Harwood Steele

“ In their trail blossomed flowers of law and order. The wilderness became a Land of Promise as they passed. Today the iron road, laden with the traffic of a continent, gleams where their wagons rolled. Prosperous farms rise everywhere on the expanse which to them was only an Indian hunting-ground. Young towns stand where they pitched their lonely tents. Proud cities blaze and thunder where they built their lonely forts and in peace and ease a People reap the harvest sown by them in peril and privation. ”

“ Hector waited, wondering. The old man sat for a long while silent, his face very tender.
"You see my daughter there—Moon-on-the-Water? Is she not beautiful? She has the eyes of a young deer, her hair is like the sky at midnight, her form like a willow drooping by the river and, when she laughs, we hear the voices of the prairie winds. She is the daughter of a line of mighty warriors and the blood of many chiefs is in her veins. She loves me with all her heart—has she not proved it?—and I know that she would gladly die for me. She is a light among all women. ”

“ Then a wonderful thing happened. The impatient crowd broke its bonds and instantly filled all the space about the platform. It rushed round Hector. He found himself suddenly walled in by a field of exultant faces and dimly realized that they were cheering him ... cheering him....
Over this heaving mass a voice suddenly threw a roaring word, hailing Hector by the name long given him by the Indians and sometimes by the civilians, in token of the strength and fearlessness which they considered him, the embodiment of himself:
"Manitou-pewabic!" shouted the voice. "Manitou-pewabic!" ”

“ To Hector, this was the supreme moment of his life, to which he had looked forward for months. He felt that everything depended on him in this crisis. If ever he had swayed men, cowed men, he must sway and cow them now, though he drooped with fatigue.
He had not forgotten the assassin. That unknown devil lurked always at the back of his mind. But he had passed the stage when he really cared whether the shot was fired or not, so long as he could master this immense mob—so immense that it seemed illimitable. ”

“ Then Sergeant Pierce, long and tanned and solemn, came and stood before him, as vividly as if he were alive and in the room. But they were not in the room. They were in the stable-yard, at home. The Sergeant was giving him advice—the old slogan: 'Fight, little master, till the last shot's fired!'
'Till the last shot's fired!' Yes, he must fight till ... but against what? And why? Suddenly he remembered and, remembering, wept, cursing his great weakness and the Fate that held him helpless at the crisis of his life. ”

“ In the main square of Discovery City a vast crowd, representing most of the inhabitants of Black Elk, was assembled—a wild, undisciplined crowd, a heaping shovelful from the rubbish-heap of the whole wide world. For days it had been gathering together, its outward purpose to force Lancaster's resignation, the real purpose of its leaders to launch revolution. They did not contemplate bloodshed. But they were ready for it.
From a platform at one end of the square the Lieutenant-Governor and the officer commanding the Mounted Police—the one man they really feared—were to speak. ”

“ A man of quick decisions, his mind was at once made up. Jumping out of bed, he began to dress, throwing instructions at Lizzie the while.
"And don't make a noise, or I'll kill you," he adjured.
Fear lent him swiftness and strength. Already, he fancied he heard Hector's voice, summoning him to surrender. Hector! At thought of him, Welland was possessed with fury. To Hector, he knew, he owed his downfall. With infinite patience and cunning, beginning years before Hector's arrival, the rancher had built up a criminal machine of amazing efficiency, a machine which had made him rich. ”

“ Again and again, Hector asked for Antoine and received from Lancaster the hopeless answer, 'He has not come back.' This drove him, time without number, to try to reach the window, to see if Antoine had returned or the blizzard moderated and, that effort thwarted, kept him tossing in despair upon his bed.
In his agony, he saw a crash, himself utterly disgraced, all his twenty-odd years of service gone for nothing, the trust of his men and of his country turned into a mockery. This was the end of his dreams.
The Lion of the North lay dying, at the mercy of his foes at last. ”

“ Cranbrook returned.
"All right, sir."
"Good. When I throw up my right hand, come after me."
The lynchers—lynchers no longer, but firm admirers of the law—gathered in a tense, awe-struck group behind the Police officers.
Hector loosed, but did not draw, his revolver. Then he walked straight out into the open, holding his arms wide, to show the hidden half-breed that he held no weapon.
Absolute stillness held the world. In the sunshine, the steadily advancing scarlet coat gleamed like a flame, inviting disaster. Forshaw and Cranbrook awaited the sound of a rifle-shot. ”

“ And Welland wanted revolution; and wanted Greasy Jones and his crowd to dominate. For revolution would mean Hector's ruin. In that respect, he had been honest with the gangster. But he was far too wise to imagine that the Dominion would permit the Territory to remain under the revolutionary flag. He knew perfectly well that the Government, in the end, would crush the revolt and reestablish the Queen's authority. Therefore, it behooved him to look to the future. And, in looking to the future, he saw his chance to climb out of the wreckage of the revolution to higher things. ”

“ Then he found himself on the ground, half-stunned, his horse beside him, Welland bending over him, pointing a rifle, grinning hideously. And Moon came out of thin air to thrust herself before the murderer. Hector struggled to his feet and called her. She stretched out her arms. He stepped to meet her—and found—Mrs. MacFarlane. For some unfathomable reason, he hated her. Thrusting her aside, he fronted Welland once more. And yet it was not Welland—but Whitewash Bill. He advanced, without a weapon, to meet him—advanced—and the outlaw became a trumpeter, sounding the Reveille. ”

“ By watching the experiences of others and by enduring similar experiences himself, he had discovered that politicians can make or break not only any individual or group of individuals, no matter how prominent, no matter how worthy or efficient, who chance to be members of a government service, but even a whole department—an institution—worst of all, a regiment. And he had at last discovered that the life of such an individual, especially if he holds high authority, is apt to be one long fight for the preservation of himself and his subordinates from the machinations of the monster politic. ”

“ Hector, you're the first real man I've ever met. Oh, it isn't just that nice red coat—though that goes to my head like champagne, Hector. You are—you really are. Every girl has dreams, too. 'Some day,' I dreamt, 'I'll meet a real—real—man—brave, strong, chivalrous, with great, yes, great ideals—a fairy Prince, a Knight of the Round Table!' They say they don't live now—Oh, but they do! Perhaps the armour's gone, but they are Knights and Princes just the same. 'Well,' I said to myself, 'some day, God willing, I'll meet a man like that. How will I know him? Oh, I'll know him, never fear! ”

“ We would have them like the peaks of the World's Backbone, which you call the Rocky Mountains, looking always, like them, upon our deeds, landmarks, like them, to guide us by day, as the stars guide us by night, crowned with that virtue, Purity, as the peaks are crowned with spotless snow and, like those peaks, so glorious, so unchanging, so near the Great Spirit—nearer, far, than we!—that only to look on them fills our hearts with awe and wonder. ”

“ He searched for the traitor in his mind and suddenly recognized him—MacFarlane. The traitor was his friend—his friend—whose honour he had protected under a temptation which might well have been irresistible.
MacFarlane was the only man who knew of his first relations with Moon; from the men who had witnessed her death, he had learned the rest. MacFarlane had twisted facts into a hideous, lying brand and placed that brand in the hands of his worst enemy.
Hector did not have far to seek for his motive.
The treachery of a trusted friend is the bitterest treachery any man can face. ”

“ A sudden pallor came upon the Marquis. He looked like a man trapped.
"My—people, sir?"
"Yes, your people. Everyone knows you're a gentleman born, Humphries—of good family."
The Marquis breathed again.
"Is it fair to them?"
The Marquis, at a loss, bit his lip, hung his head——
"I can't see where they come into this thing, anyway, sir," he said at last. "I'm—I'm on my own."
"They do come into it, though, boy. But leave them aside for a moment—you're a gentleman. You should know better. You disgrace the stock you've sprung from, Humphries, when you go on like this. ”

“ Inspector Denton was a big man, much inclined to fatness. He had a ruddy face eloquent of good living, a drooping, luxuriant moustache, and an eye-glass which he hardly ever used. Ignorant recruits, judging by appearances, took him for a brainless martinet. As a matter of fact, the strength of a lion, the heart of a Viking and the endurance of a grizzly were hidden beneath his deceptive exterior and when action demanded those who doubted it were rapidly disillusioned.
The Inspector, as Hector entered, was seated by the stove, his tunic open, his feet in gaudy carpet slippers. ”

“ They have one mistress—these Service men—one mother, one sister, whose honour is in their hands and for whom they will die without a murmur. She watches them, rewards them, punishes them, loves them, guards them, from the 'Reveille' of their first morning to the 'Last Post' and three rounds blank of the last night of all. She is fair as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army with banners. ”

“ Old problems were disappearing now in the North-West Territories, new problems cropping up, old crimes and criminals dying away, new crimes and criminals upon the increase. During the two years which had passed since Hector first met Moon, he had been constantly dealing with these matters, old and new, under desperate conditions. Sheer bull-dog grinding in the face of gigantic difficulties; days and weeks of ceaseless exposure to the cruel cold of mid-winter, the fierce heat of midsummer, drenching rain, stabbing blizzard, rivers in flood-time, trails knee-deep in mud ”

“ It was a sunny afternoon, peaceful as a dream, undisturbed by any sound other than the buzz of flies and the distant thump of a football from the recreation field. Suddenly this peace was broken by a guitar, playing softly, lightly, a gay fragment of tune. The music was pleasant, as it emphasized the calm of the afternoon.
Hector put down his book. Only one man in the division played the guitar—the Marquis, newly out of the cells. He had taken his stand outside the window of Mrs. MacFarlane's kitchen. ”

“ Other visitors came to Fort Macleod in those early days—white men—spies sent by the whiskey-traders, curious American horsemen, and a few settlers, who thanked God, as Crowfoot had done, for sending the Police to deliver them from the drunken Indian and the low-down white. Of the settlers, none was so thankful, none became so popular in the course of a few calls, as Joe Welland, who lived on a homestead of sorts some sixty miles to the south, on St. Mary's River.
A keen-faced, clean-shaven, strong-handed man was Welland, tawny-haired, lean, sinewy as a broncho and as hard. ”

“ The crowd, now lacking determined leadership, wavered. The arrest left them dazed.
"All ready?"
The machine-gun crew and the men at the barrier nodded.
The Inspector hailed the crowd.
"Get out!" he shouted. "Do you hear? The first man moving this way will mean the end of the lot of you! Remember my Maxim!"
Then both sides waited, facing each other, in intense silence.
This was the crisis. Which was it to be—a fight or a retreat?
"Don't fire, sir, till they're right on us!" whispered Kellett. "Never do, sir, never do!" ”

“ What, then, are a few drops of blood, a little agony?
"My son, the Indian does not shun, he embraces the opportunity of that ceremony. Does it not show that he has courage, strength and fortitude, which crown a man with glory as his antlers crown the caribou?
"Now in a woman—what do we admire?" The chief's voice grew tender. "Is it gentleness, is it obedience? These things we honour, yes. But greater than these, and higher than them all, is Purity! White men and red alike, that is the thing we would have especially in woman. We are ourselves weak and corrupt. ”

“ Blythe, stammering, white-faced, brought the news to Dr. Quick, who hurried over. All the twinkle went out of the doctor's eyes when he saw Hector.
"He would go round the infectious wards with me!" the doctor groaned, cursing himself. "It's typhus!"
It was easy to isolate the patient. But to keep the news from the lawless crowd was impossible. Within twenty-four hours the whole Territory knew that the one man the malcontents really feared was hors de combat.
There was a waitress in Discovery, known to every soul in town as Seattle Sue. ”

“ The figure of Moon, busy round the cooking fire, stood black against the sunset.
"My son, you may remember, long ago, when we were at the Sun Dance camp, I told you that the white man's ways are not our ways and one should not adopt the habits of the other."
"I remember," Hector answered.
"I have changed my mind. That is, I think sometimes the law may be set aside. I wish to set it aside now—today—or soon."
"Go on," said Hector.
"You saved my life. I owe it to you; I know it. No man can owe to another man anything more precious. Then how can he repay such a debt? ”

“ Hector swallowed the humble pie—with a great effort—for the good of his cause. "I want your help—not for myself—if this thing goes on, I can fight it alone——" The politician, observing the great chest and shoulders and the steel-coloured eyes in the rugged face, felt a sharp sense of his opponent's indomitable strength. "Your help—to stop as much of this unjust criticism as possible. That will improve efficiency, stamp out crime and leave the men—my men—alone. You don't know my point of view, Molyneux. ”