human
I'm much obliged to you, he said.
gpt
I don't like to be beaten, and it's a thing that doesn't happen very often. Besides, when a horse is too much for a man it's kind of humiliating. There's something that doesn't strike one as quite fitting in the principle of the thing.
human
I'm not sure it's worth while to worry very much over a point of that kind, especially when it seems likely to lead to nothing beyond the probability of being pitched into a river.
gpt
Still, said the stranger, with the little twinkle showing plainer in his eyes,
human
I fancy it quite frequently is, said Brooke, reflectively.
gpt
That is usually the result of meddling.
human
You have been here some time, but you are an Englishman,
gpt
I am, said Brooke.
human
Is there any reason why I should hide the fact?
gpt
You couldn't do it. How long have you been here?
human
Four years in all, I think.
gpt
What did you come out for?
human
I fancy my motive was not an unusual one. To pick up a few dollars.
gpt
Got them yet?
human
I can't say I have.
gpt
There are not many folks who would have admitted that, he said.
human
When a man has been four years in this country he ought to have put a few dollars together. What have you been at?
gpt
Ranching most of the time. Road-making, saw-milling, and a few other occupations of the same kind afterwards.
human
What was wrong with the ranch?
gpt
Almost everything, he said.
human
It had a good many disadvantages besides its rockiness, sterility, and an unusually abundant growth of two-hundred-feet trees. Still, it was the man who sold it me I found most fault with. He was a land agent.
gpt
One of the little men?
human
No. I believe he is considered rather a big one--in fact about the biggest in that particular line.
gpt
He told you the land was nicely cleared ready, and would grow anything?
human
No, said Brooke.
gpt
He, however, led me to believe that it could be cleared with very little difficulty, and that the lumber was worth a good deal. I daresay it is, if there was any means whatever of getting it to a mill, which there isn't. He certainly told me there was no reason it shouldn't grow as good fruit as any that comes from Oregon, while I found the greatest difficulty in getting a little green oat fodder out of it.
human
You went back, and tried to cry off your bargain?
gpt
I really don't know any reason why I should worry you with my affairs. My case isn't at all an unusual one.
human
I don't know of any why you shouldn't. Go right on.
gpt
Then I never got hold of the man himself. It was one of his agents I made the deal with, and there was nothing to be obtained from him. In fact, I could see no probability of getting any redress at all. It appears to be considered commendable to take the newly-arrived Britisher in.
human
Well, he said,
gpt
The law, said Brooke,
human
There's not much bush in this country, from Kootenay to Caribou, I haven't wandered through. I used to live in it--quite a long while ago. I came up to look at a mine. I buy one up occasionally.
gpt
Isn't that a little risky?
human
Well, said the other, with a little smile,
gpt
And a good market in England for whatever the Colonials have no particular use for?
human
Did you ever strike any real good salt pork in Canada?
gpt
No, said Brooke, decisively,
human
I certainly never did.
gpt
Then where does the best bacon you get in England come from? Same with cheese--and other things.
human
Including mines?
gpt
Well, when any of them look like paying it's generally your folk who get them. Know anything about the Dayspring?
human
Not a great deal, Brooke said, guardedly.
gpt
I have been in the workings, and it is for sale.
human
Ore worth anything at the smelter?