CHAPTER II
RADER
TO speculate on Rader's character would have been a vain thing, worthy of a philosopher. If Rader's personality was reflected in this hotel on the fringe of civilization, with its patchwork of new upon old, then Rader most probably was a broken-down speculator, clinging to the pretensions of his past. But Carron knew that people are never what they are deduced, and seldom what they are expected to be. It would be time enough to think of Rader's character once he had appeared. The important question now was, where was he?
Doubtless he was away hunting. If that were so, would he be back to dinner? or would he be away several days, and was it a question of hanging on here until he returned? That, Carron thought, would not be so difficult in itself. He felt rather confident of overcoming Mrs. Rader's doubts. But to wait, when time never waits, when everything was so pressing, when this strange latter summer, lingering in the first of September, might at any time chill, and the sky send torrents of rain! And, even
24
