At last he came to the
point where his merger was practically accomplished, and a problem
arising out of it had to be solved. It was a problem which taxed every
quality of an able mind. The situation had at last become acute, and
Time, the solvent of most complications, had not quite eased the strain.
Indeed, on the day that Fleda Druse had made her journey down the
Carillon Rapids, Time's influence had not availed. So he had gone
fishing, with millions at stake--to the despair of those who were risking
all on his skill and judgment.
But that was Ingolby. Thinking was the essence of his business, not Time.
As fishing was the friend of thinking, therefore he fished in Seely's
Eddy, saw Fleda Druse run the Carillon Rapids, saved her from drowning,
and would have brought her in pride and peace to her own home, but that
she decreed otherwise.
CHAPTER IV
THE COMING OF JETHRO FAWE
Gabriel Druse's house stood on a little knoll on the outskirts of the
town of Manitou, backed by a grove of pines. Its front windows faced the
Sagalac, and the windows behind looked into cool coverts where in old
days many Indian tribes had camped; where Hudson's Bay Company's men had
pitched their tents to buy the red man's furs. But the red man no longer
set up his tepee in these secluded groves; the wapiti and red deer had
fled to the north never to return, the snarling wolf had stolen into
regions more barren; the ceremonial of the ancient people no longer made
weird the lonely nights; the medicine-man's incantations, the
harvest-dance, the green-corn-dance, the sun-dance had gone.
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