Burton took it curiously. "Why, that's only a sc.r.a.p of paper," he said.

"That's wot she sent. 'Give 'im that,' she said, 'an' tell 'im hif 'e lives Hi look for 'im back to stand 'is trial.'"

"Hold a match!" cried Burton, excitedly. "Here, strike this and hold it."

The flame sputtered for a moment, then grew into a steady little light, and Burton placed the sc.r.a.p of paper where the rays fell to the best advantage. And his eyes rested on the printed words:

"Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll!

Leave thy low vaulted past!

Let each new temple, n.o.bler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown sh.e.l.l by Life's unchanging sea."

CHAPTER XVIII-RIGHT ABOUT FACE

"Oh, can I doubt the Power that leads You safe from zone to zone, Is mindful of the man He made In image of His own; That though we blindly breast the gale, Or skirt the sh.o.r.es of Time, Our Pilot knows the track we take, And guides from clime to clime?"

_The Empire Builders._

Burton sprang to his feet.

"When does the next train go east?" he demanded.

Wilfred produced a railway time-table, and after some study he found the page. "There's one at midnight," he said.

Burton glanced at his watch. It was a quarter to twelve.

"Good-bye, old man," he said, seizing the hand of the Barnardo boy.

"Wot, you ain't goin' to-night, are you?" said the boy. "You'll lose your 'omestead, hafter--"

"I'll lose more if I don't go. And I would have lost it, lost it all, if it had not been for you. G.o.d bless you, London! Stay and file on your homestead. I'll not be wanting one at present. I'm thinking I will be unable to perform the residence duties for a while," he added, with a bitter little laugh.

"But stay," he continued. "Have you selected your land?"

"No."

"Just going it blind?"

"Yep. Just takin' my chance with the rest o' them. Hi've a list of the hopen lands 'ere, an' Hi reckon to strike somethink--"

"Yes, you'll strike a sand bed or an alkali mine. Here's a list of four quarters I have looked over personally. They appear in the order of my preference. Take it, you're welcome to it."

There was a look of grat.i.tude in the boy's eyes which could find no expression in words. The two friends held each other's hand a moment in a firm grasp, and then Burton hurried toward the station. He reached it just in time to buy a ticket and board his train.

Once in a car and seated, the lights of the city died out of view, and Burton was left to collect his thoughts. His sudden resolution to go to his trial regardless of consequences had left him bereft of any plan of campaign or any definite course of action. For months he had studied how he might evade the law, but now his only fear was that he might not reach Plainville in time to appear before the Court and receive his sentence. That he would be found guilty he took as a matter of course.

He did not deceive himself with any hope of acquittal on any ground whatever. He was not going back to match himself against his fate; he was going back to accept his fate. He wondered how long his sentence would be. It might be one year, it might be five; it might be ten. That he supposed would depend in some degree upon the digestion of the judge, and whether his lordship might decide to make an example of him for the benefit of other evil-doers.

But he felt only a casual interest in these matters. To his great surprise neither judge, jury nor jail had any terror for him. He regarded them with an impersonal feeling of unconcern, except a desire to be done with all of them. He wondered if they would let him wear his own shirts in jail.

He consulted a time-table, and found that if he made all connections he should reach Plainville in the early morning of the first day of the a.s.sizes. He supposed there would be a short session of the grand jury first, but did not know whether his absence then would affect his trial.

He wondered if they would call his case first and immediately require Gardiner to forfeit his bail, and if they would return the bail when he appeared and gave himself up.

For twenty-four hours the train drilled steadily eastward, running without incident. Darkness had again settled down and the hour of midnight was approaching when suddenly the emergency brakes were applied with a force that threw the pa.s.sengers forward in their seats. The train came to a stop in a moment, and the young men and a few of the older ones who had not gone to bed in the sleeping cars crowded out to see the cause of the delay. A dull glow shone down the track from ahead, and a whiff of wood smoke blew in their nostrils. Aside from that and the subdued lights in the cars all was darkness, darkness intense and illimitable, walled in only by the brooding silence of the great prairies.

A couple of trainmen with lanterns were seen walking on the track, and Burton hurried to overtake them. As he advanced the glow of light became brighter and the smell of smoke more noticeable. In a few minutes he had come up with them, and together they reached a wooden trestle which spanned a ravine where a little stream trickled at the bottom during the summer, but was now dried by the long period of rainless weather. The bridge was on fire; most of the timbers had already given way, and the hot rails hung in two shining streaks from bank to bank.

From the conversation of the trainmen Burton gathered that the fire was probably due to a falling coal from a pa.s.sing engine lighting the woodwork. He ventured to ask how long it would delay the train.

"Well, that's hard to say," was the answer. "It'll take at least twelve hours to throw a temporary bridge in there after the work train arrives, and they won't likely be here before morning. The company knows nothing about it yet, so we'll likely have to pull back to the last station to give information."

And the a.s.size court at Plainville sat the next morning!

Burton walked back to the train and consulted his time-table. He was about seventy-five miles from Plainville and on another line of railway.

Mechanically he started to read the names of the stations which lay ahead of him, but at the second name his heart gave a bound. That was the town where Dr. Millar lived. That, he estimated, was about fourteen miles away. It was now midnight. He could be there by four o'clock, and the doctor's automobile would place him in Plainville by eight easily.

He still had a chance to save his honour by appearing in court when his name was called.

Without further delay he started out at a brisk walk along the railway track. He scrambled through the dry ravine, and regained the railway on the other side. He was unhampered by luggage of any kind, and although walking on the ties in the darkness was rather uncertain he had no doubt he would be standing in the doctor's office within five hours. The light wind was balmy and refreshing, but very soon it began to carry scattered drops of rain. These gradually grew thicker until a steady shower was falling. The moisture soon soaked through his clothing, but the exercise kept him warm and he felt little discomfort. And at ten minutes to four, warm, wet and footsore, he rang the bell at Dr. Millar's door.

The doctor answered the ring in person. At first glance he did not recognise his visitor, but a very few words of explanation sufficed. Dr.

Millar was a master of the art of grasping essentials by intuition.

He looked at his watch, and then he looked out at the black, wet night.

The rain was now falling heavily, and the street lay white with water where the light from the open door cut its wedge-shaped path across it.

"It'll be a hard drive, Burton," he said, "but it must be made, and the sooner we start the better. I will be dressed in a few minutes, and I always leave my car ready to pull out at a moment's notice. But you are wet. You must have some dry clothing."

Burton protested that he was quite comfortable, that he did not feel the dampness at all, but the doctor would not listen to him.

"You are warm now, because you have been walking hard, but a few minutes in the automobile will set your teeth chattering. Besides, I think I have some clothes belonging to you around here somewhere, and I want you to take them away, this very night. Now get in there and hustle them on," and suiting the action to the word the doctor shoved Burton into his private office. There was nothing to do but obey.

A little later an automobile pulled out from Dr. Millar's gate and started to plough its path through sixty miles of mud and water.

The holding of the first a.s.size court at Plainville was an event of no small importance to the people of that obscure but ambitious town.

Plainville had been fortunate enough at the last election to place its sympathies with the winning side, and the first evidence of appreciation was a handsome court-house, built on a block of lots which had been held for a dozen years by Perkins, the lawyer, without a chance of sale, but was now turned over to the Government at a handsome profit. Mr. Perkins'

allegiance to the party of purity and justice had been further rewarded by his appointment to the office of crown prosecutor at the a.s.sizes. It was a little disappointing, to be sure, that the crop of criminals had so far been distressingly small, the most serious case on the docket being the theft of two thousand dollars which were afterwards recovered, but neither Plainville nor Perkins were discouraged. The judicial district was young, and would improve with the pa.s.sage of time. Who knew but that some public spirited criminal might yet commit a real murder, and so bring the name of Plainville into prominence in all the papers of the province?

The jurors and witnesses had a.s.sembled, over-taxing the hotel accommodation of the town, which the thoughtful lawyers and officials had reserved for themselves a safe period in advance. A number of minor offices were filled by Plainville citizens, and this rewarding of the faithful restored the credit of several shiftless Plainville families at the grocers' and butchers'. The hotels were full, the bars were busy, even the temperance houses had more trade than they could accommodate, and many a thrifty housewife was ekeing out the price of a new bonnet by placing the spare room at the disposal of the strangers. Mrs. Goode found the demands upon her lodgings and her table more than she could supply, but had boldly met the situation by pitching a number of tents in her back yard, where her cadaverous husband could be employed without menace to the business coming in at the front door. Plainville was prosperous, excited and happy.

After the great fact of the a.s.size itself interest centred mainly in the case of _King_ v. _Burton_, and the hot discussions in the pool-rooms and the lobby of the post office over the young man's guilt or innocence had given rise to two opposing factions. The first of these held that Burton was innocent, and would appear to stand his trial at the proper time; the second declared that he was guilty, and had "skipped the country for good." And it was interesting to note how the townspeople and country people lined up on the two sides of the controversy. It was a virtual dividing of the sheep and the goats. Those who held high views of life and embraced all humanity in a kindly sympathy were a.s.sured that Burton would be back to face his trial, and even that his innocence would be established; while that other cla.s.s of people who find it easier and more to their tastes to believe evil than good were equally certain that the young man had disappeared from Plainville for ever. And among those who held the latter belief it must be said were a few who would have preferred to believe otherwise, but whose judgment had forced them to the unpleasant conclusion. There was Mr. Sempter, of the Sempter Trading Company, who secretly held Burton in high regard; there were the Grant boys, who openly-and especially before their cousin-avowed their confidence in Burton, but who in their hearts were at a loss to understand his disappearance; and there was Gardiner, who at first had stoutly maintained the innocence of his former employee, but had at last admitted that he could no longer believe him guiltless. There, too, was a third faction which explained Burton's absence on the theory that some mishap which had not yet come to light had befallen him. This was a comfortable position for those who did not wish to antagonise either of the other parties, as it left the question of Burton's innocence or guilt out of the discussion. This was the belief espoused by the local newspaper, the church organisations, and such other inst.i.tutions as felt that it would be bad business to give offence to any section of the community.

The great day of the opening of the a.s.sizes at last arrived. During the night it rained heavily, and the streets and roads were deep with mud, but the clouds scattered about nine o'clock and the sun looked through on the crowds filing down to the court house. The judge read his charge to the grand jury, and the grand jury at once proceeded to find in accordance with the thinly-veiled wishes expressed in the charge. The Court then adjourned to resume its sitting at two o'clock that afternoon.

As the hour drew near the spirits of those who had to the last hoped for Burton's reappearance in the nick of time fell under the depression of a conviction which for months they had been trying to fight off. John Burton's Scotch pride had at last given away to paternal attachment, and he engaged Bradshaw, the lawyer, to appear in defence of his son. The lawyer's office had become the gathering place of the steadily diminishing group who were still hoping against hope, but as the minutes wore by the hope changed to despondency. In Burton's absence they could read only an admission of his guilt-an admission which cut loyal hearts deeper than any sentence which might have been p.r.o.nounced over his protestations of innocence.

The court house was packed long before the afternoon session commenced; and when the judge had taken his seat on the bench and the first case, _King_ v. _Burton_, was called an intensity of excitement prevailed in the room which seemed even to reach the officers of the law. It was not that the crime charged was so exceptional, but the reluctance of many good people to believe in Burton's guilt and the mystery of his sudden and complete disappearance had pitched public interest to its highest key. Many rumours had been in circulation within the last few hours; rumours that Burton had returned during the night, that he had been in the custody of the police since July and would be produced at the proper moment, that he had been drowned in the lake, that he had been seen in a far western town-all of these and more were flying about in the air and adding to the confusion of the public mind. But at last the moment had come; something definite was to be done, or said, or ascertained, and as many of the townspeople, with a sprinkling of interested ones from the country, as could crowd into the building were agog to know whatever could be known.