Harold Edward Bindloss

“ Gordon picked out an envelope and opened it. "Here's a note from Miss Waynefleet. She desires you to ride across at once."
With a troubled face Nasmyth stood still in the rain another minute.
"I'll take the pack-horse and start now," he said after a brief silence. "When I have seen Miss Waynefleet, I'll go right on to Victoria." He turned and gazed at the river. "If one could get into the heading by any means, I'd fire every stick of giant-powder in it first. Unfortunately, the thing is out of the question." ”

“ Then it was borne in upon him that in another moment or two he would probably say or do something that he would regret afterwards, and she would resent, and, rising stiffly, he held out his hand.
"I must push on to the railroad," he said, and he held the hand she gave him in a firm clasp. "Miss Waynefleet, you saved my life, and I believe I owe you quite as much in other ways. It's a fact that neither of us can attempt to disregard. ”

“ I am almost afraid the boys will be vindictive."
"I believe he has not expected to carry on the ranch much longer. It is heavily mortgaged, and he has been continually pressed for money."
"Has he any plans?"
Laura smiled wearily. "He has always plans. I believe he intends to go to one of the towns on Puget Sound, and start a land agency." She made a dejected gesture. "I don't expect him to succeed in it, but perhaps I could earn a little."
Nasmyth set his lips tight, and there was concern in his face. She looked very forlorn, and he knew that she was friendless. ”

“ There was anxiety in his voice, and Gordon started when he had ripped open one or two of the envelopes.
"This looks like business," he remarked, as he glanced at a letter from a lawyer who had once or twice handled Nasmyth's affairs in the city. "It's from Phelps. He says he has been notified that, unless an agreement can be arrived at, proceedings will be taken by a man called Hames, who claims to hold one hundred acres on the western side of the valley, to restrain you from altering the river level. Atterly—he's the man we've heard from already—it seems, is taking action, too." ”

“ He could hardly bring himself to contemplate the probability of her being cast adrift, saddled with a man who, it was evident, would only involve her in fresh disasters, and, he fancied, reproach her as the cause of them. ”