Хэммонд Иннес - Nothing to Lose [= Campbell’s Kingdom]

He took it automatically. I think he was too astonished to speak. Then he glanced down at the message and read it. “You’re crazy,” he said. “You haven’t the dough to start an action like this.”

“I think I have.”

“Well, whether you have or not is immaterial,” he said harshly. “No Canadian court is going to grant you an injunction against the damming up of a useless bit of territory like tins. You don’t seem to realize what you’re up against.”

“I know quite well what I’m up against,” I said, suddenly losing control of myself. “I’m up against a bunch of crooks who don’t stop at falsifying surveys, setting fire to fuel tankers, trespassing on other people’s property, shooting, and attempting to expropriate land that doesn’t belong to them. It hadn’t occurred to me to start legal proceedings. But if Fergus wants it that way, he can have it. Tell him I’m fighting him every inch of the ground. Tell him that what we’ve proved already by drilling, together with Winnick’s evidence, will be enough to satisfy any Canadian court. And by the time he’s got his dam finished I’ll have brought in a well up here. Now get out.”

Trevedian hesitated, a bewildered expression on his face. “Then why does Keogh want to get his trucks down?”

“Because we’re just about through here!” I said quickly, “Now get out of here and tell your boss, Henry Fergus, that the gloves are off!”

He stood there, his mouth ball open, as though he was about to say something further. “You heard what Wetheral said.” Garry was moving toward him, his hands low at his sides, the fingers crooked, expressive of his urgent desire to throw Trevedian through the doorway. The boys were closing in on him too. He turned suddenly and ducked out.

For a moment we all stood there without moving. Then Garry came over and grasped my hand. “By heaven, I got to hand it to you,” he said.

I pushed my hand wearily across my face. “It was all bluff,” I said.

He peered down at me. “How do you mean? Aren’t you going to fight ’em?”

“Yes, of course I’m going to fight them.” I suddenly felt very tired. I think it was the knowledge that I had to go back to Calgary.

“Did you really mean you’ve got a backer?” Cliff asked.

“Yes.” I looked across at Jean. “Would you make me up a parcel of food?”

She nodded slowly. “You’re going to Calgary?”

“Yes.” I turned back to Garry, “You’re willing to go on drilling?”

He looked round at his crew. “And why not, eh, boys? We go on drilling till we have to swim for it? That right?” They were suddenly all grinning and shouting agreement. “We’re right with you, Bruce!” There was a gleam in his eyes and he added, “I’d sure like to get even with that swine.” And then the gleam died away. “There’s one or two things, though. We’ve only got fuel for four more days of drilling. We’re getting short of food up here too. There’s a whole lot of things we need.”

“I know,” I said. “Make out a list of your requirements for another month. Get hold of Boy, tell him to hire the pock animals Johnny and I had before. He’s to have them corralled at Weasel’s Farm on the other side of Beaver Dam Lake in three days’ time — that’s the eighth of August. I’ll meet him there. Tell him to have all supplies laid on ready. I’ll wire him the money at Keithley.”

“I’ll do that.” His big hand grippe my shoulder. “You look like you weren’t strong enough to hold your own against a puff of wind. But by heaven, you’re tougher than I am.” He turned toward the door. “C’mon, boys. We’ll get the rig started up again.” He waved his hand to me. “Good luck!” he said, “And just keep your fingers crossed, in case this Hill goes deep.”

I got my things together and then went out to the stables. I was saddling up when Jean came in with a package of food. “Shall I come with you?” she asked.

“No,” I said. “This is something I have to do alone.”

She hesitated, and then said, “You’re going to see Sarah, aren’t you?” I didn’t say anything, and she added, “She’s your backer, isn’t she?”

“How did you know?”

She smiled a trifle sadly. “I lived there for three years, you know.” She pushed the food into my pack. “Does she have enough?” I was tightening my cinch and I didn’t say anything. She caught hold of my arm. “It’ll cost a lot to fight a legal battle.”

“A delaying action, that’s all,” I said. “If we don’t bring in a well—” I shrugged my shoulders. “Then I don’t care very much.”

“We’ll bring in a well.” She reached up and kissed me then. For a second I felt the warmth of her lips on mine, and then she was gone.

As I rode up the trail to the Saddle I could hear the draw works of the rig sounding their challenge across the Kingdom. It was like music to hear it working again, to know that the whole crowd were solidly behind me.

“Pray God it comes out right,” I murmured aloud. But I felt tired and depressed. Calgary scared me and I wasn’t sure of myself.

I waited till nightfall before entering Come Lucky, riding in from above it and wending my way through the huddle of shacks. There was a glow of lamplight in the windows of the Garret home. Sarah Garret answered my knock. She seemed to know what I had come for.

“You’re in a hurry, I expect,” she said.

“I have to go to Calgary.”

She nodded. “There’s a rumor you’re going to get the courts to stop the work on the dam. That’s why you’ve come, isn’t it?”

I nodded.

Her eyes were bright and there was a little spot of color in her waxen cheeks. “I’m glad,” she said. She took me through into her room, talking all the time, a Little breathless, a little excited. She wanted to know all my plans, everything that had happened that morning. And while I talked she unlocked the tin trunk and took out the clothes. When I had lifted out the false bottom, she picked out two of the little tin boxes and put them into my hands. “There,” she said. “I do hope it will be enough, but I must keep sufficient for my sister and me to live on.” One of the boxes contained gold dust, the other two small bars of gold.

“You do realize,” I said, “that I may not be able to repay you. We may fail.”

She smiled. “You foolish man. It isn’t a loan. It’s a gift.” She let the lid of the trunk fall. “I think my father would have been glad to know that I had saved it for something that was important to someone.”

“I don’t know how to thank you,” I murmured.

“Nonsense, I haven’t had so much excitement since—” She looked at me and I swear she blushed. “Well, not for a very long time.” Her eyes I twinkled up at me. “Will you promise me something? When all this is over, will you take me up to the Kingdom? I haven’t been out of Come Lucky for so long and I would like to see it again, and the log house and the tiger lilies. Are there tiger lilies there still?”

I nodded. For some reason I couldn’t trust myself to speak.

“Now you must hurry. If they hear you are in Come Lucky—” She hustled me to the door. “Put the boxes under your coat. Yes, that’s right. Ruth mustn’t see them. I think she suspects, but—” Her frail fingers squeezed my arm. “It’s our secret, eh? She wouldn’t understand.”

Ruth Garret was waiting for us in the living room. “What have you two been up to?” The playfulness of the remark was lost in the sharpness of her eyes.

“We were just talking,” her sister said quickly. She put her band on my arm and led me out. She paused at the front door. “Are you going to marry Jean?”

I looked down at her and then slowly shook my head. “No.”