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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5233-h.zip b/5233-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c668722 --- /dev/null +++ b/5233-h.zip diff --git a/5233-h/5233-h.htm b/5233-h/5233-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b8c1c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/5233-h/5233-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,19034 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of The Iron Trail, by Rex Beach +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +p.t1 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 200%; + text-align: center } + +p.t2 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 150%; + text-align: center } + +p.t3 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: center } + +p.t3b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t4 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + text-align: center } + +p.t4b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t5 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 60%; + text-align: center } + +h1 { text-align: center } +h2 { text-align: center } +h3 { text-align: center } +h4 { text-align: center } +h5 { text-align: center } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%;} + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Iron Trail, by Rex Beach + +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 Iron Trail + +Author: Rex Beach + +Posting Date: May 5, 2012 [EBook #5233] +Release Date: March, 2004 +First Posted: June 10, 2002 +Last Updated: July 18, 2005 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRON TRAIL *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +THE IRON TRAIL +</H1> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +By REX BEACH +</P> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +Author of "THE AUCTION BLOCK" "RAINBOW'S END" "THE SPOILERS" Etc. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CONTENTS +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +CHAPTER +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> + I. <A HREF="#chap01">IN WHICH THE TIDE TAKES A HAND</A><BR> + II. <A HREF="#chap02">HOW A GIRL APPEARED OUT OF THE NIGHT</A><BR> + III. <A HREF="#chap03">THE IRISH PRINCE</A><BR> + IV. <A HREF="#chap04">HOW A JOURNEY ENDED AT HOPE</A><BR> + V. <A HREF="#chap05">WHEREIN WE SEE CURTIS GORDON AND OTHERS</A><BR> + VI. <A HREF="#chap06">THE DREAMER</A><BR> + VII. <A HREF="#chap07">THE DREAM</A><BR> + VIII. <A HREF="#chap08">IN WHICH WE COME TO OMAR</A><BR> + IX. <A HREF="#chap09">WHEREIN GORDON SHOWS HIS TEETH</A><BR> + X. <A HREF="#chap10">IN WHICH THE DOCTOR SHOWS HIS WIT</A><BR> + XI. <A HREF="#chap11">THE TWO SIDES OF ELIZA VIOLET APPLETON</A><BR> + XII. <A HREF="#chap12">HOW GORDON FAILED IN HIS CUNNING</A><BR> + XIII. <A HREF="#chap13">WE JOURNEY TO A PLACE OF MANY WONDERS</A><BR> + XIV. <A HREF="#chap14">HOW THE TRUTH CAME TO ELIZA</A><BR> + XV. <A HREF="#chap15">THE BATTLE OF GORDON'S CROSSING</A><BR> + XVI. <A HREF="#chap16">THE FRUIT OF THE TEMPEST</A><BR> + XVII. <A HREF="#chap17">HOW THE PRINCE BECAME A MAN</A><BR> +XVIII. <A HREF="#chap18">HOW THE MAN BECAME A PRINCE AGAIN</A><BR> + XIX. <A HREF="#chap19">MISS APPLETON MAKES A SACRIFICE</A><BR> + XX. <A HREF="#chap20">HOW GORDON CHANGED HIS ATTACK</A><BR> + XXI. <A HREF="#chap21">DAN APPLETON SLIPS THE LEASH</A><BR> + XXII. <A HREF="#chap22">HOW THE HAZARD WAS PLAYED</A><BR> +XXIII. <A HREF="#chap23">A NEW CRISIS</A><BR> + XXIV. <A HREF="#chap24">GORDON'S FALL</A><BR> + XXV. <A HREF="#chap25">PREPARATIONS</A><BR> + XXVI. <A HREF="#chap26">THE RACE</A><BR> +XXVII. <A HREF="#chap27">HOW A DREAM CAME TRUE</A><BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +I +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IN WHICH THE TIDE TAKES A HAND +</H4> + +<P> +The ship stole through the darkness with extremest caution, feeling her +way past bay and promontory. Around her was none of that phosphorescent +glow which lies above the open ocean, even on the darkest night, for +the mountains ran down to the channel on either side. In places they +overhung, and where they lay upturned against the dim sky it could be +seen that they were mantled with heavy timber. All day long the +NEBRASKA had made her way through an endless succession of straits and +sounds, now squeezing through an inlet so narrow that the somber spruce +trees seemed to be within a short stone's-throw, again plowing across +some open reach where the pulse of the north Pacific could be felt. Out +through the openings to seaward stretched the restless ocean, on across +uncounted leagues, to Saghalien and the rim of Russia's prison-yard. +</P> + +<P> +Always near at hand was the deep green of the Canadian forests, denser, +darker than a tropic jungle, for this was the land of "plenty waters." +The hillsides were carpeted knee-deep with moss, wet to saturation. Out +of every gulch came a brawling stream whipped to milk-white frenzy; +snow lay heavy upon the higher levels, while now and then from farther +inland peered a glacier, like some dead monster crushed between the +granite peaks. There were villages, too, and fishing-stations, and +mines and quarries. These burst suddenly upon the view, then slipped +past with dreamlike swiftness. Other ships swung into sight, rushed by, +and were swallowed up in the labyrinthine maze astern. +</P> + +<P> +Those passengers of the Nebraska who had never before traversed the +"Inside Passage" were loud in the praises of its picturesqueness, while +those to whom the route was familiar seemed to find an ever-fresh +fascination in its shifting scenes. +</P> + +<P> +Among the latter was Murray O'Neil. The whole north coast from Flattery +to St. Elias was as well mapped in his mind as the face of an old +friend, yet he was forever discovering new vistas, surprising +panoramas, amazing variations of color and topography. The mysterious +rifts and passageways that opened and closed as if to lure the ship +astray, the trackless confusion of islets, the siren song of the +waterfalls, the silent hills and glaciers and snow-soaked forests—all +appealed to him strongly, for he was at heart a dreamer. +</P> + +<P> +Yet he did not forget that scenery such as this, lovely as it is by +day, may be dangerous at night, for he knew the weakness of steel +hulls. On some sides his experience and business training had made him +sternly practical and prosaic. Ships aroused no manner of enthusiasm in +him except as means to an end. Railroads had no glamour of romance in +his eyes, for, having built a number of them, he had outlived all +poetic notions regarding the "iron horse," and once the rails were laid +he was apt to lose interest in them. Nevertheless, he was almost poetic +in his own quiet way, interweaving practical thoughts with fanciful +visions, and he loved his dreams. He was dreaming now as he leaned upon +the bridge rail of the Nebraska, peering into the gloom with watchful +eyes. From somewhere to port came the occasional commands of the +officer on watch, echoed instantly from the inky interior of the +wheelhouse. Up overside rose the whisper of rushing waters; from +underfoot came the rhythmic beat of the engines far below. O'Neil shook +off his mood and began to wonder idly how long it would be before +Captain Johnny would be ready for his "nightcap." +</P> + +<P> +He always traveled with Johnny Brennan when he could manage it, for the +two men were boon companions. O'Neil was wont to live in Johnny's +cabin, or on the bridge, and their nightly libation to friendship had +come to be a matter of some ceremony. +</P> + +<P> +The ship's master soon appeared from the shadows—a short, trim man +with gray hair. +</P> + +<P> +"Come," he cried, "it's waiting for us." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil followed into Brennan's luxurious, well-lit quarters, where on a +mahogany sideboard was a tray holding decanter, siphon, and glasses, +together with a bottle of ginger ale. The captain, after he had mixed a +beverage for his passenger, opened the bottle for himself. They raised +their glasses silently. +</P> + +<P> +"Now that you're past the worst of it," remarked O'Neil, "I suppose +you'll turn in. You're getting old for a hard run like this, Johnny." +</P> + +<P> +Captain Brennan snorted. "Old? I'm a better man than you, yet. I'm a +teetotaler, that's why. I discovered long ago that salt water and +whiskey don't mix." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil stretched himself out in one of Brennan's easy-chairs. "Really," +he said, "I don't understand why a ship carries a captain. Now of what +earthly use to the line are you, for instance, except for your beauty, +which, no doubt, has its value with the women? I'll admit you preside +with some grace at the best table in the dining-salon, but your +officers know these channels as well as you do. They could make the run +from Seattle to Juneau with their eyes shut." +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed they could not; and neither could I." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well, of course I have no respect for you as a man, having seen +you without your uniform." +</P> + +<P> +The captain grinned in thorough enjoyment of this raillery. "I'll say +nothing at all of my seamanship," he said, relapsing into the faintest +of brogues, "but there's no denying that the master of a ship has many +unpleasant and disgusting duties to perform. He has to amuse the +prominent passengers who can't amuse themselves, for one thing, and +that takes tact and patience. Why, some people make themselves at home +on the bridge, in the chart-room, and even in my living-quarters, to +say nothing of consuming my expensive wines, liquors, and cigars." +</P> + +<P> +"Meaning me?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm a brutal seafaring man, and you'll have to make allowances for my +well-known brusqueness. Maybe I did mean you. But I'll say that next to +you Curtis Gordon is the worst grafter I ever saw." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't like Gordon, do you?" O'Neil queried with a change of tone. +</P> + +<P> +"I do not! He went up with me again this spring, and he had his widow +with him, too." +</P> + +<P> +"His widow?" +</P> + +<P> +"You know who I mean—Mrs. Gerard. They say it's her money he's using +in his schemes. Perhaps it's because of her that I don't like him." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah-h! I see." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't see, or you wouldn't grin like an ape. I'm a married man, +I'll have you know, and I'm still on good terms with Mrs. Brennan, +thank God. But I don't like men who use women's money, and that's just +what our friend Gordon is doing. What money the widow didn't put up +he's grabbed from the schoolma'ams and servant-girls and society +matrons in the East. What has he got to show them for it?" +</P> + +<P> +"A railroad project, a copper-mine, some coal claims—" +</P> + +<P> +"Bah! A menagerie of wildcats!" +</P> + +<P> +"You can't prove that. What's your reason for distrusting him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, for one thing, he knows too much. Why, he knows everything, he +does. Art, literature, politics, law, finance, and draw poker have no +secrets from him. He's been everywhere—and back—twice; he speaks a +dozen different languages. He out-argued me on poultry-raising and I +know more about that than any man living. He can handle a drill or a +coach-and-four; he can tell all about the art of ancient Babylon; and +he beat me playing cribbage, which shows that he ain't on the level. +He's the best-informed man outside of a university, and he drinks tea +of an afternoon—with his legs crossed and the saucer balanced on his +heel. Now, it takes years of hard work for an honest man to make a +success at one thing, but Gordon never failed at anything. I ask you if +a living authority on all the branches of human endeavor and a man who +can beat me at 'crib' doesn't make you suspicious." +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all. I've beaten you myself!" +</P> + +<P> +"I was sick," said Captain Brennan. +</P> + +<P> +"The man is brilliant and well educated and wealthy. It's only natural +that he should excite the jealousy of a weaker intellect." +</P> + +<P> +Johnny opened his lips for an explosion, then changed his mind and +agreed sourly. +</P> + +<P> +"He's got money, all right, and he knows how to spend it. He and his +valet occupied three cabins on this ship. They say his quarters at Hope +are palatial." +</P> + +<P> +"My dear grampus, the mere love of luxury doesn't argue that a person +is dishonest." +</P> + +<P> +"Would you let a hired man help you on with your underclothes?" +demanded the mariner. +</P> + +<P> +"There's nothing criminal about it." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! Mrs. Gerard is different. She's all class! You don't mind her +having a maid and speaking French when she runs short of English. Her +daughter is like her." +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't seen Miss Gerard." +</P> + +<P> +"If you'd stir about the ship instead of wearing out my Morris chair +you'd have that pleasure. She was on deck all morning." Captain Brennan +fell silent and poked with a stubby forefinger at the ice in his glass. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, out with it!" said O'Neil after a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to know the inside story of Curtis Gordon and this girl's +mother." +</P> + +<P> +"Why bother your head about something that doesn't concern you?" The +speaker rose and began to pace the cabin floor, then, in an altered +tone, inquired, "Tell me, are you going to land me and my horses at +Kyak Bay?" +</P> + +<P> +"That depends on the weather. It's a rotten harbor; you'll have to swim +them ashore." +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose it should be rough?" +</P> + +<P> +"Then we'll go on, and drop you there coming back. I don't want to be +caught on that shore with a southerly wind, and that's the way it +usually blows." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't wait," O'Neil declared. "A week's delay might ruin me. Rather +than go on I'd swim ashore myself, without the horses." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't make the weather at Kyak Bay. Satan himself does that. Twenty +miles offshore it may be calm, and inside it may be blowing a gale. +That's due to the glaciers. Those ice-fields inland and the warm air +from the Japanese Current offshore kick up some funny atmospheric +pranks. It's the worst spot on the coast and we'll lose a ship there +some day. Why, the place isn't properly charted, let alone buoyed." +</P> + +<P> +"That's nothing unusual for this coast." +</P> + +<P> +"True for you. This is all a graveyard of ships and there's been many a +good master's license lost because of half-baked laws from Washington. +Think of a coast like this with almost no lights, no beacons nor buoys; +and yet we're supposed to make time. It's fine in clear weather, but in +the dark we go by guess and by God. I've stood the run longer than most +of the skippers, but—" +</P> + +<P> +Even as Brennan spoke the Nebraska seemed to halt, to jerk backward +under his feet. O'Neil, who was standing, flung out an arm to steady +himself; the empty ginger-ale bottle fell from the sideboard with a +thump. Loose articles hanging against the side walls swung to and fro; +the heavy draperies over Captain Johnny's bed swayed. +</P> + +<P> +Brennan leaped from his chair; his ruddy face was mottled, his eyes +were wide and horror-stricken. +</P> + +<P> +"Damnation!" he gasped. The cabin door crashed open ahead of him and he +was on the bridge, with O'Neil at his heels. They saw the first officer +clinging limply to the rail; from the pilot-house window came an +excited burst of Norwegian, then out of the door rushed a quartermaster. +</P> + +<P> +Brennan cursed, and met the fellow with a blow which drove him +sprawling back. +</P> + +<P> +"Get in there, Swan," he bellowed, "and take your wheel." +</P> + +<P> +"The tide swung her in!" exclaimed the mate. "The tide—My God!" +</P> + +<P> +"Sweet Queen Anne!" said Brennan, more quietly. "You've ripped her +belly out." +</P> + +<P> +"It—was the tide," chattered the officer. +</P> + +<P> +The steady, muffled beating of the machinery ceased, the ship seemed +suddenly to lose her life, but it was plain that she was not aground, +for she kept moving through the gloom. From down forward came excited +voices as the crew poured up out of the forecastle. +</P> + +<P> +Brennan leaped to the telegraph and signaled the engine-room. He was +calm now, and his voice was sharp and steady. +</P> + +<P> +"Go below, Mr. James, and find the extent of the damage," he directed, +and a moment later the hull began to throb once more to the thrust of +the propeller. Inside the wheelhouse Swan had recovered from his panic +and repeated the master's orders mechanically. +</P> + +<P> +The second and third officers arrived upon the bridge now, dressing as +they came, and they were followed by the chief engineer. To them Johnny +spoke, his words crackling like the sparks from a wireless. In an +incredibly short time he had the situation in hand and turned to +O'Neil, who had been a silent witness of the scene. +</P> + +<P> +"Glory be!" exclaimed the captain. "Most of our good passengers are +asleep; the jar would scarcely wake them." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me where and how I can help," Murray offered. His first thought +had been of the possible effect of this catastrophe upon his plans, for +time was pressing. As for danger, he had looked upon it so often and in +so many forms that it had little power to stir him; but a shipwreck, +which would halt his northward rush, was another matter. Whether the +ship sank or floated could make little difference, now that the damage +had been done. She was crippled and would need assistance. His +fellow-passengers, he knew, were safe enough. Fortunately there were +not many of them—a scant two hundred, perhaps—and if worse came to +worst there was room in the life-boats for all. But the Nebraska had no +watertight bulkheads and the plight of his twenty horses between decks +filled him with alarm and pity. There were no life-boats for those poor +dumb animals penned down yonder in the rushing waters. +</P> + +<P> +Brennan had stepped into the chart-room, but returned in a moment to +say: +</P> + +<P> +"There's no place to beach her this side of Halibut Bay." +</P> + +<P> +"How far is that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Five or six miles." +</P> + +<P> +"You'll—have to beach her?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid so. She feels queer." +</P> + +<P> +Up from the cabin deck came a handful of men passengers to inquire what +had happened; behind them a woman began calling shrilly for her husband. +</P> + +<P> +"We touched a rock," the skipper explained, briefly. "Kindly go below +and stop that squawking. There's no danger." +</P> + +<P> +There followed a harrowing wait of several minutes; then James, the +first officer, came to report. He had regained his nerve and spoke with +swift precision. +</P> + +<P> +"She loosened three plates on her port quarter and she's filling fast." +</P> + +<P> +"How long will she last?" snapped Brennan. +</P> + +<P> +"Not long, sir. Half an hour, perhaps." +</P> + +<P> +The captain rang for full speed, and the decks began to strain as the +engine increased its labor. "Get your passengers out and stand by the +boats," he ordered. "Take it easy and don't alarm the women. Have them +dress warmly, and don't allow any crowding by the men. Mr. Tomlinson, +you hold the steerage gang in check. Take your revolver with you." He +turned to his silent friend, in whose presence he seemed to feel a +cheering sympathy, "I knew it would come sooner or later, Murray," he +said. "But—magnificent mummies! To touch on a clear night with the sea +like glass!" He sighed dolefully. "It'll be tough on my missus." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil laid a hand upon his shoulder. "It wasn't your fault, and there +will be room in the last boat for you. Understand?" Brennan hesitated, +and the other continued, roughly: "No nonsense, now! Don't make a +damned fool of yourself by sticking to the bridge. Promise?" +</P> + +<P> +"I promise." +</P> + +<P> +"Now what do you want me to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Keep those dear passengers quiet. I'll run for Halibut Bay, where +there's a sandy beach. If she won't make it I'll turn her into the +rocks, Tell 'em they won't wet a foot if they keep their heads." +</P> + +<P> +"Good! I'll be back to see that you behave yourself." The speaker +laughed lightly and descended to the deck, where he found an incipient +panic. Stewards were pounding on stateroom doors, half-clad men were +rushing about aimlessly, pallid faces peered forth from windows, and +there was the sound of running feet, of slamming doors, of shrill, +hysterical voices. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil saw a waiter thumping lustily upon a door and heard him shout, +hoarsely: +</P> + +<P> +"Everybody out! The ship is sinking!" As he turned away Murray seized +him roughly by the arm and thrusting his face close to the other's, +said harshly: +</P> + +<P> +"If you yell again like that I'll toss you overboard." +</P> + +<P> +"God help us, we're going—" +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil shook the fellow until his teeth rattled; his own countenance, +ordinarily so quiet, was blazing. +</P> + +<P> +"There's no danger. Act like a man and don't start a stampede." +</P> + +<P> +The steward pulled himself together and answered in a calmer tone: +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, sir. I—I'm sorry, sir." +</P> + +<P> +Murray O'Neil was known to most of the passengers, for his name had +gone up and down the coast, and there were few places from San +Francisco to Nome where his word did not carry weight. As he went among +his fellow-travelers now, smiling, self-contained, unruffled, his +presence had its effect. Women ceased their shrilling, men stopped +their senseless questions and listened to his directions with some +comprehension. In a short time the passengers were marshaled upon the +upper deck where the life-boats hung between their davits. Each little +craft was in charge of its allotted crew, the electric lights continued +to burn brightly, and the panic gradually wore itself out. Meanwhile +the ship was running a desperate race with the sea, striving with every +ounce of steam in her boilers to find a safe berth for her mutilated +body before the inrush of waters drowned her fires. That the race was +close even the dullest understood, for the Nebraska was settling +forward, and plowed into the night head down, like a thing maddened +with pain. She was becoming unmanageable, too, and O'Neil thought with +pity of that little iron-hearted skipper on the bridge who was fighting +her so furiously. +</P> + +<P> +There was little confusion, little talking upon the upper deck now; +only a child whimpered or a woman sobbed hysterically. But down forward +among the steerage passengers the case was different. These were mainly +Montenegrins, Polacks, or Slavs bound for the construction camps to the +westward, and they surged from side to side like cattle, requiring +Tomlinson's best efforts to keep them from rushing aft. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil had employed thousands of such men; in fact, many of these very +fellows had cashed his time-checks and knew him by sight. He went +forward among them, and his appearance proved instantly reassuring. He +found his two hostlers, and with their aid he soon reduced the mob to +comparative order. +</P> + +<P> +But in spite of his confident bearing he felt a great uneasiness. The +Nebraska seemed upon the point of diving; he judged she must be +settling very fast, and wondered that the forward tilt did not lift her +propeller out of the water. Fortunately, however, the surface of the +sound was like a polished floor and there were no swells to submerge +her. +</P> + +<P> +Over-side to starboard he could see the dim black outlines of mountains +slipping past, but where lay Halibut Bay or what distance remained to +be covered he could but vaguely guess. +</P> + +<P> +In these circumstances the wait became almost unbearable. The race +seemed hours long, the miles stretched into leagues, and with every +moment of suspense the ship sank lower. The end came unexpectedly. +There was a sudden startled outcry as the Nebraska struck for a second +time that night. She rose slightly, rolled and bumped, grated briefly, +then came to rest. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Brennan shouted from the bridge: +</P> + +<P> +"Fill your life-boats, Mr. James, and lower away carefully." +</P> + +<P> +A cheer rose from the huddled passengers. +</P> + +<P> +The boiler-room was still dry, it seemed, for the incandescent lights +burned without a flicker, even after the grimy oilers and stokers had +come pouring up on deck. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil climbed to the bridge. "Is this Halibut Bay?" he asked Captain +Johnny. +</P> + +<P> +"It is. But we're piled up on the reef outside. She may hold fast—I +hope so, for there's deep water astern, and if she slips off she'll go +down." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to save my horses," said the younger man, wistfully. Through +all the strain of the past half-hour or more his uppermost thought had +been for them. But Brennan had no sympathy for such sentiments. +</P> + +<P> +"Hell's bells!" he exclaimed. "Don't talk of horses while we've got +women and children aboard." He hastened away to assist in transferring +his passengers. +</P> + +<P> +Instead of following, O'Neil turned and went below. He found that the +water was knee-deep on the port side of the deck where his animals were +quartered, which showed that the ship had listed heavily. He judged +that she must be much deeper by the head then he had imagined, and that +her nose was crushed in among the rocks. Until she settled at the +stern, therefore, the case was not quite hopeless. +</P> + +<P> +His appearance, the sound of his voice, were the signals for a chorus +of eager whinnies and a great stamping of hoofs. Heads were thrust +toward him from the stalls, alert ears were pricked forward, satin +muzzles rubbed against him as he calmed their terror. This blind trust +made the man's throat tighten achingly. He loved animals as he loved +children, and above all he cared for horses. He understood them, he +spoke their language as nearly as any human can be said to do so. +Quivering muscles relaxed beneath his soothing palm; he called them by +name and they answered with gentle twitching lips against his cheek. +Some of them even began to eat and switch their tails contentedly. +</P> + +<P> +He cursed aloud and made his way down the sloping deck to the square +iron door, or port, through which he had loaded them. But he found that +it was jammed, or held fast by the pressure outside, and after a few +moments' work in water above his knees he climbed to the starboard +side. Here the entrance was obstructed by a huge pile of baled hay and +grain in sacks. It would be no easy task to clear it away, and he fell +to work with desperate energy, for the ship was slowly changing her +level. Her stern, which had been riding high, was filling; the sea +stole in upon him silently. It crept up toward him until the horses, +stabled on the lower side, were belly-deep in it. Their distress +communicated itself to the others. O'Neil knew that his position might +prove perilous if the hulk should slip backward off the reef, yet he +continued to toil, hurling heavy sacks behind him, bundling awkward +bales out of the way, until his hands were bleeding and his muscles +ached. He was perspiring furiously; the commotion around him was +horrible. Then abruptly the lights went out, leaving him in utter +blackness; the last fading yellow gleam was photographed briefly upon +his retina. +</P> + +<P> +Tears mingled with the sweat that drained down his cheeks as he felt +his way slowly out of the place, splashing, stumbling, groping +uncertainly. A horse screamed in a loud, horribly human note, and he +shuddered. He was sobbing curses as he emerged into the cool open air +on the forward deck. +</P> + +<P> +His eyes were accustomed to the darkness now, and he could see +something of his surroundings. He noted numerous lights out on the +placid bosom of the bay, evidently lanterns on the life-boats, and he +heard distant voices. He swept the moisture from his face; then with a +start he realized his situation. He listened intently; his eyes roved +back along the boat-deck; there was no doubt about it—the ship was +deserted. Stepping to the rail, he observed how low the Nebraska lay +and also that her bow was higher than her stern. From somewhere beneath +his feet came a muffled grinding and a movement which told him that the +ship was seeking a more comfortable berth. He recalled stories of +explosions and of the boiling eddies which sometimes accompany sinking +hulls. Turning, he scrambled up to the cabin-deck and ran swiftly +toward his stateroom. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +II +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +HOW A GIRL APPEARED OUT OF THE NIGHT +</H4> + +<P> +O'Neil felt for the little bracket-lamp on the wall of his stateroom +and lit it. By its light he dragged a life-preserver from the rack +overhead and slipped the tapes about his shoulders, reflecting that +Alaskan waters are disagreeably cold. Then he opened his traveling-bags +and dumped their contents upon the white counterpane of his berth, +selecting out of the confusion certain documents and trinkets. The +latter he thrust into his pockets as he found them, the former he +wrapped in handkerchiefs before stowing them away. The ship had listed +now so that it was difficult to maintain a footing; the lamp hung at a +grotesque angle and certain articles had become dislodged from their +resting-places. From outside came the gentle lapping of waters, a +gurgling and hissing as of air escaping through the decks. He could +feel the ship strain. He acknowledged that it was not pleasant thus to +be left alone on a sinking hulk, particularly on an ink-black night— +</P> + +<P> +All at once he whirled and faced the door with an exclamation of +astonishment, for a voice had addressed him. +</P> + +<P> +There,—clinging to the casing, stood a woman—a girl—evidently drawn +out of the darkness by the light which streamed down across the sloping +deck from his stateroom. Plainly she had but just awakened, for she was +clothed in a silken nightrobe which failed to conceal the outlines of +her body, the swelling contour of her bosom, the ripened fullness of +her limbs. She had flung a quilted dressing-gown of some sort over her +shoulders and with one bare arm and hand strove to hold it in place. He +saw that her pink feet were thrust into soft, heeless slippers—that +her hair, black in this light, cascaded down to her waist, and that her +eyes, which were very dark and very large, were fixed upon him with a +stare like that of a sleep-walker. +</P> + +<P> +"It is so dark—so strange—so still!" she murmured. "What has +happened?" +</P> + +<P> +"God! Didn't they waken you?" he cried in sharp surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"Is the ship-sinking?" Her odd bewilderment of voice and gaze puzzled +him. +</P> + +<P> +He nodded. "We struck a rock. The passengers have been taken off. We're +the only ones left. In Heaven's name where have you been?" +</P> + +<P> +"I was asleep." +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head in astonishment. "How you failed to hear that +hubbub—" +</P> + +<P> +"I heard something, but I was ill. My head—I took something to ease +the pain." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! Medicine! It hasn't worn off yet, I see! You shouldn't have taken +it. Drugs are nothing but poison to young people. Now at my age there +might be some excuse for resorting to them, but you—" He was talking +to cover the panic of his thoughts, for his own predicament had been +serious enough, and her presence rendered it doubly embarrassing. What +in the world to do with her he scarcely knew. His lips were smiling, +but his eyes were grave as they roved over the cabin and out into the +blackness of the night. +</P> + +<P> +"Are we going to drown?" she asked, dully. +</P> + +<P> +"Nonsense!" He laughed in apparent amusement, showing his large, strong +teeth. +</P> + +<P> +She came closer, glancing behind her and shrinking from the oily waters +which could be seen over the rail and which had stolen up nearly to the +sill of the door. She steadied herself by laying hold of him +uncertainly. Involuntarily he turned his eyes away, for he felt shame +at profaning her with his gaze. She was very soft and white, a fragile +thing utterly unfit to cope with the night air and the freezing waters +of Halibut Bay. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm wretchedly afraid!" she whispered through white lips. +</P> + +<P> +"None of that!" he said, brusquely. "I'll see that nothing happens to +you." He slipped out of his life-preserver and adjusted it over her +shoulders, first drawing her arms through the sleeves of her +dressing-gown and knotting the cord snugly around her waist. "Just as a +matter of precaution!" he assured her. "We may get wet. Can you swim?" +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind; I can." He found another life-belt, fitted it to his own +form, and led her out upon the deck. The scuppers were awash now and +she gasped as the sea licked her bare feet. "Cold, isn't it?" he +remarked. "But there's no time to dress, and it's just as well, +perhaps, for heavy clothes would only hamper you." +</P> + +<P> +She strove to avoid the icy waters and finally paused, moaning: "I +can't! I can't go on!" +</P> + +<P> +Slipping his arm about her, he bore her to the door of the main cabin +and entered. He could feel her warm, soft body quivering against his +own. She had clasped his neck so tightly that he could scarcely +breathe, but, lowering her until her feet were on the dry carpet, he +gently loosed her arms. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, my dear child," he told her, "you must do exactly as I tell you. +Come! Calm yourself or I won't take you any farther." He held her off +by her shoulders. "I may have to swim with you; you mustn't cling to me +so!" +</P> + +<P> +He heard her gasp and felt her draw away abruptly. Then he led her by +the hand out upon the starboard deck, and together they made their way +forward to the neighborhood of the bridge. +</P> + +<P> +The lights he had seen upon coming from the forward hold were still in +view and he hailed them at the top of his voice. But other voices were +calling through the night, some of them comparatively close at hand, +others answering faintly from far in-shore. The boats first launched +were evidently landing, and those in charge of them were shouting +directions to the ones behind. Some women had started singing and the +chorus floated out to the man and the girl: +</P> + +<P> +Pull for the shore, sailor, Pull for the shore. +</P> + +<P> +It helped to drown their cries for assistance. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil judged that the ship was at least a quarter of a mile from the +beach, and his heart sank, for he doubted that either he or his +companion could last long in these waters. It occurred to him that +Brennan might be close by, waiting for the Nebraska to sink—it would +be unlike the little captain to forsake his trust until the last +possible moment—but he reasoned that the cargo of lives in the +skipper's boat would induce him to stand well off to avoid accident. He +called lustily time after time, but no answer came. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile the girl stood quietly beside him. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't we make a raft?" she suggested, timidly, when he ceased to +shout. "I've read of such things." +</P> + +<P> +"There's no time," he told her. "Are you very cold?" +</P> + +<P> +She nodded. "Please forgive me for acting so badly just now. It was all +so sudden and—so awful! I think I can behave better. Oh! What was +that?" She clutched him nervously, for from the forward end of the ship +had come a muffled scream, like that of a woman. +</P> + +<P> +"It's my poor horses," said the man, and she looked at him curiously, +prompted by the catch in his throat. +</P> + +<P> +There followed a wait which seemed long, but was in reality of but a +few minutes, for the ship was sliding backward and the sea was creeping +upward faster and faster. At last they heard a shuddering sigh as she +parted from the rocks and the air rushed up through the deck openings +with greater force. The Nebraska swung sluggishly with the tide; then, +when her upper structure had settled flush with the sea, Murray O'Neil +took the woman in his arms and leaped clear of the rail. +</P> + +<P> +The first gasping moment of immersion was fairly paralyzing; after that +the reaction came, and the two began to struggle away from the sinking +ship. But the effect of the reaction soon wore off. The water was +cruelly cold and their bodies ached in every nerve and fiber. O'Neil +did his best to encourage his companion. He talked to her through his +chattering teeth, and once she had recovered from the mental shock of +the first fearful plunge she responded pluckily. He knew that his own +heart was normal and strong, but he feared that the girl's might not be +equal to the strain. Had he been alone, he felt sure that he could have +gained the shore, but with her upon his hands he was able to make but +little headway. The expanse of waters seemed immense; it fairly crushed +hope out of him. The lights upon the shore were as distant as fixed +stars. This was a country of heavy tides, he reflected, and he began to +fear that the current was sweeping them out. He turned to look for the +ship, but could see no traces of her, and since it was inconceivable +that the Nebraska could have sunk so quietly, her disappearance +confirmed his fears. More than once he fancied he heard an answer to +his cries for help—the rattle of rowlocks or the splash of oars—but +his ears proved unreliable. +</P> + +<P> +After a time the girl began to moan with pain and terror, but as +numbness gradually robbed her of sensation she became quiet. A little +later her grip upon his clothing relaxed and he saw that she was +collapsing. He drew her to him and held her so that her face lay +upturned and her hair floated about his shoulders. In this position she +could not drown, at least while his strength lasted. But he was rapidly +losing control of himself; his teeth were clicking loosely, his muscles +shook and twitched It required a great effort to shout, and he thought +that his voice did not carry so far as at first. Therefore he fell +silent, paddling with his free arm and kicking, to keep his blood +stirring. +</P> + +<P> +Several times he gave up and floated quietly, but courage was ingrained +in him; deep down beneath his consciousness was a vitality, an +inherited stubborn resistance to death, of which he knew nothing. It +was that unidentified quality of mind which supports one man through a +great sickness or a long period of privation, while another of more +robust physique succumbs. It was the same quality which brings one man +out from desert wastes, or the white silence of the polar ice, while +the bodies of his fellows remain to mark the trail. This innate power +of supreme resistance is found in chosen individuals throughout the +animal kingdom, and it was due to it alone that Murray O'Neil continued +to fight the tide long after he had ceased to exert conscious control. +</P> + +<P> +At length there came through the man's dazed sensibilities a sound +different from those he had been hearing: it was a human voice, mingled +with the measured thud of oars in their sockets. It roused him like an +electric current and gave him strength to cry out hoarsely. Some one +answered him; then out of the darkness to seaward emerged a deeper +blot, which loomed up hugely yet proved to be no more than a life-boat +banked full of people. It came to a stop within an oar's-length of him. +From the babble of voices he distinguished one that was familiar, and +cried the name of Johnny Brennan. His brain had cleared now, a great +dreamlike sense of thanksgiving warmed him, and he felt equal to any +effort. He was vaguely amazed to find that his limbs refused to obey +him. +</P> + +<P> +His own name was being pronounced in shocked tones; the splash from an +oar filled his face and strangled him, but he managed to lay hold of +the blade, and was drawn in until outstretched hands seized him. +</P> + +<P> +An oarsman was saying: "Be careful, there! We can't take him in without +swamping." +</P> + +<P> +But Brennan's voice shouted: "Make room or I'll bash in your bloody +skull." +</P> + +<P> +Another protest arose, and O'Neil saw that the craft was indeed loaded +to the gunwales. +</P> + +<P> +"Take the girl—quick," he implored. "I'll hang on. You can—tow me." +</P> + +<P> +The limp form was removed from his side and dragged over the thwarts +while a murmur of excited voices went up. +</P> + +<P> +"Can you hold out for a minute, Murray?" asked Brennan. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—I think so." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd give you my place, but you're too big to be taken in without +danger." +</P> + +<P> +"Go ahead," chattered the man in the water. "Look after the girl before +it's—too late." +</P> + +<P> +The captain's stout hand was in his collar now and he heard him crying: +</P> + +<P> +"Pull, you muscle-bound heathens! Everybody sit still! Now away with +her, men. Keep up your heart, Murray, my boy; remember it takes more +than water to kill a good Irishman. It's only a foot or two farther, +and they've started a fire. Serves you right, you big idiot, for going +overboard, with all those boats. Man dear, but you're pulling the arm +out of me; it's stretched out like a garden hose! Hey! Cover up that +girl, and you, lady, rub her feet and hands. Good! Move over please—so +the men can bail." +</P> + +<P> +The next O'Neil knew he was feeling very miserable and very cold, +notwithstanding the fact that he was wrapped in dry clothing and lay so +close to a roaring spruce fire that its heat blistered him. +</P> + +<P> +Brennan was bending over him with eyes wet. He was swearing, too, in a +weak, faltering way, calling upon all the saints to witness that the +prostrate man was the embodiment of every virtue, and that his death +would be a national calamity. Others were gathered about, men and +women, and among them O'Neil saw the doctor from Sitka whom he had met +on shipboard. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as he was able to speak he inquired for the safety of the girl +he had helped to rescue. Johnny promptly reassured him. +</P> + +<P> +"Man, dear, she's doing fine. A jigger of brandy brought her to, +gasping like a blessed mermaid." +</P> + +<P> +"Was anybody lost?" +</P> + +<P> +"Praise God, not a soul! But it's lucky I stood by to watch the old tub +go down, or we'd be mourning two. You'll be well by morning, for +there's a cannery in the next inlet and I've sent a boat's crew for +help. And now, my boy, lay yourself down again and take a sleep, won't +you? It'll be doing you a lot of good." +</P> + +<P> +But O'Neil shook his head and struggled to a sitting posture. +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks, Johnny," said he, "but I couldn't. I can hear those horses +screaming, and besides—I must make new plans." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +III +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE IRISH PRINCE +</H4> + +<P> +As dawn broke the cannery tender from the station near by nosed her way +up to the gravelly shore where the castaways were gathered and blew a +cheering toot-toot on her whistle. She was a flat-bottomed, +"wet-sterned" craft, and the passengers of the Nebraska trooped to her +deck over a gang-plank. As Captain Brennan had predicted, not one of +them had wet a foot, with the exception of the two who had been left +aboard through their own carelessness. +</P> + +<P> +By daylight Halibut Bay appeared an idyllic spot, quite innocent of the +terrors with which the night had endowed it. A pebbled half-moon of +beach was set in among rugged bluffs; the verdant forest crowded down +to it from behind. Tiny crystal wavelets lapped along the shingle, +swaying the brilliant sea mosses which clung to the larger rocks. +Altogether the scene gave a strong impression of peace and security, +yet just in the offing was one jarring contrast—the masts and funnel +of the Nebraska slanting up out of the blue serenity, where she lay +upon the sloping bottom in the edge of deep water. +</P> + +<P> +The reaction following a sleepless night of anxiety had replaced the +first feeling of thankfulness at deliverance, and it was not a happy +cargo of humanity which the rescuing boat bore with her as the sun +peeped over the hills. Many of the passengers were but half dressed, +all were exhausted and hungry, each one had lost something in the +catastrophe. The men were silent, the women hysterical, the children +fretful. +</P> + +<P> +Murray O'Neil had recovered sufficiently to go among them with the same +warm smile which had made him friends from the first. In the depths of +his cool gray eyes was a sparkle which showed his unquenchable Celtic +spirit, and before long smiles answered his smiles, jokes rose to meet +his pleasantries. +</P> + +<P> +It was his turn now to comfort Captain Johnny Brennan, who had yielded +to the blackest despair, once his responsibility was over. +</P> + +<P> +"She was a fine ship, Murray," the master lamented, staring with tragic +eyes at the Nebraska's spars. +</P> + +<P> +"She was a tin washtub, and rusted like a sieve," jeered O'Neil. +</P> + +<P> +"But think of me losing her on a still night!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not sure yet that it wasn't a jellyfish that swam through her." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! I suppose her cargo will be a total loss. Two hundred thousand +dollars—" +</P> + +<P> +"Insured for three hundred, no doubt. I'll warrant the company will +thank you." +</P> + +<P> +"It's kind of you to cheer me up," said Brennan, a little less +gloomily, "especially after the way I abandoned you to drown, but the +missus won't allow me in the house at all when she hears I left you in +pickle. Thank God the girl didn't die, anyway! I've got that to be +thankful for. Curtis Gordon would have broken me—" +</P> + +<P> +"Gordon?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure! Man dear, don't you know who you went bathing with? She's the +daughter of that widow Gerard, and the most prominent passenger aboard, +outside of your blessed self. Ain't that luck! If I was a Jap I'd split +myself open with a bread-knife." +</P> + +<P> +"But, fortunately, you're a sensible 'harp' of old Ireland. I'll see +that the papers get the right story, 'o buck up." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think for a minute that Mrs. Brennan will understand why I +didn't hop out of the lifeboat and give you my place? Not at all. I'm +ruined nautically and domestically. In the course of the next ten years +I may live it down, but meanwhile I'll sleep in the woodshed and speak +when I'm spoken to." +</P> + +<P> +Murray knew that Miss Gerard had been badly shaken by her ordeal, hence +he made no attempt to see her even after the steamer had reached the +fishing-village and the rescued passengers had been taken in by the +residents. Instead, he went directly to the one store in the place and +bought its entire stock, which he turned over to the sufferers. It was +well he did so, for the village was small and, although the townspeople +were hospitable, both food and clothing were scarce. +</P> + +<P> +A south-bound steamer was due the next afternoon, it was learned, and +plans were made for her to pick up the castaways and return them to +Seattle. At the same time O'Neil discovered that a freighter for the +"westward" was expected some time that night, and as she did not call +at this port he arranged for a launch to take him out to the channel +where he could intercept her. The loss of his horses had been a serious +blow. It was all the more imperative now that he should go on, since he +would have to hire men to do horses' work. +</P> + +<P> +During the afternoon Miss Gerard sent for him and he went to the house +of the cannery superintendent, where she had been received. The +superintendent's wife had clothed her, and she seemed to have recovered +her poise of body and mind. O'Neil was surprised to find her quite a +different person from the frightened and disheveled girl he had seen in +the yellow lamplight of his stateroom on the night before. She was as +pale now as then, but her expression of terror and bewilderment had +given place to one of reposeful confidence. Her lips were red and ripe +and of a somewhat haughty turn. She was attractive, certainly, despite +the disadvantage of the borrowed garments, and though she struck him as +being possibly a little proud and cold, there was no lack of warmth in +her greeting. +</P> + +<P> +For her part she beheld a man of perhaps forty, of commanding height +and heavy build. He was gray about the temples; his eyes were gray, +too, and rather small, but they were extremely animated and kindly, and +a myriad of little lines were penciled about their corners. These were +evidently marks of expression, not of age, and although the rugged face +itself was not handsome, it had a degree of character that compelled +her interest. His clothes were good, and in spite of their recent hard +usage they still lent him the appearance of a man habitually well +dressed. +</P> + +<P> +She was vaguely disappointed, having pictured him as being in the first +flush of vigorous youth, but the feeling soon disappeared under the +charm of his manner. The ideal figure she had imagined began to seem +silly and school-girlish, unworthy of the man himself. She was pleased, +too, by his faint though manifest embarrassment at her thanks, for she +had feared a lack of tact. +</P> + +<P> +Above all things she abhorred obligation of any sort, and she was +inclined to resent masculine protection. This man's service filled her +with real gratitude, yet she rebelled at the position in which it +placed her. She preferred granting favors to receiving them. +</P> + +<P> +But in fact he dismissed the whole subject so brusquely that he almost +offended her, and when she realized how incomplete had been her +acknowledgment, she said, with an air of pique: +</P> + +<P> +"You might have given me a chance to thank you without dragging you +here against your will." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry if I seemed neglectful." +</P> + +<P> +She fell silent for a moment before asking: +</P> + +<P> +"Do you detest me for my cowardice? I couldn't blame you for never +wanting to see me again." +</P> + +<P> +"You were very brave. You were splendid," he declared. "I simply didn't +wish to intrude." +</P> + +<P> +"I was terribly frightened," she confided, "but I felt that I could +rely upon you. That's what every one does, isn't it? You see, you have +a reputation. They told me how you refused to be taken into the boat +for fear of capsizing it. That was fine." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, there was nothing brave about that. I wanted to get in badly +enough, but there wasn't, room. Jove! It was cold, wasn't it?" His +ready smile played whimsically about his lips, and the girl felt +herself curiously drawn to him. Since he chose to make light of +himself, she determined to allow nothing of the sort. +</P> + +<P> +"They have told me how you bought out this whole funny little place," +she said, "and turned it over to us. Is it because you have such a +royal way of dispensing favors that they call you 'The Irish Prince'?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's only a silly nickname." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think so. You give people food and clothes with a careless +wave of the hand; you give me my life with a shrug and a smile; you +offer to give up your own to a boatful of strangers without a moment's +hesitation. I—I think you are a remarkable person." +</P> + +<P> +"You'll turn my head with such flattery if you aren't careful," he said +with a slight flush. "Please talk of something sensible now, for an +antidote—your plans, for instance." +</P> + +<P> +"My plans are never sensible, and what few I have are as empty as my +pockets. To tell the truth, I have neither plans nor pockets," she +laughed, "since this is a borrowed gown." +</P> + +<P> +"Pockets in gowns are entirely matters of hearsay, anyhow; I doubt if +they exist. You are going back to Seattle?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I suppose so. It seems to be my fate, but I'm not a bit resigned. +I'm one of those unfortunate people who can't bear to be disappointed." +</P> + +<P> +"You can return on the next ship, at the company's expense." +</P> + +<P> +"No. Mother would never allow it. In fact, when she learns that I'm out +here she'll probably send me back to New York as fast as I can go." +</P> + +<P> +"Doesn't she know where you are?" +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed no! She thinks I'm safely and tamely at home. Uncle Curtis +wouldn't object to my visit, I fancy; at any rate, I've been counting +on his good offices with mother, but it's too late now." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm like you," he said; "I can't brook disappointment. I'm going on." +</P> + +<P> +In answer to her questioning look he explained his plan of intercepting +the freight-steamer that night, whereupon her face brightened with +sudden hope. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't I go, too?" she implored, eagerly. She was no longer the haughty +young lady he had met upon entering the room, but a very wistful child. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid that's hardly—-" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! If only you knew how much it means! If only you knew how badly I +want to! I'm not afraid of discomforts." +</P> + +<P> +"It's not that—-" +</P> + +<P> +"Please! Please! Be a real prince and grant me this boon. Won't you? My +heart is set upon it." +</P> + +<P> +It was hard to resist her imploring eyes—eyes which showed they had +never been denied. It was hard for O'Neil to refuse anything to a woman. +</P> + +<P> +"If your uncle is willing," he began, hesitatingly. +</P> + +<P> +"He isn't my really uncle—I just call him that." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if Mr. Gordon wouldn't object, perhaps I can manage it, +provided, of course, you promise to explain to your mother." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Gerard's frank delight showed that she was indeed no more than a +child. Her changed demeanor awakened a doubt in the man's mind. +</P> + +<P> +"It will mean that you'll have to sit up all night in an open launch," +he cautioned her. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll sit up for a week." +</P> + +<P> +"With the creepy water all about, and big black mountains frowning at +you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, fiddle!" she exclaimed. "You'll be there if I get frightened." +Rising impulsively she laid her hand on his arm and thanked him with an +odd mingling of frankness and shyness, as if there could be no further +doubt of his acquiescence. He saw that her eyes were the color of +shaded woodland springs and that her hair was not black, but of a deep, +rich brown where the sun played upon it, the hue of very old mahogany, +with the same blood-red flame running through it. He allowed himself to +admire her in silence, until suddenly she drew back with a startled +exclamation. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I forgot—I have no clothes." Her words came with a doleful cadence. +</P> + +<P> +"The universal complaint of your sex," he said, smiling. "Allow me to +talk with your hostess. I'm sure she will let you walk out with your +borrowed finery, just like Cinderella. You'll need a nice thick coat, +too." +</P> + +<P> +"But this is her very, very best dress." +</P> + +<P> +"She shall receive, on the next ship, a big box all lined with +tissue-paper, with the imprint of the most fashionable dressmaker in +Seattle. I'll arrange all that by cable." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't know how she loves it," the girl said, doubtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Come! Call her in. If I'm to be a prince you mustn't doubt my power." +</P> + +<P> +Nor did the event prove him over-confident. Before he had fairly made +known his request the good lady of the house was ready to surrender not +only her best Sunday gown, but her fluttering heart as well. Murray +O'Neil had a way of making people do what he wanted, and women +invariably yielded to him. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +IV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +HOW A JOURNEY ENDED AT HOPE +</H4> + +<P> +To Natalie Gerard the trip down the bay and into the sound that night +was a wonderful adventure. She remembered it afterward far more vividly +than the shipwreck, which became blurred in retrospect, so that she +soon began to think of it as of some half-forgotten nightmare. To begin +with, the personality of Murray O'Neil intrigued her more and more. The +man was so strong, so sympathetic, and he had such a resistless way of +doing things. The stories she had heard of him were romantic, and the +superintendent's wife had not allowed them to suffer in the telling. +Natalie felt elated that such a remarkable person should exert himself +on her behalf. And the journey itself impressed her imagination deeply. +</P> + +<P> +Although it was nine o'clock when they boarded the launch, it was still +light. The evening was yellow with the peculiar diffused radiance of +high latitudes, lending a certain somberness to their surroundings. +</P> + +<P> +The rushing tide, the ragged rock-teeth which showed through it, the +trackless, unending forests that clothed the hills in every direction, +awed her a little, yet gave her an unaccustomed feeling of freedom and +contentment. The long wait out between the lonely islands, where the +tiny cockle-shell rolled strangely, although the sea seemed as level as +a floor, held a subtle excitement. Darkness crept down out of the +unpeopled gorges and swallowed them up, thrilling her with a sense of +mystery. +</P> + +<P> +When midnight came she found that she was ravenously hungry, and she +was agreeably surprised when O'Neil produced an elaborate lunch. There +were even thermos bottles filled with steaming hot coffee, more +delicious, she thought, than anything she had ever before tasted. He +called the meal their after-theater party, pretending that they had +just come from a Broadway melodrama of shipwreck and peril. The subject +led them naturally to talk of New York, and she found he was more +familiar with the city than she. +</P> + +<P> +"I usually spend my winters there," he explained. +</P> + +<P> +"Then you have an office in the city?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes. I've maintained a place of business there for years." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is it? On Wall Street?" +</P> + +<P> +"No!" he smiled. "On upper Fifth Avenue. It's situated in the extreme +southwest corner of the men's cafe at the Holland House. It consists of +a round mahogany table and a leather settee." +</P> + +<P> +"Really!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's where I'm to be found at least four months out of every twelve." +</P> + +<P> +"They told me you built railroads." +</P> + +<P> +"I do—when I'm lucky enough to underbid my competitors. But that isn't +always, and railroads aren't built every day." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Gordon is building one." +</P> + +<P> +"So I'm told." O'Neil marveled at the trick of fortune which had +entangled this girl and her mother in the web of that brilliant and +unscrupulous adventurer. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps it will be a great success like your famous North Pass & Yukon +Railway." +</P> + +<P> +"Let us hope so." He was tempted to inquire what use Gordon had made of +that widely advertised enterprise in floating his own undertaking, but +instead he asked: +</P> + +<P> +"Your mother has invested heavily, has she not?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not in the railroad. Her fortune, and mine too, is all in the coal +mines." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil smothered an exclamation. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it?" she demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing, only—are you sure?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, quite sure! The mines are rich, aren't they?" +</P> + +<P> +"There are no mines," he informed her, "thanks to our misguided +lawmakers at Washington. There are vast deposits of fine coal which +would—make mines if we were allowed to work them, but—we are not +allowed." +</P> + +<P> +"'We'? Are you a—a coal person, like us?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I was one of the first men in the Kyak fields, and I invested +heavily. I know Mr. Gordon's group of claims well. I have spent more +than a hundred thousand dollars trying to perfect my titles and I'm no +nearer patent now than I was to begin with—not so near, in fact. I +fancy Gordon has spent as much and is in the same fix. It is a coal +matter which brings me to Alaska now." +</P> + +<P> +"I hardly understand." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course not, and you probably won't after I explain. You see the +Government gave us—gave everybody who owns coal locations in +Alaska—three years in which to do certain things; then it extended +that time another three years. But recently a new Secretary of the +Interior has come into office and he has just rescinded that later +ruling, without warning, which gives us barely time to comply with the +law as it first stood. For my part, I'll have to hustle or lose +everything I have put in. You see? That's why I hated to see those +horses drown, for I intended to use them in reaching the coal-fields. +Now I'll have to hire men to carry their loads. No doubt Mr. Gordon has +arranged to protect your holdings, but there are hundreds of claimants +who will be ruined." +</P> + +<P> +"I supposed the Government protected its subjects," said the girl, +vaguely. +</P> + +<P> +"One of the illusions taught in the elementary schools," laughed +O'Neil. "We Alaskans have found that it does exactly the opposite! We +have found it a harsh and unreasonable landlord. But I'm afraid I'm +boring you." He wrapped her more snugly in her coverings, for a chill +had descended with the darkness, then strove to enliven her with +stories garnered from his rich experience—stories which gave her +fascinating glimpses of great undertakings and made her feel personally +acquainted with people of unfamiliar type, whose words and deeds, +mirthful or pathetic, were always refreshingly original. Of certain +individuals he spoke repeatedly until their names became familiar to +his hearer. He called them his "boys" and his voice was tender as he +told of their doings. +</P> + +<P> +"These men are your staff?" she ventured. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Every one who succeeds in his work must have loyal hands to help +him." +</P> + +<P> +"Where are they now?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! Scattered from Canada to Mexico, each one doing his own particular +work. There's Mellen, for instance; he's in Chihuahua building a +cantilever bridge. He's the best steel man in the country. McKay, my +superintendent, is running a railroad job in California. 'Happy Tom' +Slater—" +</P> + +<P> +"The funny man with the blues?" +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly! He was at work on a hydraulic project near Dawson the last I +heard of him. Dr. Gray is practising in Seattle, and Parker, the chief +engineer, has a position of great responsibility in Boston. He is the +brains of our outfit, you understand; it was really he who made the +North Pass & Yukon possible. The others are scattered out in the same +way, but they'd all come if I called them." The first note of pride she +had detected crept into his voice when he said: "My 'boys' are never +idle. They don't have to be, after working with me." +</P> + +<P> +"And what is your part of the work?" asked the girl. +</P> + +<P> +"I? Oh, I'm like Marcelline, the clown at the Hippodrome—always +pretending to help, but forever keeping underfoot. When it becomes +necessary I raise the money to keep the performance going." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you really mean that all those men would give up their positions +and come to you if you sent for them?" +</P> + +<P> +"By the first train, or afoot, if there were no other way. They'd +follow me to the Philippines or Timbuctoo, regardless of their homes +and their families." +</P> + +<P> +"That is splendid! You must feel very proud of inspiring such loyalty," +said Natalie. "But why are you idle now? Surely there are railroads to +be built somewhere." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I was asked to figure on a contract in Manchuria the other day. I +could have had it easily, and it would have meant my everlasting +fortune, but—" +</P> + +<P> +"But what?" +</P> + +<P> +"I found it isn't a white man's country. It's sickly and unsafe. Some +of my 'boys' would die before we finished it, and the game isn't worth +that price. No, I'll wait. Something better will turn up. It always +does." +</P> + +<P> +As Natalie looked upon that kindly, square-hewn face with its tracery +of lines about the eyes, its fine, strong jaw, and its indefinable +expression of power, she began to understand more fully why those with +whom she had talked had spoken of Murray O'Neil with an almost +worshipful respect. She felt very insignificant and purposeless as she +huddled there beside him, and her complacence at his attentions +deepened into a vivid sense of satisfaction. Thus far he had spoken +entirely of men; she wondered if he ever thought of women, and thrilled +a bit at the intimacy that had sprung up between them so quickly and +naturally. +</P> + +<P> +It confirmed her feeling of prideful confidence in the man that the +north-bound freighter should punctually show her lights around the +islands and that she should pause in her majestic sweep at the signal +of this pigmy craft. The ship loomed huge and black and terrifying as +the launch at length drew in beneath it; its sides towered like +massive, unscalable ramparts. There was a delay; there seemed to be +some querulousness on the part of the officer in command at being thus +halted, some doubt about allowing strangers to come aboard. But the +girl smiled to herself as the voices flung themselves back and forth +through the night. Once they learned who it was that called from the +sea their attitude would quickly change. Sure enough, in a little while +orders were shouted from the bridge; she heard men running from +somewhere, and a rope ladder came swinging down. O'Neil was lifting her +from her warm nest of rugs now and telling her to fear nothing. The +launch crept closer, coughing and shuddering as if in terror at this +close contact. There was a brief instant of breathlessness as the girl +found herself swung out over the waters; then a short climb with +O'Neil's protecting hand at her waist and she stood panting, radiant, +upon steel decks which began to throb and tremble to the churning +engines. +</P> + +<P> +One further task remained for her protector's magic powers. It appeared +that there were no quarters on the ship for women, but after a subdued +colloquy between Murray and the captain she was led to the cleanest and +coziest of staterooms high up near the bridge. Over the door she +glimpsed a metal plate with the words "First Officer" lettered upon it. +O'Neil was bidding her good night and wishing her untroubled rest, then +almost before she had accustomed herself to her new surroundings an +immaculate, though sleepy, Japanese steward stood before her with a +tray. He was extremely cheerful for one so lately awakened, being still +aglow with pleased surprise over the banknote which lay neatly folded +in his waistcoat pocket. +</P> + +<P> +Natalie sat cross-legged on her berth and munched with the appetite of +a healthy young animal at the fruit and biscuits and lovely heavy cake +which the steward had brought. She was very glad now that she had +disobeyed her mother. It was high time, indeed, to assert herself, for +she was old enough to know something of the world, and her judgment of +men was mature enough to insure perfect safety—that much had been +proved. She felt that her adventure had been a great success +practically and romantically. She wanted to lie awake and think it over +in detail, but she soon grew sleepy. Just before she dozed off she +wondered drowsily if "The Irish Prince" had found quarters for himself, +then reflected that undoubtedly the captain had been happy to tumble +out of bed for him. Or perhaps he felt no fatigue and would watch the +night through. Even now he might be pacing the deck outside her door. +At any rate, he was not far off. She closed her eyes, feeling +deliciously secure and comfortable. +</P> + +<P> +In one way the southern coast of Alaska may be said to be perhaps a +million years younger than any land on this continent, for it is still +in the glacial period. The vast alluvial plains and valleys of the +interior are rimmed in to the southward and shut off from the Pacific +by a well-nigh impassable mountain barrier, the top of which is capped +with perpetual snow. Its gorges, for the most part, run rivers of ice +instead of water. Europe has nothing like these glaciers which overflow +the Alaskan valleys and submerge the hills, for many of them contain +more ice than the whole of Switzerland. This range is the Andes of the +north, and it curves westward in a magnificent sweep, hugging the shore +for a thousand leagues. Against it the sea beats stormily; its frozen +crest is played upon by constant rains and fogs and blizzards. But over +beyond lies a land of sunshine, of long, dry, golden summer days. +</P> + +<P> +Into this chaos of cliff and peak and slanting canyon, midway to the +westward, is let King Phillip Sound, a sheet of water dotted with +islands and framed by forests. It reaches inland with long, crooked +tentacles which end like talons, in living ice. Hidden some forty miles +up one of these, upon the moraine of a receding glacier, sits Cortez, a +thriving village and long the point of entry to the interior, the +commencement of the overland trail to the golden valleys of the Yukon +and the Tanana. The Government wagon trail winds in from here, tracing +its sinuous course over one pass after another until it emerges into +the undulating prairies of the "inside country." +</P> + +<P> +Looking at the map, one would imagine that an easier gateway to the +heart of Alaska would be afforded by the valley of the Salmon River, +which enters the ocean some few miles to the eastward of King Phillip +Sound, but there are formidable difficulties. The stream bursts the +last rampart of the Coast Range asunder by means of a canyon down which +it rages in majestic fury and up which no craft can navigate. Then it +spreads itself out through a dozen shallow mouths across a forty-mile +delta of silt and sand and glacial wash. As if Nature feared her arctic +strong-box might still be invaded by this route, she has placed +additional safeguards to the approach in the form of giant glaciers, +through the very bowels of which the Salmon River is forced to burrow. +</P> + +<P> +In the early days of the Klondike rush men had attempted to ascend the +valley, but they had succeeded only at the cost of such peril and +disaster that others were warned away. The region had become the source +of many weird stories, and while the ice-fields could be seen from the +Kyak coal-fields, and on still days their cannonading could be heard +far out at sea, there were few who had ventured to cross the forty-mile +morass which lay below them and thus attempt to verify or to disprove +the rumors. +</P> + +<P> +It was owing to these topographical conditions that Cortez had been +established as the point of entry to the interior; it was because of +them that she had grown and flourished, with her sawmills and her +ginmills, her docks, and her dives. But at the time when this story +opens Alaska had developed to a point where an overland outlet by +winter and a circuitous inlet, by way of Bering Sea and the crooked +Yukon, in summer were no longer sufficient, There was need of a +permanent route by means of which men and freight might come and go +through all the year. The famous North Pass & Yukon Railway, far to the +eastward, afforded transportation to Dawson City and the Canadian +territory, and had proven itself such a financial success that builders +began to look for a harbor, more to the westward, from which they could +tap the great heart of Alaska. Thus it was that Cortez awoke one +morning to find herself selected as the terminus of a new line. Other +railway propositions followed, flimsy promotion schemes for the most +part, but among them two that had more than paper and "hot air" behind +them. One of these was backed by the Copper Trust which had made heavy +mining investments two hundred miles inland, the other by Curtis +Gordon, a promoter, who claimed New York as his birthplace and the +world as his residence. +</P> + +<P> +Gordon had been one of the first locaters in the Kyak coal-fields, and +he had also purchased a copper prospect a few miles down the bay from +Cortez, where he had started a town which he called Hope. There were +some who shook their heads and smiled knowingly when they spoke of that +prospect, but no one denied that it was fast assuming the outward +semblance of a mine under Gordon's direction. He had erected a fine +substantial wharf, together with buildings, bunk-houses, cottages, and +a spacious residence for himself; and daily the piles of debris beneath +the tunnel entries to his workings grew. He paid high wages, he spent +money lavishly, and he had a magnificent and compelling way with him +that dazzled and delighted the good people of Cortez. When he began +work on a railroad which was designed to reach far into the interior +his action was taken as proof positive of his financial standing, and +his critics were put down as pessimists who had some personal grudge +against him. +</P> + +<P> +It was up to the raw, new village of Hope, with its odor of fresh-cut +fir and undried paint, that the freight-steamer with Natalie Gerard and +"The Irish Prince" aboard, came gingerly one evening. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil surveyed the town with some curiosity as he approached, for +Gordon's sensational doings had interested him greatly. He was +accustomed to the rapid metamorphoses of a growing land; it was his +business, in fact, to win the wilderness over to order, and therefore +he was not astonished at the changes wrought here during his absence. +But he was agreeably surprised at the businesslike arrangement of the +place, and the evidence that a strong and practised hand had guided its +development. +</P> + +<P> +Even before the ship had tied up he had identified the tall, impressive +man on the dock as the genius and founder of Hope, and the dark-haired, +well-formed woman beside him as Natalie's mother. It was not until they +were close at hand that the daughter made her presence known; then, +unable to restrain herself longer, she shrieked her greeting down over +the rail. Mrs. Gerard started, then stared upward as if at an +apparition; she stretched out a groping hand to Gordon, who stood as if +frozen in his tracks. They seemed to be exchanging hurried words, and +the man appeared to be reassuring his companion. It looked very odd to +O'Neil; but any suspicion that Natalie was unwelcome disappeared when +she reached the dock. Her mother's dark eyes were bright with unshed +tears of gladness, her face was transfigured, she showed the strong, +repressed emotion of an undemonstrative nature as they embraced. +Natalie clung to her, laughing, crying, bombarding her with questions, +begging forgiveness, and babbling of her adventures. Their resemblance +was striking, and in point of beauty there seemed little to choose +between them. They might have been nearly of an age, except that the +mother lacked the girl's restless vivacity. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil remained in the background, like an uncomfortable bridegroom, +conscious meanwhile of the searching and hostile regard of Curtis +Gordon. But at last his protegee managed to gasp out in a more or less +coherent manner the main facts of the shipwreck and her rescue, +whereupon Gordon's attitude abruptly altered. +</P> + +<P> +"My God!" he ejaculated. "You were not on the Nebraska?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes, yes!" cried Natalie. "The life-boats went off and left me +all alone—in the dark—with the ship sinking! Mr. O'Neil saved me. He +took me up and jumped just as the ship sank, and we were all night in +the freezing water. We nearly died, didn't we? He fainted, and so did +I, mummie dear—it was so cold. He held me up until we were rescued, +though, and then there wasn't room in the life-boat for both of us. But +he made them take me in, just the same, while he stayed in the water. +He was unconscious when he reached the shore. Oh, it was splendid!" +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil's identity being established, and the nature of his service +becoming apparent, Curtis Gordon took his hand in a crushing grip and +thanked him in a way that might have warmed the heart of a stone +gargoyle. The man was transformed, now that he understood; he became a +geyser of eloquence. He poured forth his appreciation in rounded +sentences; his splendid musical voice softened and swelled and broke +with a magnificent and touching emotion. Through it all the Irish +contractor remained uncomfortably silent, for he could not help +thinking that this fulsome outburst was aroused rather by the man who +had built the North Pass. +</P> + +<P> +A crowd was collecting round them, but Gordon cleared it away with an +imperious gesture. +</P> + +<P> +"Come!" he said. "This is no place to talk. Mr. O'Neil's splendid +gallantry renders our mere thanks inane. He must allow us to express +our gratitude in a more fitting manner." +</P> + +<P> +"Please don't," exclaimed O'Neil, hastily. +</P> + +<P> +"You are our guest; the hospitality of our house is yours. Hope would +be honored to welcome you, sir, at any time, but under these +circumstances—" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going right on to Cortez." +</P> + +<P> +"The ship will remain here for several hours, discharging freight, and +we insist that you allow us this pleasure meanwhile. You shall spend +the night here, then perhaps you will feel inclined to prolong your +stay. All that Cortez has we have in double proportion—I say it with +pride. Cortez is no longer the metropolis of the region. Hope—Well, I +may say that Cortez is, of all Alaskan cities, the most fortunate, +since it has realized its Hope." He laughed musically. "This town has +come to stay; we intend to annex Cortez eventually. If you feel that +you must go on, I shall deem it a pleasure to send you later in my +motor-boat. She makes the run in fifteen minutes. But you must first +honor our house and our board; you must permit us to pledge your health +in a glass. We insist!" +</P> + +<P> +"Please!" said Mrs. Gerard. +</P> + +<P> +"Do come, your Highness," Natalie urged, from the shelter of the elder +woman's arms. +</P> + +<P> +"You're more than kind," said O'Neil, and together the four turned +their faces to the shore. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +V +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +WHEREIN WE SEE CURTIS GORDON AND OTHERS +</H4> + +<P> +Curtis Gordon's respect for his guest increased as they walked up the +dock, for, before they had taken many steps, out from the crowd which +had gathered to watch the ship's arrival stepped one of his foremen. +This fellow shook hands warmly with O'Neil, whereupon others followed, +one by one—miners, day laborers, "rough-necks" of many nationalities. +They doffed their hats-something they never did for Gordon—and +stretched out grimy hands, their faces lighting up with smiles. O'Neil +accepted their greetings with genuine pleasure and called them by name. +</P> + +<P> +"We just heard you was shipwrecked," said Gordon's foreman, anxiously. +"You wasn't hurt, was you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not in the least." +</P> + +<P> +"God be praised! There's a lot of the old gang at work here." +</P> + +<P> +"So I see." +</P> + +<P> +"Here's Shorty, that you may remember from the North Pass." The speaker +dragged from the crowd a red-faced, perspiring ruffian who had hung +back with the bashfulness of a small boy. "He's the fellow you dug out +of the slide at twenty-eight." +</P> + +<P> +"Connors!" cried O'Neil, warmly. "I'm glad to see you. And how are the +two arms of you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Better 'n ever they was, the both av them!" Mr. Connors blushed, +doubled his fists and flexed his bulging muscles. "An' why shouldn't +they be, when you set 'em both with your own hands, Misther O'Neil? +'Twas as good a job as Doc Gray ever done in the hospittle. I hope +you're doin' well, sir." He pulled his forelock, placed one foot behind +the other, and tapped it on the planking, grinning expansively. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well indeed, thank you." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil's progress was slow, for half the crowd insisted upon shaking +his hand and exchanging a few words with him. Clumsy Swedes bobbed +their heads, dark-browed foreign laborers whose nationality it was hard +to distinguish showed their teeth and chattered words of greeting. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my soul!" Gordon exclaimed, finally. +</P> + +<P> +"You know more of them than I do." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! I seldom have to fire a man." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you are favored of the gods. Labor is my great problem. It is the +supreme drawback of this country. These people drift and blow on every +breeze, like the sands of the Sahara. With more and better help I could +work wonders here." +</P> + +<P> +Unexpected as these salutations had been, O'Neil's greatest surprise +came a moment later as he passed the first of the company buildings. +There he heard his name pronounced in a voice which halted him, and in +an open doorway he beheld a huge, loose-hung man of tremendous girth, +with a war-bag in his hand and a wide black hat thrust back from a +shiny forehead. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Tom!" he exclaimed. "Tom Slater!" +</P> + +<P> +Gordon groaned and went on with the women, saying: "Come up to the +house when you escape, Mr. O'Neil. I shall have dinner served." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Slater came forward slowly, dragging his clothes-bag with him. The +two shook hands. +</P> + +<P> +"What in the world are you doing here, Tom?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing!" said Slater. He had a melancholy cast of feature, utterly +out of keeping with his rotund form. In his eye was the somber glow of +a soul at war with the flesh. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing?" +</P> + +<P> +"I had a good job, putting in a power plant for his nibs"—he indicated +the retreating Gordon with a disrespectful jerk of the thumb—"but I +quit." +</P> + +<P> +"Not enough pay?" +</P> + +<P> +"Best wages I ever got. He pays well." +</P> + +<P> +"Poor grub?" +</P> + +<P> +"Grub's fine." +</P> + +<P> +"What made you quit?" +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't exactly quit, but I'm going to. When I saw you coming up the +dock I said: 'There's the chief! Now he'll want me.' So I began to +pack." The speaker dangled his partly filled war-bag as evidence. In an +even sourer tone he murmured: +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't that just me? I ain't had a day's luck since Lincoln was shot. +The minute I get a good job along you come and spoil it." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want you," laughed O'Neil. +</P> + +<P> +But Slater was not convinced. He shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes, you do. You've got something on or you wouldn't be here. I've +been drawing pay from you now for over five minutes." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil made a gesture of impatience. +</P> + +<P> +"No! No! In the first place, I have nothing for you to do; in the +second place, I probably couldn't afford the wages Gordon is paying +you." +</P> + +<P> +"That's the hell of it!" gloomily agreed "Happy Tom." "Where are your +grips? I'll begin by carrying them." +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't any. I've been shipwrecked. Seriously, Tom, I have no place +for you." +</P> + +<P> +The repetition of this statement made not the smallest impression upon +the hearer. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll have one soon enough," he replied. Then with a touch of spirit, +"Do you think I'd work for this four-flusher if you were in the +country?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hush!" O'Neil cast a glance over his shoulder. "By the way, how do you +happen to be here? I thought you were in Dawson." +</P> + +<P> +"I finished that job. I was working back toward ma and the children. I +haven't seen them for two years." +</P> + +<P> +"You think Gordon is a false alarm?" +</P> + +<P> +"Happy Tom" spat with unerring accuracy at a crack, then said: +</P> + +<P> +"He's talking railroads! Railroads! Why, I've got a boy back in the +state of Maine, fourteen years old—" +</P> + +<P> +"Willie?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. My son Willie could skin Curtis Gordon at railroad-building—and +Willie is the sickly one of the outfit. But I'll hand it to Gordon for +one thing; he's a money-getter and a money-spender. He knows where the +loose stone in the hearth is laid, and he knows just which lilac bush +the family savings are buried under. Those penurious Pilgrim Fathers in +my part of the country come up and drop their bankbooks through the +slot in his door every morning. He's the first easy money I ever had; +I'd get rich off of him, but"—Slater sighed—"of course you had to +come along and wrench me away from the till." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't quit on my account," urged his former chief. "I'm up here on +coal matters. I can't take time to explain now, but I'll see you later." +</P> + +<P> +"Suit yourself, only don't keep me loafing on full time. I'm an +expensive man. I'll be packed and waiting for you." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil went on his way, somewhat amused, yet undeniably pleased at +finding his boss packer here instead of far inland, for Slater's +presence might, after all, fit well enough into his plans. +</P> + +<P> +"The Irish Prince" had gained something of a reputation for +extravagance, but he acknowledged himself completely outshone by the +luxury with which Curtis Gordon had surrounded himself at Hope. The +promoter had spoken of his modest living-quarters—in reality they +consisted of a handsome twenty-room house, furnished with the elegance +of a Newport cottage. The rugs were thick and richly colored; the +furniture was of cathedral oak and mahogany. In the library were deep +leather chairs and bookcases, filled mainly with the works of French +and German authors of decadent type. The man's taste in art was +revealed by certain pictures, undeniably clever, but a little too +daring. He was undoubtedly a sybarite, yet he evidently possessed rare +energy and executive force. It was an unusual combination. +</P> + +<P> +The dinner was notable mainly for its lavish disregard of expense. +There were strawberries from Seattle, fresh cream and butter from +Gordon's imported cows, cheese prepared expressly for him in France, +and a champagne the date of which he took pains to make known. +</P> + +<P> +On the whole he played the part of host agreeably enough and his +constant flow of talk was really entertaining. His anecdotes embraced +three continents; his wit, though Teutonic, was genial and +mirth-provoking. When Mrs. Gerard took time from her worshipful regard +of her daughter to enter the conversation, she spoke with easy charm +and spontaneity. As for Natalie, she was intoxicated with delight; she +chattered, she laughed, she interrupted with the joyful exuberance of +youth. +</P> + +<P> +Under such circumstances the meal should have proved enjoyable, yet the +guest of honor had never been more ill at ease. Precisely what +accounted for the feeling he could not quite determine. Somewhere back +in his mind was a suspicion that things were not as they should be, +here in this house of books and pictures and incongruities. He told +himself that he should not be so narrow-minded as to resent Gloria +Gerard's presence here, particularly since she herself had told him +that her friendship for Gordon dated back many years. Nevertheless, the +impression remained to disturb him. +</P> + +<P> +"You wonder, perhaps, why I have been so extravagant with my +living-quarters," said Gordon, as they walked into the library, "but it +is not alone for myself. You see I have people associated with me who +are accustomed to every comfort and luxury and I built this house for +them. Mrs. Gerard has been kind enough to grace the establishment with +her presence, and I expect others of my stock-holders to do likewise. +You see, I work in the light, Mr. O'Neil; I insist upon the broadest +publicity in all my operations, and to that end I strive to bring my +clients into contact with the undertaking itself. For instance, I am +bringing a party of my stockholders all the way from New York, at my +own expense, just to show them how their interests are being +administered. I have chartered a special train and a ship for them, and +of course they must be properly entertained while here." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite a scheme," said O'Neil. +</P> + +<P> +"I wanted to show them this marvelous country, God's wonderland of +opportunity. They will return impressed by the solidity and permanence +of their investment." +</P> + +<P> +Certainly the man knew how to play his game. No more effective means of +advertising, no more profitable stock-jobbing scheme could be devised +than a free trip of that sort and a tour of Alaska under the watchful +guidance of Curtis Gordon. If any member of the party returned +unimpressed it would not be the fault of the promoter; if any one of +them did not voluntarily go out among his personal friends as a +missionary it would be because Gordon's magnetism had lost its power. +O'Neil felt a touch of unwilling admiration. +</P> + +<P> +"I judge, from what you say, that the mine gives encouragement," he +ventured, eying his host curiously through a cloud of tobacco smoke. +</P> + +<P> +"'Encouragement' is not the word. Before many years 'Hope Consolidated' +will be listed on the exchanges of the world along with 'Amalgamated' +and the other great producers. We have here, Mr. O'Neil, a tremendous +mountain of ore, located at tide water, on one of the world's finest +harbors. The climate is superb; we have coal near at hand for our own +smelter. The mine only requires systematic development under competent +hands." +</P> + +<P> +"I was in Cortez when Lars Anderson made his first discovery here, and +I had an option on all this property. I believe the price was twelve +hundred dollars; at any rate, it was I who drove those tunnels you +found when you bought him out." +</P> + +<P> +Gordon's eyes wavered briefly, then he laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear sir, you have my sincere sympathy. Your poison, my meat—as it +were, eh? You became discouraged too soon. Another hundred feet of work +and you would have been justified in paying twelve hundred thousand +dollars. This 'Eldorado' which the Copper Trust has bought has a +greater surface showing than 'Hope,' I grant; but—it lies two hundred +miles inland, and there is the all-important question of transportation +to be solved. The ore will have to be hauled, or smelted on the ground, +while we have the Kyak coal-fields at our door. The Heidlemanns are +building a railroad to it which will parallel mine in places, but the +very nature of their enterprise foredooms it to failure." +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed? How so?" +</P> + +<P> +"My route is the better. By a rigid economy of expenditure, by a +careful supervision of detail, I can effect a tremendous saving over +their initial cost. I hope to convince them of the fact, and thus +induce them to withdraw from the field or take over my road at—a +reasonable figure. Negotiations are under way." +</P> + +<P> +At this talk of economy from Curtis Gordon O'Neil refrained from +smiling with difficulty. He felt certain that the man's entire +operations were as unsound as his statement that he could bring the +Trust to terms. Yet Gordon seemed thoroughly in earnest. Either he +expected to fool his present hearer, or else he had become hypnotized +by the spell of his own magnificent twaddle—O'Neil could not tell +which. +</P> + +<P> +"Who laid out your right-of-way?" he asked with some interest. +</P> + +<P> +"A very able young engineer, Dan Appleton. An excellent man, +but—unreliable in certain things. I had to let him go, this very +afternoon, in fact, for insubordination. But I discharged him more for +the sake of discipline than anything else. He'll be anxious to return +in a few days. Now tell me"—Gordon fixed his visitor with a bland +stare which failed to mask his gnawing curiosity—"what brings you to +King Phillip Sound? Are we to be rivals in the railroad field?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. There are enough projects of that sort in the neighborhood for the +present." +</P> + +<P> +"Five, all told, but only one destined to succeed." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm bound for the Kyak coal-fields to perfect and amend my surveys +under the new ruling." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! I've heard about that ruling." +</P> + +<P> +"Heard about it?" exclaimed O'Neil. "Good Lord! Haven't you complied +with it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not yet." +</P> + +<P> +"You surely intend to do so?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes—I suppose so." +</P> + +<P> +"If you don't you'll lose—" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not sure we can ever win." +</P> + +<P> +"Nonsense!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not sure that it's wise to put more good money into those coal +claims," said Gordon. "This ruling will doubtless be reversed as the +others have been. One never knows what the Land Office policy will be +two days at a time." +</P> + +<P> +"You know your own business," O'Neil remarked after a pause, "but +unless you have inside information, or a bigger pull in Washington than +the rest of us, I'd advise you to get busy. I'll be on my way to Kyak +in the morning with a gang of men." Gordon's attitude puzzled him, for +he could not bring himself to believe that such indifference was +genuine. +</P> + +<P> +"We have been treated unfairly by the Government." +</P> + +<P> +"Granted!" +</P> + +<P> +"We have been fooled, cheated, hounded as if we were a crowd of +undesirable aliens, and I'm heartily sick of the injustice. I prefer to +work along lines of least resistance. I feel tempted to let Uncle Sam +have my coal claims, since he has lied to me and gone back on his +promise, and devote myself to other enterprises which offer a certainty +of greater profits. But"—Gordon smiled deprecatingly—"I dare say I +shall hold on, as you are doing, until that fossilized bureau at +Washington imposes some new condition which will ruin us all." +</P> + +<P> +Remembering Natalie's statement that her own and her mother's fortunes +were tied up in the mines, O'Neil felt inclined to go over Gordon's +head and tell the older woman plainly the danger of delay in complying +with the law, but he thought better of the impulse. Her confidence in +this man was supreme and it seemed incredible that Gordon should +jeopardize her holdings and his own. More likely his attitude was just +a part of his pose, designed to show the bigness of his views and to +shed a greater luster upon his railroad project. +</P> + +<P> +It was difficult to escape from the hospitality of Hope, and O'Neil +succeeded in doing so only after an argument with Natalie and her +mother. They let him go at last only upon his promise to return on his +way back from the coal-fields, and they insisted upon accompanying him +down to the dock, whither Gordon had preceded them in order to have his +motor-boat in readiness. +</P> + +<P> +As they neared the landing they overheard the latter in spirited debate +with "Happy Tom" Slater. +</P> + +<P> +"But my dear fellow," he was saying, "I can't lose you and Appleton on +the same day." +</P> + +<P> +"You can't? Why, you've done it!" the fat man retorted, gruffly. +</P> + +<P> +"I refuse to be left in the lurch this way. You must give more notice." +</P> + +<P> +Slater shrugged, and without a word tossed his bulging war bag into the +motor-boat which lay moored beneath him. His employer's face was purple +with rage as he turned to Murray and the ladies, but he calmed himself +sufficiently to say: +</P> + +<P> +"This man is in charge of important work for me, yet he tells me you +have hired him away." +</P> + +<P> +"Tom!" exclaimed O'Neil. +</P> + +<P> +"I never said that," protested Slater. "I only told you I was working +for Murray." +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" +</P> + +<P> +"I hired myself. He didn't have anything to say about it. I do all the +hiring, firing, and boosting in my department." +</P> + +<P> +"I appeal to you, O'Neil. I'm short-handed," Gordon cried. +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you he don't have a word to say about it," Slater declared with +heat. +</P> + +<P> +Natalie gave a little tinkling laugh. She recognized in this man the +melancholy hero of more than one tale "The Irish Prince" had told her. +Murray did his best, but knowing "Happy Tom's" calm obstinacy of old, +he had no real hope of persuading him. +</P> + +<P> +"You see how it is," he said, finally. "He's been with me for years and +he refuses to work for any one else while I'm around. If I don't take +him with me he'll follow." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Slater nodded vigorously, then imparted these tidings: +</P> + +<P> +"It's getting late, and my feet hurt." He bowed to the women, then +lowered himself ponderously yet carefully over the edge of the dock and +into the leather cushions of the launch. Once safely aboard, he took a +package of wintergreen chewing-gum from his pocket and began to chew, +staring out across the sound with that placid, speculative enjoyment +which reposes in the eyes of a cow at sunset. +</P> + +<P> +Curtis Gordon's face was red and angry as he shook hands stiffly with +his guest and voiced the formal hope that they would meet again. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad to be gone," Slater observed as the speed-boat rushed across +the bay. "I'm a family man, and—I've got principles. Gordon's got +neither." +</P> + +<P> +"It was outrageous for you to walk out so suddenly. It embarrassed me." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he'd let me go without notice if he felt like it. He fired Dan +Appleton this afternoon just for telling the truth about the mine. +That's what I'd have got if I'd stayed on much longer. I was filling up +with words and my skin was getting tight. I'd have busted, sure, inside +of a week." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't the mine any good?" +</P> + +<P> +"It ain't a mine at all. It's nothing but an excavation filled with +damn fools and owned by idiots; still, I s'pose it serves Gordon's +purpose." After a pause he continued: "They tell me that snakes eat +their own young! Gordon ought to call that mine the Anaconda, for it'll +swallow its own dividends and all the money those Eastern people can +raise." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry for Mrs. Gerard." +</P> + +<P> +Slater emitted a sound like the moist exhalation of a porpoise as it +rises to the surface. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean by that snort?" asked Murray. +</P> + +<P> +"It's funny how much some people are like animals. Now the ostrich +thinks that when his head is hid his whole running-gear is out of +sight. Gordon's an ostrich. As for you—you remind me of a mud turtle. +A turtle don't show nothing but his head, and when it's necessary he +can yank that under cover. Gordon don't seem to realize that he sticks +up above the underbrush—either that or else he don't care who sees +him. He and that woman—" +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind her," exclaimed O'Neil, quickly. "I'm sure you're mistaken." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Slater grunted once more, then chewed his gum silently, staring +mournfully into the twilight. After a moment he inquired: +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you show these people how to build a railroad, Murray?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, thank you! I know the country back of here. It's not feasible." +</P> + +<P> +"The Copper Trust is doing it." +</P> + +<P> +"All the more reason why I shouldn't. There are five projects under way +now, and there won't be more than enough traffic for one." +</P> + +<P> +Slater nodded. "Every man who has two dollars, a clean shirt, and a +friend at Washington has got a railroad scheme up his sleeve." +</P> + +<P> +"It will cost thirty million dollars to build across those three +divides and into the copper country. When the road is done it will be +one of heavy grades, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"No wonder you didn't get the contract from the Heidlemanns—if your +estimate was thirty million." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't put in a figure." +</P> + +<P> +Tom looked surprised. "Why didn't you? You know them." +</P> + +<P> +"I was like the little boy who didn't go to the party—I wasn't asked." +The speaker's expression showed that his pride had been hurt and +discouraged further questioning. "We'll hire our men and our boats +to-night," he announced. "I've arranged for that freighter to drop us +off at Omar on her way out. We'll have to row from there to Kyak. I +expected to land my horses at the coast and pack in from Kyak Bay, but +that shipwreck changed my plans. Poor brutes! After my experience I'll +never swim horses in this water again." +</P> + +<P> +An eleven-o'clock twilight enveloped Cortez when the two men landed, +but the town was awake. The recent railway and mining activity in the +neighborhood had brought a considerable influx of people to King +Phillip Sound, and the strains of music from dance-hall doors, the +click of checks and roulette balls from the saloons, gave evidence of +an unusual prosperity. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil had no difficulty in securing men. Once he was recognized, the +scenes at Hope were re-enacted, and there was a general scramble to +enlist upon his pay-roll. Within an hour, therefore, his arrangements +were made, and he and Tom repaired to Callahan's Hotel for a few hours' +sleep. +</P> + +<P> +A stud game was going on in the barroom when they entered, and O'Neil +paused to watch it while Slater spoke to one of the players, a +clean-cut, blond youth of whimsical countenance. When the two friends +finally faced the bar for their "nightcap" Tom explained: +</P> + +<P> +"That's Appleton, the fellow Gordon fired to-day. I told him I'd left +the old man flat." +</P> + +<P> +"Is he a friend of yours?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure. Nice boy—good engineer, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Umph! That game is crooked." +</P> + +<P> +"No?" "Happy Tom" displayed a flash of interest. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Cortez is fast becoming a metropolis, I see. The man in the derby +hat is performing a little feat that once cost me four thousand dollars +to learn." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd better split Dan away," said Tom, hastily. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait! Education is a good thing, even if it is expensive at times. I +fancy your friend is bright enough to take care of himself. Let's wait +a bit." +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't that just my blamed luck?" lamented Slater. "Now if they were +playing faro I could make a killing. I'd 'copper' Appleton's bets and +'open' the ones he coppered!" +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil smiled, for "Happy Tom's" caution in money matters was +notorious. "You know you don't believe in gambling," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"It's not a belief, it's a disease," declared the fat man. "I was born +to be a gambler, but the business is too uncertain. Now that I'm +getting so old and feeble I can't work any more, I'd take it up, only I +broke three fingers and when I try to deal I drop the cards. What are +we going to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just wait," said O'Neil. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +VI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE DREAMER +</H4> + +<P> +Unobserved the two friends watched the poker game, which for a time +proceeded quietly. But suddenly they saw Appleton lean over the table +and address the man with the derby hat; then, thrusting back his chair, +he rose, declaring, in a louder tone: +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you I saw it. I thought I was mistaken at first." His face was +white, and he disregarded the efforts of his right-hand neighbor to +quiet him. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't squeal," smiled the dealer. "I'll leave it to the boys if I did +anything wrong." +</P> + +<P> +"You pulled that king from the bottom. It may not be wrong, but it's +damned peculiar." +</P> + +<P> +"Forget it!" one of the others exclaimed. "Denny wouldn't double-cross +you." +</P> + +<P> +"Hardly!" agreed Mr. Denny, evenly. "You're 'in' a hundred and eighty +dollars, but if you're sore you can have it back." +</P> + +<P> +Appleton flung his cards into the middle of the table and turned away +disgustedly. "It's a hard thing to prove, and I'm not absolutely sure I +saw straight, or—I'd take it back, fast enough." +</P> + +<P> +Denny shrugged and gathered in the discarded hand. "You've been +drinking too much, that's all. Your eyesight is scattered." +</P> + +<P> +Appleton's face flushed as he beheld the gaze of the company upon him +and heard the laughter which greeted this remark. He turned to leave +when O'Neil, who had continued to watch the proceedings with interest, +crossed to the group and touched Denny on the shoulder, saying, quietly: +</P> + +<P> +"Give him his money." +</P> + +<P> +"Eh?" The smile faded from the fellow's face; he looked up with +startled inquiry. "What?" +</P> + +<P> +"Give him his money." +</P> + +<P> +In the momentary hush which followed, "Happy Tom" Slater, who had +frequently seen his employer in action and understood storm signals, +sighed deeply and reached for the nearest chair. With a wrench of his +powerful hands he loosened a leg. Although Mr. Slater abhorred trouble, +he was accustomed to meet it philosophically. A lifetime spent in +construction camps had taught him that, of all weapons, the one best +suited to his use was a pick-handle; second to that he had come to +value the hardwood leg of a chair. But in the present case his +precaution proved needless, for the dispute was over before he had +fairly prepared himself. +</P> + +<P> +Without waiting for O'Neil to put his accusation into words Denny had +risen swiftly, and in doing so he had either purposely or by accident +made a movement which produced a prompt and instinctive reaction. +Murray's fist met him as he rose, met him so squarely and with such +force that he lost all interest in what followed. The other +card-players silently gathered Mr. Denny in their arms and stretched +him upon a disused roulette table; the bartender appeared with a wet +towel and began to bathe his temples. +</P> + +<P> +Appleton, dazed by the suddenness of it all, found a stack of gold +pieces in his hand and heard O'Neil saying in an every-day tone: +</P> + +<P> +"Come to my room, please. I'd like to talk to you." Something +commanding in the speaker's face made the engineer follow against his +will. He longed to loiter here until Denny had regained his senses—but +O'Neil had him by the arm and a moment later he was being led down the +hall away from the lobby and the barroom. As Slater, who had followed, +closed the door behind them, Dan burst forth: +</P> + +<P> +"By Jove! Why didn't you tell me? I knew he was crooked—but I couldn't +believe—" +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down!" said O'Neil. "He won't pull himself together for a while, +and I want to get to bed. Are you looking for a job?" +</P> + +<P> +The engineer's eyes opened wide. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know the Kyak country?" +</P> + +<P> +"Pretty well." +</P> + +<P> +"I need a surveyor. Your wages will be the same that Gordon paid and +they begin now, if it's agreeable." +</P> + +<P> +"It certainly is!" +</P> + +<P> +"Good! We'll leave at six o'clock, sharp. Bring your bedding and +instruments." +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks! I—This is a bit of a surprise. Who are you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm O'Neil." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" Mr. Appleton's expression changed quickly. "You're Murray—" He +stammered an instant. "It was very good of you to take my part, after +I'd been fool enough to—" +</P> + +<P> +"Well—I didn't want to see you make a total idiot of yourself." +</P> + +<P> +The young man flushed slightly, then in a quieter voice, he asked: +</P> + +<P> +"How did you know I was out of work?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Gordon told me. He recommended you highly." +</P> + +<P> +"He did?" +</P> + +<P> +"He said you were unreliable, disloyal, and dishonest. Coming from him +I took that as high praise." +</P> + +<P> +There was a moment's pause, then Appleton laughed boyishly. +</P> + +<P> +"That's funny! I'm very glad to know you, Mr. O'Neil." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't, and you won't for a long time. Tom tells me you didn't +think well of Gordon's enterprise and so he fired you." +</P> + +<P> +"That's right! I suppose I ought to have kept my mouth shut, but it has +a way of flying open when it shouldn't. He is either a fool or a crook, +and his mine is nothing but a prospect. I couldn't resist telling him +so." +</P> + +<P> +"And his railroad?" +</P> + +<P> +Appleton hesitated. "Oh, it's as good a route as the Trust's. I worked +on the two surveys. Personally I think both outfits are crazy to try to +build in from here. I had to tell Gordon that, too. You see I'm a +volunteer talker. I should have been born with a stutter—it would have +saved me a lot of trouble." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil smiled. "You may talk all you please in my employ, so long as +you do your work. Now get some sleep, for we have a hard trip. And by +the way"—the youth paused with a hand on the doorknob—"don't go +looking for Denny." +</P> + +<P> +Appleton's face hardened stubbornly. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't promise that, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes you can! You must! Remember, you're working for me, and you're +under orders. I can't have the expedition held up on your account." +</P> + +<P> +The engineer's voice was heavy with disappointment, but a vague +admiration was growing in his eyes as he agreed: +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, sir. I suppose my time is yours. Good night." +</P> + +<P> +When he had gone "Happy Tom" inquired: +</P> + +<P> +"Now, why in blazes did you hire him? We don't need a high-priced +surveyor on this job." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course not, but don't you see? He'd have been arrested, sure. +Besides—he's Irish, and I like him." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! Then I s'pose he's got a job for life," said Tom, morosely. +"You make friends and enemies quicker than anybody I ever saw. You've +got Curtis Gordon on your neck now." +</P> + +<P> +"On account of this boy? Nonsense!" +</P> + +<P> +"Not altogether. Denny is Gordon's right bower. I think he calls him +his secretary; anyhow, he does Gordon's dirty work and they're thicker +than fleas. First you come along and steal me, underhanded, then you +grab his pet engineer before he has a chance to hire him back again. +Just to top off the evening you publicly brand his confidential +understrapper as a card cheat and thump him on the medulla oblongata—" +</P> + +<P> +"Are you sure it wasn't the duodenum?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you hit him in a vital spot, and Gordon won't forget it." +</P> + +<P> +Late on the following morning O'Neil's expedition was landed at the +deserted fishing-station of Omar, thirty miles down the sound from +Cortez. From this point its route lay down the bay to open water and +thence eastward along the coast in front of the Salmon River delta some +forty miles to Kyak. This latter stretch would have been well-nigh +impossible for open boats but for the fact that the numerous mud bars +and islands thrown out by the river afforded a sheltered course. These +inside channels, though shallow, were of sufficient depth to allow +small craft to navigate and had long been used as a route to the +coal-fields. +</P> + +<P> +Appleton, smiling and cheerful, was the first member of the party to +appear at the dock that morning, and when the landing had been effected +at Omar he showed his knowledge of the country by suggesting a short +cut which would save the long row down to the mouth of the sound and +around into the delta. Immediately back of the old cannery, which +occupied a gap in the mountain rim, lay a narrow lake, and this, he +declared, held an outlet which led into the Salmon River flats. By +hauling the boats over into this body of water—a task made easy by the +presence of a tiny tramway with one dilapidated push-car which had been +a part of the cannery equipment—it would be possible to save much time +and labor. +</P> + +<P> +"I've heard there was a way through," O'Neil confessed, "but nobody +seemed to know just where it was." +</P> + +<P> +"I know," the young man assured him. "We can gain a day at least, and I +judge every day is valuable." +</P> + +<P> +"So valuable that we can't afford to lose one by making a mistake," +said his employer, meaningly. +</P> + +<P> +"Leave it to me. I never forget a country once I've been through it." +</P> + +<P> +Accordingly the boats were loaded upon the hand-car and transferred one +at a time. In the interval O'Neil examined his surroundings casually. +He was surprised to find the dock and buildings in excellent condition, +notwithstanding the fact that the station had lain idle for several +years. A solitary Norwegian, with but a slight suspicion of English, +was watching the premises and managed to make known his impression that +poor fishing had led the owners to abandon operations at this point. +He, too, had heard that Omar Lake had an outlet into the delta, but he +was not sure of its existence; he was sure of nothing, in fact except +that it was very lonesome here, and that he had run out of tobacco five +days before. +</P> + +<P> +But Dan Appleton was not mistaken. A two hours' row across the +mirror-like surface of Omar Lake brought the party out through a hidden +gap in the mountains and afforded them a view across the level delta. +To their left the range they had just penetrated retreated toward the +canon where the Salmon River burst its way out from the interior, and +beyond that point it continued in a coastward swing to Kyak, their +destination. Between lay a flat, trackless tundra, cut by sloughs and +glacial streams, with here and there long tongues of timber reaching +down from the high ground and dwindling away toward the seaward +marshes. It was a desolate region, the breeding-place of sea fowl, the +hunting-ground for the great brown bear. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil had never before been so near the canon as this, and the wild +stories he had heard of it recurred to him with interest. He surveyed +the place curiously as the boats glided along, but could see nothing +more than a jumble of small hills and buttes, and beyond them the +dead-gray backs of the twin glaciers coming down from the slopes to +east and west. Beyond the foot-hills and the glaciers themselves the +main range was gashed by a deep valley, through which he judged the +river must come, and beyond that he knew was a country of agricultural +promise, extending clear to the fabulous copper belt whither the +railroads from Cortez were headed. Still farther inland lay the Tanana, +and then the Yukon, with their riches untouched. +</P> + +<P> +What a pity, what a mockery, it was that this obvious entrance to the +country had been blocked by nature! Just at his back was Omar, with its +deep and sheltered harbor; the lake he had crossed gave a passage +through the guardian range, and this tundra—O'Neil estimated that he +could lay a mile of track a day over it—led right up to the glaciers. +Once through the Coast Range, building would be easy, for the upper +Salmon was navigable, and its banks presented no difficulties to +track-laying. +</P> + +<P> +He turned abruptly to Appleton, who was pulling an oar. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you know about that canyon?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Not much. Nobody knows much, for those fellows who went through in the +gold rush have all left the country. Gordon's right-of-way comes in +above, and so does the Trust's. From there on I know every foot of the +ground." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose if either of them gets through to the Salmon the rest will +be easy." +</P> + +<P> +"Dead easy!" +</P> + +<P> +"It would be shorter and very much cheaper to build from Omar, through +this way." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, but neither outfit knew anything about the outlet to Omar +Lake until I told them—and they knew there was the canon to be +reckoned with." +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" +</P> + +<P> +Appleton shook his head. "Look at it! Does it look like a place to +build a railroad?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can't tell anything about it, from here." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose a road could be built if the glaciers were on the same side +of the river, but—they're not. They face each other, and they're +alive, too. Listen!" The oarsmen ceased rowing at Dan's signal, and out +of the northward silence came a low rumble like the sound of distant +cannonading. "We must be at least twenty miles away, in an air line. +The ice stands up alongside the river, hundreds of feet high, and it +breaks off in chunks as big as a New York office-building." +</P> + +<P> +"You've been up there?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. But everybody says so, and I've seen glacier ice clear out here in +the delta. They're always moving, too—the glaciers themselves—and +they're filled with crevasses, so that it's dangerous to cross them on +foot even if one keeps back from the river." +</P> + +<P> +"How did those men get their outfits through in '98?" O'Neil queried. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm blessed if I know—maybe they flew." After a moment Dan added, +"Perhaps they dodged the pieces as they fell." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil smiled. He opened his lips to speak, then closed them, and for a +long time kept his eyes fixed speculatively in the direction of the +canyon. When he had first spoken of a route from Omar he had thrown out +the suggestion with only a casual interest. Now, suddenly, the idea +took strong possession of his mind; it fascinated him with its daring, +its bigness. He had begun to dream. +</P> + +<P> +The world owes all great achievements to dreamers, for men who lack +vivid imaginations are incapable of conceiving big enterprises. No +matter how practical the thing accomplished, it requires this faculty, +no less than a poem or a picture. Every bridge, every skyscraper, every +mechanical invention, every great work which man has wrought in steel +and stone and concrete, was once a dream. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil had no small measure of the imaginative power that makes great +leaders, great inventors, great builders. He was capable of tremendous +enthusiasm; his temperament forever led him to dare what others feared +to undertake. And here he glimpsed a tremendous opportunity. The +traffic of a budding nation was waiting to be seized. To him who gained +control of Alaskan transportation would come the domination of her +resources. Many were striving for the prize, but if there should prove +to be a means of threading that Salmon River canon with steel rails, +the man who first found it would have those other railroad enterprises +at his mercy. The Trust would have to sue for terms or abandon further +effort; for this route was shorter, it was level, it was infinitely +cheaper to improve. The stakes in the game were staggering. The mere +thought of them made his heart leap. The only obstacle, of course, lay +in those glaciers, and he began to wonder if they could not be made to +open. Why not? No one knew positively that they were impregnable, for +no one knew anything certainly about them. Until the contrary had been +proven there was at least a possibility that they were less formidable +than rumor had painted them. +</P> + +<P> +Camp was pitched late that night far out on the flats. During the +preparation of supper Murray sat staring fixedly before him, deaf to +all sounds and insensible to the activities of his companions. He had +lost his customary breeziness and his good nature; he was curt, +saturnine, unsmiling. Appleton undertook to arouse him from this +abstraction, but Slater drew the young man aside hurriedly with a +warning, +</P> + +<P> +"Don't do that, son, or you'll wear splints for the rest of the trip." +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter with him, anyhow?" Dan inquired. "He was boiling +over with enthusiasm all day, but now—Why, he's asleep sitting up! He +hasn't moved for twenty minutes." +</P> + +<P> +Tom shook his head, dislodging a swarm of mosquitoes. +</P> + +<P> +"Walk on your toes, my boy! Walk on your toes! I smell something +cooking—and it ain't supper." +</P> + +<P> +When food was served O'Neil made a pretense of eating, but rose +suddenly in the midst of it, with the words: +</P> + +<P> +"I'll stretch my legs a bit." His voice was strangely listless; in his +eyes was the same abstraction which had troubled Appleton during the +afternoon. He left the camp and disappeared up the bank of the stream. +</P> + +<P> +"Nice place to take a walk!" the engineer observed. "He'll bog down in +half a mile or get lost among the sloughs." +</P> + +<P> +"Not him!" said Slater. Nevertheless, his worried eyes followed the +figure of his chief as long as it was in sight. After a time he +announced: "Something is coming, but what it is or where it's going to +hit us I don't know." +</P> + +<P> +Their meal over, the boatmen made down their beds, rolled up in their +blankets, and were soon asleep. Appleton and Tom sat in the smoke of a +smudge, gossiping idly as the twilight approached. From the south came +the distant voice of the sea, out of the north rolled the intermittent +thunder of those falling bergs, from every side sounded a harsh chorus +of water-fowl. Ducks whirred past in bullet-like flight, honkers +flapped heavily overhead, a pair of magnificent snow-white swans soared +within easy gunshot of the camp. An hour passed, another, and another; +the arctic night descended. And through it all the mosquitoes sang +their blood song and stabbed the watchers with tongues of flame. +</P> + +<P> +"Happy Tom" sang his song, too, for it was not often that he obtained a +listener, and it proved to be a song of infinite hard luck. Mr. Slater, +it seemed, was a creature of many ills, the wretched abiding-place of +aches and pains, of colics, cramps, and rheumatism. He was the target +of misfortune and the sport of fate. His body was the galloping-ground +of strange disorders which baffled diagnosis; his financial affairs +were dominated by an evil genius which betrayed him at every turn. To +top it all, he suffered at the moment a violent attack of indigestion. +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't that just my luck?" he lamented. "Old 'Indy's got me good, and +there ain't a bit of soda in the outfit." +</P> + +<P> +Appleton, who was growing more and more uneasy at the absence of his +leader, replied with some asperity: +</P> + +<P> +"Instead of dramatizing your own discomforts you'd better be thinking +of the boss. I'm going out to look for him." +</P> + +<P> +"Now don't be a dam' fool," Slater advised. "It would be worth a broken +leg to annoy him when he's in one of these fits. You'd make yourself as +popular as a smallpox patient at a picnic. When he's dreamed his dream +he'll be back." +</P> + +<P> +"When will that be?" +</P> + +<P> +"No telling—maybe to-night, maybe to-morrow night." +</P> + +<P> +"And what are we going to do in the mean time?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sit tight." Mr. Slater chewed steadily and sighed. "No soda in camp, +and this gum don't seem to lay hold of me! That's luck!" +</P> + +<P> +Darkness had settled when O'Neil reappeared. He came plunging out of +the brush, drenched, muddy, stained by contact with the thickets; but +his former mood had disappeared and in its place was a harsh, explosive +energy. +</P> + +<P> +"Tom!" he cried. "You and Appleton and I will leave at daylight. The +men will wait here until we get back." His voice was incisive, its tone +forbade question. +</P> + +<P> +The youthful engineer stared at him in dismay, for only his anxiety had +triumphed over his fatigue, and daylight was but four hours away. +O'Neil noted the expression, and said, more gently: +</P> + +<P> +"You're tired, Appleton, I know, but in working for me you'll be called +upon for extraordinary effort now and then. I may not demand more than +an extra hour from you; then again I may demand a week straight without +sleep. I'll never ask it unless it's necessary and unless I'm ready to +do my share." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"The sacrifice is big, but the pay is bigger. Loyalty is all I require." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm ready now, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"We can't see to travel before dawn. Help Tom load the lightest boat +with rations for five days. If we run short we'll 'Siwash' it." He +kicked off his rubber boots, up-ended them to drain the water out, then +flung himself upon his bed of boughs and was asleep almost before the +two had recovered from their surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"Five days—or longer!" Slater said, gloomily, as he and Dan began +their preparations. "And me with indigestion!" +</P> + +<P> +"What does it mean?" queried Appleton. +</P> + +<P> +"It means I'll probably succumb." +</P> + +<P> +"No, no! What's the meaning of this change of plan? I can't understand +it." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't need to," "Happy Tom" informed him, curtly. There was a look +of solicitude in his face as he added, "I wish I'd made him take off +his wet clothes before he went to sleep." +</P> + +<P> +"Let's wake him up." +</P> + +<P> +But Slater shook his head. "I'd sooner wake a rattlesnake," said he. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil roused the members of his expedition while the sky was reddening +faintly, for he had a mind which worked like an alarm-clock. All except +Appleton had worked for him before, and the men accepted his orders to +await his return with no appearance of surprise. +</P> + +<P> +With the first clear light he and his two companions set out, rowing up +the estuary of the Salmon until the current became too swift to stem in +that manner. Then landing, they rigged a "bridle" for the skiff, fitted +their shoulders to loops in a ninety-foot tow rope, and began to +"track" their craft up against the stream. It was heartbreaking work. +Frequently they were waist-deep in the cold water. Long "sweepers" with +tips awash in the flood interfered with their efforts. The many +branches of the stream forced them to make repeated crossings, for the +delta was no more than an endless series of islands through which the +current swirled. When dusk overtook them they were wet, weary, and weak +from hunger. With the dawn they were up and at it again, but their task +became constantly more difficult because of the floating glacier ice, +which increased with every mile. They were obliged to exercise the +extremest caution. Hour after hour they strained against the current, +until the ropes bit into their aching flesh, bringing raw places out on +neck and palm. Hour after hour the ice, went churning past, and through +it all came the intermittent echo of the caving glaciers ahead of them. +</P> + +<P> +Dan Appleton realized very soon whither the journey was leading, and at +thought of actually facing those terrors which loomed so large in +conjecture his pulses began to leap. He had a suspicion of O'Neil's +intent, but dared not voice it. Though the scheme seemed mad enough, +its very audacity fascinated him. It would be worth while to take part +in such an undertaking, even if it ended in failure. And somehow, +against his judgment, he felt that his leader would find a way. +</P> + +<P> +For the most part, O'Neil was as silent as a man of stone, and only on +those rare occasions when he craved relief from his thoughts did he +encourage Dan to talk. Then he sometimes listened, but more frequently +he did not. Slater had long since become a dumb draught animal, +senseless to discomfort except in the hour of relaxation when he +monotonously catalogued his ills. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you a married man?" O'Neil inquired once of Dan. +</P> + +<P> +"Not yet, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Family?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure! A great big, fine one, consisting of a sister. But she's more +than a family—she's a religion." Receiving encouragement from his +employer's look of interest, he continued: "We were wiped out by the +San Francisco earthquake, and stood in the bread line for a while. We +managed to save four thousand dollars from the wreck, which we divided +equally. Then we started out to make our fortunes. It was her idea." +</P> + +<P> +"You came to Cortez?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Money was so easy for me that I lost all respect for it. The town +rang with my mirth for a while. I was an awful fool." +</P> + +<P> +"Education!" +</P> + +<P> +"Now it's my ambition to get settled and have her with me. I haven't +had a good laugh, a hearty meal, or a Christian impulse since I left +her." +</P> + +<P> +"What did she do with her half of the fortune?" +</P> + +<P> +"Invested it wisely and went to work. I bought little round celluloid +disks with mine; she bought land of some sort with hers. She's a +newspaper woman, and the best in the world—or at least the best in +Seattle. She wrote that big snow-slide story for The Review last fall. +She tells 'em how to raise eight babies on seven dollars a week, or how +to make a full set of library furniture out of three beer kegs, a +packing-case, and an epileptic icebox. She runs the 'Domestic Economy' +column; and she's the sweetest, the cleverest, the most stunning—" +</P> + +<P> +Appleton's enthusiastic tribute ceased suddenly, for he saw that O'Neil +was once more deaf and that his eyes were fixed dreamily upon the canon +far ahead. +</P> + +<P> +As the current quickened the progress of the little party became slower +and more exhausting. Their destination seemed to retreat before them; +the river wound back and forth in a maddening series of detours. Some +of the float ice was large now, and these pieces rushed down upon them +like charging horses, keeping them constantly on the alert to prevent +disaster. It seemed impossible that such a flat country could afford so +much fall. "Happy Tom" at length suggested that they tie up and pack +the remaining miles overland, but O'Neil would not hear to this. +</P> + +<P> +They had slept so little, their labors had been so heavy, that they +were dumb and dull with fatigue when they finally reached the first +bluffs and worked their boat through a low gorge where all the waters +of the Salmon thrashed and icebergs galloped past like a pallid host in +flight. Here they paused and stared with wondering eyes at what lay +before; a chill, damp breath swept over them, and a mighty awe laid +hold of their hearts. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on!" said O'Neil. "Other men have gone through; we'll do the +same." +</P> + +<P> +On the evening of the sixth day a splintered, battered poling-boat with +its seams open swung in to the bank where O'Neil's men were encamped, +and its three occupants staggered out. They were gaunt and stiff and +heavy-eyed. Even Tom Slater's full cheeks hung loose and flabby. But +the leader was alert and buoyant; his face was calm, his eyes were +smiling humorously. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll take the men on to the coal-fields and finish the work," he +told his boss packer later that night. "Appleton and I will start back +to Cortez in the morning. When you have finished go to Juneau and see +to the recording." +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't that my luck?" murmured the dyspeptic. "Me for Kyak where there +ain't a store, and my gum all wet." +</P> + +<P> +"Chew it, paper and all," advised Appleton, cheerfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, the good has all gone out of it now," Slater explained. +</P> + +<P> +"Meet me in Seattle on the fifteenth of next month," his employer +directed. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be there if old 'Indy' spares me. But dyspepsia, with nothing to +eat except beans and pork bosom, will probably lay me in my grave long +before the fifteenth. However, I'll do my best. Now, do you want to +know what I think of this proposition of yours?" He eyed his superior +somberly. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure; I want all the encouragement I can get, and your views are +always inspiriting." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I think it's nothing more nor less than hydrophobia. These +mosquitoes have given you the rabies and you need medical attention. +You need it bad." +</P> + +<P> +"Still, you'll help me, won't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes," said Tom, "I'll help you. But it's a pity to see a man go +mad." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +VII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE DREAM +</H4> + +<P> +The clerk of the leading hotel in Seattle whirled his register about as +a man deposited a weather-beaten war-bag on the marble floor and leaned +over the counter to inquire: +</P> + +<P> +"Is Murray O'Neil here?" +</P> + +<P> +This question had been asked repeatedly within the last two hours, but +heretofore by people totally different in appearance from the one who +spoke now. The man behind the desk measured the stranger with a +suspicious eye before answering. He saw a ragged, loose-hung, fat +person of melancholy countenance, who was booted to the knee and +chewing gum. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. O'Neil keeps a room here by the year," he replied, guardedly. +</P> + +<P> +"Show me up!" said the new-comer as if advancing a challenge. +</P> + +<P> +A smart reply was on the lips of the clerk, but something in the +other's manner discouraged flippancy. +</P> + +<P> +"You are a friend of Mr. O'Neil's?" he asked, politely. +</P> + +<P> +"Friend? Um-m, no! I'm just him when he ain't around." In a loud tone +he inquired of the girl at the news-stand, "Have you got any +wintergreen gum?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. O'Neil is not here." +</P> + +<P> +The fat man stared at his informant accusingly, "Ain't this the +fifteenth?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"It is." +</P> + +<P> +"Then he's here, all right!" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. O'Neil is not in," the clerk repeated, gazing fixedly over Mr. +Slater's left shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I guess his room will do for me. I ain't particular." +</P> + +<P> +"His room is occupied at present. If you care to wait you will find—" +</P> + +<P> +Precisely what it was that he was to find Tom never learned, for at +that moment the breath was driven out of his lungs by a tremendous +whack, and he turned to behold Dr. Stanley Gray towering over him, an +expansive smile upon his face. +</P> + +<P> +"Look out!" Slater coughed, and seized his Adam's apple. "You made me +swallow my cud." The two shook hands warmly. +</P> + +<P> +"We've been expecting you, Tom," said the Doctor. "We're all here +except Parker, and he wired he'd arrive to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +"Where's Murray?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's around somewhere." +</P> + +<P> +Slater turned a resentful, smoldering gaze upon the hotel clerk, and +looked about him for a chair with a detachable leg, but the object of +his regard disappeared abruptly behind the key-rack. +</P> + +<P> +"This rat-brained party said he hadn't come." +</P> + +<P> +"He arrived this morning, but we've barely seen him." +</P> + +<P> +"I left Appleton in Juneau. He'll be down on the next boat." +</P> + +<P> +"Appleton? Who's he?" Dr. Gray inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he's a new member of the order—initiated last month. He's +learning to be a sleep-hater, like the rest of us. He's recording the +right-of-way." +</P> + +<P> +"What's in the air? None of us know. We didn't even know Murray's +whereabouts—thought he was in Kyak, until he sounded the tocsin from +New York. The other boys have quit their jobs and I've sold my +practice." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a railroad!" +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Gray grinned. "Well! That's the tone I use when I break the news +that it's a girl instead of a boy." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a railroad," Slater repeated, "up the Salmon River!" +</P> + +<P> +"Good Lord! What about those glaciers?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it ain't so much the glaciers and the floating icebergs and the +raging chasms and the quaking tundra—Murray thinks he can overcome +them—it's the mosquitoes and the Copper Trust that are going to figure +in this enterprise. One of 'em will be the death of me, and the other +will bust Murray, if he don't look out. Say, my neck is covered with +bumps till it feels like a dog-collar of seed pearls." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think we'll have a fight?" asked the doctor, hopefully. +</P> + +<P> +"A fight! It'll be the worst massacre since the Little Big Horn. We're +surrounded already, and no help in sight." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil found his "boys" awaiting him when he returned to his room. +There was Mellen, lean, gaunt and serious-minded, with the dust of +Chihuahua still upon his shoes; there were McKay, the superintendent, +who had arrived from California that morning; Sheldon, the commissary +man; Elkins; "Doc" Gray; and "Happy Tom" Slater. Parker, the chief +engineer, alone was absent. +</P> + +<P> +"I sent Appleton in from Cortez," he told them, "to come down the river +and make the preliminary survey into Omar. He cables me that he has +filed his locations and everything is O. K. On my way East I stopped +here long enough to buy the Omar cannery, docks, buildings, and town +site. It's all mine, and it will save us ninety days' work in getting +started." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you make of that tundra between Omar and the canon?" queried +McKay, who had crossed the Salmon River delta and knew its character. +"It's like calf's-foot jelly—a man bogs down to his waist in it." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll fill and trestle," said O'Neil. +</P> + +<P> +"We couldn't move a pile-driver twenty feet." +</P> + +<P> +"It's frozen solid in winter." +</P> + +<P> +McKay nodded. "We'll have to drive steam points ahead of every pile, I +suppose, and we'll need Eskimos to work in that cold, but I guess we +can manage somehow." +</P> + +<P> +"That country is like an apple pie," said Tom Slater—"it's better cold +than hot. There's a hundred inches of rainfall at Omar in summer. We'll +all have web feet when we get out." +</P> + +<P> +Sheldon, the light-hearted commissary man, spoke up. "If it's as wet as +all that, well need Finns—instead of Eskimos." He was promptly hooted +into silence. +</P> + +<P> +"I understand those glaciers come down to the edge of the river," the +superintendent ventured. +</P> + +<P> +"They do!" O'Neil acknowledged, "and they're the liveliest ones I ever +saw. Tom can answer for that. One of them is fully four hundred feet +high at the face and four miles across. They're constantly breaking, +too." +</P> + +<P> +"Lumps bigger than this hotel," supplemented Slater. "It's quite a +sight—equal to anything in the state of Maine." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil laughed with the others at this display of sectional pride, and +then explained: "The problem of passing them sounds difficult, but in +reality it isn't. If those other engineers had looked over the ground +as I did, instead of relying entirely upon hearsay, we wouldn't be +meeting here to-day. Of course I realized that we couldn't build a road +over a moving river of ice, nor in front of one, for that matter, but I +discovered that Nature had made us one concession. She placed her +glaciers on opposite sides of the valley, to be sure, but she placed +the one that comes in from the east bank slightly higher upstream than +the one that comes in from the west. They don't really face each other, +although from the sea they appear to do so. You see the answer?" His +hearers nodded vigorously. "If we cross the river, low down, by a +trestle, and run up the east bank past Jackson glacier until we are +stopped by Garfield—the upper one—then throw a bridge directly +across, and back to the side we started from, we miss them both and +have the river always between them and us. Above the upper crossing +there will be a lot of heavy rock work to do, but nothing unusual, and, +once through the gorge, we come out into the valley, where the other +roads run in from Cortez. They cross three divides, while we run +through on a one-per-cent grade. That will give us a downhill pull on +all heavy freight." +</P> + +<P> +"Sounds as simple as a pair of suspenders, doesn't it?" inquired +Slater. "But wait till you see it. The gorge below Niagara is stagnant +water compared with the cataract above those glaciers. It takes two +looks to see the top of the mountains. And those glaciers +themselves—Well! Language just gums up and sticks when it comes to +describing them." +</P> + +<P> +Mellen, the bridge-builder, spoke for the first time, and the others +listened. +</P> + +<P> +"As I understand it we will cross the river between the glaciers and +immediately below the upper one." +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly!" +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head. "We can't build piers to withstand those heavy bergs +which you tell me are always breaking off." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll explain how we can," said O'Neil. "You've hit the bull's-eye—the +tender spot in the whole enterprise. While the river is narrow and +rapid in front of Jackson—the lower glacier—opposite Garfield there +is a kind of lake, formed, I suppose, when the glacier receded from its +original position. Now then, here lies the joker, the secret of the +whole proposition. This lake is deep, but there is a shallow bar across +its outlet which serves to hold back all but the small bergs. This +gives us a chance to cross in safety. At first I was puzzled to +discover why only the ice from the lower glacier came down-river; then, +when I realized the truth, I knew I had the key to Alaska in my hands. +We'll cross just below this bar. Understand? Of course it all depends +upon Parker's verdict, but I'm so sure his will agree with mine that +I've made my preparations, bought Omar and gathered you fellows +together. We're going to spring the biggest coup in railroad history." +</P> + +<P> +"Where's the money coming from?" Slater inquired, bluntly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm putting in my own fortune." +</P> + +<P> +"How much is that? I'm dead to all sense of modesty, you see." +</P> + +<P> +"About a million dollars," said O'Neil. +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! That won't get us started." +</P> + +<P> +"I've raised another million in New York." The chief was smiling and +did not seem to resent this inquisitiveness in the least. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing but a shoe-string!" +</P> + +<P> +"My dear 'Happy,'" laughed the builder, "I don't intend to complete the +road." +</P> + +<P> +"Then—why in blazes are you starting it?" demanded Slater in a +bewilderment which the others evidently shared. "It's one thing to +build a railroad on a contractor's commission, but it's another thing +to build it and pay your own way as you go along. Half a railroad ain't +any good." +</P> + +<P> +"Once my right-of-way is filed it will put those projects from Cortez +out of business. No one but an imbecile would think of building in from +there with the Omar route made possible. Before we come to that Salmon +River bridge the Copper Trust will have to buy us out!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's language!" said "Happy Tom" in sudden admiration. "Those are +words I understand. I withdraw my objections and give my consent to the +deal." +</P> + +<P> +"You are staking your whole fortune on your judgment, as I understand +it," McKay ventured. +</P> + +<P> +"Every dollar of it," Murray answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, chief, that's gambling some!" young Sheldon remarked with a +wondering look. +</P> + +<P> +They were deep in their discussion when the telephone broke in noisily. +Sheldon, being nearest to the instrument, answered it. "There's a +newspaper reporter downstairs to interview you," he announced, after an +instant. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't grant interviews," O'Neil said, sharply. He could not guess by +what evil chance the news of his plans had leaked out. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing doing!" Sheldon spoke into the transmitter. He turned again to +his employer. "Operator says the party doesn't mind waiting." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil frowned impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +"Throw him out!" Sheldon directed, brusquely, then suddenly dropped the +receiver as if it had burnt his fingers. "Hell! It's a woman, Murray! +She's on the wire. She thanks you sweetly and says she'll wait." +</P> + +<P> +"A woman! A newspaper woman!" O'Neil rose and seized the instrument +roughly. His voice was freezing as he said: "Hello! I refuse to be +interviewed. Yes! There's no use—" His tone suddenly altered. "Miss +Appleton! I beg your pardon. I'll be right down." Turning to his +subordinates, he announced with a wry smile: "This seems to terminate +our interview. She's Dan Appleton's sister, and therefore—" He +shrugged resignedly. "Now run along. I'll see you in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +His "boys" made their way down to the street, talking guardedly as they +went. All were optimistic save Slater, whose face remained shrouded in +its customary gloom. +</P> + +<P> +"Cheer up, 'Happy'!" Dr. Gray exhorted him. "It's the biggest thing we +ever tackled." +</P> + +<P> +"Wait! Just wait till you've seen the place," Tom said. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you think it can be done?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nope!" +</P> + +<P> +"Come, come!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's impossible! Of course WE'LL do it, but it's impossible, just the +same. It will mean a scrap, too, like none of us ever saw, and I was +raised in a logging-camp where fighting is the general recreation. If I +was young, like the rest of you, I wouldn't mind; but I'm old—and my +digestion's gone. I can't hardly take care of myself any more, Doc. I'm +too feeble to fight or—" He signaled a passing car; it failed to stop +and he rushed after it, dodging vehicles with the agility of a rabbit +and swinging his heavy war-bag as if it weighed no more than a good +resolution. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil entered the ladies' parlor with a feeling of extreme annoyance, +expecting to meet an inquisitive, bold young woman bent upon exploiting +his plans and his personality in the usual inane journalistic fashion. +He was surprised and offended that Dan Appleton, in whom he had reposed +the utmost faith, should have betrayed his secret. Publicity was a +thing he detested at all times, and at present he particularly dreaded +its effect. But he was agreeably surprised in the girl who came toward +him briskly with hand outstretched. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Appleton was her brother's double; she had his frank blue eyes, +his straw-gold hair, his humorous smile and wide-awake look. She was +not by any means beautiful!—her features were too irregular, her nose +too tip-tilted, her mouth too generous for that—but she seemed crisp, +clean-cut, and wholesome What first struck O'Neil was her effect of +boyishness. From the crown of her plain straw "sailor" to the soles of +her sensible walking-boots there was no suggestion of feminine +frippery. She wore a plain shirtwaist and a tailored skirt, and her +hair was arranged simply. The wave in its pale gold was the only +concession to mere prettiness. Yet she gave no impression of deliberate +masculinity. She struck one as merely not interested in clothes, +instinctively expressing in her dress her own boyish directness and her +businesslike absorption in her work. +</P> + +<P> +"You're furious, of course; anybody would be," she began, then laughed +so frankly that his eyes softened and the wrinkles at their corners +deepened. +</P> + +<P> +"I fear I was rude before I learned you were Dan's sister," he +apologized. "But you see I'm a bit afraid of newspaper people." +</P> + +<P> +"I knew you'd struggle—although Dan described you as a perfectly +angelic person." +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed!" +</P> + +<P> +"But I'm a real reporter, so I won't detain you long. I don't care +where you were born or where you went to school, or what patent +breakfast-food you eat. Tell me, are you going to build another +railroad?" +</P> + +<P> +"I hope so. I'm always building roads when my bids are low enough to +secure the contracts; that's my business." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you going to build one in Alaska?" +</P> + +<P> +"Possibly! There seems to be an opportunity there—but Dan has probably +told you as much about that as I am at liberty to tell. He's been over +the ground." +</P> + +<P> +She pursed her lips at him. "You know very well, or you ought to know, +that Dan wouldn't tell me a thing while he's working for you. He hasn't +said a word, but—Is that why you came in frowning like a +thunder-cloud? Did you think he set me on your trail?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think I do know that he wouldn't do anything really indiscreet." +Murray regarded her with growing favor. There was something about this +boyish girl which awakened the same spontaneous liking he had felt upon +his first meeting with her brother. He surprised her by confessing +boldly: +</P> + +<P> +"I AM building a railroad—to the interior of Alaska. I've been east +and raised the money, my men are here; we'll begin operations at once." +</P> + +<P> +"That's what Mr. Gordon told me about his scheme, but he hasn't done +much, so far." +</P> + +<P> +"My line will put his out of business, also that of the Trust, and the +various wildcat promoters." +</P> + +<P> +"Where does your road start from?" +</P> + +<P> +"The town of Omar, on King Phillip Sound, near Hope and Cortez. It will +run up the Salmon River and past the glaciers which those other men +refused to tackle." +</P> + +<P> +"If I weep, it is for joy," said the girl. "I don't like Curtis Gordon. +I call him Simon Legree." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, he impresses me as a real old-time villain—with the +riding-boots and the whip and all that. 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' is my +favorite play, it's so funny. This is a big story you've given me, Mr. +O'Neil." +</P> + +<P> +"I realize that." +</P> + +<P> +"It has the biggest news value of anything Alaskan which has 'broken' +for some time. I think you are a very nice person to interview, after +all." +</P> + +<P> +"Wait! I don't want you to use a word of what I've told you." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Appleton's clearly penciled brows rose inquiringly. "Then why +didn't you keep still?" +</P> + +<P> +"You asked me. I told you because you are Dan Appleton's sister. +Nevertheless, I don't want it made public." +</P> + +<P> +"Let's sit down," said the girl with a laugh. "To tell you the truth, I +didn't come here to interview you for my paper. I'm afraid I've tried +your patience awfully." A faint flush tinged her clear complexion. "I +just came, really, to get some news of Dan." +</P> + +<P> +"He's perfectly well and happy, and you'll see him in a few days." Miss +Appleton nodded. "So he wrote, but I couldn't wait! Now won't you tell +me all about him—not anything about his looks and his health, but +little unimportant things that will mean something. You see, I'm his +mother and his sister and his sweetheart." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil did as he was directed and before long found himself reciting +the details of that trying trip up the Salmon River. He told her how he +had sent the young engineer out to run the preliminary survey for the +new railroad, and added: "He is in a fair way to realize his ambition +of having you with him all the time. I'm sure that will please you." +</P> + +<P> +"And it is my ambition to make enough money to have him with me," she +announced. With an air of some importance she continued: "I'll tell you +a secret: I'm writing for the magazines—stories!" She sat back +awaiting his enthusiasm. When she saw that it was not forthcoming she +exclaimed: "My! How you do rave over the idea!" +</P> + +<P> +"I congratulate you, of course, but—" +</P> + +<P> +"Now don't tell me that you tried it once. Of course you did. I know +it's a harmless disease, like the measles, and that everybody has it +when they're young. Above all, don't volunteer the information that +your own life is full of romance and would make a splendid novel. They +all say that." +</P> + +<P> +Murray O'Neil felt the glow of personal interest that results from the +discovery in another of a congenial sense of humor. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't suppose you had to write," he said. "Dan told me you had +invested your fortune and were on Easy Street." +</P> + +<P> +"That was poetic license. I fictionized slightly in my report to him +because I knew he was doing so well." +</P> + +<P> +"Then your investment didn't turn out fortunately?" +</P> + +<P> +Miss Appleton hesitated. "You seem to be a kindly, trusting person. I'm +tempted to destroy your faith in human nature." +</P> + +<P> +"Please don't." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I shall. My experience may help you to avoid the pitfalls of high +finance. Well, then, it was a very sad little fortune, to begin with, +like a boy in grammar-school—just big enough to be of no assistance. +But even a boy's-size fortune looked big to me. I wanted to invest it +in something sure—no national-bank stock, subject to the danger of an +absconding cashier, mind you; no government bonds with the possibility +of war to depreciate them; but something stable and agricultural, with +the inexhaustible resources of nature back of it. This isn't my own +language. I cribbed it from the apple-man." +</P> + +<P> +"Apple-man?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. He had brown eyes, and a silky mustache, and a big irrigation +plan over east of the mountains. You gave him your money and he gave +you a perfectly good receipt. Then he planted little apple trees. He +nursed them tenderly for five years, after which he turned them over to +you with his blessing, and you lived happily for evermore. At least +that was the idea. You couldn't fail to grow rich, for the water always +bubbled through his little ditch and it never froze nor rained to spoil +things, I used to love apples. And then there was my name, which seemed +a good omen. But lately I've considered changing 'Appleton' to 'Berry' +or 'Plummer' or some other kind of fruit." +</P> + +<P> +"I infer that the scheme failed." O'Neil's eyes were half closed with +amusement. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. It was a good scheme, too, except for the fact that the +irrigation ditch ran uphill, and that there wasn't any water where it +started from, and that apples never had been made to grow in that +locality because of something in the soil, and that Brown-eyed Betty's +title to the land wouldn't hold water any more than the ditch. +Otherwise I'm sure he'd have made a success and I'd have spent my +declining years in a rocking-chair under the falling apple blossoms, +eating Pippins and Jonathans and Northern Spies. I can't bear to touch +them now. Life at my boarding-house is one long battle against apple +pies, apple puddings, apple tapioca. Ugh! I hate the very word." +</P> + +<P> +"I can understand your aversion," laughed O'Neil. "I wonder if you +would let me order dinner for both of us, provided I taboo fruit. +Perhaps I'll think of something more to tell you about Dan. I'm sure he +wouldn't object—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my card is all the chaperon I need; it takes me everywhere and +renders me superior to the smaller conventionalities." She handed him +one, and he read: +</P> + +<P> +ELIZA V. APPLETON +</P> + +<P> +THE REVIEW +</P> + +<P> +"May I ask what the 'V' stands for?" He held up the card between his +thumb and finger. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Appleton blushed, for all the world like a boy, then answered, +stiffly: +</P> + +<P> +"It stands for Violet. But that isn't my fault, and I'm doing my best +to live it down." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +VIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IN WHICH WE COME TO OMAR +</H4> + +<P> +"Miss Appleton," said the editor of The Review, "would you like to take +a vacation?" +</P> + +<P> +"Is that your delicate way of telling me I'm discharged?" inquired +Eliza. +</P> + +<P> +"You know very well we wouldn't fire you. But you haven't had a +vacation for three years, and you need a rest." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought I was looking extremely well, for me." +</P> + +<P> +"We're going to send you on an assignment—to Alaska—if you'll go." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm thinking of quitting newspaper-work for good. The magazines pay +better, and I'm writing a book." +</P> + +<P> +"I know. Perhaps this will just fit in with your plans, for it has to +do with your pet topic of conservation. Those forestry stories of yours +and the article on the Water Power Combination made a hit, didn't they?" +</P> + +<P> +"I judge so. Anyhow the magazine people want more." +</P> + +<P> +"Good! Here's your chance to do something big for yourself and for us. +Those Alaskan coal claimants have been making a great effort in +Washington to rush their patents through, and there seems to be some +possibility of their succeeding unless the public wakes up. We want to +show up the whole fraudulent affair, show how the entries were illegal, +and how the agents of the Trust are trying to put over the greatest +steal of the century. It's the Heidlemanns that are back of it—and a +few fellows like Murray O'Neil." +</P> + +<P> +"O'Neil!" +</P> + +<P> +"You know him, don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I interviewed him a year ago last spring, when he started his +railroad." +</P> + +<P> +"He's fighting for one of the biggest and richest groups of claims. +He's backed by some Eastern people. It's the psychological moment to +expose both the railroad and the coal situation, for the thieves are +fighting among themselves—Gordon, O'Neil, and the Heidlemanns." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. O'Neil is no thief," said the girl, shortly. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course not. He's merely trying to snatch control of an empire, and +to grab ten million dollars' worth of coal, for nothing. That's not +theft, it's financial genius! Fortunately, however, the public is +rousing itself—coming to regard its natural resources as its own and +not the property of the first financier who lays hold of them. Call it +what you will, but give us the true story of the Kyak coal and, above +all, the story of the railroad battle. Things are growing bitter up +there already, and they're bound to get rapidly worse. Give us the news +and we'll play it up big through our Eastern syndicate. You can handle +the magazine articles in a more dignified way, if you choose. A few +good vigorous, fearless, newspaper stories, written by some one on the +ground, will give Congress such a jolt that no coal patents will be +issued this season and no Government aid will be given to the +railroads. You get the idea?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly! But it will take time to do all that." +</P> + +<P> +"Spend a year at it if necessary. The Review is fighting for a +principle; it will back you to any extent. Isn't it worth a year, two +years, of hard labor, to awaken the American people to the knowledge +that they are being robbed of their birthright? I have several men whom +I could send, but I chose you because your work along this line has +given you a standing. This is your chance, Eliza—to make a big +reputation and to perform a real service to the country. It's a chance +that may never come your way again. Will you go?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I'll go." +</P> + +<P> +"I knew you would. You're all business, and that's what makes a hit in +this office. You're up against a tough proposition, but I can trust you +to make good on it. You can't fail if you play one interest against the +other, for they're all fighting like Kilkenny cats. The Heidlemanns are +a bunch of bandits; Gordon is a brilliant, unscrupulous promoter; +O'Neil is a cold, shrewd schemer with more brains and daring than any +of the others—he showed that when he walked in there and seized the +Salmon River canon. He broke up all their plans and set the Copper +Trust by the ears, but I understand they've got him bottled up at last. +Here's your transportation—on Saturday's steamer." The editor shook +Miss Appleton's hand warmly as she rose. "Good luck, Eliza! Remember, +we won't balk, no matter how lively your stuff is. The hotter the +better—and that's what the magazines want, too. If I were you, I'd +gum-shoe it. They're a rotten crowd and they might send you back if +they got wise." +</P> + +<P> +"I think not," said Eliza, quietly. +</P> + +<P> +The town of Omar lay drenched in mist as the steamer bearing the +representative of The Review drew in at the dock. The whole region was +sodden and rain-soaked, verdant with a lush growth. No summer sun shone +here, to bake sprouting leaves or sear tender grasses. Beneath the +sheltering firs a blanket of moss extended over hill and vale, +knee-deep and treacherous to the foot. The mountain crests were white, +and down every gully streamed water from the melting snows. The country +itself lay on end, as if crumpled by some giant hand, and presented a +tropical blend of colors. There was the gray of fog and low-swept +clouds, the dense, dark green of the spruces, underlaid with the +richer, lighter shades where the summer vegetation rioted. And running +through it all were the shimmering, silent reaches of the sound. +</P> + +<P> +Omar itself was a mushroom city, sprung up by magic, as if the dampness +at its roots had caused it to rise overnight. A sawmill shrieked +complainingly; a noisy switch-engine shunted rows of flat cars back and +forth, tooting lustily; the rattle of steam-winches and the cries of +stevedores from a discharging freighter echoed against the hillsides. +Close huddled at the water-front lay the old cannery buildings, greatly +expanded and multiplied now and glistening with fresh paint. Back of +them again lay the town, its stumpy, half-graded streets terminating in +the forest like the warty feelers of a stranded octopus. Everywhere was +hurry and confusion, and over all was the ever-present shroud of mist +which thickened into showers or parted reluctantly to let the sun peep +through. +</P> + +<P> +Dan Appleton, his clothing dewy from the fog, his cheeks bronzed by +exposure, was over the rail before the ship had made fast, and had +Eliza in his arms, crushing her with the hug of a bear. +</P> + +<P> +"Come up to the house, Sis, quick!" he cried, when the first frenzy of +greeting was over—"your house and mine!" His eyes were dancing, his +face was alight with eagerness. +</P> + +<P> +"But, Danny," she laughed, squeezing his arm tenderly, "you live with +Mr. O'Neil and all those other men in a horrible, crawling bunk-house." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, do I? I'll have you know that our bunk-houses don't crawl. And +besides—But wait! It's a s'prise." +</P> + +<P> +"A s'prise?" she queried, eagerly. "For me?" +</P> + +<P> +He nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me what it is, quick! You know I never could wait for s'prises." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it's a brand-new ultra-stylish residence for just you and me. +When the chief heard you were coming he had a cottage built." +</P> + +<P> +"Danny! It was only five days ago that I cabled you!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's really ten days for us, for you see we never sleep. It is +finished and waiting, and your room is in white, and the paint will be +dry to-morrow. He's a wonder!" +</P> + +<P> +Remembering the nature of her mission, Eliza demurred. "I'm afraid I +can't live there, Dan. You know"—she hesitated—"I may have to write +some rather dreadful things about him." +</P> + +<P> +"What?" Dan's face fell. "You are going to attack the chief! I had no +idea of that!" He looked genuinely distressed and a little stern. +</P> + +<P> +She laid a pleading hand upon his arm. "Forgive me, Dan," she said. "I +knew how you would feel, and, to tell the truth, I don't like that part +of it one bit. But it was my big chance—the sort of thing I have been +waiting years for. I couldn't bear to miss it." There was a suspicion +of tears in her eyes. "I didn't think it all out. I just came. Things +get awfully mixed, don't they? Of course I wouldn't attack him +unfairly, but I do believe in conservation—and what could I do but +come here to you?" +</P> + +<P> +Dan smiled to reassure her. "Perhaps you won't feel like excoriating +him when you learn more about things. I know you wouldn't be unfair. +You'd flunk the job first. Wait till you talk to him. But you can't +refuse his kindness, for a time at least. There's nowhere else for you +to stay, and Murray would pick you up and put you into the cottage, +muck-rake and all, if I didn't. He had to go out on the work this +morning or he'd have been here to welcome you. He sent apologies and +said a lot of nice things, which I've forgotten." +</P> + +<P> +"Well"—Eliza still looked troubled—"all right. But wait," she cried, +with a swift change of mood. "I've made a little friend, the dearest, +the most useless creature! We shared the same stateroom and we're +sisters. She actually says I'm pretty, so of course I'm her slave for +life." She hurried away in the midst of Dan's loyal protestations that +she WAS pretty—more beautiful than the stars, more pleasing to the eye +than the orchids of Brazil. A moment later she reappeared to present +Natalie Gerard. +</P> + +<P> +Dan greeted the new arrival with a cordiality in which there was a +trace of shyness unusual with him. "We've made quite a change since you +were up here, Miss Gerard," he remarked. "The ships stop first at Omar +now, you see. I trust it won't inconvenience you." +</P> + +<P> +"Not in the least," said Natalie. "I shall arrive at Hope quite soon +enough." +</P> + +<P> +"Omar Khayyam is out in the wilderness somewhere," Eliza informed her +girl friend, "with his book of verses and his jug of wine, I suppose." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. O'Neil?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. But he'll be back soon, and meanwhile you are to come up and see +our paradise." +</P> + +<P> +"It—looks terribly wet," Natalie ventured. "Perhaps we'd better wait +until the rain stops." +</P> + +<P> +"Please don't," Dan laughed. "It won't stop until autumn and then it +will only change to snow. We don't have much sunshine—" +</P> + +<P> +"You must! You're tanned like an Indian," his sister exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"That's rust! O'Neil wanted to get a record of the bright weather in +Omar, so he put a man on the job to time it, but the experiment failed!" +</P> + +<P> +"How so?" +</P> + +<P> +"We didn't have a stop-watch in town. Now come! Nobody ever catches +cold here—there isn't time." +</P> + +<P> +He led the two girls ashore and up through the town to a moss-green +bungalow, its newness attested by the yellow sawdust and fresh shavings +which lay about. Amid their exclamations of delight he showed them the +neatly furnished interior, and among other wonders a bedroom daintily +done in white, with white curtains at the mullioned windows and a suite +of wicker furniture. +</P> + +<P> +"Where he dug all that up I don't know," Dan said, pointing to the bed +and dresser and chairs. "He must have had it hidden out somewhere." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza surveyed this chamber with wondering eyes. "It makes me feel +quite ashamed," she said, "though, of course, he did it for Dan. When +he discovers my abominable mission he'll probably set me out in the +rain and break all my lead-pencils. But—isn't he magnificent?" +</P> + +<P> +"He quite overwhelms one," Natalie agreed. "Back in New York, he's been +sending me American Beauties every week for more than a year. It's his +princely way." She colored slightly, despite the easy frankness of her +manner. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he's always doing something like that," Dan informed them, +whereupon his sister exclaimed: +</P> + +<P> +"You see, Natalie! The man is a viper. If he let his beard grow I'm +sure we'd see it was blue." +</P> + +<P> +"You shall have an opportunity of judging," came O'Neil's voice from +behind them, and he entered with hands outstretched, smiling at their +surprise. When he had expressed his pleasure at Natalie's presence and +had bidden both her and Eliza welcome to Omar, he explained: +</P> + +<P> +"I've just covered eighteen miles on a railroad tricycle and my back is +broken. The engines were busy, but I came, anyhow, hoping to arrive +before the steamer. Now what is this I hear about my beard?" +</P> + +<P> +It was Eliza's turn to blush, and she outdid Natalie. +</P> + +<P> +"They were raving about your gallantry," said Dan with all a brother's +ruthlessness, "until I told them it was merely a habit of mind with +you; then Sis called you a Bluebeard." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil smiled, stroking his stubbly chin. "You see it's only gray." +</P> + +<P> +"I—don't see," said Eliza, still flushing furiously. +</P> + +<P> +"You would if I continued to let it grow." +</P> + +<P> +"Hm-m! I think, myself, it's a sort of bluish gray," said Dan. +</P> + +<P> +"You are still working miracles," Natalie told O'Neil, an hour later, +while he was showing his visitors the few sights of Omar—"miracles of +kindness, as usual." +</P> + +<P> +Dan and his sister were following at a distance, arm in arm and +chattering like magpies. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no! That cottage is nothing. Miss Appleton had to have some place +to stop." +</P> + +<P> +"This all seems like magic." Natalie paused and looked over the busy +little town. "And to think you have done it in a year." +</P> + +<P> +"It was not I who did it; the credit belongs to those 'boys' of whom I +told you. They are all here, by the way—Parker, McKay, Mellen, +Sheldon, 'Doc' Gray—he has the hospital, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"And Mr. Slater?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, we couldn't exist without 'Happy Tom'! No, the only miracle about +all this is the loyalty that has made it possible. It is that which has +broken all records in railroad-building; that's what has pushed our +tracks forward until we're nearly up to one of Nature's real miracles. +You shall see those glaciers, one of these days. Sometimes I wonder if +even the devotion of those men will carry us through the final test. +But—you shall meet them all, to-night—my whole family." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't. The ship leaves this afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +"I've arranged to send you to Hope in my motor-boat, just as Mr. Gordon +sent me on my way a year ago. You will stay with the Appletons to-night +and help at the house-warming, then Dan will take you on in the +morning. Women are such rare guests at Omar that we refuse to part with +them. You agree?" +</P> + +<P> +"How can I refuse? Your word seems to be law here. I'll send word to +mother by the ship that I am detained by royal decree." +</P> + +<P> +She spoke with a gaiety that seemed a little forced, and at mention of +her departure a subtle change had come over her face. O'Neil realized +that she had matured markedly since his last meeting with her; there +was no longer quite the same effect of naive girlishness. +</P> + +<P> +"This was a very unhappy year for your loyal subject, Mr. O'Neil." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry," he declared with such genuine kindliness that she was +moved to confide in him. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother and I are ruined." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you tell me about it?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's merely—those wretched coal claims. I have a friend in the Land +Office at Washington, and, remembering what you said, I asked him to +look them up. I knew no other way to go about it. He tells me that +something was done, or was not done, by us, and that we have lost all +we put in." +</P> + +<P> +"I urged Gordon to obey that ruling, last spring." Natalie saw that his +face was dark with indignation, and the knowledge that he really cared +set her heart to pounding gratefully. She was half tempted to tell +about that other, that greater trouble which had stolen in upon her +peace of mind and robbed her of her girlhood, but she shrank from +baring her wounds—above all, a wound so vital and so personal as this. +</P> + +<P> +"Does your mother know?" he queried. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I preferred to tell her in Mr. Gordon's presence." Murray noticed +that she no longer called the man uncle. "But now that the time has +come, I'm frightened." +</P> + +<P> +"Never allow yourself to be afraid. Fear is something false; it doesn't +exist." +</P> + +<P> +"It seems to me he was—unfaithful to his trust. Am I right?" +</P> + +<P> +"That is something you must judge for yourself," he told her, gravely. +"You see, I don't know anything about the reasons which prompted him to +sacrifice your rights. He may have had very good reasons. I dare say he +had. In building this railroad I have felt but one regret; that is the +indirect effect it may have upon you and your mother. Your affairs are +linked closely with Gordon's and the success of my enterprise will mean +the failure of his." +</P> + +<P> +"You mustn't feel that way. I'm sure it won't affect us at all, for we +have nothing more to lose. Sometimes I think his judgment is faulty, +erratic, wonderful man though he is. Mother trusts him blindly, of +course, and so do I, yet I hardly know what to do. It is impossible +that he did worse than make a mistake." +</P> + +<P> +Her dark eyes were bent upon Murray and they were eloquent with the +question which she could not bring herself to ask. He longed to tell +her frankly that Curtis Gordon was a charlatan, or even worse, and that +his fairest schemes were doomed to failure by the very nature of his +methods, but instead he said: +</P> + +<P> +"I'm deeply distressed. I hope things are not as bad as you think and +that Mr. Gordon will be able to straighten them out for you. If ever I +can be of service you must be sure to call upon me." +</P> + +<P> +Her thanks were conventional, but in her heart was a deep, warm +gratitude, for she knew that he meant what he said and would not fail +her. +</P> + +<P> +Dan Appleton, eying Natalie and his chief from a distance, exclaimed, +admiringly: +</P> + +<P> +"She's a perfect peach, Sis. She registered a home run with me the +first time at bat." +</P> + +<P> +"She IS nice." +</P> + +<P> +"You know a fellow gets mighty lonely in a place like this. She'd make +a dandy sister-in-law for you, wouldn't she?" +</P> + +<P> +"Forget it!" said Eliza, sharply. "That's rank insubordination. Omar +Khayyam snatched her from the briny and tried to die for her. He has +bought her two acres of the most expensive roses and he remembers the +date of her birthday. Just you keep your hands off." +</P> + +<P> +"How does she feel about him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, she heroizes him, of course. I don't know just how deep the +feeling goes, but I got the impression that it was pretty serious. Two +women can't borrow hair-pins and mix powder puffs for a week and remain +strangers." +</P> + +<P> +"Then, as for Daniel Appleton, C.E., GOOD NIGHT!" exclaimed her +brother, ruefully. "If I were a woman I'd marry him myself, provided I +could get ahead of the rush; but, being a male of the species, I +suppose I shall creep out into the jungle and sulk." +</P> + +<P> +"Right-o! Don't enter this race, for I'm afraid you'd be a bad loser! +Personally I can't see anything in him to rave about. What scares me +pink is the knowledge that I must tell him the wretched business that +brings me here. If he strikes me, Danny, remember I'm still your +sister." +</P> + +<P> +When the big gong gave the signal for luncheon Appleton conducted +Natalie and Eliza to the company messroom, where the field and office +force dined together, and presented them to his fellow-lieutenants. At +supper-time those who had been out on the line during the day were +likewise introduced, and after a merry meal the whole party escorted +the two girls back to the green bungalow. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, here's a piano!" Eliza exclaimed upon entering the parlor. +</P> + +<P> +"I borrowed it for the evening from the Elite Saloon," O'Neil +volunteered. "It's a dissipated old instrument, and some of its teeth +have been knocked out—in drunken brawls, I'm afraid—but the owner +vouched for its behavior on this occasion." +</P> + +<P> +"It knows only one tune—'I Won't Go Home until Morning,'" Dan declared. +</P> + +<P> +McKay, however, promptly disproved this assertion by seating himself at +the keyboard and rattling off some popular melodies. With music and +laughter the long twilight fled, for O'Neil's "boys" flung themselves +into the task of entertaining his guests with whole-souled enthusiasm. +</P> + +<P> +So successful were their efforts that even "Happy Tom" appeared to +derive a mild enjoyment from them, which was a testimonial indeed. His +pleasure was made evident by no word of praise, nor faintest smile, but +rather by the lightened gloom in which he chewed his gum and by the +fact that he complained of nothing. In truth, he was not only +entertained by the general gaiety, but he was supremely interested in +Miss Appleton, who resembled no creature he had ever seen. He had met +many girls like Natalie, and feared them, but Eliza, with her +straightforward airs and her masculine mannerisms, was different. She +affected him in a way at once pleasant and disagreeable. He felt no +diffidence in speaking to her, for instance—a phenomenon which was in +itself a ground for suspicion. Then, too, her clothes—he could not +take his eyes off her clothes—were almost like Dan's. That seemed to +show common sense, but was probably only the sign of an eccentric, +domineering nature. On the other hand, the few words she addressed to +him were gracious, and her eyes had a merry twinkle which warmed his +heart. She must be all right, he reluctantly concluded, being Dan's +sister and O'Neil's friend. But deep down in his mind he cherished a +doubt. +</P> + +<P> +At her first opportunity Eliza undertook to make that confession the +thought of which had troubled her all the afternoon. Drawing O'Neil +aside, she began with some trepidation, "Have you any idea why I'm +here?" +</P> + +<P> +"I supposed either you or Dan had achieved your pet ambition." +</P> + +<P> +"Far from it. I have a fell purpose, and when you learn what it is I +expect you to move the piano out—that's what always happens in the +play when the heroine is dispossessed. Well, then, I've been sent by +The Review to bare all the disgraceful secrets of your life!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm delighted to learn you'll be here so long. You can't possibly +finish that task before next spring." His manner, though quizzical, was +genuinely hearty. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't laugh!" said the girl. "There's nothing funny about it. I came +north as a spy." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you're a Northern Spy!" +</P> + +<P> +"Apples!" she cried. "You remembered, didn't you? I never supposed men +like you could be flippant. Well, here goes for the worst." She +outlined her conversation with the editor of her paper. +</P> + +<P> +"So you think I'm trying to steal Alaska," he said when she had +concluded. +</P> + +<P> +"That seems to be the general idea." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a pretty big job." +</P> + +<P> +"Whoever controls transportation will have the country by the throat." +</P> + +<P> +"Yet somebody must build railroads, since the Government won't. Did it +ever occur to you that there is a great risk involved in a thing of +this sort, and that capital must see a profit before it enters a new +field? I wonder if you know how badly this country needs an outlet and +how much greater the benefit in dollars and cents will be to the men in +the interior than to those who finance the road. But I perceive that +you are a conservationist." +</P> + +<P> +"Rabid!" Eliza bridled a little at the hint of amused superiority in +his voice. "I'm a suffragist, too! I dare say that adds to your +disgust." +</P> + +<P> +"Nonsense!" he protested. "I have no quarrel with conservation nor with +'votes for women.' Neither have I anything to conceal. I'm only afraid +that, like most writers, you will be content with half-information. +Incomplete facts are responsible for most misunderstandings. If you are +in earnest and will promise to take the time necessary to get at all +the facts, I'll make an agreement with you." +</P> + +<P> +"I promise! Time and a typewriter are my only assets. I don't intend to +be hurried." +</P> + +<P> +Dan approached, drawn by the uncomfortable knowledge of his sister's +predicament, and broke in: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Sis has time to burn! She's going to write a book on the salmon +canneries while she's here. It's bound to be one of the 'six best +smellers'!" +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil waved him away with the threat of sending him out among the +mosquitoes. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll agree to show you everything we're doing." +</P> + +<P> +"Even to the coal-fields?" +</P> + +<P> +"Even to them. You shall know everything, then you can write what you +please." +</P> + +<P> +"And when I've exposed you to the world as a commercial pickpocket, as +a looter of the public domain—after Congress has appropriated your +fabulous coal claims—will you nail up the door of this little cottage, +and fire Dan?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you still be nice to me?" +</P> + +<P> +"My dear child, you are my guest. Come and go when and where you will. +Omar is yours so long as you stay, and when you depart in triumph, +leaving me a broken, discredited wretch, I shall stand on the dock and +wave you a bon voyage. Now it's bedtime for my 'boys,' since we rise at +five o'clock." +</P> + +<P> +"Heavens! Five! Why the sun isn't up at that time!" +</P> + +<P> +"The sun shines very little here; that's why we want you to stay at +Omar. I wish we might also keep Miss Natalie." +</P> + +<P> +When the callers had gone Eliza told Natalie and Dan: +</P> + +<P> +"He took it so nicely that I feel more ashamed than ever. One would +think he didn't care at all. Do you suppose he does?" +</P> + +<P> +"There's no denying that you appeared at an unfortunate time," said her +brother. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well—I'm not sure we'll ever succeed with this project. Parker says +the glacier bridge can be built, but the longer he studies it the +graver he gets. It's making an old man of him." +</P> + +<P> +"What does Mr. O'Neil say?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he's sanguine, as usual. He never gives up. But he has other +things to worry him—money! It's money, money, all the time. He wasn't +terribly rich, to begin with, and he has used up all his own fortune, +besides what the other people put in. You see, he never expected to +carry the project so far; he believed the Trust would buy him out." +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" +</P> + +<P> +"It hasn't and it evidently doesn't intend to. When it learned of his +plan, its engineers beat it out to the glaciers and looked them over. +Then they gave up their idea of building in from Cortez, but instead of +making terms with us, they moved their whole outfit down to Kyak Bay, +right alongside of the coal-fields, and now it has become a race to the +glaciers, with Gordon fighting us on the side just to make matters +lively. The Trust has the shorter route, but we have the start." +</P> + +<P> +"Why didn't Mr. O'Neil take Kyak as a terminus, instead of Omar?" +</P> + +<P> +"He says it's not feasible. Kyak is an open harbor, and he says no +breakwater can be built there to withstand the storms. He still clings +to that belief, although the Trust is actually building one. If they +succeed we're cooked. Meanwhile he's rushing work and straining every +nerve to raise more money. Now you come along with a proposal to +advertise the whole affair to the public as a gigantic graft and set +Congress against him. I think he treated you mighty well, under the +circumstances." +</P> + +<P> +"I won't act against my convictions," Eliza declared, firmly, "even if +it means calamity to everybody." +</P> + +<P> +Natalie spoke for the first time, her voice tuned to a pitch of feeling +that contrasted oddly with their conversational tones. +</P> + +<P> +"If you hurt my Irish Prince," she said, "I shall hate you as long as I +live." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +IX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +WHEREIN GORDON SHOWS HIS TEETH +</H4> + +<P> +Affairs at Hope were nearly, if not quite, as prosperous as those at +Omar, for Curtis Gordon's advertising had yielded large and quick +returns. His experiment, during the previous summer, of bringing his +richest stockholders north, had been a great success. They had come, +ostensibly at his expense, and once on the ground had allowed +themselves to be fairly hypnotized. They had gone where he led, had +seen what he pointed out, had believed what he told them. Their +imaginations were fired with the grandeur of an undertaking which would +develop the vast resources of the north country for the benefit of the +struggling pioneers of the interior and humanity in general. +Incidentally they were assured over and over again in a great variety +of ways that the profits would be tremendous. Gordon showed them Hope +and its half-completed mine buildings, he showed them the mountain +behind. It was a large mountain. They noticed there were trees on the +sides of it and snow on its top. They marveled. He said its heart was +solid copper ore, and they gasped. Had he told them in the same +impressive manner that the hill contained a vein three inches thick +they would have exhibited the same astonishment. They entered the +dripping tunnels and peered with grave approval at the drills, the +rock-cars and the Montenegrin miners. They rambled over the dumps, to +the detriment of shoe-leather and shins, filling their suit-cases with +samples of perfectly good country rock. They confessed to each other, +with admirable conservatism, that the proposition looked very +promising, very promising indeed, and they listened with appreciation +to Gordon's glowing accounts of his railroad enterprise, the physical +evidence of which consisted of a mile or two of track which shrank +along the steep shore-front and disappeared into a gulch as if ashamed +of itself. He had a wonderful plan to consolidate the mining and +railroad companies and talked of a giant holding corporation which +would share in the profits of each. The details were intricate, but he +seemed to see them all with perfect clearness, and his victims agreed. +</P> + +<P> +He entertained them on a scale that was almost embarrassing, and when +they returned to their homes they outdid one another in their praise of +the financial genius who was leading them to the promised land of +profits and preferred stock. As a matter of course they one and all +advised their friends to buy, vouching for the fabulous richness of +Hope Consolidated, and since their statements were backed by a personal +examination of the property, subscriptions came pouring in. +</P> + +<P> +All in all, the excursion had proven so profitable that Gordon had +arranged for another, designed to accommodate new investors and +promising "prospects." Preparations for their welcome were under way +when Natalie arrived. +</P> + +<P> +The girl and her mother talked late that evening, and Gordon saw on the +following morning that Gloria, at least, had passed a trying night; but +he gave himself no uneasiness. Emotional storms were not unusual; he +always disregarded them as far as possible, and usually they passed off +quietly. During breakfast he informed them: +</P> + +<P> +"I received a letter from Miss Golden in yesterday's mail. She is to be +one of the new party." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you invite her to return this summer?" Mrs. Gerard inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!" +</P> + +<P> +"I remember her well," said Natalie—"too well, in fact. I thought her +very bold." +</P> + +<P> +"She is one of our largest investors, and she writes she would enjoy +spending a fortnight here after the others go back." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you allow it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Allow it! My dear Gloria, I can't possibly refuse. In fact it would be +the height of inhospitality not to urge her to do so. She is welcome to +stay as long as she chooses, for these quarters are as much hers as +ours. I hope you will be nice to her." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Gerard made no answer, but later in the morning sought Gordon in +his private office. +</P> + +<P> +"I preferred not to discuss the Golden woman before Natalie," she +explained, coldly, "but—you don't really intend to have her here, do +you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Most assuredly!" +</P> + +<P> +"Then I shall have to tell her she is not welcome." +</P> + +<P> +"You will do nothing of the sort, my dear: you will assume the duties +of hostess, for which no one is more charmingly qualified." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Gerard's lips were white with anger as she retorted: +</P> + +<P> +"I shall not allow that woman under the same roof with Natalie." +</P> + +<P> +"As usual, you choose the most inconvenient occasion for insisting upon +your personal dislikes." +</P> + +<P> +"My dislike has nothing to do with the matter. I overlooked her +behavior with you last year—as I have overlooked a good many things in +the past—but this is asking too much." +</P> + +<P> +Gordon's coldness matched her own as he said: +</P> + +<P> +"I repeat, this is no time for jealousy—" +</P> + +<P> +"Jealousy! It's an insult to Natalie." +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Golden is one of our largest stockholders." +</P> + +<P> +"That's not true! I had Denny look up the matter." +</P> + +<P> +"So!" Gordon flared up angrily. "Denny has been showing you the books, +eh! He had no more right to do that than you had to pry into my +affairs. While Miss Golden's investment may not be so large as some +others', she has influential friends. She did yeoman service in the +cause, and I can't allow your foolish fancies to interfere with my +plans." +</P> + +<P> +"Fancies!" cried the woman, furiously. "You behaved like a school-boy +with her. It was disgraceful. I refuse to let her associate with my +daughter." +</P> + +<P> +"Aren't we drawing rather fine distinctions?" Gordon's lip curled. "In +the first place, Natalie has no business here. Since she came, +uninvited, for the second time, she must put up with what she finds. I +warned you last summer that she might suspect—" +</P> + +<P> +"She did. She does. She discovered the truth a year ago." Mrs. Gerard's +usually impassive face was distorted and she voiced her confession with +difficulty. +</P> + +<P> +"The devil!" ejaculated Gordon. +</P> + +<P> +The woman nodded. "She accused me last night. I tried to—lie, +but—God! How I have lived through these hours I'll never know." +</P> + +<P> +"Hm-m!" Gordon reflected, briefly. "Perhaps, after all, it's just as +well that she knows; she would have found it out sooner or later, and +there's some satisfaction in knowing that the worst is over." +</P> + +<P> +Never before had his callous cynicism been so frankly displayed. It +chilled her and made the plea she was about to voice seem doubly +difficult. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I looked upon the matter as you do," she said, slowly. "But +other people haven't the same social ideas as we. I'm—crushed, and +she—Poor child! I don't know how she had the courage to face it. Now +that she has heard the truth from my own lips I'm afraid it will kill +her." +</P> + +<P> +Gordon laughed. "Nonsense! Natalie is a sensible girl. Disillusionment +is always painful, but never fatal. Sooner or later the young must +confront the bald facts of life, and I venture to say she will soon +forget her school-girl morality. Let me explain my views of—" +</P> + +<P> +"Never!" cried the woman, aghast. "If you do I shall—" She checked +herself and buried her face in her hands. "I feel no regrets for +myself—for I drifted with my eyes open—but this—this is different. +Don't you understand? I am a mother. Or are you dead to all decent +feeling?" +</P> + +<P> +"My dear, I'm the most tender-hearted of men. Of course I shall say +nothing, if you prefer, for I am subservient to your commands in all +things. But calm yourself. What is done cannot be undone." +</P> + +<P> +In more even tones Mrs. Gerard said, "You seem to think the matter is +ended, but it isn't. Natalie will never allow us to continue this way, +and it isn't just to her that we should. We can't go on, Curtis." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean I must marry you?" +</P> + +<P> +She nodded. +</P> + +<P> +He rose and paced the room before answering. "I always supposed you +understood my views on that subject. Believe me, they are unalterable, +and in no way the result of a pose." +</P> + +<P> +"Nevertheless, for my sake and Natalie's you will do it. I can't lose +the one thing I love best in the world." +</P> + +<P> +"It would seem that Natalie has filled your head with silly notions," +he exclaimed, impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +"She has awakened me. I have her life to consider as well as my own." +</P> + +<P> +"We are all individuals, supreme in ourselves, responsible only to +ourselves. We must all live our own lives; she cannot live yours, nor +you hers." +</P> + +<P> +"I am familiar with your arguments," Mrs. Gerard said, wearily, "but I +have thought this all out and there is no other way." +</P> + +<P> +He frowned in his most impressive manner and his chest swelled +ominously. +</P> + +<P> +"I will not be coerced. You know I can't be bullied into a thing. I +deny that you have any right to demand—" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not demanding anything. I merely ask this—this favor, the first +one I have ever asked. You see, my pride is crumbling. Don't answer +now; let's wait until we are both calmer. The subject came up—at least +she approached it, by asking about the coal claims. She is worried +about them." +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed?" +</P> + +<P> +"She was told by a friend in the Land Office that our rights had been +forfeited. I assured her—" +</P> + +<P> +"I refused to heed the absurd rulings of the Department, if that is +what she refers to." +</P> + +<P> +"Then we—have lost?" Mrs. Gerard's pallor increased. +</P> + +<P> +"Technically, yes! In reality I shall show that our titles were good +and that our patents should issue." +</P> + +<P> +"But"—the woman's bloodless fingers were tightly interlaced—"all I +have, all Natalie has, is in those claims." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! And it would require another fortune the size of both to comply +with the senseless vagaries of the Interior Department and to protect +your interests. I grew weary of forever sending good hard-earned +dollars after bad ones, merely because of the shifting whim of some +theorist five thousand miles away." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I am afraid—" Mrs. Gerard's voice trailed out miserably. "It is +all we have, and you told me—" +</P> + +<P> +Gordon broke in irritably: "My dear Gloria, spare me this painful +faultfinding. If I can win for you, I shall do so, and then you will +agree that I acted wisely. If I lose—it will merely be the luck of the +average investor. We played for big returns, and of course the risks +were great." +</P> + +<P> +"But Mr. O'Neil told her his claims—" +</P> + +<P> +Gordon's blazing eyes warned her. "O'Neil, eh? So, he is the 'friend in +the Land Office'! No doubt he also gave Natalie the suggestion that led +to her scene with you. Tell her to occupy herself less with affairs +which do not concern her and more with her own conduct. Her actions +with that upstart have been outrageous." +</P> + +<P> +"What about your own actions with the Golden woman?" cried Mrs. Gerard, +reverting with feminine insistence to the subject of their first +difference. "What are you going to do about her?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"Remember, I refuse to share the same roof with her. You wouldn't ask +it of your wife." +</P> + +<P> +Now this second reference to a disagreeable subject was unfortunate. +Gordon was given to the widest vagaries of temper, and this interview +had exasperated him beyond measure, for he was strained by other +worries. He exploded harshly: +</P> + +<P> +"Please remember that you are not my wife! My ideas on matrimony will +never change. You ought to know by this time that I am granite." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't give up Natalie. I would give up much, for we women don't +change, but—" +</P> + +<P> +"A fallacy!" He laughed disagreeably. "Pardon me, Gloria, if I tell you +that you do change; that you have changed; that time has left its +imprint upon even you—a cruel fact, but true." He took a savage +pleasure in her trembling, for she had roused all the devils in him and +they were many. +</P> + +<P> +"You are growing tired!" +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all. But you have just voiced the strongest possible argument +against marriage. We grow old! Age brings its alterations! I have ever +been a slave to youth and beauty and the years bring to me only an +increasing appreciation, a more critical judgment, of the beautiful. If +I chose to marry—well, frankly, the mature charms of a woman of my own +age would have slight attraction for me." +</P> + +<P> +"Then—I will go," said Mrs. Gerard, faintly. +</P> + +<P> +"Not by any wish of mine," he assured her. "You are quite welcome to +stay. Things will run along in the usual way—more smoothly, perhaps, +now that we have attained a complete understanding. You have no place +to go, nor means with which to insure a living for yourself and +Natalie. I would hate to see you sacrifice yourself and her to a +Puritanical whim, for I owe you much happiness and I'm sure I should +miss you greatly. Some one must rule, and since nature has given me the +right I shall exercise it. We will have no more rebellion." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Gerard left the room dazed and sick with despair. +</P> + +<P> +"We must go! We must go!" she kept repeating, but her tragic look +alarmed Natalie far more than her words. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes!" The girl took her in her arms and tried to still the +ceaseless trembling which shook the mother's frame, while her own tears +fell unheeded. +</P> + +<P> +"We must go! Now!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, dearest! But where?" +</P> + +<P> +"You—love me still?" asked Gloria. "I suppose you need me, too, don't +you? I hadn't thought of that." +</P> + +<P> +"Every hour!" The round young arms pressed her closer. "You won't think +of—of leaving me." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Gerard shook her head slowly. "No! I suppose that must be part of +the price. But—Penniless! Friendless! Where can we go?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. O'Neil—my Irish Prince," faltered the daughter through her tears. +"Perhaps he would take us in." +</P> + +<P> +"Omar Khayyam," said Eliza Appleton, entering O'Neil's office briskly, +"you are the general trouble man, so prepare to listen to mine." +</P> + +<P> +"Won't the kitchen flue draw, or has a hinge come off the bungalow +door?" Murray smiled. He was harassed by endless worries, a dozen +pressing matters called for his instant attention; yet he showed no +trace of annoyance. "If so, I'll be right up and fix it." +</P> + +<P> +"The kitchen chimney has a draught that threatens to draw Dan's salary +out with the smoke every time I cook a meal, and the house is dandy. +This is a real man's-size tribulation, so of course I run to you. Simon +Legree is at his tricks again." +</P> + +<P> +"Legree!" +</P> + +<P> +The girl nodded her blond head vigorously. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! He's stolen Mrs. St. Claire's slaves, and she and Little Eva are +out in the cold." +</P> + +<P> +"What the deuce are you talking about?" +</P> + +<P> +"Gordon, of course, and the two Gerards, Natalie and Gloria—'Town +Hall, To-night. Come one, Come all!'" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" O'Neil's eyes brightened. +</P> + +<P> +"There have been terrible goings-on over at Hope. I went up yesterday, +in my official capacity, to reconnoiter the enemy's position and to +give him a preliminary skirmish, but the great man was sulking in his +tent and sent word by a menial for me to begone or look out for the +bloodhounds. Isn't he the haughty thing? I don't like to 'begone'—I +refuse to git when I'm told, so, of course, I paid my respects to +Natalie and her mother. But what do you think I found? Mrs. St. Claire +desolated, Eva dissolved in tears and her hair down." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you talk sense?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just try a little nonsense, and see. Well, the great eruption has +taken place and the loss of life was terrible. Among those buried in +the cinders are the dusky-eyed heroine and her friend mother. It seems +Eva had a hand in the overseer's exposure—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes! It's about those coal claims. I knew it was coming." +</P> + +<P> +"She told her mother of the horrid treachery, and mother lugged the +complaint to Gordon and placed it in his lap. Result, confession and +defiance from him. Even the family jewels are gone." +</P> + +<P> +"Is Gordon broke?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's weltering in money, but the coal claims are lost, and he wants to +know what they're going to do about it. The women are ruined. He +magnanimously offers them his bounty, but of course they refuse to +accept it." +</P> + +<P> +"Hasn't he made any provision for them?" +</P> + +<P> +"Coffee and cakes, three times a day. That's all! He won't even provide +transportation, and the troupe can't walk home. They refuse to stay +there, but they can't get away. I've cabled The Review, overdrawing my +salary scandalously, and Dan is eager to help, but the worst of it is +neither of those women knows how to make a living. Natalie wants to +work, but the extent of her knowledge is the knack of frosting a layer +cake, and her mother never even sewed on a button in all her life. It +would make a lovely Sunday story, and it wouldn't help Curtis Gordon +with his stockholders." +</P> + +<P> +"You won't write it, of course!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I suppose not, but it's maddening not to be able to do something. +Since there's a law against manslaughter, the pencil is my only weapon. +I'd like to jab it clear through that ruffian." Eliza's animated face +was very stern, her generous mouth was set firmly. +</P> + +<P> +"You can leave out the personal element," he told her. "There's still a +big story there, if you realize that it runs back to Washington and +involves your favorite policy of conservation. Those claims belonged to +Natalie and her mother. I happen to know that their locations were +legal and that there was never any question of fraud in the titles, +hence they were entitled to patents years ago. Gordon did wrong, of +course, in refusing to obey the orders of the Secretary of the Interior +even though he knew those orders to be senseless and contradictory, but +the women are the ones to suffer. The Government froze them out. This +is only one instance of what delay and indecision at headquarters has +done. I'll show you others before we are through. As for those two—You +say they want to do something?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's not a question of wanting; they've GOT to do something—or +starve. They would scrub kitchens if they knew how." +</P> + +<P> +"Why didn't they come to me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you need a cook and a dishwasher?" +</P> + +<P> +Murray frowned. "Our new hotel is nearly finished; perhaps Mrs. Gerard +would accept a position as—as hostess." +</P> + +<P> +"HOSTESS! In a railroad-camp hotel! Who ever heard of such a thing?" +Eliza eyed him incredulously. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil's flush did not go unnoticed as he said, quietly: +</P> + +<P> +"It IS unusual, but we'll try it. She might learn to manage the +business, with a competent assistant. The salary will be ample for her +and Natalie to live on." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza laid a hand timidly upon his arm and said in an altered tone: +</P> + +<P> +"Omar Khayyam, you're a fine old Persian gentleman! I know what it will +mean to those two poor women, and I know what it will mean to you, for +of course the salary will come out of your pocket." +</P> + +<P> +He smiled down at her. "It's the best I can offer, and I'm sure you +won't tell them." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course not. I know how it feels to lose a fortune, too, for I've +been through the mill—Don't laugh! You have a load on your shoulders +heavier than Mr. Sinbad's, and it's mighty nice of you to let me add to +the burden. I—I hope it won't break your poor back. Now I'm going up +to your bungalow and lock myself into your white bedroom, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Have a good cry!" he said, noting the suspicious moisture in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not!" Eliza exclaimed, indignantly. "I'm not the least bit +sentimental." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +X +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IN WHICH THE DOCTOR SHOWS HIS WIT +</H4> + +<P> +O'Neil's talk with Mrs. Gerard upon her arrival from Hope was short and +businesslike. Neither by word nor look did he show that he knew or +suspected anything of the real reason of her break with Gordon. Toward +both her and Natalie he preserved his customary heartiness, and their +first constraint soon disappeared. Mrs. Gerard had been plunged in one +of those black moods in which it seems that no possible event can bring +even a semblance of happiness, but it was remarkable how soon this +state of mind began to give way before O'Neil's matter-of-fact +cheerfulness. He refused to listen to their thanks and made them +believe that they were conferring a real favor upon him by accepting +the responsibility of the new hotel. Pending the completion of that +structure he was hard pressed to find a lodging-place for them until +Eliza and her brother insisted that they share the bungalow with +them—a thing O'Neil had not felt at liberty to ask under the +circumstances. Nor was the tact of the brother and sister less than +his; they received the two unfortunates as honored guests. +</P> + +<P> +Gradually the visitors began to feel that they were welcome, that they +were needed, that they had an important task to fulfil, and the sense +that they were really of service drove away depression. Night after +night they lay awake, discussing the wonderful change in their fortunes +and planning their future. Natalie at least had not the slightest doubt +that all their troubles were at an end. +</P> + +<P> +One morning they awoke to learn that O'Neil had gone to the States, +leaving Dr. Gray in charge of affairs at Omar during his absence. The +physician, who was fully in his chief's confidence, gravely discussed +their duties with them, and so discreet was he that they had no +faintest suspicion that he knew their secret. It was typical of O'Neil +and his "boys" that they should show this chivalry toward two +friendless outcasts; it was typical of them, also, that they one and +all constituted themselves protectors of Natalie and her mother, +letting it be known through the town that the slightest rudeness toward +the women would be promptly punished. +</P> + +<P> +While O'Neil's unexpected departure caused some comment, no one except +his trusted lieutenants dreamed of the grave importance of his mission. +They knew the necessities that hounded him, they were well aware of the +trembling insecurity in which affairs now stood, but they maintained +their cheerful industry, they pressed the work with unabated energy, +and the road crept forward foot by foot, as steadily and as smoothly as +if he himself were on the ground to direct it. +</P> + +<P> +Many disappointments had arisen since the birth of the Salmon River & +Northwestern; many misfortunes had united to retard the development of +its builder's plans. The first obstacle O'Neil encountered was that of +climate. During the summer, unceasing rains, mists, and fogs dispirited +his workmen and actually cut their efficiency in half. He had made +certain allowances for this, of course, but no one could have foreseen +so great a percentage of inefficiency as later developed. In winter, +the cold was intense and the snows were of prodigious depth, while +outside the shelter of the Omar hills the winds howled and rioted over +the frozen delta, chilling men and animals and paralyzing human effort. +Under these conditions it was hard to get workmen, and thrice harder to +keep them; so that progress was much slower than had been anticipated. +</P> + +<P> +Then, too, the physical difficulties of the country were almost +insurmountable. The morass which comprised the Salmon River plain was +in summer a bottomless ooze, over which nothing could be transported, +yet in winter it became sheathed with a steel-hard armor against which +piling splintered. It could be penetrated at that season only by the +assistance of steam thawers, which involved delay and heavy expense. +These were but samples of the obstacles that had to be met, and every +one realized that the work thus far had been merely preparatory. The +great obstruction, upon the conquest of which the success of the whole +undertaking hinged, still lay before them. +</P> + +<P> +But of all handicaps the most serious by far was the lack of capital. +Murray had foreseen as inevitable the abandonment by the Trust of its +Cortez route, but its change of base to Kyak had come as a startling +surprise and as an almost crushing blow. Personally, he believed its +present plan to be even more impracticable than its former one, but its +refusal to buy him out had disheartened his financial associates and +tightened their purse-strings into a knot which no argument of his +could loose. He had long since exhausted his own liquid capital, he had +realized upon his every available asset, and his personal credit was +tottering. He was obliged to finance his operations upon new money—a +task which became ever more difficult as the months passed and the +Trust continued its work at Kyak. Yet he knew that the briefest +flagging, even a temporary abandonment of work, meant swift and utter +ruin. His track must go forward, his labor must be paid, his supplies +must not be interrupted. He set his jaws and fought on stubbornly, +certain of his ultimate triumph if only he could hold out. +</P> + +<P> +A hundred miles to the westward was a melancholy example of failure in +railroad-building, in the form of two rows of rust upon a weed-grown +embankment. It was all that remained of another enterprise which had +succumbed to financial starvation, and the wasted millions it +represented was depressing to consider. +</P> + +<P> +Thus far O'Neil's rivalry with the Trust had been friendly, if +spirited, but his action in coming to the assistance of Mrs. Gerard and +her daughter raised up a new and vigorous enemy whose methods were not +as scrupulous as those of the Heidlemanns. +</P> + +<P> +Gordon was a strangely unbalanced man. He was magnetic, his geniality +was really heart-warming, yet he was perfectly cold-blooded in his +selfishness. He was cool and calculating, but interference roused him +to an almost insane pitch of passion. Fickle in most things, he was +uncompromising in his hatreds. O'Neil's generosity in affording +sanctuary to his defiant mistress struck him as a personal affront, it +fanned his dislike of his rival into a consuming rage. It was with no +thought of profit that he cast about for a means of crippling O'Neil. +He was quite capable of ruining himself, not to speak of incidental +harm to others, if only he could gratify his spleen. +</P> + +<P> +Denny, his trusted jackal, resisted stoutly any move against "The Irish +Prince," but his employer would not listen to him or consent to any +delay. Therefore, a certain plausible, shifty-eyed individual by the +name of Linn was despatched to Omar on the first steamer. Landing at +his destination, Mr. Linn quietly effaced himself, disappearing out the +right-of-way, where he began moving from camp to camp, ostensibly in +search of employment. +</P> + +<P> +It was a few days later, perhaps a week after O'Neil's departure, that +Eliza Appleton entered the hospital and informed Dr. Gray: +</P> + +<P> +"I've finished my first story for The Review." +</P> + +<P> +The big physician had a rapid, forceful habit of speech. "Well, I +suppose you uncorked the vitriol bottle," he said, brusquely. +</P> + +<P> +"No! Since you are now the fount of authority here, I thought I'd tell +you that I have reserved my treachery for another time. I haven't +learned enough yet to warrant real fireworks. As a matter of fact, I've +been very kind to Mr. O'Neil in my story." +</P> + +<P> +"Let me thank you for him." +</P> + +<P> +"Now don't be sarcastic! I could have said a lot of nasty things, if he +hadn't been so nice to me. I suppose it is the corrupting influence of +his kindness." +</P> + +<P> +"He really will be grateful," the doctor assured her, seriously. +"Newspaper publicity of the wrong sort might hurt him a great deal just +now. In every big enterprise there comes a critical time, when +everything depends upon one man; strong as the structure seems, he's +really supporting it. You see, the whole thing rests ultimately on +credit and confidence. An ill-considered word, a little unfriendly +shove, and down comes the whole works. Then some financial power steps +in, reorganizes the wreckage, and gets the result of all the other +fellow's efforts, for nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"Dan tells me the affairs of the S. R. & N. are in just such a +tottering condition." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. We're up against it, for the time being. Our cards are on the +table, and you have it in your power to do us a lot of harm." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't put it that way!" said Eliza, resentfully. "You and Mr. O'Neil +and even Dan make it hard for me to do my duty. I won't let you rob me +of my liberty. I'll get out and 'Siwash' it in a tent first." +</P> + +<P> +The physician laughed. "Don't mistake leaf-mold for muck, that's all we +ask. O'Neil is perfectly willing to let you investigate him." +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly! And I could bite off his head for being so nice about it. Not +that I've discovered anything against him, for I haven't— I think he's +fine—but I object to the principle of the thing." +</P> + +<P> +"He'll never peep, no matter what you do or say." +</P> + +<P> +"It makes me furious to know how superior he is. I never detested a +man's virtues as I do his. Gordon is the sort I like, for he needs +exposing, and expects it. Wait until I get at him and the Trust." +</P> + +<P> +"The Trust, too, eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course." +</P> + +<P> +"Now what have the Heidlemanns done?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's not what they have done; it's what they're going to do. They're +trying to grab Alaska." +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Gray shook his head impatiently, but before he could make answer +Tom Slater entered and broke into the conversation by announcing: +</P> + +<P> +"I've spotted him, Doc. His name is Linn, and he's Gordon's hand. He's +at mile 24 and fifty men are quitting from that camp." +</P> + +<P> +"That makes two hundred, so far," said the doctor. +</P> + +<P> +"He's offering a raise of fifty cents a day and transportation to Hope." +</P> + +<P> +Gray scowled and Eliza inquired quickly: +</P> + +<P> +"What's wrong, Uncle Tom?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't call me 'Uncle Tom,'" Slater exclaimed, irritably; "I ain't +related to you." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Appleton smiled at him sweetly. "I had a dear friend once—you +remind me of him, he was such a splendid big man," she said. +</P> + +<P> +Tom eyed her suspiciously. +</P> + +<P> +"He chewed gum incessantly, too, and declared that it never hurt +anybody." +</P> + +<P> +"It never did," asserted Slater. +</P> + +<P> +"We pleaded, we argued, we did our best to save him, but—" She shook +her blond head sadly. +</P> + +<P> +"What happened to him?" +</P> + +<P> +"What always happens? He lingered along for a time, stubborn to the +last, then—" Turning abruptly to Dr. Gray, she asked, "Who is this man +Linn, and what is he doing?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's an emissary of Curtis Gordon and he's hiring our men away from +us," snapped the physician. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Dan tells me Mr. O'Neil pays higher wages than anybody!" +</P> + +<P> +"So he does, but Linn offers a raise. We didn't know what the trouble +was till over a hundred men had quit. The town is full of them, now, +and it's becoming a stampede." +</P> + +<P> +"Can't you meet the raise?" +</P> + +<P> +"That wouldn't do any good." +</P> + +<P> +Tom agreed. "Gordon don't want these fellows. He's doing it to get even +with Murray for those wo—" He bit his words in two at a glance from +Gray. "What happened to the man that chewed gum?" he demanded abruptly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes! Poor fellow! We warned him time and again, but he was a sullen +brute, he wouldn't heed advice. Why don't you bounce this man Linn? Why +don't you run him out of camp?" +</P> + +<P> +"Fine counsel from a champion of equal rights!" smiled Gray. "You +forget we have laws and Gordon has a press bureau. It would antagonize +the men and cause a lot of trouble in the end. What O'Neil could do +personally, he can't do as the president of the S. R. & N. It would +give us a black eye. +</P> + +<P> +"We've go to do something dam' quick," said Slater, "or else the work +will be tied up. That would 'crab' Murray's deal. I've got a +pick-handle that's itching for Linn's head." The speaker coughed +hollowly and complained: "I've got a bad cold on my chest—feels like +pneumonia, to me. Wouldn't that just be my luck?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you have pains in your chest?" inquired the girl, solicitously. +</P> + +<P> +"Terrible! But I'm so full of pains that I get used to 'em". +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't pneumonia." +</P> + +<P> +Slater flared up at this, for he was jealous of his sufferings. +</P> + +<P> +"It's gumbago!" Eliza declared. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Gray's troubled countenance relaxed into a grin as he said: +</P> + +<P> +"I'll give you something to rub on those leather lungs—harness-oil, +perhaps." +</P> + +<P> +"Is this labor trouble really serious?" asked the girl. +</P> + +<P> +"Serious! It may knock us out completely. Go away now and let me think. +Pardon my rudeness, Miss Appleton, but—" +</P> + +<P> +Slater paused at the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't think too long, Doc," he admonished him, "for there's a ship due +in three days, and by that time there won't be a 'rough-neck' left on +the job. It'll take a month to get a new crew from the States, and then +it wouldn't be any good till it was broke in." +</P> + +<P> +When he was alone the doctor sat down to weigh the news "Happy Tom" had +brought, but the more squarely he considered the matter the more +alarming it appeared. Thus far the S. R. & N. had been remarkably free +from labor troubles. To permit them to creep in at this stage would be +extremely perilous: the briefest cessation of work might, and probably +would, have a serious bearing upon O'Neil's efforts to raise money. +Gray felt the responsibility of his position with extraordinary force, +for his chief's fortunes had never suffered in his hands and he could +not permit them to do so now. But how to meet this move of Gordon's he +did not know; he could think of no means of keeping these men at Omar. +As he had to Eliza, to meet the raise would be useless, and a new scale +of wages once adopted would be hard to reduce. Successful or +unsuccessful in its effect, it would run into many thousands of +dollars. The physician acknowledged himself dreadfully perplexed; he +racked his brain uselessly, yearning meanwhile for the autocratic power +to compel obedience among his men. He would have forced them back to +their jobs had there been a way, and the fact that they were duped only +added to his anger. +</P> + +<P> +It occurred to him to quarantine the town, a thing he could easily do +as port physician in case of an epidemic, but Omar was unusually +healthy, and beyond a few surgical cases his hospital was empty. +</P> + +<P> +His meditations were interrupted by Tom Slater, who returned to say: +</P> + +<P> +"Give me that dope, Doc; I'm coughing like a switch engine." Gray rose +and went to the shelves upon which his drugs were arranged, while the +fat man continued, "That Appleton girl has got me worried with her +foolishness. Maybe I AM sick; anyhow, I feel rotten. What I need is a +good rest and a nurse to wait on me." +</P> + +<P> +The physician's eyes in running along the rows of bottles encountered +one labeled "Oleum Tiglii," and paused there. "You need a rest, eh?" he +inquired, mechanically. +</P> + +<P> +"If I don't get one I'll wing my way to realms eternal. I ain't been +dried off for three months." Gray turned to regard his caller with a +speculative stare, his fingers toyed with the bottle. "If it wasn't for +this man Linn I'd lay off—I'd go to jail for him. But I can't do +anything, with one foot always in the grave." +</P> + +<P> +The doctor's face lightened with determination. +</P> + +<P> +"Tom, you've been sent from heaven!" +</P> + +<P> +"D'you mean I've been sent for, from heaven?" The invalid's red cheeks +blanched, into his mournful eyes leaped a look of quick concern. "Say! +Am I as sick as all that?" +</P> + +<P> +"This will make you feel better." Gray uncorked the bottle and said, +shortly, "Take off your shirt." +</P> + +<P> +"What for?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to rub your chest and arms." +</P> + +<P> +Slater obeyed, with some reluctance, pausing to inquire, doubtfully: +</P> + +<P> +"You ain't stripping me down so you can operate?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nonsense!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm feeling pretty good again." +</P> + +<P> +"It's well to take these things early. They all look alike at the +beginning." +</P> + +<P> +"What things?" +</P> + +<P> +"Grippe, gumbago, smallpox—" +</P> + +<P> +"God'lmighty!" exclaimed Slater with a start. "I haven't got anything +but a light cold." +</P> + +<P> +"Then this liniment ought to be just the thing." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! It don't smell like liniment," Tom declared, after a moment, +but the doctor had fallen to work on him and he submitted with +resignation. +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps an hour later Dr. Gray appeared at the Appleton bungalow and +surprised Eliza by saying: +</P> + +<P> +"I've come to you for some help. You're the only soul in Omar that I +can trust." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you gone raving mad?" she inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"No. I must put an end to Linn's activity or we'll be ruined. These +workmen must be held in Omar, and you must help me do it." +</P> + +<P> +"They have the right to go where they please." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, but Gordon will let them out as soon as he has crippled us. +Tell me, would you like to be a trained nurse?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I would not," declared Eliza, vehemently. "I'm neither antiseptic +nor prophylactic." +</P> + +<P> +"Nevertheless, you're going to be one—Tom needs you." +</P> + +<P> +"Tom? What ails him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing at this moment, but—wait until to-morrow." The physician's +eyes were twinkling, and when he had explained the cause of his +amusement Eliza laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I'll help," she said. "But it won't hurt the poor fellow, +will it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not in the least, unless it frightens him to death. Tom's an awful +coward about sickness; that's why I need some one like you to take care +of him. He'll be at the hospital to-morrow at three. If you'll arrange +to be there we'll break the news to him gently. I daren't tackle it +alone." +</P> + +<P> +Tom was a trifle embarrassed at finding Eliza in Dr. Gray's office when +he entered, on the next afternoon. The boss packer seemed different +than usual; he was much subdued. His cough had disappeared, but in its +place he suffered a nervous apprehension; his cheeks were pale, the +gloom in his eyes had changed to a lurking uneasiness. +</P> + +<P> +"Just dropped in to say I'm all right again," he announced in an +offhand tone. +</P> + +<P> +"That's good!" said Gray. "You don't look well, however." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm feeling fine!" Mr. Slater hunched his shoulders as if the contact +of his shirt was irksome to the flesh. +</P> + +<P> +"You'd better let me rub you. Why are you scratching yourself?" +</P> + +<P> +"I ain't scratching." +</P> + +<P> +"You were!" The doctor was sternly curious; he had assumed his coldest +and most professional air. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if I scratched, I probably itched. That's why people scratch, +ain't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Let me look you over." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't spare the time, Doc—" +</P> + +<P> +"Wait!" Gray's tone halted the speaker as he turned to leave. "I'm not +going to let you out in this weather until I rub you." +</P> + +<P> +This time there was no mistaking "Happy Tom's" pallor. "I tell you I +feel great," he declared in a shaking voice. "I—haven't felt so good +for years." +</P> + +<P> +"Come, come! Step into the other room and take off your shirt." +</P> + +<P> +"Not on your life." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want no more of your dam' liniment." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because I'm—because I don't." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I suppose I'll have to throw and hog-tie you." The physician rose +and laid a heavy hand upon his patient's arm, at which Tom exclaimed: +</P> + +<P> +"Ouch! Leggo! Gimme the stuff and I'll rub myself." +</P> + +<P> +"Tom!" The very gravity of the speaker's voice was portentous, +alarming. Mr. Slater hesitated, his gaze wavered, he scratched his +chest unconsciously. +</P> + +<P> +Eliza shook her head pityingly; she uttered an inarticulate murmur of +concern. +</P> + +<P> +"You couldn't get my shirt off with a steam-winch. I tell you I'm +feeling grand." +</P> + +<P> +"Why WILL you chew the horrid stuff?" Miss Appleton inquired sadly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm just a little broke out, that's all." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! You're broken out. I feared so," said the doctor. +</P> + +<P> +The grave concern in those two faces was too much for Slater's +sensitive nature; his stubbornness gave way, his self-control vanished, +and he confessed wretchedly: +</P> + +<P> +"I spent an awful night, Doc. I'll bust into flame if this keeps up. +What is it, anyhow?" +</P> + +<P> +"Is there an eruption of the arms and chest?" +</P> + +<P> +"They're all erupted to hell." +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Gray silently parted the shirt over Slater's bosom. "Hm-m!" said he. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell him what it is," urged Eliza, in whom mirth and pity were +struggling for mastery. +</P> + +<P> +"It has every appearance of-smallpox!" +</P> + +<P> +The victim uttered a choking cry and sat down limply. Sweat leaped out +upon his face, beads appeared upon his round bald head. +</P> + +<P> +"I knew I was a sick man. I've felt it coming on for three months, but +I fought it off for Murray's sake. Say it's chicken-pox," he pleaded. +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind; it's seldom serious," Eliza endeavored to comfort the +stricken man. +</P> + +<P> +"You wanted a good rest-" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't. I want to work." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll have to quarantine you, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +Slater was in no condition for further resistance; a complete collapse +of body and mind had followed the intelligence of his illness. He began +to complain of many symptoms, none of which were in any way connected +with his fancied disease. He was racked with pains, he suffered a +terrible nausea, his head swam; he spoke bravely of his destitute +family and prepared to make his will. When he left the hospital, an +hour later, it was on a stretcher between four straining bearers. +</P> + +<P> +That evening a disturbing rumor crept through the town of Omar. It +penetrated the crowded saloons where the laborers who had quit work +were squandering their pay, and it caused a brief lull in the ribaldry; +but the mere fact that Tom Slater had come down with smallpox and had +been isolated upon a fishing-boat anchored in the creek seemed, after +all, of little consequence. Some of the idlers strolled down the street +to stare at the boat, and upon their return verified the report. They +also announced that they had seen the yellow-haired newspaper woman +aboard, all dressed in white. It was considered high time by the +majority to leave Omar, for an epidemic was a thing to be avoided, and +a wager was made that the whole force would quit in a body as soon as +the truth became known. +</P> + +<P> +On the second day Dr. Gray undertook to allay the general uneasiness, +but, upon being pressed, reluctantly acknowledged that his patient +showed all the signs of the dread disease. This hastened the general +preparations for departure, and when the incoming steamer hove in sight +every laborer was at the dock with his kit-bag. It excited some idle +comment among them to note that Dr. Gray had gone down the bay a short +distance to meet the ship, and his efforts to speak it were watched +with interest and amusement. Obviously it would have been much easier +for him to wait until she landed, for she came right on and drew in +toward the wharf. It was not until her bow line was made fast that the +physician succeeded in hailing the captain. Then the deserters were +amazed to hear the following conversation: +</P> + +<P> +"I can't let you land, Captain Johnny," came from Dr. Gray's launch. +</P> + +<P> +"And why can't you?" demanded Brennan from the bridge of his new ship. +"Have you some prejudice against the Irish?" The stern hawser was +already being run out, and the crowd was edging closer, waiting for the +gangplank. +</P> + +<P> +"There is smallpox here, and as health officer I've quarantined the +port." +</P> + +<P> +There came a burst of Elizabethan profanity from the little skipper, +but it was drowned by the shout from shore as the full meaning of the +situation finally came home. Then the waiting men made a rush for the +ship. She had not touched as yet, however, and the distance between her +and the pier was too great to leap. Above the confusion came Brennan's +voice, through a megaphone, commanding them to stand back. Some one +traitorously cast off the loop of the bow line, the ship's propellers +began to thrash, and the big steel hull backed away inch by inch, foot +by foot, until, amid curses and cries of rage, she described a majestic +circle and plowed off up the sound toward Hope. +</P> + +<P> +By a narrow margin the physician reached his hospital ahead of the +infuriated mob, and it was well that he did so, for they were in a +lynching mood. But, once within his own premises, he made a show of +determined resistance that daunted them, and they sullenly retired. +That night Omar rang with threats and deep-breathed curses, and Eliza +Appleton, in the garb of a nurse, tended her patient cheerfully. +</P> + +<P> +To the delegation which waited upon him the next morning, Dr. Gray +explained the nature of his duties as health officer, informing them +coolly that no living soul could leave Omar without incurring legal +penalties. Since he could prevent any ships from landing, and inasmuch +as the United States marshal was present to enforce the quarantine, he +seemed to be master of the situation. +</P> + +<P> +"How long will we be tied up?" demanded the spokesman of the party. +</P> + +<P> +"That is hard to say." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we're going to leave this camp!" the man declared, darkly. +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed? Where are you going?" +</P> + +<P> +"We're going to Hope. You might as well let us go. We won't stand for +this." +</P> + +<P> +The physician eyed him coldly. "You won't? May I ask how you are going +to help yourselves?" +</P> + +<P> +"We're going to leave on the next steamer." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no you're not!" the marshal spoke up. +</P> + +<P> +"See here, Doc! There's over two hundred of us and we can't stay here; +we'll go broke." +</P> + +<P> +Gray shrugged his broad shoulders. "Sorry," he said, "but you see I've +no choice in the matter. I never saw a case of smallpox that looked +worse." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a frame-up," growled the spokesman. "Tom hasn't got smallpox any +more than I have. You cooked it to keep us here." There was an angry +second to this, whereupon the doctor exclaimed: +</P> + +<P> +"You think so, eh? Then just come with me." +</P> + +<P> +"Where?" +</P> + +<P> +"Out to the boat where he is. I'll show you." +</P> + +<P> +"You won't show me no smallpox," asserted one of the committee. +</P> + +<P> +"Then YOU come with me," the physician urged the leader. +</P> + +<P> +"So you can bottle me up, too? No, thank you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Get the town photographer with his flashlight. We'll help him make a +picture; then you can show it to the others. I promise not to +quarantine you." +</P> + +<P> +After some hesitation the men agreed to this; the photographer was +summoned and joined the party on its way to the floating pest-house. +</P> + +<P> +It was not a pleasant place in which they found Tom Slater, for the +cabin of the fishing-boat was neither light nor airy, but Eliza had +done much to make it agreeable. The sick man was propped up in his bunk +and playing solitaire, but he left off his occupation to groan as the +new-comers came alongside. +</P> + +<P> +When the cause of the visit had been made known, however, he rebelled. +</P> + +<P> +"I won't pose for no camera fiend," he declared, loudly. "It ain't +decent and I'm too sick. D'you take me for a bearded lady or a living +skeleton?" +</P> + +<P> +"These men think you're stalling," Dr. Gray told him. +</P> + +<P> +"Who? Me?" Slater rolled an angry eye upon the delegation. "I ain't +sick, eh? I s'pose I'm doing this for fun? I wish you had it, that's +all." +</P> + +<P> +The three members of the committee of investigation wisely halted at +the foot of the companionway stairs where the fresh air fanned them; +they were nervous and ill at ease. +</P> + +<P> +Drawing his covers closer, Slater shouted: +</P> + +<P> +"Close that hatch, you bone-heads! I'm blowing away!" +</P> + +<P> +The photographer ventured to remonstrate. +</P> + +<P> +"It's mighty close in here, Doc. Is it safe to breathe the bugs?" +</P> + +<P> +"Perfectly safe," Gray assured him. "At least Miss Appleton hasn't +suffered yet." +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact the patient betrayed no symptoms of a wasting +illness, for his cheeks were ruddy, he had eaten three hearty meals +each day, and the enforced rest had done him good, so the committee saw +nothing about him to satisfy their suspicions. But when Tom weakly +called upon them for assistance in rising they shrank back and one of +them exclaimed: +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't touch you with a fish-pole." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza came forward, however; she permitted her charge to lean upon her +while she adjusted the pillows at his back; but when Dr. Gray ordered +him to bare his breast and arms Slater refused positively. He blushed, +he stammered, he clutched his nightrobe with a horny hand which would +have required a cold chisel to loosen, and not until Eliza had gone +upon deck would he consent to expose his bulging chest. +</P> + +<P> +But Miss Appleton had barely left the cabin when she was followed by +the most timid member of the delegation. He plunged up the stairs, +gasping: +</P> + +<P> +"I've saw enough! He's got it, and got it bad." +</P> + +<P> +A moment later came the dull sound of the exploding flashlight, then a +yell, and out of the smoke stumbled his two companions. The spokesman, +it appeared, had also seen enough—too much—for with another yell he +leaped the rail and made for shore. Fortunately the tide was out and +the water low; he left a trail across the mud flat like that of a +frightened hippopotamus. +</P> + +<P> +When the two conspirators were finally alone upon the deck they rocked +in each other's arms, striving to stifle their laughter. Meanwhile from +the interior of the cabin came the feeble moans of the invalid. +</P> + +<P> +That evening hastily made photographs of the sick man were shown upon +the streets. Nor could the most skeptical deny that he presented a +revolting sight and one warranting Dr. Gray's precautions. In spite of +this evidence, however, threats against the physician continued to be +made freely; but when Eliza expressed fears for his safety he only +smiled grimly, and he stalked through the streets with such defiance +written on his heavy features that no man dared raise a hand against +him. +</P> + +<P> +Day after day the quarantine continued, and at length some of the men +went back to work. As others exhausted their wages they followed. In a +fortnight Omar was once more free of its floating population and work +at the front was going forward as usual. Meanwhile the patient +recovered in marvelous fashion and was loud in his thanks to the +physician who had brought him through so speedily. Yet Gray stubbornly +refused to raise the embargo. +</P> + +<P> +Finally the cause of the whole trouble appeared at the hospital and +begged to be released. +</P> + +<P> +"You put it over me," said Mr. Linn. "I've had enough and I want to get +out." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what you're talking about," answered the doctor. "No one +can leave here now." +</P> + +<P> +"I know it wasn't smallpox at all, but it worked just the same, I'll +leave your men alone if you'll let me go out on the next Seattle +steamer." +</P> + +<P> +"But—I thought you came from Hope?" Gray said, blandly. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Linn shifted his eyes and laughed uneasily. "I did, and I'm going +to keep coming from Hope. You don't think I'd dare to go back after +this, do you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why not?" +</P> + +<P> +"Gordon would kill me." +</P> + +<P> +"So! Mr. Gordon sent you?" +</P> + +<P> +"You know he did. But—I've got to get out now. I'm broke." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't think it of Gordon!" The doctor shook his head sadly. "How +underhanded of him!" +</P> + +<P> +Linn exploded desperately: "Don't let's four-flush. You were too slick +for him, and you sewed me up. I've spent the money he gave me and now +I'm flat." +</P> + +<P> +"You look strong. We need men." +</P> + +<P> +Gordon's emissary turned pale. "Say! You wouldn't set me to work? Why, +those men would string me up." +</P> + +<P> +"I think not. I've spoken to the shift boss at mile 30, and he'll take +care you're not hurt so long as you work hard and keep your mouth shut." +</P> + +<P> +An hour later Mr. Linn, cursing deeply, shouldered his pack and tramped +out the grade, nor could he obtain food or shelter until he had covered +those thirty weary miles. Once at his destination, he was only too glad +to draw a numbered tag and fall to work with pick and shovel, but at +his leisure he estimated that it would take him until late the +following month to earn his fare to the States. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +XI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE TWO SIDES OF ELIZA VIOLET APPLETON +</H4> + +<P> +Dan Appleton entered the bungalow one evening, wet and tired from his +work, to find Eliza pacing the floor in agitation. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter, Sis?" he inquired, with quick concern. +</P> + +<P> +His sister pointed to a copy of The Review which that day's mail had +brought. +</P> + +<P> +"Look at that!" she cried. "Read it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! Your story, eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"Read it!" +</P> + +<P> +He read a column, and then glanced up to find her watching him with +angry eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee! That's pretty rough on the chief, Kid. I thought you liked him," +he said, gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"I do! I do! Don't you understand, dummy? I didn't write that! They've +changed my story—distorted it. I'm—FURIOUS!" +</P> + +<P> +Dan whistled softly. "I didn't suppose they'd try anything like that, +but—they did a good job while they were at it. Why, you'd think O'Neil +was a grafter and the S. R. & N. nothing but a land-grabbing deal." +</P> + +<P> +"How DARED they?" the girl cried. "The actual changes aren't so +many—just enough to alter the effect of the story—but that's what +makes it so devilish. For instance, I described the obstacles and the +handicaps Mr. O'Neil has had to overcome in order to show the magnitude +of his enterprise, but Drake has altered it so that the physical +conditions here seem to be insuperable and he makes me say that the +road is doomed to failure. That's the way he changed it all through." +</P> + +<P> +"It may topple the chief's plans over; they're very insecure. It plays +right into the hands of his enemies, too, and of course Gordon's press +bureau will make the most of it." +</P> + +<P> +"Heavens! I want sympathy, not abuse!" wailed his sister. "It's all due +to the policy of The Review. Drake thinks everybody up here is a thief. +I dare say they are, but—How can I face Mr. O'Neil?" +</P> + +<P> +Dan shook the paper in his fist. "Are you going to stand for this?" he +demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Hardly! I cabled the office this morning, and here's Drake's answer." +She read: +</P> + +<P> +"'Stuff colorless. Don't allow admiration warp judgment.' Can you beat +that?" +</P> + +<P> +"He thinks you've surrendered to Murray, like all the others." +</P> + +<P> +"I hate him!" cried Eliza. "I detest him!" +</P> + +<P> +"Who? O'Neil or Drake?" +</P> + +<P> +"Both. Mr. O'Neil for putting me in the position of a traitor, and +Drake for presuming to rewrite my stuff. I'm going to resign, and I'm +going to leave Omar before Murray O'Neil comes back." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be a quitter, Sis. If you throw up the job the paper will send +somebody who will lie about us to suit the policy of the office. Show +'em where they're wrong; show 'em what this country needs. You have +your magazine stories to write." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza shook her head. "Bother the magazines and the whole business! I'm +thinking about Mr. O'Neil. I—I could cry. I suppose I'll have to stay +and explain to him, but—then I'll go home." +</P> + +<P> +"No! You'll stay right here and go through with this thing. I need you." +</P> + +<P> +"You? What for?" +</P> + +<P> +"You can perform a great and a signal service for your loving brother. +He's in terrible trouble!" +</P> + +<P> +"What's wrong, Danny?" Eliza's anger gave instant place to solicitude. +"You—you haven't STOLEN anything?" +</P> + +<P> +"Lord, no! What put that into your head?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know—except that's the worst thing that could happen to us. I +like to start with the worst." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't sulk in the jungle any more. I'm a rotten loser, Sis." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! You mean—Natalie? You—like her?" +</P> + +<P> +"For a writer you select the most foolish words! Like, love, adore, +worship—words are no good, anyway. I'm dippy; I'm out of my head; I've +lost my reason. I'm deliriously happy and miserably unhappy. I—" +</P> + +<P> +"That's enough!" the girl exclaimed. "I can imagine the rest." +</P> + +<P> +"It was a fatal mistake for her to come to Omar, and to this very +house, of all places, where I could see her every day. I might have +recovered from the first jolt if I'd never seen her again, but—" He +waved his hands hopelessly. "I'm beginning to hate O'Neil." +</P> + +<P> +"You miserable traitor!" gasped Eliza. +</P> + +<P> +"Yep! That's me! I'm dead to loyalty, lost to the claims of friendship. +I've fought myself until I'm black in the face, but—it's no use. I +must have Natalie!" +</P> + +<P> +"She's crazy about O'Neil." +</P> + +<P> +"Seems to be, for a fact, but that doesn't alter my fix. I can't live +this way. You must help me or I'll lose my reason." +</P> + +<P> +"Nonsense! You haven't any or you wouldn't talk like this. What can I +do?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's simple! Be nice to Murray and—and win him away from her." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza stared at him as though she really believed him daft. Then she +said, mockingly: +</P> + +<P> +"Is that all? Just make him love me?" +</P> + +<P> +Dan nodded. "That would be fine, if you could manage it." +</P> + +<P> +"Why—you—you—I—" She gasped uncertainly for terms in which to voice +her indignant surprise. "Idiot!" she finally exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks for such glowing praise," Dan said, forlornly. "I feel a lot +worse than an idiot. An idiot is not necessarily evil; at heart he may +be likable, and pathetic, and merely unfortunate—" +</P> + +<P> +"You simply can't be in earnest!" +</P> + +<P> +"I am, though!" He turned upon her eyes which had grown suddenly old +and weary with longing. +</P> + +<P> +"You poor, foolish boy! In the first place, Mr. O'Neil will hate me for +this story. In the second place, no man would look at me. I'm ugly—" +</P> + +<P> +"I think you're beautiful." +</P> + +<P> +"With my snub nose, and big mouth, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"You can make him laugh, and when a woman can make a fellow laugh the +rest is easy." +</P> + +<P> +"In the third place I'm mannish and—vulgar, and besides—I don't care +for him." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course you don't, or I wouldn't ask it. You see, we're taking no +risks! You can at least take up his attention and—and when you see him +making for Natalie you can put out your foot and trip him up." +</P> + +<P> +"It wouldn't be honorable, Danny." +</P> + +<P> +"Possibly! But that doesn't make any difference with me. You may as +well realize that I've got beyond the point where nice considerations +of that sort weigh with me. If you'd ever been in love you'd understand +that such things don't count at all. It's your chance to save the +reason and happiness of an otherwise perfectly good brother." +</P> + +<P> +"There is nothing I wouldn't do for your happiness—nothing. But—Oh, +it's preposterous!" +</P> + +<P> +Dan relapsed into gloomy silence, and they had a very uncomfortable +meal. Unable to bear his continued lack of spirits, Eliza again +referred to the subject, and tried until late in the evening to argue +him out of his mood. But the longer they talked the more plainly she +saw that his feeling for Natalie was not fanciful, but sincere and +deep. She continued to scout his suggestion that she could help him by +captivating O'Neil, and stoutly maintained that she had no attraction +for men; nevertheless, when she went to her room she examined herself +critically in her mirror. This done, she gave herself over to her +favorite relaxation. +</P> + +<P> +First she exchanged her walking-skirt, her prim shirtwaist and jacket, +for a rose-pink wrapper which she furtively brought out of a closet. It +was a very elaborate wrapper, all fluffy lace and ruffles and bows, and +it had cost Eliza a sum which she strove desperately to forget. She +donned silk stockings and a pair of tiny bedroom slippers; then seating +herself once more at her dresser, she let down her hair. She invariably +wore it tightly drawn back—so tightly, in fact, that Dan had more than +once complained that it pulled her eyebrows out of place. On this +occasion, however, she crimped it, she curled it, she brought it +forward about her face in soft riotous puffs and strands, patting it +into becoming shape with dexterous fingers until it formed a golden +frame for her piquant features. +</P> + +<P> +Now this was no unusual performance for her. In the midnight solitude +of her chamber she regularly gave rein to the feminine side of her +nature. By day she was the severe, matter-of-fact, businesslike Eliza +Appleton, deaf to romance, lost to illusion, and unresponsive to +masculine attention; but deep in her heart were all the instincts and +longings of femininity, and at such times as this they came uppermost. +Her bedroom had none of the Puritanical primness which marked her habit +of dress; it was in no way suggestive of the masculine character which +she so proudly paraded upon the street. On the contrary, it was a bower +of daintiness, and was crowded with all the senseless fripperies of a +school-girl. Carefully hidden away beneath her starched shirtwaists was +much lingerie—bewildering creations to match the pink wrapper—and +this she petted and talked to adoringly when no one could hear. +</P> + +<P> +Eliza read much when she was unobserved—romances and improbable tales +of fine ladies and gallant squires. There were times, too, when she +wrote, chewing her pencil in the perplexities of vividly colored love +scenes; but she always destroyed these manuscripts before the curious +sun could spy upon her labors. In such ecstatic flights of fancy the +beautiful heroine was a languorous brunette with hair of raven hue and +soulful eyes in which slumbered the mystery of a tropic night. She had +a Grecian nose, moreover, and her name was Violet. +</P> + +<P> +From all this it may be gathered that Eliza Appleton was by no means +the extraordinary person she seemed. Beneath her false exterior she was +shamelessly normal. +</P> + +<P> +In the days before O'Neil's return she suffered constant misgivings and +qualms of conscience, but the sight of her brother reveling, expanding, +fairly bursting into bloom beneath the influence of Natalie Gerard led +her to think that perhaps she did have a duty to perform. Dan's cause +was hers, and while she had only the faintest hope of aiding it, she +was ready to battle for his happiness with every weapon at her command. +The part she would have to play was not exactly nice, she reflected, +but—the ties of sisterhood were strong and she would have made any +sacrifice for Dan. She knew that Natalie was fond of him in a casual, +friendly way, and although it was evident that the girl accorded him +none of that hero-worship with which she favored his chief, Eliza began +to think there still might be some hope for him. Since we are all prone +to argue our consciences into agreement with our desires, she finally +brought herself to the belief that O'Neil was not the man for Natalie. +He was too old, too confirmed in his ways, and too self-centered to +make a good husband for a girl of her age and disposition. Once her +illusions had been rubbed away through daily contact with him, she +would undoubtedly awaken to his human faults, and unhappiness would +result for both. What Natalie needed for her lasting contentment was a +boy her own age whose life would color to match hers. So argued Eliza +with that supreme satisfaction which we feel in arranging the affairs +of others to suit ourselves. +</P> + +<P> +She was greatly embarrassed, nevertheless, when she next met O'Neil and +tried to explain that story in The Review. He listened courteously and +smiled his gentle smile. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear," said he, finally, "I knew there had been some mistake, so +let's forget that it ever happened. Now tell me about the smallpox +epidemic. When I heard what Linn was doing with our men I was badly +worried, for I couldn't see how to checkmate him, but it seems you and +Doc were equal to the occasion. He cabled me a perfectly proper +announcement of Tom's quarantine, and I believed we had been favored by +a miracle." +</P> + +<P> +"It wasn't a miracle at all," Eliza said in a matter-of-fact tone; "it +was croton oil. Nobody has dared tell him the truth. He still believes +he could smell the tuberoses." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil seemed to derive great amusement from her account of what +followed. He had already heard Dr. Gray's version of the affair, but +Eliza had a refreshing way of saying things. +</P> + +<P> +"I brought you a little present," he said when she had finished. +</P> + +<P> +She took the package he handed her, exclaiming with a slight flush of +embarrassment, "A s'prise! Nobody but Dan ever gave me a present." Then +her eyes darkened with suspicion. "Did you bring me this because of +what I did?" +</P> + +<P> +"Now don't be silly! I knew nothing about your part in the comedy until +Doc told me. You are a most difficult person." +</P> + +<P> +Slowly she unwrapped the parcel, and then with a gasp lifted a +splendidly embroidered kimono from its box. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh-h!" Her eyes were round and astonished. "Oh-h! It's for ME!" +</P> + +<P> +It was a regal garment of heavy silk, superbly ornamented with golden +dragons, each so cunningly worked that it seemed upon the point of +taking wing. "Why, their eyes glitter! And—they'd breathe fire if I +jabbed them. Oh-h!" She stared at the gift in helpless amazement. "Is +it mine, HONESTLY?" +</P> + +<P> +He nodded. "Won't you put it on?" +</P> + +<P> +"Over these things? Never!" Again Miss Appleton blushed, for she +recalled that she had prepared for his coming with extraordinary care. +Her boots were even stouter than usual, her skirt more plain, her waist +more stiff, and her hair more tightly smoothed back. "It would take a +fluffy person to wear this. I'll always keep it, of course, and—I'll +worship it, but I'm not designed for pretty clothes. I'll let Natalie +wear—" +</P> + +<P> +"Natalie has one of her own, done in butterflies, and I brought one to +her mother also." +</P> + +<P> +"And you bought this for me after you had seen that fiendish story over +my signature?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly!" He quickly forestalled her attempted thanks by changing +the subject. "Now then, Dan tells me you are anxious to begin your +magazine-work, so I'm going to arrange for you to see the glaciers and +the coal-fields. It will be a hard trip, for the track isn't through +yet, but—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I'll take care of myself; I won't get in anybody's way," she said, +eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"I intend to see that you don't, by going with you; so make your +preparations and we'll leave as soon as I can get away." +</P> + +<P> +When he had gone the girl said, aloud: +</P> + +<P> +"Eliza Violet, this is your chance. It's underhanded and mean, +but—you're a mean person, and the finger of Providence is directing +you." She snatched up the silken kimono and ran into her room, locking +the door behind her. Hurriedly she put it on, then posed before the +mirror. Next down came her hair amid a shower of pins. She arranged it +loosely about her face, and, ripping an artificial flower from her +"party" hat, placed it over her ear, then swayed grandly to and fro +while the golden dragons writhed and curved as if in joyous admiration. +A dozen times she slipped out of the garment and, gathering it to her +face, kissed it; a dozen times she donned it, strutting about her +little room like a peacock. Her tip-tilted nose was red and her eyes +were wet when at last she laid it out upon her bed and knelt with her +cheek against it. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee! If only I were pretty!" she sighed, "I almost believe he—likes +me." +</P> + +<P> +Tom Slater laboriously propelled himself up the hill to the bungalow +that evening, and seated himself on the topmost step near where Eliza +was rocking. She had come to occupy a considerable place in his +thoughts of late, for she was quite beyond his understanding. She +affected him as a mental gad-fly, stinging his mind into an activity +quite unusual. At times he considered her a nice girl, though +undoubtedly insane; then there were other moments when she excited his +deepest animosity. Again, on rare occasions she completely upset all +his preconceived notions by being so friendly and so sympathetic that +she made him homesick for his own daughter. In his idle hours, +therefore he spent much time at the Appleton cottage. +</P> + +<P> +"Where have you been lately, Uncle Tom?" she began. +</P> + +<P> +Slater winced at the appellation, but ignored it. +</P> + +<P> +"I've been out on the delta hustling supplies ahead. Heard the news?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"Curtis Gordon has bought the McDermott outfit in Kyak." +</P> + +<P> +"That tells me nothing. Who is McDermott?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's a shoe-stringer. He had a wildcat plan to build a railroad from +Kyak to the coal-fields, but he never got farther than a row of alder +stakes and a book of press clippings." +</P> + +<P> +"Does that mean that Gordon abandons his Hope route?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yep! He's swung in behind us and the Heidlemanns. Now it's a +three-sided race, with us in the lead. Mellen just brought in the news +half an hour ago; he was on his way down from the glaciers when he ran +into a field party of Gordon's surveyors. Looks like trouble ahead if +they try to crowd through the canon alongside of us." +</P> + +<P> +"He must believe Kyak Bay will make a safe harbor." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't say it! If he's right, we're fried to a nice brown finish on +both sides and it's time to take us off the stove. I'm praying for a +storm." +</P> + +<P> +"'The prayers of the wicked are an abomination unto the Lord,'" quoted +Eliza. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure! But I keep right on praying just the same. It's a habit now. The +news has set the chief to jumping sideways." +</P> + +<P> +"Which, translated, I suppose means that he is disturbed." +</P> + +<P> +"Or words to that effect! Too bad they changed that newspaper story of +yours." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"It put a crimp in him." +</P> + +<P> +"How—do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"He had some California capitalists tuned up to put in three million +dollars, but when they read that our plan was impracticable their +fountain-pens refused to work." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" Eliza gasped, faintly. +</P> + +<P> +Slater regarded her curiously, then shook his head. "Funny how a kid +like you can scare a bunch of hard-headed bankers, ain't it?" he said. +"Doc Gray explained that it wasn't your fault, but—it doesn't take +much racket to frighten the big fish." +</P> + +<P> +"What will Mr. O'Neil do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he'll fight it out, I s'pose. The first thing is to block Gordon. +Say, I brought you a present." +</P> + +<P> +"This is my lucky day," smiled Eliza as Tom fumbled in his pocket. "I'm +sure I shall love it." +</P> + +<P> +"It ain't much, but it was the best in the crate and I shined it up on +my towel." Mr. Slater handed Eliza a fine red apple of prodigious size, +at sight of which the girl turned pale. +</P> + +<P> +"I—don't like apples," she cried, faintly. +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind; they're good for your complexion." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd die before I'd eat one." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I'll eat it for you; my complexion ain't what it was before I had +the smallpox." When he had carried out this intention and subjected his +teeth to a process of vacuum-cleaning, he asked: "Say, what happened to +your friend who chewed gum?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, he was hardly a friend," Miss Appleton said, "If he had been a +real friend he would have listened to my warning." +</P> + +<P> +"Gum never hurt anybody," Slater averred, argumentatively. +</P> + +<P> +"Not ordinary gum. But you see, he chewed nothing except wintergreen—" +</P> + +<P> +"That's what I chew." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza's tone was one of shocked amazement. "Not REALLY? Oh, well, some +people would thrive on it, I dare say, but he had indigestion." +</P> + +<P> +"Me too! That's why I chew it." +</P> + +<P> +The girl eyed him during an uncomfortable pause. Finally she inquired: +</P> + +<P> +"Do you ever feel a queer, gnawing feeling, like hunger, if you go +without your breakfast?" +</P> + +<P> +"Unh-hunh! Don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't alarm you for the world, Uncle Tom—" +</P> + +<P> +"I ain't your uncle!" +</P> + +<P> +"You might chew the stuff for years and not feel any bad effects, but +if you wake up some morning feeling tired and listless—" +</P> + +<P> +"I've done that, too." Slater's gloomy eyes were fixed upon her with a +look of vague apprehension. "Is it a symptom?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly! Pepsin-poisoning, it's called. This fellow I told you about +was a charming man, and since we had all tried so hard to save him, we +felt terribly at the end." +</P> + +<P> +"Then he died?" +</P> + +<P> +"Um-m! Yes and no. Remind me to tell you the story sometime—Here comes +Dan, in a great hurry." +</P> + +<P> +Young Appleton came panting up the hill. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-by, Sis," he said. "I'm off for the front in ten minutes." +</P> + +<P> +"Anybody hurt?" Slater asked quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"Not yet, but somebody's liable to be. Gordon is trying to steal the +canon, and Murray has ordered me out with a car of dynamite to hold it." +</P> + +<P> +"Dynamite! Why, Dan!" his sister exclaimed in consternation. +</P> + +<P> +"We have poling-boats at the lower crossing and we'll be at the canon +in two days. I'm going to load the hillside with shots, and if they try +to come through I'll set 'em off. They'll never dare tackle it." Dan's +eyes were dancing; his face was alive with excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"But suppose they should?" Eliza insisted, quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"Then send Doc Gray with some stretchers. I owe one to Gordon, and this +is my chance." Drawing her aside, he said in an undertone. "You've got +to hold my ground with Natalie while I'm gone. Don't let her see too +much of Murray." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll do the best I can," she answered him, "but if he seems to be in +earnest I'll renig, no matter what happens to you, Danny." +</P> + +<P> +He kissed her affectionately and fled. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +XII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +HOW GORDON FAILED IN HIS CUNNING +</H4> + +<P> +The so-called canon of the Salmon River lies just above the twin +glaciers. Scenically, these are by far the more impressive, and they +present a more complex engineering problem; yet the canon itself was +the real strategic point in the struggle between the railroad-builders. +The floor of the valley immediately above Garfield glacier, though +several miles wide, was partly filled with detritus which had been +carried down from the mother range on the east, and this mass of debris +had forced the stream far over against the westward rim, where it came +roaring past the foot wall in a splendid cataract some three miles +long. To the left of the river, looking up-stream at this point, the +mountains slanted skyward like a roof, until lost in the hurrying scud +four thousand feet above. To the right, however, was the old moraine, +just mentioned, consisting of a desolate jumble of rock and gravel and +silt overlaying the ice foot. On account of its broken character and +the unstable nature of its foundation this bank was practically useless +for road-building, and the only feasible route for steel rails was +along the steep west wall. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil on his first reconnaissance had perceived that while there was +room for more than one bridge across the Salmon between the upper and +the lower ice masses, there was not room for more than one track +alongside the rapids, some miles above that point. He knew, moreover, +that once he had established his title to a right-of-way along the west +rim of the cataract, it would be difficult for a rival to oust him, or +to parallel his line without first crossing back to the east bank—an +undertaking at once hazardous and costly. He had accordingly given Dan +Appleton explicit instructions to be very careful in filing his survey, +that no opportunity might be left open for a later arrival. The +engineer had done his work well, and O'Neil rested secure in the belief +that he held possession of the best and least expensive route through +to the open valleys above. He had had no cause to fear a clash with the +Heidlemann forces, for they had shown a strict regard for his rights +and seemed content to devote themselves to developing their terminus +before trying to negotiate the canon. They were wise in taking this +course, for their success would mean that O'Neil's project would fall +of its own weight. Kyak was nearer Seattle, by many miles, than Omar; +it was closer to the coal and copper fields, and the proven permanence +of their breakwater would render useless further attempts to finance +the S. R. & N. +</P> + +<P> +But in the entrance of Curtis Gordon into the field O'Neil recognized +danger. Gordon was swayed by no such business scruples as the +Heidlemanns; he was evidently making a desperate effort to secure a +footing at any cost. In purchasing the McDermott holdings he had +executed a coup of considerable importance, for he had placed himself +on equal footing with the Trust and in position to profit by its +efforts at harbor-building without expense to himself. If, therefore, +he succeeded in wresting from O'Neil the key to that upper passageway, +he would be able to block his personal enemy and to command the +consideration of his more powerful rival. +</P> + +<P> +No one, not even the Trust, had taken the McDermott enterprise +seriously, but with Curtis Gordon in control the "wildcat" suddenly +became a tiger. +</P> + +<P> +In view of all this, it was with no easy mind that O'Neil despatched +Appleton to the front, and it was with no small responsibility upon his +shoulders that the young engineer set out in charge of those wooden +boxes of dynamite. Murray had told him frankly what hung upon his +success, and Dan had vowed to hold the survey at any cost. +</P> + +<P> +Steam was up and the locomotive was puffing restlessly when he returned +from his farewell to Eliza. A moment later and the single flat car +carrying his party and its dangerous freight was being whirled along +the shores of Omar Lake. On it rushed, shrieking through the night, out +from the gloomy hills and upon the tangent that led across the delta. +Ten minutes after it had rolled forth upon the trestle at the "lower +crossing" the giant powder had been transferred to poling-boats and the +long pull against the current had begun. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil had picked a crew for Dan, men upon whom he could depend. They +were on double pay, and as they had worked upon the North Pass & Yukon, +Appleton had no doubt of their loyalty. +</P> + +<P> +The events of that trip were etched upon the engineer's mind with +extraordinary vividness, for they surpassed in peril and excitement all +his previous experiences. The journey resembled nothing but the mad +scramble of a gold stampede. The stubborn boats with their cargoes +which had to be so gently handled, the ever-increasing fury of the +river, the growing menace of those ghastly, racing icebergs, the +taut-hauled towing-lines, and the straining, sweating men in the loops, +all made a picture hard to forget. Then, too, the uncertainty of the +enterprise, the crying need of haste, the knowledge of those other men +converging upon the same goal, lent a gnawing suspense to every hour. +It was infinitely more terrible than that first expedition when he and +Tom Slater and O'Neil had braved the unknown. It was vastly more trying +than any of the trips which had followed, even with the winter +hurricane streaming out of the north as from the mouth of a giant +funnel. +</P> + +<P> +Dan had faced death in various forms upon this delta during the past +year and a half. He had seen his flesh harden to marble whiteness under +the raging north wind; his eyes and lungs had been drifted full of sand +in summer storms which rivaled those of the Sahara. With transit on his +back he had come face to face with the huge brown grizzly. He had slept +in mud, he had made his bed on moss which ran water like a sponge; he +had taken danger and hardship as they came—yet never had he punished +himself as on this dash. +</P> + +<P> +Through his confusion of impressions, his intense preoccupation with +present dangers and future contingencies, the thought of Natalie +floated now and then vaguely but comfortingly. He had seen her for a +moment, before leaving—barely long enough to explain the nature of his +mission—but her quick concern, her unvoiced anxiety, had been very +pleasant, and he could not believe that it was altogether due to her +interest in the fortunes of O'Neil. +</P> + +<P> +Dan knew that Mellen's crew was camped at the upper crossing, busied in +drilling for the abutments and foundations of the bridge; but he +reasoned that they would scarcely suspect the object of Gordon's party +and that, in any case, they were not organized or equipped to resist +it. Moreover, the strategic point was four miles above the bridge site, +and the surveying corps would hardly precipitate a clash, particularly +since there was ample room for them to select a crossing-place +alongside. +</P> + +<P> +It was after midnight of the second day when he and his weary boatmen +stumbled into sight of the camp. Appleton halted his command and stole +forward, approaching the place through the tangled alders which flanked +it. He had anticipated that the rival party would be up to this point +by now, if not even farther advanced, and he was both angered and +relieved to sight the tops of other tents pitched a few hundred yards +beyond Mellen's outfit. So they were here! He had arrived in time, +after all! A feeling of exultation conquered the deathly fatigue that +slowed his limbs. Although he still had to pass the invader's camp and +establish himself at the canon, the certainty that he had made good +thus far was ample reward for his effort. +</P> + +<P> +A dog broke into furious barking as he emerged from cover, and he had a +moment's anxiety lest it serve as warning to the enemy; but a few quick +strides brought him to the tent of Mellen's foreman. Going in, he +roused the man, who was sleeping soundly. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello!" cried the foreman, jumping up and rubbing his eyes, "I thought +Curtis Gordon had taken possession." +</P> + +<P> +"Hush! Don't wake them up," Dan cautioned. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, there's no danger of disturbing them with this infernal +cannonading going on all the time." The night resounded to a rumbling +crash as some huge mass of ice split off, perhaps two miles away. +</P> + +<P> +"When did they arrive?" +</P> + +<P> +"Night before last. They've located right alongside of us. Gee! we were +surprised when they showed up. They expect to break camp in the +morning." He yawned widely. +</P> + +<P> +"Hm-m! They're making tracks, aren't they? Were they friendly?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, sure! So were we. There was nothing else to do, was there? We had +no orders." +</P> + +<P> +"I have two dozen men and four boatloads of dynamite with me. I'm going +to hold that mountainside." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you're going to fight!" All vestige of drowsiness had fled from +the man's face. +</P> + +<P> +"Not if we can help it. Who is in charge of this crew?" +</P> + +<P> +"Gordon himself." +</P> + +<P> +"Gordon!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! And he's got a tough gang with him." +</P> + +<P> +"Armed?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure! This is a bear country, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"Listen! I want you to tell him, as innocently as you can, that we're +on the job ahead of him. Tell him we've been there for a week and have +loaded that first rock shoulder and expect to shoot it off as soon as +possible. You can tell him, too, that I'm up there and he'd better see +me before trying to pass through." +</P> + +<P> +"I've got you! But that won't stop him." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps! Now have you any grub in camp?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"We threw ours overboard, to make time. Send up anything you can spare; +we're played out." +</P> + +<P> +"It'll be nothing but beans, and they're moldy." +</P> + +<P> +"We can fight on beans, and we'll eat the paper off those giant +cartridges if we have to. Don't fail to warn Gordon that the hillside +is mined, and warn him loud enough for his swampers to hear." +</P> + +<P> +Appleton hastened back to his boats, where he found his men sprawled +among the boulders sleeping the sleep of complete exhaustion. They were +drenched, half numbed by the chill air of the glacier, and it was well +that he roused them. +</P> + +<P> +"Gordon's men are camped just above," he told them. "But we must get +through without waking them. No talking, now, until we're safe." +</P> + +<P> +Silently the crew resumed their tow-lines, fitting them to their aching +shoulders; gingerly the boats were edged out into the current. +</P> + +<P> +It was fortunate that the place was noisy, and that the voice of the +river and the periodic bombardment from the glaciers drowned the rattle +of loose stones dislodged by their footsteps. But it was a trying +half-hour that followed. Dan did not breathe easily until his party had +crossed the bar and were safely out upon the placid waters of the lake, +with the last stage of the journey ahead of them. +</P> + +<P> +About mid-forenoon of the following day Curtis Gordon halted his party +at the lower end of the rapids and went on alone. To his right lay the +cataract and along the steep slope against which it chafed wound a +faint footpath scarcely wide enough in places for a man to pass. This +trail dipped in and out, wound back and forth around frowning +promontories. It dodged through alder thickets or spanned slides of +loose rock, until, three miles above, it emerged into the more open +country back of the parent range. It had been worn by the feet of wild +animals and it followed closely the right-of-way of the S. R. & N. To +the left the hills rose swiftly in great leaps to the sky; to the +right, so close that a false step meant disaster, roared the cataract, +muddy and foam-flecked. +</P> + +<P> +As Gordon neared the first bluff he heard, above the clamor of the +flood, a faint metallic "tap-tap-tap," as of hammer and drill, and, +drawing closer, he saw Dan Appleton perched upon a rock which commanded +a view in both directions. Just around the shoulder, in a tiny gulch, +or gutter from the slopes above, were pitched several tents, from one +of which curled the smoke of a cook-stove. Close at hand were moored +four battered poling-boats. +</P> + +<P> +"Look out!" Appleton shouted from on high. +</P> + +<P> +Gordon flushed angrily and kept on, scanning the surroundings with +practised eye. +</P> + +<P> +"Hey, you!" Dan called, for a second time. "Keep back! We're going to +shoot." +</P> + +<P> +Still heedless of the warning, Gordon held stubbornly to his stride. He +noted the heads of several men projecting from behind boulders, and his +anger rose. How dared this whipper-snapper shout at him! He felt +inclined to toss the insolent young scoundrel into the rapids. Then +suddenly his resentment gave place to a totally different emotion. The +slanting bank midway between him and Appleton lifted itself bodily in a +chocolate-colored upheaval, and the roar of a dynamite blast rolled out +across the river. It was but a feeble echo of the majestic +reverberations from the glacier across the lake, but it was impressive +enough to send Curtis Gordon scurrying to a place of safety. He wheeled +in his tracks, doubling himself over, and his long legs began to thresh +wildly. Reaching the shelter of a rock crevice, he hurled himself into +it, while over his place of refuge descended a shower of dirt and rocks +and debris. When the rain of missiles had subsided he stepped forth, +his face white with fury, his big hands twitching. His voice was hoarse +as he shouted his protest. +</P> + +<P> +Appleton scrambled carefully down from his perch in the warm sunshine +and approached with insolent leisure. +</P> + +<P> +"Say! Do you want to get your fool self killed?" he cried; then in an +altered tone: "Oh! Is it you, Gordon?" +</P> + +<P> +"You knew very well it was I." Gordon swallowed hard and partially +controlled his wrath. "What do you mean by such carelessness?" he +demanded. "You ought to be hung for a thing like that." He brushed the +dirt from his expensive hunting-suit. +</P> + +<P> +"I yelled my head off! You must be deaf." +</P> + +<P> +"You saw me coming! Don't say you didn't. Fortunately I wasn't hurt." +In a tone of command he added, "You'll have to stop blasting until I go +through with my party." +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry! Every day counts with us." Appleton grinned. "You know how it +is—short season, and all that." +</P> + +<P> +"Come, come! Don't be an idiot. I have no time to waste," +</P> + +<P> +"Then you'll have to go around," said Dan. "This isn't a public road, +you know." +</P> + +<P> +Gordon had come to argue, to pacify, to gain his ends by lying, if +necessary, but this impudent jackanapes infuriated him. His plans had +gone smoothly so far, and the unexpected threat of resistance +momentarily provoked him beyond restraint. +</P> + +<P> +"You scoundrel," he cried. "You'd have blown me into the river if you +could. But I'll go through this canon—" +</P> + +<P> +"Go as far and as fast as you like," Dan interrupted with equal heat, +"only take your own chances, and have a net spread at the lower end of +the rapids to catch the remains." +</P> + +<P> +They eyed each other angrily; then Gordon said, more quietly: +</P> + +<P> +"This is ridiculous. You can't stop me." +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe I can't and maybe I can, I'm under orders to rush this work and +I don't intend to knock off to please you. I've planted shots at +various places along our right-of-way and I'll set 'em off when it +suits me. If you're so anxious to go up-river, why don't you cross over +to the moraine? There's a much better trail on that side. You'll find +better walking a few miles farther up, and you'll run no danger of +being hurt." +</P> + +<P> +"I intend to run a survey along this hillside." +</P> + +<P> +"There isn't room; we beat you to it." +</P> + +<P> +"The law provides—" +</P> + +<P> +"Law? Jove! I'd forgotten there is such a thing. Why don't you go to +law and settle the question that way? We'll have our track laid by the +time you get action, and I'm sure Mr. O'Neil wouldn't place any +obstacles in the way of your free passage back and forth. He's awfully +obliging about such things." +</P> + +<P> +Gordon ground his fine, white, even teeth. "Don't you understand that +I'm entitled to a right-of-way through here under the law of common +user?" he asked, with what patience he could command. +</P> + +<P> +"If you're trying to get a legal opinion on the matter why don't you +see a lawyer? I'm not a lawyer, neither am I a public speaker nor a +piano-tuner, nor anything like that—I'm an engineer." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't get funny. I can't send my men in here if you continue blasting." +</P> + +<P> +"So it seems to me, but you appear to be hell bent on trying it." +</P> + +<P> +Dan was enjoying himself and he deliberately added to the other's anger +by inquiring, as if in the blinding light of a new idea: +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you bridge over and go up the other side?" He pointed to the +forbidding, broken country which faced them across the rapids. +</P> + +<P> +Gordon snorted. "How long do you intend to maintain this preposterous +attitude?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"As long as the powder lasts—and there's a good deal of it." +</P> + +<P> +The promoter chewed his lip for a moment in perplexity, then said with +a geniality he was far from feeling: +</P> + +<P> +"Appleton, you're all right! I admire your loyalty, even though it +happens to be for a mistaken cause. I always liked you. I admire +loyalty—It's something I need in my business. What I need I pay for, +and I pay well." +</P> + +<P> +"So your man Linn told us." +</P> + +<P> +"I never really discharged you. In fact, I intended to re-employ you, +for I need you badly. You can name your own salary and go to work any +time." +</P> + +<P> +"In other words, you mean you'll pay me well to let you through." +</P> + +<P> +"Fix your own price and I'll double it." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you come with me up this trail a little way?" Dan inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly." +</P> + +<P> +"There's a spot where I'd like to have you stand. I'll save you the +trouble of walking back to your men—you'll beat the echo." +</P> + +<P> +There was a pause while Gordon digested this. "Better think it over," +he said at length. "I'll never let O'Neil build his road, not if it +breaks me, and you're merely laying yourself open to arrest by +threatening me." +</P> + +<P> +"Please come with me!" urged Appleton. "You'll never know what hit you." +</P> + +<P> +With a curse the promoter wheeled and walked swiftly down the trail by +which he had come. +</P> + +<P> +"Get ready to shoot," Dan ordered when he had returned to his +vantage-point. A few moments later he saw the invading party approach, +but he withheld his warning shout until it was close at hand. Evidently +Gordon did not believe he would have the reckless courage to carry out +his threat, and had determined to put him to the test. +</P> + +<P> +The engineer gauged his distance nicely, and when the new-comers had +fairly passed within the danger zone he gave the signal to fire. +</P> + +<P> +A blast heavier than the one which had discouraged Gordon's advance +followed his command, and down upon the new-comers rained a deluge +which sent them scurrying to cover. Fortunately no one was injured. +</P> + +<P> +An hour later the invaders had pitched camp a mile below, and after +placing a trusted man on guard Appleton sent his weary men to bed. +</P> + +<P> +It was Curtis Gordon himself who brought O'Neil the first tidings of +this encounter, for, seeing the uselessness of an immediate attempt to +overcome Dan's party by force, he determined to make formal protest. He +secured a boat, and a few hours later the swift current swept him down +to the lower crossing, where McKay put a locomotive at his disposal for +the trip to Omar. By the time he arrived there he was quite himself +again, suave, self-possessed, and magnificently outraged at the +treatment he had received. O'Neil met him with courtesy. +</P> + +<P> +"Your man Appleton has lost his head," Gordon began. "I've come to ask +you to call him off." +</P> + +<P> +"He is following instructions to the letter." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean that you refuse to allow me to run my right-of-way along +that hillside? Impossible!" His voice betokened shocked surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"I am merely holding my own survey. I can't quit work to accommodate +you." +</P> + +<P> +"But, my dear sir, I must insist that you do." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil shrugged. +</P> + +<P> +"Then there is but one way to construe your refusal—it means that you +declare war." +</P> + +<P> +"You saved me that necessity when you sent Linn to hire my men away." +</P> + +<P> +Gordon ignored this reference. "You must realize, O'Neil," said he, +"that I am merely asking what is mine. I have the right to use that +canonside—the right to use your track at that point, in fact, if it +proves impracticable to parallel it—under the law of common user. You +are an experienced contractor; you must be familiar with that law." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I looked it up before beginning operations, and I found it has +never been applied to Alaska." +</P> + +<P> +Gordon started. "That's a ridiculous statement." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps, but it's true. Alaska is not a territory, it's a district, +and it has its own code. Until the law of common user has been applied +here you'll have to use the other side of the river." +</P> + +<P> +"That would force me to bridge twice in passing the upper glacier. We +shall see what the courts have to say." +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks! I shall be grateful for the delay." +</P> + +<P> +Gordon rose with a bow. The interview had been short and to the point. +O'Neil put an engine at his service for the return trip, and after a +stiff adieu the visitor departed, inwardly raging. +</P> + +<P> +It was his first visit to Omar, and now that he was here he determined +to see it all. But first another matter demanded his attention—a +matter much in his mind of late, concerning which he had reached a more +or less satisfactory decision during his journey. +</P> + +<P> +He went directly to the new hotel and inquired for Gloria Gerard. +</P> + +<P> +Beneath the widow's coldness when she came to meet him he detected an +uncertainty, a frightened indecision which assured him of success, and +he set himself to his task with the zest he always felt in bending +another to his will. +</P> + +<P> +"It has been the greatest regret of my life that we quarreled," he told +her when their strained greeting was over. "I felt that I had to come +and see with my own eyes that you are well." +</P> + +<P> +"I am quite well." +</P> + +<P> +"Two people who have been to each other as much as we have been cannot +lightly separate; their lives cannot be divided without a painful +readjustment." He paused, then reflecting that he could afford a little +sentimental extravagance, added, "Flowers cannot easily be +transplanted, and love, after all, is the frailest of blooms." +</P> + +<P> +"I—think it is perennial. Have you—missed me?" Her dark eyes were +strained and curious. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear, you can never know how much, nor how deeply distressing this +whole affair has been to me." He managed to put an affecting pathos +into words sufficiently banal, for he was an excellent actor. "I find +that I am all sentiment. Under the shell of the hard-headed business +man beats the heart of a school-boy. The memory of the hours we have +spent together, the places we have seen, the joys and discouragements +we have shared, haunts me constantly. Memory can glean but never renew: +'joy's recollection is no longer joy while sorrow's memory is sorrow +still.'" +</P> + +<P> +The spell of his personality worked strongly upon her. "Recollection is +the only paradise from which we cannot be turned out," she said. "You +read that to me once, but I didn't dream that my own happiness would +some day consist of recollection." +</P> + +<P> +"Why should it, Gloria? Hope is ready to welcome you. Your home stands +open; my arms are outstretched." +</P> + +<P> +"No!" she exclaimed, with a shake of her dark head. "There is some one +besides myself to consider. Natalie is happy here; no one seems to know +or to care what I have done." +</P> + +<P> +"But surely you are not satisfied with this." +</P> + +<P> +He ran his eye critically over the garish newness of the little hotel +parlor. It was flimsy, cheap, fresh with paint, very different from the +surroundings he had given her at Hope. "I wonder that he presumed to +offer you this after what you have had. A hotel-keeper! A landlady!" +</P> + +<P> +"I was glad to get even this, for I have no pride now," she returned, +coldly. "At least the house is honest, and the men who come here are +the same. Mr. O'Neil is especially kind to Natalie, and she thinks a +great deal of him." +</P> + +<P> +"I presume he wants to marry her." +</P> + +<P> +"I pray that he will. I don't intend her to make the mistake I did." +</P> + +<P> +Gordon received this announcement with grim satisfaction. It was what +he had suspected, and it fitted perfectly into his plans. +</P> + +<P> +"I sha'n't allow this to continue, Gloria," he said. "Our difference +has gone far enough, and I sha'n't permit O'Neil to put me in his debt. +We have come to a final understanding, he and I. While my views on the +holiness of the marriage relation have not changed in the least, still +I am ready to follow your wishes." +</P> + +<P> +"You—mean it?" she queried, breathlessly. +</P> + +<P> +"I do. Come home, Gloria." +</P> + +<P> +"Wait! I must tell Natalie." She rose unsteadily and left the room, +while he reflected with mingled scorn and amusement upon the weakness +of human nature and the gullibility of women. +</P> + +<P> +A moment later mother and daughter appeared, arm in arm, both very pale. +</P> + +<P> +"Is this true?" Natalie demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Quite true. You and Gloria seem to think I owe something; I never +shirk a debt." Mrs. Gerard's fingers tightened painfully upon her +daughter's arm as he continued: "There is only one condition upon which +I insist: you must both return to Hope at once and have done with +this—this man." +</P> + +<P> +Natalie hesitated, but the look in her mother's eyes decided her. With +some difficulty she forced herself to acquiesce, and felt the grip upon +her arm suddenly relax. "When will the wedding take place?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"At the earliest possible moment," Gordon declared, with well-feigned +seriousness. "Once we return to God's country—" +</P> + +<P> +"No!" cried Natalie. "We can't go back to Hope until she is married; it +would be scandalous." +</P> + +<P> +"Why more scandalous to accept my protection than that of a stranger? +Do you care what these people think?" he demanded, with an air of fine +scorn. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! I care very much." +</P> + +<P> +"Is there any—reason for waiting?" Mrs. Gerard inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Many! Too many to enumerate. It is my condition that you both leave +Omar at once." +</P> + +<P> +Gloria Gerard looked at her daughter in troubled indecision, but +Natalie answered firmly: +</P> + +<P> +"We can't do that." +</P> + +<P> +"So! You have your own plans, no doubt, and it doesn't trouble you that +you are standing in the way of your mother's respectability!" His voice +was harsh, his sneer open. "Bless my soul! Is the generosity to be all +on my side? Or has this man O'Neil forbidden you to associate with me?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't trust you." Natalie flared up. "I'm afraid you are trying—" +</P> + +<P> +"It is my condition, and I am adamant. Believe me, O'Neil knows of your +disgrace, or will learn of it in time. It would be well to protect your +name while you can." Turning to the other woman, he said loudly: +"Gloria, the girl is ready to sacrifice you to her own ends." +</P> + +<P> +"Wait!" Natalie's nerves were tingling with dislike of the man, but she +said steadily: "I shall do exactly as mother wishes." +</P> + +<P> +Be it said to the credit of Gloria Gerard that she did not hesitate. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall be here when you are ready," she told him. +</P> + +<P> +With an exclamation of rage Gordon rose and strode out of the room. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +XIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +WE JOURNEY TO A PLACE OF MANY WONDERS +</H4> + +<P> +Curtis Gordon's men broke camp upon his return from Omar, and by taking +the east bank of the Salmon River pressed through to the upper valley. +Here they recrossed to the west side and completed their survey, with +the exception of the three-mile gap which Dan Appleton held. +</P> + +<P> +Gordon continued to smart under the sting of his defeat, however. +O'Neil had gotten the better of him in argument, and Natalie's +simplicity had proved more than a match for his powers of persuasion. +At no time had he seriously considered making Mrs. Gerard his wife, but +he had thought to entice the two women back under his own roof, in +order to humble both them and their self-appointed protector. He felt +sure that Natalie's return to Hope and her residence there would injure +her seriously in the eyes of the community, and this would be a stab to +O'Neil. Although he had failed for the moment, he did not abandon the +idea. His display of anger upon leaving the hotel had been due mainly +to disappointment at the checkmate. But knowing well the hold he +possessed upon the older woman, he laid it away for later use when the +fight grew hot, and meanwhile devoted himself to devising further +measures by which to harass his enemy and incidentally advance his own +fortunes. +</P> + +<P> +Gordon's business career had consisted of a series of brilliant +manipulations whereby, with little to go upon, he had forced financial +recognition for himself. No one knew better than he the unstable +foundation beneath his Alaskan enterprises; yet more than once he had +turned as desperate ventures into the semblance of success. By his +present operations he sought not only to hamper O'Neil, but to create +an appearance of opposition to both him and the Trust that could be +coined into dollars and cents. There are in the commercial world money +wolves who prey upon the weak and depend upon the spirit of compromise +in their adversaries. Gordon was one of these. He had the faculty of +snatching at least half a victory from apparent defeat, and for this +reason he had been able to show a record sufficiently impressive to +convince the average investor of his ability. +</P> + +<P> +By purchasing for a song the McDermott rights at Kyak he had placed +himself in position to share in the benefits of the Heidlemann +breakwater, and by rapidly pushing his tracks ahead he made his rivalry +seem formidable. As a means of attack upon O'Neil he adopted a +procedure common in railroad-building. He amended his original survey +so that it crossed that of the S. R. & N. midway between the lower +bridge over the Salmon River and the glaciers, and at that point began +the hasty erection of a grade. +</P> + +<P> +It was at the cost of no little inconvenience that he rushed forward a +large body of men and supplies, and began to lay track across the S. R. +& N. right-of-way. If Appleton could hold a hillside, he reasoned, he +himself could hold a crossing, if not permanently, at least for a +sufficient length of time to serve his purpose. +</P> + +<P> +His action came as a disagreeable surprise to Omar. These battles for +crossings have been common in the history of railroading, and they have +not infrequently resulted in sanguinary affrays. Long after the ties +are spiked and the heads are healed, the legal rights involved have +been determined, but usually amid such a tangle of conflicting +testimony and such a confusion of technicalities as to leave the +justice of the final decision in doubt. In the unsettled conditions +that prevailed in the Salmon River valley physical possession of a +right-of-way was at least nine-tenths of the law, and O'Neil realized +that he must choose between violence and a compromise. Not being given +to compromise, he continued his construction work, and drew closer, day +by day, to the point of contact. +</P> + +<P> +Reports came from the front of his opponent's preparations for +resistance. Gordon had laid several hundred yards of light rails upon +his grade, and on these he had mounted a device in the nature of a +"go-devil" or skip, which he shunted back and forth by means of a +donkey-engine and steel cable. With this in operation across the point +of intersection like a shuttle, interference would be extremely +dangerous. In addition, he had built blockhouses and breast-works of +ties, and in these, it was reported, he had stationed the pick of his +hired helpers, armed and well provisioned. +</P> + +<P> +Toward this stronghold Murray O'Neil's men worked, laying his road-bed +as straight as an arrow, and as the intervening distance decreased +anxiety and speculation at Omar increased. +</P> + +<P> +Among those who hung upon the rumors of the approaching clash with +greatest interest was Eliza Appleton. Since Dan's departure for the +front she had done her modest best to act the part he had forced upon +her, and in furtherance of their conspiracy she had urged O'Neil to +fulfil his promise of taking her over the work. She felt an +ever-growing curiosity to see those glaciers, about which she had heard +so much; and she reflected, though not without a degree of +self-contempt, that nothing could be more favorable to her design than +the intimacy of several days together on the trail. Nothing breeds a +closer relationship than the open life, nothing brings people more +quickly into accord or hopeless disagreement. Although she had no +faintest idea that Murray could or would ever care seriously for her, +she felt that there was a bare possibility of winning his transient +interest and in that way, perhaps, affording her brother time in which +to attain his heart's desire. Of course, it was all utterly absurd, yet +it was serious enough to Dan; and her own feelings—well, they didn't +matter. +</P> + +<P> +She was greatly excited when O'Neil announced one evening: +</P> + +<P> +"I'm ready to make that trip to the front, if you are. I have business +at Kyak; so after we've seen the glaciers we will go down there and you +can take in the coal-fields." +</P> + +<P> +"How long shall we be gone?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ten days, perhaps. We'll start in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm ready to leave at a moment's notice." +</P> + +<P> +"Then perhaps you'd better help Natalie." +</P> + +<P> +"Natalie!" exclaimed Eliza, seeing all her well-laid plans tottering. +"Is she going?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes! It's an opportunity she shouldn't miss, and I thought it would +be pleasanter for you if she went with us." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza was forced to acknowledge his thoughtfulness, although it angered +her to be sacrificed to the proprieties. Her newspaper training had +made her feel superior to such things, and this of all occasions was +one upon which she would have liked to be free of mere conventions. But +of course she professed the greatest delight. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil had puzzled her greatly of late; for at times he seemed wrapped +up in Natalie, and at other times he actually showed a preference for +Eliza's own company. He was so impartial in his attentions that at one +moment the girl would waver in her determination and in the next would +believe herself succeeding beyond her hope. The game confused her +emotions curiously. She accused herself of being overbold, and then she +noted with horror that she was growing as sensitive to his apparent +coldness as if she were really in earnest. She had not supposed that +the mere acting of a sentimental role could so obsess her. +</P> + +<P> +To counteract this tendency she assumed a very professional air when +they set out on the following morning. She was once more Eliza Appleton +the reporter, and O'Neil, in recognition of this fact, explained +rapidly the difficulties of construction which he had met and overcome. +As she began to understand there came to her a fuller appreciation of +the man and the work he was doing. Natalie, however, could not seem to +grasp the significance of the enterprise. She saw nothing beyond the +even gravel road-bed, the uninteresting trestles and bridges and cuts +and fills, the like of which she had seen many times before, and her +comment was childlike. O'Neil, however, appeared to find her naivete +charming, and Eliza reflected bitterly: +</P> + +<P> +"If my nose was perfectly chiseled and my eyebrows nice, he wouldn't +care if my brain was the size of a rabbit's. Here am I, talking like a +human being and really understanding him, while she sits like a Greek +goddess, wondering if her hat is on straight. If ever I find a girl +uglier than I am I'll make her my bosom friend." She jabbed her pencil +viciously at her notebook. +</P> + +<P> +The track by this time had been extended considerably beyond the lower +crossing—a circumstance which rendered their boat journey to the +glaciers considerably shorter than the one Dan had taken with his cargo +of dynamite. When the engine finally stopped it was in the midst of a +tent village beside which flowed one of the smaller branches of the +Salmon. In the distance the grade stretched out across the level swamps +like a thin, lately healed scar, and along its crest gravel-trains were +slowly creeping. An army of men like a row of ants were toiling upon +it, and still farther away shone the white sides of another encampment. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! That's Gordon's track," Eliza cried, quickly. "Why, you're nearly +up to him. How do you intend to get across?" +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil nodded at the long thin line of moiling men in the distance. +</P> + +<P> +"There's a loose handle in each one of those picks," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Somebody will be killed in that kind of a racket." +</P> + +<P> +"That rests with Gordon. I'm going through." +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose he had said that when Dan stopped him at the canon?" +</P> + +<P> +"If he'd said it and meant it he'd probably have done it. He bluffs; I +don't! I have to go on; he didn't. Now lunch is served; and since this +is our last glimpse of civilization, I advise you to fortify +yourselves. From here on we shall see nothing but the wilderness." +</P> + +<P> +He led them to a spotless tent which had been newly erected at the edge +of the spruce. It was smoothly stretched upon a framework of timber, +its walls and floor were of dressed lumber, and within were two cots +all in clean linen. There were twin washstands also, and dressers and +rocking-chairs, a table and a stove. On the floor beside the beds lay a +number of deep, soft bear-rugs. A meal was spread amid glass and +figured china and fresh new napery. +</P> + +<P> +"How cozy! Why, it's a perfect dear of a house!" exclaimed Natalie. +</P> + +<P> +"You will leave everything but your necessaries here, for we are going +light," Murray told them. "You will stop here on our way back to Kyak, +and I'll warrant you'll be glad to see the place by that time." +</P> + +<P> +"You built this just for us," Eliza said, accusingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. But it didn't take long. I 'phoned this morning that you were +coming." He ran a critical eye over the place to see that its equipment +was complete, then drew out their chairs for them. +</P> + +<P> +A white-coated cook-boy served a luncheon in courses, the quality of +which astonished the visitors, for there was soup, a roast, delicious +vegetables, crisp salad, a camembert which O'Neil had imported for his +private use, and his own particular blend of coffee. +</P> + +<P> +The girls ate with appetites that rivaled those of the men in the +mess-tent near by. Their presence in the heart of a great activity, the +anticipation of adventure to come, the electric atmosphere of haste and +straining effort on every hand excited them. Eliza began to be less +conscious of her secret intention, and Natalie showed a gaiety rare in +her since the shadow of her mother's shame had fallen upon her life. +</P> + +<P> +The boat crews were waiting when they had finished, and they were soon +under way. A mile of comparatively slack water brought them out into +one of the larger estuaries of the river, and there the long, uphill +pull began. O'Neil had equipped his two companions with high rubber +boots, which they were only too eager to try. As soon as they got +ashore they began to romp and play and splash through the shallows +quite like unruly children. They spattered him mischievously, they +tugged at the towing-ropes with a great show of assistance, they +scampered ahead of the party, keeping him in a constant panic lest they +meet with serious accident. +</P> + +<P> +It was with no little relief that he gave the order to pitch camp some +hours later. After sending them off to pick wild currants, with a grave +warning to beware of bears, he saw to the preparations for the night. +They returned shortly with their hats filled and their lips stained; +then, much to his disgust, they insisted upon straightening out his +tent with their own hands. Once inside its low shelter, they gleefully +sifted sand between his blankets and replaced his pillow with a rock; +then they induced the cook to coil a wet string in his flapjack. When +supper was over and the camp-fires of driftwood were crackling merrily, +they fixed themselves comfortably where their feet would toast, and +made him tell them stories until his eyes drooped with weariness. +</P> + +<P> +It was late summer, and O'Neil had expected to find the glaciers less +active than usual, but heavy rains in the interior and hot thawing +weather along the coast had swelled the Salmon until many bergs clogged +it, while the reverberations which rolled down the valley told him that +both Garfield and Jackson were caving badly. It was not the safest time +at which to approach the place, he reflected, but the girls had shown +themselves nimble of foot, and he put aside his uneasiness. +</P> + +<P> +Short though the miles had been and easy as the trip had proved, Eliza +soon found herself wondering that it should be possible to penetrate +this region at all. The snarling river, the charging icebergs, the +caving banks, and the growing menace of that noisy gap ahead began to +have their effect upon her and Natalie; and when the party finally +rounded the point where Murray and Dan had caught their first glimpse +of the lower glacier they paused with exclamations of amazement. They +stood at the upper end of a gorge between low bluffs, and just across +the hurrying flood lay the lower limit of the giant ice-field. The +edge, perhaps six hundred feet distant, was sloping and mud-stained, +for in its slow advance it had plowed a huge furrow, lifting boulders, +trees, acres of soil upon its back. The very bluff through which the +river had cut its bed was formed of the debris it had thrown off, and +constituted a bulwark protecting its flank. Farther up-stream the +slope, became steeper, then changed to a rugged perpendicular face +showing marks of recent cleavage. This palisade extended on and on, +around the nearest bend, following the contour of the Salmon as far as +they could see. The sun was reflected from its myriad angles and facets +in splendid iridescence. Mammoth caves and caverns gaped. In spots the +ice was white, opaque; in other places it was a light cerulean blue +which shaded into purple. Ribbons and faint striations meandered +through it like the streaks in an agate. But what struck the beholders +with overwhelming force was the tremendous, the unbelievable bulk of +the whole slowly moving mass. It reared itself sheerly three hundred +feet high, and along its foot the river hurried, dwarfed to an +insignificant trickle. Here and there it leaned outward threateningly, +bulging from the terrific weight behind; at other points the muddy +flood recoiled from vast heaps which had slid downward and half dammed +its current. Back of these piles the fresh cleavage showed dazzlingly. +On, upward, back into the untracked mountains it ran through mile upon +mile of undulations, until at last it joined the ice-cap which weighted +the plateau. As far as the eye could follow the river ahead it stood +solidly. Across its entire face it was dripping; a thousand little +rills and waterfalls ate into it, and over it swept a cool, dank breath. +</P> + +<P> +The effect of the first view was overwhelming. Nothing upon the earth +compares in majesty and menace to these dull-eyed monsters of bygone +ages; nothing save the roots of mountains can serve to check them; +nothing less than the ceaseless energy of mighty rivers can sweep away +their shattered fragments. +</P> + +<P> +Murray O'Neil had seen Jackson Glacier many times, but always he +experienced the same feeling of awe, of personal insignificance, as +when he first came stumbling up that gorge more than a year before. +</P> + +<P> +For a long time the girls stood gazing without a word. They seemed to +have forgotten his presence. +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" he said at last. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't it BIG?" Natalie faltered, with round eyes. "Will it fall over +on us?" +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head. "The river is too wide for that, but when a +particularly big mass drops it makes waves large enough to sweep +everything before them. This bank on our right is sixty feet high, but +I've seen it inundated." +</P> + +<P> +Turning to Eliza, he inquired: +</P> + +<P> +"What do you think of it?" +</P> + +<P> +Her face as she met his was strangely glorified, her eyes were shining, +her fingers tightly interlocked. +</P> + +<P> +"I—I'd like to cry or—or swear," she said, uncertainly, +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Eliza!" Natalie regarded her friend in shocked amazement, but +Murray laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"It affects people differently," he said. "I have men who refuse to +make this trip. There's something about Jackson that frightens +them—perhaps it is its nearness. You see, there's no other place on +the globe where we pygmies dare come so close to a live glacier of this +size." +</P> + +<P> +"How can we go on?" Natalie asked. "We must work our boats along this +bank. If the ice begins to crack anywhere near us I want you both to +scamper up into the alders as fast as your rubber boots will carry you." +</P> + +<P> +"What will you do?" Eliza eyed him curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I'll follow; never fear! If it's not too bad, I'll stay with the +boats, of course. But we're not likely to have much difficulty at this +season." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza noted the intensity with which the boatmen were scanning the +passage ahead, and something in O'Neil's tone told her he was speaking +with an assurance he did not wholly feel. +</P> + +<P> +"You have lost some men here, haven't you?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. But the greater danger is in coming down. Then we have to get out +in the current and take our chances." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to do that!" Her lips were parted, her eyes were glowing, but +Natalie gave a little cry of dismay. +</P> + +<P> +"It's an utterly new sensation," O'Neil admitted. "I've been thinking +of sending you up across the moraine, but the trail is bad, and you +might get lost among the alders—" +</P> + +<P> +"And miss any part of this! I wouldn't do it for worlds." Eliza's +enthusiasm was irresistible, and the expedition was soon under way +again. +</P> + +<P> +Progress was more difficult now, for the river-shore was paved with +smooth, round stones which rolled under foot, and the boats required +extreme attention in the swift current. The farther they proceeded, the +more the ice wall opposite increased in height, until at last it shut +off the mountains behind. Then as they rounded the first bend a new +prospect unfolded itself. The size of Jackson became even more +apparent; the gravel bank under which they crept was steeper and higher +also. In places it was undercut by the action of the waves which +periodically surged across. At such points Murray sent his charges +hurrying on ahead, while he and his men tracked the boats after them. +In time they found themselves opposite the backbone of the glacier, +where the Salmon gnawed at the foot of a frozen cliff of prodigious +height. And now, although there had been no cause for apprehension +beyond an occasional rumble far back or a splitting crack from near at +hand, the men assumed an attitude of strained watchfulness and kept +their faces turned to the left. They walked quietly, as if they felt +themselves in some appalling presence. +</P> + +<P> +At last there came a sound like that of a cannon-shot, and far ahead of +them a fragment loosened itself and went plunging downward. Although it +appeared small, a ridge promptly leaped out from beneath the splash and +came racing down the river's bosom toward them. +</P> + +<P> +"Better go up a bit," O'Neil called to his charges. +</P> + +<P> +The men at the ends of the tow-lines scrambled part way up the shelving +beach and braced themselves, then wrapped the ropes about their waists, +like anchormen on a tug-of-war team. Their companions waded into the +flood and fended the boats off the rocks. +</P> + +<P> +The wave came swiftly, lifting the skiffs high upon the bank, then it +sucked them back amid a tangle of arms and legs. A portion of the +river-bottom suddenly bared itself and as suddenly was submerged again. +The boats plunged and rolled and beat themselves upon the shore, +wrenching the anchormen from their posts. They were half filled with +water too, but the wave had passed and was scudding away down-stream. +</P> + +<P> +Eliza Appleton came stumbling back over the rock-strewn bank, for +during that first mad plunge she had seen O'Neil go down beneath one of +the rearing craft. A man was helping him out. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing but my ankle!" he reassured her when she reached his side. "I +was dragged a bit and jammed among the boulders." He sank down, and his +lips were white with pain, but his gray eyes smiled bravely. The +boatman removed his chief's boot and fell to rubbing the injury, while +the girls looked on helplessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, come! We can't stay here," Murray told them. He drew on the boot +again to check the swelling. +</P> + +<P> +"Can you walk?" they asked him, anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly! Two feet are really unnecessary. A man can get along nearly +as well on one." He hurried his men back to their tasks, and managed to +limp after them, although the effort brought beads of sweat to his lips +and brow. +</P> + +<P> +It was well that he insisted upon haste, for they had not gone far when +the glacier broke abreast of the spot they had just left. There came a +rending crack, terrifying in its loudness; a tremendous tower of ice +separated itself from the main body, leaned slowly outward, then roared +downward, falling in a solid piece like a sky-scraper undermined. Not +until the arc described by its summit had reached the river's surface +did it shiver itself. Then there was a burst as of an exploded mine. +The saffron waters of the Salmon shot upward until they topped the main +rampart, and there separated into a cloud of spray which rained down in +a deluge. Out from the fallen mass rushed a billow which gushed across +the channel, thrashed against the high bank, then inundated it until +the alder thickets on its crest whipped their tips madly. A giant +charge of fragments of every size flew far out across the flats or +lashed the waters to further anger in its fall. +</P> + +<P> +The prostrate column lay like a wing-dam, half across the stream, and +over it the Salmon piled itself. Disintegration followed; bergs heaved +themselves into sight and went rolling and lunging after the billow +which was rushing down-stream with the speed of a locomotive. They +ground and clashed together in furious confusion as the river spun +them; the greater ones up-ended themselves, casting off muddy cascades. +From the depths of the flood came a grinding and crunching as ice met +rock. +</P> + +<P> +Spellbound, the girls watched that first wave go tearing out of sight, +filling the river bank-full. With exclamations of wonder, they saw the +imprisoned waters break the huge dam to pieces. Finally the last +shattered fragment was hurried out of sight, the flood poured past +unhampered, and overhead the glacier towered silent, unchanged, staring +at them balefully like a blind man with filmed eyes. There remained +nothing but a gleaming scar to show where the cataclysm had originated. +</P> + +<P> +"If I'd known the river was so high I'd never have brought you," O'Neil +told them. "It's fortunate we happened to be above that break. You see, +the waves can't run up against the current." He turned to his men and +spurred them on. +</P> + +<P> +It was not until the travelers had reached the camp at the bridge site +that all the wonders of this region became apparent. Then the two +girls, in spite of their fatigue, spent the late afternoon +sight-seeing. At this point they were able to gain a comprehensive +view; for at their backs lay Jackson Glacier, which they had just +passed, and directly fronting them, across a placid lake, was Garfield, +even larger and more impressive than its mate. Thirty, forty miles it +ran back, broadening into a frozen sea out of which scarred mountain +peaks rose like bleak islands, and on beyond the range of vision was +still more ice. +</P> + +<P> +They were surrounded by ragged ramparts. The Salmon River ran through a +broken chalice formed by the encircling hills, and over the rim of the +bowl or through its cracks peered other and smaller ice bodies. The +lake at its bottom was filled by as strange a navy as ever sailed the +sea; for the ships were bergs, and they followed each other in +senseless, ceaseless manoeuvers, towed by the currents which swept +through from the cataract at its upper end. They formed long +battle-lines, they assembled into flotillas, they filed about the +circumference of a devil's whirlpool at the foot of the rapids, +gyrating, bobbing, bowing until crowded out by the pressure of their +rivals. Some of them were grounded, like hulks defeated in previous +encounters, and along the guardian bar which imprisoned them at the +outlet of the lake others were huddled, a mass of slowly dissolving +wreckage. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil was helped into camp, and when his boot had been cut away he +sent news of his arrival to Dan, who came like an eager bridegroom. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +XIV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +HOW THE TRUTH CAME TO ELIZA +</H4> + +<P> +Appleton found his employer with one foot in a tub of hot water and his +lap full of blueprints. O'Neil explained briefly the condition of +affairs down the river. +</P> + +<P> +"I want some one to make that crossing," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"A volunteer?" asked Dan, with quickened pulses. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Will I do?" +</P> + +<P> +"I sent for you to give you the first chance—you've been chafing so at +your idleness. We must have steel laid to this point before snow flies. +Every hour counts. I daren't risk Mellen or McKay, for they might be +disabled. I intended to take charge myself, but I won't be able to walk +now for some time." He swore a little, and Dan nodded sympathetically. +"I wouldn't send anybody where I'd refuse to go myself. You understand?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course." +</P> + +<P> +"If either McKay or Mellen were hurt I couldn't build the bridge, and +the bridge must be built." +</P> + +<P> +"If Gordon stands pat somebody may be—hurt." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't look for anything worse than a few broken heads, but of course +I can't tell. I'll stand behind you with my last dollar, no matter what +happens." +</P> + +<P> +Dan laughed. "As I understand the situation you won't have a dollar +unless we make the crossing." +</P> + +<P> +"Right!" O'Neil smiled cheerfully. "The life of the S. R. & N. depends +upon it. I'd give ten thousand dollars for your right ankle." +</P> + +<P> +"You can have it for nothing, Chief. I'd amputate the whole leg and +present it to you," Dan declared earnestly. +</P> + +<P> +Murray took his hand in a hearty grip. "Perhaps I'll be able to serve +you some time," he said, simply. "Anyhow, I'll look out for the chance. +Now spend the evening with the girls, and leave in the morning. I'll be +down as soon as I can travel, to watch the fight from the side-lines." +O'Neil's voice was level, but his teeth were shut and his fingers were +clenched with rage at his disability. +</P> + +<P> +Dan hurried away highly elated, but when he told Eliza of the part he +had undertaken she stormed indignantly. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, the brute! He has no right to send you into danger. This isn't +war." +</P> + +<P> +"Sis, dear, it's my chance. He can't stand, and he daren't risk his +right-hand men." +</P> + +<P> +"So he sacrifices you! I won't permit it. Your life and safety are +worth more than all his dollars. Let his old railroad go to smash!" +</P> + +<P> +"Wait! More than my safety depends on this. He said he'd wait for a +chance to pay me back. If I do this he'll owe me more than any man on +the job, and when he learns that I love Natalie—" +</P> + +<P> +"Dan!" exclaimed his sister. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he'll make good!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, you're worse than he! The idea of suggesting such a thing!" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't preach! I've had nothing to do lately but think of her; she's +always in my mind. The loneliness up here has made me feel more than +ever that I can't exist without her. The river whispers her name; her +face looks at me from the campfire; the wind brings me her messages—" +</P> + +<P> +"Fiddlesticks! She saves her messages for him. When a man reaches the +poetical stage he's positively sickening. You'll be writing verses +next." +</P> + +<P> +"I've written 'em," Dan confessed, sheepishly; "oceans of mush." +</P> + +<P> +"Fancy! Thank Heaven one of us is sane." +</P> + +<P> +"Our dispositions were mixed when we were born, Eliza. You're +unsentimental and hard-headed: I'm romantic. You'll never know what +love means." +</P> + +<P> +"If you are a sample, I hope not." Eliza's nose assumed an even higher +tilt than usual. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if I knew I had no chance with Natalie I'd let Gordon's men put +an end to me—that's how serious it is. But I have a chance—I know I +have." +</P> + +<P> +"Bosh! You've lived in railroad camps too long. I know a dozen girls +prettier than she." Eying him with more concern, she asked, seriously, +"You wouldn't really take advantage of a service to Murray O'Neil +to—to tell him the nature of your insanity?" +</P> + +<P> +"I might not actually tell him, but I'd manage it so he'd find out." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you think Natalie has something to say? Don't you think she is +more than a piece of baggage waiting to be claimed by the first man who +comes along?" sputtered Miss Appleton in fine disgust at this attitude. +"She has more sense and determination than any girl, any pretty girl, I +ever saw. That's one reason why I hate her so. There's no use trying to +select a husband for her. When the time comes she'll do the selecting +herself. She'll knock over all our plans and walk blushingly up to the +altar with O'Neil, leaving us out on the sidewalk to cheer. I'm sorry I +ever tried to help you! I'm going to quit and get back my self-respect." +</P> + +<P> +"You'll do no such thing. You'll continue to help your poor red-headed +brother to the finish. Say! When I'm alone I'm just bursting with +optimism; when I'm with you I wither with despair; when I'm with +Natalie I become as heavy and stupid as a frog full of buckshot—I just +sit and blink and bask and revel in a sort of speechless bliss. If she +ever saw how really bright and engaging I am—" +</P> + +<P> +"You!" Eliza sniffed. "You're as uninteresting as I am." +</P> + +<P> +"Now that you've pledged your undying support, here goes for some +basking," said Dan; and he made off hastily in search of Miss Gerard. +</P> + +<P> +Eliza had really made up her mind to wash her hands of the affair, but +she wavered, and, as usual, she gave in. She did go to O'Neil to +protest at Dan's selection for the post of danger, but after talking +with him she began to see the matter in a new light, and her opposition +weakened. He showed her that the S. R. & N. had an individuality of its +own—an individuality greater than Murray O'Neil's, or Dan Appleton's, +or that of any man connected with it. She began to understand that it +was a living thing, and that O'Neil was merely a small part of it—a +person driven by a power outside himself, the head servant of a great +undertaking, upon whom rested a heavy responsibility. She saw for the +first time that the millions invested in the project imposed upon those +concerned with its management a sacred duty, and that failure to defend +the company's rights would be the worst sort of treachery. She began to +appreciate also how men may be willing to lay down their lives, if +necessary, to pave the way for the march of commerce. +</P> + +<P> +"I never looked at it in this way," she told him, when he had finished. +"I—don't like to take that view of it, even now, but I suppose I must." +</P> + +<P> +"Try not to worry about Dan," he said, sympathetically. "We'll start +back as soon as I'm able to move around, and I'll do my best to see +that he isn't hurt. It's—tough to be laid up this way." +</P> + +<P> +"There's another sick man in camp, by the way." +</P> + +<P> +"Who?" +</P> + +<P> +"The Indian boy who helps the cook. He was hunting and shot himself in +the arm." +</P> + +<P> +"They told me he was doing well." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he is, but the pain has kept the poor fellow awake until he's +nearly out of his head. There are no drugs here." +</P> + +<P> +"None this side of the end of the track." +</P> + +<P> +"Can't we do something?" +</P> + +<P> +"We can give Dan a note to 'Happy Tom' in the morning and have whatever +you want sent up. Tom will be there, and perhaps if you ask him he'll +despatch a man on foot at once." +</P> + +<P> +Seizing pen and paper from the table, Eliza wrote a note, which she +read aloud: +</P> + +<P> +"DEAR UNCLE TOM,—There is a sick Indian here. Won't you please send up +an opiate by special messenger, and receive the blessing of, Your +affectionate, ELIZA." +</P> + +<P> +"Better change the word 'opiate,'" O'Neil advised. "I don't think Tom +is equal to that; he might send overalls!" So Eliza substituted +"something to put him to sleep." This message Dan promised faithfully +to deliver. +</P> + +<P> +Murray had expected to begin the return journey within twenty-four +hours after his arrival; but his injury mended slowly, and when the +time came he was still unable to stand. This interval the girls spent +in watching the glaciers, of which they never seemed to tire, and in +spoiling many films. +</P> + +<P> +It was late on the second day when a tired and sodden messenger bearing +the marks of heavy travel appeared at O'Neil's tent and inquired for +Miss Appleton. To her he handed a three-foot bundle and a note from Tom +Slater which read: +</P> + +<P> +DEAR MADAM,—Here is the best thing I know of to put an Indian to +sleep. THOS. SLATER. +</P> + +<P> +"There's some mistake, surely," said the girl, as she unrolled the +odd-looking package; then she cried out angrily, and O'Neil burst into +laughter. For inside the many wrappings was a pick-handle. +</P> + +<P> +Eliza's resentment at "Happy Tom's" unsympathetic sense of humor was +tempered in a measure by the fact that the patient had taken a turn for +the better and really needed no further medical attention. But she was +not accustomed to practical jokes, and she vowed to make Tom's life +miserable if ever the occasion offered. +</P> + +<P> +As the days wore on and Murray remained helpless his impatience became +acute, and on the fourth morning he determined to leave, at whatever +cost in pain or danger to the injury. He gave orders, therefore, to +have a boat prepared, and allowed himself to be carried to it. The +foreman of the bridge crew he delegated to guide the girls down across +the moraine, where he promised to pick them up. The men who had come +with him he sent on to the cataract where Dan had been. +</P> + +<P> +"Aren't you coming with us?" asked Natalie, when they found him seated +in the skiff with an oarsman. +</P> + +<P> +"It's rough going. I'd have to be carried, so I prefer this," he told +them. +</P> + +<P> +"Then we'll go with you," Eliza promptly declared. +</P> + +<P> +Natalie paled and shook her dark head. "Is it safe?" she ventured. +</P> + +<P> +"No, it isn't! Run along now! I'll be down there waiting, when you +arrive." +</P> + +<P> +"If it's safe enough for you, it's safe enough for us," said Eliza. +Climbing into the boat, she plumped herself down with a look which +seemed to defy any power to remove her. Her blue eyes met O'Neil's gray +ones with an expression he had never seen in them until this moment. +</P> + +<P> +"Nonsense, child!" he said. "Don't be silly." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you try to put me out. I'll hang on and—kick. Don't you say +'please,' either," she warned him. +</P> + +<P> +"I must," he protested. "Please don't insist." +</P> + +<P> +She scowled like an angry boy, and seized the gunwales firmly. Her +expression made him smile despite his annoyance, and this provoked her +the more. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going!" she asserted, darkly. +</P> + +<P> +This outing had done wonders for both girls. The wind and the sunshine +had tanned them, the coarse fare had lent them a hearty vigor, and they +made charming pictures in their trim short skirts and sweaters and +leather-banded hats. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well! If you're going, take off your boots," commanded O'Neil. +</P> + +<P> +"What for?" +</P> + +<P> +"We may be swamped and have to swim for it. You see the man has taken +his off." Murray pointed to the raw-boned Norwegian oarsman, who had +stripped down as if for a foot-race. +</P> + +<P> +Eliza obeyed. +</P> + +<P> +"Now your sweater." +</P> + +<P> +Natalie had watched this scene with evident concern. She now seated +herself upon a boulder and began to tug at her rubber boots. +</P> + +<P> +"Here! Here! You're not going, too!" O'Neil exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I am. I'm frightened to death, but I won't be a coward." Her +shaking hands and strained voice left no doubt of her seriousness. +</P> + +<P> +"She can't swim," said Eliza; and O'Neil put an end to this display of +heroism with a firm refusal. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll think I'm afraid," Natalie expostulated. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless you, of course we will, because you are! So am I, and so is +Eliza, for that matter. If you can't swim you'd only be taking a +foolish risk and adding to our danger. Besides, Eliza doesn't know the +feel of cold water as we do." +</P> + +<P> +Natalie smiled a little tremulously at recollection of the shipwreck. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd much rather walk, of course," she said; and then to Eliza, "It—it +will be a lovely ramble for us." +</P> + +<P> +But Eliza shook her head. "This is material for my book, and I'll make +enough out of it to—to—" +</P> + +<P> +"Buy another orchard," Murray suggested. +</P> + +<P> +Feeling more resigned now that the adventure had taken on a purely +financial color, Natalie at length allowed herself to be dissuaded, and +Eliza settled herself in her seat with the disturbing consciousness +that she had made herself appear selfish and rude in O'Neil's eyes. +Nevertheless, she had no notion of changing her mind. +</P> + +<P> +When the other girl had gone the oarsman completed his preparations by +lashing fast the contents of the skiff—a proceeding which Eliza +watched with some uneasiness. O'Neil showed his resentment by a pointed +silence, which nettled her, and she resolved to hold her seat though +the boat turned somersaults. +</P> + +<P> +Word was finally given, and they swung out into the flood. O'Neil stood +as best he could on his firm leg, and steered by means of a +sculling-oar, while the Norwegian rowed lustily. +</P> + +<P> +Bits of drift, patches of froth, fragments of ice accompanied them, +bobbing alongside so persistently that Eliza fancied the boat must be +stationary until, glancing at the river-banks, she saw them racing past +like the panoramic scenery in a melodrama. The same glance showed her +that they were rushing directly toward the upper ramparts of Jackson +Glacier, as if for an assault. Out here in the current there were +waves, and these increased in size as the bed of the Salmon grew +steeper, until the poling-boat began to rear and leap like a frightened +horse. The gleaming wall ahead rose higher with every instant: it +overhung, a giant, crumbling cliff, imposing, treacherous. Then the +stream turned at right angles; they were swept along parallel with the +ice face, and ahead of them for three miles stretched the gauntlet. The +tottering wall seemed almost within reaching distance; its breath was +cold and damp and clammy. O'Neil stood erect and powerful in the stern, +swaying to the antics of the craft, his weight upon the sweep, his eyes +fixed upon the Thing overhead. The Norwegian strained at his oars while +the sweat ran down into his open shirt. The boat lunged and wallowed +desperately, rising on end, falling with prodigious slaps, drenching +the occupants with spray. It was splendid, terrifying! Eliza clung to +her seat and felt her heartbeats smothering her. Occasionally the +oarsman turned, staring past her with round, frightened eyes, and +affording her a glimpse of a face working with mingled fear and +exultation. +</P> + +<P> +Thus far the glacier had not disputed their passage; it maintained the +silence and the immobility of marble; nothing but the snarl of the +surging flood re-echoed from its face. But with the suddenness of a +rifle-shot there came a detonation, louder, sharper than any blast of +powder. The Norwegian cursed; the helmsman dropped his eyes to the +white face in the bow and smiled. +</P> + +<P> +Half a mile ahead of them a mass of ice came rumbling down, and the +whole valley rocked with the sound. Onward the little craft fled, a +dancing speck beneath the majesty of that frozen giant, an atom +threatened by the weight of mountains. At last through the opening of +the gorge below came a glimpse of the flats that led to the sea. A +moment later the boat swung into an eddy and came to rest, bumping +against the boulders. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil sat down, wiping his wet face. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, was it worth your trouble, Miss Kick-over the-traces?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it was glorious! I'll never forget it." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza's cheeks were burning now, her aching hands relaxed their hold, +and she drew a deep breath—the first of which she had been conscious +since the start, fifteen minutes before. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, on with your boots and your sweater. We'll have an hour's wait +for Natalie." +</P> + +<P> +She gave a cry of surprise and offered him a glimpse of a trim ankle +and a dripping foot. +</P> + +<P> +"See! They're wet, and I wriggled my toes right through my stockings. I +NEVER was so excited." +</P> + +<P> +The boatman fastened the painter and resumed his outer clothing. O'Neil +lit a cigar and asked: +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me, why did you insist on coming?" +</P> + +<P> +"I was afraid something might happen to you." +</P> + +<P> +He raised his brows, and she flushed. "Don't you understand? Dan would +never have forgiven me, and—and—I just HAD to come, that's all. It's +corking material for me—I thought you might upset, and I—I don't know +why I insisted." She bent over her stubborn boots, hiding her face. She +was flaming to the ears, for suddenly she knew the reason that had +prompted her. It rushed upon her like a sense of great shame. She +recalled the desperate grip at her heart when she had seen him ready to +leave, the wildness of her longing to share his danger, the black fear +that he might meet disaster alone. It had all come without warning, and +there had been no time for self-consciousness, but now she realized the +truth. The poignant pain of it made her fingers clumsy and sent that +flood of scarlet to her neck and ears. +</P> + +<P> +When Natalie arrived they cast off, and the remaining miles were made +in a few hours. +</P> + +<P> +Appleton joined them for lunch in the tent they remembered so well, and +professed to be shocked at the report of his sister's foolhardiness. +But whatever may have been Natalie's fear of ridicule, it promptly +disappeared under his complete indorsement of her wisdom in refraining +from such a mad adventure. As if to put her even more at ease, O'Neil +was especially attentive to her; and Eliza reflected gloomily that men, +after all, dislike bravado in women, that a trapeze artist or a lady +balloonist inspires only a qualified admiration. +</P> + +<P> +During O'Neil's absence work had progressed steadily. On his return he +found the grade completed to within a few yards of Gordon's +right-of-way. Although he was still unable to walk, he insisted upon +going to the front, whither he was helped by Appleton and "Happy Tom." +</P> + +<P> +Into the narrow space between the end of his embankment and that of his +rival's a gravel-train was spilling its burden, and a hundred +pick-and-shovel men were busy. The opposing forces also seemed hard at +work, but their activity was largely a pretense, and they showed +plainly that they were waiting for the clash. They were a hard-looking +crew, and their employer had neglected no precaution. He had erected +barricades for their protection until his grade looked like a military +work. +</P> + +<P> +"They haven't showed any guns yet, but I'm sure they're armed," +Appleton told his chief. +</P> + +<P> +"How is the place lighted by night?" O'Neil inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Oil torches," Slater answered. "Ah! We've been recognized. That comes +from being fat, I s'pose." +</P> + +<P> +As he spoke a donkey-engine at the right of the proposed crossing set +up a noisy rattling, a thin steel cable whipped into view between the +rails, and from the left there appeared a contrivance which O'Neil eyed +curiously. It was a sort of drag, and rode back and forth upon the +rails. +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! They'd better not put much trust in that," Murray grunted, +grimly. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't fool yourself; it's no rubber-tired baby-carriage," said Slater. +"Our men are afraid of it." +</P> + +<P> +After watching the device scuttle back and forth for a few moments +O'Neil said shortly: +</P> + +<P> +"Post a notice at once, offering a thousand dollars for any man who +cuts that cable." +</P> + +<P> +"A thousand—" Appleton gasped. "Why, I'll do it. Let me—" +</P> + +<P> +"No, you won't," Slater broke in. "I'll take that on myself." +</P> + +<P> +"I spoke first. It's my first chance," Dan cried. +</P> + +<P> +"It's my job! I'm going—" +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a minute!" O'Neil silenced the two, who were glaring at each +other angrily. "Don't let's have any fighting; there will be enough of +that later." +</P> + +<P> +"I spoke first," Dan repeated, stubbornly. +</P> + +<P> +"I had my mouth puckered to spit, that's why," the fat man explained. +"A fellow has to spit—" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd rather you wouldn't volunteer, Dan," said O'Neil. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"You might get hurt." +</P> + +<P> +"Happy Tom" nodded his agreement. "Certainly! Never send a boy on a +man's errand." +</P> + +<P> +"And I don't want you to do it either, Tom, for the same reason." +</P> + +<P> +Slater mumbled some sort of sour acquiescence, but Dan would not be +denied. +</P> + +<P> +"You made the offer, and I took it up," he told O'Neil. "Somebody has +to make the first move, and I have a particular need for exactly one +thousand dollars. If they start a rumpus, it will give us the excuse +we're looking for. I've been studying that 'go-devil' through +field-glasses for two days now, and I'll guarantee to put it out of +commission before Gordon's men know what I'm about. Just forget the +reward, if you like, and give me a chance." +</P> + +<P> +"What's your plan?" Slater inquired, eagerly; but Appleton shook his +head. +</P> + +<P> +"No you don't, Tommy!" he said. "I'm wise to you." +</P> + +<P> +Murray hesitated briefly, then gave his permission. "I'd rather you'd +let one of the rough-necks take the chance, but if you insist—" +</P> + +<P> +"I do." +</P> + +<P> +"Then get your sister's consent—" +</P> + +<P> +Slater swore mournfully, as if from a heart filled with black despair. +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't that my luck? One cud of gum cost me a thousand dollars! Hell! +It would take a millionaire to afford a habit like that." He expelled +the gum violently and went grumbling off up the track. +</P> + +<P> +"Sis won't object," said Dan, lightly. "She'd offer to do the trick +herself, for she's getting the spirit of the work." +</P> + +<P> +When O'Neil had managed to regain the camp he began preparations for an +attack that very night, using the telephone busily. News of the coming +affray quickly spread, and both the day and night shifts discussed it +excitedly at supper-time. +</P> + +<P> +Nor was the excitement lessened when a loaded gravel-train rolled in +and Dr. Gray descended from it with his emergency kit and two helpers +from the hospital at Omar. +</P> + +<P> +Up to this point both Eliza and Natalie had hoped that the affair might +not, after all, turn out to be very serious, but the presence of the +grim-faced surgeon and the significant preparations he set about making +boded otherwise. Eliza undertook to reason with her brother, but her +words refused to come. As a matter of fact, deep down in her heart was +a great rebellion at the fate which had made her a woman and thus +debarred her from an active part in the struggle. Natalie, on the other +hand, was filled with dread, and she made a much more vigorous attempt +to dissuade Dan from his purpose than did his sister. But he refused to +heed even her, and soon hurried away to finish his preparations. +</P> + +<P> +After supper the camp settled itself to wait for darkness. Night was +slow in coming, and long before Appleton signified his readiness +speculation was rife. With the approach of twilight the torches along +Gordon's grade began to glow brightly. Then Dan set his watch with +"Happy Tom's," kissed Eliza, and made off across the tundra. He left +the S. R. & N. at right angles and continued in that direction for a +mile or more before swinging about in a wide circle which brought him +well to the rear of Gordon's encampment. The gloom now covered his +movements, and by taking advantage of an alder thicket he managed to +approach very closely to the enemy's position. But the footing was +treacherous, the darkness betrayed him into many a fall, and he was +wet, muddy, and perspiring when he finally paused not more than two +hundred feet from the scene of the proposed crossing. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +XV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE BATTLE OF GORDON'S CROSSING +</H4> + +<P> +Curtis Gordon was not in charge of his field forces, having left the +command to his favorite jackal, Denny. Beneath his apparent contempt +for the law there lurked a certain caution. He knew his rival's +necessity, he appreciated his cunning, but, wishing to guard against +the possibility of a personal humiliation, he retired to Kyak, where he +was prepared to admit or to deny as much responsibility as suited him. +Denny had not forgotten O'Neil's exposure of his dishonesty, and his +zeal could be relied upon. He personally knew all the men under him, he +had coached them carefully, and he assured Gordon of his ability to +hold his ground. +</P> + +<P> +Dan Appleton, from his covert, measured the preparations for resistance +with some uneasiness, reflecting that if Denny had the nerve to use +firearms he would undoubtedly rout O'Neil's men, who had not been +permitted to carry guns. By the bright torchlight he could see figures +coming and going along the grade like sentinels, and from within the +barricades of ties he heard others talking. The camp itself, which lay +farther to the left, was lighted, and black silhouettes were painted +against the canvas walls and roofs. Some one was playing an accordion, +and its wailing notes came to him intermittently. He saw that steam was +up in the boiler which operated the "go-devil," although the +contrivance itself was stationary. It was upon this that he centered +his attention, consulting his watch nervously. +</P> + +<P> +At last ten o'clock came, bringing with it a sound which startled the +near-by camp into activity. It was a shrill blast from an S. R. & N. +locomotive and the grinding of car-wheels. The accordion ceased its +complaint, men poured out of the lighted tents, Appleton moved +cautiously out from cover. +</P> + +<P> +He stumbled forward through the knee-deep mud and moss, bearing +slightly to his right, counting upon the confusion to mask his +approach. He timed it to that of the gravel-train, which came slowly +creaking nearer, rocking over the uneven tracks, then down upon the +half-submerged rails which terminated near the opposing grade. It +stopped finally, with headlight glaring into the faces of Denny and his +troops, and from the high-heaped flat cars tumbled an army of +pick-and-shovel men. During this hullabaloo Appleton slipped out of the +marsh and climbed the gravel-bed in time to see the steel cable of the +skip tighten, carrying the drag swiftly along the track. The endless +cable propelling the contrivance ran through a metal block which was +secured to a deadhead sunk between the ties, and up to this post Dan +hastened. He carried a cold-chisel and hammer, but he found no use for +them, for the pulley was roped to the deadhead. Drawing his knife, he +sawed at the manila strands. Men were all around him, but in their +excitement they took no notice of him. Not until he had nearly +completed his task was he discovered; then some one raised a shout. The +next instant they charged upon him, but his work had been done. With a +snap the ropes parted, the cable went writhing and twisting up the +track, the unwieldy apparatus came to a stop. +</P> + +<P> +Dan found himself beset by a half-dozen of the enemy, who, having +singled him out of the general confusion as the cause of disaster, came +at him head-long. But by this time O'Neil's men were pouring out of the +darkness and overrunning the grade so rapidly that there was little +opportunity for concerted action. Appleton had intended, as soon as he +had cut the cable, to beat a hasty retreat into the marsh; but now, +with the firm gravel road-bed under his feet and the battle breaking +before his eyes, he changed his mind. He carried a light heart, and the +love of trouble romped through his veins. He lowered his head, +therefore, and ran toward his assailants. +</P> + +<P> +He met the foremost one fairly and laid him out. He vanquished the +second, then closed with a burly black man who withstood him capably. +They went down together, and Dan began to repent his haste, for blows +rained upon him and he became the target, not only of missiles of every +kind, but of heavy hobnailed shoes that were more dangerous than +horses' hoofs. +</P> + +<P> +The engineer dearly loved a fair fight, even against odds, but this was +entirely different: he was trampled, stamped upon, kicked; he felt +himself being reduced to a pulp beneath the overpowering numbers of +those savage heels. The fact that the black man received an equal share +of the punishment was all that saved Dan. Over and over between the +ties the two rolled, scorning no advantage, regarding no rules of +combat, each striving to protect himself at the other's expense. +</P> + +<P> +They were groveling there in a tangle of legs and arms when "Happy Tom" +came down the grade, leading a charge which swept the embankment clean. +</P> + +<P> +The boss packer had equipped his command with pick-handles and now set +a brilliant example in the use of this, his favorite weapon. For once +the apathetic Slater was fully roused; he was tremendous, irresistible. +In his capable grasp the oaken cudgel became both armor and flail; in +defense it was as active as a fencing-master's foil, in offense as +deadly as the kick of a mule. Beneath his formless bulk were the +muscles of a gladiator; his eye had all the quickness of a +prize-fighter. There was something primeval, appallingly ferocious +about the fat man, too: he fought with a magnificent enthusiasm, a +splendid abandon. And yet, in spite of his rage, he was clear-headed, +and his ears were sensitively strained for the sound of the first +gunshot-something he dreaded beyond measure. +</P> + +<P> +He was sobbing as much from anxiety as from the violence of his +exertions when he tore Appleton from the clutch of the black man and +set him on his feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you hurt, son?" he gasped. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure! I'm—hurt like hell." Dan spat out a mouthful of blood and sand. +"Gimme a club." +</P> + +<P> +"Go back yonder," Tom directed, swiftly. "Nail Denny before he gets 'em +to shooting. Kill him if you have to. I'll take care of these fellers." +</P> + +<P> +The younger man saw that the engagement at this end of the line was no +longer general, but had become a series of individual combats, so he +made what haste he could toward the scene of the more serious encounter +to the right of the crossing. He judged that the issue was still in +doubt there, although he could make out little in the confusion on +account of the glaring headlight, which dazzled him. +</P> + +<P> +As he ran, however, he discovered that the S. R. & N. forces were in +possession of the middle ground, having divided the enemy's ranks like +a wedge, and this encouraged him. Out of the darkness to right and left +came shouts, curses, the sounds of men wallowing about in the knee-deep +tundra. They were Gordon's helpers who had been routed from their +positions. +</P> + +<P> +Now that Appleton had time to collect himself he, too, grew sick with +suspense, for he knew that arms had been stacked inside the barricades. +Any instant might bring them into play. He began to wonder why Denny +withheld the word to fire. +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact, the explanation was simple, although it did not +appear until later. Mr. Denny at that moment was in no condition to +issue orders of any kind, the reason being as follows: when +preparations for the advance were made, Dr. Gray, who understood +perhaps more fully than any one else except O'Neil the gravity of the +issue and the slender pivot upon which the outcome balanced, had taken +his place in the vanguard of the attacking party instead of in the +background, as befitted his calling. The first rush had carried him +well into the fray, but once there he had shown his good judgment by +refusing to participate in it. +</P> + +<P> +Instead, he had selected Denny out of the opposing ranks and bored +through the crowd in his direction, heedless of all efforts to stop +him. His great strength had enabled him to gain ground; he had hurled +his assailants aside, upsetting them, bursting through the press as a +football-player penetrates a line; and when the retreat had begun he +was close at the heels of his victim. He had overtaken Denny beside one +of the barricades just as Denny seized a rifle and raised it. With one +wrench he possessed himself of the weapon, and the next instant he had +bent the barrel over its owner's head. +</P> + +<P> +Then, as the fight surged onward, he had gathered the limp figure in +his arms and borne it into the light of a gasolene-torch, where he +could administer first aid. He was kneeling over the fellow when +Appleton found him as he came stumbling along the grade. +</P> + +<P> +But the decisive moment had come and gone now, and without a leader to +command them Gordon's men seemed loath to adopt a more bloody reprisal. +They gave way, therefore, in a half-hearted hesitation that spelled +ruin to their cause. They were forced back to their encampment: over +the ground they had vacated picks and shovels began to fly, rails were +torn up and relaid, gravel rained from the flat cars, the blockhouses +were razed, and above the rabble the locomotive panted and wheezed, its +great yellow eye glaring through the night. When it backed away another +took its place; the grade rose to the level of the intersection, then +as morning approached it crept out beyond. By breakfast-time a long row +of flats extended across the line which Curtis Gordon had tried to hold +in defiance of the law. +</P> + +<P> +Dan Appleton, very dirty, very tired, but happy, found Natalie and +Eliza awaiting him when he limped up to their tent in the early morning +light. One of his eyes was black and nearly closed, his lips were cut +and swollen, but he grinned cheerfully as he exclaimed: +</P> + +<P> +"Say! It was a great night, wasn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +Eliza cried out in alarm at his appearance. +</P> + +<P> +"You poor kid! You're a sight." She ran for hot water and soap, while +Natalie said, warmly: +</P> + +<P> +"You were perfectly splendid, Dan. I knew you'd do it." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you?" He tried to smile his appreciation, but the effort resulted +in a leer so repulsive that the girl looked dismayed. "You ought to +have seen the shindy." +</P> + +<P> +"Seen it! Maybe we didn't!" +</P> + +<P> +"Honestly?" +</P> + +<P> +"Did you think we could stay behind? We sneaked along with the +cook-house gang, and one of them helped us up on the gravel-cars. He +smelled of dish-water, but he was a hero. We screamed and cried, and +Eliza threw stones until Mr. O'Neil discovered us and made us get down. +He was awfully mean." +</P> + +<P> +"He's a mean man." +</P> + +<P> +"He isn't! He was jumping around on one leg like a crippled +grasshopper." +</P> + +<P> +"I made a thousand dollars," said Dan. "Guess what I'm going to do with +it?" +</P> + +<P> +"How can I guess?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to buy an engagement ring." Once more he leered repulsively. +</P> + +<P> +"How nice!" said Natalie, coolly. "Congratulations!" +</P> + +<P> +"Guess who it's for?" +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't, really." +</P> + +<P> +"It's for you." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh no, it isn't!" Natalie's voice was freezing. "You have made a +mistake, a very great mistake, Dan. I like you, but—we won't even +mention such things, if you please." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza's entrance saved her further embarrassment, and she quickly made +her escape. Dan groaned so deeply as his sister bathed his injuries +that she was really concerned. +</P> + +<P> +"Goodness, Danny," she said, "are you as badly hurt as all that?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm worse," he confessed. "I've just been shot through the heart. Slow +music and flowers for me! Arrange for the services and put a rose in my +hand, Sis." +</P> + +<P> +"Nonsense! I'll put a beefsteak on your eye," she told him, unfeelingly. +</P> + +<P> +Under Dr. Gray's attention O'Neil's ankle began to mend, and by the +time the track had been laid far enough beyond the crossing to insure +against further interference from Gordon he declared himself ready to +complete the journey to Kyak, which he and the girls had begun nearly +three weeks before. +</P> + +<P> +During the interval Eliza had occupied herself in laying out her +magazine stories, and now she was eager to complete her investigations +so as to begin the final writing. Her experience in the north thus far +had given her an altered outlook upon the railroad situation, but as +yet she knew little of the coal problem. That, after all, was the more +important subject, and she expected it to afford her the basis for a +sensational exposure. She had come to Alaska sharing her newspaper's +views upon questions of public policy, looking upon Murray O'Neil as a +daring promoter bent upon seizing the means of transportation of a +mighty realm for his own individual profit; upon Gordon as an +unscrupulous adventurer; and upon the Copper Trust as a greedy +corporation reaching out to strangle competition and absorb the riches +of the northland. But she had found O'Neil an honorably ambitious man, +busied, like others, in the struggle for success, and backing his +judgment with his last dollar. She had learned, moreover, to sympathize +with his aims, and his splendid determination awoke her admiration. Her +idea of the Trust had changed, likewise, for it seemed to be a fair and +dignified competitor. She had seen no signs of that conscienceless, +grasping policy usually imputed to big business. In regard to Gordon +alone, her first conviction had remained unchanged. He was, in truth, +as evil as he had been reputed. +</P> + +<P> +The readjustment of her ideas had been disappointing, in a way, since +it robbed her of a large part of her ammunition; but she consoled +herself with the thought that she had not yet reached the big, vital +story which most deeply concerned the welfare of the north. +</P> + +<P> +She was a bit afraid to pursue her inquiries into the coal subject, for +her ideas were fixed, and she feared that O'Neil's activities merited +condemnation. In his railroad-building, she believed, he was doing a +fine work, but the coal was another matter. Obviously it belonged to +the people, and he had no right to lay hands upon their heritage. +</P> + +<P> +She wondered if it would not be possible to omit all mention of him in +her coal stories and center attention upon the Trust. It was impossible +for her to attack him now, since she had come to understand her +feelings toward him. Even so, she reflected with horror that if her +articles created the comment she anticipated their effect would be to +rob him of his holdings. But she took her work very seriously, and her +sense of duty was unwavering. She was one of the few who guide +themselves by the line of principle, straight through all other +considerations. She would write what she found true, for that was her +mission in life. If Murray proved culpable she would grieve over his +wrong-doing—and continue to love him. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil had recognized her sincerity, and on the broad subject of +conservation he had done nothing to influence her views. He preferred +to let her see the workings of the principle and, after actually +meeting some of those who had suffered by it, form her own conclusions. +It was for this reason mainly that he had arranged the trip to Kyak. +</P> + +<P> +The journey in a small boat gave Eliza a longed-for opportunity to +discuss with him the questions which troubled her. He was +uncommunicative at first, but she persisted in her attempt, drawing him +out in the hope of showing him the error of his ways. At last she +provoked him to a vigorous defense of his views. +</P> + +<P> +"Conservation is no more than economy," he declared, "and no one +opposes that. It's the misapplication of the principle that has +retarded Alaska and ruined so many of us. The situation would be +laughable if it weren't so tragic." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course you blame your troubles on the Government. That's one thing +governments are for." +</P> + +<P> +"Our ancestors blamed King George for their troubles, more than a +hundred years ago, and a war resulted. But every abuse they suffered is +suffered by the people of Alaska to-day, and a lot more besides. +Certainly England never violated her contracts with the colonies half +so flagrantly as our Government has violated its contracts with us." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course you exaggerate." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't. Judge for yourself. The law offers every citizen the +chance—in fact, it invites him—to go upon the public domain and +search for treasure. If he is successful it permits him to locate the +land in blocks, and it agrees to grant him a clear title after he does +a certain amount of work and pays a fixed price. Further, it says in +effect: 'Realizing that you may need financial assistance in this work, +we will allow you to locate not only for yourself, but also for your +friends, through their powers of attorney, and thus gain their +co-operation for your mutual advantage. These are the rules, and they +are binding upon all parties to this agreement; you keep your part, we +will keep ours.' Now then, some pioneers, at risk of life and health, +came to Kyak and found coal. They located it, they did all the law +required them to do—but did the Government keep its word? Not at all. +It was charged that some of them hadn't conformed strictly to the +letter of the agreement, and therefore all the claims were blacklisted. +Because one man was alleged to have broken his contract the Government +broke its contract with every man who had staked a coal claim, not only +at Kyak, but anywhere else in Alaska. Guilty and innocent were treated +alike. I was one of the latter. Was our money returned to us? No! The +Government had it and it kept it, along with the land. We've been +holding on now for years, and the Interior Department has tried by +various means to shake us off. The law has been changed repeatedly at +the whim of every theorist who happened to be in power. It has been +changed without notice to us even while we were out in the wilderness +trying to comply with the regulations already imposed. You can see how +it worked in the case of Natalie and her mother. The Government +succeeded in shaking them off." +</P> + +<P> +"That's only one side of the question," said Eliza. "You lose sight of +the fact that this treasure never really belonged to you, but to the +public. The coal-lands were withdrawn from entry because men like you +and the agents of the Heidlemanns were grabbing it all up." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil shook his head, frowning. "That's what the papers say, but it +isn't true. There are twenty million acres of coal in Alaska, and not +more than thirty thousand acres have been located. The law gave me the +right to locate and buy coal claims, and I took advantage of it. Now it +tells me that I have money enough, and takes back what it gave. If it +did the right thing it would grant patents to those who located under +the law as it then existed and withdraw the rest of the land from entry +if advisable. This country needs two things to make it +prosper—transportation and fuel. We are doing our best to supply the +first in spite of hindrance from Washington; but the fuel has been +locked away from us as if behind stone walls. Rich men must be brave to +risk their dollars here under existing conditions, for they are not +permitted to utilize the mines, the timber, or the water-power, except +upon absurd and unreasonable terms. Why, I've seen timber lying four +layers deep and rotting where it lies. The Government won't save it, +nor will it allow us to do so. That's been its policy throughout. It is +strangling industry and dedicating Alaska to eternal solitude. +Railroads are the keys by which this realm can be unlocked; coal is the +strength by which those keys can be turned. The keys are fitted to the +lock, but our fingers are paralyzed. For eight years Alaska's greatest +wealth has lain exposed to view, but the Government has posted the +warning, 'Hands off! Some one among you is a crook!' Meanwhile the law +has been suspended, the country has stagnated, men have left dispirited +or broken, towns have been abandoned. The cost in dollars to me, for +instance, has been tremendous. I'm laying my track alongside rich +coal-fields, but if I picked up a chunk from my own claim to throw at a +chipmunk I'd become a lawbreaker. I import from Canada the fuel to +drive my locomotives past my own coal-beds—which I have paid for—and +I pay five times the value of that fuel, forty percent of which is +duty. I haul it two thousand miles, while there are a billion tons of +better quality beneath my feet. Do you call that conservation? I call +it waste." +</P> + +<P> +"Fraud was practised at the start, and of course it takes time to find +out just where it lay." +</P> + +<P> +"That's the excuse, but after all these years no fraud has been proved. +In administering the criminal law there is an axiom to the effect that +it is better for ninety-nine guilty men to escape than for one innocent +man to suffer, but the Land Office says that ninety-nine innocent +Alaskans shall suffer rather than that one guilty man shall escape. The +cry of fraud is only a pretense, raised to cover the main issue. +There's something sinister back of it." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"A conspiracy of the Eastern coal-operators and the transcontinental +freight-lines." +</P> + +<P> +"How ridiculous!" cried Eliza. +</P> + +<P> +"You think so? Listen! Since all the high-grade coal of the Pacific +coast must come from the East, who, then, would discourage the opening +of local fields but those very interests? Every ton we burn means a +profit to the Eastern miner and the railroad man. Yes, and twenty per +cent. of the heat units of every ton hauled are consumed in +transportation. Isn't that waste? Every two years it costs our navy the +price of a battle-ship to bring coal to the Pacific fleet, while we +have plenty of better fuel right here on the ground. Our coal is +twenty-five hundred miles nearer to the Philippines than San Francisco, +and twelve thousand miles nearer than its present source. If Alaskan +coal-beds were opened up, we wouldn't have this yearly fight for +battle-ship appropriations; we'd make ourselves a present of a +first-class navy for nothing. No, our claims were disputed, and the +dispute was thrown into politics to keep us out of competition with our +Eastern cousins. We Alaskans sat in a game with high stakes, but after +the cards were dealt the rules were changed." +</P> + +<P> +"You argue very well," said Eliza, who was a bit dazed at this +unexpected, forceful counter-attack, "but you haven't convinced me that +this coal should be thrown open to the first person who comes along." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't expect to convince you. It's hard to convince a woman whose +mind is made up. It would take hours to cover the subject; but I want +to open your eyes to the effect of this new-fangled national policy. +Any great principle may work evil if it isn't properly directed, and in +Kyak you'll see the results of conservation ignorantly applied. You'll +see how it has bound and gagged a wonderful country, and made loyal +Americans into ragged, bitter traitors who would spit upon the flag +they used to cherish." +</P> + +<P> +"Is that the only reason why you came along—just to make sure that I +saw all this?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. I want to look at the Heidlemann breakwater. My fortune hangs upon +it." +</P> + +<P> +"It's as serious as that?" +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil shrugged. "I'm waiting for the wind. My coal is in the hands of +the bureaucracy at Washington, my railroad is in the hands of the wind +god. Incidentally, I'd much rather trust the god than the Government." +</P> + +<P> +Natalie, who had listened so far without the least sign of interest, +now spoke up. +</P> + +<P> +"If the storm doesn't come to your help, will you be ruined?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +Murray smiled cheerfully. "No man is ruined as long as he keeps his +dreams. Money isn't much, after all, and failure is merely a schooling. +But—I won't fail. Autumn is here: the tempest is my friend; and he +won't be long in coming now. He'll arrive with the equinox, and when he +does he'll hold my fortune in his hand." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, the equinoctial storm is due," said Eliza. +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly! That's why I'm going to meet it and to bid it welcome." +</P> + +<P> +The village of Kyak lay near the mouth of the most easterly outlet of +the Salmon, and it was similar in most respects to Hope and to Omar, +save that it looked out across a shallow, unprotected bay to the open +reaches of the north Pacific. The shores were low; a pair of rocky +islets afforded the only shelter to its shipping, and it was from these +as a starting-point that the Copper Trust had built its break-water. A +trestle across the tide-flats connected the work with the mainland, and +along this rock-trains crawled, adding their burdens to the strength of +the barrier. Protected by this arm of steel and stone and timber lay +the terminal buildings of the Alaska Northern, as the Heidlemann line +was called, and there also lay the terminus of the old McDermott +enterprise into which Curtis Gordon had infused new life. Both places +showed plenty of activity when O'Neil and his two companions arrived, +late one afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +Kyak, they found, was inferior to Omar in its public accommodations, +and Murray was at a loss to find shelter for the girls until his +arrival was made known to the agents of the Alaska Northern. Then Mr. +Trevor, the engineer in charge, looked him up and insisted upon sharing +his quarters with the visitors. In Trevor's bearing was no suggestion +of an enmity like Gordon's. He welcomed his rival warmly—and indeed +the Trust had never been small in its opposition. O'Neil accepted the +invitation gratefully. +</P> + +<P> +After dinner he took Natalie with him to see the sights, while Eliza +profited by the opportunity to interview Trevor. In her numerous tilts +with O'Neil she had not been over-successful from the point of view of +her magazine articles, but here at her hand was the representative of +the power best known and best hated for its activities in the +north-land, and he seemed perfectly willing to talk. Surely from him +she would get information that would count. +</P> + +<P> +"Understand, I'm on the side of your enemies," she warned him. +</P> + +<P> +"So is everybody else," Mr. Trevor laughed; "but that's because we're +misunderstood." +</P> + +<P> +"The intentions of any Trust warrant suspicion." +</P> + +<P> +He shrugged. "The Heidlemanns are just ordinary business men, like +O'Neil, looking for investment. They heard of a great big copper-field +hidden away back yonder in the mountains, and they bought what they +considered to be the best group of claims. They knew the region was +difficult of access, but they figured that a railroad from tide-water +would open up not only their own properties, but the rest of the +copper-belt and the whole interior country. They began to build a road +from Cortez, when some 'shoe-stringer' raised the cry that they had +monopolized the world's greatest copper supply, and had double-cinched +it by monopolizing transportation also. That started the fuss. They +needed cheap coal, of course, just as everybody else needs it; but +somebody discovered the danger of a monopoly of that and set up another +shout. Ever since then the yellow press has been screaming. The +Government withdrew all coal-lands from entry, and it now refuses to +grant patents to that which had been properly located. We don't own a +foot of Alaskan coal-land, Miss Appleton. On the contrary, we haul our +fuel from British Columbia, just like O'Neil and Gordon. Those who +would like to sell local coal to us are prevented from doing so." +</P> + +<P> +"It sounds well to hear you tell it," said Eliza. "But the minute the +coal patents are issued you will buy what you want, then freeze out the +other people. You expect to control the mines, the railroads, and the +steamship lines, but public necessities like coal and oil and timber +and water-power should belong to the people. There has been an +awakening of the public conscience, and the day of monopolized +necessities is passing." +</P> + +<P> +"As long as men own coal-mines they will sell them. Here we are faced +not by a question of what may happen, but of what has happened. If you +agreed to buy a city lot from a real-estate dealer, and after you paid +him his price he refused to give you a deed, you'd at least expect your +money back, wouldn't you? Well, that's the case of Uncle Sam and the +Alaskan miners. He not only refuses to deliver the lot, but keeps the +money, and forces them to pay more every year. I represent a body of +rich men who, because of their power, are regarded with suspicion; but +if they did anything so dishonest as what our Government has done to +its own people they would be jailed." +</P> + +<P> +"No doubt there has been some injustice, but the great truth remains +that the nation should own its natural resources, and should not allow +favored individuals to profit by the public need." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean railroads and coal-fields and such things?" +</P> + +<P> +"I do." +</P> + +<P> +Trevor shook his head. "If the people of Alaska waited for a Government +railroad, they'd die of old age and be buried where they died, for lack +of transportation. The Government owns telegraph-lines here, but it +charges us five times the rates of the Western Union. No, Miss +Appleton, we're not ready for Government ownership, and even if we were +it wouldn't affect the legality of what has been done. Through fear +that the Heidlemanns might profit this whole country has been made to +stagnate. Alaska is being depopulated; houses and stores are closed; +people are leaving despondent. Alaskans are denied self-government in +any form; theories are tried at their expense, but they are never +consulted. Not only does Congress fail to enact new laws to meet their +needs, but it refuses to proceed under the laws that already exist. If +the same policy had been pursued in the settlement of the Middle West +that applies to this country, the buffalo would still be king of the +plains and Chicago would be a frontier town. You seem to think that +coal is the most important issue up here, but it isn't. Transportation +is what the country needs, for the main riches of Alaska are as useless +to-day as if hidden away in the chasms of the moon. O'Neil had the +right idea when he selected the Salmon River route, but he made an +error of judgment, and he lost." +</P> + +<P> +"He hasn't lost!" cried Eliza, in quick defense of her friend. "Your +breakwater hasn't been tested yet." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it will hold," Trevor smiled. "It has cost too much money not to +hold." +</P> + +<P> +"Wait until the storms come," the girl persisted. +</P> + +<P> +"That's what we're doing, and from present indications we won't have +much longer to wait. Weather has been breeding for several days, and +the equinox is here. Of course I'm anxious, but—I built that +breakwater, and it can't go out." +</P> + +<P> +When O'Neil and Natalie returned they found the two still arguing. +"Haven't you finished your tiresome discussions?" asked Natalie. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Trevor has almost convinced me that the octopus is a noble +creature, filled with high ideals and writhing at the thrusts of the +muck-rakers," Eliza told them. +</P> + +<P> +But at that the engineer protested. "No, no!" he said. "I haven't half +done justice to the subject. There are a dozen men in Kyak to-night who +could put up a much stronger case than I. There's McCann, for instance. +He was a prospector back in the States until he made a strike which +netted him a hundred thousand dollars. He put nearly all of it into +Kyak coal claims and borrowed seventy thousand more. He got tired of +the interminable delay and finally mined a few tons which he sent out +for a test in the navy. It had better steaming qualities than the +Eastern coal now being used, but six weeks later an agent of the Land +Office ordered him to cease work until his title had been passed upon. +That was two years ago, and nothing has been done since. No charges of +irregularity of any sort have ever been filed against McCann or his +property. The Government has had his money for five years, and still he +can't get a ruling. He's broke now and too old to make a living. He's +selling pies on the street—" +</P> + +<P> +"He borrowed a dollar from me just now," said O'Neil, who was staring +out of a window. Suddenly he turned and addressed his host. "Trevor, +it's going to storm." His voice was harsh, his eyes were eager; his +tone brought the engineer to his side. Together they looked out across +the bay. +</P> + +<P> +The southern sky was leaden, the evening had been shortened by a rack +of clouds which came hurrying in from the sea. +</P> + +<P> +"Let it storm," said Trevor, after a moment. "I'm ready." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you ever seen it blow here?" +</P> + +<P> +"The old-timers tell me I haven't, but—I've seen some terrible storms. +Of course the place is unusual—" +</P> + +<P> +"In what way?" Eliza inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"The whole country back of here is ice-capped. This coast for a hundred +miles to the east is glacial. The cold air inland and the warm air from +the Japanese Current are always at war." +</P> + +<P> +"There is a peculiar difference in air-pressures, too," O'Neil +explained. "Over the warm interior it is high, and over the coast range +it is low; so every valley becomes a pathway for the wind. But that +isn't where the hurricanes come from. They're born out yonder." He +pointed out beyond the islands from which the breakwater flung its +slender arm. "This may be only a little storm, Trevor, but some day the +sea and the air will come together and wipe out all your work. Then +you'll see that I was right." +</P> + +<P> +"You told me that more than a year ago, but I backed my skill against +your prophecy." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil answered him gravely: "Men like you and me become over-confident +of our powers; we grow arrogant, but after all we're only pygmies." +</P> + +<P> +"If Nature beats me here, I'm a ruined man," said the engineer. +</P> + +<P> +"And if you defeat her, I'm ruined." O'Neil smiled at him. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's make medicine, the way the Indians did, and call upon the Spirit +of the Wind to settle the question," Eliza suggested, with a woman's +quick instinct for relieving a situation that threatened to become +constrained. She and Natalie ran to Trevor's sideboard, and, seizing +bottle and shaker, brewed a magic broth, while the two men looked on. +They murmured incantations, they made mystic passes, then bore the +glasses to their companions. +</P> + +<P> +As the men faced each other Natalie cried: +</P> + +<P> +"To the Wind!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! More power to it!" Eliza echoed. +</P> + +<P> +Trevor smiled. "I drink defiance." +</P> + +<P> +"In my glass I see hope and confidence," said O'Neil. "May the storm +profit him who most deserves help." +</P> + +<P> +Despite their lightness, there was a certain gravity among the four, +and as the night became more threatening they felt a growing suspense. +The men's restlessness communicated itself to the girls, who found +themselves listening with almost painful intentness to the voice of the +wind and the rumble of the surf, which grew louder with every hour. By +bed-time a torrent of rain was sweeping past, the roof strained, the +windows were sheeted with water. Now and then the clamor ceased, only +to begin with redoubled force. Trevor's guests were glad indeed of +their snug shelter. +</P> + +<P> +As Natalie prepared for bed she said: "It was fine of Mr. Trevor to +treat Murray O'Neil so nicely. No one would dream that they were +rivals, or that one's success means the other's ruin. Now Gordon—" She +turned to see her friend kneeling at the bedside, and apologized +quickly. +</P> + +<P> +Eliza lifted her face and said simply, "I'm praying for the Wind." +</P> + +<P> +Natalie slipped down beside her and bowed her dark head close to the +light one. They remained there for a long time, while outside the rain +pelted, the surf roared, and the wind came shrieking in from the sea. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +XVI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE FRUIT OF THE TEMPEST +</H4> + +<P> +Neither O'Neil nor his host was in sight when the girls came to +breakfast. The men had risen early, it seemed, and were somewhere out +in the storm. A wilder day would be hard to imagine; a hurricane was +raging, the rain was whirled ahead of it like charges of shot. The +mountains behind Kyak were invisible, and to seaward was nothing but a +dimly discernible smother of foam and spray, for the crests of the +breakers were snatched up and carried by the wind. The town was sodden; +the streets were running mud. Stove-pipes were down, tents lay +flattened in the mire, and the board houses were shaking as if they +might fly to pieces at any moment. The darkness was uncanny, and the +tempest seemed to be steadily growing in violence. +</P> + +<P> +When an hour or two had passed with no word from the men Eliza +announced her intention of looking them up. She had spent the time at a +window, straining her eyes through the welter, while Natalie had curled +up cozily with a book in one of Trevor's arm-chairs. +</P> + +<P> +"But, dearie, you'll be drenched." Natalie looked up in surprise. "Mr. +O'Neil is all right." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course he is. I'm not going out to spank him and bring him in. I +want to look at the storm." +</P> + +<P> +"So do I, but it won't do any good. I can't make it blow any harder by +getting my feet wet." +</P> + +<P> +"You read your novel and talk to Mr. Trevor when he comes back. He +knows we're to blame for this storm, so you must be nice to him. I +can't." She clad herself in rain-coat, sou'wester, and boots, and +hurried out. Walking was difficult enough, even in the shelter of the +village, but not until she had emerged upon the beach did she meet the +full strength of the gale. Here it wrapped her garments about her limbs +until she could scarcely move. The rain came horizontally and blinded +her; the wind fairly snatched her breath away and oppressed her lungs +like a heavy weight. She shielded herself as best she could, and by +clinging to stationary objects and watching her chance she managed to +work her way onward. At last she caught sight of O'Neil, standing high +above the surf, facing the wind defiantly, as if daring it to unfoot +him. He saw her and came in answer to her signal; but to breast that +wind was like stemming a rushing torrent, and when he reached her side +he was panting. +</P> + +<P> +"Child! What are you doing here?" he demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't wait any longer," she shouted back. "You've been out since +daylight. You must be wet through." +</P> + +<P> +He nodded. "I lay awake all night listening. So did Trevor. He's +beginning to worry already." +</P> + +<P> +"Already? If the breakwater stands this—" +</P> + +<P> +"The storm hasn't half started! Come! We'll watch it together." He took +her hand, and they lunged into the gale, battling their way back to his +point of vantage. He paused at length, and with his arm about her +pointed to the milk-white chaos which marked Trevor's handiwork. The +rain pelted against their faces and streamed from their slickers. +</P> + +<P> +The breakwater lay like a reef, and over it the sea was pounding in +mighty wrath. High into the air the waters rose, only to disappear upon +the bosom of the gale. They engulfed the structure bodily, they raced +along it with thunderous detonations, bursting in a lather of rage. Out +beyond, the billows appeared to be sheared flat by the force of the +wind, yet that ceaseless upheaval of spume showed that the ocean was in +furious tumult. For moments at a time the whole scene was blotted out +by the scud, then the curtain would tear asunder and the wild scene +would leap up again before their eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Eliza screamed a question at her companion, but he did not seem to +hear; his eyes roved back and forth along that lace-white ridge of rock +on the weakness of which depended his salvation. She had never seen him +so fierce, so hawklike, so impassive. The gusts shook him, his garments +slatted viciously, every rag beneath his outer covering was sodden, yet +he continued to face the tempest as indifferently as he had faced it +since the dawn. The girl thrilled at thought of the issue these mighty +forces were fighting out before her eyes, and of what it meant to the +man beside her. His interests became hers; she shared his painful +excitement. Her warm flesh chilled as the moisture embraced her limbs; +but her heart was light, for O'Neil's strong arm encircled her, and her +body lay against his. +</P> + +<P> +After a long time he spoke. "See! It's coming up!" he said. +</P> + +<P> +She felt no increase in the wind, but she noted that particles of sand +and tiny pebbles from the beach were flying with the salt raindrops. +Her muscles began to tremble from the constant effort at resistance, +and she was relieved when Murray looked about for a place of refuge. +She pointed to a pile of bridge timbers, but he shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"They'll go flying if this keeps up." He dragged her into the shelter +of a little knoll. Here the blasts struck them with diminished force, +the roaring in their ears grew less, and the labor of breathing was +easier. +</P> + +<P> +Rousing himself from his thoughts, the man said, gently: +</P> + +<P> +"Poor kid! You must be cold." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm freezing. But—please don't send me back." The face that met his +was supplicating; the eyes were bluer than a spring day. He patted her +dripping shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Not until you're ready." +</P> + +<P> +"This is grander than our trip past the glacier. That was merely +dangerous, but this—means something." +</P> + +<P> +"There may be danger here if we expose ourselves. Look at that!" +</P> + +<P> +High up beyond reach of the surf a dory had been dragged and left +bottom up. Under this the wind found a fingerhold and sent it flying. +Over and over it rolled, until a stronger gust caught it and sent it in +huge leaps, end over end. It brought up against the timber pile with a +crash, and was held there as if by a mighty suction. Then the beams +began to tremble and lift. The pile was disintegrated bit by bit, +although it would have required many hands to move any one of its parts. +</P> + +<P> +Even where the man and the woman crouched the wind harried them like a +hound pack, but by clinging to the branches of a gnarled juniper bush +they held their position and let the spray whine over their heads. +</P> + +<P> +"Farther west I've seen houses chained to the earth with ships' +cables," he shouted in her ear. "To think of building a harbor in a +place like this!" +</P> + +<P> +"I prayed for you last night. I prayed for the wind to come," said the +girl, after a time. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil looked at her, curiously startled, then he looked out at the sea +once more. All in a moment he realized that Eliza was beautiful and +that she had a heart. It seemed wonderful that she should be interested +in his fortunes. He was a lonely man; beneath his open friendliness lay +a deep reserve. A curiously warm feeling of gratitude flamed through +him now, and he silently blessed her for bearing him company in the +deciding hour of his life. +</P> + +<P> +Noon came, and still the two crouched in their half-shelter, drenched, +chilled, stiff with exposure, watching Kyak Bay lash itself into a +boiling smother. The light grew dim, night was settling; the air seemed +full of screaming furies. Then O'Neil noticed bits of driftwood racing +in upon the billows, and he rose with a loud cry. +</P> + +<P> +"It's breaking up!" he shouted. "It's breaking up!" +</P> + +<P> +Eliza lifted herself and clung to him, but she could see nothing except +a misty confusion. In a few moments the flotsam came thicker. +Splintered piling, huge square-hewn timbers with fragments of twisted +iron or broken bolts came floating into sight. A confusion of wreckage +began to clutter the shore, and into it the sea churned. +</P> + +<P> +The spindrift tore asunder at length, and the watchers caught a brief +glimpse of the tumbling ocean. The breakwater was gone. Over the place +where it had stood the billows raced unhindered. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor Trevor!" said O'Neil. "Poor Trevor! He did his best, but he +didn't know." He looked down to find Eliza crying. "What's this? I've +kept you here too long!" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no! I'm just glad—so glad. Don't you understand?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll take you back. I must get ready to leave." +</P> + +<P> +"Leave? Where—" +</P> + +<P> +"For New York! I've made my fight, and I've won." His eyes kindled +feverishly. "I've won in spite of them all. I hold the key to a +kingdom. It's mine—mine! I hold the gateway to an empire, and those +who pass through must pay." The girl had never seen such fierce triumph +in a face. "I saw it in a dream, only it was more than a dream." The +wind snatched O'Neil's words from his lips, but he ran on: "I saw a +deserted fishing-village become a thriving city. I saw the glaciers +part to let pass a great traffic in men and merchandise. I saw the +unpeopled north grow into a land of homes, of farms, of mining-camps, +where people lived and bred children. I heard the mountain passes echo +to steam whistles and the whir of flying wheels. It was a wonderful +vision that I saw, but my eyes were true. They called me a fool, and it +took the sea and the hurricane to show them I was right." He paused, +ashamed of his outburst, and, taking the girl's hand in his, went +stumbling ahead of the storm. +</P> + +<P> +Their limbs were cramped, their teeth chattered, they wallowed through +mire, and more than once they fell. Nearing Trevor's house, they saw +what the storm had done. Kyak was nearly razed. Roofs had been ripped +off, chimneys were down, glass was out. None but the most substantial +log cabins had withstood the assault, and men were busied in various +quarters trying to repair the damage. +</P> + +<P> +They found Natalie beside herself with anxiety for their safety, and an +hour later Trevor came in, soaked to the skin. He was very tired, and +his face was haggard. +</P> + +<P> +"Well! She went out!" he said. "I saw a million dollars swallowed up in +that sea." +</P> + +<P> +They tried to comfort him, but the collapse of his work had left him +dazed. +</P> + +<P> +"God! I didn't think it could blow like this—and it isn't over yet. +The town is flat." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry. You understand I sympathize?" said Murray; and the engineer +nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"You told me it blew here, and I thought I knew what you meant, but +nothing could withstand those rollers." +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"You'll go East and see our people, I suppose?" +</P> + +<P> +"At once." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell them what you saw. They'll never understand from my reports. +They're good people. If there's anything I can do—" +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil took his hand warmly. +</P> + +<P> +Two days later Murray bade the girls good-by, and left, traveling +light. They remained in Kyak so that Eliza might complete her +investigations. +</P> + +<P> +Of all those who suffered by the storm Curtis Gordon took his +misfortune hardest. This had been a black season for him, indeed. +Beginning with O'Neil's rivalry, everything had gone against him. He +had dropped his coal interests at Kyak in favor of the copper-mine, +because they failed to yield quick profits. Then he had learned that +the mine was valueless, and realized that it could not serve him much +longer as a means of raising funds. Still, he had trusted that by +taking a vigorous part in the railroad struggle he would be able either +to recoup his fortunes or at least to effect a compromise in the shadow +of which his fiasco at Hope would be forgotten. As yet the truth about +Hope Consolidated was not generally known to his stock-holders, but a +certain restlessness among them had become troublesome. The stream of +money had diminished alarmingly, and it was largely because of this +that he had bought the McDermott right-of-way and moved to Kyak. And +now, just as he had his affairs in shape for another and a greater +campaign of stock-flotation, the storm had come to ruin him. +</P> + +<P> +The bitterest element in his defeat was the realization that O'Neil, +who had bested him at every turn, was destined to profit by the very +blow which crushed him. Defeat at the hands of the Copper Trust he +would have accepted with a fairly good grace; but the mere thought that +Murray O'Neil, whom he considered in every way his inferior, had gained +the upper hand was intolerable. It was in keeping with Gordon's +character that instead of blaming his own judgment he became furiously +angry at the Trust for the mistake of its engineers, and held them +responsible for his desperate situation. That it was truly desperate he +very soon realized, since disaster to his railroad project meant that +his stock-holders would be around his ears like a swarm of hornets, and +once they understood the true state of affairs at Hope the complete +collapse of his fortunes would surely follow. +</P> + +<P> +During the days succeeding the storm he scarcely knew where to turn, so +harassed was he; yet he never for a moment wavered in his resolve to +make O'Neil pay for his interference and to exact a reckoning from +Gloria Gerard. +</P> + +<P> +Natalie's presence in Kyak confirmed his belief that O'Neil was +interested in her, and he began to plan a stroke by which he could take +revenge upon all three. It did not promise in any way to help him out +of his financial straits, but at least it would give him a certain +satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +He sent word to the girl that he would like to see her. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +XVII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +HOW THE PRINCE BECAME A MAN +</H4> + +<P> +Gordon found his erstwhile ward greatly improved by her recent life. +She was brown, vigorous, healthy; her physical charms quickened his +pulses. +</P> + +<P> +"You must have a very good reason for coming to see me," she began. "I +don't flatter myself that it is from affection." +</P> + +<P> +"There you wrong me," he assured her, with the warm earnestness he so +easily assumed. "I have always regarded you as a daughter." +</P> + +<P> +"I have no faith in you." +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly, and the knowledge distresses me. You and Gloria were a large +part of my life; I can't bear to lose you. I hope—and I believe—that +her regard for me has changed no more than mine for her. It remains for +me to regain yours." +</P> + +<P> +"That is impossible. You had the chance—" +</P> + +<P> +"My dear, you can't know my reasons for acting as I did at Omar. But +those reasons no longer exist." +</P> + +<P> +"Just what—do you mean by that?" stammered Natalie. +</P> + +<P> +"I mean what I say. I'm ready to marry your mother." +</P> + +<P> +"When?" +</P> + +<P> +"At once. You shall plead my cause for me. You shall add your voice to +mine—" +</P> + +<P> +"That isn't necessary. You know mother is only waiting for you. It +means so much to her that she couldn't refuse." +</P> + +<P> +"Doesn't it mean anything to you?" +</P> + +<P> +Natalie nodded. "It means more to me than to any one else, perhaps. I +have been carrying a great burden, almost more than I can bear. +Sometimes I've wished I were a man—for just long enough to make you +pay. Oh yes," she continued, as he started to protest. "Don't let us +begin this new life with any false conceptions; you may as well know +that I shall always hate you. We shall see very little of each other." +</P> + +<P> +"Nonsense! I can't let you feel like that. I sha'n't rest until I win +back your love and confidence." +</P> + +<P> +She eyed him searchingly for a moment, then opened her lips to speak, +but closed them. +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" he prompted her. "Let us be frank with each other." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm merely wondering how greatly your decision has been influenced by +the storm and the fight at the railroad crossing. I understand how you +feel toward Mr. O'Neil, and I know that he means to crush you." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" Gordon's face lighted. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! He has never said so, but I can feel it. I wonder if you have +snatched us up in your extremity as a defense." +</P> + +<P> +"Ridiculous! Your suspicions are insulting. I have nothing to fear from +him, for he is broken, his credit is gone, he is in desperate straits." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you in any better condition? How long can you fool your people +with that pretense of a mine?" +</P> + +<P> +Gordon flushed, but affected scorn. "So! Have you and Gloria begun to +balance my wealth against my love? If so—" +</P> + +<P> +"You know she would marry you if you were penniless." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope so—and, indeed, I can't believe her mercenary. Well, I shall +say good-by to Kyak, without idle regret, and we three shall return to +Hope, where I can attack my problems with fresh courage. I can well +afford my loss here, if by doing so I gain the woman of my desires." +</P> + +<P> +"You want me to go with you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course. You can't stay in Omar, knowing what you do about O'Neil. +Remember, I shall be in the position of a father to you." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well. It is the least I can do. Miss Appleton and I are returning +to Omar in a few days. Will you go with us?" +</P> + +<P> +"I shall be delighted, my dear." He smiled upon her in his most +fatherly fashion, but she was far from feeling the assurance he meant +to convey. +</P> + +<P> +The eighteen-hour train from Chicago bore Murray O'Neil into New York +on time, and he hastened directly to the Holland House, where the clerk +greeted him as if he had run in from Yonkers instead of from the +wilderness of the far northwest. His arrival was always the forerunner +of great prosperity for the bell-boys, and there was the customary +struggle for his baggage. +</P> + +<P> +An hour later, having bathed and changed his linen, he was whizzing +toward lower Broadway, with the roar of the Subway in his ears. New +York looked very good to O'Neil, for this time he came not as a +suppliant, but as a conqueror, and a deep contentment rested in his +heart. More than once during the last two years he had made this flying +trip across an ocean and a continent, but heretofore he had been +burdened with worries and responsibilities. Always he had needed to +gather his wits for some supreme effort; always there had been the +urgent necessity of raising money. As the S. R. & N. had grown his +obligations had increased; and, while he had never returned +empty-handed, no one but he knew at what cost of time and strength he +had succeeded in financing his venture. Invariably he had left New York +mentally and physically exhausted, and his days in the open had barely +served to replenish his store of nervous energy for the next campaign. +</P> + +<P> +As he looked back upon it all he was amazed at his daring in attempting +to finance a railroad out of his own pocket. But he had won, and the +Trust had met with a sharp reverse in attempting to beat him at his own +game. He held the winning card, and he looked out upon the world +through eyes which were strained and weary, but complacent. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Herman Heidlemann was expecting him. +</P> + +<P> +"You have the most confident way of arranging appointments from the +other side of the world," he began, as O'Neil entered his office. +"Steamships and railroads appear to be your obedient servants." +</P> + +<P> +"Not always. I find railroads very troublesome at times." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you're on time to the minute," said Heidlemann. "Now tell me +about Kyak. Trevor cables that you were there during the storm which +ruined us." The head of the copper syndicate did not look like a man +facing ruin; in fact, he seemed more curious to hear of the physical +phenomena of that hurricane than of its effect upon his fortunes. +</P> + +<P> +"Kyak was a great mistake," he admitted, when O'Neil had given him the +particulars he asked for. "We're all agreed on that point. Some of our +associates feel that the whole Alaskan enterprise has been a +mistake—mines and all." +</P> + +<P> +"Your mines are as good as they ever were, but Kyak is a long way from +Wall Street, and you relied too much upon other people's judgment." +</P> + +<P> +"We have to rely upon our experts." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course. But that country must have a railroad." +</P> + +<P> +"Must?" Heidlemann lifted his brows. "It has done very well without one +so far. Our friends call us crazy for trying to build one, and our +enemies call us thieves." +</P> + +<P> +"You can't afford to give up." +</P> + +<P> +"No. There's an element of pride in the matter, and I really believe +the country does need transportation." +</P> + +<P> +"You can't understand how badly it needs it." +</P> + +<P> +"Yet it's a heavy load to carry," said Heidlemann, with conviction, +"for a road will lose money for many years. We were willing to wait +until the agriculture and the mining developed, even though the profit +came only to our children; but—we have been misunderstood, abused by +the press and the public. Even Congress is down on us. However, I +suppose you came to tell me once more that Omar is the gateway and that +we need it." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil smiled. "That's hardly necessary now, is it? I own every inch of +water-front at that point, and there's no other harbor. My track will +be laid to the glaciers by the time snow flies." +</P> + +<P> +"Trevor reports that a bridge is possible, although expensive." +</P> + +<P> +"It will cost two million dollars." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see how it can be built to withstand the ice." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll guarantee to build it so it will hold." +</P> + +<P> +"What is your proposition?" asked Heidlemann. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll sell the S.R.&N. for five million dollars and contract to +complete the road within two years on a ten-per-cent commission." +</P> + +<P> +"It has cost you about three million dollars, I believe. That would +leave you a handsome profit." +</P> + +<P> +"One million for me, one million for my associates." +</P> + +<P> +"What will the remaining hundred miles cost?" +</P> + +<P> +"About ten millions. That will give me another million profit as +contractor. My force and equipment is on the ground. I can save you +money and a year's time." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Heidlemann drummed upon the top of his desk for a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"You're a high-priced man, O'Neil," he said, finally. +</P> + +<P> +"You've had experience with the other kind." +</P> + +<P> +"Counting the money we've already sunk, the road would stand us about +twenty million dollars completed." +</P> + +<P> +"It will cost thirty to build from Cortez, and take two years longer." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Heidlemann seemed to consider this for a moment. "We've had this +matter before us almost constantly since the report of the storm," he +said, at length, "and after deliberation our directors have voted to do +nothing just yet." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil opened his eyes in amazement. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't understand." +</P> + +<P> +"It's this way. Our engineers first recommended Cortez as a +starting-point, and we spent a fortune there. Then you attacked the +other route, and we sent Trevor up to find if you were right and we +were wrong. He recommended the Salmon River valley, and told us he +could build a breakwater at Kyak. You know the result. We relied upon +him, for he seemed to be the best man in the country, but as a matter +of precaution we later sent other engineers. Their reports came in not +three months ago, and, while all seemed confident that the breakwater +could be built, none of them were certain about the bridge. One, in +fact, condemned it absolutely. Now on the heels of their statements +comes the news that the very work they united in declaring feasible has +been undone. Naturally, we don't know where we are or whom to believe." +</P> + +<P> +"They simply didn't know the conditions at Kyak," argued O'Neil, "and +they evidently haven't studied the bridge as I have. But you'll have to +go at the breakwater again or build in from Cortez or give up." +</P> + +<P> +"No, we have decided to mark time until that crossing is proved +feasible. Understand, I voice the sentiment of the majority." +</P> + +<P> +"If I build that bridge you may find it more difficult to buy me out," +said O'Neil, quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll have to take our medicine," Mr. Heidlemann replied, without +heat. "We cannot afford another mistake." +</P> + +<P> +"This is definite?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, absolutely! We're going slow for a time." +</P> + +<P> +A blow in the face could not have affected O'Neil more disagreeably +than this statement. Fortune had seemed within his grasp when he +entered the room; now ruin was more imminent than it had ever been +before. The ground seemed to be slipping from beneath his feet; he +discovered that he was dizzy. He felt himself utterly incapable of +raising the two million dollars necessary to carry his road to a point +where the Trust would consider a purchase, yet to fail meant the loss +of all he had put in. He knew also that these men would never recede +from a position once taken. +</P> + +<P> +"Hasn't this public clamor had something to do with your +determination?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"A great deal. We had the best intentions when we started—we still +have—but it's time to let the general sentiment cool. We thought we +were doing a fine thing for the country in opening Alaska, but it seems +we're regarded as thieves and grafters. One gets tired of abuse after a +while." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you take an option on the S. R. & N. conditional upon the +building of the bridge?" +</P> + +<P> +"We couldn't very well do that. Remember you are our rival." +Heidlemann smiled in his recognition of the fact that the rivalry was +friendly. "To do so would fan excitement at Washington to a white heat. +We'd then be in the position they now accuse us of occupying, and that +would have a serious bearing upon the coal situation. No, we can't help +you, O'Neil, but rest assured we won't do anything to hinder you. You +have treated us fairly; we will reciprocate. Once you have built your +bridge we can discuss a purchase and the abandonment of our original +enterprise, but meanwhile we must proceed cautiously. It is unfortunate +for us all." +</P> + +<P> +"Especially for me." +</P> + +<P> +"You need money badly, don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm worse than broke," O'Neil admitted. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd really be sorry to take over the wreck of your enterprise," +Heidlemann said, earnestly, "for you have made a good fight, and your +ideas were better than ours. I'd much prefer to pay your price than to +profit by your misfortune. Needless to say we don't feel that way about +Gordon." +</P> + +<P> +"There would be no uncertainty about the bridge if I had the money. +With your means I could build a road to the moon, and double-track it." +</P> + +<P> +Although Murray felt that further effort was useless, he continued to +argue the matter from various angles, hoping against hope to sway +Heidlemann's decision. But he gave up at last. Out in the marble hall +which led to the elevators he discovered that all his vigor of an hour +ago had passed. The spring was out of his limbs; he walked slowly, like +an old man. A glimpse of his image in the mirrors of the car as he shot +downward showed him a face grave and haggard. The crowds jostled him, +but he was hardly conscious of them. The knowledge that his hardest +fight was yet to come filled him with sickening apprehension. He was +like a runner who toes the mark for a final heat knowing himself to be +upon the verge of collapse. +</P> + +<P> +The magnitude of the deal narrowed his field of operations alarmingly, +and he had already learned what a serious effect upon capital the +agitation about Alaska had produced. More than once he had found men +who were willing to invest but feared the effect of public sentiment. +Popular magazines, newspapers like The Review, and writers like Eliza +Appleton had been largely to blame for the wrong. They had +misunderstood the problem and misinterpreted the spirit of commercial +progress. But, strangely enough, he felt no bitterness at thought of +Eliza. On the contrary, his heart softened in a sort of friendly +yearning for her company. He would have liked to talk the matter over +with her. +</P> + +<P> +Looking the situation squarely in the face, he realized that he must +face a crash or raise two million dollars within the next month. That +meant seventy thousand dollars a day. It was a man-sized task. +</P> + +<P> +He bought himself a cigar at the corner, hailed a taxicab, and was +driven all the way up town to the Holland House. Once there, he +established himself in that corner of the men's cafe which he always +frequented. +</P> + +<P> +The waiter who served him lingered to say: +</P> + +<P> +"It's good to see you back in your 'office' again. You've been a long +time away, sir." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil smiled as he left a silver dollar on the tray. +</P> + +<P> +"It's good to be back, Joe," he said. "This time I may not leave." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +XVIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +HOW THE MAN BECAME A PRINCE AGAIN +</H4> + +<P> +O'Neil had the faculty of sleeping well, in spite of the most +tormenting worries. He arose on the morning after his interview with +Mr. Heidlemann, ready to begin the struggle with all his normal energy +and confidence. But the day brought him only discouragement. He had a +large acquaintance, the mention of his name in quarters where he was +not personally known gained him respectful attention; but he found +himself working in the shadow of the Copper Trust, and its silent +influence overcame his strongest arguments. One banker expressed the +general attitude by saying: +</P> + +<P> +"If the Heidlemanns were not in the field we might help you, but it +would be financial suicide to oppose them." +</P> + +<P> +"There's no opposition about it," Murray assured him. "If I build that +bridge they'll buy us out." +</P> + +<P> +At this his hearer very naturally wished to know why, if the bridge +were indeed feasible, the Heidlemanns delayed action; and O'Neil had to +fall back upon a recital of the facts, realizing perfectly that they +failed to carry conviction. +</P> + +<P> +No one, it seemed, cared to risk even a semblance of rivalry with that +monstrous aggregation of capital, for the interlacing of financial +interests was amazingly intricate, and financiers were fearful of the +least misstep. Everywhere O'Neil encountered the same disheartening +timidity. His battle, it seemed, had been lost before it was begun. +</P> + +<P> +Days passed in fruitless endeavors; evenings found O'Neil in his corner +of the Holland House Cafe racking his brain for some way out of his +perplexities. Usually he was surrounded by friends, for he continued to +entertain in the lavish fashion for which he had gained a reputation; +but sometimes he was alone, and then his solitude became more +oppressive than it had ever been even in the farthest wastes of the +northland. He was made to feel his responsibility with dreadful +keenness, for his associates were in a panic and bombarded him with +daily inquiries, vexatious and hard to answer. He had hoped that in +this extremity they might give him some practical help, and they did +make a few half-hearted attempts, only to meet the same discouragements +as he. At last they left him to carry the burden alone. +</P> + +<P> +A week, two weeks went by. He was in constant cable communication with +Omar, but not even the faithful Dr. Gray knew the dire straits in which +his chief was struggling. Work on the S. R. & N. was going forward as +usual. The organization was running at its highest efficiency: rails +were being laid; gangs of rock-workers were preparing the grade beyond +the glaciers. Yet every day that passed, every pay-check drawn brought +ruin closer. Nevertheless, O'Neil continued to joke and chat with the +men who came to his table in the cafe and kept his business +appointments with his customary cheerfulness. The waiters who attended +him rejoiced in his usual princely tips. +</P> + +<P> +One evening as he ran through his mail he found a letter in a woman's +handwriting and, glancing at the signature, started. It was signed +"Gloria Gordon." Briefly it apprised him of her marriage and of her and +Natalie's return to Hope. Gloria thanked him perfunctorily for his many +kindnesses, but she neither expressed nor implied an invitation for him +to visit them. He smiled a little grimly—already her loyalty had +veered to Gordon's side, and Natalie no doubt shared her feeling. Well, +it was but natural, perhaps. It would be unreasonable to expect them to +sacrifice their desires, and what they now seemed to consider their +interests, to a business quarrel they could hardly be expected to +understand. He could not help feeling hurt that the women should so +readily exchange his friendship for the protection of his bitterest +enemy, but—they were helpless and he had helped them; let it rest at +that. He was really troubled, however, that they had been so easily +deceived. If they had only waited! If he had only been able to advise +them! For Gordon's intention was plain. He was aroused from his train +of thought by a stranger whom he found standing beside his table and +looking down at him with wavering eye. +</P> + +<P> +"Misser O'Neil, ain't it?" the fellow inquired. "Sure! Thought I knew +you. I'm Bulker, of the old North Pass. Remember me?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Bulker had been imbibing freely. He showed evidences of a +protracted spree not only in his speech, but in the trembling hand +which he extended. His eyes were bloodshot, and his good-natured face +was purple. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil greeted him pleasantly, and, considering himself +enthusiastically welcomed, the new-comer sat down suddenly, as if some +one had tripped him. +</P> + +<P> +"Been washing you for ten minutes." +</P> + +<P> +"Washing me?" +</P> + +<P> +"No! WASHING you. Couldn't make you out—eyesight's getting bad. Too +many bright lights in this town. Ha! Joke! Let's have a gill." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, no." +</P> + +<P> +"Must have a little dram for old time's sake. You're the only one of +the North Pass crowd I'll drink with." Mr. Bulker gestured +comprehensively at a group of waiters, and Murray yielded. "You were my +friend, O'Neil; you always treated me right." +</P> + +<P> +"What are you doing now?" asked O'Neil, with the interest he could not +refuse to any one who had ever worked with him. He remembered the +fellow perfectly. He had come on from the East as auditor, and had +appeared to be capable, although somewhat given to drink. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm a broker. Wall Street's my habitat. Fine time to buy stocks, +Misser O'Neil." Bulker assumed an expression of great wisdom. "Like to +have a tip? No? Good! You're a wise man. They fired me from the North +Pass. Wha'd you know about that? Fired me for drinking! Greatest +injustice I ever heard of, but I hit running, like a turkey. That +wasn't the reason they let me go, though. Not on your life!" He winked +portentously, and strangely enough his eyelid failed to resume its +normal position. It continued to droop, giving the appearance of a +waggish leer. "I knew too mush! Isn't healthy to know too mush, is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I've never had a chance to find out," smiled Murray. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, don't be an ingenue; you savvied more than anybody on the job. +I'll admit I took a nip now and then, but I never got pickled. Say! Who +d'you s'pose I saw to-day? Old man Illis!" +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil became suddenly intent. He had been trying to get in touch with +Poultney Illis for more than a fortnight, but his cables to London had +brought no response. +</P> + +<P> +"When did he arrive?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just lately. He's a game old rooster, ain't he? Gee, he's sore!" +</P> + +<P> +"Sore about what?" +</P> + +<P> +Bulker winked again, with the same lack of muscular control. +</P> + +<P> +"About that North Pass deal, of course. He was blackmailed out of a +cold million. The agreement's about up now, and I figure he's over here +to renew it." +</P> + +<P> +"You're talking Greek," said O'Neil; but his eagerness was manifest. +</P> + +<P> +"I s'posed you knew. The North Pass has been paying blackmail to the +Yukon steamboat companies for three years. When you built the line it +practically put 'em out of the Dawson market, understand?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course." +</P> + +<P> +Now that Mr. Bulker's mind was running along well-worn grooves, his +intoxication became less apparent. +</P> + +<P> +"Those Frisco steamboat men got together and started a rate war against +the railroad; they hauled freight to Dawson by way of St. Michaels at a +loss. Of course Illis and his crowd had to meet competition, and it +nearly broke 'em the first two seasons. Gee, they were the mad ones! +Finally they fixed up an agreement—had to or go bust—and of course +the Native Sons put it over our English cousins. They agreed to restore +the old rate, and each side promised to pay the other a royalty of ten +dollars a ton on all the freight it hauled to Dawson and up-river +points. You can guess the result, can't you? The steamboat companies +let Illis haul all the freight and sat back on their haunches and took +their profit. For every ton he hauled he slipped 'em ten round American +dollars, stamped with the Goddess of Liberty. Oh, it was soft! When +they had him fairly tied up they dry-docked their steamboats, to save +wear and tear. He paid 'em a thousand dollars a day for three years. If +that ain't blackmail, it's a first cousin to it by marriage." +</P> + +<P> +"Didn't the Interstate Commerce Commission get wise?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not. It looks wise, but it never GETS wise. Oh, believe me, +Poultney Illis is hopping mad. I s'pose he's over here now to renew the +arrangement for another three years on behalf of his stock-holders. +Let's have a dram." Bulker sat back and stared as through a mist at his +companion, enjoying the effect of his disclosure. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil was indeed impressed—more deeply than his informant dreamed. +Out of the lips of a drunken man had come a hint which set his nerves +to tingling. He knew Illis well, he knew the caliber of the Englishman, +and a plan was already leaping in his brain whereby he might save the +S. R. & N. +</P> + +<P> +It lacked an hour of midnight when O'Neil escaped from Bulker and +reached his room. Once inside, he seized the telephone and rang up +hotel after hotel, inquiring for the English capitalist, but without +result. After a moment's consideration he took his hat and gloves and +went out. The matter did not permit of delay. Not only were his own +needs imperative, but if Poultney Illis had come from London to confer +with his rivals there was little time to spare. +</P> + +<P> +Remembering the Englishman's habits, O'Neil turned up the Avenue to the +Waldorf, where he asked for the manager, whom he well knew. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Mr. Illis is here," he was informed, "but he's registered under a +different name. No doubt he'll be glad to see you, however." +</P> + +<P> +A moment later Murray recognized the voice of Illis's valet over the +wire and greeted him by name. Another brief delay, and the capitalist +himself was at the 'phone. +</P> + +<P> +"Come right up," he said; and O'Neil replaced the receiver with a sigh +of relief. +</P> + +<P> +Illis greeted him warmly, for their relations had been close. +</P> + +<P> +"Lucky you found me," he said. "I'm going back on the next sailing." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you signed up with the Arctic Navigation Company?" Murray +inquired; and the other started. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless me! What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +His caller laughed. "I see you haven't. I don't think you will, either, +after you've talked with me." +</P> + +<P> +Without the tremor of an eyelash Illis exclaimed: +</P> + +<P> +"My word! What are you driving at?" +</P> + +<P> +"That agreement over freight rates, of course." +</P> + +<P> +The Briton eyed him for a moment, then carefully closed the door +leading from his sitting-room, and, seating himself, lit a cigar. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you know about that matter?" he asked, quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"About all there is to know—enough, at least, to appreciate your +feelings." +</P> + +<P> +"I flattered myself that my affairs were private. Where did you get +your information?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tell you if you insist, although I'd rather not. There's no +danger of its becoming public." +</P> + +<P> +Illis showed his relief. "I'm glad. You gave me a start. Rotten fix for +a man to be in. Why, I'm here under an assumed name! Fancy! But—" he +waved his hand in a gesture which showed his acceptance of the +inevitable. +</P> + +<P> +"You haven't made your new agreement?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm to meet Blum and Capron to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +"Why didn't you take the S. R.& N. when I cabled you last month?" +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't. But what has that to do with the matter?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you see? It's so plain to me that I can't understand how you +failed to realize the value—the necessity of buying my road." +</P> + +<P> +"Explain, please." +</P> + +<P> +"Gladly. The North Pass & Yukon is paying a fabulous blackmail to the +river-lines to escape a ruinous rate war." +</P> + +<P> +"Right! It's blackmail, as you say." +</P> + +<P> +"Under the present agreement you handle the Dawson freight and keep out +of the lower river; they take the whole Tanana valley and lower Yukon." +</P> + +<P> +"Correct." +</P> + +<P> +"Didn't it occur to you that the S.R.& N., which starts four hundred +miles west of the North Pass and taps the Tanana valley, can be used to +put the river steamers of that section out of business?" +</P> + +<P> +"Let's have a look at the map." Mr. Illis hurried into an adjoining +room and returned with a huge chart which he unrolled upon the table. +"To tell you the truth, I never looked at the proposition from that +angle. Our people were afraid of those glaciers and the competition of +the Copper Trust. They're disgusted, too, with our treatment." +</P> + +<P> +"The Trust is eliminated. Kyak harbor is wiped off the map, and I'm +alone in the field." +</P> + +<P> +"How about this fellow Gordon?" +</P> + +<P> +"He'll be broke in a year. Incidentally, that's my trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"But I'm told you can't pass the glaciers." +</P> + +<P> +"I can. Parker says he'll have the bridge done by spring." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I'd bank on it. I'd believe Parker if I knew he was lying. If you +both agree, I haven't the slightest doubt." +</P> + +<P> +"This is a bigger proposition than the North Pass, Mr. Illis. You made +money out of that road, but this one will make more." He swiftly +outlined the condition of affairs, even to the attitude assumed by the +Heidlemanns; and Illis, knowing the speaker as he did, had no doubt +that he was hearing the exact truth. "But that's not all," continued +O'Neil. "The S. R. & N. is the club which will hammer your enemies into +line. That's what I came to see you about. With a voice in it you can +control the traffic of all central Alaska and force the San Francisco +crowd to treat the N. P. & Y. fairly, thereby saving half a million a +year." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a big undertaking. I'm not sure our crowd could swing it." +</P> + +<P> +"They don't have to. There's a quick profit of two million to be had by +selling to the Trust next spring. You can dictate your own terms to +those blackmailers to-morrow, and then make a turn-over in nine months. +It doesn't matter who owns the S. R. & N. after it's completed. The +steamboat men will see their profits cut. As it is now, they can make +enough out of their own territory to haul freight into yours for +nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"I dare say you'll go to them if we don't take you up, eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"My road has its strategic value. I must have help. If you don't come +to my rescue it will mean war with your line, I dare say." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Illis sat back, staring at the ceiling for a long time. From the +street below came the whir and clatter of taxicabs as the midnight +crowd came and went. The city's nocturnal life was at its height; men +had put aside the worries of the day and were devoting themselves to +the more serious and exhausting pastimes of relaxation. Still the +white-haired Briton weighed in his mind the matter of millions, while +the fortunes of Murray O'Neil hung in the balance. +</P> + +<P> +"My people won't buy the S. R. & N.," Illis finally announced. "But +I'll put it up to them." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't delay action if there's a chance of a refusal. I'll have to +see Blum and Capron," said O'Neil. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll cable full details within the hour. We'll have an answer by +to-morrow night." +</P> + +<P> +"And if they refuse?" O'Neil lit a cigar with steady fingers. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, if they refuse I'll join you. We'll go over the matter carefully +in the mean time. Two million you said, didn't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. There's two million profit for you in nine months." His voice was +husky and a bit uneven, for he had been under a great strain. +</P> + +<P> +"Good! You don't know how resentful I feel toward Blum and his crowd. +I—I'm downright angry: I am that." +</P> + +<P> +Illis took the hand which his caller extended, with an expressionless +face. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad I found you," confessed O'Neil. "I was on my last legs. +Herman Heidlemann will pay our price when the last bridge-bolt is +driven home, and he'll pay with a smile on his face—that's the sort of +man he is." +</P> + +<P> +"He won't pay if he knows I'm interested. We're not exactly friendly +since I sold out my smelter interests. But he needn't know—nobody need +know." +</P> + +<P> +Illis called his valet and instructed him to rouse his secretary and +ring for some cable blanks. +</P> + +<P> +"I think I'll cable, too," Murray told him. "I have some 'boys' up +there who are working in the dark with their teeth shut. They're +waiting for the crash, and they'd like to hear the good news." +</P> + +<P> +His fingers shook as he scrawled the name of Doctor Gray, but his eyes +were bright and youth was singing in his heart once more. +</P> + +<P> +"Now let's get down to business," said Mr. Illis. "We'll have to talk +fast." +</P> + +<P> +It was growing light in the east when O'Neil returned to the Holland +House; but he felt no fatigue, and he laughed from the pure joy of +living, for his dream seemed coming true. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +XIX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +MISS APPLETON MAKES A SACRIFICE +</H4> + +<P> +Tom Slater came puffing up the hill to the Appleton bungalow, plumped +himself into a chair, and sighed deeply. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter? Are you played out?" asked Eliza. +</P> + +<P> +"No. I'm feeling like a colt." +</P> + +<P> +"Any news from Omar Khayyam?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a word." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza's brows drew together in a worried frown, for none of Murray's +"boys" had awaited tidings from him with greater anxiety than she. +</P> + +<P> +It had been a trying month for them all. Dr. Gray, upon whom the +heaviest responsibility rested, had aged visibly under the strain; +Parker and Mellen and McKay had likewise become worn and grave as the +days passed and they saw disaster approaching. Even Dan was blue; and +Sheldon, the light-hearted, had begun to lose interest in his +commissary duties. +</P> + +<P> +After the storm at Kyak there had been a period of fierce rejoicing, +which had ended abruptly with the receipt of O'Neil's curt cablegram +announcing the attitude of the Trust. Gloom had succeeded the first +surprise, deepening to hopeless despondency through the days that +followed. Oddly enough, Slater had been the only one to bear up; under +adversity he blossomed into a peculiar and almost offensive +cheerfulness. It was characteristic of his crooked temperament that +misfortune awoke in him a lofty and unshakable optimism. +</P> + +<P> +"You're great on nicknames, ain't you?" he said to Eliza, regarding her +with his never-failing curiosity. "Who's this Homer Keim you're always +talking about?" +</P> + +<P> +"He isn't any more: he WAS. He was a cheerful old Persian poet." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought he was Dutch, from the name. Well! Murray's cheerful too. +Him and me are alike in that. I'll bet he isn't worrying half so much +as Doc and the others." +</P> + +<P> +"You think he'll make good?" +</P> + +<P> +"He never fails." +</P> + +<P> +"But—we can't hold on much longer. Dan says that some of the men are +getting uneasy and want their money." +</P> + +<P> +Tom nodded. "The men are all right—Doc has kept them paid up; it's the +shift bosses. I say let 'em quit." +</P> + +<P> +"Has it gone as far as that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Somebody keeps spreading the story that we're busted and that Murray +has skipped out. More of Gordon's work, I s'pose. Some of the +sore-heads are coming in this evening to demand their wages." +</P> + +<P> +"Can we pay them?" +</P> + +<P> +"Doc says he dassent; so I s'pose they'll quit. He should have fired +'em a week ago. Never let a man quit—always beat him to it. We could +hold the rough-necks for another two weeks if it wasn't for these +fellows, but they'll go back and start a stampede." +</P> + +<P> +"How many are there?" +</P> + +<P> +"About a dozen." +</P> + +<P> +"I was afraid it was worse. There can't be much owing to them." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's bad enough! They've been letting their wages ride, that's why +they got scared. We owe them about four thousand dollars." +</P> + +<P> +"They must be paid," said Eliza. "It will give Mr. O'Neil another two +weeks—a month, perhaps." +</P> + +<P> +"Doc's got his back up, and he's told the cashier to make 'em wait." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza hesitated, and flushed a little. "I suppose it's none of my +business," she said, "but—couldn't you boys pay them out of your own +salaries?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Slater grinned—an unprecedented proceeding which lent his face an +altogether strange and unnatural expression. +</P> + +<P> +"Salary! We ain't had any salary," he said, cheerfully—"not for +months." +</P> + +<P> +"Dan has drawn his regularly." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, sure! But he ain't one of us. He's an outsider." +</P> + +<P> +"I see!" Eliza's eyes were bright with a wistful admiration. "That's +very nice of you men. You have a family, haven't you, Uncle Tom?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have! Seven head, and they eat like a herd of stock. It looks like a +lean winter for 'em if Murray don't make a sale—but he will. That +isn't what I came to see you about; I've got my asking clothes on, and +I want a favor." +</P> + +<P> +"You shall have it, of course." +</P> + +<P> +"I want a certificate." +</P> + +<P> +"Of what?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ill health. Nobody believes I had the smallpox." +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't." +</P> + +<P> +"Wh-what?" Tom's eyes opened wide. He stared at the girl in hurt +surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"It was nothing but pimples, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"Pimples!" He spat the word out indignantly, and his round cheeks grew +purple. "I—I s'pose pimples gave me cramps and chills and backache and +palpitation and swellings! Hunh! I had a narrow escape—narrow's the +word. It was narrower than a knife-edge! Anything I get out of life +from now on is 'velvet,' for I was knocking at death's door. The grave +yawned, but I jumped it. It's the first sick spell I ever had, and I +won't be cheated out of it. Understand?" +</P> + +<P> +"What do you want me to do?" smiled the girl. +</P> + +<P> +"You're a writer: write me an affidavit—" +</P> + +<P> +"I can't do that." +</P> + +<P> +"Then put it in your paper. Put it on the front page, where folks can +see it." +</P> + +<P> +"I've quit The Review. I'm doing magazine stories." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, that'll do. I'm not particular where it's printed so long as—" +</P> + +<P> +Eliza shook her head. "You weren't really sick, Uncle Tom." +</P> + +<P> +At this Mr. Slater rose to his feet in high dudgeon. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't call me 'Uncle,'" he exclaimed. "You're in with the others." +</P> + +<P> +"It wouldn't be published if I wrote it." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you can't be much of a writer." He glared at her, and slowly, +distinctly, with all the emphasis at his command, said: "I had +smallpox—and a dam' bad case, understand? I was sick. I had miseries +in every joint and cartage of my body. I'm going to use a pick-handle +for a cane, and anybody that laughs will get a hickory massage that'll +take a crooked needle and a pair of pinchers to fix. Thank God I've got +my strength back! You get me?" +</P> + +<P> +"I do." +</P> + +<P> +He snorted irately and turned to go, but Eliza checked him. +</P> + +<P> +"What about those shift bosses?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +Slater rolled his eyes balefully. "Just let one of 'em mention +smallpox," he said, "and I'll fill the hospital till it bulges." +</P> + +<P> +"No, no! Are you going to pay them?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza considered for a moment. "Don't let them see Dr. Gray," she said, +at length. "He has enough to worry him. Meet them at the train and +bring them here." +</P> + +<P> +"What for? Tea?" +</P> + +<P> +"You boys have done all you can; I think it's time Dan and I did +something." +</P> + +<P> +Tom stared. "Are YOU going to pay 'em?" he asked, gruffly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Mr. O'Neil needs time. Dan and I have saved four thousand +dollars. I'd offer it to Dr. Gray—" +</P> + +<P> +"He wouldn't take it." +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly. Send Dan up here when you see him." +</P> + +<P> +"It doesn't seem exactly right." Tom was obviously embarrassed. "You +see, we sort of belong to Murray, and you don't, but—" He shook his +head as if to rid himself of unwelcome emotion. "Women are funny +things! You're willing to do that for the chief, and yet you won't +write me a little affidavit!" He grunted and went away, still shaking +his head. +</P> + +<P> +When Eliza explained her plan to Dan she encountered an opposition that +shocked and hurt her. +</P> + +<P> +"I won't do it!" he said, shortly. +</P> + +<P> +"You—WHAT?" +</P> + +<P> +"We can't build the S. R. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and made you love him, too," said Dan, roughly. "I can see that." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza lifted her head and met his eyes squarely. +</P> + +<P> +"That's true! But why not? Can't I love him? Isn't it my privilege to +help him if I want to? If I had two million dollars instead of two +thousand I'd give it to him, and—and I wouldn't expect him to care for +me, either. He'll never do that. He couldn't! But—oh, Danny, I've been +miserable—" +</P> + +<P> +Dan felt a certain dryness of the throat which made speech oddly +difficult. "I don't see why he couldn't care for you," he said, lamely. +</P> + +<P> +Eliza shook her head hopelessly. "I'm glad it happened," she +said—"glad. In writing these articles I've tried to make him +understood; I've tried to put my whole soul into them so that the +people will see that he isn't, wouldn't be, a thief nor a grafter. I've +described him as he is—big, honorable, gentle—" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know you were writing fiction," said her brother, impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not. It's all true. I've cried over those articles, Dan. I've +petted them, and I've kissed his name—oh, I've been silly!" She smiled +at him through a sudden glimmer of tears. +</P> + +<P> +Dan began to wonder if his sister, in spite of her exemplary conduct in +the past, were after all going to have hysterics. Women were especially +likely to, he reflected, when they demanded the impossible. At last he +said, uncomfortably: "Gee, I thought I was the dippy member of the +family!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's our chance to help him," she urged. "Will you—?" +</P> + +<P> +"No! I'm sorry, Sis, but my little bit wouldn't mean anything to him; +it means everything to me. Maybe that's selfish—I don't care. I'm as +mad over Natalie as you seem to be over him. A week's delay can't make +any difference now—he played and lost. But I can't afford to lose. +He'll make another fortune, that's sure—but do you think I'll ever +find another Natalie? No! Don't argue, for I won't listen." +</P> + +<P> +He left the house abruptly, and Eliza went into the white bedroom which +O'Neil had fitted up for her. From the remotest corner of her lowest +bureau drawer she drew a battered tin box, and, dividing the money it +contained into two equal parts, placed one in the pockets of her +mannish jacket. +</P> + +<P> +It was dark when Tom Slater arrived, at the head of a group of soiled +workmen whom he ushered into the parlor of the bungalow. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's the bunch!" he announced, laconically. +</P> + +<P> +As the new-comers ranged themselves uncomfortably about the wall Dan +Appleton entered and greeted them with his customary breeziness. +</P> + +<P> +"The pay-master is busy, and Doc Gray has a surgical case," he said, +"so I'll cash your time-checks. Get me the box, will you, Sis?" +</P> + +<P> +He had avoided Eliza's eyes upon entering, and he avoided them now, but +the girl's throat was aching as she hurried into her bedroom and +hastily replaced the rolls of greenbacks she had removed from the tin +box. +</P> + +<P> +When he had finished paying off, Dan said, brusquely: +</P> + +<P> +"Now we mustn't have any loafing around town, understand?" +</P> + +<P> +"We can't get back to-night," said one of the men. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes, you can. I ordered an engine out." +</P> + +<P> +"We hear—there's talk about quitting work," another ventured. "Where's +O'Neil?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's in the States buying a steamship," answered Dan, unblushingly. +"We can't get stuff fast enough by the regular boats." +</P> + +<P> +"Good! That sounds like business. We don't want to quit." +</P> + +<P> +"Now hurry! Your parlor-car is waiting." +</P> + +<P> +When he and Eliza were alone he turned to her with a flush of +embarrassment. "Aren't we the darnedest fools, Sis? I wouldn't mind if +we had done the chief any good, but we haven't." He closed the lid of +the tin box, which was nearly empty now, and pushed it away from him, +laughing mirthlessly. "Hide that sarcophagus where I can't see it," he +commanded. "It makes me sick." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza flung her arm about his neck and laid her cheek against his. +"Poor Danny! You're a brick!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's the bread-line for us," he told her. +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind. We're used to it now." She laughed contentedly and +snuggled her face closer to his. +</P> + +<P> +It was on the following morning that O'Neil's cablegram announcing the +result of his interview with Illis reached Omar. Dr. Gray brought the +news to the Appleton bungalow while Dan and his sister were still at +breakfast. "Happy Tom" came puffing and blowing at his heels with a +highly satisfied I-told-you-so expression on his round features. +</P> + +<P> +"He made it! The tide has turned," cried the doctor as he burst in +waving the message on high. "Yes!" he explained, in answer to their +excited questions. "Murray got the money and our troubles are over. Now +give me some coffee, Eliza. I'm all shaky." +</P> + +<P> +"English money!" commented Slater. "The same as we used on the North +Pass." +</P> + +<P> +"Then he interested Illis!" cried Dan. +</P> + +<P> +"Yep! He's the white-winged messenger of hope. I wasn't worried for a +minute," Tom averred. +</P> + +<P> +The breakfast which followed was of a somewhat hysterical and +fragmentary nature, for Eliza felt her heart swelling, and the faithful +Gray was all but undone by the strain he had endured. "That's the first +food I've tasted for weeks," he confessed. "I've eaten, but I haven't +tasted; and now—I'm not hungry." He sighed, stretched his long limbs +gratefully, and eyed the Appletons with a kindly twinkle. "You were up +in the air, too, weren't you? The chief will appreciate last night's +affair." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza colored faintly. "It was nothing. Please don't tell him." At the +incredulous lift of his brows she hastened to explain: "Tom said you +men 'belonged' to Mr. O'Neil and Dan was an outsider. That hurt me +dreadfully." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, he can't say that now; Dan is one of Murray's boys, all right, +and you—you must be his girl." +</P> + +<P> +At that moment Mellen and McKay burst into the bungalow, demanding the +truth behind the rumor which had just come to their ears; and there +followed fresh explanations and rejoicings, through which Eliza sat +quietly, thrilled by the note of genuine affection and loyalty that +pervaded it all. But, now that the general despondency had vanished and +joy reigned in its place, Tom Slater relapsed into his habitual gloom +and spoke forebodingly of the difficulties yet to be encountered. +</P> + +<P> +"Murray don't say how MUCH he's raised," he remarked. "It may be only a +drop in the bucket. We'll have to go through all this again, probably, +and the next time he won't find it so easy to sting a millionaire." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll last through the winter anyhow—" +</P> + +<P> +"Winter!" Slater shook his bald head. "Winter is hard on old men like +me." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll have the bridge built by spring, sure!" Mellen declared. +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe! I hope so. I wish I could last to see it, but the smallpox +undermined me. Perhaps it's a mercy I'm so far gone; nobody knows yet +whether the bridge will stand, and—I'd hate to see it go out." +</P> + +<P> +"It won't go out," said the engineer, confidently. +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe you're right. But that's what Trevor said about his breakwater. +His work was done, and ours isn't hardly begun. By the way, Murray +didn't say he HAD the money; he just said he expected to get it." +</P> + +<P> +"Go out and hang your crepe on the roundhouse," Dan told him; "this is +a jubilee. If you keep on rejoicing you'll have us all in tears." When +the others had gone he turned to Eliza. "Why don't you want O'Neil to +know about that money, Sis?" he asked, curiously. "When I'm a hero I +like to be billed as one." +</P> + +<P> +"Please!" She hesitated and turned her face away. "You—you are so +stupid about some things." +</P> + +<P> +On the afternoon of this very day Curtis Gordon found Natalie at a +window staring out across the sound in the direction of Omar. He laid a +warm hand upon her shoulder and said: +</P> + +<P> +"My dear, confess! You are lonesome." +</P> + +<P> +She nodded silently. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well! We mustn't allow that. Why don't you run over to Omar and +see your friend Miss Appleton? She has a cheerful way with her." "I'm +afraid things aren't very gay over there," said Natalie, doubtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Quite probably. But the fact that O'Neil is on his last legs needn't +interfere with your pleasure. A change will do you good." +</P> + +<P> +"You are very kind," she murmured. "You have done everything to make me +happy, but—it's autumn. Winter is coming. I feel dull and lonely and +gray, like the sky. Are you sure Mr. O'Neil has failed?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly. He tried to sell his holdings to the Trust, but they +refused to consider it. Poor fellow!" he continued, unctuously. "Now +that he's down I pity him. One can't dislike a person who has lost the +power of working harm. His men are quitting: I doubt if he'll dare show +his face in this country again. But never mind all that. There's a boat +leaving for Omar in the morning. Go; have a good time, return when you +will, and tell us how they bear up under their adversity." He patted +her shoulder affectionately and went up to his room. +</P> + +<P> +It was true enough that Natalie had been unhappy since returning to +Hope—not even her mother dreamed how she rebelled at remaining here. +She was lonely, uninterested, vaguely homesick. She missed the intimate +companionship of Eliza; she missed Dan's extravagant courting and +O'Neil's grave, respectful attentions. She also felt the loss of the +honest good-fellowship of all those people at Omar whom she had learned +to like and to admire. Life here was colorless, and was still haunted +by the shadow of that thing from which she and her mother had fled. +</P> + +<P> +Gordon, indeed, had been generous to them both. Since his marriage his +attitude had changed entirely. He was polite, agreeable, charmingly +devoted: no ship arrived without some tangible and expensive evidence +of his often-expressed desire to make his wife and stepdaughter happy; +he anticipated their slightest wish. Under his assiduous attentions +Natalie's distrust and dislike had slowly melted, and she came to +believe that she had misjudged him. There were times when he seemed to +be overdoing the matter a bit, times when she wondered if his courtesy +could be altogether disinterested; but these occasions were rare, and +always she scornfully accused herself of disloyalty. As for Gloria, she +was deeply contented—as nearly happy, in fact, as a woman of her +temperament could be, and in this the daughter took her reward. +</P> + +<P> +Natalie arrived at Omar in time to see the full effect of the good news +from New York, and joined sincerely in the general rejoicing. She +returned after a few days, bursting with the tidings of O'Neil's +victory. +</P> + +<P> +Gordon listened to her with keenest attention; he drew her out +artfully, and when he knew what he had sent her to learn he gave voice +to his unwelcome surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"Jove!" he snarled. "That beggar hoodwinked the Heidlemanns, after all. +It's their money. What fools! What fools!" +</P> + +<P> +Natalie looked up quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"Does it affect your plans?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—in a way. It consolidates my enemies." +</P> + +<P> +"You said you no longer had any ill feeling toward Mr. O'Neil." +</P> + +<P> +Gordon had resumed his usual suavity. "When I say enemies," he +qualified, "of course, I mean it only in a business sense. I heard that +the Trust had withdrawn, discouraged by their losses, but, now that +they re-enter the field, I shall have to fight them. They would have +done well to consult me—to buy me off, rather than be bled by O'Neil. +They shall pay well for their mistake, but—it's incredible! That man +has the luck of the devil." +</P> + +<P> +That evening he and Denny sat with their heads together until a late +hour, and when they retired Gordon had begun to whip new plans into +shape. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap20"></A> +XX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +HOW GORDON CHANGED HIS ATTACK +</H4> + +<P> +O'Neil's return to Omar was triumphal. All his lieutenants gathered to +meet him at the pier and the sincerity of their welcome stirred him +deeply. His arrangements with Illis had taken time; he had been delayed +at Seattle by bridge details and the placing of steel contracts. He had +worked swiftly, and with such absorption that he had paid little heed +to the rumors of Gordon's latest activities. Of the new venture which +his own success had inspired he knew only the bare outline. He had +learned enough, however, to arouse his curiosity, and as soon as the +first confusion of his arrival at the front was over he asked for news. +</P> + +<P> +"Haven't you read the papers?" inquired "Happy Tom." He had attached +himself to O'Neil at the moment of his stepping ashore, and now +followed him to headquarters, with an air of melancholy satisfaction in +mere physical nearness to his chief. +</P> + +<P> +"Barely!" O'Neil confessed. "I've been working twenty hours a day +getting that steel under motion." +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Gray said with conviction: "Gordon is a remarkable man. It's a pity +he's crooked." +</P> + +<P> +"I think it's dam' lucky," declared Tom. "He's smarter than us, and if +he wasn't handicapped by a total lack of decency he'd beat us." +</P> + +<P> +"After the storm," explained Gray, "he moved back to Hope, and we +thought he'd made his last bow, but in some way he got the idea that +the Trust was back of us." +</P> + +<P> +"So I judged from the little I read." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we didn't undeceive him, of course. His first move was an attack +through the press in the shape of a broadside against the Heidlemanns. +It fairly took our breaths. It appeared in the Cortez Courier and all +over the States, we hear—a letter of defiance to Herman Heidlemann. It +declared that the Trust was up to its old tricks here in Alaska had +gobbled the copper; had the coal tied up under secret agreements, and +was trying to get possession of all the coast-range passes and +defiles—the old story. But the man can write. That article caused a +stir." +</P> + +<P> +"I saw it." +</P> + +<P> +"Naturally, the Cortez people ate it up. They're sore at the Trust for +leaving their town, and at us for building Omar. Then Gordon called a +mass-meeting, and some of us went up to watch the fireworks. I've never +seen anything quite like that meeting; every man, woman, and child in +the city was there, and they hissed us when we came in. Gordon knew +what he was about, and he was in fine voice. He told them Cortez was +the logical point of entry to the interior of Alaska and ought to have +all the traffic. He fired their animosity toward the Trust, and accused +us of basely selling out to it. Then he broached a project to build, by +local subscription, a narrow-gauge electric line from Cortez, utilizing +the waterfalls for power. The idea caught on, and went like wild-fire: +the people cheered themselves hoarse, and pledged him over a hundred +thousand dollars that night. Since then they have subscribed as much +more, and the town is crazy. Work has actually begun, and they hope to +reach the first summit by Christmas." +</P> + +<P> +Slater broke in: "He's a spell-binder, all right. He made me hate the +Heidlemanns and detest myself for five minutes. I wasn't even sure I +liked YOU, Murray." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a wild scheme, of course," continued the doctor, "but he's +putting it over. The town council has granted him a ninety-nine-year +lease covering every street; the road-bed is started, and things are +booming. Lots have been staked all over the flats, property values are +somersaulting, everybody is out of his head, and Gordon is a god. All +he does is organize new companies. He has bought a sawmill, a wharf, a +machine shop, acres of real estate. He has started a bank and a new +hotel; he has consolidated the barber shops; and he talks about roofing +in the streets with glass and making the town a series of arcades." +</P> + +<P> +Slater half smiled—evidence of a convulsive mirth within. +</P> + +<P> +"They've picked out a site for a university!" he said, bitterly. +"Cortez is going to be a seat of learning and culture. They're planning +a park and a place for an Alaskan World's Fair and a museum and a +library. I've always wondered who starts public libraries—it's 'nuts.' +But I didn't s'pose more than one or two people got foolish that way." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil drew from his pocket a newspaper five days old, which he +unfolded and opened at a full-page advertisement, headed: +</P> + +<P> +CORTEZ HOME RAILWAY +</P> + +<P> +"This is running in all the coast papers," he said, and read: +</P> + +<P> +"OUR PLATFORM: +</P> + +<P> +No promotion shares. No construction profits. +</P> + +<P> +No bonds. No incompetence. +</P> + +<P> +No high-salaried officials. No monopoly. +</P> + +<P> +No passes or rebates. No graft. +</P> + +<P> +"OF ALASKA, BY ALASKA, FOR ALASKA." +</P> + +<P> +There was much more of a similar kind, written to appeal to the +quick-profit-loving public, and it was followed by a violent attack +upon the Trust and an appeal to the people of Seattle for assistance, +at one dollar per share. +</P> + +<P> +"Listen to this," O'Neil went on: +</P> + +<P> +"Among the original subscribers are the following: +</P> + +<PRE> + "Hotels and saloons of Cortez ..... $17,000 + City Council .......................15,000 + Prospectors......................... 7,000 + Ladies' Guild of Cortez .............. 740 + School-children of Cortez............. 420" +</PRE> + +<P> +Tom grew red in the face and gave his characteristic snort. "I don't +mind his stringing the City Council and the saloons, and even the +Ladies' Guild," he growled, "but when he steals the licorice and +slate-pencils from the kids it's time he was stopped." +</P> + +<P> +Murray agreed. "I think we are about done with Gordon. He has led his +ace." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not sure. This is a kind of popular uprising, like a camp-meeting. +If I went to Cortez now, some prattling school-girl would wallop me +with her dinner-bucket. We can't shake Gordon loose: he's a regular +splavvus." +</P> + +<P> +"What is a splavvus, Tom?" inquired Dr. Gray. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a real peculiar animal, being a cross between a bulldog and a +skunk. We have lots of 'em in Maine!" +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil soon found that the accounts he had received of Gordon's last +attempt to recoup his fortunes were in no way exaggerated. Cortez, long +the plaything of the railroad-builders, had been ripe for his touch: it +rose in its wounded civic pride and greeted his appeal with frantic +delight. It was quite true that the school-children had taken stock in +the enterprise: their parents turned their own pockets inside out, and +subscriptions came in a deluge. The price of real estate doubled, +quadrupled, and Gordon bought just enough to establish the price +firmly. The money he paid was deposited again in his new bank, and he +proceeded to use it over and over in maintaining exorbitant prices and +in advancing his grandiose schemes. His business took him often to +Seattle, where by his whirlwind methods he duplicated his success in a +measure: his sensational attack upon the money powers got a wide +hearing, and he finally secured an indorsement of his scheme by the +Businessmen's Association. This done, he opened splendid offices and +began a wide-spread stock-flotation campaign. Soon the Cortez Home +Railway became known as a mighty, patriotic effort of Alaskans to throw +off the shackles of oppression. +</P> + +<P> +Gordon perfectly understood that something more than vague accusations +were necessary to bring the public to his support in sufficient numbers +to sweep him on to victory, and with this in mind he laid crafty plans +to seize the Heidlemann grade. The Trust had ceased active work on its +old right-of-way and moved to Kyak, to be sure, but it had not +abandoned its original route, and in fact had maintained a small crew +at the first defile outside of Cortez, known as Beaver Canon. Gordon +reasoned shrewdly that a struggle between the agents of the Trust and +the patriotic citizens of the town would afford him precisely the +advertising he needed and give point to his charge of unfair play +against the Heidlemanns. +</P> + +<P> +It was not difficult to incite his victims to this act of robbery. On +the contrary, once he had made the suggestion, he had hard work to +restrain them, until he had completed his preparations. These +preparations were simple; they consisted in writing and mailing to +every newspaper of consequence a highly colored account of the railroad +struggle. These mimeographed stories were posted from Seattle in time +for them to reach their destinations on the date set for the seizure of +the grade. +</P> + +<P> +It was an ingenious publicity move, worthy of a theatrical press-agent, +and it succeeded beyond the promoter's fondest expectations—too well, +in fact, for it drove the Trust in desperation to an alliance with the +S. R. & N. +</P> + +<P> +The day set for the demonstration came; the citizens of Cortez boldly +marched into Beaver Canon to take possession of the old Heidlemann +workings, but it appeared that they had reckoned prematurely. A handful +of grim-faced Trust employees warned them back: there was a rush, some +rough work on the part of the aggressors, and then the guards brought +their weapons into play. The result afforded Gordon far more +sensational material than he had hoped for: one citizen was killed and +five others were badly wounded. Cortez, dazed and horror-stricken, +arose in her wrath and descended upon the "assassins"; lynchings were +planned, and mobs threatened the local jail, until soldiers were +hurried thither and martial law was declared. +</P> + +<P> +Of course, the wires were burdened with the accounts; the reading +public of the States awoke to the fact that a bitter strife was waging +in the north between honest miners and the soulless Heidlemann +syndicate. Gordon's previously written and carefully colored stories of +the clash were printed far and wide. Editorials breathed indignation at +such lawlessness and pointed to the Cortez Home Railway as a +commendable effort to destroy the Heidlemann throttle-hold upon the +northland. Stock subscriptions came in a deluge which fairly engulfed +Gordon's Seattle office force. +</P> + +<P> +During this brief white-hot campaign the promoter had been actuated as +much by his senseless hatred of O'Neil as by lust of glory and gain, +and it was with no little satisfaction that he returned to Alaska +conscious of having dealt a telling blow to his enemy. He sent Natalie +to Omar on another visit in order that he might hear at first hand how +O'Neil took the matter. But his complacency received a shock when the +girl returned. He had no need to question her. +</P> + +<P> +"Uncle Curtis," she began, excitedly, "you ought to stop these terrible +newspaper stories about Mr. O'Neil and the Trust." +</P> + +<P> +"Stop them? My dear, what do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"He didn't sell out to the Trust. He has nothing to do with it." +</P> + +<P> +"What?" Gordon's incredulity was a challenge. +</P> + +<P> +"He sold to an Englishman named Illis. They seem to be amused by your +mistake over there at Omar, but I think some of the things printed are +positively criminal. I knew you'd want the truth—" +</P> + +<P> +"The truth, yes! But this can't be true," stammered Gordon. +</P> + +<P> +"It is. Mr. O'Neil did try to interest the Heidlemanns, but they +wouldn't have anything to do with him, and the S. R. & N. was going to +smash when Mr. Illis came along, barely in time. It was too exiting and +dramatic for anything the way Mr. O'Neil found him when he was in +hiding—" +</P> + +<P> +"Hiding?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. There was something about blackmail, or a secret arrangement +between Mr. Illis and the Yukon River lines—I couldn't understand just +what it was—but, anyhow, Murray took advantage of it and saved the +North Pass and the S. R. & N. at the same time. It was really a +perfectly wonderful stroke of genius. I determined at once that you +should stop these lies and correct the general idea that he is in the +pay of the Trust. Why, he went to Cortez last week and they threatened +his life!" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Gordon, who had listened, said, quietly: "Don't blame Curtis for +that. That bloody affray at Beaver Canyon has made Cortez bitter +against every one connected with the Heidlemanns." +</P> + +<P> +"What about this blackmail?" said her husband, upon whose ear the word +had made a welcome impression. "I don't understand what you mean by +O'Neil's 'saving' the North Pass and his own road at the same time—nor +Illis's being in hiding." +</P> + +<P> +"Neither do I." Natalie confessed, "but I know you have made a mistake +that ought to be set right." +</P> + +<P> +"Why doesn't he come out with the truth?" +</P> + +<P> +"The whole thing is secret." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +Natalie shrugged hopelessly, and Gordon lost himself in frowning +thought. +</P> + +<P> +"This is amazing," he said, brusquely, after a moment. "It's vital. It +affects all my plans. I must know everything at once." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry I paid so little attention." +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind; try it again and be diplomatic. If O'Neil won't tell you, +question Appleton—you can wind him around your fingers easily enough." +</P> + +<P> +The girl eyed him with a quick change of expression. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't it enough to know that the Trust has nothing to do with the S. +R. & N.?" +</P> + +<P> +"No!" he declared, impatiently. "I must know the whole inside of this +secret understanding—this blackmail, or whatever it is." +</P> + +<P> +"Then—I'm sorry." +</P> + +<P> +"Come! Don't be silly. You can do me a great service." +</P> + +<P> +"You said you no longer disliked Mr. O'Neil and that he couldn't harm +you." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well! Must I explain the whys and wherefores of every move I +make?" +</P> + +<P> +"It would be spying if I went back. The matter is confidential—I know +that." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you do as I ask?" he demanded. +</P> + +<P> +Natalie answered him firmly: "No! I told you what I did tell you only +so that you might correct—" +</P> + +<P> +"You rebel, eh?" Gordon spoke out furiously. +</P> + +<P> +It was their first clash since the marriage. Mrs. Gordon looked on, +torn between loyalty to her husband and a desire to protect her +daughter. She was searching her mind painfully for the compromise, the +half-truth that was her remedy for every moral distress. At length she +said, placatingly: +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure Natalie will help you in any way she can, Curtis. She isn't +rebellious, she merely doesn't understand." +</P> + +<P> +"She doesn't need to understand. It is enough that I direct her—" As +Natalie turned and walked silently to the window he stifled an oath. +"Have I no authority?" he stormed. "Do you mean to obey?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wait!" Gloria laid a restraining hand on his arm. "Perhaps I can learn +what you want to know. Mr. O'Neil was very kind—" +</P> + +<P> +Her daughter whirled, with white face and flashing eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother!" she gasped. +</P> + +<P> +"Our loyalty begins at home," said Gloria, feebly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh-h! I can't conceive of your—of such a thing. If you have no +decency, I have. I'm sorry I spoke, but—if you DARE to do such a thing +I shall warn Mr. O'Neil that you are a spy." She turned a glance of +loathing on Gordon. "I see," she said, quietly. "You used me as a tool. +You lied about your feeling toward him. You meant harm to him all the +time." She faced the window again. +</P> + +<P> +"Lied!" he shouted. "Be careful—that's pretty strong language. Don't +try me too far, or you may find yourself adrift once more. I have been +too patient. But I have other ways of finding out what I wish to know, +and I shall verify what you have told me." He strode angrily from the +room, leaving Natalie staring out upon the bleak fall scene, her +shoulders very straight, her breast heaving. Gloria did not venture to +address her. +</P> + +<P> +Fortunately for the peace of all concerned, Gordon left for Seattle on +the next steamer. Neither of the women believed that Natalie's +fragmentary revelation was the cause of his departure; but, once in +touch with outside affairs, he lost no time in running down the clues +he had gathered, and it was not long before he had learned enough to +piece the truth together. Then he once more brought his mimeograph into +use. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap21"></A> +XXI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +DAN APPLETON SLIPS THE LEASH +</H4> + +<P> +The first winter snows found O'Neil's track laid to the bridge site and +the structure itself well begun. He had moved his office out to the +front, and now saw little of Eliza, who was busied in writing her book. +She had finished her magazine articles, and they had been accepted, but +she had given him no hint as to their character. +</P> + +<P> +One afternoon "Happy Tom" burst in upon his chief, having hastened out +from Omar on a construction-train. Drawing a Seattle paper from his +pocket, he began excitedly: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, the fat's in the fire, Murray! Somebody has belched up the whole +North Pass story." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil seized the newspaper and scanned it hurriedly. He looked up, +scowling. +</P> + +<P> +"Who gave this out?" he inquired, in a harsh voice. +</P> + +<P> +Slater shrugged. "It's in the Cortez Courier too, so I s'pose it came +from Gordon. Blessings come from one source, and Gordon's the fountain +of all evil. I'm getting so I blame him for everything unpleasant. +Sometimes I think he gave me the smallpox." +</P> + +<P> +"Where did he learn the inside of Illis's deal? By God! There's a leak +somewhere!" +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe he uncovered it back there in the States." +</P> + +<P> +Murray shook his head. "Nobody knows anything about it except you +boys." He seized the telephone at his elbow and called Dr. Gray, while +Tom listened with his shining forehead puckered anxiously. O'Neil hung +up with a black face. +</P> + +<P> +"Appleton!" he said. +</P> + +<P> +Tom looked, if possible, a shade gloomier than usual. "I wouldn't be +too sure it was Dan if I was you," he ventured, doubtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is he?" O'Neil ground out the words between his teeth. +</P> + +<P> +"Surveying the town-site addition. If he let anything slip it was by +mistake—" +</P> + +<P> +"Mistake! I won't employ people who make mistakes of that kind. This +story may bring the Canadian Government down on Illis and forfeit his +North Pass charter—to say nothing of our authorities. That would +finish us." He rose, went to the door, and ordered the recently arrived +engine uncoupled. Flinging himself into his fur coat, he growled: "I'd +rather have a crook under me than a fool. Appleton told us he talked +too much." +</P> + +<P> +Tom pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Gordon got it through the Gerard +girl, I s'pose." +</P> + +<P> +"Gordon! Gordon! Will there never be an end to Gordon?" His frown +deepened. "He's in the way, Tom. If he balks this deal I'm afraid +I'll—have to change ghosts." +</P> + +<P> +"It would be a pious act," Slater declared. "And his ghost wouldn't +ha'nt you none, either. It would put on its asbestos overshoes and go +out among the other shades selling stock in electric fans or 'Gordon's +Arctic Toboggan Slide.' He'd promote a Purgatory Development Company +and underwrite the Bottomless Pit for its sulphur. I—I'd hate to think +this came from Dan." +</P> + +<P> +The locomotive had been switched out by this time, and O'Neil hurried +to board it. On his way to Omar he had time thoroughly to weigh the +results of this unexpected complication. His present desire was merely +to verify his suspicion that Appleton had told his secret to Natalie; +beyond that he did not care to think, for there was but one course open. +</P> + +<P> +His anger reached the blazing-point after his arrival. As he stepped +down from the engine-cab Gray silently handed him a code message from +London which had arrived a few moments before. When its contents had +been deciphered, O'Neil cursed and he was furious as he stumbled +through the dark toward the green bungalow on the hill. +</P> + +<P> +Swinging round the corner of the house, he came into a bright radiance +which streamed forth from Eliza's window, and he could not help seeing +the interior of the room. She was there, writing busily, and he saw +that she was clad in the elaborate kimono which he had given her; yet +it was not her personal appearance which arrested his angry eyes and +caused his step to halt; it was, instead, her surroundings. +</P> + +<P> +He had grown to accept her prim simplicity as a matter of course, and +never associated her in his thoughts with anything feminine, but the +room as it lay before him now was a revelation of daintiness and artful +decoration. Tasteful water-colors hung on the walls, a warm rug was on +the floor, and everywhere were rosy touches of color. The plain white +bed had been transformed into a couch of Oriental luxury; a lace spread +of weblike texture covered it, the pillows were hidden beneath +billowing masses of ruffles and ribbons. He saw a typical woman's cozy +corner piled high with cushions; there was a jar of burning incense +sticks near it—everything, in fact, was utterly at variance with his +notions of the owner. Even the girl herself seemed transfigured for her +hair was brought forward around her face in some loose mysterious +fashion which gave her a bewilderingly girlish appearance. As he looked +in upon her she raised her face so that the light shone full upon it; +her brows were puckered, she nibbled at the end of her pencil, in the +midst of some creative puzzle. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil's eyes photographed all this in a single surprised glance as he +passed; the next moment he was mounting the steps to the porch. +</P> + +<P> +Dan flung open the door, but his words of greeting froze, his smile of +welcome vanished at sight of his chief's forbidding visage. +</P> + +<P> +Murray was in no mood to waste words; he began roughly: +</P> + +<P> +"Did you tell Miss Gerard that Poultney Illis is backing me?" +</P> + +<P> +Dan stammered. "I—perhaps—I—What has gone wrong, Chief?" +</P> + +<P> +"Did you tell her the inside—the story of his agreement with the +steamboat people?" +</P> + +<P> +Dan paled beneath his tan, but his eyes met Murray's without flinching. +"I think I did—tell her something. I don't quite remember. But +anything I may have said was in confi—" +</P> + +<P> +"I thought so. I merely wished to make certain. Well, the whole thing +is in the papers." +</P> + +<P> +Appleton laid his hand upon the table to steady himself. +</P> + +<P> +"Then it—didn't come from her. She wouldn't—" +</P> + +<P> +"Gordon has spread the story broadcast. It couldn't have come from any +other source; it couldn't have reached him in any other way, for none +of my boys has breathed a word." His voice rose despite his effort at +self-control. "Illis's agreement was ILLEGAL," he said, savagely; "it +will probably forfeit the charter of the North Pass or land him in +court. I suppose you realize that! I discovered his secret and assured +him it was safe with me; now you peddle it to Gordon, and the whole +thing is public. Here's the first result." He shook the London +cablegram in Dan's face, and his own was distorted with rage. There was +a stir in Eliza's room which neither noticed. Appleton wiped his face +with uncertain hand; he moistened his lips to say: +</P> + +<P> +"I—I'm terribly sorry! But I'm sure Natalie wouldn't spy—I don't +remember what I told her, or how I came to know about the affair. Doc +Gray told me, I think, in the first excitement, but—God! She—wouldn't +knowingly—" +</P> + +<P> +"Gordon fired you for talking too much. I thought you had learned your +lesson, but it seems you hadn't. Don't blame Miss Gerard for pumping +you—her loyalty belongs to Gordon now. But I require loyalty, too. +Since you lack it you can go." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil turned as Eliza's door opened; she stood before him, pale, +frightened, trembling. +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't help hearing," she said. "You discharge us?" +</P> + +<P> +He nodded. "I'm sorry! I've trusted my 'boys' so implicitly that the +thought of betrayal by them never occurred to me. I can't have men +close to me who make such mistakes as this." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps there was—an excuse, or the shadow of one, at least. When a +man is in love, you know—" +</P> + +<P> +Murray wheeled upon Dan and demanded sharply: +</P> + +<P> +"What's this?" Then in a noticeably altered tone he asked, "Do you +love—Natalie?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Does she love you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir!" +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil turned back to the girl, saying: "I told Dan, when I hired him, +that he would be called upon to dare much, to suffer much, and that my +interests must be his. He has disregarded them, and he must go. That's +all. There's little difference between treachery and carelessness." +</P> + +<P> +"It's—too bad," said the girl, faintly. Dan stood stiff and silent, +wholly dazed by the sudden collapse of his fortunes. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not ungrateful for what you've done, Appleton," O'Neil went on. "I +intend to pay you well for the help you gave me. You took a chance at +the Canon and at Gordon's Crossing. You'll get a check." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want your damned money," the other gulped. "I've drawn my +wages." +</P> + +<P> +"Nevertheless, I shall pay you well. It's highly probable that you've +wrecked the S. R. & N. and ruined me, but I don't intend to forget my +obligations to you. It's unfortunate. Call on the cashier in the +morning. Good night." +</P> + +<P> +He left them standing there unhappily, dumb and stiff with shame. Once +outside the house, he plunged down the hill as if fleeing from the +scene of some crime. He rushed through the night blindly, for he had +loved his assistant engineer, and the memory of that chalk-faced, +startled girl hurt him abominably. +</P> + +<P> +When he came to the company office he was walking slowly, heavily. He +found Gray inside and dropped into a chair: his face was grimly set, +and he listened dully to the physician's rambling talk. +</P> + +<P> +"I fired Appleton!" he broke out, at last. Gray looked up quickly. "He +acknowledged that he—did it. I had no choice. It came hard, though. +He's a good boy." +</P> + +<P> +"He did some great work, Chief!" +</P> + +<P> +"I know! That affair at the Crossing—I intend to pay him well, if +he'll accept. It's not that—I like those kids, Stanley. Eliza took it +harder than he. It wasn't easy for me, either," he sighed, wearily. +"I'd give ten thousand dollars if it hadn't happened. She looked as if +I'd struck her." +</P> + +<P> +"What did they say?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing. He has been careless, disloyal—" +</P> + +<P> +"You told them so?" +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"And they said nothing?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing! What could they say?" +</P> + +<P> +Gray answered gruffly: "They might have said a good deal. They might +have told you how they paid off your men and saved a walk-out when I +had no money." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil stared incredulously. "What are you talking about?" he demanded. +</P> + +<P> +When he had the facts he rose with an exclamation of dismay. +</P> + +<P> +"God! Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't they speak out? I—I—why, +that's loyalty of the finest kind. All the money they had saved, +too—when they thought I had failed! Jove! That was fine. Oh, I'm +sorry! I wonder what they think of me? I can't let Dan go after that. +I—" He seized his cap and hurried out of the building. +</P> + +<P> +"It's hardly right—when things were going so well, too!" said Dan. He +was sitting crumpled up in a chair, Eliza's arm encircling his +shoulders. "I didn't mean to give up any secrets, but—I'm not myself +when I'm with Natalie." +</P> + +<P> +"We must take our medicine," his sister told him, gravely. "We deserve +it, for this story may spoil all he's done. I didn't think it of her, +though." +</P> + +<P> +Dan groaned and bowed his head in his hands. "I don't know which hurts +worse," he said—"his anger or her action. She—couldn't do such a +thing, Sis; she just couldn't!" +</P> + +<P> +"She probably didn't realize—she hasn't much sense, you know. But +after all he's suffered, to think that we should injure him! I could +cry. I think I shall." +</P> + +<P> +The door opened before a rough hand, and O'Neil strode into the room, +huge, shaggy in his coonskin coat. They rose, startled, but he came to +them swiftly, a look of mingled shame and gladness in his face. +</P> + +<P> +"I've come back to apologize," he cried. "I couldn't wait. I've learned +what you children did while I was gone, and I've come to beg +forgiveness. It's all right—it's all right." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what you mean," Dan gasped. +</P> + +<P> +"Doc told me how you paid those men. That was real friendship; it was +splendid. It touched me, and I—I want to apologize. You see, I hurried +right back." +</P> + +<P> +They saw that his eyes were moist, and at the sight Eliza gave a +quivering cry, then turned swiftly to hide her face. She felt O'Neil's +fur-clad arm about her shoulder; his hand was patting her, and he was +saying gently: "You are a dear child. It was tremendously good of you +both, and I—ought to be shot for acting as I did. I wonder if you can +accept a wretched apology as bravely as you accepted a wrong +accusation." +</P> + +<P> +"It wasn't wrong; it was right," she sobbed. "Dan told her, and she +told Gordon." +</P> + +<P> +"There, there! I was to blame, after all, for letting any one know, and +if Dan made a mistake he has more than offset it by his +unselfishness—his sacrifices. It seems I forgot how much I really owe +him." +</P> + +<P> +"That affair with the shift bosses wasn't anything," said Dan, hastily, +"and it was all Eliza's idea. I refused at first, but when she started +to pay them herself I weakened." He stuttered awkwardly, for his sister +was motioning him desperately to be silent; but he ran on: "Oh, he +ought to know the whole truth and how rotten I acted, Sis. I deserve to +be discharged." +</P> + +<P> +"Please don't make this any harder for me than it is," Murray smiled. +"I'm terribly embarrassed, for I'm not used to apologies. I can't +afford to be unjust; I—have so few friends that I want to cherish +them. I'm sorry you saw me in such a temper. Anger is a treacherous +thing, and it always betrays me. Let's forget that I was here before +and pretend that I just came to thank you for what you did." He drew +Dan into the shelter of his other arm and pressed the two young people +to him. "I didn't realize how deeply you kids care for each other and +for me." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I'm not fired?" Dan queried, doubtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course not. When I take time to think about discharging a man I +invariably end by raising his salary." +</P> + +<P> +"Dan isn't worth half what you're paying him," came Eliza's muffled +voice. She freed herself from Murray's embrace and rearranged her hair +with tremulous fingers. Surreptitiously she wiped her eyes. "You gave +us an awful fright; it's terrible to be evicted in winter-time." She +tried to laugh, but the attempt failed miserably. +</P> + +<P> +"Just the same, when a man contemplates marriage he must have money." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want your blamed money," Dan blurted, "and it doesn't cost +anything to contemplate marriage. That's all I'm doing—just looking at +it from a distance." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps I can help you to prevail on Miss Natalie to change her mind. +That would be a real service, wouldn't it?" Under his grave glance +Dan's heart leaped. "I can't believe she's indifferent to you, my boy. +You're suited to each other, and there's no reason on earth why you +shouldn't marry. Perhaps she doesn't know her own mind." +</P> + +<P> +"You're mighty good, but—" The lover shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +Murray smiled again. "I think you're too timid. Don't plead and +beg—just carry her off. Be firm and masterful. Be rough—" +</P> + +<P> +"The idea!" exclaimed Eliza. "She's no cave-woman!" +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly. If she were, Dan would need to court her and send her +bouquets of wild violets. She's over-civilized, and therefore he needs +to be primitive." +</P> + +<P> +Dan blushed and faltered. "I can't be firm with her, Murray; I turn to +jelly whenever she looks at me." There was something so friendly and +kind in his employer's attitude that the young fellow was tempted to +pour out all his vexations; he had never felt so close to O'Neil as +now; but his masculine reserve could not be overcome all in a moment, +and he held his tongue. +</P> + +<P> +When Murray had put the two young people fully at their ease he rose to +go, but Eliza's eager voice made him turn with his hand on the +door-knob. +</P> + +<P> +"What can we do about this unfortunate Illis affair?" she asked. "Dan +must try to—" +</P> + +<P> +"Leave that to me. I'll straighten it out somehow. It is all my fault, +and I'll have to meet it." He pressed their hands warmly. +</P> + +<P> +When he had gone Dan heaved a great sigh of relief. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad it happened just as it did, Sis," he announced. "He knows my +secret now, and I can see that he never cared for Natalie. It's a load +off my mind to know the track is clear." +</P> + +<P> +"What a simpleton you are!" she told him. "Don't you see he's merely +paying his debt?" +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder—" Dan eyed her in amazement. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee! If that's so he is a prince, isn't he?" +</P> + +<P> +The same ship which had brought the ominous news to O'Neil also brought +Curtis Gordon north. He had remained in Seattle only long enough to see +the Illis story in print, and then had hastened back to the front. But +his satisfaction over the mischief he had done received a rude jolt +when at his first moment of leisure he looked over the late magazines +which he had bought before taking leave. In one which had appeared on +the news-stands that very day he found, to his amazement, an article by +Miss Eliza Appleton, in which his own picture appeared. He pounced upon +it eagerly; and then, as he read, his eyes narrowed and his jaw +stiffened. There, spread out to the public gaze, was his own record in +full, including his initial venture into the Kyak coal-fields, his +abandonment of that project in favor of Hope Consolidated, and an +account of his connection with the latter enterprise. Eliza had not +hesitated to call the mine worthless, and she showed how he, knowing +its worthlessness from the first, had used it as a lure to investors. +Then followed the story of his efforts to gain a foothold in the +railroad struggle, his defeat at the Salmon River Canon, his rout at +the delta crossing, and his final death-blow at Kyak. His career stood +out boldly in all its fraudulent colors; failure was written across +every one of his undertakings. The naked facts showed him visionary, +incompetent, unscrupulous. +</P> + +<P> +Thus far he had succeeded in keeping a large part of his stock-holders +in ignorance of the true condition of Hope Consolidated, but he quailed +at the inevitable result of this article, which had been flung far and +wide into every city and village in the land. He dared not think of its +effect upon his present enterprise, now so auspiciously launched. He +had made a ringing appeal to the public, and its support would hinge +upon its confidence in him as a man of affairs. Once that trust was +destroyed the Cortez Home Railway would crumble as swiftly as had all +his other schemes. +</P> + +<P> +The worst of it was that he knew himself shut off from the world for +five days as effectually as if he were locked in a dungeon. There was +no wireless equipment on the ship, he could not start the machinery of +his press bureau, and with every hour this damnable story was bound to +gain momentum. He cursed the luck which had set him on this quest for +vengeance and bound his hands. +</P> + +<P> +Once he had gathered his wits, he occupied himself in the only possible +way—by preparing a story of his own for the wire. But for the first +time in his experience he found himself upon the defensive and opposing +a force against which no bland persuasiveness, no personal magnetism +could prevail. In the scattered nature of his support lay his greatest +weakness, for it made the task of self-justification extremely +difficult. Perhaps it was well for his peace of mind that he could not +measure the full effect of those forces which Eliza Appleton's pen had +set in motion. +</P> + +<P> +In Omar, of course, the article excited lively interest. O'Neil felt a +warm thrill of satisfaction as he read it on the morning after his +scene with Eliza and Dan. But it deepened his feeling of obligation +almost painfully; for, like all who are thoughtlessly prodigal of their +own favors, he was deeply sensible of any kindness done himself. +Eliza's dignified exposition of Alaskan affairs, and particularly the +agreeable things she had written about him, were sure to be of great +practical assistance, he knew, and he longed to make some real return. +But so far as she was concerned there seemed to be nothing that he +could do. With Dan, of course, it was quite different. Mere money or +advancement, he admitted seemed paltry, but there was a possibility of +another kind of service. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile Dan was struggling with his problem in his own way. The +possibility that Natalie had voluntarily betrayed him was a racking +torture, and the remembrance of Eliza's words added to his suffering. +He tried to gain some hint of his chief's feeling, but Murray's frank +and friendly attitude baffled him. +</P> + +<P> +When at last he received a brief note from Natalie asking him to call, +he raced to Hope afraid, yet eager to hear what she might say. She met +him on the dock as he left the S. R. & N. motorboat and led him +directly to the house. +</P> + +<P> +Natalie went straight to the point. "I'm in dreadful trouble," she +said, "and I sent for you to tell you that I had no idea of betraying +confidences." +</P> + +<P> +Dan uttered some inane platitude, but his eyes lighted with relief. +</P> + +<P> +"When I saw in the papers what a stir that North Pass & Yukon story had +made I was afraid I had done something dreadful. Tell me, is it so? Did +I make trouble?" +</P> + +<P> +"You certainly did. O'Neil was furious, and nobody knows yet what the +result will be. It—it nearly cost me my head." +</P> + +<P> +"Does he blame me?" +</P> + +<P> +"N-no! He says you're on Gordon's side now. He blames me, or did, until +he generously took it on himself." +</P> + +<P> +"What does it all mean? I'm nearly distracted." Natalie's eyes were +pleading. "Did you think I spied on you?" +</P> + +<P> +Dan glowed with embarrassment and something more. "I didn't know what +to think," he said. "I was wretchedly miserable, for I was afraid. And +yet I knew you couldn't do such a thing. I told O'Neil I wasn't +responsible for what I did or said when with you." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Gordon sent me to Omar purposely. He sent me twice. It was I who +brought him word that the road was saved. I told all I'd learned +because I believed he no longer hated Mr. O'Neil. I was happy to tell +all I knew, for he deceived me as he deceives every one. I learned the +truth too late." +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you stay here?" Dan demanded, hotly. +</P> + +<P> +"Why? I—don't know. Perhaps because I'm afraid to leave. I'm +alone—you see mother believes in him: she's completely under his sway, +and I can't tell her the sort of man he is. She's happy, and her +happiness is worth more to me than my own. But—I SHALL go away. I +can't stand it here much longer." +</P> + +<P> +"Where will you go?" +</P> + +<P> +"Back to my old home, perhaps. Somewhere—anywhere away from Alaska." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you know I can't get along without you." +</P> + +<P> +"Please don't! You have been very good and sweet to me, but—" She +shook her dark head. "You couldn't marry me—even if I cared for you in +that way." +</P> + +<P> +"Why? I intend to marry you whether you want to or not." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Dan, it wouldn't do. You know—about—mother. I've nearly died of +shame, and—it would be sure to come up. Somebody would speak of it, +sometime." +</P> + +<P> +Dan's blue eyes went cold and smoky as he said: +</P> + +<P> +"It would take a pretty brave person to mention the subject in my +presence. I don't care a whoop for anything Gordon or your family may +say or do. I—" +</P> + +<P> +There was a stir in the hall outside, and the speaker turned to behold +Curtis Gordon himself in the doorway. The latter in passing had been +drawn by the sound of voices and had looked into the library. +Recognizing Natalie's caller, he frowned. +</P> + +<P> +"What is this?" he inquired, coldly. "A proposal? Do I interrupt?" +</P> + +<P> +"You do," said Dan; then, after a pause, "I'll finish it when you +leave." +</P> + +<P> +Gordon entered, and spoke to his stepdaughter. +</P> + +<P> +"What is this man doing in my house?" +</P> + +<P> +"He is here at my invitation," she replied. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell him to leave. I won't have him here." +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't YOU tell me?" cried Dan. "I don't need an interpreter." +</P> + +<P> +"Young man, don't be rash. There is a limit to my patience. If you have +the indecency to come here after what you have done, and after what +your sister has said about me, I shall certainly—" +</P> + +<P> +Dan broke in roughly: "I didn't come to see you, Gordon. You may be an +agreeable sight to some people, but you're no golden sunset in my eyes. +Eliza flattered you." +</P> + +<P> +Natalie gave a little terrified cry, for the men were glaring at each +other savagely. Neither seemed to hear her. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you read that article?" +</P> + +<P> +"Read it? I wrote it!" +</P> + +<P> +Gordon's face flamed suddenly with rage; he pointed to the door with +trembling fingers, and shouted: +</P> + +<P> +"Get out! I'll not have you here. I discharged you once. Get out!" His +utterance was rapid and thick. +</P> + +<P> +Dan smiled mirthlessly, dangerously. In a soft voice he said: +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't finished proposing. I expect to be accepted. You'll pardon +me, I know." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you go, you—" +</P> + +<P> +Dan turned to the girl, who, after that first outcry, had stood as if +spellbound, her face pale, her eyes shining. +</P> + +<P> +"Natalie dear," he said, earnestly, "you can't live in the same house +with this beast. He's a cheat and a scoundrel. He's done his best to +spoil your life, and he'll succeed if you stay, so come with me now. +Eliza loves you and wants you, and I'll never cease loving you with all +my heart. Marry me, and we'll go—" +</P> + +<P> +Gordon uttered an inarticulate sound and came forward with his hands +working hungrily. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't interrupt!" warned Dan, over his shoulder, and his white teeth +gleamed in sudden contrast with his tan. "No man could love you as I +do, dear—" Gordon's clutch fell upon him and tightened. Dan stiffened, +and his words ceased. Then the touch upon his flesh became unbearable. +Whirling, he wrenched himself free. He was like a wild animal now; body +and spirit had leaped into rebellion at contact with Gordon. His long +resentment burst its bounds; his lean muscles quivered. His frame +trembled as if it restrained some tremendous pressure from within. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't do that!" he cried, hoarsely, and brushed the sleeve where his +enemy's fingers had rested, as if it had been soiled. +</P> + +<P> +Gordon snarled, and stretched out his hand a second time; but the +younger man raised his fist and struck. Once, twice, again and again he +flung his bony knuckles into that purple, distorted face, which he +loathed as a thing unclean. He battered down the big man's guard: right +and left he rained blows, stepping forward as his victim fell back. +Gordon reeled, he pawed wildly, he swung his arms, but they encountered +nothing. Yet he was a heavy man, and, although half stunned by the +sudden onslaught, he managed to retain his feet until he brought up +against the heavy mahogany reading-table in the center of the room. His +retreat ended there; another blow and his knees buckled, his arms +sagged. Then Dan summoned all his strength and swung. Gordon groaned, +lurched forward, and sprawled upon the warm red velvet carpet, face +down, with his limbs twisted under him. +</P> + +<P> +His vanquisher stood over him for an instant, then turned upon Natalie +a face that was now keen and cruel and predatory. +</P> + +<P> +"Come! We'll be married to-day," he said; and, crossing swiftly, he +took her two hands in his. His voice was harsh and imperative. "He's +down and out, so don't be frightened. Now hurry! I've had enough of +this damned nonsense." +</P> + +<P> +"I—I'm not frightened," she said, dazedly. "But—I—" Her eyes roved +past him as if in quest of something. +</P> + +<P> +"Here! This'll do for a wrap." Dan whipped his fur overcoat from a +chair and flung it about her. "My hat, too!" He crushed his gray +Stetson over her dark hair and, slipping his arm about her shoulders, +urged her toward the hall. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother! She'll never—" +</P> + +<P> +"We'll call on her together. I'll do the talking for both of us." He +jerked the front door open with a force that threatened to wrench it +from its hinges and thrust his companion out into the bracing cold. +Then, as Gordon's Japanese butler came running from the rear of the +house, he turned. +</P> + +<P> +"Hey, you!" he cried, sharply. "The boss has gone on a little visit. +Don't stumble over him. And tell Mrs. Gordon that Mr. and Mrs. Appleton +will call on her in a few days—Mr. and Mrs. Dan Appleton, of Omar!" +</P> + +<P> +It was but a few steps to the pier; Dan felt that he was treading on +air, for the fierce, unreasoning joy of possession was surging through +his veins. His old indecision and doubt was gone, and the men he met +recoiled before his hostile glance, staring after him in bewilderment. +</P> + +<P> +But as he lifted Natalie down into the launch he felt her shaking +violently, and of a sudden his selfish exultation gave way to a tender +solicitude. +</P> + +<P> +"There, there!" he said, gently. "Don't cry, honey. It's all right. +It's all right!" +</P> + +<P> +She raised her face to his, and his head swam, for he saw that she was +radiant. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not crying; I'm laughing. I—I'm mad—insane with happiness." +</P> + +<P> +He crushed her to him, he buried his face in her neck, mumbling her +name over and over: and neither of them knew that he was rapturously +kissing the coonskin collar of his own greatcoat. The launchman, motor +crank in hand, paused, staring; he was still open-mouthed when Dan, +catching sight of him, shouted: +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter, idiot? Is your back broken?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—No, sir!" The fellow spun the fly-wheel vigorously; the little +craft began to vibrate and quiver and then swung out from shore. +</P> + +<P> +A moment later and the engineman yelled. He came stumbling forward and +seized the steering-wheel as the boat grazed a buoy. +</P> + +<P> +"That's right, you steer," Dan laughed, relaxing his hold. To Natalie +he said, "There's a sky-pilot in Omar," and pressed her to him. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a long way to Omar," she answered, then hid her face against his +breast and said, meekly, "There's one in Cortez, too, and he's much +nearer." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap22"></A> +XXII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +HOW THE HAZARD WAS PLAYED +</H4> + +<P> +Eliza's greeting to the runaways was as warm as their hearts could +wish. She divined the truth before they could speak, and took Natalie +in her arms with a glad cry of welcome. The two girls kissed each +other, wept, laughed, wept a little more, kissed again, and then the +story came out. +</P> + +<P> +Dan was plainly swollen with pride. +</P> + +<P> +"I walloped him, Sis!" he told her. "I got even for the whole family, +and I believe his eyes are closed even to the beauties of nature. He +won't be able to read the wedding-notice." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza hugged his arm and looked at him adoringly. +</P> + +<P> +"It must have been perfectly splendid!" +</P> + +<P> +Natalie nodded. "I was asleep," she said, "but Dan shocked me wide +awake. Can you imagine it? I didn't know my own feelings until he went +for—that brute. Then I knew all at once that I had loved him all the +time. Isn't it funny? It came over me—so suddenly! I—I can't realize +that he's mine." She turned her eyes upon him with an expression that +made his chest swell proudly. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee!" he exclaimed. "If I'd known how she felt I'd have pitched into +the first fellow I met. A man's an awful fool till he gets married." +</P> + +<P> +There followed a recital of the day's incidents, zestful, full of happy +digressions, endless; for the couple, after the manner of lovers, took +it for granted that Eliza was caught up into the seventh heaven along +with them. Dan was drunk with delight, and his bride seemed dizzied by +the change which had overtaken her. She looked upon it as miraculous, +almost unbelievable, and under the spell of her happiness her real self +asserted itself. Those cares and humiliations which had reacted to make +her cold and self-contained disappeared, giving place to an impetuous +girlishness that distracted her newly made husband and delighted Eliza. +The last lingering doubts that Dan's sister had cherished were cleared +away. +</P> + +<P> +It was not until the bride had been banished to prepare for dinner that +Eliza thought to ask her brother: +</P> + +<P> +"Have you told Mr. O'Neil?" +</P> + +<P> +The triumph faded suddenly out of his face. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, no! I haven't told anybody." +</P> + +<P> +They stared at each other, reading the thoughts they had no need to +voice. "Well, I've done it! It's too late now," said Dan, defiantly. +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe he'll fire us again. I would if I were he. You must tell him +this very minute." +</P> + +<P> +"I—suppose so," he agreed, reluctantly, and picked up his hat. "And +yet—I—I wonder if I'd better, after all. Don't you think it would +sound nicer coming from some one else?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wouldn't it seem like crowing for me to—to—For instance, now, if +you—" +</P> + +<P> +"Coward!" exclaimed the girl. +</P> + +<P> +He nodded. "But, Sis, you DO have a nicer way of putting things than I +have." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I wouldn't tell him for worlds. I couldn't. Poor man! We've +brought him nothing but sorrow and bad luck." +</P> + +<P> +"It's fierce!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, don't hesitate. That's what Gordon did, and he got licked." +</P> + +<P> +Dan scowled and set his features in a brave show of moral courage. +"She's mine, and he can't take her away," he vowed, "so— I don't care +what happens. But I'd just as soon slap a baby in the face." He left +the house like a man under sentence. +</P> + +<P> +When he returned, a half-hour later, Eliza was awaiting him on the +porch. She had been standing there with chattering teeth and limbs +shaking from the cold while the minutes dragged. +</P> + +<P> +"What did he say?" she asked, breathlessly. +</P> + +<P> +"It went off finely. Thank Heaven, he was out at the front, so I could +break it to him over the 'phone!" +</P> + +<P> +"Did he—curse you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No; I opened right up by saying I had bad news for him—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Dan!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! I dare say I wasn't very tactful, now that I think it over, but, +you see, I was rattled. I spilled out the whole story at once. 'Bad +news?' said he. 'My dear boy, I'm delighted. God bless you both.' Then +he made me tell him how it all happened, and listened without a word. I +thought I'd faint. He pulled some gag about Daniel and the lion; then +his voice got far away and the blamed wire began to buzz, so I hung up +and beat it back here. I'm glad it's over." +</P> + +<P> +"He'll probably send you a solid-silver dinner-set or raise your pay. +That's the kind of man he is." Eliza's voice broke. "Oh, Danny," she +cried, "he's the dearest, sweetest thing—" She turned away, and he +kissed her sympathetically before going inside to the waiting Natalie. +</P> + +<P> +Instead of following, Eliza remained on the porch, gazing down at the +lights of the little city. An engine with its row of empty flats rolled +into the yard, panting from its exertions; the notes of a piano came to +her faintly from the street below. The lights of an incoming steamer +showed far down the sound. O'Neil had made all this, she reflected: the +busy town, the hopeful thousands who came and went daily owed their +prosperity to him. He had made the wilderness fruitful, but what of his +own life? She suspected that it was as bleak and barren as the mountain +slopes above Omar. He, too, looked down upon this thriving intimate +little community, but from a distance. Beneath his unfailing +cheerfulness she felt sure there lurked a hunger which the mere +affection of his 'boys' could never satisfy. And now the thought that +Dan had come between him and his heart's desire filled her with pity. +He seemed suddenly a very lonely figure of a man, despite his material +success. When his enemies were doing, had already done, so much to +defeat him, it seemed unfair that his trusted friend should step +between him and the fulfilment of his dearest ambition—that ambition +common to all men, failure in which brings a sense of failure to a +man's whole life, no matter what other ends are achieved. Of course, he +would smile and swallow his bitterness—that was his nature—but she +would know the truth. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor Omar Khayyam," she thought, wistfully, "I wish there were love +enough in the world for you. I wish there were two Natalies, or that—" +Then she shook the dream from her mind and went into the house, for the +night was cold and she was shaking wretchedly. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil behaved more handsomely even than Eliza had anticipated. He +hurried into town on the following morning, and his congratulations +were so sincere, his manner so hearty that Dan forgot his embarrassment +and took a shameless delight in advertising his happiness. Nor did +Murray stop with mere words: he summoned all his lieutenants, and Omar +rang that night with a celebration such as it had never before known. +The company chef had been busy all day, the commissary had been +ransacked, and the wedding-supper was of a nature to interfere with +office duties for many days thereafter. Tom Slater made a +congratulatory speech—in reality, a mournful adjuration to avoid the +pitfalls of matrimonial inharmony—and openly confessed that his +digestion was now impaired beyond relief. Others followed him; there +was music, laughter, a riotous popping of corks; and over it all O'Neil +presided with grace and mellowness. Then, after the two young people +had been made thoroughly to feel his good will, he went back to the +front, and Omar saw him but seldom in the weeks that followed. +</P> + +<P> +To romantic Eliza, this self-sought seclusion had but one meaning—the +man was broken-hearted. She did not consider that there might be other +reasons for his constant presence at the glaciers. +</P> + +<P> +Of course, since the unwelcome publication of the North Pass & Yukon +story O'Neil had been in close touch with Illis, and by dint of strong +argument had convinced the Englishman of his own innocence in the +affair. A vigorous investigation might have proved disastrous, but, +fortunately, Curtis Gordon lacked leisure in which to follow the matter +up. The truth was that after his public exposure at Eliza's hands he +was far too busy mending his own fences to spare time for attempts upon +his rival. Consequently, the story was allowed to die out, and O'Neil +was finally relieved to learn that its effect had been killed. +Precisely how Illis had effected this he did not know, nor did he care +to inquire. Illis had been forced into an iniquitous bargain; and, +since he had taken the first chance to free himself from it, the +question of abstract right or wrong was not a subject for squeamish +consideration. +</P> + +<P> +It was at about this time that the sanguinary affray at Beaver Canon +began to bear fruit. One day a keen-faced, quiet stranger presented a +card at Murray's office, with the name: +</P> + +<P> +HENRY T. BLAINE. +</P> + +<P> +Beneath was the address of the Heidlemann building in New York, but +otherwise the card told nothing. Something in Mr. Blaine's bearing, +however, led Murray to treat him with more than ordinary consideration. +</P> + +<P> +"I should like to go over your work," the stranger announced; and +O'Neil himself acted as guide. Together they inspected the huge +concrete abutments, then were lowered into the heart of the giant +caissons which protruded from the frozen stream. The Salmon lay locked +in its winter slumber now, the glaciers stood as silent and inactive as +the snow-mantled mountains that hemmed them in. Down into the very +bowels of the river the men descended, while O'Neil described the +nature of the bottom, the depth and character of his foundations, and +the measure of his progress. He explained the character of that bar +which lay above the bridge site, and pointed out the heavy layers of +railroad iron with which his cement work was reinforced. +</P> + +<P> +"I spent nearly two seasons studying this spot before I began the +bridge," he continued. "I had men here, night and day, observing the +currents and the action of the ice. Then I laid my piers accordingly. +They are armored and reinforced to withstand any shock." +</P> + +<P> +"The river is subject to quick rises, I believe?" suggested Blaine. +</P> + +<P> +"Twenty feet in a few hours." +</P> + +<P> +"The volley of ice must be almost irresistible." +</P> + +<P> +"Almost," Murray smiled. "Not quite. Our ice-breakers were especially +designed by Parker to withstand any weight. There's nothing like them +anywhere. In fact, there will be nothing like this bridge when it's +completed." Blaine offered no comment, but his questions searched to +the depths of the builder's knowledge. When they were back in camp he +said: +</P> + +<P> +"Of course you know why I'm here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Your card told me that, but I don't need the Heidlemanns now." +</P> + +<P> +"We are prepared to reopen negotiations." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"My people are human; they have feelings. You read Gordon's lies about +us and about that fight at Beaver Canon? Well, we're used to abuse, and +opposition of a kind we respect; but that man stirred public opinion to +such a point that there's no further use of heeding it. We're ready to +proceed with our plans now, and the public can go to the devil till it +understands us better. We have several men in jail at Cortez, charged +with murder: it will cost us a fortune to free the poor fellows. First +the Heidlemanns were thieves and grafters and looters of the public +domain; now they have become assassins! If this route to the interior +proves feasible, well and good; if not, we'll resume work at Cortez +next spring. Kyak, of course, is out of the question." +</P> + +<P> +"This route depends upon the bridge." +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a two years' job." +</P> + +<P> +"You offered to complete it this winter, when you talked with Mr. +Herman Heidlemann." +</P> + +<P> +"And—I can." +</P> + +<P> +"Then we'll consider a reasonable price. But we must know definitely +where we stand by next spring. We have a great deal of capital tied up +in the interior; we can't wait." +</P> + +<P> +"This delay will cost you something." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Blaine shrugged. "You made that point plain when you were in New +York. We're accustomed to pay for our mistakes." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you cover this in the shape of an option?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's what I'm here for. If you finish your bridge and it stands the +spring break-up, we'll be satisfied. I shall expect to stay here and +watch the work." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil agreed heartily. "You're very welcome, Mr. Blaine. I like your +brand of conversation. I build railroads; I don't run them. Now let's +get down to figures." +</P> + +<P> +The closing of the option required several weeks, of course, but the +outcome was that even before mid-winter arrived O'Neil found himself in +the position he had longed to occupy. In effect the sale was made, and +on terms which netted him and his backers one hundred per cent. profit. +There was but one proviso—namely, that the bridge should be built by +spring. The Heidlemanns were impatient, their investment up to date had +been heavy, and they frankly declared that failure to bridge the chasm +on time would convince them that the task was hopeless. In a way this +was unreasonable, but O'Neil was well aware that they could not permit +delay—or a third failure: unless his route was proved feasible without +loss of time they would abandon it for one they knew to be certain, +even though more expensive. He did not argue that the task was of +unprecedented difficulty, for he had made his promise and was ready to +stand or fall by it. It is doubtful, however, if any other contractor +would have undertaken the work on such time; in fact, had it been a +public bridge it would have required four years in the building. Yet +O'Neil cheerfully staked his fortune on completing it in eight months. +</P> + +<P> +With his option signed and the task squarely confronting him, he +realized with fresh force its bigness and the weight of responsibility +that rested upon his shoulders. He began the most dramatic struggle of +his career, a fight against untried conditions, a desperate race +against the seasons, with ruin as the penalty of defeat. +</P> + +<P> +The channel of the Salmon at this point is fifteen hundred feet wide +and thirty feet deep. Through it boils a ten-mile current; in other +words, the waters race by with the speed of a running man. Over this +O'Neil expected to suspend a structure capable of withstanding the +mightiest strains to which any bridge had ever been subjected. Parker's +plans called for seventeen thousand yards of cement work and nine +million pounds of steel, every part of which must be fabricated to a +careful pattern. It was a man-sized job, and O'Neil was thankful that +he had prepared so systematically for the work; that he had gathered +his materials with such extraordinary care. Supplies were arriving now +in car-loads, in train-loads, in ship-loads: from Seattle, from +Vancouver, from far Pittsburg they came in a thin continuous stream, +any interruption of which meant confusion and serious loss of time. The +movement of this vast tonnage required the ceaseless attention of a +corps of skilled men. +</P> + +<P> +He had personally directed affairs up to this point, but he now +obliterated himself, and the leadership devolved upon two +others—Parker, small, smiling, gentle-mannered; Mellen, tall, angular, +saturnine. Upon them, engineer and bridge-builder, O'Neil rested his +confidence, serene in the knowledge that of all men they were the +ablest in their lines. As for himself, he had all he could do to bring +materials to them and to keep the long supply-trail open. Long it was, +indeed; for the shortest haul was from Seattle, twelve hundred miles +away, and the steel bridge members came from Pennsylvania. +</P> + +<P> +The piers at Omar groaned beneath the cargoes that were belched from +the big freighters—incidentally, "Happy Tom" Slater likewise groaned +beneath his burdens as superintendent of transportation. At the +glaciers a city as large as Omar sprang up, a city with electric +lights, power-houses, machine shops, freight yards, and long rows of +winter quarters. It lay behind ramparts of coal, of grillage timbers +and piling, of shedded cement barrels, and tons of steel. Over it the +winter snows sifted, the north winds howled, and the arctic cold +deepened. +</P> + +<P> +Here, locked in a mountain fastness more than a thousand miles from his +base of supplies, O'Neil began the decisive struggle of his life. Here, +at the focusing point of his enterprise, in the white heat of the +battle, he spent his time, heedless of every other interest or +consideration. The shifts were lengthened, wages were increased, a +system of bonuses was adopted. Only picked men were given places, but +of these there were hundreds: over them the grim-faced Mellen brooded, +with the fevered eye of a fanatic and a tongue of flame. Wherever +possible the men were sheltered, and steam-pipes were run to guard +against the cold; but most of the labor was, of necessity, performed in +the open and under trying conditions. At times the wind blew a +hurricane; always there was the bitter cold. Men toiled until their +flesh froze and their tools slipped from their fingers, then dragged +themselves stiffly into huts and warmed themselves for further effort. +They worked amid a boiling snow-smother that hid them from view, while +gravel and fine ice cut their faces like knives; or again, on still, +sharp days, when the touch of metal was like the bite of fangs and +echoes filled the valley to the brim with an empty clanging. But they +were no ordinary fellows—no chaff, to drift with the wind: they were +men toughened by exposure to the breath of the north, men winnowed out +from many thousands of their kind. Nor were they driven: they were led. +Mellen was among them constantly; so was the soft-voiced smiling +Parker, not to mention O'Neil with his cheery laugh and his words of +praise. Yet often it was hard to keep the work moving at all; for steam +condensed in the cylinders, valves froze unless constantly operated, +pipes were kept open only by the use of hot cloths: then, too, the snow +crept upward steadily, stealthily, until it lay in heavy drifts which +nearly hid the little town and changed the streets to miniature canons. +</P> + +<P> +Out of this snow-smothered, frost-bound valley there was but one trail. +The army lay encamped in a cul de sac; all that connected it with the +outside world were two slender threads of steel. To keep them clear of +snow was in itself a giant's task; for as yet there were no snow-sheds, +and in many places the construction-trains passed through deep cuts +between solid walls of white. Every wind filled these level and +threatened to seal the place fast; but furiously the "rotaries" +attacked the choking mass, slowly it was whirled aside, and onward +flowed that steady stream of supplies. No army of investment was ever +in such constant peril of being cut off. For every man engaged in the +attack there was another behind him fighting back the allied forces +which swept down from either hand. +</P> + +<P> +Only those who know that far land in her sterner moods can form any +conception of the stupefying effect of continuous, unbroken cold. There +is a point beyond which the power of reaction ceases: where the human +mind and body recoils uncontrollably from exposure, and where the most +robust effort results in a spiritless inactivity. It is then that +efficiency is cut in half, then cut again. And of all the terrors of +the Arctic there is none so compelling as the wind. It is a monstrous, +deathly thing, a creature that has life and preys upon the agony of +men. There are regions sheltered from it, of course; but in the gutters +which penetrate the mountain ranges it lurks with constant menace, and +of all the coast from Sitka westward the valley of the Salmon is the +most evil. +</P> + +<P> +In the throat of this mighty-mouthed funnel, joining the still, abysmal +cold of the interior with the widely varying temperatures of the open +sea, O'Neil's band was camped, and there the great hazard was played. +Under such conditions it was fortunate indeed that he had +field-marshals like Parker and Mellen, for no single man could have +triumphed. Parker was cautious, brilliant, far-sighted; he reduced the +battle to paper, he blue-printed it; with sliding-rule he analyzed it +into inches and pounds and stresses and strains: Mellen was like a grim +Hannibal, tireless, cunning, cold, and he wove steel in his fingers as +a woman weaves her thread. +</P> + +<P> +It was a remarkable alliance, a triumvirate of its kind unsurpassed. As +the weeks crept into months it worked an engineering marvel. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap23"></A> +XXIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A NEW CRISIS +</H4> + +<P> +With the completion of the railroad to the glacier crossing there came +to it a certain amount of travel, consisting mainly of prospectors +bound to and from the interior. The Cortez winter trail was open, and +over it passed most of the traffic from the northward mining-camps, but +now and then a frost-rimed stranger emerged from the canon above +O'Neil's terminus with tales of the gold country, or a venturesome +sledge party snow-shoed its way inland from the end of the track. +Murray made a point of hauling these trailers on his +construction-trains and of feeding them in his camps as freely as he +did his own men. In time the wavering line of sled-tracks became fairly +well broken, and scarcely a week passed without bringing several +"mushers." +</P> + +<P> +One day, as O'Neil was picking his way through the outskirts of the +camp, he encountered one of his night foremen, and was surprised to see +that the fellow was leading a trail-dog by a chain. Now these malamutes +are as much a part of the northland as the winter snows, and they are a +common sight in every community; but the man's patent embarrassment +challenged Murray's attention: he acted as if he had been detected in a +theft or a breach of duty. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Walsh. Been buying some live stock?" O'Neil inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir. I picked up this dog cheap." +</P> + +<P> +"Harness too, eh?" Murray noted that Walsh's arms were full of +gear—enough, indeed, for a full team. Knowing that the foreman owned +no dogs, he asked, half banteringly: +</P> + +<P> +"You're not getting ready for a trip, I hope?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir. Not exactly, sir. The dog was cheap, so I—I just bought him." +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact, dogs were not cheap, and Walsh should have been in +bed at this hour. Murray walked on wondering what the fellow could be +up to. +</P> + +<P> +Later he came upon a laborer dickering with a Kyak Indian over the +price of a fur robe, and in front of a bunk-house he found other +members of the night crew talking earnestly with two lately arrived +strangers. They fell silent as he approached, and responded to his +greeting with a peculiar nervous eagerness, staring after him curiously +as he passed on. +</P> + +<P> +He expected Dr. Gray out from Omar, but as he neared the track he met +Mellen. The bridge superintendent engaged him briefly upon some detail, +then said: +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what's the matter with the men this morning. They're +loafing." +</P> + +<P> +"Loafing? Nonsense! You expect too much." +</P> + +<P> +Mellen shook his head. "The minute my back is turned they begin to +gossip. I've had to call them down." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps they want a holiday." +</P> + +<P> +"They're not that kind. There's something in the air." +</P> + +<P> +While they were speaking the morning train pulled in, and O'Neil was +surprised to see at least a dozen townspeople descending from it. They +were loafers, saloon-frequenters, for the most part, and oddly enough, +they had with them dogs and sleds and all the equipment for travel. He +was prevented from making inquiry, however, by a shout from Dr. Gray, +who cried: +</P> + +<P> +"Hey, Chief! Look who's here!" +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil hastened forward with a greeting upon his lips, for Stanley was +helping Eliza and Natalie down from the caboose which served as a +passenger-coach. +</P> + +<P> +The young women, becomingly clad in their warm winter furs, made a +picture good to look upon. Natalie had ripened wonderfully since her +marriage, and added to her rich dark beauty there was now an elusive +sweetness, a warmth and womanliness which had been lacking before. As +for Eliza, she had never appeared more sparkling, more freshly +wholesome and saucy than on this morning. +</P> + +<P> +"We came to take pictures," she announced. "We want to see if the +bridge suits us." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you believe her, Mr. O'Neil," said Natalie. "Dan told us you +were working too hard, so Eliza insisted on taking you in hand. I'm +here merely in the office of chaperon and common scold. You HAVE been +overdoing. You're positively haggard." +</P> + +<P> +Gray nodded. "He won't mind me. I hope you'll abuse him well. Go at him +hammer and tongs." +</P> + +<P> +Ignoring Murray's smiling assertion that he was the only man in camp +who really suffered from idleness, the girls pulled him about and +examined him critically, then fell to discussing him as if he were not +present. +</P> + +<P> +"He's worn to the bone," said Eliza. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you ever see anything like his wrinkles? He looks like a dried +apple," Natalie declared. +</P> + +<P> +"Dan says he doesn't eat." +</P> + +<P> +"Probably he's too busy to chew his food. We'll make him Fletcherize—" +</P> + +<P> +"And eat soup. Then we'll mend his underclothes. I'll warrant he +doesn't dress properly." +</P> + +<P> +"How much sleep does he get?" Natalie queried of the physician. +</P> + +<P> +"About half as much as he needs." +</P> + +<P> +"Leave him to us," said Eliza, grimly. "Now where does he live? We'll +start in there." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil protested faintly. "Please don't! I hate soup, and I can't allow +anybody to pry into my wardrobe. It won't stand inspection." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Appleton pointed to his feet and asked, crisply: +</P> + +<P> +"How many pairs of socks do you wear?" +</P> + +<P> +"One." +</P> + +<P> +"Any holes?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sometimes." +</P> + +<P> +Natalie was shocked. "One pair of socks in this cold! It's time we took +a hand. Now lead us to this rabbit-hole where you live." +</P> + +<P> +Reluctantly, yet with an unaccustomed warmth about his heart, O'Neil +escorted them to his headquarters. It was a sharp, clear morning; the +sky was as empty and bright as an upturned saucepan; against it the +soaring mountain peaks stood out as if carved from new ivory. The +glaciers to right and left were mute and motionless in the grip of that +force which alone had power to check them; the turbulent river was +hidden beneath a case-hardened armor; the lake, with its weird flotilla +of revolving bergs, was matted with a broad expanse of white, across +which meandered dim sled and snow-shoe trails. Underfoot the paths gave +out a crisp complaint, the sunlight slanting up the valley held no +warmth whatever, and their breath hung about their heads like vapor, +crystallizing upon the fur of their caps and hoods. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil's living-quarters consisted of a good-sized room adjoining the +office-building. Pausing at the door, he told his visitors: +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but your zeal is utterly misplaced. I +live like a pasha, in the midst of debilitating luxuries, as you will +see for yourselves." He waved them proudly inside. +</P> + +<P> +The room was bare, damp, and chill; it was furnished plentifully, but +it was in characteristically masculine disorder. The bed was tumbled, +the stove was half filled with cold ashes, the water pitcher on the +washstand had frozen. In one corner was a heap of damp clothing, now +stiff with frost. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, it's a little upset," he apologized. "I wasn't expecting +callers, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"When was it made up last?" Eliza inquired, a little weakly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yesterday, of course." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you sure?" +</P> + +<P> +"Now, see here," he said, firmly; "I haven't time to make beds, and +everybody else is busier than I am. I'm not in here enough to make it +worth while—I go to bed late, and I tumble out before dawn." +</P> + +<P> +The girls exchanged meaning glances. Eliza began to lay off her furs. +</P> + +<P> +"Not bad, is it?" he said, hopefully. +</P> + +<P> +Natalie picked up the discarded clothing, which crackled stiffly under +her touch and parted from the bare boards with a tearing sound. +</P> + +<P> +"Frozen! The idea!" said she. +</P> + +<P> +Eliza poked among the other garments which hung against the wall and +found them also rigid. The nail-heads behind them were coated with ice. +Turning to the table, with its litter of papers and the various +unclassified accumulation of a bachelor's house, she said: +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose we'll have to leave this as it is." +</P> + +<P> +"Just leave everything. I'll get a man to clean up while you take +pictures of the bridge." As Natalie began preparing for action he +queried, in surprise, "Don't you like my little home?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's awful," the bride answered, feelingly. +</P> + +<P> +"A perfect bear's den," Eliza agreed. "It will take us all day." +</P> + +<P> +"It's just the way I like it," he told them; but they resolutely +banished him and locked the door in his face. +</P> + +<P> +"Hey! I don't want my things all mussed up," he called, pounding for +re-admittance; "I know right where everything is, and—" The door +opened, out came an armful of papers, a shower of burnt matches, and a +litter of trash from his work-table. He groaned. Eliza showed her +countenance for a moment to say: +</P> + +<P> +"Now, run away, little boy. You're going to have your face washed, no +matter how you cry. When we've finished in here we'll attend to you." +The door slammed once more, and he went away shaking his head. +</P> + +<P> +At lunch-time they grudgingly admitted him, and, although they +protested that they were not half through, he was naively astonished at +the change they had brought to pass. For the first time in many days +the place was thoroughly warm and dry; it likewise displayed an +orderliness and comfort to which it had been a stranger. From some +obscure source the girls had gathered pictures for the bare walls; they +had hung figured curtains at the windows; there were fresh white covers +for bed, bureau, and washstand. His clothes had been rearranged, and +posted in conspicuous places were written directions telling him of +their whereabouts. One of the cards bore these words: "Your soup! Take +one in cup of hot brandy and water before retiring." Beneath were a +bottle and a box of bouillon tablets. A shining tea-kettle was humming +on the stove. +</P> + +<P> +"This is splendid," he agreed, when they had completed a tour of +inspection. "But where are my blue-prints?" +</P> + +<P> +"In the drafting-room, where they belong. This room is for rest and +sleep. We want to see it in this condition when we come back." +</P> + +<P> +"Where did you find the fur rug?" He indicated a thick bearskin beside +the bed. +</P> + +<P> +"We stole it from Mr. Parker," they confessed, shamelessly. "He had +two." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza continued complacently: "We nearly came to blows with the chef +when we kidnapped his best boy. We've ordered him to keep this place +warm and look after your clothes and clean up every morning. He's to be +your valet and take care of you." +</P> + +<P> +"But—we're dreadfully short-handed in the mess-house," O'Neil +protested. +</P> + +<P> +"We've given the chef your bill of fare, and your man Ben will see that +you eat it." +</P> + +<P> +"I won't stand for soup. It—" +</P> + +<P> +"Hush! Do you want us to come again?" Natalie demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! Again and again!" He nodded vigorously. "I dare say I was getting +careless. I pay more attention to the men's quarters than to my own. Do +you know—this is the first hint of home I've had since I was a boy? +And—it's mighty agreeable." He stared wistfully at the feminine +touches on all sides. +</P> + +<P> +The bride settled herself with needle and thread, saying: +</P> + +<P> +"Now take Eliza to the bridge while the light is good; she wants to +snap-shoot it. I'm going to sew on buttons and enjoy myself." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil read agreement in Eliza's eyes, and obeyed. As they neared the +river-bank the girl exclaimed in surprise; for up out of the frozen +Salmon two giant towers of concrete thrust themselves, on each bank +were massive abutments, and connecting them were the beginnings of a +complicated "false-work" structure by means of which the steel was to +be laid in place. It consisted of rows upon rows of piling, laced +together with an intricate pattern of squared timbers. Tracks were +being laid upon it, and along the rails ran a towering movable crane, +or "traveler," somewhat like a tremendous cradle. This too was nearing +completion. Pile-drivers were piercing the ice with long slender +needles of spruce; across the whole river was weaving a gigantic +fretwork of wood which appeared to be geometrically regular in design. +The air was noisy with the cries of men, and a rhythmic thudding, +through which came the rattle of winches and the hiss of steam. Over +the whole vast structure swarmed an army of human ants, feeble pygmy +figures that crept slowly here and there, regardless of their dizzy +height. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't it beautiful?" said the builder, gazing at the scene with +kindling eyes. "We're breaking records every day in spite of the +weather. Those fellows are heroes. I feel guilty and mean when I see +them risking life and limb while I just walk about and look on." +</P> + +<P> +"Will it—really stand the break-up?" asked the girl. "When that ice +goes out it will be as if the solid earth were sliding down the +channel. It frightens me to think of it." +</P> + +<P> +"We've built solid rock; in fact, those piers are stronger than rock, +for they're laced with veins of steel and anchored beneath the +river-bed." +</P> + +<P> +But Eliza doubted. "I've seen rivers break, and it's frightful; but of +course I've never seen anything to compare with the Salmon. +Suppose—just suppose there should be some weak spot—" +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil settled his shoulders a little under his coat. "It would nearly +kill Mellen—and Parker, too, for that matter." +</P> + +<P> +"And you?" +</P> + +<P> +He hesitated. "It means a great deal to me. Sometimes I think I could +pull myself together and begin again, but—I'm getting old, and I'm not +sure I'd care to try." After a pause he added a little stiffly, as if +not quite sure of the effect of his words: "That's the penalty of being +alone in life, I suppose. We men are grand-stand players: we need an +audience, some one person who really cares whether we succeed or fail. +Your brother, for instance, has won more in the building of the S. R. & +N. than I can ever hope to win." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza felt a trifle conscious, too, and she did not look at him when +she said: "Poor, lonely old Omar Khayyam! You deserve all Dan has. I +think I understand why you haven't been to see us." +</P> + +<P> +"I've been too busy; this thing has kept me here every hour. It's my +child, and one can't neglect his own child, you know—even if it isn't +a real one." He laughed apologetically. "See! there's where we took the +skiff that day we ran Jackson Glacier. He's harmless enough now. You +annoyed me dreadfully that morning, Eliza, and—I've never quite +understood why you were so reckless." +</P> + +<P> +"I wanted the sensation. Writers have to live before they can write. +I've worked the experience into my novel." +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed? What is your book about?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well—it's the story of a railroad-builder, of a fellow who risked +everything he had on his own judgment. It's—you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, my dear!" cried O'Neil, turning upon her a look of almost comic +surprise. "I'm flattered, of course, but there's nothing romantic or +uncommon about me." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't mind?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course not. But there ought to be a hero, and love, and—such +things—in a novel. You must have a tremendous imagination." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps. I'm not writing a biography, you know. However, you needn't +be alarmed; it will never be accepted." +</P> + +<P> +"It should be, for you write well. Your magazine articles are bully." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza smiled. "If the novel would only go as well as those stories I'd +be happy. They put Gordon on the defensive." +</P> + +<P> +"I knew they would." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I built a nice fire under him, and now he's squirming. I think I +helped you a little bit, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed you did—a great deal! When you came to Omar I never thought +you'd turn out to be my champion. I—" He turned as Dr. Gray came +hurrying toward them, panting in his haste. +</P> + +<P> +The doctor began abruptly: +</P> + +<P> +"I've been looking for you, Murray. The men are all quitting." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil started. "All quitting? What are you talking about?" +</P> + +<P> +"There's a stampede—a gold stampede!" +</P> + +<P> +Murray stared at the speaker as if doubting his own senses. +</P> + +<P> +"There's no gold around here," he said, at last. +</P> + +<P> +"Two men came in last night. They've been prospecting over in the White +River and report rich quartz. They've got samples with 'em and say +there are placer indications everywhere. They were on their way to Omar +to tell their friends, and telephoned in from here. Somebody overheard +and—it leaked. The whole camp is up in the air. That's what brought +out that gang from town this morning." +</P> + +<P> +The significance of the incidents which had troubled him earlier in the +day flashed upon O'Neil; it was plain enough now why his men had been +gossiping and buying dogs and fur robes. He understood only too well +what a general stampede would mean to his plans, for it would take +months to replace these skilled iron-workers. +</P> + +<P> +"Who are these prospectors?" he inquired, curtly. +</P> + +<P> +"Nobody seems to know. Their names are Thorn and Baker. That gang from +Omar has gone on, and our people will follow in the morning. Those who +can't scrape up an outfit here are going into town to equip. We won't +have fifty men on the job by to-morrow night." +</P> + +<P> +"What made Baker and Thorn stop here?" +</P> + +<P> +Gray shrugged. "Tired out, perhaps. We've got to do something quick, +Murray. Thank God, we don't have to sell 'em grub or haul 'em to Omar. +That will check things for a day or two. If they ever start for the +interior we're lost, but the cataract isn't frozen over, and there's +only one sled trail past it. We don't need more than six good men to do +the trick." +</P> + +<P> +"We can't stop a stampede that way." +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Gray's face fell into harsh lines. "I'll bend a Winchester over the +first man who tries to pass. Appleton held the place last summer; I'll +guarantee to do it now." +</P> + +<P> +"No. The men have a right to quit, Stanley. We can't force them to +work. We can't build this bridge with a chain-gang." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! I can beat up these two prospectors and ship 'em in to the +hospital until things cool down." +</P> + +<P> +"That won't do, either. I'll talk with them, and if their story is +right—well, I'll throw open the commissary and outfit every one." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza gasped; Gray stammered. +</P> + +<P> +"You're crazy!" exclaimed the doctor. +</P> + +<P> +"If it's a real stampede they'll go anyhow, so we may as well take our +medicine with a good grace. The loss of even a hundred men would +cripple us." +</P> + +<P> +"The camp is seething. It's all Mellen can do to keep the day shift at +work. If you talk to 'em maybe they'll listen to you." +</P> + +<P> +"Argument won't sway them. This isn't a strike; it's a gold rush." He +turned toward the town. +</P> + +<P> +Eliza was speechless with dismay as she hurried along beside him; Gray +was scowling darkly and muttering anathemas; O'Neil himself was lost in +thought. The gravity of this final catastrophe left nothing to be said. +</P> + +<P> +Stanley lost little time in bringing the two miners to the office, and +there, for a half-hour, Murray talked with them. When they perceived +that he was disposed to treat them courteously they told their story in +detail and answered his questions with apparent honesty. They willingly +showed him their quartz samples and retailed the hardships they had +suffered. +</P> + +<P> +Gray listened impatiently and once or twice undertook to interpolate +some question, but at a glance from his chief he desisted. +Nevertheless, his long fingers itched to lay hold of the strangers and +put an end to this tale which threatened ruin. His anger grew when +Murray dismissed them with every evidence of a full belief in their +words. +</P> + +<P> +"Now that the news is out and my men are determined to quit, I want +everybody to have an equal chance," O'Neil announced, as they rose to +go. "There's bound to be a great rush and a lot of suffering—maybe +some deaths—so I'm going to call the boys together and have you talk +to them." +</P> + +<P> +Thorn and Baker agreed and departed. As the door closed behind them +Gray exploded, but Murray checked him quickly, saying with an abrupt +change of manner: "Wait! Those fellows are lying!" +</P> + +<P> +Seizing the telephone, he rang up Dan Appleton and swiftly made known +the situation. Stanley could hear the engineer's startled exclamation. +</P> + +<P> +"Get the cable to Cortez as quickly as you can," O'Neil was saying. +"You have friends there, haven't you? Good! He's just the man, for +he'll have Gordon's pay-roll. Find out if Joe Thorn and Henry Baker are +known, and, if so, who they are and what they've been doing lately. Get +it quick, understand? Then 'phone me." He slammed the receiver upon its +hook. "That's not Alaskan quartz," he said, shortly; "it came from +Nevada, or I'm greatly mistaken. Every hard-rock miner carries +specimens like those in his kit." +</P> + +<P> +"You think Gordon—" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know. But we've got rock-men on this job who'll recognize ore +out of any mine they ever worked in. Go find them, then come back here +and hold the line open for Dan." +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose he can't locate these fellows in Cortez?" +</P> + +<P> +"Then—Let's not think about that." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap24"></A> +XXIV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +GORDON'S FALL +</H4> + +<P> +The news of O'Neil's attitude spread quickly, and excitement grew among +the workmen. Up through the chill darkness of early evening they came +charging. They were noisy and eager, and when the gong summoned them to +supper they rushed the mess-house in boisterous good humor. No attempt +was made to call out the night crew: by tacit consent its members were +allowed to mingle freely with their fellows and plan for the morrow's +departure. Some, envious of the crowd from Omar which had profited by +an early start, were anxious to be gone at once, but the more +sober-minded argued that the road to White River was so long that a +day's advantage would mean little in the end, and the advance party +would merely serve to break trail for those behind. +</P> + +<P> +These men, be it said, were not those who had struck, earlier in the +season, at the behest of Gordon's emissary, Linn, but fellows whose +loyalty and industry were unquestioned. Their refusal to stampede at +the first news was proof of their devotion, yet any one who has lived +in a mining community knows that no loyalty of employee to employer is +strong enough to withstand for long the feverish excitement of a gold +rush. These bridge-workers were the aristocracy of the whole force, men +inured to hardship and capable of extreme sacrifice in the course of +their work; but they were also independent Americans who believed +themselves entitled to every reward which fortune laid in their paths. +For this reason they were even harder to handle than the unskilled, +unimaginative men farther down the line. +</P> + +<P> +Long before the hour when O'Neil appeared the low-roofed mess-house was +crowded. +</P> + +<P> +Natalie and Eliza, knowing the importance of this crisis, refused to go +home, and begged Murray to let them attend the meeting. Mr. Blaine, who +also felt the keenest concern in the outcome, offered to escort them, +and at last with some difficulty he managed to wedge them inside the +door, where they apprehensively scanned the gathering. +</P> + +<P> +It was not an ideal place for a meeting of this size, but tables and +benches had been pushed aside, and into the space thus cleared the men +were packed. Their appearance was hardly reassuring: it was a brawny, +heavy-muscled army with which O'Neil had to deal—an army of +loud-voiced toilers whose ways were violent and whose passions were +quick. Nevertheless, the two girls were treated with the greatest +respect, and when O'Neil stepped to a bench and raised himself above +their heads his welcome was not unduly boisterous. Outside, the night +was clear and cold; inside the cramped quarters the air was hot and +close and fetid. +</P> + +<P> +Murray had no skill as a public speaker in the ordinary sense; he +attempted no oratorical tricks, and addressed his workmen in a +matter-of-fact tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Boys," he began, "there has been a gold strike at the head of the +White River, and you want to go. I don't blame you; I'd like to go +myself, if there's any chance to make money." +</P> + +<P> +"You're all right, boss!" shouted some one; and a general laugh +attested the crowd's relief at this acceptance of the inevitable. They +had expected argument, despite the contrary assurances they had +received. +</P> + +<P> +"Now we all want an even break. We want to know all there is to know, +so that a few fellows won't have the advantage of the rest. The strike +is three hundred miles away; it's winter, and—you know what that +means. I talked with Baker and Thorn this afternoon. I want them to +tell you just what they told me. That's why I called this meeting. If +you decide to go you won't have to waste time going to Omar after your +outfits, for I'll sell you what you want from my supplies. And I'll +sell at cost." +</P> + +<P> +There was a yell of approval, a cheer for the speaker; then came calls +for Baker and Thorn. +</P> + +<P> +The two miners were thrust forward, and the embarrassed Thorn, who had +acted as spokesman, was boosted to a table. Under Murray's +encouragement he stammered out the story of his good fortune, the tale +running straight enough to fan excitement into a blaze. There was no +disposition to doubt, for news of this sort is only too sure of +credence. +</P> + +<P> +When the speaker had finished, O'Neil inquired: +</P> + +<P> +"Are you an experienced quartz-miner? Do you know ore when you see it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure! I worked in the Jumbo, at Goldfield, Nevada, up to last year. So +did Baker." +</P> + +<P> +"When did you go into the White River country?" +</P> + +<P> +"August." +</P> + +<P> +"How did you go in?" +</P> + +<P> +"We packed in. When our grub ran out, we killed our horses and cached +the meat for dog-feed." +</P> + +<P> +"Is there any other dog-feed there?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Any people?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a soul. The country is open to the first comers. It's a +fine-looking country, too: we seen quartz indications everywhere. I +reckon this speaks for itself." Thorn significantly held up his ore +samples. "We've made our locations. You fellows is welcome to the rest. +First come, first served." +</P> + +<P> +There was an eager scramble for the specimens on the part of those +nearest the speaker. After a moment Murray asked them: +</P> + +<P> +"Did you fellows ever see any rock like that?" +</P> + +<P> +One of his workmen answered: +</P> + +<P> +"_I_ have." +</P> + +<P> +"Where?" +</P> + +<P> +"In the Jumbo, at Goldfield. I 'high-graded' there in the early days." +</P> + +<P> +There was a laugh at this. Thorn flushed angrily. "Well," he rejoined, +"we've got the same formation over there in the White River. It's just +like Goldfield. It'll be the same kind of a camp, too, when the news +gets out." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil broke in smoothly, to say: +</P> + +<P> +"Most of our fellows have no dogs. It will take them three weeks to +cover the trail. They'll have to spend three weeks in there, then three +weeks more coming out—over two months altogether. They can't haul +enough grub to do them." He turned to his employees and said gravely: +"You'd better think it over, boys. Those who have teams can make it but +the rest of you will get left. Do you think the chance is worth all +that work and suffering?" +</P> + +<P> +The bridge-workers shifted uncomfortably on their feet. Then a voice +exclaimed: +</P> + +<P> +"Don't worry, boss. We'll make it somehow." +</P> + +<P> +"Thorn says there's nobody over there," Murray continued; "but that +seems strange, for I happen to know of half a dozen outfits at the head +of the White River. Jack Dalton has had a gang working there for four +years." +</P> + +<P> +Dalton was a famous character in the north—one of the most intrepid of +the early pioneers—and the mention of his name brought a hush. A large +part of the audience realized the truth of O'Neil's last statement, yet +resented having it thrust upon them. Thorn and Baker were scowling. +Gray had just entered the room and was signaling to his chief, and +O'Neil realized that he must score a triumph quickly if he wished to +hold the attention of his men. He resumed gravely: +</P> + +<P> +"If this strike was genuine I wouldn't argue, but—it isn't." A +confusion of startled protests rose; the two miners burst out +indignantly; but O'Neil, raising his voice for the first time, managed +to make himself heard. "Those jewelry samples came from Nevada," he +cried. "I recognized them myself this afternoon, and here's another +fellow who can't be fooled. Thorn told you he used to work in +Goldfield. You can draw your own conclusions." +</P> + +<P> +The temper of the crowd changed instantly: jeers, groans, hisses arose; +the men were on their feet now, and growing noisier every moment; Baker +and Thorn were glaring balefully at their accuser. But Gray succeeded +in shouldering his way forward, and whispered to O'Neil, who turned +suddenly and faced the men again. "Just a minute!" he shouted. "You +heard Thorn say he and Baker went prospecting in August. Well, we've +just had Cortez on the cable and learn that they were working for +Gordon until two weeks ago." A sudden silence fell. Murray smiled down +at the two strangers. "What do you say to that?" +</P> + +<P> +Thorn flew into a purple rage: "It's a damned lie! He's afraid you'll +quit work, fellows." Viciously he flung himself toward the door, only +to feel the grasp of the muscular physician upon his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Listen to this message from the cashier of the Cortez Home Bank!" +bellowed Gray, his big voice dominating the uproar. Undisturbed by his +prisoner's struggles, he read loudly: +</P> + +<P> +"Joe Thorn and Henry Baker quit work fifteenth, leaving for Fairbanks +over winter trail, with five dogs—four gray and white malamutes, black +shepherd leader. Thorn medium size, thirty-five, red hair. Baker dark, +scar on cheek. WILSON, Cashier." +</P> + +<P> +The doctor's features spread into a broad grin. "You've all seen the +dog-team, and here's the red hair." His fingers sunk into his +prisoner's fiery locks with a grip that threatened to leave him a scalp +for a trophy. Thorn cursed and twisted. +</P> + +<P> +The crowd's allegiance had been quick to shift, but it veered back to +O'Neil with equal suddenness. +</P> + +<P> +"Bunco!" yelled a hoarse voice, after a brief hush. +</P> + +<P> +"Lynch 'em!" cried another; and the angry clamor burst forth anew. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be foolish," shouted Murray; "nobody has been hurt." +</P> + +<P> +"We'd have been on the trail to-morrow. Send 'em down the river +barefoot!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! What about that gang from Omar?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid they'll have to take care of themselves," O'Neil said. "But +these two men aren't altogether to blame; they're acting under orders. +Isn't that right?" he asked Thorn. +</P> + +<P> +The miner hesitated, until the grip in his hair tightened; then, +evidently fearing the menace in the faces on every side, he decided to +seek protection in a complete confession. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!" he agreed, sullenly. "Gordon cooked it up. It's all a fake." +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil nodded with satisfaction. "This is the second time he's tried to +get my men away from me. The other time he failed because Tom Slater +happened to come down with smallpox. Thank God, he recovered!" +</P> + +<P> +A ripple of laughter spread, then grew into a bellow, for the nature of +"Happy Tom's" illness had long since become a source of general +merriment, and O'Neil's timely reference served to divert the crowd. It +also destroyed most of its resentment. +</P> + +<P> +"You fellows don't seem able to protect yourselves; so Doc and I will +have to do it for you. Now listen," he continued, more gravely. "I +meant it when I said I'd open the commissary and help you out if the +strike were genuine, but, nevertheless, I want you to know just what it +would have meant to me. I haven't enough money to complete the S. R. & +N., and I can't raise enough, but I have signed an option to sell the +road if the bridge is built by next spring. It's really a two year's +job, and some engineers don't believe it can be built at all, but I +know it can if you'll help. If we fail I'm ruined; if we succeed"—he +waved his hands and smiled at them cheerfully—"maybe we'll build +another railroad somewhere. That's what this stampede meant. Now, will +you stick to me?" +</P> + +<P> +The answer roared from a hundred throats: "You bet we'll stick!" +</P> + +<P> +At the rear of the room, whence they had witnessed the rapid unfolding +of this drama, the two girls joined in the shout. They were hugging +each other and laughing hysterically. +</P> + +<P> +"He handled them just right," said Blaine, with shining eyes; "just +right—but I was worried." +</P> + +<P> +Walsh, the night foreman, raised his voice to inquire: +</P> + +<P> +"Does anybody want to buy a dog-team cheap?" +</P> + +<P> +"Who wants dogs now?" jeered some one. +</P> + +<P> +"Give 'em to Baker and Thorn!" +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil was still speaking in all earnestness. +</P> + +<P> +"Boys," he said; "we have a big job on our hands. It means fast work, +long hours, and little sleep. We picked you fellows out because we knew +you were the very best bridge-workers in the world. Now the life of the +S. R. & N. lies with you, and that bridge MUST BE BUILT on time. About +these two men who tried to stampede us: I think it's enough punishment +if we laugh at them. Don't you?" He smiled down at Thorn, who scowled, +then grinned reluctantly and nodded his head. +</P> + +<P> +When general good feeling was restored Murray attempted to make his way +out; but his men seemed determined to thank him one by one, and he was +delayed through a long process of hand-shaking. It pleased him to see +that they understood from what hardships and disappointments he had +saved them, and he was doubly grateful when Walsh rounded up his crew +and announced that the night shift would resume work at midnight. +</P> + +<P> +He escaped at last, leaving the men grouped contentedly about huge pans +of smoking doughnuts and pots of coffee, which the cook-boys had +brought in. Liquor was taboo in the camp, but he gave orders that +unlimited cigars be distributed. +</P> + +<P> +When he reached his quarters he was completely fagged, for the crisis, +coming on top of his many responsibilities, had taken all his vitality. +</P> + +<P> +His once cheerless room was warm and cozy as he entered: he found +Natalie sleeping peacefully on his bed and Eliza curled up in his big +chair waiting. She opened her eyes drowsily and smiled up at him, +saying: +</P> + +<P> +"You were splendid, Omar Khayyam. I'm SO glad." +</P> + +<P> +He laid a finger on his lips and glanced at the sleeping Natalie. +</P> + +<P> +"Sh-h!" +</P> + +<P> +"Where are you going to put us for the night?" +</P> + +<P> +"Right here, of course." +</P> + +<P> +"Those men will do anything for you now. I—I think I'd die, too, if +anything happened to the bridge." +</P> + +<P> +He took her hand in his and smiled down into her earnest eyes a little +wearily. "Nothing will happen. Now go to bed—and thank you for making +a home for me. It really is a home now. I'll appreciate it to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +He tiptoed out and tramped over to Parker's quarters for the night. +</P> + +<P> +The news of the White River fiasco reached Curtis Gordon in Seattle, +whither he had gone in a final attempt to bolster up the tottering +fortunes of the Cortez Home Railway. His disappointment was keen, yet +O'Neil from the beginning had met his attacks with such uniform success +that new failure did not really surprise him; it had been a forlorn +hope at best. Strangely enough, he had begun to lose something of his +assurance of late. Although he maintained his outward appearance of +confidence with all his old skill, within himself he felt a growing +uneasiness, a lurking doubt of his abilities. Outwardly there was +reason enough for discouragement, for, while his co-operative railroad +scheme had begun brilliantly, its initial success had not been +sustained. As time passed and Eliza Appleton's exposure remained +unrefuted he had found it ever more difficult to enlist support. His +own denials and explanations seemed powerless to affect the public +mind, and as he looked back he dated his decline from the appearance of +her first article. It had done all the mischief he had feared. Not only +were his old stock-holders dissatisfied, but wherever he went for aid +he found a disconcerting lack of response, a half-veiled skepticism +that was maddening. +</P> + +<P> +Yet his immediate business worries were not all, nor the worst of his +troubles: his physical powers were waning. To all appearances he was as +strong as ever, but a strange bodily lassitude hampered him; he tired +easily, and against this handicap he was forced to struggle +continually. He had never rightly valued his amazing equipment of +energy until now, when some subtle ailment had begun to sap it. The +change was less in his muscular strength than in his nerves and his +mental vigor. He found himself growing peculiarly irritable; his +failures excited spasms of blind fury which left him weak and spent; he +began to suffer the depressing tortures of insomnia. At times the +nerves in his face and neck twitched unaccountably, and this +distressing affection spread. +</P> + +<P> +These symptoms had first manifested themselves after his unmerciful +drubbing at the hands of Dan Appleton: but they were not the result of +any injury; they were due to some deeper cause. When he had recovered +his senses, after the departure of Dan and Natalie, he had fallen into +a paroxysm of anger that lasted for days; he had raged and stormed like +a madman, for, to say nothing of other humiliations, he prided himself +extravagantly on his physical prowess. While the marks of the rough +treatment he had suffered were disappearing he remained indoors, +plunged in such abysmal fury that neither Gloria nor the fawning Denny +dared approach him. The very force of his emotions had permanently +disturbed his poise, or perhaps effected some obscure lesion in his +brain. Even when he showed himself again in public he was still +abnormally choleric. His fits of passion became almost apoplectic in +their violence; they caused his associates to shun him as a man +dangerous, and in his calmer moments he thought of them with alarm. He +had tried to regain his nervous control, but without success, and his +wife's anxiety only chafed him further. Gradually he lost his mental +buoyancy, and for the first time in his life he really yielded to +pessimism. He found he could no longer attack a problem with his +accustomed certainty of conquering it, but was haunted by a foreboding +of inevitable failure. All in all, when he reached the States on his +critical mission he knew that he was far from being his old self, and +he had deteriorated more than he knew. +</P> + +<P> +A week or two of disappointments should have shown him the futility of +further effort; at any other time it would have set him to putting his +house in order for the final crash, but now it merely enraged him. He +redoubled his activity, launching a new campaign of publicity so +extravagant and ill-timed as to repel the assistance he needed. He had +lost his finesse; his nicely adjusted financial sense had gone. +</P> + +<P> +The outcome was not long delayed; it came in the form of a newspaper +despatch to the effect that his Cortez bank had suspended payment +because of a run started by the dissatisfied employees of the railroad. +Through Gordon's flamboyant advertising his enterprises were so well +known by this time that the story was featured despite his efforts to +kill it. His frantic cables to Cortez for a denial only brought +assurances that the report was true and that conditions would not mend +unless a shipment of currency was immediately forthcoming. +</P> + +<P> +Harassed by reporters, driven on by the need for a show of action, he +set out to raise the money, but the support he had hoped for failed him +when it transpired that his bank's assets consisted mainly of real +estate at boom prices and stock in his various companies which had been +inflated to the bursting-point. Days passed, a week or more; then he +was compelled to relinquish his option on the steamship line he had +partly purchased, and to sacrifice all that had been paid in on the +enterprise. This, too, made a big story for the newspapers, for it +punctured one of the most imposing corporations in the famous "Gordon +System." It likewise threatened to involve the others in the general +crash. Hope Consolidated, indeed, still remained, and Gordon's +declaration that the value of its shares was more than sufficient to +protect his bank met with some credence until, swift upon the heels of +the other disasters, came an application for a receiver by the +stock-holders, coupled with the promise of a rigorous investigation +into his various financial manipulations. Then at last Gordon +acknowledged defeat. +</P> + +<P> +Ruin had come swiftly; the diversity of his interests made his +situation the more hopeless, for so cunningly had he interlocked one +with another that to separate them promised to be an endless task. +</P> + +<P> +He still kept up a fairly successful pretense of confidence, and +publicly he promised to bring order out of chaos, but in secret he gave +way to the blackest despair. Heretofore, failure had never affected him +deeply, for he had always managed to escape with advantage to his +pocket and without serious damage to his prestige, but out of the +present difficulty he could find no way. His office force stopped work, +frightened at his bearing; the bellboys of his hotel brought to the +desk tales of such maniacal violence that he was requested to move. +</P> + +<P> +At last the citizens of Cortez, who up to this time had been like putty +in his fingers, realized their betrayal and turned against him. +Creditors attached the railway property, certain violent-tempered men +prayed openly and earnestly to their gods for his return to Alaska in +order that they might exact satisfaction in frontier fashion. Eastern +investors in Hope Consolidated appeared in Seattle: there was talk of +criminal procedure. +</P> + +<P> +Bewildered as he was, half crazed with anxiety, Gordon knew that the +avalanche had not only wrecked his fortunes, but was bearing him +swiftly toward the penitentiary. Its gates yawned to welcome him, and +he felt a chilling terror such as he had never known. +</P> + +<P> +One evening as Captain Johnny Brennan stood on the dock superintending +the final loading of a cargo for the S. R. & N. he was accosted by a +tall, nervous man with shifting eyes and twitching lips. It was hard to +recognize in this pitiable shaken creature the once resplendent Gordon, +who had bent the whole northland to his ends. Some tantalizing demons +inside the man's frame were jerking at his sinews. Fear was in his +roving glance; he stammered; he plucked at the little captain's sleeve +like a frightened woman. The open-hearted Irishman was touched. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Johnny, after listening for a time. "I'll take you with me, +and they won't catch you, either." +</P> + +<P> +Gordon chattered: "I'll pay you well, handsomely. I'm a rich man. I +have interests that demand attention, so—accept this money. Please! +Keep it all, my good fellow." +</P> + +<P> +Brennan stared at the bundle Gordon had thrust into his hand, then +regarded the speaker curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Man dear," he said, "this isn't money. These are stock certificates." +</P> + +<P> +"Eh? Stock? Well, there's money in stocks, big money, if you know how +to handle them." The promoter's wandering eye shifted to the line of +stevedores trundling their trucks into the hold, then up to the crane +with its straining burden of bridge material. Every package was +stenciled with his rival's name, but he exclaimed: +</P> + +<P> +"Bravo, Captain! We'll be up to the summit by Christmas. 'No graft! No +incompetence! The utmost publicity in corporate affairs!'—that's our +platform. We're destined for a glorious success. Glorious success!" +</P> + +<P> +"Go aboard and lie down," Brennan said, gently. "You need a good +sleep." Then, calling a steward, he ordered, "Show Mr. Gordon to my +cabin and give him what he wants." +</P> + +<P> +He watched the tall figure stumble up the gang-plank, and shook his +head: +</P> + +<P> +"'The utmost publicity,' is it? Well, it's you that's getting it now. +And to think that you're the man with the mines and the railroads and +the widow! I'm afraid you'll be in irons when she sees you, but—that's +as good a finish as you deserve, after all." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap25"></A> +XXV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +PREPARATIONS +</H4> + +<P> +The building of the Salmon River bridge will not soon be forgotten by +engineers and men of science. But, while the technical features of the +undertaking are familiar to a few, the general public knows little +about how the work was actually done; and since the building of the +bridge was the pivotal point in Murray O'Neil's career, it may be well +to describe in some detail its various phases—the steps which led up +to that day when the Salmon burst her bonds and put the result of all +his planning and labor to the final test. +</P> + +<P> +Nowhere else in the history of bridge-building had such conditions been +encountered; nowhere on earth had work of this character been attended +with greater hazards; never had circumstances created a situation of +more dramatic interest. By many the whole venture was regarded as a +reckless gamble; for more than a million dollars had been risked on the +chance not alone that O'Neil could build supports which the ice could +not demolish, but that he could build them under the most serious +difficulties in record-breaking time. Far more than the mere cost of +the structure hinged upon his success: failure would mean that his +whole investment up to that point would be wiped out, to say nothing of +the twenty-million-dollar project of a trunk-line up the valley of the +Salmon. +</P> + +<P> +Had the Government permitted the Kyak coal-fields to be opened up, the +lower reaches of the S. R. & N. would have had a value, but all +activity in that region had been throttled, and the policy of delay and +indecision at headquarters promised no relief. +</P> + +<P> +Careful as had been the plans, exhaustive and painstaking as had been +the preparations, the bridge-builders met with unpreventable delays, +disappointments, and disasters; for man is but a feeble creature whose +brain tires and whose dreams are brittle. It is with these hindrances +and accidents and with their effect upon the outcome that we have to +deal. +</P> + +<P> +Of course, the greatest handicap, the one ever-present obstacle, was +the cold, and this made itself most troublesome in the sinking of the +caissons and the building of the concrete piers. It was necessary, for +instance, to house in all cement work, and to raise the temperature not +only of the air surrounding it, but of the materials themselves before +they were mixed and laid. Huge wind-breaks had to be built to protect +the outside men from the gales that scoured the river-bed, and these +were forever blowing down or suffering damage from the hurricanes. All +this, however, had been anticipated: it was but the normal condition of +work in the northland. And it was not until the middle of winter, +shortly after Eliza's and Natalie's visit to the front, that an +unexpected danger threatened, a danger more appalling than any upon +which O'Neil and his assistants had reckoned. +</P> + +<P> +In laying his plans Parker had proceeded upon the assumption that, once +the cold had gripped the glaciers, they would remain motionless until +spring. All available evidence went to prove the correctness of this +supposition, but Alaska is a land of surprises, of contrasts, of +contradictions: study of its phenomena is too recent to make +practicable the laying down of hard and fast rules. In the midst of a +season of cruelly low temperatures there came a thaw, unprecedented, +inexplicable. A tremendous warm breath from the Pacific rolled +northward, bathing the frozen plains and mountain ranges. Blizzards +turned to rains and weeping fogs, the dry and shifting snow-fields +melted, water ran in the courses. Winter loosed its hold; its mantle +slipped. Nothing like this had ever been known or imagined. It was +impossible! It was as if the unhallowed region were bent upon living up +to its evil reputation. In a short time the loosened waters that +trickled through the sleeping ice-fields greased the foundations upon +which they lay. Jackson Glacier roused itself, then began to glide +forward like a ship upon its ways. First there came the usual +premonitory explosions—the sound of subterranean blasts as the ice +cracked, gave way, and shifted to the weight above; echoes filled the +sodden valley with memories of the summer months. It was as if the +seasons had changed, as if the zodiacal procession had been thrown into +confusion. The frozen surface of the Salmon was inundated; water four +feet deep in some places ran over it. +</P> + +<P> +The general wonder at this occurrence changed to consternation when it +was seen that the glacier acted like a battering-ram of stupendous +size, buckling the river ice in front of it as if ice were made of +paper. That seven-foot armor was crushed, broken into a thousand +fragments, which threatened to choke the stream. A half-mile below the +bridge site the Salmon was pinched as if between two jaws; its smooth +surface was rapidly turned into an indescribable jumble of up-ended +cakes. +</P> + +<P> +When a fortnight had passed O'Neil began to fear that this movement +would go on until the channel had been closed as by a huge sliding +door. In that case the rising waters would quickly wipe out all traces +of his work. Such a crumpling and shifting of the ice had never +occurred before—at least, not within fifty years, as the alder and +cottonwood growth on the east bank showed; but nothing seemed +impossible, no prank too grimly grotesque for Nature to play in this +solitude. O'Neil felt that his own ingenuity was quite unequal to the +task of combating this peril. Set against forces so tremendous and +arbitrary human invention seemed dwarfed to a pitiable insignificance. +</P> + +<P> +Day after day he watched the progress of that white palisade; day after +day he scanned the heavens for a sign of change, for out of the sky +alone could come his deliverance. Hourly tests were made at the bridge +site, lest the ice should give way before the pressure from below and +by moving up-stream destroy the intricate pattern of piling which was +being driven to support the steelwork. But day after day the snows +continued to melt and the rain to fall. Two rivers were now boiling +past the camp, one hidden deep, the other a shallow torrent which ran +upon a bed of ice. The valley was rent by the sounds of the glacier's +snail-like progress. +</P> + +<P> +Then, without apparent cause, the seasons fell into order again, the +mercury dropped, the surface-water disappeared, the country was sheeted +with a glittering crust over which men walked, leaving no trace of +footprints. Jackson became silent: once again the wind blew cold from +out of the funnel-mouth and the bridge-builders threshed their arms to +start their blood. But the glacier face had advanced four hundred feet +from its position in August; it had narrowed the Salmon by fully +one-half its width. +</P> + +<P> +Fortunately, the bridge had suffered no damage as yet, and no one +foresaw the effect which these altered conditions were to have. +</P> + +<P> +The actual erection of steelwork was impossible during the coldest +months; Parker had planned only to rush the piers, abutments, and +false-work to completion so that he could take advantage of the mild +spring weather preceding the break-up. The execution of this plan was +in itself an unparalleled undertaking, making it necessary to hire +double crews of picked men. Yet, as the weeks wore into months the +intricate details were wrought out one by one, and preparations were +completed for the great race. +</P> + +<P> +Late in March Dan Appleton went to the front, taking with him his wife +and his sister, for whom O'Neil had thoughtfully prepared suitable +living-quarters. The girls were as hungry as Dan to have a part in the +deciding struggle, or at least to see it close at hand, for the spirit +of those engaged in the work had entered them also. Life at Omar of +late had been rather uneventful, and they looked forward with pleasure +to a renewal of those companionable relations which had made the summer +months so, full of interest and delight. But they were disappointed. +Life at the end of the line they found to be a very grim, a very +earnest, and in some respects an extremely disagreeable affair: the +feverish, unceasing activity of their friends left no time for +companionship or recreation of any sort. More and more they, too, came +to feel the sense of haste and strain pervading the whole army of +workers, the weight of responsibility that bore upon the commander. +</P> + +<P> +Dan became almost a stranger to them, and when they saw him he was +obsessed by vital issues. Mellen was gruff and irritable: Parker in his +preoccupation ignored everything but his duties. Of all their former +comrades O'Neil alone seemed aware of their presence. But behind his +smile they saw the lurking worries; in his eyes was an abstraction they +could not penetrate, in his bearing the fatigue of a man tried to the +breaking-point. +</P> + +<P> +To Eliza there was a certain joy merely in being near the man she +loved, even though she could not help being hurt by his apparent +indifference. The long weeks without sight of him had deepened her +feeling, and she had turned for relief to the writing of her book—the +natural outlet for her repressed emotions. Into its pages she had +poured all her passion, all her yearning, and she had written with an +intimate understanding of O'Neil's ambitions and aims which later gave +the story its unique success as an epic of financial romance. +</P> + +<P> +Hers was a nature which could not be content with idleness. She took up +the work that she and Natalie had begun, devoting herself unobtrusively +yet effectively to making O'Neil comfortable. It was a labor of love, +done with no expectation of reward; it thrilled her, filling her with +mingled sadness and satisfaction. But if Murray noticed the improvement +in his surroundings, which she sometimes doubted, he evidently +attributed it to a sudden access of zeal on the part of Ben, for he +made no comment. Whether or not she wished him to see and understand +she could hardly tell. Somehow his unobservant, masculine acceptance of +things better and worse appealed to the woman in her. She slipped into +O'Neil's quarters during his absence, and slipped out again quietly; +she learned to know his ways, his peculiarities; she found herself +caressing and talking to his personal belongings as if they could hear +and understand. She conducted long conversations with the objects on +his bureau. One morning Ben entered unexpectedly to surprise her in the +act of kissing Murray's shaving-mirror as if it still preserved the +image of its owner's face, after which she banished the cook-boy +utterly and performed his duties with her own hands. +</P> + +<P> +Of course, discovery was inevitable. At last O'Neil stumbled in upon +her in the midst of her task, and, questioning her, read the truth from +her blushes and her incoherent attempts at explanation. +</P> + +<P> +"So! You're the one who has been doing this!" he exclaimed, in frank +astonishment. "And I've been tipping Benny for his thoughtfulness all +this time! The rascal has made enough to retire rich." +</P> + +<P> +"He seemed not to understand his duties very well, so I took charge. +But you had no business to catch me!" The flush died from Eliza's +cheeks, and she faced him with thoroughly feminine indignation. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't let you go on with this," said Murray. "_I_ ought to be doing +something for YOU." +</P> + +<P> +But the girl flared up defiantly. "I love it. I'll do it, no matter if +you lock me out. I'm not on the pay-roll, you know, so you have no +authority over me—none at all!" +</P> + +<P> +His eyes roved around the room, and for the first time he fully took in +the changes her hands had wrought. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear child, it's very nice to be spoiled this way and have +everything neat and clean, but—it embarrasses me dreadfully to have +you saddled with the sordid work—" +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't sordid, and—what brought you home at this hour, anyhow?" she +demanded. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil's smile gave place to an anxious frown. +</P> + +<P> +"The ice is rising, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Rising?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Our old enemy Jackson Glacier is causing us trouble again. That +jam of broken ice in front of it is backing up the water—there's more +running now, and the ice is lifting. It's lifting the false-work with +it, pulling the piles out of the river-bottom like splinters out of a +sore hand." +</P> + +<P> +"That's pretty bad, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"It certainly is. It threatens to throw everything out of alignment and +prevent us from laying the steel if we don't check it." +</P> + +<P> +"Check it!" cried Eliza. "How can you check a thing like that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Easily enough, if we can spare the hands—by cutting away the ice +where it is frozen to the piles, so that it won't lift them with it. +The trouble is to get men enough—you see, the ice is nine feet thick +now. I've set every man to work with axes and chisels and steam-points, +and I came up to telephone Slater for more help. We'll have to work +fast, night and day." +</P> + +<P> +"There's nobody left in Omar," Eliza said, quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"I know. Tom's going to gather all he can at Cortez and Hope and rush +them out here. Our task is to keep the ice cut away until help arrives." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose it's too late in the season to repair any serious damage?" +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly. If you care to go back with me you can see what we're doing." +As they set off for the bridge site Murray looked down at Eliza, +striding man-like beside him, with something of affectionate +appreciation in his eyes, and said humbly: "It was careless of me not +to see what you have been doing for me all this time. My only excuse is +that I've been driven half mad with other things. I—haven't time to +think of myself." +</P> + +<P> +"All housekeepers have a thankless task," laughed Eliza. +</P> + +<P> +When they reached the river-bank she saw everything apparently just as +when she had last seen it. "Why, it's not as bad as I imagined!" she +exclaimed. "I thought I'd find everything going to smash." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, there's nothing spectacular about it. There seldom is about +serious mishaps in this business. The ice has risen only an inch or +more so far, but the very slowness and sureness of it is what's +alarming. It shows that the water is backing up, and as the flow +increases the rise of the ice will quicken. If it starts to move up or +down stream, we're lost." +</P> + +<P> +There was ample evidence that the menace was thoroughly understood, for +the whole day shift was toiling at the ice, chopping it, thawing it, +shoveling it away, although its tremendous thickness made their efforts +seem puerile. Everywhere there was manifested a frantic haste, a grim, +strained eagerness that was full of ominous meaning. +</P> + +<P> +All that day Eliza watched the unequal struggle, and in the evening Dan +brought her reports that were far from reassuring. The relentless +movement showed no sign of ceasing. When she retired that night she +sought ease from her anxiety in a prayer that was half a petition for +O'Neil's success and half an exceedingly full and frank confession of +her love for him. Outside, beneath the glare of torches and hastily +strung incandescents, a weary army toiled stubbornly, digging, gouging, +chopping at the foot of the towering wall of timbers which stretched +across the Salmon. In the north the aurora borealis played brilliantly +as if to light a council of the gods. +</P> + +<P> +On the following day "Happy Tom" arrived with fifty men. +</P> + +<P> +"I got the last mother's son I could find," he explained, as he warmed +himself at O'Neil's stove. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you go to Hope?" +</P> + +<P> +"I did, and I saw the splavvus, himself." +</P> + +<P> +"Gordon?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's worse than we thought." Tom tapped his shining forehead +significantly. "Loft to let!" +</P> + +<P> +"What—insane?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing but echoes in his dome. The town's as empty as his bonnet too, +and the streets are full of snow. It's a sight!" +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me about Mrs. Gordon." +</P> + +<P> +"She's quite a person," said Slater, slowly. "She surprised me. She's +there, alone with him and a watchman. She does all the work, even to +LUGGING in the wood and coal—he's too busy to help—but she won't +leave him. She told me that Dan and Natalie wanted her to come over +here, but she couldn't bring herself to do it or to let them assist in +any way. Gordon spends all his time at his desk, promoting, writing ads +and prospectuses. He's got a grand scheme. He's found that 'Hope +Consolidated' is full of rich ore, but the trouble is in getting it +out; so he's working on a new process of extraction. It's a wonderful +process—you'd never guess what it is. He SMOKES it out! He says all he +needs is plenty of smoke. That bothered him until he hit on the idea of +burning feathers. Now he's planning to raise ducks, because they've got +so much down. Isn't that the limit? She'll have to fit him into a +padded cell sooner or later." +</P> + +<P> +"Poor devil!" said O'Neil. "I'm sorry. He had an unusual mind." +</P> + +<P> +Slater sniffed. "I think it's pretty soft for him, myself. He's made +better than a stand-off—he lost his memory, but he saved his skin. +It's funny how some men can't fall: if they slip on a banana-peel +somebody shoves a cushion under 'em before they 'light. _I_ never got +the best of anything. If I dropped asleep in church my wife would +divorce me and I'd go to the electric chair. Gordon robs widows and +orphans, right and left, then ends up with a loving woman to take care +of him in his old age. Why, if I even robbed a blind puppy of a biscuit +I'd leave a thumb-print on his ear, or the dog's mother would turn out +to be a bloodhound. Anyhow, I'd spend MY declining years nestled up to +a rock-pile, with a mallet in my mit, and a low-browed gentleman +scowling at me from the top of a wall. He'd lean on his shotgun and +say, 'Hurry up, Fatty; it's getting late and there's a ton of oakum to +pick.' It just goes to show that some of us is born behind the game and +never get even, while others, like Gordon, quit winner no matter how +much they lose." Having relieved himself of this fervid homily, "Happy +Tom" unrolled a package of gum and thrust three sticks into his mouth. +"Speaking of bad luck," he continued, "when are you going to get +married, Murray?" +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil started. "Why—never. It isn't the same kind of proposition as +building a bridge, you know. There's a little matter of youth and good +looks that counts considerably in the marriage business. No woman would +have an old chap like me." +</P> + +<P> +Slater took a mournful inventory of his chief's person, then said +doubtfully: "You MIGHT put it over, Murray. I ain't strictly handsome, +myself, but I did." +</P> + +<P> +As O'Neil slipped into his fur coat, after the fat man had slouched +out, he caught sight of himself in the glass of his bureau and paused. +He leaned forward and studied the care-worn countenance that peered +forth at him, then shook his head. He saw that the hair was growing +grayer; that the face was very plain, and—yes, unquestionably, it was +no longer youthful. Of course, he didn't feel old, but the evidence +that he was so admitted of no disproof, and it was evidence of a sort +which no woman could disregard. He turned from the glass with a qualm +of disgust at his weakness in allowing himself to be influenced in the +slightest by Tom's suggestion. +</P> + +<P> +For a week the ice rose slowly, a foot a day, and in spite of the +greatest watchfulness it took the false-work with it here and there. +But concentrated effort at the critical points saved the structure from +serious injury. Then the jam in front of Jackson Glacier went out, at +least in part, and the ice began to fall. Down it settled, smoothly, +swiftly, until it rested once more upon the shores. It was still as +firm as in midwinter, and showed no sign of breaking; nor had it moved +down-stream a hair's breadth. O'Neil gathered his forces for the final +onslaught. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap26"></A> +XXVI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE RACE +</H4> + +<P> +On April 5th the last of the steel for Span Number One reached the +front, and erection was begun. The men fell to with a vim and an +enthusiasm impossible to describe. With incredible rapidity the heavy +sections were laid in place; the riveters began their metallic song; +the towering three bent traveler ran smoothly on its track, and under +it grew a web work of metal, braced and reinforced to withstand, in +addition to ordinary strains, the pressure of a hundred-mile-an-hour +wind. To those who looked on, the structure appeared to build itself, +like some dream edifice; it seemed a miracle that human hands could +work that stubborn metal so swiftly and with so little effort. But +every piece had been cut and fitted carefully, then checked and placed +where it was accessible. +</P> + +<P> +Now that winter had broken, spring came with a rush. The snows began to +shrink and the drifts to settle. The air grew balmier with every day; +the drip from eaves was answered by the gurgling laughter of hidden +waters. Here and there the boldest mountainsides began to show, and the +tops of alder thickets thrust themselves into sight. Where wood or +metal caught the sun-rays the snow retreated; pools of ice-water began +to form at noon. +</P> + +<P> +The days were long, too, and no frozen winds charged out of the north. +As the daylight lengthened, so did the working-hours of the toilers. +</P> + +<P> +On April 18th the span was completed. In thirteen days Mellen's crew +had laid four hundred feet of the heaviest steel ever used in a bridge +of this type. But there was no halt; the material for the second +section had been assembled, meanwhile, and the traveler began to swing +it into place. +</P> + +<P> +The din was unceasing; the clash of riveters, the creak and rattle of +hoists, the shouts of men mingled in a persistent, ear-splitting +clamor; and foot by foot the girders reached out toward the second +monolith which rose from the river-bed. The well-adjusted human machine +was running smoothly; every man knew his place and the duties that went +with it; the hands of each worker were capable and skilled. But now the +hillsides were growing bare, rills gashed the sloping snow-fields, the +upper gullies began to rumble to avalanches—forerunners of the process +that would strip the earth of snow and ice and free the river in all +its fury. In six days three hundred feet more of steel had been bolted +fast to the complete section, and Span Two was in place. But the +surface of the Salmon was no longer white and pure; it was dirty and +discolored now, for the debris which had collected during the past +winter was exposing itself. The icy covering was partially inundated +also; shallow ponds formed upon it and were rippled by the south +breeze. Running waters on every side sang a menace to the workers. +</P> + +<P> +Then progress ceased abruptly. It became known that a part of the +material for the third span had gone astray in its long journey across +the continent. There had been a delay at the Pittsburg mills, then a +blockade in the Sierras; O'Neil was in Omar at the end of the cable +straining every nerve to have the shipment rushed through. Mellen +brooded over his uncompleted work: Parker studied the dripping hills +and measured the melting snows. He still smiled; but he showed his +anxiety in a constant nervous unrest, and he could not sleep. +</P> + +<P> +At length news came that Johnny Brennan had the steel aboard his ship +and had sailed. A record run was predicted, but meanwhile the south +wind brought havoc on its breath. The sun shone hotly into the valley +of the Salmon, and instead of warmth it brought a chill to the hearts +of those who watched and waited. +</P> + +<P> +Twelve endless, idle days crawled by. Winter no longer gave battle; she +was routed, and in her mad retreat she threatened to overwhelm O'Neil's +fortunes. +</P> + +<P> +On May 6th the needed bridge members were assembled, and the erection +of Span Three began. The original plan had been to build this section +on the cantilever principle, so as to gain independence of the river +ice, but to do so would have meant slow work and much delay—an +expenditure of time which the terms of the option made impossible. +Arrangements had been made, therefore, to lay it on false-work as the +other spans had been laid, risking everything upon the weather. +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of precaution the southern half of the span was connected +to the completed portion; but before the connection could be fully made +the remainder of the jam in front of Jackson Glacier, which had caused +so much trouble heretofore, went out suddenly, and the river ice moved +down-stream about a foot, carrying with it the whole intricate system +of supporting timbers beneath the uncompleted span. Hasty measurements +showed that the north end of the steel then on the false-work was +thirteen inches out of line. +</P> + +<P> +It was Mr. Blaine who brought the tidings of this last calamity to +Eliza Appleton. From his evident anxiety she gathered that the matter +was of graver consequence than she could well understand. +</P> + +<P> +"Thirteen inches in fifteen hundred feet can't amount to much," she +said, vaguely. +</P> + +<P> +Blaine smiled in spite of himself. "You don't understand. It's as bad +as thirteen feet, for the work can't go on until everything is in +perfect alignment. That whole forest of piles must be straightened." +</P> + +<P> +"Impossible!" she gasped. "Why, there are thousands of them." +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head, still smiling doubtfully. "Nothing is impossible to +Mellen and Parker. They've begun clearing away the ice on the up-stream +side and driving new anchor-piles above. They're going to fit tackle to +them and yank the whole thing up-stream. I never heard of such a thing, +but there's no time to do anything else." He cast a worried look at the +smiling sky. "I wonder what will happen next. This is getting on my +nerves." +</P> + +<P> +Out on the river swift work was going on. Steam from every available +boiler was carried across the ice in feed-pipes, the night shift had +been roused from sleep, and every available man was busied in relieving +the pressure. Pile-drivers hammered long timbers into the river-bed +above the threatened point, hydraulic jacks were put in place, and +steel cables were run to drum and pulley. The men worked sometimes +knee-deep in ice-water; but they did not walk, they ran. In an +incredibly short time the preparations were completed, a strain was put +upon the tackle, and when night came the massive false-work had been +pulled back into line and the traveler was once more swinging steel +into place. It was a magnificent feat, yet not one of those concerned +in it could feel confident that the work had not been done in vain; for +the time was growing terribly short, and, although the ice seemed +solid, it was rotting fast. +</P> + +<P> +After the southern half of the span had been completed the warmth +increased rapidly, therefore the steel crew lengthened its hours. The +men worked from seven o'clock in the morning until eleven o'clock at +night. +</P> + +<P> +On the 13th, without warning of any sort, Garfield Glacier began moving +forward. It had lain inactive even during the midwinter thaw which had +started its smaller brother, but that warm spell had evidently had its +effect upon the giant, for now he shook off his lethargy and awoke. He +stirred, gradually at first and without sound, as if bent upon +surprising the interlopers; then his speed increased. As the glacier +advanced it thrust the nine-foot blanket of lake ice ahead of it, and +this in turn crowded the river ice down upon the bridge. The movement +at the camp site on the first day was only two inches, but that was +sufficiently serious. +</P> + +<P> +The onset of Garfield at this time was, of course, unexpected; for no +forward motion had ever been reported prior to the spring break-up. The +action of the ice heretofore had been alarming; but now consternation +spread, a panic swept the ranks of the builders, for this was no +short-lived phenomenon, this was the annual march of the glacier itself +which promised to continue indefinitely. A tremendous cutting-edge, +nine feet in thickness, like the blade of a carpenter's plane, was +being driven against the bridge by an irresistible force. +</P> + +<P> +Once again the endless thawing and chopping and gouging of ice began, +but the more rapidly the encroaching edge was cut away the more swiftly +did it bear down. The huge mass began to rumble; it "calved," it split, +it detonated, and, having finally loosened itself from its bed, it +acquired increased momentum. As the men with chisels and steam-points +became exhausted others took their places, but the structural gang +clung to its perch above, augmenting the din of riveters and the +groaning of blocks and tackle. Among the able-bodied men sleep now was +out of the question, for the ice gained in spite of every effort. It +was too late to remove the steel in the uncompleted span to a place of +safety, for that would have required more time than to bridge the +remaining gap. +</P> + +<P> +Piling began to buckle and bend before that irresistible push; the +whole nicely balanced mass of metal was in danger of being unseated. +Mellen cursed the heavens in a black fury; Parker smiled through white +lips; O'Neil ground his teeth and spurred his men on. +</P> + +<P> +This feverish haste brought its penalty. On the evening of the 14th, +when the span was more than three-quarters finished, a lower chord +section fouled as it was lifted, and two loading-beams at the top of +the traveler snapped. +</P> + +<P> +On that day victory had been in sight; the driving of the last bolt had +been but a question of hours, a race with the sliding ice. But with the +hoisting apparatus out of use work halted. Swiftly, desperately, +without loss of a moment's time, repairs began. No regrets were voiced, +no effort was made to place the blame, for that would have caused +delay, and every minute counted. Eleven hours later the broken beams +were replaced, and erection had recommenced. +</P> + +<P> +But now for those above there was danger to life and limb. During the +pause the ice had gained, and no effort could relieve the false-work of +its strain. All knew that if it gave way the workmen would be caught in +a chaos of collapsing wood and steel. +</P> + +<P> +From the morning of May 14th until midnight of the 16th the +iron-workers clung to their tasks. They dropped their tools and ran to +their meals; they gulped their food and fled back to their posts. The +weaker ones gave out and staggered away, cursed and taunted by their +companions. They were rough fellows, and in their deep-throated +profanity was a prayer. +</P> + +<P> +The strong ones struggled on, blind with weariness, but upheld by that +desperate, unthinking courage that animates a bayonet charge. It seemed +that every moment must see the beginning of that slow work of +demolition which would send them all scurrying to safety; but hour +after hour the piling continued to hold and the fingers of steel to +reach out, foot by foot, for the concrete pier which was their goal. +</P> + +<P> +At midnight of the 16th the last rivet was driven; but the ice had +gained to such an extent that the lower chord was buckled down-stream +about eight inches, and the distance was growing steadily. Quickly the +traveler was shifted to the false-work beyond the pier, and the men +under Mellen's direction fell to splitting out the blocking. +</P> + +<P> +As the supports were chopped away the mass began to crush the last few +wedges; there was a great snapping and rending of wood; and some one, +strained to the breaking-point, shouted: +</P> + +<P> +"Look out! There she goes!" +</P> + +<P> +A cry of terror arose, the men fled, trampling one another in their +panic. But Mellen charged them like a wild man, firing curses and +orders at them until they rallied. The remaining supports were removed; +the fifteen hundred tons of metal settled into place and rested +securely on its foundations. +</P> + +<P> +O'Neil was the last man ashore. As he walked the completed span from +Pier Three the barricade of piling beneath him was bending and tearing; +but he issued no orders to remove it, for the river was doing that. In +the general haste pile-drivers, hoists, boilers, and various odds and +ends of machinery and material had been left where they stood. They +were being inundated now; many of them were all but submerged. There +was no possibility of saving them at present, for the men were half +dead from exhaustion. +</P> + +<P> +As he lurched up the muddy, uneven street to his quarters Murray felt +his fatigue like a heavy burden, for he had been sixty hours without +sleep. He saw Slater and Appleton and the rest of his "boys"; he saw +Natalie and Eliza, but he was too tired to speak to them, or to grasp +what they said. He heard the workmen cheering Mellen and Parker and +himself. It was very foolish, he thought, to cheer, since the river had +so nearly triumphed and the final test was yet to come. +</P> + +<P> +He fell upon his bed, clothed as he was; an hour later the false-work +beneath Span Three collapsed. +</P> + +<P> +Although the bridge was not yet finished, the most critical point of +its construction had been passed, for the fourth and final portion +would be built over shallow water, and no great difficulties were to be +expected even though the ice went out before the work was finished. But +Murray had made his promise and his boast to complete the structure +within a stated time, and he was determined to live up to the very +letter of his agreement with the Trust. As to the result of the +break-up, he had no fear whatever. +</P> + +<P> +For once Nature aided him: she seemed to smile as if in approval of his +steadfastness. The movement of the channel ice became irregular, +spasmodic, but it remained firm until the last span had been put in +place. +</P> + +<P> +Of this dramatic struggle Eliza Appleton had watched every phase with +intensest interest; but when at last she knew that the battle was won +she experienced a peculiar revulsion of feeling. So long as O'Neil had +been working against odds, with the prospect of ruin and failure +forever imminent, she had felt an almost painful sympathy, but now that +he had conquered she felt timid about congratulating him. He was no +longer to be pitied and helped; he had attained his goal and the fame +he longed for. His success would inevitably take him out of her life. +She was very sorry that he needed her no longer. +</P> + +<P> +She did not watch the last bridge-member swung, but went to her room, +and tried to face the future. Spring was here, her book was finished, +there was the need to take up her life again. +</P> + +<P> +She was surprised when Murray came to find her. +</P> + +<P> +"I missed you, Eliza," he said. "The others are all down at the +river-bank. I want you to congratulate me." +</P> + +<P> +She saw, with a jealous twinge, that exultation over his victory had +overcome his weariness, that his face was alight with a fire she had +never before seen. He seemed young, vigorous, and masterful once more. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," he went on, "the credit belongs to Parker, who worked the +bridge out in each detail—he's marvelous—and to Mellen, who actually +built it, but I helped a little. Praise to me means praise to them." +</P> + +<P> +"It is all over now, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Practically. Blaine has cabled New York that we've won. Strictly +speaking, we haven't as yet, for there's still the break-up to face; +but the bridge will come through it without a scratch. The ice may go +out any minute now, and after that I can rest." He smiled at her +gladly. "It will feel good to get rid of all this responsibility, won't +it? I think you've suffered under it as much as I have." +</P> + +<P> +A little wistfully she answered: "You're going to realize that dream +you told me about the day of the storm at Kyak. You have conquered this +great country—just as you dreamed." +</P> + +<P> +He acquiesced eagerly, boyishly. "Yes. Whirring wheels, a current of +traffic, a broad highway of steel—that's the sort of monument I want +to leave." +</P> + +<P> +"Sometime I'll come back and see it all completed and tell myself that +I had a little part in making it." +</P> + +<P> +"Come back?" he queried. "Why, you're going to stay till we're through, +aren't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh no! I'm going south with the spring flight—on the next boat, +perhaps." +</P> + +<P> +His face fell; the exultant light gradually faded from his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Why—I had no idea! Aren't you happy here?" +</P> + +<P> +She nodded. "But I must try to make good in my work as you have in +yours." +</P> + +<P> +He was looking at her sorrowfully, almost as if she had deserted him. +"That's too bad, but—I suppose you must go. Yes; this is no place for +you. I dare say other people need you to bring sunshine and joy to them +just as we old fellows do, but—I've never thought about your leaving. +It wouldn't be right to ask you to stay here among such people as we +are when you have so much ahead of you. Still, it will leave a gap. +Yes—it certainly will—leave a gap." +</P> + +<P> +She longed desperately to tell him how willingly she would stay if he +only asked her, but the very thought shocked her into a deeper reserve. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going East to sell my book," she said, stiffly. "You've given me +the climax of the story in this race with the seasons." +</P> + +<P> +"Is it a—love story?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +Eliza flushed. "Yes. It's mostly love." +</P> + +<P> +"You're not at all the girl I thought you when we first met. You're +very—different. I'm sure I won't recognize myself as the hero. Who—or +what is the girl in the story?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, she's just the kind of girl that would appeal to a person like +you. She's tall and dark and dashing, and—of course, she's remarkably +beautiful. She's very feminine, too." +</P> + +<P> +"What's her name?" +</P> + +<P> +Miss Appleton stammered: "Why—I—called her Violet—until I could +think of a better—" +</P> + +<P> +"What's wrong with Violet? You couldn't think of a better name than +that. I'm fond of it." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's a good book-name, but for real life it's too—delicate." +Eliza felt with vexation that her face was burning. She was sure he was +laughing at her. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't I read the manuscript?" he pleaded. +</P> + +<P> +"Heavens! No! I—" She changed the subject abruptly. "I've left word to +be called the minute the ice starts to go out. I want to see the last +act of the drama." +</P> + +<P> +When O'Neil left her he was vaguely perplexed, for something in her +bearing did not seem quite natural. He was forlorn, too, at the +prospect of losing her. He wondered if fathers suffered thus, or if a +lover could be more deeply pained at a parting than he. Somehow he +seemed to share the feelings of both. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A NAME="chap27"></A> +XXVII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +HOW A DREAM CAME TRUE +</H4> + +<P> +Early on the following morning Eliza was awakened by a sound of +shouting outside her window. She lay half dazed for a moment or two, +until the significance of the uproar made itself apparent; then she +leaped from her bed. +</P> + +<P> +Men were crying: +</P> + +<P> +"There she goes!" +</P> + +<P> +"She's going out!" +</P> + +<P> +Doors were slamming, there was the rustle and scuff of flying feet, and +in the next room Dan was evidently throwing himself into his clothes +like a fireman. Eliza called to him, but he did not answer; and the +next moment he had fled, upsetting some article of furniture in his +haste. Drawing her curtains aside, the girl saw in the brightening dawn +men pouring down the street, dressing as they went. They seemed half +demented; they were yelling at one another, but she could not gather +from their words whether it was the ice which was moving or—the +bridge. The bridge! That possibility set her to dressing with tremulous +fingers, her heart sick with fear. She called to Natalie, but scarcely +recognized her own voice. +</P> + +<P> +"I—don't know," came the muffled reply to her question. "It sounds +like something—terrible. I'm afraid Dan will fall in or—get hurt." +The confusion in the street was growing. "ELIZA!" Natalie's voice was +tragic. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it, dear?" +</P> + +<P> +"H—help me, quick!" +</P> + +<P> +"How?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can't find my other shoe." +</P> + +<P> +But Eliza was sitting on the floor, lacing up her own stout boots, and +an instant later she followed her brother, pursued by a wail of dismay +from the adjoining chamber. Through the chill morning light she +hurried, asking many questions, but receiving no coherent reply from +the racing men; then after endless moments of suspense she saw with +relief that the massive superstructure of the bridge was still +standing. Above the shouting she heard another sound, indistinct but +insistent. It filled the air with a whispering movement; it was +punctuated at intervals by a dull rumbling and grinding. She found the +river-bank black with forms, but like a cat she wormed her way through +the crowd until the whole panorama lay before her. +</P> + +<P> +The bridge stood as she had seen it on the yesterday—slender, strong, +superb in the simplicity of its splendid outline; but beneath it and as +far as her eyes could follow the river she saw, not the solid spread of +white to which she had become accustomed, but a moving expanse of +floes. At first the winter burden slipped past in huge masses, acres in +extent, but soon these began to be rent apart; irregular black seams +ran through them, opened, closed, and threw up ridges of ice-shavings +as they ground together. The floes were rubbing against the banks, they +came sliding out over the dry shore like tremendous sheets of cardboard +manipulated by unseen hands, and not until their nine-foot edges were +exposed to view did the mind grasp the appalling significance of their +movement. They swept down in phalanxes upon the wedge-like ice-breakers +which stood guard above the bridge-piers, then they halted, separated, +and the armored cutting-edges sheared through them like blades. +</P> + +<P> +A half-mile below, where the Salmon flung itself headlong against the +upper wing of Jackson Glacier, the floating ice was checked by the +narrowed passageway. There a jam was forming, and as the river heaved +and tore at its growing burden a spectacular struggle went on. The +sound of it came faintly but impressively to the watchers—a grinding +and crushing of bergs, a roar of escaping waters. Fragments were +up-ended, masses were rearing themselves edgewise into the air, were +overturning and collapsing. They were wedging themselves into every +conceivable angle, and the crowding procession from above was adding to +the barrier momentarily. As the passageway became blocked the waters +rose; the river piled itself up so swiftly that the eye could note its +rise along the banks. +</P> + +<P> +But the attention of the crowd was divided between the jam and +something far out on the bridge itself. At first glance Eliza did not +comprehend; then she heard a man explaining: +</P> + +<P> +"He was going out when we got here, and now he won't come back." +</P> + +<P> +The girl gasped, for she recognized the distant figure of a man, +dwarfed to puny proportions by the bulk of the structure in the mazes +of which he stood. The man was O'Neil; he was perched upon one of the +girders near the center of the longest span, where he could watch the +attack upon the pyramidal ice-breakers beneath him. +</P> + +<P> +"He's a fool," said some one at Eliza's back. "That jam is getting +bigger." +</P> + +<P> +"He'd better let the damned bridge take care of itself." +</P> + +<P> +She turned and began to force her way through the press of people +between her and the south abutment. She arrived there, disheveled and +panting, to find Slater, Mellen, and Parker standing in the approach. +In front of them extended the long skeleton tunnel into which Murray +had gone. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. O'Neil is out there!" she cried to Tom. +</P> + +<P> +Slater turned and, reading the tragic appeal in her face, said +reassuringly: +</P> + +<P> +"Sure! But he's all right." +</P> + +<P> +"They say—there's danger." +</P> + +<P> +"Happy Tom's" round visage puckered into a doubtful smile. "Oh, he'll +take care of himself." +</P> + +<P> +Mellen turned to the girl and said briefly: +</P> + +<P> +"There's no danger whatever." +</P> + +<P> +But Eliza's fear was not to be so easily quieted. +</P> + +<P> +"Then why did he go out alone? What are you men doing here?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's his orders," Tom told her. +</P> + +<P> +Mellen was staring at the jam below, over which the Salmon was hurling +a flood of ice and foaming waters. The stream was swelling and rising +steadily; already it had nearly reached the level of the timberline on +the left bank; the blockade was extending up-stream almost to the +bridge itself. Mellen said something to Parker, who shook his head +silently. +</P> + +<P> +Dan Appleton shouldered his way out of the crowd, with Natalie at his +heels. She had dressed herself in haste: her hair was loose, her jacket +was buttoned awry; on one foot was a shoe, on the other a bedroom +slipper muddy and sodden. Her dark eyes were big with excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you make Murray come in?" Dan demanded sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"He won't do it," muttered Slater. +</P> + +<P> +"The jam is growing. Nobody knows what'll happen if it holds much +longer. If the bridge should go—" +</P> + +<P> +Mellen whirled, crying savagely: "It won't go! All hell couldn't take +it out." +</P> + +<P> +From the ranks of the workmen came a bellow of triumph, as an unusually +heavy ice-floe was swept against the breakers and rent asunder. The +tumult of the imprisoned waters below was growing louder every moment: +across the lake came a stentorian rumble as a huge mass was loosened +from the front of Garfield. The channel of the Salmon where the +onlookers stood was a heaving, churning caldron over which the slim +bridge flung itself defiantly. +</P> + +<P> +Eliza plucked at her brother's sleeve imploringly, and he saw her for +the first time. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Sis," he cried. "How did you get here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Is he in—danger, Danny?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—no! Mellen says it's all right, so it must be, but—that dam—" +</P> + +<P> +At that moment Natalie began to sob hysterically, and Dan turned his +attention to her. +</P> + +<P> +But his sister was not of the hysterical kind. Seizing Tom Slater by +the arm, she tried to shake him, demanding fiercely: +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose the jam doesn't give way! What will happen?" "Happy Tom" +stared at her uncomprehendingly. Her voice was shrill and insistent. +"Suppose the water rises higher. Won't the ice sweep down on the bridge +itself? Won't it wreck everything if it goes out suddenly? Tell me—" +</P> + +<P> +"It can't hold. Mellen says so." Slater, like the others, found it +impossible to keep his eyes from the river where those immeasurable +forces were at play; then in his peculiar irascible manner he +complained: "I told 'em we was crazy to try this. It ain't a white +man's country; it ain't a safe place for a bridge. There's just one +God-awful thing after another—" He broke into a shout, for Eliza had +slipped past him and was speeding like a shadow out across the +irregularly spaced ties upon which the bridge track was laid. +</P> + +<P> +Mellen whirled at the cry and made after her, but he might as well have +tried to catch the wind. As she ran she heard her brother shout in +sudden alarm and Natalie's voice raised in entreaty, but she sped on +under an impulse as irresistible as panic fear. Down through the +openings beneath her feet she saw, as in a nightmare, the sweeping +flood, burdened with plunging ice chunks and flecked with foam. She +seemed to be suspended above it; yet she was running at reckless speed, +dimly aware of the consequences of a misjudged footstep, but fearful +only of being overtaken. Suddenly she hated her companions; her mind +was in a furious revolt at their cowardice, their indecision, or +whatever it was that held them like a group of wooden figures safe on +shore while the man whose life was worth all theirs put together +exposed himself to needless peril. That he was really in danger she +felt sure. She knew that Murray was apt to lose himself in his dreams; +perhaps some visionary mood had blinded him to the menace of that +mounting ice-ridge it front of the glacier, or had he madly chosen to +stand or fall with this structure that meant so much to him? She would +make him yield to her own terror, drag him ashore, if necessary, with +her own hands. +</P> + +<P> +She stumbled, but saved herself from a fall, then gathered her skirts +more closely and rushed on, measuring with instinctive nicety the +length of every stride. It was not an easy path over which she dashed, +for the ties were unevenly spaced; gaping apertures gave terrible +glimpses of the river below, and across these ghastly abysses she had +to leap. +</P> + +<P> +The hoarse bursts of shouting from the shore ceased as the workmen +beheld her flitting out along the steel causeway. They watched her in +dumb amazement. +</P> + +<P> +All at once O'Neil saw her and hurried to meet her. +</P> + +<P> +"Eliza!" he cried. "Be careful! What possessed you to do this?" +</P> + +<P> +"Come away," she gasped. "It's dangerous. The jam—Look!" She pointed +down the channel. +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!" she pleaded. "Yes! Please! They wouldn't come to warn you—they +tried to stop me. You must go ashore." The frightened entreaty in her +clear, wide-open eyes, the disorder that her haste had made affected +O'Neil strangely. He stared at her, bewildered, doubtful, then steadied +her and groped with his free hand for support. He could feel her +trembling wretchedly. +</P> + +<P> +"There's no danger, none whatever," he said, soothingly. "Nothing can +happen." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't know. The bridge has never been tried. The ice is battering +at it, and that jam—if it doesn't burst—" +</P> + +<P> +"But it will. It can't last much longer." +</P> + +<P> +"It's rising—" +</P> + +<P> +"To be sure, but the river will overflow the bank." +</P> + +<P> +"Please!" she urged. "You can do no good here. I'm afraid." +</P> + +<P> +He stared at her in the same incredulous bewilderment; some impulse +deep within him was struggling for expression, but he could not find +words to frame it. His eyes were oddly bright as he smiled at her. +</P> + +<P> +"Won't you go ashore?" she begged. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll take you back, of course, but I want to stay and see—" +</P> + +<P> +"Then—I'll stay." +</P> + +<P> +"Eliza!" Her name burst from his lips in a tone that thrilled her, but +with it came a sudden uproar from the distant crowd, and the next +instant they saw that the ice-barrier was giving way. The pressure had +become irresistible. As the Salmon had risen the ice had risen also, +and now the narrow throat was belching its contents forth. The chaos of +up-ended bergs was being torn apart; over it and through it burst a +deluge which filled the valley with the roar of a mighty cataract. +Clouds of spray were in the air; broken masses were leaping and +somersaulting; high up on the shore were stranded floes and fragments, +left in the wake of the moving body. Onward it coursed, clashing and +grinding along the brittle face of the glacier; over the alder tops +beyond the bend they could see it moving faster and faster, like the +crest of a tidal wave. The surface of the river lowered swiftly beneath +the bridge; the huge white pans ground and milled, shouldered aside by +the iron-sheathed pillars of concrete. +</P> + +<P> +"See! It's gone already. Once it clears a passageway we'll have no more +gorges, for the freshets are coming. The bridge didn't even +tremble—there wasn't a tremor, not a scratch!" Eliza looked up to find +O'Neil regarding her with an expression that set her heart throbbing +and her thoughts scattering. She clasped a huge, cold bolt-head and +clung to it desperately, for the upheaval in her soul rivaled that +which had just passed before her eyes. The bridge, the river, the +valley itself were gyrating slowly, dizzily. +</P> + +<P> +"Eliza!" She did not answer. "Child!" O'Neil's voice was shaking. "Why +did you come to me? Why did you do this mad thing? I saw something in +your face that I can't believe—that I—can't think possible. It—it +gives me courage. If I don't speak quickly I'll never dare. Is +it—true? Dear girl, can it be? I'm so old—such a poor thing—you +couldn't possibly care, and yet, WHY DID YOU COME?" The words were torn +from him; he was gripped and shaken by a powerful emotion. +</P> + +<P> +She tried to answer, but her lips were soundless. She closed her eyes, +and Murray saw that she was whiter than the foam far beneath. He stared +into the colorless face upturned to his until her eyelids fluttered +open and she managed to voice the words that clung in her throat. +</P> + +<P> +"I've always—loved you like this." +</P> + +<P> +He gave a cry, like that of a starving man; she felt herself drawn +against him. But now he, too, was speechless; he could only press her +close while his mind went groping for words to express that joy which +was as yet unbelievable and stunning. +</P> + +<P> +"Couldn't you see?" she asked, breathlessly. +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head. "I'm such a dreamer. I'm afraid it—can't be true. +I'm afraid you'll go away and—leave me. You won't ever—will you, +Eliza? I couldn't stand that." Then fresh realization of the truth +swept over him; they clung to each other, drunk with ecstasy, senseless +of their surroundings. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you cared for Natalie," she said, softly, after a while. +</P> + +<P> +"It was always you." +</P> + +<P> +"Always?" +</P> + +<P> +"Always!" +</P> + +<P> +She turned her lips to his, and lifted her entwining arms. +</P> + +<P> +The breakfast-gong had called the men away before the two figures far +out upon the bridge picked their way slowly to the shore. The Salmon +was still flooded with hurrying masses of ice, as it would continue to +be for several days, but it was running free; the channel in front of +the glacier was open. +</P> + +<P> +Blaine was the first to shake O'Neil's hand, for the members of +Murray's crew held aloof in some embarrassment. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a perfect piece of work," said he. "I congratulate you." +</P> + +<P> +The others echoed his sentiments faintly, hesitatingly, for they were +abashed at what they saw in their chief's face and realized that words +were weak and meaningless. +</P> + +<P> +Dan dared not trust himself to speak. He had many things to say to his +sister, but his throat ached miserably. Natalie restrained herself only +by the greatest effort. +</P> + +<P> +It was Tom Slater who ended the awkward pause by grumbling, +sarcastically: +</P> + +<P> +"If all the young lovers are safely ashore, maybe us old men who built +the bridge can go and get something to eat." +</P> + +<P> +Murray smiled at the girl beside him. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid they've guessed our secret, dear." +</P> + +<P> +"Secret!" Slater rolled his eyes. "There ain't over a couple thousand +people beside us that saw you pop the question. I s'pose she was out of +breath and couldn't say no." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza gasped and fled to her brother's arms. +</P> + +<P> +"Sis! Poor—little Sis!" Dan cried, and two tears stole down his brown +cheeks. "Isn't this—just great?" Then the others burst into a noisy +expression of their gladness. +</P> + +<P> +"Happy Tom" regarded them all pessimistically. "I feel bound to warn +you," he said at length, "that marriage is an awful gamble. It ain't +what it seems." +</P> + +<P> +"It is!" Natalie declared. "It's better, and you know it." +</P> + +<P> +"It turned out all right for me," Tom acknowledged, "because I got the +best woman in the world. But"—he eyed his chief accusingly—"I went +about it in a modest way; I didn't humiliate her in public." +</P> + +<P> +He turned impatiently upon his companions, still pouring out their +babble of congratulations. +</P> + +<P> +"Come along, can't you," he cried, "and leave 'em alone. I'm a +dyspeptic old married man, but I used to be young and affectionate, +like Murray. After breakfast I'm going to cable Mrs. Slater to come and +bring the kids with her and watch her bed-ridden, invalid husband build +the rest of this railroad. I'm getting chuck full of romance." +</P> + +<P> +"It has been a miraculous morning for me," said Murray, after a time, +"and the greatest miracle is—you, dear." +</P> + +<P> +"This is just the way the story ended in my book," Eliza told him +happily—"our book." +</P> + +<P> +He pressed her closer. "Yes! Our book—our bridge—our everything, +Eliza." +</P> + +<P> +She hid her blushing face against his shoulder, then with thumb and +finger drew his ear down to her lips. Summoning her courage, she +whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"Murray dear, won't you call me—Violet?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="finis"> +THE END +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Iron Trail, by Rex Beach + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRON TRAIL *** + +***** This file should be named 5233-h.htm or 5233-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/3/5233/ + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +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. 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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 Iron Trail + +Author: Rex Beach + +Posting Date: May 5, 2012 [EBook #5233] +Release Date: March, 2004 +First Posted: June 10, 2002 +Last Updated: July 18, 2005 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRON TRAIL *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +THE IRON TRAIL + +By REX BEACH + +Author of "THE AUCTION BLOCK" "RAINBOW'S END" "THE SPOILERS" Etc. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. IN WHICH THE TIDE TAKES A HAND + + II. HOW A GIRL APPEARED OUT OF THE NIGHT + + III. THE IRISH PRINCE + + IV. HOW A JOURNEY ENDED AT HOPE + + V. WHEREIN WE SEE CURTIS GORDON AND OTHERS + + VI. THE DREAMER + + VII. THE DREAM + + VIII. IN WHICH WE COME TO OMAR + + IX. WHEREIN GORDON SHOWS HIS TEETH + + X. IN WHICH THE DOCTOR SHOWS HIS WIT + + XI. THE TWO SIDES OF ELIZA VIOLET APPLETON + + XII. HOW GORDON FAILED IN HIS CUNNING + + XIII. WE JOURNEY TO A PLACE OF MANY WONDERS + + XIV. HOW THE TRUTH CAME TO ELIZA + + XV. THE BATTLE OF GORDON'S CROSSING + + XVI. THE FRUIT OF THE TEMPEST + + XVII. HOW THE PRINCE BECAME A MAN + +XVIII. HOW THE MAN BECAME A PRINCE AGAIN + + XIX. MISS APPLETON MAKES A SACRIFICE + + XX. HOW GORDON CHANGED HIS ATTACK + + XXI. DAN APPLETON SLIPS THE LEASH + + XXII. HOW THE HAZARD WAS PLAYED + +XXIII. A NEW CRISIS + + XXIV. GORDON'S FALL + + XXV. PREPARATIONS + + XXVI. THE RACE + +XXVII. HOW A DREAM CAME TRUE + + + + +I + +IN WHICH THE TIDE TAKES A HAND + + +The ship stole through the darkness with extremest caution, feeling her +way past bay and promontory. Around her was none of that phosphorescent +glow which lies above the open ocean, even on the darkest night, for +the mountains ran down to the channel on either side. In places they +overhung, and where they lay upturned against the dim sky it could be +seen that they were mantled with heavy timber. All day long the +NEBRASKA had made her way through an endless succession of straits and +sounds, now squeezing through an inlet so narrow that the somber spruce +trees seemed to be within a short stone's-throw, again plowing across +some open reach where the pulse of the north Pacific could be felt. Out +through the openings to seaward stretched the restless ocean, on across +uncounted leagues, to Saghalien and the rim of Russia's prison-yard. + +Always near at hand was the deep green of the Canadian forests, denser, +darker than a tropic jungle, for this was the land of "plenty waters." +The hillsides were carpeted knee-deep with moss, wet to saturation. Out +of every gulch came a brawling stream whipped to milk-white frenzy; +snow lay heavy upon the higher levels, while now and then from farther +inland peered a glacier, like some dead monster crushed between the +granite peaks. There were villages, too, and fishing-stations, and +mines and quarries. These burst suddenly upon the view, then slipped +past with dreamlike swiftness. Other ships swung into sight, rushed by, +and were swallowed up in the labyrinthine maze astern. + +Those passengers of the Nebraska who had never before traversed the +"Inside Passage" were loud in the praises of its picturesqueness, while +those to whom the route was familiar seemed to find an ever-fresh +fascination in its shifting scenes. + +Among the latter was Murray O'Neil. The whole north coast from Flattery +to St. Elias was as well mapped in his mind as the face of an old +friend, yet he was forever discovering new vistas, surprising +panoramas, amazing variations of color and topography. The mysterious +rifts and passageways that opened and closed as if to lure the ship +astray, the trackless confusion of islets, the siren song of the +waterfalls, the silent hills and glaciers and snow-soaked forests--all +appealed to him strongly, for he was at heart a dreamer. + +Yet he did not forget that scenery such as this, lovely as it is by +day, may be dangerous at night, for he knew the weakness of steel +hulls. On some sides his experience and business training had made him +sternly practical and prosaic. Ships aroused no manner of enthusiasm in +him except as means to an end. Railroads had no glamour of romance in +his eyes, for, having built a number of them, he had outlived all +poetic notions regarding the "iron horse," and once the rails were laid +he was apt to lose interest in them. Nevertheless, he was almost poetic +in his own quiet way, interweaving practical thoughts with fanciful +visions, and he loved his dreams. He was dreaming now as he leaned upon +the bridge rail of the Nebraska, peering into the gloom with watchful +eyes. From somewhere to port came the occasional commands of the +officer on watch, echoed instantly from the inky interior of the +wheelhouse. Up overside rose the whisper of rushing waters; from +underfoot came the rhythmic beat of the engines far below. O'Neil shook +off his mood and began to wonder idly how long it would be before +Captain Johnny would be ready for his "nightcap." + +He always traveled with Johnny Brennan when he could manage it, for the +two men were boon companions. O'Neil was wont to live in Johnny's +cabin, or on the bridge, and their nightly libation to friendship had +come to be a matter of some ceremony. + +The ship's master soon appeared from the shadows--a short, trim man +with gray hair. + +"Come," he cried, "it's waiting for us." + +O'Neil followed into Brennan's luxurious, well-lit quarters, where on a +mahogany sideboard was a tray holding decanter, siphon, and glasses, +together with a bottle of ginger ale. The captain, after he had mixed a +beverage for his passenger, opened the bottle for himself. They raised +their glasses silently. + +"Now that you're past the worst of it," remarked O'Neil, "I suppose +you'll turn in. You're getting old for a hard run like this, Johnny." + +Captain Brennan snorted. "Old? I'm a better man than you, yet. I'm a +teetotaler, that's why. I discovered long ago that salt water and +whiskey don't mix." + +O'Neil stretched himself out in one of Brennan's easy-chairs. "Really," +he said, "I don't understand why a ship carries a captain. Now of what +earthly use to the line are you, for instance, except for your beauty, +which, no doubt, has its value with the women? I'll admit you preside +with some grace at the best table in the dining-salon, but your +officers know these channels as well as you do. They could make the run +from Seattle to Juneau with their eyes shut." + +"Indeed they could not; and neither could I." + +"Oh, well, of course I have no respect for you as a man, having seen +you without your uniform." + +The captain grinned in thorough enjoyment of this raillery. "I'll say +nothing at all of my seamanship," he said, relapsing into the faintest +of brogues, "but there's no denying that the master of a ship has many +unpleasant and disgusting duties to perform. He has to amuse the +prominent passengers who can't amuse themselves, for one thing, and +that takes tact and patience. Why, some people make themselves at home +on the bridge, in the chart-room, and even in my living-quarters, to +say nothing of consuming my expensive wines, liquors, and cigars." + +"Meaning me?" + +"I'm a brutal seafaring man, and you'll have to make allowances for my +well-known brusqueness. Maybe I did mean you. But I'll say that next to +you Curtis Gordon is the worst grafter I ever saw." + +"You don't like Gordon, do you?" O'Neil queried with a change of tone. + +"I do not! He went up with me again this spring, and he had his widow +with him, too." + +"His widow?" + +"You know who I mean--Mrs. Gerard. They say it's her money he's using +in his schemes. Perhaps it's because of her that I don't like him." + +"Ah-h! I see." + +"You don't see, or you wouldn't grin like an ape. I'm a married man, +I'll have you know, and I'm still on good terms with Mrs. Brennan, +thank God. But I don't like men who use women's money, and that's just +what our friend Gordon is doing. What money the widow didn't put up +he's grabbed from the schoolma'ams and servant-girls and society +matrons in the East. What has he got to show them for it?" + +"A railroad project, a copper-mine, some coal claims--" + +"Bah! A menagerie of wildcats!" + +"You can't prove that. What's your reason for distrusting him?" + +"Well, for one thing, he knows too much. Why, he knows everything, he +does. Art, literature, politics, law, finance, and draw poker have no +secrets from him. He's been everywhere--and back--twice; he speaks a +dozen different languages. He out-argued me on poultry-raising and I +know more about that than any man living. He can handle a drill or a +coach-and-four; he can tell all about the art of ancient Babylon; and +he beat me playing cribbage, which shows that he ain't on the level. +He's the best-informed man outside of a university, and he drinks tea +of an afternoon--with his legs crossed and the saucer balanced on his +heel. Now, it takes years of hard work for an honest man to make a +success at one thing, but Gordon never failed at anything. I ask you if +a living authority on all the branches of human endeavor and a man who +can beat me at 'crib' doesn't make you suspicious." + +"Not at all. I've beaten you myself!" + +"I was sick," said Captain Brennan. + +"The man is brilliant and well educated and wealthy. It's only natural +that he should excite the jealousy of a weaker intellect." + +Johnny opened his lips for an explosion, then changed his mind and +agreed sourly. + +"He's got money, all right, and he knows how to spend it. He and his +valet occupied three cabins on this ship. They say his quarters at Hope +are palatial." + +"My dear grampus, the mere love of luxury doesn't argue that a person +is dishonest." + +"Would you let a hired man help you on with your underclothes?" +demanded the mariner. + +"There's nothing criminal about it." + +"Humph! Mrs. Gerard is different. She's all class! You don't mind her +having a maid and speaking French when she runs short of English. Her +daughter is like her." + +"I haven't seen Miss Gerard." + +"If you'd stir about the ship instead of wearing out my Morris chair +you'd have that pleasure. She was on deck all morning." Captain Brennan +fell silent and poked with a stubby forefinger at the ice in his glass. + +"Well, out with it!" said O'Neil after a moment. + +"I'd like to know the inside story of Curtis Gordon and this girl's +mother." + +"Why bother your head about something that doesn't concern you?" The +speaker rose and began to pace the cabin floor, then, in an altered +tone, inquired, "Tell me, are you going to land me and my horses at +Kyak Bay?" + +"That depends on the weather. It's a rotten harbor; you'll have to swim +them ashore." + +"Suppose it should be rough?" + +"Then we'll go on, and drop you there coming back. I don't want to be +caught on that shore with a southerly wind, and that's the way it +usually blows." + +"I can't wait," O'Neil declared. "A week's delay might ruin me. Rather +than go on I'd swim ashore myself, without the horses." + +"I don't make the weather at Kyak Bay. Satan himself does that. Twenty +miles offshore it may be calm, and inside it may be blowing a gale. +That's due to the glaciers. Those ice-fields inland and the warm air +from the Japanese Current offshore kick up some funny atmospheric +pranks. It's the worst spot on the coast and we'll lose a ship there +some day. Why, the place isn't properly charted, let alone buoyed." + +"That's nothing unusual for this coast." + +"True for you. This is all a graveyard of ships and there's been many a +good master's license lost because of half-baked laws from Washington. +Think of a coast like this with almost no lights, no beacons nor buoys; +and yet we're supposed to make time. It's fine in clear weather, but in +the dark we go by guess and by God. I've stood the run longer than most +of the skippers, but--" + +Even as Brennan spoke the Nebraska seemed to halt, to jerk backward +under his feet. O'Neil, who was standing, flung out an arm to steady +himself; the empty ginger-ale bottle fell from the sideboard with a +thump. Loose articles hanging against the side walls swung to and fro; +the heavy draperies over Captain Johnny's bed swayed. + +Brennan leaped from his chair; his ruddy face was mottled, his eyes +were wide and horror-stricken. + +"Damnation!" he gasped. The cabin door crashed open ahead of him and he +was on the bridge, with O'Neil at his heels. They saw the first officer +clinging limply to the rail; from the pilot-house window came an +excited burst of Norwegian, then out of the door rushed a quartermaster. + +Brennan cursed, and met the fellow with a blow which drove him +sprawling back. + +"Get in there, Swan," he bellowed, "and take your wheel." + +"The tide swung her in!" exclaimed the mate. "The tide--My God!" + +"Sweet Queen Anne!" said Brennan, more quietly. "You've ripped her +belly out." + +"It--was the tide," chattered the officer. + +The steady, muffled beating of the machinery ceased, the ship seemed +suddenly to lose her life, but it was plain that she was not aground, +for she kept moving through the gloom. From down forward came excited +voices as the crew poured up out of the forecastle. + +Brennan leaped to the telegraph and signaled the engine-room. He was +calm now, and his voice was sharp and steady. + +"Go below, Mr. James, and find the extent of the damage," he directed, +and a moment later the hull began to throb once more to the thrust of +the propeller. Inside the wheelhouse Swan had recovered from his panic +and repeated the master's orders mechanically. + +The second and third officers arrived upon the bridge now, dressing as +they came, and they were followed by the chief engineer. To them Johnny +spoke, his words crackling like the sparks from a wireless. In an +incredibly short time he had the situation in hand and turned to +O'Neil, who had been a silent witness of the scene. + +"Glory be!" exclaimed the captain. "Most of our good passengers are +asleep; the jar would scarcely wake them." + +"Tell me where and how I can help," Murray offered. His first thought +had been of the possible effect of this catastrophe upon his plans, for +time was pressing. As for danger, he had looked upon it so often and in +so many forms that it had little power to stir him; but a shipwreck, +which would halt his northward rush, was another matter. Whether the +ship sank or floated could make little difference, now that the damage +had been done. She was crippled and would need assistance. His +fellow-passengers, he knew, were safe enough. Fortunately there were +not many of them--a scant two hundred, perhaps--and if worse came to +worst there was room in the life-boats for all. But the Nebraska had no +watertight bulkheads and the plight of his twenty horses between decks +filled him with alarm and pity. There were no life-boats for those poor +dumb animals penned down yonder in the rushing waters. + +Brennan had stepped into the chart-room, but returned in a moment to +say: + +"There's no place to beach her this side of Halibut Bay." + +"How far is that?" + +"Five or six miles." + +"You'll--have to beach her?" + +"I'm afraid so. She feels queer." + +Up from the cabin deck came a handful of men passengers to inquire what +had happened; behind them a woman began calling shrilly for her husband. + +"We touched a rock," the skipper explained, briefly. "Kindly go below +and stop that squawking. There's no danger." + +There followed a harrowing wait of several minutes; then James, the +first officer, came to report. He had regained his nerve and spoke with +swift precision. + +"She loosened three plates on her port quarter and she's filling fast." + +"How long will she last?" snapped Brennan. + +"Not long, sir. Half an hour, perhaps." + +The captain rang for full speed, and the decks began to strain as the +engine increased its labor. "Get your passengers out and stand by the +boats," he ordered. "Take it easy and don't alarm the women. Have them +dress warmly, and don't allow any crowding by the men. Mr. Tomlinson, +you hold the steerage gang in check. Take your revolver with you." He +turned to his silent friend, in whose presence he seemed to feel a +cheering sympathy, "I knew it would come sooner or later, Murray," he +said. "But--magnificent mummies! To touch on a clear night with the sea +like glass!" He sighed dolefully. "It'll be tough on my missus." + +O'Neil laid a hand upon his shoulder. "It wasn't your fault, and there +will be room in the last boat for you. Understand?" Brennan hesitated, +and the other continued, roughly: "No nonsense, now! Don't make a +damned fool of yourself by sticking to the bridge. Promise?" + +"I promise." + +"Now what do you want me to do?" + +"Keep those dear passengers quiet. I'll run for Halibut Bay, where +there's a sandy beach. If she won't make it I'll turn her into the +rocks, Tell 'em they won't wet a foot if they keep their heads." + +"Good! I'll be back to see that you behave yourself." The speaker +laughed lightly and descended to the deck, where he found an incipient +panic. Stewards were pounding on stateroom doors, half-clad men were +rushing about aimlessly, pallid faces peered forth from windows, and +there was the sound of running feet, of slamming doors, of shrill, +hysterical voices. + +O'Neil saw a waiter thumping lustily upon a door and heard him shout, +hoarsely: + +"Everybody out! The ship is sinking!" As he turned away Murray seized +him roughly by the arm and thrusting his face close to the other's, +said harshly: + +"If you yell again like that I'll toss you overboard." + +"God help us, we're going--" + +O'Neil shook the fellow until his teeth rattled; his own countenance, +ordinarily so quiet, was blazing. + +"There's no danger. Act like a man and don't start a stampede." + +The steward pulled himself together and answered in a calmer tone: + +"Very well, sir. I--I'm sorry, sir." + +Murray O'Neil was known to most of the passengers, for his name had +gone up and down the coast, and there were few places from San +Francisco to Nome where his word did not carry weight. As he went among +his fellow-travelers now, smiling, self-contained, unruffled, his +presence had its effect. Women ceased their shrilling, men stopped +their senseless questions and listened to his directions with some +comprehension. In a short time the passengers were marshaled upon the +upper deck where the life-boats hung between their davits. Each little +craft was in charge of its allotted crew, the electric lights continued +to burn brightly, and the panic gradually wore itself out. Meanwhile +the ship was running a desperate race with the sea, striving with every +ounce of steam in her boilers to find a safe berth for her mutilated +body before the inrush of waters drowned her fires. That the race was +close even the dullest understood, for the Nebraska was settling +forward, and plowed into the night head down, like a thing maddened +with pain. She was becoming unmanageable, too, and O'Neil thought with +pity of that little iron-hearted skipper on the bridge who was fighting +her so furiously. + +There was little confusion, little talking upon the upper deck now; +only a child whimpered or a woman sobbed hysterically. But down forward +among the steerage passengers the case was different. These were mainly +Montenegrins, Polacks, or Slavs bound for the construction camps to the +westward, and they surged from side to side like cattle, requiring +Tomlinson's best efforts to keep them from rushing aft. + +O'Neil had employed thousands of such men; in fact, many of these very +fellows had cashed his time-checks and knew him by sight. He went +forward among them, and his appearance proved instantly reassuring. He +found his two hostlers, and with their aid he soon reduced the mob to +comparative order. + +But in spite of his confident bearing he felt a great uneasiness. The +Nebraska seemed upon the point of diving; he judged she must be +settling very fast, and wondered that the forward tilt did not lift her +propeller out of the water. Fortunately, however, the surface of the +sound was like a polished floor and there were no swells to submerge +her. + +Over-side to starboard he could see the dim black outlines of mountains +slipping past, but where lay Halibut Bay or what distance remained to +be covered he could but vaguely guess. + +In these circumstances the wait became almost unbearable. The race +seemed hours long, the miles stretched into leagues, and with every +moment of suspense the ship sank lower. The end came unexpectedly. +There was a sudden startled outcry as the Nebraska struck for a second +time that night. She rose slightly, rolled and bumped, grated briefly, +then came to rest. + +Captain Brennan shouted from the bridge: + +"Fill your life-boats, Mr. James, and lower away carefully." + +A cheer rose from the huddled passengers. + +The boiler-room was still dry, it seemed, for the incandescent lights +burned without a flicker, even after the grimy oilers and stokers had +come pouring up on deck. + +O'Neil climbed to the bridge. "Is this Halibut Bay?" he asked Captain +Johnny. + +"It is. But we're piled up on the reef outside. She may hold fast--I +hope so, for there's deep water astern, and if she slips off she'll go +down." + +"I'd like to save my horses," said the younger man, wistfully. Through +all the strain of the past half-hour or more his uppermost thought had +been for them. But Brennan had no sympathy for such sentiments. + +"Hell's bells!" he exclaimed. "Don't talk of horses while we've got +women and children aboard." He hastened away to assist in transferring +his passengers. + +Instead of following, O'Neil turned and went below. He found that the +water was knee-deep on the port side of the deck where his animals were +quartered, which showed that the ship had listed heavily. He judged +that she must be much deeper by the head then he had imagined, and that +her nose was crushed in among the rocks. Until she settled at the +stern, therefore, the case was not quite hopeless. + +His appearance, the sound of his voice, were the signals for a chorus +of eager whinnies and a great stamping of hoofs. Heads were thrust +toward him from the stalls, alert ears were pricked forward, satin +muzzles rubbed against him as he calmed their terror. This blind trust +made the man's throat tighten achingly. He loved animals as he loved +children, and above all he cared for horses. He understood them, he +spoke their language as nearly as any human can be said to do so. +Quivering muscles relaxed beneath his soothing palm; he called them by +name and they answered with gentle twitching lips against his cheek. +Some of them even began to eat and switch their tails contentedly. + +He cursed aloud and made his way down the sloping deck to the square +iron door, or port, through which he had loaded them. But he found that +it was jammed, or held fast by the pressure outside, and after a few +moments' work in water above his knees he climbed to the starboard +side. Here the entrance was obstructed by a huge pile of baled hay and +grain in sacks. It would be no easy task to clear it away, and he fell +to work with desperate energy, for the ship was slowly changing her +level. Her stern, which had been riding high, was filling; the sea +stole in upon him silently. It crept up toward him until the horses, +stabled on the lower side, were belly-deep in it. Their distress +communicated itself to the others. O'Neil knew that his position might +prove perilous if the hulk should slip backward off the reef, yet he +continued to toil, hurling heavy sacks behind him, bundling awkward +bales out of the way, until his hands were bleeding and his muscles +ached. He was perspiring furiously; the commotion around him was +horrible. Then abruptly the lights went out, leaving him in utter +blackness; the last fading yellow gleam was photographed briefly upon +his retina. + +Tears mingled with the sweat that drained down his cheeks as he felt +his way slowly out of the place, splashing, stumbling, groping +uncertainly. A horse screamed in a loud, horribly human note, and he +shuddered. He was sobbing curses as he emerged into the cool open air +on the forward deck. + +His eyes were accustomed to the darkness now, and he could see +something of his surroundings. He noted numerous lights out on the +placid bosom of the bay, evidently lanterns on the life-boats, and he +heard distant voices. He swept the moisture from his face; then with a +start he realized his situation. He listened intently; his eyes roved +back along the boat-deck; there was no doubt about it--the ship was +deserted. Stepping to the rail, he observed how low the Nebraska lay +and also that her bow was higher than her stern. From somewhere beneath +his feet came a muffled grinding and a movement which told him that the +ship was seeking a more comfortable berth. He recalled stories of +explosions and of the boiling eddies which sometimes accompany sinking +hulls. Turning, he scrambled up to the cabin-deck and ran swiftly +toward his stateroom. + + + + +II + +HOW A GIRL APPEARED OUT OF THE NIGHT + + +O'Neil felt for the little bracket-lamp on the wall of his stateroom +and lit it. By its light he dragged a life-preserver from the rack +overhead and slipped the tapes about his shoulders, reflecting that +Alaskan waters are disagreeably cold. Then he opened his traveling-bags +and dumped their contents upon the white counterpane of his berth, +selecting out of the confusion certain documents and trinkets. The +latter he thrust into his pockets as he found them, the former he +wrapped in handkerchiefs before stowing them away. The ship had listed +now so that it was difficult to maintain a footing; the lamp hung at a +grotesque angle and certain articles had become dislodged from their +resting-places. From outside came the gentle lapping of waters, a +gurgling and hissing as of air escaping through the decks. He could +feel the ship strain. He acknowledged that it was not pleasant thus to +be left alone on a sinking hulk, particularly on an ink-black night-- + +All at once he whirled and faced the door with an exclamation of +astonishment, for a voice had addressed him. + +There,--clinging to the casing, stood a woman--a girl--evidently drawn +out of the darkness by the light which streamed down across the sloping +deck from his stateroom. Plainly she had but just awakened, for she was +clothed in a silken nightrobe which failed to conceal the outlines of +her body, the swelling contour of her bosom, the ripened fullness of +her limbs. She had flung a quilted dressing-gown of some sort over her +shoulders and with one bare arm and hand strove to hold it in place. He +saw that her pink feet were thrust into soft, heeless slippers--that +her hair, black in this light, cascaded down to her waist, and that her +eyes, which were very dark and very large, were fixed upon him with a +stare like that of a sleep-walker. + +"It is so dark--so strange--so still!" she murmured. "What has +happened?" + +"God! Didn't they waken you?" he cried in sharp surprise. + +"Is the ship-sinking?" Her odd bewilderment of voice and gaze puzzled +him. + +He nodded. "We struck a rock. The passengers have been taken off. We're +the only ones left. In Heaven's name where have you been?" + +"I was asleep." + +He shook his head in astonishment. "How you failed to hear that +hubbub--" + +"I heard something, but I was ill. My head--I took something to ease +the pain." + +"Ah! Medicine! It hasn't worn off yet, I see! You shouldn't have taken +it. Drugs are nothing but poison to young people. Now at my age there +might be some excuse for resorting to them, but you--" He was talking +to cover the panic of his thoughts, for his own predicament had been +serious enough, and her presence rendered it doubly embarrassing. What +in the world to do with her he scarcely knew. His lips were smiling, +but his eyes were grave as they roved over the cabin and out into the +blackness of the night. + +"Are we going to drown?" she asked, dully. + +"Nonsense!" He laughed in apparent amusement, showing his large, strong +teeth. + +She came closer, glancing behind her and shrinking from the oily waters +which could be seen over the rail and which had stolen up nearly to the +sill of the door. She steadied herself by laying hold of him +uncertainly. Involuntarily he turned his eyes away, for he felt shame +at profaning her with his gaze. She was very soft and white, a fragile +thing utterly unfit to cope with the night air and the freezing waters +of Halibut Bay. + +"I'm wretchedly afraid!" she whispered through white lips. + +"None of that!" he said, brusquely. "I'll see that nothing happens to +you." He slipped out of his life-preserver and adjusted it over her +shoulders, first drawing her arms through the sleeves of her +dressing-gown and knotting the cord snugly around her waist. "Just as a +matter of precaution!" he assured her. "We may get wet. Can you swim?" + +She shook her head. + +"Never mind; I can." He found another life-belt, fitted it to his own +form, and led her out upon the deck. The scuppers were awash now and +she gasped as the sea licked her bare feet. "Cold, isn't it?" he +remarked. "But there's no time to dress, and it's just as well, +perhaps, for heavy clothes would only hamper you." + +She strove to avoid the icy waters and finally paused, moaning: "I +can't! I can't go on!" + +Slipping his arm about her, he bore her to the door of the main cabin +and entered. He could feel her warm, soft body quivering against his +own. She had clasped his neck so tightly that he could scarcely +breathe, but, lowering her until her feet were on the dry carpet, he +gently loosed her arms. + +"Now, my dear child," he told her, "you must do exactly as I tell you. +Come! Calm yourself or I won't take you any farther." He held her off +by her shoulders. "I may have to swim with you; you mustn't cling to me +so!" + +He heard her gasp and felt her draw away abruptly. Then he led her by +the hand out upon the starboard deck, and together they made their way +forward to the neighborhood of the bridge. + +The lights he had seen upon coming from the forward hold were still in +view and he hailed them at the top of his voice. But other voices were +calling through the night, some of them comparatively close at hand, +others answering faintly from far in-shore. The boats first launched +were evidently landing, and those in charge of them were shouting +directions to the ones behind. Some women had started singing and the +chorus floated out to the man and the girl: + +Pull for the shore, sailor, Pull for the shore. + +It helped to drown their cries for assistance. + +O'Neil judged that the ship was at least a quarter of a mile from the +beach, and his heart sank, for he doubted that either he or his +companion could last long in these waters. It occurred to him that +Brennan might be close by, waiting for the Nebraska to sink--it would +be unlike the little captain to forsake his trust until the last +possible moment--but he reasoned that the cargo of lives in the +skipper's boat would induce him to stand well off to avoid accident. He +called lustily time after time, but no answer came. + +Meanwhile the girl stood quietly beside him. + +"Can't we make a raft?" she suggested, timidly, when he ceased to +shout. "I've read of such things." + +"There's no time," he told her. "Are you very cold?" + +She nodded. "Please forgive me for acting so badly just now. It was all +so sudden and--so awful! I think I can behave better. Oh! What was +that?" She clutched him nervously, for from the forward end of the ship +had come a muffled scream, like that of a woman. + +"It's my poor horses," said the man, and she looked at him curiously, +prompted by the catch in his throat. + +There followed a wait which seemed long, but was in reality of but a +few minutes, for the ship was sliding backward and the sea was creeping +upward faster and faster. At last they heard a shuddering sigh as she +parted from the rocks and the air rushed up through the deck openings +with greater force. The Nebraska swung sluggishly with the tide; then, +when her upper structure had settled flush with the sea, Murray O'Neil +took the woman in his arms and leaped clear of the rail. + +The first gasping moment of immersion was fairly paralyzing; after that +the reaction came, and the two began to struggle away from the sinking +ship. But the effect of the reaction soon wore off. The water was +cruelly cold and their bodies ached in every nerve and fiber. O'Neil +did his best to encourage his companion. He talked to her through his +chattering teeth, and once she had recovered from the mental shock of +the first fearful plunge she responded pluckily. He knew that his own +heart was normal and strong, but he feared that the girl's might not be +equal to the strain. Had he been alone, he felt sure that he could have +gained the shore, but with her upon his hands he was able to make but +little headway. The expanse of waters seemed immense; it fairly crushed +hope out of him. The lights upon the shore were as distant as fixed +stars. This was a country of heavy tides, he reflected, and he began to +fear that the current was sweeping them out. He turned to look for the +ship, but could see no traces of her, and since it was inconceivable +that the Nebraska could have sunk so quietly, her disappearance +confirmed his fears. More than once he fancied he heard an answer to +his cries for help--the rattle of rowlocks or the splash of oars--but +his ears proved unreliable. + +After a time the girl began to moan with pain and terror, but as +numbness gradually robbed her of sensation she became quiet. A little +later her grip upon his clothing relaxed and he saw that she was +collapsing. He drew her to him and held her so that her face lay +upturned and her hair floated about his shoulders. In this position she +could not drown, at least while his strength lasted. But he was rapidly +losing control of himself; his teeth were clicking loosely, his muscles +shook and twitched It required a great effort to shout, and he thought +that his voice did not carry so far as at first. Therefore he fell +silent, paddling with his free arm and kicking, to keep his blood +stirring. + +Several times he gave up and floated quietly, but courage was ingrained +in him; deep down beneath his consciousness was a vitality, an +inherited stubborn resistance to death, of which he knew nothing. It +was that unidentified quality of mind which supports one man through a +great sickness or a long period of privation, while another of more +robust physique succumbs. It was the same quality which brings one man +out from desert wastes, or the white silence of the polar ice, while +the bodies of his fellows remain to mark the trail. This innate power +of supreme resistance is found in chosen individuals throughout the +animal kingdom, and it was due to it alone that Murray O'Neil continued +to fight the tide long after he had ceased to exert conscious control. + +At length there came through the man's dazed sensibilities a sound +different from those he had been hearing: it was a human voice, mingled +with the measured thud of oars in their sockets. It roused him like an +electric current and gave him strength to cry out hoarsely. Some one +answered him; then out of the darkness to seaward emerged a deeper +blot, which loomed up hugely yet proved to be no more than a life-boat +banked full of people. It came to a stop within an oar's-length of him. +From the babble of voices he distinguished one that was familiar, and +cried the name of Johnny Brennan. His brain had cleared now, a great +dreamlike sense of thanksgiving warmed him, and he felt equal to any +effort. He was vaguely amazed to find that his limbs refused to obey +him. + +His own name was being pronounced in shocked tones; the splash from an +oar filled his face and strangled him, but he managed to lay hold of +the blade, and was drawn in until outstretched hands seized him. + +An oarsman was saying: "Be careful, there! We can't take him in without +swamping." + +But Brennan's voice shouted: "Make room or I'll bash in your bloody +skull." + +Another protest arose, and O'Neil saw that the craft was indeed loaded +to the gunwales. + +"Take the girl--quick," he implored. "I'll hang on. You can--tow me." + +The limp form was removed from his side and dragged over the thwarts +while a murmur of excited voices went up. + +"Can you hold out for a minute, Murray?" asked Brennan. + +"Yes--I think so." + +"I'd give you my place, but you're too big to be taken in without +danger." + +"Go ahead," chattered the man in the water. "Look after the girl before +it's--too late." + +The captain's stout hand was in his collar now and he heard him crying: + +"Pull, you muscle-bound heathens! Everybody sit still! Now away with +her, men. Keep up your heart, Murray, my boy; remember it takes more +than water to kill a good Irishman. It's only a foot or two farther, +and they've started a fire. Serves you right, you big idiot, for going +overboard, with all those boats. Man dear, but you're pulling the arm +out of me; it's stretched out like a garden hose! Hey! Cover up that +girl, and you, lady, rub her feet and hands. Good! Move over please--so +the men can bail." + +The next O'Neil knew he was feeling very miserable and very cold, +notwithstanding the fact that he was wrapped in dry clothing and lay so +close to a roaring spruce fire that its heat blistered him. + +Brennan was bending over him with eyes wet. He was swearing, too, in a +weak, faltering way, calling upon all the saints to witness that the +prostrate man was the embodiment of every virtue, and that his death +would be a national calamity. Others were gathered about, men and +women, and among them O'Neil saw the doctor from Sitka whom he had met +on shipboard. + +As soon as he was able to speak he inquired for the safety of the girl +he had helped to rescue. Johnny promptly reassured him. + +"Man, dear, she's doing fine. A jigger of brandy brought her to, +gasping like a blessed mermaid." + +"Was anybody lost?" + +"Praise God, not a soul! But it's lucky I stood by to watch the old tub +go down, or we'd be mourning two. You'll be well by morning, for +there's a cannery in the next inlet and I've sent a boat's crew for +help. And now, my boy, lay yourself down again and take a sleep, won't +you? It'll be doing you a lot of good." + +But O'Neil shook his head and struggled to a sitting posture. + +"Thanks, Johnny," said he, "but I couldn't. I can hear those horses +screaming, and besides--I must make new plans." + + + + +III + +THE IRISH PRINCE + + +As dawn broke the cannery tender from the station near by nosed her way +up to the gravelly shore where the castaways were gathered and blew a +cheering toot-toot on her whistle. She was a flat-bottomed, +"wet-sterned" craft, and the passengers of the Nebraska trooped to her +deck over a gang-plank. As Captain Brennan had predicted, not one of +them had wet a foot, with the exception of the two who had been left +aboard through their own carelessness. + +By daylight Halibut Bay appeared an idyllic spot, quite innocent of the +terrors with which the night had endowed it. A pebbled half-moon of +beach was set in among rugged bluffs; the verdant forest crowded down +to it from behind. Tiny crystal wavelets lapped along the shingle, +swaying the brilliant sea mosses which clung to the larger rocks. +Altogether the scene gave a strong impression of peace and security, +yet just in the offing was one jarring contrast--the masts and funnel +of the Nebraska slanting up out of the blue serenity, where she lay +upon the sloping bottom in the edge of deep water. + +The reaction following a sleepless night of anxiety had replaced the +first feeling of thankfulness at deliverance, and it was not a happy +cargo of humanity which the rescuing boat bore with her as the sun +peeped over the hills. Many of the passengers were but half dressed, +all were exhausted and hungry, each one had lost something in the +catastrophe. The men were silent, the women hysterical, the children +fretful. + +Murray O'Neil had recovered sufficiently to go among them with the same +warm smile which had made him friends from the first. In the depths of +his cool gray eyes was a sparkle which showed his unquenchable Celtic +spirit, and before long smiles answered his smiles, jokes rose to meet +his pleasantries. + +It was his turn now to comfort Captain Johnny Brennan, who had yielded +to the blackest despair, once his responsibility was over. + +"She was a fine ship, Murray," the master lamented, staring with tragic +eyes at the Nebraska's spars. + +"She was a tin washtub, and rusted like a sieve," jeered O'Neil. + +"But think of me losing her on a still night!" + +"I'm not sure yet that it wasn't a jellyfish that swam through her." + +"Humph! I suppose her cargo will be a total loss. Two hundred thousand +dollars--" + +"Insured for three hundred, no doubt. I'll warrant the company will +thank you." + +"It's kind of you to cheer me up," said Brennan, a little less +gloomily, "especially after the way I abandoned you to drown, but the +missus won't allow me in the house at all when she hears I left you in +pickle. Thank God the girl didn't die, anyway! I've got that to be +thankful for. Curtis Gordon would have broken me--" + +"Gordon?" + +"Sure! Man dear, don't you know who you went bathing with? She's the +daughter of that widow Gerard, and the most prominent passenger aboard, +outside of your blessed self. Ain't that luck! If I was a Jap I'd split +myself open with a bread-knife." + +"But, fortunately, you're a sensible 'harp' of old Ireland. I'll see +that the papers get the right story, 'o buck up." + +"Do you think for a minute that Mrs. Brennan will understand why I +didn't hop out of the lifeboat and give you my place? Not at all. I'm +ruined nautically and domestically. In the course of the next ten years +I may live it down, but meanwhile I'll sleep in the woodshed and speak +when I'm spoken to." + +Murray knew that Miss Gerard had been badly shaken by her ordeal, hence +he made no attempt to see her even after the steamer had reached the +fishing-village and the rescued passengers had been taken in by the +residents. Instead, he went directly to the one store in the place and +bought its entire stock, which he turned over to the sufferers. It was +well he did so, for the village was small and, although the townspeople +were hospitable, both food and clothing were scarce. + +A south-bound steamer was due the next afternoon, it was learned, and +plans were made for her to pick up the castaways and return them to +Seattle. At the same time O'Neil discovered that a freighter for the +"westward" was expected some time that night, and as she did not call +at this port he arranged for a launch to take him out to the channel +where he could intercept her. The loss of his horses had been a serious +blow. It was all the more imperative now that he should go on, since he +would have to hire men to do horses' work. + +During the afternoon Miss Gerard sent for him and he went to the house +of the cannery superintendent, where she had been received. The +superintendent's wife had clothed her, and she seemed to have recovered +her poise of body and mind. O'Neil was surprised to find her quite a +different person from the frightened and disheveled girl he had seen in +the yellow lamplight of his stateroom on the night before. She was as +pale now as then, but her expression of terror and bewilderment had +given place to one of reposeful confidence. Her lips were red and ripe +and of a somewhat haughty turn. She was attractive, certainly, despite +the disadvantage of the borrowed garments, and though she struck him as +being possibly a little proud and cold, there was no lack of warmth in +her greeting. + +For her part she beheld a man of perhaps forty, of commanding height +and heavy build. He was gray about the temples; his eyes were gray, +too, and rather small, but they were extremely animated and kindly, and +a myriad of little lines were penciled about their corners. These were +evidently marks of expression, not of age, and although the rugged face +itself was not handsome, it had a degree of character that compelled +her interest. His clothes were good, and in spite of their recent hard +usage they still lent him the appearance of a man habitually well +dressed. + +She was vaguely disappointed, having pictured him as being in the first +flush of vigorous youth, but the feeling soon disappeared under the +charm of his manner. The ideal figure she had imagined began to seem +silly and school-girlish, unworthy of the man himself. She was pleased, +too, by his faint though manifest embarrassment at her thanks, for she +had feared a lack of tact. + +Above all things she abhorred obligation of any sort, and she was +inclined to resent masculine protection. This man's service filled her +with real gratitude, yet she rebelled at the position in which it +placed her. She preferred granting favors to receiving them. + +But in fact he dismissed the whole subject so brusquely that he almost +offended her, and when she realized how incomplete had been her +acknowledgment, she said, with an air of pique: + +"You might have given me a chance to thank you without dragging you +here against your will." + +"I'm sorry if I seemed neglectful." + +She fell silent for a moment before asking: + +"Do you detest me for my cowardice? I couldn't blame you for never +wanting to see me again." + +"You were very brave. You were splendid," he declared. "I simply didn't +wish to intrude." + +"I was terribly frightened," she confided, "but I felt that I could +rely upon you. That's what every one does, isn't it? You see, you have +a reputation. They told me how you refused to be taken into the boat +for fear of capsizing it. That was fine." + +"Oh, there was nothing brave about that. I wanted to get in badly +enough, but there wasn't, room. Jove! It was cold, wasn't it?" His +ready smile played whimsically about his lips, and the girl felt +herself curiously drawn to him. Since he chose to make light of +himself, she determined to allow nothing of the sort. + +"They have told me how you bought out this whole funny little place," +she said, "and turned it over to us. Is it because you have such a +royal way of dispensing favors that they call you 'The Irish Prince'?" + +"That's only a silly nickname." + +"I don't think so. You give people food and clothes with a careless +wave of the hand; you give me my life with a shrug and a smile; you +offer to give up your own to a boatful of strangers without a moment's +hesitation. I--I think you are a remarkable person." + +"You'll turn my head with such flattery if you aren't careful," he said +with a slight flush. "Please talk of something sensible now, for an +antidote--your plans, for instance." + +"My plans are never sensible, and what few I have are as empty as my +pockets. To tell the truth, I have neither plans nor pockets," she +laughed, "since this is a borrowed gown." + +"Pockets in gowns are entirely matters of hearsay, anyhow; I doubt if +they exist. You are going back to Seattle?" + +"Oh, I suppose so. It seems to be my fate, but I'm not a bit resigned. +I'm one of those unfortunate people who can't bear to be disappointed." + +"You can return on the next ship, at the company's expense." + +"No. Mother would never allow it. In fact, when she learns that I'm out +here she'll probably send me back to New York as fast as I can go." + +"Doesn't she know where you are?" + +"Indeed no! She thinks I'm safely and tamely at home. Uncle Curtis +wouldn't object to my visit, I fancy; at any rate, I've been counting +on his good offices with mother, but it's too late now." + +"I'm like you," he said; "I can't brook disappointment. I'm going on." + +In answer to her questioning look he explained his plan of intercepting +the freight-steamer that night, whereupon her face brightened with +sudden hope. + +"Can't I go, too?" she implored, eagerly. She was no longer the haughty +young lady he had met upon entering the room, but a very wistful child. + +"I'm afraid that's hardly---" + +"Oh! If only you knew how much it means! If only you knew how badly I +want to! I'm not afraid of discomforts." + +"It's not that---" + +"Please! Please! Be a real prince and grant me this boon. Won't you? My +heart is set upon it." + +It was hard to resist her imploring eyes--eyes which showed they had +never been denied. It was hard for O'Neil to refuse anything to a woman. + +"If your uncle is willing," he began, hesitatingly. + +"He isn't my really uncle--I just call him that." + +"Well, if Mr. Gordon wouldn't object, perhaps I can manage it, +provided, of course, you promise to explain to your mother." + +Miss Gerard's frank delight showed that she was indeed no more than a +child. Her changed demeanor awakened a doubt in the man's mind. + +"It will mean that you'll have to sit up all night in an open launch," +he cautioned her. + +"I'll sit up for a week." + +"With the creepy water all about, and big black mountains frowning at +you!" + +"Oh, fiddle!" she exclaimed. "You'll be there if I get frightened." +Rising impulsively she laid her hand on his arm and thanked him with an +odd mingling of frankness and shyness, as if there could be no further +doubt of his acquiescence. He saw that her eyes were the color of +shaded woodland springs and that her hair was not black, but of a deep, +rich brown where the sun played upon it, the hue of very old mahogany, +with the same blood-red flame running through it. He allowed himself to +admire her in silence, until suddenly she drew back with a startled +exclamation. + +"What is it?" + +"I forgot--I have no clothes." Her words came with a doleful cadence. + +"The universal complaint of your sex," he said, smiling. "Allow me to +talk with your hostess. I'm sure she will let you walk out with your +borrowed finery, just like Cinderella. You'll need a nice thick coat, +too." + +"But this is her very, very best dress." + +"She shall receive, on the next ship, a big box all lined with +tissue-paper, with the imprint of the most fashionable dressmaker in +Seattle. I'll arrange all that by cable." + +"You don't know how she loves it," the girl said, doubtfully. + +"Come! Call her in. If I'm to be a prince you mustn't doubt my power." + +Nor did the event prove him over-confident. Before he had fairly made +known his request the good lady of the house was ready to surrender not +only her best Sunday gown, but her fluttering heart as well. Murray +O'Neil had a way of making people do what he wanted, and women +invariably yielded to him. + + + + +IV + +HOW A JOURNEY ENDED AT HOPE + + +To Natalie Gerard the trip down the bay and into the sound that night +was a wonderful adventure. She remembered it afterward far more vividly +than the shipwreck, which became blurred in retrospect, so that she +soon began to think of it as of some half-forgotten nightmare. To begin +with, the personality of Murray O'Neil intrigued her more and more. The +man was so strong, so sympathetic, and he had such a resistless way of +doing things. The stories she had heard of him were romantic, and the +superintendent's wife had not allowed them to suffer in the telling. +Natalie felt elated that such a remarkable person should exert himself +on her behalf. And the journey itself impressed her imagination deeply. + +Although it was nine o'clock when they boarded the launch, it was still +light. The evening was yellow with the peculiar diffused radiance of +high latitudes, lending a certain somberness to their surroundings. + +The rushing tide, the ragged rock-teeth which showed through it, the +trackless, unending forests that clothed the hills in every direction, +awed her a little, yet gave her an unaccustomed feeling of freedom and +contentment. The long wait out between the lonely islands, where the +tiny cockle-shell rolled strangely, although the sea seemed as level as +a floor, held a subtle excitement. Darkness crept down out of the +unpeopled gorges and swallowed them up, thrilling her with a sense of +mystery. + +When midnight came she found that she was ravenously hungry, and she +was agreeably surprised when O'Neil produced an elaborate lunch. There +were even thermos bottles filled with steaming hot coffee, more +delicious, she thought, than anything she had ever before tasted. He +called the meal their after-theater party, pretending that they had +just come from a Broadway melodrama of shipwreck and peril. The subject +led them naturally to talk of New York, and she found he was more +familiar with the city than she. + +"I usually spend my winters there," he explained. + +"Then you have an office in the city?" + +"Oh yes. I've maintained a place of business there for years." + +"Where is it? On Wall Street?" + +"No!" he smiled. "On upper Fifth Avenue. It's situated in the extreme +southwest corner of the men's cafe at the Holland House. It consists of +a round mahogany table and a leather settee." + +"Really!" + +"That's where I'm to be found at least four months out of every twelve." + +"They told me you built railroads." + +"I do--when I'm lucky enough to underbid my competitors. But that isn't +always, and railroads aren't built every day." + +"Mr. Gordon is building one." + +"So I'm told." O'Neil marveled at the trick of fortune which had +entangled this girl and her mother in the web of that brilliant and +unscrupulous adventurer. + +"Perhaps it will be a great success like your famous North Pass & Yukon +Railway." + +"Let us hope so." He was tempted to inquire what use Gordon had made of +that widely advertised enterprise in floating his own undertaking, but +instead he asked: + +"Your mother has invested heavily, has she not?" + +"Not in the railroad. Her fortune, and mine too, is all in the coal +mines." + +O'Neil smothered an exclamation. + +"What is it?" she demanded. + +"Nothing, only--are you sure?" + +"Oh, quite sure! The mines are rich, aren't they?" + +"There are no mines," he informed her, "thanks to our misguided +lawmakers at Washington. There are vast deposits of fine coal which +would--make mines if we were allowed to work them, but--we are not +allowed." + +"'We'? Are you a--a coal person, like us?" + +"Yes. I was one of the first men in the Kyak fields, and I invested +heavily. I know Mr. Gordon's group of claims well. I have spent more +than a hundred thousand dollars trying to perfect my titles and I'm no +nearer patent now than I was to begin with--not so near, in fact. I +fancy Gordon has spent as much and is in the same fix. It is a coal +matter which brings me to Alaska now." + +"I hardly understand." + +"Of course not, and you probably won't after I explain. You see the +Government gave us--gave everybody who owns coal locations in +Alaska--three years in which to do certain things; then it extended +that time another three years. But recently a new Secretary of the +Interior has come into office and he has just rescinded that later +ruling, without warning, which gives us barely time to comply with the +law as it first stood. For my part, I'll have to hustle or lose +everything I have put in. You see? That's why I hated to see those +horses drown, for I intended to use them in reaching the coal-fields. +Now I'll have to hire men to carry their loads. No doubt Mr. Gordon has +arranged to protect your holdings, but there are hundreds of claimants +who will be ruined." + +"I supposed the Government protected its subjects," said the girl, +vaguely. + +"One of the illusions taught in the elementary schools," laughed +O'Neil. "We Alaskans have found that it does exactly the opposite! We +have found it a harsh and unreasonable landlord. But I'm afraid I'm +boring you." He wrapped her more snugly in her coverings, for a chill +had descended with the darkness, then strove to enliven her with +stories garnered from his rich experience--stories which gave her +fascinating glimpses of great undertakings and made her feel personally +acquainted with people of unfamiliar type, whose words and deeds, +mirthful or pathetic, were always refreshingly original. Of certain +individuals he spoke repeatedly until their names became familiar to +his hearer. He called them his "boys" and his voice was tender as he +told of their doings. + +"These men are your staff?" she ventured. + +"Yes. Every one who succeeds in his work must have loyal hands to help +him." + +"Where are they now?" + +"Oh! Scattered from Canada to Mexico, each one doing his own particular +work. There's Mellen, for instance; he's in Chihuahua building a +cantilever bridge. He's the best steel man in the country. McKay, my +superintendent, is running a railroad job in California. 'Happy Tom' +Slater--" + +"The funny man with the blues?" + +"Exactly! He was at work on a hydraulic project near Dawson the last I +heard of him. Dr. Gray is practising in Seattle, and Parker, the chief +engineer, has a position of great responsibility in Boston. He is the +brains of our outfit, you understand; it was really he who made the +North Pass & Yukon possible. The others are scattered out in the same +way, but they'd all come if I called them." The first note of pride she +had detected crept into his voice when he said: "My 'boys' are never +idle. They don't have to be, after working with me." + +"And what is your part of the work?" asked the girl. + +"I? Oh, I'm like Marcelline, the clown at the Hippodrome--always +pretending to help, but forever keeping underfoot. When it becomes +necessary I raise the money to keep the performance going." + +"Do you really mean that all those men would give up their positions +and come to you if you sent for them?" + +"By the first train, or afoot, if there were no other way. They'd +follow me to the Philippines or Timbuctoo, regardless of their homes +and their families." + +"That is splendid! You must feel very proud of inspiring such loyalty," +said Natalie. "But why are you idle now? Surely there are railroads to +be built somewhere." + +"Yes, I was asked to figure on a contract in Manchuria the other day. I +could have had it easily, and it would have meant my everlasting +fortune, but--" + +"But what?" + +"I found it isn't a white man's country. It's sickly and unsafe. Some +of my 'boys' would die before we finished it, and the game isn't worth +that price. No, I'll wait. Something better will turn up. It always +does." + +As Natalie looked upon that kindly, square-hewn face with its tracery +of lines about the eyes, its fine, strong jaw, and its indefinable +expression of power, she began to understand more fully why those with +whom she had talked had spoken of Murray O'Neil with an almost +worshipful respect. She felt very insignificant and purposeless as she +huddled there beside him, and her complacence at his attentions +deepened into a vivid sense of satisfaction. Thus far he had spoken +entirely of men; she wondered if he ever thought of women, and thrilled +a bit at the intimacy that had sprung up between them so quickly and +naturally. + +It confirmed her feeling of prideful confidence in the man that the +north-bound freighter should punctually show her lights around the +islands and that she should pause in her majestic sweep at the signal +of this pigmy craft. The ship loomed huge and black and terrifying as +the launch at length drew in beneath it; its sides towered like +massive, unscalable ramparts. There was a delay; there seemed to be +some querulousness on the part of the officer in command at being thus +halted, some doubt about allowing strangers to come aboard. But the +girl smiled to herself as the voices flung themselves back and forth +through the night. Once they learned who it was that called from the +sea their attitude would quickly change. Sure enough, in a little while +orders were shouted from the bridge; she heard men running from +somewhere, and a rope ladder came swinging down. O'Neil was lifting her +from her warm nest of rugs now and telling her to fear nothing. The +launch crept closer, coughing and shuddering as if in terror at this +close contact. There was a brief instant of breathlessness as the girl +found herself swung out over the waters; then a short climb with +O'Neil's protecting hand at her waist and she stood panting, radiant, +upon steel decks which began to throb and tremble to the churning +engines. + +One further task remained for her protector's magic powers. It appeared +that there were no quarters on the ship for women, but after a subdued +colloquy between Murray and the captain she was led to the cleanest and +coziest of staterooms high up near the bridge. Over the door she +glimpsed a metal plate with the words "First Officer" lettered upon it. +O'Neil was bidding her good night and wishing her untroubled rest, then +almost before she had accustomed herself to her new surroundings an +immaculate, though sleepy, Japanese steward stood before her with a +tray. He was extremely cheerful for one so lately awakened, being still +aglow with pleased surprise over the banknote which lay neatly folded +in his waistcoat pocket. + +Natalie sat cross-legged on her berth and munched with the appetite of +a healthy young animal at the fruit and biscuits and lovely heavy cake +which the steward had brought. She was very glad now that she had +disobeyed her mother. It was high time, indeed, to assert herself, for +she was old enough to know something of the world, and her judgment of +men was mature enough to insure perfect safety--that much had been +proved. She felt that her adventure had been a great success +practically and romantically. She wanted to lie awake and think it over +in detail, but she soon grew sleepy. Just before she dozed off she +wondered drowsily if "The Irish Prince" had found quarters for himself, +then reflected that undoubtedly the captain had been happy to tumble +out of bed for him. Or perhaps he felt no fatigue and would watch the +night through. Even now he might be pacing the deck outside her door. +At any rate, he was not far off. She closed her eyes, feeling +deliciously secure and comfortable. + +In one way the southern coast of Alaska may be said to be perhaps a +million years younger than any land on this continent, for it is still +in the glacial period. The vast alluvial plains and valleys of the +interior are rimmed in to the southward and shut off from the Pacific +by a well-nigh impassable mountain barrier, the top of which is capped +with perpetual snow. Its gorges, for the most part, run rivers of ice +instead of water. Europe has nothing like these glaciers which overflow +the Alaskan valleys and submerge the hills, for many of them contain +more ice than the whole of Switzerland. This range is the Andes of the +north, and it curves westward in a magnificent sweep, hugging the shore +for a thousand leagues. Against it the sea beats stormily; its frozen +crest is played upon by constant rains and fogs and blizzards. But over +beyond lies a land of sunshine, of long, dry, golden summer days. + +Into this chaos of cliff and peak and slanting canyon, midway to the +westward, is let King Phillip Sound, a sheet of water dotted with +islands and framed by forests. It reaches inland with long, crooked +tentacles which end like talons, in living ice. Hidden some forty miles +up one of these, upon the moraine of a receding glacier, sits Cortez, a +thriving village and long the point of entry to the interior, the +commencement of the overland trail to the golden valleys of the Yukon +and the Tanana. The Government wagon trail winds in from here, tracing +its sinuous course over one pass after another until it emerges into +the undulating prairies of the "inside country." + +Looking at the map, one would imagine that an easier gateway to the +heart of Alaska would be afforded by the valley of the Salmon River, +which enters the ocean some few miles to the eastward of King Phillip +Sound, but there are formidable difficulties. The stream bursts the +last rampart of the Coast Range asunder by means of a canyon down which +it rages in majestic fury and up which no craft can navigate. Then it +spreads itself out through a dozen shallow mouths across a forty-mile +delta of silt and sand and glacial wash. As if Nature feared her arctic +strong-box might still be invaded by this route, she has placed +additional safeguards to the approach in the form of giant glaciers, +through the very bowels of which the Salmon River is forced to burrow. + +In the early days of the Klondike rush men had attempted to ascend the +valley, but they had succeeded only at the cost of such peril and +disaster that others were warned away. The region had become the source +of many weird stories, and while the ice-fields could be seen from the +Kyak coal-fields, and on still days their cannonading could be heard +far out at sea, there were few who had ventured to cross the forty-mile +morass which lay below them and thus attempt to verify or to disprove +the rumors. + +It was owing to these topographical conditions that Cortez had been +established as the point of entry to the interior; it was because of +them that she had grown and flourished, with her sawmills and her +ginmills, her docks, and her dives. But at the time when this story +opens Alaska had developed to a point where an overland outlet by +winter and a circuitous inlet, by way of Bering Sea and the crooked +Yukon, in summer were no longer sufficient, There was need of a +permanent route by means of which men and freight might come and go +through all the year. The famous North Pass & Yukon Railway, far to the +eastward, afforded transportation to Dawson City and the Canadian +territory, and had proven itself such a financial success that builders +began to look for a harbor, more to the westward, from which they could +tap the great heart of Alaska. Thus it was that Cortez awoke one +morning to find herself selected as the terminus of a new line. Other +railway propositions followed, flimsy promotion schemes for the most +part, but among them two that had more than paper and "hot air" behind +them. One of these was backed by the Copper Trust which had made heavy +mining investments two hundred miles inland, the other by Curtis +Gordon, a promoter, who claimed New York as his birthplace and the +world as his residence. + +Gordon had been one of the first locaters in the Kyak coal-fields, and +he had also purchased a copper prospect a few miles down the bay from +Cortez, where he had started a town which he called Hope. There were +some who shook their heads and smiled knowingly when they spoke of that +prospect, but no one denied that it was fast assuming the outward +semblance of a mine under Gordon's direction. He had erected a fine +substantial wharf, together with buildings, bunk-houses, cottages, and +a spacious residence for himself; and daily the piles of debris beneath +the tunnel entries to his workings grew. He paid high wages, he spent +money lavishly, and he had a magnificent and compelling way with him +that dazzled and delighted the good people of Cortez. When he began +work on a railroad which was designed to reach far into the interior +his action was taken as proof positive of his financial standing, and +his critics were put down as pessimists who had some personal grudge +against him. + +It was up to the raw, new village of Hope, with its odor of fresh-cut +fir and undried paint, that the freight-steamer with Natalie Gerard and +"The Irish Prince" aboard, came gingerly one evening. + +O'Neil surveyed the town with some curiosity as he approached, for +Gordon's sensational doings had interested him greatly. He was +accustomed to the rapid metamorphoses of a growing land; it was his +business, in fact, to win the wilderness over to order, and therefore +he was not astonished at the changes wrought here during his absence. +But he was agreeably surprised at the businesslike arrangement of the +place, and the evidence that a strong and practised hand had guided its +development. + +Even before the ship had tied up he had identified the tall, impressive +man on the dock as the genius and founder of Hope, and the dark-haired, +well-formed woman beside him as Natalie's mother. It was not until they +were close at hand that the daughter made her presence known; then, +unable to restrain herself longer, she shrieked her greeting down over +the rail. Mrs. Gerard started, then stared upward as if at an +apparition; she stretched out a groping hand to Gordon, who stood as if +frozen in his tracks. They seemed to be exchanging hurried words, and +the man appeared to be reassuring his companion. It looked very odd to +O'Neil; but any suspicion that Natalie was unwelcome disappeared when +she reached the dock. Her mother's dark eyes were bright with unshed +tears of gladness, her face was transfigured, she showed the strong, +repressed emotion of an undemonstrative nature as they embraced. +Natalie clung to her, laughing, crying, bombarding her with questions, +begging forgiveness, and babbling of her adventures. Their resemblance +was striking, and in point of beauty there seemed little to choose +between them. They might have been nearly of an age, except that the +mother lacked the girl's restless vivacity. + +O'Neil remained in the background, like an uncomfortable bridegroom, +conscious meanwhile of the searching and hostile regard of Curtis +Gordon. But at last his protegee managed to gasp out in a more or less +coherent manner the main facts of the shipwreck and her rescue, +whereupon Gordon's attitude abruptly altered. + +"My God!" he ejaculated. "You were not on the Nebraska?" + +"Yes, yes, yes!" cried Natalie. "The life-boats went off and left me +all alone--in the dark--with the ship sinking! Mr. O'Neil saved me. He +took me up and jumped just as the ship sank, and we were all night in +the freezing water. We nearly died, didn't we? He fainted, and so did +I, mummie dear--it was so cold. He held me up until we were rescued, +though, and then there wasn't room in the life-boat for both of us. But +he made them take me in, just the same, while he stayed in the water. +He was unconscious when he reached the shore. Oh, it was splendid!" + +O'Neil's identity being established, and the nature of his service +becoming apparent, Curtis Gordon took his hand in a crushing grip and +thanked him in a way that might have warmed the heart of a stone +gargoyle. The man was transformed, now that he understood; he became a +geyser of eloquence. He poured forth his appreciation in rounded +sentences; his splendid musical voice softened and swelled and broke +with a magnificent and touching emotion. Through it all the Irish +contractor remained uncomfortably silent, for he could not help +thinking that this fulsome outburst was aroused rather by the man who +had built the North Pass. + +A crowd was collecting round them, but Gordon cleared it away with an +imperious gesture. + +"Come!" he said. "This is no place to talk. Mr. O'Neil's splendid +gallantry renders our mere thanks inane. He must allow us to express +our gratitude in a more fitting manner." + +"Please don't," exclaimed O'Neil, hastily. + +"You are our guest; the hospitality of our house is yours. Hope would +be honored to welcome you, sir, at any time, but under these +circumstances--" + +"I'm going right on to Cortez." + +"The ship will remain here for several hours, discharging freight, and +we insist that you allow us this pleasure meanwhile. You shall spend +the night here, then perhaps you will feel inclined to prolong your +stay. All that Cortez has we have in double proportion--I say it with +pride. Cortez is no longer the metropolis of the region. Hope--Well, I +may say that Cortez is, of all Alaskan cities, the most fortunate, +since it has realized its Hope." He laughed musically. "This town has +come to stay; we intend to annex Cortez eventually. If you feel that +you must go on, I shall deem it a pleasure to send you later in my +motor-boat. She makes the run in fifteen minutes. But you must first +honor our house and our board; you must permit us to pledge your health +in a glass. We insist!" + +"Please!" said Mrs. Gerard. + +"Do come, your Highness," Natalie urged, from the shelter of the elder +woman's arms. + +"You're more than kind," said O'Neil, and together the four turned +their faces to the shore. + + + + +V + +WHEREIN WE SEE CURTIS GORDON AND OTHERS + + +Curtis Gordon's respect for his guest increased as they walked up the +dock, for, before they had taken many steps, out from the crowd which +had gathered to watch the ship's arrival stepped one of his foremen. +This fellow shook hands warmly with O'Neil, whereupon others followed, +one by one--miners, day laborers, "rough-necks" of many nationalities. +They doffed their hats-something they never did for Gordon--and +stretched out grimy hands, their faces lighting up with smiles. O'Neil +accepted their greetings with genuine pleasure and called them by name. + +"We just heard you was shipwrecked," said Gordon's foreman, anxiously. +"You wasn't hurt, was you?" + +"Not in the least." + +"God be praised! There's a lot of the old gang at work here." + +"So I see." + +"Here's Shorty, that you may remember from the North Pass." The speaker +dragged from the crowd a red-faced, perspiring ruffian who had hung +back with the bashfulness of a small boy. "He's the fellow you dug out +of the slide at twenty-eight." + +"Connors!" cried O'Neil, warmly. "I'm glad to see you. And how are the +two arms of you?" + +"Better 'n ever they was, the both av them!" Mr. Connors blushed, +doubled his fists and flexed his bulging muscles. "An' why shouldn't +they be, when you set 'em both with your own hands, Misther O'Neil? +'Twas as good a job as Doc Gray ever done in the hospittle. I hope +you're doin' well, sir." He pulled his forelock, placed one foot behind +the other, and tapped it on the planking, grinning expansively. + +"Very well indeed, thank you." + +O'Neil's progress was slow, for half the crowd insisted upon shaking +his hand and exchanging a few words with him. Clumsy Swedes bobbed +their heads, dark-browed foreign laborers whose nationality it was hard +to distinguish showed their teeth and chattered words of greeting. + +"Bless my soul!" Gordon exclaimed, finally. + +"You know more of them than I do." + +"Yes! I seldom have to fire a man." + +"Then you are favored of the gods. Labor is my great problem. It is the +supreme drawback of this country. These people drift and blow on every +breeze, like the sands of the Sahara. With more and better help I could +work wonders here." + +Unexpected as these salutations had been, O'Neil's greatest surprise +came a moment later as he passed the first of the company buildings. +There he heard his name pronounced in a voice which halted him, and in +an open doorway he beheld a huge, loose-hung man of tremendous girth, +with a war-bag in his hand and a wide black hat thrust back from a +shiny forehead. + +"Why, Tom!" he exclaimed. "Tom Slater!" + +Gordon groaned and went on with the women, saying: "Come up to the +house when you escape, Mr. O'Neil. I shall have dinner served." + +Mr. Slater came forward slowly, dragging his clothes-bag with him. The +two shook hands. + +"What in the world are you doing here, Tom?" + +"Nothing!" said Slater. He had a melancholy cast of feature, utterly +out of keeping with his rotund form. In his eye was the somber glow of +a soul at war with the flesh. + +"Nothing?" + +"I had a good job, putting in a power plant for his nibs"--he indicated +the retreating Gordon with a disrespectful jerk of the thumb--"but I +quit." + +"Not enough pay?" + +"Best wages I ever got. He pays well." + +"Poor grub?" + +"Grub's fine." + +"What made you quit?" + +"I haven't exactly quit, but I'm going to. When I saw you coming up the +dock I said: 'There's the chief! Now he'll want me.' So I began to +pack." The speaker dangled his partly filled war-bag as evidence. In an +even sourer tone he murmured: + +"Ain't that just me? I ain't had a day's luck since Lincoln was shot. +The minute I get a good job along you come and spoil it." + +"I don't want you," laughed O'Neil. + +But Slater was not convinced. He shook his head. + +"Oh yes, you do. You've got something on or you wouldn't be here. I've +been drawing pay from you now for over five minutes." + +O'Neil made a gesture of impatience. + +"No! No! In the first place, I have nothing for you to do; in the +second place, I probably couldn't afford the wages Gordon is paying +you." + +"That's the hell of it!" gloomily agreed "Happy Tom." "Where are your +grips? I'll begin by carrying them." + +"I haven't any. I've been shipwrecked. Seriously, Tom, I have no place +for you." + +The repetition of this statement made not the smallest impression upon +the hearer. + +"You'll have one soon enough," he replied. Then with a touch of spirit, +"Do you think I'd work for this four-flusher if you were in the +country?" + +"Hush!" O'Neil cast a glance over his shoulder. "By the way, how do you +happen to be here? I thought you were in Dawson." + +"I finished that job. I was working back toward ma and the children. I +haven't seen them for two years." + +"You think Gordon is a false alarm?" + +"Happy Tom" spat with unerring accuracy at a crack, then said: + +"He's talking railroads! Railroads! Why, I've got a boy back in the +state of Maine, fourteen years old--" + +"Willie?" + +"Yes. My son Willie could skin Curtis Gordon at railroad-building--and +Willie is the sickly one of the outfit. But I'll hand it to Gordon for +one thing; he's a money-getter and a money-spender. He knows where the +loose stone in the hearth is laid, and he knows just which lilac bush +the family savings are buried under. Those penurious Pilgrim Fathers in +my part of the country come up and drop their bankbooks through the +slot in his door every morning. He's the first easy money I ever had; +I'd get rich off of him, but"--Slater sighed--"of course you had to +come along and wrench me away from the till." + +"Don't quit on my account," urged his former chief. "I'm up here on +coal matters. I can't take time to explain now, but I'll see you later." + +"Suit yourself, only don't keep me loafing on full time. I'm an +expensive man. I'll be packed and waiting for you." + +O'Neil went on his way, somewhat amused, yet undeniably pleased at +finding his boss packer here instead of far inland, for Slater's +presence might, after all, fit well enough into his plans. + +"The Irish Prince" had gained something of a reputation for +extravagance, but he acknowledged himself completely outshone by the +luxury with which Curtis Gordon had surrounded himself at Hope. The +promoter had spoken of his modest living-quarters--in reality they +consisted of a handsome twenty-room house, furnished with the elegance +of a Newport cottage. The rugs were thick and richly colored; the +furniture was of cathedral oak and mahogany. In the library were deep +leather chairs and bookcases, filled mainly with the works of French +and German authors of decadent type. The man's taste in art was +revealed by certain pictures, undeniably clever, but a little too +daring. He was undoubtedly a sybarite, yet he evidently possessed rare +energy and executive force. It was an unusual combination. + +The dinner was notable mainly for its lavish disregard of expense. +There were strawberries from Seattle, fresh cream and butter from +Gordon's imported cows, cheese prepared expressly for him in France, +and a champagne the date of which he took pains to make known. + +On the whole he played the part of host agreeably enough and his +constant flow of talk was really entertaining. His anecdotes embraced +three continents; his wit, though Teutonic, was genial and +mirth-provoking. When Mrs. Gerard took time from her worshipful regard +of her daughter to enter the conversation, she spoke with easy charm +and spontaneity. As for Natalie, she was intoxicated with delight; she +chattered, she laughed, she interrupted with the joyful exuberance of +youth. + +Under such circumstances the meal should have proved enjoyable, yet the +guest of honor had never been more ill at ease. Precisely what +accounted for the feeling he could not quite determine. Somewhere back +in his mind was a suspicion that things were not as they should be, +here in this house of books and pictures and incongruities. He told +himself that he should not be so narrow-minded as to resent Gloria +Gerard's presence here, particularly since she herself had told him +that her friendship for Gordon dated back many years. Nevertheless, the +impression remained to disturb him. + +"You wonder, perhaps, why I have been so extravagant with my +living-quarters," said Gordon, as they walked into the library, "but it +is not alone for myself. You see I have people associated with me who +are accustomed to every comfort and luxury and I built this house for +them. Mrs. Gerard has been kind enough to grace the establishment with +her presence, and I expect others of my stock-holders to do likewise. +You see, I work in the light, Mr. O'Neil; I insist upon the broadest +publicity in all my operations, and to that end I strive to bring my +clients into contact with the undertaking itself. For instance, I am +bringing a party of my stockholders all the way from New York, at my +own expense, just to show them how their interests are being +administered. I have chartered a special train and a ship for them, and +of course they must be properly entertained while here." + +"Quite a scheme," said O'Neil. + +"I wanted to show them this marvelous country, God's wonderland of +opportunity. They will return impressed by the solidity and permanence +of their investment." + +Certainly the man knew how to play his game. No more effective means of +advertising, no more profitable stock-jobbing scheme could be devised +than a free trip of that sort and a tour of Alaska under the watchful +guidance of Curtis Gordon. If any member of the party returned +unimpressed it would not be the fault of the promoter; if any one of +them did not voluntarily go out among his personal friends as a +missionary it would be because Gordon's magnetism had lost its power. +O'Neil felt a touch of unwilling admiration. + +"I judge, from what you say, that the mine gives encouragement," he +ventured, eying his host curiously through a cloud of tobacco smoke. + +"'Encouragement' is not the word. Before many years 'Hope Consolidated' +will be listed on the exchanges of the world along with 'Amalgamated' +and the other great producers. We have here, Mr. O'Neil, a tremendous +mountain of ore, located at tide water, on one of the world's finest +harbors. The climate is superb; we have coal near at hand for our own +smelter. The mine only requires systematic development under competent +hands." + +"I was in Cortez when Lars Anderson made his first discovery here, and +I had an option on all this property. I believe the price was twelve +hundred dollars; at any rate, it was I who drove those tunnels you +found when you bought him out." + +Gordon's eyes wavered briefly, then he laughed. + +"My dear sir, you have my sincere sympathy. Your poison, my meat--as it +were, eh? You became discouraged too soon. Another hundred feet of work +and you would have been justified in paying twelve hundred thousand +dollars. This 'Eldorado' which the Copper Trust has bought has a +greater surface showing than 'Hope,' I grant; but--it lies two hundred +miles inland, and there is the all-important question of transportation +to be solved. The ore will have to be hauled, or smelted on the ground, +while we have the Kyak coal-fields at our door. The Heidlemanns are +building a railroad to it which will parallel mine in places, but the +very nature of their enterprise foredooms it to failure." + +"Indeed? How so?" + +"My route is the better. By a rigid economy of expenditure, by a +careful supervision of detail, I can effect a tremendous saving over +their initial cost. I hope to convince them of the fact, and thus +induce them to withdraw from the field or take over my road at--a +reasonable figure. Negotiations are under way." + +At this talk of economy from Curtis Gordon O'Neil refrained from +smiling with difficulty. He felt certain that the man's entire +operations were as unsound as his statement that he could bring the +Trust to terms. Yet Gordon seemed thoroughly in earnest. Either he +expected to fool his present hearer, or else he had become hypnotized +by the spell of his own magnificent twaddle--O'Neil could not tell +which. + +"Who laid out your right-of-way?" he asked with some interest. + +"A very able young engineer, Dan Appleton. An excellent man, +but--unreliable in certain things. I had to let him go, this very +afternoon, in fact, for insubordination. But I discharged him more for +the sake of discipline than anything else. He'll be anxious to return +in a few days. Now tell me"--Gordon fixed his visitor with a bland +stare which failed to mask his gnawing curiosity--"what brings you to +King Phillip Sound? Are we to be rivals in the railroad field?" + +"No. There are enough projects of that sort in the neighborhood for the +present." + +"Five, all told, but only one destined to succeed." + +"I'm bound for the Kyak coal-fields to perfect and amend my surveys +under the new ruling." + +"Ah! I've heard about that ruling." + +"Heard about it?" exclaimed O'Neil. "Good Lord! Haven't you complied +with it?" + +"Not yet." + +"You surely intend to do so?" + +"Oh yes--I suppose so." + +"If you don't you'll lose--" + +"I'm not sure we can ever win." + +"Nonsense!" + +"I'm not sure that it's wise to put more good money into those coal +claims," said Gordon. "This ruling will doubtless be reversed as the +others have been. One never knows what the Land Office policy will be +two days at a time." + +"You know your own business," O'Neil remarked after a pause, "but +unless you have inside information, or a bigger pull in Washington than +the rest of us, I'd advise you to get busy. I'll be on my way to Kyak +in the morning with a gang of men." Gordon's attitude puzzled him, for +he could not bring himself to believe that such indifference was +genuine. + +"We have been treated unfairly by the Government." + +"Granted!" + +"We have been fooled, cheated, hounded as if we were a crowd of +undesirable aliens, and I'm heartily sick of the injustice. I prefer to +work along lines of least resistance. I feel tempted to let Uncle Sam +have my coal claims, since he has lied to me and gone back on his +promise, and devote myself to other enterprises which offer a certainty +of greater profits. But"--Gordon smiled deprecatingly--"I dare say I +shall hold on, as you are doing, until that fossilized bureau at +Washington imposes some new condition which will ruin us all." + +Remembering Natalie's statement that her own and her mother's fortunes +were tied up in the mines, O'Neil felt inclined to go over Gordon's +head and tell the older woman plainly the danger of delay in complying +with the law, but he thought better of the impulse. Her confidence in +this man was supreme and it seemed incredible that Gordon should +jeopardize her holdings and his own. More likely his attitude was just +a part of his pose, designed to show the bigness of his views and to +shed a greater luster upon his railroad project. + +It was difficult to escape from the hospitality of Hope, and O'Neil +succeeded in doing so only after an argument with Natalie and her +mother. They let him go at last only upon his promise to return on his +way back from the coal-fields, and they insisted upon accompanying him +down to the dock, whither Gordon had preceded them in order to have his +motor-boat in readiness. + +As they neared the landing they overheard the latter in spirited debate +with "Happy Tom" Slater. + +"But my dear fellow," he was saying, "I can't lose you and Appleton on +the same day." + +"You can't? Why, you've done it!" the fat man retorted, gruffly. + +"I refuse to be left in the lurch this way. You must give more notice." + +Slater shrugged, and without a word tossed his bulging war bag into the +motor-boat which lay moored beneath him. His employer's face was purple +with rage as he turned to Murray and the ladies, but he calmed himself +sufficiently to say: + +"This man is in charge of important work for me, yet he tells me you +have hired him away." + +"Tom!" exclaimed O'Neil. + +"I never said that," protested Slater. "I only told you I was working +for Murray." + +"Well?" + +"I hired myself. He didn't have anything to say about it. I do all the +hiring, firing, and boosting in my department." + +"I appeal to you, O'Neil. I'm short-handed," Gordon cried. + +"I tell you he don't have a word to say about it," Slater declared with +heat. + +Natalie gave a little tinkling laugh. She recognized in this man the +melancholy hero of more than one tale "The Irish Prince" had told her. +Murray did his best, but knowing "Happy Tom's" calm obstinacy of old, +he had no real hope of persuading him. + +"You see how it is," he said, finally. "He's been with me for years and +he refuses to work for any one else while I'm around. If I don't take +him with me he'll follow." + +Mr. Slater nodded vigorously, then imparted these tidings: + +"It's getting late, and my feet hurt." He bowed to the women, then +lowered himself ponderously yet carefully over the edge of the dock and +into the leather cushions of the launch. Once safely aboard, he took a +package of wintergreen chewing-gum from his pocket and began to chew, +staring out across the sound with that placid, speculative enjoyment +which reposes in the eyes of a cow at sunset. + +Curtis Gordon's face was red and angry as he shook hands stiffly with +his guest and voiced the formal hope that they would meet again. + +"I'm glad to be gone," Slater observed as the speed-boat rushed across +the bay. "I'm a family man, and--I've got principles. Gordon's got +neither." + +"It was outrageous for you to walk out so suddenly. It embarrassed me." + +"Oh, he'd let me go without notice if he felt like it. He fired Dan +Appleton this afternoon just for telling the truth about the mine. +That's what I'd have got if I'd stayed on much longer. I was filling up +with words and my skin was getting tight. I'd have busted, sure, inside +of a week." + +"Isn't the mine any good?" + +"It ain't a mine at all. It's nothing but an excavation filled with +damn fools and owned by idiots; still, I s'pose it serves Gordon's +purpose." After a pause he continued: "They tell me that snakes eat +their own young! Gordon ought to call that mine the Anaconda, for it'll +swallow its own dividends and all the money those Eastern people can +raise." + +"I'm sorry for Mrs. Gerard." + +Slater emitted a sound like the moist exhalation of a porpoise as it +rises to the surface. + +"What do you mean by that snort?" asked Murray. + +"It's funny how much some people are like animals. Now the ostrich +thinks that when his head is hid his whole running-gear is out of +sight. Gordon's an ostrich. As for you--you remind me of a mud turtle. +A turtle don't show nothing but his head, and when it's necessary he +can yank that under cover. Gordon don't seem to realize that he sticks +up above the underbrush--either that or else he don't care who sees +him. He and that woman--" + +"Never mind her," exclaimed O'Neil, quickly. "I'm sure you're mistaken." + +Mr. Slater grunted once more, then chewed his gum silently, staring +mournfully into the twilight. After a moment he inquired: + +"Why don't you show these people how to build a railroad, Murray?" + +"No, thank you! I know the country back of here. It's not feasible." + +"The Copper Trust is doing it." + +"All the more reason why I shouldn't. There are five projects under way +now, and there won't be more than enough traffic for one." + +Slater nodded. "Every man who has two dollars, a clean shirt, and a +friend at Washington has got a railroad scheme up his sleeve." + +"It will cost thirty million dollars to build across those three +divides and into the copper country. When the road is done it will be +one of heavy grades, and--" + +"No wonder you didn't get the contract from the Heidlemanns--if your +estimate was thirty million." + +"I didn't put in a figure." + +Tom looked surprised. "Why didn't you? You know them." + +"I was like the little boy who didn't go to the party--I wasn't asked." +The speaker's expression showed that his pride had been hurt and +discouraged further questioning. "We'll hire our men and our boats +to-night," he announced. "I've arranged for that freighter to drop us +off at Omar on her way out. We'll have to row from there to Kyak. I +expected to land my horses at the coast and pack in from Kyak Bay, but +that shipwreck changed my plans. Poor brutes! After my experience I'll +never swim horses in this water again." + +An eleven-o'clock twilight enveloped Cortez when the two men landed, +but the town was awake. The recent railway and mining activity in the +neighborhood had brought a considerable influx of people to King +Phillip Sound, and the strains of music from dance-hall doors, the +click of checks and roulette balls from the saloons, gave evidence of +an unusual prosperity. + +O'Neil had no difficulty in securing men. Once he was recognized, the +scenes at Hope were re-enacted, and there was a general scramble to +enlist upon his pay-roll. Within an hour, therefore, his arrangements +were made, and he and Tom repaired to Callahan's Hotel for a few hours' +sleep. + +A stud game was going on in the barroom when they entered, and O'Neil +paused to watch it while Slater spoke to one of the players, a +clean-cut, blond youth of whimsical countenance. When the two friends +finally faced the bar for their "nightcap" Tom explained: + +"That's Appleton, the fellow Gordon fired to-day. I told him I'd left +the old man flat." + +"Is he a friend of yours?" + +"Sure. Nice boy--good engineer, too." + +"Umph! That game is crooked." + +"No?" "Happy Tom" displayed a flash of interest. + +"Yes, Cortez is fast becoming a metropolis, I see. The man in the derby +hat is performing a little feat that once cost me four thousand dollars +to learn." + +"I'd better split Dan away," said Tom, hastily. + +"Wait! Education is a good thing, even if it is expensive at times. I +fancy your friend is bright enough to take care of himself. Let's wait +a bit." + +"Ain't that just my blamed luck?" lamented Slater. "Now if they were +playing faro I could make a killing. I'd 'copper' Appleton's bets and +'open' the ones he coppered!" + +O'Neil smiled, for "Happy Tom's" caution in money matters was +notorious. "You know you don't believe in gambling," he said. + +"It's not a belief, it's a disease," declared the fat man. "I was born +to be a gambler, but the business is too uncertain. Now that I'm +getting so old and feeble I can't work any more, I'd take it up, only I +broke three fingers and when I try to deal I drop the cards. What are +we going to do?" + +"Just wait," said O'Neil. + + + + +VI + +THE DREAMER + + +Unobserved the two friends watched the poker game, which for a time +proceeded quietly. But suddenly they saw Appleton lean over the table +and address the man with the derby hat; then, thrusting back his chair, +he rose, declaring, in a louder tone: + +"I tell you I saw it. I thought I was mistaken at first." His face was +white, and he disregarded the efforts of his right-hand neighbor to +quiet him. + +"Don't squeal," smiled the dealer. "I'll leave it to the boys if I did +anything wrong." + +"You pulled that king from the bottom. It may not be wrong, but it's +damned peculiar." + +"Forget it!" one of the others exclaimed. "Denny wouldn't double-cross +you." + +"Hardly!" agreed Mr. Denny, evenly. "You're 'in' a hundred and eighty +dollars, but if you're sore you can have it back." + +Appleton flung his cards into the middle of the table and turned away +disgustedly. "It's a hard thing to prove, and I'm not absolutely sure I +saw straight, or--I'd take it back, fast enough." + +Denny shrugged and gathered in the discarded hand. "You've been +drinking too much, that's all. Your eyesight is scattered." + +Appleton's face flushed as he beheld the gaze of the company upon him +and heard the laughter which greeted this remark. He turned to leave +when O'Neil, who had continued to watch the proceedings with interest, +crossed to the group and touched Denny on the shoulder, saying, quietly: + +"Give him his money." + +"Eh?" The smile faded from the fellow's face; he looked up with +startled inquiry. "What?" + +"Give him his money." + +In the momentary hush which followed, "Happy Tom" Slater, who had +frequently seen his employer in action and understood storm signals, +sighed deeply and reached for the nearest chair. With a wrench of his +powerful hands he loosened a leg. Although Mr. Slater abhorred trouble, +he was accustomed to meet it philosophically. A lifetime spent in +construction camps had taught him that, of all weapons, the one best +suited to his use was a pick-handle; second to that he had come to +value the hardwood leg of a chair. But in the present case his +precaution proved needless, for the dispute was over before he had +fairly prepared himself. + +Without waiting for O'Neil to put his accusation into words Denny had +risen swiftly, and in doing so he had either purposely or by accident +made a movement which produced a prompt and instinctive reaction. +Murray's fist met him as he rose, met him so squarely and with such +force that he lost all interest in what followed. The other +card-players silently gathered Mr. Denny in their arms and stretched +him upon a disused roulette table; the bartender appeared with a wet +towel and began to bathe his temples. + +Appleton, dazed by the suddenness of it all, found a stack of gold +pieces in his hand and heard O'Neil saying in an every-day tone: + +"Come to my room, please. I'd like to talk to you." Something +commanding in the speaker's face made the engineer follow against his +will. He longed to loiter here until Denny had regained his senses--but +O'Neil had him by the arm and a moment later he was being led down the +hall away from the lobby and the barroom. As Slater, who had followed, +closed the door behind them, Dan burst forth: + +"By Jove! Why didn't you tell me? I knew he was crooked--but I couldn't +believe--" + +"Sit down!" said O'Neil. "He won't pull himself together for a while, +and I want to get to bed. Are you looking for a job?" + +The engineer's eyes opened wide. + +"Yes." + +"Do you know the Kyak country?" + +"Pretty well." + +"I need a surveyor. Your wages will be the same that Gordon paid and +they begin now, if it's agreeable." + +"It certainly is!" + +"Good! We'll leave at six o'clock, sharp. Bring your bedding and +instruments." + +"Thanks! I--This is a bit of a surprise. Who are you?" + +"I'm O'Neil." + +"Oh!" Mr. Appleton's expression changed quickly. "You're Murray--" He +stammered an instant. "It was very good of you to take my part, after +I'd been fool enough to--" + +"Well--I didn't want to see you make a total idiot of yourself." + +The young man flushed slightly, then in a quieter voice, he asked: + +"How did you know I was out of work?" + +"Mr. Gordon told me. He recommended you highly." + +"He did?" + +"He said you were unreliable, disloyal, and dishonest. Coming from him +I took that as high praise." + +There was a moment's pause, then Appleton laughed boyishly. + +"That's funny! I'm very glad to know you, Mr. O'Neil." + +"You don't, and you won't for a long time. Tom tells me you didn't +think well of Gordon's enterprise and so he fired you." + +"That's right! I suppose I ought to have kept my mouth shut, but it has +a way of flying open when it shouldn't. He is either a fool or a crook, +and his mine is nothing but a prospect. I couldn't resist telling him +so." + +"And his railroad?" + +Appleton hesitated. "Oh, it's as good a route as the Trust's. I worked +on the two surveys. Personally I think both outfits are crazy to try to +build in from here. I had to tell Gordon that, too. You see I'm a +volunteer talker. I should have been born with a stutter--it would have +saved me a lot of trouble." + +O'Neil smiled. "You may talk all you please in my employ, so long as +you do your work. Now get some sleep, for we have a hard trip. And by +the way"--the youth paused with a hand on the doorknob--"don't go +looking for Denny." + +Appleton's face hardened stubbornly. + +"I can't promise that, sir." + +"Oh yes you can! You must! Remember, you're working for me, and you're +under orders. I can't have the expedition held up on your account." + +The engineer's voice was heavy with disappointment, but a vague +admiration was growing in his eyes as he agreed: + +"Very well, sir. I suppose my time is yours. Good night." + +When he had gone "Happy Tom" inquired: + +"Now, why in blazes did you hire him? We don't need a high-priced +surveyor on this job." + +"Of course not, but don't you see? He'd have been arrested, sure. +Besides--he's Irish, and I like him." + +"Humph! Then I s'pose he's got a job for life," said Tom, morosely. +"You make friends and enemies quicker than anybody I ever saw. You've +got Curtis Gordon on your neck now." + +"On account of this boy? Nonsense!" + +"Not altogether. Denny is Gordon's right bower. I think he calls him +his secretary; anyhow, he does Gordon's dirty work and they're thicker +than fleas. First you come along and steal me, underhanded, then you +grab his pet engineer before he has a chance to hire him back again. +Just to top off the evening you publicly brand his confidential +understrapper as a card cheat and thump him on the medulla oblongata--" + +"Are you sure it wasn't the duodenum?" + +"Well, you hit him in a vital spot, and Gordon won't forget it." + +Late on the following morning O'Neil's expedition was landed at the +deserted fishing-station of Omar, thirty miles down the sound from +Cortez. From this point its route lay down the bay to open water and +thence eastward along the coast in front of the Salmon River delta some +forty miles to Kyak. This latter stretch would have been well-nigh +impossible for open boats but for the fact that the numerous mud bars +and islands thrown out by the river afforded a sheltered course. These +inside channels, though shallow, were of sufficient depth to allow +small craft to navigate and had long been used as a route to the +coal-fields. + +Appleton, smiling and cheerful, was the first member of the party to +appear at the dock that morning, and when the landing had been effected +at Omar he showed his knowledge of the country by suggesting a short +cut which would save the long row down to the mouth of the sound and +around into the delta. Immediately back of the old cannery, which +occupied a gap in the mountain rim, lay a narrow lake, and this, he +declared, held an outlet which led into the Salmon River flats. By +hauling the boats over into this body of water--a task made easy by the +presence of a tiny tramway with one dilapidated push-car which had been +a part of the cannery equipment--it would be possible to save much time +and labor. + +"I've heard there was a way through," O'Neil confessed, "but nobody +seemed to know just where it was." + +"I know," the young man assured him. "We can gain a day at least, and I +judge every day is valuable." + +"So valuable that we can't afford to lose one by making a mistake," +said his employer, meaningly. + +"Leave it to me. I never forget a country once I've been through it." + +Accordingly the boats were loaded upon the hand-car and transferred one +at a time. In the interval O'Neil examined his surroundings casually. +He was surprised to find the dock and buildings in excellent condition, +notwithstanding the fact that the station had lain idle for several +years. A solitary Norwegian, with but a slight suspicion of English, +was watching the premises and managed to make known his impression that +poor fishing had led the owners to abandon operations at this point. +He, too, had heard that Omar Lake had an outlet into the delta, but he +was not sure of its existence; he was sure of nothing, in fact except +that it was very lonesome here, and that he had run out of tobacco five +days before. + +But Dan Appleton was not mistaken. A two hours' row across the +mirror-like surface of Omar Lake brought the party out through a hidden +gap in the mountains and afforded them a view across the level delta. +To their left the range they had just penetrated retreated toward the +canon where the Salmon River burst its way out from the interior, and +beyond that point it continued in a coastward swing to Kyak, their +destination. Between lay a flat, trackless tundra, cut by sloughs and +glacial streams, with here and there long tongues of timber reaching +down from the high ground and dwindling away toward the seaward +marshes. It was a desolate region, the breeding-place of sea fowl, the +hunting-ground for the great brown bear. + +O'Neil had never before been so near the canon as this, and the wild +stories he had heard of it recurred to him with interest. He surveyed +the place curiously as the boats glided along, but could see nothing +more than a jumble of small hills and buttes, and beyond them the +dead-gray backs of the twin glaciers coming down from the slopes to +east and west. Beyond the foot-hills and the glaciers themselves the +main range was gashed by a deep valley, through which he judged the +river must come, and beyond that he knew was a country of agricultural +promise, extending clear to the fabulous copper belt whither the +railroads from Cortez were headed. Still farther inland lay the Tanana, +and then the Yukon, with their riches untouched. + +What a pity, what a mockery, it was that this obvious entrance to the +country had been blocked by nature! Just at his back was Omar, with its +deep and sheltered harbor; the lake he had crossed gave a passage +through the guardian range, and this tundra--O'Neil estimated that he +could lay a mile of track a day over it--led right up to the glaciers. +Once through the Coast Range, building would be easy, for the upper +Salmon was navigable, and its banks presented no difficulties to +track-laying. + +He turned abruptly to Appleton, who was pulling an oar. + +"What do you know about that canyon?" he asked. + +"Not much. Nobody knows much, for those fellows who went through in the +gold rush have all left the country. Gordon's right-of-way comes in +above, and so does the Trust's. From there on I know every foot of the +ground." + +"I suppose if either of them gets through to the Salmon the rest will +be easy." + +"Dead easy!" + +"It would be shorter and very much cheaper to build from Omar, through +this way." + +"Of course, but neither outfit knew anything about the outlet to Omar +Lake until I told them--and they knew there was the canon to be +reckoned with." + +"Well?" + +Appleton shook his head. "Look at it! Does it look like a place to +build a railroad?" + +"I can't tell anything about it, from here." + +"I suppose a road could be built if the glaciers were on the same side +of the river, but--they're not. They face each other, and they're +alive, too. Listen!" The oarsmen ceased rowing at Dan's signal, and out +of the northward silence came a low rumble like the sound of distant +cannonading. "We must be at least twenty miles away, in an air line. +The ice stands up alongside the river, hundreds of feet high, and it +breaks off in chunks as big as a New York office-building." + +"You've been up there?" + +"No. But everybody says so, and I've seen glacier ice clear out here in +the delta. They're always moving, too--the glaciers themselves--and +they're filled with crevasses, so that it's dangerous to cross them on +foot even if one keeps back from the river." + +"How did those men get their outfits through in '98?" O'Neil queried. + +"I'm blessed if I know--maybe they flew." After a moment Dan added, +"Perhaps they dodged the pieces as they fell." + +O'Neil smiled. He opened his lips to speak, then closed them, and for a +long time kept his eyes fixed speculatively in the direction of the +canyon. When he had first spoken of a route from Omar he had thrown out +the suggestion with only a casual interest. Now, suddenly, the idea +took strong possession of his mind; it fascinated him with its daring, +its bigness. He had begun to dream. + +The world owes all great achievements to dreamers, for men who lack +vivid imaginations are incapable of conceiving big enterprises. No +matter how practical the thing accomplished, it requires this faculty, +no less than a poem or a picture. Every bridge, every skyscraper, every +mechanical invention, every great work which man has wrought in steel +and stone and concrete, was once a dream. + +O'Neil had no small measure of the imaginative power that makes great +leaders, great inventors, great builders. He was capable of tremendous +enthusiasm; his temperament forever led him to dare what others feared +to undertake. And here he glimpsed a tremendous opportunity. The +traffic of a budding nation was waiting to be seized. To him who gained +control of Alaskan transportation would come the domination of her +resources. Many were striving for the prize, but if there should prove +to be a means of threading that Salmon River canon with steel rails, +the man who first found it would have those other railroad enterprises +at his mercy. The Trust would have to sue for terms or abandon further +effort; for this route was shorter, it was level, it was infinitely +cheaper to improve. The stakes in the game were staggering. The mere +thought of them made his heart leap. The only obstacle, of course, lay +in those glaciers, and he began to wonder if they could not be made to +open. Why not? No one knew positively that they were impregnable, for +no one knew anything certainly about them. Until the contrary had been +proven there was at least a possibility that they were less formidable +than rumor had painted them. + +Camp was pitched late that night far out on the flats. During the +preparation of supper Murray sat staring fixedly before him, deaf to +all sounds and insensible to the activities of his companions. He had +lost his customary breeziness and his good nature; he was curt, +saturnine, unsmiling. Appleton undertook to arouse him from this +abstraction, but Slater drew the young man aside hurriedly with a +warning, + +"Don't do that, son, or you'll wear splints for the rest of the trip." + +"What's the matter with him, anyhow?" Dan inquired. "He was boiling +over with enthusiasm all day, but now--Why, he's asleep sitting up! He +hasn't moved for twenty minutes." + +Tom shook his head, dislodging a swarm of mosquitoes. + +"Walk on your toes, my boy! Walk on your toes! I smell something +cooking--and it ain't supper." + +When food was served O'Neil made a pretense of eating, but rose +suddenly in the midst of it, with the words: + +"I'll stretch my legs a bit." His voice was strangely listless; in his +eyes was the same abstraction which had troubled Appleton during the +afternoon. He left the camp and disappeared up the bank of the stream. + +"Nice place to take a walk!" the engineer observed. "He'll bog down in +half a mile or get lost among the sloughs." + +"Not him!" said Slater. Nevertheless, his worried eyes followed the +figure of his chief as long as it was in sight. After a time he +announced: "Something is coming, but what it is or where it's going to +hit us I don't know." + +Their meal over, the boatmen made down their beds, rolled up in their +blankets, and were soon asleep. Appleton and Tom sat in the smoke of a +smudge, gossiping idly as the twilight approached. From the south came +the distant voice of the sea, out of the north rolled the intermittent +thunder of those falling bergs, from every side sounded a harsh chorus +of water-fowl. Ducks whirred past in bullet-like flight, honkers +flapped heavily overhead, a pair of magnificent snow-white swans soared +within easy gunshot of the camp. An hour passed, another, and another; +the arctic night descended. And through it all the mosquitoes sang +their blood song and stabbed the watchers with tongues of flame. + +"Happy Tom" sang his song, too, for it was not often that he obtained a +listener, and it proved to be a song of infinite hard luck. Mr. Slater, +it seemed, was a creature of many ills, the wretched abiding-place of +aches and pains, of colics, cramps, and rheumatism. He was the target +of misfortune and the sport of fate. His body was the galloping-ground +of strange disorders which baffled diagnosis; his financial affairs +were dominated by an evil genius which betrayed him at every turn. To +top it all, he suffered at the moment a violent attack of indigestion. + +"Ain't that just my luck?" he lamented. "Old 'Indy's got me good, and +there ain't a bit of soda in the outfit." + +Appleton, who was growing more and more uneasy at the absence of his +leader, replied with some asperity: + +"Instead of dramatizing your own discomforts you'd better be thinking +of the boss. I'm going out to look for him." + +"Now don't be a dam' fool," Slater advised. "It would be worth a broken +leg to annoy him when he's in one of these fits. You'd make yourself as +popular as a smallpox patient at a picnic. When he's dreamed his dream +he'll be back." + +"When will that be?" + +"No telling--maybe to-night, maybe to-morrow night." + +"And what are we going to do in the mean time?" + +"Sit tight." Mr. Slater chewed steadily and sighed. "No soda in camp, +and this gum don't seem to lay hold of me! That's luck!" + +Darkness had settled when O'Neil reappeared. He came plunging out of +the brush, drenched, muddy, stained by contact with the thickets; but +his former mood had disappeared and in its place was a harsh, explosive +energy. + +"Tom!" he cried. "You and Appleton and I will leave at daylight. The +men will wait here until we get back." His voice was incisive, its tone +forbade question. + +The youthful engineer stared at him in dismay, for only his anxiety had +triumphed over his fatigue, and daylight was but four hours away. +O'Neil noted the expression, and said, more gently: + +"You're tired, Appleton, I know, but in working for me you'll be called +upon for extraordinary effort now and then. I may not demand more than +an extra hour from you; then again I may demand a week straight without +sleep. I'll never ask it unless it's necessary and unless I'm ready to +do my share." + +"Yes, sir." + +"The sacrifice is big, but the pay is bigger. Loyalty is all I require." + +"I'm ready now, sir." + +"We can't see to travel before dawn. Help Tom load the lightest boat +with rations for five days. If we run short we'll 'Siwash' it." He +kicked off his rubber boots, up-ended them to drain the water out, then +flung himself upon his bed of boughs and was asleep almost before the +two had recovered from their surprise. + +"Five days--or longer!" Slater said, gloomily, as he and Dan began +their preparations. "And me with indigestion!" + +"What does it mean?" queried Appleton. + +"It means I'll probably succumb." + +"No, no! What's the meaning of this change of plan? I can't understand +it." + +"You don't need to," "Happy Tom" informed him, curtly. There was a look +of solicitude in his face as he added, "I wish I'd made him take off +his wet clothes before he went to sleep." + +"Let's wake him up." + +But Slater shook his head. "I'd sooner wake a rattlesnake," said he. + +O'Neil roused the members of his expedition while the sky was reddening +faintly, for he had a mind which worked like an alarm-clock. All except +Appleton had worked for him before, and the men accepted his orders to +await his return with no appearance of surprise. + +With the first clear light he and his two companions set out, rowing up +the estuary of the Salmon until the current became too swift to stem in +that manner. Then landing, they rigged a "bridle" for the skiff, fitted +their shoulders to loops in a ninety-foot tow rope, and began to +"track" their craft up against the stream. It was heartbreaking work. +Frequently they were waist-deep in the cold water. Long "sweepers" with +tips awash in the flood interfered with their efforts. The many +branches of the stream forced them to make repeated crossings, for the +delta was no more than an endless series of islands through which the +current swirled. When dusk overtook them they were wet, weary, and weak +from hunger. With the dawn they were up and at it again, but their task +became constantly more difficult because of the floating glacier ice, +which increased with every mile. They were obliged to exercise the +extremest caution. Hour after hour they strained against the current, +until the ropes bit into their aching flesh, bringing raw places out on +neck and palm. Hour after hour the ice, went churning past, and through +it all came the intermittent echo of the caving glaciers ahead of them. + +Dan Appleton realized very soon whither the journey was leading, and at +thought of actually facing those terrors which loomed so large in +conjecture his pulses began to leap. He had a suspicion of O'Neil's +intent, but dared not voice it. Though the scheme seemed mad enough, +its very audacity fascinated him. It would be worth while to take part +in such an undertaking, even if it ended in failure. And somehow, +against his judgment, he felt that his leader would find a way. + +For the most part, O'Neil was as silent as a man of stone, and only on +those rare occasions when he craved relief from his thoughts did he +encourage Dan to talk. Then he sometimes listened, but more frequently +he did not. Slater had long since become a dumb draught animal, +senseless to discomfort except in the hour of relaxation when he +monotonously catalogued his ills. + +"Are you a married man?" O'Neil inquired once of Dan. + +"Not yet, sir." + +"Family?" + +"Sure! A great big, fine one, consisting of a sister. But she's more +than a family--she's a religion." Receiving encouragement from his +employer's look of interest, he continued: "We were wiped out by the +San Francisco earthquake, and stood in the bread line for a while. We +managed to save four thousand dollars from the wreck, which we divided +equally. Then we started out to make our fortunes. It was her idea." + +"You came to Cortez?" + +"Yes. Money was so easy for me that I lost all respect for it. The town +rang with my mirth for a while. I was an awful fool." + +"Education!" + +"Now it's my ambition to get settled and have her with me. I haven't +had a good laugh, a hearty meal, or a Christian impulse since I left +her." + +"What did she do with her half of the fortune?" + +"Invested it wisely and went to work. I bought little round celluloid +disks with mine; she bought land of some sort with hers. She's a +newspaper woman, and the best in the world--or at least the best in +Seattle. She wrote that big snow-slide story for The Review last fall. +She tells 'em how to raise eight babies on seven dollars a week, or how +to make a full set of library furniture out of three beer kegs, a +packing-case, and an epileptic icebox. She runs the 'Domestic Economy' +column; and she's the sweetest, the cleverest, the most stunning--" + +Appleton's enthusiastic tribute ceased suddenly, for he saw that O'Neil +was once more deaf and that his eyes were fixed dreamily upon the canon +far ahead. + +As the current quickened the progress of the little party became slower +and more exhausting. Their destination seemed to retreat before them; +the river wound back and forth in a maddening series of detours. Some +of the float ice was large now, and these pieces rushed down upon them +like charging horses, keeping them constantly on the alert to prevent +disaster. It seemed impossible that such a flat country could afford so +much fall. "Happy Tom" at length suggested that they tie up and pack +the remaining miles overland, but O'Neil would not hear to this. + +They had slept so little, their labors had been so heavy, that they +were dumb and dull with fatigue when they finally reached the first +bluffs and worked their boat through a low gorge where all the waters +of the Salmon thrashed and icebergs galloped past like a pallid host in +flight. Here they paused and stared with wondering eyes at what lay +before; a chill, damp breath swept over them, and a mighty awe laid +hold of their hearts. + +"Come on!" said O'Neil. "Other men have gone through; we'll do the +same." + +On the evening of the sixth day a splintered, battered poling-boat with +its seams open swung in to the bank where O'Neil's men were encamped, +and its three occupants staggered out. They were gaunt and stiff and +heavy-eyed. Even Tom Slater's full cheeks hung loose and flabby. But +the leader was alert and buoyant; his face was calm, his eyes were +smiling humorously. + +"You'll take the men on to the coal-fields and finish the work," he +told his boss packer later that night. "Appleton and I will start back +to Cortez in the morning. When you have finished go to Juneau and see +to the recording." + +"Ain't that my luck?" murmured the dyspeptic. "Me for Kyak where there +ain't a store, and my gum all wet." + +"Chew it, paper and all," advised Appleton, cheerfully. + +"Oh, the good has all gone out of it now," Slater explained. + +"Meet me in Seattle on the fifteenth of next month," his employer +directed. + +"I'll be there if old 'Indy' spares me. But dyspepsia, with nothing to +eat except beans and pork bosom, will probably lay me in my grave long +before the fifteenth. However, I'll do my best. Now, do you want to +know what I think of this proposition of yours?" He eyed his superior +somberly. + +"Sure; I want all the encouragement I can get, and your views are +always inspiriting." + +"Well, I think it's nothing more nor less than hydrophobia. These +mosquitoes have given you the rabies and you need medical attention. +You need it bad." + +"Still, you'll help me, won't you?" + +"Oh yes," said Tom, "I'll help you. But it's a pity to see a man go +mad." + + + + +VII + +THE DREAM + + +The clerk of the leading hotel in Seattle whirled his register about as +a man deposited a weather-beaten war-bag on the marble floor and leaned +over the counter to inquire: + +"Is Murray O'Neil here?" + +This question had been asked repeatedly within the last two hours, but +heretofore by people totally different in appearance from the one who +spoke now. The man behind the desk measured the stranger with a +suspicious eye before answering. He saw a ragged, loose-hung, fat +person of melancholy countenance, who was booted to the knee and +chewing gum. + +"Mr. O'Neil keeps a room here by the year," he replied, guardedly. + +"Show me up!" said the new-comer as if advancing a challenge. + +A smart reply was on the lips of the clerk, but something in the +other's manner discouraged flippancy. + +"You are a friend of Mr. O'Neil's?" he asked, politely. + +"Friend? Um-m, no! I'm just him when he ain't around." In a loud tone +he inquired of the girl at the news-stand, "Have you got any +wintergreen gum?" + +"Mr. O'Neil is not here." + +The fat man stared at his informant accusingly, "Ain't this the +fifteenth?" he asked. + +"It is." + +"Then he's here, all right!" + +"Mr. O'Neil is not in," the clerk repeated, gazing fixedly over Mr. +Slater's left shoulder. + +"Well, I guess his room will do for me. I ain't particular." + +"His room is occupied at present. If you care to wait you will find--" + +Precisely what it was that he was to find Tom never learned, for at +that moment the breath was driven out of his lungs by a tremendous +whack, and he turned to behold Dr. Stanley Gray towering over him, an +expansive smile upon his face. + +"Look out!" Slater coughed, and seized his Adam's apple. "You made me +swallow my cud." The two shook hands warmly. + +"We've been expecting you, Tom," said the Doctor. "We're all here +except Parker, and he wired he'd arrive to-morrow." + +"Where's Murray?" + +"He's around somewhere." + +Slater turned a resentful, smoldering gaze upon the hotel clerk, and +looked about him for a chair with a detachable leg, but the object of +his regard disappeared abruptly behind the key-rack. + +"This rat-brained party said he hadn't come." + +"He arrived this morning, but we've barely seen him." + +"I left Appleton in Juneau. He'll be down on the next boat." + +"Appleton? Who's he?" Dr. Gray inquired. + +"Oh, he's a new member of the order--initiated last month. He's +learning to be a sleep-hater, like the rest of us. He's recording the +right-of-way." + +"What's in the air? None of us know. We didn't even know Murray's +whereabouts--thought he was in Kyak, until he sounded the tocsin from +New York. The other boys have quit their jobs and I've sold my +practice." + +"It's a railroad!" + +Dr. Gray grinned. "Well! That's the tone I use when I break the news +that it's a girl instead of a boy." + +"It's a railroad," Slater repeated, "up the Salmon River!" + +"Good Lord! What about those glaciers?" + +"Oh, it ain't so much the glaciers and the floating icebergs and the +raging chasms and the quaking tundra--Murray thinks he can overcome +them--it's the mosquitoes and the Copper Trust that are going to figure +in this enterprise. One of 'em will be the death of me, and the other +will bust Murray, if he don't look out. Say, my neck is covered with +bumps till it feels like a dog-collar of seed pearls." + +"Do you think we'll have a fight?" asked the doctor, hopefully. + +"A fight! It'll be the worst massacre since the Little Big Horn. We're +surrounded already, and no help in sight." + +O'Neil found his "boys" awaiting him when he returned to his room. +There was Mellen, lean, gaunt and serious-minded, with the dust of +Chihuahua still upon his shoes; there were McKay, the superintendent, +who had arrived from California that morning; Sheldon, the commissary +man; Elkins; "Doc" Gray; and "Happy Tom" Slater. Parker, the chief +engineer, alone was absent. + +"I sent Appleton in from Cortez," he told them, "to come down the river +and make the preliminary survey into Omar. He cables me that he has +filed his locations and everything is O. K. On my way East I stopped +here long enough to buy the Omar cannery, docks, buildings, and town +site. It's all mine, and it will save us ninety days' work in getting +started." + +"What do you make of that tundra between Omar and the canon?" queried +McKay, who had crossed the Salmon River delta and knew its character. +"It's like calf's-foot jelly--a man bogs down to his waist in it." + +"We'll fill and trestle," said O'Neil. + +"We couldn't move a pile-driver twenty feet." + +"It's frozen solid in winter." + +McKay nodded. "We'll have to drive steam points ahead of every pile, I +suppose, and we'll need Eskimos to work in that cold, but I guess we +can manage somehow." + +"That country is like an apple pie," said Tom Slater--"it's better cold +than hot. There's a hundred inches of rainfall at Omar in summer. We'll +all have web feet when we get out." + +Sheldon, the light-hearted commissary man, spoke up. "If it's as wet as +all that, well need Finns--instead of Eskimos." He was promptly hooted +into silence. + +"I understand those glaciers come down to the edge of the river," the +superintendent ventured. + +"They do!" O'Neil acknowledged, "and they're the liveliest ones I ever +saw. Tom can answer for that. One of them is fully four hundred feet +high at the face and four miles across. They're constantly breaking, +too." + +"Lumps bigger than this hotel," supplemented Slater. "It's quite a +sight--equal to anything in the state of Maine." + +O'Neil laughed with the others at this display of sectional pride, and +then explained: "The problem of passing them sounds difficult, but in +reality it isn't. If those other engineers had looked over the ground +as I did, instead of relying entirely upon hearsay, we wouldn't be +meeting here to-day. Of course I realized that we couldn't build a road +over a moving river of ice, nor in front of one, for that matter, but I +discovered that Nature had made us one concession. She placed her +glaciers on opposite sides of the valley, to be sure, but she placed +the one that comes in from the east bank slightly higher upstream than +the one that comes in from the west. They don't really face each other, +although from the sea they appear to do so. You see the answer?" His +hearers nodded vigorously. "If we cross the river, low down, by a +trestle, and run up the east bank past Jackson glacier until we are +stopped by Garfield--the upper one--then throw a bridge directly +across, and back to the side we started from, we miss them both and +have the river always between them and us. Above the upper crossing +there will be a lot of heavy rock work to do, but nothing unusual, and, +once through the gorge, we come out into the valley, where the other +roads run in from Cortez. They cross three divides, while we run +through on a one-per-cent grade. That will give us a downhill pull on +all heavy freight." + +"Sounds as simple as a pair of suspenders, doesn't it?" inquired +Slater. "But wait till you see it. The gorge below Niagara is stagnant +water compared with the cataract above those glaciers. It takes two +looks to see the top of the mountains. And those glaciers +themselves--Well! Language just gums up and sticks when it comes to +describing them." + +Mellen, the bridge-builder, spoke for the first time, and the others +listened. + +"As I understand it we will cross the river between the glaciers and +immediately below the upper one." + +"Exactly!" + +He shook his head. "We can't build piers to withstand those heavy bergs +which you tell me are always breaking off." + +"I'll explain how we can," said O'Neil. "You've hit the bull's-eye--the +tender spot in the whole enterprise. While the river is narrow and +rapid in front of Jackson--the lower glacier--opposite Garfield there +is a kind of lake, formed, I suppose, when the glacier receded from its +original position. Now then, here lies the joker, the secret of the +whole proposition. This lake is deep, but there is a shallow bar across +its outlet which serves to hold back all but the small bergs. This +gives us a chance to cross in safety. At first I was puzzled to +discover why only the ice from the lower glacier came down-river; then, +when I realized the truth, I knew I had the key to Alaska in my hands. +We'll cross just below this bar. Understand? Of course it all depends +upon Parker's verdict, but I'm so sure his will agree with mine that +I've made my preparations, bought Omar and gathered you fellows +together. We're going to spring the biggest coup in railroad history." + +"Where's the money coming from?" Slater inquired, bluntly. + +"I'm putting in my own fortune." + +"How much is that? I'm dead to all sense of modesty, you see." + +"About a million dollars," said O'Neil. + +"Humph! That won't get us started." + +"I've raised another million in New York." The chief was smiling and +did not seem to resent this inquisitiveness in the least. + +"Nothing but a shoe-string!" + +"My dear 'Happy,'" laughed the builder, "I don't intend to complete the +road." + +"Then--why in blazes are you starting it?" demanded Slater in a +bewilderment which the others evidently shared. "It's one thing to +build a railroad on a contractor's commission, but it's another thing +to build it and pay your own way as you go along. Half a railroad ain't +any good." + +"Once my right-of-way is filed it will put those projects from Cortez +out of business. No one but an imbecile would think of building in from +there with the Omar route made possible. Before we come to that Salmon +River bridge the Copper Trust will have to buy us out!" + +"That's language!" said "Happy Tom" in sudden admiration. "Those are +words I understand. I withdraw my objections and give my consent to the +deal." + +"You are staking your whole fortune on your judgment, as I understand +it," McKay ventured. + +"Every dollar of it," Murray answered. + +"Say, chief, that's gambling some!" young Sheldon remarked with a +wondering look. + +They were deep in their discussion when the telephone broke in noisily. +Sheldon, being nearest to the instrument, answered it. "There's a +newspaper reporter downstairs to interview you," he announced, after an +instant. + +"I don't grant interviews," O'Neil said, sharply. He could not guess by +what evil chance the news of his plans had leaked out. + +"Nothing doing!" Sheldon spoke into the transmitter. He turned again to +his employer. "Operator says the party doesn't mind waiting." + +O'Neil frowned impatiently. + +"Throw him out!" Sheldon directed, brusquely, then suddenly dropped the +receiver as if it had burnt his fingers. "Hell! It's a woman, Murray! +She's on the wire. She thanks you sweetly and says she'll wait." + +"A woman! A newspaper woman!" O'Neil rose and seized the instrument +roughly. His voice was freezing as he said: "Hello! I refuse to be +interviewed. Yes! There's no use--" His tone suddenly altered. "Miss +Appleton! I beg your pardon. I'll be right down." Turning to his +subordinates, he announced with a wry smile: "This seems to terminate +our interview. She's Dan Appleton's sister, and therefore--" He +shrugged resignedly. "Now run along. I'll see you in the morning." + +His "boys" made their way down to the street, talking guardedly as they +went. All were optimistic save Slater, whose face remained shrouded in +its customary gloom. + +"Cheer up, 'Happy'!" Dr. Gray exhorted him. "It's the biggest thing we +ever tackled." + +"Wait! Just wait till you've seen the place," Tom said. + +"Don't you think it can be done?" + +"Nope!" + +"Come, come!" + +"It's impossible! Of course WE'LL do it, but it's impossible, just the +same. It will mean a scrap, too, like none of us ever saw, and I was +raised in a logging-camp where fighting is the general recreation. If I +was young, like the rest of you, I wouldn't mind; but I'm old--and my +digestion's gone. I can't hardly take care of myself any more, Doc. I'm +too feeble to fight or--" He signaled a passing car; it failed to stop +and he rushed after it, dodging vehicles with the agility of a rabbit +and swinging his heavy war-bag as if it weighed no more than a good +resolution. + +O'Neil entered the ladies' parlor with a feeling of extreme annoyance, +expecting to meet an inquisitive, bold young woman bent upon exploiting +his plans and his personality in the usual inane journalistic fashion. +He was surprised and offended that Dan Appleton, in whom he had reposed +the utmost faith, should have betrayed his secret. Publicity was a +thing he detested at all times, and at present he particularly dreaded +its effect. But he was agreeably surprised in the girl who came toward +him briskly with hand outstretched. + +Miss Appleton was her brother's double; she had his frank blue eyes, +his straw-gold hair, his humorous smile and wide-awake look. She was +not by any means beautiful!--her features were too irregular, her nose +too tip-tilted, her mouth too generous for that--but she seemed crisp, +clean-cut, and wholesome What first struck O'Neil was her effect of +boyishness. From the crown of her plain straw "sailor" to the soles of +her sensible walking-boots there was no suggestion of feminine +frippery. She wore a plain shirtwaist and a tailored skirt, and her +hair was arranged simply. The wave in its pale gold was the only +concession to mere prettiness. Yet she gave no impression of deliberate +masculinity. She struck one as merely not interested in clothes, +instinctively expressing in her dress her own boyish directness and her +businesslike absorption in her work. + +"You're furious, of course; anybody would be," she began, then laughed +so frankly that his eyes softened and the wrinkles at their corners +deepened. + +"I fear I was rude before I learned you were Dan's sister," he +apologized. "But you see I'm a bit afraid of newspaper people." + +"I knew you'd struggle--although Dan described you as a perfectly +angelic person." + +"Indeed!" + +"But I'm a real reporter, so I won't detain you long. I don't care +where you were born or where you went to school, or what patent +breakfast-food you eat. Tell me, are you going to build another +railroad?" + +"I hope so. I'm always building roads when my bids are low enough to +secure the contracts; that's my business." + +"Are you going to build one in Alaska?" + +"Possibly! There seems to be an opportunity there--but Dan has probably +told you as much about that as I am at liberty to tell. He's been over +the ground." + +She pursed her lips at him. "You know very well, or you ought to know, +that Dan wouldn't tell me a thing while he's working for you. He hasn't +said a word, but--Is that why you came in frowning like a +thunder-cloud? Did you think he set me on your trail?" + +"I think I do know that he wouldn't do anything really indiscreet." +Murray regarded her with growing favor. There was something about this +boyish girl which awakened the same spontaneous liking he had felt upon +his first meeting with her brother. He surprised her by confessing +boldly: + +"I AM building a railroad--to the interior of Alaska. I've been east +and raised the money, my men are here; we'll begin operations at once." + +"That's what Mr. Gordon told me about his scheme, but he hasn't done +much, so far." + +"My line will put his out of business, also that of the Trust, and the +various wildcat promoters." + +"Where does your road start from?" + +"The town of Omar, on King Phillip Sound, near Hope and Cortez. It will +run up the Salmon River and past the glaciers which those other men +refused to tackle." + +"If I weep, it is for joy," said the girl. "I don't like Curtis Gordon. +I call him Simon Legree." + +"Why?" + +"Well, he impresses me as a real old-time villain--with the +riding-boots and the whip and all that. 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' is my +favorite play, it's so funny. This is a big story you've given me, Mr. +O'Neil." + +"I realize that." + +"It has the biggest news value of anything Alaskan which has 'broken' +for some time. I think you are a very nice person to interview, after +all." + +"Wait! I don't want you to use a word of what I've told you." + +Miss Appleton's clearly penciled brows rose inquiringly. "Then why +didn't you keep still?" + +"You asked me. I told you because you are Dan Appleton's sister. +Nevertheless, I don't want it made public." + +"Let's sit down," said the girl with a laugh. "To tell you the truth, I +didn't come here to interview you for my paper. I'm afraid I've tried +your patience awfully." A faint flush tinged her clear complexion. "I +just came, really, to get some news of Dan." + +"He's perfectly well and happy, and you'll see him in a few days." Miss +Appleton nodded. "So he wrote, but I couldn't wait! Now won't you tell +me all about him--not anything about his looks and his health, but +little unimportant things that will mean something. You see, I'm his +mother and his sister and his sweetheart." + +O'Neil did as he was directed and before long found himself reciting +the details of that trying trip up the Salmon River. He told her how he +had sent the young engineer out to run the preliminary survey for the +new railroad, and added: "He is in a fair way to realize his ambition +of having you with him all the time. I'm sure that will please you." + +"And it is my ambition to make enough money to have him with me," she +announced. With an air of some importance she continued: "I'll tell you +a secret: I'm writing for the magazines--stories!" She sat back +awaiting his enthusiasm. When she saw that it was not forthcoming she +exclaimed: "My! How you do rave over the idea!" + +"I congratulate you, of course, but--" + +"Now don't tell me that you tried it once. Of course you did. I know +it's a harmless disease, like the measles, and that everybody has it +when they're young. Above all, don't volunteer the information that +your own life is full of romance and would make a splendid novel. They +all say that." + +Murray O'Neil felt the glow of personal interest that results from the +discovery in another of a congenial sense of humor. + +"I didn't suppose you had to write," he said. "Dan told me you had +invested your fortune and were on Easy Street." + +"That was poetic license. I fictionized slightly in my report to him +because I knew he was doing so well." + +"Then your investment didn't turn out fortunately?" + +Miss Appleton hesitated. "You seem to be a kindly, trusting person. I'm +tempted to destroy your faith in human nature." + +"Please don't." + +"Yes, I shall. My experience may help you to avoid the pitfalls of high +finance. Well, then, it was a very sad little fortune, to begin with, +like a boy in grammar-school--just big enough to be of no assistance. +But even a boy's-size fortune looked big to me. I wanted to invest it +in something sure--no national-bank stock, subject to the danger of an +absconding cashier, mind you; no government bonds with the possibility +of war to depreciate them; but something stable and agricultural, with +the inexhaustible resources of nature back of it. This isn't my own +language. I cribbed it from the apple-man." + +"Apple-man?" + +"Yes. He had brown eyes, and a silky mustache, and a big irrigation +plan over east of the mountains. You gave him your money and he gave +you a perfectly good receipt. Then he planted little apple trees. He +nursed them tenderly for five years, after which he turned them over to +you with his blessing, and you lived happily for evermore. At least +that was the idea. You couldn't fail to grow rich, for the water always +bubbled through his little ditch and it never froze nor rained to spoil +things, I used to love apples. And then there was my name, which seemed +a good omen. But lately I've considered changing 'Appleton' to 'Berry' +or 'Plummer' or some other kind of fruit." + +"I infer that the scheme failed." O'Neil's eyes were half closed with +amusement. + +"Yes. It was a good scheme, too, except for the fact that the +irrigation ditch ran uphill, and that there wasn't any water where it +started from, and that apples never had been made to grow in that +locality because of something in the soil, and that Brown-eyed Betty's +title to the land wouldn't hold water any more than the ditch. +Otherwise I'm sure he'd have made a success and I'd have spent my +declining years in a rocking-chair under the falling apple blossoms, +eating Pippins and Jonathans and Northern Spies. I can't bear to touch +them now. Life at my boarding-house is one long battle against apple +pies, apple puddings, apple tapioca. Ugh! I hate the very word." + +"I can understand your aversion," laughed O'Neil. "I wonder if you +would let me order dinner for both of us, provided I taboo fruit. +Perhaps I'll think of something more to tell you about Dan. I'm sure he +wouldn't object--" + +"Oh, my card is all the chaperon I need; it takes me everywhere and +renders me superior to the smaller conventionalities." She handed him +one, and he read: + +ELIZA V. APPLETON + +THE REVIEW + +"May I ask what the 'V' stands for?" He held up the card between his +thumb and finger. + +Miss Appleton blushed, for all the world like a boy, then answered, +stiffly: + +"It stands for Violet. But that isn't my fault, and I'm doing my best +to live it down." + + + + +VIII + +IN WHICH WE COME TO OMAR + + +"Miss Appleton," said the editor of The Review, "would you like to take +a vacation?" + +"Is that your delicate way of telling me I'm discharged?" inquired +Eliza. + +"You know very well we wouldn't fire you. But you haven't had a +vacation for three years, and you need a rest." + +"I thought I was looking extremely well, for me." + +"We're going to send you on an assignment--to Alaska--if you'll go." + +"I'm thinking of quitting newspaper-work for good. The magazines pay +better, and I'm writing a book." + +"I know. Perhaps this will just fit in with your plans, for it has to +do with your pet topic of conservation. Those forestry stories of yours +and the article on the Water Power Combination made a hit, didn't they?" + +"I judge so. Anyhow the magazine people want more." + +"Good! Here's your chance to do something big for yourself and for us. +Those Alaskan coal claimants have been making a great effort in +Washington to rush their patents through, and there seems to be some +possibility of their succeeding unless the public wakes up. We want to +show up the whole fraudulent affair, show how the entries were illegal, +and how the agents of the Trust are trying to put over the greatest +steal of the century. It's the Heidlemanns that are back of it--and a +few fellows like Murray O'Neil." + +"O'Neil!" + +"You know him, don't you?" + +"Yes. I interviewed him a year ago last spring, when he started his +railroad." + +"He's fighting for one of the biggest and richest groups of claims. +He's backed by some Eastern people. It's the psychological moment to +expose both the railroad and the coal situation, for the thieves are +fighting among themselves--Gordon, O'Neil, and the Heidlemanns." + +"Mr. O'Neil is no thief," said the girl, shortly. + +"Of course not. He's merely trying to snatch control of an empire, and +to grab ten million dollars' worth of coal, for nothing. That's not +theft, it's financial genius! Fortunately, however, the public is +rousing itself--coming to regard its natural resources as its own and +not the property of the first financier who lays hold of them. Call it +what you will, but give us the true story of the Kyak coal and, above +all, the story of the railroad battle. Things are growing bitter up +there already, and they're bound to get rapidly worse. Give us the news +and we'll play it up big through our Eastern syndicate. You can handle +the magazine articles in a more dignified way, if you choose. A few +good vigorous, fearless, newspaper stories, written by some one on the +ground, will give Congress such a jolt that no coal patents will be +issued this season and no Government aid will be given to the +railroads. You get the idea?" + +"Certainly! But it will take time to do all that." + +"Spend a year at it if necessary. The Review is fighting for a +principle; it will back you to any extent. Isn't it worth a year, two +years, of hard labor, to awaken the American people to the knowledge +that they are being robbed of their birthright? I have several men whom +I could send, but I chose you because your work along this line has +given you a standing. This is your chance, Eliza--to make a big +reputation and to perform a real service to the country. It's a chance +that may never come your way again. Will you go?" + +"Of course I'll go." + +"I knew you would. You're all business, and that's what makes a hit in +this office. You're up against a tough proposition, but I can trust you +to make good on it. You can't fail if you play one interest against the +other, for they're all fighting like Kilkenny cats. The Heidlemanns are +a bunch of bandits; Gordon is a brilliant, unscrupulous promoter; +O'Neil is a cold, shrewd schemer with more brains and daring than any +of the others--he showed that when he walked in there and seized the +Salmon River canon. He broke up all their plans and set the Copper +Trust by the ears, but I understand they've got him bottled up at last. +Here's your transportation--on Saturday's steamer." The editor shook +Miss Appleton's hand warmly as she rose. "Good luck, Eliza! Remember, +we won't balk, no matter how lively your stuff is. The hotter the +better--and that's what the magazines want, too. If I were you, I'd +gum-shoe it. They're a rotten crowd and they might send you back if +they got wise." + +"I think not," said Eliza, quietly. + +The town of Omar lay drenched in mist as the steamer bearing the +representative of The Review drew in at the dock. The whole region was +sodden and rain-soaked, verdant with a lush growth. No summer sun shone +here, to bake sprouting leaves or sear tender grasses. Beneath the +sheltering firs a blanket of moss extended over hill and vale, +knee-deep and treacherous to the foot. The mountain crests were white, +and down every gully streamed water from the melting snows. The country +itself lay on end, as if crumpled by some giant hand, and presented a +tropical blend of colors. There was the gray of fog and low-swept +clouds, the dense, dark green of the spruces, underlaid with the +richer, lighter shades where the summer vegetation rioted. And running +through it all were the shimmering, silent reaches of the sound. + +Omar itself was a mushroom city, sprung up by magic, as if the dampness +at its roots had caused it to rise overnight. A sawmill shrieked +complainingly; a noisy switch-engine shunted rows of flat cars back and +forth, tooting lustily; the rattle of steam-winches and the cries of +stevedores from a discharging freighter echoed against the hillsides. +Close huddled at the water-front lay the old cannery buildings, greatly +expanded and multiplied now and glistening with fresh paint. Back of +them again lay the town, its stumpy, half-graded streets terminating in +the forest like the warty feelers of a stranded octopus. Everywhere was +hurry and confusion, and over all was the ever-present shroud of mist +which thickened into showers or parted reluctantly to let the sun peep +through. + +Dan Appleton, his clothing dewy from the fog, his cheeks bronzed by +exposure, was over the rail before the ship had made fast, and had +Eliza in his arms, crushing her with the hug of a bear. + +"Come up to the house, Sis, quick!" he cried, when the first frenzy of +greeting was over--"your house and mine!" His eyes were dancing, his +face was alight with eagerness. + +"But, Danny," she laughed, squeezing his arm tenderly, "you live with +Mr. O'Neil and all those other men in a horrible, crawling bunk-house." + +"Oh, do I? I'll have you know that our bunk-houses don't crawl. And +besides--But wait! It's a s'prise." + +"A s'prise?" she queried, eagerly. "For me?" + +He nodded. + +"Tell me what it is, quick! You know I never could wait for s'prises." + +"Well, it's a brand-new ultra-stylish residence for just you and me. +When the chief heard you were coming he had a cottage built." + +"Danny! It was only five days ago that I cabled you!" + +"That's really ten days for us, for you see we never sleep. It is +finished and waiting, and your room is in white, and the paint will be +dry to-morrow. He's a wonder!" + +Remembering the nature of her mission, Eliza demurred. "I'm afraid I +can't live there, Dan. You know"--she hesitated--"I may have to write +some rather dreadful things about him." + +"What?" Dan's face fell. "You are going to attack the chief! I had no +idea of that!" He looked genuinely distressed and a little stern. + +She laid a pleading hand upon his arm. "Forgive me, Dan," she said. "I +knew how you would feel, and, to tell the truth, I don't like that part +of it one bit. But it was my big chance--the sort of thing I have been +waiting years for. I couldn't bear to miss it." There was a suspicion +of tears in her eyes. "I didn't think it all out. I just came. Things +get awfully mixed, don't they? Of course I wouldn't attack him +unfairly, but I do believe in conservation--and what could I do but +come here to you?" + +Dan smiled to reassure her. "Perhaps you won't feel like excoriating +him when you learn more about things. I know you wouldn't be unfair. +You'd flunk the job first. Wait till you talk to him. But you can't +refuse his kindness, for a time at least. There's nowhere else for you +to stay, and Murray would pick you up and put you into the cottage, +muck-rake and all, if I didn't. He had to go out on the work this +morning or he'd have been here to welcome you. He sent apologies and +said a lot of nice things, which I've forgotten." + +"Well"--Eliza still looked troubled--"all right. But wait," she cried, +with a swift change of mood. "I've made a little friend, the dearest, +the most useless creature! We shared the same stateroom and we're +sisters. She actually says I'm pretty, so of course I'm her slave for +life." She hurried away in the midst of Dan's loyal protestations that +she WAS pretty--more beautiful than the stars, more pleasing to the eye +than the orchids of Brazil. A moment later she reappeared to present +Natalie Gerard. + +Dan greeted the new arrival with a cordiality in which there was a +trace of shyness unusual with him. "We've made quite a change since you +were up here, Miss Gerard," he remarked. "The ships stop first at Omar +now, you see. I trust it won't inconvenience you." + +"Not in the least," said Natalie. "I shall arrive at Hope quite soon +enough." + +"Omar Khayyam is out in the wilderness somewhere," Eliza informed her +girl friend, "with his book of verses and his jug of wine, I suppose." + +"Mr. O'Neil?" + +"Yes. But he'll be back soon, and meanwhile you are to come up and see +our paradise." + +"It--looks terribly wet," Natalie ventured. "Perhaps we'd better wait +until the rain stops." + +"Please don't," Dan laughed. "It won't stop until autumn and then it +will only change to snow. We don't have much sunshine--" + +"You must! You're tanned like an Indian," his sister exclaimed. + +"That's rust! O'Neil wanted to get a record of the bright weather in +Omar, so he put a man on the job to time it, but the experiment failed!" + +"How so?" + +"We didn't have a stop-watch in town. Now come! Nobody ever catches +cold here--there isn't time." + +He led the two girls ashore and up through the town to a moss-green +bungalow, its newness attested by the yellow sawdust and fresh shavings +which lay about. Amid their exclamations of delight he showed them the +neatly furnished interior, and among other wonders a bedroom daintily +done in white, with white curtains at the mullioned windows and a suite +of wicker furniture. + +"Where he dug all that up I don't know," Dan said, pointing to the bed +and dresser and chairs. "He must have had it hidden out somewhere." + +Eliza surveyed this chamber with wondering eyes. "It makes me feel +quite ashamed," she said, "though, of course, he did it for Dan. When +he discovers my abominable mission he'll probably set me out in the +rain and break all my lead-pencils. But--isn't he magnificent?" + +"He quite overwhelms one," Natalie agreed. "Back in New York, he's been +sending me American Beauties every week for more than a year. It's his +princely way." She colored slightly, despite the easy frankness of her +manner. + +"Oh, he's always doing something like that," Dan informed them, +whereupon his sister exclaimed: + +"You see, Natalie! The man is a viper. If he let his beard grow I'm +sure we'd see it was blue." + +"You shall have an opportunity of judging," came O'Neil's voice from +behind them, and he entered with hands outstretched, smiling at their +surprise. When he had expressed his pleasure at Natalie's presence and +had bidden both her and Eliza welcome to Omar, he explained: + +"I've just covered eighteen miles on a railroad tricycle and my back is +broken. The engines were busy, but I came, anyhow, hoping to arrive +before the steamer. Now what is this I hear about my beard?" + +It was Eliza's turn to blush, and she outdid Natalie. + +"They were raving about your gallantry," said Dan with all a brother's +ruthlessness, "until I told them it was merely a habit of mind with +you; then Sis called you a Bluebeard." + +O'Neil smiled, stroking his stubbly chin. "You see it's only gray." + +"I--don't see," said Eliza, still flushing furiously. + +"You would if I continued to let it grow." + +"Hm-m! I think, myself, it's a sort of bluish gray," said Dan. + +"You are still working miracles," Natalie told O'Neil, an hour later, +while he was showing his visitors the few sights of Omar--"miracles of +kindness, as usual." + +Dan and his sister were following at a distance, arm in arm and +chattering like magpies. + +"No, no! That cottage is nothing. Miss Appleton had to have some place +to stop." + +"This all seems like magic." Natalie paused and looked over the busy +little town. "And to think you have done it in a year." + +"It was not I who did it; the credit belongs to those 'boys' of whom I +told you. They are all here, by the way--Parker, McKay, Mellen, +Sheldon, 'Doc' Gray--he has the hospital, you know." + +"And Mr. Slater?" + +"Oh, we couldn't exist without 'Happy Tom'! No, the only miracle about +all this is the loyalty that has made it possible. It is that which has +broken all records in railroad-building; that's what has pushed our +tracks forward until we're nearly up to one of Nature's real miracles. +You shall see those glaciers, one of these days. Sometimes I wonder if +even the devotion of those men will carry us through the final test. +But--you shall meet them all, to-night--my whole family." + +"I can't. The ship leaves this afternoon." + +"I've arranged to send you to Hope in my motor-boat, just as Mr. Gordon +sent me on my way a year ago. You will stay with the Appletons to-night +and help at the house-warming, then Dan will take you on in the +morning. Women are such rare guests at Omar that we refuse to part with +them. You agree?" + +"How can I refuse? Your word seems to be law here. I'll send word to +mother by the ship that I am detained by royal decree." + +She spoke with a gaiety that seemed a little forced, and at mention of +her departure a subtle change had come over her face. O'Neil realized +that she had matured markedly since his last meeting with her; there +was no longer quite the same effect of naive girlishness. + +"This was a very unhappy year for your loyal subject, Mr. O'Neil." + +"I'm sorry," he declared with such genuine kindliness that she was +moved to confide in him. + +"Mother and I are ruined." + +"Will you tell me about it?" + +"It's merely--those wretched coal claims. I have a friend in the Land +Office at Washington, and, remembering what you said, I asked him to +look them up. I knew no other way to go about it. He tells me that +something was done, or was not done, by us, and that we have lost all +we put in." + +"I urged Gordon to obey that ruling, last spring." Natalie saw that his +face was dark with indignation, and the knowledge that he really cared +set her heart to pounding gratefully. She was half tempted to tell +about that other, that greater trouble which had stolen in upon her +peace of mind and robbed her of her girlhood, but she shrank from +baring her wounds--above all, a wound so vital and so personal as this. + +"Does your mother know?" he queried. + +"No, I preferred to tell her in Mr. Gordon's presence." Murray noticed +that she no longer called the man uncle. "But now that the time has +come, I'm frightened." + +"Never allow yourself to be afraid. Fear is something false; it doesn't +exist." + +"It seems to me he was--unfaithful to his trust. Am I right?" + +"That is something you must judge for yourself," he told her, gravely. +"You see, I don't know anything about the reasons which prompted him to +sacrifice your rights. He may have had very good reasons. I dare say he +had. In building this railroad I have felt but one regret; that is the +indirect effect it may have upon you and your mother. Your affairs are +linked closely with Gordon's and the success of my enterprise will mean +the failure of his." + +"You mustn't feel that way. I'm sure it won't affect us at all, for we +have nothing more to lose. Sometimes I think his judgment is faulty, +erratic, wonderful man though he is. Mother trusts him blindly, of +course, and so do I, yet I hardly know what to do. It is impossible +that he did worse than make a mistake." + +Her dark eyes were bent upon Murray and they were eloquent with the +question which she could not bring herself to ask. He longed to tell +her frankly that Curtis Gordon was a charlatan, or even worse, and that +his fairest schemes were doomed to failure by the very nature of his +methods, but instead he said: + +"I'm deeply distressed. I hope things are not as bad as you think and +that Mr. Gordon will be able to straighten them out for you. If ever I +can be of service you must be sure to call upon me." + +Her thanks were conventional, but in her heart was a deep, warm +gratitude, for she knew that he meant what he said and would not fail +her. + +Dan Appleton, eying Natalie and his chief from a distance, exclaimed, +admiringly: + +"She's a perfect peach, Sis. She registered a home run with me the +first time at bat." + +"She IS nice." + +"You know a fellow gets mighty lonely in a place like this. She'd make +a dandy sister-in-law for you, wouldn't she?" + +"Forget it!" said Eliza, sharply. "That's rank insubordination. Omar +Khayyam snatched her from the briny and tried to die for her. He has +bought her two acres of the most expensive roses and he remembers the +date of her birthday. Just you keep your hands off." + +"How does she feel about him?" + +"Oh, she heroizes him, of course. I don't know just how deep the +feeling goes, but I got the impression that it was pretty serious. Two +women can't borrow hair-pins and mix powder puffs for a week and remain +strangers." + +"Then, as for Daniel Appleton, C.E., GOOD NIGHT!" exclaimed her +brother, ruefully. "If I were a woman I'd marry him myself, provided I +could get ahead of the rush; but, being a male of the species, I +suppose I shall creep out into the jungle and sulk." + +"Right-o! Don't enter this race, for I'm afraid you'd be a bad loser! +Personally I can't see anything in him to rave about. What scares me +pink is the knowledge that I must tell him the wretched business that +brings me here. If he strikes me, Danny, remember I'm still your +sister." + +When the big gong gave the signal for luncheon Appleton conducted +Natalie and Eliza to the company messroom, where the field and office +force dined together, and presented them to his fellow-lieutenants. At +supper-time those who had been out on the line during the day were +likewise introduced, and after a merry meal the whole party escorted +the two girls back to the green bungalow. + +"Why, here's a piano!" Eliza exclaimed upon entering the parlor. + +"I borrowed it for the evening from the Elite Saloon," O'Neil +volunteered. "It's a dissipated old instrument, and some of its teeth +have been knocked out--in drunken brawls, I'm afraid--but the owner +vouched for its behavior on this occasion." + +"It knows only one tune--'I Won't Go Home until Morning,'" Dan declared. + +McKay, however, promptly disproved this assertion by seating himself at +the keyboard and rattling off some popular melodies. With music and +laughter the long twilight fled, for O'Neil's "boys" flung themselves +into the task of entertaining his guests with whole-souled enthusiasm. + +So successful were their efforts that even "Happy Tom" appeared to +derive a mild enjoyment from them, which was a testimonial indeed. His +pleasure was made evident by no word of praise, nor faintest smile, but +rather by the lightened gloom in which he chewed his gum and by the +fact that he complained of nothing. In truth, he was not only +entertained by the general gaiety, but he was supremely interested in +Miss Appleton, who resembled no creature he had ever seen. He had met +many girls like Natalie, and feared them, but Eliza, with her +straightforward airs and her masculine mannerisms, was different. She +affected him in a way at once pleasant and disagreeable. He felt no +diffidence in speaking to her, for instance--a phenomenon which was in +itself a ground for suspicion. Then, too, her clothes--he could not +take his eyes off her clothes--were almost like Dan's. That seemed to +show common sense, but was probably only the sign of an eccentric, +domineering nature. On the other hand, the few words she addressed to +him were gracious, and her eyes had a merry twinkle which warmed his +heart. She must be all right, he reluctantly concluded, being Dan's +sister and O'Neil's friend. But deep down in his mind he cherished a +doubt. + +At her first opportunity Eliza undertook to make that confession the +thought of which had troubled her all the afternoon. Drawing O'Neil +aside, she began with some trepidation, "Have you any idea why I'm +here?" + +"I supposed either you or Dan had achieved your pet ambition." + +"Far from it. I have a fell purpose, and when you learn what it is I +expect you to move the piano out--that's what always happens in the +play when the heroine is dispossessed. Well, then, I've been sent by +The Review to bare all the disgraceful secrets of your life!" + +"I'm delighted to learn you'll be here so long. You can't possibly +finish that task before next spring." His manner, though quizzical, was +genuinely hearty. + +"Don't laugh!" said the girl. "There's nothing funny about it. I came +north as a spy." + +"Then you're a Northern Spy!" + +"Apples!" she cried. "You remembered, didn't you? I never supposed men +like you could be flippant. Well, here goes for the worst." She +outlined her conversation with the editor of her paper. + +"So you think I'm trying to steal Alaska," he said when she had +concluded. + +"That seems to be the general idea." + +"It's a pretty big job." + +"Whoever controls transportation will have the country by the throat." + +"Yet somebody must build railroads, since the Government won't. Did it +ever occur to you that there is a great risk involved in a thing of +this sort, and that capital must see a profit before it enters a new +field? I wonder if you know how badly this country needs an outlet and +how much greater the benefit in dollars and cents will be to the men in +the interior than to those who finance the road. But I perceive that +you are a conservationist." + +"Rabid!" Eliza bridled a little at the hint of amused superiority in +his voice. "I'm a suffragist, too! I dare say that adds to your +disgust." + +"Nonsense!" he protested. "I have no quarrel with conservation nor with +'votes for women.' Neither have I anything to conceal. I'm only afraid +that, like most writers, you will be content with half-information. +Incomplete facts are responsible for most misunderstandings. If you are +in earnest and will promise to take the time necessary to get at all +the facts, I'll make an agreement with you." + +"I promise! Time and a typewriter are my only assets. I don't intend to +be hurried." + +Dan approached, drawn by the uncomfortable knowledge of his sister's +predicament, and broke in: + +"Oh, Sis has time to burn! She's going to write a book on the salmon +canneries while she's here. It's bound to be one of the 'six best +smellers'!" + +O'Neil waved him away with the threat of sending him out among the +mosquitoes. + +"I'll agree to show you everything we're doing." + +"Even to the coal-fields?" + +"Even to them. You shall know everything, then you can write what you +please." + +"And when I've exposed you to the world as a commercial pickpocket, as +a looter of the public domain--after Congress has appropriated your +fabulous coal claims--will you nail up the door of this little cottage, +and fire Dan?" + +"No." + +"Will you still be nice to me?" + +"My dear child, you are my guest. Come and go when and where you will. +Omar is yours so long as you stay, and when you depart in triumph, +leaving me a broken, discredited wretch, I shall stand on the dock and +wave you a bon voyage. Now it's bedtime for my 'boys,' since we rise at +five o'clock." + +"Heavens! Five! Why the sun isn't up at that time!" + +"The sun shines very little here; that's why we want you to stay at +Omar. I wish we might also keep Miss Natalie." + +When the callers had gone Eliza told Natalie and Dan: + +"He took it so nicely that I feel more ashamed than ever. One would +think he didn't care at all. Do you suppose he does?" + +"There's no denying that you appeared at an unfortunate time," said her +brother. + +"Why?" + +"Well--I'm not sure we'll ever succeed with this project. Parker says +the glacier bridge can be built, but the longer he studies it the +graver he gets. It's making an old man of him." + +"What does Mr. O'Neil say?" + +"Oh, he's sanguine, as usual. He never gives up. But he has other +things to worry him--money! It's money, money, all the time. He wasn't +terribly rich, to begin with, and he has used up all his own fortune, +besides what the other people put in. You see, he never expected to +carry the project so far; he believed the Trust would buy him out." + +"Well?" + +"It hasn't and it evidently doesn't intend to. When it learned of his +plan, its engineers beat it out to the glaciers and looked them over. +Then they gave up their idea of building in from Cortez, but instead of +making terms with us, they moved their whole outfit down to Kyak Bay, +right alongside of the coal-fields, and now it has become a race to the +glaciers, with Gordon fighting us on the side just to make matters +lively. The Trust has the shorter route, but we have the start." + +"Why didn't Mr. O'Neil take Kyak as a terminus, instead of Omar?" + +"He says it's not feasible. Kyak is an open harbor, and he says no +breakwater can be built there to withstand the storms. He still clings +to that belief, although the Trust is actually building one. If they +succeed we're cooked. Meanwhile he's rushing work and straining every +nerve to raise more money. Now you come along with a proposal to +advertise the whole affair to the public as a gigantic graft and set +Congress against him. I think he treated you mighty well, under the +circumstances." + +"I won't act against my convictions," Eliza declared, firmly, "even if +it means calamity to everybody." + +Natalie spoke for the first time, her voice tuned to a pitch of feeling +that contrasted oddly with their conversational tones. + +"If you hurt my Irish Prince," she said, "I shall hate you as long as I +live." + + + + +IX + +WHEREIN GORDON SHOWS HIS TEETH + + +Affairs at Hope were nearly, if not quite, as prosperous as those at +Omar, for Curtis Gordon's advertising had yielded large and quick +returns. His experiment, during the previous summer, of bringing his +richest stockholders north, had been a great success. They had come, +ostensibly at his expense, and once on the ground had allowed +themselves to be fairly hypnotized. They had gone where he led, had +seen what he pointed out, had believed what he told them. Their +imaginations were fired with the grandeur of an undertaking which would +develop the vast resources of the north country for the benefit of the +struggling pioneers of the interior and humanity in general. +Incidentally they were assured over and over again in a great variety +of ways that the profits would be tremendous. Gordon showed them Hope +and its half-completed mine buildings, he showed them the mountain +behind. It was a large mountain. They noticed there were trees on the +sides of it and snow on its top. They marveled. He said its heart was +solid copper ore, and they gasped. Had he told them in the same +impressive manner that the hill contained a vein three inches thick +they would have exhibited the same astonishment. They entered the +dripping tunnels and peered with grave approval at the drills, the +rock-cars and the Montenegrin miners. They rambled over the dumps, to +the detriment of shoe-leather and shins, filling their suit-cases with +samples of perfectly good country rock. They confessed to each other, +with admirable conservatism, that the proposition looked very +promising, very promising indeed, and they listened with appreciation +to Gordon's glowing accounts of his railroad enterprise, the physical +evidence of which consisted of a mile or two of track which shrank +along the steep shore-front and disappeared into a gulch as if ashamed +of itself. He had a wonderful plan to consolidate the mining and +railroad companies and talked of a giant holding corporation which +would share in the profits of each. The details were intricate, but he +seemed to see them all with perfect clearness, and his victims agreed. + +He entertained them on a scale that was almost embarrassing, and when +they returned to their homes they outdid one another in their praise of +the financial genius who was leading them to the promised land of +profits and preferred stock. As a matter of course they one and all +advised their friends to buy, vouching for the fabulous richness of +Hope Consolidated, and since their statements were backed by a personal +examination of the property, subscriptions came pouring in. + +All in all, the excursion had proven so profitable that Gordon had +arranged for another, designed to accommodate new investors and +promising "prospects." Preparations for their welcome were under way +when Natalie arrived. + +The girl and her mother talked late that evening, and Gordon saw on the +following morning that Gloria, at least, had passed a trying night; but +he gave himself no uneasiness. Emotional storms were not unusual; he +always disregarded them as far as possible, and usually they passed off +quietly. During breakfast he informed them: + +"I received a letter from Miss Golden in yesterday's mail. She is to be +one of the new party." + +"Did you invite her to return this summer?" Mrs. Gerard inquired. + +"Yes!" + +"I remember her well," said Natalie--"too well, in fact. I thought her +very bold." + +"She is one of our largest investors, and she writes she would enjoy +spending a fortnight here after the others go back." + +"Will you allow it?" + +"Allow it! My dear Gloria, I can't possibly refuse. In fact it would be +the height of inhospitality not to urge her to do so. She is welcome to +stay as long as she chooses, for these quarters are as much hers as +ours. I hope you will be nice to her." + +Mrs. Gerard made no answer, but later in the morning sought Gordon in +his private office. + +"I preferred not to discuss the Golden woman before Natalie," she +explained, coldly, "but--you don't really intend to have her here, do +you?" + +"Most assuredly!" + +"Then I shall have to tell her she is not welcome." + +"You will do nothing of the sort, my dear: you will assume the duties +of hostess, for which no one is more charmingly qualified." + +Mrs. Gerard's lips were white with anger as she retorted: + +"I shall not allow that woman under the same roof with Natalie." + +"As usual, you choose the most inconvenient occasion for insisting upon +your personal dislikes." + +"My dislike has nothing to do with the matter. I overlooked her +behavior with you last year--as I have overlooked a good many things in +the past--but this is asking too much." + +Gordon's coldness matched her own as he said: + +"I repeat, this is no time for jealousy--" + +"Jealousy! It's an insult to Natalie." + +"Miss Golden is one of our largest stockholders." + +"That's not true! I had Denny look up the matter." + +"So!" Gordon flared up angrily. "Denny has been showing you the books, +eh! He had no more right to do that than you had to pry into my +affairs. While Miss Golden's investment may not be so large as some +others', she has influential friends. She did yeoman service in the +cause, and I can't allow your foolish fancies to interfere with my +plans." + +"Fancies!" cried the woman, furiously. "You behaved like a school-boy +with her. It was disgraceful. I refuse to let her associate with my +daughter." + +"Aren't we drawing rather fine distinctions?" Gordon's lip curled. "In +the first place, Natalie has no business here. Since she came, +uninvited, for the second time, she must put up with what she finds. I +warned you last summer that she might suspect--" + +"She did. She does. She discovered the truth a year ago." Mrs. Gerard's +usually impassive face was distorted and she voiced her confession with +difficulty. + +"The devil!" ejaculated Gordon. + +The woman nodded. "She accused me last night. I tried to--lie, +but--God! How I have lived through these hours I'll never know." + +"Hm-m!" Gordon reflected, briefly. "Perhaps, after all, it's just as +well that she knows; she would have found it out sooner or later, and +there's some satisfaction in knowing that the worst is over." + +Never before had his callous cynicism been so frankly displayed. It +chilled her and made the plea she was about to voice seem doubly +difficult. + +"I wish I looked upon the matter as you do," she said, slowly. "But +other people haven't the same social ideas as we. I'm--crushed, and +she--Poor child! I don't know how she had the courage to face it. Now +that she has heard the truth from my own lips I'm afraid it will kill +her." + +Gordon laughed. "Nonsense! Natalie is a sensible girl. Disillusionment +is always painful, but never fatal. Sooner or later the young must +confront the bald facts of life, and I venture to say she will soon +forget her school-girl morality. Let me explain my views of--" + +"Never!" cried the woman, aghast. "If you do I shall--" She checked +herself and buried her face in her hands. "I feel no regrets for +myself--for I drifted with my eyes open--but this--this is different. +Don't you understand? I am a mother. Or are you dead to all decent +feeling?" + +"My dear, I'm the most tender-hearted of men. Of course I shall say +nothing, if you prefer, for I am subservient to your commands in all +things. But calm yourself. What is done cannot be undone." + +In more even tones Mrs. Gerard said, "You seem to think the matter is +ended, but it isn't. Natalie will never allow us to continue this way, +and it isn't just to her that we should. We can't go on, Curtis." + +"You mean I must marry you?" + +She nodded. + +He rose and paced the room before answering. "I always supposed you +understood my views on that subject. Believe me, they are unalterable, +and in no way the result of a pose." + +"Nevertheless, for my sake and Natalie's you will do it. I can't lose +the one thing I love best in the world." + +"It would seem that Natalie has filled your head with silly notions," +he exclaimed, impatiently. + +"She has awakened me. I have her life to consider as well as my own." + +"We are all individuals, supreme in ourselves, responsible only to +ourselves. We must all live our own lives; she cannot live yours, nor +you hers." + +"I am familiar with your arguments," Mrs. Gerard said, wearily, "but I +have thought this all out and there is no other way." + +He frowned in his most impressive manner and his chest swelled +ominously. + +"I will not be coerced. You know I can't be bullied into a thing. I +deny that you have any right to demand--" + +"I'm not demanding anything. I merely ask this--this favor, the first +one I have ever asked. You see, my pride is crumbling. Don't answer +now; let's wait until we are both calmer. The subject came up--at least +she approached it, by asking about the coal claims. She is worried +about them." + +"Indeed?" + +"She was told by a friend in the Land Office that our rights had been +forfeited. I assured her--" + +"I refused to heed the absurd rulings of the Department, if that is +what she refers to." + +"Then we--have lost?" Mrs. Gerard's pallor increased. + +"Technically, yes! In reality I shall show that our titles were good +and that our patents should issue." + +"But"--the woman's bloodless fingers were tightly interlaced--"all I +have, all Natalie has, is in those claims." + +"Yes! And it would require another fortune the size of both to comply +with the senseless vagaries of the Interior Department and to protect +your interests. I grew weary of forever sending good hard-earned +dollars after bad ones, merely because of the shifting whim of some +theorist five thousand miles away." + +"Then I am afraid--" Mrs. Gerard's voice trailed out miserably. "It is +all we have, and you told me--" + +Gordon broke in irritably: "My dear Gloria, spare me this painful +faultfinding. If I can win for you, I shall do so, and then you will +agree that I acted wisely. If I lose--it will merely be the luck of the +average investor. We played for big returns, and of course the risks +were great." + +"But Mr. O'Neil told her his claims--" + +Gordon's blazing eyes warned her. "O'Neil, eh? So, he is the 'friend in +the Land Office'! No doubt he also gave Natalie the suggestion that led +to her scene with you. Tell her to occupy herself less with affairs +which do not concern her and more with her own conduct. Her actions +with that upstart have been outrageous." + +"What about your own actions with the Golden woman?" cried Mrs. Gerard, +reverting with feminine insistence to the subject of their first +difference. "What are you going to do about her?" + +"Nothing." + +"Remember, I refuse to share the same roof with her. You wouldn't ask +it of your wife." + +Now this second reference to a disagreeable subject was unfortunate. +Gordon was given to the widest vagaries of temper, and this interview +had exasperated him beyond measure, for he was strained by other +worries. He exploded harshly: + +"Please remember that you are not my wife! My ideas on matrimony will +never change. You ought to know by this time that I am granite." + +"I can't give up Natalie. I would give up much, for we women don't +change, but--" + +"A fallacy!" He laughed disagreeably. "Pardon me, Gloria, if I tell you +that you do change; that you have changed; that time has left its +imprint upon even you--a cruel fact, but true." He took a savage +pleasure in her trembling, for she had roused all the devils in him and +they were many. + +"You are growing tired!" + +"Not at all. But you have just voiced the strongest possible argument +against marriage. We grow old! Age brings its alterations! I have ever +been a slave to youth and beauty and the years bring to me only an +increasing appreciation, a more critical judgment, of the beautiful. If +I chose to marry--well, frankly, the mature charms of a woman of my own +age would have slight attraction for me." + +"Then--I will go," said Mrs. Gerard, faintly. + +"Not by any wish of mine," he assured her. "You are quite welcome to +stay. Things will run along in the usual way--more smoothly, perhaps, +now that we have attained a complete understanding. You have no place +to go, nor means with which to insure a living for yourself and +Natalie. I would hate to see you sacrifice yourself and her to a +Puritanical whim, for I owe you much happiness and I'm sure I should +miss you greatly. Some one must rule, and since nature has given me the +right I shall exercise it. We will have no more rebellion." + +Mrs. Gerard left the room dazed and sick with despair. + +"We must go! We must go!" she kept repeating, but her tragic look +alarmed Natalie far more than her words. + +"Yes, yes!" The girl took her in her arms and tried to still the +ceaseless trembling which shook the mother's frame, while her own tears +fell unheeded. + +"We must go! Now!" + +"Yes, dearest! But where?" + +"You--love me still?" asked Gloria. "I suppose you need me, too, don't +you? I hadn't thought of that." + +"Every hour!" The round young arms pressed her closer. "You won't think +of--of leaving me." + +Mrs. Gerard shook her head slowly. "No! I suppose that must be part of +the price. But--Penniless! Friendless! Where can we go?" + +"Mr. O'Neil--my Irish Prince," faltered the daughter through her tears. +"Perhaps he would take us in." + +"Omar Khayyam," said Eliza Appleton, entering O'Neil's office briskly, +"you are the general trouble man, so prepare to listen to mine." + +"Won't the kitchen flue draw, or has a hinge come off the bungalow +door?" Murray smiled. He was harassed by endless worries, a dozen +pressing matters called for his instant attention; yet he showed no +trace of annoyance. "If so, I'll be right up and fix it." + +"The kitchen chimney has a draught that threatens to draw Dan's salary +out with the smoke every time I cook a meal, and the house is dandy. +This is a real man's-size tribulation, so of course I run to you. Simon +Legree is at his tricks again." + +"Legree!" + +The girl nodded her blond head vigorously. + +"Yes! He's stolen Mrs. St. Claire's slaves, and she and Little Eva are +out in the cold." + +"What the deuce are you talking about?" + +"Gordon, of course, and the two Gerards, Natalie and Gloria--'Town +Hall, To-night. Come one, Come all!'" + +"Oh!" O'Neil's eyes brightened. + +"There have been terrible goings-on over at Hope. I went up yesterday, +in my official capacity, to reconnoiter the enemy's position and to +give him a preliminary skirmish, but the great man was sulking in his +tent and sent word by a menial for me to begone or look out for the +bloodhounds. Isn't he the haughty thing? I don't like to 'begone'--I +refuse to git when I'm told, so, of course, I paid my respects to +Natalie and her mother. But what do you think I found? Mrs. St. Claire +desolated, Eva dissolved in tears and her hair down." + +"Will you talk sense?" + +"Just try a little nonsense, and see. Well, the great eruption has +taken place and the loss of life was terrible. Among those buried in +the cinders are the dusky-eyed heroine and her friend mother. It seems +Eva had a hand in the overseer's exposure--" + +"Yes, yes! It's about those coal claims. I knew it was coming." + +"She told her mother of the horrid treachery, and mother lugged the +complaint to Gordon and placed it in his lap. Result, confession and +defiance from him. Even the family jewels are gone." + +"Is Gordon broke?" + +"He's weltering in money, but the coal claims are lost, and he wants to +know what they're going to do about it. The women are ruined. He +magnanimously offers them his bounty, but of course they refuse to +accept it." + +"Hasn't he made any provision for them?" + +"Coffee and cakes, three times a day. That's all! He won't even provide +transportation, and the troupe can't walk home. They refuse to stay +there, but they can't get away. I've cabled The Review, overdrawing my +salary scandalously, and Dan is eager to help, but the worst of it is +neither of those women knows how to make a living. Natalie wants to +work, but the extent of her knowledge is the knack of frosting a layer +cake, and her mother never even sewed on a button in all her life. It +would make a lovely Sunday story, and it wouldn't help Curtis Gordon +with his stockholders." + +"You won't write it, of course!" + +"Oh, I suppose not, but it's maddening not to be able to do something. +Since there's a law against manslaughter, the pencil is my only weapon. +I'd like to jab it clear through that ruffian." Eliza's animated face +was very stern, her generous mouth was set firmly. + +"You can leave out the personal element," he told her. "There's still a +big story there, if you realize that it runs back to Washington and +involves your favorite policy of conservation. Those claims belonged to +Natalie and her mother. I happen to know that their locations were +legal and that there was never any question of fraud in the titles, +hence they were entitled to patents years ago. Gordon did wrong, of +course, in refusing to obey the orders of the Secretary of the Interior +even though he knew those orders to be senseless and contradictory, but +the women are the ones to suffer. The Government froze them out. This +is only one instance of what delay and indecision at headquarters has +done. I'll show you others before we are through. As for those two--You +say they want to do something?" + +"It's not a question of wanting; they've GOT to do something--or +starve. They would scrub kitchens if they knew how." + +"Why didn't they come to me?" + +"Do you need a cook and a dishwasher?" + +Murray frowned. "Our new hotel is nearly finished; perhaps Mrs. Gerard +would accept a position as--as hostess." + +"HOSTESS! In a railroad-camp hotel! Who ever heard of such a thing?" +Eliza eyed him incredulously. + +O'Neil's flush did not go unnoticed as he said, quietly: + +"It IS unusual, but we'll try it. She might learn to manage the +business, with a competent assistant. The salary will be ample for her +and Natalie to live on." + +Eliza laid a hand timidly upon his arm and said in an altered tone: + +"Omar Khayyam, you're a fine old Persian gentleman! I know what it will +mean to those two poor women, and I know what it will mean to you, for +of course the salary will come out of your pocket." + +He smiled down at her. "It's the best I can offer, and I'm sure you +won't tell them." + +"Of course not. I know how it feels to lose a fortune, too, for I've +been through the mill--Don't laugh! You have a load on your shoulders +heavier than Mr. Sinbad's, and it's mighty nice of you to let me add to +the burden. I--I hope it won't break your poor back. Now I'm going up +to your bungalow and lock myself into your white bedroom, and--" + +"Have a good cry!" he said, noting the suspicious moisture in her eyes. + +"Certainly not!" Eliza exclaimed, indignantly. "I'm not the least bit +sentimental." + + + + +X + +IN WHICH THE DOCTOR SHOWS HIS WIT + + +O'Neil's talk with Mrs. Gerard upon her arrival from Hope was short and +businesslike. Neither by word nor look did he show that he knew or +suspected anything of the real reason of her break with Gordon. Toward +both her and Natalie he preserved his customary heartiness, and their +first constraint soon disappeared. Mrs. Gerard had been plunged in one +of those black moods in which it seems that no possible event can bring +even a semblance of happiness, but it was remarkable how soon this +state of mind began to give way before O'Neil's matter-of-fact +cheerfulness. He refused to listen to their thanks and made them +believe that they were conferring a real favor upon him by accepting +the responsibility of the new hotel. Pending the completion of that +structure he was hard pressed to find a lodging-place for them until +Eliza and her brother insisted that they share the bungalow with +them--a thing O'Neil had not felt at liberty to ask under the +circumstances. Nor was the tact of the brother and sister less than +his; they received the two unfortunates as honored guests. + +Gradually the visitors began to feel that they were welcome, that they +were needed, that they had an important task to fulfil, and the sense +that they were really of service drove away depression. Night after +night they lay awake, discussing the wonderful change in their fortunes +and planning their future. Natalie at least had not the slightest doubt +that all their troubles were at an end. + +One morning they awoke to learn that O'Neil had gone to the States, +leaving Dr. Gray in charge of affairs at Omar during his absence. The +physician, who was fully in his chief's confidence, gravely discussed +their duties with them, and so discreet was he that they had no +faintest suspicion that he knew their secret. It was typical of O'Neil +and his "boys" that they should show this chivalry toward two +friendless outcasts; it was typical of them, also, that they one and +all constituted themselves protectors of Natalie and her mother, +letting it be known through the town that the slightest rudeness toward +the women would be promptly punished. + +While O'Neil's unexpected departure caused some comment, no one except +his trusted lieutenants dreamed of the grave importance of his mission. +They knew the necessities that hounded him, they were well aware of the +trembling insecurity in which affairs now stood, but they maintained +their cheerful industry, they pressed the work with unabated energy, +and the road crept forward foot by foot, as steadily and as smoothly as +if he himself were on the ground to direct it. + +Many disappointments had arisen since the birth of the Salmon River & +Northwestern; many misfortunes had united to retard the development of +its builder's plans. The first obstacle O'Neil encountered was that of +climate. During the summer, unceasing rains, mists, and fogs dispirited +his workmen and actually cut their efficiency in half. He had made +certain allowances for this, of course, but no one could have foreseen +so great a percentage of inefficiency as later developed. In winter, +the cold was intense and the snows were of prodigious depth, while +outside the shelter of the Omar hills the winds howled and rioted over +the frozen delta, chilling men and animals and paralyzing human effort. +Under these conditions it was hard to get workmen, and thrice harder to +keep them; so that progress was much slower than had been anticipated. + +Then, too, the physical difficulties of the country were almost +insurmountable. The morass which comprised the Salmon River plain was +in summer a bottomless ooze, over which nothing could be transported, +yet in winter it became sheathed with a steel-hard armor against which +piling splintered. It could be penetrated at that season only by the +assistance of steam thawers, which involved delay and heavy expense. +These were but samples of the obstacles that had to be met, and every +one realized that the work thus far had been merely preparatory. The +great obstruction, upon the conquest of which the success of the whole +undertaking hinged, still lay before them. + +But of all handicaps the most serious by far was the lack of capital. +Murray had foreseen as inevitable the abandonment by the Trust of its +Cortez route, but its change of base to Kyak had come as a startling +surprise and as an almost crushing blow. Personally, he believed its +present plan to be even more impracticable than its former one, but its +refusal to buy him out had disheartened his financial associates and +tightened their purse-strings into a knot which no argument of his +could loose. He had long since exhausted his own liquid capital, he had +realized upon his every available asset, and his personal credit was +tottering. He was obliged to finance his operations upon new money--a +task which became ever more difficult as the months passed and the +Trust continued its work at Kyak. Yet he knew that the briefest +flagging, even a temporary abandonment of work, meant swift and utter +ruin. His track must go forward, his labor must be paid, his supplies +must not be interrupted. He set his jaws and fought on stubbornly, +certain of his ultimate triumph if only he could hold out. + +A hundred miles to the westward was a melancholy example of failure in +railroad-building, in the form of two rows of rust upon a weed-grown +embankment. It was all that remained of another enterprise which had +succumbed to financial starvation, and the wasted millions it +represented was depressing to consider. + +Thus far O'Neil's rivalry with the Trust had been friendly, if +spirited, but his action in coming to the assistance of Mrs. Gerard and +her daughter raised up a new and vigorous enemy whose methods were not +as scrupulous as those of the Heidlemanns. + +Gordon was a strangely unbalanced man. He was magnetic, his geniality +was really heart-warming, yet he was perfectly cold-blooded in his +selfishness. He was cool and calculating, but interference roused him +to an almost insane pitch of passion. Fickle in most things, he was +uncompromising in his hatreds. O'Neil's generosity in affording +sanctuary to his defiant mistress struck him as a personal affront, it +fanned his dislike of his rival into a consuming rage. It was with no +thought of profit that he cast about for a means of crippling O'Neil. +He was quite capable of ruining himself, not to speak of incidental +harm to others, if only he could gratify his spleen. + +Denny, his trusted jackal, resisted stoutly any move against "The Irish +Prince," but his employer would not listen to him or consent to any +delay. Therefore, a certain plausible, shifty-eyed individual by the +name of Linn was despatched to Omar on the first steamer. Landing at +his destination, Mr. Linn quietly effaced himself, disappearing out the +right-of-way, where he began moving from camp to camp, ostensibly in +search of employment. + +It was a few days later, perhaps a week after O'Neil's departure, that +Eliza Appleton entered the hospital and informed Dr. Gray: + +"I've finished my first story for The Review." + +The big physician had a rapid, forceful habit of speech. "Well, I +suppose you uncorked the vitriol bottle," he said, brusquely. + +"No! Since you are now the fount of authority here, I thought I'd tell +you that I have reserved my treachery for another time. I haven't +learned enough yet to warrant real fireworks. As a matter of fact, I've +been very kind to Mr. O'Neil in my story." + +"Let me thank you for him." + +"Now don't be sarcastic! I could have said a lot of nasty things, if he +hadn't been so nice to me. I suppose it is the corrupting influence of +his kindness." + +"He really will be grateful," the doctor assured her, seriously. +"Newspaper publicity of the wrong sort might hurt him a great deal just +now. In every big enterprise there comes a critical time, when +everything depends upon one man; strong as the structure seems, he's +really supporting it. You see, the whole thing rests ultimately on +credit and confidence. An ill-considered word, a little unfriendly +shove, and down comes the whole works. Then some financial power steps +in, reorganizes the wreckage, and gets the result of all the other +fellow's efforts, for nothing." + +"Dan tells me the affairs of the S. R. & N. are in just such a +tottering condition." + +"Yes. We're up against it, for the time being. Our cards are on the +table, and you have it in your power to do us a lot of harm." + +"Don't put it that way!" said Eliza, resentfully. "You and Mr. O'Neil +and even Dan make it hard for me to do my duty. I won't let you rob me +of my liberty. I'll get out and 'Siwash' it in a tent first." + +The physician laughed. "Don't mistake leaf-mold for muck, that's all we +ask. O'Neil is perfectly willing to let you investigate him." + +"Exactly! And I could bite off his head for being so nice about it. Not +that I've discovered anything against him, for I haven't-- I think he's +fine--but I object to the principle of the thing." + +"He'll never peep, no matter what you do or say." + +"It makes me furious to know how superior he is. I never detested a +man's virtues as I do his. Gordon is the sort I like, for he needs +exposing, and expects it. Wait until I get at him and the Trust." + +"The Trust, too, eh?" + +"Of course." + +"Now what have the Heidlemanns done?" + +"It's not what they have done; it's what they're going to do. They're +trying to grab Alaska." + +Dr. Gray shook his head impatiently, but before he could make answer +Tom Slater entered and broke into the conversation by announcing: + +"I've spotted him, Doc. His name is Linn, and he's Gordon's hand. He's +at mile 24 and fifty men are quitting from that camp." + +"That makes two hundred, so far," said the doctor. + +"He's offering a raise of fifty cents a day and transportation to Hope." + +Gray scowled and Eliza inquired quickly: + +"What's wrong, Uncle Tom?" + +"Don't call me 'Uncle Tom,'" Slater exclaimed, irritably; "I ain't +related to you." + +Miss Appleton smiled at him sweetly. "I had a dear friend once--you +remind me of him, he was such a splendid big man," she said. + +Tom eyed her suspiciously. + +"He chewed gum incessantly, too, and declared that it never hurt +anybody." + +"It never did," asserted Slater. + +"We pleaded, we argued, we did our best to save him, but--" She shook +her blond head sadly. + +"What happened to him?" + +"What always happens? He lingered along for a time, stubborn to the +last, then--" Turning abruptly to Dr. Gray, she asked, "Who is this man +Linn, and what is he doing?" + +"He's an emissary of Curtis Gordon and he's hiring our men away from +us," snapped the physician. + +"Why, Dan tells me Mr. O'Neil pays higher wages than anybody!" + +"So he does, but Linn offers a raise. We didn't know what the trouble +was till over a hundred men had quit. The town is full of them, now, +and it's becoming a stampede." + +"Can't you meet the raise?" + +"That wouldn't do any good." + +Tom agreed. "Gordon don't want these fellows. He's doing it to get even +with Murray for those wo--" He bit his words in two at a glance from +Gray. "What happened to the man that chewed gum?" he demanded abruptly. + +"Oh yes! Poor fellow! We warned him time and again, but he was a sullen +brute, he wouldn't heed advice. Why don't you bounce this man Linn? Why +don't you run him out of camp?" + +"Fine counsel from a champion of equal rights!" smiled Gray. "You +forget we have laws and Gordon has a press bureau. It would antagonize +the men and cause a lot of trouble in the end. What O'Neil could do +personally, he can't do as the president of the S. R. & N. It would +give us a black eye. + +"We've go to do something dam' quick," said Slater, "or else the work +will be tied up. That would 'crab' Murray's deal. I've got a +pick-handle that's itching for Linn's head." The speaker coughed +hollowly and complained: "I've got a bad cold on my chest--feels like +pneumonia, to me. Wouldn't that just be my luck?" + +"Do you have pains in your chest?" inquired the girl, solicitously. + +"Terrible! But I'm so full of pains that I get used to 'em". + +"It isn't pneumonia." + +Slater flared up at this, for he was jealous of his sufferings. + +"It's gumbago!" Eliza declared. + +Dr. Gray's troubled countenance relaxed into a grin as he said: + +"I'll give you something to rub on those leather lungs--harness-oil, +perhaps." + +"Is this labor trouble really serious?" asked the girl. + +"Serious! It may knock us out completely. Go away now and let me think. +Pardon my rudeness, Miss Appleton, but--" + +Slater paused at the door. + +"Don't think too long, Doc," he admonished him, "for there's a ship due +in three days, and by that time there won't be a 'rough-neck' left on +the job. It'll take a month to get a new crew from the States, and then +it wouldn't be any good till it was broke in." + +When he was alone the doctor sat down to weigh the news "Happy Tom" had +brought, but the more squarely he considered the matter the more +alarming it appeared. Thus far the S. R. & N. had been remarkably free +from labor troubles. To permit them to creep in at this stage would be +extremely perilous: the briefest cessation of work might, and probably +would, have a serious bearing upon O'Neil's efforts to raise money. +Gray felt the responsibility of his position with extraordinary force, +for his chief's fortunes had never suffered in his hands and he could +not permit them to do so now. But how to meet this move of Gordon's he +did not know; he could think of no means of keeping these men at Omar. +As he had to Eliza, to meet the raise would be useless, and a new scale +of wages once adopted would be hard to reduce. Successful or +unsuccessful in its effect, it would run into many thousands of +dollars. The physician acknowledged himself dreadfully perplexed; he +racked his brain uselessly, yearning meanwhile for the autocratic power +to compel obedience among his men. He would have forced them back to +their jobs had there been a way, and the fact that they were duped only +added to his anger. + +It occurred to him to quarantine the town, a thing he could easily do +as port physician in case of an epidemic, but Omar was unusually +healthy, and beyond a few surgical cases his hospital was empty. + +His meditations were interrupted by Tom Slater, who returned to say: + +"Give me that dope, Doc; I'm coughing like a switch engine." Gray rose +and went to the shelves upon which his drugs were arranged, while the +fat man continued, "That Appleton girl has got me worried with her +foolishness. Maybe I AM sick; anyhow, I feel rotten. What I need is a +good rest and a nurse to wait on me." + +The physician's eyes in running along the rows of bottles encountered +one labeled "Oleum Tiglii," and paused there. "You need a rest, eh?" he +inquired, mechanically. + +"If I don't get one I'll wing my way to realms eternal. I ain't been +dried off for three months." Gray turned to regard his caller with a +speculative stare, his fingers toyed with the bottle. "If it wasn't for +this man Linn I'd lay off--I'd go to jail for him. But I can't do +anything, with one foot always in the grave." + +The doctor's face lightened with determination. + +"Tom, you've been sent from heaven!" + +"D'you mean I've been sent for, from heaven?" The invalid's red cheeks +blanched, into his mournful eyes leaped a look of quick concern. "Say! +Am I as sick as all that?" + +"This will make you feel better." Gray uncorked the bottle and said, +shortly, "Take off your shirt." + +"What for?" + +"I'm going to rub your chest and arms." + +Slater obeyed, with some reluctance, pausing to inquire, doubtfully: + +"You ain't stripping me down so you can operate?" + +"Nonsense!" + +"I'm feeling pretty good again." + +"It's well to take these things early. They all look alike at the +beginning." + +"What things?" + +"Grippe, gumbago, smallpox--" + +"God'lmighty!" exclaimed Slater with a start. "I haven't got anything +but a light cold." + +"Then this liniment ought to be just the thing." + +"Humph! It don't smell like liniment," Tom declared, after a moment, +but the doctor had fallen to work on him and he submitted with +resignation. + +Perhaps an hour later Dr. Gray appeared at the Appleton bungalow and +surprised Eliza by saying: + +"I've come to you for some help. You're the only soul in Omar that I +can trust." + +"Have you gone raving mad?" she inquired. + +"No. I must put an end to Linn's activity or we'll be ruined. These +workmen must be held in Omar, and you must help me do it." + +"They have the right to go where they please." + +"Of course, but Gordon will let them out as soon as he has crippled us. +Tell me, would you like to be a trained nurse?" + +"No, I would not," declared Eliza, vehemently. "I'm neither antiseptic +nor prophylactic." + +"Nevertheless, you're going to be one--Tom needs you." + +"Tom? What ails him?" + +"Nothing at this moment, but--wait until to-morrow." The physician's +eyes were twinkling, and when he had explained the cause of his +amusement Eliza laughed. + +"Of course I'll help," she said. "But it won't hurt the poor fellow, +will it?" + +"Not in the least, unless it frightens him to death. Tom's an awful +coward about sickness; that's why I need some one like you to take care +of him. He'll be at the hospital to-morrow at three. If you'll arrange +to be there we'll break the news to him gently. I daren't tackle it +alone." + +Tom was a trifle embarrassed at finding Eliza in Dr. Gray's office when +he entered, on the next afternoon. The boss packer seemed different +than usual; he was much subdued. His cough had disappeared, but in its +place he suffered a nervous apprehension; his cheeks were pale, the +gloom in his eyes had changed to a lurking uneasiness. + +"Just dropped in to say I'm all right again," he announced in an +offhand tone. + +"That's good!" said Gray. "You don't look well, however." + +"I'm feeling fine!" Mr. Slater hunched his shoulders as if the contact +of his shirt was irksome to the flesh. + +"You'd better let me rub you. Why are you scratching yourself?" + +"I ain't scratching." + +"You were!" The doctor was sternly curious; he had assumed his coldest +and most professional air. + +"Well, if I scratched, I probably itched. That's why people scratch, +ain't it?" + +"Let me look you over." + +"I can't spare the time, Doc--" + +"Wait!" Gray's tone halted the speaker as he turned to leave. "I'm not +going to let you out in this weather until I rub you." + +This time there was no mistaking "Happy Tom's" pallor. "I tell you I +feel great," he declared in a shaking voice. "I--haven't felt so good +for years." + +"Come, come! Step into the other room and take off your shirt." + +"Not on your life." + +"What do you mean?" + +"I don't want no more of your dam' liniment." + +"Why?" + +"Because I'm--because I don't." + +"Then I suppose I'll have to throw and hog-tie you." The physician rose +and laid a heavy hand upon his patient's arm, at which Tom exclaimed: + +"Ouch! Leggo! Gimme the stuff and I'll rub myself." + +"Tom!" The very gravity of the speaker's voice was portentous, +alarming. Mr. Slater hesitated, his gaze wavered, he scratched his +chest unconsciously. + +Eliza shook her head pityingly; she uttered an inarticulate murmur of +concern. + +"You couldn't get my shirt off with a steam-winch. I tell you I'm +feeling grand." + +"Why WILL you chew the horrid stuff?" Miss Appleton inquired sadly. + +"I'm just a little broke out, that's all." + +"Ah! You're broken out. I feared so," said the doctor. + +The grave concern in those two faces was too much for Slater's +sensitive nature; his stubbornness gave way, his self-control vanished, +and he confessed wretchedly: + +"I spent an awful night, Doc. I'll bust into flame if this keeps up. +What is it, anyhow?" + +"Is there an eruption of the arms and chest?" + +"They're all erupted to hell." + +Dr. Gray silently parted the shirt over Slater's bosom. "Hm-m!" said he. + +"Tell him what it is," urged Eliza, in whom mirth and pity were +struggling for mastery. + +"It has every appearance of-smallpox!" + +The victim uttered a choking cry and sat down limply. Sweat leaped out +upon his face, beads appeared upon his round bald head. + +"I knew I was a sick man. I've felt it coming on for three months, but +I fought it off for Murray's sake. Say it's chicken-pox," he pleaded. + +"Never mind; it's seldom serious," Eliza endeavored to comfort the +stricken man. + +"You wanted a good rest-" + +"I don't. I want to work." + +"I'll have to quarantine you, Tom." + +Slater was in no condition for further resistance; a complete collapse +of body and mind had followed the intelligence of his illness. He began +to complain of many symptoms, none of which were in any way connected +with his fancied disease. He was racked with pains, he suffered a +terrible nausea, his head swam; he spoke bravely of his destitute +family and prepared to make his will. When he left the hospital, an +hour later, it was on a stretcher between four straining bearers. + +That evening a disturbing rumor crept through the town of Omar. It +penetrated the crowded saloons where the laborers who had quit work +were squandering their pay, and it caused a brief lull in the ribaldry; +but the mere fact that Tom Slater had come down with smallpox and had +been isolated upon a fishing-boat anchored in the creek seemed, after +all, of little consequence. Some of the idlers strolled down the street +to stare at the boat, and upon their return verified the report. They +also announced that they had seen the yellow-haired newspaper woman +aboard, all dressed in white. It was considered high time by the +majority to leave Omar, for an epidemic was a thing to be avoided, and +a wager was made that the whole force would quit in a body as soon as +the truth became known. + +On the second day Dr. Gray undertook to allay the general uneasiness, +but, upon being pressed, reluctantly acknowledged that his patient +showed all the signs of the dread disease. This hastened the general +preparations for departure, and when the incoming steamer hove in sight +every laborer was at the dock with his kit-bag. It excited some idle +comment among them to note that Dr. Gray had gone down the bay a short +distance to meet the ship, and his efforts to speak it were watched +with interest and amusement. Obviously it would have been much easier +for him to wait until she landed, for she came right on and drew in +toward the wharf. It was not until her bow line was made fast that the +physician succeeded in hailing the captain. Then the deserters were +amazed to hear the following conversation: + +"I can't let you land, Captain Johnny," came from Dr. Gray's launch. + +"And why can't you?" demanded Brennan from the bridge of his new ship. +"Have you some prejudice against the Irish?" The stern hawser was +already being run out, and the crowd was edging closer, waiting for the +gangplank. + +"There is smallpox here, and as health officer I've quarantined the +port." + +There came a burst of Elizabethan profanity from the little skipper, +but it was drowned by the shout from shore as the full meaning of the +situation finally came home. Then the waiting men made a rush for the +ship. She had not touched as yet, however, and the distance between her +and the pier was too great to leap. Above the confusion came Brennan's +voice, through a megaphone, commanding them to stand back. Some one +traitorously cast off the loop of the bow line, the ship's propellers +began to thrash, and the big steel hull backed away inch by inch, foot +by foot, until, amid curses and cries of rage, she described a majestic +circle and plowed off up the sound toward Hope. + +By a narrow margin the physician reached his hospital ahead of the +infuriated mob, and it was well that he did so, for they were in a +lynching mood. But, once within his own premises, he made a show of +determined resistance that daunted them, and they sullenly retired. +That night Omar rang with threats and deep-breathed curses, and Eliza +Appleton, in the garb of a nurse, tended her patient cheerfully. + +To the delegation which waited upon him the next morning, Dr. Gray +explained the nature of his duties as health officer, informing them +coolly that no living soul could leave Omar without incurring legal +penalties. Since he could prevent any ships from landing, and inasmuch +as the United States marshal was present to enforce the quarantine, he +seemed to be master of the situation. + +"How long will we be tied up?" demanded the spokesman of the party. + +"That is hard to say." + +"Well, we're going to leave this camp!" the man declared, darkly. + +"Indeed? Where are you going?" + +"We're going to Hope. You might as well let us go. We won't stand for +this." + +The physician eyed him coldly. "You won't? May I ask how you are going +to help yourselves?" + +"We're going to leave on the next steamer." + +"Oh, no you're not!" the marshal spoke up. + +"See here, Doc! There's over two hundred of us and we can't stay here; +we'll go broke." + +Gray shrugged his broad shoulders. "Sorry," he said, "but you see I've +no choice in the matter. I never saw a case of smallpox that looked +worse." + +"It's a frame-up," growled the spokesman. "Tom hasn't got smallpox any +more than I have. You cooked it to keep us here." There was an angry +second to this, whereupon the doctor exclaimed: + +"You think so, eh? Then just come with me." + +"Where?" + +"Out to the boat where he is. I'll show you." + +"You won't show me no smallpox," asserted one of the committee. + +"Then YOU come with me," the physician urged the leader. + +"So you can bottle me up, too? No, thank you!" + +"Get the town photographer with his flashlight. We'll help him make a +picture; then you can show it to the others. I promise not to +quarantine you." + +After some hesitation the men agreed to this; the photographer was +summoned and joined the party on its way to the floating pest-house. + +It was not a pleasant place in which they found Tom Slater, for the +cabin of the fishing-boat was neither light nor airy, but Eliza had +done much to make it agreeable. The sick man was propped up in his bunk +and playing solitaire, but he left off his occupation to groan as the +new-comers came alongside. + +When the cause of the visit had been made known, however, he rebelled. + +"I won't pose for no camera fiend," he declared, loudly. "It ain't +decent and I'm too sick. D'you take me for a bearded lady or a living +skeleton?" + +"These men think you're stalling," Dr. Gray told him. + +"Who? Me?" Slater rolled an angry eye upon the delegation. "I ain't +sick, eh? I s'pose I'm doing this for fun? I wish you had it, that's +all." + +The three members of the committee of investigation wisely halted at +the foot of the companionway stairs where the fresh air fanned them; +they were nervous and ill at ease. + +Drawing his covers closer, Slater shouted: + +"Close that hatch, you bone-heads! I'm blowing away!" + +The photographer ventured to remonstrate. + +"It's mighty close in here, Doc. Is it safe to breathe the bugs?" + +"Perfectly safe," Gray assured him. "At least Miss Appleton hasn't +suffered yet." + +As a matter of fact the patient betrayed no symptoms of a wasting +illness, for his cheeks were ruddy, he had eaten three hearty meals +each day, and the enforced rest had done him good, so the committee saw +nothing about him to satisfy their suspicions. But when Tom weakly +called upon them for assistance in rising they shrank back and one of +them exclaimed: + +"I wouldn't touch you with a fish-pole." + +Eliza came forward, however; she permitted her charge to lean upon her +while she adjusted the pillows at his back; but when Dr. Gray ordered +him to bare his breast and arms Slater refused positively. He blushed, +he stammered, he clutched his nightrobe with a horny hand which would +have required a cold chisel to loosen, and not until Eliza had gone +upon deck would he consent to expose his bulging chest. + +But Miss Appleton had barely left the cabin when she was followed by +the most timid member of the delegation. He plunged up the stairs, +gasping: + +"I've saw enough! He's got it, and got it bad." + +A moment later came the dull sound of the exploding flashlight, then a +yell, and out of the smoke stumbled his two companions. The spokesman, +it appeared, had also seen enough--too much--for with another yell he +leaped the rail and made for shore. Fortunately the tide was out and +the water low; he left a trail across the mud flat like that of a +frightened hippopotamus. + +When the two conspirators were finally alone upon the deck they rocked +in each other's arms, striving to stifle their laughter. Meanwhile from +the interior of the cabin came the feeble moans of the invalid. + +That evening hastily made photographs of the sick man were shown upon +the streets. Nor could the most skeptical deny that he presented a +revolting sight and one warranting Dr. Gray's precautions. In spite of +this evidence, however, threats against the physician continued to be +made freely; but when Eliza expressed fears for his safety he only +smiled grimly, and he stalked through the streets with such defiance +written on his heavy features that no man dared raise a hand against +him. + +Day after day the quarantine continued, and at length some of the men +went back to work. As others exhausted their wages they followed. In a +fortnight Omar was once more free of its floating population and work +at the front was going forward as usual. Meanwhile the patient +recovered in marvelous fashion and was loud in his thanks to the +physician who had brought him through so speedily. Yet Gray stubbornly +refused to raise the embargo. + +Finally the cause of the whole trouble appeared at the hospital and +begged to be released. + +"You put it over me," said Mr. Linn. "I've had enough and I want to get +out." + +"I don't know what you're talking about," answered the doctor. "No one +can leave here now." + +"I know it wasn't smallpox at all, but it worked just the same, I'll +leave your men alone if you'll let me go out on the next Seattle +steamer." + +"But--I thought you came from Hope?" Gray said, blandly. + +Mr. Linn shifted his eyes and laughed uneasily. "I did, and I'm going +to keep coming from Hope. You don't think I'd dare to go back after +this, do you?" + +"Why not?" + +"Gordon would kill me." + +"So! Mr. Gordon sent you?" + +"You know he did. But--I've got to get out now. I'm broke." + +"I didn't think it of Gordon!" The doctor shook his head sadly. "How +underhanded of him!" + +Linn exploded desperately: "Don't let's four-flush. You were too slick +for him, and you sewed me up. I've spent the money he gave me and now +I'm flat." + +"You look strong. We need men." + +Gordon's emissary turned pale. "Say! You wouldn't set me to work? Why, +those men would string me up." + +"I think not. I've spoken to the shift boss at mile 30, and he'll take +care you're not hurt so long as you work hard and keep your mouth shut." + +An hour later Mr. Linn, cursing deeply, shouldered his pack and tramped +out the grade, nor could he obtain food or shelter until he had covered +those thirty weary miles. Once at his destination, he was only too glad +to draw a numbered tag and fall to work with pick and shovel, but at +his leisure he estimated that it would take him until late the +following month to earn his fare to the States. + + + + +XI + +THE TWO SIDES OF ELIZA VIOLET APPLETON + + +Dan Appleton entered the bungalow one evening, wet and tired from his +work, to find Eliza pacing the floor in agitation. + +"What's the matter, Sis?" he inquired, with quick concern. + +His sister pointed to a copy of The Review which that day's mail had +brought. + +"Look at that!" she cried. "Read it!" + +"Oh! Your story, eh?" + +"Read it!" + +He read a column, and then glanced up to find her watching him with +angry eyes. + +"Gee! That's pretty rough on the chief, Kid. I thought you liked him," +he said, gravely. + +"I do! I do! Don't you understand, dummy? I didn't write that! They've +changed my story--distorted it. I'm--FURIOUS!" + +Dan whistled softly. "I didn't suppose they'd try anything like that, +but--they did a good job while they were at it. Why, you'd think O'Neil +was a grafter and the S. R. & N. nothing but a land-grabbing deal." + +"How DARED they?" the girl cried. "The actual changes aren't so +many--just enough to alter the effect of the story--but that's what +makes it so devilish. For instance, I described the obstacles and the +handicaps Mr. O'Neil has had to overcome in order to show the magnitude +of his enterprise, but Drake has altered it so that the physical +conditions here seem to be insuperable and he makes me say that the +road is doomed to failure. That's the way he changed it all through." + +"It may topple the chief's plans over; they're very insecure. It plays +right into the hands of his enemies, too, and of course Gordon's press +bureau will make the most of it." + +"Heavens! I want sympathy, not abuse!" wailed his sister. "It's all due +to the policy of The Review. Drake thinks everybody up here is a thief. +I dare say they are, but--How can I face Mr. O'Neil?" + +Dan shook the paper in his fist. "Are you going to stand for this?" he +demanded. + +"Hardly! I cabled the office this morning, and here's Drake's answer." +She read: + +"'Stuff colorless. Don't allow admiration warp judgment.' Can you beat +that?" + +"He thinks you've surrendered to Murray, like all the others." + +"I hate him!" cried Eliza. "I detest him!" + +"Who? O'Neil or Drake?" + +"Both. Mr. O'Neil for putting me in the position of a traitor, and +Drake for presuming to rewrite my stuff. I'm going to resign, and I'm +going to leave Omar before Murray O'Neil comes back." + +"Don't be a quitter, Sis. If you throw up the job the paper will send +somebody who will lie about us to suit the policy of the office. Show +'em where they're wrong; show 'em what this country needs. You have +your magazine stories to write." + +Eliza shook her head. "Bother the magazines and the whole business! I'm +thinking about Mr. O'Neil. I--I could cry. I suppose I'll have to stay +and explain to him, but--then I'll go home." + +"No! You'll stay right here and go through with this thing. I need you." + +"You? What for?" + +"You can perform a great and a signal service for your loving brother. +He's in terrible trouble!" + +"What's wrong, Danny?" Eliza's anger gave instant place to solicitude. +"You--you haven't STOLEN anything?" + +"Lord, no! What put that into your head?" + +"I don't know--except that's the worst thing that could happen to us. I +like to start with the worst." + +"I can't sulk in the jungle any more. I'm a rotten loser, Sis." + +"Oh! You mean--Natalie? You--like her?" + +"For a writer you select the most foolish words! Like, love, adore, +worship--words are no good, anyway. I'm dippy; I'm out of my head; I've +lost my reason. I'm deliriously happy and miserably unhappy. I--" + +"That's enough!" the girl exclaimed. "I can imagine the rest." + +"It was a fatal mistake for her to come to Omar, and to this very +house, of all places, where I could see her every day. I might have +recovered from the first jolt if I'd never seen her again, but--" He +waved his hands hopelessly. "I'm beginning to hate O'Neil." + +"You miserable traitor!" gasped Eliza. + +"Yep! That's me! I'm dead to loyalty, lost to the claims of friendship. +I've fought myself until I'm black in the face, but--it's no use. I +must have Natalie!" + +"She's crazy about O'Neil." + +"Seems to be, for a fact, but that doesn't alter my fix. I can't live +this way. You must help me or I'll lose my reason." + +"Nonsense! You haven't any or you wouldn't talk like this. What can I +do?" + +"It's simple! Be nice to Murray and--and win him away from her." + +Eliza stared at him as though she really believed him daft. Then she +said, mockingly: + +"Is that all? Just make him love me?" + +Dan nodded. "That would be fine, if you could manage it." + +"Why--you--you--I--" She gasped uncertainly for terms in which to voice +her indignant surprise. "Idiot!" she finally exclaimed. + +"Thanks for such glowing praise," Dan said, forlornly. "I feel a lot +worse than an idiot. An idiot is not necessarily evil; at heart he may +be likable, and pathetic, and merely unfortunate--" + +"You simply can't be in earnest!" + +"I am, though!" He turned upon her eyes which had grown suddenly old +and weary with longing. + +"You poor, foolish boy! In the first place, Mr. O'Neil will hate me for +this story. In the second place, no man would look at me. I'm ugly--" + +"I think you're beautiful." + +"With my snub nose, and big mouth, and--" + +"You can make him laugh, and when a woman can make a fellow laugh the +rest is easy." + +"In the third place I'm mannish and--vulgar, and besides--I don't care +for him." + +"Of course you don't, or I wouldn't ask it. You see, we're taking no +risks! You can at least take up his attention and--and when you see him +making for Natalie you can put out your foot and trip him up." + +"It wouldn't be honorable, Danny." + +"Possibly! But that doesn't make any difference with me. You may as +well realize that I've got beyond the point where nice considerations +of that sort weigh with me. If you'd ever been in love you'd understand +that such things don't count at all. It's your chance to save the +reason and happiness of an otherwise perfectly good brother." + +"There is nothing I wouldn't do for your happiness--nothing. But--Oh, +it's preposterous!" + +Dan relapsed into gloomy silence, and they had a very uncomfortable +meal. Unable to bear his continued lack of spirits, Eliza again +referred to the subject, and tried until late in the evening to argue +him out of his mood. But the longer they talked the more plainly she +saw that his feeling for Natalie was not fanciful, but sincere and +deep. She continued to scout his suggestion that she could help him by +captivating O'Neil, and stoutly maintained that she had no attraction +for men; nevertheless, when she went to her room she examined herself +critically in her mirror. This done, she gave herself over to her +favorite relaxation. + +First she exchanged her walking-skirt, her prim shirtwaist and jacket, +for a rose-pink wrapper which she furtively brought out of a closet. It +was a very elaborate wrapper, all fluffy lace and ruffles and bows, and +it had cost Eliza a sum which she strove desperately to forget. She +donned silk stockings and a pair of tiny bedroom slippers; then seating +herself once more at her dresser, she let down her hair. She invariably +wore it tightly drawn back--so tightly, in fact, that Dan had more than +once complained that it pulled her eyebrows out of place. On this +occasion, however, she crimped it, she curled it, she brought it +forward about her face in soft riotous puffs and strands, patting it +into becoming shape with dexterous fingers until it formed a golden +frame for her piquant features. + +Now this was no unusual performance for her. In the midnight solitude +of her chamber she regularly gave rein to the feminine side of her +nature. By day she was the severe, matter-of-fact, businesslike Eliza +Appleton, deaf to romance, lost to illusion, and unresponsive to +masculine attention; but deep in her heart were all the instincts and +longings of femininity, and at such times as this they came uppermost. +Her bedroom had none of the Puritanical primness which marked her habit +of dress; it was in no way suggestive of the masculine character which +she so proudly paraded upon the street. On the contrary, it was a bower +of daintiness, and was crowded with all the senseless fripperies of a +school-girl. Carefully hidden away beneath her starched shirtwaists was +much lingerie--bewildering creations to match the pink wrapper--and +this she petted and talked to adoringly when no one could hear. + +Eliza read much when she was unobserved--romances and improbable tales +of fine ladies and gallant squires. There were times, too, when she +wrote, chewing her pencil in the perplexities of vividly colored love +scenes; but she always destroyed these manuscripts before the curious +sun could spy upon her labors. In such ecstatic flights of fancy the +beautiful heroine was a languorous brunette with hair of raven hue and +soulful eyes in which slumbered the mystery of a tropic night. She had +a Grecian nose, moreover, and her name was Violet. + +From all this it may be gathered that Eliza Appleton was by no means +the extraordinary person she seemed. Beneath her false exterior she was +shamelessly normal. + +In the days before O'Neil's return she suffered constant misgivings and +qualms of conscience, but the sight of her brother reveling, expanding, +fairly bursting into bloom beneath the influence of Natalie Gerard led +her to think that perhaps she did have a duty to perform. Dan's cause +was hers, and while she had only the faintest hope of aiding it, she +was ready to battle for his happiness with every weapon at her command. +The part she would have to play was not exactly nice, she reflected, +but--the ties of sisterhood were strong and she would have made any +sacrifice for Dan. She knew that Natalie was fond of him in a casual, +friendly way, and although it was evident that the girl accorded him +none of that hero-worship with which she favored his chief, Eliza began +to think there still might be some hope for him. Since we are all prone +to argue our consciences into agreement with our desires, she finally +brought herself to the belief that O'Neil was not the man for Natalie. +He was too old, too confirmed in his ways, and too self-centered to +make a good husband for a girl of her age and disposition. Once her +illusions had been rubbed away through daily contact with him, she +would undoubtedly awaken to his human faults, and unhappiness would +result for both. What Natalie needed for her lasting contentment was a +boy her own age whose life would color to match hers. So argued Eliza +with that supreme satisfaction which we feel in arranging the affairs +of others to suit ourselves. + +She was greatly embarrassed, nevertheless, when she next met O'Neil and +tried to explain that story in The Review. He listened courteously and +smiled his gentle smile. + +"My dear," said he, finally, "I knew there had been some mistake, so +let's forget that it ever happened. Now tell me about the smallpox +epidemic. When I heard what Linn was doing with our men I was badly +worried, for I couldn't see how to checkmate him, but it seems you and +Doc were equal to the occasion. He cabled me a perfectly proper +announcement of Tom's quarantine, and I believed we had been favored by +a miracle." + +"It wasn't a miracle at all," Eliza said in a matter-of-fact tone; "it +was croton oil. Nobody has dared tell him the truth. He still believes +he could smell the tuberoses." + +O'Neil seemed to derive great amusement from her account of what +followed. He had already heard Dr. Gray's version of the affair, but +Eliza had a refreshing way of saying things. + +"I brought you a little present," he said when she had finished. + +She took the package he handed her, exclaiming with a slight flush of +embarrassment, "A s'prise! Nobody but Dan ever gave me a present." Then +her eyes darkened with suspicion. "Did you bring me this because of +what I did?" + +"Now don't be silly! I knew nothing about your part in the comedy until +Doc told me. You are a most difficult person." + +Slowly she unwrapped the parcel, and then with a gasp lifted a +splendidly embroidered kimono from its box. + +"Oh-h!" Her eyes were round and astonished. "Oh-h! It's for ME!" + +It was a regal garment of heavy silk, superbly ornamented with golden +dragons, each so cunningly worked that it seemed upon the point of +taking wing. "Why, their eyes glitter! And--they'd breathe fire if I +jabbed them. Oh-h!" She stared at the gift in helpless amazement. "Is +it mine, HONESTLY?" + +He nodded. "Won't you put it on?" + +"Over these things? Never!" Again Miss Appleton blushed, for she +recalled that she had prepared for his coming with extraordinary care. +Her boots were even stouter than usual, her skirt more plain, her waist +more stiff, and her hair more tightly smoothed back. "It would take a +fluffy person to wear this. I'll always keep it, of course, and--I'll +worship it, but I'm not designed for pretty clothes. I'll let Natalie +wear--" + +"Natalie has one of her own, done in butterflies, and I brought one to +her mother also." + +"And you bought this for me after you had seen that fiendish story over +my signature?" + +"Certainly!" He quickly forestalled her attempted thanks by changing +the subject. "Now then, Dan tells me you are anxious to begin your +magazine-work, so I'm going to arrange for you to see the glaciers and +the coal-fields. It will be a hard trip, for the track isn't through +yet, but--" + +"Oh, I'll take care of myself; I won't get in anybody's way," she said, +eagerly. + +"I intend to see that you don't, by going with you; so make your +preparations and we'll leave as soon as I can get away." + +When he had gone the girl said, aloud: + +"Eliza Violet, this is your chance. It's underhanded and mean, +but--you're a mean person, and the finger of Providence is directing +you." She snatched up the silken kimono and ran into her room, locking +the door behind her. Hurriedly she put it on, then posed before the +mirror. Next down came her hair amid a shower of pins. She arranged it +loosely about her face, and, ripping an artificial flower from her +"party" hat, placed it over her ear, then swayed grandly to and fro +while the golden dragons writhed and curved as if in joyous admiration. +A dozen times she slipped out of the garment and, gathering it to her +face, kissed it; a dozen times she donned it, strutting about her +little room like a peacock. Her tip-tilted nose was red and her eyes +were wet when at last she laid it out upon her bed and knelt with her +cheek against it. + +"Gee! If only I were pretty!" she sighed, "I almost believe he--likes +me." + +Tom Slater laboriously propelled himself up the hill to the bungalow +that evening, and seated himself on the topmost step near where Eliza +was rocking. She had come to occupy a considerable place in his +thoughts of late, for she was quite beyond his understanding. She +affected him as a mental gad-fly, stinging his mind into an activity +quite unusual. At times he considered her a nice girl, though +undoubtedly insane; then there were other moments when she excited his +deepest animosity. Again, on rare occasions she completely upset all +his preconceived notions by being so friendly and so sympathetic that +she made him homesick for his own daughter. In his idle hours, +therefore he spent much time at the Appleton cottage. + +"Where have you been lately, Uncle Tom?" she began. + +Slater winced at the appellation, but ignored it. + +"I've been out on the delta hustling supplies ahead. Heard the news?" + +"No." + +"Curtis Gordon has bought the McDermott outfit in Kyak." + +"That tells me nothing. Who is McDermott?" + +"He's a shoe-stringer. He had a wildcat plan to build a railroad from +Kyak to the coal-fields, but he never got farther than a row of alder +stakes and a book of press clippings." + +"Does that mean that Gordon abandons his Hope route?" + +"Yep! He's swung in behind us and the Heidlemanns. Now it's a +three-sided race, with us in the lead. Mellen just brought in the news +half an hour ago; he was on his way down from the glaciers when he ran +into a field party of Gordon's surveyors. Looks like trouble ahead if +they try to crowd through the canon alongside of us." + +"He must believe Kyak Bay will make a safe harbor." + +"Don't say it! If he's right, we're fried to a nice brown finish on +both sides and it's time to take us off the stove. I'm praying for a +storm." + +"'The prayers of the wicked are an abomination unto the Lord,'" quoted +Eliza. + +"Sure! But I keep right on praying just the same. It's a habit now. The +news has set the chief to jumping sideways." + +"Which, translated, I suppose means that he is disturbed." + +"Or words to that effect! Too bad they changed that newspaper story of +yours." + +"Yes." + +"It put a crimp in him." + +"How--do you mean?" + +"He had some California capitalists tuned up to put in three million +dollars, but when they read that our plan was impracticable their +fountain-pens refused to work." + +"Oh!" Eliza gasped, faintly. + +Slater regarded her curiously, then shook his head. "Funny how a kid +like you can scare a bunch of hard-headed bankers, ain't it?" he said. +"Doc Gray explained that it wasn't your fault, but--it doesn't take +much racket to frighten the big fish." + +"What will Mr. O'Neil do?" + +"Oh, he'll fight it out, I s'pose. The first thing is to block Gordon. +Say, I brought you a present." + +"This is my lucky day," smiled Eliza as Tom fumbled in his pocket. "I'm +sure I shall love it." + +"It ain't much, but it was the best in the crate and I shined it up on +my towel." Mr. Slater handed Eliza a fine red apple of prodigious size, +at sight of which the girl turned pale. + +"I--don't like apples," she cried, faintly. + +"Never mind; they're good for your complexion." + +"I'd die before I'd eat one." + +"Then I'll eat it for you; my complexion ain't what it was before I had +the smallpox." When he had carried out this intention and subjected his +teeth to a process of vacuum-cleaning, he asked: "Say, what happened to +your friend who chewed gum?" + +"Well, he was hardly a friend," Miss Appleton said, "If he had been a +real friend he would have listened to my warning." + +"Gum never hurt anybody," Slater averred, argumentatively. + +"Not ordinary gum. But you see, he chewed nothing except wintergreen--" + +"That's what I chew." + +Eliza's tone was one of shocked amazement. "Not REALLY? Oh, well, some +people would thrive on it, I dare say, but he had indigestion." + +"Me too! That's why I chew it." + +The girl eyed him during an uncomfortable pause. Finally she inquired: + +"Do you ever feel a queer, gnawing feeling, like hunger, if you go +without your breakfast?" + +"Unh-hunh! Don't you?" + +"I wouldn't alarm you for the world, Uncle Tom--" + +"I ain't your uncle!" + +"You might chew the stuff for years and not feel any bad effects, but +if you wake up some morning feeling tired and listless--" + +"I've done that, too." Slater's gloomy eyes were fixed upon her with a +look of vague apprehension. "Is it a symptom?" + +"Certainly! Pepsin-poisoning, it's called. This fellow I told you about +was a charming man, and since we had all tried so hard to save him, we +felt terribly at the end." + +"Then he died?" + +"Um-m! Yes and no. Remind me to tell you the story sometime--Here comes +Dan, in a great hurry." + +Young Appleton came panting up the hill. + +"Good-by, Sis," he said. "I'm off for the front in ten minutes." + +"Anybody hurt?" Slater asked quickly. + +"Not yet, but somebody's liable to be. Gordon is trying to steal the +canon, and Murray has ordered me out with a car of dynamite to hold it." + +"Dynamite! Why, Dan!" his sister exclaimed in consternation. + +"We have poling-boats at the lower crossing and we'll be at the canon +in two days. I'm going to load the hillside with shots, and if they try +to come through I'll set 'em off. They'll never dare tackle it." Dan's +eyes were dancing; his face was alive with excitement. + +"But suppose they should?" Eliza insisted, quietly. + +"Then send Doc Gray with some stretchers. I owe one to Gordon, and this +is my chance." Drawing her aside, he said in an undertone. "You've got +to hold my ground with Natalie while I'm gone. Don't let her see too +much of Murray." + +"I'll do the best I can," she answered him, "but if he seems to be in +earnest I'll renig, no matter what happens to you, Danny." + +He kissed her affectionately and fled. + + + + +XII + +HOW GORDON FAILED IN HIS CUNNING + + +The so-called canon of the Salmon River lies just above the twin +glaciers. Scenically, these are by far the more impressive, and they +present a more complex engineering problem; yet the canon itself was +the real strategic point in the struggle between the railroad-builders. +The floor of the valley immediately above Garfield glacier, though +several miles wide, was partly filled with detritus which had been +carried down from the mother range on the east, and this mass of debris +had forced the stream far over against the westward rim, where it came +roaring past the foot wall in a splendid cataract some three miles +long. To the left of the river, looking up-stream at this point, the +mountains slanted skyward like a roof, until lost in the hurrying scud +four thousand feet above. To the right, however, was the old moraine, +just mentioned, consisting of a desolate jumble of rock and gravel and +silt overlaying the ice foot. On account of its broken character and +the unstable nature of its foundation this bank was practically useless +for road-building, and the only feasible route for steel rails was +along the steep west wall. + +O'Neil on his first reconnaissance had perceived that while there was +room for more than one bridge across the Salmon between the upper and +the lower ice masses, there was not room for more than one track +alongside the rapids, some miles above that point. He knew, moreover, +that once he had established his title to a right-of-way along the west +rim of the cataract, it would be difficult for a rival to oust him, or +to parallel his line without first crossing back to the east bank--an +undertaking at once hazardous and costly. He had accordingly given Dan +Appleton explicit instructions to be very careful in filing his survey, +that no opportunity might be left open for a later arrival. The +engineer had done his work well, and O'Neil rested secure in the belief +that he held possession of the best and least expensive route through +to the open valleys above. He had had no cause to fear a clash with the +Heidlemann forces, for they had shown a strict regard for his rights +and seemed content to devote themselves to developing their terminus +before trying to negotiate the canon. They were wise in taking this +course, for their success would mean that O'Neil's project would fall +of its own weight. Kyak was nearer Seattle, by many miles, than Omar; +it was closer to the coal and copper fields, and the proven permanence +of their breakwater would render useless further attempts to finance +the S. R. & N. + +But in the entrance of Curtis Gordon into the field O'Neil recognized +danger. Gordon was swayed by no such business scruples as the +Heidlemanns; he was evidently making a desperate effort to secure a +footing at any cost. In purchasing the McDermott holdings he had +executed a coup of considerable importance, for he had placed himself +on equal footing with the Trust and in position to profit by its +efforts at harbor-building without expense to himself. If, therefore, +he succeeded in wresting from O'Neil the key to that upper passageway, +he would be able to block his personal enemy and to command the +consideration of his more powerful rival. + +No one, not even the Trust, had taken the McDermott enterprise +seriously, but with Curtis Gordon in control the "wildcat" suddenly +became a tiger. + +In view of all this, it was with no easy mind that O'Neil despatched +Appleton to the front, and it was with no small responsibility upon his +shoulders that the young engineer set out in charge of those wooden +boxes of dynamite. Murray had told him frankly what hung upon his +success, and Dan had vowed to hold the survey at any cost. + +Steam was up and the locomotive was puffing restlessly when he returned +from his farewell to Eliza. A moment later and the single flat car +carrying his party and its dangerous freight was being whirled along +the shores of Omar Lake. On it rushed, shrieking through the night, out +from the gloomy hills and upon the tangent that led across the delta. +Ten minutes after it had rolled forth upon the trestle at the "lower +crossing" the giant powder had been transferred to poling-boats and the +long pull against the current had begun. + +O'Neil had picked a crew for Dan, men upon whom he could depend. They +were on double pay, and as they had worked upon the North Pass & Yukon, +Appleton had no doubt of their loyalty. + +The events of that trip were etched upon the engineer's mind with +extraordinary vividness, for they surpassed in peril and excitement all +his previous experiences. The journey resembled nothing but the mad +scramble of a gold stampede. The stubborn boats with their cargoes +which had to be so gently handled, the ever-increasing fury of the +river, the growing menace of those ghastly, racing icebergs, the +taut-hauled towing-lines, and the straining, sweating men in the loops, +all made a picture hard to forget. Then, too, the uncertainty of the +enterprise, the crying need of haste, the knowledge of those other men +converging upon the same goal, lent a gnawing suspense to every hour. +It was infinitely more terrible than that first expedition when he and +Tom Slater and O'Neil had braved the unknown. It was vastly more trying +than any of the trips which had followed, even with the winter +hurricane streaming out of the north as from the mouth of a giant +funnel. + +Dan had faced death in various forms upon this delta during the past +year and a half. He had seen his flesh harden to marble whiteness under +the raging north wind; his eyes and lungs had been drifted full of sand +in summer storms which rivaled those of the Sahara. With transit on his +back he had come face to face with the huge brown grizzly. He had slept +in mud, he had made his bed on moss which ran water like a sponge; he +had taken danger and hardship as they came--yet never had he punished +himself as on this dash. + +Through his confusion of impressions, his intense preoccupation with +present dangers and future contingencies, the thought of Natalie +floated now and then vaguely but comfortingly. He had seen her for a +moment, before leaving--barely long enough to explain the nature of his +mission--but her quick concern, her unvoiced anxiety, had been very +pleasant, and he could not believe that it was altogether due to her +interest in the fortunes of O'Neil. + +Dan knew that Mellen's crew was camped at the upper crossing, busied in +drilling for the abutments and foundations of the bridge; but he +reasoned that they would scarcely suspect the object of Gordon's party +and that, in any case, they were not organized or equipped to resist +it. Moreover, the strategic point was four miles above the bridge site, +and the surveying corps would hardly precipitate a clash, particularly +since there was ample room for them to select a crossing-place +alongside. + +It was after midnight of the second day when he and his weary boatmen +stumbled into sight of the camp. Appleton halted his command and stole +forward, approaching the place through the tangled alders which flanked +it. He had anticipated that the rival party would be up to this point +by now, if not even farther advanced, and he was both angered and +relieved to sight the tops of other tents pitched a few hundred yards +beyond Mellen's outfit. So they were here! He had arrived in time, +after all! A feeling of exultation conquered the deathly fatigue that +slowed his limbs. Although he still had to pass the invader's camp and +establish himself at the canon, the certainty that he had made good +thus far was ample reward for his effort. + +A dog broke into furious barking as he emerged from cover, and he had a +moment's anxiety lest it serve as warning to the enemy; but a few quick +strides brought him to the tent of Mellen's foreman. Going in, he +roused the man, who was sleeping soundly. + +"Hello!" cried the foreman, jumping up and rubbing his eyes, "I thought +Curtis Gordon had taken possession." + +"Hush! Don't wake them up," Dan cautioned. + +"Oh, there's no danger of disturbing them with this infernal +cannonading going on all the time." The night resounded to a rumbling +crash as some huge mass of ice split off, perhaps two miles away. + +"When did they arrive?" + +"Night before last. They've located right alongside of us. Gee! we were +surprised when they showed up. They expect to break camp in the +morning." He yawned widely. + +"Hm-m! They're making tracks, aren't they? Were they friendly?" + +"Oh, sure! So were we. There was nothing else to do, was there? We had +no orders." + +"I have two dozen men and four boatloads of dynamite with me. I'm going +to hold that mountainside." + +"Then you're going to fight!" All vestige of drowsiness had fled from +the man's face. + +"Not if we can help it. Who is in charge of this crew?" + +"Gordon himself." + +"Gordon!" + +"Yes! And he's got a tough gang with him." + +"Armed?" + +"Sure! This is a bear country, you know." + +"Listen! I want you to tell him, as innocently as you can, that we're +on the job ahead of him. Tell him we've been there for a week and have +loaded that first rock shoulder and expect to shoot it off as soon as +possible. You can tell him, too, that I'm up there and he'd better see +me before trying to pass through." + +"I've got you! But that won't stop him." + +"Perhaps! Now have you any grub in camp?" + +"No." + +"We threw ours overboard, to make time. Send up anything you can spare; +we're played out." + +"It'll be nothing but beans, and they're moldy." + +"We can fight on beans, and we'll eat the paper off those giant +cartridges if we have to. Don't fail to warn Gordon that the hillside +is mined, and warn him loud enough for his swampers to hear." + +Appleton hastened back to his boats, where he found his men sprawled +among the boulders sleeping the sleep of complete exhaustion. They were +drenched, half numbed by the chill air of the glacier, and it was well +that he roused them. + +"Gordon's men are camped just above," he told them. "But we must get +through without waking them. No talking, now, until we're safe." + +Silently the crew resumed their tow-lines, fitting them to their aching +shoulders; gingerly the boats were edged out into the current. + +It was fortunate that the place was noisy, and that the voice of the +river and the periodic bombardment from the glaciers drowned the rattle +of loose stones dislodged by their footsteps. But it was a trying +half-hour that followed. Dan did not breathe easily until his party had +crossed the bar and were safely out upon the placid waters of the lake, +with the last stage of the journey ahead of them. + +About mid-forenoon of the following day Curtis Gordon halted his party +at the lower end of the rapids and went on alone. To his right lay the +cataract and along the steep slope against which it chafed wound a +faint footpath scarcely wide enough in places for a man to pass. This +trail dipped in and out, wound back and forth around frowning +promontories. It dodged through alder thickets or spanned slides of +loose rock, until, three miles above, it emerged into the more open +country back of the parent range. It had been worn by the feet of wild +animals and it followed closely the right-of-way of the S. R. & N. To +the left the hills rose swiftly in great leaps to the sky; to the +right, so close that a false step meant disaster, roared the cataract, +muddy and foam-flecked. + +As Gordon neared the first bluff he heard, above the clamor of the +flood, a faint metallic "tap-tap-tap," as of hammer and drill, and, +drawing closer, he saw Dan Appleton perched upon a rock which commanded +a view in both directions. Just around the shoulder, in a tiny gulch, +or gutter from the slopes above, were pitched several tents, from one +of which curled the smoke of a cook-stove. Close at hand were moored +four battered poling-boats. + +"Look out!" Appleton shouted from on high. + +Gordon flushed angrily and kept on, scanning the surroundings with +practised eye. + +"Hey, you!" Dan called, for a second time. "Keep back! We're going to +shoot." + +Still heedless of the warning, Gordon held stubbornly to his stride. He +noted the heads of several men projecting from behind boulders, and his +anger rose. How dared this whipper-snapper shout at him! He felt +inclined to toss the insolent young scoundrel into the rapids. Then +suddenly his resentment gave place to a totally different emotion. The +slanting bank midway between him and Appleton lifted itself bodily in a +chocolate-colored upheaval, and the roar of a dynamite blast rolled out +across the river. It was but a feeble echo of the majestic +reverberations from the glacier across the lake, but it was impressive +enough to send Curtis Gordon scurrying to a place of safety. He wheeled +in his tracks, doubling himself over, and his long legs began to thresh +wildly. Reaching the shelter of a rock crevice, he hurled himself into +it, while over his place of refuge descended a shower of dirt and rocks +and debris. When the rain of missiles had subsided he stepped forth, +his face white with fury, his big hands twitching. His voice was hoarse +as he shouted his protest. + +Appleton scrambled carefully down from his perch in the warm sunshine +and approached with insolent leisure. + +"Say! Do you want to get your fool self killed?" he cried; then in an +altered tone: "Oh! Is it you, Gordon?" + +"You knew very well it was I." Gordon swallowed hard and partially +controlled his wrath. "What do you mean by such carelessness?" he +demanded. "You ought to be hung for a thing like that." He brushed the +dirt from his expensive hunting-suit. + +"I yelled my head off! You must be deaf." + +"You saw me coming! Don't say you didn't. Fortunately I wasn't hurt." +In a tone of command he added, "You'll have to stop blasting until I go +through with my party." + +"Sorry! Every day counts with us." Appleton grinned. "You know how it +is--short season, and all that." + +"Come, come! Don't be an idiot. I have no time to waste," + +"Then you'll have to go around," said Dan. "This isn't a public road, +you know." + +Gordon had come to argue, to pacify, to gain his ends by lying, if +necessary, but this impudent jackanapes infuriated him. His plans had +gone smoothly so far, and the unexpected threat of resistance +momentarily provoked him beyond restraint. + +"You scoundrel," he cried. "You'd have blown me into the river if you +could. But I'll go through this canon--" + +"Go as far and as fast as you like," Dan interrupted with equal heat, +"only take your own chances, and have a net spread at the lower end of +the rapids to catch the remains." + +They eyed each other angrily; then Gordon said, more quietly: + +"This is ridiculous. You can't stop me." + +"Maybe I can't and maybe I can, I'm under orders to rush this work and +I don't intend to knock off to please you. I've planted shots at +various places along our right-of-way and I'll set 'em off when it +suits me. If you're so anxious to go up-river, why don't you cross over +to the moraine? There's a much better trail on that side. You'll find +better walking a few miles farther up, and you'll run no danger of +being hurt." + +"I intend to run a survey along this hillside." + +"There isn't room; we beat you to it." + +"The law provides--" + +"Law? Jove! I'd forgotten there is such a thing. Why don't you go to +law and settle the question that way? We'll have our track laid by the +time you get action, and I'm sure Mr. O'Neil wouldn't place any +obstacles in the way of your free passage back and forth. He's awfully +obliging about such things." + +Gordon ground his fine, white, even teeth. "Don't you understand that +I'm entitled to a right-of-way through here under the law of common +user?" he asked, with what patience he could command. + +"If you're trying to get a legal opinion on the matter why don't you +see a lawyer? I'm not a lawyer, neither am I a public speaker nor a +piano-tuner, nor anything like that--I'm an engineer." + +"Don't get funny. I can't send my men in here if you continue blasting." + +"So it seems to me, but you appear to be hell bent on trying it." + +Dan was enjoying himself and he deliberately added to the other's anger +by inquiring, as if in the blinding light of a new idea: + +"Why don't you bridge over and go up the other side?" He pointed to the +forbidding, broken country which faced them across the rapids. + +Gordon snorted. "How long do you intend to maintain this preposterous +attitude?" he asked. + +"As long as the powder lasts--and there's a good deal of it." + +The promoter chewed his lip for a moment in perplexity, then said with +a geniality he was far from feeling: + +"Appleton, you're all right! I admire your loyalty, even though it +happens to be for a mistaken cause. I always liked you. I admire +loyalty--It's something I need in my business. What I need I pay for, +and I pay well." + +"So your man Linn told us." + +"I never really discharged you. In fact, I intended to re-employ you, +for I need you badly. You can name your own salary and go to work any +time." + +"In other words, you mean you'll pay me well to let you through." + +"Fix your own price and I'll double it." + +"Will you come with me up this trail a little way?" Dan inquired. + +"Certainly." + +"There's a spot where I'd like to have you stand. I'll save you the +trouble of walking back to your men--you'll beat the echo." + +There was a pause while Gordon digested this. "Better think it over," +he said at length. "I'll never let O'Neil build his road, not if it +breaks me, and you're merely laying yourself open to arrest by +threatening me." + +"Please come with me!" urged Appleton. "You'll never know what hit you." + +With a curse the promoter wheeled and walked swiftly down the trail by +which he had come. + +"Get ready to shoot," Dan ordered when he had returned to his +vantage-point. A few moments later he saw the invading party approach, +but he withheld his warning shout until it was close at hand. Evidently +Gordon did not believe he would have the reckless courage to carry out +his threat, and had determined to put him to the test. + +The engineer gauged his distance nicely, and when the new-comers had +fairly passed within the danger zone he gave the signal to fire. + +A blast heavier than the one which had discouraged Gordon's advance +followed his command, and down upon the new-comers rained a deluge +which sent them scurrying to cover. Fortunately no one was injured. + +An hour later the invaders had pitched camp a mile below, and after +placing a trusted man on guard Appleton sent his weary men to bed. + +It was Curtis Gordon himself who brought O'Neil the first tidings of +this encounter, for, seeing the uselessness of an immediate attempt to +overcome Dan's party by force, he determined to make formal protest. He +secured a boat, and a few hours later the swift current swept him down +to the lower crossing, where McKay put a locomotive at his disposal for +the trip to Omar. By the time he arrived there he was quite himself +again, suave, self-possessed, and magnificently outraged at the +treatment he had received. O'Neil met him with courtesy. + +"Your man Appleton has lost his head," Gordon began. "I've come to ask +you to call him off." + +"He is following instructions to the letter." + +"Do you mean that you refuse to allow me to run my right-of-way along +that hillside? Impossible!" His voice betokened shocked surprise. + +"I am merely holding my own survey. I can't quit work to accommodate +you." + +"But, my dear sir, I must insist that you do." + +O'Neil shrugged. + +"Then there is but one way to construe your refusal--it means that you +declare war." + +"You saved me that necessity when you sent Linn to hire my men away." + +Gordon ignored this reference. "You must realize, O'Neil," said he, +"that I am merely asking what is mine. I have the right to use that +canonside--the right to use your track at that point, in fact, if it +proves impracticable to parallel it--under the law of common user. You +are an experienced contractor; you must be familiar with that law." + +"Yes. I looked it up before beginning operations, and I found it has +never been applied to Alaska." + +Gordon started. "That's a ridiculous statement." + +"Perhaps, but it's true. Alaska is not a territory, it's a district, +and it has its own code. Until the law of common user has been applied +here you'll have to use the other side of the river." + +"That would force me to bridge twice in passing the upper glacier. We +shall see what the courts have to say." + +"Thanks! I shall be grateful for the delay." + +Gordon rose with a bow. The interview had been short and to the point. +O'Neil put an engine at his service for the return trip, and after a +stiff adieu the visitor departed, inwardly raging. + +It was his first visit to Omar, and now that he was here he determined +to see it all. But first another matter demanded his attention--a +matter much in his mind of late, concerning which he had reached a more +or less satisfactory decision during his journey. + +He went directly to the new hotel and inquired for Gloria Gerard. + +Beneath the widow's coldness when she came to meet him he detected an +uncertainty, a frightened indecision which assured him of success, and +he set himself to his task with the zest he always felt in bending +another to his will. + +"It has been the greatest regret of my life that we quarreled," he told +her when their strained greeting was over. "I felt that I had to come +and see with my own eyes that you are well." + +"I am quite well." + +"Two people who have been to each other as much as we have been cannot +lightly separate; their lives cannot be divided without a painful +readjustment." He paused, then reflecting that he could afford a little +sentimental extravagance, added, "Flowers cannot easily be +transplanted, and love, after all, is the frailest of blooms." + +"I--think it is perennial. Have you--missed me?" Her dark eyes were +strained and curious. + +"My dear, you can never know how much, nor how deeply distressing this +whole affair has been to me." He managed to put an affecting pathos +into words sufficiently banal, for he was an excellent actor. "I find +that I am all sentiment. Under the shell of the hard-headed business +man beats the heart of a school-boy. The memory of the hours we have +spent together, the places we have seen, the joys and discouragements +we have shared, haunts me constantly. Memory can glean but never renew: +'joy's recollection is no longer joy while sorrow's memory is sorrow +still.'" + +The spell of his personality worked strongly upon her. "Recollection is +the only paradise from which we cannot be turned out," she said. "You +read that to me once, but I didn't dream that my own happiness would +some day consist of recollection." + +"Why should it, Gloria? Hope is ready to welcome you. Your home stands +open; my arms are outstretched." + +"No!" she exclaimed, with a shake of her dark head. "There is some one +besides myself to consider. Natalie is happy here; no one seems to know +or to care what I have done." + +"But surely you are not satisfied with this." + +He ran his eye critically over the garish newness of the little hotel +parlor. It was flimsy, cheap, fresh with paint, very different from the +surroundings he had given her at Hope. "I wonder that he presumed to +offer you this after what you have had. A hotel-keeper! A landlady!" + +"I was glad to get even this, for I have no pride now," she returned, +coldly. "At least the house is honest, and the men who come here are +the same. Mr. O'Neil is especially kind to Natalie, and she thinks a +great deal of him." + +"I presume he wants to marry her." + +"I pray that he will. I don't intend her to make the mistake I did." + +Gordon received this announcement with grim satisfaction. It was what +he had suspected, and it fitted perfectly into his plans. + +"I sha'n't allow this to continue, Gloria," he said. "Our difference +has gone far enough, and I sha'n't permit O'Neil to put me in his debt. +We have come to a final understanding, he and I. While my views on the +holiness of the marriage relation have not changed in the least, still +I am ready to follow your wishes." + +"You--mean it?" she queried, breathlessly. + +"I do. Come home, Gloria." + +"Wait! I must tell Natalie." She rose unsteadily and left the room, +while he reflected with mingled scorn and amusement upon the weakness +of human nature and the gullibility of women. + +A moment later mother and daughter appeared, arm in arm, both very pale. + +"Is this true?" Natalie demanded. + +"Quite true. You and Gloria seem to think I owe something; I never +shirk a debt." Mrs. Gerard's fingers tightened painfully upon her +daughter's arm as he continued: "There is only one condition upon which +I insist: you must both return to Hope at once and have done with +this--this man." + +Natalie hesitated, but the look in her mother's eyes decided her. With +some difficulty she forced herself to acquiesce, and felt the grip upon +her arm suddenly relax. "When will the wedding take place?" she asked. + +"At the earliest possible moment," Gordon declared, with well-feigned +seriousness. "Once we return to God's country--" + +"No!" cried Natalie. "We can't go back to Hope until she is married; it +would be scandalous." + +"Why more scandalous to accept my protection than that of a stranger? +Do you care what these people think?" he demanded, with an air of fine +scorn. + +"Yes! I care very much." + +"Is there any--reason for waiting?" Mrs. Gerard inquired. + +"Many! Too many to enumerate. It is my condition that you both leave +Omar at once." + +Gloria Gerard looked at her daughter in troubled indecision, but +Natalie answered firmly: + +"We can't do that." + +"So! You have your own plans, no doubt, and it doesn't trouble you that +you are standing in the way of your mother's respectability!" His voice +was harsh, his sneer open. "Bless my soul! Is the generosity to be all +on my side? Or has this man O'Neil forbidden you to associate with me?" + +"I don't trust you." Natalie flared up. "I'm afraid you are trying--" + +"It is my condition, and I am adamant. Believe me, O'Neil knows of your +disgrace, or will learn of it in time. It would be well to protect your +name while you can." Turning to the other woman, he said loudly: +"Gloria, the girl is ready to sacrifice you to her own ends." + +"Wait!" Natalie's nerves were tingling with dislike of the man, but she +said steadily: "I shall do exactly as mother wishes." + +Be it said to the credit of Gloria Gerard that she did not hesitate. + +"I shall be here when you are ready," she told him. + +With an exclamation of rage Gordon rose and strode out of the room. + + + + +XIII + +WE JOURNEY TO A PLACE OF MANY WONDERS + + +Curtis Gordon's men broke camp upon his return from Omar, and by taking +the east bank of the Salmon River pressed through to the upper valley. +Here they recrossed to the west side and completed their survey, with +the exception of the three-mile gap which Dan Appleton held. + +Gordon continued to smart under the sting of his defeat, however. +O'Neil had gotten the better of him in argument, and Natalie's +simplicity had proved more than a match for his powers of persuasion. +At no time had he seriously considered making Mrs. Gerard his wife, but +he had thought to entice the two women back under his own roof, in +order to humble both them and their self-appointed protector. He felt +sure that Natalie's return to Hope and her residence there would injure +her seriously in the eyes of the community, and this would be a stab to +O'Neil. Although he had failed for the moment, he did not abandon the +idea. His display of anger upon leaving the hotel had been due mainly +to disappointment at the checkmate. But knowing well the hold he +possessed upon the older woman, he laid it away for later use when the +fight grew hot, and meanwhile devoted himself to devising further +measures by which to harass his enemy and incidentally advance his own +fortunes. + +Gordon's business career had consisted of a series of brilliant +manipulations whereby, with little to go upon, he had forced financial +recognition for himself. No one knew better than he the unstable +foundation beneath his Alaskan enterprises; yet more than once he had +turned as desperate ventures into the semblance of success. By his +present operations he sought not only to hamper O'Neil, but to create +an appearance of opposition to both him and the Trust that could be +coined into dollars and cents. There are in the commercial world money +wolves who prey upon the weak and depend upon the spirit of compromise +in their adversaries. Gordon was one of these. He had the faculty of +snatching at least half a victory from apparent defeat, and for this +reason he had been able to show a record sufficiently impressive to +convince the average investor of his ability. + +By purchasing for a song the McDermott rights at Kyak he had placed +himself in position to share in the benefits of the Heidlemann +breakwater, and by rapidly pushing his tracks ahead he made his rivalry +seem formidable. As a means of attack upon O'Neil he adopted a +procedure common in railroad-building. He amended his original survey +so that it crossed that of the S. R. & N. midway between the lower +bridge over the Salmon River and the glaciers, and at that point began +the hasty erection of a grade. + +It was at the cost of no little inconvenience that he rushed forward a +large body of men and supplies, and began to lay track across the S. R. +& N. right-of-way. If Appleton could hold a hillside, he reasoned, he +himself could hold a crossing, if not permanently, at least for a +sufficient length of time to serve his purpose. + +His action came as a disagreeable surprise to Omar. These battles for +crossings have been common in the history of railroading, and they have +not infrequently resulted in sanguinary affrays. Long after the ties +are spiked and the heads are healed, the legal rights involved have +been determined, but usually amid such a tangle of conflicting +testimony and such a confusion of technicalities as to leave the +justice of the final decision in doubt. In the unsettled conditions +that prevailed in the Salmon River valley physical possession of a +right-of-way was at least nine-tenths of the law, and O'Neil realized +that he must choose between violence and a compromise. Not being given +to compromise, he continued his construction work, and drew closer, day +by day, to the point of contact. + +Reports came from the front of his opponent's preparations for +resistance. Gordon had laid several hundred yards of light rails upon +his grade, and on these he had mounted a device in the nature of a +"go-devil" or skip, which he shunted back and forth by means of a +donkey-engine and steel cable. With this in operation across the point +of intersection like a shuttle, interference would be extremely +dangerous. In addition, he had built blockhouses and breast-works of +ties, and in these, it was reported, he had stationed the pick of his +hired helpers, armed and well provisioned. + +Toward this stronghold Murray O'Neil's men worked, laying his road-bed +as straight as an arrow, and as the intervening distance decreased +anxiety and speculation at Omar increased. + +Among those who hung upon the rumors of the approaching clash with +greatest interest was Eliza Appleton. Since Dan's departure for the +front she had done her modest best to act the part he had forced upon +her, and in furtherance of their conspiracy she had urged O'Neil to +fulfil his promise of taking her over the work. She felt an +ever-growing curiosity to see those glaciers, about which she had heard +so much; and she reflected, though not without a degree of +self-contempt, that nothing could be more favorable to her design than +the intimacy of several days together on the trail. Nothing breeds a +closer relationship than the open life, nothing brings people more +quickly into accord or hopeless disagreement. Although she had no +faintest idea that Murray could or would ever care seriously for her, +she felt that there was a bare possibility of winning his transient +interest and in that way, perhaps, affording her brother time in which +to attain his heart's desire. Of course, it was all utterly absurd, yet +it was serious enough to Dan; and her own feelings--well, they didn't +matter. + +She was greatly excited when O'Neil announced one evening: + +"I'm ready to make that trip to the front, if you are. I have business +at Kyak; so after we've seen the glaciers we will go down there and you +can take in the coal-fields." + +"How long shall we be gone?" + +"Ten days, perhaps. We'll start in the morning." + +"I'm ready to leave at a moment's notice." + +"Then perhaps you'd better help Natalie." + +"Natalie!" exclaimed Eliza, seeing all her well-laid plans tottering. +"Is she going?" + +"Oh yes! It's an opportunity she shouldn't miss, and I thought it would +be pleasanter for you if she went with us." + +Eliza was forced to acknowledge his thoughtfulness, although it angered +her to be sacrificed to the proprieties. Her newspaper training had +made her feel superior to such things, and this of all occasions was +one upon which she would have liked to be free of mere conventions. But +of course she professed the greatest delight. + +O'Neil had puzzled her greatly of late; for at times he seemed wrapped +up in Natalie, and at other times he actually showed a preference for +Eliza's own company. He was so impartial in his attentions that at one +moment the girl would waver in her determination and in the next would +believe herself succeeding beyond her hope. The game confused her +emotions curiously. She accused herself of being overbold, and then she +noted with horror that she was growing as sensitive to his apparent +coldness as if she were really in earnest. She had not supposed that +the mere acting of a sentimental role could so obsess her. + +To counteract this tendency she assumed a very professional air when +they set out on the following morning. She was once more Eliza Appleton +the reporter, and O'Neil, in recognition of this fact, explained +rapidly the difficulties of construction which he had met and overcome. +As she began to understand there came to her a fuller appreciation of +the man and the work he was doing. Natalie, however, could not seem to +grasp the significance of the enterprise. She saw nothing beyond the +even gravel road-bed, the uninteresting trestles and bridges and cuts +and fills, the like of which she had seen many times before, and her +comment was childlike. O'Neil, however, appeared to find her naivete +charming, and Eliza reflected bitterly: + +"If my nose was perfectly chiseled and my eyebrows nice, he wouldn't +care if my brain was the size of a rabbit's. Here am I, talking like a +human being and really understanding him, while she sits like a Greek +goddess, wondering if her hat is on straight. If ever I find a girl +uglier than I am I'll make her my bosom friend." She jabbed her pencil +viciously at her notebook. + +The track by this time had been extended considerably beyond the lower +crossing--a circumstance which rendered their boat journey to the +glaciers considerably shorter than the one Dan had taken with his cargo +of dynamite. When the engine finally stopped it was in the midst of a +tent village beside which flowed one of the smaller branches of the +Salmon. In the distance the grade stretched out across the level swamps +like a thin, lately healed scar, and along its crest gravel-trains were +slowly creeping. An army of men like a row of ants were toiling upon +it, and still farther away shone the white sides of another encampment. + +"Oh! That's Gordon's track," Eliza cried, quickly. "Why, you're nearly +up to him. How do you intend to get across?" + +O'Neil nodded at the long thin line of moiling men in the distance. + +"There's a loose handle in each one of those picks," he said. + +"Somebody will be killed in that kind of a racket." + +"That rests with Gordon. I'm going through." + +"Suppose he had said that when Dan stopped him at the canon?" + +"If he'd said it and meant it he'd probably have done it. He bluffs; I +don't! I have to go on; he didn't. Now lunch is served; and since this +is our last glimpse of civilization, I advise you to fortify +yourselves. From here on we shall see nothing but the wilderness." + +He led them to a spotless tent which had been newly erected at the edge +of the spruce. It was smoothly stretched upon a framework of timber, +its walls and floor were of dressed lumber, and within were two cots +all in clean linen. There were twin washstands also, and dressers and +rocking-chairs, a table and a stove. On the floor beside the beds lay a +number of deep, soft bear-rugs. A meal was spread amid glass and +figured china and fresh new napery. + +"How cozy! Why, it's a perfect dear of a house!" exclaimed Natalie. + +"You will leave everything but your necessaries here, for we are going +light," Murray told them. "You will stop here on our way back to Kyak, +and I'll warrant you'll be glad to see the place by that time." + +"You built this just for us," Eliza said, accusingly. + +"Yes. But it didn't take long. I 'phoned this morning that you were +coming." He ran a critical eye over the place to see that its equipment +was complete, then drew out their chairs for them. + +A white-coated cook-boy served a luncheon in courses, the quality of +which astonished the visitors, for there was soup, a roast, delicious +vegetables, crisp salad, a camembert which O'Neil had imported for his +private use, and his own particular blend of coffee. + +The girls ate with appetites that rivaled those of the men in the +mess-tent near by. Their presence in the heart of a great activity, the +anticipation of adventure to come, the electric atmosphere of haste and +straining effort on every hand excited them. Eliza began to be less +conscious of her secret intention, and Natalie showed a gaiety rare in +her since the shadow of her mother's shame had fallen upon her life. + +The boat crews were waiting when they had finished, and they were soon +under way. A mile of comparatively slack water brought them out into +one of the larger estuaries of the river, and there the long, uphill +pull began. O'Neil had equipped his two companions with high rubber +boots, which they were only too eager to try. As soon as they got +ashore they began to romp and play and splash through the shallows +quite like unruly children. They spattered him mischievously, they +tugged at the towing-ropes with a great show of assistance, they +scampered ahead of the party, keeping him in a constant panic lest they +meet with serious accident. + +It was with no little relief that he gave the order to pitch camp some +hours later. After sending them off to pick wild currants, with a grave +warning to beware of bears, he saw to the preparations for the night. +They returned shortly with their hats filled and their lips stained; +then, much to his disgust, they insisted upon straightening out his +tent with their own hands. Once inside its low shelter, they gleefully +sifted sand between his blankets and replaced his pillow with a rock; +then they induced the cook to coil a wet string in his flapjack. When +supper was over and the camp-fires of driftwood were crackling merrily, +they fixed themselves comfortably where their feet would toast, and +made him tell them stories until his eyes drooped with weariness. + +It was late summer, and O'Neil had expected to find the glaciers less +active than usual, but heavy rains in the interior and hot thawing +weather along the coast had swelled the Salmon until many bergs clogged +it, while the reverberations which rolled down the valley told him that +both Garfield and Jackson were caving badly. It was not the safest time +at which to approach the place, he reflected, but the girls had shown +themselves nimble of foot, and he put aside his uneasiness. + +Short though the miles had been and easy as the trip had proved, Eliza +soon found herself wondering that it should be possible to penetrate +this region at all. The snarling river, the charging icebergs, the +caving banks, and the growing menace of that noisy gap ahead began to +have their effect upon her and Natalie; and when the party finally +rounded the point where Murray and Dan had caught their first glimpse +of the lower glacier they paused with exclamations of amazement. They +stood at the upper end of a gorge between low bluffs, and just across +the hurrying flood lay the lower limit of the giant ice-field. The +edge, perhaps six hundred feet distant, was sloping and mud-stained, +for in its slow advance it had plowed a huge furrow, lifting boulders, +trees, acres of soil upon its back. The very bluff through which the +river had cut its bed was formed of the debris it had thrown off, and +constituted a bulwark protecting its flank. Farther up-stream the +slope, became steeper, then changed to a rugged perpendicular face +showing marks of recent cleavage. This palisade extended on and on, +around the nearest bend, following the contour of the Salmon as far as +they could see. The sun was reflected from its myriad angles and facets +in splendid iridescence. Mammoth caves and caverns gaped. In spots the +ice was white, opaque; in other places it was a light cerulean blue +which shaded into purple. Ribbons and faint striations meandered +through it like the streaks in an agate. But what struck the beholders +with overwhelming force was the tremendous, the unbelievable bulk of +the whole slowly moving mass. It reared itself sheerly three hundred +feet high, and along its foot the river hurried, dwarfed to an +insignificant trickle. Here and there it leaned outward threateningly, +bulging from the terrific weight behind; at other points the muddy +flood recoiled from vast heaps which had slid downward and half dammed +its current. Back of these piles the fresh cleavage showed dazzlingly. +On, upward, back into the untracked mountains it ran through mile upon +mile of undulations, until at last it joined the ice-cap which weighted +the plateau. As far as the eye could follow the river ahead it stood +solidly. Across its entire face it was dripping; a thousand little +rills and waterfalls ate into it, and over it swept a cool, dank breath. + +The effect of the first view was overwhelming. Nothing upon the earth +compares in majesty and menace to these dull-eyed monsters of bygone +ages; nothing save the roots of mountains can serve to check them; +nothing less than the ceaseless energy of mighty rivers can sweep away +their shattered fragments. + +Murray O'Neil had seen Jackson Glacier many times, but always he +experienced the same feeling of awe, of personal insignificance, as +when he first came stumbling up that gorge more than a year before. + +For a long time the girls stood gazing without a word. They seemed to +have forgotten his presence. + +"Well?" he said at last. + +"Isn't it BIG?" Natalie faltered, with round eyes. "Will it fall over +on us?" + +He shook his head. "The river is too wide for that, but when a +particularly big mass drops it makes waves large enough to sweep +everything before them. This bank on our right is sixty feet high, but +I've seen it inundated." + +Turning to Eliza, he inquired: + +"What do you think of it?" + +Her face as she met his was strangely glorified, her eyes were shining, +her fingers tightly interlocked. + +"I--I'd like to cry or--or swear," she said, uncertainly, + +"Why, Eliza!" Natalie regarded her friend in shocked amazement, but +Murray laughed. + +"It affects people differently," he said. "I have men who refuse to +make this trip. There's something about Jackson that frightens +them--perhaps it is its nearness. You see, there's no other place on +the globe where we pygmies dare come so close to a live glacier of this +size." + +"How can we go on?" Natalie asked. "We must work our boats along this +bank. If the ice begins to crack anywhere near us I want you both to +scamper up into the alders as fast as your rubber boots will carry you." + +"What will you do?" Eliza eyed him curiously. + +"Oh, I'll follow; never fear! If it's not too bad, I'll stay with the +boats, of course. But we're not likely to have much difficulty at this +season." + +Eliza noted the intensity with which the boatmen were scanning the +passage ahead, and something in O'Neil's tone told her he was speaking +with an assurance he did not wholly feel. + +"You have lost some men here, haven't you?" she asked. + +"Yes. But the greater danger is in coming down. Then we have to get out +in the current and take our chances." + +"I'd like to do that!" Her lips were parted, her eyes were glowing, but +Natalie gave a little cry of dismay. + +"It's an utterly new sensation," O'Neil admitted. "I've been thinking +of sending you up across the moraine, but the trail is bad, and you +might get lost among the alders--" + +"And miss any part of this! I wouldn't do it for worlds." Eliza's +enthusiasm was irresistible, and the expedition was soon under way +again. + +Progress was more difficult now, for the river-shore was paved with +smooth, round stones which rolled under foot, and the boats required +extreme attention in the swift current. The farther they proceeded, the +more the ice wall opposite increased in height, until at last it shut +off the mountains behind. Then as they rounded the first bend a new +prospect unfolded itself. The size of Jackson became even more +apparent; the gravel bank under which they crept was steeper and higher +also. In places it was undercut by the action of the waves which +periodically surged across. At such points Murray sent his charges +hurrying on ahead, while he and his men tracked the boats after them. +In time they found themselves opposite the backbone of the glacier, +where the Salmon gnawed at the foot of a frozen cliff of prodigious +height. And now, although there had been no cause for apprehension +beyond an occasional rumble far back or a splitting crack from near at +hand, the men assumed an attitude of strained watchfulness and kept +their faces turned to the left. They walked quietly, as if they felt +themselves in some appalling presence. + +At last there came a sound like that of a cannon-shot, and far ahead of +them a fragment loosened itself and went plunging downward. Although it +appeared small, a ridge promptly leaped out from beneath the splash and +came racing down the river's bosom toward them. + +"Better go up a bit," O'Neil called to his charges. + +The men at the ends of the tow-lines scrambled part way up the shelving +beach and braced themselves, then wrapped the ropes about their waists, +like anchormen on a tug-of-war team. Their companions waded into the +flood and fended the boats off the rocks. + +The wave came swiftly, lifting the skiffs high upon the bank, then it +sucked them back amid a tangle of arms and legs. A portion of the +river-bottom suddenly bared itself and as suddenly was submerged again. +The boats plunged and rolled and beat themselves upon the shore, +wrenching the anchormen from their posts. They were half filled with +water too, but the wave had passed and was scudding away down-stream. + +Eliza Appleton came stumbling back over the rock-strewn bank, for +during that first mad plunge she had seen O'Neil go down beneath one of +the rearing craft. A man was helping him out. + +"Nothing but my ankle!" he reassured her when she reached his side. "I +was dragged a bit and jammed among the boulders." He sank down, and his +lips were white with pain, but his gray eyes smiled bravely. The +boatman removed his chief's boot and fell to rubbing the injury, while +the girls looked on helplessly. + +"Come, come! We can't stay here," Murray told them. He drew on the boot +again to check the swelling. + +"Can you walk?" they asked him, anxiously. + +"Certainly! Two feet are really unnecessary. A man can get along nearly +as well on one." He hurried his men back to their tasks, and managed to +limp after them, although the effort brought beads of sweat to his lips +and brow. + +It was well that he insisted upon haste, for they had not gone far when +the glacier broke abreast of the spot they had just left. There came a +rending crack, terrifying in its loudness; a tremendous tower of ice +separated itself from the main body, leaned slowly outward, then roared +downward, falling in a solid piece like a sky-scraper undermined. Not +until the arc described by its summit had reached the river's surface +did it shiver itself. Then there was a burst as of an exploded mine. +The saffron waters of the Salmon shot upward until they topped the main +rampart, and there separated into a cloud of spray which rained down in +a deluge. Out from the fallen mass rushed a billow which gushed across +the channel, thrashed against the high bank, then inundated it until +the alder thickets on its crest whipped their tips madly. A giant +charge of fragments of every size flew far out across the flats or +lashed the waters to further anger in its fall. + +The prostrate column lay like a wing-dam, half across the stream, and +over it the Salmon piled itself. Disintegration followed; bergs heaved +themselves into sight and went rolling and lunging after the billow +which was rushing down-stream with the speed of a locomotive. They +ground and clashed together in furious confusion as the river spun +them; the greater ones up-ended themselves, casting off muddy cascades. +From the depths of the flood came a grinding and crunching as ice met +rock. + +Spellbound, the girls watched that first wave go tearing out of sight, +filling the river bank-full. With exclamations of wonder, they saw the +imprisoned waters break the huge dam to pieces. Finally the last +shattered fragment was hurried out of sight, the flood poured past +unhampered, and overhead the glacier towered silent, unchanged, staring +at them balefully like a blind man with filmed eyes. There remained +nothing but a gleaming scar to show where the cataclysm had originated. + +"If I'd known the river was so high I'd never have brought you," O'Neil +told them. "It's fortunate we happened to be above that break. You see, +the waves can't run up against the current." He turned to his men and +spurred them on. + +It was not until the travelers had reached the camp at the bridge site +that all the wonders of this region became apparent. Then the two +girls, in spite of their fatigue, spent the late afternoon +sight-seeing. At this point they were able to gain a comprehensive +view; for at their backs lay Jackson Glacier, which they had just +passed, and directly fronting them, across a placid lake, was Garfield, +even larger and more impressive than its mate. Thirty, forty miles it +ran back, broadening into a frozen sea out of which scarred mountain +peaks rose like bleak islands, and on beyond the range of vision was +still more ice. + +They were surrounded by ragged ramparts. The Salmon River ran through a +broken chalice formed by the encircling hills, and over the rim of the +bowl or through its cracks peered other and smaller ice bodies. The +lake at its bottom was filled by as strange a navy as ever sailed the +sea; for the ships were bergs, and they followed each other in +senseless, ceaseless manoeuvers, towed by the currents which swept +through from the cataract at its upper end. They formed long +battle-lines, they assembled into flotillas, they filed about the +circumference of a devil's whirlpool at the foot of the rapids, +gyrating, bobbing, bowing until crowded out by the pressure of their +rivals. Some of them were grounded, like hulks defeated in previous +encounters, and along the guardian bar which imprisoned them at the +outlet of the lake others were huddled, a mass of slowly dissolving +wreckage. + +O'Neil was helped into camp, and when his boot had been cut away he +sent news of his arrival to Dan, who came like an eager bridegroom. + + + + +XIV + +HOW THE TRUTH CAME TO ELIZA + + +Appleton found his employer with one foot in a tub of hot water and his +lap full of blueprints. O'Neil explained briefly the condition of +affairs down the river. + +"I want some one to make that crossing," he said. + +"A volunteer?" asked Dan, with quickened pulses. + +"Yes." + +"Will I do?" + +"I sent for you to give you the first chance--you've been chafing so at +your idleness. We must have steel laid to this point before snow flies. +Every hour counts. I daren't risk Mellen or McKay, for they might be +disabled. I intended to take charge myself, but I won't be able to walk +now for some time." He swore a little, and Dan nodded sympathetically. +"I wouldn't send anybody where I'd refuse to go myself. You understand?" + +"Of course." + +"If either McKay or Mellen were hurt I couldn't build the bridge, and +the bridge must be built." + +"If Gordon stands pat somebody may be--hurt." + +"I don't look for anything worse than a few broken heads, but of course +I can't tell. I'll stand behind you with my last dollar, no matter what +happens." + +Dan laughed. "As I understand the situation you won't have a dollar +unless we make the crossing." + +"Right!" O'Neil smiled cheerfully. "The life of the S. R. & N. depends +upon it. I'd give ten thousand dollars for your right ankle." + +"You can have it for nothing, Chief. I'd amputate the whole leg and +present it to you," Dan declared earnestly. + +Murray took his hand in a hearty grip. "Perhaps I'll be able to serve +you some time," he said, simply. "Anyhow, I'll look out for the chance. +Now spend the evening with the girls, and leave in the morning. I'll be +down as soon as I can travel, to watch the fight from the side-lines." +O'Neil's voice was level, but his teeth were shut and his fingers were +clenched with rage at his disability. + +Dan hurried away highly elated, but when he told Eliza of the part he +had undertaken she stormed indignantly. + +"Why, the brute! He has no right to send you into danger. This isn't +war." + +"Sis, dear, it's my chance. He can't stand, and he daren't risk his +right-hand men." + +"So he sacrifices you! I won't permit it. Your life and safety are +worth more than all his dollars. Let his old railroad go to smash!" + +"Wait! More than my safety depends on this. He said he'd wait for a +chance to pay me back. If I do this he'll owe me more than any man on +the job, and when he learns that I love Natalie--" + +"Dan!" exclaimed his sister. + +"Oh, he'll make good!" + +"Why, you're worse than he! The idea of suggesting such a thing!" + +"Don't preach! I've had nothing to do lately but think of her; she's +always in my mind. The loneliness up here has made me feel more than +ever that I can't exist without her. The river whispers her name; her +face looks at me from the campfire; the wind brings me her messages--" + +"Fiddlesticks! She saves her messages for him. When a man reaches the +poetical stage he's positively sickening. You'll be writing verses +next." + +"I've written 'em," Dan confessed, sheepishly; "oceans of mush." + +"Fancy! Thank Heaven one of us is sane." + +"Our dispositions were mixed when we were born, Eliza. You're +unsentimental and hard-headed: I'm romantic. You'll never know what +love means." + +"If you are a sample, I hope not." Eliza's nose assumed an even higher +tilt than usual. + +"Well, if I knew I had no chance with Natalie I'd let Gordon's men put +an end to me--that's how serious it is. But I have a chance--I know I +have." + +"Bosh! You've lived in railroad camps too long. I know a dozen girls +prettier than she." Eying him with more concern, she asked, seriously, +"You wouldn't really take advantage of a service to Murray O'Neil +to--to tell him the nature of your insanity?" + +"I might not actually tell him, but I'd manage it so he'd find out." + +"Don't you think Natalie has something to say? Don't you think she is +more than a piece of baggage waiting to be claimed by the first man who +comes along?" sputtered Miss Appleton in fine disgust at this attitude. +"She has more sense and determination than any girl, any pretty girl, I +ever saw. That's one reason why I hate her so. There's no use trying to +select a husband for her. When the time comes she'll do the selecting +herself. She'll knock over all our plans and walk blushingly up to the +altar with O'Neil, leaving us out on the sidewalk to cheer. I'm sorry I +ever tried to help you! I'm going to quit and get back my self-respect." + +"You'll do no such thing. You'll continue to help your poor red-headed +brother to the finish. Say! When I'm alone I'm just bursting with +optimism; when I'm with you I wither with despair; when I'm with +Natalie I become as heavy and stupid as a frog full of buckshot--I just +sit and blink and bask and revel in a sort of speechless bliss. If she +ever saw how really bright and engaging I am--" + +"You!" Eliza sniffed. "You're as uninteresting as I am." + +"Now that you've pledged your undying support, here goes for some +basking," said Dan; and he made off hastily in search of Miss Gerard. + +Eliza had really made up her mind to wash her hands of the affair, but +she wavered, and, as usual, she gave in. She did go to O'Neil to +protest at Dan's selection for the post of danger, but after talking +with him she began to see the matter in a new light, and her opposition +weakened. He showed her that the S. R. & N. had an individuality of its +own--an individuality greater than Murray O'Neil's, or Dan Appleton's, +or that of any man connected with it. She began to understand that it +was a living thing, and that O'Neil was merely a small part of it--a +person driven by a power outside himself, the head servant of a great +undertaking, upon whom rested a heavy responsibility. She saw for the +first time that the millions invested in the project imposed upon those +concerned with its management a sacred duty, and that failure to defend +the company's rights would be the worst sort of treachery. She began to +appreciate also how men may be willing to lay down their lives, if +necessary, to pave the way for the march of commerce. + +"I never looked at it in this way," she told him, when he had finished. +"I--don't like to take that view of it, even now, but I suppose I must." + +"Try not to worry about Dan," he said, sympathetically. "We'll start +back as soon as I'm able to move around, and I'll do my best to see +that he isn't hurt. It's--tough to be laid up this way." + +"There's another sick man in camp, by the way." + +"Who?" + +"The Indian boy who helps the cook. He was hunting and shot himself in +the arm." + +"They told me he was doing well." + +"Oh, he is, but the pain has kept the poor fellow awake until he's +nearly out of his head. There are no drugs here." + +"None this side of the end of the track." + +"Can't we do something?" + +"We can give Dan a note to 'Happy Tom' in the morning and have whatever +you want sent up. Tom will be there, and perhaps if you ask him he'll +despatch a man on foot at once." + +Seizing pen and paper from the table, Eliza wrote a note, which she +read aloud: + +"DEAR UNCLE TOM,--There is a sick Indian here. Won't you please send up +an opiate by special messenger, and receive the blessing of, Your +affectionate, ELIZA." + +"Better change the word 'opiate,'" O'Neil advised. "I don't think Tom +is equal to that; he might send overalls!" So Eliza substituted +"something to put him to sleep." This message Dan promised faithfully +to deliver. + +Murray had expected to begin the return journey within twenty-four +hours after his arrival; but his injury mended slowly, and when the +time came he was still unable to stand. This interval the girls spent +in watching the glaciers, of which they never seemed to tire, and in +spoiling many films. + +It was late on the second day when a tired and sodden messenger bearing +the marks of heavy travel appeared at O'Neil's tent and inquired for +Miss Appleton. To her he handed a three-foot bundle and a note from Tom +Slater which read: + +DEAR MADAM,--Here is the best thing I know of to put an Indian to +sleep. THOS. SLATER. + +"There's some mistake, surely," said the girl, as she unrolled the +odd-looking package; then she cried out angrily, and O'Neil burst into +laughter. For inside the many wrappings was a pick-handle. + +Eliza's resentment at "Happy Tom's" unsympathetic sense of humor was +tempered in a measure by the fact that the patient had taken a turn for +the better and really needed no further medical attention. But she was +not accustomed to practical jokes, and she vowed to make Tom's life +miserable if ever the occasion offered. + +As the days wore on and Murray remained helpless his impatience became +acute, and on the fourth morning he determined to leave, at whatever +cost in pain or danger to the injury. He gave orders, therefore, to +have a boat prepared, and allowed himself to be carried to it. The +foreman of the bridge crew he delegated to guide the girls down across +the moraine, where he promised to pick them up. The men who had come +with him he sent on to the cataract where Dan had been. + +"Aren't you coming with us?" asked Natalie, when they found him seated +in the skiff with an oarsman. + +"It's rough going. I'd have to be carried, so I prefer this," he told +them. + +"Then we'll go with you," Eliza promptly declared. + +Natalie paled and shook her dark head. "Is it safe?" she ventured. + +"No, it isn't! Run along now! I'll be down there waiting, when you +arrive." + +"If it's safe enough for you, it's safe enough for us," said Eliza. +Climbing into the boat, she plumped herself down with a look which +seemed to defy any power to remove her. Her blue eyes met O'Neil's gray +ones with an expression he had never seen in them until this moment. + +"Nonsense, child!" he said. "Don't be silly." + +"Don't you try to put me out. I'll hang on and--kick. Don't you say +'please,' either," she warned him. + +"I must," he protested. "Please don't insist." + +She scowled like an angry boy, and seized the gunwales firmly. Her +expression made him smile despite his annoyance, and this provoked her +the more. + +"I'm going!" she asserted, darkly. + +This outing had done wonders for both girls. The wind and the sunshine +had tanned them, the coarse fare had lent them a hearty vigor, and they +made charming pictures in their trim short skirts and sweaters and +leather-banded hats. + +"Very well! If you're going, take off your boots," commanded O'Neil. + +"What for?" + +"We may be swamped and have to swim for it. You see the man has taken +his off." Murray pointed to the raw-boned Norwegian oarsman, who had +stripped down as if for a foot-race. + +Eliza obeyed. + +"Now your sweater." + +Natalie had watched this scene with evident concern. She now seated +herself upon a boulder and began to tug at her rubber boots. + +"Here! Here! You're not going, too!" O'Neil exclaimed. + +"Yes, I am. I'm frightened to death, but I won't be a coward." Her +shaking hands and strained voice left no doubt of her seriousness. + +"She can't swim," said Eliza; and O'Neil put an end to this display of +heroism with a firm refusal. + +"You'll think I'm afraid," Natalie expostulated. + +"Bless you, of course we will, because you are! So am I, and so is +Eliza, for that matter. If you can't swim you'd only be taking a +foolish risk and adding to our danger. Besides, Eliza doesn't know the +feel of cold water as we do." + +Natalie smiled a little tremulously at recollection of the shipwreck. + +"I'd much rather walk, of course," she said; and then to Eliza, "It--it +will be a lovely ramble for us." + +But Eliza shook her head. "This is material for my book, and I'll make +enough out of it to--to--" + +"Buy another orchard," Murray suggested. + +Feeling more resigned now that the adventure had taken on a purely +financial color, Natalie at length allowed herself to be dissuaded, and +Eliza settled herself in her seat with the disturbing consciousness +that she had made herself appear selfish and rude in O'Neil's eyes. +Nevertheless, she had no notion of changing her mind. + +When the other girl had gone the oarsman completed his preparations by +lashing fast the contents of the skiff--a proceeding which Eliza +watched with some uneasiness. O'Neil showed his resentment by a pointed +silence, which nettled her, and she resolved to hold her seat though +the boat turned somersaults. + +Word was finally given, and they swung out into the flood. O'Neil stood +as best he could on his firm leg, and steered by means of a +sculling-oar, while the Norwegian rowed lustily. + +Bits of drift, patches of froth, fragments of ice accompanied them, +bobbing alongside so persistently that Eliza fancied the boat must be +stationary until, glancing at the river-banks, she saw them racing past +like the panoramic scenery in a melodrama. The same glance showed her +that they were rushing directly toward the upper ramparts of Jackson +Glacier, as if for an assault. Out here in the current there were +waves, and these increased in size as the bed of the Salmon grew +steeper, until the poling-boat began to rear and leap like a frightened +horse. The gleaming wall ahead rose higher with every instant: it +overhung, a giant, crumbling cliff, imposing, treacherous. Then the +stream turned at right angles; they were swept along parallel with the +ice face, and ahead of them for three miles stretched the gauntlet. The +tottering wall seemed almost within reaching distance; its breath was +cold and damp and clammy. O'Neil stood erect and powerful in the stern, +swaying to the antics of the craft, his weight upon the sweep, his eyes +fixed upon the Thing overhead. The Norwegian strained at his oars while +the sweat ran down into his open shirt. The boat lunged and wallowed +desperately, rising on end, falling with prodigious slaps, drenching +the occupants with spray. It was splendid, terrifying! Eliza clung to +her seat and felt her heartbeats smothering her. Occasionally the +oarsman turned, staring past her with round, frightened eyes, and +affording her a glimpse of a face working with mingled fear and +exultation. + +Thus far the glacier had not disputed their passage; it maintained the +silence and the immobility of marble; nothing but the snarl of the +surging flood re-echoed from its face. But with the suddenness of a +rifle-shot there came a detonation, louder, sharper than any blast of +powder. The Norwegian cursed; the helmsman dropped his eyes to the +white face in the bow and smiled. + +Half a mile ahead of them a mass of ice came rumbling down, and the +whole valley rocked with the sound. Onward the little craft fled, a +dancing speck beneath the majesty of that frozen giant, an atom +threatened by the weight of mountains. At last through the opening of +the gorge below came a glimpse of the flats that led to the sea. A +moment later the boat swung into an eddy and came to rest, bumping +against the boulders. + +O'Neil sat down, wiping his wet face. + +"Well, was it worth your trouble, Miss Kick-over the-traces?" he asked. + +"Oh, it was glorious! I'll never forget it." + +Eliza's cheeks were burning now, her aching hands relaxed their hold, +and she drew a deep breath--the first of which she had been conscious +since the start, fifteen minutes before. + +"Now, on with your boots and your sweater. We'll have an hour's wait +for Natalie." + +She gave a cry of surprise and offered him a glimpse of a trim ankle +and a dripping foot. + +"See! They're wet, and I wriggled my toes right through my stockings. I +NEVER was so excited." + +The boatman fastened the painter and resumed his outer clothing. O'Neil +lit a cigar and asked: + +"Tell me, why did you insist on coming?" + +"I was afraid something might happen to you." + +He raised his brows, and she flushed. "Don't you understand? Dan would +never have forgiven me, and--and--I just HAD to come, that's all. It's +corking material for me--I thought you might upset, and I--I don't know +why I insisted." She bent over her stubborn boots, hiding her face. She +was flaming to the ears, for suddenly she knew the reason that had +prompted her. It rushed upon her like a sense of great shame. She +recalled the desperate grip at her heart when she had seen him ready to +leave, the wildness of her longing to share his danger, the black fear +that he might meet disaster alone. It had all come without warning, and +there had been no time for self-consciousness, but now she realized the +truth. The poignant pain of it made her fingers clumsy and sent that +flood of scarlet to her neck and ears. + +When Natalie arrived they cast off, and the remaining miles were made +in a few hours. + +Appleton joined them for lunch in the tent they remembered so well, and +professed to be shocked at the report of his sister's foolhardiness. +But whatever may have been Natalie's fear of ridicule, it promptly +disappeared under his complete indorsement of her wisdom in refraining +from such a mad adventure. As if to put her even more at ease, O'Neil +was especially attentive to her; and Eliza reflected gloomily that men, +after all, dislike bravado in women, that a trapeze artist or a lady +balloonist inspires only a qualified admiration. + +During O'Neil's absence work had progressed steadily. On his return he +found the grade completed to within a few yards of Gordon's +right-of-way. Although he was still unable to walk, he insisted upon +going to the front, whither he was helped by Appleton and "Happy Tom." + +Into the narrow space between the end of his embankment and that of his +rival's a gravel-train was spilling its burden, and a hundred +pick-and-shovel men were busy. The opposing forces also seemed hard at +work, but their activity was largely a pretense, and they showed +plainly that they were waiting for the clash. They were a hard-looking +crew, and their employer had neglected no precaution. He had erected +barricades for their protection until his grade looked like a military +work. + +"They haven't showed any guns yet, but I'm sure they're armed," +Appleton told his chief. + +"How is the place lighted by night?" O'Neil inquired. + +"Oil torches," Slater answered. "Ah! We've been recognized. That comes +from being fat, I s'pose." + +As he spoke a donkey-engine at the right of the proposed crossing set +up a noisy rattling, a thin steel cable whipped into view between the +rails, and from the left there appeared a contrivance which O'Neil eyed +curiously. It was a sort of drag, and rode back and forth upon the +rails. + +"Humph! They'd better not put much trust in that," Murray grunted, +grimly. + +"Don't fool yourself; it's no rubber-tired baby-carriage," said Slater. +"Our men are afraid of it." + +After watching the device scuttle back and forth for a few moments +O'Neil said shortly: + +"Post a notice at once, offering a thousand dollars for any man who +cuts that cable." + +"A thousand--" Appleton gasped. "Why, I'll do it. Let me--" + +"No, you won't," Slater broke in. "I'll take that on myself." + +"I spoke first. It's my first chance," Dan cried. + +"It's my job! I'm going--" + +"Wait a minute!" O'Neil silenced the two, who were glaring at each +other angrily. "Don't let's have any fighting; there will be enough of +that later." + +"I spoke first," Dan repeated, stubbornly. + +"I had my mouth puckered to spit, that's why," the fat man explained. +"A fellow has to spit--" + +"I'd rather you wouldn't volunteer, Dan," said O'Neil. + +"Why?" + +"You might get hurt." + +"Happy Tom" nodded his agreement. "Certainly! Never send a boy on a +man's errand." + +"And I don't want you to do it either, Tom, for the same reason." + +Slater mumbled some sort of sour acquiescence, but Dan would not be +denied. + +"You made the offer, and I took it up," he told O'Neil. "Somebody has +to make the first move, and I have a particular need for exactly one +thousand dollars. If they start a rumpus, it will give us the excuse +we're looking for. I've been studying that 'go-devil' through +field-glasses for two days now, and I'll guarantee to put it out of +commission before Gordon's men know what I'm about. Just forget the +reward, if you like, and give me a chance." + +"What's your plan?" Slater inquired, eagerly; but Appleton shook his +head. + +"No you don't, Tommy!" he said. "I'm wise to you." + +Murray hesitated briefly, then gave his permission. "I'd rather you'd +let one of the rough-necks take the chance, but if you insist--" + +"I do." + +"Then get your sister's consent--" + +Slater swore mournfully, as if from a heart filled with black despair. + +"Ain't that my luck? One cud of gum cost me a thousand dollars! Hell! +It would take a millionaire to afford a habit like that." He expelled +the gum violently and went grumbling off up the track. + +"Sis won't object," said Dan, lightly. "She'd offer to do the trick +herself, for she's getting the spirit of the work." + +When O'Neil had managed to regain the camp he began preparations for an +attack that very night, using the telephone busily. News of the coming +affray quickly spread, and both the day and night shifts discussed it +excitedly at supper-time. + +Nor was the excitement lessened when a loaded gravel-train rolled in +and Dr. Gray descended from it with his emergency kit and two helpers +from the hospital at Omar. + +Up to this point both Eliza and Natalie had hoped that the affair might +not, after all, turn out to be very serious, but the presence of the +grim-faced surgeon and the significant preparations he set about making +boded otherwise. Eliza undertook to reason with her brother, but her +words refused to come. As a matter of fact, deep down in her heart was +a great rebellion at the fate which had made her a woman and thus +debarred her from an active part in the struggle. Natalie, on the other +hand, was filled with dread, and she made a much more vigorous attempt +to dissuade Dan from his purpose than did his sister. But he refused to +heed even her, and soon hurried away to finish his preparations. + +After supper the camp settled itself to wait for darkness. Night was +slow in coming, and long before Appleton signified his readiness +speculation was rife. With the approach of twilight the torches along +Gordon's grade began to glow brightly. Then Dan set his watch with +"Happy Tom's," kissed Eliza, and made off across the tundra. He left +the S. R. & N. at right angles and continued in that direction for a +mile or more before swinging about in a wide circle which brought him +well to the rear of Gordon's encampment. The gloom now covered his +movements, and by taking advantage of an alder thicket he managed to +approach very closely to the enemy's position. But the footing was +treacherous, the darkness betrayed him into many a fall, and he was +wet, muddy, and perspiring when he finally paused not more than two +hundred feet from the scene of the proposed crossing. + + + + +XV + +THE BATTLE OF GORDON'S CROSSING + + +Curtis Gordon was not in charge of his field forces, having left the +command to his favorite jackal, Denny. Beneath his apparent contempt +for the law there lurked a certain caution. He knew his rival's +necessity, he appreciated his cunning, but, wishing to guard against +the possibility of a personal humiliation, he retired to Kyak, where he +was prepared to admit or to deny as much responsibility as suited him. +Denny had not forgotten O'Neil's exposure of his dishonesty, and his +zeal could be relied upon. He personally knew all the men under him, he +had coached them carefully, and he assured Gordon of his ability to +hold his ground. + +Dan Appleton, from his covert, measured the preparations for resistance +with some uneasiness, reflecting that if Denny had the nerve to use +firearms he would undoubtedly rout O'Neil's men, who had not been +permitted to carry guns. By the bright torchlight he could see figures +coming and going along the grade like sentinels, and from within the +barricades of ties he heard others talking. The camp itself, which lay +farther to the left, was lighted, and black silhouettes were painted +against the canvas walls and roofs. Some one was playing an accordion, +and its wailing notes came to him intermittently. He saw that steam was +up in the boiler which operated the "go-devil," although the +contrivance itself was stationary. It was upon this that he centered +his attention, consulting his watch nervously. + +At last ten o'clock came, bringing with it a sound which startled the +near-by camp into activity. It was a shrill blast from an S. R. & N. +locomotive and the grinding of car-wheels. The accordion ceased its +complaint, men poured out of the lighted tents, Appleton moved +cautiously out from cover. + +He stumbled forward through the knee-deep mud and moss, bearing +slightly to his right, counting upon the confusion to mask his +approach. He timed it to that of the gravel-train, which came slowly +creaking nearer, rocking over the uneven tracks, then down upon the +half-submerged rails which terminated near the opposing grade. It +stopped finally, with headlight glaring into the faces of Denny and his +troops, and from the high-heaped flat cars tumbled an army of +pick-and-shovel men. During this hullabaloo Appleton slipped out of the +marsh and climbed the gravel-bed in time to see the steel cable of the +skip tighten, carrying the drag swiftly along the track. The endless +cable propelling the contrivance ran through a metal block which was +secured to a deadhead sunk between the ties, and up to this post Dan +hastened. He carried a cold-chisel and hammer, but he found no use for +them, for the pulley was roped to the deadhead. Drawing his knife, he +sawed at the manila strands. Men were all around him, but in their +excitement they took no notice of him. Not until he had nearly +completed his task was he discovered; then some one raised a shout. The +next instant they charged upon him, but his work had been done. With a +snap the ropes parted, the cable went writhing and twisting up the +track, the unwieldy apparatus came to a stop. + +Dan found himself beset by a half-dozen of the enemy, who, having +singled him out of the general confusion as the cause of disaster, came +at him head-long. But by this time O'Neil's men were pouring out of the +darkness and overrunning the grade so rapidly that there was little +opportunity for concerted action. Appleton had intended, as soon as he +had cut the cable, to beat a hasty retreat into the marsh; but now, +with the firm gravel road-bed under his feet and the battle breaking +before his eyes, he changed his mind. He carried a light heart, and the +love of trouble romped through his veins. He lowered his head, +therefore, and ran toward his assailants. + +He met the foremost one fairly and laid him out. He vanquished the +second, then closed with a burly black man who withstood him capably. +They went down together, and Dan began to repent his haste, for blows +rained upon him and he became the target, not only of missiles of every +kind, but of heavy hobnailed shoes that were more dangerous than +horses' hoofs. + +The engineer dearly loved a fair fight, even against odds, but this was +entirely different: he was trampled, stamped upon, kicked; he felt +himself being reduced to a pulp beneath the overpowering numbers of +those savage heels. The fact that the black man received an equal share +of the punishment was all that saved Dan. Over and over between the +ties the two rolled, scorning no advantage, regarding no rules of +combat, each striving to protect himself at the other's expense. + +They were groveling there in a tangle of legs and arms when "Happy Tom" +came down the grade, leading a charge which swept the embankment clean. + +The boss packer had equipped his command with pick-handles and now set +a brilliant example in the use of this, his favorite weapon. For once +the apathetic Slater was fully roused; he was tremendous, irresistible. +In his capable grasp the oaken cudgel became both armor and flail; in +defense it was as active as a fencing-master's foil, in offense as +deadly as the kick of a mule. Beneath his formless bulk were the +muscles of a gladiator; his eye had all the quickness of a +prize-fighter. There was something primeval, appallingly ferocious +about the fat man, too: he fought with a magnificent enthusiasm, a +splendid abandon. And yet, in spite of his rage, he was clear-headed, +and his ears were sensitively strained for the sound of the first +gunshot-something he dreaded beyond measure. + +He was sobbing as much from anxiety as from the violence of his +exertions when he tore Appleton from the clutch of the black man and +set him on his feet. + +"Are you hurt, son?" he gasped. + +"Sure! I'm--hurt like hell." Dan spat out a mouthful of blood and sand. +"Gimme a club." + +"Go back yonder," Tom directed, swiftly. "Nail Denny before he gets 'em +to shooting. Kill him if you have to. I'll take care of these fellers." + +The younger man saw that the engagement at this end of the line was no +longer general, but had become a series of individual combats, so he +made what haste he could toward the scene of the more serious encounter +to the right of the crossing. He judged that the issue was still in +doubt there, although he could make out little in the confusion on +account of the glaring headlight, which dazzled him. + +As he ran, however, he discovered that the S. R. & N. forces were in +possession of the middle ground, having divided the enemy's ranks like +a wedge, and this encouraged him. Out of the darkness to right and left +came shouts, curses, the sounds of men wallowing about in the knee-deep +tundra. They were Gordon's helpers who had been routed from their +positions. + +Now that Appleton had time to collect himself he, too, grew sick with +suspense, for he knew that arms had been stacked inside the barricades. +Any instant might bring them into play. He began to wonder why Denny +withheld the word to fire. + +As a matter of fact, the explanation was simple, although it did not +appear until later. Mr. Denny at that moment was in no condition to +issue orders of any kind, the reason being as follows: when +preparations for the advance were made, Dr. Gray, who understood +perhaps more fully than any one else except O'Neil the gravity of the +issue and the slender pivot upon which the outcome balanced, had taken +his place in the vanguard of the attacking party instead of in the +background, as befitted his calling. The first rush had carried him +well into the fray, but once there he had shown his good judgment by +refusing to participate in it. + +Instead, he had selected Denny out of the opposing ranks and bored +through the crowd in his direction, heedless of all efforts to stop +him. His great strength had enabled him to gain ground; he had hurled +his assailants aside, upsetting them, bursting through the press as a +football-player penetrates a line; and when the retreat had begun he +was close at the heels of his victim. He had overtaken Denny beside one +of the barricades just as Denny seized a rifle and raised it. With one +wrench he possessed himself of the weapon, and the next instant he had +bent the barrel over its owner's head. + +Then, as the fight surged onward, he had gathered the limp figure in +his arms and borne it into the light of a gasolene-torch, where he +could administer first aid. He was kneeling over the fellow when +Appleton found him as he came stumbling along the grade. + +But the decisive moment had come and gone now, and without a leader to +command them Gordon's men seemed loath to adopt a more bloody reprisal. +They gave way, therefore, in a half-hearted hesitation that spelled +ruin to their cause. They were forced back to their encampment: over +the ground they had vacated picks and shovels began to fly, rails were +torn up and relaid, gravel rained from the flat cars, the blockhouses +were razed, and above the rabble the locomotive panted and wheezed, its +great yellow eye glaring through the night. When it backed away another +took its place; the grade rose to the level of the intersection, then +as morning approached it crept out beyond. By breakfast-time a long row +of flats extended across the line which Curtis Gordon had tried to hold +in defiance of the law. + +Dan Appleton, very dirty, very tired, but happy, found Natalie and +Eliza awaiting him when he limped up to their tent in the early morning +light. One of his eyes was black and nearly closed, his lips were cut +and swollen, but he grinned cheerfully as he exclaimed: + +"Say! It was a great night, wasn't it?" + +Eliza cried out in alarm at his appearance. + +"You poor kid! You're a sight." She ran for hot water and soap, while +Natalie said, warmly: + +"You were perfectly splendid, Dan. I knew you'd do it." + +"Did you?" He tried to smile his appreciation, but the effort resulted +in a leer so repulsive that the girl looked dismayed. "You ought to +have seen the shindy." + +"Seen it! Maybe we didn't!" + +"Honestly?" + +"Did you think we could stay behind? We sneaked along with the +cook-house gang, and one of them helped us up on the gravel-cars. He +smelled of dish-water, but he was a hero. We screamed and cried, and +Eliza threw stones until Mr. O'Neil discovered us and made us get down. +He was awfully mean." + +"He's a mean man." + +"He isn't! He was jumping around on one leg like a crippled +grasshopper." + +"I made a thousand dollars," said Dan. "Guess what I'm going to do with +it?" + +"How can I guess?" + +"I'm going to buy an engagement ring." Once more he leered repulsively. + +"How nice!" said Natalie, coolly. "Congratulations!" + +"Guess who it's for?" + +"I couldn't, really." + +"It's for you." + +"Oh no, it isn't!" Natalie's voice was freezing. "You have made a +mistake, a very great mistake, Dan. I like you, but--we won't even +mention such things, if you please." + +Eliza's entrance saved her further embarrassment, and she quickly made +her escape. Dan groaned so deeply as his sister bathed his injuries +that she was really concerned. + +"Goodness, Danny," she said, "are you as badly hurt as all that?" + +"I'm worse," he confessed. "I've just been shot through the heart. Slow +music and flowers for me! Arrange for the services and put a rose in my +hand, Sis." + +"Nonsense! I'll put a beefsteak on your eye," she told him, unfeelingly. + +Under Dr. Gray's attention O'Neil's ankle began to mend, and by the +time the track had been laid far enough beyond the crossing to insure +against further interference from Gordon he declared himself ready to +complete the journey to Kyak, which he and the girls had begun nearly +three weeks before. + +During the interval Eliza had occupied herself in laying out her +magazine stories, and now she was eager to complete her investigations +so as to begin the final writing. Her experience in the north thus far +had given her an altered outlook upon the railroad situation, but as +yet she knew little of the coal problem. That, after all, was the more +important subject, and she expected it to afford her the basis for a +sensational exposure. She had come to Alaska sharing her newspaper's +views upon questions of public policy, looking upon Murray O'Neil as a +daring promoter bent upon seizing the means of transportation of a +mighty realm for his own individual profit; upon Gordon as an +unscrupulous adventurer; and upon the Copper Trust as a greedy +corporation reaching out to strangle competition and absorb the riches +of the northland. But she had found O'Neil an honorably ambitious man, +busied, like others, in the struggle for success, and backing his +judgment with his last dollar. She had learned, moreover, to sympathize +with his aims, and his splendid determination awoke her admiration. Her +idea of the Trust had changed, likewise, for it seemed to be a fair and +dignified competitor. She had seen no signs of that conscienceless, +grasping policy usually imputed to big business. In regard to Gordon +alone, her first conviction had remained unchanged. He was, in truth, +as evil as he had been reputed. + +The readjustment of her ideas had been disappointing, in a way, since +it robbed her of a large part of her ammunition; but she consoled +herself with the thought that she had not yet reached the big, vital +story which most deeply concerned the welfare of the north. + +She was a bit afraid to pursue her inquiries into the coal subject, for +her ideas were fixed, and she feared that O'Neil's activities merited +condemnation. In his railroad-building, she believed, he was doing a +fine work, but the coal was another matter. Obviously it belonged to +the people, and he had no right to lay hands upon their heritage. + +She wondered if it would not be possible to omit all mention of him in +her coal stories and center attention upon the Trust. It was impossible +for her to attack him now, since she had come to understand her +feelings toward him. Even so, she reflected with horror that if her +articles created the comment she anticipated their effect would be to +rob him of his holdings. But she took her work very seriously, and her +sense of duty was unwavering. She was one of the few who guide +themselves by the line of principle, straight through all other +considerations. She would write what she found true, for that was her +mission in life. If Murray proved culpable she would grieve over his +wrong-doing--and continue to love him. + +O'Neil had recognized her sincerity, and on the broad subject of +conservation he had done nothing to influence her views. He preferred +to let her see the workings of the principle and, after actually +meeting some of those who had suffered by it, form her own conclusions. +It was for this reason mainly that he had arranged the trip to Kyak. + +The journey in a small boat gave Eliza a longed-for opportunity to +discuss with him the questions which troubled her. He was +uncommunicative at first, but she persisted in her attempt, drawing him +out in the hope of showing him the error of his ways. At last she +provoked him to a vigorous defense of his views. + +"Conservation is no more than economy," he declared, "and no one +opposes that. It's the misapplication of the principle that has +retarded Alaska and ruined so many of us. The situation would be +laughable if it weren't so tragic." + +"Of course you blame your troubles on the Government. That's one thing +governments are for." + +"Our ancestors blamed King George for their troubles, more than a +hundred years ago, and a war resulted. But every abuse they suffered is +suffered by the people of Alaska to-day, and a lot more besides. +Certainly England never violated her contracts with the colonies half +so flagrantly as our Government has violated its contracts with us." + +"Of course you exaggerate." + +"I don't. Judge for yourself. The law offers every citizen the +chance--in fact, it invites him--to go upon the public domain and +search for treasure. If he is successful it permits him to locate the +land in blocks, and it agrees to grant him a clear title after he does +a certain amount of work and pays a fixed price. Further, it says in +effect: 'Realizing that you may need financial assistance in this work, +we will allow you to locate not only for yourself, but also for your +friends, through their powers of attorney, and thus gain their +co-operation for your mutual advantage. These are the rules, and they +are binding upon all parties to this agreement; you keep your part, we +will keep ours.' Now then, some pioneers, at risk of life and health, +came to Kyak and found coal. They located it, they did all the law +required them to do--but did the Government keep its word? Not at all. +It was charged that some of them hadn't conformed strictly to the +letter of the agreement, and therefore all the claims were blacklisted. +Because one man was alleged to have broken his contract the Government +broke its contract with every man who had staked a coal claim, not only +at Kyak, but anywhere else in Alaska. Guilty and innocent were treated +alike. I was one of the latter. Was our money returned to us? No! The +Government had it and it kept it, along with the land. We've been +holding on now for years, and the Interior Department has tried by +various means to shake us off. The law has been changed repeatedly at +the whim of every theorist who happened to be in power. It has been +changed without notice to us even while we were out in the wilderness +trying to comply with the regulations already imposed. You can see how +it worked in the case of Natalie and her mother. The Government +succeeded in shaking them off." + +"That's only one side of the question," said Eliza. "You lose sight of +the fact that this treasure never really belonged to you, but to the +public. The coal-lands were withdrawn from entry because men like you +and the agents of the Heidlemanns were grabbing it all up." + +O'Neil shook his head, frowning. "That's what the papers say, but it +isn't true. There are twenty million acres of coal in Alaska, and not +more than thirty thousand acres have been located. The law gave me the +right to locate and buy coal claims, and I took advantage of it. Now it +tells me that I have money enough, and takes back what it gave. If it +did the right thing it would grant patents to those who located under +the law as it then existed and withdraw the rest of the land from entry +if advisable. This country needs two things to make it +prosper--transportation and fuel. We are doing our best to supply the +first in spite of hindrance from Washington; but the fuel has been +locked away from us as if behind stone walls. Rich men must be brave to +risk their dollars here under existing conditions, for they are not +permitted to utilize the mines, the timber, or the water-power, except +upon absurd and unreasonable terms. Why, I've seen timber lying four +layers deep and rotting where it lies. The Government won't save it, +nor will it allow us to do so. That's been its policy throughout. It is +strangling industry and dedicating Alaska to eternal solitude. +Railroads are the keys by which this realm can be unlocked; coal is the +strength by which those keys can be turned. The keys are fitted to the +lock, but our fingers are paralyzed. For eight years Alaska's greatest +wealth has lain exposed to view, but the Government has posted the +warning, 'Hands off! Some one among you is a crook!' Meanwhile the law +has been suspended, the country has stagnated, men have left dispirited +or broken, towns have been abandoned. The cost in dollars to me, for +instance, has been tremendous. I'm laying my track alongside rich +coal-fields, but if I picked up a chunk from my own claim to throw at a +chipmunk I'd become a lawbreaker. I import from Canada the fuel to +drive my locomotives past my own coal-beds--which I have paid for--and +I pay five times the value of that fuel, forty percent of which is +duty. I haul it two thousand miles, while there are a billion tons of +better quality beneath my feet. Do you call that conservation? I call +it waste." + +"Fraud was practised at the start, and of course it takes time to find +out just where it lay." + +"That's the excuse, but after all these years no fraud has been proved. +In administering the criminal law there is an axiom to the effect that +it is better for ninety-nine guilty men to escape than for one innocent +man to suffer, but the Land Office says that ninety-nine innocent +Alaskans shall suffer rather than that one guilty man shall escape. The +cry of fraud is only a pretense, raised to cover the main issue. +There's something sinister back of it." + +"What do you mean?" + +"A conspiracy of the Eastern coal-operators and the transcontinental +freight-lines." + +"How ridiculous!" cried Eliza. + +"You think so? Listen! Since all the high-grade coal of the Pacific +coast must come from the East, who, then, would discourage the opening +of local fields but those very interests? Every ton we burn means a +profit to the Eastern miner and the railroad man. Yes, and twenty per +cent. of the heat units of every ton hauled are consumed in +transportation. Isn't that waste? Every two years it costs our navy the +price of a battle-ship to bring coal to the Pacific fleet, while we +have plenty of better fuel right here on the ground. Our coal is +twenty-five hundred miles nearer to the Philippines than San Francisco, +and twelve thousand miles nearer than its present source. If Alaskan +coal-beds were opened up, we wouldn't have this yearly fight for +battle-ship appropriations; we'd make ourselves a present of a +first-class navy for nothing. No, our claims were disputed, and the +dispute was thrown into politics to keep us out of competition with our +Eastern cousins. We Alaskans sat in a game with high stakes, but after +the cards were dealt the rules were changed." + +"You argue very well," said Eliza, who was a bit dazed at this +unexpected, forceful counter-attack, "but you haven't convinced me that +this coal should be thrown open to the first person who comes along." + +"I didn't expect to convince you. It's hard to convince a woman whose +mind is made up. It would take hours to cover the subject; but I want +to open your eyes to the effect of this new-fangled national policy. +Any great principle may work evil if it isn't properly directed, and in +Kyak you'll see the results of conservation ignorantly applied. You'll +see how it has bound and gagged a wonderful country, and made loyal +Americans into ragged, bitter traitors who would spit upon the flag +they used to cherish." + +"Is that the only reason why you came along--just to make sure that I +saw all this?" + +"No. I want to look at the Heidlemann breakwater. My fortune hangs upon +it." + +"It's as serious as that?" + +O'Neil shrugged. "I'm waiting for the wind. My coal is in the hands of +the bureaucracy at Washington, my railroad is in the hands of the wind +god. Incidentally, I'd much rather trust the god than the Government." + +Natalie, who had listened so far without the least sign of interest, +now spoke up. + +"If the storm doesn't come to your help, will you be ruined?" she asked. + +Murray smiled cheerfully. "No man is ruined as long as he keeps his +dreams. Money isn't much, after all, and failure is merely a schooling. +But--I won't fail. Autumn is here: the tempest is my friend; and he +won't be long in coming now. He'll arrive with the equinox, and when he +does he'll hold my fortune in his hand." + +"Why, the equinoctial storm is due," said Eliza. + +"Exactly! That's why I'm going to meet it and to bid it welcome." + +The village of Kyak lay near the mouth of the most easterly outlet of +the Salmon, and it was similar in most respects to Hope and to Omar, +save that it looked out across a shallow, unprotected bay to the open +reaches of the north Pacific. The shores were low; a pair of rocky +islets afforded the only shelter to its shipping, and it was from these +as a starting-point that the Copper Trust had built its break-water. A +trestle across the tide-flats connected the work with the mainland, and +along this rock-trains crawled, adding their burdens to the strength of +the barrier. Protected by this arm of steel and stone and timber lay +the terminal buildings of the Alaska Northern, as the Heidlemann line +was called, and there also lay the terminus of the old McDermott +enterprise into which Curtis Gordon had infused new life. Both places +showed plenty of activity when O'Neil and his two companions arrived, +late one afternoon. + +Kyak, they found, was inferior to Omar in its public accommodations, +and Murray was at a loss to find shelter for the girls until his +arrival was made known to the agents of the Alaska Northern. Then Mr. +Trevor, the engineer in charge, looked him up and insisted upon sharing +his quarters with the visitors. In Trevor's bearing was no suggestion +of an enmity like Gordon's. He welcomed his rival warmly--and indeed +the Trust had never been small in its opposition. O'Neil accepted the +invitation gratefully. + +After dinner he took Natalie with him to see the sights, while Eliza +profited by the opportunity to interview Trevor. In her numerous tilts +with O'Neil she had not been over-successful from the point of view of +her magazine articles, but here at her hand was the representative of +the power best known and best hated for its activities in the +north-land, and he seemed perfectly willing to talk. Surely from him +she would get information that would count. + +"Understand, I'm on the side of your enemies," she warned him. + +"So is everybody else," Mr. Trevor laughed; "but that's because we're +misunderstood." + +"The intentions of any Trust warrant suspicion." + +He shrugged. "The Heidlemanns are just ordinary business men, like +O'Neil, looking for investment. They heard of a great big copper-field +hidden away back yonder in the mountains, and they bought what they +considered to be the best group of claims. They knew the region was +difficult of access, but they figured that a railroad from tide-water +would open up not only their own properties, but the rest of the +copper-belt and the whole interior country. They began to build a road +from Cortez, when some 'shoe-stringer' raised the cry that they had +monopolized the world's greatest copper supply, and had double-cinched +it by monopolizing transportation also. That started the fuss. They +needed cheap coal, of course, just as everybody else needs it; but +somebody discovered the danger of a monopoly of that and set up another +shout. Ever since then the yellow press has been screaming. The +Government withdrew all coal-lands from entry, and it now refuses to +grant patents to that which had been properly located. We don't own a +foot of Alaskan coal-land, Miss Appleton. On the contrary, we haul our +fuel from British Columbia, just like O'Neil and Gordon. Those who +would like to sell local coal to us are prevented from doing so." + +"It sounds well to hear you tell it," said Eliza. "But the minute the +coal patents are issued you will buy what you want, then freeze out the +other people. You expect to control the mines, the railroads, and the +steamship lines, but public necessities like coal and oil and timber +and water-power should belong to the people. There has been an +awakening of the public conscience, and the day of monopolized +necessities is passing." + +"As long as men own coal-mines they will sell them. Here we are faced +not by a question of what may happen, but of what has happened. If you +agreed to buy a city lot from a real-estate dealer, and after you paid +him his price he refused to give you a deed, you'd at least expect your +money back, wouldn't you? Well, that's the case of Uncle Sam and the +Alaskan miners. He not only refuses to deliver the lot, but keeps the +money, and forces them to pay more every year. I represent a body of +rich men who, because of their power, are regarded with suspicion; but +if they did anything so dishonest as what our Government has done to +its own people they would be jailed." + +"No doubt there has been some injustice, but the great truth remains +that the nation should own its natural resources, and should not allow +favored individuals to profit by the public need." + +"You mean railroads and coal-fields and such things?" + +"I do." + +Trevor shook his head. "If the people of Alaska waited for a Government +railroad, they'd die of old age and be buried where they died, for lack +of transportation. The Government owns telegraph-lines here, but it +charges us five times the rates of the Western Union. No, Miss +Appleton, we're not ready for Government ownership, and even if we were +it wouldn't affect the legality of what has been done. Through fear +that the Heidlemanns might profit this whole country has been made to +stagnate. Alaska is being depopulated; houses and stores are closed; +people are leaving despondent. Alaskans are denied self-government in +any form; theories are tried at their expense, but they are never +consulted. Not only does Congress fail to enact new laws to meet their +needs, but it refuses to proceed under the laws that already exist. If +the same policy had been pursued in the settlement of the Middle West +that applies to this country, the buffalo would still be king of the +plains and Chicago would be a frontier town. You seem to think that +coal is the most important issue up here, but it isn't. Transportation +is what the country needs, for the main riches of Alaska are as useless +to-day as if hidden away in the chasms of the moon. O'Neil had the +right idea when he selected the Salmon River route, but he made an +error of judgment, and he lost." + +"He hasn't lost!" cried Eliza, in quick defense of her friend. "Your +breakwater hasn't been tested yet." + +"Oh, it will hold," Trevor smiled. "It has cost too much money not to +hold." + +"Wait until the storms come," the girl persisted. + +"That's what we're doing, and from present indications we won't have +much longer to wait. Weather has been breeding for several days, and +the equinox is here. Of course I'm anxious, but--I built that +breakwater, and it can't go out." + +When O'Neil and Natalie returned they found the two still arguing. +"Haven't you finished your tiresome discussions?" asked Natalie. + +"Mr. Trevor has almost convinced me that the octopus is a noble +creature, filled with high ideals and writhing at the thrusts of the +muck-rakers," Eliza told them. + +But at that the engineer protested. "No, no!" he said. "I haven't half +done justice to the subject. There are a dozen men in Kyak to-night who +could put up a much stronger case than I. There's McCann, for instance. +He was a prospector back in the States until he made a strike which +netted him a hundred thousand dollars. He put nearly all of it into +Kyak coal claims and borrowed seventy thousand more. He got tired of +the interminable delay and finally mined a few tons which he sent out +for a test in the navy. It had better steaming qualities than the +Eastern coal now being used, but six weeks later an agent of the Land +Office ordered him to cease work until his title had been passed upon. +That was two years ago, and nothing has been done since. No charges of +irregularity of any sort have ever been filed against McCann or his +property. The Government has had his money for five years, and still he +can't get a ruling. He's broke now and too old to make a living. He's +selling pies on the street--" + +"He borrowed a dollar from me just now," said O'Neil, who was staring +out of a window. Suddenly he turned and addressed his host. "Trevor, +it's going to storm." His voice was harsh, his eyes were eager; his +tone brought the engineer to his side. Together they looked out across +the bay. + +The southern sky was leaden, the evening had been shortened by a rack +of clouds which came hurrying in from the sea. + +"Let it storm," said Trevor, after a moment. "I'm ready." + +"Have you ever seen it blow here?" + +"The old-timers tell me I haven't, but--I've seen some terrible storms. +Of course the place is unusual--" + +"In what way?" Eliza inquired. + +"The whole country back of here is ice-capped. This coast for a hundred +miles to the east is glacial. The cold air inland and the warm air from +the Japanese Current are always at war." + +"There is a peculiar difference in air-pressures, too," O'Neil +explained. "Over the warm interior it is high, and over the coast range +it is low; so every valley becomes a pathway for the wind. But that +isn't where the hurricanes come from. They're born out yonder." He +pointed out beyond the islands from which the breakwater flung its +slender arm. "This may be only a little storm, Trevor, but some day the +sea and the air will come together and wipe out all your work. Then +you'll see that I was right." + +"You told me that more than a year ago, but I backed my skill against +your prophecy." + +O'Neil answered him gravely: "Men like you and me become over-confident +of our powers; we grow arrogant, but after all we're only pygmies." + +"If Nature beats me here, I'm a ruined man," said the engineer. + +"And if you defeat her, I'm ruined." O'Neil smiled at him. + +"Let's make medicine, the way the Indians did, and call upon the Spirit +of the Wind to settle the question," Eliza suggested, with a woman's +quick instinct for relieving a situation that threatened to become +constrained. She and Natalie ran to Trevor's sideboard, and, seizing +bottle and shaker, brewed a magic broth, while the two men looked on. +They murmured incantations, they made mystic passes, then bore the +glasses to their companions. + +As the men faced each other Natalie cried: + +"To the Wind!" + +"Yes! More power to it!" Eliza echoed. + +Trevor smiled. "I drink defiance." + +"In my glass I see hope and confidence," said O'Neil. "May the storm +profit him who most deserves help." + +Despite their lightness, there was a certain gravity among the four, +and as the night became more threatening they felt a growing suspense. +The men's restlessness communicated itself to the girls, who found +themselves listening with almost painful intentness to the voice of the +wind and the rumble of the surf, which grew louder with every hour. By +bed-time a torrent of rain was sweeping past, the roof strained, the +windows were sheeted with water. Now and then the clamor ceased, only +to begin with redoubled force. Trevor's guests were glad indeed of +their snug shelter. + +As Natalie prepared for bed she said: "It was fine of Mr. Trevor to +treat Murray O'Neil so nicely. No one would dream that they were +rivals, or that one's success means the other's ruin. Now Gordon--" She +turned to see her friend kneeling at the bedside, and apologized +quickly. + +Eliza lifted her face and said simply, "I'm praying for the Wind." + +Natalie slipped down beside her and bowed her dark head close to the +light one. They remained there for a long time, while outside the rain +pelted, the surf roared, and the wind came shrieking in from the sea. + + + + +XVI + +THE FRUIT OF THE TEMPEST + + +Neither O'Neil nor his host was in sight when the girls came to +breakfast. The men had risen early, it seemed, and were somewhere out +in the storm. A wilder day would be hard to imagine; a hurricane was +raging, the rain was whirled ahead of it like charges of shot. The +mountains behind Kyak were invisible, and to seaward was nothing but a +dimly discernible smother of foam and spray, for the crests of the +breakers were snatched up and carried by the wind. The town was sodden; +the streets were running mud. Stove-pipes were down, tents lay +flattened in the mire, and the board houses were shaking as if they +might fly to pieces at any moment. The darkness was uncanny, and the +tempest seemed to be steadily growing in violence. + +When an hour or two had passed with no word from the men Eliza +announced her intention of looking them up. She had spent the time at a +window, straining her eyes through the welter, while Natalie had curled +up cozily with a book in one of Trevor's arm-chairs. + +"But, dearie, you'll be drenched." Natalie looked up in surprise. "Mr. +O'Neil is all right." + +"Of course he is. I'm not going out to spank him and bring him in. I +want to look at the storm." + +"So do I, but it won't do any good. I can't make it blow any harder by +getting my feet wet." + +"You read your novel and talk to Mr. Trevor when he comes back. He +knows we're to blame for this storm, so you must be nice to him. I +can't." She clad herself in rain-coat, sou'wester, and boots, and +hurried out. Walking was difficult enough, even in the shelter of the +village, but not until she had emerged upon the beach did she meet the +full strength of the gale. Here it wrapped her garments about her limbs +until she could scarcely move. The rain came horizontally and blinded +her; the wind fairly snatched her breath away and oppressed her lungs +like a heavy weight. She shielded herself as best she could, and by +clinging to stationary objects and watching her chance she managed to +work her way onward. At last she caught sight of O'Neil, standing high +above the surf, facing the wind defiantly, as if daring it to unfoot +him. He saw her and came in answer to her signal; but to breast that +wind was like stemming a rushing torrent, and when he reached her side +he was panting. + +"Child! What are you doing here?" he demanded. + +"I couldn't wait any longer," she shouted back. "You've been out since +daylight. You must be wet through." + +He nodded. "I lay awake all night listening. So did Trevor. He's +beginning to worry already." + +"Already? If the breakwater stands this--" + +"The storm hasn't half started! Come! We'll watch it together." He took +her hand, and they lunged into the gale, battling their way back to his +point of vantage. He paused at length, and with his arm about her +pointed to the milk-white chaos which marked Trevor's handiwork. The +rain pelted against their faces and streamed from their slickers. + +The breakwater lay like a reef, and over it the sea was pounding in +mighty wrath. High into the air the waters rose, only to disappear upon +the bosom of the gale. They engulfed the structure bodily, they raced +along it with thunderous detonations, bursting in a lather of rage. Out +beyond, the billows appeared to be sheared flat by the force of the +wind, yet that ceaseless upheaval of spume showed that the ocean was in +furious tumult. For moments at a time the whole scene was blotted out +by the scud, then the curtain would tear asunder and the wild scene +would leap up again before their eyes. + +Eliza screamed a question at her companion, but he did not seem to +hear; his eyes roved back and forth along that lace-white ridge of rock +on the weakness of which depended his salvation. She had never seen him +so fierce, so hawklike, so impassive. The gusts shook him, his garments +slatted viciously, every rag beneath his outer covering was sodden, yet +he continued to face the tempest as indifferently as he had faced it +since the dawn. The girl thrilled at thought of the issue these mighty +forces were fighting out before her eyes, and of what it meant to the +man beside her. His interests became hers; she shared his painful +excitement. Her warm flesh chilled as the moisture embraced her limbs; +but her heart was light, for O'Neil's strong arm encircled her, and her +body lay against his. + +After a long time he spoke. "See! It's coming up!" he said. + +She felt no increase in the wind, but she noted that particles of sand +and tiny pebbles from the beach were flying with the salt raindrops. +Her muscles began to tremble from the constant effort at resistance, +and she was relieved when Murray looked about for a place of refuge. +She pointed to a pile of bridge timbers, but he shook his head. + +"They'll go flying if this keeps up." He dragged her into the shelter +of a little knoll. Here the blasts struck them with diminished force, +the roaring in their ears grew less, and the labor of breathing was +easier. + +Rousing himself from his thoughts, the man said, gently: + +"Poor kid! You must be cold." + +"I'm freezing. But--please don't send me back." The face that met his +was supplicating; the eyes were bluer than a spring day. He patted her +dripping shoulder. + +"Not until you're ready." + +"This is grander than our trip past the glacier. That was merely +dangerous, but this--means something." + +"There may be danger here if we expose ourselves. Look at that!" + +High up beyond reach of the surf a dory had been dragged and left +bottom up. Under this the wind found a fingerhold and sent it flying. +Over and over it rolled, until a stronger gust caught it and sent it in +huge leaps, end over end. It brought up against the timber pile with a +crash, and was held there as if by a mighty suction. Then the beams +began to tremble and lift. The pile was disintegrated bit by bit, +although it would have required many hands to move any one of its parts. + +Even where the man and the woman crouched the wind harried them like a +hound pack, but by clinging to the branches of a gnarled juniper bush +they held their position and let the spray whine over their heads. + +"Farther west I've seen houses chained to the earth with ships' +cables," he shouted in her ear. "To think of building a harbor in a +place like this!" + +"I prayed for you last night. I prayed for the wind to come," said the +girl, after a time. + +O'Neil looked at her, curiously startled, then he looked out at the sea +once more. All in a moment he realized that Eliza was beautiful and +that she had a heart. It seemed wonderful that she should be interested +in his fortunes. He was a lonely man; beneath his open friendliness lay +a deep reserve. A curiously warm feeling of gratitude flamed through +him now, and he silently blessed her for bearing him company in the +deciding hour of his life. + +Noon came, and still the two crouched in their half-shelter, drenched, +chilled, stiff with exposure, watching Kyak Bay lash itself into a +boiling smother. The light grew dim, night was settling; the air seemed +full of screaming furies. Then O'Neil noticed bits of driftwood racing +in upon the billows, and he rose with a loud cry. + +"It's breaking up!" he shouted. "It's breaking up!" + +Eliza lifted herself and clung to him, but she could see nothing except +a misty confusion. In a few moments the flotsam came thicker. +Splintered piling, huge square-hewn timbers with fragments of twisted +iron or broken bolts came floating into sight. A confusion of wreckage +began to clutter the shore, and into it the sea churned. + +The spindrift tore asunder at length, and the watchers caught a brief +glimpse of the tumbling ocean. The breakwater was gone. Over the place +where it had stood the billows raced unhindered. + +"Poor Trevor!" said O'Neil. "Poor Trevor! He did his best, but he +didn't know." He looked down to find Eliza crying. "What's this? I've +kept you here too long!" + +"No, no! I'm just glad--so glad. Don't you understand?" + +"I'll take you back. I must get ready to leave." + +"Leave? Where--" + +"For New York! I've made my fight, and I've won." His eyes kindled +feverishly. "I've won in spite of them all. I hold the key to a +kingdom. It's mine--mine! I hold the gateway to an empire, and those +who pass through must pay." The girl had never seen such fierce triumph +in a face. "I saw it in a dream, only it was more than a dream." The +wind snatched O'Neil's words from his lips, but he ran on: "I saw a +deserted fishing-village become a thriving city. I saw the glaciers +part to let pass a great traffic in men and merchandise. I saw the +unpeopled north grow into a land of homes, of farms, of mining-camps, +where people lived and bred children. I heard the mountain passes echo +to steam whistles and the whir of flying wheels. It was a wonderful +vision that I saw, but my eyes were true. They called me a fool, and it +took the sea and the hurricane to show them I was right." He paused, +ashamed of his outburst, and, taking the girl's hand in his, went +stumbling ahead of the storm. + +Their limbs were cramped, their teeth chattered, they wallowed through +mire, and more than once they fell. Nearing Trevor's house, they saw +what the storm had done. Kyak was nearly razed. Roofs had been ripped +off, chimneys were down, glass was out. None but the most substantial +log cabins had withstood the assault, and men were busied in various +quarters trying to repair the damage. + +They found Natalie beside herself with anxiety for their safety, and an +hour later Trevor came in, soaked to the skin. He was very tired, and +his face was haggard. + +"Well! She went out!" he said. "I saw a million dollars swallowed up in +that sea." + +They tried to comfort him, but the collapse of his work had left him +dazed. + +"God! I didn't think it could blow like this--and it isn't over yet. +The town is flat." + +"I'm sorry. You understand I sympathize?" said Murray; and the engineer +nodded. + +"You told me it blew here, and I thought I knew what you meant, but +nothing could withstand those rollers." + +"Nothing." + +"You'll go East and see our people, I suppose?" + +"At once." + +"Tell them what you saw. They'll never understand from my reports. +They're good people. If there's anything I can do--" + +O'Neil took his hand warmly. + +Two days later Murray bade the girls good-by, and left, traveling +light. They remained in Kyak so that Eliza might complete her +investigations. + +Of all those who suffered by the storm Curtis Gordon took his +misfortune hardest. This had been a black season for him, indeed. +Beginning with O'Neil's rivalry, everything had gone against him. He +had dropped his coal interests at Kyak in favor of the copper-mine, +because they failed to yield quick profits. Then he had learned that +the mine was valueless, and realized that it could not serve him much +longer as a means of raising funds. Still, he had trusted that by +taking a vigorous part in the railroad struggle he would be able either +to recoup his fortunes or at least to effect a compromise in the shadow +of which his fiasco at Hope would be forgotten. As yet the truth about +Hope Consolidated was not generally known to his stock-holders, but a +certain restlessness among them had become troublesome. The stream of +money had diminished alarmingly, and it was largely because of this +that he had bought the McDermott right-of-way and moved to Kyak. And +now, just as he had his affairs in shape for another and a greater +campaign of stock-flotation, the storm had come to ruin him. + +The bitterest element in his defeat was the realization that O'Neil, +who had bested him at every turn, was destined to profit by the very +blow which crushed him. Defeat at the hands of the Copper Trust he +would have accepted with a fairly good grace; but the mere thought that +Murray O'Neil, whom he considered in every way his inferior, had gained +the upper hand was intolerable. It was in keeping with Gordon's +character that instead of blaming his own judgment he became furiously +angry at the Trust for the mistake of its engineers, and held them +responsible for his desperate situation. That it was truly desperate he +very soon realized, since disaster to his railroad project meant that +his stock-holders would be around his ears like a swarm of hornets, and +once they understood the true state of affairs at Hope the complete +collapse of his fortunes would surely follow. + +During the days succeeding the storm he scarcely knew where to turn, so +harassed was he; yet he never for a moment wavered in his resolve to +make O'Neil pay for his interference and to exact a reckoning from +Gloria Gerard. + +Natalie's presence in Kyak confirmed his belief that O'Neil was +interested in her, and he began to plan a stroke by which he could take +revenge upon all three. It did not promise in any way to help him out +of his financial straits, but at least it would give him a certain +satisfaction. + +He sent word to the girl that he would like to see her. + + + + +XVII + +HOW THE PRINCE BECAME A MAN + + +Gordon found his erstwhile ward greatly improved by her recent life. +She was brown, vigorous, healthy; her physical charms quickened his +pulses. + +"You must have a very good reason for coming to see me," she began. "I +don't flatter myself that it is from affection." + +"There you wrong me," he assured her, with the warm earnestness he so +easily assumed. "I have always regarded you as a daughter." + +"I have no faith in you." + +"Exactly, and the knowledge distresses me. You and Gloria were a large +part of my life; I can't bear to lose you. I hope--and I believe--that +her regard for me has changed no more than mine for her. It remains for +me to regain yours." + +"That is impossible. You had the chance--" + +"My dear, you can't know my reasons for acting as I did at Omar. But +those reasons no longer exist." + +"Just what--do you mean by that?" stammered Natalie. + +"I mean what I say. I'm ready to marry your mother." + +"When?" + +"At once. You shall plead my cause for me. You shall add your voice to +mine--" + +"That isn't necessary. You know mother is only waiting for you. It +means so much to her that she couldn't refuse." + +"Doesn't it mean anything to you?" + +Natalie nodded. "It means more to me than to any one else, perhaps. I +have been carrying a great burden, almost more than I can bear. +Sometimes I've wished I were a man--for just long enough to make you +pay. Oh yes," she continued, as he started to protest. "Don't let us +begin this new life with any false conceptions; you may as well know +that I shall always hate you. We shall see very little of each other." + +"Nonsense! I can't let you feel like that. I sha'n't rest until I win +back your love and confidence." + +She eyed him searchingly for a moment, then opened her lips to speak, +but closed them. + +"Well?" he prompted her. "Let us be frank with each other." + +"I'm merely wondering how greatly your decision has been influenced by +the storm and the fight at the railroad crossing. I understand how you +feel toward Mr. O'Neil, and I know that he means to crush you." + +"Oh!" Gordon's face lighted. + +"Yes! He has never said so, but I can feel it. I wonder if you have +snatched us up in your extremity as a defense." + +"Ridiculous! Your suspicions are insulting. I have nothing to fear from +him, for he is broken, his credit is gone, he is in desperate straits." + +"Are you in any better condition? How long can you fool your people +with that pretense of a mine?" + +Gordon flushed, but affected scorn. "So! Have you and Gloria begun to +balance my wealth against my love? If so--" + +"You know she would marry you if you were penniless." + +"I hope so--and, indeed, I can't believe her mercenary. Well, I shall +say good-by to Kyak, without idle regret, and we three shall return to +Hope, where I can attack my problems with fresh courage. I can well +afford my loss here, if by doing so I gain the woman of my desires." + +"You want me to go with you?" + +"Of course. You can't stay in Omar, knowing what you do about O'Neil. +Remember, I shall be in the position of a father to you." + +"Very well. It is the least I can do. Miss Appleton and I are returning +to Omar in a few days. Will you go with us?" + +"I shall be delighted, my dear." He smiled upon her in his most +fatherly fashion, but she was far from feeling the assurance he meant +to convey. + +The eighteen-hour train from Chicago bore Murray O'Neil into New York +on time, and he hastened directly to the Holland House, where the clerk +greeted him as if he had run in from Yonkers instead of from the +wilderness of the far northwest. His arrival was always the forerunner +of great prosperity for the bell-boys, and there was the customary +struggle for his baggage. + +An hour later, having bathed and changed his linen, he was whizzing +toward lower Broadway, with the roar of the Subway in his ears. New +York looked very good to O'Neil, for this time he came not as a +suppliant, but as a conqueror, and a deep contentment rested in his +heart. More than once during the last two years he had made this flying +trip across an ocean and a continent, but heretofore he had been +burdened with worries and responsibilities. Always he had needed to +gather his wits for some supreme effort; always there had been the +urgent necessity of raising money. As the S. R. & N. had grown his +obligations had increased; and, while he had never returned +empty-handed, no one but he knew at what cost of time and strength he +had succeeded in financing his venture. Invariably he had left New York +mentally and physically exhausted, and his days in the open had barely +served to replenish his store of nervous energy for the next campaign. + +As he looked back upon it all he was amazed at his daring in attempting +to finance a railroad out of his own pocket. But he had won, and the +Trust had met with a sharp reverse in attempting to beat him at his own +game. He held the winning card, and he looked out upon the world +through eyes which were strained and weary, but complacent. + +Mr. Herman Heidlemann was expecting him. + +"You have the most confident way of arranging appointments from the +other side of the world," he began, as O'Neil entered his office. +"Steamships and railroads appear to be your obedient servants." + +"Not always. I find railroads very troublesome at times." + +"Well, you're on time to the minute," said Heidlemann. "Now tell me +about Kyak. Trevor cables that you were there during the storm which +ruined us." The head of the copper syndicate did not look like a man +facing ruin; in fact, he seemed more curious to hear of the physical +phenomena of that hurricane than of its effect upon his fortunes. + +"Kyak was a great mistake," he admitted, when O'Neil had given him the +particulars he asked for. "We're all agreed on that point. Some of our +associates feel that the whole Alaskan enterprise has been a +mistake--mines and all." + +"Your mines are as good as they ever were, but Kyak is a long way from +Wall Street, and you relied too much upon other people's judgment." + +"We have to rely upon our experts." + +"Of course. But that country must have a railroad." + +"Must?" Heidlemann lifted his brows. "It has done very well without one +so far. Our friends call us crazy for trying to build one, and our +enemies call us thieves." + +"You can't afford to give up." + +"No. There's an element of pride in the matter, and I really believe +the country does need transportation." + +"You can't understand how badly it needs it." + +"Yet it's a heavy load to carry," said Heidlemann, with conviction, +"for a road will lose money for many years. We were willing to wait +until the agriculture and the mining developed, even though the profit +came only to our children; but--we have been misunderstood, abused by +the press and the public. Even Congress is down on us. However, I +suppose you came to tell me once more that Omar is the gateway and that +we need it." + +O'Neil smiled. "That's hardly necessary now, is it? I own every inch of +water-front at that point, and there's no other harbor. My track will +be laid to the glaciers by the time snow flies." + +"Trevor reports that a bridge is possible, although expensive." + +"It will cost two million dollars." + +"I don't see how it can be built to withstand the ice." + +"I'll guarantee to build it so it will hold." + +"What is your proposition?" asked Heidlemann. + +"I'll sell the S.R.&N. for five million dollars and contract to +complete the road within two years on a ten-per-cent commission." + +"It has cost you about three million dollars, I believe. That would +leave you a handsome profit." + +"One million for me, one million for my associates." + +"What will the remaining hundred miles cost?" + +"About ten millions. That will give me another million profit as +contractor. My force and equipment is on the ground. I can save you +money and a year's time." + +Mr. Heidlemann drummed upon the top of his desk for a moment. + +"You're a high-priced man, O'Neil," he said, finally. + +"You've had experience with the other kind." + +"Counting the money we've already sunk, the road would stand us about +twenty million dollars completed." + +"It will cost thirty to build from Cortez, and take two years longer." + +Mr. Heidlemann seemed to consider this for a moment. "We've had this +matter before us almost constantly since the report of the storm," he +said, at length, "and after deliberation our directors have voted to do +nothing just yet." + +O'Neil opened his eyes in amazement. + +"I don't understand." + +"It's this way. Our engineers first recommended Cortez as a +starting-point, and we spent a fortune there. Then you attacked the +other route, and we sent Trevor up to find if you were right and we +were wrong. He recommended the Salmon River valley, and told us he +could build a breakwater at Kyak. You know the result. We relied upon +him, for he seemed to be the best man in the country, but as a matter +of precaution we later sent other engineers. Their reports came in not +three months ago, and, while all seemed confident that the breakwater +could be built, none of them were certain about the bridge. One, in +fact, condemned it absolutely. Now on the heels of their statements +comes the news that the very work they united in declaring feasible has +been undone. Naturally, we don't know where we are or whom to believe." + +"They simply didn't know the conditions at Kyak," argued O'Neil, "and +they evidently haven't studied the bridge as I have. But you'll have to +go at the breakwater again or build in from Cortez or give up." + +"No, we have decided to mark time until that crossing is proved +feasible. Understand, I voice the sentiment of the majority." + +"If I build that bridge you may find it more difficult to buy me out," +said O'Neil, quietly. + +"We'll have to take our medicine," Mr. Heidlemann replied, without +heat. "We cannot afford another mistake." + +"This is definite?" + +"Oh, absolutely! We're going slow for a time." + +A blow in the face could not have affected O'Neil more disagreeably +than this statement. Fortune had seemed within his grasp when he +entered the room; now ruin was more imminent than it had ever been +before. The ground seemed to be slipping from beneath his feet; he +discovered that he was dizzy. He felt himself utterly incapable of +raising the two million dollars necessary to carry his road to a point +where the Trust would consider a purchase, yet to fail meant the loss +of all he had put in. He knew also that these men would never recede +from a position once taken. + +"Hasn't this public clamor had something to do with your +determination?" he asked. + +"A great deal. We had the best intentions when we started--we still +have--but it's time to let the general sentiment cool. We thought we +were doing a fine thing for the country in opening Alaska, but it seems +we're regarded as thieves and grafters. One gets tired of abuse after a +while." + +"Will you take an option on the S. R. & N. conditional upon the +building of the bridge?" + +"We couldn't very well do that. Remember you are our rival." +Heidlemann smiled in his recognition of the fact that the rivalry was +friendly. "To do so would fan excitement at Washington to a white heat. +We'd then be in the position they now accuse us of occupying, and that +would have a serious bearing upon the coal situation. No, we can't help +you, O'Neil, but rest assured we won't do anything to hinder you. You +have treated us fairly; we will reciprocate. Once you have built your +bridge we can discuss a purchase and the abandonment of our original +enterprise, but meanwhile we must proceed cautiously. It is unfortunate +for us all." + +"Especially for me." + +"You need money badly, don't you?" + +"I'm worse than broke," O'Neil admitted. + +"I'd really be sorry to take over the wreck of your enterprise," +Heidlemann said, earnestly, "for you have made a good fight, and your +ideas were better than ours. I'd much prefer to pay your price than to +profit by your misfortune. Needless to say we don't feel that way about +Gordon." + +"There would be no uncertainty about the bridge if I had the money. +With your means I could build a road to the moon, and double-track it." + +Although Murray felt that further effort was useless, he continued to +argue the matter from various angles, hoping against hope to sway +Heidlemann's decision. But he gave up at last. Out in the marble hall +which led to the elevators he discovered that all his vigor of an hour +ago had passed. The spring was out of his limbs; he walked slowly, like +an old man. A glimpse of his image in the mirrors of the car as he shot +downward showed him a face grave and haggard. The crowds jostled him, +but he was hardly conscious of them. The knowledge that his hardest +fight was yet to come filled him with sickening apprehension. He was +like a runner who toes the mark for a final heat knowing himself to be +upon the verge of collapse. + +The magnitude of the deal narrowed his field of operations alarmingly, +and he had already learned what a serious effect upon capital the +agitation about Alaska had produced. More than once he had found men +who were willing to invest but feared the effect of public sentiment. +Popular magazines, newspapers like The Review, and writers like Eliza +Appleton had been largely to blame for the wrong. They had +misunderstood the problem and misinterpreted the spirit of commercial +progress. But, strangely enough, he felt no bitterness at thought of +Eliza. On the contrary, his heart softened in a sort of friendly +yearning for her company. He would have liked to talk the matter over +with her. + +Looking the situation squarely in the face, he realized that he must +face a crash or raise two million dollars within the next month. That +meant seventy thousand dollars a day. It was a man-sized task. + +He bought himself a cigar at the corner, hailed a taxicab, and was +driven all the way up town to the Holland House. Once there, he +established himself in that corner of the men's cafe which he always +frequented. + +The waiter who served him lingered to say: + +"It's good to see you back in your 'office' again. You've been a long +time away, sir." + +O'Neil smiled as he left a silver dollar on the tray. + +"It's good to be back, Joe," he said. "This time I may not leave." + + + + +XVIII + +HOW THE MAN BECAME A PRINCE AGAIN + + +O'Neil had the faculty of sleeping well, in spite of the most +tormenting worries. He arose on the morning after his interview with +Mr. Heidlemann, ready to begin the struggle with all his normal energy +and confidence. But the day brought him only discouragement. He had a +large acquaintance, the mention of his name in quarters where he was +not personally known gained him respectful attention; but he found +himself working in the shadow of the Copper Trust, and its silent +influence overcame his strongest arguments. One banker expressed the +general attitude by saying: + +"If the Heidlemanns were not in the field we might help you, but it +would be financial suicide to oppose them." + +"There's no opposition about it," Murray assured him. "If I build that +bridge they'll buy us out." + +At this his hearer very naturally wished to know why, if the bridge +were indeed feasible, the Heidlemanns delayed action; and O'Neil had to +fall back upon a recital of the facts, realizing perfectly that they +failed to carry conviction. + +No one, it seemed, cared to risk even a semblance of rivalry with that +monstrous aggregation of capital, for the interlacing of financial +interests was amazingly intricate, and financiers were fearful of the +least misstep. Everywhere O'Neil encountered the same disheartening +timidity. His battle, it seemed, had been lost before it was begun. + +Days passed in fruitless endeavors; evenings found O'Neil in his corner +of the Holland House Cafe racking his brain for some way out of his +perplexities. Usually he was surrounded by friends, for he continued to +entertain in the lavish fashion for which he had gained a reputation; +but sometimes he was alone, and then his solitude became more +oppressive than it had ever been even in the farthest wastes of the +northland. He was made to feel his responsibility with dreadful +keenness, for his associates were in a panic and bombarded him with +daily inquiries, vexatious and hard to answer. He had hoped that in +this extremity they might give him some practical help, and they did +make a few half-hearted attempts, only to meet the same discouragements +as he. At last they left him to carry the burden alone. + +A week, two weeks went by. He was in constant cable communication with +Omar, but not even the faithful Dr. Gray knew the dire straits in which +his chief was struggling. Work on the S. R. & N. was going forward as +usual. The organization was running at its highest efficiency: rails +were being laid; gangs of rock-workers were preparing the grade beyond +the glaciers. Yet every day that passed, every pay-check drawn brought +ruin closer. Nevertheless, O'Neil continued to joke and chat with the +men who came to his table in the cafe and kept his business +appointments with his customary cheerfulness. The waiters who attended +him rejoiced in his usual princely tips. + +One evening as he ran through his mail he found a letter in a woman's +handwriting and, glancing at the signature, started. It was signed +"Gloria Gordon." Briefly it apprised him of her marriage and of her and +Natalie's return to Hope. Gloria thanked him perfunctorily for his many +kindnesses, but she neither expressed nor implied an invitation for him +to visit them. He smiled a little grimly--already her loyalty had +veered to Gordon's side, and Natalie no doubt shared her feeling. Well, +it was but natural, perhaps. It would be unreasonable to expect them to +sacrifice their desires, and what they now seemed to consider their +interests, to a business quarrel they could hardly be expected to +understand. He could not help feeling hurt that the women should so +readily exchange his friendship for the protection of his bitterest +enemy, but--they were helpless and he had helped them; let it rest at +that. He was really troubled, however, that they had been so easily +deceived. If they had only waited! If he had only been able to advise +them! For Gordon's intention was plain. He was aroused from his train +of thought by a stranger whom he found standing beside his table and +looking down at him with wavering eye. + +"Misser O'Neil, ain't it?" the fellow inquired. "Sure! Thought I knew +you. I'm Bulker, of the old North Pass. Remember me?" + +Mr. Bulker had been imbibing freely. He showed evidences of a +protracted spree not only in his speech, but in the trembling hand +which he extended. His eyes were bloodshot, and his good-natured face +was purple. + +O'Neil greeted him pleasantly, and, considering himself +enthusiastically welcomed, the new-comer sat down suddenly, as if some +one had tripped him. + +"Been washing you for ten minutes." + +"Washing me?" + +"No! WASHING you. Couldn't make you out--eyesight's getting bad. Too +many bright lights in this town. Ha! Joke! Let's have a gill." + +"Thank you, no." + +"Must have a little dram for old time's sake. You're the only one of +the North Pass crowd I'll drink with." Mr. Bulker gestured +comprehensively at a group of waiters, and Murray yielded. "You were my +friend, O'Neil; you always treated me right." + +"What are you doing now?" asked O'Neil, with the interest he could not +refuse to any one who had ever worked with him. He remembered the +fellow perfectly. He had come on from the East as auditor, and had +appeared to be capable, although somewhat given to drink. + +"I'm a broker. Wall Street's my habitat. Fine time to buy stocks, +Misser O'Neil." Bulker assumed an expression of great wisdom. "Like to +have a tip? No? Good! You're a wise man. They fired me from the North +Pass. Wha'd you know about that? Fired me for drinking! Greatest +injustice I ever heard of, but I hit running, like a turkey. That +wasn't the reason they let me go, though. Not on your life!" He winked +portentously, and strangely enough his eyelid failed to resume its +normal position. It continued to droop, giving the appearance of a +waggish leer. "I knew too mush! Isn't healthy to know too mush, is it?" + +"I've never had a chance to find out," smiled Murray. + +"Oh, don't be an ingenue; you savvied more than anybody on the job. +I'll admit I took a nip now and then, but I never got pickled. Say! Who +d'you s'pose I saw to-day? Old man Illis!" + +O'Neil became suddenly intent. He had been trying to get in touch with +Poultney Illis for more than a fortnight, but his cables to London had +brought no response. + +"When did he arrive?" + +"Just lately. He's a game old rooster, ain't he? Gee, he's sore!" + +"Sore about what?" + +Bulker winked again, with the same lack of muscular control. + +"About that North Pass deal, of course. He was blackmailed out of a +cold million. The agreement's about up now, and I figure he's over here +to renew it." + +"You're talking Greek," said O'Neil; but his eagerness was manifest. + +"I s'posed you knew. The North Pass has been paying blackmail to the +Yukon steamboat companies for three years. When you built the line it +practically put 'em out of the Dawson market, understand?" + +"Of course." + +Now that Mr. Bulker's mind was running along well-worn grooves, his +intoxication became less apparent. + +"Those Frisco steamboat men got together and started a rate war against +the railroad; they hauled freight to Dawson by way of St. Michaels at a +loss. Of course Illis and his crowd had to meet competition, and it +nearly broke 'em the first two seasons. Gee, they were the mad ones! +Finally they fixed up an agreement--had to or go bust--and of course +the Native Sons put it over our English cousins. They agreed to restore +the old rate, and each side promised to pay the other a royalty of ten +dollars a ton on all the freight it hauled to Dawson and up-river +points. You can guess the result, can't you? The steamboat companies +let Illis haul all the freight and sat back on their haunches and took +their profit. For every ton he hauled he slipped 'em ten round American +dollars, stamped with the Goddess of Liberty. Oh, it was soft! When +they had him fairly tied up they dry-docked their steamboats, to save +wear and tear. He paid 'em a thousand dollars a day for three years. If +that ain't blackmail, it's a first cousin to it by marriage." + +"Didn't the Interstate Commerce Commission get wise?" + +"Certainly not. It looks wise, but it never GETS wise. Oh, believe me, +Poultney Illis is hopping mad. I s'pose he's over here now to renew the +arrangement for another three years on behalf of his stock-holders. +Let's have a dram." Bulker sat back and stared as through a mist at his +companion, enjoying the effect of his disclosure. + +O'Neil was indeed impressed--more deeply than his informant dreamed. +Out of the lips of a drunken man had come a hint which set his nerves +to tingling. He knew Illis well, he knew the caliber of the Englishman, +and a plan was already leaping in his brain whereby he might save the +S. R. & N. + +It lacked an hour of midnight when O'Neil escaped from Bulker and +reached his room. Once inside, he seized the telephone and rang up +hotel after hotel, inquiring for the English capitalist, but without +result. After a moment's consideration he took his hat and gloves and +went out. The matter did not permit of delay. Not only were his own +needs imperative, but if Poultney Illis had come from London to confer +with his rivals there was little time to spare. + +Remembering the Englishman's habits, O'Neil turned up the Avenue to the +Waldorf, where he asked for the manager, whom he well knew. + +"Yes, Mr. Illis is here," he was informed, "but he's registered under a +different name. No doubt he'll be glad to see you, however." + +A moment later Murray recognized the voice of Illis's valet over the +wire and greeted him by name. Another brief delay, and the capitalist +himself was at the 'phone. + +"Come right up," he said; and O'Neil replaced the receiver with a sigh +of relief. + +Illis greeted him warmly, for their relations had been close. + +"Lucky you found me," he said. "I'm going back on the next sailing." + +"Have you signed up with the Arctic Navigation Company?" Murray +inquired; and the other started. + +"Bless me! What do you mean?" + +His caller laughed. "I see you haven't. I don't think you will, either, +after you've talked with me." + +Without the tremor of an eyelash Illis exclaimed: + +"My word! What are you driving at?" + +"That agreement over freight rates, of course." + +The Briton eyed him for a moment, then carefully closed the door +leading from his sitting-room, and, seating himself, lit a cigar. + +"What do you know about that matter?" he asked, quietly. + +"About all there is to know--enough, at least, to appreciate your +feelings." + +"I flattered myself that my affairs were private. Where did you get +your information?" + +"I'll tell you if you insist, although I'd rather not. There's no +danger of its becoming public." + +Illis showed his relief. "I'm glad. You gave me a start. Rotten fix for +a man to be in. Why, I'm here under an assumed name! Fancy! But--" he +waved his hand in a gesture which showed his acceptance of the +inevitable. + +"You haven't made your new agreement?" + +"I'm to meet Blum and Capron to-morrow." + +"Why didn't you take the S. R.& N. when I cabled you last month?" + +"I couldn't. But what has that to do with the matter?" + +"Don't you see? It's so plain to me that I can't understand how you +failed to realize the value--the necessity of buying my road." + +"Explain, please." + +"Gladly. The North Pass & Yukon is paying a fabulous blackmail to the +river-lines to escape a ruinous rate war." + +"Right! It's blackmail, as you say." + +"Under the present agreement you handle the Dawson freight and keep out +of the lower river; they take the whole Tanana valley and lower Yukon." + +"Correct." + +"Didn't it occur to you that the S.R.& N., which starts four hundred +miles west of the North Pass and taps the Tanana valley, can be used to +put the river steamers of that section out of business?" + +"Let's have a look at the map." Mr. Illis hurried into an adjoining +room and returned with a huge chart which he unrolled upon the table. +"To tell you the truth, I never looked at the proposition from that +angle. Our people were afraid of those glaciers and the competition of +the Copper Trust. They're disgusted, too, with our treatment." + +"The Trust is eliminated. Kyak harbor is wiped off the map, and I'm +alone in the field." + +"How about this fellow Gordon?" + +"He'll be broke in a year. Incidentally, that's my trouble." + +"But I'm told you can't pass the glaciers." + +"I can. Parker says he'll have the bridge done by spring." + +"Then I'd bank on it. I'd believe Parker if I knew he was lying. If you +both agree, I haven't the slightest doubt." + +"This is a bigger proposition than the North Pass, Mr. Illis. You made +money out of that road, but this one will make more." He swiftly +outlined the condition of affairs, even to the attitude assumed by the +Heidlemanns; and Illis, knowing the speaker as he did, had no doubt +that he was hearing the exact truth. "But that's not all," continued +O'Neil. "The S. R. & N. is the club which will hammer your enemies into +line. That's what I came to see you about. With a voice in it you can +control the traffic of all central Alaska and force the San Francisco +crowd to treat the N. P. & Y. fairly, thereby saving half a million a +year." + +"It's a big undertaking. I'm not sure our crowd could swing it." + +"They don't have to. There's a quick profit of two million to be had by +selling to the Trust next spring. You can dictate your own terms to +those blackmailers to-morrow, and then make a turn-over in nine months. +It doesn't matter who owns the S. R. & N. after it's completed. The +steamboat men will see their profits cut. As it is now, they can make +enough out of their own territory to haul freight into yours for +nothing." + +"I dare say you'll go to them if we don't take you up, eh?" + +"My road has its strategic value. I must have help. If you don't come +to my rescue it will mean war with your line, I dare say." + +Mr. Illis sat back, staring at the ceiling for a long time. From the +street below came the whir and clatter of taxicabs as the midnight +crowd came and went. The city's nocturnal life was at its height; men +had put aside the worries of the day and were devoting themselves to +the more serious and exhausting pastimes of relaxation. Still the +white-haired Briton weighed in his mind the matter of millions, while +the fortunes of Murray O'Neil hung in the balance. + +"My people won't buy the S. R. & N.," Illis finally announced. "But +I'll put it up to them." + +"I can't delay action if there's a chance of a refusal. I'll have to +see Blum and Capron," said O'Neil. + +"I'll cable full details within the hour. We'll have an answer by +to-morrow night." + +"And if they refuse?" O'Neil lit a cigar with steady fingers. + +"Oh, if they refuse I'll join you. We'll go over the matter carefully +in the mean time. Two million you said, didn't you?" + +"Yes. There's two million profit for you in nine months." His voice was +husky and a bit uneven, for he had been under a great strain. + +"Good! You don't know how resentful I feel toward Blum and his crowd. +I--I'm downright angry: I am that." + +Illis took the hand which his caller extended, with an expressionless +face. + +"I'm glad I found you," confessed O'Neil. "I was on my last legs. +Herman Heidlemann will pay our price when the last bridge-bolt is +driven home, and he'll pay with a smile on his face--that's the sort of +man he is." + +"He won't pay if he knows I'm interested. We're not exactly friendly +since I sold out my smelter interests. But he needn't know--nobody need +know." + +Illis called his valet and instructed him to rouse his secretary and +ring for some cable blanks. + +"I think I'll cable, too," Murray told him. "I have some 'boys' up +there who are working in the dark with their teeth shut. They're +waiting for the crash, and they'd like to hear the good news." + +His fingers shook as he scrawled the name of Doctor Gray, but his eyes +were bright and youth was singing in his heart once more. + +"Now let's get down to business," said Mr. Illis. "We'll have to talk +fast." + +It was growing light in the east when O'Neil returned to the Holland +House; but he felt no fatigue, and he laughed from the pure joy of +living, for his dream seemed coming true. + + + + +XIX + +MISS APPLETON MAKES A SACRIFICE + + +Tom Slater came puffing up the hill to the Appleton bungalow, plumped +himself into a chair, and sighed deeply. + +"What's the matter? Are you played out?" asked Eliza. + +"No. I'm feeling like a colt." + +"Any news from Omar Khayyam?" + +"Not a word." + +Eliza's brows drew together in a worried frown, for none of Murray's +"boys" had awaited tidings from him with greater anxiety than she. + +It had been a trying month for them all. Dr. Gray, upon whom the +heaviest responsibility rested, had aged visibly under the strain; +Parker and Mellen and McKay had likewise become worn and grave as the +days passed and they saw disaster approaching. Even Dan was blue; and +Sheldon, the light-hearted, had begun to lose interest in his +commissary duties. + +After the storm at Kyak there had been a period of fierce rejoicing, +which had ended abruptly with the receipt of O'Neil's curt cablegram +announcing the attitude of the Trust. Gloom had succeeded the first +surprise, deepening to hopeless despondency through the days that +followed. Oddly enough, Slater had been the only one to bear up; under +adversity he blossomed into a peculiar and almost offensive +cheerfulness. It was characteristic of his crooked temperament that +misfortune awoke in him a lofty and unshakable optimism. + +"You're great on nicknames, ain't you?" he said to Eliza, regarding her +with his never-failing curiosity. "Who's this Homer Keim you're always +talking about?" + +"He isn't any more: he WAS. He was a cheerful old Persian poet." + +"I thought he was Dutch, from the name. Well! Murray's cheerful too. +Him and me are alike in that. I'll bet he isn't worrying half so much +as Doc and the others." + +"You think he'll make good?" + +"He never fails." + +"But--we can't hold on much longer. Dan says that some of the men are +getting uneasy and want their money." + +Tom nodded. "The men are all right--Doc has kept them paid up; it's the +shift bosses. I say let 'em quit." + +"Has it gone as far as that?" + +"Somebody keeps spreading the story that we're busted and that Murray +has skipped out. More of Gordon's work, I s'pose. Some of the +sore-heads are coming in this evening to demand their wages." + +"Can we pay them?" + +"Doc says he dassent; so I s'pose they'll quit. He should have fired +'em a week ago. Never let a man quit--always beat him to it. We could +hold the rough-necks for another two weeks if it wasn't for these +fellows, but they'll go back and start a stampede." + +"How many are there?" + +"About a dozen." + +"I was afraid it was worse. There can't be much owing to them." + +"Oh, it's bad enough! They've been letting their wages ride, that's why +they got scared. We owe them about four thousand dollars." + +"They must be paid," said Eliza. "It will give Mr. O'Neil another two +weeks--a month, perhaps." + +"Doc's got his back up, and he's told the cashier to make 'em wait." + +Eliza hesitated, and flushed a little. "I suppose it's none of my +business," she said, "but--couldn't you boys pay them out of your own +salaries?" + +Mr. Slater grinned--an unprecedented proceeding which lent his face an +altogether strange and unnatural expression. + +"Salary! We ain't had any salary," he said, cheerfully--"not for +months." + +"Dan has drawn his regularly." + +"Oh, sure! But he ain't one of us. He's an outsider." + +"I see!" Eliza's eyes were bright with a wistful admiration. "That's +very nice of you men. You have a family, haven't you, Uncle Tom?" + +"I have! Seven head, and they eat like a herd of stock. It looks like a +lean winter for 'em if Murray don't make a sale--but he will. That +isn't what I came to see you about; I've got my asking clothes on, and +I want a favor." + +"You shall have it, of course." + +"I want a certificate." + +"Of what?" + +"Ill health. Nobody believes I had the smallpox." + +"You didn't." + +"Wh-what?" Tom's eyes opened wide. He stared at the girl in hurt +surprise. + +"It was nothing but pimples, Tom." + +"Pimples!" He spat the word out indignantly, and his round cheeks grew +purple. "I--I s'pose pimples gave me cramps and chills and backache and +palpitation and swellings! Hunh! I had a narrow escape--narrow's the +word. It was narrower than a knife-edge! Anything I get out of life +from now on is 'velvet,' for I was knocking at death's door. The grave +yawned, but I jumped it. It's the first sick spell I ever had, and I +won't be cheated out of it. Understand?" + +"What do you want me to do?" smiled the girl. + +"You're a writer: write me an affidavit--" + +"I can't do that." + +"Then put it in your paper. Put it on the front page, where folks can +see it." + +"I've quit The Review. I'm doing magazine stories." + +"Well, that'll do. I'm not particular where it's printed so long as--" + +Eliza shook her head. "You weren't really sick, Uncle Tom." + +At this Mr. Slater rose to his feet in high dudgeon. + +"Don't call me 'Uncle,'" he exclaimed. "You're in with the others." + +"It wouldn't be published if I wrote it." + +"Then you can't be much of a writer." He glared at her, and slowly, +distinctly, with all the emphasis at his command, said: "I had +smallpox--and a dam' bad case, understand? I was sick. I had miseries +in every joint and cartage of my body. I'm going to use a pick-handle +for a cane, and anybody that laughs will get a hickory massage that'll +take a crooked needle and a pair of pinchers to fix. Thank God I've got +my strength back! You get me?" + +"I do." + +He snorted irately and turned to go, but Eliza checked him. + +"What about those shift bosses?" she asked. + +Slater rolled his eyes balefully. "Just let one of 'em mention +smallpox," he said, "and I'll fill the hospital till it bulges." + +"No, no! Are you going to pay them?" + +"Certainly not." + +Eliza considered for a moment. "Don't let them see Dr. Gray," she said, +at length. "He has enough to worry him. Meet them at the train and +bring them here." + +"What for? Tea?" + +"You boys have done all you can; I think it's time Dan and I did +something." + +Tom stared. "Are YOU going to pay 'em?" he asked, gruffly. + +"Yes. Mr. O'Neil needs time. Dan and I have saved four thousand +dollars. I'd offer it to Dr. Gray--" + +"He wouldn't take it." + +"Exactly. Send Dan up here when you see him." + +"It doesn't seem exactly right." Tom was obviously embarrassed. "You +see, we sort of belong to Murray, and you don't, but--" He shook his +head as if to rid himself of unwelcome emotion. "Women are funny +things! You're willing to do that for the chief, and yet you won't +write me a little affidavit!" He grunted and went away, still shaking +his head. + +When Eliza explained her plan to Dan she encountered an opposition that +shocked and hurt her. + +"I won't do it!" he said, shortly. + +"You--WHAT?" + +"We can't build the S. R. + +"Yes, and made you love him, too," said Dan, roughly. "I can see that." + +Eliza lifted her head and met his eyes squarely. + +"That's true! But why not? Can't I love him? Isn't it my privilege to +help him if I want to? If I had two million dollars instead of two +thousand I'd give it to him, and--and I wouldn't expect him to care for +me, either. He'll never do that. He couldn't! But--oh, Danny, I've been +miserable--" + +Dan felt a certain dryness of the throat which made speech oddly +difficult. "I don't see why he couldn't care for you," he said, lamely. + +Eliza shook her head hopelessly. "I'm glad it happened," she +said--"glad. In writing these articles I've tried to make him +understood; I've tried to put my whole soul into them so that the +people will see that he isn't, wouldn't be, a thief nor a grafter. I've +described him as he is--big, honorable, gentle--" + +"I didn't know you were writing fiction," said her brother, impatiently. + +"I'm not. It's all true. I've cried over those articles, Dan. I've +petted them, and I've kissed his name--oh, I've been silly!" She smiled +at him through a sudden glimmer of tears. + +Dan began to wonder if his sister, in spite of her exemplary conduct in +the past, were after all going to have hysterics. Women were especially +likely to, he reflected, when they demanded the impossible. At last he +said, uncomfortably: "Gee, I thought I was the dippy member of the +family!" + +"It's our chance to help him," she urged. "Will you--?" + +"No! I'm sorry, Sis, but my little bit wouldn't mean anything to him; +it means everything to me. Maybe that's selfish--I don't care. I'm as +mad over Natalie as you seem to be over him. A week's delay can't make +any difference now--he played and lost. But I can't afford to lose. +He'll make another fortune, that's sure--but do you think I'll ever +find another Natalie? No! Don't argue, for I won't listen." + +He left the house abruptly, and Eliza went into the white bedroom which +O'Neil had fitted up for her. From the remotest corner of her lowest +bureau drawer she drew a battered tin box, and, dividing the money it +contained into two equal parts, placed one in the pockets of her +mannish jacket. + +It was dark when Tom Slater arrived, at the head of a group of soiled +workmen whom he ushered into the parlor of the bungalow. + +"Here's the bunch!" he announced, laconically. + +As the new-comers ranged themselves uncomfortably about the wall Dan +Appleton entered and greeted them with his customary breeziness. + +"The pay-master is busy, and Doc Gray has a surgical case," he said, +"so I'll cash your time-checks. Get me the box, will you, Sis?" + +He had avoided Eliza's eyes upon entering, and he avoided them now, but +the girl's throat was aching as she hurried into her bedroom and +hastily replaced the rolls of greenbacks she had removed from the tin +box. + +When he had finished paying off, Dan said, brusquely: + +"Now we mustn't have any loafing around town, understand?" + +"We can't get back to-night," said one of the men. + +"Oh yes, you can. I ordered an engine out." + +"We hear--there's talk about quitting work," another ventured. "Where's +O'Neil?" + +"He's in the States buying a steamship," answered Dan, unblushingly. +"We can't get stuff fast enough by the regular boats." + +"Good! That sounds like business. We don't want to quit." + +"Now hurry! Your parlor-car is waiting." + +When he and Eliza were alone he turned to her with a flush of +embarrassment. "Aren't we the darnedest fools, Sis? I wouldn't mind if +we had done the chief any good, but we haven't." He closed the lid of +the tin box, which was nearly empty now, and pushed it away from him, +laughing mirthlessly. "Hide that sarcophagus where I can't see it," he +commanded. "It makes me sick." + +Eliza flung her arm about his neck and laid her cheek against his. +"Poor Danny! You're a brick!" + +"It's the bread-line for us," he told her. + +"Never mind. We're used to it now." She laughed contentedly and +snuggled her face closer to his. + +It was on the following morning that O'Neil's cablegram announcing the +result of his interview with Illis reached Omar. Dr. Gray brought the +news to the Appleton bungalow while Dan and his sister were still at +breakfast. "Happy Tom" came puffing and blowing at his heels with a +highly satisfied I-told-you-so expression on his round features. + +"He made it! The tide has turned," cried the doctor as he burst in +waving the message on high. "Yes!" he explained, in answer to their +excited questions. "Murray got the money and our troubles are over. Now +give me some coffee, Eliza. I'm all shaky." + +"English money!" commented Slater. "The same as we used on the North +Pass." + +"Then he interested Illis!" cried Dan. + +"Yep! He's the white-winged messenger of hope. I wasn't worried for a +minute," Tom averred. + +The breakfast which followed was of a somewhat hysterical and +fragmentary nature, for Eliza felt her heart swelling, and the faithful +Gray was all but undone by the strain he had endured. "That's the first +food I've tasted for weeks," he confessed. "I've eaten, but I haven't +tasted; and now--I'm not hungry." He sighed, stretched his long limbs +gratefully, and eyed the Appletons with a kindly twinkle. "You were up +in the air, too, weren't you? The chief will appreciate last night's +affair." + +Eliza colored faintly. "It was nothing. Please don't tell him." At the +incredulous lift of his brows she hastened to explain: "Tom said you +men 'belonged' to Mr. O'Neil and Dan was an outsider. That hurt me +dreadfully." + +"Well, he can't say that now; Dan is one of Murray's boys, all right, +and you--you must be his girl." + +At that moment Mellen and McKay burst into the bungalow, demanding the +truth behind the rumor which had just come to their ears; and there +followed fresh explanations and rejoicings, through which Eliza sat +quietly, thrilled by the note of genuine affection and loyalty that +pervaded it all. But, now that the general despondency had vanished and +joy reigned in its place, Tom Slater relapsed into his habitual gloom +and spoke forebodingly of the difficulties yet to be encountered. + +"Murray don't say how MUCH he's raised," he remarked. "It may be only a +drop in the bucket. We'll have to go through all this again, probably, +and the next time he won't find it so easy to sting a millionaire." + +"We'll last through the winter anyhow--" + +"Winter!" Slater shook his bald head. "Winter is hard on old men like +me." + +"We'll have the bridge built by spring, sure!" Mellen declared. + +"Maybe! I hope so. I wish I could last to see it, but the smallpox +undermined me. Perhaps it's a mercy I'm so far gone; nobody knows yet +whether the bridge will stand, and--I'd hate to see it go out." + +"It won't go out," said the engineer, confidently. + +"Maybe you're right. But that's what Trevor said about his breakwater. +His work was done, and ours isn't hardly begun. By the way, Murray +didn't say he HAD the money; he just said he expected to get it." + +"Go out and hang your crepe on the roundhouse," Dan told him; "this is +a jubilee. If you keep on rejoicing you'll have us all in tears." When +the others had gone he turned to Eliza. "Why don't you want O'Neil to +know about that money, Sis?" he asked, curiously. "When I'm a hero I +like to be billed as one." + +"Please!" She hesitated and turned her face away. "You--you are so +stupid about some things." + +On the afternoon of this very day Curtis Gordon found Natalie at a +window staring out across the sound in the direction of Omar. He laid a +warm hand upon her shoulder and said: + +"My dear, confess! You are lonesome." + +She nodded silently. + +"Well, well! We mustn't allow that. Why don't you run over to Omar and +see your friend Miss Appleton? She has a cheerful way with her." "I'm +afraid things aren't very gay over there," said Natalie, doubtfully. + +"Quite probably. But the fact that O'Neil is on his last legs needn't +interfere with your pleasure. A change will do you good." + +"You are very kind," she murmured. "You have done everything to make me +happy, but--it's autumn. Winter is coming. I feel dull and lonely and +gray, like the sky. Are you sure Mr. O'Neil has failed?" + +"Certainly. He tried to sell his holdings to the Trust, but they +refused to consider it. Poor fellow!" he continued, unctuously. "Now +that he's down I pity him. One can't dislike a person who has lost the +power of working harm. His men are quitting: I doubt if he'll dare show +his face in this country again. But never mind all that. There's a boat +leaving for Omar in the morning. Go; have a good time, return when you +will, and tell us how they bear up under their adversity." He patted +her shoulder affectionately and went up to his room. + +It was true enough that Natalie had been unhappy since returning to +Hope--not even her mother dreamed how she rebelled at remaining here. +She was lonely, uninterested, vaguely homesick. She missed the intimate +companionship of Eliza; she missed Dan's extravagant courting and +O'Neil's grave, respectful attentions. She also felt the loss of the +honest good-fellowship of all those people at Omar whom she had learned +to like and to admire. Life here was colorless, and was still haunted +by the shadow of that thing from which she and her mother had fled. + +Gordon, indeed, had been generous to them both. Since his marriage his +attitude had changed entirely. He was polite, agreeable, charmingly +devoted: no ship arrived without some tangible and expensive evidence +of his often-expressed desire to make his wife and stepdaughter happy; +he anticipated their slightest wish. Under his assiduous attentions +Natalie's distrust and dislike had slowly melted, and she came to +believe that she had misjudged him. There were times when he seemed to +be overdoing the matter a bit, times when she wondered if his courtesy +could be altogether disinterested; but these occasions were rare, and +always she scornfully accused herself of disloyalty. As for Gloria, she +was deeply contented--as nearly happy, in fact, as a woman of her +temperament could be, and in this the daughter took her reward. + +Natalie arrived at Omar in time to see the full effect of the good news +from New York, and joined sincerely in the general rejoicing. She +returned after a few days, bursting with the tidings of O'Neil's +victory. + +Gordon listened to her with keenest attention; he drew her out +artfully, and when he knew what he had sent her to learn he gave voice +to his unwelcome surprise. + +"Jove!" he snarled. "That beggar hoodwinked the Heidlemanns, after all. +It's their money. What fools! What fools!" + +Natalie looked up quickly. + +"Does it affect your plans?" she asked. + +"Yes--in a way. It consolidates my enemies." + +"You said you no longer had any ill feeling toward Mr. O'Neil." + +Gordon had resumed his usual suavity. "When I say enemies," he +qualified, "of course, I mean it only in a business sense. I heard that +the Trust had withdrawn, discouraged by their losses, but, now that +they re-enter the field, I shall have to fight them. They would have +done well to consult me--to buy me off, rather than be bled by O'Neil. +They shall pay well for their mistake, but--it's incredible! That man +has the luck of the devil." + +That evening he and Denny sat with their heads together until a late +hour, and when they retired Gordon had begun to whip new plans into +shape. + + + + +XX + +HOW GORDON CHANGED HIS ATTACK + + +O'Neil's return to Omar was triumphal. All his lieutenants gathered to +meet him at the pier and the sincerity of their welcome stirred him +deeply. His arrangements with Illis had taken time; he had been delayed +at Seattle by bridge details and the placing of steel contracts. He had +worked swiftly, and with such absorption that he had paid little heed +to the rumors of Gordon's latest activities. Of the new venture which +his own success had inspired he knew only the bare outline. He had +learned enough, however, to arouse his curiosity, and as soon as the +first confusion of his arrival at the front was over he asked for news. + +"Haven't you read the papers?" inquired "Happy Tom." He had attached +himself to O'Neil at the moment of his stepping ashore, and now +followed him to headquarters, with an air of melancholy satisfaction in +mere physical nearness to his chief. + +"Barely!" O'Neil confessed. "I've been working twenty hours a day +getting that steel under motion." + +Dr. Gray said with conviction: "Gordon is a remarkable man. It's a pity +he's crooked." + +"I think it's dam' lucky," declared Tom. "He's smarter than us, and if +he wasn't handicapped by a total lack of decency he'd beat us." + +"After the storm," explained Gray, "he moved back to Hope, and we +thought he'd made his last bow, but in some way he got the idea that +the Trust was back of us." + +"So I judged from the little I read." + +"Well, we didn't undeceive him, of course. His first move was an attack +through the press in the shape of a broadside against the Heidlemanns. +It fairly took our breaths. It appeared in the Cortez Courier and all +over the States, we hear--a letter of defiance to Herman Heidlemann. It +declared that the Trust was up to its old tricks here in Alaska had +gobbled the copper; had the coal tied up under secret agreements, and +was trying to get possession of all the coast-range passes and +defiles--the old story. But the man can write. That article caused a +stir." + +"I saw it." + +"Naturally, the Cortez people ate it up. They're sore at the Trust for +leaving their town, and at us for building Omar. Then Gordon called a +mass-meeting, and some of us went up to watch the fireworks. I've never +seen anything quite like that meeting; every man, woman, and child in +the city was there, and they hissed us when we came in. Gordon knew +what he was about, and he was in fine voice. He told them Cortez was +the logical point of entry to the interior of Alaska and ought to have +all the traffic. He fired their animosity toward the Trust, and accused +us of basely selling out to it. Then he broached a project to build, by +local subscription, a narrow-gauge electric line from Cortez, utilizing +the waterfalls for power. The idea caught on, and went like wild-fire: +the people cheered themselves hoarse, and pledged him over a hundred +thousand dollars that night. Since then they have subscribed as much +more, and the town is crazy. Work has actually begun, and they hope to +reach the first summit by Christmas." + +Slater broke in: "He's a spell-binder, all right. He made me hate the +Heidlemanns and detest myself for five minutes. I wasn't even sure I +liked YOU, Murray." + +"It's a wild scheme, of course," continued the doctor, "but he's +putting it over. The town council has granted him a ninety-nine-year +lease covering every street; the road-bed is started, and things are +booming. Lots have been staked all over the flats, property values are +somersaulting, everybody is out of his head, and Gordon is a god. All +he does is organize new companies. He has bought a sawmill, a wharf, a +machine shop, acres of real estate. He has started a bank and a new +hotel; he has consolidated the barber shops; and he talks about roofing +in the streets with glass and making the town a series of arcades." + +Slater half smiled--evidence of a convulsive mirth within. + +"They've picked out a site for a university!" he said, bitterly. +"Cortez is going to be a seat of learning and culture. They're planning +a park and a place for an Alaskan World's Fair and a museum and a +library. I've always wondered who starts public libraries--it's 'nuts.' +But I didn't s'pose more than one or two people got foolish that way." + +O'Neil drew from his pocket a newspaper five days old, which he +unfolded and opened at a full-page advertisement, headed: + +CORTEZ HOME RAILWAY + +"This is running in all the coast papers," he said, and read: + +"OUR PLATFORM: + +No promotion shares. No construction profits. + +No bonds. No incompetence. + +No high-salaried officials. No monopoly. + +No passes or rebates. No graft. + +"OF ALASKA, BY ALASKA, FOR ALASKA." + +There was much more of a similar kind, written to appeal to the +quick-profit-loving public, and it was followed by a violent attack +upon the Trust and an appeal to the people of Seattle for assistance, +at one dollar per share. + +"Listen to this," O'Neil went on: + +"Among the original subscribers are the following: + + "Hotels and saloons of Cortez ..... $17,000 + City Council .......................15,000 + Prospectors......................... 7,000 + Ladies' Guild of Cortez .............. 740 + School-children of Cortez............. 420" + +Tom grew red in the face and gave his characteristic snort. "I don't +mind his stringing the City Council and the saloons, and even the +Ladies' Guild," he growled, "but when he steals the licorice and +slate-pencils from the kids it's time he was stopped." + +Murray agreed. "I think we are about done with Gordon. He has led his +ace." + +"I'm not sure. This is a kind of popular uprising, like a camp-meeting. +If I went to Cortez now, some prattling school-girl would wallop me +with her dinner-bucket. We can't shake Gordon loose: he's a regular +splavvus." + +"What is a splavvus, Tom?" inquired Dr. Gray. + +"It's a real peculiar animal, being a cross between a bulldog and a +skunk. We have lots of 'em in Maine!" + +O'Neil soon found that the accounts he had received of Gordon's last +attempt to recoup his fortunes were in no way exaggerated. Cortez, long +the plaything of the railroad-builders, had been ripe for his touch: it +rose in its wounded civic pride and greeted his appeal with frantic +delight. It was quite true that the school-children had taken stock in +the enterprise: their parents turned their own pockets inside out, and +subscriptions came in a deluge. The price of real estate doubled, +quadrupled, and Gordon bought just enough to establish the price +firmly. The money he paid was deposited again in his new bank, and he +proceeded to use it over and over in maintaining exorbitant prices and +in advancing his grandiose schemes. His business took him often to +Seattle, where by his whirlwind methods he duplicated his success in a +measure: his sensational attack upon the money powers got a wide +hearing, and he finally secured an indorsement of his scheme by the +Businessmen's Association. This done, he opened splendid offices and +began a wide-spread stock-flotation campaign. Soon the Cortez Home +Railway became known as a mighty, patriotic effort of Alaskans to throw +off the shackles of oppression. + +Gordon perfectly understood that something more than vague accusations +were necessary to bring the public to his support in sufficient numbers +to sweep him on to victory, and with this in mind he laid crafty plans +to seize the Heidlemann grade. The Trust had ceased active work on its +old right-of-way and moved to Kyak, to be sure, but it had not +abandoned its original route, and in fact had maintained a small crew +at the first defile outside of Cortez, known as Beaver Canon. Gordon +reasoned shrewdly that a struggle between the agents of the Trust and +the patriotic citizens of the town would afford him precisely the +advertising he needed and give point to his charge of unfair play +against the Heidlemanns. + +It was not difficult to incite his victims to this act of robbery. On +the contrary, once he had made the suggestion, he had hard work to +restrain them, until he had completed his preparations. These +preparations were simple; they consisted in writing and mailing to +every newspaper of consequence a highly colored account of the railroad +struggle. These mimeographed stories were posted from Seattle in time +for them to reach their destinations on the date set for the seizure of +the grade. + +It was an ingenious publicity move, worthy of a theatrical press-agent, +and it succeeded beyond the promoter's fondest expectations--too well, +in fact, for it drove the Trust in desperation to an alliance with the +S. R. & N. + +The day set for the demonstration came; the citizens of Cortez boldly +marched into Beaver Canon to take possession of the old Heidlemann +workings, but it appeared that they had reckoned prematurely. A handful +of grim-faced Trust employees warned them back: there was a rush, some +rough work on the part of the aggressors, and then the guards brought +their weapons into play. The result afforded Gordon far more +sensational material than he had hoped for: one citizen was killed and +five others were badly wounded. Cortez, dazed and horror-stricken, +arose in her wrath and descended upon the "assassins"; lynchings were +planned, and mobs threatened the local jail, until soldiers were +hurried thither and martial law was declared. + +Of course, the wires were burdened with the accounts; the reading +public of the States awoke to the fact that a bitter strife was waging +in the north between honest miners and the soulless Heidlemann +syndicate. Gordon's previously written and carefully colored stories of +the clash were printed far and wide. Editorials breathed indignation at +such lawlessness and pointed to the Cortez Home Railway as a +commendable effort to destroy the Heidlemann throttle-hold upon the +northland. Stock subscriptions came in a deluge which fairly engulfed +Gordon's Seattle office force. + +During this brief white-hot campaign the promoter had been actuated as +much by his senseless hatred of O'Neil as by lust of glory and gain, +and it was with no little satisfaction that he returned to Alaska +conscious of having dealt a telling blow to his enemy. He sent Natalie +to Omar on another visit in order that he might hear at first hand how +O'Neil took the matter. But his complacency received a shock when the +girl returned. He had no need to question her. + +"Uncle Curtis," she began, excitedly, "you ought to stop these terrible +newspaper stories about Mr. O'Neil and the Trust." + +"Stop them? My dear, what do you mean?" + +"He didn't sell out to the Trust. He has nothing to do with it." + +"What?" Gordon's incredulity was a challenge. + +"He sold to an Englishman named Illis. They seem to be amused by your +mistake over there at Omar, but I think some of the things printed are +positively criminal. I knew you'd want the truth--" + +"The truth, yes! But this can't be true," stammered Gordon. + +"It is. Mr. O'Neil did try to interest the Heidlemanns, but they +wouldn't have anything to do with him, and the S. R. & N. was going to +smash when Mr. Illis came along, barely in time. It was too exiting and +dramatic for anything the way Mr. O'Neil found him when he was in +hiding--" + +"Hiding?" + +"Yes. There was something about blackmail, or a secret arrangement +between Mr. Illis and the Yukon River lines--I couldn't understand just +what it was--but, anyhow, Murray took advantage of it and saved the +North Pass and the S. R. & N. at the same time. It was really a +perfectly wonderful stroke of genius. I determined at once that you +should stop these lies and correct the general idea that he is in the +pay of the Trust. Why, he went to Cortez last week and they threatened +his life!" + +Mrs. Gordon, who had listened, said, quietly: "Don't blame Curtis for +that. That bloody affray at Beaver Canyon has made Cortez bitter +against every one connected with the Heidlemanns." + +"What about this blackmail?" said her husband, upon whose ear the word +had made a welcome impression. "I don't understand what you mean by +O'Neil's 'saving' the North Pass and his own road at the same time--nor +Illis's being in hiding." + +"Neither do I." Natalie confessed, "but I know you have made a mistake +that ought to be set right." + +"Why doesn't he come out with the truth?" + +"The whole thing is secret." + +"Why?" + +Natalie shrugged hopelessly, and Gordon lost himself in frowning +thought. + +"This is amazing," he said, brusquely, after a moment. "It's vital. It +affects all my plans. I must know everything at once." + +"I'm sorry I paid so little attention." + +"Never mind; try it again and be diplomatic. If O'Neil won't tell you, +question Appleton--you can wind him around your fingers easily enough." + +The girl eyed him with a quick change of expression. + +"Isn't it enough to know that the Trust has nothing to do with the S. +R. & N.?" + +"No!" he declared, impatiently. "I must know the whole inside of this +secret understanding--this blackmail, or whatever it is." + +"Then--I'm sorry." + +"Come! Don't be silly. You can do me a great service." + +"You said you no longer disliked Mr. O'Neil and that he couldn't harm +you." + +"Well, well! Must I explain the whys and wherefores of every move I +make?" + +"It would be spying if I went back. The matter is confidential--I know +that." + +"Will you do as I ask?" he demanded. + +Natalie answered him firmly: "No! I told you what I did tell you only +so that you might correct--" + +"You rebel, eh?" Gordon spoke out furiously. + +It was their first clash since the marriage. Mrs. Gordon looked on, +torn between loyalty to her husband and a desire to protect her +daughter. She was searching her mind painfully for the compromise, the +half-truth that was her remedy for every moral distress. At length she +said, placatingly: + +"I'm sure Natalie will help you in any way she can, Curtis. She isn't +rebellious, she merely doesn't understand." + +"She doesn't need to understand. It is enough that I direct her--" As +Natalie turned and walked silently to the window he stifled an oath. +"Have I no authority?" he stormed. "Do you mean to obey?" + +"Wait!" Gloria laid a restraining hand on his arm. "Perhaps I can learn +what you want to know. Mr. O'Neil was very kind--" + +Her daughter whirled, with white face and flashing eyes. + +"Mother!" she gasped. + +"Our loyalty begins at home," said Gloria, feebly. + +"Oh-h! I can't conceive of your--of such a thing. If you have no +decency, I have. I'm sorry I spoke, but--if you DARE to do such a thing +I shall warn Mr. O'Neil that you are a spy." She turned a glance of +loathing on Gordon. "I see," she said, quietly. "You used me as a tool. +You lied about your feeling toward him. You meant harm to him all the +time." She faced the window again. + +"Lied!" he shouted. "Be careful--that's pretty strong language. Don't +try me too far, or you may find yourself adrift once more. I have been +too patient. But I have other ways of finding out what I wish to know, +and I shall verify what you have told me." He strode angrily from the +room, leaving Natalie staring out upon the bleak fall scene, her +shoulders very straight, her breast heaving. Gloria did not venture to +address her. + +Fortunately for the peace of all concerned, Gordon left for Seattle on +the next steamer. Neither of the women believed that Natalie's +fragmentary revelation was the cause of his departure; but, once in +touch with outside affairs, he lost no time in running down the clues +he had gathered, and it was not long before he had learned enough to +piece the truth together. Then he once more brought his mimeograph into +use. + + + + +XXI + +DAN APPLETON SLIPS THE LEASH + + +The first winter snows found O'Neil's track laid to the bridge site and +the structure itself well begun. He had moved his office out to the +front, and now saw little of Eliza, who was busied in writing her book. +She had finished her magazine articles, and they had been accepted, but +she had given him no hint as to their character. + +One afternoon "Happy Tom" burst in upon his chief, having hastened out +from Omar on a construction-train. Drawing a Seattle paper from his +pocket, he began excitedly: + +"Well, the fat's in the fire, Murray! Somebody has belched up the whole +North Pass story." + +O'Neil seized the newspaper and scanned it hurriedly. He looked up, +scowling. + +"Who gave this out?" he inquired, in a harsh voice. + +Slater shrugged. "It's in the Cortez Courier too, so I s'pose it came +from Gordon. Blessings come from one source, and Gordon's the fountain +of all evil. I'm getting so I blame him for everything unpleasant. +Sometimes I think he gave me the smallpox." + +"Where did he learn the inside of Illis's deal? By God! There's a leak +somewhere!" + +"Maybe he uncovered it back there in the States." + +Murray shook his head. "Nobody knows anything about it except you +boys." He seized the telephone at his elbow and called Dr. Gray, while +Tom listened with his shining forehead puckered anxiously. O'Neil hung +up with a black face. + +"Appleton!" he said. + +Tom looked, if possible, a shade gloomier than usual. "I wouldn't be +too sure it was Dan if I was you," he ventured, doubtfully. + +"Where is he?" O'Neil ground out the words between his teeth. + +"Surveying the town-site addition. If he let anything slip it was by +mistake--" + +"Mistake! I won't employ people who make mistakes of that kind. This +story may bring the Canadian Government down on Illis and forfeit his +North Pass charter--to say nothing of our authorities. That would +finish us." He rose, went to the door, and ordered the recently arrived +engine uncoupled. Flinging himself into his fur coat, he growled: "I'd +rather have a crook under me than a fool. Appleton told us he talked +too much." + +Tom pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Gordon got it through the Gerard +girl, I s'pose." + +"Gordon! Gordon! Will there never be an end to Gordon?" His frown +deepened. "He's in the way, Tom. If he balks this deal I'm afraid +I'll--have to change ghosts." + +"It would be a pious act," Slater declared. "And his ghost wouldn't +ha'nt you none, either. It would put on its asbestos overshoes and go +out among the other shades selling stock in electric fans or 'Gordon's +Arctic Toboggan Slide.' He'd promote a Purgatory Development Company +and underwrite the Bottomless Pit for its sulphur. I--I'd hate to think +this came from Dan." + +The locomotive had been switched out by this time, and O'Neil hurried +to board it. On his way to Omar he had time thoroughly to weigh the +results of this unexpected complication. His present desire was merely +to verify his suspicion that Appleton had told his secret to Natalie; +beyond that he did not care to think, for there was but one course open. + +His anger reached the blazing-point after his arrival. As he stepped +down from the engine-cab Gray silently handed him a code message from +London which had arrived a few moments before. When its contents had +been deciphered, O'Neil cursed and he was furious as he stumbled +through the dark toward the green bungalow on the hill. + +Swinging round the corner of the house, he came into a bright radiance +which streamed forth from Eliza's window, and he could not help seeing +the interior of the room. She was there, writing busily, and he saw +that she was clad in the elaborate kimono which he had given her; yet +it was not her personal appearance which arrested his angry eyes and +caused his step to halt; it was, instead, her surroundings. + +He had grown to accept her prim simplicity as a matter of course, and +never associated her in his thoughts with anything feminine, but the +room as it lay before him now was a revelation of daintiness and artful +decoration. Tasteful water-colors hung on the walls, a warm rug was on +the floor, and everywhere were rosy touches of color. The plain white +bed had been transformed into a couch of Oriental luxury; a lace spread +of weblike texture covered it, the pillows were hidden beneath +billowing masses of ruffles and ribbons. He saw a typical woman's cozy +corner piled high with cushions; there was a jar of burning incense +sticks near it--everything, in fact, was utterly at variance with his +notions of the owner. Even the girl herself seemed transfigured for her +hair was brought forward around her face in some loose mysterious +fashion which gave her a bewilderingly girlish appearance. As he looked +in upon her she raised her face so that the light shone full upon it; +her brows were puckered, she nibbled at the end of her pencil, in the +midst of some creative puzzle. + +O'Neil's eyes photographed all this in a single surprised glance as he +passed; the next moment he was mounting the steps to the porch. + +Dan flung open the door, but his words of greeting froze, his smile of +welcome vanished at sight of his chief's forbidding visage. + +Murray was in no mood to waste words; he began roughly: + +"Did you tell Miss Gerard that Poultney Illis is backing me?" + +Dan stammered. "I--perhaps--I--What has gone wrong, Chief?" + +"Did you tell her the inside--the story of his agreement with the +steamboat people?" + +Dan paled beneath his tan, but his eyes met Murray's without flinching. +"I think I did--tell her something. I don't quite remember. But +anything I may have said was in confi--" + +"I thought so. I merely wished to make certain. Well, the whole thing +is in the papers." + +Appleton laid his hand upon the table to steady himself. + +"Then it--didn't come from her. She wouldn't--" + +"Gordon has spread the story broadcast. It couldn't have come from any +other source; it couldn't have reached him in any other way, for none +of my boys has breathed a word." His voice rose despite his effort at +self-control. "Illis's agreement was ILLEGAL," he said, savagely; "it +will probably forfeit the charter of the North Pass or land him in +court. I suppose you realize that! I discovered his secret and assured +him it was safe with me; now you peddle it to Gordon, and the whole +thing is public. Here's the first result." He shook the London +cablegram in Dan's face, and his own was distorted with rage. There was +a stir in Eliza's room which neither noticed. Appleton wiped his face +with uncertain hand; he moistened his lips to say: + +"I--I'm terribly sorry! But I'm sure Natalie wouldn't spy--I don't +remember what I told her, or how I came to know about the affair. Doc +Gray told me, I think, in the first excitement, but--God! She--wouldn't +knowingly--" + +"Gordon fired you for talking too much. I thought you had learned your +lesson, but it seems you hadn't. Don't blame Miss Gerard for pumping +you--her loyalty belongs to Gordon now. But I require loyalty, too. +Since you lack it you can go." + +O'Neil turned as Eliza's door opened; she stood before him, pale, +frightened, trembling. + +"I couldn't help hearing," she said. "You discharge us?" + +He nodded. "I'm sorry! I've trusted my 'boys' so implicitly that the +thought of betrayal by them never occurred to me. I can't have men +close to me who make such mistakes as this." + +"Perhaps there was--an excuse, or the shadow of one, at least. When a +man is in love, you know--" + +Murray wheeled upon Dan and demanded sharply: + +"What's this?" Then in a noticeably altered tone he asked, "Do you +love--Natalie?" + +"Yes." + +"Does she love you?" + +"No, sir!" + +O'Neil turned back to the girl, saying: "I told Dan, when I hired him, +that he would be called upon to dare much, to suffer much, and that my +interests must be his. He has disregarded them, and he must go. That's +all. There's little difference between treachery and carelessness." + +"It's--too bad," said the girl, faintly. Dan stood stiff and silent, +wholly dazed by the sudden collapse of his fortunes. + +"I'm not ungrateful for what you've done, Appleton," O'Neil went on. "I +intend to pay you well for the help you gave me. You took a chance at +the Canon and at Gordon's Crossing. You'll get a check." + +"I don't want your damned money," the other gulped. "I've drawn my +wages." + +"Nevertheless, I shall pay you well. It's highly probable that you've +wrecked the S. R. & N. and ruined me, but I don't intend to forget my +obligations to you. It's unfortunate. Call on the cashier in the +morning. Good night." + +He left them standing there unhappily, dumb and stiff with shame. Once +outside the house, he plunged down the hill as if fleeing from the +scene of some crime. He rushed through the night blindly, for he had +loved his assistant engineer, and the memory of that chalk-faced, +startled girl hurt him abominably. + +When he came to the company office he was walking slowly, heavily. He +found Gray inside and dropped into a chair: his face was grimly set, +and he listened dully to the physician's rambling talk. + +"I fired Appleton!" he broke out, at last. Gray looked up quickly. "He +acknowledged that he--did it. I had no choice. It came hard, though. +He's a good boy." + +"He did some great work, Chief!" + +"I know! That affair at the Crossing--I intend to pay him well, if +he'll accept. It's not that--I like those kids, Stanley. Eliza took it +harder than he. It wasn't easy for me, either," he sighed, wearily. +"I'd give ten thousand dollars if it hadn't happened. She looked as if +I'd struck her." + +"What did they say?" + +"Nothing. He has been careless, disloyal--" + +"You told them so?" + +O'Neil nodded. + +"And they said nothing?" + +"Nothing! What could they say?" + +Gray answered gruffly: "They might have said a good deal. They might +have told you how they paid off your men and saved a walk-out when I +had no money." + +O'Neil stared incredulously. "What are you talking about?" he demanded. + +When he had the facts he rose with an exclamation of dismay. + +"God! Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't they speak out? I--I--why, +that's loyalty of the finest kind. All the money they had saved, +too--when they thought I had failed! Jove! That was fine. Oh, I'm +sorry! I wonder what they think of me? I can't let Dan go after that. +I--" He seized his cap and hurried out of the building. + +"It's hardly right--when things were going so well, too!" said Dan. He +was sitting crumpled up in a chair, Eliza's arm encircling his +shoulders. "I didn't mean to give up any secrets, but--I'm not myself +when I'm with Natalie." + +"We must take our medicine," his sister told him, gravely. "We deserve +it, for this story may spoil all he's done. I didn't think it of her, +though." + +Dan groaned and bowed his head in his hands. "I don't know which hurts +worse," he said--"his anger or her action. She--couldn't do such a +thing, Sis; she just couldn't!" + +"She probably didn't realize--she hasn't much sense, you know. But +after all he's suffered, to think that we should injure him! I could +cry. I think I shall." + +The door opened before a rough hand, and O'Neil strode into the room, +huge, shaggy in his coonskin coat. They rose, startled, but he came to +them swiftly, a look of mingled shame and gladness in his face. + +"I've come back to apologize," he cried. "I couldn't wait. I've learned +what you children did while I was gone, and I've come to beg +forgiveness. It's all right--it's all right." + +"I don't know what you mean," Dan gasped. + +"Doc told me how you paid those men. That was real friendship; it was +splendid. It touched me, and I--I want to apologize. You see, I hurried +right back." + +They saw that his eyes were moist, and at the sight Eliza gave a +quivering cry, then turned swiftly to hide her face. She felt O'Neil's +fur-clad arm about her shoulder; his hand was patting her, and he was +saying gently: "You are a dear child. It was tremendously good of you +both, and I--ought to be shot for acting as I did. I wonder if you can +accept a wretched apology as bravely as you accepted a wrong +accusation." + +"It wasn't wrong; it was right," she sobbed. "Dan told her, and she +told Gordon." + +"There, there! I was to blame, after all, for letting any one know, and +if Dan made a mistake he has more than offset it by his +unselfishness--his sacrifices. It seems I forgot how much I really owe +him." + +"That affair with the shift bosses wasn't anything," said Dan, hastily, +"and it was all Eliza's idea. I refused at first, but when she started +to pay them herself I weakened." He stuttered awkwardly, for his sister +was motioning him desperately to be silent; but he ran on: "Oh, he +ought to know the whole truth and how rotten I acted, Sis. I deserve to +be discharged." + +"Please don't make this any harder for me than it is," Murray smiled. +"I'm terribly embarrassed, for I'm not used to apologies. I can't +afford to be unjust; I--have so few friends that I want to cherish +them. I'm sorry you saw me in such a temper. Anger is a treacherous +thing, and it always betrays me. Let's forget that I was here before +and pretend that I just came to thank you for what you did." He drew +Dan into the shelter of his other arm and pressed the two young people +to him. "I didn't realize how deeply you kids care for each other and +for me." + +"Then I'm not fired?" Dan queried, doubtfully. + +"Of course not. When I take time to think about discharging a man I +invariably end by raising his salary." + +"Dan isn't worth half what you're paying him," came Eliza's muffled +voice. She freed herself from Murray's embrace and rearranged her hair +with tremulous fingers. Surreptitiously she wiped her eyes. "You gave +us an awful fright; it's terrible to be evicted in winter-time." She +tried to laugh, but the attempt failed miserably. + +"Just the same, when a man contemplates marriage he must have money." + +"I don't want your blamed money," Dan blurted, "and it doesn't cost +anything to contemplate marriage. That's all I'm doing--just looking at +it from a distance." + +"Perhaps I can help you to prevail on Miss Natalie to change her mind. +That would be a real service, wouldn't it?" Under his grave glance +Dan's heart leaped. "I can't believe she's indifferent to you, my boy. +You're suited to each other, and there's no reason on earth why you +shouldn't marry. Perhaps she doesn't know her own mind." + +"You're mighty good, but--" The lover shook his head. + +Murray smiled again. "I think you're too timid. Don't plead and +beg--just carry her off. Be firm and masterful. Be rough--" + +"The idea!" exclaimed Eliza. "She's no cave-woman!" + +"Exactly. If she were, Dan would need to court her and send her +bouquets of wild violets. She's over-civilized, and therefore he needs +to be primitive." + +Dan blushed and faltered. "I can't be firm with her, Murray; I turn to +jelly whenever she looks at me." There was something so friendly and +kind in his employer's attitude that the young fellow was tempted to +pour out all his vexations; he had never felt so close to O'Neil as +now; but his masculine reserve could not be overcome all in a moment, +and he held his tongue. + +When Murray had put the two young people fully at their ease he rose to +go, but Eliza's eager voice made him turn with his hand on the +door-knob. + +"What can we do about this unfortunate Illis affair?" she asked. "Dan +must try to--" + +"Leave that to me. I'll straighten it out somehow. It is all my fault, +and I'll have to meet it." He pressed their hands warmly. + +When he had gone Dan heaved a great sigh of relief. + +"I'm glad it happened just as it did, Sis," he announced. "He knows my +secret now, and I can see that he never cared for Natalie. It's a load +off my mind to know the track is clear." + +"What a simpleton you are!" she told him. "Don't you see he's merely +paying his debt?" + +"I wonder--" Dan eyed her in amazement. + +"Gee! If that's so he is a prince, isn't he?" + +The same ship which had brought the ominous news to O'Neil also brought +Curtis Gordon north. He had remained in Seattle only long enough to see +the Illis story in print, and then had hastened back to the front. But +his satisfaction over the mischief he had done received a rude jolt +when at his first moment of leisure he looked over the late magazines +which he had bought before taking leave. In one which had appeared on +the news-stands that very day he found, to his amazement, an article by +Miss Eliza Appleton, in which his own picture appeared. He pounced upon +it eagerly; and then, as he read, his eyes narrowed and his jaw +stiffened. There, spread out to the public gaze, was his own record in +full, including his initial venture into the Kyak coal-fields, his +abandonment of that project in favor of Hope Consolidated, and an +account of his connection with the latter enterprise. Eliza had not +hesitated to call the mine worthless, and she showed how he, knowing +its worthlessness from the first, had used it as a lure to investors. +Then followed the story of his efforts to gain a foothold in the +railroad struggle, his defeat at the Salmon River Canon, his rout at +the delta crossing, and his final death-blow at Kyak. His career stood +out boldly in all its fraudulent colors; failure was written across +every one of his undertakings. The naked facts showed him visionary, +incompetent, unscrupulous. + +Thus far he had succeeded in keeping a large part of his stock-holders +in ignorance of the true condition of Hope Consolidated, but he quailed +at the inevitable result of this article, which had been flung far and +wide into every city and village in the land. He dared not think of its +effect upon his present enterprise, now so auspiciously launched. He +had made a ringing appeal to the public, and its support would hinge +upon its confidence in him as a man of affairs. Once that trust was +destroyed the Cortez Home Railway would crumble as swiftly as had all +his other schemes. + +The worst of it was that he knew himself shut off from the world for +five days as effectually as if he were locked in a dungeon. There was +no wireless equipment on the ship, he could not start the machinery of +his press bureau, and with every hour this damnable story was bound to +gain momentum. He cursed the luck which had set him on this quest for +vengeance and bound his hands. + +Once he had gathered his wits, he occupied himself in the only possible +way--by preparing a story of his own for the wire. But for the first +time in his experience he found himself upon the defensive and opposing +a force against which no bland persuasiveness, no personal magnetism +could prevail. In the scattered nature of his support lay his greatest +weakness, for it made the task of self-justification extremely +difficult. Perhaps it was well for his peace of mind that he could not +measure the full effect of those forces which Eliza Appleton's pen had +set in motion. + +In Omar, of course, the article excited lively interest. O'Neil felt a +warm thrill of satisfaction as he read it on the morning after his +scene with Eliza and Dan. But it deepened his feeling of obligation +almost painfully; for, like all who are thoughtlessly prodigal of their +own favors, he was deeply sensible of any kindness done himself. +Eliza's dignified exposition of Alaskan affairs, and particularly the +agreeable things she had written about him, were sure to be of great +practical assistance, he knew, and he longed to make some real return. +But so far as she was concerned there seemed to be nothing that he +could do. With Dan, of course, it was quite different. Mere money or +advancement, he admitted seemed paltry, but there was a possibility of +another kind of service. + +Meanwhile Dan was struggling with his problem in his own way. The +possibility that Natalie had voluntarily betrayed him was a racking +torture, and the remembrance of Eliza's words added to his suffering. +He tried to gain some hint of his chief's feeling, but Murray's frank +and friendly attitude baffled him. + +When at last he received a brief note from Natalie asking him to call, +he raced to Hope afraid, yet eager to hear what she might say. She met +him on the dock as he left the S. R. & N. motorboat and led him +directly to the house. + +Natalie went straight to the point. "I'm in dreadful trouble," she +said, "and I sent for you to tell you that I had no idea of betraying +confidences." + +Dan uttered some inane platitude, but his eyes lighted with relief. + +"When I saw in the papers what a stir that North Pass & Yukon story had +made I was afraid I had done something dreadful. Tell me, is it so? Did +I make trouble?" + +"You certainly did. O'Neil was furious, and nobody knows yet what the +result will be. It--it nearly cost me my head." + +"Does he blame me?" + +"N-no! He says you're on Gordon's side now. He blames me, or did, until +he generously took it on himself." + +"What does it all mean? I'm nearly distracted." Natalie's eyes were +pleading. "Did you think I spied on you?" + +Dan glowed with embarrassment and something more. "I didn't know what +to think," he said. "I was wretchedly miserable, for I was afraid. And +yet I knew you couldn't do such a thing. I told O'Neil I wasn't +responsible for what I did or said when with you." + +"Mr. Gordon sent me to Omar purposely. He sent me twice. It was I who +brought him word that the road was saved. I told all I'd learned +because I believed he no longer hated Mr. O'Neil. I was happy to tell +all I knew, for he deceived me as he deceives every one. I learned the +truth too late." + +"Why do you stay here?" Dan demanded, hotly. + +"Why? I--don't know. Perhaps because I'm afraid to leave. I'm +alone--you see mother believes in him: she's completely under his sway, +and I can't tell her the sort of man he is. She's happy, and her +happiness is worth more to me than my own. But--I SHALL go away. I +can't stand it here much longer." + +"Where will you go?" + +"Back to my old home, perhaps. Somewhere--anywhere away from Alaska." + +"I suppose you know I can't get along without you." + +"Please don't! You have been very good and sweet to me, but--" She +shook her dark head. "You couldn't marry me--even if I cared for you in +that way." + +"Why? I intend to marry you whether you want to or not." + +"Oh, Dan, it wouldn't do. You know--about--mother. I've nearly died of +shame, and--it would be sure to come up. Somebody would speak of it, +sometime." + +Dan's blue eyes went cold and smoky as he said: + +"It would take a pretty brave person to mention the subject in my +presence. I don't care a whoop for anything Gordon or your family may +say or do. I--" + +There was a stir in the hall outside, and the speaker turned to behold +Curtis Gordon himself in the doorway. The latter in passing had been +drawn by the sound of voices and had looked into the library. +Recognizing Natalie's caller, he frowned. + +"What is this?" he inquired, coldly. "A proposal? Do I interrupt?" + +"You do," said Dan; then, after a pause, "I'll finish it when you +leave." + +Gordon entered, and spoke to his stepdaughter. + +"What is this man doing in my house?" + +"He is here at my invitation," she replied. + +"Tell him to leave. I won't have him here." + +"Why don't YOU tell me?" cried Dan. "I don't need an interpreter." + +"Young man, don't be rash. There is a limit to my patience. If you have +the indecency to come here after what you have done, and after what +your sister has said about me, I shall certainly--" + +Dan broke in roughly: "I didn't come to see you, Gordon. You may be an +agreeable sight to some people, but you're no golden sunset in my eyes. +Eliza flattered you." + +Natalie gave a little terrified cry, for the men were glaring at each +other savagely. Neither seemed to hear her. + +"Did you read that article?" + +"Read it? I wrote it!" + +Gordon's face flamed suddenly with rage; he pointed to the door with +trembling fingers, and shouted: + +"Get out! I'll not have you here. I discharged you once. Get out!" His +utterance was rapid and thick. + +Dan smiled mirthlessly, dangerously. In a soft voice he said: + +"I haven't finished proposing. I expect to be accepted. You'll pardon +me, I know." + +"Will you go, you--" + +Dan turned to the girl, who, after that first outcry, had stood as if +spellbound, her face pale, her eyes shining. + +"Natalie dear," he said, earnestly, "you can't live in the same house +with this beast. He's a cheat and a scoundrel. He's done his best to +spoil your life, and he'll succeed if you stay, so come with me now. +Eliza loves you and wants you, and I'll never cease loving you with all +my heart. Marry me, and we'll go--" + +Gordon uttered an inarticulate sound and came forward with his hands +working hungrily. + +"Don't interrupt!" warned Dan, over his shoulder, and his white teeth +gleamed in sudden contrast with his tan. "No man could love you as I +do, dear--" Gordon's clutch fell upon him and tightened. Dan stiffened, +and his words ceased. Then the touch upon his flesh became unbearable. +Whirling, he wrenched himself free. He was like a wild animal now; body +and spirit had leaped into rebellion at contact with Gordon. His long +resentment burst its bounds; his lean muscles quivered. His frame +trembled as if it restrained some tremendous pressure from within. + +"Don't do that!" he cried, hoarsely, and brushed the sleeve where his +enemy's fingers had rested, as if it had been soiled. + +Gordon snarled, and stretched out his hand a second time; but the +younger man raised his fist and struck. Once, twice, again and again he +flung his bony knuckles into that purple, distorted face, which he +loathed as a thing unclean. He battered down the big man's guard: right +and left he rained blows, stepping forward as his victim fell back. +Gordon reeled, he pawed wildly, he swung his arms, but they encountered +nothing. Yet he was a heavy man, and, although half stunned by the +sudden onslaught, he managed to retain his feet until he brought up +against the heavy mahogany reading-table in the center of the room. His +retreat ended there; another blow and his knees buckled, his arms +sagged. Then Dan summoned all his strength and swung. Gordon groaned, +lurched forward, and sprawled upon the warm red velvet carpet, face +down, with his limbs twisted under him. + +His vanquisher stood over him for an instant, then turned upon Natalie +a face that was now keen and cruel and predatory. + +"Come! We'll be married to-day," he said; and, crossing swiftly, he +took her two hands in his. His voice was harsh and imperative. "He's +down and out, so don't be frightened. Now hurry! I've had enough of +this damned nonsense." + +"I--I'm not frightened," she said, dazedly. "But--I--" Her eyes roved +past him as if in quest of something. + +"Here! This'll do for a wrap." Dan whipped his fur overcoat from a +chair and flung it about her. "My hat, too!" He crushed his gray +Stetson over her dark hair and, slipping his arm about her shoulders, +urged her toward the hall. + +"Mother! She'll never--" + +"We'll call on her together. I'll do the talking for both of us." He +jerked the front door open with a force that threatened to wrench it +from its hinges and thrust his companion out into the bracing cold. +Then, as Gordon's Japanese butler came running from the rear of the +house, he turned. + +"Hey, you!" he cried, sharply. "The boss has gone on a little visit. +Don't stumble over him. And tell Mrs. Gordon that Mr. and Mrs. Appleton +will call on her in a few days--Mr. and Mrs. Dan Appleton, of Omar!" + +It was but a few steps to the pier; Dan felt that he was treading on +air, for the fierce, unreasoning joy of possession was surging through +his veins. His old indecision and doubt was gone, and the men he met +recoiled before his hostile glance, staring after him in bewilderment. + +But as he lifted Natalie down into the launch he felt her shaking +violently, and of a sudden his selfish exultation gave way to a tender +solicitude. + +"There, there!" he said, gently. "Don't cry, honey. It's all right. +It's all right!" + +She raised her face to his, and his head swam, for he saw that she was +radiant. + +"I'm not crying; I'm laughing. I--I'm mad--insane with happiness." + +He crushed her to him, he buried his face in her neck, mumbling her +name over and over: and neither of them knew that he was rapturously +kissing the coonskin collar of his own greatcoat. The launchman, motor +crank in hand, paused, staring; he was still open-mouthed when Dan, +catching sight of him, shouted: + +"What's the matter, idiot? Is your back broken?" + +"Yes--No, sir!" The fellow spun the fly-wheel vigorously; the little +craft began to vibrate and quiver and then swung out from shore. + +A moment later and the engineman yelled. He came stumbling forward and +seized the steering-wheel as the boat grazed a buoy. + +"That's right, you steer," Dan laughed, relaxing his hold. To Natalie +he said, "There's a sky-pilot in Omar," and pressed her to him. + +"It's a long way to Omar," she answered, then hid her face against his +breast and said, meekly, "There's one in Cortez, too, and he's much +nearer." + + + + +XXII + +HOW THE HAZARD WAS PLAYED + + +Eliza's greeting to the runaways was as warm as their hearts could +wish. She divined the truth before they could speak, and took Natalie +in her arms with a glad cry of welcome. The two girls kissed each +other, wept, laughed, wept a little more, kissed again, and then the +story came out. + +Dan was plainly swollen with pride. + +"I walloped him, Sis!" he told her. "I got even for the whole family, +and I believe his eyes are closed even to the beauties of nature. He +won't be able to read the wedding-notice." + +Eliza hugged his arm and looked at him adoringly. + +"It must have been perfectly splendid!" + +Natalie nodded. "I was asleep," she said, "but Dan shocked me wide +awake. Can you imagine it? I didn't know my own feelings until he went +for--that brute. Then I knew all at once that I had loved him all the +time. Isn't it funny? It came over me--so suddenly! I--I can't realize +that he's mine." She turned her eyes upon him with an expression that +made his chest swell proudly. + +"Gee!" he exclaimed. "If I'd known how she felt I'd have pitched into +the first fellow I met. A man's an awful fool till he gets married." + +There followed a recital of the day's incidents, zestful, full of happy +digressions, endless; for the couple, after the manner of lovers, took +it for granted that Eliza was caught up into the seventh heaven along +with them. Dan was drunk with delight, and his bride seemed dizzied by +the change which had overtaken her. She looked upon it as miraculous, +almost unbelievable, and under the spell of her happiness her real self +asserted itself. Those cares and humiliations which had reacted to make +her cold and self-contained disappeared, giving place to an impetuous +girlishness that distracted her newly made husband and delighted Eliza. +The last lingering doubts that Dan's sister had cherished were cleared +away. + +It was not until the bride had been banished to prepare for dinner that +Eliza thought to ask her brother: + +"Have you told Mr. O'Neil?" + +The triumph faded suddenly out of his face. + +"Gee, no! I haven't told anybody." + +They stared at each other, reading the thoughts they had no need to +voice. "Well, I've done it! It's too late now," said Dan, defiantly. + +"Maybe he'll fire us again. I would if I were he. You must tell him +this very minute." + +"I--suppose so," he agreed, reluctantly, and picked up his hat. "And +yet--I--I wonder if I'd better, after all. Don't you think it would +sound nicer coming from some one else?" + +"Why?" + +"Wouldn't it seem like crowing for me to--to--For instance, now, if +you--" + +"Coward!" exclaimed the girl. + +He nodded. "But, Sis, you DO have a nicer way of putting things than I +have." + +"Why, I wouldn't tell him for worlds. I couldn't. Poor man! We've +brought him nothing but sorrow and bad luck." + +"It's fierce!" + +"Well, don't hesitate. That's what Gordon did, and he got licked." + +Dan scowled and set his features in a brave show of moral courage. +"She's mine, and he can't take her away," he vowed, "so-- I don't care +what happens. But I'd just as soon slap a baby in the face." He left +the house like a man under sentence. + +When he returned, a half-hour later, Eliza was awaiting him on the +porch. She had been standing there with chattering teeth and limbs +shaking from the cold while the minutes dragged. + +"What did he say?" she asked, breathlessly. + +"It went off finely. Thank Heaven, he was out at the front, so I could +break it to him over the 'phone!" + +"Did he--curse you?" + +"No; I opened right up by saying I had bad news for him--" + +"Oh, Dan!" + +"Yes! I dare say I wasn't very tactful, now that I think it over, but, +you see, I was rattled. I spilled out the whole story at once. 'Bad +news?' said he. 'My dear boy, I'm delighted. God bless you both.' Then +he made me tell him how it all happened, and listened without a word. I +thought I'd faint. He pulled some gag about Daniel and the lion; then +his voice got far away and the blamed wire began to buzz, so I hung up +and beat it back here. I'm glad it's over." + +"He'll probably send you a solid-silver dinner-set or raise your pay. +That's the kind of man he is." Eliza's voice broke. "Oh, Danny," she +cried, "he's the dearest, sweetest thing--" She turned away, and he +kissed her sympathetically before going inside to the waiting Natalie. + +Instead of following, Eliza remained on the porch, gazing down at the +lights of the little city. An engine with its row of empty flats rolled +into the yard, panting from its exertions; the notes of a piano came to +her faintly from the street below. The lights of an incoming steamer +showed far down the sound. O'Neil had made all this, she reflected: the +busy town, the hopeful thousands who came and went daily owed their +prosperity to him. He had made the wilderness fruitful, but what of his +own life? She suspected that it was as bleak and barren as the mountain +slopes above Omar. He, too, looked down upon this thriving intimate +little community, but from a distance. Beneath his unfailing +cheerfulness she felt sure there lurked a hunger which the mere +affection of his 'boys' could never satisfy. And now the thought that +Dan had come between him and his heart's desire filled her with pity. +He seemed suddenly a very lonely figure of a man, despite his material +success. When his enemies were doing, had already done, so much to +defeat him, it seemed unfair that his trusted friend should step +between him and the fulfilment of his dearest ambition--that ambition +common to all men, failure in which brings a sense of failure to a +man's whole life, no matter what other ends are achieved. Of course, he +would smile and swallow his bitterness--that was his nature--but she +would know the truth. + +"Poor Omar Khayyam," she thought, wistfully, "I wish there were love +enough in the world for you. I wish there were two Natalies, or that--" +Then she shook the dream from her mind and went into the house, for the +night was cold and she was shaking wretchedly. + +O'Neil behaved more handsomely even than Eliza had anticipated. He +hurried into town on the following morning, and his congratulations +were so sincere, his manner so hearty that Dan forgot his embarrassment +and took a shameless delight in advertising his happiness. Nor did +Murray stop with mere words: he summoned all his lieutenants, and Omar +rang that night with a celebration such as it had never before known. +The company chef had been busy all day, the commissary had been +ransacked, and the wedding-supper was of a nature to interfere with +office duties for many days thereafter. Tom Slater made a +congratulatory speech--in reality, a mournful adjuration to avoid the +pitfalls of matrimonial inharmony--and openly confessed that his +digestion was now impaired beyond relief. Others followed him; there +was music, laughter, a riotous popping of corks; and over it all O'Neil +presided with grace and mellowness. Then, after the two young people +had been made thoroughly to feel his good will, he went back to the +front, and Omar saw him but seldom in the weeks that followed. + +To romantic Eliza, this self-sought seclusion had but one meaning--the +man was broken-hearted. She did not consider that there might be other +reasons for his constant presence at the glaciers. + +Of course, since the unwelcome publication of the North Pass & Yukon +story O'Neil had been in close touch with Illis, and by dint of strong +argument had convinced the Englishman of his own innocence in the +affair. A vigorous investigation might have proved disastrous, but, +fortunately, Curtis Gordon lacked leisure in which to follow the matter +up. The truth was that after his public exposure at Eliza's hands he +was far too busy mending his own fences to spare time for attempts upon +his rival. Consequently, the story was allowed to die out, and O'Neil +was finally relieved to learn that its effect had been killed. +Precisely how Illis had effected this he did not know, nor did he care +to inquire. Illis had been forced into an iniquitous bargain; and, +since he had taken the first chance to free himself from it, the +question of abstract right or wrong was not a subject for squeamish +consideration. + +It was at about this time that the sanguinary affray at Beaver Canon +began to bear fruit. One day a keen-faced, quiet stranger presented a +card at Murray's office, with the name: + +HENRY T. BLAINE. + +Beneath was the address of the Heidlemann building in New York, but +otherwise the card told nothing. Something in Mr. Blaine's bearing, +however, led Murray to treat him with more than ordinary consideration. + +"I should like to go over your work," the stranger announced; and +O'Neil himself acted as guide. Together they inspected the huge +concrete abutments, then were lowered into the heart of the giant +caissons which protruded from the frozen stream. The Salmon lay locked +in its winter slumber now, the glaciers stood as silent and inactive as +the snow-mantled mountains that hemmed them in. Down into the very +bowels of the river the men descended, while O'Neil described the +nature of the bottom, the depth and character of his foundations, and +the measure of his progress. He explained the character of that bar +which lay above the bridge site, and pointed out the heavy layers of +railroad iron with which his cement work was reinforced. + +"I spent nearly two seasons studying this spot before I began the +bridge," he continued. "I had men here, night and day, observing the +currents and the action of the ice. Then I laid my piers accordingly. +They are armored and reinforced to withstand any shock." + +"The river is subject to quick rises, I believe?" suggested Blaine. + +"Twenty feet in a few hours." + +"The volley of ice must be almost irresistible." + +"Almost," Murray smiled. "Not quite. Our ice-breakers were especially +designed by Parker to withstand any weight. There's nothing like them +anywhere. In fact, there will be nothing like this bridge when it's +completed." Blaine offered no comment, but his questions searched to +the depths of the builder's knowledge. When they were back in camp he +said: + +"Of course you know why I'm here?" + +"Your card told me that, but I don't need the Heidlemanns now." + +"We are prepared to reopen negotiations." + +"Why?" + +"My people are human; they have feelings. You read Gordon's lies about +us and about that fight at Beaver Canon? Well, we're used to abuse, and +opposition of a kind we respect; but that man stirred public opinion to +such a point that there's no further use of heeding it. We're ready to +proceed with our plans now, and the public can go to the devil till it +understands us better. We have several men in jail at Cortez, charged +with murder: it will cost us a fortune to free the poor fellows. First +the Heidlemanns were thieves and grafters and looters of the public +domain; now they have become assassins! If this route to the interior +proves feasible, well and good; if not, we'll resume work at Cortez +next spring. Kyak, of course, is out of the question." + +"This route depends upon the bridge." + +"Exactly." + +"It's a two years' job." + +"You offered to complete it this winter, when you talked with Mr. +Herman Heidlemann." + +"And--I can." + +"Then we'll consider a reasonable price. But we must know definitely +where we stand by next spring. We have a great deal of capital tied up +in the interior; we can't wait." + +"This delay will cost you something." + +Mr. Blaine shrugged. "You made that point plain when you were in New +York. We're accustomed to pay for our mistakes." + +"Will you cover this in the shape of an option?" + +"That's what I'm here for. If you finish your bridge and it stands the +spring break-up, we'll be satisfied. I shall expect to stay here and +watch the work." + +O'Neil agreed heartily. "You're very welcome, Mr. Blaine. I like your +brand of conversation. I build railroads; I don't run them. Now let's +get down to figures." + +The closing of the option required several weeks, of course, but the +outcome was that even before mid-winter arrived O'Neil found himself in +the position he had longed to occupy. In effect the sale was made, and +on terms which netted him and his backers one hundred per cent. profit. +There was but one proviso--namely, that the bridge should be built by +spring. The Heidlemanns were impatient, their investment up to date had +been heavy, and they frankly declared that failure to bridge the chasm +on time would convince them that the task was hopeless. In a way this +was unreasonable, but O'Neil was well aware that they could not permit +delay--or a third failure: unless his route was proved feasible without +loss of time they would abandon it for one they knew to be certain, +even though more expensive. He did not argue that the task was of +unprecedented difficulty, for he had made his promise and was ready to +stand or fall by it. It is doubtful, however, if any other contractor +would have undertaken the work on such time; in fact, had it been a +public bridge it would have required four years in the building. Yet +O'Neil cheerfully staked his fortune on completing it in eight months. + +With his option signed and the task squarely confronting him, he +realized with fresh force its bigness and the weight of responsibility +that rested upon his shoulders. He began the most dramatic struggle of +his career, a fight against untried conditions, a desperate race +against the seasons, with ruin as the penalty of defeat. + +The channel of the Salmon at this point is fifteen hundred feet wide +and thirty feet deep. Through it boils a ten-mile current; in other +words, the waters race by with the speed of a running man. Over this +O'Neil expected to suspend a structure capable of withstanding the +mightiest strains to which any bridge had ever been subjected. Parker's +plans called for seventeen thousand yards of cement work and nine +million pounds of steel, every part of which must be fabricated to a +careful pattern. It was a man-sized job, and O'Neil was thankful that +he had prepared so systematically for the work; that he had gathered +his materials with such extraordinary care. Supplies were arriving now +in car-loads, in train-loads, in ship-loads: from Seattle, from +Vancouver, from far Pittsburg they came in a thin continuous stream, +any interruption of which meant confusion and serious loss of time. The +movement of this vast tonnage required the ceaseless attention of a +corps of skilled men. + +He had personally directed affairs up to this point, but he now +obliterated himself, and the leadership devolved upon two +others--Parker, small, smiling, gentle-mannered; Mellen, tall, angular, +saturnine. Upon them, engineer and bridge-builder, O'Neil rested his +confidence, serene in the knowledge that of all men they were the +ablest in their lines. As for himself, he had all he could do to bring +materials to them and to keep the long supply-trail open. Long it was, +indeed; for the shortest haul was from Seattle, twelve hundred miles +away, and the steel bridge members came from Pennsylvania. + +The piers at Omar groaned beneath the cargoes that were belched from +the big freighters--incidentally, "Happy Tom" Slater likewise groaned +beneath his burdens as superintendent of transportation. At the +glaciers a city as large as Omar sprang up, a city with electric +lights, power-houses, machine shops, freight yards, and long rows of +winter quarters. It lay behind ramparts of coal, of grillage timbers +and piling, of shedded cement barrels, and tons of steel. Over it the +winter snows sifted, the north winds howled, and the arctic cold +deepened. + +Here, locked in a mountain fastness more than a thousand miles from his +base of supplies, O'Neil began the decisive struggle of his life. Here, +at the focusing point of his enterprise, in the white heat of the +battle, he spent his time, heedless of every other interest or +consideration. The shifts were lengthened, wages were increased, a +system of bonuses was adopted. Only picked men were given places, but +of these there were hundreds: over them the grim-faced Mellen brooded, +with the fevered eye of a fanatic and a tongue of flame. Wherever +possible the men were sheltered, and steam-pipes were run to guard +against the cold; but most of the labor was, of necessity, performed in +the open and under trying conditions. At times the wind blew a +hurricane; always there was the bitter cold. Men toiled until their +flesh froze and their tools slipped from their fingers, then dragged +themselves stiffly into huts and warmed themselves for further effort. +They worked amid a boiling snow-smother that hid them from view, while +gravel and fine ice cut their faces like knives; or again, on still, +sharp days, when the touch of metal was like the bite of fangs and +echoes filled the valley to the brim with an empty clanging. But they +were no ordinary fellows--no chaff, to drift with the wind: they were +men toughened by exposure to the breath of the north, men winnowed out +from many thousands of their kind. Nor were they driven: they were led. +Mellen was among them constantly; so was the soft-voiced smiling +Parker, not to mention O'Neil with his cheery laugh and his words of +praise. Yet often it was hard to keep the work moving at all; for steam +condensed in the cylinders, valves froze unless constantly operated, +pipes were kept open only by the use of hot cloths: then, too, the snow +crept upward steadily, stealthily, until it lay in heavy drifts which +nearly hid the little town and changed the streets to miniature canons. + +Out of this snow-smothered, frost-bound valley there was but one trail. +The army lay encamped in a cul de sac; all that connected it with the +outside world were two slender threads of steel. To keep them clear of +snow was in itself a giant's task; for as yet there were no snow-sheds, +and in many places the construction-trains passed through deep cuts +between solid walls of white. Every wind filled these level and +threatened to seal the place fast; but furiously the "rotaries" +attacked the choking mass, slowly it was whirled aside, and onward +flowed that steady stream of supplies. No army of investment was ever +in such constant peril of being cut off. For every man engaged in the +attack there was another behind him fighting back the allied forces +which swept down from either hand. + +Only those who know that far land in her sterner moods can form any +conception of the stupefying effect of continuous, unbroken cold. There +is a point beyond which the power of reaction ceases: where the human +mind and body recoils uncontrollably from exposure, and where the most +robust effort results in a spiritless inactivity. It is then that +efficiency is cut in half, then cut again. And of all the terrors of +the Arctic there is none so compelling as the wind. It is a monstrous, +deathly thing, a creature that has life and preys upon the agony of +men. There are regions sheltered from it, of course; but in the gutters +which penetrate the mountain ranges it lurks with constant menace, and +of all the coast from Sitka westward the valley of the Salmon is the +most evil. + +In the throat of this mighty-mouthed funnel, joining the still, abysmal +cold of the interior with the widely varying temperatures of the open +sea, O'Neil's band was camped, and there the great hazard was played. +Under such conditions it was fortunate indeed that he had +field-marshals like Parker and Mellen, for no single man could have +triumphed. Parker was cautious, brilliant, far-sighted; he reduced the +battle to paper, he blue-printed it; with sliding-rule he analyzed it +into inches and pounds and stresses and strains: Mellen was like a grim +Hannibal, tireless, cunning, cold, and he wove steel in his fingers as +a woman weaves her thread. + +It was a remarkable alliance, a triumvirate of its kind unsurpassed. As +the weeks crept into months it worked an engineering marvel. + + + + +XXIII + +A NEW CRISIS + + +With the completion of the railroad to the glacier crossing there came +to it a certain amount of travel, consisting mainly of prospectors +bound to and from the interior. The Cortez winter trail was open, and +over it passed most of the traffic from the northward mining-camps, but +now and then a frost-rimed stranger emerged from the canon above +O'Neil's terminus with tales of the gold country, or a venturesome +sledge party snow-shoed its way inland from the end of the track. +Murray made a point of hauling these trailers on his +construction-trains and of feeding them in his camps as freely as he +did his own men. In time the wavering line of sled-tracks became fairly +well broken, and scarcely a week passed without bringing several +"mushers." + +One day, as O'Neil was picking his way through the outskirts of the +camp, he encountered one of his night foremen, and was surprised to see +that the fellow was leading a trail-dog by a chain. Now these malamutes +are as much a part of the northland as the winter snows, and they are a +common sight in every community; but the man's patent embarrassment +challenged Murray's attention: he acted as if he had been detected in a +theft or a breach of duty. + +"Hello, Walsh. Been buying some live stock?" O'Neil inquired. + +"Yes, sir. I picked up this dog cheap." + +"Harness too, eh?" Murray noted that Walsh's arms were full of +gear--enough, indeed, for a full team. Knowing that the foreman owned +no dogs, he asked, half banteringly: + +"You're not getting ready for a trip, I hope?" + +"No, sir. Not exactly, sir. The dog was cheap, so I--I just bought him." + +As a matter of fact, dogs were not cheap, and Walsh should have been in +bed at this hour. Murray walked on wondering what the fellow could be +up to. + +Later he came upon a laborer dickering with a Kyak Indian over the +price of a fur robe, and in front of a bunk-house he found other +members of the night crew talking earnestly with two lately arrived +strangers. They fell silent as he approached, and responded to his +greeting with a peculiar nervous eagerness, staring after him curiously +as he passed on. + +He expected Dr. Gray out from Omar, but as he neared the track he met +Mellen. The bridge superintendent engaged him briefly upon some detail, +then said: + +"I don't know what's the matter with the men this morning. They're +loafing." + +"Loafing? Nonsense! You expect too much." + +Mellen shook his head. "The minute my back is turned they begin to +gossip. I've had to call them down." + +"Perhaps they want a holiday." + +"They're not that kind. There's something in the air." + +While they were speaking the morning train pulled in, and O'Neil was +surprised to see at least a dozen townspeople descending from it. They +were loafers, saloon-frequenters, for the most part, and oddly enough, +they had with them dogs and sleds and all the equipment for travel. He +was prevented from making inquiry, however, by a shout from Dr. Gray, +who cried: + +"Hey, Chief! Look who's here!" + +O'Neil hastened forward with a greeting upon his lips, for Stanley was +helping Eliza and Natalie down from the caboose which served as a +passenger-coach. + +The young women, becomingly clad in their warm winter furs, made a +picture good to look upon. Natalie had ripened wonderfully since her +marriage, and added to her rich dark beauty there was now an elusive +sweetness, a warmth and womanliness which had been lacking before. As +for Eliza, she had never appeared more sparkling, more freshly +wholesome and saucy than on this morning. + +"We came to take pictures," she announced. "We want to see if the +bridge suits us." + +"Don't you believe her, Mr. O'Neil," said Natalie. "Dan told us you +were working too hard, so Eliza insisted on taking you in hand. I'm +here merely in the office of chaperon and common scold. You HAVE been +overdoing. You're positively haggard." + +Gray nodded. "He won't mind me. I hope you'll abuse him well. Go at him +hammer and tongs." + +Ignoring Murray's smiling assertion that he was the only man in camp +who really suffered from idleness, the girls pulled him about and +examined him critically, then fell to discussing him as if he were not +present. + +"He's worn to the bone," said Eliza. + +"Did you ever see anything like his wrinkles? He looks like a dried +apple," Natalie declared. + +"Dan says he doesn't eat." + +"Probably he's too busy to chew his food. We'll make him Fletcherize--" + +"And eat soup. Then we'll mend his underclothes. I'll warrant he +doesn't dress properly." + +"How much sleep does he get?" Natalie queried of the physician. + +"About half as much as he needs." + +"Leave him to us," said Eliza, grimly. "Now where does he live? We'll +start in there." + +O'Neil protested faintly. "Please don't! I hate soup, and I can't allow +anybody to pry into my wardrobe. It won't stand inspection." + +Miss Appleton pointed to his feet and asked, crisply: + +"How many pairs of socks do you wear?" + +"One." + +"Any holes?" + +"Sometimes." + +Natalie was shocked. "One pair of socks in this cold! It's time we took +a hand. Now lead us to this rabbit-hole where you live." + +Reluctantly, yet with an unaccustomed warmth about his heart, O'Neil +escorted them to his headquarters. It was a sharp, clear morning; the +sky was as empty and bright as an upturned saucepan; against it the +soaring mountain peaks stood out as if carved from new ivory. The +glaciers to right and left were mute and motionless in the grip of that +force which alone had power to check them; the turbulent river was +hidden beneath a case-hardened armor; the lake, with its weird flotilla +of revolving bergs, was matted with a broad expanse of white, across +which meandered dim sled and snow-shoe trails. Underfoot the paths gave +out a crisp complaint, the sunlight slanting up the valley held no +warmth whatever, and their breath hung about their heads like vapor, +crystallizing upon the fur of their caps and hoods. + +O'Neil's living-quarters consisted of a good-sized room adjoining the +office-building. Pausing at the door, he told his visitors: + +"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but your zeal is utterly misplaced. I +live like a pasha, in the midst of debilitating luxuries, as you will +see for yourselves." He waved them proudly inside. + +The room was bare, damp, and chill; it was furnished plentifully, but +it was in characteristically masculine disorder. The bed was tumbled, +the stove was half filled with cold ashes, the water pitcher on the +washstand had frozen. In one corner was a heap of damp clothing, now +stiff with frost. + +"Of course, it's a little upset," he apologized. "I wasn't expecting +callers, you know." + +"When was it made up last?" Eliza inquired, a little weakly. + +"Yesterday, of course." + +"Are you sure?" + +"Now, see here," he said, firmly; "I haven't time to make beds, and +everybody else is busier than I am. I'm not in here enough to make it +worth while--I go to bed late, and I tumble out before dawn." + +The girls exchanged meaning glances. Eliza began to lay off her furs. + +"Not bad, is it?" he said, hopefully. + +Natalie picked up the discarded clothing, which crackled stiffly under +her touch and parted from the bare boards with a tearing sound. + +"Frozen! The idea!" said she. + +Eliza poked among the other garments which hung against the wall and +found them also rigid. The nail-heads behind them were coated with ice. +Turning to the table, with its litter of papers and the various +unclassified accumulation of a bachelor's house, she said: + +"I suppose we'll have to leave this as it is." + +"Just leave everything. I'll get a man to clean up while you take +pictures of the bridge." As Natalie began preparing for action he +queried, in surprise, "Don't you like my little home?" + +"It's awful," the bride answered, feelingly. + +"A perfect bear's den," Eliza agreed. "It will take us all day." + +"It's just the way I like it," he told them; but they resolutely +banished him and locked the door in his face. + +"Hey! I don't want my things all mussed up," he called, pounding for +re-admittance; "I know right where everything is, and--" The door +opened, out came an armful of papers, a shower of burnt matches, and a +litter of trash from his work-table. He groaned. Eliza showed her +countenance for a moment to say: + +"Now, run away, little boy. You're going to have your face washed, no +matter how you cry. When we've finished in here we'll attend to you." +The door slammed once more, and he went away shaking his head. + +At lunch-time they grudgingly admitted him, and, although they +protested that they were not half through, he was naively astonished at +the change they had brought to pass. For the first time in many days +the place was thoroughly warm and dry; it likewise displayed an +orderliness and comfort to which it had been a stranger. From some +obscure source the girls had gathered pictures for the bare walls; they +had hung figured curtains at the windows; there were fresh white covers +for bed, bureau, and washstand. His clothes had been rearranged, and +posted in conspicuous places were written directions telling him of +their whereabouts. One of the cards bore these words: "Your soup! Take +one in cup of hot brandy and water before retiring." Beneath were a +bottle and a box of bouillon tablets. A shining tea-kettle was humming +on the stove. + +"This is splendid," he agreed, when they had completed a tour of +inspection. "But where are my blue-prints?" + +"In the drafting-room, where they belong. This room is for rest and +sleep. We want to see it in this condition when we come back." + +"Where did you find the fur rug?" He indicated a thick bearskin beside +the bed. + +"We stole it from Mr. Parker," they confessed, shamelessly. "He had +two." + +Eliza continued complacently: "We nearly came to blows with the chef +when we kidnapped his best boy. We've ordered him to keep this place +warm and look after your clothes and clean up every morning. He's to be +your valet and take care of you." + +"But--we're dreadfully short-handed in the mess-house," O'Neil +protested. + +"We've given the chef your bill of fare, and your man Ben will see that +you eat it." + +"I won't stand for soup. It--" + +"Hush! Do you want us to come again?" Natalie demanded. + +"Yes! Again and again!" He nodded vigorously. "I dare say I was getting +careless. I pay more attention to the men's quarters than to my own. Do +you know--this is the first hint of home I've had since I was a boy? +And--it's mighty agreeable." He stared wistfully at the feminine +touches on all sides. + +The bride settled herself with needle and thread, saying: + +"Now take Eliza to the bridge while the light is good; she wants to +snap-shoot it. I'm going to sew on buttons and enjoy myself." + +O'Neil read agreement in Eliza's eyes, and obeyed. As they neared the +river-bank the girl exclaimed in surprise; for up out of the frozen +Salmon two giant towers of concrete thrust themselves, on each bank +were massive abutments, and connecting them were the beginnings of a +complicated "false-work" structure by means of which the steel was to +be laid in place. It consisted of rows upon rows of piling, laced +together with an intricate pattern of squared timbers. Tracks were +being laid upon it, and along the rails ran a towering movable crane, +or "traveler," somewhat like a tremendous cradle. This too was nearing +completion. Pile-drivers were piercing the ice with long slender +needles of spruce; across the whole river was weaving a gigantic +fretwork of wood which appeared to be geometrically regular in design. +The air was noisy with the cries of men, and a rhythmic thudding, +through which came the rattle of winches and the hiss of steam. Over +the whole vast structure swarmed an army of human ants, feeble pygmy +figures that crept slowly here and there, regardless of their dizzy +height. + +"Isn't it beautiful?" said the builder, gazing at the scene with +kindling eyes. "We're breaking records every day in spite of the +weather. Those fellows are heroes. I feel guilty and mean when I see +them risking life and limb while I just walk about and look on." + +"Will it--really stand the break-up?" asked the girl. "When that ice +goes out it will be as if the solid earth were sliding down the +channel. It frightens me to think of it." + +"We've built solid rock; in fact, those piers are stronger than rock, +for they're laced with veins of steel and anchored beneath the +river-bed." + +But Eliza doubted. "I've seen rivers break, and it's frightful; but of +course I've never seen anything to compare with the Salmon. +Suppose--just suppose there should be some weak spot--" + +O'Neil settled his shoulders a little under his coat. "It would nearly +kill Mellen--and Parker, too, for that matter." + +"And you?" + +He hesitated. "It means a great deal to me. Sometimes I think I could +pull myself together and begin again, but--I'm getting old, and I'm not +sure I'd care to try." After a pause he added a little stiffly, as if +not quite sure of the effect of his words: "That's the penalty of being +alone in life, I suppose. We men are grand-stand players: we need an +audience, some one person who really cares whether we succeed or fail. +Your brother, for instance, has won more in the building of the S. R. & +N. than I can ever hope to win." + +Eliza felt a trifle conscious, too, and she did not look at him when +she said: "Poor, lonely old Omar Khayyam! You deserve all Dan has. I +think I understand why you haven't been to see us." + +"I've been too busy; this thing has kept me here every hour. It's my +child, and one can't neglect his own child, you know--even if it isn't +a real one." He laughed apologetically. "See! there's where we took the +skiff that day we ran Jackson Glacier. He's harmless enough now. You +annoyed me dreadfully that morning, Eliza, and--I've never quite +understood why you were so reckless." + +"I wanted the sensation. Writers have to live before they can write. +I've worked the experience into my novel." + +"Indeed? What is your book about?" + +"Well--it's the story of a railroad-builder, of a fellow who risked +everything he had on his own judgment. It's--you!" + +"Why, my dear!" cried O'Neil, turning upon her a look of almost comic +surprise. "I'm flattered, of course, but there's nothing romantic or +uncommon about me." + +"You don't mind?" + +"Of course not. But there ought to be a hero, and love, and--such +things--in a novel. You must have a tremendous imagination." + +"Perhaps. I'm not writing a biography, you know. However, you needn't +be alarmed; it will never be accepted." + +"It should be, for you write well. Your magazine articles are bully." + +Eliza smiled. "If the novel would only go as well as those stories I'd +be happy. They put Gordon on the defensive." + +"I knew they would." + +"Yes. I built a nice fire under him, and now he's squirming. I think I +helped you a little bit, too." + +"Indeed you did--a great deal! When you came to Omar I never thought +you'd turn out to be my champion. I--" He turned as Dr. Gray came +hurrying toward them, panting in his haste. + +The doctor began abruptly: + +"I've been looking for you, Murray. The men are all quitting." + +O'Neil started. "All quitting? What are you talking about?" + +"There's a stampede--a gold stampede!" + +Murray stared at the speaker as if doubting his own senses. + +"There's no gold around here," he said, at last. + +"Two men came in last night. They've been prospecting over in the White +River and report rich quartz. They've got samples with 'em and say +there are placer indications everywhere. They were on their way to Omar +to tell their friends, and telephoned in from here. Somebody overheard +and--it leaked. The whole camp is up in the air. That's what brought +out that gang from town this morning." + +The significance of the incidents which had troubled him earlier in the +day flashed upon O'Neil; it was plain enough now why his men had been +gossiping and buying dogs and fur robes. He understood only too well +what a general stampede would mean to his plans, for it would take +months to replace these skilled iron-workers. + +"Who are these prospectors?" he inquired, curtly. + +"Nobody seems to know. Their names are Thorn and Baker. That gang from +Omar has gone on, and our people will follow in the morning. Those who +can't scrape up an outfit here are going into town to equip. We won't +have fifty men on the job by to-morrow night." + +"What made Baker and Thorn stop here?" + +Gray shrugged. "Tired out, perhaps. We've got to do something quick, +Murray. Thank God, we don't have to sell 'em grub or haul 'em to Omar. +That will check things for a day or two. If they ever start for the +interior we're lost, but the cataract isn't frozen over, and there's +only one sled trail past it. We don't need more than six good men to do +the trick." + +"We can't stop a stampede that way." + +Dr. Gray's face fell into harsh lines. "I'll bend a Winchester over the +first man who tries to pass. Appleton held the place last summer; I'll +guarantee to do it now." + +"No. The men have a right to quit, Stanley. We can't force them to +work. We can't build this bridge with a chain-gang." + +"Humph! I can beat up these two prospectors and ship 'em in to the +hospital until things cool down." + +"That won't do, either. I'll talk with them, and if their story is +right--well, I'll throw open the commissary and outfit every one." + +Eliza gasped; Gray stammered. + +"You're crazy!" exclaimed the doctor. + +"If it's a real stampede they'll go anyhow, so we may as well take our +medicine with a good grace. The loss of even a hundred men would +cripple us." + +"The camp is seething. It's all Mellen can do to keep the day shift at +work. If you talk to 'em maybe they'll listen to you." + +"Argument won't sway them. This isn't a strike; it's a gold rush." He +turned toward the town. + +Eliza was speechless with dismay as she hurried along beside him; Gray +was scowling darkly and muttering anathemas; O'Neil himself was lost in +thought. The gravity of this final catastrophe left nothing to be said. + +Stanley lost little time in bringing the two miners to the office, and +there, for a half-hour, Murray talked with them. When they perceived +that he was disposed to treat them courteously they told their story in +detail and answered his questions with apparent honesty. They willingly +showed him their quartz samples and retailed the hardships they had +suffered. + +Gray listened impatiently and once or twice undertook to interpolate +some question, but at a glance from his chief he desisted. +Nevertheless, his long fingers itched to lay hold of the strangers and +put an end to this tale which threatened ruin. His anger grew when +Murray dismissed them with every evidence of a full belief in their +words. + +"Now that the news is out and my men are determined to quit, I want +everybody to have an equal chance," O'Neil announced, as they rose to +go. "There's bound to be a great rush and a lot of suffering--maybe +some deaths--so I'm going to call the boys together and have you talk +to them." + +Thorn and Baker agreed and departed. As the door closed behind them +Gray exploded, but Murray checked him quickly, saying with an abrupt +change of manner: "Wait! Those fellows are lying!" + +Seizing the telephone, he rang up Dan Appleton and swiftly made known +the situation. Stanley could hear the engineer's startled exclamation. + +"Get the cable to Cortez as quickly as you can," O'Neil was saying. +"You have friends there, haven't you? Good! He's just the man, for +he'll have Gordon's pay-roll. Find out if Joe Thorn and Henry Baker are +known, and, if so, who they are and what they've been doing lately. Get +it quick, understand? Then 'phone me." He slammed the receiver upon its +hook. "That's not Alaskan quartz," he said, shortly; "it came from +Nevada, or I'm greatly mistaken. Every hard-rock miner carries +specimens like those in his kit." + +"You think Gordon--" + +"I don't know. But we've got rock-men on this job who'll recognize ore +out of any mine they ever worked in. Go find them, then come back here +and hold the line open for Dan." + +"Suppose he can't locate these fellows in Cortez?" + +"Then--Let's not think about that." + + + + +XXIV + +GORDON'S FALL + + +The news of O'Neil's attitude spread quickly, and excitement grew among +the workmen. Up through the chill darkness of early evening they came +charging. They were noisy and eager, and when the gong summoned them to +supper they rushed the mess-house in boisterous good humor. No attempt +was made to call out the night crew: by tacit consent its members were +allowed to mingle freely with their fellows and plan for the morrow's +departure. Some, envious of the crowd from Omar which had profited by +an early start, were anxious to be gone at once, but the more +sober-minded argued that the road to White River was so long that a +day's advantage would mean little in the end, and the advance party +would merely serve to break trail for those behind. + +These men, be it said, were not those who had struck, earlier in the +season, at the behest of Gordon's emissary, Linn, but fellows whose +loyalty and industry were unquestioned. Their refusal to stampede at +the first news was proof of their devotion, yet any one who has lived +in a mining community knows that no loyalty of employee to employer is +strong enough to withstand for long the feverish excitement of a gold +rush. These bridge-workers were the aristocracy of the whole force, men +inured to hardship and capable of extreme sacrifice in the course of +their work; but they were also independent Americans who believed +themselves entitled to every reward which fortune laid in their paths. +For this reason they were even harder to handle than the unskilled, +unimaginative men farther down the line. + +Long before the hour when O'Neil appeared the low-roofed mess-house was +crowded. + +Natalie and Eliza, knowing the importance of this crisis, refused to go +home, and begged Murray to let them attend the meeting. Mr. Blaine, who +also felt the keenest concern in the outcome, offered to escort them, +and at last with some difficulty he managed to wedge them inside the +door, where they apprehensively scanned the gathering. + +It was not an ideal place for a meeting of this size, but tables and +benches had been pushed aside, and into the space thus cleared the men +were packed. Their appearance was hardly reassuring: it was a brawny, +heavy-muscled army with which O'Neil had to deal--an army of +loud-voiced toilers whose ways were violent and whose passions were +quick. Nevertheless, the two girls were treated with the greatest +respect, and when O'Neil stepped to a bench and raised himself above +their heads his welcome was not unduly boisterous. Outside, the night +was clear and cold; inside the cramped quarters the air was hot and +close and fetid. + +Murray had no skill as a public speaker in the ordinary sense; he +attempted no oratorical tricks, and addressed his workmen in a +matter-of-fact tone. + +"Boys," he began, "there has been a gold strike at the head of the +White River, and you want to go. I don't blame you; I'd like to go +myself, if there's any chance to make money." + +"You're all right, boss!" shouted some one; and a general laugh +attested the crowd's relief at this acceptance of the inevitable. They +had expected argument, despite the contrary assurances they had +received. + +"Now we all want an even break. We want to know all there is to know, +so that a few fellows won't have the advantage of the rest. The strike +is three hundred miles away; it's winter, and--you know what that +means. I talked with Baker and Thorn this afternoon. I want them to +tell you just what they told me. That's why I called this meeting. If +you decide to go you won't have to waste time going to Omar after your +outfits, for I'll sell you what you want from my supplies. And I'll +sell at cost." + +There was a yell of approval, a cheer for the speaker; then came calls +for Baker and Thorn. + +The two miners were thrust forward, and the embarrassed Thorn, who had +acted as spokesman, was boosted to a table. Under Murray's +encouragement he stammered out the story of his good fortune, the tale +running straight enough to fan excitement into a blaze. There was no +disposition to doubt, for news of this sort is only too sure of +credence. + +When the speaker had finished, O'Neil inquired: + +"Are you an experienced quartz-miner? Do you know ore when you see it?" + +"Sure! I worked in the Jumbo, at Goldfield, Nevada, up to last year. So +did Baker." + +"When did you go into the White River country?" + +"August." + +"How did you go in?" + +"We packed in. When our grub ran out, we killed our horses and cached +the meat for dog-feed." + +"Is there any other dog-feed there?" + +"No, sir." + +"Any people?" + +"Not a soul. The country is open to the first comers. It's a +fine-looking country, too: we seen quartz indications everywhere. I +reckon this speaks for itself." Thorn significantly held up his ore +samples. "We've made our locations. You fellows is welcome to the rest. +First come, first served." + +There was an eager scramble for the specimens on the part of those +nearest the speaker. After a moment Murray asked them: + +"Did you fellows ever see any rock like that?" + +One of his workmen answered: + +"_I_ have." + +"Where?" + +"In the Jumbo, at Goldfield. I 'high-graded' there in the early days." + +There was a laugh at this. Thorn flushed angrily. "Well," he rejoined, +"we've got the same formation over there in the White River. It's just +like Goldfield. It'll be the same kind of a camp, too, when the news +gets out." + +O'Neil broke in smoothly, to say: + +"Most of our fellows have no dogs. It will take them three weeks to +cover the trail. They'll have to spend three weeks in there, then three +weeks more coming out--over two months altogether. They can't haul +enough grub to do them." He turned to his employees and said gravely: +"You'd better think it over, boys. Those who have teams can make it but +the rest of you will get left. Do you think the chance is worth all +that work and suffering?" + +The bridge-workers shifted uncomfortably on their feet. Then a voice +exclaimed: + +"Don't worry, boss. We'll make it somehow." + +"Thorn says there's nobody over there," Murray continued; "but that +seems strange, for I happen to know of half a dozen outfits at the head +of the White River. Jack Dalton has had a gang working there for four +years." + +Dalton was a famous character in the north--one of the most intrepid of +the early pioneers--and the mention of his name brought a hush. A large +part of the audience realized the truth of O'Neil's last statement, yet +resented having it thrust upon them. Thorn and Baker were scowling. +Gray had just entered the room and was signaling to his chief, and +O'Neil realized that he must score a triumph quickly if he wished to +hold the attention of his men. He resumed gravely: + +"If this strike was genuine I wouldn't argue, but--it isn't." A +confusion of startled protests rose; the two miners burst out +indignantly; but O'Neil, raising his voice for the first time, managed +to make himself heard. "Those jewelry samples came from Nevada," he +cried. "I recognized them myself this afternoon, and here's another +fellow who can't be fooled. Thorn told you he used to work in +Goldfield. You can draw your own conclusions." + +The temper of the crowd changed instantly: jeers, groans, hisses arose; +the men were on their feet now, and growing noisier every moment; Baker +and Thorn were glaring balefully at their accuser. But Gray succeeded +in shouldering his way forward, and whispered to O'Neil, who turned +suddenly and faced the men again. "Just a minute!" he shouted. "You +heard Thorn say he and Baker went prospecting in August. Well, we've +just had Cortez on the cable and learn that they were working for +Gordon until two weeks ago." A sudden silence fell. Murray smiled down +at the two strangers. "What do you say to that?" + +Thorn flew into a purple rage: "It's a damned lie! He's afraid you'll +quit work, fellows." Viciously he flung himself toward the door, only +to feel the grasp of the muscular physician upon his arm. + +"Listen to this message from the cashier of the Cortez Home Bank!" +bellowed Gray, his big voice dominating the uproar. Undisturbed by his +prisoner's struggles, he read loudly: + +"Joe Thorn and Henry Baker quit work fifteenth, leaving for Fairbanks +over winter trail, with five dogs--four gray and white malamutes, black +shepherd leader. Thorn medium size, thirty-five, red hair. Baker dark, +scar on cheek. WILSON, Cashier." + +The doctor's features spread into a broad grin. "You've all seen the +dog-team, and here's the red hair." His fingers sunk into his +prisoner's fiery locks with a grip that threatened to leave him a scalp +for a trophy. Thorn cursed and twisted. + +The crowd's allegiance had been quick to shift, but it veered back to +O'Neil with equal suddenness. + +"Bunco!" yelled a hoarse voice, after a brief hush. + +"Lynch 'em!" cried another; and the angry clamor burst forth anew. + +"Don't be foolish," shouted Murray; "nobody has been hurt." + +"We'd have been on the trail to-morrow. Send 'em down the river +barefoot!" + +"Yes! What about that gang from Omar?" + +"I'm afraid they'll have to take care of themselves," O'Neil said. "But +these two men aren't altogether to blame; they're acting under orders. +Isn't that right?" he asked Thorn. + +The miner hesitated, until the grip in his hair tightened; then, +evidently fearing the menace in the faces on every side, he decided to +seek protection in a complete confession. + +"Yes!" he agreed, sullenly. "Gordon cooked it up. It's all a fake." + +O'Neil nodded with satisfaction. "This is the second time he's tried to +get my men away from me. The other time he failed because Tom Slater +happened to come down with smallpox. Thank God, he recovered!" + +A ripple of laughter spread, then grew into a bellow, for the nature of +"Happy Tom's" illness had long since become a source of general +merriment, and O'Neil's timely reference served to divert the crowd. It +also destroyed most of its resentment. + +"You fellows don't seem able to protect yourselves; so Doc and I will +have to do it for you. Now listen," he continued, more gravely. "I +meant it when I said I'd open the commissary and help you out if the +strike were genuine, but, nevertheless, I want you to know just what it +would have meant to me. I haven't enough money to complete the S. R. & +N., and I can't raise enough, but I have signed an option to sell the +road if the bridge is built by next spring. It's really a two year's +job, and some engineers don't believe it can be built at all, but I +know it can if you'll help. If we fail I'm ruined; if we succeed"--he +waved his hands and smiled at them cheerfully--"maybe we'll build +another railroad somewhere. That's what this stampede meant. Now, will +you stick to me?" + +The answer roared from a hundred throats: "You bet we'll stick!" + +At the rear of the room, whence they had witnessed the rapid unfolding +of this drama, the two girls joined in the shout. They were hugging +each other and laughing hysterically. + +"He handled them just right," said Blaine, with shining eyes; "just +right--but I was worried." + +Walsh, the night foreman, raised his voice to inquire: + +"Does anybody want to buy a dog-team cheap?" + +"Who wants dogs now?" jeered some one. + +"Give 'em to Baker and Thorn!" + +O'Neil was still speaking in all earnestness. + +"Boys," he said; "we have a big job on our hands. It means fast work, +long hours, and little sleep. We picked you fellows out because we knew +you were the very best bridge-workers in the world. Now the life of the +S. R. & N. lies with you, and that bridge MUST BE BUILT on time. About +these two men who tried to stampede us: I think it's enough punishment +if we laugh at them. Don't you?" He smiled down at Thorn, who scowled, +then grinned reluctantly and nodded his head. + +When general good feeling was restored Murray attempted to make his way +out; but his men seemed determined to thank him one by one, and he was +delayed through a long process of hand-shaking. It pleased him to see +that they understood from what hardships and disappointments he had +saved them, and he was doubly grateful when Walsh rounded up his crew +and announced that the night shift would resume work at midnight. + +He escaped at last, leaving the men grouped contentedly about huge pans +of smoking doughnuts and pots of coffee, which the cook-boys had +brought in. Liquor was taboo in the camp, but he gave orders that +unlimited cigars be distributed. + +When he reached his quarters he was completely fagged, for the crisis, +coming on top of his many responsibilities, had taken all his vitality. + +His once cheerless room was warm and cozy as he entered: he found +Natalie sleeping peacefully on his bed and Eliza curled up in his big +chair waiting. She opened her eyes drowsily and smiled up at him, +saying: + +"You were splendid, Omar Khayyam. I'm SO glad." + +He laid a finger on his lips and glanced at the sleeping Natalie. + +"Sh-h!" + +"Where are you going to put us for the night?" + +"Right here, of course." + +"Those men will do anything for you now. I--I think I'd die, too, if +anything happened to the bridge." + +He took her hand in his and smiled down into her earnest eyes a little +wearily. "Nothing will happen. Now go to bed--and thank you for making +a home for me. It really is a home now. I'll appreciate it to-morrow." + +He tiptoed out and tramped over to Parker's quarters for the night. + +The news of the White River fiasco reached Curtis Gordon in Seattle, +whither he had gone in a final attempt to bolster up the tottering +fortunes of the Cortez Home Railway. His disappointment was keen, yet +O'Neil from the beginning had met his attacks with such uniform success +that new failure did not really surprise him; it had been a forlorn +hope at best. Strangely enough, he had begun to lose something of his +assurance of late. Although he maintained his outward appearance of +confidence with all his old skill, within himself he felt a growing +uneasiness, a lurking doubt of his abilities. Outwardly there was +reason enough for discouragement, for, while his co-operative railroad +scheme had begun brilliantly, its initial success had not been +sustained. As time passed and Eliza Appleton's exposure remained +unrefuted he had found it ever more difficult to enlist support. His +own denials and explanations seemed powerless to affect the public +mind, and as he looked back he dated his decline from the appearance of +her first article. It had done all the mischief he had feared. Not only +were his old stock-holders dissatisfied, but wherever he went for aid +he found a disconcerting lack of response, a half-veiled skepticism +that was maddening. + +Yet his immediate business worries were not all, nor the worst of his +troubles: his physical powers were waning. To all appearances he was as +strong as ever, but a strange bodily lassitude hampered him; he tired +easily, and against this handicap he was forced to struggle +continually. He had never rightly valued his amazing equipment of +energy until now, when some subtle ailment had begun to sap it. The +change was less in his muscular strength than in his nerves and his +mental vigor. He found himself growing peculiarly irritable; his +failures excited spasms of blind fury which left him weak and spent; he +began to suffer the depressing tortures of insomnia. At times the +nerves in his face and neck twitched unaccountably, and this +distressing affection spread. + +These symptoms had first manifested themselves after his unmerciful +drubbing at the hands of Dan Appleton: but they were not the result of +any injury; they were due to some deeper cause. When he had recovered +his senses, after the departure of Dan and Natalie, he had fallen into +a paroxysm of anger that lasted for days; he had raged and stormed like +a madman, for, to say nothing of other humiliations, he prided himself +extravagantly on his physical prowess. While the marks of the rough +treatment he had suffered were disappearing he remained indoors, +plunged in such abysmal fury that neither Gloria nor the fawning Denny +dared approach him. The very force of his emotions had permanently +disturbed his poise, or perhaps effected some obscure lesion in his +brain. Even when he showed himself again in public he was still +abnormally choleric. His fits of passion became almost apoplectic in +their violence; they caused his associates to shun him as a man +dangerous, and in his calmer moments he thought of them with alarm. He +had tried to regain his nervous control, but without success, and his +wife's anxiety only chafed him further. Gradually he lost his mental +buoyancy, and for the first time in his life he really yielded to +pessimism. He found he could no longer attack a problem with his +accustomed certainty of conquering it, but was haunted by a foreboding +of inevitable failure. All in all, when he reached the States on his +critical mission he knew that he was far from being his old self, and +he had deteriorated more than he knew. + +A week or two of disappointments should have shown him the futility of +further effort; at any other time it would have set him to putting his +house in order for the final crash, but now it merely enraged him. He +redoubled his activity, launching a new campaign of publicity so +extravagant and ill-timed as to repel the assistance he needed. He had +lost his finesse; his nicely adjusted financial sense had gone. + +The outcome was not long delayed; it came in the form of a newspaper +despatch to the effect that his Cortez bank had suspended payment +because of a run started by the dissatisfied employees of the railroad. +Through Gordon's flamboyant advertising his enterprises were so well +known by this time that the story was featured despite his efforts to +kill it. His frantic cables to Cortez for a denial only brought +assurances that the report was true and that conditions would not mend +unless a shipment of currency was immediately forthcoming. + +Harassed by reporters, driven on by the need for a show of action, he +set out to raise the money, but the support he had hoped for failed him +when it transpired that his bank's assets consisted mainly of real +estate at boom prices and stock in his various companies which had been +inflated to the bursting-point. Days passed, a week or more; then he +was compelled to relinquish his option on the steamship line he had +partly purchased, and to sacrifice all that had been paid in on the +enterprise. This, too, made a big story for the newspapers, for it +punctured one of the most imposing corporations in the famous "Gordon +System." It likewise threatened to involve the others in the general +crash. Hope Consolidated, indeed, still remained, and Gordon's +declaration that the value of its shares was more than sufficient to +protect his bank met with some credence until, swift upon the heels of +the other disasters, came an application for a receiver by the +stock-holders, coupled with the promise of a rigorous investigation +into his various financial manipulations. Then at last Gordon +acknowledged defeat. + +Ruin had come swiftly; the diversity of his interests made his +situation the more hopeless, for so cunningly had he interlocked one +with another that to separate them promised to be an endless task. + +He still kept up a fairly successful pretense of confidence, and +publicly he promised to bring order out of chaos, but in secret he gave +way to the blackest despair. Heretofore, failure had never affected him +deeply, for he had always managed to escape with advantage to his +pocket and without serious damage to his prestige, but out of the +present difficulty he could find no way. His office force stopped work, +frightened at his bearing; the bellboys of his hotel brought to the +desk tales of such maniacal violence that he was requested to move. + +At last the citizens of Cortez, who up to this time had been like putty +in his fingers, realized their betrayal and turned against him. +Creditors attached the railway property, certain violent-tempered men +prayed openly and earnestly to their gods for his return to Alaska in +order that they might exact satisfaction in frontier fashion. Eastern +investors in Hope Consolidated appeared in Seattle: there was talk of +criminal procedure. + +Bewildered as he was, half crazed with anxiety, Gordon knew that the +avalanche had not only wrecked his fortunes, but was bearing him +swiftly toward the penitentiary. Its gates yawned to welcome him, and +he felt a chilling terror such as he had never known. + +One evening as Captain Johnny Brennan stood on the dock superintending +the final loading of a cargo for the S. R. & N. he was accosted by a +tall, nervous man with shifting eyes and twitching lips. It was hard to +recognize in this pitiable shaken creature the once resplendent Gordon, +who had bent the whole northland to his ends. Some tantalizing demons +inside the man's frame were jerking at his sinews. Fear was in his +roving glance; he stammered; he plucked at the little captain's sleeve +like a frightened woman. The open-hearted Irishman was touched. + +"Yes," said Johnny, after listening for a time. "I'll take you with me, +and they won't catch you, either." + +Gordon chattered: "I'll pay you well, handsomely. I'm a rich man. I +have interests that demand attention, so--accept this money. Please! +Keep it all, my good fellow." + +Brennan stared at the bundle Gordon had thrust into his hand, then +regarded the speaker curiously. + +"Man dear," he said, "this isn't money. These are stock certificates." + +"Eh? Stock? Well, there's money in stocks, big money, if you know how +to handle them." The promoter's wandering eye shifted to the line of +stevedores trundling their trucks into the hold, then up to the crane +with its straining burden of bridge material. Every package was +stenciled with his rival's name, but he exclaimed: + +"Bravo, Captain! We'll be up to the summit by Christmas. 'No graft! No +incompetence! The utmost publicity in corporate affairs!'--that's our +platform. We're destined for a glorious success. Glorious success!" + +"Go aboard and lie down," Brennan said, gently. "You need a good +sleep." Then, calling a steward, he ordered, "Show Mr. Gordon to my +cabin and give him what he wants." + +He watched the tall figure stumble up the gang-plank, and shook his +head: + +"'The utmost publicity,' is it? Well, it's you that's getting it now. +And to think that you're the man with the mines and the railroads and +the widow! I'm afraid you'll be in irons when she sees you, but--that's +as good a finish as you deserve, after all." + + + + +XXV + +PREPARATIONS + + +The building of the Salmon River bridge will not soon be forgotten by +engineers and men of science. But, while the technical features of the +undertaking are familiar to a few, the general public knows little +about how the work was actually done; and since the building of the +bridge was the pivotal point in Murray O'Neil's career, it may be well +to describe in some detail its various phases--the steps which led up +to that day when the Salmon burst her bonds and put the result of all +his planning and labor to the final test. + +Nowhere else in the history of bridge-building had such conditions been +encountered; nowhere on earth had work of this character been attended +with greater hazards; never had circumstances created a situation of +more dramatic interest. By many the whole venture was regarded as a +reckless gamble; for more than a million dollars had been risked on the +chance not alone that O'Neil could build supports which the ice could +not demolish, but that he could build them under the most serious +difficulties in record-breaking time. Far more than the mere cost of +the structure hinged upon his success: failure would mean that his +whole investment up to that point would be wiped out, to say nothing of +the twenty-million-dollar project of a trunk-line up the valley of the +Salmon. + +Had the Government permitted the Kyak coal-fields to be opened up, the +lower reaches of the S. R. & N. would have had a value, but all +activity in that region had been throttled, and the policy of delay and +indecision at headquarters promised no relief. + +Careful as had been the plans, exhaustive and painstaking as had been +the preparations, the bridge-builders met with unpreventable delays, +disappointments, and disasters; for man is but a feeble creature whose +brain tires and whose dreams are brittle. It is with these hindrances +and accidents and with their effect upon the outcome that we have to +deal. + +Of course, the greatest handicap, the one ever-present obstacle, was +the cold, and this made itself most troublesome in the sinking of the +caissons and the building of the concrete piers. It was necessary, for +instance, to house in all cement work, and to raise the temperature not +only of the air surrounding it, but of the materials themselves before +they were mixed and laid. Huge wind-breaks had to be built to protect +the outside men from the gales that scoured the river-bed, and these +were forever blowing down or suffering damage from the hurricanes. All +this, however, had been anticipated: it was but the normal condition of +work in the northland. And it was not until the middle of winter, +shortly after Eliza's and Natalie's visit to the front, that an +unexpected danger threatened, a danger more appalling than any upon +which O'Neil and his assistants had reckoned. + +In laying his plans Parker had proceeded upon the assumption that, once +the cold had gripped the glaciers, they would remain motionless until +spring. All available evidence went to prove the correctness of this +supposition, but Alaska is a land of surprises, of contrasts, of +contradictions: study of its phenomena is too recent to make +practicable the laying down of hard and fast rules. In the midst of a +season of cruelly low temperatures there came a thaw, unprecedented, +inexplicable. A tremendous warm breath from the Pacific rolled +northward, bathing the frozen plains and mountain ranges. Blizzards +turned to rains and weeping fogs, the dry and shifting snow-fields +melted, water ran in the courses. Winter loosed its hold; its mantle +slipped. Nothing like this had ever been known or imagined. It was +impossible! It was as if the unhallowed region were bent upon living up +to its evil reputation. In a short time the loosened waters that +trickled through the sleeping ice-fields greased the foundations upon +which they lay. Jackson Glacier roused itself, then began to glide +forward like a ship upon its ways. First there came the usual +premonitory explosions--the sound of subterranean blasts as the ice +cracked, gave way, and shifted to the weight above; echoes filled the +sodden valley with memories of the summer months. It was as if the +seasons had changed, as if the zodiacal procession had been thrown into +confusion. The frozen surface of the Salmon was inundated; water four +feet deep in some places ran over it. + +The general wonder at this occurrence changed to consternation when it +was seen that the glacier acted like a battering-ram of stupendous +size, buckling the river ice in front of it as if ice were made of +paper. That seven-foot armor was crushed, broken into a thousand +fragments, which threatened to choke the stream. A half-mile below the +bridge site the Salmon was pinched as if between two jaws; its smooth +surface was rapidly turned into an indescribable jumble of up-ended +cakes. + +When a fortnight had passed O'Neil began to fear that this movement +would go on until the channel had been closed as by a huge sliding +door. In that case the rising waters would quickly wipe out all traces +of his work. Such a crumpling and shifting of the ice had never +occurred before--at least, not within fifty years, as the alder and +cottonwood growth on the east bank showed; but nothing seemed +impossible, no prank too grimly grotesque for Nature to play in this +solitude. O'Neil felt that his own ingenuity was quite unequal to the +task of combating this peril. Set against forces so tremendous and +arbitrary human invention seemed dwarfed to a pitiable insignificance. + +Day after day he watched the progress of that white palisade; day after +day he scanned the heavens for a sign of change, for out of the sky +alone could come his deliverance. Hourly tests were made at the bridge +site, lest the ice should give way before the pressure from below and +by moving up-stream destroy the intricate pattern of piling which was +being driven to support the steelwork. But day after day the snows +continued to melt and the rain to fall. Two rivers were now boiling +past the camp, one hidden deep, the other a shallow torrent which ran +upon a bed of ice. The valley was rent by the sounds of the glacier's +snail-like progress. + +Then, without apparent cause, the seasons fell into order again, the +mercury dropped, the surface-water disappeared, the country was sheeted +with a glittering crust over which men walked, leaving no trace of +footprints. Jackson became silent: once again the wind blew cold from +out of the funnel-mouth and the bridge-builders threshed their arms to +start their blood. But the glacier face had advanced four hundred feet +from its position in August; it had narrowed the Salmon by fully +one-half its width. + +Fortunately, the bridge had suffered no damage as yet, and no one +foresaw the effect which these altered conditions were to have. + +The actual erection of steelwork was impossible during the coldest +months; Parker had planned only to rush the piers, abutments, and +false-work to completion so that he could take advantage of the mild +spring weather preceding the break-up. The execution of this plan was +in itself an unparalleled undertaking, making it necessary to hire +double crews of picked men. Yet, as the weeks wore into months the +intricate details were wrought out one by one, and preparations were +completed for the great race. + +Late in March Dan Appleton went to the front, taking with him his wife +and his sister, for whom O'Neil had thoughtfully prepared suitable +living-quarters. The girls were as hungry as Dan to have a part in the +deciding struggle, or at least to see it close at hand, for the spirit +of those engaged in the work had entered them also. Life at Omar of +late had been rather uneventful, and they looked forward with pleasure +to a renewal of those companionable relations which had made the summer +months so, full of interest and delight. But they were disappointed. +Life at the end of the line they found to be a very grim, a very +earnest, and in some respects an extremely disagreeable affair: the +feverish, unceasing activity of their friends left no time for +companionship or recreation of any sort. More and more they, too, came +to feel the sense of haste and strain pervading the whole army of +workers, the weight of responsibility that bore upon the commander. + +Dan became almost a stranger to them, and when they saw him he was +obsessed by vital issues. Mellen was gruff and irritable: Parker in his +preoccupation ignored everything but his duties. Of all their former +comrades O'Neil alone seemed aware of their presence. But behind his +smile they saw the lurking worries; in his eyes was an abstraction they +could not penetrate, in his bearing the fatigue of a man tried to the +breaking-point. + +To Eliza there was a certain joy merely in being near the man she +loved, even though she could not help being hurt by his apparent +indifference. The long weeks without sight of him had deepened her +feeling, and she had turned for relief to the writing of her book--the +natural outlet for her repressed emotions. Into its pages she had +poured all her passion, all her yearning, and she had written with an +intimate understanding of O'Neil's ambitions and aims which later gave +the story its unique success as an epic of financial romance. + +Hers was a nature which could not be content with idleness. She took up +the work that she and Natalie had begun, devoting herself unobtrusively +yet effectively to making O'Neil comfortable. It was a labor of love, +done with no expectation of reward; it thrilled her, filling her with +mingled sadness and satisfaction. But if Murray noticed the improvement +in his surroundings, which she sometimes doubted, he evidently +attributed it to a sudden access of zeal on the part of Ben, for he +made no comment. Whether or not she wished him to see and understand +she could hardly tell. Somehow his unobservant, masculine acceptance of +things better and worse appealed to the woman in her. She slipped into +O'Neil's quarters during his absence, and slipped out again quietly; +she learned to know his ways, his peculiarities; she found herself +caressing and talking to his personal belongings as if they could hear +and understand. She conducted long conversations with the objects on +his bureau. One morning Ben entered unexpectedly to surprise her in the +act of kissing Murray's shaving-mirror as if it still preserved the +image of its owner's face, after which she banished the cook-boy +utterly and performed his duties with her own hands. + +Of course, discovery was inevitable. At last O'Neil stumbled in upon +her in the midst of her task, and, questioning her, read the truth from +her blushes and her incoherent attempts at explanation. + +"So! You're the one who has been doing this!" he exclaimed, in frank +astonishment. "And I've been tipping Benny for his thoughtfulness all +this time! The rascal has made enough to retire rich." + +"He seemed not to understand his duties very well, so I took charge. +But you had no business to catch me!" The flush died from Eliza's +cheeks, and she faced him with thoroughly feminine indignation. + +"I can't let you go on with this," said Murray. "_I_ ought to be doing +something for YOU." + +But the girl flared up defiantly. "I love it. I'll do it, no matter if +you lock me out. I'm not on the pay-roll, you know, so you have no +authority over me--none at all!" + +His eyes roved around the room, and for the first time he fully took in +the changes her hands had wrought. + +"My dear child, it's very nice to be spoiled this way and have +everything neat and clean, but--it embarrasses me dreadfully to have +you saddled with the sordid work--" + +"It isn't sordid, and--what brought you home at this hour, anyhow?" she +demanded. + +O'Neil's smile gave place to an anxious frown. + +"The ice is rising, and--" + +"Rising?" + +"Yes. Our old enemy Jackson Glacier is causing us trouble again. That +jam of broken ice in front of it is backing up the water--there's more +running now, and the ice is lifting. It's lifting the false-work with +it, pulling the piles out of the river-bottom like splinters out of a +sore hand." + +"That's pretty bad, isn't it?" + +"It certainly is. It threatens to throw everything out of alignment and +prevent us from laying the steel if we don't check it." + +"Check it!" cried Eliza. "How can you check a thing like that?" + +"Easily enough, if we can spare the hands--by cutting away the ice +where it is frozen to the piles, so that it won't lift them with it. +The trouble is to get men enough--you see, the ice is nine feet thick +now. I've set every man to work with axes and chisels and steam-points, +and I came up to telephone Slater for more help. We'll have to work +fast, night and day." + +"There's nobody left in Omar," Eliza said, quickly. + +"I know. Tom's going to gather all he can at Cortez and Hope and rush +them out here. Our task is to keep the ice cut away until help arrives." + +"I suppose it's too late in the season to repair any serious damage?" + +"Exactly. If you care to go back with me you can see what we're doing." +As they set off for the bridge site Murray looked down at Eliza, +striding man-like beside him, with something of affectionate +appreciation in his eyes, and said humbly: "It was careless of me not +to see what you have been doing for me all this time. My only excuse is +that I've been driven half mad with other things. I--haven't time to +think of myself." + +"All housekeepers have a thankless task," laughed Eliza. + +When they reached the river-bank she saw everything apparently just as +when she had last seen it. "Why, it's not as bad as I imagined!" she +exclaimed. "I thought I'd find everything going to smash." + +"Oh, there's nothing spectacular about it. There seldom is about +serious mishaps in this business. The ice has risen only an inch or +more so far, but the very slowness and sureness of it is what's +alarming. It shows that the water is backing up, and as the flow +increases the rise of the ice will quicken. If it starts to move up or +down stream, we're lost." + +There was ample evidence that the menace was thoroughly understood, for +the whole day shift was toiling at the ice, chopping it, thawing it, +shoveling it away, although its tremendous thickness made their efforts +seem puerile. Everywhere there was manifested a frantic haste, a grim, +strained eagerness that was full of ominous meaning. + +All that day Eliza watched the unequal struggle, and in the evening Dan +brought her reports that were far from reassuring. The relentless +movement showed no sign of ceasing. When she retired that night she +sought ease from her anxiety in a prayer that was half a petition for +O'Neil's success and half an exceedingly full and frank confession of +her love for him. Outside, beneath the glare of torches and hastily +strung incandescents, a weary army toiled stubbornly, digging, gouging, +chopping at the foot of the towering wall of timbers which stretched +across the Salmon. In the north the aurora borealis played brilliantly +as if to light a council of the gods. + +On the following day "Happy Tom" arrived with fifty men. + +"I got the last mother's son I could find," he explained, as he warmed +himself at O'Neil's stove. + +"Did you go to Hope?" + +"I did, and I saw the splavvus, himself." + +"Gordon?" + +"He's worse than we thought." Tom tapped his shining forehead +significantly. "Loft to let!" + +"What--insane?" + +"Nothing but echoes in his dome. The town's as empty as his bonnet too, +and the streets are full of snow. It's a sight!" + +"Tell me about Mrs. Gordon." + +"She's quite a person," said Slater, slowly. "She surprised me. She's +there, alone with him and a watchman. She does all the work, even to +LUGGING in the wood and coal--he's too busy to help--but she won't +leave him. She told me that Dan and Natalie wanted her to come over +here, but she couldn't bring herself to do it or to let them assist in +any way. Gordon spends all his time at his desk, promoting, writing ads +and prospectuses. He's got a grand scheme. He's found that 'Hope +Consolidated' is full of rich ore, but the trouble is in getting it +out; so he's working on a new process of extraction. It's a wonderful +process--you'd never guess what it is. He SMOKES it out! He says all he +needs is plenty of smoke. That bothered him until he hit on the idea of +burning feathers. Now he's planning to raise ducks, because they've got +so much down. Isn't that the limit? She'll have to fit him into a +padded cell sooner or later." + +"Poor devil!" said O'Neil. "I'm sorry. He had an unusual mind." + +Slater sniffed. "I think it's pretty soft for him, myself. He's made +better than a stand-off--he lost his memory, but he saved his skin. +It's funny how some men can't fall: if they slip on a banana-peel +somebody shoves a cushion under 'em before they 'light. _I_ never got +the best of anything. If I dropped asleep in church my wife would +divorce me and I'd go to the electric chair. Gordon robs widows and +orphans, right and left, then ends up with a loving woman to take care +of him in his old age. Why, if I even robbed a blind puppy of a biscuit +I'd leave a thumb-print on his ear, or the dog's mother would turn out +to be a bloodhound. Anyhow, I'd spend MY declining years nestled up to +a rock-pile, with a mallet in my mit, and a low-browed gentleman +scowling at me from the top of a wall. He'd lean on his shotgun and +say, 'Hurry up, Fatty; it's getting late and there's a ton of oakum to +pick.' It just goes to show that some of us is born behind the game and +never get even, while others, like Gordon, quit winner no matter how +much they lose." Having relieved himself of this fervid homily, "Happy +Tom" unrolled a package of gum and thrust three sticks into his mouth. +"Speaking of bad luck," he continued, "when are you going to get +married, Murray?" + +O'Neil started. "Why--never. It isn't the same kind of proposition as +building a bridge, you know. There's a little matter of youth and good +looks that counts considerably in the marriage business. No woman would +have an old chap like me." + +Slater took a mournful inventory of his chief's person, then said +doubtfully: "You MIGHT put it over, Murray. I ain't strictly handsome, +myself, but I did." + +As O'Neil slipped into his fur coat, after the fat man had slouched +out, he caught sight of himself in the glass of his bureau and paused. +He leaned forward and studied the care-worn countenance that peered +forth at him, then shook his head. He saw that the hair was growing +grayer; that the face was very plain, and--yes, unquestionably, it was +no longer youthful. Of course, he didn't feel old, but the evidence +that he was so admitted of no disproof, and it was evidence of a sort +which no woman could disregard. He turned from the glass with a qualm +of disgust at his weakness in allowing himself to be influenced in the +slightest by Tom's suggestion. + +For a week the ice rose slowly, a foot a day, and in spite of the +greatest watchfulness it took the false-work with it here and there. +But concentrated effort at the critical points saved the structure from +serious injury. Then the jam in front of Jackson Glacier went out, at +least in part, and the ice began to fall. Down it settled, smoothly, +swiftly, until it rested once more upon the shores. It was still as +firm as in midwinter, and showed no sign of breaking; nor had it moved +down-stream a hair's breadth. O'Neil gathered his forces for the final +onslaught. + + + + +XXVI + +THE RACE + + +On April 5th the last of the steel for Span Number One reached the +front, and erection was begun. The men fell to with a vim and an +enthusiasm impossible to describe. With incredible rapidity the heavy +sections were laid in place; the riveters began their metallic song; +the towering three bent traveler ran smoothly on its track, and under +it grew a web work of metal, braced and reinforced to withstand, in +addition to ordinary strains, the pressure of a hundred-mile-an-hour +wind. To those who looked on, the structure appeared to build itself, +like some dream edifice; it seemed a miracle that human hands could +work that stubborn metal so swiftly and with so little effort. But +every piece had been cut and fitted carefully, then checked and placed +where it was accessible. + +Now that winter had broken, spring came with a rush. The snows began to +shrink and the drifts to settle. The air grew balmier with every day; +the drip from eaves was answered by the gurgling laughter of hidden +waters. Here and there the boldest mountainsides began to show, and the +tops of alder thickets thrust themselves into sight. Where wood or +metal caught the sun-rays the snow retreated; pools of ice-water began +to form at noon. + +The days were long, too, and no frozen winds charged out of the north. +As the daylight lengthened, so did the working-hours of the toilers. + +On April 18th the span was completed. In thirteen days Mellen's crew +had laid four hundred feet of the heaviest steel ever used in a bridge +of this type. But there was no halt; the material for the second +section had been assembled, meanwhile, and the traveler began to swing +it into place. + +The din was unceasing; the clash of riveters, the creak and rattle of +hoists, the shouts of men mingled in a persistent, ear-splitting +clamor; and foot by foot the girders reached out toward the second +monolith which rose from the river-bed. The well-adjusted human machine +was running smoothly; every man knew his place and the duties that went +with it; the hands of each worker were capable and skilled. But now the +hillsides were growing bare, rills gashed the sloping snow-fields, the +upper gullies began to rumble to avalanches--forerunners of the process +that would strip the earth of snow and ice and free the river in all +its fury. In six days three hundred feet more of steel had been bolted +fast to the complete section, and Span Two was in place. But the +surface of the Salmon was no longer white and pure; it was dirty and +discolored now, for the debris which had collected during the past +winter was exposing itself. The icy covering was partially inundated +also; shallow ponds formed upon it and were rippled by the south +breeze. Running waters on every side sang a menace to the workers. + +Then progress ceased abruptly. It became known that a part of the +material for the third span had gone astray in its long journey across +the continent. There had been a delay at the Pittsburg mills, then a +blockade in the Sierras; O'Neil was in Omar at the end of the cable +straining every nerve to have the shipment rushed through. Mellen +brooded over his uncompleted work: Parker studied the dripping hills +and measured the melting snows. He still smiled; but he showed his +anxiety in a constant nervous unrest, and he could not sleep. + +At length news came that Johnny Brennan had the steel aboard his ship +and had sailed. A record run was predicted, but meanwhile the south +wind brought havoc on its breath. The sun shone hotly into the valley +of the Salmon, and instead of warmth it brought a chill to the hearts +of those who watched and waited. + +Twelve endless, idle days crawled by. Winter no longer gave battle; she +was routed, and in her mad retreat she threatened to overwhelm O'Neil's +fortunes. + +On May 6th the needed bridge members were assembled, and the erection +of Span Three began. The original plan had been to build this section +on the cantilever principle, so as to gain independence of the river +ice, but to do so would have meant slow work and much delay--an +expenditure of time which the terms of the option made impossible. +Arrangements had been made, therefore, to lay it on false-work as the +other spans had been laid, risking everything upon the weather. + +As a matter of precaution the southern half of the span was connected +to the completed portion; but before the connection could be fully made +the remainder of the jam in front of Jackson Glacier, which had caused +so much trouble heretofore, went out suddenly, and the river ice moved +down-stream about a foot, carrying with it the whole intricate system +of supporting timbers beneath the uncompleted span. Hasty measurements +showed that the north end of the steel then on the false-work was +thirteen inches out of line. + +It was Mr. Blaine who brought the tidings of this last calamity to +Eliza Appleton. From his evident anxiety she gathered that the matter +was of graver consequence than she could well understand. + +"Thirteen inches in fifteen hundred feet can't amount to much," she +said, vaguely. + +Blaine smiled in spite of himself. "You don't understand. It's as bad +as thirteen feet, for the work can't go on until everything is in +perfect alignment. That whole forest of piles must be straightened." + +"Impossible!" she gasped. "Why, there are thousands of them." + +He shook his head, still smiling doubtfully. "Nothing is impossible to +Mellen and Parker. They've begun clearing away the ice on the up-stream +side and driving new anchor-piles above. They're going to fit tackle to +them and yank the whole thing up-stream. I never heard of such a thing, +but there's no time to do anything else." He cast a worried look at the +smiling sky. "I wonder what will happen next. This is getting on my +nerves." + +Out on the river swift work was going on. Steam from every available +boiler was carried across the ice in feed-pipes, the night shift had +been roused from sleep, and every available man was busied in relieving +the pressure. Pile-drivers hammered long timbers into the river-bed +above the threatened point, hydraulic jacks were put in place, and +steel cables were run to drum and pulley. The men worked sometimes +knee-deep in ice-water; but they did not walk, they ran. In an +incredibly short time the preparations were completed, a strain was put +upon the tackle, and when night came the massive false-work had been +pulled back into line and the traveler was once more swinging steel +into place. It was a magnificent feat, yet not one of those concerned +in it could feel confident that the work had not been done in vain; for +the time was growing terribly short, and, although the ice seemed +solid, it was rotting fast. + +After the southern half of the span had been completed the warmth +increased rapidly, therefore the steel crew lengthened its hours. The +men worked from seven o'clock in the morning until eleven o'clock at +night. + +On the 13th, without warning of any sort, Garfield Glacier began moving +forward. It had lain inactive even during the midwinter thaw which had +started its smaller brother, but that warm spell had evidently had its +effect upon the giant, for now he shook off his lethargy and awoke. He +stirred, gradually at first and without sound, as if bent upon +surprising the interlopers; then his speed increased. As the glacier +advanced it thrust the nine-foot blanket of lake ice ahead of it, and +this in turn crowded the river ice down upon the bridge. The movement +at the camp site on the first day was only two inches, but that was +sufficiently serious. + +The onset of Garfield at this time was, of course, unexpected; for no +forward motion had ever been reported prior to the spring break-up. The +action of the ice heretofore had been alarming; but now consternation +spread, a panic swept the ranks of the builders, for this was no +short-lived phenomenon, this was the annual march of the glacier itself +which promised to continue indefinitely. A tremendous cutting-edge, +nine feet in thickness, like the blade of a carpenter's plane, was +being driven against the bridge by an irresistible force. + +Once again the endless thawing and chopping and gouging of ice began, +but the more rapidly the encroaching edge was cut away the more swiftly +did it bear down. The huge mass began to rumble; it "calved," it split, +it detonated, and, having finally loosened itself from its bed, it +acquired increased momentum. As the men with chisels and steam-points +became exhausted others took their places, but the structural gang +clung to its perch above, augmenting the din of riveters and the +groaning of blocks and tackle. Among the able-bodied men sleep now was +out of the question, for the ice gained in spite of every effort. It +was too late to remove the steel in the uncompleted span to a place of +safety, for that would have required more time than to bridge the +remaining gap. + +Piling began to buckle and bend before that irresistible push; the +whole nicely balanced mass of metal was in danger of being unseated. +Mellen cursed the heavens in a black fury; Parker smiled through white +lips; O'Neil ground his teeth and spurred his men on. + +This feverish haste brought its penalty. On the evening of the 14th, +when the span was more than three-quarters finished, a lower chord +section fouled as it was lifted, and two loading-beams at the top of +the traveler snapped. + +On that day victory had been in sight; the driving of the last bolt had +been but a question of hours, a race with the sliding ice. But with the +hoisting apparatus out of use work halted. Swiftly, desperately, +without loss of a moment's time, repairs began. No regrets were voiced, +no effort was made to place the blame, for that would have caused +delay, and every minute counted. Eleven hours later the broken beams +were replaced, and erection had recommenced. + +But now for those above there was danger to life and limb. During the +pause the ice had gained, and no effort could relieve the false-work of +its strain. All knew that if it gave way the workmen would be caught in +a chaos of collapsing wood and steel. + +From the morning of May 14th until midnight of the 16th the +iron-workers clung to their tasks. They dropped their tools and ran to +their meals; they gulped their food and fled back to their posts. The +weaker ones gave out and staggered away, cursed and taunted by their +companions. They were rough fellows, and in their deep-throated +profanity was a prayer. + +The strong ones struggled on, blind with weariness, but upheld by that +desperate, unthinking courage that animates a bayonet charge. It seemed +that every moment must see the beginning of that slow work of +demolition which would send them all scurrying to safety; but hour +after hour the piling continued to hold and the fingers of steel to +reach out, foot by foot, for the concrete pier which was their goal. + +At midnight of the 16th the last rivet was driven; but the ice had +gained to such an extent that the lower chord was buckled down-stream +about eight inches, and the distance was growing steadily. Quickly the +traveler was shifted to the false-work beyond the pier, and the men +under Mellen's direction fell to splitting out the blocking. + +As the supports were chopped away the mass began to crush the last few +wedges; there was a great snapping and rending of wood; and some one, +strained to the breaking-point, shouted: + +"Look out! There she goes!" + +A cry of terror arose, the men fled, trampling one another in their +panic. But Mellen charged them like a wild man, firing curses and +orders at them until they rallied. The remaining supports were removed; +the fifteen hundred tons of metal settled into place and rested +securely on its foundations. + +O'Neil was the last man ashore. As he walked the completed span from +Pier Three the barricade of piling beneath him was bending and tearing; +but he issued no orders to remove it, for the river was doing that. In +the general haste pile-drivers, hoists, boilers, and various odds and +ends of machinery and material had been left where they stood. They +were being inundated now; many of them were all but submerged. There +was no possibility of saving them at present, for the men were half +dead from exhaustion. + +As he lurched up the muddy, uneven street to his quarters Murray felt +his fatigue like a heavy burden, for he had been sixty hours without +sleep. He saw Slater and Appleton and the rest of his "boys"; he saw +Natalie and Eliza, but he was too tired to speak to them, or to grasp +what they said. He heard the workmen cheering Mellen and Parker and +himself. It was very foolish, he thought, to cheer, since the river had +so nearly triumphed and the final test was yet to come. + +He fell upon his bed, clothed as he was; an hour later the false-work +beneath Span Three collapsed. + +Although the bridge was not yet finished, the most critical point of +its construction had been passed, for the fourth and final portion +would be built over shallow water, and no great difficulties were to be +expected even though the ice went out before the work was finished. But +Murray had made his promise and his boast to complete the structure +within a stated time, and he was determined to live up to the very +letter of his agreement with the Trust. As to the result of the +break-up, he had no fear whatever. + +For once Nature aided him: she seemed to smile as if in approval of his +steadfastness. The movement of the channel ice became irregular, +spasmodic, but it remained firm until the last span had been put in +place. + +Of this dramatic struggle Eliza Appleton had watched every phase with +intensest interest; but when at last she knew that the battle was won +she experienced a peculiar revulsion of feeling. So long as O'Neil had +been working against odds, with the prospect of ruin and failure +forever imminent, she had felt an almost painful sympathy, but now that +he had conquered she felt timid about congratulating him. He was no +longer to be pitied and helped; he had attained his goal and the fame +he longed for. His success would inevitably take him out of her life. +She was very sorry that he needed her no longer. + +She did not watch the last bridge-member swung, but went to her room, +and tried to face the future. Spring was here, her book was finished, +there was the need to take up her life again. + +She was surprised when Murray came to find her. + +"I missed you, Eliza," he said. "The others are all down at the +river-bank. I want you to congratulate me." + +She saw, with a jealous twinge, that exultation over his victory had +overcome his weariness, that his face was alight with a fire she had +never before seen. He seemed young, vigorous, and masterful once more. + +"Of course," he went on, "the credit belongs to Parker, who worked the +bridge out in each detail--he's marvelous--and to Mellen, who actually +built it, but I helped a little. Praise to me means praise to them." + +"It is all over now, isn't it?" + +"Practically. Blaine has cabled New York that we've won. Strictly +speaking, we haven't as yet, for there's still the break-up to face; +but the bridge will come through it without a scratch. The ice may go +out any minute now, and after that I can rest." He smiled at her +gladly. "It will feel good to get rid of all this responsibility, won't +it? I think you've suffered under it as much as I have." + +A little wistfully she answered: "You're going to realize that dream +you told me about the day of the storm at Kyak. You have conquered this +great country--just as you dreamed." + +He acquiesced eagerly, boyishly. "Yes. Whirring wheels, a current of +traffic, a broad highway of steel--that's the sort of monument I want +to leave." + +"Sometime I'll come back and see it all completed and tell myself that +I had a little part in making it." + +"Come back?" he queried. "Why, you're going to stay till we're through, +aren't you?" + +"Oh no! I'm going south with the spring flight--on the next boat, +perhaps." + +His face fell; the exultant light gradually faded from his eyes. + +"Why--I had no idea! Aren't you happy here?" + +She nodded. "But I must try to make good in my work as you have in +yours." + +He was looking at her sorrowfully, almost as if she had deserted him. +"That's too bad, but--I suppose you must go. Yes; this is no place for +you. I dare say other people need you to bring sunshine and joy to them +just as we old fellows do, but--I've never thought about your leaving. +It wouldn't be right to ask you to stay here among such people as we +are when you have so much ahead of you. Still, it will leave a gap. +Yes--it certainly will--leave a gap." + +She longed desperately to tell him how willingly she would stay if he +only asked her, but the very thought shocked her into a deeper reserve. + +"I'm going East to sell my book," she said, stiffly. "You've given me +the climax of the story in this race with the seasons." + +"Is it a--love story?" he asked. + +Eliza flushed. "Yes. It's mostly love." + +"You're not at all the girl I thought you when we first met. You're +very--different. I'm sure I won't recognize myself as the hero. Who--or +what is the girl in the story?" + +"Well, she's just the kind of girl that would appeal to a person like +you. She's tall and dark and dashing, and--of course, she's remarkably +beautiful. She's very feminine, too." + +"What's her name?" + +Miss Appleton stammered: "Why--I--called her Violet--until I could +think of a better--" + +"What's wrong with Violet? You couldn't think of a better name than +that. I'm fond of it." + +"Oh, it's a good book-name, but for real life it's too--delicate." +Eliza felt with vexation that her face was burning. She was sure he was +laughing at her. + +"Can't I read the manuscript?" he pleaded. + +"Heavens! No! I--" She changed the subject abruptly. "I've left word to +be called the minute the ice starts to go out. I want to see the last +act of the drama." + +When O'Neil left her he was vaguely perplexed, for something in her +bearing did not seem quite natural. He was forlorn, too, at the +prospect of losing her. He wondered if fathers suffered thus, or if a +lover could be more deeply pained at a parting than he. Somehow he +seemed to share the feelings of both. + + + + +XXVII + +HOW A DREAM CAME TRUE + + +Early on the following morning Eliza was awakened by a sound of +shouting outside her window. She lay half dazed for a moment or two, +until the significance of the uproar made itself apparent; then she +leaped from her bed. + +Men were crying: + +"There she goes!" + +"She's going out!" + +Doors were slamming, there was the rustle and scuff of flying feet, and +in the next room Dan was evidently throwing himself into his clothes +like a fireman. Eliza called to him, but he did not answer; and the +next moment he had fled, upsetting some article of furniture in his +haste. Drawing her curtains aside, the girl saw in the brightening dawn +men pouring down the street, dressing as they went. They seemed half +demented; they were yelling at one another, but she could not gather +from their words whether it was the ice which was moving or--the +bridge. The bridge! That possibility set her to dressing with tremulous +fingers, her heart sick with fear. She called to Natalie, but scarcely +recognized her own voice. + +"I--don't know," came the muffled reply to her question. "It sounds +like something--terrible. I'm afraid Dan will fall in or--get hurt." +The confusion in the street was growing. "ELIZA!" Natalie's voice was +tragic. + +"What is it, dear?" + +"H--help me, quick!" + +"How?" + +"I can't find my other shoe." + +But Eliza was sitting on the floor, lacing up her own stout boots, and +an instant later she followed her brother, pursued by a wail of dismay +from the adjoining chamber. Through the chill morning light she +hurried, asking many questions, but receiving no coherent reply from +the racing men; then after endless moments of suspense she saw with +relief that the massive superstructure of the bridge was still +standing. Above the shouting she heard another sound, indistinct but +insistent. It filled the air with a whispering movement; it was +punctuated at intervals by a dull rumbling and grinding. She found the +river-bank black with forms, but like a cat she wormed her way through +the crowd until the whole panorama lay before her. + +The bridge stood as she had seen it on the yesterday--slender, strong, +superb in the simplicity of its splendid outline; but beneath it and as +far as her eyes could follow the river she saw, not the solid spread of +white to which she had become accustomed, but a moving expanse of +floes. At first the winter burden slipped past in huge masses, acres in +extent, but soon these began to be rent apart; irregular black seams +ran through them, opened, closed, and threw up ridges of ice-shavings +as they ground together. The floes were rubbing against the banks, they +came sliding out over the dry shore like tremendous sheets of cardboard +manipulated by unseen hands, and not until their nine-foot edges were +exposed to view did the mind grasp the appalling significance of their +movement. They swept down in phalanxes upon the wedge-like ice-breakers +which stood guard above the bridge-piers, then they halted, separated, +and the armored cutting-edges sheared through them like blades. + +A half-mile below, where the Salmon flung itself headlong against the +upper wing of Jackson Glacier, the floating ice was checked by the +narrowed passageway. There a jam was forming, and as the river heaved +and tore at its growing burden a spectacular struggle went on. The +sound of it came faintly but impressively to the watchers--a grinding +and crushing of bergs, a roar of escaping waters. Fragments were +up-ended, masses were rearing themselves edgewise into the air, were +overturning and collapsing. They were wedging themselves into every +conceivable angle, and the crowding procession from above was adding to +the barrier momentarily. As the passageway became blocked the waters +rose; the river piled itself up so swiftly that the eye could note its +rise along the banks. + +But the attention of the crowd was divided between the jam and +something far out on the bridge itself. At first glance Eliza did not +comprehend; then she heard a man explaining: + +"He was going out when we got here, and now he won't come back." + +The girl gasped, for she recognized the distant figure of a man, +dwarfed to puny proportions by the bulk of the structure in the mazes +of which he stood. The man was O'Neil; he was perched upon one of the +girders near the center of the longest span, where he could watch the +attack upon the pyramidal ice-breakers beneath him. + +"He's a fool," said some one at Eliza's back. "That jam is getting +bigger." + +"He'd better let the damned bridge take care of itself." + +She turned and began to force her way through the press of people +between her and the south abutment. She arrived there, disheveled and +panting, to find Slater, Mellen, and Parker standing in the approach. +In front of them extended the long skeleton tunnel into which Murray +had gone. + +"Mr. O'Neil is out there!" she cried to Tom. + +Slater turned and, reading the tragic appeal in her face, said +reassuringly: + +"Sure! But he's all right." + +"They say--there's danger." + +"Happy Tom's" round visage puckered into a doubtful smile. "Oh, he'll +take care of himself." + +Mellen turned to the girl and said briefly: + +"There's no danger whatever." + +But Eliza's fear was not to be so easily quieted. + +"Then why did he go out alone? What are you men doing here?" + +"It's his orders," Tom told her. + +Mellen was staring at the jam below, over which the Salmon was hurling +a flood of ice and foaming waters. The stream was swelling and rising +steadily; already it had nearly reached the level of the timberline on +the left bank; the blockade was extending up-stream almost to the +bridge itself. Mellen said something to Parker, who shook his head +silently. + +Dan Appleton shouldered his way out of the crowd, with Natalie at his +heels. She had dressed herself in haste: her hair was loose, her jacket +was buttoned awry; on one foot was a shoe, on the other a bedroom +slipper muddy and sodden. Her dark eyes were big with excitement. + +"Why don't you make Murray come in?" Dan demanded sharply. + +"He won't do it," muttered Slater. + +"The jam is growing. Nobody knows what'll happen if it holds much +longer. If the bridge should go--" + +Mellen whirled, crying savagely: "It won't go! All hell couldn't take +it out." + +From the ranks of the workmen came a bellow of triumph, as an unusually +heavy ice-floe was swept against the breakers and rent asunder. The +tumult of the imprisoned waters below was growing louder every moment: +across the lake came a stentorian rumble as a huge mass was loosened +from the front of Garfield. The channel of the Salmon where the +onlookers stood was a heaving, churning caldron over which the slim +bridge flung itself defiantly. + +Eliza plucked at her brother's sleeve imploringly, and he saw her for +the first time. + +"Hello, Sis," he cried. "How did you get here?" + +"Is he in--danger, Danny?" + +"Yes--no! Mellen says it's all right, so it must be, but--that dam--" + +At that moment Natalie began to sob hysterically, and Dan turned his +attention to her. + +But his sister was not of the hysterical kind. Seizing Tom Slater by +the arm, she tried to shake him, demanding fiercely: + +"Suppose the jam doesn't give way! What will happen?" "Happy Tom" +stared at her uncomprehendingly. Her voice was shrill and insistent. +"Suppose the water rises higher. Won't the ice sweep down on the bridge +itself? Won't it wreck everything if it goes out suddenly? Tell me--" + +"It can't hold. Mellen says so." Slater, like the others, found it +impossible to keep his eyes from the river where those immeasurable +forces were at play; then in his peculiar irascible manner he +complained: "I told 'em we was crazy to try this. It ain't a white +man's country; it ain't a safe place for a bridge. There's just one +God-awful thing after another--" He broke into a shout, for Eliza had +slipped past him and was speeding like a shadow out across the +irregularly spaced ties upon which the bridge track was laid. + +Mellen whirled at the cry and made after her, but he might as well have +tried to catch the wind. As she ran she heard her brother shout in +sudden alarm and Natalie's voice raised in entreaty, but she sped on +under an impulse as irresistible as panic fear. Down through the +openings beneath her feet she saw, as in a nightmare, the sweeping +flood, burdened with plunging ice chunks and flecked with foam. She +seemed to be suspended above it; yet she was running at reckless speed, +dimly aware of the consequences of a misjudged footstep, but fearful +only of being overtaken. Suddenly she hated her companions; her mind +was in a furious revolt at their cowardice, their indecision, or +whatever it was that held them like a group of wooden figures safe on +shore while the man whose life was worth all theirs put together +exposed himself to needless peril. That he was really in danger she +felt sure. She knew that Murray was apt to lose himself in his dreams; +perhaps some visionary mood had blinded him to the menace of that +mounting ice-ridge it front of the glacier, or had he madly chosen to +stand or fall with this structure that meant so much to him? She would +make him yield to her own terror, drag him ashore, if necessary, with +her own hands. + +She stumbled, but saved herself from a fall, then gathered her skirts +more closely and rushed on, measuring with instinctive nicety the +length of every stride. It was not an easy path over which she dashed, +for the ties were unevenly spaced; gaping apertures gave terrible +glimpses of the river below, and across these ghastly abysses she had +to leap. + +The hoarse bursts of shouting from the shore ceased as the workmen +beheld her flitting out along the steel causeway. They watched her in +dumb amazement. + +All at once O'Neil saw her and hurried to meet her. + +"Eliza!" he cried. "Be careful! What possessed you to do this?" + +"Come away," she gasped. "It's dangerous. The jam--Look!" She pointed +down the channel. + +He shook his head impatiently. + +"Yes!" she pleaded. "Yes! Please! They wouldn't come to warn you--they +tried to stop me. You must go ashore." The frightened entreaty in her +clear, wide-open eyes, the disorder that her haste had made affected +O'Neil strangely. He stared at her, bewildered, doubtful, then steadied +her and groped with his free hand for support. He could feel her +trembling wretchedly. + +"There's no danger, none whatever," he said, soothingly. "Nothing can +happen." + +"You don't know. The bridge has never been tried. The ice is battering +at it, and that jam--if it doesn't burst--" + +"But it will. It can't last much longer." + +"It's rising--" + +"To be sure, but the river will overflow the bank." + +"Please!" she urged. "You can do no good here. I'm afraid." + +He stared at her in the same incredulous bewilderment; some impulse +deep within him was struggling for expression, but he could not find +words to frame it. His eyes were oddly bright as he smiled at her. + +"Won't you go ashore?" she begged. + +"I'll take you back, of course, but I want to stay and see--" + +"Then--I'll stay." + +"Eliza!" Her name burst from his lips in a tone that thrilled her, but +with it came a sudden uproar from the distant crowd, and the next +instant they saw that the ice-barrier was giving way. The pressure had +become irresistible. As the Salmon had risen the ice had risen also, +and now the narrow throat was belching its contents forth. The chaos of +up-ended bergs was being torn apart; over it and through it burst a +deluge which filled the valley with the roar of a mighty cataract. +Clouds of spray were in the air; broken masses were leaping and +somersaulting; high up on the shore were stranded floes and fragments, +left in the wake of the moving body. Onward it coursed, clashing and +grinding along the brittle face of the glacier; over the alder tops +beyond the bend they could see it moving faster and faster, like the +crest of a tidal wave. The surface of the river lowered swiftly beneath +the bridge; the huge white pans ground and milled, shouldered aside by +the iron-sheathed pillars of concrete. + +"See! It's gone already. Once it clears a passageway we'll have no more +gorges, for the freshets are coming. The bridge didn't even +tremble--there wasn't a tremor, not a scratch!" Eliza looked up to find +O'Neil regarding her with an expression that set her heart throbbing +and her thoughts scattering. She clasped a huge, cold bolt-head and +clung to it desperately, for the upheaval in her soul rivaled that +which had just passed before her eyes. The bridge, the river, the +valley itself were gyrating slowly, dizzily. + +"Eliza!" She did not answer. "Child!" O'Neil's voice was shaking. "Why +did you come to me? Why did you do this mad thing? I saw something in +your face that I can't believe--that I--can't think possible. It--it +gives me courage. If I don't speak quickly I'll never dare. Is +it--true? Dear girl, can it be? I'm so old--such a poor thing--you +couldn't possibly care, and yet, WHY DID YOU COME?" The words were torn +from him; he was gripped and shaken by a powerful emotion. + +She tried to answer, but her lips were soundless. She closed her eyes, +and Murray saw that she was whiter than the foam far beneath. He stared +into the colorless face upturned to his until her eyelids fluttered +open and she managed to voice the words that clung in her throat. + +"I've always--loved you like this." + +He gave a cry, like that of a starving man; she felt herself drawn +against him. But now he, too, was speechless; he could only press her +close while his mind went groping for words to express that joy which +was as yet unbelievable and stunning. + +"Couldn't you see?" she asked, breathlessly. + +He shook his head. "I'm such a dreamer. I'm afraid it--can't be true. +I'm afraid you'll go away and--leave me. You won't ever--will you, +Eliza? I couldn't stand that." Then fresh realization of the truth +swept over him; they clung to each other, drunk with ecstasy, senseless +of their surroundings. + +"I thought you cared for Natalie," she said, softly, after a while. + +"It was always you." + +"Always?" + +"Always!" + +She turned her lips to his, and lifted her entwining arms. + +The breakfast-gong had called the men away before the two figures far +out upon the bridge picked their way slowly to the shore. The Salmon +was still flooded with hurrying masses of ice, as it would continue to +be for several days, but it was running free; the channel in front of +the glacier was open. + +Blaine was the first to shake O'Neil's hand, for the members of +Murray's crew held aloof in some embarrassment. + +"It's a perfect piece of work," said he. "I congratulate you." + +The others echoed his sentiments faintly, hesitatingly, for they were +abashed at what they saw in their chief's face and realized that words +were weak and meaningless. + +Dan dared not trust himself to speak. He had many things to say to his +sister, but his throat ached miserably. Natalie restrained herself only +by the greatest effort. + +It was Tom Slater who ended the awkward pause by grumbling, +sarcastically: + +"If all the young lovers are safely ashore, maybe us old men who built +the bridge can go and get something to eat." + +Murray smiled at the girl beside him. + +"I'm afraid they've guessed our secret, dear." + +"Secret!" Slater rolled his eyes. "There ain't over a couple thousand +people beside us that saw you pop the question. I s'pose she was out of +breath and couldn't say no." + +Eliza gasped and fled to her brother's arms. + +"Sis! Poor--little Sis!" Dan cried, and two tears stole down his brown +cheeks. "Isn't this--just great?" Then the others burst into a noisy +expression of their gladness. + +"Happy Tom" regarded them all pessimistically. "I feel bound to warn +you," he said at length, "that marriage is an awful gamble. It ain't +what it seems." + +"It is!" Natalie declared. "It's better, and you know it." + +"It turned out all right for me," Tom acknowledged, "because I got the +best woman in the world. But"--he eyed his chief accusingly--"I went +about it in a modest way; I didn't humiliate her in public." + +He turned impatiently upon his companions, still pouring out their +babble of congratulations. + +"Come along, can't you," he cried, "and leave 'em alone. I'm a +dyspeptic old married man, but I used to be young and affectionate, +like Murray. After breakfast I'm going to cable Mrs. Slater to come and +bring the kids with her and watch her bed-ridden, invalid husband build +the rest of this railroad. I'm getting chuck full of romance." + +"It has been a miraculous morning for me," said Murray, after a time, +"and the greatest miracle is--you, dear." + +"This is just the way the story ended in my book," Eliza told him +happily--"our book." + +He pressed her closer. "Yes! Our book--our bridge--our everything, +Eliza." + +She hid her blushing face against his shoulder, then with thumb and +finger drew his ear down to her lips. Summoning her courage, she +whispered: + +"Murray dear, won't you call me--Violet?" + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Iron Trail, by Rex Beach + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRON TRAIL *** + +***** This file should be named 5233.txt or 5233.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/3/5233/ + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +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. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Iron Trail + +Author: Rex Beach + +Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5233] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 10, 2002] +[Date last updated: July 18, 2005] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRON TRAIL *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +THE IRON TRAIL + +By REX BEACH + +Author of "THE AUCTION BLOCK" "RAINBOW'S END" "THE SPOILERS" Etc. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. IN WHICH THE TIDE TAKES A HAND + + II. HOW A GIRL APPEARED OUT OF THE NIGHT + + III. THE IRISH PRINCE + + IV. HOW A JOURNEY ENDED AT HOPE + + V. WHEREIN WE SEE CURTIS GORDON AND OTHERS + + VI. THE DREAMER + + VII. THE DREAM + + VIII. IN WHICH WE COME TO OMAR + + IX. WHEREIN GORDON SHOWS HIS TEETH + + X. IN WHICH THE DOCTOR SHOWS HIS WIT + + XI. THE TWO SIDES OF ELIZA VIOLET APPLETON + + XII. HOW GORDON FAILED IN HIS CUNNING + + XIII. WE JOURNEY TO A PLACE OF MANY WONDERS + + XIV. HOW THE TRUTH CAME TO ELIZA + + XV. THE BATTLE OF GORDON'S CROSSING + + XVI. THE FRUIT OF THE TEMPEST + + XVII. HOW THE PRINCE BECAME A MAN + +XVIII. HOW THE MAN BECAME A PRINCE AGAIN + + XIX. MISS APPLETON MAKES A SACRIFICE + + XX. HOW GORDON CHANGED HIS ATTACK + + XXI. DAN APPLETON SLIPS THE LEASH + + XXII. HOW THE HAZARD WAS PLAYED + +XXIII. A NEW CRISIS + + XXIV. GORDON'S FALL + + XXV. PREPARATIONS + + XXVI. THE RACE + +XXVII. HOW A DREAM CAME TRUE + + + + +I + +IN WHICH THE TIDE TAKES A HAND + + +The ship stole through the darkness with extremest caution, +feeling her way past bay and promontory. Around her was none of +that phosphorescent glow which lies above the open ocean, even on +the darkest night, for the mountains ran down to the channel on +either side. In places they overhung, and where they lay upturned +against the dim sky it could be seen that they were mantled with +heavy timber. All day long the NEBRASKA had made her way through +an endless succession of straits and sounds, now squeezing +through an inlet so narrow that the somber spruce trees seemed to +be within a short stone's-throw, again plowing across some open +reach where the pulse of the north Pacific could be felt. Out +through the openings to seaward stretched the restless ocean, on +across uncounted leagues, to Saghalien and the rim of Russia's +prison-yard. + +Always near at hand was the deep green of the Canadian forests, +denser, darker than a tropic jungle, for this was the land of +"plenty waters." The hillsides were carpeted knee-deep with moss, +wet to saturation. Out of every gulch came a brawling stream +whipped to milk-white frenzy; snow lay heavy upon the higher +levels, while now and then from farther inland peered a glacier, +like some dead monster crushed between the granite peaks. There +were villages, too, and fishing-stations, and mines and quarries. +These burst suddenly upon the view, then slipped past with +dreamlike swiftness. Other ships swung into sight, rushed by, and +were swallowed up in the labyrinthine maze astern. + +Those passengers of the Nebraska who had never before traversed +the "Inside Passage" were loud in the praises of its +picturesqueness, while those to whom the route was familiar +seemed to find an ever-fresh fascination in its shifting scenes. + +Among the latter was Murray O'Neil. The whole north coast from +Flattery to St. Elias was as well mapped in his mind as the face +of an old friend, yet he was forever discovering new vistas, +surprising panoramas, amazing variations of color and topography. +The mysterious rifts and passageways that opened and closed as if +to lure the ship astray, the trackless confusion of islets, the +siren song of the waterfalls, the silent hills and glaciers and +snow-soaked forests--all appealed to him strongly, for he was at +heart a dreamer. + +Yet he did not forget that scenery such as this, lovely as it is +by day, may be dangerous at night, for he knew the weakness of +steel hulls. On some sides his experience and business training +had made him sternly practical and prosaic. Ships aroused no +manner of enthusiasm in him except as means to an end. Railroads +had no glamour of romance in his eyes, for, having built a number +of them, he had outlived all poetic notions regarding the "iron +horse," and once the rails were laid he was apt to lose interest +in them. Nevertheless, he was almost poetic in his own quiet way, +interweaving practical thoughts with fanciful visions, and he +loved his dreams. He was dreaming now as he leaned upon the +bridge rail of the Nebraska, peering into the gloom with watchful +eyes. From somewhere to port came the occasional commands of the +officer on watch, echoed instantly from the inky interior of the +wheelhouse. Up overside rose the whisper of rushing waters; from +underfoot came the rhythmic beat of the engines far below. O'Neil +shook off his mood and began to wonder idly how long it would be +before Captain Johnny would be ready for his "nightcap." + +He always traveled with Johnny Brennan when he could manage it, +for the two men were boon companions. O'Neil was wont to live in +Johnny's cabin, or on the bridge, and their nightly libation to +friendship had come to be a matter of some ceremony. + +The ship's master soon appeared from the shadows--a short, trim +man with gray hair. + +"Come," he cried, "it's waiting for us." + +O'Neil followed into Brennan's luxurious, well-lit quarters, +where on a mahogany sideboard was a tray holding decanter, +siphon, and glasses, together with a bottle of ginger ale. The +captain, after he had mixed a beverage for his passenger, opened +the bottle for himself. They raised their glasses silently. + +"Now that you're past the worst of it," remarked O'Neil, "I +suppose you'll turn in. You're getting old for a hard run like +this, Johnny." + +Captain Brennan snorted. "Old? I'm a better man than you, yet. +I'm a teetotaler, that's why. I discovered long ago that salt +water and whiskey don't mix." + +O'Neil stretched himself out in one of Brennan's easy-chairs. +"Really," he said, "I don't understand why a ship carries a +captain. Now of what earthly use to the line are you, for +instance, except for your beauty, which, no doubt, has its value +with the women? I'll admit you preside with some grace at the +best table in the dining-salon, but your officers know these +channels as well as you do. They could make the run from Seattle +to Juneau with their eyes shut." + +"Indeed they could not; and neither could I." + +"Oh, well, of course I have no respect for you as a man, having +seen you without your uniform." + +The captain grinned in thorough enjoyment of this raillery. "I'll +say nothing at all of my seamanship," he said, relapsing into the +faintest of brogues, "but there's no denying that the master of a +ship has many unpleasant and disgusting duties to perform. He has +to amuse the prominent passengers who can't amuse themselves, for +one thing, and that takes tact and patience. Why, some people +make themselves at home on the bridge, in the chart-room, and +even in my living-quarters, to say nothing of consuming my +expensive wines, liquors, and cigars." + +"Meaning me?" + +"I'm a brutal seafaring man, and you'll have to make allowances +for my well-known brusqueness. Maybe I did mean you. But I'll say +that next to you Curtis Gordon is the worst grafter I ever saw." + +"You don't like Gordon, do you?" O'Neil queried with a change of +tone. + +"I do not! He went up with me again this spring, and he had his +widow with him, too." + +"His widow?" + +"You know who I mean--Mrs. Gerard. They say it's her money he's +using in his schemes. Perhaps it's because of her that I don't +like him." + +"Ah-h! I see." + +"You don't see, or you wouldn't grin like an ape. I'm a married +man, I'll have you know, and I'm still on good terms with Mrs. +Brennan, thank God. But I don't like men who use women's money, +and that's just what our friend Gordon is doing. What money the +widow didn't put up he's grabbed from the schoolma'ams and +servant-girls and society matrons in the East. What has he got to +show them for it?" + +"A railroad project, a copper-mine, some coal claims--" + +"Bah! A menagerie of wildcats!" + +"You can't prove that. What's your reason for distrusting him?" + +"Well, for one thing, he knows too much. Why, he knows +everything, he does. Art, literature, politics, law, finance, and +draw poker have no secrets from him. He's been everywhere--and +back--twice; he speaks a dozen different languages. He out-argued +me on poultry-raising and I know more about that than any man +living. He can handle a drill or a coach-and-four; he can tell +all about the art of ancient Babylon; and he beat me playing +cribbage, which shows that he ain't on the level. He's the best- +informed man outside of a university, and he drinks tea of an +afternoon--with his legs crossed and the saucer balanced on his +heel. Now, it takes years of hard work for an honest man to make +a success at one thing, but Gordon never failed at anything. I +ask you if a living authority on all the branches of human +endeavor and a man who can beat me at 'crib' doesn't make you +suspicious." + +"Not at all. I've beaten you myself!" + +"I was sick," said Captain Brennan. + +"The man is brilliant and well educated and wealthy. It's only +natural that he should excite the jealousy of a weaker +intellect." + +Johnny opened his lips for an explosion, then changed his mind +and agreed sourly. + +"He's got money, all right, and he knows how to spend it. He and +his valet occupied three cabins on this ship. They say his +quarters at Hope are palatial." + +"My dear grampus, the mere love of luxury doesn't argue that a +person is dishonest." + +"Would you let a hired man help you on with your underclothes?" +demanded the mariner. + +"There's nothing criminal about it." + +"Humph! Mrs. Gerard is different. She's all class! You don't mind +her having a maid and speaking French when she runs short of +English. Her daughter is like her." + +"I haven't seen Miss Gerard." + +"If you'd stir about the ship instead of wearing out my Morris +chair you'd have that pleasure. She was on deck all morning." +Captain Brennan fell silent and poked with a stubby forefinger at +the ice in his glass. + +"Well, out with it!" said O'Neil after a moment. + +"I'd like to know the inside story of Curtis Gordon and this +girl's mother." + +"Why bother your head about something that doesn't concern you?" +The speaker rose and began to pace the cabin floor, then, in an +altered tone, inquired, "Tell me, are you going to land me and my +horses at Kyak Bay?" + +"That depends on the weather. It's a rotten harbor; you'll have +to swim them ashore." + +"Suppose it should be rough?" + +"Then we'll go on, and drop you there coming back. I don't want +to be caught on that shore with a southerly wind, and that's the +way it usually blows." + +"I can't wait," O'Neil declared. "A week's delay might ruin me. +Rather than go on I'd swim ashore myself, without the horses." + +"I don't make the weather at Kyak Bay. Satan himself does that. +Twenty miles offshore it may be calm, and inside it may be +blowing a gale. That's due to the glaciers. Those ice-fields +inland and the warm air from the Japanese Current offshore kick +up some funny atmospheric pranks. It's the worst spot on the +coast and we'll lose a ship there some day. Why, the place isn't +properly charted, let alone buoyed." + +"That's nothing unusual for this coast." + +"True for you. This is all a graveyard of ships and there's been +many a good master's license lost because of half-baked laws from +Washington. Think of a coast like this with almost no lights, no +beacons nor buoys; and yet we're supposed to make time. It's fine +in clear weather, but in the dark we go by guess and by God. I've +stood the run longer than most of the skippers, but--" + +Even as Brennan spoke the Nebraska seemed to halt, to jerk +backward under his feet. O'Neil, who was standing, flung out an +arm to steady himself; the empty ginger-ale bottle fell from the +sideboard with a thump. Loose articles hanging against the side +walls swung to and fro; the heavy draperies over Captain Johnny's +bed swayed. + +Brennan leaped from his chair; his ruddy face was mottled, his +eyes were wide and horror-stricken. + +"Damnation!" he gasped. The cabin door crashed open ahead of him +and he was on the bridge, with O'Neil at his heels. They saw the +first officer clinging limply to the rail; from the pilot-house +window came an excited burst of Norwegian, then out of the door +rushed a quartermaster. + +Brennan cursed, and met the fellow with a blow which drove him +sprawling back. + +"Get in there, Swan," he bellowed, "and take your wheel." + +"The tide swung her in!" exclaimed the mate. "The tide--My God!" + +"Sweet Queen Anne!" said Brennan, more quietly. "You've ripped +her belly out." + +"It--was the tide," chattered the officer. + +The steady, muffled beating of the machinery ceased, the ship +seemed suddenly to lose her life, but it was plain that she was +not aground, for she kept moving through the gloom. From down +forward came excited voices as the crew poured up out of the +forecastle. + +Brennan leaped to the telegraph and signaled the engine-room. He +was calm now, and his voice was sharp and steady. + +"Go below, Mr. James, and find the extent of the damage," he +directed, and a moment later the hull began to throb once more to +the thrust of the propeller. Inside the wheelhouse Swan had +recovered from his panic and repeated the master's orders +mechanically. + +The second and third officers arrived upon the bridge now, +dressing as they came, and they were followed by the chief +engineer. To them Johnny spoke, his words crackling like the +sparks from a wireless. In an incredibly short time he had the +situation in hand and turned to O'Neil, who had been a silent +witness of the scene. + +"Glory be!" exclaimed the captain. "Most of our good passengers +are asleep; the jar would scarcely wake them." + +"Tell me where and how I can help," Murray offered. His first +thought had been of the possible effect of this catastrophe upon +his plans, for time was pressing. As for danger, he had looked +upon it so often and in so many forms that it had little power to +stir him; but a shipwreck, which would halt his northward rush, +was another matter. Whether the ship sank or floated could make +little difference, now that the damage had been done. She was +crippled and would need assistance. His fellow-passengers, he +knew, were safe enough. Fortunately there were not many of them-- +a scant two hundred, perhaps--and if worse came to worst there +was room in the life-boats for all. But the Nebraska had no +watertight bulkheads and the plight of his twenty horses between +decks filled him with alarm and pity. There were no life-boats +for those poor dumb animals penned down yonder in the rushing +waters. + +Brennan had stepped into the chart-room, but returned in a moment +to say: + +"There's no place to beach her this side of Halibut Bay." + +"How far is that?" + +"Five or six miles." + +"You'll--have to beach her?" + +"I'm afraid so. She feels queer." + +Up from the cabin deck came a handful of men passengers to +inquire what had happened; behind them a woman began calling +shrilly for her husband. + +"We touched a rock," the skipper explained, briefly. "Kindly go +below and stop that squawking. There's no danger." + +There followed a harrowing wait of several minutes; then James, +the first officer, came to report. He had regained his nerve and +spoke with swift precision. + +"She loosened three plates on her port quarter and she's filling +fast." + +"How long will she last?" snapped Brennan. + +"Not long, sir. Half an hour, perhaps." + +The captain rang for full speed, and the decks began to strain as +the engine increased its labor. "Get your passengers out and +stand by the boats," he ordered. "Take it easy and don't alarm +the women. Have them dress warmly, and don't allow any crowding +by the men. Mr. Tomlinson, you hold the steerage gang in check. +Take your revolver with you." He turned to his silent friend, in +whose presence he seemed to feel a cheering sympathy, "I knew it +would come sooner or later, Murray," he said. "But--magnificent +mummies! To touch on a clear night with the sea like glass!" He +sighed dolefully. "It'll be tough on my missus." + +O'Neil laid a hand upon his shoulder. "It wasn't your fault, and +there will be room in the last boat for you. Understand?" Brennan +hesitated, and the other continued, roughly: "No nonsense, now! +Don't make a damned fool of yourself by sticking to the bridge. +Promise?" + +"I promise." + +"Now what do you want me to do?" + +"Keep those dear passengers quiet. I'll run for Halibut Bay, +where there's a sandy beach. If she won't make it I'll turn her +into the rocks, Tell 'em they won't wet a foot if they keep their +heads." + +"Good! I'll be back to see that you behave yourself." The speaker +laughed lightly and descended to the deck, where he found an +incipient panic. Stewards were pounding on stateroom doors, half- +clad men were rushing about aimlessly, pallid faces peered forth +from windows, and there was the sound of running feet, of +slamming doors, of shrill, hysterical voices. + +O'Neil saw a waiter thumping lustily upon a door and heard him +shout, hoarsely: + +"Everybody out! The ship is sinking!" As he turned away Murray +seized him roughly by the arm and thrusting his face close to the +other's, said harshly: + +"If you yell again like that I'll toss you overboard." + +"God help us, we're going--" + +O'Neil shook the fellow until his teeth rattled; his own +countenance, ordinarily so quiet, was blazing. + +"There's no danger. Act like a man and don't start a stampede." + +The steward pulled himself together and answered in a calmer +tone: + +"Very well, sir. I--I'm sorry, sir." + +Murray O'Neil was known to most of the passengers, for his name +had gone up and down the coast, and there were few places from +San Francisco to Nome where his word did not carry weight. As he +went among his fellow-travelers now, smiling, self-contained, +unruffled, his presence had its effect. Women ceased their +shrilling, men stopped their senseless questions and listened to +his directions with some comprehension. In a short time the +passengers were marshaled upon the upper deck where the life- +boats hung between their davits. Each little craft was in charge +of its allotted crew, the electric lights continued to burn +brightly, and the panic gradually wore itself out. Meanwhile the +ship was running a desperate race with the sea, striving with +every ounce of steam in her boilers to find a safe berth for her +mutilated body before the inrush of waters drowned her fires. +That the race was close even the dullest understood, for the +Nebraska was settling forward, and plowed into the night head +down, like a thing maddened with pain. She was becoming +unmanageable, too, and O'Neil thought with pity of that little +iron-hearted skipper on the bridge who was fighting her so +furiously. + +There was little confusion, little talking upon the upper deck +now; only a child whimpered or a woman sobbed hysterically. But +down forward among the steerage passengers the case was +different. These were mainly Montenegrins, Polacks, or Slavs +bound for the construction camps to the westward, and they surged +from side to side like cattle, requiring Tomlinson's best efforts +to keep them from rushing aft. + +O'Neil had employed thousands of such men; in fact, many of these +very fellows had cashed his time-checks and knew him by sight. He +went forward among them, and his appearance proved instantly +reassuring. He found his two hostlers, and with their aid he soon +reduced the mob to comparative order. + +But in spite of his confident bearing he felt a great uneasiness. +The Nebraska seemed upon the point of diving; he judged she must +be settling very fast, and wondered that the forward tilt did not +lift her propeller out of the water. Fortunately, however, the +surface of the sound was like a polished floor and there were no +swells to submerge her. + +Over-side to starboard he could see the dim black outlines of +mountains slipping past, but where lay Halibut Bay or what +distance remained to be covered he could but vaguely guess. + +In these circumstances the wait became almost unbearable. The +race seemed hours long, the mites stretched into leagues, and +with every moment of suspense the ship sank lower. The end came +unexpectedly. There was a sudden startled outcry as the Nebraska +struck for a second time that night. She rose slightly, rolled +and bumped, grated briefly, then came to rest. + +Captain Brennan shouted from the bridge: + +"Fill your life-boats, Mr. James, and lower away carefully." + +A cheer rose from the huddled passengers. + +The boiler-room was still dry, it seemed, for the incandescent +lights burned without a flicker, even after the grimy oilers and +stokers had come pouring up on deck. + +O'Neil climbed to the bridge. "Is this Halibut Bay?" he asked +Captain Johnny. + +"It is. But we're piled up on the reef outside. She may hold +fast--I hope so, for there's deep water astern, and if she slips +off she'll go down." + +"I'd like to save my horses," said the younger man, wistfully. +Through all the strain of the past half-hour or more his +uppermost thought had been for them. But Brennan had no sympathy +for such sentiments. + +"Hell's bells!" he exclaimed. "Don't talk of horses while we've +got women and children aboard." He hastened away to assist in +transferring his passengers. + +Instead of following, O'Neil turned and went below. He found that +the water was knee-deep on the port side of the deck where his +animals were quartered, which showed that the ship had listed +heavily. He judged that she must be much deeper by the head then +he had imagined, and that her nose was crushed in among the +rocks. Until she settled at the stern, therefore, the case was +not quite hopeless. + +His appearance, the sound of his voice, were the signals for a +chorus of eager whinnies and a great stamping of hoofs. Heads +were thrust toward him from the stalls, alert ears were pricked +forward, satin muzzles rubbed against him as he calmed their +terror. This blind trust made the man's throat tighten achingly. +He loved animals as he loved children, and above all he cared for +horses. He understood them, he spoke their language as nearly as +any human can be said to do so. Quivering muscles relaxed beneath +his soothing palm; he called them by name and they answered with +gentle twitching lips against his cheek. Some of them even began +to eat and switch their tails contentedly. + +He cursed aloud and made his way down the sloping deck to the +square iron door, or port, through which he had loaded them. But +he found that it was jammed, or held fast by the pressure +outside, and after a few moments' work in water above his knees +he climbed to the starboard side. Here the entrance was +obstructed by a huge pile of baled hay and grain in sacks. It +would be no easy task to clear it away, and he fell to work with +desperate energy, for the ship was slowly changing her level. Her +stern, which had been riding high, was filling; the sea stole in +upon him silently. It crept up toward him until the horses, +stabled on the lower side, were belly-deep in it. Their distress +communicated itself to the others. O'Neil knew that his position +might prove perilous if the hulk should slip backward off the +reef, yet he continued to toil, hurling heavy sacks behind him, +bundling awkward bales out of the way, until his hands were +bleeding and his muscles ached. He was perspiring furiously; the +commotion around him was horrible. Then abruptly the lights went +out, leaving him in utter blackness; the last fading yellow gleam +was photographed briefly upon his retina. + +Tears mingled with the sweat that drained down his cheeks as he +felt his way slowly out of the place, splashing, stumbling, +groping uncertainly. A horse screamed in a loud, horribly human +note, and he shuddered. He was sobbing curses as he emerged into +the cool open air on the forward deck. + +His eyes were accustomed to the darkness now, and he could see +something of his surroundings. He noted numerous lights out on +the placid bosom of the bay, evidently lanterns on the life- +boats, and he heard distant voices. He swept the moisture from +his face; then with a start he realized his situation. He +listened intently; his eyes roved back along the boat-deck; there +was no doubt about it--the ship was deserted. Stepping to the +rail, he observed how low the Nebraska lay and also that her bow +was higher than her stern. From somewhere beneath his feet came a +muffled grinding and a movement which told him that the ship was +seeking a more comfortable berth. He recalled stories of +explosions and of the boiling eddies which sometimes accompany +sinking hulls. Turning, he scrambled up to the cabin-deck and ran +swiftly toward his stateroom. + + + + +II + +HOW A GIRL APPEARED OUT OF THE NIGHT + + +O'Neil felt for the little bracket-lamp on the wall of his +stateroom and lit it. By its light he dragged a life-preserver +from the rack overhead and slipped the tapes about his shoulders, +reflecting that Alaskan waters are disagreeably cold. Then he +opened his traveling-bags and dumped their contents upon the +white counterpane of his berth, selecting out of the confusion +certain documents and trinkets. The latter he thrust into his +pockets as he found them, the former he wrapped in handkerchiefs +before stowing them away. The ship had listed now so that it was +difficult to maintain a footing; the lamp hung at a grotesque +angle and certain articles had become dislodged from their +resting-places. From outside came the gentle lapping of waters, a +gurgling and hissing as of air escaping through the decks. He +could feel the ship strain. He acknowledged that it was not +pleasant thus to be left alone on a sinking hulk, particularly on +an ink-black night-- + +All at once he whirled and faced the door with an exclamation of +astonishment, for a voice had addressed him. + +There,--clinging to the casing, stood a woman--a girl--evidently +drawn out of the darkness by the light which streamed down across +the sloping deck from his stateroom. Plainly she had but just +awakened, for she was clothed in a silken nightrobe which failed +to conceal the outlines of her body, the swelling contour of her +bosom, the ripened fullness of her limbs. She had flung a quilted +dressing-gown of some sort over her shoulders and with one bare +arm and hand strove to hold it in place. He saw that her pink +feet were thrust into soft, heeless slippers--that her hair, +black in this light, cascaded down to her waist, and that her +eyes, which were very dark and very large, were fixed upon him +with a stare like that of a sleep-walker. + +"It is so dark--so strange--so still!" she murmured. "What has +happened?" + +"God! Didn't they waken you?" he cried in sharp surprise. + +"Is the ship-sinking?" Her odd bewilderment of voice and gaze +puzzled him. + +He nodded. "We struck a rock. The passengers have been taken off. +We're the only ones left. In Heaven's name where have you been?" + +"I was asleep." + +He shook his head in astonishment. "How you failed to hear that +hubbub--" + +"I heard something, but I was ill. My head--I took something to +ease the pain." + +"Ah! Medicine! It hasn't worn off yet, I see! You shouldn't have +taken it. Drugs are nothing but poison to young people. Now at my +age there might be some excuse for resorting to them, but you--" +He was talking to cover the panic of his thoughts, for his own +predicament had been serious enough, and her presence rendered it +doubly embarrassing. What in the world to do with her he scarcely +knew. His lips were smiling, but his eyes were grave as they +roved over the cabin and out into the blackness of the night. + +"Are we going to drown?" she asked, dully. + +"Nonsense!" He laughed in apparent amusement, showing his large, +strong teeth. + +She came closer, glancing behind her and shrinking from the oily +waters which could be seen over the rail and which had stolen up +nearly to the sill of the door. She steadied herself by laying +hold of him uncertainly. Involuntarily he turned his eyes away, +for he felt shame at profaning her with his gaze. She was very +soft and white, a fragile thing utterly unfit to cope with the +night air and the freezing waters of Halibut Bay. + +"I'm wretchedly afraid!" she whispered through white lips. + +"None of that!" he said, brusquely. "I'll see that nothing +happens to you." He slipped out of his life-preserver and +adjusted it over her shoulders, first drawing her arms through +the sleeves of her dressing-gown and knotting the cord snugly +around her waist. "Just as a matter of precaution!" he assured +her. "We may get wet. Can you swim?" + +She shook her head. + +"Never mind; I can." He found another life-belt, fitted it to his +own form, and led her out upon the deck. The scuppers were awash +now and she gasped as the sea licked her bare feet. "Cold, isn't +it?" he remarked. "But there's no time to dress, and it's just as +well, perhaps, for heavy clothes would only hamper you." + +She strove to avoid the icy waters and finally paused, moaning: +"I can't! I can't go on!" + +Slipping his arm about her, he bore her to the door of the main +cabin and entered. He could feel her warm, soft body quivering +against his own. She had clasped his neck so tightly that he +could scarcely breathe, but, lowering her until her feet were on +the dry carpet, he gently loosed her arms. + +"Now, my dear child," he told her, "you must do exactly as I tell +you. Come! Calm yourself or I won't take you any farther." He +held her off by her shoulders. "I may have to swim with you; you +mustn't cling to me so!" + +He heard her gasp and felt her draw away abruptly. Then he led +her by the hand out upon the starboard deck, and together they +made their way forward to the neighborhood of the bridge. + +The lights he had seen upon coming from the forward hold were +still in view and he hailed them at the top of his voice. But +other voices were calling through the night, some of them +comparatively close at hand, others answering faintly from far +in-shore. The boats first launched were evidently landing, and +those in charge of them were shouting directions to the ones +behind. Some women had started singing and the chorus floated out +to the man and the girl: + +Pull for the shore, sailor, Pull for the shore. + +It helped to drown their cries for assistance. + +O'Neil judged that the ship was at least a quarter of a mile from +the beach, and his heart sank, for he doubted that either he or +his companion could last long in these waters. It occurred to him +that Brennan might be close by, waiting for the Nebraska to sink +--it would be unlike the little captain to forsake his trust +until the last possible moment--but he reasoned that the cargo of +lives in the skipper's boat would induce him to stand well off to +avoid accident. He called lustily time after time, but no answer +came. + +Meanwhile the girl stood quietly beside him. + +"Can't we make a raft?" she suggested, timidly, when he ceased to +shout. "I've read of such things." + +"There's no time," he told her. "Are you very cold?" + +She nodded. "Please forgive me for acting so badly just now. It +was all so sudden and--so awful! I think I can behave better. Oh! +What was that?" She clutched him nervously, for from the forward +end of the ship had come a muffled scream, like that of a woman. + +"It's my poor horses," said the man, and she looked at him +curiously, prompted by the catch in his throat. + +There followed a wait which seemed long, but was in reality of +but a few minutes, for the ship was sliding backward and the sea +was creeping upward faster and faster. At last they heard a +shuddering sigh as she parted from the rocks and the air rushed +up through the deck openings with greater force. The Nebraska +swung sluggishly with the tide; then, when her upper structure +had settled flush with the sea, Murray O'Neil took the woman in +his arms and leaped clear of the rail. + +The first gasping moment of immersion was fairly paralyzing; +after that the reaction came, and the two began to struggle away +from the sinking ship. But the effect of the reaction soon wore +off. The water was cruelly cold and their bodies ached in every +nerve and fiber. O'Neil did his best to encourage his companion. +He talked to her through his chattering teeth, and once she had +recovered from the mental shock of the first fearful plunge she +responded pluckily. He knew that his own heart was normal and +strong, but he feared that the girl's might not be equal to the +strain. Had he been alone, he felt sure that he could have gained +the shore, but with her upon his hands he was able to make but +little headway. The expanse of waters seemed immense; it fairly +crushed hope out of him. The lights upon the shore were as +distant as fixed stars. This was a country of heavy tides, he +reflected, and he began to fear that the current was sweeping +them out. He turned to look for the ship, but could see no traces +of her, and since it was inconceivable that the Nebraska could +have sunk so quietly, her disappearance confirmed his fears. More +than once he fancied he heard an answer to his cries for help-- +the rattle of rowlocks or the splash of oars--but his ears proved +unreliable. + +After a time the girl began to moan with pain and terror, but as +numbness gradually robbed her of sensation she became quiet. A +little later her grip upon his clothing relaxed and he saw that +she was collapsing. He drew her to him and held her so that her +face lay upturned and her hair floated about his shoulders. In +this position she could not drown, at least while his strength +lasted. But he was rapidly losing control of himself; his teeth +were clicking loosely, his muscles shook and twitched It required +a great effort to shout, and he thought that his voice did not +carry so far as at first. Therefore he fell silent, paddling with +his free arm and kicking, to keep his blood stirring. + +Several times he gave up and floated quietly, but courage was +ingrained in him; deep down beneath his consciousness was a +vitality, an inherited stubborn resistance to death, of which he +knew nothing. It was that unidentified quality of mind which +supports one man through a great sickness or a long period of +privation, while another of more robust physique succumbs. It was +the same quality which brings one man out from desert wastes, or +the white silence of the polar ice, while the bodies of his +fellows remain to mark the trail. This innate power of supreme +resistance is found in chosen individuals throughout the animal +kingdom, and it was due to it alone that Murray O'Neil continued +to fight the tide long after he had ceased to exert conscious +control. + +At length there came through the man's dazed sensibilities a +sound different from those he had been hearing: it was a human +voice, mingled with the measured thud of oars in their sockets. +It roused him like an electric current and gave him strength to +cry out hoarsely. Some one answered him; then out of the darkness +to seaward emerged a deeper blot, which loomed up hugely yet +proved to be no more than a life-boat banked full of people. It +came to a stop within an oar's-length of him. From the babble of +voices he distinguished one that was familiar, and cried the name +of Johnny Brennan. His brain had cleared now, a great dreamlike +sense of thanksgiving warmed him, and he felt equal to any +effort. He was vaguely amazed to find that his limbs refused to +obey him. + +His own name was being pronounced in shocked tones; the splash +from an oar filled his face and strangled him, but he managed to +lay hold of the blade, and was drawn in until outstretched hands +seized him. + +An oarsman was saying: "Be careful, there! We can't take him in +without swamping." + +But Brennan's voice shouted: "Make room or I'll bash in your +bloody skull." + +Another protest arose, and O'Neil saw that the craft was indeed +loaded to the gunwales. + +"Take the girl--quick," he implored. "I'll hang on. You can--tow +me." + +The limp form was removed from his side and dragged over the +thwarts while a murmur of excited voices went up. + +"Can you hold out for a minute, Murray?" asked Brennan. + +"Yes--I think so." + +"I'd give you my place, but you're too big to be taken in without +danger." + +"Go ahead," chattered the man in the water. "Look after the girl +before it's--too late." + +The captain's stout hand was in his collar now and he heard him +crying: + +"Pull, you muscle-bound heathens! Everybody sit still! Now away +with her, men. Keep up your heart, Murray, my boy; remember it +takes more than water to kill a good Irishman. It's only a foot +or two farther, and they've started a fire. Serves you right, you +big idiot, for going overboard, with all those boats. Man dear, +but you're pulling the arm out of me; it's stretched out like a +garden hose! Hey! Cover up that girl, and you, lady, rub her feet +and hands. Good! Move over please--so the men can bail." + +The next O'Neil knew he was feeling very miserable and very cold, +notwithstanding the fact that he was wrapped in dry clothing and +lay so close to a roaring spruce fire that its heat blistered +him. + +Brennan was bending over him with eyes wet. He was swearing, too, +in a weak, faltering way, calling upon all the saints to witness +that the prostrate man was the embodiment of every virtue, and +that his death would be a national calamity. Others were gathered +about, men and women, and among them O'Neil saw the doctor from +Sitka whom he had met on shipboard. + +As soon as he was able to speak he inquired for the safety of the +girl he had helped to rescue. Johnny promptly reassured him. + +"Man, dear, she's doing fine. A jigger of brandy brought her to, +gasping like a blessed mermaid." + +"Was anybody lost?" + +"Praise God, not a soul! But it's lucky I stood by to watch the +old tub go down, or we'd be mourning two. You'll be well by +morning, for there's a cannery in the next inlet and I've sent a +boat's crew for help. And now, my boy, lay yourself down again +and take a sleep, won't you? It'll be doing you a lot of good." + +But O'Neil shook his head and struggled to a sitting posture. + +"Thanks, Johnny," said he, "but I couldn't. I can hear those +horses screaming, and besides--I must make new plans." + + + + +III + +THE IRISH PRINCE + + +As dawn broke the cannery tender from the station near by nosed +her way up to the gravelly shore where the castaways were +gathered and blew a cheering toot-toot on her whistle. She was a +flat-bottomed, "wet-sterned" craft, and the passengers of the +Nebraska trooped to her deck over a gang-plank. As Captain +Brennan had predicted, not one of them had wet a foot, with the +exception of the two who had been left aboard through their own +carelessness. + +By daylight Halibut Bay appeared an idyllic spot, quite innocent +of the terrors with which the night had endowed it. A pebbled +half-moon of beach was set in among rugged bluffs; the verdant +forest crowded down to it from behind. Tiny crystal wavelets +lapped along the shingle, swaying the brilliant sea mosses which +clung to the larger rocks. Altogether the scene gave a strong +impression of peace and security, yet just in the offing was one +jarring contrast--the masts and funnel of the Nebraska slanting +up out of the blue serenity, where she lay upon the sloping +bottom in the edge of deep water. + +The reaction following a sleepless night of anxiety had replaced +the first feeling of thankfulness at deliverance, and it was not +a happy cargo of humanity which the rescuing boat bore with her +as the sun peeped over the hills. Many of the passengers were but +half dressed, all were exhausted and hungry, each one had lost +something in the catastrophe. The men were silent, the women +hysterical, the children fretful. + +Murray O'Neil had recovered sufficiently to go among them with +the same warm smile which had made him friends from the first. In +the depths of his cool gray eyes was a sparkle which showed his +unquenchable Celtic spirit, and before long smiles answered his +smiles, jokes rose to meet his pleasantries. + +It was his turn now to comfort Captain Johnny Brennan, who had +yielded to the blackest despair, once his responsibility was +over. + +"She was a fine ship, Murray," the master lamented, staring with +tragic eyes at the Nebraska's spars. + +"She was a tin washtub, and rusted like a sieve," jeered O'Neil. + +"But think of me losing her on a still night!" + +"I'm not sure yet that it wasn't a jellyfish that swam through +her." + +"Humph! I suppose her cargo will be a total loss. Two hundred +thousand dollars--" + +"Insured for three hundred, no doubt. I'll warrant the company +will thank you." + +"It's kind of you to cheer me up," said Brennan, a little less +gloomily, "especially after the way I abandoned you to drown, but +the missus won't allow me in the house at all when she hears I +left you in pickle. Thank God the girl didn't die, anyway! I've +got that to be thankful for. Curtis Gordon would have broken me-- +" + +"Gordon?" + +"Sure! Man dear, don't you know who you went bathing with? She's +the daughter of that widow Gerard, and the most prominent +passenger aboard, outside of your blessed self. Ain't that luck! +If I was a Jap I'd split myself open with a bread-knife." + +"But, fortunately, you're a sensible 'harp' of old Ireland. I'll +see that the papers get the right story, 'o buck up." + +"Do you think for a minute that Mrs. Brennan will understand why +I didn't hop out of the lifeboat and give you my place? Not at +all. I'm ruined nautically and domestically. In the course of the +next ten years I may live it down, but meanwhile I'll sleep in +the woodshed and speak when I'm spoken to." + +Murray knew that Miss Gerard had been badly shaken by her ordeal, +hence he made no attempt to see her even after the steamer had +reached the fishing-village and the rescued passengers had been +taken in by the residents. Instead, he went directly to the one +store in the place and bought its entire stock, which he turned +over to the sufferers. It was well he did so, for the village was +small and, although the townspeople were hospitable, both food +and clothing were scarce. + +A south-bound steamer was due the next afternoon, it was learned, +and plans were made for her to pick up the castaways and return +them to Seattle. At the same time O'Neil discovered that a +freighter for the "westward" was expected some time that night, +and as she did not call at this port he arranged for a launch to +take him out to the channel where he could intercept her. The +loss of his horses had been a serious blow. It was all the more +imperative now that he should go on, since he would have to hire +men to do horses' work. + +During the afternoon Miss Gerard sent for him and he went to the +house of the cannery superintendent, where she had been received. +The superintendent's wife had clothed her, and she seemed to have +recovered her poise of body and mind. O'Neil was surprised to +find her quite a different person from the frightened and +disheveled girl he had seen in the yellow lamplight of his +stateroom on the night before. She was as pale now as then, but +her expression of terror and bewilderment had given place to one +of reposeful confidence. Her lips were red and ripe and of a +somewhat haughty turn. She was attractive, certainly, despite the +disadvantage of the borrowed garments, and though she struck him +as being possibly a little proud and cold, there was no lack of +warmth in her greeting. + +For her part she beheld a man of perhaps forty, of commanding +height and heavy build. He was gray about the temples; his eyes +were gray, too, and rather small, but they were extremely +animated and kindly, and a myriad of little lines were penciled +about their corners. These were evidently marks of expression, +not of age, and although the rugged face itself was not handsome, +it had a degree of character that compelled her interest. His +clothes were good, and in spite of their recent hard usage they +still lent him the appearance of a man habitually well dressed. + +She was vaguely disappointed, having pictured him as being in the +first flush of vigorous youth, but the feeling soon disappeared +under the charm of his manner. The ideal figure she had imagined +began to seem silly and school-girlish, unworthy of the man +himself. She was pleased, too, by his faint though manifest +embarrassment at her thanks, for she had feared a lack of tact. + +Above all things she abhorred obligation of any sort, and she was +inclined to resent masculine protection. This man's service +filled her with real gratitude, yet she rebelled at the position +in which it placed her. She preferred granting favors to +receiving them. + +But in fact he dismissed the whole subject so brusquely that he +almost offended her, and when she realized how incomplete had +been her acknowledgment, she said, with an air of pique: + +"You might have given me a chance to thank you without dragging +you here against your will." + +"I'm sorry if I seemed neglectful." + +She fell silent for a moment before asking: + +"Do you detest me for my cowardice? I couldn't blame you for +never wanting to see me again." + +"You were very brave. You were splendid," he declared. "I simply +didn't wish to intrude." + +"I was terribly frightened," she confided, "but I felt that I +could rely upon you. That's what every one does, isn't it? You +see, you have a reputation. They told me how you refused to be +taken into the boat for fear of capsizing it. That was fine." + +"Oh, there was nothing brave about that. I wanted to get in badly +enough, but there wasn't, room. Jove! It was cold, wasn't it?" +His ready smile played whimsically about his lips, and the girl +felt herself curiously drawn to him. Since he chose to make light +of himself, she determined to allow nothing of the sort. + +"They have told me how you bought out this whole funny little +place," she said, "and turned it over to us. Is it because you +have such a royal way of dispensing favors that they call you +'The Irish Prince'?" + +"That's only a silly nickname." + +"I don't think so. You give people food and clothes with a +careless wave of the hand; you give me my life with a shrug and a +smile; you offer to give up your own to a boatful of strangers +without a moment's hesitation. I--I think you are a remarkable +person." + +"You'll turn my head with such flattery if you aren't careful," +he said with a slight flush. "Please talk of something sensible +now, for an antidote--your plans, for instance." + +"My plans are never sensible, and what few I have are as empty as +my pockets. To tell the truth, I have neither plans nor pockets," +she laughed, "since this is a borrowed gown." + +"Pockets in gowns are entirely matters of hearsay, anyhow; I +doubt if they exist. You are going back to Seattle?" + +"Oh, I suppose so. It seems to be my fate, but I'm not a bit +resigned. I'm one of those unfortunate people who can't bear to +be disappointed." + +"You can return on the next ship, at the company's expense." + +"No. Mother would never allow it. In fact, when she learns that +I'm out here she'll probably send me back to New York as fast as +I can go." + +"Doesn't she know where you are?" + +"Indeed no! She thinks I'm safely and tamely at home. Uncle +Curtis wouldn't object to my visit, I fancy; at any rate, I've +been counting on his good offices with mother, but it's too late +now." + +"I'm like you," he said; "I can't brook disappointment. I'm going +on." + +In answer to her questioning look he explained his plan of +intercepting the freight-steamer that night, whereupon her face +brightened with sudden hope. + +"Can't I go, too?" she implored, eagerly. She was no longer the +haughty young lady he had met upon entering the room, but a very +wistful child. + +"I'm afraid that's hardly---" + +"Oh! If only you knew how much it means! If only you knew how +badly I want to! I'm not afraid of discomforts." + +"It's not that---" + +"Please! Please! Be a real prince and grant me this boon. Won't +you? My heart is set upon it." + +It was hard to resist her imploring eyes--eyes which showed they +had never been denied. It was hard for O'Neil to refuse anything +to a woman. + +"If your uncle is willing," he began, hesitatingly. + +"He isn't my really uncle--I just call him that." + +"Well, if Mr. Gordon wouldn't object, perhaps I can manage it, +provided, of course, you promise to explain to your mother." + +Miss Gerard's frank delight showed that she was indeed no more +than a child. Her changed demeanor awakened a doubt in the man's +mind. + +"It will mean that you'll have to sit up all night in an open +launch," he cautioned her. + +"I'll sit up for a week." + +"With the creepy water all about, and big black mountains +frowning at you!" + +"Oh, fiddle!" she exclaimed. "You'll be there if I get +frightened." Rising impulsively she laid her hand on his arm and +thanked him with an odd mingling of frankness and shyness, as if +there could be no further doubt of his acquiescence. He saw that +her eyes were the color of shaded woodland springs and that her +hair was not black, but of a deep, rich brown where the sun +played upon it, the hue of very old mahogany, with the same +blood-red flame running through it. He allowed himself to admire +her in silence, until suddenly she drew back with a startled +exclamation. + +"What is it?" + +"I forgot--I have no clothes." Her words came with a doleful +cadence. + +"The universal complaint of your sex," he said, smiling. "Allow +me to talk with your hostess. I'm sure she will let you walk out +with your borrowed finery, just like Cinderella. You'll need a +nice thick coat, too." + +"But this is her very, very best dress." + +"She shall receive, on the next ship, a big box all lined with +tissue-paper, with the imprint of the most fashionable dressmaker +in Seattle. I'll arrange all that by cable." + +"You don't know how she loves it," the girl said, doubtfully. + +"Come! Call her in. If I'm to be a prince you mustn't doubt my +power." + +Nor did the event prove him over-confident. Before he had fairly +made known his request the good lady of the house was ready to +surrender not only her best Sunday gown, but her fluttering heart +as well. Murray O'Neil had a way of making people do what he +wanted, and women invariably yielded to him. + + + + +IV + +HOW A JOURNEY ENDED AT HOPE + + +To Natalie Gerard the trip down the bay and into the sound that +night was a wonderful adventure. She remembered it afterward far +more vividly than the shipwreck, which became blurred in +retrospect, so that she soon began to think of it as of some +half-forgotten nightmare. To begin with, the personality of +Murray O'Neil intrigued her more and more. The man was so strong, +so sympathetic, and he had such a resistless way of doing things. +The stories she had heard of him were romantic, and the +superintendent's wife had not allowed them to suffer in the +telling. Natalie felt elated that such a remarkable person should +exert himself on her behalf. And the journey itself impressed her +imagination deeply. + +Although it was nine o'clock when they boarded the launch, it was +still light. The evening was yellow with the peculiar diffused +radiance of high latitudes, lending a certain somberness to their +surroundings. + +The rushing tide, the ragged rock-teeth which showed through it, +the trackless, unending forests that clothed the hills in every +direction, awed her a little, yet gave her an unaccustomed +feeling of freedom and contentment. The long wait out between the +lonely islands, where the tiny cockle-shell rolled strangely, +although the sea seemed as level as a floor, held a subtle +excitement. Darkness crept down out of the unpeopled gorges and +swallowed them up, thrilling her with a sense of mystery. + +When midnight came she found that she was ravenously hungry, and +she was agreeably surprised when O'Neil produced an elaborate +lunch. There were even thermos bottles filled with steaming hot +coffee, more delicious, she thought, than anything she had ever +before tasted. He called the meal their after-theater party, +pretending that they had just come from a Broadway melodrama of +shipwreck and peril. The subject led them naturally to talk of +New York, and she found he was more familiar with the city than +she. + +"I usually spend my winters there," he explained. + +"Then you have an office in the city?" + +"Oh yes. I've maintained a place of business there for years." + +"Where is it? On Wall Street?" + +"No!" he smiled. "On upper Fifth Avenue. It's situated in the +extreme southwest corner of the men's cafe at the Holland House. +It consists of a round mahogany table and a leather settee." + +"Really!" + +"That's where I'm to be found at least four months out of every +twelve." + +"They told me you built railroads." + +"I do--when I'm lucky enough to underbid my competitors. But that +isn't always, and railroads aren't built every day." + +"Mr. Gordon is building one." + +"So I'm told." O'Neil marveled at the trick of fortune which had +entangled this girl and her mother in the web of that brilliant +and unscrupulous adventurer. + +"Perhaps it will be a great success like your famous North Pass & +Yukon Railway." + +"Let us hope so." He was tempted to inquire what use Gordon had +made of that widely advertised enterprise in floating his own +undertaking, but instead he asked: + +"Your mother has invested heavily, has she not?" + +"Not in the railroad. Her fortune, and mine too, is all in the +coal mines." + +O'Neil smothered an exclamation. + +"What is it?" she demanded. + +"Nothing, only--are you sure?" + +"Oh, quite sure! The mines are rich, aren't they?" + +"There are no mines," he informed her, "thanks to our misguided +lawmakers at Washington. There are vast deposits of fine coal +which would--make mines if we were allowed to work them, but--we +are not allowed." + +"'We'? Are you a--a coal person, like us?" + +"Yes. I was one of the first men in the Kyak fields, and I +invested heavily. I know Mr. Gordon's group of claims well. I +have spent more than a hundred thousand dollars trying to perfect +my titles and I'm no nearer patent now than I was to begin with-- +not so near, in fact. I fancy Gordon has spent as much and is in +the same fix. It is a coal matter which brings me to Alaska now." + +"I hardly understand." + +"Of course not, and you probably won't after I explain. You see +the Government gave us--gave everybody who owns coal locations in +Alaska--three years in which to do certain things; then it +extended that time another three years. But recently a new +Secretary of the Interior has come into office and he has just +rescinded that later ruling, without warning, which gives us +barely time to comply with the law as it first stood. For my +part, I'll have to hustle or lose everything I have put in. You +see? That's why I hated to see those horses drown, for I intended +to use them in reaching the coal-fields. Now I'll have to hire +men to carry their loads. No doubt Mr. Gordon has arranged to +protect your holdings, but there are hundreds of claimants who +will be ruined." + +"I supposed the Government protected its subjects," said the +girl, vaguely. + +"One of the illusions taught in the elementary schools," laughed +O'Neil. "We Alaskans have found that it does exactly the +opposite! We have found it a harsh and unreasonable landlord. But +I'm afraid I'm boring you." He wrapped her more snugly in her +coverings, for a chill had descended with the darkness, then +strove to enliven her with stories garnered from his rich +experience--stories which gave her fascinating glimpses of great +undertakings and made her feel personally acquainted with people +of unfamiliar type, whose words and deeds, mirthful or pathetic, +were always refreshingly original. Of certain individuals he +spoke repeatedly until their names became familiar to his hearer. +He called them his "boys" and his voice was tender as he told of +their doings. + +"These men are your staff?" she ventured. + +"Yes. Every one who succeeds in his work must have loyal hands to +help him." + +"Where are they now?" + +"Oh! Scattered from Canada to Mexico, each one doing his own +particular work. There's Mellen, for instance; he's in Chihuahua +building a cantilever bridge. He's the best steel man in the +country. McKay, my superintendent, is running a railroad job in +California. 'Happy Tom' Slater--" + +"The funny man with the blues?" + +"Exactly! He was at work on a hydraulic project near Dawson the +last I heard of him. Dr. Gray is practising in Seattle, and +Parker, the chief engineer, has a position of great +responsibility in Boston. He is the brains of our outfit, you +understand; it was really he who made the North Pass & Yukon +possible. The others are scattered out in the same way, but +they'd all come if I called them." The first note of pride she +had detected crept into his voice when he said: "My 'boys' are +never idle. They don't have to be, after working with me." + +"And what is your part of the work?" asked the girl. + +"I? Oh, I'm like Marcelline, the clown at the Hippodrome--always +pretending to help, but forever keeping underfoot. When it +becomes necessary I raise the money to keep the performance +going." + +"Do you really mean that all those men would give up their +positions and come to you if you sent for them?" + +"By the first train, or afoot, if there were no other way. They'd +follow me to the Philippines or Timbuctoo, regardless of their +homes and their families." + +"That is splendid! You must feel very proud of inspiring such +loyalty," said Natalie. "But why are you idle now? Surely there +are railroads to be built somewhere." + +"Yes, I was asked to figure on a contract in Manchuria the other +day. I could have had it easily, and it would have meant my +everlasting fortune, but--" + +"But what?" + +"I found it isn't a white man's country. It's sickly and unsafe. +Some of my 'boys' would die before we finished it, and the game +isn't worth that price. No, I'll wait. Something better will turn +up. It always does." + +As Natalie looked upon that kindly, square-hewn face with its +tracery of lines about the eyes, its fine, strong jaw, and its +indefinable expression of power, she began to understand more +fully why those with whom she had talked had spoken of Murray +O'Neil with an almost worshipful respect. She felt very +insignificant and purposeless as she huddled there beside him, +and her complacence at his attentions deepened into a vivid sense +of satisfaction. Thus far he had spoken entirely of men; she +wondered if he ever thought of women, and thrilled a bit at the +intimacy that had sprung up between them so quickly and +naturally. + +It confirmed her feeling of prideful confidence in the man that +the north-bound freighter should punctually show her lights +around the islands and that she should pause in her majestic +sweep at the signal of this pigmy craft. The ship loomed huge and +black and terrifying as the launch at length drew in beneath it; +its sides towered like massive, unscalable ramparts. There was a +delay; there seemed to be some querulousness on the part of the +officer in command at being thus halted, some doubt about +allowing strangers to come aboard. But the girl smiled to herself +as the voices flung themselves back and forth through the night. +Once they learned who it was that called from the sea their +attitude would quickly change. Sure enough, in a little while +orders were shouted from the bridge; she heard men running from +somewhere, and a rope ladder came swinging down. O'Neil was +lifting her from her warm nest of rugs now and telling her to +fear nothing. The launch crept closer, coughing and shuddering as +if in terror at this close contact. There was a brief instant of +breathlessness as the girl found herself swung out over the +waters; then a short climb with O'Neil's protecting hand at her +waist and she stood panting, radiant, upon steel decks which +began to throb and tremble to the churning engines. + +One further task remained for her protector's magic powers. It +appeared that there were no quarters on the ship for women, but +after a subdued colloquy between Murray and the captain she was +led to the cleanest and coziest of staterooms high up near the +bridge. Over the door she glimpsed a metal plate with the words +"First Officer" lettered upon it. O'Neil was bidding her good +night and wishing her untroubled rest, then almost before she had +accustomed herself to her new surroundings an immaculate, though +sleepy, Japanese steward stood before her with a tray. He was +extremely cheerful for one so lately awakened, being still aglow +with pleased surprise over the banknote which lay neatly folded +in his waistcoat pocket. + +Natalie sat cross-legged on her berth and munched with the +appetite of a healthy young animal at the fruit and biscuits and +lovely heavy cake which the steward had brought. She was very +glad now that she had disobeyed her mother. It was high time, +indeed, to assert herself, for she was old enough to know +something of the world, and her judgment of men was mature enough +to insure perfect safety--that much had been proved. She felt +that her adventure had been a great success practically and +romantically. She wanted to lie awake and think it over in +detail, but she soon grew sleepy. Just before she dozed off she +wondered drowsily if "The Irish Prince" had found quarters for +himself, then reflected that undoubtedly the captain had been +happy to tumble out of bed for him. Or perhaps he felt no fatigue +and would watch the night through. Even now he might be pacing +the deck outside her door. At any rate, he was not far off. She +closed her eyes, feeling deliciously secure and comfortable. + +In one way the southern coast of Alaska may be said to be perhaps +a million years younger than any land on this continent, for it +is still in the glacial period. The vast alluvial plains and +valleys of the interior are rimmed in to the southward and shut +off from the Pacific by a well-nigh impassable mountain barrier, +the top of which is capped with perpetual snow. Its gorges, for +the most part, run rivers of ice instead of water. Europe has +nothing like these glaciers which overflow the Alaskan valleys +and submerge the hills, for many of them contain more ice than +the whole of Switzerland. This range is the Andes of the north, +and it curves westward in a magnificent sweep, hugging the shore +for a thousand leagues. Against it the sea beats stormily; its +frozen crest is played upon by constant rains and fogs and +blizzards. But over beyond lies a land of sunshine, of long, dry, +golden summer days. + +Into this chaos of cliff and peak and slanting canyon, midway to +the westward, is let King Phillip Sound, a sheet of water dotted +with islands and framed by forests. It reaches inland with long, +crooked tentacles which end like talons, in living ice. Hidden +some forty miles up one of these, upon the moraine of a receding +glacier, sits Cortez, a thriving village and long the point of +entry to the interior, the commencement of the overland trail to +the golden valleys of the Yukon and the Tanana. The Government +wagon trail winds in from here, tracing its sinuous course over +one pass after another until it emerges into the undulating +prairies of the "inside country." + +Looking at the map, one would imagine that an easier gateway to +the heart of Alaska would be afforded by the valley of the Salmon +River, which enters the ocean some few miles to the eastward of +King Phillip Sound, but there are formidable difficulties. The +stream bursts the last rampart of the Coast Range asunder by +means of a canyon down which it rages in majestic fury and up +which no craft can navigate. Then it spreads itself out through a +dozen shallow mouths across a forty-mile delta of silt and sand +and glacial wash. As if Nature feared her arctic strong-box might +still be invaded by this route, she has placed additional +safeguards to the approach in the form of giant glaciers, through +the very bowels of which the Salmon River is forced to burrow. + +In the early days of the Klondike rush men had attempted to +ascend the valley, but they had succeeded only at the cost of +such peril and disaster that others were warned away. The region +had become the source of many weird stories, and while the ice- +fields could be seen from the Kyak coal-fields, and on still days +their cannonading could be heard far out at sea, there were few +who had ventured to cross the forty-mile morass which lay below +them and thus attempt to verify or to disprove the rumors, + +It was owing to these topographical conditions that Cortez had +been established as the point of entry to the interior; it was +because of them that she had grown and flourished, with her +sawmills and her ginmills, her docks, and her dives. But at the +time when this story opens Alaska had developed to a point where +an overland outlet by winter and a circuitous inlet, by way of +Bering Sea and the crooked Yukon, in summer were no longer +sufficient, There was need of a permanent route by means of which +men and freight might come and go through all the year. The +famous North Pass & Yukon Railway, far to the eastward, afforded +transportation to Dawson City and the Canadian territory, and had +proven itself such a financial success that builders began to +look for a harbor, more to the westward, from which they could +tap the great heart of Alaska. Thus it was that Cortez awoke one +morning to find herself selected as the terminus of a new line. +Other railway propositions followed, flimsy promotion schemes for +the most part, but among them two that had more than paper and +"hot air" behind them. One of these was backed by the Copper +Trust which had made heavy mining investments two hundred miles +inland, the other by Curtis Gordon, a promoter, who claimed New +York as his birthplace and the world as his residence. + +Gordon had been one of the first locaters in the Kyak coal- +fields, and he had also purchased a copper prospect a few miles +down the bay from Cortez, where he had started a town which he +called Hope. There were some who shook their heads and smiled +knowingly when they spoke of that prospect, but no one denied +that it was fast assuming the outward semblance of a mine under +Gordon's direction. He had erected a fine substantial wharf, +together with buildings, bunk-houses, cottages, and a spacious +residence for himself; and daily the piles of debris beneath the +tunnel entries to his workings grew. He paid high wages, he spent +money lavishly, and he had a magnificent and compelling way with +him that dazzled and delighted the good people of Cortez. When he +began work on a railroad which was designed to reach far into the +interior his action was taken as proof positive of his financial +standing, and his critics were put down as pessimists who had +some personal grudge against him. + +It was up to the raw, new village of Hope, with its odor of +fresh-cut fir and undried paint, that the freight-steamer with +Natalie Gerard and "The Irish Prince" aboard, came gingerly one +evening. + +O'Neil surveyed the town with some curiosity as he approached, +for Gordon's sensational doings had interested him greatly. He +was accustomed to the rapid metamorphoses of a growing land; it +was his business, in fact, to win the wilderness over to order, +and therefore he was not astonished at the changes wrought here +during his absence. But he was agreeably surprised at the +businesslike arrangement of the place, and the evidence that a +strong and practised hand had guided its development. + +Even before the ship had tied up he had identified the tall, +impressive man on the dock as the genius and founder of Hope, and +the dark-haired, well-formed woman beside him as Natalie's +mother. It was not until they were close at hand that the +daughter made her presence known; then, unable to restrain +herself longer, she shrieked her greeting down over the rail. +Mrs. Gerard started, then stared upward as if at an apparition; +she stretched out a groping hand to Gordon, who stood as if +frozen in his tracks. They seemed to be exchanging hurried words, +and the man appeared to be reassuring his companion. It looked +very odd to O'Neil; but any suspicion that Natalie was unwelcome +disappeared when she reached the dock. Her mother's dark eyes +were bright with unshed tears of gladness, her face was +transfigured, she showed the strong, repressed emotion of an +undemonstrative nature as they embraced. Natalie clung to her, +laughing, crying, bombarding her with questions, begging +forgiveness, and babbling of her adventures. Their resemblance +was striking, and in point of beauty there seemed little to +choose between them. They might have been nearly of an age, +except that the mother lacked the girl's restless vivacity. + +O'Neil remained in the background, like an uncomfortable +bridegroom, conscious meanwhile of the searching and hostile +regard of Curtis Gordon. But at last his protegee managed to gasp +out in a more or less coherent manner the main facts of the +shipwreck and her rescue, whereupon Gordon's attitude abruptly +altered. + +"My God!" he ejaculated. "You were not on the Nebraska?" + +"Yes, yes, yes!" cried Natalie. "The life-boats went off and left +me all alone--in the dark--with the ship sinking! Mr. O'Neil +saved me. He took me up and jumped just as the ship sank, and we +were all night in the freezing water. We nearly died, didn't we? +He fainted, and so did I, mummie dear--it was so cold. He held me +up until we were rescued, though, and then there wasn't room in +the life-boat for both of us. But he made them take me in, just +the same, while he stayed in the water. He was unconscious when +he reached the shore. Oh, it was splendid!" + +O'Neil's identity being established, and the nature of his +service becoming apparent, Curtis Gordon took his hand in a +crushing grip and thanked him in a way that might have warmed the +heart of a stone gargoyle. The man was transformed, now that he +understood; he became a geyser of eloquence. He poured forth his +appreciation in rounded sentences; his splendid musical voice +softened and swelled and broke with a magnificent and touching +emotion. Through it all the Irish contractor remained +uncomfortably silent, for he could not help thinking that this +fulsome outburst was aroused rather by the man who had built the +North Pass + +A crowd was collecting round them, but Gordon cleared it away +with an imperious gesture. + +"Come!" he said. "This is no place to talk. Mr. O'Neil's splendid +gallantry renders our mere thanks inane. He must allow us to +express our gratitude in a more fitting manner." + +"Please don't," exclaimed O'Neil, hastily. + +"You are our guest; the hospitality of our house is yours. Hope +would be honored to welcome you, sir, at any time, but under +these circumstances--" + +"I'm going right on to Cortez." + +"The ship will remain here for several hours, discharging +freight, and we insist that you allow us this pleasure meanwhile. +You shall spend the night here, then perhaps you will feel +inclined to prolong your stay. All that Cortez has we have in +double proportion--I say it with pride. Cortez is no longer the +metropolis of the region. Hope--Well, I may say that Cortez is, +of all Alaskan cities, the most fortunate, since it has realized +its Hope." He laughed musically. "This town has come to stay; we +intend to annex Cortez eventually. If you feel that you must go +on, I shall deem it a pleasure to send you later in my motor- +boat. She makes the run in fifteen minutes. But you must first +honor our house and our board; you must permit us to pledge your +health in a glass. We insist!" + +"Please!" said Mrs. Gerard. + +"Do come, your Highness," Natalie urged, from the shelter of the +elder woman's arms. + +"You're more than kind," said O'Neil, and together the four +turned their faces to the shore. + + + + +V + +WHEREIN WE SEE CURTIS GORDON AND OTHERS + + +Curtis Gordon's respect for his guest increased as they walked up +the dock, for, before they had taken many steps, out from the +crowd which had gathered to watch the ship's arrival stepped one +of his foremen. This fellow shook hands warmly with O'Neil, +whereupon others followed, one by one--miners, day laborers, +"rough-necks" of many nationalities. They doffed their hats- +something they never did for Gordon--and stretched out grimy +hands, their faces lighting up with smiles. O'Neil accepted their +greetings with genuine pleasure and called them by name. + +"We just heard you was shipwrecked," said Gordon's foreman, +anxiously. "You wasn't hurt, was you?" + +"Not in the least." + +"God be praised! There's a lot of the old gang at work here." + +"So I see." + +"Here's Shorty, that you may remember from the North Pass." The +speaker dragged from the crowd a red-faced, perspiring ruffian +who had hung back with the bashfulness of a small boy. "He's the +fellow you dug out of the slide at twenty-eight." + +"Connors!" cried O'Neil, warmly. "I'm glad to see you. And how +are the two arms of you?" + +"Better 'n ever they was, the both av them!" Mr. Connors blushed, +doubled his fists and flexed his bulging muscles. "An' why +shouldn't they be, when you set 'em both with your own hands, +Misther O'Neil? 'Twas as good a job as Doc Gray ever done in the +hospittle. I hope you're doin' well, sir." He pulled his +forelock, placed one foot behind the other, and tapped it on the +planking, grinning expansively. + +"Very well indeed, thank you." + +O'Neil's progress was slow, for half the crowd insisted upon +shaking his hand and exchanging a few words with him. Clumsy +Swedes bobbed their heads, dark-browed foreign laborers whose +nationality it was hard to distinguish showed their teeth and +chattered words of greeting. + +"Bless my soul!" Gordon exclaimed, finally. + +"You know more of them than I do." + +"Yes! I seldom have to fire a man." + +"Then you are favored of the gods. Labor is my great problem. It +is the supreme drawback of this country. These people drift and +blow on every breeze, like the sands of the Sahara. With more and +better help I could work wonders here." + +Unexpected as these salutations had been, O'Neil's greatest +surprise came a moment later as he passed the first of the +company buildings. There he heard his name pronounced in a voice +which halted him, and in an open doorway he beheld a huge, loose- +hung man of tremendous girth, with a war-bag in his hand and a +wide black hat thrust back from a shiny forehead. + +"Why, Tom!" he exclaimed. "Tom Slater!" + +Gordon groaned and went on with the women, saying: "Come up to +the house when you escape, Mr. O'Neil. I shall have dinner +served." + +Mr. Slater came forward slowly, dragging his clothes-bag with +him. The two shook hands. + +"What in the world are you doing here, Tom?" + +"Nothing!" said Slater. He had a melancholy cast of feature, +utterly out of keeping with his rotund form. In his eye was the +somber glow of a soul at war with the flesh. + +"Nothing?" + +"I had a good job, putting in a power plant for his nibs"--he +indicated the retreating Gordon with a disrespectful jerk of the +thumb--"but I quit." + +"Not enough pay?" + +"Best wages I ever got. He pays well." + +"Poor grub?" + +"Grub's fine." + +"What made you quit?" + +"I haven't exactly quit, but I'm going to. When I saw you coming +up the dock I said: 'There's the chief! Now he'll want me.' So I +began to pack." The speaker dangled his partly filled war-bag as +evidence. In an even sourer tone he murmured: + +"Ain't that just me? I ain't had a day's luck since Lincoln was +shot. The minute I get a good job along you come and spoil it." + +"I don't want you," laughed O'Neil. + +But Slater was not convinced. He shook his head. + +"Oh yes, you do. You've got something on or you wouldn't be here. +I've been drawing pay from you now for over five minutes." + +O'Neil made a gesture of impatience. + +"No! No! In the first place, I have nothing for you to do; in the +second place, I probably couldn't afford the wages Gordon is +paying you." + +"That's the hell of it!" gloomily agreed "Happy Tom." "Where are +your grips? I'll begin by carrying them." + +"I haven't any. I've been shipwrecked. Seriously, Tom, I have no +place for you." + +The repetition of this statement made not the smallest impression +upon the hearer. + +"You'll have one soon enough," he replied. Then with a touch of +spirit, "Do you think I'd work for this four-flusher if you were +in the country?" + +"Hush!" O'Neil cast a glance over his shoulder. "By the way, how +do you happen to be here? I thought you were in Dawson." + +"I finished that job. I was working back toward ma and the +children. I haven't seen them for two years." + +"You think Gordon is a false alarm?" + +"Happy Tom" spat with unerring accuracy at a crack, then said: + +"He's talking railroads! Railroads! Why, I've got a boy back in +the state of Maine, fourteen years old--" + +"Willie?" + +"Yes. My son Willie could skin Curtis Gordon at railroad- +building--and Willie is the sickly one of the outfit. But I'll +hand it to Gordon for one thing; he's a money-getter and a money- +spender. He knows where the loose stone in the hearth is laid, +and he knows just which lilac bush the family savings are buried +under. Those penurious Pilgrim Fathers in my part of the country +come up and drop their bankbooks through the slot in his door +every morning. He's the first easy money I ever had; I'd get rich +off of him, but"--Slater sighed--"of course you had to come along +and wrench me away from the till." + +"Don't quit on my account," urged his former chief. "I'm up here +on coal matters. I can't take time to explain now, but I'll see +you later." + +"Suit yourself, only don't keep me loafing on full time. I'm an +expensive man. I'll be packed and waiting for you." + +O'Neil went on his way, somewhat amused, yet undeniably pleased +at finding his boss packer here instead of far inland, for +Slater's presence might, after all, fit well enough into his +plans. + +"The Irish Prince" had gained something of a reputation for +extravagance, but he acknowledged himself completely outshone by +the luxury with which Curtis Gordon had surrounded himself at +Hope. The promoter had spoken of his modest living-quarters--in +reality they consisted of a handsome twenty-room house, furnished +with the elegance of a Newport cottage. The rugs were thick and +richly colored; the furniture was of cathedral oak and mahogany. +In the library were deep leather chairs and bookcases, filled +mainly with the works of French and German authors of decadent +type. The man's taste in art was revealed by certain pictures, +undeniably clever, but a little too daring. He was undoubtedly a +sybarite, yet he evidently possessed rare energy and executive +force. It was an unusual combination. + +The dinner was notable mainly for its lavish disregard of +expense. There were strawberries from Seattle, fresh cream and +butter from Gordon's imported cows, cheese prepared expressly for +him in France, and a champagne the date of which he took pains to +make known. + +On the whole he played the part of host agreeably enough and his +constant flow of talk was really entertaining. His anecdotes +embraced three continents; his wit, though Teutonic, was genial +and mirth-provoking. When Mrs. Gerard took time from her +worshipful regard of her daughter to enter the conversation, she +spoke with easy charm and spontaneity. As for Natalie, she was +intoxicated with delight; she chattered, she laughed, she +interrupted with the joyful exuberance of youth. + +Under such circumstances the meal should have proved enjoyable, +yet the guest of honor had never been more ill at ease. Precisely +what accounted for the feeling he could not quite determine. +Somewhere back in his mind was a suspicion that things were not +as they should be, here in this house of books and pictures and +incongruities. He told himself that he should not be so narrow- +minded as to resent Gloria Gerard's presence here, particularly +since she herself had told him that her friendship for Gordon +dated back many years. Nevertheless, the impression remained to +disturb him. + +"You wonder, perhaps, why I have been so extravagant with my +living-quarters," said Gordon, as they walked into the library, +"but it is not alone for myself. You see I have people associated +with me who are accustomed to every comfort and luxury and I +built this house for them. Mrs. Gerard has been kind enough to +grace the establishment with her presence, and I expect others of +my stock-holders to do likewise. You see, I work in the light, +Mr. O'Neil; I insist upon the broadest publicity in all my +operations, and to that end I strive to bring my clients into +contact with the undertaking itself. For instance, I am bringing +a party of my stockholders all the way from New York, at my own +expense, just to show them how their interests are being +administered. I have chartered a special train and a ship for +them, and of course they must be properly entertained while +here." + +"Quite a scheme," said O'Neil. + +"I wanted to show them this marvelous country, God's wonderland +of opportunity. They will return impressed by the solidity and +permanence of their investment." + +Certainly the man knew how to play his game. No more effective +means of advertising, no more profitable stock-jobbing scheme +could be devised than a free trip of that sort and a tour of +Alaska under the watchful guidance of Curtis Gordon. If any +member of the party returned unimpressed it would not be the +fault of the promoter; if any one of them did not voluntarily go +out among his personal friends as a missionary it would be +because Gordon's magnetism had lost its power. O'Neil felt a +touch of unwilling admiration. + +"I judge, from what you say, that the mine gives encouragement," +he ventured, eying his host curiously through a cloud of tobacco +smoke. + +"'Encouragement' is not the word. Before many years 'Hope +Consolidated' will be listed on the exchanges of the world along +with 'Amalgamated' and the other great producers. We have here, +Mr. O'Neil, a tremendous mountain of ore, located at tide water, +on one of the world's finest harbors. The climate is superb; we +have coal near at hand for our own smelter. The mine only +requires systematic development under competent hands." + +"I was in Cortez when Lars Anderson made his first discovery +here, and I had an option on all this property. I believe the +price was twelve hundred dollars; at any rate, it was I who drove +those tunnels you found when you bought him out." + +Gordon's eyes wavered briefly, then he laughed. + +"My dear sir, you have my sincere sympathy. Your poison, my meat +--as it were, eh? You became discouraged too soon. Another +hundred feet of work and you would have been justified in paying +twelve hundred thousand dollars. This 'Eldorado' which the Copper +Trust has bought has a greater surface showing than 'Hope,' I +grant; but--it lies two hundred miles inland, and there is the +all-important question of transportation to be solved. The ore +will have to be hauled, or smelted on the ground, while we have +the Kyak coal-fields at our door. The Heidlemanns are building a +railroad to it which will parallel mine in places, but the very +nature of their enterprise foredooms it to failure." + +"Indeed? How so?" + +"My route is the better. By a rigid economy of expenditure, by a +careful supervision of detail, I can effect a tremendous saving +over their initial cost. I hope to convince them of the fact, and +thus induce them to withdraw from the field or take over my road +at--a reasonable figure. Negotiations are under way." + +At this talk of economy from Curtis Gordon O'Neil refrained from +smiling with difficulty. He felt certain that the man's entire +operations were as unsound as his statement that he could bring +the Trust to terms. Yet Gordon seemed thoroughly in earnest. +Either he expected to fool his present hearer, or else he had +become hypnotized by the spell of his own magnificent twaddle-- +O'Neil could not tell which. + +"Who laid out your right-of-way?" he asked with some interest. + +"A very able young engineer, Dan Appleton. An excellent man, but +--unreliable in certain things. I had to let him go, this very +afternoon, in fact, for insubordination. But I discharged him +more for the sake of discipline than anything else. He'll be +anxious to return in a few days. Now tell me"--Gordon fixed his +visitor with a bland stare which failed to mask his gnawing +curiosity--"what brings you to King Phillip Sound? Are we to be +rivals in the railroad field?" + +"No. There are enough projects of that sort in the neighborhood +for the present." + +"Five, all told, but only one destined to succeed." + +"I'm bound for the Kyak coal-fields to perfect and amend my +surveys under the new ruling." + +"Ah! I've heard about that ruling." + +"Heard about it?" exclaimed O'Neil. "Good Lord! Haven't you +complied with it?" + +"Not yet." + +"You surely intend to do so?" + +"Oh yes--I suppose so." + +"If you don't you'll lose--" + +"I'm not sure we can ever win." + +"Nonsense!" + +"I'm not sure that it's wise to put more good money into those +coal claims," said Gordon. "This ruling will doubtless be +reversed as the others have been. One never knows what the Land +Office policy will be two days at a time." + +"You know your own business," O'Neil remarked after a pause, "but +unless you have inside information, or a bigger pull in +Washington than the rest of us, I'd advise you to get busy. I'll +be on my way to Kyak in the morning with a gang of men." Gordon's +attitude puzzled him, for he could not bring himself to believe +that such indifference was genuine. + +"We have been treated unfairly by the Government." + +"Granted!" + +"We have been fooled, cheated, hounded as if we were a crowd of +undesirable aliens, and I'm heartily sick of the injustice. I +prefer to work along lines of least resistance. I feel tempted to +let Uncle Sam have my coal claims, since he has lied to me and +gone back on his promise, and devote myself to other enterprises +which offer a certainty of greater profits. But"--Gordon smiled +deprecatingly--"I dare say I shall hold on, as you are doing, +until that fossilized bureau at Washington imposes some new +condition which will ruin us all." + +Remembering Natalie's statement that her own and her mother's +fortunes were tied up in the mines, O'Neil felt inclined to go +over Gordon's head and tell the older woman plainly the danger of +delay in complying with the law, but he thought better of the +impulse. Her confidence in this man was supreme and it seemed +incredible that Gordon should jeopardize her holdings and his +own. More likely his attitude was just a part of his pose, +designed to show the bigness of his views and to shed a greater +luster upon his railroad project. + +It was difficult to escape from the hospitality of Hope, and +O'Neil succeeded in doing so only after an argument with Natalie +and her mother. They let him go at last only upon his promise to +return on his way back from the coal-fields, and they insisted +upon accompanying him down to the dock, whither Gordon had +preceded them in order to have his motor-boat in readiness. + +As they neared the landing they overheard the latter in spirited +debate with "Happy Tom" Slater. + +"But my dear fellow," he was saying, "I can't lose you and +Appleton on the same day." + +"You can't? Why, you've done it!" the fat man retorted, gruffly. + +"I refuse to be left in the lurch this way. You must give more +notice." + +Slater shrugged, and without a word tossed his bulging war bag +into the motor-boat which lay moored beneath him. His employer's +face was purple with rage as he turned to Murray and the ladies, +but he calmed himself sufficiently to say: + +"This man is in charge of important work for me, yet he tells me +you have hired him away." + +"Tom!" exclaimed O'Neil. + +"I never said that," protested Slater. "I only told you I was +working for Murray." + +"Well?" + +"I hired myself. He didn't have anything to say about it. I do +all the hiring, firing, and boosting in my department." + +"I appeal to you, O'Neil. I'm short-handed," Gordon cried. + +"I tell you he don't have a word to say about it," Slater +declared with heat. + +Natalie gave a little tinkling laugh. She recognized in this man +the melancholy hero of more than one tale "The Irish Prince" had +told her. Murray did his best, but knowing "Happy Tom's" calm +obstinacy of old, he had no real hope of persuading him. + +"You see how it is," he said, finally. "He's been with me for +years and he refuses to work for any one else while I'm around. +If I don't take him with me he'll follow." + +Mr. Slater nodded vigorously, then imparted these tidings: + +"It's getting late, and my feet hurt." He bowed to the women, +then lowered himself ponderously yet carefully over the edge of +the dock and into the leather cushions of the launch. Once safely +aboard, he took a package of wintergreen chewing-gum from his +pocket and began to chew, staring out across the sound with that +placid, speculative enjoyment which reposes in the eyes of a cow +at sunset. + +Curtis Gordon's face was red and angry as he shook hands stiffly +with his guest and voiced the formal hope that they would meet +again. + +"I'm glad to be gone," Slater observed as the speed-boat rushed +across the bay. "I'm a family man, and--I've got principles. +Gordon's got neither." + +"It was outrageous for you to walk out so suddenly. It +embarrassed me." + +"Oh, he'd let me go without notice if he felt like it. He fired +Dan Appleton this afternoon just for telling the truth about the +mine. That's what I'd have got if I'd stayed on much longer. I +was filling up with words and my skin was getting tight. I'd have +busted, sure, inside of a week." + +"Isn't the mine any good?" + +"It ain't a mine at all. It's nothing but an excavation filled +with damn fools and owned by idiots; still, I s'pose it serves +Gordon's purpose." After a pause he continued: "They tell me that +snakes eat their own young! Gordon ought to call that mine the +Anaconda, for it'll swallow its own dividends and all the money +those Eastern people can raise." + +"I'm sorry for Mrs. Gerard." + +Slater emitted a sound like the moist exhalation of a porpoise as +it rises to the surface. + +"What do you mean by that snort?" asked Murray. + +"It's funny how much some people are like animals. Now the +ostrich thinks that when his head is hid his whole running-gear +is out of sight. Gordon's an ostrich. As for you--you remind me +of a mud turtle. A turtle don't show nothing but his head, and +when it's necessary he can yank that under cover. Gordon don't +seem to realize that he sticks up above the underbrush--either +that or else he don't care who sees him. He and that woman--" + +"Never mind her," exclaimed O'Neil, quickly. "I'm sure you're +mistaken." + +Mr. Slater grunted once more, then chewed his gum silently, +staring mournfully into the twilight. After a moment he inquired: + +"Why don't you show these people how to build a railroad, +Murray?" + +"No, thank you! I know the country back of here. It's not +feasible." + +"The Copper Trust is doing it." + +"All the more reason why I shouldn't. There are five projects +under way now, and there won't be more than enough traffic for +one." + +Slater nodded. "Every man who has two dollars, a clean shirt, and +a friend at Washington has got a railroad scheme up his sleeve." + +"It will cost thirty million dollars to build across those three +divides and into the copper country. When the road is done it +will be one of heavy grades, and--" + +"No wonder you didn't get the contract from the Heidlemanns--if +your estimate was thirty million." + +"I didn't put in a figure." + +Tom looked surprised. "Why didn't you? You know them." + +"I was like the little boy who didn't go to the party--I wasn't +asked." The speaker's expression showed that his pride had been +hurt and discouraged further questioning. "We'll hire our men and +our boats to-night," he announced. "I've arranged for that +freighter to drop us off at Omar on her way out. We'll have to +row from there to Kyak. I expected to land my horses at the coast +and pack in from Kyak Bay, but that shipwreck changed my plans. +Poor brutes! After my experience I'll never swim horses in this +water again." + +An eleven-o'clock twilight enveloped Cortez when the two men +landed, but the town was awake. The recent railway and mining +activity in the neighborhood had brought a considerable influx of +people to King Phillip Sound, and the strains of music from +dance-hall doors, the click of checks and roulette balls from +the saloons, gave evidence of an unusual prosperity. + +O'Neil had no difficulty in securing men. Once he was recognized, +the scenes at Hope were re-enacted, and there was a general +scramble to enlist upon his pay-roll. Within an hour, therefore, +his arrangements were made, and he and Tom repaired to Callahan's +Hotel for a few hours' sleep. + +A stud game was going on in the barroom when they entered, and +O'Neil paused to watch it while Slater spoke to one of the +players, a clean-cut, blond youth of whimsical countenance. When +the two friends finally faced the bar for their "nightcap" Tom +explained: + +"That's Appleton, the fellow Gordon fired to-day. I told him I'd +left the old man flat." + +"Is he a friend of yours?" + +"Sure. Nice boy--good engineer, too." + +"Umph! That game is crooked." + +"No?" "Happy Tom" displayed a flash of interest. + +"Yes, Cortez is fast becoming a metropolis, I see. The man in the +derby hat is performing a little feat that once cost me four +thousand dollars to learn." + +"I'd better split Dan away," said Tom, hastily. + +"Wait! Education is a good thing, even if it is expensive at +times. I fancy your friend is bright enough to take care of +himself. Let's wait a bit." + +"Ain't that just my blamed luck?" lamented Slater. "Now if they +were playing faro I could make a killing. I'd 'copper' Appleton's +bets and 'open' the ones he coppered!" + +O'Neil smiled, for "Happy Tom's" caution in money matters was +notorious. "You know you don't believe in gambling," he said. + +"It's not a belief, it's a disease," declared the fat man. "I was +born to be a gambler, but the business is too uncertain. Now that +I'm getting so old and feeble I can't work any more, I'd take it +up, only I broke three fingers and when I try to deal I drop the +cards. What are we going to do?" + +"Just wait," said O'Neil. + + + + +VI + +THE DREAMER + + +Unobserved the two friends watched the poker game, which for a +time proceeded quietly. But suddenly they saw Appleton lean over +the table and address the man with the derby hat; then, thrusting +back his chair, he rose, declaring, in a louder tone: + +"I tell you I saw it. I thought I was mistaken at first." His +face was white, and he disregarded the efforts of his right-hand +neighbor to quiet him. + +"Don't squeal," smiled the dealer. "I'll leave it to the boys if +I did anything wrong." + +"You pulled that king from the bottom. It may not be wrong, but +it's damned peculiar." + +"Forget it!" one of the others exclaimed. "Denny wouldn't double- +cross you." + +"Hardly!" agreed Mr. Denny, evenly. "You're 'in' a hundred and +eighty dollars, but if you're sore you can have it back." + +Appleton flung his cards into the middle of the table and turned +away disgustedly. "It's a hard thing to prove, and I'm not +absolutely sure I saw straight, or--I'd take it back, fast +enough." + +Denny shrugged and gathered in the discarded hand. "You've been +drinking too much, that's all. Your eyesight is scattered." + +Appleton's face flushed as he beheld the gaze of the company upon +him and heard the laughter which greeted this remark. He turned +to leave when O'Neil, who had continued to watch the proceedings +with interest, crossed to the group and touched Denny on the +shoulder, saying, quietly: + +"Give him his money." + +"Eh?" The smile faded from the fellow's face; he looked up with +startled inquiry. "What?" + +"Give him his money." + +In the momentary hush which followed, "Happy Tom" Slater, who had +frequently seen his employer in action and understood storm +signals, sighed deeply and reached for the nearest chair. With a +wrench of his powerful hands he loosened a leg. Although Mr. +Slater abhorred trouble, he was accustomed to meet it +philosophically. A lifetime spent in construction camps had +taught him that, of all weapons, the one best suited to his use +was a pick-handle; second to that he had come to value the +hardwood leg of a chair. But in the present case his precaution +proved needless, for the dispute was over before he had fairly +prepared himself. + +Without waiting for O'Neil to put his accusation into words Denny +had risen swiftly, and in doing so he had either purposely or by +accident made a movement which produced a prompt and instinctive +reaction. Murray's fist met him as he rose, met him so squarely +and with such force that he lost all interest in what followed. +The other card-players silently gathered Mr. Denny in their arms +and stretched him upon a disused roulette table; the bartender +appeared with a wet towel and began to bathe his temples. + +Appleton, dazed by the suddenness of it all, found a stack of +gold pieces in his hand and heard O'Neil saying in an every-day +tone: + +"Come to my room, please. I'd like to talk to you." Something +commanding in the speaker's face made the engineer follow against +his will. He longed to loiter here until Denny had regained his +senses--but O'Neil had him by the arm and a moment later he was +being led down the hall away from the lobby and the barroom. As +Slater, who had followed, closed the door behind them, Dan burst +forth: + +"By Jove! Why didn't you tell me? I knew he was crooked--but I +couldn't believe--" + +"Sit down!" said O'Neil. "He won't pull himself together for a +while, and I want to get to bed. Are you looking for a job?" + +The engineer's eyes opened wide. + +"Yes." + +"Do you know the Kyak country?" + +"Pretty well." + +"I need a surveyor. Your wages will be the same that Gordon paid +and they begin now, if it's agreeable." + +"It certainly is!" + +"Good! We'll leave at six o'clock, sharp. Bring your bedding and +instruments." + +"Thanks! I--This is a bit of a surprise. Who are you?" + +"I'm O'Neil." "Oh!" Mr. Appleton's expression changed quickly. +"You're Murray--" He stammered an instant. "It was very good of +you to take my part, after I'd been fool enough to--" + +"Well--I didn't want to see you make a total idiot of yourself." + +The young man flushed slightly, then in a quieter voice, he +asked: + +"How did you know I was out of work?" + +"Mr. Gordon told me. He recommended you highly." + +"He did?" + +"He said you were unreliable, disloyal, and dishonest. Coming +from him I took that as high praise." + +There was a moment's pause, then Appleton laughed boyishly. + +"That's funny! I'm very glad to know you, Mr. O'Neil." + +"You don't, and you won't for a long time. Tom tells me you +didn't think well of Gordon's enterprise and so he fired you." + +"That's right! I suppose I ought to have kept my mouth shut, but +it has a way of flying open when it shouldn't. He is either a +fool or a crook, and his mine is nothing but a prospect. I +couldn't resist telling him so." + +"And his railroad?" + +Appleton hesitated. "Oh, it's as good a route as the Trust's. I +worked on the two surveys. Personally I think both outfits are +crazy to try to build in from here. I had to tell Gordon that, +too. You see I'm a volunteer talker. I should have been born with +a stutter--it would have saved me a lot of trouble." + +O'Neil smiled. "You may talk all you please in my employ, so long +as you do your work. Now get some sleep, for we have a hard trip. +And by the way"--the youth paused with a hand on the doorknob-- +"don't go looking for Denny." + +Appleton's face hardened stubbornly. + +"I can't promise that, sir." + +"Oh yes you can! You must! Remember, you're working for me, and +you're under orders. I can't have the expedition held up on your +account." + +The engineer's voice was heavy with disappointment, but a vague +admiration was growing in his eyes as he agreed: + +"Very well, sir. I suppose my time is yours. Good night." + +When he had gone "Happy Tom" inquired: + +"Now, why in blazes did you hire him? We don't need a high-priced +surveyor on this job." + +"Of course not, but don't you see? He'd have been arrested, sure. +Besides--he's Irish, and I like him." + +"Humph! Then I s'pose he's got a job for life," said Tom, +morosely. "You make friends and enemies quicker than anybody I +ever saw. You've got Curtis Gordon on your neck now." + +"On account of this boy? Nonsense!" + +"Not altogether. Denny is Gordon's right bower. I think he calls +him his secretary; anyhow, he does Gordon's dirty work and +they're thicker than fleas. First you come along and steal me, +underhanded, then you grab his pet engineer before he has a +chance to hire him back again. Just to top off the evening you +publicly brand his confidential understrapper as a card cheat and +thump him on the medulla oblongata--" + +"Are you sure it wasn't the duodenum?" + +"Well, you hit him in a vital spot, and Gordon won't forget it." + +Late on the following morning O'Neil's expedition was landed at +the deserted fishing-station of Omar, thirty miles down the sound +from Cortez. From this point its route lay down the bay to open +water and thence eastward along the coast in front of the Salmon +River delta some forty miles to Kyak. This latter stretch would +have been well-nigh impossible for open boats but for the fact +that the numerous mud bars and islands thrown out by the river +afforded a sheltered course. These inside channels, though +shallow, were of sufficient depth to allow small craft to +navigate and had long been used as a route to the coal-fields. + +Appleton, smiling and cheerful, was the first member of the party +to appear at the dock that morning, and when the landing had been +effected at Omar he showed his knowledge of the country by +suggesting a short cut which would save the long row down to the +mouth of the sound and around into the delta. Immediately back of +the old cannery, which occupied a gap in the mountain rim, lay a +narrow lake, and this, he declared, held an outlet which led into +the Salmon River flats. By hauling the boats over into this body +of water--a task made easy by the presence of a tiny tramway with +one dilapidated push-car which had been a part of the cannery +equipment--it would be possible to save much time and labor. + +"I've heard there was a way through," O'Neil confessed, "but +nobody seemed to know just where it was." + +"I know," the young man assured him. "We can gain a day at least, +and I judge every day is valuable." + +"So valuable that we can't afford to lose one by making a +mistake," said his employer, meaningly. + +"Leave it to me. I never forget a country once I've been through +it." + +Accordingly the boats were loaded upon the hand-car and +transferred one at a time. In the interval O'Neil examined his +surroundings casually. He was surprised to find the dock and +buildings in excellent condition, notwithstanding the fact that +the station had lain idle for several years. A solitary +Norwegian, with but a slight suspicion of English, was watching +the premises and managed to make known his impression that poor +fishing had led the owners to abandon operations at this point. +He, too, had heard that Omar Lake had an outlet into the delta, +but he was not sure of its existence; he was sure of nothing, in +fact except that it was very lonesome here, and that he had run +out of tobacco five days before. + +But Dan Appleton was not mistaken. A two hours' row across the +mirror-like surface of Omar Lake brought the party out through a +hidden gap in the mountains and afforded them a view across the +level delta. To their left the range they had just penetrated +retreated toward the canon where the Salmon River burst its way +out from the interior, and beyond that point it continued in a +coastward swing to Kyak, their destination. Between lay a flat, +trackless tundra, cut by sloughs and glacial streams, with here +and there long tongues of timber reaching down from the high +ground and dwindling away toward the seaward marshes. It was a +desolate region, the breeding-place of sea fowl, the hunting- +ground for the great brown bear. + +O'Neil had never before been so near the canon as this, and the +wild stories he had heard of it recurred to him with interest. He +surveyed the place curiously as the boats glided along, but could +see nothing more than a jumble of small hills and buttes, and +beyond them the dead-gray backs of the twin glaciers coming down +from the slopes to east and west. Beyond the foot-hills and the +glaciers themselves the main range was gashed by a deep valley, +through which he judged the river must come, and beyond that he +knew was a country of agricultural promise, extending clear to +the fabulous copper belt whither the railroads from Cortez were +headed. Still farther inland lay the Tanana, and then the Yukon, +with their riches untouched. + +What a pity, what a mockery, it was that this obvious entrance to +the country had been blocked by nature! Just at his back was +Omar, with its deep and sheltered harbor; the lake he had crossed +gave a passage through the guardian range, and this tundra-- +O'Neil estimated that he could lay a mile of track a day over it +--led right up to the glaciers. Once through the Coast Range, +building would be easy, for the upper Salmon was navigable, and +its banks presented no difficulties to track-laying. + +He turned abruptly to Appleton, who was pulling an oar. + +"What do you know about that canyon?" he asked. + +"Not much. Nobody knows much, for those fellows who went through +in the gold rush have all left the country. Gordon's right-of-way +comes in above, and so does the Trust's. From there on I know +every foot of the ground." + +"I suppose if either of them gets through to the Salmon the rest +will be easy." + +"Dead easy!" + +"It would be shorter and very much cheaper to build from Omar, +through this way." + +"Of course, but neither outfit knew anything about the outlet to +Omar Lake until I told them--and they knew there was the canon to +be reckoned with." + +"Well?" + +Appleton shook his head. "Look at it! Does it look like a place +to build a railroad?" + +"I can't tell anything about it, from here." + +"I suppose a road could be built if the glaciers were on the same +side of the river, but--they're not. They face each other, and +they're alive, too. Listen!" The oarsmen ceased rowing at Dan's +signal, and out of the northward silence came a low rumble like +the sound of distant cannonading. "We must be at least twenty +miles away, in an air line. The ice stands up alongside the +river, hundreds of feet high, and it breaks off in chunks as big +as a New York office-building." + +"You've been up there?" + +"No. But everybody says so, and I've seen glacier ice clear out +here in the delta. They're always moving, too--the glaciers +themselves--and they're filled with crevasses, so that it's +dangerous to cross them on foot even if one keeps back from the +river." + +"How did those men get their outfits through in '98?" O'Neil +queried. + +"I'm blessed if I know--maybe they flew." After a moment Dan +added, "Perhaps they dodged the pieces as they fell." + +O'Neil smiled. He opened his lips to speak, then closed them, and +for a long time kept his eyes fixed speculatively in the +direction of the canyon. When he had first spoken of a route from +Omar he had thrown out the suggestion with only a casual +interest. Now, suddenly, the idea took strong possession of his +mind; it fascinated him with its daring, its bigness. He had +begun to dream. + +The world owes all great achievements to dreamers, for men who +lack vivid imaginations are incapable of conceiving big +enterprises. No matter how practical the thing accomplished, it +requires this faculty, no less than a poem or a picture. Every +bridge, every skyscraper, every mechanical invention, every great +work which man has wrought in steel and stone and concrete, was +once a dream. + +O'Neil had no small measure of the imaginative power that makes +great leaders, great inventors, great builders. He was capable of +tremendous enthusiasm; his temperament forever led him to dare +what others feared to undertake. And here he glimpsed a +tremendous opportunity. The traffic of a budding nation was +waiting to be seized. To him who gained control of Alaskan +transportation would come the domination of her resources. Many +were striving for the prize, but if there should prove to be a +means of threading that Salmon River canon with steel rails, the +man who first found it would have those other railroad +enterprises at his mercy. The Trust would have to sue for terms +or abandon further effort; for this route was shorter, it was +level, it was infinitely cheaper to improve. The stakes in the +game were staggering. The mere thought of them made his heart +leap. The only obstacle, of course, lay in those glaciers, and he +began to wonder if they could not be made to open. Why not? No +one knew positively that they were impregnable, for no one knew +anything certainly about them. Until the contrary had been proven +there was at least a possibility that they were less formidable +than rumor had painted them. + +Camp was pitched late that night far out on the flats. During the +preparation of supper Murray sat staring fixedly before him, deaf +to all sounds and insensible to the activities of his companions. +He had lost his customary breeziness and his good nature; he was +curt, saturnine, unsmiling. Appleton undertook to arouse him from +this abstraction, but Slater drew the young man aside hurriedly +with a warning, + +"Don't do that, son, or you'll wear splints for the rest of the +trip." + +"What's the matter with him, anyhow?" Dan inquired. "He was +boiling over with enthusiasm all day, but now--Why, he's asleep +sitting up! He hasn't moved for twenty minutes." + +Tom shook his head, dislodging a swarm of mosquitoes. + +"Walk on your toes, my boy! Walk on your toes! I smell something +cooking--and it ain't supper." + +When food was served O'Neil made a pretense of eating, but rose +suddenly in the midst of it, with the words: + +"I'll stretch my legs a bit." His voice was strangely listless; +in his eyes was the same abstraction which had troubled Appleton +during the afternoon. He left the camp and disappeared up the +bank of the stream. + +"Nice place to take a walk!" the engineer observed. "He'll bog +down in half a mile or get lost among the sloughs." + +"Not him!" said Slater. Nevertheless, his worried eyes followed +the figure of his chief as long as it was in sight. After a time +he announced: "Something is coming, but what it is or where it's +going to hit us I don't know." + +Their meal over, the boatmen made down their beds, rolled up in +their blankets, and were soon asleep. Appleton and Tom sat in the +smoke of a smudge, gossiping idly as the twilight approached. +From the south came the distant voice of the sea, out of the +north rolled the intermittent thunder of those falling bergs, +from every side sounded a harsh chorus of water-fowl. Ducks +whirred past in bullet-like flight, honkers flapped heavily +overhead, a pair of magnificent snow-white swans soared within +easy gunshot of the camp. An hour passed, another, and another; +the arctic night descended. And through it all the mosquitoes +sang their blood song and stabbed the watchers with tongues of +flame. + +"Happy Tom" sang his song, too, for it was not often that he +obtained a listener, and it proved to be a song of infinite hard +luck. Mr. Slater, it seemed, was a creature of many ills, the +wretched abiding-place of aches and pains, of colics, cramps, and +rheumatism. He was the target of misfortune and the sport of +fate. His body was the galloping-ground of strange disorders +which baffled diagnosis; his financial affairs were dominated by +an evil genius which betrayed him at every turn. To top it all, +he suffered at the moment a violent attack of indigestion. + +"Ain't that just my luck?" he lamented. "Old 'Indy's got me good, +and there ain't a bit of soda in the outfit." + +Appleton, who was growing more and more uneasy at the absence of +his leader, replied with some asperity: + +"Instead of dramatizing your own discomforts you'd better be +thinking of the boss. I'm going out to look for him." + +"Now don't be a dam' fool," Slater advised. "It would be worth a +broken leg to annoy him when he's in one of these fits. You'd +make yourself as popular as a smallpox patient at a picnic. When +he's dreamed his dream he'll be back." + +"When will that be?" + +"No telling--maybe to-night, maybe to-morrow night." + +"And what are we going to do in the mean time?" + +"Sit tight." Mr. Slater chewed steadily and sighed. "No soda in +camp, and this gum don't seem to lay hold of me! That's luck!" + +Darkness had settled when O'Neil reappeared. He came plunging out +of the brush, drenched, muddy, stained by contact with the +thickets; but his former mood had disappeared and in its place +was a harsh, explosive energy. + +"Tom!" he cried. "You and Appleton and I will leave at daylight. +The men will wait here until we get back." His voice was +incisive, its tone forbade question. + +The youthful engineer stared at him in dismay, for only his +anxiety had triumphed over his fatigue, and daylight was but four +hours away. O'Neil noted the expression, and said, more gently: + +"You're tired, Appleton, I know, but in working for me you'll be +called upon for extraordinary effort now and then. I may not +demand more than an extra hour from you; then again I may demand +a week straight without sleep. I'll never ask it unless it's +necessary and unless I'm ready to do my share." + +"Yes, sir." + +"The sacrifice is big, but the pay is bigger. Loyalty is all I +require." + +"I'm ready now, sir." + +"We can't see to travel before dawn. Help Tom load the lightest +boat with rations for five days. If we run short we'll 'Siwash' +it." He kicked off his rubber boots, up-ended them to drain the +water out, then flung himself upon his bed of boughs and was +asleep almost before the two had recovered from their surprise. + +"Five days--or longer!" Slater said, gloomily, as he and Dan +began their preparations. "And me with indigestion!" + +"What does it mean?" queried Appleton. + +"It means I'll probably succumb." + +"No, no! What's the meaning of this change of plan? I can't +understand it." + +"You don't need to," "Happy Tom" informed him, curtly. There was +a look of solicitude in his face as he added, "I wish I'd made +him take off his wet clothes before he went to sleep." + +"Let's wake him up." + +But Slater shook his head. "I'd sooner wake a rattlesnake," said +he. + +O'Neil roused the members of his expedition while the sky was +reddening faintly, for he had a mind which worked like an alarm- +clock. All except Appleton had worked for him before, and the men +accepted his orders to await his return with no appearance of +surprise. + +With the first clear light he and his two companions set out, +rowing up the estuary of the Salmon until the current became too +swift to stem in that manner. Then landing, they rigged a +"bridle" for the skiff, fitted their shoulders to loops in a +ninety-foot tow rope, and began to "track" their craft up against +the stream. It was heartbreaking work. Frequently they were +waist-deep in the cold water. Long "sweepers" with tips awash in +the flood interfered with their efforts. The many branches of the +stream forced them to make repeated crossings, for the delta was +no more than an endless series of islands through which the +current swirled. When dusk overtook them they were wet, weary, +and weak from hunger. With the dawn they were up and at it again, +but their task became constantly more difficult because of the +floating glacier ice, which increased with every mile. They were +obliged to exercise the extremest caution. Hour after hour they +strained against the current, until the ropes bit into their +aching flesh, bringing raw places out on neck and palm. Hour +after hour the ice, went churning past, and through it all came +the intermittent echo of the caving glaciers ahead of them. + +Dan Appleton realized very soon whither the journey was leading, +and at thought of actually facing those terrors which loomed so +large in conjecture his pulses began to leap. He had a suspicion +of O'Neil's intent, but dared not voice it. Though the scheme +seemed mad enough, its very audacity fascinated him. It would be +worth while to take part in such an undertaking, even if it ended +in failure. And somehow, against his judgment, he felt that his +leader would find a way. + +For the most part, O'Neil was as silent as a man of stone, and +only on those rare occasions when he craved relief from his +thoughts did he encourage Dan to talk. Then he sometimes +listened, but more frequently he did not. Slater had long since +become a dumb draught animal, senseless to discomfort except in +the hour of relaxation when he monotonously catalogued his ills. + +"Are you a married man?" O'Neil inquired once of Dan. + +"Not yet, sir." + +"Family?" + +"Sure! A great big, fine one, consisting of a sister. But she's +more than a family--she's a religion." Receiving encouragement +from his employer's look of interest, he continued: "We were +wiped out by the San Francisco earthquake, and stood in the bread +line for a while. We managed to save four thousand dollars from +the wreck, which we divided equally. Then we started out to make +our fortunes. It was her idea." + +"You came to Cortez?" + +"Yes. Money was so easy for me that I lost all respect for it. +The town rang with my mirth for a while. I was an awful fool." + +"Education!" + +"Now it's my ambition to get settled and have her with me. I +haven't had a good laugh, a hearty meal, or a Christian impulse +since I left her." + +"What did she do with her half of the fortune?" + +"Invested it wisely and went to work. I bought little round +celluloid disks with mine; she bought land of some sort with +hers. She's a newspaper woman, and the best in the world--or at +least the best in Seattle. She wrote that big snow-slide story +for The Review last fall. She tells 'em how to raise eight babies +on seven dollars a week, or how to make a full set of library +furniture out of three beer kegs, a packing-case, and an +epileptic icebox. She runs the 'Domestic Economy' column; and +she's the sweetest, the cleverest, the most stunning--" + +Appleton's enthusiastic tribute ceased suddenly, for he saw that +O'Neil was once more deaf and that his eyes were fixed dreamily +upon the canon far ahead. + +As the current quickened the progress of the little party became +slower and more exhausting. Their destination seemed to retreat +before them; the river wound back and forth in a maddening series +of detours. Some of the float ice was large now, and these pieces +rushed down upon them like charging horses, keeping them +constantly on the alert to prevent disaster. It seemed impossible +that such a flat country could afford so much fall. "Happy Tom" +at length suggested that they tie up and pack the remaining miles +overland, but O'Neil would not hear to this. + +They had slept so little, their labors had been so heavy, that +they were dumb and dull with fatigue when they finally reached +the first bluffs and worked their boat through a low gorge where +all the waters of the Salmon thrashed and icebergs galloped past +like a pallid host in flight. Here they paused and stared with +wondering eyes at what lay before; a chill, damp breath swept +over them, and a mighty awe laid hold of their hearts. + +"Come on!" said O'Neil. "Other men have gone through; we'll do +the same," + +On the evening of the sixth day a splintered, battered poling- +boat with its seams open swung in to the bank where O'Neil's men +were encamped, and its three occupants staggered out. They were +gaunt and stiff and heavy-eyed. Even Tom Slater's full cheeks +hung loose and flabby. But the leader was alert and buoyant; his +face was calm, his eyes were smiling humorously. + +"You'll take the men on to the coal-fields and finish the work," +he told his boss packer later that night. "Appleton and I will +start back to Cortez in the morning. When you have finished go to +Juneau and see to the recording." + +"Ain't that my luck?" murmured the dyspeptic. "Me for Kyak where +there ain't a store, and my gum all wet." + +"Chew it, paper and all," advised Appleton, cheerfully. + +"Oh, the good has all gone out of it now," Slater explained. + +"Meet me in Seattle on the fifteenth of next month," his employer +directed. + +"I'll be there if old 'Indy' spares me. But dyspepsia, with +nothing to eat except beans and pork bosom, will probably lay me +in my grave long before the fifteenth. However, I'll do my best. +Now, do you want to know what I think of this proposition of +yours?" He eyed his superior somberly. + +"Sure; I want all the encouragement I can get, and your views are +always inspiriting." + +"Well, I think it's nothing more nor less than hydrophobia. These +mosquitoes have given you the rabies and you need medical +attention. You need it bad." + +"Still, you'll help me, won't you?" + +"Oh yes," said Tom, "I'll help you. But it's a pity to see a man +go mad." + + + + +VII + +THE DREAM + + +The clerk of the leading hotel in Seattle whirled his register +about as a man deposited a weather-beaten war-bag on the marble +floor and leaned over the counter to inquire: + +"Is Murray O'Neil here?" + +This question had been asked repeatedly within the last two +hours, but heretofore by people totally different in appearance +from the one who spoke now. The man behind the desk measured the +stranger with a suspicious eye before answering. He saw a ragged, +loose-hung, fat person of melancholy countenance, who was booted +to the knee and chewing gum. + +"Mr. O'Neil keeps a room here by the year," he replied, +guardedly. + +"Show me up!" said the new-comer as if advancing a challenge. + +A smart reply was on the lips of the clerk, but something in the +other's manner discouraged flippancy. + +"You are a friend of Mr. O'Neil's?" he asked, politely. + +"Friend? Um-m, no! I'm just him when he ain't around." In a loud +tone he inquired of the girl at the news-stand, "Have you got any +wintergreen + +"Mr. O'Neil is not here." + +The fat man stared at his informant accusingly, "Ain't this the +fifteenth?" he asked. + +"It is." + +"Then he's here, all right!" + +"Mr. O'Neil is not in," the clerk repeated, gazing fixedly over +Mr. Slater's left shoulder. + +"Well, I guess his room will do for me. I ain't particular." + +"His room is occupied at present. If you care to wait you will +find--" + +Precisely what it was that he was to find Tom never learned, for +at that moment the breath was driven out of his lungs by a +tremendous whack, and he turned to behold Dr. Stanley Gray +towering over him, an expansive smile upon his face. + +"Look out!" Slater coughed, and seized his Adam's apple. "You +made me swallow my cud." The two shook hands warmly. + +"We've been expecting you, Tom," said the Doctor. "We're all here +except Parker, and he wired he'd arrive to-morrow," + +"Where's Murray?" + +"He's around somewhere." + +Slater turned a resentful, smoldering gaze upon the hotel clerk, +and looked about him for a chair with a detachable leg, but the +object of his regard disappeared abruptly behind the key-rack. + +"This rat-brained party said he hadn't come." + +"He arrived this morning, but we've barely seen him." + +"I left Appleton in Juneau. He'll be down on the next boat." + +"Appleton? Who's he?" Dr. Gray inquired. + +"Oh, he's a new member of the order--initiated last month. He's +learning to be a sleep-hater, like the rest of us. He's recording +the right-of-way." + +"What's in the air? None of us know. We didn't even know Murray's +whereabouts--thought he was in Kyak, until he sounded the tocsin +from New York. The other boys have quit their jobs and I've sold +my practice." + +"It's a railroad!" + +Dr. Gray grinned. "Well! That's the tone I use when I break the +news that it's a girl instead of a boy." + +"It's a railroad," Slater repeated, "up the Salmon River!" + +"Good Lord! What about those glaciers?" + +"Oh, it ain't so much the glaciers and the floating icebergs and +the raging chasms and the quaking tundra--Murray thinks he can +overcome them--it's the mosquitoes and the Copper Trust that are +going to figure in this enterprise. One of 'em will be the death +of me, and the other will bust Murray s if he don't look out. +Say, my neck is covered with bumps till it feels like a dog- +collar of seed pearls." + +"Do you think we'll have a fight?" asked the doctor, hopefully. + +"A fight! It'll be the worst massacre since the Little Big Horn. +We're surrounded already, and no help in sight." + +O'Neil found his "boys" awaiting him when he returned to his +room. There was Mellen, lean, gaunt and serious-minded, with the +dust of Chihuahua still upon his shoes; there were McKay, the +superintendent, who had arrived from California that morning; +Sheldon, the commissary man; Elkins; "Doc" Gray; and "Happy Tom" +Slater. Parker, the chief engineer, alone was absent. + +"I sent Appleton in from Cortez," he told them, "to come down the +river and make the preliminary survey into Omar. He cables me +that he has filed his locations and everything is O. K. On my way +East I stopped here long enough to buy the Omar cannery, docks, +buildings, and town site. It's all mine, and it will save us +ninety days' work in getting started." + +"What do you make of that tundra between Omar and the canon?" +queried McKay, who had crossed the Salmon River delta and knew +its character. "It's like calf's-foot jelly--a man bogs down to +his waist in it." + +"We'll fill and trestle," said O'Neil. + +"We couldn't move a pile-driver twenty feet." + +"It's frozen solid in winter." + +McKay nodded. "We'll have to drive steam points ahead of every +pile, I suppose, and we'll need Eskimos to work in that cold, but +I guess we can manage somehow." + +"That country is like an apple pie," said Tom Slater--"it's +better cold than hot. There's a hundred inches of rainfall at +Omar in summer. We'll all have web feet when we get out." + +Sheldon, the light-hearted commissary man, spoke up. "If it's as +wet as all that, well need Finns--instead of Eskimos." He was +promptly hooted into silence. + +"I understand those glaciers come down to the edge of the river," +the superintendent ventured. + +"They do!" O'Neil acknowledged, "and they're the liveliest ones I +ever saw. Tom can answer for that. One of them is fully four +hundred feet high at the face and four miles across. They're +constantly breaking, too." + +"Lumps bigger than this hotel," supplemented Slater. "It's quite +a sight--equal to anything in the state of Maine." + +O'Neil laughed with the others at this display of sectional +pride, and then explained: "The problem of passing them sounds +difficult, but in reality it isn't. If those other engineers had +looked over the ground as I did, instead of relying entirely upon +hearsay, we wouldn't be meeting here to-day. Of course I realized +that we couldn't build a road over a moving river of ice, nor in +front of one, for that matter, but I discovered that Nature had +made us one concession. She placed her glaciers on opposite sides +of the valley, to be sure, but she placed the one that comes in +from the east bank slightly higher upstream than the one that +comes in from the west. They don't really face each other, +although from the sea they appear to do so. You see the answer?" +His hearers nodded vigorously. "If we cross the river, low down, +by a trestle, and run up the east bank past Jackson glacier until +we are stopped by Garfield--the upper one--then throw a bridge +directly across, and back to the side we started from, we miss +them both and have the river always between them and us. Above +the upper crossing there will be a lot of heavy rock work to do, +but nothing unusual, and, once through the gorge, we come out +into the valley, where the other roads run in from Cortez. They +cross three divides, while we run through on a one-per-cent +grade. That will give us a downhill pull on all heavy freight." +"Sounds as simple as a pair of suspenders, doesn't it?" inquired +Slater. "But wait till you see it. The gorge below Niagara is +stagnant water compared with the cataract above those glaciers. +It takes two looks to see the top of the mountains. And those +glaciers themselves--Well! Language just gums up and sticks when +it comes to describing them." + +Mellen, the bridge-builder, spoke for the first time, and the +others listened. + +"As I understand it we will cross the river between the glaciers +and immediately below the upper one." + +"Exactly!" + +He shook his head. "We can't build piers to withstand those heavy +bergs which you tell me are always breaking off." + +"I'll explain how we can," said O'Neil. "You've hit the bull's- +eye--the tender spot in the whole enterprise. While the river is +narrow and rapid in front of Jackson--the lower glacier--opposite +Garfield there is a kind of lake, formed, I suppose, when the +glacier receded from its original position. Now then, here lies +the joker, the secret of the whole proposition. This lake is +deep, but there is a shallow bar across its outlet which serves +to hold back all but the small bergs. This gives us a chance to +cross in safety. At first I was puzzled to discover why only the +ice from the lower glacier came down-river; then, when I realized +the truth, I knew I had the key to Alaska in my hands. We'll +cross just below this bar. Understand? Of course it all depends +upon Parker's verdict, but I'm so sure his will agree with mine +that I've made my preparations, bought Omar and gathered you +fellows together. We're going to spring the biggest coup in +railroad history." + +"Where's the money coming from?" Slater inquired, bluntly. + +"I'm putting in my own fortune." "How much is that? I'm dead to +all sense of modesty, you see." + +"About a million dollars," said O'Neil. + +"Humph! That won't get us started." + +"I've raised another million in New York." The chief was smiling +and did not seem to resent this inquisitiveness in the least. + +"Nothing but a shoe-string!" + +"My dear 'Happy,'" laughed the builder, "I don't intend to +complete the road." + +"Then--why in blazes are you starting it?" demanded Slater in a +bewilderment which the others evidently shared. "It's one thing +to build a railroad on a contractor's commission, but it's +another thing to build it and pay your own way as you go along. +Half a railroad ain't any good." + +"Once my right-of-way is filed it will put those projects from +Cortez out of business. No one but an imbecile would think of +building in from there with the Omar route made possible. Before +we come to that Salmon River bridge the Copper Trust will have to +buy us out!" + +"That's language!" said "Happy Tom" in sudden admiration. "Those +are words I understand. I withdraw my objections and give my +consent to the deal." + +"You are staking your whole fortune on your judgment, as I +understand it," McKay ventured. + +"Every dollar of it," Murray answered. + +"Say, chief, that's gambling some!" young Sheldon remarked with a +wondering look. + +They were deep in their discussion when the telephone broke in +noisily. Sheldon, being nearest to the instrument, answered it. +"There's a newspaper reporter downstairs to interview you," he +announced, after an instant. + +"I don't grant interviews," O'Neil said, sharply. He could not +guess by what evil chance the news of his plans had leaked out. + +"Nothing doing!" Sheldon spoke into the transmitter. He turned +again to his employer. "Operator says the party doesn't mind +waiting." + +O'Neil frowned impatiently. + +"Throw him out!" Sheldon directed, brusquely, then suddenly +dropped the receiver as if it had burnt his fingers. "Hell! It's +a woman, Murray! She's on the wire. She thanks you sweetly and +says she'll wait." + +"A woman! A newspaper woman!" O'Neil rose and seized the +instrument roughly. His voice was freezing as he said: "Hello! I +refuse to be interviewed. Yes! There's no use_--" His tone +suddenly altered. "Miss Appleton! I beg your pardon. I'll be +right down." Turning to his subordinates, he announced with a wry +smile: "This seems to terminate our interview. She's Dan +Appleton's sister, and therefore--" He shrugged resignedly. "Now +run along. I'll see you in the morning." + +His "boys" made their way down to the street, talking guardedly +as they went. All were optimistic save Slater, whose face +remained shrouded in its customary gloom. + +"Cheer up, 'Happy'!" Dr. Gray exhorted him. "It's the biggest +thing we ever tackled." + +"Wait! Just wait till you've seen the place," Tom said. + +"Don't you think it can be done?" + +"Nope!" + +"Come, come!" + +"It's impossible! Of course WE'LL do it, but it's impossible, +just the same. It will mean a scrap, too, like none of us ever +saw, and I was raised in a logging-camp where fighting is the +general recreation. If I was young, like the rest of you, I +wouldn't mind; but I'm old--and my digestion's gone. I can't +hardly take care of myself any more, Doc. I'm too feeble to fight +or--" He signaled a passing car; it failed to stop and he rushed +after it, dodging vehicles with the agility of a rabbit and +swinging his heavy war-bag as if it weighed no more than a good +resolution. + +O'Neil entered the ladies' parlor with a feeling of extreme +annoyance, expecting to meet an inquisitive, bold young woman +bent upon exploiting his plans and his personality in the usual +inane journalistic fashion. He was surprised and offended that +Dan Appleton, in whom he had reposed the utmost faith, should +have betrayed his secret. Publicity was a thing he detested at +all times, and at present he particularly dreaded its effect. But +he was agreeably surprised in the girl who came toward him +briskly with hand outstretched. + +Miss Appleton was her brother's double; she had his frank blue +eyes, his straw-gold hair, his humorous smile and wide-awake +look. She was not by any means beautiful!--her features were too +irregular, her nose too tip-tilted, her mouth too generous for +that--but she seemed crisp, clean-cut, and wholesome What first +struck O'Neil was her effect of boyishness. From the crown of her +plain straw "sailor" to the soles of her sensible walking-boots +there was no suggestion of feminine frippery. She wore a plain +shirtwaist and a tailored skirt, and her hair was arranged +simply. The wave in its pale gold was the only concession to mere +prettiness. Yet she gave no impression of deliberate masculinity. +She struck one as merely not interested in clothes, instinctively +expressing in her dress her own boyish directness and her +businesslike absorption in her work. + +"You're furious, of course; anybody would be," she began, then +laughed so frankly that his eyes softened and the wrinkles at +their corners deepened. + +"I fear I was rude before I learned you were Dan's sister," he +apologized. "But you see I'm a bit afraid of newspaper people." + +"I knew you'd struggle--although Dan described you as a perfectly +angelic person." + +"Indeed!" + +"But I'm a real reporter, so I won't detain you long. I don't +care where you were born or where you went to school, or what +patent breakfast-food you eat. Tell me, are you going to build +another railroad?" + +"I hope so. I'm always building roads when my bids are low enough +to secure the contracts; that's my business." + +"Are you going to build one in Alaska?" + +"Possibly! There seems to be an opportunity there--but Dan has +probably told you as much about that as I am at liberty to tell. +He's been over the ground." + +She pursed her lips at him. "You know very well, or you ought to +know, that Dan wouldn't tell me a thing while he's working for +you. He hasn't said a word, but--Is that why you came in frowning +like a thunder-cloud? Did you think he set me on your trail?" + +"I think I do know that he wouldn't do anything really +indiscreet." Murray regarded her with growing favor. There was +something about this boyish girl which awakened the same +spontaneous liking he had felt upon his first meeting with her +brother. He surprised her by confessing boldly: + +"I AM building a railroad--to the interior of Alaska. I've been +east and raised the money, my men are here; we'll begin +operations at once." + +"That's what Mr. Gordon told me about his scheme, but he hasn't +done much, so far." + +"My line will put his out of business, also that of the Trust, +and the various wildcat promoters." + +"Where does your road start from?" + +"The town of Omar, on King Phillip Sound, near Hope and Cortez. +It will run up the Salmon River and past the glaciers which those +other men refused to tackle." + +"If I weep, it is for joy," said the girl. "I don't like Curtis +Gordon. I call him Simon Legree." + +"Why?" + +"Well, he impresses me as a real old-time villain--with the +riding-boots and the whip and all that. 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' is my +favorite play, it's so funny. This is a big story you've given +me, Mr. O'Neil." + +"I realize that." + +"It has the biggest news value of anything Alaskan which has +'broken' for some time. I think you are a very nice person to +interview, after all." + +"Wait! I don't want you to use a word of what I've told you." + +Miss Appleton's clearly penciled brows rose inquiringly. "Then +why didn't you keep still?" + +"You asked me. I told you because you are Dan Appleton's sister. +Nevertheless, I don't want it made public." + +"Let's sit down," said the girl with a laugh. "To tell you the +truth, I didn't come here to interview you for my paper. I'm +afraid I've tried your patience awfully." A faint flush tinged +her clear complexion. "I just came, really, to get some news of +Dan." + +"He's perfectly well and happy, and you'll see him in a few +days." Miss Appleton nodded. "So he wrote, but I couldn't wait! +Now won't you tell me all about him--not anything about his looks +and his health, but little unimportant things that will mean +something. You see, I'm his mother and his sister and his +sweetheart." + +O'Neil did as he was directed and before long found himself +reciting the details of that trying trip up the Salmon River. He +told her how he had sent the young engineer out to run the +preliminary survey for the new railroad, and added: "He is in a +fair way to realize his ambition of having you with him all the +time. I'm sure that will please you." + +"And it is my ambition to make enough money to have him with me," +she announced. With an air of some importance she continued: +"I'll tell you a secret: I'm writing for the magazines--stories!" +She sat back awaiting his enthusiasm. When she saw that it was +not forthcoming she exclaimed: "My! How you do rave over the +idea!" + +"I congratulate you, of course, but--" + +"Now don't tell me that you tried it once. Of course you did. I +know it's a harmless disease, like the measles, and that +everybody has it when they're young. Above all, don't volunteer +the information that your own life is full of romance and would +make a splendid novel. They all say that." + +Murray O'Neil felt the glow of personal interest that results +from the discovery in another of a congenial sense of humor. + +"I didn't suppose you had to write," he said. "Dan told me you +had invested your fortune and were on Easy Street." + +"That was poetic license. I fictionized slightly in my report to +him because I knew he was doing so well." + +"Then your investment didn't turn out fortunately?" + +Miss Appleton hesitated. "You seem to be a kindly, trusting +person. I'm tempted to destroy your faith in human nature." + +"Please don't." + +"Yes, I shall. My experience may help you to avoid the pitfalls +of high finance. Well, then, it was a very sad little fortune, to +begin with, like a boy in grammar-school--just big enough to be +of no assistance. But even a boy's-size fortune looked big to me. +I wanted to invest it in something sure--no national-bank stock, +subject to the danger of an absconding cashier, mind you; no +government bonds with the possibility of war to depreciate them; +but something stable and agricultural, with the inexhaustible +resources of nature back of it. This isn't my own language. I +cribbed it from the apple-man." + +"Apple-man?" + +"Yes. He had brown eyes, and a silky mustache, and a big +irrigation plan over east of the mountains. You gave him your +money and he gave you a perfectly good receipt. Then he planted +little apple trees. He nursed them tenderly for five years, after +which he turned them over to you with his blessing, and you lived +happily for evermore. At least that was the idea. You couldn't +fail to grow rich, for the water always bubbled through his +little ditch and it never froze nor rained to spoil things, I +used to love apples. And then there was my name, which seemed a +good omen. But lately I've considered changing 'Appleton' to +'Berry' or 'Plummer' or some other kind of fruit." + +"I infer that the scheme failed." O'Neil's eyes were half closed +with amusement. + +"Yes. It was a good scheme, too, except for the fact that the +irrigation ditch ran uphill, and that there wasn't any water +where it started from, and that apples never had been made to +grow in that locality because of something in the soil, and that +Brown-eyed Betty's title to the land wouldn't hold water any +more than the ditch. Otherwise I'm sure he'd have made a success +and I'd have spent my declining years in a rocking-chair under +the falling apple blossoms, eating Pippins and Jonathans and +Northern Spies. I can't bear to touch them now. Life at my +boarding-house is one long battle against apple pies, apple +puddings, apple tapioca. Ugh! I hate the very word." + +"I can understand your aversion," laughed O'Neil. "I wonder if +you would let me order dinner for both of us, provided I taboo +fruit. Perhaps I'll think of something more to tell you about +Dan. I'm sure he wouldn't object--" + +"Oh, my card is all the chaperon I need; it takes me everywhere +and renders me superior to the smaller conventionalities." She +handed him one, and he read: + +ELIZA V. APPLETON + +THE REVIEW + +"May I ask what the 'V' stands for?" He held up the card between +his thumb and finger. + +Miss Appleton blushed, for all the world like a boy, then +answered, stiffly: + +"It stands for Violet. But that isn't my fault, and I'm doing my +best to live it down." + + + + +VIII + +IN WHICH WE COME TO OMAR + + +"Miss Appleton," said the editor of The Review, "would you like +to take a vacation?" + +"Is that your delicate way of telling me I'm discharged?" +inquired Eliza. + +"You know very well we wouldn't fire you. But you haven't had a +vacation for three years, and you need a rest." + +"I thought I was looking extremely well, for me." + +"We're going to send you on an assignment--to Alaska--if you'll +go." + +"I'm thinking of quitting newspaper-work for good. The magazines +pay better, and I'm writing a book." + +"I know. Perhaps this will just fit in with your plans, for it +has to do with your pet topic of conservation. Those forestry +stories of yours and the article on the Water Power Combination +made a hit, didn't they?" + +"I judge so. Anyhow the magazine people want more." + +"Good! Here's your chance to do something big for yourself and +for us. Those Alaskan coal claimants have been making a great +effort in Washington to rush their patents through, and there +seems to be some possibility of their succeeding unless the +public wakes up. We want to show up the whole fraudulent affair, +show how the entries were illegal, and how the agents of the +Trust are trying to put over the greatest steal of the century. +It's the Heidlemanns that are back of it--and a few fellows like +Murray O'Neil." + +"O'Neil!" + +"You know him, don't you?" + +"Yes. I interviewed him a year ago last spring, when he started +his railroad." + +"He's fighting for one of the biggest and richest groups of +claims. He's backed by some Eastern people. It's the +psychological moment to expose both the railroad and the coal +situation, for the thieves are fighting among themselves--Gordon, +O'Neil, and the Heidlemanns." + +"Mr. O'Neil is no thief," said the girl, shortly. + +"Of course not. He's merely trying to snatch control of an +empire, and to grab ten million dollars' worth of coal, for +nothing. That's not theft, it's financial genius! Fortunately, +however, the public is rousing itself--coming to regard its +natural resources as its own and not the property of the first +financier who lays hold of them. Call it what you will, but give +us the true story of the Kyak coal and, above all, the story of +the railroad battle. Things are growing bitter up there already, +and they're bound to get rapidly worse. Give us the news and +we'll play it up big through our Eastern syndicate. You can +handle the magazine articles in a more dignified way, if you +choose. A few good vigorous, fearless, newspaper stories, written +by some one on the ground, will give Congress such a jolt that no +coal patents will be issued this season and no Government aid +will be given to the railroads. You get the idea?" + +"Certainly! But it will take time to do all that." + +"Spend a year at it if necessary. The Review is fighting for a +principle; it will back you to any extent. Isn't it worth a year, +two years, of hard labor, to awaken the American people to the +knowledge that they are being robbed of their birthright? I have +several men whom I could send, but I chose you because your work +along this line has given you a standing. This is your chance, +Eliza--to make a big reputation and to perform a real service to +the country. It's a chance that may never come your way again. +Will you go?" + +"Of course I'll go." + +"I knew you would. You're all business, and that's what makes a +hit in this office. You're up against a tough proposition, but I +can trust you to make good on it. You can't fail if you play one +interest against the other, for they're all fighting like +Kilkenny cats. The Heidlemanns are a bunch of bandits; Gordon is +a brilliant, unscrupulous promoter; O'Neil is a cold, shrewd +schemer with more brains and daring than any of the others--he +showed that when he walked in there and seized the Salmon River +canon. He broke up all their plans and set the Copper Trust by +the ears, but I understand they've got him bottled up at last. +Here's your transportation--on Saturday's steamer." The editor +shook Miss Appleton's hand warmly as she rose. "Good luck, Eliza! +Remember, we won't balk, no matter how lively your stuff is. The +hotter the better--and that's what the magazines want, too. If I +were you, I'd gum-shoe it. They're a rotten crowd and they might +send you back if they got wise." + +"I think not," said Eliza, quietly. + +The town of Omar lay drenched in mist as the steamer bearing the +representative of The Review drew in at the dock. The whole +region was sodden and rain-soaked, verdant with a lush growth. No +summer sun shone here, to bake sprouting leaves or sear tender +grasses. Beneath the sheltering firs a blanket of moss extended +over hill and vale, knee-deep and treacherous to the foot. The +mountain crests were white, and down every gully streamed water +from the melting snows. The country itself lay on end, as if +crumpled by some giant hand, and presented a tropical blend of +colors. There was the gray of fog and low-swept clouds, the +dense, dark green of the spruces, underlaid with the richer, +lighter shades where the summer vegetation rioted. And running +through it all were the shimmering, silent reaches of the sound. + +Omar itself was a mushroom city, sprung up by magic, as if the +dampness at its roots had caused it to rise overnight. A sawmill +shrieked complainingly; a noisy switch-engine shunted rows of +flat cars back and forth, tooting lustily; the rattle of steam- +winches and the cries of stevedores from a discharging freighter +echoed against the hillsides. Close huddled at the water-front +lay the old cannery buildings, greatly expanded and multiplied +now and glistening with fresh paint. Back of them again lay the +town, its stumpy, half-graded streets terminating in the forest +like the warty feelers of a stranded octopus. Everywhere was +hurry and confusion, and over all was the ever-present shroud of +mist which thickened into showers or parted reluctantly to let +the sun peep through. + +Dan Appleton, his clothing dewy from the fog, his cheeks bronzed +by exposure, was over the rail before the ship had made fast, and +had Eliza in his arms, crushing her with the hug of a bear. + +"Come up to the house, Sis, quick!" he cried, when the first +frenzy of greeting was over--"your house and mine!" His eyes were +dancing, his face was alight with eagerness. + +"But, Danny," she laughed, squeezing his arm tenderly, "you live +with Mr. O'Neil and all those other men in a horrible, crawling +bunk-house." + +"Oh, do I? I'll have you know that our bunk-houses don't crawl. +And besides--But wait! It's a s'prise." + +"A s'prise?" she queried, eagerly. "For me?" + +He nodded. + +"Tell me what it is, quick! You know I never could wait for +s'prises." + +"Well, it's a brand-new ultra-stylish residence for just you and +me. When the chief heard you were coming he had a cottage built." + +"Danny! It was only five days ago that I cabled you!" + +"That's really ten days for us, for you see we never sleep. It is +finished and waiting, and your room is in white, and the paint +will be dry to-morrow. He's a wonder!" + +Remembering the nature of her mission, Eliza demurred. "I'm +afraid I can't live there, Dan. You know"--she hesitated--"I may +have to write some rather dreadful things about him." + +"What?" Dan's face fell. "You are going to attack the chief! I +had no idea of that!" He looked genuinely distressed and a little +stern. + +She laid a pleading hand upon his arm. "Forgive me, Dan," she +said. "I knew how you would feel, and, to tell the truth, I don't +like that part of it one bit. But it was my big chance--the sort +of thing I have been waiting years for. I couldn't bear to miss +it." There was a suspicion of tears in her eyes. "I didn't think +it all out. I just came. Things get awfully mixed, don't they? Of +course I wouldn't attack him unfairly, but I do believe in +conservation--and what could I do but come here to you?" + +Dan smiled to reassure her. "Perhaps you won't feel like +excoriating him when you learn more about things. I know you +wouldn't be unfair. You'd flunk the job first. Wait till you talk +to him. But you can't refuse his kindness, for a time at least. +There's nowhere else for you to stay, and Murray would pick you +up and put you into the cottage, muck-rake and all, if I didn't. +He had to go out on the work this morning or he'd have been here +to welcome you. He sent apologies and said a lot of nice things, +which I've forgotten." + +"Well"--Eliza still looked troubled--"all right. But wait," she +cried, with a swift change of mood. "I've made a little friend, +the dearest, the most useless creature! We shared the same +stateroom and we're sisters. She actually says I'm pretty, so of +course I'm her slave for life." She hurried away in the midst of +Dan's loyal protestations that she WAS pretty--more beautiful +than the stars, more pleasing to the eye than the orchids of +Brazil. A moment later she reappeared to present Natalie Gerard. + +Dan greeted the new arrival with a cordiality in which there was +a trace of shyness unusual with him. "We've made quite a change +since you were up here, Miss Gerard," he remarked. "The ships +stop first at Omar now, you see. I trust it won't inconvenience +you." + +"Not in the least," said Natalie. "I shall arrive at Hope quite +soon enough." "Omar Khayyam is out in the wilderness somewhere," +Eliza informed her girl friend, "with his book of verses and his +jug of wine, I suppose." + +"Mr. O'Neil?" + +"Yes. But he'll be back soon, and meanwhile you are to come up +and see our paradise." + +"It--looks terribly wet," Natalie ventured. "Perhaps we'd better +wait until the rain stops." + +"Please don't," Dan laughed. "It won't stop until autumn and then +it will only change to snow. We don't have much sunshine--" + +"You must! You're tanned like an Indian," his sister exclaimed. + +"That's rust! O'Neil wanted to get a record of the bright weather +in Omar, so he put a man on the job to time it, but the +experiment failed!" + +"How so?" + +"We didn't have a stop-watch in town. Now come! Nobody ever +catches cold here--there isn't time." + +He led the two girls ashore and up through the town to a moss- +green bungalow, its newness attested by the yellow sawdust and +fresh shavings which lay about. Amid their exclamations of +delight he showed them the neatly furnished interior, and among +other wonders a bedroom daintily done in white, with white +curtains at the mullioned windows and a suite of wicker +furniture. + +"Where he dug all that up I don't know," Dan said, pointing to +the bed and dresser and chairs. "He must have had it hidden out +somewhere." + +Eliza surveyed this chamber with wondering eyes. "It makes me +feel quite ashamed," she said, "though, of course, he did it for +Dan. When he discovers my abominable mission he'll probably set +me out in the rain and break all my lead-pencils. But--isn't he +magnificent?" + +"He quite overwhelms one," Natalie agreed. "Back in New York, +he's been sending me American Beauties every week for more than a +year. It's his princely way." She colored slightly, despite the +easy frankness of her manner. + +"Oh, he's always doing something like that," Dan informed them, +whereupon his sister exclaimed: + +"You see, Natalie! The man is a viper. If he let his beard grow +I'm sure we'd see it was blue." + +"You shall have an opportunity of judging," came O'Neil's voice +from behind them, and he entered with hands outstretched, smiling +at their surprise. When he had expressed his pleasure at +Natalie's presence and had bidden both her and Eliza welcome to +Omar, he explained: + +"I've just covered eighteen miles on a railroad tricycle and my +back is broken. The engines were busy, but I came, anyhow, hoping +to arrive before the steamer. Now what is this I hear about my +beard?" + +It was Eliza's turn to blush, and she outdid Natalie. + +"They were raving about your gallantry," said Dan with all a +brother's ruthlessness, "until I told them it was merely a habit +of mind with you; then Sis called you a Bluebeard." + +O'Neil smiled, stroking his stubbly chin. "You see it's only +gray." + +"I--don't see," said Eliza, still flushing furiously. + +"You would if I continued to let it grow." + +"Hm-m! I think, myself, it's a sort of bluish gray," said Dan. + +"You are still working miracles," Natalie told O'Neil, an hour +later, while he was showing his visitors the few sights of Omar-- +"miracles of kindness, as usual." + +Dan and his sister were following at a distance, arm in arm and +chattering like magpies. + +"No, no! That cottage is nothing. Miss Appleton had to have some +place to stop." + +"This all seems like magic." Natalie paused and looked over the +busy little town. "And to think you have done it in a year." + +"It was not I who did it; the credit belongs to those 'boys' of +whom I told you. They are all here, by the way--Parker, McKay, +Mellen, Sheldon, 'Doc' Gray--he has the hospital, you know." + +"And Mr. Slater?" + +"Oh, we couldn't exist without 'Happy Tom'! No, the only miracle +about all this is the loyalty that has made it possible. It is +that which has broken all records in railroad-building; that's +what has pushed our tracks forward until we're nearly up to one +of Nature's real miracles. You shall see those glaciers, one of +these days. Sometimes I wonder if even the devotion of those men +will carry us through the final test. But--you shall meet them +all, to-night--my whole family." + +"I can't. The ship leaves this afternoon." + +"I've arranged to send you to Hope in my motor-boat, just as Mr. +Gordon sent me on my way a year ago. You will stay with the +Appletons to-night and help at the house-warming, then Dan will +take you on in the morning. Women are such rare guests at Omar +that we refuse to part with them. You agree?" + +"How can I refuse? Your word seems to be law here. I'll send word +to mother by the ship that I am detained by royal decree." + +She spoke with a gaiety that seemed a little forced, and at +mention of her departure a subtle change had come over her face. +O'Neil realized that she had matured markedly since his last +meeting with her; there was no longer quite the same effect of +naive girlishness. + +"This was a very unhappy year for your loyal subject, Mr. +O'Neil." + +"I'm sorry," he declared with such genuine kindliness that she +was moved to confide in him. + +"Mother and I are ruined." + +"Will you tell me about it?" + +"It's merely--those wretched coal claims. I have a friend in the +Land Office at Washington, and, remembering what you said, I +asked him to look them up. I knew no other way to go about it. He +tells me that something was done, or was not done, by us, and +that we have lost all we put in." + +"I urged Gordon to obey that ruling, last spring." Natalie saw +that his face was dark with indignation, and the knowledge that +he really cared set her heart to pounding gratefully. She was +half tempted to tell about that other, that greater trouble which +had stolen in upon her peace of mind and robbed her of her +girlhood, but she shrank from baring her wounds--above all, a +wound so vital and so personal as this. + +"Does your mother know?" he queried. + +"No, I preferred to tell her in Mr. Gordon's presence." Murray +noticed that she no longer called the man uncle. "But now that +the time has come, I'm frightened." + +"Never allow yourself to be afraid. Fear is something false; it +doesn't exist." + +"It seems to me he was--unfaithful to his trust. Am I right?" + +"That is something you must judge for yourself," he told her, +gravely. "You see, I don't know anything about the reasons which +prompted him to sacrifice your rights. He may have had very good +reasons. I dare say he had. In building this railroad I have felt +but one regret; that is the indirect effect it may have upon you +and your mother. Your affairs are linked closely with Gordon's +and the success of my enterprise will mean the failure of his." + +"You mustn't feel that way. I'm sure it won't affect us at all, +for we have nothing more to lose. Sometimes I think his judgment +is faulty, erratic, wonderful man though he is. Mother trusts him +blindly, of course, and so do I, yet I hardly know what to do. It +is impossible that he did worse than make a mistake." + +Her dark eyes were bent upon Murray and they were eloquent with +the question which she could not bring herself to ask. He longed +to tell her frankly that Curtis Gordon was a charlatan, or even +worse, and that his fairest schemes were doomed to failure by the +very nature of his methods, but instead he said: + +"I'm deeply distressed. I hope things are not as bad as you think +and that Mr. Gordon will be able to straighten them out for you. +If ever I can be of service you must be sure to call upon me." + +Her thanks were conventional, but in her heart was a deep, warm +gratitude, for she knew that he meant what he said and would not +fail her. + +Dan Appleton, eying Natalie and his chief from a distance, +exclaimed, admiringly: + +"She's a perfect peach, Sis. She registered a home run with me +the first time at bat." + +"She IS nice." + +"You know a fellow gets mighty lonely in a place like this. She'd +make a dandy sister-in-law for you, wouldn't she?" + +"Forget it!" said Eliza, sharply. "That's rank insubordination. +Omar Khayyam snatched her from the briny and tried to die for +her. He has bought her two acres of the most expensive roses and +he remembers the date of her birthday. Just you keep your hands +off." + +"How does she feel about him?" + +"Oh, she heroizes him, of course. I don't know just how deep the +feeling goes, but I got the impression that it was pretty +serious. Two women can't borrow hair-pins and mix powder puffs +for a week and remain strangers." + +"Then, as for Daniel Appleton, C.E., GOOD NIGHT!" exclaimed her +brother, ruefully. "If I were a woman I'd marry him myself, +provided I could get ahead of the rush; but, being a male of the +species, I suppose I shall creep out into the jungle and sulk." + +"Right-o! Don't enter this race, for I'm afraid you'd be a bad +loser! Personally I can't see anything in him to rave about. What +scares me pink is the knowledge that I must tell him the wretched +business that brings me here. If he strikes me, Danny, remember +I'm still your sister." + +When the big gong gave the signal for luncheon Appleton conducted +Natalie and Eliza to the company messroom, where the field and +office force dined together, and presented them to his fellow- +lieutenants. At supper-time those who had been out on the line +during the day were likewise introduced, and after a merry meal +the whole party escorted the two girls back to the green +bungalow. + +"Why, here's a piano!" Eliza exclaimed upon entering the parlor. + +"I borrowed it for the evening from the Elite Saloon," O'Neil +volunteered. "It's a dissipated old instrument, and some of its +teeth have been knocked out--in drunken brawls, I'm afraid--but +the owner vouched for its behavior on this occasion." + +"It knows only one tune--'I Won't Go Home until Morning,'" Dan +declared. + +McKay, however, promptly disproved this assertion by seating +himself at the keyboard and rattling off some popular melodies. +With music and laughter the long twilight fled, for O'Neil's +"boys" flung themselves into the task of entertaining his guests +with whole-souled enthusiasm. + +So successful were their efforts that even "Happy Tom" appeared +to derive a mild enjoyment from them, which was a testimonial +indeed. His pleasure was made evident by no word of praise, nor +faintest smile, but rather by the lightened gloom in which he +chewed his gum and by the fact that he complained of nothing. In +truth, he was not only entertained by the general gaiety, but he +was supremely interested in Miss Appleton, who resembled no +creature he had ever seen. He had met many girls like Natalie, +and feared them, but Eliza, with her straightforward airs and her +masculine mannerisms, was different. She affected him in a way at +once pleasant and disagreeable. He felt no diffidence in speaking +to her, for instance--a phenomenon which was in itself a ground +for suspicion. Then, too, her clothes--he could not take his eyes +off her clothes--were almost like Dan's. That seemed to show +common sense, but was probably only the sign of an eccentric, +domineering nature. On the other hand, the few words she +addressed to him were gracious, and her eyes had a merry twinkle +which warmed his heart. She must be all right, he reluctantly +concluded, being Dan's sister and O'Neil's friend. But deep down +in his mind he cherished a doubt. + +At her first opportunity Eliza undertook to make that confession +the thought of which had troubled her all the afternoon. Drawing +O'Neil aside, she began with some trepidation, "Have you any idea +why I'm here?" + +"I supposed either you or Dan had achieved your pet ambition." + +"Far from it. I have a fell purpose, and when you learn what it +is I expect you to move the piano out--that's what always happens +in the play when the heroine is dispossessed. Well, then, I've +been sent by The Review to bare all the disgraceful secrets of +your life!" + +"I'm delighted to learn you'll be here so long. You can't +possibly finish that task before next spring." His manner, though +quizzical, was genuinely hearty. + +"Don't laugh!" said the girl. "There's nothing funny about it. I +came north as a spy." + +"Then you're a Northern Spy!" + +"Apples!" she cried. "You remembered, didn't you? I never +supposed men like you could be flippant. Well, here goes for the +worst." She outlined her conversation with the editor of her +paper. + +"So you think I'm trying to steal Alaska," he said when she had +concluded. + +"That seems to be the general idea." + +"It's a pretty big job." + +"Whoever controls transportation will have the country by the +throat." + +"Yet somebody must build railroads, since the Government won't. +Did it ever occur to you that there is a great risk involved in a +thing of this sort, and that capital must see a profit before it +enters a new field? I wonder if you know how badly this country +needs an outlet and how much greater the benefit in dollars and +cents will be to the men in the interior than to those who +finance the road. But I perceive that you are a conservationist." + +"Rabid!" Eliza bridled a little at the hint of amused superiority +in his voice. "I'm a suffragist, too! I dare say that adds to +your disgust." + +"Nonsense!" he protested. "I have no quarrel with conservation +nor with 'votes for women.' Neither have I anything to conceal. +I'm only afraid that, like most writers, you will be content with +half-information. Incomplete facts are responsible for most +misunderstandings. If you are in earnest and will promise to take +the time necessary to get at all the facts, I'll make an +agreement with you." + +"I promise! Time and a typewriter are my only assets. I don't +intend to be hurried." + +Dan approached, drawn by the uncomfortable knowledge of his +sister's predicament, and broke in: + +"Oh, Sis has time to burn! She's going to write a book on the +salmon canneries while she's here. It's bound to be one of the +'six best smellers'!" + +O'Neil waved him away with the threat of sending him out among +the mosquitoes. + +"I'll agree to show you everything we're doing." + +"Even to the coal-fields?" + +"Even to them. You shall know everything, then you can write what +you please." + +"And when I've exposed you to the world as a commercial +pickpocket, as a looter of the public domain--after Congress has +appropriated your fabulous coal claims--will you nail up the door +of this little cottage, and fire Dan?" + +"No." + +"Will you still be nice to me?" + +"My dear child, you are my guest. Come and go when and where you +will. Omar is yours so long as you stay, and when you depart in +triumph, leaving me a broken, discredited wretch, I shall stand +on the dock and wave you a bon voyage. Now it's bedtime for my +'boys,' since we rise at five o'clock." + +"Heavens! Five! Why the sun isn't up at that time!" + +"The sun shines very little here; that's why we want you to stay +at Omar. I wish we might also keep Miss Natalie." + +When the callers had gone Eliza told Natalie and Dan: + +"He took it so nicely that I feel more ashamed than ever. One +would think he didn't care at all. Do you suppose he does?" + +"There's no denying that you appeared at an unfortunate time," +said her brother. + +"Why?" + +"Well--I'm not sure we'll ever succeed with this project. Parker +says the glacier bridge can be built, but the longer he studies +it the graver he gets. It's making an old man of him." + +"What does Mr. O'Neil say?" + +"Oh, he's sanguine, as usual. He never gives up. But he has other +things to worry him--money! It's money, money, all the time. He +wasn't terribly rich, to begin with, and he has used up all his +own fortune, besides what the other people put in. You see, he +never expected to carry the project so far; he believed the Trust +would buy him out." + +"Well?" + +"It hasn't and it evidently doesn't intend to. When it learned of +his plan, its engineers beat it out to the glaciers and looked +them over. Then they gave up their idea of building in from +Cortez, but instead of making terms with us, they moved their +whole outfit down to Kyak Bay, right alongside of the coal- +fields, and now it has become a race to the glaciers, with Gordon +fighting us on the side just to make matters lively. The Trust +has the shorter route, but we have the start." + +"Why didn't Mr. O'Neil take Kyak as a terminus, instead of Omar?" + +"He says it's not feasible. Kyak is an open harbor, and he says +no breakwater can be built there to withstand the storms. He +still clings to that belief, although the Trust is actually +building one. If they succeed we're cooked. Meanwhile he's +rushing work and straining every nerve to raise more money. Now +you come along with a proposal to advertise the whole affair to +the public as a gigantic graft and set Congress against him. I +think he treated you mighty well, under the circumstances." + +"I won't act against my convictions," Eliza declared, firmly, +"even if it means calamity to everybody." + +Natalie spoke for the first time, her voice tuned to a pitch of +feeling that contrasted oddly with their conversational tones. + +"If you hurt my Irish Prince," she said, "I shall hate you as +long as I live." + + + + +IX + +WHEREIN GORDON SHOWS HIS TEETH + + +Affairs at Hope were nearly, if not quite, as prosperous as those +at Omar, for Curtis Gordon's advertising had yielded large and +quick returns. His experiment, during the previous summer, of +bringing his richest stockholders north, had been a great +success. They had come, ostensibly at his expense, and once on +the ground had allowed themselves to be fairly hypnotized. They +had gone where he led, had seen what he pointed out, had believed +what he told them. Their imaginations were fired with the +grandeur of an undertaking which would develop the vast resources +of the north country for the benefit of the struggling pioneers +of the interior and humanity in general. Incidentally they were +assured over and over again in a great variety of ways that the +profits would be tremendous. Gordon showed them Hope and its +half-completed mine buildings, he showed them the mountain +behind. It was a large mountain. They noticed there were trees on +the sides of it and snow on its top. They marveled. He said its +heart was solid copper ore, and they gasped. Had he told them in +the same impressive manner that the hill contained a vein three +inches thick they would have exhibited the same astonishment. +They entered the dripping tunnels and peered with grave approval +at the drills, the rock-cars and the Montenegrin miners. They +rambled over the dumps, to the detriment of shoe-leather and +shins, filling their suit-cases with samples of perfectly good +country rock. They confessed to each other, with admirable +conservatism, that the proposition looked very promising, very +promising indeed, and they listened with appreciation to Gordon's +glowing accounts of his railroad enterprise, the physical +evidence of which consisted of a mile or two of track which +shrank along the steep shore-front and disappeared into a gulch +as if ashamed of itself. He had a wonderful plan to consolidate +the mining and railroad companies and talked of a giant holding +corporation which would share in the profits of each. The details +were intricate, but he seemed to see them all with perfect +clearness, and his victims agreed. + +He entertained them on a scale that was almost embarrassing, and +when they returned to their homes they outdid one another in +their praise of the financial genius who was leading them to the +promised land of profits and preferred stock. As a matter of +course they one and all advised their friends to buy, vouching +for the fabulous richness of Hope Consolidated, and since their +statements were backed by a personal examination of the property, +subscriptions came pouring in. + +All in all, the excursion had proven so profitable that Gordon +had arranged for another, designed to accommodate new investors +and promising "prospects." Preparations for their welcome were +under way when Natalie arrived. + +The girl and her mother talked late that evening, and Gordon saw +on the following morning that Gloria, at least, had passed a +trying night; but he gave himself no uneasiness. Emotional storms +were not unusual; he always disregarded them as far as possible, +and usually they passed off quietly. During breakfast he informed +them: + +"I received a letter from Miss Golden in yesterday's mail. She is +to be one of the new party." + +"Did you invite her to return this summer?" Mrs. Gerard inquired. + +"Yes!" + +"I remember her well," said Natalie--"too well, in fact. I +thought her very bold." + +"She is one of our largest investors, and she writes she would +enjoy spending a fortnight here after the others go back." + +"Will you allow it?" + +"Allow it! My dear Gloria, I can't possibly refuse. In fact it +would be the height of inhospitality not to urge her to do so. +She is welcome to stay as long as she chooses, for these quarters +are as much hers as ours. I hope you will be nice to her." + +Mrs. Gerard made no answer, but later in the morning sought +Gordon in his private office. + +"I preferred not to discuss the Golden woman before Natalie," she +explained, coldly, "but--you don't really intend to have her +here, do you?" + +"Most assuredly!" + +"Then I shall have to tell her she is not welcome." + +"You will do nothing of the sort, my dear: you will assume the +duties of hostess, for which no one is more charmingly +qualified." + +Mrs. Gerard's lips were white with anger as she retorted: + +"I shall not allow that woman under the same roof with Natalie." + +"As usual, you choose the most inconvenient occasion for +insisting upon your personal dislikes." + +"My dislike has nothing to do with the matter. I overlooked her +behavior with you last year--as I have overlooked a good many +things in the past--but this is asking too much." + +Gordon's coldness matched her own as he said: + +"I repeat, this is no time for jealousy--" + +"Jealousy! It's an insult to Natalie." + +"Miss Golden is one of our largest stockholders." + +"That's not true! I had Denny look up the matter." + +"So!" Gordon flared up angrily. "Denny has been showing you the +books, eh! He had no more right to do that than you had to pry +into my affairs. While Miss Golden's investment may not be so +large as some others', she has influential friends. She did +yeoman service in the cause, and I can't allow your foolish +fancies to interfere with my plans." + +"Fancies!" cried the woman, furiously. "You behaved like a +school-boy with her. It was disgraceful. I refuse to let her +associate with my daughter." + +"Aren't we drawing rather fine distinctions?" Gordon's lip +curled. "In the first place, Natalie has no business here. Since +she came, uninvited, for the second time, she must put up with +what she finds. I warned you last summer that she might suspect--" + +"She did. She does. She discovered the truth a year ago." Mrs. +Gerard's usually impassive face was distorted and she voiced her +confession with difficulty. + +"The devil!" ejaculated Gordon. + +The woman nodded. "She accused me last night. I tried to--lie, +but--God! How I have lived through these hours I'll never know." + +"Hm-m!" Gordon reflected, briefly. "Perhaps, after all, it's just +as well that she knows; she would have found it out sooner or +later, and there's some satisfaction in knowing that the worst is +over." + +Never before had his callous cynicism been so frankly displayed. +It chilled her and made the plea she was about to voice seem +doubly difficult. + +"I wish I looked upon the matter as you do," she said, slowly. +"But other people haven't the same social ideas as we. I'm-- +crushed, and she--Poor child! I don't know how she had the +courage to face it. Now that she has heard the truth from my own +lips I'm afraid it will kill her." + +Gordon laughed. "Nonsense! Natalie is a sensible girl. +Disillusionment is always painful, but never fatal. Sooner or +later the young must confront the bald facts of life, and I +venture to say she will soon forget her school-girl morality. Let +me explain my views of--" + +"Never!" cried the woman, aghast. "If you do I shall--" She +checked herself and buried her face in her hands. "I feel no +regrets for myself--for I drifted with my eyes open--but this-- +this is different. Don't you understand? I am a mother. Or are +you dead to all decent feeling?" + +"My dear, I'm the most tender-hearted of men. Of course I shall +say nothing, if you prefer, for I am subservient to your commands +in all things. But calm yourself. What is done cannot be undone." + +In more even tones Mrs. Gerard said, "You seem to think the +matter is ended, but it isn't. Natalie will never allow us to +continue this way, and it isn't just to her that we should. We +can't go on, Curtis." + +"You mean I must marry you?" + +She nodded. + +He rose and paced the room before answering. "I always supposed +you understood my views on that subject. Believe me, they are +unalterable, and in no way the result of a pose." + +"Nevertheless, for my sake and Natalie's you will do it. I can't +lose the one thing I love best in the world." + +"It would seem that Natalie has filled your head with silly +notions," he exclaimed, impatiently. + +"She has awakened me. I have her life to consider as well as my +own." + +"We are all individuals, supreme in ourselves, responsible only +to ourselves. We must all live our own lives; she cannot live +yours, nor you hers." + +"I am familiar with your arguments," Mrs. Gerard said, wearily, +"but I have thought this all out and there is no other way." + +He frowned in his most impressive manner and his chest swelled +ominously. + +"I will not be coerced. You know I can't be bullied into a thing. +I deny that you have any right to demand--" + +"I'm not demanding anything. I merely ask this--this favor, the +first one I have ever asked. You see, my pride is crumbling. +Don't answer now; let's wait until we are both calmer. The +subject came up--at least she approached it, by asking about the +coal claims. She is worried about them." + +"Indeed?" + +"She was told by a friend in the Land Office that our rights had +been forfeited. I assured her--" + +"I refused to heed the absurd rulings of the Department, if that +is what she refers to." + +"Then we--have lost?" Mrs. Gerard's pallor increased. + +"Technically, yes! In reality I shall show that our titles were +good and that our patents should issue." + +"But"--the woman's bloodless fingers were tightly interlaced-- +"all I have, all Natalie has, is in those claims." + +"Yes! And it would require another fortune the size of both to +comply with the senseless vagaries of the Interior Department and +to protect your interests. I grew weary of forever sending good +hard-earned dollars after bad ones, merely because of the +shifting whim of some theorist five thousand miles away." + +"Then I am afraid--" Mrs. Gerard's voice trailed out miserably. +"It is all we have, and you told me--" + +Gordon broke in irritably: "My dear Gloria, spare me this painful +faultfinding. If I can win for you, I shall do so, and then you +will agree that I acted wisely. If I lose--it will merely be the +luck of the average investor. We played for big returns, and of +course the risks were great." + +"But Mr. O'Neil told her his claims--" + +Gordon's blazing eyes warned her. "O'Neil, eh? So, he is the +'friend in the Land Office'! No doubt he also gave Natalie the +suggestion that led to her scene with you. Tell her to occupy +herself less with affairs which do not concern her and more with +her own conduct. Her actions with that upstart have been +outrageous." + +"What about your own actions with the Golden woman?" cried Mrs. +Gerard, reverting with feminine insistence to the subject of +their first difference. "What are you going to do about her?" + +"Nothing." + +"Remember, I refuse to share the same roof with her. You wouldn't +ask it of your wife." + +Now this second reference to a disagreeable subject was +unfortunate. Gordon was given to the widest vagaries of temper, +and this interview had exasperated him beyond measure, for he was +strained by other worries. He exploded harshly: + +"Please remember that you are not my wife! My ideas on matrimony +will never change. You ought to know by this time that I am +granite." + +"I can't give up Natalie. I would give up much, for we women +don't change, but--" + +"A fallacy!" He laughed disagreeably. "Pardon me, Gloria, if I +tell you that you do change; that you have changed; that time has +left its imprint upon even you--a cruel fact, but true." He took +a savage pleasure in her trembling, for she had roused all the +devils in him and they were many. + +"You are growing tired!" + +"Not at all. But you have just voiced the strongest possible +argument against marriage. We grow old! Age brings its +alterations! I have ever been a slave to youth and beauty and the +years bring to me only an increasing appreciation, a more +critical judgment, of the beautiful. If I chose to marry--well, +frankly, the mature charms of a woman of my own age would have +slight attraction for me." + +"Then--I will go," said Mrs. Gerard, faintly. + +"Not by any wish of mine," he assured her. "You are quite welcome +to stay. Things will run along in the usual way--more smoothly, +perhaps, now that we have attained a complete understanding. You +have no place to go, nor means with which to insure a living for +yourself and Natalie. I would hate to see you sacrifice yourself +and her to a Puritanical whim, for I owe you much happiness and +I'm sure I should miss you greatly. Some one must rule, and since +nature has given me the right I shall exercise it. We will have +no more rebellion." + +Mrs. Gerard left the room dazed and sick with despair. + +"We must go! We must go!" she kept repeating, but her tragic look +alarmed Natalie far more than her words. + +"Yes, yes!" The girl took her in her arms and tried to still the +ceaseless trembling which shook the mother's frame, while her own +tears fell unheeded. + +"We must go! Now!" + +"Yes, dearest! But where?" + +"You--love me still?" asked Gloria. "I suppose you need me, too, +don't you? I hadn't thought of that." + +"Every hour!" The round young arms pressed her closer. "You won't +think of--of leaving me." + +Mrs. Gerard shook her head slowly. "No! I suppose that must be +part of the price. But--Penniless! Friendless! Where can we go?" + +"Mr. O'Neil--my Irish Prince," faltered the daughter through her +tears. "Perhaps he would take us in." + +"Omar Khayyam," said Eliza Appleton, entering O'Neil's office +briskly, "you are the general trouble man, so prepare to listen +to mine." + +"Won't the kitchen flue draw, or has a hinge come off the +bungalow door?" Murray smiled. He was harassed by endless +worries, a dozen pressing matters called for his instant +attention; yet he showed no trace of annoyance. "If so, I'll be +right up and fix it." + +"The kitchen chimney has a draught that threatens to draw Dan's +salary out with the smoke every time I cook a meal, and the house +is dandy. This is a real man's-size tribulation, so of course I +run to you. Simon Legree is at his tricks again." + +"Legree!" + +The girl nodded her blond head vigorously. + +"Yes! He's stolen Mrs. St. Claire's slaves, and she and Little +Eva are out in the cold." + +"What the deuce are you talking about?" + +"Gordon, of course, and the two Gerards, Natalie and Gloria-- +'Town Hall, To-night. Come one, Come all!'" + +"Oh!" O'Neil's eyes brightened. + +"There have been terrible goings-on over at Hope. I went up +yesterday, in my official capacity, to reconnoiter the enemy's +position and to give him a preliminary skirmish, but the great +man was sulking in his tent and sent word by a menial for me to +begone or look out for the bloodhounds. Isn't he the haughty +thing? I don't like to 'begone'--I refuse to git when I'm told, +so, of course, I paid my respects to Natalie and her mother. But +what do you think I found? Mrs. St. Claire desolated, Eva +dissolved in tears and her hair down." + +"Will you talk sense?" + +"Just try a little nonsense, and see. Well, the great eruption +has taken place and the loss of life was terrible. Among those +buried in the cinders are the dusky-eyed heroine and her friend +mother. It seems Eva had a hand in the overseer's exposure--" + +"Yes, yes! It's about those coal claims. I knew it was coming." + +"She told her mother of the horrid treachery, and mother lugged +the complaint to Gordon and placed it in his lap. Result, +confession and defiance from him. Even the family jewels are +gone." + +"Is Gordon broke?" + +"He's weltering in money, but the coal claims are lost, and he +wants to know what they're going to do about it. The women are +ruined. He magnanimously offers them his bounty, but of course +they refuse to accept it." + +"Hasn't he made any provision for them?" + +"Coffee and cakes, three times a day. That's all! He won't even +provide transportation, and the troupe can't walk home. They +refuse to stay there, but they can't get away. I've cabled The +Review, overdrawing my salary scandalously, and Dan is eager to +help, but the worst of it is neither of those women knows how to +make a living. Natalie wants to work, but the extent of her +knowledge is the knack of frosting a layer cake, and her mother +never even sewed on a button in all her life. It would make a +lovely Sunday story, and it wouldn't help Curtis Gordon with his +stockholders." + +"You won't write it, of course!" + +"Oh, I suppose not, but it's maddening not to be able to do +something. Since there's a law against manslaughter, the pencil +is my only weapon. I'd like to jab it clear through that +ruffian." Eliza's animated face was very stern, her generous +mouth was set firmly. + +"You can leave out the personal element," he told her. "There's +still a big story there, if you realize that it runs back to +Washington and involves your favorite policy of conservation. +Those claims belonged to Natalie and her mother. I happen to know +that their locations were legal and that there was never any +question of fraud in the titles, hence they were entitled to +patents years ago. Gordon did wrong, of course, in refusing to +obey the orders of the Secretary of the Interior even though he +knew those orders to be senseless and contradictory, but the +women are the ones to suffer. The Government froze them out. This +is only one instance of what delay and indecision at headquarters +has done. I'll show you others before we are through. As for +those two--You say they want to do something?" + +"It's not a question of wanting; they've GOT to do something--or +starve. They would scrub kitchens if they knew how." + +"Why didn't they come to me?" + +"Do you need a cook and a dishwasher?" + +Murray frowned. "Our new hotel is nearly finished; perhaps Mrs. +Gerard would accept a position as--as hostess." + +"HOSTESS! In a railroad-camp hotel! Who ever heard of such a +thing?" Eliza eyed him incredulously. + +O'Neil's flush did not go unnoticed as he said, quietly: + +"It IS unusual, but we'll try it. She might learn to manage the +business, with a competent assistant. The salary will be ample +for her and Natalie to live on." + +Eliza laid a hand timidly upon his arm and said in an altered +tone: + +"Omar Khayyam, you're a fine old Persian gentleman! I know what +it will mean to those two poor women, and I know what it will +mean to you, for of course the salary will come out of your +pocket." + +He smiled down at her. "It's the best I can offer, and I'm sure +you won't tell them." + +"Of course not. I know how it feels to lose a fortune, too, for +I've been through the mill--Don't laugh! You have a load on your +shoulders heavier than Mr. Sinbad's, and it's mighty nice of you +to let me add to the burden. I--I hope it won't break your poor +back. Now I'm going up to your bungalow and lock myself into your +white bedroom, and--" + +"Have a good cry!" he said, noting the suspicious moisture in her +eyes. + +"Certainly not!" Eliza exclaimed, indignantly. "I'm not the least +bit sentimental." + + + + +X + +IN WHICH THE DOCTOR SHOWS HIS WIT + + +O'Neil's talk with Mrs. Gerard upon her arrival from Hope was +short and businesslike. Neither by word nor look did he show that +he knew or suspected anything of the real reason of her break +with Gordon. Toward both her and Natalie he preserved his +customary heartiness, and their first constraint soon +disappeared. Mrs. Gerard had been plunged in one of those black +moods in which it seems that no possible event can bring even a +semblance of happiness, but it was remarkable how soon this state +of mind began to give way before O'Neil's matter-of-fact +cheerfulness. He refused to listen to their thanks and made them +believe that they were conferring a real favor upon him by +accepting the responsibility of the new hotel. Pending the +completion of that structure he was hard pressed to find a +lodging-place for them until Eliza and her brother insisted that +they share the bungalow with them--a thing O'Neil had not felt at +liberty to ask under the circumstances. Nor was the tact of the +brother and sister less than his; they received the two +unfortunates as honored guests. + +Gradually the visitors began to feel that they were welcome, that +they were needed, that they had an important task to fulfil, and +the sense that they were really of service drove away depression. +Night after night they lay awake, discussing the wonderful change +in their fortunes and planning their future. Natalie at least had +not the slightest doubt that all their troubles were at an end. + +One morning they awoke to learn that O'Neil had gone to the +States, leaving Dr. Gray in charge of affairs at Omar during his +absence. The physician, who was fully in his chief's confidence, +gravely discussed their duties with them, and so discreet was he +that they had no faintest suspicion that he knew their secret. It +was typical of O'Neil and his "boys" that they should show this +chivalry toward two friendless outcasts; it was typical of them, +also, that they one and all constituted themselves protectors of +Natalie and her mother, letting it be known through the town that +the slightest rudeness toward the women would be promptly +punished. + +While O'Neil's unexpected departure caused some comment, no one +except his trusted lieutenants dreamed of the grave importance of +his mission. They knew the necessities that hounded him, they +were well aware of the trembling insecurity in which affairs now +stood, but they maintained their cheerful industry, they pressed +the work with unabated energy, and the road crept forward foot by +foot, as steadily and as smoothly as if he himself were on the +ground to direct it. + +Many disappointments had arisen since the birth of the Salmon +River & Northwestern; many misfortunes had united to retard the +development of its builder's plans. The first obstacle O'Neil +encountered was that of climate. During the summer, unceasing +rains, mists, and fogs dispirited his workmen and actually cut +their efficiency in half. He had made certain allowances for +this, of course, but no one could have foreseen so great a +percentage of inefficiency as later developed. In winter, the +cold was intense and the snows were of prodigious depth, while +outside the shelter of the Omar hills the winds howled and rioted +over the frozen delta, chilling men and animals and paralyzing +human effort. Under these conditions it was hard to get workmen, +and thrice harder to keep them; so that progress was much slower +than had been anticipated. + +Then, too, the physical difficulties of the country were almost +insurmountable. The morass which comprised the Salmon River plain +was in summer a bottomless ooze, over which nothing could be +transported, yet in winter it became sheathed with a steel-hard +armor against which piling splintered. It could be penetrated at +that season only by the assistance of steam thawers, which +involved delay and heavy expense. These were but samples of the +obstacles that had to be met, and every one realized that the +work thus far had been merely preparatory. The great obstruction, +upon the conquest of which the success of the whole undertaking +hinged, still lay before them. + +But of all handicaps the most serious by far was the lack of +capital. Murray had foreseen as inevitable the abandonment by the +Trust of its Cortez route, but its change of base to Kyak had +come as a startling surprise and as an almost crushing blow. +Personally, he believed its present plan to be even more +impracticable than its former one, but its refusal to buy him out +had disheartened his financial associates and tightened their +purse-strings into a knot which no argument of his could loose. +He had long since exhausted his own liquid capital, he had +realized upon his every available asset, and his personal credit +was tottering. He was obliged to finance his operations upon new +money--a task which became ever more difficult as the months +passed and the Trust continued its work at Kyak. Yet he knew that +the briefest flagging, even a temporary abandonment of work, +meant swift and utter ruin. His track must go forward, his labor +must be paid, his supplies must not be interrupted. He set his +jaws and fought on stubbornly, certain of his ultimate triumph if +only he could hold out. + +A hundred miles to the westward was a melancholy example of +failure in railroad-building, in the form of two rows of rust +upon a weed-grown embankment. It was all that remained of another +enterprise which had succumbed to financial starvation, and the +wasted millions it represented was depressing to consider. + +Thus far O'Neil's rivalry with the Trust had been friendly, if +spirited, but his action in coming to the assistance of Mrs. +Gerard and her daughter raised up a new and vigorous enemy whose +methods were not as scrupulous as those of the Heidlemanns. + +Gordon was a strangely unbalanced man. He was magnetic, his +geniality was really heart-warming, yet he was perfectly cold- +blooded in his selfishness. He was cool and calculating, but +interference roused him to an almost insane pitch of passion. +Fickle in most things, he was uncompromising in his hatreds. +O'Neil's generosity in affording sanctuary to his defiant +mistress struck him as a personal affront, it fanned his dislike +of his rival into a consuming rage. It was with no thought of +profit that he cast about for a means of crippling O'Neil. He was +quite capable of ruining himself, not to speak of incidental harm +to others, if only he could gratify his spleen. + +Denny, his trusted jackal, resisted stoutly any move against "The +Irish Prince," but his employer would not listen to him or +consent to any delay. Therefore, a certain plausible, shifty-eyed +individual by the name of Linn was despatched to Omar on the +first steamer. Landing at his destination, Mr. Linn quietly +effaced himself, disappearing out the right-of-way, where he +began moving from camp to camp, ostensibly in search of +employment. + +It was a few days later, perhaps a week after O'Neil's departure, +that Eliza Appleton entered the hospital and informed Dr. Gray: + +"I've finished my first story for The Review." + +The big physician had a rapid, forceful habit of speech. "Well, I +suppose you uncorked the vitriol bottle," he said, brusquely. + +"No! Since you are now the fount of authority here, I thought I'd +tell you that I have reserved my treachery for another time. I +haven't learned enough yet to warrant real fireworks. As a matter +of fact, I've been very kind to Mr. O'Neil in my story." + +"Let me thank you for him." + +"Now don't be sarcastic! I could have said a lot of nasty things, +if he hadn't been so nice to me. I suppose it is the corrupting +influence of his kindness." + +"He really will be grateful," the doctor assured her, seriously. +"Newspaper publicity of the wrong sort might hurt him a great +deal just now. In every big enterprise there comes a critical +time, when everything depends upon one man; strong as the +structure seems, he's really supporting it. You see, the whole +thing rests ultimately on credit and confidence. An ill- +considered word, a little unfriendly shove, and down comes the +whole works. Then some financial power steps in, reorganizes the +wreckage, and gets the result of all the other fellow's efforts, +for nothing." + +"Dan tells me the affairs of the S. R. & N. are in just such a +tottering condition." + +"Yes. We're up against it, for the time being. Our cards are on +the table, and you have it in your power to do us a lot of harm." + +"Don't put it that way!" said Eliza, resentfully. "You and Mr. +O'Neil and even Dan make it hard for me to do my duty. I won't +let you rob me of my liberty. I'll get out and 'Siwash' it in a +tent first." + +The physician laughed. "Don't mistake leaf-mold for muck, that's +all we ask. O'Neil is perfectly willing to let you investigate +him." + +"Exactly! And I could bite off his head for being so nice about +it. Not that I've discovered anything against him, for I haven't +--I think he's fine--but I object to the principle of the thing." + +"He'll never peep, no matter what you do or say." + +"It makes me furious to know how superior he is. I never detested +a man's virtues as I do his. Gordon is the sort I like, for he +needs exposing, and expects it. Wait until I get at him and the +Trust." + +"The Trust, too, eh?" + +"Of course." + +"Now what have the Heidlemanns done?" + +"It's not what they have done; it's what they're going to do. +They're trying to grab Alaska." + +Dr. Gray shook his head impatiently, but before he could make +answer Tom Slater entered and broke into the conversation by +announcing: + +"I've spotted him, Doc. His name is Linn, and he's Gordon's hand. +He's at mile 24 and fifty men are quitting from that camp." + +"That makes two hundred, so far," said the doctor. + +"He's offering a raise of fifty cents a day and transportation to +Hope." + +Gray scowled and Eliza inquired quickly: + +"What's wrong, Uncle Tom?" + +"Don't call me 'Uncle Tom,'" Slater exclaimed, irritably; "I +ain't related to you." + +Miss Appleton smiled at him sweetly. "I had a dear friend once-- +you remind me of him, he was such a splendid big man," she said. + +Tom eyed her suspiciously. + +"He chewed gum incessantly, too, and declared that it never hurt +anybody." + +"It never did," asserted Slater. + +"We pleaded, we argued, we did our best to save him, but--" She +shook her blond head sadly. + +"What happened to him?" + +"What always happens? He lingered along for a time, stubborn to +the last, then--" Turning abruptly to Dr. Gray, she asked, "Who +is this man Linn, and what is he doing?" + +"He's an emissary of Curtis Gordon and he's hiring our men away +from us," snapped the physician. + +"Why, Dan tells me Mr. O'Neil pays higher wages than anybody!" + +"So he does, but Linn offers a raise. We didn't know what the +trouble was till over a hundred men had quit. The town is full of +them, now, and it's becoming a stampede." + +"Can't you meet the raise?" + +"That wouldn't do any good." + +Tom agreed. "Gordon don't want these fellows. He's doing it to +get even with Murray for those wo--" He bit his words in two at a +glance from Gray. "What happened to the man that chewed gum?" he +demanded abruptly. + +"Oh yes! Poor fellow! We warned him time and again, but he was a +sullen brute, he wouldn't heed advice. Why don't you bounce this +man Linn? Why don't you run him out of camp?" + +"Fine counsel from a champion of equal rights!" smiled Gray. "You +forget we have laws and Gordon has a press bureau. It would +antagonize the men and cause a lot of trouble in the end. What +O'Neil could do personally, he can't do as the president of the +S. R. & N. It would give us a black eye. + +"We've go to do something dam' quick," said Slater, "or else the +work will be tied up. That would 'crab' Murray's deal. I've got a +pick-handle that's itching for Linn's head." The speaker coughed +hollowly and complained: "I've got a bad cold on my chest--feels +like pneumonia, to me. Wouldn't that just be my luck?" + +"Do you have pains in your chest?" inquired the girl, +solicitously. + +"Terrible! But I'm so full of pains that I get used to 'em". + +"It isn't pneumonia." + +Slater flared up at this, for he was jealous of his sufferings. + +"It's gumbago!" Eliza declared. + +Dr. Gray's troubled countenance relaxed into a grin as he said: + +"I'll give you something to rub on those leather lungs--harness- +oil, perhaps." + +"Is this labor trouble really serious?" asked the girl. + +"Serious! It may knock us out completely. Go away now and let me +think. Pardon my rudeness, Miss Appleton, but--" + +Slater paused at the door. + +"Don't think too long, Doc," he admonished him, "for there's a +ship due in three days, and by that time there won't be a 'rough- +neck' left on the job. It'll take a month to get a new crew from +the States, and then it wouldn't be any good till it was broke +in." + +When he was alone the doctor sat down to weigh the news "Happy +Tom" had brought, but the more squarely he considered the matter +the more alarming it appeared. Thus far the S. R. & N. had been +remarkably free from labor troubles. To permit them to creep in +at this stage would be extremely perilous: the briefest cessation +of work might, and probably would, have a serious bearing upon +O'Neil's efforts to raise money. Gray felt the responsibility of +his position with extraordinary force, for his chief's fortunes +had never suffered in his hands and he could not permit them to +do so now. But how to meet this move of Gordon's he did not know; +he could think of no means of keeping these men at Omar. As he +had to Eliza, to meet the raise would be useless, and a new scale +of wages once adopted would be hard to reduce. Successful or +unsuccessful in its effect, it would run into many thousands of +dollars. The physician acknowledged himself dreadfully perplexed; +he racked his brain uselessly, yearning meanwhile for the +autocratic power to compel obedience among his men. He would have +forced them back to their jobs had there been a way, and the fact +that they were duped only added to his anger. + +It occurred to him to quarantine the town, a thing he could +easily do as port physician in case of an epidemic, but Omar was +unusually healthy, and beyond a few surgical cases his hospital +was empty. + +His meditations were interrupted by Tom Slater, who returned to +say: + +"Give me that dope, Doc; I'm coughing like a switch engine." Gray +rose and went to the shelves upon which his drugs were arranged, +while the fat man continued, "That Appleton girl has got me +worried with her foolishness. Maybe I AM sick; anyhow, I feel +rotten. What I need is a good rest and a nurse to wait on me." + +The physician's eyes in running along the rows of bottles +encountered one labeled "Oleum Tiglii," and paused there. "You +need a rest, eh?" he inquired, mechanically. + +"If I don't get one I'll wing my way to realms eternal. I ain't +been dried off for three months." Gray turned to regard his +caller with a speculative stare, his fingers toyed with the +bottle. "If it wasn't for this man Linn I'd lay off--I'd go to +jail for him. But I can't do anything, with one foot always in +the grave." + +The doctor's face lightened with determination. + +"Tom, you've been sent from heaven!" + +"D'you mean I've been sent for, from heaven?" The invalid's red +cheeks blanched, into his mournful eyes leaped a look of quick +concern. "Say! Am I as sick as all that?" + +"This will make you feel better." Gray uncorked the bottle and +said, shortly, "Take off your shirt." + +"What for?" + +"I'm going to rub your chest and arms." + +Slater obeyed, with some reluctance, pausing to inquire, +doubtfully: + +"You ain't stripping me down so you can operate?" + +"Nonsense!" + +"I'm feeling pretty good again." + +"It's well to take these things early. They all look alike at the +beginning." + +"What things?" + +"Grippe, gumbago, smallpox--" + +"God'lmighty!" exclaimed Slater with a start. "I haven't got +anything but a light cold." + +"Then this liniment ought to be just the thing." + +"Humph! It don't smell like liniment," Tom declared, after a +moment, but the doctor had fallen to work on him and he submitted +with resignation. + +Perhaps an hour later Dr. Gray appeared at the Appleton bungalow +and surprised Eliza by saying: + +"I've come to you for some help. You're the only soul in Omar +that I can trust." + +"Have you gone raving mad?" she inquired. + +"No. I must put an end to Linn's activity or we'll be ruined. +These workmen must be held in Omar, and you must help me do it." + +"They have the right to go where they please." + +"Of course, but Gordon will let them out as soon as he has +crippled us. Tell me, would you like to be a trained nurse?" + +"No, I would not," declared Eliza, vehemently. "I'm neither +antiseptic nor prophylactic." + +"Nevertheless, you're going to be one--Tom needs you." + +"Tom? What ails him?" + +"Nothing at this moment, but--wait until to-morrow." The +physician's eyes were twinkling, and when he had explained the +cause of his amusement Eliza laughed. + +"Of course I'll help," she said. "But it won't hurt the poor +fellow, will it?" + +"Not in the least, unless it frightens him to death. Tom's an +awful coward about sickness; that's why I need some one like you +to take care of him. He'll be at the hospital to-morrow at three. +If you'll arrange to be there we'll break the news to him gently. +I daren't tackle it alone." + +Tom was a trifle embarrassed at finding Eliza in Dr. Gray's +office when he entered, on the next afternoon. The boss packer +seemed different than usual; he was much subdued. His cough had +disappeared, but in its place he suffered a nervous apprehension; +his cheeks were pale, the gloom in his eyes had changed to a +lurking uneasiness. + +"Just dropped in to say I'm all right again," he announced in an +offhand tone. + +"That's good!" said Gray. "You don't look well, however." + +"I'm feeling fine!" Mr. Slater hunched his shoulders as if the +contact of his shirt was irksome to the flesh. + +"You'd better let me rub you. Why are you scratching yourself?" + +"I ain't scratching." + +"You were!" The doctor was sternly curious; he had assumed his +coldest and most professional air. + +"Well, if I scratched, I probably itched. That's why people +scratch, ain't it?" + +"Let me look you over." "I can't spare the time, Doc--" + +"Wait!" Gray's tone halted the speaker as he turned to leave. +"I'm not going to let you out in this weather until I rub you." + +This time there was no mistaking "Happy Tom's" pallor. "I tell +you I feel great," he declared in a shaking voice. "I--haven't +felt so good for years." + +"Come, come! Step into the other room and take off your shirt." + +"Not on your life." + +"What do you mean?" + +"I don't want no more of your dam' liniment." + +"Why?" + +"Because I'm--because I don't." + +"Then I suppose I'll have to throw and hog-tie you." The +physician rose and laid a heavy hand upon his patient's arm, at +which Tom exclaimed: + +"Ouch! Leggo! Gimme the stuff and I'll rub myself." + +"Tom!" The very gravity of the speaker's voice was portentous, +alarming. Mr. Slater hesitated, his gaze wavered, he scratched +his chest unconsciously. + +Eliza shook her head pityingly; she uttered an inarticulate +murmur of concern. + +"You couldn't get my shirt off with a steam-winch. I tell you I'm +feeling grand." + +"Why WILL you chew the horrid stuff?" Miss Appleton inquired +sadly. + +"I'm just a little broke out, that's all." + +"Ah! You're broken out. I feared so," said the doctor. + +The grave concern in those two faces was too much for Slater's +sensitive nature; his stubbornness gave way, his self-control +vanished, and he confessed wretchedly: + +"I spent an awful night, Doc. I'll bust into flame if this keeps +up. What is it, anyhow?" + +"Is there an eruption of the arms and chest?" + +"They're all erupted to hell." + +Dr. Gray silently parted the shirt over Slater's bosom. "Hm-m!" +said he. + +"Tell him what it is," urged Eliza, in whom mirth and pity were +struggling for mastery. + +"It has every appearance of-smallpox!" + +The victim uttered a choking cry and sat down limply. Sweat +leaped out upon his face, beads appeared upon his round bald +head. + +"I knew I was a sick man. I've felt it coming on for three +months, but I fought it off for Murray's sake. Say it's chicken- +pox," he pleaded. + +"Never mind; it's seldom serious," Eliza endeavored to comfort +the stricken man. + +"You wanted a good rest-" + +"I don't. I want to work." + +"I'll have to quarantine you, Tom." + +Slater was in no condition for further resistance; a complete +collapse of body and mind had followed the intelligence of his +illness. He began to complain of many symptoms, none of which +were in any way connected with his fancied disease. He was racked +with pains, he suffered a terrible nausea, his head swam; he +spoke bravely of his destitute family and prepared to make his +will. When he left the hospital, an hour later, it was on a +stretcher between four straining bearers. + +That evening a disturbing rumor crept through the town of Omar. +It penetrated the crowded saloons where the laborers who had quit +work were squandering their pay, and it caused a brief lull in +the ribaldry; but the mere fact that Tom Slater had come down +with smallpox and had been isolated upon a fishing-boat anchored +in the creek seemed, after all, of little consequence. Some of +the idlers strolled down the street to stare at the boat, and +upon their return verified the report. They also announced that +they had seen the yellow-haired newspaper woman aboard, all +dressed in white. It was considered high time by the majority to +leave Omar, for an epidemic was a thing to be avoided, and a +wager was made that the whole force would quit in a body as soon +as the truth became known. + +On the second day Dr. Gray undertook to allay the general +uneasiness, but, upon being pressed, reluctantly acknowledged +that his patient showed all the signs of the dread disease. This +hastened the general preparations for departure, and when the +incoming steamer hove in sight every laborer was at the dock with +his kit-bag. It excited some idle comment among them to note that +Dr. Gray had gone down the bay a short distance to meet the ship, +and his efforts to speak it were watched with interest and +amusement. Obviously it would have been much easier for him to +wait until she landed, for she came right on and drew in toward +the wharf. It was not until her bow line was made fast that the +physician succeeded in hailing the captain. Then the deserters +were amazed to hear the following conversation: + +"I can't let you land, Captain Johnny," came from Dr. Gray's +launch. + +"And why can't you?" demanded Brennan from the bridge of his new +ship. "Have you some prejudice against the Irish?" The stern +hawser was already being run out, and the crowd was edging +closer, waiting for the gangplank. + +"There is smallpox here, and as health officer I've quarantined +the port." + +There came a burst of Elizabethan profanity from the little +skipper, but it was drowned by the shout from shore as the full +meaning of the situation finally came home. Then the waiting men +made a rush for the ship. She had not touched as yet, however, +and the distance between her and the pier was too great to leap. +Above the confusion came Brennan's voice, through a megaphone, +commanding them to stand back. Some one traitorously cast off the +loop of the bow line, the ship's propellers began to thrash, and +the big steel hull backed away inch by inch, foot by foot, until, +amid curses and cries of rage, she described a majestic circle +and plowed off up the sound toward Hope. + +By a narrow margin the physician reached his hospital ahead of +the infuriated mob, and it was well that he did so, for they were +in a lynching mood. But, once within his own premises, he made a +show of determined resistance that daunted them, and they +sullenly retired. That night Omar rang with threats and deep- +breathed curses, and Eliza Appleton, in the garb of a nurse, +tended her patient cheerfully. + +To the delegation which waited upon him the next morning, Dr. +Gray explained the nature of his duties as health officer, +informing them coolly that no living soul could leave Omar +without incurring legal penalties. Since he could prevent any +ships from landing, and inasmuch as the United States marshal was +present to enforce the quarantine, he seemed to be master of the +situation. + +"How long will we be tied up?" demanded the spokesman of the +party. + +"That is hard to say." + +"Well, we're going to leave this camp!" the man declared, darkly. + +"Indeed? Where are you going?" + +"We're going to Hope. You might as well let us go. We won't stand +for this." + +The physician eyed him coldly. "You won't? May I ask how you are +going to help yourselves?" + +"We're going to leave on the next steamer." + +"Oh, no you're not!" the marshal spoke up. + +"See here, Doc! There's over two hundred of us and we can't stay +here; we'll go broke." + +Gray shrugged his broad shoulders. "Sorry," he said, "but you see +I've no choice in the matter. I never saw a case of smallpox that +looked worse." + +"It's a frame-up," growled the spokesman. "Tom hasn't got +smallpox any more than I have. You cooked it to keep us here." +There was an angry second to this, whereupon the doctor +exclaimed: + +"You think so, eh? Then just come with me." + +"Where?" + +"Out to the boat where he is. I'll show you." + +"You won't show me no smallpox," asserted one of the committee. + +"Then YOU come with me," the physician urged the leader. + +"So you can bottle me up, too? No, thank you!" + +"Get the town photographer with his flashlight. We'll help him +make a picture; then you can show it to the others. I promise not +to quarantine you." + +After some hesitation the men agreed to this; the photographer +was summoned and joined the party on its way to the floating +pest-house. + +It was not a pleasant place in which they found Tom Slater, for +the cabin of the fishing-boat was neither light nor airy, but +Eliza had done much to make it agreeable. The sick man was +propped up in his bunk and playing solitaire, but he left off his +occupation to groan as the new-comers came alongside. + +When the cause of the visit had been made known, however, he +rebelled. + +"I won't pose for no camera fiend," he declared, loudly. "It +ain't decent and I'm too sick. D'you take me for a bearded lady +or a living skeleton?" + +"These men think you're stalling," Dr. Gray told him. + +"Who? Me?" Slater rolled an angry eye upon the delegation. "I +ain't sick, eh? I s'pose I'm doing this for fun? I wish you had +it, that's all." + +The three members of the committee of investigation wisely halted +at the foot of the companionway stairs where the fresh air fanned +them; they were nervous and ill at ease. + +Drawing his covers closer, Slater shouted: + +"Close that hatch, you bone-heads! I'm blowing away!" + +The photographer ventured to remonstrate. + +"It's mighty close in here, Doc. Is it safe to breathe the bugs?" + +"Perfectly safe," Gray assured him. "At least Miss Appleton +hasn't suffered yet." + +As a matter of fact the patient betrayed no symptoms of a wasting +illness, for his cheeks were ruddy, he had eaten three hearty +meals each day, and the enforced rest had done him good, so the +committee saw nothing about him to satisfy their suspicions. But +when Tom weakly called upon them for assistance in rising they +shrank back and one of them exclaimed: + +"I wouldn't touch you with a fish-pole." + +Eliza came forward, however; she permitted her charge to lean +upon her while she adjusted the pillows at his back; but when Dr. +Gray ordered him to bare his breast and arms Slater refused +positively. He blushed, he stammered, he clutched his nightrobe +with a horny hand which would have required a cold chisel to +loosen, and not until Eliza had gone upon deck would he consent +to expose his bulging chest. + +But Miss Appleton had barely left the cabin when she was followed +by the most timid member of the delegation. He plunged up the +stairs, gasping: + +"I've saw enough! He's got it, and got it bad." + +A moment later came the dull sound of the exploding flashlight, +then a yell, and out of the smoke stumbled his two companions. +The spokesman, it appeared, had also seen enough--too much--for +with another yell he leaped the rail and made for shore. +Fortunately the tide was out and the water low; he left a trail +across the mud flat like that of a frightened hippopotamus. + +When the two conspirators were finally alone upon the deck they +rocked in each other's arms, striving to stifle their laughter. +Meanwhile from the interior of the cabin came the feeble moans of +the invalid. + +That evening hastily made photographs of the sick man were shown +upon the streets. Nor could the most skeptical deny that he +presented a revolting sight and one warranting Dr. Gray's +precautions. In spite of this evidence, however, threats against +the physician continued to be made freely; but when Eliza +expressed fears for his safety he only smiled grimly, and he +stalked through the streets with such defiance written on his +heavy features that no man dared raise a hand against him. + +Day after day the quarantine continued, and at length some of the +men went back to work. As others exhausted their wages they +followed. In a fortnight Omar was once more free of its floating +population and work at the front was going forward as usual. +Meanwhile the patient recovered in marvelous fashion and was loud +in his thanks to the physician who had brought him through so +speedily. Yet Gray stubbornly refused to raise the embargo. + +Finally the cause of the whole trouble appeared at the hospital +and begged to be released. + +"You put it over me," said Mr. Linn. "I've had enough and I want +to get out." + +"I don't know what you're talking about," answered the doctor. +"No one can leave here now." + +"I know it wasn't smallpox at all, but it worked just the same, +I'll leave your men alone if you'll let me go out on the next +Seattle steamer." + +"But--I thought you came from Hope?" Gray said, blandly. + +Mr. Linn shifted his eyes and laughed uneasily. "I did, and I'm +going to keep coming from Hope. You don't think I'd dare to go +back after this, do you?" + +"Why not?" + +"Gordon would kill me." + +"So! Mr. Gordon sent you?" + +"You know he did. But--I've got to get out now. I'm broke." + +"I didn't think it of Gordon!" The doctor shook his head sadly. +"How underhanded of him!" + +Linn exploded desperately: "Don't let's four-flush. You were too +slick for him, and you sewed me up. I've spent the money he gave +me and now I'm flat." + +"You look strong. We need men." + +Gordon's emissary turned pale. "Say! You wouldn't set me to work? +Why, those men would string me up." + +"I think not. I've spoken to the shift boss at mile 30, and he'll +take care you're not hurt so long as you work hard and keep your +mouth shut." + +An hour later Mr. Linn, cursing deeply, shouldered his pack and +tramped out the grade, nor could he obtain food or shelter until +he had covered those thirty weary miles. Once at his destination, +he was only too glad to draw a numbered tag and fall to work with +pick and shovel, but at his leisure he estimated that it would +take him until late the following month to earn his fare to the +States. + + + + +XI + +THE TWO SIDES OF ELIZA VIOLET APPLETON + + +Dan Appleton entered the bungalow one evening, wet and tired from +his work, to find Eliza pacing the floor in agitation. + +"What's the matter, Sis?" he inquired, with quick concern. + +His sister pointed to a copy of The Review which that day's mail +had brought. + +"Look at that!" she cried. "Read it!" + +"Oh! Your story, eh?" + +"Read it!" + +He read a column, and then glanced up to find her watching him +with angry eyes. + +"Gee! That's pretty rough on the chief, Kid. I thought you liked +him," he said, gravely. + +"I do! I do! Don't you understand, dummy? I didn't write that! +They've changed my story--distorted it. I'm--FURIOUS!" + +Dan whistled softly. "I didn't suppose they'd try anything like +that, but--they did a good job while they were at it. Why, you'd +think O'Neil was a grafter and the S. R. & N. nothing but a land- +grabbing deal." + +"How DARED they?" the girl cried. "The actual changes aren't so +many--just enough to alter the effect of the story--but that's +what makes it so devilish. For instance, I described the +obstacles and the handicaps Mr. O'Neil has had to overcome in +order to show the magnitude of his enterprise, but Drake has +altered it so that the physical conditions here seem to be +insuperable and he makes me say that the road is doomed to +failure. That's the way he changed it all through." + +"It may topple the chief's plans over; they're very insecure. It +plays right into the hands of his enemies, too, and of course +Gordon's press bureau will make the most of it." + +"Heavens! I want sympathy, not abuse!" wailed his sister. "It's +all due to the policy of The Review. Drake thinks everybody up +here is a thief. I dare say they are, but--How can I face Mr. +O'Neil?" + +Dan shook the paper in his fist. "Are you going to stand for +this?" he demanded. + +"Hardly! I cabled the office this morning, and here's Drake's +answer." She read: + +"'Stuff colorless. Don't allow admiration warp judgment.' Can you +beat that?" "He thinks you've surrendered to Murray, like all the +others." + +"I hate him!" cried Eliza. "I detest him!" + +"Who? O'Neil or Drake?" + +"Both. Mr. O'Neil for putting me in the position of a traitor, +and Drake for presuming to rewrite my stuff. I'm going to resign, +and I'm going to leave Omar before Murray O'Neil comes back." + +"Don't be a quitter, Sis. If you throw up the job the paper will +send somebody who will lie about us to suit the policy of the +office. Show 'em where they're wrong; show 'em what this country +needs. You have your magazine stories to write." + +Eliza shook her head. "Bother the magazines and the whole +business! I'm thinking about Mr. O'Neil. I--I could cry. I +suppose I'll have to stay and explain to him, but--then I'll go +home." + +"No! You'll stay right here and go through with this thing. I +need you." + +"You? What for?" + +"You can perform a great and a signal service for your loving +brother. He's in terrible trouble!" + +"What's wrong, Danny?" Eliza's anger gave instant place to +solicitude. "You--you haven't STOLEN anything?" + +"Lord, no! What put that into your head?" + +"I don't know--except that's the worst thing that could happen to +us. I like to start with the worst." + +"I can't sulk in the jungle any more. I'm a rotten loser, Sis." + +"Oh! You mean--Natalie? You--like her?" + +"For a writer you select the most foolish words! Like, love, +adore, worship--words are no good, anyway. I'm dippy; I'm out of +my head; I've lost my reason. I'm deliriously happy and miserably +unhappy. I--" + +"That's enough!" the girl exclaimed. "I can imagine the rest." + +"It was a fatal mistake for her to come to Omar, and to this very +house, of all places, where I could see her every day. I might +have recovered from the first jolt if I'd never seen her again, +but--" He waved his hands hopelessly. "I'm beginning to hate +O'Neil." + +"You miserable traitor!" gasped Eliza. + +"Yep! That's me! I'm dead to loyalty, lost to the claims of +friendship. I've fought myself until I'm black in the face, but-- +it's no use. I must have Natalie!" + +"She's crazy about O'Neil." + +"Seems to be, for a fact, but that doesn't alter my fix. I can't +live this way. You must help me or I'll lose my reason." + +"Nonsense! You haven't any or you wouldn't talk like this. What +can I do?" + +"It's simple! Be nice to Murray and--and win him away from her." + +Eliza stared at him as though she really believed him daft. Then +she said, mockingly: + +"Is that all? Just make him love me?" + +Dan nodded. "That would be fine, if you could manage it." + +"Why--you--you--I--" She gasped uncertainly for terms in which to +voice her indignant surprise. "Idiot!" she finally exclaimed. + +"Thanks for such glowing praise," Dan said, forlornly. "I feel a +lot worse than an idiot. An idiot is not necessarily evil; at +heart he may be likable, and pathetic, and merely unfortunate--" + +"You simply can't be in earnest!" + +"I am, though!" He turned upon her eyes which had grown suddenly +old and weary with longing. + +"You poor, foolish boy! In the first place, Mr. O'Neil will hate +me for this story. In the second place, no man would look at me. +I'm ugly--" + +"I think you're beautiful." + +"With my snub nose, and big mouth, and--" + +"You can make him laugh, and when a woman can make a fellow laugh +the rest is easy." + +"In the third place I'm mannish and--vulgar, and besides--I don't +care for him." + +"Of course you don't, or I wouldn't ask it. You see, we're taking +no risks! You can at least take up his attention and--and when +you see him making for Natalie you can put out your foot and trip +him up." + +"It wouldn't be honorable, Danny." + +"Possibly! But that doesn't make any difference with me. You may +as well realize that I've got beyond the point where nice +considerations of that sort weigh with me. If you'd ever been in +love you'd understand that such things don't count at all. It's +your chance to save the reason and happiness of an otherwise +perfectly good brother." + +"There is nothing I wouldn't do for your happiness--nothing. But +--Oh, it's preposterous!" + +Dan relapsed into gloomy silence, and they had a very +uncomfortable meal. Unable to bear his continued lack of spirits, +Eliza again referred to the subject, and tried until late in the +evening to argue him out of his mood. But the longer they talked +the more plainly she saw that his feeling for Natalie was not +fanciful, but sincere and deep. She continued to scout his +suggestion that she could help him by captivating O'Neil, and +stoutly maintained that she had no attraction for men; +nevertheless, when she went to her room she examined herself +critically in her mirror. This done, she gave herself over to her +favorite relaxation. + +First she exchanged her walking-skirt, her prim shirtwaist and +jacket, for a rose-pink wrapper which she furtively brought out +of a closet. It was a very elaborate wrapper, all fluffy lace and +ruffles and bows, and it had cost Eliza a sum which she strove +desperately to forget. She donned silk stockings and a pair of +tiny bedroom slippers; then seating herself once more at her +dresser, she let down her hair. She invariably wore it tightly +drawn back--so tightly, in fact, that Dan had more than once +complained that it pulled her eyebrows out of place. On this +occasion, however, she crimped it, she curled it, she brought it +forward about her face in soft riotous puffs and strands, patting +it into becoming shape with dexterous fingers until it formed a +golden frame for her piquant features. + +Now this was no unusual performance for her. In the midnight +solitude of her chamber she regularly gave rein to the feminine +side of her nature. By day she was the severe, matter-of-fact, +businesslike Eliza Appleton, deaf to romance, lost to illusion, +and unresponsive to masculine attention; but deep in her heart +were all the instincts and longings of femininity, and at such +times as this they came uppermost. Her bedroom had none of the +Puritanical primness which marked her habit of dress; it was in +no way suggestive of the masculine character which she so proudly +paraded upon the street. On the contrary, it was a bower of +daintiness, and was crowded with all the senseless fripperies of +a school-girl. Carefully hidden away beneath her starched +shirtwaists was much lingerie--bewildering creations to match the +pink wrapper--and this she petted and talked to adoringly when no +one could hear. + +Eliza read much when she was unobserved--romances and improbable +tales of fine ladies and gallant squires. There were times, too, +when she wrote, chewing her pencil in the perplexities of vividly +colored love scenes; but she always destroyed these manuscripts +before the curious sun could spy upon her labors. In such +ecstatic flights of fancy the beautiful heroine was a languorous +brunette with hair of raven hue and soulful eyes in which +slumbered the mystery of a tropic night. She had a Grecian nose, +moreover, and her name was Violet. + +From all this it may be gathered that Eliza Appleton was by no +means the extraordinary person she seemed. Beneath her false +exterior she was shamelessly normal. + +In the days before O'Neil's return she suffered constant +misgivings and qualms of conscience, but the sight of her brother +reveling, expanding, fairly bursting into bloom beneath the +influence of Natalie Gerard led her to think that perhaps she did +have a duty to perform. Dan's cause was hers, and while she had +only the faintest hope of aiding it, she was ready to battle for +his happiness with every weapon at her command. The part she +would have to play was not exactly nice, she reflected, but--the +ties of sisterhood were strong and she would have made any +sacrifice for Dan. She knew that Natalie was fond of him in a +casual, friendly way, and although it was evident that the girl +accorded him none of that hero-worship with which she favored his +chief, Eliza began to think there still might be some hope for +him. Since we are all prone to argue our consciences into +agreement with our desires, she finally brought herself to the +belief that O'Neil was not the man for Natalie. He was too old, +too confirmed in his ways, and too self-centered to make a good +husband for a girl of her age and disposition. Once her illusions +had been rubbed away through daily contact with him, she would +undoubtedly awaken to his human faults, and unhappiness would +result for both. What Natalie needed for her lasting contentment +was a boy her own age whose life would color to match hers. So +argued Eliza with that supreme satisfaction which we feel in +arranging the affairs of others to suit ourselves. + +She was greatly embarrassed, nevertheless, when she next met +O'Neil and tried to explain that story in The Review. He listened +courteously and smiled his gentle smile. + +"My dear," said he, finally, "I knew there had been some mistake, +so let's forget that it ever happened. Now tell me about the +smallpox epidemic. When I heard what Linn was doing with our men +I was badly worried, for I couldn't see how to checkmate him, but +it seems you and Doc were equal to the occasion. He cabled me a +perfectly proper announcement of Tom's quarantine, and I believed +we had been favored by a miracle." + +"It wasn't a miracle at all," Eliza said in a matter-of-fact +tone; "it was croton oil. Nobody has dared tell him the truth. He +still believes he could smell the tuberoses." + +O'Neil seemed to derive great amusement from her account of what +followed. He had already heard Dr. Gray's version of the affair, +but Eliza had a refreshing way of saying things. + +"I brought you a little present," he said when she had finished. + +She took the package he handed her, exclaiming with a slight +flush of embarrassment, "A s'prise! Nobody but Dan ever gave me a +present." Then her eyes darkened with suspicion. "Did you bring +me this because of what I did?" + +"Now don't be silly! I knew nothing about your part in the comedy +until Doc told me. You are a most difficult person." + +Slowly she unwrapped the parcel, and then with a gasp lifted a +splendidly embroidered kimono from its box. + +"Oh-h!" Her eyes were round and astonished. "Oh-h! It's for ME!" + +It was a regal garment of heavy silk, superbly ornamented with +golden dragons, each so cunningly worked that it seemed upon the +point of taking wing. "Why, their eyes glitter! And--they'd +breathe fire if I jabbed them. Oh-h!" She stared at the gift in +helpless amazement. "Is it mine, HONESTLY?" + +He nodded. "Won't you put it on?" + +"Over these things? Never!" Again Miss Appleton blushed, for she +recalled that she had prepared for his coming with extraordinary +care. Her boots were even stouter than usual, her skirt more +plain, her waist more stiff, and her hair more tightly smoothed +back. "It would take a fluffy person to wear this. I'll always +keep it, of course, and--I'll worship it, but I'm not designed +for pretty clothes. I'll let Natalie wear--" + +"Natalie has one of her own, done in butterflies, and I brought +one to her mother also." + +"And you bought this for me after you had seen that fiendish +story over my signature?" + +"Certainly!" He quickly forestalled her attempted thanks by +changing the subject. "Now then, Dan tells me you are anxious to +begin your magazine-work, so I'm going to arrange for you to see +the glaciers and the coal-fields. It will be a hard trip, for the +track isn't through yet, but--" + +"Oh, I'll take care of myself; I won't get in anybody's way," she +said, eagerly. + +"I intend to see that you don't, by going with you; so make your +preparations and we'll leave as soon as I can get away." + +When he had gone the girl said, aloud: + +"Eliza Violet, this is your chance. It's underhanded and mean, +but--you're a mean person, and the finger of Providence is +directing you." She snatched up the silken kimono and ran into +her room, locking the door behind her. Hurriedly she put it on, +then posed before the mirror. Next down came her hair amid a +shower of pins. She arranged it loosely about her face, and, +ripping an artificial flower from her "party" hat, placed it over +her ear, then swayed grandly to and fro while the golden dragons +writhed and curved as if in joyous admiration. A dozen times she +slipped out of the garment and, gathering it to her face, kissed +it; a dozen times she donned it, strutting about her little room +like a peacock. Her tip-tilted nose was red and her eyes were wet +when at last she laid it out upon her bed and knelt with her +cheek against it. + +"Gee! If only I were pretty!" she sighed, "I almost believe he-- +likes me." + +Tom Slater laboriously propelled himself up the hill to the +bungalow that evening, and seated himself on the topmost step +near where Eliza was rocking. She had come to occupy a +considerable place in his thoughts of late, for she was quite +beyond his understanding. She affected him as a mental gad-fly, +stinging his mind into an activity quite unusual. At times he +considered her a nice girl, though undoubtedly insane; then there +were other moments when she excited his deepest animosity. Again, +on rare occasions she completely upset all his preconceived +notions by being so friendly and so sympathetic that she made him +homesick for his own daughter. In his idle hours, therefore he +spent much time at the Appleton cottage. + +"Where have you been lately, Uncle Tom?" she began. + +Slater winced at the appellation, but ignored it. + +"I've been out on the delta hustling supplies ahead. Heard the +news?" + +"No." + +"Curtis Gordon has bought the McDermott outfit in Kyak." + +"That tells me nothing. Who is McDermott?" + +"He's a shoe-stringer. He had a wildcat plan to build a railroad +from Kyak to the coal-fields, but he never got farther than a row +of alder stakes and a book of press clippings." + +"Does that mean that Gordon abandons his Hope route?" + +"Yep! He's swung in behind us and the Heidlemanns. Now it's a +three-sided race, with us in the lead. Mellen just brought in the +news half an hour ago; he was on his way down from the glaciers +when he ran into a field party of Gordon's surveyors. Looks like +trouble ahead if they try to crowd through the canon alongside of +us." + +"He must believe Kyak Bay will make a safe harbor." + +"Don't say it! If he's right, we're fried to a nice brown finish +on both sides and it's time to take us off the stove. I'm praying +for a storm." + +"'The prayers of the wicked are an abomination unto the Lord,'" +quoted Eliza. + +"Sure! But I keep right on praying just the same. It's a habit +now. The news has set the chief to jumping sideways." + +"Which, translated, I suppose means that he is disturbed." + +"Or words to that effect! Too bad they changed that newspaper +story of yours." + +"Yes." + +"It put a crimp in him." + +"How--do you mean?" + +"He had some California capitalists tuned up to put in three +million dollars, but when they read that our plan was +impracticable their fountain-pens refused to work." + +"Oh!" Eliza gasped, faintly. + +Slater regarded her curiously, then shook his head. "Funny how a +kid like you can scare a bunch of hard-headed bankers, ain't it?" +he said. "Doc Gray explained that it wasn't your fault, but--it +doesn't take much racket to frighten the big fish." + +"What will Mr. O'Neil do?" + +"Oh, he'll fight it out, I s'pose. The first thing is to block +Gordon. Say, I brought you a present." + +"This is my lucky day," smiled Eliza as Tom fumbled in his +pocket. "I'm sure I shall love it." + +"It ain't much, but it was the best in the crate and I shined it +up on my towel." Mr. Slater handed Eliza a fine red apple of +prodigious size, at sight of which the girl turned pale. + +"I--don't like apples," she cried, faintly. + +"Never mind; they're good for your complexion." + +"I'd die before I'd eat one." + +"Then I'll eat it for you; my complexion ain't what it was before +I had the smallpox." When he had carried out this intention and +subjected his teeth to a process of vacuum-cleaning, he asked: +"Say, what happened to your friend who chewed gum?" + +"Well, he was hardly a friend," Miss Appleton said, "If he had +been a real friend he would have listened to my warning." + +"Gum never hurt anybody," Slater averred, argumentatively. + +"Not ordinary gum. But you see, he chewed nothing except +wintergreen--" + +"That's what I chew." + +Eliza's tone was one of shocked amazement. "Not REALLY? Oh, well, +some people would thrive on it, I dare say, but he had +indigestion." + +"Me too! That's why I chew it." + +The girl eyed him during an uncomfortable pause. Finally she +inquired: + +"Do you ever feel a queer, gnawing feeling, like hunger, if you +go without your breakfast?" + +"Unh-hunh! Don't you?" + +"I wouldn't alarm you for the world, Uncle Tom--" + +"I ain't your uncle!" + +"You might chew the stuff for years and not feel any bad effects, +but if you wake up some morning feeling tired and listless--" + +"I've done that, too." Slater's gloomy eyes were fixed upon her +with a look of vague apprehension. "Is it a symptom?" + +"Certainly! Pepsin-poisoning, it's called. This fellow I told you +about was a charming man, and since we had all tried so hard to +save him, we felt terribly at the end." + +"Then he died?" + +"Um-m! Yes and no. Remind me to tell you the story sometime--Here +comes Dan, in a great hurry." + +Young Appleton came panting up the hill. + +"Good-by, Sis," he said. "I'm off for the front in ten minutes." + +"Anybody hurt?" Slater asked quickly. + +"Not yet, but somebody's liable to be. Gordon is trying to steal +the canon, and Murray has ordered me out with a car of dynamite +to hold it." + +"Dynamite! Why, Dan!" his sister exclaimed in consternation. + +"We have poling-boats at the lower crossing and we'll be at the +canon in two days. I'm going to load the hillside with shots, and +if they try to come through I'll set 'em off. They'll never dare +tackle it." Dan's eyes were dancing; his face was alive with +excitement. + +"But suppose they should?" Eliza insisted, quietly. + +"Then send Doc Gray with some stretchers. I owe one to Gordon, +and this is my chance." Drawing her aside, he said in an +undertone. "You've got to hold my ground with Natalie while I'm +gone. Don't let her see too much of Murray." + +"I'll do the best I can," she answered him, "but if he seems to +be in earnest I'll renig, no matter what happens to you, Danny." + +He kissed her affectionately and fled. + + + + +XII + +HOW GORDON FAILED IN HIS CUNNING + + +The so-called canon of the Salmon River lies just above the twin +glaciers. Scenically, these are by far the more impressive, and +they present a more complex engineering problem; yet the canon +itself was the real strategic point in the struggle between the +railroad-builders. The floor of the valley immediately above +Garfield glacier, though several miles wide, was partly filled +with detritus which had been carried down from the mother range +on the east, and this mass of debris had forced the stream far +over against the westward rim, where it came roaring past the +foot wall in a splendid cataract some three miles long. To the +left of the river, looking up-stream at this point, the mountains +slanted skyward like a roof, until lost in the hurrying scud four +thousand feet above. To the right, however, was the old moraine, +just mentioned, consisting of a desolate jumble of rock and +gravel and silt overlaying the ice foot. On account of its broken +character and the unstable nature of its foundation this bank was +practically useless for road-building, and the only feasible +route for steel rails was along the steep west wall. + +O'Neil on his first reconnaissance had perceived that while there +was room for more than one bridge across the Salmon between the +upper and the lower ice masses, there was not room for more than +one track alongside the rapids, some miles above that point. He +knew, moreover, that once he had established his title to a +right-of-way along the west rim of the cataract, it would be +difficult for a rival to oust him, or to parallel his line +without first crossing back to the east bank--an undertaking at +once hazardous and costly. He had accordingly given Dan Appleton +explicit instructions to be very careful in filing his survey, +that no opportunity might be left open for a later arrival. The +engineer had done his work well, and O'Neil rested secure in the +belief that he held possession of the best and least expensive +route through to the open valleys above. He had had no cause to +fear a clash with the Heidlemann forces, for they had shown a +strict regard for his rights and seemed content to devote +themselves to developing their terminus before trying to +negotiate the canon. They were wise in taking this course, for +their success would mean that O'Neil's project would fall of its +own weight. Kyak was nearer Seattle, by many miles, than Omar; it +was closer to the coal and copper fields, and the proven +permanence of their breakwater would render useless further +attempts to finance the S. R. & N. + +But in the entrance of Curtis Gordon into the field O'Neil +recognized danger. Gordon was swayed by no such business scruples +as the Heidlemanns; he was evidently making a desperate effort to +secure a footing at any cost. In purchasing the McDermott +holdings he had executed a coup of considerable importance, for +he had placed himself on equal footing with the Trust and in +position to profit by its efforts at harbor-building without +expense to himself. If, therefore, he succeeded in wresting from +O'Neil the key to that upper passageway, he would be able to +block his personal enemy and to command the consideration of his +more powerful rival. + +No one, not even the Trust, had taken the McDermott enterprise +seriously, but with Curtis Gordon in control the "wildcat" +suddenly became a tiger. + +In view of all this, it was with no easy mind that O'Neil +despatched Appleton to the front, and it was with no small +responsibility upon his shoulders that the young engineer set out +in charge of those wooden boxes of dynamite. Murray had told him +frankly what hung upon his success, and Dan had vowed to hold the +survey at any cost. + +Steam was up and the locomotive was puffing restlessly when he +returned from his farewell to Eliza. A moment later and the +single flat car carrying his party and its dangerous freight was +being whirled along the shores of Omar Lake. On it rushed, +shrieking through the night, out from the gloomy hills and upon +the tangent that led across the delta. Ten minutes after it had +rolled forth upon the trestle at the "lower crossing" the giant +powder had been transferred to poling-boats and the long pull +against the current had begun. + +O'Neil had picked a crew for Dan, men upon whom he could depend. +They were on double pay, and as they had worked upon the North +Pass & Yukon, Appleton had no doubt of their loyalty. + +The events of that trip were etched upon the engineer's mind with +extraordinary vividness, for they surpassed in peril and +excitement all his previous experiences. The journey resembled +nothing but the mad scramble of a gold stampede. The stubborn +boats with their cargoes which had to be so gently handled, the +ever-increasing fury of the river, the growing menace of those +ghastly, racing icebergs, the taut-hauled towing-lines, and the +straining, sweating men in the loops, all made a picture hard to +forget. Then, too, the uncertainty of the enterprise, the crying +need of haste, the knowledge of those other men converging upon +the same goal, lent a gnawing suspense to every hour. It was +infinitely more terrible than that first expedition when he and +Tom Slater and O'Neil had braved the unknown. It was vastly more +trying than any of the trips which had followed, even with the +winter hurricane streaming out of the north as from the mouth of +a giant funnel. + +Dan had faced death in various forms upon this delta during the +past year and a half. He had seen his flesh harden to marble +whiteness under the raging north wind; his eyes and lungs had +been drifted full of sand in summer storms which rivaled those of +the Sahara. With transit on his back he had come face to face +with the huge brown grizzly. He had slept in mud, he had made his +bed on moss which ran water like a sponge; he had taken danger +and hardship as they came--yet never had he punished himself as +on this dash. + +Through his confusion of impressions, his intense preoccupation +with present dangers and future contingencies, the thought of +Natalie floated now and then vaguely but comfortingly. He had +seen her for a moment, before leaving--barely long enough to +explain the nature of his mission--but her quick concern, her +unvoiced anxiety, had been very pleasant, and he could not +believe that it was altogether due to her interest in the +fortunes of O'Neil. + +Dan knew that Mellen's crew was camped at the upper crossing, +busied in drilling for the abutments and foundations of the +bridge; but he reasoned that they would scarcely suspect the +object of Gordon's party and that, in any case, they were not +organized or equipped to resist it. Moreover, the strategic point +was four miles above the bridge site, and the surveying corps +would hardly precipitate a clash, particularly since there was +ample room for them to select a crossing-place alongside. + +It was after midnight of the second day when he and his weary +boatmen stumbled into sight of the camp. Appleton halted his +command and stole forward, approaching the place through the +tangled alders which flanked it. He had anticipated that the +rival party would be up to this point by now, if not even farther +advanced, and he was both angered and relieved to sight the tops +of other tents pitched a few hundred yards beyond Mellen's +outfit. So they were here! He had arrived in time, after all! A +feeling of exultation conquered the deathly fatigue that slowed +his limbs. Although he still had to pass the invader's camp and +establish himself at the canon, the certainty that he had made +good thus far was ample reward for his effort. + +A dog broke into furious barking as he emerged from cover, and he +had a moment's anxiety lest it serve as warning to the enemy; but +a few quick strides brought him to the tent of Mellen's foreman. +Going in, he roused the man, who was sleeping soundly. + +"Hello!" cried the foreman, jumping up and rubbing his eyes, "I +thought Curtis Gordon had taken possession." + +"Hush! Don't wake them up," Dan cautioned. + +"Oh, there's no danger of disturbing them with this infernal +cannonading going on all the time." The night resounded to a +rumbling crash as some huge mass of ice split off, perhaps two +miles away. + +"When did they arrive?" + +"Night before last. They've located right alongside of us. Gee! +we were surprised when they showed up. They expect to break camp +in the morning." He yawned widely. + +"Hm-m! They're making tracks, aren't they? Were they friendly?" + +"Oh, sure! So were we. There was nothing else to do, was there? +We had no orders." + +"I have two dozen men and four boatloads of dynamite with me. I'm +going to hold that mountainside." + +"Then you're going to fight!" All vestige of drowsiness had fled +from the man's face. + +"Not if we can help it. Who is in charge of this crew?" + +"Gordon himself." + +"Gordon!" + +"Yes! And he's got a tough gang with him." + +"Armed?" + +"Sure! This is a bear country, you know." + +"Listen! I want you to tell him, as innocently as you can, that +we're on the job ahead of him. Tell him we've been there for a +week and have loaded that first rock shoulder and expect to shoot +it off as soon as possible. You can tell him, too, that I'm up +there and he'd better see me before trying to pass through." + +"I've got you! But that won't stop him." + +"Perhaps! Now have you any grub in camp?" + +"No." + +"We threw ours overboard, to make time. Send up anything you can +spare; we're played out." + +"It'll be nothing but beans, and they're moldy." + +"We can fight on beans, and we'll eat the paper off those giant +cartridges if we have to. Don't fail to warn Gordon that the +hillside is mined, and warn him loud enough for his swampers to +hear." + +Appleton hastened back to his boats, where he found his men +sprawled among the boulders sleeping the sleep of complete +exhaustion. They were drenched, half numbed by the chill air of +the glacier, and it was well that he roused them. + +"Gordon's men are camped just above," he told them. "But we must +get through without waking them. No talking, now, until we're +safe." + +Silently the crew resumed their tow-lines, fitting them to their +aching shoulders; gingerly the boats were edged out into the +current. + +It was fortunate that the place was noisy, and that the voice of +the river and the periodic bombardment from the glaciers drowned +the rattle of loose stones dislodged by their footsteps. But it +was a trying half-hour that followed. Dan did not breathe easily +until his party had crossed the bar and were safely out upon the +placid waters of the lake, with the last stage of the journey +ahead of them. + +About mid-forenoon of the following day Curtis Gordon halted his +party at the lower end of the rapids and went on alone. To his +right lay the cataract and along the steep slope against which it +chafed wound a faint footpath scarcely wide enough in places for +a man to pass. This trail dipped in and out, wound back and forth +around frowning promontories. It dodged through alder thickets or +spanned slides of loose rock, until, three miles above, it +emerged into the more open country back of the parent range. It +had been worn by the feet of wild animals and it followed closely +the right-of-way of the S. R. & N. To the left the hills rose +swiftly in great leaps to the sky; to the right, so close that a +false step meant disaster, roared the cataract, muddy and foam- +flecked. + +As Gordon neared the first bluff he heard, above the clamor of +the flood, a faint metallic "tap-tap-tap," as of hammer and +drill, and, drawing closer, he saw Dan Appleton perched upon a +rock which commanded a view in both directions. Just around the +shoulder, in a tiny gulch, or gutter from the slopes above, were +pitched several tents, from one of which curled the smoke of a +cook-stove. Close at hand were moored four battered poling- +boats. + +"Look out!" Appleton shouted from on high. + +Gordon flushed angrily and kept on, scanning the surroundings +with practised eye. + +"Hey, you!" Dan called, for a second time. "Keep back! We're +going to shoot." + +Still heedless of the warning, Gordon held stubbornly to his +stride. He noted the heads of several men projecting from behind +boulders, and his anger rose. How dared this whipper-snapper +shout at him! He felt inclined to toss the insolent young +scoundrel into the rapids. Then suddenly his resentment gave +place to a totally different emotion. The slanting bank midway +between him and Appleton lifted itself bodily in a chocolate- +colored upheaval, and the roar of a dynamite blast rolled out +across the river. It was but a feeble echo of the majestic +reverberations from the glacier across the lake, but it was +impressive enough to send Curtis Gordon scurrying to a place of +safety. He wheeled in his tracks, doubling himself over, and his +long legs began to thresh wildly. Reaching the shelter of a rock +crevice, he hurled himself into it, while over his place of +refuge descended a shower of dirt and rocks and debris. When the +rain of missiles had subsided he stepped forth, his face white +with fury, his big hands twitching. His voice was hoarse as he +shouted his protest. + +Appleton scrambled carefully down from his perch in the warm +sunshine and approached with insolent leisure. + +"Say! Do you want to get your fool self killed?" he cried; then +in an altered tone: "Oh! Is it you, Gordon?" + +"You knew very well it was I." Gordon swallowed hard and +partially controlled his wrath. "What do you mean by such +carelessness?" he demanded. "You ought to be hung for a thing +like that." He brushed the dirt from his expensive hunting-suit. + +"I yelled my head off! You must be deaf." + +"You saw me coming! Don't say you didn't. Fortunately I wasn't +hurt." In a tone of command he added, "You'll have to stop +blasting until I go through with my party." + +"Sorry! Every day counts with us." Appleton grinned. "You know +how it is--short season, and all that." + +"Come, come! Don't be an idiot. I have no time to waste," + +"Then you'll have to go around," said Dan. "This isn't a public +road, you know." + +Gordon had come to argue, to pacify, to gain his ends by lying, +if necessary, but this impudent jackanapes infuriated him. His +plans had gone smoothly so far, and the unexpected threat of +resistance momentarily provoked him beyond restraint. + +"You scoundrel," he cried. "You'd have blown me into the river if +you could. But I'll go through this canon--" + +"Go as far and as fast as you like," Dan interrupted with equal +heat, "only take your own chances, and have a net spread at the +lower end of the rapids to catch the remains." + +They eyed each other angrily; then Gordon said, more quietly: + +"This is ridiculous. You can't stop me." + +"Maybe I can't and maybe I can, I'm under orders to rush this +work and I don't intend to knock off to please you. I've planted +shots at various places along our right-of-way and I'll set 'em +off when it suits me. If you're so anxious to go up-river, why +don't you cross over to the moraine? There's a much better trail +on that side. You'll find better walking a few miles farther up, +and you'll run no danger of being hurt." + +"I intend to run a survey along this hillside." + +"There isn't room; we beat you to it." + +"The law provides--" + +"Law? Jove! I'd forgotten there is such a thing. Why don't you go +to law and settle the question that way? We'll have our track +laid by the time you get action, and I'm sure Mr. O'Neil wouldn't +place any obstacles in the way of your free passage back and +forth. He's awfully obliging about such things." + +Gordon ground his fine, white, even teeth. "Don't you understand +that I'm entitled to a right-of-way through here under the law of +common user?" he asked, with what patience he could command. + +"If you're trying to get a legal opinion on the matter why don't +you see a lawyer? I'm not a lawyer, neither am I a public speaker +nor a piano-tuner, nor anything like that--I'm an engineer." + +"Don't get funny. I can't send my men in here if you continue +blasting." + +"So it seems to me, but you appear to be hell bent on trying it." + +Dan was enjoying himself and he deliberately added to the other's +anger by inquiring, as if in the blinding light of a new idea: + +"Why don't you bridge over and go up the other side?" He pointed +to the forbidding, broken country which faced them across the +rapids. + +Gordon snorted. "How long do you intend to maintain this +preposterous attitude?" he asked. + +"As long as the powder lasts--and there's a good deal of it." + +The promoter chewed his lip for a moment in perplexity, then said +with a geniality he was far from feeling: + +"Appleton, you're all right! I admire your loyalty, even though +it happens to be for a mistaken cause. I always liked you. I +admire loyalty--It's something I need in my business. What I need +I pay for, and I pay well." + +"So your man Linn told us." + +"I never really discharged you. In fact, I intended to re-employ +you, for I need you badly. You can name your own salary and go to +work any time." + +"In other words, you mean you'll pay me well to let you through." + +"Fix your own price and I'll double it." + +"Will you come with me up this trail a little way?" Dan inquired. + +"Certainly." + +"There's a spot where I'd like to have you stand. I'll save you +the trouble of walking back to your men--you'll beat the echo." + +There was a pause while Gordon digested this. "Better think it +over," he said at length. "I'll never let O'Neil build his road, +not if it breaks me, and you're merely laying yourself open to +arrest by threatening me." + +"Please come with me!" urged Appleton. "You'll never know what +hit you." + +With a curse the promoter wheeled and walked swiftly down the +trail by which he had come. + +"Get ready to shoot," Dan ordered when he had returned to his +vantage-point. A few moments later he saw the invading party +approach, but he withheld his warning shout until it was close at +hand. Evidently Gordon did not believe he would have the reckless +courage to carry out his threat, and had determined to put him to +the test. + +The engineer gauged his distance nicely, and when the new-comers +had fairly passed within the danger zone he gave the signal to +fire. + +A blast heavier than the one which had discouraged Gordon's +advance followed his command, and down upon the new-comers rained +a deluge which sent them scurrying to cover. Fortunately no one +was injured. + +An hour later the invaders had pitched camp a mile below, and +after placing a trusted man on guard Appleton sent his weary men +to bed. + +It was Curtis Gordon himself who brought O'Neil the first tidings +of this encounter, for, seeing the uselessness of an immediate +attempt to overcome Dan's party by force, he determined to make +formal protest. He secured a boat, and a few hours later the +swift current swept him down to the lower crossing, where McKay +put a locomotive at his disposal for the trip to Omar. By the +time he arrived there he was quite himself again, suave, self- +possessed, and magnificently outraged at the treatment he had +received. O'Neil met him with courtesy. + +"Your man Appleton has lost his head," Gordon began. "I've come +to ask you to call him off." + +"He is following instructions to the letter." + +"Do you mean that you refuse to allow me to run my right-of-way +along that hillside? Impossible!" His voice betokened shocked +surprise. + +"I am merely holding my own survey. I can't quit work to +accommodate you." + +"But, my dear sir, I must insist that you do." + +O'Neil shrugged. + +"Then there is but one way to construe your refusal--it means +that you declare war." + +"You saved me that necessity when you sent Linn to hire my men +away." + +Gordon ignored this reference. "You must realize, O'Neil," said +he, "that I am merely asking what is mine. I have the right to +use that canonside--the right to use your track at that point, in +fact, if it proves impracticable to parallel it--under the law of +common user. You are an experienced contractor; you must be +familiar with that law." + +"Yes. I looked it up before beginning operations, and I found it +has never been applied to Alaska." + +Gordon started. "That's a ridiculous statement." + +"Perhaps, but it's true. Alaska is not a territory, it's a +district, and it has its own code. Until the law of common user +has been applied here you'll have to use the other side of the +river." + +"That would force me to bridge twice in passing the upper +glacier. We shall see what the courts have to say." "Thanks! I +shall be grateful for the delay." + +Gordon rose with a bow. The interview had been short and to the +point. O'Neil put an engine at his service for the return trip, +and after a stiff adieu the visitor departed, inwardly raging. + +It was his first visit to Omar, and now that he was here he +determined to see it all. But first another matter demanded his +attention--a matter much in his mind of late, concerning which he +had reached a more or less satisfactory decision during his +journey. + +He went directly to the new hotel and inquired for Gloria Gerard. + +Beneath the widow's coldness when she came to meet him he +detected an uncertainty, a frightened indecision which assured +him of success, and he set himself to his task with the zest he +always felt in bending another to his will. + +"It has been the greatest regret of my life that we quarreled," +he told her when their strained greeting was over. "I felt that I +had to come and see with my own eyes that you are well." + +"I am quite well." + +"Two people who have been to each other as much as we have been +cannot lightly separate; their lives cannot be divided without a +painful readjustment." He paused, then reflecting that he could +afford a little sentimental extravagance, added, "Flowers cannot +easily be transplanted, and love, after all, is the frailest of +blooms." + +"I--think it is perennial. Have you--missed me?" Her dark eyes +were strained and curious. + +"My dear, you can never know how much, nor how deeply distressing +this whole affair has been to me." He managed to put an affecting +pathos into words sufficiently banal, for he was an excellent +actor. "I find that I am all sentiment. Under the shell of the +hard-headed business man beats the heart of a school-boy. The +memory of the hours we have spent together, the places we have +seen, the joys and discouragements we have shared, haunts me +constantly. Memory can glean but never renew: 'joy's recollection +is no longer joy while sorrow's memory is sorrow still.'" + +The spell of his personality worked strongly upon her. +"Recollection is the only paradise from which we cannot be turned +out," she said. "You read that to me once, but I didn't dream +that my own happiness would some day consist of recollection." + +"Why should it, Gloria? Hope is ready to welcome you. Your home +stands open; my arms are outstretched." + +"No!" she exclaimed, with a shake of her dark head. "There is +some one besides myself to consider. Natalie is happy here; no +one seems to know or to care what I have done." + +"But surely you are not satisfied with this." + +He ran his eye critically over the garish newness of the little +hotel parlor. It was flimsy, cheap, fresh with paint, very +different from the surroundings he had given her at Hope. "I +wonder that he presumed to offer you this after what you have +had. A hotel-keeper! A landlady!" + +"I was glad to get even this, for I have no pride now," she +returned, coldly. "At least the house is honest, and the men who +come here are the same. Mr. O'Neil is especially kind to Natalie, +and she thinks a great deal of him." + +"I presume he wants to marry her." + +"I pray that he will. I don't intend her to make the mistake I +did." + +Gordon received this announcement with grim satisfaction. It was +what he had suspected, and it fitted perfectly into his plans. + +"I sha'n't allow this to continue, Gloria," he said. "Our +difference has gone far enough, and I sha'n't permit O'Neil to +put me in his debt. We have come to a final understanding, he and +I. While my views on the holiness of the marriage relation have +not changed in the least, still I am ready to follow your +wishes." + +"You--mean it?" she queried, breathlessly. + +"I do. Come home, Gloria." + +"Wait! I must tell Natalie." She rose unsteadily and left the +room, while he reflected with mingled scorn and amusement upon +the weakness of human nature and the gullibility of women. + +A moment later mother and daughter appeared, arm in arm, both +very pale. + +"Is this true?" Natalie demanded. + +"Quite true. You and Gloria seem to think I owe something; I +never shirk a debt." Mrs. Gerard's fingers tightened painfully +upon her daughter's arm as he continued: "There is only one +condition upon which I insist: you must both return to Hope at +once and have done with this--this man." + +Natalie hesitated, but the look in her mother's eyes decided her. +With some difficulty she forced herself to acquiesce, and felt +the grip upon her arm suddenly relax. "When will the wedding take +place?" she asked. + +"At the earliest possible moment," Gordon declared, with well- +feigned seriousness. "Once we return to God's country--" + +"No!" cried Natalie. "We can't go back to Hope until she is +married; it would be scandalous." + +"Why more scandalous to accept my protection than that of a +stranger? Do you care what these people think?" he demanded, with +an air of fine scorn. + +"Yes! I care very much." + +"Is there any--reason for waiting?" Mrs. Gerard inquired. + +"Many! Too many to enumerate. It is my condition that you both +leave Omar at once." + +Gloria Gerard looked at her daughter in troubled indecision, but +Natalie answered firmly: + +"We can't do that." + +"So! You have your own plans, no doubt, and it doesn't trouble +you that you are standing in the way of your mother's +respectability!" His voice was harsh, his sneer open. "Bless my +soul! Is the generosity to be all on my side? Or has this man +O'Neil forbidden you to associate with me?" + +"I don't trust you." Natalie flared up. "I'm afraid you are +trying--" + +"It is my condition, and I am adamant. Believe me, O'Neil knows +of your disgrace, or will learn of it in time. It would be well +to protect your name while you can." Turning to the other woman, +he said loudly: "Gloria, the girl is ready to sacrifice you to +her own ends." + +"Wait!" Natalie's nerves were tingling with dislike of the man, +but she said steadily: "I shall do exactly as mother wishes." + +Be it said to the credit of Gloria Gerard that she did not +hesitate. + +"I shall be here when you are ready," she told him. + +With an exclamation of rage Gordon rose and strode out of the +room. + + + + +XIII + +WE JOURNEY TO A PLACE OF MANY WONDERS + + +Curtis Gordon's men broke camp upon his return from Omar, and by +taking the east bank of the Salmon River pressed through to the +upper valley. Here they recrossed to the west side and completed +their survey, with the exception of the three-mile gap which Dan +Appleton held. + +Gordon continued to smart under the sting of his defeat, however. +O'Neil had gotten the better of him in argument, and Natalie's +simplicity had proved more than a match for his powers of +persuasion. At no time had he seriously considered making Mrs. +Gerard his wife, but he had thought to entice the two women back +under his own roof, in order to humble both them and their self- +appointed protector. He felt sure that Natalie's return to Hope +and her residence there would injure her seriously in the eyes of +the community, and this would be a stab to O'Neil. Although he +had failed for the moment, he did not abandon the idea. His +display of anger upon leaving the hotel had been due mainly to +disappointment at the checkmate. But knowing well the hold he +possessed upon the older woman, he laid it away for later use +when the fight grew hot, and meanwhile devoted himself to +devising further measures by which to harass his enemy and +incidentally advance his own fortunes. + +Gordon's business career had consisted of a series of brilliant +manipulations whereby, with little to go upon, he had forced +financial recognition for himself. No one knew better than he the +unstable foundation beneath his Alaskan enterprises; yet more +than once he had turned as desperate ventures into the semblance +of success. By his present operations he sought not only to +hamper O'Neil, but to create an appearance of opposition to both +him and the Trust that could be coined into dollars and cents. +There are in the commercial world money wolves who prey upon the +weak and depend upon the spirit of compromise in their +adversaries. Gordon was one of these. He had the faculty of +snatching at least half a victory from apparent defeat, and for +this reason he had been able to show a record sufficiently +impressive to convince the average investor of his ability. + +By purchasing for a song the McDermott rights at Kyak he had +placed himself in position to share in the benefits of the +Heidlemann breakwater, and by rapidly pushing his tracks ahead he +made his rivalry seem formidable. As a means of attack upon +O'Neil he adopted a procedure common in railroad-building. He +amended his original survey so that it crossed that of the S. R. +& N. midway between the lower bridge over the Salmon River and +the glaciers, and at that point began the hasty erection of a +grade. + +It was at the cost of no little inconvenience that he rushed +forward a large body of men and supplies, and began to lay track +across the S. R. & N. right-of-way. If Appleton could hold a +hillside, he reasoned, he himself could hold a crossing, if not +permanently, at least for a sufficient length of time to serve +his purpose. + +His action came as a disagreeable surprise to Omar. These battles +for crossings have been common in the history of railroading, and +they have not infrequently resulted in sanguinary affrays. Long +after the ties are spiked and the heads are healed, the legal +rights involved have been determined, but usually amid such a +tangle of conflicting testimony and such a confusion of +technicalities as to leave the justice of the final decision in +doubt. In the unsettled conditions that prevailed in the Salmon +River valley physical possession of a right-of-way was at least +nine-tenths of the law, and O'Neil realized that he must choose +between violence and a compromise. Not being given to compromise, +he continued his construction work, and drew closer, day by day, +to the point of contact. + +Reports came from the front of his opponent's preparations for +resistance. Gordon had laid several hundred yards of light rails +upon his grade, and on these he had mounted a device in the +nature of a "go-devil" or skip, which he shunted back and forth +by means of a donkey-engine and steel cable. With this in +operation across the point of intersection like a shuttle, +interference would be extremely dangerous. In addition, he had +built blockhouses and breast-works of ties, and in these, it was +reported, he had stationed the pick of his hired helpers, armed +and well provisioned. + +Toward this stronghold Murray O'Neil's men worked, laying his +road-bed as straight as an arrow, and as the intervening distance +decreased anxiety and speculation at Omar increased. + +Among those who hung upon the rumors of the approaching clash +with greatest interest was Eliza Appleton. Since Dan's departure +for the front she had done her modest best to act the part he had +forced upon her, and in furtherance of their conspiracy she had +urged O'Neil to fulfil his promise of taking her over the work. +She felt an ever-growing curiosity to see those glaciers, about +which she had heard so much; and she reflected, though not +without a degree of self-contempt, that nothing could be more +favorable to her design than the intimacy of several days +together on the trail. Nothing breeds a closer relationship than +the open life, nothing brings people more quickly into accord or +hopeless disagreement. Although she had no faintest idea that +Murray could or would ever care seriously for her, she felt that +there was a bare possibility of winning his transient interest +and in that way, perhaps, affording her brother time in which to +attain his heart's desire. Of course, it was all utterly absurd, +yet it was serious enough to Dan; and her own feelings--well, +they didn't matter. + +She was greatly excited when O'Neil announced one evening: + +"I'm ready to make that trip to the front, if you are. I have +business at Kyak; so after we've seen the glaciers we will go +down there and you can take in the coal-fields." + +"How long shall we be gone?" + +"Ten days, perhaps. We'll start in the morning." + +"I'm ready to leave at a moment's notice." + +"Then perhaps you'd better help Natalie." + +"Natalie!" exclaimed Eliza, seeing all her well-laid plans +tottering. "Is she going?" + +"Oh yes! It's an opportunity she shouldn't miss, and I thought it +would be pleasanter for you if she went with us." + +Eliza was forced to acknowledge his thoughtfulness, although it +angered her to be sacrificed to the proprieties. Her newspaper +training had made her feel superior to such things, and this of +all occasions was one upon which she would have liked to be free +of mere conventions. But of course she professed the greatest +delight. + +O'Neil had puzzled her greatly of late; for at times he seemed +wrapped up in Natalie, and at other times he actually showed a +preference for Eliza's own company. He was so impartial in his +attentions that at one moment the girl would waver in her +determination and in the next would believe herself succeeding +beyond her hope. The game confused her emotions curiously. She +accused herself of being overbold, and then she noted with horror +that she was growing as sensitive to his apparent coldness as if +she were really in earnest. She had not supposed that the mere +acting of a sentimental role could so obsess her. + +To counteract this tendency she assumed a very professional air +when they set out on the following morning. She was once more +Eliza Appleton the reporter, and O'Neil, in recognition of this +fact, explained rapidly the difficulties of construction which he +had met and overcome. As she began to understand there came to +her a fuller appreciation of the man and the work he was doing. +Natalie, however, could not seem to grasp the significance of the +enterprise. She saw nothing beyond the even gravel road-bed, the +uninteresting trestles and bridges and cuts and fills, the like +of which she had seen many times before, and her comment was +childlike. O'Neil, however, appeared to find her naivete +charming, and Eliza reflected bitterly: + +"If my nose was perfectly chiseled and my eyebrows nice, he +wouldn't care if my brain was the size of a rabbit's. Here am I, +talking like a human being and really understanding him, while +she sits like a Greek goddess, wondering if her hat is on +straight. If ever I find a girl uglier than I am I'll make her my +bosom friend." She jabbed her pencil viciously at her notebook. + +The track by this time had been extended considerably beyond the +lower crossing--a circumstance which rendered their boat journey +to the glaciers considerably shorter than the one Dan had taken +with his cargo of dynamite. When the engine finally stopped it +was in the midst of a tent village beside which flowed one of the +smaller branches of the Salmon. In the distance the grade +stretched out across the level swamps like a thin, lately healed +scar, and along its crest gravel-trains were slowly creeping. An +army of men like a row of ants were toiling upon it, and still +farther away shone the white sides of another encampment. + +"Oh! That's Gordon's track," Eliza cried, quickly. "Why, you're +nearly up to him. How do you intend to get across?" + +O'Neil nodded at the long thin line of moiling men in the +distance. + +"There's a loose handle in each one of those picks," he said. + +"Somebody will be killed in that kind of a racket." + +"That rests with Gordon. I'm going through." + +"Suppose he had said that when Dan stopped him at the canon?" + +"If he'd said it and meant it he'd probably have done it. He +bluffs; I don't! I have to go on; he didn't. Now lunch is served; +and since this is our last glimpse of civilization, I advise you +to fortify yourselves. From here on we shall see nothing but the +wilderness." + +He led them to a spotless tent which had been newly erected at +the edge of the spruce. It was smoothly stretched upon a +framework of timber, its walls and floor were of dressed lumber, +and within were two cots all in clean linen. There were twin +washstands also, and dressers and rocking-chairs, a table and a +stove. On the floor beside the beds lay a number of deep, soft +bear-rugs. A meal was spread amid glass and figured china and +fresh new napery. + +"How cozy! Why, it's a perfect dear of a house!" exclaimed +Natalie. + +"You will leave everything but your necessaries here, for we are +going light," Murray told them. "You will stop here on our way +back to Kyak, and I'll warrant you'll be glad to see the place by +that time." + +"You built this just for us," Eliza said, accusingly. + +"Yes. But it didn't take long. I 'phoned this morning that you +were coming." He ran a critical eye over the place to see that +its equipment was complete, then drew out their chairs for them. + +A white-coated cook-boy served a luncheon in courses, the quality +of which astonished the visitors, for there was soup, a roast, +delicious vegetables, crisp salad, a camembert which O'Neil had +imported for his private use, and his own particular blend of +coffee. + +The girls ate with appetites that rivaled those of the men in the +mess-tent near by. Their presence in the heart of a great +activity, the anticipation of adventure to come, the electric +atmosphere of haste and straining effort on every hand excited +them. Eliza began to be less conscious of her secret intention, +and Natalie showed a gaiety rare in her since the shadow of her +mother's shame had fallen upon her life. + +The boat crews were waiting when they had finished, and they were +soon under way. A mile of comparatively slack water brought them +out into one of the larger estuaries of the river, and there the +long, uphill pull began. O'Neil had equipped his two companions +with high rubber boots, which they were only too eager to try. As +soon as they got ashore they began to romp and play and splash +through the shallows quite like unruly children. They spattered +him mischievously, they tugged at the towing-ropes with a great +show of assistance, they scampered ahead of the party, keeping +him in a constant panic lest they meet with serious accident. + +It was with no little relief that he gave the order to pitch camp +some hours later. After sending them off to pick wild currants, +with a grave warning to beware of bears, he saw to the +preparations for the night. They returned shortly with their hats +filled and their lips stained; then, much to his disgust, they +insisted upon straightening out his tent with their own hands. +Once inside its low shelter, they gleefully sifted sand between +his blankets and replaced his pillow with a rock; then they +induced the cook to coil a wet string in his flapjack. When +supper was over and the camp-fires of driftwood were crackling +merrily, they fixed themselves comfortably where their feet would +toast, and made him tell them stories until his eyes drooped with +weariness. + +It was late summer, and O'Neil had expected to find the glaciers +less active than usual, but heavy rains in the interior and hot +thawing weather along the coast had swelled the Salmon until many +bergs clogged it, while the reverberations which rolled down the +valley told him that both Garfield and Jackson were caving badly. +It was not the safest time at which to approach the place, he +reflected, but the girls had shown themselves nimble of foot, and +he put aside his uneasiness. + +Short though the miles had been and easy as the trip had proved, +Eliza soon found herself wondering that it should be possible to +penetrate this region at all. The snarling river, the charging +icebergs, the caving banks, and the growing menace of that noisy +gap ahead began to have their effect upon her and Natalie; and +when the party finally rounded the point where Murray and Dan had +caught their first glimpse of the lower glacier they paused with +exclamations of amazement. They stood at the upper end of a gorge +between low bluffs, and just across the hurrying flood lay the +lower limit of the giant ice-field. The edge, perhaps six hundred +feet distant, was sloping and mud-stained, for in its slow +advance it had plowed a huge furrow, lifting boulders, trees, +acres of soil upon its back. The very bluff through which the +river had cut its bed was formed of the debris it had thrown off, +and constituted a bulwark protecting its flank. Farther up-stream +the slope, became steeper, then changed to a rugged perpendicular +face showing marks of recent cleavage. This palisade extended on +and on, around the nearest bend, following the contour of the +Salmon as far as they could see. The sun was reflected from its +myriad angles and facets in splendid iridescence. Mammoth caves +and caverns gaped. In spots the ice was white, opaque; in other +places it was a light cerulean blue which shaded into purple. +Ribbons and faint striations meandered through it like the +streaks in an agate. But what struck the beholders with +overwhelming force was the tremendous, the unbelievable bulk of +the whole slowly moving mass. It reared itself sheerly three +hundred feet high, and along its foot the river hurried, dwarfed +to an insignificant trickle. Here and there it leaned outward +threateningly, bulging from the terrific weight behind; at other +points the muddy flood recoiled from vast heaps which had slid +downward and half dammed its current. Back of these piles the +fresh cleavage showed dazzlingly. On, upward, back into the +untracked mountains it ran through mile upon mile of undulations, +until at last it joined the ice-cap which weighted the plateau. +As far as the eye could follow the river ahead it stood solidly. +Across its entire face it was dripping; a thousand little rills +and waterfalls ate into it, and over it swept a cool, dank +breath. + +The effect of the first view was overwhelming. Nothing upon the +earth compares in majesty and menace to these dull-eyed monsters +of bygone ages; nothing save the roots of mountains can serve to +check them; nothing less than the ceaseless energy of mighty +rivers can sweep away their shattered fragments. + +Murray O'Neil had seen Jackson Glacier many times, but always he +experienced the same feeling of awe, of personal insignificance, +as when he first came stumbling up that gorge more than a year +before. + +For a long time the girls stood gazing without a word. They +seemed to have forgotten his presence. + +"Well?" he said at last. + +"Isn't it BIG?" Natalie faltered, with round eyes. "Will it fall +over on us?" + +He shook his head. "The river is too wide for that, but when a +particularly big mass drops it makes waves large enough to sweep +everything before them. This bank on our right is sixty feet +high, but I've seen it inundated." + +Turning to Eliza, he inquired: + +"What do you think of it?" + +Her face as she met his was strangely glorified, her eyes were +shining, her fingers tightly interlocked. + +"I--I'd like to cry or--or swear," she said, uncertainly, + +"Why, Eliza!" Natalie regarded her friend in shocked amazement, +but Murray laughed. + +"It affects people differently," he said. "I have men who refuse +to make this trip. There's something about Jackson that frightens +them--perhaps it is its nearness. You see, there's no other place +on the globe where we pygmies dare come so close to a live +glacier of this size." + +"How can we go on?" Natalie asked. "We must work our boats along +this bank. If the ice begins to crack anywhere near us I want you +both to scamper up into the alders as fast as your rubber boots +will carry you." + +"What will you do?" Eliza eyed him curiously. + +"Oh, I'll follow; never fear! If it's not too bad, I'll stay with +the boats, of course. But we're not likely to have much +difficulty at this season." + +Eliza noted the intensity with which the boatmen were scanning +the passage ahead, and something in O'Neil's tone told her he was +speaking with an assurance he did not wholly feel. + +"You have lost some men here, haven't you?" she asked. + +"Yes. But the greater danger is in coming down. Then we have to +get out in the current and take our chances." + +"I'd like to do that!" Her lips were parted, her eyes were +glowing, but Natalie gave a little cry of dismay. + +"It's an utterly new sensation," O'Neil admitted. "I've been +thinking of sending you up across the moraine, but the trail is +bad, and you might get lost among the alders--" + +"And miss any part of this! I wouldn't do it for worlds." Eliza's +enthusiasm was irresistible, and the expedition was soon under +way again. + +Progress was more difficult now, for the river-shore was paved +with smooth, round stones which rolled under foot, and the boats +required extreme attention in the swift current. The farther they +proceeded, the more the ice wall opposite increased in height, +until at last it shut off the mountains behind. Then as they +rounded the first bend a new prospect unfolded itself. The size +of Jackson became even more apparent; the gravel bank under which +they crept was steeper and higher also. In places it was undercut +by the action of the waves which periodically surged across. At +such points Murray sent his charges hurrying on ahead, while he +and his men tracked the boats after them. In time they found +themselves opposite the backbone of the glacier, where the Salmon +gnawed at the foot of a frozen cliff of prodigious height. And +now, although there had been no cause for apprehension beyond an +occasional rumble far back or a splitting crack from near at +hand, the men assumed an attitude of strained watchfulness and +kept their faces turned to the left. They walked quietly, as if +they felt themselves in some appalling presence. + +At last there came a sound like that of a cannon-shot, and far +ahead of them a fragment loosened itself and went plunging +downward. Although it appeared small, a ridge promptly leaped out +from beneath the splash and came racing down the river's bosom +toward them. + +"Better go up a bit," O'Neil called to his charges. + +The men at the ends of the tow-lines scrambled part way up the +shelving beach and braced themselves, then wrapped the ropes +about their waists, like anchormen on a tug-of-war team. Their +companions waded into the flood and fended the boats off the +rocks. + +The wave came swiftly, lifting the skiffs high upon the bank, +then it sucked them back amid a tangle of arms and legs. A +portion of the river-bottom suddenly bared itself and as suddenly +was submerged again. The boats plunged and rolled and beat +themselves upon the shore, wrenching the anchormen from their +posts. They were half filled with water too, but the wave had +passed and was scudding away down-stream. + +Eliza Appleton came stumbling back over the rock-strewn bank, for +during that first mad plunge she had seen O'Neil go down beneath +one of the rearing craft. A man was helping him out. + +"Nothing but my ankle!" he reassured her when she reached his +side. "I was dragged a bit and jammed among the boulders." He +sank down, and his lips were white with pain, but his gray eyes +smiled bravely. The boatman removed his chief's boot and fell to +rubbing the injury, while the girls looked on helplessly. + +"Come, come! We can't stay here," Murray told them. He drew on +the boot again to check the swelling. + +"Can you walk?" they asked him, anxiously. + +"Certainly! Two feet are really unnecessary. A man can get along +nearly as well on one." He hurried his men back to their tasks, +and managed to limp after them, although the effort brought beads +of sweat to his lips and brow. + +It was well that he insisted upon haste, for they had not gone +far when the glacier broke abreast of the spot they had just +left. There came a rending crack, terrifying in its loudness; a +tremendous tower of ice separated itself from the main body, +leaned slowly outward, then roared downward, falling in a solid +piece like a sky-scraper undermined. Not until the arc described +by its summit had reached the river's surface did it shiver +itself. Then there was a burst as of an exploded mine. The +saffron waters of the Salmon shot upward until they topped the +main rampart, and there separated into a cloud of spray which +rained down in a deluge. Out from the fallen mass rushed a billow +which gushed across the channel, thrashed against the high bank, +then inundated it until the alder thickets on its crest whipped +their tips madly. A giant charge of fragments of every size flew +far out across the flats or lashed the waters to further anger in +its fall. + +The prostrate column lay like a wing-dam, half across the stream, +and over it the Salmon piled itself. Disintegration followed; +bergs heaved themselves into sight and went rolling and lunging +after the billow which was rushing down-stream with the speed of +a locomotive. They ground and clashed together in furious +confusion as the river spun them; the greater ones up-ended +themselves, casting off muddy cascades. From the depths of the +flood came a grinding and crunching as ice met rock. + +Spellbound, the girls watched that first wave go tearing out of +sight, filling the river bank-full. With exclamations of wonder, +they saw the imprisoned waters break the huge dam to pieces. +Finally the last shattered fragment was hurried out of sight, the +flood poured past unhampered, and overhead the glacier towered +silent, unchanged, staring at them balefully like a blind man +with filmed eyes. There remained nothing but a gleaming scar to +show where the cataclysm had originated. + +"If I'd known the river was so high I'd never have brought you," +O'Neil told them. "It's fortunate we happened to be above that +break. You see, the waves can't run up against the current." He +turned to his men and spurred them on. + +It was not until the travelers had reached the camp at the bridge +site that all the wonders of this region became apparent. Then +the two girls, in spite of their fatigue, spent the late +afternoon sight-seeing. At this point they were able to gain a +comprehensive view; for at their backs lay Jackson Glacier, which +they had just passed, and directly fronting them, across a placid +lake, was Garfield, even larger and more impressive than its +mate. Thirty, forty miles it ran back, broadening into a frozen +sea out of which scarred mountain peaks rose like bleak islands, +and on beyond the range of vision was still more ice. + +They were surrounded by ragged ramparts. The Salmon River ran +through a broken chalice formed by the encircling hills, and over +the rim of the bowl or through its cracks peered other and +smaller ice bodies. The lake at its bottom was filled by as +strange a navy as ever sailed the sea; for the ships were bergs, +and they followed each other in senseless, ceaseless manoeuvers, +towed by the currents which swept through from the cataract at +its upper end. They formed long battle-lines, they assembled into +flotillas, they filed about the circumference of a devil's +whirlpool at the foot of the rapids, gyrating, bobbing, bowing +until crowded out by the pressure of their rivals. Some of them +were grounded, like hulks defeated in previous encounters, and +along the guardian bar which imprisoned them at the outlet of the +lake others were huddled, a mass of slowly dissolving wreckage. + +O'Neil was helped into camp, and when his boot had been cut away +he sent news of his arrival to Dan, who came like an eager +bridegroom. + + + + +XIV + +HOW THE TRUTH CAME TO ELIZA + + +Appleton found his employer with one foot in a tub of hot water +and his lap full of blueprints. O'Neil explained briefly the +condition of affairs down the river. + +"I want some one to make that crossing," he said. + +"A volunteer?" asked Dan, with quickened pulses. + +"Yes." + +"Will I do?" + +"I sent for you to give you the first chance--you've been chafing +so at your idleness. We must have steel laid to this point before +snow flies. Every hour counts. I daren't risk Mellen or McKay, +for they might be disabled. I intended to take charge myself, but +I won't be able to walk now for some time." He swore a little, +and Dan nodded sympathetically. "I wouldn't send anybody where +I'd refuse to go myself. You understand?" + +"Of course." + +"If either McKay or Mellen were hurt I couldn't build the bridge, +and the bridge must be built." + +"If Gordon stands pat somebody may be--hurt." + +"I don't look for anything worse than a few broken heads, but of +course I can't tell. I'll stand behind you with my last dollar, +no matter what happens." + +Dan laughed. "As I understand the situation you won't have a +dollar unless we make the crossing." + +"Right!" O'Neil smiled cheerfully. "The life of the S. R. & N. +depends upon it. I'd give ten thousand dollars for your right +ankle." + +"You can have it for nothing, Chief. I'd amputate the whole leg +and present it to you," Dan declared earnestly. + +Murray took his hand in a hearty grip. "Perhaps I'll be able to +serve you some time," he said, simply. "Anyhow, I'll look out for +the chance. Now spend the evening with the girls, and leave in +the morning. I'll be down as soon as I can travel, to watch the +fight from the side-lines." O'Neil's voice was level, but his +teeth were shut and his fingers were clenched with rage at his +disability. + +Dan hurried away highly elated, but when he told Eliza of the +part he had undertaken she stormed indignantly. + +"Why, the brute! He has no right to send you into danger. This +isn't war." + +"Sis, dear, it's my chance. He can't stand, and he daren't risk +his right-hand men." + +"So he sacrifices you! I won't permit it. Your life and safety +are worth more than all his dollars. Let his old railroad go to +smash!" + +"Wait! More than my safety depends on this. He said he'd wait for +a chance to pay me back. If I do this he'll owe me more than any +man on the job, and when he learns that I love Natalie--" + +"Dan!" exclaimed his sister. + +"Oh, he'll make good!" + +"Why, you're worse than he! The idea of suggesting such a thing!" + +"Don't preach! I've had nothing to do lately but think of her; +she's always in my mind. The loneliness up here has made me feel +more than ever that I can't exist without her. The river whispers +her name; her face looks at me from the campfire; the wind brings +me her messages--" + +"Fiddlesticks! She saves her messages for him. When a man reaches +the poetical stage he's positively sickening. You'll be writing +verses next." + +"I've written 'em," Dan confessed, sheepishly; "oceans of mush." + +"Fancy! Thank Heaven one of us is sane." + +"Our dispositions were mixed when we were born, Eliza. You're +unsentimental and hard-headed: I'm romantic. You'll never know +what love means." + +"If you are a sample, I hope not." Eliza's nose assumed an even +higher tilt than usual. + +"Well, if I knew I had no chance with Natalie I'd let Gordon's +men put an end to me--that's how serious it is. But I have a +chance--I know I have." + +"Bosh! You've lived in railroad camps too long. I know a dozen +girls prettier than she." Eying him with more concern, she asked, +seriously, "You wouldn't really take advantage of a service to +Murray O'Neil to--to tell him the nature of your insanity?" + +"I might not actually tell him, but I'd manage it so he'd find +out." + +"Don't you think Natalie has something to say? Don't you think +she is more than a piece of baggage waiting to be claimed by the +first man who comes along?" sputtered Miss Appleton in fine +disgust at this attitude. "She has more sense and determination +than any girl, any pretty girl, I ever saw. That's one reason why +I hate her so. There's no use trying to select a husband for her. +When the time comes she'll do the selecting herself. She'll knock +over all our plans and walk blushingly up to the altar with +O'Neil, leaving us out on the sidewalk to cheer. I'm sorry I ever +tried to help you! I'm going to quit and get back my self- +respect." + +"You'll do no such thing. You'll continue to help your poor red- +headed brother to the finish. Say! When I'm alone I'm just +bursting with optimism; when I'm with you I wither with despair; +when I'm with Natalie I become as heavy and stupid as a frog full +of buckshot--I just sit and blink and bask and revel in a sort of +speechless bliss. If she ever saw how really bright and engaging +I am--" + +"You!" Eliza sniffed. "You're as uninteresting as I am." + +"Now that you've pledged your undying support, here goes for some +basking," said Dan; and he made off hastily in search of Miss +Gerard. + +Eliza had really made up her mind to wash her hands of the +affair, but she wavered, and, as usual, she gave in. She did go +to O'Neil to protest at Dan's selection for the post of danger, +but after talking with him she began to see the matter in a new +light, and her opposition weakened. He showed her that the S. R. +& N. had an individuality of its own--an individuality greater +than Murray O'Neil's, or Dan Appleton's, or that of any man +connected with it. She began to understand that it was a living +thing, and that O'Neil was merely a small part of it--a person +driven by a power outside himself, the head servant of a great +undertaking, upon whom rested a heavy responsibility. She saw for +the first time that the millions invested in the project imposed +upon those concerned with its management a sacred duty, and that +failure to defend the company's rights would be the worst sort of +treachery. She began to appreciate also how men may be willing to +lay down their lives, if necessary, to pave the way for the march +of commerce. + +"I never looked at it in this way," she told him, when he had +finished. "I--don't like to take that view of it, even now, but I +suppose I must." + +"Try not to worry about Dan," he said, sympathetically. "We'll +start back as soon as I'm able to move around, and I'll do my +best to see that he isn't hurt. It's--tough to be laid up this +way." + +"There's another sick man in camp, by the way." + +"Who?" + +"The Indian boy who helps the cook. He was hunting and shot +himself in the arm." + +"They told me he was doing well." + +"Oh, he is, but the pain has kept the poor fellow awake until +he's nearly out of his head. There are no drugs here." + +"None this side of the end of the track." + +"Can't we do something?" + +"We can give Dan a note to 'Happy Tom' in the morning and have +whatever you want sent up. Tom will be there, and perhaps if you +ask him he'll despatch a man on foot at once." + +Seizing pen and paper from the table, Eliza wrote a note, which +she read aloud: + +"DEAR UNCLE TOM,--There is a sick Indian here. Won't you please +send up an opiate by special messenger, and receive the blessing +of, Your affectionate, ELIZA." + +"Better change the word 'opiate,'" O'Neil advised. "I don't think +Tom is equal to that; he might send overalls!" So Eliza +substituted "something to put him to sleep." This message Dan +promised faithfully to deliver. + +Murray had expected to begin the return journey within twenty- +four hours after his arrival; but his injury mended slowly, and +when the time came he was still unable to stand. This interval +the girls spent in watching the glaciers, of which they never +seemed to tire, and in spoiling many films. + +It was late on the second day when a tired and sodden messenger +bearing the marks of heavy travel appeared at O'Neil's tent and +inquired for Miss Appleton. To her he handed a three-foot bundle +and a note from Tom Slater which read: + + DEAR MADAM,--Here is the best thing I know of to put an +Indian to sleep. THOS. SLATER. + +"There's some mistake, surely," said the girl, as she unrolled +the odd-looking package; then she cried out angrily, and O'Neil +burst into laughter. For inside the many wrappings was a pick- +handle. + +Eliza's resentment at "Happy Tom's" unsympathetic sense of humor +was tempered in a measure by the fact that the patient had taken +a turn for the better and really needed no further medical +attention. But she was not accustomed to practical jokes, and she +vowed to make Tom's life miserable if ever the occasion offered. + +As the days wore on and Murray remained helpless his impatience +became acute, and on the fourth morning he determined to leave, +at whatever cost in pain or danger to the injury. He gave orders, +therefore, to have a boat prepared, and allowed himself to be +carried to it. The foreman of the bridge crew he delegated to +guide the girls down across the moraine, where he promised to +pick them up. The men who had come with him he sent on to the +cataract where Dan had been. + +"Aren't you coming with us?" asked Natalie, when they found him +seated in the skiff with an oarsman. + +"It's rough going. I'd have to be carried, so I prefer this," he +told them. + +"Then we'll go with you," Eliza promptly declared. + +Natalie paled and shook her dark head. "Is it safe?" she +ventured. + +"No, it isn't! Run along now! I'll be down there waiting, when +you arrive." + +"If it's safe enough for you, it's safe enough for us," said +Eliza. Climbing into the boat, she plumped herself down with a +look which seemed to defy any power to remove her. Her blue eyes +met O'Neil's gray ones with an expression he had never seen in +them until this moment. + +"Nonsense, child!" he said. "Don't be silly." + +"Don't you try to put me out. I'll hang on and--kick. Don't you +say 'please,' either," she warned him. + +"I must," he protested. "Please don't insist." + +She scowled like an angry boy, and seized the gunwales firmly. +Her expression made him smile despite his annoyance, and this +provoked her the more. + +"I'm going!" she asserted, darkly. + +This outing had done wonders for both girls. The wind and the +sunshine had tanned them, the coarse fare had lent them a hearty +vigor, and they made charming pictures in their trim short skirts +and sweaters and leather-banded hats. + +"Very well! If you're going, take off your boots," commanded +O'Neil. + +"What for?" + +"We may be swamped and have to swim for it. You see the man has +taken his off." Murray pointed to the raw-boned Norwegian +oarsman, who had stripped down as if for a foot-race. + +Eliza obeyed. + +"Now your sweater." + +Natalie had watched this scene with evident concern. She now +seated herself upon a boulder and began to tug at her rubber +boots. + +"Here! Here! You're not going, too!" O'Neil exclaimed. + +"Yes, I am. I'm frightened to death, but I won't be a coward." +Her shaking hands and strained voice left no doubt of her +seriousness. + +"She can't swim," said Eliza; and O'Neil put an end to this +display of heroism with a firm refusal. + +"You'll think I'm afraid," Natalie expostulated. + +"Bless you, of course we will, because you are! So am I, and so +is Eliza, for that matter. If you can't swim you'd only be taking +a foolish risk and adding to our danger. Besides, Eliza doesn't +know the feel of cold water as we do." + +Natalie smiled a little tremulously at recollection of the +shipwreck. + +"I'd much rather walk, of course," she said; and then to Eliza, +"It--it will be a lovely ramble for us." + +But Eliza shook her head. "This is material for my book, and I'll +make enough out of it to--to--" + +"Buy another orchard," Murray suggested. + +Feeling more resigned now that the adventure had taken on a +purely financial color, Natalie at length allowed herself to be +dissuaded, and Eliza settled herself in her seat with the +disturbing consciousness that she had made herself appear selfish +and rude in O'Neil's eyes. Nevertheless, she had no notion of +changing her mind. + +When the other girl had gone the oarsman completed his +preparations by lashing fast the contents of the skiff--a +proceeding which Eliza watched with some uneasiness. O'Neil +showed his resentment by a pointed silence, which nettled her, +and she resolved to hold her seat though the boat turned +somersaults. + +Word was finally given, and they swung out into the flood. O'Neil +stood as best he could on his firm leg, and steered by means of a +sculling-oar, while the Norwegian rowed lustily. + +Bits of drift, patches of froth, fragments of ice accompanied +them, bobbing alongside so persistently that Eliza fancied the +boat must be stationary until, glancing at the river-banks, she +saw them racing past like the panoramic scenery in a melodrama. +The same glance showed her that they were rushing directly toward +the upper ramparts of Jackson Glacier, as if for an assault. Out +here in the current there were waves, and these increased in size +as the bed of the Salmon grew steeper, until the poling-boat +began to rear and leap like a frightened horse. The gleaming wall +ahead rose higher with every instant: it overhung, a giant, +crumbling cliff, imposing, treacherous. Then the stream turned at +right angles; they were swept along parallel with the ice face, +and ahead of them for three miles stretched the gauntlet. The +tottering wall seemed almost within reaching distance; its breath +was cold and damp and clammy. O'Neil stood erect and powerful in +the stern, swaying to the antics of the craft, his weight upon +the sweep, his eyes fixed upon the Thing overhead. The Norwegian +strained at his oars while the sweat ran down into his open +shirt. The boat lunged and wallowed desperately, rising on end, +falling with prodigious slaps, drenching the occupants with +spray. It was splendid, terrifying! Eliza clung to her seat and +felt her heartbeats smothering her. Occasionally the oarsman +turned, staring past her with round, frightened eyes, and +affording her a glimpse of a face working with mingled fear and +exultation. + +Thus far the glacier had not disputed their passage; it +maintained the silence and the immobility of marble; nothing but +the snarl of the surging flood re-echoed from its face. But with +the suddenness of a rifle-shot there came a detonation, louder, +sharper than any blast of powder. The Norwegian cursed; the +helmsman dropped his eyes to the white face in the bow and +smiled. + +Half a mile ahead of them a mass of ice came rumbling down, and +the whole valley rocked with the sound. Onward the little craft +fled, a dancing speck beneath the majesty of that frozen giant, +an atom threatened by the weight of mountains. At last through +the opening of the gorge below came a glimpse of the flats that +led to the sea. A moment later the boat swung into an eddy and +came to rest, bumping against the boulders. + +O'Neil sat down, wiping his wet face. + +"Well, was it worth your trouble, Miss Kick-over the-traces?" he +asked. + +"Oh, it was glorious! I'll never forget it." + +Eliza's cheeks were burning now, her aching hands relaxed their +hold, and she drew a deep breath--the first of which she had been +conscious since the start, fifteen minutes before. + +"Now, on with your boots and your sweater. We'll have an hour's +wait for Natalie." + +She gave a cry of surprise and offered him a glimpse of a trim +ankle and a dripping foot. + +"See! They're wet, and I wriggled my toes right through my +stockings. I NEVER was so excited." + +The boatman fastened the painter and resumed his outer clothing. +O'Neil lit a cigar and asked: + +"Tell me, why did you insist on coming?" + +"I was afraid something might happen to you." + +He raised his brows, and she flushed. "Don't you understand? Dan +would never have forgiven me, and--and--I just HAD to come, +that's all. It's corking material for me--I thought you might +upset, and I--I don't know why I insisted." She bent over her +stubborn boots, hiding her face. She was flaming to the ears, for +suddenly she knew the reason that had prompted her. It rushed +upon her like a sense of great shame. She recalled the desperate +grip at her heart when she had seen him ready to leave, the +wildness of her longing to share his danger, the black fear that +he might meet disaster alone. It had all come without warning, +and there had been no time for self-consciousness, but now she +realized the truth. The poignant pain of it made her fingers +clumsy and sent that flood of scarlet to her neck and ears. + +When Natalie arrived they cast off, and the remaining miles were +made in a few hours. + +Appleton joined them for lunch in the tent they remembered so +well, and professed to be shocked at the report of his sister's +foolhardiness. But whatever may have been Natalie's fear of +ridicule, it promptly disappeared under his complete indorsement +of her wisdom in refraining from such a mad adventure. As if to +put her even more at ease, O'Neil was especially attentive to +her; and Eliza reflected gloomily that men, after all, dislike +bravado in women, that a trapeze artist or a lady balloonist +inspires only a qualified admiration. + +During O'Neil's absence work had progressed steadily. On his +return he found the grade completed to within a few yards of +Gordon's right-of-way. Although he was still unable to walk, he +insisted upon going to the front, whither he was helped by +Appleton and "Happy Tom." + +Into the narrow space between the end of his embankment and that +of his rival's a gravel-train was spilling its burden, and a +hundred pick-and-shovel men were busy. The opposing forces also +seemed hard at work, but their activity was largely a pretense, +and they showed plainly that they were waiting for the clash. +They were a hard-looking crew, and their employer had neglected +no precaution. He had erected barricades for their protection +until his grade looked like a military work. + +"They haven't showed any guns yet, but I'm sure they're armed," +Appleton told his chief. + +"How is the place lighted by night?" O'Neil inquired. + +"Oil torches," Slater answered. "Ah! We've been recognized. That +comes from being fat, I s'pose." + +As he spoke a donkey-engine at the right of the proposed crossing +set up a noisy rattling, a thin steel cable whipped into view +between the rails, and from the left there appeared a contrivance +which O'Neil eyed curiously. It was a sort of drag, and rode back +and forth upon the rails. + +"Humph! They'd better not put much trust in that," Murray +grunted, grimly. + +"Don't fool yourself; it's no rubber-tired baby-carriage," said +Slater. "Our men are afraid of it." + +After watching the device scuttle back and forth for a few +moments O'Neil said shortly: + +"Post a notice at once, offering a thousand dollars for any man +who cuts that cable." + +"A thousand--" Appleton gasped. "Why, I'll do it. Let me--" + +"No, you won't," Slater broke in. I'll take that on myself." + +"I spoke first. It's my first chance," Dan cried. + +"It's my job! I'm going--" + +"Wait a minute!" O'Neil silenced the two, who were glaring at +each other angrily. "Don't let's have any fighting; there will be +enough of that later." + +"I spoke first," Dan repeated, stubbornly. + +"I had my mouth puckered to spit, that's why," the fat man +explained. "A fellow has to spit--" + +"I'd rather you wouldn't volunteer, Dan," said O'Neil. + +"Why?" + +"You might get hurt." + +"Happy Tom" nodded his agreement. "Certainly! Never send a boy on +a man's errand." + +"And I don't want you to do it either, Tom, for the same reason." + +Slater mumbled some sort of sour acquiescence, but Dan would not +be denied. + +"You made the offer, and I took it up," he told O'Neil. "Somebody +has to make the first move, and I have a particular need for +exactly one thousand dollars. If they start a rumpus, it will +give us the excuse we're looking for. I've been studying that +'go-devil' through field-glasses for two days now, and I'll +guarantee to put it out of commission before Gordon's men know +what I'm about. Just forget the reward, if you like, and give me +a chance." + +"What's your plan?" Slater inquired, eagerly; but Appleton shook +his head. + +"No you don't, Tommy!" he said. "I'm wise to you." + +Murray hesitated briefly, then gave his permission. "I'd rather +you'd let one of the rough-necks take the chance, but if you +insist--" + +"I do." + +"Then get your sister's consent--" + +Slater swore mournfully, as if from a heart filled with black +despair. + +"Ain't that my luck? One cud of gum cost me a thousand dollars! +Hell! It would take a millionaire to afford a habit like that." +He expelled the gum violently and went grumbling off up the +track. + +"Sis won't object," said Dan, lightly. "She'd offer to do the +trick herself, for she's getting the spirit of the work." + +When O'Neil had managed to regain the camp he began preparations +for an attack that very night, using the telephone busily. News +of the coming affray quickly spread, and both the day and night +shifts discussed it excitedly at supper-time. + +Nor was the excitement lessened when a loaded gravel-train rolled +in and Dr. Gray descended from it with his emergency kit and two +helpers from the hospital at Omar. + +Up to this point both Eliza and Natalie had hoped that the affair +might not, after all, turn out to be very serious, but the +presence of the grim-faced surgeon and the significant +preparations he set about making boded otherwise. Eliza undertook +to reason with her brother, but her words refused to come. As a +matter of fact, deep down in her heart was a great rebellion at +the fate which had made her a woman and thus debarred her from an +active part in the struggle. Natalie, on the other hand, was +filled with dread, and she made a much more vigorous attempt to +dissuade Dan from his purpose than did his sister. But he refused +to heed even her, and soon hurried away to finish his +preparations. + +After supper the camp settled itself to wait for darkness. Night +was slow in coming, and long before Appleton signified his +readiness speculation was rife. With the approach of twilight the +torches along Gordon's grade began to glow brightly. Then Dan set +his watch with "Happy Tom's," kissed Eliza, and made off across +the tundra. He left the S. R. & N. at right angles and continued +in that direction for a mile or more before swinging about in a +wide circle which brought him well to the rear of Gordon's +encampment. The gloom now covered his movements, and by taking +advantage of an alder thicket he managed to approach very closely +to the enemy's position. But the footing was treacherous, the +darkness betrayed him into many a fall, and he was wet, muddy, +and perspiring when he finally paused not more than two hundred +feet from the scene of the proposed crossing. + + + + +XV + +THE BATTLE OF GORDON'S CROSSING + + +Curtis Gordon was not in charge of his field forces, having left +the command to his favorite jackal, Denny. Beneath his apparent +contempt for the law there lurked a certain caution. He knew his +rival's necessity, he appreciated his cunning, but, wishing to +guard against the possibility of a personal humiliation, he +retired to Kyak, where he was prepared to admit or to deny as +much responsibility as suited him. Denny had not forgotten +O'Neil's exposure of his dishonesty, and his zeal could be relied +upon. He personally knew all the men under him, he had coached +them carefully, and he assured Gordon of his ability to hold his +ground. + +Dan Appleton, from his covert, measured the preparations for +resistance with some uneasiness, reflecting that if Denny had the +nerve to use firearms he would undoubtedly rout O'Neil's men, who +had not been permitted to carry guns. By the bright torchlight he +could see figures coming and going along the grade like +sentinels, and from within the barricades of ties he heard others +talking. The camp itself, which lay farther to the left, was +lighted, and black silhouettes were painted against the canvas +walls and roofs. Some one was playing an accordion, and its +wailing notes came to him intermittently. He saw that steam was +up in the boiler which operated the "go-devil," although the +contrivance itself was stationary. It was upon this that he +centered his attention, consulting his watch nervously. + +At last ten o'clock came, bringing with it a sound which startled +the near-by camp into activity. It was a shrill blast from an S. +R. & N. locomotive and the grinding of car-wheels. The accordion +ceased its complaint, men poured out of the lighted tents, +Appleton moved cautiously out from cover. + +He stumbled forward through the knee-deep mud and moss, bearing +slightly to his right, counting upon the confusion to mask his +approach. He timed it to that of the gravel-train, which came +slowly creaking nearer, rocking over the uneven tracks, then down +upon the half-submerged rails which terminated near the opposing +grade. It stopped finally, with headlight glaring into the faces +of Denny and his troops, and from the high-heaped flat cars +tumbled an army of pick-and-shovel men. During this hullabaloo +Appleton slipped out of the marsh and climbed the gravel-bed in +time to see the steel cable of the skip tighten, carrying the +drag swiftly along the track. The endless cable propelling the +contrivance ran through a metal block which was secured to a +deadhead sunk between the ties, and up to this post Dan hastened. +He carried a cold-chisel and hammer, but he found no use for +them, for the pulley was roped to the deadhead. Drawing his +knife, he sawed at the manila strands. Men were all around him, +but in their excitement they took no notice of him. Not until he +had nearly completed his task was he discovered; then some one +raised a shout. The next instant they charged upon him, but his +work had been done. With a snap the ropes parted, the cable went +writhing and twisting up the track, the unwieldy apparatus came +to a stop. + +Dan found himself beset by a half-dozen of the enemy, who, having +singled him out of the general confusion as the cause of +disaster, came at him head-long. But by this time O'Neil's men +were pouring out of the darkness and overrunning the grade so +rapidly that there was little opportunity for concerted action. +Appleton had intended, as soon as he had cut the cable, to beat a +hasty retreat into the marsh; but now, with the firm gravel road- +bed under his feet and the battle breaking before his eyes, he +changed his mind. He carried a light heart, and the love of +trouble romped through his veins. He lowered his head, therefore, +and ran toward his assailants. + +He met the foremost one fairly and laid him out. He vanquished +the second, then closed with a burly black man who withstood him +capably. They went down together, and Dan began to repent his +haste, for blows rained upon him and he became the target, not +only of missiles of every kind, but of heavy hobnailed shoes that +were more dangerous than horses' hoofs. + +The engineer dearly loved a fair fight, even against odds, but +this was entirely different: he was trampled, stamped upon, +kicked; he felt himself being reduced to a pulp beneath the +overpowering numbers of those savage heels. The fact that the +black man received an equal share of the punishment was all that +saved Dan. Over and over between the ties the two rolled, +scorning no advantage, regarding no rules of combat, each +striving to protect himself at the other's expense. + +They were groveling there in a tangle of legs and arms when +"Happy Tom" came down the grade, leading a charge which swept the +embankment clean. + +The boss packer had equipped his command with pick-handles and +now set a brilliant example in the use of this, his favorite +weapon. For once the apathetic Slater was fully roused; he was +tremendous, irresistible. In his capable grasp the oaken cudgel +became both armor and flail; in defense it was as active as a +fencing-master's foil, in offense as deadly as the kick of a +mule. Beneath his formless bulk were the muscles of a gladiator; +his eye had all the quickness of a prize-fighter. There was +something primeval, appallingly ferocious about the fat man, too: +he fought with a magnificent enthusiasm, a splendid abandon. And +yet, in spite of his rage, he was clear-headed, and his ears were +sensitively strained for the sound of the first gunshot-something +he dreaded beyond measure. + +He was sobbing as much from anxiety as from the violence of his +exertions when he tore Appleton from the clutch of the black man +and set him on his feet. + +"Are you hurt, son?" he gasped. + +"Sure! I'm--hurt like hell." Dan spat out a mouthful of blood and +sand. "Gimme a club." + +"Go back yonder," Tom directed, swiftly. "Nail Denny before he +gets 'em to shooting. Kill him if you have to. I'll take care of +these fellers." + +The younger man saw that the engagement at this end of the line +was no longer general, but had become a series of individual +combats, so he made what haste he could toward the scene of the +more serious encounter to the right of the crossing. He judged +that the issue was still in doubt there, although he could make +out little in the confusion on account of the glaring headlight, +which dazzled him. + +As he ran, however, he discovered that the S. R. & N. forces were +in possession of the middle ground, having divided the enemy's +ranks like a wedge, and this encouraged him. Out of the darkness +to right and left came shouts, curses, the sounds of men +wallowing about in the knee-deep tundra. They were Gordon's +helpers who had been routed from their positions. + +Now that Appleton had time to collect himself he, too, grew sick +with suspense, for he knew that arms had been stacked inside the +barricades. Any instant might bring them into play. He began to +wonder why Denny withheld the word to fire. + +As a matter of fact, the explanation was simple, although it did +not appear until later. Mr. Denny at that moment was in no +condition to issue orders of any kind, the reason being as +follows: when preparations for the advance were made, Dr. Gray, +who understood perhaps more fully than any one else except O'Neil +the gravity of the issue and the slender pivot upon which the +outcome balanced, had taken his place in the vanguard of the +attacking party instead of in the background, as befitted his +calling. The first rush had carried him well into the fray, but +once there he had shown his good judgment by refusing to +participate in it. + +Instead, he had selected Denny out of the opposing ranks and +bored through the crowd in his direction, heedless of all efforts +to stop him. His great strength had enabled him to gain ground; +he had hurled his assailants aside, upsetting them, bursting +through the press as a football-player penetrates a line; and +when the retreat had begun he was close at the heels of his +victim. He had overtaken Denny beside one of the barricades just +as Denny seized a rifle and raised it. With one wrench he +possessed himself of the weapon, and the next instant he had bent +the barrel over its owner's head. + +Then, as the fight surged onward, he had gathered the limp figure +in his arms and borne it into the light of a gasolene-torch, +where he could administer first aid. He was kneeling over the +fellow when Appleton found him as he came stumbling along the +grade. + +But the decisive moment had come and gone now, and without a +leader to command them Gordon's men seemed loath to adopt a more +bloody reprisal. They gave way, therefore, in a half-hearted +hesitation that spelled ruin to their cause. They were forced +back to their encampment: over the ground they had vacated picks +and shovels began to fly, rails were torn up and relaid, gravel +rained from the flat cars, the blockhouses were razed, and above +the rabble the locomotive panted and wheezed, its great yellow +eye glaring through the night. When it backed away another took +its place; the grade rose to the level of the intersection, then +as morning approached it crept out beyond. By breakfast-time a +long row of flats extended across the line which Curtis Gordon +had tried to hold in defiance of the law. + +Dan Appleton, very dirty, very tired, but happy, found Natalie +and Eliza awaiting him when he limped up to their tent in the +early morning light. One of his eyes was black and nearly closed, +his lips were cut and swollen, but he grinned cheerfully as he +exclaimed: + +"Say! It was a great night, wasn't it?" + +Eliza cried out in alarm at his appearance. + +"You poor kid! You're a sight." She ran for hot water and soap, +while Natalie said, warmly: + +"You were perfectly splendid, Dan. I knew you'd do it." + +"Did you?" He tried to smile his appreciation, but the effort +resulted in a leer so repulsive that the girl looked dismayed. +"You ought to have seen the shindy." + +"Seen it! Maybe we didn't!" + +"Honestly?" + +"Did you think we could stay behind? We sneaked along with the +cook-house gang, and one of them helped us up on the gravel-cars. +He smelled of dish-water, but he was a hero. We screamed and +cried, and Eliza threw stones until Mr. O'Neil discovered us and +made us get down. He was awfully mean." + +"He's a mean man." + +"He isn't! He was jumping around on one leg like a crippled +grasshopper." + +"I made a thousand dollars," said Dan. "Guess what I'm going to +do with it?" + +"How can I guess?" + +"I'm going to buy an engagement ring." Once more he leered +repulsively. + +"How nice!" said Natalie, coolly. "Congratulations!" + +"Guess who it's for?" + +"I couldn't, really." + +"It's for you." + +"Oh no, it isn't!" Natalie's voice was freezing. "You have made a +mistake, a very great mistake, Dan. I like you, but--we won't +even mention such things, if you please." + +Eliza's entrance saved her further embarrassment, and she quickly +made her escape. Dan groaned so deeply as his sister bathed his +injuries that she was really concerned. + +"Goodness, Danny," she said, "are you as badly hurt as all that?" + +"I'm worse," he confessed. "I've just been shot through the +heart. Slow music and flowers for me! Arrange for the services +and put a rose in my hand, Sis." + +"Nonsense! I'll put a beefsteak on your eye," she told him, +unfeelingly. + +Under Dr. Gray's attention O'Neil's ankle began to mend, and by +the time the track had been laid far enough beyond the crossing +to insure against further interference from Gordon he declared +himself ready to complete the journey to Kyak, which he and the +girls had begun nearly three weeks before. + +During the interval Eliza had occupied herself in laying out her +magazine stories, and now she was eager to complete her +investigations so as to begin the final writing. Her experience +in the north thus far had given her an altered outlook upon the +railroad situation, but as yet she knew little of the coal +problem. That, after all, was the more important subject, and she +expected it to afford her the basis for a sensational exposure. +She had come to Alaska sharing her newspaper's views upon +questions of public policy, looking upon Murray O'Neil as a +daring promoter bent upon seizing the means of transportation of +a mighty realm for his own individual profit; upon Gordon as an +unscrupulous adventurer; and upon the Copper Trust as a greedy +corporation reaching out to strangle competition and absorb the +riches of the northland. But she had found O'Neil an honorably +ambitious man, busied, like others, in the struggle for success, +and backing his judgment with his last dollar. She had learned, +moreover, to sympathize with his aims, and his splendid +determination awoke her admiration. Her idea of the Trust had +changed, likewise, for it seemed to be a fair and dignified +competitor. She had seen no signs of that conscienceless, +grasping policy usually imputed to big business. In regard to +Gordon alone, her first conviction had remained unchanged. He +was, in truth, as evil as he had been reputed. + +The readjustment of her ideas had been disappointing, in a way, +since it robbed her of a large part of her ammunition; but she +consoled herself with the thought that she had not yet reached +the big, vital story which most deeply concerned the welfare of +the north. + +She was a bit afraid to pursue her inquiries into the coal +subject, for her ideas were fixed, and she feared that O'Neil's +activities merited condemnation. In his railroad-building, she +believed, he was doing a fine work, but the coal was another +matter. Obviously it belonged to the people, and he had no right +to lay hands upon their heritage. + +She wondered if it would not be possible to omit all mention of +him in her coal stories and center attention upon the Trust. It +was impossible for her to attack him now, since she had come to +understand her feelings toward him. Even so, she reflected with +horror that if her articles created the comment she anticipated +their effect would be to rob him of his holdings. But she took +her work very seriously, and her sense of duty was unwavering. +She was one of the few who guide themselves by the line of +principle, straight through all other considerations. She would +write what she found true, for that was her mission in life. If +Murray proved culpable she would grieve over his wrong-doing--and +continue to love him. + +O'Neil had recognized her sincerity, and on the broad subject of +conservation he had done nothing to influence her views. He +preferred to let her see the workings of the principle and, after +actually meeting some of those who had suffered by it, form her +own conclusions. It was for this reason mainly that he had +arranged the trip to Kyak. + +The journey in a small boat gave Eliza a longed-for opportunity +to discuss with him the questions which troubled her. He was +uncommunicative at first, but she persisted in her attempt, +drawing him out in the hope of showing him the error of his ways. +At last she provoked him to a vigorous defense of his views. + +"Conservation is no more than economy," he declared, "and no one +opposes that. It's the misapplication of the principle that has +retarded Alaska and ruined so many of us. The situation would be +laughable if it weren't so tragic." + +"Of course you blame your troubles on the Government. That's one +thing governments are for." + +"Our ancestors blamed King George for their troubles, more than a +hundred years ago, and a war resulted. But every abuse they +suffered is suffered by the people of Alaska to-day, and a lot +more besides. Certainly England never violated her contracts with +the colonies half so flagrantly as our Government has violated +its contracts with us." + +"Of course you exaggerate." + +"I don't. Judge for yourself. The law offers every citizen the +chance--in fact, it invites him--to go upon the public domain and +search for treasure. If he is successful it permits him to locate +the land in blocks, and it agrees to grant him a clear title +after he does a certain amount of work and pays a fixed price. +Further, it says in effect: 'Realizing that you may need +financial assistance in this work, we will allow you to locate +not only for yourself, but also for your friends, through their +powers of attorney, and thus gain their co-operation for your +mutual advantage. These are the rules, and they are binding upon +all parties to this agreement; you keep your part, we will keep +ours." Now then, some pioneers, at risk of life and health, came +to Kyak and found coal. They located it, they did all the law +required them to do--but did the Government keep its word? Not at +all. It was charged that some of them hadn't conformed strictly +to the letter of the agreement, and therefore all the claims were +blacklisted. Because one man was alleged to have broken his +contract the Government broke its contract with every man who had +staked a coal claim, not only at Kyak, but anywhere else in +Alaska. Guilty and innocent were treated alike. I was one of the +latter. Was our money returned to us? No! The Government had it +and it kept it, along with the land. We've been holding on now +for years, and the Interior Department has tried by various means +to shake us off. The law has been changed repeatedly at the whim +of every theorist who happened to be in power. It has been +changed without notice to us even while we were out in the +wilderness trying to comply with the regulations already imposed. +You can see how it worked in the case of Natalie and her mother. +The Government succeeded in shaking them off." + +"That's only one side of the question," said Eliza. "You lose +sight of the fact that this treasure never really belonged to +you, but to the public. The coal-lands were withdrawn from entry +because men like you and the agents of the Heidlemanns were +grabbing it all up." + +O'Neil shook his head, frowning. "That's what the papers say, but +it isn't true. There are twenty million acres of coal in Alaska, +and not more than thirty thousand acres have been located. The +law gave me the right to locate and buy coal claims, and I took +advantage of it. Now it tells me that I have money enough, and +takes back what it gave. If it did the right thing it would grant +patents to those who located under the law as it then existed and +withdraw the rest of the land from entry if advisable. This +country needs two things to make it prosper--transportation and +fuel. We are doing our best to supply the first in spite of +hindrance from Washington; but the fuel has been locked away from +us as if behind stone walls. Rich men must be brave to risk their +dollars here under existing conditions, for they are not +permitted to utilize the mines, the timber, or the water-power, +except upon absurd and unreasonable terms. Why, I've seen timber +lying four layers deep and rotting where it lies. The Government +won't save it, nor will it allow us to do so. That's been its +policy throughout. It is strangling industry and dedicating +Alaska to eternal solitude. Railroads are the keys by which this +realm can be unlocked; coal is the strength by which those keys +can be turned. The keys are fitted to the lock, but our fingers +are paralyzed. For eight years Alaska's greatest wealth has lain +exposed to view, but the Government has posted the warning, +'Hands off! Some one among you is a crook!' Meanwhile the law has +been suspended, the country has stagnated, men have left +dispirited or broken, towns have been abandoned. The cost in +dollars to me, for instance, has been tremendous. I'm laying my +track alongside rich coal-fields, but if I picked up a chunk from +my own claim to throw at a chipmunk I'd become a lawbreaker. I +import from Canada the fuel to drive my locomotives past my own +coal-beds--which I have paid for--and I pay five times the value +of that fuel, forty percent of which is duty. I haul it two +thousand miles, while there are a billion tons of better quality +beneath my feet. Do you call that conservation? I call it waste." + +"Fraud was practised at the start, and of course it takes time to +find out just where it lay." + +"That's the excuse, but after all these years no fraud has been +proved. In administering the criminal law there is an axiom to +the effect that it is better for ninety-nine guilty men to escape +than for one innocent man to suffer, but the Land Office says +that ninety-nine innocent Alaskans shall suffer rather than that +one guilty man shall escape. The cry of fraud is only a pretense, +raised to cover the main issue. There's something sinister back +of it." + +"What do you mean?" + +"A conspiracy of the Eastern coal-operators and the +transcontinental freight-lines." + +"How ridiculous!" cried Eliza. + +"You think so? Listen! Since all the high-grade coal of the +Pacific coast must come from the East, who, then, would +discourage the opening of local fields but those very interests? +Every ton we burn means a profit to the Eastern miner and the +railroad man. Yes, and twenty per cent. of the heat units of +every ton hauled are consumed in transportation. Isn't that +waste? Every two years it costs our navy the price of a battle- +ship to bring coal to the Pacific fleet, while we have plenty of +better fuel right here on the ground. Our coal is twenty-five +hundred miles nearer to the Philippines than San Francisco, and +twelve thousand miles nearer than its present source. If Alaskan +coal-beds were opened up, we wouldn't have this yearly fight for +battle-ship appropriations; we'd make ourselves a present of a +first-class navy for nothing. No, our claims were disputed, and +the dispute was thrown into politics to keep us out of +competition with our Eastern cousins. We Alaskans sat in a game +with high stakes, but after the cards were dealt the rules were +changed." + +"You argue very well," said Eliza, who was a bit dazed at this +unexpected, forceful counter-attack, "but you haven't convinced +me that this coal should be thrown open to the first person who +comes along." + +"I didn't expect to convince you. It's hard to convince a woman +whose mind is made up. It would take hours to cover the subject; +but I want to open your eyes to the effect of this new-fangled +national policy. Any great principle may work evil if it isn't +properly directed, and in Kyak you'll see the results of +conservation ignorantly applied. You'll see how it has bound and +gagged a wonderful country, and made loyal Americans into ragged, +bitter traitors who would spit upon the flag they used to +cherish." + +"Is that the only reason why you came along--just to make sure +that I saw all this?" + +"No. I want to look at the Heidlemann breakwater. My fortune +hangs upon it." + +"It's as serious as that?" + +O'Neil shrugged. "I'm waiting for the wind. My coal is in the +hands of the bureaucracy at Washington, my railroad is in the +hands of the wind god. Incidentally, I'd much rather trust the +god than the Government." + +Natalie, who had listened so far without the least sign of +interest, now spoke up. + +"If the storm doesn't come to your help, will you be ruined?" she +asked. + +Murray smiled cheerfully. "No man is ruined as long as he keeps +his dreams. Money isn't much, after all, and failure is merely a +schooling. But--I won't fail. Autumn is here: the tempest is my +friend; and he won't be long in coming now. He'll arrive with the +equinox, and when he does he'll hold my fortune in his hand." + +"Why, the equinoctial storm is due," said Eliza. + +"Exactly! That's why I'm going to meet it and to bid it welcome." + +The village of Kyak lay near the mouth of the most easterly +outlet of the Salmon, and it was similar in most respects to Hope +and to Omar, save that it looked out across a shallow, +unprotected bay to the open reaches of the north Pacific. The +shores were low; a pair of rocky islets afforded the only shelter +to its shipping, and it was from these as a starting-point that +the Copper Trust had built its break-water. A trestle across the +tide-flats connected the work with the mainland, and along this +rock-trains crawled, adding their burdens to the strength of the +barrier. Protected by this arm of steel and stone and timber lay +the terminal buildings of the Alaska Northern, as the Heidlemann +line was called, and there also lay the terminus of the old +McDermott enterprise into which Curtis Gordon had infused new +life. Both places showed plenty of activity when O'Neil and his +two companions arrived, late one afternoon. + +Kyak, they found, was inferior to Omar in its public +accommodations, and Murray was at a loss to find shelter for the +girls until his arrival was made known to the agents of the +Alaska Northern. Then Mr. Trevor, the engineer in charge, looked +him up and insisted upon sharing his quarters with the visitors. +In Trevor's bearing was no suggestion of an enmity like Gordon's. +He welcomed his rival warmly--and indeed the Trust had never been +small in its opposition. O'Neil accepted the invitation +gratefully. + +After dinner he took Natalie with him to see the sights, while +Eliza profited by the opportunity to interview Trevor. In her +numerous tilts with O'Neil she had not been over-successful from +the point of view of her magazine articles, but here at her hand +was the representative of the power best known and best hated for +its activities in the north-land, and he seemed perfectly willing +to talk. Surely from him she would get information that would +count. + +"Understand, I'm on the side of your enemies," she warned him. + +"So is everybody else," Mr. Trevor laughed; "but that's because +we're misunderstood." + +"The intentions of any Trust warrant suspicion." + +He shrugged. "The Heidlemanns are just ordinary business men, +like O'Neil, looking for investment. They heard of a great big +copper-field hidden away back yonder in the mountains, and they +bought what they considered to be the best group of claims. They +knew the region was difficult of access, but they figured that a +railroad from tide-water would open up not only their own +properties, but the rest of the copper-belt and the whole +interior country. They began to build a road from Cortez, when +some 'shoe-stringer' raised the cry that they had monopolized the +world's greatest copper supply, and had double-cinched it by +monopolizing transportation also. That started the fuss. They +needed cheap coal, of course, just as everybody else needs it; +but somebody discovered the danger of a monopoly of that and set +up another shout. Ever since then the yellow press has been +screaming. The Government withdrew all coal-lands from entry, and +it now refuses to grant patents to that which had been properly +located. We don't own a foot of Alaskan coal-land, Miss Appleton. +On the contrary, we haul our fuel from British Columbia, just +like O'Neil and Gordon. Those who would like to sell local coal +to us are prevented from doing so." + +"It sounds well to hear you tell it," said Eliza. "But the minute +the coal patents are issued you will buy what you want, then +freeze out the other people. You expect to control the mines, the +railroads, and the steamship lines, but public necessities like +coal and oil and timber and water-power should belong to the +people. There has been an awakening of the public conscience, and +the day of monopolized necessities is passing." + +"As long as men own coal-mines they will sell them. Here we are +faced not by a question of what may happen, but of what has +happened. If you agreed to buy a city lot from a real-estate +dealer, and after you paid him his price he refused to give you a +deed, you'd at least expect your money back, wouldn't you? Well, +that's the case of Uncle Sam and the Alaskan miners. He not only +refuses to deliver the lot, but keeps the money, and forces them +to pay more every year. I represent a body of rich men who, +because of their power, are regarded with suspicion; but if they +did anything so dishonest as what our Government has done to its +own people they would be jailed." + +"No doubt there has been some injustice, but the great truth +remains that the nation should own its natural resources, and +should not allow favored individuals to profit by the public +need." + +"You mean railroads and coal-fields and such things?" + +"I do." + +Trevor shook his head. "If the people of Alaska waited for a +Government railroad, they'd die of old age and be buried where +they died, for lack of transportation. The Government owns +telegraph-lines here, but it charges us five times the rates of +the Western Union. No, Miss Appleton, we're not ready for +Government ownership, and even if we were it wouldn't affect the +legality of what has been done. Through fear that the Heidlemanns +might profit this whole country has been made to stagnate. Alaska +is being depopulated; houses and stores are closed; people are +leaving despondent. Alaskans are denied self-government in any +form; theories are tried at their expense, but they are never +consulted. Not only does Congress fail to enact new laws to meet +their needs, but it refuses to proceed under the laws that +already exist. If the same policy had been pursued in the +settlement of the Middle West that applies to this country, the +buffalo would still be king of the plains and Chicago would be a +frontier town. You seem to think that coal is the most important +issue up here, but it isn't. Transportation is what the country +needs, for the main riches of Alaska are as useless to-day as if +hidden away in the chasms of the moon. O'Neil had the right idea +when he selected the Salmon River route, but he made an error of +judgment, and he lost." + +"He hasn't lost!" cried Eliza, in quick defense of her friend. +"Your breakwater hasn't been tested yet." + +"Oh, it will hold," Trevor smiled. "It has cost too much money +not to hold." + +"Wait until the storms come," the girl persisted. + +"That's what we're doing, and from present indications we won't +have much longer to wait. Weather has been breeding for several +days, and the equinox is here. Of course I'm anxious, but--I +built that breakwater, and it can't go out." + +When O'Neil and Natalie returned they found the two still +arguing. "Haven't you finished your tiresome discussions?" asked +Natalie. + +"Mr. Trevor has almost convinced me that the octopus is a noble +creature, filled with high ideals and writhing at the thrusts of +the muck-rakers," Eliza told them. + +But at that the engineer protested. "No, no!" he said. "I haven't +half done justice to the subject. There are a dozen men in Kyak +to-night who could put up a much stronger case than I. There's +McCann, for instance. He was a prospector back in the States +until he made a strike which netted him a hundred thousand +dollars. He put nearly all of it into Kyak coal claims and +borrowed seventy thousand more. He got tired of the interminable +delay and finally mined a few tons which he sent out for a test +in the navy. It had better steaming qualities than the Eastern +coal now being used, but six weeks later an agent of the Land +Office ordered him to cease work until his title had been passed +upon. That was two years ago, and nothing has been done since. No +charges of irregularity of any sort have ever been filed against +McCann or his property. The Government has had his money for five +years, and still he can't get a ruling. He's broke now and too +old to make a living. He's selling pies on the street--" + +"He borrowed a dollar from me just now," said O'Neil, who was +staring out of a window. Suddenly he turned and addressed his +host. "Trevor, it's going to storm." His voice was harsh, his +eyes were eager; his tone brought the engineer to his side. +Together they looked out across the bay. + +The southern sky was leaden, the evening had been shortened by a +rack of clouds which came hurrying in from the sea. + +"Let it storm," said Trevor, after a moment. "I'm ready." + +"Have you ever seen it blow here?" + +"The old-timers tell me I haven't, but--I've seen some terrible +storms. Of course the place is unusual--" + +"In what way?" Eliza inquired. + +"The whole country back of here is ice-capped. This coast for a +hundred miles to the east is glacial. The cold air inland and the +warm air from the Japanese Current are always at war." + +"There is a peculiar difference in air-pressures, too," O'Neil +explained. "Over the warm interior it is high, and over the coast +range it is low; so every valley becomes a pathway for the wind. +But that isn't where the hurricanes come from. They're born out +yonder." He pointed out beyond the islands from which the +breakwater flung its slender arm. "This may be only a little +storm, Trevor, but some day the sea and the air will come +together and wipe out all your work. Then you'll see that I was +right." + +"You told me that more than a year ago, but I backed my skill +against your prophecy." + +O'Neil answered him gravely: "Men like you and me become over- +confident of our powers; we grow arrogant, but after all we're +only pygmies." + +"If Nature beats me here, I'm a ruined man," said the engineer. + +"And if you defeat her, I'm ruined." O'Neil smiled at him. + +"Let's make medicine, the way the Indians did, and call upon the +Spirit of the Wind to settle the question," Eliza suggested, with +a woman's quick instinct for relieving a situation that +threatened to become constrained. She and Natalie ran to Trevor's +sideboard, and, seizing bottle and shaker, brewed a magic broth, +while the two men looked on. They murmured incantations, they +made mystic passes, then bore the glasses to their companions. + +As the men faced each other Natalie cried: + +"To the Wind!" + +"Yes! More power to it!" Eliza echoed. + +Trevor smiled. "I drink defiance." + +"In my glass I see hope and confidence," said O'Neil. "May the +storm profit him who most deserves help." + +Despite their lightness, there was a certain gravity among the +four, and as the night became more threatening they felt a +growing suspense. The men's restlessness communicated itself to +the girls, who found themselves listening with almost painful +intentness to the voice of the wind and the rumble of the surf, +which grew louder with every hour. By bed-time a torrent of rain +was sweeping past, the roof strained, the windows were sheeted +with water. Now and then the clamor ceased, only to begin with +redoubled force. Trevor's guests were glad indeed of their snug +shelter. + +As Natalie prepared for bed she said: "It was fine of Mr. Trevor +to treat Murray O'Neil so nicely. No one would dream that they +were rivals, or that one's success means the other's ruin. Now +Gordon--" She turned to see her friend kneeling at the bedside, +and apologized quickly. + +Eliza lifted her face and said simply, "I'm praying for the +Wind." + +Natalie slipped down beside her and bowed her dark head close to +the light one. They remained there for a long time, while outside +the rain pelted, the surf roared, and the wind came shrieking in +from the sea. + + + + +XVI + +THE FRUIT OF THE TEMPEST + + +Neither O'Neil nor his host was in sight when the girls came to +breakfast. The men had risen early, it seemed, and were somewhere +out in the storm. A wilder day would be hard to imagine; a +hurricane was raging, the rain was whirled ahead of it like +charges of shot. The mountains behind Kyak were invisible, and to +seaward was nothing but a dimly discernible smother of foam and +spray, for the crests of the breakers were snatched up and +carried by the wind. The town was sodden; the streets were +running mud. Stove-pipes were down, tents lay flattened in the +mire, and the board houses were shaking as if they might fly to +pieces at any moment. The darkness was uncanny, and the tempest +seemed to be steadily growing in violence. + +When an hour or two had passed with no word from the men Eliza +announced her intention of looking them up. She had spent the +time at a window, straining her eyes through the welter, while +Natalie had curled up cozily with a book in one of Trevor's arm- +chairs. + +"But, dearie, you'll be drenched." Natalie looked up in surprise. +"Mr. O'Neil is all right." + +"Of course he is. I'm not going out to spank him and bring him +in. I want to look at the storm." + +"So do I, but it won't do any good. I can't make it blow any +harder by getting my feet wet." + +"You read your novel and talk to Mr. Trevor when he comes back. +He knows we're to blame for this storm, so you must be nice to +him. I can't." She clad herself in rain-coat, sou'wester, and +boots, and hurried out. Walking was difficult enough, even in the +shelter of the village, but not until she had emerged upon the +beach did she meet the full strength of the gale. Here it wrapped +her garments about her limbs until she could scarcely move. The +rain came horizontally and blinded her; the wind fairly snatched +her breath away and oppressed her lungs like a heavy weight. She +shielded herself as best she could, and by clinging to stationary +objects and watching her chance she managed to work her way +onward. At last she caught sight of O'Neil, standing high above +the surf, facing the wind defiantly, as if daring it to unfoot +him. He saw her and came in answer to her signal; but to breast +that wind was like stemming a rushing torrent, and when he +reached her side he was panting. + +"Child! What are you doing here?" he demanded. + +"I couldn't wait any longer," she shouted back. "You've been out +since daylight. You must be wet through." + +He nodded. "I lay awake all night listening. So did Trevor. He's +beginning to worry already." + +"Already? If the breakwater stands this--" + +"The storm hasn't half started! Come! We'll watch it together." +He took her hand, and they lunged into the gale, battling their +way back to his point of vantage. He paused at length, and with +his arm about her pointed to the milk-white chaos which marked +Trevor's handiwork. The rain pelted against their faces and +streamed from their slickers. + +The breakwater lay like a reef, and over it the sea was pounding +in mighty wrath. High into the air the waters rose, only to +disappear upon the bosom of the gale. They engulfed the structure +bodily, they raced along it with thunderous detonations, bursting +in a lather of rage. Out beyond, the billows appeared to be +sheared flat by the force of the wind, yet that ceaseless +upheaval of spume showed that the ocean was in furious tumult. +For moments at a time the whole scene was blotted out by the +scud, then the curtain would tear asunder and the wild scene +would leap up again before their eyes. + +Eliza screamed a question at her companion, but he did not seem +to hear; his eyes roved back and forth along that lace-white +ridge of rock on the weakness of which depended his salvation. +She had never seen him so fierce, so hawklike, so impassive. The +gusts shook him, his garments slatted viciously, every rag +beneath his outer covering was sodden, yet he continued to face +the tempest as indifferently as he had faced it since the dawn. +The girl thrilled at thought of the issue these mighty forces +were fighting out before her eyes, and of what it meant to the +man beside her. His interests became hers; she shared his painful +excitement. Her warm flesh chilled as the moisture embraced her +limbs; but her heart was light, for O'Neil's strong arm encircled +her, and her body lay against his. + +After a long time he spoke. "See! It's coming up!" he said. + +She felt no increase in the wind, but she noted that particles of +sand and tiny pebbles from the beach were flying with the salt +raindrops. Her muscles began to tremble from the constant effort +at resistance, and she was relieved when Murray looked about for +a place of refuge. She pointed to a pile of bridge timbers, but +he shook his head. + +"They'll go flying if this keeps up." He dragged her into the +shelter of a little knoll. Here the blasts struck them with +diminished force, the roaring in their ears grew less, and the +labor of breathing was easier. + +Rousing himself from his thoughts, the man said, gently: + +"Poor kid! You must be cold." + +"I'm freezing. But--please don't send me back." The face that met +his was supplicating; the eyes were bluer than a spring day. He +patted her dripping shoulder. + +"Not until you're ready." + +"This is grander than our trip past the glacier. That was merely +dangerous, but this--means something." + +"There may be danger here if we expose ourselves. Look at that!" + +High up beyond reach of the surf a dory had been dragged and left +bottom up. Under this the wind found a fingerhold and sent it +flying. Over and over it rolled, until a stronger gust caught it +and sent it in huge leaps, end over end. It brought up against +the timber pile with a crash, and was held there as if by a +mighty suction. Then the beams began to tremble and lift. The +pile was disintegrated bit by bit, although it would have +required many hands to move any one of its parts. + +Even where the man and the woman crouched the wind harried them +like a hound pack, but by clinging to the branches of a gnarled +juniper bush they held their position and let the spray whine +over their heads. + +"Farther west I've seen houses chained to the earth with ships' +cables," he shouted in her ear. "To think of building a harbor in +a place like this!" + +"I prayed for you last night. I prayed for the wind to come," +said the girl, after a time. + +O'Neil looked at her, curiously startled, then he looked out at +the sea once more. All in a moment he realized that Eliza was +beautiful and that she had a heart. It seemed wonderful that she +should be interested in his fortunes. He was a lonely man; +beneath his open friendliness lay a deep reserve. A curiously +warm feeling of gratitude flamed through him now, and he silently +blessed her for bearing him company in the deciding hour of his +life. + +Noon came, and still the two crouched in their half-shelter, +drenched, chilled, stiff with exposure, watching Kyak Bay lash +itself into a boiling smother. The light grew dim, night was +settling; the air seemed full of screaming furies. Then O'Neil +noticed bits of driftwood racing in upon the billows, and he rose +with a loud cry. + +"It's breaking up!" he shouted. "It's breaking up!" + +Eliza lifted herself and clung to him, but she could see nothing +except a misty confusion. In a few moments the flotsam came +thicker. Splintered piling, huge square-hewn timbers with +fragments of twisted iron or broken bolts came floating into +sight. A confusion of wreckage began to clutter the shore, and +into it the sea churned. + +The spindrift tore asunder at length, and the watchers caught a +brief glimpse of the tumbling ocean. The breakwater was gone. +Over the place where it had stood the billows raced unhindered. + +"Poor Trevor!" said O'Neil. "Poor Trevor! He did his best, but he +didn't know." He looked down to find Eliza crying. "What's this? +I've kept you here too long!" + +"No, no! I'm just glad--so glad. Don't you understand?" + +"I'll take you back. I must get ready to leave." + +"Leave? Where--" + +"For New York! I've made my fight, and I've won." His eyes +kindled feverishly. "I've won in spite of them all. I hold the +key to a kingdom. It's mine--mine! I hold the gateway to an +empire, and those who pass through must pay." The girl had never +seen such fierce triumph in a face. "I saw it in a dream, only it +was more than a dream." The wind snatched O'Neil's words from his +lips, but he ran on: "I saw a deserted fishing-village become a +thriving city. I saw the glaciers part to let pass a great +traffic in men and merchandise. I saw the unpeopled north grow +into a land of homes, of farms, of mining-camps, where people +lived and bred children. I heard the mountain passes echo to +steam whistles and the whir of flying wheels. It was a wonderful +vision that I saw, but my eyes were true. They called me a fool, +and it took the sea and the hurricane to show them I was right." +He paused, ashamed of his outburst, and, taking the girl's hand +in his, went stumbling ahead of the storm. + +Their limbs were cramped, their teeth chattered, they wallowed +through mire, and more than once they fell. Nearing Trevor's +house, they saw what the storm had done. Kyak was nearly razed. +Roofs had been ripped off, chimneys were down, glass was out. +None but the most substantial log cabins had withstood the +assault, and men were busied in various quarters trying to repair +the damage. + +They found Natalie beside herself with anxiety for their safety, +and an hour later Trevor came in, soaked to the skin. He was very +tired, and his face was haggard. + +"Well! She went out!" he said. "I saw a million dollars swallowed +up in that sea." + +They tried to comfort him, but the collapse of his work had left +him dazed. + +"God! I didn't think it could blow like this--and it isn't over +yet. The town is flat." + +"I'm sorry. You understand I sympathize?" said Murray; and the +engineer nodded. + +"You told me it blew here, and I thought I knew what you meant, +but nothing could withstand those rollers." + +"Nothing." + +"You'll go East and see our people, I suppose?" + +"At once." + +"Tell them what you saw. They'll never understand from my +reports. They're good people. If there's anything I can do--" + +O'Neil took his hand warmly. + +Two days later Murray bade the girls good-by, and left, traveling +light. They remained in Kyak so that Eliza might complete her +investigations. + +Of all those who suffered by the storm Curtis Gordon took his +misfortune hardest. This had been a black season for him, indeed. +Beginning with O'Neil's rivalry, everything had gone against him. +He had dropped his coal interests at Kyak in favor of the copper- +mine, because they failed to yield quick profits. Then he had +learned that the mine was valueless, and realized that it could +not serve him much longer as a means of raising funds. Still, he +had trusted that by taking a vigorous part in the railroad +struggle he would be able either to recoup his fortunes or at +least to effect a compromise in the shadow of which his fiasco at +Hope would be forgotten. As yet the truth about Hope Consolidated +was not generally known to his stock-holders, but a certain +restlessness among them had become troublesome. The stream of +money had diminished alarmingly, and it was largely because of +this that he had bought the McDermott right-of-way and moved to +Kyak. And now, just as he had his affairs in shape for another +and a greater campaign of stock-flotation, the storm had come to +ruin him. + +The bitterest element in his defeat was the realization that +O'Neil, who had bested him at every turn, was destined to profit +by the very blow which crushed him. Defeat at the hands of the +Copper Trust he would have accepted with a fairly good grace; but +the mere thought that Murray O'Neil, whom he considered in every +way his inferior, had gained the upper hand was intolerable. It +was in keeping with Gordon's character that instead of blaming +his own judgment he became furiously angry at the Trust for the +mistake of its engineers, and held them responsible for his +desperate situation. That it was truly desperate he very soon +realized, since disaster to his railroad project meant that his +stock-holders would be around his ears like a swarm of hornets, +and once they understood the true state of affairs at Hope the +complete collapse of his fortunes would surely follow. + +During the days succeeding the storm he scarcely knew where to +turn, so harassed was he; yet he never for a moment wavered in +his resolve to make O'Neil pay for his interference and to exact +a reckoning from Gloria Gerard. + +Natalie's presence in Kyak confirmed his belief that O'Neil was +interested in her, and he began to plan a stroke by which he +could take revenge upon all three. It did not promise in any way +to help him out of his financial straits, but at least it would +give him a certain satisfaction. + +He sent word to the girl that he would like to see her. + + + + +XVII + +HOW THE PRINCE BECAME A MAN + + +Gordon found his erstwhile ward greatly improved by her recent +life. She was brown, vigorous, healthy; her physical charms +quickened his pulses. + +"You must have a very good reason for coming to see me," she +began. "I don't flatter myself that it is from affection." + +"There you wrong me," he assured her, with the warm earnestness +he so easily assumed. "I have always regarded you as a daughter." + +"I have no faith in you." + +"Exactly, and the knowledge distresses me. You and Gloria were a +large part of my life; I can't bear to lose you. I hope--and I +believe--that her regard for me has changed no more than mine for +her. It remains for me to regain yours." + +"That is impossible. You had the chance--" + +"My dear, you can't know my reasons for acting as I did at Omar. +But those reasons no longer exist." + +"Just what--do you mean by that?" stammered Natalie. + +"I mean what I say. I'm ready to marry your mother." + +"When?" + +"At once. You shall plead my cause for me. You shall add your +voice to mine--" + +"That isn't necessary. You know mother is only waiting for you. +It means so much to her that she couldn't refuse." + +"Doesn't it mean anything to you?" + +Natalie nodded. "It means more to me than to any one else, +perhaps. I have been carrying a great burden, almost more than I +can bear. Sometimes I've wished I were a man--for just long +enough to make you pay. Oh yes," she continued, as he started to +protest. "Don't let us begin this new life with any false +conceptions; you may as well know that I shall always hate you. +We shall see very little of each other." + +"Nonsense! I can't let you feel like that. I sha'n't rest until I +win back your love and confidence." + +She eyed him searchingly for a moment, then opened her lips to +speak, but closed them. + +"Well?" he prompted her. "Let us be frank with each other." + +"I'm merely wondering how greatly your decision has been +influenced by the storm and the fight at the railroad crossing. I +understand how you feel toward Mr. O'Neil, and I know that he +means to crush you." + +"Oh!" Gordon's face lighted. + +"Yes! He has never said so, but I can feel it. I wonder if you +have snatched us up in your extremity as a defense." + +"Ridiculous! Your suspicions are insulting. I have nothing to +fear from him, for he is broken, his credit is gone, he is in +desperate straits." + +"Are you in any better condition? How long can you fool your +people with that pretense of a mine?" + +Gordon flushed, but affected scorn. "So! Have you and Gloria +begun to balance my wealth against my love? If so--" + +"You know she would marry you if you were penniless." + +"I hope so--and, indeed, I can't believe her mercenary. Well, I +shall say good-by to Kyak, without idle regret, and we three +shall return to Hope, where I can attack my problems with fresh +courage. I can well afford my loss here, if by doing so I gain +the woman of my desires." + +"You want me to go with you?" + +"Of course. You can't stay in Omar, knowing what you do about +O'Neil. Remember, I shall be in the position of a father to you." + +"Very well. It is the least I can do. Miss Appleton and I are +returning to Omar in a few days. Will you go with us?" + +"I shall be delighted, my dear." He smiled upon her in his most +fatherly fashion, but she was far from feeling the assurance he +meant to convey. + +The eighteen-hour train from Chicago bore Murray O'Neil into New +York on time, and he hastened directly to the Holland House, +where the clerk greeted him as if he had run in from Yonkers +instead of from the wilderness of the far northwest. His arrival +was always the forerunner of great prosperity for the bell-boys, +and there was the customary struggle for his baggage. + +An hour later, having bathed and changed his linen, he was +whizzing toward lower Broadway, with the roar of the Subway in +his ears. New York looked very good to O'Neil, for this time he +came not as a suppliant, but as a conqueror, and a deep +contentment rested in his heart. More than once during the last +two years he had made this flying trip across an ocean and a +continent, but heretofore he had been burdened with worries and +responsibilities. Always he had needed to gather his wits for +some supreme effort; always there had been the urgent necessity +of raising money. As the S. R. & N. had grown his obligations had +increased; and, while he had never returned empty-handed, no one +but he knew at what cost of time and strength he had succeeded in +financing his venture. Invariably he had left New York mentally +and physically exhausted, and his days in the open had barely +served to replenish his store of nervous energy for the next +campaign. + +As he looked back upon it all he was amazed at his daring in +attempting to finance a railroad out of his own pocket. But he +had won, and the Trust had met with a sharp reverse in attempting +to beat him at his own game. He held the winning card, and he +looked out upon the world through eyes which were strained and +weary, but complacent. + +Mr. Herman Heidlemann was expecting him. + +"You have the most confident way of arranging appointments from +the other side of the world," he began, as O'Neil entered his +office. "Steamships and railroads appear to be your obedient +servants." + +"Not always. I find railroads very troublesome at times." + +"Well, you're on time to the minute," said Heidlemann. "Now tell +me about Kyak. Trevor cables that you were there during the storm +which ruined us." The head of the copper syndicate did not look +like a man facing ruin; in fact, he seemed more curious to hear +of the physical phenomena of that hurricane than of its effect +upon his fortunes. + +"Kyak was a great mistake," he admitted, when O'Neil had given +him the particulars he asked for. "We're all agreed on that +point. Some of our associates feel that the whole Alaskan +enterprise has been a mistake--mines and all." + +"Your mines are as good as they ever were, but Kyak is a long way +from Wall Street, and you relied too much upon other people's +judgment." + +"We have to rely upon our experts." + +"Of course. But that country must have a railroad." + +"Must?" Heidlemann lifted his brows. "It has done very well +without one so far. Our friends call us crazy for trying to build +one, and our enemies call us thieves." + +"You can't afford to give up." + +"No. There's an element of pride in the matter, and I really +believe the country does need transportation." + +"You can't understand how badly it needs it." + +"Yet it's a heavy load to carry," said Heidlemann, with +conviction, "for a road will lose money for many years. We were +willing to wait until the agriculture and the mining developed, +even though the profit came only to our children; but--we have +been misunderstood, abused by the press and the public. Even +Congress is down on us. However, I suppose you came to tell me +once more that Omar is the gateway and that we need it." + +O'Neil smiled. "That's hardly necessary now, is it? I own every +inch of water-front at that point, and there's no other harbor. +My track will be laid to the glaciers by the time snow flies." + +"Trevor reports that a bridge is possible, although expensive." + +"It will cost two million dollars." + +"I don't see how it can be built to withstand the ice." + +"I'll guarantee to build it so it will hold." + +"What is your proposition?" asked Heidlemann. + +"I'll sell the S.R.&N. for five million dollars and contract to +complete the road within two years on a ten-per-cent commission." + +"It has cost you about three million dollars, I believe. That +would leave you a handsome profit." + +"One million for me, one million for my associates." + +"What will the remaining hundred miles cost?" + +"About ten millions. That will give me another million profit as +contractor. My force and equipment is on the ground. I can save +you money and a year's time." + +Mr. Heidlemann drummed upon the top of his desk for a moment. + +"You're a high-priced man, O'Neil," he said, finally. + +"You've had experience with the other kind." + +"Counting the money we've already sunk, the road would stand us +about twenty million dollars completed." + +"It will cost thirty to build from Cortez, and take two years +longer." + +Mr. Heidlemann seemed to consider this for a moment. "We've had +this matter before us almost constantly since the report of the +storm," he said, at length, "and after deliberation our directors +have voted to do nothing just yet." + +O'Neil opened his eyes in amazement. + +"I don't understand." + +"It's this way. Our engineers first recommended Cortez as a +starting-point, and we spent a fortune there. Then you attacked +the other route, and we sent Trevor up to find if you were right +and we were wrong. He recommended the Salmon River valley, and +told us he could build a breakwater at Kyak. You know the result. +We relied upon him, for he seemed to be the best man in the +country, but as a matter of precaution we later sent other +engineers. Their reports came in not three months ago, and, while +all seemed confident that the breakwater could be built, none of +them were certain about the bridge. One, in fact, condemned it +absolutely. Now on the heels of their statements comes the news +that the very work they united in declaring feasible has been +undone. Naturally, we don't know where we are or whom to +believe." + +"They simply didn't know the conditions at Kyak," argued O'Neil, +"and they evidently haven't studied the bridge as I have. But +you'll have to go at the breakwater again or build in from Cortez +or give up." + +"No, we have decided to mark time until that crossing is proved +feasible. Understand, I voice the sentiment of the majority." + +"If I build that bridge you may find it more difficult to buy me +out," said O'Neil, quietly. + +"We'll have to take our medicine," Mr. Heidlemann replied, +without heat. "We cannot afford another mistake." + +"This is definite?" + +"Oh, absolutely! We're going slow for a time." + +A blow in the face could not have affected O'Neil more +disagreeably than this statement. Fortune had seemed within his +grasp when he entered the room; now ruin was more imminent than +it had ever been before. The ground seemed to be slipping from +beneath his feet; he discovered that he was dizzy. He felt +himself utterly incapable of raising the two million dollars +necessary to carry his road to a point where the Trust would +consider a purchase, yet to fail meant the loss of all he had put +in. He knew also that these men would never recede from a +position once taken. + +"Hasn't this public clamor had something to do with your +determination?" he asked. + +"A great deal. We had the best intentions when we started--we +still have--but it's time to let the general sentiment cool. We +thought we were doing a fine thing for the country in opening +Alaska, but it seems we're regarded as thieves and grafters. One +gets tired of abuse after a while." + +"Will you take an option on the S. R. can't help you, O'Neil, but +rest assured we won't do anything to hinder you. You have treated +us fairly; we will reciprocate. Once you have built your bridge +we can discuss a purchase and the abandonment of our original +enterprise, but meanwhile we must proceed cautiously. It is +unfortunate for us all." + +"Especially for me." + +"You need money badly, don't you?" + +"I'm worse than broke," O'Neil admitted. + +"I'd really be sorry to take over the wreck of your enterprise," +Heidlemann said, earnestly, "for you have made a good fight, and +your ideas were better than ours. I'd much prefer to pay your +price than to profit by your misfortune. Needless to say we don't +feel that way about Gordon." + +"There would be no uncertainty about the bridge if I had the +money. With your means I could build a road to the moon, and +double-track it." + +Although Murray felt that further effort was useless, he +continued to argue the matter from various angles, hoping against +hope to sway Heidlemann's decision. But he gave up at last. Out +in the marble hall which led to the elevators he discovered that +all his vigor of an hour ago had passed. The spring was out of +his limbs; he walked slowly, like an old man. A glimpse of his +image in the mirrors of the car as he shot downward showed him a +face grave and haggard. The crowds jostled him, but he was hardly +conscious of them. The knowledge that his hardest fight was yet +to come filled him with sickening apprehension. He was like a +runner who toes the mark for a final heat knowing himself to be +upon the verge of collapse. + +The magnitude of the deal narrowed his field of operations +alarmingly, and he had already learned what a serious effect upon +capital the agitation about Alaska had produced. More than once +he had found men who were willing to invest but feared the effect +of public sentiment. Popular magazines, newspapers like The +Review, and writers like Eliza Appleton had been largely to blame +for the wrong. They had misunderstood the problem and +misinterpreted the spirit of commercial progress. But, strangely +enough, he felt no bitterness at thought of Eliza. On the +contrary, his heart softened in a sort of friendly yearning for +her company. He would have liked to talk the matter over with +her. + +Looking the situation squarely in the face, he realized that he +must face a crash or raise two million dollars within the next +month. That meant seventy thousand dollars a day. It was a man- +sized task. + +He bought himself a cigar at the corner, hailed a taxicab, and +was driven all the way up town to the Holland House. Once there, +he established himself in that corner of the men's cafe which he +always frequented. + +The waiter who served him lingered to say: + +"It's good to see you back in your 'office' again. You've been a +long time away, sir." + +O'Neil smiled as he left a silver dollar on the tray. + +"It's good to be back, Joe," he said. "This time I may not +leave." + + + + +XVIII + +HOW THE MAN BECAME A PRINCE AGAIN + + +O'Neil had the faculty of sleeping well, in spite of the most +tormenting worries. He arose on the morning after his interview +with Mr. Heidlemann, ready to begin the struggle with all his +normal energy and confidence. But the day brought him only +discouragement. He had a large acquaintance, the mention of his +name in quarters where he was not personally known gained him +respectful attention; but he found himself working in the shadow +of the Copper Trust, and its silent influence overcame his +strongest arguments. One banker expressed the general attitude by +saying: + +"If the Heidlemanns were not in the field we might help you, but +it would be financial suicide to oppose them." + +"There's no opposition about it," Murray assured him. "If I build +that bridge they'll buy us out." + +At this his hearer very naturally wished to know why, if the +bridge were indeed feasible, the Heidlemanns delayed action; and +O'Neil had to fall back upon a recital of the facts, realizing +perfectly that they failed to carry conviction. + +No one, it seemed, cared to risk even a semblance of rivalry with +that monstrous aggregation of capital, for the interlacing of +financial interests was amazingly intricate, and financiers were +fearful of the least misstep. Everywhere O'Neil encountered the +same disheartening timidity. His battle, it seemed, had been lost +before it was begun. + +Days passed in fruitless endeavors; evenings found O'Neil in his +corner of the Holland House Cafe racking his brain for some way +out of his perplexities. Usually he was surrounded by friends, +for he continued to entertain in the lavish fashion for which he +had gained a reputation; but sometimes he was alone, and then his +solitude became more oppressive than it had ever been even in the +farthest wastes of the northland. He was made to feel his +responsibility with dreadful keenness, for his associates were in +a panic and bombarded him with daily inquiries, vexatious and +hard to answer. He had hoped that in this extremity they might +give him some practical help, and they did make a few half- +hearted attempts, only to meet the same discouragements as he. At +last they left him to carry the burden alone. + +A week, two weeks went by. He was in constant cable communication +with Omar, but not even the faithful Dr. Gray knew the dire +straits in which his chief was struggling. Work on the S. R. & N. +was going forward as usual. The organization was running at its +highest efficiency: rails were being laid; gangs of rock-workers +were preparing the grade beyond the glaciers. Yet every day that +passed, every pay-check drawn brought ruin closer. Nevertheless, +O'Neil continued to joke and chat with the men who came to his +table in the cafe and kept his business appointments with his +customary cheerfulness. The waiters who attended him rejoiced in +his usual princely tips. + +One evening as he ran through his mail he found a letter in a +woman's handwriting and, glancing at the signature, started. It +was signed "Gloria Gordon." Briefly it apprised him of her +marriage and of her and Natalie's return to Hope. Gloria thanked +him perfunctorily for his many kindnesses, but she neither +expressed nor implied an invitation for him to visit them. He +smiled a little grimly--already her loyalty had veered to +Gordon's side, and Natalie no doubt shared her feeling. Well, it +was but natural, perhaps. It would be unreasonable to expect them +to sacrifice their desires, and what they now seemed to consider +their interests, to a business quarrel they could hardly be +expected to understand. He could not help feeling hurt that the +women should so readily exchange his friendship for the +protection of his bitterest enemy, but--they were helpless and he +had helped them; let it rest at that. He was really troubled, +however, that they had been so easily deceived. If they had only +waited! If he had only been able to advise them! For Gordon's +intention was plain. He was aroused from his train of thought by +a stranger whom he found standing beside his table and looking +down at him with wavering eye. + +"Misser O'Neil, ain't it?" the fellow inquired. "Sure! Thought I +knew you. I'm Bulker, of the old North Pass. Remember me?" + +Mr. Bulker had been imbibing freely. He showed evidences of a +protracted spree not only in his speech, but in the trembling +hand which he extended. His eyes were bloodshot, and his good- +natured face was purple. + +O'Neil greeted him pleasantly, and, considering himself +enthusiastically welcomed, the new-comer sat down suddenly, as if +some one had tripped him. + +"Been washing you for ten minutes." + +"Washing me?" + +"No! WASHING you. Couldn't make you out--eyesight's getting bad. +Too many bright lights in this town. Ha! Joke! Let's have a +gill." + +"Thank you, no." + +"Must have a little dram for old time's sake. You're the only one +of the North Pass crowd I'll drink with." Mr. Bulker gestured +comprehensively at a group of waiters, and Murray yielded. "You +were my friend, O'Neil; you always treated me right." + +"What are you doing now?" asked O'Neil, with the interest he +could not refuse to any one who had ever worked with him. He +remembered the fellow perfectly. He had come on from the East as +auditor, and had appeared to be capable, although somewhat given +to drink. + +"I'm a broker. Wall Street's my habitat. Fine time to buy stocks, +Misser O'Neil." Bulker assumed an expression of great wisdom. +"Like to have a tip? No? Good! You're a wise man. They fired me +from the North Pass. Wha'd you know about that? Fired me for +drinking! Greatest injustice I ever heard of, but I hit running, +like a turkey. That wasn't the reason they let me go, though. Not +on your life!" He winked portentously, and strangely enough his +eyelid failed to resume its normal position. It continued to +droop, giving the appearance of a waggish leer. "I knew too mush! +Isn't healthy to know too mush, is it?" + +"I've never had a chance to find out," smiled Murray. + +"Oh, don't be an ingenue; you savvied more than anybody on the +job. I'll admit I took a nip now and then, but I never got +pickled. Say! Who d'you s'pose I saw to-day? Old man Illis!" + +O'Neil became suddenly intent. He had been trying to get in touch +with Poultney Illis for more than a fortnight, but his cables to +London had brought no response. + +"When did he arrive?" + +"Just lately. He's a game old rooster, ain't he? Gee, he's sore!" + +"Sore about what?" + +Bulker winked again, with the same lack of muscular control. + +"About that North Pass deal, of course. He was blackmailed out of +a cold million. The agreement's about up now, and I figure he's +over here to renew it." + +"You're talking Greek," said O'Neil; but his eagerness was +manifest. + +"I s'posed you knew. The North Pass has been paying blackmail to +the Yukon steamboat companies for three years. When you built the +line it practically put 'em out of the Dawson market, +understand?" + +"Of course." + +Now that Mr. Bulker's mind was running along well-worn grooves, +his intoxication became less apparent. + +"Those Frisco steamboat men got together and started a rate war +against the railroad; they hauled freight to Dawson by way of St. +Michaels at a loss. Of course Illis and his crowd had to meet +competition, and it nearly broke 'em the first two seasons. Gee, +they were the mad ones! Finally they fixed up an agreement--had +to or go bust--and of course the Native Sons put it over our +English cousins. They agreed to restore the old rate, and each +side promised to pay the other a royalty of ten dollars a ton on +all the freight it hauled to Dawson and up-river points. You can +guess the result, can't you? The steamboat companies let Illis +haul all the freight and sat back on their haunches and took +their profit. For every ton he hauled he slipped 'em ten round +American dollars, stamped with the Goddess of Liberty. Oh, it was +soft! When they had him fairly tied up they dry-docked their +steamboats, to save wear and tear. He paid 'em a thousand dollars +a day for three years. If that ain't blackmail, it's a first +cousin to it by marriage." + +"Didn't the Interstate Commerce Commission get wise?" + +"Certainly not. It looks wise, but it never GETS wise. Oh, +believe me, Poultney Illis is hopping mad. I s'pose he's over +here now to renew the arrangement for another three years on +behalf of his stock-holders. Let's have a dram." Bulker sat back +and stared as through a mist at his companion, enjoying the +effect of his disclosure. + +O'Neil was indeed impressed--more deeply than his informant +dreamed. Out of the lips of a drunken man had come a hint which +set his nerves to tingling. He knew Illis well, he knew the +caliber of the Englishman, and a plan was already leaping in his +brain whereby he might save the S. R. & N. + +It lacked an hour of midnight when O'Neil escaped from Bulker and +reached his room. Once inside, he seized the telephone and rang +up hotel after hotel, inquiring for the English capitalist, but +without result. After a moment's consideration he took his hat +and gloves and went out. The matter did not permit of delay. Not +only were his own needs imperative, but if Poultney Illis had +come from London to confer with his rivals there was little time +to spare. + +Remembering the Englishman's habits, O'Neil turned up the Avenue +to the Waldorf, where he asked for the manager, whom he well +knew. + +"Yes, Mr. Illis is here," he was informed, "but he's registered +under a different name. No doubt he'll be glad to see you, +however." + +A moment later Murray recognized the voice of Illis's valet over +the wire and greeted him by name. Another brief delay, and the +capitalist himself was at the 'phone. + +"Come right up," he said; and O'Neil replaced the receiver with a +sigh of relief. + +Illis greeted him warmly, for their relations had been close. + +"Lucky you found me," he said. "I'm going back on the next +sailing." + +"Have you signed up with the Arctic Navigation Company?" Murray +inquired; and the other started. + +"Bless me! What do you mean?" + +His caller laughed. "I see you haven't. I don't think you will, +either, after you've talked with me." + +Without the tremor of an eyelash Illis exclaimed: + +"My word! What are you driving at?" + +"That agreement over freight rates, of course." + +The Briton eyed him for a moment, then carefully closed the door +leading from his sitting-room, and, seating himself, lit a cigar. + +"What do you know about that matter?" he asked, quietly. + +"About all there is to know--enough, at least, to appreciate your +feelings." + +"I flattered myself that my affairs were private. Where did you +get your information?" + +"I'll tell you if you insist, although I'd rather not. There's no +danger of its becoming public." + +Illis showed his relief. "I'm glad. You gave me a start. Rotten +fix for a man to be in. Why, I'm here under an assumed name! +Fancy! But--" he waved his hand in a gesture which showed his +acceptance of the inevitable. + +"You haven't made your new agreement?" + +"I'm to meet Blum and Capron to-morrow." + +"Why didn't you take the S. R.& N. when I cabled you last month?" + +"I couldn't. But what has that to do with the matter?" + +"Don't you see? It's so plain to me that I can't understand how +you failed to realize the value--the necessity of buying my +road." + +"Explain, please." + +"Gladly. The North Pass & Yukon is paying a fabulous blackmail to +the river-lines to escape a ruinous rate war." + +"Right! It's blackmail, as you say." "Under the present agreement +you handle the Dawson freight and keep out of the lower river; +they take the whole Tanana valley and lower Yukon." + +"Correct." + +"Didn't it occur to you that the S.R.& N., which starts four +hundred miles west of the North Pass and taps the Tanana valley, +can be used to put the river steamers of that section out of +business?" + +"Let's have a look at the map." Mr. Illis hurried into an +adjoining room and returned with a huge chart which he unrolled +upon the table. "To tell you the truth, I never looked at the +proposition from that angle. Our people were afraid of those +glaciers and the competition of the Copper Trust. They're +disgusted, too, with our treatment." + +"The Trust is eliminated. Kyak harbor is wiped off the map, and +I'm alone in the field." + +"How about this fellow Gordon?" + +"He'll be broke in a year. Incidentally, that's my trouble." + +"But I'm told you can't pass the glaciers." + +"I can. Parker says he'll have the bridge done by spring." + +"Then I'd bank on it. I'd believe Parker if I knew he was lying. +If you both agree, I haven't the slightest doubt." + +"This is a bigger proposition than the North Pass, Mr. Illis. You +made money out of that road, but this one will make more." He +swiftly outlined the condition of affairs, even to the attitude +assumed by the Heidlemanns; and Illis, knowing the speaker as he +did, had no doubt that he was hearing the exact truth. "But +that's not all," continued O'Neil. "The S. R. & N. is the club +which will hammer your enemies into line. That's what I came to +see you about. With a voice in it you can control the traffic of +all central Alaska and force the San Francisco crowd to treat the +N. P. & Y. fairly, thereby saving half a million a year." + +"It's a big undertaking. I'm not sure our crowd could swing it." + +"They don't have to. There's a quick profit of two million to be +had by selling to the Trust next spring. You can dictate your own +terms to those blackmailers to-morrow, and then make a turn-over +in nine months. It doesn't matter who owns the S. R. & N. after +it's completed. The steamboat men will see their profits cut. As +it is now, they can make enough out of their own territory to +haul freight into yours for nothing." + +"I dare say you'll go to them if we don't take you up, eh?" + +"My road has its strategic value. I must have help. If you don't +come to my rescue it will mean war with your line, I dare say." + +Mr. Illis sat back, staring at the ceiling for a long time. From +the street below came the whir and clatter of taxicabs as the +midnight crowd came and went. The city's nocturnal life was at +its height; men had put aside the worries of the day and were +devoting themselves to the more serious and exhausting pastimes +of relaxation. Still the white-haired Briton weighed in his mind +the matter of millions, while the fortunes of Murray O'Neil hung +in the balance. + +"My people won't buy the S. R. & N.," Illis finally announced. +"But I'll put it up to them." + +"I can't delay action if there's a chance of a refusal. I'll have +to see Blum and Capron," said O'Neil." + +"I'll cable full details within the hour. We'll have an answer by +to-morrow night." + +"And if they refuse?" O'Neil lit a cigar with steady fingers. + +"Oh, if they refuse I'll join you. We'll go over the matter +carefully in the mean time. Two million you said, didn't you?" + +"Yes. There's two million profit for you in nine months." His +voice was husky and a bit uneven, for he had been under a great +strain. + +"Good! You don't know how resentful I feel toward Blum and his +crowd. I--I'm downright angry: I am that." + +Illis took the hand which his caller extended, with an +expressionless face. + +"I'm glad I found you," confessed O'Neil. "I was on my last legs. +Herman Heidlemann will pay our price when the last bridge-bolt is +driven home, and he'll pay with a smile on his face--that's the +sort of man he is." + +"He won't pay if he knows I'm interested. We're not exactly +friendly since I sold out my smelter interests. But he needn't +know--nobody need know." + +Illis called his valet and instructed him to rouse his secretary +and ring for some cable blanks. + +"I think I'll cable, too," Murray told him. "I have some 'boys' +up there who are working in the dark with their teeth shut. +They're waiting for the crash, and they'd like to hear the good +news." + +His fingers shook as he scrawled the name of Doctor Gray, but his +eyes were bright and youth was singing in his heart once more. + +"Now let's get down to business," said Mr. Illis. "We'll have to +talk fast." + +It was growing light in the east when O'Neil returned to the +Holland House; but he felt no fatigue, and he laughed from the +pure joy of living, for his dream seemed coming true. + + + + +XIX + +MISS APPLETON MAKES A SACRIFICE + + +Tom Slater came puffing up the hill to the Appleton bungalow, +plumped himself into a chair, and sighed deeply. + +"What's the matter? Are you played out?" asked Eliza. + +"No. I'm feeling like a colt." + +"Any news from Omar Khayyam?" + +"Not a word." + +Eliza's brows drew together in a worried frown, for none of +Murray's "boys" had awaited tidings from him with greater anxiety +than she. + +It had been a trying month for them all. Dr. Gray, upon whom the +heaviest responsibility rested, had aged visibly under the +strain; Parker and Mellen and McKay had likewise become worn and +grave as the days passed and they saw disaster approaching. Even +Dan was blue; and Sheldon, the light-hearted, had begun to lose +interest in his commissary duties. + +After the storm at Kyak there had been a period of fierce +rejoicing, which had ended abruptly with the receipt of O'Neil's +curt cablegram announcing the attitude of the Trust. Gloom had +succeeded the first surprise, deepening to hopeless despondency +through the days that followed. Oddly enough, Slater had been the +only one to bear up; under adversity he blossomed into a peculiar +and almost offensive cheerfulness. It was characteristic of his +crooked temperament that misfortune awoke in him a lofty and +unshakable optimism. + +"You're great on nicknames, ain't you?" he said to Eliza, +regarding her with his never-failing curiosity. "Who's this Homer +Keim you're always talking about?" + +"He isn't any more: he WAS. He was a cheerful old Persian poet." + +"I thought he was Dutch, from the name. Well! Murray's cheerful +too. Him and me are alike in that. I'll bet he isn't worrying +half so much as Doc and the others." + +"You think he'll make good?" "He never fails." + +"But--we can't hold on much longer. Dan says that some of the men +are getting uneasy and want their money." + +Tom nodded. "The men are all right--Doc has kept them paid up; +it's the shift bosses. I say let 'em quit." + +"Has it gone as far as that?" + +"Somebody keeps spreading the story that we're busted and that +Murray has skipped out. More of Gordon's work, I s'pose. Some of +the sore-heads are coming in this evening to demand their wages." + +"Can we pay them?" + +"Doc says he dassent; so I s'pose they'll quit. He should have +fired 'em a week ago. Never let a man quit--always beat him to +it. We could hold the rough-necks for another two weeks if it +wasn't for these fellows, but they'll go back and start a +stampede." + +"How many are there?" + +"About a dozen." + +"I was afraid it was worse. There can't be much owing to them." + +"Oh, it's bad enough! They've been letting their wages ride, +that's why they got scared. We owe them about four thousand +dollars." + +"They must be paid," said Eliza. "It will give Mr. O'Neil another +two weeks--a month, perhaps." + +"Doc's got his back up, and he's told the cashier to make 'em +wait." + +Eliza hesitated, and flushed a little. "I suppose it's none of my +business," she said, "but--couldn't you boys pay them out of your +own salaries?" + +Mr. Slater grinned--an unprecedented proceeding which lent his +face an altogether strange and unnatural expression. + +"Salary! We ain't had any salary," he said, cheerfully--"not for +months." + +"Dan has drawn his regularly." + +"Oh, sure! But he ain't one of us. He's an outsider." + +"I see!" Eliza's eyes were bright with a wistful admiration. +"That's very nice of you men. You have a family, haven't you, +Uncle Tom?" + +"I have! Seven head, and they eat like a herd of stock. It looks +like a lean winter for 'em if Murray don't make a sale--but he +will. That isn't what I came to see you about; I've got my asking +clothes on, and I want a favor." + +"You shall have it, of course." + +"I want a certificate." + +"Of what?" + +"Ill health. Nobody believes I had the smallpox." + +"You didn't." + +"Wh-what?" Tom's eyes opened wide. He stared at the girl in hurt +surprise. + +"It was nothing but pimples, Tom." + +"Pimples!" He spat the word out indignantly, and his round cheeks +grew purple. "I--I s'pose pimples gave me cramps and chills and +backache and palpitation and swellings! Hunh! I had a narrow +escape--narrow's the word. It was narrower than a knife-edge! +Anything I get out of life from now on is 'velvet,' for I was +knocking at death's door. The grave yawned, but I jumped it. It's +the first sick spell I ever had, and I won't be cheated out of +it. Understand?" + +"What do you want me to do?" smiled the girl. + +"You're a writer: write me an affidavit--" + +"I can't do that." + +"Then put it in your paper. Put it on the front page, where folks +can see it." + +"I've quit The Review. I'm doing magazine stories." + +"Well, that'll do. I'm not particular where it's printed so long +as--" + +Eliza shook her head. "You weren't really sick, Uncle Tom." + +At this Mr. Slater rose to his feet in high dudgeon. + +"Don't call me 'Uncle,'" he exclaimed. "You're in with the +others." + +"It wouldn't be published if I wrote it." + +"Then you can't be much of a writer." He glared at her, and +slowly, distinctly, with all the emphasis at his command, said: +"I had smallpox--and a dam' bad case, understand? I was sick. I +had miseries in every joint and cartage of my body. I'm going to +use a pick-handle for a cane, and anybody that laughs will get a +hickory massage that'll take a crooked needle and a pair of +pinchers to fix. Thank God I've got my strength back! You get +me?" + +"I do." + +He snorted irately and turned to go, but Eliza checked him. + +"What about those shift bosses?" she asked. + +Slater rolled his eyes balefully. "Just let one of 'em mention +smallpox," he said, "and I'll fill the hospital till it bulges." + +"No, no! Are you going to pay them?" + +"Certainly not." + +Eliza considered for a moment. "Don't let them see Dr. Gray," she +said, at length. "He has enough to worry him. Meet them at the +train and bring them here." + +"What for? Tea?" + +"You boys have done all you can; I think it's time Dan and I did +something." + +Tom stared. "Are YOU going to pay 'em?" he asked, gruffly. + +"Yes. Mr. O'Neil needs time. Dan and I have saved four thousand +dollars. I'd offer it to Dr. Gray--" + +"He wouldn't take it." + +"Exactly. Send Dan up here when you see him." + +"It doesn't seem exactly right." Tom was obviously embarrassed. +"You see, we sort of belong to Murray, and you don't, but--" He +shook his head as if to rid himself of unwelcome emotion. "Women +are funny things! You're willing to do that for the chief, and +yet you won't write me a little affidavit!" He grunted and went +away, still shaking his head. + +When Eliza explained her plan to Dan she encountered an +opposition that shocked and hurt her. + +"I won't do it!" he said, shortly. + +"You--WHAT?" + +"We can't build the S. R. + +"Yes, and made you love him, too," said Dan, roughly. "I can see +that." + +Eliza lifted her head and met his eyes squarely. + +"That's true! But why not? Can't I love him? Isn't it my +privilege to help him if I want to? If I had two million dollars +instead of two thousand I'd give it to him, and--and I wouldn't +expect him to care for me, either. He'll never do that. He +couldn't! But--oh, Danny, I've been miserable--" + +Dan felt a certain dryness of the throat which made speech oddly +difficult. "I don't see why he couldn't care for you," he said, +lamely. + +Eliza shook her head hopelessly. "I'm glad it happened," she +said--"glad. In writing these articles I've tried to make him +understood; I've tried to put my whole soul into them so that the +people will see that he isn't, wouldn't be, a thief nor a +grafter. I've described him as he is--big, honorable, gentle--" + +"I didn't know you were writing fiction," said her brother, +impatiently. + +"I'm not. It's all true. I've cried over those articles, Dan. +I've petted them, and I've kissed his name--oh, I've been silly!" +She smiled at him through a sudden glimmer of tears. + +Dan began to wonder if his sister, in spite of her exemplary +conduct in the past, were after all going to have hysterics. +Women were especially likely to, he reflected, when they demanded +the impossible. At last he said, uncomfortably: "Gee, I thought I +was the dippy member of the family!" + +"It's our chance to help him," she urged. "Will you--?" + +"No! I'm sorry, Sis, but my little bit wouldn't mean anything to +him; it means everything to me. Maybe that's selfish--I don't +care. I'm as mad over Natalie as you seem to be over him. A +week's delay can't make any difference now--he played and lost. +But I can't afford to lose. He'll make another fortune, that's +sure--but do you think I'll ever find another Natalie? No! Don't +argue, for I won't listen." + +He left the house abruptly, and Eliza went into the white bedroom +which O'Neil had fitted up for her. From the remotest corner of +her lowest bureau drawer she drew a battered tin box, and, +dividing the money it contained into two equal parts, placed one +in the pockets of her mannish jacket. + +It was dark when Tom Slater arrived, at the head of a group of +soiled workmen whom he ushered into the parlor of the bungalow. + +"Here's the bunch!" he announced, laconically. + +As the new-comers ranged themselves uncomfortably about the wall +Dan Appleton entered and greeted them with his customary +breeziness. + +"The pay-master is busy, and Doc Gray has a surgical case," he +said, "so I'll cash your time-checks. Get me the box, will you, +Sis?" + +He had avoided Eliza's eyes upon entering, and he avoided them +now, but the girl's throat was aching as she hurried into her +bedroom and hastily replaced the rolls of greenbacks she had +removed from the tin box. + +When he had finished paying off, Dan said, brusquely: + +"Now we mustn't have any loafing around town, understand?" + +"We can't get back to-night," said one of the men. + +"Oh yes, you can. I ordered an engine out." + +"We hear--there's talk about quitting work," another ventured. +"Where's O'Neil?" + +"He's in the States buying a steamship," answered Dan, +unblushingly. "We can't get stuff fast enough by the regular +boats." + +"Good! That sounds like business. We don't want to quit." + +"Now hurry! Your parlor-car is waiting." + +When he and Eliza were alone he turned to her with a flush of +embarrassment. "Aren't we the darnedest fools, Sis? I wouldn't +mind if we had done the chief any good, but we haven't." He +closed the lid of the tin box, which was nearly empty now, and +pushed it away from him, laughing mirthlessly. "Hide that +sarcophagus where I can't see it," he commanded. "It makes me +sick." + +Eliza flung her arm about his neck and laid her cheek against +his. "Poor Danny! You're a brick!" + +"It's the bread-line for us," he told her. + +"Never mind. We're used to it now." She laughed contentedly and +snuggled her face closer to his. + +It was on the following morning that O'Neil's cablegram +announcing the result of his interview with Illis reached Omar. +Dr. Gray brought the news to the Appleton bungalow while Dan and +his sister were still at breakfast. "Happy Tom" came puffing and +blowing at his heels with a highly satisfied I-told-you-so +expression on his round features. + +"He made it! The tide has turned," cried the doctor as he burst +in waving the message on high. "Yes!" he explained, in answer to +their excited questions. "Murray got the money and our troubles +are over. Now give me some coffee, Eliza. I'm all shaky." + +"English money!" commented Slater. "The same as we used on the +North Pass." + +"Then he interested Illis!" cried Dan. + +"Yep! He's the white-winged messenger of hope. I wasn't worried +for a minute," Tom averred. + +The breakfast which followed was of a somewhat hysterical and +fragmentary nature, for Eliza felt her heart swelling, and the +faithful Gray was all but undone by the strain he had endured. +"That's the first food I've tasted for weeks," he confessed. +"I've eaten, but I haven't tasted; and now--I'm not hungry." He +sighed, stretched his long limbs gratefully, and eyed the +Appletons with a kindly twinkle. "You were up in the air, too, +weren't you? The chief will appreciate last night's affair." + +Eliza colored faintly. "It was nothing. Please don't tell him." +At the incredulous lift of his brows she hastened to explain: +"Tom said you men 'belonged' to Mr. O'Neil and Dan was an +outsider. That hurt me dreadfully." + +"Well, he can't say that now; Dan is one of Murray's boys, all +right, and you--you must be his girl." + +At that moment Mellen and McKay burst into the bungalow, +demanding the truth behind the rumor which had just come to their +ears; and there followed fresh explanations and rejoicings, +through which Eliza sat quietly, thrilled by the note of genuine +affection and loyalty that pervaded it all. But, now that the +general despondency had vanished and joy reigned in its place, +Tom Slater relapsed into his habitual gloom and spoke +forebodingly of the difficulties yet to be encountered. + +"Murray don't say how MUCH he's raised," he remarked. "It may be +only a drop in the bucket. We'll have to go through all this +again, probably, and the next time he won't find it so easy to +sting a millionaire." + +"We'll last through the winter anyhow--" + +"Winter!" Slater shook his bald head. "Winter is hard on old men +like me." + +"We'll have the bridge built by spring, sure!" Mellen declared. + +"Maybe! I hope so. I wish I could last to see it, but the +smallpox undermined me. Perhaps it's a mercy I'm so far gone; +nobody knows yet whether the bridge will stand, and--I'd hate to +see it go out." + +"It won't go out," said the engineer, confidently. + +"Maybe you're right. But that's what Trevor said about his +breakwater. His work was done, and ours isn't hardly begun. By +the way, Murray didn't say he HAD the money; he just said he +expected to get it." + +"Go out and hang your crepe on the roundhouse," Dan told him; +"this is a jubilee. If you keep on rejoicing you'll have us all +in tears." When the others had gone he turned to Eliza. "Why +don't you want O'Neil to know about that money, Sis?" he asked, +curiously. "When I'm a hero I like to be billed as one." + +"Please!" She hesitated and turned her face away. "You--you are +so stupid about some things." + +On the afternoon of this very day Curtis Gordon found Natalie at +a window staring out across the sound in the direction of Omar. +He laid a warm hand upon her shoulder and said: + +"My dear, confess! You are lonesome." + +She nodded silently. + +"Well, well! We mustn't allow that. Why don't you run over to +Omar and see your friend Miss Appleton? She has a cheerful way +with her." "I'm afraid things aren't very gay over there," said +Natalie, doubtfully. + +"Quite probably. But the fact that O'Neil is on his last legs +needn't interfere with your pleasure. A change will do you good." + +"You are very kind," she murmured. "You have done everything to +make me happy, but--it's autumn. Winter is coming. I feel dull +and lonely and gray, like the sky. Are you sure Mr. O'Neil has +failed?" + +"Certainly. He tried to sell his holdings to the Trust, but they +refused to consider it. Poor fellow!" he continued, unctuously. +"Now that he's down I pity him. One can't dislike a person who +has lost the power of working harm. His men are quitting: I doubt +if he'll dare show his face in this country again. But never mind +all that. There's a boat leaving for Omar in the morning. Go; +have a good time, return when you will, and tell us how they bear +up under their adversity." He patted her shoulder affectionately +and went up to his room. + +It was true enough that Natalie had been unhappy since returning +to Hope--not even her mother dreamed how she rebelled at +remaining here. She was lonely, uninterested, vaguely homesick. +She missed the intimate companionship of Eliza; she missed Dan's +extravagant courting and O'Neil's grave, respectful attentions. +She also felt the loss of the honest good-fellowship of all those +people at Omar whom she had learned to like and to admire. Life +here was colorless, and was still haunted by the shadow of that +thing from which she and her mother had fled. + +Gordon, indeed, had been generous to them both. Since his +marriage his attitude had changed entirely. He was polite, +agreeable, charmingly devoted: no ship arrived without some +tangible and expensive evidence of his often-expressed desire to +make his wife and stepdaughter happy; he anticipated their +slightest wish. Under his assiduous attentions Natalie's distrust +and dislike had slowly melted, and she came to believe that she +had misjudged him. There were times when he seemed to be +overdoing the matter a bit, times when she wondered if his +courtesy could be altogether disinterested; but these occasions +were rare, and always she scornfully accused herself of +disloyalty. As for Gloria, she was deeply contented--as nearly +happy, in fact, as a woman of her temperament could be, and in +this the daughter took her reward. + +Natalie arrived at Omar in time to see the full effect of the +good news from New York, and joined sincerely in the general +rejoicing. She returned after a few days, bursting with the +tidings of O'Neil's victory. + +Gordon listened to her with keenest attention; he drew her out +artfully, and when he knew what he had sent her to learn he gave +voice to his unwelcome surprise. + +"Jove!" he snarled. "That beggar hoodwinked the Heidlemanns, +after all. It's their money. What fools! What fools!" + +Natalie looked up quickly. + +"Does it affect your plans?" she asked. + +"Yes--in a way. It consolidates my enemies." + +"You said you no longer had any ill feeling toward Mr. O'Neil." + +Gordon had resumed his usual suavity. "When I say enemies," he +qualified, "of course, I mean it only in a business sense. I +heard that the Trust had withdrawn, discouraged by their losses, +but, now that they re-enter the field, I shall have to fight +them. They would have done well to consult me--to buy me off, +rather than be bled by O'Neil. They shall pay well for their +mistake, but--it's incredible! That man has the luck of the +devil." + +That evening he and Denny sat with their heads together until a +late hour, and when they retired Gordon had begun to whip new +plans into shape. + + + + +XX + +HOW GORDON CHANGED HIS ATTACK + + +O'Neil's return to Omar was triumphal. All his lieutenants +gathered to meet him at the pier and the sincerity of their +welcome stirred him deeply. His arrangements with Illis had taken +time; he had been delayed at Seattle by bridge details and the +placing of steel contracts. He had worked swiftly, and with such +absorption that he had paid little heed to the rumors of Gordon's +latest activities. Of the new venture which his own success had +inspired he knew only the bare outline. He had learned enough, +however, to arouse his curiosity, and as soon as the first +confusion of his arrival at the front was over he asked for news. + +"Haven't you read the papers?" inquired "Happy Tom." He had +attached himself to O'Neil at the moment of his stepping ashore, +and now followed him to headquarters, with an air of melancholy +satisfaction in mere physical nearness to his chief. + +"Barely!" O'Neil confessed. "I've been working twenty hours a day +getting that steel under motion." + +Dr. Gray said with conviction: "Gordon is a remarkable man. It's +a pity he's crooked." + +"I think it's dam' lucky," declared Tom. "He's smarter than us, +and if he wasn't handicapped by a total lack of decency he'd beat +us." + +"After the storm," explained Gray, "he moved back to Hope, and we +thought he'd made his last bow, but in some way he got the idea +that the Trust was back of us." + +"So I judged from the little I read." + +"Well, we didn't undeceive him, of course. His first move was an +attack through the press in the shape of a broadside against the +Heidlemanns. It fairly took our breaths. It appeared in the +Cortez Courier and all over the States, we hear--a letter of +defiance to Herman Heidlemann. It declared that the Trust was up +to its old tricks here in Alaska had gobbled the copper; had the +coal tied up under secret agreements, and was trying to get +possession of all the coast-range passes and defiles--the old +story. But the man can write. That article caused a stir." + +"I saw it." + +"Naturally, the Cortez people ate it up. They're sore at the +Trust for leaving their town, and at us for building Omar. Then +Gordon called a mass-meeting, and some of us went up to watch the +fireworks. I've never seen anything quite like that meeting; +every man, woman, and child in the city was there, and they +hissed us when we came in. Gordon knew what he was about, and he +was in fine voice. He told them Cortez was the logical point of +entry to the interior of Alaska and ought to have all the +traffic. He fired their animosity toward the Trust, and accused +us of basely selling out to it. Then he broached a project to +build, by local subscription, a narrow-gauge electric line from +Cortez, utilizing the waterfalls for power. The idea caught on, +and went like wild-fire: the people cheered themselves hoarse, +and pledged him over a hundred thousand dollars that night. Since +then they have subscribed as much more, and the town is crazy. +Work has actually begun, and they hope to reach the first summit +by Christmas." + +Slater broke in: "He's a spell-binder, all right. He made me hate +the Heidlemanns and detest myself for five minutes. I wasn't even +sure I liked YOU, Murray." + +"It's a wild scheme, of course," continued the doctor, "but he's +putting it over. The town council has granted him a ninety-nine- +year lease covering every street; the road-bed is started, and +things are booming. Lots have been staked all over the flats, +property values are somersaulting, everybody is out of his head, +and Gordon is a god. All he does is organize new companies. He +has bought a sawmill, a wharf, a machine shop, acres of real +estate. He has started a bank and a new hotel; he has +consolidated the barber shops; and he talks about roofing in the +streets with glass and making the town a series of arcades." + +Slater half smiled--evidence of a convulsive mirth within. + +"They've picked out a site for a university!" he said, bitterly. +"Cortez is going to be a seat of learning and culture. They're +planning a park and a place for an Alaskan World's Fair and a +museum and a library. I've always wondered who starts public +libraries--it's 'nuts.' But I didn't s'pose more than one or two +people got foolish that way." + +O'Neil drew from his pocket a newspaper five days old, which he +unfolded and opened at a full-page advertisement, headed: + +CORTEZ HOME RAILWAY + +"This is running in all the coast papers," he said, and read: + +"OUR PLATFORM: + +No promotion shares. No construction profits. + +No bonds. No incompetence. + +No high-salaried officials. No monopoly. + +No passes or rebates. No graft. + +"OF ALASKA, BY ALASKA, FOR ALASKA." + +There was much more of a similar kind, written to appeal to the +quick-profit-loving public, and it was followed by a violent +attack upon the Trust and an appeal to the people of Seattle for +assistance, at one dollar per share. + +"Listen to this," O'Neil went on: + +"Among the original subscribers are the following: + + "Hotels and saloons of Cortez ..... $17,000 + City Council .......................15,000 + Prospectors......................... 7,000 + Ladies' Guild of Cortez .............. 740 + School-children of Cortez............. 420" + +Tom grew red in the face and gave his characteristic snort. "I +don't mind his stringing the City Council and the saloons, and +even the Ladies' Guild," he growled, "but when he steals the +licorice and slate-pencils from the kids it's time he was +stopped." + +Murray agreed. "I think we are about done with Gordon. He has led +his ace." + +"I'm not sure. This is a kind of popular uprising, like a camp- +meeting. If I went to Cortez now, some prattling school-girl +would wallop me with her dinner-bucket. We can't shake Gordon +loose: he's a regular splavvus." + +"What is a splavvus, Tom?" inquired Dr. Gray. + +"It's a real peculiar animal, being a cross between a bulldog and +a skunk. We have lots of 'em in Maine!" + +O'Neil soon found that the accounts he had received of Gordon's +last attempt to recoup his fortunes were in no way exaggerated. +Cortez, long the plaything of the railroad-builders, had been +ripe for his touch: it rose in its wounded civic pride and +greeted his appeal with frantic delight. It was quite true that +the school-children had taken stock in the enterprise: their +parents turned their own pockets inside out, and subscriptions +came in a deluge. The price of real estate doubled, quadrupled, +and Gordon bought just enough to establish the price firmly. The +money he paid was deposited again in his new bank, and he +proceeded to use it over and over in maintaining exorbitant +prices and in advancing his grandiose schemes. His business took +him often to Seattle, where by his whirlwind methods he +duplicated his success in a measure: his sensational attack upon +the money powers got a wide hearing, and he finally secured an +indorsement of his scheme by the Businessmen's Association. This +done, he opened splendid offices and began a wide-spread stock- +flotation campaign. Soon the Cortez Home Railway became known as +a mighty, patriotic effort of Alaskans to throw off the shackles +of oppression. + +Gordon perfectly understood that something more than vague +accusations were necessary to bring the public to his support in +sufficient numbers to sweep him on to victory, and with this in +mind he laid crafty plans to seize the Heidlemann grade. The +Trust had ceased active work on its old right-of-way and moved to +Kyak, to be sure, but it had not abandoned its original route, +and in fact had maintained a small crew at the first defile +outside of Cortez, known as Beaver Canon. Gordon reasoned +shrewdly that a struggle between the agents of the Trust and the +patriotic citizens of the town would afford him precisely the +advertising he needed and give point to his charge of unfair play +against the Heidlemanns. + +It was not difficult to incite his victims to this act of +robbery. On the contrary, once he had made the suggestion, he had +hard work to restrain them, until he had completed his +preparations. These preparations were simple; they consisted in +writing and mailing to every newspaper of consequence a highly +colored account of the railroad struggle. These mimeographed +stories were posted from Seattle in time for them to reach their +destinations on the date set for the seizure of the grade. + +It was an ingenious publicity move, worthy of a theatrical press- +agent, and it succeeded beyond the promoter's fondest +expectations--too well, in fact, for it drove the Trust in +desperation to an alliance with the S. R. & N. + +The day set for the demonstration came; the citizens of Cortez +boldly marched into Beaver Canon to take possession of the old +Heidlemann workings, but it appeared that they had reckoned +prematurely. A handful of grim-faced Trust employees warned them +back: there was a rush, some rough work on the part of the +aggressors, and then the guards brought their weapons into play. +The result afforded Gordon far more sensational material than he +had hoped for: one citizen was killed and five others were badly +wounded. Cortez, dazed and horror-stricken, arose in her wrath +and descended upon the "assassins"; lynchings were planned, and +mobs threatened the local jail, until soldiers were hurried +thither and martial law was declared. + +Of course, the wires were burdened with the accounts; the reading +public of the States awoke to the fact that a bitter strife was +waging in the north between honest miners and the soulless +Heidlemann syndicate. Gordon's previously written and carefully +colored stories of the clash were printed far and wide. +Editorials breathed indignation at such lawlessness and pointed +to the Cortez Home Railway as a commendable effort to destroy the +Heidlemann throttle-hold upon the northland. Stock subscriptions +came in a deluge which fairly engulfed Gordon's Seattle office +force. + +During this brief white-hot campaign the promoter had been +actuated as much by his senseless hatred of O'Neil as by lust of +glory and gain, and it was with no little satisfaction that he +returned to Alaska conscious of having dealt a telling blow to +his enemy. He sent Natalie to Omar on another visit in order that +he might hear at first hand how O'Neil took the matter. But his +complacency received a shock when the girl returned. He had no +need to question her. + +"Uncle Curtis," she began, excitedly, "you ought to stop these +terrible newspaper stories about Mr. O'Neil and the Trust." + +"Stop them? My dear, what do you mean?" + +"He didn't sell out to the Trust. He has nothing to do with it." + +"What?" Gordon's incredulity was a challenge. + +"He sold to an Englishman named Illis. They seem to be amused by +your mistake over there at Omar, but I think some of the things +printed are positively criminal. I knew you'd want the truth--" + +"The truth, yes! But this can't be true," stammered Gordon. + +"It is. Mr. O'Neil did try to interest the Heidlemanns, but they +wouldn't have anything to do with him, and the S. R. & N. was +going to smash when Mr. Illis came along, barely in time. It was +too exiting and dramatic for anything the way Mr. O'Neil found +him when he was in hiding--" + +"Hiding?" + +"Yes. There was something about blackmail, or a secret +arrangement between Mr. Illis and the Yukon River lines--I +couldn't understand just what it was--but, anyhow, Murray took +advantage of it and saved the North Pass and the S. R. & N. at +the same time. It was really a perfectly wonderful stroke of +genius. I determined a once that you should stop these lies and +correct the general idea that he is in the pay of the Trust. Why, +he went to Cortez last week and they threatened his life!" + +Mrs. Gordon, who had listened, said, quietly: "Don't blame Curtis +for that. That bloody affray at Beaver Canyon has made Cortez +bitter against every one connected with the Heidlemanns." + +"What about this blackmail?" said her husband, upon whose ear the +word had made a welcome impression. "I don't understand what you +mean by O'Neil's 'saving' the North Pass and his own road at the +same time--nor Illis's being in hiding." + +"Neither do I." Natalie confessed, "but I know you have made a +mistake that ought to be set right." + +"Why doesn't he come out with the truth?" + +"The whole thing is secret." + +"Why?" + +Natalie shrugged hopelessly, and Gordon lost himself in frowning +thought. + +"This is amazing," he said, brusquely, after a moment. "It's +vital. It affects all my plans. I must know everything at once." + +"I'm sorry I paid so little attention." + +"Never mind; try it again and be diplomatic. If O'Neil won't tell +you, question Appleton--you can wind him around your fingers +easily enough." + +The girl eyed him with a quick change of expression. + +"Isn't it enough to know that the Trust has nothing to do with +the S. R. & N.?" + +"No!" he declared, impatiently. "I must know the whole inside of +this secret understanding--this blackmail, or whatever it is." + +"Then--I'm sorry." + +"Come! Don't be silly. You can do me a great service." + +"You said you no longer disliked Mr. O'Neil and that he couldn't +harm you." + +"Well, well! Must I explain the whys and wherefores of every move +I make?" + +"It would be spying if I went back. The matter is confidential--I +know that." + +"Will you do as I ask?" he demanded. + +Natalie answered him firmly: "No! I told you what I did tell you +only so that you might correct--" + +"You rebel, eh?" Gordon spoke out furiously. + +It was their first clash since the marriage. Mrs. Gordon looked +on, torn between loyalty to her husband and a desire to protect +her daughter. She was searching her mind painfully for the +compromise, the half-truth that was her remedy for every moral +distress. At length she said, placatingly: + +"I'm sure Natalie will help you in any way she can, Curtis. She +isn't rebellious, she merely doesn't understand." + +"She doesn't need to understand. It is enough that I direct her-- +" As Natalie turned and walked silently to the window he stifled +an oath. "Have I no authority?" he stormed. "Do you mean to +obey?" + +"Wait!" Gloria laid a restraining hand on his arm. "Perhaps I can +learn what you want to know. Mr. O'Neil was very kind--" + +Her daughter whirled, with white face and flashing eyes. + +"Mother!" she gasped. + +"Our loyalty begins at home," said Gloria, feebly. + +"Oh-h! I can't conceive of your--of such a thing. If you have no +decency, I have. I'm sorry I spoke, but--if you DARE to do such a +thing I shall warn Mr. O'Neil that you are a spy." She turned a +glance of loathing on Gordon. "I see," she said, quietly. "You +used me as a tool. You lied about your feeling toward him. You +meant harm to him all the time." She faced the window again. + +"Lied!" he shouted. "Be careful--that's pretty strong language. +Don't try me too far, or you may find yourself adrift once more. +I have been too patient. But I have other ways of finding out +what I wish to know, and I shall verify what you have told me." +He strode angrily from the room, leaving Natalie staring out upon +the bleak fall scene, her shoulders very straight, her breast +heaving. Gloria did not venture to address her. + +Fortunately for the peace of all concerned, Gordon left for +Seattle on the next steamer. Neither of the women believed that +Natalie's fragmentary revelation was the cause of his departure; +but, once in touch with outside affairs, he lost no time in +running down the clues he had gathered, and it was not long +before he had learned enough to piece the truth together. Then he +once more brought his mimeograph into use. + + + + +XXI + +DAN APPLETON SLIPS THE LEASH + + +The first winter snows found O'Neil's track laid to the bridge +site and the structure itself well begun. He had moved his office +out to the front, and now saw little of Eliza, who was busied in +writing her book. She had finished her magazine articles, and +they had been accepted, but she had given him no hint as to their +character. + +One afternoon "Happy Tom" burst in upon his chief, having +hastened out from Omar on a construction-train. Drawing a Seattle +paper from his pocket, he began excitedly: + +"Well, the fat's in the fire, Murray! Somebody has belched up the +whole North Pass story." + +O'Neil seized the newspaper and scanned it hurriedly. He looked +up, scowling. + +"Who gave this out?" he inquired, in a harsh voice. + +Slater shrugged. "It's in the Cortez Courier too, so I s'pose it +came from Gordon. Blessings come from one source, and Gordon's +the fountain of all evil. I'm getting so I blame him for +everything unpleasant. Sometimes I think he gave me the +smallpox." + +"Where did he learn the inside of Illis's deal? By God! There's a +leak somewhere!" + +"Maybe he uncovered it back there in the States." + +Murray shook his head. "Nobody knows anything about it except you +boys." He seized the telephone at his elbow and called Dr. Gray, +while Tom listened with his shining forehead puckered anxiously. +O'Neil hung up with a black face. + +"Appleton!" he said. + +Tom looked, if possible, a shade gloomier than usual. "I wouldn't +be too sure it was Dan if I was you," he ventured, doubtfully. + +"Where is he?" O'Neil ground out the words between his teeth. + +"Surveying the town-site addition. If he let anything slip it was +by mistake--" + +"Mistake! I won't employ people who make mistakes of that kind. +This story may bring the Canadian Government down on Illis and +forfeit his North Pass charter--to say nothing of our +authorities. That would finish us." He rose, went to the door, +and ordered the recently arrived engine uncoupled. Flinging +himself into his fur coat, he growled: "I'd rather have a crook +under me than a fool. Appleton told us he talked too much." + +Tom pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Gordon got it through the +Gerard girl, I s'pose." + +"Gordon! Gordon! Will there never be an end to Gordon?" His frown +deepened. "He's in the way, Tom. If he balks this deal I'm afraid +I'll--have to change ghosts." + +"It would be a pious act," Slater declared. "And his ghost +wouldn't ha'nt you none, either. It would put on its asbestos +overshoes and go out among the other shades selling stock in +electric fans or 'Gordon's Arctic Toboggan Slide.' He'd promote a +Purgatory Development Company and underwrite the Bottomless Pit +for its sulphur. I--I'd hate to think this came from Dan." + +The locomotive had been switched out by this time, and O'Neil +hurried to board it. On his way to Omar he had time thoroughly to +weigh the results of this unexpected complication. His present +desire was merely to verify his suspicion that Appleton had told +his secret to Natalie; beyond that he did not care to think, for +there was but one course open. + +His anger reached the blazing-point after his arrival. As he +stepped down from the engine-cab Gray silently handed him a code +message from London which had arrived a few moments before. When +its contents had been deciphered, O'Neil cursed and he was +furious as he stumbled through the dark toward the green bungalow +on the hill. + +Swinging round the corner of the house, he came into a bright +radiance which streamed forth from Eliza's window, and he could +not help seeing the interior of the room. She was there, writing +busily, and he saw that she was clad in the elaborate kimono +which he had given her; yet it was not her personal appearance +which arrested his angry eyes and caused his step to halt; it +was, instead, her surroundings. + +He had grown to accept her prim simplicity as a matter of course, +and never associated her in his thoughts with anything feminine, +but the room as it lay before him now was a revelation of +daintiness and artful decoration. Tasteful water-colors hung on +the walls, a warm rug was on the floor, and everywhere were rosy +touches of color. The plain white bed had been transformed into a +couch of Oriental luxury; a lace spread of weblike texture +covered it, the pillows were hidden beneath billowing masses of +ruffles and ribbons. He saw a typical woman's cozy corner piled +high with cushions; there was a jar of burning incense sticks +near it--everything, in fact, was utterly at variance with his +notions of the owner. Even the girl herself seemed transfigured +for her hair was brought forward around her face in some loose +mysterious fashion which gave her a bewilderingly girlish +appearance. As he looked in upon her she raised her face so that +the light shone full upon it; her brows were puckered, she +nibbled at the end of her pencil, in the midst of some creative +puzzle. + +O'Neil's eyes photographed all this in a single surprised glance +as he passed; the next moment he was mounting the steps to the +porch. + +Dan flung open the door, but his words of greeting froze, his +smile of welcome vanished at sight of his chief's forbidding +visage. + +Murray was in no mood to waste words; he began roughly: + +"Did you tell Miss Gerard that Poultney Illis is backing me?" + +Dan stammered. "I--perhaps--I--What has gone wrong, Chief?" + +"Did you tell her the inside--the story of his agreement with the +steamboat people?" + +Dan paled beneath his tan, but his eyes met Murray's without +flinching. "I think I did--tell her something. I don't quite +remember. But anything I may have said was in confi--" + +"I thought so. I merely wished to make certain. Well, the whole +thing is in the papers." + +Appleton laid his hand upon the table to steady himself. + +"Then it--didn't come from her. She wouldn't--" + +"Gordon has spread the story broadcast. It couldn't have come +from any other source; it couldn't have reached him in any other +way, for none of my boys has breathed a word." His voice rose +despite his effort at self-control. "Illis's agreement was +ILLEGAL," he said, savagely; "it will probably forfeit the +charter of the North Pass or land him in court. I suppose you +realize that! I discovered his secret and assured him it was safe +with me; now you peddle it to Gordon, and the whole thing is +public. Here's the first result." He shook the London cablegram +in Dan's face, and his own was distorted with rage. There was a +stir in Eliza's room which neither noticed. Appleton wiped his +face with uncertain hand; he moistened his lips to say: + +"I--I'm terribly sorry! But I'm sure Natalie wouldn't spy--I +don't remember what I told her, or how I came to know about the +affair. Doc Gray told me, I think, in the first excitement, but-- +God! She--wouldn't knowingly--" + +"Gordon fired you for talking too much. I thought you had learned +your lesson, but it seems you hadn't. Don't blame Miss Gerard for +pumping you--her loyalty belongs to Gordon now. But I require +loyalty, too. Since you lack it you can go." + +O'Neil turned as Eliza's door opened; she stood before him, pale, +frightened, trembling. + +"I couldn't help hearing," she said. "You discharge us?" + +He nodded. "I'm sorry! I've trusted my 'boys' so implicitly that +the thought of betrayal by them never occurred to me. I can't +have men close to me who make such mistakes as this." + +"Perhaps there was--an excuse, or the shadow of one, at least. +When a man is in love, you know--" + +Murray wheeled upon Dan and demanded sharply: + +"What's this?" Then in a noticeably altered tone he asked, "Do +you love--Natalie?" + +"Yes." + +"Does she love you?" + +"No, sir!" + +O'Neil turned back to the girl, saying: "I told Dan, when I hired +him, that he would be called upon to dare much, to suffer much, +and that my interests must be his. He has disregarded them, and +he must go. That's all. There's little difference between +treachery and carelessness." + +"It's--too bad," said the girl, faintly. Dan stood stiff and +silent, wholly dazed by the sudden collapse of his fortunes. + +"I'm not ungrateful for what you've done, Appleton," O'Neil went +on. "I intend to pay you well for the help you gave me. You took +a chance at the Canon and at Gordon's Crossing. You'll get a +check." + +"I don't want your damned money," the other gulped. "I've drawn +my wages." + +"Nevertheless, I shall pay you well. It's highly probable that +you've wrecked the S. R. & N. and ruined me, but I don't intend +to forget my obligations to you. It's unfortunate. Call on the +cashier in the morning. Good night." + +He left them standing there unhappily, dumb and stiff with shame. +Once outside the house, he plunged down the hill as if fleeing +from the scene of some crime. He rushed through the night +blindly, for he had loved his assistant engineer, and the memory +of that chalk-faced, startled girl hurt him abominably. + +When he came to the company office he was walking slowly, +heavily. He found Gray inside and dropped into a chair: his face +was grimly set, and he listened dully to the physician's rambling +talk. + +"I fired Appleton!" he broke out, at last. Gray looked up +quickly. "He acknowledged that he--did it. I had no choice. It +came hard, though. He's a good boy." + +"He did some great work, Chief!" + +"I know! That affair at the Crossing--I intend to pay him well, +if he'll accept. It's not that--I like those kids, Stanley. Eliza +took it harder than he. It wasn't easy for me, either," he +sighed, wearily. "I'd give ten thousand dollars if it hadn't +happened. She looked as if I'd struck her." + +"What did they say?" + +"Nothing. He has been careless, disloyal--" + +"You told them so?" + +O'Neil nodded. + +"And they said nothing?" + +"Nothing! What could they say?" + +Gray answered gruffly: "They might have said a good deal. They +might have told you how they paid off your men and saved a walk- +out when I had no money." + +O'Neil stared incredulously. "What are you talking about?" he +demanded. + +When he had the facts he rose with an exclamation of dismay. + +"God! Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't they speak out? I--I-- +why, that's loyalty of the finest kind. All the money they had +saved, too--when they thought I had failed! Jove! That was fine. +Oh, I'm sorry! I wonder what they think of me? I can't let Dan go +after that. I--" He seized his cap and hurried out of the +building. + +"It's hardly right--when things were going so well, too!" said +Dan. He was sitting crumpled up in a chair, Eliza's arm +encircling his shoulders. "I didn't mean to give up any secrets, +but--I'm not myself when I'm with Natalie." + +"We must take our medicine," his sister told him, gravely. "We +deserve it, for this story may spoil all he's done. I didn't +think it of her, though." + +Dan groaned and bowed his head in his hands. "I don't know which +hurts worse," he said--"his anger or her action. She--couldn't do +such a thing, Sis; she just couldn't!" + +"She probably didn't realize--she hasn't much sense, you know. +But after all he's suffered, to think that we should injure him! +I could cry. I think I shall." + +The door opened before a rough hand, and O'Neil strode into the +room, huge, shaggy in his coonskin coat. They rose, startled, but +he came to them swiftly, a look of mingled shame and gladness in +his face. + +"I've come back to apologize," he cried. "I couldn't wait. I've +learned what you children did while I was gone, and I've come to +beg forgiveness. It's all right--it's all right." + +"I don't know what you mean," Dan gasped. + +"Doc told me how you paid those men. That was real friendship; it +was splendid. It touched me, and I--I want to apologize. You see, +I hurried right back." + +They saw that his eyes were moist, and at the sight Eliza gave a +quivering cry, then turned swiftly to hide her face. She felt +O'Neil's fur-clad arm about her shoulder; his hand was patting +her, and he was saying gently: "You are a dear child. It was +tremendously good of you both, and I--ought to be shot for acting +as I did. I wonder if you can accept a wretched apology as +bravely as you accepted a wrong accusation." + +"It wasn't wrong; it was right," she sobbed. "Dan told her, and +she told Gordon." + +"There, there! I was to blame, after all, for letting any one +know, and if Dan made a mistake he has more than offset it by his +unselfishness--his sacrifices. It seems I forgot how much I +really owe him." + +"That affair with the shift bosses wasn't anything," said Dan, +hastily, "and it was all Eliza's idea. I refused at first, but +when she started to pay them herself I weakened." He stuttered +awkwardly, for his sister was motioning him desperately to be +silent; but he ran on: "Oh, he ought to know the whole truth and +how rotten I acted, Sis. I deserve to be discharged." + +"Please don't make this any harder for me than it is," Murray +smiled. "I'm terribly embarrassed, for I'm not used to apologies. +I can't afford to be unjust; I--have so few friends that I want +to cherish them. I'm sorry you saw me in such a temper. Anger is +a treacherous thing, and it always betrays me. Let's forget that +I was here before and pretend that I just came to thank you for +what you did." He drew Dan into the shelter of his other arm and +pressed the two young people to him. "I didn't realize how deeply +you kids care for each other and for me." + +"Then I'm not fired?" Dan queried, doubtfully. + +"Of course not. When I take time to think about discharging a man +I invariably end by raising his salary." + +"Dan isn't worth half what you're paying him," came Eliza's +muffled voice. She freed herself from Murray's embrace and +rearranged her hair with tremulous fingers. Surreptitiously she +wiped her eyes. "You gave us an awful fright; it's terrible to be +evicted in winter-time." She tried to laugh, but the attempt +failed miserably. + +"Just the same, when a man contemplates marriage he must have +money." + +"I don't want your blamed money," Dan blurted, "and it doesn't +cost anything to contemplate marriage. That's all I'm doing--just +looking at it from a distance." + +"Perhaps I can help you to prevail on Miss Natalie to change her +mind. That would be a real service, wouldn't it?" Under his grave +glance Dan's heart leaped. "I can't believe she's indifferent to +you, my boy. You're suited to each other, and there's no reason +on earth why you shouldn't marry. Perhaps she doesn't know her +own mind." + +"You're mighty good, but--" The lover shook his head. + +Murray smiled again. "I think you're too timid. Don't plead and +beg--just carry her off. Be firm and masterful. Be rough--" + +"The idea!" exclaimed Eliza. "She's no cave-woman!" + +"Exactly. If she were, Dan would need to court her and send her +bouquets of wild violets. She's over-civilized, and therefore he +needs to be primitive." + +Dan blushed and faltered. "I can't be firm with her, Murray; I +turn to jelly whenever she looks at me." There was something so +friendly and kind in his employer's attitude that the young +fellow was tempted to pour out all his vexations; he had never +felt so close to O'Neil as now; but his masculine reserve could +not be overcome all in a moment, and he held his tongue. + +When Murray had put the two young people fully at their ease he +rose to go, but Eliza's eager voice made him turn with his hand +on the door-knob. + +"What can we do about this unfortunate Illis affair?" she asked. +"Dan must try to--" + +"Leave that to me. I'll straighten it out somehow. It is all my +fault, and I'll have to meet it." He pressed their hands warmly. + +When he had gone Dan heaved a great sigh of relief. + +"I'm glad it happened just as it did, Sis," he announced. "He +knows my secret now, and I can see that he never cared for +Natalie. It's a load off my mind to know the track is clear." + +"What a simpleton you are!" she told him. "Don't you see he's +merely paying his debt?" + +"I wonder--" Dan eyed her in amazement. + +"Gee! If that's so he is a prince, isn't he?" + +The same ship which had brought the ominous news to O'Neil also +brought Curtis Gordon north. He had remained in Seattle only long +enough to see the Illis story in print, and then had hastened +back to the front. But his satisfaction over the mischief he had +done received a rude jolt when at his first moment of leisure he +looked over the late magazines which he had bought before taking +leave. In one which had appeared on the news-stands that very day +he found, to his amazement, an article by Miss Eliza Appleton, in +which his own picture appeared. He pounced upon it eagerly; and +then, as he read, his eyes narrowed and his jaw stiffened. There, +spread out to the public gaze, was his own record in full, +including his initial venture into the Kyak coal-fields, his +abandonment of that project in favor of Hope Consolidated, and an +account of his connection with the latter enterprise. Eliza had +not hesitated to call the mine worthless, and she showed how he, +knowing its worthlessness from the first, had used it as a lure +to investors. Then followed the story of his efforts to gain a +foothold in the railroad struggle, his defeat at the Salmon River +Canon, his rout at the delta crossing, and his final death-blow +at Kyak. His career stood out boldly in all its fraudulent +colors; failure was written across every one of his undertakings. +The naked facts showed him visionary, incompetent, unscrupulous. + +Thus far he had succeeded in keeping a large part of his stock- +holders in ignorance of the true condition of Hope Consolidated, +but he quailed at the inevitable result of this article, which +had been flung far and wide into every city and village in the +land. He dared not think of its effect upon his present +enterprise, now so auspiciously launched. He had made a ringing +appeal to the public, and its support would hinge upon its +confidence in him as a man of affairs. Once that trust was +destroyed the Cortez Home Railway would crumble as swiftly as had +all his other schemes. + +The worst of it was that he knew himself shut off from the world +for five days as effectually as if he were locked in a dungeon. +There was no wireless equipment on the ship, he could not start +the machinery of his press bureau, and with every hour this +damnable story was bound to gain momentum. He cursed the luck +which had set him on this quest for vengeance and bound his +hands. + +Once he had gathered his wits, he occupied himself in the only +possible way--by preparing a story of his own for the wire. But +for the first time in his experience he found himself upon the +defensive and opposing a force against which no bland +persuasiveness, no personal magnetism could prevail. In the +scattered nature of his support lay his greatest weakness, for it +made the task of self-justification extremely difficult. Perhaps +it was well for his peace of mind that he could not measure the +full effect of those forces which Eliza Appleton's pen had set in +motion. + +In Omar, of course, the article excited lively interest. O'Neil +felt a warm thrill of satisfaction as he read it on the morning +after his scene with Eliza and Dan. But it deepened his feeling +of obligation almost painfully; for, like all who are +thoughtlessly prodigal of their own favors, he was deeply +sensible of any kindness done himself. Eliza's dignified +exposition of Alaskan affairs, and particularly the agreeable +things she had written about him, were sure to be of great +practical assistance, he knew, and he longed to make some real +return. But so far as she was concerned there seemed to be +nothing that he could do. With Dan, of course, it was quite +different. Mere money or advancement, he admitted seemed paltry, +but there was a possibility of another kind of service. + +Meanwhile Dan was struggling with his problem in his own way. The +possibility that Natalie had voluntarily betrayed him was a +racking torture, and the remembrance of Eliza's words added to +his suffering. He tried to gain some hint of his chief's feeling, +but Murray's frank and friendly attitude baffled him. + +When at last he received a brief note from Natalie asking him to +call, he raced to Hope afraid, yet eager to hear what she might +say. She met him on the dock as he left the S. R. & N. motorboat +and led him directly to the house. + +Natalie went straight to the point. "I'm in dreadful trouble," +she said, "and I sent for you to tell you that I had no idea of +betraying confidences." + +Dan uttered some inane platitude, but his eyes lighted with +relief. + +"When I saw in the papers what a stir that North Pass & Yukon +story had made I was afraid I had done something dreadful. Tell +me, is it so? Did I make trouble?" + +"You certainly did. O'Neil was furious, and nobody knows yet what +the result will be. It--it nearly cost me my head." + +"Does he blame me?" + +"N-no! He says you're on Gordon's side now. He blames me, or did, +until he generously took it on himself." + +"What does it all mean? I'm nearly distracted." Natalie's eyes +were pleading. "Did you think I spied on you?" + +Dan glowed with embarrassment and something more. "I didn't know +what to think," he said. "I was wretchedly miserable, for I was +afraid. And yet I knew you couldn't do such a thing. I told +O'Neil I wasn't responsible for what I did or said when with +you." + +"Mr. Gordon sent me to Omar purposely. He sent me twice. It was I +who brought him word that the road was saved. I told all I'd +learned because I believed he no longer hated Mr. O'Neil. I was +happy to tell all I knew, for he deceived me as he deceives every +one. I learned the truth too late." + +"Why do you stay here?" Dan demanded, hotly. + +"Why? I--don't know. Perhaps because I'm afraid to leave. I'm +alone--you see mother believes in him: she's completely under his +sway, and I can't tell her the sort of man he is. She's happy, +and her happiness is worth more to me than my own. But--I SHALL +go away. I can't stand it here much longer." + +"Where will you go?" + +"Back to my old home, perhaps. Somewhere--anywhere away from +Alaska." + +"I suppose you know I can't get along without you." + +"Please don't! You have been very good and sweet to me, but--" +She shook her dark head. "You couldn't marry me--even if I cared +for you in that way." + +"Why? I intend to marry you whether you want to or not." + +"Oh, Dan, it wouldn't do. You know--about--mother. I've nearly +died of shame, and--it would be sure to come up. Somebody would +speak of it, sometime." + +Dan's blue eyes went cold and smoky as he said: + +"It would take a pretty brave person to mention the subject in my +presence. I don't care a whoop for anything Gordon or your family +may say or do. I--" + +There was a stir in the hall outside, and the speaker turned to +behold Curtis Gordon himself in the doorway. The latter in +passing had been drawn by the sound of voices and had looked into +the library. Recognizing Natalie's caller, he frowned. + +"What is this?" he inquired, coldly. "A proposal? Do I +interrupt?" + +"You do," said Dan; then, after a pause, "I'll finish it when you +leave." + +Gordon entered, and spoke to his stepdaughter. + +"What is this man doing in my house?" + +"He is here at my invitation," she replied. + +"Tell him to leave. I won't have him here." + +"Why don't YOU tell me?" cried Dan. "I don't need an +interpreter." + +"Young man, don't be rash. There is a limit to my patience. If +you have the indecency to come here after what you have done, and +after what your sister has said about me, I shall certainly--" + +Dan broke in roughly: "I didn't come to see you, Gordon. You may +be an agreeable sight to some people, but you're no golden sunset +in my eyes. Eliza flattered you." + +Natalie gave a little terrified cry, for the men were glaring at +each other savagely. Neither seemed to hear her. + +"Did you read that article?" + +"Read it? I wrote it!" + +Gordon's face flamed suddenly with rage; he pointed to the door +with trembling fingers, and shouted: + +"Get out! I'll not have you here. I discharged you once. Get +out!" His utterance was rapid and thick. + +Dan smiled mirthlessly, dangerously. In a soft voice he said: + +"I haven't finished proposing. I expect to be accepted. You'll +pardon me, I know." + +"Will you go, you--" + +Dan turned to the girl, who, after that first outcry, had stood +as if spellbound, her face pale, her eyes shining. + +"Natalie dear," he said, earnestly, "you can't live in the same +house with this beast. He's a cheat and a scoundrel. He's done +his best to spoil your life, and he'll succeed if you stay, so +come with me now. Eliza loves you and wants you, and I'll never +cease loving you with all my heart. Marry me, and we'll go--" + +Gordon uttered an inarticulate sound and came forward with his +hands working hungrily. + +"Don't interrupt!" warned Dan, over his shoulder, and his white +teeth gleamed in sudden contrast with his tan. "No man could love +you as I do, dear--" Gordon's clutch fell upon him and tightened. +Dan stiffened, and his words ceased. Then the touch upon his +flesh became unbearable. Whirling, he wrenched himself free. He +was like a wild animal now; body and spirit had leaped into +rebellion at contact with Gordon. His long resentment burst its +bounds; his lean muscles quivered. His frame trembled as if it +restrained some tremendous pressure from within. + +"Don't do that!" he cried, hoarsely, and brushed the sleeve where +his enemy's fingers had rested, as if it had been soiled. + +Gordon snarled, and stretched out his hand a second time; but the +younger man raised his fist and struck. Once, twice, again and +again he flung his bony knuckles into that purple, distorted +face, which he loathed as a thing unclean. He battered down the +big man's guard: right and left he rained blows, stepping forward +as his victim fell back. Gordon reeled, he pawed wildly, he swung +his arms, but they encountered nothing. Yet he was a heavy man, +and, although half stunned by the sudden onslaught, he managed to +retain his feet until he brought up against the heavy mahogany +reading-table in the center of the room. His retreat ended there; +another blow and his knees buckled, his arms sagged. Then Dan +summoned all his strength and swung. Gordon groaned, lurched +forward, and sprawled upon the warm red velvet carpet, face down, +with his limbs twisted under him. + +His vanquisher stood over him for an instant, then turned upon +Natalie a face that was now keen and cruel and predatory. + +"Come! We'll be married to-day," he said; and, crossing swiftly, +he took her two hands in his. His voice was harsh and imperative. +"He's down and out, so don't be frightened. Now hurry! I've had +enough of this damned nonsense." + +"I--I'm not frightened," she said, dazedly. "But--I--" Her eyes +roved past him as if in quest of something. + +"Here! This'll do for a wrap." Dan whipped his fur overcoat from +a chair and flung it about her. "My hat, too!" He crushed his +gray Stetson over her dark hair and, slipping his arm about her +shoulders, urged her toward the hall. + +"Mother! She'll never--" + +"We'll call on her together. I'll do the talking for both of us." +He jerked the front door open with a force that threatened to +wrench it from its hinges and thrust his companion out into the +bracing cold. Then, as Gordon's Japanese butler came running from +the rear of the house, he turned. + +"Hey, you!" he cried, sharply. "The boss has gone on a little +visit. Don't stumble over him. And tell Mrs. Gordon that Mr. and +Mrs. Appleton will call on her in a few days--Mr. and Mrs. Dan +Appleton, of Omar!" + +It was but a few steps to the pier; Dan felt that he was treading +on air, for the fierce, unreasoning joy of possession was surging +through his veins. His old indecision and doubt was gone, and the +men he met recoiled before his hostile glance, staring after him +in bewilderment. + +But as he lifted Natalie down into the launch he felt her shaking +violently, and of a sudden his selfish exultation gave way to a +tender solicitude. + +"There, there!" he said, gently. "Don't cry, honey. It's all +right. It's all right!" + +She raised her face to his, and his head swam, for he saw that +she was radiant. + +"I'm not crying; I'm laughing. I--I'm mad--insane with +happiness." + +He crushed her to him, he buried his face in her neck, mumbling +her name over and over: and neither of them knew that he was +rapturously kissing the coonskin collar of his own greatcoat. The +launchman, motor crank in hand, paused, staring; he was still +open-mouthed when Dan, catching sight of him, shouted: + +"What's the matter, idiot? Is your back broken?" + +"Yes--No, sir!" The fellow spun the fly-wheel vigorously; the +little craft began to vibrate and quiver and then swung out from +shore. + +A moment later and the engineman yelled. He came stumbling +forward and seized the steering-wheel as the boat grazed a buoy. + +"That's right, you steer," Dan laughed, relaxing his hold. To +Natalie he said, "There's a sky-pilot in Omar," and pressed her +to him. + +"It's a long way to Omar," she answered, then hid her face +against his breast and said, meekly, "There's one in Cortez, too, +and he's much nearer." + + + + +XXII + +HOW THE HAZARD WAS PLAYED + + +Eliza's greeting to the runaways was as warm as their hearts +could wish. She divined the truth before they could speak, and +took Natalie in her arms with a glad cry of welcome. The two +girls kissed each other, wept, laughed, wept a little more, +kissed again, and then the story came out. + +Dan was plainly swollen with pride. + +"I walloped him, Sis!" he told her. "I got even for the whole +family, and I believe his eyes are closed even to the beauties of +nature. He won't be able to read the wedding-notice." + +Eliza hugged his arm and looked at him adoringly. + +"It must have been perfectly splendid!" + +Natalie nodded. "I was asleep," she said, "but Dan shocked me +wide awake. Can you imagine it? I didn't know my own feelings +until he went for--that brute. Then I knew all at once that I had +loved him all the time. Isn't it funny? It came over me--so +suddenly! I--I can't realize that he's mine." She turned her eyes +upon him with an expression that made his chest swell proudly. + +"Gee!" he exclaimed. "If I'd known how she felt I'd have pitched +into the first fellow I met. A man's an awful fool till he gets +married." + +There followed a recital of the day's incidents, zestful, full of +happy digressions, endless; for the couple, after the manner of +lovers, took it for granted that Eliza was caught up into the +seventh heaven along with them. Dan was drunk with delight, and +his bride seemed dizzied by the change which had overtaken her. +She looked upon it as miraculous, almost unbelievable, and under +the spell of her happiness her real self asserted itself. Those +cares and humiliations which had reacted to make her cold and +self-contained disappeared, giving place to an impetuous +girlishness that distracted her newly made husband and delighted +Eliza. The last lingering doubts that Dan's sister had cherished +were cleared away. + +It was not until the bride had been banished to prepare for +dinner that Eliza thought to ask her brother: + +"Have you told Mr. O'Neil?" + +The triumph faded suddenly out of his face. + +"Gee, no! I haven't told anybody." + +They stared at each other, reading the thoughts they had no need +to voice. "Well, I've done it! It's too late now," said Dan, +defiantly. + +"Maybe he'll fire us again. I would if I were he. You must tell +him this very minute." + +"I--suppose so," he agreed, reluctantly, and picked up his hat. +"And yet--I--I wonder if I'd better, after all. Don't you think +it would sound nicer coming from some one else?" + +"Why?" + +"Wouldn't it seem like crowing for me to--to--For instance, now, +if you--" + +"Coward!" exclaimed the girl. + +He nodded. "But, Sis, you DO have a nicer way of putting things +than I have." + +"Why, I wouldn't tell him for worlds. I couldn't. Poor man! We've +brought him nothing but sorrow and bad luck." + +"It's fierce!" + +"Well, don't hesitate. That's what Gordon did, and he got +licked." + +Dan scowled and set his features in a brave show of moral +courage. "She's mine, and he can't take her away," he vowed, "so +--I don't care what happens. But I'd just as soon slap a baby in +the face." He left the house like a man under sentence. + +When he returned, a half-hour later, Eliza was awaiting him on +the porch. She had been standing there with chattering teeth and +limbs shaking from the cold while the minutes dragged. + +"What did he say?" she asked, breathlessly. + +"It went off finely. Thank Heaven, he was out at the front, so I +could break it to him over the 'phone!" + +"Did he--curse you?" + +"No; I opened right up by saying I had bad news for him--" + +"Oh, Dan!" + +"Yes! I dare say I wasn't very tactful, now that I think it over, +but, you see, I was rattled. I spilled out the whole story at +once. 'Bad news?' said he. 'My dear boy, I'm delighted. God bless +you both.' Then he made me tell him how it all happened, and +listened without a word. I thought I'd faint. He pulled some gag +about Daniel and the lion; then his voice got far away and the +blamed wire began to buzz, so I hung up and beat it back here. +I'm glad it's over." + +"He'll probably send you a solid-silver dinner-set or raise your +pay. That's the kind of man he is." Eliza's voice broke. "Oh, +Danny," she cried, "he's the dearest, sweetest thing--" She +turned away, and he kissed her sympathetically before going +inside to the waiting Natalie. + +Instead of following, Eliza remained on the porch, gazing down at +the lights of the little city. An engine with its row of empty +flats rolled into the yard, panting from its exertions; the notes +of a piano came to her faintly from the street below. The lights +of an incoming steamer showed far down the sound. O'Neil had made +all this, she reflected: the busy town, the hopeful thousands who +came and went daily owed their prosperity to him. He had made the +wilderness fruitful, but what of his own life? She suspected that +it was as bleak and barren as the mountain slopes above Omar. He, +too, looked down upon this thriving intimate little community, +but from a distance. Beneath his unfailing cheerfulness she felt +sure there lurked a hunger which the mere affection of his 'boys' +could never satisfy. And now the thought that Dan had come +between him and his heart's desire filled her with pity. He +seemed suddenly a very lonely figure of a man, despite his +material success. When his enemies were doing, had already done, +so much to defeat him, it seemed unfair that his trusted friend +should step between him and the fulfilment of his dearest +ambition--that ambition common to all men, failure in which +brings a sense of failure to a man's whole life, no matter what +other ends are achieved. Of course, he would smile and swallow +his bitterness--that was his nature--but she would know the +truth. + +"Poor Omar Khayyam," she thought, wistfully, "I wish there were +love enough in the world for you. I wish there were two Natalies, +or that--" Then she shook the dream from her mind and went into +the house, for the night was cold and she was shaking wretchedly. + +O'Neil behaved more handsomely even than Eliza had anticipated. +He hurried into town on the following morning, and his +congratulations were so sincere, his manner so hearty that Dan +forgot his embarrassment and took a shameless delight in +advertising his happiness. Nor did Murray stop with mere words: +he summoned all his lieutenants, and Omar rang that night with a +celebration such as it had never before known. The company chef +had been busy all day, the commissary had been ransacked, and the +wedding-supper was of a nature to interfere with office duties +for many days thereafter. Tom Slater made a congratulatory +speech--in reality, a mournful adjuration to avoid the pitfalls +of matrimonial inharmony--and openly confessed that his digestion +was now impaired beyond relief. Others followed him; there was +music, laughter, a riotous popping of corks; and over it all +O'Neil presided with grace and mellowness. Then, after the two +young people had been made thoroughly to feel his good will, he +went back to the front, and Omar saw him but seldom in the weeks +that followed. + +To romantic Eliza, this self-sought seclusion had but one +meaning--the man was broken-hearted. She did not consider that +there might be other reasons for his constant presence at the +glaciers. + +Of course, since the unwelcome publication of the North Pass & +Yukon story O'Neil had been in close touch with Illis, and by +dint of strong argument had convinced the Englishman of his own +innocence in the affair. A vigorous investigation might have +proved disastrous, but, fortunately, Curtis Gordon lacked leisure +in which to follow the matter up. The truth was that after his +public exposure at Eliza's hands he was far too busy mending his +own fences to spare time for attempts upon his rival. +Consequently, the story was allowed to die out, and O'Neil was +finally relieved to learn that its effect had been killed. +Precisely how Illis had effected this he did not know, nor did he +care to inquire. Illis had been forced into an iniquitous +bargain; and, since he had taken the first chance to free himself +from it, the question of abstract right or wrong was not a +subject for squeamish consideration. + +It was at about this time that the sanguinary affray at Beaver +Canon began to bear fruit. One day a keen-faced, quiet stranger +presented a card at Murray's office, with the name: + +HENRY T. BLAINE. + +Beneath was the address of the Heidlemann building in New York, +but otherwise the card told nothing. Something in Mr. Blaine's +bearing, however, led Murray to treat him with more than ordinary +consideration. + +"I should like to go over your work," the stranger announced; and +O'Neil himself acted as guide. Together they inspected the huge +concrete abutments, then were lowered into the heart of the giant +caissons which protruded from the frozen stream. The Salmon lay +locked in its winter slumber now, the glaciers stood as silent +and inactive as the snow-mantled mountains that hemmed them in. +Down into the very bowels of the river the men descended, while +O'Neil described the nature of the bottom, the depth and +character of his foundations, and the measure of his progress. He +explained the character of that bar which lay above the bridge +site, and pointed out the heavy layers of railroad iron with +which his cement work was reinforced. + +"I spent nearly two seasons studying this spot before I began the +bridge," he continued. "I had men here, night and day, observing +the currents and the action of the ice. Then I laid my piers +accordingly. They are armored and reinforced to withstand any +shock." + +"The river is subject to quick rises, I believe?" suggested +Blaine. + +"Twenty feet in a few hours." + +"The volley of ice must be almost irresistible." + +"Almost," Murray smiled. "Not quite. Our ice-breakers were +especially designed by Parker to withstand any weight. There's +nothing like them anywhere. In fact, there will be nothing like +this bridge when it's completed." Blaine offered no comment, but +his questions searched to the depths of the builder's knowledge. +When they were back in camp he said: + +"Of course you know why I'm here?" + +"Your card told me that, but I don't need the Heidlemanns now." + +"We are prepared to reopen negotiations." + +"Why?" + +"My people are human; they have feelings. You read Gordon's lies +about us and about that fight at Beaver Canon? Well, we're used +to abuse, and opposition of a kind we respect; but that man +stirred public opinion to such a point that there's no further +use of heeding it. We're ready to proceed with our plans now, and +the public can go to the devil till it understands us better. We +have several men in jail at Cortez, charged with murder: it will +cost us a fortune to free the poor fellows. First the Heidlemanns +were thieves and grafters and looters of the public domain; now +they have become assassins! If this route to the interior proves +feasible, well and good; if not, we'll resume work at Cortez next +spring. Kyak, of course, is out of the question." + +"This route depends upon the bridge." + +"Exactly." + +"It's a two years' job." + +"You offered to complete it this winter, when you talked with Mr. +Herman Heidlemann." + +"And--I can." + +"Then we'll consider a reasonable price. But we must know +definitely where we stand by next spring. We have a great deal of +capital tied up in the interior; we can't wait." + +"This delay will cost you something." + +Mr. Blaine shrugged. "You made that point plain when you were in +New York. We're accustomed to pay for our mistakes." + +"Will you cover this in the shape of an option?" + +"That's what I'm here for. If you finish your bridge and it +stands the spring break-up, we'll be satisfied. I shall expect to +stay here and watch the work." + +O'Neil agreed heartily. "You're very welcome, Mr. Blaine. I like +your brand of conversation. I build railroads; I don't run them. +Now let's get down to figures." + +The closing of the option required several weeks, of course, but +the outcome was that even before mid-winter arrived O'Neil found +himself in the position he had longed to occupy. In effect the +sale was made, and on terms which netted him and his backers one +hundred per cent. profit. There was but one proviso--namely, that +the bridge should be built by spring. The Heidlemanns were +impatient, their investment up to date had been heavy, and they +frankly declared that failure to bridge the chasm on time would +convince them that the task was hopeless. In a way this was +unreasonable, but O'Neil was well aware that they could not +permit delay--or a third failure: unless his route was proved +feasible without loss of time they would abandon it for one they +knew to be certain, even though more expensive. He did not argue +that the task was of unprecedented difficulty, for he had made +his promise and was ready to stand or fall by it. It is doubtful, +however, if any other contractor would have undertaken the work +on such time; in fact, had it been a public bridge it would have +required four years in the building. Yet O'Neil cheerfully staked +his fortune on completing it in eight months. + +With his option signed and the task squarely confronting him, he +realized with fresh force its bigness and the weight of +responsibility that rested upon his shoulders. He began the most +dramatic struggle of his career, a fight against untried +conditions, a desperate race against the seasons, with ruin as +the penalty of defeat. + +The channel of the Salmon at this point is fifteen hundred feet +wide and thirty feet deep. Through it boils a ten-mile current; +in other words, the waters race by with the speed of a running +man. Over this O'Neil expected to suspend a structure capable of +withstanding the mightiest strains to which any bridge had ever +been subjected. Parker's plans called for seventeen thousand +yards of cement work and nine million pounds of steel, every part +of which must be fabricated to a careful pattern. It was a man- +sized job, and O'Neil was thankful that he had prepared so +systematically for the work; that he had gathered his materials +with such extraordinary care. Supplies were arriving now in car- +loads, in train-loads, in ship-loads: from Seattle, from +Vancouver, from far Pittsburg they came in a thin continuous +stream, any interruption of which meant confusion and serious +loss of time. The movement of this vast tonnage required the +ceaseless attention of a corps of skilled men. + +He had personally directed affairs up to this point, but he now +obliterated himself, and the leadership devolved upon two others +--Parker, small, smiling, gentle-mannered; Mellen, tall, angular, +saturnine. Upon them, engineer and bridge-builder, O'Neil rested +his confidence, serene in the knowledge that of all men they were +the ablest in their lines. As for himself, he had all he could do +to bring materials to them and to keep the long supply-trail +open. Long it was, indeed; for the shortest haul was from +Seattle, twelve hundred miles away, and the steel bridge members +came from Pennsylvania. + +The piers at Omar groaned beneath the cargoes that were belched +from the big freighters--incidentally, "Happy Tom" Slater +likewise groaned beneath his burdens as superintendent of +transportation. At the glaciers a city as large as Omar sprang +up, a city with electric lights, power-houses, machine shops, +freight yards, and long rows of winter quarters. It lay behind +ramparts of coal, of grillage timbers and piling, of shedded +cement barrels, and tons of steel. Over it the winter snows +sifted, the north winds howled, and the arctic cold deepened. + +Here, locked in a mountain fastness more than a thousand miles +from his base of supplies, O'Neil began the decisive struggle of +his life. Here, at the focusing point of his enterprise, in the +white heat of the battle, he spent his time, heedless of every +other interest or consideration. The shifts were lengthened, +wages were increased, a system of bonuses was adopted. Only +picked men were given places, but of these there were hundreds: +over them the grim-faced Mellen brooded, with the fevered eye of +a fanatic and a tongue of flame. Wherever possible the men were +sheltered, and steam-pipes were run to guard against the cold; +but most of the labor was, of necessity, performed in the open +and under trying conditions. At times the wind blew a hurricane; +always there was the bitter cold. Men toiled until their flesh +froze and their tools slipped from their fingers, then dragged +themselves stiffly into huts and warmed themselves for further +effort. They worked amid a boiling snow-smother that hid them +from view, while gravel and fine ice cut their faces like knives; +or again, on still, sharp days, when the touch of metal was like +the bite of fangs and echoes filled the valley to the brim with +an empty clanging. But they were no ordinary fellows--no chaff, +to drift with the wind: they were men toughened by exposure to +the breath of the north, men winnowed out from many thousands of +their kind. Nor were they driven: they were led. Mellen was among +them constantly; so was the soft-voiced smiling Parker, not to +mention O'Neil with his cheery laugh and his words of praise. Yet +often it was hard to keep the work moving at all; for steam +condensed in the cylinders, valves froze unless constantly +operated, pipes were kept open only by the use of hot cloths: +then, too, the snow crept upward steadily, stealthily, until it +lay in heavy drifts which nearly hid the little town and changed +the streets to miniature canons. + +Out of this snow-smothered, frost-bound valley there was but one +trail. The army lay encamped in a cul de sac; all that connected +it with the outside world were two slender threads of steel. To +keep them clear of snow was in itself a giant's task; for as yet +there were no snow-sheds, and in many places the construction- +trains passed through deep cuts between solid walls of white. +Every wind filled these level and threatened to seal the place +fast; but furiously the "rotaries" attacked the choking mass, +slowly it was whirled aside, and onward flowed that steady stream +of supplies. No army of investment was ever in such constant +peril of being cut off. For every man engaged in the attack there +was another behind him fighting back the allied forces which +swept down from either hand. + +Only those who know that far land in her sterner moods can form +any conception of the stupefying effect of continuous, unbroken +cold. There is a point beyond which the power of reaction ceases: +where the human mind and body recoils uncontrollably from +exposure, and where the most robust effort results in a +spiritless inactivity. It is then that efficiency is cut in half, +then cut again. And of all the terrors of the Arctic there is +none so compelling as the wind. It is a monstrous, deathly thing, +a creature that has life and preys upon the agony of men. There +are regions sheltered from it, of course; but in the gutters +which penetrate the mountain ranges it lurks with constant +menace, and of all the coast from Sitka westward the valley of +the Salmon is the most evil. + +In the throat of this mighty-mouthed funnel, joining the still, +abysmal cold of the interior with the widely varying temperatures +of the open sea, O'Neil's band was camped, and there the great +hazard was played. Under such conditions it was fortunate indeed +that he had field-marshals like Parker and Mellen, for no single +man could have triumphed. Parker was cautious, brilliant, far- +sighted; he reduced the battle to paper, he blue-printed it; with +sliding-rule he analyzed it into inches and pounds and stresses +and strains: Mellen was like a grim Hannibal, tireless, cunning, +cold, and he wove steel in his fingers as a woman weaves her +thread. + +It was a remarkable alliance, a triumvirate of its kind +unsurpassed. As the weeks crept into months it worked an +engineering marvel. + + + + +XXIII + +A NEW CRISIS + + +With the completion of the railroad to the glacier crossing there +came to it a certain amount of travel, consisting mainly of +prospectors bound to and from the interior. The Cortez winter +trail was open, and over it passed most of the traffic from the +northward mining-camps, but now and then a frost-rimed stranger +emerged from the canon above O'Neil's terminus with tales of the +gold country, or a venturesome sledge party snow-shoed its way +inland from the end of the track. Murray made a point of hauling +these trailers on his construction-trains and of feeding them in +his camps as freely as he did his own men. In time the wavering +line of sled-tracks became fairly well broken, and scarcely a +week passed without bringing several "mushers." + +One day, as O'Neil was picking his way through the outskirts of +the camp, he encountered one of his night foremen, and was +surprised to see that the fellow was leading a trail-dog by a +chain. Now these malamutes are as much a part of the northland as +the winter snows, and they are a common sight in every community; +but the man's patent embarrassment challenged Murray's attention: +he acted as if he had been detected in a theft or a breach of +duty. + +"Hello, Walsh. Been buying some live stock?" O'Neil inquired. + +"Yes, sir. I picked up this dog cheap." + +"Harness too, eh?" Murray noted that Walsh's arms were full of +gear--enough, indeed, for a full team. Knowing that the foreman +owned no dogs, he asked, half banteringly: + +"You're not getting ready for a trip, I hope?" + +"No, sir. Not exactly, sir. The dog was cheap, so I--I just +bought him." + +As a matter of fact, dogs were not cheap, and Walsh should have +been in bed at this hour. Murray walked on wondering what the +fellow could be up to. + +Later he came upon a laborer dickering with a Kyak Indian over +the price of a fur robe, and in front of a bunk-house he found +other members of the night crew talking earnestly with two lately +arrived strangers. They fell silent as he approached, and +responded to his greeting with a peculiar nervous eagerness, +staring after him curiously as he passed on. + +He expected Dr. Gray out from Omar, but as he neared the track he +met Mellen. The bridge superintendent engaged him briefly upon +some detail, then said: + +"I don't know what's the matter with the men this morning. +They're loafing." + +"Loafing? Nonsense! You expect too much." + +Mellen shook his head. "The minute my back is turned they begin +to gossip. I've had to call them down." + +"Perhaps they want a holiday." + +"They're not that kind. There's something in the air." + +While they were speaking the morning train pulled in, and O'Neil +was surprised to see at least a dozen townspeople descending from +it. They were loafers, saloon-frequenters, for the most part, and +oddly enough, they had with them dogs and sleds and all the +equipment for travel. He was prevented from making inquiry, +however, by a shout from Dr. Gray, who cried: + +"Hey, Chief! Look who's here!" + +O'Neil hastened forward with a greeting upon his lips, for +Stanley was helping Eliza and Natalie down from the caboose which +served as a passenger-coach. + +The young women, becomingly clad in their warm winter furs, made +a picture good to look upon. Natalie had ripened wonderfully +since her marriage, and added to her rich dark beauty there was +now an elusive sweetness, a warmth and womanliness which had been +lacking before. As for Eliza, she had never appeared more +sparkling, more freshly wholesome and saucy than on this morning. + +"We came to take pictures," she announced. "We want to see if the +bridge suits us." + +"Don't you believe her, Mr. O'Neil," said Natalie. "Dan told us +you were working too hard, so Eliza insisted on taking you in +hand. I'm here merely in the office of chaperon and common scold. +You HAVE been overdoing. You're positively haggard." + +Gray nodded. "He won't mind me. I hope you'll abuse him well. Go +at him hammer and tongs." + +Ignoring Murray's smiling assertion that he was the only man in +camp who really suffered from idleness, the girls pulled him +about and examined him critically, then fell to discussing him as +if he were not present. + +"He's worn to the bone," said Eliza. + +"Did you ever see anything like his wrinkles? He looks like a +dried apple," Natalie declared. + +"Dan says he doesn't eat." + +"Probably he's too busy to chew his food. We'll make him +Fletcherize--" + +"And eat soup. Then we'll mend his underclothes. I'll warrant he +doesn't dress properly." + +"How much sleep does he get?" Natalie queried of the physician. + +"About half as much as he needs." + +"Leave him to us," said Eliza, grimly. "Now where does he live? +We'll start in there." + +O'Neil protested faintly. "Please don't! I hate soup, and I can't +allow anybody to pry into my wardrobe. It won't stand +inspection." + +Miss Appleton pointed to his feet and asked, crisply: + +"How many pairs of socks do you wear?" + +"One." + +"Any holes?" + +"Sometimes." + +Natalie was shocked. "One pair of socks in this cold! It's time +we took a hand. Now lead us to this rabbit-hole where you live." + +Reluctantly, yet with an unaccustomed warmth about his heart, +O'Neil escorted them to his headquarters. It was a sharp, clear +morning; the sky was as empty and bright as an upturned saucepan; +against it the soaring mountain peaks stood out as if carved from +new ivory. The glaciers to right and left were mute and +motionless in the grip of that force which alone had power to +check them; the turbulent river was hidden beneath a case- +hardened armor; the lake, with its weird flotilla of revolving +bergs, was matted with a broad expanse of white, across which +meandered dim sled and snow-shoe trails. Underfoot the paths gave +out a crisp complaint, the sunlight slanting up the valley held +no warmth whatever, and their breath hung about their heads like +vapor, crystallizing upon the fur of their caps and hoods. + +O'Neil's living-quarters consisted of a good-sized room adjoining +the office-building. Pausing at the door, he told his visitors: + +"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but your zeal is utterly misplaced. +I live like a pasha, in the midst of debilitating luxuries, as +you will see for yourselves." He waved them proudly inside. + +The room was bare, damp, and chill; it was furnished plentifully, +but it was in characteristically masculine disorder. The bed was +tumbled, the stove was half filled with cold ashes, the water +pitcher on the washstand had frozen. In one corner was a heap of +damp clothing, now stiff with frost. + +"Of course, it's a little upset," he apologized. "I wasn't +expecting callers, you know." + +"When was it made up last?" Eliza inquired, a little weakly. + +"Yesterday, of course." + +"Are you sure?" + +"Now, see here," he said, firmly; "I haven't time to make beds, +and everybody else is busier than I am. I'm not in here enough to +make it worth while--I go to bed late, and I tumble out before +dawn." + +The girls exchanged meaning glances. Eliza began to lay off her +furs. + +"Not bad, is it?" he said, hopefully. + +Natalie picked up the discarded clothing, which crackled stiffly +under her touch and parted from the bare boards with a tearing +sound. + +"Frozen! The idea!" said she. + +Eliza poked among the other garments which hung against the wall +and found them also rigid. The nail-heads behind them were coated +with ice. Turning to the table, with its litter of papers and the +various unclassified accumulation of a bachelor's house, she +said: + +"I suppose we'll have to leave this as it is." + +"Just leave everything. I'll get a man to clean up while you take +pictures of the bridge." As Natalie began preparing for action he +queried, in surprise, "Don't you like my little home?" + +"It's awful," the bride answered, feelingly. + +"A perfect bear's den," Eliza agreed. "It will take us all day." + +"It's just the way I like it," he told them; but they resolutely +banished him and locked the door in his face. + +"Hey! I don't want my things all mussed up," he called, pounding +for re-admittance; "I know right where everything is, and--" The +door opened, out came an armful of papers, a shower of burnt +matches, and a litter of trash from his work-table. He groaned. +Eliza showed her countenance for a moment to say: + +"Now, run away, little boy. You're going to have your face +washed, no matter how you cry. When we've finished in here we'll +attend to you." The door slammed once more, and he went away +shaking his head. + +At lunch-time they grudgingly admitted him, and, although they +protested that they were not half through, he was naively +astonished at the change they had brought to pass. For the first +time in many days the place was thoroughly warm and dry; it +likewise displayed an orderliness and comfort to which it had +been a stranger. From some obscure source the girls had gathered +pictures for the bare walls; they had hung figured curtains at +the windows; there were fresh white covers for bed, bureau, and +washstand. His clothes had been rearranged, and posted in +conspicuous places were written directions telling him of their +whereabouts. One of the cards bore these words: "Your soup! Take +one in cup of hot brandy and water before retiring." Beneath were +a bottle and a box of bouillon tablets. A shining tea-kettle was +humming on the stove. + +"This is splendid," he agreed, when they had completed a tour of +inspection. "But where are my blue-prints?" + +"In the drafting-room, where they belong. This room is for rest +and sleep. We want to see it in this condition when we come +back." + +"Where did you find the fur rug?" He indicated a thick bearskin +beside the bed. + +"We stole it from Mr. Parker," they confessed, shamelessly. "He +had two." + +Eliza continued complacently: "We nearly came to blows with the +chef when we kidnapped his best boy. We've ordered him to keep +this place warm and look after your clothes and clean up every +morning. He's to be your valet and take care of you." + +"But--we're dreadfully short-handed in the mess-house," O'Neil +protested. + +"We've given the chef your bill of fare, and your man Ben will +see that you eat it." + +"I won't stand for soup. It--" + +"Hush! Do you want us to come again?" Natalie demanded. + +"Yes! Again and again!" He nodded vigorously. "I dare say I was +getting careless. I pay more attention to the men's quarters than +to my own. Do you know--this is the first hint of home I've had +since I was a boy? And--it's mighty agreeable." He stared +wistfully at the feminine touches on all sides. + +The bride settled herself with needle and thread, saying: + +"Now take Eliza to the bridge while the light is good; she wants +to snap-shoot it. I'm going to sew on buttons and enjoy myself." + +O'Neil read agreement in Eliza's eyes, and obeyed. As they neared +the river-bank the girl exclaimed in surprise; for up out of the +frozen Salmon two giant towers of concrete thrust themselves, on +each bank were massive abutments, and connecting them were the +beginnings of a complicated "false-work" structure by means of +which the steel was to be laid in place. It consisted of rows +upon rows of piling, laced together with an intricate pattern of +squared timbers. Tracks were being laid upon it, and along the +rails ran a towering movable crane, or "traveler," somewhat like +a tremendous cradle. This too was nearing completion. Pile- +drivers were piercing the ice with long slender needles of +spruce; across the whole river was weaving a gigantic fretwork of +wood which appeared to be geometrically regular in design. The +air was noisy with the cries of men, and a rhythmic thudding, +through which came the rattle of winches and the hiss of steam. +Over the whole vast structure swarmed an army of human ants, +feeble pygmy figures that crept slowly here and there, regardless +of their dizzy height. + +"Isn't it beautiful?" said the builder, gazing at the scene with +kindling eyes. "We're breaking records every day in spite of the +weather. Those fellows are heroes. I feel guilty and mean when I +see them risking life and limb while I just walk about and look +on." + +"Will it--really stand the break-up?" asked the girl. "When that +ice goes out it will be as if the solid earth were sliding down +the channel. It frightens me to think of it." + +"We've built solid rock; in fact, those piers are stronger than +rock, for they're laced with veins of steel and anchored beneath +the river-bed." + +But Eliza doubted. "I've seen rivers break, and it's frightful; +but of course I've never seen anything to compare with the +Salmon. Suppose--just suppose there should be some weak spot--" + +O'Neil settled his shoulders a little under his coat. "It would +nearly kill Mellen--and Parker, too, for that matter." + +"And you?" + +He hesitated. "It means a great deal to me. Sometimes I think I +could pull myself together and begin again, but--I'm getting old, +and I'm not sure I'd care to try." After a pause he added a +little stiffly, as if not quite sure of the effect of his words: +"That's the penalty of being alone in life, I suppose. We men are +grand-stand players: we need an audience, some one person who +really cares whether we succeed or fail. Your brother, for +instance, has won more in the building of the S. R. & N. than I +can ever hope to win." + +Eliza felt a trifle conscious, too, and she did not look at him +when she said: "Poor, lonely old Omar Khayyam! You deserve all +Dan has. I think I understand why you haven't been to see us." + +"I've been too busy; this thing has kept me here every hour. It's +my child, and one can't neglect his own child, you know--even if +it isn't a real one." He laughed apologetically. "See! there's +where we took the skiff that day we ran Jackson Glacier. He's +harmless enough now. You annoyed me dreadfully that morning, +Eliza, and--I've never quite understood why you were so +reckless." + +"I wanted the sensation. Writers have to live before they can +write. I've worked the experience into my novel." + +"Indeed? What is your book about?" + +"Well--it's the story of a railroad-builder, of a fellow who +risked everything he had on his own judgment. It's--you!" + +"Why, my dear!" cried O'Neil, turning upon her a look of almost +comic surprise. "I'm flattered, of course, but there's nothing +romantic or uncommon about me." + +"You don't mind?" + +"Of course not. But there ought to be a hero, and love, and--such +things--in a novel. You must have a tremendous imagination." + +"Perhaps. I'm not writing a biography, you know. However, you +needn't be alarmed; it will never be accepted." + +"It should be, for you write well. Your magazine articles are +bully." + +Eliza smiled. "If the novel would only go as well as those +stories I'd be happy. They put Gordon on the defensive." + +"I knew they would." + +"Yes. I built a nice fire under him, and now he's squirming. I +think I helped you a little bit, too." + +"Indeed you did--a great deal! When you came to Omar I never +thought you'd turn out to be my champion. I--" He turned as Dr. +Gray came hurrying toward them, panting in his haste. + +The doctor began abruptly: + +"I've been looking for you, Murray. The men are all quitting." + +O'Neil started. "All quitting? What are you talking about?" + +"There's a stampede--a gold stampede!" + +Murray stared at the speaker as if doubting his own senses. + +"There's no gold around here," he said, at last. + +"Two men came in last night. They've been prospecting over in the +White River and report rich quartz. They've got samples with 'em +and say there are placer indications everywhere. They were on +their way to Omar to tell their friends, and telephoned in from +here. Somebody overheard and--it leaked. The whole camp is up in +the air. That's what brought out that gang from town this +morning." + +The significance of the incidents which had troubled him earlier +in the day flashed upon O'Neil; it was plain enough now why his +men had been gossiping and buying dogs and fur robes. He +understood only too well what a general stampede would mean to +his plans, for it would take months to replace these skilled +iron-workers. + +"Who are these prospectors?" he inquired, curtly. + +"Nobody seems to know. Their names are Thorn and Baker. That gang +from Omar has gone on, and our people will follow in the morning. +Those who can't scrape up an outfit here are going into town to +equip. We won't have fifty men on the job by to-morrow night." + +"What made Baker and Thorn stop here?" + +Gray shrugged. "Tired out, perhaps. We've got to do something +quick, Murray. Thank God, we don't have to sell 'em grub or haul +'em to Omar. That will check things for a day or two. If they +ever start for the interior we're lost, but the cataract isn't +frozen over, and there's only one sled trail past it. We don't +need more than six good men to do the trick." + +"We can't stop a stampede that way." + +Dr. Gray's face fell into harsh lines. "I'll bend a Winchester +over the first man who tries to pass. Appleton held the place +last summer; I'll guarantee to do it now." + +"No. The men have a right to quit, Stanley. We can't force them +to work. We can't build this bridge with a chain-gang." + +"Humph! I can beat up these two prospectors and ship 'em in to +the hospital until things cool down." + +"That won't do, either. I'll talk with them, and if their story +is right--well, I'll throw open the commissary and outfit every +one." + +Eliza gasped; Gray stammered. + +"You're crazy!" exclaimed the doctor. + +"If it's a real stampede they'll go anyhow, so we may as well +take our medicine with a good grace. The loss of even a hundred +men would cripple us." + +"The camp is seething. It's all Mellen can do to keep the day +shift at work. If you talk to 'em maybe they'll listen to you." + +"Argument won't sway them. This isn't a strike; it's a gold +rush." He turned toward the town. + +Eliza was speechless with dismay as she hurried along beside him; +Gray was scowling darkly and muttering anathemas; O'Neil himself +was lost in thought. The gravity of this final catastrophe left +nothing to be said. + +Stanley lost little time in bringing the two miners to the +office, and there, for a half-hour, Murray talked with them. When +they perceived that he was disposed to treat them courteously +they told their story in detail and answered his questions with +apparent honesty. They willingly showed him their quartz samples +and retailed the hardships they had suffered. + +Gray listened impatiently and once or twice undertook to +interpolate some question, but at a glance from his chief he +desisted. Nevertheless, his long fingers itched to lay hold of +the strangers and put an end to this tale which threatened ruin. +His anger grew when Murray dismissed them with every evidence of +a full belief in their words. + +"Now that the news is out and my men are determined to quit, I +want everybody to have an equal chance," O'Neil announced, as +they rose to go. "There's bound to be a great rush and a lot of +suffering--maybe some deaths--so I'm going to call the boys +together and have you talk to them." + +Thorn and Baker agreed and departed. As the door closed behind +them Gray exploded, but Murray checked him quickly, saying with +an abrupt change of manner: "Wait! Those fellows are lying!" + +Seizing the telephone, he rang up Dan Appleton and swiftly made +known the situation. Stanley could hear the engineer's startled +exclamation. + +"Get the cable to Cortez as quickly as you can," O'Neil was +saying. "You have friends there, haven't you? Good! He's just the +man, for he'll have Gordon's pay-roll. Find out if Joe Thorn and +Henry Baker are known, and, if so, who they are and what they've +been doing lately. Get it quick, understand? Then 'phone me." He +slammed the receiver upon its hook. "That's not Alaskan quartz," +he said, shortly; "it came from Nevada, or I'm greatly mistaken. +Every hard-rock miner carries specimens like those in his kit." + +"You think Gordon--" + +"I don't know. But we've got rock-men on this job who'll +recognize ore out of any mine they ever worked in. Go find them, +then come back here and hold the line open for Dan." + +"Suppose he can't locate these fellows in Cortez?" + +"Then--Let's not think about that." + + + + +XXIV + +GORDON'S FALL + + +The news of O'Neil's attitude spread quickly, and excitement grew +among the workmen. Up through the chill darkness of early evening +they came charging. They were noisy and eager, and when the gong +summoned them to supper they rushed the mess-house in boisterous +good humor. No attempt was made to call out the night crew: by +tacit consent its members were allowed to mingle freely with +their fellows and plan for the morrow's departure. Some, envious +of the crowd from Omar which had profited by an early start, were +anxious to be gone at once, but the more sober-minded argued that +the road to White River was so long that a day's advantage would +mean little in the end, and the advance party would merely serve +to break trail for those behind. + +These men, be it said, were not those who had struck, earlier in +the season, at the behest of Gordon's emissary, Linn, but fellows +whose loyalty and industry were unquestioned. Their refusal to +stampede at the first news was proof of their devotion, yet any +one who has lived in a mining community knows that no loyalty of +employee to employer is strong enough to withstand for long the +feverish excitement of a gold rush. These bridge-workers were the +aristocracy of the whole force, men inured to hardship and +capable of extreme sacrifice in the course of their work; but +they were also independent Americans who believed themselves +entitled to every reward which fortune laid in their paths. For +this reason they were even harder to handle than the unskilled, +unimaginative men farther down the line. + +Long before the hour when O'Neil appeared the low-roofed mess- +house was crowded. + +Natalie and Eliza, knowing the importance of this crisis, refused +to go home, and begged Murray to let them attend the meeting. Mr. +Blaine, who also felt the keenest concern in the outcome, offered +to escort them, and at last with some difficulty he managed to +wedge them inside the door, where they apprehensively scanned the +gathering. + +It was not an ideal place for a meeting of this size, but tables +and benches had been pushed aside, and into the space thus +cleared the men were packed. Their appearance was hardly +reassuring: it was a brawny, heavy-muscled army with which O'Neil +had to deal--an army of loud-voiced toilers whose ways were +violent and whose passions were quick. Nevertheless, the two +girls were treated with the greatest respect, and when O'Neil +stepped to a bench and raised himself above their heads his +welcome was not unduly boisterous. Outside, the night was clear +and cold; inside the cramped quarters the air was hot and close +and fetid. + +Murray had no skill as a public speaker in the ordinary sense; he +attempted no oratorical tricks, and addressed his workmen in a +matter-of-fact tone. + +"Boys," he began, "there has been a gold strike at the head of +the White River, and you want to go. I don't blame you; I'd like +to go myself, if there's any chance to make money." + +"You're all right, boss!" shouted some one; and a general laugh +attested the crowd's relief at this acceptance of the inevitable. +They had expected argument, despite the contrary assurances they +had received. + +"Now we all want an even break. We want to know all there is to +know, so that a few fellows won't have the advantage of the rest. +The strike is three hundred miles away; it's winter, and--you +know what that means. I talked with Baker and Thorn this +afternoon. I want them to tell you just what they told me. That's +why I called this meeting. If you decide to go you won't have to +waste time going to Omar after your outfits, for I'll sell you +what you want from my supplies. And I'll sell at cost." + +There was a yell of approval, a cheer for the speaker; then came +calls for Baker and Thorn. + +The two miners were thrust forward, and the embarrassed Thorn, +who had acted as spokesman, was boosted to a table. Under +Murray's encouragement he stammered out the story of his good +fortune, the tale running straight enough to fan excitement into +a blaze. There was no disposition to doubt, for news of this sort +is only too sure of credence. + +When the speaker had finished, O'Neil inquired: + +"Are you an experienced quartz-miner? Do you know ore when you +see it?" + +"Sure! I worked in the Jumbo, at Goldfield, Nevada, up to last +year. So did Baker." + +"When did you go into the White River country?" + +"August." + +"How did you go in?" + +"We packed in. When our grub ran out, we killed our horses and +cached the meat for dog-feed." + +"Is there any other dog-feed there?" + +"No, sir." + +"Any people?" + +"Not a soul. The country is open to the first comers. It's a +fine-looking country, too: we seen quartz indications +everywhere. I reckon this speaks for itself." Thorn significantly +held up his ore samples. "We've made our locations. You fellows +is welcome to the rest. First come, first served." + +There was an eager scramble for the specimens on the part of +those nearest the speaker. After a moment Murray asked them: + +"Did you fellows ever see any rock like that?" + +One of his workmen answered: + +"_I_ have." + +"Where?" + +"In the Jumbo, at Goldfield. I 'high-graded' there in the early +days." + +There was a laugh at this. Thorn flushed angrily. "Well," he +rejoined, "we've got the same formation over there in the White +River. It's just like Goldfield. It'll be the same kind of a +camp, too, when the news gets out." + +O'Neil broke in smoothly, to say: + +"Most of our fellows have no dogs. It will take them three weeks +to cover the trail. They'll have to spend three weeks in there, +then three weeks more coming out--over two months altogether. +They can't haul enough grub to do them." He turned to his +employees and said gravely: "You'd better think it over, boys. +Those who have teams can make it but the rest of you will get +left. Do you think the chance is worth all that work and +suffering?" + +The bridge-workers shifted uncomfortably on their feet. Then a +voice exclaimed: + +"Don't worry, boss. We'll make it somehow." + +"Thorn says there's nobody over there," Murray continued; "but +that seems strange, for I happen to know of half a dozen outfits +at the head of the White River. Jack Dalton has had a gang +working there for four years." + +Dalton was a famous character in the north--one of the most +intrepid of the early pioneers--and the mention of his name +brought a hush. A large part of the audience realized the truth +of O'Neil's last statement, yet resented having it thrust upon +them. Thorn and Baker were scowling. Gray had just entered the +room and was signaling to his chief, and O'Neil realized that he +must score a triumph quickly if he wished to hold the attention +of his men. He resumed gravely: + +"If this strike was genuine I wouldn't argue, but--it isn't." A +confusion of startled protests rose; the two miners burst out +indignantly; but O'Neil, raising his voice for the first time, +managed to make himself heard. "Those jewelry samples came from +Nevada," he cried. "I recognized them myself this afternoon, and +here's another fellow who can't be fooled. Thorn told you he used +to work in Goldfield. You can draw your own conclusions." + +The temper of the crowd changed instantly: jeers, groans, hisses +arose; the men were on their feet now, and growing noisier every +moment; Baker and Thorn were glaring balefully at their accuser. +But Gray succeeded in shouldering his way forward, and whispered +to O'Neil, who turned suddenly and faced the men again. "Just a +minute!" he shouted. "You heard Thorn say he and Baker went +prospecting in August. Well, we've just had Cortez on the cable +and learn that they were working for Gordon until two weeks ago." +A sudden silence fell. Murray smiled down at the two strangers. +"What do you say to that?" + +Thorn flew into a purple rage: "It's a damned lie! He's afraid +you'll quit work, fellows." Viciously he flung himself toward the +door, only to feel the grasp of the muscular physician upon his +arm. + +"Listen to this message from the cashier of the Cortez Home +Bank!" bellowed Gray, his big voice dominating the uproar. +Undisturbed by his prisoner's struggles, he read loudly: + +"Joe Thorn and Henry Baker quit work fifteenth, leaving for +Fairbanks over winter trail, with five dogs--four gray and white +malamutes, black shepherd leader. Thorn medium size, thirty-five, +red hair. Baker dark, scar on cheek. WILSON, Cashier." + +The doctor's features spread into a broad grin. "You've all seen +the dog-team, and here's the red hair." His fingers sunk into his +prisoner's fiery locks with a grip that threatened to leave him a +scalp for a trophy. Thorn cursed and twisted. + +The crowd's allegiance had been quick to shift, but it veered +back to O'Neil with equal suddenness. + +"Bunco!" yelled a hoarse voice, after a brief hush. + +"Lynch 'em!" cried another; and the angry clamor burst forth +anew. + +"Don't be foolish," shouted Murray; "nobody has been hurt." + +"We'd have been on the trail to-morrow. Send 'em down the river +barefoot!" + +"Yes! What about that gang from Omar?" + +"I'm afraid they'll have to take care of themselves," O'Neil +said. "But these two men aren't altogether to blame; they're +acting under orders. Isn't that right?" he asked Thorn. + +The miner hesitated, until the grip in his hair tightened; then, +evidently fearing the menace in the faces on every side, he +decided to seek protection in a complete confession. + +"Yes!" he agreed, sullenly. "Gordon cooked it up. It's all a +fake." + +O'Neil nodded with satisfaction. "This is the second time he's +tried to get my men away from me. The other time he failed +because Tom Slater happened to come down with smallpox. Thank +God, he recovered!" + +A ripple of laughter spread, then grew into a bellow, for the +nature of "Happy Tom's" illness had long since become a source of +general merriment, and O'Neil's timely reference served to divert +the crowd. It also destroyed most of its resentment. + +"You fellows don't seem able to protect yourselves; so Doc and I +will have to do it for you. Now listen," he continued, more +gravely. "I meant it when I said I'd open the commissary and help +you out if the strike were genuine, but, nevertheless, I want you +to know just what it would have meant to me. I haven't enough +money to complete the S. R. & N., and I can't raise enough, but I +have signed an option to sell the road if the bridge is built by +next spring. It's really a two year's job, and some engineers +don't believe it can be built at all, but I know it can if you'll +help. If we fail I'm ruined; if we succeed"--he waved his hands +and smiled at them cheerfully--"maybe we'll build another +railroad somewhere. That's what this stampede meant. Now, will +you stick to me?" + +The answer roared from a hundred throats: "You bet we'll stick!" + +At the rear of the room, whence they had witnessed the rapid +unfolding of this drama, the two girls joined in the shout. They +were hugging each other and laughing hysterically. + +"He handled them just right," said Blaine, with shining eyes; +"just right--but I was worried." + +Walsh, the night foreman, raised his voice to inquire: + +"Does anybody want to buy a dog-team cheap?" + +"Who wants dogs now?" jeered some one. + +"Give 'em to Baker and Thorn!" + +O'Neil was still speaking in all earnestness. + +"Boys," he said; "we have a big job on our hands. It means fast +work, long hours, and little sleep. We picked you fellows out +because we knew you were the very best bridge-workers in the +world. Now the life of the S. R. & N. lies with you, and that +bridge MUST BE BUILT on time. About these two men who tried to +stampede us: I think it's enough punishment if we laugh at them. +Don't you?" He smiled down at Thorn, who scowled, then grinned +reluctantly and nodded his head. + +When general good feeling was restored Murray attempted to make +his way out; but his men seemed determined to thank him one by +one, and he was delayed through a long process of hand-shaking. +It pleased him to see that they understood from what hardships +and disappointments he had saved them, and he was doubly grateful +when Walsh rounded up his crew and announced that the night shift +would resume work at midnight. + +He escaped at last, leaving the men grouped contentedly about +huge pans of smoking doughnuts and pots of coffee, which the +cook-boys had brought in. Liquor was taboo in the camp, but he +gave orders that unlimited cigars be distributed. + +When he reached his quarters he was completely fagged, for the +crisis, coming on top of his many responsibilities, had taken all +his vitality. + +His once cheerless room was warm and cozy as he entered: he found +Natalie sleeping peacefully on his bed and Eliza curled up in his +big chair waiting. She opened her eyes drowsily and smiled up at +him, saying: + +"You were splendid, Omar Khayyam. I'm SO glad." + +He laid a finger on his lips and glanced at the sleeping Natalie. + +"Sh-h!" + +"Where are you going to put us for the night?" + +"Right here, of course." + +"Those men will do anything for you now. I--I think I'd die, too, +if anything happened to the bridge." + +He took her hand in his and smiled down into her earnest eyes a +little wearily. "Nothing will happen. Now go to bed--and thank +you for making a home for me. It really is a home now. I'll +appreciate it to-morrow." + +He tiptoed out and tramped over to Parker's quarters for the +night. + +The news of the White River fiasco reached Curtis Gordon in +Seattle, whither he had gone in a final attempt to bolster up the +tottering fortunes of the Cortez Home Railway. His disappointment +was keen, yet O'Neil from the beginning had met his attacks with +such uniform success that new failure did not really surprise +him; it had been a forlorn hope at best. Strangely enough, he had +begun to lose something of his assurance of late. Although he +maintained his outward appearance of confidence with all his old +skill, within himself he felt a growing uneasiness, a lurking +doubt of his abilities. Outwardly there was reason enough for +discouragement, for, while his co-operative railroad scheme had +begun brilliantly, its initial success had not been sustained. As +time passed and Eliza Appleton's exposure remained unrefuted he +had found it ever more difficult to enlist support. His own +denials and explanations seemed powerless to affect the public +mind, and as he looked back he dated his decline from the +appearance of her first article. It had done all the mischief he +had feared. Not only were his old stock-holders dissatisfied, but +wherever he went for aid he found a disconcerting lack of +response, a half-veiled skepticism that was maddening. + +Yet his immediate business worries were not all, nor the worst of +his troubles: his physical powers were waning. To all appearances +he was as strong as ever, but a strange bodily lassitude hampered +him; he tired easily, and against this handicap he was forced to +struggle continually. He had never rightly valued his amazing +equipment of energy until now, when some subtle ailment had begun +to sap it. The change was less in his muscular strength than in +his nerves and his mental vigor. He found himself growing +peculiarly irritable; his failures excited spasms of blind fury +which left him weak and spent; he began to suffer the depressing +tortures of insomnia. At times the nerves in his face and neck +twitched unaccountably, and this distressing affection spread. + +These symptoms had first manifested themselves after his +unmerciful drubbing at the hands of Dan Appleton: but they were +not the result of any injury; they were due to some deeper cause. +When he had recovered his senses, after the departure of Dan and +Natalie, he had fallen into a paroxysm of anger that lasted for +days; he had raged and stormed like a madman, for, to say nothing +of other humiliations, he prided himself extravagantly on his +physical prowess. While the marks of the rough treatment he had +suffered were disappearing he remained indoors, plunged in such +abysmal fury that neither Gloria nor the fawning Denny dared +approach him. The very force of his emotions had permanently +disturbed his poise, or perhaps effected some obscure lesion in +his brain. Even when he showed himself again in public he was +still abnormally choleric. His fits of passion became almost +apoplectic in their violence; they caused his associates to shun +him as a man dangerous, and in his calmer moments he thought of +them with alarm. He had tried to regain his nervous control, but +without success, and his wife's anxiety only chafed him further. +Gradually he lost his mental buoyancy, and for the first time in +his life he really yielded to pessimism. He found he could no +longer attack a problem with his accustomed certainty of +conquering it, but was haunted by a foreboding of inevitable +failure. All in all, when he reached the States on his critical +mission he knew that he was far from being his old self, and he +had deteriorated more than he knew. + +A week or two of disappointments should have shown him the +futility of further effort; at any other time it would have set +him to putting his house in order for the final crash, but now it +merely enraged him. He redoubled his activity, launching a new +campaign of publicity so extravagant and ill-timed as to repel +the assistance he needed. He had lost his finesse; his nicely +adjusted financial sense had gone. + +The outcome was not long delayed; it came in the form of a +newspaper despatch to the effect that his Cortez bank had +suspended payment because of a run started by the dissatisfied +employees of the railroad. Through Gordon's flamboyant +advertising his enterprises were so well known by this time that +the story was featured despite his efforts to kill it. His +frantic cables to Cortez for a denial only brought assurances +that the report was true and that conditions would not mend +unless a shipment of currency was immediately forthcoming. + +Harassed by reporters, driven on by the need for a show of +action, he set out to raise the money, but the support he had +hoped for failed him when it transpired that his bank's assets +consisted mainly of real estate at boom prices and stock in his +various companies which had been inflated to the bursting-point. +Days passed, a week or more; then he was compelled to relinquish +his option on the steamship line he had partly purchased, and to +sacrifice all that had been paid in on the enterprise. This, too, +made a big story for the newspapers, for it punctured one of the +most imposing corporations in the famous "Gordon System." It +likewise threatened to involve the others in the general crash. +Hope Consolidated, indeed, still remained, and Gordon's +declaration that the value of its shares was more than sufficient +to protect his bank met with some credence until, swift upon the +heels of the other disasters, came an application for a receiver +by the stock-holders, coupled with the promise of a rigorous +investigation into his various financial manipulations. Then at +last Gordon acknowledged defeat. + +Ruin had come swiftly; the diversity of his interests made his +situation the more hopeless, for so cunningly had he interlocked +one with another that to separate them promised to be an endless +task. + +He still kept up a fairly successful pretense of confidence, and +publicly he promised to bring order out of chaos, but in secret +he gave way to the blackest despair. Heretofore, failure had +never affected him deeply, for he had always managed to escape +with advantage to his pocket and without serious damage to his +prestige, but out of the present difficulty he could find no way. +His office force stopped work, frightened at his bearing; the +bellboys of his hotel brought to the desk tales of such maniacal +violence that he was requested to move. + +At last the citizens of Cortez, who up to this time had been like +putty in his fingers, realized their betrayal and turned against +him. Creditors attached the railway property, certain violent- +tempered men prayed openly and earnestly to their gods for his +return to Alaska in order that they might exact satisfaction in +frontier fashion. Eastern investors in Hope Consolidated appeared +in Seattle: there was talk of criminal procedure. + +Bewildered as he was, half crazed with anxiety, Gordon knew that +the avalanche had not only wrecked his fortunes, but was bearing +him swiftly toward the penitentiary. Its gates yawned to welcome +him, and he felt a chilling terror such as he had never known. + +One evening as Captain Johnny Brennan stood on the dock +superintending the final loading of a cargo for the S. R. & N. he +was accosted by a tall, nervous man with shifting eyes and +twitching lips. It was hard to recognize in this pitiable shaken +creature the once resplendent Gordon, who had bent the whole +northland to his ends. Some tantalizing demons inside the man's +frame were jerking at his sinews. Fear was in his roving glance; +he stammered; he plucked at the little captain's sleeve like a +frightened woman. The open-hearted Irishman was touched. + +"Yes," said Johnny, after listening for a time. "I'll take you +with me, and they won't catch you, either." + +Gordon chattered: "I'll pay you well, handsomely. I'm a rich man. +I have interests that demand attention, so--accept this money. +Please! Keep it all, my good fellow." + +Brennan stared at the bundle Gordon had thrust into his hand, +then regarded the speaker curiously. + +"Man dear," he said, "this isn't money. These are stock +certificates." + +"Eh? Stock? Well, there's money in stocks, big money, if you know +how to handle them." The promoter's wandering eye shifted to the +line of stevedores trundling their trucks into the hold, then up +to the crane with its straining burden of bridge material. Every +package was stenciled with his rival's name, but he exclaimed: + +"Bravo, Captain! We'll be up to the summit by Christmas. 'No +graft! No incompetence! The utmost publicity in corporate +affairs!'--that's our platform. We're destined for a glorious +success. Glorious success!" + +"Go aboard and lie down," Brennan said, gently. "You need a good +sleep." Then, calling a steward, he ordered, "Show Mr. Gordon to +my cabin and give him what he wants." + +He watched the tall figure stumble up the gang-plank, and shook +his head: + +"'The utmost publicity,' is it? Well, it's you that's getting it +now. And to think that you're the man with the mines and the +railroads and the widow! I'm afraid you'll be in irons when she +sees you, but--that's as good a finish as you deserve, after +all." + + + + +XXV + +PREPARATIONS + + +The building of the Salmon River bridge will not soon be +forgotten by engineers and men of science. But, while the +technical features of the undertaking are familiar to a few, the +general public knows little about how the work was actually done; +and since the building of the bridge was the pivotal point in +Murray O'Neil's career, it may be well to describe in some detail +its various phases--the steps which led up to that day when the +Salmon burst her bonds and put the result of all his planning and +labor to the final test. + +Nowhere else in the history of bridge-building had such +conditions been encountered; nowhere on earth had work of this +character been attended with greater hazards; never had +circumstances created a situation of more dramatic interest. By +many the whole venture was regarded as a reckless gamble; for +more than a million dollars had been risked on the chance not +alone that O'Neil could build supports which the ice could not +demolish, but that he could build them under the most serious +difficulties in record-breaking time. Far more than the mere cost +of the structure hinged upon his success: failure would mean that +his whole investment up to that point would be wiped out, to say +nothing of the twenty-million-dollar project of a trunk-line up +the valley of the Salmon. + +Had the Government permitted the Kyak coal-fields to be opened +up, the lower reaches of the S. R. & N. would have had a value, +but all activity in that region had been throttled, and the +policy of delay and indecision at headquarters promised no +relief. + +Careful as had been the plans, exhaustive and painstaking as had +been the preparations, the bridge-builders met with unpreventable +delays, disappointments, and disasters; for man is but a feeble +creature whose brain tires and whose dreams are brittle. It is +with these hindrances and accidents and with their effect upon +the outcome that we have to deal. + +Of course, the greatest handicap, the one ever-present obstacle, +was the cold, and this made itself most troublesome in the +sinking of the caissons and the building of the concrete piers. +It was necessary, for instance, to house in all cement work, and +to raise the temperature not only of the air surrounding it, but +of the materials themselves before they were mixed and laid. Huge +wind-breaks had to be built to protect the outside men from the +gales that scoured the river-bed, and these were forever blowing +down or suffering damage from the hurricanes. All this, however, +had been anticipated: it was but the normal condition of work in +the northland. And it was not until the middle of winter, shortly +after Eliza's and Natalie's visit to the front, that an +unexpected danger threatened, a danger more appalling than any +upon which O'Neil and his assistants had reckoned. + +In laying his plans Parker had proceeded upon the assumption +that, once the cold had gripped the glaciers, they would remain +motionless until spring. All available evidence went to prove the +correctness of this supposition, but Alaska is a land of +surprises, of contrasts, of contradictions: study of its +phenomena is too recent to make practicable the laying down of +hard and fast rules. In the midst of a season of cruelly low +temperatures there came a thaw, unprecedented, inexplicable. A +tremendous warm breath from the Pacific rolled northward, bathing +the frozen plains and mountain ranges. Blizzards turned to rains +and weeping fogs, the dry and shifting snow-fields melted, water +ran in the courses. Winter loosed its hold; its mantle slipped. +Nothing like this had ever been known or imagined. It was +impossible! It was as if the unhallowed region were bent upon +living up to its evil reputation. In a short time the loosened +waters that trickled through the sleeping ice-fields greased the +foundations upon which they lay. Jackson Glacier roused itself, +then began to glide forward like a ship upon its ways. First +there came the usual premonitory explosions--the sound of +subterranean blasts as the ice cracked, gave way, and shifted to +the weight above; echoes filled the sodden valley with memories +of the summer months. It was as if the seasons had changed, as if +the zodiacal procession had been thrown into confusion. The +frozen surface of the Salmon was inundated; water four feet deep +in some places ran over it. + +The general wonder at this occurrence changed to consternation +when it was seen that the glacier acted like a battering-ram of +stupendous size, buckling the river ice in front of it as if ice +were made of paper. That seven-foot armor was crushed, broken +into a thousand fragments, which threatened to choke the stream. +A half-mile below the bridge site the Salmon was pinched as if +between two jaws; its smooth surface was rapidly turned into an +indescribable jumble of up-ended cakes. + +When a fortnight had passed O'Neil began to fear that this +movement would go on until the channel had been closed as by a +huge sliding door. In that case the rising waters would quickly +wipe out all traces of his work. Such a crumpling and shifting of +the ice had never occurred before--at least, not within fifty +years, as the alder and cottonwood growth on the east bank +showed; but nothing seemed impossible, no prank too grimly +grotesque for Nature to play in this solitude. O'Neil felt that +his own ingenuity was quite unequal to the task of combating this +peril. Set against forces so tremendous and arbitrary human +invention seemed dwarfed to a pitiable insignificance. + +Day after day he watched the progress of that white palisade; day +after day he scanned the heavens for a sign of change, for out of +the sky alone could come his deliverance. Hourly tests were made +at the bridge site, lest the ice should give way before the +pressure from below and by moving up-stream destroy the intricate +pattern of piling which was being driven to support the +steelwork. But day after day the snows continued to melt and the +rain to fall. Two rivers were now boiling past the camp, one +hidden deep, the other a shallow torrent which ran upon a bed of +ice. The valley was rent by the sounds of the glacier's snail- +like progress. + +Then, without apparent cause, the seasons fell into order again, +the mercury dropped, the surface-water disappeared, the country +was sheeted with a glittering crust over which men walked, +leaving no trace of footprints. Jackson became silent: once again +the wind blew cold from out of the funnel-mouth and the bridge- +builders threshed their arms to start their blood. But the +glacier face had advanced four hundred feet from its position in +August; it had narrowed the Salmon by fully one-half its width. + +Fortunately, the bridge had suffered no damage as yet, and no one +foresaw the effect which these altered conditions were to have. + +The actual erection of steelwork was impossible during the +coldest months; Parker had planned only to rush the piers, +abutments, and false-work to completion so that he could take +advantage of the mild spring weather preceding the break-up. The +execution of this plan was in itself an unparalleled undertaking, +making it necessary to hire double crews of picked men. Yet, as +the weeks wore into months the intricate details were wrought out +one by one, and preparations were completed for the great race. + +Late in March Dan Appleton went to the front, taking with him his +wife and his sister, for whom O'Neil had thoughtfully prepared +suitable living-quarters. The girls were as hungry as Dan to have +a part in the deciding struggle, or at least to see it close at +hand, for the spirit of those engaged in the work had entered +them also. Life at Omar of late had been rather uneventful, and +they looked forward with pleasure to a renewal of those +companionable relations which had made the summer months so, full +of interest and delight. But they were disappointed. Life at the +end of the line they found to be a very grim, a very earnest, and +in some respects an extremely disagreeable affair: the feverish, +unceasing activity of their friends left no time for +companionship or recreation of any sort. More and more they, too, +came to feel the sense of haste and strain pervading the whole +army of workers, the weight of responsibility that bore upon the +commander. + +Dan became almost a stranger to them, and when they saw him he +was obsessed by vital issues. Mellen was gruff and irritable: +Parker in his preoccupation ignored everything but his duties. Of +all their former comrades O'Neil alone seemed aware of their +presence. But behind his smile they saw the lurking worries; in +his eyes was an abstraction they could not penetrate, in his +bearing the fatigue of a man tried to the breaking-point. + +To Eliza there was a certain joy merely in being near the man she +loved, even though she could not help being hurt by his apparent +indifference. The long weeks without sight of him had deepened +her feeling, and she had turned for relief to the writing of her +book--the natural outlet for her repressed emotions. Into its +pages she had poured all her passion, all her yearning, and she +had written with an intimate understanding of O'Neil's ambitions +and aims which later gave the story its unique success as an epic +of financial romance. + +Hers was a nature which could not be content with idleness. She +took up the work that she and Natalie had begun, devoting herself +unobtrusively yet effectively to making O'Neil comfortable. It +was a labor of love, done with no expectation of reward; it +thrilled her, filling her with mingled sadness and satisfaction. +But if Murray noticed the improvement in his surroundings, which +she sometimes doubted, he evidently attributed it to a sudden +access of zeal on the part of Ben, for he made no comment. +Whether or not she wished him to see and understand she could +hardly tell. Somehow his unobservant, masculine acceptance of +things better and worse appealed to the woman in her. She slipped +into O'Neil's quarters during his absence, and slipped out again +quietly; she learned to know his ways, his peculiarities; she +found herself caressing and talking to his personal belongings as +if they could hear and understand. She conducted long +conversations with the objects on his bureau. One morning Ben +entered unexpectedly to surprise her in the act of kissing +Murray's shaving-mirror as if it still preserved the image of its +owner's face, after which she banished the cook-boy utterly and +performed his duties with her own hands. + +Of course, discovery was inevitable. At last O'Neil stumbled in +upon her in the midst of her task, and, questioning her, read the +truth from her blushes and her incoherent attempts at +explanation. + +"So! You're the one who has been doing this!" he exclaimed, in +frank astonishment. "And I've been tipping Benny for his +thoughtfulness all this time! The rascal has made enough to +retire rich." + +"He seemed not to understand his duties very well, so I took +charge. But you had no business to catch me!" The flush died from +Eliza's cheeks, and she faced him with thoroughly feminine +indignation. + +"I can't let you go on with this," said Murray. "_I_ ought to be +doing something for YOU." + +But the girl flared up defiantly. "I love it. I'll do it, no +matter if you lock me out. I'm not on the pay-roll, you know, so +you have no authority over me--none at all!" + +His eyes roved around the room, and for the first time he fully +took in the changes her hands had wrought. + +"My dear child, it's very nice to be spoiled this way and have +everything neat and clean, but--it embarrasses me dreadfully to +have you saddled with the sordid work--" + +"It isn't sordid, and--what brought you home at this hour, +anyhow?" she demanded. + +O'Neil's smile gave place to an anxious frown. + +"The ice is rising, and--" + +"Rising?" + +"Yes. Our old enemy Jackson Glacier is causing us trouble again. +That jam of broken ice in front of it is backing up the water-- +there's more running now, and the ice is lifting. It's lifting +the false-work with it, pulling the piles out of the river-bottom +like splinters out of a sore hand." + +"That's pretty bad, isn't it?" + +"It certainly is. It threatens to throw everything out of +alignment and prevent us from laying the steel if we don't check +it." + +"Check it!" cried Eliza. "How can you check a thing like that?" + +"Easily enough, if we can spare the hands--by cutting away the +ice where it is frozen to the piles, so that it won't lift them +with it. The trouble is to get men enough--you see, the ice is +nine feet thick now. I've set every man to work with axes and +chisels and steam-points, and I came up to telephone Slater for +more help. We'll have to work fast, night and day." + +"There's nobody left in Omar," Eliza said, quickly. + +"I know. Tom's going to gather all he can at Cortez and Hope and +rush them out here. Our task is to keep the ice cut away until +help arrives." + +"I suppose it's too late in the season to repair any serious +damage?" + +"Exactly. If you care to go back with me you can see what we're +doing." As they set off for the bridge site Murray looked down at +Eliza, striding man-like beside him, with something of +affectionate appreciation in his eyes, and said humbly: "It was +careless of me not to see what you have been doing for me all +this time. My only excuse is that I've been driven half mad with +other things. I--haven't time to think of myself." + +"All housekeepers have a thankless task," laughed Eliza. + +When they reached the river-bank she saw everything apparently +just as when she had last seen it. "Why, it's not as bad as I +imagined!" she exclaimed. "I thought I'd find everything going to +smash." + +"Oh, there's nothing spectacular about it. There seldom is about +serious mishaps in this business. The ice has risen only an inch +or more so far, but the very slowness and sureness of it is +what's alarming. It shows that the water is backing up, and as +the flow increases the rise of the ice will quicken. If it starts +to move up or down stream, we're lost." + +There was ample evidence that the menace was thoroughly +understood, for the whole day shift was toiling at the ice, +chopping it, thawing it, shoveling it away, although its +tremendous thickness made their efforts seem puerile. Everywhere +there was manifested a frantic haste, a grim, strained eagerness +that was full of ominous meaning. + +All that day Eliza watched the unequal struggle, and in the +evening Dan brought her reports that were far from reassuring. +The relentless movement showed no sign of ceasing. When she +retired that night she sought ease from her anxiety in a prayer +that was half a petition for O'Neil's success and half an +exceedingly full and frank confession of her love for him. +Outside, beneath the glare of torches and hastily strung +incandescents, a weary army toiled stubbornly, digging, gouging, +chopping at the foot of the towering wall of timbers which +stretched across the Salmon. In the north the aurora borealis +played brilliantly as if to light a council of the gods. + +On the following day "Happy Tom" arrived with fifty men. + +"I got the last mother's son I could find," he explained, as he +warmed himself at O'Neil's stove. + +"Did you go to Hope?" + +"I did, and I saw the splavvus, himself." + +"Gordon?" + +"He's worse than we thought." Tom tapped his shining forehead +significantly. "Loft to let!" + +"What--insane?" + +"Nothing but echoes in his dome. The town's as empty as his +bonnet too, and the streets are full of snow. It's a sight!" + +"Tell me about Mrs. Gordon." "She's quite a person," said Slater, +slowly. "She surprised me. She's there, alone with him and a +watchman. She does all the work, even to LUGGING in the wood and +coal--he's too busy to help--but she won't leave him. She told me +that Dan and Natalie wanted her to come over here, but she +couldn't bring herself to do it or to let them assist in any way. +Gordon spends all his time at his desk, promoting, writing ads +and prospectuses. He's got a grand scheme. He's found that 'Hope +Consolidated' is full of rich ore, but the trouble is in getting +it out; so he's working on a new process of extraction. It's a +wonderful process--you'd never guess what it is. He SMOKES it +out! He says all he needs is plenty of smoke. That bothered him +until he hit on the idea of burning feathers. Now he's planning +to raise ducks, because they've got so much down. Isn't that the +limit? She'll have to fit him into a padded cell sooner or +later." + +"Poor devil!" said O'Neil. "I'm sorry. He had an unusual mind." + +Slater sniffed. "I think it's pretty soft for him, myself. He's +made better than a stand-off--he lost his memory, but he saved +his skin. It's funny how some men can't fall: if they slip on a +banana-peel somebody shoves a cushion under 'em before they +'light. _I_ never got the best of anything. If I dropped asleep +in church my wife would divorce me and I'd go to the electric +chair. Gordon robs widows and orphans, right and left, then ends +up with a loving woman to take care of him in his old age. Why, +if I even robbed a blind puppy of a biscuit I'd leave a thumb- +print on his ear, or the dog's mother would turn out to be a +bloodhound. Anyhow, I'd spend MY declining years nestled up to a +rock-pile, with a mallet in my mit, and a low-browed gentleman +scowling at me from the top of a wall. He'd lean on his shotgun +and say, 'Hurry up, Fatty; it's getting late and there's a ton of +oakum to pick.' It just goes to show that some of us is born +behind the game and never get even, while others, like Gordon, +quit winner no matter how much they lose." Having relieved +himself of this fervid homily, "Happy Tom" unrolled a package of +gum and thrust three sticks into his mouth. "Speaking of bad +luck," he continued, "when are you going to get married, Murray?" + +O'Neil started. "Why--never. It isn't the same kind of +proposition as building a bridge, you know. There's a little +matter of youth and good looks that counts considerably in the +marriage business. No woman would have an old chap like me." + +Slater took a mournful inventory of his chief's person, then said +doubtfully: "You MIGHT put it over, Murray. I ain't strictly +handsome, myself, but I did." + +As O'Neil slipped into his fur coat, after the fat man had +slouched out, he caught sight of himself in the glass of his +bureau and paused. He leaned forward and studied the care-worn +countenance that peered forth at him, then shook his head. He saw +that the hair was growing grayer; that the face was very plain, +and--yes, unquestionably, it was no longer youthful. Of course, +he didn't feel old, but the evidence that he was so admitted of +no disproof, and it was evidence of a sort which no woman could +disregard. He turned from the glass with a qualm of disgust at +his weakness in allowing himself to be influenced in the +slightest by Tom's suggestion. + +For a week the ice rose slowly, a foot a day, and in spite of the +greatest watchfulness it took the false-work with it here and +there. But concentrated effort at the critical points saved the +structure from serious injury. Then the jam in front of Jackson +Glacier went out, at least in part, and the ice began to fall. +Down it settled, smoothly, swiftly, until it rested once more +upon the shores. It was still as firm as in midwinter, and showed +no sign of breaking; nor had it moved down-stream a hair's +breadth. O'Neil gathered his forces for the final onslaught. + + + + +XXVI + +THE RACE + + +On April 5th the last of the steel for Span Number One reached +the front, and erection was begun. The men fell to with a vim and +an enthusiasm impossible to describe. With incredible rapidity +the heavy sections were laid in place; the riveters began their +metallic song; the towering three bent traveler ran smoothly on +its track, and under it grew a web work of metal, braced and +reinforced to withstand, in addition to ordinary strains, the +pressure of a hundred-mile-an-hour wind. To those who looked on, +the structure appeared to build itself, like some dream edifice; +it seemed a miracle that human hands could work that stubborn +metal so swiftly and with so little effort. But every piece had +been cut and fitted carefully, then checked and placed where it +was accessible. + +Now that winter had broken, spring came with a rush. The snows +began to shrink and the drifts to settle. The air grew balmier +with every day; the drip from eaves was answered by the gurgling +laughter of hidden waters. Here and there the boldest +mountainsides began to show, and the tops of alder thickets +thrust themselves into sight. Where wood or metal caught the sun- +rays the snow retreated; pools of ice-water began to form at +noon. + +The days were long, too, and no frozen winds charged out of the +north. As the daylight lengthened, so did the working-hours of +the toilers. + +On April 18th the span was completed. In thirteen days Mellen's +crew had laid four hundred feet of the heaviest steel ever used +in a bridge of this type. But there was no halt; the material for +the second section had been assembled, meanwhile, and the +traveler began to swing it into place. + +The din was unceasing; the clash of riveters, the creak and +rattle of hoists, the shouts of men mingled in a persistent, ear- +splitting clamor; and foot by foot the girders reached out toward +the second monolith which rose from the river-bed. The well- +adjusted human machine was running smoothly; every man knew his +place and the duties that went with it; the hands of each worker +were capable and skilled. But now the hillsides were growing +bare, rills gashed the sloping snow-fields, the upper gullies +began to rumble to avalanches--forerunners of the process that +would strip the earth of snow and ice and free the river in all +its fury. In six days three hundred feet more of steel had been +bolted fast to the complete section, and Span Two was in place. +But the surface of the Salmon was no longer white and pure; it +was dirty and discolored now, for the debris which had collected +during the past winter was exposing itself. The icy covering was +partially inundated also; shallow ponds formed upon it and were +rippled by the south breeze. Running waters on every side sang a +menace to the workers. + +Then progress ceased abruptly. It became known that a part of the +material for the third span had gone astray in its long journey +across the continent. There had been a delay at the Pittsburg +mills, then a blockade in the Sierras; O'Neil was in Omar at the +end of the cable straining every nerve to have the shipment +rushed through. Mellen brooded over his uncompleted work: Parker +studied the dripping hills and measured the melting snows. He +still smiled; but he showed his anxiety in a constant nervous +unrest, and he could not sleep. + +At length news came that Johnny Brennan had the steel aboard his +ship and had sailed. A record run was predicted, but meanwhile +the south wind brought havoc on its breath. The sun shone hotly +into the valley of the Salmon, and instead of warmth it brought a +chill to the hearts of those who watched and waited. + +Twelve endless, idle days crawled by. Winter no longer gave +battle; she was routed, and in her mad retreat she threatened to +overwhelm O'Neil's fortunes. + +On May 6th the needed bridge members were assembled, and the +erection of Span Three began. The original plan had been to build +this section on the cantilever principle, so as to gain +independence of the river ice, but to do so would have meant slow +work and much delay--an expenditure of time which the terms of +the option made impossible. Arrangements had been made, +therefore, to lay it on false-work as the other spans had been +laid, risking everything upon the weather. + +As a matter of precaution the southern half of the span was +connected to the completed portion; but before the connection +could be fully made the remainder of the jam in front of Jackson +Glacier, which had caused so much trouble heretofore, went out +suddenly, and the river ice moved down-stream about a foot, +carrying with it the whole intricate system of supporting timbers +beneath the uncompleted span. Hasty measurements showed that the +north end of the steel then on the false-work was thirteen inches +out of line. + +It was Mr. Blaine who brought the tidings of this last calamity +to Eliza Appleton. From his evident anxiety she gathered that the +matter was of graver consequence than she could well understand. + +"Thirteen inches in fifteen hundred feet can't amount to much," +she said, vaguely. + +Blaine smiled in spite of himself. "You don't understand. It's as +bad as thirteen feet, for the work can't go on until everything +is in perfect alignment. That whole forest of piles must be +straightened." + +"Impossible!" she gasped. "Why, there are thousands of them." + +He shook his head, still smiling doubtfully. "Nothing is +impossible to Mellen and Parker. They've begun clearing away the +ice on the up-stream side and driving new anchor-piles above. +They're going to fit tackle to them and yank the whole thing up- +stream. I never heard of such a thing, but there's no time to do +anything else." He cast a worried look at the smiling sky. "I +wonder what will happen next. This is getting on my nerves." + +Out on the river swift work was going on. Steam from every +available boiler was carried across the ice in feed-pipes, the +night shift had been roused from sleep, and every available man +was busied in relieving the pressure. Pile-drivers hammered long +timbers into the river-bed above the threatened point, hydraulic +jacks were put in place, and steel cables were run to drum and +pulley. The men worked sometimes knee-deep in ice-water; but they +did not walk, they ran. In an incredibly short time the +preparations were completed, a strain was put upon the tackle, +and when night came the massive false-work had been pulled back +into line and the traveler was once more swinging steel into +place. It was a magnificent feat, yet not one of those concerned +in it could feel confident that the work had not been done in +vain; for the time was growing terribly short, and, although the +ice seemed solid, it was rotting fast. + +After the southern half of the span had been completed the warmth +increased rapidly, therefore the steel crew lengthened its hours. +The men worked from seven o'clock in the morning until eleven +o'clock at night. + +On the 13th, without warning of any sort, Garfield Glacier began +moving forward. It had lain inactive even during the midwinter +thaw which had started its smaller brother, but that warm spell +had evidently had its effect upon the giant, for now he shook off +his lethargy and awoke. He stirred, gradually at first and +without sound, as if bent upon surprising the interlopers; then +his speed increased. As the glacier advanced it thrust the nine- +foot blanket of lake ice ahead of it, and this in turn crowded +the river ice down upon the bridge. The movement at the camp site +on the first day was only two inches, but that was sufficiently +serious. + +The onset of Garfield at this time was, of course, unexpected; +for no forward motion had ever been reported prior to the spring +break-up. The action of the ice heretofore had been alarming; but +now consternation spread, a panic swept the ranks of the +builders, for this was no short-lived phenomenon, this was the +annual march of the glacier itself which promised to continue +indefinitely. A tremendous cutting-edge, nine feet in thickness, +like the blade of a carpenter's plane, was being driven against +the bridge by an irresistible force. + +Once again the endless thawing and chopping and gouging of ice +began, but the more rapidly the encroaching edge was cut away the +more swiftly did it bear down. The huge mass began to rumble; it +"calved," it split, it detonated, and, having finally loosened +itself from its bed, it acquired increased momentum. As the men +with chisels and steam-points became exhausted others took their +places, but the structural gang clung to its perch above, +augmenting the din of riveters and the groaning of blocks and +tackle. Among the able-bodied men sleep now was out of the +question, for the ice gained in spite of every effort. It was too +late to remove the steel in the uncompleted span to a place of +safety, for that would have required more time than to bridge the +remaining gap. + +Piling began to buckle and bend before that irresistible push; +the whole nicely balanced mass of metal was in danger of being +unseated. Mellen cursed the heavens in a black fury; Parker +smiled through white lips; O'Neil ground his teeth and spurred +his men on. + +This feverish haste brought its penalty. On the evening of the +14th, when the span was more than three-quarters finished, a +lower chord section fouled as it was lifted, and two loading- +beams at the top of the traveler snapped. + +On that day victory had been in sight; the driving of the last +bolt had been but a question of hours, a race with the sliding +ice. But with the hoisting apparatus out of use work halted. +Swiftly, desperately, without loss of a moment's time, repairs +began. No regrets were voiced, no effort was made to place the +blame, for that would have caused delay, and every minute +counted. Eleven hours later the broken beams were replaced, and +erection had recommenced. + +But now for those above there was danger to life and limb. During +the pause the ice had gained, and no effort could relieve the +false-work of its strain. All knew that if it gave way the +workmen would be caught in a chaos of collapsing wood and steel. + +From the morning of May 14th until midnight of the 16th the iron- +workers clung to their tasks. They dropped their tools and ran to +their meals; they gulped their food and fled back to their posts. +The weaker ones gave out and staggered away, cursed and taunted +by their companions. They were rough fellows, and in their deep- +throated profanity was a prayer. + +The strong ones struggled on, blind with weariness, but upheld by +that desperate, unthinking courage that animates a bayonet +charge. It seemed that every moment must see the beginning of +that slow work of demolition which would send them all scurrying +to safety; but hour after hour the piling continued to hold and +the fingers of steel to reach out, foot by foot, for the concrete +pier which was their goal. + +At midnight of the 16th the last rivet was driven; but the ice +had gained to such an extent that the lower chord was buckled +down-stream about eight inches, and the distance was growing +steadily. Quickly the traveler was shifted to the false-work +beyond the pier, and the men under Mellen's direction fell to +splitting out the blocking. + +As the supports were chopped away the mass began to crush the +last few wedges; there was a great snapping and rending of wood; +and some one, strained to the breaking-point, shouted: + +"Look out! There she goes!" + +A cry of terror arose, the men fled, trampling one another in +their panic. But Mellen charged them like a wild man, firing +curses and orders at them until they rallied. The remaining +supports were removed; the fifteen hundred tons of metal settled +into place and rested securely on its foundations. + +O'Neil was the last man ashore. As he walked the completed span +from Pier Three the barricade of piling beneath him was bending +and tearing; but he issued no orders to remove it, for the river +was doing that. In the general haste pile-drivers, hoists, +boilers, and various odds and ends of machinery and material had +been left where they stood. They were being inundated now; many +of them were all but submerged. There was no possibility of +saving them at present, for the men were half dead from +exhaustion. + +As he lurched up the muddy, uneven street to his quarters Murray +felt his fatigue like a heavy burden, for he had been sixty hours +without sleep. He saw Slater and Appleton and the rest of his +"boys"; he saw Natalie and Eliza, but he was too tired to speak +to them, or to grasp what they said. He heard the workmen +cheering Mellen and Parker and himself. It was very foolish, he +thought, to cheer, since the river had so nearly triumphed and +the final test was yet to come. + +He fell upon his bed, clothed as he was; an hour later the false- +work beneath Span Three collapsed. + +Although the bridge was not yet finished, the most critical point +of its construction had been passed, for the fourth and final +portion would be built over shallow water, and no great +difficulties were to be expected even though the ice went out +before the work was finished. But Murray had made his promise and +his boast to complete the structure within a stated time, and he +was determined to live up to the very letter of his agreement +with the Trust. As to the result of the break-up, he had no fear +whatever. + +For once Nature aided him: she seemed to smile as if in approval +of his steadfastness. The movement of the channel ice became +irregular, spasmodic, but it remained firm until the last span +had been put in place. + +Of this dramatic struggle Eliza Appleton had watched every phase +with intensest interest; but when at last she knew that the +battle was won she experienced a peculiar revulsion of feeling. +So long as O'Neil had been working against odds, with the +prospect of ruin and failure forever imminent, she had felt an +almost painful sympathy, but now that he had conquered she felt +timid about congratulating him. He was no longer to be pitied and +helped; he had attained his goal and the fame he longed for. His +success would inevitably take him out of her life. She was very +sorry that he needed her no longer. + +She did not watch the last bridge-member swung, but went to her +room, and tried to face the future. Spring was here, her book was +finished, there was the need to take up her life again. + +She was surprised when Murray came to find her. + +"I missed you, Eliza," he said. "The others are all down at the +river-bank. I want you to congratulate me." + +She saw, with a jealous twinge, that exultation over his victory +had overcome his weariness, that his face was alight with a fire +she had never before seen. He seemed young, vigorous, and +masterful once more. + +"Of course," he went on, "the credit belongs to Parker, who +worked the bridge out in each detail--he's marvelous--and to +Mellen, who actually built it, but I helped a little. Praise to +me means praise to them." + +"It is all over now, isn't it?" + +"Practically. Blaine has cabled New York that we've won. Strictly +speaking, we haven't as yet, for there's still the break-up to +face; but the bridge will come through it without a scratch. The +ice may go out any minute now, and after that I can rest." He +smiled at her gladly. "It will feel good to get rid of all this +responsibility, won't it? I think you've suffered under it as +much as I have." + +A little wistfully she answered: "You're going to realize that +dream you told me about the day of the storm at Kyak. You have +conquered this great country--just as you dreamed." + +He acquiesced eagerly, boyishly. "Yes. Whirring wheels, a current +of traffic, a broad highway of steel--that's the sort of monument +I want to leave." + +"Sometime I'll come back and see it all completed and tell myself +that I had a little part in making it." + +"Come back?" he queried. "Why, you're going to stay till we're +through, aren't you?" + +"Oh no! I'm going south with the spring flight--on the next boat, +perhaps." + +His face fell; the exultant light gradually faded from his eyes. + +"Why--I had no idea! Aren't you happy here?" + +She nodded. "But I must try to make good in my work as you have +in yours." + +He was looking at her sorrowfully, almost as if she had deserted +him. "That's too bad, but--I suppose you must go. Yes; this is no +place for you. I dare say other people need you to bring sunshine +and joy to them just as we old fellows do, but--I've never +thought about your leaving. It wouldn't be right to ask you to +stay here among such people as we are when you have so much ahead +of you. Still, it will leave a gap. Yes--it certainly will--leave +a gap." + +She longed desperately to tell him how willingly she would stay +if he only asked her, but the very thought shocked her into a +deeper reserve. + +"I'm going East to sell my book," she said, stiffly. "You've +given me the climax of the story in this race with the seasons." + +"Is it a--love story?" he asked. + +Eliza flushed. "Yes. It's mostly love." + +"You're not at all the girl I thought you when we first met. +You're very--different. I'm sure I won't recognize myself as the +hero. Who--or what is the girl in the story?" + +"Well, she's just the kind of girl that would appeal to a person +like you. She's tall and dark and dashing, and--of course, she's +remarkably beautiful. She's very feminine, too." + +"What's her name?" + +Miss Appleton stammered: "Why--I--called her Violet--until I +could think of a better--" + +"What's wrong with Violet? You couldn't think of a better name +than that. I'm fond of it." + +"Oh, it's a good book-name, but for real life it's too-- +delicate." Eliza felt with vexation that her face was burning. +She was sure he was laughing at her. + +"Can't I read the manuscript?" he pleaded. + +"Heavens! No! I--" She changed the subject abruptly. "I've left +word to be called the minute the ice starts to go out. I want to +see the last act of the drama." + +When O'Neil left her he was vaguely perplexed, for something in +her bearing did not seem quite natural. He was forlorn, too, at +the prospect of losing her. He wondered if fathers suffered thus, +or if a lover could be more deeply pained at a parting than he. +Somehow he seemed to share the feelings of both. + + + + +XXVII + +HOW A DREAM CAME TRUE + + +Early on the following morning Eliza was awakened by a sound of +shouting outside her window. She lay half dazed for a moment or +two, until the significance of the uproar made itself apparent; +then she leaped from her bed. + +Men were crying: + +"There she goes!" + +"She's going out!" + +Doors were slamming, there was the rustle and scuff of flying +feet, and in the next room Dan was evidently throwing himself +into his clothes like a fireman. Eliza called to him, but he did +not answer; and the next moment he had fled, upsetting some +article of furniture in his haste. Drawing her curtains aside, +the girl saw in the brightening dawn men pouring down the street, +dressing as they went. They seemed half demented; they were +yelling at one another, but she could not gather from their words +whether it was the ice which was moving or--the bridge. The +bridge! That possibility set her to dressing with tremulous +fingers, her heart sick with fear. She called to Natalie, but +scarcely recognized her own voice. + +"I--don't know," came the muffled reply to her question. "It +sounds like something--terrible. I'm afraid Dan will fall in or-- +get hurt." The confusion in the street was growing. "ELIZA!" +Natalie's voice was tragic. + +"What is it, dear?" + +"H--help me, quick!" + +"How?" + +"I can't find my other shoe." + +But Eliza was sitting on the floor, lacing up her own stout +boots, and an instant later she followed her brother, pursued by +a wail of dismay from the adjoining chamber. Through the chill +morning light she hurried, asking many questions, but receiving +no coherent reply from the racing men; then after endless moments +of suspense she saw with relief that the massive superstructure +of the bridge was still standing. Above the shouting she heard +another sound, indistinct but insistent. It filled the air with a +whispering movement; it was punctuated at intervals by a dull +rumbling and grinding. She found the river-bank black with forms, +but like a cat she wormed her way through the crowd until the +whole panorama lay before her. + +The bridge stood as she had seen it on the yesterday--slender, +strong, superb in the simplicity of its splendid outline; but +beneath it and as far as her eyes could follow the river she saw, +not the solid spread of white to which she had become accustomed, +but a moving expanse of floes. At first the winter burden slipped +past in huge masses, acres in extent, but soon these began to be +rent apart; irregular black seams ran through them, opened, +closed, and threw up ridges of ice-shavings as they ground +together. The floes were rubbing against the banks, they came +sliding out over the dry shore like tremendous sheets of +cardboard manipulated by unseen hands, and not until their nine- +foot edges were exposed to view did the mind grasp the appalling +significance of their movement. They swept down in phalanxes upon +the wedge-like ice-breakers which stood guard above the bridge- +piers, then they halted, separated, and the armored cutting-edges +sheared through them like blades. + +A half-mile below, where the Salmon flung itself headlong against +the upper wing of Jackson Glacier, the floating ice was checked +by the narrowed passageway. There a jam was forming, and as the +river heaved and tore at its growing burden a spectacular +struggle went on. The sound of it came faintly but impressively +to the watchers--a grinding and crushing of bergs, a roar of +escaping waters. Fragments were up-ended, masses were rearing +themselves edgewise into the air, were overturning and +collapsing. They were wedging themselves into every conceivable +angle, and the crowding procession from above was adding to the +barrier momentarily. As the passageway became blocked the waters +rose; the river piled itself up so swiftly that the eye could +note its rise along the banks. + +But the attention of the crowd was divided between the jam and +something far out on the bridge itself. At first glance Eliza did +not comprehend; then she heard a man explaining: + +"He was going out when we got here, and now he won't come back." + +The girl gasped, for she recognized the distant figure of a man, +dwarfed to puny proportions by the bulk of the structure in the +mazes of which he stood. The man was O'Neil; he was perched upon +one of the girders near the center of the longest span, where he +could watch the attack upon the pyramidal ice-breakers beneath +him. + +"He's a fool," said some one at Eliza's back. "That jam is +getting bigger." + +"He'd better let the damned bridge take care of itself." + +She turned and began to force her way through the press of people +between her and the south abutment. She arrived there, disheveled +and panting, to find Slater, Mellen, and Parker standing in the +approach. In front of them extended the long skeleton tunnel into +which Murray had gone. + +"Mr. O'Neil is out there!" she cried to Tom. + +Slater turned and, reading the tragic appeal in her face, said +reassuringly: + +"Sure! But he's all right." + +"They say--there's danger." + +"Happy Tom's" round visage puckered into a doubtful smile. "Oh, +he'll take care of himself." + +Mellen turned to the girl and said briefly: + +"There's no danger whatever." + +But Eliza's fear was not to be so easily quieted. + +"Then why did he go out alone? What are you men doing here?" + +"It's his orders," Tom told her. + +Mellen was staring at the jam below, over which the Salmon was +hurling a flood of ice and foaming waters. The stream was +swelling and rising steadily; already it had nearly reached the +level of the timberline on the left bank; the blockade was +extending up-stream almost to the bridge itself. Mellen said +something to Parker, who shook his head silently. + +Dan Appleton shouldered his way out of the crowd, with Natalie at +his heels. She had dressed herself in haste: her hair was loose, +her jacket was buttoned awry; on one foot was a shoe, on the +other a bedroom slipper muddy and sodden. Her dark eyes were big +with excitement. + +"Why don't you make Murray come in?" Dan demanded sharply. + +"He won't do it," muttered Slater. + +"The jam is growing. Nobody knows what'll happen if it holds much +longer. If the bridge should go--" + +Mellen whirled, crying savagely: "It won't go! All hell couldn't +take it out." + +From the ranks of the workmen came a bellow of triumph, as an +unusually heavy ice-floe was swept against the breakers and rent +asunder. The tumult of the imprisoned waters below was growing +louder every moment: across the lake came a stentorian rumble as +a huge mass was loosened from the front of Garfield. The channel +of the Salmon where the onlookers stood was a heaving, churning +caldron over which the slim bridge flung itself defiantly. + +Eliza plucked at her brother's sleeve imploringly, and he saw her +for the first time. + +"Hello, Sis," he cried. "How did you get here?" + +"Is he in--danger, Danny?" + +"Yes--no! Mellen says it's all right, so it must be, but--that +dam--" + +At that moment Natalie began to sob hysterically, and Dan turned +his attention to her. + +But his sister was not of the hysterical kind. Seizing Tom Slater +by the arm, she tried to shake him, demanding fiercely: + +"Suppose the jam doesn't give way! What will happen?" "Happy Tom" +stared at her uncomprehendingly. Her voice was shrill and +insistent. "Suppose the water rises higher. Won't the ice sweep +down on the bridge itself? Won't it wreck everything if it goes +out suddenly? Tell me--" + +"It can't hold. Mellen says so." Slater, like the others, found +it impossible to keep his eyes from the river where those +immeasurable forces were at play; then in his peculiar irascible +manner he complained: "I told 'em we was crazy to try this. It +ain't a white man's country; it ain't a safe place for a bridge. +There's just one God-awful thing after another--" He broke into a +shout, for Eliza had slipped past him and was speeding like a +shadow out across the irregularly spaced ties upon which the +bridge track was laid. + +Mellen whirled at the cry and made after her, but he might as +well have tried to catch the wind. As she ran she heard her +brother shout in sudden alarm and Natalie's voice raised in +entreaty, but she sped on under an impulse as irresistible as +panic fear. Down through the openings beneath her feet she saw, +as in a nightmare, the sweeping flood, burdened with plunging ice +chunks and flecked with foam. She seemed to be suspended above +it; yet she was running at reckless speed, dimly aware of the +consequences of a misjudged footstep, but fearful only of being +overtaken. Suddenly she hated her companions; her mind was in a +furious revolt at their cowardice, their indecision, or whatever +it was that held them like a group of wooden figures safe on +shore while the man whose life was worth all theirs put together +exposed himself to needless peril. That he was really in danger +she felt sure. She knew that Murray was apt to lose himself in +his dreams; perhaps some visionary mood had blinded him to the +menace of that mounting ice-ridge it front of the glacier, or had +he madly chosen to stand or fall with this structure that meant +so much to him? She would make him yield to her own terror, drag +him ashore, if necessary, with her own hands. + +She stumbled, but saved herself from a fall, then gathered her +skirts more closely and rushed on, measuring with instinctive +nicety the length of every stride. It was not an easy path over +which she dashed, for the ties were unevenly spaced; gaping +apertures gave terrible glimpses of the river below, and across +these ghastly abysses she had to leap. + +The hoarse bursts of shouting from the shore ceased as the +workmen beheld her flitting out along the steel causeway. They +watched her in dumb amazement. + +All at once O'Neil saw her and hurried to meet her. + +"Eliza!" he cried. "Be careful! What possessed you to do this?" + +"Come away," she gasped. "It's dangerous. The jam--Look!" She +pointed down the channel. + +He shook his head impatiently. + +"Yes!" she pleaded. "Yes! Please! They wouldn't come to warn you +--they tried to stop me. You must go ashore." The frightened +entreaty in her clear, wide-open eyes, the disorder that her +haste had made affected O'Neil strangely. He stared at her, +bewildered, doubtful, then steadied her and groped with his free +hand for support. He could feel her trembling wretchedly. + +"There's no danger, none whatever," he said, soothingly. "Nothing +can happen." + +"You don't know. The bridge has never been tried. The ice is +battering at it, and that jam--if it doesn't burst--" + +"But it will. It can't last much longer." + +"It's rising--" + +"To be sure, but the river will overflow the bank." + +"Please!" she urged. "You can do no good here. I'm afraid." + +He stared at her in the same incredulous bewilderment; some +impulse deep within him was struggling for expression, but he +could not find words to frame it. His eyes were oddly bright as +he smiled at her. + +"Won't you go ashore?" she begged. + +"I'll take you back, of course, but I want to stay and see--" + +"Then--I'll stay." + +"Eliza!" Her name burst from his lips in a tone that thrilled +her, but with it came a sudden uproar from the distant crowd, and +the next instant they saw that the ice-barrier was giving way. +The pressure had become irresistible. As the Salmon had risen the +ice had risen also, and now the narrow throat was belching its +contents forth. The chaos of up-ended bergs was being torn apart; +over it and through it burst a deluge which filled the valley +with the roar of a mighty cataract. Clouds of spray were in the +air; broken masses were leaping and somersaulting; high up on the +shore were stranded floes and fragments, left in the wake of the +moving body. Onward it coursed, clashing and grinding along the +brittle face of the glacier; over the alder tops beyond the bend +they could see it moving faster and faster, like the crest of a +tidal wave. The surface of the river lowered swiftly beneath the +bridge; the huge white pans ground and milled, shouldered aside +by the iron-sheathed pillars of concrete. + +"See! It's gone already. Once it clears a passageway we'll have +no more gorges, for the freshets are coming. The bridge didn't +even tremble--there wasn't a tremor, not a scratch!" Eliza looked +up to find O'Neil regarding her with an expression that set her +heart throbbing and her thoughts scattering. She clasped a huge, +cold bolt-head and clung to it desperately, for the upheaval in +her soul rivaled that which had just passed before her eyes. The +bridge, the river, the valley itself were gyrating slowly, +dizzily. + +"Eliza!" She did not answer. "Child!" O'Neil's voice was shaking. +"Why did you come to me? Why did you do this mad thing? I saw +something in your face that I can't believe--that I--can't think +possible. It--it gives me courage. If I don't speak quickly I'll +never dare. Is it--true? Dear girl, can it be? I'm so old--such a +poor thing--you couldn't possibly care, and yet, WHY DID YOU +COME?" The words were torn from him; he was gripped and shaken by +a powerful emotion. + +She tried to answer, but her lips were soundless. She closed her +eyes, and Murray saw that she was whiter than the foam far +beneath. He stared into the colorless face upturned to his until +her eyelids fluttered open and she managed to voice the words +that clung in her throat. + +"I've always--loved you like this." + +He gave a cry, like that of a starving man; she felt herself +drawn against him. But now he, too, was speechless; he could only +press her close while his mind went groping for words to express +that joy which was as yet unbelievable and stunning. + +"Couldn't you see?" she asked, breathlessly. + +He shook his head. "I'm such a dreamer. I'm afraid it--can't be +true. I'm afraid you'll go away and--leave me. You won't ever-- +will you, Eliza? I couldn't stand that." Then fresh realization +of the truth swept over him; they clung to each other, drunk with +ecstasy, senseless of their surroundings. + +"I thought you cared for Natalie," she said, softly, after a +while. + +"It was always you." + +"Always?" + +"Always!" + +She turned her lips to his, and lifted her entwining arms. + + The breakfast-gong had called the men away before the two +figures far out upon the bridge picked their way slowly to the +shore. The Salmon was still flooded with hurrying masses of ice, +as it would continue to be for several days, but it was running +free; the channel in front of the glacier was open. + +Blaine was the first to shake O'Neil's hand, for the members of +Murray's crew held aloof in some embarrassment. + +"It's a perfect piece of work," said he. "I congratulate you." + +The others echoed his sentiments faintly, hesitatingly, for they +were abashed at what they saw in their chief's face and realized +that words were weak and meaningless. + +Dan dared not trust himself to speak. He had many things to say +to his sister, but his throat ached miserably. Natalie restrained +herself only by the greatest effort. + +It was Tom Slater who ended the awkward pause by grumbling, +sarcastically: + +"If all the young lovers are safely ashore, maybe us old men who +built the bridge can go and get something to eat." + +Murray smiled at the girl beside him. + +"I'm afraid they've guessed our secret, dear." + +"Secret!" Slater rolled his eyes. "There ain't over a couple +thousand people beside us that saw you pop the question. I s'pose +she was out of breath and couldn't say no." + +Eliza gasped and fled to her brother's arms. + +"Sis! Poor--little Sis!" Dan cried, and two tears stole down his +brown cheeks. "Isn't this--just great?" Then the others burst +into a noisy expression of their gladness. + +"Happy Tom" regarded them all pessimistically. "I feel bound to +warn you," he said at length, "that marriage is an awful gamble. +It ain't what it seems." + +"It is!" Natalie declared. "It's better, and you know it." + +"It turned out all right for me," Tom acknowledged, "because I +got the best woman in the world. But"--he eyed his chief +accusingly--"I went about it in a modest way; I didn't humiliate +her in public." + +He turned impatiently upon his companions, still pouring out +their babble of congratulations. + +"Come along, can't you," he cried, "and leave 'em alone. I'm a +dyspeptic old married man, but I used to be young and +affectionate, like Murray. After breakfast I'm going to cable +Mrs. Slater to come and bring the kids with her and watch her +bed-ridden, invalid husband build the rest of this railroad. I'm +getting chuck full of romance." + + "It has been a miraculous morning for me," said Murray, after a +time, "and the greatest miracle is--you, dear." + +"This is just the way the story ended in my book," Eliza told him +happily--"our book." + +He pressed her closer. "Yes! Our book--our bridge--our +everything, Eliza." + +She hid her blushing face against his shoulder, then with thumb +and finger drew his ear down to her lips. Summoning her courage, +she whispered: + +"Murray dear, won't you call me--Violet?" + +THE END + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Iron Trail, by Rex Beach + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRON TRAIL *** + +This file should be named rntrl10.txt or rntrl10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, rntrl11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, rntrl10a.txt + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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