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Updated: June 26, 2025
"Well," she said, "perhaps you had better see my father. I think he has something to say to you." She left him, and, half an hour later, Waynefleet came up to Nasmyth, who was sunning himself outside the ranch-house. Like many other houses in that country, it stood beneath a few great firs on the edge of a desolate clearing, round which the primeval forest rose in an unbroken wall.
Nasmyth's face flushed as he saw the smile in Gordon's eyes, for it was evident that Wisbech and Laura Waynefleet held much the same views concerning him. They appeared to fancy that he required a lot of what might be termed judicious prodding. This was in one sense not exactly flattering, but he did not immediately mention his great project for drying out the valley.
"You are, of course, in our hands, but to save your credit and to protect Miss Waynefleet from any embarrassment, we shall probably not insist upon your handing over the land to anybody else. I think we are safe in doing that. Now that you have signally failed, you will not have nerve enough to attempt to betray us again." Waynefleet waved his hand. "I resent the attitude you have adopted.
He danced another dance, and then sauntered towards the dynamo room, where the manager had set up a keg or two of heady Ontario cider. Several men were refreshing themselves there, but they did not see him when he approached the door. "The only thing that's out of tone about this show is Waynefleet," said one of them who had once worked for the rancher.
Waynefleet, who had found the constant wetting too much for him, had left the cañon a week or two before this morning, on which it was evident a crisis of some sort was near. He had complained of severe pains in his back and joints, and had sent them no word after his departure. "Is there anything from him?" asked Nasmyth. Gordon picked out an envelope and opened it.
"I almost think I can take a hand in this thing, and to commence with, we'll go down to Victoria this afternoon and call on Mr. Hames," he added. "If he has bought that land, it will probably be registered in his name. The men you have against you are rather fond of working in the dark. Then we come to another point what it would be wisest to do with Waynefleet, who went back on you.
He saw Gordon hold out a hand to Laura Waynefleet, who sprang down from the staging upon the strip of smooth-worn stone that stretched out from the wall of the cañon above the fall. Wheeler was a few paces behind them. Nasmyth looked around for his jacket, and, remembering that he had left it in the gully, he moved forward to shake hands with his visitors.
She had been busy with rough tasks, from most of which her father might have relieved her had he possessed a less fastidious temperament, until supper, and there were reasons why she desired an hour or two to herself. "I will not be longer than I can help," she said. Waynefleet lifted his eyebrows sardonically as he glanced at the scattered strips of fabric.
"The ranch is about a mile in front of you," said Laura in answer to his question. "You are going there?" "I am," said the man. "I want to see Miss Waynefleet. They told me to ask for her at the store." Laura looked at him again with some astonishment. He was a little man, apparently about fifty, plainly dressed in what appeared to be English clothing.
Acton desired his company, but it did not seem fitting that he should spend those summer days in luxurious idleness while Laura Waynefleet toiled late and early at the lonely ranch. Again, he seemed to see her steady eyes with the quiet courage in them, and the gleam of her red-gold hair. Even then she was, he reflected, in all probability occupied with some severe drudgery.
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