit. If she refuses me it will cost her something; if she doesn't therewill be plenty of the clan who will say that she had an eye to themoney."
"What difference will that make, so long as you know better?"
The question was so deliberate and matter-of-fact that Fleetwell forgothimself and let frankness run away with him.
"That's just it; how the deuce is a fellow going to know----" but atthis point the cold eyes checked him, and he suddenly remembered that hewas speaking to Gertrude's father. Whereupon he stultified himself andmade a promise.
"Perhaps you are right, after all," he added. "Anyway, I'll have it outwith her to-night, after she comes back."
"'Have it out with her' doesn't sound very lover-like," suggested thePresident, mildly. "I can assure you beforehand that you will have totake a different tone with her, whether you are sincere or not;otherwise you will waste your breath and enrich half a dozen charitieswe know of."
"Oh, I'll do it right," said Fleetwell, nonchalantly; "but I'd give myshare of the money twice over if it didn't have to be done at all--thatis, if the money matter could be taken out of it entirely, I mean."
They smoked on in reflective silence for five full minutes before thePresident saw fit to resume the conversation. Then he said, slowly andin his levellest tone:
"You are going to speak to her to-night; very good--you have my bestwishes, as you know. But if anything should happen; if you should agreeto disagree; it is you who must take the initiative. If you don't meanto marry her, you must tell her so plainly, and before you have givenher a chance to refuse you. Do you understand?"
Fleetwell sprang to his feet as if he had received a blow. He was ayoung giant in physique, and he looked uncomfortably belligerent as hetowered above the President's chair.
"By Jove, I do understand you, Cousin Francis, and I'm ashamed to admitit!" he burst out, wrathfully. "The men on my side of the family haveall been gentlemen, so far as I know, and I'll not be the first to breakthe record. I shall do what my grandfather expected me to do--whatGertrude has a right to expect me to do--and in good faith; you may bevery sure of that!" And having thus spoken his mind, he went out,leaving Mr. Francis Vennor to his own reflections, which were notaltogether gladsome.