diff options
Diffstat (limited to '36869-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 36869-h/36869-h.htm | 11077 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36869-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 135779 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36869-h/images/illus1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 126847 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36869-h/images/illus2.jpg | bin | 0 -> 139614 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36869-h/images/illus3.jpg | bin | 0 -> 133413 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36869-h/images/illus4.jpg | bin | 0 -> 149013 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36869-h/images/map.jpg | bin | 0 -> 48177 bytes |
7 files changed, 11077 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/36869-h/36869-h.htm b/36869-h/36869-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b3cf54 --- /dev/null +++ b/36869-h/36869-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11077 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Real Man, by Francis Lynde. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Real Man, by Francis Lynde + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Real Man + +Author: Francis Lynde + +Illustrator: Arthur E. Becher + +Release Date: July 27, 2011 [EBook #36869] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE REAL MAN *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h1>The Real Man</h1> + +<h2>BY FRANCIS LYNDE</h2> + + +<h3><i>ILLUSTRATED BY</i><br /> +ARTHUR E. BECHER</h3> + +<h3>CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS<br /> +NEW YORK :::::::::: 1915</h3> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1915, <span class="smcap">by</span><br /> +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</h3> + +<h3>Published August, 1915</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="center">TO<br /> +THOSE FRIENDS OF UNACQUAINTANCE<br /> +AMONG HIS READERS<br /> +WHO FROM TIME TO TIME EXPRESS, THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF<br /> +KINDLY AND HEART-WARMING LETTERS,<br /> +THEIR APPRECIATIVE SYMPATHY AND APPROVAL,<br /> +THIS BOOK<br /> +IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED,<br /> +WITH GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FROM<br /> +THE AUTHOR</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus1" id="illus1"></a> +<img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>There was time only for a mighty heave and shove.</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#I">I. <span class="smcap">Host and Guest</span></a><br /> +<a href="#II">II. <span class="smcap">Metastasis</span></a><br /> +<a href="#III">III. <span class="smcap">The Hobo</span></a><br /> +<a href="#IV">IV. <span class="smcap">The High Hills</span></a><br /> +<a href="#V">V. <span class="smcap">The Specialist</span></a><br /> +<a href="#VI">VI. <span class="smcap">The Twig</span></a><br /> +<a href="#VII">VII. <span class="smcap">A Notice to Quit</span></a><br /> +<a href="#VIII">VIII. <span class="smcap">Timanyoni Ditch</span></a><br /> +<a href="#IX">IX. <span class="smcap">Relapsings</span></a><br /> +<a href="#X">X. <span class="smcap">The Sick Project</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XI">XI. <span class="smcap">When Greek Meets Greek</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XII">XII. <span class="smcap">The Rocket and the Stick</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XIII">XIII. <span class="smcap">The Narrow World</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XIV">XIV. <span class="smcap">A Reprieve</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XV">XV. <span class="smcap">"Sweet Fortune's Minion"</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XVI">XVI. <span class="smcap">Broken Threads</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XVII">XVII. <span class="smcap">A Night of Fiascos</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XVIII">XVIII. <span class="smcap">A Chance to Hedge</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XIX">XIX. <span class="smcap">Two Women</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XX">XX. <span class="smcap">Tucker Jibbey</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XXI">XXI. <span class="smcap">At Any Cost</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XXII">XXII. <span class="smcap">The Megalomaniac</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XXIII">XXIII. <span class="smcap">The Arrow to the Mark</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XXIV">XXIV. <span class="smcap">A Little Leaven</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XXV">XXV. <span class="smcap">The Pace-Setter</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XXVI">XXVI. <span class="smcap">The Colonel's "Defi"</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XXVII">XXVII. <span class="smcap">Two Witnesses</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XXVIII">XXVIII. <span class="smcap">The Straddler</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XXIX">XXIX. <span class="smcap">The Flesh-Pots of Egypt</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XXX">XXX. <span class="smcap">A Strong Man Armed</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XXXI">XXXI. <span class="smcap">A Race to the Swift</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XXXII">XXXII. <span class="smcap">Freedom</span></a><br /> +<a href="#XXXIII">XXXIII. <span class="smcap">In Sunrise Gulch</span></a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<p><a href="#illus1">There was time only for a mighty heave and shove</a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus2">In a flash Smith knew what he had done</a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus3">"Your friends have money, Montague—plenty of it"</a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus4">"Catch him! catch him!" he shrilled. "It's Boogerfield, and he's going +to dy-dynamite the dam!"</a></p> + +<p><a href="#map">Sketch map of the Timanyoni</a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="map" id="map"></a> +<img src="images/map.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>Sketch map of the Timanyoni</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE REAL MAN</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2> + +<h3>Host and Guest</h3> + + +<p>It is conceivable that, in Noah's time—say, on the day before the +heavens opened and the floods descended—a complacent citizenry of +Antediluvia might have sat out on its front porches, enjoying the sunset +over Mount Ararat and speculating upon the probable results of the next +patriarchal election, all unsuspicious of chaotic cataclysms. Under +similar conditions—fair skies, a good groundwork of creature comforts, +and a total lack of threatening portents—there was no reason why the +two men, smoking their after-dinner cigars on the terrace of the +Lawrenceville Country Club, should suspect that the end of the world +might be lying in wait for either of them just beyond the hour's +relaxation.</p> + +<p>They had been dining together—Debritt, a salesman for the Aldenguild +Engraving Company of New York and the elder of the two, as the guest, +and Smith, cashier of the Lawrenceville Bank and Trust, as the host. +After banking hours, Smith had taken the engraving company's salesman in +his runabout for a drive through the residence district and up the river +road; and business, the business of printing a new issue of +stock-certificates for the local bank, had been laid aside. The return +drive had paused at the Country Club for dinner; and since Debritt's +train would not leave until eight o'clock, there was ample leisure for +the tobacco burning and for the jocund salesman's appreciative +enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"Monty, my son, for solid satisfaction and pure unadulterated enjoyment +of the safe-and-sane variety, you fellows in the little cities have us +metropolitans backed off the map," he said, after the cigars were fairly +alight. "In New York, believe me, you might be the cashier of a bank the +size of the Lawrenceville B. and T.—only you wouldn't be at your +age—for a thousand years and never get a glimpse out over the top of +things; never know the people who lived next door to you. Here you know +everybody worth knowing, drive your own motor, have more dinner +invitations than you can accept, and by and by—when you get +deliberately good and ready—you can marry the prettiest girl in town. +Am I right?"</p> + +<p>The carefully groomed, athletically muscled younger man in the big +wicker lounging-chair laughed easily.</p> + +<p>"You are not so far wrong, Boswell," he conceded. "I guess we get all +that is coming to us, and I get my share. Since we have only one +multimillionaire we can't afford to be very exclusive, and my bank job +answers the social purpose well enough."</p> + +<p>"I'll bet it does!" the jocose one went on. "I've been piping you off +ever since we left the hotel. It's ''lo, Monty-boy,' everywhere you go, +and I know exactly what that means in a town of this size; a stand-in +with all the good people, a plate at anybody's table, the pick of +partners at all the social dew-dabs. Tell me if I'm wrong."</p> + +<p>Again the younger man laughed.</p> + +<p>"You might be reading it out of a book," he confessed. "That is the life +here in Lawrenceville, and I live it, like thousands of my kind all over +the land. You may scoff at it if you like, but it is pleasant and +harmless and exceedingly comfortable. I shouldn't know how to live any +other kind."</p> + +<p>"I don't know why you should want to live any other kind," was the +prompt rejoinder. "To be a rising young business man in a rich little +inland city, beloved of the gods and goddesses—especially of the +goddesses.... Say, by Jove! here comes one of them, right now. Heavens! +isn't she a pomegranate!"</p> + +<p>A handsome limousine had rolled silently up to the club carriage +entrance, and the young woman in question was descending from it. Only a +miser of adjectives—or a Debritt—would have tried to set forth her +triumphant charm in a single word. She was magnificent: a brown-eyed +blonde of the Olympian type, exuberantly feminine in the many dazzling +luxuriances of ripe-lipped, full-figured maidenhood. The salesman saw +his companion make a move to rise, but the beauty passed on into the +club-house without looking their way.</p> + +<p>"You know her, I suppose; you know everybody in town," Debritt said, +after the cashier had again settled himself in the lounging-chair.</p> + +<p>Smith's nod was expressive of something more than a fellow townsman's +degree of intimacy.</p> + +<p>"I ought to," he admitted. "She is Miss Verda Richlander, the daughter +of our one and only multimillionaire. Also, I may add that she is my +very good friend."</p> + +<p>Debritt's chuckling laugh proved that his prefigurings had already +outrun the mere statement of fact.</p> + +<p>"Better and more of it," he commented. "I'm going to congratulate you +before you can escape—or is it a bit premature?"</p> + +<p>"Some of the Lawrenceville gossips would tell you that it isn't; but it +is, just the same. Mr. Josiah Richlander has but one measure for the +stature of a man, and the name of it is money. The fellow who asks him +for Miss Verda is going to have a chance to show up his bank-account and +the contents of his safety-deposit box in short order."</p> + +<p>"In that case, I should imagine you'd be lying awake nights trying to +study up some get-rich-quick scheme," joked the guest.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I am," was the even-toned rejoinder. "Who knows?"</p> + +<p>The round-bodied salesman broke an appreciative cough in the middle and +grew suddenly thoughtful.</p> + +<p>"Don't do that, Monty," he urged soberly; "try to take any of the short +cuts, I mean. It's the curse of the age; and, if you'll take it from me, +your chances are too good—and too dangerous."</p> + +<p>The good-looking, athletic young cash-keeper planted in the opposite +chair met the salesman's earnest gaze level-eyed.</p> + +<p>"Having said that much, you can hardly refuse to say more," he +suggested.</p> + +<p>"I will say more; a little more, anyway. I've been wanting to say it all +the afternoon. My job takes me into nearly every bank in the Middle +West, as you know, and I can't very well help hearing a good bit of +gossip, Montague. I'm not going to insult your intelligence by assuming +that you don't thoroughly know the man you are working under."</p> + +<p>The cashier withheld his reply until the Olympian young woman, who was +coming out, had stepped into her limousine to be driven away townward. +Then he said:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Dunham—our president? Oh, yes; I know him very well, indeed."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid you don't."</p> + +<p>"I ought to know him," was the guarded assumption. "I've been with him +six years, and during that time I have served a turn at every job in the +bank up to, and now and then including, Mr. Dunham's own desk."</p> + +<p>"Then you can hardly help knowing what people say of him."</p> + +<p>"I know: they say he is a chance-taker, and some of them add that he is +not too scrupulous. That is entirely true; true, not only of Mr. Dunham, +but of nine out of every ten business men of to-day who make a success. +The chance-taking is in the air, the Lawrenceville air, at any rate, +Debritt. We are prosperous. The town is growing by leaps and bounds, and +we've got the money."</p> + +<p>The ash had grown half an inch longer on the salesman's cigar before he +spoke again.</p> + +<p>"They say worse things of Mr. Watrous Dunham than that he is a +chance-taker, Montague. There are men, good, solid business men, in the +neighboring cities and towns who tell some pretty savage stories about +the way in which he has sometimes dropped his friends into a hole to +save himself."</p> + +<p>"And you are a good enough friend of mine to want to give me a tip, +Boswell? I appreciate that, but I don't need it. It may be as you say. +Possibly Mr. Dunham does carry a knife up his sleeve for emergencies. +But I wasn't born yesterday, and I have a few friends of my own here in +Lawrenceville. My only present worry is that I'm not making money fast +enough."</p> + +<p>The salesman waved the subject aside with the half-burned cigar. "Forget +it," he said shortly; "the Dunham end of it, I mean. And I don't blame +you for wanting to assemble money enough to call Mr. Richlander's hand." +Then, with the jocose smile wrinkling again at the corners of his +well-buried eyes: "You've got all the rest of it, you know; even to the +good half of a distinguished name. 'Mrs. J. Montague Smith.' That fits +her down to the ground. If it were just plain 'John,' now, it might be +different. Does she, too, call you 'Monty-boy'?"</p> + +<p>The young man whose name pointed the jest grinned good-naturedly.</p> + +<p>"The 'J' does stand for 'John,'" he admitted. "I was named for my +maternal grandfather, John Montague, and had both halves of the good old +gentleman's signature wished upon me. I stood for it until I grew old +enough to realize that 'John Smith' is practically nothing but an +<i>alias</i>, and then I dropped the 'John' part of it, or rather, let it +shrink to an initial. I suppose you can count all the Debritts there are +in the country on your fingers; but there are millions of +indistinguishable Smiths."</p> + +<p>The fat salesman was chuckling again when he threw the cigar end away +and glanced at his watch.</p> + +<p>"I don't blame you for parting your name in the middle," he said; "I'd +have done it myself, maybe. But if you should ever happen to need an +<i>alias</i> you've got one ready-made. Just drop the 'Montague' and call +yourself 'John' and the trick's turned. You might bear that in mind. +It'll come in handy if the big ego ever happens to get hold of you."</p> + +<p>"The big what?"</p> + +<p>"The big ego; the German philosophers' 'Absolute Ego,' you know."</p> + +<p>Smith laughed. "I haven't the pleasure of the gentleman's acquaintance. +I'm long on commercial arithmetic and the money market; long, again, +Lawrenceville will tell you, on the new dancing steps and things of that +sort. But I've never dabbled much in the highbrow stuff."</p> + +<p>"It's a change," said the salesman, willing to defend himself. "I read a +little now and then, just to get away from the commercial grind. The ego +theory is interesting. It is based on the idea that no man is altogether +the man he thinks he is, or that others think he is; that association, +environment, training, taste, inclination, and all those things have +developed a personality which might have been altogether different if +the constraining conditions had been different. Do you get that?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly. If I'd been brought up some other way I might have been +cutting meat in a butcher's shop instead of taking bank chances on more +or less doubtful notes of hand. What's the next step?"</p> + +<p>"The German hair-splitters go a little farther and ring in what they +call the 'Absolute Ego,' by which they mean the ego itself, unshackled +by any of these conditions which unite in forming the ordinary +personality. They say that if these conditions could be suddenly swept +away or changed completely, a new man would emerge, a man no less +unrecognizable, perhaps, to his friends than he would be to himself."</p> + +<p>"That's rather far-fetched, don't you think?" queried the +practical-minded listener. "I can see how a man may be what he is +chiefly because his inherited tastes and his surroundings and his +opportunities have made him so. But after the metal has once been poured +in the mould it's fixed, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>Debritt shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I'm only a wader in the edges of the pool, myself," he admitted. "I +dabble a little for my own amusement. But, as I understand it, the +theory presupposes a violent smashing of the mould and a remelting of +the metal. Let me ask you something: when you were a boy did you mean +to grow up and be a bank cashier?"</p> + +<p>Smith laughed. "I fully intended to be a pirate or a stage-robber, as I +remember it."</p> + +<p>"There you are," drawled the travelling man. "The theory goes on to say +that in childhood the veil is thin and the absolute ego shows through. +I'm not swallowing the thing whole, you understand. But in my own +experience I've seen a good man go hopelessly into the discard, and a +bad one turn over a new leaf and pull up, all on account of some sudden +earthquake in the conditions. Call it all moonshine, if you like, and +let's come down to earth again. How about getting back to town? I'd be +glad to stay here forever, but I'm afraid the house might object. When +did you say Mr. Dunham would be home?"</p> + +<p>"We are looking for him to-morrow, though he may be a day or two late. +But you needn't worry about your order, if that is what is troubling +you. I happen to know that he intends giving the engraving of the new +stock-certificates to your people."</p> + +<p>The New York salesman's smile had in it the experience-taught wisdom of +all the ages.</p> + +<p>"Montague, my son, let me pay for my dinner with a saying that is as old +as the hills, and as full of meat as the nuts that ripen on 'em: in +this little old round world you have what you have when you have it. +This evening we've enjoyed a nice little five-course dinner, well cooked +and well served, in a pretty nifty little club, and in a few minutes +we'll be chasing along to town in your private buzz-wagon, giving our +dust to anybody who wants to take it. Do you get that?"</p> + +<p>"I do. But what's the answer?"</p> + +<p>"The answer is the other half of it. This time to-morrow we may both be +asking for a hand-out, and inquiring, a bit hoarsely, perhaps, if the +walking is good. That is just how thin the partitions are. You don't +believe it, of course; couldn't even assume it as a working hypothesis. +What could possibly happen to you or to me in the next twenty-four +hours? Nothing, nothing on top of God's green earth that could pitch +either or both of us over the edge, you'd say—or to Mr. Dunham to make +him change his mind about the engraving job. Just the same, I'll drop +along in the latter part of the week and get his name signed to the +order for those stock-certificates. Let's go and crank up the little +road-wagon. I mustn't miss that train."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2> + +<h3>Metastasis</h3> + + +<p>It was ten minutes of eight when J. Montague Smith, having picked up the +salesman's sample cases at the town hotel, set Debritt down at the +railroad station and bade him good-by. Five minutes later he had driven +the runabout to its garage and was hastening across to his suite of +bachelor apartments in the Kincaid Terrace. There was reason for the +haste. Though he had been careful, from purely hospitable motives, to +refrain from intimating the fact to Debritt, it was his regular evening +for calling upon Miss Verda Richlander, and time pressed.</p> + +<p>The New York salesman, enlarging enthusiastically upon the provincial +beatitudes, had chosen a fit subject for their illustration in the young +cashier of the Lawrenceville Bank and Trust. From his earliest +recollections Montague Smith had lived the life of the well-behaved and +the conventional. He had his niche in the Lawrenceville social +structure, and another in the small-city business world, and he filled +both to his own satisfaction and to the admiration of all and sundry. +Ambitions, other than to take promotions in the bank as they came to +him, and, eventually, to make money enough to satisfy the demands which +Josiah Richlander might make upon a prospective son-in-law, had never +troubled him. An extremely well-balanced young man his fellow townsmen +called him, one of whom it might safely be predicted that he would go +straightforwardly on his way to reputable middle life and old age; +moderate in all things, impulsive in none.</p> + +<p>Even in the affair with Miss Richlander sound common sense and sober +second thought had been made to stand in the room of supersentiment. +Smith did not know what it was to be violently in love; though he was a +charter member of the Lawrenceville Athletic Club and took a certain +pride in keeping himself physically fit and up to the mark, it was not +his habit to be violent in anything. Lawrenceville expected its young +men and young women to marry and "settle down," and J. Montague Smith, +figuring in a modest way as a leader in the Lawrenceville younger set, +was far too conservative to break with the tradition, even if he had +wished to. Miss Richlander was desirable in many respects. Her father's +ample fortune had not come early enough or rapidly enough to spoil her. +In moments when his feeling for her achieved its nearest approach to +sentiment the conservative young man perceived what a graciously +resplendent figure she would make as the mistress of her own house and +the hostess at her own table.</p> + +<p>Arrived at his rooms in the Kincaid, Smith snapped the switch of the +electrics and began to lay out his evening clothes, methodically and +with a careful eye to the spotlessness of the shirt and the fresh +immaculacy of the waistcoat. There were a number of little preliminaries +to the change; he made the preparations swiftly but with a certain air +of calm deliberation, inserting the buttons in the waistcoat, choosing +hose of the proper thinness, rummaging a virgin tie out of its box in +the top dressing-case drawer.</p> + +<p>It was in the search for the tie that he turned up a mute reminder of +his nearest approach to any edge of the real chasm of sentiment: a small +glove, somewhat soiled and use-worn, with a tiny rip in one of the +fingers. It had been a full year since he had seen the glove or its +owner, whom he had met only once, and that entirely by chance. The girl +was a visitor from the West, the daughter of a ranchman, he had +understood; and she had been stopping over with friends in a +neighboring town. Smith had driven over one evening in his runabout to +make a call upon the daughters of the house, and had found a lawn-party +in progress, with the Western visitor as the guest of honor.</p> + +<p>Acquaintance—such an acquaintance as can be achieved in a short social +hour—had followed, and the sight of the small glove reminded him +forcibly of the sharp little antagonisms that the hour had developed. At +all points the bewitching young woman from the barbaric wildernesses, +whose dropped glove he had surreptitiously picked up and pocketed, had +proved to be a mocking critic of the commonplace conventions, and had +been moved to pillory the same in the person of her momentary +entertainer. Smith had recalled his first tasting of a certain French +liqueur with perfume in it, and the tingling sense of an awakening of +some sort running through his veins as an after effect not altogether +pleasant, but vivifying to a degree. Some similar thrillings this young +person from the wide horizons had stirred in him—which was his only +excuse for stealing her glove.</p> + +<p>Though he was far enough from recognizing it as such, the theft had been +purely sentimental. A week later, when he would have courted a return of +the thrills, he had learned that she had gone back to her native wilds. +It was altogether for the best, he had told himself at the time, and at +other times during the year which now intervened. Perfumed liqueurs are +not for those whose tastes and habits are abstemious by choice; and +there remained now nothing of the clashing encounter at the lawn-party +save the soiled glove, a rather obscure memory of a face too piquant and +attractive to be cheapened by the word "pretty"; these and a thing she +had said at the moment of parting: "Yes; I am going back home very soon. +I don't like your smug Middle-West civilization, Mr. Smith—it smothers +me. I don't wonder that it breeds men who live and grow up and die +without ever having a chance to find themselves."</p> + +<p>He was recalling that last little thrust and smiling reminiscently over +it as he replaced the glove among its fellow keepsakes: handkerchief +boxes, tie-holders, and what not, given him on birthdays and Christmases +by the home-town girls who had known him from boyhood. Some day, +perhaps, he would tell Verda Richlander of the sharp-tongued little +Western beauty. Verda—and all sensible people—would smile at the idea +that he, John Montague Smith, was of those who had not "found" +themselves, or that the finding—by which he had understood the Western +young woman to mean something radical and upsetting—could in any way be +forced upon a man who was old enough and sane enough to know his own +lengths and breadths and depths.</p> + +<p>He had closed the drawer and was stripping off his coat to dress when he +saw that, in entering the room in the dark, he had overlooked two +letters which had evidently been thrust under the door during his +absence with Debritt. One of the envelopes was plain, with his name +scribbled on it in pencil. The other bore a typewritten address with the +card of the Westfall Foundries Company in its upper left-hand corner. +Smith opened Carter Westfall's letter first and read it with a little +twinge of shocked surprise, as one reads the story of a brave battle +fought and lost.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Dear Monty," it ran. "I have been trying to reach you by +'phone off and on ever since the adjournment of our +stockholders' meeting at three o'clock. We, of the little +inside pool, have got it where the chicken got the axe. +Richlander had more proxies up his sleeve than we thought he +had, and he has put the steam-roller over us to a finish. He +was able to vote fifty-five per cent of the stock straight, and +you know what that means: a consolidation with the Richlander +foundry trust, and the hearse and white horses for yours truly +and the minority stockholders. We're dead—dead and buried.</p> + +<p>"Of course, I stand to lose everything, but that isn't all of +it. I'm horribly anxious for fear you'll be tangled up +personally in some way in the matter of that last loan of +$100,000 that I got from the Bank and Trust. You will remember +you made the loan while Dunham was away, and I am certain you +told me you had his consent to take my Foundries stock as +collateral. That part of it is all right, but, as matters +stand, the stock isn't worth the paper it is printed on, +and—well, to tell the bald truth, I'm scared of Dunham. +Brickley, the Chicago lawyer they have brought down here, tells +me that your bank is behind the consolidation deal, and if that +is so, there is going to be a bank loss to show up on my paper, +and Dunham will carefully cover his tracks for the sake of the +bank's standing.</p> + +<p>"It is a hideous mess, and it has occurred to me that Dunham +can put you in bad, if he wants to. When you made that $100,000 +loan, you forgot—and I forgot for the moment—that you own ten +shares of Westfall Foundries in your own name. If Dunham wants +to stand from under, this might be used against you. You must +get rid of that stock, Monty, and do it quick. Transfer the ten +shares to me, dating the transfer back to Saturday. I still +have the stock books in my hands, and I'll make the entry in +the record and date it to fit. This may look a little crooked, +on the surface, but it's your salvation, and we can't stop to +split hairs when we've just been shot full of holes.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Westfall.</span>"</p></blockquote> + +<p>Smith folded the letter mechanically and thrust it into his pocket. +Carter Westfall was his good friend, and the cashier had tried, +unofficially, to dissuade Westfall from borrowing after he had admitted +that he was going to use the money in an attempt to buy up the control +of his own company's stock. As Smith took up the second envelope he was +not thinking of himself, or of the possible danger hinted at in +Westfall's warning. The big bank loss was the chief thing to be +considered—that and the hopeless ruin of a good fellow like Carter +Westfall. He was thinking of both when he tore the second envelope +across and took out the enclosed slip of scratch-paper. It was a note +from the president and it was dated within the hour. Mr. Dunham had +evidently anticipated his itinerary. At all events, he was back in +Lawrenceville, and the note had been written at the bank. It was a curt +summons; the cashier was wanted, at once.</p> + +<p>At the moment, Smith did not connect the summons with the Westfall +cataclysm, or with any other untoward thing. Mr. Watrous Dunham had a +habit of dropping in and out unexpectedly. Also, he had the habit of +sending for his cashier or any other member of the banking force at +whatever hour the notion seized him. Smith went to the telephone and +called up the Richlander house. The promptness with which the +multimillionaire's daughter came to the 'phone was an intimation that +his ring was not entirely unexpected.</p> + +<p>"This is Montague," he said, when Miss Richlander's mellifluous "Main +four six eight—Mr. Richlander's residence" came over the wire. Then: +"What are you going to think of a man who calls you up merely to beg +off?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Miss Richlander's reply was merciful and he was permitted to go on and +explain. "I'm awfully sorry, but it can't very well be helped, you know. +Mr. Dunham has returned, and he wants me at the bank. I'll be up a +little later on, if I can break away, and you'll let me come.... Thank +you, ever so much. Good-by."</p> + +<p>Having thus made his peace with Miss Richlander, Smith put on his street +coat and hat and went to obey the president's summons. The Lawrenceville +Bank and Trust, lately installed in its new marble-veneered quarters in +the town's first—seven-storied—sky-scraper, was only four squares +distant; two streets down and two across. As he was approaching the +sky-scraper corner, Smith saw that there were only two lights in the +bank, one in the vault corridor and another in the railed-off open space +in front which held the president's desk and his own. Through the big +plate-glass windows he could see Mr. Dunham. The president was +apparently at work, his portly figure filling the padded swing-chair. He +had one elbow on the desk, and the fingers of the uplifted hand were +thrust into his thick mop of hair.</p> + +<p>Smith had his own keys and he let himself in quietly through the door on +the side street. The night-watchman's chair stood in its accustomed +place in the vault corridor, but it was empty. To a suspicious person +the empty chair might have had its significance; but Montague Smith was +not suspicious. The obvious conclusion was that Mr. Dunham had sent the +watchman forth upon some errand; and the motive needed not to be tagged +as ulterior.</p> + +<p>Without meaning to be particularly noiseless, Smith—rubber heels on +tiled floor assisting—was unlatching the gate in the counter-railing +before his superior officer heard him and looked up. There was an +irritable note in the president's greeting.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's you, at last, is it?" he rasped. "You have taken your own good +time about coming. It's a half-hour and more since I sent that note to +your room."</p> + +<p>Smith drew out the chair from the stenographer's table and sat down. +Like the cashiers of many little-city banks, he was only a salaried man, +and the president rarely allowed him to forget the fact. None the less, +his boyish gray eyes were reflecting just a shade of the militant +antagonism in Mr. Watrous Dunham's when he said: "I was dining at the +Country Club with a friend, and I didn't go to my rooms until a few +minutes ago."</p> + +<p>The president sat back in the big mahogany swing-chair. His face, with +the cold, protrusive eyes, the heavy lips, and the dewlap lower jaw, was +the face of a man who shoots to kill.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you've heard the news about Westfall?"</p> + +<p>Smith nodded.</p> + +<p>"Then you also know that the bank stands to lose a cold hundred thousand +on that loan you made him?"</p> + +<p>The young man in the stenographer's chair knew now very well why the +night-watchman had been sent away. He felt in his pocket for a cigar but +failed to find one. It was an unconscious effort to gain time for some +little readjustment of the conventional point of view. The president's +attitude plainly implied accusation, and Smith saw the solid foundations +of his small world—the only world he had ever known—crumbling to a +threatened dissolution.</p> + +<p>"You may remember that I advised against the making of that loan when +Westfall first spoke of it," he said, after he had mastered the +premonitory chill of panic. "It was a bad risk—for him and for us."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you won't deny that the loan was made while I was away in New +York," was the challenging rejoinder.</p> + +<p>"It was. But you gave your sanction before you went East."</p> + +<p>The president twirled his chair to face the objector and brought his +palm down with a smack upon the desk-slide.</p> + +<p>"No!" he stormed. "What I told you to do was to look up his collateral; +and you took a snap judgment and let him have the money! Westfall is +your friend, and you are a stockholder in his bankrupt company. You took +a chance for your own hand and put the bank in the hole. Now I'd like to +ask what you are going to do about it."</p> + +<p>Smith looked up quickly. Somewhere inside of him the carefully erected +walls of use and custom were tumbling in strange ruins and out of the +débris another structure, formless as yet, but obstinately sturdy, was +rising.</p> + +<p>"I am not going to do what you want me to do, Mr. Dunham—step in and be +your convenient scapegoat," he said, wondering a little in his inner +recesses how he was finding the sheer brutal man-courage to say such a +thing to the president of the Lawrenceville Bank and Trust. "I suppose +you have reasons of your own for wishing to shift the responsibility for +this particular loss to my shoulders. But whether you have or haven't, I +decline to accept it."</p> + +<p>The president tilted his chair and locked his hands over one knee.</p> + +<p>"It isn't a question of shifting the responsibility, Montague," he said, +dropping the bullying weapon to take up another. "The loan was made in +my absence. Perhaps you may say that I went away purposely to give you +the chance of making it, but, if you do, nobody will believe you. When +it comes down to the matter of authorization, it is simply your word +against mine—and mine goes. Don't you see what you've done? As the +matter stands now, you have let yourself in for a criminal indictment, +if the bank directors choose to push it. You have taken the bank's money +to bolster up a failing concern in which you are a stockholder. Go to +any lawyer in Lawrenceville—the best one you can find—and he'll tell +you exactly where you stand."</p> + +<p>While the big clock over the vault entrance was slowly ticking off a +full half-minute the young man whose future had become so suddenly and +so threateningly involved neither moved nor spoke, but his silence was +no measure of the turmoil of conflicting emotions and passions that were +rending him. When he looked up, the passions, passions which had +hitherto been mere names to him, were still under control, but to his +dismay his restraining hold upon them seemed to be growing momentarily +less certain.</p> + +<p>"I may not prove quite the easy mark that your plan seems to prefigure, +Mr. Dunham," he returned at length, trying to say it calmly. "But +assuming that I am all that you have been counting upon, and that you +will carry out your threat and take the matter into the courts, what is +the alternative? Just what are you expecting me to do?"</p> + +<p>"Now you are talking more like a grown man," was the president's crusty +admission. "You are in a pretty bad boat, Montague, and that is why I +sent for you to-night. It didn't seem safe to waste any time if you were +to be helped out. Of course, there will be a called meeting of the bank +board to-morrow, and it will all come out. With the best will in the +world to do you a good turn, I shan't be able to stand between you and +trouble."</p> + +<p>"Well?" said the younger man, still holding the new and utterly +incomprehensible passions in check.</p> + +<p>"You can see how it will be. If I can say to the directors that you have +already resigned—and if you are not where they can too easily lay hands +on you—they may not care to push the charge against you. There is a +train west at ten o'clock. If I were in your place, I should pack a +couple of suitcases and take it. That is the only safe thing for you to +do. If you need any ready money——"</p> + +<p>It was at this point that J. Montague Smith rose up out of the +stenographer's chair and buttoned his coat.</p> + +<p>"'If I need any ready money,'" he repeated slowly, advancing a step +toward the president's desk. "That is where you gave yourself away, Mr. +Dunham. You authorized that loan, and you meant to authorize it. More +than that, you did it because you were willing to use the bank's money +to put Carter Westfall in the hole so deep that he could never climb +out. Now, it seems, you are willing to bribe the only dangerous witness. +I don't need money badly enough to sell my good name for it. I shall +stay right here in Lawrenceville and fight it out with you!"</p> + +<p>The president turned abruptly to his desk and his hand sought the row of +electric bell-pushes. With a finger resting upon the one marked +"police," he said: "There isn't any room for argument, Montague. You can +have one more minute in which to change your mind. If you stay, you'll +begin your fight from the inside of the county jail."</p> + +<p>Now, as we have seen, there had been nothing in John Montague Smith's +well-ordered quarter century of boyhood, youth, and business manhood to +tell him how to cope with the crude and savage emergency which he was +confronting. But in the granted minute of respite something within him, +a thing as primitive and elemental as the crisis with which it was +called upon to grapple, shook itself awake. At the peremptory bidding of +the newly aroused underman, he stepped quickly across the intervening +space and stood under the shaded desk light within arm's reach of the +man in the big swing-chair.</p> + +<p>"You have it all cut and dried, even to the setting of the police trap, +haven't you?" he gritted, hardly recognizing his own voice. "You meant +to hang me first and try your own case with the directors afterward. Mr. +Dunham, I know you better than you think I do: you are not only a damned +crook—you are a yellow-livered coward, as well! You don't dare to press +that button!"</p> + +<p>While he was saying it, the president had half risen, and the hand which +had been hovering over the bell-pushes shot suddenly under the piled +papers in the corner of the desk. When it came out it was gripping the +weapon which is never very far out of reach in a bank.</p> + +<p>Good judges on the working floor of the Lawrenceville Athletic Club had +said of the well-muscled young bank cashier that he did not know his +own strength. It was the sight of the pistol that maddened him and put +the driving force behind the smashing blow that landed upon the big +man's chest. Two inches higher or lower, the blow might have been merely +breath-cutting. As it was, the lifted pistol dropped from Mr. Watrous +Dunham's grasp and he wilted, settling back slowly, first into his +chair, and then slipping from the chair to the floor.</p> + +<p>In a flash Smith knew what he had done. Once, one evening when he had +been induced to put on the gloves with the Athletic Club's trainer, he +had contrived to plant a body blow which had sent the wiry little +Irishman to the mat, gasping and fighting for the breath of life. "If +ever yez'll be givin' a man that heart-punch wid th' bare fisht, Misther +Montygue, 'tis you f'r th' fasht thrain widout shtoppin' to buy anny +ticket—it'll be murdher in th' first degree," the trainer had said, +when he had breath to compass the saying.</p> + +<p>With the unheeded warning resurgent and clamoring in his ears, Smith +knelt horror-stricken beside the fallen man. On the president's heavy +face and in the staring eyes there was a foolish smile, as of one mildly +astonished. Smith loosened the collar around the thick neck and laid his +ear upon the spot where the blow had fallen. It was as the Irish +trainer had told him it would be. The big man's heart had stopped like a +smashed clock.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus2" id="illus2"></a> +<img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>In a flash Smith knew what he had done.</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Smith got upon his feet, turned off the electric light, and, from mere +force of habit, closed and snap-locked the president's desk. The +watchman had not yet returned. Smith saw the empty chair beside the +vault door as he passed it on his way to the street. Since the first +impulse of the unwilling or unwitting homicide is usually sharply +retributive, the cashier's only thought was to go at once to police +headquarters and give himself up. Then he remembered how carefully the +trap had been set, and how impossible it would be for him to make any +reasonable defense. As it would appear, he had first taken the bank's +money to help Westfall, and afterward, when exposure had threatened, he +had killed the president. No one would ever believe that the blow had +been struck in self-defense.</p> + +<p>It was at the hesitating instant that Debritt's curiously prophetic +words came back to him with an emphasis that was fairly appalling: +"To-morrow we may both be asking for a hand-out, and inquiring, a bit +hoarsely, perhaps, if the walking is good. That is just how thin the +partitions are." With one glance over his shoulder at the darkened +front windows of the bank, Smith began to run, not toward the police +station, but in the opposite direction—toward the railroad station.</p> + +<p>This was at nine o'clock or, perhaps, a few minutes later. Coincident +with J. Montague Smith's dash down the poorly lighted cross street, a +rather weak-faced young man of the sham black-sheep type of the smaller +cities was lounging in the drawing-room of an ornate timber-and-stucco +mansion on Maple Street hill and saying to his hostess: "Say—I thought +this was Monty's night to climb the hill, Miss Verda. By Jove, I've got +it in for Monty, don't y' know. He's comin' here a lot too regular to +please me."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Smith always puts business before pleasure; haven't you found that +out yet, Mr. Jibbey?" was the rather cryptic rejoinder of the Olympian +beauty; and after that she talked, and made the imitation rounder talk, +pointedly of other things.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2> + +<h3>The Hobo</h3> + + +<p>For J. Montague Smith, slipping from shadow to shadow down the scantily +lighted cross street and listening momently for the footfalls of +pursuit, a new hour had struck. Psychology to the contrary +notwithstanding, the mental mutations are not always, or of necessity, +gradual. In one flaming instant the ex-cashier had been projected across +the boundary lying between the commonplace and the extraordinary; but +for the time he was conscious only of a great confusion, shot through +with a sense of his own present inability to cope with the +strangenesses.</p> + +<p>In the projecting instant, time and the graspable realities had both +been annihilated. Was it conceivable that this was the evening of the +same day in which he had entertained Boswell Debritt at the Country +Club? Was it remotely thinkable that, only an hour or such a matter +earlier, he had been getting ready to call upon Verda Richlander?—that, +at this very moment, his dress clothes were lying on the bed in his +rooms, ready to be put on?</p> + +<p>It was all prodigiously incredible; in the collapse of the universe one +scene alone stood out clearly cut and vivid: the railed space in the +bank, with the shaded drop-light and the open desk, and a fleshy man +stretched out upon the floor with his arms flung wide and a foolish +smile of mild astonishment fixed, as for all eternity, about the +loosened lips and in the staring eyes.</p> + +<p>Smith hurried on. The crowding sensations were terrifying, but they were +also precious, in their way. Long-forgotten bits of brutality and +tyranny on Watrous Dunham's part came up to be remembered and, in this +retributive aftermath, to be triumphantly crossed off as items in an +account finally settled. On the Smith side the bank cashier's forebears +had been plodding farmers, but old John Montague had been the village +blacksmith and a soldier—a shrewd smiter in both trades. Blood will +tell. Parental implantings may have much to say to the fruit of the +womb, but atavism has more. Smith's jaw came up with a snap and the +metamorphosis took another forward step. He was no longer an +indistinguishable unit in the ranks of the respectable and the +well-behaved; he was a man fleeing for his life. What was done was +done, and the next thing to do was to avert the consequences.</p> + +<p>At the railroad station a few early comers for the westbound +passenger-train due at ten o'clock were already gathering, and at the +bidding of a certain new and militant craftiness Smith avoided the +lighted waiting-rooms as if they held the pestilence. Nor was it safe to +pass beyond the building. The May night was fine, and there were +strollers on the train platform. Smith took no risks. A string of box +cars had been pushed up from the freight unloading platforms, and in the +shadow of the cars he worked his way westward to the yard where a night +switching crew was making up a train.</p> + +<p>Thus far he had struck out no plan. But the sudden shift from the normal +to the extraordinary had not shorn him of the ability to think quickly +and to the definite end. A placed road-engine, waiting for the +conclusion of the car sorting, told him that the next train to leave the +yard would be a westbound freight. He would have given much to know its +exact leaving time, but he was far too clear-headed to give the pursuers +a clew by asking questions.</p> + +<p>Keeping to the shadows, he walked back along the line of cars on the +make-up track, alertly seeking his opportunity. If worst came to worst, +he could select a car with four truss-rods and crawl in on top of the +rods after the manner of the professional ride-stealers. But this was a +last resort; the risk was large for his inexperience, and he was very +well aware that there must be some sort of an apprenticeship, even to +the "brake-beamer's" trade.</p> + +<p>Half-way down the length of the train he found what he was looking for: +a box car with its side-door hasped but not locked. With a bit of stick +to lengthen his reach, he unfastened the hasp, and at the switching +crew's addition of another car to the "make-up" he took advantage of the +noise made by the jangling crash and slid the door. Then he ascertained +by groping into the dark interior that the car was empty. With a foot on +the truss-rod he climbed in, and at the next coupling crash closed the +door.</p> + +<p>So far, all was well. Unless the start should be too long delayed, or +the trainmen should discover the unhasped door, he was measurably safe. +Still cool and collected, he began to cast about for some means of +replacing the outside fastening of the door from within. There was loose +hay under-foot and it gave him his idea. Groping again, he found a piece +of wire, a broken bale-tie. The box car was old and much of its inner +sheathing had disappeared. With the help of his pocket-knife he enlarged +a crack in the outer sheathing near the door, and a skilful bit of +juggling with the bent wire sufficed to lift the hasp into place on the +outside and hook it.</p> + +<p>Following this clever removal of one of the hazards, he squatted upon +the floor near the door and waited. Though he was familiar with the +schedules of the passenger-trains serving the home city, he knew nothing +of the movements of the freights. Opening the face of his watch, he felt +the hands. It was half-past nine, and the thrust and whistle of the +air-brakes under the cars gave notice that the road engine had been +coupled on. Still the train did not pull out.</p> + +<p>After a little he was able to account for the delay. Though his +knowledge of railroad operating was limited, common sense told him that +the freight would not be likely to leave, now, ahead of the ten o'clock +passenger. That meant another half-hour of suspense to be paid for in +such coin as one might be able to offer. The fugitive paid in keen +agonies of apprehension. Surely, long before this the watchman would +have returned to the bank, and the hue and cry being raised, the pursuit +must now be afoot. In that case, the dullest policeman on the force +would know enough to make straight for the railroad yard.</p> + +<p>Smith knelt at the crack of the car door and listened, while the minutes +dragged slowly in procession. Once, through the crack, he had a glimpse +of the smoky flare of a kerosene torch in the hands of a passing +car-inspector; and once again, one of the trainmen walked back over the +tops of the cars, making a creaky thundering overhead as he tramped from +end to end of the "empty." But as yet there was no hue and cry, or, if +there were, it had not reached the railroad yard.</p> + +<p>Keenly alive to every passing sound, Smith finally heard the +passenger-train coming in from the east; heard the hoarse stridor of the +engine's pop-valve at the station stop, and the distance-diminished +rumblings of the baggage and express trucks over the wooden station +platform. The stop was a short one, and in a few minutes the +passenger-train came down through the yard, its pace measured by the +sharp staccato blasts of the exhaust. It was the signal of release, and +as the quickening staccato trailed away into silence, Smith braced +himself for the slack-taking jerk of the starting freight.</p> + +<p>The jerk did not come. Minute by minute the interval lengthened, and at +last the listener in the "empty" heard voices and saw through the crack +of the door a faint nimbus of lantern light approaching from the rear of +the train. The voices came nearer. By the dodging movements of the light +rays, Smith knew instantly what was coming. His pursuers were out, and +they were overhauling the waiting freight-train, searching it for a +stowaway.</p> + +<p>He hardly dared breathe when the lantern-bearers reached his car. There +were a number of them, just how many he could not determine. But +McCloskey, the Lawrenceville chief of police, was one of the number. +Also, there was an Irish yardman who was carrying one of the lanterns +and swinging it under the cars to show that the truss-rods and +brake-beams were empty.</p> + +<p>"'Tis not the likes of him that do be brake-beamin' their way out of +town, Chief," the Irishman was saying. "'Tis more likely he's tuk an +autymobile and the middle of the big road."</p> + +<p>"There's no automobile missing, and his own car is still in the garage," +Smith heard the police chief say. And then: "Hold your lantern up here, +Timmy, till we see if this car door is fastened shut."</p> + +<p>It was a measure of the distance that the bank clerk and small-city +social leader had already travelled on the road toward a complete +metamorphosis that the only answer to this threat of discovery was a +tightening of the muscles, a certain steeling of thews and sinews for +the wild-beast spring if the door should be opened. One thought +dominated all others: if they took him they should not take him alive.</p> + +<p>Happily or unhappily, as one may wish to view it, the danger passed. +"The door's fastened, all right," said one of the searchers, and the +menace went on, leaving Smith breathing hard and chuckling grimly to +himself over the cunning forethought which had prompted him to grope for +the bit of wire bale-tie.</p> + +<p>Past this there was another interval of waiting—a brief one, this time. +Then the long freight began to move out over the switches. When he could +no longer see the sheen of the city electrics in the strip of sky +visible through his door crack, Smith gathered up the leavings of hay on +the car floor and stretched himself out flat on his back. And it was +another measure of the complete triumph of the elemental underman over +the bank clerk that he immediately fell asleep and did not awaken until +a jangling of draw-bars and a ray of sunlight sifting through the crack +of the door told him that the train had arrived at some destination, and +that it was morning.</p> + +<p>Sitting up to rub his eyes and look at his watch, the fugitive made a +hasty calculation. If the train had been in motion all night, this early +morning stopping-place should be Indianapolis. Getting upon his feet, he +applied an investigative eye to the crack. The train, or at least his +portion of it, was side-tracked in a big yard with many others. Working +the pick-lock wire again, he unhasped the door and opened it. There was +no one in sight in this particular alley of the crowded yard, and he +dropped to the ground and slid the door back into place.</p> + +<p>Making a note of the initials and number, so that he might find the car +again, he crawled under three or four standing trains and made his way +to a track-side lunch-counter. The thick ham sandwich and the cup of +muddy coffee eaten and drunk with the appetite of a starved vagrant set +up another mile-stone in the distances traversed. Was it, indeed, only +on the morning of yesterday that he had sent his toast back because, +forsooth, the maid at Mrs. Gilman's select boarding-house for single +gentlemen had scorched it a trifle? It seemed as incredible as a +fairytale.</p> + +<p>Beyond the quenching of his hunger and the stuffing of his pockets with +two more of the sad sandwiches, he went back to his box car, knowing +that, in the nature of things, his flight was as yet only fairly begun. +His train, or some train in which his car was a unit, was just pulling +out, and he was barely in time to slide the door and scramble in. Once +inside, he made haste to close the opening before the train should +emerge from the shelter of its mate on the next track. But before he +could brace himself for the shove, a hand came down from the car roof, a +brakeman's coupling-stick was thrust into the riding-rail of the door, +and the closing operation was effectively blocked.</p> + +<p>Smith stood back and waited for a head to follow the hand. It came +presently; the bare, tousled head of a young brakeman who had taken off +his cap and was lying on his stomach on the car roof to look under the +eaves into the interior. Smith made a quick spring and caught the +hanging head in the crook of his elbow. "You're gone," he remarked to +the inverted face crushed in the vise of forearm and biceps. "If you +turn loose, you'll break your back as you come over, and if you don't +turn loose, I can pull your head off."</p> + +<p>"Leggo of me!" gasped the poor prisoner, drumming with his toes on the +roof. "Wha—whadda you want with my head? You can't do nothin' with it +when you get it!"</p> + +<p>"I have got it," said Smith, showing his teeth. "By and by, when we get +safely out of town, I'm going to jump up and bite you."</p> + +<p>The brakeman tried to cry out that he was slipping; that the fall would +kill him. Smith felt him coming and shifted his hold just in time to +make the fall an assisted somersault, landing the man clumsily, but +safely, inside of the car. The trigging stick had been lost in the +scuffle, and Smith's first care was to slide the door.</p> + +<p>"Say; what kind of a 'bo are you, anyway?" gasped the railroad man, +flattening himself against the side of the car and struggling to regain +his suddenly lost prestige; the time-honored authority of the trainman +over the ride-stealer. "Don't you know you might 'a' killed me, pullin' +me off'm the roof that way?"</p> + +<p>"I can do it yet, if you feel that you've missed anything that was +rightfully coming to you," Smith laughed. Then: "Do you happen to have a +pipe and a bit of tobacco in your clothes?"</p> + +<p>"My gosh!" said the brakeman, "I like your nerve!" Nevertheless, he +rummaged in his pocket and handed over a corn-cob pipe and a sack of +tobacco. "Maybe you'll want a match, too."</p> + +<p>"No, thanks; I have one."</p> + +<p>Smith filled the pipe, lighted it, and returned the tobacco. The nickel +mixture was not quite like the Turkish blend in the humidor jar on the +Kincaid Terrace mantel, but it sufficed. At the pipe-puffing the +brakeman looked him over curiously.</p> + +<p>"Say; you're no Weary Willie," he commented gruffly; "you're wearin' too +good clothes. What's your lay?"</p> + +<p>More and more Smith could feel the shacklings of the reputable +yesterdays slipping from him. Civilization has taken its time ambling +down the centuries, but the short cuts to the primitive are neither hard +to find nor long to traverse.</p> + +<p>"My 'lay' just now is to get a free ride on this railroad," he said. +"How far is this 'empty' going?"</p> + +<p>"To St. Louis," was the reply, extorted by the very matter-of-fact +calmness of the question. "But you're not goin' to St. Louis in it—not +by a jugful. You're goin' to hop off at the first stop we make."</p> + +<p>"Am I? Wait until I have finished my smoke. Then we'll open the door and +scrap for it; the best man to stay in the car, and the other to take a +chance turning handsprings along the right of way. Does that appeal to +you?"</p> + +<p>"No, by jacks! You bet your life it don't!"</p> + +<p>"All right; what's the other answer?"</p> + +<p>If the brakeman knew any other answer he did not suggest it. A few miles +farther along, the train slowed for a stop. The brakeman felt his +twisted neck tenderly and said: "If you'll tell me that you ain't +runnin' away from some sheriff 'r other...."</p> + +<p>"Do I look it?"</p> + +<p>"I'm dogged if I know what you do look like—champeen middle-weight, +maybe. Lemme open that door."</p> + +<p>Smith took a final whiff and returned the pipe. "Suppose I say that I'm +broke and haven't had a chance to pawn my watch," he suggested. "How +does that strike you?"</p> + +<p>The trainman slid the door open a foot or so as the train ground and +jangled to a stand at the grade crossing with another railroad.</p> + +<p>"I'll think about it," he growled. "You pulled me off'm the roof; but +you kep' me from breakin' my back, and you've smoked my pipe. My run +ends at Terre Haute."</p> + +<p>"Thanks," said Smith; and at that the tousle-headed young fellow dropped +off and disappeared in the direction of the caboose.</p> + +<p>Smith closed the door and hooked it with his wire, and the train jogged +on over the crossing. Hour after hour wore away and nothing happened. By +the measured click of the rail joints under the wheels it was evident +that the freight was a slow one, and there were many halts and +side-trackings. At noon Smith ate one of the pocketed sandwiches. The +ham was oversalted, and before long he began to be consumed with thirst. +He stood it until it became a keen torture, and then he found the bit of +wire again and tried to pick the hasp-lock, meaning to take advantage of +the next stop for a thirst-quenching dash.</p> + +<p>For some reason the wire refused to work, and he could not make it free +the hasp. After many futile attempts he whittled another peep-hole, +angling it so that it pointed toward the puzzling door hook. Then he saw +what had been done. Some one—the somersaulting brakeman, no doubt—had +basely inserted a wooden peg in the staple in place of the hook and the +empty box car was now a prison-van.</p> + +<p>Confronting the water famine, Smith drew again upon the elemental +resources and braced himself to endure. When night came the slow train +was still jogging along westward somewhere in Illinois, and the box-car +prisoner was so thirsty that he did not dare to eat the meat in the +remaining sandwich; could eat the bread only in tiny morsels, chewed +long and patiently. Still he would not make the outcry that the tricky +brakeman had doubtless counted upon; the noise that would bring help at +any one of the numerous stops—and purchase relief at the price of an +arrest for ride-stealing.</p> + +<p>Grimly resolute, Smith made up his mind to hang on until morning. Every +added mile was a mile gained in the flight from the gallows or the +penitentiary, and the night's run would put him just that much farther +beyond the zone of acute danger. Such determination fights and wins its +own battle, and though he dreamed of lakes and rivers and cool-running +brooks and plashing fountains the greater part of the night, he slept +through it and awoke to find his car side-tracked in a St. Louis yard.</p> + +<p>One glance through the whittled peep-hole showed him that the +imprisoning peg was still in its staple, so now there was no alternative +but the noise. A brawny switchman was passing, and he came and unhasped +the door in response to Smith's shower of kicks upon it.</p> + +<p>"Come down out o' that, ye scut! 'Tis the stone pile f'r the likes of +yez in this State, and it's Michael Toomey that'll be runnin' ye in," +remarked the brawny person, when the door had been opened.</p> + +<p>"Wait," said Smith hoarsely. He had caught sight of a bucket of water +with a dipper in it standing by the door of the switch shanty, and he +jumped down and ran for it. With the terrible thirst assuaged, he +wheeled and went back to the big switchman. "Now I'm ready to be run +in," he said. "But first, you know, you've got to prove that you're the +better man," and with that he whipped off his coat and squared himself +for the battle.</p> + +<p>It was joined at once, the big man being Irish and nothing loath. Also, +it was short and sweet. Barring a healthy and as yet unsatisfied +appetite, Smith was in the pink of condition, and the little trainer in +the Lawrenceville Athletic Club had imparted the needful skill. In three +swift rounds the big switchman was thrashed into a proper state of +submission and hospitality, and again, being Irish, he bore no grudge.</p> + +<p>"You're a pugnayshus young traithor, and I'm fair sick for to be doin' +ye a fayvor," spluttered the big man, after the third knock-out. "What +is ut ye'll be wantin'?"</p> + +<p>Smith promptly named three things; breakfast directions, a morning +paper, and a railroad man's advice as to the best means of getting +forward on his journey. His new ally put him in the way of compassing +all three, and when the westward faring was resumed—this time in the +hollow interior of a huge steel smoke-stack loaded in sections on a pair +of flat cars—he went eagerly through the newspaper. The thing he was +looking for was there, under flaring headlines; a day late, to be sure, +but that was doubtless owing to Lawrenceville's rather poor wire +service.</p> + +<blockquote><p class="center">ATTEMPTED MURDER OF BANK PRESIDENT</p> + +<p class="center">Society-Leader Cashier Embezzles $100,000 and Makes Murderous +Assault on President</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lawrenceville</span>, May 15.—J. Montague Smith, cashier of the +Lawrenceville Bank and Trust Company, and a leader in the +Lawrenceville younger set, is to-day a fugitive from justice +with a price on his head. At a late hour last night the +watchman of the bank found President Dunham lying unconscious +in front of his desk. Help was summoned, and Mr. Dunham, who +was supposed to be suffering from some sudden attack of +illness, was taken to his hotel. Later, it transpired that the +president had been the victim of a murderous assault. +Discovering upon his return to the city yesterday evening that +the cashier had been using the bank's funds in an attempt to +cover a stock speculation of his own, Dunham sent for Smith and +charged him with the crime. Smith made an unprovoked and +desperate assault upon his superior officer, beating him into +insensibility and leaving him for dead. Since it is known that +he did not board any of the night trains east or west, Smith is +supposed to be in hiding somewhere in the vicinity of the city. +A warrant is out, and a reward of $1,000 for his arrest and +detention has been offered by the bank. It is not thought +possible that he can escape. It was currently reported not long +since that Smith was engaged to a prominent young society woman +of Lawrenceville, but this has proved to be untrue.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Smith read the garbled news story with mingled thankfulness and rage; +thankfulness because it told him that he was not a murderer, and rage, +no less at Dunham's malignant ingenuity than at his own folly in setting +the seal of finality upon the false accusation by running away. But the +thing was done, and it could not be undone. Having put himself on the +wrong side of the law, there was nothing for it now but a complete +disappearance; exile, a change of identity, and an absolute severance +with his past.</p> + +<p>While he was folding the St. Louis newspaper and putting it into his +pocket, he was wondering, half cynically, what Verda Richlander was +thinking of him. Was it she, herself, who had told the newspaper people +that there was nothing in the story of the engagement? That she would +side with his accusers and the apparent, or at least uncontradicted, +facts he could hardly doubt. There was no very strong reason why she +should not, he told himself, rather bitterly. He had not tried to bind +her to him in any shackling of sentiment. Quite the contrary, they had +both agreed to accept the modern view that sentiment should be regarded +as a mildly irruptive malady which runs, or should run, its course, like +measles or chicken-pox, in early adolescence. That being the case, Miss +Verda's leaf—like all other leaves in the book of his past—might be +firmly pasted down and forgotten. As an outlaw with a price on his head +he had other and vastly more important things to think about.</p> + +<p>Twenty-four hours beyond this final decision he reached Kansas City, +where there was a delay and some little diplomacy to be brought into +play before he could convince a freight crew on the Union Pacific that +he had to be carried, free of cost, to Denver. In the Colorado capital +there was another halt and more trouble; but on the second day he found +another empty box car and was once more moving westward, this time +toward a definite destination.</p> + +<p>During the Denver stop-over he had formulated his plan, such as it was. +In a newspaper which he had picked up, he had lighted upon an +advertisement calling for laborers to go over into the Timanyoni country +to work on an irrigation project. By applying at the proper place he +might have procured free transportation to the work, but there were two +reasons why he did not apply. One was prudently cautionary and was based +on the fear that he might be recognized. The other was less easily +defined, but no less mandatory in the new scheme of things. The +vagabonding had gotten into his blood, and he was minded to go on as he +had begun, beating his way to the job like other members of the vagrant +brotherhood.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2> + +<h3>The High Hills</h3> + + +<p>Train Number Seventeen, the Nevada through freight, was two hours late +issuing from the western portal of Timanyoni Canyon. Through the early +mountain-climbing hours of the night and the later flight across the Red +Desert, the dusty, travel-grimed young fellow in the empty box car +midway of the train had slept soundly, with the hard car floor for a bed +and his folded coat for a pillow. But on the emergence of the train from +the echoing canyon depths the sudden cessation of the crash and roar of +the shut-in mountain passage awoke him and he got up to open the door +and look out.</p> + +<p>It was still no later than a lazy man's breakfast time, and the May +morning was perfect, with a cobalt sky above and a fine tingling quality +in the air to set the blood dancing in the veins. Over the top of the +eastern range the sun was looking, level-rayed, into a parked valley +bounded on all sides by high spurs and distant snow peaks. In its nearer +reaches the valley was dotted with round hills, some of them bare, +others dark green to their summits with forestings of mountain pine and +fir. Now that it was out of the canyon, the train was skirting the foot +of the southern boundary spur, the railroad track holding its level by +heading the gulches and rounding the alternating promontories.</p> + +<p>From the outer loopings of the curves, the young tramp at the car door +had momentary glimpses of the Timanyoni, a mountain torrent in its +canyon, and the swiftest of upland rivers even here where it had the +valley in which to expand. A Copah switchman had told him that the +railroad division town of Brewster lay at the end of the night's run, in +a river valley beyond the eastern Timanyonis, and that the situation of +the irrigation project which was advertising for laborers in the Denver +newspapers was a few miles up the river from Brewster.</p> + +<p>For reasons of his own, he was not anxious to make a daylight entry into +the town itself. Sooner or later, of course, the scrutiny of curious +eyes must be met, but there was no need of running to meet the risk. Not +that the risk was very great. While he was killing time in the Copah +yard the day before, waiting for a chance to board the night freight, he +had picked up a bit of broken looking-glass and put it in his pocket. +The picture it gave back when he took it out and looked into it was that +of a husky young tramp with a stubble beard a week old, and on face and +neck and hands the accumulated grime of two thousand miles of +freight-train riding. Also, the week's wear and tear had been, if +anything, harder on the clothes than on the man. His hat had been lost +in one of the railroad-yard train-boardings and he had replaced it in +Denver with a workman's cap. It was a part of the transformation, +wrought and being wrought in him, that he was able to pocket the bit of +looking-glass with a slow grin of satisfaction. When one is about to +apply for a job as a laboring man it is well to look the part.</p> + +<p>As the train swept along on its way down the grades the valley became +more open and the prospect broadened. At one of the promontory roundings +the box-car passenger had a glimpse of a shack-built construction camp +on the river's margin some distance on ahead. A concrete dam was rising +in sections out of the river, and dominating the dam and the shacks two +steel towers, with a carrying cable stretched between them, formed the +piers of the aerial spout conveyer for the placing of the material in +the forms.</p> + +<p>A mile or more short of the construction camp the railroad made another +of the many gulch loopings; and on its next emergence the train had +passed the site of the dam, leaving it fully a mile in the rear. Here +the young man at the car door saw the ditch company's unloading +side-track with a spur branching away from the main line and crossing +the river on a temporary trestle. There were material yards on both +sides of the stream, and in one of the opposing hills a busy quarry.</p> + +<p>The train made no stop at the construction siding, but a half-mile +farther along the brakes began to grind and the speed was slackened. +Sliding the car door another foot or two, the young tramp with the +week-old stubble beard on his face leaned out to look ahead. His +opportunity was at hand. A block semaphore was turned against the +freight and the train was slowing in obedience to the signal. Waiting +until the brakes shrilled again, the tramp put his shoulder to the +sliding door, sat for a moment in the wider opening, and then swung off.</p> + +<p>After the train had gone on he drew himself up, took a deep +chest-filling breath of the crisp morning air, and looked about him. The +sun was an hour high over the eastern mountains, and the new world +spread itself in broad detail. His alighting was upon one of the +promontory embankments. To the westward, where the curving railroad +track was lost in the farther windings of the river, lay the little +intermountain city of Brewster, a few of its higher buildings showing +clear-cut in the distance. Paralleling the railroad, on a lower level +and nearer the river, a dusty wagon road pointed in one direction toward +the town, and in the other toward the construction camp.</p> + +<p>The young man who had crossed four States and the better part of a fifth +as a fugitive and vagrant turned his back upon the distant town as a +place to be avoided. Scrambling down the railroad embankment, he made +his way to the wagon road, crossed it, and kept on until he came to the +fringe of aspens on the river's edge, where he broke all the trampish +traditions by stripping off the travel-worn clothes and plunging in to +take a soapless bath. The water, being melted snow from the range, was +icy-cold and it stabbed like knives. Nevertheless, it was wet, and some +part of the travel dust, at least, was soluble in it. He came out +glowing, but a thorn from his well-groomed past came up and pricked him +when he had to put the soiled clothes on again. There was no present +help for that, however; and five minutes later he had regained the road +and was on his way to the ditch camp.</p> + +<p>When he had gone a little distance he found that the wagon road dodged +the railroad track as it could, crossing and recrossing the right of way +twice before the construction camp came into view. The last of the +crossings was at the temporary material yard for which the side-track +had been installed, and from this point on, the wagon road held to the +river bank. The ditch people were doubtless getting all their material +over the railroad so there would be little hauling by wagon. But there +were automobile tracks in the dust, and shortly after he had passed the +material yard the tramp heard a car coming up behind him. It was a +six-cylinder roadster, and its motor was missing badly.</p> + +<p>He gave the automobile passing room when it came along, glancing up to +note that its single occupant was a big, bearded man, wearing his gray +tweeds as one to whom clothes were merely a convenience. He was chewing +a black cigar, and the unoccupied side of his mouth was busy at the +passing moment heaping objurgations upon the limping motor. A hundred +yards farther along the motor gave a spasmodic gasp and stopped. When +the young tramp came up, the big man had climbed out and had the hood +open. What he was saying to the stalled motor was picturesque enough to +make the young man stop and grin appreciatively.</p> + +<p>"Gone bad on you?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>Colonel Dexter Baldwin, the Timanyoni's largest landowner, and a breeder +of fine horses who tolerated motor-cars only because they could be +driven hard and were insensate and fit subjects for abusive language, +took his head out of the hood.</p> + +<p>"The third time this morning," he snapped. "I'd rather drive a team of +wind-broken mustangs, any day in the year!"</p> + +<p>"I used to drive a car a while back," said the tramp. "Let me look her +over."</p> + +<p>The colonel stood aside, wiping his hands on a piece of waste, while the +young man sought for the trouble. It was found presently in a loosened +magneto wire; found and cleverly corrected. The tramp went around in +front and spun the motor, and when it had been throttled down, Colonel +Baldwin had his hand in his pocket.</p> + +<p>"That's something like," he said. "The garage man said it was carbon. +You take hold as if you knew how. What's your fee?"</p> + +<p>The tramp shook his head and smiled good-naturedly.</p> + +<p>"Nothing; for a bit of neighborly help like that."</p> + +<p>The colonel put his coat on, and in the act took a better measure of the +stalwart young fellow who looked like a hobo and talked and behaved like +a gentleman. Colonel Dexter was a fairly shrewd judge of men, and he +knew that the tramping brotherhood divides itself pretty evenly on a +distinct line of cleavage, with the born vagrant on one side and the man +out of work on the other.</p> + +<p>"You are hiking out to the dam?" he asked brusquely.</p> + +<p>"I am headed that way, yes," was the equally crisp rejoinder.</p> + +<p>"Hunting a job?"</p> + +<p>"Just that."</p> + +<p>"What sort of a job?"</p> + +<p>"Anything that may happen to be in sight."</p> + +<p>"That usually means a pick and shovel or a wheelbarrow on a construction +job. We're needing quarrymen and concrete handlers, and we could use a +few more rough carpenters on the forms. But there isn't much office +work."</p> + +<p>The tramp looked up quickly.</p> + +<p>"What makes you think I'm hunting for an office job?" he queried.</p> + +<p>"Your hands," said the colonel shortly.</p> + +<p>The young man looked at his hands thoughtfully. They were dirty again +from the tinkering with the motor, but the inspection went deeper than +the grime.</p> + +<p>"I'm not afraid of the pick and shovel, or the wheelbarrow, and on some +accounts I guess they'd be good for me. But on the other hand, perhaps +it <i>is</i> a pity to spoil a middling good office man to make an +indifferent day-laborer—to say nothing of knocking some honest fellow +out of the only job he knows how to do."</p> + +<p>Colonel Baldwin swung in behind the steering-wheel of the roadster and +held a fresh match to the black cigar. Though he was from Missouri, he +had lived long enough in the high hills to know better than to judge any +man altogether by outward appearances.</p> + +<p>"Climb in," he said, indicating the vacant seat at his side. "I'm the +president of the ditch company. Perhaps Williams may be able to use you; +but your chances for office work would be ten to one in the town."</p> + +<p>"I don't care to live in the town," said the man out of work, mounting +to the proffered seat; and past that the big roadster leaped away up +the road and the roar of the rejuvenated motor made further speech +impossible.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>It was a full fortnight or more after this motor-tinkering incident on +the hill road to the dam, when Williams, chief engineer of the ditch +project, met President Baldwin in the Brewster offices of the ditch +company and spent a busy hour with the colonel going over the +contractors' estimates for the month in prospect. In an interval of the +business talk, Baldwin remembered the good-looking young tramp who had +wanted a job.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; I knew there was something else that I wanted to ask you," he +said. "How about the young fellow that I unloaded on you a couple of +weeks ago? Did he make good?"</p> + +<p>"Who—Smith?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; if that's his name."</p> + +<p>The engineer's left eyelid had a quizzical droop when he said dryly: +"It's the name he goes by in camp; 'John Smith.' I haven't asked him his +other name."</p> + +<p>The ranchman president matched the drooping eyelid of unbelief with a +sober smile. "I thought he looked as if he might be out here for his +health—like a good many other fellows who have no particular use for a +doctor. How is he making it?"</p> + +<p>The engineer, a hard-bitten man with the prognathous lower jaw +characterizing the tribe of those who accomplish things, thrust his +hands into his pockets and walked to the window to look down into the +Brewster street. When he turned to face Baldwin again, it was to say: +"That young fellow is a wonder, Colonel. I put him into the quarry at +first, as you suggested, and in three days he had revolutionized things +to the tune of a twenty-per-cent saving in production costs. Then I gave +him a hack at the concrete-mixers, and he's making good again in the +cost reduction. That seems to be his specialty."</p> + +<p>The president nodded and was sufficiently interested to follow up what +had been merely a casual inquiry.</p> + +<p>"What are you calling him now?—a betterment engineer? You know your +first guess was that he was somebody's bookkeeper out of a job."</p> + +<p>Williams wagged his head.</p> + +<p>"He's a three-cornered puzzle to me, yet. He isn't an engineer, but when +you drag a bunch of cost money up the trail, he goes after it like a dog +after a rabbit. I'm not anxious to lose him, but I really believe you +could make better use of him here in the town office than I can on the +job."</p> + +<p>Baldwin was shaking his head dubiously.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid he'd have to loosen up on his record a little before we +could bring him in here. Badly as we're needing a money man, we can +hardly afford to put a 'John Smith' into the saddle—at least not +without knowing what his other name used to be."</p> + +<p>"No; of course not. I guess, after all, he's only a 'lame duck,' like a +good many of the rest of them. Day before yesterday, Burdell, the deputy +sheriff, was out at the camp looking the gangs over for the fellow who +broke into Lannigan's place last Saturday night. When he came into the +office Smith was busy with an estimate, and Burdell went up and touched +him on the shoulder, just to let him know that it was time to wake up. +Suffering cats! It took three of us to keep him from breaking Burdell in +two and throwing him out of the window!"</p> + +<p>"That looks rather bad," was the president's comment. Colonel Dexter +Baldwin had been the first regularly elected sheriff of Timanyoni County +in the early days and he knew the symptoms. "Was Burdell wearing his +star where it could be seen?"</p> + +<p>The engineer nodded.</p> + +<p>"What explanation did Smith make?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he apologized like a gentleman, and said he was subject to little +nervous attacks like that when anybody touched him unexpectedly. He took +Burdell over to Pete Simm's shack saloon and bought him a drink. +Perkins, the timekeeper, says he's going to get a megaphone so he can +give due notice in advance when he wants to call Smith's attention."</p> + +<p>The colonel pulled out a drawer in the desk, found his box of diplomatic +cigars and passed it to the engineer, saying: "Light up a sure-enough +good one, and tell me what you think Smith has been doing back yonder in +the other country."</p> + +<p>Williams took the cigar but he shied at the conundrum.</p> + +<p>"Ask me something easy," he said. "I've stacked up a few guesses. He's +from the Middle West—as the Bible says, his 'speech bewrayeth' him—and +he's had a good job of some kind; the kind that required him to keep +abreast of things. If there's anything in looks, you'd say he wasn't a +thief or an embezzler, and yet it's pretty apparent that he's been used +to handling money in chunks and making it work for its living. I've put +it up that there's a woman in it. Perhaps the other fellow got in his +way, or came up behind him and touched him unexpectedly, or something of +that sort. Anyway, I'm not going to believe he's a crooked crook until I +have to."</p> + +<p>Colonel Baldwin helped himself to one of his own cigars, and the talk +went back to business. In the irrigation project, Williams was a +stockholder as well as the chief of construction, and Baldwin had more +than once found him a safe adviser. There was need for counsel. The +Timanyoni Ditch Company was in a rather hazardous condition financially, +and the president and Williams rarely met without coming sooner or later +to a threshing out of the situation.</p> + +<p>The difficulties were those which are apt to confront a small and local +enterprise when it is so unfortunate as to get in the way of larger +undertakings. Colonel Baldwin, and a group of his neighbors on the north +side of the river, were reformed cattlemen and horse breeders. Instead +of drifting farther west in advance of the incoming tide of population +following the coming of the railroad, they had availed themselves of +their homestead rights and had taken up much of the grass-land in the +favorable valleys, irrigating it at first with water taken out of the +river in private or neighborhood ditches.</p> + +<p>Later on came the sheep-feeding period, and after that the utilization +of larger crop-raising areas. The small ditches proving inadequate for +these, Colonel Baldwin had formed a stock company among his neighbors in +the grass-lands and his friends in Brewster for the building of a +substantial dam in the eastern hills. The project had seemed simple +enough in the beginning. The stock was sold for cash and each +stockholder would be a participating user of the water. Williams, who +had been a United States reclamation man before he came to the +Timanyoni, had made careful estimates, and the stock subscription +provided money enough to cover the cost of the dam and the main ditch.</p> + +<p>After some little bargaining, the dam site and the overflow land for the +reservoir lake had been secured, and the work was begun. Out of a clear +sky, however, came trouble and harassment. Alien holders of mining +claims in the reservoir area turned up and demanded damages. Some few +homesteaders who had promised to sign quitclaims changed their minds and +sued for relief, and after the work was well under way it appeared that +there was a cloud on the title of the dam site itself. All of these +clashings were carried into court, and the rancher promoters found +themselves confronting invisible enemies and obstacle-raisers at every +turn.</p> + +<p>The legal fight, as they soon found out, cost much money in every phase +of it; and now, when the dam was scarcely more than half completed, a +practically empty treasury was staring them in the face. This was the +situation which called for its regular threshing out in every conference +between Colonel Baldwin and his chief of construction. There was no +disguising the fact that a crisis was approaching, a financial crisis +which no one among the amateur promoters was big enough to cope with.</p> + +<p>"We've got to go in deeper, Colonel; there is nothing else to do," was +the engineer's summing up of the matter at the close of the conference. +"The snow is melting pretty rapidly on the range now, and when we get +the June rise we'll stand to lose everything we have if we can't keep +every wheel turning to get ready for the high water."</p> + +<p>Baldwin was holding his cigar between his fingers and scowling at it as +if it had mortally offended him.</p> + +<p>"Assessments on the stock, you mean?" he said. "I'm afraid our crowd +won't stand for that. A good part of it is ready to lie down in the +harness right now."</p> + +<p>"How about a bond issue?" asked the engineer.</p> + +<p>"Lord of heavens! What do we, or any of us, know about bond issues? Why, +we knew barely enough about the business at the start to chip in +together and buy us a charter and go to work on a plan a little bit +bigger than the neighborhood ditch idea. You couldn't float bonds in +Timanyoni Park, and we're none of us foxy enough to go East and float +'em."</p> + +<p>"I guess that's right, too," admitted Williams. "Besides, with the stock +gone off the way it has, it would take a mighty fine-haired financial +sharp to sell bonds."</p> + +<p>"What's that?" demanded the president. "Who's been selling any stock?"</p> + +<p>"Buck Gardner, for one; and that man Bolling, up at the head of Little +Creek, for another. Maxwell, the railroad superintendent, told me about +it, and he says that the price offered, and accepted, was thirty-nine."</p> + +<p>"Dad burn a cuss with a yellow streak in him!" rasped the Missouri +colonel. "We had a fair and square agreement among ourselves that if +anybody got scared he was to give the rest of us a chance to buy him +out. Who bought from these welshers?"</p> + +<p>"Maxwell didn't know that. He said it was done through Kinzie's bank. +From what I've heard on the outside, I'm inclined to suspect that +Crawford Stanton was the buyer."</p> + +<p>"Stanton, the real-estate man?"</p> + +<p>"The same."</p> + +<p>Again the president stared thoughtfully at the glowing end of his cigar.</p> + +<p>"There's another of the confounded mysteries," he growled. "Who is +Crawford Stanton, and what is he here for? I know what he advertises, +but everybody in Brewster knows that he hasn't made a living dollar in +real estate since he came here last winter. Williams, do you know, I'm +beginning to suspect that there is a mighty big nigger in our little +wood-pile?"</p> + +<p>"You mean that all these stubborn hold-ups have been bought and paid +for? You'll remember that is what Billy Starbuck tried to tell us when +the first of the missing mining-claim owners began to shout at us."</p> + +<p>"Starbuck has a long head, and what he doesn't know about mining claims +in this part of the country wouldn't fill a very big book. I remember he +said there had never been any prospecting done in the upper Timanyoni +gulches, and now you'd think half the people in the United States had +been nosing around up there with a pick and shovel at one time or +another. But it was a thing that Starbuck told me no longer ago than +yesterday that set me to thinking," Baldwin went on. "As you know, the +old Escalante Spanish Grant corners over in the western part of this +park. When the old grants were made, they were ruled off on the map +without reference to mountain ranges or other natural barriers."</p> + +<p>Williams nodded.</p> + +<p>"Well, as I say, one corner of the Escalante reaches over the Hophras +and out into the park, covering about eight or ten square miles of the +territory just beyond us on our side of the river. Starbuck told me +yesterday that a big Eastern colonization company had got a bill through +Congress alienating that tract."</p> + +<p>The chief of construction bounded out of his chair and began to walk the +floor. "By George!" he said; and again: "By George! That's what we're up +against, Colonel! Where will those fellows get the water for their land? +There is no site for a dam lower down than ours, and, anyway, that land +lies too high to be watered by anything but a high-line ditch!"</p> + +<p>"Nice little brace game, isn't it?" growled Baldwin. "If we hadn't been +a lot of hayseed amateurs, we might have found out long ago that some +one was running in a cold deck on us. What's your notion? Are we done +up, world without end?"</p> + +<p>Williams's laugh was grim.</p> + +<p>"What we need, Colonel, is to go out on the street and yell for a +doctor," he said. "It's beginning to look as if we had acquired a pretty +bad case of malignant strangle-itis."</p> + +<p>Baldwin ran his fingers through his hair and admitted that he had lost +his sense of humor.</p> + +<p>"It's hell, Williams," he said soberly. "You know how recklessly I've +waded into this thing—how recklessly we've all gone into it for that +matter. I'll come down like a man and admit that it has climbed up the +ladder to a place where I can't reach it. This Eastern crowd is trying +to freeze us out, to get our dam and reservoir and ditch rights for +their Escalante scheme. When they do, they'll turn around and sell us +water—at fifty dollars an inch, or something like that!"</p> + +<p>"What breaks my heart is that we haven't been able to surround the +sure-enough fact while there was still time to do something," lamented +the ex-reclamation man. "The Lord knows it's been plain enough, with +Stanton right here on the ground, and probably every one of the +interferences traceable directly to him. He has begun to close in on +us; his purchase of the Gardner and Bolling stockholdings is the +beginning of the end. You know as well as I do, Colonel, what a +contagious disease 'the yellows' is. Others will get it, and the first +thing we know, Stanton will own a majority of the stock and be voting us +all out of a job. You'll have to come around to my suggestion, after +all, and advertise for a doctor." It was said of the chief of +construction that he would have joked on his death-bed, and, as a +follower for the joke, he added: "Why don't you call Smith in and give +him the job?"</p> + +<p>"Smith be damned," growled the colonel, who, as we have seen, had become +completely color-blind on the sense-of-humor side.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't put it beyond him to develop into the young Napoleon of +finance that we seem to be needing just now," Williams went on, carrying +the jest to its legitimate conclusion.</p> + +<p>Baldwin, like other self-made promoters in their day of trouble, was in +the condition of the drowning man who catches at straws.</p> + +<p>"You don't really mean that, Williams, do you?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't mean it when I said it," was the engineer's admission; "I +was only trying to get a rise out of you. But really, Colonel, on +second thought I don't know but it is worth considering. As I say, +Smith seems to know the money game from start to finish. What is better +still, he is a fighter from the word go—what you might call a joyous +fighter. Suppose you drive out to-morrow or next day and pry into him a +little."</p> + +<p>The rancher president had relapsed once more into the slough of +discouragement.</p> + +<p>"You are merely grabbing for handholds, Bartley—as I was a minute ago. +We are in a bad row of stumps when we can sit here and talk seriously +about roping down a young hobo and putting him into the financial +harness. Let's go around to Frascati's and eat before you go back to +camp. It's bread-time, anyway."</p> + +<p>The chief of construction said no more about his joking suggestion at +the moment, but when they were walking around the square to the Brewster +Delmonico's he went back to the dropped subject in all seriousness, +saying: "Just the same, I wish you could know Smith and size him up as I +have. I can't help believing, some way, that he's all to the good."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2> + +<h3>The Specialist</h3> + + +<p>Though the matter of calling in an expert doctor of finance to diagnose +the alarming symptoms in Timanyoni Ditch had been left indeterminate in +the talk between Colonel Baldwin and himself, Williams did not let it go +entirely by default. On the day following the Brewster office conference +the engineer sent for Smith, who was checking the output of the crushers +at the quarry, and a little later the "betterment" man presented himself +at the door of the corrugated-iron shack which served as a field office +for the chief.</p> + +<p>Williams looked the cost-cutter over as he stood in the doorway. Smith +was thriving and expanding handsomely in the new environment. He had let +his beard grow and it was now long enough to be trimmed to a point. The +travel-broken clothes had been exchanged for working khaki, with lace +boots and leggings, and the workman's cap had given place to the +campaign felt of the engineers. Though he had been less than a month on +the job, he was already beginning to tan and toughen under the healthy +outdoor work—to roughen, as well, his late fellow members of the +Lawrenceville Cotillon Club might have said, since he had fought three +pitched battles with as many of the camp bullies, and had in each of +them approved himself a man of his hands who could not only take +punishment, but could hammer an opponent swiftly and neatly into any +desired state of subjection.</p> + +<p>"Come in here and sit down; I want to talk to you," was the way Williams +began it; and after Smith had found a chair and had lighted a gift cigar +from the headquarters desk-box, the chief went on: "Say, Smith, you're +too good a man for anything I've got for you here. Haven't you realized +that?"</p> + +<p>Smith pulled a memorandum-book from his hip pocket and ran his eye over +the private record he had been keeping.</p> + +<p>"I've shown you how to effect a few little savings which total up +something like fifteen per cent of your cost of production and +operation," he said. "Don't you think I'm earning my wages?"</p> + +<p>"That's all right; I've been keeping tab, too, and I know what you're +doing. But you are not beginning to earn what you ought to, either for +yourself or the company," put in the chief shrewdly. And then: "Loosen +up, Smith, and tell me something about yourself. Who are you, and where +do you come from, and what sort of a job have you been holding down?"</p> + +<p>Smith's reply was as surprising as it was seemingly irrelevant.</p> + +<p>"If you're not too busy, Mr. Williams, I guess you'd better make out my +time-check," he said quietly.</p> + +<p>Williams took a reflective half-minute for consideration, turning the +sudden request over deliberately in his mind, as his habit was.</p> + +<p>"I suppose, by that you mean that you'll quit before you will consent to +open up on your record?" he assumed.</p> + +<p>"You've guessed it," said the man who had sealed the book of his past.</p> + +<p>Again Williams took a little time. It was discouraging to have his own +and the colonel's prefigurings as to Smith's probable state and standing +so promptly verified.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you know the plain inference you're leaving, when you say a +thing like that?"</p> + +<p>Smith made the sign of assent. "It leaves you entirely at liberty to +finish out the story to suit yourself," he admitted, adding: "The back +numbers—my back numbers—are my own, Mr. Williams. I've kept a file of +them, as everybody does, but I don't have to produce it on request."</p> + +<p>"Of course, there's nothing compulsory about your producing it. But +unless you are what they call in this country a 'crooked' crook, you are +standing in your own light. You have such a staving good head for +figures and finances that it seems a pity for you to be wasting it here +on an undergraduate's job in cost-cutting. Any young fellow just out of +a technical school could do what you're doing in the way of paring down +expenses."</p> + +<p>The cost-cutter's smile was mildly incredulous.</p> + +<p>"Nobody seemed to be doing it before I came," he offered.</p> + +<p>"No," Williams allowed, "that's the fact. To tell the plain truth, we've +had bigger things to wrestle with; and we have them yet, for that +matter—enough of them to go all around the job twice and tie in a +bow-knot."</p> + +<p>"Finances?" queried Smith, feeling some of the back-number instincts +stirring within him.</p> + +<p>The chief engineer nodded; then he looked up with a twinkle in his +closely set gray eyes. "If you'll tell me why you tried to kill Burdell +the other day, maybe I'll open up the record—our record—for you."</p> + +<p>This time the cost-cutter's smile was good-naturedly derisive, and it +ignored the reference to Burdell.</p> + +<p>"You don't have to open up your record—for me; it's the talk of the +camp. You people are undercapitalized—to boil it down into one word. +Isn't that about the way it sizes up?"</p> + +<p>"That is the way it has turned out; though we had capital enough to +begin with. We've been bled to death by damage suits."</p> + +<p>Smith shook his head. "Why haven't you hired a first-class attorney, Mr. +Williams?"</p> + +<p>"We've had the best we could find, but the other fellows have beaten us +to it, every time. But the legal end of it hasn't been the whole thing +or the biggest part of it. What we are needing most is a man who knows a +little something about corporation fights and high finance." And at this +the engineer forgot the Smith disabilities, real or inferential, and +went on to explain in detail the peculiar helplessness of the Timanyoni +Company as the antagonist of the as yet unnamed land and irrigation +trust.</p> + +<p>Smith heard him through, nodding understandingly when the tale was +told.</p> + +<p>"It's the old story of the big fish swallowing the little one; so old +that there is no longer any saving touch of novelty in it," he +commented. "I've been wondering if there wasn't something of that kind +in your background. And you say you haven't any Belmonts or Morgans or +Rockefellers in your company?"</p> + +<p>"We have a bunch of rather badly scared-up ranch owners and local +people, with Colonel Baldwin in command, and that's all. The colonel is +a fighting man, all right, and he can shoot as straight as anybody, when +you have shown him what to shoot at. But he is outclassed, like all the +rest of us, when it comes to a game of financial freeze-out. And that is +what we are up against, I'm afraid."</p> + +<p>"There isn't the slightest doubt in the world about that," said the one +who had been called in as an expert. "What I can't understand is why +some of you didn't size the situation up long ago—before it got into +its present desperate shape. You are at the beginning of the end, now. +They've caught you with an empty treasury, and these stock sales you +speak of prove that they have already begun to swallow you by littles. +Timanyoni Common—I suppose you haven't any Preferred—at thirty-nine is +an excellent gamble for any group of men who can see their way clear to +buying the control. With an eager market for the water—and they can +sell the water to you people, even if they don't put their own Escalante +project through—the stock can be pushed to par and beyond, as it will +be after you folks are all safely frozen out. More than that, they can +charge you enough, for the water you've got to have, to finance the +Escalante scheme and pay all the bills; and their investment, at the +present market, will be only thirty-nine cents in the dollar. It's a +neat little play."</p> + +<p>Williams was by this time far past remembering that his adviser was a +man with a possible <i>alias</i> and presumably a fugitive from justice.</p> + +<p>"Can't something be done, Smith? You've had experience in these things; +your talk shows it. Have we got to stand still and be shot to pieces?"</p> + +<p>"The necessity remains to be demonstrated. But you will be shot to +pieces, to a dead moral certainty, if you don't put somebody on deck +with the necessary brains, and do it quickly," said Smith with frank +bluntness.</p> + +<p>"Hold on," protested the engineer. "Every man to his trade. When I said +that we had nobody but the neighbors and our friends in the company, I +didn't mean to give the impression that they were either dolts or +chuckleheads. As a matter of fact, we have a pretty level-headed bunch +of men in Timanyoni Ditch—though I'll admit that some of them are +nervous enough, just now, to want to get out on almost any terms. What I +meant to say was that they don't happen to be up in all the crooks and +turnings of the high-finance buccaneers."</p> + +<p>"I didn't mean to reflect upon Colonel Baldwin and his friends," +rejoined the ex-cashier good-naturedly. "It is nothing especially +discrediting to them that they are not up in all the tricks of a trade +which is not theirs. The financing of a scheme like this has come to be +a business by itself, Mr. Williams, and it is hardly to be expected that +a group of inexperienced men could do it successfully."</p> + +<p>"I know that, blessed well. That is what I said from the beginning, and +I think Colonel Baldwin leaned that way, too. But it seemed like a very +simple undertaking. A number of stockmen and crop growers wanted a dam +and a ditch, and they had the money to pay for them. That seemed to be +all there was to it in the beginning."</p> + +<p>Smith was leaning back in his chair and smoking reflectively.</p> + +<p>"Did you call me in here to get an expert opinion?" he asked, half +humorously.</p> + +<p>"Something of that kind—yes; just on the bare chance that you could, +and would, give us one," Williams admitted.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm hardly an expert," was the modest reply; "but if I were in +your place I should hire the best financial scrapper that money could +pay for. I can't attempt to tell you what such a man would do, but he +would at least rattle around in the box and try to give you a fighting +chance, which is more than you seem to have now."</p> + +<p>The construction chief turned abruptly upon his cost-cutter.</p> + +<p>"Keeping in mind what you said a few minutes ago about 'back numbers,' +would it be climbing over the fence too far for me to ask if your +experience has been such as would warrant you in tackling a job of this +kind?"</p> + +<p>"That is a fair question, and I can answer it straight," said the man +under fire. "I've had the experience."</p> + +<p>"I thought so; and that brings on more talk. I'm not authorized to make +you any proposal. But Colonel Baldwin and I were talking the matter over +yesterday and your name was mentioned. I told the colonel that it was +very evident that you were accustomed to handling bigger financial +matters than these labor-and-material cost-cuttings you've been figuring +on out here. If the colonel should ask you to, would you consider as a +possibility the taking of the doctor's job on this sick project of +ours?"</p> + +<p>"No," was the brief rejoinder.</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>Smith looked away out of the one square window in the shack at the busy +scene on the dam stagings.</p> + +<p>"Let us say that I don't care to mix and mingle with my kind, Mr. +Williams, and let it go at that," he said.</p> + +<p>"You are not interested in that side of it?"</p> + +<p>"Interested, but not to the point of enlisting."</p> + +<p>"You don't think of anything that might make you change your mind?"</p> + +<p>"There is nothing that you could offer which would be a sufficient +inducement."</p> + +<p>"Why isn't there?"</p> + +<p>"Because I'm not exactly a born simpleton, Mr. Williams. There are a +number of reasons which are purely personal to me, and at least one +which cuts ice on your side of the pond. Your financial 'doctor,' as you +call him, would have to be trusted absolutely in the handling of the +company's money and its negotiable securities. You would have a perfect +right to demand any and every assurance of his fitness and +trustworthiness. You could, and should, put him under a fairly heavy +bond. I'll not go into it any deeper than to say that I can't give a +bond."</p> + +<p>Williams took his defeat, if it could be called a defeat, without +further protest.</p> + +<p>"I thought it might not be amiss to talk it over with you," he said. "I +don't know that the colonel will make any move, but if he does, he will +deal with you direct. You say it is impossible, and perhaps it is. But +it won't do any harm for you to think it over, and if I were you, I +shouldn't burn all the bridges behind me. There ought to be considerable +money in it for the right man, if he succeeds, and nothing much to lose +if he should fail."</p> + +<p>Smith went back to his work in the quarry with a troubled mind. The +little heart-to-heart talk with Williams had been sharply depressive. It +had shown him, as nothing else could, how limited for all the remainder +of his life his chances must be. That he would be pursued, that +descriptions and photographs of the ex-cashier of the Lawrenceville Bank +and Trust Company were already circulating from hand to hand among the +paid man-catchers, he did not doubt for a moment. While he could remain +as a workman unit in an isolated construction camp, there was some +little hope that he might be overlooked. But to become the public +character of Williams's suggestion in a peopled city was to run to meet +his fate.</p> + +<p>In a way the tentative offer was a keen temptation. One of the lustiest +growths pushing its way up through the new soil of the metamorphosis was +a strong and mounting conviction that J. Montague Smith, of the +Lawrenceville avatar, had been only half a man; was, at his best, only a +pale shadow of the plain John Smith to whom accident and a momentary +impulse of passion had given birth. With a clear field he would have +asked for nothing better than a chance to take the leadership in the +fight which Williams had outlined, and the new and elemental stirrings +were telling him that he could win the fight. But with a price on his +head it was not to be thought of.</p> + +<p>That night, when he rolled himself in his blankets in the bunk tent, he +had renewed his prudent determination and it was crystallizing itself in +words.</p> + +<p>"No, not for money or gratitude or any other argument they can bring to +bear," he said to himself, and thereupon fell asleep with the mistaken +notion that he had definitely pushed the temptation aside for good and +all.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2> + +<h3>The Twig</h3> + + +<p>It is said that the flow of a mighty river may owe its most radical +change in direction to the chance thrusting of a twig into the current +at some critical instant in the rise or fall of the flood. To the +reincarnated Smith, charting his course upon the conviction that his +best chance of immunity lay in isolation and a careful avoidance of the +peopled towns, came the diverting twig in this wise.</p> + +<p>On the second morning following the unofficial talk with Bartley +Williams in the iron-sheeted headquarters office at the dam, a delayed +consignment of cement, steel, and commissary supplies was due at the +side-track a mile below the camp. Perkins, the timekeeper, took the +telephone call from Brewster giving notice of the shipment, and started +the camp teams to meet the train, sending a few men along to help with +the unloading. Later, he called Smith in from the quarry and gave him +the invoices covering the shipment.</p> + +<p>"I guess you'd better go down to the siding and check this stuff in, so +that we'll know what we're getting," was his suggestion to the general +utility man; and Smith put the invoices into his pocket and took the +road, a half-hour or more behind the teams.</p> + +<p>When the crookings of the tote-road let him get his first sight of the +side-track, he saw that the train was already in and the mixed shipment +of camp supplies had been transferred to the wagons. A few minutes +sufficed for the checking, and since there was nothing more to be done, +he sent the unloading gang back to camp with the teams, meaning to walk +back, himself, after he should have seen the car of steel and the two +cars of cement kicked in at the upper end of the side-track.</p> + +<p>While he was waiting for the train to pull up and make the shift he was +commenting idly upon the clumsy lay-out of the temporary unloading yard, +and wondering if Williams were responsible for it. The siding was on the +outside of a curve and within a hundred yards of the river bank. There +was scanty space for the unloading of material, and a good bit of what +there was was taken up by the curving spur which led off from the siding +to cross the river on a trestle, and by the wagon road itself, which +came down a long hill on the south side of the railroad and made an +abrupt turn to cross the main track and the siding fairly in the midst +of things.</p> + +<p>As the long train pulled up to clear the road crossing, Smith stepped +back and stood between the two tracks. A moment later the cut was made, +and the forward section of the train went on to set the three loaded +cars out at the upper switch, leaving the rear half standing on the main +line. From his position between the tracks there was a clear view past +the caboose at the end of the halted section and beyond, to the road +crossing and the steep grade down which the dusty wagon road made a +rough gash in the shoulder of the mountain spur which had crowded it +from the river-bank side of the railroad right of way. At the bottom of +the steep grade, where the road swerved to cross the two tracks, there +was a little sag; and between the sag and the crossing a sharp bit of +up-grade made to gain the level of the railroad embankment.</p> + +<p>One of the men of the unloading gang, a leather-faced grade shoveller +who had helped to build the Nevada Short Line, had lagged behind the +departing wagons to fill and light his pipe.</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't that jar you up right good and hard f'r a way to run a +railroad," he said to Smith, indicating the wholly deserted standing +section of the freight with the burnt match-end. "Them fellies 've all +gone off up ahead, a-leavin' this yere hind end without a sign of a +man'r a flag to take keer of it. S'pose another train 'd come boolgin' +'round that curve. Wouldn't it rise merry hell with things 'long about +this-away?"</p> + +<p>Smith was listening only with the outward ear to what the pipelighter +was saying. Somewhere in the westward distances a thunderous murmur was +droning upon the windless air of the June morning, betokening, as it +seemed, the very catastrophe the ex-grade-laborer was prefiguring. Smith +stripped his coat for a flag and started to run toward the crossing, but +before he had caught his stride a dust cloud swept up over the shoulder +of the wagon-road hill and the portentous thunderings were accounted +for. A big gray automobile, with the cut-out open, was topping the +side-hill grade, and Smith recognized it at once. It was Colonel Dexter +Baldwin's roadster, and it held a single occupant—namely, the young +woman who was driving it.</p> + +<p>Smith stopped running and transferred his anxiety from the train and +railroad affairs to the young woman. Being himself a skilful driver of +cars—and a man—he had a purely masculine distrust of the woman, any +woman, behind a steering-wheel. To be sure, there was no danger, as yet. +Turning to look up the track, he saw that the three loaded cars had been +set out, that the forward section of the train had been pulled up over +the switch, and that it was now backing to make the coupling with the +standing half. He hoped that the trainmen had seen the automobile, and +that they would not attempt to make the coupling until after the gray +car had crossed behind the caboose. But in the same breath he guessed, +and guessed rightly, that they were too far around the curve to be able +to see the wagon-road approach.</p> + +<p>Still there was time enough, and room enough. The caboose on the rear +end of the standing section was fully a hundred feet clear of the road +crossing; and if the entire train should start backward at the coupling +collision, the speed at which the oncoming roadster was running should +take it across and out of danger. Nevertheless, there was no margin for +the unexpected. Smith saw the young woman check the speed for the abrupt +turn at the bottom of the hill, saw the car take the turn in a skidding +slide, heard the renewed roar of the motor as the throttle was opened +for a run at the embankment grade. Then the unexpected dropped its bomb. +There was a jangling crash and the cars on the main track were set in +motion toward the crossing. The trainmen had tried to make their +coupling, the drawheads had failed to engage, and the rear half of the +train was surging down upon the point of hazard.</p> + +<p>Smith's shout, or the sight of the oncoming train, one of the two, or +both, put the finishing touch on the young woman's nerve. There was +still time in which to clear the train, but at the critical instant the +young woman apparently changed her mind and tried to stop the big car +short of the crossing. The effort was unsuccessful. When the stop was +made, the front wheels of the roadster were precisely in the middle of +the main track, and the motor was killed.</p> + +<p>By this time Smith had thrown his coat away and was racing the backing +train, with the ex-grade-laborer a poor second a dozen yards to the rear. +Having ridden in the roadster, Smith knew that it had no self-starter. +"<i>Jump!</i>" he yelled. "Get out of the car!" and then his heart came into +his mouth when he saw that she was struggling to free herself and +couldn't; that she was entangled in some way behind the low-hung +tiller-wheel.</p> + +<p>Smith was running fairly abreast of the caboose when he made this +discovery, and the hundred feet of clearance had shrunk to fifty. In +imagination he could already see the gray car overturned and crushed +under the wheels of the train. In a flying spurt he gained a few yards +on the advancing menace and hurled himself against the front of the +stopped roadster. He did not attempt to crank the motor. There was time +only for a mighty heave and shove to send the car backing down the slope +of the crossing approach; for this and for the quick spring aside to +save himself; and the thing was done.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2> + +<h3>A Notice to Quit</h3> + + +<p>Once started and given its push, the gray roadster drifted backward from +the railroad crossing and kept on until it came to rest in the sag at +the turn in the road. Running to overtake it, Smith found that the young +woman was still trying, ineffectually, to free herself. In releasing the +clutch her dress had been caught and Smith was glad enough to let the +extricating of the caught skirt and the cranking of the engine serve for +a breath-catching recovery.</p> + +<p>When he stepped back to "tune" the spark the young woman had subsided +into the mechanician's seat and was retying her veil with fingers that +were not any too steady. She was small but well-knit; her hair was a +golden brown and there was a good deal of it; her eyes were set well +apart, and in the bright morning sunlight they were a slaty gray—of the +exact shade of the motor veil she was rearranging. Smith had a sudden +conviction that he had seen the wide-set eyes before; also the straight +little nose and the half boyish mouth and chin, though where he had seen +them the conviction could give no present hint.</p> + +<p>"I sup-pup-pose I ought to say something appropriate," she was +beginning, half breathlessly, while Smith stood at the fender and +grinned in character-not with the ex-leader of the Lawrenceville younger +set, but with the newer and more elemental man of all work on a desert +dam-building job. "Wha-what <i>is</i> the proper thing to say when you have +just been sus-snatched out of the way of a railroad train?"</p> + +<p>As J. Montague, the rescuer would have had a neatly turned rejoinder at +his tongue's end; but the well-mannered phrases were altogether too +conventional to suggest themselves to a strapping young barbarian in +ill-fitting khaki and leggings and a slouch felt. Being unable to recall +them, he laughed and pushed the J. Montague past still farther into the +background.</p> + +<p>"You don't have to say anything. It's been a long time since I've had a +chance to make such a bully grand-stand play as this." And then: "You're +Colonel Baldwin's daughter, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>She nodded, saying:</p> + +<p>"How did you know?"</p> + +<p>"I know the car. And you have your father's eyes."</p> + +<p>She did not seem to take it amiss that he was making her eyes a basis +for comparisons. One William Starbuck, a former cattleman and her +father's time-tried friend, paid Miss Corona the compliment of saying +that she never allowed herself to get "bogged down in the +haughtinesses." She was her father's only son, as well as his only +daughter, and she divided her time pretty evenly in trying to live up to +both sets of requirements.</p> + +<p>"You have introduced me; wo-won't you introduce yourself?" she said, +when a second crash of the shifting freight-train spent itself and gave +her an opening.</p> + +<p>"I'm Smith," he told her; adding: "It's my real name."</p> + +<p>Her laugh was an instant easing of tensions.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; you're Mr. Williams's assistant. I've heard Colonel-da—my +father, speak of you."</p> + +<p>"No," he denied in blunt honesty, "I'm not Williams's assistant; at +least, the pay-roll doesn't say so. Up at the camp they call me 'The +Hobo,' and that's what I was a week or so ago when your father picked me +up and gave me a lift to the dam in this car."</p> + +<p>The young woman had apparently regained whatever small fraction of +self-possession the narrow escape had shocked aside.</p> + +<p>"Are they never going to take that miserable train out of the way?" she +exclaimed. "I've got to see Mr. Williams, and there isn't a minute to +spare. That is why I was breaking all the speed limits."</p> + +<p>"They are about ready to pull out now," he returned, with a glance over +his shoulder at the train. "I'm a sort of general utility man up at the +camp: can you use me in any way?"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid you won't do," she replied, with a little laughing grimace +that made him wonder where and when in the past he had seen some young +woman do the same thing under exactly similar conditions. "It's a matter +of business—awfully urgent business. Colonel-da—I mean my father, has +gone up to Red Butte, and a little while ago they telephoned over to the +ranch from the Brewster office to say that there was going to be some +more trouble at the dam."</p> + +<p>"They?" he queried.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Martin, the head bookkeeper. He said he'd been trying to get Mr. +Williams, but the wires to the camp were out of order."</p> + +<p>"They're not," said Smith shortly, remembering that Perkins had been +talking from the camp to the Brewster railroad agent within the +half-hour. "But never mind that: go on."</p> + +<p>Again she let him see the piquant little grimace.</p> + +<p>"You say that just as if you <i>were</i> Mr. Williams's assistant," she threw +back at him. "But I haven't time to quarrel with you this morning, Mr. +Real-name Smith. If you'll take your foot off the fender I'll go on up +to the dam and find Mr. Williams."</p> + +<p>"You couldn't quarrel with me if you should try," was the good-natured +rejoinder, and Smith tried in vain to imagine himself taking his present +attitude with any of the young women he had known in his cotillon +days—with Verda Richlander, for example. Then he added: "You won't find +Williams at the camp. He started out early this morning to ride the +lower ditch lines beyond Little Creek, and he said he wouldn't be back +until some time to-morrow. Now will you tell me what you're needing—and +give me a possible chance to get my pay raised?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Oh!</i>" she exclaimed, with a little gasp of disappointment, presumably +for the Williams absence. "I've simply <i>got</i> to find Mr. Williams—or +somebody! Do you happen to know anything about the lawsuit troubles?"</p> + +<p>"I know all about them; Williams has told me."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll tell you what Mr. Martin telephoned. He said that three +men were going to pretend to relocate a mining claim in the hills +back of the dam, somewhere near the upper end of the reservoir +lake-that-is-to-be. They're doing it so that they can get out an +injunction, or whatever you call it, and then we'll have to buy them +off, as the others have been bought off."</p> + +<p>Smith was by this time entirely familiar with the maps and profiles and +other records of the ditch company's lands and holdings.</p> + +<p>"All the land within the limits of the flood level has been bought and +paid for—some of it more than once, hasn't it?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; but that doesn't make any difference. These men will claim +that their location was made long ago, and that they are just now +getting ready to work it. It's often done in the case of mining claims."</p> + +<p>"When is all this going to happen?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"It is already happening," she broke out impatiently. "Mr. Martin said +the three men left town a little after daybreak and crossed on the +Brewster bridge to go up on the other side of the Timanyoni. They had a +two-horse team and a camping outfit. They are probably at work long +before this time."</p> + +<p>The young woman had taken her place again behind the big tiller-wheel, +and Smith calmly motioned her out of it.</p> + +<p>"Take the other seat and let me get in here," he said; and when she had +changed over, he swung in behind the wheel and put a foot on the clutch +pedal.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to take you on up to the camp, and then, if you'll lend me +this car, I'll go and do what you hoped to persuade Williams to do—run +these mining-claim jokers into the tall timber."</p> + +<p>"But you can't!" she protested; "you can't do it alone! And, besides, +they are on the other side of the river, and you can't get anywhere with +the car. You'll have to go all the way back to Brewster to get across +the river!"</p> + +<p>It was just here that he stole another glance at the very-much-alive +little face behind the motor veil; at the firm, round chin and the +resolute, slaty-gray eyes.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I ought to take you to the camp," he said. "But you may go +along with me, if you want to—and are not afraid."</p> + +<p>She laughed in his face.</p> + +<p>"I was born here in the Timanyoni, and you haven't been here three +weeks: do you think I'd be afraid to go anywhere that you'll go?"</p> + +<p>"We'll see about that," he chuckled, matching the laugh; and with that +he let the clutch take hold and sent the car rolling gently up to the +level of the railroad embankment and across the rails of the main track.</p> + +<p>On the right of way of the paralleling side-track he steered off the +crossing and pulled the roadster around until it was headed fairly for +the upper switch. Then he climbed down and recovered his coat which had +been flung aside in the race with the train. Resuming his place behind +the tiller-wheel, he put the motor in the reverse and began to back the +car on the siding, steering so that the wheels on one side hugged the +inside of one rail.</p> + +<p>"What in the world are you trying to do?" questioned the young woman who +had said she was not afraid.</p> + +<p>"Wait," he temporized; "just wait a minute and get ready to hang on like +grim death. We're going across on that trestle."</p> + +<p>He fully expected her to shriek and grab for the steering-wheel. That, +he told himself, was what the normal young woman would do. But Miss +Corona disappointed him.</p> + +<p>"You'll put us both into the river, and smash Colonel-daddy's car, but I +guess the Baldwin family can stand it if you can," she remarked quite +calmly.</p> + +<p>Smith kept on backing until the car had passed the switch from which the +spur branched off to cross to the material yard on the opposite side of +the river. A skilful bit of juggling put the roadster over on the ties +of the spur-track. Then he turned to his fellow risk.</p> + +<p>"Sit low, and hang on with both hands," he directed. "<i>Now!</i>" and he +opened the throttle.</p> + +<p>The trestle was not much above two hundred feet long, and, happily, the +cross-ties were closely spaced. Steered to a hair, the big car went +bumping across, and in his innermost recesses Smith was saying to his +immediate ancestor, the well-behaved bank clerk: "You swab! <i>you</i> never +saw the day when you could do a thing like this ... you thought you had +me tied up in a bunch of ribbon, didn't you?"</p> + +<p>If Miss Baldwin were frightened, she did not show it; and when the +crossing was safely made, Smith caught a little side glance that told +him he was making good. He jerked the roadster out of the entanglement +of the railroad track and said: "You may sit up now and tell me which +way to go. I don't know anything about the roads over here."</p> + +<p>She pointed out the way across the hills, and a four-mile dash followed +that set the blood dancing in Smith's veins. He had never before driven +a car as fast as he wanted to; partly because he had never owned one +powerful enough, and partly because the home-land speed laws—and his +own past <i>métier</i>—would not sanction it. Up hill and down the big +roadster raced, devouring the interspaces, and at the topping of the +last of the ridges the young woman opened the small tool-box in the +dividing arm between the seats and showed her reckless driver a large +and serviceable army automatic snugly holstered under the lid.</p> + +<p>"Daddy always keeps it there for his night drives on the horse ranges," +she explained. But Smith was shaking his head.</p> + +<p>"We're not going to need anything of that sort," he assured her, and the +racing search for three men and a two-horse team was continued.</p> + +<p>Beyond the final hill, in a small, low-lying swale which was well hidden +from any point of view in the vicinity of the distant dam, they came +upon the interlopers. There were three men and two horses and a covered +wagon, as Martin's telephone message had catalogued them. The horses +were still in the traces, and just beyond the wagon a long, narrow +parallelogram, of the length and breadth of a legal mining claim, had +been marked out by freshly driven stakes. In one end of the +parallelogram two of the men were digging perfunctorily, while the third +was tacking the legal notice on a bit of board nailed to one of the +stakes.</p> + +<p>Smith sent the gray car rocketing down into the swale, brought it to a +stand with a thrust of the brakes, and jumped out. Once more the +primitive Stone Age man in him, which had slept so long and so quietly +under the Lawrenceville conventionalities, was joyously pitching the +barriers aside.</p> + +<p>"It's moving day for you fellows," he announced cheerfully, picking the +biggest of the three as the proper subject for the order giving. "You're +on the Timanyoni Ditch Company's land, and you know it. Pile into that +wagon and fade away!"</p> + +<p>The big man's answer was a laugh, pointed, doubtless, by the fact that +the order giver was palpably unarmed. But on second thought he began to +supplement the laugh with an oath. Smith's right arm shot out, and when +the blow landed there were only two left to close in on him. In such +sudden hostilities the advantages are all with the beginner. Having +superior reach and a good bit more skill than either of the two +tacklers, Smith held his own until he could get in a few more of the +smashing right-handers, but in planting them he took punishment enough +to make him Berserk-mad and so practically invincible. There was a +fierce mingling of arms, legs, and bodies, sufficiently terrifying, one +would suppose, to a young woman sitting calmly in an automobile a +hundred yards away; but she neither cried out nor attempted to go to the +rescue with the weapon which it seemed as if Smith might be needing.</p> + +<p>The struggle was short in just proportion to its vigor, and at the end +of it two of the trespassers were knocked out, and Smith was dragging +the third over to the wagon, into which he presently heaved the man as +if he had been a sack of meal. Miss Baldwin, sitting in the car, saw her +ally dive into the covered wagon and come out with a pair of +Winchesters. Pausing only long enough to smash the guns, one after the +other, over the wagon-wheel, he started back after the two other men. +They were not waiting to be carried to the wagon; they were up and +running in a wide semicircle to reach their hope of retreat unslain, if +that might be. It was all very brutal and barbarous, no doubt, but the +colonel's daughter was Western born and bred, and she clapped her hands +and laughed in sheer enthusiasm when she saw Smith make a show of +chasing the circling runners.</p> + +<p>He did not return to her until after he had pulled up the freshly driven +stakes and thrown them away, and by that time the wagon, with the horses +lashed to a keen gallop, was disappearing over the crest of the northern +ridge.</p> + +<p>"That's one way to get rid of them, isn't it?" said the emancipated bank +man, jocosely, upon taking his place in the car to cramp it for the +turn. "Was that something like the notion you had in mind?"</p> + +<p>"Mercy, no!" she rejoined. And then: "Are you sure you are not hurt?"</p> + +<p>"Not worth mentioning," he evaded. "Those duffers couldn't hurt anybody, +so long as they couldn't get to their guns."</p> + +<p>"But you have saved the company at your own expense. They will be sure +to have you arrested."</p> + +<p>"We won't cross that bridge until we come to it," he returned. "And, +besides, there were no witnesses. <i>You</i> didn't see anything."</p> + +<p>"Of course, I didn't; not the least little thing in the world!" she +agreed, laughing with him.</p> + +<p>"I thought not. There were too many of us for any single eye-witness to +get more than the general effect." Then, in easy assertion of his victor +rights: "If we were back in the country from which I have lately escaped +it would be proper for me to ask your permission to drive you safely +home. Since we are not, I shall assume the permission and do it anyway."</p> + +<p>"Oh, is that necessary?" she asked, meaning, as he took it, nothing more +than comradely deprecation at putting him to the trouble of it.</p> + +<p>"Not absolutely necessary, perhaps, but decently prudent. You might drop +me opposite the dam, but you'd have to pass those fellows somewhere on +the way and they might try to make it unpleasant for you."</p> + +<p>She made no further comment, and he sent the car spinning along over the +hills to the westward. A mile short of the trestle river crossing they +overtook and passed the wagon. Because he had the colonel's daughter +with him, Smith put on a burst of speed and so gave the claim-jumpers no +chance to provoke another battle. With the possible unpleasantnesses +thus left in the rear, Smith knew well enough that there was really no +reason for his going any farther than the spur-track trestle. None the +less, he held to his announced determination, driving briskly down the +north-side river road and on toward the grass-land ranches.</p> + +<p>In the maze of cross-roads opposite the little city on the south bank of +the river, Smith was out of his reckoning, and was obliged to ask his +companion to direct him.</p> + +<p>"I thought you weren't ever going to say anything any more," she sighed, +in mock despair. "Take this road to the right."</p> + +<p>"I can't talk and drive a speed-wagon at the same time," he told her, +twisting the gray car into the road she had indicated, and he made the +assertion good by covering the four remaining miles in the same +preoccupied fashion.</p> + +<p>There was a reason, of a sort, for his silence; two of them, to be +exact. For one, he was troubled by that haunting sense of familiarity +which was still trying to tell him that this was not his first meeting +with Colonel Baldwin's daughter; and the other was much bigger, and more +depressing. Though he was continually assuring himself that he had +buried the former bank clerk and all of his belongings in a deep grave, +some of the bank-clerk convictions still refused to remain decently in +the coffin. One of these—and it had been daggering him sharply for the +past half-hour—was the realization that in breaking with his past, he +had broken also with the world of women—good women—at least to the +extent of ever asking one of them to marry him.</p> + +<p>Truly, though shadows are insubstantial things for the greater part, +there is one exception. The shadow of a crime may involve both the +innocent and the guilty quite as effectually as the thing itself, and +Smith saw himself shut out automatically from the married beatitudes.... +He pushed the thought aside, coming back to the other one—the puzzle of +familiarity—when Miss Baldwin pointed to a transplanted Missouri farm +mansion, with a columned portico, standing in a grove of cottonwoods on +the left-hand side of the road, telling him it was Hillcrest.</p> + +<p>There was a massive stone portal fronting the road, and when he got down +to open the gates the young woman took the wheel and drove through; +whereupon, he decided that it was time for him to break away, and said +so.</p> + +<p>"But how will you get back to the camp?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I have my two legs yet, and the walking isn't bad."</p> + +<p>"No; but you might meet those men again."</p> + +<p>"That is the least of my troubles."</p> + +<p>Miss Corona Baldwin, like the Missouri colonel, her father, came upon +moments now and then when she had the ultimate courage of her impulses.</p> + +<p>"I should have said you hadn't a trouble in the world," she asserted, +meeting his gaze level-eyed.</p> + +<p>The polite paraphrases of the coffined period were slipping to the end +of his tongue, but he set his teeth upon them and said, instead: "That's +all you know about it. What if I should tell you that you've been +driving this morning with an escaped convict?"</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't believe it," she said calmly.</p> + +<p>"Well, you haven't—not quite," he returned, adding the qualifying +phrase in sheer honesty.</p> + +<p>She had untied her veil and was asking him hospitably if he wouldn't +come in and meet her mother. Something in the way she said it, some +little twist of the lips or look of the eyes, touched the spring of +complete recognition and the familiarity puzzle vanished instantly.</p> + +<p>"You forget that I am a workingman," he smiled. "My gang in the quarry +will think I've found a bottle somewhere." And then: "Did you ever lose +a glove, Miss Baldwin—a white kid with a little hole in one finger?"</p> + +<p>"Dozens of them," she admitted; "and most of them had holes, I'm afraid. +But what has that got to do with your coming in and meeting mamma and +letting her thank you for saving my life?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing at all, of course," he hastened to say; and with that he bade +her good-by rather abruptly and turned his back upon the transplanted +Missouri mansion, muttering to himself as he closed the portal gates +behind him: "'Baldwin,' of course! What an ass I was not to remember the +name! And now I've got the other half of it, too; it's 'Corona.'"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2> + +<h3>Timanyoni Ditch</h3> + + +<p>Smith had his vote of thanks from Colonel Dexter Baldwin in person late +in the afternoon of the day following the summary eviction of the sham +mine locators in the upper reservoir; presidential thanks for his prompt +defense of the company's interests, and a warm outhanding of fatherly +gratitude for the rescue at the unloading side-track. The vote was +passed in Williams's sheet-iron office at the dam, the colonel having +driven out to the camp for the express purpose; and the chief of +construction himself was not present.</p> + +<p>"You've loaded us up with a tolerably heavy obligation, Smith—Corry's +mother and me," was the way the colonel summed up in the personal field. +"If you hadn't been on deck and strictly on the job at that railroad +crossing yesterday morning——"</p> + +<p>"Don't mention it, Colonel," Smith broke in, protesting honestly as +plain "John" where a "J. Montague" might have made self-gratulatory +capital. "There is only one thing in this world more onerous than owing +an obligation, and that is the feeling that you've got to live up to +one. I did nothing more than any man would have done for any woman. You +know it, and I know it. Let's leave it that way and forget it."</p> + +<p>The tall Missourian's laugh was entirely approbative.</p> + +<p>"I like that," he said. "It's a good, man-fashion way of looking at it. +Corry wanted me to tell her what I was going to say to you, and I said +I'd be hanged if I knew. I owe you one for making it easy. You know how +I feel about it—how any father would feel; and that's enough."</p> + +<p>"Plenty," was the brief rejoinder.</p> + +<p>"But there's another chapter to it that neither of us can cross out; +you'll have to come out to the ranch and let Corry's mother have a hack +at you," Baldwin went on. "I couldn't figure you out of that if I should +try. And now about those claim-jumpers: I suppose you didn't know any of +them by name?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Corry says you gave them the time of their lives. By George, I wish I'd +been there to see!" and the colonel slapped his leg and laughed. "Did +they look like the real thing—sure-enough prospectors?"</p> + +<p>"They looked like a bunch of hired assassins," said Smith, with a grin. +"It's some more of the interference, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>The colonel's square jaw settled into the fighting angle.</p> + +<p>"How much do you know about this business mix-up of ours, Smith?" he +asked.</p> + +<p>"All that Williams could tell me in a little heart-to-heart talk we had +the other day."</p> + +<p>"You agreed with him that there was a tolerably big nigger in the +wood-pile, didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"I had already gathered that much from the camp gossip."</p> + +<p>"Well, it's so. We're just about as helpless as a bunch of cattle in a +sink-hole," was the ranchman president's confirmation of the camp +guesses. "As long as it was a straightaway stunt of buying land and +building a dam and digging a few ditches, we were in the fight. We knew +what we wanted, and we had the money to go out and buy it. But now it +looks as if we were aiming to get it where the chicken got the cleaver. +If our hunch about the Escalante irrigation trust is right, we are not +only going to lose our money and our work; we've run slap up against a +proposition that will shut us out of the water altogether and force us +to buy it of these Eastern sharks—at their own price. When it comes to +that, we may as well make 'em a present of the entire Little Creek +district. They can take it whenever they have a mind to."</p> + +<p>Smith was thinking of the young woman with the resolute slaty-gray eyes +when he said: "That is, of course, if you lie down and let them put the +steam-roller over you. But you're not going to do that, are you?"</p> + +<p>Baldwin shook his head as one who will not permit himself to minimize a +hazard.</p> + +<p>"Keep that notion of the cattle in a sink-hole in front of you, Smith, +and you'll get a pretty fair idea of the chances. What in the name of +the great horn spoon can we do—more than we have done?"</p> + +<p>"There are a number of things that might be done," said Smith, falling +back reflectively upon the presumably dead and buried bank-cashier part +of him. "In the first place, these trust people can't take your dam and +your ditch right of way until after they have bought up a voting control +of your stock. It is very pointedly up to you and your fellow +stockholders to say whether or not you are going to let them scare or +force you into selling, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"I reckon maybe it is. But two of our men have already sold out, and +more will follow. These Eastern sharks 've got the bulge on us; they +have the money, and we're just about as good as dead broke."</p> + +<p>"Of course," said the younger man. "That was part of the game; to swamp +you with costly lawsuits, use up your capital, and break your credit. +It's done every day in business, and in a thousand different ways, some +of them pure robberies, but most of them legally defensible. You folks +have made the mistake of letting it go too far on too small a +capitalization. You're left without a fighting fund. Still, while there +is life there is always hope. And if you can manage to stay in the game +and play it out, there is big money in it for all of you; enough to make +it well worth while for you to put up the fight of your lives."</p> + +<p>"Big money?—you mean in saving our investment?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; not at all; in cinching the other fellows," Smith put in +genially. "As Williams explained it to me, there is the biggest kind of +a killing in it for you people, if you can hold on and win out."</p> + +<p>Colonel Dexter Baldwin lifted his soft hat and ran his fingers through +his grizzled hair.</p> + +<p>"Say, Smith; you mustn't forget that I'm from Missouri," he said half +quizzically.</p> + +<p>"But I shouldn't think you'd need to be 'shown' in this particular +instance," was the smiling rejoinder. "Why are these Eastern capitalists +spending their good money on a scheme to freeze out your little handful +of ranch owners, Colonel? Surely you've asked yourself that question +long before this, haven't you?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes; it's because they want to get something for nothing, isn't +it?"</p> + +<p>"In a general sense, of course, that is the basis of all crooked +business schemes. But the chance to sell you people water from your own +dam isn't the only thing or the main thing in this case; that part of it +is merely incidental. Didn't Williams tell me that they are obliged to +have this dam site, or, at least, one as high up the river as this, in +order to get the water over to their newly alienated grant in the +western half of the park?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know what Bartley told you, but that is the fact."</p> + +<p>"No way of dodging that, is there? They couldn't possibly build a dam of +their own, lower down, and make it work, could they? I'm asking because +what I don't know about irrigation engineering would fill a Carnegie +library in a good-sized little city."</p> + +<p>"You've got it straight," said the colonel. "A good part of the +Escalante Grant lies higher than our Little Creek ranches. From any +point farther down the river than this, they'd have to pump the water to +get it up to the Escalante mesas."</p> + +<p>"Very good. Then they're simply obliged to have your dam, or—Don't you +see the alternative now, Colonel?"</p> + +<p>"Heavens to Betsy!" exclaimed the breeder of fine horses, bringing his +fist down upon Williams's desk with a crash that made the ink-bottles +dance. And then: "The Lord have mercy! What a lot of fence-posts we +are—the whole kit and b'ilin' of us! If they get the dam, they sell +water to us; if they don't get it, <i>we sell it to them</i>!"</p> + +<p>"That's it, exactly," Smith put in quietly. "And I should say that your +stake in the game is worth the stiffest fight you can make to save it. +Don't you agree with me?"</p> + +<p>"Great Jehu! I should say so!" ejaculated the amateur trust fighter. +Then he broke down the barriers masterfully. "That settles it, Smith. +You can't wiggle out of it now, no way or shape. You've got to come over +into Macedonia and help us. Williams tells me you refused him, but you +can't refuse me."</p> + +<p>If Smith hesitated, it was only partly on his own account. He was +thinking again of the young woman with the honest eyes when he said: "Do +you know why I turned Williams down when he spoke to me the other day?"</p> + +<p>Colonel Dexter Baldwin had his faults, like other men, but they were not +those of indirection.</p> + +<p>"I reckon I do know, son," he said, with large tolerance. "You're a +'lame duck' of some sort; you've made that pretty plain in your talks +with Williams, haven't you? But that's our lookout. Bartley is ready to +swear that you are not a crooked crook, whatever else it is that you're +dodging for, and if we want to shut our eyes to the way you won't loosen +up about yourself.... Besides, there's yesterday; and what you did down +at the railroad crossing and out yonder in the hills——"</p> + +<p>"We agreed to forget the yesterday incidents," the lame duck reminded +him quickly. And then: "I ought to say 'No,' Colonel Baldwin; say it +straight out, and stick to it. If I don't say it—if I ask for a little +time—it is because I want to weigh up a few things—the things I can't +talk about to you or to Williams. If, in the end, I should be fool +enough to say 'Yes,' it will be merely because, the way things have +turned out with me, I'd a little rather fight than eat. But even in that +case it is only fair to you to say that, right in the middle of the +scrap, I may fall to pieces on you."</p> + +<p>Baldwin was too shrewd to try to push his advantage when there was, or +seemed to be, a chance that the desired end was as good as half +attained. And it was a purely manful prompting that made him get up and +thrust out his hand to the young fellow who was trying to be as frank as +he dared to be.</p> + +<p>"Put it there, John," he said heartily. "Nobody in the Timanyoni is +going to pry into you an inch farther than you care to let 'em; and if +you get into trouble by helping us, you can count on at least one backer +who will stand by you until the cows come home. Now then, hunt up your +coat, and we'll drive over to Hillcrest for a bite to eat. I know you +won't be easy in your mind until you've had it out with Corry's +mother—about that little railroad trick—and you may as well do it now +and have it over with. No; excuses don't go, this time. I had my orders +from the Missus before I left town, and I know better than to go home +without you. Never mind the commissary khaki. It won't be the first time +that the working-clothes have figured at the Hillcrest table—not by a +long shot."</p> + +<p>And because he did not know how to frame a refusal that would refuse, +Smith got his coat and went.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2> + +<h3>Relapsings</h3> + + +<p>Given his choice between the two, Smith would cheerfully have faced +another hand-to-hand battle with the claim-jumpers in preference to even +so mild a dip into the former things as the dinner at Hillcrest +foreshadowed. The reluctance was not forced; it was real. The primitive +man in him did not wish to be entertained. On the fast auto drive down +to Brewster, across the bridge, and out to the Baldwin ranch Smith's +humor was frankly sardonic. Dinners, social or grateful, were such +childish things; so little worth the time and attention of a real man +with work to do!</p> + +<p>It mattered nothing that he had lived twenty-five years and more without +suspecting this childishness of things social. That door was closed and +another had been opened; beyond the new opening the prospect was as yet +rather chaotic and rugged, to be sure, but the color scheme, if somewhat +raw, was red-blood vivid, and the horizons were illimitable. Smith sat +up in the mechanician's seat and straightened the loose tie under the +soft collar of his working-shirt, smiling grimly as his thought leaped +back to the dress clothes he had left lying on the bed in his +Lawrenceville quarters. He cherished a small hope that Mrs. Baldwin +might be shocked at the soft shirt and the khaki. It would serve her +right for taking a man from his job.</p> + +<p>The colonel did not try to make him talk, and the fifteen-mile flight +down the river and across into the hills was shortly accomplished. At +the stone-pillared portal he got out to open the gates. Down the road a +little distance a horseman was coming at a smart gallop—at least, the +rider figured as a man for the gate-opener until he saw that it was +Corona Baldwin, booted and spurred and riding a man's saddle.</p> + +<p>Smith let the gray car go on its way up the drive without him and held +the gates open for the horse and its rider.</p> + +<p>"So you weakened, did you? I'm disappointed in you," was Miss Baldwin's +greeting. "You've made me lose my bet with Colonel-daddy. I said you +wouldn't come."</p> + +<p>"I had no business to come," he answered morosely. "But your father +wouldn't let me off."</p> + +<p>"Of course, he wouldn't; daddy never lets anybody off, unless they owe +him money. Where are your evening clothes?"</p> + +<p>Smith let the lever of moroseness slip back to the grinning notch. "They +are about two thousand miles away, and probably in some second-hand shop +by this time. What makes you think I ever wore a dress suit?" He had +closed the gates and was walking beside her horse up the driveway.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I just guessed it," she returned lightly, "and if you'll hold your +breath, I'll guess again."</p> + +<p>"Don't," he laughed. "You are going to say that at some time in my life +I knew better than to accept anybody's dinner invitation undecorated. +Maybe there was such a time, but if so, I am trying to forget it."</p> + +<p>Her laugh was good-naturedly derisive.</p> + +<p>"You'll forget it just so long as you are able to content yourself in a +construction camp. I know the symptoms. There are times when I feel as +if I'd simply blow up if I couldn't put on the oldest things I've got +and go and gallop for miles on Shy, and other times when I want to put +on all the pretty things I have and look soulful and talk nonsense."</p> + +<p>"But you've been doing that—the galloping, I mean—all your life, +haven't you?"</p> + +<p>"Not quite. There were three wasted years in a finishing school back +East. It is when I get to thinking too pointedly about them that I have +to go out to the stable and saddle Shy."</p> + +<p>They had reached the steps of the pillared portico, and a negro +stable-boy, one of the colonel's importations from Missouri, was waiting +to take Miss Baldwin's horse. Smith knew how to help a woman down from a +side-saddle; but the two-stirruped rig stumped him. The young woman saw +his momentary embarrassment and laughed again as she swung out of her +saddle to stand beside him on the step.</p> + +<p>"The women don't ride that way in your part of the country?" she +queried.</p> + +<p>"Not yet."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry for them," she scoffed. And then: "Come on in and meet mamma; +you look as if you were dreading it, and, as Colonel-daddy says, it's +always best to have the dreaded things over with."</p> + +<p>Smith did not find his meeting with the daughter's mother much of a +trial. She was neither shocked at his clothes nor disposed to be +hysterically grateful over the railroad-crossing incident. A large, +calm-eyed, sensible matron, some ten or a dozen years younger than the +colonel, Smith put her, and with an air of refinement which was +reflected in every interior detail of her house.</p> + +<p>Smith had not expected to find the modern conveniences in a Timanyoni +ranch-house, but they were there. The room to which the Indian house-boy +led him had a brass bedstead and a private bath, and the rugs, if not +true Tabriz, were a handsome imitation. Below stairs it was much the +same. The dining-room was a beamed baronial hall, with a rough-stone +fireplace big enough to take a cord-wood length, and on the hearth +andirons which might have come down from the Elizabethan period. It was +mid-June and the fireplace was empty, but its winter promise was so +hospitable that Smith caught himself hoping that he might stay out of +jail long enough to be able to see it in action.</p> + +<p>The dinner was strictly a family meal, with the great mahogany table +shortened to make it convenient for four. There were cut glass and +silver and snowy napery, and Smith was glad that the colonel did most of +the talking. Out of the past a thousand tentacles were reaching up to +drag him back into the net of the conventional. With the encompassments +to help, it was so desperately easy to imagine himself once more the +"débutantes' darling," as Westfall had often called him in friendly +derision. When the table-talk became general, he found himself joining +in, and always upon the lighter side.</p> + +<p>By the time the dessert came on, the transformation was complete. It was +J. Montague, the cotillon leader, who sat back in his chair and told +amiable little after-dinner stones, ignoring the colonel's heartinesses, +and approving himself in the eyes of his hostess as a dinner guest of +the true urban quality. Now and then he surprised a look in the younger +woman's eyes which was not wholly sympathetic, he thought; but the +temptation to show her that he was not at all the kind of man she had +been taking him for was too strong to be resisted. Since she had seen +fit to charge him with a dress-clothes past he would show her that he +could live up to it.</p> + +<p>Contrary to Smith's expectations, the colonel did not usurp him +immediately after dinner. A gorgeous sunset was flaming over the western +Timanyonis and there was time for a quiet stroll and a smoke under the +silver-leafed cottonwoods with his hostess for a companion. In the +little talk and walk, Smith found himself drawn more and more to the +calm-eyed, well-bred matron who had given a piquant Corona to an +otherwise commonplace world. He found her exceedingly well-informed; +she had read the books that he had read, she had heard the operas that +he had always wanted to hear, and if any other bond were needed, he +found it in the fact that she was a native of his own State.</p> + +<p>Under such leadings the relapse became an obsession. He abandoned +himself shamelessly to the J. Montague attitude, and the events crowding +so thickly between the tramp-like flight from Lawrenceville and the +present were as if they had not been. Mrs. Baldwin saw nothing of the +rude fighter of battles her daughter had drawn for her, and wondered a +little. She knew Corona's leanings, and was not without an amused +impression that Corona would not find this later Smithsonian phase +altogether to her liking.</p> + +<p>A little later the daughter, who had been to the horse corral with her +father, came to join them, and the mother, smiling inwardly, saw her +impression confirmed. Smith was talking frivolously of <i>thés dansants</i> +and dinner-parties and club meets; whereat the mother smiled and Miss +Corona's lip curled scornfully.</p> + +<p>Smith got what he had earned, good measure, pressed down, shaken +together and running over, a few minutes after Mrs. Baldwin had gone in, +leaving him to finish his cigar under the pillared portico with Corona +to keep him company. He never knew just what started it, unless it was +his careful placing of a chair for the young woman and his +deferential—and perfectly natural—pause, standing, until she was +seated.</p> + +<p>"Do, for pity's sake, sit down!" she broke out, half petulantly. And +when he had obeyed: "Well, you've spoiled it all, good and hard. +Yesterday I thought you were a real man, but now you are doing your best +to tell me that you were only shamming."</p> + +<p>Smith was still so far besotted as to be unable to imagine wherein he +had offended.</p> + +<p>"Really?" he said. "I'm sorry to have disappointed you. All I need now +to make me perfectly happy is to be told what I have done."</p> + +<p>"It isn't what you've done; it's what you are," she retorted.</p> + +<p>"Well, what am I?" he asked patiently.</p> + +<p>Her laugh was mocking. "You are politely good-natured, for one thing; +but that wasn't what I meant. You have committed the unpardonable sin by +turning out to be just one of the ninety-nine, after all. If you knew +women the least little bit in the world, you would know that we are +always looking for the hundredth man."</p> + +<p>Under his smile, Smith was searching the Lawrenceville experience +records minutely in the effort to find something that would even +remotely match this. The effort was a complete failure. But he was +beginning to understand what this astonishingly frank young woman meant. +She had seen the depth of his relapse, and was calmly deriding him for +it. A saving sense of humor came to remind him of his own sardonic +musings on the silent drive from the camp with the colonel; how he had +railed inwardly at the social trivialities.</p> + +<p>"You may pile it on as thickly as you please," he said, the good-natured +smile twisting itself into the construction-camp grin. Then he added: "I +may not be the hundredth man, but you, at least, are the hundredth +woman."</p> + +<p>"Why? Because I say the first thing that asks to be said?"</p> + +<p>"That, and some other things," he rejoined guardedly. Then, with malice +aforethought: "Is it one of the requirements that your centennial man +should behave himself like a boor at a dinner-table, and talk shop and +eat with his knife?"</p> + +<p>"You know that isn't what I meant. Manners don't make the man. It's what +you talked about—the trumpery little social things that you found your +keenest pleasure in talking about. I don't know what has ever taken you +out to a construction camp and persuaded you to wear khaki. Perhaps it +was only what Colonel-daddy calls a 'throw-back.' I don't believe you +ever did a day's hard work in your life before you came to the +Timanyoni."</p> + +<p>Smith looked at his hands. They were large and shapely, but the only +callouses they could show were accusingly recent.</p> + +<p>"If you mean manual labor, you are right," he admitted thoughtfully. +"Just the same, I think you are a little hard on me."</p> + +<p>It was growing dark by this time, and the stars were coming out. Some +one had turned the lights on in the room the windows of which opened +upon the portico, and the young woman's chair was so placed that he +could still see her face. She was smiling rather more amicably when she +said:</p> + +<p>"You mustn't take it too hard. It isn't you, personally, you know; it's +the type. I've met it before. I didn't meet any other kind during my +three years in the boarding-school; nice, pleasant young gentlemen, as +immaculately dressed as their pocketbooks would allow, up in all the +latest little courtesies and tea-table shop-talk. They were all men, I +suppose, but I'm afraid a good many of them had never found it out—will +never find it out. I've been calling it environment; I don't like to +admit that the race is going down-hill."</p> + +<p>By this time the sardonic humor was once more in full possession and he +was enjoying her keenly.</p> + +<p>"Go on," he said. "This is my night off."</p> + +<p>"I've said enough; too much, perhaps. But a little while ago at the +dinner-table, and again out there in the grove where you were walking +with mamma, you reminded me so forcibly of a man whom I met just for a +part of one evening about a year ago."</p> + +<p>"Tell me about him," he urged.</p> + +<p>"I was coming back from school and I stopped over in a small town in the +Middle West to visit some old friends of mamma's. There were young +people in the family, and one evening they gave a lawn-party for me. I +met dozens of the pleasant young gentlemen, more than I had ever seen +together at any one time before; clerks and book-keepers, and rich +farmers' sons who had been to college."</p> + +<p>"But the man of whom I am reminding you?"</p> + +<p>"He was one of them. He drove over from some neighboring town in his +natty little automobile and gave me fully an hour of his valuable time. +He made me perfectly furious!"</p> + +<p>"Poor you!" laughed Smith; but he was thankful that the camp sunburn and +his four weeks' beard were safeguarding his identity. "I hope you didn't +tell him so. He was probably doing his level best to give you a good +time in the only definition of the term that the girls of his own set +had ever given him. But why the fury in his case in particular?"</p> + +<p>"Just because, I suppose. He was rather good-looking, you know; and down +underneath all the airy little things he persisted in talking about it +seemed as if I could now and then get tiny glimpses of something that +might be a real man, a strong man. I remember he told me he was a bank +cashier and that he danced. He was quite hopeless, of course. Without +being what you would call conceited, you could see that the crust was so +thick that nothing short of an earthquake would ever break it."</p> + +<p>"But the earthquakes do come, once in a blue moon," he said, still +smiling at her. "Let's get it straight. You are not trying to tell me +that you object to decent clothes and good manners <i>per se</i>, are you?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all; I like them both. But the hundredth man won't let either +his clothes or his manners wear him; he'll wear <i>them</i>."</p> + +<p>"Still, you think the type of man you have been describing is entirely +hopeless; that was the word you used, I believe."</p> + +<p>The colonel was coming out, and he had stopped in the doorway to light a +long-stemmed pipe. The young woman got up and fluffed her hair with the +ends of her fingers—a little gesture which Smith remembered, recalling +it from the night of the far-away lawn-party.</p> + +<p>"Daddy wants you, and I'll have to vanish," she said; "but I'll answer +your question before I go. Types are always hopeless; it's only the +hundredth man who isn't. It's a great pity you couldn't go on whipping +claim-jumpers all the rest of your life, Mr. Smith. Don't you think so? +Good night. We'll meet again at breakfast. Daddy isn't going to let you +get away short of a night's lodging, I know."</p> + +<p>Two cigars for Smith and four pipes for the colonel further along, the +tall Missourian rose out of the split-bottomed chair which he had drawn +up to face the guest's and rapped the ashes from the bowl of the +corn-cob into the palm of his hand.</p> + +<p>"I think you've got it all now, Smith, every last crook and turn of it, +and I reckon you're tired enough to run away to bed. You see just where +we stand, and how little we've got to go on. If I've about talked an arm +off of you, it's for your own good. I don't know how you've made up your +mind, or if you've made it up at all; but it was only fair to show you +how little chance we've got on anything short of a miracle. I wouldn't +want to see you butt your head against a stone wall, and that's about +what it looks like to me."</p> + +<p>Smith took a turn up and down the stone-flagged floor of the portico +with his hands behind him. Truly, the case of Timanyoni Ditch was +desperate; even more desperate than he had supposed. Figuring as the +level-headed bank cashier of the former days, he told himself soberly +that no man in his senses would touch it with a ten-foot pole. Then the +laughing gibes of the hundredth woman—gibes which had cut far deeper +than she had imagined—came back to send the blood surging through his +veins. It would be worth something to be able to work the miracle the +colonel had spoken of; and afterward....</p> + +<p>Colonel Dexter Baldwin was still tapping his palm absently with the +pipe when Smith came back and said abruptly:</p> + +<p>"I have decided, Colonel. I'll start in with you to-morrow morning, and +we'll pull this mired scheme of yours out of the mud, or break a leg +trying to. But you mustn't forget what I told you out at the camp. Right +in the middle of things I may go rotten on you and drop out."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2> + +<h3>The Sick Project</h3> + + +<p>Brewster, owing its beginnings to the completion of the Nevada Short +Line, and the fact that the railroad builders designated it as a +division headquarters, had grown into city-charter size and importance +with the opening of the gold-mines in the Gloria district, and the +transformation of the surrounding park grass-lands into cultivated +ranches. To the growth and prosperity of the intermountain city a summer +hotel on the shore of Lake Topaz—reached only by stage from +Brewster—had added its influence; and since the hotel brought people +with well-lined pocketbooks, there was a field for the enthusiastic +real-estate promoters whose offices filled all the odd corners in the +Hophra House block.</p> + +<p>In one of these offices, on the morning following Smith's first dinner +at Hillcrest, a rather caustic colloquy was in progress between the man +whose name appeared in gilt lettering on the front windows and one of +his unofficial assistants. Crawford Stanton, he of the window name, was +a man of many personalities. To summer visitors with money to invest, he +was the genial promoter, and if there were suggestions of iron hardness +in the sharp jaw and in the smoothly shaven face and flinty eyes, there +was also a pleasant reminder of Eastern business methods and alertness +in the promoter's manner. But Lanterby, tilting uneasily in the +"confidential" chair at the desk-end, knew another and more biting side +of Mr. Stanton, as a hired man will.</p> + +<p>"Good Gad! do you sit there and tell me that the three of them let that +hobo of Williams's push them off the map?" Stanton was demanding +raucously. "I thought you had at least sense enough to last you +overnight. I told you to pick out a bunch with sand—fellows that could +hang on and put up a fight if they had to. And you say all this happened +the day before yesterday: how does it come that you are just now +reporting it?"</p> + +<p>The hard-faced henchman in the tilting chair made such explanations as +he could.</p> + +<p>"Boogerfield and his two partners 've been hidin' out somewhere; I allow +they was plumb ashamed to come in and tell how they'd let one man run +'em off. You'd think that curly-whiskered helper o' Williams's was a +holy terror, to hear Boogerfield talk. They'd left their artillery in +the chuck-wagon, and they say he come at 'em barehanded—with the +colonel's girl settin' in the ortamobile a-lookin' on. Boogerfield wants +to know who's goin' to pay him for them two Winchesters that His +Whiskers bu'sted over the wagon-wheel."</p> + +<p>Mr. Crawford Stanton was carelessly unconcerned about the claim-jumpers' +loss, either in gear or skin.</p> + +<p>"Damn the Winchesters!" he said morosely. "What do you know about this +fellow Smith? Who is he, and where did he come from?"</p> + +<p>Lanterby told all that was known of Smith, and had no difficulty in +compressing it into a single sentence. Stanton leaned back in his chair +and the lids of the flinty eyes narrowed thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"There's a lot more to it than that," he said incisively at the end of +the reflective pause. Then he added a curt order: "Make it your job to +find out."</p> + +<p>Lanterby moved uneasily in his insecure seat, but before he could speak, +his employer went on again, changing the topic abruptly, but still +keeping within the faultfinding boundaries.</p> + +<p>"What sort of a screw has gone loose in your deal with the railroad +men? I thought you told me you had it fixed with the yard crews so that +Williams's material would have a chance to season a while in the +Brewster yards before it was delivered. They got two cars of cement and +one of steel the day before yesterday, and the delivery was made within +three hours after the stuff came in from the East."</p> + +<p>Again Lanterby tried to explain.</p> + +<p>"Dougherty, the yardmaster, took the bank roll I slipped him, all right +enough, and promised to help out. But he's scared of Maxwell. He told me +this mornin' that Colonel Baldwin has been kickin' like blazes to +Maxwell about the delays."</p> + +<p>"Maxwell is a thick-headed ass!" exploded the faultfinder. "I've done +everything on earth except to tell him outright in so many words that +his entire railroad outfit, from President Brewster down, is lined up on +the other side of the fight. But go on with your dickering. Jerk +Dougherty into line and tell him that nothing is going to happen to him +if he doesn't welsh on us. Hint to him that we can pull a longer string +than Dick Maxwell can, if it comes to a show-down. Now go out and find +Shaw. I want him, and I want him right now."</p> + +<p>The hard-faced man who looked as if he might be a broken-down gambler +unjointed his leg-hold upon the tilted chair and went out; and a few +minutes later another of Stanton's pay-roll men drifted in. He was a +young fellow with sleepy eyes and cigarette stains on his fingers, and +he would have passed readily for a railroad clerk out of a job, which +was what he really was.</p> + +<p>"Well?" snapped Stanton when the incomer had taken the chair lately +vacated by Lanterby.</p> + +<p>"I shadowed the colonel, as you told me to," said the young man. "He +went up to Red Butte to see if he couldn't rope in some of the +old-timers on his ditch project. He was trying to sell some treasury +stock. His one-horse company is about out of money. Mickle, a clerk in +Kinzie's bank, tells me that the ditch company's balance is drawn down +to a few thousand dollars, with no more coming in."</p> + +<p>"Did the colonel succeed in making a raise in Red Butte?"</p> + +<p>"Nary," said the spy nonchalantly. "Drake, the banker up there, was his +one best bet; but I got a man I know to give Drake a pointer, and he +curled up like a hedgehog when you poke it with a sharp stick."</p> + +<p>"That's better. The colonel came back yesterday, didn't he?"</p> + +<p>"Yesterday afternoon. His wife and daughter met him at the +railroad-station with the automobile, and told him something or other +that made him hire old man Shuey to drive the women out home while he +took the roadster and went up to the dam."</p> + +<p>"You went along?" queried Stanton.</p> + +<p>"As soon as I could find somebody to drive me; yes. That wasn't right +away, though; and when I got there I had to leave my buzz-wagon back in +the hills a piece and walk into camp. When I inquired around I found +that the colonel was shut up in Williams's office with a fellow named +Smith. They were finishing up whatever they'd been talking about when I +got a place to listen in; but I heard enough to make me suspect that +something new had broken loose. Just as they were getting ready to quit, +the colonel was saying: 'That settles it, Smith; you've got to come over +into'—I didn't catch the name of the place—'and help us. Williams +tells me you refused him, but you can't refuse me.' There was more of +it, but they had opened the door and I had to skin out. A little later +they drove off together in the colonel's car, coming on through town to +go out to the ranch, I suppose, because Smith didn't show up any more +at the camp."</p> + +<p>Again the gentleman with the sharp jaw took time for narrow-eyed +reflection.</p> + +<p>"You'll have to switch over from the colonel to this fellow Smith for +the present, Shaw," he decided, at length. "Lanterby is supposed to be +on that part of the job, but he's altogether too coarse-handed. I want +to know who Smith is, and where he hails from, and how he comes to be +butting in. Lanterby said at first, and says yet, that he is just a +common hobo tumbling in from the outside. It's pretty evident that +Lanterby has another guess coming. You look him up and do it quick."</p> + +<p>The young man glanced up with a faint warming of avarice in his sleepy +eyes. "It'll most likely run into money—for expenses," he suggested.</p> + +<p>"For graft, you mean," snapped Stanton. Then he had it out with this +second subordinate in crisp English. "I'm onto you with both feet, Shaw; +every crook and turn of you. More than that, I know why you were fired +out of Maxwell's office; you've got sticky fingers. That's all right +with me up to a certain point, but beyond that point you get off. +Understand?"</p> + +<p>Shaw made no answer in direct terms, but if his employer had been +watching the heavy-lidded eyes he might have seen in them the shadow of +a thing much more dangerous than plain dishonesty: a passing shadow of +the fear that makes for treachery when the sharp need for +self-protection arises.</p> + +<p>"I'll try to find out about the hobo," he said, with fair enough +lip-loyalty, and after he had rolled a fresh cigarette he went away to +begin the mining operations which might promise to unearth Smith's +record.</p> + +<p>It was ten o'clock when Shaw left the real-estate office in the Hophra +House block. Half an hour earlier Smith had come to town with the +colonel in the roadster, and the two had shut themselves up in the +colonel's private room in the Timanyoni Ditch Company's town office in +the Barker Building, which was two squares down the street from the +Hophra House. Summoned promptly, Martin, the bookkeeper, had brought in +his statements and balance-sheets, and the new officer, who was as yet +without a title, had struck out his plan of campaign.</p> + +<p>"'Amortization' is the word, Colonel," was Smith's prompt verdict after +he had gone over Martin's summaries. "The best way to get at it now is +to wipe the slate clean and begin over again."</p> + +<p>The ranchman president was chuckling soberly.</p> + +<p>"Once more you'll have to show me, John," he said. "We folks out here in +the hills are not up in all the Wall Street crinkles."</p> + +<p>"You don't know the word? It means to scrap the old machinery to make +room for the new," Smith explained. "In modern business it is the +process of extinguishing a corporation: closing it up and burying it in +another and bigger one, usually. That is what we must do with Timanyoni +Ditch."</p> + +<p>"I'm getting you, a little at a time," said the colonel, taking his +first lesson in high finance as a duck takes to the water. Then he +added: "It won't take much of a lick to kill off the old company, in the +shape it's got into now. How will you work it?"</p> + +<p>Smith had the plan at his fingers' ends. With the daring of all the +perils had come a fresh access of fighting fitness that made him feel as +if he could cope with anything.</p> + +<p>"We must close up the company's affairs and then reorganize promptly +and, with just as little noise as may be, form another company—which we +will call Timanyoni High Line—and let it take over the old outfit, +stock, liabilities, and assets entire. You say your present capital +stock is one hundred thousand dollars; is it all paid in?"</p> + +<p>"Every dollar of it except a little for a few shares of treasury stock +that we've been holding for emergencies. As I told you last night, I +went up to Red Butte and tried to sell that treasury stock to Drake, the +banker; but he wouldn't bite."</p> + +<p>"Which was mighty lucky for us," Smith put in. "It would have queered us +beautifully if he had, and the story had got out that the president of +Timanyoni Ditch had sold a block of treasury stock at thirty-nine."</p> + +<p>"Well, he didn't take it," said the colonel. "He was so blame' chilly +that I like to froze to death before I could get out of the bank."</p> + +<p>"All right; then we'll go on. This new company that I am speaking of +will be capitalized at, say, an even half million. To the present +holders of Timanyoni Ditch we'll give the new stock for the old, share +for share, with a bonus of twenty-five shares of the new stock for every +twenty-five shares of the old surrendered and exchanged. This will be +practically giving the present shareholders two for one. Will that +satisfy them?"</p> + +<p>This time Colonel Dexter Baldwin's smile was grim.</p> + +<p>"You're just juggling now, John, and you know it. Out here on the woolly +edge of things a dollar is just a plain iron dollar, and you can't make +it two merely by calling it so."</p> + +<p>"Never you mind about that," cut in the new financier. "The first rule +of investment is that a dollar is worth just what it will earn in +dividends; no more, and equally no less. You know, and I know, that if +we can pull this thing through there is a barrel of money in it for all +concerned. But we'll skip that part of it and stick to the details. At +two to one for the amortization of the old company we shall still have +something like three hundred thousand dollars treasury stock upon which +to realize for the new capital needed, and that will be amply sufficient +to complete the dam and the ditches and to provide a fighting fund. Now +then, tell me this: how near can we come to placing that treasury stock +right here in Timanyoni Park? In other words, can the money be had here +at any price?"</p> + +<p>"You mean that you don't want to go East to raise it?"</p> + +<p>"I mean that we haven't time. More than that, it's up to us to keep this +thing in the family, so to speak; and the moment we go into other +markets, we are getting over into the enemy's country. I'm not saying +that the money couldn't be raised in New York; but if we should go +there, the trust would have an underhold on us, right from the start."</p> + +<p>"I see," said the colonel, who was indeed seeing many things that his +simple-hearted philosophy had never dreamed of; and then he answered the +direct question. "There is plenty of money right here in the Timanyonis; +not all of it in Brewster, perhaps, but in the country among the Gloria +and Little Butte mine owners, smelter men, and the better class of +ranchmen. Take Dick Maxwell, the railroad superintendent—he's a miner +on the side, you know—he could put ten or twenty thousand more into it +without turning a hair; and so could some of the others."</p> + +<p>Smith nodded. He was getting his second wind now, and the race promised +to be a keen joy.</p> + +<p>"But they would have to be 'shown,' you think?" he suggested. "All +right; we'll proceed to show them. Now we can come down to present +necessities. We've got to keep the work going—and speed it up to the +limit: we ought to double Williams's force at once—put on a night shift +to work by electric light. I took the liberty of telephoning Williams +from Hillcrest this morning while you were reading your newspaper. I +told him to wire advertisements for more labor to the newspapers in +Denver, offering wages high enough to make the thing look attractive."</p> + +<p>The colonel blinked twice and swallowed hard.</p> + +<p>"Say, John," he said, leaning across the table-desk; "you've sure got +your nerve with you. Do you know what our present bank balance happens +to be?"</p> + +<p>"No; I was just coming to that," said the reorganizer, smiling easily. +"How much is it?"</p> + +<p>"It is under five thousand dollars, and a good part of that is owing to +the cement people!"</p> + +<p>"Never mind; don't get nervous," was the reassuring rejoinder. "We are +going to make it bigger in a few minutes, I hope. Who is your banker +here?"</p> + +<p>"Dave Kinzie, of the Brewster City National."</p> + +<p>"Tell me a little something about Mr. Kinzie before we go down to see +him; just brief him for me as a man, I mean."</p> + +<p>The colonel was shaking his head slowly.</p> + +<p>"He's what you might call a twenty-ton optimist, Dave is; solid, a +little slow and sure, but the biggest boomer in the West, if you can +get him started—believes in the resources of the country and all that. +But you can't borrow money from him without security, if that's what +you're aiming to do."</p> + +<p>"Can't we?" smiled the young man who knew banks and bankers. "Let's go +and see. You never know until you try, Colonel; and even then you're not +always dead certain. Take me around and introduce me to this Mr. David +Kinzie—and, hold on; it may be as well to give me a handle of some sort +before we begin to talk money with other people. What are you going to +call me in this new scheme of things?"</p> + +<p>The big Missourian's laugh was a hearty guffaw.</p> + +<p>"Gosh all Friday! the way it's starting out you're the whole works, +Smith! Just name your own name, and we'll cinch it for you."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you've already got a secretary and treasurer?"</p> + +<p>"We had up to a few days ago, before Buck Gardner sold out his stock to +Crawford Stanton."</p> + +<p>"Haven't you had a board meeting since?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but only to accept Gardner's resignation. We didn't elect anybody +else—nobody wanted the place; every last man of 'em shied."</p> + +<p>"Naturally; not seeing any immediate prospects of having anything to +treasure," laughed Smith. "But that will do. You may introduce me to +Kinzie as your acting financial secretary, if you like. Now one more +question: what is Kinzie's attitude toward Timanyoni Ditch?"</p> + +<p>"At first it was all kinds of friendly; he is a stockholder in a small +way, and he's heart and soul for anything that promises to build up the +country, as I told you. But after a while he began to cool down a +little, and now—well, I don't know; I hate to think it of Dave, but I'm +afraid he's leaning the other way, toward these Eastern fellows. Little +things he has let fall, and this last deal in which he tried to cover +Stanton's tracks in the stock-buying from Gardner and Bolling; they all +point that way."</p> + +<p>"That is natural, too," said Smith, whose point of view was always +unobscured in any battle of business. "The big company would be a better +customer for the bank than your little one could ever hope to be. I +guess that's all for the present. If you're ready, we'll go down and +face the music. Take me to the Brewster City National and introduce me +to Mr. Kinzie; then you can stand by and watch the wheels go round."</p> + +<p>"By Janders!" said the colonel with an open smile; "I believe you'd just +as soon tackle a banker as to eat your dinner; and I'd about as soon +take a horsewhipping. Come on; I'll steer you up against Dave, but I'm +telling you right now that the steering is about all you can count on +from me."</p> + +<p>It was while they were crossing the street together and turning down +toward the Alameda Avenue corner where the Brewster City National Bank +windows looked over into the windows of the Hophra House block opposite, +that Mr. Crawford Stanton had his third morning caller, a thick-set +barrel-bodied man with little pig-like eyes, closely cropped hair, a +bristling mustache, and a wooden leg of the home-made sort—a peg with a +hollowed bowl for the bent knee and a slat-like extension to go up the +outside of the leg to be stapled to a leathern belt. Across one of the +swarthy cheeks there was a broad scar that looked, at first sight, like +a dash of blue paint. It was a knife slash got in the battle with +Mexican Ruiz in which the thick-set man had lost his leg. After the +Mexican had brought him down with a bullet, he had added his mark as he +had said he would; laying the big man's cheek open and rubbing the +powder from a chewed cartridge into the wound. Afterward, the men of the +camps called the cripple "Pegleg" or "Blue Pete" indifferently, though +not to his face. For though the fat face was always relaxed in a +good-natured smile, the crippled saloon-keeper was of those who kill +with the knife; and since he could not pursue, he was fain to cajole the +prey within reach.</p> + +<p>Stanton looked up from his desk when the pad-and-click of the cripple's +step came in from the street.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Simms," he said, in curt greeting. "Want to see me?"</p> + +<p>"Uh-huh; for a minute or so. Busy?"</p> + +<p>"Never too busy to talk business. Sit down."</p> + +<p>Simms threw the brim of his soft hat up with a backhanded stroke and +shook his head. "It ain't worth while; and I gotta get back to camp. I +blew in to tell y'u there's a fella out there that needs th' sand-bag."</p> + +<p>"Who is it?"</p> + +<p>"Fella name' Smith. He's showin' 'em how to cut too many +corners—pace-settin', he calls it. First thing they know, they'll get +the concrete up to where the high water won't bu'st it out."</p> + +<p>Stanton's laugh was impatient.</p> + +<p>"Don't make any mistake of that sort, Simms," he said. "<i>We</i> don't want +the dam destroyed; we'd work just as hard as they would to prevent that. +All we want is to have other people think it's likely to go out—think +it hard enough to keep them from putting up any more money. Let that go. +Is there any more fresh talk—among the men?" Stanton prided himself a +little upon the underground wire-pulling which had resulted in putting +Simms on the ground as the keeper of the construction-camp canteen. It +was a fairly original way of keeping a listening ear open for the camp +gossip.</p> + +<p>"Little," said the cripple briefly. "This here blink-blank fella Smith's +been tellin' Williams that I ort to be run off th' reservation; says th' +booze puts the brake on for speed."</p> + +<p>"So it does," agreed Stanton musingly. "But I guess you can stay a while +longer. What do the men say about Smith?"</p> + +<p>"Whole heap o' things. The best guess is that he's a jail-break' from +somewheres back in the States. He ain't no common 'bo; that's a dead +cinch. Gatrow, the quarry foreman, puts it up that he done something he +had to run for."</p> + +<p>"Get him drunk and find out," suggested Stanton shortly.</p> + +<p>"Not him," said the round-faced villain, with the ingratiating smile +wrinkling at the corners of the fat-embedded eyes. "He's the +take-a-drink-or-let-it-alone kind."</p> + +<p>"Well, keep your eye on him and your ears open. I have a notion that +he's been sent here—by some outfit that means to buck us. If he hasn't +any backing——"</p> + +<p>The interruption was the hurried incoming of the young man with sleepy +eyes and the cigarette stains on his fingers, and for once in a way he +was stirred out of his customary attitude of cynical indifference.</p> + +<p>"Smith and Colonel Baldwin are over yonder in Kinzie's private office," +he reported hastily. "Before they shut the door I heard Baldwin +introducing Smith as the new acting financial secretary of the Timanyoni +Ditch Company!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2> + +<h3>When Greek Meets Greek</h3> + + +<p>Smith allowed himself ten brief seconds for a swift eye-measuring of the +square-shouldered, stockily built man with a gray face and stubbly +mustache sitting in the chair of authority at the Brewster City National +before he chose his line of attack.</p> + +<p>"We are not going to cut very deeply into your time this morning, Mr. +Kinzie," he began when the eye-appraisal had given him his cue. "You +know the history of Timanyoni Ditch up to the present, and you have no +doubt had your own misgivings about the wisdom of its financing on such +a small scale, and as a purely local enterprise. Others have had the +same misgivings, and—well, to cut out the details, there is to be a +complete reorganization of the company on a new basis, and we are here +to offer to take your personal allotment of the stock off your hands at +par for cash. Colonel Baldwin has stipulated that his friends in the +original deal must be protected, and——"</p> + +<p>"Here, here—hold on," interrupted the bank president; "you're hitting +it up a little bit too fast for me, Mr. Smith. Before we get down to any +talk of buying and selling, suppose you tell me something about yourself +and your new company. Who are you? and whereabouts do you hold forth +when you are at home?"</p> + +<p>Smith laughed easily. "If we were trying to borrow money of you, we +might have to go into preliminaries and particulars, Mr. Kinzie. As it +is, I'm sure you are not going to press for the answers to these very +natural questions of yours. Further than that, we shall have to ask you +to hold anything that may be said here in strict confidence—as between +a banker and his customer. We are not alone in the fight for the +water-rights on the other side of the river, as you know, and until we +are safely fortified we shall have to be prudently cautious. But that is +another matter. What we want to know now is this: will you let us +protect you by taking your Timanyoni Ditch stock at par? That's the +principal question at issue just now."</p> + +<p>Kinzie met the issue fairly. "I don't know you yet, Mr. Smith; but I do +know Colonel Baldwin, here, and I guess I'll take a chance on things as +they stand. I'll keep my stock."</p> + +<p>The new secretary's smile was rather patronizing than grateful.</p> + +<p>"As you please, Mr. Kinzie, of course," he said smoothly. "But I'm going +to tell you frankly that you'll keep it at your own risk. I am not sure +what plan will be adopted, but I assume it will be amortization and a +retirement of the stock of the original company. All that we need to +enable us to bring this about is the voting control of the old stock, +and we already have that, as you know."</p> + +<p>The banker pursed his lips until the stubbly gray mustache stood out +stiffly. Then he cut straight to the heart of the matter.</p> + +<p>"You mean that there will be a majority pool of the old stock, and that +the pool will ignore those stockholders who don't come in?"</p> + +<p>"Something like that," said Smith pleasantly. And then: "We're going to +be generously liberal, Mr. Kinzie; we are giving Colonel Baldwin's +friends a fair chance to come in out of the wet. Of course, if they +refuse to come in—if they prefer to stay out——"</p> + +<p>Kinzie was smiling sourly.</p> + +<p>"You'll have to take care of your own banker, won't you, Mr. Smith?" he +asked. "Why don't you loosen up and tell me a little more? What have +you fellows got up your sleeve, anyway?"</p> + +<p>At this, the new financial manager slacked off on the hawser of secrecy +a little—just a little.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Kinzie, we've got the biggest thing, and the surest, that ever came +to Timanyoni Park; not in futures, mind you, but in facts already as +good as accomplished. If it were necessary—as it isn't—I could go to +New York to-day and put a million dollars behind our reorganization plan +in twenty-four hours. You'd say so, yourself, if I were at liberty to +explain. But again we're dodging and wasting your time and ours. Think +the matter over—about your stock—and let me know before noon. It's +rather cruel to hurry you so, but time is precious with us and——"</p> + +<p>"You sit right down there, young man, and put a little of this precious +time of yours against mine," said Kinzie, pointing authoritatively at +the chair which Smith had just vacated. "You mustn't go off at +half-cock, that way. You'll need a bank here to do business with, won't +you?"</p> + +<p>Smith did not sit down. Instead, he smiled genially and fired his final +shot.</p> + +<p>"No, Mr. Kinzie; we shan't need a local bank—not as a matter of +absolute necessity. In fact, on some accounts, I don't know but that it +would be better for us not to have one."</p> + +<p>"Sit down," insisted the bank president; and this time he would take no +denial. Then he turned abruptly upon Baldwin, who had been playing his +part of the silent listener letter-perfect.</p> + +<p>"Baldwin, we are old friends, and I'd trust you to the limit—on any +proposition that doesn't ask for more than straight-from-the-shoulder +honesty. How much is this young friend of ours talking through his hat?"</p> + +<p>"Not any, whatever, Dave. He's got the goods." Baldwin was wise enough +to limit himself carefully as to quantity in his reply.</p> + +<p>"It's straight, is it? No gold-brick business?"</p> + +<p>"So straight that if we can't pay twenty per cent on what money we put +in, I'll throw up my three thousand acres over yonder on Little Creek +and go back to cow-punching."</p> + +<p>Again the banker made a comical bristle brush of his cropped mustache.</p> + +<p>"I want your business, Dexter; I've got to have it. But I'm going to be +plain with you. You two are asking me to believe that you've gone +outside and dug up a new bunch of backers. That may be all right, but +Timanyoni Ditch has struck a pretty big bone that maybe your new +backers know about—and maybe they don't. You've had a lot of bad luck, +so far; getting your land titles cleared, and all that; and you're going +to have more. I've——"</p> + +<p>It was Smith's turn again and he cut in smartly.</p> + +<p>"That is precisely what I was driving at. Our banker can't run with the +hare and hunt with the hounds. You'll excuse me if I say that you +haven't been altogether fair with Timanyoni Ditch, or with Colonel +Baldwin, Mr. Kinzie. A friendly banker doesn't help sell out his +customer. You know that, as well as I do. Still, you did it."</p> + +<p>Kinzie threw up his hands and tried to defend himself. "It was a +straight business transaction, Mr. Smith. As long as we're in the +banking business, we buy and sell for anybody who comes along."</p> + +<p>"No, we don't, Mr. Kinzie; we protect our customers first. In the +present instance you thought your customer was a dead one, anyway, so it +wouldn't make much difference if you should throw another shovelful of +dirt or so onto the coffin. Wasn't that the way of it?"</p> + +<p>The president was fairly pushed to the ropes and he showed it.</p> + +<p>"Answer me one question, both of you," he snapped. "Are you big enough +to fight for your own hand against Stanton's crowd?"</p> + +<p>"You'll see; and the sight is going to cost you something," said Smith, +and the blandest oil could have been no smoother than his tone.</p> + +<p>"Is that right, Dexter?"</p> + +<p>"That's the way it looks to me, Dave," said the ranchman capitalist, +who, whatever might be his limitations in the field of high finance, was +not lacking the nerve to fight unquestioning in any partner's quarrel.</p> + +<p>The president of the Brewster City National turned back to Smith.</p> + +<p>"What do you want, Mr. Smith?" he asked, not too cordially.</p> + +<p>"Nothing that you'd give us, I guess; a little business loyalty, for one +thing——"</p> + +<p>"And a checking balance for immediate necessities for another?" +suggested the banker.</p> + +<p>With all his trained astuteness—trained in Kinzie's own school, at +that—Smith could not be sure that the gray-faced old Westerner was not +setting a final trap for him, after all. But he took the risk, saying, +with a decent show of indifference: "Of course, it would be more +convenient here than in Denver or Chicago. But there is no hurry about +that part of it."</p> + +<p>The president took a slip of paper from a pigeonhole and wrote rapidly +upon it. Once more his optimism was locking horns with prudent caution. +It was the optimism, however, that was driving the pen. Baldwin's word +was worth something, and it might be disastrous to let these two get +away without anchoring them solidly to the Brewster City National.</p> + +<p>"Sign this, you two," he said. "I don't know even the name of your new +outfit yet, but I'll take a chance on one piece of two-name paper, +anyhow."</p> + +<p>Smith took up the slip and glanced at it. It was an accommodation note +for twenty thousand dollars. With the money fairly in his hands, he +paused to drive the nail of independence squarely home before he would +sign.</p> + +<p>"We don't want this at all, Mr. Kinzie, unless the bank's good-will +comes with it," he said with becoming gravity.</p> + +<p>"I'll stand with you," was the brusque rejoinder. "But it's only fair to +you both to say that you've got the biggest kind of a combination to +buck you—a national utilities corporation with the strongest sort of +political backing."</p> + +<p>"I doubt if you can tell us anything that we don't already know," said +Smith coolly, as he put his name on the note; and when Baldwin had +signed: "Let this go to the credit of Timanyoni Ditch, if you please, +Mr. Kinzie, and we'll transfer it later. It's quite possible that we +shan't need it, but we are willing to help out a little on your discount +profits, anyway. Further along, when things shape themselves up a bit +more definitely, you shall know all there is to know, and we'll give you +just as good a chance to make money as you'll give us."</p> + +<p>When they were safely out of the bank and half a square away from it, +Dexter Baldwin pushed his hat back and mopped his forehead. "They say a +man can't sweat at this altitude," he remarked. "I'm here to tell you, +Smith, that I've lost ten pounds in the last ten minutes. Where in the +name of the jumping Jehoshaphat did you get your nerve, boy? You stand +to lose an even hundred-and-fifty-dollar bill on this deal; don't you +know that?"</p> + +<p>"How so?" asked the plunger.</p> + +<p>"I'd have bet you that much against the old campaign hat you're wearing +that you couldn't 'touch' Dave Kinzie for twenty dollars—let alone +twenty thousand—in a month of Sundays! You made him believe we'd got +outside backing from somewhere."</p> + +<p>"I didn't say anything like that, did I?"</p> + +<p>"No; but you opened the door and he walked in."</p> + +<p>"That's all right: I'm not responsible for Mr. Kinzie's imagination. We +were obliged to have a little advertising capital; we couldn't turn a +wheel without it. Now that we have it, we'll get busy. We've got to +furnish a new suite of offices, install a bigger office force, +incorporate Timanyoni High Line, and open its stock subscription books, +all practically while the band plays. Time is the one thing we can't +waste. Put me in touch with a good business lawyer and I'll start the +legal machinery. Then you can get into your car and go around and +interview your crowd, man by man. I want to know exactly where we stand +with the old stockholders before we make any move in public. Can you do +that?"</p> + +<p>Baldwin lifted his hat and shoved his fingers through his hair.</p> + +<p>"I reckon I can; there are only sixty or seventy of 'em. And Bob +Stillings is your lawyer. Come around the corner and I'll introduce +you."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2> + +<h3>The Rocket and the Stick</h3> + + +<p>For a full fortnight after the preliminary visit to the Brewster City +National Bank, Smith was easily the busiest man in Timanyoni County. +Establishing himself in the Hophra House, and discarding the working +khaki only because he was shrewd enough to dress the new part +becomingly, he flung himself into what Colonel Baldwin called the +"miracle-working" campaign with a zest that knew no flagging moment.</p> + +<p>Within the fourteen-day period new town offices were occupied on the +second floor of the Brewster City National Building; Stillings, most +efficient of corporation counsels, had secured the new charter; and the +stock-books of Timanyoni High Line had been opened, with the Brewster +City National named as the company's depository and official fiduciary +agent.</p> + +<p>At the dam the building activities had been generously doubled. An +electric-light plant had been installed, and Williams was working day +and night shifts both in the quarries and on the forms. Past this, the +new financial manager, himself broadening rapidly as his field +broadened, was branching out in other directions. After a brief +conference with a few of his principal stockholders he had instructed +Stillings to include the words "Power and Light" in the cataloguing of +the new company's possible and probable charter activities, and by the +end of the fortnight the foundations of a power-house were going in +below the dam, and negotiations were already on foot with the Brewster +city council looking toward the sale of electric current to the city for +lighting and other purposes.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding all the demands made upon him as the chief energizer in +the working field, Smith had made the planting of his financial anchor +securely to windward his first care. Furnished with a selected list by +Colonel Baldwin, he had made a thorough canvas of possible investors, +and by the time the new stock was printed and ready for delivery through +Kinzie's bank, an iron-clad pool of the majority of the original +Timanyoni Ditch stock had been organized, and Smith had sold to Maxwell, +Starbuck, and other local capitalists a sufficient amount of the new +treasury stock to give him a fighting chance; this, with a promise of +more if it should be needed.</p> + +<p>The stock-selling campaign was a triumph, and though he did not +recognize it as such, it marked the longest step yet taken in the march +of the metamorphosis. As the cashier in Dunham's bank Smith had been +merely a high-grade clerk. There had been no occasion for the +development of the precious quality of initiative, and he had hardly +known the meaning of the word. But now there seemed to be no limit to +the new powers of accomplishment. Men met him upon his own ground, and a +lilting sense of triumph gave him renewed daring when he found that he +could actually inspire them with some portion of his own confidence and +enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>But in all this there had been no miracle, one would say; nothing but +enterprise and shrewd business acumen and lightning-like speed in +bringing things to pass. If there were a miracle, it lay in this: that +not to Maxwell or to any of the new investors had Smith revealed the +full dimensions of the prize for which Timanyoni High Line was entering +the race. Colonel Baldwin and one William Starbuck, Maxwell's +brother-in-law, by courtesy, and his partner in the Little Alice mine, +alone knew the wheel within the wheel; how the great Eastern utility +corporation represented by Stanton had spent a million or more in the +acquisition of the Escalante Grant, which would be practically worthless +as agricultural land without the water which could be obtained only by +means of the Timanyoni dam and canal system.</p> + +<p>With all these strenuous stirrings in the business field, it may say +itself that Smith found little time for social indulgences during the +crowded fortnight. Day after day the colonel begged him to take a night +off at the ranch, and it was even more difficult to refuse the proffered +hospitality at the week-end. But Smith did refuse it.</p> + +<p>With the new life and the larger ambition had come a sturdy resolve to +hold himself aloof from entanglements of every sort. That Corona Baldwin +was going to prove an entanglement he was wise enough to foresee from +the moment in which he had identified her with the vitalizing young +woman whose glove he had carried off. In fact, she was already +associated in his thoughts with every step in the business battle. Was +he not taking a very temerarious risk of discovery and arrest merely for +the sake of proving to her that her "hopeless case" of the lawn-party +could confute her mocking little theories about men and types without +half trying?</p> + +<p>It was not until after Miss Corona—driving to town with her father, as +she frequently did—had thrice visited the new offices that Smith began +to congratulate himself, rather bitterly, to be sure, upon his wisdom in +staying away from Hillcrest. For one thing, he was learning that Corona +Baldwin was an exceedingly charming young woman of many moods and +tenses, and that in some of the moods, and in practically all of the +tenses, she was able to make him see rose-colored. When she was not with +him, he had no difficulty in assuring himself that the rose-colored +point of view was entirely out of the question for a man in daily peril +of meeting the sheriff. But when she was present, calm sanity had a way +of losing its grip, and the rose-colored possibilities reasserted +themselves with intoxicating accompaniments.</p> + +<p>Miss Corona's fourth visit to the handsome suite of offices over the +Brewster City National chanced to fall upon a Saturday. Her father, +president of the new company, as he had been of the old, had a private +office of his own, but Miss Corona soon drifted out to the railed-off +end of the larger room, where the financial secretary had his desk.</p> + +<p>"Colonel-daddy tells me that you are coming out to Hillcrest for the +week-end," was the way in which she interrupted the financial +secretary's brow-knittings over a new material contract. "I have just +wagered him a nice fat little round iron dollar of my allowance that you +won't. How about it?"</p> + +<p>Smith looked up with his best-natured grin.</p> + +<p>"You win," he said shortly.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," she laughed. "In a minute or so I'll go back to the +president's office and collect." Then: "One dinner, lodging, and +breakfast of us was about all you could stand, wasn't it? I thought +maybe it would be that way."</p> + +<p>"What made you think so?"</p> + +<p>"You should never ask a woman why; it's a frightfully unsafe thing to +do."</p> + +<p>"I know," he mocked. "There have been whole books written about the lack +of logic on your side of the sex fence."</p> + +<p>She had seated herself in the chair reserved for inquiring investors. +There was a little interval of glove-smoothing silence, and then, like a +flash out of a clear sky, she smiled across the desk-end at him and +said:</p> + +<p>"Will you forgive me if I ask you a perfectly ridiculous question?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly. Other people ask them every day."</p> + +<p>"Is—is your name really and truly John Smith?"</p> + +<p>"Why should you doubt it?"</p> + +<p>It was just here that Smith was given to see another one of Miss +Corona's many moods—or tenses—and it was a new one to him. She was +visibly embarrassed.</p> + +<p>"I—I don't want to tell you," she stammered.</p> + +<p>"All right; you needn't."</p> + +<p>"If you're going to take it that easy, I <i>will</i> tell you," she retorted. +"Mr. Williams thought your name was an <i>alias</i>; and I'm not sure that he +doesn't still think so."</p> + +<p>"The Smiths never have to have <i>aliases</i>. It's like John Doe or Richard +Roe, you know."</p> + +<p>"Haven't you any middle name?"</p> + +<p>"I have a middle initial. It is 'M.'" He was looking her fairly in the +eyes as he said it, and the light in the new offices was excellent. +Thanks to her horseback riding, Miss Corona's small oval face had a +touch of healthy outdoor tan; but under the tan there came, for just a +flitting instant, a flush of deeper color, and at the back of the gray +eyes there was something that Smith had never seen there before.</p> + +<p>"It's—it's just an initial?" she queried.</p> + +<p>"Yes; it's just an initial, and I don't use it ordinarily. I'm not +ashamed of the plain 'John.'"</p> + +<p>"I don't know why you should be," she commented, half absently, he +thought. And then: "How many 'John M. Smiths' do you suppose there are +in the United States?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know; a million or so, I guess."</p> + +<p>"I should think you would be rather glad of that," she told him. But +when he tried to make her say why he should be glad, she talked +pointedly of other things and presently went back to her father's +office.</p> + +<p>It was not until after she had gone out with her father, and he had made +her wager good by steadfastly refusing to spend the week-end at the +ranch, that Smith began to put two and two together, erroneously, as it +happened, though he could not know this. Mrs. Baldwin's home town in his +native State was the little place that her daughter had visited and +where the daughter had had a lawn-party given in her honor. Was it not +more than probable that the colonel's wife was still keeping up some +sort of a correspondence with her home people and that through this, or +some mention in a local paper, Corona had got hold of the devastating +story of one J. Montague Smith?</p> + +<p>There were fine little headings of perspiration standing on the +fugitive's forehead when the small sum in addition had progressed thus +far. But if he had only known it, there was no need, as yet, for the +sweat of apprehension. Like some other young women, Miss Baldwin +suffered from spasmodic attacks of the diary-keeping malady; she had +been keeping one at the time of her return from school, and the +lawn-party in the little town in the Middle West had its due entry.</p> + +<p>In a moment of idle curiosity on the Saturday forenoon, she had looked +into the year-old diary to find the forgotten name of the man of whom +Smith was still persistently reminding her. It was there in all its +glory: "J. Montague Smith." Could it be possible?—but, no; John Smith, +her father's John Smith, had come to the construction camp as a hobo, +and that was not possible, not even thinkable, of the man she had met. +None the less, it was a second attack of the idle curiosity that had +moved her to go to town with her father on the Saturday afternoon of +questionings.</p> + +<p>After the other members of the office force had taken their departure, +Smith still sat at his desk striving to bring himself back with some +degree of clear-headedness to the pressing demands of his job. Just as +he was about to give it up and go across to the Hophra House for his +dinner, William Starbuck drifted in to open the railing gate and to come +and plant himself in the chair of privilege at Smith's desk-end.</p> + +<p>"Well, son; you've got the animals stirred up good and plenty, at last," +he said, when he had found the "makings" and was deftly rolling a +cigarette—his one overlapping habit reaching back to his range-riding +youth. "Dick Maxwell got a wire to-day from his kiddie's grandpaw—and +my own respected daddy-in-law—Mr. Hiram Fairbairn; you know him—the +lumber king."</p> + +<p>"I'm listening," said Smith.</p> + +<p>"Dick's wire was an order; instructions from headquarters to keep hands +off of your new company and to work strictly in cahoots—'harmony' was +the word he used—with Crawford Stanton. How does that fit you?"</p> + +<p>The financial secretary's smile was the self-congratulatory +face-wrinkling of the quarry foreman who has seen his tackle hitch hold +to land the big stone safely at the top of the pit.</p> + +<p>"What is Maxwell going to do about it?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Dick is all wool and a yard wide; and what he signs his name to is what +he is going to stand by. You won't lose him, but the wire shows us just +about where we're aiming to put our leg into the gopher-hole and break +it, doesn't it?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not borrowing any trouble. Mr. Fairbairn and his colleagues are +just a few minutes too late, Starbuck. We've got our footing—inside of +the corral."</p> + +<p>The ex-cow-puncher, who was now well up on the middle rounds of +fortune's ladder, shook his head doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Don't you make any brash breaks, John. Mr. Hiram Fairbairn and his +crowd can swing twenty millions to your one little old dollar and a +half, and they're not going to leave any of the pebbles unturned when it +comes to saving their investment in the Escalante. I don't care +specially for my own ante—Stella and I will manage to get a bite to +eat, anyway. But for your own sake and Colonel Dexter's, you don't want +to let the grass grow under your feet; not any whatsoever. You go ahead +and get that dam finished, <i>pronto</i>, if you have to put a thousand men +on it and work 'em Sundays as well as nights. That's all; I just thought +I'd drop in and tell you."</p> + +<p>Smith went to his rooms in the hotel a few minutes later to change for +dinner. Having been restocking his wardrobe to better fit his new state +and standing as the financial head of Timanyoni High Line, he found the +linen drawer in his dressing-case overflowing. Opening another, he began +to arrange the overflow methodically. The empty drawer was lined with a +newspaper, and he took the paper out to fold it afresh. In the act he +saw that it was a copy of the <i>Chicago Tribune</i> some weeks old. As he +was replacing it in the drawer bottom, a single head-line on the +upturned page sprang at him like a thing living and venomous. He bent +lower and read the underrunning paragraph with a dull rage mounting to +his eyes and serving for the moment to make the gray of the printed +lines turn red.</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Lawrenceville</span>, May 19.—The grand jury has found a true bill +against Montague Smith, the absconding cashier of the +Lawrenceville Bank and Trust, charged with embezzling the +bank's funds. The crime would have been merely a breach of +trust and not actionable but for the fact that Smith, by owning +stock in the bankrupt Westfall industries lately taken over by +the Richlander Company, had so made himself amenable to the +law. Smith disappeared on the night of the 14th and is still at +large. He is also wanted on another criminal count. It will be +remembered that he brutally assaulted President Dunham on the +night of his disappearance. The reward of $1,000 for his +apprehension and arrest has been increased to $2,000 by the +bank directors.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h2> + +<h3>The Narrow World</h3> + + +<p>At the fresh newspaper reminder that his sudden bound upward from the +laboring ranks to the executive headship of the irrigation project had +merely made him a more conspicuous target for the man-hunters, Smith +scanted himself of sleep and redoubled his efforts to put the new +company on a sound and permanent footing. In the nature of things he +felt that his own shrift must necessarily be short. Though his own +immediate public was comparatively small, the more or less dramatic +<i>coup</i> in Timanyoni High Line had advertised him thoroughly. He was +rapidly coming to be the best-known man in Brewster, and he cherished no +illusions about lost identities, or the ability to lose them, in a land +where time and space have been wired and railroaded pretty well out of +existence.</p> + +<p>Moreover, Dunham's bank was a member of a protective association, and +Smith knew how wide a net could be spread and drawn when any absconding +employee was really wanted. The doubling of the reward gave notice that +Dunham was vindictively in earnest, and in that event it would be only a +question of time until some one of the hired man-hunters would hit upon +the successful clew.</p> + +<p>It was needful that he should work while the day was his in which to +work; and he did work. There was still much to be done. Williams was +having a threat of labor troubles at the dam, and Stillings had +unearthed another possible flaw in the land titles dating back to the +promotion of a certain railroad which had never gotten far beyond the +paper stage and the acquiring of some of its rights of way.</p> + +<p>Smith flung himself masterfully at the new difficulties as they arose, +and earned his meed of praise from the men for whom he overcame them. +But under the surface current of the hurrying business tide a bitter +undertow was beginning to set in. In every characterizing change it is +inevitable that there should be some loss in the scrapping of the old to +make way for the new. Smith saw himself in two aspects. In one he stood +as a man among men, with a promise of winning honors and wealth; with +the still more ecstatic promise of being able, perhaps, to win the love +of the vivifying young woman who had once touched the spring of +sentiment in him—and was touching it again. In the other he was a +fugitive and an outlaw, waiting only for some spreader of the net to +come and tap him on the shoulder.</p> + +<p>He took his first decided backward step on the night when he went into a +hardware store and bought a pistol. The free, fair-fighting spirit which +had sent him barehanded against the three claim-jumpers was gone and in +its place there was a fell determination, undefined as yet, but keying +itself to the barbaric pitch. With the weapon in his pocket he could +look back over the transforming interspaces with a steadier eye. Truly, +he had come far since that night in the Lawrenceville Bank when a single +fierce gust of passion had plucked him away from all the familiar +landmarks.</p> + +<p>And as for Corona Baldwin, there were days in which he set his jaw and +told himself that nothing, even if it were the shedding of blood, should +stand in the way of winning her. It was his right as a man; he had done +nothing to make himself the outlaw that the Lawrenceville indictment +declared him to be; therefore he would fight for his chance—slay for +it, if need be. But there were other days when the saner thought +prevailed and he saw the pit of selfishness into which the new +barbarisms were plunging him. The Baldwins were his friends, and they +were accepting him in the full light of the inference that he was a man +under a cloud. Could he take a further advantage of their generosity by +involving them still more intimately in his own particular entanglement? +He assured himself that he couldn't and wouldn't; that though he might, +indeed, commit a murder when the pinch came, he was still man enough to +stay away from Hillcrest.</p> + +<p>He was holding this latter view grimly on an evening when he had worked +himself haggard over the draft of the city ordinance which was to +authorize the contract with the High Line Company for lights and power. +It had been a day of nagging distractions. A rumor had been set +afoot—by Stanton, as Smith made no doubt—hinting that the new dam +would be unsafe when it should be completed; that its breaking, with the +reservoir behind it, would carry death and destruction to the lowlands +and even to the city. Timid stockholders, seeing colossal damage suits +in the bare possibility, had taken the alarm, and Smith had spent the +greater part of the day in trying to calm their fears. For this cause, +and some others, he was on the ragged edge when Baldwin dropped in on +his way home from the dam and protested.</p> + +<p>"Look here, John; you're overdoing this thing world without end! It's +six o'clock, man!—quitting-time. Another week of this grinding and +you'll be hunting a nice, quiet cot in the railroad hospital, and then +where'll we be? You break it off short, right now, and go home with me +and get your dinner and a good night's rest. No, by Jupiter, I'm not +going to let you off, this trip. Get your coat and hat and come along, +or I'll rope you down and hog-tie you."</p> + +<p>For once in a way, Smith found that there was no fight left in him, and +he yielded, telling himself that another acceptance of the Baldwin +hospitality, more or less, could make no difference. But no sooner was +the colonel's gray roadster headed for the bridge across the Timanyoni +than the exhilarating reaction set in. In a twinkling the business +cares, and the deeper worries as well, fled away, and in their place +heart-hunger was loosed. If Corona would give him this one evening, rest +him, revive him, share with him some small portion of her marvellous +vitality....</p> + +<p>He did not overrate the stimulative effect of her presence; of the mere +fact of propinquity. When the roadster drew up at the portico of the +transplanted Missouri plantation mansion she was waiting on the steps. +It was dinner-time, and she had on an evening gown of some shimmering, +leafy stuff that made her look more like a wood-nymph than he had ever +supposed any mere mortal woman could look. When she stood on tiptoes for +her father's kiss, Smith knew the name of his malady, however much he +may have blinked it before; knew its name, and knew that it would have +to be reckoned with, whatever fresh involvements might be lying in wait +for him behind the curtain of the days to come.</p> + +<p>After dinner, a meal at which he ate little and was well content to +satisfy the hunger of his soul by the road of the eye, Smith went out to +the portico to smoke. The most gorgeous of mountain sunsets was painting +itself upon the sky over the western Timanyonis, but he had no eyes for +natural grandeurs, and no ears for any sound save one—the footstep he +was listening for. It came at length, and he tried to look as tired as +he had been when the colonel made him close his desk and leave the +office; tried and apparently succeeded.</p> + +<p>"You poor, broken-down Samson, carrying all the brazen gates of the +money-Philistines on your shoulders! You had to come to us at last, +didn't you? Let me be your Delilah and fix that chair so that it will be +really comfortable." She said it only half mockingly, and he forgave the +sarcasm when she arranged some of the hammock pillows in the easiest of +the porch chairs and made him bury himself luxuriously in them.</p> + +<p>Still holding the idea, brought over from that afternoon of the name +questioning, that she had in some way discovered his true identity, +Smith was watching narrowly for danger-signals when he thanked her and +said:</p> + +<p>"You say it just as it is. I had to come. But you could never be +anybody's Delilah, could you? She was a betrayer, if you recollect."</p> + +<p>He made the suggestion purposely, but it was wholly ignored, and there +was no guile in the slate-gray eyes.</p> + +<p>"You mean that you didn't want to come?"</p> + +<p>"No; not that. I have wanted to come every time your father has asked +me. But there are reasons—good reasons—why I shouldn't be here."</p> + +<p>If she knew any of the reasons she made no sign. She was sitting in the +hammock and touching one slippered toe to the flagstones for the +swinging push. From Smith's point of view she had for a background the +gorgeous sunset, but he could not see the more distant glories.</p> + +<p>"We owe you much, and we are going to owe you more," she said. "You +mustn't think that we don't appreciate you at your full value. +Colonel-daddy thinks you are the most wonderful somebody that ever +lived, and so do a lot of the others."</p> + +<p>"And you?" he couldn't resist saying.</p> + +<p>"I'm just plain ashamed—for the way I treated you when you were here +before. I've been eating humble-pie ever since."</p> + +<p>Smith breathed freer. Nobody but a most consummate actress could have +simulated her frank sincerity. He had jumped too quickly to the small +sum-in-addition conclusion. She did <i>not</i> know the story of the +absconding bank cashier.</p> + +<p>"I don't know why you should feel that way," he said, eager, now, to run +where he had before been afraid to walk.</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> do. And I believe you wanted to shame me. I believe you gave up +your place at the dam and took hold with daddy more to show me what an +inconsequent little idiot I was than for any other reason. Didn't you, +really?"</p> + +<p>He laughed in quiet ecstasy at this newest and most adorable of the +moods.</p> + +<p>"Honest confession is good for the soul: I did," he boasted. "Now beat +that for frankness, if you can."</p> + +<p>"I can't," she admitted, laughing back at him. "But now you've +accomplished your purpose, I hope you are not going to give up. That +would be a little hard on Colonel-daddy."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; I'm not going to give up—until I have to."</p> + +<p>"Does that mean more than it says?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'm afraid it does."</p> + +<p>She was silent for the length of time that it took the flaming crimson +in the western sky to fade to salmon.</p> + +<p>"I know I haven't earned the right to ask you any of the whys," she said +at the end of the little pause.</p> + +<p>"Women like you—only there are not any more of them, I think—don't +have to earn things. The last time you were in the office you said +enough to let me know that you and your father and Williams—all of you, +in fact—suspect that I am out here under a cloud of some sort. It is +true."</p> + +<p>"And that is why you say you won't give up until you have to?"</p> + +<p>"That is the reason; yes."</p> + +<p>There was another little interval of silence and then she said: "I +suppose you couldn't tell me—or anybody—could you?"</p> + +<p>"I can tell you enough so that you will understand why I may not be +permitted to go on and finish what I have begun in Timanyoni High Line. +When I left home I thought I was a murderer."</p> + +<p>He would not look at her to see how she was taking it, but he could not +help hearing her little gasp.</p> + +<p>"<i>Oh!</i>" she breathed; and then: "You say you 'thought.' Wasn't it so?"</p> + +<p>"It happened not to be. The man didn't die. I suppose I might say that I +didn't try to kill him; but that would hardly be true. At the moment, I +didn't care. Have you ever felt that way?—you know what I mean, just +utterly blind and reckless as to consequences?"</p> + +<p>"I have a horrible temper, if that covers it."</p> + +<p>"It's something like that," he conceded; "only, up to the moment when it +happened I hadn't known that I had any temper. Perhaps I might say that +the provocation was big enough, though the law won't say so."</p> + +<p>The pink flush had faded out of the high western horizon and the stars +were coming out one at a time. The colonel had come up from the ranch +bunk-house where the men slept, and was smoking his long-stemmed +corn-cob pipe on the lawn under the spreading cottonwoods. Peace was the +key-note of the perfect summer night, and even for the man under the +shadow of the law there was a quiet breathing space.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe you could ever kill a man in cold blood," said the +young woman in the hammock. "I'm sure you know that, yourself, and it +ought to be a comfort to you."</p> + +<p>"It might have been once, but it isn't any more."</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose it is because I left a good many things behind me when I ran +away—besides the man I thought was dead. In that other life I never +knew what it meant to fight for the things I wanted; perhaps it was +because I never wanted anything very badly, or possibly it was because +the things I did want came too easily."</p> + +<p>"They are not coming so easily now?"</p> + +<p>"No; but I'm going to have them at any cost. You will know what I mean +when I say that nothing, not even human life, seems so sacred to me as +it used to."</p> + +<p>"Have you ever talked with daddy about all these things?"</p> + +<p>"No. You don't know men very well; they don't talk about such things to +one another. The average man tells some woman, if he can be lucky enough +to find one who will listen."</p> + +<p>"You haven't told me all of it," she said, after another hesitant pause. +"You have carefully left the woman out of it. Was she pretty?"</p> + +<p>Smith buried his laugh so deep that not a flicker of it came to the +surface.</p> + +<p>"Is that the open inference always?—that a man tries to kill another +because there is a woman in it?"</p> + +<p>"I merely asked you if she was pretty."</p> + +<p>"There was a woman," he answered doggedly; "though she had nothing to do +with the trouble. I was going to call on her the night I—the night the +thing happened. I hope she isn't still waiting for me to ring the +door-bell."</p> + +<p>"You haven't told her where you are?"</p> + +<p>"No; but she's not losing any sleep about that. She isn't that kind. +Indeed, I'm not sure that she wouldn't turn the letter over to the +sheriff, if I should write her. Let's clear this up before we go any +further. It was generally understood, in the home town, you know, that +we were to be married some time, though nothing definite had ever been +said by either of us. There wasn't any sentiment, you understand; I was +idiotic enough at the time to believe that there wasn't any such thing +as sentiment. It has cost me about as much to give her up as it has cost +her to give me up—and that is a little less than nothing."</p> + +<p>Again the silence came between. The colonel was knocking his pipe bowl +against a tree trunk and an interruption was threatening. When the low +voice came again from the hammock it was troubled.</p> + +<p>"You are disappointing me, now. You are taking it very lightly, and +apparently you neither know nor care very much how the woman may be +taking it. Perhaps there wasn't any sentiment on your part."</p> + +<p>Smith was laughing quietly. "If you could only know Verda Richlander," +he said. "Imagine the most beautiful thing you can think of, and then +take the heart out of it, and—but, hold on, I can do better than that," +and he drew out his watch and handed it to her with the back case +opened.</p> + +<p>She took the watch and stopped the hammock swing to let the light from +the nearest window fall upon the photograph.</p> + +<p>"She is very beautiful; magnificently beautiful," she said, returning +the watch. And an instant later: "I don't see how you could say what you +did about the sentiment. If I were a man——"</p> + +<p>The colonel had mounted the steps and was coming toward them. The young +woman slipped from the hammock and stood up.</p> + +<p>"Don't go," said Smith, feeling as if he were losing an opportunity and +leaving much unsaid that ought to be said. But the answer was a quiet +"good night" and she was gone.</p> + +<p>Smith went back to town with the colonel the next morning physically +rested, to be sure, but in a frame of mind bordering again upon the +sardonic. In the cold light of the following day, after-dinner +confidences, even with the best-beloved, have a way of showing up all +their puerilities and inadequacies. Two things, and two alone, stood out +clearly: one was that he was most unmistakably in love with Corona +Baldwin, and the other was that he had shown her the weakest side of +himself by appealing like a callow boy to her sympathies.</p> + +<p>Hence there was another high resolve not to go to Hillcrest again until +he could go as a free man; a resolve which, it is perhaps needless to +say, was broken thereafter as often as the colonel asked him to go. Why, +in the last resort, Smith should have finally chosen another confidant +in the person of William Starbuck, the reformed cow-puncher, he scarcely +knew. But it was to Starbuck that he appealed for advice when the +sentimental situation had grown fairly desperate.</p> + +<p>"I've told you enough so that you can understand the vise-nip of it, +Billy," he said to Starbuck one night when he had dragged the mine owner +up to the bath-room suite in the Hophra House, and had told him just a +little, enough to merely hint at his condition. "You see how it stacks +up. I'm in a fair way to come out of this the biggest scoundrel +alive—the piker who takes advantage of the innocence of a good girl. +I'm not the man she thinks I am. I am standing over a volcano pit every +minute of the day. If it blows up, I'm gone, obliterated, wiped out."</p> + +<p>"Is it aiming to blow up?" asked Starbuck sagely.</p> + +<p>"I don't know any more about that than you do. It is the kind that +usually does blow up sooner or later. I've prepared for it as well as I +can. What Colonel Baldwin and the rest of you needed was a financial +manager, and Timanyoni High Line has its fighting chance—which was +more than Timanyoni Ditch had when I took hold. If I should drop out +now, you and Maxwell and the colonel and Kinzie could go on and make the +fight; but that doesn't help out in this other matter."</p> + +<p>Starbuck smoked in silence for a long minute or two before he said: "Is +there another woman in it, John?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but not in the way you mean. It never came to anything more than a +decently frank friendship, though the whole town had it put up that it +was all settled and we were going to be married."</p> + +<p>"Huh! I wonder if that's what <i>she'd</i> say? You say it never came to +anything more than a friendship: maybe that's all right from your side +of the fence. But how about the girl?"</p> + +<p>The harassed one's smile was grimly reminiscent.</p> + +<p>"If you knew her you wouldn't ask, Billy. She is the modern, up-to-date +young woman in all that the term implies. When she marries she will give +little and ask little, outside of the ordinary amenities and +conventionalities."</p> + +<p>"That's what you say; and maybe it's what you think. But when you have +to figure a woman into it, you never can tell, John. Are you keeping in +touch with this other girl?"</p> + +<p>Smith shook his head.</p> + +<p>"No; I shall probably never see her or hear from her again. Not that it +matters a penny's worth to either of us. And your guess was wrong if you +thought that things past are having any effect on things present. Corona +Baldwin stands in a class by herself."</p> + +<p>"She's a mighty fine little girl, John," said Starbuck slowly. "Any one +of a dozen fellows I could name would give all their old shoes to swap +chances with you."</p> + +<p>"That isn't exactly the kind of advice I'm needing," was the sober +rejoinder.</p> + +<p>"No; but it was the kind you were wanting, when you tolled me off up +here," laughed the ex-cow-puncher. "I know the symptoms. Had 'em myself +for about two years so bad that I could wake up in the middle of the +night and taste 'em. Go in and win. Maybe the great big stumbling-block +you're worrying about wouldn't mean anything at all to an open-minded +young woman like Corona; most likely it wouldn't."</p> + +<p>"If she could know the whole truth—and believe it," said Smith +musingly.</p> + +<p>"You tell her the truth, and she'll take care of the believing part of +it, all right. You needn't lose any sleep about that."</p> + +<p>Smith drew a long breath and removed his pipe to say: "I haven't the +nerve, Billy, and that's the plain fact. I have already told her a +little of it. She knows that I——"</p> + +<p>Starbuck broke in with a laugh. "Yes; it's a shouting pity about your +nerve! You've been putting up such a blooming scary fight in this +irrigation business that we all know you haven't any nerve. If I had +your job in that, I'd be going around here toting two guns and wondering +if I couldn't make room in the holster for another."</p> + +<p>Smith shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I was safe enough so long as Stanton thought I was the resident manager +and promoter for a new bunch of big money in the background. But he has +had me shadowed and tracked until now I guess he is pretty well +convinced that I actually had the audacity to play a lone hand; and a +bluffing hand, at that. That makes a difference, of course. Two days +after I had climbed into the saddle here, he sent a couple of his +strikers after me. I don't know just what their orders were, but they +seemed to want a fight—and they got it. It was in Blue Pete's doggery, +up at the camp."</p> + +<p>"Guns?" queried Starbuck.</p> + +<p>"Theirs; not mine, because I didn't have any. I managed to get the +shooting-irons away from them before we had mixed very far."</p> + +<p>"You're just about the biggest, long-eared, stiff-backed, stubborn wild +ass of the wallows that was ever let loose in a half-reformed +gun-country!" grumbled the ex-cow-man. "You're fixing to get yourself +all killed up, Smith. Haven't you sense enough to see that these +rustlers will rub you out in two twitches of a dead lamb's tail if +they've made up their minds that you are the High Line main guy and the +only one?"</p> + +<p>"Of course," said the wild ass easily. "If they could lay me up for a +month or two——"</p> + +<p>"Lay up, nothing!" retorted Starbuck. "Lay you down, about six feet +underground, is what I mean!"</p> + +<p>"Pshaw!" exclaimed the one whose fears ran in a far different channel +from any that could be dug by mere corporation violence. "This is +America, in the twentieth century. We don't kill our business +competitors nowadays."</p> + +<p>"Don't we?" snorted Starbuck. "That will be all right, too. We'll +suppose, just for the sake of argument, that my respected and +respectable daddy-in-law, or whatever other silk-hatted old money-bags +happens to be paying Crawford Stanton's salary <i>and</i> commission, +wouldn't send out an order to have you killed off. Maybe Stanton, +himself, wouldn't stand for it if you'd put it that barefaced. But +daddy-in-law, and Stanton, and all the others, hire blacklegs and +sharpers and gunmen and thugs. And every once in a while somebody takes +a wink for a nod—and <i>bang!</i> goes a gun."</p> + +<p>"Well, what's the answer?" said Smith.</p> + +<p>"Tote an arsenal, yourself, and be ready to shoot first and ask +questions afterward. That's the only way you can live peaceably with +such men as Jake Boogerfield and Lanterby and Pete Simms."</p> + +<p>Smith got out of his chair and took a turn up and down the length of the +room. When he came back to stand before Starbuck, he said: "I did that, +Billy. I've been carrying a gun for a week and more; not for these ditch +pirates, but for somebody else. The other night, when I was out at +Hillcrest, Corona happened to see it. I'm not going to tell you what she +said, but when I came back to town the next morning, I chucked the gun +into a desk drawer. And I hope I'm going to be man enough not to wear it +again."</p> + +<p>Starbuck dropped the subject abruptly and looked at his watch.</p> + +<p>"You liked to have done it, pulling me off up here," he remarked. "I'm +due to be at the train to meet Mrs. Billy, and I've got just about three +minutes. So long."</p> + +<p>Smith changed his street clothes leisurely after Starbuck had gone, and +made ready to go down to the café dinner, turning over in his mind, +meanwhile, the problem whose solution he had tried to extract from his +late visitor. The workable answer was still as far off and as +unattainable as ever when he went down-stairs and stopped at the desk to +toss his room-key to the clerk.</p> + +<p>The hotel register was lying open on the counter, and from force of +habit he ran his eye down the list of late arrivals. At the end of the +list, in sprawling characters upon which the ink was yet fresh, he read +his sentence, and for the first time in his life knew the meaning of +panic fear. The newest entry was:</p> + +<p>"Josiah Richlander and daughter, Chicago."</p> + +<p>Smith was not misled by the place-name. There was only one "Josiah +Richlander" in the world for him, and he knew that the Lawrenceville +magnate, in registering from Chicago, was only following the example of +those who, for good reasons or no reason, use the name of their latest +stopping-place for a registry address.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV</h2> + +<h3>A Reprieve</h3> + + +<p>For the length of time it took him to read Josiah Richlander's signature +on the Hophra House register and to grasp the full meaning of the +Lawrenceville magnate's presence in Brewster, Smith's blood ran cold and +there was a momentary attack of shocked consternation, comparable to +nothing that any past experience had to offer. It had been a foregone +conclusion from the very outset that, sooner or later, some one who knew +him would drift in from the world beyond the mountains; but in all his +imaginings he had never dreamed of the Richlander possibility. Verda, as +he knew, had been twice to Europe—and, like many of her kind, had never +been west of the Mississippi in her native land. Why, then, had she——</p> + +<p>But there was no time to waste in curious speculations as to the whys +and wherefores. Present safety was the prime consideration. With Josiah +Richlander and his daughter in Brewster, and guests under the same roof +with him, discovery, identification, disgrace were knocking at the door. +Smith had a return of the panicky chill when he realized how utterly +impossible it would be for a man with his business activities to hide, +even temporarily, not in the hotel, to be sure, but anywhere in a town +of the Brewster dimensions. And the peril held no saving element of +uncertainty. He could harbor no doubt as to what Josiah Richlander would +do if discovery came. For so long a time as should be consumed in +telegraphing between Brewster and Lawrenceville, Smith thought he might +venture to call himself a free man. But that was the limit.</p> + +<p>It was the dregs of the J. Montague subconsciousness yet remaining in +him that counselled flight, basing the prompting upon a bit of +panic-engendered reasoning. Miss Verda and her father could hardly be +anything more than transient visitors in Brewster. Possibly he might be +able to keep out of their way for the needful day or so. To resolve in +such an urgency was to act. One minute later he had hailed a passing +auto-cab at the hotel entrance, and the four miles between the city and +Colonel Baldwin's ranch had been tossed to the rear before he +remembered that he had expressly declined a dinner invitation for that +same evening at Hillcrest, the declination basing itself upon business +and having been made by word of mouth to Mrs. Baldwin in person when she +had called at the office with her daughter just before the luncheon +hour.</p> + +<p>Happily, the small social offense went unremarked, or at least +unrebuked. Smith found his welcome at the ranch that of a man who has +the privilege of dropping in unannounced. The colonel was jocosely +hospitable, as he always was; Mrs. Baldwin was graciously lenient—was +good enough, indeed, to thank the eleventh-hour guest for reconsidering +at the last moment; and Corona——</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding all that had come to pass; notwithstanding, also, that +his footing in the Baldwin household had come to be that of a family +friend, Smith could never be quite sure of the bewitchingly winsome +young woman who called her father "Colonel-daddy." Her pose, if it were +a pose, was the attitude of the entirely unspoiled child of nature and +the wide horizons. When he was with her she made him think of all the +words expressive of transparency and absolute and utter unconcealment. +Yet there were moments when he fancied he could get passing glimpses of +a subtler personality at the back of the wide-open, frankly questioning +eyes; a wise little soul lying in wait behind its defenses; prudent, +all-knowing, deceived neither by its own prepossessions or prejudices, +nor by any of the masqueradings of other souls.</p> + +<p>Smith, especially in this later incarnation which had so radically +changed him, believed as little in the psychic as any hardheaded young +business iconoclast of an agnostic century could. But on this particular +evening when he was smoking his after-dinner pipe on the flagstoned +porch with Corona for his companion, there were phenomena apparently +unexplainable on any purely material hypothesis.</p> + +<p>"I am sure I have much less than half of the curiosity that women are +said to have, but, really, I <i>do</i> want to know what dreadful thing has +happened to you since we met you in the High Line offices this +morning—mamma and I," was the way in which one of the phenomena was +made to occur; and Smith started so nervously that he dropped his pipe.</p> + +<p>"You can be the most unexpected person, when you try," he laughed, but +the laugh scarcely rang true. "What makes you think that anything has +happened?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think—I <i>know</i>," the small seeress went on with calm +assurance. "You've been telling us in all sorts of dumb ways that you've +had an upsetting shock of some kind; and I don't believe it's another +lawsuit. Am I right, so far?"</p> + +<p>"I believe you are a witch, and it's a mighty good thing you didn't live +in the Salem period," he rejoined. "They would have hanged you to a dead +moral certainty."</p> + +<p>"Then there was something?" she queried; adding, jubilantly: "I knew +it!"</p> + +<p>"Go on," said the one to whom it had happened; "go on and tell me the +rest of it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that isn't fair; even a professional clairvoyant has to be told the +color of her eyes and hair."</p> + +<p>"Wha-what!" the ejaculation was fairly jarred out of him and for the +moment he fancied he could feel a cool breeze blowing up the back of his +neck.</p> + +<p>The clairvoyant who did not claim to be a professional was laughing +softly.</p> + +<p>"You told me once that a woman was adorable in the exact degree in which +she could afford to be visibly transparent; yes, you said 'afford,' and +I've been holding it against you. Now I'm going to pay you back. You +are the transparent one, this time. You have as good as admitted that +the 'happening' thing isn't a man; 'wha-what' always means that, you +know; so it must be a woman. Is it the Miss Richlander you were telling +me about?"</p> + +<p>There are times when any mere man may be shocked into telling the simple +truth, and Smith had come face to face with one of them. "It is," he +said.</p> + +<p>"She is in Brewster?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"When did she come?"</p> + +<p>"This evening."</p> + +<p>"And you ran away? That was horribly unkind, don't you think—after she +had come so far?"</p> + +<p>"Hold on," he broke in. "Don't let's go so fast. I didn't ask her to +come. And, besides, she didn't come to see me."</p> + +<p>"Did she tell you that?"</p> + +<p>"I have taken precious good care that she shouldn't have the chance. I +saw her name—and her father's—on the hotel register; and just about +that time I remembered that I could probably get a bite to eat out +here."</p> + +<p>"You are queer! All men are a little queer, I think—always excepting +Colonel-daddy. Don't you want to see her?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed, I don't!"</p> + +<p>"Not even for old times' sake?"</p> + +<p>"No; not even for old times' sake. I've given you the wrong impression +completely, if you think there is any obligation on my part. It never +got beyond the watch-case picture stage, as I have told you. It might +have drifted on to the other things in the course of time, simply +because neither of us might have known any better than to let it drift. +But that's all a back number, now."</p> + +<p>"Just the same, her coming shocked you."</p> + +<p>"It certainly did," he confessed soberly; and then: "Have you forgotten +what I told you about the circumstances under which I left home?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Oh!</i>" she murmured, and as once before there was a little gasp to go +with the word. Then: "She wouldn't—she wouldn't——"</p> + +<p>"No," he answered; "she wouldn't; but her father would."</p> + +<p>"So her father wanted her to marry the other man, did he? What was he +like—the other man? I don't believe you've ever told me anything about +him."</p> + +<p>Smith's laugh was an easing of strains.</p> + +<p>"Now your 'control' is playing tricks on you. There were a dozen other +men, more or less."</p> + +<p>"And her picture was in the watch-case of each?"</p> + +<p>"You've pumped me dry," he returned, the sardonic humor reasserting +itself. "I haven't her watch-case list; I never had it. But I guess it's +within bounds to suppose that she got the little pictures from the +photographer by the half-dozen, at least. Young women in my part of the +world don't think much of the watch-case habit; I mean they don't regard +it seriously."</p> + +<p>A motor-car was coming up the driveway and Smith was not altogether +sorry when he saw Stillings, the lawyer, climb out of it to mount the +steps. It was high time that an interruption of some sort was breaking +in, and when the colonel appeared and brought Stillings with him to the +lounging end of the porch, a business conference began which gave Miss +Corona an excuse to disappear, and which accounted easily for the +remainder of the evening.</p> + +<p>Borrowing a horse from the Hillcrest corral the following morning, Smith +returned to Brewster by way of the dam, making the long détour count for +as much as possible in the matter of sheer time-killing. It was a little +before noon when he reached town by the roundabout route, and after +putting the horse up at the livery-stable in which Colonel Baldwin was a +half owner, he went to the hotel to reconnoitre. The room-clerk who gave +him his key gave him also the information he craved.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Richlander? Oh, yes; he left early this morning by the stage. He is +interested in some gold properties up in the range beyond Topaz. Fine +old gentleman. Do you know him, Mr. Smith?"</p> + +<p>"The name seemed familiar when I saw it on the register last evening," +was Smith's evasion; "but it is not such a very uncommon name. He didn't +say when he was coming back?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>Smith took a fresh hold upon life and liberty. While the world is +perilously narrow in some respects, it is comfortably broad in others, +and a danger once safely averted is a danger lessened. Snatching a hasty +luncheon in the grill-room, the fighting manager of Timanyoni High Line +hurried across to the private suite in the Kinzie Building offices into +which he had lately moved and once more plunged into the business +battle.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding a new trouble which Stillings had wished to talk over +with his president and the financial manager the night before—the +claim set up by the dead-and-gone paper railroad to a right of way +across the Timanyoni at the dam—the battle was progressing favorably. +Williams was accomplishing the incredible in the matter of speed, and +the dam was now nearly ready to withstand the high-water stresses when +they should come. The power-house was rising rapidly, and the machinery +was on the way from the East. Altogether things were looking more +hopeful than they had at any period since the hasty reorganization. +Smith attacked the multifarious details of his many-sided job with +returning energy. If he could make shift to hold on for a few days or +weeks longer....</p> + +<p>He set his teeth upon a desperate determination to hold on at any cost; +at all costs. If Josiah Richlander should come back to Brewster—but +Smith would not allow himself to think of this. At the worst, the period +of peril could not be long. Smith knew his man, and was well assured +that it would take something more alluring than a gold-mine to keep the +Lawrenceville millionaire away from his business at home for any +considerable length of time. With the comforting conclusion for a +stimulus, the afternoon of hard work passed quickly and there was only a +single small incident to break the busy monotonies. While Smith was +dictating the final batch of letters to the second stenographer a young +man with sleepy eyes and yellow creosote stains on his fingers came in +to ask for a job. Smith put him off until the correspondence was +finished and then gave him a hearing.</p> + +<p>"What kind of work are you looking for?" was the brisk query.</p> + +<p>"Shorthand work, if I can get it," said the man out of a job.</p> + +<p>"How rapid are you?"</p> + +<p>"I have been a court reporter."</p> + +<p>Smith was needing another stenographer and he looked the applicant over +appraisingly. The appraisal was not entirely satisfactory. There was a +certain shifty furtiveness in the half-opened eyes, and the rather weak +chin hinted at a possible lack of the discreetness which is the prime +requisite in a confidential clerk.</p> + +<p>"Any business experience?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; I've done some railroad work."</p> + +<p>"Here in Brewster?"</p> + +<p>Shaw lied smoothly. "No; in Omaha."</p> + +<p>"Any recommendations?"</p> + +<p>The young man produced a handful of "To Whom it May Concern" letters. +They were all on business letter-heads, and were apparently genuine, +though none of them were local. Smith ran them over hastily and he had +no means of knowing that they had been carefully prepared by Crawford +Stanton at no little cost in ingenuity and painstaking. How careful the +preparation had been was revealed in the applicant's ready suggestion.</p> + +<p>"You can write or wire to any of these gentlemen," he said; "only, if +there is a job open, I'd be glad to go to work on trial."</p> + +<p>The business training of the present makes for quick decisions. Smith +snapped a rubber band around the letters and shot them into a pigeonhole +of his desk.</p> + +<p>"We'll give you a chance to show what you can do," he told the man out +of work. "If you measure up to the requirements, the job will be +permanent. You may come in to-morrow morning and report to Mr. Miller, +the chief clerk."</p> + +<p>The young man nodded his thanks and went out, leaving just as the first +stenographer was bringing in his allotment of letters for the +signatures. Having other things to think of, Smith forgot the +sleepy-eyed young fellow instantly. But it is safe to assume that he +would not have dismissed the incident so readily if he had known that +Shaw had been waiting in the anteroom during the better part of the +dictating interval, and that on the departing applicant's cuffs were +microscopic short-hand notes of a number of the more important letters.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV</h2> + +<h3>"Sweet Fortune's Minion"</h3> + + +<p>It was late dinner-time when Smith closed the big roll-top desk in the +new private suite in the Kinzie Building offices and went across the +street to the hotel. A little farther along, as he was coming down from +his rooms to go to dinner, he saw Starbuck in the lobby talking to +Williams; but since they did not see him, he passed on without stopping.</p> + +<p>The great dining-room of the Hophra House was on the ground floor; a +stucco-pillared immensity with scenic mural decorations after Bierstadt +and a ceiling over which fat cupids and the classical nude in goddesses +rioted in the soft radiance of the shaded electrics. The room was well +filled, but the head waiter found Smith a small table in the shelter of +one of the pillars and brought him an evening paper.</p> + +<p>Smith gave his dinner order and began to glance through the paper. The +subdued chatter and clamor of the big room dinned pleasantly in his +ears, and the disturbing thought of peril imminent was losing its +keenest cutting edge when suddenly the solid earth yawned and the +heavens fell. Half absently he realized that the head waiter was seating +some one at the place opposite his own; then the faint odor of violets, +instantly reminiscent, came to his nostrils. He knew instinctively, and +before he could put the newspaper aside, what had happened. Hence the +shock, when he found himself face to face with Verda Richlander, was not +so completely paralyzing as it might have been. She was looking across +at him with a lazy smile in the glorious brown eyes, and the surprise +was quite evidently no surprise for her.</p> + +<p>"I told the waiter to bring me over here," she explained; and then, +quite pleasantly: "It is an exceedingly little world, isn't it, +Montague?"</p> + +<p>He nodded gloomily.</p> + +<p>"Much too little for a man to hide in," he agreed; adding: "But I think +I have known that, all along; known, at least, that it would be only a +question of time."</p> + +<p>The waiter had come to take Miss Richlander's dinner order, and the talk +paused. After the man had gone she began again.</p> + +<p>"Why did you run away?" she asked.</p> + +<p>Smith shrugged his shoulders helplessly.</p> + +<p>"What else was there for me to do. Besides, I believed, at the time, +that I had killed Dunham. I could have sworn he was dead when I left +him."</p> + +<p>She was toying idly with the salad-fork. "Sometimes I am almost sorry +that he wasn't," she offered.</p> + +<p>"Which is merely another way of saying that you were unforgiving enough +to wish to see me hanged?" he suggested, with a sour smile.</p> + +<p>"It wasn't altogether that; no." There was a pause and then she went on: +"I suppose you know what has been happening since you ran away—what has +been done in Lawrenceville, I mean?"</p> + +<p>"I know that I have been indicted by the grand jury and that there is a +reward out for me. It's two thousand dollars, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>She let the exact figure of the reward go unconfirmed.</p> + +<p>"And still you are going about in public as if all the hue and cry meant +nothing to you? The beard is an improvement—it makes you look older and +more determined—but it doesn't disguise you. I should have known you +anywhere, and other people will."</p> + +<p>Again his shoulders went up.</p> + +<p>"What's the use?" he said. "I couldn't dig deep enough nor fly high +enough to dodge everybody. You have found me, and if you hadn't, +somebody else would have. It would have been the same any time and +anywhere."</p> + +<p>"You knew we were here?" she inquired.</p> + +<p>He made the sign of assent.</p> + +<p>"And yet you didn't think it worth while to take your meals somewhere +else?"</p> + +<p>He made a virtue of necessity. "I should certainly have taken the small +precaution you suggest if the clerk hadn't told me that your father had +gone up to the Gloria district. I took it for granted that you had gone +with him."</p> + +<p>The lazy smile came again in the brown eyes, and it irritated him.</p> + +<p>"I am going to believe that you wouldn't have tried to hide from me," +she said slowly. "You'll give my conceit that much to live on, won't +you?"</p> + +<p>"You mean that I ought to have been willing to trust you? Perhaps I was. +But I could hardly think of you as apart from your father. I knew very +well what he would do."</p> + +<p>"I was intending to go on up to the mines with him," she said evenly. +"But last evening, while I was waiting for him to finish his talk with +some mining men, I was standing in the mezzanine, looking down into the +lobby. I saw you go to the desk and leave your key; I was sure I +couldn't be mistaken; so I told father that I had changed my mind about +going out to the mines and he seemed greatly relieved. He had been +trying to persuade me that I would be much more comfortable if I should +wait for him here."</p> + +<p>It was no stirring of belated sentiment that made Smith say: "You—you +cared enough to wish to see me?"</p> + +<p>"Naturally," she replied. "Some people forget easily: others don't. I +suppose I am one of the others."</p> + +<p>Smith remembered the proverb about a woman scorned and saw a menace more +to be feared than all the terrors of the law lurking in the even-toned +rejoinder. It was with some foolish idea of thrusting the menace aside +at any cost that he said: "You have only to send a ten-word telegram to +Sheriff Macauley, you know. I'm not sure that it isn't your duty to do +so."</p> + +<p>"Why should I telegraph Barton Macauley?" she asked placidly. "I'm not +one of his deputies."</p> + +<p>"But you believe me guilty, don't you?"</p> + +<p>The handsome shoulders twitched in the barest hint of indifference. "As +I have said, I am not in Bart Macauley's employ—nor in Mr. Watrous +Dunham's. Neither am I the judge and jury to put you in the prisoner's +box and try you. I suppose you knew what you were doing, and why you did +it. But I do think you might have written me a line, Montague. That +would have been the least you could have done."</p> + +<p>The serving of the salad course broke in just here, and for some time +afterward the talk was not resumed. Miss Richlander was apparently +enjoying her dinner. Smith was not enjoying his, but he ate as a +troubled man often will; mechanically and as a matter of routine. It was +not until the dessert had been served that the young woman took up the +thread of the conversation precisely as if it had never been dropped.</p> + +<p>"I think you know that you have no reason to be afraid of me, Montague; +but I can't say as much for father. He will be back in a few days, and +when he comes it will be prudent for you to vanish. That is a future, +however."</p> + +<p>Smith's laugh was brittle.</p> + +<p>"We'll leave it a future, if you like. 'Sufficient unto the day is the +evil thereof.'"</p> + +<p>"Oh; so you class me as an evil, do you?"</p> + +<p>"No; you know I didn't mean that; I merely mean that it's no use +crossing the bridges before we come to them. I've been living from day +to day so long now, that I am becoming hardened to it."</p> + +<p>Again there was a pause, and again it was Miss Richlander who broke it.</p> + +<p>"You don't want to go back to Lawrenceville?" she suggested.</p> + +<p>"Hardly—in the circumstances."</p> + +<p>"What will you do?—go away from Brewster and stay until father has +finished buying his mine?"</p> + +<p>"No; I can't very well go away—for business reasons."</p> + +<p>The slow smile was dimpling again at the corners of the perfect mouth.</p> + +<p>"You are going to need a little help, Montague—my help—aren't you? It +occurs to me that you can well afford to show me some little friendly +attention while I am Robinson-Crusoed here waiting for father to come +back."</p> + +<p>"Let me understand," he broke in, frowning across the table at her. "You +are willing to ignore what has happened—to that extent? You are not +forgetting that in the eyes of the law I am a criminal?"</p> + +<p>She made a faint little gesture of impatience.</p> + +<p>"Why do you persist in dragging that in? I am not supposed to know +anything about your business affairs, with Watrous Dunham or anybody +else. Besides, no one knows me here, and no one cares. Besides, again, I +am a stranger in a strange city and we are—or we used to be—old +friends."</p> + +<p>Her half-cynical tone made him frown again, thoughtfully, this time.</p> + +<p>"Women are curious creatures," he commented. "I used to think I knew a +little something about them, but I guess it was a mistake. What do you +want me to do?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, anything you like; anything that will keep me from being bored to +death."</p> + +<p>Smith laid his napkin aside and glanced at his watch.</p> + +<p>"There is a play of some kind on at the opera-house, I believe," he +said, rising and going around to draw her chair aside. "If you'd care to +go, I'll see if I can't hold somebody up for a couple of seats."</p> + +<p>"That is more like it. I used to be afraid that you hadn't a drop of +sporting blood in you, Montague, and I am glad to learn, even at this +late day, that I was mistaken. Take me up-stairs, and we'll go to the +play."</p> + +<p>They left the dining-room together, and there was more than one pair of +eyes to follow them in frank admiration. "What a strikingly handsome +couple," said a bejewelled lady who sat at the table nearest the door; +and her companion, a gentleman with restless eyes and thin lips and a +rather wicked jaw, said: "Yes; I don't know the woman, but the man is +Colonel Baldwin's new financier; the fellow who calls himself 'John +Smith.'"</p> + +<p>The bediamonded lady smiled dryly. "You say that as if you had a mortal +quarrel with his name, Crawford. If I were the girl, <i>I</i> shouldn't find +fault with the name. You say you don't know her?"</p> + +<p>Stanton had pushed his chair back and was rising. "Take your time with +the ice-cream, and I'll join you later up-stairs. I'm going to find out +who the girl is, since you want to know."</p> + +<p>On the progress through the lobby to the elevators there were others to +make remarks upon the handsome pair; among them the ex-cowboy mine owner +whose name was still "Billy" Starbuck to everybody in the Timanyoni +region.</p> + +<p>"Say! wouldn't that jar you, now?" he muttered to himself. And again: +"This John Smith fellow sure does need a guardian—and for just this +one time I reckon I might as well butt in and be it. If he's fixing to +shake that little Corona girl he's sure going to earn what's coming to +him. That's my ante."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI</h2> + +<h3>Broken Threads</h3> + + +<p>Mr. Crawford Stanton's attempt to find out who Smith's dinner companion +was began with a casual question shot at the hotel clerk; with that, and +a glance at the register. From the clerk he learned Miss Richlander's +name and the circumstances under which she had become a waiting +transient in the hotel. From the register he got nothing but the +magnate's name and the misleading address, "Chicago."</p> + +<p>"Is Mr. Richlander a Chicago man?" he asked of the clerk.</p> + +<p>"No. He merely registered from his last stop—as a good many people do. +His home town is Lawrenceville."</p> + +<p>"Which Lawrenceville is that?" Stanton inquired; but the clerk shook his +head.</p> + +<p>"You may search me, Mr. Stanton. I didn't ask. It's in Indiana, isn't +it? You might find out from Miss Richlander."</p> + +<p>Stanton became thoughtful for a moment and then crossed the lobby to his +business office, which had an entrance from the hotel ground floor. +Behind the closed door, which he took the precaution to lock, he turned +on the light and opened a large atlas. A glance at the town listings +revealed some half-dozen Lawrencevilles, in as many different States, +one State offering two, for good measure. That ended the search for the +moment, and a little later he went up-stairs to rejoin the resplendent +lady, who was taking her after-dinner ease in the most comfortable +lounging-chair the mezzanine parlors afforded.</p> + +<p>"No good," he reported. "The girl's name is Richlander, and she—or her +father—comes from one of half a dozen 'Lawrencevilles'—you can take +your choice among 'em."</p> + +<p>"Money?" queried the comfortable one.</p> + +<p>"Buying mines in the Topaz," said the husband mechanically. He was not +thinking specially of Mr. Josiah Richlander's possible or probable +rating with the commercial agencies; he was wondering how well Miss +Richlander knew John Smith, and in what manner she could be persuaded to +tell what she might know. While he was turning it over in his mind the +two in question, Smith and the young woman, passed through the lobby on +their way to the theatre. Stanton, watching them narrowly from the +vantage-point afforded by the galleried mezzanine, drew his own +conclusions. By all the little signs they were not merely chance +acquaintances or even casual friends. Their relations were closer—and +of longer standing.</p> + +<p>Stanton puzzled over his problem a long time, long after Mrs. Stanton +had forsaken the easy chair and had disappeared from the scene. His +Eastern employers were growing irascibly impatient, and the letters and +telegrams were beginning to have an abrasive quality disagreeably +irritating to a hard-working field captain. Who was this fellow Smith, +and what was his backing? they were beginning to ask; and with the +asking there were intimations that if Mr. Crawford Stanton were finding +his task too difficult, there was always an alternative.</p> + +<p>As a business man Stanton was usually able to keep irritating +personalities at a proper distance. But the Timanyoni-Escalante war was +beginning to get on his nerves. At first, it had presented itself as the +simplest of business campaigns. A great land grab had been carried +through, and there was an ample water-supply to transform the arid +desert into ranch acres with enormous increases in values. A farmers' +ditch company, loosely organized and administered, was the sole +obstacle in the way, and upon his arrival in Brewster, Stanton had set +blithely about removing it.</p> + +<p>Just when all was going well, when the farmers were almost in sight of +their finish, and the actual stock absorption had fairly begun, the new +factor had broken in; a young man capable and daring to a degree that +was amazing, even in the direct and courageous West. Where and how Smith +would strike, Stanton never knew until after the blow had been sent +home. Secrecy, the most difficult requirement in any business campaign, +had been so strictly maintained that up to the present evening of +cogitations in the Hophra House mezzanine, Stanton was still unable to +tell his New York and Washington employers positively whether Smith had +money—Eastern money—behind him, or was engineering the big coup alone. +Kinzie was steadfastly refusing to talk, and the sole significant fact, +thus far, was that practically all of the new High Line stock had been +taken up by local purchasers.</p> + +<p>Stanton was still wrestling with his problem when the "handsome couple" +returned from the play. The trust field captain saw them as they crossed +the lobby to the elevator and again marked the little evidences of +familiarity. "That settles it," he mused, with an outthrust of the +pugnacious jaw. "She knows more about Smith than anybody else in this +neck of woods—<i>and she's got it to tell</i>!"</p> + +<p>Stanton began his inquisition for better information the following day, +with the bejewelled lady for his ally. Miss Richlander was alone and +unfriended in the hotel—and also a little bored. Hence she was easy of +approach; so easy that by luncheon time the sham promoter's wife was +able to introduce her husband. Stanton lost no moment investigative. For +the inquiring purpose, Smith was made to figure as a business +acquaintance, and Stanton was generous in his praises of the young man's +astounding financial ability.</p> + +<p>"He's simply a wonder, Miss Richlander!" he confided over the +luncheon-table. "Coming here a few weeks ago, absolutely unknown, he has +already become a prominent man of affairs in Brewster. And so discreetly +reticent! To this good day nobody knows where he comes from, or anything +about him."</p> + +<p>"No?" said Miss Verda. "How singular!" But she did not volunteer to +supply any of the missing biographical facts.</p> + +<p>"Absolutely nothing," Stanton went on smoothly. "And, of course, his +silence about himself has been grossly misinterpreted. I have even heard +it said that he is an escaped convict."</p> + +<p>"How perfectly absurd!" was the smiling comment.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it? But you know how people will talk. They are saying now that +his name isn't Smith; that he has merely taken the commonest name in the +category as an <i>alias</i>."</p> + +<p>"I can contradict that, anyway," Miss Richlander offered. "His name is +really and truly John Smith."</p> + +<p>"You have known him a long time, haven't you?" inquired the lady with +the headlight diamonds.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; for quite a long time, indeed."</p> + +<p>"That was back in New York State?" Stanton slipped in.</p> + +<p>"In the East, yes. He comes of an excellent family. His father's people +were well-to-do farmers, and one of his great-uncles on his mother's +side was on the supreme bench in our State; he was chief justice during +the later years of his life."</p> + +<p>"What State did you say?" queried Stanton craftily. But Miss Verda was +far too wide-awake to let him surprise her.</p> + +<p>"Our home State, of course. I don't believe any member of Mr. Smith's +immediate family on either side has ever moved out of it."</p> + +<p>Stanton gave it up for the time being, and was convinced upon two +points. Miss Richlander's reticence could have but one meaning: for some +good reason, Smith would not, or dare not, give any home references. +That was one point, and the second was that Miss Richlander knew, and +knew that others wanted to know—and refused to tell. Stanton weighed +the probabilities thoughtfully in the privacy of his office. There were +two hypotheses: Smith might have business reasons for the secrecy—he +might have backers who wished to remain completely unknown in their +fight against the big land trust; but if he had no backers the other +hypothesis clinched itself instantly—he was in hiding; he had done +something from which he had run away.</p> + +<p>It was not until after office hours that Stanton was able to reduce his +equation to its simplest terms, and it was Shaw, dropping in to make his +report after his first day's work as clerk and stenographer in the High +Line headquarters, who cleared the air of at least one fog bank of +doubts.</p> + +<p>"I've been through the records and the stock-books," said the spy, when, +in obedience to orders, he had locked the office door. "Smith is playing +a lone hand. He flimflammed Kinzie for his first chunk of money, and +after that it was easy. Every dollar invested in High Line has been dug +up right here in the Timanyoni. Here's the list of stockholders."</p> + +<p>Stanton ran his eye down the string of names and swore when he saw +Maxwell's subscription of $25,000. "Damn it!" he rasped; "and he's +Fairbairn's own son-in-law!"</p> + +<p>"So is Starbuck, for that matter; and he's in for twenty thousand," said +Shaw. "And, by the way, Billy is a man who will bear watching. He's +hand-in-glove with Smith, and he's onto all of our little crooks and +turns. I heard him telling Smith to-day that he owed it to the company +to carry a gun."</p> + +<p>Stanton's smile showed his teeth.</p> + +<p>"I wish he would; carry one and kill somebody with it. Then we'd know +what to do with him."</p> + +<p>The spy was rolling a cigarette and his half-closed eyes had a murderous +glint in them.</p> + +<p>"Me, for instance?" he inquired cynically.</p> + +<p>"Anybody," said Stanton absently. He was going over the list of +stockholders again and had scarcely heard what Shaw had said.</p> + +<p>"That brings us down to business, Mr. Stanton," said the ex-railroad +clerk slowly. "I'm not getting money enough out of this to cover the +risk—my risk."</p> + +<p>The man at the desk looked up quickly.</p> + +<p>"What's that you say? By heavens, Shaw, have I got to send you over the +road before you'll come to your senses? I've spoken once, and I'll do it +just this one time more: you sing small if you want to keep out of +jail!"</p> + +<p>Shaw had lighted his cigarette and was edging toward the door.</p> + +<p>"Not this trip, Mr. Stanton," he said coolly. "If you've got me, I've +got you. I can find two men who will go into court and swear that you +paid Pete Simms money to have Smith sandbagged, that day out at Simms's +place at the dam! I may have to go to jail, as you say; but I'll bet you +five to one that you'll beat me to it!" And with that he snapped the +catch on the locked door and went away.</p> + +<p>Some three hours after this rather hostile clash with the least +trustworthy, but by far the most able, of his henchmen, Crawford Stanton +left his wife chatting comfortably with Miss Richlander in the hotel +parlors and went reluctantly to keep an appointment which he had been +dreading ever since the early afternoon hour when a wire had come from +Copah directing him to meet the "Nevada Flyer" upon its arrival at +Brewster. The public knew the name signed to the telegram as that of a +millionaire statesman; but Stanton knew it best as the name of a hard +and not over-scrupulous master.</p> + +<p>The train was whistling for the station when Stanton descended from his +cab and hurried down the long platform. He assumed that the great +personage would be travelling in a private car which would be coupled to +the rear end of the "Flyer," and his guess was confirmed. A +white-jacketed porter was waiting to admit him to the presence when the +train came to a stand, and as he climbed into the vestibule of the +luxurious private car, Stanton got what comfort he could out of the +thought that the interview would necessarily be limited by the ten +minutes' engine-changing stop of the fast train.</p> + +<p>The presence chamber was the open compartment of the palace on wheels, +and it held a single occupant when Stanton entered; a big-bodied man +with bibulous eyes and a massive square-angled head and face, a face in +which the cartoonists emphasized the heavy drooping mustache and the +ever-present black cigar growing out of it.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Crawford," the great man grunted, making no move to lift his +huge body out of the padded lounging-chair. "You got my wire?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," returned the promoter, limiting himself to the one word.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with you here on this land deal? Why don't you get +action?"</p> + +<p>Stanton tried to explain as fully as might be, holding in view the +necessity for haste. The big man in the easy chair was frowning heavily +when the explanation was finished.</p> + +<p>"And you say this one man has blocked the game? Why the devil don't you +get rid of him—buy him, or run him off, or something?"</p> + +<p>"I don't believe he can be bought."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, chase him out. We can't afford to be hung up this way +indefinitely by every little amateur that happens to come along and sit +in the game. Get action and do something. From what you say, this fellow +is probably some piker who has left his country for his country's good. +Get the detectives after him and run him down."</p> + +<p>"That will take time, and time is what we haven't got."</p> + +<p>The big man pulled himself up in his chair and glared savagely at the +protester.</p> + +<p>"Stanton, you make me tired—very tired! You know what we have at stake +in this deal, and thus far you're the only man in it who hasn't made +good. You've had all the help you've asked for, and all the money you +wanted to spend. If you've lost your grip, say so plainly, and get down +and out. We don't want any 'has-been' on this job. If you are at the end +of your resources——"</p> + +<p>The conductor's shout of "All aboard!" dominated the clamor of the +station noises, and the air-brakes were singing as the engineer of the +changed locomotives tested the connections. Stanton saw his chance to +duck and took it.</p> + +<p>"I have been trying to stop short of anything that might make talk," he +said. "This town might easily be made too hot to hold us, and——"</p> + +<p>"You're speaking for yourself, now," rapped out the tyrant. "What the +devil do we care for the temperature of Brewster? I've only one word for +you, Crawford: <i>you get busy and give us results</i>. Skip out, now, or +you'll get carried by. And, say; let me have a wire at Los Angeles, not +later than Thursday. Get that?"</p> + +<p>Stanton got it: also, he escaped, making a flying leap from the moving +train. At the cab rank he found the motor-cab which he had hired for the +drive down from the hotel. Climbing in, he gave a brittle order to the +chauffeur. Simultaneously a man wearing the softest of Stetsons lounged +away from his post of observation under a near-by electric pole and ran +across the railroad plaza to unhitch and mount a wiry little cow-pony. +Once in the saddle, however, the mounted man did not hurry his horse. +Having overheard Stanton's order-giving, there was no need to keep the +motor-cab in sight as it sputtered through the streets and out upon the +backgrounding mesa, its ill-smelling course ending at a lonely +road-house in the mesa hills on the Topaz trail.</p> + +<p>When the hired vehicle came to a stand in front of the lighted bar-room +of the road-house, Stanton gave a waiting order to the driver and went +in. Of the dog-faced barkeeper he asked an abrupt question, and at the +man's jerk of a thumb toward the rear, the promoter passed on and +entered the private room at the back.</p> + +<p>The private room had but one occupant—the man Lanterby, who was sitting +behind a round card-table and vainly endeavoring to make one of the pair +of empty whiskey-glasses spin in a complete circuit about a black +bottle standing on the table.</p> + +<p>Stanton pulled up a chair and sat down, and Lanterby poured libations +for two from the black bottle. The promoter, ordinarily as abstemious as +a Trappist, drained his portion at a gulp.</p> + +<p>"Well?" he snapped, pushing the bottle aside. "What did you find out?"</p> + +<p>"I reckon it can be done, if it has to be," was the low-toned reply.</p> + +<p>"Done and well covered up?"</p> + +<p>"Yep. It'll be charged up to the high water—maybe."</p> + +<p>"Is the river still rising?"</p> + +<p>"A little bit higher every night now. That's the way it comes up. The +snow on the mountain melts in the day and the run-off comes in the +night."</p> + +<p>"You can handle it by yourself, can't you?"</p> + +<p>"Me and Boogerfield can."</p> + +<p>"All right. Get everything ready and wait for the word from me. You +didn't let Pegleg in on it, did you?"</p> + +<p>"I had to. We'd have to work from his joint."</p> + +<p>"That was a bad move. Simms would sell you out if anybody wanted to buy. +He'd sell his best friend," frowned Stanton.</p> + +<p>Lanterby showed the whites of his eyes and a set of broken teeth in a +wolfish grin.</p> + +<p>"Pete can't run fast enough to sell me out," he boasted. "I'll have +somethin' in my clothes that'll run faster than he can, with that wooden +leg o' his."</p> + +<p>Stanton nodded and poured himself another drink—a larger one than the +first; and then thought better of it and spilled the liquor on the +floor.</p> + +<p>"That will do for the dynamite part of it. It's a last resort, of +course. We don't want to have to rebuild the dam, and I have one more +string that I want to pull first. This man Smith: I've got a pointer on +him, at last. Is Boogerfield still feeling sore about the man-handling +Smith gave him?"</p> + +<p>"You bet your life he is."</p> + +<p>"Good. Keep him stirred up along that line." Stanton got up and looked +thirstily at the bottle, but let it alone. "That's all for to-night. +Stay out of sight as much as you can, and go easy on the whiskey. I may +not come here again. If I don't, I'll send you one of two words. +'Williams' will mean that you're to strike for the dam. 'Jake' will mean +that you are to get Boogerfield fighting drunk and send him after Smith. +Whichever way it comes out, you'll find the money where I've said it +will be, and you and Boogerfield had better fade away—and take Pegleg +with you, if you can."</p> + +<p>The hired car was still waiting when Stanton went out through the +bar-room and gave the driver his return orders. And, because the night +was dark, neither of the two at the car saw the man in the soft Stetson +straighten himself up from his crouching place under the back-room +window and vanish silently in the gloom.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII</h2> + +<h3>A Night of Fiascos</h3> + + +<p>Smith had seen nothing of Miss Richlander during the day of the Stanton +plottings, partly because there was a forenoon meeting of the High Line +stockholders called for the purpose of electing him secretary and +treasurer in fact of the company, and partly because the major portion +of the afternoon was spent in conference with Williams at the dam.</p> + +<p>The work of construction had now reached its most critical stage, and +Williams was driving it strenuously. Each twenty-four hours, with the +recurring night rise from the melting snows, the torrenting river +reached a higher water-mark, and three times in as many weeks the +engineer had changed from a quick-setting cement to a still quicker, +time-saving and a swift piling-up of the great dike wall being now the +prime necessities.</p> + +<p>Returning from the dam site quite late in the evening, Smith spent a +hard-working hour or more at his desk in the Kinzie Building offices; +and it was here that Starbuck found him.</p> + +<p>"What?" said the new secretary, looking up from his work when Starbuck's +wiry figure loomed in the doorway, "I thought you were once more a +family man, and had cut out the night prowling."</p> + +<p>Starbuck jack-knifed himself comfortably in a chair.</p> + +<p>"I was. But the little girl's run away again; gone with her +sister—Maxwell's wife, you know—to Denver to get her teeth fixed; and +I'm foot-loose. Been butting in a little on your game, this evening, +just to be doing. How's tricks with you, now?"</p> + +<p>"We're strictly in the fight," declared Smith enthusiastically. "We +closed the deal to-day for the last half-mile of the main ditch right of +way, which puts us up on the mesa slope above the Escalante Grant. If +they knock us out now, they'll have to do it with dynamite."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the ex-cow-man, thoughtfully; "with dynamite." Then: "How is +Williams getting along?"</p> + +<p>"Fine! The water is crawling up on him a little every night, but with no +accidents, he'll be able to hold the flood rise when it comes. The only +thing that worries me now is the time limit."</p> + +<p>"The time limit?" echoed Starbuck. "What's that?"</p> + +<p>"It's the handicap we inherit from the original company. Certain State +rights to the water were conveyed in the old charter, on condition that +the project should be completed, or at least be far enough along to turn +water into the ditches, by a given date. This time limit, which carries +over from Timanyoni Ditch to Timanyoni High Line, expires next week. +We're petitioning for an extension, but if we don't get it we shall +still be able to back the water up so that it will flow into the lower +level of ditches by next Thursday; that is, barring accidents."</p> + +<p>"Yes; with no accidents," mused Starbuck. "Can't get shut of the 'if,' +no way nor shape, can we? So that's why the Stanton people have been +fighting so wolfishly for delay, is it? Wanted to make the High Line +lose its charter? John, this is a wicked, wicked world, and I can +sympathize with the little kiddie who said he was going out in the +garden to eat worms." Then he switched abruptly. "Where did you corral +all those good looks you took to the opera-house last night, John?"</p> + +<p>Smith's laugh was strictly perfunctory.</p> + +<p>"That was Miss Verda Richlander, an old friend of mine from back home. +She is out here with her father, and the father has gone up into the +Topaz country to buy him a gold brick."</p> + +<p>"Not in the Topaz," Starbuck struck in loyally. "We don't make the +bricks up there—not the phony kind. But let that go and tell me +something else. A while back, when you were giving me a little song and +dance about the colonel's daughter, you mentioned another woman—though +not by name, if you happen to recollect. I was just wondering if this +Miss Rich-people, or whatever her name is, might be the other one."</p> + +<p>Again the new secretary laughed—this time without embarrassment. +"You've called the turn, Billy. She is the other one."</p> + +<p>"H'm; chasing you up?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; it was just one of the near-miracles. She didn't know I was +here, and I had no hint that she was coming."</p> + +<p>"I didn't know," commented the reformed cowboy. "Sometimes when you +think it's a cold trail, it's a warm one; and then again when you think +it's warm, it fools you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, pshaw!" scoffed the trail-maker, "you make me weary, Billy. We are +merely good friends. No longer ago than last night I had the strongest +possible proof of Miss Richlander's friendship."</p> + +<p>"Did, eh? All right; it's your roast; not mine. But I'm going to pull +one chestnut out of the fire for you, even if I do get my fingers +burned. This Miss Rich-folks has had only one day here in Brewster, but +she's used it in getting mighty chummy with the Stantons. Did you know +that?"</p> + +<p>"What!" ejaculated Smith.</p> + +<p>"Jesso," smiled Starbuck. "She had her luncheon with 'em to-day, and for +an hour or so this evening the three of 'em sat together up in the +Hophra inside-veranda parlor. Does that figure as news to you?"</p> + +<p>"It does," said Smith simply; and he added: "I don't understand it."</p> + +<p>"Funny," remarked the ex-cow-man. "It didn't ball me up for more than a +minute or two. Stanton fixed it some way—because he needed to. Tell me +something, John; could this Miss Rich-garden help Stanton out in any of +his little schemes, if she took a notion?"</p> + +<p>Smith turned away and stared at the blackened square of outer darkness +lying beyond the office window.</p> + +<p>"She could, Billy—but she won't," he answered.</p> + +<p>"You can dig up your last dollar and bet on that, can you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think I can."</p> + +<p>"H'm; that's just what I was most afraid of."</p> + +<p>"Don't be an ass, Billy."</p> + +<p>"I'm trying mighty hard not to be, John, but sometimes the ears will +grow on the best of us—in spite of the devil. What I mean is this: when +a woman thinks enough of a man to keep his secrets, she's mighty likely +to think too much of him to keep those same secrets from spreading +themselves on the bill-boards when the pinch comes."</p> + +<p>"I'm no good at conundrums," said Smith. "Put it in plain words."</p> + +<p>"So I will," snapped Starbuck, half morosely. "Two nights ago, when you +were telling me about this Miss Rich-acres, you said there was nothing +to it, and I said you never could tell, when there was a woman in it. I +saw you two when you came out of the Hophra dining-room together last +night, and I saw the look in that girl's eyes. Do you know what I said +to myself right then, John? I said: 'Oh, you little girl out at the +Hillcrest ranch—good-by, you!'"</p> + +<p>Smith's grin was half antagonistic. "You <i>are</i> an ass, Billy," he +asserted. "I never was in love with Verda Richlander, nor she with me."</p> + +<p>"Speak for yourself and let it hang there, John. You can't speak for the +woman—no man ever can. What I'm hoping now is that she doesn't know +anything about you that Stanton could make use of."</p> + +<p>Again the High Line's new secretary turned to stare at the black +backgrounded window.</p> + +<p>"You mean that she might hear of—of Miss Corona?" he suggested.</p> + +<p>"You've roped it down, at last," said the friendly enemy. "Stanton'll +tell her—he'll tell her anything and everything that might make her +turn loose any little bit of information she may have about you. As I +said a minute ago, I'm hoping she hasn't got anything on you, John."</p> + +<p>Smith was still facing the window when he replied. "I'm sorry to have to +disappoint you, Starbuck. What Miss Richlander could do to me, if she +chooses, would be good and plenty."</p> + +<p>The ex-cowboy mine owner drew a long breath and felt for his +tobacco-sack and rice-paper.</p> + +<p>"All of which opens up more talk trails," he said thoughtfully. "Since +you wouldn't try to take care of yourself, and since your neck happens +to be the most valuable asset Timanyoni High Line has, just at present, +I've been butting in, as I told you. Listen to my tale of woe, if you +haven't anything better to do. Besides the Miss Rich-ranches episode +there are a couple of others. Want to hear about 'em?"</p> + +<p>Smith nodded.</p> + +<p>"All right. A little while past dinner this evening, Stanton had a hurry +call to meet the 'Nevada Flyer.' Tailed onto the train there was a +private luxury car, and in the private car sat a gentleman whose face +you've seen plenty of times in the political cartoons, usually with +cuss-words under it. He is one of Stanton's bosses; and Stanton was in +for a wigging—and got it. I couldn't hear, but I could see—through the +car window. He had Stanton standing on one foot before the train pulled +out and let Crawford make his get-away. You guess, and I'll guess, and +we'll both say it was about this Escalante snap which is aiming to be +known as the Escalante fizzle. Ain't it the truth?"</p> + +<p>Again Smith nodded, and said: "Go on."</p> + +<p>"After Number Five had gone, Stanton broke for his auto-cab, looking +like he could bite a nail in two. I happened to hear the order he gave +the shover, and I had my cayuse hitched over at Bob Sharkey's joint. +Naturally, I ambled along after Crawford, and while I didn't beat him +to it, I got there soon enough. It was out at Jeff Barton's road-house +on the Topaz trail, and Stanton was shut up in the back room with a sort +of tin-horn 'bad man' named Lanterby."</p> + +<p>"You listened?" said Smith, still without eagerness.</p> + +<p>"Right you are. And they fooled me. Two schemes were on tap; one +pointing at Williams and the dam, and the other at you. These were both +'last resorts'; Stanton said he had one more string to pull first. If +that broke—well, I've said it half a dozen times already, John: you'll +either have to hire a body-guard or go heeled. I'm telling you right +here and now, that bunch is going to get you, even if it costs money!"</p> + +<p>"You say Stanton said he had one more string to pull: he didn't give it +a name, did he?"</p> + +<p>"No, but I've got a notion of my own," was the ready answer. "He's +trying to get next to you through the women, with this Miss Rich-pasture +for his can-opener. But when everything else fails, he is to send a +password to Lanterby, one of two passwords. 'Williams' means dynamite +and the dam: 'Jake' means the removal from the map of a fellow named +Smith. Nice prospect, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>Smith was jabbing his paper-knife absently into the desk-blotter. "And +yet we go on calling this a civilized country!" he said meditatively. +Then with a sudden change of front: "I'm in this fight to stay until I +win out or die out, Billy; you know that. As I have said, Miss Verda can +kill me off if she chooses to; but she won't choose to. Now let's get to +work. It's pretty late to rout a justice of the peace out of bed to +issue a warrant for us, but we'll do it. Then we'll go after Lanterby +and make him turn state's evidence. Come on; let's get busy."</p> + +<p>But Starbuck, reaching softly for a chair-righting handhold upon Smith's +desk, made no reply. Instead, he snapped his lithe body out of the chair +and launched it in a sudden tiger-spring at the door. To Smith's +astonishment the door, which should have been latched, came in at +Starbuck's wrenching jerk of the knob, bringing with it, hatless, and +with the breath startled out of him, the new stenographer, Shaw.</p> + +<p>"There's your state's evidence," said Starbuck grimly, pushing the +half-dazed door-listener into a chair. "Just put the auger a couple of +inches into this fellow and see what you can find."</p> + +<p>Measured by any standard of human discomfort, Richard Shaw had an +exceedingly bad quarter of an hour to worry through when Smith and +Starbuck applied the thumbscrews and sought by every means known to +modern inquisitorial methods to force a confession out of him.</p> + +<p>Caring nothing for loyalty to the man who was paying him, Shaw had, +nevertheless, a highly developed anxiety for his own welfare; and +knowing the dangerous ground upon which he stood, he evaded and shuffled +and prevaricated under the charges and questionings until it became +apparent to both of his inquisitors that nothing short of bribery or +physical torture would get the truth out of him. Smith was not willing +to offer the bribe, and since the literal thumbscrews were out of the +question, Shaw was locked into one of the vacant rooms across the +corridor until his captors could determine what was to be done with him.</p> + +<p>"That is one time when I fired and missed the whole side of the barn," +Starbuck admitted, when Shaw had been remanded to the makeshift cell +across the hall. "I know that fellow is on Stanton's pay-roll; and it's +reasonably certain that he got his job with you so that he could keep +cases on you. But we can't prove anything that we say, so long as he +refuses to talk."</p> + +<p>"No," Smith agreed. "I can discharge him, and that's about all that can +be done with him. We can't even tax him with listening. You heard what +he said—that he saw the light up here from the street, and came up to +see if I didn't need him."</p> + +<p>"He is a pretty smooth article," said Starbuck reflectively. "He used to +be a clerk in Maxwell's railroad office, and he was mixed up in some +kind of crookedness, I don't remember just what."</p> + +<p>Smith caught quickly at the suggestion.</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute, Billy," he broke in; and then: "There's no doubt in your +mind that he's a spy?"</p> + +<p>"Sure, he is," was the prompt rejoinder.</p> + +<p>"I was just thinking—he has heard what was said here to-night—which is +enough to give Stanton a pretty good chance to outfigure us again."</p> + +<p>"Right you are."</p> + +<p>"In which case it would be little short of idiotic in us to turn him +loose. We've got to hold him, proof or no proof. Where would we be apt +to catch Maxwell at this time of night?"</p> + +<p>"At home and in bed, I reckon."</p> + +<p>"Call him up on the 'phone and state the case briefly. Tell him if he +has any nip on Shaw that would warrant us in turning him over to the +sheriff, we'd like to know it."</p> + +<p>"You're getting the range now," laughed the ex-cow-man, and instead of +using the desk set, he went to shut himself into the sound-proof +telephone-closet.</p> + +<p>When he emerged a few minutes later he was grinning exultantly. "That +was sure a smooth one of yours, John. Dick gave me the facts. Shaw's a +thief; but he has a sick sister on his hands—or said he had—and the +railroad didn't prosecute. Dick says for us to jug him to-night and +to-morrow morning he'll swear out the necessary papers."</p> + +<p>"Good. We'll do that first; and then we'll go after this fellow +Lanterby. I want to get Stanton where I can pinch him, Billy; no, +there's nothing personal about it; but when a great corporation like the +Escalante Land Company gets down to plain anarchy and dynamiting, it's +time to make somebody sweat for it. Let's go and get Shaw."</p> + +<p>Together they went across the corridor, and Smith unlocked the door of +the disused room. The light switch was on the door-jamb and Starbuck +found and pressed the button. The single incandescent bulb hanging from +the ceiling sprang alive—and showed the two men at the door an empty +room and an open window. The bird had flown.</p> + +<p>Starbuck was grinning again when he went to look out of the window. The +roof of the adjoining building was only a few feet below the sill level, +and there was a convenient fire-escape ladder leading to the ground.</p> + +<p>"It's us for that road-house out on the Topaz trail before the news gets +around to Stanton and Lanterby," he said definitely; and they lost no +time in securing an auto for the dash.</p> + +<p>But that, too, proved to be a fiasco. When they reached Barton's +all-night place on the hill road, the bar was still open and a card game +was running in an up-stairs room. Starbuck did the necessary +cross-questioning of the dog-faced bartender.</p> + +<p>"You know me, Pug, and what I can do to you if I have to. We want Hank +Lanterby. Pitch out and show us where."</p> + +<p>The barkeeper threw up one hand as if he were warding off a blow.</p> + +<p>"You c'd have him in a holy minute, for all o' me, Billy; you sure +could," he protested. "But he's gone."</p> + +<p>"On the level?" snapped Starbuck.</p> + +<p>"That's straight; I wouldn't lie to you, Billy. Telephone call came from +town a little spell ago, and I got Hank outa bed t' answer it. He +borra'd Barton's mare an' faded inside of a pair o' minutes."</p> + +<p>"Which way?" demanded the questioner.</p> + +<p>"T' the hills; leastways he ain't headin' f'r town when he breaks from +here."</p> + +<p>Starbuck turned to Smith with a wry smile.</p> + +<p>"Shaw beat us to it and he scores on us," he said. "We may as well hike +back, 'phone Williams to keep his eye on things up at the dam, and go to +bed. There'll be nothing more doing to-night."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII</h2> + +<h3>A Chance to Hedge</h3> + + +<p>With all things moving favorably for Timanyoni High Line up to the night +of fiascos, the battle for the great water-right seemed to take a sudden +slant against the local promoters, after the failure to cripple Stanton +by the attempt to suppress two of his subordinates. Early the next day +there were panicky rumors in the air, all pointing to a possible +eleventh-hour failure of the local enterprise, and none of them +traceable to any definite starting-point.</p> + +<p>One of the stories was to the effect that the Timanyoni dam had faulty +foundations and that the haste in building had added to its insecurity. +By noon bets were freely offered in the pool-rooms that the dam would +never stand its first filling; and on the heels of this came clamorous +court petitions from ranch owners below the dam site, setting forth the +flood dangers to which they were exposed and praying for an injunction +to stop the work.</p> + +<p>That this was a new move on Stanton's part, neither Smith nor Stillings +questioned for a moment; but they had no sooner got the nervous ranchmen +pacified by giving an indemnity bond for any damage that might be done, +before it became evident that the rumors were having another and still +more serious effect. It was a little past one o'clock when Kinzie sent +up-stairs for Smith, and Smith wondered why, with the telephone at his +elbow, the banker had sent the summons by the janitor.</p> + +<p>When the newly elected secretary had himself shot down the elevator, he +was moved to wonder again at the number of people who were waiting to +see the president. The anteroom was crowded with them; and when the +janitor led him around through the working room of the bank to come at +the inside door to Kinzie's room, Smith thought the détour was made +merely to dodge the waiting throng.</p> + +<p>There was a crude surprise lying in wait for Smith when the door of the +president's room swung open to admit him. Sitting at ease on Kinzie's +big leather-covered lounge, with a huge book of engraving samples on his +knees, was a round-bodied man with a face like a good-natured full +moon. Instantly he tossed the book aside and sprang up.</p> + +<p>"Why, Montague!" he burst out, "if this doesn't beat the band! Is it +really you, or only your remarkably healthy-looking ghost? By George! +but I'm glad to see you!"</p> + +<p>Smith shook hands with Debritt, and if the salesman's hearty greeting +was not returned in kind, the lack was due more to the turmoil of +emotions he had stirred up than to any studied coolness on the part of +the trapped fugitive. Fortunately, the salesman had finished showing +Kinzie his samples and was ready to go, so there was no time for any +awkward revelations.</p> + +<p>"I'm at the Hophra, for just a little while, Montague, and you must look +me up," was Debritt's parting admonition; and Smith was searching the +salesman's eyes keenly for the accusation which ought to be in them; +searching and failing to find it.</p> + +<p>"Yes; I'll look you up, of course, Boswell. I'm at the Hophra, myself," +he returned mechanically; and the next moment he was alone with Kinzie.</p> + +<p>"You sent for me?" he said to the banker; and Kinzie pointed to a +chair.</p> + +<p>"Yes; sit down and tell me what has broken loose. I've been trying to +get Baldwin or Williams on the wire—they're both at the dam, I +understand—but the 'phone seems to be out of service. What has gone +wrong with you people?"</p> + +<p>Smith spread his hands. "We were never in better shape to win out than +we are at this moment, Mr. Kinzie. This little flurry about newer and +bigger damage suits to be brought by the valley truck-gardeners doesn't +amount to anything."</p> + +<p>"I know all about that," said the president, with a touch of impatience. +"But there is a screw loose somewhere. How about that time limit in your +charter? Are you going to get water into the ditches within your charter +restrictions?"</p> + +<p>"We shall clear the law, all right, within the limit," was the prompt +reply. But the banker was still unsatisfied.</p> + +<p>"Did you notice that roomful of people out there waiting to see me?" he +asked. "They are High Line investors, a good many of them, and they are +waiting for a chance to ask me if they hadn't better get rid of their +stock for whatever it will bring. That's why I sent for you. I want to +know what's happened. And this time, Mr. Smith, I want the truth."</p> + +<p>Smith accepted the implied challenge promptly, though in his heart he +knew that a net of some kind was drawing around him.</p> + +<p>"Meaning that I haven't been telling you the truth, heretofore?" he +asked hardily.</p> + +<p>"Meaning just that," responded the banker.</p> + +<p>"Name the time and place, if you please."</p> + +<p>"It was the first time you came here—with Baldwin."</p> + +<p>"No," said Smith. "I gave you nothing but straight facts at that time, +Mr. Kinzie. It was your own deductions that were at fault. You jumped to +the conclusion that I was here as the representative of Eastern capital, +and I neither denied nor affirmed. But that is neither here nor there. +We have made good in the financing, and, incidentally, we've helped the +bank. You have no kick coming."</p> + +<p>Kinzie wheeled in his chair and pointed an accusing finger at Smith.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Smith, before we do any more business together, I want to know who +you are and where you come from. If you can't answer a few plain +questions I shall draw my own inferences."</p> + +<p>Smith leaped up and towered over the thick-set elderly man in the +pivot-chair.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Kinzie, do you want me to tell you what you are? You're a +trimmer—a fence-climber! Do you suppose I don't know what has +happened? Stanton has started this new scare, and he has been here with +you! You've thought it all over, and now you want to welsh and go over +to what you think is going to be the winning side! Do it, if you feel +like it—and I'll transfer our account to the little Savings concern +up-town!"</p> + +<p>There was fire in his eye and hot wrath in his tone; and once more +Kinzie found his conclusions warping.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't fly off the handle so brashly, young man," he protested. +"You've been in the banking business, yourself—you needn't deny it—and +you know what a banker's first care should be. Sit down again and let's +thresh this thing out. I don't want to have to drop you."</p> + +<p>Being fairly at bay, with Debritt in town and Josiah Richlander due to +come back to Brewster at any moment, Smith put his back to the wall and +ignored the chair.</p> + +<p>"You are at liberty to do anything you see fit, so far as I am +concerned," he rapped out, "and whatever you do, I'll try to hand it +back to you, with interest."</p> + +<p>"That is good strong talk," retorted the banker, "but it doesn't tell me +who you are, or why you are so evidently anxious to forget your past, +Mr. Smith. I'm not asking much, if you'll stop to consider. And you'll +give me credit for being fair and aboveboard with you. I might have held +that engraving salesman and questioned him; he knows you—knows your +other name."</p> + +<p>Smith put the entire matter aside with an impatient gesture. "Leave my +past record out of it, if you please, Mr. Kinzie. At the present moment +I am the financial head of Timanyoni High Line. What I want to know is +this: do you continue to stand with us? or do you insist upon the +privilege of seesawing every time Stanton turns up with a fresh scare? +Let me have it, yes or no; and then I shall know what to do."</p> + +<p>The gray-haired man in the big chair took time to think about it, +pursing his lips and making a quick-set hedge of his cropped mustache. +In the end he capitulated.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to break with you—or with Dexter Baldwin," he said, at +length. "But I'm going to talk straight to you. Your little local crowd +of ranchmen and mining men will never be allowed to hold that dam and +your ditch right of way; never in this world, Smith."</p> + +<p>"If you are our friend, you'll tell us why," Smith came back smartly.</p> + +<p>"Because you have got too big a crowd to fight; a crowd that can spend +millions to your hundreds. I didn't know until to-day who was behind +Stanton, though I had made my own guess. You mustn't be foolish, and you +mustn't pull Dexter Baldwin in over his head—which is what you are +doing now."</p> + +<p>Smith thrust his hands into his pockets and looked away.</p> + +<p>"What do you advise, Mr. Kinzie?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Just this. At the present moment you seem to have a strangle-hold on +the New York people that it will take a good bit of money to break. +They'll break it, never fear. A Scotch terrier may be the bravest little +dog that ever barked, but he can't fight a mastiff with any hope of +saving his life. But there is still a chance for a compromise. Turn this +muddle of yours over to me and let me make terms with the New Yorkers. +I'll come as near to getting par for you as I can."</p> + +<p>Smith, still with his hands in his pockets, took a turn across the room. +It was a sharp temptation. No one knew better than he what it would mean +to be involved in a long fight, with huge capital on one side and only +justice and a modest bank balance on the other. To continue would be to +leave Colonel Baldwin and Maxwell and Starbuck and their local following +a legacy of strife and shrewd battlings. He knew that Kinzie's offer was +made in good faith. It was most probably based on a tentative proposal +from Stanton, who, in turn, spoke for the great syndicate. By letting go +he might get the local investors out whole, or possibly with some small +profit.</p> + +<p>Against the acceptance of this alternative every fibre of the new-found +manhood in him rose up in stubborn protest. Had it indeed come to a pass +at which mere money could dominate and dictate, rob, steal, oppress, and +ride roughshod over all opposition? Smith asked himself the question, +and figured the big Missouri colonel's magnificent anger if it should be +asked of him. That thought and another—the thought of what Corona would +say and think if he should surrender—turned the scale.</p> + +<p>"No, Mr. Kinzie; we'll not compromise while I have anything to say about +it; we'll fight it to a finish," he said abruptly; and with that he went +out through the crowded anteroom and so back to his desk in the +up-stairs offices.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX</h2> + +<h3>Two Women</h3> + + +<p>For one day and yet another after the minatory interview with David +Kinzie, Smith fought mechanically, developing the machine-like +doggedness of the soldier who sees the battle going irresistibly against +him and still smites on in sheer desperation.</p> + +<p>As if the night of fiascos had been the turning-point, he saw the +carefully built reorganization structure, reared by his own efforts upon +the foundation laid by Colonel Baldwin and his ranchmen associates, +falling to pieces. In spite of all he could do, the panic of +stock-selling continued; the city council, alarmed by the persistent +story of the unsafety of the dam, was threatening to cancel the lighting +contract with Timanyoni High Line; and Kinzie, though he was doing +nothing openly, had caused the word about the proposed compromise with +the Escalante people to be passed far and wide among the Timanyoni +stockholders, together with the intimation that disaster could be +averted now only by prompt action and the swift effacement of their +rule-or-ruin secretary and treasurer.</p> + +<p>"They're after you, John," was the way the colonel put it at the close +of the second day of back-slippings. "They say you're fiddlin' while +Rome's a-burnin'. Maybe you know what they mean by that; I don't."</p> + +<p>Smith did know. During the two days of stress, Miss Verda had been very +exacting. There had been another night at the theatre and much +time-killing after meals in the parlors of the Hophra House. Worse +still, there had been a daylight auto trip about town and up to the dam. +The victim was writhing miserably under the price-paying, but there +seemed to be no help for it. With Kinzie and Stanton working together, +with Debritt gone only as far as Red Butte and promising to return, and +with Josiah Richlander still within easy reach at the Topaz mines, he +stood in hourly peril of the explosion, and a single written line from +Verda to her father would light the match. Smith could find no word +bitter enough to fitly characterize the depths into which he had sunk. +It was the newest phase of the metamorphosis. Since the night of Verda +Richlander's arrival in Brewster, he had not seen Corona; he was +telling himself that he had forfeited the right to see her. Out of the +chaotic wreck of things but one driving motive had survived, and it had +grown to the stature of an obsession: the determination to wring victory +out of defeat for Timanyoni High Line; to fall, if he must fall, +fighting to the last gasp and with his face to the enemy.</p> + +<p>"I know," he said, replying, after the reflective pause, to the charge +passed on by Colonel Dexter. "There is a friend of mine here from the +East, and I have been obliged to show her some attention, so they say I +am neglecting my job. They are also talking it around that I am your +Jonah, and saying that your only hope is to pitch me overboard."</p> + +<p>"That's Dave Kinzie," growled the Missourian. "He seems to have it in +for you, some way. He was trying to tell me this afternoon that I ought +not to take you out to the ranch any more until you loosen up and tell +us where you came from. I told him to go and soak his addled old head in +a bucket of water!"</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless, he was right," Smith returned gloomily. Then: "I am about +at the end of my rope, Colonel—the rope I warned you about when you +brought me here and put me into the saddle; and I'm trying desperately +to hang on until my job's done. When it is done, when Timanyoni High +Line can stand fairly on its own feet and fight its own battles, I'm +gone."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, you're not," denied the ranchman-president in generous protest. +"I don't know—you've never told us—what sort of a kettle of hot water +you've got into, but you have made a few solid friends here in the +Timanyoni, John, and they are going to stand by you. And—just to show +Dave Kinzie that nobody cares a whoop for what he says—you come on out +home with me to-night and get away from this muddle for a few minutes. +It'll do you a heap of good; you know it always does."</p> + +<p>Smith shook his head reluctantly but firmly.</p> + +<p>"Never again, Colonel. It can only be a matter of a few days now, and +I'm not going to pull you, and your wife and daughter, into the +limelight if I can help it."</p> + +<p>Colonel Dexter got out of his chair and walked to the office window. +When he came back it was to say: "Are they sure-enough chasing you, +John?—for something that you have done? Is that what you're trying to +tell me?"</p> + +<p>"That is it—and they are nearly here. Now you know at least one of the +reasons why I can't go with you to-night."</p> + +<p>"I'll be shot if I do!" stormed the generous one. "I promised the Missus +I'd bring you."</p> + +<p>"You must make my excuses to her; and to Corona you may say that I am +once more carrying a gun. She will understand."</p> + +<p>"Which means, I take it, that you've been telling Corry more than you've +told the rest of us. That brings on more talk, John. I haven't said a +word before, have I?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm going to say it now: I've got only just one daughter in the +wide, wide world, John."</p> + +<p>Smith stood up and put his hands behind him, facing the older man +squarely.</p> + +<p>"Colonel, I'd give ten years of my life, this minute, if I might go with +you to Hillcrest this evening and tell Corona what I have been wanting +to tell her ever since I have come to know what her love might make of +me. The fact that I can't do it is the bitterest thing I have ever had +to face, or can ever be made to face."</p> + +<p>Colonel Baldwin fell back into his swing-chair and thrust his hands into +his pockets.</p> + +<p>"It beats the Dutch how things tangle themselves up for us poor mortals +every little so-while," he commented, after a frowning pause. And then: +"You haven't said anything like that to Corry, have you?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"That was white, anyway. And now I suppose the other woman—this Miss +Rich-some-thing-or-other over at the hotel—has come and dug you up and +got you on the end of her trail-rope. That's the way it goes when a man +mixes and mingles too much. You never can tell—"</p> + +<p>"Hold on," Smith interposed. "Whatever else I may be, I'm not that kind +of a scoundrel. I don't owe Miss Richlander anything that I can't pay +without doing injustice to the woman I love. But in another way I am a +scoundrel, Colonel. For the past two days I have been contemptible +enough to play upon a woman's vanity merely for the sake of keeping her +from talking too much."</p> + +<p>The grizzled old ranchman shook his head sorrowfully.</p> + +<p>"I didn't think that of you, John; I sure didn't. Why, that's what you +might call a low-down, tin-horn sort of a game."</p> + +<p>"It is just that, and I know it as well as you do. But it's the price I +have to pay for my few days of grace. Miss Richlander knows the +Stantons; they've made it their business to get acquainted with her. +One word from her to Crawford Stanton, and a wire from him to my home +town in the Middle West would settle me."</p> + +<p>The older man straightened himself in his chair, and his steel-gray eyes +blazed suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Break away from 'em, John!" he urged. "Break it off short, and let 'em +all do their damnedest! Away along at the first, Williams and I both +said you wasn't a crooked crook, and I'm believing it yet. When it comes +to the show-down, we'll all fight for you, and they'll have to bring a +derrick along if they want to snatch you out of the Timanyoni. You go +over yonder to the Hophra House and tell that young woman that the +bridle's off, and she can talk all she wants to!"</p> + +<p>"No," said Smith shortly. "I know what I am doing, and I shall go on as +I have begun. It's the only way. Matters are desperate enough with us +now, and if I should drop out——"</p> + +<p>The telephone-bell was ringing, and Baldwin twisted his chair to bring +himself within reach of the desk set. The message was a brief one and at +its finish the ranchman-president was frowning heavily.</p> + +<p>"By Jupiter! it does seem as if the bad luck all comes in a bunch!" he +protested. "Williams was rushing things just a little too fast, and +they've lost a whole section of the dam by stripping the forms before +the concrete was set. That puts us back another twenty-four hours, at +least. Don't that beat the mischief?"</p> + +<p>Smith reached for his hat. "It's six o'clock," he said; "and Williams's +form-strippers have furnished one more reason why I shouldn't keep Miss +Richlander waiting for her dinner." And with that he cut the talk short +and went his way.</p> + +<p>Brewster being only a one-night stand on the long playing circuit +between Denver and the Pacific coast, there was an open date at the +opera-house, and with a blank evening before her, the Olympian beauty, +making the <i>tęte-ŕ-tęte</i> dinner count for what it would, tightened her +hold upon the one man available, demanding excitement. Nothing else +offering, she suggested an evening auto drive, and Smith dutifully +telephoned Maxwell, the railroad superintendent, and borrowed a +runabout.</p> + +<p>Being left to his own choice of routes after the start was made, he +headed the machine up the river road, and the drive paused at the dam. +Craving a new sensation, Miss Richlander had it in full measure when the +machine had been braked to a stop at the construction camp. Williams, +hoarse from much shouting and haggard-eyed for want of sleep, was +driving his men fiercely in a fight against time. The night rise in the +river had already set in, and the slumped section of concrete had left a +broad gap through which the water threatened to pour, endangering not +only the power-house directly beneath it, but also the main structure of +the dam itself.</p> + +<p>The stagings were black with men hurrying back and forth under the glare +of the electrics, and the concrete gangs were laboring frantically to +clear the wreck made by the crumbling mass, to the end that the +carpenters might bulkhead the gap with timbers and planks to hold back +the rising flood. The mixers had stopped temporarily, but the machinery +was held in readiness to go into action the moment the débris should be +removed and the new forms locked into place. Every now and then one of +Williams's assistants, a red-headed young fellow with a voice like a +fog-horn, took readings of the climbing river level from a gauge in the +slack water, calling out the figures in a singsong chant: "Nineteen +<i>six</i>! Nineteen six and a <i>quarter</i>! Nineteen six and a <i>half</i>!"</p> + +<p>"Get a move, you fellows there on the stage!" yelled Williams. "She's +coming up faster than usual to-night! Double pay if you get that +bulkhead in before the tide wets your feet!"</p> + +<p>Smith felt as if he ought to get out of the car and help, but there was +nothing he could do. Miss Richlander had been silent for the better part +of the drive from town, but now she began to talk.</p> + +<p>"So this is what you left Lawrenceville for, is it, Montague?" she said, +knitting her perfect brows at the hubbub and strife. "If I were not +here, I believe you would be down there, struggling with the rest of +them."</p> + +<p>"I certainly should," he answered briefly, adding: "not that I should be +of much use."</p> + +<p>"There are a good many easier ways of making money," she offered, +including the entire industrial strife in the implied detraction.</p> + +<p>"This is a man's way, asking for all—and the best—there is in a man," +he asserted. "You can't understand, of course; you have eaten the bread +of profits and discount and interest all your life. But here is +something really creative. The world will be the richer for what is +being done here; more mouths can be filled and more backs clothed. That +is the true test of wealth, and the only test."</p> + +<p>"And you are willing to live in a raw wilderness for the sake of having +a part in these crudities?"</p> + +<p>"I may say that I had no choice, at first; it was this or nothing. But I +may also say that whatever the future may do to me, I shall always have +it to remember that for a little time I was a man, and not a tailor's +model."</p> + +<p>"Is that the way you are thinking now of your former life?" she gibed.</p> + +<p>"It is the truth. The man you knew in Lawrenceville cared more for the +set of a coat, for the color of a tie, for conventional ease and the +little luxuries, than he did for his soul. And nobody thought enough of +him to kick him alive and show him that he was strangling the only part +of him that was at all worth saving."</p> + +<p>"If your point of view appeals to me, as perhaps it does—as possibly it +would to any woman who can appreciate masculinity in a man, even though +it be of the crudest—the life that is giving it to you certainly does +not," she replied, with a little lip-curling of scorn. Then: "You +couldn't bring your wife to such a place as Brewster, Montague."</p> + +<p>He had no answer for this, and none was needed. Williams had caught +sight of the auto, and he came up, wiping his face with a red +handkerchief.</p> + +<p>"I thought it must be you," he said to Smith. "Thank the Lord, we're +going to escape, this one more time! The bulkhead's in, and we'll be +dumping concrete in another fifteen minutes. But it was a narrow +squeak—an awful narrow squeak!"</p> + +<p>Smith turned to his companion, saw permission in her eyes, and +introduced Williams. Somewhat to Smith's surprise, Miss Verda evinced a +suddenly awakened interest in the engineer and in his work, making him +tell the story of the near-disaster. While he was telling it, the roar +of another auto rose above the clamor on the stagings and Colonel +Baldwin's gray roadster drew up beside the borrowed runabout. Smith gave +one glance at the small, trimly coated figure in the mechanician's seat +and ground his teeth in helpless fury.</p> + +<p>In what followed he had little part or lot. Miss Richlander wished to +see the construction battle at shorter range, and Williams was opening +the door of the runabout. The colonel was afoot and was helping his +daughter to alight. Smith swore a silent oath to keep his place, and he +did it; but Williams was already introducing Baldwin and Corona to Miss +Richlander. There was a bit of commonplace talk, and then the quartet +walked down the embankment and out upon the finished portion of the dam, +Williams explaining the near-disaster as they went.</p> + +<p>Smith sat back behind the pilot-wheel of the runabout and waited. Not +for a king's ransom would he have joined the group on the dam. He +suspected shrewdly that Verda had already heard of Corona through the +Stantons; that she was inwardly rejoicing at the new hold upon him which +chance had flung in her way. At the end of Williams's fifteen minutes +the rattle and grind of the mixers began. When the stream of concrete +came pouring through the high-tilted spouts, Smith looked to see the +colonel and Williams bringing the two women back to the camp level. What +the light of the masthead arcs showed him was the figure of one of the +women returning alone, while the two men and the other woman went on +across the stagings to the farther river bank where the battery of +mixers fed the swiftly moving lift.</p> + +<p>Smith did not get out to go and meet the returning figure; his courage +was not of that quality. But he could not pretend to be either asleep or +dead when Corona came up between the two cars and spoke to him.</p> + +<p>"You have nothing whatever to take back," she said, smiling up at him +from her seat on the running-board of the roadster. "She is all you said +she was—and more. She is gorgeously beautiful!"</p> + +<p>Smith flung his freshly lighted cigar away and climbed out to sit beside +her.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of me?" he demanded bluntly.</p> + +<p>"What should I think? Didn't I scold you for running away from her that +first evening? I am glad you thought better of it afterward."</p> + +<p>"I am not thinking better of it at all—in the way you mean."</p> + +<p>"But Miss Richlander is," was the quiet reply.</p> + +<p>"You have a right to say anything you please; and after it is all said, +to say it again. I am not the man you have been taking me for; not in +any respect. Your father knows now, and he will tell you."</p> + +<p>"Colonel-daddy has told me one thing—the thing you told him to tell me. +And I am sorry—sorry and disappointed."</p> + +<p>He smiled morosely. "Billy Starbuck calls the Timanyoni a half-reformed +gun-country, and from the very first he has been urging me to 'go +heeled,' as he phrases it."</p> + +<p>"It isn't the mere carrying of a gun," she protested. "With most men +that would be only a prudent precaution for the leader in a fight like +this one you are making. But it means more than that to you; it means a +complete change of attitude toward your kind. Tell me if I am wrong."</p> + +<p>"No; you are right. The time is coming when I shall be obliged to kill +somebody. And I think I shall rather welcome it."</p> + +<p>"Now you have gone so far away that I can hardly see you," she said +softly. "'Once in a blue moon,' you said, the impossible might happen. +It <i>did</i> happen in your case, didn't it?—giving you a chance to grow +and expand and to break with all the old traditions, whatever they were. +And the break left you free to make of yourself what you should choose. +You have all the abilities; you can reach out and take what other men +have to beg for. Once you thought you would take only the best, and then +you grew so fast that we could hardly keep you in sight. But now you are +meaning to take the worst."</p> + +<p>"I don't understand," he said soberly.</p> + +<p>"You will understand some day," she asserted, matching his sober tone. +"When that time comes, you will know that the only great men are those +who love their fellow men; who are too big to be little; who can fight +without hatred; who can die, if need be, that others may live."</p> + +<p>"My God!" said the man, and though he said it under his breath there +was, pent up in the two words, the cry of a soul in travail; a soul to +whom its own powers have suddenly been revealed, together with its lost +opportunities and its crushing inability to rise to the heights +supernal.</p> + +<p>"It came too soon—if I could only have had a little more time," he was +saying; but at that, the colonel and Williams came up, bringing Miss +Richlander, and the heart-mellowing moment was gone.</p> + +<p>Smith drove the borrowed runabout back to town in sober silence, and the +glorious beauty in the seat beside him did not try to make him talk. +Perhaps she, too, was busy with thoughts of her own. At all events, when +Smith had helped her out of the car at the hotel entrance and had seen +her as far as the elevator, she thanked him half absently and took his +excuse, that he must return the runabout to Maxwell's garage, without +laying any further commands upon him.</p> + +<p>Just as he was turning away, a bell-boy came across from the clerk's +desk with a telegram for Miss Richlander. Smith had no excuse for +lingering, but with the air thick with threats he made the tipping of +the boy answer for a momentary stop-gap. Miss Verda tore the envelope +open and read the enclosure with a fine-lined little frown coming and +going between her eyes.</p> + +<p>"It's from Tucker Jibbey," she said, glancing up at Smith. "Some one has +told him where we are, and he is following us. He says he'll be here on +the evening train. Will you meet him and tell him I've gone to bed?"</p> + +<p>At the mention of Jibbey, the money-spoiled son of the man who stood +next to Josiah Richlander in the credit ratings, and Lawrenceville's +best imitation of a <i>flâneur</i>, Smith's first emotion was one of relief +at the thought that Jibbey would at least divide time with him in the +entertainment of the bored beauty; then he remembered that Jibbey had +once considered him a rival, and that the sham "rounder's" presence in +Brewster would constitute a menace more threatening than all the others +put together.</p> + +<p>"I can't meet Tucker," he said bluntly. "You know very well I can't."</p> + +<p>"That's so," was the quiet reply. "Of course, you can't. What will you +do when he comes?—run away?"</p> + +<p>"No; I can't do that, either. I shall keep out of his way, if I can. If +he finds me and makes any bad breaks, he'll get what's coming to him. If +he's worth anything to you, you'll put him on the stage in the morning +and send him up into the mountains to join your father."</p> + +<p>"The idea!" she laughed. "He's not coming out here to see father. Poor +Tucker! If he could only know what he is in for!" Then: "It is beginning +to look as if you might have to go still deeper in debt to me, Montague. +There is one more thing I'd like to do before I leave Brewster. If I'll +promise to keep Tucker away from you, will you drive me out to the +Baldwins' to-morrow afternoon? I want to see the colonel's fine horses, +and he has invited me, you know."</p> + +<p>Smith's eyes darkened.</p> + +<p>"There is a limit, Verda, and you've reached it," he said quickly. "If +the colonel invited you to Hillcrest, it was because you didn't leave +him any chance not to. I resign in favor of Jibbey," and with that he +handed her into the waiting elevator and said: "Good night."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX</h2> + +<h3>Tucker Jibbey</h3> + + +<p>Though it was a working man's bedtime when Smith put Miss Richlander +into the elevator at the Hophra House and bade her good night, he knew +that there would be no sleep for him until he had made sure of the +arrival or non-arrival of the young man who, no less certainly than +Josiah Richlander or Debritt, could slay him with a word. Returning the +borrowed runabout to its garage, he went to the railroad station and +learned that the "Flyer" from the East was over four hours late. With +thirty minutes to spare, he walked the long train platform, chewing an +extinct cigar and growing more and more desperate at each pacing turn.</p> + +<p>With time to weigh and measure the probabilities, he saw what would come +to pass. Verda Richlander might keep her own counsel, or she might not; +but in any event, Stanton would be quick to identify Jibbey as a +follower of Verda's, and so, by implication, a man who would be +acquainted with Verda's intimates. Smith recalled Jibbey's varied +weaknesses. If Verda should get hold of him first, and was still +generous enough to warn him against Stanton, the blow might be delayed. +But if Stanton should be quick enough, and cunning enough to play upon +Jibbey's thirst, the liquor-loosened tongue would tell all that it knew.</p> + +<p>In such a crisis the elemental need rises up to thrust all other +promptings, ethical or merely prudent, into the background. Smith had +been profoundly moved by Corona Baldwin's latest appeal to such +survivals of truth and honor and fair-dealing as the strange +metamorphosis and the culminating struggle against odds had left him. +But in any new birth it is inevitable that the offspring of the man that +was shall be at first—like all new-born beings—a pure savage, guided +only by instinct. And of the instincts, that of self-preservation easily +overtops all others.</p> + +<p>Smith saw how suddenly the pit of disaster would yawn for him upon +Jibbey's arrival, and the compunctions stirred by Corona's plea for the +higher ideals withdrew or were crushed in the turmoil. He had set his +hand to the plough and he would not turn back. It was Jibbey's +effacement in some way, or his own, he told himself, for he had long +since determined that he would never be taken alive to be dragged back +to face certain conviction in the Lawrenceville courts and a living +death in the home State penitentiary.</p> + +<p>With this determination gripping him afresh, he glanced at his watch. In +fifteen minutes more his fate would be decided. The station baggage and +express handlers were beginning to trundle their loaded trucks out +across the platform to be in readiness for the incoming train. There was +still time enough, but none to spare. Smith passed through the station +quickly and on the town side of the building took a cab. "Benkler's," +was his curt order to the driver; and three minutes later he was telling +the night man at the garage that he had come back to borrow Maxwell's +runabout again, and urging haste in the refilling of the tanks.</p> + +<p>The delayed "Flyer" was whistling in when Smith drove the runabout to +the station, and he had barely time to back the machine into place in +the cab rank and to hurry out to the platform before the train came +clattering down over the yard switches. Since all the debarking +passengers had to come through the archway exit from the track platform, +Smith halted at a point from which he could pass them in review. The +day-coach people came first, and after them a smaller contingent from +the sleepers. At the tail of the straggling procession Smith saw his +man, a thin-faced, hollow-eyed young fellow with an unlighted cigarette +hanging from his loose lower lip. Smith marked all the little details: +the rakish hat, the flaming-red tie, the russet-leather suitcase with +its silver identification tag. Then he placed himself squarely in the +young man's way.</p> + +<p>Jibbey's stare was only momentary. With a broad-mouthed grin he dropped +the suitcase and thrust out a hand.</p> + +<p>"Well, well—Monty, old sport! So this is where you ducked to, is it? By +Jove, it's no wonder Bart Macauley couldn't get a line on you! How are +tricks, anyway?"</p> + +<p>Smith was carefully refusing to see the out-stretched hand. And it asked +for a sudden tightening of the muscles of self-possession to keep him +from looking over his shoulder to see if any of Stanton's shadow men +were at hand.</p> + +<p>"Verda got your telegram, and she asked me to meet you," he rejoined +crisply. "Also, to make her excuses for to-night: she has gone to bed."</p> + +<p>"So that's the way the cat's jumping, is it?" said the imitation black +sheep, the grin twisting itself into a leer. "<i>She</i> got a line on you, +even if Macauley couldn't. By Gad! I guess I didn't get out here any too +soon."</p> + +<p>Smith ignored the half-jealous pleasantry. "Bring your grip," he +directed. "I have an auto here and we'll drive."</p> + +<p>Being a stranger in a strange city, Jibbey could not know that the hotel +was only three squares distant. For the same cause he was entirely +unsuspicious when Smith turned the car to the right out of the cab rank +and took a street leading to the western suburb. But when the pavements +had been left behind, together with all the town lights save an +occasional arc-lamp at a crossing, and he was trying for the third time +to hold a match to the hanging cigarette, enough ground had been covered +to prompt a question.</p> + +<p>"Hell of a place to call itself a city, if anybody should ask you," he +chattered. "Much of this to worry through?"</p> + +<p>Smith bent lower over the tiller-wheel, advancing the spark and opening +the throttle for more gas.</p> + +<p>"A good bit of it. Didn't you know that Mr. Richlander is out in the +hills, buying a mine?"</p> + +<p>Tucker Jibbey was rapid only in his attitude toward the world of +decency; the rapidity did not extend to his mental processes. The suburb +street had become a country road, the bridge over the torrenting Gloria +had thundered under the flying wheels, and a great butte, black in its +foresting from foot to summit, was rising slowly among the western stars +before his small brain had grasped the relation of cause to effect.</p> + +<p>"Say, here, Monty—dammit all, you hold on! Verda isn't with Old +Moneybags; she's staying at the hotel in town. I wired and found out +before I left Denver. Where in Sam Hill are you taking me to?"</p> + +<p>Smith made no reply other than to open the cut-out and to put his foot +on the accelerator. The small car leaped forward at racing speed and +Jibbey clutched wildly at the wheel.</p> + +<p>"Stop her—stop her!" he shrilled. "Lemme get out!"</p> + +<p>Smith had one hand free and it went swiftly to his hip pocket. A second +later Jibbey's shrilling protest died away in a gurgle of terror.</p> + +<p>"For—for God's sake, Monty—don't kill me!" he gasped, when he saw the +free hand clutching a weapon and uplifted as if to strike. "Wh—what've +I done to you?"</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you—a little later. Keep quiet and let this wheel alone, if +you want to live long enough to find out where you're going. Quiet down, +I say, or I'll beat your damned head off!—oh, you would, would you? All +right—if you <i>will</i> have it!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>It lacked only a few minutes of midnight when Smith returned the +borrowed runabout for the second time that night, sending it jerkily +through the open door of Benkler's garage and swinging stiffly from +behind the steering-wheel to thrust a bank-note into the hand of the +waiting night man.</p> + +<p>"Wash the car down good, and be sure it's all right before Mr. Maxwell +sends around in the morning," he commanded gruffly; and then: "Take your +whisk and dust me off."</p> + +<p>The night man had seen the figure of his tip and was nothing loath.</p> + +<p>"Gosh!" he exclaimed, with large Western freedom; "you sure look as if +you'd been drivin' a good ways, and tol'able hard. What's this on your +sleeve? Say! it looks like blood!"</p> + +<p>"No; it's mud," was the short reply; and after the liberal tipper had +gone, the garage man was left to wonder where, on the dust-dry roads in +the Timanyoni, the borrower of Mr. Maxwell's car had found mud deep +enough to splash him, and, further, why there was no trace of the mud on +the dust-covered car itself.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a>XXI</h2> + +<h3>At Any Cost</h3> + + +<p>Brewster, drawing its business profit chiefly from the mines in the +Topaz and upper Gloria districts, had been only moderately enthusiastic +over the original irrigation project organized by Colonel Dexter Baldwin +and the group of ranchmen who were to be directly benefited. But when +the scope of the plan was enlarged to include a new source of power and +light for the city, the scheme had become, in a broader sense, a public +utility, and Brewster had promptly awakened to the importance of its +success as a local enterprise.</p> + +<p>The inclusion of the hydro-electric privilege in the new charter had +been a bit of far-sighted business craft on the part of the young man +whose name was now in everybody's mouth. As he had pointed out to his +new board of directors, there was an abundant excess of water, and a +modest profit on the electric plant would pay the operating expenses of +the entire system, including the irrigating up-keep and extension work. +In addition to this, a reasonable contract price for electric current to +be furnished to the city would give the project a <i>quasi</i>-public +character, at least to the extent of enlisting public sympathy on the +side of the company in the fight with the land trust.</p> + +<p>This piece of business foresight found itself amply justified as +the race against time was narrowed down to days and hours. Though +there was spiteful opposition offered by one of the two daily +newspapers—currently charged with being subsidized by the land +trust—public sentiment as a whole, led by the other newspaper, was +strongly on the side of the local corporation. Baldwin, Maxwell, +Starbuck, and a few more of the leading spirits in Timanyoni High Line +had many friends, and Crawford Stanton found his task growing +increasingly difficult as the climax drew near.</p> + +<p>But to a man with an iron jaw difficulties become merely incentives to +greater effort. Being between the devil, in the person of an employer +who knew no mercy, on the one hand, and the deep blue sea of failure on +the other, the promoter left no expedient untried, and the one which was +yielding the best results, thus far, was the steady undercurrent of +detraction and calamitous rumor which he had contrived to set in motion. +As we have seen, it was first whispered, and then openly asserted, that +the dam was being built too hurriedly; that its foundations were +insecure; that, sooner or later, it would be carried away in high water, +and the city and the intervening country would be flood-swept and +devastated.</p> + +<p>Beyond this, the detractive gossip attacked the <i>personnel</i> of the new +company. Baldwin was all right as a man, and he knew how to raise fine +horses; but what did he, or any of his associates, know about building +dams and installing hydro-electric plants? Williams, the chief engineer, +was an ex-government man, and—government projects being anathema in the +Timanyoni by reason of the restrictive rules and regulations of the +Hophra Forest Reserve—everybody knew what that meant: out-of-date +methods, red-tape detail, general inefficiency. And Smith, the young +plunger who had dropped in from nobody knew where: what could be said of +him more than that he had succeeded in temporarily hypnotizing an entire +city? Who was he? and where had the colonel found him? Was his name +really Smith, or was that only a convenient <i>alias</i>?</p> + +<p>Having set these queries afoot in Brewster, Stanton was unwearied in +keeping them alive and pressing them home. And since such askings grow +by what they feed upon, the questions soon began to lose the +interrogatory form and to become assertions of fact. Banker Kinzie was +quoted as saying, or at least as intimating, that he had lost faith, not +only in the High Line scheme, but particularly in its secretary and +treasurer; and to this bit of gossip was added another to the effect +that Smith had grossly deceived the bank by claiming to be the +representative of Eastern capital when he was nothing more than an +adventurer trading upon the credulity and good nature of an entire +community.</p> + +<p>To these calumniating charges it was admitted on all sides that Smith, +himself, was giving some color of truth. To those who had opposed him he +had shown no mercy, and there were plenty of defeated litigants, and +some few dropped stockholders, among the obstructors to claim that the +new High Line promoter was a bully and a browbeater; that a poor man +stood no chance in a fight with the Timanyoni Company.</p> + +<p>On the sentimental side the charges were still graver—in the Western +point of view. In its social aspect Brewster was still in the +country-village stage, and Smith's goings and comings at Hillcrest had +been quickly marked. From that to assuming the sentimental status, with +the colonel's daughter in the title rôle, was a step that had already +been taken by the society editress of the <i>Brewster Banner</i> in a veiled +hint of a forthcoming "announcement" in which "the charming daughter of +one of our oldest and most respected families" and "a brilliant young +business man from the East" were to figure as the parties in interest. +Conceive, therefore, the shock that had been given to these kindlier +gossips when Smith's visits to the Baldwin ranch ceased abruptly between +two days, and the "brilliant young business man" was seen everywhere and +always in the company of the beautiful stranger who was stopping at the +Hophra House. In its palmier day the Timanyoni had hanged a man for +less.</p> + +<p>On the day following the hindering concrete failure at the dam, Smith +gave still more color to the charges of his detractors in the business +field. Those whose affairs brought them in contact with him found a man +suddenly grown years older and harder, moody and harshly dictatorial, +not to say quarrelsome; a man who seemed to have parted, in the short +space of a single night, with all of the humanizing affabilities which +he had shown to such a marked degree in the re-organizing and +refinancing of the irrigation project.</p> + +<p>"We've got our young Napoleon of finance on the toboggan-slide, at +last," was the way in which Mr. Crawford Stanton phrased it for the +bejewelled lady at their luncheon in the Hophra café. "Kinzie is about +to throw him over, and all this talk about botch work on the dam is +getting his goat. They're telling it around town this morning that you +can't get near him without risking a fight. Old Man Backus went up to +his office in behalf of a bunch of the scared stockholders, and Smith +abused him first and then threw him out bodily—hurt him pretty +savagely, they say."</p> + +<p>The large lady's accurately pencilled eyebrows went up in mild surprise.</p> + +<p>"Bad temper?" she queried.</p> + +<p>"Bad temper, or an acute attack of 'rattle-itis'; you can take your +choice. I suppose he hasn't, by any chance, quarrelled with Miss +Richlander overnight?—or has he?"</p> + +<p>The fat lady shook her diamonds. "I should say not. They were at +luncheon together in the ladies' ordinary as I came down a few minutes +ago."</p> + +<p>Thus the partner of Crawford Stanton's joys and sorrows. But an +invisible onlooker in the small dining-room above-stairs might have +drawn other conclusions. Smith and the daughter of the Lawrenceville +magnate had a small table to themselves, and if the talk were not +precisely quarrelsome, it leaned that way at times.</p> + +<p>"I have never seen you quite so brutal and impossible as you are to-day, +Montague. You don't seem like the same man. Was it something the little +ranch girl said to you last night when she calmly walked away from us +and went back to you at the autos?"</p> + +<p>"No; she said nothing that she hadn't a perfect right to say."</p> + +<p>"But it, or something else, has changed you—very much for the worse. +Are you going to reconsider and take me out to the Baldwin ranch this +afternoon?"</p> + +<p>"And let you parade me there as your latest acquisition?—never in this +world!"</p> + +<p>"More of the brutality. Positively, you are getting me into a frame of +mind in which Tucker Jibbey will seem like a blessed relief. Whatever do +you suppose has become of Tucker?"</p> + +<p>"How should I know?"</p> + +<p>"If he had come in last night, and you had met him—as I asked you +to—in any such heavenly temper as you are indulging now, I might think +you had murdered him."</p> + +<p>It was doubtless by sheer accident that Smith, reaching at the moment +for the salad-oil, overturned his water-glass. But the small accident by +no means accounted for the sudden graying of his face under the +Timanyoni wind tan—for that or for the shaking hands with which he +seconded the waiter's anxious efforts to repair the damage. When they +were alone again, the momentary trepidation had given place to a renewed +hardness that lent a biting rasp to his voice.</p> + +<p>"Kinzie, the suspicious old banker that I've been telling you about, is +determined to run me down," he said, changing the subject abruptly. +"I've got it pretty straight that he is planning to send one of his +clerks to the Topaz district to try and find your father."</p> + +<p>"In the hope that father will tell what he knows about you?"</p> + +<p>"Just that."</p> + +<p>"Does this Mr. Kinzie know where father is to be found?"</p> + +<p>"He doesn't; that's the only hitch."</p> + +<p>Miss Verda's smile across the little table was level-eyed.</p> + +<p>"I could be lots of help to you, Montague, in this fight you are making, +if you'd only let me," she suggested. "For example, I might tell you +that Mr. Stanton has exhausted his entire stock of ingenuity in trying +to make me tell him where father has gone."</p> + +<p>"I'll fight for my own hand," was the grating rejoinder. "I can assure +you, right now, that Kinzie's messenger will never reach your +father—alive."</p> + +<p>"<i>Ooh!</i>" shuddered the beauty, with a little lift of the rounded +shoulders. "How utterly and hopelessly primitive! Let me show you a much +simpler and humaner alternative. Contrive to get word to Mr. Kinzie in +some way that he might send his messenger direct to me. Can you do +that?"</p> + +<p>"You mean that you'd send the clerk on a wild-goose chase?"</p> + +<p>"If you insist on putting it in the baldest possible form," said the +young woman, with a low laugh. "I have a map of the mining district, you +know. Father left it with me—in case I should want to communicate with +him."</p> + +<p>Smith looked up with a smile which was a mere baring of the teeth.</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> wouldn't get in a man's way with any fine-spun theories of the +ultimate right and wrong, would you? <i>You</i> wouldn't say that the only +great man is the man who loves his fellow men, and all that?"</p> + +<p>Again the handsome shoulders were lifted, this time in cool scorn.</p> + +<p>"Are you quoting the little ranch person?" she inquired. Then she +answered his query: "The only great men worth speaking of are the men +who win. For the lack of something better to do, I'm willing to help you +win, Montague. Contrive in some way to have that clerk sent to me. It +can come about quite casually if it is properly suggested. Most +naturally, I am the one who would know where my father is to be found. +And I have changed my mind about wanting to drive to the Baldwins'. +We'll compromise on the play—if there <i>is</i> a play."</p> + +<p>Two things came of this talk over the luncheon table. Smith went back to +his office and shut himself up, without going near the Brewster City +National. None the less, the expedient suggested by Verda Richlander +must have found its means of communication in some way, since at two +o'clock David Kinzie summoned the confidential clerk who had been +directed to provide himself with a livery mount and gave him his +instructions.</p> + +<p>"I'm turning this over to you, Hoback, because you know enough to keep a +still tongue in your head. Mr. Stanton doesn't know where Mr. Richlander +is, but Mr. Richlander's daughter does know. Go over to the hotel and +introduce yourself as coming from me. Say to the daughter that it is +necessary for us to communicate with her father on a matter of important +business, and ask her if she can direct you. That's all; only don't +mention Stanton in the matter. Come back and report after you've seen +her."</p> + +<p>This was one of the results of the luncheon-table talk; and the other +came a short half-hour further along, when the confidential clerk +returned to make his report.</p> + +<p>"I don't know why Miss Richlander wouldn't tell Mr. Stanton," he said. +"She was mighty nice to me; made me a pencil sketch of the Topaz country +and marked the mines that her father is examining."</p> + +<p>"Good!" said David Kinzie, with his stubbly mustache at its most +aggressive angle. "It's pretty late in the day, but you'd better make a +start and get as far as you can before dark. When you find Mr. +Richlander, handle him gently. Tell him who you are, and then ask him if +he knows anything about a man named 'Montague,' or 'Montague Smith'; +ask him who he is, and where he comes from. If you get that far with +him, he'll probably tell you the rest of it."</p> + +<p>Smith saw no more of Miss Richlander until eight o'clock in the evening, +at which time he sent his card to her room and waited for her in the +mezzanine parlors. When she came down to him, radiant in fine raiment, +he seemed not to see the bedeckings or the beauty which they adorned.</p> + +<p>"There is a play, and I have the seats," he announced briefly.</p> + +<p>"<i>Merci!</i>" she flung back. "Small favors thankfully received, and larger +ones in proportion; though it's hardly a favor, this time, because I +have paid for it in advance. Mr. Kinzie's young man came to see me this +afternoon."</p> + +<p>"What did you do?"</p> + +<p>"I gave him a tracing of my map, and he was so grateful that it made me +want to tell him that it was all wrong; that he wouldn't find father in +a month if he followed the directions."</p> + +<p>"But you didn't!"</p> + +<p>"No; I can play the game, when it seems worth while."</p> + +<p>Smith was frowning thoughtfully when he led her to the elevator alcove.</p> + +<p>"My way would have been the surer," he muttered, half to himself.</p> + +<p>"Barbarian!" she laughed; and then: "To think that you were once a +'débutantes' darling'! Oh, yes; I know it was Carter Westfall who said +it first, but it was true enough to name you instantly for all +Lawrenceville."</p> + +<p>Smith made no comment, and Miss Richlander did not speak again until +they were waiting in the women's lobby for the house porter to call a +cab. Then, as if she had just remembered it:</p> + +<p>"Oh! I forgot to ask you: is the Eastern train in?"</p> + +<p>He nodded. "It was on time this evening—for a wonder."</p> + +<p>"And no Tucker yet! What in the world do you suppose could have happened +to him, Montague?"</p> + +<p>The porter was announcing the theatre cab and Smith reserved his answer +until the motor hackney was rolling jerkily away toward the opera-house.</p> + +<p>"Jibbey has probably got what was coming to him," he said grittingly. "I +don't know whether you have ever remarked it or not, but the insect of +the Jibbey breed usually finds somebody to come along and step on it, +sooner or later."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a>XXII</h2> + +<h3>The Megalomaniac</h3> + + +<p>On a day which was only sixty-odd hours short of the expiration of the +time limit fixed by the charter conditions under which the original +Timanyoni Ditch Company had obtained its franchise, Bartley Williams, +lean and sombre-eyed from the strain he had been under for many days and +nights, saw the president's gray roadster ploughing its way through the +mesa sand on the approach to the construction camp, and was glad.</p> + +<p>"I've been trying all the morning to squeeze out time to get into town," +he told Baldwin, when the roadster came to a stand in front of the shack +commissary. "Where is Smith?"</p> + +<p>The colonel threw up his hand in a gesture expressive of complete +detachment.</p> + +<p>"Don't ask me. John has gone plumb loco in these last two or three days. +It's as much as your life's worth to ask him where he has been or where +he is going or what he means to do next."</p> + +<p>"He hasn't stopped fighting?" said the engineer, half aghast at the bare +possibility.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; he's at it harder than ever—going it just a shaving too +strong, is what I'd tell him, if he'd let me get near enough to shout at +him. Last night, after the theatre, he went around to the <i>Herald</i> +office, and the way they're talking it on the street, he was aiming to +shoot up the whole newspaper joint if Mark Allen, the editor, wouldn't +take back a bunch of the lies he's been publishing about the High Line. +It wound up in a scrap of some sort. I don't know who got the worst of +it, but John isn't crippled up any, to speak of, this morning—only in +his temper."</p> + +<p>"Smith puzzles me more than a little," was Williams's comment. "It's +just as you say; for the last few days he's been acting as if he had a +grouch a mile long. Is it the old sore threatening to break out +again?—the 'lame duck' business?"</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't wonder," said the colonel evasively. Loyal to the last, he +was not quite ready to share with Williams the half-confidence in which +Smith had admitted, by implication at least, that the waiting young +woman at the Hophra House held his future between her thumb and finger.</p> + +<p>Williams shook his head. "I guess we'll have to stand for the grouch, +if he'll only keep busy. He has the hot end of it, trying to stop the +stampede among the stockholders, and hold up the money pinch, and keep +Stanton from springing any new razzle on us. We couldn't very well get +along without him, right now, Colonel. With all due respect to you and +the members of the board, he is the fighting backbone of the whole +outfit."</p> + +<p>"He is that," was Baldwin's ready admission. "He is just what we've been +calling him from the first, Bartley—a three-ply, dyed-in-the-wool +wonder in his specialty. Stanton hasn't been able to make a single move +yet that Smith hasn't foreseen and discounted. He is fighting now like a +man in the last ditch, and I believe he thinks he is in the last ditch. +The one time lately when I have had anything like a straight talk with +him, he hinted at that and gave me to understand that he'd be willing to +quit and take his medicine if he could hold on until Timanyoni High Line +wins out."</p> + +<p>"That will be only two days more," said the engineer, saying it as one +who has been counting the days in keen anxiety. And then: "Stillings +told me yesterday that we're not going to get an extension of the time +limit from the State authorities."</p> + +<p>"No; that little fire went out, blink, just as Smith said it would. +Stanton's backers have the political pull—in the State, as well as in +Washington. They're going to hold us to the letter of the law."</p> + +<p>"Let 'em do it. We'll win out yet—if we don't run up against one or +both of the only two things I'm afraid of now: high water, or the +railroad call down."</p> + +<p>"The water is pushing you pretty hard?"</p> + +<p>"It's touch and go every night now. A warm rain in the mountains—well, +I won't say that it would tear us up, because I don't believe it would, +or could; but it would delay us, world without end."</p> + +<p>"And the railroad grab? Have you heard anything more about that?"</p> + +<p>"That is what I was trying to get to town for; to talk the railroad +business over with you and Stillings and Smith. They've had a gang here +this morning; a bunch of engineers, with a stranger, who gave his name +as Hallowell, in charge. They claimed to be verifying the old survey, +and Hallowell notified me formally that our dam stood squarely in their +right of way for a bridge crossing of the river."</p> + +<p>"They didn't serve any papers on you, did they?" inquired the colonel +anxiously.</p> + +<p>"No; the notice was verbal. But Hallowell wound up with a threat. He +said, 'You've had due warning, legally and otherwise, Mr. Williams. This +is our right of way, bought and paid for, as we can prove when the +matter gets into the courts. You mustn't be surprised if we take +whatever steps may be necessary to recover what belongs to us.'"</p> + +<p>"Force?" queried the Missourian, with a glint of the border-fighter's +fire in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Maybe. But we're ready for that. Did you know that Smith loaded half a +dozen cases of Winchesters on a motor-truck yesterday, and had them sent +out here?"</p> + +<p>"No!"</p> + +<p>"He did—and told me to say nothing about it. It seems that he ordered +them some time ago from an arms agency in Denver. That fellow foresees +everything, Colonel."</p> + +<p>Dexter Baldwin had climbed into his car and was making ready to turn it +for the run back to town.</p> + +<p>"If I were you, Bartley, I believe I'd open up those gun boxes and pass +the word among as many of the men as you think you can trust with rifles +in their hands. I'll tell Smith—and Bob Stillings."</p> + +<p>Colonel Baldwin made half of his promise good, the half relating to the +company's attorney, as soon as he reached Brewster. But the other half +had to remain in abeyance. Smith was not in his office, and no one +seemed to know where he had gone. The colonel shrewdly suspected that +Miss Richlander was making another draft upon the secretary's time, and +he said as much to Starbuck, later in the day, when the mine owner +sauntered into the High Line headquarters and proceeded to roll the +inevitable cigarette.</p> + +<p>"Not any, this time, Colonel," was Starbuck's rebuttal. "You've missed +it by a whole row of apple-trees. Miss Rich-dollars is over at the +hotel. I saw her at luncheon with the Stantons less than an hour ago."</p> + +<p>"You haven't seen Smith, have you?"</p> + +<p>"No; but I know where he is. He's out in the country, somewhere, taking +the air in Dick Maxwell's runabout. I wanted to borrow the wagon myself, +and Dick told me he had already lent it to Smith."</p> + +<p>"We're needing him," said the colonel shortly, and then he told Starbuck +of the newest development in the paper-railroad scheme of obstruction.</p> + +<p>From that the talk drifted to a discussion of Kinzie's latest attitude. +By this time there had been an alarming number of stock sales by small +holders, all of them handled by the Brewster City National, and it was +plainly evident that Kinzie had finally gone over to the enemy and was +buying—as cheaply as possible—for some unnamed customer. This had been +Stanton's earliest expedient; to "bear" the stock and to buy up the +control; and he was apparently trying it again.</p> + +<p>"If they keep it up, they can wear us out by littles, and we'll break +our necks finishing the dam and saving the franchise only to turn it +over to them in the round-up," said the colonel dejectedly. "I've talked +until I'm hoarse, but you can't talk marrow into an empty bone, Billy. I +used to think we had a fairly good bunch of men in with us, but in these +last few days I've been changing my mind at a fox-trot. These hedgers'll +promise you anything on top of earth to your face, and then go straight +back on you the minute you're out of sight."</p> + +<p>The remainder of the day, up to the time when the offices were closing +and the colonel was making ready to go home, passed without incident. In +Smith's continued absence, Starbuck had offered to go to the dam to +stand a night-watch with Williams against a possible surprise by the +right-of-way claimants; and Stillings, who had been petitioning for an +injunction, came up to report progress just as Baldwin was locking his +desk.</p> + +<p>"The judge has taken it under advisement, but that is as far as he would +go to-day," said the lawyer. "It's simply a bald steal, of course, and +unless they ring in crooked evidence on us, we can show it up in court. +But that would mean more delay, and delay is the one thing we can't +stand. I'm sworn to uphold the law, and I can't counsel armed +resistance. Just the same, I hope Williams has his nerve with him."</p> + +<p>"He has; and I haven't lost mine, yet," snapped a voice at the door; and +Smith came in, dust-covered and swarthy with the grime of the wind-swept +grass-lands. Out of the pocket of his driving coat he drew a thick +packet of papers and slapped it upon the drawn-down curtain of Baldwin's +desk. "There you are," he went on gratingly. "Now you can tell Mr. David +Kinzie to go straight to hell with his stock-pinching, and the more +money he puts into it, the more somebody's going to lose!"</p> + +<p>"My Lord, John!—what have you done?" demanded Baldwin.</p> + +<p>"I've shown 'em what it means to go up against a winner!" was the +half-triumphant, half-savage exultation. "I have put a crimp in that +fence-climbing banker of yours that will last him for one while! I've +secured thirty-day options, at par, on enough High Line stock to swing a +clear majority if Kinzie should buy up every other share there is +outstanding. It has taken me all day, and I've driven a thousand miles, +but the thing is done."</p> + +<p>"But, John! If anything should happen, and we'd have to make good on +those options.... The Lord have mercy! It would break the last man of +us!"</p> + +<p>"We're not going to let things happen!" was the gritting rejoinder. +"I've told you both a dozen times that I'm in this thing to win! You +take care of those options, Stillings; they're worth a million dollars +to somebody. Lock 'em up somewhere and then forget where they are. Now +I'm going to hunt up Mr. Crawford Stanton—before I eat or sleep!"</p> + +<p>"Easy, John; hold up a minute!" the colonel broke in soothingly; and +Stillings, more practical, closed the office door silently and put his +back against it. "This is a pretty sudden country, but there is some +sort of a limit, you know," the big Missourian went on. "What's your +idea in going to Stanton?"</p> + +<p>"I mean to give him twelve hours in which to pack his trunk and get out +of Brewster and the Timanyoni. If he hasn't disappeared by to-morrow +morning——"</p> + +<p>Stillings was signalling in dumb show to Baldwin. He had quietly opened +the door and was crooking his finger and making signs over his shoulder +toward the corridor. Baldwin saw what was wanted, and immediately shot +his desk cover open and turned on the lights.</p> + +<p>"That last lot of steel and cement vouchers was made out yesterday, +John," he said, slipping the rubber band from a file of papers in the +desk. "If you'll take time to sit down here and run 'em over, and put +your name on 'em, I'll hold Martin long enough to let him get the checks +in to-night's mail. Those fellows in St. Louis act as if they are +terribly scared they won't get their money quick enough, and I've been +holding the papers for you all day. I'll be back after a little."</p> + +<p>Smith dragged up the president's big swing-chair and planted himself in +it, and an instant later he was lost to everything save the columns of +figures on the vouchers. Stillings had let himself out, and when the +colonel followed him, the lawyer cautiously closed the door of the +private office, and edged Baldwin into the corridor.</p> + +<p>"We've mighty near got a madman to deal with in there, Colonel," he +whispered, when the two were out of ear-shot. "I was watching his eyes +when he said that about Stanton, and they fairly blazed. I meant to tell +you more about that racket last night in the <i>Herald</i> office; I heard +the inside of it this afternoon from Murphey. Smith went in and held the +whole outfit up with a gun, and Murphey says he beat Allen over the head +with it. He's going to kill somebody, if we don't look out."</p> + +<p>Baldwin was shaking his head dubiously.</p> + +<p>"He's acting like a locoed thoroughbred that's gone outlaw," he said. +"Do you reckon he's sure-enough crazy, Bob?"</p> + +<p>"Only in the murder nerve. This deal with the options shows that he's +all to the good on the business side. That was the smoothest trick +that's been turned in any stage of this dodging fight with the big +fellows. It simply knocks Kinzie's rat-gnawing game dead. If there were +only somebody who could calm Smith down a little and bring him to +reason—somebody near enough to him to dig down under his shell and get +at the real man that used to be there when he first took hold with +us——"</p> + +<p>"A woman?" queried Baldwin, frowning disapproval in anticipation of what +Stillings might be going to suggest.</p> + +<p>"A woman for choice, of course. I was thinking of this young woman over +at the Hophra House; the one he has been running around with so much +during the past few days. She is evidently an old flame of his, and +anybody can see with half an eye that she has a pretty good grip on him. +Suppose we go across the street and give her an invitation to come and +do a little missionary work on Smith. She looks level-headed and +sensible enough to take it the way it's meant."</p> + +<p>It is quite possible that the colonel's heart-felt relief at Stillings's +suggestion of Miss Richlander instead of another woman went some little +distance toward turning the scale for the transplanted Missourian. +Stillings was a lawyer and had no scruples, but the colonel had them in +just proportion to his Southern birth and breeding.</p> + +<p>"I don't like to drag a woman into it, any way or shape, Bob," he +protested; and he would have gone on to say that he had good reason to +believe that Miss Richlander's influence over Smith might not be at all +of the meliorating sort, but Stillings cut him short.</p> + +<p>"There need be no 'dragging.' The young woman doubtless knows the +business situation as well as we do—he has probably told her all about +it—and if she cares half as much for Smith as she seems to, she'll be +glad to chip in and help to cool him down. We can be perfectly plain and +outspoken with her, I'm sure; she evidently knows Smith a whole lot +better than we do. It's a chance, and we'd better try it. He's good for +half an hour or so with those vouchers."</p> + +<p>Two minutes later, Colonel Dexter Baldwin, with Stillings at his elbow, +was at the clerk's desk in the Hophra House sending a card up to Miss +Richlander's rooms. Five minutes beyond that, the boy came back to say +that Miss Richlander was out auto-driving with Mr. and Mrs. Stanton. The +clerk, knowing Baldwin well, eyebrowed his regret and suggested a wait +of a few minutes.</p> + +<p>"They'll certainly be in before long," he said. "Mrs. Stanton has never +been known to miss the dinner hour since she came to us. She is as +punctual as the clock."</p> + +<p>Baldwin, still ill at ease and reluctant, led the way to a pair of +chairs in the writing alcove of the lobby; two chairs commanding a clear +view of the street entrance. Sitting down to wait with what patience +they could summon, neither of the two men saw a gray automobile, driven +by a young woman, come to a stand before the entrance of the Kinzie +Building on the opposite side of the street. And, missing this, they +missed equally the sight of the young woman alighting from the machine +and disappearing through the swinging doors opening into the bank +building's elevator lobby.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a>XXIII</h2> + +<h3>The Arrow to the Mark</h3> + + +<p>Smith, concentrating abstractedly, as his habit was, upon the work in +hand, was still deep in the voucher-auditing when the office door was +opened and a small shocked voice said: "Oh, <i>wooh</i>! how you startled me! +I saw the light, and I supposed, of course, it was Colonel-daddy. Where +is he?"</p> + +<p>Smith pushed the papers aside and looked up scowling.</p> + +<p>"Your father? He was here a minute ago, with Stillings. Isn't he out in +the main office?"</p> + +<p>"No, there is no one there."</p> + +<p>"Martin is there," he said, contradicting her bluntly. And then: "Your +father said he'd be back. You've come to take him home?"</p> + +<p>She nodded and came to sit in a chair at the desk-end, saying:</p> + +<p>"Don't let me interrupt you, please. I'll be quiet."</p> + +<p>"I don't mean to let anything interrupt me until I have finished what I +have undertaken to do; I'm past all that, now."</p> + +<p>"So you told me two evenings ago," she reminded him gently, adding: "And +I have heard about what you did last night."</p> + +<p>"About the newspaper fracas? You don't approve of anything like that, of +course. Neither did I, once. But you were right in what you said the +other evening out at the dam; there is no middle way. You know what the +animal tamers tell us about the beasts. I've had my taste of blood. +There are a good many men in this world who need killing. Crawford +Stanton is one of them, and I'm not sure that Mr. David Kinzie isn't +another."</p> + +<p>"I can't hear what you say when you talk like that," she objected, +looking past him with the gray eyes veiled.</p> + +<p>"Do you want me to lie down and let them put the steam-roller over me?" +he demanded irritably. "Is that your ideal of the perfect man?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't say any such thing as that, did I?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not, in so many words. But you meant it."</p> + +<p>"What I said, and what I meant, had nothing at all to do with Timanyoni +High Line and its fight for life," she said calmly, recalling the +wandering gaze and letting him see her eyes. "I was thinking altogether +of one man's attitude toward his world."</p> + +<p>"That was night before last," he put in soberly. "I've gone a long way +since night before last, Corona."</p> + +<p>"I know you have. Why doesn't daddy come back?"</p> + +<p>"He'll come soon enough. You're not afraid to be here alone with me, are +you?"</p> + +<p>"No; but anybody might be afraid of the man you are going to be."</p> + +<p>His laugh was as mirthless as the creaking of a rusty door-hinge.</p> + +<p>"You needn't put it in the future tense. I have already broken with +whatever traditions there were left to break with. Last night I +threatened to kill Allen, and, perhaps, I should have done it if he +hadn't begged like a dog and dragged his wife and children into it."</p> + +<p>"I know," she acquiesced, and again she was looking past him.</p> + +<p>"And that isn't all. Yesterday, Kinzie set a trap for me and baited it +with one of his clerks. For a little while it seemed as if the only way +to spring the trap was for me to go after the clerk and put a bullet +through him. It wasn't necessary, as it turned out, but if it had +been——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you couldn't!" she broke in quickly. "I can't believe that of you!"</p> + +<p>"You think I couldn't? Let me tell you of a thing that I have done. +Night before last, in less than an hour after you sat and talked with me +at the dam, Verda Richlander had a wire from a young fellow who wants to +marry her. He had found out that she was here in Brewster, and the wire +was to tell her that he was coming in that night on the delayed 'Flyer.' +She asked me to meet him and tell him she had gone to bed. He is a +miserable little wretch; a sort of sham reprobate; and she has never +cared for him, except to keep him dangling with a lot of others. I told +her I wouldn't meet him, and she knew very well that I couldn't meet +him—and stay out of jail. Are you listening?"</p> + +<p>"I'm trying to."</p> + +<p>"It was the pinch, and I wasn't big enough—in your sense of the +word—to meet it. I saw what would happen. If Tucker Jibbey came here, +Stanton would pounce upon him at once; and Jibbey, with a drink or two +under his belt, would tell all he knew. I fought it all out while I was +waiting for the train. It was Jibbey's effacement, or the end of the +world for me, and for Timanyoni High Line."</p> + +<p>Dexter Baldwin's daughter was not of those who shriek and faint at the +apparition of horror. But the gray eyes were dilating and her breath was +coming in little gasps when she said:</p> + +<p>"I <i>can't</i> believe it! You are not going to tell me that you met this +man as a friend, and then——"</p> + +<p>"No; it didn't quite come to a murder in cold blood, though I thought it +might. I had Maxwell's runabout, and I got Jibbey into it. He thought I +was going to drive him to the hotel. After we got out of town he grew +suspicious, and there was a struggle in the auto. I—I had to beat him +over the head to make him keep quiet; I thought for the moment that I +had killed him, and I knew, then, just how far I had gone on the road +I've been travelling ever since a certain night in the middle of last +May. The proof was in the way I felt; I wasn't either sorry or +horror-stricken; I was merely relieved to think that he wouldn't trouble +me, or clutter up the world with his worthless presence any longer."</p> + +<p>"But that wasn't your real self!" she expostulated.</p> + +<p>"What was it, then?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know—I only know that it wasn't you. But tell me: did he die?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"What have you done with him?"</p> + +<p>"Do you know the old abandoned Wire-Silver mine at Little Butte?"</p> + +<p>"I knew it before it was abandoned, yes."</p> + +<p>"I was out there one Sunday afternoon with Starbuck. The mine is +bulkheaded and locked, but one of the keys on my ring fitted the lock, +and Starbuck and I went in and stumbled around for a while in the dark +tunnels. I took Jibbey there and locked him up. He's there now."</p> + +<p>"Alone in that horrible place—and without food?"</p> + +<p>"Alone, yes; but I went out yesterday and put a basket of food where he +could get it."</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do with him?"</p> + +<p>"I am going to leave him there until after I have put Stanton and Kinzie +and the other buccaneers safely out of business. When that is done, he +can go; and I'll go, too."</p> + +<p>She had risen, and at the summing-up she turned from him and went aside +to the one window to stand for a long minute gazing down into the +electric-lighted street. When she came back her lips were pressed +together and she was very pale.</p> + +<p>"When I was in school, our old psychology professor used to try to tell +us about the underman; the brute that lies dormant inside of us and is +kept down only by reason and the super-man. I never believed it was +anything more than a fine-spun theory—until now. But now I know it is +true."</p> + +<p>He spread his hands.</p> + +<p>"I can't help it, can I?"</p> + +<p>"The man that you are now can't help it; no. But the man that you could +be—if he would only come back—" she stopped with a little +uncontrollable shudder and sat down again, covering her face with her +hands.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to turn Jibbey loose—after I'm through," he vouchsafed.</p> + +<p>She took her hands away and blazed up at him suddenly, with her face +aflame.</p> + +<p>"Yes! after you are safe; after there is no longer any risk in it for +you! That is worse than if you had killed him—worse for you, I mean. +Oh, <i>can't</i> you see? It's the very depth of cowardly infamy!"</p> + +<p>He smiled sourly. "You think I'm a coward? They've been calling me +everything else but that in the past few days."</p> + +<p>"You <i>are</i> a coward!" she flashed back. "You have proved it. You +daren't go out to Little Butte to-night and get that man and bring him +to Brewster while there is yet time for him to do whatever it is that +you are afraid he will do!"</p> + +<p>Was it the quintessence of feminine subtlety, or only honest rage and +indignation, that told her how to aim the armor-piercing arrow? God, who +alone knows the secret workings of the woman heart and brain, can tell. +But the arrow sped true and found its mark. Smith got up stiffly out of +the big swing-chair and stood glooming down at her.</p> + +<p>"You think I did it for myself?—just to save my own worthless hide? +I'll show you; show you all the things that you say are now impossible. +Did you bring the gray roadster?"</p> + +<p>She nodded briefly.</p> + +<p>"Your father is coming back; I hear the elevator-bell. I am going to +take the car, and I don't want to meet him. Will you say what is +needful?"</p> + +<p>She nodded again, and he went out quickly. It was only a few steps down +the corridor to the elevator landing, and the stair circled the caged +elevator-shaft to the ground floor. Smith halted in the darkened corner +of the stairway long enough to make sure that the colonel, with +Stillings and a woman in an automobile coat and veil—a woman who +figured for him in the passing glance as Corona's mother—got off at the +office floor. Then he ran down to the street level, cranked the gray +roadster and sprang in to send the car rocketing westward.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a>XXIV</h2> + +<h3>A Little Leaven</h3> + + +<p>The final touch of sunset pink had long since faded from the high +western sky-line, and the summer-night stars served only to make the +darkness visible along the road which had once been the stage route down +the Timanyoni River and across to the mining-camp of Red Butte. Smith, +slackening speed for the first time in the swift valley-crossing flight, +twisted the gray roadster sharply to the left out of the road, and eased +it across the railroad track to send it lurching and bumping over the +rotting ties of an old branch-line spur from which the steel had been +removed, and which ran in a course roughly paralleling the +eastward-facing front of a forested mountain.</p> + +<p>Four miles from the turn out of the main road, at a point on the spur +right of way where a washed-out culvert made farther progress with the +car impossible, he shut off the power and got down to continue his +journey afoot. Following the line of the abandoned spur, he came, at the +end of another mile, to the deserted shacks of the mining plant which +the short branch railroad had been built to serve; a roofless +power-house, empty ore platforms dry-rotting in disuse, windowless bunk +shanties, and the long, low bulk of a log-built commissary. The mine +workings were tunnel-driven in the mountainside, and a crooked ore track +led out to them. Smith followed the ore track until he came to the +bulkheaded entrance flanked by empty storage bins, and to the lock of a +small door framed in the bulkheading he applied a key.</p> + +<p>It was pitch dark beyond the door, and the silence was like that of the +grave. Smith had brought a candle on his food-carrying visit of the day +before, and, groping in its hiding-place just outside of the door, he +found and lighted it, holding it sheltered in his cupped hand as he +stepped into the black void beyond the bulkhead. With the feeble flame +making little more than a dim yellow nimbus in the gloom, he looked +about him. There was no sign of occupancy save Jibbey's suitcase lying +where it had been flung on the night of the assisted disappearance. But +of the man himself there was no trace.</p> + +<p>Smith stumbled forward into the black depths and the chill of the place +laid hold upon him and shook him like the premonitory shiver of an +approaching ague. What if the darkness and solitude had been too much +for Jibbey's untried fortitude and the poor wretch had crawled away into +the dismal labyrinth to lose himself and die? The searcher stopped and +listened. In some far-distant ramification of the mine he could hear the +<i>drip, drip</i>, of underground water, but when he shouted there was no +response save that made by the echoes moaning and whispering in the +stoped-out caverns overhead.</p> + +<p>Shielding the flickering candle again, Smith went on, pausing at each +branching side-cutting to throw the light into the pockets of darkness. +Insensibly he quickened his pace until he was hastening blindly through +a maze of tunnels and cross driftings, deeper and still deeper into the +bowels of the great mountain. Coming suddenly at the last into the +chamber of the dripping water, he found what he was searching for, and +again the ague chill shook him. There were no apparent signs of life in +the sodden, muck-begrimed figure lying in a crumpled heap among the +water pools.</p> + +<p>"Jibbey!" he called: and then again, ignoring the unnerving, +awe-inspiring echoes rustling like flying bats in the cavernous +overspaces: "<i>Jibbey!</i>"</p> + +<p>The sodden heap bestirred itself slowly and became a man sitting up to +blink helplessly at the light and supporting himself on one hand.</p> + +<p>"Is that you, Monty?" said a voice tremulous and broken; and then: "I +can't see. The light blinds me. Have you come to fi-finish the job?"</p> + +<p>"I have come to take you out of this; to take you back with me to +Brewster. Get up and come on."</p> + +<p>The victim of Smith's ruthlessness struggled stiffly to his feet. Never +much more than a physical weakling, and with his natural strength wasted +by a life of dissipation, the blow on the head with the pistol butt and +the forty-eight hours of sharp hardship and privation had cut deeply +into his scanty reserves.</p> + +<p>"Did—did Verda send you to do it?" he queried.</p> + +<p>"No; she doesn't know where you are. She thinks you stopped over +somewhere on your way west. Come along, if you want to go back with me."</p> + +<p>Jibbey stumbled away a step or two and flattened himself against the +cavern wall. His eyes were still staring and his lips were drawn back to +show his teeth.</p> + +<p>"Hold on a minute," he jerked out. "You're not—not going to wipe it +all out as easy as that. You've taken my gun away from me, but I've got +my two hands yet. Stick that candle in a hole in the wall and look out +for yourself. I'm telling you, right now, that one or the other of us is +going to stay here—and stay dead!"</p> + +<p>"Don't be a fool!" Smith broke in. "I didn't come here to scrap with +you."</p> + +<p>"You'd better—and you'd better make a job of it while you're about it!" +shrieked the castaway, lost now to everything save the biting sense of +his wrongs. "You've put it all over me—knocked my chances with Verda +Richlander and shut me up here in this hell-hole to go mad-dog crazy! If +you let me get out of here alive I'll pay you back, if it's the last +thing I ever do on top of God's green earth! You'll go back to +Lawrenceville with the bracelets on! You'll—" red rage could go no +farther in mere words and he flung himself in feeble fierceness upon +Smith, clutching and struggling and waking the grewsome echoes again +with frantic, meaningless maledictions.</p> + +<p>Smith dropped the candle to defend himself, but he did not strike back; +wrapping the madman in a pinioning grip, he held him helpless until the +vengeful ecstasy had exhausted itself. When it was over, and Jibbey had +been released, gasping and sobbing, to stagger back against the tunnel +wall, Smith groped for the candle and found and relighted it.</p> + +<p>"Tucker," he said gently, "you are more of a man than I took you to +be—a good bit more. And you needn't break your heart because you can't +handle a fellow who is perfectly fit, and who weighs half as much again +as you do. Now that you're giving me a chance to say it, I can tell you +that Verda Richlander doesn't figure in this at all. I'm not going to +marry her, and she didn't come out here in the expectation of finding +me."</p> + +<p>"Then what does figure in it?" was the dry-lipped query.</p> + +<p>"It was merely a matter of self-preservation. There are men in Brewster +who would pay high for the information you might give them about me."</p> + +<p>"You might have given me a hint and a chance, Monty. I'm not <i>all</i> dog!"</p> + +<p>"That's all past and gone. I didn't give you your chance, but I'm going +to give it to you now. Let's go—if you're fit to try it."</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute. If you think, because you didn't pull your gun just now +and drop me and leave me to rot in this hole, if you think that squares +the deal——"</p> + +<p>"I'm not making any conditions," Smith interposed. "There are a number +of telegraph offices in Brewster, and for at least two days longer I +shall always be within easy reach."</p> + +<p>Jibbey's anger flared up once more.</p> + +<p>"You think I won't do it? You think I'll be so danged glad to get to +some place where they sell whiskey that I'll forget all about it and let +you off? Don't you make any mistake, Monty Smith! You can't knock me on +the head and lock me up as if I were a yellow dog. I'll fix you!"</p> + +<p>Smith made no reply. Linking his free arm in Jibbey's, he led the way +through the mazes, stopping at the tunnel mouth to blow out the candle +and to pick up Jibbey's suitcase. In the open air the freed captive +flung his arms abroad and drank in a deep breath of the clean, sweet, +outdoor air. "God!" he gasped; "how good it is!" and after that he +tramped in sober silence at Smith's heels until they reached the +automobile.</p> + +<p>It took some little careful manœuvring to get the roadster +successfully turned on the railroad embankment, and Jibbey stood aside +while Smith worked with the controls. Past this, he climbed into the +spare seat, still without a word, and the rough four miles over the +rotting cross-ties were soon left behind. At the crossing of the +railroad main track and the turn into the highway, the river, bassooning +deep-toned among its bowlders, was near at hand, and Jibbey spoke for +the first time since they had left the mine mouth.</p> + +<p>"I'm horribly thirsty, Monty. That water in the mine had copper or +something in it, and I couldn't drink it. You didn't know that, did +you?—when you put me in there, I mean? Won't you stop the car and let +me go stick my face in that river?"</p> + +<p>The car was brought to a stand and Jibbey got out to scramble down the +river bank in the starlight. Obeying some inner prompting which he did +not stop to analyze, Smith left his seat behind the wheel and walked +over to the edge of the embankment where Jibbey had descended. The path +to the river's margin was down the steep slope of a rock fill made in +widening the highway to keep it clear of the railroad track. With the +glare of the roadster's acetylenes turned the other way, Smith could see +Jibbey at the foot of the slope lowering himself face downward on his +propped arms to reach the water. Then, for a single instant, the +murderous underman rose up and laughed. For in that instant, Jibbey, +careless in his thirst, lost his balance and went headlong into the +torrent.</p> + +<p>A battling eon had passed before Smith, battered, beaten, and +half-strangled, succeeded in landing the unconscious thirst-quencher on +a shelving bank three hundred yards below the stopped automobile. After +that there was another eon in which he completely forgot his own +bruisings while he worked desperately over the drowned man, raising and +lowering the limp arms while he strove to recall more of the +resuscitative directions given in the Lawrenceville Athletic Club's +first-aid drills.</p> + +<p>In good time, after an interval so long that it seemed endless to the +despairing first-aider, the breath came back into the reluctant lungs. +Jibbey coughed, choked, gasped, and sat up. His teeth were chattering, +and he was chilled to the bone by the sudden plunge into the cold snow +water, but he was unmistakably alive.</p> + +<p>"What—what happened to me, Monty?" he shuddered. "Did I lose my grip +and tumble in?"</p> + +<p>"You did, for a fact."</p> + +<p>"And you went in after me?"</p> + +<p>"Of course."</p> + +<p>"No, by Gad! It wasn't 'of course'—not by a long shot! All you had to +do was to let me go, and the score—your score—would have been wiped +out for good and all. Why didn't you do it?"</p> + +<p>"Because I should have lost my bet."</p> + +<p>"Your bet?"</p> + +<p>"Well, yes. It wasn't exactly a bet; but I promised somebody that I +would bring you back to Brewster to-night, alive and well, and able to +send a telegram. And if I had let you drown yourself, I should have lost +out."</p> + +<p>"You promised somebody?—not Verda?"</p> + +<p>"No; somebody else."</p> + +<p>Jibbey tried to get upon his feet, couldn't quite compass it, and sat +down again.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe a word of it," he mumbled, loose-lipped. "You did it +because you're not so danged tough and hard-hearted as you thought you +were." And then: "Give me a lift, Monty, and get me to the auto. I +guess—I'm about—all in."</p> + +<p>Smith half led, half carried his charge up to the road and then left him +to go and back the car over the three hundred-odd yards of the +interspace. A final heave lifted Jibbey into his place, and it is safe +to say that Colonel Dexter Baldwin's roadster never made better time +than it did on the race which finally brought the glow of the Brewster +town lights reddening against the eastern sky.</p> + +<p>At the hotel Smith helped his dripping passenger out of the car, made a +quick rush with him to an elevator, and so up to his own rooms on the +fourth floor.</p> + +<p>"Strip!" he commanded; "get out of those wet rags and tumble into the +bath. Make it as hot as you can stand it. I'll go down and register you +and have your trunk sent up from the station. You have a trunk, haven't +you?"</p> + +<p>Jibbey fished a soaked card baggage-check out of his pocket and passed +it over.</p> + +<p>"You're as bad off as I am, Monty," he protested. "Wait and get some dry +things on before you go."</p> + +<p>"I'll be up again before you're out of the tub. I suppose you'd like to +put yourself outside of a big drink of whiskey, just about now, but +that's one thing I won't buy for you. How would a pot of hot coffee from +the café strike you?"</p> + +<p>"You could make it Mellin's Food and I'd drink it if you said so," +chattered the drowned one from the inside of the wet undershirt he was +trying to pull off over his head.</p> + +<p>Smith did his various errands quickly. When he reached the fourth-floor +suite again, Jibbey was out of the bath; was sitting on the edge of the +bed wrapped in blankets, with the steaming pot of coffee sent up on +Smith's hurry order beside him on a tray.</p> + +<p>"It's your turn at the tub," he bubbled cheerfully. "I didn't have any +glad rags to put on, so I swiped some of your bedclothes. Go to it, old +man, before you catch cold."</p> + +<p>Smith was already pointing for the bath. "Your trunk will be up in a few +minutes, and I've told them to send it here," he said. "When you want to +quit me, you'll find your rooms five doors to the right in this same +corridor: suite number four-sixteen."</p> + +<p>It was a long half-hour before Smith emerged from his bath-room once +more clothed and in his right mind. In the interval the reclaimed trunk +had been sent up, and Jibbey was also clothed. He had found one of +Smith's pipes and some tobacco and was smoking with the luxurious +enjoyment of one who had suffered the pangs imposed by two days of total +abstinence.</p> + +<p>"Just hangin' around to say good night," he began, when Smith showed +himself in the sitting-room. Then he returned the borrowed pipe to its +place on the mantel and said his small say to the definite end. "After +all that's happened to us two to-night, Monty, I hope you're going to +forget my crazy yappings and not lose any sleep about that Lawrenceville +business. I'm seventeen different kinds of a rotten failure; there's no +manner of doubt about that; and once in a while—just <i>once</i> in a +while—I've got sense enough to know it. You saved my life when it would +have been all to the good for you to let me go. I guess the world +wouldn't have been much of a loser if I had gone, and you knew that, +too. Will you—er—would you shake hands with me, Monty?"</p> + +<p>Smith did it, and lo! a miracle was wrought: in the nervous grasp of the +joined hands a quickening thrill passed from man to man;, a thrill +humanizing, redemptory, heart-mellowing. And, oddly enough, one would +say, it was the weaker man who gave and the stronger who received.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXV" id="XXV"></a>XXV</h2> + +<h3>The Pace-Setter</h3> + + +<p>Smith made an early breakfast on the morning following the auto drive to +the abandoned mine, hoping thereby to avoid meeting both Miss Richlander +and Jibbey. The Hophra café was practically empty when he went in and +took his accustomed place at one of the alcove tables, but he had barely +given his order when Starbuck appeared and came to join him.</p> + +<p>"You're looking a whole heap better this morning, John," said the mine +owner quizzically, as he held up a finger for the waiter. "How's the +grouch?"</p> + +<p>Smith's answering grin had something of its former good nature in it. +"To-day's the day, Billy," he said. "To-morrow at midnight we must have +the water running in the ditches or lose our franchise. It's chasing +around in the back part of my mind that Stanton will make his +grand-stand play to-day. I'm not harboring any grouches on the edge of +the battle. They are a handicap, anyway, and always."</p> + +<p>"That's good medicine talk," said the older man, eying him keenly. And +then: "You had us all guessing, yesterday and the day before, John. You +sure was acting as if you'd gone plumb locoed."</p> + +<p>"I was locoed," was the quiet admission.</p> + +<p>"What cured you?"</p> + +<p>"It's too long a story to tell over the breakfast-table. What do you +hear from Williams?"</p> + +<p>"All quiet during the night; but the weather reports are scaring him up +a good bit this morning."</p> + +<p>"Storms on the range?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. The river gained four feet last night, and there is flood water +and drift coming down to beat the band. Just the same, Bartley says he +is going to make good."</p> + +<p>Smith nodded. "Bartley is all right; the right man in the right place. +Have you seen the colonel since he left the offices last evening?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I drove him and Corona out to the ranch in my new car. He said +he'd lost his roadster; somebody had sneaked in and borrowed it."</p> + +<p>"I suppose he told you about the latest move—our move—in the +stock-selling game?"</p> + +<p>"No, he didn't; but Stillings did. You played it pretty fine, John; only +I hope to gracious we won't have to redeem those options. It would +bu'st our little inside crowd wide open to have to buy in all that stock +at par."</p> + +<p>Smith laughed. "'Sufficient unto the day,' Billy. It was the only way to +block Stanton. It's neck or nothing with him now, and he has only one +more string that he can pull."</p> + +<p>"The railroad right-of-way deal?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; he has been holding that in reserve—that, and one other thing."</p> + +<p>"What was the other thing?"</p> + +<p>"Me," said Smith, cheerfully disregardful of his English. "You haven't +forgotten his instructions to the man Lanterby, that night out at the +road-house on the Topaz pike?—the talk that you overheard?"</p> + +<p>"No; I haven't forgotten."</p> + +<p>"His idea, then, was to have me killed off in a scrap of some sort—as a +last resort, of course; but later on he found a safer expedient, and he +has been trying his level best to work it ever since."</p> + +<p>Starbuck was absently fishing for a second cube of sugar in the +sugar-bowl. "Has it got anything to do with the bunch of news that you +won't tell us—about yourself, John?"</p> + +<p>"It has. Two days ago, Stanton had his finger fairly on the trigger, but +a friend of mine stepped in and snapped the safety-catch. Last night, +again, he stood to win out; to have the pry-hold he has been searching +for handed to him on a silver platter, so to speak. But a man fell into +the river, and Stanton lost out once more."</p> + +<p>Starbuck glanced up soberly. "You're talking in riddles now, John. I +don't <i>sabe</i>."</p> + +<p>"It isn't necessary for you to <i>sabe</i>. Results are what count. Barring +accidents, you Timanyoni High Line people can reasonably count on having +me with you for the next few critical days; and, I may add, you never +needed me more pointedly."</p> + +<p>Starbuck's smile was face-wide.</p> + +<p>"I hope I don't feel sorry," he remarked. "Some day, when you can take +an hour or so off, I'm going to get you to show me around in your little +mu-zeeum of self-conceit, John. Maybe I can learn how to gather me up +one."</p> + +<p>Smith matched the mine owner's good-natured smile. For some +unexplainable reason the world, his particular world, seemed to have +lost its malignance. He could even think of Stanton without bitterness; +and the weapon which had been weighting his hip pocket for the past few +days had been carefully buried in the bottom of the lower dressing-case +drawer before he came down to breakfast.</p> + +<p>"You may laugh, Billy, but you'll have to admit that I've been +outfiguring the whole bunch of you, right from the start," he retorted +brazenly. "It's my scheme, and I'm going to put it through with a whoop. +You'll see—before to-morrow night."</p> + +<p>"I reckon, when you do put it through, you can ask your own fee," said +Starbuck quietly.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to; and the size of it will astonish you, Billy. I shall turn +over the little block of stock you folks have been good enough to let me +carry, give you and the colonel and the board of directors a small +dinner in the club-room up-stairs and—vanish. But let's get down to +business. This is practically Stanton's last day of grace. If he can't +get some legal hold upon us before midnight to-morrow night, or work +some scheme to make us lose our franchise, his job is gone."</p> + +<p>"Show me," said the mine owner succinctly.</p> + +<p>"It's easy. With the dam completed and the water running in the ditches, +we become at once a going concern, with assets a long way in advance of +our liabilities. The day after to-morrow—if we pull through—you won't +be able to buy a single share of Timanyoni High Line at any figure. As +a natural consequence, public sentiment, which, we may say, is at +present a little doubtful, will come over to our side in a land-slide, +and Stanton's outfit, if it wants to continue the fight, will have to +fight the entire Timanyoni, with the city of Brewster thrown in for good +measure. Am I making it plain?"</p> + +<p>"Right you are, so far. Go on."</p> + +<p>"On the other hand, if Stanton can block us before to-morrow night; hang +us up in some way and make us lose our rights under the charter; we're +gone—snuffed out like a candle. Listen, Billy, and I'll tell you +something that I haven't dared to tell anybody, not even Colonel +Baldwin. I've been spending the company's money like water to keep in +touch. The minute we fail, and long before we could hope to reorganize a +second time and apply for a new charter, Stanton's company will be in +the field, with its charter already granted. From that to taking +possession of our dam, either by means of an enabling act of the +Legislature, or by purchase from the paper railroad, will be only a +step. And we couldn't do a thing! We'd have no legal rights, and no +money to fight with!"</p> + +<p>Starbuck pushed his chair away from the table and drew a long breath.</p> + +<p>"Good Lord!" he sighed; "I wish to goodness it was day after to-morrow! +Can you carry it any further, John?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; a step or two. For a week Stanton has been busy on the +paper-railroad claim, and that is what made me buy a few cases of +Winchesters and send them out to Williams: I was afraid Stanton might +try force. He won't do that if he can help it; he'll go in with some +legal show, if possible, because our force at the dam far outnumbers any +gang he could hire, and he knows we are armed."</p> + +<p>"He can't work the legal game," said Starbuck definitively. "I've known +Judge Warner ever since I was knee-high to a hop-toad, and a squarer man +doesn't breathe."</p> + +<p>"That is all right, but you're forgetting something. The paper railroad +is—or was once—an interstate corporation, and so may ask for relief +from the federal courts, thus going over Judge Warner's head. I'm not +saying anything against Lorching, the federal judge at Red Butte. I've +met him, and he is a good jurist and presumably an honest man. But he is +well along in years, and has an exaggerated notion of his own +importance. Stanton, or rather his figurehead railroad people, have +asked him to intervene, and he has taken the case under advisement. +That is where we stand this morning."</p> + +<p>Starbuck was nodding slowly. "I see what you mean, now," he said. "If +Lorching jumps the wrong way for us, you're looking to see a United +States marshal walk up to Bartley Williams some time to-day and tell him +to quit. That would put the final kibosh on us, wouldn't it?"</p> + +<p>Smith was rising in his place.</p> + +<p>"<i>I'm</i> not dead yet, Billy," he rejoined cheerfully. "I haven't let it +get this far without hammering out a few expedients for our side. If I +can manage to stay in the fight to-day and to-morrow——"</p> + +<p>A little new underclerk had come in from the hotel office and was trying +to give Starbuck a note in a square envelope, and Starbuck was saying: +"No; that's Mr. Smith, over there."</p> + +<p>Smith took the note and opened it, and he scarcely heard the clerk's +explanation that it had been put in his box the evening before, and that +the day clerk had been afraid he would get away without finding it. It +was from Verda Richlander, and it had neither superscription nor +signature. This is what Smith read:</p> + +<p>"My little ruse has failed miserably. Mr. K's. messenger found my +father in spite of it, and he—the messenger—returned this evening: I +know, because he brought a note from father to me. Come to me as early +to-morrow morning as you can, and we'll plan what can be done."</p> + +<p>Smith crushed the note in his hand and thrust it into his pocket. +Starbuck was making a cigarette, and was studiously refraining from +breaking in. But Smith did not keep him waiting.</p> + +<p>"That was my knock-out, Billy," he said with a quietness that was almost +overdone. "My time has suddenly been shortened to hours—perhaps to +minutes. Get a car as quickly as you can and go to Judge Warner's house. +I have an appointment with him at nine o'clock. Tell him I'll keep it, +if I can, but that he needn't wait for me if I am not there on the +minute."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXVI" id="XXVI"></a>XXVI</h2> + +<h3>The Colonel's "Defi"</h3> + + +<p>Though it was only eight o'clock, Smith sent his card to Miss +Richlander's rooms at once and then had himself lifted to the mezzanine +floor to wait for her. She came in a few minutes, a strikingly beautiful +figure of a woman in the freshness of her morning gown, red-lipped, +bright-eyed, and serenely conscious of her own resplendent gifts of face +and figure. Smith went quickly to meet her and drew her aside into the +music parlor. Already the need for caution was beginning to make itself +felt.</p> + +<p>"I have come," he said briefly.</p> + +<p>"You got my note?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"A few minutes ago—just as I was leaving the breakfast-table."</p> + +<p>"You will leave Brewster at once—while the way is still open?"</p> + +<p>He shook his head, "I can't do that; in common justice to the men who +have trusted me, and who are now needing me more than ever, I must stay +through this one day, and possibly another."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Kinzie will not be likely to lose any time," she prefigured +thoughtfully. "He has probably telegraphed to Lawrenceville before +this." Then, with a glance over her shoulder to make sure that there +were no eavesdroppers: "Of course, you know that Mr. Stanton is at the +bottom of all this prying and spying?"</p> + +<p>"It is Stanton's business to put me out of the game, if he can. I've +told you enough of the situation here so that you can understand why it +is necessary for him to efface me. His time has grown very short now."</p> + +<p>Again the statuesque beauty glanced over her shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Lawrenceville is a long way off, and Sheriff Macauley is enough of a +politician—in an election year—to want to be reasonably certain before +he incurs the expense of sending a deputy all the way out here, don't +you think?" she inquired.</p> + +<p>"Certainty? There isn't the slightest element of uncertainty in it. +There are hundreds of people in Brewster who can identify me."</p> + +<p>"But not one of these Brewsterites can identify you as John Montague +Smith, of Lawrenceville—the man who is wanted by Sheriff Macauley," she +put in quickly. Then she added: "My father foresaw that difficulty. As +I told you in my note, he sent me a letter by Mr. Kinzie's messenger. +After telling me that he will be detained in the mountains several days +longer, he refers to Mr. Kinzie's request and suggests——"</p> + +<p>The fugitive was smiling grimly. "He suggests that you might help Mr. +Kinzie out by telling him whether or not he has got hold of the right +John Smith?"</p> + +<p>"Not quite that," she rejoined. "He merely suggests that I may be asked +to identify you; in which case I am to be prudent, and—to quote him +exactly—'not get mixed up in the affair in any way so that it would +make talk.'"</p> + +<p>"I see," said Smith. And then: "You have a disagreeable duty ahead of +you, and I'd relieve you of the necessity by running away, if I could. +But that is impossible, as I have explained."</p> + +<p>She was silent for a moment; then she said: "When I told you a few days +ago that you were going to need my help, Montague, I didn't foresee +anything like this. Have you any means of finding out whether or not Mr. +Kinzie has sent his wire to Lawrenceville?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think I can do that much."</p> + +<p>"Suppose you do it and then let me know. I shall breakfast with the +Stantons in a few minutes; and after nine o'clock ... if you could +contrive to keep out of the way until I can get word to you; just so +they won't be able to bring us face to face with each other——"</p> + +<p>Smith saw what she meant; saw, also, whereunto his wretched fate was +dragging him. It was the newest of all the reincarnations, the one which +had begun with Jibbey's silent hand-clasp the night before, which +prompted him to say:</p> + +<p>"If they should ask you about me, you must tell them the truth, Verda."</p> + +<p>Her smile was mildly scornful.</p> + +<p>"Is that what the plain-faced little ranch person would do?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I don't know; yes, I guess it is."</p> + +<p>"Doesn't she care any more for you than that?"</p> + +<p>Smith did not reply. He was standing where he could watch the comings +and goings of the elevators. Time was precious and he was chafing at the +delay, but Miss Richlander was not yet ready to let him go.</p> + +<p>"Tell me honestly, Montague," she said; "is it anything more than a case +of propinquity with this Baldwin girl?—on your part, I mean."</p> + +<p>"It isn't anything," he returned soberly. "Corona Baldwin will never +marry any man who has so much to explain as I have."</p> + +<p>"You didn't know this was her home, when you came out here?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"But you had met her somewhere, before you came?"</p> + +<p>"Once; yes. It was in Guthrieville, over a year ago. I had driven over +to call on some people that I knew, and I met her there at a house where +she was visiting."</p> + +<p>"Does she remember that she had met you?"</p> + +<p>"No, not yet." He was certain enough of this to answer without +reservations.</p> + +<p>"But you remembered her?"</p> + +<p>"Not at first."</p> + +<p>"I see," she nodded, and then, without warning: "What was the matter +with you last night—about dinner-time?"</p> + +<p>"Why should you think there was anything the matter with me?"</p> + +<p>"I was out driving with the Stantons. When I came back to the hotel I +found Colonel Baldwin and another man—a lawyer, I think he was—waiting +for me. They said you were needing a friend who could go and talk to you +and—'calm you down,' was the phrase the lawyer used. I was good-natured +enough to go with them, but when we reached your offices you had gone, +and the ranch girl was there alone, waiting for her father."</p> + +<p>"That was nonsense!" he commented; "their going after you as if I were a +maniac or a drunken man, I mean."</p> + +<p>This time Miss Richlander's smile was distinctly resentful. "I suppose +the colonel's daughter answered the purpose better," she said. "There +was an awkward little <i>contretemps</i>, and Miss Baldwin refused, rather +rudely, I thought, to tell her father where you had gone."</p> + +<p>Smith broke away from the unwelcome subject abruptly, saying: "There is +something else you ought to know. Jibbey is here, at last."</p> + +<p>"Here in the hotel?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Does he know you are here?"</p> + +<p>"He does."</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you tell me before? That will complicate things dreadfully. +Tucker will talk and tell all he knows; he can't help it."</p> + +<p>"This is one time when he will not talk. Perhaps he will tell you why +when you see him."</p> + +<p>Miss Richlander glanced at the face of the small watch pinned on her +shoulder.</p> + +<p>"You must not stay here any longer," she protested. "The Stantons may +come down any minute, now, and they mustn't find us together. I am +still forgiving enough to want to help you, but you must do your part +and let me know what is going on."</p> + +<p>Smith promised and took his dismissal with a mingled sense of relief and +fresh embarrassment. In the new development which was threatening to +drag him back once more into the primitive savageries, he would have +been entirely willing to eliminate Verda Richlander as a factor, helpful +or otherwise. But there was good reason to fear that she might refuse to +be eliminated.</p> + +<p>William Starbuck's new car was standing in front of Judge Warner's house +in the southern suburb when Smith descended from the closed cab which he +had taken at the Hophra House side entrance. The clock in the +court-house tower was striking the quarter of nine. The elevated mesa +upon which the suburb was built commanded a broad view of the town and +the outlying ranch lands, and in the distance beyond the river the +Hillcrest cottonwoods outlined themselves against a background of +miniature buttes.</p> + +<p>Smith's gaze took in the wide, sunlit prospect. He had paid and +dismissed his cabman, and the thought came to him that in a few hours +the wooded buttes, the bare plains, the mighty mountains, and the +pictured city spreading map-like at his feet would probably exist for +him only as a memory. While he halted on the terrace, Starbuck came out +of the house.</p> + +<p>"The judge is at breakfast," the mine owner announced. "You're to go in +and wait. What do you want me to do next?"</p> + +<p>Smith glanced down regretfully at the shining varnish and resplendent +metal of the new automobile. "If your car wasn't so new," he began; but +Starbuck cut him off.</p> + +<p>"Call the car a thousand years old and go on."</p> + +<p>"All right. When I get through with the judge I shall want to go out to +the dam. Will you wait and take me?"</p> + +<p>"Surest thing on earth,"—with prompt acquiescence. And then: "Is it as +bad as you thought it was going to be, John?"</p> + +<p>"It's about as bad as it can be," was the sober reply, and with that +Smith went in to wait for his interview with the Timanyoni's +best-beloved jurist.</p> + +<p>As we have seen, this was at nine o'clock, or a few minutes before the +hour, and as Starbuck descended the stone steps to take his seat in the +car, David Kinzie, at his desk in the Brewster City National, was asking +the telephone "central" to give him the Timanyoni High Line offices. +Martin, the bookkeeper, answered, and he took a message from the bank +president that presently brought Colonel Dexter Baldwin to the private +room in the bank known to nervous debtors as "the sweat-box".</p> + +<p>"Sit down, Dexter," said the banker shortly; "sit down a minute while I +look at my mail."</p> + +<p>It was one of David Kinzie's small subtleties to make a man sit idly +thus, on one pretext or another; it rarely failed to put the incomer at +a disadvantage, and on the present occasion it worked like a charm. +Baldwin had let his cigar go out and had chewed the end of it into a +pulp before Kinzie swung around in his chair and launched out abruptly.</p> + +<p>"You and I have always been pretty good friends, Dexter," he began, "and +I have called you down here this morning to prove to you that I am still +your friend. Where is your man Smith?"</p> + +<p>Baldwin shook his head. "I don't know," he answered. "I haven't seen him +since last evening."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure he is still in town?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't any reason to think that he isn't."</p> + +<p>"Hasn't run away, then?"</p> + +<p>The Missouri colonel squared himself doggedly in the suppliant debtor's +chair, which was the one Kinzie had placed for him. "What are you +driving at, Dave?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"We'll tackle your end of it, first," said the banker curtly. "Do you +know that you and your crowd have come to the bottom of the bag on that +dam proposition?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't."</p> + +<p>"Well, you have. You've got just this one more day to live."</p> + +<p>The Missourian fell back upon his native phrase.</p> + +<p>"I reckon you'll have to show me, Dave."</p> + +<p>"I will. Have you seen the weather report this morning?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"I thought not. I've had a trained observer up in the eastern hills for +the past week. The river rose four feet last night, and there are +predictions out for more cloudbursts and thunderstorms in the headwater +region. The snow is melting fast in the higher gulches, and you know as +well as I do that there is at least a strong probability that your dam +won't hold the flood rise."</p> + +<p>"I don't know it," asserted Baldwin stoutly. "But go on. You've got your +gun loaded: what are you aiming it at?"</p> + +<p>"Just this: there is a chance that you'll lose the dam by natural causes +before the concrete hardens; but if you don't, you're sure to lose it +the other way. I told you weeks ago that the other people were carrying +too many big guns for you. I don't want to see you killed off, Dexter."</p> + +<p>"I'm no quitter; you ought to know that, Dave," was the blunt rejoinder.</p> + +<p>"I know; but there are times when it is simply foolhardy to hold on. The +compromise proposition that I put up to you people a while back still +holds good. But to-day is the last day, Dexter. You must accept it now, +if you are going to accept it at all."</p> + +<p>"And if we still refuse?"</p> + +<p>"You'll go smash, the whole kit of you. As I've said, this is the last +call."</p> + +<p>By this time Baldwin's cigar was a hopeless wreck.</p> + +<p>"You've got something up your sleeve, Dave: what is it?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>The banker pursed his lips and the bristling mustache assumed its most +aggressive angle.</p> + +<p>"There are a number of things, but the one which concerns you most, just +now, is this: we've got Smith's record, at last. He is an outlaw, with +a price on his head. We've dug out the whole story. He is a defaulting +bank cashier, and before he ran away he tried to kill his president."</p> + +<p>Baldwin was frowning heavily. "Who told you all this? Was it this Miss +Richlander over at the Hophra House?"</p> + +<p>"No; it was her father. I sent one of my young men out to the Topaz to +look him up."</p> + +<p>"And you have telegraphed to the chief of police, or the sheriff, or +whoever it is that wants Smith?"</p> + +<p>"Not yet. I wanted to give you one more chance, Dexter. Business comes +first. The Brewster City National is a bank, not a detective agency. You +go and find Smith and fire him; tell him he is down and out; get rid of +him, once for all. Then come back here and we'll fix up that compromise +with Stanton."</p> + +<p>Baldwin found a match and tried to relight the dead cigar. But it was +chewed past redemption.</p> + +<p>"Let's get it plumb straight, Dave," he pleaded, in the quiet tone of +one who will leave no peace-keeping stone unturned. "You say you've got +John dead to rights. Smith is a mighty common name. I shouldn't wonder +if there were half a million 'r so John Smiths—taking the country +over. How do you know you've got the right one?"</p> + +<p>"His middle name is 'Montague'," snapped the banker, "and the man who is +wanted called himself 'J. Montague Smith'. But we can identify him +positively. There is one person in Brewster who knew Smith before he +came here; namely, Mr. Richlander's daughter. She can tell us if he is +the right Smith, and she probably will if the police ask her to."</p> + +<p>Baldwin may have had his own opinion about that, but if so, he kept it +to himself and spoke feelingly of other things.</p> + +<p>"Dave," he said, rising to stand over the square-built man in the +swing-chair, "we've bumped the bumps over a good many miles of rough +road together since we first hit the Timanyoni years ago, and it's like +pulling a sound tooth to have to tell you the plain truth. You've got a +mighty bad case of money-rot. The profit account has grown so big with +you that you can't see out over the top of it. You've horsed back and +forth between Stanton's outfit and ours until you can't tell the +difference between your old friends and a bunch of low-down, +conscienceless land-pirates. You pull your gun and go to shooting +whenever you get ready. We'll stay with you and try to hold up our +end—and John's. And you mark my words, Dave; you're the man that's +going to get left in this deal; the straddler always gets left." And +with that he cut the interview short and went back to the High Line +offices on the upper floor.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXVII" id="XXVII"></a>XXVII</h2> + +<h3>Two Witnesses</h3> + + +<p>Driven by Starbuck in the brand-new car, Smith reached the dam at +half-past ten and was in time to see the swarming carpenters begin the +placing of the forms for the pouring of the final section of the great +wall. Though the high water was lapping at the foot timbers of the +forming, and the weather reports were still portentous, Williams was in +fine fettle. There had been no further interferences on the part of the +railroad people, every man on the job was spurting for the finish, and +the successful end was now fairly in sight.</p> + +<p>"We'll be pouring this afternoon," he told Smith, "and with a +twenty-four-hour set for the concrete, and the forms left in place for +additional security, we can shut the spillway gates and back the water +into the main ditch. Instead of being a hindrance then, the flood-tide +will help. Under slack-water conditions it would take a day or two to +finish filling the reservoir lake, but now we'll get the few feet of +rise needed to fill the sluices almost while you wait."</p> + +<p>"You have your guards out, as we planned?" Smith inquired.</p> + +<p>"Twenty of the best men I could find. They are patrolling on both sides +of the river, with instructions to report if they see so much as a +rabbit jump up."</p> + +<p>"Good. I'm going to let Starbuck drive me around the lake limits to see +to it personally that your pickets are on the job. But first, I'd like +to use your 'phone for a minute or two," and with that Smith shut +himself up in the small field-office and called Martin, the bookkeeper, +at the town headquarters.</p> + +<p>The result of the brief talk with Martin seemed satisfactory, for when +it was concluded, Smith rang off and asked for the Hophra House. Being +given the hotel exchange, he called the number of Miss Richlander's +suite, and the answer came promptly in the full, throaty voice of the +Olympian beauty.</p> + +<p>"Is that you, Montague?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I'm out at the dam. Nothing has been done yet. No telegraphing, I +mean. You understand?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly. But something is going to be done. Mr. K. has had Colonel +B. with him in the bank. I saw the colonel go in while I was at +breakfast. When are you coming back to town?"</p> + +<p>"Not for some time; I have a drive to make that will keep me out until +afternoon."</p> + +<p>"Very well; you'd better stay away as long as you can, and then you'd +better communicate with me before you show yourself much in public. I'll +have Jibbey looking out for you."</p> + +<p>Smith said "good-by" and hung up the receiver with a fresh twinge of +dissatisfaction. Every step made his dependence upon Verda Richlander +more complete. To be sure, he told himself, they had both forsworn +sentiment in the old days, but was that any guaranty that it was not now +awakening in Josiah Richlander's daughter? And Corona Baldwin: what +would she say to this newest alliance? Would she not say again, and this +time with greater truth, that he was a coward of the basest sort; of the +type that makes no scruple of hiding behind a woman's skirts?</p> + +<p>Happily, there was work to do, and he went out and did it. With the new +car to cover the longer interspaces, a complete round of Williams's +sentries was made, with détours up and down the line of the abandoned +Red Butte Southwestern, whose right-of-way claims had been so recently +revived. Smith tried to tell himself that he was only making a necessary +reconnaissance thoroughly; that he was not delaying his return to town +because Verda had told him to. But when the real motive could no longer +be denied, he brought himself up with a jerk. If it had come to this, +that he was afraid to face whatever might be awaiting him in Brewster, +it was time to take counsel once more of the elemental things.</p> + +<p>"Back to Brewster, Billy, by way of the camp," he directed, and the +overworked car was turned and headed accordingly.</p> + +<p>It was some little time before this, between the noon-hour and the +one-o'clock Hophra House luncheon, to be exact, that Mr. David Kinzie, +still halting between two opinions, left his desk and the bank and +crossed the street to the hotel. Inquiry at the lobby counter revealing +the fact that Miss Richlander was in her rooms, Kinzie wrote his name on +a card and let the clerk send it up. The boy came back almost +immediately with word that Miss Richlander was waiting in the mezzanine +parlors.</p> + +<p>The banker tipped the call-boy and went up alone. He had seen Miss +Richlander, once when she was driving with Smith and again at the +theatre in the same company. So he knew what to expect when he tramped +heavily into the parlor overlooking the street. None the less, the +dazzling beauty of the young woman who rose to shake hands with him and +call him by name rather took him off his feet. David Kinzie was a +hopeless bachelor, from choice, but there are women, and women.</p> + +<p>"Do you know, Mr. Kinzie, I have been expecting you all day," she said +sweetly, making him sit down beside her on one of the flaming red +monstrosities billed in the hotel inventories as "Louis Quinze sofas". +"My father sent me a note by one of your young men, and he said that +perhaps you would—that perhaps you might want to—" Her rich voice was +at its fruitiest, and the hesitation was of exactly the proper shade.</p> + +<p>Kinzie, cold-blooded as a fish with despondent debtors, felt himself +suddenly warmed and moved to be gentle with this gracious young woman.</p> + +<p>"Er—yes, Miss Richlander—er—a disagreeable duty, you know. I wanted +to ask about this young man, Smith. We don't know him very well here in +Brewster, and as he has considerable business dealings with the bank, +we—that is, I thought your father might be able to tell us something +about his standing in his home town."</p> + +<p>"And my father did tell you?"</p> + +<p>"Well—yes; he—er—he says Smith is a—a grand rascal; a fugitive from +justice; and we thought—" David Kinzie, well hardened in all the +processes of dealing with men, was making difficult weather of it with +this all-too-beautiful young woman.</p> + +<p>Miss Richlander's laugh was well restrained. She seemed to be struggling +earnestly to make it appear so.</p> + +<p>"You business gentlemen are so funny!" she commented. "You know, of +course, Mr. Kinzie, that <i>this</i> Mr. Smith and I are old friends; you've +probably seen us together enough to be sure of that. Hasn't it occurred +to you that however well I might know the Mr. Smith my father has +written you about, I should hardly care to be seen in public with him?"</p> + +<p>"Then there are two of them?" Kinzie demanded.</p> + +<p>The young woman was laughing again. "Would that be so very +wonderful?—with so many Smiths in the world?"</p> + +<p>"But—er—the middle name, Miss Richlander: <i>that</i> isn't so infern—so +very common, I'm sure."</p> + +<p>"It is rather remarkable, isn't it? But there are a good many Montagues +in our part of the world, too. The man my father wrote you about always +signed himself 'J. Montague', as if he were a little ashamed of the +'John'."</p> + +<p>"Then this Brewster Smith isn't the one who is wanted in Lawrenceville +for embezzlement and attempted murder?"</p> + +<p>"Excuse me," said the beauty, with another very palpable attempt to +smother her amusement. "If you could only know this other Smith; the one +my father wrote you about, and the one he thinks you were asking about: +they are not the least bit alike. J. Montague, as I remember him, was a +typical society man; a dancing man who was the pet of the younger +girls—and of their mothers, for that matter; you know what I mean—the +kind of man who wears dress clothes even when he dines alone, and who +wouldn't let his beard grow overnight for a king's ransom. But wait a +moment. There is a young gentleman here who came last evening direct +from Lawrenceville. Let me send for him."</p> + +<p>She rose and pressed the bell-push, and when the floor boy came, he was +sent to the lobby to page Jibbey. During the little wait, David Kinzie +was skilfully made to talk about other things. Jibbey was easily found, +as it appeared, and he came at once. Miss Richlander did the honors +graciously.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Kinzie, this is Mr. Tucker Jibbey, the son of one of our +Lawrenceville bankers. Tucker—Mr. Kinzie; the president of the Brewster +City National." Then, before Kinzie could begin: "Tucker, I've sent for +you in self-defense. You know both Mr. John Smith, at present of +Brewster, and also J. Montague Smith, sometime of Lawrenceville and now +of goodness only knows where. Mr. Kinzie is trying to make out that they +are one and the same."</p> + +<p>Jibbey laughed broadly. He stood in no awe of banks, bankers, or stubbly +mustaches.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell John, when I see him again—and take a chance on being able +to run faster than he can," he chuckled. "Ripping good joke!"</p> + +<p>"Then you know both men?" said Kinzie, glancing at his watch and rising.</p> + +<p>"Like a book. They're no more alike than black and white. Our man here +is from Cincinnati; isn't that where you met him, Verda? Yes, I'm sure +it is—that night at the Carsons', if you remember. I believe I was the +one who introduced him. And I recollect you didn't like him at first, +because he wore a beard. They told me, the last time I was over in +Cinci, that he'd gone West somewhere, but they didn't say where. He was +the first man I met when I lit down here. Damn' little world, isn't it, +Mr. Kinzie?"</p> + +<p>David Kinzie was backing away, watch in hand. Business was very +pressing, he said, and he must get back to his desk. He was very much +obliged to Miss Richlander, and was only sorry that he had troubled her. +When her father should return to Brewster he would be glad to meet him, +and so on and so on, to and beyond the portičres which finally blotted +him out, for the two who were left in the Louis Quinze parlor.</p> + +<p>"Is that about what you wanted me to say?" queried Jibbey, when the +click of the elevator door-latch told them that Mr. Kinzie was +descending.</p> + +<p>"Tucker, there are times when you are almost lovable," said the beauty +softly, with a hand on Jibbey's shoulder.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad it's what you wanted, because it's what I was going to say, +anyway," returned the ne'er-do-well soberly, thus showing that he, too, +had not yet outlived the influence of the overnight hand-grip.</p> + +<p>An hour further along in the afternoon, Starbuck's new car, pausing +momentarily at the construction camp to give its occupants a chance to +witness the rapid fulfilment of Williams's prediction in the swiftly +pouring streams of concrete, advertised its shining presence to the +engineer, who came up for a word with Smith while Starbuck had his head +under the hood of the new-paint-burning motor.</p> + +<p>"Somebody's been trying to get you over the wire, John; some woman," he +said, in tones as low as the thunderings of the rock-crushers would +sanction. "She wouldn't give me her number, but she wanted me to tell +you, if you came back here, that it was all right; that you had nothing +to be afraid of. She said you'd understand."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXVIII" id="XXVIII"></a>XXVIII</h2> + +<h3>The Straddler</h3> + + +<p>Since Brewster was a full-fledged city, its banks closed at three +o'clock. Ten minutes after the hour, which happened also to be about the +same length of time after Starbuck and Smith had reached town, Mr. +Crawford Stanton got himself admitted by the janitor at the side door of +the Brewster City National. President Kinzie was still at his desk in +his private room, and the promoter entered unannounced.</p> + +<p>"I thought I'd hang off and give you the limit—all the time there was," +he said, dropping into the debtor's chair at the desk-end. And then, +with a quarrelsome rasp in his tone: "Are you getting ready to switch +again?"</p> + +<p>Though his victims often cursed the banker for his shrewd caution and +his ruthless profit-takings, no one had ever accused him of timidity in +a stand-up encounter.</p> + +<p>"You've taken that tone with me before, Stanton, and I don't like it," +he returned brusquely. "I've been willing to serve you, as I could, in +a business matter, and I am still willing to serve you; but you may as +well keep it in mind that neither you, nor the people you represent, own +the Brewster City National, or any part of it, in fee simple."</p> + +<p>"We can buy you out any minute we think we need you," retorted Stanton. +"But never mind about that. Your man came back from the Topaz last +night; I know, because I make it my business to keep cases on you and +everybody else. You've let the better part of the day go by without +saying a word, and I've drawn the only conclusion there is to draw: +you're getting ready to swap sides again."</p> + +<p>Kinzie frowned his impatience. "If I have to do business with your +people much longer, Mr. Stanton, I shall certainly suggest that they put +a man in charge out here who can control his temper. I have acted in +perfect good faith with you from the beginning. What you say is true; +our man did return from the Topaz last night. But I thought it wise to +make a few investigations on my own account before we should be +committed to the course you advocated, and it is fortunate for us that I +did. Here is Mr. Richlander's letter."</p> + +<p>Stanton read the letter through hastily, punctuating its final sentence +with a brittle oath.</p> + +<p>"And you've muddled over this all day, when every hour is worth more to +us than your one-horse bank could earn in a year?" he rapped out. "What +have you done? Have you telegraphed this sheriff?"</p> + +<p>"No; and neither will you when I tell you the facts. I was afraid you +might go off at half-cock, as usual, if I turned the matter over to you. +You see what Mr. Richlander says, and you will note his description of +the man Smith who is wanted in Lawrenceville. It doesn't tally in any +respect with Baldwin's treasurer, and the common name aroused my +suspicions at once. We had nothing to go on unless we could identify our +man definitely, so I took the straightforward course and went to Miss +Richlander."</p> + +<p>Stanton's laugh was a derisive shout.</p> + +<p>"You need a guardian, Kinzie; you do, for a fact!" he sneered. "You sit +here, day in and day out, like a greedy old spider in the middle of a +web, clawing in a man-fly every time the door opens, but what you don't +know about women—Bah! you make my back ache! Of course, the girl pulled +the wool over your eyes; any woman could do that!"</p> + +<p>"You are not gaining anything by being abusive, Stanton. As I have said, +it is fortunate for all of us that I took the matter into my own hands +and used a little ordinary common sense. There are two Smiths, just as I +suspected when I read Mr. Richlander's letter. Miss Richlander didn't +ask me to take her word for it. She called in a young man named Jibbey, +who arrived here, direct from Lawrenceville, as I understand, last +evening. He is a banker's son, and he knows both Smiths. This man of +Baldwin's is not the one Mr. Richlander is trying to describe in that +letter."</p> + +<p>Stanton bit the tip from a cigar and struck a light.</p> + +<p>"Kinzie," he said, "you've got me guessing. If you are really the easy +mark you are trying to tell me you are, you have no business running a +bank. I'm going to be charitable and put it the other way around. You +think we're going to lose out, and you are trying to throw me off the +scent. You had a long talk with Colonel Baldwin this morning—I kept +cases on that, too—and you figured that you'd make money by seesawing +again. I'm glad to be able to tell you that you are just about +twenty-four hours too late."</p> + +<p>The round-bodied banker righted his pivot-chair with a snap and his lips +were puffed out like the lips of a swimmer who sees the saving plank +drifting out of reach.</p> + +<p>"You are wrong, Stanton; altogether wrong!" he protested. "Baldwin was +here because I sent for him to make a final attempt to swing him over to +the compromise. You are doing me the greatest possible injustice!"</p> + +<p>Stanton rose and made ready to go.</p> + +<p>"I think that would be rather hard to do, Kinzie," he flung back. +"Nobody loves a trimmmer. But in the present case you are not going to +lose anything. We'll take your stock at par, as I promised you we +would."</p> + +<p>It was at this crisis that David Kinzie showed himself as the exponent +of the saying that every man has his modicum of saving grace, by smiting +upon the arm of his chair and glaring up at the promoter.</p> + +<p>"There's another promise of yours that you've got to remember, too, +Stanton," he argued hoarsely. "You've got to hold Dexter Baldwin +harmless!"</p> + +<p>Stanton's smile was a mask of pure malice. "I've made you no definite +promise as to that; but you shall have one now. I'll promise to break +Baldwin in two and throw him and his ranchmen backers out of the +Timanyoni. That's what you get for playing fast and loose with two +people at the same time. When you look over your paying teller's +statement for the day, you'll see that I have withdrawn our account from +your tin-horn money shop. Good-day."</p> + +<p>Five minutes later the promoter was squared before his own desk in the +office across the street and was hastily scribbling a telegram while a +messenger boy waited. It was addressed to Sheriff Macauley, at +Lawrenceville, and the wording of it showed how completely Stanton was +ignoring Banker Kinzie's investigations.</p> + +<blockquote><p>Your man Montague Smith is here, known as John Smith, secretary +and treasurer Timanyoni High Line Company. Wire authority quick +to chief police Brewster for his arrest and send deputy with +requisition. Rush or you lose him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Crawford Stanton</span>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>He let the boy go with this, but immediately set to work on another +which was addressed to the great man whose private car, returning from +the Pacific Coast, was due to reach Denver by the evening Union Pacific +train. This second message he translated laboriously into cipher, +working it out word by word from a worn code book taken from the safe. +But the copy from which he translated, and which, after the cipher was +made, he carefully destroyed, read thus:</p> + +<blockquote><p>The obstacle is removed. M'Graw and his men will take +possession to-night and hold until we can make the turn.</p> + +<p>Stanton.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXIX" id="XXIX"></a>XXIX</h2> + +<h3>The Flesh-Pots of Egypt</h3> + + +<p>Convinced by Verda Richlander's telephone message to the construction +camp that he stood in no immediate danger, Smith spent the heel of the +afternoon in the High Line offices, keeping in wire touch with +Stillings, whom he had sent on a secret mission to Red Butte, and with +Williams at the dam.</p> + +<p>Colonel Baldwin, as he learned from Martin, had gone to attend the +funeral of one of his neighbors, and was thus, for the moment, out of +reach. Smith told himself that the colonel's presence or absence made +little difference. The High Line enterprise was on the knees of the +gods. If Williams could pull through in time, if the river-swelling +storms should hold off, if Stanton should delay his final raid past the +critical hour—and there was now good reason to hope that all of these +contingencies were probable—the victory was practically won.</p> + +<p>But in another field the fighting secretary, denying himself in the +privacy of his office to everybody but Martin, found small matter for +rejoicing. It was one of life's ironies that the metamorphosis which had +shown him, among other things, the heights and depths of a pure +sentiment had apparently deprived him of the power to awaken it in the +woman he loved.</p> + +<p>It was thus that he was interpreting Corona Baldwin's attitude. She had +recognized the transformation as a thing in process, and had been +interested in it as a human experiment. Though it was chiefly owing to +her beckoning that he had stepped out of the working ranks at the +construction camp, he felt that he had never measured up to her ideals, +and that her influence over him, so far as it was exerted consciously, +was as impersonal as that of the sun on a growing plant. She had wished +objectively to see the experiment succeed, and had been willing to use +such means as had come to hand to make it succeed. For this cause, he +concluded, with a curiously bitter taste in his mouth, her interest in +the human experiment was his best warrant for shutting the door upon his +love dream. Sentiment, the world over, has little sympathy with +laboratory processes, and the woman who loves does not apply acid tests +and call the object of her love a coward.</p> + +<p>Letting the sting of the epithet have its full effect, he admitted that +he was a coward. He had lacked the finer quality of courage when he had +spirited Jibbey away, and he was lacking it again, now, in accepting the +defensive alliance with Verda Richlander. He had not shown himself at +the hotel since his return from the long drive with Starbuck, and the +reason for it was that he knew his relations with Verda had now become +an entanglement from which he was going to find it exceedingly difficult +to release himself. She had served him, had most probably lied for him; +and he assured himself, again with the bitter taste in his mouth, that +there would be a price to pay.</p> + +<p>It is through such doors of disheartenment that temptation finds its +easiest entrance. For a dismal hour the old life, with its conventional +enjoyments and limitations, its banalities, its entire freedom from the +prickings of the larger ambitions and its total blindness on the side of +broadening horizons and higher ideals, became a thing most ardently to +be desired, a welcome avenue of escape from the toils and turmoils and +the growing-pains of all the metamorphoses. What if a return to it +should still be possible? What if, surrendering himself voluntarily, he +should go back to Lawrenceville and fight it out with Watrous Dunham in +the courts? Was there not more than an even chance that Dunham had +offered the large reward for his apprehension merely to make sure that +he would not return? Was it not possible that the thing the crooked +president least desired was an airing of his iniquitous business methods +in the courts?</p> + +<p>Smith closed his desk at six o'clock and went across to the hotel to +dress for dinner. The day of suspense was practically at an end and +disaster still held aloof; was fairly outdistanced in the race, as it +seemed. Williams's final report had been to the effect that the +concrete-pouring was completed, and the long strain was off. Smith went +to his rooms, and, as once before and for a similar reason, he laid his +dress clothes out on the bed. He made sure that he would be required to +dine with Verda Richlander, and he was stripping his coat when he heard +a tap at the door and Jibbey came in.</p> + +<p>"Glad rags, eh?" said the <i>blasé</i> one, with a glance at the array on the +bed. "I've just run up to tell you that you needn't. Verda's dining with +the Stantons, and she wants me to keep you out of sight until afterward. +By and by, when she's foot-loose, she wants to see you in the +mezzanine. Isn't there some quiet little joint where we two can go for a +bite? You know the town, and I don't."</p> + +<p>Smith put his coat on and together they circled the square to +Frascati's, taking a table in the main café. While they were giving +their dinner order, Starbuck came in and joined them, and Smith was +glad. For reasons which he could scarcely have defined, he was relieved +not to have to talk to Jibbey alone, and Starbuck played third hand +admirably, taking kindly to the sham black sheep, and filling him up, in +quiet, straight-faced humor, with many and most marvellous tales of the +earlier frontier.</p> + +<p>At the end of the meal, while Jibbey was still content to linger, +listening open-mouthed to Starbuck's romancings, Smith excused himself +and returned to the hotel. He had scarcely chosen his lounging-chair in +a quiet corner of the mezzanine before Miss Richlander came to join him.</p> + +<p>"It has been a long day, hasn't it?" she began evenly. "You have been +busy with your dam, I suppose, but I—I have had nothing to do but to +think, and that is something that I don't often allow myself to do. You +have gone far since that night last May when you telephoned me that you +would come up to the house later—and then broke your promise, +Montague."</p> + +<p>"In a way, I suppose I have," he admitted.</p> + +<p>"You have, indeed. You are a totally different man."</p> + +<p>"In what way, particularly?"</p> + +<p>"In every conceivable way. If one could believe in transmigration, one +would say that you had changed souls with some old, hard-hitting, +rough-riding ancestor. Mr. Stanton has just been telling me the story of +how, when you first came here, you fought barehanded with three miners +somewhere back in the hills."</p> + +<p>A bleak little smile of reminiscence wrinkled at the corners of the +fighter's eyes.</p> + +<p>"Did he tell you that I knocked them out—all three of them?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"He said you beat them shamefully; and I tried to imagine you doing such +a thing, and couldn't. Have your ambitions changed, too?"</p> + +<p>"I am not sure now that I had any ambitions in that other life."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, you had," she went on smoothly. "In the 'other life', as you +call it, you would have been quite willing to marry a woman who could +assure you a firm social standing and money enough to put you on a +footing with other men of your capabilities. You wouldn't be willing to +do that now, would you?—leaving the sentiment out as you used to leave +it out then?"</p> + +<p>"No, I hardly think I should."</p> + +<p>Her laugh was musically low and sweet, and only mildly derisive.</p> + +<p>"You are thinking that it is change of environment, wider horizons, and +all that, which has changed you, Montague; but I know better. It is a +woman, and, as you may remember, I have met her—twice." Then, with a +faint glow of spiteful fire in the magnificent eyes: "How can you make +yourself believe that she is pretty?"</p> + +<p>He shrugged one shoulder in token of the utter uselessness of discussion +in that direction.</p> + +<p>"Sentiment?" he queried. "I think we needn't go into that, at this late +day, Verda. It is a field that neither of us entered, or cared to enter, +in the days that are gone. If I say that Corona Baldwin has—quite +unconsciously on her part, I must ask you to believe—taught me what +love means, that ought to be enough."</p> + +<p>Again she was laughing softly.</p> + +<p>"You seem to have broadly forgotten the old proverb about a woman +scorned. What have you to expect from me after making such an admission +as that?"</p> + +<p>Smith pulled himself together and stood the argument firmly upon its +unquestionable footing.</p> + +<p>"Let us put all these indirections aside and be for the moment merely a +man and a woman, as God made us, Verda," he said soberly. "You know, and +I know, that there was never any question of love involved in our +relations past and gone. We might have married, but in that case neither +of us would have gotten or exacted anything more than the conventional +decencies and amenities. We mustn't try to make believe at this late +day. You had no illusions about me when I was Watrous Dunham's hired +man; you haven't any illusions about me now."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not," was the calm rejoinder. "And yet to-day I have lied to +save you from those who are trying to crush you."</p> + +<p>"I told you not to do that," he rejoined quickly.</p> + +<p>"I know you did; and yet, when you went away this morning you knew +perfectly well that I was going to do it if I should get the +opportunity. Didn't you, Montague?"</p> + +<p>He nodded slowly; common honesty demanded that much.</p> + +<p>"Very well; you accepted the service, and I gave it freely. Mr. Kinzie +believes now that you are another Smith—not the one who ran away from +Lawrenceville last May. Tell me: would the other woman have done as much +if the chance had fallen to her?"</p> + +<p>It was on the tip of his tongue to say, "I hope not," but he did not say +it. Instead, he said: "But you don't really care, Verda; in the way you +are trying to make me believe you do."</p> + +<p>"Possibly not; possibly I am wholly selfish in the matter and am only +looking for some loophole of escape."</p> + +<p>"Escape? From whom?"</p> + +<p>She looked away and shook her head. "From Watrous Dunham, let us say. +You didn't suspect that, did you? It is so, nevertheless. My father +desires it; and I suppose Watrous Dunham would like to have my +money—you know I have something in my own right. Perhaps this may help +to account for some other things—for your trouble, for one. You were in +his way, you see. But never mind that: there are other matters to be +considered now. Though Mr. Kinzie has been put off the track, Mr. +Stanton hasn't. I have earned Mr. Stanton's ill-will because I wouldn't +tell him about you, and this evening, at table, he took it out on me."</p> + +<p>"In what way?"</p> + +<p>"He gave me to understand, very plainly, that he had done something; +that there was a sensation in prospect for all Brewster. He was so +exultantly triumphant that it fairly frightened me. The fact that he +wasn't afraid to show some part of his hand to me—knowing that I would +be sure to tell you—makes me afraid that the trap has already been set +for you."</p> + +<p>"In other words, you think he has gone over Kinzie's head and has +telegraphed to Lawrenceville?"</p> + +<p>"Montague, I'm almost certain of it!"</p> + +<p>Smith stood up and put his hands behind him.</p> + +<p>"Which means that I have only a few hours, at the longest," he said +quietly. And then: "There is a good bit to be done, turning over the +business of the office, and all that: I've been putting it off from day +to day, saying that there would be time enough to set my house in order +after the trap had been sprung. Now I am like the man who has put off +the making of his will until it is too late. Will you let me thank you +very heartily and vanish?"</p> + +<p>"What shall you do?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Set my house in order, as I say—as well as I can in the time that +remains. There are others to be considered, you know."</p> + +<p>"Oh; the plain-faced little ranch girl among them, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"No; thank God, she is out of it entirely—in the way you mean," he +broke out fervently.</p> + +<p>"You mean that you haven't spoken to her—yet?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I haven't. Do you suppose I would ask any woman to marry me +with the shadow of the penitentiary hanging over me?"</p> + +<p>"But you are not really guilty."</p> + +<p>"That doesn't make any difference: Watrous Dunham will see to it that I +get what he has planned to give me."</p> + +<p>She was tapping an impatient tattoo on the carpet with one shapely foot.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you turn this new leaf of yours back and go home and fight it +out with Watrous Dunham, once for all?" she suggested.</p> + +<p>"I shall probably go, fast enough, when Macauley or one of his deputies +gets here with the extradition papers," he returned. "But as to fighting +Dunham, without money——"</p> + +<p>She looked up quickly, and this time there was no mistaking the meaning +of the glow in the magnificent brown eyes.</p> + +<p>"Your friends have money, Montague—plenty of it. All you have to do is +to say that you will defend yourself. I am not sure that Watrous Dunham +couldn't be made to take your place in the prisoner's dock, or that you +couldn't be put in his place in the Lawrenceville Bank and Trust. You +have captured Tucker Jibbey, and that means Tucker's father; and my +father—well, when it comes to the worst, my father always does what I +want him to. It's his one weakness."</p> + +<p>For one little instant Smith felt the solid ground slipping from beneath +his feet. Here was a way out, and his quick mentality was showing him +that it was a perfectly feasible way. As Verda Richlander's husband and +Josiah Richlander's son-in-law, he could fight Dunham and win. And the +reward: once more he could take his place in the small Lawrenceville +world, and settle down to the life of conventional good report and ease +which he had once thought the acme of any reasonable man's aspirations. +But at the half-yielding moment a word of Corona Baldwin's flashed into +his brain and turned the scale: "It <i>did</i> happen in your case ... giving +you a chance to grow and expand, and to break with all the old +traditions ... and the break left you free to make of yourself what you +should choose." It was the reincarnated Smith who met the look in the +beautiful eyes and made answer.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus3" id="illus3"></a> +<img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>"Your friends have money, Montague—plenty of it."</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>"No," was the sober decision; and then he gave his reasons. "If I could +do what you propose, I shouldn't be worth the powder it would take to +drive a bullet through me, Verda, for now, you see, I know what love +means. You say I have changed, and I <i>have</i> changed: I can imagine the +past-and-gone J. Montague jumping at the chance you are offering. But +the mill will never grind with the water that is past: I'll take what is +coming to me, and try to take it like a man. Good-night—and good-by." +And he turned his back upon the temptation and went away.</p> + +<p>Fifteen minutes later he was in his office in the Kinzie Building, +trying in vain to get Colonel Baldwin on the distance wire; trying +also—and also in vain—to forget the recent clash and break with Verda +Richlander. He had called it a temptation at the moment, but perhaps it +was scarcely that. It was more like a final effort of the man who had +been to retransform the man who was. For a single instant the doors of +all his former ambitions had stood open. He saw how Josiah Richlander's +money and influence, directed by Verda's compelling demands, could be +used to break Dunham; and that done, all the rest would be easy, all the +paths to the success he had once craved would be made smooth.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, there was everything to lose, and nothing, as the +world measures results, to be gained. In a few hours at the furthest the +good name he had earned in Brewster would be hopelessly lost, and, so +far as human foresight could prefigure, there was nothing ahead but loss +and bitter disgrace. In spite of all this, while the long-distance +"central" was still assuring him that the Hillcrest wire was busy, he +found time to be fiercely glad that the choice had been only a choice +offered and not a choice accepted. For love's sake, if for no higher +motive, he would go down like a man, fighting to the end for the right +to live and think and love as a man.</p> + +<p>He was jiggling the switch of the desk 'phone for the twentieth time in +the effort to secure the desired line of communication with Baldwin when +a nervous step echoed in the corridor and the door opened to admit +William Starbuck. There was red wrath in the mine owner's ordinarily +cold eyes when he flung himself into a chair and eased the nausea of his +soul in an outburst of picturesque profanity.</p> + +<p>"The jig's up—definitely up, John," he was saying, when his speech +became lucid enough to be understood. "We know now what Stanton's 'other +string' was. A half-hour ago, a deputy United States marshal, with a +posse big enough to capture a town, took possession of the dam and +stopped the work. He says it's a court order from Judge Lorching at Red +Butte, based on the claims of that infernal paper railroad!"</p> + +<p>Smith pushed the telephone aside.</p> + +<p>"But it's too late!" he protested. "The dam is completed; Williams +'phoned me before I went to dinner. All that remains to be done to save +the charter is to shut the spillways and let the water back up so that +it will flow into the main ditch!"</p> + +<p>"Right there's where they've got us!" was the rasping reply. "They won't +let Williams touch the spillway gates, and they're not going to let him +touch them until after we have lost out on the time limit! Williams's +man says they've put the seal of the court on the machinery and have +posted armed guards everywhere. Wouldn't that make you run around in +circles and yelp like a scalded dog?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXX" id="XXX"></a>XXX</h2> + +<h3>A Strong Man Armed</h3> + + +<p>When the full meaning of Stanton's <i>coup</i> had thus set itself forth in +terms unmistakable, Smith put his elbows on the desk and propped his +head in his hands. It was not the attitude of dejection; it was rather a +trance-like rigor of concentration, with each and all of the newly +emergent powers once more springing alive to answer the battle-call. At +the desk-end Starbuck sat with his hands locked over one knee, too +disheartened to roll a cigarette, normal solace for all woundings less +than mortal. After a minute or two Smith jerked himself around to face +the news-bringer.</p> + +<p>"Does Colonel Baldwin know?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Sure! That's the worst of it. Didn't I tell you? After he got back from +Stuart's funeral he drove out to the dam, reaching the works just ahead +of the trouble. When M'Graw and the posse outfit showed up, the colonel +got it into his head that the whole thing was merely another trick of +Stanton's—a fake. Ginty, the quarry boss, brought the news to town. He +says there was a bloody mix-up, and at the end of it the colonel and +Williams were both under arrest for resisting the officers."</p> + +<p>Smith nodded thoughtfully. "Of course; that was just what was needed. +With the president and the chief of construction locked up, and the +wheels blocked for the next twenty-four hours, our charter will be +gone."</p> + +<p>"This world and another, and then the fireworks," Starbuck threw in. +"With the property all roped up in a law tangle, and those stock options +of yours due to fall in, it looks as if a few prominent citizens of the +Timanyoni would have to take to the high grass and the tall timber. It +sure does, John."</p> + +<p>"The colonel was not entirely without his warrant for putting up a +fight," Smith went on, after another reflective minute. "Do you know, +Billy, I have been expecting something of this kind—and expecting it to +be a fake. That's why I sent Stillings to Red Butte; to keep watch of +Judge Lorching's court. Stillings was to 'phone me if Lorching issued an +order."</p> + +<p>"And he hasn't phoned you?"</p> + +<p>"No; but that doesn't prove anything. The order may have been issued, +and Stillings may have tried to let us know. There are a good many ways +in which a man's mouth may be stopped—when there are no scruples on the +other side."</p> + +<p>"Then you think there is no doubt that the court order is straight, and +that this man M'Graw is really a deputy marshal and has the law for what +he is doing?"</p> + +<p>"In the absence of any proof to the contrary, we are obliged to believe +it—or at least to accept it. But we're not dead yet.... Billy, it's +running in my mind that we've got to go out there and clean up Mr. +M'Graw and his crowd."</p> + +<p>Starbuck threw up his hands and made a noise like a dry wagon-wheel.</p> + +<p>"Holy smoke!—go up against the whole United States?" he gasped.</p> + +<p>Smith's grin showed his strong, even teeth.</p> + +<p>"Starbuck, you remember what I told you one night?—the night I dragged +you up to my rooms in the hotel and gave you a hint of the reason why I +had no business to make love to Corona Baldwin?"</p> + +<p>"Yep."</p> + +<p>"Well, the time has come when I may as well fill out the blanks in the +story for you. The night I left my home city in the Middle West I was +called down to the bank of which I was the cashier and was shown how I +was going to be dropped into a hole for a hundred thousand dollars of +the bank's money; a loan which I had made as cashier in the absence of +the president, but which had been authorized, verbally, by the president +before he went away."</p> + +<p>"A scapegoat, eh? There have been others. Go on."</p> + +<p>"It was a frame-up, all around. The loan had been made to a friend of +mine for the express purpose of smashing him—that was the president's +object in letting it go through. Unluckily, I held a few shares of stock +in my friend's company: and there you have it. Unless the president +would admit that he had authorized the loan, I was in for an offense +that could be easily twisted into embezzlement."</p> + +<p>"The president stacked the cards on you?"</p> + +<p>"He did. It was nine o'clock at night and we were alone together in the +bank. He wanted me to shoulder the blame and run away; offered me money +to go with. One word brought on another; and finally, when I dared him +to press the police-alarm button, he pulled a gun on me. I hit him, just +once, Billy, and he dropped like a stone."</p> + +<p>"Great Moses!—dead?"</p> + +<p>"I thought he was. His heart had stopped, and I couldn't get him up. +Picture it, if you can—but you can't. I had never struck a man in anger +before in all my life. My first thought was to go straight to the police +station and make a clean breast of it. Then I saw how impossible it was +going to be to dodge the penitentiary, and I bolted; jumped a +freight-train and hoboed my way out of town. Two days later I got hold +of a newspaper and found that I hadn't killed Dunham; but I was +outlawed, just the same, and there was a reward offered."</p> + +<p>Starbuck was nodding soberly. "You sure have been carrying a back-load +all these weeks, John, never knowing what minute was going to be the +next. Now I know what you meant when you hinted around about this Miss +Rich-pastures. She knows you and she could give you away if she wanted +to. Has she done it, John?"</p> + +<p>"No; but her father has. Kinzie sent one of his clerks out to the Topaz +to hunt up the old man. Kinzie hasn't done anything, himself, I guess; +Miss Richlander told me that much; but Stanton has got hold of the end +of the thread, and, while I don't know it definitely, it is practically +certain he has sent a wire. If the Brewster police are not looking for +me at this moment, they will be shortly. That brings us back to this +High Line knock-out. As the matter stands, I'm the one man in our outfit +who has absolutely nothing to lose. I am an officer of the company, and +no legal notice has been served upon me. Can you fill out the remainder +of the order?"</p> + +<p>"No, I'll be switched if I can!"</p> + +<p>"Then I'll fill it for you. So far as I know—legally, you +understand—this raid has never been authorized by the courts; at least, +that is what I'm going to assume until the proper papers have been +served on me. Therefore I am free to strike one final blow for the +colonel and his friends, and I'm going to do it, if I can dodge the +police long enough to get action."</p> + +<p>Starbuck's tilting chair righted itself with a crash.</p> + +<p>"You've thought it all out?—just how to go at it?"</p> + +<p>"Every move; and every one of them a straight bid for a second +penitentiary sentence."</p> + +<p>"All right," said the mine owner briefly. "Count me in."</p> + +<p>"For information only," was the brusque reply. "You have a stake in the +country and a good name to maintain. I have nothing. But you can tell +me a few things. Are our workmen still on the ground?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Ginty said there were only a few stragglers who came to town with +him. Most of the two shifts are staying on to get their pay—or until +they find out that they aren't going to get it."</p> + +<p>"And the colonel and Williams: the marshal is holding them out at the +dam?"</p> + +<p>"Uh-huh; locked up in the office shack, Ginty says."</p> + +<p>"Good. I shan't need the colonel, but I shall need Williams. Now another +question: you know Sheriff Harding fairly well, don't you? What sort of +a man is he?"</p> + +<p>"Square as a die, and as nervy as they make 'em. When he gets a warrant +to serve, he'll bring in his man, dead or alive."</p> + +<p>"That's all I'll ask of him. Now go and find me an auto, and then you +can fade away and get ready to prove a good, stout <i>alibi</i>."</p> + +<p>"Yes—like fits I will!" retorted the mine owner. "I told you once, +John, that I was in this thing to a finish, and I meant it. Go on giving +your orders."</p> + +<p>"Very well; you've had your warning. The next thing is the auto. I want +to catch Judge Warner before he goes to bed. I'll telephone while +you're getting a car."</p> + +<p>Starbuck had no farther to go than to the garage where he had put up his +new car, and when he got it and drove to the Kinzie Building, Smith came +out of the shadow of the entrance to mount beside him.</p> + +<p>"Drive around to the garage again and let me try another 'phone," was +the low-spoken request. "My wire isn't working."</p> + +<p>The short run was quickly made, and Smith went to the garage office. A +moment later a two-hundred-pound policeman strolled up to put a huge +foot on the running-board of the waiting auto. Starbuck greeted him as a +friend.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Mac. How's tricks with you to-night?"</p> + +<p>"Th' tricks are even, an' I'm tryin' to take th' odd wan," said the big +Irishman. "'Tis a man named Smith I'm lookin' for, Misther Starbuck—J. +Mon-tay-gue Smith; th' fi-nanshal boss av th' big ditch comp'ny. Have ye +seen 'um?"</p> + +<p>Starbuck, looking over the policeman's shoulder, could see Smith at the +telephone in the garage office. Another man might have lost his head, +but the ex-cow-puncher was of the chosen few whose wits sharpen handily +in an emergency.</p> + +<p>"He hangs out at the Hophra House a good part of the time in the +evenings," he replied coolly. "Hop in and I'll drive you around."</p> + +<p>Three minutes later the threatening danger was a danger pushed a little +way into the future, and Starbuck was back at the garage curb waiting +for Smith to come out. Through the window he saw Smith replacing the +receiver on its hook, and a moment afterward he was opening the car door +for his passenger.</p> + +<p>"Did you make out to raise the judge?" he inquired, as Smith climbed in.</p> + +<p>"Yes. He will meet me at his chambers in the court-house as soon as he +can drive down from his house."</p> + +<p>"What are you hoping to do, John? Judge Warner is only a circuit judge; +he can't set an order of the United States court aside, can he?"</p> + +<p>"No; but there is one thing that he can do. You may remember that I had +a talk with him this morning at his house. I was trying then to cover +all the chances, among them the possibility that Stanton would jump in +with a gang of armed thugs at the last minute. We are going to assume +that this is what has been done."</p> + +<p>Starbuck set the car in motion and sent it spinning out of the side +street, around the plaza, and beyond to the less brilliantly +illuminated residence district—which was not the shortest way to the +court-house.</p> + +<p>"You mustn't pull Judge Warner's leg, John," he protested, breaking the +purring silence after the business quarter had been left behind; "he's +too good a man for that."</p> + +<p>"I shall tell him the exact truth, so far as we know it," was the quick +reply. "There is one chance in a thousand that we shall come out of this +with the law—as well as the equities—on our side. I shall tell the +judge that no papers have been served on us, and, so far as I know, they +haven't. What are you driving all the way around here for?"</p> + +<p>"This is one of the times when the longest way round is the shortest way +home," Starbuck explained. "The bad news you were looking for 'has +came'. While you were 'phoning in the garage I put one policeman +wise—to nothing."</p> + +<p>"He was looking for me?"</p> + +<p>"Sure thing—and by name. We'll fool around here in the back streets +until the judge has had time to show up. Then I'll drop you at the +court-house and go hustle the sheriff for you. You'll want Harding, I +take it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I'm taking the chance that only the city authorities have been +notified in my personal affair—not the county officers. It's a long +chance, of course; I may be running my neck squarely into the noose. But +it's all risk, Billy; every move in this night's game. Head up for the +court-house. The judge will be there by this time."</p> + +<p>Two minutes beyond this the car was drawing up to the curb on the +mesa-facing side of the court-house square. There were two lighted +windows in the second story of the otherwise darkened building, and +Smith sprang to the sidewalk.</p> + +<p>"Go now and find Harding, and have him bring one trusty deputy with him: +I'll be ready by the time you get back," he directed; but Starbuck +waited until he had seen Smith safely lost in the shadows of the +pillared court-house entrance before he drove away.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXXI" id="XXXI"></a>XXXI</h2> + +<h3>A Race to the Swift</h3> + + +<p>Since Sheriff Harding had left his office in the county jail and had +gone home to his ranch on the north side of the river some hours +earlier, not a little precious time was consumed in hunting him up. +Beyond this, there was another delay in securing the deputy. When +Starbuck's car came to a stand for a second time before the +mesa-fronting entrance of the court-house, Smith came quickly across the +walk from the portal.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Harding," he began abruptly, "Judge Warner has gone home and he has +made me his messenger. There is a bit of sharp work to be done, and +you'll need a strong posse. Can you deputize fifteen or twenty good men +who can be depended upon in a fight and rendezvous them on the +north-side river road in two hours from now?"</p> + +<p>The sheriff, a big, bearded man who might have sat for the model of one +of Frederic Remington's frontiersmen, took time to consider. "Is it a +scrap?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"It is likely to be. There are warrants to be served, and there will +most probably be resistance. Your posse should be well armed."</p> + +<p>"We'll try for it," was the decision. "On the north-side river road, you +say? You'll want us mounted?"</p> + +<p>"It will be better to take horses. We could get autos, but Judge Warner +agrees with me that the thing had better be done quietly and without +making too much of a stir in town."</p> + +<p>"All right," said the man of the law. "Is that all?"</p> + +<p>"No, not quite all. The first of the warrants is to be served here in +Brewster—upon Mr. Crawford Stanton. Your deputy will probably find him +at the Hophra House. Here is the paper: it is a bench warrant of +commitment on a charge of conspiracy, and Stanton is to be locked up. +Also you are to see to it that your jail telephone is out of order; so +that Stanton won't be able to make any attempt to get a hearing and bail +before to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"That part of it is mighty risky," said Harding. "Does the judge know +about that, too?"</p> + +<p>"He does; and for the ends of pure justice, he concurs with me—though, +of course, he couldn't give a mandatory order."</p> + +<p>The sheriff turned to his jail deputy, who had descended from the rumble +seat in the rear.</p> + +<p>"You've heard the dope, Jimmie," he said shortly. "Go and get His Nobs +and lock him up. And if he wants to be yelling 'Help!' and sending for +his lawyer or somebody, why, the telephone's takin' a lay-off. <i>Savvy?</i>"</p> + +<p>The deputy nodded and turned upon his heel, stuffing the warrant for +Stanton's arrest into his pocket as he went. Smith swung up beside +Starbuck, saying: "In a couple of hours, then, Mr. Harding; somewhere +near the bridge approach on the other side of the river."</p> + +<p>Starbuck had started the motor and was bending forward to adjust the oil +feed when the sheriff left them.</p> + +<p>"You seem to have made a ten-strike with Judge Warner," the +ex-cow-puncher remarked, replacing the flash-lamp in its seat pocket.</p> + +<p>"Judge Warner is a man in every inch of him; but there is something +behind this night's work that I don't quite understand," was the quick +reply. "I had hardly begun to state the case when the judge interrupted +me. 'I know,' he said. 'I have been waiting for you people to come and +ask for relief.' What do you make of that, Billy?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know; unless somebody in Stanton's outfit has welshed. Shaw +might have done it. He has been to Bob Stillings, and Stillings says he +is sore at Stanton for some reason. Shaw was trying to get Stillings to +agree to drop the railroad case against him, and Bob says he made some +vague promise of help in the High Line business if the railroad people +would agree not to prosecute."</p> + +<p>"There is a screw loose somewhere; I know by the way Judge Warner took +hold. When I proposed to swear out the warrant for Stanton's arrest, he +said, 'I can't understand, Mr. Smith, why you haven't done this before,' +and he sat down and filled out the blank. But we can let that go for the +present. How are you going to get me across the river without taking me +through the heart of the town and giving the Brewster police a shy at +me?"</p> + +<p>Starbuck's answer was wordless. With a quick twist of the pilot wheel he +sent the car skidding around the corner, using undue haste, as it +seemed, since they had two hours before them. A few minutes farther +along the lights of the town had been left behind and the car was +speeding swiftly westward on a country road paralleling the railway +track; the road over which Smith had twice driven with the kidnapped +Jibbey.</p> + +<p>"I'm still guessing," the passenger ventured, when the last of the +railroad distance signals had flashed to the rear. And then: "What's the +frantic hurry, Billy?"</p> + +<p>Starbuck was running with the muffler cut out, but now he cut it in and +the roar of the motor sank to a humming murmur.</p> + +<p>"I thought so," he remarked, turning his head to listen. "You didn't +notice that police whistle just as we were leaving the court-house, did +you?—nor the answers to it while we were dodging through the suburbs? +Somebody has marked us down and passed the word, and now they're chasing +us with a buzz-wagon. Don't you hear it?"</p> + +<p>By this time Smith could hear the sputtering roar of the following car +only too plainly.</p> + +<p>"It's a big one," he commented. "You can't outrun it, Billy; and, +besides, there is nowhere to run to in this direction."</p> + +<p>Again Starbuck's reply translated itself into action. With a skilful +touch of the controls he sent the car ahead at top speed, and for a +matter of ten miles or more held a diminishing lead in the race through +sheer good driving and an accurate knowledge of the road and its +twistings and turnings. Smith knew little of the westward half of the +Park which they were approaching, and the little was not encouraging. +Beyond Little Butte and the old Wire Silver mine the road they were +traversing would become a cart track in the mountains; and there was no +outlet to the north save by means of the railroad bridge at Little Butte +station.</p> + +<p>Throughout the race the pursuers had been gradually gaining, and by the +time the forested bulk of Little Butte was outlining itself against the +clouded sky on the left, the headlights of the oncoming police car were +in plain view to the rear. Worse still, there were three grade crossings +of the railroad track just ahead in the stretch of road which rounded +the toe of the mountain; and from somewhere up the valley and beyond the +railroad bridge came the distance-softened whistle of a train.</p> + +<p>Starbuck set a high mark for himself as a courageous driver of +motor-cars when he came to the last of the three road crossings. Jerking +the car around sharply at the instant of track-crossing, he headed +straight out over the ties for the railroad bridge. It was a courting of +death. To drive the bridge at racing speed was hazardous enough, but to +drive it thus in the face of a down-coming train seemed nothing less +than madness.</p> + +<p>It was after the car had shot into the first of the three bridge spans +that the pursuers pulled up and opened fire. Starbuck bent lower over +his wheel, and Smith clutched for handholds. Far up the track on the +north side of the river a headlight flashed in the darkness, and the +hoarse blast of a locomotive, whistling for the bridge, echoed and +re-echoed among the hills.</p> + +<p>Starbuck, tortured because he could not remember what sort of an +approach the railway track made to the bridge on the farther side, drove +for his life. With the bridge fairly crossed he found himself on a high +embankment; and the oncoming train was now less than half a mile away. +To turn out on the embankment was to hurl the car to certain +destruction. To hold on was to take a hazardous chance of colliding with +the train. Somewhere beyond the bridge approach there was a road; so +much Starbuck could recall. If they could reach its crossing before the +collision should come——</p> + +<p>They did reach it, by what seemed to Smith a margin of no more than the +length of the heavy freight train which went jangling past them a scant +second or so after the car had been wrenched aside into the obscure mesa +road. They had gone a mile or more on the reverse leg of the long +down-river détour before Starbuck cut the speed and turned the wheel +over to his seat-mate.</p> + +<p>"Take her a minute while I get the makings," he said, dry-lipped, +feeling in his pockets for tobacco and the rice-paper. Then he added: +"Holy Solomon! I never wanted a smoke so bad in all my life!"</p> + +<p>Smith's laugh was a chuckle.</p> + +<p>"Gets next to you—after the fact—doesn't it? That's where we split. I +had my scare before we hit the bridge, and it tasted like a mouthful of +bitter aloes. Does this road take us back up the river?"</p> + +<p>"It takes us twenty miles around through the Park and comes in at the +head of Little Creek. But we have plenty of time. You told Harding two +hours, didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but I must have a few minutes at Hillcrest before we get action, +Billy."</p> + +<p>Starbuck took the wheel again and said nothing until the roundabout race +had been fully run and he was easing the car down the last of the hills +into the Little Creek road. There had been three-quarters of an hour of +skilful driving over a bad road to come between Smith's remark and its +reply, but Starbuck apparently made no account of the length of the +interval.</p> + +<p>"You're aiming to go and see Corry?" he asked, while the car was +coasting to the hill bottom.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>With a sudden flick of the controls and a quick jamming of the brakes, +Starbuck brought the car to a stand just as it came into the level road.</p> + +<p>"We're man to man here under the canopy, John; and Corry Baldwin hasn't +got any brother," he offered gravely. "I'm backing you in this business +fight for all I'm worth—for Dick Maxwell's sake and the colonel's, and +maybe a little bit for the sake of my own ante of twenty thousand. And +I'm ready to back you in this old-home scrap with all the money you'll +need to make your fight. But when it comes to the little girl it's +different. Have you any good and fair right to hunt up Corry Baldwin +while things are shaping themselves up as they are?"</p> + +<p>Since Smith had made the acquaintance of the absolute ego he had +acquired many things new and strange, among them a great ruthlessness in +the pursuit of the desired object, and an equally large carelessness for +consequences past the instant of attainment. None the less, he met the +shrewd inquisition fairly.</p> + +<p>"Give it a name," he said shortly.</p> + +<p>"I will: I'll give it the one you gave it a while back. You said you +were an outlaw, on two charges: embezzlement and assault. We'll let the +assault part of it go. Even a pretty humane sort of fellow may have to +kill somebody now and then and call it all in the day's work. But the +other thing doesn't taste good."</p> + +<p>"I didn't embezzle anything, Billy. I thought I made that plain."</p> + +<p>"So you did. But you also made it plain that the home court would be +likely to send you up for it, guilty or not guilty. And with a thing +like that hanging over you ... you see, I know Corry Baldwin, John. If +you put it up to her to-night, and she happens to fall in with your side +of it—which is what you're aiming to make her do—all hell won't keep +her from going back home with you and seeing you through!"</p> + +<p>"Good God, Billy! If I thought she loved me well enough to do that! But +think a minute. It may easily happen that this is my last chance. I may +never see her again. I said I wouldn't tell her—that I loved her too +well to tell her ... but now the final pinch has come, and I——"</p> + +<p>"And that isn't all," Starbuck went on relentlessly. "There's this Miss +Rich-acres. You say there's nothing to it, there, but you've as good as +admitted that she's been lying to Dave Kinzie for you. Your hands ain't +clean, John; not clean enough to let you go to Hillcrest to-night."</p> + +<p>Smith groped in his pockets, found a cigar and lighted it. Perhaps he +was recalling his own words spoken to Verda Richlander only a few hours +earlier: "<i>Do you suppose I would ask any woman to marry me with the +shadow of the penitentiary hanging over me?</i>" And yet that was just what +he was about to do—or had been about to do.</p> + +<p>"Pull out to the side of the road and we'll kill what time there is to +kill right here," he directed soberly. And then: "What you say is right +as right, Billy. Once more, I guess, I was locoed for the minute. Forget +it; and while you're about it, forget Miss Richlander, too. Luckily for +her, she is out of it—as far out of it as I am."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXXII" id="XXXII"></a>XXXII</h2> + +<h3>Freedom</h3> + + +<p>The Timanyoni, a mountain torrent in its upper and lower reaches, +becomes a placid river of the plain at Brewster, dividing its flow among +sandy islets, and broadening in its bed to make the long bridge +connecting the city with the grass-land mesas a low, trestled causeway. +On the northern bank of the river the Brewster street, of which the +bridge is a prolongation, becomes a country road, forking a few hundred +yards from the bridge approach to send one of its branchings northward +among the Little Creek ranches and another westward up the right bank of +the stream.</p> + +<p>At this fork of the road, between eleven and twelve o'clock of the night +of alarms, Sheriff Harding's party of special deputies began to +assemble; mounted ranchmen for the greater part, summoned by the rural +telephones and drifting in by twos and threes from the outlying +grass-lands. Under each man's saddle-flap was slung the regulation +weapon of the West—a scabbarded repeating rifle; and the small troop +bunching itself in the river road looked serviceably militant and +businesslike.</p> + +<p>While Harding was counting his men and appointing his lieutenants an +automobile rolled silently down the mesa road from the north and came to +a stand among the horses. The sheriff drew rein beside the car and spoke +to one of the two occupants of the double seat, saying:</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Smith, we're all here."</p> + +<p>"How many?" was the curt question.</p> + +<p>"Twenty."</p> + +<p>"Good. Here is your authority"—handing the legal papers to the officer. +"Before we go in you ought to know the facts. A few hours ago a man +named M'Graw, calling himself a deputy United States marshal and +claiming to be acting under instructions from Judge Lorching's court in +Red Butte, took possession of our dam and camp. On the even chance that +he isn't what he claims to be, we are going to arrest him and every man +in his crowd. Are you game for it?"</p> + +<p>"I'm game to serve any papers that Judge Warner's got the nerve to +issue," was the big man's reply.</p> + +<p>"That's the talk; that's what I hoped to hear you say. We may have the +law on our side, and we may not; but we certainly have the equities. +Was Stanton arrested?"</p> + +<p>"He sure was. Strothers found him in the Hophra House bar, and the line +of talk he turned loose would have set a wet blanket afire. Just the +same, he had to go along with Jimmie and get himself locked up."</p> + +<p>"That is the first step; now if you're ready, we'll take the next."</p> + +<p>Harding rode forward to marshal his troop, and when the advance began +Starbuck shut off his car lamps and held his place at the rear of the +straggling column, juggling throttle and spark until the car kept even +pace with the horses and the low humming of the motor was +indistinguishable above the muffled drumming of hoof-beats.</p> + +<p>For the first mile or so the midnight silence was unbroken save by the +subdued progress noises and the murmurings of the near-by river in its +bed. Once Smith took the wheel while Starbuck rolled and lighted a +cigarette, and once again, in obedience to a word from the mine owner, +he turned the flash-light upon the gasolene pressure-gauge. In the +fulness of time it was Starbuck who harked back to the talk which had +been so abruptly broken off at the waiting halt in the Little Creek +road.</p> + +<p>"Let's not head into this ruction with an unpicked bone betwixt us, +John," he began gently. "Maybe I said too much, back yonder at the foot +of the hill."</p> + +<p>"No; you didn't say too much," was the low-toned reply. And then: +"Billy, I've had a strange experience this summer; the strangest a man +ever lived through, I believe. A few months ago I was jerked out of my +place in life and set down in another place where practically everything +I had learned as a boy and man had to be forgotten. It was as if my life +had been swept clean of everything that I knew how to use—like a house +gutted of its well-worn and familiar furniture, and handed back to its +tenant to be refitted with whatever could be found and made to serve. I +don't know that I'm making it understandable to you, but——"</p> + +<p>"Yes, you are," broke in the man at the wheel. "I've had to turn two or +three little double somersaults myself in the years that are gone."</p> + +<p>"They used to call me 'Monty-Boy,' back there in Lawrenceville, and I +fitted the name," Smith went on. "I was neither better nor worse than +thousands of other home-bred young fellows just like me, nor different +from them in any essential way. I had my little tin-basin round of work +and play, and I lived in it. I've spent half an hour, many a time, in a +shop picking out the exactly right shade in a tie to wear with the socks +that I had, perhaps, spent another half-hour in selecting."</p> + +<p>"I'm getting you," said Starbuck, not without friendly sympathy. "Go +on."</p> + +<p>"Then, suddenly, as I have said, the house was looted. And, quite as +suddenly, it grew and expanded and took on added rooms and spaces that +I'd never dreamed of. I've had to fill it up as best I could, Billy: I +couldn't put back any of the old things; they were so little and trivial +and childish. And some of the things I've been putting in are fearfully +raw and crude. I've just had to do the best I could—with an empty +house. I found that I had a body that could stand man-sized hardship, +and a kind of savage nerve that could give and take punishment, and a +soul that could drive both body and nerve to the limit. Also, I've found +out what it means to love a woman."</p> + +<p>Starbuck checked the car's speed a little more to keep it well in the +rear of the ambling cavalcade.</p> + +<p>"That's your one best bet, John," he said soberly.</p> + +<p>"It is. I've cleaned out another room since you called me down back +yonder in the Little Creek road, Starbuck. I can't trust my own leadings +any more; they are altogether too primitive and brutal; so I'm going to +take hers. She'd send me into this fight that is just ahead of us, and +all the other fights that are coming, with a heart big enough to take in +the whole world. She said I'd understand, some day; that I'd know that +the only great man is one who is too big to be little; who can fight +without hating; who can die to make good, if that is the only way that +offers."</p> + +<p>"That's Corry Baldwin, every day in the week, John. They don't make 'em +any finer than she is," was Starbuck's comment. And then: "I'm beginning +to kick myself for not letting you go and have one more round-up with +her. She's doing you good, right along."</p> + +<p>"You didn't stop me," Smith affirmed; "you merely gave me a chance to +stop myself. It's all over now, Billy, and my little race is about run. +But whatever happens to me, either this night, or beyond it, I shall be +a free man. You can't put handcuffs on a soul and send it to prison, you +know. That is what Corona was trying to make me understand; and I +couldn't—or wouldn't."</p> + +<p>Harding had stopped to let the auto come up. Over a low hill just ahead +the pole-bracketed lights at the dam were starring themselves against +the sky, and the group of horsemen was halting at the head of the +railroad trestle which marked the location of the north side unloading +station.</p> + +<p>From the halt at the trestle head, Harding sent two of his men forward +to spy out the ground. Returning speedily, these two men reported that +there were no guards on the north bank of the river, and that the +stagings, which still remained in place on the down-stream face of the +dam, were also unguarded. Thereupon Harding made his dispositions. Half +of the posse was to go up the northern bank, dismounted, and rush the +camp by way of the stagings. The remaining half, also on foot, was to +cross at once on the railroad trestle, and to make its approach by way +of the wagon road skirting the mesa foot. At an agreed-upon signal, the +two detachments were to close in upon the company buildings in the +construction camp, trusting to the surprise and the attack from opposite +directions to overcome any disparity in numbers.</p> + +<p>At Smith's urgings, Starbuck went with the party which crossed by way of +the railroad trestle, Smith himself accompanying the sheriff's +detachment. With the horses left behind under guard at the trestle head, +the up-river approach was made by both parties simultaneously, though in +the darkness, and with the breadth of the river intervening, neither +could see the movements of the other. Smith kept his place beside +Harding, and to the sheriff's query he answered that he was unarmed.</p> + +<p>"You've got a nerve," was all the comment Harding made, and at that they +topped the slight elevation and came among the stone débris in the +north-side quarries.</p> + +<p>From the quarry cutting the view struck out by the camp mastheads was +unobstructed. The dam and the uncompleted power-house, still figuring to +the eye as skeleton masses of form timbering, lay just below them, and +on the hither side the flooding torrent thundered through the spillway +gates, which had been opened to their fullest capacity. Between the +quarry and the northern dam-head ran the smooth concreted channel of the +main ditch canal, with the water in the reservoir lake still lapping +several feet below the level of its entrance to give assurance that, +until the spillways should be closed, the charter-saving stream would +never pour through the canal.</p> + +<p>On the opposite side of the river the dam-head and the camp street were +deserted, but there were lights in the commissary, in the office shack, +and in Blue Pete Simms's canteen doggery. From the latter quarter sounds +of revelry rose above the spillway thunderings, and now and again a +drunken figure lurched through the open door to make its way uncertainly +toward the rank of bunk-houses.</p> + +<p>Harding was staring into the farther nimbus of the electric rays, trying +to pick up some sign of the other half of his posse, when Smith made a +suggestion.</p> + +<p>"Both of your parties will have the workmen's bunk-houses in range, Mr. +Harding, and we mustn't forget that Colonel Baldwin and Williams are +prisoners in the timekeeper's shack. If the guns have to be used——"</p> + +<p>"There won't be any wild shooting, of the kind you're thinking of," +returned the sheriff grimly. "There ain't a single man in this posse +that can't hit what he aims at, nine times out o' ten. But here's hopin' +we can gather 'em in without the guns. If they ain't lookin' for us——"</p> + +<p>The interruption was the whining song of a jacketed bullet passing +overhead, followed by the crack of a rifle. "Down, boys!" said the +sheriff softly, setting the example by sliding into the ready-made +trench afforded by the dry ditch of the outlet canal; and as he said it +a sharp fusillade broke out, with fire spurtings from the commissary +building and others from the mesa beyond to show that the surprise was +balked in both directions.</p> + +<p>"They must have had scouts out," was Smith's word to the sheriff, who +was cautiously reconnoitring the newly developed situation from the +shelter of the canal trench. "They are evidently ready for us, and that +knocks your plan in the head. Your men can't cross these stagings under +fire."</p> + +<p>"Your 'wops' are all right, anyway," said Harding. "They're pouring out +of the bunk-houses and that saloon over there and taking to the hills +like a flock o' scared chickens." Then to his men: "Scatter out, boys, +and get the range on that commissary shed. That's where most of the +rustlers are <i>cached</i>."</p> + +<p>Two days earlier, two hours earlier, perhaps, Smith would have begged a +weapon and flung himself into the fray with blood lust blinding him to +everything save the battle demands of the moment. But now the final +mile-stone in the long road of his metamorphosis had been passed and +the darksome valley of elemental passions was left behind.</p> + +<p>"Hold up a minute, for God's sake!" he pleaded hastily. "We've got to +give them a show, Harding! The chances are that every man in that +commissary believes that M'Graw has the law on his side—and we are not +sure that he hasn't. Anyway, they don't know that they are trying to +stand off a sheriff's posse!"</p> + +<p>Harding's chuckle was sardonic. "You mean that we'd ought to go over +yonder and read the riot act to 'em first? That might do back in the +country where you came from. But the man that can get into that camp +over there with the serving papers now 'd have to be armor-plated, I +reckon."</p> + +<p>"Just the same, we've got to give them their chance!" Smith insisted +doggedly. "We can't stand for any unnecessary bloodshed—<i>I</i> won't stand +for it!"</p> + +<p>Harding shrugged his heavy shoulders. "One round into that sheet-iron +commissary shack'll bring 'em to time—and nothing else will. I hain't +got any men to throw away on the dew-dabs and furbelows."</p> + +<p>Smith sprang up and held out his hand.</p> + +<p>"You have at least one man that you can spare, Mr. Harding," he +snapped. "Give me those papers. I'll go over and serve them."</p> + +<p>At this the big sheriff promptly lost his temper.</p> + +<p>"You blamed fool!" he burst out. "You'd be dog-meat before you could get +ten feet away from this ditch!"</p> + +<p>"Never mind: give me those papers. I'm not going to stand by quietly and +see a lot of men shot down on the chance of a misunderstanding!"</p> + +<p>"Take 'em, then!" rasped Harding, meaning nothing more than the calling +of a foolish theorist's bluff.</p> + +<p>Smith caught at the warrants, and before anybody could stop him he was +down upon the stagings, swinging himself from bent to bent through a +storm of bullets coming, not from the commissary, but from the saloon +shack on the opposite bank—a whistling shower of lead that made every +man in the sheriff's party duck to cover.</p> + +<p>How the volunteer process-server ever lived to get across the bridge of +death no man might know. Thrice in the half-minute dash he was hit; yet +there was life enough left to carry him stumbling across the last of the +staging bents; to send him reeling up the runway at the end and across +the working yard to the door of the commissary, waving the folded +papers like an inadequate flag of truce as he fell on the door-step.</p> + +<p>After that, all things were curiously hazy and undefined for him; blind +clamor coming and going as the noise of a train to a dozing traveller +when the car doors are opened and closed. There was the tumult of a +fierce battle being waged over him; a deafening rifle fire and the +<i>spat-spat</i> of bullets puncturing the sheet-iron walls of the +commissary. In the midst of it he lost his hold upon the realities, and +when he got it again the warlike clamor was stilled and Starbuck was +kneeling beside him, trying, apparently, to deprive him of his clothes +with the reckless slashings of a knife.</p> + +<p>Protesting feebly and trying to rise, he saw the working yard filled +with armed men and the returning throng of laborers; saw Colonel Baldwin +and Williams talking excitedly to the sheriff; then he caught the eye of +the engineer and beckoned eagerly with his one available hand.</p> + +<p>"Hold still, until I can find out how dead you are!" gritted the +rough-and-ready surgeon who was plying the clothes-ripping knife. But +when Williams came and bent down to listen, Smith found a voice, shrill +and strident and so little like his own that he scarcely recognized it.</p> + +<p>"Call 'em out—call the men out and start the gate machinery!" he panted +in the queer, whistling voice which was, and was not, his own. +"Possess—possession is nine points of the law—that's what Judge Warner +said: the spillways, Bartley—shut 'em quick!"</p> + +<p>"The men are on the job and the machinery is starting right now," said +Williams gently. "Don't you hear it?" And then to Starbuck: "For +Heaven's sake, do something for him, Billy—anything to keep him with us +until a doctor can get here!"</p> + +<p>Smith felt himself smiling foolishly.</p> + +<p>"I don't need any doctor, Bartley; what I need is a new ego: then I'd +stand some sha—some chance of finding—" he looked up appealingly at +Starbuck—"what is it that I'd stand some chance of finding, Billy? I—I +can't seem to remember."</p> + +<p>Williams turned his face away and Starbuck tightened his benumbing grip +upon the severed artery in the bared arm from which he had cut the +sleeve. Smith seemed to be going off again, but he suddenly opened his +eyes and pointed frantically with a finger of the one serviceable hand. +"Catch him! catch him!" he shrilled. "It's Boogerfield, and he's going +to dy-dynamite the dam!"</p> + +<p>Clinging to consciousness with a grip that not even the blood loss could +break, Smith saw Williams spring to his feet and give the alarm; saw +three or four of the sheriff's men drop their weapons and hurl +themselves upon another man who was trying to make his way unnoticed to +the stagings with a box of dynamite on his shoulder. Then he felt the +foolish smile coming again when he looked up at Starbuck.</p> + +<p>"Don't let them hurt him, Billy; him nor Simms nor Lanterby, nor that +other one—the short-hand man—I—I can't remember his name. They're +just poor tools; and we've got to—to fight without hating, and—and—" +foolish witlessness was enveloping him again like a clinging garment and +he made a masterful effort to throw it off. "Tell the little girl—tell +her—you know what to tell her, Billy; about what I tried to do. Harding +said I'd get killed, but I remembered what she said, and I didn't care. +Tell her I said that that one minute was worth living for—worth all it +cost."</p> + +<p>The raucous blast of a freak auto horn ripped into the growling murmur +of the gate machinery, and a dust-covered car pulled up in front of the +commissary. Out of it sprang first the doctor with his instrument bag, +and, closely following him, two plain-clothes men and a Brewster +police captain in uniform. Smith looked up and understood.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus4" id="illus4"></a> +<img src="images/illus4.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>"Catch him! catch him!" he shrilled. "It's Boogerfield, +and he's going to dy-dynamite the dam!"</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>"They're just—a little—too late, Billy, don't you think?" he quavered +weakly. "I guess—I guess I've fooled them, after all." And therewith he +closed his eyes wearily upon all his troubles and triumphings.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXXIII" id="XXXIII"></a>XXXIII</h2> + +<h3>In Sunrise Gulch</h3> + + +<p>William Starbuck drew the surgeon aside after the first aid had been +rendered, and Smith, still unconscious, had been carried from the +makeshift operating-table in the commissary to Williams's cot in the +office shack.</p> + +<p>"How about it, Doc?" asked the mine owner bluntly.</p> + +<p>The surgeon shook his head doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"I can't say. The arm and the shoulder won't kill him, but that one in +the lung is pretty bad; and he has lost a lot of blood."</p> + +<p>"Still, he may pull through?"</p> + +<p>"He may—with good care and nursing. But if you want my honest opinion, +I'm afraid he won't make it. He'll be rather lucky if he doesn't make +it, won't he?"</p> + +<p>Starbuck remembered that the doctor had come out in the auto with the +police captain and the two plain-clothes men.</p> + +<p>"Hackerman has been talking?" he queried.</p> + +<p>The surgeon nodded. "He told me on the way out that Smith was a +fugitive from justice; that he'd be likely to get ten years or more when +they took him back East. If I were in Smith's place, I'd rather pass out +with a bullet in my lung. Wouldn't you?"</p> + +<p>Starbuck was frowning sourly. "Suppose you make it a case of suspended +judgment, Doc," he suggested. "The few of us here who know anything +about it are giving John the benefit of the doubt. I've got a few +thousand dollars of my own money that says he isn't guilty; and if he +makes a live of it, they'll have to show me, and half a dozen more of +us, before they can send him over the road."</p> + +<p>"He knew they were after him?"</p> + +<p>"Sure thing; and he had all the chance he needed to make his get-away. +He wouldn't take it; thought he owed a duty to the High Line +stockholders. He's a man to tie to, Doc. He was shot while he was trying +to get between and stop the war and keep others from getting killed."</p> + +<p>"It's a pity," said the surgeon, glancing across at the police captain +to whom Colonel Baldwin was appealing. "They'll put him in the hospital +cell at the jail, and that will cost him whatever slender chance he +might otherwise have to pull through."</p> + +<p>Starbuck looked up quickly. "Tell 'em he can't be moved, Doc Dan," he +urged suddenly. And then: "You're Dick Maxwell's family physician, and +Colonel Dexter's, and mine. Surely you can do that much for us?"</p> + +<p>"I can, and I will," said the surgeon promptly, and then he went to join +Baldwin and the police captain, who were still arguing. What he said was +brief and conclusive; and a little later, when the autos summoned from +town by Sheriff Harding came for their lading of prisoners, Smith was +left behind, with two of M'Graw's men who were also past moving. In the +general clearing of the field Starbuck and Williams stayed behind to +care for the wounded, and one of the plain-clothes men remained to stand +guard.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Three days after the wholesale arrest at the dam, Brewster gossip had +fairly outworn itself telling and retelling the story of how the High +Line charter had been saved; of how Crawford Stanton's bold ruse of +hiring an ex-train-robber to impersonate a federal-court officer had +fallen through, leaving Stanton and his confederates, ruthlessly +abandoned by their unnamed principals, languishing bailless in jail; of +how Smith, the hero of all these occasions, was still lying at the +point of death in the office shack at the construction camp, and David +Kinzie, once more in keen pursuit of the loaves and fishes, was combing +the market for odd shares of the stock which was now climbing swiftly +out of reach. But at this climax of exhaustion—or satiety—came a +distinctly new set of thrills, more titillating, if possible, than all +the others combined.</p> + +<p>It was on the morning of the third day that the <i>Herald</i> announced the +return of Mr. Josiah Richlander from the Topaz; and in the marriage +notices of the same issue the breakfast-table readers of the newspapers +learned that the multimillionaire's daughter had been privately married +the previous evening to Mr. Tucker Jibbey. Two mining speculators, who +had already made Mr. Jibbey's acquaintance, were chuckling over the news +in the Hophra House grill when a third late breakfaster, a man who had +been sharing Stanton's office space as a broker in improved ranch lands, +came in to join them.</p> + +<p>"What's the joke?" inquired the newcomer; and when he was shown the +marriage item he nodded gravely. "That's all right; but the <i>Herald</i> man +didn't get the full flavor of it. It was a sort of runaway match, it +seems; the fond parent wasn't invited or consulted. The boys in the +lobby tell me that the old man had a fit when he came in this morning +and a <i>Herald</i> reporter showed him that notice and asked for more dope +on the subject."</p> + +<p>"I don't see that the fond parent has any kick coming," said the one who +had sold Jibbey a promising prospect hole on Topaz Mountain two days +earlier. "The young fellow's got all kinds of money."</p> + +<p>"I know," the land broker put in. "But they're whispering it around that +Mr. Richlander had other plans for his daughter. They also say that +Jibbey wouldn't stay to face the music; that he left on the midnight +train last night a few hours after the wedding, so as not to be among +those present when the old man should blow in."</p> + +<p>"What?"—in a chorus of two—"left his wife?"</p> + +<p>"That's what they say. But that's only one of the new and startling +things that isn't in the morning papers. Have you heard about Smith?—or +haven't you been up long enough yet?"</p> + +<p>"I heard yesterday that he was beginning to mend," replied the +breakfaster on the left; the one who had ordered bacon and eggs, with +the bacon cooked to a cinder.</p> + +<p>"You're out of date," this from the dealer in ranches. "You know the +story that was going around about his being an escaped convict, or +something of that sort? It gets its 'local color' this morning. There's +a sheriff here from back East somewhere—came in on the early train; +name's Macauley, and he's got the requisition papers. But Smith's fooled +him good and plenty."</p> + +<p>Again the chorus united in an eager query.</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"He died last night—a little past midnight. They say they're going to +bury him out at the dam—on the job that he pulled through and stood on +its feet. One of Williams's quarrymen drifted in with the story just a +little while ago. I'm here to bet you even money that the whole town +goes to the funeral."</p> + +<p>"Great gosh!" said the man who was crunching the burnt bacon. "Say, +that's tough, Bixby! I don't care what he'd run away from back East; he +was a man, right. Harding has been telling everybody how Smith wouldn't +let the posse open fire on that gang of hold-ups last Friday night; how +he chased across on the dam stagings alone and unarmed to try to serve +the warrants on 'em and make 'em stop firing. It was glorious, but it +wasn't war."</p> + +<p>To this the other mining man added a hard word. "Dead," he gritted; "and +only a few hours earlier the girl had taken snap judgment on him and +married somebody else! That's the woman of it!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, hold on, Stryker," the ranch broker protested. "Don't you get too +fierce about that. There are two strings to that bow and the longest and +sorriest one runs out to Colonel Baldwin's place on Little Creek, I'm +thinking. The Richlander business was only an incident. Stanton told me +that much."</p> + +<p>As the event proved, the seller of ranch lands would have lost his bet +on the funeral attendance. For some unknown reason the notice of Smith's +death did not appear in the afternoon papers, and only a few people went +out in autos to see the coffin lowered by Williams's workmen into a +grave on the mesa behind the construction camp; a grave among others +where the victims of an early industrial accident at the dam had been +buried. Those who went out from town came back rather scandalized. There +had been a most hard-hearted lack of the common formalities, they said; +a cheap coffin, no minister, no mourners, not even the poor fellow's +business associates in the company he had fought so hard to save from +defeat and extinction. It was a shame!</p> + +<p>With this report passing from lip to lip in Brewster, another bit of +gossip to the effect that Starbuck and Stillings had gone East with the +disappointed sheriff, "to clear Smith's memory," as the street-talk had +it, called forth no little comment derogatory. As it chanced, the two +mining speculators and Bixby, the ranch seller, met again in the Hophra +House café at the dinner-table on the evening of the funeral day, and +Stryker, the captious member of the trio, was loud in his criticisms of +the High Line people.</p> + +<p>"Yes!" he railed; "a couple of 'em will go on a junketing trip East to +'clear his memory,' after they've let their 'wops' at the dam bury him +like a yellow dog! I thought better than that of Billy Starbuck, and a +whole lot better of Colonel Dexter. And this Richlander woman; they say +she'd known him ever since he and she were school kids together; she +went down and took the train with her father just about the time they +were planting the poor devil among the sagebrush roots up there on that +bald mesa!"</p> + +<p>"I'm disappointed, too," confessed the dealer in improved ranch lands. +"I certainly thought that if nobody else went, the little girl from the +Baldwin place would be out there to tell him good-by. But she wasn't."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Three weeks of the matchless August weather had slipped by without +incident other than the indictment by the grand jury of Crawford +Stanton, Barney M'Graw, and a number of others on a charge of +conspiracy; and Williams, unmolested since the night of the grand +<i>battue</i> in which Sheriff Harding had figured as the master of the hunt, +had completed the great ditch system and was installing the machinery in +the lately finished power-house.</p> + +<p>Over the hills from the northern mountain boundary of the Timanyoni a +wandering prospector had come with a vague tale of a new strike in +Sunrise Gulch, a placer district worked out and abandoned twenty years +earlier in the height of the Red Butte excitement. Questioned closely, +the tale-bringer confessed that he had no proof positive of the strike; +but in the hills he had found a well-worn trail, lately used, leading to +the old camp, and from one of the deserted cabins in the gulch he had +seen smoke arising.</p> + +<p>As to the fact of the trail the wandering tale-bearer was not at fault. +On the most perfect of the late-in-August mornings a young woman, clad +in serviceable khaki, and keeping her cowboy Stetson and buff top-boots +in good countenance by riding astride in a man's saddle, was pushing her +mount up the trail toward Sunrise Gulch. From the top of a little rise +the abandoned camp came into view, its heaps of worked-over gravel +sprouting thickly with the wild growth of twenty years, and its +crumbling shacks, only one of which seemed to have survived in habitable +entirety, scattered among the firs of the gulch.</p> + +<p>At the top of the rise the horsewoman drew rein and shaded her eyes with +a gauntleted hand. On a bench beside the door of the single tenanted +cabin a man was sitting, and she saw him stand to answer her hand-wave. +A few minutes later the man, a gaunt young fellow with one arm in a +sling and the pallor of a long confinement whitening his face and hands, +was trying to help the horsewoman to dismount in the cabin dooryard, but +she pushed him aside and swung out of the saddle unaided, laughing at +him out of a pair of slate-gray eyes and saying: "How often have I got +to tell you that you simply <i>can't</i> help a woman out of a man's saddle?"</p> + +<p>The man smiled at that.</p> + +<p>"It's automatic," he returned. "I shall never get over wanting to help +you, I guess. Have you come to tell me that I can go?"</p> + +<p>Flinging the bridle-reins over the head of the wiry little cow-pony +which was thus left free to crop the short, sweet grass of the creek +valley, the young woman led the man to the house bench and made him sit +down.</p> + +<p>"You are frightfully anxious to go and commit suicide, aren't you?" she +teased, sitting beside him. "Every time I come it's always the same +thing: 'When can I go?' You're not well yet."</p> + +<p>"I'm well enough to do what I've got to do, Corona; and until it's +done.... Besides, there is Jibbey."</p> + +<p>"Where is Mr. Jibbey this morning?"</p> + +<p>"He has gone up the creek, fishing. I made him go. If I didn't take a +club to him now and then he'd hang over me all the time. There never was +another man like him, Corona. And at home we used to call him 'the black +sheep' and 'the failure,' and cross the street to dodge him when he'd +been drinking too much!"</p> + +<p>"He says you've made a man of him; that you saved his life when you had +every reason not to. You never told me that, John."</p> + +<p>"No; I didn't mean to tell any one. But to think of his coming out here +to nurse me, leaving Verda on the very night he married her! A brother +of my own blood wouldn't have done it."</p> + +<p>The young woman was looking up with a shrewd little smile. "Maybe the +blood brother would do even that, if you had just made it possible for +him to marry the girl he'd set his heart on, John."</p> + +<p>"Piffle!" growled the man. And then: "Hasn't the time come when you can +tell me a little more about what happened to me after the doctor put me +to sleep that night at the dam?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. The only reason you haven't been told was because we didn't want +you to worry; we wanted you to have a chance to get well and strong +again."</p> + +<p>The man's eyes filled suddenly, and he took no shame. He was still shaky +enough in nerve and muscle to excuse it. "Nobody ever had such friends, +Corona," he said. "You all knew I'd have to go back to Lawrenceville and +fight it out, and you didn't want me to go handicapped and half-dead. +But how did they come to let you take me away? I've known Macauley ever +since I was in knickers. He is not the man to take any chances."</p> + +<p>The young woman's laugh was soundless. "Mr. Macauley wasn't asked. He +thinks you are dead," she said.</p> + +<p>"What!"</p> + +<p>"It's so. You were not the only one wounded in the fight at the dam. +There were two others—two of M'Graw's men. Three days later, just as +Colonel-daddy and Billy Starbuck were getting ready to steal you away, +one of the others died. In some way the report got out that you were the +one who died, and that made everything quite easy. The report has never +been contradicted, and when Mr. Macauley reached Brewster the police +people told him that he was too late."</p> + +<p>"Good heavens! Does everybody in Brewster think I'm dead?"</p> + +<p>"Nearly everybody. But you needn't look so horrified. You're not dead, +you know; and there were no obituaries in the newspapers, or anything +like that."</p> + +<p>The man got upon his feet rather unsteadily.</p> + +<p>"That's the limit," he said definitively. "I'm a man now, Corona; too +much of a man, I hope, to hide behind another man's grave. I'm going +back to Brewster, <i>to-day</i>!"</p> + +<p>The young woman made a quaint little grimace at him. "How are you going +to get there?" she asked. "It's twenty miles, and the walking is awfully +bad—in spots."</p> + +<p>"But I <i>must</i> go. Can't you see what everybody will say of me?—that I +was too cowardly to face the music when my time came? Nobody will +believe that I wasn't a consenting party to this hide-away!"</p> + +<p>"Sit down," she commanded calmly; and when he obeyed: "From day to day, +since I began coming out here, John, I've been trying to rediscover the +man whom I met just once, one evening over a year ago, at Cousin Adda's +house in Guthrieville: I can't find him—he's gone."</p> + +<p>"<i>Corona!</i>" he said. "Then you recognized me?"</p> + +<p>"Not at first. But after a while little things began to come back; and +what you told me—about Miss Richlander, you know, and the hint you gave +me of your trouble—did the rest."</p> + +<p>"Then you knew—or you thought—I was a criminal?"</p> + +<p>She nodded, and her gaze was resting upon the near-by gravel heaps. +"Cousin Adda wrote me. But that made no difference. I didn't know +whether you had done the things they said you had, or not. What I did +know was that you had broken your shackles in some way and were trying +to get free. You were, weren't you?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose so; in some blind fashion. But it is you who have set me +free, Corona. It began that night in Guthrieville when I stole one of +your gloves; it wasn't anything you said; it was what you so evidently +believed and lived. And out here: I was simply a raw savage when you +first saw me. I had tumbled headlong into the abyss of the new and the +elemental, and if I am trying to scramble out now on the side of honor +and clean manhood, it is chiefly because you have shown me the way."</p> + +<p>"When did I ever, John?"—with an up-glance of the gray eyes that was +almost wistful.</p> + +<p>"Always; and with a wisdom that makes me almost afraid of you. For +example, there was the night when I was fairly on the edge of letting +Jibbey stay in the mine and go mad if he wanted to: you lashed me with +the one word that made me save his life instead of taking it. How did +you know that was the one word to say?"</p> + +<p>"How do we know anything?" she inquired softly. "The moment brings its +own inspiration. It broke my heart to see what you could be, and to +think that you might not be it, after all. But I came out here this +morning to talk about something else. What are you going to do when you +are able to leave Sunrise Gulch?"</p> + +<p>"The one straightforward thing there is for me to do. I shall go back +to Lawrenceville and take my medicine."</p> + +<p>"And after that?"</p> + +<p>"That is for you to say, Corona. Would you marry a convict?"</p> + +<p>"You are not guilty."</p> + +<p>"That is neither here nor there. They will probably send me to prison, +just the same, and the stigma will be mine to wear for the remainder of +my life. I can wear it now, thank God! But to pass it on to you—and to +your children, Corona ... if I could get my own consent to that, you +couldn't get yours."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I could, John; I got it the first time Colonel-daddy brought me +out here and let me see you. You were out of your head, and you thought +you were talking to Billy Starbuck—in the automobile on the night when +you were going with him to the fight at the dam. It made me go down on +my two knees, John, and kiss your poor, hot hands."</p> + +<p>He slipped his one good arm around her and drew her close.</p> + +<p>"Now I can go back like a man and fight it through to the end," he +exulted soberly. "Jibbey will take me; I know he is wearing himself out +trying to make me believe that he can wait, and that Verda understands, +though he won't admit it. And when it is all over, when they have done +their worst to me——"</p> + +<p>With a quick little twist she broke away from the encircling arm.</p> + +<p>"John, dear," she said, and her voice was trembling between a laugh and +a sob, "I'm the wickedest, <i>wickedest</i> woman that ever lived and +breathed—and the happiest! I knew what you would do, but I couldn't +resist the temptation to make you say it. Listen: this morning +Colonel-daddy got a night-letter from Billy Starbuck. You have been +wondering why Billy never came out here to see you—it was because he +and Mr. Stillings have been in Lawrenceville, trying to clear you. They +are there now, and the wire says that Watrous Dunham has been arrested +and that he has broken down and confessed. You are a free man, John; +you——"</p> + +<p>The grass-cropping pony had widened its circle by a full yard, and the +westward-pointing shadows of the firs were growing shorter and more +clearly defined as the August sun swung higher over the summits of the +eastern Timanyonis. For the two on the house bench, time, having all its +interspaces filled with beatific silences, had no measure that was worth +recording. In one of the more coherent intervals it was the man who +said:</p> + +<p>"Some things in this world are very wonderful, Corona. We call them +happenings, and try to account for them as we may by the laws of chance. +Was it chance that threw us together at your cousin's house in +Guthrieville a year ago last June?"</p> + +<p>She laughed happily. "I suppose it was—though I'd like to be romantic +enough to believe that it wasn't."</p> + +<p>"Debritt would say that it was the Absolute Ego," he said, half +musingly.</p> + +<p>"And who is Mr. Debritt?"</p> + +<p>"He is the man I dined with on my last evening in Lawrenceville. He had +been joking me about my various little smugnesses—good job, good +clothes, easy life, and all that, and he wound up by warning me to watch +out for the Absolute Ego."</p> + +<p>"What is the Absolute Ego?" she asked dutifully.</p> + +<p>John Montague Smith, with his curling yellow beard three weeks +untrimmed, with his clothes dressing the part of a neglected camper, and +with a steel-jacketed bullet trying to encyst itself under his right +shoulder-blade, grinned exultantly.</p> + +<p>"Debritt didn't know, himself; but I know now: it's the primitive +man-soul; the 'I' that is able to refuse to be bound down and tied by +environment or habit or petty conventions, or any of the things we +misname 'limitations.' It's asleep in most of us; it was asleep in me. +You made it sit up and rub its eyes for a minute or two that evening in +Guthrieville, but it dozed off again, and there had to be an earthquake +at the last to shake it alive. Do you know the first thing it did when +it took hold and began to drive?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Here is where the law of chances falls to pieces, Corona. Without +telling me anything about it, this newly emancipated man-soul of mine +made a bee-line for the only Absolute Ego woman it had ever known. And +it found her."</p> + +<p>Again the young woman laughed happily. "If you are going to call me +names, Ego-man, you'll have to make it up to me some other way," she +said.</p> + +<p>Whereupon, the moment being strictly elemental and sacred to +demonstrations of the absolute, he did.</p> + + +<h3><span class="smcap">The End</span></h3> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="center">BOOKS BY FRANCIS LYNDE</p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Published by</span> CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</p> + + +<p class="center">The Real Man. Illus.<br /> +The City of Numbered Days. Illus.<br /> +The Honorable Senator Sage-brush.<br /> +Scientific Sprague. Illus.<br /> +The Price.<br /> +The Taming of Red Butte Western.<br /> +The King of Arcadia. Illus.<br /> +A Romance In Transit.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Real Man, by Francis Lynde + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE REAL MAN *** + +***** This file should be named 36869-h.htm or 36869-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/8/6/36869/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/36869-h/images/cover.jpg b/36869-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5c04a11 --- /dev/null +++ b/36869-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/36869-h/images/illus1.jpg b/36869-h/images/illus1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d60a992 --- /dev/null +++ b/36869-h/images/illus1.jpg diff --git a/36869-h/images/illus2.jpg b/36869-h/images/illus2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d4797f --- /dev/null +++ b/36869-h/images/illus2.jpg diff --git a/36869-h/images/illus3.jpg b/36869-h/images/illus3.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae85dfc --- /dev/null +++ b/36869-h/images/illus3.jpg diff --git a/36869-h/images/illus4.jpg b/36869-h/images/illus4.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b1b745 --- /dev/null +++ b/36869-h/images/illus4.jpg diff --git a/36869-h/images/map.jpg b/36869-h/images/map.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ed1f26 --- /dev/null +++ b/36869-h/images/map.jpg |
