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HARDING OF ALLENWOOD




[Illustration: "'PICK UP YOUR SKIRT,' HE SAID BLUNTLY; 'IT GETS
STEEPER.'"--Page 32]




HARDING OF ALLENWOOD

BY HAROLD BINDLOSS

AUTHOR OF PRESCOTT OF SASKATCHEWAN,
WINSTON OF THE PRAIRIE, ETC

WITH FRONTISPIECE IN COLOR

[Illustration]

GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS  NEW YORK

Copyright, 1915, by
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

All rights reserved




CONTENTS

 CHAPTER                                          PAGE
       I  THE PIONEERS                               1
      II  PORTENTS OF CHANGE                        14
     III  AT THE FORD                               26
      IV  THE OPENING OF THE RIFT                   36
       V  THE SPENDTHRIFT                           48
      VI  THE MORTGAGE BROKER                       56
     VII  AN ACCIDENT                               67
    VIII  AN UNEXPECTED ESCAPE                     79
      IX  A MAN OF AFFAIRS                          92
       X  THE CASTING VOTE                         103
      XI  THE STEAM PLOW                          118
     XII  THE ENEMY WITHIN                         132
    XIII  THE TRAITOR                              145
     XIV  A BOLD SCHEME                            156
      XV  HARVEST HOME                             169
     XVI  THE BRIDGE                               182
    XVII  A HEAVY BLOW                             192
   XVIII  COVERING HIS TRAIL                       203
     XIX  THE BLIZZARD                             215
      XX  A SEVERE TEST                            225
     XXI  THE DAY OF RECKONING                     236
    XXII  THE PRICE OF HONOR                       245
   XXIII  A WOMAN INTERVENES                       255
    XXIV  A GREAT TRIUMPH                          264
     XXV  THE REBUFF                               276
    XXVI  DROUGHT                                  287
   XXVII  THE ADVENTURESS                          298
  XXVIII  FIRE AND HAIL                            308
    XXIX  A BRAVE HEART                            318
     XXX  THE INHERITANCE                          326





HARDING, OF ALLENWOOD




CHAPTER I

THE PIONEERS


It was a clear day in September. The boisterous winds which had swept
the wide Canadian plain all summer had fallen and only a faint breeze
stirred the yellowing leaves of the poplars. Against the glaring blue of
the northern sky the edge of the prairie cut in a long, straight line;
above the southern horizon rounded cloud-masses hung, soft and white as
wool. Far off, the prairie was washed with tints of delicate gray, but
as it swept in to the foreground the color changed, growing in strength,
to brown and ocher with streaks of silvery brightness where the withered
grass caught the light. To the east the view was broken, for the banks
of a creek that wound across the broad level were lined with
timber--birches and poplars growing tall in the shelter of the ravine
and straggling along its crest. Their pale- branches glowed among
the early autumn leaves.

In a gap between the trees two men stood resting on their axes, and rows
of logs and branches and piles of chips were scattered about the
clearing. The men were dressed much alike, in shirts that had once been
blue but were now faded to an indefinite color, old brown overalls, and
soft felt hats that had fallen out of shape. Their arms were bare to the
elbows, the low shirt-collars left their necks exposed, showing skin
that had weathered, like their clothing, to the color of the soil.
Standing still, they were scarcely distinguishable from their
surroundings.

Harding was thirty years old, and tall and strongly built. He looked
virile and athletic, but his figure was marked by signs of strength
rather than grace. His forehead was broad, his eyes between blue and
gray, and his gaze gravely steady. He had a straight nose and a firm
mouth; and although there was more than a hint of determination in his
expression, it indicated, on the whole, a pleasant, even a magnetic,
disposition.

Devine was five years younger and of lighter build. He was the handsomer
of the two, but he lacked that indefinite something about his companion
which attracted more attention.

"Let's quit a few minutes for a smoke," suggested Devine, dropping his
ax. "We've worked pretty hard since noon."

He sat down on a log and took out an old corncob pipe. When it was
filled and lighted he leaned back contentedly against a friendly stump.

Harding remained standing, his hand on the long ax-haft, his chin
slightly lifted, and his eyes fixed on the empty plain. Between him and
the horizon there was no sign of life except that a flock of migrating
birds were moving south across the sky in a drawn-out wedge. The wide
expanse formed part of what was then the territory of Assiniboia, and is
now the province of Saskatchewan. As far as one could see, the soil was
thin alluvial loam, interspersed with the stiff "gumbo" that grows the
finest wheat; but the plow had not yet broken its surface. Small towns
were springing up along the railroad track, but the great plain between
the Saskatchewan and the Assiniboine was, for the most part, still a
waste, waiting for the tide of population that had begun to flow.

Harding was a born pioneer, and his expression grew intent as he gazed
across the wilderness.

"What will this prairie be like, Fred, when those poplars are tall
enough to cut?" he said gravely, indicating some saplings beside him.
"There's going to be a big change here."

"That's true; and it's just what I'm counting on. That's what made me
leave old Dakota. I want to be in on the ground-floor!"

Harding knit his brows, and his face had a concentrated look. He was not
given to talking at large, but he had a gift of half-instinctive
prevision as well as practical, constructive ability, and just then he
felt strangely moved. It seemed to him that he heard in the distance the
march of a great army of new home-builders, moving forward slowly and
cautiously as yet. He was one of the advance skirmishers, though the
first scouts had already pushed on and vanished across the skyline into
the virgin West.

"Well," he said, "think what's happening! Ontario's settled and busy
with manufactures; Manitoba and the Dakotas, except for the sand-belts,
are filling up. The older States are crowded, and somebody owns all the
soil that's worth working in the Middle West. England and Germany are
overflowing, and we have roughly seven hundred miles of country here
that needs people. They must come. The pressure behind will force them."

"But think what that will mean to the price of wheat! It's bringing only
a dollar and a half now. We can't raise it at a dollar."

"It will break the careless," Harding said, "but dollar wheat will come.
The branch railroads will follow the homesteads; you'll see the
elevators dotting the prairie, and when we've opened up this great
tableland between the American border and the frozen line, the wheat
will pour into every settlement