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Orde watched him from sight, then turned to the silent group, a new crispness in his manner. "Well?" he demanded. Hesitating, they turned to the river trail, leaving the ten still working at the sluice. When well within the fringe of the brush, Orde called a halt. His customary good-humour seemed quite restored. "Now, boys," he commanded, "squat down and lay low. You give me an ache!
"With respect to my making war upon Spain, and Sir John Orde not having done it," so he wrote to Elliot, "I believe you will think I have acted not precipitately, but consistent with the firmness of John Bull.
"No Sunday trains to Redding." Orde became grave. "I know it. I tried to hurry matters to catch the six o'clock, but couldn't make it." His round, jolly face fell sombre, as though a light within had been extinguished. After a moment the light returned. "Can't be helped," said he philosophically. They ate hungrily, then drifted out into the office again, where Orde lit a cigar.
Orde sat smoking in the darkness, staring straight ahead of him into the future. He believed he had found the opportunity twenty years distant for which he had been looking so long. After a time Carroll descended the stairs, chuckling. "Jack," she called into the sitting-room, "come out on the porch. What do you suppose the young man did to-night?" "Give it up," replied Orde promptly.
Daly proposed to Orde that he take over the remnant, and having confidence in the young man's abilities, agreed to let him have it on long-time notes. After several consultations with Newmark, Orde finally completed the purchase. Below the booms they erected a mill, the machinery for which they had also bought of Daly, at Redding. The following winter Orde spent in the woods.
I have not signed your orders," alluding to memorandum instructions separate from the formal orders, "because Sir John Orde is my senior officer; but, if it should come to a Court Martial, Hardy can swear to my handwriting, and you shall not be broke.
But Orde's mouth, could she have seen it, was set in grim lines, and his feet, could she have heard them, rang on the pavement with quite superfluous vigour. He turned to the left, and, without pause, walked some ten or twelve miles. The evening turned out very well, fortunately; Orde could not have stood much more. They had the parlour quite to themselves.
"He looks like a very shrewd man," replied Carroll, picking her words for fear of saying the wrong thing. Orde laughed. "You don't like him," he stated. "I don't dislike him," said Carroll. "I've not a thing against him. But we could never be in the slightest degree sympathetic. He and I don't don't " "Don't jibe," Orde finished for her. "I didn't much think you would.
In fact, Orde was capable of a prolonged and bitter struggle to avoid doing so. Nevertheless, it was there an asset. A loan on its security would, with what he had set aside, more than pay the notes on the northern peninsula stumpage. Orde felt perfectly easy in his mind.
"Now, my friend," said Orde, releasing his hold on the other's collar, "don't do such things any more. They aren't nice." Trivial as the incident was, it served to draw Orde to the particular notice of an elderly man leaning against the rear rail.
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