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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/17088-8.txt b/17088-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..62867c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/17088-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9239 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Iron Furrow, by George C. Shedd + +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 Furrow + +Author: George C. Shedd + +Illustrator: Henry A. Botkin + +Release Date: November 18, 2005 [EBook #17088] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRON FURROW *** + + + + +Produced by David Garcia, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: A number of very obvious | + | typographical errors have been corrected in this | + | text. For a complete list please see the bottom of | + | the document. | + +-----------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + +[Illustration: "UNDER THE HAT BRIM DRAWN FORWARD TO HIS LINE OF +VISION HIS EYES ... GAZED FORTH KEEN AND OBSERVANT"] + + + + +THE IRON +FURROW + +BY GEORGE C. SHEDD + +FRONTISPIECE BY +HENRY A. BOTKIN + +A.L. BURT COMPANY +Publishers New York + +Published by arrangement with Doubleday, Page & Company + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1919, 1920, BY +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF +TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, +INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN + +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES +AT +THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N.Y. + + + + +THE IRON FURROW + + + + +THE IRON FURROW + +CHAPTER I + + +The Ventisquero Range stretches across the circumference of one's +vision in a procession of mountains that come tall and blue out of the +distant north and seemingly march past to vanish in the remote south +like azure phantoms. The mountains wall the horizon and dominate the +mesa, their black forest-clad flanks crumpled and broken and gashed by +caņons, lifting above timber-line peaks of bare brown rock that pierce +the clouds floating along the range. At sunrise they cast immense +shadows upon the mesa spreading westward from their base; and at +sunset they reflect golden and purple glows upon the plain until the +earth appears swimming in some iridescent sea of ether; while over +them from dawn till dusk, traversed by a few fleecy clouds, lies the +turquoise sky of New Mexico. + +At a certain point in the range a small caņon opens upon the mesa with +a gush of gravel and sand that flows a short way into the sagebrush +and forms a creek bed. Tucked back in the little caņon there is a +considerable growth of bushes and trees, cool and fresh-looking in the +shadow of the gorge during the summer season, a splash of vivid green +there at the bottom of the dusty gray mountain, but at the caņon's +mouth this verdure ceases. + +Only an insignificant stream of water ran, one day, in the stony creek +bed that meandered out upon the mesa, and it appeared under the hot +July sun and among the hot stones for all the world like a rivulet of +liquid glass. That was all the mesa had to show, only its endless gray +sagebrush and the creek bed almost dry--unless one should reckon the +three parched cottonwood trees beside the stream, a little way down +from the caņon, and the flat-roofed adobe house near by, and the empty +corral behind built of aspen poles. In that immensity of mountain and +mesa the house looked like a brick of sun-baked mud, the corral like a +child's device of straws, the three cottonwoods like three twigs stuck +in the earth. Or, at any rate, that is how they appeared to a horseman +regarding them from the main mesa trail a mile away. + +The rider, a slender tanned young fellow of about twenty-eight, sat in +the saddle with the relaxed ease of habit which allowed his body to +accommodate itself to the steady jogging trot of his horse. A roll +comprising clothes wrapped in a black rubber coat was tied behind the +cantle. His Stetson hat was tilted up at the rear and down in front +almost on his nose--a thin, bony nose, slightly curved and with the +suggestion of a hook in the tip, just the sort of nose to accord with +his lean, sunburnt cheeks and clean-cut chin and straight-lipped +mouth. Under the hat brim drawn forward to his line of vision his +eyes, notwithstanding his air of lounging indolence, gazed forth keen +and observant. He had the appearance of a man who might be seeking a +few stray cattle, or riding to town for mail, and in no particular +hurry about it, either, this hot afternoon; but, for all that, Lee +Bryant was proceeding on important business--important for him, +anyhow. When everything one possesses is about to be risked on a +venture, the matter is naturally vital; and at this moment he was +moving straight to the initiative of his enterprise. + +Where the road crossed the creek bed to continue northward, a trail +branched off and followed up the stream to the little ranch house by +the three cottonwood trees. Here the creek had not yet begun to cut an +arroyo and had washed merely a course five or six feet deep and some +fifty feet wide through the mesa, so that from a distance the shallow +gash was invisible and the ground appeared unbroken. It was because of +the flat character of the mesa, too, that Bryant on reaching the bank +of the stream was able to see on the opposite side two persons a +quarter of a mile off riding toward him; women, he perceived. Far +north of them on the road, a black spot in a haze of dust, seemingly +motionless but as one could guess advancing rapidly, was an +automobile. + +Bryant rode his horse down into the creek bed and turned him aside to +a small pool on the upper side of the crossing, under the cut-bank, +where the horse thrust his muzzle into the water and drank greedily. +The rider swung himself out of the saddle, knelt a pace beyond, where +the rivulet trickled into the pool, and also drank. + +"Wet anyway, even if warm, eh, Dick?" he remarked, when done. "Don't +drink it all, old scout; leave a swallow for the ladies." Still on his +knees he looked appraisingly down the creek and then up it, and added +derisively, "Some stream, this Perro, some stream!" + +After rolling and lighting a cigarette, he meditated for a time in +the same kneeling position. His horse finished drinking and moved a +step nearer his master, where he stood with head lowered, water +dripping from his lip, body inert. But presently he pricked his ears +and turning his head toward the other bank gave a low whinny. Bryant +got to his feet. + +The two women he had beheld at a distance had now reached the ford. +Their ponies snuffing water immediately dipped into the creek bed and +crossed its sandy bottom with quickened steps. Young women the riders +were, scarcely more than girls, it seemed to Bryant; wearing divided +khaki skirts and white shirt waists and wide-brimmed straw hats tied +with thongs under their chins. In this region where white men were +none too numerous, and women of their own kind scarcer yet, and girls +scarcest of all, the presence here of the pair aroused in the young +fellow a lively interest. + +He led Dick aside that their ponies might approach the pool. + +"Thank you; they are very thirsty," said the nearer girl, with a nod. +The ponies plunged forefeet into the water and stood thus with noses +buried, drinking with eager gulps. "The afternoon is so hot and the +road so dusty," the speaker continued, "that the poor things were +almost choked." + +She was the smaller of the pair, of medium height and having a +graceful, well-molded figure, with frank gray eyes, a nose showing a +few freckles, smooth soft cheeks slightly reddened by sun, and an +expressive mouth. Bryant judged that she had small, firm hands, but +could not see them as she wore gauntlets. He further decided that she +was neither plain nor pretty: just average good-looking, one might +say. An air of friendliness was in her favour, though what might or +might not be a prepossessing trait, depending on circumstances, was +the suggested obstinacy in her round chin. + +"Don't you yourselves wish a drink? You must be thirsty, too," Bryant +addressed the young ladies. "If your ponies won't stand, I'll look +after them." + +"Oh, they'll not run off, unless we forget to let the reins hang, as +has happened once or twice," said the girl who previously had spoken. +"For they're regular cow-ponies. At first we had a hard time +remembering just to drop the lines when we dismounted instead of tying +them to a post somewhere; and for a while we had a feeling that they +certainly would gallop off if we did let the reins hang, as we'd been +instructed. But they never did." She turned to her companion. "Imo, +aren't you thirsty? I'm going to get down and have a drink." With +which she swung herself down from her saddle upon the sand. + +The second girl was tall and thin, lacking both the spirits and +stamina of the other; a crown of fluffy golden hair was hinted by the +little of it the young fellow could see under the brim of her big hat; +her eyes were of a soft blue colour, probably weak; while her face, +the skin of which was exceedingly white with but a tinge of the sun's +fiery burn, was regular of feature and delicately formed. + +She walked to the rill languidly, where stooping she drank from her +palm. Most of the water that she dipped escaped before reaching her +lips; and Bryant doubted if she were really successful in quenching +her thirst. The heat, the dust, and the ride appeared to have been +almost too much for her strength, exhausting her slender store of +vitality. The other girl, who had coiled herself down by the +trickling stream and bent forward resting her hands in the water, +drank directly from the rivulet. + +"There, that's the way to do it, Imo," she declared, when she had +straightened up, hat-brim, nose, chin, all dripping. "Like the ponies! +I hope I haven't lost my handkerchief." And she began to search about +her waist. + +"I'd fall flat in the water if I tried it, as sure as the world," the +taller girl responded. + +They rose to their feet and joined Bryant. + +"You're the young ladies who are homesteading just south of here, +aren't you?" he inquired, politely. + +"Yes, two miles south on Sarita Creek," the smaller answered. Then +after an appraising regard of him she continued, "We took our claims +only last April. And they're not very good claims, either, we're +beginning to fear; the creek goes dry about this time. That's why no +one had filed on the locations before. Have you a ranch somewhere +near?" + +"No. That is, not yet. I'm a civil engineer, but I'm thinking strongly +of settling down here. If I do, we shall be neighbours. My name is Lee +Bryant; this is my horse Dick; and I've a dog called Mike, which +stopped aways back on the road to investigate a prairie dog hole. Now +you know who we are," he concluded, with a smile. + +The girl thereupon told him her name was Ruth Gardner and that of her +companion Imogene Martin. + +"We'll be very glad to have you call at our little ranch when you're +riding by," Ruth Gardner said, graciously. "Aside from Imogene's uncle +and aunt, who live in Kennard and who've come to see us several +times, we've not had a single visitor in the three months and a half +we've been there, except once an old Mexican who was herding sheep +near by and came to ask for matches. Of course, not many people know +we're there, I imagine. From the road one can't see our cabins--we had +to have two, you know, one for each claim, and they sit side by +side--because they're in the mouth of the caņon among the trees. It's +really cool and pleasant there during the heat of the day. Any time +you come, you'll be welcome." + +"Yes, Mr. Bryant," Imogene Martin affirmed. "A man now and then in the +scenery will help out wonderfully." + +"I'll stop the first time I'm passing," he stated. + +Lee Bryant understood the significance of the invitation: they were +starved for company and would be grateful for the society of a person +they believed respectable. He had seen a good deal of homesteading +conditions in the West; he knew the hardships involved in "holding +down" claims, of which the dreary monotony and loneliness of the life +were not the least. One earned ten times over every bit one got of a +free government homestead. For men it was bad enough; but for woman, +for girls like these, who had probably come from the East in trustful +ignorance and with rosy visions, the homestead venture impressed him +not only as pitiful but as tragic. + +"I'll certainly ride down to see you," he assured them again. + +"And perhaps, being an engineer, you'll show us why the water doesn't +run downhill in our bean patch, as it ought to do," Imogene Martin +remarked. + +Bryant laughed and nodded agreement. + +"You'll find that it's your eyes, and not the water, that have been +playing tricks," he said. "Ground levels and ditch grades are +deceiving things close to the mountains, because the latter tilt one's +natural line of vision. That's why water seems to run uphill when you +look toward the range. I'll soon fix your ditch line when I set an +instrument in your bean patch and sight through it once or twice. The +water will behave after that, I promise you." + +They continued to chat of this and of the failing of Sarita Creek, +until the automobile that Bryant had earlier sighted shot into view on +the northern bank of the creek, whence at decreased speed it descended +into the bottom and ground its way across through sand and gravel. +Driving the hooded car was a man of about thirty years, of slim figure +and with a pale olive skin that betrayed an admixture of American and +Mexican blood. Beside him in the front seat sat a girl whose clear +pink complexion made plain that in her was no mingling of races; her +hat held by a streaming blue veil and her form incased in a silk dust +coat. The tonneau was occupied by two men: one an American with a van +dyke beard sprinkled with gray, the other a short, stout, swarthy +Mexican, whose sweeping white moustache was in marked contrast to his +coffee-coloured face. + +The car, with radiator steaming and hissing, was stopped at a spot +close to where Lee Bryant and his companions stood. The young man at +the wheel, unlatching the door, stepped out. + +"I'll bet the stop-cock of the radiator is open," he addressed the +girl with the blue veil, "or the engine wouldn't be so hot." After +making an examination of the faucet, he returned to the door and +procured a folding canvas bucket, saying, "That's the trouble, and the +radiator is empty." + +But the young lady scarcely heeded him. She had loosened the blue veil +knotted at her throat and pushed it back from her cheeks to free them +to the air; she sat regarding with interested eyes the group of three +standing a few paces off by the horses. In her gaze, too, there was a +faint curiosity, as if she wondered who the persons might be, and what +they were doing here, and of what they had been conversing when +interrupted. An exceedingly lovely girl she was, as the engineer had +instantly perceived; her features molded in soft lines and curves that +enchanted, a tint like that of peach petals in her cheeks, with warm, +sensitive lips and brown, shining eyes--a radiant, intelligent face. +Against the background of the place, the creek bed of sand and stones +and the banks fringed with dusty sagebrush, she glowed with the +freshness of a desert rose. + +The driver of the car took a step toward Bryant, extending the bucket. + +"Dip me some water out of that hole while I look at my tires, will +you?" he said. + +At the words, which were rather more of a command than a request, the +engineer regarded him fixedly while the blood stirred beneath his tan, +but finally took the bucket. The other turned back to the car, where +he made a pretense of inspecting a front wheel and then, with a foot +on the running-board and elbow resting on knee, twisting indolently a +point of his small moustache, he began to converse with his companion +of the blue veil. + +Bryant filled the radiator. Two trips to the pool were necessary to +obtain enough water for that purpose, but he finished the job with the +same thoroughness that he went through with any business once +undertaken, whether pleasant or otherwise. As he poured the contents +of the bucket into the radiator's spout, he took stock of the +automobile party. His face hardened with a slight contempt when he +considered the effeminate-appearing young Mexican who had bade him +bring water and the girl talking with him; which she must have noticed +and taken to herself, for when their eyes met he saw that a flush dyed +her cheeks and that she bit her lip nervously. + +He snapped the radiator cap shut. At the click the man stopped +fingering his moustache, ended his talk, mounted to his seat, and +started the engine. Bryant handed him the bucket, folded flat again, +which the recipient tossed down by his feet. + +"Here, my man," said the olive-skinned young fellow at the wheel, with +a forefinger and thumb searching a waistcoat pocket as the car began +slowly to move forward. + +He tossed a quarter to the engineer. Bryant instinctively caught it, +as one catches any suddenly thrown object. For an instant he remained +transfixed, incredulous, astounded, then the blood flamed in his face +and he cast the coin back at its donor. + +"No Mexican can throw money to me!" he exclaimed. + +For answer he received an angry look and snarled word from the driver. +Beyond the man Bryant beheld the startled, embarrassed, and yet +interested face of the girl with the veil, her lips a little parted, +her eyes intent on him. Then the car lurched out of the sand, splashed +through the rivulet, ascended the inclined roadway of the creek bank, +and sped from view. + +The sudden spark of antagonism flashing between the engineer and the +young Mexican made the two girls by the ponies acutely aware that the +horseman after all was a stranger, a man of whom they knew nothing, an +unknown quantity. And so the two exchanged a glance and drew on their +gauntlets and said they must be riding home. Thereupon Bryant assisted +them to mount. + +As he separated from them to follow the trail up the creek to the +ranch house by the three cottonwoods, Ruth Gardner called to him not +to forget his promised visit to their cabins. He assured them he +should remember. When the girls were some distance off, they waved +across the sagebrush at him and he swung his hat in reply. Off then +the pair went at a gallop, with the automobile on the road far south +of them leaving a hazy streamer of dust above the earth; the riders +going farther and farther away, becoming smaller and smaller on the +mesa, until at last they were but bobbing specks in the golden +sunshine. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +As Lee Bryant reined his horse to a stop before the small ranch house, +a man seated on a stool just within the open doorway rose and came out +to join him. He was a man of thin, stooped body; his sandy hair +streaked with gray formed a fringe about his bald crown; and on his +lined, sunburnt face there rested a shadow of worry that appeared to +be habitual. Bryant dismounted and shook hands with the ranchman. + +"Well, how are you making it, Mr. Stevenson?" he greeted. "As I +promised if I should be riding by this way again, I've stopped to say +'howdy.' Doesn't seem a month has passed since I stayed over night +with you? How's Mrs. Stevenson? Hope you're both well." + +"Just feeling fair, just fair. Glad you stopped, Bryant," was the +answer. "My wife was wondering only the other day what had become of +you. Bring your horse around to the corral." + +They went behind the house, where the young man removed saddle and +bridle from Dick and turned him into the enclosure. Stevenson gathered +an armful of hay from a small heap near by and tossed it over the +fence to the horse, which began to eat eagerly. Lee glanced about, +gave a sharp whistle; from the trail by the creek a bark answered him. +Then an Airedale came racing through the sagebrush, now and again +leaping high to gain a view of his master and finally breaking out +upon the clear ground about the ranch house. + +"Mike, you're too inquisitive about other animals' dwellings," Lee +addressed him as he arrived, wet from an immersion in the creek and +panting from his run. "Some day a rattler in a hole you're digging +into will nip you on the nose and you'll wish you'd been more polite. +Come along now and be good." + +He walked with Stevenson back to the house, where leaving the dog to +drop in the shade outside they entered. The interior was cool and dim +after the hot, glaring sunshine; and Bryant, having greeted Mrs. +Stevenson, sat down gratefully in a rocking-chair, glad to avail +himself of the room's comfort. Crude as an adobe house is both in +appearance and in construction, it is admirably adapted to the climate +of the arid Southwest; its flat dirt roof and thick walls built of +sun-baked mud bricks, plastered within and smoothly surfaced without, +defying alike the heat of midsummer and the icy blasts of winter and +lasting in that dry clime half a century. This ranch house of the +Stevensons', originally built by some Mexican, as Bryant judged, had +been standing twenty-five or thirty years and was still tight and +staunch. + +"Your creek's pretty dry, I see," the young fellow remarked +afteratime, when they had exchanged news. + +"By August there won't be any water in it at all," Stevenson said, +"except a little that always runs in the caņon. I'll have to haul it +from there then. You see now why I can't keep stock here." + +His wife stopped the needle with which she mended an apron while they +talked, and looked out of a window. On her face was the same tired, +anxious expression that marked her husband's countenance. + +"I've barely kept our garden alive," she said, "but it won't be for +much longer." + +"That's too bad, Mrs. Stevenson," Lee Bryant replied. "However, one +can't do anything without water. Still, your sheep are doing well, I +suppose; the grass is good on the mountains this summer." + +An answer was not immediately forthcoming from the rancher; he sat +staring absently at the backs of his roughened hands, now and again +rubbing one or the other, and enveloped in a gloom that Bryant could +both see and feel. Then all at once Stevenson began to talk, in a +voice querulous and morose. + +"We're going to quit here, sell the sheep, and go back East. I was +swindled when I bought this ranch, and I want to get away before I +lose my last cent. Came out to this country five years ago from +Illinois with forty thousand dollars, and now we're going back with +what I can sell my sheep for, maybe twenty-five hundred cash. Menocal +robbed me right at the start, selling me this place for twenty-five +thousand--twenty thousand down and a mortgage for the remaining five +thousand--when the place was just five thousand acres of sagebrush, +with no more water than runs in this creek. I was a tenderfoot all +right! The land agent at Kennard showed it to me in June when the +Perro was booming, and I believed him when he said it ran that way all +the year around. Look at it now! I didn't have sense enough to inquire +and learn about it, being in a hurry to get into the sheep business +and thinking I should be rich in no time. That agent sold it to me for +irrigated land, and a bargain at five dollars an acre. Menocal, who +owned it and deeded it to me, pretends he isn't responsible for what +the man said. Five dollars an acre! It's worth about fifty cents for +winter range, and no more." + +"If it could be irrigated, it would be a bargain sure enough at five +dollars," Lee stated. "And there's another water right for the place +you said when I was here before." + +"Yes, there is--on paper. Water was appropriated out of the Pinas +River, but that's eight miles north of here, and it would cost a +hundred thousand dollars, if not more, to build a dam and a canal +along the mountain side. No, sir; that appropriation was just some +more of Menocal's tricky work! He jammed it through the land office +thirty years ago and, they say, never did any more to comply with the +law requiring delivery of the water on this ground than to have a man +drive around pouring a bucketful out of a barrel upon each quarter +section." + +"Some pretty shady transactions were put across in those early days," +Bryant commented. + +"Well, ain't matters just as bad now?" Stevenson asked, quickly. "He +still has the appropriation, or rather I'm supposed to have it with +this ranch. Because Menocal controls the Mexican vote hereabouts, +which is about all the vote there is, why, nobody has ever disturbed +him about that water right. And he's using that water, belonging to +me, to irrigate a lot of bottom farms along the river, for which no +water can be appropriated, the Pinas not carrying enough. I rode over +one day and looked at those farms--all grain and alfalfa. Well, he'll +get this ranch back, anyway. The mortgage he holds on it is due next +week and I can't pay it. Wouldn't even if I had the money. We're going +to pull up stakes and leave." + +Bryant silently regarded the other's haggard face and stooped figure, +whose expression and resigned attitude revealed clearly Stevenson's +surrender. He was a man discouraged, disheartened, whipped. + +"What's wrong with the sheep?" he questioned, at length. + +"Not much that isn't wrong. When I started five years ago, I invested +in three thousand head. One time I had them increased to fifty-five +hundred--three bands. Thought I was doing first rate; and I was then. +But everything began to go against me. It seemed as if I always got +the worst herders; and not having any water to raise alfalfa I had to +buy winter feed, which was expensive; and a lot of them got the scab +and died; and last year I lost nearly all my lambs at lambing time, +the band being caught out in a storm and being in the wrong place. +Just one thing after another, to break my back. Had trouble about the +range, too. When I started them off this spring, they were down to +seven hundred; and I've been losing some right along from one cause or +another. No lambs, either, this spring, except dead ones. I thought I +could hang on till my luck changed, but losing a hundred head two +weeks ago was the last straw. I'm done now." + +"What happened, Stevenson?" + +"One of Menocal's herders mixed his flock with my six hundred, did it +deliberately, I'm convinced; there were three thousand head of his. +Billy was tending ours--and Billy is only fourteen, you know. I had +come down here for some supplies and when I returned, I found him +crying. The Mexican had separated the sheep and we were a hundred +short, gone with his, and he would pay no attention to Billy, swearing +he had only his own band. And he drove them away. I went to Menocal, +who was very polite, but he said I must be mistaken as his herders +were all honest men; and I've not got my sheep back, and I'm not +likely to. For that band is now thirty miles away somewhere. No use to +go to court--Menocal owns everything and everybody around here. So I'm +quitting." + +"The sheep business isn't all roses, that's certain," Lee Bryant +remarked. "It's hard luck that your band ran down just when the price +of mutton and wool is going up. So you're letting the ranch slide?" + +"Yes, I can't pay the mortgage; Menocal would foreclose at once if I +tried to stay. Last time I was in town he asked me about paying it off +and when I told him I shouldn't be able to do that, he said he'd have +me deed it back to him to save foreclosure proceedings. And he was +smiling, too. He knew all the time that he'd get the ranch back; and +when he does, he'll sell it to some other sucker." + +"Both of us have wished a hundred times that we'd never sold our +Illinois farm to come here," Mrs. Stevenson said, plaintively. "I +don't know what we'll do when we go back, for that matter. Just rent a +place, I guess. Land is so high-priced there that we'll never be able +to buy a farm again." + +"Renting there is better than starving here," her husband declared. +"We'll have a better home, too. When we first came to this place, we +planned on building a fine house, but I never had the money loose, and +we've just kept on from year to year living in this 'dobe hole. Good +thing I didn't have the money, however, for we'd lose the house along +with the ranch if we had built. Well, we're going back East, anyhow, +as soon as I sell the sheep. Graham, who has the big ranch on Diamond +Creek, south of where those girls are homesteading, is coming up in a +day or two to look at them, maybe buy them. You can see Graham's big +white house from the Kennard trail." + +Bryant nodded. "I know the place, saw it when passing," said he. Then +he went on, "When I was at the ford watering my horse before coming +here, an auto crossed the creek. In the rear seat were a fat Mexican, +whom I took to be Menocal, and a white man with a pointed beard. The +latter perhaps was Graham?" + +"Yes, that must have been him. Which way were they driving?" + +"South." + +"Going to the Graham ranch, I s'pose." + +"There was a slim young fellow driving the car--some Mexican blood in +him," Lee stated. + +"Menocal's son, Charlie, a half-breed snippet who puts on airs because +his father's rich," Stevenson said, in a disgusted tone. "A white +woman married Menocal, you know." + +"In the front seat with the young fellow was a girl, rather pretty," +Bryant appended. + +"That's Louise, I imagine," Mrs. Stevenson said, reflectively. "Yes, +it must have been her. She's Mr. Graham's daughter. A nice girl, too. +That Menocal boy is crazy to marry her, the talk is." + +"And is she crazy to marry him?" Lee inquired, amused by this gossip. + +"Well, not exactly crazy, I'd say; I don't see how she could be. But +he'll be worth a lot of money some day, and she may overlook +considerable on that account. Menocal's boy has been to college; +besides, the family goes everywhere with white folks. I guess a +Mexican is supposed to be really white, isn't he?" + +"Those having pure Spanish blood," the engineer explained. "Nearly all +the ones around here that I've seen have more Indian in them than +anything else, however, with a dash of other races perhaps. From the +glimpse I had of Menocal, I'll venture to say he has Red men among his +ancestors." + +"Mexican or Indian or whatever he is, he can squeeze money out of +nothing, like a Jew," Stevenson complained. "Look how much he has made +out of this ranch; look at what he has made out of me! And it's just +that way with everything he holds. The Mexicans all around this +section sell him their stuff cheap and take what he pays, because they +don't know any better and because he's their leader. He has the big +store at Bartolo, which you've seen, and owns the bank there, and has +any number of farms up and down the Pinas River, and runs I don't know +how many bands of sheep; and besides, he elects the county officers, +and fixes the taxes to suit himself, and recommends the water +inspector for this district, and--and--well, what chance has an +ordinary man to get ahead here?" + +Lee Bryant let a pause ensue. He rolled a cigarette and struck a light +and carefully got the tobacco to burning. + +"You say you're going to let the ranch go back to Menocal," he stated, +abruptly. "You've made up your mind that you won't keep it, anyway. +All right. Now I've a proposition to make you." + +Stevenson looked at him with curiosity. + +"A proposition? What is it?" he asked. + +"It's this: I've a farm of eighty acres in Nebraska that I'll trade +you for it. I could offer you less, but I won't; you have an equity +here of value, and I'm not the kind of man to beat you down to +nothing. If we deal, you shall have something in return for your +interest. This eighty of mine is worth a hundred dollars an +acre--eight thousand; it's mortgaged for five thousand, which leaves +an equity of three thousand; on it are good buildings and it's rented +until next March. You could then take possession. It's a good farm, +and with the money you'll have from the sale of your sheep you can +make a good start on the place, which is in the corn and wheat +section. My equity of three thousand isn't worth, to be sure, anything +like what you paid Menocal for this ranch, but it's something--and all +that I can afford to give." + +The rancher stared at Lee as if he could not credit his ears. + +"Are you in earnest?" he demanded, at last. "Why I've just told you +there's no water here. A man can't make a living on the place, and the +mortgage is due next week." + +"I'll pay off the mortgage; I've enough money saved up to do that." + +"But, man, without water----" + +"Listen, Stevenson, I know exactly what I'm about," the engineer +interrupted. "This thing's a gamble with me, I admit, but you needn't +do any worrying on that score. I'm going in with my eyes open; I know +the risks and am willing to take them. What about my offer?" + +Stevenson, still gazing at his visitor in wonderment, was at a loss; +he rubbed his knuckles doubtfully, hitched about on his chair and knit +his brows, perplexed, hesitating, as was his manner when presented +with any new affair, even with one palpably to his advantage. It was +clear that in this lack of quick decision lay much of the reason for +his failure. + +His wife exclaimed in appeal, "Oh, John, if Mr. Bryant really means +it, why don't you say yes? I can't understand why he makes us such a +fine offer, but he is making it. We can start again; we'll be back in +a farming country like what we're used to, even if it isn't in +Illinois; we'll have a farm of our own, a home of our own, and will +not have to rent. Oh, why don't you say yes?" + +The rancher looked from his wife to Bryant and back again, pursing his +lips. + +"But I don't understand this," he said. + +"You heard what he explained," she replied, anxiously. "He expects to +pay off the mortgage and be rid of Mr. Menocal. Perhaps he knows the +sheep business better than you do; you never did learn it well, John, +and you ought never to have stopped farming. You were a good farmer; +you will be again. We can go on this place in Nebraska and raise corn +and wheat and hogs, and I'll have chickens to help clear the debt. +Why, it's a chance for us to be independent again, and have a home, +and neighbours, and attend church, and--and be happy, John!" + +"That's so," her husband agreed. + +"We are going to leave here anyway," she continued to urge. "We +wouldn't have had anything but the money from the sheep, but now +you'll be getting a farm, too. I'd think you'd jump at Mr. Bryant's +offer." + +"But maybe, after all, the ranch is worth more than I thought," +Stevenson speculated. + +His wife sank back in her seat, picked up her sewing, and tried to +resume her task, but her fingers trembled and her lashes were winking +fast. Lee gazed at her sympathetically. Then he lifted his hat from +the floor and stood up. + +"Well, there are other places I can trade for," he remarked. "I +thought I was doing you a good turn in proposing the exchange, +especially as you're about to lose your place. I wouldn't be beating +you out of anything, certainly, and as your wife says, you'd really be +getting something for nothing. The mortgage is due next week, you must +remember." + +Stevenson's mind, however, was running in another channel. + +"I'll tell you how we can deal," he said, with an assumption of +shrewdness. "You pay me the five thousand you plan to pay off the +mortgage with, and get Menocal to renew the loan. Five thousand--why, +my equity is worth more than that! Besides, you've some scheme for +making money out of this ranch." + +"What if I have?" + +"That makes a difference when it comes to a deal." + +"Not with me," the engineer stated, curtly. "If that's your attitude, +we'll drop the matter. Probably you yourself can arrange an extension +of the mortgage or a renewal, if you're minded to remain." + +"You know, John, that you can't; Mr. Menocal has already refused," +Mrs. Stevenson said, in a low voice. + +"I ought to have cash in addition to your farm," her husband insisted. + +"You get none," Lee replied. "Well, this trade is what I came to see +you about. From the way you talked when I was here last I supposed you +might consider my offer favourably, but I guess we can't do business. +I'll ride on to Bartolo." + +At this statement Mrs. Stevenson wiped her eyes, rose and went into +the inner room, closing the door after her. The engineer moved as if +to depart. + +"Now, wait a minute," Stevenson exclaimed. + +"Well?" + +"I'll take--let me figure a minute." + +Bryant tossed his hat on the table in disgust and relighted his +cigarette. + +"Stevenson, listen," he began. "You're an older man than I am, but +just the same I'm going to say a few things that you need to hear. I +couldn't say them and wouldn't say them before your wife, but now I'm +going to turn loose. You can do as you damn please about trading, take +my offer or leave it; if you refuse, though, you'll lose both ranch +and farm. The trouble with you is that you can't see the difference +between a good proposition and a bad one. That's why you bought this +ranch on say-so. That's why now you're turning down my offer. You +either jump without first looking, or you wait until it's too late. +You don't pay attention strictly to what's immediately under your +hand, but waste your energy wondering if you can't get rich from +something out of your reach. That's what has been the trouble with you +in the sheep business, I imagine. Here when I offer you a farm for a +ranch that's slipping through your fingers, you at once get greedy. +Most of the time you don't know your own mind; you hesitate and +speculate and vacillate and worry. Why, you deserve to lose your ranch +and your sheep and everything else. And your wife suffers for your +faults! You're a failure, and you've dragged her down with you. If +you're not a failure, and a fool, too, go bring her back into this +room and tell her you're going to make this trade, so you two will +have a farm and the home she wants and so her mind will be easy once +more. You've been thinking of only yourself long enough; now begin to +think of her comfort and happiness." + +Stevenson came angrily to his feet. + +"No man ever talked to me like that before, I'll have you know!" he +cried. + +The engineer kept his place, with no change of countenance. + +"Well, one has talked to you like that now and I'm the man," he said. +"And I don't retract a word. It's the truth straight from the +shoulder. What are you going to do about it? Why, nothing, just +nothing. Because I've talked cold, hard facts, and you know it." + +The momentary fire died from Stevenson's eyes. He shuffled his feet +for a little, looked about the room with the worried aspect he +usually showed, brushed his lips with the back of his hand. + +"You're pretty rough----" he began. + +"Don't stand there talking; go get your wife," Bryant said, sharply. + +Stevenson turned and walked slowly to the closed door. He cleared his +throat, stared at the panels for a moment, and at last pushed it open. + +"Come out, Sarah, we're going to trade," he announced. + +The woman came forth. About her eyes was a slight redness, but on her +lips there was a tremulous smile. + +"I'm glad," she said, "I'm glad, John." + +"Yes, I decided it was a good trade to make," her husband assured her. +"No need to think it over longer." + +They came to where Bryant stood, unconcealed pleasure showing on Mrs. +Stevenson's face. + +"You may like to see these kodak pictures of the farm and its house," +the young man said, producing an envelope from a pocket. "Take a chair +here by the window, Mrs. Stevenson, where you'll have the light. See, +this one shows the house, with the trees and lilac bushes in front, +and gives you a glimpse of the flower garden. Pretty, don't you +think?" + +She readjusted her spectacles. After a time she gazed from the +pictures through the window at the stretch of sagebrush. + +"And I'll have neighbours, too," she said, in an unsteady voice. "The +loneliness here was killing me." + +Stevenson considered the backs of his hands in awkward silence. + +"Neighbours, lots of them," Bryant affirmed. + +"I kind of pity you having to stay," she said, looking up at him with +a smile. + +The engineer laughed. + +"Why, this country suits me right down to the ground," he replied. +"I've been in the West ten years, wouldn't live anywhere else. And I +don't expect to be lonely; Menocal will probably attend to that. +Besides, there are two good-looking young ladies just south of here, +on Sarita Creek." + +"That's so," she said, laughing also. + +"First thing we hear, you'll be married," Stevenson remarked, with a +quick grin. + +"Oh, I'm safe--there are two of them," Bryant returned, clapping the +rancher on the shoulder. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +The town of Bartolo slumbered in the July sunshine. Nothing stirred on +its one long street, lined with scarcely a break on either side by +mud-plastered houses that made a continuous brown wall, marked at +intervals by a door or pierced by a window; nothing stirred, neither +in front of Menocal's large frame store at the upper end of it, with +the little bank adjoining, nor before the small courthouse grounds +across the way, where the huge old cottonwoods spread their shade, nor +along the entire length of the beaten street down to Gomez's +blacksmith shop and Martinez's saloon across from each other at the +lower end; nothing, not even the pair of burros drowsing in the shade +of the wall, or the dogs lying before doors, or the goats a-kneel by +the saloon, or the fowls nested down in the dust. Only the Pinas +River, issuing from the black caņon a mile or so above, was in motion; +and, indeed, it appeared to partake of the general somnolence, barely +rippling along its gravelly bed, shallow and shrunken, and giving +forth but an indolent glitter as it flowed past the town. The day was +hot and it was the hour of the siesta, therefore everything +slept--everything, man, beast and fowl, from Menocal, who was snoring +in his hammock on the vine-clad veranda of his big stuccoed house just +beyond the store at the head of the street, to the goats at the foot +of it by the silent saloon. + +Bryant, descending from the mesa into the river bottom and riding into +the street, had he not known otherwise, might have supposed the +population vanished in a body. But he was aware that it only slept; +and he had no consideration for a siesta that retarded his affairs. He +dismounted before the courthouse and entered the building, whose +corridor and chambers appeared as silent, as lifeless, as forsaken as +the street itself. Coming into the Recorder's office, he halted for a +look about, then pushed through the wicket of the counter and stepped +into an inner room, where he stirred by a thumb in the ribs a thin, +dusky-skinned youth reclining in a swivel chair with feet in repose on +a window-sill, who slept with head fallen back, arms hanging, and +mouth open. + +"Come, _amigo_, your dinner's settled by this time," the engineer +stated. "Grab a pen and record this deed." + +The clerk sleepily shifted his feet into a more comfortable position. + +"We're behind in our work," said he. "Just leave your deed, and the +fee, and we'll get around to it in a few days." + +"So you're too busy now, eh?" + +"Yes. We've had a good many papers to record this month." + +"Where's the Recorder?" + +"Not back from dinner yet," was the answer. + +The speaker once again prepared to rest. From the outer office the +slow ticking of a clock sounded with lulling effect, while the grassy +yard beyond the window, shaded by the boughs of the cottonwoods, +diffused peace and drowsiness. The clerk closed his eyes. + +"Just leave the deed and fee on the desk here," he murmured. + +"And tip-toe out, too, I suppose." + +"If you feel like it," the young Mexican remarked, with a faint +insolence in his voice, the insolence of a subordinate who believes +himself protected by his place. + +Bryant's hand shot swiftly out to the speaker's shoulder. With a snap +that brought him up standing the clerk was jerked from his seat, and +before his startled wits gathered what was happening he was propelled +into the outer office. + +"Record this deed, you forty-dollar-a-month penpusher, before I grow +peevish and rearrange your face," Bryant ordered, with his fingers +tightening their grasp on the youth's collar. "You're receiving your +pay from the county, and are presumed to give value received. Anyway, +value received is what I'm going to have now." + +"Let go my neck!" + +"Let go nothing. When I see you settle down to this big book, then I +let go. No '_maņana_' with me, boy; right here and now you're going to +give me an exhibition of rapid penmanship. Savey? Take up your pen; +that's the stuff. Now dip deep in the ink and draw a full breath and +go to it." + +Bryant released his hold on the cowed clerk, but remained by his side, +where his presence exerted an amazingly energizing effect upon the +scribe. The pen scratched industriously to and fro across the page, +over which the youth humped himself as if enamoured of the tome, only +at intervals risking a glance at the lean-faced, vigilant American. +When he had finished the transcription, stamped the deed and closed +the book, Bryant handed him the amount of the fee. + +"Thank you," the clerk said, with an excess of politeness. + +He was still nervous. He furtively observed his visitor stowing the +deed in a pocket, as if expecting Bryant to initiate some new +violence, and resolved on flight if he should. + +"There, my friend, that's all you can do for me just now," the +engineer remarked. "But I shall return soon, so keep awake and ready. +When you see me entering, advance _pronto_. If anything annoys me, +it's being kept waiting by a Mexican boy-clerk. Do you get that +clearly?" + +"_Si, seņor_," the other replied, unconsciously lapsing into his +native tongue. + +"_Muy bueno_--and bear it in mind. Now I advise you to get to work on +the documents you've allowed to accumulate; it's half-past two and +you've had enough of a siesta for one noon." With which Bryant took +his departure. + +Outside he led his horse across the street to the frame store. Beside +the latter stood Menocal's house, with its smooth green lawn and its +beds of poppies, its trees, its fence massed with sweet peas, and its +vine-covered veranda, where the engineer had a glimpse of a corpulent +figure in a hammock. The only sound from the place was the musical +gurgle of water in a little irrigation ditch bordering the lawn. + +Inside the long store Bryant aroused the only man in sight, a Mexican +who slept on the counter with his head pillowed on a pile of overalls. + +"Go tell Menocal there's a man here to see him on business," Lee +said. + +The awakened sleeper slid off his perch, rubbed his eyes, yawned, +stretched himself, and then shook his head with great gravity. + +"Mr. Menocal takes his siesta till three o'clock; you can see him at +that time," he said, in English. + +"I'll see him now." + +"Impossible! He is very angry when awakened for a small matter." + +Bryant went a step nearer to the speaker. + +"Where do you get the authority to decide that my business is a small +matter?" he demanded, with a menace of manner that caused the other to +retreat in haste. "Go bring him and make me no more trouble." + +The man went. Bryant lighted a cigarette and fell to surveying the +store's merchandise. Several minutes passed before a murmur of voices +apprised him of the coming of the men. Menocal entered the side door +first, approaching heavily and sleepily the spot where the engineer +waited. He had not put on coat or collar; his short figure appeared +more than ever obese; his sweeping white moustache divided his plump, +shiny brown face; and his air was that of one who must put up with +vexatious interruptions because of the important position he filled. + +"You wish to speak with me?" he asked, shortly. + +"That's why I'm here," Bryant returned. + +Menocal gazed at him owlishly for a time. + +"You're the man who threw my son's money back at the ford day before +yesterday, aren't you?" he questioned. + +"The same." + +"Why did you throw it back?" + +"Why did he throw it at me in the first place? You should train him to +use better judgment. You yourself wouldn't have done it." + +"No," Menocal said. Then, as if the subject were dismissed, he asked, +"What do you wish to see me about?" + +"About the mortgage on the Stevenson place: I've bought the ranch. +Stevenson moves off in a few days." + +Menocal's brows lifted and remained so, as if fixed in their new +elevation. He slowly rubbed the end of his nose with his forefinger. +The sleepiness had wholly vanished from his countenance. + +"Come into the bank," he said, finally; and moved toward the front +door. + +The engineer accompanied him. In a space railed off from the cashier's +grille in the little building next door they sat down. The teller was +visible in the cage, where now he appeared very busy though he had +undoubtedly been drowsing when they entered. + +"So you've bought the Stevenson ranch," Menocal said. + +"Yes. I've just had the deed recorded." + +"The mortgage is due in a few days; I told him it wouldn't be renewed +by me." + +"Perhaps now that I have the place----" + +"No; I've carried that loan long enough. If it isn't paid when due, +I'll start foreclosure proceedings immediately." + +Bryant nodded. + +"Well, I merely asked out of curiosity," said he. "It's your right to +demand payment--and I'm on hand with the money. Make out a release so +that I can clear the record. Here's a Denver draft for six thousand +dollars--I figure principal and interest at five thousand four hundred +and you can have the balance placed to my credit in the bank. I +shouldn't continue the loan at its present rate of interest in any +case; eight per cent. is too much for money. Besides, I want the ranch +clear of incumbrance." + +With an expressionless face Menocal gazed at the draft, turned it +over, examined the back, then at last laid it down on his desk. + +"Isidro," he called to the teller, "make out a mortgage release for +the Stevenson place. Copy the description from the mortgage in my file +in the vault. Afterward credit six hundred dollars to--What is your +name?" + +"Lee Bryant." + +"Six hundred dollars to Lee Bryant, Isidro. Mr. Bryant will give you +his signature." Again facing his visitor, he said, "Do you know that +that ranch has no water to speak of? I'm afraid you may not find the +property what you expect." + +"It has a good appropriation from the Pinas River here." + +"Ah, but it can't be used," Menocal exclaimed, with a bland smile. + +"I propose to use it." + +"What!" + +Bryant kept his eyes fixed on the amazed banker's orbs. + +"Didn't I speak clearly?" he inquired. "I own one hundred and +twenty-five second feet of water in this river and it's my intention +to apply it. I'm going to make a real ranch down there." + +A shadow seemed to settle on Menocal's face, leaving it altered, less +placid, more purposeful. + +"Considerable capital will be required to build a canal there," he +remarked. "You're certainly not going into this thing on your own +account, are you? Who is putting up the money? Eastern people?" + +Bryant smiled, but made no answer. His smile and his silence provoked +an angry gleam from the banker's eyes. + +"Well, it doesn't matter," Menocal continued. "But you're going to +discover that you haven't this water right, after all." + +"What makes you think so?" + +"Because it was never used, because no real canal was ever built, only +a little ditch that doesn't exist now. The right will be cancelled, +and the water will be reappropriated for lands along the river." + +"For farms on which you're now using it, you mean?" + +"I'm not saying where." + +Bryant leaned forward and tapped the banker's desk with a finger-tip. + +"Mr. Menocal, don't try to start any trouble with me," he said, with +jaw a little outthrust. + +"_Dios!_ You dare talk that way to me?" + +"I repeat it, don't attempt to keep something that doesn't belong to +you. You may want to--but don't try it. I know all about the water +appropriation for the ranch I've bought; all about your sworn +affidavit filed thirty years ago, with an accompanying map, certifying +that a canal was built and water delivered to the land. It's a matter +of record. Now you seek to reappropriate this water, or to have the +right cancelled, and see where you wind up. Thirty years ago men +winked at false affidavits, but it's different to-day." + +The Mexican's white moustache drew up tight under his thick nose, +disclosing his teeth in a snarl. + +"You threaten me--me!" + +"I'm not threatening, only warning you. Or if you wish a still milder +word, let me say advising," Bryant rejoined. + +The banker's eyes, however, continued to flash at the engineer, as if +alive in their sockets and hunting a mark to strike. + +"You accuse me of dishonour!" he exclaimed. "I don't know why I should +pay attention to your charge, which is false. A ditch was built to the +ranch--" + +"Mighty small one, then. No trace of it remains." + +"One was built, one was built!" + +"Very well, Mr. Menocal, grant that it was. It but strengthens my +position. But let us pass to recent times; five years ago you passed +title to Stevenson with the water right as a reality when you sold him +the ranch; your son is water inspector for this district, or was until +a year ago, anyway, making reports to the state. Did he say anything +in them about this canal or water right having ceased to exist? No." + +"His reports were largely routine," the other stated, regaining his +composure. + +"Still they were official. I'm simply pointing out to you, Mr. +Menocal, why it will be unwise for you to endeavour to have this water +appropriation cancelled. You sold it to Stevenson as a live right--the +deed proves that; and now that I have the property I shall make it +such in fact. You've been using the water for other land, which +possibly will suffer afterward, but that doesn't affect the case in +the least. That water is a valuable property; when it's delivered on +my ranch, the land will be worth fifty dollars an acre. You may have +calculated that no one who got hold of the Perro Creek ranch ever +would or could use the water, but in that you were in error: I can and +will use it, and you must understand that fact." + +Menocal fell into consideration. He folded his hands across his +stomach and remained thus, pondering, occasionally lifting his lids +for a scrutiny of Bryant's face. + +"I'll give you ten thousand cash for the place as it stands and hand +you my check now," he said, at length. + +"Not to-day, thank you," the engineer replied. + +"What is your price?" + +"The ranch isn't for sale. It'll be worth a quarter of a million when +it's watered. No, it's not on the market at present." + +A deep sigh issued from the banker's lips; he blinked slowly several +times before speaking, with a resigned countenance. + +"I see you've some capitalists behind you," said he, "for it will take +money to build a dam and a canal. If they saw a reasonable profit +without the trouble of construction, no doubt they would be willing to +sell." + +"Put your mind at rest, Mr. Menocal; you have only me to deal with; +there are no capitalists running this show yet. But the water system +will be built, never fear." + +Menocal's eyebrows went up. "Ah, so?" he asked, softly. + +Then his face smoothed itself out; and Bryant realized that he had +been led into a betrayal of importance. + +"You would do well to name a price, Mr. Bryant." + +"No; I propose to develop the ranch," the engineer answered, curtly. +"Is the release made out? If it is, I'll be on my way." + +"It's too bad you refuse, too bad," Menocal said, with a lugubrious +shake of his head. + +He called Isidro. The clerk placed a card before Bryant for his +signature and gave him a check book. Then he laid the mortgage release +in front of Menocal, who signed and passed it to the engineer. + +"You'll find it correct," the Mexican stated. "Isidro is a notary and +has filled out the acknowledgment." + +Nevertheless, the visitor took care to read the paper and compare it +with his deed before he rose. + +"Well, that ends my business for the afternoon," said he, "and I'll +take no more of your time. You understand where I stand, Mr. Menocal." + +The latter gave a number of slow nods saying, "I understand, I +understand. Good day, Mr. Bryant. And remember that you have an +account with us and that the bank will be pleased to render you any +service possible." + +Sleepily the banker, watching through the bank window, saw the young +man lead his horse across the street and once more disappear within +the courthouse. Then for some minutes he continued in somnolent +contemplation of the courthouse front. At last he called: + +"Isidro, Isidro! Go find Joe García and tell him I wish to speak with +him in half an hour in my garden. Look for him at home and in the +saloon, but find him wherever he is. That man who just went out now, +Isidro,----" + +"Yes," answered Isidro. + +"He's one of those hard, obstinate Americans, Isidro--and his eyes, +they are bad eyes, I don't like them." + +"Yes," Isidro concurred, who had not noticed the eyes at all. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Charlie Menocal, who after his sleep had read a few chapters in a +novel, went out of the shaded room where he had reposed and into the +garden. There he discovered his father in talk with Joe García. + +"What's going on?" he exclaimed. "Lost a horse, or a wife or +something, Joe?" + +"No, Charlie; this is business," García said, with a grin. + +Menocal continued to give his instructions to the latter. They had to +do with bringing a few hundred sheep from one of the bands feeding in +the hills. They were to be driven down on the mesa to graze, and kept +moving about near the Stevenson ranch house; García was to observe +what the young man there did, all he did, whom he saw, and as far as +possible where he went. Particularly was he to note if surveyors came +and set to work anywhere. If the young man appeared to be engaged at +any task on the mountain side, Joe was to approach with his sheep. And +he was to report everything he learned. + +Charlie's attention became more lively as he listened to his father's +directions to the man, and when García had departed he asked, "Who are +you after? Who's this young fellow you speak of as being at the Perro +Creek ranch? Didn't Stevenson deed the place back?" + +Menocal senior twisted an end of his flaring moustache. + +"May a thousand damnations fall on him! No, he didn't," he responded, +wrathfully. + +"But that only means you'll have to foreclose the mortgage. It will +take longer, that's all." + +Charlie was vice-president of his father's bank--his name was so +printed on the stationery, at least--and was familiar with his +parent's affairs, though he was averse to anything like industry. He +much preferred the pursuit of pleasure to work, and his automobile to +the grille of the bank. He was accurately aware, too, of his father's +weakness for him, an only child, and of his father's inclination to +indulge his desires; and shrewdly played upon the fact. Nevertheless, +in matters of business he possessed a certain sharpness. + +"Stevenson sold the ranch to this young man Bryant, who just now paid +off the mortgage," Menocal explained. + +"Then he was stung," Charlie averred. + +"Wait, you don't know all, my son. He plans to build a dam and a canal +and use that old water right out of the Pinas, taking the water with +which we irrigate the farms down at Rosita. It will leave them dry; +the alfalfa will die; no more grain or peas or beans will be raised on +them; they won't have even good pasturage; they will go back to +sagebrush and cactus--all those farms, all those beautiful ranches! +Altogether four or five thousand acres! They are worth two hundred +thousand dollars now--to-morrow worth nothing! Half my winter hay +comes from them; half my peas for fattening lambs. I shall have to +sell part of my sheep. I'm a millionaire now, but I'll be reduced, +I'll be less than a millionaire, and so almost poor again. It's very +bad; it mustn't be; I must stop him using the water." + +Even Charlie became solemn at the prospect of losing two hundred +thousand dollars and being less than a millionaire. + +"The right hasn't been used; we'll have it cancelled," he said, with +sudden confidence. + +"He refused to sell the place to me for ten thousand dollars cash," +the father stated. "He's no fool--and he's a bad customer, Charlie; he +said he would send me to prison for perjury if I tried to cancel the +right." + +"Perjury, pouf!" Charlie sneered. + +"He couldn't send me to prison, of course, for I have too much money, +but he might make it unpleasant for me, very unpleasant. Politics are +to be considered; I mustn't get a bad name in the party and in the +state. I must be careful. The records show that the ranch has had the +water, and while in my possession. As he says, that would be difficult +for me to explain if I entered court against him. The matter mustn't +get into court or into the land office. Later we can have the water +right cancelled and reappropriated--later, when he has gone away, when +no dust can be raised about it." + +"Is he going away?" + +"Don't be stupid, Charlie. He must go away; that is necessary: I'm +considering plans. He must be pursuaded--or----" + +"Or forced," said his son, with reckless bright eyes. + +"Men generally depart from a locality when public opinion is brought +to bear on them," the elder remarked. "He can be made unpopular until +he desires to leave." + +"We'll run him out, just leave that part to me." + +"Charlie, nothing rash must be done, remember that, and nothing +illegal. I shall think of some plan soon." + +"Nothing rash, but nothing uncertain, father. Two hundred thousand is +a lot of money. I, too, shall plan." + +The prospect of ousting an intruder who had challenged his family's +right to control what it wished here, who indeed had the audacity to +attempt to robe the effort under a claim of legality, appealed to +young Menocal as an undertaking most attractive. The fact that all the +advantage was on his side, of influence, of wealth, of race, of power +that might be exerted through ignorant Mexicans in a hundred subtle +and vindictive ways, made the enterprise all the more alluring. The +Indian strain in his blood--a strain which accounts for much that sets +American and Mexican apart, unconsciously in his case gave a tinge of +cruelty to his anticipation. Aspiring himself to pass as an American, +it never failed to please him when he could slight or humiliate an +American; and he lacked his father's restraint of impulses, as he came +short of his sagacity and perseverance. Indeed, secretly the son +believed his father too conservative, too cautious, too old-fashioned +and slow; and at times was exceedingly impatient with methods that he +was confident he could immensely improve. + +His father considered him for a time. + +"Charlie, you leave this matter alone," he said. "You keep out of it. +Whatever's to be done, I'll do. You would go too far. You can give +your attention to seeing that the crops are watered and the hay cut on +time; you should be down at Rosita now looking after things." + +"I'll run down in the car this evening," was the answer. "To-morrow +I'm going to Kennard, where I haven't been for two weeks. The wool in +the warehouse there should be sold, and a buyer from Boston wrote, you +know, that he would be there this week. And I think we can get our +price." + +Kennard was the nearest railroad point and forty miles south. It was a +pleasant little city, with some of the attractions of larger places. +Of these Charlie was thinking rather than of the wool. He would attend +to the wool business, of course, but it was an excuse instead of a +reason for the projected visit on the morrow. + +"Very well, it's time the wool is sold; the price is good at present," +his father agreed. + +Charlie recurred to the matter of the Stevenson ranch. + +"What's this fellow's name who bought out Stevenson?" + +"Lee Bryant. A young man. And I don't like him; I'm afraid he's a +trouble-maker. You should remember him, Charlie, for he's the fellow +who filled the radiator of the car at the ford on Perro Creek and who +threw your money back in your face." + +Young Menocal's thin figure stiffened, while his small black moustache +rose in two points of ire. + +"Him! That scoundrel who insulted me before Louise! That +lamb-stealer!" he shrilled. + +"That is the man," his father affirmed. + +Charlie spat forth a string of Spanish curses. When he had recovered +from his outburst of passion, he said: + +"Well, I'm glad he's the man. He'll pay for that. Louise said nothing, +but she heard him. And now he's trying to steal our water, too! I'd +like to tie him down on a cactus-bed and run a band of sheep over +him." + +"Charlie, Charlie, control yourself. Don't exhaust your strength by +being angry; it's bad for you in this heat; sunstrokes are sometimes +brought on that way. Besides, such talk as you uttered is foolish and +dangerous." + +"Bah, I'm not afraid of a sunstroke." + +"Anyway, it's unwise to be angry," his father warned. "When you're in +a temper, you talk loud; and people may hear it and repeat it, making +trouble. Now I must return to the bank. But remember what I say: +you're not to meddle in this Perro Creek matter. Do you hear?" + +"Oh, yes, I hear," said Charlie. + +His face as his father walked away did not, however, indicate +acquiescence in this tame course. His heart was full of rancour for +the insulting stranger of the ford; and where the fires of his hatred +blew, his feet would follow. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Though Lee Bryant, during his colloquy with Menocal, had spoken +confidently of his ability to obtain money wherewith to construct a +canal system linking the Pinas River and the Perro Creek ranch, he had +no definite promise of funds from any source. Nor would the project be +ripe for financing before he had completed his surveys and made his +cost estimates. + +He had become interested in the undertaking in this way. Staying over +night with the Stevensons by chance a month previous, a stranger, his +speculation was aroused when through questions about the ranch he +learned of the unused Pinas River water right, a right valid but +apparently impracticable. Was it indeed impracticable? Would the cost +of bringing water to the land be, after all, prohibitive? In fact, had +a competent engineer ever gone into the matter? He doubted it. The +history of the property, so far as he could glean from Stevenson, +disclosed on the part of no one any serious effort ever to develop the +ranch. In the beginning Menocal had probably had some faint notion of +carrying out the scheme, but if so, had afterward abandoned the +enterprise. The tract of five thousand acres of land had originally +been a small Mexican grant; it lay in the midst of government land; +and when Menocal came into possession of the ranch, some conception of +utilizing water from the Pinas must have inspired him to acquire the +appropriation of one hundred and twenty-five second feet. Well, the +land, theoretically at any rate, had water; and if water actually +could be delivered, an extraordinary value would accrue to the now +nearly worthless tract. It was a problem for engineers; it was one of +the possibilities that if seized might be converted into a fact. +Bryant was an engineer, and he was just then foot-loose. + +From the worried ranchman, Stevenson, who appeared glad to talk of his +affairs to someone, he learned that the man was both dissatisfied with +the country and straitened in circumstances. Bryant judged that his +host would consider any offer which would enable him to realize +something on the ranch and to depart; so that particular aspect of the +matter if undertaken, namely, securing title to the land and water +right, seemed favourable. If no insurmountable obstacle stood in the +way of building a dam and a canal, arising from construction elements, +it assuredly looked as if money was to be made out of the project. + +With his mind kindling to the idea Bryant rode northward next morning +along the base of the mountains, studying the hillsides where a canal +naturally should run, all the way up to the Pinas River. Afterward he +reconnoitered the mesa, hitting at last on a slight elevation, hardly +to be called a ridge, that projected from a hillside a mile below +Bartolo and curved in a gentle crescent for about three miles from the +range of mountains down the mesa, again bending in toward the hills +close to the north line of the Perro Creek ranch. + +Next, he absented himself for a week at the state capital, where he +industriously studied the water and land records pertaining to the +district. When he returned, he brought with him a surveying instrument +and a boy for helper. He pitched a tent out of sight in a hollow at +the foot of a hill, worked early and late running his lines, +establishing a dam site, and surveying the river bottom near the mouth +of Pinas Caņon, and remained practically unseen except by a few +incurious Mexicans. His instrument proved the correctness of his +conclusion regarding the crescent-shaped elevation as a practical +grade for a canal, which though necessitating a longer course would +nevertheless immensely lessen the time, expense, and difficulties of +digging when compared with a line along the mountains' flanks with its +danger of washouts and earth slides. Nor did he stop there. He made +rapid but reliable topographical measurements, on a general scale, of +the mesa for five miles out from the mountains, between Bartolo and +Perro Creek, locating among other things a large depression in the +plain, three miles southwest of the town, which might by diking be +converted into a flood water reservoir. Then he folded his tent and +again disappeared for a week. When, finally, he rode to Stevenson's +ranch house that hot July afternoon and made a trade for the five +thousand acres of land, he was the possessor of considerably more +knowledge of the locality and its possibilities than any one would +have guessed. + +And now he was owner of the ranch and committed to the enterprise. + +A few days after Bryant's visit to Bartolo Stevenson disposed of his +sheep to Graham, the owner of the large ranch on Diamond Creek, loaded +his household goods, except the stove and some of the furniture which +the engineer bought, and with his wife and boy drove away in his sheep +wagon for Kennard and for the new farm in Nebraska. Bryant's own +effects--trunk, bedding, provisions, surveying instruments, +draughting-board, and the like, came up from the railroad town by +wagon, and with them the fourteen-year-old lad, Dave Morris, a +gangling, long-legged boy extremely dependable and extraordinarily +serious, who had carried rod for the engineer during the week of +preliminary surveying. + +The man and boy now attacked the canal line in earnest, with Bryant +intent on establishing its course, location, and displacement exactly, +so that he could make necessary blueprints and compile construction +estimates. It was while they were working along the first mile of the +line, where it ran from the Pinas River along the base of a hill to +the low ridge that bore out upon the mesa, that they received their +first interruption. The worst and most expensive part of the canal to +build would be this section, and the engineer was therefore taking +especial care in its surveying; near the river the line traversed +several fenced tracts of ground extending part way up the hillside, +fields owned by natives; and it was one of these Mexicans who slouched +forward to the spot where Bryant and Dave worked and ordered them to +get out of his field. + +Bryant straightened up from sighting through his transit, and asked, +"What's on your mind? What's disturbing your brain, _hombre_?" + +"You get off," was the unkempt fellow's answer. + +"Why?" + +"You can't come on my ranch; get off." + +The engineer pulled a map from his hip pocket--a copy made from one +filed in the land commissioner's office thirty years previous. He +spread it open before the Mexican. + +"See this? Here is Bartolo, here is the river, here is your field," he +said, pointing with a finger. "Now look at that line; it runs across +this field right where we stand. That's the Perro Creek Canal, +extending down to Perro Creek." + +The man stared at the earth under his feet. + +"No, I see no canal," he stated, now looking right and left as if to +make sure. "There is no canal." + +"Yes, there is. But it needs cleaning badly. I'm surveying its banks +again and then I shall clean out the dirt. You can see that it needs +cleaning, because you can scarcely see it at all. Menocal, the banker, +didn't take very good care of the canal after he built it; that's the +trouble. Hello, does that surprise you? Yes, Mr. Menocal got the water +right and dug the ditch in the first place; and he also secured a +right of way across these fields, sixty feet wide, by buying it from +whoever owned the ground at that time, and the right of way is +certified to the state. Now, I own Perro Creek ranch and the Perro +Creek canal and likewise the right of way. So you see, José, or +whatever your name is, we're standing on my ground and not yours; I +could even make you take down your fence where it crosses my right of +way." + +The Mexican blinked stupidly. + +"I was born here; my father was born here; my grandfather lived here," +he said. "There have been little ditches, many of them, but never a +big canal in this field. You must get off." + +"No; you're mistaken. Go see Mr. Menocal and he will set you right." + +"I saw Charlie Menocal, who said to drive strangers off." + +"Well, Charlie had best keep his fingers out of this dish, or he may +find it full of pepper, and you tell him so next time you talk with +him." + +Bryant folded his map and restored it to his pocket, while the Mexican +went away to his house. + +That day the engineer worked until darkness shut down. At three +o'clock next morning he routed his young assistant out of bed and by +dawn they were in the fields again. Knowing that the Menocals had set +about impeding and if possible altogether obstructing him, he proposed +to be done, as quickly as careful surveying allowed, with the fenced +part of the hillside where plausible controversies could be invented. + +Toward the end of the second day he had progressed into the last tract +of owned ground. He breathed more freely. In his statement to the +Mexican concerning the right of way he had been exactly right; and he +was following to a dot the original course taken by the early ditch. +He could have improved upon this section of the canal by another +survey, but that would have involved him in a host of troubles, very +likely unsolvable ones, in securing title to another strip of ground +across the fields. Without question Menocal's influence would prevent +the owners from selling, even if Bryant had the money with which to +buy a second right of way, which he had not. Dollar for dollar it +would be cheaper in the long run to use the old line. Well, Dave was +already across the last fence with his rod; they would soon be +working entirely on government land; and with that, it did not matter +for the present what the Mexican landowners thought or did. + +Bryant had walked fifty yards or so away from his transit to call +something to Dave, when the crack of a rifle sounded from the hillside +and a bullet whined near by. The engineer pivoted about. Another shot +followed, and he beheld a spurt of dust close by his instrument. The +hidden rifleman was not seeking to murder him, but to destroy his +tools. + +There were no more shots and he resumed work. Later on, as he neared +the fence and was establishing his last points within the field, a +horseman with a gray moustache came galloping up along the stretch of +barb wire. He nodded, inquired if the engineer was named Bryant, and +announced that he had half a dozen injunctions to serve. + +"I expected something like this; glad you didn't arrive any sooner," +Lee remarked. + +"Well, I was away from town, or I'd have been here by noon," the +horseman, an American, stated. "The injunctions cover all these places +between here and the river. You and any one you hire must keep off the +tracts specified until the cases come up before the judge." + +"All right, sheriff. Wait till I take a last squint or two and I'll +vacate." + +The horseman idly watched the engineer make his final measurements, +then when Bryant had lifted his tripod over the wire and told his +assistant Dave they would call it a day and stop, he dismounted and +sat down for a smoke with the man on whom he had served his papers. + +"Looks as if you've stirred up some interest in your doings," he +remarked, expelling a thread of smoke. "All the Mexicans from here +down to Rosita are gabbling about your canal. Don't seem pleased with +you." + +"There's one who doesn't, in any case," was the response. "He took a +couple of shots at my instrument a while ago from up yonder in the +sagebrush when I had stepped aside for a moment." + +The sheriff gazed at the hillside. + +"A few _hombres_ around here will bear watching," said he. For a +little he meditated, then went on, "You're a white man and so am I; +they don't like our colour any too well, at bottom. I s'pose you know +that." + +"Yes. But they needn't express their feelings with rifles. As far as +these injunctions are concerned, they'll be dismissed eventually, for +there's no question about my right of way through here. Menocal +secured it himself and it's all a matter of record--the deeds, the +certificate to the state, and the rest." + +"Menocal got it, you say?" + +"Nobody else. Some time or other he must have expected to water Perro +Creek ranch, which he owned until he sold it to Stevenson." + +"I knew he had that place," said the visitor, "but I didn't know it +carried a water right from the Pinas. Where does this move of yours +hit Menocal?" + +"In his ranches down the river; he's been using this water for them," +Bryant explained. "I suppose it's been taken for granted by nearly +everyone that the water belonged to those farms down there, but it +doesn't." + +"How much water in this right?" + +"Hundred and twenty-five second feet." + +"Whew! That takes a chunk out of the Pinas. And I presume that by this +time Menocal knows what you're doing?" + +"Oh, yes; I told him. He doesn't like it, of course." + +The sheriff turned for a full view of Bryant's face. In respect to +features the two men were not unlike: both had the same thin curving +nose and level eyes and cut of jaw. + +"Well, let me say as between man and man," the elder spoke, "that +Menocal won't let you take away that much water from him if he can +help it. And I'll drop you some more news, in addition: several +Mexicans are going to file on homesteads or desert claims along the +base of the hills south of here, scattered along like and running part +way up the mountain sides. I don't know where your canal to Perro +Creek will go, but if its line follows the foot of the range, as may +be likely, it might happen to find those claims in the way." + +"Any idea in your mind where those fellows may locate their filings?" + +"No; I can't say definitely. Shouldn't be surprised if they began +stringing them along a couple of miles south of here till they reached +Perro Creek." + +Bryant gazed at the flank of the mountain. The gentle ridge where his +ditch line left the hillside was but half a mile away. Beyond that the +Mexicans could file to their hearts' content, for they would be left +on one side by the canal. But in all this he perceived Menocal's +cunning hand. + +"Much obliged to you, sheriff," said he. "I'll see if I can't find +some way to satisfy those chaps when the time comes." + +His visitor rose and put foot in stirrup. + +"If any of these Mexicans grow ugly, let me know," he remarked. "I'll +tell them where to head in. Drop in at my office at the courthouse +when you're in town; Winship's my name. I brought these notices over +myself in order to look at you, for they were saying you are a +trouble-maker, but that's what these natives frequently state when +they want to fix an alibi for themselves before they start something. +I'll see if I can learn anything of the fellow who was up yonder +shooting. These _hombres_ are altogether too free with firearms, +anyway. Better feed that lad there with you a few more meals a day; +looks as if he could use them." + +Bryant laughed. + +"Dave's a little lean, but he's all there. Looks don't count, do they, +partner?" + +"I do the best I can," Dave responded, solemnly. + +"Not at meal-time, I reckon," the sheriff said. "Feed up and get fat. +A kid like you has no business having so many joints and bones +sticking out." + +"I been through a hard winter last winter, and this spring, too, till +Mr. Bryant picked me up." + +"How's that?" the horseman inquired. + +"My mother died at Kennard. I didn't get on very well after that; not +much there for a boy to work at. And I hadn't any folks." + +"Hump. What's your last name?" + +"Morris." + +"Any relation to Jack Morris?" + +"He was my father." + +The sheriff nodded. "Knew him well; he died four years ago. And your +mother died last winter? Little woman, I recall." + +"Little, but a lot better than plenty of bigger ones I know of," Dave +asserted, stoutly. "She died of pneumonia." + +"Boy, I've held you on my knee when you were about as high as my hand. +But I guess you don't remember that, and I'm mighty sorry to learn +your mother's gone. Dave--is that your name? Well, now, Dave, fight +your grub harder from now on." + +The speaker gathered his reins, nodded, and rode away along the barb +wire fence. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +"When gentlemen of a dark and sinister cast of mind deliberately set +out to frustrate one's legitimate efforts under a misapprehension as +to the course to be pursued, the proper diplomacy in such a case is to +foster the delusion circulating in their craniums as long as possible +and thus divert their attention from the real purpose. Don't you agree +with me, David?" Lee Bryant gravely inquired of his young companion, +as they were about to set forth next morning. + +"Yes, sir," Dave affirmed, to whom the statement was so much Greek. + +"Then since the vote is unanimous, we'll proceed to run a line along +the mountain side where it will collide with these new homesteads." + +The engineer shouldered tripod and rod, whistled Mike to heel, and +with Dave started forward. Half way to Bartolo they perceived three +men busy on the hillside, so Bryant swung up to a point a quarter of a +mile off and began surveying. When he approached the workmen, Mexicans +naturally, he saw that they were engaged in setting fence posts, of +which a row was already in line part way up the hill. + +The men dropped their tools and confronted him as he drew near. + +"This is my land; you keep away," one exclaimed, with waving arms, +while the other backed him up in a show of force. + +"How can I build a canal here if you won't let me go through?" Bryant +demanded. + +"No go through, no canal on my claim!" + +"Well, just let me run a line, anyhow." + +"No. Keep off, keep off," was the obstinate answer. + +The engineer continued to argue, now as if in anger and now with a +conciliatory mien, all the while protesting that the homesteader must +not prevent the construction of the canal. But he received only shakes +of the head, short replies, and malicious looks. So at length, with +every pretense of disappointment and dejection, he went down the +hillside. + +A mile farther along, where he found two more men occupied at similar +labour, he likewise dissembled his purpose, with the same opposition, +controversy, and retreat. He thereupon led Dave back to the ranch +house, where he prepared and ate dinner with satisfaction. Very likely +Menocal would receive reports that evening faithfully depicting his +chagrin and despair, or whatever were the Mexican equivalents. + +Yet while he deluded the banker, he must secretly carry on his actual +surveying on the mesa. Since the men setting fence posts had a fairly +wide view of the plain, he determined to work in the open only for two +or three hours at daybreak before the Mexicans were about. For +Menocal, or any one else, must have no suspicion of his real ditch +line until an application for construction of the project had been +filed in the state engineer's office. + +Signs that the banker had taken measures to keep him under +surveillance were not wanting. + +"Dave," he said, "have you noticed a sheepherder with a bunch of sheep +hanging around here, when he should be up in the mountains where the +range is good?" + +"Yes, I've seen him. And he hasn't a full band, either." + +"Looks as if he's grazing down here on the mesa so as to watch us," +Bryant mused. "When we went north, he and his sheep drifted in that +direction; when we were over on the mountain side, they followed +there. What shall we do about it?" + +"I don't see that we can do anything except to watch him, too, and +fool him." The lad took thought for a moment, and then proceeded, +"Somebody was around here yesterday while we were away, for I saw a +brown paper cigarette stub on the ground in front of the door this +morning. You use white papers; it's mostly Mexicans who have those +straw papers." + +"Then we had better put an extra nail or two in the windows as a +precaution," Lee stated, "before we go down to Sarita Creek. And I'll +leave Mike here also. If anybody comes fooling around, he'll take a +piece out of the fellow's leg." + +In addition to nailing the windows and leaving Mike at the door, much +to his dissatisfaction, Bryant secreted his papers, note-books, and +maps, the theft of which would be an extremely serious loss. Menocal +probably would not instigate open lawlessness, but his hirelings might +break into the house on their own initiative. And this was not +unlikely since a bitter feeling was systematically being aroused +against Bryant and his project among the preponderate Mexican +inhabitants. + +But for the time being he dismissed this matter from his thoughts, +when with tripod and rod and a bundle of stakes on Dick's saddle he +and Dave set out for Sarita Creek, leading the horse. Bryant had +postponed, under pressure of work, the business of fixing the feminine +homesteaders' garden ditch, until his conscience began to prick him on +the subject. He had neither seen nor had news of them since the chance +meeting at the ford; but now, as he could survey his canal line on the +mesa only during the early hours, he planned to make frequent visits +to the girls. + +That they already had a caller this afternoon he discovered on +arriving at the two little cabins built of boards, peeping forth from +among the trees in the mouth of the caņon. The place was indeed +charming, with its grass and shade, with its brook flowing close by +the dwellings, with walls of rock rising behind. Just now an +automobile rested before the trees; and the engineer saw a man sitting +on the grass with Ruth Gardner and Imogene Martin, the three chatting +and laughing gaily. When Bryant got a good look at the other visitor +he gave vent to an ejaculation in which was blended surprise and +contempt. "That magpie! Of all damn impudence!" For the cavalier so +debonairly entertaining the young ladies was none other than the +olive-skinned Charlie Menocal. + +A sense of pique was Bryant's succeeding feeling. He would have +disdainfully denied that he was moved by a pang of jealousy. But he +had anticipated finding the girls alone and having a pleasant chat +with them, enjoying their companionship, relaxing from the strain of +arduous work, harkening to their badinage. Indeed, if the interloper +had been someone else, some other man, at least, he would have +experienced a turn of disappointment--but that the individual should +be this tricky, coddled, egotistical Charlie Menocal! Well, he should +align the girls' irrigating ditch and then go about his business. + +"I've been delayed in coming to correct your water flow," he remarked, +when the fair homesteaders had given him greeting, "but I'm on hand at +last." + +Ruth Gardner, looking prettier and fuller of spirits than ever, +assured him the ditch was behaving no better than before. Her next +words, however, left him with an impression that he and not Charlie +Menocal was the intruder, which hardened his annoyance into a desire +to have done with the matter. + +"I wish you had come some other day, for we're just about to depart," +she exclaimed. "Mr. Menocal is very kindly taking Imo and me in his +car to see the old ruins of a pueblo somewhere over west. We'll be +gone probably all the rest of the afternoon, and there'll be no one to +show you the ditch and what's wrong with it." + +"Oh, I'll find out what's wrong and straighten out the trouble," the +engineer replied. "You've a spade or shovel, I suppose? Go right ahead +with your exploring expedition and don't worry about me; the ditch +will be working properly when you return." + +"Well, if you don't really need us----" + +"Not in the least," was his assurance. + +She still hesitated, while her look travelled from Bryant to Menocal +and back again. To the engineer that inclusive regard indicated that +her mind was less concerned with the garden ditch than with a +comparison of her two visitors; and with a sudden feeling of warmth +about his neck Bryant admitted to himself that he presented no +attractions. He wore laced boots, soiled khaki trousers and flannel +shirt, with his hat pulled over one eye against the sun; Menocal was +dressed in light gray clothes, thin and cool, low white shoes, a pale +pink silk shirt (trust a Mexican for colour somewhere!) a vivid +rose-hued scarf, and a white cap. To further emphasize the contrast, +Bryant led a loaded horse and a gangling boy, while Charlie Menocal +leaned at ease against his twin-six. Quite a difference, for a fact. +And it was plain that Ruth Gardner noted it with discrimination. + +Imogene Martin now spoke. + +"I don't think I'll go, Ruth. I've not been feeling well the last day +or two, as you know, and I'm afraid to risk the sun." + +"Oh, come on, Imo. The ride will do you good," her friend replied, +with a trace of impatience. + +"No, I told Mr. Menocal when he proposed the expedition that I doubted +if I should go." + +"Too bad not to come, Miss Martin," that worthy remarked, without +enthusiasm. Clearly his interest in what company he should have did +not point toward her. + +"I'm going, at any rate," Ruth Gardner said. And then, "Oh, dear! I +overlooked altogether introducing you you two gentlemen." + +Bryant was human; the opportunity was one he could not let pass. So +smiling broadly he said: + +"We've met before, haven't we, Menocal? At Perro Creek ford." And +receiving no response but a scowl, he spoke at large, "Well, I must +get busy if I'm to save those beans." + +He led Dick, with Dave at his side, toward the garden on open ground +below the trees, where the bean vines were already turning yellow for +lack of water. He chuckled as he went, for the disappearance of +Charlie Menocal's patronizing air and the sudden thundercloud hanging +on his visage attested that the charge had gone home. + +Ten minutes later the automobile passed the garden, but Bryant, who +had set up his tripod and stationed Dave with his rod some distance +off, did not see the hand Ruth Gardner waved. His eye was where an +engineer's eye should be, at his transit. + +"She waved at you," Dave called. + +"Who?" + +"That girl with the Mexican." + +"Well, what of it?" + +When Bryant used that tone, Dave recognized the wisdom of silence. He +pretended that he had not heard. Even his employer, whom he +worshipped, had strange, mysterious moods. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +The defect in the ditch proved to be one of minor character, which +Bryant corrected after a few observations and half an hour's work with +a shovel. While he was thus engaged, Imogene Martin, wearing a +wide-brimmed straw hat, strolled out to watch his operations. She was +in a friendly and talkative mood, and asked questions concerning +ditches and irrigation and surveying, and about Dave, and speculated +on the ruins of the pueblo whither Ruth and Charlie Menocal had gone, +and said she was glad Bryant had bought the ranch just north of their +claims and would be their neighbour. Only, she added, she was sorry to +learn that he was having trouble with the people about; Mr. Menocal +had stated such to be a fact, though what he had further hinted of +Bryant's endeavour to gain property to which he had no title and of +the engineer's being a trouble-maker, she did not for one instant +believe. + +"I'll be a trouble-maker for Charlie and his dad if they continue +their present policy," Lee vouchsafed, tossing aside a shovelful of +earth. + +Imogene Martin carefully flattened a hill of bean plants for a seat, +sat down, and locked her hands over her knees. + +"I think you're to be trusted, so I'll tell you a secret," she +remarked, smiling. "Charlie Menocal doesn't make a 'hit' with me, +either. When you referred to the ford, I could scarcely keep my face +straight; and my feeling ill this afternoon, though partly true, was +also partly manufactured, because I didn't want to go to those old +ruins with him. I don't care for men like him especially. I share the +feeling of my uncle in Kennard--" + +"You have an uncle there? I thought you were from the East." + +"I am; from Ohio. But I've an uncle and aunt living in Kennard, which +is the reason Ruth and I came to this section for homesteads. Ruth was +crazy to take up a claim, having read how easily one is acquired, +while my health was not very good and the doctor at home thought it +would be improved by being in the open in a high altitude. Uncle said +I'd better stay with him and aunt, but I knew how terribly +disappointed Ruth would be if I did, because she couldn't homestead +alone. So uncle declared that if homesteaders we had to be, then we +must locate near him where he could have me under his eye, so to +speak. I myself am not taking this claim business very seriously. And +now uncle, who once had some controversy with the elder Menocal, +wouldn't be very well pleased if he knew the son was making calls on +us." + +"So others besides myself have trouble with the Menocals," Bryant +stated. + +"Apparently. I don't know what this particular difficulty was about, +but uncle is president of a bank in Kennard and so it may have been +some financial matter. Or it may have been over politics; both of them +mix in that. Anyway, he doesn't think highly of the elder Menocal, +and has no use at all for the younger; so I know he would be vexed at +Ruth and me for receiving this Charlie." + +"You didn't know him that day he and I clashed at the ford," Lee +suggested. + +"Oh, no. Our meeting came about one afternoon about a week afterward. +He overtook us on the road a mile or so away from here and politely +offered to bring us home in his car; we were walking and couldn't very +well refuse his courtesy, and then he asked to call and Ruth at once +gave him permission, and that's the way it came about. But I thought +it wise to draw the line at going off miles and miles with him to see +ruins. Of course, Ruth hasn't any uncle to consider, but uncle or no +uncle I should have drawn the line just the same." + +"A colour line, eh?" Lee asked, with a lift of his brows. + +"Yes, that's it, though I hesitated to put it in just those words," +she agreed, with a nod, while both her lips and her blue eyes smiled +at him in amusement. "Really, Mexicans are of different blood and +race, you know, and I feel the--gulf. That probably sounds foolish and +ridiculous, still I can't help the feeling. When I look at a man like +Charlie Menocal, I see the Mexican strain uppermost even if his mother +was white; and I think what strange, savage, unguessed traits may lurk +in his blood from a long time back; and I shiver. One dare not say +they have ceased. There may be forces at work in his soul that are +inherited from the very tribesmen who dwelt in that pueblo ages ago, +whose ruins he and Ruth have gone to see. Who knows? And I'm never +able to rid myself of the feeling that such forces exist in him and +his kind." + +The engineer thrust his shovel into the earth and seated himself +beside the girl. + +"Nor I," said he. "And I suppose that feeling will remain between +persons of different races as long as the races themselves last. Those +who ignore or deny it are simply blind. Why, look, there's antipathy +between even white men of different nationalities! So what else is to +be expected when the question is one of race and colour? Nor will one +or two generations change what is infused in blood and sinew." + +"Now, that's what uncle says," Imogene Martin declared, "and asserts +that's the reason why Mexicans born and raised here are in sympathy +with those across the border in any trouble Mexico has with our +country." Her face all at once became amused. "He says craniums were +shaped long before governments." + +Bryant laughed on hearing that concise summing up of the case. And +then they continued to talk of this and other subjects, while Dave +Morris drew near and silently drank in the conversation, most of which +passed above his head. As for the engineer, he found in his companion +a peculiar charm that he never would have suspected from their first +meeting at the ford; a pleasure begotten of a quick intelligence and a +keen, trained mind. + +"I've delayed you in your work," she exclaimed, at length. + +"Except to throw out a few shovelfuls of dirt, and that will take but +a moment. I was done. I didn't sit down until it was practically put +in shape. I hope we shall have another talk soon; this one has been a +great treat for me. Let me help you up." + +When he had cleaned the last clods from the ditch, he set off with +tripod and shovel on shoulder to walk with her to the cabins, while +Dave followed with Dick. At the houses Bryant cast an appraising look +at the scanty heap of chopped wood and wound up his visit by seizing +the axe and attacking the store of dry poles hauled from the caņon by +the man who had built the cabins. + +"There, that will keep you going for awhile," he stated, when he had +produced a large pile of sticks. "I don't believe you're strong enough +to handle an axe, Miss Martin; and it would grieve me deeply to learn +you had removed a toe in the attempt. Really, this homesteading game +isn't for women and girls." + +"Oh, we've made out fairly well." + +"Your spirit is admirable, but I can't say as much for your judgment +in the matter," he returned, good-naturedly. "Still, we all go hunting +trouble in our own individual fashion; if not in one way, why, then in +another." + +It was after five o'clock when Lee Bryant and Dave, once more leading +the loaded horse, took their departure and followed Sarita Creek down +to the mesa trail. When they had struck into the latter and travelled +it for half a mile, they saw a long distance ahead someone walking +toward them, also leading a horse. In a land where men saddle a mount +to ride a few hundred yards, the singular coincidence excited their +curiosity. They wondered why the fellow walked, as doubtless he was +wondering the same thing of them. But as they drew nearer they +perceived the pedestrian to be not a man but a woman; and when they +met Bryant recognized in her the girl who had sat by Charlie Menocal +in his automobile at the ford. Her gray corded riding habit was +dusty; she appeared both hot and tired; and her countenance showed a +deep dejection. The horse she led was limping. + +Bryant raised his hat and addressed her. + +"Your horse has gone lame, I see. Can I be of any service to you?" + +"I'm afraid not; he acts as if he had strained a tendon," she replied. +"So I'm leading him home. Our ranch is on Diamond Creek." + +"But you had a fall! There's blood on your glove." + +"No, it's not from that," she said, with a shake of her head. + +Bryant again remarked the exquisite molding of her face as he had +noted it at their first meeting, and her wide brow and clear brown +eyes and the fineness of her skin, and her warm, sensitive lips, at +this instant moving in the barest tremble imaginable. She was gazing +at him with a curious, troubled look. + +"Bring Dick here," Lee bade Dave. + +He swiftly untied the ropes and removed tripod, rod, and saddle. Then +he unfastened the hitch of the saddle of the horse the girl led. + +"Why, what are you doing?" she exclaimed. + +"Giving you a fresh horse. You can ride mine home and send him back to +me to-morrow; I live just ahead on Perro Creek at the Stevenson +place." + +"I wondered if you weren't the new owner, for I had learned that the +ranch had been sold by Mr. Stevenson. Father bought his sheep. You are +Mr. Bryant, aren't you? This is most kind to lend me your horse." + +"You'll find Dick gentle; and you can lead your own mount. Walking +appears to have exhausted you." + +Again she shook her head, with an odd expression growing upon her +face--anxiety, distress, just what Lee could not exactly decide. But +as she made no explanation, he gave her a hand and swung her upon +Dick, after which he handed her the reins and advanced the hope that +she should arrive home without further misadventure. + +She made no move to depart, however, but sat regarding the engineer. + +"I was at your house," she stated, finally. + +"To see me?" + +"To find you, or someone, who could help me. When my horse went lame +near the ford, I found that he had picked up a stone which I couldn't +remove. So I led him to your house, seeking assistance. When I reached +there----" + +She stopped in her recital, compressing her lips and gazing off across +the sagebrush. + +"Well?" the engineer encouraged. + +"When I reached there, I heard a dog whining." + +Bryant stiffened. + +"I left my dog Mike behind," said he. + +"The sound was really more like a moaning," she went on. "At first I +could see nothing, but when I looked everywhere I found that it came +from one of the three cottonwood trees. Somebody had hurt him, and the +poor creature was suffering terribly. I--I can hardly tell what had +been done to him!" And she shuddered. + +"Mike! They've killed my dog Mike!" + +"They nailed him to a cottonwood tree. A nail through each leg. A +nail through his throat. Nails through his body. They had crucified +him. And, oh, his pitiful eyes!" + +Lee Bryant stood perfectly still and quiet. Dave was frozen and +horrified. Both gazed fixedly across the mesa to where the cottonwoods +could be seen. + +"Is Mike alive yet?" Bryant asked presently, in an unsteady voice. + +"No; not now. I found a piece of iron and hammered the nails free. +Then I lifted him down and carried him to the creek and washed his +wounds. But he died. I see his eyes yet, looking up at me." For a +little she was overcome. Then she resumed, "When he was dead, I +carried him up to your door, for I knew you must have loved him." + +Bryant glanced up at her. + +"Mike would know you were a friend," he said. + +She nodded and reined Dick about. Leading the other horse, she rode +away through the sunshine that burnished the mesa. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +July passed. Followed August, with days likewise hot and unvarying +except for a scarcely appreciable retardation of dawn. Perro Creek now +showed no water at all in its shallow bed; the garden planted by the +Stevensons was long dried up; the sagebrush was dustier than ever; and +Bryant and Dave were hauling in a barrel on a sledge water for their +use from a pool in the caņon. + +From daybreak until about eight o'clock in the morning the engineer +and his assistant worked on the canal line. Bryant had run a +fictitious survey along the mountain side, staking it out +conspicuously for any one to see, to the first of the fenced claims of +the Mexican homesteaders, where it ended as if blocked; but his real +line on the mesa remained unstaked. + +To the low ridge, or spur of ground, projecting from the mountain's +base at a point half a mile south of his right of way through the +fields, where the canal began its sweep out upon the plain, he gave +considerable time. The fall of this at first was sharp, and concrete +drops would have to be constructed at intervals for a distance of a +mile or so in order to lower the water. When this section was left +behind, he advanced rapidly along the line, for the surface of the +gentle crescent swell was smooth, its grade fairly regular, and its +contour fixed by nature. Essential points he marked by stones, with +merely their surfaces exposed, so that if noticed they would be +considered scattered pieces of rock from the hills. At the proper time +they would constitute guides for later staking. + +Evenings Bryant spent in developing his notes and in making tracings +of the canal sections covered. During the day hours, when he knew +watchful eyes were on him, he made a topographical survey of his +ranch; work that he could carry on openly. The five thousand acres +comprising the tract had a general direction of east and west, being +about four miles long and two miles wide, which for the most part lay +equally on each side of Perro Creek. By using the water of this stream +during the flood season, a period of some weeks in spring and early +summer, Bryant would be able very considerably to augment the supply +from the Pinas. It was necessary to join the two sources in a unified +system of laterals that would efficiently serve the tract; and +therefore the whole enterprise required study, innumerable +measurements, calculations of dirt moving, of water distribution, of +dam, weir, and gate construction, of soil analysis--a coördination of +the thousand and one matters concerned in an irrigation project that +are preliminary to breaking ground. So early and late he toiled, and +with him Dave Morris. + +The boy indeed did enough for a man. And Bryant would sometimes arise +from his drawing board where he worked after supper until midnight, to +go and affectionately gaze at Dave sleeping the sleep of exhaustion. + +One afternoon, when the pair were at work near the southern boundary +of the ranch, Ruth Gardner came through the sagebrush to the spot, a +mile from Sarita Creek. + +"I could see you, just black specks, from our cabins; and since you +don't visit us, I made up my mind to visit you," she announced. "I've +noticed you down here for two days past. Days and days have gone by +without you coming to pay another call." + +"Well, we've been sticking pretty steadily at our job," Bryant +replied. "Won't you use this bag of stakes for a seat? It will keep +you off the ground." + +Ruth accepted the proffered resting place and loosened the thongs of +her hat, inspected her face in a tiny mirror produced from somewhere, +rubbed her nose with a handkerchief, and then gave her attention to +her companions. + +"Our garden has grown splendidly since you fixed the ditch," she said. +"Thanks to you. How is yours?" + +"It has expired." + +"Then you shall have things out of ours--if you'll come get them. See, +I'm using that to decoy you. There are beans, peas, lettuce, radishes, +and new potatoes, not very large yet, of course. I know just what +you're doing: working hard, eating only canned stuff, skimping your +food, and ruining your digestion." + +Bryant laughed. Her tone had expressed indignation, while her face was +directly accusatory. + +"We seem to have fair health, don't we, Dave?" he remarked. + +"You look positively thin," said she. "And as for this poor starved +shadow that you call Dave! Well, I won't say my thoughts. For a penny +I'd invite myself to dinner at your house just to see what you do +have." + +At this possibility both the engineer and his young assistant +displayed signs of consternation. Under pressure of work housekeeping +had been an unimportant trifle frequently postponed; last meal's +dishes were washed while the next meal was preparing; clothes were +left where they were carelessly flung; and surveying tools, maps, and +papers littered the rooms. No, it was not a dwelling in which to +entertain a feminine guest. + +"Maybe I had better go there and clear up things some," Dave stated, +uneasily. And without awaiting a reply from Bryant, he set off through +the sagebrush for the house. + +Ruth began to laugh, resting her cheeks in her hands. + +"That poor solemn boy, he took me seriously!" she exclaimed. "I +shouldn't come alone, of course; it wouldn't be proper--and Imo would +be horrified. Well, you may as well sit down and talk to me, Mr. +Bryant, for you can't work alone, and I've come to stay awhile. +Imogene told me what a nice talk she had with you the afternoon I went +to the ruins, and I hoped you'd come soon again, but you never did." + +"Perhaps I haven't been exactly neighbourly." + +He lowered himself to the ground and sat cross-legged, considering +her. + +"I thought that possibly I had offended you in going off so abruptly +with Charlie Menocal," she said, with eyes fastened on his. "You and +he aren't very good friends. I know----" + +"We're not friends at all; we're enemies." + +"That need not keep you away from us. He has been very civil and kind, +but neither Imogene nor I have any particular fancy for the man. +Besides, I think his chief interest in life centres around a girl +living on Diamond Creek, named Louise Graham; he hinted that they were +as good as engaged. Very likely we shall see little more of him. So if +your dislike at meeting him is the reason for your staying away, you +haven't a good reason at all. Don't you think Imo and I ever tire of +listening to each other? Any two girls would, living alone by +themselves. After your promise at the ford we were delighted--and how +many calls have we had from you? Just one. With me away, too!" + +"To-morrow will be Sunday; I'll stop work at noon and come," he +declared. + +She pointed a forefinger at him and wiggled her thumb, in imitation of +a pistol. + +"Hold up your right hand and swear it," she commanded, "or I'll +shoot." She continued to menace Bryant while he obeyed. "There, now +you're safe. And bring that hungry boy and we'll feed you both; this +is a dinner invitation, understand. Now, tell me about everything." + +"Everything?" + +"All you're doing with that three-legged telescope and these stakes." + +She smoothed her dress and manifested an expectant interest. The +impression Bryant had gained at the first accidental meeting at Perro +Creek, of her good looks, of her vitality and irrepressible spirits, +was heightened. As he recollected his feeling of pique at her visit +with Charlie Menocal to the ruined pueblo, he realized that he had +indulged in a bit of senseless, unwarranted umbrage; and now had, in +consequence, a quick desire to make amends. It was as if he must +reëstablish himself in her good opinion and his own. + +Their talk ran on from topic to topic. The gaiety of her comments +pleased him; the youthfulness of her was irresistible; and he found +himself observing the changing curves of her throat and cheek as she +turned her head a little aside or raised her chin; found himself +watching for certain unconscious attitudes; awaiting the lift of her +eyes to his, harkening for particular tones of her voice. And Bryant, +who, though he knew it not, was also athirst for companionship, more +and more yielded to her subtle feminine attraction. "She's even +prettier than I supposed," he thought. Her lips, her nose, her eyes of +deep gray with their wonderfully long lashes--each had a particular +charm of its own. He admired the grace of her figure. He felt an odd +surprise at her apparent soft and pliant strength, as at a discovery. +His mind thrilled with delight at her laughter. + +"Look where the sun is!" she exclaimed, all at once. "Straight over +our heads--noon. Your David will be wondering where you are, while +Imogene will imagine I'm lost. Let me pick a flower to stick in the +ribbon of your hat and then I'll go." + +"Your fingers will suffer; I'll get some," Lee said, quickly. From a +spreading bed of prickly-pear he plucked a dozen of the cactus +blossoms, ranging in colour from a delicate lemon to a deep orange. He +turned to her. + +"First I'll decorate you," he said. "Please assume an angelic +expression and gaze straight at the camera." + +She tilted her chin upward and thrust her arms downward with all five +fingers of each hand stretched apart. But immediately she began to +laugh. Lee gave her a reproving tap on the uplifted chin and then +fastened the flowers in her hat-band. A thrill like fire ran through +his body at the proximity of that soft, round chin, those red lips, +her eyes gleaming with merriment. + +"Now, beauty!" he said, stepping back. + +The yellow blossoms made a garland about her hat. + +"Do you like them thus?" she asked, delighted. + +"Immensely." + +"Then they shall stay there. And Imo will die of envy when I tell her +they're yours." + +"Nobody ever died of that." + +"Perhaps not. But she will suffer extremely. You didn't even put bean +plants in her hat." + +Lee was highly amused at this raillery. He began to walk forward by +her side as she moved away from the spot, now addressing her, now +listening to her words, in a desire to stretch the last minute to the +uttermost. Her head came just even with his shoulder, so that she had +to raise her face to gaze at him when he spoke, and in the act there +was something simple, winning, blithe, as likewise in the swing of her +lissom figure beside his own there was an inimitable jauntiness and +cheer. He divined her eager, ardent spirit; and the closeness of her, +this comradeship, set his blood humming. + +Abruptly he halted, laying a finger on her arm. + +"I mustn't go the whole way, you know," he said, "though I should like +to. For, by heavens, you've opened my eyes! Didn't realize how +satiated with myself I'd become. But I'll make up for that now, Miss +Ruth, and it won't be very long before you and your friend will be +planning how to rid yourselves of me." + +"Just try us and see," she exclaimed. + +"Well, I shall. Till to-morrow, then." + +"Till to-morrow, yes." She moved forward some paces and wheeled about, +pointing her forefinger at his head and working her thumb. +"Beware--and don't forget!" Then after another advance and face about +she concluded by blowing him a kiss off the palm of her hand, with +which performance she did actually start for home, weaving her way +through the sagebrush and going farther and farther off. + +"What a pretty little witch she is!" thought Lee; and he, too, made +his way from the spot. + +Dave's hot, harassed face greeted him at the door. + +"Where is she? Didn't she come?" he cried, peering about everywhere. +"Well, thank goodness for that! But if that isn't the way with a +girl--and after I'd swept up and made the beds and scraped all the +skillets, too!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +That Sunday afternoon at Sarita Creek! The dinner, so savoury, so +delectable; the two girls, arrayed in cool white lawn, rosy-cheeked, +beaming; the gay talk and banter and laughter; the blissful hours +together on the grass beneath the trees, with the wide mesa diffusing +an immense languor, with the mountains bestowing a vast peace, with +the brook at their feet murmuring an accompaniment to their +words--hours to treasure, hours of pure gold: Little wonder that Dave, +lying full length and gazing upward through the boughs at the blue +vault, allowed his eyelids to sink and at last to close. Little wonder +the girls' faces grew dreamy and their voices gentle. And none, none +at all, that Lee succumbed to the spell. + +He was still under the enchantment when toward sunset Ruth suggested +they go up the caņon. But Imogene, arousing herself, declared that she +had letters to write; and Dave, still fast asleep, was already on +roamings of his own. Ruth and Lee therefore went alone up the path +through the trees and underbrush, until they emerged in the cool, +dusky gorge formed by the contracting of the rocky walls. The brook +rippled by over stones and moss. A few insects hovered over the stream +with their tiny bodies shining like bronze. From somewhere came a +sweet, honeyed smell of flowers. + +"Imo writes letters regularly," Ruth explained concerning her friend, +"to an instructor in a university in the East. I don't think they're +exactly affianced, but expect to be. Waiting, apparently. Waiting +until he's a professor--and until her health is better, too, I +imagine. An agreement to let things rest as they are for the present, +one might say. Imogene talks very little about it, and of course I ask +no questions." + +She sat down on a fallen tree, patting its trunk to signify a place +for him at her side. Pointing at crevises in the caņon wall, she began +to tell him the names she and Imogene had given them--Bandit's Stair, +Devil's Crack, Bear's Hole, and to enumerate those assigned the +jutting points and knobs along the rim that by a stretch of the +imagination bore a resemblance to animals or human heads. + +As she talked, with her gray eyes at times turning to his to learn if +he was interested, he felt anew the charm of her youthfulness, of her +vivid personality. It dwelt in her small, firm hands pointing now +here, now there, in her slender, rounded form faced toward him, in her +red lips, her soft smooth cheek, her brow, in her glances and her +animated words. He noted again, as a quality altogether delicious, the +air of unconscious friendliness that he had perceived at their very +first encounter. It quite offset the slight touch of obstinacy in her +chin--but, in truth, did the latter require an offset? He had earlier +thought that with such a trait one could not foretell where its +possessor might go, or what do, or what exact, under stress of +feeling. He smiled at that now. How ridiculous the notion! Why +shouldn't a girl have a bit of determination in her make-up? Well, she +should. It gave force to her character. It made her more individual, +more attractive. It coloured a nature so essentially feminine as Ruth +Gardner's with elusive and delightful possibilities. + +"See, up yonder at the top!" she exclaimed. "That piece of rock like a +man's head and shoulders I named Lee Bryant, after you." + +"Do I look as block-headed as that?" + +"No. It was not because of any resemblance, but because you kept your +back so long toward us. Now, however, since you've repented and ceased +to neglect us, I shall call it after someone else. Perhaps after the +stage-driver who takes our letters down to Kennard; he sits hunched up +like that. I'll seek a much nicer rock to represent you." + +"That's wholly unnecessary, for I intend to keep before your eyes in +person." + +"Which will be the nicest of all," said she, smiling. + +He continued to gaze at her, to listen to her voice, with a pleasure +he made no effort to conceal. And she, on her part, seemed to +surrender herself to the enjoyment of the moment; her eyes remaining +longer on his, her tones softening to a slow, tender utterance almost +carrying a caress, her face keeping its languorous smile; as if the +honey-sweet fragrance from the unseen flowers had invaded her spirit. + +A pause came in their talk. They sat unmoving, without stir of hand or +head, quiescent. Then Lee all at once experienced a feeling of +profound compassion for Ruth as he regarded her, a poignant stab in +his breast like pain. Sitting there without movement, with her hands +idle upon her lap, with her face a little lifted and her eyes +wistfully bent on the great wall opposite, she seemed so young and +small to be dwelling at such a place, so helpless, so solitary, that +her presence appeared a cruel irony of fate. Her homesteading was a +desperate clutch at security; and her situation was utterly different +from that of her friend, Imogene Martin, who viewed the matter as in +the nature of a health-seeking holiday, and who was sustained by the +knowledge that she had wealthy relations at Kennard to whom she could +return. Far different, indeed. At the thought of the homesickness that +at times Ruth must know, of the lonesomeness of mountain and mesa from +which she must suffer, of the deprivations, the hard bareness of the +life, the moments of despair, he had a sensation of the bitter +unfairness of things and a desire to snatch her safe away from the +harsh pass in which she stood. It would be only right, it would be +only just. + +When presently she looked about and found his eyes rapt on her face, a +quick blush spread over her throat and cheeks. + +"I think--think we should go home now," she said, with a catch of her +breath. + +"Yes," said he, rising. + +He leaped the log on which they had been sitting and then put up a +hand to help her mount. Holding his fingers she raised herself upon +the tree trunk. But suddenly the bark gave way; she slipped, lost her +balance, and pitched forward. Lee caught her in his arms. + +For an instant she rested there in his clasp, her surprised eyes +gazing into his. A quiver passed over her form. Her lips were parted, +but she had ceased to breathe. Likewise in Bryant's breast the breath +had stopped. A fierce passion swept him to hold her always thus, warm +and close and secure. His arms trembled at the thought; at which her +eyelashes began to flutter and her breath to come once more, as +hurried as the beat of her heart. And then, yielding utterly to the +swirl of mad impulse, he kissed her--once, twice, and twice again. + +Afterward he set her on her feet. + +"I guess that ends our friendship," he said, with a wavering smile. +"Lost my head altogether. Couldn't help it. I looked at you and--and +it just happened. All my will and sense vanished in an instant. +Bewitched!" + +The colour was still in her face, and her air was uncertain, +disturbed. But at his words, so palpably sincere and self +condemnatory, she began to smile. + +"Perhaps--if we just forget----" + +The smouldering fire in his eyes flared suddenly. + +"Forget? I'll never forget that minute, those kisses," he exclaimed. +"Hanged if I want to, or will!" + +"If, then, we don't repeat them, and are more circumspect, why, I'll +overlook it," she said, a little confusedly. "I know you meant no +discourtesy." He gave a savage shake of his head. "And Imogene and I +both prize your friendship." + +"Thank you, Ruth. You take an awful load off my heart." + +She glanced up at him, now once more composed. Her eyes gleamed with a +veiled impishness. + +"No girl ever died from being kissed. But what a splendid lover you +would make!" Away she darted a few steps, to whirl and point and +waggle a finger at the dumfounded youth. "Are you coming? Because I +don't consider this a wise place to be with a flighty, irresponsible +man, first name Lee. Besides, it's beginning to grow dark in here." + +Bryant joined her. The glow was still in his eyes, but in all other +respects he was his usual self, calm, collected. Together they went +down the cool, dim caņon, with its honey scent of flowers drifting +with them; and though they talked lightly of things of no importance, +there was a little smile on the lips of each and sometimes their eyes +met, as if sharing a new, sweet intimacy. + +Thereafter, frequent as were Lee's calls at Sarita Creek of evenings, +he seldom had Ruth to himself and on more than one occasion had to +share her company with Charlie Menocal, much to his impatience. When +Imogene sometimes succeeded in detaining the fellow at her side, +Bryant silently gave her unutterable thanks. And Ruth seemed day by +day more receptive to his passion. + +"I think of only two things, my canal and you," he declared to her one +night. + +"When you put me first and the canal second, why, who knows what I may +think then?" she said, tantalizingly. "But to esteem an irrigation +ditch before me, the idea! What if you had to choose between us?" And +she continued thus to tease him, fanning the fires hotter in his +breast. + +By the end of August Bryant had completed the survey of the canal line +down to a point where it touched the northern boundary of the ranch, +tapping the latter's system of distributing ditches. Pinas River, +Perro Creek, and the tract to be watered were thus united. Though +later, doubtless, it would be necessary to make minor corrections, as +always, the surveying was finished. One tracing showed the entire +irrigation scheme from the dam on the Pinas to the tips of the +laterals branching out in a gridiron over the land. There were other +tracings, too, on a larger scale and of successive sections, ready to +be taken to Kennard in order to make blueprints. + +"Town for us to-morrow, Dave," Lee exclaimed one day, as he rolled and +tied his maps in a waterproof canvas. "We're due for a rest; our job +is done for the present. We'll leave the instruments and note-books +with the girls at Sarita Creek, who've agreed to keep them until we +return. The Mexicans are still hanging around." + +Toward the middle of the afternoon they appeared at the cabins, where +they disengaged Dick from his burden of freight and turned him out to +graze. Imogene was nursing an obstinate headache in her darkened +bedroom, and Dave immediately settled himself under a tree with a +novel of the girls'. So Ruth and Lee were left to themselves. + +"I'm going up the creek to gather raspberries, and you came just in +time to carry the basket," said she. "I discovered a large thicket of +them half way up the caņon; the more you pick, the more you'll have +for supper to-night. And if you don't bring Imo and me a box of +chocolates, and a big box, when you come back from wherever you're +going to-morrow, you need never show your lean brown face again at our +doors! I'm dying for some. Oh, Lee, I really am. They help so when +one's lonely." + +The pathetic tone in which she uttered the final words sent Bryant off +in a fit of laughter. + +"You may count on them," he said, at length. + +"Your heart's of stone to laugh like that. Bonbons _do_ help when one +is low-spirited." + +Nevertheless, her spirits were high enough on this afternoon. All the +while that they were gathering raspberries she kept up a lively +chatter, and when Lee suggested, now that the basket was full, leaving +it at the spot and making an excursion to the head of the gorge, she +readily assented. The sun was still far from setting; the air between +the rocky walls was pleasant; and the caņon held forth a fresh +enticement. They walked for an hour, and though they failed to gain +the end of the long mountain crevice they ascended to where the +springs that fed the brook had their source, and where the rivulet +trickled over ledges and among boulders, finding themselves in the +heavy timber that forested the upper mountains. There they sat on a +rock, Ruth holding the wild flowers she had plucked on the way, and +talked. + +"Does your going now have to do with your project?" she questioned. + +"Yes; I've finished the preliminary work." + +"But Charlie Menocal said you were making no progress, that you were +blocked." + +"What Charlie doesn't know would fill lots of space," Lee said. "In +spite of the Menocals' opposition and tricks, I've established my +survey--but don't breathe it yet! And now I'm ready for the financing +of the scheme. When that's done, I'll begin actual work." + +Ruth considered him with shining eyes. + +"I'm glad you succeeded; I knew you would succeed," she exclaimed. +"You've worked so hard. And I hope that it makes you famous and +wealthy." + +"So do I," he laughed. "I need the money." + +She nodded. + +"One needs money to be happy in this world." + +"Oh, I don't know about that," he responded, thoughtfully. "I've +probably been as happy while hammering out this survey as I'll ever +be, that is, happy in my work. Of course, money means comforts and +luxuries. But I doubt if it really ever brings contentment." + +The obstinate touch grew in her chin. + +"If I had plenty of money I'd have the contentment, or I'd soon find +it," she declared. "Pretty clothes, and fine furniture, and +automobiles, and servants, and parties, and so on, are things--at +least with women--that go a long way toward satisfaction. I sometimes +don't blame girls who marry rich old men; they can put up with them +for the pleasures their money will procure." + +"Ruth, Ruth, don't utter such nonsense! At any rate, you've too much +common sense ever to waste yourself on a doddering money bags." + +"I'll never have the chance," said she. "But if I had, I'd think it +over carefully. A young man with money I could be especially nice to, +and I might even set out to catch him. You see, I'm quite frank and +open about it." + +"Nonsense," he repeated. "You'd marry no one just for his money." + +"That depends whether or not he caught me at a moment when I was +feeling sick of everything and reckless. Look at my hands, all +calloused from work. If I have to work, I shall do it for myself; not +marry to work." + +Bryant lifted her hands and regarded them. + +"They please me immensely as they are; they're lovely hands," he +asserted. + +"Then your vision is poor." + +"It's clear enough when I look at you, Ruth. And when you talk as you +have, I become impatient because I know you don't mean it. But +nonetheless, you deserve the best that any man can give, and you ought +to have all the comforts and pretty things any woman has, for you're +too sweet and good for a bare, commonplace life." He pressed gently +the fingers he yet retained. "I told you once that you had bewitched +me. It was true; I am bewitched, have been ever since I touched your +dear lips. And I love you. It hurts my heart to think of you at this +homesteading business--" + +"What else was there for me?" she asked. "I've had no business +training, nothing but two years in a college, no knowledge of anything +that a girl needs to hold a position. And I'm not even a good +homesteader." Her tone rang with a trace of bitterness. + +"You ought not to have to do it--and you shall not, Ruth, if I have my +way. I want to save you from it, and make life pleasant and happy for +you. The money I have now is little, but I'm going ahead; I'm going +ahead, and nothing shall stop me, I tell you. Soon I shall have ample +means. Within a year or two. Already I've told you I love you, though +this you must have known, for I've made no effort to conceal my love. +To me you're the dearest, sweetest girl in the world; and all I ask is +the chance to strive and toil for you, and make a home for you, and +relieve you of anxiety and care, and have you for a joyous companion +and mate." + +Ruth closed her hands on his, while her eyes grew wet. + +"You mean it, Lee?" + +"Ah, I do, I do! I love you; I hold you dearer than anything in the +world." + +The smile she gave was tender, trustful. + +"I believe you," she said. + +She yielded to his arms. Her head fell back upon his shoulder and her +look lifted to his blissfully. When he kissed her a thrill of passionate +desire answered, as when on that fragrant evening in the caņon he first +had fiercely pressed her lips. This was happiness--happiness. If it +could but last forever! + +"And my love is yours, too, Lee," she exclaimed, so earnestly that he +felt his heart quiver. "I want to be happy; I want to be loved; I +don't want to live a life of just dreary commonplaceness, alone, +uncared for, with no outlook, with no prospect of joys. I want the +most there is in happiness--every girl wants that; and this monotonous +existence has been robbing me, stifling me, until sometimes I've been +wild enough to leap off a high rock. But now!" + +Bryant's arms went closer about her. + +"It shall be different now," he murmured. + +"Yes, yes; it must, it shall. There's no sense in people not being +happy when the world was made for that very purpose." + +"Whenever you say, we'll be married," Lee stated. + +Ruth was silent for a time, considering this. It, indeed, left her a +little startled. + +"But it mustn't be too soon," she replied, at last. "We had best go on +as we are while your project is being started, for I wouldn't be so +selfish as to make a command on your time at a critical moment, Lee +dear. And I must plan clothes and things. Knowing that happiness is +ahead of us, oh, homesteading then will be only a lark! I'll never +need follow it up, but just abandon it when we're ready. Kiss me +again, Lee, and then we must start back." + +They retraced their steps down the caņon, obtaining the basket of +berries on the way. Once, as they neared the cabins, Ruth paused, +gazing at her lover. + +"I had actually come to hate these claims," she said. "I felt chained +to the spot, as if something would keep me in the miserable place for +the rest of my life. Had I known how lonely I should be here, I never +would have come." + +"But that's over now, Ruth. A little while longer, that's all." + +She gazed at him with an odd, intent, anxious expression upon her +countenance. + +"You'll not let your irrigation project keep you here always?" she +asked. "Or live in other places like it? These mountains and this +desolate mesa get on my nerves. If I thought you were going to stay +away from other people, foregoing all the pleasures of cities and the +like, I think I should lose my courage and not be able to love you +enough to stand it. I want you most of all, but shall want other +things, too." + +He smiled indulgently. + +"A few years perhaps," he replied. "Till I'm solid on my feet--till I +get going well--we're both young--and then----" He dismissed the +matter with a wave of the hand. + +But that evening, when Lee and Dave had gone, when Imogene was asleep, +when the soft darkness was thickening over the mesa, Ruth walked forth +to the edge of the sagebrush. + +"I wonder," she murmured, leaving her thought unfinished. + +The hush of the mountains, the silence of the plain, the vastness, the +emptiness, the seeming purposelessness of it all, irritated and +oppressed her spirit. And she so yearned to be where the world was +alive and throbbing! + +"I wonder if I really love him enough, or if I made a little fool of +myself this afternoon?" she muttered to herself. "I wonder!" + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +Charlie Menocal's object in calling upon the young ladies at Sarita +Creek was merely diversion. He was fond of girls, especially lively +ones, and knew a good many here and there within reach of his motor +car, including a number of pretty Mexican maidens of humble parentage. +But his serious attentions centred about Louise Graham of whom in +secret he was very jealous. Whenever he could find an excuse, and +frequently when not, he went to the Graham ranch on Diamond Creek, +five miles south of the girls' claims, where his figure was as +familiar (and of about as much interest) as the magpies in the +pasture. He fully meant to marry Louise, whose beauty and gracious +manner even to the smallest bare-legged Mexican boy on the ranch +captivated him and stirred in his breast a maddening desire for +possession, so that he might cut off the rest of the world from her +sweetness, so that it might alone feed his passion. Yes, he meant to +have Louise. + +When he was with her his black eyes would shine and a ruddy tinge +appear in his dusky cheeks that were as soft and smooth as a Mexican +girl's, and he would restlessly finger a point of his little, silky, +black moustache and feel unutterable agitations proceeding in his +heart. Louise Graham did not allow him to declare his adoration, which +he would have done every moment they were together; when he tried, +she walked away. But Charlie counted on his good looks and his +father's wealth to win her in the end. One fear alone lurked in his +heart, that some young American might come along who would win her +interest; and earlier in the summer he had a decided uneasiness lest +Bryant prove to be the man. The scoundrelly engineer, however, had +fallen head over heels in love with Ruth Gardner, so that Charlie's +mind was relieved on that point. To his knowledge, Louise and Bryant +had never met--which was as it should be. + +Charlie, having stopped about ten o'clock in the morning at the Graham +ranch for a chat with Louise while on his way to Kennard, was +considerably surprised and exceedingly nettled at beholding the +engineer, with Dave behind him on the horse, presently riding up the +lane between the rows of cottonwoods. Young Menocal had persuaded +Louise to leave her household duties for the moment to sit on the +veranda and talk with him. But now had come this impudent upstart! +Charlie's warning of someone at hand was when Louise ceased to speak +and gazed intently along the lane. His annoyance at the interruption +changed to a quick jealousy as his companion rose, descended the +steps, bade the engineer welcome, and extended her hand in greeting. + +Bryant explained that he was dropping Dave here to take the stage for +Kennard when it came along after dinner. He himself was riding on. + +"He'll eat dinner with us, of course, and I'll put him aboard the +stage myself," she exclaimed, with a pat on the shoulder of the boy +who had now dismounted. "Won't you stop for a moment, Mr. Bryant? +I'll give you a glass of fresh buttermilk to speed you on your way; a +stirrup cup, we'll call it. The woman has just finished churning." + +Lee declared that he would drink a glass with very great pleasure. He +was thirsty, he said, and in addition was fond of buttermilk. + +Menocal listened and watched him dismount and ground his teeth. Louise +knew the thief, after all. Where the devil had they become acquainted? +It was but one more instance of the engineer's pushing in where he +wasn't wanted. And she had not invited him, Charlie, to partake of +buttermilk, though, to be sure, she knew he did not like it. He felt +slighted. + +When Bryant and Louise ascended the veranda, Dave loitering below, the +engineer said nonchalantly, "Hello, Charlie, how are tricks? Anything +new up your sleeve?"--in a way that set the other's blood boiling; and +when he carelessly added, "What about that story the stage-driver's +telling of you and a seņorita going into a ditch with your car at +Rosita the other night?" he was quite ready to murder both Bryant and +the stage-driver. + +So upset was Charlie that he was unable to share in the conversation. +He curtly refused a glass when Louise brought a pitcher of buttermilk, +then changed his mind, and ended by choking over the wretched stuff. +The situation was intolerable; his pride was smarting; the others +talked on with unperturbed countenances, ignoring his silence; and his +self-respect required some action in the face of the affront. He +abruptly stood up and announced that he was departing. + +In Louise's manner at this news there was no repining that he could +observe. She did not protest. Her words were impersonally pleasant as +ever, but vague; and he perceived that she only half heeded his going; +and that her eyes brightened when once more she turned to her visitor. +This was the final stab. With hatred in his heart and a wicked glitter +in his eyes, Charlie Menocal went down the steps to his automobile, +feeling the need of a victim, preferably the engineer. Bryant had +insulted him at the ford; he was attempting to rob him and his father; +he had insolently threatened the elder Menocal; he stopped at nothing; +and now he was intruding here and deceiving Louise with his arrogant +pretentions. He came on Dave, standing beside the car and examining +the latch of a door. + +"Keep your hands off that!" he snapped. At the same time he gave the +boy a cuff that sent him sprawling. "That will teach you!" + +In two bounds Lee Bryant was at the spot. He caught the still-extended +hand in an iron grip. + +"You miserable coward! Striking a boy!" he said, harshly. "Feeling +that you must vent your spite on someone, you pick on this unoffending +lad. If you ever raise so much as a finger against him again----" + +"Let him keep away from my machine! And drop my wrist!" Charlie +Menocal snarled. + +"And you leave him alone hereafter, in any case," Lee warned, shoving +the speaker away in disgust. Then he helped Dave to rise. + +Charlie straightened his disarranged tie and coat with trembling +fingers. He could scarcely retain his rage; his body shook all over; +his foot slipped twice when he sought to mount into his car. Leaning +forward from his seat, he shook a finger in Bryant's face, exclaiming, +"You'll get what's coming to you! Like your damned dog!" His face was +entirely viperish. His finger came within an inch of the engineer's +nose. His words carried a furious hiss. + +Then he whirled his car about and went tearing down the lane with +exhaust wide open and roaring. + +When Bryant, leading Dave, rejoined Louise Graham, a flush of +embarrassment dyed his face. She had sprung up at Menocal's blow +knocking the boy over and remained standing, an indignant observer of +the scene. When Menocal had departed, the engineer recalled suddenly +what Ruth had said concerning Charlie and Louise Graham being +practically engaged; and as he now saw her rigid figure and displeased +countenance, he imagined he had lost her friendship. Still, he could +not have acted otherwise. + +"I'm very sorry for this occurrence, Miss Graham," he said, +contritely. "Especially as I understand Charlie Menocal is very high +in your esteem." + +"Who dares say that!" + +"Well, Charlie himself is the authority, I believe," Lee responded, +with a slight smile. + +Her eyes flashed at that. + +"Well, it's not the case; and if it had been, this exhibition of bad +manners and bad nature on his part would have changed it. Father and I +consider him--well, a nuisance. There, I'm giving you a confidence. +We've tolerated him because Mr. Menocal senior is a gentleman, and a +friend. Now I hope you'll not think me too talkative, but an +explanation was necessary; and as far as Charlie Menocal is concerned, +I'd be pleased if I never saw his face again. To knock your young +friend over so heartlessly! You treated him with altogether too much +leniency, Mr. Bryant." + +"I never do my fighting in the presence of ladies," Lee remarked, with +a grin. "In fact, I try to confine my combats to those of wits." + +She nodded. + +"Of course," said she; and continued, "this is the second time he has +acted disgracefully to you when I've been by. The first occasion was +at Perro Creek ford. I could have sunk into the earth for shame of him +when he knew no better than to fling you money after you had filled +his radiator; it was pure insolence, to begin with, to ask you to do +it when he should have attended to the matter himself. I admired your +conduct and self-control under the circumstances, Mr. Bryant." And +addressing Dave, she asked, "Will you drink another glass of +buttermilk if I pour it?" + +Dave could and did, an example Lee followed. The subject of Menocal +was dismissed, and the man and the girl fell into a conversation of +general matters. She assured the engineer, when he inquired, that he +was not detaining her from household affairs; and urged him, on +learning of his prospective absence, to leave Dick at Diamond Creek +and he himself to proceed to Kennard by stage. She owed Dick a return +for the favour of carrying her home that day her own horse went lame; +he could run in the pasture with the other horses, where Bryant would +know he was safe. The plan included Bryant's remaining for dinner, +naturally. + +"Have I your permission, Dave?" Lee asked. "Or do you refuse to share +this pleasure with me?" + +Dave looked at Louise and blushed furiously. + +"I guess you've made your mind up," he said, to Bryant. + +"I guess I have," Lee admitted. + +Toward noon Mr. Graham joined them and laughingly stated that he was +glad to make the acquaintance of the man who was causing such a furor +among the Mexicans along the Pinas. He asked a number of questions and +listened with interest to the engineer's brief exposition of the plan +to unite the water rights of the Pinas River and of Perro Creek in a +common system, though Bryant disclosed nothing of his survey on the +mesa. Of the opposition Lee had met or might yet encounter the rancher +was aware, for he remarked, "You have a fight on your hands." But that +was his only comment. + +After dinner they all continued to talk while the men were smoking +cigars. Graham suggested that if Bryant should need an attorney it +would be well to employ one from Kennard, as those in Bartolo were +nearly all Mexicans. The engineer jotted down the name of one the +rancher recommended, saying that he had his injunction suits to meet +in the September term of court. + +"Winship, the sheriff, appears to be one man in Bartolo who's all +right," Lee stated. + +"Yes, he's a good man," Graham replied. "Can't be influenced or +bought; and is perfectly square and impartial in the execution of the +duties of his office. He has served twenty years, with exception of +one term when he and Menocal had a disagreement. Menocal controls the +votes in this county, you know; that's general knowledge. But things +became so lax under the Mexican sheriff who displaced him that he was +put back in office. Menocal ordered it; he has much property and +believes in law and order; and there's little or no stealing with +Winship in the sheriff's saddle. I've heard that he first required the +banker to support him unconditionally before resuming the place." + +"I can believe that after a look at Winship," Lee said, smiling. + +Mr. Graham presently went away to a field where his men were cutting +and stacking alfalfa, after thanking Bryant for rendering assistance +to his daughter on the road and inviting him to call again. Louise +then showed him her flower garden, ablaze with poppies, nasturtiums, +sweet peas, and other blossoms he could not name; and the orchard +where apples and pears and plums weighed the branches. She was +remarkably beautiful, he thought; and was quite sure the roses in the +garden had no petals pinker or softer than her cheeks, and was sure +the water rippling in the little, grassy orchard canals was no clearer +than her brown eyes, or the sky more serene than her brow. She was not +in the least proud or vain or haughty, as he imagined when he first +beheld her at the ford. He had had doubts of that after her kindly +treatment of his dying dog Mike. And now to-day he knew that such an +opinion did her an injustice, was absurd. + +Louise, too, was thinking as they strolled about. Which of the two +girls on Sarita Creek did he love? For Charlie Menocal had said that +he was infatuated with one. Charlie Menocal! Her cheeks grew warm. +What he had boasted in regard to herself, and doubtless Mr. Bryant +had softened the truth, filled her with anger. She would treat the +insufferable wretch differently hereafter. And very likely his gossip +of the engineer's feelings for one of the homesteaders was likewise a +falsehood, though there was no reason in the world why Mr. Bryant +shouldn't love one of them if he chose. She had never met them. They +were very nice girls, she imagined. She had intended to call, but +something had always prevented. As for Mr. Bryant, he seemed a very +estimable young man, and good company, and an engineer of ability and +will. + +She continued to speculate after he and Dave had departed on the +stage, with a vague sense of missing them. That, she reasoned, was +because Lee Bryant had "personality." And presently her thoughts +followed him. Lee's mind, however, was ranging back to Sarita Creek; +but Dave's was loyally with the lady of Diamond Creek ranch, as was +manifest when he murmured thickly, having fallen asleep during the +warm ride: + +"No more chicken, thank you--or jelly--or apple pie." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +In Kennard next morning Lee Bryant betook himself to a civil +engineering firm, which he engaged to print a number of sets of +blue-prints from his tracings, one set to be ready for delivery early +that afternoon. Then while his suit of gray clothes, from out of his +suit-case, was being pressed, he and Dave visited a florist, purchased +a wreath of lilies-of-the-valley that Dave chose, and went to the +cemetery to place it on the grave of the lad's mother. After that they +proceeded to a clothier's, where the boy was fitted out with a new +suit, a hat, shirts, underwear, and a tie. All of this caused Dave to +swallow hard--but he swallowed hardest of all when Lee led him to a +horse dealer's and helped him pick out a pony for trial, a gift from +Bryant. He hadn't expected all this. He was too overcome to speak. "By +golly, Lee, I--I----" he stammered; and stopped, and furtively wiped +the moisture from his eyes. Finally they visited a savings-bank, where +the engineer deposited a check to Dave's credit, his wages for a month +and a half, forty-five dollars, to start an account, and the boy +received a small yellow book whose one entry he thereafter studied at +frequent intervals, for it was earning according to Bryant's statement +four per cent a year, though Dave had not the remotest idea of how it +did the earning. Then with all this business transacted they returned +to the hotel, bathed, dressed in their fresh clothes, and went into +luncheon. + +"Luncheon, what do they call dinner that for?" Dave whispered to Lee +across the table. + +Along in the afternoon Bryant, having obtained a set of blue-prints +and sent his young companion to a "movie" show, called upon the man +that he all the while had had in view, Imogene Martin's uncle. A +large, strong-bodied man, with a deeply lined, determined face, the +latter swept his visitor with a quick, appraising look, invited him to +take a seat, and to state his business. + +"In five minutes you can tell," said Lee, "whether or not you wish to +listen longer to my proposition." + +"Yes." + +"I now own the Perro Creek ranch, of five thousand acres. It was +originally owned by Mr. Menocal, of Bartolo, but recently by a man +named Stevenson, from whom I bought it." + +"I know the place, Mr. Bryant. Proceed." + +"It's worth possibly three dollars an acre as it stands, or a total of +fifteen thousand dollars," Lee continued. "But it has an unused water +right of one hundred and twenty-five second feet from the Pinas River, +sufficient to water the whole tract. How much will the ranch be worth +when water is actually delivered?" + +"A good deal more than fifteen thousand dollars." + +"Rather," said the engineer, smiling. "The appropriation was secured +from the state by Mr. Menocal thirty years ago; it's never been +cancelled, and is good to-day. He, however, has been using the water +on ranches he owns down the river. A canal from the Pinas along the +mountain sides to Perro Creek would be expensive to construct, +possibly prohibitive; it appears the natural line; and I suppose this +deterred him. I've located a new and practical course for a ditch on +the mesa, have surveyed and mapped it in detail, calculated the cost, +and compiled a statement of estimates, and can build the project for +sixty thousand dollars. The tract of five thousand acres can then be +sold for fifty dollars an acre, or two hundred and fifty thousand +dollars. Shall I stop, or do you wish to hear more?" + +Now it was the banker's turn to smile. This visitor knew how to make a +point. + +"Go ahead," he said. + +"All right. A Mexican dam across the Pinas, a mile and a half of +hillside canal, some concrete drops, twelve miles of curving mesa +ditch, and the ranch is reached. In addition, the flood water of Perro +Creek can be utilized; I've worked this out, as well as the entire +system of laterals for the land. As stated, the cost of the whole +project will be about sixty thousand dollars, present price of +material and labour. I'm on my way now to the capital to file +application for a change in the present canal line, which, since it +involves only government land, will naturally be allowed. Of course +Mr. Menocal isn't taking kindly to my proposed use of this water." And +Lee paused. + +"What has he done? Anything yet?" + +"Not much so far, except a little futile skirmishing," the engineer +remarked, with twinkling eyes. "When I paid off his mortgage on the +land, I advised him that I should use the water: and he threatened to +have the water right cancelled. But he backed up on that line when I +promised to lodge him in jail for making false affidavits if he tried +those tactics. Thought I'd head him off in that direction at the +start. I got the jump on him there. Well, now, he's using indirect +means to keep control of the water, sending half a dozen Mexicans to +file claims at the base of the mountains where he imagines the canal +will have to go. He thinks these have blocked me; and I didn't +undeceive him. He knows nothing about my actual line of survey on the +mesa. Of course, the loss of this water that he fancied he had hits +him where it hurts, but from what I can gather Mr. Menocal isn't a man +to resort to illegal methods. He's wily, that's about all. So that's +the situation." + +The banker regarded Bryant for a time with a noncommittal face. + +"State your proposition now," said he. + +"This is it," Bryant went on. "I propose to bond the ranch and water +right for enough to build the project, then construct it, then market +the land in farms at fifty dollars an acre. The canal system can be +completed easily next year, and sales and colonization proceed +immediately when done. Naturally, as a sale is made, the mortgage and +notes will be put up behind the bonds to secure the latter. The +purchasers will pay down some cash, say, ten dollars an acre; that +makes fifty thousand cash and two hundred thousand dollars in notes +against sixty thousand dollars in bonds. A visible profit of one +hundred and ninety thousand. That amount will be covered by a stock +issue. I shall set aside sixty thousand of it as a bonus to whoever +purchases the bonds. Thirty thousand more shall go to whoever markets +the bonds, as a commission. The remaining hundred thousand of +stock----" + +"Goes to you, I presume." + +"Yes; I keep that. It's payment for the ranch and water right, for my +developing the scheme and building the project. What I need is someone +to sell the bonds; I'll take care of everything else. And because you, +Mr. McDonnell, know the character of the land hereabouts and know +water rights, the fertility of the soil when watered, and the +soundness of a proper irrigation project as an investment, I've come +first to you. Millions aren't involved; it's a small project; the cost +is uncommonly cheap and the security therefore exceptional; you know +the property personally; I, as builder, and having everything at +stake, would see that the construction is right. So small an issue of +bonds should be quickly placed in the East. And the commission isn't +to be sneezed at." + +Mr. McDonnell's features relaxed into a smile. + +"I never saw an irrigation scheme yet that didn't look a money-maker +on paper," he stated, "nevertheless, seventy-five per cent. of them +wind up in the hands of a receiver." + +"Because of faulty estimates and wasteful construction, yes. Because +they're generally too big, and the interest eats them up before the +land is sold. Because some start building on a shoestring. Or because +of changes in the projects that are costly, or rows in the management, +or insufficient water, or bad land titles--I know, I know. I've +studied and analyzed their troubles. And I propose that this Perro +Creek scheme of mine shall be one irrigation project that shall +succeed." + +"And you think you've taken all precautions?" + +"Yes." + +"With Mr. Menocal, even?" + +"Even with Mr. Menocal, yes. Once my application for changes has been +approved and I have the money to build, what can he do?" + +"You seem quite sure of yourself." + +"I'm sure of this irrigation project, anyway. I'm going to build it." +Conviction absolutely dominated his lean brown face; and the banker +looking at the speaker's chin, his firm mouth, curving nose, and gray +eyes full of purpose, wondered if Menocal had met his match. + +"Well, suppose you leave your maps and estimates for me to look over," +he said. "When do you go to the capital?" + +"This evening." + +"See me again on your return. My attorney will examine your title to +the land and the water right. How are the young ladies on Perro Creek +getting along?" + +"They have plenty of fresh air and scenery," Lee responded, relaxing +from the tension under which he had been. + +"It was rather a wild notion, their taking claims, but they wanted the +experience. I hope my niece is benefited in respect to her health. My +wife and I run up once in a while to see if they're comfortable." Then +he added, "Perhaps I had best confess that Imogene had told me of what +you were at up there, and of your involvement with Mr. Menocal. So +this thing isn't wholly new to me." + +Bryant returned to the hotel, well satisfied with the progress he had +made. In the lobby of the hotel he ran across Charlie Menocal, who +gave him a venomous look and passed into the bar without speaking. +What the young fellow might feel or think gave Lee no concern, though +he might have taken warning from that hostile regard. For it was by +Charlie's instructions that a short, stout, swart Mexican went from a +native saloon to the depot that evening, where he presently identified +Bryant and lounged nearer the spot. Dave at length noticed him and +called Lee's attention to the fellow, whose face had a particularly +sinister cast and whose eyes were fixed upon the engineer in a stony, +unblinking stare. That look gave one the sensation of being gazed at +by something poisonous in a clump of sagebrush. But the feeling was +forgotten when the train came in on which they were departing and +Bryant and Dave mounted the steps of a coach. + +The Mexican, on his part, returned to the saloon, where eventually he +was joined by Charlie Menocal. Charlie's face was flushed and his +breath alcoholic; he was a little drunk. At a corner table they +conferred, drinking whisky. + +"You will know him now, the snake!" Charlie asked. + +"I would know him in the dark, seņor," was the reply. + +They spoke in Spanish, since young Menocal's companion knew no other +tongue. The latter was a newcomer to Kennard, of the name of Alvarez. +He had come up from across the line, where he had been first with +Carranza, and then with Zapata in his black troop, and then with +Pancho Villa. He already had considerable reputation in the low +Mexican quarter of the town: he had participated in many fights and +raids "down there"; he was fearless; he could use a gun; he had many +killings to his credit. When earlier in the day Charlie had made +private inquiry of the saloon-keeper, an old friend, concerning a man +of nerve that he could engage who would ask no questions, Alvarez was +pointed out to him. + +Presently an agreement was reached between them and Charlie produced +his check-book and a fountain-pen. + +"Here's a check for one hundred dollars," he said, writing. "Come to +Bartolo, get you some blankets and food, and camp somewhere near. From +time to time we'll meet and I'll tell you what's to be done. There's a +saloon at Bartolo, if you get thirsty. Another hundred dollars will be +yours when the job is finished, perhaps more. Meantime, you will act +before others as if you did not know me. Here's the check." + +Alvarez rose and walked to the bar. + +"Is this money; a hundred dollars?" he inquired of the Mexican +proprietor of the saloon. + +"One hundred dollars, yes," said the latter, with an assuring smile. +"Made payable to you, Alvarez. Good? Good at any bank, good here at my +saloon, good as gold. Better than gold, Alvarez, because easier to +carry. Do you wish the money for it?" + +The Mexican ex-bandit jingled some dollars in his trousers' pockets. + +"I have enough to eat and drink," said he. "If the paper is good, if +you will give me gold for it, then I will wait until I return. As you +say, it's not so heavy to carry." + +"Bring it to me when you return. Mr. Menocal is very wealthy, very +rich. He has much land and many sheep. Besides, he owns a bank full of +gold and silver. The paper is good." + +Alvarez was impressed. He stood in thought. + +"Those sheep and that bank full of money! In Mexico we would form a +company of revolutionists and help ourselves," he said. + +"That isn't the custom here," was the reply. + +Alvarez again stared at the check, then folded it, bit the edge with +his teeth, placed it in a small leather bag suspended under his shirt +by a cord about his neck, and returned to the table where Charlie +Menocal waited. + +"I will go up yonder in a few days, seņor," he stated. "There are +girls there, are there not?" + + * * * * * + +One day a week later, after Bryant and Dave had returned to Kennard, +and after numerous conferences with Mr. McDonnell, his attorney and an +engineer called in for consultation, Lee exclaimed to his companion, +"We win. McDonnell will take hold of it. Bully for him!" And he went +about clearing up the odds and ends of business at a great rate. + +Moreover, McDonnell believed he could dispose of the bonds within a +fortnight, by the middle of September. That would enable Bryant to +make good headway with the dam on the Pinas River while the water was +low and before cold weather set in. The attorney would look after the +incorporation of the company and the stock and bond issues. Lee could +at once engage a staff of assistant engineers and arrange to let the +building contract. In the matter of the canal line, he had received +ample assurance from members of the Land and Water Board at Santa Fé +that the changes he asked would be granted. Everything was propitious, +everything exactly as he would wish. + +"Out of those town duds, Dave," he exclaimed. "You can't be a sport +any longer. Back to Perro Creek for us and your new spotted pony. And +it's high time, too, for I saw you making eyes at that girl with +yellow hair and angel blue eyes, whose mamma----" + +"You never did!" Dave yelled, crimson with ire. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +October. And the last golden leaves twirling down from cottonwood and +aspen and mountain maple; the lofty brown peaks fresh powdered with +snow; the air dazzling, keen, heady like wine; frost a-sparkle of +mornings on stone, fence-post, roof, with a rainbow coruscation of +diamonds; clear, high moons; marvellous, moonlit nights. + +It was the middle of the month. Three weeks previous, with the bonds +sold and the injunction suits dismissed, the contractor employed had +unloaded his outfit at Kennard, moved up the Pinas River, raised in a +day his camp at the mouth of the caņon above Bartolo, and begun his +task. This man, Pat Carrigan, had been in Bryant's mind from the +first: a Pueblo contractor of Irish extraction, born in a railroad +camp, trained on a dump, and now grizzled and aging but unequalled in +handling men, in keeping them satisfied, in moving dirt. In his time +he had turned off jobs from Maine to California, from Wisconsin to +Texas. Already along the hillside a yellow gash was deepening from the +dam site through the fenced fields where ran the right of way; while +in the Pinas, low at this season, the traverse section of the river +bed had been cleaned out and the base of the dam was building of +stones and brush. + +Late on a certain afternoon Ruth Gardner and Imogene Martin stood +waiting by a gray runabout at the edge of the camp. A storm was +sweeping up the Ventisquero Range from the south, one of the autumn +storms that marked the change of seasons, enveloping, as it advanced, +the gray peaks one after another in its fog and trailing over the mesa +gauzy brown streamers of rain. In the west the sun still shone +unobscured, but with its light failing to a chill saffron glare as the +cloud expanded over the sky. + +Bryant and another man, a newcomer in the last few days, an engineer +from the East representing the bondholders, were walking toward the +girl from the dam. As the men walked, they engaged in rather spirited +argument. + +"You'd better hurry, you two," Ruth called. "Don't you see that rain +coming? Imo and I want to reach home, Mr. Gretzinger, without being +soaked." + +Bryant's companion waved an assuring hand without ceasing his rapid +and forceful statement addressed to his fellow. Half a head shorter +than Lee, he was of stockier build, a man somewhere near thirty-five +or six years of age, with hair tinged with gray above his ears. Both +in manner and speech he exhibited by turns superficial gayety, latent +cynicism, and an egregious assumption. When Lee had introduced him to +the young ladies at Sarita Creek, he had made himself at home in three +minutes. He had the latest witticisms of restaurants and theatres, the +newest stories, the most recent slang; his clothes were of the +autumn's extreme mode; he was intelligent if frankly materialistic; +and he interested, amused, and diverted the two girls. From his gay +and airy talk they gathered that he had been married and divorced, +that the West might have the scenery but New York had the bright +lights; that money could buy anything from food to fame; and that +"movies" were a bore. To the girls he was like a breath from the +metropolis itself, that hard, throbbing, restless, glaring, convivial, +avid, fascinating city in which is centred everything of wealth and +misery, everything intense and abnormal, and everything to satisfy the +desires. But the effect upon the girls was different. Imogene, though +entertained, continued calm, unimpressed, unenvious; Ruth, however, as +she listened and asked questions, the better they became acquainted, +was bright-eyed and excited. "Don't you think him a remarkable man?" +she had exclaimed to Imogene. "So experienced, so polished, so--well, +everything." This was after his second visit, which he made without +Bryant, stopping on his way from the dam camp to Kennard where he made +the chief hotel his headquarters. Imogene had replied, "Oh, he's +amusing company, and he can't be accused of being diffident, at least. +But I wonder if he would wear well. His divorced wife's opinion would +be valuable on that point, I fancy." That had caused Ruth to sniff. +She said, "You heard his explanation; they didn't agree and so they +just separated. That was sensible. When two people find they're not +compatible, they shouldn't live together a minute. And I shouldn't be +surprised if she was a cat." + +Gretzinger's speech as he and Bryant advanced toward the girls and the +gray runabout was quick, determined, and uncompromising. His fleshy, +aggressive face, that lacked the tan of his companion's, was fixed in +dogmatic lines. From time to time he switched his gauntlets against +the skirt of his fashionably cut ulster with lively impatience. + +"I certainly demand that these changes be made and shall recommend to +the bondholders," he was saying, "that they also insist on them." + +"Can't help it if you do," was Lee Bryant's reply. "I know what I'm +talking about: concrete is necessary. No irrigation engineer to-day +who knows his business would think of anything else. Mr. McDonnell's +man approved its use, the state engineer likewise. The latter wouldn't +allow the change even should I ask it." + +"Pah! He'd not concern himself either way. I know how these state +officers run things. Leave it to me; I'll arrange the matter." + +"Not with my consent. And he'll never grant the change over my +opposition." + +Gretzinger gave his knee an angry slap. + +"I tell you it must be different, Bryant. In addition to the bonds my +men have their share of stock. They consider this stock bonus as part +of their investment. It is. And they intend to see that that stock +earns every dollar--every dollar, do you understand?--that's to be +made out of the project. I'm here to protect their interests, and +shall do it." + +"Well?" + +"Now, Bryant, be reasonable. It means more profit in your own pocket, +too. You're no philanthropist pure and simple, I take it, and want to +make money out of this thing. So agree to this change. You'll make a +saving both in time and cash. Carrigan's contract doesn't include the +building of these drops; you plan to do that yourself; and if you +substitute wood for concrete in these drops and in the gate-frames, +it would lessen the labour cost, the material cost, the freighting +cost, the----" + +"And in five years the wood will have rotted and then concrete will +have to be put in after all," Lee interrupted. "More than that, the +water will undercut wooden drops, then rip the devil out of the canal +along the ridge, making the cost of rebuilding ten times what it is +now and very likely causing a water shortage in the middle of an +irrigating season so that the farmers' crops will be a dead loss. +Fine! I suppose you didn't allow yourself to think that far." + +"Why should I?" Gretzinger retorted. "It's not our business to figure +on all the calamities that may occur in the next fifty years, or the +next ten, or the next five. We build the canal, then it's up to the +farmers to keep it in shape after we turn it over to them. If anything +happens, that's their lookout and the lookout of the engineer in +charge." + +The two had come to a halt just out of earshot of the runabout. Bryant +could discover on the speaker's face no other expression than a fixed +intent to maintain his view. + +"Leaving out the injustice of such a course----" + +"Injustice, nothing!" the New Yorker derided. "This is cold business. +The project must be built as cheaply as possible in order to give the +investors the largest return. My father is one of them, and when he +puts money into a thing he wants all out of it that's coming to him. +So do his associates." + +"Let me finish what I started to say," Lee remarked. "Aside from what +purchasers of land under this canal scheme have the right to expect, +and what they would suffer from a disaster, it hits our own pockets in +the end. Poor construction always turns out to be expensive +construction. Aside from the initial cash payments from buyers, all we +have from them will be notes--mortgage notes that can be paid only by +crops from the land. The water insures these crops. Let the canal +system go smash, and where are these notes? Nowhere. I don't propose +to lose fifty or sixty thousand dollars for a short-sighted gain of +ten." + +Gretzinger laughed, then tapped the other's shoulder with a +forefinger. + +"Do you imagine for a minute we'll keep the paper?" he inquired. +"Well, I should say not! We'll discount it ten, and if necessary +twenty, per cent. to make a quick clean-up and be out. A mortgage +company in the East will attend to that part of the business. These +mortgages run for ten years; you certainly don't think we'll sit +around that long waiting for our money and profits. The discount will +make the paper attractive to small investors, among whom it will be +peddled and who want long-time securities. And you'll profit from that +along with the rest of us; we couldn't leave you out if we wished." + +"No, you can't leave me out of your calculations," said Bryant, +grimly. + +"You see now, I hope, why it's to your interest as well as ours to +make the change I suggest," Gretzinger continued. "It will equal the +amount of the discount. In a year or so we'll all be out from under +with bonds and stock liquidated dollar for dollar. In other words, +with our profits in cash in the bank instead of in notes." + +"And somebody else holding the sack, eh?" Bryant's aquiline nose came +down a little as he asked the question. "No, Gretzinger, you haven't +persuaded me, and you never will by that argument. A pretty rotten +scheme, that of yours. I shall go right ahead and use concrete." + +"Then you don't intend to consider bondholders as having a voice in +matters?" + +"No." + +"Well, they're stockholders as well." + +"Minority stockholders, that's all," Lee stated, coolly. "You've said +this is a matter of cold business. Very well; I'm the majority +stockholder and have the control. I consider it cold business to build +the drops of concrete as planned. I consider it cold business and good +business to provide the farmers with a safe system. And I shall do +that." + +Again came Ruth's call, urging Gretzinger to hurry. He answered and +spoke a last word to Bryant, with a suddenly altered mien. + +"You're an obstinate devil, Lee," he exclaimed, cheerfully. "I'll have +to think up some new arguments to get you over, I find. Now I must run +along, or the ladies will be up in arms--and not my arms, either." + +Bryant helped him to button the curtains on the hood of the car, found +an instant when he could press Ruth's hand unobserved and murmur a +word in her ear, and stated that if the rain did not last he would run +down (he had picked up a second-hand Ford in Kennard) to Sarita Creek +after supper. + +"I don't see half enough of you," Ruth said, giving him a pat on the +cheek with the gloved finger that now wore a diamond solitaire. To Mr. +Gretzinger she continued, "If you get us home without a wetting, you +may stay and eat with us; but if you don't, why, you can go straight +on to town." + +Off the car sped down the trail toward Bartolo where it would gain the +well-travelled mesa road, a hand thrust through the curtains waving +back at Bryant. + +The engineer did not go to Sarita Creek that night, for the rain +settled into a steady drizzle that lasted until well toward morning. +After supper he went, however, to the adobe dwelling of the Mexican +who once had warned him from his field. The man's seven-year-old boy +had fallen from a horse the day previous and fractured a leg; half +fearfully, half recklessly, the parent had come running to camp for +medical aid; and Lee had despatched the camp doctor, a young fellow +recently graduated, to treat the injury. Bryant was admitted into the +house. The youngster, he learned, was resting comfortably and had been +visited by the doctor that afternoon. Lee was even conducted to the +bedside, where the boy's leg thick with splints and wrappings was +exhibited for his benefit. + +"The doctor, he said I was to speak to you about his pay," the Mexican +stated after a time, when he and Bryant had talked awhile in Spanish. + +Bryant waved the words aside. + +"There's no charge, nothing," said he. "I was delighted to send the +doctor. I hope your son improves rapidly. The physician will continue +to pay you calls until the boy no longer requires them. Those are very +pretty geraniums you have in the window, seņora. Are they fragrant?" +Lee crossed the room and bent his face above them. + +The man's wife rubbed her hands together under her apron with much +pleasure. Thus politely for him to notice and praise her flowers! In +her heart, as in the heart of her husband, there formerly had been +resentment at this white canal-builder for cutting their field with a +big ditch, an occurrence which the county judge somehow had stupidly +permitted. But now she did not know what to feel. Yesterday he had +sent them a doctor for nothing, and this evening was smelling her +flowers admiringly. He could not be exactly a monster. Removing one +hand from beneath her apron, she inserted a finger-nail in her black +hair and scratched her scalp, considering the subject. Winter was +coming, too. Food would be needed--and besides, she long had desired +one of those loud phonographs at Menocal's store, and also needed a +new stove. She perceived that her husband was staring at Bryant's back +with a thoughtful air. Undoubtedly he was thinking the same thing as +she. + +"You yet want men and teams for your work, seņor?" she inquired. + +"All I can get." + +"If a man falls sick while at work, would he have the services of the +doctor?" + +"Yes, without charge. There will be work on the dam most of the +winter, where the building is only a matter of stone and brush. I can +use all who want employment. Then in the spring there will be the +digging of the ditch on the mesa." + +"Five dollars for a man and his team, is it not so?" the Mexican +inquired. + +"Yes." + +"What if a man's wife or children fall sick?" the woman asked. + +Bryant hid a smile at this shrewd bargaining. Yet he was perceiving an +opportunity. There were no Mexicans at work on the project; one and +all they had held off. Likewise they refused to sell him grain and +hay, which necessitated the hauling of feed from a distance. But now +this accident to the boy might prove a heaven-sent chance to break +Menocal's monopoly of influence. + +"In case of sickness in the man's family, the doctor shall attend +free," he stated. + +The woman took thought afresh. + +"And if the man's horses are taken sick?" + +"Nay, he's not a horse doctor," said Lee, smiling. And even the woman +smiled. + +"But there's another matter. I fear it prevents," the man remarked. +"It is a note for fifty dollars that the bank holds against me. If I +work, Menocal will make trouble about that. I think we had best talk +no more of employment." + +"Suppose I advance the amount in case he does, letting you work out +the debt. I could keep, say, two dollars out of each day's five until +you owed nothing." + +"That would be agreeable to me, seņor. But what if he then refuses to +sell me goods from his store?" + +"You can buy at the commissary," Lee said. "Why should you lose five +dollars a day because of Menocal's bad feeling for me? You remain +idle--but does he pay you, or feed you? And the wages I offer you, and +the doctor's services, and the other accommodations, I also offer to +other Mexicans who will work. You may tell them so. Remember, there +will be teaming on the ditch until it freezes up, then work on the dam +throughout the winter, then scraper work on the mesa in the spring. +Five dollars a day coming in the door! You can buy meat and flour and +clothes and tobacco and candy for the children and a new wagon and +pictures of the Madonna, yes, all. But now I must go." + +"But Menocal would be very angry," said the man, with a shake of his +head. + +Bryant bade them good-night and departed. He went up the muddy road +through the wet darkness to the camp. Domination of the native mind by +Menocal appeared too strong for him to break. + +But to his surprise next morning the Mexican came driving his team +into the camp. Lee sent him to Pat Carrigan, who gave him a scraper +and set him to work on the ditch. Toward noon the engineer encountered +him moving dirt from the deepening excavation; the sight had an +amusing feature. The man, Pedro Saurez, laboured in his own field +building the canal at about the spot where he had warned Bryant away +when surveying. + +When Saurez beheld Lee, he grinned and removed the cigarette from his +lips. + +"It will be a fine ditch, this," was his remark. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +Work on the canal section near the river advanced without incident +until, one morning early in November, the plows unexpectedly uncovered +a forty-foot-wide body of granite just beneath the surface. This +particular difficulty was not serious, and was the contractor's; but +Pat Carrigan was no more pleased than any other contractor would have +been at finding rock, even a small amount, when he had figured his +excavation costs on a dirt basis. + +"That wipes out a piece of my profits," he remarked to Bryant, after a +first profane explosion. "I'll send out for some dynamite and shoot +it. If it wasn't for damned troubles like this, I'd been a retired man +and fat and rich long ago. Don't grin, you heartless blackguard! +You'll have miseries of your own before we're done." + +Pat Carrigan was a true prophet. A blow of fatal nature, indeed, was +preparing at the moment and fell within a week. From the state +engineer Lee received a letter advising him that an application for +use of the water appropriated to Perro Creek ranch had been made by a +man of the name of Rodriguez, of Rosita, under an old statute long +forgotten. This law was mandatory upon the Land and Water Board. It +required the latter to cancel rights and to reappropriate water +elsewhere to the amount in excess of what a canal actually carried, or +what a canal had failed to carry for five successive years if it were +not shown within ninety days after a filing for reappropriation that +the said canal had been enlarged to a capacity to carry the original +appropriation, and proof given of the owner's intention to employ said +appropriation. + +Menocal once more! He had been very quiet all this while; he +apparently had made no effort to dissuade the Mexicans who, following +Saurez's lead, had come in increasing number to work on the canal or +the dam; the man had almost passed from the engineer's mind. But he +had not been idle. He had had shrewd legal talent seeking a deadly +weapon for him among the musty statutes, with which he could deal the +irrigation project a _coup de grâce_. And as the import of the letter +penetrated Bryant's brain, his heart seemed to turn to ice. Ninety +days--finish dam and canal in ninety days! As well fix a limit of +ninety hours! + +Finally he rushed off to Pat Carrigan superintending scraper work and +dragged him aside. + +"For God's sake, read that, Pat!" he cried. "Read what the Land and +Water Board are going to do. They're going to cut the heart right out +of us! Kill the project! All for a law nobody ever heard of! Read it!" + +Pat knit his brows and slowly extracted the meaning from the state +engineer's formal, involved announcement. That something serious had +occurred he guessed before Bryant had opened his lips. He had never +seen the engineer so wrought up, so white, so agitated. + +"Let me get this right," the old contractor said, at length. "They're +going to cancel your water right." + +"Yes." + +"But not at once. You've ninety days to----" + +"Ninety days! We can't do a year's work in ninety days, and in winter +time at that!" Lee cried. + +"Of course not," was the answer. "But it gives you time to argue with +'em and fight this thing. My advice is to go see this Board at once. +Maybe if you explain the situation, they'll call off this fellow +Rodriguez." + +Bryant, however, remained depressed. Clearly the officials had no +liberty of action in the matter. + +"I don't know that it will do any good," he said, "but it's all that's +left to do. Pack your grip, Pat; I want you to go with me. Leave +Morgan in charge. Can you start in half an hour?" + +The ride to Kennard was made at high speed, and on the way the men did +little talking. Both wanted to weigh the disaster confronting the +project. In town they sought out McDonnell, who promised to have his +attorney go into the matter at once and who appeared very grave at the +news. Then they returned to the hotel to await their train. + +Here Lee was surprised to encounter Ruth in company of Gretzinger, +Charlie Menocal, and a Kennard girl with whom he was not acquainted. +Ruth and Imogene, he learned, had come down the day before with the +New Yorker and were staying at the McDonnell home. + +"We're just roaming around and amusing ourselves," Ruth said, slipping +her arm within Lee's. "Come on and join us." + +Lee smilingly shook his head. + +"Can't possibly do it," said he. "I'm leaving for the capital soon." + +Ruth drew him aside. + +"But give me ten minutes of your time before you go, will you, dear?" +she asked. "Come, we can go into one of the parlours where we'll be +alone." And when they were seated there, she continued, "I know why +you're going to Santa Fé. Charlie said he understood you were involved +in some new legal trouble and that you might lose your whole project. +Mr. Gretzinger laughed at him and so did I, for we knew it couldn't be +true. But it's bothering you, I see; your face is anxious. I hope +you'll clear up the horrid matter, whatever it is, while you're gone." +Then after a pause, she remarked, "Perhaps Mr. Gretzinger could be of +assistance to you." + +"Not in this matter," said Lee. + +"He has a great deal of influence, especially in the East." + +"But this is the West--and I don't care much for Gretzinger, besides," +he stated. + +"So he says. More than once he has wished you would be more friendly. +Isn't it a little inconsiderate of you, Lee, to hold him off at arm's +length, especially when he's here as representative of the +bondholders? He has a vital interest in the canal and its success. +Really, I think he might be of great help if you'd permit. And it +would be of great advantage to us in the future, his friendship and +that of the men behind him, for they are wealthy and influential. +That's one reason why you ought to cultivate him, Lee." + +"Go on," said he, as she paused. + +"Well, I thought we should discuss the matter. I'm of the opinion that +you misunderstand him. You'll not deny that he's a man of ability." + +"No--though I know little of him." + +"He is, though, Lee. And an engineer of high standing, too, and of +experience. Wouldn't it be wise to consult him a little more than you +do? He has talked to me at times about the project and has, I believe, +ideas you could use. For instance, he says that if you made certain +changes in the canal there would be a considerable saving of money, by +which the stockholders would benefit, you among them. He says that if +in certain places wood were used instead of concrete it would mean +thousands of dollars in your pocket." + +"It would, but it would also endanger the canal." + +"Mr. Gretzinger said you asserted that as your reason," she proceeded, +"but he claims there's no more prospect of danger from that source +than from a fly. And anyway, isn't it a matter that concerns only the +buyers afterward? He says so. I don't know much about such matters, of +course, but you really must look after your own best interest +first--and mine. I say mine because mine will be yours after we're +married. Mr. Gretzinger says your share of the saving would be at +least five thousand dollars and possibly more. Lee, do this for me." + +"What he proposes is dishonest, Ruth." + +"But why? He says the state board would grant the change if proper +representations were made. If the officials allowed it, I can't see +where it would be dishonest." + +"The officials would have to be deceived to gain their consent to such +a change," Lee said, patiently. "But the real point at issue is the +permanency of the water system, Ruth. The poor devils who buy the land +and who toil for years to pay for it are to be considered. If the +canal is too cheaply constructed, they'll probably lose their crops; +and losing their crops means ruin. As far as possible an engineer must +insure against this danger when he builds the canal; then if any +accident happens later, his conscience, at any rate, is clear." + +"But he says you over-estimate the risk, that wood is perfectly safe. +And he's an expert engineer, too. More experienced than you, Lee." + +"You seem to have discussed this thing with him at great length," +Bryant remarked, dryly. + +"I have, indeed I have, because I have your success so greatly at +heart, dear. I want to see you receive every penny that you earn and +all the credit you deserve; I want you to go ahead in your profession +and become both wealthy and famous; but sometimes I think that you're +so absorbed in the engineering part of the work that you're careless +of the future. One has to be practical, too. One has to look out for +one's own interests. And I don't see why your responsibility for the +project doesn't end when you've built the canal, sold the land, and +turned the system over to the farmers. You can't go on looking out for +them after that; you're not answerable to the 'hay-seeds' who settle +here for what may or may not happen. And we shall need the money that +would be saved by using wood instead of concrete, Lee. When you're +through here, we shall want to live in New York at least part of the +time. With Mr. Gretzinger's friendship you could perhaps form a +connection so that you could be there all the while, and make a big +fortune. You will do this for me, won't you, Lee? It means just that +much more happiness for us." + +She slipped her arms about his neck and kissed him impulsively, +eagerly. Lee felt himself tremble at that clasp, at that kiss. Words +seemed futile. His anxiety over the fate of his project gave way to a +profound sickness of soul. That Ruth should thus reveal such a +cloudiness of spiritual vision, such an inability to distinguish +between moral values, such a ready acceptance of Gretzinger's vicious +philosophy, was the final drop in his bitter cup this day. + +"It's not a question of either wood or concrete just at present," he +said, rising. "It's whether I'm to have a project at all. I'll not go +with you, Ruth, to your friends; I must think over what I'm to do and +say at Santa Fé to-morrow." + +As he rode thither with Carrigan that night it seemed as if he now was +at grapple with forces, invisible, powerful, malevolent, that strove +to dispossess him of everything that was dear. His project! What +means, what help, what law was there of which he could make use to +ward off this deadly assault on it? And Ruth! How should he save +her--save her from herself, clear the mist from her eyes, arouse her +drowsing soul? All that he had aimed at and all that he had striven +for hung on finding answers to those questions. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +By noon Bryant and Carrigan had concluded their interviews with +members of the Land and Water Board. All of them had listened, asked +questions, expressed their regret at the situation in which Perro +Creek project found itself, but stated that the Board had no course +other than that of executing the law evoked in the case. They +suggested that Bryant bring an action in the courts to test the law; +they admitted that his company might be forced into the hands of a +receiver; they inquired concerning the possibility of gaining the +consent of the adverse party to a withdrawal of his application. Their +hands, however, said one and all, were tied in the matter. + +The engineer and the contractor went down the steps of the state house +and found a seat on a bench at a shady spot of the grounds. + +"Just as I expected it would be," Bryant said, grimly. + +He sat humped over, his elbows on his knees and his cheeks between his +fists. His eyes were dull, heavy; he had not closed them during the +previous night. He wore the mud-caked lace boots and stained khaki, as +did Carrigan, in which he had departed from camp. + +"Well, we haven't quit breathing yet," Pat remarked, licking the +wrapper on the cigar he was about to light. + +Lee sat silent for several minutes. + +"Anyway, I'll see you don't lose, Pat," he said. "You can figure out +what profit you would have made on your contract if the ditch had been +built and I'll pay you that. Then you can call off your crew." + +"Oh, I'll let you down easy, Lee. That wasn't worrying me any," was +the rejoinder. "I was just thinking----" But his words broke off +there, and he again gave his attention to the cigar wrapper that +persisted in coming loose. + +Bryant continued his gloomy cogitation. The muscles of his cheeks +moved in hard lumps beneath his fists as if he were champing some +resistant substance. Over his eyes his lids from time to time drooped +sleepily. But all at once he leaped up. + +"If I but had something I could take hold of, Pat!" he exclaimed. +"Something I could lay hands on and move, like that bed of rock you +uncovered! So I could go ahead! A law is so damned immaterial that one +has nothing to work against. It leaves a man nowhere, helpless. It +lifts him off the ground and holds him kicking futilely in the air. +Just that. By God, I'm desperate enough to try anything--to try +building the ditch--try whipping Menocal even under this moth-eaten +law he's dug up!" + +Pat shut one eye against the smoke curling into it. + +"I was speculating a little along the same line," said he, slowly. + +"But twelve miles of ditch in ninety days! The whole mesa line! We'd +be crazy to think of it. Let's talk of something else." + +Lee's mouth, nevertheless, was twitching, while gleams like light came +and went on his face. + +"I always had a weakness for the bad bets," said Pat. + +"But twelve miles of ditch!" + +"And the nights freezing harder every week," the old contractor added. + +"And the days short." + +"Yes, and nerve shorter yet," said Pat. + +The remark was airily given, but the inference was plain. Lee took a +step aside and stood staring across the capitol grounds, with brows +knit, with lips compressed, the prey of struggling hopes and doubts. + +"Pat," he said, turning. + +"Well?" + +"Do you think we could do it?" + +"God knows; I don't. But we could give the job an awful whirl," the +contractor stated. + +"The thing looks impossible, preposterous, but if you see the +slightest chance of success I want you to say so. Dirt moving is your +game, not mine. Ninety days; that's thirteen weeks. Almost a mile a +week. Can it be done? Can you do it?" + +Pat at last threw away the cigar that refused to draw. + +"With men and teams enough I could build a ditch to tide-water in that +time," said he, with sudden energy. "Men and scrapers, scrapers and +men--that's all. You can rip the insides out of any dirt job on earth +if you have the crews. Of course, it takes money, big wages, to get +and hold them." + +"Money! What do I care for that if we build the canal? How much more +will it take? How much will you need?" + +"Say twenty thousand more." + +"Get out your pencil and begin figuring it." + +"I don't need a pencil," Carrigan answered. "I haven't been moving +dirt for fifty years without figures sticking to my hair. I've +digested your blue-prints and know what's to come out of the ground. +Now I'll tell you what it would be if there was no frost in the +ground, as in summer--and we'll afterward allow for the frost; and +what's necessary in men, horses, fresnos, shacks, horsefeed, food, +clothes, and general supplies." + +And thereupon Carrigan began to pour forth a stream of data so exact, +so comprehensive, so full, that Bryant listened in astonishment. All +carried in his head, ready for use! + +"I hope I know my business at your age as you know yours," Lee +exclaimed. + +"You will, or ought to. I've paid for what I know in mistakes and +miscalculated jobs, as does every man some time or other--paid in hard +cash. What he learns is all he gets out of losses. Now, the figures I +gave were for summer work; winter dirt moving is another kind of +animal. Work is slower, men are harder to keep, weather is generally +bad." + +"This autumn has been later than usual, and it may last," said Lee. + +"And it may not," Carrigan stated, emphatically. "It's that that +worries me about this thing. As it is, the ground freezes on top every +night. Let the thermometer make a low drop, and we won't be able to +stick a plow-point into it anywhere." + +"There's no moisture to speak of in the soil of the mesa." + +"Enough to freeze the dirt, just the same," said Pat. + +"We can leave the dam out of consideration." + +"Yes; no trouble about finishing that. And your concrete work, Lee, +won't lose you any sleep. A carload of cement from here, gravel from +the river, and a dozen Kennard carpenters to knock together gate and +drop frames--no trick to crack that nut. Frost, lad, frost! It's the +thing to set us groaning." + +Bryant sat down and put his hand on the speaker's knee. + +"Pat, if we go into this thing and put it through, there will be a +good fat bonus for you." + +"Maybe there will be and maybe there won't. Maybe you'll have some +money left when we're done and maybe you'll not have a red cent. In +any case, the old man is with you, Lee, to the end of the scrap--if +you go ahead. What about your bondholders? Will they stand for risking +what's not yet spent? They will save considerable by your stopping +now; they'll lose all if we fail." + +"What do you----" + +Pat's raised hand halted him. + +"Ask me nothing," said he. "That's for you alone to settle. If you +spend their money and win, they'll say 'Thank you'--maybe; and if you +go under, they'll damn you up one side and down the other and probably +try to send you to the pen. You're the chief; you have to decide; you +can't share the responsibility--anyway, not with me. And if you're +inquiring, I'll remark that its considerable responsibility. Go off +yonder by yourself and think it over a bit." + +Bryant left the old contractor lighting a fresh cigar. He walked to +another bench a short distance away, where he sat down. In his first +exultation at perceiving a fighting chance to save the project he had +seen only the opportunity, but Carrigan's unexpected turn of the +subject had brought him back to earth. He was guardian, as well as +dispenser, of company funds. He had obligations to the bondholders. +Therefore, would he be justified in risking the money on such a +desperate venture? His soul sank. + +But his mind would not cease to revolve about the undertaking, for he +could not at once relinquish his long-cherished dream. The thought of +tame surrender was as wormwood in his mouth. To stand by acquiescent +while the project collapsed! That prospect he could not endure. Never +again, if he capitulated now, would he be able to strike out with the +same courage as in this project; never with the same courage, or +spirit, or faith. The project was his creation! The thing of his brain +and will! Part of himself! And how confidently he had made his plans +and acquired the property and started work! No doubts of his ability +to carry it through! No question of his right to go ahead! No fear of +the task! + +The engineer came suddenly to his feet. + +Builders throughout the world took equal risks and overcame as great +obstacles every day; it was the measure of their genius and will. +Engineers elsewhere crushed a way through earth and rock to their +goals, and under adverse circumstances, with no thought of failure. +Were there not men who would unhesitatingly take hold of this project +now and complete it in the time allotted? Yes, any number. For the +very same reason that he had launched the scheme. Because they had the +ability, because they had the will, because, most of all, they had +faith--faith in their own powers. + +Lee went back to Pat Carrigan. + +"We shall build it," said he. "And in ninety days." + +The contractor rose. + +"You talk like a real 'chief' now, Bryant," he replied. "I was waiting +for that. Come along; we'll start burning the wires." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +Louise Graham, entering the dining car for breakfast, received a +surprise at beholding Lee Bryant half way along the aisle at one of +the smaller tables. He laid down the spoon with which he was delving +into a half of a cantaloupe and got quickly to his feet to greet her. + +"So you're home again," he said, after shaking hands. "Your father +told me when I met him that you were in the East. Will you share my +table?" + +"I use 'shopping' as a pretext for a jaunt now and then," she laughed, +when they were seated. "Once in a while the lure of city dissipations +seizes me; I had a week in Washington and three in New York with +friends, which will satisfy me for a few months. You were just +starting work on your project when I went away. Are you making good +progress?" + +"Very. But I'll make still better from now on. It's a case with me of +do or be 'done', of dig out or be buried. I may as well be open about +it, for everyone will know presently, anyway. The project must be +completed in ninety days." + +"Ninety days? Great heavens!" + +"That's what I said, too," Lee stated, with a smile. "Several times, +in fact. There is an old law, it seems, that enables interested +parties to hold a stop-watch on me." + +"And what's the penalty if you fail to finish the work in those three +months?" + +"Cancellation of my water right." + +"Cancellation? Surely not." + +"I tried to convince the Land and Water Board of that in Santa Fé, but +made no headway." + +"How outrageous!" she exclaimed. + +The waiter at her elbow recalled her to the requirements of the +moment. Still with a trace of colour in her cheeks, the result of her +indignation, she scanned the menu and wrote out her order. + +"The thing is so utterably unreasonable," she resumed, more calmly. +"Why did they let you start if they proposed afterward to hang a sword +above your head?" + +"The Board was ignorant of this law, as was everybody else, until it +was brought to light by the applicant for cancellation," said Lee, "a +certain Rodriguez, of Rosita." + +"Who is he?" + +Bryant shook his head. + +"Don't ask me. No friend, at any rate." + +She regarded him steadily for a moment. + +"Probably a man put forward by Mr. Menocal." + +"I suppose so," said he. + +"But the idea of expecting you to build all those miles of ditch in +ninety days and in the winter time! I wonder that you can be so calm." + +"Why shouldn't I be calm? My mind's made up. I'm going to complete the +project on time." + +The words were uttered in a matter-of-fact tone that impressed Louise +Graham far more than would any vehement assertion. As he had stated, +his mind was made up, quite made up on the point. Others might think +what they pleased: it carried no weight with him. The thing was +certain. + +She examined the engineer with a new interest. There was a difference +in him, what would be hard to say. One couldn't exactly put finger on +it. Something in his gray eyes, perhaps; something in the sharper +stamp of his aquiline nose, of his lips, of his bronzed jaw; something +in his whole bearing. It went deeper than features, too; she sensed a +change in the spirit of the man from what it had been that day of his +going down to Kennard, when he strolled with her in her garden. He was +less bouyant, less manifest, less elated, but more poised and sure. A +change, yes. + +Then her thoughts reverted to his tremendous undertaking. + +"How long have you known this?" she inquired. + +"Since the day before yesterday. Pat Carrigan, my contractor, and I +came to the capital at once to discuss the affair with the Board. The +news was--well, a good deal of a facer." + +She nodded. + +"It would be," were her words. "You'll need more workmen and horses, +of course." + +"All I can get. Pat went to Denver last night, and the labour agencies +there and at Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Santa Fé, El Paso, and places +farther east doubtless by now are rounding up men. We picked up an +idle grading outfit yesterday in Santa Fé; it will be loaded and +started by to-night." + +Her face became a little rueful. + +"That all sounds so big that I hesitate to make the offer I had in +mind when I asked," she said. + +"What was it, Miss Graham?" + +"Father has twelve or fifteen teams and some scrapers used on the +ranch. The horses aren't working at this season. He would be glad to +let you have them, I know, if he thought they would be of any aid. But +with what you'll have, perhaps you----" + +"I want them; I'll be more than grateful for them. I need every man +and horse available. I can't get too many. Each labourer and each +horse counts just that much more. It's a great kindness on your part +to suggest their use to me, and I'll stop on the way to camp to see +your father." + +"He'll consent to your employing them," said she, confidently. "Dad +likes a man who puts up a good fight, and you're doing that. A fight +against great odds." + +Bryant's face lightened with a smile almost sunny. + +"By heavens, it's comforting to have a friend like you," he exclaimed, +"when one's in a tight place!" + +The waiter began to place her meal, and he turned his head to look out +of the window while his mind recalled his talk with Ruth in the hotel +parlour at Kennard. Little comfort he had had from her then. Her +interest in the project, in fact, as he reviewed the summer, had been +slight, always casual, concerned only with its financial factor, never +particularly sympathetic, never warm, never eager. The thought struck +him unpleasantly. It had never occurred to him before. He wondered if +this indifference would continue when they were married, if in ten +years--when he was about forty, say--she would be even less inclined +to know his work, like the wives of some men he could name who had +their own separate interests, who gave their husbands no sympathy at +their tasks, nor courage, nor heart, and whose single cognizance of it +had to do with the size of the income. + +But he drove this depressing and disloyal speculation from his mind. +Ruth was young and perhaps restless, but she was sweet and full of +promise. Time would round out her character; and when she had matured, +she would be one in a million--a mate who cheered and inspired. Every +bit of that! She would presently see the real values of things; +Charlie Menocal's monkey tricks would no longer amuse her, and she +would perceive what a shallow harlequin he was, while she would +comprehend Gretzinger's vicious, unprincipled sophistry and turn in +disgust from the man. She was inexperienced, that was all. + +"It will be good to be back once more where one has plenty of room," +Louise Graham remarked. "In that liking, you see, I'm a genuine +Westerner. That's what I missed most when at school in the East, at +Bryn Mawr--space. I wanted my big mountains and wide mesa and long, +restful views. And how I galloped on my pony through the sagebrush +when I came back during summer vacations!" + +The recollection set her eyes glistening. + +"You still do it when you return from a trip, I'll venture to say," +Lee stated, marking the glow of her face. + +"Yes, I do. Almost the very first thing. It clears my brain of city +noise and sights and grime. It soothes my nerves. Nothing does that +like our keen air with its scent of sagebrush." + +"Then I should see you riding up my way soon." + +"Oh, I'll certainly want to follow the progress of your work, Mr. +Bryant. With father's teams working for you, I'll feel as if we had a +part in the race." After a pause she proceeded, "The contractor's +outfit went up and you were just starting the dam and excavation about +the time I went East. Father mentioned in a letter to me that he had +dropped in at your camp once or twice when at Bartolo." + +"Yes, I showed him what we were doing. We've had other visitors +occasionally. Miss Gardner and Miss Martin--at Sarita Creek, you +remember--come at times. Miss Martin is a niece of Mr. McDonnell, of +Kennard." + +"So Mrs. McDonnell told me. Just before I left I called at their +cabins again. But I had no more luck that time than the first; they +were away somewhere. Well," she concluded, with a smile, "perhaps the +third time will win; that's the rule. I'll go another time soon." + +"You'll like them, I'm sure. They're both charming, I think. Unusual +girls." + +"I'll go soon," she repeated. + +"My desire possibly will be understood by you," said he, after a +slight hesitation, "when I say that Miss Gardner and I are engaged to +be married. So it would please me immensely if you two became good +friends." + +Louise Graham showed some surprise. But this immediately changed to +smiling interest. + +"Accept my congratulations, Mr. Bryant," she said. "You may count on +our being friends. Hereafter she and Miss Martin must come to our +ranch whenever they will. I suppose they ride up where you are nearly +every day; Miss Gardner, in particular, must be tremendously devoted +to your project and now tremendously excited, too, over your race +against time. Who wouldn't be, in her place!" + +"Naturally," said Lee, with all the heartiness he could muster in his +voice. But to himself, at least, his tone rang hollow. + +When an hour or so after they had finished their meal they alighted +from their Pullmans at Kennard, the echo of his forced reply still +sounded in his mind with persistent irony. He was glad he had an +interview with McDonnell before him that would silence it, the +negotiating of a large private loan. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +For Bryant there now began a period of activity compared to which his +earlier efforts were mere play. Headquarters were moved down to Perro +Creek, ten miles nearer Kennard. In an endless procession streamed +northward automobiles crammed with labourers, wagons heaped with +lumber, cement, implements, food, tents, forage, and long lines of +fresnos. From distant Mexican settlements came natives in ramshackle +wagons and driving half-wild ponies. Out of the hills came +sheep-herders and prospectors. The word of big wages ran everywhere. +The drive was on. + +By the dam and on the tongue of ground extending from the mountain +side where the canal would swing out upon the mesa, excavation for the +intake gate and weir and the drops was in progress, with a crew of +carpenters swiftly erecting wooden forms to receive the concrete when +the diggers finished and retired. On the mesa half a dozen young +engineers, using Bryant's notes and fixed points, ran anew the ditch +line and set grade stakes. North of Perro Creek white tents gleamed in +the sunshine; and beyond these a swarm of men and horses gashed a +yellow streak in the mesa, ever extending as the days passed--cutting +sagebrush, ripping through sod, flinging up earth with plow and +scraper. + +Yes, the fight was on. The fight to secure and keep horses, to get +and hold workmen, to feed and use them both mercilessly, to press them +ahead like a shaft of steel, to drive them forward under lash, mile by +mile, rod by rod, foot by foot, forcing a channel through the +resistant earth and across the mesa--a fight to outwit frost, to +outstrip time, to outreach and overcome the impossible. + +Bryant himself was everywhere, now at the dam, now with the +carpenters, now at Perro Creek. Morgan, in charge of the north camp, +succumbed to Bryant's own restless energy and matched it. The gang, +now beginning to pour concrete behind the carpenters, caught the +infection of his ardor. Foreman and crew on the hillside section, at +his word that they had the most difficult part of the dirt work, +toiled the harder. The other engineers promised to give him their best +and gave him more. And in the main camp at Perro Creek Pat Carrigan +extracted the last ounce of effort from man and beast. + +In Kennard Bryant had said to McDonnell, "Give me a good man for this +end, one who can work twenty hours a day." And the banker had given +him such an one: a short, bow-legged clerk with a pugnacious jaw, who +took the typewritten list of Bryant's immediate requirements, read it, +jerked on his hat, and bolted out of the door. He it was who kept the +road north from Kennard a-jiggle with freight wagons. + +The fierce struggle against time became generally known. Ranchers +visited the mesa for a sight of the toiling camps. Wagonloads of +Mexican families, curious, observant, came and went. Automobile +parties from Kennard and elsewhere made inspection trips to the spot. +Even a journalist representing a Denver paper appeared, made +photographs, and obtained an interview from Bryant consisting of +"Finish it on time? Certainly. Can't talk any longer." Which, together +with the pictures and the special writer's account, filled a page of a +Sunday issue. + +The anxiety ever in Bryant's and Carrigan's minds was of that grim and +implacable enemy, cold. Autumn had lasted amazingly; November yielded +to December, with the days still fine; but who could tell when the +white spectre, Winter, would lay his icy hand upon the earth? The +peaks and upper slopes of the mountains were already mantled with +snow. Each morning the engineer and the contractor marked with care +the fall of the thermometer during the night, examined the frost upon +the grass and tested its depth in the soil. They watched the barometer +like hawks. They observed every cloud along the Ventisquero Range. +They studied the wind, the sun, the sky. But the weather held fair. So +calm was the air that at times sounds of the dynamite blasts at the +granite outshoot, where a pair of miners were clearing a path for the +canal, came travelling down to Perro Creek. + +"The Lord surely has his arms around us," said Pat, one morning. + +Bryant nodded, but Dave spoke up, "A cattleman who went by here +yesterday, an old-timer, said: 'When December's clear, then January's +drear.'" + +"And an old-timer once told me that same thing when I was building a +railroad grade in Kansas," Pat remarked, "and I had to ship in +palm-leaf fans and ice to keep my 'paddies' from fainting with the +January heat." A slight exaggeration, to be sure, but showing the old +contractor's contempt for wise saws pertaining to weather. Yet no one +understood more than he the law of probabilities, or the balance of +seasons. Some time cold must follow warmth, foul follow fair, to work +the inevitable mean. And it was too much to hope that this natural law +would be suspended for them until the middle of February. + +In fact, the nights while remaining clear were hardening. The mercury +in the tube sank by possibly a degree every two nights, at last +touching zero; and it correspondingly failed to arise by as much at +noon. The days were cruelly short. Darkness lasted until eight in the +morning; it dropped down again at five. The frost crept deeper into +the earth. + +But construction advanced. The dam of brush and uncemented smooth +brown stones, stretching across the Pinas, was gradually rising. The +hillside section of ditch through the fields was finished and only the +miners continued at the granite reef, the ring of their hammers on +drills going steadily and the roar of the shots now and again booming +out at nightfall. Excavation went forward in the spaces between the +drops on the ridge leading forth upon the mesa. The carpenters had +finished and returned to Kennard. The concrete gang had moved their +mixer from the dam to the drops, for the intake gate and its +accompanying flood weir were made, and Bryant had had their wooden +frames knocked off so that the structures stood white and imposing +beside the dam, like pillars of accomplishment. From Perro Creek the +main camp had moved toward the northwest on the arc it must pursue, +until its tents touched the horizon and the clean yellow trench, +fifteen feet wide at the bottom, thirty feet wide at the top, and five +feet deep, with its flanking embankments, alone was left behind, a +forced and undeviating course through the sagebrush, the water way +driven by a determined man. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +Meanwhile Lee, under relentless pressure of work, saw less and less of +Ruth. She had come a number of times at the beginning of the drive, +sometimes with Gretzinger, sometimes with Imogene, to watch the +feverish spectacle on the mesa; as had Louise Graham, her father, and +at rare intervals Mr. McDonnell. Bryant, on his part, had gone +evenings to Sarita Creek when he could spare an hour, and, for that +matter, when he could not. But the meetings with her were infrequent, +and always left him with a sense of inadequacy, of dissatisfaction, +because partly Ruth and he seemed to have no common interests and +partly that she now let her affection go for granted. Her talk was not +of the subjects usually discussed by an engaged couple--of their +coming marriage (though no date had been fixed) and a home and +prospective joys together; it dealt wholly with amusements, dances, +friends at Kennard. And though her own eyes glistened at the recital, +Lee's lost their light and his speech was quenched. For his was the +rôle of an outsider. + +Certain friendships that she maintained, moreover, were exceedingly +distasteful to him. + +"Ruth, I've nothing against your going around so much with +Gretzinger," he said one evening, "except that I don't like the fellow +and believe he's crooked, and it may, under the circumstances, create +gossip." + +"Nonsense, Lee, don't be jealous. Gretzie never takes me anywhere +except in a crowd. And don't say he's crooked, or I shall be angry." + +"Well, let him pass," he went on. "It's Charlie Menocal I've more in +mind. He talks openly against my project; he calls me a thief and a +ruffian; he's an avowed enemy. Yet you run around with him as if that +were of no importance, as if it made no difference. The scoundrel no +doubt counts it a brilliant bit of smartness to carry about in his car +the fiancée of the man he hates, and brags of it. It reflects on us +both, Ruth. I ask you to consider my feelings at least that far." + +She regarded him speculatively for a time. Then the touch of obstinacy +hardened her chin and pushed up her under lip the barest trifle. But +there was no resentment in her voice when she answered and, indeed, +her tone was too casual. + +"Oh, nobody pays any particular attention to what Charlie says," she +remarked. "You surely don't really believe what you've just stated +about his bragging? I don't. Of course, he hasn't brains like Mr. +Gretzinger, but he's gentlemanly. And he's very kind. And so is Mr. +Menocal, his father. I've eaten dinner with a party of young folks at +their house twice. Your ideas of them are altogether wrong, for +they've been at pains to tell me that a business difference like that +with you shouldn't affect personal relations. I think the same. But +that isn't all. You never take me anywhere, you won't go to the +parties and shows and things. Am I to sit here every day and every +night at Sarita Creek until your canal is built?" By now her words +were not only casual but carried a trace of disdainfulness. + +"No, Ruth," said he. "I want you to have a good time and derive every +pleasure that you rightly can. My greatest regret is that I can't take +you and share the fun. But it goes without saying that I can't. Only, +Charlie Menocal----" + +"Lee, what's got into you to-night? If it were not for Mr. +Gretzinger's and Charlie's thoughtfulness, I'd have died of +lonesomeness long before this. You know how I hate this life, this +homestead business. You know I'm only waiting until you've finished +and we can be married and go away where there is something worth +while. Now be reasonable. You work too hard, so that every little +speck looks like a mountain. And it's making you narrow, too, or will +if you don't watch out. I have to kill time somehow till we can be +married and so you ought not to find fault with my doing it. Run along +over and talk to Imo in her cabin now, Lee; that's a good boy. I +didn't get back home from town last night until after midnight, and +I'm sleepy." + +He did not go to Imo's cabin, but to camp instead. For the bitterness +of his disappointment at his failure to move her made him desire the +darkness and solitude of the ride home. With her, it seemed, he was in +a worse predicament than he had been when faced with the problem of +his ditch; for that he had found an answer, found something to take +hold of. But she was not like the mesa, to be mastered by sheer will +and incessant labour. Character is intangible, and he found himself +balked. One cannot lay hands on the desires in a heart and pluck them +out, or on the spirit and twist it straight. + +His bitterness became acute when some time later Charlie Menocal came +driving with Ruth along the rutted trail by the canal to where he +stood inspecting a new drop. + +"You wait, Charlie; I'll not be long," she said, as she alighted. +"Come with me out of earshot, will you, Lee?" + +They moved to a spot that satisfied her. + +"I heard you were doing this and I asked Charlie to bring me here," +she began. "I wanted to see for myself. And it's true. You're going +ahead and make these things out of concrete. I'm indignant, I'm hurt. +After you led me to rely----" + +Bryant stopped her sharply. + +"No, Ruth, not that. I'm sorry that you gained the impression I should +use wood instead of concrete; and it never was in my mind to do so, to +use wood. My decision was fully made when you raised the matter in the +hotel parlour at Kennard, and I explained my reasons for the decision. +I didn't tell you bluntly, perhaps. I waited, trusting that you would +come round to my way of thinking and realize that I could only follow +my own best judgment." + +"I haven't changed my mind not one particle," she exclaimed, +vehemently. + +"But, Ruth----" + +"I think you're throwing away good money, deliberately. That is, if +you really ever make any money on your project. You may lose +everything." + +"I may not, also. But if I should, the father of the fellow sitting in +the car yonder waiting for you would be responsible. As for these +drops, Ruth, Gretzinger was wrong and I was right, and so they're +being built of concrete. Now please forget all about it." + +"And that you refused my request, I suppose." + +"Yes." + +"Well, I can't do that; it's too much to ask." An angry gleam shot +from her eyes. "You might have thought more of me and less of +yourself. You put your old canal first and me second." With which she +swung about and marched off to the car, and it went away, rocking and +lurching down the uneven trail. + +Lee stood looking after it. Her last words brought up the memory of +the occasion when she had playfully uttered the like, one night in +August, with the added inquiry, "What if you had to choose between +us?" Were things drifting to such an issue? Would she at last force +upon him that hard choice? He flung up a hand in a gesture of despair. +Some metamorphosis had occurred in her; she was not the simple and +loving Ruth to whom he had offered himself that day they picked +berries in the caņon. Or was it that only now her real self was +revealed? Was it that she was capable of loving only selfishly? Did +she love him at all? + +The questions bit like acid into his heart. And a new one, that +startled and dismayed his soul: Did he love her? Yes--the Ruth she yet +was. But he could never love the woman she seemed on the way to +become, breathing an exciting and unhealthy atmosphere, seeking purely +personal gain, indifferent to worthy objects, selfish, hard, +mercenary, worldly. No, that kind of Ruth would kill love. + +He still stood there when Morgan, who had been on an errand to +headquarters, came galloping back on his way to the dam. + +"Accident down below," he said. "Man hurt in the mixer. Arm crushed." + +Bryant jerked his head about to look at the drop two hundred yards +farther down the ridge. He saw the workmen grouped together. The huge +cylindrical machine was motionless. + +"I'll see," he exclaimed, hurrying to his runabout. + +He drove recklessly to where the injured man lay, helped lift him into +the car, and bidding the foreman stand on the running board and +support the unconscious labourer, set off for headquarters at such +speed as was possible. Into the low shack used for hospital purposes +the two carried their charge, and as the doctor was absent Bryant +began a search to find him. He ran down the camp street shouting the +doctor's name and along the ditch where the teams moved, until he +encountered Carrigan. + +"Doc ain't here. Who's hurt?" Pat asked. For a call for the doctor +could mean but one thing. + +Bryant described the nature of the accident and both men hastened back +to the hospital. The door was now closed. Before it, stood the foreman +of the concrete gang, who was narrating for the benefit of a group of +cooks and freighters details of the mishap. + +Bryant turned the knob, but the door was locked. + +"He stationed me here to keep men out," the foreman said. + +"Then he's in there." + +"Yes, came a-running. Was loafing out there in the brush and having a +smoke. Said he was going to operate at once, then locked the door." + +"Not alone!" Lee exclaimed. + +"No, he has help. One of the engineers from the office, who had come +trotting over to see what was wrong, and a girl." + +"A girl! What girl?" + +The foreman shook his head. + +"Don't know who she is. She came riding in from the south. When she +saw us hustling round, she asked what had happened and jumped off her +horse and inquired of the Doc whether she could be of any help. He +looked at her, then said yes. She's in there now. One of the men is +caring for her horse." + +"A bay horse?" + +"Yes. And a pretty girl, too. I'd almost lose an arm to have a +good-looker like her hovering over me." + +"All right, Jenks. You can go back now. Get another man for your crew +from Morgan. I'll obtain this fellow's name and his address, if he has +any, from the time-keeper, in case he passes in his checks." + +The foreman started away. The group before the door disintegrated and +presently disappeared. Pat glanced at the sun, lighted a cigar, and +asked: + +"Do we start a night shift?" + +"Yes; whenever you can bring in the men." + +"Then I'll wire for some right away. The thermometer was five below +this morning, and only twenty-two above this noon. She's cold at +last." + +"Go to it, Pat. I'll stay here till Doc is through." + +When Carrigan had left him, Bryant sat down on a discarded oil tin +lying on the ground--one of the square ten-gallon cans common about +camps. He gazed at the door of the hospital shack. He could hear faint +sounds from within, a footfall on the board floor, an indistinct word +or murmur. Behind him and farther down the street, in the big cook +tents where the crews ate, was the rattle of pans and an occasional +oath or burst of laughter. There the cooks were peeling potatoes and +mixing great pans of biscuit dough and exchanging jests, while here in +the shack a fight was going on for a life. + +Bryant saw again that unshaven, heavy-faced workman, with the terribly +mangled arm, whom he had brought hither. Poor devil! Some oversight, +some carelessness, some mistake on the part of himself or another; and +if not a dead man, then one-armed for the rest of his days. He, +Bryant, could not consider these accidents with Pat Carrigan's +philosophic calm--a calm acquired from decades of camp tragedies and +disasters. They harrowed his spirit. Though they appeared inevitable +where men delved or builded or flung forth great spans, they made the +cost of constructive works seem too great. They took the glamor from +projects and left them hard, grim, uninspiring tasks. + +Lee felt a weariness like that of age. The strain under which he +laboured, the sustained effort of driving this furrow through earth +that was like iron, his unavailing endeavours to reclaim Ruth, +afflictions such as this of the past hour, the uncertainty of +everything--all sapped his energy and shook his faith. Yet before him +there were weeks of the same, or worse. He had put his hand to the +plow; he could not turn back. + +All at once the door of the shack opened. Louise Graham came out, +without hat, garbed in a great white surgical apron. Her knees seemed +about to give way. Her eyes were half shut. Her face was without +colour, drawn, dazed. With her from the interior came a reek of +chloroform. + +She had been the girl in there! Bryant had guessed it, feared it. He +ran forward and put an arm about her shoulders and led her to the tin +oil canister on which he urged her to be seated. + +"No, I won't faint," she said, weakly. He knelt beside her and +supported her form. "I just feel dizzy and a little sick," she went +on. "Better in a moment." Lee observed her shudder. Presently she +murmured, "Stuck it out, anyway. Dad says--dad says, 'Never be a +quitter.' And I wasn't one." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +Rymer, a sandy-haired, blue-eyed young fellow, one of Bryant's staff, +walked out of the shack, pulling on his coat. He had a cigarette in +the corner of his mouth, at which he was sucking rapidly. In spite of +its dark lacquer of tan his face had a grayish tinge. + +"Sick?" he asked of Bryant, jerking a nod toward Louise Graham. + +"A bit. Have Doc give you a little brandy in a glass. And bring out +her things, too." + +Rymer went back into the shack, presently returning with the liquor +and accompanied by the young doctor, who still had his sleeves rolled +up. Louise swallowed the fiery dram. + +"That--that would raise the dead!" she gasped, wiping sudden tears +from her eyes. She sat up, pushed back the hair from her brow, and +began to glance about. + +"How's your man?" Bryant asked the doctor. + +"Right as a trivet--if no complications set in. Have him stowed on a +cot in the inner room. Bring on your next." + +"You ought to be the next," said Lee, darkly. + +"Because I grabbed her? Well, I'll use her another time if she's +about. Steady as a pin. No wasted motion, either. Passed me +instruments and things like a veteran nurse. I just gave a nod or +glance and she had the right tray. I wanted to pat her on the +shoulder. Can't give people that thing; it's a born knack. Knowing +exactly what's wanted at the instant. She has it, has it to the tips +of her fingers." + +Lee said no more. The young doctor was still labouring under the +excitement of the past hour and swimming in exultation at performing +an operation that would have taxed the skill of an experienced +surgeon. It had been one of those wicked cases--arm crushed to the +shoulder, everything gone into a hodge-podge of flesh and arteries and +splintered bone, a case for fast work and at the same time for +delicate closure of the stump. This had been thrust at Higginson like +a flash, he out of a medical school but a year and a half, still +coaxing a moustache, so to speak. Lee perceived it all. The matter for +Higginson had been like the ditch with Bryant: something tremendous, +something to be met with the means at hand, something to be +accomplished at all costs. And now his brain was ringing with triumph. +He was superior to anything Bryant might think or say or do. For the +moment he was quite ecstatic. One in his exalted state could conceive +nothing unmeet in having haled a strange, sensitive girl into the +ghastly business for an assistant. + +"I'll conduct Miss Graham to my office, where she can remain until +she's wholly herself," Bryant said. "This air is too sharp. You have +everything, Rymer--cap, coat, gauntlets? Bring them along." + +"But I'm feeling better now," Louise protested. + +"You're not yet fit to start home. Over there it's warm and quiet." He +rose to help her remove the great apron. + +In the shack at the head of the street where he led her, he made her +comfortable in an old arm-chair from his ranch house with a Navajo rug +over her lap. As he stirred up the fire, she gazed about at the room. +In one corner was a desk knocked together of boards, littered with +papers; near it on the floor were boxes stuffed with rolls of +blue-prints; the wall spaces between windows were filled with +statements and reports; bulging card-board files rested on a shelf; +from nails hung an old coat and a camera; in another corner leaned a +tripod, rod, and a six-foot brass-edged measure specked with clay; and +piled in a heap beyond the stove were a saddle, a pair of boots, +chunks of piņon pine, and a discarded flannel shirt on which lay a +gray cat nursing a kitten. Through the inner door, standing open, she +had a glimpse of two cots with tumbled blankets. The place was the +office and temporary home of a busy man, a rough board-and-tar-paper +habitation that went forward on skids as the camp went forward, the +workshop and living-quarters of a director who was stripped down to +the hard essentials of toil and whose brain was the nerve centre of a +desperate effort by a host of horses and men. + +"You have companions, I see," Louise remarked, indicating the mother +cat and kitten. + +"Dave's," was his reply, as he finished at the stove. "He found them +somewhere. There were four kittens to begin with, but only one is +left. It's a hard game for cats to survive in a camp like this." + +"Poor little things!" + +"Dave says he'll save this kitten, or know why." + +"What about Dave himself with all these rough men?" + +"It leaves him untouched," Lee said. "Doesn't hurt a boy when he's +made of the right stuff. He'll be better for it, in fact. Many a grown +man would be more competent with the knowledge Dave's picking up here, +young as he is. He's learning what work means and what men are and +what's what generally. When this job is done, I'm going to send him +off to school; and he'll eat up his studies. Just watch and see." +Bryant laughed. "He's aching to become an engineer. He has his mark +already fixed, which not one boy in a thousand at his age has. And all +this is priming him to go to his mark like a shot." + +"I hadn't thought of that," she stated. + +"Actually he's soaking up more arithmetic, geology, physics, +veterinary knowledge, and so on, by pumping Pat Carrigan, the +engineers, and the men, than I supposed his head could hold," Lee +continued. "When he gets at his books, they won't be meaningless +things to him. Not much! He'll understand what prompted them and what +they open up. Well, now, are you feeling better?" + +"Yes, I think so." Then she said, "But I'm keeping you away from your +work. You go, and when I'm--" + +"Wouldn't think of it. Nothing pressing." And Bryant began to move +about thoughtfully, now going to gaze out a window and now returning +to stand and fix his eyes upon her intently. + +"That was a distressing experience for you," he went on, presently. "I +feel all upset at your being in there. Higginson was desperate, I +suppose, and grasped at you because you happened to be there and he +could not wait." + +She put out a hand toward Lee. + +"Don't scold him please," she said. + +"Little good it would do now," he replied. "He'll be so cocky that +he'll dare me to fire him if I say a word, and grin in my face, for he +knows now that he's a good man and that I know it and will never let +him go." + +"Higginson, is that his name?" Louise asked. "Well, he is a good man. +When he started the engineer using the chloroform and me arranging +things, he was swallowing hard. I saw he was terribly nervous and +keyed up. But he went right at the operation without faltering and +with a sort of doggedness. As if nothing should stop him. I myself was +doing rather mistily what he wanted. The chloroform, the smell of +antiseptics, the shiny instruments, the cutting, the nipping of +blood-vessels with forceps and tying them, the clipping with scissors, +the sewing--all went to my head. And I constantly had to tell myself, +'Don't be silly! You're not going to faint. He might fail if you did. +That tray, those forceps, those sponges, that thread, that's what he +wants now. Keep your head. Don't be a quitter.' And so on through +eternity--it seemed an eternity, anyway. I think the young engineer +with me thought so, too. He turned quite green once or twice. But then +I must have looked that way throughout. All at once it was over, +suddenly. Quite unexpectedly, too. I had come to believe that it would +go on and on forever. But, as I say, all at once it was done and the +men were wheeling the bandaged fellow into the other room. Then the +doctor called over his shoulder at me, 'Open the door, girl; let in +some air.' So I opened it as he wanted, and came out." + +Bryant was greatly affected by that simple recital. He began to walk +back and forth beside Louise, restlessly thrusting his hands in his +coat pockets but immediately pulling them out as if there were no +satisfaction in the action, and casting troubled glances at her from +under close-drawn brows. His disquietude moved her to speak. + +"You're worrying about me, Mr. Bryant; you mustn't do that. In a few +minutes more I'll be entirely recovered. I should be foolish to +pretend that the happening wasn't a shock to me, but I'm not a +weakling--I've health and strength. I'll not permit the thought of the +operation to depress my spirits. Indeed, I know I'll be very proud of +what I did this afternoon, for it was a chance to do a real, +disinterested service. And I can guess what father will say when he +learns of it--'Louise, you did just right. Exactly what you should do +under the circumstances.'" + +Already the colour had reappeared in her cheeks. A resilience of +nature was indeed hers, he perceived, that enabled her to undergo +ordeals that would prostrate many women. It came, undoubtedly, from +the same springs out of which rose her splendid courage, her fine +sympathy. Ah, that golden quality of sympathy! Because of it her duty +that day had seemed plain and clear. + +"Louise--may I not use that name, for we're friends?--Louise, you're +the bravest, kindest girl I have ever known. I mean it, really. I've +never forgotten your generous act that day when someone so brutally +killed my dog Mike, how you tried to save him. I didn't know you then, +but that made no difference to you. And now when you find an +opportunity to help save a man's life, you never flinch." + +"Why, it's the natural thing to do." + +"Is it? I was beginning to think selfishness was the natural thing," +he said, with a hard, twisted smile. + +She rested her hand on his sleeve for an instant. A smile and a shake +of her head accompanied the action. + +"I know better than that, Lee Bryant," she rejoined. "You're not +selfish yourself and will never arrive at a time when you'll believe +what you said." + +"But there are selfish people, many of them." + +"Yes. Of course." + +"And one can't change them, and they cause infinite anxiety in +others----" + +"Yes; that, too. Has Mr. Menocal been troubling you in some new way?" + +Lee rose hastily. "I wasn't thinking of him," said he; and he went to +a window and stared out at the engineers' shack across the street. Her +touch on his arm, her tone, her solicitude, agitated him more than he +dared let her see. Why in the name of heaven couldn't he have a Ruth +who was like her? A Ruth who was a Louise, with all of her lovable +qualities and splendid courage and fine nobility of heart? + +He swung about to gaze at her. She yet sat half turned in her seat so +that her clear profile was before his eyes. Her soft chestnut hair +glinted with gleams of the fire that escaped through a crack in the +door. Her features were in repose. Something in her attitude, in her +face, gave her a girlish appearance, as she might have looked when +sixteen--an infinite candor, an innocence and simplicity, that alone +comes from a serene spirit. + +Presently he discovered that she had moved her head about, that she +was looking straight at him. Bryant experienced a singular emotion. + +"Some serious trouble is disturbing you," she said. + +Her eyes continued fixed upon his, increasing his uneasiness. He felt +himself flushing. He made a gesture as if whatever it was might be +disregarded, then said, "Yes." + +"You're not still anxious concerning me? I'm rested--see!" + +She sprang up, casting off the rug and spreading her arms wide for his +scrutiny. The heat of the fire had put the glow into her cheeks again; +a smile rested on her lips; she seemed poised for an upward flight. + +"I'll take you home," he said, abruptly. + +"Oh, no. I can ride----" + +"One of the boys will bring your horse to you in the morning," he +continued, as if she had not spoken. "It would be dark before you +reached home; dusk is already at the windows. And you would be chilled +through. You've no business to be riding after what you've been +through. I'll bring my car to the door while you're putting on your +things." + +A vague fear sent him out of the door quickly. Ruth in his mind was +like a figure projected far off in the landscape, occupied, distant, +facing away; but Louise Graham was by, and despite his wish or will, +or her knowledge, drawing his heart. What he had sought in Ruth was in +her possession, the possibility of happiness. Life had deluded him and +seemed about to crush him in a savage clutch. As he moved along the +street, this apprehension lay cold in his breast; he could not dismiss +it; it persisted like a dull throb of pain. A sudden fury swept him. +The place was becoming intolerable, the mesa a hell. He burned to +chuck the whole wretched business. + +When he returned with the car he was at least outwardly calm. He +helped Louise into the seat. + +"I'll have you home in no time," said he. + +"And you must stay for supper." + +"Yes; why not. Might as well." + +"And we'll pick up the girls; all of us can crowd in here somewhere." + +The slightest pause followed before his answer. + +"Certainly," he said. "We can all ride." + +Imogene's cabin, however, was the only one showing a light when they +stopped before the pair of little houses, and only Imogene was at +home. She was delighted to go with Lee and Louise. Ruth had driven +with Charlie Menocal to Kennard earlier in the afternoon, she briefly +stated. Then she remarked: + +"Aren't you dissipating frightfully to-night, Lee?" + +"Like a regular devil," was the response. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +Imogene had been startled by a note in Lee's answer to her bantering +question that she never before had heard him use. Though his words +were uttered lightly, there nevertheless was a hard ring to them, a +grate, as if his teeth were on edge. Something had happened. Ruth had +driven during the afternoon to see him and returned exceedingly put +out. If anything had occurred, Imogene hoped it was--well, one certain +thing. + +When Bryant brought her home that evening, he went with her into her +cabin. In silence he built up the fire, fussed for a time with the +lamp-wick, lighted a cigarette, took a turn across the cabin, +inspected thoughtfully the back of one hand, and then lifted his gaze +to Imogene. She had been waiting, with a vague alarm. And this his +stern visage and burning eyes increased. + +"Will Ruth marry me at once, do you think?" he questioned. +"To-morrow--or the next day?" His tone was calm. He might have been +speaking of the cabin, asking if it kept out the wind. + +Imogene was dumbfounded by that voice and that inquiry. She had +expected anything but either. + +"Not then; not so soon, I suspect," she said, at length. + +"When? At the end of a week, the end of a fortnight?" + +"I can't say," she replied with a sensation now of being harried. +This would not do; she must get herself in hand. "The fact is, Lee, +I'm not in Ruth's confidence. Haven't been for some considerable time. +We've drifted a little apart." + +"Only a little?" + +"Only a little--I hope." + +The cigarette Bryant held had gone out. Presently he glanced at it, +then crushed it in his palm and dropped it into a coat pocket. + +"Don't fence with me, Imogene," he said. "Give me the truth." + +The truth--well, why not? He was entitled to it. Besides, since he had +eyes and a brain with which to reason he was not ignorant of the +girls' waning friendship. Pretense was foolish. Imogene leaned forward +in her seat and rested her crossed arms upon her knees, directing her +look at the floor. Her fluffy golden hair had been slightly +disarranged when she removed her hat and so remained. Her face was +thinner than in the summer, with a pinched aspect about her lips. + +"The situation is this," she began, slowly. "Ruth and I are not really +on good terms and we've been perilously near a break several times. +But I've restrained my temper and my tongue to avoid one, because I +feel I must remain as long as she does. No, I can't leave her here +alone--that would be brutal. And ruinous for her, too. I've thought it +all out pretty carefully. You see, we both agreed to stay when we +came, until we agreed to go or had proved up on our claims. Probably I +don't make myself very clear to you. I think now that I made a mistake +and that neither of us ought ever to have attempted homesteading. So +much has happened that is different from what I anticipated. Not the +existence itself; I don't mean that. Other things. Ruth's change, +chiefly. See, Lee, I speak frankly, for we've usually been frank +toward each other. You two are engaged, but"--she straightened up in +order to meet his eyes--"she's treating you abominably and +shamelessly. Ordinarily, I would hold my peace, I've held it hitherto, +but I can no longer. Why, I choke sometimes! Going constantly with +Gretzinger, who's so despicable that he tries to use her as a tool to +reach and corrupt you, or Charlie Menocal, who's your out-and-out +enemy, it's too much for me, Lee. And uncle and aunt are furious with +me for staying. She listen to me? Ruth listens neither to me nor any +one." She rose and came close to Bryant. "You're right to marry her +immediately. If you two love each other, that is." Her look was +penetrating, questioning. "For she needs a restraining influence. +People in Kennard are talking----" + +"My God!" Bryant cried, hoarsely. "No, no; not Ruth! She couldn't do +anything wrong!" + +"No, there's nothing bad. But she has given grounds for gossip, she +and some other girls. She sees too much of this Gretzinger and Charlie +Menocal and men like them; and the time may come when I'll tremble. +I've begged her to be discreet and considerate of your good opinion +and love, but she always declares that she's acting eminently proper. +Lee." + +"Yes." + +"There's something more. Gretzinger's not only finding amusement in +her company, he's in love with her. After the women he's been +accustomed to in New York, the rouged and jaded type he naturally +would know, her freshness and spirits appeal to him. But you know what +sort of man he is--cynical, unscrupulous, without principles." + +A long time passed before Bryant made a response. He stood knitting +his brows, as if preoccupied. Imogene wondered if he had been +following her at the last. + +"I'll speak to him about his principles in connection with Ruth," he +said. The utterance was amazingly dispassionate. Then quite +unexpectedly he remarked, "I've never yet had to kill a man, never as +yet." + +Imogene shuddered, and she was terrified. It was as if a curtain had +been jerked aside disclosing figures grouped for tragedy. + +"It must never come to that," she breathed. + +Bryant stirred, then began to look about the room. He grew observant. + +"This is bad for you, Imogene," he said, presently. "Impossible! Your +uncle is right. This wretched cabin doesn't keep out cold or wind; you +have to chop wood and carry water, tasks beyond your strength; you're +lonely, you're ill at times--" + +"And Ruth?" + +"Well?" + +"You know her situation. Financial, I mean." + +"I less than any one know it. Extraordinary, too, now that I think of +it," he said, reflectively. "What is her situation?" Immediately he +added, "Of course, I guess that she has no great means and she has +said that she lacks training to earn a livelihood. But her family?" + +"She lived with an aunt until she came here, Lee." + +"So she mentioned." + +"They didn't get on well together after Ruth went to stay with her on +her parents' death," Imogene explained. "The woman was narrow-minded +and exacting, especially in matters of amusements and religion. You +know the type." Bryant nodded. "And Ruth was young, exuberant, and, as +I now see, wilful. Their clashes were the cause of her desire to come +West. We had been good friends, but not intimates; and I marvel at +myself now at having gone so rashly into a thing like this, without +inquiring whether our habits, tastes, desires, natures, everything, +fitted us for prolonged companionship. Yes, I marvel." She sat +motionless, staring at the lamp fixedly. "However, I'm in it now up to +my neck. Ruth declares that she will never return to her aunt." + +"And she can't earn a living." + +"Nor would if she could, I fear," Imogene added, a little sadly. "At +least, now. It would be too dull." + +"Then I must marry her at once." + +Imogene gave him a strange look. + +"She is waiting," said she. + +"For marriage?" + +"No, to see how you succeed. Oh, to have to say these things is +dreadful, Lee!" she exclaimed. But Bryant brushed this aside with a +gesture almost august in its indifference. "If you finish your project +on time, she will be ready for the ceremony," the girl went on. "If +you fail, she'll postpone it until you're able to provide more than +just a roof, a chair, and a broom. Her very words! Love must not +prevent people from being practical, from her viewpoint. So, as I +say, she's waiting to discover the outcome." A corner of her mouth +twisted up while she paused. Then she concluded in a low voice, "And +probably something else." + +Bryant had again fallen into study. Imogene doubted if he had heard +her added remark, and she could not divine from his countenance how +fierce or in what direction his covered passion was beating. + +"It will be too late," said he, suddenly and, as it seemed to her, +irrelevantly. + +Then she thought that she understood. + +"He's going home in a few days, for the Christmas holidays," she +stated. "Possibly then Ruth will--I'm planning for us all to be at +uncle's, you with us." + +"Gretzinger wasn't in my mind." + +"You said 'too late'," she pursued. "Naturally I supposed your +reference to be of them." + +The gravity of his face deepened. + +"I was thinking of myself," said he, turning his eyes upon her. "If +we're not married soon, very soon, it will be too late. I mean that it +would be a mockery. For me, at any rate. One may wish to go one way, +and be swept another, especially when the mooring line is slack." His +breast rose and fell at a quick, agitated breath. "But promise me that +you'll not speak of this to Ruth." + +"The very thing to bring her round, perhaps." + +"More likely to fill her with despair." + +This was something Imogene could not grasp. It was so inexplicable, so +extravagant, so perverse, that her cheeks grew hot. + +"I can't follow you at all," she cried, indignantly. "Ruth alarmed, +jealous, in doubt--yes, I can credit her with any one of those +feelings. But despair! She lays her plans too far ahead to be led into +despair." + +"Even if she knew I had ceased to love her? When she understood our +marriage would be a hollow ceremony?" + +"Would it be that if you succeed with your project?" + +Bryant's eyes blazed suddenly. + +"Great God, you talk as if she were to marry the canal!" he exclaimed. +He glowered for a time. "I see now what you mean. You believe she +would marry me if I win out with the ditch. Being practical, she would +accept money as a substitute for love. That reminds me: she herself +once declared that if circumstances necessitated she could take a rich +man for his riches." Bryant uttered a harsh laugh. "My Lord, I was +frightened lest in a fit of anguish at losing my love she should go to +the devil!" Again he yielded to an outburst of laughter that made +Imogene shudder. "I fancied that at finding herself out of money, +unable to work, disinclined to work, unloved, miserable, she would +recklessly hurl herself into perdition. And I was going to save her +from that, marry her at once, sacrifice myself! Like an egotistical +fool! When all the while there was never the slightest danger or need, +when all the while she held the string, not I. And love isn't a +consideration whatever. And she will marry me when I've completed the +project. And complete it I must, of course. Not a way out, not a +single loop-hole. Oh, my Lord, my Lord, Imogene, did you ever know of +anything so devilishly laughable!" And his bitter, sardonic merriment +broke forth anew. + +The girl was appalled. All she could do was to gasp, "Oh, Lee, Lee! +Don't laugh like that, don't think of it like that. You make it out +worse than it is." + +He stopped short. By his look he might have detested her. + +"I state it as it is," he said. "Wherein is the actual situation +better?" + +"You could break your engagement; certainly she has given you +sufficient cause." + +"Yes, break with her, as might you. Why don't you?" + +Imogene put out a hand in protest. + +"You know why, Lee; I've told you," she said, earnestly. + +"No more can I, for the same reason," was his reply. He turned and +lifted his hat and gloves from the table. "I will have no act of mine +cut her adrift and push her under. Much better to stand the gaff. I +suppose one hardens to anything in time." His look wandered about the +room. "And the diabolic part of it all is that this squeamish feeling +of responsibility for another may achieve as much harm in the long run +as its lack. Who knows?" + +He glanced at her as if expecting an answer. Imogene remained silent; +indeed, nothing need be said to so evident an enigma. For that matter, +nothing more said at all. Bryant drew on his gloves and bade her +good-night. At the door he remarked, quite in his accustomed manner: + +"I'll send Dave over in the morning with more blankets and have him +chop some wood. There's a drop in the temperature coming." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +The predicted cold weather came, bringing winter in earnest. The frost +went deeper into the ground and construction grew slower, but the days +continued fine and without gales, those fierce and implacable winds +that sometimes rage over the frozen mesa hours at a time under a dull, +saffron sun, sharp as knives, shrieking like demons, and driving man +and beast to cover. They had not yet been unleashed. + +Night work was begun, amid a flare of gasolene torches that gave a +weird aspect to the plain. The yellow lights; the moving, shadowy +forms of the workmen and horses; the cries and shouts--all made a +scene gnome-like in character. Frost gleamed upon the earth in a +silvery sheen under the torches' smoky flames. The headquarters +building and the mess tents now glowed from dusk until dawn. Fires +where workmen could warm their cheeks and hands were burning +continually, fed from the great piles of wood brought from the +mountains. And so by day and by night, without halt and despite cold, +the restless life was maintained and the toil kept going and the hard +furrow driven ahead. + +With the approach of Christmas the advance of the project was marked. +The dam was nearing completion, with its long, gently inclined, +upstream face constructed of smooth cobbles--a slope up which any vast +and sudden rush of cloudburst water would slide unchecked to the crest +and harmlessly pass over. All of the drops, as well as the head-gate +and flood weirs, were finished, standing as if hewn out of solid white +stone. The miners had blasted out a channel through the reef of rock, +and gone. From the dam the canal section all along the hillside and +following the ridge, from drop to drop, and out to a point on the mesa +a mile beyond, was excavated, a great clean ditch; while from Perro +Creek the canal ran northward for six miles to the main camp, curving +in the great arc that constituted its line. Three and a half miles, +and complements, constructed at one end; six miles at the other. +Between, five miles of unbroken mesa. Seven weeks remained for the +small camp working down from the north and the great camp pushing from +the south to dig through those miles and meet--seven weeks; but in the +most bitter season of the year. + +It seemed that it was with infinitely greater effort that the two +sections of the canals were forced ahead each day. The surface of the +ground was like stone, only by repeated attempts pierced by plows and +torn apart; while the subsoil immediately froze if left unworked. The +weaker labourers began to break: the scrawny Mexicans, the debilitated +white men, the drifters and the dissatisfied; and they left the camps. +These the labour agencies found it harder and harder to replace as the +cold weather persisted, so that the force showed a considerable +diminishment. + +A few days before Christmas Gretzinger paid Bryant a visit. He had not +been to camp for a week and therefore on this occasion examined the +progress of work with care, studying the rate of excavation and +calculating the result. + +"You'll just about make it through, Bryant, if nothing happens to put +a crimp in your advance," he stated when he was about to take his +departure from the office, where he and Lee conferred. + +"Yes," said Bryant. + +"And if anything should happen, then good-bye canal." + +"That doesn't necessarily follow," said Lee, calmly. + +Gretzinger ignored this reply. He thrust an arm into his fur-lined +overcoat and began to draw it on. That evening he was leaving Kennard +for New York, and now was desirous of returning to town by noon, where +he had a luncheon engagement with Ruth Gardner. He had casually +mentioned to Bryant that the girls had gone the day before to the +McDonnells for the holidays. + +"My people were certainly handed a phony deal here," he remarked +shortly, as he buttoned the coat collar about his throat. +"Questionable title to the water! Extravagance and poor management! +Rotten project all through! If I had lined this thing up, I should +have learned what I actually had before a cent was expended. But of +course if the thing goes smash, we in the East have to stand the loss; +you're losing no cash, you have nothing in it but a shoestring. Well, +I'm expecting you to put your back into the job and do no loafing and +pull us out of the hole you've got us into." + +Bryant's face remained impassive. + +"I'll attend to my end," said he, "if the bondholders take care of +theirs. They'll have to dig up more cash." + +"What's that!" + +"More money, I said." + +"They'll see you in hell before they do." + +"Then that's where they'll look for payment of their bonds. You're not +fool enough, are you, to imagine a system can be built in winter and +under high pressure for what it could be constructed in summer and not +in haste? Strange the idea never occurred to you before--you, +Gretzinger, irrigation expert, though you never saw an irrigation +ditch till you came West. The sixty thousand dollars from bonds and +twenty thousand more I've put with it will be gone sometime next +month. Possibly I can stretch it out to the first of February. After +that, the bondholders will have to come forward to save their +investment." + +Gretzinger unbuttoned his overcoat and sought his cigarette case. His +scowl as he struck a match was lighted by vicious gleams from his +eyes. + +"Why didn't you stop work when you received notification from the +state engineer of the Land and Water Board's action?" he demanded. +"When you yet had the bulk of the money?" + +"I preferred to continue." + +"And now you're sinking it all." + +"It costs money to move frozen dirt," said Bryant. + +"Well, I tell you the bondholders won't put up another penny +unless----" The Easterner paused, growing thoughtful. Some minutes +passed before he resumed: "There's one condition on which they'll do +it, and I'll guarantee their support." + +"And the condition?" + +"That you surrender your stock to them." + +"For the twenty or twenty-five thousand dollars more that will be +needed? My shares representing a hundred thousand? And I presume I +should have to withdraw altogether." + +"Naturally," Gretzinger responded. "I should then take charge." + +Bryant's expression exhibited a certain amount of curiosity. + +"Do you really think you could finish the ditch on time?" he inquired. + +A slight sneer was the answer. Gretzinger was one not given to wasting +time with men of Bryant's type. + +"How about it? Am I to take back to New York with me your agreement to +this?" he asked, curtly. + +The other spread his feet apart and hooked his thumbs in his coat +pockets and directed his full regard at the speaker. + +"You think you have me in a hole, Gretzinger," he said. "You propose +to take me by the throat and shake everything out of my pockets and +then throw me aside. Well, I'm in a hole, no use denying that. But you +haven't me by the throat and you're not going to loot me. If I go +broke, it won't be through handing over what I have to you and your +gang of pirates, just make up your mind to that." + +"Then you intend to wreck this project. A court action will stop that, +I fancy." + +"The only court action you can demand is a receivership for the +company, and not until my money-bag is empty at that," Lee rejoined, +coolly. "And the time will expire and the company be a shell before +it's granted, at the rate courts move." + +The New Yorker considered. Finally he began to re-button his +overcoat. + +"I'll leave the offer open," said he. "I was uncertain before about +returning, but I'll probably do so now. You'll find as the pinch comes +that my proposition will look better--and we might pay you two or +three thousand so you'll not go out strapped. Besides, if we took over +and completed the project, it would save your face; you wouldn't be +wholly discredited; you would be able to get a job somewhere +afterward. Might as well make the most you can for yourself out of a +bad mess. Think it over, Bryant." He set his cap on his head with a +conclusive air. + +Lee pointed at a chair by the table. + +"Sit down for a moment; there's another matter." He crossed to his +desk, put his hand in a drawer for something, and came back. "Look at +that," he said, tossing a revolver cartridge on the table before +Gretzinger. + +The man picked it up and turned it over between thumb and finger, +examining it with mingled surprise and curiosity. + +"What about it?" he questioned. + +"I understand you're interested in a certain young lady," Bryant +stated, smoothly. + +Gretzinger straightened on his seat, flashing his look up to the +other's. A sudden tightening of his lips accompanied the action and he +ceased to revolve the cartridge he held. + +"I'll not discuss my personal affairs with you or----" + +"When they touch mine, you will," was the answer. + +"Are you jealous?" Gretzinger asked after a pause, with a trace of +insolence. "Believe you are. I thought, along with your other +shortcomings, you weren't capable of even that. Now that we're +talking, I'll say that I've taken Ruth round and found her +entertaining. What about it? And I've given her my opinion of the way +you've run this work, because she asked for it. I told her that you +had botched the business from the beginning. I told her you were +unpractical, incompetent, small-gauged, and lightweight, and would +make a failure of everything you touched. There you have it all. +Well?" + +Bryant's brows twitched for an instant. + +"I guessed as much." He stood staring in silence at the table, but +presently brought himself to attention. "Honour is something you don't +understand. So I thought that bullet might focus your mind on possible +consequences." + +"What's all this rot!" + +Lee leaned forward with his fists resting on the table and his eyes +probing Gretzinger's. + +"If any harm comes to Ruth through you, that bullet will pay it out," +he said, harshly. "You've felt its weight. It's forty-four calibre, +plenty heavy enough to do the business. I can smash a potato at thirty +paces. One shot is all I shall ask. I won't do any hemming and hawing +over the matter, or----" + +Gretzinger sprang up. + +"See here, Bryant!" he cried. + +"Or advertising in the newspapers," the other went on, in a level +tone. "I'll attend to your case, quickly and quietly. Here, or in New +York, or wherever you are. That's all." + +Gretzinger had gone a little pale. He was nervously drawing on his +cap. + +"Listen to me for a moment----" + +"I said that's all. Get out." And Bryant's mien brooked no +temporizing. + +It was of Lee's nature not to brood on such matters. He had given the +warning and must await the issue. Meanwhile, the burden of work and +the needs of the project would afford sufficient occupation for his +mind. + +Christmas came. Bryant had ordered that labour cease for twenty-four +hours, as the gruelling fight of weeks had worn down the spirit of the +men. A holiday would rest them, while a big turkey dinner and +unlimited cigars and pails of candy would put them in a good humour. +At dark on the afternoon before the day shift at both camps ceased +work, the horses were stabled, the torches left unlighted, the fires +along the ditch allowed to die down, and the project was idle. A light +skift of snow had fallen during the morning, whitening the earth, but +the clouds had passed away, so that the still air and clear sky gave +promise of a fine morrow. + +Christmas Eve, however, did not lapse without a disturbing incident. +About supper time Dave came running to Bryant and Pat Carrigan in +Lee's shack. He had seen workmen going furtively into a tent in +numbers that aroused his curiosity, and had crept unseen under the lee +of the canvas shelter, where, lifting the flap, he beheld in the +interior a keg on the ground and a Mexican, by light of a candle, +serving labourers whisky in tin cups. + +"Whisky in camp!" Lee roared. "Come with me, Pat." The two men, guided +by Dave, strode down the street. Before the tent indicated they halted +to listen. The shelter glowed dimly; formless shadows stirred on its +canvas walls; and from within came low, guarded voices and once a +muffled laugh. + +Jerking the flaps apart Bryant entered, followed by the contractor. He +forced an opening through the group of workmen by a savage sweep of +his arms and came to the keg, where the Mexican at the moment was +bending down and holding a cup under the spigot. When the man +perceived the engineer, he leaped up. The fellow's short, squat figure +and stony expression had for Bryant a vague familiarity--that face +especially, brown, stolid, brutal, with a fixed, snake-like gaze. + +But Lee had no time to speculate on the Mexican's identity. The liquor +was the important thing. The man stood motionless, holding in his left +hand the half-filled cup that gave off a pungent, sickening smell of +whisky; his eyes were intent on the engineer. Behind Lee, Carrigan was +already herding the others from the tent. + +"Where did you get that stuff?" Bryant demanded. But as the Mexican +only shook his head, he changed to Spanish. "Trying to start a big +drunk here?" + +"To-morrow is a fęte day, seņor," was the reply. "A friend made me a +present; I share it with the others. Besides, in cold weather it keeps +one warm." + +"How long have you worked here?" + +"Three days." + +"There's a camp order: 'No liquor allowed in camp.' You can't say that +you don't know it, for it's posted everywhere on placards in English +and in Spanish." + +He received no response. A faint shrug of the shoulders, perhaps. The +Mexican's glistening, sinister eyes, on the other hand, continued as +rigid as orbs of polished agate, and his face as expressionless. + +"Well, we'll lock you up and see if we can learn who your 'friend' is +that sent this barrel in," Lee stated. + +There was a slight movement of the man's elbow. + +"Watch him--his right hand!" Pat cried, sharply. + +The hand had darted swiftly to the fellow's hip, but Bryant's fist was +as quick. It shot up, catching the man's jaw and hoisting him off his +feet. Next instant the engineer had disarmed the prostrate ruffian. + +"The Kennard jail for you," said he, in English. "A bad _hombre_, eh! +Up with you, quick." + +But what followed neither the engineer nor the contractor anticipated. +With a lightning-like roll of his body the man vanished under the side +of the tent. When the others rushed out in search of him he had made +good his escape; and a search through the dark camp would be useless. +They therefore emptied the keg upon the ground, extinguished the lamp, +and returned to Lee's office. Though the Mexican had got away, they +nevertheless had put a foot on the malicious scheme. + +All at once Dave, who was walking at Bryant's and Pat's heels up the +street, exclaimed: + +"I've got that greaser's number now! We saw him once at the depot in +Kennard, Lee. He was watching you, remember?" + +"I guess you're right; I recall him." + +"Bet that old devil in Bartolo put him up to this." Dave asserted. + +"Tut, tut, kid! Language like that on Christmas Eve! Charlie +might--but not his father, I imagine." + +Dave, however, was not altogether to be suppressed. + +"Well, I don't put anything past either of them," he sniffed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +On Christmas morning the thought occurred to Lee that he had heard +nothing more from Imogene of the plan for him to spend the day at the +McDonnells', which she had mentioned the night of their talk. Rather +strangely, too, he had not received from either of the girls even a +note of holiday greeting; to Imogene he had had sent from Denver an +edition of Ibsen's plays, and to Ruth a splendid set of furs, both in +care of Mrs. McDonnell, who had promised they should be delivered when +Santa Claus came down the chimney. Odd, the girls' silence. + +He was at work on his accounts at the moment, but now he remained +biting the end of his pen-holder and staring through the window. From +somewhere in the sagebrush came the sound of shots: Dave potting tin +cans with the .22 rifle that had been Lee's gift to him. In the room +was only the snapping of the fire. Presently the telephone rang. + +"Imo now," he exclaimed. "I'll be hanged if I go down and carry out +the farce before the McDonnells." + +But the person proved to be Louise Graham. + +"I wondered--well, several things," she said, when he had answered. +"First, if you had gone away anywhere; next, in case you hadn't, +whether you were working; and last, should the camp be resting to-day, +if you wouldn't come to Christmas dinner with father and me." + +"No work's going on." + +"Then we'll be delighted to have you come--and Dave also, of course. +There's an especially fattened turkey ready to slide into the oven +now. Father has just said, too, to tell you that there's going to be +something else--Tom and Jerry. How does that sound?" + +"Like a man and a boy coming down the road toward Diamond Creek," Lee +answered, with a laugh. "Thank you for your thoughtfulness in +remembering us." + +"I'll judge how sincere you are by the amount of turkey you eat," she +said. "Dinner will be about one o'clock." + +"We shall be prompt." + +Lee hung up the receiver, then glanced at his watch. It was ten. He +reseated himself at his desk and endeavoured to fasten his thoughts +upon the entries in the book before him, but at last he exclaimed, +throwing down his pen: "Damned if I can or will!" and jumped up, and +went to tramping about the office, and when Dave's cat and kitten +presented themselves to be stroked, unfeelingly thrust them aside with +his boot as he tramped. And when Dave came in, about half-past eleven, +the boy found him part way into a clean white shirt, with the cat and +the kitten eying him resentfully, and received the order: "Get a move +on you; we're going to the Grahams' for dinner. See that you scrub +your face, too--and ears!" Which left Dave quite as indignant as the +cat, for he always washed his ears. + +They arrived at the Graham ranch house shortly after noon, where +wreaths of holly, strings of evergreen, and red paper bells created a +Christmas atmosphere. Coming from their cold ride into these cheerful +rooms and to a warm welcome, the hearts of both man and boy glowed +with unaccustomed feeling. And throughout the dinner that followed +betimes--during which Mr. Graham's pleasantries and Louise's gay +spirits and mirth evoked in Lee a blitheness to which he long had been +a stranger and in Dave a state of joyous bliss--they luxuriated in +halcyon well-being. After the meal Louise, at her father's suggestion, +went to the piano and sang while the men were smoking their cigars. +And then followed an hour at cards, High Five, at which Mr. Graham and +Dave won the most games; and then a maid, a Mexican girl, Rosita, +brought in a bowl of nuts and raisins for the rancher and the boy who +settled themselves for a match at checkers, and Lee and Louise +strolled to a window seat at the other end of the long living room. + +A delicate pink was in the girl's cheeks. Her eyes were tender under +their long lashes; a smile still lingered on her lips. It was as if +her countenance, her mind, her spirit, were suffused with the +happiness and peace of the hour, of the day. + +"My poor one-armed man, how is he?" she asked. "I intended to go see +him, but the cold has been so steady that I gave it up. You said over +the telephone several days ago that he was doing as well as could be +expected." + +"Quite out of danger now," Lee replied. "The doctor told him a lady +assisted at the operation and now he's full of curiosity regarding +you." + +"I'll surprise him some day by just walking up to his cot and saying: +'Good morning, how's my patient?' The day I'm going to pick is the +next one you move camp: I want to see how all those tents and shacks +and everything rise up on their feet and travel." + +"You shall," he stated, with a laugh. "I'll notify you of the date. +About New Year's Day the next migration will occur. You've had your +turn at hospital work and now perhaps you wish to try your hand at +transportation. I wager you'd make a good camp manager if you took +hold of the job." + +"Would you revive me a second time if I threatened to faint?" she +queried, gayly. "You and Imogene Martin gave me just the right +treatment that evening, for you kept my thoughts off the ordeal I'd +been through. Next day I was myself, as I told you when you called +up." + +"I haven't seen you since that day," Lee remarked. "I was really +worried that afternoon, you know." And an echo of the anxiety he had +suffered sounded in his voice. + +Her face showed that she noted it, and it softened. + +"And you have so many anxieties, too," said she. + +He stirred, then withdrew his gaze from her and directed it out a +window. The emotion he had experienced that afternoon when she sat +before his fire, when she sat there so frank and so simple-hearted, +was rising in his breast again. The breath trembled a little upon his +lips. But after a time he felt himself grow calmer. + +"I have anxieties, yes," he said, "but so, I suppose, has every man +and woman, of his or her own kind and degree. And they aren't the +important thing, after all. What has happened in the past, not what +may occur in the future, is what really matters. One can't change the +past, what's done; especially by one's own act. And if the act was a +serious mistake. That's fatal! I see now that failure to accomplish +what one sets out to do, as for instance in the building of my canal, +may not be ruinous to a man. A man may fail and be quite as able a man +as ever, as those who succeed; for human beings can do only so much +and no more. Nothing that he has done or not done would alter the +result. And he need not take the failure greatly to heart. But +voluntary and heedless acts of folly, precipitate and unconsidered +leaps in the dark, these indeed are ruinous. Oh, yes, they do the +business. They become balls and chains. Leave him no choice or action. +If it were only so simple as the game of checkers your father and Dave +are playing! When one game is over, they can start another. But +there's only one game to life." + +"But it is a long one, and changes," Louise said. + +She glanced at him. He intended that his words should be taken, she +perceived, in a general sense. But the mind always seeks the specific: +hers instinctively seized on the particular thorn that had prompted +his utterance. Of Ruth Gardner's extraordinary and inexplicable +behaviour she had become informed, like everyone else; it at first +amazed, then shocked, and finally outraged her sense of decency. It +repelled her--but, then, her early attempts at friendship with the +other had never advanced. The girl had always been absorbed in her own +doings, immersed in pleasure or in plans for pleasure, concerned +entirely with the friends she had, and, unlike Imogene, received +Louise's calls and approaches at cordiality with an indifference that +withered all feeling. With the passing of time Louise had considered +Lee's course in relation to the girl as a cause for wonder. The +engineer was singularly patient, or incredibly obtuse, or marvellously +in love. Whichever it was, her heart stirred with pity. He deserved +better, he deserved the best. As for Ruth Gardner, she could now only +think of her with a hot resentment that set her lips quivering; and +she was moved at moments by a profound desire to express her sympathy +to him and to give that warm encouragement his spirit on occasion must +need. But she must refrain. + +At his speech her conclusions, but not her feelings, underwent a sharp +revision. The revelation startled her. He had not been obtuse. He no +longer was marvellously in love with Ruth Gardner, nor in love with +her at all. Relief followed surprise in her mind, the relief that +comes at a fear unrealized, a disaster avoided. Disaster had been +precisely what she had sensed if not thought, since a union of two +persons whose natures were as utterly different, as essentially +opposed, as Lee's and Ruth's would inevitably lead to disillusionment, +antagonism, sorrow, havoc. That his eyes at last were open was a +blessing. + +"What are you thinking of?" he asked, all at once. + +She found his eyes full upon her. + +"Of what you had said," she responded. "And at this minute I'm +speculating on whether anything--one's decisions, or acts, or +sentiments--are ever quite conclusive or final. Or fatal, too, as you +said. We might possibly except murder and suicide." She smiled as she +mentioned this reservation. + +Lee shifted his position with a trace of impatience. + +"I'm not a pessimist," he exclaimed. + +"No, you're too active to be. Pessimism is at bottom a kind of mental +indolence, I'd say--an unpleasant kind." + +"Some matters are not solved by action," said he. "That is, when they +are out of one's hands and in another's." + +Her attention was caught by those words, and she hung on them for a +little. They distressed her; they caused her to understand the forced +immobility of his face as he spoke, and wish that he would give way to +his feeling. The phrase "out of one's hands and in another's" referred +undoubtedly to Ruth Gardner. She did not trust herself to speak. + +"What became of all those flowers that were in your garden last +summer?" he asked, suddenly. "Do you dig up the roots, or cover them, +or let them freeze? You have no idea how many times these cold days +the recollection of that hour with you last summer when we walked +among them recurs to me. It seems ages ago, however. That was one of +the happy days, Louise." + +A delicate tint of pink stole into her face. For to her also the day +had been one of happiness, as clear-cut in her memory as a cameo. The +thought that it and she had been dwelling in his mind produced in her +breast an unaccountable agitation. The coral pink in her cheeks +deepened to a flush; she lowered her eye-lashes and averted her look. + +"The flowers are banked with straw, the perennials," she said, to +prevent a silence. + +"I shall come and see them when they're blooming again," he stated. +"The more I recall them, the more beautiful it seems they were--yes, +and the orchard, too, and the grassy canals, and the sunshine that +day. And you in the picture--the centre of the picture, Louise. The +impressions one retains that stand out vividly in the mind are few: +that is one of the number for me. But perhaps not for you." + +"Oh, for me also," she exclaimed. + +Bryant stared at her round forearms and hands lying on her lap, but +without observing them. He had marked the quick sincerity of her +response. It affected him as would her soft hand-clasp. He began to +glance restlessly about the room. + +The dusk of the early winter night was at hand. It had thickened in +the corners and over where Mr. Graham and Dave were meditating their +game in silence. The flames crackling in the fireplace intensified the +forming shadows. Lee recognized that it was time to be going. +Nevertheless, he continued to linger for a while, with his eyes +sometimes resting on his companion in enjoyment of her face, engaged +in thought, experiencing a contentment in merely being in her +presence. + +"This will be another of those days," he at length remarked, in a +musing tone. + +His words aroused her from her own reflections. + +"One for winter as well as for summer," she said, raising her look. +"Did I seem to be dreaming when you spoke? I was doing scarcely that; +my mind was lulled; the quiet--the twilight--Christmas Day--they bring +a soothing mood." + +"Something that in a world of money, money can't buy," Lee said. He +appeared about to make a further remark, but failed to do so. His +thoughts, however, had gone off somewhere, Louise observed. Then he +inquired in a matter-of-fact way: "When will you ride up to camp +again?" + +"Not until it grows warmer. Twelve miles or more is rather too far for +a canter on a sharp day." + +He cast his eyes about at the strings of evergreen and the suspended +red bells and holly wreaths. + +"I'll run down again, if I may, before the holidays are over," said +he. "If only for another look at those things. They give a fellow a +pull--out of the ditch, so to speak." And he rose. + +"Come, by all means," Louise replied, with a nod. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +A week of twenty-below-zero weather opened the month of January and +halted work on the mesa. At that time four miles of canal remained to +be dug. Bryant and Pat Carrigan sat by the stove in Lee's shack and +waited, as the whole camp waited, for the thermometer to rise. On one +of these mornings, when Dave had gone across the street to the +engineers' building, Lee informed the contractor that company funds +were not far from exhausted and related his talk with Gretzinger +before the latter's departure for New York. + +"So he would squeeze you out," Pat remarked. "What you might expect +from him, nothing more! I've had the notion for some time that your +cash was getting low, from the way the money has gone." + +"I've spent five thousand on engineering, medical, and general +accounts," Lee stated, "twenty thousand on concrete work, and paid you +forty thousand. I've fifteen thousand left from the sale of bonds and +a personal loan I obtained from McDonnell. That will pay for about two +weeks' work. And I think we've made every dollar go as far as it would +under the circumstances." + +"My word for that." + +"It's this little trick of Menocal's that's burning up good coin. +Sixty thousand would have built the project ordinarily; my estimates +were correct enough. But having to do the job in this infernal weather +is what's raising the cost forty thousand more. I feel like entering +in the ledger 'To account of frost--$40,000.00.' Like that." Lee +scribbled the line on a sheet of paper and handed it to Pat. "But +there's one thing sure, I'll sink the last cent I have in the ground +before I quit and let those Eastern pirates get their claws into me. +I'll have you cut down your force if necessary and string the last +dollar and last day's work out till my three months' grace is up." + +"Might try McDonnell for another loan," Carrigan suggested. + +"I hate doing that worse than anything I know. He, not the bank, let +me have that twenty thousand on my unsecured note. I had nothing to +offer but my stock in this company, and until the project's finished +that's no better than so much blank paper. Loaned it to me because of +my nerve, he said. And at the time I told him it would be enough money +to carry me through, which I believed. Now to go back to him +again----" Lee stopped, with an expression of deep chagrin upon his +face. + +Pat tapped the dottle from his pipe and refilled the bowl. He glanced +once or twice at the engineer during the act. + +"You can make a better showing now than before," said he. "Four miles +more and you'll be to the good. One of the excitements of construction +enterprises, and of irrigation projects in particular, I've observed, +is the financing. The more often a man can go and pull his backers' +legs for cash, the better financier he is. It seems to be largely a +matter of keeping at them, talking them to death, wearing them out, +until they weaken and hand over the money. More than one railroad was +built that way. Try it on McDonnell." + +"You come with me." + +"No, thank you," said Pat, with vigour. + +"I thought you wouldn't," said Lee. + +He took Carrigan's suggestion, however, and went down through the +bitter cold to see the banker. But the visit was fruitless. The bank +could not make the loan, and money being tight because of first of the +year settlements, McDonnell was not in shape to make it personally, +nor would be in time to render any assistance. He was perfectly +willing, he said, to gamble another twenty thousand on Bryant's +ability to win through, but he did not have the cash. Then he went on +to say that Imogene had been suffering from a slight cold, and that +Ruth Gardner was visiting at present with other friends in Kennard. + +Lee had had a telephone call from each of them the morning after +Christmas, thanking him for his gift, and later a letter from Imogene +again expressing her appreciation, with a line that a change in Mrs. +McDonnell's plans had prevented having him with them on Christmas. + +Nothing from either since. He now asked the banker to convey to +Imogene his wishes for a quick recovery, then set out for camp. +Ruth--he did not even know where in town to look for Ruth, had he been +so inclined. Engaged! The thing would have been amusing if it was not +so horrible. + +"No luck," he said to Pat, briefly, when in his shack warming his +chilled body at the fire. "Your system may work in summer, but all +the money is froze up at this time of year, like everything else." + +At the end of the week the winter's frigid grip on the earth relaxed +and a period of mild, almost balmy days followed. Under the noon-day +sun the top ground even softened a little. The camps awoke, the rested +men and horses fell upon their task with new spirit, and excavation +went ahead steadily. If there had been a full force, as Carrigan +pointed out, he could have moved at the rate of a mile in six days +instead of in eight. Still the canal was being built, yard by yard, +rod by rod, until by the middle of January another mile of the total +was finished. The two camps were now easily within sight of each +other, the larger in the south, the smaller in the north, and but +three miles apart across the sagebrush. Moreover, the last stones of +the dam had been laid; it stood completed; and the men who had been +engaged there moved down to add their strength to the north camp. + +One day toward noon Lee entered his office and to his amazement found +Ruth seated there, glancing over an old magazine and toasting her feet +at the stove. The furs he had given her reposed on his desk, where she +had laid them aside. At his entrance she sprang up, uttered a +delighted exclamation, and rushing forward clasped her arms about his +neck and kissed him. + +"Lee, how good it seems to see you!" she said. "After so long! And I +can't thank you enough for those darling furs! I've thought of you so +much, working up here in the cold and alone with just men. My, your +face is like ice! Come to the fire. Poor thing, you look so thin and +tired! I hope that soon you'll be able to rest; I'll make it a point +to see that you do take a long vacation and rest, for you need it." +She concluded with a hug and another kiss. + +"Go easy with my ears, Ruth," he said, disengaging her arms. "They +were nipped the other night and are still tender. How did you get +here? I thought you were in Kennard." + +He led her back to her seat and began to remove his cap and long +sheep-lined overcoat, saying in an undertone that the weather was +really too warm for the things. Afterward he posted himself by the +stove near her, where he stuffed his pipe with tobacco and began to +smoke, while his eyes considered her face. + +"Imo and I returned to Sarita Creek yesterday," she remarked, with an +air of satisfaction. "It was good to be back, too. There has been so +much going on at Kennard that I felt quite worn out; one becomes weary +of too much buzzing around. I don't want any more of it for some time. +And I missed you dreadfully, Lee!" She flashed up a smile at him, +caught his hand for an instant, and gave it a squeeze. A thin stream +of smoke issued from one corner of Bryant's mouth at the action. "The +people were proving somewhat tiresome also. So as the weather had +moderated Imogene and I decided to return to our cabins." + +"Has she recovered from her cold?" Lee inquired, raising his look to +the ceiling. + +"Oh, yes; entirely. And we're quite comfortable. We had even thought +of having our ponies brought from the stable at Bartolo, so that we +could ride if it grew still milder." + +"Risky." + +"Well, you're probably right." She paused and scrutinized her toes to +see that they were not scorching. "Charlie brought Imo and me here on +his way home; you can take us back to our cabins when we're ready to +go." + +"Imo here?" Bryant's eyebrows lifted. + +"Over in the shack Dave called 'the hospital.' Dave was here when we +came and Imo asked him to take her to the place; she had heard +something of an injured man from Louise Graham. Did Louise really help +during an operation?" Lee nodded. "Well, she's odd in many ways. Must +be--what shall I say?--a little thick-skinned not to mind blood and +all the rest of it. And she doesn't go about much; not at all with the +real crowd at Kennard, only with a slow one when she does go. With her +father well off, I'd think she would want to be doing something worth +while. Charlie's still mad for her, but Gretzie thought after he met +her at our cabins that she was too self-conceited. When he asked her +if the men of New York, compared with Western men, didn't impress her +with superiority and smartness of dress, she said, 'Not those of my +acquaintance; they don't try to impress one; it isn't done in their +circle, you know. That's one of the differences in manners, I suppose, +that distinguishes Fifth Avenue from Broadway.' Gretzie was furious. +He had been speaking of Broadway shows and restaurants and things at +the time. He declared later that a little attention had turned her +head, and that what she had said was all rot. I don't care for her, +either. But let us talk of ourselves, Lee." + +"Yes, that's more interesting," he remarked, with an accent of irony +that escaped her. + +He was curious to learn what this talk was leading to. His curiosity +outweighed the irritation he felt at her calm ignoring of the past +weeks, at her complacent assumption of his love, at the kiss and the +caress she had bestowed, indeed, at her very presence in the room. + +"Tell me everything about your work and about yourself," she said, +folding her hands and gazing up at him. "I'm so impatient to hear." + +"Nothing worth relating has occurred," he replied. + +"You've been well?" + +"Oh, quite. This is a regular health resort." + +"And you're not working too hard?" + +"For a whole week I scarcely stirred from the stove," said he. + +"I'm so glad. You had earned a rest. You don't seem worried about +anything, either." + +"Worried?" His intonation was that of surprise. Then he added, as if +by after-thought, "Oh, no." + +"How relieved I am! I feared you might be worrying your head off about +difficulties--cold weather, the time limit set, perhaps money matters. +I gained the impression somewhere that you might run short before you +finished; I can't just say where I got it. From Imo, perhaps. Nothing +definite, you know. But it's so nice to know that you're no longer +anxious. That means you're sure you'll build the ditch. How much more +is there to do?" + +"You can see the north camp out of that window." + +Ruth rose and went to the window indicated, where she stood surveying +the men and teams at work beyond the camp and the stretch of +sagebrush extending to the white specks of tents in the distance. + +"That's all that's left to do, Lee?" + +"That's all. Three miles." + +"Charlie Menocal hasn't said anything about it lately." + +"Knowing Charlie, I'm amazed," he commented. + +Ruth resumed her seat and proceeded to toast her toes anew. Her +glances from time to time were directed at Lee's countenance somewhat +speculatively. Several times she smoothed her dress with slow +attention. Lee continued his deliberate smoking. + +"Well, it's a great comfort to know that you're well and that +everything is proceeding so brightly," she stated, at length. "You +must take time to run down and see me, now that I'm back. I'm not +going to be satisfied with anything less than almost every evening +with you. Bring along one of those nice engineer boys for Imogene +while we talk." + +Lee gave a shake of his head. + +"Don't count on me," he said. "We're doing night work as well as day. +We're near the end. Have to push the job. Little time to spare." He +jerked the phrases forth shortly, one after another. + +"Do try to come once in a while, though," she responded, gazing about +the room in a way that gave her speech a perfunctory character. That, +at any rate, was the impression made upon Lee; and he continued to +puzzle his brain as to what underlay it all--what motive, what object. +At the same time he was sickened by the suave interest she pretended, +by her shallow insincerity. "I've wondered if I could be of any help +here to you," she went on. But a sharp movement on his part caused +her to say, "Still, I know a man doesn't like a girl messing up his +work. That's one reason I've been careful not to propose it before, or +even to make the demands on your time that some girls would have made. +I'll be glad when the project is out of the way; then we can begin to +plan for ourselves." She cast her eyes upward at space. "There are +lots of things to decide--where to live, and so on. You come soon and +we'll set some of them down on paper for consideration." + +Lee could not escape that feeling of perfunctoriness in her twitter of +talk. It went no further than that, however; he had no chagrin or +repugnance or anger at the thin duplicity, not even at her complacent +confidence in his stupidity and infatuation. For to count on his being +blind to the past and deluded by her words, she could only believe him +both stupid and infatuated. He was quite calm. His actual state of +mind was, more than anything else, one of detachment. He imagined that +he had come to a point where she was incapable of arousing in him any +kind of sentiment or passion. + +Presently she took up her furs and walked humming about the office as +she adjusted them. + +"I'd like to stay all day, but must be going," she said. "Imo and I +were wondering, by the way, if you could send us a man with some +tar-paper to line our cabins." + +"Of course. I'll send him after dinner. And he can chop you some wood +and bring your water." + +She stood for a little examining a blue-print tacked on the wall. + +"That's like the one Mr. Gretzinger sometimes carries," she remarked. +"I suppose he'll be returning one of these days. Not that it matters; +he was tiresome at times, like Charlie Menocal." She studied the lines +of the map attentively. "He appeared anxious to get to New York. Said +something about a sweetheart there. You'll be glad if he doesn't come +back to bother you again, won't you, Lee dear?" She swung about, +laughing. + +"Oh, he'll show up." + +"I wasn't sure; he said he thought not." + +Lee emptied and put away his pipe. + +"He'll come," was his assured reply. + +"Then he must have been 'kidding' me." + +Her thoughtful air returned. She picked a raveling from her sleeve, +and stroked her fur, and inspected the tips of her gloves, and untied +and retied the strings of her cap--all with an inscrutable face. Then +suddenly her mind appeared to be made up. + +"Well, dear, run and bring your car and we'll pick up Imogene," she +said, giving him a quick pat on the cheek. + +Lee experienced an inward and involuntary shrinking at that touch. He +no more could have returned the caress than he could have risen off +the ground into the air, like those floating figures depicted in +sacred paintings. After all, she was quite capable of stirring a +sentiment in his heart--a sentiment of aversion. + +"Go join Imo," he replied. "One of the boys will bring the car to the +hospital and take you home. Impossible for me to drive you there +to-day." + +That was it--impossible, literally impossible, for his whole being was +in revolt. The threshold of the door might have been a dead-line; he +was unable to cross it, at any rate. With a stony aspect he watched +her depart and wave a hand back at him from a distance and at last +disappear. Then he closed the door and leaned his head against it, +with his features drawn in an expression of pain and desperation. His +position was diabolical. She meant to hold him to his word; she +believed he loved her; and, anyway, she had him fast in a coil. Yes, +she had him fast. And he did not love her, not at all. On the +contrary, he detested her--detested her with all his heart, almost to +hatred, utterly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +"Will you be so kind as to come here?" Mr. Menocal inquired of Bryant. + +It was an afternoon in late January, and the banker, bundled in a +great overcoat and numerous rugs, had reined his team to a halt at the +spot where he found the engineer. The air was cutting. Steam in sharp +jets came from the nostrils of his pair of bays, as from those of the +horses straining at the plows and scrapers in the stretch of partially +excavated canal near by. + +Lee went forward to the buggy, slapping his gloved hands together to +quicken their circulation. + +"What do you want of me, Mr. Menocal?" he asked. "You're picking a +frosty day to look at the scenery." + +"Well, there's a matter that's been troubling my mind for some time +and I decided to let it go no longer. We have our differences, Mr. +Bryant, but I wouldn't wish you to believe me responsible for a number +of annoyances to which you've been put. I am a gentleman; I fight +fair. For instance, I was quite within my rights in suggesting those +men take homesteads down yonder along the base of the mountains, +though I was wrong in my guess. Also, in taking advantage of the law +under which you were limited by the Land and Water Board, I wasn't +stepping out of bounds. But I've learned that some time ago a man +introduced whisky into camp against your rules, and I wish to tell +you that I knew nothing of it at the time and would countenance no +sort of disgraceful act like that." + +"I judged that you wouldn't," said Lee. + +"Then again last summer someone killed your dog, I understand. That +was a bad deed. I am fond of dogs, and had I been able to learn who +did it I should have informed you so that you could have had Winship +arrest him. Since that time, too, there have been other things, many +of them--men cutting your telephone wire, removing your survey stakes, +and the like. All making you angry. Well, I was angry when I heard +that those things were being done. Resorting to questionable and +criminal tactics against any man is the worst possible course a person +can follow. I do not do it in your case; I will prevent any one else +from doing it if I can. You have the right to work undisturbed." + +"I never connected you with these underhanded acts," the engineer +stated. + +"Thank you, Mr. Bryant. It pleases me to hear you say that. I should +like to see you lose your water right, of course; it would mean much +money in my pocket; but I'll not do contemptible things or crooked +things to get possession of it." + +Lee glanced at the speaker's face. It was sincere, earnest, and now +relieved. He felt an increase of respect for the man, opponent though +he was. Menocal appeared, to be sure, unable to comprehend the ethics +involved in seeking to thwart Bryant, but he was scrupulous and +honourable within his understanding. Far more so than Gretzinger, for +instance. Or Charlie Menocal. The thought of the banker's son pulled +Bryant up. Should he mention his conviction that Charlie was the +instigator of the mischief discussed? As he was still in doubt when +his visitor turned the subject, he let it rest. + +"The way you're going ahead with your canal, I'm afraid that my chance +of retaining the water is poor, very poor," Menocal said, with a +lugubrious sigh. He drew his fat chin deeper into his coat collar, +tugged at the ice on his big white moustache, and ran his eyes up and +down the long line of moving teams. "And it will cost me a lot of +money." Again the sigh. "I didn't think you could do it; I didn't +think any man in the world could do it. In cold weather, in ninety +days! I said it was impossible. Charlie said it was impossible. +Everyone said it was impossible." + +"Everyone except my contractor and me," Lee interjected, smiling a +tight smile. + +The other nodded. "Except you, yes. And you're showing us that after +all it's not impossible. I shall never say again that anything is +impossible. If I ever have a big ditch to build, I shall insist, Mr. +Bryant, that you take charge. Then I would say, 'I should like to have +it built so and so, and by such a time,' and sit down at my desk and +think no more of it, knowing it would be built." + +Bryant laughed softly. He could not help doing so. That naïve avowal +from the one whom he considered his chief enemy tickled his fancy. And +presently Menocal, catching the humour of it, himself began to smile. + +"I shouldn't be surprised if we have had a misconception of each +other," Lee stated. + +"Ah, _cielos!_ That is nothing less than the truth. What a pity, too, +my young friend, that we could not have found it out earlier. Our +affair, perhaps--we might have reached a satisfactory agreement. This +winter work, it is costing you something." + +"A good many extra thousand." + +"And, alas, costing me even more! But it is too late now." He made a +tragic gesture. "It has gone too far. Within two or three weeks it +will be settled one way or the other. For you if the weather remains +good; for me if the weather becomes stormy." He again studied the +moving horses along the canal. "For me then--perhaps. You might not +allow even a great storm to stop you, in some way. This winter is +remarkable; there seem to be no storms to happen. You're very lucky." + +"Yes, I am in that respect." + +"Well, I've done all that I shall do in the matter. I've become quite +calm, fatalistic. There's nothing else to be." He gathered up his +reins. + +"That's a good team you have," Lee remarked. + +"Of the very best. I disliked to use them in this cold, but Charlie +had gone with the car to Kennard. Va! He is never at home any more. It +would be well if I made him drive a team on your ditch." + +"Send him along; I'll give him a job," Lee said. + +The banker shook his head. + +"He would say I was crazy and he wouldn't come. He doesn't even attend +to matters that require attention. This winter he has been running too +much with idle men in town and spending money as if it took no effort +to get it, as if it could be picked off of weeds. It's very +perplexing. I am too easy with Charlie, I let him have his way too +much. I should put him in a pair of overalls for a while and say, 'You +are going out with a band of sheep; you have to work.' Several times +I've made up my mind to do that, but when the moment came I couldn't +say it. He isn't robust, he has always had the best of everything, and +he's been educated in a college." + +"Cut off his allowance and take away his automobile. He would stay at +home and attend to business then," Lee offered. + +"But it would shame him. He isn't a little boy any longer; he's thirty +years old. The trouble is that he isn't like me, particular and +careful; he's wild and impatient and reckless. His mother wasn't that +way, I am not that way--I don't know where he got that nature." + +Menocal senior drove off and Bryant turned back to his work. The pity +of the thing was, as the banker had stated, that they had been hasty +in the beginning, that they had not sought to come to an +understanding, some arrangement. It was another mistake. To Lee his +whole past here was beginning to appear a record of oversights, +incredible misjudgements, blinded blunders, and ghastly mistakes. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +Ghastly mistakes! Some cynic has said the only mistake in life a man +can make is "to go broke." Bryant did not realize until afterward the +irony lurking in the penumbra of the talk with Menocal. He was broke, +unable to proceed, even while he listened to the banker's +commendation. The workmen were busy, it was true, and the horses were +pulling loaded fresnos, and plows were cutting the trench deeper; but +that was an expiring motion, a last falling gesture. Only a few +wretched dollars lay at the bottom of the money chest. A day more, and +Menocal would have won. + +That evening Lee climbed in his car and drove away from camp. Carrigan +had said nothing, but he as well as Bryant knew the company's bank +account was drained; he would expect a settlement and when it was +made, discharge the crews, pull up stakes, and move his property to +Kennard. At Sarita Creek Bryant alighted. + +"I wish to see Ruth," he told Imogene. "Is she away? Her cabin is dark +and I obtained no answer to my knock." + +"She's gone to town." + +"Well, I wanted to tell her I've failed. Work stops to-morrow. Out of +money. And less than two miles to build!" + +Imogene's face became a picture of dismay. + +"Oh, no, Lee! There must be some way to go on, some place to obtain +money," she cried. + +"None. I've tried, but have reached the end of my rope. Only twenty +thousand more needed, or maybe twenty-five. Just enough to hammer +through during the next two weeks. But it might as well be a million. +I decided to inform Ruth at once; she might consider it important." + +"She would," said she, positively. + +"I haven't been to Sarita Creek before since you returned. You can +guess why." + +"Yes." + +"Does Ruth suspect that I've ceased to love her?" he asked, frowning. + +"I think not. There was considerable talk on her part about being +bored with Kennard and how happy she would be when she was married, +but it was on the surface. She's really waiting for something I'm not +able to divine. I'm reminded when I observe her of a card-player +studying a hand before the cards begin to fall." + +"Where is she to-night? With Charlie Menocal?" + +"With Gretzinger." + +"Gretzinger back?" + +"Arrived in Kennard this morning. Two days ago Ruth received a letter +with a New York post-mark and became very animated. I'm sure she has +had none before. Then late this afternoon the man himself appeared +here, ate supper with us, and took Ruth off to a concert in town. He +said he had business in camp with you to-morrow." + +"Ruth's spirits have revived and her retirement has ended," Lee +remarked, with sarcasm. "Well, don't say anything about this now to +either of them." + +"Oh, I'll be long asleep when they return, and I'll not speak of it to +Ruth in the morning. She'll not rise before noon, I suspect, as it +will be one or two o'clock before they're home. Or she may stay with +one of the girls she's chummy with and come up with him to-morrow. +Probably that." + +Lee made ready to go. He gave Imogene a sardonic smile. + +"May the music she hears to-night strengthen her soul for the morrow's +smash," he said; and went out. + +Where the trail from the cabins debouched upon the main mesa road he +slowed the car to a stop and sat for a time in thought, with the +engine humming softly and the freezing night air biting at his cheeks. +It seemed to make little difference where he went, or if he went at +all. Nothing worth while was at the end of any road. His inclination, +however, was working and at last he set out for the Graham ranch. + +Since his Christmas visit he had made a number of calls there, a +rather large number, indeed, considering everything. He had schooled +his face and words on those occasions to a passivity he was far from +feeling, and had left Louise's presence each time with a greater +torment of mind. Now this was the end--of her as of everything so far +as he was concerned. To-morrow the project came down in wreckage. Then +he should go from Perro Creek, poorer in purse, poorer in spirit, +poorer in faith, sore, and bitterly disillusionized. + +Louise Graham observed a shadow upon his countenance as she invited +him to a seat before the fireplace. Her father was absent and she had +been reading a book when Bryant's knock came. She had been wondering, +too, if the engineer might not choose this night to call again. How +much these calls of his now meant to her she did not dare consider. + +"What's wrong, Lee?" she asked at once, anxiously. "I see something +has happened." + +He moved round on the divan that he might fully face her. + +"Everything so far as my affairs go," he replied. "Work stops on the +canal to-morrow. That will result, of course, in the water right +lapsing and in the ditch never being finished or used, except under +the circumstance of my handing over my interest gratis to Gretzinger +and the bondholders. If I did that even, I don't believe Gretzinger +could finish it on time, for neither Carrigan nor the men would exert +themselves for him as they have for me, and they would be sure of +their pay in any case. The trouble is, I've used up all the money and +can borrow no more. I'm through. And I can't bring myself to the point +of surrendering my interest in the company to the bondholders merely +to pull them out. They're trying to strangle me in order that they may +profit; they could put up the cash needed easily enough if they would; +but they count on my yielding. I shall not do so. And so the project +fails. Those New Yorkers will wait too long if ever they do put up the +funds; and I can do nothing myself. The uncompleted ditch will remain +simply a scar on the mesa." + +"I never dreamed you were in this strait!" + +"No, probably not. One always hopes to the last that somehow--by a +credulous belief in one's own letter of credit with Providence, I +presume--one will pull through. So I delayed telling you of what was +impending." + +"If--perhaps father----" + +"Your father? No. Above all persons, no. That's a suggestion I can't +consider for an instant." + +"But what will you do?" she exclaimed, nervously. + +Lee glanced at her, then compressed his lips. + +"I'm going away; I couldn't stay here on the scene of this disaster. +It would be intolerable. Before long people will be describing the +unfinished project by the name of 'Bryant's Folly', or the like. +Haven't you seen old, windowless structures that were never completed, +or grass-grown railroad enbankments never ironed, or rusting mine +machinery never assembled? Men's failures, men's 'follies'." + +"Lee, Lee! It never will be so!" she cried. "Nor will your project be +a failure to me who have known how you've striven and sacrificed." + +Bryant looked past her and about the room, but his eyes in the end +came back to hers. + +"You have always been generous in your thoughts of me," he said, in an +unsteady voice. + +"No more than you deserved." + +"Listen, Louise," he went on, after a pause. "This is the last time I +shall see you for a long time, possibly for all time, and it's of your +kindness I wish to speak--and of another matter. Of course, I +shouldn't be quite human if I hadn't complained a bit about this blow, +but my complaints are done now. I'll possibly do some grimacing to +myself hereafter, though. What I came to say is that wherever I go in +the future I'll always carry with me as a treasure the memory of your +goodness and of your face." + +Louise's lips had parted, while the colour slowly receded from her +cheeks. + +"But we shall see each other," she gasped. "We'll meet, we can keep in +touch." After a silence there came in a whisper, "Friends should." + +Bryant began to tremble. He turned away from her in order to gaze into +the fire. Her low utterance had wrung the chords of his heart; he +dared not allow his eyes to continue to dwell upon her face. + +"What good in that?" he asked. Then he gave a passionate shake of his +head. "The risk for me is too great. I shall seek an engineering +billet altogether out of the country, in South America, in Asia, +wherever one is open. A job without responsibility, preferably. No, +no; I can't remain and play with fire--any longer." + +An intense stillness rested in the room after these words. He doubted +if Louise even breathed. + +"Would it be that?" she asked, at last. + +"Of course. Haven't you seen?" + +"I--I----" Her voice failed her. + +"I could no more help loving you, Louise, after I came to know you, +than can the earth its blooming under a summer sun. The thing was +inevitable." He was speaking now in a slow, fixed attempt at +restraint. "And this love coming when it did, after I was betrothed to +Ruth Gardner, is the capping madness of the whole nightmarish +situation in which I find myself. 'Nightmarish' isn't an exaggeration, +honestly. By all the empty, senseless conventions I ought to seal my +lips on my love and to go dumbly away, because I'm engaged to Ruth +Gardner." He turned abruptly to her. "Do you think I should?" + +Her hands were locked together in a clasp that expelled the blood and +left them white. Her regard had the intentness of a stare. + +"If you love me, if you're going away--" She suddenly became agitated. +"Oh, I am unhappy!" And with a quick movement she bent her head aside. + +"Louise, forgive me for causing this distress," he exclaimed. + +Without looking about she put out a hand, touched and pressed his. The +unexpected act filled Bryant with amazement. He sat gazing stupidly at +the hand until she withdrew it. Then he found an explanation. + +"You feel compassion for me," he said. "You would." A sound, low, +inarticulate, reached him. "It's your kind nature to make some return +for my love even if it's not love you can give. Or ought to give! I'm +expecting nothing, can expect nothing. That is out of the question. If +I were entirely calm and rational, I should doubtless be asking myself +why I should speak of my passion instead of trying to tear it out of +my heart. But, of course, being in love I'm neither the one nor the +other. The only explanation for the impulse to pour out a confession +like this is overcharged nerves. Or, after all, is it just unconscious +egotism?" His composure had slipped off and his tone had grown savage. + +"Don't, don't, Lee! Don't cut at yourself!" + +"What was it I had started to say? Oh, yes. I had said I felt no +compunction in brushing aside the usual conventions of duty as +proscribed for an engaged man. Cobwebs in my case! Why pretend lies? +No honour is involved that I can discover. I don't love Ruth, and I +think she's incapable of loving me or any one else. She never felt +half the affection I did for her, and mine withered quickly, God +knows! A dash of passion on my part, and lonesomeness and the belief I +should have wealth on her side--there's the salad." + +Louise leaned forward a little breathlessly. + +"And if she believes you're ruined?" she asked. + +"She'll hold me if she thinks she can't do better," Lee responded, +bitterly. "I at least beat homesteading." + +"Lee!" + +Louise had risen. The pallor of her face startled him. Her hands were +fast clenched. + +"What is it?" he asked, fearfully. + +"I can bear this. To have you love me--love me and go away! It will +break my heart. To stay here alone!" + +The words struck his brain as if they were cast in a fierce glare of +light. The suddenness of the knowledge they gave, the revelation they +made, left him speechless. Louise loved him in return. The first +effect upon his mind was to produce a blank incredulity; he stared at +her as if to ascertain whether or not this was in truth she; for +though he well knew he possessed her friendship, he had never +conceived so fantastic a possibility as that of winning her love. Then +a swift exaltation succeeded. He swam in a kind of spiritual ether. + +"Louise, Louise, my dear beloved!" he murmured. + +He caught her hand, pressed it. She glanced at him without replying, +looked away, back again. Her bosom rose and fell with a slow and +tremulous movement, as though stirring with deep, soundless sighs. A +little smile hovered on her lips, tender, rapturous. + +But at length she withdrew her hand, while the soft gladness passed +from her face. + +"It cannot be; you must go, Lee," she said. + +Bryant remembered--and felt the ice forming about his heart. He +shivered slightly. The full cruelty of the situation was reached. Ruth +Gardner not only held him, but he held her as well by a thread to +which she could cling for safety against the blandishments of +scoundrels, and her own desires, and the dark uncertainty of the +future. And much as he loved Louise Graham, he could not snap that +thread; much as he detested Ruth, he lacked the flintiness of heart to +let her slip into the abyss. Nor would Louise have it otherwise. + +She was seeking his eyes, questioning them. + +"Well, this hour is worth it all to me," he said, calmly. "All of the +unhappiness of the past, and all the loneliness of the future! I am +poor now; in that fact lies what hope I have." + +A gentle inclination of her head answered him. + +"I am happy to-night, anyway," said she. + +"The only thing for me to do is to remain away from you," he answered. +"Heaven knows I shall be miserable enough then, but I should grow +desperate if I were near." + +"I know. We mustn't see each other, Lee dear." + +He walked to where his storm coat and cap lay on a chair by the door. +In silence he drew on and buttoned the former. She had accompanied +him to the spot and watched with moisture on her lashes his +preparation for departure. His eyes were lowered while his fingers +were engaged with the buttons. + +"You should understand about this," he said, grimly. "That man +Gretzinger is after her. She has no money, no training to earn money, +is crazy for pleasure and attention and clothes. I ought in all +decency to break our engagement. She has given me grounds enough. But +it's keeping her straight. If I broke it"--his hand dropped to his +side and he stood for a moment quite still--"he drags her under." His +gaze rose to hers. + +"I guessed it long ago," she said, in a choked voice. "And loved you +for it." Next instant she leaned forward, took his temples between her +hands, and lightly touched his brow with her lips. "Go, go!" she +exclaimed, with an accent of despair. + +She herself turned and went quickly out of the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + +Bryant had asked Carrigan to come to the office at two o'clock, +stating that the company was insolvent and but enough money remained +to square accounts with the contractor. Pat had cast a shrewd glance +at Lee and nodded. This was during the morning. Afterward the engineer +had gone for a visit to the dam, the drops, and the canal line, a last +view of the project as a whole; and the ride was pursued in that +peculiar melancholy of spirit which appertains to mortuary events. To +him, indeed, the ride marked a burial, a burial of high hopes and +ambition, and of his youth, with the partially excavated canal +providing their pit and the concrete work standing as a headstone. + +He came back to camp somewhat late for his appointment and found Pat +waiting in the office, but not alone. Gretzinger stood, back to the +stove, smoking a Turkish cigarette. + +"Well, Bryant, I've returned to discuss our little business +transaction," he greeted. "Judged this to be about the right time. +How's the exchequer?" + +"Little in it," said Lee, hanging his coat and cap on a hook. "But I +made sure it was locked before leaving here; you might come any +moment." + +"Oh, I don't waste time on an empty box," was the light answer. "Mind +if Carrigan hears what we say? Don't, eh? Neither do I. He knows, or +ought to know, you're through. And besides, I'll want to discuss +construction matters with him when you and I are done." + +"Perhaps Bryant can yet secure a loan somewhere," the contractor +remarked, mildly. + +"From Menocal, possibly," Gretzinger suggested, cocking his eyebrows +at Carrigan with mock enthusiasm. "If Bryant could have secured a +loan, he would have had it in his pocket before this. I made inquiry +of McDonnell when I reached Kennard concerning the company's cash +account and discovered that it looked awful sick. No, he can't get +money for the company except through me." + +"I see," said Pat. + +Gretzinger turned to Bryant. + +"Now, Lee, let's get down to brass tacks. You're played out as manager +and engineer-in-chief, so it's time for you to step out and give the +men who are able a chance to complete the work. I made you one offer; +I'm prepared to-day to make even a better one. The bondholders went +thoroughly into the subject with me of what they could afford to pay +you for your stock and a decision was finally reached to give you ten +thousand dollars for your interest in the company. Considering +everything, that's exceedingly liberal. I'm authorized to draw a check +for that amount to your order when you've assigned the shares." + +"Not enough," Lee replied. He sat down at his desk, lifted his feet to +a window ledge, and held a match to his pipe. + +"That's the limit." + +"It's not enough; I need more." + +"What you need and what you'll take are two different things," the +other stated, sarcastically. + +"Go higher," Lee said, with his gaze upon the window. + +"Not a cent!" + +"I owe McDonnell twenty thousand that has gone into the canal. I've +put in my ranch, and land I traded for it, and months of work and +organization--value twenty thousand; and I figure my present control +of things worth twenty thousand more. But let us say fifty thousand. +I'll sell for fifty thousand; that gives you my stock at fifty cents +on the dollar. Exceedingly liberal, I call it." + +The look the other directed at him was heavy with contempt. + +"Ten thousand is all--and make up your mind to that," said he. Then he +faced round toward Carrigan, whom he addressed. "I want you to +increase the force to double its strength at once, so that the work--" + +"What are you paying a yard for moving dirt?" + +"The same as before." + +"Not to me," Pat responded, complacently. + +"What do you mean?" Gretzinger demanded, angrily. + +"It's not enough." + +"Not enough! You seem to imagine your contract doesn't bind you." + +Pat slowly uncrossed his knees and stared at the speaker with a +countenance of bewilderment. + +"Now what in the world is the man talking about! Contract? The only +contract I had with Bryant was an oral agreement to build the dam and +move dirt at a certain day rate per man and per team, terminable at +his option. Oh, you mean the first contract to construct the ditch in +a year! We tore that up after he got notice from the Land and Water +Board." + +"Well, we'll continue the oral arrangement." + +"Not any more," said Pat. + +Gretzinger inspected the coal of his cigarette, replaced the latter +between his lips, and glanced at Bryant. But the engineer was +maintaining his consideration of objects on the outside of the window. + +"So you're trying to hold me up," was Gretzinger's remark. + +"You're slicing the fat off Bryant, and therefore I'll trim a bit off +you," Carrigan replied. "You're not the only one who can work a knife. +Once I used to sit back and let others keep all the easy money, but I +don't any more, not any more." With considerable relish he rolled the +words upon his tongue and nodded at Gretzinger. + +The latter scowled. + +"How much do you want?" he demanded. + +Pat spat, then remained pursing his lips while he engaged in +calculation. Once he shook his head and muttered, "Not enough," and +again after a time repeated the words. The man by the stove glared at +the seated contractor during the prolonged period of study as if he +hoped his look would consume him. + +"How much?" he questioned a second time, impatiently. + +Pat looked up at Gretzinger from under his bushy eyebrows with a +steely glint showing. The lines of his weather-beaten face had +hardened. + +"I don't like you," he stated. "I don't like you at all. When I work +for people I don't like, it costs them money. I like you less and less +all the time. If I go ahead and finish the ditch, I'll be liking you +so little that I'll be hating myself. And when I don't like any one +that much, I don't do it cheap. The job will cost you one hundred +thousand dollars." + +"You--you----" Gretzinger choked. + +"Cash down before I move a wheel," Pat added, calmly. + +The other was white with rage. He cast his cigarette upon the floor +and ground it under his heel. His lips worked and twisted in a vicious +snarl. Carrigan observed him unmoved; and Bryant had turned his head +about to see. + +"You grafters, you infernal thieves, you pair of rotten crooks!" he +shouted, shooting murderous glances from one to the other. "You've +'framed' me! Arranged it between you. Been waiting for me to come back +so you could spring your game! If there's any law in this state, I'll +have you both where you belong for deliberately wrecking this +company--in a cell!" + +His raving outburst continued for a while in this strain. His voice +had the high and squealing pitch of a wild pig caught fast by a foot; +on his pink, fleshy face, now distended with anger, was a look, too, +of porcine hate and fury. The cynical and patronizing manner he +usually affected had dropped off, leaving revealed his actual coarse, +spiteful, greedy, craven spirit--a creature of infinite meanness. At +length, however, Gretzinger's torrent of abuse diminished until it +ended in a last muddy dripping of threats and curses. With an effort +he strove to pull himself together and assume a composure his eyes +belied, while he lighted another of his offensive Turkish cigarettes. + +After a time he said shortly: + +"You can't bluff me. When you fellows get down to my figures, then +we'll do business." + +"Look out! Your coat is scorching--or is it only that tobacco?" Bryant +rejoined. + +Gretzinger stepped hastily aside and felt behind him, where his hand +moved about on the hot cloth fabric with searching movements. The +solicitude for his garment thus quickened seemed to effect the final +dispersion of his inward heat. + +"Well, are we going to get together on an arrangement?" he questioned, +when assured his coat was uninjured. + +"I stated my terms--fifty thousand," Lee said. "That or nothing." + +"You won't get it." + +"Then there's the alternative of the bondholders putting up money +enough to finish the work." + +"That, neither." + +"All right, Gretzinger," Bryant stated, rising. "You have an idea that +I'll give in----" + +"Yes, I have. You'll grab this ten thousand I offer, grab it quick by +to-morrow night, which is the limit I set for it to remain open. I've +seen men before in a tight hole who swore they wouldn't take the terms +handed them, but they always did in the end, and so will you. Only a +fool wouldn't. And I fancy Carrigan won't sacrifice a good piece of +work in a dull season and pull off his men and teams." + +Pat hoisted himself off his seat stiffly. + +"Why don't your outfit sell instead of trying to buy?" he asked, +crossing to Lee's desk and obtaining a can of tobacco sitting there. +"I suppose they'll sell." He began to stuff his pipe, pressing the +tobacco into the bowl with a brown forefinger. + +"Certainly; they would unload what they have in this rotten project so +fast that the bonds would smoke. But who in the devil would touch +them?" + +"I might." + +"You?" Gretzinger began to laugh. "What have you besides your outfit? +They're not taking worn-out fresnos in exchange to-day, thank you." + +"And what are the three bondholders you represent worth?" Pat +inquired, in a nettled tone. + +"Half a million each, or more." + +Carrigan's brows rose contemptuously. + +"Is that all?" he exclaimed. "Why, from the way you talked, I thought +they were real financiers! And they're only piffling tin-horns, after +all. What d'you know about that, Lee?" Pat turned to the engineer with +an amazed air. + +Gretzinger's anger surged up anew. + +"You never saw half a million in your life," he sneered. + +"I could buy out all three of them with what I have in one trust +company in Chicago alone," was the unperturbed reply. "It's cheap +sports like you that make a real man sick. How much for the bonds? You +want to unload. Speak up; how much?" + +Despite his anger, the other's brain perceived that the contractor was +in earnest. + +"The amount of the face of both bonds and stock, with interest on the +former to date," he answered quickly. + +"I buy only bargains," was Carrigan's dry statement. + +"One hundred thousand then." + +"You're still sailing way up in the clouds. The stock was a bonus, +Gretzinger; it cost your parties nothing. So it's only the bonds that +count. And the project is rotten, it may not be finished on time, be a +dead loss; your men want to get out from under; they'll jump at the +chance to sell, you say. All right. They can unload on me. Wire them +to deposit the bonds and stock in any New York bank and draw on +McDonnell for forty thousand dollars. That's what I'll give." + +Gretzinger walked to the wall, where he reached down his overcoat and +put it on. + +"The ditch will go to weeds first," he said. + +"The offer's open until to-morrow night," said Pat. + +"You bloodsuckers can't put anything over on me," was the Easterner's +departing declaration, as he opened the door. "I'm on to you, +Carrigan. You're backing Bryant and will finish the ditch. We'll just +sit tight on our bonds and stock." + +Pat watched him go. + +"I hate to make money for men like them," he remarked to the engineer, +"but I guess I can't help it, because I'll not let you down, Lee, for +a matter of cash payment. I'll advance what's necessary and take a +company note. Maybe you're wondering why I let you sweat all this +time? Because you needed the experience. You laid down too easy. All +the time that you were thinking the game was up, I was waiting for +you to grab my leg and begin to pull. But you never did." + +"You had done too much for me already, Pat; and though I supposed you +were well-fixed I had no idea you were wealthy. The thought you might +risk twenty thousand dollars----" + +"Why not? I know this project better than any banker; it's sound, it's +about completed," the old man interrupted. "All that's necessary is to +take a long breath and push hard for three weeks more. Sometimes I +think you have the making of a fair engineer, Lee, but you discourage +me dreadfully when I try to picture you as a financier. I'm afraid +you'll wind up like one of these bondholders of Gretzingers, just +piffling." + +Lee went to stand at the window, so that Carrigan could not see his +face. Emotion had unmanned him. He would not have even Pat know how +strongly he was moved by this act of magnanimity. + +"Well, I better be getting back to the ditch," said the contractor, +presently. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + +A week later the long-belated big storm appeared at hand. McDonnell +telephoned Bryant one morning, a morning in February now, that the +weather forecast predicted blizzard conditions sweeping down the Rocky +Mountain region from the Northwest. A mile of excavation yet remained +to do. Lee at once sent Saurez and other Mexicans abroad in the native +settlements with offers of double wages and this drew the most +indolent back to camp again. They were flung into the night shift, +which toiled with increased vigour at news of the impending storm. For +two days and nights the desperate effort was pushed while the sky +continued clear, with the crews of both camps attacking the iron earth +and steadily forging closer. + +Bryant scarcely slept during that time, or ate. Toward morning, when +the night shift went off, he would cast himself down fully dressed and +drawing the blankets to his chin sleep restlessly for two or three +hours, then again rise to drive the work. The third day came sunny and +quiet, but with heavy warmth in the air wholly strange to the season. +During the night both Lee and Pat had continually and anxiously +watched the peaks of the Ventisquero Range for portent of the change +imminent in the weather; and now on this morning they beheld about the +crests long, low-lying layers of gray cloud. + +Again McDonnell telephoned, but now with particulars of the storm. It +was general in character, covering the states from the Canadian line +southward, with very low temperatures and raging furiously, destroying +wire communications and blocking railroads, and at the moment was +bearing down across Utah, Colorado, and Kansas. The entire region from +the Pacific coast to the Mississippi was in its grasp. + +"Ten days is all that's left of our time," Lee said to the contractor, +with a heavy heart. "And no one can tell how long this weather spree +will last." + +"It's not a mile we've got to go any more, any way. With what we'll do +to-day it will be half a mile of dirt moved in three days. That leaves +but half a mile. This storm may be played out when it reaches us." But +the worry on his face showed that he put little faith in this +possibility. + +What he stated in regard to the ditch was true. The work of night and +day had eaten well into the remaining mile between the two camps. To +be sure, it had been rushed work: the sides of the ditch were gouged +and ragged, the bottom uneven and rutted, and the removed dirt was +piled anywhere along its banks. But nevertheless there was a canal, +dug on grade and to measurement, and capable of carrying water. + +During the afternoon a pair of men drove two lines of waist-high +stakes to mark the survey of the short section of ground yet +untouched, doing this under Carrigan's supervision. In case snow came, +he told Lee, he wanted something he could see. "Nine hundred yards of +unbuilt ditch will be lying buried," he added, "and I don't propose +to paw up the whole mesa finding this section." + +About four o'clock Bryant rejoined him. + +"Still lovely," said Pat with a grin. "I've just set some plows +tearing up the scalp on another two hundred yards. If this storm will +just hang off for three or four days longer, it can come and welcome. +I'll have my fresnos stacked and waiting to go down to Kennard." + +"Take a look at the northwest," said Bryant, significantly. + +A smoky haze lay along the horizon. + +"Aye, I see. That's her hair blowing out ahead. There will be plenty +of wind after awhile, I'm thinking. Get word to the men in camp, will +you, to make all the tents tight." + +At sundown the haze in the west had thickened somewhat. The air, +however, remained warm, almost oppressive, and the sharp cold that +usually fell at night was wanting. The Ventisquero Peaks were hidden +by a mass of cloud. At seven o'clock the night crew began work, as +ordinarily; no wind was stirring and the steam that came from the +horses' nostrils was light. + +"I'm taking a little time to skip down to Sarita Creek and see if +those girls are still there. If they took a notion to stick, they'd +try to do it, whether McDonnell sent after them or not. But I'll pry +them out. If the storm breaks in a hurry, get the men and teams into +camp at once. Don't take any chances, Pat." Thus spoke Bryant. + +"Aye, I've seen blizzards before," was the reply. + +Lee sped rapidly toward Sarita Creek, with the headlights of his car +casting their glow before him upon the dark road. The silence of the +night was broken only by the steady humming of his engine. The mesa +seemed very hushed, unstirring, unnatural. + +When he reached the girls' cabins, he saw that the windows of each +were lighted. The girls were there. What incredible folly! Then his +lamps brought into view an automobile. He breathed relief. Someone had +come for them. Alighting he walked forward and knocked on Ruth's door. +When it was opened by Ruth, he discovered Gretzinger seated within. + +"Oh, it's you, is it? Well, come in," Ruth said. + +She wore a pink party gown, with her throat and smooth, round arms +showing through some filmy stuff that was part of the creation. Bryant +had never seen her so dressed; she looked very youthful and charming, +almost beautiful. + +"There's a party at Kennard to-night," said she, before Lee could open +his mouth to make an explanation of his presence, "and Mr. +Gretzinger's taking me. He just came. Sorry you chose to-night to +call, Lee. And we're starting immediately." She reached forth and gave +Lee a pat on the cheek, at the same time smiling. + +Bryant continued stony under the touch, under the smile, under the +false affection. He gazed at her and detected beneath her apparent +good spirits and loveliness a suppressed excitement. His glance went +to Gretzinger; the man was observing them with a restless, frowning +face. On the instant the truth flashed into Bryant's brain. She was +cunningly playing him off against the New Yorker, using him as a lay +figure in her despicable game, bestowing endearments to anger +Gretzinger and arouse his jealousy. + +"I came to tell you a big storm is brewing," he said quickly. "You and +Imogene must plan to stay in Kennard for some time. If a heavy fall of +snow occurs, the mesa will be closed for ten days or two weeks with +the temperature very low." + +"Then I'll pack my things in my suit-case so that I can remain that +long," Ruth exclaimed. "I'll stay with Mabel Seybolt. Imogene's uncle +sent up his car this morning, but I didn't imagine there was any +really bad storm coming and sent it back. I doubt if the snow amounts +to much, anyway. The weather's too warm." Nevertheless, she began to +fill a suit-case. + +"I'll tell Imogene also," Lee said. + +Ruth's eyes turned toward Gretzinger with an inquiring look. + +"There won't be room for three of us, will there?" + +"No," he answered. + +Her regard still continued directed at him. + +"I'm sure there won't be," she said, with conviction. "It probably +won't storm before to-morrow, in any case. I'll tell Mr. McDonnell in +the morning and he can send up his big car for her." + +"Or you can take her to town yourself," Gretzinger added in an +indifferent tone. + +"I can't spare the time," Lee said. + +"But dearie, I'll be done packing in two minutes, while it will take +Imogene half an hour," Ruth replied. "She's too slow to wait for. And +she has one of her eternal headaches, too." + +Ruth was hurriedly removing articles from her trunk to the suit-case. + +"Listen, please," Lee said, addressing her. "If Imo remains she may +become snowbound, and if snowbound, freeze. I can't go, I can't +possibly go. With this storm coming, I must stay at camp. As things +are, a blizzard may put me out of business." + +Ruth straightened up to confront him. + +"You mean the work would stop, that you couldn't finish it on time?" + +"That's just what I mean." + +"Why?" Gretzinger spoke. "You have ten days left." + +"Yes, and what are ten days with two feet of snow on the ground and +the mercury forty below zero?" Bryant retorted. + +Gretzinger stood up, glanced at his watch, and buttoned his overcoat. +He then bent down and set to work buckling the straps of the suit-case +Ruth had closed. + +"You do seem to get into every possible kind of trouble, Lee," the +girl said. + +"Perhaps I do. But the point now is about Imogene. Will you take her +with you, or not?" + +"Mr. McDonnell can send for her to-morrow; that will be soon enough." + +"My God, you leave her! With a blizzard coming!" + +"I don't think there'll be a blizzard. Or if there is, she can get +along comfortably till her uncle comes." + +"Are you ready, Ruth?" Gretzinger asked, impatiently. + +"Yes, as soon as I fasten my gloves. Anyway, Lee, you can take her to +Kennard if you want to. It's because you're just obstinate. Besides, +she didn't have to come up here; I told her so; I could have got along +without her--much better, probably, for she's always finding fault; +she came on her own responsibility and so can look out for herself; +and if you're so anxious for fear she'll freeze, why, take her. It +won't make any difference about your ditch that I can see, for you say +you'll very likely lose it, anyway. Now you'll have to excuse us; +we're going. Blow out the light, please, and lock the door, our hands +are full. Give the key to Imo to keep." + +Two minutes later Gretzinger's car was gone with a swirl of the +headlights as it circled and with a sudden roar of its exhaust. Lee +extinguished the light and closed the cabin. To him that little house +seemed poignant with tragedy; and he knew, whatever came, his foot +would never be set in it again. + +He found Imogene sitting beside her sheet-iron stove, wrapped in a +quilt and coughing. + +"I heard your car come after his; I knew it was you," she greeted him. + +Lee regarded her closely. + +"You're sick," he said. "You ought to be in bed. Ruth stated that you +had a headache and now I discover you in a coughing fit bad enough to +take off your head. Is your throat sore?" + +"A little." + +"Why in the name of all that's sensible haven't you gone to your +uncle's? I begin to think you're unbalanced." + +"I explained my reasons once, Lee." She coughed again, then continued, +"Ruth and I quarrelled Christmas because of actions of hers and aunt +said she must leave the house. That's why you were not asked then. But +she made it up afterward and so I came when she did, for she was +determined to live here where she could be free. I just had to come." + +"And now she's leaving you in the face of the worst storm this winter, +the ingrate!" Bryant exclaimed. "To-night's work finishes her with me. +She may go to eternal damnation so far as I'm concerned. I'm done! She +refused, she would have left you here to freeze, she set your life +against her convenience! And after you had sacrificed your comfort and +undergone hardships to save her good name! There's no limit to her +selfishness and miserable hypocrisy. Our efforts and consideration +haven't restrained her a particle, and she will tread the road she +chooses irrespective of our desires or feelings. What fools we've +been! You and I, Imogene Martin, aren't going to chase a +will-o'-the-wisp any longer. We've wasted enough time on this delusion +of saving Ruth Gardner; if she's to be saved, she must save +herself--and if she will not do that, then the whole world together is +of no avail. You're never going to come here again, or have anything +to do with her, or let her have a part in your life. Nor am I. She +walks out of our book, and we draw a pen across the bottom of the +page." + +Imogene had covered her face with her hands during his terrible +denunciation and was weeping softly. She knew it was true. She knew +that Ruth had gone out of her life, for such baseness as her one-time +friend had shown was not to be forgiven. + +"You're right--I can't go on here longer," she sobbed. "I'm sick, I'm +really sick. I've been barely crawling about for the last two days. +And she knew it and left me! Oh, Ruth, Ruth!" + +"And would have left you, storm or no storm, and whether I came or +not! In order to be alone with Gretzinger!" Her heart-breaking sobs +went on. "Don't weep, Imogene. Put her out of your mind." He gently +placed an arm about her shoulders. "Come, I will take you to Louise." + +That she had been "crawling about the last two days" was apparent when +she attempted to rise. Her strength suddenly vanished, her knees gave +way. Bryant secured her coat and cap, wrapped her in blankets from the +bed, and carried her out to the car. Then he put out her lamp and +locked the door. + +And that turning of the lock, Lee felt, terminated a painful chapter +of his life. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + +As by the girls' cabins, so before the Graham house, Lee perceived a +motor car. He brought his own machine to a stop near it and cut off +his engine. At the same instant the door opened in the house, where by +the light shining through the portal he saw Louise's and Charlie +Menocal's figures. Menocal stepped forth. + +"You will please go now," Louise was saying. "When you telephoned I +told you then that I shouldn't go with you, or go to the dance at +all." + +Bryant had alighted and was arranging the blankets about Imogene. +Charlie's voice spoke, rather truculently: + +"I told you I was coming for you, didn't I? Now see what a position +that leaves me in! People think you're coming. I promised to bring +you." + +"Then you were too presumptuous," Louise said. "Now go. You're only +making a bad matter worse." + +"See here, Louise----" + +"You had my refusal and I've repeated it a dozen times," she +interrupted, indignantly. "Must I shut the door in your face to +silence you? And here's another car. Have some regard for my personal +feelings, sir." + +Lee by now had lifted Imogene into his arms and started toward the +speakers. + +"Be a good sport, Louise," Menocal pursued, in a tone intended to be +wheedling. "Run upstairs and put on a party dress while I wait for +you. You don't understand how much I want you to come along to this +dance." His words were a little thick and stumbling. + +"Hush! Don't you see someone has come? You've been drinking; and +you're sickening to me." + +"I don't care if someone is there! Let 'em hear, Louise. Let all the +world hear, let your father hear, let anybody hear! Because I love +you, and so you must come to the dance." Suddenly his tone changed to +an angry hiss. "You've been treating me like a cur, refusing to see me +or go with me, and not letting me come here. I came to-night! I've +stood for enough from you; you can't play me for a fool any longer. +And you're going to marry me, too." + +Bryant perceived by the lamplight of the doorway that the fellow had +snatched her hand, that the two were struggling. Burdened with Imogene +as he was, Lee was helpless to enterfere. But he went hastily up the +steps toward them. Louise tugged herself free. + +"Oh, you contemptible creature!" she cried, in a voice of quivering +passion. "It's only because you know father is out caring for stock +that you dare stay here to insult me." Then looking past Menocal, she +exclaimed, "Who is that?" + +"I, Bryant," said Lee. "With Imogene. She's ill, she needs to be put +to bed. There was no time to ask your permission to bring her, but I +knew----" + +"Of course! If this beast will stop making a scene and go!" + +Charlie Menocal was pulling on his fur cap. + +"So here's our swell-headed crook of an engineer butting in again," +he sneered. "You better be hunting up your own chicken, or Gretzinger +will have her. Who y' say you got there?" + +"Stand aside!" + +Bryant's voice struck the other like the lash of a whip, and the +half-drunken youth instinctively fell back a pace, so that Lee could +pass with his charge into the house. But as Louise was about to follow +Menocal seized her arm. + +"Girlie, you're not going to throw me down? You'll be good to me and +come----" + +Louise shook off his hand, darted through the doorway, and quickly +closing the door turned the key in the lock. Then still grasping the +door-knob she leaned with her head against the panels, face white, +lips trembling, and her breast rising and falling stormily. + +"Oh, Lee! For you to be forced to see and hear that!" she said, in a +tone of anguish. + +"I think nothing of it; you could not avoid him." + +After a moment she recovered herself and said, "Wait until I call +Rosita." + +When she returned with the Mexican girl, she conducted Bryant to an +upper chamber where he placed Imogene upon a bed, pressed the latter's +hand assuringly, and then left her in charge of the other two while he +went below to telephone to her uncle. McDonnell had already set out +for Sarita Creek, his wife informed Lee. He had started about half an +hour before. Bryant went out of the house and entering his car drove +down the lane to the main road, where he stopped. + +Soon far away in the south there was a flash of light, repeated at +intervals, until at length it grew into a steady, powerful glare that +threw his own machine into strong relief, that dazzled and blinded +him. Finally the other car stopped near by. + +"What's the trouble, Jack?" McDonnell's voice came, addressed to his +chauffeur. + +Bryant went forward to the banker, who was leaning out of the +limousine. He gave the information that neither of the girls was at +Sarita Creek and explained that Imogene was at the Graham house, +comfortable though ill. + +"She's too sick to be removed and will probably need a nurse for a +time," he concluded. "I brought her here as soon as I learned her +condition. Miss Graham put her to bed." + +"All right; I'll run in and see her. Much obliged to you, Bryant," was +the answer. Then in a vexed strain he went on, "What I expected to +happen has happened. Advice, pleadings, commands haven't prevented her +from following out this crazy affair. You may not believe it, but +she's as stubborn as a mule when she wants to be. My wife has been +almost distracted all winter. Well, I'll send up a doctor and a nurse +both as soon as I return to Kennard, if there's time before this +storm. Still at work?" + +"Still digging. Will keep at it till the last minute." + +"Supposed you would. That's the lane there, isn't it?" + +Next minute the big car had passed Lee's and was moving up the roadway +between the rows of cottonwoods toward the house. But Bryant did not +at once start for camp. His mind was busy with pictures--pictures of +the two girls as he first had seen them at Perro Creek, and at their +cabins afterward, and finally to-night: Imogene, weak and racked by a +cough and huddling in a quilt beside her sheet-iron stove, and Ruth in +her own cabin, standing in the lamplight in her pink party dress with +round arms and throat showing through its filmy gauze, unconcerned and +intent upon her own ends. + +At last he glanced up at the impenetrable sky. Something soft and wet +had floated against his cheek. Then he saw here and there in the +funnel of light projected by his car lamps what looked like solitary +bits of white down sinking through the radiance. Snow! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + +The first flakes were but the precursors of a heavy fall of snow that +almost immediately began, soundless, without wind, filling the air and +whitening the earth, and that was still continuing unabated two hours +later. It mantled the shoulders of the workmen and the withers of the +horses; it clogged the wheels of the fresnos so that dirt was moved +with ever-increasing difficulty; it veiled the flaring gasolene +torches and choked the night. Where a plow ran or a scraper scooped +earth, snow speedily obliterated the mark, and with the passing of +time both men and animals found it necessary to struggle more and more +desperately in the dirt cut against mud and snow and gloom. + +Carrigan contracted his working line, placing the torches at shorter +intervals and keeping the scrapers in close succession. The foremen +informed him frequently that the men were growing exhausted and +rebellious, but he ordered them to hold the crews at the task. He and +Bryant moved to and fro constantly, giving encouragement or lending a +hand to help start a stalled fresno. By sheer power of their wills +they were combatting the snow, forcing the work ahead, deepening the +stretch of excavation that had been opened that afternoon; by iron +determination they were wrenching out the last spadeful of earth +possible and exacting the final ounce of man power before the snow had +its way. + +The strange warmth continued. The temperature was not even down to +freezing and the men, muddied and wet to the knees, dripped with +perspiration, while the horses' flanks were soaked with both sweat and +melted snow. It was difficult to breathe, what with the heavy, +oppressive air and what with the fall of suffocating snow, constantly +growing thicker. Horses slipped and went down, but were raised again; +fresnos were mired, but freed once more; men gave out and were sent to +their camp. And the fight kept on. + +But about eleven o'clock Bryant felt a cool puff of air on his cheeks, +light and of brief duration. It was followed by a second, this time +quicker and stronger, blowing from the northwest and sending the snow +a-scurry in a slanting fog of flakes past the flames of the torches. +He studied this change for a moment, then sought out Carrigan. + +"Time to make a break for cover," he announced. "Wind is coming and +the devil will be to pay when once it picks up all this loose snow." + +"Well, we're about at a standstill, anyway," was the reply. "I'll have +the crews draw the scrapers and plows off at one side where we can get +at them. I had a spare horse tent put at the disposal of the Mexicans, +and have had men in both camps piling baled hay all evening around the +big tents for windbreaks. We'll issue extra blankets and crowd the +crews into the shacks and mess quarters where there are stoves." + +"What about water if our pipe freezes?" + +"Then the horses will eat snow like the range ponies, I guess--and the +rest of us, too." + +At that he went off to order the work stopped, as did Bryant. For some +time the wind blew only in those fitful puffs Lee had noted or died +down entirely for short periods; and of this fact the night shift took +advantage to assemble the fresnos and plows beside the canal and to +drive their horses to shelter. The crews of the north camp, being +fewer, got away first; and thither Bryant plowed through the snow with +them to see all made safe. When he returned, Carrigan was just herding +the last man and team toward the main camp. Together the contractor +and the engineer extinguished the torches, then made their way, +carrying a flare with them, toward the glow showing at the edge of the +camp, where an oil-soaked bale of hay burned as a guide. At their +backs the wind and snow blew with gradually increasing strength. + +They made the rounds of the horse tents packed with animals, the mess +tents packed with workmen--with those men only come and those newly +aroused from sleep and gathered here--of the shacks, the hospital, the +engineers' headquarters and the big commissary tent, all crowded with +white men and Mexicans, steaming with moisture, smoking cigarettes and +pipes, giving off a rank smell of clay and human bodies and wet +clothes and horses, who talked and laughed and waited restlessly. The +pair waded around examining guy-ropes, stakes, the protective walls +raised of hay bales. They took advantage of a sudden dropping of the +wind to go among the small tents, thrusting their flares within each +and having a look, to make certain no sleeper of the day shift had +been overlooked. Then at last they stumbled up the street to Bryant's +shack. + +The wind now had utterly died away. The snow had resumed its thick, +silent fall straight to earth. Carrigan was kicking his boots clean +against the door-sill when Lee exclaimed, "Listen to that, Pat!" + +Carrigan wiped the moisture from his ears and harkened. + +"That's the Limited coming, and making no stops," he remarked. "Get +in!" + +They entered the little building. The office contained the engineering +staff and several others. Tobacco smoke lay thick in the room. + +Outside, the faint whining sound was growing steadily in volume until +at last it deepened into a roar very like that of an approaching +express train, as Pat had suggested. Followed a smart blow on the +shack. Then it reeled and the night was filled with a howling tumult +that deafened the men inside; the blizzard had burst upon the mesa. +Through the windows one could see nothing, for the air had become a +black maelstrom of whirling snow and darkness where a choked roar +persisted as steadily as the bass thunder of Niagara. The warmth had +vanished; a cutting cold, as if striking direct from arctic ice, +minute by minute drove the mercury in the thermometer on Bryant's wall +downward with unbelievable swiftness. If anything, the fury of the +storm seemed to increase as time passed, swelling to such terrible +violence that one imagined nothing could withstand its force, its mad +blasts, its deadliness. + +"Those mess tents and horse tents," Lee said to Carrigan, anxiously. + +"They're safer under their lee of hay than is this little paper box +we're sitting in," the contractor replied. "I've been through +blizzards before, and know how to meet them." + +From by the stove one of the engineers spoke. + +"But we'll never see some of those little tents any more. There are +several travelling toward Mexico by now." + +"And my new flannel shirt!" cried another, suddenly. "Washed it this +noon and hung it out on a line and forgot all about it. Oh, Lord, +where is it now?" + +"Good-bye, little shirt, we'll never see you more!" said the first, +sentimentally. "You'll be hanging on the Equator by morning." + +"While we're left here in the drifts," said a third. "Oh, the lovely, +big, white drifts there'll be to-morrow!" + +Toward one o'clock the first furious rush of the storm had passed and +it had settled into a fifty-mile-an-hour wind, bitterly cold, with +snow that drove against the building in fine particles. Freezing air +never ceased to enter the thin walls of boards and tar paper. It was +necessary to keep the cast-iron stove red-hot to secure anything like +comfort. + +And to this dreadful cold and snow, thought Lee, Imogene would have +been left deliberately by Ruth Gardner and Gretzinger! + +Carrigan bade the others roll up in their blankets and get what sleep +they could while he and Bryant tended the fire. Lee saw that Dave was +warm and well-wrapped. The men, worn out by prolonged exertions, made +themselves beds on the floor or stretched themselves out on their +seats, drew their coverings closer, closed their eyes, slept. + +The contractor and the engineer, together before the fire, continued +to talk in low tones. + +"Haven't told you yet," said Pat, presently, "but we picked up that +Mexican this evening who was trying to start a drunk Christmas Eve. It +was while you were at Sarita Creek. Saurez told me he had sneaked into +camp and meant mischief. Some of us caught him behind the commissary +tent with a can of oil, just ready to fire the camp." + +"A fine night for us all to have been left without shelter," Lee +remarked. "Where is he?" + +"In the hospital tied up, with a trusty man to watch him. Here's what +I found on him. Look inside." And Pat handed over a dirty leather bag +with a long string. "Found this around his neck." + +Lee extracted four pieces of paper from the sack--all checks drawn to +the order of F. Alvarez. Besides these there were two twenty-dollar +gold pieces, three rings, and several unset turquoises. + +"Well, we can make use of these checks," he said, after thought. "I'll +talk to the fellow to-morrow." He restored the miscellaneous +collection of property to the sack. + +On the panes of the small windows the snow beat and the wind hammered. +Carrigan stuffed the stove with pine knots. Afterward he refilled his +pipe, cast a sharp glance about at the sleeping occupants of the room, +and said: + +"You've got what you need now to mix medicine with the banker." He +confirmed his words with several satisfied nods. + +"Yes," said Bryant. + +Carrigan proceeded to meditate. + +"Awhile back I sent for some more dynamite," he stated, breaking the +silence. "Didn't say anything to you about it at the time. It was +there in the commissary tent under a stack of cases of peaches and +bags of coffee. If this Alvarez had got his oil on that canvas and a +fire going, there sure would have been some fire-works. You would have +had a reservoir blown right in the middle of your project, I'm +thinking." + +"What in the name of heaven do you want with dynamite!" + +"Well, my boy, there's a lot of ground that can't be dug, but I never +saw any that nitro wouldn't move. What I got is dirt-blowing dynamite, +the kind powder companies sell for making drainage ditches and blowing +stumps and so on. I didn't know whether I should have to use it, but I +always like to have a trick up my sleeve. Powder is ordinarily too +expensive to employ when fresnos can work, yet it's just the thing in +a pinch. We're in an emergency now. If it should set in and snow right +along, with one storm on top of another, as may happen after so long a +mild season, powder even may not help us out. These last eight hundred +yards are going to make us weep before we're through, I'm guessing. +But just the same, I'm counting on this dynamite. It can't blow like +this forever, and the minute it quits we'll grab hold." + +Lee twisted about to look at a window. The particles of snow were +biting at the glass relentlessly, while the howl of the gale told only +too plainly how the drifts were being heaped on the dark mesa. + +"We'll finish this ditch on time even if hell freezes over," he said, +slowly. "I'm not going to be beaten at this late day." + +He continued to sit gazing at the frosted panes and harkening to the +roaring blasts. On the floor and in the chairs the blanketed men slept +heavily. Pat fed the fire anew. But through the cracks of the walls +the cold sifted more and more intense, while along the edges of the +boards there formed thick fringes of glistening frost. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + +For four days the bitter cold and fierce wind held the camps in +thrall, then the latter blew itself out. The cold, however, still +endured though the sun shone. When one looked forth from camp, all +that could be seen was a snowbound earth; mesa and mountains were as +white and silent as some polar region; nothing moved; nothing seemed +to live out yonder. It was like a dazzling, frigid, extinct world. + +The main mesa road was blocked and telephone wires were down. What +went on outside the limits of the camp's snow-drifted horizon its +dwellers knew not--nor for the moment cared. Work was the only +thought. With hastily constructed snow-plows roads had been broken +among the tents and shacks as soon as the weather allowed, and +afterward broad paths made to the working ground. The section of undug +canal was now scraped bare. There, sheltered by tents and warmed by +sagebrush fires, men bored in the iron-like earth powder-holes in rows +that exactly aligned the canal. On the morning of the fifth day a +first stretch of fifty yards was blown out, whereupon teams and +scrapers were rushed into the ragged cavity to deepen and clear the +ditch before the soil froze anew. This was at the north end. In the +afternoon one hundred yards at the south end went up in a blast and +crews from the main camp fell upon this area. + +That night the sky clouded over again. All the next day snow came down +steadily. The workmen played cards in the mess tents and waited. +Carrigan busied himself at accounts and waited. Bryant waited, with +impatience and anxiety gnawing at his heart. There were six hundred +yards and more unexcavated, and but three days of his time remained. + +The snow ceased at nightfall and work was instantly resumed by aid of +the torches; again the desperate scraping of snow, bundled men at +fires and sheltered by windbreaks, the drilling of holes in the frozen +ground, the reliefs every two hours, the thawing of nipped fingers and +toes and noses. All night hot food and boiling coffee were served at +intervals to the cold and hungry labourers. At nine o'clock next +morning two hundred yards of dirt went spraying into the air, with the +subsequent struggle in the long hole: fresnos bearing forth what earth +was loose and what the plows broke out; the horses, blinded by the +glare of snow, staggering forward under curse and lash; the men +toiling in a sort of grim fury. A maximum of effort finished one +hundred and fifty yards more by eleven o'clock. Carrigan ordered all +work to stop until nine next morning. + +"The men are 'all in'," he told Lee. "We'll crack this last nut +to-morrow." + +"But what if it sets in to snow? More than two hundred and fifty yards +left to do, and only to-morrow and the day after to work." + +"We'll have to risk it." + +"Will your powder hold out?" + +"Yes." He regarded Bryant keenly. "Say, what you need isn't +information but sleep. You worked all day yesterday, and all last +night, and to-day again, and here it is going on midnight. I'm going +to tell you the schedule for to-morrow to calm your mind, then you +roll into your blankets. At nine o'clock in the morning all hands +except the cooks go at the drills and stay by them till the stretch is +holed. Whenever that's done, which should be about evening, we shoot +the chunk. And after that we hit the bottom with every scraper and +fresno and horse and man, with the cooks fighting the coffee-boilers, +and never come out of the ditch till the last lump of dirt is moved. +That's the programme. I figure it will be about midnight when the last +card's turned, maybe an hour or so after. I promised the men double +wages and a box of cigars apiece out of the store and a few other +things perhaps--I don't remember. So you get your sleep, for there's a +big day ahead to-morrow. That dirt all goes out before you'll have +another chance to hit the hay." + +Bryant arose next morning at seven. The sky was overcast and the +thermometer was sixteen below zero when he examined it. Across the +snow he could see the north camp stirring to life, awakening in the +frosty, pallid light of dawn. Stretching thither ran uneven snowy +ridges, save at one place where they lay bare and brown--the banks of +the canal. When the small interval still undug was moved, the ditch +would be finished from river to ranch, from the Pinas down to Perro. +And this was to be the last day of toil! To-day the camps were to hurl +themselves at that short remaining strip of earth and tear it out; the +furrow so long pressed ahead through the iron ground was to be brought +to an end; the enemy, frost, was to be conquered at last. When he +thought of the inexorable labour done under heart-breaking conditions, +in spite of cold and wind and snow, and with sufferings and +deprivations little considered. Bryant felt for the workmen, rough +though they were, a strong affection. They had done the bitter work. + +"Out goes the chunk to-day," was Pat's greeting that morning. + +A spirit of eagerness, almost of enthusiasm, pervaded the crews that +first went forth in the cold to work at the drills. It was the final +attack, and they went from their steaming breakfast with jests and +laughter that rang back over the snow. Sixteen below zero, and they +laughed! Bryant had a sudden conviction that nothing could stop such +men--neither weather, nor elements, nor fate itself. They were heroes +not to be daunted. They swung the hammer of Thor against the earth and +were worthy of an epic. + +Toward the middle of the afternoon of that day Carrigan said to the +engineer: + +"We're making better time than I calculated. The holes will all be +drilled by five o'clock; we're loading them as they're done and we'll +shoot at five-thirty." + +"What about supper?" + +"Supper at five. Then the men will be back and ready to jump in the +ditch when the shot's fired." + +"And be done twenty-four hours before the hour set by the Land and +Water Board," said Lee. + +"That's cutting it fine enough as it is. Who's that waving yonder +toward camp?" And Carrigan pointed a mittened hand at a figure +swinging an arm and shouting Bryant's name. + +The engineer stared for a time. + +"Charlie Menocal," he said, finally. "Morgan--Morgan, come here!" he +called. And as Morgan came to join him, Lee addressed Pat, "I'll just +run over to Bartolo with this young scoundrel. The road's open and +I'll be back by dark. Want Morgan to come along to look after him and +Alvarez, the man you caught." + +"Better start back in plenty of time. The sky's thickening again. More +snow in sight, Lee." + +"I shall." + +"You might invite old man Menocal to return with you," Pat remarked, +with a grin, "and see us put the kibosh on his dream of owning the +Pinas River. What are you going to do with this boy of his? Send him +over the road?" + +"I haven't decided yet." + +"That's where he ought to go, after trying to burn us out the night of +the blizzard." He turned away to the work. + +"You're not to let this fellow over there waiting for us get away, +Morgan," Lee stated. + +"I'll freeze on to him." + +They went along the snowy path toward camp, coming up with Menocal, +who waited until they arrived and then accompanied them toward +Bryant's office. + +"Have a letter for you from Ruth," he said. "Had a terrible time +getting up from Kennard. Road isn't half opened, but I found a man to +drive me home. Promised Ruth to deliver this to you." + +He drew the letter from an inner pocket and handed it to the +engineer, who glanced at the writing on the envelope, his own name, +and shoved the epistle into his glove. When they gained camp, Lee +said: + +"Morgan and I are going to Bartolo with you, and also a friend of +yours called Alvarez. We nabbed him as he was trying to burn our camp +about two hours before the blizzard. Take this man to headquarters, +Morgan, and keep him till I come over." + +Menocal's face became livid with anger and alarm. + +"Let me go, damn you!" he shouted, shrilly. + +Bryant waved a hand towards the engineers' shack and thither Charlie +was propelled, cursing and struggling, in Morgan's firm grasp. +Entering his office, Lee closed the door, walked to the stove, and +standing there produced the letter. It was the first and only missive +he had ever received from Ruth. He gazed at the envelope and the +scrawled writing on it with an impression of strangeness, but this +gave way to a curiosity as to the contents. He had a strong suspicion +of the letter's purport. Ruth would have reviewed her conduct that +night at Sarita Creek, and, with her instinctive cunning, perceived it +would alienate Lee. The message doubtless carried an adroit +explanation and excuse, ending up with numerous declarations of her +affection and hypocritical assertions of her anxiety on his account. +Disgust overwhelmed him. He was minded to cast the thing into the +stove unread. At last, however, muttering to himself, he thrust a +forefinger under the flap and ripped the envelope open. A newspaper +clipping that had been enclosed in the letter dropped to the floor. He +read: + + DEAR LEE: + + After thinking the matter over very carefully, I've decided to + release you from our engagement. If this pains you, as I fear + it will, I'm extremely sorry, but I've discovered that we're + not temperamentally suited to each other. You've failed, + besides, so I understand, which further convinces me of that. + And in addition, I've learned of late that I love another, who + loves me. Therefore it's much better that I take this step, + much better and much wiser--don't you think so? However, Lee, + I shall always be your friend. + + It may interest you to know that this evening Mr. Gretzinger + and I are to be married. Privately, with only a few close + friends. We depart immediately after the ceremony for New + York. Mr. Menocal is to pack my things at Sarita Creek, so you + need not bother about them. I understand Imogene is visiting + at the Graham ranch; I'm dropping her a note there telling her + the news. + + With best wishes, + RUTH. + + +Bryant lifted from the floor and read the clipping. It was a short +announcement, evidently from a Kennard paper, of the prospective +wedding that night of Miss Ruth Gardner, of Sarita Creek, and Mr. J. +Senton Gretzinger, of New York. + +When he had read this, Lee gently tilted and shook the envelope. But +no diamond solitaire dropped out. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + + +They were waiting in the sheriff's office in the court house in +Bartolo. They were waiting for Mr. Menocal. Winship had sent a +messenger for him. At one place in the room, handcuffed and tied, sat +the evil-eyed Alvarez; at another sat Charlie Menocal, silent and +apprehensive and with a sickly pallor showing under his dusky skin; +and between them lounged Morgan. The sheriff and Bryant stood across +the room conversing of the storm. + +"I thought your goose was cooked when that blizzard hit us," Winship +was saying. + +"Froze, you mean," was Lee's smiling reply. "I thought so myself for a +while. We've hammered along, however. To-night the last dirt goes +out." + +"That was an idea now--powder." + +"It was Carrigan's, not mine. It saved us. The old man has forgotten +more than I ever knew. Here's the banker now." + +The door swung open, admitting Menocal, blinking from the snow's +sheen. He bade the sheriff and the engineer good day, glanced sharply +at them and then at the others. When his look encountered his son, his +eyebrows went up. + +"So you're home finally," he addressed him. "After two weeks' time!" +His regard moved about from one to another of the trio. "What does +this mean, Charlie? Who is that fellow wearing handcuffs?" He paused, +staring steadily at his son. "What have you been doing to bring you +into Winship's office?" As Charlie continued to sit silent, he turned +to the sheriff. + +"I'll explain, Mr. Menocal, but what I have to say won't be pleasant +hearing for you," Lee stated, at a nod from Winship. "Take this chair, +if you please." + +The banker sat down, heavily. He sighed, while his fat cheeks shook +with a slight tremble. + +"What has he done?" he asked, with his eyes fixed on an ink-well on +the sheriff's desk. + +Briefly and without temper Bryant related the circumstance of seeing +Alvarez in Kennard one day during the previous summer, when the man +appeared to be watching him. Charlie was also in town on that day. +Alvarez was the man who had attempted to make the workmen drunk in +camp on Christmas Eve, but he had escaped on that occasion. He had +stolen into camp again on the afternoon preceding the blizzard and two +hours after sundown had been captured seeking to fire the commissary +tent. When made a prisoner, he had been searched. On his person were +found several checks for sums ranging from fifty to one hundred +dollars. Bryant drew the leather sack from his pocket, extracted the +checks, and handed them to the banker. + +"You see they are given by your son," said he. "I've questioned this +Alvarez and he has finally admitted that he was employed by Charlie +and instructed by him what to do. Your son, therefore, is the +instigator of the attempted crime, and Alvarez, an ignorant and brutal +outlaw from Mexico, was merely his tool. I pass over the matter of the +whisky and the petty inconveniences earlier caused me and my men. But +here is an act of a different character, Mr. Menocal. The man's +endeavour to fire our camp, had it been successful, would perhaps have +resulted in the death of scores of men, as the storm broke shortly +after and they would have been without shelter." + +Charlie Menocal sprang to his feet. + +"Before God, I didn't know he would choose that night!" he cried, +passionately. "I meant only to stop their work!" + +His father shook his head sadly. + +"That makes no difference, my son; you planned a wicked deed," he +said, in a barely audible voice. + +Morgan pushed the young man back upon his chair and Bryant went on. As +he proceeded, he had found it harder and harder to address the parent; +and his task was no easier now. The eyes of the father had gone to the +slender, sagging figure of his son and seemed to be the eyes of an +expiring man; his plump cheeks were working under an excess of +emotion; then his head went down suddenly as under the blow of a club. + +"Because of the character of the act," Lee said, "it wasn't only a +stroke at me but at every animal and man in the entire south camp. I +want to make this clear in order to show how black and dastardly the +thing was. Whether Charlie understood or intended the destruction of +all the lives and property there is no excuse; it was a deed that +would have carried terrible results in its train. I don't even let my +mind conceive them. All this has followed, Mr. Menocal, from the +single fact that your son disliked me in the beginning. To that may +be added an idea that I was depriving you of something to which I had +no right, namely, the title to the Perro Creek canal appropriation. +And there, I think, responsibility for his course touches you." + +He paused to gaze at the Mexican, whose face had become drained of +colour. + +"Mr. Menocal, the water is mine," he continued, "and to-night some +time it will be mine beyond all dispute, for then the ditch will be +finished. So much for that. Some days ago we had a talk that, I +believe, led us each to a better opinion of the other. I think that as +a leader here in Bartolo and around about you're a force for good; you +believe in law, order, and education; and I know, from what I've +learned, that you carry many of the people on store accounts for long +periods when crops are bad or when they are distressed by sickness. +I'm confident you're endeavouring to elevate them so far as possible; +and I admit frankly that I've modified very greatly my first +estimation of you. That weighs in the scale against Charlie's actions. + +"Then there's one kindness Charlie himself has done me, though he may +not be aware of the fact. I'll not say what it is; let it suffice that +it is the case. A very great kindness it was, indeed! I count that +likewise in the opposite scale. And then there are other things to +consider, one among them that after all no harm has come to me. The +enmity he's held for me has simply recoiled upon his own head. All he +has to show for it after months of hating and contriving is his +position here in this room to-day--and a dead dog. Surely it must make +plain to him that his course has been not only futile but foolish." + +The engineer glanced at the young fellow. He sat in an attitude of +despair that almost equalled his father's. + +"Well, that brings me to the point," Bryant said. "You've been too +indulgent with Charlie, Mr. Menocal, as you once acknowledged to me. +You've given him too much money, too much admiration, too much head, +and it has led him up against the bars of the state prison. The +question is whether or not I shall open the gate and push him in, as +at first I determined to do on securing the proof in this leather +sack. If I thought he would keep on along his present line, I should +say yes, merely as a matter of public policy, but I've had several +days to think the thing over and have come to the conclusion he'll +soon realize his folly, if he doesn't now. And another restraint +should be the good name and the happiness of his father. I'm not +vindictive, Mr. Menocal, and less on this day than I've ever been. I +don't believe in causing people misery merely for the pleasure of +inflicting it or because I happen to have the power. We all have +enough to contend with, as it is. I don't propose to ruin your +position here, and end your influence, and blast your life, by sending +your son to the penitentiary. That would make me no happier, and would +make a number of people infinitely wretched, while perhaps starting +Charlie on the road to hell. Very likely so. I much prefer to see +everyone cheerful and at work. Suppose we ship this fellow yonder back +to Mexico--Winship can arrange that--and destroy the checks, and tear +up this sheet of Charlie's record, so to speak. Only one or two +persons besides ourselves know of the matter and I'll ask them to +forget it." + +Lee struck a match and ignited the checks, holding them while they +burned until at last he dropped them on the floor, where they blazed, +curled up in strips of black ash, and were no more. He glanced about +at the others. Winship was picking his teeth with a quill toothpick, +with his mind apparently far away on other matters. Morgan stolidly +chewed tobacco and kept a wary eye on the bandit, Alvarez. Charlie sat +pale, limp, gazing at nothing. The elder Menocal had lifted his eyes +to Bryant, at whom he looked mistily; he appeared to have aged +astonishingly, his cheeks having gone flabby, slack, and gray, while a +slight tremour shook his head. + +"That's all, I guess," Bryant said, briskly. "We'll just consider our +relations established on the same footing they were before this +occurrence." + +He put out a hand, smiling. The banker struggled to his feet and +clasped it in both of his. + +"They shall not be on the same footing, but on a better one, Mr. +Bryant, if it's in my power to make them so," he exclaimed, in a +choked voice. + +"That suits me right down to the ground, Mr. Menocal." + +The Mexican was silent. His lips parted, quivered, and shut again. His +hold on the engineer's hand tightened. + +"I--I can't talk now, can't say what I wish to say," he said, mastered +by feeling. "When I'm more myself, when I can talk--another time----" +He ceased, but presently finished, "Another time I'll tell the +gratitude in my heart. Now my shame for my son and for myself----Come, +Charlie, take me home." + +They went out. Winship came to life and crossing the room dragged the +outlaw Mexican to his feet, then pushed him over the floor and into +the hall on his way to the cells in the basement. Morgan pulled on his +hat. Bryant glanced at the paper ashes on the floor, then did +likewise. It was time to get back to camp. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + + +The first snowflakes of another storm were beginning to flutter down +by the time the two men reached camp, and dusk had set in. On the +drifted road from Bartolo, over which but few wagons had passed, +travel was slow and they had consumed an hour and a half on their +return. The torches were burning along the canal, appearing at a +distance like winter fireflies, but the crews of workmen had gone to +supper. Bryant and Morgan, when they drove down the street in camp, +could hear them at their meal in the glowing mess tents--a subdued +hubbub of plates and knives and voices. + +Half an hour later they were pouring forth toward the horse tents, +while the engineers were making their way along the torch-lit path to +the stretch of undug canal. + +"We'll allow fifteen minutes for them to get the teams out, then +shoot," Carrigan said to Lee, as they moved along. "All the shots are +in and double-fused. Doesn't appear to be any wind behind this snow." + +The air, though cold, was still. The flakes were not yet falling +heavily and they lay on the hard crust of snow as light as silk fluff. +What might be coming down in another hour from the darkness overhead, +however, could not be foretold, while if both a gale and a great fall +of snow occurred the labour of the night would be increased a +hundred-fold. + +Bryant's anxiety was no longer on account of the time limit fixed by +the Land and Water Board. He knew that since the revelations made in +the sheriff's office the claimant Rodriguez would never press his +case, even were the canal never completed. But he had the keen desire +of a tired man to clean up the job and be done, and a pride in keeping +faith with himself in accomplishing what he had sworn he should do, +build the project in ninety days. He would never have it said by any +one that he had failed in that. By Gretzinger, for example. Ruth in +particular! She believed that he had already failed when she wrote her +letter. + +By the end of the quarter of an hour prescribed by Carrigan teams and +workmen were coming along the snowy road in a long line. From the +north camp also a string of animals in pairs was advancing by light of +the torches. A warning shout sounded from the ditch section. Men +retreated. Then a roaring boom burst upon the night, with other +thunderous reports following in rapid succession, until it seemed that +the mined earth cascading upward in the darkness was the bombardment +of scores of cannon. The flames of the torches and the falling snow +tossed and whirled at the percussion of air. Showers of clay rained +upon the earth. Vibrations jarred the ground. + +Then the companies of horses and men, fastening upon scrapers, +hastened into the trench. The remaining strip that joined the two +sections of canal had been blown out and now this was the final, +culminating assault. When this two hundred and fifty yards of ditch +line had been widened and deepened to correspond to the rest, water +would flow of summers in a small river from the dam down to the broad +acres of Perro Creek ranch. + +Hour after hour the steady labour proceeded--plows ran; flat scrapers +and wheeled fresnos followed, scooped up the earth, bore it to the +banks above; horses tugged and strained; men toiled, pausing only to +thaw their feet and hands at fires burning by the ditch or to drain +great tin-cups of the scalding coffee that the cooks dipped from cans. +And steadily the excavation widened and deepened hour by hour, the +slope of the sides becoming apparent, the banks rising higher and the +ditch assuming its desired shape and size. At eleven o'clock the cooks +wheeled immense canisters of sliced beef and bread among the workmen, +who seized the food and ate it as they worked. At midnight the plows +were cutting near the bottom, and the work was going faster, as the +frost did not strike this deep into the soil. At one o'clock in the +morning, amid thickening snow, the last scraperfuls of dirt were going +out, while the engineers, with their long rules, were checking depths +and slopes. + +"By golly, she's about done!" exclaimed Dave, who had been permitted +to remain up on this eventful night and who had been moving about, +here, there, and everywhere, in a great state of excitement. "By +golly, she is, Lee!" + +"Yes, by golly; the ditch you helped me survey, too." + +"By golly, yes!" He had forgotten that. + +The last dirt moved with a rush. Then, even as the teams were dragging +the loads from the excavation, Carrigan passed to a foreman the word +that announced the end of work. It ran along the canal from mouth to +mouth, at first in a call but finally in a shout that swelled to a +roar of exultation. That roar rang over the snow and through the +night like the cry of an army which has gained a walled city. + +"Done!" said Bryant, to himself. + +Back to the camps trooped the teams and men by the flare of the +torches they carried in jubilation. Not a soul in all that company but +felt the triumph beating in Lee's heart. Finished, built! Despite +frost and snow they had driven the iron furrow through to the end, and +on time. Toil-weary though they were, their spirits were light. They +knew themselves fellow-workers in a redoubtable achievement. + +Carrigan and Bryant were among the last to go. To the latter there was +in the fact of completion a sense of unreality. As he took a final +view of the ditch before setting out for camp, events raced through +his mind--his coming, his first labours, the confused interplay of his +life with those of the Menocals, McDonnell, Gretzinger, Carrigan, +Imogene, Ruth, and Louise; the months of incessant toil; of +brain-racking and body-wearing endeavour to force the canal forward; +of unresting strife with frost and snow and earth, of being under a +pitiless hammer. He could not easily realize that he was now free of +all this. + +"I have an empty feeling," he remarked to Carrigan. + +"One always has a 'let-down' after a hard job," was Pat's sage +rejoinder. "You'll feel restless for maybe a week now." + +They went from the spot up the snowy road and turned in at Pat's shack +for a smoke. Late as it was, neither felt the need of sleep as yet. + +"Well, it's a comfort to know that we don't have to plug again at that +ground in the morning," Lee remarked, with a sigh of satisfaction. He +had his feet on the table, his body relaxed, and his pipe going. + +"Yeah. The only disappointment I have," Pat said, "is not having +lifted the bonds and stocks out of Gretzinger. If we hadn't been so +pressed for time, we might have played him a little till he took the +hook. I don't like his kind at all." + +Bryant laughed. + +"Why, he's the best friend I have," he exclaimed. "What do you think +he did for me?" + +"Well, what? Besides trying to shake you down?" + +"Pat, he carried off and married my girl." + +The contractor lowered his feet, placed his hands upon his knees, and +gazed at Bryant, with brows down-drawn and under lip up-thrust. + +"That good-for-nothing Ruth what's-her-name?" he demanded. In all the +months of their association it was the first time he had ever spoken +of her to Bryant. + +"Ruth Gardner, yes." + +Carrigan rose, gave Lee a long and solemn look, then went to a trunk +in the corner of the room. This he unlocked and opened. From its +interior he produced a black bottle. + +"I don't take a drink very often," he announced, coming forward and +setting the bottle on the table, "but this is one of the times. We'll +take one to celebrate your luck." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + +About the middle of the next afternoon Lee Bryant was riding southward +from camp on the main mesa trail. The road was difficult and his horse +Dick made slow time along the snowy path broken by wagons through the +drifts, but the rider let the animal choose his own gait, as he had +done that hot July day when coming up from the south to buy the Perro +Creek ranch. On reaching the ford Lee pulled rein. How different now +the creek from on that burning afternoon of his encounter with Ruth +Gardner and Imogene Martin! Snow covered its bed; the sands where he +had knelt, the little pool, the foot-prints, lay hidden from sight. +How much had happened since! And how different was his life! He had +suffered much and learned much since that hour of meeting; and he +should never henceforth view this spot without a little feeling of +melancholy. The youth and two girls who drank there at the rill were +no more: they had become other persons. + +Presently he dismissed thoughts of this and set Dick wading across the +ford. Yonder he now could see the three bare cottonwoods, with the low +adobe house near by where he and Dave had lived and laboured at the +surveys for the project. The bones of his dog Mike, too, rested there +under the ground. This brought to mind the meeting with Louise upon +the road--and it was Louise to whom at this moment he was going. He +began to urge Dick to greater efforts. Once on a stretch of road, bare +and wind-swept, he pushed him into a gallop. It seemed interminable, +this snow-bound trail. But at last he crossed Sarita Creek (with but a +single glance at the caņon's mouth where the two cabins stood +untenanted and abandoned among the naked trees) and then covered the +long miles to Diamond Creek, and rode up the lane between the rows of +cottonwoods to the house, where Louise, who had perceived his approach +from a window, appeared at the door to greet him. + +"We were terribly alarmed for your safety the night of the blizzard," +she said, "but the mail-man finally made his trip to Bartolo and back, +and said you were still there and not blown away. And he also stated +that you were working night and day." + +"Not any more," said Lee, swinging from the saddle. + +"You have finished! I can read it on your face!" she cried, joyfully. + +"Yes; we threw out the last clod at one o'clock this morning." + +"I needn't tell you that I'm proud and happy; you know that, Lee. Even +happier than when I learned you were able to continue, at the time you +supposed you were unable. Put up your horse and come in. You're half +frozen." + +Bryant endeavoured to discover from her face what he wished to know, +but did not succeed. So he asked: + +"Have you had your mail lately?" + +"Not for three days. The mail-man made one trip and then the next snow +closed the road again to Kennard." + +Lee went off to stable Dick. On his return he found Louise at the door +still waiting, and she helped him to remove his overcoat and scarf +when they passed in to the fire. Then they pushed a divan forward and +she bade him spread out his hands before the blaze. + +"It wasn't so long ago that we agreed we mustn't see each other again, +and here we are together," he stated, with a pretense of solemnity. He +extended his hands to the heat and moved his fingers about to expel +their numbness. "I don't know what your father would say if he knew +all the circumstances." + +"I--I don't know, either," Louise stammered, in dismay at the thought. + +"How's Imogene?" he inquired. + +"Improving slowly. All she needed was to get away from that horrid +cabin and horrid--well, surroundings." + +"And your father's here?" + +"At one of the feed corrals, I think. He had all the cattle rounded up +before the blizzard and held here and fed. A big task, with several +thousand head." + +"Then we're safe," said Lee. + +Louise looked at him doubtfully. She knew not what to make of this +talk and his portentous air, and felt a new apprehension rising in her +mind. + +"What is it? What has happened now, Lee?" she whispered. + +But all at once he began to laugh. He caught her hand and holding it +gazed, smiling, into her eyes. Then he drew from his pocket an +envelope, which (still keeping prisoner the hand he had captured) he +waved to and fro before her eyes. + +"If I didn't know you well, I'd think you had lost your wits," she +cried. + +"I have--wits and heart both. With joy! Wait, I'll take the letter out +so that you can read it. The only blessed thing I ever knew her to do! +I bless her for it, at any rate." He pulled the letter and the +clipping from their cover and laid them in Louise's hand. "Read, read +the tidings!" + +The girl's fingers began to tremble as her eyes flitted along the +lines. But she read no more than the first part of the letter. She +turned to him with her eyes misty, her face radiant. + +"I could weep for happiness--but I'm not going to." She made a little +dab with her handkerchief at her lashes. "Oh, Lee, to think you're +free! And that now we may love each other!" + +"I thought we did." + +"Of course we did--but you know what I mean." + +"You didn't read it all," said he. "You don't know yet the poor +opinion she has of me." + +Louise crumpled the letter in her hand and cast it into the flames. + +"Nor do I want to know it," she exclaimed. "All I care about is my own +opinion of you, and our love. That's enough. Perhaps we shall be all +the happier for the little misery she caused us." + +Her eyes dwelt proudly upon him, upon his face that showed new lines +of strength, that was clear and calm, that revealed a spirit come to +full manhood, that was luminous with the love she inspired. He had +taken her hands and was regarding her tenderly. + +"Ruth rendered me one service," said he. "She taught me that there's +an appearance which may be mistaken for the substance. That shall be +to her credit." He sat silent, smiling thoughtfully for a moment. Then +he raised his eyes and drew Louise toward him. "But you, Louise, awoke +real love." + +His arms enclosed her fast and their lips met in a first kiss. + +"We shall walk among the flowers and in the orchard again, Lee dear," +she murmured, "as we did once before. And I shall bring you buttermilk +as I did that morning--but there will be no Charlie Menocal." + +"No. Charlie won't annoy us in the future." + +"And when the snow is gone we'll ride along your canal----" + +"Our canal now, sweetheart." + +"Along our canal and see where you worked so hard and struggled and +won, and I'll listen while you point here and there and tell of the +obstacles overcome, and of all you did. We shall be gay and happy." + +"As I'm happy now," he said, softly. "Do you know what I see there in +the firelight? A building, a house--our home." + +Louise's face lifted to his, all sweetness and trust. + +"I see it, too," she murmured. + +"On Perro Creek ranch," Lee continued, "with the sagebrush gone and in +its place fields of grain and alfalfa spreading out to the horizon, +with water rippling along in little canals and fat cows standing +about, and contented farmers at work, and perhaps a railroad somewhere +in the background, and ourselves in the foreground by our new home, +where flowers are growing, too, and--and----" + +Louise's arms slipped up and about his neck, until her cheek rested +against his. + +"You dream and then you build--you dream and make your dreams come +true," she said. "You're my dreamer-builder." + +Lee was smiling. The caress in her words, the warm touch of her cheek, +her heart beating against his, all made his happiness complete. + +"And your lover," he whispered. + + +THE END + + + * * * * * + + + + +=Popular Copyright Novels= + +_AT MODERATE PRICES_ + +Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular +Copyright Fiction + + * * * * * + +=Adventures of Jimmie Dale, The.= By Frank L. Packard. +=Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.= By A. Conan Doyle. +=After House, The.= By Mary Roberts Rinehart. +=Ailsa Paige.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Alton of Somasco.= By Harold Bindloss. +=Amateur Gentleman, The.= By Jeffery Farnol. +=Anna, the Adventuress.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Anne's House of Dreams.= By L.M. Montgomery. +=Around Old Chester.= By Margaret Deland. +=Athalie.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=At the Mercy of Tiberius.= By Augusta Evans Wilson. +=Auction Block, The.= By Rex Beach. +=Aunt Jane of Kentucky.= By Eliza C. Hall. +=Awakening of Helena Richie.= By Margaret Deland. + +=Bab: a Sub-Deb.= By Mary Roberts Rinehart. +=Barrier, The.= By Rex Beach. +=Barbarians.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Bargain True, The.= By Nalbro Bartley. +=Bar 20.= By Clarence E. Mulford. +=Bar 20 Days.= By Clarence E. Mulford. +=Bars of Iron, The.= By Ethel M. Dell. +=Beasts of Tarzan, The.= By Edgar Rice Burroughs. +=Beloved Traitor, The.= By Frank L. Packard. +=Beltane the Smith.= By Jeffery Farnol. +=Betrayal, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Beyond the Frontier.= By Randall Parrish. +=Big Timber.= By Bertrand W. Sinclair. +=Black Is White.= By George Barr McCutcheon. +=Blind Man's Eyes, The.= By Wm. MacHarg and Edwin Balmer. +=Bob, Son of Battle.= By Alfred Ollivant. +=Boston Blackie.= By Jack Boyle. +=Boy with Wings, The.= By Berta Ruck. +=Brandon of the Engineers.= By Harold Bindloss. +=Broad Highway, The.= By Jeffery Farnol. +=Brown Study, The.= By Grace S. Richmond. +=Bruce of the Circle A.= By Harold Titus. +=Buck Peters, Ranchman.= By Clarence E. Mulford. +=Business of Life, The.= By Robert W. Chambers. + + + + +Popular Copyright Novels + +_AT MODERATE PRICES_ + +Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular +Copyright Fiction + + * * * * * + +=Cabbages and Kings.= By O. Henry. +=Cabin Fever.= By B.M. Bower. +=Calling of Dan Matthews, The.= By Harold Bell Wright. +=Cape Cod Stories.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. +=Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper.= By James A. Cooper. +=Cap'n Dan's Daughter.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. +=Cap'n Eri.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. +=Cap'n Jonah's Fortune.= By James A. Cooper. +=Cap'n Warren's Wards.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. +=Chain of Evidence, A.= By Carolyn Wells. +=Chief Legatee, The.= By Anna Katharine Green. +=Cinderella Jane.= By Marjorie B. Cooke. +=Cinema Murder, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=City of Masks, The.= By George Barr McCutcheon. +=Cleek of Scotland Yard.= By T.W. Hanshew. +=Cleek, The Man of Forty Faces.= By Thomas W. Hanshew. +=Cleek's Government Cases.= By Thomas W. Hanshew. +=Clipped Wings.= By Rupert Hughes. +=Clue, The.= By Carolyn Wells. +=Clutch of Circumstance, The.= By Marjorie Benton Cooke. +=Coast of Adventure, The.= By Harold Bindloss. +=Coming of Cassidy, The.= By Clarence E. Mulford. +=Coming of the Law, The.= By Chas. A. Seltzer. +=Conquest of Canaan, The.= By Booth Tarkington. +=Conspirators, The.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Court of Inquiry, A.= By Grace S. Richmond. +=Cow Puncher, The.= By Robert J.C. Stead. +=Crimson Gardenia, The, and Other Tales of Adventure.= By Rex Beach. +=Cross Currents.= By Author of "Pollyanna." +=Cry in the Wilderness, A.= By Mary E. Waller. + +=Danger, And Other Stories.= By A. Conan Doyle. +=Dark Hollow, The.= By Anna Katharine Green. +=Dark Star, The.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Daughter Pays, The.= By Mrs. Baillie Reynolds. +=Day of Days, The.= By Louis Joseph Vance. +=Depot Master, The.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. +=Desired Woman, The.= By Will N. Harben. + + + + +=Popular Copyright Novels= + +_AT MODERATE PRICES_ + +Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular +Copyright Fiction + + * * * * * + +=Destroying Angel, The=. By Louis Jos. Vance. +=Devil's Own, The.= By Randall Parrish. +=Double Traitor, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. + +=Empty Pockets.= By Rupert Hughes. +=Eyes of the Blind, The.= By Arthur Somers Roche. +=Eye of Dread, The.= By Payne Erskine. +=Eyes of the World, The.= By Harold Bell Wright. +=Extricating Obadiah.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. + +=Felix O'Day.= By F. Hopkinson Smith. +=54-40 or Fight.= By Emerson Hough. +=Fighting Chance, The.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Fighting Shepherdess, The.= By Caroline Lockhart. +=Financier, The.= By Theodore Dreiser. +=Flame, The.= By Olive Wadsley. +=Flamsted Quarries=. By Mary E. Wallar. +=Forfeit, The.= By Ridgwell Cullum. +=Four Million, The.= By O. Henry. +=Fruitful Vine, The.= By Robert Hichens. +=Further Adventures of Jimmie Dale, The.= By Frank L. Packard. + +=Girl of the Blue Ridge, A.= By Payne Erskine. +=Girl from Keller's, The.= By Harold Bindloss. +=Girl Philippa, The.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Girls at His Billet, The.= By Berta Ruck. +=God's Country and the Woman.= By James Oliver Curwood. +=Going Some.= By Rex Beach. +=Golden Slipper, The.= By Anna Katharine Green. +=Golden Woman, The.= By Ridgwell Cullum. +=Greater Love Hath No Man.= By Frank L. Packard. +=Greyfriars Bobby.= By Eleanor Atkinson. +=Gun Brand, The.= By James B. Hendryx. + +=Halcyone.= By Elinor Glyn. +=Hand of Fu-Manchu, The.= By Sax Rohmer. +=Havoc.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Heart of the Desert, The.= By Honoré Willsie. +=Heart of the Hills, The.= By John Fox, Jr. + + + + +=Popular Copyright Novels= + +_AT MODERATE PRICES_ + +Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular +Copyright Fiction + + * * * * * + +=Heart of the Sunset.= By Rex Beach. +=Heart of Thunder Mountain, The.= By Edfrid A. Bingham. +=Her Weight in Gold.= By Geo. B. McCutcheon. +=Hidden Children, The.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Hidden Spring, The.= By Clarence B. Kelland. +=Hillman, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Hills of Refuge, The.= By Will N. Harben. +=His Official Fiancee.= By Berta Ruck. +=Honor of the Big Snows.= By James Oliver Curwood. +=Hopalong Cassidy.= By Clarence E. Mulford. +=Hound from the North, The.= By Ridgwell Cullum. +=House of the Whispering Pines, The.= By Anna Katharine Green. +=Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker.= By S. Weir Mitchell, M.D. + +=I Conquered.= By Harold Titus. +=Illustrious Prince, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=In Another Girl's Shoes.= By Berta Ruck. +=Indifference of Juliet, The.= By Grace S. Richmond. +=Infelice.= By Augusta Evans Wilson. +=Initials Only.= By Anna Katharine Green. +=Inner Law, The.= By Will N. Harben. +=Innocent.= By Marie Corelli. +=Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu, The.= By Sax Rohmer. +=In the Brooding Wild.= By Ridgwell Cullum. +=Intriguers, The.= By Harold Bindloss. +=Iron Trail, The.= By Rex Beach. +=Iron Woman, The.= By Margaret Deland. +=I Spy.= By Natalie Sumner Lincoln. + +=Japonette.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Jean of the Lazy A.= By B.M. Bower. +=Jeanne of the Marshes.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Jennie Gerhardt.= By Theodore Dreiser. +=Judgment House, The.= By Gilbert Parker. + +=Keeper of the Door, The.= By Ethel M. Dell. +=Keith of the Border.= By Randall Parrish. +=Kent Knowles: Quahaug.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. +=Kingdom of the Blind, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. + + + + +=Popular Copyright Novels= + +_AT MODERATE PRICES_ + +Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular +Copyright Fiction + + * * * * * + +=King Spruce.= By Holman Day. +=King's Widow, The.= By Mrs. Baillie Reynolds. +=Knave of Diamonds, The.= By Ethel M. Dell. + +=Ladder of Swords.= By Gilbert Parker. +=Lady Betty Across the Water.= By C.N. & A.M. Williamson. +=Land-Girl's Love Story, A.= By Berta Ruck. +=Landloper, The.= By Holman Day. +=Land of Long Ago, The.= By Eliza Calvert Hall. +=Land of Strong Men, The.= By A.M. Chisholm. +=Last Trail, The.= By Zane Grey. +=Laugh and Live.= By Douglas Fairbanks. +=Laughing Bill Hyde.= By Rex Beach. +=Laughing Girl, The.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Law Breakers, The.= By Ridgwell Cullum. +=Lifted Veil, The.= By Basil King. +=Lighted Way, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Lin McLean.= By Owen Wister. +=Lonesome Land.= By B.M. Bower. +=Lone Wolf, The.= By Louis Joseph Vance. +=Long Ever Ago.= By Rupert Hughes. +=Lonely Stronghold, The.= By Mrs. Baillie Reynolds. +=Long Live the King..= By Mary Roberts Rinehart. +=Long Roll, The.= By Mary Johnston. +=Lord Tony's Wife.= By Baroness Orczy. +=Lost Ambassador.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Lost Prince, The.= By Frances Hodgson Burnett. +=Lydia of the Pines.= By Honoré Willsie. + +=Maid of the Forest, The.= By Randall Parrish. +=Maid of the Whispering Hills, The.= By Vingie E. Roe. +=Maids of Paradise, The.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Major, The.= By Ralph Connor. +=Maker of History; A.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Malefactor, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Man from Bar 20, The.= By Clarence E. Mulford. +=Man in Grey, The.= By Baroness Orczy. +=Man Trail, The.= By Henry Oyen. +=Man Who Couldn't Sleep, The.= By Arthur Stringer. + + + + +=Popular Copyright Novels= + +_AT MODERATE PRICES_ + +Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular +Copyright Fiction + + * * * * * + +=Man with the Club Foot, The.= By Valentine Williams. +=Mary-'Gusta.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. +=Mary Moreland.= By Marie Van Vorst. +=Mary Regan.= By Leroy Scott. +=Master Mummer, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.= By A. Conan Doyle. +=Men Who Wrought, The.= By Ridgwell Cullum. +=Mischief Maker, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Missioner, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Miss Million's Maid.= By Berta Ruck. +=Molly McDonald.= By Randall Parrish. +=Money Master, The.= By Gilbert Parker. +=Money Moon, The.= By Jeffery Farnol. +=Mountain Girl, The.= By Payne Erskine. +=Moving Finger, The.= By Natalie Sumner Lincoln. +=Mr. Bingle.= By George Barr McCutcheon. +=Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Mr. Pratt.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. +=Mr. Pratt's Patients.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. +=Mrs. Belfame.= By Gertrude Atherton. +=Mrs. Red Pepper.= By Grace S. Richmond. +=My Lady Caprice.= By Jeffrey Farnol. +=My Lady of the North.= By Randall Parrish. +=My Lady of the South.= By Randall Parrish. +=Mystery of the Hasty Arrow, The.= By Anna K. Green. + +=Nameless Man, The.= By Natalie Sumner Lincoln. +=Ne'er-Do-Well, The.= By Rex Beach. +=Nest Builders, The.= By Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale. +=Net, The.= By Rex Beach. +=New Clarion.= By Will N. Harben. +=Night Operator, The.= By Frank L. Packard. +=Night Riders, The.= By Ridgwell Cullum. +=Nobody.= By Louis Joseph Vance. + +=Okewood of the Secret Service.= By the Author of + "The Man with the Club Foot." +=One Way Trail, The.= By Ridgwell Cullum. +=Open, Sesame.= By Mrs. Baillie Reynolds. +=Otherwise Phyllis.= By Meredith Nicholson. +=Outlaw, The.= By Jackson Gregory. + + + * * * * * + + + +------------------------------------------------------+ + | Typographical errors corrected in text: | + | | + | page 19: mortage replaced by mortgage | + | page 62: Monocal replaced by Menocal | + | page 63: Monocal replaced by Menocal | + | page 66: dissappointed replaced by disappointed | + | page 130: Sante replaced by Santa | + | | + +------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Iron Furrow, by George C. 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Shedd. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .5em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .5em; + text-indent: 1em; + } + H1 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */ + } + H5,H6 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */ + } + H2 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* centered and coloured */ + } + H3 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* centered and coloured */ + } + H4 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + a {text-decoration: none} /* no lines under links */ + div.center {text-align: center;} + div.content {width: 69%; margin-left: auto; text-align: left;} + div.centered {text-align: center;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 1 */ + div.centered table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 2 */ + + .cen {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;} /* centering paragraphs */ + .sc {font-variant: small-caps;} /* small caps, normal size */ + .noin {text-indent: 0em;} /* no indenting */ + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .block {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} /* block indent */ + .right {text-align: right; padding-right: 2em;} /* right aligning paragraphs */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .totoc {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 75%; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .img {text-align: center; padding: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} /* centering images */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + .tdr {text-align: right;} /* aligning cell content to the right */ + .tdc {text-align: center;} /* aligning cell content to the center */ + .tdl {text-align: left;} /* aligning cell content to the left */ + .tdlsc {text-align: left; font-variant: small-caps;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */ + .tdrsc {text-align: right; font-variant: small-caps;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */ + .tdcsc {text-align: center; font-variant: small-caps;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */ + .tr {margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 1em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} /* transcriber's notes */ + .ad {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 2%; margin-bottom: 2%; padding: 4em; border: solid black 2px;} /* book ads */ + .norm {font-weight: normal;} + + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Iron Furrow, by George C. Shedd + +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 Furrow + +Author: George C. Shedd + +Illustrator: Henry A. Botkin + +Release Date: November 18, 2005 [EBook #17088] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRON FURROW *** + + + + +Produced by David Garcia, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="noin">Transcriber's Note:<br /> +A number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected in this text. +For a complete list, please see the bottom of this document.</p> +</div> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="img"><a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a> +<a href="images/frontis.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/frontis.jpg" width="330" height="550" alt="Frontispiece." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"<span class="sc">Under the Hat Brim Drawn Forward to His Line of +Vision <br />His Eyes ... Gazed Forth Keen and Observant</span>"</p> +</div> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<h1>THE IRON<br /> +FURROW</h1> +<br /> +<h2 class="sc">By GEORGE C. SHEDD</h2> +<br /> + +<div class="img"> +<img border="0" src="images/deco.png" width="80" alt="decoration." /> +</div> + +<h4>FRONTISPIECE BY</h4> +<h3>HENRY A. BOTKIN</h3> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>A.L. BURT COMPANY<br /> +Publishers New York</h4> +<br /> +<h5>Published by arrangement with Doubleday, Page & Company</h5> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + + + + +<h4>COPYRIGHT, 1919, 1920, BY<br /> +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY<br /> +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF<br /> +TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES,<br /> +INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN</h4> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<h5>PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES<br /> +AT<br /> +THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N.Y.</h5> + +<br /> +<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><hr /> +<br /> + + +<a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a> +<h2>THE IRON FURROW</h2> +<a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a> +<h3>Table of Contents</h3> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="50%" summary="Table of Contents"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" width="60%"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></td> + <td class="tdl" width="40%"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></td> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></td> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></td> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></td> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a></td> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a></td> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a></td> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</a></td> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</a></td> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI</a></td> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII</a></td> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV</a></td> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII</a></td> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX</a></td> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">CHAPTER XXXI</a></td> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">CHAPTER XXXII</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc"><br /><span style="font-size: 80%;">Table of Contents generated for this document</span></td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a> +<h3>THE IRON FURROW<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h3>CHAPTER I</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The Ventisquero Range stretches across the circumference of one's +vision in a procession of mountains that come tall and blue out of the +distant north and seemingly march past to vanish in the remote south +like azure phantoms. The mountains wall the horizon and dominate the +mesa, their black forest-clad flanks crumpled and broken and gashed by +cañons, lifting above timber-line peaks of bare brown rock that pierce +the clouds floating along the range. At sunrise they cast immense +shadows upon the mesa spreading westward from their base; and at +sunset they reflect golden and purple glows upon the plain until the +earth appears swimming in some iridescent sea of ether; while over +them from dawn till dusk, traversed by a few fleecy clouds, lies the +turquoise sky of New Mexico.</p> + +<p>At a certain point in the range a small cañon opens upon the mesa with +a gush of gravel and sand that flows a short way into the sagebrush +and forms a creek bed. Tucked back in the little cañon there is a +considerable growth of bushes and trees, cool and fresh-looking in the +shadow of the gorge during the summer season, a splash of vivid green +there at the bottom of the dusty gray mountain, but at the cañon's +mouth this verdure ceases.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a>Only an insignificant stream of water ran, one day, in the stony creek +bed that meandered out upon the mesa, and it appeared under the hot +July sun and among the hot stones for all the world like a rivulet of +liquid glass. That was all the mesa had to show, only its endless gray +sagebrush and the creek bed almost dry—unless one should reckon the +three parched cottonwood trees beside the stream, a little way down +from the cañon, and the flat-roofed adobe house near by, and the empty +corral behind built of aspen poles. In that immensity of mountain and +mesa the house looked like a brick of sun-baked mud, the corral like a +child's device of straws, the three cottonwoods like three twigs stuck +in the earth. Or, at any rate, that is how they appeared to a horseman +regarding them from the main mesa trail a mile away.</p> + +<p>The rider, a slender tanned young fellow of about twenty-eight, sat in +the saddle with the relaxed ease of habit which allowed his body to +accommodate itself to the steady jogging trot of his horse. A roll +comprising clothes wrapped in a black rubber coat was tied behind the +cantle. His Stetson hat was tilted up at the rear and down in front +almost on his nose—a thin, bony nose, slightly curved and with the +suggestion of a hook in the tip, just the sort of nose to accord with +his lean, sunburnt cheeks and clean-cut chin and straight-lipped +mouth. Under the hat brim drawn forward to his line of vision his +eyes, notwithstanding his air of lounging indolence, gazed forth keen +and observant. He had the appearance of a man who might be seeking a +few stray cattle, or riding to town for mail, and in no particular +hurry about it, either, this hot afternoon; but, for all that, <a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a>Lee +Bryant was proceeding on important business—important for him, +anyhow. When everything one possesses is about to be risked on a +venture, the matter is naturally vital; and at this moment he was +moving straight to the initiative of his enterprise.</p> + +<p>Where the road crossed the creek bed to continue northward, a trail +branched off and followed up the stream to the little ranch house by +the three cottonwood trees. Here the creek had not yet begun to cut an +arroyo and had washed merely a course five or six feet deep and some +fifty feet wide through the mesa, so that from a distance the shallow +gash was invisible and the ground appeared unbroken. It was because of +the flat character of the mesa, too, that Bryant on reaching the bank +of the stream was able to see on the opposite side two persons a +quarter of a mile off riding toward him; women, he perceived. Far +north of them on the road, a black spot in a haze of dust, seemingly +motionless but as one could guess advancing rapidly, was an +automobile.</p> + +<p>Bryant rode his horse down into the creek bed and turned him aside to +a small pool on the upper side of the crossing, under the cut-bank, +where the horse thrust his muzzle into the water and drank greedily. +The rider swung himself out of the saddle, knelt a pace beyond, where +the rivulet trickled into the pool, and also drank.</p> + +<p>"Wet anyway, even if warm, eh, Dick?" he remarked, when done. "Don't +drink it all, old scout; leave a swallow for the ladies." Still on his +knees he looked appraisingly down the creek and then up it, and added +derisively, "Some stream, this Perro, some stream!"</p> + +<p>After rolling and lighting a cigarette, he meditated for a <a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a>time in +the same kneeling position. His horse finished drinking and moved a +step nearer his master, where he stood with head lowered, water +dripping from his lip, body inert. But presently he pricked his ears +and turning his head toward the other bank gave a low whinny. Bryant +got to his feet.</p> + +<p>The two women he had beheld at a distance had now reached the ford. +Their ponies snuffing water immediately dipped into the creek bed and +crossed its sandy bottom with quickened steps. Young women the riders +were, scarcely more than girls, it seemed to Bryant; wearing divided +khaki skirts and white shirt waists and wide-brimmed straw hats tied +with thongs under their chins. In this region where white men were +none too numerous, and women of their own kind scarcer yet, and girls +scarcest of all, the presence here of the pair aroused in the young +fellow a lively interest.</p> + +<p>He led Dick aside that their ponies might approach the pool.</p> + +<p>"Thank you; they are very thirsty," said the nearer girl, with a nod. +The ponies plunged forefeet into the water and stood thus with noses +buried, drinking with eager gulps. "The afternoon is so hot and the +road so dusty," the speaker continued, "that the poor things were +almost choked."</p> + +<p>She was the smaller of the pair, of medium height and having a +graceful, well-molded figure, with frank gray eyes, a nose showing a +few freckles, smooth soft cheeks slightly reddened by sun, and an +expressive mouth. Bryant judged that she had small, firm hands, but +could not see them as she wore gauntlets. He further decided that she +was neither plain nor pretty: just average good-looking, one might +say. An air of friendliness was in her favour, though <a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a>what might or +might not be a prepossessing trait, depending on circumstances, was +the suggested obstinacy in her round chin.</p> + +<p>"Don't you yourselves wish a drink? You must be thirsty, too," Bryant +addressed the young ladies. "If your ponies won't stand, I'll look +after them."</p> + +<p>"Oh, they'll not run off, unless we forget to let the reins hang, as +has happened once or twice," said the girl who previously had spoken. +"For they're regular cow-ponies. At first we had a hard time +remembering just to drop the lines when we dismounted instead of tying +them to a post somewhere; and for a while we had a feeling that they +certainly would gallop off if we did let the reins hang, as we'd been +instructed. But they never did." She turned to her companion. "Imo, +aren't you thirsty? I'm going to get down and have a drink." With +which she swung herself down from her saddle upon the sand.</p> + +<p>The second girl was tall and thin, lacking both the spirits and +stamina of the other; a crown of fluffy golden hair was hinted by the +little of it the young fellow could see under the brim of her big hat; +her eyes were of a soft blue colour, probably weak; while her face, +the skin of which was exceedingly white with but a tinge of the sun's +fiery burn, was regular of feature and delicately formed.</p> + +<p>She walked to the rill languidly, where stooping she drank from her +palm. Most of the water that she dipped escaped before reaching her +lips; and Bryant doubted if she were really successful in quenching +her thirst. The heat, the dust, and the ride appeared to have been +almost too much for her strength, exhausting her slender store of +vitality. <a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>The other girl, who had coiled herself down by the +trickling stream and bent forward resting her hands in the water, +drank directly from the rivulet.</p> + +<p>"There, that's the way to do it, Imo," she declared, when she had +straightened up, hat-brim, nose, chin, all dripping. "Like the ponies! +I hope I haven't lost my handkerchief." And she began to search about +her waist.</p> + +<p>"I'd fall flat in the water if I tried it, as sure as the world," the +taller girl responded.</p> + +<p>They rose to their feet and joined Bryant.</p> + +<p>"You're the young ladies who are homesteading just south of here, +aren't you?" he inquired, politely.</p> + +<p>"Yes, two miles south on Sarita Creek," the smaller answered. Then +after an appraising regard of him she continued, "We took our claims +only last April. And they're not very good claims, either, we're +beginning to fear; the creek goes dry about this time. That's why no +one had filed on the locations before. Have you a ranch somewhere +near?"</p> + +<p>"No. That is, not yet. I'm a civil engineer, but I'm thinking strongly +of settling down here. If I do, we shall be neighbours. My name is Lee +Bryant; this is my horse Dick; and I've a dog called Mike, which +stopped aways back on the road to investigate a prairie dog hole. Now +you know who we are," he concluded, with a smile.</p> + +<p>The girl thereupon told him her name was Ruth Gardner and that of her +companion Imogene Martin.</p> + +<p>"We'll be very glad to have you call at our little ranch when you're +riding by," Ruth Gardner said, graciously. "Aside from Imogene's uncle +and aunt, who live in Kennard <a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>and who've come to see us several +times, we've not had a single visitor in the three months and a half +we've been there, except once an old Mexican who was herding sheep +near by and came to ask for matches. Of course, not many people know +we're there, I imagine. From the road one can't see our cabins—we had +to have two, you know, one for each claim, and they sit side by +side—because they're in the mouth of the cañon among the trees. It's +really cool and pleasant there during the heat of the day. Any time +you come, you'll be welcome."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Bryant," Imogene Martin affirmed. "A man now and then in the +scenery will help out wonderfully."</p> + +<p>"I'll stop the first time I'm passing," he stated.</p> + +<p>Lee Bryant understood the significance of the invitation: they were +starved for company and would be grateful for the society of a person +they believed respectable. He had seen a good deal of homesteading +conditions in the West; he knew the hardships involved in "holding +down" claims, of which the dreary monotony and loneliness of the life +were not the least. One earned ten times over every bit one got of a +free government homestead. For men it was bad enough; but for woman, +for girls like these, who had probably come from the East in trustful +ignorance and with rosy visions, the homestead venture impressed him +not only as pitiful but as tragic.</p> + +<p>"I'll certainly ride down to see you," he assured them again.</p> + +<p>"And perhaps, being an engineer, you'll show us why the water doesn't +run downhill in our bean patch, as it ought to do," Imogene Martin +remarked.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a>Bryant laughed and nodded agreement.</p> + +<p>"You'll find that it's your eyes, and not the water, that have been +playing tricks," he said. "Ground levels and ditch grades are +deceiving things close to the mountains, because the latter tilt one's +natural line of vision. That's why water seems to run uphill when you +look toward the range. I'll soon fix your ditch line when I set an +instrument in your bean patch and sight through it once or twice. The +water will behave after that, I promise you."</p> + +<p>They continued to chat of this and of the failing of Sarita Creek, +until the automobile that Bryant had earlier sighted shot into view on +the northern bank of the creek, whence at decreased speed it descended +into the bottom and ground its way across through sand and gravel. +Driving the hooded car was a man of about thirty years, of slim figure +and with a pale olive skin that betrayed an admixture of American and +Mexican blood. Beside him in the front seat sat a girl whose clear +pink complexion made plain that in her was no mingling of races; her +hat held by a streaming blue veil and her form incased in a silk dust +coat. The tonneau was occupied by two men: one an American with a van +dyke beard sprinkled with gray, the other a short, stout, swarthy +Mexican, whose sweeping white moustache was in marked contrast to his +coffee-coloured face.</p> + +<p>The car, with radiator steaming and hissing, was stopped at a spot +close to where Lee Bryant and his companions stood. The young man at +the wheel, unlatching the door, stepped out.</p> + +<p>"I'll bet the stop-cock of the radiator is open," he <a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>addressed the +girl with the blue veil, "or the engine wouldn't be so hot." After +making an examination of the faucet, he returned to the door and +procured a folding canvas bucket, saying, "That's the trouble, and the +radiator is empty."</p> + +<p>But the young lady scarcely heeded him. She had loosened the blue veil +knotted at her throat and pushed it back from her cheeks to free them +to the air; she sat regarding with interested eyes the group of three +standing a few paces off by the horses. In her gaze, too, there was a +faint curiosity, as if she wondered who the persons might be, and what +they were doing here, and of what they had been conversing when +interrupted. An exceedingly lovely girl she was, as the engineer had +instantly perceived; her features molded in soft lines and curves that +enchanted, a tint like that of peach petals in her cheeks, with warm, +sensitive lips and brown, shining eyes—a radiant, intelligent face. +Against the background of the place, the creek bed of sand and stones +and the banks fringed with dusty sagebrush, she glowed with the +freshness of a desert rose.</p> + +<p>The driver of the car took a step toward Bryant, extending the bucket.</p> + +<p>"Dip me some water out of that hole while I look at my tires, will +you?" he said.</p> + +<p>At the words, which were rather more of a command than a request, the +engineer regarded him fixedly while the blood stirred beneath his tan, +but finally took the bucket. The other turned back to the car, where +he made a pretense of inspecting a front wheel and then, with a foot +on the running-board and elbow resting on knee, twisting indolently <a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a>a +point of his small moustache, he began to converse with his companion +of the blue veil.</p> + +<p>Bryant filled the radiator. Two trips to the pool were necessary to +obtain enough water for that purpose, but he finished the job with the +same thoroughness that he went through with any business once +undertaken, whether pleasant or otherwise. As he poured the contents +of the bucket into the radiator's spout, he took stock of the +automobile party. His face hardened with a slight contempt when he +considered the effeminate-appearing young Mexican who had bade him +bring water and the girl talking with him; which she must have noticed +and taken to herself, for when their eyes met he saw that a flush dyed +her cheeks and that she bit her lip nervously.</p> + +<p>He snapped the radiator cap shut. At the click the man stopped +fingering his moustache, ended his talk, mounted to his seat, and +started the engine. Bryant handed him the bucket, folded flat again, +which the recipient tossed down by his feet.</p> + +<p>"Here, my man," said the olive-skinned young fellow at the wheel, with +a forefinger and thumb searching a waistcoat pocket as the car began +slowly to move forward.</p> + +<p>He tossed a quarter to the engineer. Bryant instinctively caught it, +as one catches any suddenly thrown object. For an instant he remained +transfixed, incredulous, astounded, then the blood flamed in his face +and he cast the coin back at its donor.</p> + +<p>"No Mexican can throw money to me!" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>For answer he received an angry look and snarled word from the driver. +Beyond the man Bryant beheld the <a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>startled, embarrassed, and yet +interested face of the girl with the veil, her lips a little parted, +her eyes intent on him. Then the car lurched out of the sand, splashed +through the rivulet, ascended the inclined roadway of the creek bank, +and sped from view.</p> + +<p>The sudden spark of antagonism flashing between the engineer and the +young Mexican made the two girls by the ponies acutely aware that the +horseman after all was a stranger, a man of whom they knew nothing, an +unknown quantity. And so the two exchanged a glance and drew on their +gauntlets and said they must be riding home. Thereupon Bryant assisted +them to mount.</p> + +<p>As he separated from them to follow the trail up the creek to the +ranch house by the three cottonwoods, Ruth Gardner called to him not +to forget his promised visit to their cabins. He assured them he +should remember. When the girls were some distance off, they waved +across the sagebrush at him and he swung his hat in reply. Off then +the pair went at a gallop, with the automobile on the road far south +of them leaving a hazy streamer of dust above the earth; the riders +going farther and farther away, becoming smaller and smaller on the +mesa, until at last they were but bobbing specks in the golden +sunshine.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER II<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>As Lee Bryant reined his horse to a stop before the small ranch house, +a man seated on a stool just within the open doorway rose and came out +to join him. He was a man of thin, stooped body; his sandy hair +streaked with gray formed a fringe about his bald crown; and on his +lined, sunburnt face there rested a shadow of worry that appeared to +be habitual. Bryant dismounted and shook hands with the ranchman.</p> + +<p>"Well, how are you making it, Mr. Stevenson?" he greeted. "As I +promised if I should be riding by this way again, I've stopped to say +'howdy.' Doesn't seem a month has passed since I stayed over night +with you? How's Mrs. Stevenson? Hope you're both well."</p> + +<p>"Just feeling fair, just fair. Glad you stopped, Bryant," was the +answer. "My wife was wondering only the other day what had become of +you. Bring your horse around to the corral."</p> + +<p>They went behind the house, where the young man removed saddle and +bridle from Dick and turned him into the enclosure. Stevenson gathered +an armful of hay from a small heap near by and tossed it over the +fence to the horse, which began to eat eagerly. Lee glanced about, +gave a sharp whistle; from the trail by the creek a bark answered him. +Then an Airedale came racing through the sagebrush, now and again +leaping high to gain a view of his <a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a>master and finally breaking out +upon the clear ground about the ranch house.</p> + +<p>"Mike, you're too inquisitive about other animals' dwellings," Lee +addressed him as he arrived, wet from an immersion in the creek and +panting from his run. "Some day a rattler in a hole you're digging +into will nip you on the nose and you'll wish you'd been more polite. +Come along now and be good."</p> + +<p>He walked with Stevenson back to the house, where leaving the dog to +drop in the shade outside they entered. The interior was cool and dim +after the hot, glaring sunshine; and Bryant, having greeted Mrs. +Stevenson, sat down gratefully in a rocking-chair, glad to avail +himself of the room's comfort. Crude as an adobe house is both in +appearance and in construction, it is admirably adapted to the climate +of the arid Southwest; its flat dirt roof and thick walls built of +sun-baked mud bricks, plastered within and smoothly surfaced without, +defying alike the heat of midsummer and the icy blasts of winter and +lasting in that dry clime half a century. This ranch house of the +Stevensons', originally built by some Mexican, as Bryant judged, had +been standing twenty-five or thirty years and was still tight and +staunch.</p> + +<p>"Your creek's pretty dry, I see," the young fellow remarked +afteratime, when they had exchanged news.</p> + +<p>"By August there won't be any water in it at all," Stevenson said, +"except a little that always runs in the cañon. I'll have to haul it +from there then. You see now why I can't keep stock here."</p> + +<p>His wife stopped the needle with which she mended an <a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>apron while they +talked, and looked out of a window. On her face was the same tired, +anxious expression that marked her husband's countenance.</p> + +<p>"I've barely kept our garden alive," she said, "but it won't be for +much longer."</p> + +<p>"That's too bad, Mrs. Stevenson," Lee Bryant replied. "However, one +can't do anything without water. Still, your sheep are doing well, I +suppose; the grass is good on the mountains this summer."</p> + +<p>An answer was not immediately forthcoming from the rancher; he sat +staring absently at the backs of his roughened hands, now and again +rubbing one or the other, and enveloped in a gloom that Bryant could +both see and feel. Then all at once Stevenson began to talk, in a +voice querulous and morose.</p> + +<p>"We're going to quit here, sell the sheep, and go back East. I was +swindled when I bought this ranch, and I want to get away before I +lose my last cent. Came out to this country five years ago from +Illinois with forty thousand dollars, and now we're going back with +what I can sell my sheep for, maybe twenty-five hundred cash. Menocal +robbed me right at the start, selling me this place for twenty-five +thousand—twenty thousand down and a mortgage for the remaining five +thousand—when the place was just five thousand acres of sagebrush, +with no more water than runs in this creek. I was a tenderfoot all +right! The land agent at Kennard showed it to me in June when the +Perro was booming, and I believed him when he said it ran that way all +the year around. Look at it now! I didn't have sense enough to inquire +and learn about it, being in a hurry to get into the <a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a>sheep business +and thinking I should be rich in no time. That agent sold it to me for +irrigated land, and a bargain at five dollars an acre. Menocal, who +owned it and deeded it to me, pretends he isn't responsible for what +the man said. Five dollars an acre! It's worth about fifty cents for +winter range, and no more."</p> + +<p>"If it could be irrigated, it would be a bargain sure enough at five +dollars," Lee stated. "And there's another water right for the place +you said when I was here before."</p> + +<p>"Yes, there is—on paper. Water was appropriated out of the Pinas +River, but that's eight miles north of here, and it would cost a +hundred thousand dollars, if not more, to build a dam and a canal +along the mountain side. No, sir; that appropriation was just some +more of Menocal's tricky work! He jammed it through the land office +thirty years ago and, they say, never did any more to comply with the +law requiring delivery of the water on this ground than to have a man +drive around pouring a bucketful out of a barrel upon each quarter +section."</p> + +<p>"Some pretty shady transactions were put across in those early days," +Bryant commented.</p> + +<p>"Well, ain't matters just as bad now?" Stevenson asked, quickly. "He +still has the appropriation, or rather I'm supposed to have it with +this ranch. Because Menocal controls the Mexican vote hereabouts, +which is about all the vote there is, why, nobody has ever disturbed +him about that water right. And he's using that water, belonging to +me, to irrigate a lot of bottom farms along the river, for which no +water can be appropriated, the Pinas not carrying enough. I rode over +one day and looked at those <a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>farms—all grain and alfalfa. Well, he'll +get this ranch back, anyway. The mortgage he holds on it is due next +week and I can't pay it. Wouldn't even if I had the money. We're going +to pull up stakes and leave."</p> + +<p>Bryant silently regarded the other's haggard face and stooped figure, +whose expression and resigned attitude revealed clearly Stevenson's +surrender. He was a man discouraged, disheartened, whipped.</p> + +<p>"What's wrong with the sheep?" he questioned, at length.</p> + +<p>"Not much that isn't wrong. When I started five years ago, I invested +in three thousand head. One time I had them increased to fifty-five +hundred—three bands. Thought I was doing first rate; and I was then. +But everything began to go against me. It seemed as if I always got +the worst herders; and not having any water to raise alfalfa I had to +buy winter feed, which was expensive; and a lot of them got the scab +and died; and last year I lost nearly all my lambs at lambing time, +the band being caught out in a storm and being in the wrong place. +Just one thing after another, to break my back. Had trouble about the +range, too. When I started them off this spring, they were down to +seven hundred; and I've been losing some right along from one cause or +another. No lambs, either, this spring, except dead ones. I thought I +could hang on till my luck changed, but losing a hundred head two +weeks ago was the last straw. I'm done now."</p> + +<p>"What happened, Stevenson?"</p> + +<p>"One of Menocal's herders mixed his flock with my six hundred, did it +deliberately, I'm convinced; there were <a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>three thousand head of his. +Billy was tending ours—and Billy is only fourteen, you know. I had +come down here for some supplies and when I returned, I found him +crying. The Mexican had separated the sheep and we were a hundred +short, gone with his, and he would pay no attention to Billy, swearing +he had only his own band. And he drove them away. I went to Menocal, +who was very polite, but he said I must be mistaken as his herders +were all honest men; and I've not got my sheep back, and I'm not +likely to. For that band is now thirty miles away somewhere. No use to +go to court—Menocal owns everything and everybody around here. So I'm +quitting."</p> + +<p>"The sheep business isn't all roses, that's certain," Lee Bryant +remarked. "It's hard luck that your band ran down just when the price +of mutton and wool is going up. So you're letting the ranch slide?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I can't pay the mortgage; Menocal would foreclose at once if I +tried to stay. Last time I was in town he asked me about paying it off +and when I told him I shouldn't be able to do that, he said he'd have +me deed it back to him to save foreclosure proceedings. And he was +smiling, too. He knew all the time that he'd get the ranch back; and +when he does, he'll sell it to some other sucker."</p> + +<p>"Both of us have wished a hundred times that we'd never sold our +Illinois farm to come here," Mrs. Stevenson said, plaintively. "I +don't know what we'll do when we go back, for that matter. Just rent a +place, I guess. Land is so high-priced there that we'll never be able +to buy a farm again."</p> + +<p>"Renting there is better than starving here," her husband <a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>declared. +"We'll have a better home, too. When we first came to this place, we +planned on building a fine house, but I never had the money loose, and +we've just kept on from year to year living in this 'dobe hole. Good +thing I didn't have the money, however, for we'd lose the house along +with the ranch if we had built. Well, we're going back East, anyhow, +as soon as I sell the sheep. Graham, who has the big ranch on Diamond +Creek, south of where those girls are homesteading, is coming up in a +day or two to look at them, maybe buy them. You can see Graham's big +white house from the Kennard trail."</p> + +<p>Bryant nodded. "I know the place, saw it when passing," said he. Then +he went on, "When I was at the ford watering my horse before coming +here, an auto crossed the creek. In the rear seat were a fat Mexican, +whom I took to be Menocal, and a white man with a pointed beard. The +latter perhaps was Graham?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that must have been him. Which way were they driving?"</p> + +<p>"South."</p> + +<p>"Going to the Graham ranch, I s'pose."</p> + +<p>"There was a slim young fellow driving the car—some Mexican blood in +him," Lee stated.</p> + +<p>"Menocal's son, Charlie, a half-breed snippet who puts on airs because +his father's rich," Stevenson said, in a disgusted tone. "A white +woman married Menocal, you know."</p> + +<p>"In the front seat with the young fellow was a girl, rather pretty," +Bryant appended.</p> + +<p>"That's Louise, I imagine," Mrs. Stevenson said, reflectively. "Yes, +it must have been her. She's Mr. <a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>Graham's daughter. A nice girl, too. +That Menocal boy is crazy to marry her, the talk is."</p> + +<p>"And is she crazy to marry him?" Lee inquired, amused by this gossip.</p> + +<p>"Well, not exactly crazy, I'd say; I don't see how she could be. But +he'll be worth a lot of money some day, and she may overlook +considerable on that account. Menocal's boy has been to college; +besides, the family goes everywhere with white folks. I guess a +Mexican is supposed to be really white, isn't he?"</p> + +<p>"Those having pure Spanish blood," the engineer explained. "Nearly all +the ones around here that I've seen have more Indian in them than +anything else, however, with a dash of other races perhaps. From the +glimpse I had of Menocal, I'll venture to say he has Red men among his +ancestors."</p> + +<p>"Mexican or Indian or whatever he is, he can squeeze money out of +nothing, like a Jew," Stevenson complained. "Look how much he has made +out of this ranch; look at what he has made out of me! And it's just +that way with everything he holds. The Mexicans all around this +section sell him their stuff cheap and take what he pays, because they +don't know any better and because he's their leader. He has the big +store at Bartolo, which you've seen, and owns the bank there, and has +any number of farms up and down the Pinas River, and runs I don't know +how many bands of sheep; and besides, he elects the county officers, +and fixes the taxes to suit himself, and recommends the water +inspector for this district, and—and—well, what chance has an +ordinary man to get ahead here?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>Lee Bryant let a pause ensue. He rolled a cigarette and struck a light +and carefully got the tobacco to burning.</p> + +<p>"You say you're going to let the ranch go back to Menocal," he stated, +abruptly. "You've made up your mind that you won't keep it, anyway. +All right. Now I've a proposition to make you."</p> + +<p>Stevenson looked at him with curiosity.</p> + +<p>"A proposition? What is it?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"It's this: I've a farm of eighty acres in Nebraska that I'll trade +you for it. I could offer you less, but I won't; you have an equity +here of value, and I'm not the kind of man to beat you down to +nothing. If we deal, you shall have something in return for your +interest. This eighty of mine is worth a hundred dollars an +acre—eight thousand; it's mortgaged for five thousand, which leaves +an equity of three thousand; on it are good buildings and it's rented +until next March. You could then take possession. It's a good farm, +and with the money you'll have from the sale of your sheep you can +make a good start on the place, which is in the corn and wheat +section. My equity of three thousand isn't worth, to be sure, anything +like what you paid Menocal for this ranch, but it's something—and all +that I can afford to give."</p> + +<p>The rancher stared at Lee as if he could not credit his ears.</p> + +<p>"Are you in earnest?" he demanded, at last. "Why I've just told you +there's no water here. A man can't make a living on the place, and the +mortgage is due next week."</p> + +<p>"I'll pay off the mortgage; I've enough money saved up to do that."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>"But, man, without water——"</p> + +<p>"Listen, Stevenson, I know exactly what I'm about," the engineer +interrupted. "This thing's a gamble with me, I admit, but you needn't +do any worrying on that score. I'm going in with my eyes open; I know +the risks and am willing to take them. What about my offer?"</p> + +<p>Stevenson, still gazing at his visitor in wonderment, was at a loss; +he rubbed his knuckles doubtfully, hitched about on his chair and knit +his brows, perplexed, hesitating, as was his manner when presented +with any new affair, even with one palpably to his advantage. It was +clear that in this lack of quick decision lay much of the reason for +his failure.</p> + +<p>His wife exclaimed in appeal, "Oh, John, if Mr. Bryant really means +it, why don't you say yes? I can't understand why he makes us such a +fine offer, but he is making it. We can start again; we'll be back in +a farming country like what we're used to, even if it isn't in +Illinois; we'll have a farm of our own, a home of our own, and will +not have to rent. Oh, why don't you say yes?"</p> + +<p>The rancher looked from his wife to Bryant and back again, pursing his +lips.</p> + +<p>"But I don't understand this," he said.</p> + +<p>"You heard what he explained," she replied, anxiously. "He expects to +pay off the mortgage and be rid of Mr. Menocal. Perhaps he knows the +sheep business better than you do; you never did learn it well, John, +and you ought never to have stopped farming. You were a good farmer; +you will be again. We can go on this place in Nebraska and raise corn +and wheat and hogs, and I'll have chickens to help clear the debt. +Why, it's a chance for us to be independent <a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>again, and have a home, +and neighbours, and attend church, and—and be happy, John!"</p> + +<p>"That's so," her husband agreed.</p> + +<p>"We are going to leave here anyway," she continued to urge. "We +wouldn't have had anything but the money from the sheep, but now +you'll be getting a farm, too. I'd think you'd jump at Mr. Bryant's +offer."</p> + +<p>"But maybe, after all, the ranch is worth more than I thought," +Stevenson speculated.</p> + +<p>His wife sank back in her seat, picked up her sewing, and tried to +resume her task, but her fingers trembled and her lashes were winking +fast. Lee gazed at her sympathetically. Then he lifted his hat from +the floor and stood up.</p> + +<p>"Well, there are other places I can trade for," he remarked. "I +thought I was doing you a good turn in proposing the exchange, +especially as you're about to lose your place. I wouldn't be beating +you out of anything, certainly, and as your wife says, you'd really be +getting something for nothing. The mortgage is due next week, you must +remember."</p> + +<p>Stevenson's mind, however, was running in another channel.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you how we can deal," he said, with an assumption of +shrewdness. "You pay me the five thousand you plan to pay off the +mortgage with, and get Menocal to renew the loan. Five thousand—why, +my equity is worth more than that! Besides, you've some scheme for +making money out of this ranch."</p> + +<p>"What if I have?"</p> + +<p>"That makes a difference when it comes to a deal."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>"Not with me," the engineer stated, curtly. "If that's your attitude, +we'll drop the matter. Probably you yourself can arrange an extension +of the mortgage or a renewal, if you're minded to remain."</p> + +<p>"You know, John, that you can't; Mr. Menocal has already refused," +Mrs. Stevenson said, in a low voice.</p> + +<p>"I ought to have cash in addition to your farm," her husband insisted.</p> + +<p>"You get none," Lee replied. "Well, this trade is what I came to see +you about. From the way you talked when I was here last I supposed you +might consider my offer favourably, but I guess we can't do business. +I'll ride on to Bartolo."</p> + +<p>At this statement Mrs. Stevenson wiped her eyes, rose and went into +the inner room, closing the door after her. The engineer moved as if +to depart.</p> + +<p>"Now, wait a minute," Stevenson exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"I'll take—let me figure a minute."</p> + +<p>Bryant tossed his hat on the table in disgust and relighted his +cigarette.</p> + +<p>"Stevenson, listen," he began. "You're an older man than I am, but +just the same I'm going to say a few things that you need to hear. I +couldn't say them and wouldn't say them before your wife, but now I'm +going to turn loose. You can do as you damn please about trading, take +my offer or leave it; if you refuse, though, you'll lose both ranch +and farm. The trouble with you is that you can't see the difference +between a good proposition and a bad one. That's why you bought this +ranch on say-so. That's why now <a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a>you're turning down my offer. You +either jump without first looking, or you wait until it's too late. +You don't pay attention strictly to what's immediately under your +hand, but waste your energy wondering if you can't get rich from +something out of your reach. That's what has been the trouble with you +in the sheep business, I imagine. Here when I offer you a farm for a +ranch that's slipping through your fingers, you at once get greedy. +Most of the time you don't know your own mind; you hesitate and +speculate and vacillate and worry. Why, you deserve to lose your ranch +and your sheep and everything else. And your wife suffers for your +faults! You're a failure, and you've dragged her down with you. If +you're not a failure, and a fool, too, go bring her back into this +room and tell her you're going to make this trade, so you two will +have a farm and the home she wants and so her mind will be easy once +more. You've been thinking of only yourself long enough; now begin to +think of her comfort and happiness."</p> + +<p>Stevenson came angrily to his feet.</p> + +<p>"No man ever talked to me like that before, I'll have you know!" he +cried.</p> + +<p>The engineer kept his place, with no change of countenance.</p> + +<p>"Well, one has talked to you like that now and I'm the man," he said. +"And I don't retract a word. It's the truth straight from the +shoulder. What are you going to do about it? Why, nothing, just +nothing. Because I've talked cold, hard facts, and you know it."</p> + +<p>The momentary fire died from Stevenson's eyes. He shuffled his feet +for a little, looked about the room with the <a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a>worried aspect he +usually showed, brushed his lips with the back of his hand.</p> + +<p>"You're pretty rough——" he began.</p> + +<p>"Don't stand there talking; go get your wife," Bryant said, sharply.</p> + +<p>Stevenson turned and walked slowly to the closed door. He cleared his +throat, stared at the panels for a moment, and at last pushed it open.</p> + +<p>"Come out, Sarah, we're going to trade," he announced.</p> + +<p>The woman came forth. About her eyes was a slight redness, but on her +lips there was a tremulous smile.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad," she said, "I'm glad, John."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I decided it was a good trade to make," her husband assured her. +"No need to think it over longer."</p> + +<p>They came to where Bryant stood, unconcealed pleasure showing on Mrs. +Stevenson's face.</p> + +<p>"You may like to see these kodak pictures of the farm and its house," +the young man said, producing an envelope from a pocket. "Take a chair +here by the window, Mrs. Stevenson, where you'll have the light. See, +this one shows the house, with the trees and lilac bushes in front, +and gives you a glimpse of the flower garden. Pretty, don't you +think?"</p> + +<p>She readjusted her spectacles. After a time she gazed from the +pictures through the window at the stretch of sagebrush.</p> + +<p>"And I'll have neighbours, too," she said, in an unsteady voice. "The +loneliness here was killing me."</p> + +<p>Stevenson considered the backs of his hands in awkward silence.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a>"Neighbours, lots of them," Bryant affirmed.</p> + +<p>"I kind of pity you having to stay," she said, looking up at him with +a smile.</p> + +<p>The engineer laughed.</p> + +<p>"Why, this country suits me right down to the ground," he replied. +"I've been in the West ten years, wouldn't live anywhere else. And I +don't expect to be lonely; Menocal will probably attend to that. +Besides, there are two good-looking young ladies just south of here, +on Sarita Creek."</p> + +<p>"That's so," she said, laughing also.</p> + +<p>"First thing we hear, you'll be married," Stevenson remarked, with a +quick grin.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm safe—there are two of them," Bryant returned, clapping the +rancher on the shoulder.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER III<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>The town of Bartolo slumbered in the July sunshine. Nothing stirred on +its one long street, lined with scarcely a break on either side by +mud-plastered houses that made a continuous brown wall, marked at +intervals by a door or pierced by a window; nothing stirred, neither +in front of Menocal's large frame store at the upper end of it, with +the little bank adjoining, nor before the small courthouse grounds +across the way, where the huge old cottonwoods spread their shade, nor +along the entire length of the beaten street down to Gomez's +blacksmith shop and Martinez's saloon across from each other at the +lower end; nothing, not even the pair of burros drowsing in the shade +of the wall, or the dogs lying before doors, or the goats a-kneel by +the saloon, or the fowls nested down in the dust. Only the Pinas +River, issuing from the black cañon a mile or so above, was in motion; +and, indeed, it appeared to partake of the general somnolence, barely +rippling along its gravelly bed, shallow and shrunken, and giving +forth but an indolent glitter as it flowed past the town. The day was +hot and it was the hour of the siesta, therefore everything +slept—everything, man, beast and fowl, from Menocal, who was snoring +in his hammock on the vine-clad veranda of his big stuccoed house just +beyond the store at the head of the street, to the goats at the foot +of it by the silent saloon.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a>Bryant, descending from the mesa into the river bottom and riding into +the street, had he not known otherwise, might have supposed the +population vanished in a body. But he was aware that it only slept; +and he had no consideration for a siesta that retarded his affairs. He +dismounted before the courthouse and entered the building, whose +corridor and chambers appeared as silent, as lifeless, as forsaken as +the street itself. Coming into the Recorder's office, he halted for a +look about, then pushed through the wicket of the counter and stepped +into an inner room, where he stirred by a thumb in the ribs a thin, +dusky-skinned youth reclining in a swivel chair with feet in repose on +a window-sill, who slept with head fallen back, arms hanging, and +mouth open.</p> + +<p>"Come, <i>amigo</i>, your dinner's settled by this time," the engineer +stated. "Grab a pen and record this deed."</p> + +<p>The clerk sleepily shifted his feet into a more comfortable position.</p> + +<p>"We're behind in our work," said he. "Just leave your deed, and the +fee, and we'll get around to it in a few days."</p> + +<p>"So you're too busy now, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. We've had a good many papers to record this month."</p> + +<p>"Where's the Recorder?"</p> + +<p>"Not back from dinner yet," was the answer.</p> + +<p>The speaker once again prepared to rest. From the outer office the +slow ticking of a clock sounded with lulling effect, while the grassy +yard beyond the window, shaded by the boughs of the cottonwoods, +diffused peace and drowsiness. The clerk closed his eyes.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>"Just leave the deed and fee on the desk here," he murmured.</p> + +<p>"And tip-toe out, too, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"If you feel like it," the young Mexican remarked, with a faint +insolence in his voice, the insolence of a subordinate who believes +himself protected by his place.</p> + +<p>Bryant's hand shot swiftly out to the speaker's shoulder. With a snap +that brought him up standing the clerk was jerked from his seat, and +before his startled wits gathered what was happening he was propelled +into the outer office.</p> + +<p>"Record this deed, you forty-dollar-a-month penpusher, before I grow +peevish and rearrange your face," Bryant ordered, with his fingers +tightening their grasp on the youth's collar. "You're receiving your +pay from the county, and are presumed to give value received. Anyway, +value received is what I'm going to have now."</p> + +<p>"Let go my neck!"</p> + +<p>"Let go nothing. When I see you settle down to this big book, then I +let go. No '<i>mañana</i>' with me, boy; right here and now you're going to +give me an exhibition of rapid penmanship. Savey? Take up your pen; +that's the stuff. Now dip deep in the ink and draw a full breath and +go to it."</p> + +<p>Bryant released his hold on the cowed clerk, but remained by his side, +where his presence exerted an amazingly energizing effect upon the +scribe. The pen scratched industriously to and fro across the page, +over which the youth humped himself as if enamoured of the tome, only +at intervals risking a glance at the lean-faced, vigilant American. +When he had finished the transcription, stamped the deed <a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>and closed +the book, Bryant handed him the amount of the fee.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," the clerk said, with an excess of politeness.</p> + +<p>He was still nervous. He furtively observed his visitor stowing the +deed in a pocket, as if expecting Bryant to initiate some new +violence, and resolved on flight if he should.</p> + +<p>"There, my friend, that's all you can do for me just now," the +engineer remarked. "But I shall return soon, so keep awake and ready. +When you see me entering, advance <i>pronto</i>. If anything annoys me, +it's being kept waiting by a Mexican boy-clerk. Do you get that +clearly?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Si, señor</i>," the other replied, unconsciously lapsing into his +native tongue.</p> + +<p>"<i>Muy bueno</i>—and bear it in mind. Now I advise you to get to work on +the documents you've allowed to accumulate; it's half-past two and +you've had enough of a siesta for one noon." With which Bryant took +his departure.</p> + +<p>Outside he led his horse across the street to the frame store. Beside +the latter stood Menocal's house, with its smooth green lawn and its +beds of poppies, its trees, its fence massed with sweet peas, and its +vine-covered veranda, where the engineer had a glimpse of a corpulent +figure in a hammock. The only sound from the place was the musical +gurgle of water in a little irrigation ditch bordering the lawn.</p> + +<p>Inside the long store Bryant aroused the only man in sight, a Mexican +who slept on the counter with his head pillowed on a pile of overalls.</p> + +<p>"Go tell Menocal there's a man here to see him on business," Lee +said.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>The awakened sleeper slid off his perch, rubbed his eyes, yawned, +stretched himself, and then shook his head with great gravity.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Menocal takes his siesta till three o'clock; you can see him at +that time," he said, in English.</p> + +<p>"I'll see him now."</p> + +<p>"Impossible! He is very angry when awakened for a small matter."</p> + +<p>Bryant went a step nearer to the speaker.</p> + +<p>"Where do you get the authority to decide that my business is a small +matter?" he demanded, with a menace of manner that caused the other to +retreat in haste. "Go bring him and make me no more trouble."</p> + +<p>The man went. Bryant lighted a cigarette and fell to surveying the +store's merchandise. Several minutes passed before a murmur of voices +apprised him of the coming of the men. Menocal entered the side door +first, approaching heavily and sleepily the spot where the engineer +waited. He had not put on coat or collar; his short figure appeared +more than ever obese; his sweeping white moustache divided his plump, +shiny brown face; and his air was that of one who must put up with +vexatious interruptions because of the important position he filled.</p> + +<p>"You wish to speak with me?" he asked, shortly.</p> + +<p>"That's why I'm here," Bryant returned.</p> + +<p>Menocal gazed at him owlishly for a time.</p> + +<p>"You're the man who threw my son's money back at the ford day before +yesterday, aren't you?" he questioned.</p> + +<p>"The same."</p> + +<p>"Why did you throw it back?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>"Why did he throw it at me in the first place? You should train him to +use better judgment. You yourself wouldn't have done it."</p> + +<p>"No," Menocal said. Then, as if the subject were dismissed, he asked, +"What do you wish to see me about?"</p> + +<p>"About the mortgage on the Stevenson place: I've bought the ranch. +Stevenson moves off in a few days."</p> + +<p>Menocal's brows lifted and remained so, as if fixed in their new +elevation. He slowly rubbed the end of his nose with his forefinger. +The sleepiness had wholly vanished from his countenance.</p> + +<p>"Come into the bank," he said, finally; and moved toward the front +door.</p> + +<p>The engineer accompanied him. In a space railed off from the cashier's +grille in the little building next door they sat down. The teller was +visible in the cage, where now he appeared very busy though he had +undoubtedly been drowsing when they entered.</p> + +<p>"So you've bought the Stevenson ranch," Menocal said.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I've just had the deed recorded."</p> + +<p>"The mortgage is due in a few days; I told him it wouldn't be renewed +by me."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps now that I have the place——"</p> + +<p>"No; I've carried that loan long enough. If it isn't paid when due, +I'll start foreclosure proceedings immediately."</p> + +<p>Bryant nodded.</p> + +<p>"Well, I merely asked out of curiosity," said he. "It's your right to +demand payment—and I'm on hand with the money. Make out a release so +that I can clear the record. Here's a Denver draft for six thousand +<a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a>dollars—I figure principal and interest at five thousand four hundred +and you can have the balance placed to my credit in the bank. I +shouldn't continue the loan at its present rate of interest in any +case; eight per cent. is too much for money. Besides, I want the ranch +clear of incumbrance."</p> + +<p>With an expressionless face Menocal gazed at the draft, turned it +over, examined the back, then at last laid it down on his desk.</p> + +<p>"Isidro," he called to the teller, "make out a mortgage release for +the Stevenson place. Copy the description from the mortgage in my file +in the vault. Afterward credit six hundred dollars to—What is your +name?"</p> + +<p>"Lee Bryant."</p> + +<p>"Six hundred dollars to Lee Bryant, Isidro. Mr. Bryant will give you +his signature." Again facing his visitor, he said, "Do you know that +that ranch has no water to speak of? I'm afraid you may not find the +property what you expect."</p> + +<p>"It has a good appropriation from the Pinas River here."</p> + +<p>"Ah, but it can't be used," Menocal exclaimed, with a bland smile.</p> + +<p>"I propose to use it."</p> + +<p>"What!"</p> + +<p>Bryant kept his eyes fixed on the amazed banker's orbs.</p> + +<p>"Didn't I speak clearly?" he inquired. "I own one hundred and +twenty-five second feet of water in this river and it's my intention +to apply it. I'm going to make a real ranch down there."</p> + +<p>A shadow seemed to settle on Menocal's face, leaving it altered, less +placid, more purposeful.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>"Considerable capital will be required to build a canal there," he +remarked. "You're certainly not going into this thing on your own +account, are you? Who is putting up the money? Eastern people?"</p> + +<p>Bryant smiled, but made no answer. His smile and his silence provoked +an angry gleam from the banker's eyes.</p> + +<p>"Well, it doesn't matter," Menocal continued. "But you're going to +discover that you haven't this water right, after all."</p> + +<p>"What makes you think so?"</p> + +<p>"Because it was never used, because no real canal was ever built, only +a little ditch that doesn't exist now. The right will be cancelled, +and the water will be reappropriated for lands along the river."</p> + +<p>"For farms on which you're now using it, you mean?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not saying where."</p> + +<p>Bryant leaned forward and tapped the banker's desk with a finger-tip.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Menocal, don't try to start any trouble with me," he said, with +jaw a little outthrust.</p> + +<p>"<i>Dios!</i> You dare talk that way to me?"</p> + +<p>"I repeat it, don't attempt to keep something that doesn't belong to +you. You may want to—but don't try it. I know all about the water +appropriation for the ranch I've bought; all about your sworn +affidavit filed thirty years ago, with an accompanying map, certifying +that a canal was built and water delivered to the land. It's a matter +of record. Now you seek to reappropriate this water, or to have the +right cancelled, and see where you wind up. Thirty years ago men +winked at false affidavits, but it's different to-day."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a>The Mexican's white moustache drew up tight under his thick nose, +disclosing his teeth in a snarl.</p> + +<p>"You threaten me—me!"</p> + +<p>"I'm not threatening, only warning you. Or if you wish a still milder +word, let me say advising," Bryant rejoined.</p> + +<p>The banker's eyes, however, continued to flash at the engineer, as if +alive in their sockets and hunting a mark to strike.</p> + +<p>"You accuse me of dishonour!" he exclaimed. "I don't know why I should +pay attention to your charge, which is false. A ditch was built to the +ranch—"</p> + +<p>"Mighty small one, then. No trace of it remains."</p> + +<p>"One was built, one was built!"</p> + +<p>"Very well, Mr. Menocal, grant that it was. It but strengthens my +position. But let us pass to recent times; five years ago you passed +title to Stevenson with the water right as a reality when you sold him +the ranch; your son is water inspector for this district, or was until +a year ago, anyway, making reports to the state. Did he say anything +in them about this canal or water right having ceased to exist? No."</p> + +<p>"His reports were largely routine," the other stated, regaining his +composure.</p> + +<p>"Still they were official. I'm simply pointing out to you, Mr. +Menocal, why it will be unwise for you to endeavour to have this water +appropriation cancelled. You sold it to Stevenson as a live right—the +deed proves that; and now that I have the property I shall make it +such in fact. You've been using the water for other land, which +possibly will suffer afterward, but that doesn't affect the case in +the <a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a>least. That water is a valuable property; when it's delivered on +my ranch, the land will be worth fifty dollars an acre. You may have +calculated that no one who got hold of the Perro Creek ranch ever +would or could use the water, but in that you were in error: I can and +will use it, and you must understand that fact."</p> + +<p>Menocal fell into consideration. He folded his hands across his +stomach and remained thus, pondering, occasionally lifting his lids +for a scrutiny of Bryant's face.</p> + +<p>"I'll give you ten thousand cash for the place as it stands and hand +you my check now," he said, at length.</p> + +<p>"Not to-day, thank you," the engineer replied.</p> + +<p>"What is your price?"</p> + +<p>"The ranch isn't for sale. It'll be worth a quarter of a million when +it's watered. No, it's not on the market at present."</p> + +<p>A deep sigh issued from the banker's lips; he blinked slowly several +times before speaking, with a resigned countenance.</p> + +<p>"I see you've some capitalists behind you," said he, "for it will take +money to build a dam and a canal. If they saw a reasonable profit +without the trouble of construction, no doubt they would be willing to +sell."</p> + +<p>"Put your mind at rest, Mr. Menocal; you have only me to deal with; +there are no capitalists running this show yet. But the water system +will be built, never fear."</p> + +<p>Menocal's eyebrows went up. "Ah, so?" he asked, softly.</p> + +<p>Then his face smoothed itself out; and Bryant realized that he had +been led into a betrayal of importance.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a>"You would do well to name a price, Mr. Bryant."</p> + +<p>"No; I propose to develop the ranch," the engineer answered, curtly. +"Is the release made out? If it is, I'll be on my way."</p> + +<p>"It's too bad you refuse, too bad," Menocal said, with a lugubrious +shake of his head.</p> + +<p>He called Isidro. The clerk placed a card before Bryant for his +signature and gave him a check book. Then he laid the mortgage release +in front of Menocal, who signed and passed it to the engineer.</p> + +<p>"You'll find it correct," the Mexican stated. "Isidro is a notary and +has filled out the acknowledgment."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the visitor took care to read the paper and compare it +with his deed before he rose.</p> + +<p>"Well, that ends my business for the afternoon," said he, "and I'll +take no more of your time. You understand where I stand, Mr. Menocal."</p> + +<p>The latter gave a number of slow nods saying, "I understand, I +understand. Good day, Mr. Bryant. And remember that you have an +account with us and that the bank will be pleased to render you any +service possible."</p> + +<p>Sleepily the banker, watching through the bank window, saw the young +man lead his horse across the street and once more disappear within +the courthouse. Then for some minutes he continued in somnolent +contemplation of the courthouse front. At last he called:</p> + +<p>"Isidro, Isidro! Go find Joe García and tell him I wish to speak with +him in half an hour in my garden. Look for him at home and in the +saloon, but find him wherever he is. That man who just went out now, +Isidro,——"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a>"Yes," answered Isidro.</p> + +<p>"He's one of those hard, obstinate Americans, Isidro—and his eyes, +they are bad eyes, I don't like them."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Isidro concurred, who had not noticed the eyes at all.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER IV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>Charlie Menocal, who after his sleep had read a few chapters in a +novel, went out of the shaded room where he had reposed and into the +garden. There he discovered his father in talk with Joe García.</p> + +<p>"What's going on?" he exclaimed. "Lost a horse, or a wife or +something, Joe?"</p> + +<p>"No, Charlie; this is business," García said, with a grin.</p> + +<p>Menocal continued to give his instructions to the latter. They had to +do with bringing a few hundred sheep from one of the bands feeding in +the hills. They were to be driven down on the mesa to graze, and kept +moving about near the Stevenson ranch house; García was to observe +what the young man there did, all he did, whom he saw, and as far as +possible where he went. Particularly was he to note if surveyors came +and set to work anywhere. If the young man appeared to be engaged at +any task on the mountain side, Joe was to approach with his sheep. And +he was to report everything he learned.</p> + +<p>Charlie's attention became more lively as he listened to his father's +directions to the man, and when García had departed he asked, "Who are +you after? Who's this young fellow you speak of as being at the Perro +Creek ranch? Didn't Stevenson deed the place back?"</p> + +<p>Menocal senior twisted an end of his flaring moustache.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>"May a thousand damnations fall on him! No, he didn't," he responded, +wrathfully.</p> + +<p>"But that only means you'll have to foreclose the mortgage. It will +take longer, that's all."</p> + +<p>Charlie was vice-president of his father's bank—his name was so +printed on the stationery, at least—and was familiar with his +parent's affairs, though he was averse to anything like industry. He +much preferred the pursuit of pleasure to work, and his automobile to +the grille of the bank. He was accurately aware, too, of his father's +weakness for him, an only child, and of his father's inclination to +indulge his desires; and shrewdly played upon the fact. Nevertheless, +in matters of business he possessed a certain sharpness.</p> + +<p>"Stevenson sold the ranch to this young man Bryant, who just now paid +off the mortgage," Menocal explained.</p> + +<p>"Then he was stung," Charlie averred.</p> + +<p>"Wait, you don't know all, my son. He plans to build a dam and a canal +and use that old water right out of the Pinas, taking the water with +which we irrigate the farms down at Rosita. It will leave them dry; +the alfalfa will die; no more grain or peas or beans will be raised on +them; they won't have even good pasturage; they will go back to +sagebrush and cactus—all those farms, all those beautiful ranches! +Altogether four or five thousand acres! They are worth two hundred +thousand dollars now—to-morrow worth nothing! Half my winter hay +comes from them; half my peas for fattening lambs. I shall have to +sell part of my sheep. I'm a millionaire now, but I'll be reduced, +I'll be less than a millionaire, and so almost poor again. It's very +bad; it mustn't be; I must stop him using the water."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a>Even Charlie became solemn at the prospect of losing two hundred +thousand dollars and being less than a millionaire.</p> + +<p>"The right hasn't been used; we'll have it cancelled," he said, with +sudden confidence.</p> + +<p>"He refused to sell the place to me for ten thousand dollars cash," +the father stated. "He's no fool—and he's a bad customer, Charlie; he +said he would send me to prison for perjury if I tried to cancel the +right."</p> + +<p>"Perjury, pouf!" Charlie sneered.</p> + +<p>"He couldn't send me to prison, of course, for I have too much money, +but he might make it unpleasant for me, very unpleasant. Politics are +to be considered; I mustn't get a bad name in the party and in the +state. I must be careful. The records show that the ranch has had the +water, and while in my possession. As he says, that would be difficult +for me to explain if I entered court against him. The matter mustn't +get into court or into the land office. Later we can have the water +right cancelled and reappropriated—later, when he has gone away, when +no dust can be raised about it."</p> + +<p>"Is he going away?"</p> + +<p>"Don't be stupid, Charlie. He must go away; that is necessary: I'm +considering plans. He must be pursuaded—or——"</p> + +<p>"Or forced," said his son, with reckless bright eyes.</p> + +<p>"Men generally depart from a locality when public opinion is brought +to bear on them," the elder remarked. "He can be made unpopular until +he desires to leave."</p> + +<p>"We'll run him out, just leave that part to me."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>"Charlie, nothing rash must be done, remember that, and nothing +illegal. I shall think of some plan soon."</p> + +<p>"Nothing rash, but nothing uncertain, father. Two hundred thousand is +a lot of money. I, too, shall plan."</p> + +<p>The prospect of ousting an intruder who had challenged his family's +right to control what it wished here, who indeed had the audacity to +attempt to robe the effort under a claim of legality, appealed to +young Menocal as an undertaking most attractive. The fact that all the +advantage was on his side, of influence, of wealth, of race, of power +that might be exerted through ignorant Mexicans in a hundred subtle +and vindictive ways, made the enterprise all the more alluring. The +Indian strain in his blood—a strain which accounts for much that sets +American and Mexican apart, unconsciously in his case gave a tinge of +cruelty to his anticipation. Aspiring himself to pass as an American, +it never failed to please him when he could slight or humiliate an +American; and he lacked his father's restraint of impulses, as he came +short of his sagacity and perseverance. Indeed, secretly the son +believed his father too conservative, too cautious, too old-fashioned +and slow; and at times was exceedingly impatient with methods that he +was confident he could immensely improve.</p> + +<p>His father considered him for a time.</p> + +<p>"Charlie, you leave this matter alone," he said. "You keep out of it. +Whatever's to be done, I'll do. You would go too far. You can give +your attention to seeing that the crops are watered and the hay cut on +time; you should be down at Rosita now looking after things."</p> + +<p>"I'll run down in the car this evening," was the answer. <a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>"To-morrow +I'm going to Kennard, where I haven't been for two weeks. The wool in +the warehouse there should be sold, and a buyer from Boston wrote, you +know, that he would be there this week. And I think we can get our +price."</p> + +<p>Kennard was the nearest railroad point and forty miles south. It was a +pleasant little city, with some of the attractions of larger places. +Of these Charlie was thinking rather than of the wool. He would attend +to the wool business, of course, but it was an excuse instead of a +reason for the projected visit on the morrow.</p> + +<p>"Very well, it's time the wool is sold; the price is good at present," +his father agreed.</p> + +<p>Charlie recurred to the matter of the Stevenson ranch.</p> + +<p>"What's this fellow's name who bought out Stevenson?"</p> + +<p>"Lee Bryant. A young man. And I don't like him; I'm afraid he's a +trouble-maker. You should remember him, Charlie, for he's the fellow +who filled the radiator of the car at the ford on Perro Creek and who +threw your money back in your face."</p> + +<p>Young Menocal's thin figure stiffened, while his small black moustache +rose in two points of ire.</p> + +<p>"Him! That scoundrel who insulted me before Louise! That +lamb-stealer!" he shrilled.</p> + +<p>"That is the man," his father affirmed.</p> + +<p>Charlie spat forth a string of Spanish curses. When he had recovered +from his outburst of passion, he said:</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm glad he's the man. He'll pay for that. Louise said nothing, +but she heard him. And now he's trying to steal our water, too! I'd +like to tie him down on a cactus-bed and run a band of sheep over +him."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>"Charlie, Charlie, control yourself. Don't exhaust your strength by +being angry; it's bad for you in this heat; sunstrokes are sometimes +brought on that way. Besides, such talk as you uttered is foolish and +dangerous."</p> + +<p>"Bah, I'm not afraid of a sunstroke."</p> + +<p>"Anyway, it's unwise to be angry," his father warned. "When you're in +a temper, you talk loud; and people may hear it and repeat it, making +trouble. Now I must return to the bank. But remember what I say: +you're not to meddle in this Perro Creek matter. Do you hear?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I hear," said Charlie.</p> + +<p>His face as his father walked away did not, however, indicate +acquiescence in this tame course. His heart was full of rancour for +the insulting stranger of the ford; and where the fires of his hatred +blew, his feet would follow.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER V<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>Though Lee Bryant, during his colloquy with Menocal, had spoken +confidently of his ability to obtain money wherewith to construct a +canal system linking the Pinas River and the Perro Creek ranch, he had +no definite promise of funds from any source. Nor would the project be +ripe for financing before he had completed his surveys and made his +cost estimates.</p> + +<p>He had become interested in the undertaking in this way. Staying over +night with the Stevensons by chance a month previous, a stranger, his +speculation was aroused when through questions about the ranch he +learned of the unused Pinas River water right, a right valid but +apparently impracticable. Was it indeed impracticable? Would the cost +of bringing water to the land be, after all, prohibitive? In fact, had +a competent engineer ever gone into the matter? He doubted it. The +history of the property, so far as he could glean from Stevenson, +disclosed on the part of no one any serious effort ever to develop the +ranch. In the beginning Menocal had probably had some faint notion of +carrying out the scheme, but if so, had afterward abandoned the +enterprise. The tract of five thousand acres of land had originally +been a small Mexican grant; it lay in the midst of government land; +and when Menocal came into possession of the ranch, some conception of +utilizing water from the <a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>Pinas must have inspired him to acquire the +appropriation of one hundred and twenty-five second feet. Well, the +land, theoretically at any rate, had water; and if water actually +could be delivered, an extraordinary value would accrue to the now +nearly worthless tract. It was a problem for engineers; it was one of +the possibilities that if seized might be converted into a fact. +Bryant was an engineer, and he was just then foot-loose.</p> + +<p>From the worried ranchman, Stevenson, who appeared glad to talk of his +affairs to someone, he learned that the man was both dissatisfied with +the country and straitened in circumstances. Bryant judged that his +host would consider any offer which would enable him to realize +something on the ranch and to depart; so that particular aspect of the +matter if undertaken, namely, securing title to the land and water +right, seemed favourable. If no insurmountable obstacle stood in the +way of building a dam and a canal, arising from construction elements, +it assuredly looked as if money was to be made out of the project.</p> + +<p>With his mind kindling to the idea Bryant rode northward next morning +along the base of the mountains, studying the hillsides where a canal +naturally should run, all the way up to the Pinas River. Afterward he +reconnoitered the mesa, hitting at last on a slight elevation, hardly +to be called a ridge, that projected from a hillside a mile below +Bartolo and curved in a gentle crescent for about three miles from the +range of mountains down the mesa, again bending in toward the hills +close to the north line of the Perro Creek ranch.</p> + +<p>Next, he absented himself for a week at the state capital, <a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a>where he +industriously studied the water and land records pertaining to the +district. When he returned, he brought with him a surveying instrument +and a boy for helper. He pitched a tent out of sight in a hollow at +the foot of a hill, worked early and late running his lines, +establishing a dam site, and surveying the river bottom near the mouth +of Pinas Cañon, and remained practically unseen except by a few +incurious Mexicans. His instrument proved the correctness of his +conclusion regarding the crescent-shaped elevation as a practical +grade for a canal, which though necessitating a longer course would +nevertheless immensely lessen the time, expense, and difficulties of +digging when compared with a line along the mountains' flanks with its +danger of washouts and earth slides. Nor did he stop there. He made +rapid but reliable topographical measurements, on a general scale, of +the mesa for five miles out from the mountains, between Bartolo and +Perro Creek, locating among other things a large depression in the +plain, three miles southwest of the town, which might by diking be +converted into a flood water reservoir. Then he folded his tent and +again disappeared for a week. When, finally, he rode to Stevenson's +ranch house that hot July afternoon and made a trade for the five +thousand acres of land, he was the possessor of considerably more +knowledge of the locality and its possibilities than any one would +have guessed.</p> + +<p>And now he was owner of the ranch and committed to the enterprise.</p> + +<p>A few days after Bryant's visit to Bartolo Stevenson disposed of his +sheep to Graham, the owner of the large ranch on Diamond Creek, loaded +his household goods, except the <a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a>stove and some of the furniture which +the engineer bought, and with his wife and boy drove away in his sheep +wagon for Kennard and for the new farm in Nebraska. Bryant's own +effects—trunk, bedding, provisions, surveying instruments, +draughting-board, and the like, came up from the railroad town by +wagon, and with them the fourteen-year-old lad, Dave Morris, a +gangling, long-legged boy extremely dependable and extraordinarily +serious, who had carried rod for the engineer during the week of +preliminary surveying.</p> + +<p>The man and boy now attacked the canal line in earnest, with Bryant +intent on establishing its course, location, and displacement exactly, +so that he could make necessary blueprints and compile construction +estimates. It was while they were working along the first mile of the +line, where it ran from the Pinas River along the base of a hill to +the low ridge that bore out upon the mesa, that they received their +first interruption. The worst and most expensive part of the canal to +build would be this section, and the engineer was therefore taking +especial care in its surveying; near the river the line traversed +several fenced tracts of ground extending part way up the hillside, +fields owned by natives; and it was one of these Mexicans who slouched +forward to the spot where Bryant and Dave worked and ordered them to +get out of his field.</p> + +<p>Bryant straightened up from sighting through his transit, and asked, +"What's on your mind? What's disturbing your brain, <i>hombre</i>?"</p> + +<p>"You get off," was the unkempt fellow's answer.</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"You can't come on my ranch; get off."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a>The engineer pulled a map from his hip pocket—a copy made from one +filed in the land commissioner's office thirty years previous. He +spread it open before the Mexican.</p> + +<p>"See this? Here is Bartolo, here is the river, here is your field," he +said, pointing with a finger. "Now look at that line; it runs across +this field right where we stand. That's the Perro Creek Canal, +extending down to Perro Creek."</p> + +<p>The man stared at the earth under his feet.</p> + +<p>"No, I see no canal," he stated, now looking right and left as if to +make sure. "There is no canal."</p> + +<p>"Yes, there is. But it needs cleaning badly. I'm surveying its banks +again and then I shall clean out the dirt. You can see that it needs +cleaning, because you can scarcely see it at all. Menocal, the banker, +didn't take very good care of the canal after he built it; that's the +trouble. Hello, does that surprise you? Yes, Mr. Menocal got the water +right and dug the ditch in the first place; and he also secured a +right of way across these fields, sixty feet wide, by buying it from +whoever owned the ground at that time, and the right of way is +certified to the state. Now, I own Perro Creek ranch and the Perro +Creek canal and likewise the right of way. So you see, José, or +whatever your name is, we're standing on my ground and not yours; I +could even make you take down your fence where it crosses my right of +way."</p> + +<p>The Mexican blinked stupidly.</p> + +<p>"I was born here; my father was born here; my grandfather lived here," +he said. "There have been little ditches, many of them, but never a +big canal in this field. You must get off."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a>"No; you're mistaken. Go see Mr. Menocal and he will set you right."</p> + +<p>"I saw Charlie Menocal, who said to drive strangers off."</p> + +<p>"Well, Charlie had best keep his fingers out of this dish, or he may +find it full of pepper, and you tell him so next time you talk with +him."</p> + +<p>Bryant folded his map and restored it to his pocket, while the Mexican +went away to his house.</p> + +<p>That day the engineer worked until darkness shut down. At three +o'clock next morning he routed his young assistant out of bed and by +dawn they were in the fields again. Knowing that the Menocals had set +about impeding and if possible altogether obstructing him, he proposed +to be done, as quickly as careful surveying allowed, with the fenced +part of the hillside where plausible controversies could be invented.</p> + +<p>Toward the end of the second day he had progressed into the last tract +of owned ground. He breathed more freely. In his statement to the +Mexican concerning the right of way he had been exactly right; and he +was following to a dot the original course taken by the early ditch. +He could have improved upon this section of the canal by another +survey, but that would have involved him in a host of troubles, very +likely unsolvable ones, in securing title to another strip of ground +across the fields. Without question Menocal's influence would prevent +the owners from selling, even if Bryant had the money with which to +buy a second right of way, which he had not. Dollar for dollar it +would be cheaper in the long run to use the old line. Well, Dave was +already across the last fence with his rod; they would soon be +<a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>working entirely on government land; and with that, it did not matter +for the present what the Mexican landowners thought or did.</p> + +<p>Bryant had walked fifty yards or so away from his transit to call +something to Dave, when the crack of a rifle sounded from the hillside +and a bullet whined near by. The engineer pivoted about. Another shot +followed, and he beheld a spurt of dust close by his instrument. The +hidden rifleman was not seeking to murder him, but to destroy his +tools.</p> + +<p>There were no more shots and he resumed work. Later on, as he neared +the fence and was establishing his last points within the field, a +horseman with a gray moustache came galloping up along the stretch of +barb wire. He nodded, inquired if the engineer was named Bryant, and +announced that he had half a dozen injunctions to serve.</p> + +<p>"I expected something like this; glad you didn't arrive any sooner," +Lee remarked.</p> + +<p>"Well, I was away from town, or I'd have been here by noon," the +horseman, an American, stated. "The injunctions cover all these places +between here and the river. You and any one you hire must keep off the +tracts specified until the cases come up before the judge."</p> + +<p>"All right, sheriff. Wait till I take a last squint or two and I'll +vacate."</p> + +<p>The horseman idly watched the engineer make his final measurements, +then when Bryant had lifted his tripod over the wire and told his +assistant Dave they would call it a day and stop, he dismounted and +sat down for a smoke with the man on whom he had served his papers.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a>"Looks as if you've stirred up some interest in your doings," he +remarked, expelling a thread of smoke. "All the Mexicans from here +down to Rosita are gabbling about your canal. Don't seem pleased with +you."</p> + +<p>"There's one who doesn't, in any case," was the response. "He took a +couple of shots at my instrument a while ago from up yonder in the +sagebrush when I had stepped aside for a moment."</p> + +<p>The sheriff gazed at the hillside.</p> + +<p>"A few <i>hombres</i> around here will bear watching," said he. For a +little he meditated, then went on, "You're a white man and so am I; +they don't like our colour any too well, at bottom. I s'pose you know +that."</p> + +<p>"Yes. But they needn't express their feelings with rifles. As far as +these injunctions are concerned, they'll be dismissed eventually, for +there's no question about my right of way through here. Menocal +secured it himself and it's all a matter of record—the deeds, the +certificate to the state, and the rest."</p> + +<p>"Menocal got it, you say?"</p> + +<p>"Nobody else. Some time or other he must have expected to water Perro +Creek ranch, which he owned until he sold it to Stevenson."</p> + +<p>"I knew he had that place," said the visitor, "but I didn't know it +carried a water right from the Pinas. Where does this move of yours +hit Menocal?"</p> + +<p>"In his ranches down the river; he's been using this water for them," +Bryant explained. "I suppose it's been taken for granted by nearly +everyone that the water belonged to those farms down there, but it +doesn't."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>"How much water in this right?"</p> + +<p>"Hundred and twenty-five second feet."</p> + +<p>"Whew! That takes a chunk out of the Pinas. And I presume that by this +time Menocal knows what you're doing?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; I told him. He doesn't like it, of course."</p> + +<p>The sheriff turned for a full view of Bryant's face. In respect to +features the two men were not unlike: both had the same thin curving +nose and level eyes and cut of jaw.</p> + +<p>"Well, let me say as between man and man," the elder spoke, "that +Menocal won't let you take away that much water from him if he can +help it. And I'll drop you some more news, in addition: several +Mexicans are going to file on homesteads or desert claims along the +base of the hills south of here, scattered along like and running part +way up the mountain sides. I don't know where your canal to Perro +Creek will go, but if its line follows the foot of the range, as may +be likely, it might happen to find those claims in the way."</p> + +<p>"Any idea in your mind where those fellows may locate their filings?"</p> + +<p>"No; I can't say definitely. Shouldn't be surprised if they began +stringing them along a couple of miles south of here till they reached +Perro Creek."</p> + +<p>Bryant gazed at the flank of the mountain. The gentle ridge where his +ditch line left the hillside was but half a mile away. Beyond that the +Mexicans could file to their hearts' content, for they would be left +on one side by the canal. But in all this he perceived Menocal's +cunning hand.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a>"Much obliged to you, sheriff," said he. "I'll see if I can't find +some way to satisfy those chaps when the time comes."</p> + +<p>His visitor rose and put foot in stirrup.</p> + +<p>"If any of these Mexicans grow ugly, let me know," he remarked. "I'll +tell them where to head in. Drop in at my office at the courthouse +when you're in town; Winship's my name. I brought these notices over +myself in order to look at you, for they were saying you are a +trouble-maker, but that's what these natives frequently state when +they want to fix an alibi for themselves before they start something. +I'll see if I can learn anything of the fellow who was up yonder +shooting. These <i>hombres</i> are altogether too free with firearms, +anyway. Better feed that lad there with you a few more meals a day; +looks as if he could use them."</p> + +<p>Bryant laughed.</p> + +<p>"Dave's a little lean, but he's all there. Looks don't count, do they, +partner?"</p> + +<p>"I do the best I can," Dave responded, solemnly.</p> + +<p>"Not at meal-time, I reckon," the sheriff said. "Feed up and get fat. +A kid like you has no business having so many joints and bones +sticking out."</p> + +<p>"I been through a hard winter last winter, and this spring, too, till +Mr. Bryant picked me up."</p> + +<p>"How's that?" the horseman inquired.</p> + +<p>"My mother died at Kennard. I didn't get on very well after that; not +much there for a boy to work at. And I hadn't any folks."</p> + +<p>"Hump. What's your last name?"</p> + +<p>"Morris."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a>"Any relation to Jack Morris?"</p> + +<p>"He was my father."</p> + +<p>The sheriff nodded. "Knew him well; he died four years ago. And your +mother died last winter? Little woman, I recall."</p> + +<p>"Little, but a lot better than plenty of bigger ones I know of," Dave +asserted, stoutly. "She died of pneumonia."</p> + +<p>"Boy, I've held you on my knee when you were about as high as my hand. +But I guess you don't remember that, and I'm mighty sorry to learn +your mother's gone. Dave—is that your name? Well, now, Dave, fight +your grub harder from now on."</p> + +<p>The speaker gathered his reins, nodded, and rode away along the barb +wire fence.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER VI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>"When gentlemen of a dark and sinister cast of mind deliberately set +out to frustrate one's legitimate efforts under a misapprehension as +to the course to be pursued, the proper diplomacy in such a case is to +foster the delusion circulating in their craniums as long as possible +and thus divert their attention from the real purpose. Don't you agree +with me, David?" Lee Bryant gravely inquired of his young companion, +as they were about to set forth next morning.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," Dave affirmed, to whom the statement was so much Greek.</p> + +<p>"Then since the vote is unanimous, we'll proceed to run a line along +the mountain side where it will collide with these new homesteads."</p> + +<p>The engineer shouldered tripod and rod, whistled Mike to heel, and +with Dave started forward. Half way to Bartolo they perceived three +men busy on the hillside, so Bryant swung up to a point a quarter of a +mile off and began surveying. When he approached the workmen, Mexicans +naturally, he saw that they were engaged in setting fence posts, of +which a row was already in line part way up the hill.</p> + +<p>The men dropped their tools and confronted him as he drew near.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a>"This is my land; you keep away," one exclaimed, with waving arms, +while the other backed him up in a show of force.</p> + +<p>"How can I build a canal here if you won't let me go through?" Bryant +demanded.</p> + +<p>"No go through, no canal on my claim!"</p> + +<p>"Well, just let me run a line, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"No. Keep off, keep off," was the obstinate answer.</p> + +<p>The engineer continued to argue, now as if in anger and now with a +conciliatory mien, all the while protesting that the homesteader must +not prevent the construction of the canal. But he received only shakes +of the head, short replies, and malicious looks. So at length, with +every pretense of disappointment and dejection, he went down the +hillside.</p> + +<p>A mile farther along, where he found two more men occupied at similar +labour, he likewise dissembled his purpose, with the same opposition, +controversy, and retreat. He thereupon led Dave back to the ranch +house, where he prepared and ate dinner with satisfaction. Very likely +Menocal would receive reports that evening faithfully depicting his +chagrin and despair, or whatever were the Mexican equivalents.</p> + +<p>Yet while he deluded the banker, he must secretly carry on his actual +surveying on the mesa. Since the men setting fence posts had a fairly +wide view of the plain, he determined to work in the open only for two +or three hours at daybreak before the Mexicans were about. For +Menocal, or any one else, must have no suspicion of his real ditch +line until an application for construction of the project had been +filed in the state engineer's office.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a>Signs that the banker had taken measures to keep him under +surveillance were not wanting.</p> + +<p>"Dave," he said, "have you noticed a sheepherder with a bunch of sheep +hanging around here, when he should be up in the mountains where the +range is good?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I've seen him. And he hasn't a full band, either."</p> + +<p>"Looks as if he's grazing down here on the mesa so as to watch us," +Bryant mused. "When we went north, he and his sheep drifted in that +direction; when we were over on the mountain side, they followed +there. What shall we do about it?"</p> + +<p>"I don't see that we can do anything except to watch him, too, and +fool him." The lad took thought for a moment, and then proceeded, +"Somebody was around here yesterday while we were away, for I saw a +brown paper cigarette stub on the ground in front of the door this +morning. You use white papers; it's mostly Mexicans who have those +straw papers."</p> + +<p>"Then we had better put an extra nail or two in the windows as a +precaution," Lee stated, "before we go down to Sarita Creek. And I'll +leave Mike here also. If anybody comes fooling around, he'll take a +piece out of the fellow's leg."</p> + +<p>In addition to nailing the windows and leaving Mike at the door, much +to his dissatisfaction, Bryant secreted his papers, note-books, and +maps, the theft of which would be an extremely serious loss. Menocal +probably would not instigate open lawlessness, but his hirelings might +break into the house on their own initiative. And this was not +unlikely since a bitter feeling was systematically being <a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>aroused +against Bryant and his project among the preponderate Mexican +inhabitants.</p> + +<p>But for the time being he dismissed this matter from his thoughts, +when with tripod and rod and a bundle of stakes on Dick's saddle he +and Dave set out for Sarita Creek, leading the horse. Bryant had +postponed, under pressure of work, the business of fixing the feminine +homesteaders' garden ditch, until his conscience began to prick him on +the subject. He had neither seen nor had news of them since the chance +meeting at the ford; but now, as he could survey his canal line on the +mesa only during the early hours, he planned to make frequent visits +to the girls.</p> + +<p>That they already had a caller this afternoon he discovered on +arriving at the two little cabins built of boards, peeping forth from +among the trees in the mouth of the cañon. The place was indeed +charming, with its grass and shade, with its brook flowing close by +the dwellings, with walls of rock rising behind. Just now an +automobile rested before the trees; and the engineer saw a man sitting +on the grass with Ruth Gardner and Imogene Martin, the three chatting +and laughing gaily. When Bryant got a good look at the other visitor +he gave vent to an ejaculation in which was blended surprise and +contempt. "That magpie! Of all damn impudence!" For the cavalier so +debonairly entertaining the young ladies was none other than the +olive-skinned Charlie Menocal.</p> + +<p>A sense of pique was Bryant's succeeding feeling. He would have +disdainfully denied that he was moved by a pang of jealousy. But he +had anticipated finding the girls <a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>alone and having a pleasant chat +with them, enjoying their companionship, relaxing from the strain of +arduous work, harkening to their badinage. Indeed, if the interloper +had been someone else, some other man, at least, he would have +experienced a turn of disappointment—but that the individual should +be this tricky, coddled, egotistical Charlie Menocal! Well, he should +align the girls' irrigating ditch and then go about his business.</p> + +<p>"I've been delayed in coming to correct your water flow," he remarked, +when the fair homesteaders had given him greeting, "but I'm on hand at +last."</p> + +<p>Ruth Gardner, looking prettier and fuller of spirits than ever, +assured him the ditch was behaving no better than before. Her next +words, however, left him with an impression that he and not Charlie +Menocal was the intruder, which hardened his annoyance into a desire +to have done with the matter.</p> + +<p>"I wish you had come some other day, for we're just about to depart," +she exclaimed. "Mr. Menocal is very kindly taking Imo and me in his +car to see the old ruins of a pueblo somewhere over west. We'll be +gone probably all the rest of the afternoon, and there'll be no one to +show you the ditch and what's wrong with it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll find out what's wrong and straighten out the trouble," the +engineer replied. "You've a spade or shovel, I suppose? Go right ahead +with your exploring expedition and don't worry about me; the ditch +will be working properly when you return."</p> + +<p>"Well, if you don't really need us——"</p> + +<p>"Not in the least," was his assurance.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a>She still hesitated, while her look travelled from Bryant to Menocal +and back again. To the engineer that inclusive regard indicated that +her mind was less concerned with the garden ditch than with a +comparison of her two visitors; and with a sudden feeling of warmth +about his neck Bryant admitted to himself that he presented no +attractions. He wore laced boots, soiled khaki trousers and flannel +shirt, with his hat pulled over one eye against the sun; Menocal was +dressed in light gray clothes, thin and cool, low white shoes, a pale +pink silk shirt (trust a Mexican for colour somewhere!) a vivid +rose-hued scarf, and a white cap. To further emphasize the contrast, +Bryant led a loaded horse and a gangling boy, while Charlie Menocal +leaned at ease against his twin-six. Quite a difference, for a fact. +And it was plain that Ruth Gardner noted it with discrimination.</p> + +<p>Imogene Martin now spoke.</p> + +<p>"I don't think I'll go, Ruth. I've not been feeling well the last day +or two, as you know, and I'm afraid to risk the sun."</p> + +<p>"Oh, come on, Imo. The ride will do you good," her friend replied, +with a trace of impatience.</p> + +<p>"No, I told Mr. Menocal when he proposed the expedition that I doubted +if I should go."</p> + +<p>"Too bad not to come, Miss Martin," that worthy remarked, without +enthusiasm. Clearly his interest in what company he should have did +not point toward her.</p> + +<p>"I'm going, at any rate," Ruth Gardner said. And then, "Oh, dear! I +overlooked altogether introducing you you two gentlemen."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a>Bryant was human; the opportunity was one he could not let pass. So +smiling broadly he said:</p> + +<p>"We've met before, haven't we, Menocal? At Perro Creek ford." And +receiving no response but a scowl, he spoke at large, "Well, I must +get busy if I'm to save those beans."</p> + +<p>He led Dick, with Dave at his side, toward the garden on open ground +below the trees, where the bean vines were already turning yellow for +lack of water. He chuckled as he went, for the disappearance of +Charlie Menocal's patronizing air and the sudden thundercloud hanging +on his visage attested that the charge had gone home.</p> + +<p>Ten minutes later the automobile passed the garden, but Bryant, who +had set up his tripod and stationed Dave with his rod some distance +off, did not see the hand Ruth Gardner waved. His eye was where an +engineer's eye should be, at his transit.</p> + +<p>"She waved at you," Dave called.</p> + +<p>"Who?"</p> + +<p>"That girl with the Mexican."</p> + +<p>"Well, what of it?"</p> + +<p>When Bryant used that tone, Dave recognized the wisdom of silence. He +pretended that he had not heard. Even his employer, whom he +worshipped, had strange, mysterious moods.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER VII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>The defect in the ditch proved to be one of minor character, which +Bryant corrected after a few observations and half an hour's work with +a shovel. While he was thus engaged, Imogene Martin, wearing a +wide-brimmed straw hat, strolled out to watch his operations. She was +in a friendly and talkative mood, and asked questions concerning +ditches and irrigation and surveying, and about Dave, and speculated +on the ruins of the pueblo whither Ruth and Charlie Menocal had gone, +and said she was glad Bryant had bought the ranch just north of their +claims and would be their neighbour. Only, she added, she was sorry to +learn that he was having trouble with the people about; Mr. Menocal +had stated such to be a fact, though what he had further hinted of +Bryant's endeavour to gain property to which he had no title and of +the engineer's being a trouble-maker, she did not for one instant +believe.</p> + +<p>"I'll be a trouble-maker for Charlie and his dad if they continue +their present policy," Lee vouchsafed, tossing aside a shovelful of +earth.</p> + +<p>Imogene Martin carefully flattened a hill of bean plants for a seat, +sat down, and locked her hands over her knees.</p> + +<p>"I think you're to be trusted, so I'll tell you a secret," she +remarked, smiling. "Charlie Menocal doesn't make a <a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a>'hit' with me, +either. When you referred to the ford, I could scarcely keep my face +straight; and my feeling ill this afternoon, though partly true, was +also partly manufactured, because I didn't want to go to those old +ruins with him. I don't care for men like him especially. I share the +feeling of my uncle in Kennard—"</p> + +<p>"You have an uncle there? I thought you were from the East."</p> + +<p>"I am; from Ohio. But I've an uncle and aunt living in Kennard, which +is the reason Ruth and I came to this section for homesteads. Ruth was +crazy to take up a claim, having read how easily one is acquired, +while my health was not very good and the doctor at home thought it +would be improved by being in the open in a high altitude. Uncle said +I'd better stay with him and aunt, but I knew how terribly +disappointed Ruth would be if I did, because she couldn't homestead +alone. So uncle declared that if homesteaders we had to be, then we +must locate near him where he could have me under his eye, so to +speak. I myself am not taking this claim business very seriously. And +now uncle, who once had some controversy with the elder Menocal, +wouldn't be very well pleased if he knew the son was making calls on +us."</p> + +<p>"So others besides myself have trouble with the Menocals," Bryant +stated.</p> + +<p>"Apparently. I don't know what this particular difficulty was about, +but uncle is president of a bank in Kennard and so it may have been +some financial matter. Or it may have been over politics; both of them +mix in that. Anyway, he doesn't think highly of the elder Menocal, +and <a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a>has no use at all for the younger; so I know he would be vexed at +Ruth and me for receiving this Charlie."</p> + +<p>"You didn't know him that day he and I clashed at the ford," Lee +suggested.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. Our meeting came about one afternoon about a week afterward. +He overtook us on the road a mile or so away from here and politely +offered to bring us home in his car; we were walking and couldn't very +well refuse his courtesy, and then he asked to call and Ruth at once +gave him permission, and that's the way it came about. But I thought +it wise to draw the line at going off miles and miles with him to see +ruins. Of course, Ruth hasn't any uncle to consider, but uncle or no +uncle I should have drawn the line just the same."</p> + +<p>"A colour line, eh?" Lee asked, with a lift of his brows.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's it, though I hesitated to put it in just those words," +she agreed, with a nod, while both her lips and her blue eyes smiled +at him in amusement. "Really, Mexicans are of different blood and +race, you know, and I feel the—gulf. That probably sounds foolish and +ridiculous, still I can't help the feeling. When I look at a man like +Charlie Menocal, I see the Mexican strain uppermost even if his mother +was white; and I think what strange, savage, unguessed traits may lurk +in his blood from a long time back; and I shiver. One dare not say +they have ceased. There may be forces at work in his soul that are +inherited from the very tribesmen who dwelt in that pueblo ages ago, +whose ruins he and Ruth have gone to see. Who knows? And I'm never +able to rid myself of the feeling that such forces exist in him and +his kind."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a>The engineer thrust his shovel into the earth and seated himself +beside the girl.</p> + +<p>"Nor I," said he. "And I suppose that feeling will remain between +persons of different races as long as the races themselves last. Those +who ignore or deny it are simply blind. Why, look, there's antipathy +between even white men of different nationalities! So what else is to +be expected when the question is one of race and colour? Nor will one +or two generations change what is infused in blood and sinew."</p> + +<p>"Now, that's what uncle says," Imogene Martin declared, "and asserts +that's the reason why Mexicans born and raised here are in sympathy +with those across the border in any trouble Mexico has with our +country." Her face all at once became amused. "He says craniums were +shaped long before governments."</p> + +<p>Bryant laughed on hearing that concise summing up of the case. And +then they continued to talk of this and other subjects, while Dave +Morris drew near and silently drank in the conversation, most of which +passed above his head. As for the engineer, he found in his companion +a peculiar charm that he never would have suspected from their first +meeting at the ford; a pleasure begotten of a quick intelligence and a +keen, trained mind.</p> + +<p>"I've delayed you in your work," she exclaimed, at length.</p> + +<p>"Except to throw out a few shovelfuls of dirt, and that will take but +a moment. I was done. I didn't sit down until it was practically put +in shape. I hope we shall have another talk soon; this one has been a +great treat for me. Let me help you up."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a>When he had cleaned the last clods from the ditch, he set off with +tripod and shovel on shoulder to walk with her to the cabins, while +Dave followed with Dick. At the houses Bryant cast an appraising look +at the scanty heap of chopped wood and wound up his visit by seizing +the axe and attacking the store of dry poles hauled from the cañon by +the man who had built the cabins.</p> + +<p>"There, that will keep you going for awhile," he stated, when he had +produced a large pile of sticks. "I don't believe you're strong enough +to handle an axe, Miss Martin; and it would grieve me deeply to learn +you had removed a toe in the attempt. Really, this homesteading game +isn't for women and girls."</p> + +<p>"Oh, we've made out fairly well."</p> + +<p>"Your spirit is admirable, but I can't say as much for your judgment +in the matter," he returned, good-naturedly. "Still, we all go hunting +trouble in our own individual fashion; if not in one way, why, then in +another."</p> + +<p>It was after five o'clock when Lee Bryant and Dave, once more leading +the loaded horse, took their departure and followed Sarita Creek down +to the mesa trail. When they had struck into the latter and travelled +it for half a mile, they saw a long distance ahead someone walking +toward them, also leading a horse. In a land where men saddle a mount +to ride a few hundred yards, the singular coincidence excited their +curiosity. They wondered why the fellow walked, as doubtless he was +wondering the same thing of them. But as they drew nearer they +perceived the pedestrian to be not a man but a woman; and when they +met Bryant recognized in her the girl who had sat by Charlie Menocal +in his <a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a>automobile at the ford. Her gray corded riding habit was +dusty; she appeared both hot and tired; and her countenance showed a +deep dejection. The horse she led was limping.</p> + +<p>Bryant raised his hat and addressed her.</p> + +<p>"Your horse has gone lame, I see. Can I be of any service to you?"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid not; he acts as if he had strained a tendon," she replied. +"So I'm leading him home. Our ranch is on Diamond Creek."</p> + +<p>"But you had a fall! There's blood on your glove."</p> + +<p>"No, it's not from that," she said, with a shake of her head.</p> + +<p>Bryant again remarked the exquisite molding of her face as he had +noted it at their first meeting, and her wide brow and clear brown +eyes and the fineness of her skin, and her warm, sensitive lips, at +this instant moving in the barest tremble imaginable. She was gazing +at him with a curious, troubled look.</p> + +<p>"Bring Dick here," Lee bade Dave.</p> + +<p>He swiftly untied the ropes and removed tripod, rod, and saddle. Then +he unfastened the hitch of the saddle of the horse the girl led.</p> + +<p>"Why, what are you doing?" she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Giving you a fresh horse. You can ride mine home and send him back to +me to-morrow; I live just ahead on Perro Creek at the Stevenson +place."</p> + +<p>"I wondered if you weren't the new owner, for I had learned that the +ranch had been sold by Mr. Stevenson. Father bought his sheep. You are +Mr. Bryant, aren't you? This is most kind to lend me your horse."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a>"You'll find Dick gentle; and you can lead your own mount. Walking +appears to have exhausted you."</p> + +<p>Again she shook her head, with an odd expression growing upon her +face—anxiety, distress, just what Lee could not exactly decide. But +as she made no explanation, he gave her a hand and swung her upon +Dick, after which he handed her the reins and advanced the hope that +she should arrive home without further misadventure.</p> + +<p>She made no move to depart, however, but sat regarding the engineer.</p> + +<p>"I was at your house," she stated, finally.</p> + +<p>"To see me?"</p> + +<p>"To find you, or someone, who could help me. When my horse went lame +near the ford, I found that he had picked up a stone which I couldn't +remove. So I led him to your house, seeking assistance. When I reached +there——"</p> + +<p>She stopped in her recital, compressing her lips and gazing off across +the sagebrush.</p> + +<p>"Well?" the engineer encouraged.</p> + +<p>"When I reached there, I heard a dog whining."</p> + +<p>Bryant stiffened.</p> + +<p>"I left my dog Mike behind," said he.</p> + +<p>"The sound was really more like a moaning," she went on. "At first I +could see nothing, but when I looked everywhere I found that it came +from one of the three cottonwood trees. Somebody had hurt him, and the +poor creature was suffering terribly. I—I can hardly tell what had +been done to him!" And she shuddered.</p> + +<p>"Mike! They've killed my dog Mike!"</p> + +<p>"They nailed him to a cottonwood tree. A nail through <a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a>each leg. A +nail through his throat. Nails through his body. They had crucified +him. And, oh, his pitiful eyes!"</p> + +<p>Lee Bryant stood perfectly still and quiet. Dave was frozen and +horrified. Both gazed fixedly across the mesa to where the cottonwoods +could be seen.</p> + +<p>"Is Mike alive yet?" Bryant asked presently, in an unsteady voice.</p> + +<p>"No; not now. I found a piece of iron and hammered the nails free. +Then I lifted him down and carried him to the creek and washed his +wounds. But he died. I see his eyes yet, looking up at me." For a +little she was overcome. Then she resumed, "When he was dead, I +carried him up to your door, for I knew you must have loved him."</p> + +<p>Bryant glanced up at her.</p> + +<p>"Mike would know you were a friend," he said.</p> + +<p>She nodded and reined Dick about. Leading the other horse, she rode +away through the sunshine that burnished the mesa.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER VIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>July passed. Followed August, with days likewise hot and unvarying +except for a scarcely appreciable retardation of dawn. Perro Creek now +showed no water at all in its shallow bed; the garden planted by the +Stevensons was long dried up; the sagebrush was dustier than ever; and +Bryant and Dave were hauling in a barrel on a sledge water for their +use from a pool in the cañon.</p> + +<p>From daybreak until about eight o'clock in the morning the engineer +and his assistant worked on the canal line. Bryant had run a +fictitious survey along the mountain side, staking it out +conspicuously for any one to see, to the first of the fenced claims of +the Mexican homesteaders, where it ended as if blocked; but his real +line on the mesa remained unstaked.</p> + +<p>To the low ridge, or spur of ground, projecting from the mountain's +base at a point half a mile south of his right of way through the +fields, where the canal began its sweep out upon the plain, he gave +considerable time. The fall of this at first was sharp, and concrete +drops would have to be constructed at intervals for a distance of a +mile or so in order to lower the water. When this section was left +behind, he advanced rapidly along the line, for the surface of the +gentle crescent swell was smooth, its grade fairly regular, and its +contour fixed by nature. Essential points he marked by <a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a>stones, with +merely their surfaces exposed, so that if noticed they would be +considered scattered pieces of rock from the hills. At the proper time +they would constitute guides for later staking.</p> + +<p>Evenings Bryant spent in developing his notes and in making tracings +of the canal sections covered. During the day hours, when he knew +watchful eyes were on him, he made a topographical survey of his +ranch; work that he could carry on openly. The five thousand acres +comprising the tract had a general direction of east and west, being +about four miles long and two miles wide, which for the most part lay +equally on each side of Perro Creek. By using the water of this stream +during the flood season, a period of some weeks in spring and early +summer, Bryant would be able very considerably to augment the supply +from the Pinas. It was necessary to join the two sources in a unified +system of laterals that would efficiently serve the tract; and +therefore the whole enterprise required study, innumerable +measurements, calculations of dirt moving, of water distribution, of +dam, weir, and gate construction, of soil analysis—a coördination of +the thousand and one matters concerned in an irrigation project that +are preliminary to breaking ground. So early and late he toiled, and +with him Dave Morris.</p> + +<p>The boy indeed did enough for a man. And Bryant would sometimes arise +from his drawing board where he worked after supper until midnight, to +go and affectionately gaze at Dave sleeping the sleep of exhaustion.</p> + +<p>One afternoon, when the pair were at work near the southern boundary +of the ranch, Ruth Gardner came through the sagebrush to the spot, a +mile from Sarita Creek.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>"I could see you, just black specks, from our cabins; and since you +don't visit us, I made up my mind to visit you," she announced. "I've +noticed you down here for two days past. Days and days have gone by +without you coming to pay another call."</p> + +<p>"Well, we've been sticking pretty steadily at our job," Bryant +replied. "Won't you use this bag of stakes for a seat? It will keep +you off the ground."</p> + +<p>Ruth accepted the proffered resting place and loosened the thongs of +her hat, inspected her face in a tiny mirror produced from somewhere, +rubbed her nose with a handkerchief, and then gave her attention to +her companions.</p> + +<p>"Our garden has grown splendidly since you fixed the ditch," she said. +"Thanks to you. How is yours?"</p> + +<p>"It has expired."</p> + +<p>"Then you shall have things out of ours—if you'll come get them. See, +I'm using that to decoy you. There are beans, peas, lettuce, radishes, +and new potatoes, not very large yet, of course. I know just what +you're doing: working hard, eating only canned stuff, skimping your +food, and ruining your digestion."</p> + +<p>Bryant laughed. Her tone had expressed indignation, while her face was +directly accusatory.</p> + +<p>"We seem to have fair health, don't we, Dave?" he remarked.</p> + +<p>"You look positively thin," said she. "And as for this poor starved +shadow that you call Dave! Well, I won't say my thoughts. For a penny +I'd invite myself to dinner at your house just to see what you do +have."</p> + +<p>At this possibility both the engineer and his young <a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a>assistant +displayed signs of consternation. Under pressure of work housekeeping +had been an unimportant trifle frequently postponed; last meal's +dishes were washed while the next meal was preparing; clothes were +left where they were carelessly flung; and surveying tools, maps, and +papers littered the rooms. No, it was not a dwelling in which to +entertain a feminine guest.</p> + +<p>"Maybe I had better go there and clear up things some," Dave stated, +uneasily. And without awaiting a reply from Bryant, he set off through +the sagebrush for the house.</p> + +<p>Ruth began to laugh, resting her cheeks in her hands.</p> + +<p>"That poor solemn boy, he took me seriously!" she exclaimed. "I +shouldn't come alone, of course; it wouldn't be proper—and Imo would +be horrified. Well, you may as well sit down and talk to me, Mr. +Bryant, for you can't work alone, and I've come to stay awhile. +Imogene told me what a nice talk she had with you the afternoon I went +to the ruins, and I hoped you'd come soon again, but you never did."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I haven't been exactly neighbourly."</p> + +<p>He lowered himself to the ground and sat cross-legged, considering +her.</p> + +<p>"I thought that possibly I had offended you in going off so abruptly +with Charlie Menocal," she said, with eyes fastened on his. "You and +he aren't very good friends. I know——"</p> + +<p>"We're not friends at all; we're enemies."</p> + +<p>"That need not keep you away from us. He has been very civil and kind, +but neither Imogene nor I have any particular fancy for the man. +Besides, I think his chief <a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a>interest in life centres around a girl +living on Diamond Creek, named Louise Graham; he hinted that they were +as good as engaged. Very likely we shall see little more of him. So if +your dislike at meeting him is the reason for your staying away, you +haven't a good reason at all. Don't you think Imo and I ever tire of +listening to each other? Any two girls would, living alone by +themselves. After your promise at the ford we were delighted—and how +many calls have we had from you? Just one. With me away, too!"</p> + +<p>"To-morrow will be Sunday; I'll stop work at noon and come," he +declared.</p> + +<p>She pointed a forefinger at him and wiggled her thumb, in imitation of +a pistol.</p> + +<p>"Hold up your right hand and swear it," she commanded, "or I'll +shoot." She continued to menace Bryant while he obeyed. "There, now +you're safe. And bring that hungry boy and we'll feed you both; this +is a dinner invitation, understand. Now, tell me about everything."</p> + +<p>"Everything?"</p> + +<p>"All you're doing with that three-legged telescope and these stakes."</p> + +<p>She smoothed her dress and manifested an expectant interest. The +impression Bryant had gained at the first accidental meeting at Perro +Creek, of her good looks, of her vitality and irrepressible spirits, +was heightened. As he recollected his feeling of pique at her visit +with Charlie Menocal to the ruined pueblo, he realized that he had +indulged in a bit of senseless, unwarranted umbrage; and now had, in +consequence, a quick desire to make amends. It <a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>was as if he must +reëstablish himself in her good opinion and his own.</p> + +<p>Their talk ran on from topic to topic. The gaiety of her comments +pleased him; the youthfulness of her was irresistible; and he found +himself observing the changing curves of her throat and cheek as she +turned her head a little aside or raised her chin; found himself +watching for certain unconscious attitudes; awaiting the lift of her +eyes to his, harkening for particular tones of her voice. And Bryant, +who, though he knew it not, was also athirst for companionship, more +and more yielded to her subtle feminine attraction. "She's even +prettier than I supposed," he thought. Her lips, her nose, her eyes of +deep gray with their wonderfully long lashes—each had a particular +charm of its own. He admired the grace of her figure. He felt an odd +surprise at her apparent soft and pliant strength, as at a discovery. +His mind thrilled with delight at her laughter.</p> + +<p>"Look where the sun is!" she exclaimed, all at once. "Straight over +our heads—noon. Your David will be wondering where you are, while +Imogene will imagine I'm lost. Let me pick a flower to stick in the +ribbon of your hat and then I'll go."</p> + +<p>"Your fingers will suffer; I'll get some," Lee said, quickly. From a +spreading bed of prickly-pear he plucked a dozen of the cactus +blossoms, ranging in colour from a delicate lemon to a deep orange. He +turned to her.</p> + +<p>"First I'll decorate you," he said. "Please assume an angelic +expression and gaze straight at the camera."</p> + +<p>She tilted her chin upward and thrust her arms downward with all five +fingers of each hand stretched apart. But <a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a>immediately she began to +laugh. Lee gave her a reproving tap on the uplifted chin and then +fastened the flowers in her hat-band. A thrill like fire ran through +his body at the proximity of that soft, round chin, those red lips, +her eyes gleaming with merriment.</p> + +<p>"Now, beauty!" he said, stepping back.</p> + +<p>The yellow blossoms made a garland about her hat.</p> + +<p>"Do you like them thus?" she asked, delighted.</p> + +<p>"Immensely."</p> + +<p>"Then they shall stay there. And Imo will die of envy when I tell her +they're yours."</p> + +<p>"Nobody ever died of that."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not. But she will suffer extremely. You didn't even put bean +plants in her hat."</p> + +<p>Lee was highly amused at this raillery. He began to walk forward by +her side as she moved away from the spot, now addressing her, now +listening to her words, in a desire to stretch the last minute to the +uttermost. Her head came just even with his shoulder, so that she had +to raise her face to gaze at him when he spoke, and in the act there +was something simple, winning, blithe, as likewise in the swing of her +lissom figure beside his own there was an inimitable jauntiness and +cheer. He divined her eager, ardent spirit; and the closeness of her, +this comradeship, set his blood humming.</p> + +<p>Abruptly he halted, laying a finger on her arm.</p> + +<p>"I mustn't go the whole way, you know," he said, "though I should like +to. For, by heavens, you've opened my eyes! Didn't realize how +satiated with myself I'd become. But I'll make up for that now, Miss +Ruth, and it won't be very <a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>long before you and your friend will be +planning how to rid yourselves of me."</p> + +<p>"Just try us and see," she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Well, I shall. Till to-morrow, then."</p> + +<p>"Till to-morrow, yes." She moved forward some paces and wheeled about, +pointing her forefinger at his head and working her thumb. +"Beware—and don't forget!" Then after another advance and face about +she concluded by blowing him a kiss off the palm of her hand, with +which performance she did actually start for home, weaving her way +through the sagebrush and going farther and farther off.</p> + +<p>"What a pretty little witch she is!" thought Lee; and he, too, made +his way from the spot.</p> + +<p>Dave's hot, harassed face greeted him at the door.</p> + +<p>"Where is she? Didn't she come?" he cried, peering about everywhere. +"Well, thank goodness for that! But if that isn't the way with a +girl—and after I'd swept up and made the beds and scraped all the +skillets, too!"</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER IX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>That Sunday afternoon at Sarita Creek! The dinner, so savoury, so +delectable; the two girls, arrayed in cool white lawn, rosy-cheeked, +beaming; the gay talk and banter and laughter; the blissful hours +together on the grass beneath the trees, with the wide mesa diffusing +an immense languor, with the mountains bestowing a vast peace, with +the brook at their feet murmuring an accompaniment to their +words—hours to treasure, hours of pure gold: Little wonder that Dave, +lying full length and gazing upward through the boughs at the blue +vault, allowed his eyelids to sink and at last to close. Little wonder +the girls' faces grew dreamy and their voices gentle. And none, none +at all, that Lee succumbed to the spell.</p> + +<p>He was still under the enchantment when toward sunset Ruth suggested +they go up the cañon. But Imogene, arousing herself, declared that she +had letters to write; and Dave, still fast asleep, was already on +roamings of his own. Ruth and Lee therefore went alone up the path +through the trees and underbrush, until they emerged in the cool, +dusky gorge formed by the contracting of the rocky walls. The brook +rippled by over stones and moss. A few insects hovered over the stream +with their tiny bodies shining like bronze. From somewhere came a +sweet, honeyed smell of flowers.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a>"Imo writes letters regularly," Ruth explained concerning her friend, +"to an instructor in a university in the East. I don't think they're +exactly affianced, but expect to be. Waiting, apparently. Waiting +until he's a professor—and until her health is better, too, I +imagine. An agreement to let things rest as they are for the present, +one might say. Imogene talks very little about it, and of course I ask +no questions."</p> + +<p>She sat down on a fallen tree, patting its trunk to signify a place +for him at her side. Pointing at crevises in the cañon wall, she began +to tell him the names she and Imogene had given them—Bandit's Stair, +Devil's Crack, Bear's Hole, and to enumerate those assigned the +jutting points and knobs along the rim that by a stretch of the +imagination bore a resemblance to animals or human heads.</p> + +<p>As she talked, with her gray eyes at times turning to his to learn if +he was interested, he felt anew the charm of her youthfulness, of her +vivid personality. It dwelt in her small, firm hands pointing now +here, now there, in her slender, rounded form faced toward him, in her +red lips, her soft smooth cheek, her brow, in her glances and her +animated words. He noted again, as a quality altogether delicious, the +air of unconscious friendliness that he had perceived at their very +first encounter. It quite offset the slight touch of obstinacy in her +chin—but, in truth, did the latter require an offset? He had earlier +thought that with such a trait one could not foretell where its +possessor might go, or what do, or what exact, under stress of +feeling. He smiled at that now. How ridiculous the notion! Why +shouldn't a girl have a bit of determination in her make-up? Well, she +should. It <a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a>gave force to her character. It made her more individual, +more attractive. It coloured a nature so essentially feminine as Ruth +Gardner's with elusive and delightful possibilities.</p> + +<p>"See, up yonder at the top!" she exclaimed. "That piece of rock like a +man's head and shoulders I named Lee Bryant, after you."</p> + +<p>"Do I look as block-headed as that?"</p> + +<p>"No. It was not because of any resemblance, but because you kept your +back so long toward us. Now, however, since you've repented and ceased +to neglect us, I shall call it after someone else. Perhaps after the +stage-driver who takes our letters down to Kennard; he sits hunched up +like that. I'll seek a much nicer rock to represent you."</p> + +<p>"That's wholly unnecessary, for I intend to keep before your eyes in +person."</p> + +<p>"Which will be the nicest of all," said she, smiling.</p> + +<p>He continued to gaze at her, to listen to her voice, with a pleasure +he made no effort to conceal. And she, on her part, seemed to +surrender herself to the enjoyment of the moment; her eyes remaining +longer on his, her tones softening to a slow, tender utterance almost +carrying a caress, her face keeping its languorous smile; as if the +honey-sweet fragrance from the unseen flowers had invaded her spirit.</p> + +<p>A pause came in their talk. They sat unmoving, without stir of hand or +head, quiescent. Then Lee all at once experienced a feeling of +profound compassion for Ruth as he regarded her, a poignant stab in +his breast like pain. Sitting there without movement, with her hands +idle upon her lap, with her face a little lifted and her eyes +wistfully bent on the great wall opposite, she seemed so young and +small to <a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>be dwelling at such a place, so helpless, so solitary, that +her presence appeared a cruel irony of fate. Her homesteading was a +desperate clutch at security; and her situation was utterly different +from that of her friend, Imogene Martin, who viewed the matter as in +the nature of a health-seeking holiday, and who was sustained by the +knowledge that she had wealthy relations at Kennard to whom she could +return. Far different, indeed. At the thought of the homesickness that +at times Ruth must know, of the lonesomeness of mountain and mesa from +which she must suffer, of the deprivations, the hard bareness of the +life, the moments of despair, he had a sensation of the bitter +unfairness of things and a desire to snatch her safe away from the +harsh pass in which she stood. It would be only right, it would be +only just.</p> + +<p>When presently she looked about and found his eyes rapt on her face, a +quick blush spread over her throat and cheeks.</p> + +<p>"I think—think we should go home now," she said, with a catch of her +breath.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said he, rising.</p> + +<p>He leaped the log on which they had been sitting and then put up a +hand to help her mount. Holding his fingers she raised herself upon +the tree trunk. But suddenly the bark gave way; she slipped, lost her +balance, and pitched forward. Lee caught her in his arms.</p> + +<p>For an instant she rested there in his clasp, her surprised eyes +gazing into his. A quiver passed over her form. Her lips were parted, +but she had ceased to breathe. Likewise in Bryant's breast the breath +had stopped. A fierce <a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>passion swept him to hold her always thus, warm +and close and secure. His arms trembled at the thought; at which her +eyelashes began to flutter and her breath to come once more, as +hurried as the beat of her heart. And then, yielding utterly to the +swirl of mad impulse, he kissed her—once, twice, and twice again.</p> + +<p>Afterward he set her on her feet.</p> + +<p>"I guess that ends our friendship," he said, with a wavering smile. +"Lost my head altogether. Couldn't help it. I looked at you and—and +it just happened. All my will and sense vanished in an instant. +Bewitched!"</p> + +<p>The colour was still in her face, and her air was uncertain, +disturbed. But at his words, so palpably sincere and self +condemnatory, she began to smile.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps—if we just forget——"</p> + +<p>The smouldering fire in his eyes flared suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Forget? I'll never forget that minute, those kisses," he exclaimed. +"Hanged if I want to, or will!"</p> + +<p>"If, then, we don't repeat them, and are more circumspect, why, I'll +overlook it," she said, a little confusedly. "I know you meant no +discourtesy." He gave a savage shake of his head. "And Imogene and I +both prize your friendship."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Ruth. You take an awful load off my heart."</p> + +<p>She glanced up at him, now once more composed. Her eyes gleamed with a +veiled impishness.</p> + +<p>"No girl ever died from being kissed. But what a splendid lover you +would make!" Away she darted a few steps, to whirl and point and +waggle a finger at the <a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a>dumfounded youth. "Are you coming? Because I +don't consider this a wise place to be with a flighty, irresponsible +man, first name Lee. Besides, it's beginning to grow dark in here."</p> + +<p>Bryant joined her. The glow was still in his eyes, but in all other +respects he was his usual self, calm, collected. Together they went +down the cool, dim cañon, with its honey scent of flowers drifting +with them; and though they talked lightly of things of no importance, +there was a little smile on the lips of each and sometimes their eyes +met, as if sharing a new, sweet intimacy.</p> + +<p>Thereafter, frequent as were Lee's calls at Sarita Creek of evenings, +he seldom had Ruth to himself and on more than one occasion had to +share her company with Charlie Menocal, much to his impatience. When +Imogene sometimes succeeded in detaining the fellow at her side, +Bryant silently gave her unutterable thanks. And Ruth seemed day by +day more receptive to his passion.</p> + +<p>"I think of only two things, my canal and you," he declared to her one +night.</p> + +<p>"When you put me first and the canal second, why, who knows what I may +think then?" she said, tantalizingly. "But to esteem an irrigation +ditch before me, the idea! What if you had to choose between us?" And +she continued thus to tease him, fanning the fires hotter in his +breast.</p> + +<p>By the end of August Bryant had completed the survey of the canal line +down to a point where it touched the northern boundary of the ranch, +tapping the latter's system of distributing ditches. Pinas River, +Perro Creek, and the tract to be watered were thus united. Though +later, doubtless, <a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a>it would be necessary to make minor corrections, as +always, the surveying was finished. One tracing showed the entire +irrigation scheme from the dam on the Pinas to the tips of the +laterals branching out in a gridiron over the land. There were other +tracings, too, on a larger scale and of successive sections, ready to +be taken to Kennard in order to make blueprints.</p> + +<p>"Town for us to-morrow, Dave," Lee exclaimed one day, as he rolled and +tied his maps in a waterproof canvas. "We're due for a rest; our job +is done for the present. We'll leave the instruments and note-books +with the girls at Sarita Creek, who've agreed to keep them until we +return. The Mexicans are still hanging around."</p> + +<p>Toward the middle of the afternoon they appeared at the cabins, where +they disengaged Dick from his burden of freight and turned him out to +graze. Imogene was nursing an obstinate headache in her darkened +bedroom, and Dave immediately settled himself under a tree with a +novel of the girls'. So Ruth and Lee were left to themselves.</p> + +<p>"I'm going up the creek to gather raspberries, and you came just in +time to carry the basket," said she. "I discovered a large thicket of +them half way up the cañon; the more you pick, the more you'll have +for supper to-night. And if you don't bring Imo and me a box of +chocolates, and a big box, when you come back from wherever you're +going to-morrow, you need never show your lean brown face again at our +doors! I'm dying for some. Oh, Lee, I really am. They help so when +one's lonely."</p> + +<p>The pathetic tone in which she uttered the final words sent Bryant off +in a fit of laughter.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a>"You may count on them," he said, at length.</p> + +<p>"Your heart's of stone to laugh like that. Bonbons <i>do</i> help when one +is low-spirited."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, her spirits were high enough on this afternoon. All the +while that they were gathering raspberries she kept up a lively +chatter, and when Lee suggested, now that the basket was full, leaving +it at the spot and making an excursion to the head of the gorge, she +readily assented. The sun was still far from setting; the air between +the rocky walls was pleasant; and the cañon held forth a fresh +enticement. They walked for an hour, and though they failed to gain +the end of the long mountain crevice they ascended to where the +springs that fed the brook had their source, and where the rivulet +trickled over ledges and among boulders, finding themselves in the +heavy timber that forested the upper mountains. There they sat on a +rock, Ruth holding the wild flowers she had plucked on the way, and +talked.</p> + +<p>"Does your going now have to do with your project?" she questioned.</p> + +<p>"Yes; I've finished the preliminary work."</p> + +<p>"But Charlie Menocal said you were making no progress, that you were +blocked."</p> + +<p>"What Charlie doesn't know would fill lots of space," Lee said. "In +spite of the Menocals' opposition and tricks, I've established my +survey—but don't breathe it yet! And now I'm ready for the financing +of the scheme. When that's done, I'll begin actual work."</p> + +<p>Ruth considered him with shining eyes.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad you succeeded; I knew you would succeed," <a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>she exclaimed. +"You've worked so hard. And I hope that it makes you famous and +wealthy."</p> + +<p>"So do I," he laughed. "I need the money."</p> + +<p>She nodded.</p> + +<p>"One needs money to be happy in this world."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know about that," he responded, thoughtfully. "I've +probably been as happy while hammering out this survey as I'll ever +be, that is, happy in my work. Of course, money means comforts and +luxuries. But I doubt if it really ever brings contentment."</p> + +<p>The obstinate touch grew in her chin.</p> + +<p>"If I had plenty of money I'd have the contentment, or I'd soon find +it," she declared. "Pretty clothes, and fine furniture, and +automobiles, and servants, and parties, and so on, are things—at +least with women—that go a long way toward satisfaction. I sometimes +don't blame girls who marry rich old men; they can put up with them +for the pleasures their money will procure."</p> + +<p>"Ruth, Ruth, don't utter such nonsense! At any rate, you've too much +common sense ever to waste yourself on a doddering money bags."</p> + +<p>"I'll never have the chance," said she. "But if I had, I'd think it +over carefully. A young man with money I could be especially nice to, +and I might even set out to catch him. You see, I'm quite frank and +open about it."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," he repeated. "You'd marry no one just for his money."</p> + +<p>"That depends whether or not he caught me at a moment when I was +feeling sick of everything and reckless. Look <a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a>at my hands, all +calloused from work. If I have to work, I shall do it for myself; not +marry to work."</p> + +<p>Bryant lifted her hands and regarded them.</p> + +<p>"They please me immensely as they are; they're lovely hands," he +asserted.</p> + +<p>"Then your vision is poor."</p> + +<p>"It's clear enough when I look at you, Ruth. And when you talk as you +have, I become impatient because I know you don't mean it. But +nonetheless, you deserve the best that any man can give, and you ought +to have all the comforts and pretty things any woman has, for you're +too sweet and good for a bare, commonplace life." He pressed gently +the fingers he yet retained. "I told you once that you had bewitched +me. It was true; I am bewitched, have been ever since I touched your +dear lips. And I love you. It hurts my heart to think of you at this +homesteading business—"</p> + +<p>"What else was there for me?" she asked. "I've had no business +training, nothing but two years in a college, no knowledge of anything +that a girl needs to hold a position. And I'm not even a good +homesteader." Her tone rang with a trace of bitterness.</p> + +<p>"You ought not to have to do it—and you shall not, Ruth, if I have my +way. I want to save you from it, and make life pleasant and happy for +you. The money I have now is little, but I'm going ahead; I'm going +ahead, and nothing shall stop me, I tell you. Soon I shall have ample +means. Within a year or two. Already I've told you I love you, though +this you must have known, for I've made no effort to conceal my love. +To me you're the dearest, sweetest girl in the world; and all I ask is +the chance to strive and toil for <a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a>you, and make a home for you, and +relieve you of anxiety and care, and have you for a joyous companion +and mate."</p> + +<p>Ruth closed her hands on his, while her eyes grew wet.</p> + +<p>"You mean it, Lee?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, I do, I do! I love you; I hold you dearer than anything in the +world."</p> + +<p>The smile she gave was tender, trustful.</p> + +<p>"I believe you," she said.</p> + +<p>She yielded to his arms. Her head fell back upon his shoulder and her +look lifted to his blissfully. When he kissed her a thrill of passionate +desire answered, as when on that fragrant evening in the cañon he first +had fiercely pressed her lips. This was happiness—happiness. If it +could but last forever!</p> + +<p>"And my love is yours, too, Lee," she exclaimed, so earnestly that he +felt his heart quiver. "I want to be happy; I want to be loved; I +don't want to live a life of just dreary commonplaceness, alone, +uncared for, with no outlook, with no prospect of joys. I want the +most there is in happiness—every girl wants that; and this monotonous +existence has been robbing me, stifling me, until sometimes I've been +wild enough to leap off a high rock. But now!"</p> + +<p>Bryant's arms went closer about her.</p> + +<p>"It shall be different now," he murmured.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes; it must, it shall. There's no sense in people not being +happy when the world was made for that very purpose."</p> + +<p>"Whenever you say, we'll be married," Lee stated.</p> + +<p>Ruth was silent for a time, considering this. It, indeed, left her a +little startled.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a>"But it mustn't be too soon," she replied, at last. "We had best go on +as we are while your project is being started, for I wouldn't be so +selfish as to make a command on your time at a critical moment, Lee +dear. And I must plan clothes and things. Knowing that happiness is +ahead of us, oh, homesteading then will be only a lark! I'll never +need follow it up, but just abandon it when we're ready. Kiss me +again, Lee, and then we must start back."</p> + +<p>They retraced their steps down the cañon, obtaining the basket of +berries on the way. Once, as they neared the cabins, Ruth paused, +gazing at her lover.</p> + +<p>"I had actually come to hate these claims," she said. "I felt chained +to the spot, as if something would keep me in the miserable place for +the rest of my life. Had I known how lonely I should be here, I never +would have come."</p> + +<p>"But that's over now, Ruth. A little while longer, that's all."</p> + +<p>She gazed at him with an odd, intent, anxious expression upon her +countenance.</p> + +<p>"You'll not let your irrigation project keep you here always?" she +asked. "Or live in other places like it? These mountains and this +desolate mesa get on my nerves. If I thought you were going to stay +away from other people, foregoing all the pleasures of cities and the +like, I think I should lose my courage and not be able to love you +enough to stand it. I want you most of all, but shall want other +things, too."</p> + +<p>He smiled indulgently.</p> + +<p>"A few years perhaps," he replied. "Till I'm solid on my feet—till I +get going well—we're both young—and <a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>then——" He dismissed the +matter with a wave of the hand.</p> + +<p>But that evening, when Lee and Dave had gone, when Imogene was asleep, +when the soft darkness was thickening over the mesa, Ruth walked forth +to the edge of the sagebrush.</p> + +<p>"I wonder," she murmured, leaving her thought unfinished.</p> + +<p>The hush of the mountains, the silence of the plain, the vastness, the +emptiness, the seeming purposelessness of it all, irritated and +oppressed her spirit. And she so yearned to be where the world was +alive and throbbing!</p> + +<p>"I wonder if I really love him enough, or if I made a little fool of +myself this afternoon?" she muttered to herself. "I wonder!"</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER X<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>Charlie Menocal's object in calling upon the young ladies at Sarita +Creek was merely diversion. He was fond of girls, especially lively +ones, and knew a good many here and there within reach of his motor +car, including a number of pretty Mexican maidens of humble parentage. +But his serious attentions centred about Louise Graham of whom in +secret he was very jealous. Whenever he could find an excuse, and +frequently when not, he went to the Graham ranch on Diamond Creek, +five miles south of the girls' claims, where his figure was as +familiar (and of about as much interest) as the magpies in the +pasture. He fully meant to marry Louise, whose beauty and gracious +manner even to the smallest bare-legged Mexican boy on the ranch +captivated him and stirred in his breast a maddening desire for +possession, so that he might cut off the rest of the world from her +sweetness, so that it might alone feed his passion. Yes, he meant to +have Louise.</p> + +<p>When he was with her his black eyes would shine and a ruddy tinge +appear in his dusky cheeks that were as soft and smooth as a Mexican +girl's, and he would restlessly finger a point of his little, silky, +black moustache and feel unutterable agitations proceeding in his +heart. Louise Graham did not allow him to declare his adoration, which +he would have done every moment they were together; when he tried, +<a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>she walked away. But Charlie counted on his good looks and his +father's wealth to win her in the end. One fear alone lurked in his +heart, that some young American might come along who would win her +interest; and earlier in the summer he had a decided uneasiness lest +Bryant prove to be the man. The scoundrelly engineer, however, had +fallen head over heels in love with Ruth Gardner, so that Charlie's +mind was relieved on that point. To his knowledge, Louise and Bryant +had never met—which was as it should be.</p> + +<p>Charlie, having stopped about ten o'clock in the morning at the Graham +ranch for a chat with Louise while on his way to Kennard, was +considerably surprised and exceedingly nettled at beholding the +engineer, with Dave behind him on the horse, presently riding up the +lane between the rows of cottonwoods. Young Menocal had persuaded +Louise to leave her household duties for the moment to sit on the +veranda and talk with him. But now had come this impudent upstart! +Charlie's warning of someone at hand was when Louise ceased to speak +and gazed intently along the lane. His annoyance at the interruption +changed to a quick jealousy as his companion rose, descended the +steps, bade the engineer welcome, and extended her hand in greeting.</p> + +<p>Bryant explained that he was dropping Dave here to take the stage for +Kennard when it came along after dinner. He himself was riding on.</p> + +<p>"He'll eat dinner with us, of course, and I'll put him aboard the +stage myself," she exclaimed, with a pat on the shoulder of the boy +who had now dismounted. "Won't <a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a>you stop for a moment, Mr. Bryant? +I'll give you a glass of fresh buttermilk to speed you on your way; a +stirrup cup, we'll call it. The woman has just finished churning."</p> + +<p>Lee declared that he would drink a glass with very great pleasure. He +was thirsty, he said, and in addition was fond of buttermilk.</p> + +<p>Menocal listened and watched him dismount and ground his teeth. Louise +knew the thief, after all. Where the devil had they become acquainted? +It was but one more instance of the engineer's pushing in where he +wasn't wanted. And she had not invited him, Charlie, to partake of +buttermilk, though, to be sure, she knew he did not like it. He felt +slighted.</p> + +<p>When Bryant and Louise ascended the veranda, Dave loitering below, the +engineer said nonchalantly, "Hello, Charlie, how are tricks? Anything +new up your sleeve?"—in a way that set the other's blood boiling; and +when he carelessly added, "What about that story the stage-driver's +telling of you and a señorita going into a ditch with your car at +Rosita the other night?" he was quite ready to murder both Bryant and +the stage-driver.</p> + +<p>So upset was Charlie that he was unable to share in the conversation. +He curtly refused a glass when Louise brought a pitcher of buttermilk, +then changed his mind, and ended by choking over the wretched stuff. +The situation was intolerable; his pride was smarting; the others +talked on with unperturbed countenances, ignoring his silence; and his +self-respect required some action in the face of the affront. He +abruptly stood up and announced that he was departing.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a>In Louise's manner at this news there was no repining that he could +observe. She did not protest. Her words were impersonally pleasant as +ever, but vague; and he perceived that she only half heeded his going; +and that her eyes brightened when once more she turned to her visitor. +This was the final stab. With hatred in his heart and a wicked glitter +in his eyes, Charlie Menocal went down the steps to his automobile, +feeling the need of a victim, preferably the engineer. Bryant had +insulted him at the ford; he was attempting to rob him and his father; +he had insolently threatened the elder Menocal; he stopped at nothing; +and now he was intruding here and deceiving Louise with his arrogant +pretentions. He came on Dave, standing beside the car and examining +the latch of a door.</p> + +<p>"Keep your hands off that!" he snapped. At the same time he gave the +boy a cuff that sent him sprawling. "That will teach you!"</p> + +<p>In two bounds Lee Bryant was at the spot. He caught the still-extended +hand in an iron grip.</p> + +<p>"You miserable coward! Striking a boy!" he said, harshly. "Feeling +that you must vent your spite on someone, you pick on this unoffending +lad. If you ever raise so much as a finger against him again——"</p> + +<p>"Let him keep away from my machine! And drop my wrist!" Charlie +Menocal snarled.</p> + +<p>"And you leave him alone hereafter, in any case," Lee warned, shoving +the speaker away in disgust. Then he helped Dave to rise.</p> + +<p>Charlie straightened his disarranged tie and coat with trembling +fingers. He could scarcely retain his rage; his <a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a>body shook all over; +his foot slipped twice when he sought to mount into his car. Leaning +forward from his seat, he shook a finger in Bryant's face, exclaiming, +"You'll get what's coming to you! Like your damned dog!" His face was +entirely viperish. His finger came within an inch of the engineer's +nose. His words carried a furious hiss.</p> + +<p>Then he whirled his car about and went tearing down the lane with +exhaust wide open and roaring.</p> + +<p>When Bryant, leading Dave, rejoined Louise Graham, a flush of +embarrassment dyed his face. She had sprung up at Menocal's blow +knocking the boy over and remained standing, an indignant observer of +the scene. When Menocal had departed, the engineer recalled suddenly +what Ruth had said concerning Charlie and Louise Graham being +practically engaged; and as he now saw her rigid figure and displeased +countenance, he imagined he had lost her friendship. Still, he could +not have acted otherwise.</p> + +<p>"I'm very sorry for this occurrence, Miss Graham," he said, +contritely. "Especially as I understand Charlie Menocal is very high +in your esteem."</p> + +<p>"Who dares say that!"</p> + +<p>"Well, Charlie himself is the authority, I believe," Lee responded, +with a slight smile.</p> + +<p>Her eyes flashed at that.</p> + +<p>"Well, it's not the case; and if it had been, this exhibition of bad +manners and bad nature on his part would have changed it. Father and I +consider him—well, a nuisance. There, I'm giving you a confidence. +We've tolerated him because Mr. Menocal senior is a gentleman, and a +friend. Now I hope you'll not think me too talkative, but an +<a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>explanation was necessary; and as far as Charlie Menocal is concerned, +I'd be pleased if I never saw his face again. To knock your young +friend over so heartlessly! You treated him with altogether too much +leniency, Mr. Bryant."</p> + +<p>"I never do my fighting in the presence of ladies," Lee remarked, with +a grin. "In fact, I try to confine my combats to those of wits."</p> + +<p>She nodded.</p> + +<p>"Of course," said she; and continued, "this is the second time he has +acted disgracefully to you when I've been by. The first occasion was +at Perro Creek ford. I could have sunk into the earth for shame of him +when he knew no better than to fling you money after you had filled +his radiator; it was pure insolence, to begin with, to ask you to do +it when he should have attended to the matter himself. I admired your +conduct and self-control under the circumstances, Mr. Bryant." And +addressing Dave, she asked, "Will you drink another glass of +buttermilk if I pour it?"</p> + +<p>Dave could and did, an example Lee followed. The subject of Menocal +was dismissed, and the man and the girl fell into a conversation of +general matters. She assured the engineer, when he inquired, that he +was not detaining her from household affairs; and urged him, on +learning of his prospective absence, to leave Dick at Diamond Creek +and he himself to proceed to Kennard by stage. She owed Dick a return +for the favour of carrying her home that day her own horse went lame; +he could run in the pasture with the other horses, where Bryant would +know he was safe. The plan included Bryant's remaining for dinner, +naturally.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a>"Have I your permission, Dave?" Lee asked. "Or do you refuse to share +this pleasure with me?"</p> + +<p>Dave looked at Louise and blushed furiously.</p> + +<p>"I guess you've made your mind up," he said, to Bryant.</p> + +<p>"I guess I have," Lee admitted.</p> + +<p>Toward noon Mr. Graham joined them and laughingly stated that he was +glad to make the acquaintance of the man who was causing such a furor +among the Mexicans along the Pinas. He asked a number of questions and +listened with interest to the engineer's brief exposition of the plan +to unite the water rights of the Pinas River and of Perro Creek in a +common system, though Bryant disclosed nothing of his survey on the +mesa. Of the opposition Lee had met or might yet encounter the rancher +was aware, for he remarked, "You have a fight on your hands." But that +was his only comment.</p> + +<p>After dinner they all continued to talk while the men were smoking +cigars. Graham suggested that if Bryant should need an attorney it +would be well to employ one from Kennard, as those in Bartolo were +nearly all Mexicans. The engineer jotted down the name of one the +rancher recommended, saying that he had his injunction suits to meet +in the September term of court.</p> + +<p>"Winship, the sheriff, appears to be one man in Bartolo who's all +right," Lee stated.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he's a good man," Graham replied. "Can't be influenced or +bought; and is perfectly square and impartial in the execution of the +duties of his office. He has served twenty years, with exception of +one term when he and Menocal had a disagreement. Menocal controls the +votes <a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a>in this county, you know; that's general knowledge. But things +became so lax under the Mexican sheriff who displaced him that he was +put back in office. Menocal ordered it; he has much property and +believes in law and order; and there's little or no stealing with +Winship in the sheriff's saddle. I've heard that he first required the +banker to support him unconditionally before resuming the place."</p> + +<p>"I can believe that after a look at Winship," Lee said, smiling.</p> + +<p>Mr. Graham presently went away to a field where his men were cutting +and stacking alfalfa, after thanking Bryant for rendering assistance +to his daughter on the road and inviting him to call again. Louise +then showed him her flower garden, ablaze with poppies, nasturtiums, +sweet peas, and other blossoms he could not name; and the orchard +where apples and pears and plums weighed the branches. She was +remarkably beautiful, he thought; and was quite sure the roses in the +garden had no petals pinker or softer than her cheeks, and was sure +the water rippling in the little, grassy orchard canals was no clearer +than her brown eyes, or the sky more serene than her brow. She was not +in the least proud or vain or haughty, as he imagined when he first +beheld her at the ford. He had had doubts of that after her kindly +treatment of his dying dog Mike. And now to-day he knew that such an +opinion did her an injustice, was absurd.</p> + +<p>Louise, too, was thinking as they strolled about. Which of the two +girls on Sarita Creek did he love? For Charlie Menocal had said that +he was infatuated with one. Charlie Menocal! Her cheeks grew warm. +What he had boasted <a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a>in regard to herself, and doubtless Mr. Bryant +had softened the truth, filled her with anger. She would treat the +insufferable wretch differently hereafter. And very likely his gossip +of the engineer's feelings for one of the homesteaders was likewise a +falsehood, though there was no reason in the world why Mr. Bryant +shouldn't love one of them if he chose. She had never met them. They +were very nice girls, she imagined. She had intended to call, but +something had always prevented. As for Mr. Bryant, he seemed a very +estimable young man, and good company, and an engineer of ability and +will.</p> + +<p>She continued to speculate after he and Dave had departed on the +stage, with a vague sense of missing them. That, she reasoned, was +because Lee Bryant had "personality." And presently her thoughts +followed him. Lee's mind, however, was ranging back to Sarita Creek; +but Dave's was loyally with the lady of Diamond Creek ranch, as was +manifest when he murmured thickly, having fallen asleep during the +warm ride:</p> + +<p>"No more chicken, thank you—or jelly—or apple pie."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>In Kennard next morning Lee Bryant betook himself to a civil +engineering firm, which he engaged to print a number of sets of +blue-prints from his tracings, one set to be ready for delivery early +that afternoon. Then while his suit of gray clothes, from out of his +suit-case, was being pressed, he and Dave visited a florist, purchased +a wreath of lilies-of-the-valley that Dave chose, and went to the +cemetery to place it on the grave of the lad's mother. After that they +proceeded to a clothier's, where the boy was fitted out with a new +suit, a hat, shirts, underwear, and a tie. All of this caused Dave to +swallow hard—but he swallowed hardest of all when Lee led him to a +horse dealer's and helped him pick out a pony for trial, a gift from +Bryant. He hadn't expected all this. He was too overcome to speak. "By +golly, Lee, I—I——" he stammered; and stopped, and furtively wiped +the moisture from his eyes. Finally they visited a savings-bank, where +the engineer deposited a check to Dave's credit, his wages for a month +and a half, forty-five dollars, to start an account, and the boy +received a small yellow book whose one entry he thereafter studied at +frequent intervals, for it was earning according to Bryant's statement +four per cent a year, though Dave had not the remotest idea of how it +did the earning. Then with all this business transacted they returned +to <a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a>the hotel, bathed, dressed in their fresh clothes, and went into +luncheon.</p> + +<p>"Luncheon, what do they call dinner that for?" Dave whispered to Lee +across the table.</p> + +<p>Along in the afternoon Bryant, having obtained a set of blue-prints +and sent his young companion to a "movie" show, called upon the man +that he all the while had had in view, Imogene Martin's uncle. A +large, strong-bodied man, with a deeply lined, determined face, the +latter swept his visitor with a quick, appraising look, invited him to +take a seat, and to state his business.</p> + +<p>"In five minutes you can tell," said Lee, "whether or not you wish to +listen longer to my proposition."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"I now own the Perro Creek ranch, of five thousand acres. It was +originally owned by Mr. Menocal, of Bartolo, but recently by a man +named Stevenson, from whom I bought it."</p> + +<p>"I know the place, Mr. Bryant. Proceed."</p> + +<p>"It's worth possibly three dollars an acre as it stands, or a total of +fifteen thousand dollars," Lee continued. "But it has an unused water +right of one hundred and twenty-five second feet from the Pinas River, +sufficient to water the whole tract. How much will the ranch be worth +when water is actually delivered?"</p> + +<p>"A good deal more than fifteen thousand dollars."</p> + +<p>"Rather," said the engineer, smiling. "The appropriation was secured +from the state by Mr. Menocal thirty years ago; it's never been +cancelled, and is good to-day. He, however, has been using the water +on ranches he owns down <a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a>the river. A canal from the Pinas along the +mountain sides to Perro Creek would be expensive to construct, +possibly prohibitive; it appears the natural line; and I suppose this +deterred him. I've located a new and practical course for a ditch on +the mesa, have surveyed and mapped it in detail, calculated the cost, +and compiled a statement of estimates, and can build the project for +sixty thousand dollars. The tract of five thousand acres can then be +sold for fifty dollars an acre, or two hundred and fifty thousand +dollars. Shall I stop, or do you wish to hear more?"</p> + +<p>Now it was the banker's turn to smile. This visitor knew how to make a +point.</p> + +<p>"Go ahead," he said.</p> + +<p>"All right. A Mexican dam across the Pinas, a mile and a half of +hillside canal, some concrete drops, twelve miles of curving mesa +ditch, and the ranch is reached. In addition, the flood water of Perro +Creek can be utilized; I've worked this out, as well as the entire +system of laterals for the land. As stated, the cost of the whole +project will be about sixty thousand dollars, present price of +material and labour. I'm on my way now to the capital to file +application for a change in the present canal line, which, since it +involves only government land, will naturally be allowed. Of course +Mr. Menocal isn't taking kindly to my proposed use of this water." And +Lee paused.</p> + +<p>"What has he done? Anything yet?"</p> + +<p>"Not much so far, except a little futile skirmishing," the engineer +remarked, with twinkling eyes. "When I paid off his mortgage on the +land, I advised him that I should use the water: and he threatened to +have the water right <a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a>cancelled. But he backed up on that line when I +promised to lodge him in jail for making false affidavits if he tried +those tactics. Thought I'd head him off in that direction at the +start. I got the jump on him there. Well, now, he's using indirect +means to keep control of the water, sending half a dozen Mexicans to +file claims at the base of the mountains where he imagines the canal +will have to go. He thinks these have blocked me; and I didn't +undeceive him. He knows nothing about my actual line of survey on the +mesa. Of course, the loss of this water that he fancied he had hits +him where it hurts, but from what I can gather Mr. Menocal isn't a man +to resort to illegal methods. He's wily, that's about all. So that's +the situation."</p> + +<p>The banker regarded Bryant for a time with a noncommittal face.</p> + +<p>"State your proposition now," said he.</p> + +<p>"This is it," Bryant went on. "I propose to bond the ranch and water +right for enough to build the project, then construct it, then market +the land in farms at fifty dollars an acre. The canal system can be +completed easily next year, and sales and colonization proceed +immediately when done. Naturally, as a sale is made, the mortgage and +notes will be put up behind the bonds to secure the latter. The +purchasers will pay down some cash, say, ten dollars an acre; that +makes fifty thousand cash and two hundred thousand dollars in notes +against sixty thousand dollars in bonds. A visible profit of one +hundred and ninety thousand. That amount will be covered by a stock +issue. I shall set aside sixty thousand of it as a bonus to whoever +purchases the bonds. Thirty thousand more shall go to whoever markets +<a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a>the bonds, as a commission. The remaining hundred thousand of +stock——"</p> + +<p>"Goes to you, I presume."</p> + +<p>"Yes; I keep that. It's payment for the ranch and water right, for my +developing the scheme and building the project. What I need is someone +to sell the bonds; I'll take care of everything else. And because you, +Mr. McDonnell, know the character of the land hereabouts and know +water rights, the fertility of the soil when watered, and the +soundness of a proper irrigation project as an investment, I've come +first to you. Millions aren't involved; it's a small project; the cost +is uncommonly cheap and the security therefore exceptional; you know +the property personally; I, as builder, and having everything at +stake, would see that the construction is right. So small an issue of +bonds should be quickly placed in the East. And the commission isn't +to be sneezed at."</p> + +<p>Mr. McDonnell's features relaxed into a smile.</p> + +<p>"I never saw an irrigation scheme yet that didn't look a money-maker +on paper," he stated, "nevertheless, seventy-five per cent. of them +wind up in the hands of a receiver."</p> + +<p>"Because of faulty estimates and wasteful construction, yes. Because +they're generally too big, and the interest eats them up before the +land is sold. Because some start building on a shoestring. Or because +of changes in the projects that are costly, or rows in the management, +or insufficient water, or bad land titles—I know, I know. I've +studied and analyzed their troubles. And I propose that this Perro +Creek scheme of mine shall be one irrigation project that shall +succeed."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a>"And you think you've taken all precautions?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"With Mr. Menocal, even?"</p> + +<p>"Even with Mr. Menocal, yes. Once my application for changes has been +approved and I have the money to build, what can he do?"</p> + +<p>"You seem quite sure of yourself."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure of this irrigation project, anyway. I'm going to build it." +Conviction absolutely dominated his lean brown face; and the banker +looking at the speaker's chin, his firm mouth, curving nose, and gray +eyes full of purpose, wondered if Menocal had met his match.</p> + +<p>"Well, suppose you leave your maps and estimates for me to look over," +he said. "When do you go to the capital?"</p> + +<p>"This evening."</p> + +<p>"See me again on your return. My attorney will examine your title to +the land and the water right. How are the young ladies on Perro Creek +getting along?"</p> + +<p>"They have plenty of fresh air and scenery," Lee responded, relaxing +from the tension under which he had been.</p> + +<p>"It was rather a wild notion, their taking claims, but they wanted the +experience. I hope my niece is benefited in respect to her health. My +wife and I run up once in a while to see if they're comfortable." Then +he added, "Perhaps I had best confess that Imogene had told me of what +you were at up there, and of your involvement with Mr. Menocal. So +this thing isn't wholly new to me."</p> + +<p>Bryant returned to the hotel, well satisfied with the progress he had +made. In the lobby of the hotel he ran across <a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a>Charlie Menocal, who +gave him a venomous look and passed into the bar without speaking. +What the young fellow might feel or think gave Lee no concern, though +he might have taken warning from that hostile regard. For it was by +Charlie's instructions that a short, stout, swart Mexican went from a +native saloon to the depot that evening, where he presently identified +Bryant and lounged nearer the spot. Dave at length noticed him and +called Lee's attention to the fellow, whose face had a particularly +sinister cast and whose eyes were fixed upon the engineer in a stony, +unblinking stare. That look gave one the sensation of being gazed at +by something poisonous in a clump of sagebrush. But the feeling was +forgotten when the train came in on which they were departing and +Bryant and Dave mounted the steps of a coach.</p> + +<p>The Mexican, on his part, returned to the saloon, where eventually he +was joined by Charlie Menocal. Charlie's face was flushed and his +breath alcoholic; he was a little drunk. At a corner table they +conferred, drinking whisky.</p> + +<p>"You will know him now, the snake!" Charlie asked.</p> + +<p>"I would know him in the dark, señor," was the reply.</p> + +<p>They spoke in Spanish, since young Menocal's companion knew no other +tongue. The latter was a newcomer to Kennard, of the name of Alvarez. +He had come up from across the line, where he had been first with +Carranza, and then with Zapata in his black troop, and then with +Pancho Villa. He already had considerable reputation in the low +Mexican quarter of the town: he had participated in many fights and +raids "down there"; he was fearless; he could use a gun; he had many +killings to his credit. When earlier in the day Charlie had made +private inquiry of the saloon-keeper, an old <a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a>friend, concerning a man +of nerve that he could engage who would ask no questions, Alvarez was +pointed out to him.</p> + +<p>Presently an agreement was reached between them and Charlie produced +his check-book and a fountain-pen.</p> + +<p>"Here's a check for one hundred dollars," he said, writing. "Come to +Bartolo, get you some blankets and food, and camp somewhere near. From +time to time we'll meet and I'll tell you what's to be done. There's a +saloon at Bartolo, if you get thirsty. Another hundred dollars will be +yours when the job is finished, perhaps more. Meantime, you will act +before others as if you did not know me. Here's the check."</p> + +<p>Alvarez rose and walked to the bar.</p> + +<p>"Is this money; a hundred dollars?" he inquired of the Mexican +proprietor of the saloon.</p> + +<p>"One hundred dollars, yes," said the latter, with an assuring smile. +"Made payable to you, Alvarez. Good? Good at any bank, good here at my +saloon, good as gold. Better than gold, Alvarez, because easier to +carry. Do you wish the money for it?"</p> + +<p>The Mexican ex-bandit jingled some dollars in his trousers' pockets.</p> + +<p>"I have enough to eat and drink," said he. "If the paper is good, if +you will give me gold for it, then I will wait until I return. As you +say, it's not so heavy to carry."</p> + +<p>"Bring it to me when you return. Mr. Menocal is very wealthy, very +rich. He has much land and many sheep. Besides, he owns a bank full of +gold and silver. The paper is good."</p> + +<p>Alvarez was impressed. He stood in thought.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a>"Those sheep and that bank full of money! In Mexico we would form a +company of revolutionists and help ourselves," he said.</p> + +<p>"That isn't the custom here," was the reply.</p> + +<p>Alvarez again stared at the check, then folded it, bit the edge with +his teeth, placed it in a small leather bag suspended under his shirt +by a cord about his neck, and returned to the table where Charlie +Menocal waited.</p> + +<p>"I will go up yonder in a few days, señor," he stated. "There are +girls there, are there not?"</p> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> +<br /> + +<p>One day a week later, after Bryant and Dave had returned to Kennard, +and after numerous conferences with Mr. McDonnell, his attorney and an +engineer called in for consultation, Lee exclaimed to his companion, +"We win. McDonnell will take hold of it. Bully for him!" And he went +about clearing up the odds and ends of business at a great rate.</p> + +<p>Moreover, McDonnell believed he could dispose of the bonds within a +fortnight, by the middle of September. That would enable Bryant to +make good headway with the dam on the Pinas River while the water was +low and before cold weather set in. The attorney would look after the +incorporation of the company and the stock and bond issues. Lee could +at once engage a staff of assistant engineers and arrange to let the +building contract. In the matter of the canal line, he had received +ample assurance from members of the Land and Water Board at Santa Fé +that the changes he asked would be granted. Everything was propitious, +everything exactly as he would wish.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a>"Out of those town duds, Dave," he exclaimed. "You can't be a sport +any longer. Back to Perro Creek for us and your new spotted pony. And +it's high time, too, for I saw you making eyes at that girl with +yellow hair and angel blue eyes, whose mamma——"</p> + +<p>"You never did!" Dave yelled, crimson with ire.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>October. And the last golden leaves twirling down from cottonwood and +aspen and mountain maple; the lofty brown peaks fresh powdered with +snow; the air dazzling, keen, heady like wine; frost a-sparkle of +mornings on stone, fence-post, roof, with a rainbow coruscation of +diamonds; clear, high moons; marvellous, moonlit nights.</p> + +<p>It was the middle of the month. Three weeks previous, with the bonds +sold and the injunction suits dismissed, the contractor employed had +unloaded his outfit at Kennard, moved up the Pinas River, raised in a +day his camp at the mouth of the cañon above Bartolo, and begun his +task. This man, Pat Carrigan, had been in Bryant's mind from the +first: a Pueblo contractor of Irish extraction, born in a railroad +camp, trained on a dump, and now grizzled and aging but unequalled in +handling men, in keeping them satisfied, in moving dirt. In his time +he had turned off jobs from Maine to California, from Wisconsin to +Texas. Already along the hillside a yellow gash was deepening from the +dam site through the fenced fields where ran the right of way; while +in the Pinas, low at this season, the traverse section of the river +bed had been cleaned out and the base of the dam was building of +stones and brush.</p> + +<p>Late on a certain afternoon Ruth Gardner and Imogene Martin stood +waiting by a gray runabout at the edge of the <a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a>camp. A storm was +sweeping up the Ventisquero Range from the south, one of the autumn +storms that marked the change of seasons, enveloping, as it advanced, +the gray peaks one after another in its fog and trailing over the mesa +gauzy brown streamers of rain. In the west the sun still shone +unobscured, but with its light failing to a chill saffron glare as the +cloud expanded over the sky.</p> + +<p>Bryant and another man, a newcomer in the last few days, an engineer +from the East representing the bondholders, were walking toward the +girl from the dam. As the men walked, they engaged in rather spirited +argument.</p> + +<p>"You'd better hurry, you two," Ruth called. "Don't you see that rain +coming? Imo and I want to reach home, Mr. Gretzinger, without being +soaked."</p> + +<p>Bryant's companion waved an assuring hand without ceasing his rapid +and forceful statement addressed to his fellow. Half a head shorter +than Lee, he was of stockier build, a man somewhere near thirty-five +or six years of age, with hair tinged with gray above his ears. Both +in manner and speech he exhibited by turns superficial gayety, latent +cynicism, and an egregious assumption. When Lee had introduced him to +the young ladies at Sarita Creek, he had made himself at home in three +minutes. He had the latest witticisms of restaurants and theatres, the +newest stories, the most recent slang; his clothes were of the +autumn's extreme mode; he was intelligent if frankly materialistic; +and he interested, amused, and diverted the two girls. From his gay +and airy talk they gathered that he had been married and divorced, +that the West might have the scenery but New York had the bright +lights; that money could buy <a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a>anything from food to fame; and that +"movies" were a bore. To the girls he was like a breath from the +metropolis itself, that hard, throbbing, restless, glaring, convivial, +avid, fascinating city in which is centred everything of wealth and +misery, everything intense and abnormal, and everything to satisfy the +desires. But the effect upon the girls was different. Imogene, though +entertained, continued calm, unimpressed, unenvious; Ruth, however, as +she listened and asked questions, the better they became acquainted, +was bright-eyed and excited. "Don't you think him a remarkable man?" +she had exclaimed to Imogene. "So experienced, so polished, so—well, +everything." This was after his second visit, which he made without +Bryant, stopping on his way from the dam camp to Kennard where he made +the chief hotel his headquarters. Imogene had replied, "Oh, he's +amusing company, and he can't be accused of being diffident, at least. +But I wonder if he would wear well. His divorced wife's opinion would +be valuable on that point, I fancy." That had caused Ruth to sniff. +She said, "You heard his explanation; they didn't agree and so they +just separated. That was sensible. When two people find they're not +compatible, they shouldn't live together a minute. And I shouldn't be +surprised if she was a cat."</p> + +<p>Gretzinger's speech as he and Bryant advanced toward the girls and the +gray runabout was quick, determined, and uncompromising. His fleshy, +aggressive face, that lacked the tan of his companion's, was fixed in +dogmatic lines. From time to time he switched his gauntlets against +the skirt of his fashionably cut ulster with lively impatience.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a>"I certainly demand that these changes be made and shall recommend to +the bondholders," he was saying, "that they also insist on them."</p> + +<p>"Can't help it if you do," was Lee Bryant's reply. "I know what I'm +talking about: concrete is necessary. No irrigation engineer to-day +who knows his business would think of anything else. Mr. McDonnell's +man approved its use, the state engineer likewise. The latter wouldn't +allow the change even should I ask it."</p> + +<p>"Pah! He'd not concern himself either way. I know how these state +officers run things. Leave it to me; I'll arrange the matter."</p> + +<p>"Not with my consent. And he'll never grant the change over my +opposition."</p> + +<p>Gretzinger gave his knee an angry slap.</p> + +<p>"I tell you it must be different, Bryant. In addition to the bonds my +men have their share of stock. They consider this stock bonus as part +of their investment. It is. And they intend to see that that stock +earns every dollar—every dollar, do you understand?—that's to be +made out of the project. I'm here to protect their interests, and +shall do it."</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Now, Bryant, be reasonable. It means more profit in your own pocket, +too. You're no philanthropist pure and simple, I take it, and want to +make money out of this thing. So agree to this change. You'll make a +saving both in time and cash. Carrigan's contract doesn't include the +building of these drops; you plan to do that yourself; and if you +substitute wood for concrete in these drops and in the <a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a>gate-frames, +it would lessen the labour cost, the material cost, the freighting +cost, the——"</p> + +<p>"And in five years the wood will have rotted and then concrete will +have to be put in after all," Lee interrupted. "More than that, the +water will undercut wooden drops, then rip the devil out of the canal +along the ridge, making the cost of rebuilding ten times what it is +now and very likely causing a water shortage in the middle of an +irrigating season so that the farmers' crops will be a dead loss. +Fine! I suppose you didn't allow yourself to think that far."</p> + +<p>"Why should I?" Gretzinger retorted. "It's not our business to figure +on all the calamities that may occur in the next fifty years, or the +next ten, or the next five. We build the canal, then it's up to the +farmers to keep it in shape after we turn it over to them. If anything +happens, that's their lookout and the lookout of the engineer in +charge."</p> + +<p>The two had come to a halt just out of earshot of the runabout. Bryant +could discover on the speaker's face no other expression than a fixed +intent to maintain his view.</p> + +<p>"Leaving out the injustice of such a course——"</p> + +<p>"Injustice, nothing!" the New Yorker derided. "This is cold business. +The project must be built as cheaply as possible in order to give the +investors the largest return. My father is one of them, and when he +puts money into a thing he wants all out of it that's coming to him. +So do his associates."</p> + +<p>"Let me finish what I started to say," Lee remarked. "Aside from what +purchasers of land under this canal scheme have the right to expect, +and what they would suffer from a disaster, it hits our own pockets in +the end. Poor <a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a>construction always turns out to be expensive +construction. Aside from the initial cash payments from buyers, all we +have from them will be notes—mortgage notes that can be paid only by +crops from the land. The water insures these crops. Let the canal +system go smash, and where are these notes? Nowhere. I don't propose +to lose fifty or sixty thousand dollars for a short-sighted gain of +ten."</p> + +<p>Gretzinger laughed, then tapped the other's shoulder with a +forefinger.</p> + +<p>"Do you imagine for a minute we'll keep the paper?" he inquired. +"Well, I should say not! We'll discount it ten, and if necessary +twenty, per cent. to make a quick clean-up and be out. A mortgage +company in the East will attend to that part of the business. These +mortgages run for ten years; you certainly don't think we'll sit +around that long waiting for our money and profits. The discount will +make the paper attractive to small investors, among whom it will be +peddled and who want long-time securities. And you'll profit from that +along with the rest of us; we couldn't leave you out if we wished."</p> + +<p>"No, you can't leave me out of your calculations," said Bryant, +grimly.</p> + +<p>"You see now, I hope, why it's to your interest as well as ours to +make the change I suggest," Gretzinger continued. "It will equal the +amount of the discount. In a year or so we'll all be out from under +with bonds and stock liquidated dollar for dollar. In other words, +with our profits in cash in the bank instead of in notes."</p> + +<p>"And somebody else holding the sack, eh?" Bryant's aquiline nose came +down a little as he asked the question. <a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a>"No, Gretzinger, you haven't +persuaded me, and you never will by that argument. A pretty rotten +scheme, that of yours. I shall go right ahead and use concrete."</p> + +<p>"Then you don't intend to consider bondholders as having a voice in +matters?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Well, they're stockholders as well."</p> + +<p>"Minority stockholders, that's all," Lee stated, coolly. "You've said +this is a matter of cold business. Very well; I'm the majority +stockholder and have the control. I consider it cold business to build +the drops of concrete as planned. I consider it cold business and good +business to provide the farmers with a safe system. And I shall do +that."</p> + +<p>Again came Ruth's call, urging Gretzinger to hurry. He answered and +spoke a last word to Bryant, with a suddenly altered mien.</p> + +<p>"You're an obstinate devil, Lee," he exclaimed, cheerfully. "I'll have +to think up some new arguments to get you over, I find. Now I must run +along, or the ladies will be up in arms—and not my arms, either."</p> + +<p>Bryant helped him to button the curtains on the hood of the car, found +an instant when he could press Ruth's hand unobserved and murmur a +word in her ear, and stated that if the rain did not last he would run +down (he had picked up a second-hand Ford in Kennard) to Sarita Creek +after supper.</p> + +<p>"I don't see half enough of you," Ruth said, giving him a pat on the +cheek with the gloved finger that now wore a diamond solitaire. To Mr. +Gretzinger she continued, "If <a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a>you get us home without a wetting, you +may stay and eat with us; but if you don't, why, you can go straight +on to town."</p> + +<p>Off the car sped down the trail toward Bartolo where it would gain the +well-travelled mesa road, a hand thrust through the curtains waving +back at Bryant.</p> + +<p>The engineer did not go to Sarita Creek that night, for the rain +settled into a steady drizzle that lasted until well toward morning. +After supper he went, however, to the adobe dwelling of the Mexican +who once had warned him from his field. The man's seven-year-old boy +had fallen from a horse the day previous and fractured a leg; half +fearfully, half recklessly, the parent had come running to camp for +medical aid; and Lee had despatched the camp doctor, a young fellow +recently graduated, to treat the injury. Bryant was admitted into the +house. The youngster, he learned, was resting comfortably and had been +visited by the doctor that afternoon. Lee was even conducted to the +bedside, where the boy's leg thick with splints and wrappings was +exhibited for his benefit.</p> + +<p>"The doctor, he said I was to speak to you about his pay," the Mexican +stated after a time, when he and Bryant had talked awhile in Spanish.</p> + +<p>Bryant waved the words aside.</p> + +<p>"There's no charge, nothing," said he. "I was delighted to send the +doctor. I hope your son improves rapidly. The physician will continue +to pay you calls until the boy no longer requires them. Those are very +pretty geraniums you have in the window, señora. Are they fragrant?" +Lee crossed the room and bent his face above them.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"></a>The man's wife rubbed her hands together under her apron with much +pleasure. Thus politely for him to notice and praise her flowers! In +her heart, as in the heart of her husband, there formerly had been +resentment at this white canal-builder for cutting their field with a +big ditch, an occurrence which the county judge somehow had stupidly +permitted. But now she did not know what to feel. Yesterday he had +sent them a doctor for nothing, and this evening was smelling her +flowers admiringly. He could not be exactly a monster. Removing one +hand from beneath her apron, she inserted a finger-nail in her black +hair and scratched her scalp, considering the subject. Winter was +coming, too. Food would be needed—and besides, she long had desired +one of those loud phonographs at Menocal's store, and also needed a +new stove. She perceived that her husband was staring at Bryant's back +with a thoughtful air. Undoubtedly he was thinking the same thing as +she.</p> + +<p>"You yet want men and teams for your work, señor?" she inquired.</p> + +<p>"All I can get."</p> + +<p>"If a man falls sick while at work, would he have the services of the +doctor?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, without charge. There will be work on the dam most of the +winter, where the building is only a matter of stone and brush. I can +use all who want employment. Then in the spring there will be the +digging of the ditch on the mesa."</p> + +<p>"Five dollars for a man and his team, is it not so?" the Mexican +inquired.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a>"What if a man's wife or children fall sick?" the woman asked.</p> + +<p>Bryant hid a smile at this shrewd bargaining. Yet he was perceiving an +opportunity. There were no Mexicans at work on the project; one and +all they had held off. Likewise they refused to sell him grain and +hay, which necessitated the hauling of feed from a distance. But now +this accident to the boy might prove a heaven-sent chance to break +Menocal's monopoly of influence.</p> + +<p>"In case of sickness in the man's family, the doctor shall attend +free," he stated.</p> + +<p>The woman took thought afresh.</p> + +<p>"And if the man's horses are taken sick?"</p> + +<p>"Nay, he's not a horse doctor," said Lee, smiling. And even the woman +smiled.</p> + +<p>"But there's another matter. I fear it prevents," the man remarked. +"It is a note for fifty dollars that the bank holds against me. If I +work, Menocal will make trouble about that. I think we had best talk +no more of employment."</p> + +<p>"Suppose I advance the amount in case he does, letting you work out +the debt. I could keep, say, two dollars out of each day's five until +you owed nothing."</p> + +<p>"That would be agreeable to me, señor. But what if he then refuses to +sell me goods from his store?"</p> + +<p>"You can buy at the commissary," Lee said. "Why should you lose five +dollars a day because of Menocal's bad feeling for me? You remain +idle—but does he pay you, or feed you? And the wages I offer you, and +the doctor's services, and the other accommodations, I also offer to +<a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a>other Mexicans who will work. You may tell them so. Remember, there +will be teaming on the ditch until it freezes up, then work on the dam +throughout the winter, then scraper work on the mesa in the spring. +Five dollars a day coming in the door! You can buy meat and flour and +clothes and tobacco and candy for the children and a new wagon and +pictures of the Madonna, yes, all. But now I must go."</p> + +<p>"But Menocal would be very angry," said the man, with a shake of his +head.</p> + +<p>Bryant bade them good-night and departed. He went up the muddy road +through the wet darkness to the camp. Domination of the native mind by +Menocal appeared too strong for him to break.</p> + +<p>But to his surprise next morning the Mexican came driving his team +into the camp. Lee sent him to Pat Carrigan, who gave him a scraper +and set him to work on the ditch. Toward noon the engineer encountered +him moving dirt from the deepening excavation; the sight had an +amusing feature. The man, Pedro Saurez, laboured in his own field +building the canal at about the spot where he had warned Bryant away +when surveying.</p> + +<p>When Saurez beheld Lee, he grinned and removed the cigarette from his +lips.</p> + +<p>"It will be a fine ditch, this," was his remark.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_124" id="Page_124"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>Work on the canal section near the river advanced without incident +until, one morning early in November, the plows unexpectedly uncovered +a forty-foot-wide body of granite just beneath the surface. This +particular difficulty was not serious, and was the contractor's; but +Pat Carrigan was no more pleased than any other contractor would have +been at finding rock, even a small amount, when he had figured his +excavation costs on a dirt basis.</p> + +<p>"That wipes out a piece of my profits," he remarked to Bryant, after a +first profane explosion. "I'll send out for some dynamite and shoot +it. If it wasn't for damned troubles like this, I'd been a retired man +and fat and rich long ago. Don't grin, you heartless blackguard! +You'll have miseries of your own before we're done."</p> + +<p>Pat Carrigan was a true prophet. A blow of fatal nature, indeed, was +preparing at the moment and fell within a week. From the state +engineer Lee received a letter advising him that an application for +use of the water appropriated to Perro Creek ranch had been made by a +man of the name of Rodriguez, of Rosita, under an old statute long +forgotten. This law was mandatory upon the Land and Water Board. It +required the latter to cancel rights and to reappropriate water +elsewhere to the amount in excess of what a canal actually carried, or +what a canal had failed to carry for five <a name="Page_125" id="Page_125"></a>successive years if it were +not shown within ninety days after a filing for reappropriation that +the said canal had been enlarged to a capacity to carry the original +appropriation, and proof given of the owner's intention to employ said +appropriation.</p> + +<p>Menocal once more! He had been very quiet all this while; he +apparently had made no effort to dissuade the Mexicans who, following +Saurez's lead, had come in increasing number to work on the canal or +the dam; the man had almost passed from the engineer's mind. But he +had not been idle. He had had shrewd legal talent seeking a deadly +weapon for him among the musty statutes, with which he could deal the +irrigation project a <i>coup de grâce</i>. And as the import of the letter +penetrated Bryant's brain, his heart seemed to turn to ice. Ninety +days—finish dam and canal in ninety days! As well fix a limit of +ninety hours!</p> + +<p>Finally he rushed off to Pat Carrigan superintending scraper work and +dragged him aside.</p> + +<p>"For God's sake, read that, Pat!" he cried. "Read what the Land and +Water Board are going to do. They're going to cut the heart right out +of us! Kill the project! All for a law nobody ever heard of! Read it!"</p> + +<p>Pat knit his brows and slowly extracted the meaning from the state +engineer's formal, involved announcement. That something serious had +occurred he guessed before Bryant had opened his lips. He had never +seen the engineer so wrought up, so white, so agitated.</p> + +<p>"Let me get this right," the old contractor said, at length. "They're +going to cancel your water right."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126"></a>"But not at once. You've ninety days to——"</p> + +<p>"Ninety days! We can't do a year's work in ninety days, and in winter +time at that!" Lee cried.</p> + +<p>"Of course not," was the answer. "But it gives you time to argue with +'em and fight this thing. My advice is to go see this Board at once. +Maybe if you explain the situation, they'll call off this fellow +Rodriguez."</p> + +<p>Bryant, however, remained depressed. Clearly the officials had no +liberty of action in the matter.</p> + +<p>"I don't know that it will do any good," he said, "but it's all that's +left to do. Pack your grip, Pat; I want you to go with me. Leave +Morgan in charge. Can you start in half an hour?"</p> + +<p>The ride to Kennard was made at high speed, and on the way the men did +little talking. Both wanted to weigh the disaster confronting the +project. In town they sought out McDonnell, who promised to have his +attorney go into the matter at once and who appeared very grave at the +news. Then they returned to the hotel to await their train.</p> + +<p>Here Lee was surprised to encounter Ruth in company of Gretzinger, +Charlie Menocal, and a Kennard girl with whom he was not acquainted. +Ruth and Imogene, he learned, had come down the day before with the +New Yorker and were staying at the McDonnell home.</p> + +<p>"We're just roaming around and amusing ourselves," Ruth said, slipping +her arm within Lee's. "Come on and join us."</p> + +<p>Lee smilingly shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Can't possibly do it," said he. "I'm leaving for the capital soon."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127"></a>Ruth drew him aside.</p> + +<p>"But give me ten minutes of your time before you go, will you, dear?" +she asked. "Come, we can go into one of the parlours where we'll be +alone." And when they were seated there, she continued, "I know why +you're going to Santa Fé. Charlie said he understood you were involved +in some new legal trouble and that you might lose your whole project. +Mr. Gretzinger laughed at him and so did I, for we knew it couldn't be +true. But it's bothering you, I see; your face is anxious. I hope +you'll clear up the horrid matter, whatever it is, while you're gone." +Then after a pause, she remarked, "Perhaps Mr. Gretzinger could be of +assistance to you."</p> + +<p>"Not in this matter," said Lee.</p> + +<p>"He has a great deal of influence, especially in the East."</p> + +<p>"But this is the West—and I don't care much for Gretzinger, besides," +he stated.</p> + +<p>"So he says. More than once he has wished you would be more friendly. +Isn't it a little inconsiderate of you, Lee, to hold him off at arm's +length, especially when he's here as representative of the +bondholders? He has a vital interest in the canal and its success. +Really, I think he might be of great help if you'd permit. And it +would be of great advantage to us in the future, his friendship and +that of the men behind him, for they are wealthy and influential. +That's one reason why you ought to cultivate him, Lee."</p> + +<p>"Go on," said he, as she paused.</p> + +<p>"Well, I thought we should discuss the matter. I'm of the opinion that +you misunderstand him. You'll not deny that he's a man of ability."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"></a>"No—though I know little of him."</p> + +<p>"He is, though, Lee. And an engineer of high standing, too, and of +experience. Wouldn't it be wise to consult him a little more than you +do? He has talked to me at times about the project and has, I believe, +ideas you could use. For instance, he says that if you made certain +changes in the canal there would be a considerable saving of money, by +which the stockholders would benefit, you among them. He says that if +in certain places wood were used instead of concrete it would mean +thousands of dollars in your pocket."</p> + +<p>"It would, but it would also endanger the canal."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Gretzinger said you asserted that as your reason," she proceeded, +"but he claims there's no more prospect of danger from that source +than from a fly. And anyway, isn't it a matter that concerns only the +buyers afterward? He says so. I don't know much about such matters, of +course, but you really must look after your own best interest +first—and mine. I say mine because mine will be yours after we're +married. Mr. Gretzinger says your share of the saving would be at +least five thousand dollars and possibly more. Lee, do this for me."</p> + +<p>"What he proposes is dishonest, Ruth."</p> + +<p>"But why? He says the state board would grant the change if proper +representations were made. If the officials allowed it, I can't see +where it would be dishonest."</p> + +<p>"The officials would have to be deceived to gain their consent to such +a change," Lee said, patiently. "But the real point at issue is the +permanency of the water system, Ruth. The poor devils who buy the land +and who toil for years to pay for it are to be considered. If the +canal is too <a name="Page_129" id="Page_129"></a>cheaply constructed, they'll probably lose their crops; +and losing their crops means ruin. As far as possible an engineer must +insure against this danger when he builds the canal; then if any +accident happens later, his conscience, at any rate, is clear."</p> + +<p>"But he says you over-estimate the risk, that wood is perfectly safe. +And he's an expert engineer, too. More experienced than you, Lee."</p> + +<p>"You seem to have discussed this thing with him at great length," +Bryant remarked, dryly.</p> + +<p>"I have, indeed I have, because I have your success so greatly at +heart, dear. I want to see you receive every penny that you earn and +all the credit you deserve; I want you to go ahead in your profession +and become both wealthy and famous; but sometimes I think that you're +so absorbed in the engineering part of the work that you're careless +of the future. One has to be practical, too. One has to look out for +one's own interests. And I don't see why your responsibility for the +project doesn't end when you've built the canal, sold the land, and +turned the system over to the farmers. You can't go on looking out for +them after that; you're not answerable to the 'hay-seeds' who settle +here for what may or may not happen. And we shall need the money that +would be saved by using wood instead of concrete, Lee. When you're +through here, we shall want to live in New York at least part of the +time. With Mr. Gretzinger's friendship you could perhaps form a +connection so that you could be there all the while, and make a big +fortune. You will do this for me, won't you, Lee? It means just that +much more happiness for us."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130"></a>She slipped her arms about his neck and kissed him impulsively, +eagerly. Lee felt himself tremble at that clasp, at that kiss. Words +seemed futile. His anxiety over the fate of his project gave way to a +profound sickness of soul. That Ruth should thus reveal such a +cloudiness of spiritual vision, such an inability to distinguish +between moral values, such a ready acceptance of Gretzinger's vicious +philosophy, was the final drop in his bitter cup this day.</p> + +<p>"It's not a question of either wood or concrete just at present," he +said, rising. "It's whether I'm to have a project at all. I'll not go +with you, Ruth, to your friends; I must think over what I'm to do and +say at Santa Fé to-morrow."</p> + +<p>As he rode thither with Carrigan that night it seemed as if he now was +at grapple with forces, invisible, powerful, malevolent, that strove +to dispossess him of everything that was dear. His project! What +means, what help, what law was there of which he could make use to +ward off this deadly assault on it? And Ruth! How should he save +her—save her from herself, clear the mist from her eyes, arouse her +drowsing soul? All that he had aimed at and all that he had striven +for hung on finding answers to those questions.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_131" id="Page_131"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XIV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>By noon Bryant and Carrigan had concluded their interviews with +members of the Land and Water Board. All of them had listened, asked +questions, expressed their regret at the situation in which Perro +Creek project found itself, but stated that the Board had no course +other than that of executing the law evoked in the case. They +suggested that Bryant bring an action in the courts to test the law; +they admitted that his company might be forced into the hands of a +receiver; they inquired concerning the possibility of gaining the +consent of the adverse party to a withdrawal of his application. Their +hands, however, said one and all, were tied in the matter.</p> + +<p>The engineer and the contractor went down the steps of the state house +and found a seat on a bench at a shady spot of the grounds.</p> + +<p>"Just as I expected it would be," Bryant said, grimly.</p> + +<p>He sat humped over, his elbows on his knees and his cheeks between his +fists. His eyes were dull, heavy; he had not closed them during the +previous night. He wore the mud-caked lace boots and stained khaki, as +did Carrigan, in which he had departed from camp.</p> + +<p>"Well, we haven't quit breathing yet," Pat remarked, licking the +wrapper on the cigar he was about to light.</p> + +<p>Lee sat silent for several minutes.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132"></a>"Anyway, I'll see you don't lose, Pat," he said. "You can figure out +what profit you would have made on your contract if the ditch had been +built and I'll pay you that. Then you can call off your crew."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll let you down easy, Lee. That wasn't worrying me any," was +the rejoinder. "I was just thinking——" But his words broke off +there, and he again gave his attention to the cigar wrapper that +persisted in coming loose.</p> + +<p>Bryant continued his gloomy cogitation. The muscles of his cheeks +moved in hard lumps beneath his fists as if he were champing some +resistant substance. Over his eyes his lids from time to time drooped +sleepily. But all at once he leaped up.</p> + +<p>"If I but had something I could take hold of, Pat!" he exclaimed. +"Something I could lay hands on and move, like that bed of rock you +uncovered! So I could go ahead! A law is so damned immaterial that one +has nothing to work against. It leaves a man nowhere, helpless. It +lifts him off the ground and holds him kicking futilely in the air. +Just that. By God, I'm desperate enough to try anything—to try +building the ditch—try whipping Menocal even under this moth-eaten +law he's dug up!"</p> + +<p>Pat shut one eye against the smoke curling into it.</p> + +<p>"I was speculating a little along the same line," said he, slowly.</p> + +<p>"But twelve miles of ditch in ninety days! The whole mesa line! We'd +be crazy to think of it. Let's talk of something else."</p> + +<p>Lee's mouth, nevertheless, was twitching, while gleams like light came +and went on his face.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133"></a>"I always had a weakness for the bad bets," said Pat.</p> + +<p>"But twelve miles of ditch!"</p> + +<p>"And the nights freezing harder every week," the old contractor added.</p> + +<p>"And the days short."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and nerve shorter yet," said Pat.</p> + +<p>The remark was airily given, but the inference was plain. Lee took a +step aside and stood staring across the capitol grounds, with brows +knit, with lips compressed, the prey of struggling hopes and doubts.</p> + +<p>"Pat," he said, turning.</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Do you think we could do it?"</p> + +<p>"God knows; I don't. But we could give the job an awful whirl," the +contractor stated.</p> + +<p>"The thing looks impossible, preposterous, but if you see the +slightest chance of success I want you to say so. Dirt moving is your +game, not mine. Ninety days; that's thirteen weeks. Almost a mile a +week. Can it be done? Can you do it?"</p> + +<p>Pat at last threw away the cigar that refused to draw.</p> + +<p>"With men and teams enough I could build a ditch to tide-water in that +time," said he, with sudden energy. "Men and scrapers, scrapers and +men—that's all. You can rip the insides out of any dirt job on earth +if you have the crews. Of course, it takes money, big wages, to get +and hold them."</p> + +<p>"Money! What do I care for that if we build the canal? How much more +will it take? How much will you need?"</p> + +<p>"Say twenty thousand more."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134"></a>"Get out your pencil and begin figuring it."</p> + +<p>"I don't need a pencil," Carrigan answered. "I haven't been moving +dirt for fifty years without figures sticking to my hair. I've +digested your blue-prints and know what's to come out of the ground. +Now I'll tell you what it would be if there was no frost in the +ground, as in summer—and we'll afterward allow for the frost; and +what's necessary in men, horses, fresnos, shacks, horsefeed, food, +clothes, and general supplies."</p> + +<p>And thereupon Carrigan began to pour forth a stream of data so exact, +so comprehensive, so full, that Bryant listened in astonishment. All +carried in his head, ready for use!</p> + +<p>"I hope I know my business at your age as you know yours," Lee +exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"You will, or ought to. I've paid for what I know in mistakes and +miscalculated jobs, as does every man some time or other—paid in hard +cash. What he learns is all he gets out of losses. Now, the figures I +gave were for summer work; winter dirt moving is another kind of +animal. Work is slower, men are harder to keep, weather is generally +bad."</p> + +<p>"This autumn has been later than usual, and it may last," said Lee.</p> + +<p>"And it may not," Carrigan stated, emphatically. "It's that that +worries me about this thing. As it is, the ground freezes on top every +night. Let the thermometer make a low drop, and we won't be able to +stick a plow-point into it anywhere."</p> + +<p>"There's no moisture to speak of in the soil of the mesa."</p> + +<p>"Enough to freeze the dirt, just the same," said Pat.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135"></a>"We can leave the dam out of consideration."</p> + +<p>"Yes; no trouble about finishing that. And your concrete work, Lee, +won't lose you any sleep. A carload of cement from here, gravel from +the river, and a dozen Kennard carpenters to knock together gate and +drop frames—no trick to crack that nut. Frost, lad, frost! It's the +thing to set us groaning."</p> + +<p>Bryant sat down and put his hand on the speaker's knee.</p> + +<p>"Pat, if we go into this thing and put it through, there will be a +good fat bonus for you."</p> + +<p>"Maybe there will be and maybe there won't. Maybe you'll have some +money left when we're done and maybe you'll not have a red cent. In +any case, the old man is with you, Lee, to the end of the scrap—if +you go ahead. What about your bondholders? Will they stand for risking +what's not yet spent? They will save considerable by your stopping +now; they'll lose all if we fail."</p> + +<p>"What do you——"</p> + +<p>Pat's raised hand halted him.</p> + +<p>"Ask me nothing," said he. "That's for you alone to settle. If you +spend their money and win, they'll say 'Thank you'—maybe; and if you +go under, they'll damn you up one side and down the other and probably +try to send you to the pen. You're the chief; you have to decide; you +can't share the responsibility—anyway, not with me. And if you're +inquiring, I'll remark that its considerable responsibility. Go off +yonder by yourself and think it over a bit."</p> + +<p>Bryant left the old contractor lighting a fresh cigar. He walked to +another bench a short distance away, where he sat <a name="Page_136" id="Page_136"></a>down. In his first +exultation at perceiving a fighting chance to save the project he had +seen only the opportunity, but Carrigan's unexpected turn of the +subject had brought him back to earth. He was guardian, as well as +dispenser, of company funds. He had obligations to the bondholders. +Therefore, would he be justified in risking the money on such a +desperate venture? His soul sank.</p> + +<p>But his mind would not cease to revolve about the undertaking, for he +could not at once relinquish his long-cherished dream. The thought of +tame surrender was as wormwood in his mouth. To stand by acquiescent +while the project collapsed! That prospect he could not endure. Never +again, if he capitulated now, would he be able to strike out with the +same courage as in this project; never with the same courage, or +spirit, or faith. The project was his creation! The thing of his brain +and will! Part of himself! And how confidently he had made his plans +and acquired the property and started work! No doubts of his ability +to carry it through! No question of his right to go ahead! No fear of +the task!</p> + +<p>The engineer came suddenly to his feet.</p> + +<p>Builders throughout the world took equal risks and overcame as great +obstacles every day; it was the measure of their genius and will. +Engineers elsewhere crushed a way through earth and rock to their +goals, and under adverse circumstances, with no thought of failure. +Were there not men who would unhesitatingly take hold of this project +now and complete it in the time allotted? Yes, any number. For the +very same reason that he had launched the scheme. Because they had the +ability, because they had the will, <a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"></a>because, most of all, they had +faith—faith in their own powers.</p> + +<p>Lee went back to Pat Carrigan.</p> + +<p>"We shall build it," said he. "And in ninety days."</p> + +<p>The contractor rose.</p> + +<p>"You talk like a real 'chief' now, Bryant," he replied. "I was waiting +for that. Come along; we'll start burning the wires."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_138" id="Page_138"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>Louise Graham, entering the dining car for breakfast, received a +surprise at beholding Lee Bryant half way along the aisle at one of +the smaller tables. He laid down the spoon with which he was delving +into a half of a cantaloupe and got quickly to his feet to greet her.</p> + +<p>"So you're home again," he said, after shaking hands. "Your father +told me when I met him that you were in the East. Will you share my +table?"</p> + +<p>"I use 'shopping' as a pretext for a jaunt now and then," she laughed, +when they were seated. "Once in a while the lure of city dissipations +seizes me; I had a week in Washington and three in New York with +friends, which will satisfy me for a few months. You were just +starting work on your project when I went away. Are you making good +progress?"</p> + +<p>"Very. But I'll make still better from now on. It's a case with me of +do or be 'done', of dig out or be buried. I may as well be open about +it, for everyone will know presently, anyway. The project must be +completed in ninety days."</p> + +<p>"Ninety days? Great heavens!"</p> + +<p>"That's what I said, too," Lee stated, with a smile. "Several times, +in fact. There is an old law, it seems, that enables interested +parties to hold a stop-watch on me."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139"></a>"And what's the penalty if you fail to finish the work in those three +months?"</p> + +<p>"Cancellation of my water right."</p> + +<p>"Cancellation? Surely not."</p> + +<p>"I tried to convince the Land and Water Board of that in Santa Fé, but +made no headway."</p> + +<p>"How outrageous!" she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>The waiter at her elbow recalled her to the requirements of the +moment. Still with a trace of colour in her cheeks, the result of her +indignation, she scanned the menu and wrote out her order.</p> + +<p>"The thing is so utterably unreasonable," she resumed, more calmly. +"Why did they let you start if they proposed afterward to hang a sword +above your head?"</p> + +<p>"The Board was ignorant of this law, as was everybody else, until it +was brought to light by the applicant for cancellation," said Lee, "a +certain Rodriguez, of Rosita."</p> + +<p>"Who is he?"</p> + +<p>Bryant shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Don't ask me. No friend, at any rate."</p> + +<p>She regarded him steadily for a moment.</p> + +<p>"Probably a man put forward by Mr. Menocal."</p> + +<p>"I suppose so," said he.</p> + +<p>"But the idea of expecting you to build all those miles of ditch in +ninety days and in the winter time! I wonder that you can be so calm."</p> + +<p>"Why shouldn't I be calm? My mind's made up. I'm going to complete the +project on time."</p> + +<p>The words were uttered in a matter-of-fact tone that impressed Louise +Graham far more than would any vehement <a name="Page_140" id="Page_140"></a>assertion. As he had stated, +his mind was made up, quite made up on the point. Others might think +what they pleased: it carried no weight with him. The thing was +certain.</p> + +<p>She examined the engineer with a new interest. There was a difference +in him, what would be hard to say. One couldn't exactly put finger on +it. Something in his gray eyes, perhaps; something in the sharper +stamp of his aquiline nose, of his lips, of his bronzed jaw; something +in his whole bearing. It went deeper than features, too; she sensed a +change in the spirit of the man from what it had been that day of his +going down to Kennard, when he strolled with her in her garden. He was +less bouyant, less manifest, less elated, but more poised and sure. A +change, yes.</p> + +<p>Then her thoughts reverted to his tremendous undertaking.</p> + +<p>"How long have you known this?" she inquired.</p> + +<p>"Since the day before yesterday. Pat Carrigan, my contractor, and I +came to the capital at once to discuss the affair with the Board. The +news was—well, a good deal of a facer."</p> + +<p>She nodded.</p> + +<p>"It would be," were her words. "You'll need more workmen and horses, +of course."</p> + +<p>"All I can get. Pat went to Denver last night, and the labour agencies +there and at Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Santa Fé, El Paso, and places +farther east doubtless by now are rounding up men. We picked up an +idle grading outfit yesterday in Santa Fé; it will be loaded and +started by to-night."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141"></a>Her face became a little rueful.</p> + +<p>"That all sounds so big that I hesitate to make the offer I had in +mind when I asked," she said.</p> + +<p>"What was it, Miss Graham?"</p> + +<p>"Father has twelve or fifteen teams and some scrapers used on the +ranch. The horses aren't working at this season. He would be glad to +let you have them, I know, if he thought they would be of any aid. But +with what you'll have, perhaps you——"</p> + +<p>"I want them; I'll be more than grateful for them. I need every man +and horse available. I can't get too many. Each labourer and each +horse counts just that much more. It's a great kindness on your part +to suggest their use to me, and I'll stop on the way to camp to see +your father."</p> + +<p>"He'll consent to your employing them," said she, confidently. "Dad +likes a man who puts up a good fight, and you're doing that. A fight +against great odds."</p> + +<p>Bryant's face lightened with a smile almost sunny.</p> + +<p>"By heavens, it's comforting to have a friend like you," he exclaimed, +"when one's in a tight place!"</p> + +<p>The waiter began to place her meal, and he turned his head to look out +of the window while his mind recalled his talk with Ruth in the hotel +parlour at Kennard. Little comfort he had had from her then. Her +interest in the project, in fact, as he reviewed the summer, had been +slight, always casual, concerned only with its financial factor, never +particularly sympathetic, never warm, never eager. The thought struck +him unpleasantly. It had never occurred to him before. He wondered if +this indifference would continue when they were married, if in ten +years—when he was <a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"></a>about forty, say—she would be even less inclined +to know his work, like the wives of some men he could name who had +their own separate interests, who gave their husbands no sympathy at +their tasks, nor courage, nor heart, and whose single cognizance of it +had to do with the size of the income.</p> + +<p>But he drove this depressing and disloyal speculation from his mind. +Ruth was young and perhaps restless, but she was sweet and full of +promise. Time would round out her character; and when she had matured, +she would be one in a million—a mate who cheered and inspired. Every +bit of that! She would presently see the real values of things; +Charlie Menocal's monkey tricks would no longer amuse her, and she +would perceive what a shallow harlequin he was, while she would +comprehend Gretzinger's vicious, unprincipled sophistry and turn in +disgust from the man. She was inexperienced, that was all.</p> + +<p>"It will be good to be back once more where one has plenty of room," +Louise Graham remarked. "In that liking, you see, I'm a genuine +Westerner. That's what I missed most when at school in the East, at +Bryn Mawr—space. I wanted my big mountains and wide mesa and long, +restful views. And how I galloped on my pony through the sagebrush +when I came back during summer vacations!"</p> + +<p>The recollection set her eyes glistening.</p> + +<p>"You still do it when you return from a trip, I'll venture to say," +Lee stated, marking the glow of her face.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do. Almost the very first thing. It clears my brain of city +noise and sights and grime. It soothes my nerves. Nothing does that +like our keen air with its scent of sagebrush."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143"></a>"Then I should see you riding up my way soon."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll certainly want to follow the progress of your work, Mr. +Bryant. With father's teams working for you, I'll feel as if we had a +part in the race." After a pause she proceeded, "The contractor's +outfit went up and you were just starting the dam and excavation about +the time I went East. Father mentioned in a letter to me that he had +dropped in at your camp once or twice when at Bartolo."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I showed him what we were doing. We've had other visitors +occasionally. Miss Gardner and Miss Martin—at Sarita Creek, you +remember—come at times. Miss Martin is a niece of Mr. McDonnell, of +Kennard."</p> + +<p>"So Mrs. McDonnell told me. Just before I left I called at their +cabins again. But I had no more luck that time than the first; they +were away somewhere. Well," she concluded, with a smile, "perhaps the +third time will win; that's the rule. I'll go another time soon."</p> + +<p>"You'll like them, I'm sure. They're both charming, I think. Unusual +girls."</p> + +<p>"I'll go soon," she repeated.</p> + +<p>"My desire possibly will be understood by you," said he, after a +slight hesitation, "when I say that Miss Gardner and I are engaged to +be married. So it would please me immensely if you two became good +friends."</p> + +<p>Louise Graham showed some surprise. But this immediately changed to +smiling interest.</p> + +<p>"Accept my congratulations, Mr. Bryant," she said. "You may count on +our being friends. Hereafter she and Miss Martin must come to our +ranch whenever they will. I suppose they ride up where you are nearly +every day; Miss <a name="Page_144" id="Page_144"></a>Gardner, in particular, must be tremendously devoted +to your project and now tremendously excited, too, over your race +against time. Who wouldn't be, in her place!"</p> + +<p>"Naturally," said Lee, with all the heartiness he could muster in his +voice. But to himself, at least, his tone rang hollow.</p> + +<p>When an hour or so after they had finished their meal they alighted +from their Pullmans at Kennard, the echo of his forced reply still +sounded in his mind with persistent irony. He was glad he had an +interview with McDonnell before him that would silence it, the +negotiating of a large private loan.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_145" id="Page_145"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XVI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>For Bryant there now began a period of activity compared to which his +earlier efforts were mere play. Headquarters were moved down to Perro +Creek, ten miles nearer Kennard. In an endless procession streamed +northward automobiles crammed with labourers, wagons heaped with +lumber, cement, implements, food, tents, forage, and long lines of +fresnos. From distant Mexican settlements came natives in ramshackle +wagons and driving half-wild ponies. Out of the hills came +sheep-herders and prospectors. The word of big wages ran everywhere. +The drive was on.</p> + +<p>By the dam and on the tongue of ground extending from the mountain +side where the canal would swing out upon the mesa, excavation for the +intake gate and weir and the drops was in progress, with a crew of +carpenters swiftly erecting wooden forms to receive the concrete when +the diggers finished and retired. On the mesa half a dozen young +engineers, using Bryant's notes and fixed points, ran anew the ditch +line and set grade stakes. North of Perro Creek white tents gleamed in +the sunshine; and beyond these a swarm of men and horses gashed a +yellow streak in the mesa, ever extending as the days passed—cutting +sagebrush, ripping through sod, flinging up earth with plow and +scraper.</p> + +<p>Yes, the fight was on. The fight to secure and keep <a name="Page_146" id="Page_146"></a>horses, to get +and hold workmen, to feed and use them both mercilessly, to press them +ahead like a shaft of steel, to drive them forward under lash, mile by +mile, rod by rod, foot by foot, forcing a channel through the +resistant earth and across the mesa—a fight to outwit frost, to +outstrip time, to outreach and overcome the impossible.</p> + +<p>Bryant himself was everywhere, now at the dam, now with the +carpenters, now at Perro Creek. Morgan, in charge of the north camp, +succumbed to Bryant's own restless energy and matched it. The gang, +now beginning to pour concrete behind the carpenters, caught the +infection of his ardor. Foreman and crew on the hillside section, at +his word that they had the most difficult part of the dirt work, +toiled the harder. The other engineers promised to give him their best +and gave him more. And in the main camp at Perro Creek Pat Carrigan +extracted the last ounce of effort from man and beast.</p> + +<p>In Kennard Bryant had said to McDonnell, "Give me a good man for this +end, one who can work twenty hours a day." And the banker had given +him such an one: a short, bow-legged clerk with a pugnacious jaw, who +took the typewritten list of Bryant's immediate requirements, read it, +jerked on his hat, and bolted out of the door. He it was who kept the +road north from Kennard a-jiggle with freight wagons.</p> + +<p>The fierce struggle against time became generally known. Ranchers +visited the mesa for a sight of the toiling camps. Wagonloads of +Mexican families, curious, observant, came and went. Automobile +parties from Kennard and elsewhere made inspection trips to the spot. +Even a journalist <a name="Page_147" id="Page_147"></a>representing a Denver paper appeared, made +photographs, and obtained an interview from Bryant consisting of +"Finish it on time? Certainly. Can't talk any longer." Which, together +with the pictures and the special writer's account, filled a page of a +Sunday issue.</p> + +<p>The anxiety ever in Bryant's and Carrigan's minds was of that grim and +implacable enemy, cold. Autumn had lasted amazingly; November yielded +to December, with the days still fine; but who could tell when the +white spectre, Winter, would lay his icy hand upon the earth? The +peaks and upper slopes of the mountains were already mantled with +snow. Each morning the engineer and the contractor marked with care +the fall of the thermometer during the night, examined the frost upon +the grass and tested its depth in the soil. They watched the barometer +like hawks. They observed every cloud along the Ventisquero Range. +They studied the wind, the sun, the sky. But the weather held fair. So +calm was the air that at times sounds of the dynamite blasts at the +granite outshoot, where a pair of miners were clearing a path for the +canal, came travelling down to Perro Creek.</p> + +<p>"The Lord surely has his arms around us," said Pat, one morning.</p> + +<p>Bryant nodded, but Dave spoke up, "A cattleman who went by here +yesterday, an old-timer, said: 'When December's clear, then January's +drear.'"</p> + +<p>"And an old-timer once told me that same thing when I was building a +railroad grade in Kansas," Pat remarked, "and I had to ship in +palm-leaf fans and ice to keep my 'paddies' from fainting with the +January heat." A slight <a name="Page_148" id="Page_148"></a>exaggeration, to be sure, but showing the old +contractor's contempt for wise saws pertaining to weather. Yet no one +understood more than he the law of probabilities, or the balance of +seasons. Some time cold must follow warmth, foul follow fair, to work +the inevitable mean. And it was too much to hope that this natural law +would be suspended for them until the middle of February.</p> + +<p>In fact, the nights while remaining clear were hardening. The mercury +in the tube sank by possibly a degree every two nights, at last +touching zero; and it correspondingly failed to arise by as much at +noon. The days were cruelly short. Darkness lasted until eight in the +morning; it dropped down again at five. The frost crept deeper into +the earth.</p> + +<p>But construction advanced. The dam of brush and uncemented smooth +brown stones, stretching across the Pinas, was gradually rising. The +hillside section of ditch through the fields was finished and only the +miners continued at the granite reef, the ring of their hammers on +drills going steadily and the roar of the shots now and again booming +out at nightfall. Excavation went forward in the spaces between the +drops on the ridge leading forth upon the mesa. The carpenters had +finished and returned to Kennard. The concrete gang had moved their +mixer from the dam to the drops, for the intake gate and its +accompanying flood weir were made, and Bryant had had their wooden +frames knocked off so that the structures stood white and imposing +beside the dam, like pillars of accomplishment. From Perro Creek the +main camp had moved toward the northwest on the arc it must pursue, +until its tents touched <a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a>the horizon and the clean yellow trench, +fifteen feet wide at the bottom, thirty feet wide at the top, and five +feet deep, with its flanking embankments, alone was left behind, a +forced and undeviating course through the sagebrush, the water way +driven by a determined man.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_150" id="Page_150"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XVII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>Meanwhile Lee, under relentless pressure of work, saw less and less of +Ruth. She had come a number of times at the beginning of the drive, +sometimes with Gretzinger, sometimes with Imogene, to watch the +feverish spectacle on the mesa; as had Louise Graham, her father, and +at rare intervals Mr. McDonnell. Bryant, on his part, had gone +evenings to Sarita Creek when he could spare an hour, and, for that +matter, when he could not. But the meetings with her were infrequent, +and always left him with a sense of inadequacy, of dissatisfaction, +because partly Ruth and he seemed to have no common interests and +partly that she now let her affection go for granted. Her talk was not +of the subjects usually discussed by an engaged couple—of their +coming marriage (though no date had been fixed) and a home and +prospective joys together; it dealt wholly with amusements, dances, +friends at Kennard. And though her own eyes glistened at the recital, +Lee's lost their light and his speech was quenched. For his was the +rôle of an outsider.</p> + +<p>Certain friendships that she maintained, moreover, were exceedingly +distasteful to him.</p> + +<p>"Ruth, I've nothing against your going around so much with +Gretzinger," he said one evening, "except that I don't like the fellow +and believe he's crooked, and it may, under the circumstances, create +gossip."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151"></a>"Nonsense, Lee, don't be jealous. Gretzie never takes me anywhere +except in a crowd. And don't say he's crooked, or I shall be angry."</p> + +<p>"Well, let him pass," he went on. "It's Charlie Menocal I've more in +mind. He talks openly against my project; he calls me a thief and a +ruffian; he's an avowed enemy. Yet you run around with him as if that +were of no importance, as if it made no difference. The scoundrel no +doubt counts it a brilliant bit of smartness to carry about in his car +the fiancée of the man he hates, and brags of it. It reflects on us +both, Ruth. I ask you to consider my feelings at least that far."</p> + +<p>She regarded him speculatively for a time. Then the touch of obstinacy +hardened her chin and pushed up her under lip the barest trifle. But +there was no resentment in her voice when she answered and, indeed, +her tone was too casual.</p> + +<p>"Oh, nobody pays any particular attention to what Charlie says," she +remarked. "You surely don't really believe what you've just stated +about his bragging? I don't. Of course, he hasn't brains like Mr. +Gretzinger, but he's gentlemanly. And he's very kind. And so is Mr. +Menocal, his father. I've eaten dinner with a party of young folks at +their house twice. Your ideas of them are altogether wrong, for +they've been at pains to tell me that a business difference like that +with you shouldn't affect personal relations. I think the same. But +that isn't all. You never take me anywhere, you won't go to the +parties and shows and things. Am I to sit here every day and every +night at Sarita Creek until your canal is built?" By now <a name="Page_152" id="Page_152"></a>her words +were not only casual but carried a trace of disdainfulness.</p> + +<p>"No, Ruth," said he. "I want you to have a good time and derive every +pleasure that you rightly can. My greatest regret is that I can't take +you and share the fun. But it goes without saying that I can't. Only, +Charlie Menocal——"</p> + +<p>"Lee, what's got into you to-night? If it were not for Mr. +Gretzinger's and Charlie's thoughtfulness, I'd have died of +lonesomeness long before this. You know how I hate this life, this +homestead business. You know I'm only waiting until you've finished +and we can be married and go away where there is something worth +while. Now be reasonable. You work too hard, so that every little +speck looks like a mountain. And it's making you narrow, too, or will +if you don't watch out. I have to kill time somehow till we can be +married and so you ought not to find fault with my doing it. Run along +over and talk to Imo in her cabin now, Lee; that's a good boy. I +didn't get back home from town last night until after midnight, and +I'm sleepy."</p> + +<p>He did not go to Imo's cabin, but to camp instead. For the bitterness +of his disappointment at his failure to move her made him desire the +darkness and solitude of the ride home. With her, it seemed, he was in +a worse predicament than he had been when faced with the problem of +his ditch; for that he had found an answer, found something to take +hold of. But she was not like the mesa, to be mastered by sheer will +and incessant labour. Character is intangible, and he found himself +balked. One cannot lay hands on the <a name="Page_153" id="Page_153"></a>desires in a heart and pluck them +out, or on the spirit and twist it straight.</p> + +<p>His bitterness became acute when some time later Charlie Menocal came +driving with Ruth along the rutted trail by the canal to where he +stood inspecting a new drop.</p> + +<p>"You wait, Charlie; I'll not be long," she said, as she alighted. +"Come with me out of earshot, will you, Lee?"</p> + +<p>They moved to a spot that satisfied her.</p> + +<p>"I heard you were doing this and I asked Charlie to bring me here," +she began. "I wanted to see for myself. And it's true. You're going +ahead and make these things out of concrete. I'm indignant, I'm hurt. +After you led me to rely——"</p> + +<p>Bryant stopped her sharply.</p> + +<p>"No, Ruth, not that. I'm sorry that you gained the impression I should +use wood instead of concrete; and it never was in my mind to do so, to +use wood. My decision was fully made when you raised the matter in the +hotel parlour at Kennard, and I explained my reasons for the decision. +I didn't tell you bluntly, perhaps. I waited, trusting that you would +come round to my way of thinking and realize that I could only follow +my own best judgment."</p> + +<p>"I haven't changed my mind not one particle," she exclaimed, +vehemently.</p> + +<p>"But, Ruth——"</p> + +<p>"I think you're throwing away good money, deliberately. That is, if +you really ever make any money on your project. You may lose +everything."</p> + +<p>"I may not, also. But if I should, the father of the fellow sitting in +the car yonder waiting for you would be <a name="Page_154" id="Page_154"></a>responsible. As for these +drops, Ruth, Gretzinger was wrong and I was right, and so they're +being built of concrete. Now please forget all about it."</p> + +<p>"And that you refused my request, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Well, I can't do that; it's too much to ask." An angry gleam shot +from her eyes. "You might have thought more of me and less of +yourself. You put your old canal first and me second." With which she +swung about and marched off to the car, and it went away, rocking and +lurching down the uneven trail.</p> + +<p>Lee stood looking after it. Her last words brought up the memory of +the occasion when she had playfully uttered the like, one night in +August, with the added inquiry, "What if you had to choose between +us?" Were things drifting to such an issue? Would she at last force +upon him that hard choice? He flung up a hand in a gesture of despair. +Some metamorphosis had occurred in her; she was not the simple and +loving Ruth to whom he had offered himself that day they picked +berries in the cañon. Or was it that only now her real self was +revealed? Was it that she was capable of loving only selfishly? Did +she love him at all?</p> + +<p>The questions bit like acid into his heart. And a new one, that +startled and dismayed his soul: Did he love her? Yes—the Ruth she yet +was. But he could never love the woman she seemed on the way to +become, breathing an exciting and unhealthy atmosphere, seeking purely +personal gain, indifferent to worthy objects, selfish, hard, +mercenary, worldly. No, that kind of Ruth would kill love.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155"></a>He still stood there when Morgan, who had been on an errand to +headquarters, came galloping back on his way to the dam.</p> + +<p>"Accident down below," he said. "Man hurt in the mixer. Arm crushed."</p> + +<p>Bryant jerked his head about to look at the drop two hundred yards +farther down the ridge. He saw the workmen grouped together. The huge +cylindrical machine was motionless.</p> + +<p>"I'll see," he exclaimed, hurrying to his runabout.</p> + +<p>He drove recklessly to where the injured man lay, helped lift him into +the car, and bidding the foreman stand on the running board and +support the unconscious labourer, set off for headquarters at such +speed as was possible. Into the low shack used for hospital purposes +the two carried their charge, and as the doctor was absent Bryant +began a search to find him. He ran down the camp street shouting the +doctor's name and along the ditch where the teams moved, until he +encountered Carrigan.</p> + +<p>"Doc ain't here. Who's hurt?" Pat asked. For a call for the doctor +could mean but one thing.</p> + +<p>Bryant described the nature of the accident and both men hastened back +to the hospital. The door was now closed. Before it, stood the foreman +of the concrete gang, who was narrating for the benefit of a group of +cooks and freighters details of the mishap.</p> + +<p>Bryant turned the knob, but the door was locked.</p> + +<p>"He stationed me here to keep men out," the foreman said.</p> + +<p>"Then he's in there."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a>"Yes, came a-running. Was loafing out there in the brush and having a +smoke. Said he was going to operate at once, then locked the door."</p> + +<p>"Not alone!" Lee exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"No, he has help. One of the engineers from the office, who had come +trotting over to see what was wrong, and a girl."</p> + +<p>"A girl! What girl?"</p> + +<p>The foreman shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Don't know who she is. She came riding in from the south. When she +saw us hustling round, she asked what had happened and jumped off her +horse and inquired of the Doc whether she could be of any help. He +looked at her, then said yes. She's in there now. One of the men is +caring for her horse."</p> + +<p>"A bay horse?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. And a pretty girl, too. I'd almost lose an arm to have a +good-looker like her hovering over me."</p> + +<p>"All right, Jenks. You can go back now. Get another man for your crew +from Morgan. I'll obtain this fellow's name and his address, if he has +any, from the time-keeper, in case he passes in his checks."</p> + +<p>The foreman started away. The group before the door disintegrated and +presently disappeared. Pat glanced at the sun, lighted a cigar, and +asked:</p> + +<p>"Do we start a night shift?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; whenever you can bring in the men."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll wire for some right away. The thermometer was five below +this morning, and only twenty-two above this noon. She's cold at +last."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157"></a>"Go to it, Pat. I'll stay here till Doc is through."</p> + +<p>When Carrigan had left him, Bryant sat down on a discarded oil tin +lying on the ground—one of the square ten-gallon cans common about +camps. He gazed at the door of the hospital shack. He could hear faint +sounds from within, a footfall on the board floor, an indistinct word +or murmur. Behind him and farther down the street, in the big cook +tents where the crews ate, was the rattle of pans and an occasional +oath or burst of laughter. There the cooks were peeling potatoes and +mixing great pans of biscuit dough and exchanging jests, while here in +the shack a fight was going on for a life.</p> + +<p>Bryant saw again that unshaven, heavy-faced workman, with the terribly +mangled arm, whom he had brought hither. Poor devil! Some oversight, +some carelessness, some mistake on the part of himself or another; and +if not a dead man, then one-armed for the rest of his days. He, +Bryant, could not consider these accidents with Pat Carrigan's +philosophic calm—a calm acquired from decades of camp tragedies and +disasters. They harrowed his spirit. Though they appeared inevitable +where men delved or builded or flung forth great spans, they made the +cost of constructive works seem too great. They took the glamor from +projects and left them hard, grim, uninspiring tasks.</p> + +<p>Lee felt a weariness like that of age. The strain under which he +laboured, the sustained effort of driving this furrow through earth +that was like iron, his unavailing endeavours to reclaim Ruth, +afflictions such as this of the past hour, the uncertainty of +everything—all sapped his energy and <a name="Page_158" id="Page_158"></a>shook his faith. Yet before him +there were weeks of the same, or worse. He had put his hand to the +plow; he could not turn back.</p> + +<p>All at once the door of the shack opened. Louise Graham came out, +without hat, garbed in a great white surgical apron. Her knees seemed +about to give way. Her eyes were half shut. Her face was without +colour, drawn, dazed. With her from the interior came a reek of +chloroform.</p> + +<p>She had been the girl in there! Bryant had guessed it, feared it. He +ran forward and put an arm about her shoulders and led her to the tin +oil canister on which he urged her to be seated.</p> + +<p>"No, I won't faint," she said, weakly. He knelt beside her and +supported her form. "I just feel dizzy and a little sick," she went +on. "Better in a moment." Lee observed her shudder. Presently she +murmured, "Stuck it out, anyway. Dad says—dad says, 'Never be a +quitter.' And I wasn't one."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_159" id="Page_159"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XVIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>Rymer, a sandy-haired, blue-eyed young fellow, one of Bryant's staff, +walked out of the shack, pulling on his coat. He had a cigarette in +the corner of his mouth, at which he was sucking rapidly. In spite of +its dark lacquer of tan his face had a grayish tinge.</p> + +<p>"Sick?" he asked of Bryant, jerking a nod toward Louise Graham.</p> + +<p>"A bit. Have Doc give you a little brandy in a glass. And bring out +her things, too."</p> + +<p>Rymer went back into the shack, presently returning with the liquor +and accompanied by the young doctor, who still had his sleeves rolled +up. Louise swallowed the fiery dram.</p> + +<p>"That—that would raise the dead!" she gasped, wiping sudden tears +from her eyes. She sat up, pushed back the hair from her brow, and +began to glance about.</p> + +<p>"How's your man?" Bryant asked the doctor.</p> + +<p>"Right as a trivet—if no complications set in. Have him stowed on a +cot in the inner room. Bring on your next."</p> + +<p>"You ought to be the next," said Lee, darkly.</p> + +<p>"Because I grabbed her? Well, I'll use her another time if she's +about. Steady as a pin. No wasted motion, either. Passed me +instruments and things like a veteran nurse. I just gave a nod or +glance and she had the right <a name="Page_160" id="Page_160"></a>tray. I wanted to pat her on the +shoulder. Can't give people that thing; it's a born knack. Knowing +exactly what's wanted at the instant. She has it, has it to the tips +of her fingers."</p> + +<p>Lee said no more. The young doctor was still labouring under the +excitement of the past hour and swimming in exultation at performing +an operation that would have taxed the skill of an experienced +surgeon. It had been one of those wicked cases—arm crushed to the +shoulder, everything gone into a hodge-podge of flesh and arteries and +splintered bone, a case for fast work and at the same time for +delicate closure of the stump. This had been thrust at Higginson like +a flash, he out of a medical school but a year and a half, still +coaxing a moustache, so to speak. Lee perceived it all. The matter for +Higginson had been like the ditch with Bryant: something tremendous, +something to be met with the means at hand, something to be +accomplished at all costs. And now his brain was ringing with triumph. +He was superior to anything Bryant might think or say or do. For the +moment he was quite ecstatic. One in his exalted state could conceive +nothing unmeet in having haled a strange, sensitive girl into the +ghastly business for an assistant.</p> + +<p>"I'll conduct Miss Graham to my office, where she can remain until +she's wholly herself," Bryant said. "This air is too sharp. You have +everything, Rymer—cap, coat, gauntlets? Bring them along."</p> + +<p>"But I'm feeling better now," Louise protested.</p> + +<p>"You're not yet fit to start home. Over there it's warm and quiet." He +rose to help her remove the great apron.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161"></a>In the shack at the head of the street where he led her, he made her +comfortable in an old arm-chair from his ranch house with a Navajo rug +over her lap. As he stirred up the fire, she gazed about at the room. +In one corner was a desk knocked together of boards, littered with +papers; near it on the floor were boxes stuffed with rolls of +blue-prints; the wall spaces between windows were filled with +statements and reports; bulging card-board files rested on a shelf; +from nails hung an old coat and a camera; in another corner leaned a +tripod, rod, and a six-foot brass-edged measure specked with clay; and +piled in a heap beyond the stove were a saddle, a pair of boots, +chunks of piñon pine, and a discarded flannel shirt on which lay a +gray cat nursing a kitten. Through the inner door, standing open, she +had a glimpse of two cots with tumbled blankets. The place was the +office and temporary home of a busy man, a rough board-and-tar-paper +habitation that went forward on skids as the camp went forward, the +workshop and living-quarters of a director who was stripped down to +the hard essentials of toil and whose brain was the nerve centre of a +desperate effort by a host of horses and men.</p> + +<p>"You have companions, I see," Louise remarked, indicating the mother +cat and kitten.</p> + +<p>"Dave's," was his reply, as he finished at the stove. "He found them +somewhere. There were four kittens to begin with, but only one is +left. It's a hard game for cats to survive in a camp like this."</p> + +<p>"Poor little things!"</p> + +<p>"Dave says he'll save this kitten, or know why."</p> + +<p>"What about Dave himself with all these rough men?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"></a>"It leaves him untouched," Lee said. "Doesn't hurt a boy when he's +made of the right stuff. He'll be better for it, in fact. Many a grown +man would be more competent with the knowledge Dave's picking up here, +young as he is. He's learning what work means and what men are and +what's what generally. When this job is done, I'm going to send him +off to school; and he'll eat up his studies. Just watch and see." +Bryant laughed. "He's aching to become an engineer. He has his mark +already fixed, which not one boy in a thousand at his age has. And all +this is priming him to go to his mark like a shot."</p> + +<p>"I hadn't thought of that," she stated.</p> + +<p>"Actually he's soaking up more arithmetic, geology, physics, +veterinary knowledge, and so on, by pumping Pat Carrigan, the +engineers, and the men, than I supposed his head could hold," Lee +continued. "When he gets at his books, they won't be meaningless +things to him. Not much! He'll understand what prompted them and what +they open up. Well, now, are you feeling better?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think so." Then she said, "But I'm keeping you away from your +work. You go, and when I'm—"</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't think of it. Nothing pressing." And Bryant began to move +about thoughtfully, now going to gaze out a window and now returning +to stand and fix his eyes upon her intently.</p> + +<p>"That was a distressing experience for you," he went on, presently. "I +feel all upset at your being in there. Higginson was desperate, I +suppose, and grasped at you because you happened to be there and he +could not wait."</p> + +<p>She put out a hand toward Lee.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163"></a>"Don't scold him please," she said.</p> + +<p>"Little good it would do now," he replied. "He'll be so cocky that +he'll dare me to fire him if I say a word, and grin in my face, for he +knows now that he's a good man and that I know it and will never let +him go."</p> + +<p>"Higginson, is that his name?" Louise asked. "Well, he is a good man. +When he started the engineer using the chloroform and me arranging +things, he was swallowing hard. I saw he was terribly nervous and +keyed up. But he went right at the operation without faltering and +with a sort of doggedness. As if nothing should stop him. I myself was +doing rather mistily what he wanted. The chloroform, the smell of +antiseptics, the shiny instruments, the cutting, the nipping of +blood-vessels with forceps and tying them, the clipping with scissors, +the sewing—all went to my head. And I constantly had to tell myself, +'Don't be silly! You're not going to faint. He might fail if you did. +That tray, those forceps, those sponges, that thread, that's what he +wants now. Keep your head. Don't be a quitter.' And so on through +eternity—it seemed an eternity, anyway. I think the young engineer +with me thought so, too. He turned quite green once or twice. But then +I must have looked that way throughout. All at once it was over, +suddenly. Quite unexpectedly, too. I had come to believe that it would +go on and on forever. But, as I say, all at once it was done and the +men were wheeling the bandaged fellow into the other room. Then the +doctor called over his shoulder at me, 'Open the door, girl; let in +some air.' So I opened it as he wanted, and came out."</p> + +<p>Bryant was greatly affected by that simple recital. He <a name="Page_164" id="Page_164"></a>began to walk +back and forth beside Louise, restlessly thrusting his hands in his +coat pockets but immediately pulling them out as if there were no +satisfaction in the action, and casting troubled glances at her from +under close-drawn brows. His disquietude moved her to speak.</p> + +<p>"You're worrying about me, Mr. Bryant; you mustn't do that. In a few +minutes more I'll be entirely recovered. I should be foolish to +pretend that the happening wasn't a shock to me, but I'm not a +weakling—I've health and strength. I'll not permit the thought of the +operation to depress my spirits. Indeed, I know I'll be very proud of +what I did this afternoon, for it was a chance to do a real, +disinterested service. And I can guess what father will say when he +learns of it—'Louise, you did just right. Exactly what you should do +under the circumstances.'"</p> + +<p>Already the colour had reappeared in her cheeks. A resilience of +nature was indeed hers, he perceived, that enabled her to undergo +ordeals that would prostrate many women. It came, undoubtedly, from +the same springs out of which rose her splendid courage, her fine +sympathy. Ah, that golden quality of sympathy! Because of it her duty +that day had seemed plain and clear.</p> + +<p>"Louise—may I not use that name, for we're friends?—Louise, you're +the bravest, kindest girl I have ever known. I mean it, really. I've +never forgotten your generous act that day when someone so brutally +killed my dog Mike, how you tried to save him. I didn't know you then, +but that made no difference to you. And now when you find an +opportunity to help save a man's life, you never flinch."</p> + +<p>"Why, it's the natural thing to do."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165"></a>"Is it? I was beginning to think selfishness was the natural thing," +he said, with a hard, twisted smile.</p> + +<p>She rested her hand on his sleeve for an instant. A smile and a shake +of her head accompanied the action.</p> + +<p>"I know better than that, Lee Bryant," she rejoined. "You're not +selfish yourself and will never arrive at a time when you'll believe +what you said."</p> + +<p>"But there are selfish people, many of them."</p> + +<p>"Yes. Of course."</p> + +<p>"And one can't change them, and they cause infinite anxiety in +others——"</p> + +<p>"Yes; that, too. Has Mr. Menocal been troubling you in some new way?"</p> + +<p>Lee rose hastily. "I wasn't thinking of him," said he; and he went to +a window and stared out at the engineers' shack across the street. Her +touch on his arm, her tone, her solicitude, agitated him more than he +dared let her see. Why in the name of heaven couldn't he have a Ruth +who was like her? A Ruth who was a Louise, with all of her lovable +qualities and splendid courage and fine nobility of heart?</p> + +<p>He swung about to gaze at her. She yet sat half turned in her seat so +that her clear profile was before his eyes. Her soft chestnut hair +glinted with gleams of the fire that escaped through a crack in the +door. Her features were in repose. Something in her attitude, in her +face, gave her a girlish appearance, as she might have looked when +sixteen—an infinite candor, an innocence and simplicity, that alone +comes from a serene spirit.</p> + +<p>Presently he discovered that she had moved her head <a name="Page_166" id="Page_166"></a>about, that she +was looking straight at him. Bryant experienced a singular emotion.</p> + +<p>"Some serious trouble is disturbing you," she said.</p> + +<p>Her eyes continued fixed upon his, increasing his uneasiness. He felt +himself flushing. He made a gesture as if whatever it was might be +disregarded, then said, "Yes."</p> + +<p>"You're not still anxious concerning me? I'm rested—see!"</p> + +<p>She sprang up, casting off the rug and spreading her arms wide for his +scrutiny. The heat of the fire had put the glow into her cheeks again; +a smile rested on her lips; she seemed poised for an upward flight.</p> + +<p>"I'll take you home," he said, abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. I can ride——"</p> + +<p>"One of the boys will bring your horse to you in the morning," he +continued, as if she had not spoken. "It would be dark before you +reached home; dusk is already at the windows. And you would be chilled +through. You've no business to be riding after what you've been +through. I'll bring my car to the door while you're putting on your +things."</p> + +<p>A vague fear sent him out of the door quickly. Ruth in his mind was +like a figure projected far off in the landscape, occupied, distant, +facing away; but Louise Graham was by, and despite his wish or will, +or her knowledge, drawing his heart. What he had sought in Ruth was in +her possession, the possibility of happiness. Life had deluded him and +seemed about to crush him in a savage clutch. As he moved along the +street, this apprehension lay cold in his breast; he could not dismiss +it; it persisted like a dull throb of pain. <a name="Page_167" id="Page_167"></a>A sudden fury swept him. +The place was becoming intolerable, the mesa a hell. He burned to +chuck the whole wretched business.</p> + +<p>When he returned with the car he was at least outwardly calm. He +helped Louise into the seat.</p> + +<p>"I'll have you home in no time," said he.</p> + +<p>"And you must stay for supper."</p> + +<p>"Yes; why not. Might as well."</p> + +<p>"And we'll pick up the girls; all of us can crowd in here somewhere."</p> + +<p>The slightest pause followed before his answer.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," he said. "We can all ride."</p> + +<p>Imogene's cabin, however, was the only one showing a light when they +stopped before the pair of little houses, and only Imogene was at +home. She was delighted to go with Lee and Louise. Ruth had driven +with Charlie Menocal to Kennard earlier in the afternoon, she briefly +stated. Then she remarked:</p> + +<p>"Aren't you dissipating frightfully to-night, Lee?"</p> + +<p>"Like a regular devil," was the response.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_168" id="Page_168"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XIX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>Imogene had been startled by a note in Lee's answer to her bantering +question that she never before had heard him use. Though his words +were uttered lightly, there nevertheless was a hard ring to them, a +grate, as if his teeth were on edge. Something had happened. Ruth had +driven during the afternoon to see him and returned exceedingly put +out. If anything had occurred, Imogene hoped it was—well, one certain +thing.</p> + +<p>When Bryant brought her home that evening, he went with her into her +cabin. In silence he built up the fire, fussed for a time with the +lamp-wick, lighted a cigarette, took a turn across the cabin, +inspected thoughtfully the back of one hand, and then lifted his gaze +to Imogene. She had been waiting, with a vague alarm. And this his +stern visage and burning eyes increased.</p> + +<p>"Will Ruth marry me at once, do you think?" he questioned. +"To-morrow—or the next day?" His tone was calm. He might have been +speaking of the cabin, asking if it kept out the wind.</p> + +<p>Imogene was dumbfounded by that voice and that inquiry. She had +expected anything but either.</p> + +<p>"Not then; not so soon, I suspect," she said, at length.</p> + +<p>"When? At the end of a week, the end of a fortnight?"</p> + +<p>"I can't say," she replied with a sensation now of being <a name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></a>harried. +This would not do; she must get herself in hand. "The fact is, Lee, +I'm not in Ruth's confidence. Haven't been for some considerable time. +We've drifted a little apart."</p> + +<p>"Only a little?"</p> + +<p>"Only a little—I hope."</p> + +<p>The cigarette Bryant held had gone out. Presently he glanced at it, +then crushed it in his palm and dropped it into a coat pocket.</p> + +<p>"Don't fence with me, Imogene," he said. "Give me the truth."</p> + +<p>The truth—well, why not? He was entitled to it. Besides, since he had +eyes and a brain with which to reason he was not ignorant of the +girls' waning friendship. Pretense was foolish. Imogene leaned forward +in her seat and rested her crossed arms upon her knees, directing her +look at the floor. Her fluffy golden hair had been slightly +disarranged when she removed her hat and so remained. Her face was +thinner than in the summer, with a pinched aspect about her lips.</p> + +<p>"The situation is this," she began, slowly. "Ruth and I are not really +on good terms and we've been perilously near a break several times. +But I've restrained my temper and my tongue to avoid one, because I +feel I must remain as long as she does. No, I can't leave her here +alone—that would be brutal. And ruinous for her, too. I've thought it +all out pretty carefully. You see, we both agreed to stay when we +came, until we agreed to go or had proved up on our claims. Probably I +don't make myself very clear to you. I think now that I made a mistake +and that neither of us ought ever to have attempted homesteading. So +much <a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a>has happened that is different from what I anticipated. Not the +existence itself; I don't mean that. Other things. Ruth's change, +chiefly. See, Lee, I speak frankly, for we've usually been frank +toward each other. You two are engaged, but"—she straightened up in +order to meet his eyes—"she's treating you abominably and +shamelessly. Ordinarily, I would hold my peace, I've held it hitherto, +but I can no longer. Why, I choke sometimes! Going constantly with +Gretzinger, who's so despicable that he tries to use her as a tool to +reach and corrupt you, or Charlie Menocal, who's your out-and-out +enemy, it's too much for me, Lee. And uncle and aunt are furious with +me for staying. She listen to me? Ruth listens neither to me nor any +one." She rose and came close to Bryant. "You're right to marry her +immediately. If you two love each other, that is." Her look was +penetrating, questioning. "For she needs a restraining influence. +People in Kennard are talking——"</p> + +<p>"My God!" Bryant cried, hoarsely. "No, no; not Ruth! She couldn't do +anything wrong!"</p> + +<p>"No, there's nothing bad. But she has given grounds for gossip, she +and some other girls. She sees too much of this Gretzinger and Charlie +Menocal and men like them; and the time may come when I'll tremble. +I've begged her to be discreet and considerate of your good opinion +and love, but she always declares that she's acting eminently proper. +Lee."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"There's something more. Gretzinger's not only finding amusement in +her company, he's in love with her. After the women he's been +accustomed to in New York, the rouged <a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></a>and jaded type he naturally +would know, her freshness and spirits appeal to him. But you know what +sort of man he is—cynical, unscrupulous, without principles."</p> + +<p>A long time passed before Bryant made a response. He stood knitting +his brows, as if preoccupied. Imogene wondered if he had been +following her at the last.</p> + +<p>"I'll speak to him about his principles in connection with Ruth," he +said. The utterance was amazingly dispassionate. Then quite +unexpectedly he remarked, "I've never yet had to kill a man, never as +yet."</p> + +<p>Imogene shuddered, and she was terrified. It was as if a curtain had +been jerked aside disclosing figures grouped for tragedy.</p> + +<p>"It must never come to that," she breathed.</p> + +<p>Bryant stirred, then began to look about the room. He grew observant.</p> + +<p>"This is bad for you, Imogene," he said, presently. "Impossible! Your +uncle is right. This wretched cabin doesn't keep out cold or wind; you +have to chop wood and carry water, tasks beyond your strength; you're +lonely, you're ill at times—"</p> + +<p>"And Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"You know her situation. Financial, I mean."</p> + +<p>"I less than any one know it. Extraordinary, too, now that I think of +it," he said, reflectively. "What is her situation?" Immediately he +added, "Of course, I guess that she has no great means and she has +said that she lacks training to earn a livelihood. But her family?"</p> + +<p>"She lived with an aunt until she came here, Lee."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172"></a>"So she mentioned."</p> + +<p>"They didn't get on well together after Ruth went to stay with her on +her parents' death," Imogene explained. "The woman was narrow-minded +and exacting, especially in matters of amusements and religion. You +know the type." Bryant nodded. "And Ruth was young, exuberant, and, as +I now see, wilful. Their clashes were the cause of her desire to come +West. We had been good friends, but not intimates; and I marvel at +myself now at having gone so rashly into a thing like this, without +inquiring whether our habits, tastes, desires, natures, everything, +fitted us for prolonged companionship. Yes, I marvel." She sat +motionless, staring at the lamp fixedly. "However, I'm in it now up to +my neck. Ruth declares that she will never return to her aunt."</p> + +<p>"And she can't earn a living."</p> + +<p>"Nor would if she could, I fear," Imogene added, a little sadly. "At +least, now. It would be too dull."</p> + +<p>"Then I must marry her at once."</p> + +<p>Imogene gave him a strange look.</p> + +<p>"She is waiting," said she.</p> + +<p>"For marriage?"</p> + +<p>"No, to see how you succeed. Oh, to have to say these things is +dreadful, Lee!" she exclaimed. But Bryant brushed this aside with a +gesture almost august in its indifference. "If you finish your project +on time, she will be ready for the ceremony," the girl went on. "If +you fail, she'll postpone it until you're able to provide more than +just a roof, a chair, and a broom. Her very words! Love must not +prevent people from being practical, from her <a name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></a>viewpoint. So, as I +say, she's waiting to discover the outcome." A corner of her mouth +twisted up while she paused. Then she concluded in a low voice, "And +probably something else."</p> + +<p>Bryant had again fallen into study. Imogene doubted if he had heard +her added remark, and she could not divine from his countenance how +fierce or in what direction his covered passion was beating.</p> + +<p>"It will be too late," said he, suddenly and, as it seemed to her, +irrelevantly.</p> + +<p>Then she thought that she understood.</p> + +<p>"He's going home in a few days, for the Christmas holidays," she +stated. "Possibly then Ruth will—I'm planning for us all to be at +uncle's, you with us."</p> + +<p>"Gretzinger wasn't in my mind."</p> + +<p>"You said 'too late'," she pursued. "Naturally I supposed your +reference to be of them."</p> + +<p>The gravity of his face deepened.</p> + +<p>"I was thinking of myself," said he, turning his eyes upon her. "If +we're not married soon, very soon, it will be too late. I mean that it +would be a mockery. For me, at any rate. One may wish to go one way, +and be swept another, especially when the mooring line is slack." His +breast rose and fell at a quick, agitated breath. "But promise me that +you'll not speak of this to Ruth."</p> + +<p>"The very thing to bring her round, perhaps."</p> + +<p>"More likely to fill her with despair."</p> + +<p>This was something Imogene could not grasp. It was so inexplicable, so +extravagant, so perverse, that her cheeks grew hot.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></a>"I can't follow you at all," she cried, indignantly. "Ruth alarmed, +jealous, in doubt—yes, I can credit her with any one of those +feelings. But despair! She lays her plans too far ahead to be led into +despair."</p> + +<p>"Even if she knew I had ceased to love her? When she understood our +marriage would be a hollow ceremony?"</p> + +<p>"Would it be that if you succeed with your project?"</p> + +<p>Bryant's eyes blazed suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Great God, you talk as if she were to marry the canal!" he exclaimed. +He glowered for a time. "I see now what you mean. You believe she +would marry me if I win out with the ditch. Being practical, she would +accept money as a substitute for love. That reminds me: she herself +once declared that if circumstances necessitated she could take a rich +man for his riches." Bryant uttered a harsh laugh. "My Lord, I was +frightened lest in a fit of anguish at losing my love she should go to +the devil!" Again he yielded to an outburst of laughter that made +Imogene shudder. "I fancied that at finding herself out of money, +unable to work, disinclined to work, unloved, miserable, she would +recklessly hurl herself into perdition. And I was going to save her +from that, marry her at once, sacrifice myself! Like an egotistical +fool! When all the while there was never the slightest danger or need, +when all the while she held the string, not I. And love isn't a +consideration whatever. And she will marry me when I've completed the +project. And complete it I must, of course. Not a way out, not a +single loop-hole. Oh, my Lord, my Lord, Imogene, did you ever know of +anything so devilishly laughable!" And his bitter, sardonic merriment +broke forth anew.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></a>The girl was appalled. All she could do was to gasp, "Oh, Lee, Lee! +Don't laugh like that, don't think of it like that. You make it out +worse than it is."</p> + +<p>He stopped short. By his look he might have detested her.</p> + +<p>"I state it as it is," he said. "Wherein is the actual situation +better?"</p> + +<p>"You could break your engagement; certainly she has given you +sufficient cause."</p> + +<p>"Yes, break with her, as might you. Why don't you?"</p> + +<p>Imogene put out a hand in protest.</p> + +<p>"You know why, Lee; I've told you," she said, earnestly.</p> + +<p>"No more can I, for the same reason," was his reply. He turned and +lifted his hat and gloves from the table. "I will have no act of mine +cut her adrift and push her under. Much better to stand the gaff. I +suppose one hardens to anything in time." His look wandered about the +room. "And the diabolic part of it all is that this squeamish feeling +of responsibility for another may achieve as much harm in the long run +as its lack. Who knows?"</p> + +<p>He glanced at her as if expecting an answer. Imogene remained silent; +indeed, nothing need be said to so evident an enigma. For that matter, +nothing more said at all. Bryant drew on his gloves and bade her +good-night. At the door he remarked, quite in his accustomed manner:</p> + +<p>"I'll send Dave over in the morning with more blankets and have him +chop some wood. There's a drop in the temperature coming."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_176" id="Page_176"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>The predicted cold weather came, bringing winter in earnest. The frost +went deeper into the ground and construction grew slower, but the days +continued fine and without gales, those fierce and implacable winds +that sometimes rage over the frozen mesa hours at a time under a dull, +saffron sun, sharp as knives, shrieking like demons, and driving man +and beast to cover. They had not yet been unleashed.</p> + +<p>Night work was begun, amid a flare of gasolene torches that gave a +weird aspect to the plain. The yellow lights; the moving, shadowy +forms of the workmen and horses; the cries and shouts—all made a +scene gnome-like in character. Frost gleamed upon the earth in a +silvery sheen under the torches' smoky flames. The headquarters +building and the mess tents now glowed from dusk until dawn. Fires +where workmen could warm their cheeks and hands were burning +continually, fed from the great piles of wood brought from the +mountains. And so by day and by night, without halt and despite cold, +the restless life was maintained and the toil kept going and the hard +furrow driven ahead.</p> + +<p>With the approach of Christmas the advance of the project was marked. +The dam was nearing completion, with its long, gently inclined, +upstream face constructed of smooth cobbles—a slope up which any vast +and sudden rush of cloudburst water would slide unchecked to the crest +and harmlessly <a name="Page_177" id="Page_177"></a>pass over. All of the drops, as well as the head-gate +and flood weirs, were finished, standing as if hewn out of solid white +stone. The miners had blasted out a channel through the reef of rock, +and gone. From the dam the canal section all along the hillside and +following the ridge, from drop to drop, and out to a point on the mesa +a mile beyond, was excavated, a great clean ditch; while from Perro +Creek the canal ran northward for six miles to the main camp, curving +in the great arc that constituted its line. Three and a half miles, +and complements, constructed at one end; six miles at the other. +Between, five miles of unbroken mesa. Seven weeks remained for the +small camp working down from the north and the great camp pushing from +the south to dig through those miles and meet—seven weeks; but in the +most bitter season of the year.</p> + +<p>It seemed that it was with infinitely greater effort that the two +sections of the canals were forced ahead each day. The surface of the +ground was like stone, only by repeated attempts pierced by plows and +torn apart; while the subsoil immediately froze if left unworked. The +weaker labourers began to break: the scrawny Mexicans, the debilitated +white men, the drifters and the dissatisfied; and they left the camps. +These the labour agencies found it harder and harder to replace as the +cold weather persisted, so that the force showed a considerable +diminishment.</p> + +<p>A few days before Christmas Gretzinger paid Bryant a visit. He had not +been to camp for a week and therefore on this occasion examined the +progress of work with care, studying the rate of excavation and +calculating the result.</p> + +<p>"You'll just about make it through, Bryant, if nothing <a name="Page_178" id="Page_178"></a>happens to put +a crimp in your advance," he stated when he was about to take his +departure from the office, where he and Lee conferred.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Bryant.</p> + +<p>"And if anything should happen, then good-bye canal."</p> + +<p>"That doesn't necessarily follow," said Lee, calmly.</p> + +<p>Gretzinger ignored this reply. He thrust an arm into his fur-lined +overcoat and began to draw it on. That evening he was leaving Kennard +for New York, and now was desirous of returning to town by noon, where +he had a luncheon engagement with Ruth Gardner. He had casually +mentioned to Bryant that the girls had gone the day before to the +McDonnells for the holidays.</p> + +<p>"My people were certainly handed a phony deal here," he remarked +shortly, as he buttoned the coat collar about his throat. +"Questionable title to the water! Extravagance and poor management! +Rotten project all through! If I had lined this thing up, I should +have learned what I actually had before a cent was expended. But of +course if the thing goes smash, we in the East have to stand the loss; +you're losing no cash, you have nothing in it but a shoestring. Well, +I'm expecting you to put your back into the job and do no loafing and +pull us out of the hole you've got us into."</p> + +<p>Bryant's face remained impassive.</p> + +<p>"I'll attend to my end," said he, "if the bondholders take care of +theirs. They'll have to dig up more cash."</p> + +<p>"What's that!"</p> + +<p>"More money, I said."</p> + +<p>"They'll see you in hell before they do."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></a>"Then that's where they'll look for payment of their bonds. You're not +fool enough, are you, to imagine a system can be built in winter and +under high pressure for what it could be constructed in summer and not +in haste? Strange the idea never occurred to you before—you, +Gretzinger, irrigation expert, though you never saw an irrigation +ditch till you came West. The sixty thousand dollars from bonds and +twenty thousand more I've put with it will be gone sometime next +month. Possibly I can stretch it out to the first of February. After +that, the bondholders will have to come forward to save their +investment."</p> + +<p>Gretzinger unbuttoned his overcoat and sought his cigarette case. His +scowl as he struck a match was lighted by vicious gleams from his +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you stop work when you received notification from the +state engineer of the Land and Water Board's action?" he demanded. +"When you yet had the bulk of the money?"</p> + +<p>"I preferred to continue."</p> + +<p>"And now you're sinking it all."</p> + +<p>"It costs money to move frozen dirt," said Bryant.</p> + +<p>"Well, I tell you the bondholders won't put up another penny +unless——" The Easterner paused, growing thoughtful. Some minutes +passed before he resumed: "There's one condition on which they'll do +it, and I'll guarantee their support."</p> + +<p>"And the condition?"</p> + +<p>"That you surrender your stock to them."</p> + +<p>"For the twenty or twenty-five thousand dollars more that will be +needed? My shares representing a hundred <a name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></a>thousand? And I presume I +should have to withdraw altogether."</p> + +<p>"Naturally," Gretzinger responded. "I should then take charge."</p> + +<p>Bryant's expression exhibited a certain amount of curiosity.</p> + +<p>"Do you really think you could finish the ditch on time?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>A slight sneer was the answer. Gretzinger was one not given to wasting +time with men of Bryant's type.</p> + +<p>"How about it? Am I to take back to New York with me your agreement to +this?" he asked, curtly.</p> + +<p>The other spread his feet apart and hooked his thumbs in his coat +pockets and directed his full regard at the speaker.</p> + +<p>"You think you have me in a hole, Gretzinger," he said. "You propose +to take me by the throat and shake everything out of my pockets and +then throw me aside. Well, I'm in a hole, no use denying that. But you +haven't me by the throat and you're not going to loot me. If I go +broke, it won't be through handing over what I have to you and your +gang of pirates, just make up your mind to that."</p> + +<p>"Then you intend to wreck this project. A court action will stop that, +I fancy."</p> + +<p>"The only court action you can demand is a receivership for the +company, and not until my money-bag is empty at that," Lee rejoined, +coolly. "And the time will expire and the company be a shell before +it's granted, at the rate courts move."</p> + +<p>The New Yorker considered. Finally he began to re-button his +overcoat.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181"></a>"I'll leave the offer open," said he. "I was uncertain before about +returning, but I'll probably do so now. You'll find as the pinch comes +that my proposition will look better—and we might pay you two or +three thousand so you'll not go out strapped. Besides, if we took over +and completed the project, it would save your face; you wouldn't be +wholly discredited; you would be able to get a job somewhere +afterward. Might as well make the most you can for yourself out of a +bad mess. Think it over, Bryant." He set his cap on his head with a +conclusive air.</p> + +<p>Lee pointed at a chair by the table.</p> + +<p>"Sit down for a moment; there's another matter." He crossed to his +desk, put his hand in a drawer for something, and came back. "Look at +that," he said, tossing a revolver cartridge on the table before +Gretzinger.</p> + +<p>The man picked it up and turned it over between thumb and finger, +examining it with mingled surprise and curiosity.</p> + +<p>"What about it?" he questioned.</p> + +<p>"I understand you're interested in a certain young lady," Bryant +stated, smoothly.</p> + +<p>Gretzinger straightened on his seat, flashing his look up to the +other's. A sudden tightening of his lips accompanied the action and he +ceased to revolve the cartridge he held.</p> + +<p>"I'll not discuss my personal affairs with you or——"</p> + +<p>"When they touch mine, you will," was the answer.</p> + +<p>"Are you jealous?" Gretzinger asked after a pause, with a trace of +insolence. "Believe you are. I thought, along with your other +shortcomings, you weren't capable of <a name="Page_182" id="Page_182"></a>even that. Now that we're +talking, I'll say that I've taken Ruth round and found her +entertaining. What about it? And I've given her my opinion of the way +you've run this work, because she asked for it. I told her that you +had botched the business from the beginning. I told her you were +unpractical, incompetent, small-gauged, and lightweight, and would +make a failure of everything you touched. There you have it all. +Well?"</p> + +<p>Bryant's brows twitched for an instant.</p> + +<p>"I guessed as much." He stood staring in silence at the table, but +presently brought himself to attention. "Honour is something you don't +understand. So I thought that bullet might focus your mind on possible +consequences."</p> + +<p>"What's all this rot!"</p> + +<p>Lee leaned forward with his fists resting on the table and his eyes +probing Gretzinger's.</p> + +<p>"If any harm comes to Ruth through you, that bullet will pay it out," +he said, harshly. "You've felt its weight. It's forty-four calibre, +plenty heavy enough to do the business. I can smash a potato at thirty +paces. One shot is all I shall ask. I won't do any hemming and hawing +over the matter, or——"</p> + +<p>Gretzinger sprang up.</p> + +<p>"See here, Bryant!" he cried.</p> + +<p>"Or advertising in the newspapers," the other went on, in a level +tone. "I'll attend to your case, quickly and quietly. Here, or in New +York, or wherever you are. That's all."</p> + +<p>Gretzinger had gone a little pale. He was nervously drawing on his +cap.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183"></a>"Listen to me for a moment——"</p> + +<p>"I said that's all. Get out." And Bryant's mien brooked no +temporizing.</p> + +<p>It was of Lee's nature not to brood on such matters. He had given the +warning and must await the issue. Meanwhile, the burden of work and +the needs of the project would afford sufficient occupation for his +mind.</p> + +<p>Christmas came. Bryant had ordered that labour cease for twenty-four +hours, as the gruelling fight of weeks had worn down the spirit of the +men. A holiday would rest them, while a big turkey dinner and +unlimited cigars and pails of candy would put them in a good humour. +At dark on the afternoon before the day shift at both camps ceased +work, the horses were stabled, the torches left unlighted, the fires +along the ditch allowed to die down, and the project was idle. A light +skift of snow had fallen during the morning, whitening the earth, but +the clouds had passed away, so that the still air and clear sky gave +promise of a fine morrow.</p> + +<p>Christmas Eve, however, did not lapse without a disturbing incident. +About supper time Dave came running to Bryant and Pat Carrigan in +Lee's shack. He had seen workmen going furtively into a tent in +numbers that aroused his curiosity, and had crept unseen under the lee +of the canvas shelter, where, lifting the flap, he beheld in the +interior a keg on the ground and a Mexican, by light of a candle, +serving labourers whisky in tin cups.</p> + +<p>"Whisky in camp!" Lee roared. "Come with me, Pat." The two men, guided +by Dave, strode down the street. Before the tent indicated they halted +to listen. The <a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a>shelter glowed dimly; formless shadows stirred on its +canvas walls; and from within came low, guarded voices and once a +muffled laugh.</p> + +<p>Jerking the flaps apart Bryant entered, followed by the contractor. He +forced an opening through the group of workmen by a savage sweep of +his arms and came to the keg, where the Mexican at the moment was +bending down and holding a cup under the spigot. When the man +perceived the engineer, he leaped up. The fellow's short, squat figure +and stony expression had for Bryant a vague familiarity—that face +especially, brown, stolid, brutal, with a fixed, snake-like gaze.</p> + +<p>But Lee had no time to speculate on the Mexican's identity. The liquor +was the important thing. The man stood motionless, holding in his left +hand the half-filled cup that gave off a pungent, sickening smell of +whisky; his eyes were intent on the engineer. Behind Lee, Carrigan was +already herding the others from the tent.</p> + +<p>"Where did you get that stuff?" Bryant demanded. But as the Mexican +only shook his head, he changed to Spanish. "Trying to start a big +drunk here?"</p> + +<p>"To-morrow is a fête day, señor," was the reply. "A friend made me a +present; I share it with the others. Besides, in cold weather it keeps +one warm."</p> + +<p>"How long have you worked here?"</p> + +<p>"Three days."</p> + +<p>"There's a camp order: 'No liquor allowed in camp.' You can't say that +you don't know it, for it's posted everywhere on placards in English +and in Spanish."</p> + +<p>He received no response. A faint shrug of the shoulders, <a name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></a>perhaps. The +Mexican's glistening, sinister eyes, on the other hand, continued as +rigid as orbs of polished agate, and his face as expressionless.</p> + +<p>"Well, we'll lock you up and see if we can learn who your 'friend' is +that sent this barrel in," Lee stated.</p> + +<p>There was a slight movement of the man's elbow.</p> + +<p>"Watch him—his right hand!" Pat cried, sharply.</p> + +<p>The hand had darted swiftly to the fellow's hip, but Bryant's fist was +as quick. It shot up, catching the man's jaw and hoisting him off his +feet. Next instant the engineer had disarmed the prostrate ruffian.</p> + +<p>"The Kennard jail for you," said he, in English. "A bad <i>hombre</i>, eh! +Up with you, quick."</p> + +<p>But what followed neither the engineer nor the contractor anticipated. +With a lightning-like roll of his body the man vanished under the side +of the tent. When the others rushed out in search of him he had made +good his escape; and a search through the dark camp would be useless. +They therefore emptied the keg upon the ground, extinguished the lamp, +and returned to Lee's office. Though the Mexican had got away, they +nevertheless had put a foot on the malicious scheme.</p> + +<p>All at once Dave, who was walking at Bryant's and Pat's heels up the +street, exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"I've got that greaser's number now! We saw him once at the depot in +Kennard, Lee. He was watching you, remember?"</p> + +<p>"I guess you're right; I recall him."</p> + +<p>"Bet that old devil in Bartolo put him up to this." Dave asserted.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186"></a>"Tut, tut, kid! Language like that on Christmas Eve! Charlie +might—but not his father, I imagine."</p> + +<p>Dave, however, was not altogether to be suppressed.</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't put anything past either of them," he sniffed.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_187" id="Page_187"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>On Christmas morning the thought occurred to Lee that he had heard +nothing more from Imogene of the plan for him to spend the day at the +McDonnells', which she had mentioned the night of their talk. Rather +strangely, too, he had not received from either of the girls even a +note of holiday greeting; to Imogene he had had sent from Denver an +edition of Ibsen's plays, and to Ruth a splendid set of furs, both in +care of Mrs. McDonnell, who had promised they should be delivered when +Santa Claus came down the chimney. Odd, the girls' silence.</p> + +<p>He was at work on his accounts at the moment, but now he remained +biting the end of his pen-holder and staring through the window. From +somewhere in the sagebrush came the sound of shots: Dave potting tin +cans with the .22 rifle that had been Lee's gift to him. In the room +was only the snapping of the fire. Presently the telephone rang.</p> + +<p>"Imo now," he exclaimed. "I'll be hanged if I go down and carry out +the farce before the McDonnells."</p> + +<p>But the person proved to be Louise Graham.</p> + +<p>"I wondered—well, several things," she said, when he had answered. +"First, if you had gone away anywhere; next, in case you hadn't, +whether you were working; and last, should the camp be resting to-day, +if you wouldn't come to Christmas dinner with father and me."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188"></a>"No work's going on."</p> + +<p>"Then we'll be delighted to have you come—and Dave also, of course. +There's an especially fattened turkey ready to slide into the oven +now. Father has just said, too, to tell you that there's going to be +something else—Tom and Jerry. How does that sound?"</p> + +<p>"Like a man and a boy coming down the road toward Diamond Creek," Lee +answered, with a laugh. "Thank you for your thoughtfulness in +remembering us."</p> + +<p>"I'll judge how sincere you are by the amount of turkey you eat," she +said. "Dinner will be about one o'clock."</p> + +<p>"We shall be prompt."</p> + +<p>Lee hung up the receiver, then glanced at his watch. It was ten. He +reseated himself at his desk and endeavoured to fasten his thoughts +upon the entries in the book before him, but at last he exclaimed, +throwing down his pen: "Damned if I can or will!" and jumped up, and +went to tramping about the office, and when Dave's cat and kitten +presented themselves to be stroked, unfeelingly thrust them aside with +his boot as he tramped. And when Dave came in, about half-past eleven, +the boy found him part way into a clean white shirt, with the cat and +the kitten eying him resentfully, and received the order: "Get a move +on you; we're going to the Grahams' for dinner. See that you scrub +your face, too—and ears!" Which left Dave quite as indignant as the +cat, for he always washed his ears.</p> + +<p>They arrived at the Graham ranch house shortly after noon, where +wreaths of holly, strings of evergreen, and red paper bells created a +Christmas atmosphere. Coming from their cold ride into these cheerful +rooms and to a warm <a name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></a>welcome, the hearts of both man and boy glowed +with unaccustomed feeling. And throughout the dinner that followed +betimes—during which Mr. Graham's pleasantries and Louise's gay +spirits and mirth evoked in Lee a blitheness to which he long had been +a stranger and in Dave a state of joyous bliss—they luxuriated in +halcyon well-being. After the meal Louise, at her father's suggestion, +went to the piano and sang while the men were smoking their cigars. +And then followed an hour at cards, High Five, at which Mr. Graham and +Dave won the most games; and then a maid, a Mexican girl, Rosita, +brought in a bowl of nuts and raisins for the rancher and the boy who +settled themselves for a match at checkers, and Lee and Louise +strolled to a window seat at the other end of the long living room.</p> + +<p>A delicate pink was in the girl's cheeks. Her eyes were tender under +their long lashes; a smile still lingered on her lips. It was as if +her countenance, her mind, her spirit, were suffused with the +happiness and peace of the hour, of the day.</p> + +<p>"My poor one-armed man, how is he?" she asked. "I intended to go see +him, but the cold has been so steady that I gave it up. You said over +the telephone several days ago that he was doing as well as could be +expected."</p> + +<p>"Quite out of danger now," Lee replied. "The doctor told him a lady +assisted at the operation and now he's full of curiosity regarding +you."</p> + +<p>"I'll surprise him some day by just walking up to his cot and saying: +'Good morning, how's my patient?' The day I'm going to pick is the +next one you move camp: I want <a name="Page_190" id="Page_190"></a>to see how all those tents and shacks +and everything rise up on their feet and travel."</p> + +<p>"You shall," he stated, with a laugh. "I'll notify you of the date. +About New Year's Day the next migration will occur. You've had your +turn at hospital work and now perhaps you wish to try your hand at +transportation. I wager you'd make a good camp manager if you took +hold of the job."</p> + +<p>"Would you revive me a second time if I threatened to faint?" she +queried, gayly. "You and Imogene Martin gave me just the right +treatment that evening, for you kept my thoughts off the ordeal I'd +been through. Next day I was myself, as I told you when you called +up."</p> + +<p>"I haven't seen you since that day," Lee remarked. "I was really +worried that afternoon, you know." And an echo of the anxiety he had +suffered sounded in his voice.</p> + +<p>Her face showed that she noted it, and it softened.</p> + +<p>"And you have so many anxieties, too," said she.</p> + +<p>He stirred, then withdrew his gaze from her and directed it out a +window. The emotion he had experienced that afternoon when she sat +before his fire, when she sat there so frank and so simple-hearted, +was rising in his breast again. The breath trembled a little upon his +lips. But after a time he felt himself grow calmer.</p> + +<p>"I have anxieties, yes," he said, "but so, I suppose, has every man +and woman, of his or her own kind and degree. And they aren't the +important thing, after all. What has happened in the past, not what +may occur in the future, is what really matters. One can't change the +past, what's done; especially by one's own act. And if the act was a +<a name="Page_191" id="Page_191"></a>serious mistake. That's fatal! I see now that failure to accomplish +what one sets out to do, as for instance in the building of my canal, +may not be ruinous to a man. A man may fail and be quite as able a man +as ever, as those who succeed; for human beings can do only so much +and no more. Nothing that he has done or not done would alter the +result. And he need not take the failure greatly to heart. But +voluntary and heedless acts of folly, precipitate and unconsidered +leaps in the dark, these indeed are ruinous. Oh, yes, they do the +business. They become balls and chains. Leave him no choice or action. +If it were only so simple as the game of checkers your father and Dave +are playing! When one game is over, they can start another. But +there's only one game to life."</p> + +<p>"But it is a long one, and changes," Louise said.</p> + +<p>She glanced at him. He intended that his words should be taken, she +perceived, in a general sense. But the mind always seeks the specific: +hers instinctively seized on the particular thorn that had prompted +his utterance. Of Ruth Gardner's extraordinary and inexplicable +behaviour she had become informed, like everyone else; it at first +amazed, then shocked, and finally outraged her sense of decency. It +repelled her—but, then, her early attempts at friendship with the +other had never advanced. The girl had always been absorbed in her own +doings, immersed in pleasure or in plans for pleasure, concerned +entirely with the friends she had, and, unlike Imogene, received +Louise's calls and approaches at cordiality with an indifference that +withered all feeling. With the passing of time Louise had considered +Lee's course in relation to the girl as a cause for wonder. The +<a name="Page_192" id="Page_192"></a>engineer was singularly patient, or incredibly obtuse, or marvellously +in love. Whichever it was, her heart stirred with pity. He deserved +better, he deserved the best. As for Ruth Gardner, she could now only +think of her with a hot resentment that set her lips quivering; and +she was moved at moments by a profound desire to express her sympathy +to him and to give that warm encouragement his spirit on occasion must +need. But she must refrain.</p> + +<p>At his speech her conclusions, but not her feelings, underwent a sharp +revision. The revelation startled her. He had not been obtuse. He no +longer was marvellously in love with Ruth Gardner, nor in love with +her at all. Relief followed surprise in her mind, the relief that +comes at a fear unrealized, a disaster avoided. Disaster had been +precisely what she had sensed if not thought, since a union of two +persons whose natures were as utterly different, as essentially +opposed, as Lee's and Ruth's would inevitably lead to disillusionment, +antagonism, sorrow, havoc. That his eyes at last were open was a +blessing.</p> + +<p>"What are you thinking of?" he asked, all at once.</p> + +<p>She found his eyes full upon her.</p> + +<p>"Of what you had said," she responded. "And at this minute I'm +speculating on whether anything—one's decisions, or acts, or +sentiments—are ever quite conclusive or final. Or fatal, too, as you +said. We might possibly except murder and suicide." She smiled as she +mentioned this reservation.</p> + +<p>Lee shifted his position with a trace of impatience.</p> + +<p>"I'm not a pessimist," he exclaimed.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></a>"No, you're too active to be. Pessimism is at bottom a kind of mental +indolence, I'd say—an unpleasant kind."</p> + +<p>"Some matters are not solved by action," said he. "That is, when they +are out of one's hands and in another's."</p> + +<p>Her attention was caught by those words, and she hung on them for a +little. They distressed her; they caused her to understand the forced +immobility of his face as he spoke, and wish that he would give way to +his feeling. The phrase "out of one's hands and in another's" referred +undoubtedly to Ruth Gardner. She did not trust herself to speak.</p> + +<p>"What became of all those flowers that were in your garden last +summer?" he asked, suddenly. "Do you dig up the roots, or cover them, +or let them freeze? You have no idea how many times these cold days +the recollection of that hour with you last summer when we walked +among them recurs to me. It seems ages ago, however. That was one of +the happy days, Louise."</p> + +<p>A delicate tint of pink stole into her face. For to her also the day +had been one of happiness, as clear-cut in her memory as a cameo. The +thought that it and she had been dwelling in his mind produced in her +breast an unaccountable agitation. The coral pink in her cheeks +deepened to a flush; she lowered her eye-lashes and averted her look.</p> + +<p>"The flowers are banked with straw, the perennials," she said, to +prevent a silence.</p> + +<p>"I shall come and see them when they're blooming again," he stated. +"The more I recall them, the more beautiful it seems they were—yes, +and the orchard, too, and the grassy canals, and the sunshine that +day. And you in the picture—the centre of the picture, Louise. The +<a name="Page_194" id="Page_194"></a>impressions one retains that stand out vividly in the mind are few: +that is one of the number for me. But perhaps not for you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, for me also," she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>Bryant stared at her round forearms and hands lying on her lap, but +without observing them. He had marked the quick sincerity of her +response. It affected him as would her soft hand-clasp. He began to +glance restlessly about the room.</p> + +<p>The dusk of the early winter night was at hand. It had thickened in +the corners and over where Mr. Graham and Dave were meditating their +game in silence. The flames crackling in the fireplace intensified the +forming shadows. Lee recognized that it was time to be going. +Nevertheless, he continued to linger for a while, with his eyes +sometimes resting on his companion in enjoyment of her face, engaged +in thought, experiencing a contentment in merely being in her +presence.</p> + +<p>"This will be another of those days," he at length remarked, in a +musing tone.</p> + +<p>His words aroused her from her own reflections.</p> + +<p>"One for winter as well as for summer," she said, raising her look. +"Did I seem to be dreaming when you spoke? I was doing scarcely that; +my mind was lulled; the quiet—the twilight—Christmas Day—they bring +a soothing mood."</p> + +<p>"Something that in a world of money, money can't buy," Lee said. He +appeared about to make a further remark, but failed to do so. His +thoughts, however, had gone off somewhere, Louise observed. Then he +inquired in a matter-of-fact way: "When will you ride up to camp +again?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></a>"Not until it grows warmer. Twelve miles or more is rather too far for +a canter on a sharp day."</p> + +<p>He cast his eyes about at the strings of evergreen and the suspended +red bells and holly wreaths.</p> + +<p>"I'll run down again, if I may, before the holidays are over," said +he. "If only for another look at those things. They give a fellow a +pull—out of the ditch, so to speak." And he rose.</p> + +<p>"Come, by all means," Louise replied, with a nod.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_196" id="Page_196"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>A week of twenty-below-zero weather opened the month of January and +halted work on the mesa. At that time four miles of canal remained to +be dug. Bryant and Pat Carrigan sat by the stove in Lee's shack and +waited, as the whole camp waited, for the thermometer to rise. On one +of these mornings, when Dave had gone across the street to the +engineers' building, Lee informed the contractor that company funds +were not far from exhausted and related his talk with Gretzinger +before the latter's departure for New York.</p> + +<p>"So he would squeeze you out," Pat remarked. "What you might expect +from him, nothing more! I've had the notion for some time that your +cash was getting low, from the way the money has gone."</p> + +<p>"I've spent five thousand on engineering, medical, and general +accounts," Lee stated, "twenty thousand on concrete work, and paid you +forty thousand. I've fifteen thousand left from the sale of bonds and +a personal loan I obtained from McDonnell. That will pay for about two +weeks' work. And I think we've made every dollar go as far as it would +under the circumstances."</p> + +<p>"My word for that."</p> + +<p>"It's this little trick of Menocal's that's burning up good coin. +Sixty thousand would have built the project <a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a>ordinarily; my estimates +were correct enough. But having to do the job in this infernal weather +is what's raising the cost forty thousand more. I feel like entering +in the ledger 'To account of frost—$40,000.00.' Like that." Lee +scribbled the line on a sheet of paper and handed it to Pat. "But +there's one thing sure, I'll sink the last cent I have in the ground +before I quit and let those Eastern pirates get their claws into me. +I'll have you cut down your force if necessary and string the last +dollar and last day's work out till my three months' grace is up."</p> + +<p>"Might try McDonnell for another loan," Carrigan suggested.</p> + +<p>"I hate doing that worse than anything I know. He, not the bank, let +me have that twenty thousand on my unsecured note. I had nothing to +offer but my stock in this company, and until the project's finished +that's no better than so much blank paper. Loaned it to me because of +my nerve, he said. And at the time I told him it would be enough money +to carry me through, which I believed. Now to go back to him +again——" Lee stopped, with an expression of deep chagrin upon his +face.</p> + +<p>Pat tapped the dottle from his pipe and refilled the bowl. He glanced +once or twice at the engineer during the act.</p> + +<p>"You can make a better showing now than before," said he. "Four miles +more and you'll be to the good. One of the excitements of construction +enterprises, and of irrigation projects in particular, I've observed, +is the financing. The more often a man can go and pull his backers' +legs for cash, the better financier he is. It seems to be largely a +matter of keeping at them, talking them to death, wearing <a name="Page_198" id="Page_198"></a>them out, +until they weaken and hand over the money. More than one railroad was +built that way. Try it on McDonnell."</p> + +<p>"You come with me."</p> + +<p>"No, thank you," said Pat, with vigour.</p> + +<p>"I thought you wouldn't," said Lee.</p> + +<p>He took Carrigan's suggestion, however, and went down through the +bitter cold to see the banker. But the visit was fruitless. The bank +could not make the loan, and money being tight because of first of the +year settlements, McDonnell was not in shape to make it personally, +nor would be in time to render any assistance. He was perfectly +willing, he said, to gamble another twenty thousand on Bryant's +ability to win through, but he did not have the cash. Then he went on +to say that Imogene had been suffering from a slight cold, and that +Ruth Gardner was visiting at present with other friends in Kennard.</p> + +<p>Lee had had a telephone call from each of them the morning after +Christmas, thanking him for his gift, and later a letter from Imogene +again expressing her appreciation, with a line that a change in Mrs. +McDonnell's plans had prevented having him with them on Christmas.</p> + +<p>Nothing from either since. He now asked the banker to convey to +Imogene his wishes for a quick recovery, then set out for camp. +Ruth—he did not even know where in town to look for Ruth, had he been +so inclined. Engaged! The thing would have been amusing if it was not +so horrible.</p> + +<p>"No luck," he said to Pat, briefly, when in his shack warming his +chilled body at the fire. "Your system may <a name="Page_199" id="Page_199"></a>work in summer, but all +the money is froze up at this time of year, like everything else."</p> + +<p>At the end of the week the winter's frigid grip on the earth relaxed +and a period of mild, almost balmy days followed. Under the noon-day +sun the top ground even softened a little. The camps awoke, the rested +men and horses fell upon their task with new spirit, and excavation +went ahead steadily. If there had been a full force, as Carrigan +pointed out, he could have moved at the rate of a mile in six days +instead of in eight. Still the canal was being built, yard by yard, +rod by rod, until by the middle of January another mile of the total +was finished. The two camps were now easily within sight of each +other, the larger in the south, the smaller in the north, and but +three miles apart across the sagebrush. Moreover, the last stones of +the dam had been laid; it stood completed; and the men who had been +engaged there moved down to add their strength to the north camp.</p> + +<p>One day toward noon Lee entered his office and to his amazement found +Ruth seated there, glancing over an old magazine and toasting her feet +at the stove. The furs he had given her reposed on his desk, where she +had laid them aside. At his entrance she sprang up, uttered a +delighted exclamation, and rushing forward clasped her arms about his +neck and kissed him.</p> + +<p>"Lee, how good it seems to see you!" she said. "After so long! And I +can't thank you enough for those darling furs! I've thought of you so +much, working up here in the cold and alone with just men. My, your +face is like ice! Come to the fire. Poor thing, you look so thin and +tired! <a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a>I hope that soon you'll be able to rest; I'll make it a point +to see that you do take a long vacation and rest, for you need it." +She concluded with a hug and another kiss.</p> + +<p>"Go easy with my ears, Ruth," he said, disengaging her arms. "They +were nipped the other night and are still tender. How did you get +here? I thought you were in Kennard."</p> + +<p>He led her back to her seat and began to remove his cap and long +sheep-lined overcoat, saying in an undertone that the weather was +really too warm for the things. Afterward he posted himself by the +stove near her, where he stuffed his pipe with tobacco and began to +smoke, while his eyes considered her face.</p> + +<p>"Imo and I returned to Sarita Creek yesterday," she remarked, with an +air of satisfaction. "It was good to be back, too. There has been so +much going on at Kennard that I felt quite worn out; one becomes weary +of too much buzzing around. I don't want any more of it for some time. +And I missed you dreadfully, Lee!" She flashed up a smile at him, +caught his hand for an instant, and gave it a squeeze. A thin stream +of smoke issued from one corner of Bryant's mouth at the action. "The +people were proving somewhat tiresome also. So as the weather had +moderated Imogene and I decided to return to our cabins."</p> + +<p>"Has she recovered from her cold?" Lee inquired, raising his look to +the ceiling.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; entirely. And we're quite comfortable. We had even thought +of having our ponies brought from the stable at Bartolo, so that we +could ride if it grew still milder."</p> + +<p>"Risky."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"></a>"Well, you're probably right." She paused and scrutinized her toes to +see that they were not scorching. "Charlie brought Imo and me here on +his way home; you can take us back to our cabins when we're ready to +go."</p> + +<p>"Imo here?" Bryant's eyebrows lifted.</p> + +<p>"Over in the shack Dave called 'the hospital.' Dave was here when we +came and Imo asked him to take her to the place; she had heard +something of an injured man from Louise Graham. Did Louise really help +during an operation?" Lee nodded. "Well, she's odd in many ways. Must +be—what shall I say?—a little thick-skinned not to mind blood and +all the rest of it. And she doesn't go about much; not at all with the +real crowd at Kennard, only with a slow one when she does go. With her +father well off, I'd think she would want to be doing something worth +while. Charlie's still mad for her, but Gretzie thought after he met +her at our cabins that she was too self-conceited. When he asked her +if the men of New York, compared with Western men, didn't impress her +with superiority and smartness of dress, she said, 'Not those of my +acquaintance; they don't try to impress one; it isn't done in their +circle, you know. That's one of the differences in manners, I suppose, +that distinguishes Fifth Avenue from Broadway.' Gretzie was furious. +He had been speaking of Broadway shows and restaurants and things at +the time. He declared later that a little attention had turned her +head, and that what she had said was all rot. I don't care for her, +either. But let us talk of ourselves, Lee."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's more interesting," he remarked, with an accent of irony +that escaped her.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"></a>He was curious to learn what this talk was leading to. His curiosity +outweighed the irritation he felt at her calm ignoring of the past +weeks, at her complacent assumption of his love, at the kiss and the +caress she had bestowed, indeed, at her very presence in the room.</p> + +<p>"Tell me everything about your work and about yourself," she said, +folding her hands and gazing up at him. "I'm so impatient to hear."</p> + +<p>"Nothing worth relating has occurred," he replied.</p> + +<p>"You've been well?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, quite. This is a regular health resort."</p> + +<p>"And you're not working too hard?"</p> + +<p>"For a whole week I scarcely stirred from the stove," said he.</p> + +<p>"I'm so glad. You had earned a rest. You don't seem worried about +anything, either."</p> + +<p>"Worried?" His intonation was that of surprise. Then he added, as if +by after-thought, "Oh, no."</p> + +<p>"How relieved I am! I feared you might be worrying your head off about +difficulties—cold weather, the time limit set, perhaps money matters. +I gained the impression somewhere that you might run short before you +finished; I can't just say where I got it. From Imo, perhaps. Nothing +definite, you know. But it's so nice to know that you're no longer +anxious. That means you're sure you'll build the ditch. How much more +is there to do?"</p> + +<p>"You can see the north camp out of that window."</p> + +<p>Ruth rose and went to the window indicated, where she stood surveying +the men and teams at work beyond the <a name="Page_203" id="Page_203"></a>camp and the stretch of +sagebrush extending to the white specks of tents in the distance.</p> + +<p>"That's all that's left to do, Lee?"</p> + +<p>"That's all. Three miles."</p> + +<p>"Charlie Menocal hasn't said anything about it lately."</p> + +<p>"Knowing Charlie, I'm amazed," he commented.</p> + +<p>Ruth resumed her seat and proceeded to toast her toes anew. Her +glances from time to time were directed at Lee's countenance somewhat +speculatively. Several times she smoothed her dress with slow +attention. Lee continued his deliberate smoking.</p> + +<p>"Well, it's a great comfort to know that you're well and that +everything is proceeding so brightly," she stated, at length. "You +must take time to run down and see me, now that I'm back. I'm not +going to be satisfied with anything less than almost every evening +with you. Bring along one of those nice engineer boys for Imogene +while we talk."</p> + +<p>Lee gave a shake of his head.</p> + +<p>"Don't count on me," he said. "We're doing night work as well as day. +We're near the end. Have to push the job. Little time to spare." He +jerked the phrases forth shortly, one after another.</p> + +<p>"Do try to come once in a while, though," she responded, gazing about +the room in a way that gave her speech a perfunctory character. That, +at any rate, was the impression made upon Lee; and he continued to +puzzle his brain as to what underlay it all—what motive, what object. +At the same time he was sickened by the suave interest she pretended, +by her shallow insincerity. "I've wondered if I could be of any help +here to you," she went on. But a <a name="Page_204" id="Page_204"></a>sharp movement on his part caused +her to say, "Still, I know a man doesn't like a girl messing up his +work. That's one reason I've been careful not to propose it before, or +even to make the demands on your time that some girls would have made. +I'll be glad when the project is out of the way; then we can begin to +plan for ourselves." She cast her eyes upward at space. "There are +lots of things to decide—where to live, and so on. You come soon and +we'll set some of them down on paper for consideration."</p> + +<p>Lee could not escape that feeling of perfunctoriness in her twitter of +talk. It went no further than that, however; he had no chagrin or +repugnance or anger at the thin duplicity, not even at her complacent +confidence in his stupidity and infatuation. For to count on his being +blind to the past and deluded by her words, she could only believe him +both stupid and infatuated. He was quite calm. His actual state of +mind was, more than anything else, one of detachment. He imagined that +he had come to a point where she was incapable of arousing in him any +kind of sentiment or passion.</p> + +<p>Presently she took up her furs and walked humming about the office as +she adjusted them.</p> + +<p>"I'd like to stay all day, but must be going," she said. "Imo and I +were wondering, by the way, if you could send us a man with some +tar-paper to line our cabins."</p> + +<p>"Of course. I'll send him after dinner. And he can chop you some wood +and bring your water."</p> + +<p>She stood for a little examining a blue-print tacked on the wall.</p> + +<p>"That's like the one Mr. Gretzinger sometimes carries," <a name="Page_205" id="Page_205"></a>she remarked. +"I suppose he'll be returning one of these days. Not that it matters; +he was tiresome at times, like Charlie Menocal." She studied the lines +of the map attentively. "He appeared anxious to get to New York. Said +something about a sweetheart there. You'll be glad if he doesn't come +back to bother you again, won't you, Lee dear?" She swung about, +laughing.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he'll show up."</p> + +<p>"I wasn't sure; he said he thought not."</p> + +<p>Lee emptied and put away his pipe.</p> + +<p>"He'll come," was his assured reply.</p> + +<p>"Then he must have been 'kidding' me."</p> + +<p>Her thoughtful air returned. She picked a raveling from her sleeve, +and stroked her fur, and inspected the tips of her gloves, and untied +and retied the strings of her cap—all with an inscrutable face. Then +suddenly her mind appeared to be made up.</p> + +<p>"Well, dear, run and bring your car and we'll pick up Imogene," she +said, giving him a quick pat on the cheek.</p> + +<p>Lee experienced an inward and involuntary shrinking at that touch. He +no more could have returned the caress than he could have risen off +the ground into the air, like those floating figures depicted in +sacred paintings. After all, she was quite capable of stirring a +sentiment in his heart—a sentiment of aversion.</p> + +<p>"Go join Imo," he replied. "One of the boys will bring the car to the +hospital and take you home. Impossible for me to drive you there +to-day."</p> + +<p>That was it—impossible, literally impossible, for his whole being was +in revolt. The threshold of the door <a name="Page_206" id="Page_206"></a>might have been a dead-line; he +was unable to cross it, at any rate. With a stony aspect he watched +her depart and wave a hand back at him from a distance and at last +disappear. Then he closed the door and leaned his head against it, +with his features drawn in an expression of pain and desperation. His +position was diabolical. She meant to hold him to his word; she +believed he loved her; and, anyway, she had him fast in a coil. Yes, +she had him fast. And he did not love her, not at all. On the +contrary, he detested her—detested her with all his heart, almost to +hatred, utterly.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_207" id="Page_207"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>"Will you be so kind as to come here?" Mr. Menocal inquired of Bryant.</p> + +<p>It was an afternoon in late January, and the banker, bundled in a +great overcoat and numerous rugs, had reined his team to a halt at the +spot where he found the engineer. The air was cutting. Steam in sharp +jets came from the nostrils of his pair of bays, as from those of the +horses straining at the plows and scrapers in the stretch of partially +excavated canal near by.</p> + +<p>Lee went forward to the buggy, slapping his gloved hands together to +quicken their circulation.</p> + +<p>"What do you want of me, Mr. Menocal?" he asked. "You're picking a +frosty day to look at the scenery."</p> + +<p>"Well, there's a matter that's been troubling my mind for some time +and I decided to let it go no longer. We have our differences, Mr. +Bryant, but I wouldn't wish you to believe me responsible for a number +of annoyances to which you've been put. I am a gentleman; I fight +fair. For instance, I was quite within my rights in suggesting those +men take homesteads down yonder along the base of the mountains, +though I was wrong in my guess. Also, in taking advantage of the law +under which you were limited by the Land and Water Board, I wasn't +stepping out of bounds. But I've learned that some time ago a man +introduced whisky <a name="Page_208" id="Page_208"></a>into camp against your rules, and I wish to tell +you that I knew nothing of it at the time and would countenance no +sort of disgraceful act like that."</p> + +<p>"I judged that you wouldn't," said Lee.</p> + +<p>"Then again last summer someone killed your dog, I understand. That +was a bad deed. I am fond of dogs, and had I been able to learn who +did it I should have informed you so that you could have had Winship +arrest him. Since that time, too, there have been other things, many +of them—men cutting your telephone wire, removing your survey stakes, +and the like. All making you angry. Well, I was angry when I heard +that those things were being done. Resorting to questionable and +criminal tactics against any man is the worst possible course a person +can follow. I do not do it in your case; I will prevent any one else +from doing it if I can. You have the right to work undisturbed."</p> + +<p>"I never connected you with these underhanded acts," the engineer +stated.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Mr. Bryant. It pleases me to hear you say that. I should +like to see you lose your water right, of course; it would mean much +money in my pocket; but I'll not do contemptible things or crooked +things to get possession of it."</p> + +<p>Lee glanced at the speaker's face. It was sincere, earnest, and now +relieved. He felt an increase of respect for the man, opponent though +he was. Menocal appeared, to be sure, unable to comprehend the ethics +involved in seeking to thwart Bryant, but he was scrupulous and +honourable within his understanding. Far more so than Gretzinger, for +instance. Or Charlie Menocal. The thought of the <a name="Page_209" id="Page_209"></a>banker's son pulled +Bryant up. Should he mention his conviction that Charlie was the +instigator of the mischief discussed? As he was still in doubt when +his visitor turned the subject, he let it rest.</p> + +<p>"The way you're going ahead with your canal, I'm afraid that my chance +of retaining the water is poor, very poor," Menocal said, with a +lugubrious sigh. He drew his fat chin deeper into his coat collar, +tugged at the ice on his big white moustache, and ran his eyes up and +down the long line of moving teams. "And it will cost me a lot of +money." Again the sigh. "I didn't think you could do it; I didn't +think any man in the world could do it. In cold weather, in ninety +days! I said it was impossible. Charlie said it was impossible. +Everyone said it was impossible."</p> + +<p>"Everyone except my contractor and me," Lee interjected, smiling a +tight smile.</p> + +<p>The other nodded. "Except you, yes. And you're showing us that after +all it's not impossible. I shall never say again that anything is +impossible. If I ever have a big ditch to build, I shall insist, Mr. +Bryant, that you take charge. Then I would say, 'I should like to have +it built so and so, and by such a time,' and sit down at my desk and +think no more of it, knowing it would be built."</p> + +<p>Bryant laughed softly. He could not help doing so. That naïve avowal +from the one whom he considered his chief enemy tickled his fancy. And +presently Menocal, catching the humour of it, himself began to smile.</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't be surprised if we have had a misconception of each +other," Lee stated.</p> + +<p>"Ah, <i>cielos!</i> That is nothing less than the truth. What <a name="Page_210" id="Page_210"></a>a pity, too, +my young friend, that we could not have found it out earlier. Our +affair, perhaps—we might have reached a satisfactory agreement. This +winter work, it is costing you something."</p> + +<p>"A good many extra thousand."</p> + +<p>"And, alas, costing me even more! But it is too late now." He made a +tragic gesture. "It has gone too far. Within two or three weeks it +will be settled one way or the other. For you if the weather remains +good; for me if the weather becomes stormy." He again studied the +moving horses along the canal. "For me then—perhaps. You might not +allow even a great storm to stop you, in some way. This winter is +remarkable; there seem to be no storms to happen. You're very lucky."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am in that respect."</p> + +<p>"Well, I've done all that I shall do in the matter. I've become quite +calm, fatalistic. There's nothing else to be." He gathered up his +reins.</p> + +<p>"That's a good team you have," Lee remarked.</p> + +<p>"Of the very best. I disliked to use them in this cold, but Charlie +had gone with the car to Kennard. Va! He is never at home any more. It +would be well if I made him drive a team on your ditch."</p> + +<p>"Send him along; I'll give him a job," Lee said.</p> + +<p>The banker shook his head.</p> + +<p>"He would say I was crazy and he wouldn't come. He doesn't even attend +to matters that require attention. This winter he has been running too +much with idle men in town and spending money as if it took no effort +to get it, as if it could be picked off of weeds. It's very +perplexing. I am <a name="Page_211" id="Page_211"></a>too easy with Charlie, I let him have his way too +much. I should put him in a pair of overalls for a while and say, 'You +are going out with a band of sheep; you have to work.' Several times +I've made up my mind to do that, but when the moment came I couldn't +say it. He isn't robust, he has always had the best of everything, and +he's been educated in a college."</p> + +<p>"Cut off his allowance and take away his automobile. He would stay at +home and attend to business then," Lee offered.</p> + +<p>"But it would shame him. He isn't a little boy any longer; he's thirty +years old. The trouble is that he isn't like me, particular and +careful; he's wild and impatient and reckless. His mother wasn't that +way, I am not that way—I don't know where he got that nature."</p> + +<p>Menocal senior drove off and Bryant turned back to his work. The pity +of the thing was, as the banker had stated, that they had been hasty +in the beginning, that they had not sought to come to an +understanding, some arrangement. It was another mistake. To Lee his +whole past here was beginning to appear a record of oversights, +incredible misjudgements, blinded blunders, and ghastly mistakes.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_212" id="Page_212"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXIV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>Ghastly mistakes! Some cynic has said the only mistake in life a man +can make is "to go broke." Bryant did not realize until afterward the +irony lurking in the penumbra of the talk with Menocal. He was broke, +unable to proceed, even while he listened to the banker's +commendation. The workmen were busy, it was true, and the horses were +pulling loaded fresnos, and plows were cutting the trench deeper; but +that was an expiring motion, a last falling gesture. Only a few +wretched dollars lay at the bottom of the money chest. A day more, and +Menocal would have won.</p> + +<p>That evening Lee climbed in his car and drove away from camp. Carrigan +had said nothing, but he as well as Bryant knew the company's bank +account was drained; he would expect a settlement and when it was +made, discharge the crews, pull up stakes, and move his property to +Kennard. At Sarita Creek Bryant alighted.</p> + +<p>"I wish to see Ruth," he told Imogene. "Is she away? Her cabin is dark +and I obtained no answer to my knock."</p> + +<p>"She's gone to town."</p> + +<p>"Well, I wanted to tell her I've failed. Work stops to-morrow. Out of +money. And less than two miles to build!"</p> + +<p>Imogene's face became a picture of dismay.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213"></a>"Oh, no, Lee! There must be some way to go on, some place to obtain +money," she cried.</p> + +<p>"None. I've tried, but have reached the end of my rope. Only twenty +thousand more needed, or maybe twenty-five. Just enough to hammer +through during the next two weeks. But it might as well be a million. +I decided to inform Ruth at once; she might consider it important."</p> + +<p>"She would," said she, positively.</p> + +<p>"I haven't been to Sarita Creek before since you returned. You can +guess why."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Does Ruth suspect that I've ceased to love her?" he asked, frowning.</p> + +<p>"I think not. There was considerable talk on her part about being +bored with Kennard and how happy she would be when she was married, +but it was on the surface. She's really waiting for something I'm not +able to divine. I'm reminded when I observe her of a card-player +studying a hand before the cards begin to fall."</p> + +<p>"Where is she to-night? With Charlie Menocal?"</p> + +<p>"With Gretzinger."</p> + +<p>"Gretzinger back?"</p> + +<p>"Arrived in Kennard this morning. Two days ago Ruth received a letter +with a New York post-mark and became very animated. I'm sure she has +had none before. Then late this afternoon the man himself appeared +here, ate supper with us, and took Ruth off to a concert in town. He +said he had business in camp with you to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Ruth's spirits have revived and her retirement has <a name="Page_214" id="Page_214"></a>ended," Lee +remarked, with sarcasm. "Well, don't say anything about this now to +either of them."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll be long asleep when they return, and I'll not speak of it to +Ruth in the morning. She'll not rise before noon, I suspect, as it +will be one or two o'clock before they're home. Or she may stay with +one of the girls she's chummy with and come up with him to-morrow. +Probably that."</p> + +<p>Lee made ready to go. He gave Imogene a sardonic smile.</p> + +<p>"May the music she hears to-night strengthen her soul for the morrow's +smash," he said; and went out.</p> + +<p>Where the trail from the cabins debouched upon the main mesa road he +slowed the car to a stop and sat for a time in thought, with the +engine humming softly and the freezing night air biting at his cheeks. +It seemed to make little difference where he went, or if he went at +all. Nothing worth while was at the end of any road. His inclination, +however, was working and at last he set out for the Graham ranch.</p> + +<p>Since his Christmas visit he had made a number of calls there, a +rather large number, indeed, considering everything. He had schooled +his face and words on those occasions to a passivity he was far from +feeling, and had left Louise's presence each time with a greater +torment of mind. Now this was the end—of her as of everything so far +as he was concerned. To-morrow the project came down in wreckage. Then +he should go from Perro Creek, poorer in purse, poorer in spirit, +poorer in faith, sore, and bitterly disillusionized.</p> + +<p>Louise Graham observed a shadow upon his countenance as she invited +him to a seat before the fireplace. Her father <a name="Page_215" id="Page_215"></a>was absent and she had +been reading a book when Bryant's knock came. She had been wondering, +too, if the engineer might not choose this night to call again. How +much these calls of his now meant to her she did not dare consider.</p> + +<p>"What's wrong, Lee?" she asked at once, anxiously. "I see something +has happened."</p> + +<p>He moved round on the divan that he might fully face her.</p> + +<p>"Everything so far as my affairs go," he replied. "Work stops on the +canal to-morrow. That will result, of course, in the water right +lapsing and in the ditch never being finished or used, except under +the circumstance of my handing over my interest gratis to Gretzinger +and the bondholders. If I did that even, I don't believe Gretzinger +could finish it on time, for neither Carrigan nor the men would exert +themselves for him as they have for me, and they would be sure of +their pay in any case. The trouble is, I've used up all the money and +can borrow no more. I'm through. And I can't bring myself to the point +of surrendering my interest in the company to the bondholders merely +to pull them out. They're trying to strangle me in order that they may +profit; they could put up the cash needed easily enough if they would; +but they count on my yielding. I shall not do so. And so the project +fails. Those New Yorkers will wait too long if ever they do put up the +funds; and I can do nothing myself. The uncompleted ditch will remain +simply a scar on the mesa."</p> + +<p>"I never dreamed you were in this strait!"</p> + +<p>"No, probably not. One always hopes to the last that somehow—by a +credulous belief in one's own letter of credit <a name="Page_216" id="Page_216"></a>with Providence, I +presume—one will pull through. So I delayed telling you of what was +impending."</p> + +<p>"If—perhaps father——"</p> + +<p>"Your father? No. Above all persons, no. That's a suggestion I can't +consider for an instant."</p> + +<p>"But what will you do?" she exclaimed, nervously.</p> + +<p>Lee glanced at her, then compressed his lips.</p> + +<p>"I'm going away; I couldn't stay here on the scene of this disaster. +It would be intolerable. Before long people will be describing the +unfinished project by the name of 'Bryant's Folly', or the like. +Haven't you seen old, windowless structures that were never completed, +or grass-grown railroad enbankments never ironed, or rusting mine +machinery never assembled? Men's failures, men's 'follies'."</p> + +<p>"Lee, Lee! It never will be so!" she cried. "Nor will your project be +a failure to me who have known how you've striven and sacrificed."</p> + +<p>Bryant looked past her and about the room, but his eyes in the end +came back to hers.</p> + +<p>"You have always been generous in your thoughts of me," he said, in an +unsteady voice.</p> + +<p>"No more than you deserved."</p> + +<p>"Listen, Louise," he went on, after a pause. "This is the last time I +shall see you for a long time, possibly for all time, and it's of your +kindness I wish to speak—and of another matter. Of course, I +shouldn't be quite human if I hadn't complained a bit about this blow, +but my complaints are done now. I'll possibly do some grimacing to +myself hereafter, though. What I came to say is that <a name="Page_217" id="Page_217"></a>wherever I go in +the future I'll always carry with me as a treasure the memory of your +goodness and of your face."</p> + +<p>Louise's lips had parted, while the colour slowly receded from her +cheeks.</p> + +<p>"But we shall see each other," she gasped. "We'll meet, we can keep in +touch." After a silence there came in a whisper, "Friends should."</p> + +<p>Bryant began to tremble. He turned away from her in order to gaze into +the fire. Her low utterance had wrung the chords of his heart; he +dared not allow his eyes to continue to dwell upon her face.</p> + +<p>"What good in that?" he asked. Then he gave a passionate shake of his +head. "The risk for me is too great. I shall seek an engineering +billet altogether out of the country, in South America, in Asia, +wherever one is open. A job without responsibility, preferably. No, +no; I can't remain and play with fire—any longer."</p> + +<p>An intense stillness rested in the room after these words. He doubted +if Louise even breathed.</p> + +<p>"Would it be that?" she asked, at last.</p> + +<p>"Of course. Haven't you seen?"</p> + +<p>"I—I——" Her voice failed her.</p> + +<p>"I could no more help loving you, Louise, after I came to know you, +than can the earth its blooming under a summer sun. The thing was +inevitable." He was speaking now in a slow, fixed attempt at +restraint. "And this love coming when it did, after I was betrothed to +Ruth Gardner, is the capping madness of the whole nightmarish +situation in which I find myself. 'Nightmarish' isn't an exaggeration, +honestly. By all the empty, senseless conventions I ought to seal my +<a name="Page_218" id="Page_218"></a>lips on my love and to go dumbly away, because I'm engaged to Ruth +Gardner." He turned abruptly to her. "Do you think I should?"</p> + +<p>Her hands were locked together in a clasp that expelled the blood and +left them white. Her regard had the intentness of a stare.</p> + +<p>"If you love me, if you're going away—" She suddenly became agitated. +"Oh, I am unhappy!" And with a quick movement she bent her head aside.</p> + +<p>"Louise, forgive me for causing this distress," he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>Without looking about she put out a hand, touched and pressed his. The +unexpected act filled Bryant with amazement. He sat gazing stupidly at +the hand until she withdrew it. Then he found an explanation.</p> + +<p>"You feel compassion for me," he said. "You would." A sound, low, +inarticulate, reached him. "It's your kind nature to make some return +for my love even if it's not love you can give. Or ought to give! I'm +expecting nothing, can expect nothing. That is out of the question. If +I were entirely calm and rational, I should doubtless be asking myself +why I should speak of my passion instead of trying to tear it out of +my heart. But, of course, being in love I'm neither the one nor the +other. The only explanation for the impulse to pour out a confession +like this is overcharged nerves. Or, after all, is it just unconscious +egotism?" His composure had slipped off and his tone had grown savage.</p> + +<p>"Don't, don't, Lee! Don't cut at yourself!"</p> + +<p>"What was it I had started to say? Oh, yes. I had said I felt no +compunction in brushing aside the usual <a name="Page_219" id="Page_219"></a>conventions of duty as +proscribed for an engaged man. Cobwebs in my case! Why pretend lies? +No honour is involved that I can discover. I don't love Ruth, and I +think she's incapable of loving me or any one else. She never felt +half the affection I did for her, and mine withered quickly, God +knows! A dash of passion on my part, and lonesomeness and the belief I +should have wealth on her side—there's the salad."</p> + +<p>Louise leaned forward a little breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"And if she believes you're ruined?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"She'll hold me if she thinks she can't do better," Lee responded, +bitterly. "I at least beat homesteading."</p> + +<p>"Lee!"</p> + +<p>Louise had risen. The pallor of her face startled him. Her hands were +fast clenched.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he asked, fearfully.</p> + +<p>"I can bear this. To have you love me—love me and go away! It will +break my heart. To stay here alone!"</p> + +<p>The words struck his brain as if they were cast in a fierce glare of +light. The suddenness of the knowledge they gave, the revelation they +made, left him speechless. Louise loved him in return. The first +effect upon his mind was to produce a blank incredulity; he stared at +her as if to ascertain whether or not this was in truth she; for +though he well knew he possessed her friendship, he had never +conceived so fantastic a possibility as that of winning her love. Then +a swift exaltation succeeded. He swam in a kind of spiritual ether.</p> + +<p>"Louise, Louise, my dear beloved!" he murmured.</p> + +<p>He caught her hand, pressed it. She glanced at him <a name="Page_220" id="Page_220"></a>without replying, +looked away, back again. Her bosom rose and fell with a slow and +tremulous movement, as though stirring with deep, soundless sighs. A +little smile hovered on her lips, tender, rapturous.</p> + +<p>But at length she withdrew her hand, while the soft gladness passed +from her face.</p> + +<p>"It cannot be; you must go, Lee," she said.</p> + +<p>Bryant remembered—and felt the ice forming about his heart. He +shivered slightly. The full cruelty of the situation was reached. Ruth +Gardner not only held him, but he held her as well by a thread to +which she could cling for safety against the blandishments of +scoundrels, and her own desires, and the dark uncertainty of the +future. And much as he loved Louise Graham, he could not snap that +thread; much as he detested Ruth, he lacked the flintiness of heart to +let her slip into the abyss. Nor would Louise have it otherwise.</p> + +<p>She was seeking his eyes, questioning them.</p> + +<p>"Well, this hour is worth it all to me," he said, calmly. "All of the +unhappiness of the past, and all the loneliness of the future! I am +poor now; in that fact lies what hope I have."</p> + +<p>A gentle inclination of her head answered him.</p> + +<p>"I am happy to-night, anyway," said she.</p> + +<p>"The only thing for me to do is to remain away from you," he answered. +"Heaven knows I shall be miserable enough then, but I should grow +desperate if I were near."</p> + +<p>"I know. We mustn't see each other, Lee dear."</p> + +<p>He walked to where his storm coat and cap lay on a chair by the door. +In silence he drew on and buttoned the former. <a name="Page_221" id="Page_221"></a>She had accompanied +him to the spot and watched with moisture on her lashes his +preparation for departure. His eyes were lowered while his fingers +were engaged with the buttons.</p> + +<p>"You should understand about this," he said, grimly. "That man +Gretzinger is after her. She has no money, no training to earn money, +is crazy for pleasure and attention and clothes. I ought in all +decency to break our engagement. She has given me grounds enough. But +it's keeping her straight. If I broke it"—his hand dropped to his +side and he stood for a moment quite still—"he drags her under." His +gaze rose to hers.</p> + +<p>"I guessed it long ago," she said, in a choked voice. "And loved you +for it." Next instant she leaned forward, took his temples between her +hands, and lightly touched his brow with her lips. "Go, go!" she +exclaimed, with an accent of despair.</p> + +<p>She herself turned and went quickly out of the room.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_222" id="Page_222"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>Bryant had asked Carrigan to come to the office at two o'clock, +stating that the company was insolvent and but enough money remained +to square accounts with the contractor. Pat had cast a shrewd glance +at Lee and nodded. This was during the morning. Afterward the engineer +had gone for a visit to the dam, the drops, and the canal line, a last +view of the project as a whole; and the ride was pursued in that +peculiar melancholy of spirit which appertains to mortuary events. To +him, indeed, the ride marked a burial, a burial of high hopes and +ambition, and of his youth, with the partially excavated canal +providing their pit and the concrete work standing as a headstone.</p> + +<p>He came back to camp somewhat late for his appointment and found Pat +waiting in the office, but not alone. Gretzinger stood, back to the +stove, smoking a Turkish cigarette.</p> + +<p>"Well, Bryant, I've returned to discuss our little business +transaction," he greeted. "Judged this to be about the right time. +How's the exchequer?"</p> + +<p>"Little in it," said Lee, hanging his coat and cap on a hook. "But I +made sure it was locked before leaving here; you might come any +moment."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't waste time on an empty box," was the light answer. "Mind +if Carrigan hears what we say? Don't, eh? <a name="Page_223" id="Page_223"></a>Neither do I. He knows, or +ought to know, you're through. And besides, I'll want to discuss +construction matters with him when you and I are done."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps Bryant can yet secure a loan somewhere," the contractor +remarked, mildly.</p> + +<p>"From Menocal, possibly," Gretzinger suggested, cocking his eyebrows +at Carrigan with mock enthusiasm. "If Bryant could have secured a +loan, he would have had it in his pocket before this. I made inquiry +of McDonnell when I reached Kennard concerning the company's cash +account and discovered that it looked awful sick. No, he can't get +money for the company except through me."</p> + +<p>"I see," said Pat.</p> + +<p>Gretzinger turned to Bryant.</p> + +<p>"Now, Lee, let's get down to brass tacks. You're played out as manager +and engineer-in-chief, so it's time for you to step out and give the +men who are able a chance to complete the work. I made you one offer; +I'm prepared to-day to make even a better one. The bondholders went +thoroughly into the subject with me of what they could afford to pay +you for your stock and a decision was finally reached to give you ten +thousand dollars for your interest in the company. Considering +everything, that's exceedingly liberal. I'm authorized to draw a check +for that amount to your order when you've assigned the shares."</p> + +<p>"Not enough," Lee replied. He sat down at his desk, lifted his feet to +a window ledge, and held a match to his pipe.</p> + +<p>"That's the limit."</p> + +<p>"It's not enough; I need more."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224"></a>"What you need and what you'll take are two different things," the +other stated, sarcastically.</p> + +<p>"Go higher," Lee said, with his gaze upon the window.</p> + +<p>"Not a cent!"</p> + +<p>"I owe McDonnell twenty thousand that has gone into the canal. I've +put in my ranch, and land I traded for it, and months of work and +organization—value twenty thousand; and I figure my present control +of things worth twenty thousand more. But let us say fifty thousand. +I'll sell for fifty thousand; that gives you my stock at fifty cents +on the dollar. Exceedingly liberal, I call it."</p> + +<p>The look the other directed at him was heavy with contempt.</p> + +<p>"Ten thousand is all—and make up your mind to that," said he. Then he +faced round toward Carrigan, whom he addressed. "I want you to +increase the force to double its strength at once, so that the work—"</p> + +<p>"What are you paying a yard for moving dirt?"</p> + +<p>"The same as before."</p> + +<p>"Not to me," Pat responded, complacently.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" Gretzinger demanded, angrily.</p> + +<p>"It's not enough."</p> + +<p>"Not enough! You seem to imagine your contract doesn't bind you."</p> + +<p>Pat slowly uncrossed his knees and stared at the speaker with a +countenance of bewilderment.</p> + +<p>"Now what in the world is the man talking about! Contract? The only +contract I had with Bryant was an oral agreement to build the dam and +move dirt at a certain day rate per man and per team, terminable at +his option. Oh, <a name="Page_225" id="Page_225"></a>you mean the first contract to construct the ditch in +a year! We tore that up after he got notice from the Land and Water +Board."</p> + +<p>"Well, we'll continue the oral arrangement."</p> + +<p>"Not any more," said Pat.</p> + +<p>Gretzinger inspected the coal of his cigarette, replaced the latter +between his lips, and glanced at Bryant. But the engineer was +maintaining his consideration of objects on the outside of the window.</p> + +<p>"So you're trying to hold me up," was Gretzinger's remark.</p> + +<p>"You're slicing the fat off Bryant, and therefore I'll trim a bit off +you," Carrigan replied. "You're not the only one who can work a knife. +Once I used to sit back and let others keep all the easy money, but I +don't any more, not any more." With considerable relish he rolled the +words upon his tongue and nodded at Gretzinger.</p> + +<p>The latter scowled.</p> + +<p>"How much do you want?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>Pat spat, then remained pursing his lips while he engaged in +calculation. Once he shook his head and muttered, "Not enough," and +again after a time repeated the words. The man by the stove glared at +the seated contractor during the prolonged period of study as if he +hoped his look would consume him.</p> + +<p>"How much?" he questioned a second time, impatiently.</p> + +<p>Pat looked up at Gretzinger from under his bushy eyebrows with a +steely glint showing. The lines of his weather-beaten face had +hardened.</p> + +<p>"I don't like you," he stated. "I don't like you at all. <a name="Page_226" id="Page_226"></a>When I work +for people I don't like, it costs them money. I like you less and less +all the time. If I go ahead and finish the ditch, I'll be liking you +so little that I'll be hating myself. And when I don't like any one +that much, I don't do it cheap. The job will cost you one hundred +thousand dollars."</p> + +<p>"You—you——" Gretzinger choked.</p> + +<p>"Cash down before I move a wheel," Pat added, calmly.</p> + +<p>The other was white with rage. He cast his cigarette upon the floor +and ground it under his heel. His lips worked and twisted in a vicious +snarl. Carrigan observed him unmoved; and Bryant had turned his head +about to see.</p> + +<p>"You grafters, you infernal thieves, you pair of rotten crooks!" he +shouted, shooting murderous glances from one to the other. "You've +'framed' me! Arranged it between you. Been waiting for me to come back +so you could spring your game! If there's any law in this state, I'll +have you both where you belong for deliberately wrecking this +company—in a cell!"</p> + +<p>His raving outburst continued for a while in this strain. His voice +had the high and squealing pitch of a wild pig caught fast by a foot; +on his pink, fleshy face, now distended with anger, was a look, too, +of porcine hate and fury. The cynical and patronizing manner he +usually affected had dropped off, leaving revealed his actual coarse, +spiteful, greedy, craven spirit—a creature of infinite meanness. At +length, however, Gretzinger's torrent of abuse diminished until it +ended in a last muddy dripping of threats and curses. With an effort +he strove to pull himself together <a name="Page_227" id="Page_227"></a>and assume a composure his eyes +belied, while he lighted another of his offensive Turkish cigarettes.</p> + +<p>After a time he said shortly:</p> + +<p>"You can't bluff me. When you fellows get down to my figures, then +we'll do business."</p> + +<p>"Look out! Your coat is scorching—or is it only that tobacco?" Bryant +rejoined.</p> + +<p>Gretzinger stepped hastily aside and felt behind him, where his hand +moved about on the hot cloth fabric with searching movements. The +solicitude for his garment thus quickened seemed to effect the final +dispersion of his inward heat.</p> + +<p>"Well, are we going to get together on an arrangement?" he questioned, +when assured his coat was uninjured.</p> + +<p>"I stated my terms—fifty thousand," Lee said. "That or nothing."</p> + +<p>"You won't get it."</p> + +<p>"Then there's the alternative of the bondholders putting up money +enough to finish the work."</p> + +<p>"That, neither."</p> + +<p>"All right, Gretzinger," Bryant stated, rising. "You have an idea that +I'll give in——"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have. You'll grab this ten thousand I offer, grab it quick by +to-morrow night, which is the limit I set for it to remain open. I've +seen men before in a tight hole who swore they wouldn't take the terms +handed them, but they always did in the end, and so will you. Only a +fool wouldn't. And I fancy Carrigan won't sacrifice a good piece of +work in a dull season and pull off his men and teams."</p> + +<p>Pat hoisted himself off his seat stiffly.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228"></a>"Why don't your outfit sell instead of trying to buy?" he asked, +crossing to Lee's desk and obtaining a can of tobacco sitting there. +"I suppose they'll sell." He began to stuff his pipe, pressing the +tobacco into the bowl with a brown forefinger.</p> + +<p>"Certainly; they would unload what they have in this rotten project so +fast that the bonds would smoke. But who in the devil would touch +them?"</p> + +<p>"I might."</p> + +<p>"You?" Gretzinger began to laugh. "What have you besides your outfit? +They're not taking worn-out fresnos in exchange to-day, thank you."</p> + +<p>"And what are the three bondholders you represent worth?" Pat +inquired, in a nettled tone.</p> + +<p>"Half a million each, or more."</p> + +<p>Carrigan's brows rose contemptuously.</p> + +<p>"Is that all?" he exclaimed. "Why, from the way you talked, I thought +they were real financiers! And they're only piffling tin-horns, after +all. What d'you know about that, Lee?" Pat turned to the engineer with +an amazed air.</p> + +<p>Gretzinger's anger surged up anew.</p> + +<p>"You never saw half a million in your life," he sneered.</p> + +<p>"I could buy out all three of them with what I have in one trust +company in Chicago alone," was the unperturbed reply. "It's cheap +sports like you that make a real man sick. How much for the bonds? You +want to unload. Speak up; how much?"</p> + +<p>Despite his anger, the other's brain perceived that the contractor was +in earnest.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229"></a>"The amount of the face of both bonds and stock, with interest on the +former to date," he answered quickly.</p> + +<p>"I buy only bargains," was Carrigan's dry statement.</p> + +<p>"One hundred thousand then."</p> + +<p>"You're still sailing way up in the clouds. The stock was a bonus, +Gretzinger; it cost your parties nothing. So it's only the bonds that +count. And the project is rotten, it may not be finished on time, be a +dead loss; your men want to get out from under; they'll jump at the +chance to sell, you say. All right. They can unload on me. Wire them +to deposit the bonds and stock in any New York bank and draw on +McDonnell for forty thousand dollars. That's what I'll give."</p> + +<p>Gretzinger walked to the wall, where he reached down his overcoat and +put it on.</p> + +<p>"The ditch will go to weeds first," he said.</p> + +<p>"The offer's open until to-morrow night," said Pat.</p> + +<p>"You bloodsuckers can't put anything over on me," was the Easterner's +departing declaration, as he opened the door. "I'm on to you, +Carrigan. You're backing Bryant and will finish the ditch. We'll just +sit tight on our bonds and stock."</p> + +<p>Pat watched him go.</p> + +<p>"I hate to make money for men like them," he remarked to the engineer, +"but I guess I can't help it, because I'll not let you down, Lee, for +a matter of cash payment. I'll advance what's necessary and take a +company note. Maybe you're wondering why I let you sweat all this +time? Because you needed the experience. You laid down too easy. All +the time that you were thinking the game was <a name="Page_230" id="Page_230"></a>up, I was waiting for +you to grab my leg and begin to pull. But you never did."</p> + +<p>"You had done too much for me already, Pat; and though I supposed you +were well-fixed I had no idea you were wealthy. The thought you might +risk twenty thousand dollars——"</p> + +<p>"Why not? I know this project better than any banker; it's sound, it's +about completed," the old man interrupted. "All that's necessary is to +take a long breath and push hard for three weeks more. Sometimes I +think you have the making of a fair engineer, Lee, but you discourage +me dreadfully when I try to picture you as a financier. I'm afraid +you'll wind up like one of these bondholders of Gretzingers, just +piffling."</p> + +<p>Lee went to stand at the window, so that Carrigan could not see his +face. Emotion had unmanned him. He would not have even Pat know how +strongly he was moved by this act of magnanimity.</p> + +<p>"Well, I better be getting back to the ditch," said the contractor, +presently.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_231" id="Page_231"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXVI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>A week later the long-belated big storm appeared at hand. McDonnell +telephoned Bryant one morning, a morning in February now, that the +weather forecast predicted blizzard conditions sweeping down the Rocky +Mountain region from the Northwest. A mile of excavation yet remained +to do. Lee at once sent Saurez and other Mexicans abroad in the native +settlements with offers of double wages and this drew the most +indolent back to camp again. They were flung into the night shift, +which toiled with increased vigour at news of the impending storm. For +two days and nights the desperate effort was pushed while the sky +continued clear, with the crews of both camps attacking the iron earth +and steadily forging closer.</p> + +<p>Bryant scarcely slept during that time, or ate. Toward morning, when +the night shift went off, he would cast himself down fully dressed and +drawing the blankets to his chin sleep restlessly for two or three +hours, then again rise to drive the work. The third day came sunny and +quiet, but with heavy warmth in the air wholly strange to the season. +During the night both Lee and Pat had continually and anxiously +watched the peaks of the Ventisquero Range for portent of the change +imminent in the weather; and now on this morning they beheld about the +crests long, low-lying layers of gray cloud.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232"></a>Again McDonnell telephoned, but now with particulars of the storm. It +was general in character, covering the states from the Canadian line +southward, with very low temperatures and raging furiously, destroying +wire communications and blocking railroads, and at the moment was +bearing down across Utah, Colorado, and Kansas. The entire region from +the Pacific coast to the Mississippi was in its grasp.</p> + +<p>"Ten days is all that's left of our time," Lee said to the contractor, +with a heavy heart. "And no one can tell how long this weather spree +will last."</p> + +<p>"It's not a mile we've got to go any more, any way. With what we'll do +to-day it will be half a mile of dirt moved in three days. That leaves +but half a mile. This storm may be played out when it reaches us." But +the worry on his face showed that he put little faith in this +possibility.</p> + +<p>What he stated in regard to the ditch was true. The work of night and +day had eaten well into the remaining mile between the two camps. To +be sure, it had been rushed work: the sides of the ditch were gouged +and ragged, the bottom uneven and rutted, and the removed dirt was +piled anywhere along its banks. But nevertheless there was a canal, +dug on grade and to measurement, and capable of carrying water.</p> + +<p>During the afternoon a pair of men drove two lines of waist-high +stakes to mark the survey of the short section of ground yet +untouched, doing this under Carrigan's supervision. In case snow came, +he told Lee, he wanted something he could see. "Nine hundred yards of +unbuilt ditch <a name="Page_233" id="Page_233"></a>will be lying buried," he added, "and I don't propose +to paw up the whole mesa finding this section."</p> + +<p>About four o'clock Bryant rejoined him.</p> + +<p>"Still lovely," said Pat with a grin. "I've just set some plows +tearing up the scalp on another two hundred yards. If this storm will +just hang off for three or four days longer, it can come and welcome. +I'll have my fresnos stacked and waiting to go down to Kennard."</p> + +<p>"Take a look at the northwest," said Bryant, significantly.</p> + +<p>A smoky haze lay along the horizon.</p> + +<p>"Aye, I see. That's her hair blowing out ahead. There will be plenty +of wind after awhile, I'm thinking. Get word to the men in camp, will +you, to make all the tents tight."</p> + +<p>At sundown the haze in the west had thickened somewhat. The air, +however, remained warm, almost oppressive, and the sharp cold that +usually fell at night was wanting. The Ventisquero Peaks were hidden +by a mass of cloud. At seven o'clock the night crew began work, as +ordinarily; no wind was stirring and the steam that came from the +horses' nostrils was light.</p> + +<p>"I'm taking a little time to skip down to Sarita Creek and see if +those girls are still there. If they took a notion to stick, they'd +try to do it, whether McDonnell sent after them or not. But I'll pry +them out. If the storm breaks in a hurry, get the men and teams into +camp at once. Don't take any chances, Pat." Thus spoke Bryant.</p> + +<p>"Aye, I've seen blizzards before," was the reply.</p> + +<p>Lee sped rapidly toward Sarita Creek, with the <a name="Page_234" id="Page_234"></a>headlights of his car +casting their glow before him upon the dark road. The silence of the +night was broken only by the steady humming of his engine. The mesa +seemed very hushed, unstirring, unnatural.</p> + +<p>When he reached the girls' cabins, he saw that the windows of each +were lighted. The girls were there. What incredible folly! Then his +lamps brought into view an automobile. He breathed relief. Someone had +come for them. Alighting he walked forward and knocked on Ruth's door. +When it was opened by Ruth, he discovered Gretzinger seated within.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's you, is it? Well, come in," Ruth said.</p> + +<p>She wore a pink party gown, with her throat and smooth, round arms +showing through some filmy stuff that was part of the creation. Bryant +had never seen her so dressed; she looked very youthful and charming, +almost beautiful.</p> + +<p>"There's a party at Kennard to-night," said she, before Lee could open +his mouth to make an explanation of his presence, "and Mr. +Gretzinger's taking me. He just came. Sorry you chose to-night to +call, Lee. And we're starting immediately." She reached forth and gave +Lee a pat on the cheek, at the same time smiling.</p> + +<p>Bryant continued stony under the touch, under the smile, under the +false affection. He gazed at her and detected beneath her apparent +good spirits and loveliness a suppressed excitement. His glance went +to Gretzinger; the man was observing them with a restless, frowning +face. On the instant the truth flashed into Bryant's brain. She was +cunningly playing him off against the New Yorker, using <a name="Page_235" id="Page_235"></a>him as a lay +figure in her despicable game, bestowing endearments to anger +Gretzinger and arouse his jealousy.</p> + +<p>"I came to tell you a big storm is brewing," he said quickly. "You and +Imogene must plan to stay in Kennard for some time. If a heavy fall of +snow occurs, the mesa will be closed for ten days or two weeks with +the temperature very low."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll pack my things in my suit-case so that I can remain that +long," Ruth exclaimed. "I'll stay with Mabel Seybolt. Imogene's uncle +sent up his car this morning, but I didn't imagine there was any +really bad storm coming and sent it back. I doubt if the snow amounts +to much, anyway. The weather's too warm." Nevertheless, she began to +fill a suit-case.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell Imogene also," Lee said.</p> + +<p>Ruth's eyes turned toward Gretzinger with an inquiring look.</p> + +<p>"There won't be room for three of us, will there?"</p> + +<p>"No," he answered.</p> + +<p>Her regard still continued directed at him.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure there won't be," she said, with conviction. "It probably +won't storm before to-morrow, in any case. I'll tell Mr. McDonnell in +the morning and he can send up his big car for her."</p> + +<p>"Or you can take her to town yourself," Gretzinger added in an +indifferent tone.</p> + +<p>"I can't spare the time," Lee said.</p> + +<p>"But dearie, I'll be done packing in two minutes, while it will take +Imogene half an hour," Ruth replied. "She's too slow to wait for. And +she has one of her eternal headaches, too."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236"></a>Ruth was hurriedly removing articles from her trunk to the suit-case.</p> + +<p>"Listen, please," Lee said, addressing her. "If Imo remains she may +become snowbound, and if snowbound, freeze. I can't go, I can't +possibly go. With this storm coming, I must stay at camp. As things +are, a blizzard may put me out of business."</p> + +<p>Ruth straightened up to confront him.</p> + +<p>"You mean the work would stop, that you couldn't finish it on time?"</p> + +<p>"That's just what I mean."</p> + +<p>"Why?" Gretzinger spoke. "You have ten days left."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and what are ten days with two feet of snow on the ground and +the mercury forty below zero?" Bryant retorted.</p> + +<p>Gretzinger stood up, glanced at his watch, and buttoned his overcoat. +He then bent down and set to work buckling the straps of the suit-case +Ruth had closed.</p> + +<p>"You do seem to get into every possible kind of trouble, Lee," the +girl said.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I do. But the point now is about Imogene. Will you take her +with you, or not?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. McDonnell can send for her to-morrow; that will be soon enough."</p> + +<p>"My God, you leave her! With a blizzard coming!"</p> + +<p>"I don't think there'll be a blizzard. Or if there is, she can get +along comfortably till her uncle comes."</p> + +<p>"Are you ready, Ruth?" Gretzinger asked, impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Yes, as soon as I fasten my gloves. Anyway, Lee, you can take her to +Kennard if you want to. It's because you're <a name="Page_237" id="Page_237"></a>just obstinate. Besides, +she didn't have to come up here; I told her so; I could have got along +without her—much better, probably, for she's always finding fault; +she came on her own responsibility and so can look out for herself; +and if you're so anxious for fear she'll freeze, why, take her. It +won't make any difference about your ditch that I can see, for you say +you'll very likely lose it, anyway. Now you'll have to excuse us; +we're going. Blow out the light, please, and lock the door, our hands +are full. Give the key to Imo to keep."</p> + +<p>Two minutes later Gretzinger's car was gone with a swirl of the +headlights as it circled and with a sudden roar of its exhaust. Lee +extinguished the light and closed the cabin. To him that little house +seemed poignant with tragedy; and he knew, whatever came, his foot +would never be set in it again.</p> + +<p>He found Imogene sitting beside her sheet-iron stove, wrapped in a +quilt and coughing.</p> + +<p>"I heard your car come after his; I knew it was you," she greeted him.</p> + +<p>Lee regarded her closely.</p> + +<p>"You're sick," he said. "You ought to be in bed. Ruth stated that you +had a headache and now I discover you in a coughing fit bad enough to +take off your head. Is your throat sore?"</p> + +<p>"A little."</p> + +<p>"Why in the name of all that's sensible haven't you gone to your +uncle's? I begin to think you're unbalanced."</p> + +<p>"I explained my reasons once, Lee." She coughed again, then continued, +"Ruth and I quarrelled Christmas <a name="Page_238" id="Page_238"></a>because of actions of hers and aunt +said she must leave the house. That's why you were not asked then. But +she made it up afterward and so I came when she did, for she was +determined to live here where she could be free. I just had to come."</p> + +<p>"And now she's leaving you in the face of the worst storm this winter, +the ingrate!" Bryant exclaimed. "To-night's work finishes her with me. +She may go to eternal damnation so far as I'm concerned. I'm done! She +refused, she would have left you here to freeze, she set your life +against her convenience! And after you had sacrificed your comfort and +undergone hardships to save her good name! There's no limit to her +selfishness and miserable hypocrisy. Our efforts and consideration +haven't restrained her a particle, and she will tread the road she +chooses irrespective of our desires or feelings. What fools we've +been! You and I, Imogene Martin, aren't going to chase a +will-o'-the-wisp any longer. We've wasted enough time on this delusion +of saving Ruth Gardner; if she's to be saved, she must save +herself—and if she will not do that, then the whole world together is +of no avail. You're never going to come here again, or have anything +to do with her, or let her have a part in your life. Nor am I. She +walks out of our book, and we draw a pen across the bottom of the +page."</p> + +<p>Imogene had covered her face with her hands during his terrible +denunciation and was weeping softly. She knew it was true. She knew +that Ruth had gone out of her life, for such baseness as her one-time +friend had shown was not to be forgiven.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239"></a>"You're right—I can't go on here longer," she sobbed. "I'm sick, I'm +really sick. I've been barely crawling about for the last two days. +And she knew it and left me! Oh, Ruth, Ruth!"</p> + +<p>"And would have left you, storm or no storm, and whether I came or +not! In order to be alone with Gretzinger!" Her heart-breaking sobs +went on. "Don't weep, Imogene. Put her out of your mind." He gently +placed an arm about her shoulders. "Come, I will take you to Louise."</p> + +<p>That she had been "crawling about the last two days" was apparent when +she attempted to rise. Her strength suddenly vanished, her knees gave +way. Bryant secured her coat and cap, wrapped her in blankets from the +bed, and carried her out to the car. Then he put out her lamp and +locked the door.</p> + +<p>And that turning of the lock, Lee felt, terminated a painful chapter +of his life.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_240" id="Page_240"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXVII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>As by the girls' cabins, so before the Graham house, Lee perceived a +motor car. He brought his own machine to a stop near it and cut off +his engine. At the same instant the door opened in the house, where by +the light shining through the portal he saw Louise's and Charlie +Menocal's figures. Menocal stepped forth.</p> + +<p>"You will please go now," Louise was saying. "When you telephoned I +told you then that I shouldn't go with you, or go to the dance at +all."</p> + +<p>Bryant had alighted and was arranging the blankets about Imogene. +Charlie's voice spoke, rather truculently:</p> + +<p>"I told you I was coming for you, didn't I? Now see what a position +that leaves me in! People think you're coming. I promised to bring +you."</p> + +<p>"Then you were too presumptuous," Louise said. "Now go. You're only +making a bad matter worse."</p> + +<p>"See here, Louise——"</p> + +<p>"You had my refusal and I've repeated it a dozen times," she +interrupted, indignantly. "Must I shut the door in your face to +silence you? And here's another car. Have some regard for my personal +feelings, sir."</p> + +<p>Lee by now had lifted Imogene into his arms and started toward the +speakers.</p> + +<p>"Be a good sport, Louise," Menocal pursued, in a tone <a name="Page_241" id="Page_241"></a>intended to be +wheedling. "Run upstairs and put on a party dress while I wait for +you. You don't understand how much I want you to come along to this +dance." His words were a little thick and stumbling.</p> + +<p>"Hush! Don't you see someone has come? You've been drinking; and +you're sickening to me."</p> + +<p>"I don't care if someone is there! Let 'em hear, Louise. Let all the +world hear, let your father hear, let anybody hear! Because I love +you, and so you must come to the dance." Suddenly his tone changed to +an angry hiss. "You've been treating me like a cur, refusing to see me +or go with me, and not letting me come here. I came to-night! I've +stood for enough from you; you can't play me for a fool any longer. +And you're going to marry me, too."</p> + +<p>Bryant perceived by the lamplight of the doorway that the fellow had +snatched her hand, that the two were struggling. Burdened with Imogene +as he was, Lee was helpless to enterfere. But he went hastily up the +steps toward them. Louise tugged herself free.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you contemptible creature!" she cried, in a voice of quivering +passion. "It's only because you know father is out caring for stock +that you dare stay here to insult me." Then looking past Menocal, she +exclaimed, "Who is that?"</p> + +<p>"I, Bryant," said Lee. "With Imogene. She's ill, she needs to be put +to bed. There was no time to ask your permission to bring her, but I +knew——"</p> + +<p>"Of course! If this beast will stop making a scene and go!"</p> + +<p>Charlie Menocal was pulling on his fur cap.</p> + +<p>"So here's our swell-headed crook of an engineer butting <a name="Page_242" id="Page_242"></a>in again," +he sneered. "You better be hunting up your own chicken, or Gretzinger +will have her. Who y' say you got there?"</p> + +<p>"Stand aside!"</p> + +<p>Bryant's voice struck the other like the lash of a whip, and the +half-drunken youth instinctively fell back a pace, so that Lee could +pass with his charge into the house. But as Louise was about to follow +Menocal seized her arm.</p> + +<p>"Girlie, you're not going to throw me down? You'll be good to me and +come——"</p> + +<p>Louise shook off his hand, darted through the doorway, and quickly +closing the door turned the key in the lock. Then still grasping the +door-knob she leaned with her head against the panels, face white, +lips trembling, and her breast rising and falling stormily.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Lee! For you to be forced to see and hear that!" she said, in a +tone of anguish.</p> + +<p>"I think nothing of it; you could not avoid him."</p> + +<p>After a moment she recovered herself and said, "Wait until I call +Rosita."</p> + +<p>When she returned with the Mexican girl, she conducted Bryant to an +upper chamber where he placed Imogene upon a bed, pressed the latter's +hand assuringly, and then left her in charge of the other two while he +went below to telephone to her uncle. McDonnell had already set out +for Sarita Creek, his wife informed Lee. He had started about half an +hour before. Bryant went out of the house and entering his car drove +down the lane to the main road, where he stopped.</p> + +<p>Soon far away in the south there was a flash of light, <a name="Page_243" id="Page_243"></a>repeated at +intervals, until at length it grew into a steady, powerful glare that +threw his own machine into strong relief, that dazzled and blinded +him. Finally the other car stopped near by.</p> + +<p>"What's the trouble, Jack?" McDonnell's voice came, addressed to his +chauffeur.</p> + +<p>Bryant went forward to the banker, who was leaning out of the +limousine. He gave the information that neither of the girls was at +Sarita Creek and explained that Imogene was at the Graham house, +comfortable though ill.</p> + +<p>"She's too sick to be removed and will probably need a nurse for a +time," he concluded. "I brought her here as soon as I learned her +condition. Miss Graham put her to bed."</p> + +<p>"All right; I'll run in and see her. Much obliged to you, Bryant," was +the answer. Then in a vexed strain he went on, "What I expected to +happen has happened. Advice, pleadings, commands haven't prevented her +from following out this crazy affair. You may not believe it, but +she's as stubborn as a mule when she wants to be. My wife has been +almost distracted all winter. Well, I'll send up a doctor and a nurse +both as soon as I return to Kennard, if there's time before this +storm. Still at work?"</p> + +<p>"Still digging. Will keep at it till the last minute."</p> + +<p>"Supposed you would. That's the lane there, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>Next minute the big car had passed Lee's and was moving up the roadway +between the rows of cottonwoods toward the house. But Bryant did not +at once start for camp. His mind was busy with pictures—pictures of +the two girls as he first had seen them at Perro Creek, and at <a name="Page_244" id="Page_244"></a>their +cabins afterward, and finally to-night: Imogene, weak and racked by a +cough and huddling in a quilt beside her sheet-iron stove, and Ruth in +her own cabin, standing in the lamplight in her pink party dress with +round arms and throat showing through its filmy gauze, unconcerned and +intent upon her own ends.</p> + +<p>At last he glanced up at the impenetrable sky. Something soft and wet +had floated against his cheek. Then he saw here and there in the +funnel of light projected by his car lamps what looked like solitary +bits of white down sinking through the radiance. Snow!</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_245" id="Page_245"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXVIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>The first flakes were but the precursors of a heavy fall of snow that +almost immediately began, soundless, without wind, filling the air and +whitening the earth, and that was still continuing unabated two hours +later. It mantled the shoulders of the workmen and the withers of the +horses; it clogged the wheels of the fresnos so that dirt was moved +with ever-increasing difficulty; it veiled the flaring gasolene +torches and choked the night. Where a plow ran or a scraper scooped +earth, snow speedily obliterated the mark, and with the passing of +time both men and animals found it necessary to struggle more and more +desperately in the dirt cut against mud and snow and gloom.</p> + +<p>Carrigan contracted his working line, placing the torches at shorter +intervals and keeping the scrapers in close succession. The foremen +informed him frequently that the men were growing exhausted and +rebellious, but he ordered them to hold the crews at the task. He and +Bryant moved to and fro constantly, giving encouragement or lending a +hand to help start a stalled fresno. By sheer power of their wills +they were combatting the snow, forcing the work ahead, deepening the +stretch of excavation that had been opened that afternoon; by iron +determination they were wrenching out the last spadeful of earth +possible and exacting the final ounce of man power before the snow had +its way.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246"></a>The strange warmth continued. The temperature was not even down to +freezing and the men, muddied and wet to the knees, dripped with +perspiration, while the horses' flanks were soaked with both sweat and +melted snow. It was difficult to breathe, what with the heavy, +oppressive air and what with the fall of suffocating snow, constantly +growing thicker. Horses slipped and went down, but were raised again; +fresnos were mired, but freed once more; men gave out and were sent to +their camp. And the fight kept on.</p> + +<p>But about eleven o'clock Bryant felt a cool puff of air on his cheeks, +light and of brief duration. It was followed by a second, this time +quicker and stronger, blowing from the northwest and sending the snow +a-scurry in a slanting fog of flakes past the flames of the torches. +He studied this change for a moment, then sought out Carrigan.</p> + +<p>"Time to make a break for cover," he announced. "Wind is coming and +the devil will be to pay when once it picks up all this loose snow."</p> + +<p>"Well, we're about at a standstill, anyway," was the reply. "I'll have +the crews draw the scrapers and plows off at one side where we can get +at them. I had a spare horse tent put at the disposal of the Mexicans, +and have had men in both camps piling baled hay all evening around the +big tents for windbreaks. We'll issue extra blankets and crowd the +crews into the shacks and mess quarters where there are stoves."</p> + +<p>"What about water if our pipe freezes?"</p> + +<p>"Then the horses will eat snow like the range ponies, I guess—and the +rest of us, too."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247"></a>At that he went off to order the work stopped, as did Bryant. For some +time the wind blew only in those fitful puffs Lee had noted or died +down entirely for short periods; and of this fact the night shift took +advantage to assemble the fresnos and plows beside the canal and to +drive their horses to shelter. The crews of the north camp, being +fewer, got away first; and thither Bryant plowed through the snow with +them to see all made safe. When he returned, Carrigan was just herding +the last man and team toward the main camp. Together the contractor +and the engineer extinguished the torches, then made their way, +carrying a flare with them, toward the glow showing at the edge of the +camp, where an oil-soaked bale of hay burned as a guide. At their +backs the wind and snow blew with gradually increasing strength.</p> + +<p>They made the rounds of the horse tents packed with animals, the mess +tents packed with workmen—with those men only come and those newly +aroused from sleep and gathered here—of the shacks, the hospital, the +engineers' headquarters and the big commissary tent, all crowded with +white men and Mexicans, steaming with moisture, smoking cigarettes and +pipes, giving off a rank smell of clay and human bodies and wet +clothes and horses, who talked and laughed and waited restlessly. The +pair waded around examining guy-ropes, stakes, the protective walls +raised of hay bales. They took advantage of a sudden dropping of the +wind to go among the small tents, thrusting their flares within each +and having a look, to make certain no sleeper of the day shift had +been overlooked. Then at last they stumbled up the street to Bryant's +shack.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248"></a>The wind now had utterly died away. The snow had resumed its thick, +silent fall straight to earth. Carrigan was kicking his boots clean +against the door-sill when Lee exclaimed, "Listen to that, Pat!"</p> + +<p>Carrigan wiped the moisture from his ears and harkened.</p> + +<p>"That's the Limited coming, and making no stops," he remarked. "Get +in!"</p> + +<p>They entered the little building. The office contained the engineering +staff and several others. Tobacco smoke lay thick in the room.</p> + +<p>Outside, the faint whining sound was growing steadily in volume until +at last it deepened into a roar very like that of an approaching +express train, as Pat had suggested. Followed a smart blow on the +shack. Then it reeled and the night was filled with a howling tumult +that deafened the men inside; the blizzard had burst upon the mesa. +Through the windows one could see nothing, for the air had become a +black maelstrom of whirling snow and darkness where a choked roar +persisted as steadily as the bass thunder of Niagara. The warmth had +vanished; a cutting cold, as if striking direct from arctic ice, +minute by minute drove the mercury in the thermometer on Bryant's wall +downward with unbelievable swiftness. If anything, the fury of the +storm seemed to increase as time passed, swelling to such terrible +violence that one imagined nothing could withstand its force, its mad +blasts, its deadliness.</p> + +<p>"Those mess tents and horse tents," Lee said to Carrigan, anxiously.</p> + +<p>"They're safer under their lee of hay than is this little paper box +we're sitting in," the contractor replied. "I've <a name="Page_249" id="Page_249"></a>been through +blizzards before, and know how to meet them."</p> + +<p>From by the stove one of the engineers spoke.</p> + +<p>"But we'll never see some of those little tents any more. There are +several travelling toward Mexico by now."</p> + +<p>"And my new flannel shirt!" cried another, suddenly. "Washed it this +noon and hung it out on a line and forgot all about it. Oh, Lord, +where is it now?"</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, little shirt, we'll never see you more!" said the first, +sentimentally. "You'll be hanging on the Equator by morning."</p> + +<p>"While we're left here in the drifts," said a third. "Oh, the lovely, +big, white drifts there'll be to-morrow!"</p> + +<p>Toward one o'clock the first furious rush of the storm had passed and +it had settled into a fifty-mile-an-hour wind, bitterly cold, with +snow that drove against the building in fine particles. Freezing air +never ceased to enter the thin walls of boards and tar paper. It was +necessary to keep the cast-iron stove red-hot to secure anything like +comfort.</p> + +<p>And to this dreadful cold and snow, thought Lee, Imogene would have +been left deliberately by Ruth Gardner and Gretzinger!</p> + +<p>Carrigan bade the others roll up in their blankets and get what sleep +they could while he and Bryant tended the fire. Lee saw that Dave was +warm and well-wrapped. The men, worn out by prolonged exertions, made +themselves beds on the floor or stretched themselves out on their +seats, drew their coverings closer, closed their eyes, slept.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250"></a>The contractor and the engineer, together before the fire, continued +to talk in low tones.</p> + +<p>"Haven't told you yet," said Pat, presently, "but we picked up that +Mexican this evening who was trying to start a drunk Christmas Eve. It +was while you were at Sarita Creek. Saurez told me he had sneaked into +camp and meant mischief. Some of us caught him behind the commissary +tent with a can of oil, just ready to fire the camp."</p> + +<p>"A fine night for us all to have been left without shelter," Lee +remarked. "Where is he?"</p> + +<p>"In the hospital tied up, with a trusty man to watch him. Here's what +I found on him. Look inside." And Pat handed over a dirty leather bag +with a long string. "Found this around his neck."</p> + +<p>Lee extracted four pieces of paper from the sack—all checks drawn to +the order of F. Alvarez. Besides these there were two twenty-dollar +gold pieces, three rings, and several unset turquoises.</p> + +<p>"Well, we can make use of these checks," he said, after thought. "I'll +talk to the fellow to-morrow." He restored the miscellaneous +collection of property to the sack.</p> + +<p>On the panes of the small windows the snow beat and the wind hammered. +Carrigan stuffed the stove with pine knots. Afterward he refilled his +pipe, cast a sharp glance about at the sleeping occupants of the room, +and said:</p> + +<p>"You've got what you need now to mix medicine with the banker." He +confirmed his words with several satisfied nods.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Bryant.</p> + +<p>Carrigan proceeded to meditate.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251"></a>"Awhile back I sent for some more dynamite," he stated, breaking the +silence. "Didn't say anything to you about it at the time. It was +there in the commissary tent under a stack of cases of peaches and +bags of coffee. If this Alvarez had got his oil on that canvas and a +fire going, there sure would have been some fire-works. You would have +had a reservoir blown right in the middle of your project, I'm +thinking."</p> + +<p>"What in the name of heaven do you want with dynamite!"</p> + +<p>"Well, my boy, there's a lot of ground that can't be dug, but I never +saw any that nitro wouldn't move. What I got is dirt-blowing dynamite, +the kind powder companies sell for making drainage ditches and blowing +stumps and so on. I didn't know whether I should have to use it, but I +always like to have a trick up my sleeve. Powder is ordinarily too +expensive to employ when fresnos can work, yet it's just the thing in +a pinch. We're in an emergency now. If it should set in and snow right +along, with one storm on top of another, as may happen after so long a +mild season, powder even may not help us out. These last eight hundred +yards are going to make us weep before we're through, I'm guessing. +But just the same, I'm counting on this dynamite. It can't blow like +this forever, and the minute it quits we'll grab hold."</p> + +<p>Lee twisted about to look at a window. The particles of snow were +biting at the glass relentlessly, while the howl of the gale told only +too plainly how the drifts were being heaped on the dark mesa.</p> + +<p>"We'll finish this ditch on time even if hell freezes over," <a name="Page_252" id="Page_252"></a>he said, +slowly. "I'm not going to be beaten at this late day."</p> + +<p>He continued to sit gazing at the frosted panes and harkening to the +roaring blasts. On the floor and in the chairs the blanketed men slept +heavily. Pat fed the fire anew. But through the cracks of the walls +the cold sifted more and more intense, while along the edges of the +boards there formed thick fringes of glistening frost.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_253" id="Page_253"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXIX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>For four days the bitter cold and fierce wind held the camps in +thrall, then the latter blew itself out. The cold, however, still +endured though the sun shone. When one looked forth from camp, all +that could be seen was a snowbound earth; mesa and mountains were as +white and silent as some polar region; nothing moved; nothing seemed +to live out yonder. It was like a dazzling, frigid, extinct world.</p> + +<p>The main mesa road was blocked and telephone wires were down. What +went on outside the limits of the camp's snow-drifted horizon its +dwellers knew not—nor for the moment cared. Work was the only +thought. With hastily constructed snow-plows roads had been broken +among the tents and shacks as soon as the weather allowed, and +afterward broad paths made to the working ground. The section of undug +canal was now scraped bare. There, sheltered by tents and warmed by +sagebrush fires, men bored in the iron-like earth powder-holes in rows +that exactly aligned the canal. On the morning of the fifth day a +first stretch of fifty yards was blown out, whereupon teams and +scrapers were rushed into the ragged cavity to deepen and clear the +ditch before the soil froze anew. This was at the north end. In the +afternoon one hundred yards at the south end went up in a blast and +crews from the main camp fell upon this area.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254"></a>That night the sky clouded over again. All the next day snow came down +steadily. The workmen played cards in the mess tents and waited. +Carrigan busied himself at accounts and waited. Bryant waited, with +impatience and anxiety gnawing at his heart. There were six hundred +yards and more unexcavated, and but three days of his time remained.</p> + +<p>The snow ceased at nightfall and work was instantly resumed by aid of +the torches; again the desperate scraping of snow, bundled men at +fires and sheltered by windbreaks, the drilling of holes in the frozen +ground, the reliefs every two hours, the thawing of nipped fingers and +toes and noses. All night hot food and boiling coffee were served at +intervals to the cold and hungry labourers. At nine o'clock next +morning two hundred yards of dirt went spraying into the air, with the +subsequent struggle in the long hole: fresnos bearing forth what earth +was loose and what the plows broke out; the horses, blinded by the +glare of snow, staggering forward under curse and lash; the men +toiling in a sort of grim fury. A maximum of effort finished one +hundred and fifty yards more by eleven o'clock. Carrigan ordered all +work to stop until nine next morning.</p> + +<p>"The men are 'all in'," he told Lee. "We'll crack this last nut +to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"But what if it sets in to snow? More than two hundred and fifty yards +left to do, and only to-morrow and the day after to work."</p> + +<p>"We'll have to risk it."</p> + +<p>"Will your powder hold out?"</p> + +<p>"Yes." He regarded Bryant keenly. "Say, what you <a name="Page_255" id="Page_255"></a>need isn't +information but sleep. You worked all day yesterday, and all last +night, and to-day again, and here it is going on midnight. I'm going +to tell you the schedule for to-morrow to calm your mind, then you +roll into your blankets. At nine o'clock in the morning all hands +except the cooks go at the drills and stay by them till the stretch is +holed. Whenever that's done, which should be about evening, we shoot +the chunk. And after that we hit the bottom with every scraper and +fresno and horse and man, with the cooks fighting the coffee-boilers, +and never come out of the ditch till the last lump of dirt is moved. +That's the programme. I figure it will be about midnight when the last +card's turned, maybe an hour or so after. I promised the men double +wages and a box of cigars apiece out of the store and a few other +things perhaps—I don't remember. So you get your sleep, for there's a +big day ahead to-morrow. That dirt all goes out before you'll have +another chance to hit the hay."</p> + +<p>Bryant arose next morning at seven. The sky was overcast and the +thermometer was sixteen below zero when he examined it. Across the +snow he could see the north camp stirring to life, awakening in the +frosty, pallid light of dawn. Stretching thither ran uneven snowy +ridges, save at one place where they lay bare and brown—the banks of +the canal. When the small interval still undug was moved, the ditch +would be finished from river to ranch, from the Pinas down to Perro. +And this was to be the last day of toil! To-day the camps were to hurl +themselves at that short remaining strip of earth and tear it out; the +furrow so long pressed ahead through the iron ground was to be brought +to an end; <a name="Page_256" id="Page_256"></a>the enemy, frost, was to be conquered at last. When he +thought of the inexorable labour done under heart-breaking conditions, +in spite of cold and wind and snow, and with sufferings and +deprivations little considered. Bryant felt for the workmen, rough +though they were, a strong affection. They had done the bitter work.</p> + +<p>"Out goes the chunk to-day," was Pat's greeting that morning.</p> + +<p>A spirit of eagerness, almost of enthusiasm, pervaded the crews that +first went forth in the cold to work at the drills. It was the final +attack, and they went from their steaming breakfast with jests and +laughter that rang back over the snow. Sixteen below zero, and they +laughed! Bryant had a sudden conviction that nothing could stop such +men—neither weather, nor elements, nor fate itself. They were heroes +not to be daunted. They swung the hammer of Thor against the earth and +were worthy of an epic.</p> + +<p>Toward the middle of the afternoon of that day Carrigan said to the +engineer:</p> + +<p>"We're making better time than I calculated. The holes will all be +drilled by five o'clock; we're loading them as they're done and we'll +shoot at five-thirty."</p> + +<p>"What about supper?"</p> + +<p>"Supper at five. Then the men will be back and ready to jump in the +ditch when the shot's fired."</p> + +<p>"And be done twenty-four hours before the hour set by the Land and +Water Board," said Lee.</p> + +<p>"That's cutting it fine enough as it is. Who's that waving yonder +toward camp?" And Carrigan pointed a <a name="Page_257" id="Page_257"></a>mittened hand at a figure +swinging an arm and shouting Bryant's name.</p> + +<p>The engineer stared for a time.</p> + +<p>"Charlie Menocal," he said, finally. "Morgan—Morgan, come here!" he +called. And as Morgan came to join him, Lee addressed Pat, "I'll just +run over to Bartolo with this young scoundrel. The road's open and +I'll be back by dark. Want Morgan to come along to look after him and +Alvarez, the man you caught."</p> + +<p>"Better start back in plenty of time. The sky's thickening again. More +snow in sight, Lee."</p> + +<p>"I shall."</p> + +<p>"You might invite old man Menocal to return with you," Pat remarked, +with a grin, "and see us put the kibosh on his dream of owning the +Pinas River. What are you going to do with this boy of his? Send him +over the road?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't decided yet."</p> + +<p>"That's where he ought to go, after trying to burn us out the night of +the blizzard." He turned away to the work.</p> + +<p>"You're not to let this fellow over there waiting for us get away, +Morgan," Lee stated.</p> + +<p>"I'll freeze on to him."</p> + +<p>They went along the snowy path toward camp, coming up with Menocal, +who waited until they arrived and then accompanied them toward +Bryant's office.</p> + +<p>"Have a letter for you from Ruth," he said. "Had a terrible time +getting up from Kennard. Road isn't half opened, but I found a man to +drive me home. Promised Ruth to deliver this to you."</p> + +<p>He drew the letter from an inner pocket and handed it to <a name="Page_258" id="Page_258"></a>the +engineer, who glanced at the writing on the envelope, his own name, +and shoved the epistle into his glove. When they gained camp, Lee +said:</p> + +<p>"Morgan and I are going to Bartolo with you, and also a friend of +yours called Alvarez. We nabbed him as he was trying to burn our camp +about two hours before the blizzard. Take this man to headquarters, +Morgan, and keep him till I come over."</p> + +<p>Menocal's face became livid with anger and alarm.</p> + +<p>"Let me go, damn you!" he shouted, shrilly.</p> + +<p>Bryant waved a hand towards the engineers' shack and thither Charlie +was propelled, cursing and struggling, in Morgan's firm grasp. +Entering his office, Lee closed the door, walked to the stove, and +standing there produced the letter. It was the first and only missive +he had ever received from Ruth. He gazed at the envelope and the +scrawled writing on it with an impression of strangeness, but this +gave way to a curiosity as to the contents. He had a strong suspicion +of the letter's purport. Ruth would have reviewed her conduct that +night at Sarita Creek, and, with her instinctive cunning, perceived it +would alienate Lee. The message doubtless carried an adroit +explanation and excuse, ending up with numerous declarations of her +affection and hypocritical assertions of her anxiety on his account. +Disgust overwhelmed him. He was minded to cast the thing into the +stove unread. At last, however, muttering to himself, he thrust a +forefinger under the flap and ripped the envelope open. A newspaper +clipping that had been enclosed in the letter dropped to the floor. He +read:</p> +<br /> + +<div class="block" style="font-size: 90%;"> +<p class="noin sc">Dear Lee:</p><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259"></a> + +<p>After thinking the matter over very carefully, I've decided to +release you from our engagement. If this pains you, as I fear +it will, I'm extremely sorry, but I've discovered that we're +not temperamentally suited to each other. You've failed, +besides, so I understand, which further convinces me of that. +And in addition, I've learned of late that I love another, who +loves me. Therefore it's much better that I take this step, +much better and much wiser—don't you think so? However, Lee, +I shall always be your friend.</p> + +<p>It may interest you to know that this evening Mr. Gretzinger +and I are to be married. Privately, with only a few close +friends. We depart immediately after the ceremony for New +York. Mr. Menocal is to pack my things at Sarita Creek, so you +need not bother about them. I understand Imogene is visiting +at the Graham ranch; I'm dropping her a note there telling her +the news.</p> + +<p class="right"> +With best wishes,<br /> +<span class="sc">Ruth.</span></p> +</div> + + +<p>Bryant lifted from the floor and read the clipping. It was a short +announcement, evidently from a Kennard paper, of the prospective +wedding that night of Miss Ruth Gardner, of Sarita Creek, and Mr. J. +Senton Gretzinger, of New York.</p> + +<p>When he had read this, Lee gently tilted and shook the envelope. But +no diamond solitaire dropped out.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_260" id="Page_260"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>They were waiting in the sheriff's office in the court house in +Bartolo. They were waiting for Mr. Menocal. Winship had sent a +messenger for him. At one place in the room, handcuffed and tied, sat +the evil-eyed Alvarez; at another sat Charlie Menocal, silent and +apprehensive and with a sickly pallor showing under his dusky skin; +and between them lounged Morgan. The sheriff and Bryant stood across +the room conversing of the storm.</p> + +<p>"I thought your goose was cooked when that blizzard hit us," Winship +was saying.</p> + +<p>"Froze, you mean," was Lee's smiling reply. "I thought so myself for a +while. We've hammered along, however. To-night the last dirt goes +out."</p> + +<p>"That was an idea now—powder."</p> + +<p>"It was Carrigan's, not mine. It saved us. The old man has forgotten +more than I ever knew. Here's the banker now."</p> + +<p>The door swung open, admitting Menocal, blinking from the snow's +sheen. He bade the sheriff and the engineer good day, glanced sharply +at them and then at the others. When his look encountered his son, his +eyebrows went up.</p> + +<p>"So you're home finally," he addressed him. "After two weeks' time!" +His regard moved about from one to another of the trio. "What does +this mean, Charlie? Who is that <a name="Page_261" id="Page_261"></a>fellow wearing handcuffs?" He paused, +staring steadily at his son. "What have you been doing to bring you +into Winship's office?" As Charlie continued to sit silent, he turned +to the sheriff.</p> + +<p>"I'll explain, Mr. Menocal, but what I have to say won't be pleasant +hearing for you," Lee stated, at a nod from Winship. "Take this chair, +if you please."</p> + +<p>The banker sat down, heavily. He sighed, while his fat cheeks shook +with a slight tremble.</p> + +<p>"What has he done?" he asked, with his eyes fixed on an ink-well on +the sheriff's desk.</p> + +<p>Briefly and without temper Bryant related the circumstance of seeing +Alvarez in Kennard one day during the previous summer, when the man +appeared to be watching him. Charlie was also in town on that day. +Alvarez was the man who had attempted to make the workmen drunk in +camp on Christmas Eve, but he had escaped on that occasion. He had +stolen into camp again on the afternoon preceding the blizzard and two +hours after sundown had been captured seeking to fire the commissary +tent. When made a prisoner, he had been searched. On his person were +found several checks for sums ranging from fifty to one hundred +dollars. Bryant drew the leather sack from his pocket, extracted the +checks, and handed them to the banker.</p> + +<p>"You see they are given by your son," said he. "I've questioned this +Alvarez and he has finally admitted that he was employed by Charlie +and instructed by him what to do. Your son, therefore, is the +instigator of the attempted crime, and Alvarez, an ignorant and brutal +outlaw from Mexico, was merely his tool. I pass over the matter of the +whisky <a name="Page_262" id="Page_262"></a>and the petty inconveniences earlier caused me and my men. But +here is an act of a different character, Mr. Menocal. The man's +endeavour to fire our camp, had it been successful, would perhaps have +resulted in the death of scores of men, as the storm broke shortly +after and they would have been without shelter."</p> + +<p>Charlie Menocal sprang to his feet.</p> + +<p>"Before God, I didn't know he would choose that night!" he cried, +passionately. "I meant only to stop their work!"</p> + +<p>His father shook his head sadly.</p> + +<p>"That makes no difference, my son; you planned a wicked deed," he +said, in a barely audible voice.</p> + +<p>Morgan pushed the young man back upon his chair and Bryant went on. As +he proceeded, he had found it harder and harder to address the parent; +and his task was no easier now. The eyes of the father had gone to the +slender, sagging figure of his son and seemed to be the eyes of an +expiring man; his plump cheeks were working under an excess of +emotion; then his head went down suddenly as under the blow of a club.</p> + +<p>"Because of the character of the act," Lee said, "it wasn't only a +stroke at me but at every animal and man in the entire south camp. I +want to make this clear in order to show how black and dastardly the +thing was. Whether Charlie understood or intended the destruction of +all the lives and property there is no excuse; it was a deed that +would have carried terrible results in its train. I don't even let my +mind conceive them. All this has followed, Mr. Menocal, from the +single fact that your son disliked me in the <a name="Page_263" id="Page_263"></a>beginning. To that may +be added an idea that I was depriving you of something to which I had +no right, namely, the title to the Perro Creek canal appropriation. +And there, I think, responsibility for his course touches you."</p> + +<p>He paused to gaze at the Mexican, whose face had become drained of +colour.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Menocal, the water is mine," he continued, "and to-night some +time it will be mine beyond all dispute, for then the ditch will be +finished. So much for that. Some days ago we had a talk that, I +believe, led us each to a better opinion of the other. I think that as +a leader here in Bartolo and around about you're a force for good; you +believe in law, order, and education; and I know, from what I've +learned, that you carry many of the people on store accounts for long +periods when crops are bad or when they are distressed by sickness. +I'm confident you're endeavouring to elevate them so far as possible; +and I admit frankly that I've modified very greatly my first +estimation of you. That weighs in the scale against Charlie's actions.</p> + +<p>"Then there's one kindness Charlie himself has done me, though he may +not be aware of the fact. I'll not say what it is; let it suffice that +it is the case. A very great kindness it was, indeed! I count that +likewise in the opposite scale. And then there are other things to +consider, one among them that after all no harm has come to me. The +enmity he's held for me has simply recoiled upon his own head. All he +has to show for it after months of hating and contriving is his +position here in this room to-day—and a dead dog. Surely it must make +plain to him that his course has been not only futile but foolish."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264"></a>The engineer glanced at the young fellow. He sat in an attitude of +despair that almost equalled his father's.</p> + +<p>"Well, that brings me to the point," Bryant said. "You've been too +indulgent with Charlie, Mr. Menocal, as you once acknowledged to me. +You've given him too much money, too much admiration, too much head, +and it has led him up against the bars of the state prison. The +question is whether or not I shall open the gate and push him in, as +at first I determined to do on securing the proof in this leather +sack. If I thought he would keep on along his present line, I should +say yes, merely as a matter of public policy, but I've had several +days to think the thing over and have come to the conclusion he'll +soon realize his folly, if he doesn't now. And another restraint +should be the good name and the happiness of his father. I'm not +vindictive, Mr. Menocal, and less on this day than I've ever been. I +don't believe in causing people misery merely for the pleasure of +inflicting it or because I happen to have the power. We all have +enough to contend with, as it is. I don't propose to ruin your +position here, and end your influence, and blast your life, by sending +your son to the penitentiary. That would make me no happier, and would +make a number of people infinitely wretched, while perhaps starting +Charlie on the road to hell. Very likely so. I much prefer to see +everyone cheerful and at work. Suppose we ship this fellow yonder back +to Mexico—Winship can arrange that—and destroy the checks, and tear +up this sheet of Charlie's record, so to speak. Only one or two +persons besides ourselves know of the matter and I'll ask them to +forget it."</p> + +<p>Lee struck a match and ignited the checks, holding them <a name="Page_265" id="Page_265"></a>while they +burned until at last he dropped them on the floor, where they blazed, +curled up in strips of black ash, and were no more. He glanced about +at the others. Winship was picking his teeth with a quill toothpick, +with his mind apparently far away on other matters. Morgan stolidly +chewed tobacco and kept a wary eye on the bandit, Alvarez. Charlie sat +pale, limp, gazing at nothing. The elder Menocal had lifted his eyes +to Bryant, at whom he looked mistily; he appeared to have aged +astonishingly, his cheeks having gone flabby, slack, and gray, while a +slight tremour shook his head.</p> + +<p>"That's all, I guess," Bryant said, briskly. "We'll just consider our +relations established on the same footing they were before this +occurrence."</p> + +<p>He put out a hand, smiling. The banker struggled to his feet and +clasped it in both of his.</p> + +<p>"They shall not be on the same footing, but on a better one, Mr. +Bryant, if it's in my power to make them so," he exclaimed, in a +choked voice.</p> + +<p>"That suits me right down to the ground, Mr. Menocal."</p> + +<p>The Mexican was silent. His lips parted, quivered, and shut again. His +hold on the engineer's hand tightened.</p> + +<p>"I—I can't talk now, can't say what I wish to say," he said, mastered +by feeling. "When I'm more myself, when I can talk—another time——" +He ceased, but presently finished, "Another time I'll tell the +gratitude in my heart. Now my shame for my son and for myself——Come, +Charlie, take me home."</p> + +<p>They went out. Winship came to life and crossing the <a name="Page_266" id="Page_266"></a>room dragged the +outlaw Mexican to his feet, then pushed him over the floor and into +the hall on his way to the cells in the basement. Morgan pulled on his +hat. Bryant glanced at the paper ashes on the floor, then did +likewise. It was time to get back to camp.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_267" id="Page_267"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXXI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>The first snowflakes of another storm were beginning to flutter down +by the time the two men reached camp, and dusk had set in. On the +drifted road from Bartolo, over which but few wagons had passed, +travel was slow and they had consumed an hour and a half on their +return. The torches were burning along the canal, appearing at a +distance like winter fireflies, but the crews of workmen had gone to +supper. Bryant and Morgan, when they drove down the street in camp, +could hear them at their meal in the glowing mess tents—a subdued +hubbub of plates and knives and voices.</p> + +<p>Half an hour later they were pouring forth toward the horse tents, +while the engineers were making their way along the torch-lit path to +the stretch of undug canal.</p> + +<p>"We'll allow fifteen minutes for them to get the teams out, then +shoot," Carrigan said to Lee, as they moved along. "All the shots are +in and double-fused. Doesn't appear to be any wind behind this snow."</p> + +<p>The air, though cold, was still. The flakes were not yet falling +heavily and they lay on the hard crust of snow as light as silk fluff. +What might be coming down in another hour from the darkness overhead, +however, could not be foretold, while if both a gale and a great fall +of snow occurred the labour of the night would be increased a +hundred-fold.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268"></a>Bryant's anxiety was no longer on account of the time limit fixed by +the Land and Water Board. He knew that since the revelations made in +the sheriff's office the claimant Rodriguez would never press his +case, even were the canal never completed. But he had the keen desire +of a tired man to clean up the job and be done, and a pride in keeping +faith with himself in accomplishing what he had sworn he should do, +build the project in ninety days. He would never have it said by any +one that he had failed in that. By Gretzinger, for example. Ruth in +particular! She believed that he had already failed when she wrote her +letter.</p> + +<p>By the end of the quarter of an hour prescribed by Carrigan teams and +workmen were coming along the snowy road in a long line. From the +north camp also a string of animals in pairs was advancing by light of +the torches. A warning shout sounded from the ditch section. Men +retreated. Then a roaring boom burst upon the night, with other +thunderous reports following in rapid succession, until it seemed that +the mined earth cascading upward in the darkness was the bombardment +of scores of cannon. The flames of the torches and the falling snow +tossed and whirled at the percussion of air. Showers of clay rained +upon the earth. Vibrations jarred the ground.</p> + +<p>Then the companies of horses and men, fastening upon scrapers, +hastened into the trench. The remaining strip that joined the two +sections of canal had been blown out and now this was the final, +culminating assault. When this two hundred and fifty yards of ditch +line had been widened and deepened to correspond to the rest, water +would flow of <a name="Page_269" id="Page_269"></a>summers in a small river from the dam down to the broad +acres of Perro Creek ranch.</p> + +<p>Hour after hour the steady labour proceeded—plows ran; flat scrapers +and wheeled fresnos followed, scooped up the earth, bore it to the +banks above; horses tugged and strained; men toiled, pausing only to +thaw their feet and hands at fires burning by the ditch or to drain +great tin-cups of the scalding coffee that the cooks dipped from cans. +And steadily the excavation widened and deepened hour by hour, the +slope of the sides becoming apparent, the banks rising higher and the +ditch assuming its desired shape and size. At eleven o'clock the cooks +wheeled immense canisters of sliced beef and bread among the workmen, +who seized the food and ate it as they worked. At midnight the plows +were cutting near the bottom, and the work was going faster, as the +frost did not strike this deep into the soil. At one o'clock in the +morning, amid thickening snow, the last scraperfuls of dirt were going +out, while the engineers, with their long rules, were checking depths +and slopes.</p> + +<p>"By golly, she's about done!" exclaimed Dave, who had been permitted +to remain up on this eventful night and who had been moving about, +here, there, and everywhere, in a great state of excitement. "By +golly, she is, Lee!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, by golly; the ditch you helped me survey, too."</p> + +<p>"By golly, yes!" He had forgotten that.</p> + +<p>The last dirt moved with a rush. Then, even as the teams were dragging +the loads from the excavation, Carrigan passed to a foreman the word +that announced the end of work. It ran along the canal from mouth to +mouth, at first in a call but finally in a shout that swelled to a +roar of <a name="Page_270" id="Page_270"></a>exultation. That roar rang over the snow and through the +night like the cry of an army which has gained a walled city.</p> + +<p>"Done!" said Bryant, to himself.</p> + +<p>Back to the camps trooped the teams and men by the flare of the +torches they carried in jubilation. Not a soul in all that company but +felt the triumph beating in Lee's heart. Finished, built! Despite +frost and snow they had driven the iron furrow through to the end, and +on time. Toil-weary though they were, their spirits were light. They +knew themselves fellow-workers in a redoubtable achievement.</p> + +<p>Carrigan and Bryant were among the last to go. To the latter there was +in the fact of completion a sense of unreality. As he took a final +view of the ditch before setting out for camp, events raced through +his mind—his coming, his first labours, the confused interplay of his +life with those of the Menocals, McDonnell, Gretzinger, Carrigan, +Imogene, Ruth, and Louise; the months of incessant toil; of +brain-racking and body-wearing endeavour to force the canal forward; +of unresting strife with frost and snow and earth, of being under a +pitiless hammer. He could not easily realize that he was now free of +all this.</p> + +<p>"I have an empty feeling," he remarked to Carrigan.</p> + +<p>"One always has a 'let-down' after a hard job," was Pat's sage +rejoinder. "You'll feel restless for maybe a week now."</p> + +<p>They went from the spot up the snowy road and turned in at Pat's shack +for a smoke. Late as it was, neither felt the need of sleep as yet.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271"></a>"Well, it's a comfort to know that we don't have to plug again at that +ground in the morning," Lee remarked, with a sigh of satisfaction. He +had his feet on the table, his body relaxed, and his pipe going.</p> + +<p>"Yeah. The only disappointment I have," Pat said, "is not having +lifted the bonds and stocks out of Gretzinger. If we hadn't been so +pressed for time, we might have played him a little till he took the +hook. I don't like his kind at all."</p> + +<p>Bryant laughed.</p> + +<p>"Why, he's the best friend I have," he exclaimed. "What do you think +he did for me?"</p> + +<p>"Well, what? Besides trying to shake you down?"</p> + +<p>"Pat, he carried off and married my girl."</p> + +<p>The contractor lowered his feet, placed his hands upon his knees, and +gazed at Bryant, with brows down-drawn and under lip up-thrust.</p> + +<p>"That good-for-nothing Ruth what's-her-name?" he demanded. In all the +months of their association it was the first time he had ever spoken +of her to Bryant.</p> + +<p>"Ruth Gardner, yes."</p> + +<p>Carrigan rose, gave Lee a long and solemn look, then went to a trunk +in the corner of the room. This he unlocked and opened. From its +interior he produced a black bottle.</p> + +<p>"I don't take a drink very often," he announced, coming forward and +setting the bottle on the table, "but this is one of the times. We'll +take one to celebrate your luck."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_272" id="Page_272"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXXII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>About the middle of the next afternoon Lee Bryant was riding southward +from camp on the main mesa trail. The road was difficult and his horse +Dick made slow time along the snowy path broken by wagons through the +drifts, but the rider let the animal choose his own gait, as he had +done that hot July day when coming up from the south to buy the Perro +Creek ranch. On reaching the ford Lee pulled rein. How different now +the creek from on that burning afternoon of his encounter with Ruth +Gardner and Imogene Martin! Snow covered its bed; the sands where he +had knelt, the little pool, the foot-prints, lay hidden from sight. +How much had happened since! And how different was his life! He had +suffered much and learned much since that hour of meeting; and he +should never henceforth view this spot without a little feeling of +melancholy. The youth and two girls who drank there at the rill were +no more: they had become other persons.</p> + +<p>Presently he dismissed thoughts of this and set Dick wading across the +ford. Yonder he now could see the three bare cottonwoods, with the low +adobe house near by where he and Dave had lived and laboured at the +surveys for the project. The bones of his dog Mike, too, rested there +under the ground. This brought to mind the meeting with Louise upon +the road—and it was Louise to <a name="Page_273" id="Page_273"></a>whom at this moment he was going. He +began to urge Dick to greater efforts. Once on a stretch of road, bare +and wind-swept, he pushed him into a gallop. It seemed interminable, +this snow-bound trail. But at last he crossed Sarita Creek (with but a +single glance at the cañon's mouth where the two cabins stood +untenanted and abandoned among the naked trees) and then covered the +long miles to Diamond Creek, and rode up the lane between the rows of +cottonwoods to the house, where Louise, who had perceived his approach +from a window, appeared at the door to greet him.</p> + +<p>"We were terribly alarmed for your safety the night of the blizzard," +she said, "but the mail-man finally made his trip to Bartolo and back, +and said you were still there and not blown away. And he also stated +that you were working night and day."</p> + +<p>"Not any more," said Lee, swinging from the saddle.</p> + +<p>"You have finished! I can read it on your face!" she cried, joyfully.</p> + +<p>"Yes; we threw out the last clod at one o'clock this morning."</p> + +<p>"I needn't tell you that I'm proud and happy; you know that, Lee. Even +happier than when I learned you were able to continue, at the time you +supposed you were unable. Put up your horse and come in. You're half +frozen."</p> + +<p>Bryant endeavoured to discover from her face what he wished to know, +but did not succeed. So he asked:</p> + +<p>"Have you had your mail lately?"</p> + +<p>"Not for three days. The mail-man made one trip and then the next snow +closed the road again to Kennard."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274"></a>Lee went off to stable Dick. On his return he found Louise at the door +still waiting, and she helped him to remove his overcoat and scarf +when they passed in to the fire. Then they pushed a divan forward and +she bade him spread out his hands before the blaze.</p> + +<p>"It wasn't so long ago that we agreed we mustn't see each other again, +and here we are together," he stated, with a pretense of solemnity. He +extended his hands to the heat and moved his fingers about to expel +their numbness. "I don't know what your father would say if he knew +all the circumstances."</p> + +<p>"I—I don't know, either," Louise stammered, in dismay at the thought.</p> + +<p>"How's Imogene?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"Improving slowly. All she needed was to get away from that horrid +cabin and horrid—well, surroundings."</p> + +<p>"And your father's here?"</p> + +<p>"At one of the feed corrals, I think. He had all the cattle rounded up +before the blizzard and held here and fed. A big task, with several +thousand head."</p> + +<p>"Then we're safe," said Lee.</p> + +<p>Louise looked at him doubtfully. She knew not what to make of this +talk and his portentous air, and felt a new apprehension rising in her +mind.</p> + +<p>"What is it? What has happened now, Lee?" she whispered.</p> + +<p>But all at once he began to laugh. He caught her hand and holding it +gazed, smiling, into her eyes. Then he drew from his pocket an +envelope, which (still keeping prisoner the hand he had captured) he +waved to and fro before her eyes.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275"></a>"If I didn't know you well, I'd think you had lost your wits," she +cried.</p> + +<p>"I have—wits and heart both. With joy! Wait, I'll take the letter out +so that you can read it. The only blessed thing I ever knew her to do! +I bless her for it, at any rate." He pulled the letter and the +clipping from their cover and laid them in Louise's hand. "Read, read +the tidings!"</p> + +<p>The girl's fingers began to tremble as her eyes flitted along the +lines. But she read no more than the first part of the letter. She +turned to him with her eyes misty, her face radiant.</p> + +<p>"I could weep for happiness—but I'm not going to." She made a little +dab with her handkerchief at her lashes. "Oh, Lee, to think you're +free! And that now we may love each other!"</p> + +<p>"I thought we did."</p> + +<p>"Of course we did—but you know what I mean."</p> + +<p>"You didn't read it all," said he. "You don't know yet the poor +opinion she has of me."</p> + +<p>Louise crumpled the letter in her hand and cast it into the flames.</p> + +<p>"Nor do I want to know it," she exclaimed. "All I care about is my own +opinion of you, and our love. That's enough. Perhaps we shall be all +the happier for the little misery she caused us."</p> + +<p>Her eyes dwelt proudly upon him, upon his face that showed new lines +of strength, that was clear and calm, that revealed a spirit come to +full manhood, that was luminous with the love she inspired. He had +taken her hands and was regarding her tenderly.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276"></a>"Ruth rendered me one service," said he. "She taught me that there's +an appearance which may be mistaken for the substance. That shall be +to her credit." He sat silent, smiling thoughtfully for a moment. Then +he raised his eyes and drew Louise toward him. "But you, Louise, awoke +real love."</p> + +<p>His arms enclosed her fast and their lips met in a first kiss.</p> + +<p>"We shall walk among the flowers and in the orchard again, Lee dear," +she murmured, "as we did once before. And I shall bring you buttermilk +as I did that morning—but there will be no Charlie Menocal."</p> + +<p>"No. Charlie won't annoy us in the future."</p> + +<p>"And when the snow is gone we'll ride along your canal——"</p> + +<p>"Our canal now, sweetheart."</p> + +<p>"Along our canal and see where you worked so hard and struggled and +won, and I'll listen while you point here and there and tell of the +obstacles overcome, and of all you did. We shall be gay and happy."</p> + +<p>"As I'm happy now," he said, softly. "Do you know what I see there in +the firelight? A building, a house—our home."</p> + +<p>Louise's face lifted to his, all sweetness and trust.</p> + +<p>"I see it, too," she murmured.</p> + +<p>"On Perro Creek ranch," Lee continued, "with the sagebrush gone and in +its place fields of grain and alfalfa spreading out to the horizon, +with water rippling along in little canals and fat cows standing +about, and contented farmers at work, and perhaps a railroad somewhere +in the background, <a name="Page_277" id="Page_277"></a>and ourselves in the foreground by our new home, +where flowers are growing, too, and—and——"</p> + +<p>Louise's arms slipped up and about his neck, until her cheek rested +against his.</p> + +<p>"You dream and then you build—you dream and make your dreams come +true," she said. "You're my dreamer-builder."</p> + +<p>Lee was smiling. The caress in her words, the warm touch of her cheek, +her heart beating against his, all made his happiness complete.</p> + +<p>"And your lover," he whispered.</p> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>THE END</h4> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="ad"> +<h2>Popular Copyright Novels</h2> + +<h3><i>AT MODERATE PRICES</i></h3> + +<h3 class="norm">Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular +Copyright Fiction</h3> + +<hr style='width: 45%; color: black; background-color: inherit;' /> +<br /> + +<div class="block"> +<b>Adventures of Jimmie Dale, The.</b> By Frank L. Packard.<br /> +<b>Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.</b> By A. Conan Doyle.<br /> +<b>After House, The.</b> By Mary Roberts Rinehart.<br /> +<b>Ailsa Paige.</b> By Robert W. Chambers.<br /> +<b>Alton of Somasco.</b> By Harold Bindloss.<br /> +<b>Amateur Gentleman, The.</b> By Jeffery Farnol.<br /> +<b>Anna, the Adventuress.</b> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.<br /> +<b>Anne's House of Dreams.</b> By L.M. Montgomery.<br /> +<b>Around Old Chester.</b> By Margaret Deland.<br /> +<b>Athalie.</b> By Robert W. Chambers.<br /> +<b>At the Mercy of Tiberius.</b> By Augusta Evans Wilson.<br /> +<b>Auction Block, The.</b> By Rex Beach.<br /> +<b>Aunt Jane of Kentucky.</b> By Eliza C. Hall.<br /> +<b>Awakening of Helena Richie.</b> By Margaret Deland.<br /> +<br /> +<b>Bab: a Sub-Deb.</b> By Mary Roberts Rinehart.<br /> +<b>Barrier, The.</b> By Rex Beach.<br /> +<b>Barbarians.</b> By Robert W. Chambers.<br /> +<b>Bargain True, The.</b> By Nalbro Bartley.<br /> +<b>Bar 20.</b> By Clarence E. Mulford.<br /> +<b>Bar 20 Days.</b> By Clarence E. Mulford.<br /> +<b>Bars of Iron, The.</b> By Ethel M. Dell.<br /> +<b>Beasts of Tarzan, The.</b> By Edgar Rice Burroughs.<br /> +<b>Beloved Traitor, The.</b> By Frank L. Packard.<br /> +<b>Beltane the Smith.</b> By Jeffery Farnol.<br /> +<b>Betrayal, The.</b> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.<br /> +<b>Beyond the Frontier.</b> By Randall Parrish.<br /> +<b>Big Timber.</b> By Bertrand W. Sinclair.<br /> +<b>Black Is White.</b> By George Barr McCutcheon.<br /> +<b>Blind Man's Eyes, The.</b> By Wm. MacHarg and Edwin Balmer.<br /> +<b>Bob, Son of Battle.</b> By Alfred Ollivant.<br /> +<b>Boston Blackie.</b> By Jack Boyle.<br /> +<b>Boy with Wings, The.</b> By Berta Ruck.<br /> +<b>Brandon of the Engineers.</b> By Harold Bindloss.<br /> +<b>Broad Highway, The.</b> By Jeffery Farnol.<br /> +<b>Brown Study, The.</b> By Grace S. Richmond.<br /> +<b>Bruce of the Circle A.</b> By Harold Titus.<br /> +<b>Buck Peters, Ranchman.</b> By Clarence E. Mulford.<br /> +<b>Business of Life, The.</b> By Robert W. Chambers.<br /> +</div> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="ad"> +<h2>Popular Copyright Novels</h2> + +<h3><i>AT MODERATE PRICES</i></h3> + +<h3 class="norm">Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular +Copyright Fiction</h3> + +<hr style='width: 45%; color: black; background-color: inherit;' /> +<br /> + +<div class="block"> +<b>Cabbages and Kings.</b> By O. Henry.<br /> +<b>Cabin Fever.</b> By B.M. Bower.<br /> +<b>Calling of Dan Matthews, The.</b> By Harold Bell Wright.<br /> +<b>Cape Cod Stories.</b> By Joseph C. Lincoln.<br /> +<b>Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper.</b> By James A. Cooper.<br /> +<b>Cap'n Dan's Daughter.</b> By Joseph C. Lincoln.<br /> +<b>Cap'n Eri.</b> By Joseph C. Lincoln.<br /> +<b>Cap'n Jonah's Fortune.</b> By James A. Cooper.<br /> +<b>Cap'n Warren's Wards.</b> By Joseph C. Lincoln.<br /> +<b>Chain of Evidence, A.</b> By Carolyn Wells.<br /> +<b>Chief Legatee, The.</b> By Anna Katharine Green.<br /> +<b>Cinderella Jane.</b> By Marjorie B. Cooke.<br /> +<b>Cinema Murder, The.</b> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.<br /> +<b>City of Masks, The.</b> By George Barr McCutcheon.<br /> +<b>Cleek of Scotland Yard.</b> By T.W. Hanshew.<br /> +<b>Cleek, The Man of Forty Faces.</b> By Thomas W. Hanshew.<br /> +<b>Cleek's Government Cases.</b> By Thomas W. Hanshew.<br /> +<b>Clipped Wings.</b> By Rupert Hughes.<br /> +<b>Clue, The.</b> By Carolyn Wells.<br /> +<b>Clutch of Circumstance, The.</b> By Marjorie Benton Cooke.<br /> +<b>Coast of Adventure, The.</b> By Harold Bindloss.<br /> +<b>Coming of Cassidy, The.</b> By Clarence E. Mulford.<br /> +<b>Coming of the Law, The.</b> By Chas. A. Seltzer.<br /> +<b>Conquest of Canaan, The.</b> By Booth Tarkington.<br /> +<b>Conspirators, The.</b> By Robert W. Chambers.<br /> +<b>Court of Inquiry, A.</b> By Grace S. Richmond.<br /> +<b>Cow Puncher, The.</b> By Robert J.C. Stead.<br /> +<b>Crimson Gardenia, The, and Other Tales of Adventure.</b> By Rex Beach.<br /> +<b>Cross Currents.</b> By Author of "Pollyanna."<br /> +<b>Cry in the Wilderness, A.</b> By Mary E. Waller.<br /> +<br /> +<b>Danger, And Other Stories.</b> By A. Conan Doyle.<br /> +<b>Dark Hollow, The.</b> By Anna Katharine Green.<br /> +<b>Dark Star, The.</b> By Robert W. Chambers.<br /> +<b>Daughter Pays, The.</b> By Mrs. Baillie Reynolds.<br /> +<b>Day of Days, The.</b> By Louis Joseph Vance.<br /> +<b>Depot Master, The.</b> By Joseph C. Lincoln.<br /> +<b>Desired Woman, The.</b> By Will N. Harben.<br /> +</div> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="ad"> +<h2>Popular Copyright Novels</h2> + +<h3><i>AT MODERATE PRICES</i></h3> + +<h3 class="norm">Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular +Copyright Fiction</h3> + +<hr style='width: 45%; color: black; background-color: inherit;' /> +<br /> + +<div class="block"> +<b>Destroying Angel, The</b>. By Louis Jos. Vance.<br /> +<b>Devil's Own, The.</b> By Randall Parrish.<br /> +<b>Double Traitor, The.</b> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.<br /> +<br /> +<b>Empty Pockets.</b> By Rupert Hughes.<br /> +<b>Eyes of the Blind, The.</b> By Arthur Somers Roche.<br /> +<b>Eye of Dread, The.</b> By Payne Erskine.<br /> +<b>Eyes of the World, The.</b> By Harold Bell Wright.<br /> +<b>Extricating Obadiah.</b> By Joseph C. Lincoln.<br /> +<br /> +<b>Felix O'Day.</b> By F. Hopkinson Smith.<br /> +<b>54-40 or Fight.</b> By Emerson Hough.<br /> +<b>Fighting Chance, The.</b> By Robert W. Chambers.<br /> +<b>Fighting Shepherdess, The.</b> By Caroline Lockhart.<br /> +<b>Financier, The.</b> By Theodore Dreiser.<br /> +<b>Flame, The.</b> By Olive Wadsley.<br /> +<b>Flamsted Quarries</b>. By Mary E. Wallar.<br /> +<b>Forfeit, The.</b> By Ridgwell Cullum.<br /> +<b>Four Million, The.</b> By O. Henry.<br /> +<b>Fruitful Vine, The.</b> By Robert Hichens.<br /> +<b>Further Adventures of Jimmie Dale, The.</b> By Frank L. Packard.<br /> +<br /> +<b>Girl of the Blue Ridge, A.</b> By Payne Erskine.<br /> +<b>Girl from Keller's, The.</b> By Harold Bindloss.<br /> +<b>Girl Philippa, The.</b> By Robert W. Chambers.<br /> +<b>Girls at His Billet, The.</b> By Berta Ruck.<br /> +<b>God's Country and the Woman.</b> By James Oliver Curwood.<br /> +<b>Going Some.</b> By Rex Beach.<br /> +<b>Golden Slipper, The.</b> By Anna Katharine Green.<br /> +<b>Golden Woman, The.</b> By Ridgwell Cullum.<br /> +<b>Greater Love Hath No Man.</b> By Frank L. Packard.<br /> +<b>Greyfriars Bobby.</b> By Eleanor Atkinson.<br /> +<b>Gun Brand, The.</b> By James B. Hendryx.<br /> +<br /> +<b>Halcyone.</b> By Elinor Glyn.<br /> +<b>Hand of Fu-Manchu, The.</b> By Sax Rohmer.<br /> +<b>Havoc.</b> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.<br /> +<b>Heart of the Desert, The.</b> By Honoré Willsie.<br /> +<b>Heart of the Hills, The.</b> By John Fox, Jr.<br /> +</div> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="ad"> +<h2>Popular Copyright Novels</h2> + +<h3><i>AT MODERATE PRICES</i></h3> + +<h3 class="norm">Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular +Copyright Fiction</h3> + +<hr style='width: 45%; color: black; background-color: inherit;' /> +<br /> + +<div class="block"> +<b>Heart of the Sunset.</b> By Rex Beach.<br /> +<b>Heart of Thunder Mountain, The.</b> By Edfrid A. Bingham.<br /> +<b>Her Weight in Gold.</b> By Geo. B. McCutcheon.<br /> +<b>Hidden Children, The.</b> By Robert W. Chambers.<br /> +<b>Hidden Spring, The.</b> By Clarence B. Kelland.<br /> +<b>Hillman, The.</b> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.<br /> +<b>Hills of Refuge, The.</b> By Will N. Harben.<br /> +<b>His Official Fiancee.</b> By Berta Ruck.<br /> +<b>Honor of the Big Snows.</b> By James Oliver Curwood.<br /> +<b>Hopalong Cassidy.</b> By Clarence E. Mulford.<br /> +<b>Hound from the North, The.</b> By Ridgwell Cullum.<br /> +<b>House of the Whispering Pines, The.</b> By Anna Katharine Green.<br /> +<b>Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker.</b> By S. Weir Mitchell, M.D.<br /> +<br /> +<b>I Conquered.</b> By Harold Titus.<br /> +<b>Illustrious Prince, The.</b> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.<br /> +<b>In Another Girl's Shoes.</b> By Berta Ruck.<br /> +<b>Indifference of Juliet, The.</b> By Grace S. Richmond.<br /> +<b>Infelice.</b> By Augusta Evans Wilson.<br /> +<b>Initials Only.</b> By Anna Katharine Green.<br /> +<b>Inner Law, The.</b> By Will N. Harben.<br /> +<b>Innocent.</b> By Marie Corelli.<br /> +<b>Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu, The.</b> By Sax Rohmer.<br /> +<b>In the Brooding Wild.</b> By Ridgwell Cullum.<br /> +<b>Intriguers, The.</b> By Harold Bindloss.<br /> +<b>Iron Trail, The.</b> By Rex Beach.<br /> +<b>Iron Woman, The.</b> By Margaret Deland.<br /> +<b>I Spy.</b> By Natalie Sumner Lincoln.<br /> +<br /> +<b>Japonette.</b> By Robert W. Chambers.<br /> +<b>Jean of the Lazy A.</b> By B.M. Bower.<br /> +<b>Jeanne of the Marshes.</b> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.<br /> +<b>Jennie Gerhardt.</b> By Theodore Dreiser.<br /> +<b>Judgment House, The.</b> By Gilbert Parker.<br /> +<br /> +<b>Keeper of the Door, The.</b> By Ethel M. Dell.<br /> +<b>Keith of the Border.</b> By Randall Parrish.<br /> +<b>Kent Knowles: Quahaug.</b> By Joseph C. Lincoln.<br /> +<b>Kingdom of the Blind, The.</b> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.<br /> +</div> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="ad"> +<h2>Popular Copyright Novels</h2> + +<h3><i>AT MODERATE PRICES</i></h3> + +<h3 class="norm">Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular +Copyright Fiction</h3> + +<hr style='width: 45%; color: black; background-color: inherit;' /> +<br /> + +<div class="block"> +<b>King Spruce.</b> By Holman Day.<br /> +<b>King's Widow, The.</b> By Mrs. Baillie Reynolds.<br /> +<b>Knave of Diamonds, The.</b> By Ethel M. Dell.<br /> +<br /> +<b>Ladder of Swords.</b> By Gilbert Parker.<br /> +<b>Lady Betty Across the Water.</b> By C.N. & A.M. Williamson.<br /> +<b>Land-Girl's Love Story, A.</b> By Berta Ruck.<br /> +<b>Landloper, The.</b> By Holman Day.<br /> +<b>Land of Long Ago, The.</b> By Eliza Calvert Hall.<br /> +<b>Land of Strong Men, The.</b> By A.M. Chisholm.<br /> +<b>Last Trail, The.</b> By Zane Grey.<br /> +<b>Laugh and Live.</b> By Douglas Fairbanks.<br /> +<b>Laughing Bill Hyde.</b> By Rex Beach.<br /> +<b>Laughing Girl, The.</b> By Robert W. Chambers.<br /> +<b>Law Breakers, The.</b> By Ridgwell Cullum.<br /> +<b>Lifted Veil, The.</b> By Basil King.<br /> +<b>Lighted Way, The.</b> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.<br /> +<b>Lin McLean.</b> By Owen Wister.<br /> +<b>Lonesome Land.</b> By B.M. Bower.<br /> +<b>Lone Wolf, The.</b> By Louis Joseph Vance.<br /> +<b>Long Ever Ago.</b> By Rupert Hughes.<br /> +<b>Lonely Stronghold, The.</b> By Mrs. Baillie Reynolds.<br /> +<b>Long Live the King..</b> By Mary Roberts Rinehart.<br /> +<b>Long Roll, The.</b> By Mary Johnston.<br /> +<b>Lord Tony's Wife.</b> By Baroness Orczy.<br /> +<b>Lost Ambassador.</b> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.<br /> +<b>Lost Prince, The.</b> By Frances Hodgson Burnett.<br /> +<b>Lydia of the Pines.</b> By Honoré Willsie.<br /> +<br /> +<b>Maid of the Forest, The.</b> By Randall Parrish.<br /> +<b>Maid of the Whispering Hills, The.</b> By Vingie E. Roe.<br /> +<b>Maids of Paradise, The.</b> By Robert W. Chambers.<br /> +<b>Major, The.</b> By Ralph Connor.<br /> +<b>Maker of History; A.</b> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.<br /> +<b>Malefactor, The.</b> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.<br /> +<b>Man from Bar 20, The.</b> By Clarence E. Mulford.<br /> +<b>Man in Grey, The.</b> By Baroness Orczy.<br /> +<b>Man Trail, The.</b> By Henry Oyen.<br /> +<b>Man Who Couldn't Sleep, The.</b> By Arthur Stringer.<br /> +</div> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="ad"> +<h2>Popular Copyright Novels</h2> + +<h3><i>AT MODERATE PRICES</i></h3> + +<h3 class="norm">Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular +Copyright Fiction</h3> + +<hr style='width: 45%; color: black; background-color: inherit;' /> +<br /> + +<div class="block"> +<b>Man with the Club Foot, The.</b> By Valentine Williams.<br /> +<b>Mary-'Gusta.</b> By Joseph C. Lincoln.<br /> +<b>Mary Moreland.</b> By Marie Van Vorst.<br /> +<b>Mary Regan.</b> By Leroy Scott.<br /> +<b>Master Mummer, The.</b> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.<br /> +<b>Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.</b> By A. Conan Doyle.<br /> +<b>Men Who Wrought, The.</b> By Ridgwell Cullum.<br /> +<b>Mischief Maker, The.</b> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.<br /> +<b>Missioner, The.</b> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.<br /> +<b>Miss Million's Maid.</b> By Berta Ruck.<br /> +<b>Molly McDonald.</b> By Randall Parrish.<br /> +<b>Money Master, The.</b> By Gilbert Parker.<br /> +<b>Money Moon, The.</b> By Jeffery Farnol.<br /> +<b>Mountain Girl, The.</b> By Payne Erskine.<br /> +<b>Moving Finger, The.</b> By Natalie Sumner Lincoln.<br /> +<b>Mr. Bingle.</b> By George Barr McCutcheon.<br /> +<b>Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo.</b> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.<br /> +<b>Mr. Pratt.</b> By Joseph C. Lincoln.<br /> +<b>Mr. Pratt's Patients.</b> By Joseph C. Lincoln.<br /> +<b>Mrs. Belfame.</b> By Gertrude Atherton.<br /> +<b>Mrs. Red Pepper.</b> By Grace S. Richmond.<br /> +<b>My Lady Caprice.</b> By Jeffrey Farnol.<br /> +<b>My Lady of the North.</b> By Randall Parrish.<br /> +<b>My Lady of the South.</b> By Randall Parrish.<br /> +<b>Mystery of the Hasty Arrow, The.</b> By Anna K. Green.<br /> +<br /> +<b>Nameless Man, The.</b> By Natalie Sumner Lincoln.<br /> +<b>Ne'er-Do-Well, The.</b> By Rex Beach.<br /> +<b>Nest Builders, The.</b> By Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale.<br /> +<b>Net, The.</b> By Rex Beach.<br /> +<b>New Clarion.</b> By Will N. Harben.<br /> +<b>Night Operator, The.</b> By Frank L. Packard.<br /> +<b>Night Riders, The.</b> By Ridgwell Cullum.<br /> +<b>Nobody.</b> By Louis Joseph Vance.<br /> +<br /> +<b>Okewood of the Secret Service.</b> By the Author of "The Man with the Club Foot."<br /> +<b>One Way Trail, The.</b> By Ridgwell Cullum.<br /> +<b>Open, Sesame.</b> By Mrs. Baillie Reynolds.<br /> +<b>Otherwise Phyllis.</b> By Meredith Nicholson.<br /> +<b>Outlaw, The.</b> By Jackson Gregory.<br /> +</div> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen">Typographical errors corrected in text:</p> +<br /> +page 19: mortage replaced by mortgage<br /> +page 62: Monocal replaced by Menocal<br /> +page 63: Monocal replaced by Menocal<br /> +page 66: dissappointed replaced by disappointed<br /> +page 130: Sante replaced by Santa<br /> +</div> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Iron Furrow, by George C. Shedd + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRON FURROW *** + +***** This file should be named 17088-h.htm or 17088-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/0/8/17088/ + +Produced by David Garcia, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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Shedd + +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 Furrow + +Author: George C. Shedd + +Illustrator: Henry A. Botkin + +Release Date: November 18, 2005 [EBook #17088] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRON FURROW *** + + + + +Produced by David Garcia, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: A number of very obvious | + | typographical errors have been corrected in this | + | text. For a complete list please see the bottom of | + | the document. | + +-----------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + +[Illustration: "UNDER THE HAT BRIM DRAWN FORWARD TO HIS LINE OF +VISION HIS EYES ... GAZED FORTH KEEN AND OBSERVANT"] + + + + +THE IRON +FURROW + +BY GEORGE C. SHEDD + +FRONTISPIECE BY +HENRY A. BOTKIN + +A.L. BURT COMPANY +Publishers New York + +Published by arrangement with Doubleday, Page & Company + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1919, 1920, BY +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF +TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, +INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN + +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES +AT +THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N.Y. + + + + +THE IRON FURROW + + + + +THE IRON FURROW + +CHAPTER I + + +The Ventisquero Range stretches across the circumference of one's +vision in a procession of mountains that come tall and blue out of the +distant north and seemingly march past to vanish in the remote south +like azure phantoms. The mountains wall the horizon and dominate the +mesa, their black forest-clad flanks crumpled and broken and gashed by +canons, lifting above timber-line peaks of bare brown rock that pierce +the clouds floating along the range. At sunrise they cast immense +shadows upon the mesa spreading westward from their base; and at +sunset they reflect golden and purple glows upon the plain until the +earth appears swimming in some iridescent sea of ether; while over +them from dawn till dusk, traversed by a few fleecy clouds, lies the +turquoise sky of New Mexico. + +At a certain point in the range a small canon opens upon the mesa with +a gush of gravel and sand that flows a short way into the sagebrush +and forms a creek bed. Tucked back in the little canon there is a +considerable growth of bushes and trees, cool and fresh-looking in the +shadow of the gorge during the summer season, a splash of vivid green +there at the bottom of the dusty gray mountain, but at the canon's +mouth this verdure ceases. + +Only an insignificant stream of water ran, one day, in the stony creek +bed that meandered out upon the mesa, and it appeared under the hot +July sun and among the hot stones for all the world like a rivulet of +liquid glass. That was all the mesa had to show, only its endless gray +sagebrush and the creek bed almost dry--unless one should reckon the +three parched cottonwood trees beside the stream, a little way down +from the canon, and the flat-roofed adobe house near by, and the empty +corral behind built of aspen poles. In that immensity of mountain and +mesa the house looked like a brick of sun-baked mud, the corral like a +child's device of straws, the three cottonwoods like three twigs stuck +in the earth. Or, at any rate, that is how they appeared to a horseman +regarding them from the main mesa trail a mile away. + +The rider, a slender tanned young fellow of about twenty-eight, sat in +the saddle with the relaxed ease of habit which allowed his body to +accommodate itself to the steady jogging trot of his horse. A roll +comprising clothes wrapped in a black rubber coat was tied behind the +cantle. His Stetson hat was tilted up at the rear and down in front +almost on his nose--a thin, bony nose, slightly curved and with the +suggestion of a hook in the tip, just the sort of nose to accord with +his lean, sunburnt cheeks and clean-cut chin and straight-lipped +mouth. Under the hat brim drawn forward to his line of vision his +eyes, notwithstanding his air of lounging indolence, gazed forth keen +and observant. He had the appearance of a man who might be seeking a +few stray cattle, or riding to town for mail, and in no particular +hurry about it, either, this hot afternoon; but, for all that, Lee +Bryant was proceeding on important business--important for him, +anyhow. When everything one possesses is about to be risked on a +venture, the matter is naturally vital; and at this moment he was +moving straight to the initiative of his enterprise. + +Where the road crossed the creek bed to continue northward, a trail +branched off and followed up the stream to the little ranch house by +the three cottonwood trees. Here the creek had not yet begun to cut an +arroyo and had washed merely a course five or six feet deep and some +fifty feet wide through the mesa, so that from a distance the shallow +gash was invisible and the ground appeared unbroken. It was because of +the flat character of the mesa, too, that Bryant on reaching the bank +of the stream was able to see on the opposite side two persons a +quarter of a mile off riding toward him; women, he perceived. Far +north of them on the road, a black spot in a haze of dust, seemingly +motionless but as one could guess advancing rapidly, was an +automobile. + +Bryant rode his horse down into the creek bed and turned him aside to +a small pool on the upper side of the crossing, under the cut-bank, +where the horse thrust his muzzle into the water and drank greedily. +The rider swung himself out of the saddle, knelt a pace beyond, where +the rivulet trickled into the pool, and also drank. + +"Wet anyway, even if warm, eh, Dick?" he remarked, when done. "Don't +drink it all, old scout; leave a swallow for the ladies." Still on his +knees he looked appraisingly down the creek and then up it, and added +derisively, "Some stream, this Perro, some stream!" + +After rolling and lighting a cigarette, he meditated for a time in +the same kneeling position. His horse finished drinking and moved a +step nearer his master, where he stood with head lowered, water +dripping from his lip, body inert. But presently he pricked his ears +and turning his head toward the other bank gave a low whinny. Bryant +got to his feet. + +The two women he had beheld at a distance had now reached the ford. +Their ponies snuffing water immediately dipped into the creek bed and +crossed its sandy bottom with quickened steps. Young women the riders +were, scarcely more than girls, it seemed to Bryant; wearing divided +khaki skirts and white shirt waists and wide-brimmed straw hats tied +with thongs under their chins. In this region where white men were +none too numerous, and women of their own kind scarcer yet, and girls +scarcest of all, the presence here of the pair aroused in the young +fellow a lively interest. + +He led Dick aside that their ponies might approach the pool. + +"Thank you; they are very thirsty," said the nearer girl, with a nod. +The ponies plunged forefeet into the water and stood thus with noses +buried, drinking with eager gulps. "The afternoon is so hot and the +road so dusty," the speaker continued, "that the poor things were +almost choked." + +She was the smaller of the pair, of medium height and having a +graceful, well-molded figure, with frank gray eyes, a nose showing a +few freckles, smooth soft cheeks slightly reddened by sun, and an +expressive mouth. Bryant judged that she had small, firm hands, but +could not see them as she wore gauntlets. He further decided that she +was neither plain nor pretty: just average good-looking, one might +say. An air of friendliness was in her favour, though what might or +might not be a prepossessing trait, depending on circumstances, was +the suggested obstinacy in her round chin. + +"Don't you yourselves wish a drink? You must be thirsty, too," Bryant +addressed the young ladies. "If your ponies won't stand, I'll look +after them." + +"Oh, they'll not run off, unless we forget to let the reins hang, as +has happened once or twice," said the girl who previously had spoken. +"For they're regular cow-ponies. At first we had a hard time +remembering just to drop the lines when we dismounted instead of tying +them to a post somewhere; and for a while we had a feeling that they +certainly would gallop off if we did let the reins hang, as we'd been +instructed. But they never did." She turned to her companion. "Imo, +aren't you thirsty? I'm going to get down and have a drink." With +which she swung herself down from her saddle upon the sand. + +The second girl was tall and thin, lacking both the spirits and +stamina of the other; a crown of fluffy golden hair was hinted by the +little of it the young fellow could see under the brim of her big hat; +her eyes were of a soft blue colour, probably weak; while her face, +the skin of which was exceedingly white with but a tinge of the sun's +fiery burn, was regular of feature and delicately formed. + +She walked to the rill languidly, where stooping she drank from her +palm. Most of the water that she dipped escaped before reaching her +lips; and Bryant doubted if she were really successful in quenching +her thirst. The heat, the dust, and the ride appeared to have been +almost too much for her strength, exhausting her slender store of +vitality. The other girl, who had coiled herself down by the +trickling stream and bent forward resting her hands in the water, +drank directly from the rivulet. + +"There, that's the way to do it, Imo," she declared, when she had +straightened up, hat-brim, nose, chin, all dripping. "Like the ponies! +I hope I haven't lost my handkerchief." And she began to search about +her waist. + +"I'd fall flat in the water if I tried it, as sure as the world," the +taller girl responded. + +They rose to their feet and joined Bryant. + +"You're the young ladies who are homesteading just south of here, +aren't you?" he inquired, politely. + +"Yes, two miles south on Sarita Creek," the smaller answered. Then +after an appraising regard of him she continued, "We took our claims +only last April. And they're not very good claims, either, we're +beginning to fear; the creek goes dry about this time. That's why no +one had filed on the locations before. Have you a ranch somewhere +near?" + +"No. That is, not yet. I'm a civil engineer, but I'm thinking strongly +of settling down here. If I do, we shall be neighbours. My name is Lee +Bryant; this is my horse Dick; and I've a dog called Mike, which +stopped aways back on the road to investigate a prairie dog hole. Now +you know who we are," he concluded, with a smile. + +The girl thereupon told him her name was Ruth Gardner and that of her +companion Imogene Martin. + +"We'll be very glad to have you call at our little ranch when you're +riding by," Ruth Gardner said, graciously. "Aside from Imogene's uncle +and aunt, who live in Kennard and who've come to see us several +times, we've not had a single visitor in the three months and a half +we've been there, except once an old Mexican who was herding sheep +near by and came to ask for matches. Of course, not many people know +we're there, I imagine. From the road one can't see our cabins--we had +to have two, you know, one for each claim, and they sit side by +side--because they're in the mouth of the canon among the trees. It's +really cool and pleasant there during the heat of the day. Any time +you come, you'll be welcome." + +"Yes, Mr. Bryant," Imogene Martin affirmed. "A man now and then in the +scenery will help out wonderfully." + +"I'll stop the first time I'm passing," he stated. + +Lee Bryant understood the significance of the invitation: they were +starved for company and would be grateful for the society of a person +they believed respectable. He had seen a good deal of homesteading +conditions in the West; he knew the hardships involved in "holding +down" claims, of which the dreary monotony and loneliness of the life +were not the least. One earned ten times over every bit one got of a +free government homestead. For men it was bad enough; but for woman, +for girls like these, who had probably come from the East in trustful +ignorance and with rosy visions, the homestead venture impressed him +not only as pitiful but as tragic. + +"I'll certainly ride down to see you," he assured them again. + +"And perhaps, being an engineer, you'll show us why the water doesn't +run downhill in our bean patch, as it ought to do," Imogene Martin +remarked. + +Bryant laughed and nodded agreement. + +"You'll find that it's your eyes, and not the water, that have been +playing tricks," he said. "Ground levels and ditch grades are +deceiving things close to the mountains, because the latter tilt one's +natural line of vision. That's why water seems to run uphill when you +look toward the range. I'll soon fix your ditch line when I set an +instrument in your bean patch and sight through it once or twice. The +water will behave after that, I promise you." + +They continued to chat of this and of the failing of Sarita Creek, +until the automobile that Bryant had earlier sighted shot into view on +the northern bank of the creek, whence at decreased speed it descended +into the bottom and ground its way across through sand and gravel. +Driving the hooded car was a man of about thirty years, of slim figure +and with a pale olive skin that betrayed an admixture of American and +Mexican blood. Beside him in the front seat sat a girl whose clear +pink complexion made plain that in her was no mingling of races; her +hat held by a streaming blue veil and her form incased in a silk dust +coat. The tonneau was occupied by two men: one an American with a van +dyke beard sprinkled with gray, the other a short, stout, swarthy +Mexican, whose sweeping white moustache was in marked contrast to his +coffee-coloured face. + +The car, with radiator steaming and hissing, was stopped at a spot +close to where Lee Bryant and his companions stood. The young man at +the wheel, unlatching the door, stepped out. + +"I'll bet the stop-cock of the radiator is open," he addressed the +girl with the blue veil, "or the engine wouldn't be so hot." After +making an examination of the faucet, he returned to the door and +procured a folding canvas bucket, saying, "That's the trouble, and the +radiator is empty." + +But the young lady scarcely heeded him. She had loosened the blue veil +knotted at her throat and pushed it back from her cheeks to free them +to the air; she sat regarding with interested eyes the group of three +standing a few paces off by the horses. In her gaze, too, there was a +faint curiosity, as if she wondered who the persons might be, and what +they were doing here, and of what they had been conversing when +interrupted. An exceedingly lovely girl she was, as the engineer had +instantly perceived; her features molded in soft lines and curves that +enchanted, a tint like that of peach petals in her cheeks, with warm, +sensitive lips and brown, shining eyes--a radiant, intelligent face. +Against the background of the place, the creek bed of sand and stones +and the banks fringed with dusty sagebrush, she glowed with the +freshness of a desert rose. + +The driver of the car took a step toward Bryant, extending the bucket. + +"Dip me some water out of that hole while I look at my tires, will +you?" he said. + +At the words, which were rather more of a command than a request, the +engineer regarded him fixedly while the blood stirred beneath his tan, +but finally took the bucket. The other turned back to the car, where +he made a pretense of inspecting a front wheel and then, with a foot +on the running-board and elbow resting on knee, twisting indolently a +point of his small moustache, he began to converse with his companion +of the blue veil. + +Bryant filled the radiator. Two trips to the pool were necessary to +obtain enough water for that purpose, but he finished the job with the +same thoroughness that he went through with any business once +undertaken, whether pleasant or otherwise. As he poured the contents +of the bucket into the radiator's spout, he took stock of the +automobile party. His face hardened with a slight contempt when he +considered the effeminate-appearing young Mexican who had bade him +bring water and the girl talking with him; which she must have noticed +and taken to herself, for when their eyes met he saw that a flush dyed +her cheeks and that she bit her lip nervously. + +He snapped the radiator cap shut. At the click the man stopped +fingering his moustache, ended his talk, mounted to his seat, and +started the engine. Bryant handed him the bucket, folded flat again, +which the recipient tossed down by his feet. + +"Here, my man," said the olive-skinned young fellow at the wheel, with +a forefinger and thumb searching a waistcoat pocket as the car began +slowly to move forward. + +He tossed a quarter to the engineer. Bryant instinctively caught it, +as one catches any suddenly thrown object. For an instant he remained +transfixed, incredulous, astounded, then the blood flamed in his face +and he cast the coin back at its donor. + +"No Mexican can throw money to me!" he exclaimed. + +For answer he received an angry look and snarled word from the driver. +Beyond the man Bryant beheld the startled, embarrassed, and yet +interested face of the girl with the veil, her lips a little parted, +her eyes intent on him. Then the car lurched out of the sand, splashed +through the rivulet, ascended the inclined roadway of the creek bank, +and sped from view. + +The sudden spark of antagonism flashing between the engineer and the +young Mexican made the two girls by the ponies acutely aware that the +horseman after all was a stranger, a man of whom they knew nothing, an +unknown quantity. And so the two exchanged a glance and drew on their +gauntlets and said they must be riding home. Thereupon Bryant assisted +them to mount. + +As he separated from them to follow the trail up the creek to the +ranch house by the three cottonwoods, Ruth Gardner called to him not +to forget his promised visit to their cabins. He assured them he +should remember. When the girls were some distance off, they waved +across the sagebrush at him and he swung his hat in reply. Off then +the pair went at a gallop, with the automobile on the road far south +of them leaving a hazy streamer of dust above the earth; the riders +going farther and farther away, becoming smaller and smaller on the +mesa, until at last they were but bobbing specks in the golden +sunshine. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +As Lee Bryant reined his horse to a stop before the small ranch house, +a man seated on a stool just within the open doorway rose and came out +to join him. He was a man of thin, stooped body; his sandy hair +streaked with gray formed a fringe about his bald crown; and on his +lined, sunburnt face there rested a shadow of worry that appeared to +be habitual. Bryant dismounted and shook hands with the ranchman. + +"Well, how are you making it, Mr. Stevenson?" he greeted. "As I +promised if I should be riding by this way again, I've stopped to say +'howdy.' Doesn't seem a month has passed since I stayed over night +with you? How's Mrs. Stevenson? Hope you're both well." + +"Just feeling fair, just fair. Glad you stopped, Bryant," was the +answer. "My wife was wondering only the other day what had become of +you. Bring your horse around to the corral." + +They went behind the house, where the young man removed saddle and +bridle from Dick and turned him into the enclosure. Stevenson gathered +an armful of hay from a small heap near by and tossed it over the +fence to the horse, which began to eat eagerly. Lee glanced about, +gave a sharp whistle; from the trail by the creek a bark answered him. +Then an Airedale came racing through the sagebrush, now and again +leaping high to gain a view of his master and finally breaking out +upon the clear ground about the ranch house. + +"Mike, you're too inquisitive about other animals' dwellings," Lee +addressed him as he arrived, wet from an immersion in the creek and +panting from his run. "Some day a rattler in a hole you're digging +into will nip you on the nose and you'll wish you'd been more polite. +Come along now and be good." + +He walked with Stevenson back to the house, where leaving the dog to +drop in the shade outside they entered. The interior was cool and dim +after the hot, glaring sunshine; and Bryant, having greeted Mrs. +Stevenson, sat down gratefully in a rocking-chair, glad to avail +himself of the room's comfort. Crude as an adobe house is both in +appearance and in construction, it is admirably adapted to the climate +of the arid Southwest; its flat dirt roof and thick walls built of +sun-baked mud bricks, plastered within and smoothly surfaced without, +defying alike the heat of midsummer and the icy blasts of winter and +lasting in that dry clime half a century. This ranch house of the +Stevensons', originally built by some Mexican, as Bryant judged, had +been standing twenty-five or thirty years and was still tight and +staunch. + +"Your creek's pretty dry, I see," the young fellow remarked +afteratime, when they had exchanged news. + +"By August there won't be any water in it at all," Stevenson said, +"except a little that always runs in the canon. I'll have to haul it +from there then. You see now why I can't keep stock here." + +His wife stopped the needle with which she mended an apron while they +talked, and looked out of a window. On her face was the same tired, +anxious expression that marked her husband's countenance. + +"I've barely kept our garden alive," she said, "but it won't be for +much longer." + +"That's too bad, Mrs. Stevenson," Lee Bryant replied. "However, one +can't do anything without water. Still, your sheep are doing well, I +suppose; the grass is good on the mountains this summer." + +An answer was not immediately forthcoming from the rancher; he sat +staring absently at the backs of his roughened hands, now and again +rubbing one or the other, and enveloped in a gloom that Bryant could +both see and feel. Then all at once Stevenson began to talk, in a +voice querulous and morose. + +"We're going to quit here, sell the sheep, and go back East. I was +swindled when I bought this ranch, and I want to get away before I +lose my last cent. Came out to this country five years ago from +Illinois with forty thousand dollars, and now we're going back with +what I can sell my sheep for, maybe twenty-five hundred cash. Menocal +robbed me right at the start, selling me this place for twenty-five +thousand--twenty thousand down and a mortgage for the remaining five +thousand--when the place was just five thousand acres of sagebrush, +with no more water than runs in this creek. I was a tenderfoot all +right! The land agent at Kennard showed it to me in June when the +Perro was booming, and I believed him when he said it ran that way all +the year around. Look at it now! I didn't have sense enough to inquire +and learn about it, being in a hurry to get into the sheep business +and thinking I should be rich in no time. That agent sold it to me for +irrigated land, and a bargain at five dollars an acre. Menocal, who +owned it and deeded it to me, pretends he isn't responsible for what +the man said. Five dollars an acre! It's worth about fifty cents for +winter range, and no more." + +"If it could be irrigated, it would be a bargain sure enough at five +dollars," Lee stated. "And there's another water right for the place +you said when I was here before." + +"Yes, there is--on paper. Water was appropriated out of the Pinas +River, but that's eight miles north of here, and it would cost a +hundred thousand dollars, if not more, to build a dam and a canal +along the mountain side. No, sir; that appropriation was just some +more of Menocal's tricky work! He jammed it through the land office +thirty years ago and, they say, never did any more to comply with the +law requiring delivery of the water on this ground than to have a man +drive around pouring a bucketful out of a barrel upon each quarter +section." + +"Some pretty shady transactions were put across in those early days," +Bryant commented. + +"Well, ain't matters just as bad now?" Stevenson asked, quickly. "He +still has the appropriation, or rather I'm supposed to have it with +this ranch. Because Menocal controls the Mexican vote hereabouts, +which is about all the vote there is, why, nobody has ever disturbed +him about that water right. And he's using that water, belonging to +me, to irrigate a lot of bottom farms along the river, for which no +water can be appropriated, the Pinas not carrying enough. I rode over +one day and looked at those farms--all grain and alfalfa. Well, he'll +get this ranch back, anyway. The mortgage he holds on it is due next +week and I can't pay it. Wouldn't even if I had the money. We're going +to pull up stakes and leave." + +Bryant silently regarded the other's haggard face and stooped figure, +whose expression and resigned attitude revealed clearly Stevenson's +surrender. He was a man discouraged, disheartened, whipped. + +"What's wrong with the sheep?" he questioned, at length. + +"Not much that isn't wrong. When I started five years ago, I invested +in three thousand head. One time I had them increased to fifty-five +hundred--three bands. Thought I was doing first rate; and I was then. +But everything began to go against me. It seemed as if I always got +the worst herders; and not having any water to raise alfalfa I had to +buy winter feed, which was expensive; and a lot of them got the scab +and died; and last year I lost nearly all my lambs at lambing time, +the band being caught out in a storm and being in the wrong place. +Just one thing after another, to break my back. Had trouble about the +range, too. When I started them off this spring, they were down to +seven hundred; and I've been losing some right along from one cause or +another. No lambs, either, this spring, except dead ones. I thought I +could hang on till my luck changed, but losing a hundred head two +weeks ago was the last straw. I'm done now." + +"What happened, Stevenson?" + +"One of Menocal's herders mixed his flock with my six hundred, did it +deliberately, I'm convinced; there were three thousand head of his. +Billy was tending ours--and Billy is only fourteen, you know. I had +come down here for some supplies and when I returned, I found him +crying. The Mexican had separated the sheep and we were a hundred +short, gone with his, and he would pay no attention to Billy, swearing +he had only his own band. And he drove them away. I went to Menocal, +who was very polite, but he said I must be mistaken as his herders +were all honest men; and I've not got my sheep back, and I'm not +likely to. For that band is now thirty miles away somewhere. No use to +go to court--Menocal owns everything and everybody around here. So I'm +quitting." + +"The sheep business isn't all roses, that's certain," Lee Bryant +remarked. "It's hard luck that your band ran down just when the price +of mutton and wool is going up. So you're letting the ranch slide?" + +"Yes, I can't pay the mortgage; Menocal would foreclose at once if I +tried to stay. Last time I was in town he asked me about paying it off +and when I told him I shouldn't be able to do that, he said he'd have +me deed it back to him to save foreclosure proceedings. And he was +smiling, too. He knew all the time that he'd get the ranch back; and +when he does, he'll sell it to some other sucker." + +"Both of us have wished a hundred times that we'd never sold our +Illinois farm to come here," Mrs. Stevenson said, plaintively. "I +don't know what we'll do when we go back, for that matter. Just rent a +place, I guess. Land is so high-priced there that we'll never be able +to buy a farm again." + +"Renting there is better than starving here," her husband declared. +"We'll have a better home, too. When we first came to this place, we +planned on building a fine house, but I never had the money loose, and +we've just kept on from year to year living in this 'dobe hole. Good +thing I didn't have the money, however, for we'd lose the house along +with the ranch if we had built. Well, we're going back East, anyhow, +as soon as I sell the sheep. Graham, who has the big ranch on Diamond +Creek, south of where those girls are homesteading, is coming up in a +day or two to look at them, maybe buy them. You can see Graham's big +white house from the Kennard trail." + +Bryant nodded. "I know the place, saw it when passing," said he. Then +he went on, "When I was at the ford watering my horse before coming +here, an auto crossed the creek. In the rear seat were a fat Mexican, +whom I took to be Menocal, and a white man with a pointed beard. The +latter perhaps was Graham?" + +"Yes, that must have been him. Which way were they driving?" + +"South." + +"Going to the Graham ranch, I s'pose." + +"There was a slim young fellow driving the car--some Mexican blood in +him," Lee stated. + +"Menocal's son, Charlie, a half-breed snippet who puts on airs because +his father's rich," Stevenson said, in a disgusted tone. "A white +woman married Menocal, you know." + +"In the front seat with the young fellow was a girl, rather pretty," +Bryant appended. + +"That's Louise, I imagine," Mrs. Stevenson said, reflectively. "Yes, +it must have been her. She's Mr. Graham's daughter. A nice girl, too. +That Menocal boy is crazy to marry her, the talk is." + +"And is she crazy to marry him?" Lee inquired, amused by this gossip. + +"Well, not exactly crazy, I'd say; I don't see how she could be. But +he'll be worth a lot of money some day, and she may overlook +considerable on that account. Menocal's boy has been to college; +besides, the family goes everywhere with white folks. I guess a +Mexican is supposed to be really white, isn't he?" + +"Those having pure Spanish blood," the engineer explained. "Nearly all +the ones around here that I've seen have more Indian in them than +anything else, however, with a dash of other races perhaps. From the +glimpse I had of Menocal, I'll venture to say he has Red men among his +ancestors." + +"Mexican or Indian or whatever he is, he can squeeze money out of +nothing, like a Jew," Stevenson complained. "Look how much he has made +out of this ranch; look at what he has made out of me! And it's just +that way with everything he holds. The Mexicans all around this +section sell him their stuff cheap and take what he pays, because they +don't know any better and because he's their leader. He has the big +store at Bartolo, which you've seen, and owns the bank there, and has +any number of farms up and down the Pinas River, and runs I don't know +how many bands of sheep; and besides, he elects the county officers, +and fixes the taxes to suit himself, and recommends the water +inspector for this district, and--and--well, what chance has an +ordinary man to get ahead here?" + +Lee Bryant let a pause ensue. He rolled a cigarette and struck a light +and carefully got the tobacco to burning. + +"You say you're going to let the ranch go back to Menocal," he stated, +abruptly. "You've made up your mind that you won't keep it, anyway. +All right. Now I've a proposition to make you." + +Stevenson looked at him with curiosity. + +"A proposition? What is it?" he asked. + +"It's this: I've a farm of eighty acres in Nebraska that I'll trade +you for it. I could offer you less, but I won't; you have an equity +here of value, and I'm not the kind of man to beat you down to +nothing. If we deal, you shall have something in return for your +interest. This eighty of mine is worth a hundred dollars an +acre--eight thousand; it's mortgaged for five thousand, which leaves +an equity of three thousand; on it are good buildings and it's rented +until next March. You could then take possession. It's a good farm, +and with the money you'll have from the sale of your sheep you can +make a good start on the place, which is in the corn and wheat +section. My equity of three thousand isn't worth, to be sure, anything +like what you paid Menocal for this ranch, but it's something--and all +that I can afford to give." + +The rancher stared at Lee as if he could not credit his ears. + +"Are you in earnest?" he demanded, at last. "Why I've just told you +there's no water here. A man can't make a living on the place, and the +mortgage is due next week." + +"I'll pay off the mortgage; I've enough money saved up to do that." + +"But, man, without water----" + +"Listen, Stevenson, I know exactly what I'm about," the engineer +interrupted. "This thing's a gamble with me, I admit, but you needn't +do any worrying on that score. I'm going in with my eyes open; I know +the risks and am willing to take them. What about my offer?" + +Stevenson, still gazing at his visitor in wonderment, was at a loss; +he rubbed his knuckles doubtfully, hitched about on his chair and knit +his brows, perplexed, hesitating, as was his manner when presented +with any new affair, even with one palpably to his advantage. It was +clear that in this lack of quick decision lay much of the reason for +his failure. + +His wife exclaimed in appeal, "Oh, John, if Mr. Bryant really means +it, why don't you say yes? I can't understand why he makes us such a +fine offer, but he is making it. We can start again; we'll be back in +a farming country like what we're used to, even if it isn't in +Illinois; we'll have a farm of our own, a home of our own, and will +not have to rent. Oh, why don't you say yes?" + +The rancher looked from his wife to Bryant and back again, pursing his +lips. + +"But I don't understand this," he said. + +"You heard what he explained," she replied, anxiously. "He expects to +pay off the mortgage and be rid of Mr. Menocal. Perhaps he knows the +sheep business better than you do; you never did learn it well, John, +and you ought never to have stopped farming. You were a good farmer; +you will be again. We can go on this place in Nebraska and raise corn +and wheat and hogs, and I'll have chickens to help clear the debt. +Why, it's a chance for us to be independent again, and have a home, +and neighbours, and attend church, and--and be happy, John!" + +"That's so," her husband agreed. + +"We are going to leave here anyway," she continued to urge. "We +wouldn't have had anything but the money from the sheep, but now +you'll be getting a farm, too. I'd think you'd jump at Mr. Bryant's +offer." + +"But maybe, after all, the ranch is worth more than I thought," +Stevenson speculated. + +His wife sank back in her seat, picked up her sewing, and tried to +resume her task, but her fingers trembled and her lashes were winking +fast. Lee gazed at her sympathetically. Then he lifted his hat from +the floor and stood up. + +"Well, there are other places I can trade for," he remarked. "I +thought I was doing you a good turn in proposing the exchange, +especially as you're about to lose your place. I wouldn't be beating +you out of anything, certainly, and as your wife says, you'd really be +getting something for nothing. The mortgage is due next week, you must +remember." + +Stevenson's mind, however, was running in another channel. + +"I'll tell you how we can deal," he said, with an assumption of +shrewdness. "You pay me the five thousand you plan to pay off the +mortgage with, and get Menocal to renew the loan. Five thousand--why, +my equity is worth more than that! Besides, you've some scheme for +making money out of this ranch." + +"What if I have?" + +"That makes a difference when it comes to a deal." + +"Not with me," the engineer stated, curtly. "If that's your attitude, +we'll drop the matter. Probably you yourself can arrange an extension +of the mortgage or a renewal, if you're minded to remain." + +"You know, John, that you can't; Mr. Menocal has already refused," +Mrs. Stevenson said, in a low voice. + +"I ought to have cash in addition to your farm," her husband insisted. + +"You get none," Lee replied. "Well, this trade is what I came to see +you about. From the way you talked when I was here last I supposed you +might consider my offer favourably, but I guess we can't do business. +I'll ride on to Bartolo." + +At this statement Mrs. Stevenson wiped her eyes, rose and went into +the inner room, closing the door after her. The engineer moved as if +to depart. + +"Now, wait a minute," Stevenson exclaimed. + +"Well?" + +"I'll take--let me figure a minute." + +Bryant tossed his hat on the table in disgust and relighted his +cigarette. + +"Stevenson, listen," he began. "You're an older man than I am, but +just the same I'm going to say a few things that you need to hear. I +couldn't say them and wouldn't say them before your wife, but now I'm +going to turn loose. You can do as you damn please about trading, take +my offer or leave it; if you refuse, though, you'll lose both ranch +and farm. The trouble with you is that you can't see the difference +between a good proposition and a bad one. That's why you bought this +ranch on say-so. That's why now you're turning down my offer. You +either jump without first looking, or you wait until it's too late. +You don't pay attention strictly to what's immediately under your +hand, but waste your energy wondering if you can't get rich from +something out of your reach. That's what has been the trouble with you +in the sheep business, I imagine. Here when I offer you a farm for a +ranch that's slipping through your fingers, you at once get greedy. +Most of the time you don't know your own mind; you hesitate and +speculate and vacillate and worry. Why, you deserve to lose your ranch +and your sheep and everything else. And your wife suffers for your +faults! You're a failure, and you've dragged her down with you. If +you're not a failure, and a fool, too, go bring her back into this +room and tell her you're going to make this trade, so you two will +have a farm and the home she wants and so her mind will be easy once +more. You've been thinking of only yourself long enough; now begin to +think of her comfort and happiness." + +Stevenson came angrily to his feet. + +"No man ever talked to me like that before, I'll have you know!" he +cried. + +The engineer kept his place, with no change of countenance. + +"Well, one has talked to you like that now and I'm the man," he said. +"And I don't retract a word. It's the truth straight from the +shoulder. What are you going to do about it? Why, nothing, just +nothing. Because I've talked cold, hard facts, and you know it." + +The momentary fire died from Stevenson's eyes. He shuffled his feet +for a little, looked about the room with the worried aspect he +usually showed, brushed his lips with the back of his hand. + +"You're pretty rough----" he began. + +"Don't stand there talking; go get your wife," Bryant said, sharply. + +Stevenson turned and walked slowly to the closed door. He cleared his +throat, stared at the panels for a moment, and at last pushed it open. + +"Come out, Sarah, we're going to trade," he announced. + +The woman came forth. About her eyes was a slight redness, but on her +lips there was a tremulous smile. + +"I'm glad," she said, "I'm glad, John." + +"Yes, I decided it was a good trade to make," her husband assured her. +"No need to think it over longer." + +They came to where Bryant stood, unconcealed pleasure showing on Mrs. +Stevenson's face. + +"You may like to see these kodak pictures of the farm and its house," +the young man said, producing an envelope from a pocket. "Take a chair +here by the window, Mrs. Stevenson, where you'll have the light. See, +this one shows the house, with the trees and lilac bushes in front, +and gives you a glimpse of the flower garden. Pretty, don't you +think?" + +She readjusted her spectacles. After a time she gazed from the +pictures through the window at the stretch of sagebrush. + +"And I'll have neighbours, too," she said, in an unsteady voice. "The +loneliness here was killing me." + +Stevenson considered the backs of his hands in awkward silence. + +"Neighbours, lots of them," Bryant affirmed. + +"I kind of pity you having to stay," she said, looking up at him with +a smile. + +The engineer laughed. + +"Why, this country suits me right down to the ground," he replied. +"I've been in the West ten years, wouldn't live anywhere else. And I +don't expect to be lonely; Menocal will probably attend to that. +Besides, there are two good-looking young ladies just south of here, +on Sarita Creek." + +"That's so," she said, laughing also. + +"First thing we hear, you'll be married," Stevenson remarked, with a +quick grin. + +"Oh, I'm safe--there are two of them," Bryant returned, clapping the +rancher on the shoulder. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +The town of Bartolo slumbered in the July sunshine. Nothing stirred on +its one long street, lined with scarcely a break on either side by +mud-plastered houses that made a continuous brown wall, marked at +intervals by a door or pierced by a window; nothing stirred, neither +in front of Menocal's large frame store at the upper end of it, with +the little bank adjoining, nor before the small courthouse grounds +across the way, where the huge old cottonwoods spread their shade, nor +along the entire length of the beaten street down to Gomez's +blacksmith shop and Martinez's saloon across from each other at the +lower end; nothing, not even the pair of burros drowsing in the shade +of the wall, or the dogs lying before doors, or the goats a-kneel by +the saloon, or the fowls nested down in the dust. Only the Pinas +River, issuing from the black canon a mile or so above, was in motion; +and, indeed, it appeared to partake of the general somnolence, barely +rippling along its gravelly bed, shallow and shrunken, and giving +forth but an indolent glitter as it flowed past the town. The day was +hot and it was the hour of the siesta, therefore everything +slept--everything, man, beast and fowl, from Menocal, who was snoring +in his hammock on the vine-clad veranda of his big stuccoed house just +beyond the store at the head of the street, to the goats at the foot +of it by the silent saloon. + +Bryant, descending from the mesa into the river bottom and riding into +the street, had he not known otherwise, might have supposed the +population vanished in a body. But he was aware that it only slept; +and he had no consideration for a siesta that retarded his affairs. He +dismounted before the courthouse and entered the building, whose +corridor and chambers appeared as silent, as lifeless, as forsaken as +the street itself. Coming into the Recorder's office, he halted for a +look about, then pushed through the wicket of the counter and stepped +into an inner room, where he stirred by a thumb in the ribs a thin, +dusky-skinned youth reclining in a swivel chair with feet in repose on +a window-sill, who slept with head fallen back, arms hanging, and +mouth open. + +"Come, _amigo_, your dinner's settled by this time," the engineer +stated. "Grab a pen and record this deed." + +The clerk sleepily shifted his feet into a more comfortable position. + +"We're behind in our work," said he. "Just leave your deed, and the +fee, and we'll get around to it in a few days." + +"So you're too busy now, eh?" + +"Yes. We've had a good many papers to record this month." + +"Where's the Recorder?" + +"Not back from dinner yet," was the answer. + +The speaker once again prepared to rest. From the outer office the +slow ticking of a clock sounded with lulling effect, while the grassy +yard beyond the window, shaded by the boughs of the cottonwoods, +diffused peace and drowsiness. The clerk closed his eyes. + +"Just leave the deed and fee on the desk here," he murmured. + +"And tip-toe out, too, I suppose." + +"If you feel like it," the young Mexican remarked, with a faint +insolence in his voice, the insolence of a subordinate who believes +himself protected by his place. + +Bryant's hand shot swiftly out to the speaker's shoulder. With a snap +that brought him up standing the clerk was jerked from his seat, and +before his startled wits gathered what was happening he was propelled +into the outer office. + +"Record this deed, you forty-dollar-a-month penpusher, before I grow +peevish and rearrange your face," Bryant ordered, with his fingers +tightening their grasp on the youth's collar. "You're receiving your +pay from the county, and are presumed to give value received. Anyway, +value received is what I'm going to have now." + +"Let go my neck!" + +"Let go nothing. When I see you settle down to this big book, then I +let go. No '_manana_' with me, boy; right here and now you're going to +give me an exhibition of rapid penmanship. Savey? Take up your pen; +that's the stuff. Now dip deep in the ink and draw a full breath and +go to it." + +Bryant released his hold on the cowed clerk, but remained by his side, +where his presence exerted an amazingly energizing effect upon the +scribe. The pen scratched industriously to and fro across the page, +over which the youth humped himself as if enamoured of the tome, only +at intervals risking a glance at the lean-faced, vigilant American. +When he had finished the transcription, stamped the deed and closed +the book, Bryant handed him the amount of the fee. + +"Thank you," the clerk said, with an excess of politeness. + +He was still nervous. He furtively observed his visitor stowing the +deed in a pocket, as if expecting Bryant to initiate some new +violence, and resolved on flight if he should. + +"There, my friend, that's all you can do for me just now," the +engineer remarked. "But I shall return soon, so keep awake and ready. +When you see me entering, advance _pronto_. If anything annoys me, +it's being kept waiting by a Mexican boy-clerk. Do you get that +clearly?" + +"_Si, senor_," the other replied, unconsciously lapsing into his +native tongue. + +"_Muy bueno_--and bear it in mind. Now I advise you to get to work on +the documents you've allowed to accumulate; it's half-past two and +you've had enough of a siesta for one noon." With which Bryant took +his departure. + +Outside he led his horse across the street to the frame store. Beside +the latter stood Menocal's house, with its smooth green lawn and its +beds of poppies, its trees, its fence massed with sweet peas, and its +vine-covered veranda, where the engineer had a glimpse of a corpulent +figure in a hammock. The only sound from the place was the musical +gurgle of water in a little irrigation ditch bordering the lawn. + +Inside the long store Bryant aroused the only man in sight, a Mexican +who slept on the counter with his head pillowed on a pile of overalls. + +"Go tell Menocal there's a man here to see him on business," Lee +said. + +The awakened sleeper slid off his perch, rubbed his eyes, yawned, +stretched himself, and then shook his head with great gravity. + +"Mr. Menocal takes his siesta till three o'clock; you can see him at +that time," he said, in English. + +"I'll see him now." + +"Impossible! He is very angry when awakened for a small matter." + +Bryant went a step nearer to the speaker. + +"Where do you get the authority to decide that my business is a small +matter?" he demanded, with a menace of manner that caused the other to +retreat in haste. "Go bring him and make me no more trouble." + +The man went. Bryant lighted a cigarette and fell to surveying the +store's merchandise. Several minutes passed before a murmur of voices +apprised him of the coming of the men. Menocal entered the side door +first, approaching heavily and sleepily the spot where the engineer +waited. He had not put on coat or collar; his short figure appeared +more than ever obese; his sweeping white moustache divided his plump, +shiny brown face; and his air was that of one who must put up with +vexatious interruptions because of the important position he filled. + +"You wish to speak with me?" he asked, shortly. + +"That's why I'm here," Bryant returned. + +Menocal gazed at him owlishly for a time. + +"You're the man who threw my son's money back at the ford day before +yesterday, aren't you?" he questioned. + +"The same." + +"Why did you throw it back?" + +"Why did he throw it at me in the first place? You should train him to +use better judgment. You yourself wouldn't have done it." + +"No," Menocal said. Then, as if the subject were dismissed, he asked, +"What do you wish to see me about?" + +"About the mortgage on the Stevenson place: I've bought the ranch. +Stevenson moves off in a few days." + +Menocal's brows lifted and remained so, as if fixed in their new +elevation. He slowly rubbed the end of his nose with his forefinger. +The sleepiness had wholly vanished from his countenance. + +"Come into the bank," he said, finally; and moved toward the front +door. + +The engineer accompanied him. In a space railed off from the cashier's +grille in the little building next door they sat down. The teller was +visible in the cage, where now he appeared very busy though he had +undoubtedly been drowsing when they entered. + +"So you've bought the Stevenson ranch," Menocal said. + +"Yes. I've just had the deed recorded." + +"The mortgage is due in a few days; I told him it wouldn't be renewed +by me." + +"Perhaps now that I have the place----" + +"No; I've carried that loan long enough. If it isn't paid when due, +I'll start foreclosure proceedings immediately." + +Bryant nodded. + +"Well, I merely asked out of curiosity," said he. "It's your right to +demand payment--and I'm on hand with the money. Make out a release so +that I can clear the record. Here's a Denver draft for six thousand +dollars--I figure principal and interest at five thousand four hundred +and you can have the balance placed to my credit in the bank. I +shouldn't continue the loan at its present rate of interest in any +case; eight per cent. is too much for money. Besides, I want the ranch +clear of incumbrance." + +With an expressionless face Menocal gazed at the draft, turned it +over, examined the back, then at last laid it down on his desk. + +"Isidro," he called to the teller, "make out a mortgage release for +the Stevenson place. Copy the description from the mortgage in my file +in the vault. Afterward credit six hundred dollars to--What is your +name?" + +"Lee Bryant." + +"Six hundred dollars to Lee Bryant, Isidro. Mr. Bryant will give you +his signature." Again facing his visitor, he said, "Do you know that +that ranch has no water to speak of? I'm afraid you may not find the +property what you expect." + +"It has a good appropriation from the Pinas River here." + +"Ah, but it can't be used," Menocal exclaimed, with a bland smile. + +"I propose to use it." + +"What!" + +Bryant kept his eyes fixed on the amazed banker's orbs. + +"Didn't I speak clearly?" he inquired. "I own one hundred and +twenty-five second feet of water in this river and it's my intention +to apply it. I'm going to make a real ranch down there." + +A shadow seemed to settle on Menocal's face, leaving it altered, less +placid, more purposeful. + +"Considerable capital will be required to build a canal there," he +remarked. "You're certainly not going into this thing on your own +account, are you? Who is putting up the money? Eastern people?" + +Bryant smiled, but made no answer. His smile and his silence provoked +an angry gleam from the banker's eyes. + +"Well, it doesn't matter," Menocal continued. "But you're going to +discover that you haven't this water right, after all." + +"What makes you think so?" + +"Because it was never used, because no real canal was ever built, only +a little ditch that doesn't exist now. The right will be cancelled, +and the water will be reappropriated for lands along the river." + +"For farms on which you're now using it, you mean?" + +"I'm not saying where." + +Bryant leaned forward and tapped the banker's desk with a finger-tip. + +"Mr. Menocal, don't try to start any trouble with me," he said, with +jaw a little outthrust. + +"_Dios!_ You dare talk that way to me?" + +"I repeat it, don't attempt to keep something that doesn't belong to +you. You may want to--but don't try it. I know all about the water +appropriation for the ranch I've bought; all about your sworn +affidavit filed thirty years ago, with an accompanying map, certifying +that a canal was built and water delivered to the land. It's a matter +of record. Now you seek to reappropriate this water, or to have the +right cancelled, and see where you wind up. Thirty years ago men +winked at false affidavits, but it's different to-day." + +The Mexican's white moustache drew up tight under his thick nose, +disclosing his teeth in a snarl. + +"You threaten me--me!" + +"I'm not threatening, only warning you. Or if you wish a still milder +word, let me say advising," Bryant rejoined. + +The banker's eyes, however, continued to flash at the engineer, as if +alive in their sockets and hunting a mark to strike. + +"You accuse me of dishonour!" he exclaimed. "I don't know why I should +pay attention to your charge, which is false. A ditch was built to the +ranch--" + +"Mighty small one, then. No trace of it remains." + +"One was built, one was built!" + +"Very well, Mr. Menocal, grant that it was. It but strengthens my +position. But let us pass to recent times; five years ago you passed +title to Stevenson with the water right as a reality when you sold him +the ranch; your son is water inspector for this district, or was until +a year ago, anyway, making reports to the state. Did he say anything +in them about this canal or water right having ceased to exist? No." + +"His reports were largely routine," the other stated, regaining his +composure. + +"Still they were official. I'm simply pointing out to you, Mr. +Menocal, why it will be unwise for you to endeavour to have this water +appropriation cancelled. You sold it to Stevenson as a live right--the +deed proves that; and now that I have the property I shall make it +such in fact. You've been using the water for other land, which +possibly will suffer afterward, but that doesn't affect the case in +the least. That water is a valuable property; when it's delivered on +my ranch, the land will be worth fifty dollars an acre. You may have +calculated that no one who got hold of the Perro Creek ranch ever +would or could use the water, but in that you were in error: I can and +will use it, and you must understand that fact." + +Menocal fell into consideration. He folded his hands across his +stomach and remained thus, pondering, occasionally lifting his lids +for a scrutiny of Bryant's face. + +"I'll give you ten thousand cash for the place as it stands and hand +you my check now," he said, at length. + +"Not to-day, thank you," the engineer replied. + +"What is your price?" + +"The ranch isn't for sale. It'll be worth a quarter of a million when +it's watered. No, it's not on the market at present." + +A deep sigh issued from the banker's lips; he blinked slowly several +times before speaking, with a resigned countenance. + +"I see you've some capitalists behind you," said he, "for it will take +money to build a dam and a canal. If they saw a reasonable profit +without the trouble of construction, no doubt they would be willing to +sell." + +"Put your mind at rest, Mr. Menocal; you have only me to deal with; +there are no capitalists running this show yet. But the water system +will be built, never fear." + +Menocal's eyebrows went up. "Ah, so?" he asked, softly. + +Then his face smoothed itself out; and Bryant realized that he had +been led into a betrayal of importance. + +"You would do well to name a price, Mr. Bryant." + +"No; I propose to develop the ranch," the engineer answered, curtly. +"Is the release made out? If it is, I'll be on my way." + +"It's too bad you refuse, too bad," Menocal said, with a lugubrious +shake of his head. + +He called Isidro. The clerk placed a card before Bryant for his +signature and gave him a check book. Then he laid the mortgage release +in front of Menocal, who signed and passed it to the engineer. + +"You'll find it correct," the Mexican stated. "Isidro is a notary and +has filled out the acknowledgment." + +Nevertheless, the visitor took care to read the paper and compare it +with his deed before he rose. + +"Well, that ends my business for the afternoon," said he, "and I'll +take no more of your time. You understand where I stand, Mr. Menocal." + +The latter gave a number of slow nods saying, "I understand, I +understand. Good day, Mr. Bryant. And remember that you have an +account with us and that the bank will be pleased to render you any +service possible." + +Sleepily the banker, watching through the bank window, saw the young +man lead his horse across the street and once more disappear within +the courthouse. Then for some minutes he continued in somnolent +contemplation of the courthouse front. At last he called: + +"Isidro, Isidro! Go find Joe Garcia and tell him I wish to speak with +him in half an hour in my garden. Look for him at home and in the +saloon, but find him wherever he is. That man who just went out now, +Isidro,----" + +"Yes," answered Isidro. + +"He's one of those hard, obstinate Americans, Isidro--and his eyes, +they are bad eyes, I don't like them." + +"Yes," Isidro concurred, who had not noticed the eyes at all. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Charlie Menocal, who after his sleep had read a few chapters in a +novel, went out of the shaded room where he had reposed and into the +garden. There he discovered his father in talk with Joe Garcia. + +"What's going on?" he exclaimed. "Lost a horse, or a wife or +something, Joe?" + +"No, Charlie; this is business," Garcia said, with a grin. + +Menocal continued to give his instructions to the latter. They had to +do with bringing a few hundred sheep from one of the bands feeding in +the hills. They were to be driven down on the mesa to graze, and kept +moving about near the Stevenson ranch house; Garcia was to observe +what the young man there did, all he did, whom he saw, and as far as +possible where he went. Particularly was he to note if surveyors came +and set to work anywhere. If the young man appeared to be engaged at +any task on the mountain side, Joe was to approach with his sheep. And +he was to report everything he learned. + +Charlie's attention became more lively as he listened to his father's +directions to the man, and when Garcia had departed he asked, "Who are +you after? Who's this young fellow you speak of as being at the Perro +Creek ranch? Didn't Stevenson deed the place back?" + +Menocal senior twisted an end of his flaring moustache. + +"May a thousand damnations fall on him! No, he didn't," he responded, +wrathfully. + +"But that only means you'll have to foreclose the mortgage. It will +take longer, that's all." + +Charlie was vice-president of his father's bank--his name was so +printed on the stationery, at least--and was familiar with his +parent's affairs, though he was averse to anything like industry. He +much preferred the pursuit of pleasure to work, and his automobile to +the grille of the bank. He was accurately aware, too, of his father's +weakness for him, an only child, and of his father's inclination to +indulge his desires; and shrewdly played upon the fact. Nevertheless, +in matters of business he possessed a certain sharpness. + +"Stevenson sold the ranch to this young man Bryant, who just now paid +off the mortgage," Menocal explained. + +"Then he was stung," Charlie averred. + +"Wait, you don't know all, my son. He plans to build a dam and a canal +and use that old water right out of the Pinas, taking the water with +which we irrigate the farms down at Rosita. It will leave them dry; +the alfalfa will die; no more grain or peas or beans will be raised on +them; they won't have even good pasturage; they will go back to +sagebrush and cactus--all those farms, all those beautiful ranches! +Altogether four or five thousand acres! They are worth two hundred +thousand dollars now--to-morrow worth nothing! Half my winter hay +comes from them; half my peas for fattening lambs. I shall have to +sell part of my sheep. I'm a millionaire now, but I'll be reduced, +I'll be less than a millionaire, and so almost poor again. It's very +bad; it mustn't be; I must stop him using the water." + +Even Charlie became solemn at the prospect of losing two hundred +thousand dollars and being less than a millionaire. + +"The right hasn't been used; we'll have it cancelled," he said, with +sudden confidence. + +"He refused to sell the place to me for ten thousand dollars cash," +the father stated. "He's no fool--and he's a bad customer, Charlie; he +said he would send me to prison for perjury if I tried to cancel the +right." + +"Perjury, pouf!" Charlie sneered. + +"He couldn't send me to prison, of course, for I have too much money, +but he might make it unpleasant for me, very unpleasant. Politics are +to be considered; I mustn't get a bad name in the party and in the +state. I must be careful. The records show that the ranch has had the +water, and while in my possession. As he says, that would be difficult +for me to explain if I entered court against him. The matter mustn't +get into court or into the land office. Later we can have the water +right cancelled and reappropriated--later, when he has gone away, when +no dust can be raised about it." + +"Is he going away?" + +"Don't be stupid, Charlie. He must go away; that is necessary: I'm +considering plans. He must be pursuaded--or----" + +"Or forced," said his son, with reckless bright eyes. + +"Men generally depart from a locality when public opinion is brought +to bear on them," the elder remarked. "He can be made unpopular until +he desires to leave." + +"We'll run him out, just leave that part to me." + +"Charlie, nothing rash must be done, remember that, and nothing +illegal. I shall think of some plan soon." + +"Nothing rash, but nothing uncertain, father. Two hundred thousand is +a lot of money. I, too, shall plan." + +The prospect of ousting an intruder who had challenged his family's +right to control what it wished here, who indeed had the audacity to +attempt to robe the effort under a claim of legality, appealed to +young Menocal as an undertaking most attractive. The fact that all the +advantage was on his side, of influence, of wealth, of race, of power +that might be exerted through ignorant Mexicans in a hundred subtle +and vindictive ways, made the enterprise all the more alluring. The +Indian strain in his blood--a strain which accounts for much that sets +American and Mexican apart, unconsciously in his case gave a tinge of +cruelty to his anticipation. Aspiring himself to pass as an American, +it never failed to please him when he could slight or humiliate an +American; and he lacked his father's restraint of impulses, as he came +short of his sagacity and perseverance. Indeed, secretly the son +believed his father too conservative, too cautious, too old-fashioned +and slow; and at times was exceedingly impatient with methods that he +was confident he could immensely improve. + +His father considered him for a time. + +"Charlie, you leave this matter alone," he said. "You keep out of it. +Whatever's to be done, I'll do. You would go too far. You can give +your attention to seeing that the crops are watered and the hay cut on +time; you should be down at Rosita now looking after things." + +"I'll run down in the car this evening," was the answer. "To-morrow +I'm going to Kennard, where I haven't been for two weeks. The wool in +the warehouse there should be sold, and a buyer from Boston wrote, you +know, that he would be there this week. And I think we can get our +price." + +Kennard was the nearest railroad point and forty miles south. It was a +pleasant little city, with some of the attractions of larger places. +Of these Charlie was thinking rather than of the wool. He would attend +to the wool business, of course, but it was an excuse instead of a +reason for the projected visit on the morrow. + +"Very well, it's time the wool is sold; the price is good at present," +his father agreed. + +Charlie recurred to the matter of the Stevenson ranch. + +"What's this fellow's name who bought out Stevenson?" + +"Lee Bryant. A young man. And I don't like him; I'm afraid he's a +trouble-maker. You should remember him, Charlie, for he's the fellow +who filled the radiator of the car at the ford on Perro Creek and who +threw your money back in your face." + +Young Menocal's thin figure stiffened, while his small black moustache +rose in two points of ire. + +"Him! That scoundrel who insulted me before Louise! That +lamb-stealer!" he shrilled. + +"That is the man," his father affirmed. + +Charlie spat forth a string of Spanish curses. When he had recovered +from his outburst of passion, he said: + +"Well, I'm glad he's the man. He'll pay for that. Louise said nothing, +but she heard him. And now he's trying to steal our water, too! I'd +like to tie him down on a cactus-bed and run a band of sheep over +him." + +"Charlie, Charlie, control yourself. Don't exhaust your strength by +being angry; it's bad for you in this heat; sunstrokes are sometimes +brought on that way. Besides, such talk as you uttered is foolish and +dangerous." + +"Bah, I'm not afraid of a sunstroke." + +"Anyway, it's unwise to be angry," his father warned. "When you're in +a temper, you talk loud; and people may hear it and repeat it, making +trouble. Now I must return to the bank. But remember what I say: +you're not to meddle in this Perro Creek matter. Do you hear?" + +"Oh, yes, I hear," said Charlie. + +His face as his father walked away did not, however, indicate +acquiescence in this tame course. His heart was full of rancour for +the insulting stranger of the ford; and where the fires of his hatred +blew, his feet would follow. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Though Lee Bryant, during his colloquy with Menocal, had spoken +confidently of his ability to obtain money wherewith to construct a +canal system linking the Pinas River and the Perro Creek ranch, he had +no definite promise of funds from any source. Nor would the project be +ripe for financing before he had completed his surveys and made his +cost estimates. + +He had become interested in the undertaking in this way. Staying over +night with the Stevensons by chance a month previous, a stranger, his +speculation was aroused when through questions about the ranch he +learned of the unused Pinas River water right, a right valid but +apparently impracticable. Was it indeed impracticable? Would the cost +of bringing water to the land be, after all, prohibitive? In fact, had +a competent engineer ever gone into the matter? He doubted it. The +history of the property, so far as he could glean from Stevenson, +disclosed on the part of no one any serious effort ever to develop the +ranch. In the beginning Menocal had probably had some faint notion of +carrying out the scheme, but if so, had afterward abandoned the +enterprise. The tract of five thousand acres of land had originally +been a small Mexican grant; it lay in the midst of government land; +and when Menocal came into possession of the ranch, some conception of +utilizing water from the Pinas must have inspired him to acquire the +appropriation of one hundred and twenty-five second feet. Well, the +land, theoretically at any rate, had water; and if water actually +could be delivered, an extraordinary value would accrue to the now +nearly worthless tract. It was a problem for engineers; it was one of +the possibilities that if seized might be converted into a fact. +Bryant was an engineer, and he was just then foot-loose. + +From the worried ranchman, Stevenson, who appeared glad to talk of his +affairs to someone, he learned that the man was both dissatisfied with +the country and straitened in circumstances. Bryant judged that his +host would consider any offer which would enable him to realize +something on the ranch and to depart; so that particular aspect of the +matter if undertaken, namely, securing title to the land and water +right, seemed favourable. If no insurmountable obstacle stood in the +way of building a dam and a canal, arising from construction elements, +it assuredly looked as if money was to be made out of the project. + +With his mind kindling to the idea Bryant rode northward next morning +along the base of the mountains, studying the hillsides where a canal +naturally should run, all the way up to the Pinas River. Afterward he +reconnoitered the mesa, hitting at last on a slight elevation, hardly +to be called a ridge, that projected from a hillside a mile below +Bartolo and curved in a gentle crescent for about three miles from the +range of mountains down the mesa, again bending in toward the hills +close to the north line of the Perro Creek ranch. + +Next, he absented himself for a week at the state capital, where he +industriously studied the water and land records pertaining to the +district. When he returned, he brought with him a surveying instrument +and a boy for helper. He pitched a tent out of sight in a hollow at +the foot of a hill, worked early and late running his lines, +establishing a dam site, and surveying the river bottom near the mouth +of Pinas Canon, and remained practically unseen except by a few +incurious Mexicans. His instrument proved the correctness of his +conclusion regarding the crescent-shaped elevation as a practical +grade for a canal, which though necessitating a longer course would +nevertheless immensely lessen the time, expense, and difficulties of +digging when compared with a line along the mountains' flanks with its +danger of washouts and earth slides. Nor did he stop there. He made +rapid but reliable topographical measurements, on a general scale, of +the mesa for five miles out from the mountains, between Bartolo and +Perro Creek, locating among other things a large depression in the +plain, three miles southwest of the town, which might by diking be +converted into a flood water reservoir. Then he folded his tent and +again disappeared for a week. When, finally, he rode to Stevenson's +ranch house that hot July afternoon and made a trade for the five +thousand acres of land, he was the possessor of considerably more +knowledge of the locality and its possibilities than any one would +have guessed. + +And now he was owner of the ranch and committed to the enterprise. + +A few days after Bryant's visit to Bartolo Stevenson disposed of his +sheep to Graham, the owner of the large ranch on Diamond Creek, loaded +his household goods, except the stove and some of the furniture which +the engineer bought, and with his wife and boy drove away in his sheep +wagon for Kennard and for the new farm in Nebraska. Bryant's own +effects--trunk, bedding, provisions, surveying instruments, +draughting-board, and the like, came up from the railroad town by +wagon, and with them the fourteen-year-old lad, Dave Morris, a +gangling, long-legged boy extremely dependable and extraordinarily +serious, who had carried rod for the engineer during the week of +preliminary surveying. + +The man and boy now attacked the canal line in earnest, with Bryant +intent on establishing its course, location, and displacement exactly, +so that he could make necessary blueprints and compile construction +estimates. It was while they were working along the first mile of the +line, where it ran from the Pinas River along the base of a hill to +the low ridge that bore out upon the mesa, that they received their +first interruption. The worst and most expensive part of the canal to +build would be this section, and the engineer was therefore taking +especial care in its surveying; near the river the line traversed +several fenced tracts of ground extending part way up the hillside, +fields owned by natives; and it was one of these Mexicans who slouched +forward to the spot where Bryant and Dave worked and ordered them to +get out of his field. + +Bryant straightened up from sighting through his transit, and asked, +"What's on your mind? What's disturbing your brain, _hombre_?" + +"You get off," was the unkempt fellow's answer. + +"Why?" + +"You can't come on my ranch; get off." + +The engineer pulled a map from his hip pocket--a copy made from one +filed in the land commissioner's office thirty years previous. He +spread it open before the Mexican. + +"See this? Here is Bartolo, here is the river, here is your field," he +said, pointing with a finger. "Now look at that line; it runs across +this field right where we stand. That's the Perro Creek Canal, +extending down to Perro Creek." + +The man stared at the earth under his feet. + +"No, I see no canal," he stated, now looking right and left as if to +make sure. "There is no canal." + +"Yes, there is. But it needs cleaning badly. I'm surveying its banks +again and then I shall clean out the dirt. You can see that it needs +cleaning, because you can scarcely see it at all. Menocal, the banker, +didn't take very good care of the canal after he built it; that's the +trouble. Hello, does that surprise you? Yes, Mr. Menocal got the water +right and dug the ditch in the first place; and he also secured a +right of way across these fields, sixty feet wide, by buying it from +whoever owned the ground at that time, and the right of way is +certified to the state. Now, I own Perro Creek ranch and the Perro +Creek canal and likewise the right of way. So you see, Jose, or +whatever your name is, we're standing on my ground and not yours; I +could even make you take down your fence where it crosses my right of +way." + +The Mexican blinked stupidly. + +"I was born here; my father was born here; my grandfather lived here," +he said. "There have been little ditches, many of them, but never a +big canal in this field. You must get off." + +"No; you're mistaken. Go see Mr. Menocal and he will set you right." + +"I saw Charlie Menocal, who said to drive strangers off." + +"Well, Charlie had best keep his fingers out of this dish, or he may +find it full of pepper, and you tell him so next time you talk with +him." + +Bryant folded his map and restored it to his pocket, while the Mexican +went away to his house. + +That day the engineer worked until darkness shut down. At three +o'clock next morning he routed his young assistant out of bed and by +dawn they were in the fields again. Knowing that the Menocals had set +about impeding and if possible altogether obstructing him, he proposed +to be done, as quickly as careful surveying allowed, with the fenced +part of the hillside where plausible controversies could be invented. + +Toward the end of the second day he had progressed into the last tract +of owned ground. He breathed more freely. In his statement to the +Mexican concerning the right of way he had been exactly right; and he +was following to a dot the original course taken by the early ditch. +He could have improved upon this section of the canal by another +survey, but that would have involved him in a host of troubles, very +likely unsolvable ones, in securing title to another strip of ground +across the fields. Without question Menocal's influence would prevent +the owners from selling, even if Bryant had the money with which to +buy a second right of way, which he had not. Dollar for dollar it +would be cheaper in the long run to use the old line. Well, Dave was +already across the last fence with his rod; they would soon be +working entirely on government land; and with that, it did not matter +for the present what the Mexican landowners thought or did. + +Bryant had walked fifty yards or so away from his transit to call +something to Dave, when the crack of a rifle sounded from the hillside +and a bullet whined near by. The engineer pivoted about. Another shot +followed, and he beheld a spurt of dust close by his instrument. The +hidden rifleman was not seeking to murder him, but to destroy his +tools. + +There were no more shots and he resumed work. Later on, as he neared +the fence and was establishing his last points within the field, a +horseman with a gray moustache came galloping up along the stretch of +barb wire. He nodded, inquired if the engineer was named Bryant, and +announced that he had half a dozen injunctions to serve. + +"I expected something like this; glad you didn't arrive any sooner," +Lee remarked. + +"Well, I was away from town, or I'd have been here by noon," the +horseman, an American, stated. "The injunctions cover all these places +between here and the river. You and any one you hire must keep off the +tracts specified until the cases come up before the judge." + +"All right, sheriff. Wait till I take a last squint or two and I'll +vacate." + +The horseman idly watched the engineer make his final measurements, +then when Bryant had lifted his tripod over the wire and told his +assistant Dave they would call it a day and stop, he dismounted and +sat down for a smoke with the man on whom he had served his papers. + +"Looks as if you've stirred up some interest in your doings," he +remarked, expelling a thread of smoke. "All the Mexicans from here +down to Rosita are gabbling about your canal. Don't seem pleased with +you." + +"There's one who doesn't, in any case," was the response. "He took a +couple of shots at my instrument a while ago from up yonder in the +sagebrush when I had stepped aside for a moment." + +The sheriff gazed at the hillside. + +"A few _hombres_ around here will bear watching," said he. For a +little he meditated, then went on, "You're a white man and so am I; +they don't like our colour any too well, at bottom. I s'pose you know +that." + +"Yes. But they needn't express their feelings with rifles. As far as +these injunctions are concerned, they'll be dismissed eventually, for +there's no question about my right of way through here. Menocal +secured it himself and it's all a matter of record--the deeds, the +certificate to the state, and the rest." + +"Menocal got it, you say?" + +"Nobody else. Some time or other he must have expected to water Perro +Creek ranch, which he owned until he sold it to Stevenson." + +"I knew he had that place," said the visitor, "but I didn't know it +carried a water right from the Pinas. Where does this move of yours +hit Menocal?" + +"In his ranches down the river; he's been using this water for them," +Bryant explained. "I suppose it's been taken for granted by nearly +everyone that the water belonged to those farms down there, but it +doesn't." + +"How much water in this right?" + +"Hundred and twenty-five second feet." + +"Whew! That takes a chunk out of the Pinas. And I presume that by this +time Menocal knows what you're doing?" + +"Oh, yes; I told him. He doesn't like it, of course." + +The sheriff turned for a full view of Bryant's face. In respect to +features the two men were not unlike: both had the same thin curving +nose and level eyes and cut of jaw. + +"Well, let me say as between man and man," the elder spoke, "that +Menocal won't let you take away that much water from him if he can +help it. And I'll drop you some more news, in addition: several +Mexicans are going to file on homesteads or desert claims along the +base of the hills south of here, scattered along like and running part +way up the mountain sides. I don't know where your canal to Perro +Creek will go, but if its line follows the foot of the range, as may +be likely, it might happen to find those claims in the way." + +"Any idea in your mind where those fellows may locate their filings?" + +"No; I can't say definitely. Shouldn't be surprised if they began +stringing them along a couple of miles south of here till they reached +Perro Creek." + +Bryant gazed at the flank of the mountain. The gentle ridge where his +ditch line left the hillside was but half a mile away. Beyond that the +Mexicans could file to their hearts' content, for they would be left +on one side by the canal. But in all this he perceived Menocal's +cunning hand. + +"Much obliged to you, sheriff," said he. "I'll see if I can't find +some way to satisfy those chaps when the time comes." + +His visitor rose and put foot in stirrup. + +"If any of these Mexicans grow ugly, let me know," he remarked. "I'll +tell them where to head in. Drop in at my office at the courthouse +when you're in town; Winship's my name. I brought these notices over +myself in order to look at you, for they were saying you are a +trouble-maker, but that's what these natives frequently state when +they want to fix an alibi for themselves before they start something. +I'll see if I can learn anything of the fellow who was up yonder +shooting. These _hombres_ are altogether too free with firearms, +anyway. Better feed that lad there with you a few more meals a day; +looks as if he could use them." + +Bryant laughed. + +"Dave's a little lean, but he's all there. Looks don't count, do they, +partner?" + +"I do the best I can," Dave responded, solemnly. + +"Not at meal-time, I reckon," the sheriff said. "Feed up and get fat. +A kid like you has no business having so many joints and bones +sticking out." + +"I been through a hard winter last winter, and this spring, too, till +Mr. Bryant picked me up." + +"How's that?" the horseman inquired. + +"My mother died at Kennard. I didn't get on very well after that; not +much there for a boy to work at. And I hadn't any folks." + +"Hump. What's your last name?" + +"Morris." + +"Any relation to Jack Morris?" + +"He was my father." + +The sheriff nodded. "Knew him well; he died four years ago. And your +mother died last winter? Little woman, I recall." + +"Little, but a lot better than plenty of bigger ones I know of," Dave +asserted, stoutly. "She died of pneumonia." + +"Boy, I've held you on my knee when you were about as high as my hand. +But I guess you don't remember that, and I'm mighty sorry to learn +your mother's gone. Dave--is that your name? Well, now, Dave, fight +your grub harder from now on." + +The speaker gathered his reins, nodded, and rode away along the barb +wire fence. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +"When gentlemen of a dark and sinister cast of mind deliberately set +out to frustrate one's legitimate efforts under a misapprehension as +to the course to be pursued, the proper diplomacy in such a case is to +foster the delusion circulating in their craniums as long as possible +and thus divert their attention from the real purpose. Don't you agree +with me, David?" Lee Bryant gravely inquired of his young companion, +as they were about to set forth next morning. + +"Yes, sir," Dave affirmed, to whom the statement was so much Greek. + +"Then since the vote is unanimous, we'll proceed to run a line along +the mountain side where it will collide with these new homesteads." + +The engineer shouldered tripod and rod, whistled Mike to heel, and +with Dave started forward. Half way to Bartolo they perceived three +men busy on the hillside, so Bryant swung up to a point a quarter of a +mile off and began surveying. When he approached the workmen, Mexicans +naturally, he saw that they were engaged in setting fence posts, of +which a row was already in line part way up the hill. + +The men dropped their tools and confronted him as he drew near. + +"This is my land; you keep away," one exclaimed, with waving arms, +while the other backed him up in a show of force. + +"How can I build a canal here if you won't let me go through?" Bryant +demanded. + +"No go through, no canal on my claim!" + +"Well, just let me run a line, anyhow." + +"No. Keep off, keep off," was the obstinate answer. + +The engineer continued to argue, now as if in anger and now with a +conciliatory mien, all the while protesting that the homesteader must +not prevent the construction of the canal. But he received only shakes +of the head, short replies, and malicious looks. So at length, with +every pretense of disappointment and dejection, he went down the +hillside. + +A mile farther along, where he found two more men occupied at similar +labour, he likewise dissembled his purpose, with the same opposition, +controversy, and retreat. He thereupon led Dave back to the ranch +house, where he prepared and ate dinner with satisfaction. Very likely +Menocal would receive reports that evening faithfully depicting his +chagrin and despair, or whatever were the Mexican equivalents. + +Yet while he deluded the banker, he must secretly carry on his actual +surveying on the mesa. Since the men setting fence posts had a fairly +wide view of the plain, he determined to work in the open only for two +or three hours at daybreak before the Mexicans were about. For +Menocal, or any one else, must have no suspicion of his real ditch +line until an application for construction of the project had been +filed in the state engineer's office. + +Signs that the banker had taken measures to keep him under +surveillance were not wanting. + +"Dave," he said, "have you noticed a sheepherder with a bunch of sheep +hanging around here, when he should be up in the mountains where the +range is good?" + +"Yes, I've seen him. And he hasn't a full band, either." + +"Looks as if he's grazing down here on the mesa so as to watch us," +Bryant mused. "When we went north, he and his sheep drifted in that +direction; when we were over on the mountain side, they followed +there. What shall we do about it?" + +"I don't see that we can do anything except to watch him, too, and +fool him." The lad took thought for a moment, and then proceeded, +"Somebody was around here yesterday while we were away, for I saw a +brown paper cigarette stub on the ground in front of the door this +morning. You use white papers; it's mostly Mexicans who have those +straw papers." + +"Then we had better put an extra nail or two in the windows as a +precaution," Lee stated, "before we go down to Sarita Creek. And I'll +leave Mike here also. If anybody comes fooling around, he'll take a +piece out of the fellow's leg." + +In addition to nailing the windows and leaving Mike at the door, much +to his dissatisfaction, Bryant secreted his papers, note-books, and +maps, the theft of which would be an extremely serious loss. Menocal +probably would not instigate open lawlessness, but his hirelings might +break into the house on their own initiative. And this was not +unlikely since a bitter feeling was systematically being aroused +against Bryant and his project among the preponderate Mexican +inhabitants. + +But for the time being he dismissed this matter from his thoughts, +when with tripod and rod and a bundle of stakes on Dick's saddle he +and Dave set out for Sarita Creek, leading the horse. Bryant had +postponed, under pressure of work, the business of fixing the feminine +homesteaders' garden ditch, until his conscience began to prick him on +the subject. He had neither seen nor had news of them since the chance +meeting at the ford; but now, as he could survey his canal line on the +mesa only during the early hours, he planned to make frequent visits +to the girls. + +That they already had a caller this afternoon he discovered on +arriving at the two little cabins built of boards, peeping forth from +among the trees in the mouth of the canon. The place was indeed +charming, with its grass and shade, with its brook flowing close by +the dwellings, with walls of rock rising behind. Just now an +automobile rested before the trees; and the engineer saw a man sitting +on the grass with Ruth Gardner and Imogene Martin, the three chatting +and laughing gaily. When Bryant got a good look at the other visitor +he gave vent to an ejaculation in which was blended surprise and +contempt. "That magpie! Of all damn impudence!" For the cavalier so +debonairly entertaining the young ladies was none other than the +olive-skinned Charlie Menocal. + +A sense of pique was Bryant's succeeding feeling. He would have +disdainfully denied that he was moved by a pang of jealousy. But he +had anticipated finding the girls alone and having a pleasant chat +with them, enjoying their companionship, relaxing from the strain of +arduous work, harkening to their badinage. Indeed, if the interloper +had been someone else, some other man, at least, he would have +experienced a turn of disappointment--but that the individual should +be this tricky, coddled, egotistical Charlie Menocal! Well, he should +align the girls' irrigating ditch and then go about his business. + +"I've been delayed in coming to correct your water flow," he remarked, +when the fair homesteaders had given him greeting, "but I'm on hand at +last." + +Ruth Gardner, looking prettier and fuller of spirits than ever, +assured him the ditch was behaving no better than before. Her next +words, however, left him with an impression that he and not Charlie +Menocal was the intruder, which hardened his annoyance into a desire +to have done with the matter. + +"I wish you had come some other day, for we're just about to depart," +she exclaimed. "Mr. Menocal is very kindly taking Imo and me in his +car to see the old ruins of a pueblo somewhere over west. We'll be +gone probably all the rest of the afternoon, and there'll be no one to +show you the ditch and what's wrong with it." + +"Oh, I'll find out what's wrong and straighten out the trouble," the +engineer replied. "You've a spade or shovel, I suppose? Go right ahead +with your exploring expedition and don't worry about me; the ditch +will be working properly when you return." + +"Well, if you don't really need us----" + +"Not in the least," was his assurance. + +She still hesitated, while her look travelled from Bryant to Menocal +and back again. To the engineer that inclusive regard indicated that +her mind was less concerned with the garden ditch than with a +comparison of her two visitors; and with a sudden feeling of warmth +about his neck Bryant admitted to himself that he presented no +attractions. He wore laced boots, soiled khaki trousers and flannel +shirt, with his hat pulled over one eye against the sun; Menocal was +dressed in light gray clothes, thin and cool, low white shoes, a pale +pink silk shirt (trust a Mexican for colour somewhere!) a vivid +rose-hued scarf, and a white cap. To further emphasize the contrast, +Bryant led a loaded horse and a gangling boy, while Charlie Menocal +leaned at ease against his twin-six. Quite a difference, for a fact. +And it was plain that Ruth Gardner noted it with discrimination. + +Imogene Martin now spoke. + +"I don't think I'll go, Ruth. I've not been feeling well the last day +or two, as you know, and I'm afraid to risk the sun." + +"Oh, come on, Imo. The ride will do you good," her friend replied, +with a trace of impatience. + +"No, I told Mr. Menocal when he proposed the expedition that I doubted +if I should go." + +"Too bad not to come, Miss Martin," that worthy remarked, without +enthusiasm. Clearly his interest in what company he should have did +not point toward her. + +"I'm going, at any rate," Ruth Gardner said. And then, "Oh, dear! I +overlooked altogether introducing you you two gentlemen." + +Bryant was human; the opportunity was one he could not let pass. So +smiling broadly he said: + +"We've met before, haven't we, Menocal? At Perro Creek ford." And +receiving no response but a scowl, he spoke at large, "Well, I must +get busy if I'm to save those beans." + +He led Dick, with Dave at his side, toward the garden on open ground +below the trees, where the bean vines were already turning yellow for +lack of water. He chuckled as he went, for the disappearance of +Charlie Menocal's patronizing air and the sudden thundercloud hanging +on his visage attested that the charge had gone home. + +Ten minutes later the automobile passed the garden, but Bryant, who +had set up his tripod and stationed Dave with his rod some distance +off, did not see the hand Ruth Gardner waved. His eye was where an +engineer's eye should be, at his transit. + +"She waved at you," Dave called. + +"Who?" + +"That girl with the Mexican." + +"Well, what of it?" + +When Bryant used that tone, Dave recognized the wisdom of silence. He +pretended that he had not heard. Even his employer, whom he +worshipped, had strange, mysterious moods. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +The defect in the ditch proved to be one of minor character, which +Bryant corrected after a few observations and half an hour's work with +a shovel. While he was thus engaged, Imogene Martin, wearing a +wide-brimmed straw hat, strolled out to watch his operations. She was +in a friendly and talkative mood, and asked questions concerning +ditches and irrigation and surveying, and about Dave, and speculated +on the ruins of the pueblo whither Ruth and Charlie Menocal had gone, +and said she was glad Bryant had bought the ranch just north of their +claims and would be their neighbour. Only, she added, she was sorry to +learn that he was having trouble with the people about; Mr. Menocal +had stated such to be a fact, though what he had further hinted of +Bryant's endeavour to gain property to which he had no title and of +the engineer's being a trouble-maker, she did not for one instant +believe. + +"I'll be a trouble-maker for Charlie and his dad if they continue +their present policy," Lee vouchsafed, tossing aside a shovelful of +earth. + +Imogene Martin carefully flattened a hill of bean plants for a seat, +sat down, and locked her hands over her knees. + +"I think you're to be trusted, so I'll tell you a secret," she +remarked, smiling. "Charlie Menocal doesn't make a 'hit' with me, +either. When you referred to the ford, I could scarcely keep my face +straight; and my feeling ill this afternoon, though partly true, was +also partly manufactured, because I didn't want to go to those old +ruins with him. I don't care for men like him especially. I share the +feeling of my uncle in Kennard--" + +"You have an uncle there? I thought you were from the East." + +"I am; from Ohio. But I've an uncle and aunt living in Kennard, which +is the reason Ruth and I came to this section for homesteads. Ruth was +crazy to take up a claim, having read how easily one is acquired, +while my health was not very good and the doctor at home thought it +would be improved by being in the open in a high altitude. Uncle said +I'd better stay with him and aunt, but I knew how terribly +disappointed Ruth would be if I did, because she couldn't homestead +alone. So uncle declared that if homesteaders we had to be, then we +must locate near him where he could have me under his eye, so to +speak. I myself am not taking this claim business very seriously. And +now uncle, who once had some controversy with the elder Menocal, +wouldn't be very well pleased if he knew the son was making calls on +us." + +"So others besides myself have trouble with the Menocals," Bryant +stated. + +"Apparently. I don't know what this particular difficulty was about, +but uncle is president of a bank in Kennard and so it may have been +some financial matter. Or it may have been over politics; both of them +mix in that. Anyway, he doesn't think highly of the elder Menocal, +and has no use at all for the younger; so I know he would be vexed at +Ruth and me for receiving this Charlie." + +"You didn't know him that day he and I clashed at the ford," Lee +suggested. + +"Oh, no. Our meeting came about one afternoon about a week afterward. +He overtook us on the road a mile or so away from here and politely +offered to bring us home in his car; we were walking and couldn't very +well refuse his courtesy, and then he asked to call and Ruth at once +gave him permission, and that's the way it came about. But I thought +it wise to draw the line at going off miles and miles with him to see +ruins. Of course, Ruth hasn't any uncle to consider, but uncle or no +uncle I should have drawn the line just the same." + +"A colour line, eh?" Lee asked, with a lift of his brows. + +"Yes, that's it, though I hesitated to put it in just those words," +she agreed, with a nod, while both her lips and her blue eyes smiled +at him in amusement. "Really, Mexicans are of different blood and +race, you know, and I feel the--gulf. That probably sounds foolish and +ridiculous, still I can't help the feeling. When I look at a man like +Charlie Menocal, I see the Mexican strain uppermost even if his mother +was white; and I think what strange, savage, unguessed traits may lurk +in his blood from a long time back; and I shiver. One dare not say +they have ceased. There may be forces at work in his soul that are +inherited from the very tribesmen who dwelt in that pueblo ages ago, +whose ruins he and Ruth have gone to see. Who knows? And I'm never +able to rid myself of the feeling that such forces exist in him and +his kind." + +The engineer thrust his shovel into the earth and seated himself +beside the girl. + +"Nor I," said he. "And I suppose that feeling will remain between +persons of different races as long as the races themselves last. Those +who ignore or deny it are simply blind. Why, look, there's antipathy +between even white men of different nationalities! So what else is to +be expected when the question is one of race and colour? Nor will one +or two generations change what is infused in blood and sinew." + +"Now, that's what uncle says," Imogene Martin declared, "and asserts +that's the reason why Mexicans born and raised here are in sympathy +with those across the border in any trouble Mexico has with our +country." Her face all at once became amused. "He says craniums were +shaped long before governments." + +Bryant laughed on hearing that concise summing up of the case. And +then they continued to talk of this and other subjects, while Dave +Morris drew near and silently drank in the conversation, most of which +passed above his head. As for the engineer, he found in his companion +a peculiar charm that he never would have suspected from their first +meeting at the ford; a pleasure begotten of a quick intelligence and a +keen, trained mind. + +"I've delayed you in your work," she exclaimed, at length. + +"Except to throw out a few shovelfuls of dirt, and that will take but +a moment. I was done. I didn't sit down until it was practically put +in shape. I hope we shall have another talk soon; this one has been a +great treat for me. Let me help you up." + +When he had cleaned the last clods from the ditch, he set off with +tripod and shovel on shoulder to walk with her to the cabins, while +Dave followed with Dick. At the houses Bryant cast an appraising look +at the scanty heap of chopped wood and wound up his visit by seizing +the axe and attacking the store of dry poles hauled from the canon by +the man who had built the cabins. + +"There, that will keep you going for awhile," he stated, when he had +produced a large pile of sticks. "I don't believe you're strong enough +to handle an axe, Miss Martin; and it would grieve me deeply to learn +you had removed a toe in the attempt. Really, this homesteading game +isn't for women and girls." + +"Oh, we've made out fairly well." + +"Your spirit is admirable, but I can't say as much for your judgment +in the matter," he returned, good-naturedly. "Still, we all go hunting +trouble in our own individual fashion; if not in one way, why, then in +another." + +It was after five o'clock when Lee Bryant and Dave, once more leading +the loaded horse, took their departure and followed Sarita Creek down +to the mesa trail. When they had struck into the latter and travelled +it for half a mile, they saw a long distance ahead someone walking +toward them, also leading a horse. In a land where men saddle a mount +to ride a few hundred yards, the singular coincidence excited their +curiosity. They wondered why the fellow walked, as doubtless he was +wondering the same thing of them. But as they drew nearer they +perceived the pedestrian to be not a man but a woman; and when they +met Bryant recognized in her the girl who had sat by Charlie Menocal +in his automobile at the ford. Her gray corded riding habit was +dusty; she appeared both hot and tired; and her countenance showed a +deep dejection. The horse she led was limping. + +Bryant raised his hat and addressed her. + +"Your horse has gone lame, I see. Can I be of any service to you?" + +"I'm afraid not; he acts as if he had strained a tendon," she replied. +"So I'm leading him home. Our ranch is on Diamond Creek." + +"But you had a fall! There's blood on your glove." + +"No, it's not from that," she said, with a shake of her head. + +Bryant again remarked the exquisite molding of her face as he had +noted it at their first meeting, and her wide brow and clear brown +eyes and the fineness of her skin, and her warm, sensitive lips, at +this instant moving in the barest tremble imaginable. She was gazing +at him with a curious, troubled look. + +"Bring Dick here," Lee bade Dave. + +He swiftly untied the ropes and removed tripod, rod, and saddle. Then +he unfastened the hitch of the saddle of the horse the girl led. + +"Why, what are you doing?" she exclaimed. + +"Giving you a fresh horse. You can ride mine home and send him back to +me to-morrow; I live just ahead on Perro Creek at the Stevenson +place." + +"I wondered if you weren't the new owner, for I had learned that the +ranch had been sold by Mr. Stevenson. Father bought his sheep. You are +Mr. Bryant, aren't you? This is most kind to lend me your horse." + +"You'll find Dick gentle; and you can lead your own mount. Walking +appears to have exhausted you." + +Again she shook her head, with an odd expression growing upon her +face--anxiety, distress, just what Lee could not exactly decide. But +as she made no explanation, he gave her a hand and swung her upon +Dick, after which he handed her the reins and advanced the hope that +she should arrive home without further misadventure. + +She made no move to depart, however, but sat regarding the engineer. + +"I was at your house," she stated, finally. + +"To see me?" + +"To find you, or someone, who could help me. When my horse went lame +near the ford, I found that he had picked up a stone which I couldn't +remove. So I led him to your house, seeking assistance. When I reached +there----" + +She stopped in her recital, compressing her lips and gazing off across +the sagebrush. + +"Well?" the engineer encouraged. + +"When I reached there, I heard a dog whining." + +Bryant stiffened. + +"I left my dog Mike behind," said he. + +"The sound was really more like a moaning," she went on. "At first I +could see nothing, but when I looked everywhere I found that it came +from one of the three cottonwood trees. Somebody had hurt him, and the +poor creature was suffering terribly. I--I can hardly tell what had +been done to him!" And she shuddered. + +"Mike! They've killed my dog Mike!" + +"They nailed him to a cottonwood tree. A nail through each leg. A +nail through his throat. Nails through his body. They had crucified +him. And, oh, his pitiful eyes!" + +Lee Bryant stood perfectly still and quiet. Dave was frozen and +horrified. Both gazed fixedly across the mesa to where the cottonwoods +could be seen. + +"Is Mike alive yet?" Bryant asked presently, in an unsteady voice. + +"No; not now. I found a piece of iron and hammered the nails free. +Then I lifted him down and carried him to the creek and washed his +wounds. But he died. I see his eyes yet, looking up at me." For a +little she was overcome. Then she resumed, "When he was dead, I +carried him up to your door, for I knew you must have loved him." + +Bryant glanced up at her. + +"Mike would know you were a friend," he said. + +She nodded and reined Dick about. Leading the other horse, she rode +away through the sunshine that burnished the mesa. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +July passed. Followed August, with days likewise hot and unvarying +except for a scarcely appreciable retardation of dawn. Perro Creek now +showed no water at all in its shallow bed; the garden planted by the +Stevensons was long dried up; the sagebrush was dustier than ever; and +Bryant and Dave were hauling in a barrel on a sledge water for their +use from a pool in the canon. + +From daybreak until about eight o'clock in the morning the engineer +and his assistant worked on the canal line. Bryant had run a +fictitious survey along the mountain side, staking it out +conspicuously for any one to see, to the first of the fenced claims of +the Mexican homesteaders, where it ended as if blocked; but his real +line on the mesa remained unstaked. + +To the low ridge, or spur of ground, projecting from the mountain's +base at a point half a mile south of his right of way through the +fields, where the canal began its sweep out upon the plain, he gave +considerable time. The fall of this at first was sharp, and concrete +drops would have to be constructed at intervals for a distance of a +mile or so in order to lower the water. When this section was left +behind, he advanced rapidly along the line, for the surface of the +gentle crescent swell was smooth, its grade fairly regular, and its +contour fixed by nature. Essential points he marked by stones, with +merely their surfaces exposed, so that if noticed they would be +considered scattered pieces of rock from the hills. At the proper time +they would constitute guides for later staking. + +Evenings Bryant spent in developing his notes and in making tracings +of the canal sections covered. During the day hours, when he knew +watchful eyes were on him, he made a topographical survey of his +ranch; work that he could carry on openly. The five thousand acres +comprising the tract had a general direction of east and west, being +about four miles long and two miles wide, which for the most part lay +equally on each side of Perro Creek. By using the water of this stream +during the flood season, a period of some weeks in spring and early +summer, Bryant would be able very considerably to augment the supply +from the Pinas. It was necessary to join the two sources in a unified +system of laterals that would efficiently serve the tract; and +therefore the whole enterprise required study, innumerable +measurements, calculations of dirt moving, of water distribution, of +dam, weir, and gate construction, of soil analysis--a cooerdination of +the thousand and one matters concerned in an irrigation project that +are preliminary to breaking ground. So early and late he toiled, and +with him Dave Morris. + +The boy indeed did enough for a man. And Bryant would sometimes arise +from his drawing board where he worked after supper until midnight, to +go and affectionately gaze at Dave sleeping the sleep of exhaustion. + +One afternoon, when the pair were at work near the southern boundary +of the ranch, Ruth Gardner came through the sagebrush to the spot, a +mile from Sarita Creek. + +"I could see you, just black specks, from our cabins; and since you +don't visit us, I made up my mind to visit you," she announced. "I've +noticed you down here for two days past. Days and days have gone by +without you coming to pay another call." + +"Well, we've been sticking pretty steadily at our job," Bryant +replied. "Won't you use this bag of stakes for a seat? It will keep +you off the ground." + +Ruth accepted the proffered resting place and loosened the thongs of +her hat, inspected her face in a tiny mirror produced from somewhere, +rubbed her nose with a handkerchief, and then gave her attention to +her companions. + +"Our garden has grown splendidly since you fixed the ditch," she said. +"Thanks to you. How is yours?" + +"It has expired." + +"Then you shall have things out of ours--if you'll come get them. See, +I'm using that to decoy you. There are beans, peas, lettuce, radishes, +and new potatoes, not very large yet, of course. I know just what +you're doing: working hard, eating only canned stuff, skimping your +food, and ruining your digestion." + +Bryant laughed. Her tone had expressed indignation, while her face was +directly accusatory. + +"We seem to have fair health, don't we, Dave?" he remarked. + +"You look positively thin," said she. "And as for this poor starved +shadow that you call Dave! Well, I won't say my thoughts. For a penny +I'd invite myself to dinner at your house just to see what you do +have." + +At this possibility both the engineer and his young assistant +displayed signs of consternation. Under pressure of work housekeeping +had been an unimportant trifle frequently postponed; last meal's +dishes were washed while the next meal was preparing; clothes were +left where they were carelessly flung; and surveying tools, maps, and +papers littered the rooms. No, it was not a dwelling in which to +entertain a feminine guest. + +"Maybe I had better go there and clear up things some," Dave stated, +uneasily. And without awaiting a reply from Bryant, he set off through +the sagebrush for the house. + +Ruth began to laugh, resting her cheeks in her hands. + +"That poor solemn boy, he took me seriously!" she exclaimed. "I +shouldn't come alone, of course; it wouldn't be proper--and Imo would +be horrified. Well, you may as well sit down and talk to me, Mr. +Bryant, for you can't work alone, and I've come to stay awhile. +Imogene told me what a nice talk she had with you the afternoon I went +to the ruins, and I hoped you'd come soon again, but you never did." + +"Perhaps I haven't been exactly neighbourly." + +He lowered himself to the ground and sat cross-legged, considering +her. + +"I thought that possibly I had offended you in going off so abruptly +with Charlie Menocal," she said, with eyes fastened on his. "You and +he aren't very good friends. I know----" + +"We're not friends at all; we're enemies." + +"That need not keep you away from us. He has been very civil and kind, +but neither Imogene nor I have any particular fancy for the man. +Besides, I think his chief interest in life centres around a girl +living on Diamond Creek, named Louise Graham; he hinted that they were +as good as engaged. Very likely we shall see little more of him. So if +your dislike at meeting him is the reason for your staying away, you +haven't a good reason at all. Don't you think Imo and I ever tire of +listening to each other? Any two girls would, living alone by +themselves. After your promise at the ford we were delighted--and how +many calls have we had from you? Just one. With me away, too!" + +"To-morrow will be Sunday; I'll stop work at noon and come," he +declared. + +She pointed a forefinger at him and wiggled her thumb, in imitation of +a pistol. + +"Hold up your right hand and swear it," she commanded, "or I'll +shoot." She continued to menace Bryant while he obeyed. "There, now +you're safe. And bring that hungry boy and we'll feed you both; this +is a dinner invitation, understand. Now, tell me about everything." + +"Everything?" + +"All you're doing with that three-legged telescope and these stakes." + +She smoothed her dress and manifested an expectant interest. The +impression Bryant had gained at the first accidental meeting at Perro +Creek, of her good looks, of her vitality and irrepressible spirits, +was heightened. As he recollected his feeling of pique at her visit +with Charlie Menocal to the ruined pueblo, he realized that he had +indulged in a bit of senseless, unwarranted umbrage; and now had, in +consequence, a quick desire to make amends. It was as if he must +reestablish himself in her good opinion and his own. + +Their talk ran on from topic to topic. The gaiety of her comments +pleased him; the youthfulness of her was irresistible; and he found +himself observing the changing curves of her throat and cheek as she +turned her head a little aside or raised her chin; found himself +watching for certain unconscious attitudes; awaiting the lift of her +eyes to his, harkening for particular tones of her voice. And Bryant, +who, though he knew it not, was also athirst for companionship, more +and more yielded to her subtle feminine attraction. "She's even +prettier than I supposed," he thought. Her lips, her nose, her eyes of +deep gray with their wonderfully long lashes--each had a particular +charm of its own. He admired the grace of her figure. He felt an odd +surprise at her apparent soft and pliant strength, as at a discovery. +His mind thrilled with delight at her laughter. + +"Look where the sun is!" she exclaimed, all at once. "Straight over +our heads--noon. Your David will be wondering where you are, while +Imogene will imagine I'm lost. Let me pick a flower to stick in the +ribbon of your hat and then I'll go." + +"Your fingers will suffer; I'll get some," Lee said, quickly. From a +spreading bed of prickly-pear he plucked a dozen of the cactus +blossoms, ranging in colour from a delicate lemon to a deep orange. He +turned to her. + +"First I'll decorate you," he said. "Please assume an angelic +expression and gaze straight at the camera." + +She tilted her chin upward and thrust her arms downward with all five +fingers of each hand stretched apart. But immediately she began to +laugh. Lee gave her a reproving tap on the uplifted chin and then +fastened the flowers in her hat-band. A thrill like fire ran through +his body at the proximity of that soft, round chin, those red lips, +her eyes gleaming with merriment. + +"Now, beauty!" he said, stepping back. + +The yellow blossoms made a garland about her hat. + +"Do you like them thus?" she asked, delighted. + +"Immensely." + +"Then they shall stay there. And Imo will die of envy when I tell her +they're yours." + +"Nobody ever died of that." + +"Perhaps not. But she will suffer extremely. You didn't even put bean +plants in her hat." + +Lee was highly amused at this raillery. He began to walk forward by +her side as she moved away from the spot, now addressing her, now +listening to her words, in a desire to stretch the last minute to the +uttermost. Her head came just even with his shoulder, so that she had +to raise her face to gaze at him when he spoke, and in the act there +was something simple, winning, blithe, as likewise in the swing of her +lissom figure beside his own there was an inimitable jauntiness and +cheer. He divined her eager, ardent spirit; and the closeness of her, +this comradeship, set his blood humming. + +Abruptly he halted, laying a finger on her arm. + +"I mustn't go the whole way, you know," he said, "though I should like +to. For, by heavens, you've opened my eyes! Didn't realize how +satiated with myself I'd become. But I'll make up for that now, Miss +Ruth, and it won't be very long before you and your friend will be +planning how to rid yourselves of me." + +"Just try us and see," she exclaimed. + +"Well, I shall. Till to-morrow, then." + +"Till to-morrow, yes." She moved forward some paces and wheeled about, +pointing her forefinger at his head and working her thumb. +"Beware--and don't forget!" Then after another advance and face about +she concluded by blowing him a kiss off the palm of her hand, with +which performance she did actually start for home, weaving her way +through the sagebrush and going farther and farther off. + +"What a pretty little witch she is!" thought Lee; and he, too, made +his way from the spot. + +Dave's hot, harassed face greeted him at the door. + +"Where is she? Didn't she come?" he cried, peering about everywhere. +"Well, thank goodness for that! But if that isn't the way with a +girl--and after I'd swept up and made the beds and scraped all the +skillets, too!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +That Sunday afternoon at Sarita Creek! The dinner, so savoury, so +delectable; the two girls, arrayed in cool white lawn, rosy-cheeked, +beaming; the gay talk and banter and laughter; the blissful hours +together on the grass beneath the trees, with the wide mesa diffusing +an immense languor, with the mountains bestowing a vast peace, with +the brook at their feet murmuring an accompaniment to their +words--hours to treasure, hours of pure gold: Little wonder that Dave, +lying full length and gazing upward through the boughs at the blue +vault, allowed his eyelids to sink and at last to close. Little wonder +the girls' faces grew dreamy and their voices gentle. And none, none +at all, that Lee succumbed to the spell. + +He was still under the enchantment when toward sunset Ruth suggested +they go up the canon. But Imogene, arousing herself, declared that she +had letters to write; and Dave, still fast asleep, was already on +roamings of his own. Ruth and Lee therefore went alone up the path +through the trees and underbrush, until they emerged in the cool, +dusky gorge formed by the contracting of the rocky walls. The brook +rippled by over stones and moss. A few insects hovered over the stream +with their tiny bodies shining like bronze. From somewhere came a +sweet, honeyed smell of flowers. + +"Imo writes letters regularly," Ruth explained concerning her friend, +"to an instructor in a university in the East. I don't think they're +exactly affianced, but expect to be. Waiting, apparently. Waiting +until he's a professor--and until her health is better, too, I +imagine. An agreement to let things rest as they are for the present, +one might say. Imogene talks very little about it, and of course I ask +no questions." + +She sat down on a fallen tree, patting its trunk to signify a place +for him at her side. Pointing at crevises in the canon wall, she began +to tell him the names she and Imogene had given them--Bandit's Stair, +Devil's Crack, Bear's Hole, and to enumerate those assigned the +jutting points and knobs along the rim that by a stretch of the +imagination bore a resemblance to animals or human heads. + +As she talked, with her gray eyes at times turning to his to learn if +he was interested, he felt anew the charm of her youthfulness, of her +vivid personality. It dwelt in her small, firm hands pointing now +here, now there, in her slender, rounded form faced toward him, in her +red lips, her soft smooth cheek, her brow, in her glances and her +animated words. He noted again, as a quality altogether delicious, the +air of unconscious friendliness that he had perceived at their very +first encounter. It quite offset the slight touch of obstinacy in her +chin--but, in truth, did the latter require an offset? He had earlier +thought that with such a trait one could not foretell where its +possessor might go, or what do, or what exact, under stress of +feeling. He smiled at that now. How ridiculous the notion! Why +shouldn't a girl have a bit of determination in her make-up? Well, she +should. It gave force to her character. It made her more individual, +more attractive. It coloured a nature so essentially feminine as Ruth +Gardner's with elusive and delightful possibilities. + +"See, up yonder at the top!" she exclaimed. "That piece of rock like a +man's head and shoulders I named Lee Bryant, after you." + +"Do I look as block-headed as that?" + +"No. It was not because of any resemblance, but because you kept your +back so long toward us. Now, however, since you've repented and ceased +to neglect us, I shall call it after someone else. Perhaps after the +stage-driver who takes our letters down to Kennard; he sits hunched up +like that. I'll seek a much nicer rock to represent you." + +"That's wholly unnecessary, for I intend to keep before your eyes in +person." + +"Which will be the nicest of all," said she, smiling. + +He continued to gaze at her, to listen to her voice, with a pleasure +he made no effort to conceal. And she, on her part, seemed to +surrender herself to the enjoyment of the moment; her eyes remaining +longer on his, her tones softening to a slow, tender utterance almost +carrying a caress, her face keeping its languorous smile; as if the +honey-sweet fragrance from the unseen flowers had invaded her spirit. + +A pause came in their talk. They sat unmoving, without stir of hand or +head, quiescent. Then Lee all at once experienced a feeling of +profound compassion for Ruth as he regarded her, a poignant stab in +his breast like pain. Sitting there without movement, with her hands +idle upon her lap, with her face a little lifted and her eyes +wistfully bent on the great wall opposite, she seemed so young and +small to be dwelling at such a place, so helpless, so solitary, that +her presence appeared a cruel irony of fate. Her homesteading was a +desperate clutch at security; and her situation was utterly different +from that of her friend, Imogene Martin, who viewed the matter as in +the nature of a health-seeking holiday, and who was sustained by the +knowledge that she had wealthy relations at Kennard to whom she could +return. Far different, indeed. At the thought of the homesickness that +at times Ruth must know, of the lonesomeness of mountain and mesa from +which she must suffer, of the deprivations, the hard bareness of the +life, the moments of despair, he had a sensation of the bitter +unfairness of things and a desire to snatch her safe away from the +harsh pass in which she stood. It would be only right, it would be +only just. + +When presently she looked about and found his eyes rapt on her face, a +quick blush spread over her throat and cheeks. + +"I think--think we should go home now," she said, with a catch of her +breath. + +"Yes," said he, rising. + +He leaped the log on which they had been sitting and then put up a +hand to help her mount. Holding his fingers she raised herself upon +the tree trunk. But suddenly the bark gave way; she slipped, lost her +balance, and pitched forward. Lee caught her in his arms. + +For an instant she rested there in his clasp, her surprised eyes +gazing into his. A quiver passed over her form. Her lips were parted, +but she had ceased to breathe. Likewise in Bryant's breast the breath +had stopped. A fierce passion swept him to hold her always thus, warm +and close and secure. His arms trembled at the thought; at which her +eyelashes began to flutter and her breath to come once more, as +hurried as the beat of her heart. And then, yielding utterly to the +swirl of mad impulse, he kissed her--once, twice, and twice again. + +Afterward he set her on her feet. + +"I guess that ends our friendship," he said, with a wavering smile. +"Lost my head altogether. Couldn't help it. I looked at you and--and +it just happened. All my will and sense vanished in an instant. +Bewitched!" + +The colour was still in her face, and her air was uncertain, +disturbed. But at his words, so palpably sincere and self +condemnatory, she began to smile. + +"Perhaps--if we just forget----" + +The smouldering fire in his eyes flared suddenly. + +"Forget? I'll never forget that minute, those kisses," he exclaimed. +"Hanged if I want to, or will!" + +"If, then, we don't repeat them, and are more circumspect, why, I'll +overlook it," she said, a little confusedly. "I know you meant no +discourtesy." He gave a savage shake of his head. "And Imogene and I +both prize your friendship." + +"Thank you, Ruth. You take an awful load off my heart." + +She glanced up at him, now once more composed. Her eyes gleamed with a +veiled impishness. + +"No girl ever died from being kissed. But what a splendid lover you +would make!" Away she darted a few steps, to whirl and point and +waggle a finger at the dumfounded youth. "Are you coming? Because I +don't consider this a wise place to be with a flighty, irresponsible +man, first name Lee. Besides, it's beginning to grow dark in here." + +Bryant joined her. The glow was still in his eyes, but in all other +respects he was his usual self, calm, collected. Together they went +down the cool, dim canon, with its honey scent of flowers drifting +with them; and though they talked lightly of things of no importance, +there was a little smile on the lips of each and sometimes their eyes +met, as if sharing a new, sweet intimacy. + +Thereafter, frequent as were Lee's calls at Sarita Creek of evenings, +he seldom had Ruth to himself and on more than one occasion had to +share her company with Charlie Menocal, much to his impatience. When +Imogene sometimes succeeded in detaining the fellow at her side, +Bryant silently gave her unutterable thanks. And Ruth seemed day by +day more receptive to his passion. + +"I think of only two things, my canal and you," he declared to her one +night. + +"When you put me first and the canal second, why, who knows what I may +think then?" she said, tantalizingly. "But to esteem an irrigation +ditch before me, the idea! What if you had to choose between us?" And +she continued thus to tease him, fanning the fires hotter in his +breast. + +By the end of August Bryant had completed the survey of the canal line +down to a point where it touched the northern boundary of the ranch, +tapping the latter's system of distributing ditches. Pinas River, +Perro Creek, and the tract to be watered were thus united. Though +later, doubtless, it would be necessary to make minor corrections, as +always, the surveying was finished. One tracing showed the entire +irrigation scheme from the dam on the Pinas to the tips of the +laterals branching out in a gridiron over the land. There were other +tracings, too, on a larger scale and of successive sections, ready to +be taken to Kennard in order to make blueprints. + +"Town for us to-morrow, Dave," Lee exclaimed one day, as he rolled and +tied his maps in a waterproof canvas. "We're due for a rest; our job +is done for the present. We'll leave the instruments and note-books +with the girls at Sarita Creek, who've agreed to keep them until we +return. The Mexicans are still hanging around." + +Toward the middle of the afternoon they appeared at the cabins, where +they disengaged Dick from his burden of freight and turned him out to +graze. Imogene was nursing an obstinate headache in her darkened +bedroom, and Dave immediately settled himself under a tree with a +novel of the girls'. So Ruth and Lee were left to themselves. + +"I'm going up the creek to gather raspberries, and you came just in +time to carry the basket," said she. "I discovered a large thicket of +them half way up the canon; the more you pick, the more you'll have +for supper to-night. And if you don't bring Imo and me a box of +chocolates, and a big box, when you come back from wherever you're +going to-morrow, you need never show your lean brown face again at our +doors! I'm dying for some. Oh, Lee, I really am. They help so when +one's lonely." + +The pathetic tone in which she uttered the final words sent Bryant off +in a fit of laughter. + +"You may count on them," he said, at length. + +"Your heart's of stone to laugh like that. Bonbons _do_ help when one +is low-spirited." + +Nevertheless, her spirits were high enough on this afternoon. All the +while that they were gathering raspberries she kept up a lively +chatter, and when Lee suggested, now that the basket was full, leaving +it at the spot and making an excursion to the head of the gorge, she +readily assented. The sun was still far from setting; the air between +the rocky walls was pleasant; and the canon held forth a fresh +enticement. They walked for an hour, and though they failed to gain +the end of the long mountain crevice they ascended to where the +springs that fed the brook had their source, and where the rivulet +trickled over ledges and among boulders, finding themselves in the +heavy timber that forested the upper mountains. There they sat on a +rock, Ruth holding the wild flowers she had plucked on the way, and +talked. + +"Does your going now have to do with your project?" she questioned. + +"Yes; I've finished the preliminary work." + +"But Charlie Menocal said you were making no progress, that you were +blocked." + +"What Charlie doesn't know would fill lots of space," Lee said. "In +spite of the Menocals' opposition and tricks, I've established my +survey--but don't breathe it yet! And now I'm ready for the financing +of the scheme. When that's done, I'll begin actual work." + +Ruth considered him with shining eyes. + +"I'm glad you succeeded; I knew you would succeed," she exclaimed. +"You've worked so hard. And I hope that it makes you famous and +wealthy." + +"So do I," he laughed. "I need the money." + +She nodded. + +"One needs money to be happy in this world." + +"Oh, I don't know about that," he responded, thoughtfully. "I've +probably been as happy while hammering out this survey as I'll ever +be, that is, happy in my work. Of course, money means comforts and +luxuries. But I doubt if it really ever brings contentment." + +The obstinate touch grew in her chin. + +"If I had plenty of money I'd have the contentment, or I'd soon find +it," she declared. "Pretty clothes, and fine furniture, and +automobiles, and servants, and parties, and so on, are things--at +least with women--that go a long way toward satisfaction. I sometimes +don't blame girls who marry rich old men; they can put up with them +for the pleasures their money will procure." + +"Ruth, Ruth, don't utter such nonsense! At any rate, you've too much +common sense ever to waste yourself on a doddering money bags." + +"I'll never have the chance," said she. "But if I had, I'd think it +over carefully. A young man with money I could be especially nice to, +and I might even set out to catch him. You see, I'm quite frank and +open about it." + +"Nonsense," he repeated. "You'd marry no one just for his money." + +"That depends whether or not he caught me at a moment when I was +feeling sick of everything and reckless. Look at my hands, all +calloused from work. If I have to work, I shall do it for myself; not +marry to work." + +Bryant lifted her hands and regarded them. + +"They please me immensely as they are; they're lovely hands," he +asserted. + +"Then your vision is poor." + +"It's clear enough when I look at you, Ruth. And when you talk as you +have, I become impatient because I know you don't mean it. But +nonetheless, you deserve the best that any man can give, and you ought +to have all the comforts and pretty things any woman has, for you're +too sweet and good for a bare, commonplace life." He pressed gently +the fingers he yet retained. "I told you once that you had bewitched +me. It was true; I am bewitched, have been ever since I touched your +dear lips. And I love you. It hurts my heart to think of you at this +homesteading business--" + +"What else was there for me?" she asked. "I've had no business +training, nothing but two years in a college, no knowledge of anything +that a girl needs to hold a position. And I'm not even a good +homesteader." Her tone rang with a trace of bitterness. + +"You ought not to have to do it--and you shall not, Ruth, if I have my +way. I want to save you from it, and make life pleasant and happy for +you. The money I have now is little, but I'm going ahead; I'm going +ahead, and nothing shall stop me, I tell you. Soon I shall have ample +means. Within a year or two. Already I've told you I love you, though +this you must have known, for I've made no effort to conceal my love. +To me you're the dearest, sweetest girl in the world; and all I ask is +the chance to strive and toil for you, and make a home for you, and +relieve you of anxiety and care, and have you for a joyous companion +and mate." + +Ruth closed her hands on his, while her eyes grew wet. + +"You mean it, Lee?" + +"Ah, I do, I do! I love you; I hold you dearer than anything in the +world." + +The smile she gave was tender, trustful. + +"I believe you," she said. + +She yielded to his arms. Her head fell back upon his shoulder and her +look lifted to his blissfully. When he kissed her a thrill of passionate +desire answered, as when on that fragrant evening in the canon he first +had fiercely pressed her lips. This was happiness--happiness. If it +could but last forever! + +"And my love is yours, too, Lee," she exclaimed, so earnestly that he +felt his heart quiver. "I want to be happy; I want to be loved; I +don't want to live a life of just dreary commonplaceness, alone, +uncared for, with no outlook, with no prospect of joys. I want the +most there is in happiness--every girl wants that; and this monotonous +existence has been robbing me, stifling me, until sometimes I've been +wild enough to leap off a high rock. But now!" + +Bryant's arms went closer about her. + +"It shall be different now," he murmured. + +"Yes, yes; it must, it shall. There's no sense in people not being +happy when the world was made for that very purpose." + +"Whenever you say, we'll be married," Lee stated. + +Ruth was silent for a time, considering this. It, indeed, left her a +little startled. + +"But it mustn't be too soon," she replied, at last. "We had best go on +as we are while your project is being started, for I wouldn't be so +selfish as to make a command on your time at a critical moment, Lee +dear. And I must plan clothes and things. Knowing that happiness is +ahead of us, oh, homesteading then will be only a lark! I'll never +need follow it up, but just abandon it when we're ready. Kiss me +again, Lee, and then we must start back." + +They retraced their steps down the canon, obtaining the basket of +berries on the way. Once, as they neared the cabins, Ruth paused, +gazing at her lover. + +"I had actually come to hate these claims," she said. "I felt chained +to the spot, as if something would keep me in the miserable place for +the rest of my life. Had I known how lonely I should be here, I never +would have come." + +"But that's over now, Ruth. A little while longer, that's all." + +She gazed at him with an odd, intent, anxious expression upon her +countenance. + +"You'll not let your irrigation project keep you here always?" she +asked. "Or live in other places like it? These mountains and this +desolate mesa get on my nerves. If I thought you were going to stay +away from other people, foregoing all the pleasures of cities and the +like, I think I should lose my courage and not be able to love you +enough to stand it. I want you most of all, but shall want other +things, too." + +He smiled indulgently. + +"A few years perhaps," he replied. "Till I'm solid on my feet--till I +get going well--we're both young--and then----" He dismissed the +matter with a wave of the hand. + +But that evening, when Lee and Dave had gone, when Imogene was asleep, +when the soft darkness was thickening over the mesa, Ruth walked forth +to the edge of the sagebrush. + +"I wonder," she murmured, leaving her thought unfinished. + +The hush of the mountains, the silence of the plain, the vastness, the +emptiness, the seeming purposelessness of it all, irritated and +oppressed her spirit. And she so yearned to be where the world was +alive and throbbing! + +"I wonder if I really love him enough, or if I made a little fool of +myself this afternoon?" she muttered to herself. "I wonder!" + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +Charlie Menocal's object in calling upon the young ladies at Sarita +Creek was merely diversion. He was fond of girls, especially lively +ones, and knew a good many here and there within reach of his motor +car, including a number of pretty Mexican maidens of humble parentage. +But his serious attentions centred about Louise Graham of whom in +secret he was very jealous. Whenever he could find an excuse, and +frequently when not, he went to the Graham ranch on Diamond Creek, +five miles south of the girls' claims, where his figure was as +familiar (and of about as much interest) as the magpies in the +pasture. He fully meant to marry Louise, whose beauty and gracious +manner even to the smallest bare-legged Mexican boy on the ranch +captivated him and stirred in his breast a maddening desire for +possession, so that he might cut off the rest of the world from her +sweetness, so that it might alone feed his passion. Yes, he meant to +have Louise. + +When he was with her his black eyes would shine and a ruddy tinge +appear in his dusky cheeks that were as soft and smooth as a Mexican +girl's, and he would restlessly finger a point of his little, silky, +black moustache and feel unutterable agitations proceeding in his +heart. Louise Graham did not allow him to declare his adoration, which +he would have done every moment they were together; when he tried, +she walked away. But Charlie counted on his good looks and his +father's wealth to win her in the end. One fear alone lurked in his +heart, that some young American might come along who would win her +interest; and earlier in the summer he had a decided uneasiness lest +Bryant prove to be the man. The scoundrelly engineer, however, had +fallen head over heels in love with Ruth Gardner, so that Charlie's +mind was relieved on that point. To his knowledge, Louise and Bryant +had never met--which was as it should be. + +Charlie, having stopped about ten o'clock in the morning at the Graham +ranch for a chat with Louise while on his way to Kennard, was +considerably surprised and exceedingly nettled at beholding the +engineer, with Dave behind him on the horse, presently riding up the +lane between the rows of cottonwoods. Young Menocal had persuaded +Louise to leave her household duties for the moment to sit on the +veranda and talk with him. But now had come this impudent upstart! +Charlie's warning of someone at hand was when Louise ceased to speak +and gazed intently along the lane. His annoyance at the interruption +changed to a quick jealousy as his companion rose, descended the +steps, bade the engineer welcome, and extended her hand in greeting. + +Bryant explained that he was dropping Dave here to take the stage for +Kennard when it came along after dinner. He himself was riding on. + +"He'll eat dinner with us, of course, and I'll put him aboard the +stage myself," she exclaimed, with a pat on the shoulder of the boy +who had now dismounted. "Won't you stop for a moment, Mr. Bryant? +I'll give you a glass of fresh buttermilk to speed you on your way; a +stirrup cup, we'll call it. The woman has just finished churning." + +Lee declared that he would drink a glass with very great pleasure. He +was thirsty, he said, and in addition was fond of buttermilk. + +Menocal listened and watched him dismount and ground his teeth. Louise +knew the thief, after all. Where the devil had they become acquainted? +It was but one more instance of the engineer's pushing in where he +wasn't wanted. And she had not invited him, Charlie, to partake of +buttermilk, though, to be sure, she knew he did not like it. He felt +slighted. + +When Bryant and Louise ascended the veranda, Dave loitering below, the +engineer said nonchalantly, "Hello, Charlie, how are tricks? Anything +new up your sleeve?"--in a way that set the other's blood boiling; and +when he carelessly added, "What about that story the stage-driver's +telling of you and a senorita going into a ditch with your car at +Rosita the other night?" he was quite ready to murder both Bryant and +the stage-driver. + +So upset was Charlie that he was unable to share in the conversation. +He curtly refused a glass when Louise brought a pitcher of buttermilk, +then changed his mind, and ended by choking over the wretched stuff. +The situation was intolerable; his pride was smarting; the others +talked on with unperturbed countenances, ignoring his silence; and his +self-respect required some action in the face of the affront. He +abruptly stood up and announced that he was departing. + +In Louise's manner at this news there was no repining that he could +observe. She did not protest. Her words were impersonally pleasant as +ever, but vague; and he perceived that she only half heeded his going; +and that her eyes brightened when once more she turned to her visitor. +This was the final stab. With hatred in his heart and a wicked glitter +in his eyes, Charlie Menocal went down the steps to his automobile, +feeling the need of a victim, preferably the engineer. Bryant had +insulted him at the ford; he was attempting to rob him and his father; +he had insolently threatened the elder Menocal; he stopped at nothing; +and now he was intruding here and deceiving Louise with his arrogant +pretentions. He came on Dave, standing beside the car and examining +the latch of a door. + +"Keep your hands off that!" he snapped. At the same time he gave the +boy a cuff that sent him sprawling. "That will teach you!" + +In two bounds Lee Bryant was at the spot. He caught the still-extended +hand in an iron grip. + +"You miserable coward! Striking a boy!" he said, harshly. "Feeling +that you must vent your spite on someone, you pick on this unoffending +lad. If you ever raise so much as a finger against him again----" + +"Let him keep away from my machine! And drop my wrist!" Charlie +Menocal snarled. + +"And you leave him alone hereafter, in any case," Lee warned, shoving +the speaker away in disgust. Then he helped Dave to rise. + +Charlie straightened his disarranged tie and coat with trembling +fingers. He could scarcely retain his rage; his body shook all over; +his foot slipped twice when he sought to mount into his car. Leaning +forward from his seat, he shook a finger in Bryant's face, exclaiming, +"You'll get what's coming to you! Like your damned dog!" His face was +entirely viperish. His finger came within an inch of the engineer's +nose. His words carried a furious hiss. + +Then he whirled his car about and went tearing down the lane with +exhaust wide open and roaring. + +When Bryant, leading Dave, rejoined Louise Graham, a flush of +embarrassment dyed his face. She had sprung up at Menocal's blow +knocking the boy over and remained standing, an indignant observer of +the scene. When Menocal had departed, the engineer recalled suddenly +what Ruth had said concerning Charlie and Louise Graham being +practically engaged; and as he now saw her rigid figure and displeased +countenance, he imagined he had lost her friendship. Still, he could +not have acted otherwise. + +"I'm very sorry for this occurrence, Miss Graham," he said, +contritely. "Especially as I understand Charlie Menocal is very high +in your esteem." + +"Who dares say that!" + +"Well, Charlie himself is the authority, I believe," Lee responded, +with a slight smile. + +Her eyes flashed at that. + +"Well, it's not the case; and if it had been, this exhibition of bad +manners and bad nature on his part would have changed it. Father and I +consider him--well, a nuisance. There, I'm giving you a confidence. +We've tolerated him because Mr. Menocal senior is a gentleman, and a +friend. Now I hope you'll not think me too talkative, but an +explanation was necessary; and as far as Charlie Menocal is concerned, +I'd be pleased if I never saw his face again. To knock your young +friend over so heartlessly! You treated him with altogether too much +leniency, Mr. Bryant." + +"I never do my fighting in the presence of ladies," Lee remarked, with +a grin. "In fact, I try to confine my combats to those of wits." + +She nodded. + +"Of course," said she; and continued, "this is the second time he has +acted disgracefully to you when I've been by. The first occasion was +at Perro Creek ford. I could have sunk into the earth for shame of him +when he knew no better than to fling you money after you had filled +his radiator; it was pure insolence, to begin with, to ask you to do +it when he should have attended to the matter himself. I admired your +conduct and self-control under the circumstances, Mr. Bryant." And +addressing Dave, she asked, "Will you drink another glass of +buttermilk if I pour it?" + +Dave could and did, an example Lee followed. The subject of Menocal +was dismissed, and the man and the girl fell into a conversation of +general matters. She assured the engineer, when he inquired, that he +was not detaining her from household affairs; and urged him, on +learning of his prospective absence, to leave Dick at Diamond Creek +and he himself to proceed to Kennard by stage. She owed Dick a return +for the favour of carrying her home that day her own horse went lame; +he could run in the pasture with the other horses, where Bryant would +know he was safe. The plan included Bryant's remaining for dinner, +naturally. + +"Have I your permission, Dave?" Lee asked. "Or do you refuse to share +this pleasure with me?" + +Dave looked at Louise and blushed furiously. + +"I guess you've made your mind up," he said, to Bryant. + +"I guess I have," Lee admitted. + +Toward noon Mr. Graham joined them and laughingly stated that he was +glad to make the acquaintance of the man who was causing such a furor +among the Mexicans along the Pinas. He asked a number of questions and +listened with interest to the engineer's brief exposition of the plan +to unite the water rights of the Pinas River and of Perro Creek in a +common system, though Bryant disclosed nothing of his survey on the +mesa. Of the opposition Lee had met or might yet encounter the rancher +was aware, for he remarked, "You have a fight on your hands." But that +was his only comment. + +After dinner they all continued to talk while the men were smoking +cigars. Graham suggested that if Bryant should need an attorney it +would be well to employ one from Kennard, as those in Bartolo were +nearly all Mexicans. The engineer jotted down the name of one the +rancher recommended, saying that he had his injunction suits to meet +in the September term of court. + +"Winship, the sheriff, appears to be one man in Bartolo who's all +right," Lee stated. + +"Yes, he's a good man," Graham replied. "Can't be influenced or +bought; and is perfectly square and impartial in the execution of the +duties of his office. He has served twenty years, with exception of +one term when he and Menocal had a disagreement. Menocal controls the +votes in this county, you know; that's general knowledge. But things +became so lax under the Mexican sheriff who displaced him that he was +put back in office. Menocal ordered it; he has much property and +believes in law and order; and there's little or no stealing with +Winship in the sheriff's saddle. I've heard that he first required the +banker to support him unconditionally before resuming the place." + +"I can believe that after a look at Winship," Lee said, smiling. + +Mr. Graham presently went away to a field where his men were cutting +and stacking alfalfa, after thanking Bryant for rendering assistance +to his daughter on the road and inviting him to call again. Louise +then showed him her flower garden, ablaze with poppies, nasturtiums, +sweet peas, and other blossoms he could not name; and the orchard +where apples and pears and plums weighed the branches. She was +remarkably beautiful, he thought; and was quite sure the roses in the +garden had no petals pinker or softer than her cheeks, and was sure +the water rippling in the little, grassy orchard canals was no clearer +than her brown eyes, or the sky more serene than her brow. She was not +in the least proud or vain or haughty, as he imagined when he first +beheld her at the ford. He had had doubts of that after her kindly +treatment of his dying dog Mike. And now to-day he knew that such an +opinion did her an injustice, was absurd. + +Louise, too, was thinking as they strolled about. Which of the two +girls on Sarita Creek did he love? For Charlie Menocal had said that +he was infatuated with one. Charlie Menocal! Her cheeks grew warm. +What he had boasted in regard to herself, and doubtless Mr. Bryant +had softened the truth, filled her with anger. She would treat the +insufferable wretch differently hereafter. And very likely his gossip +of the engineer's feelings for one of the homesteaders was likewise a +falsehood, though there was no reason in the world why Mr. Bryant +shouldn't love one of them if he chose. She had never met them. They +were very nice girls, she imagined. She had intended to call, but +something had always prevented. As for Mr. Bryant, he seemed a very +estimable young man, and good company, and an engineer of ability and +will. + +She continued to speculate after he and Dave had departed on the +stage, with a vague sense of missing them. That, she reasoned, was +because Lee Bryant had "personality." And presently her thoughts +followed him. Lee's mind, however, was ranging back to Sarita Creek; +but Dave's was loyally with the lady of Diamond Creek ranch, as was +manifest when he murmured thickly, having fallen asleep during the +warm ride: + +"No more chicken, thank you--or jelly--or apple pie." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +In Kennard next morning Lee Bryant betook himself to a civil +engineering firm, which he engaged to print a number of sets of +blue-prints from his tracings, one set to be ready for delivery early +that afternoon. Then while his suit of gray clothes, from out of his +suit-case, was being pressed, he and Dave visited a florist, purchased +a wreath of lilies-of-the-valley that Dave chose, and went to the +cemetery to place it on the grave of the lad's mother. After that they +proceeded to a clothier's, where the boy was fitted out with a new +suit, a hat, shirts, underwear, and a tie. All of this caused Dave to +swallow hard--but he swallowed hardest of all when Lee led him to a +horse dealer's and helped him pick out a pony for trial, a gift from +Bryant. He hadn't expected all this. He was too overcome to speak. "By +golly, Lee, I--I----" he stammered; and stopped, and furtively wiped +the moisture from his eyes. Finally they visited a savings-bank, where +the engineer deposited a check to Dave's credit, his wages for a month +and a half, forty-five dollars, to start an account, and the boy +received a small yellow book whose one entry he thereafter studied at +frequent intervals, for it was earning according to Bryant's statement +four per cent a year, though Dave had not the remotest idea of how it +did the earning. Then with all this business transacted they returned +to the hotel, bathed, dressed in their fresh clothes, and went into +luncheon. + +"Luncheon, what do they call dinner that for?" Dave whispered to Lee +across the table. + +Along in the afternoon Bryant, having obtained a set of blue-prints +and sent his young companion to a "movie" show, called upon the man +that he all the while had had in view, Imogene Martin's uncle. A +large, strong-bodied man, with a deeply lined, determined face, the +latter swept his visitor with a quick, appraising look, invited him to +take a seat, and to state his business. + +"In five minutes you can tell," said Lee, "whether or not you wish to +listen longer to my proposition." + +"Yes." + +"I now own the Perro Creek ranch, of five thousand acres. It was +originally owned by Mr. Menocal, of Bartolo, but recently by a man +named Stevenson, from whom I bought it." + +"I know the place, Mr. Bryant. Proceed." + +"It's worth possibly three dollars an acre as it stands, or a total of +fifteen thousand dollars," Lee continued. "But it has an unused water +right of one hundred and twenty-five second feet from the Pinas River, +sufficient to water the whole tract. How much will the ranch be worth +when water is actually delivered?" + +"A good deal more than fifteen thousand dollars." + +"Rather," said the engineer, smiling. "The appropriation was secured +from the state by Mr. Menocal thirty years ago; it's never been +cancelled, and is good to-day. He, however, has been using the water +on ranches he owns down the river. A canal from the Pinas along the +mountain sides to Perro Creek would be expensive to construct, +possibly prohibitive; it appears the natural line; and I suppose this +deterred him. I've located a new and practical course for a ditch on +the mesa, have surveyed and mapped it in detail, calculated the cost, +and compiled a statement of estimates, and can build the project for +sixty thousand dollars. The tract of five thousand acres can then be +sold for fifty dollars an acre, or two hundred and fifty thousand +dollars. Shall I stop, or do you wish to hear more?" + +Now it was the banker's turn to smile. This visitor knew how to make a +point. + +"Go ahead," he said. + +"All right. A Mexican dam across the Pinas, a mile and a half of +hillside canal, some concrete drops, twelve miles of curving mesa +ditch, and the ranch is reached. In addition, the flood water of Perro +Creek can be utilized; I've worked this out, as well as the entire +system of laterals for the land. As stated, the cost of the whole +project will be about sixty thousand dollars, present price of +material and labour. I'm on my way now to the capital to file +application for a change in the present canal line, which, since it +involves only government land, will naturally be allowed. Of course +Mr. Menocal isn't taking kindly to my proposed use of this water." And +Lee paused. + +"What has he done? Anything yet?" + +"Not much so far, except a little futile skirmishing," the engineer +remarked, with twinkling eyes. "When I paid off his mortgage on the +land, I advised him that I should use the water: and he threatened to +have the water right cancelled. But he backed up on that line when I +promised to lodge him in jail for making false affidavits if he tried +those tactics. Thought I'd head him off in that direction at the +start. I got the jump on him there. Well, now, he's using indirect +means to keep control of the water, sending half a dozen Mexicans to +file claims at the base of the mountains where he imagines the canal +will have to go. He thinks these have blocked me; and I didn't +undeceive him. He knows nothing about my actual line of survey on the +mesa. Of course, the loss of this water that he fancied he had hits +him where it hurts, but from what I can gather Mr. Menocal isn't a man +to resort to illegal methods. He's wily, that's about all. So that's +the situation." + +The banker regarded Bryant for a time with a noncommittal face. + +"State your proposition now," said he. + +"This is it," Bryant went on. "I propose to bond the ranch and water +right for enough to build the project, then construct it, then market +the land in farms at fifty dollars an acre. The canal system can be +completed easily next year, and sales and colonization proceed +immediately when done. Naturally, as a sale is made, the mortgage and +notes will be put up behind the bonds to secure the latter. The +purchasers will pay down some cash, say, ten dollars an acre; that +makes fifty thousand cash and two hundred thousand dollars in notes +against sixty thousand dollars in bonds. A visible profit of one +hundred and ninety thousand. That amount will be covered by a stock +issue. I shall set aside sixty thousand of it as a bonus to whoever +purchases the bonds. Thirty thousand more shall go to whoever markets +the bonds, as a commission. The remaining hundred thousand of +stock----" + +"Goes to you, I presume." + +"Yes; I keep that. It's payment for the ranch and water right, for my +developing the scheme and building the project. What I need is someone +to sell the bonds; I'll take care of everything else. And because you, +Mr. McDonnell, know the character of the land hereabouts and know +water rights, the fertility of the soil when watered, and the +soundness of a proper irrigation project as an investment, I've come +first to you. Millions aren't involved; it's a small project; the cost +is uncommonly cheap and the security therefore exceptional; you know +the property personally; I, as builder, and having everything at +stake, would see that the construction is right. So small an issue of +bonds should be quickly placed in the East. And the commission isn't +to be sneezed at." + +Mr. McDonnell's features relaxed into a smile. + +"I never saw an irrigation scheme yet that didn't look a money-maker +on paper," he stated, "nevertheless, seventy-five per cent. of them +wind up in the hands of a receiver." + +"Because of faulty estimates and wasteful construction, yes. Because +they're generally too big, and the interest eats them up before the +land is sold. Because some start building on a shoestring. Or because +of changes in the projects that are costly, or rows in the management, +or insufficient water, or bad land titles--I know, I know. I've +studied and analyzed their troubles. And I propose that this Perro +Creek scheme of mine shall be one irrigation project that shall +succeed." + +"And you think you've taken all precautions?" + +"Yes." + +"With Mr. Menocal, even?" + +"Even with Mr. Menocal, yes. Once my application for changes has been +approved and I have the money to build, what can he do?" + +"You seem quite sure of yourself." + +"I'm sure of this irrigation project, anyway. I'm going to build it." +Conviction absolutely dominated his lean brown face; and the banker +looking at the speaker's chin, his firm mouth, curving nose, and gray +eyes full of purpose, wondered if Menocal had met his match. + +"Well, suppose you leave your maps and estimates for me to look over," +he said. "When do you go to the capital?" + +"This evening." + +"See me again on your return. My attorney will examine your title to +the land and the water right. How are the young ladies on Perro Creek +getting along?" + +"They have plenty of fresh air and scenery," Lee responded, relaxing +from the tension under which he had been. + +"It was rather a wild notion, their taking claims, but they wanted the +experience. I hope my niece is benefited in respect to her health. My +wife and I run up once in a while to see if they're comfortable." Then +he added, "Perhaps I had best confess that Imogene had told me of what +you were at up there, and of your involvement with Mr. Menocal. So +this thing isn't wholly new to me." + +Bryant returned to the hotel, well satisfied with the progress he had +made. In the lobby of the hotel he ran across Charlie Menocal, who +gave him a venomous look and passed into the bar without speaking. +What the young fellow might feel or think gave Lee no concern, though +he might have taken warning from that hostile regard. For it was by +Charlie's instructions that a short, stout, swart Mexican went from a +native saloon to the depot that evening, where he presently identified +Bryant and lounged nearer the spot. Dave at length noticed him and +called Lee's attention to the fellow, whose face had a particularly +sinister cast and whose eyes were fixed upon the engineer in a stony, +unblinking stare. That look gave one the sensation of being gazed at +by something poisonous in a clump of sagebrush. But the feeling was +forgotten when the train came in on which they were departing and +Bryant and Dave mounted the steps of a coach. + +The Mexican, on his part, returned to the saloon, where eventually he +was joined by Charlie Menocal. Charlie's face was flushed and his +breath alcoholic; he was a little drunk. At a corner table they +conferred, drinking whisky. + +"You will know him now, the snake!" Charlie asked. + +"I would know him in the dark, senor," was the reply. + +They spoke in Spanish, since young Menocal's companion knew no other +tongue. The latter was a newcomer to Kennard, of the name of Alvarez. +He had come up from across the line, where he had been first with +Carranza, and then with Zapata in his black troop, and then with +Pancho Villa. He already had considerable reputation in the low +Mexican quarter of the town: he had participated in many fights and +raids "down there"; he was fearless; he could use a gun; he had many +killings to his credit. When earlier in the day Charlie had made +private inquiry of the saloon-keeper, an old friend, concerning a man +of nerve that he could engage who would ask no questions, Alvarez was +pointed out to him. + +Presently an agreement was reached between them and Charlie produced +his check-book and a fountain-pen. + +"Here's a check for one hundred dollars," he said, writing. "Come to +Bartolo, get you some blankets and food, and camp somewhere near. From +time to time we'll meet and I'll tell you what's to be done. There's a +saloon at Bartolo, if you get thirsty. Another hundred dollars will be +yours when the job is finished, perhaps more. Meantime, you will act +before others as if you did not know me. Here's the check." + +Alvarez rose and walked to the bar. + +"Is this money; a hundred dollars?" he inquired of the Mexican +proprietor of the saloon. + +"One hundred dollars, yes," said the latter, with an assuring smile. +"Made payable to you, Alvarez. Good? Good at any bank, good here at my +saloon, good as gold. Better than gold, Alvarez, because easier to +carry. Do you wish the money for it?" + +The Mexican ex-bandit jingled some dollars in his trousers' pockets. + +"I have enough to eat and drink," said he. "If the paper is good, if +you will give me gold for it, then I will wait until I return. As you +say, it's not so heavy to carry." + +"Bring it to me when you return. Mr. Menocal is very wealthy, very +rich. He has much land and many sheep. Besides, he owns a bank full of +gold and silver. The paper is good." + +Alvarez was impressed. He stood in thought. + +"Those sheep and that bank full of money! In Mexico we would form a +company of revolutionists and help ourselves," he said. + +"That isn't the custom here," was the reply. + +Alvarez again stared at the check, then folded it, bit the edge with +his teeth, placed it in a small leather bag suspended under his shirt +by a cord about his neck, and returned to the table where Charlie +Menocal waited. + +"I will go up yonder in a few days, senor," he stated. "There are +girls there, are there not?" + + * * * * * + +One day a week later, after Bryant and Dave had returned to Kennard, +and after numerous conferences with Mr. McDonnell, his attorney and an +engineer called in for consultation, Lee exclaimed to his companion, +"We win. McDonnell will take hold of it. Bully for him!" And he went +about clearing up the odds and ends of business at a great rate. + +Moreover, McDonnell believed he could dispose of the bonds within a +fortnight, by the middle of September. That would enable Bryant to +make good headway with the dam on the Pinas River while the water was +low and before cold weather set in. The attorney would look after the +incorporation of the company and the stock and bond issues. Lee could +at once engage a staff of assistant engineers and arrange to let the +building contract. In the matter of the canal line, he had received +ample assurance from members of the Land and Water Board at Santa Fe +that the changes he asked would be granted. Everything was propitious, +everything exactly as he would wish. + +"Out of those town duds, Dave," he exclaimed. "You can't be a sport +any longer. Back to Perro Creek for us and your new spotted pony. And +it's high time, too, for I saw you making eyes at that girl with +yellow hair and angel blue eyes, whose mamma----" + +"You never did!" Dave yelled, crimson with ire. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +October. And the last golden leaves twirling down from cottonwood and +aspen and mountain maple; the lofty brown peaks fresh powdered with +snow; the air dazzling, keen, heady like wine; frost a-sparkle of +mornings on stone, fence-post, roof, with a rainbow coruscation of +diamonds; clear, high moons; marvellous, moonlit nights. + +It was the middle of the month. Three weeks previous, with the bonds +sold and the injunction suits dismissed, the contractor employed had +unloaded his outfit at Kennard, moved up the Pinas River, raised in a +day his camp at the mouth of the canon above Bartolo, and begun his +task. This man, Pat Carrigan, had been in Bryant's mind from the +first: a Pueblo contractor of Irish extraction, born in a railroad +camp, trained on a dump, and now grizzled and aging but unequalled in +handling men, in keeping them satisfied, in moving dirt. In his time +he had turned off jobs from Maine to California, from Wisconsin to +Texas. Already along the hillside a yellow gash was deepening from the +dam site through the fenced fields where ran the right of way; while +in the Pinas, low at this season, the traverse section of the river +bed had been cleaned out and the base of the dam was building of +stones and brush. + +Late on a certain afternoon Ruth Gardner and Imogene Martin stood +waiting by a gray runabout at the edge of the camp. A storm was +sweeping up the Ventisquero Range from the south, one of the autumn +storms that marked the change of seasons, enveloping, as it advanced, +the gray peaks one after another in its fog and trailing over the mesa +gauzy brown streamers of rain. In the west the sun still shone +unobscured, but with its light failing to a chill saffron glare as the +cloud expanded over the sky. + +Bryant and another man, a newcomer in the last few days, an engineer +from the East representing the bondholders, were walking toward the +girl from the dam. As the men walked, they engaged in rather spirited +argument. + +"You'd better hurry, you two," Ruth called. "Don't you see that rain +coming? Imo and I want to reach home, Mr. Gretzinger, without being +soaked." + +Bryant's companion waved an assuring hand without ceasing his rapid +and forceful statement addressed to his fellow. Half a head shorter +than Lee, he was of stockier build, a man somewhere near thirty-five +or six years of age, with hair tinged with gray above his ears. Both +in manner and speech he exhibited by turns superficial gayety, latent +cynicism, and an egregious assumption. When Lee had introduced him to +the young ladies at Sarita Creek, he had made himself at home in three +minutes. He had the latest witticisms of restaurants and theatres, the +newest stories, the most recent slang; his clothes were of the +autumn's extreme mode; he was intelligent if frankly materialistic; +and he interested, amused, and diverted the two girls. From his gay +and airy talk they gathered that he had been married and divorced, +that the West might have the scenery but New York had the bright +lights; that money could buy anything from food to fame; and that +"movies" were a bore. To the girls he was like a breath from the +metropolis itself, that hard, throbbing, restless, glaring, convivial, +avid, fascinating city in which is centred everything of wealth and +misery, everything intense and abnormal, and everything to satisfy the +desires. But the effect upon the girls was different. Imogene, though +entertained, continued calm, unimpressed, unenvious; Ruth, however, as +she listened and asked questions, the better they became acquainted, +was bright-eyed and excited. "Don't you think him a remarkable man?" +she had exclaimed to Imogene. "So experienced, so polished, so--well, +everything." This was after his second visit, which he made without +Bryant, stopping on his way from the dam camp to Kennard where he made +the chief hotel his headquarters. Imogene had replied, "Oh, he's +amusing company, and he can't be accused of being diffident, at least. +But I wonder if he would wear well. His divorced wife's opinion would +be valuable on that point, I fancy." That had caused Ruth to sniff. +She said, "You heard his explanation; they didn't agree and so they +just separated. That was sensible. When two people find they're not +compatible, they shouldn't live together a minute. And I shouldn't be +surprised if she was a cat." + +Gretzinger's speech as he and Bryant advanced toward the girls and the +gray runabout was quick, determined, and uncompromising. His fleshy, +aggressive face, that lacked the tan of his companion's, was fixed in +dogmatic lines. From time to time he switched his gauntlets against +the skirt of his fashionably cut ulster with lively impatience. + +"I certainly demand that these changes be made and shall recommend to +the bondholders," he was saying, "that they also insist on them." + +"Can't help it if you do," was Lee Bryant's reply. "I know what I'm +talking about: concrete is necessary. No irrigation engineer to-day +who knows his business would think of anything else. Mr. McDonnell's +man approved its use, the state engineer likewise. The latter wouldn't +allow the change even should I ask it." + +"Pah! He'd not concern himself either way. I know how these state +officers run things. Leave it to me; I'll arrange the matter." + +"Not with my consent. And he'll never grant the change over my +opposition." + +Gretzinger gave his knee an angry slap. + +"I tell you it must be different, Bryant. In addition to the bonds my +men have their share of stock. They consider this stock bonus as part +of their investment. It is. And they intend to see that that stock +earns every dollar--every dollar, do you understand?--that's to be +made out of the project. I'm here to protect their interests, and +shall do it." + +"Well?" + +"Now, Bryant, be reasonable. It means more profit in your own pocket, +too. You're no philanthropist pure and simple, I take it, and want to +make money out of this thing. So agree to this change. You'll make a +saving both in time and cash. Carrigan's contract doesn't include the +building of these drops; you plan to do that yourself; and if you +substitute wood for concrete in these drops and in the gate-frames, +it would lessen the labour cost, the material cost, the freighting +cost, the----" + +"And in five years the wood will have rotted and then concrete will +have to be put in after all," Lee interrupted. "More than that, the +water will undercut wooden drops, then rip the devil out of the canal +along the ridge, making the cost of rebuilding ten times what it is +now and very likely causing a water shortage in the middle of an +irrigating season so that the farmers' crops will be a dead loss. +Fine! I suppose you didn't allow yourself to think that far." + +"Why should I?" Gretzinger retorted. "It's not our business to figure +on all the calamities that may occur in the next fifty years, or the +next ten, or the next five. We build the canal, then it's up to the +farmers to keep it in shape after we turn it over to them. If anything +happens, that's their lookout and the lookout of the engineer in +charge." + +The two had come to a halt just out of earshot of the runabout. Bryant +could discover on the speaker's face no other expression than a fixed +intent to maintain his view. + +"Leaving out the injustice of such a course----" + +"Injustice, nothing!" the New Yorker derided. "This is cold business. +The project must be built as cheaply as possible in order to give the +investors the largest return. My father is one of them, and when he +puts money into a thing he wants all out of it that's coming to him. +So do his associates." + +"Let me finish what I started to say," Lee remarked. "Aside from what +purchasers of land under this canal scheme have the right to expect, +and what they would suffer from a disaster, it hits our own pockets in +the end. Poor construction always turns out to be expensive +construction. Aside from the initial cash payments from buyers, all we +have from them will be notes--mortgage notes that can be paid only by +crops from the land. The water insures these crops. Let the canal +system go smash, and where are these notes? Nowhere. I don't propose +to lose fifty or sixty thousand dollars for a short-sighted gain of +ten." + +Gretzinger laughed, then tapped the other's shoulder with a +forefinger. + +"Do you imagine for a minute we'll keep the paper?" he inquired. +"Well, I should say not! We'll discount it ten, and if necessary +twenty, per cent. to make a quick clean-up and be out. A mortgage +company in the East will attend to that part of the business. These +mortgages run for ten years; you certainly don't think we'll sit +around that long waiting for our money and profits. The discount will +make the paper attractive to small investors, among whom it will be +peddled and who want long-time securities. And you'll profit from that +along with the rest of us; we couldn't leave you out if we wished." + +"No, you can't leave me out of your calculations," said Bryant, +grimly. + +"You see now, I hope, why it's to your interest as well as ours to +make the change I suggest," Gretzinger continued. "It will equal the +amount of the discount. In a year or so we'll all be out from under +with bonds and stock liquidated dollar for dollar. In other words, +with our profits in cash in the bank instead of in notes." + +"And somebody else holding the sack, eh?" Bryant's aquiline nose came +down a little as he asked the question. "No, Gretzinger, you haven't +persuaded me, and you never will by that argument. A pretty rotten +scheme, that of yours. I shall go right ahead and use concrete." + +"Then you don't intend to consider bondholders as having a voice in +matters?" + +"No." + +"Well, they're stockholders as well." + +"Minority stockholders, that's all," Lee stated, coolly. "You've said +this is a matter of cold business. Very well; I'm the majority +stockholder and have the control. I consider it cold business to build +the drops of concrete as planned. I consider it cold business and good +business to provide the farmers with a safe system. And I shall do +that." + +Again came Ruth's call, urging Gretzinger to hurry. He answered and +spoke a last word to Bryant, with a suddenly altered mien. + +"You're an obstinate devil, Lee," he exclaimed, cheerfully. "I'll have +to think up some new arguments to get you over, I find. Now I must run +along, or the ladies will be up in arms--and not my arms, either." + +Bryant helped him to button the curtains on the hood of the car, found +an instant when he could press Ruth's hand unobserved and murmur a +word in her ear, and stated that if the rain did not last he would run +down (he had picked up a second-hand Ford in Kennard) to Sarita Creek +after supper. + +"I don't see half enough of you," Ruth said, giving him a pat on the +cheek with the gloved finger that now wore a diamond solitaire. To Mr. +Gretzinger she continued, "If you get us home without a wetting, you +may stay and eat with us; but if you don't, why, you can go straight +on to town." + +Off the car sped down the trail toward Bartolo where it would gain the +well-travelled mesa road, a hand thrust through the curtains waving +back at Bryant. + +The engineer did not go to Sarita Creek that night, for the rain +settled into a steady drizzle that lasted until well toward morning. +After supper he went, however, to the adobe dwelling of the Mexican +who once had warned him from his field. The man's seven-year-old boy +had fallen from a horse the day previous and fractured a leg; half +fearfully, half recklessly, the parent had come running to camp for +medical aid; and Lee had despatched the camp doctor, a young fellow +recently graduated, to treat the injury. Bryant was admitted into the +house. The youngster, he learned, was resting comfortably and had been +visited by the doctor that afternoon. Lee was even conducted to the +bedside, where the boy's leg thick with splints and wrappings was +exhibited for his benefit. + +"The doctor, he said I was to speak to you about his pay," the Mexican +stated after a time, when he and Bryant had talked awhile in Spanish. + +Bryant waved the words aside. + +"There's no charge, nothing," said he. "I was delighted to send the +doctor. I hope your son improves rapidly. The physician will continue +to pay you calls until the boy no longer requires them. Those are very +pretty geraniums you have in the window, senora. Are they fragrant?" +Lee crossed the room and bent his face above them. + +The man's wife rubbed her hands together under her apron with much +pleasure. Thus politely for him to notice and praise her flowers! In +her heart, as in the heart of her husband, there formerly had been +resentment at this white canal-builder for cutting their field with a +big ditch, an occurrence which the county judge somehow had stupidly +permitted. But now she did not know what to feel. Yesterday he had +sent them a doctor for nothing, and this evening was smelling her +flowers admiringly. He could not be exactly a monster. Removing one +hand from beneath her apron, she inserted a finger-nail in her black +hair and scratched her scalp, considering the subject. Winter was +coming, too. Food would be needed--and besides, she long had desired +one of those loud phonographs at Menocal's store, and also needed a +new stove. She perceived that her husband was staring at Bryant's back +with a thoughtful air. Undoubtedly he was thinking the same thing as +she. + +"You yet want men and teams for your work, senor?" she inquired. + +"All I can get." + +"If a man falls sick while at work, would he have the services of the +doctor?" + +"Yes, without charge. There will be work on the dam most of the +winter, where the building is only a matter of stone and brush. I can +use all who want employment. Then in the spring there will be the +digging of the ditch on the mesa." + +"Five dollars for a man and his team, is it not so?" the Mexican +inquired. + +"Yes." + +"What if a man's wife or children fall sick?" the woman asked. + +Bryant hid a smile at this shrewd bargaining. Yet he was perceiving an +opportunity. There were no Mexicans at work on the project; one and +all they had held off. Likewise they refused to sell him grain and +hay, which necessitated the hauling of feed from a distance. But now +this accident to the boy might prove a heaven-sent chance to break +Menocal's monopoly of influence. + +"In case of sickness in the man's family, the doctor shall attend +free," he stated. + +The woman took thought afresh. + +"And if the man's horses are taken sick?" + +"Nay, he's not a horse doctor," said Lee, smiling. And even the woman +smiled. + +"But there's another matter. I fear it prevents," the man remarked. +"It is a note for fifty dollars that the bank holds against me. If I +work, Menocal will make trouble about that. I think we had best talk +no more of employment." + +"Suppose I advance the amount in case he does, letting you work out +the debt. I could keep, say, two dollars out of each day's five until +you owed nothing." + +"That would be agreeable to me, senor. But what if he then refuses to +sell me goods from his store?" + +"You can buy at the commissary," Lee said. "Why should you lose five +dollars a day because of Menocal's bad feeling for me? You remain +idle--but does he pay you, or feed you? And the wages I offer you, and +the doctor's services, and the other accommodations, I also offer to +other Mexicans who will work. You may tell them so. Remember, there +will be teaming on the ditch until it freezes up, then work on the dam +throughout the winter, then scraper work on the mesa in the spring. +Five dollars a day coming in the door! You can buy meat and flour and +clothes and tobacco and candy for the children and a new wagon and +pictures of the Madonna, yes, all. But now I must go." + +"But Menocal would be very angry," said the man, with a shake of his +head. + +Bryant bade them good-night and departed. He went up the muddy road +through the wet darkness to the camp. Domination of the native mind by +Menocal appeared too strong for him to break. + +But to his surprise next morning the Mexican came driving his team +into the camp. Lee sent him to Pat Carrigan, who gave him a scraper +and set him to work on the ditch. Toward noon the engineer encountered +him moving dirt from the deepening excavation; the sight had an +amusing feature. The man, Pedro Saurez, laboured in his own field +building the canal at about the spot where he had warned Bryant away +when surveying. + +When Saurez beheld Lee, he grinned and removed the cigarette from his +lips. + +"It will be a fine ditch, this," was his remark. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +Work on the canal section near the river advanced without incident +until, one morning early in November, the plows unexpectedly uncovered +a forty-foot-wide body of granite just beneath the surface. This +particular difficulty was not serious, and was the contractor's; but +Pat Carrigan was no more pleased than any other contractor would have +been at finding rock, even a small amount, when he had figured his +excavation costs on a dirt basis. + +"That wipes out a piece of my profits," he remarked to Bryant, after a +first profane explosion. "I'll send out for some dynamite and shoot +it. If it wasn't for damned troubles like this, I'd been a retired man +and fat and rich long ago. Don't grin, you heartless blackguard! +You'll have miseries of your own before we're done." + +Pat Carrigan was a true prophet. A blow of fatal nature, indeed, was +preparing at the moment and fell within a week. From the state +engineer Lee received a letter advising him that an application for +use of the water appropriated to Perro Creek ranch had been made by a +man of the name of Rodriguez, of Rosita, under an old statute long +forgotten. This law was mandatory upon the Land and Water Board. It +required the latter to cancel rights and to reappropriate water +elsewhere to the amount in excess of what a canal actually carried, or +what a canal had failed to carry for five successive years if it were +not shown within ninety days after a filing for reappropriation that +the said canal had been enlarged to a capacity to carry the original +appropriation, and proof given of the owner's intention to employ said +appropriation. + +Menocal once more! He had been very quiet all this while; he +apparently had made no effort to dissuade the Mexicans who, following +Saurez's lead, had come in increasing number to work on the canal or +the dam; the man had almost passed from the engineer's mind. But he +had not been idle. He had had shrewd legal talent seeking a deadly +weapon for him among the musty statutes, with which he could deal the +irrigation project a _coup de grace_. And as the import of the letter +penetrated Bryant's brain, his heart seemed to turn to ice. Ninety +days--finish dam and canal in ninety days! As well fix a limit of +ninety hours! + +Finally he rushed off to Pat Carrigan superintending scraper work and +dragged him aside. + +"For God's sake, read that, Pat!" he cried. "Read what the Land and +Water Board are going to do. They're going to cut the heart right out +of us! Kill the project! All for a law nobody ever heard of! Read it!" + +Pat knit his brows and slowly extracted the meaning from the state +engineer's formal, involved announcement. That something serious had +occurred he guessed before Bryant had opened his lips. He had never +seen the engineer so wrought up, so white, so agitated. + +"Let me get this right," the old contractor said, at length. "They're +going to cancel your water right." + +"Yes." + +"But not at once. You've ninety days to----" + +"Ninety days! We can't do a year's work in ninety days, and in winter +time at that!" Lee cried. + +"Of course not," was the answer. "But it gives you time to argue with +'em and fight this thing. My advice is to go see this Board at once. +Maybe if you explain the situation, they'll call off this fellow +Rodriguez." + +Bryant, however, remained depressed. Clearly the officials had no +liberty of action in the matter. + +"I don't know that it will do any good," he said, "but it's all that's +left to do. Pack your grip, Pat; I want you to go with me. Leave +Morgan in charge. Can you start in half an hour?" + +The ride to Kennard was made at high speed, and on the way the men did +little talking. Both wanted to weigh the disaster confronting the +project. In town they sought out McDonnell, who promised to have his +attorney go into the matter at once and who appeared very grave at the +news. Then they returned to the hotel to await their train. + +Here Lee was surprised to encounter Ruth in company of Gretzinger, +Charlie Menocal, and a Kennard girl with whom he was not acquainted. +Ruth and Imogene, he learned, had come down the day before with the +New Yorker and were staying at the McDonnell home. + +"We're just roaming around and amusing ourselves," Ruth said, slipping +her arm within Lee's. "Come on and join us." + +Lee smilingly shook his head. + +"Can't possibly do it," said he. "I'm leaving for the capital soon." + +Ruth drew him aside. + +"But give me ten minutes of your time before you go, will you, dear?" +she asked. "Come, we can go into one of the parlours where we'll be +alone." And when they were seated there, she continued, "I know why +you're going to Santa Fe. Charlie said he understood you were involved +in some new legal trouble and that you might lose your whole project. +Mr. Gretzinger laughed at him and so did I, for we knew it couldn't be +true. But it's bothering you, I see; your face is anxious. I hope +you'll clear up the horrid matter, whatever it is, while you're gone." +Then after a pause, she remarked, "Perhaps Mr. Gretzinger could be of +assistance to you." + +"Not in this matter," said Lee. + +"He has a great deal of influence, especially in the East." + +"But this is the West--and I don't care much for Gretzinger, besides," +he stated. + +"So he says. More than once he has wished you would be more friendly. +Isn't it a little inconsiderate of you, Lee, to hold him off at arm's +length, especially when he's here as representative of the +bondholders? He has a vital interest in the canal and its success. +Really, I think he might be of great help if you'd permit. And it +would be of great advantage to us in the future, his friendship and +that of the men behind him, for they are wealthy and influential. +That's one reason why you ought to cultivate him, Lee." + +"Go on," said he, as she paused. + +"Well, I thought we should discuss the matter. I'm of the opinion that +you misunderstand him. You'll not deny that he's a man of ability." + +"No--though I know little of him." + +"He is, though, Lee. And an engineer of high standing, too, and of +experience. Wouldn't it be wise to consult him a little more than you +do? He has talked to me at times about the project and has, I believe, +ideas you could use. For instance, he says that if you made certain +changes in the canal there would be a considerable saving of money, by +which the stockholders would benefit, you among them. He says that if +in certain places wood were used instead of concrete it would mean +thousands of dollars in your pocket." + +"It would, but it would also endanger the canal." + +"Mr. Gretzinger said you asserted that as your reason," she proceeded, +"but he claims there's no more prospect of danger from that source +than from a fly. And anyway, isn't it a matter that concerns only the +buyers afterward? He says so. I don't know much about such matters, of +course, but you really must look after your own best interest +first--and mine. I say mine because mine will be yours after we're +married. Mr. Gretzinger says your share of the saving would be at +least five thousand dollars and possibly more. Lee, do this for me." + +"What he proposes is dishonest, Ruth." + +"But why? He says the state board would grant the change if proper +representations were made. If the officials allowed it, I can't see +where it would be dishonest." + +"The officials would have to be deceived to gain their consent to such +a change," Lee said, patiently. "But the real point at issue is the +permanency of the water system, Ruth. The poor devils who buy the land +and who toil for years to pay for it are to be considered. If the +canal is too cheaply constructed, they'll probably lose their crops; +and losing their crops means ruin. As far as possible an engineer must +insure against this danger when he builds the canal; then if any +accident happens later, his conscience, at any rate, is clear." + +"But he says you over-estimate the risk, that wood is perfectly safe. +And he's an expert engineer, too. More experienced than you, Lee." + +"You seem to have discussed this thing with him at great length," +Bryant remarked, dryly. + +"I have, indeed I have, because I have your success so greatly at +heart, dear. I want to see you receive every penny that you earn and +all the credit you deserve; I want you to go ahead in your profession +and become both wealthy and famous; but sometimes I think that you're +so absorbed in the engineering part of the work that you're careless +of the future. One has to be practical, too. One has to look out for +one's own interests. And I don't see why your responsibility for the +project doesn't end when you've built the canal, sold the land, and +turned the system over to the farmers. You can't go on looking out for +them after that; you're not answerable to the 'hay-seeds' who settle +here for what may or may not happen. And we shall need the money that +would be saved by using wood instead of concrete, Lee. When you're +through here, we shall want to live in New York at least part of the +time. With Mr. Gretzinger's friendship you could perhaps form a +connection so that you could be there all the while, and make a big +fortune. You will do this for me, won't you, Lee? It means just that +much more happiness for us." + +She slipped her arms about his neck and kissed him impulsively, +eagerly. Lee felt himself tremble at that clasp, at that kiss. Words +seemed futile. His anxiety over the fate of his project gave way to a +profound sickness of soul. That Ruth should thus reveal such a +cloudiness of spiritual vision, such an inability to distinguish +between moral values, such a ready acceptance of Gretzinger's vicious +philosophy, was the final drop in his bitter cup this day. + +"It's not a question of either wood or concrete just at present," he +said, rising. "It's whether I'm to have a project at all. I'll not go +with you, Ruth, to your friends; I must think over what I'm to do and +say at Santa Fe to-morrow." + +As he rode thither with Carrigan that night it seemed as if he now was +at grapple with forces, invisible, powerful, malevolent, that strove +to dispossess him of everything that was dear. His project! What +means, what help, what law was there of which he could make use to +ward off this deadly assault on it? And Ruth! How should he save +her--save her from herself, clear the mist from her eyes, arouse her +drowsing soul? All that he had aimed at and all that he had striven +for hung on finding answers to those questions. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +By noon Bryant and Carrigan had concluded their interviews with +members of the Land and Water Board. All of them had listened, asked +questions, expressed their regret at the situation in which Perro +Creek project found itself, but stated that the Board had no course +other than that of executing the law evoked in the case. They +suggested that Bryant bring an action in the courts to test the law; +they admitted that his company might be forced into the hands of a +receiver; they inquired concerning the possibility of gaining the +consent of the adverse party to a withdrawal of his application. Their +hands, however, said one and all, were tied in the matter. + +The engineer and the contractor went down the steps of the state house +and found a seat on a bench at a shady spot of the grounds. + +"Just as I expected it would be," Bryant said, grimly. + +He sat humped over, his elbows on his knees and his cheeks between his +fists. His eyes were dull, heavy; he had not closed them during the +previous night. He wore the mud-caked lace boots and stained khaki, as +did Carrigan, in which he had departed from camp. + +"Well, we haven't quit breathing yet," Pat remarked, licking the +wrapper on the cigar he was about to light. + +Lee sat silent for several minutes. + +"Anyway, I'll see you don't lose, Pat," he said. "You can figure out +what profit you would have made on your contract if the ditch had been +built and I'll pay you that. Then you can call off your crew." + +"Oh, I'll let you down easy, Lee. That wasn't worrying me any," was +the rejoinder. "I was just thinking----" But his words broke off +there, and he again gave his attention to the cigar wrapper that +persisted in coming loose. + +Bryant continued his gloomy cogitation. The muscles of his cheeks +moved in hard lumps beneath his fists as if he were champing some +resistant substance. Over his eyes his lids from time to time drooped +sleepily. But all at once he leaped up. + +"If I but had something I could take hold of, Pat!" he exclaimed. +"Something I could lay hands on and move, like that bed of rock you +uncovered! So I could go ahead! A law is so damned immaterial that one +has nothing to work against. It leaves a man nowhere, helpless. It +lifts him off the ground and holds him kicking futilely in the air. +Just that. By God, I'm desperate enough to try anything--to try +building the ditch--try whipping Menocal even under this moth-eaten +law he's dug up!" + +Pat shut one eye against the smoke curling into it. + +"I was speculating a little along the same line," said he, slowly. + +"But twelve miles of ditch in ninety days! The whole mesa line! We'd +be crazy to think of it. Let's talk of something else." + +Lee's mouth, nevertheless, was twitching, while gleams like light came +and went on his face. + +"I always had a weakness for the bad bets," said Pat. + +"But twelve miles of ditch!" + +"And the nights freezing harder every week," the old contractor added. + +"And the days short." + +"Yes, and nerve shorter yet," said Pat. + +The remark was airily given, but the inference was plain. Lee took a +step aside and stood staring across the capitol grounds, with brows +knit, with lips compressed, the prey of struggling hopes and doubts. + +"Pat," he said, turning. + +"Well?" + +"Do you think we could do it?" + +"God knows; I don't. But we could give the job an awful whirl," the +contractor stated. + +"The thing looks impossible, preposterous, but if you see the +slightest chance of success I want you to say so. Dirt moving is your +game, not mine. Ninety days; that's thirteen weeks. Almost a mile a +week. Can it be done? Can you do it?" + +Pat at last threw away the cigar that refused to draw. + +"With men and teams enough I could build a ditch to tide-water in that +time," said he, with sudden energy. "Men and scrapers, scrapers and +men--that's all. You can rip the insides out of any dirt job on earth +if you have the crews. Of course, it takes money, big wages, to get +and hold them." + +"Money! What do I care for that if we build the canal? How much more +will it take? How much will you need?" + +"Say twenty thousand more." + +"Get out your pencil and begin figuring it." + +"I don't need a pencil," Carrigan answered. "I haven't been moving +dirt for fifty years without figures sticking to my hair. I've +digested your blue-prints and know what's to come out of the ground. +Now I'll tell you what it would be if there was no frost in the +ground, as in summer--and we'll afterward allow for the frost; and +what's necessary in men, horses, fresnos, shacks, horsefeed, food, +clothes, and general supplies." + +And thereupon Carrigan began to pour forth a stream of data so exact, +so comprehensive, so full, that Bryant listened in astonishment. All +carried in his head, ready for use! + +"I hope I know my business at your age as you know yours," Lee +exclaimed. + +"You will, or ought to. I've paid for what I know in mistakes and +miscalculated jobs, as does every man some time or other--paid in hard +cash. What he learns is all he gets out of losses. Now, the figures I +gave were for summer work; winter dirt moving is another kind of +animal. Work is slower, men are harder to keep, weather is generally +bad." + +"This autumn has been later than usual, and it may last," said Lee. + +"And it may not," Carrigan stated, emphatically. "It's that that +worries me about this thing. As it is, the ground freezes on top every +night. Let the thermometer make a low drop, and we won't be able to +stick a plow-point into it anywhere." + +"There's no moisture to speak of in the soil of the mesa." + +"Enough to freeze the dirt, just the same," said Pat. + +"We can leave the dam out of consideration." + +"Yes; no trouble about finishing that. And your concrete work, Lee, +won't lose you any sleep. A carload of cement from here, gravel from +the river, and a dozen Kennard carpenters to knock together gate and +drop frames--no trick to crack that nut. Frost, lad, frost! It's the +thing to set us groaning." + +Bryant sat down and put his hand on the speaker's knee. + +"Pat, if we go into this thing and put it through, there will be a +good fat bonus for you." + +"Maybe there will be and maybe there won't. Maybe you'll have some +money left when we're done and maybe you'll not have a red cent. In +any case, the old man is with you, Lee, to the end of the scrap--if +you go ahead. What about your bondholders? Will they stand for risking +what's not yet spent? They will save considerable by your stopping +now; they'll lose all if we fail." + +"What do you----" + +Pat's raised hand halted him. + +"Ask me nothing," said he. "That's for you alone to settle. If you +spend their money and win, they'll say 'Thank you'--maybe; and if you +go under, they'll damn you up one side and down the other and probably +try to send you to the pen. You're the chief; you have to decide; you +can't share the responsibility--anyway, not with me. And if you're +inquiring, I'll remark that its considerable responsibility. Go off +yonder by yourself and think it over a bit." + +Bryant left the old contractor lighting a fresh cigar. He walked to +another bench a short distance away, where he sat down. In his first +exultation at perceiving a fighting chance to save the project he had +seen only the opportunity, but Carrigan's unexpected turn of the +subject had brought him back to earth. He was guardian, as well as +dispenser, of company funds. He had obligations to the bondholders. +Therefore, would he be justified in risking the money on such a +desperate venture? His soul sank. + +But his mind would not cease to revolve about the undertaking, for he +could not at once relinquish his long-cherished dream. The thought of +tame surrender was as wormwood in his mouth. To stand by acquiescent +while the project collapsed! That prospect he could not endure. Never +again, if he capitulated now, would he be able to strike out with the +same courage as in this project; never with the same courage, or +spirit, or faith. The project was his creation! The thing of his brain +and will! Part of himself! And how confidently he had made his plans +and acquired the property and started work! No doubts of his ability +to carry it through! No question of his right to go ahead! No fear of +the task! + +The engineer came suddenly to his feet. + +Builders throughout the world took equal risks and overcame as great +obstacles every day; it was the measure of their genius and will. +Engineers elsewhere crushed a way through earth and rock to their +goals, and under adverse circumstances, with no thought of failure. +Were there not men who would unhesitatingly take hold of this project +now and complete it in the time allotted? Yes, any number. For the +very same reason that he had launched the scheme. Because they had the +ability, because they had the will, because, most of all, they had +faith--faith in their own powers. + +Lee went back to Pat Carrigan. + +"We shall build it," said he. "And in ninety days." + +The contractor rose. + +"You talk like a real 'chief' now, Bryant," he replied. "I was waiting +for that. Come along; we'll start burning the wires." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +Louise Graham, entering the dining car for breakfast, received a +surprise at beholding Lee Bryant half way along the aisle at one of +the smaller tables. He laid down the spoon with which he was delving +into a half of a cantaloupe and got quickly to his feet to greet her. + +"So you're home again," he said, after shaking hands. "Your father +told me when I met him that you were in the East. Will you share my +table?" + +"I use 'shopping' as a pretext for a jaunt now and then," she laughed, +when they were seated. "Once in a while the lure of city dissipations +seizes me; I had a week in Washington and three in New York with +friends, which will satisfy me for a few months. You were just +starting work on your project when I went away. Are you making good +progress?" + +"Very. But I'll make still better from now on. It's a case with me of +do or be 'done', of dig out or be buried. I may as well be open about +it, for everyone will know presently, anyway. The project must be +completed in ninety days." + +"Ninety days? Great heavens!" + +"That's what I said, too," Lee stated, with a smile. "Several times, +in fact. There is an old law, it seems, that enables interested +parties to hold a stop-watch on me." + +"And what's the penalty if you fail to finish the work in those three +months?" + +"Cancellation of my water right." + +"Cancellation? Surely not." + +"I tried to convince the Land and Water Board of that in Santa Fe, but +made no headway." + +"How outrageous!" she exclaimed. + +The waiter at her elbow recalled her to the requirements of the +moment. Still with a trace of colour in her cheeks, the result of her +indignation, she scanned the menu and wrote out her order. + +"The thing is so utterably unreasonable," she resumed, more calmly. +"Why did they let you start if they proposed afterward to hang a sword +above your head?" + +"The Board was ignorant of this law, as was everybody else, until it +was brought to light by the applicant for cancellation," said Lee, "a +certain Rodriguez, of Rosita." + +"Who is he?" + +Bryant shook his head. + +"Don't ask me. No friend, at any rate." + +She regarded him steadily for a moment. + +"Probably a man put forward by Mr. Menocal." + +"I suppose so," said he. + +"But the idea of expecting you to build all those miles of ditch in +ninety days and in the winter time! I wonder that you can be so calm." + +"Why shouldn't I be calm? My mind's made up. I'm going to complete the +project on time." + +The words were uttered in a matter-of-fact tone that impressed Louise +Graham far more than would any vehement assertion. As he had stated, +his mind was made up, quite made up on the point. Others might think +what they pleased: it carried no weight with him. The thing was +certain. + +She examined the engineer with a new interest. There was a difference +in him, what would be hard to say. One couldn't exactly put finger on +it. Something in his gray eyes, perhaps; something in the sharper +stamp of his aquiline nose, of his lips, of his bronzed jaw; something +in his whole bearing. It went deeper than features, too; she sensed a +change in the spirit of the man from what it had been that day of his +going down to Kennard, when he strolled with her in her garden. He was +less bouyant, less manifest, less elated, but more poised and sure. A +change, yes. + +Then her thoughts reverted to his tremendous undertaking. + +"How long have you known this?" she inquired. + +"Since the day before yesterday. Pat Carrigan, my contractor, and I +came to the capital at once to discuss the affair with the Board. The +news was--well, a good deal of a facer." + +She nodded. + +"It would be," were her words. "You'll need more workmen and horses, +of course." + +"All I can get. Pat went to Denver last night, and the labour agencies +there and at Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Santa Fe, El Paso, and places +farther east doubtless by now are rounding up men. We picked up an +idle grading outfit yesterday in Santa Fe; it will be loaded and +started by to-night." + +Her face became a little rueful. + +"That all sounds so big that I hesitate to make the offer I had in +mind when I asked," she said. + +"What was it, Miss Graham?" + +"Father has twelve or fifteen teams and some scrapers used on the +ranch. The horses aren't working at this season. He would be glad to +let you have them, I know, if he thought they would be of any aid. But +with what you'll have, perhaps you----" + +"I want them; I'll be more than grateful for them. I need every man +and horse available. I can't get too many. Each labourer and each +horse counts just that much more. It's a great kindness on your part +to suggest their use to me, and I'll stop on the way to camp to see +your father." + +"He'll consent to your employing them," said she, confidently. "Dad +likes a man who puts up a good fight, and you're doing that. A fight +against great odds." + +Bryant's face lightened with a smile almost sunny. + +"By heavens, it's comforting to have a friend like you," he exclaimed, +"when one's in a tight place!" + +The waiter began to place her meal, and he turned his head to look out +of the window while his mind recalled his talk with Ruth in the hotel +parlour at Kennard. Little comfort he had had from her then. Her +interest in the project, in fact, as he reviewed the summer, had been +slight, always casual, concerned only with its financial factor, never +particularly sympathetic, never warm, never eager. The thought struck +him unpleasantly. It had never occurred to him before. He wondered if +this indifference would continue when they were married, if in ten +years--when he was about forty, say--she would be even less inclined +to know his work, like the wives of some men he could name who had +their own separate interests, who gave their husbands no sympathy at +their tasks, nor courage, nor heart, and whose single cognizance of it +had to do with the size of the income. + +But he drove this depressing and disloyal speculation from his mind. +Ruth was young and perhaps restless, but she was sweet and full of +promise. Time would round out her character; and when she had matured, +she would be one in a million--a mate who cheered and inspired. Every +bit of that! She would presently see the real values of things; +Charlie Menocal's monkey tricks would no longer amuse her, and she +would perceive what a shallow harlequin he was, while she would +comprehend Gretzinger's vicious, unprincipled sophistry and turn in +disgust from the man. She was inexperienced, that was all. + +"It will be good to be back once more where one has plenty of room," +Louise Graham remarked. "In that liking, you see, I'm a genuine +Westerner. That's what I missed most when at school in the East, at +Bryn Mawr--space. I wanted my big mountains and wide mesa and long, +restful views. And how I galloped on my pony through the sagebrush +when I came back during summer vacations!" + +The recollection set her eyes glistening. + +"You still do it when you return from a trip, I'll venture to say," +Lee stated, marking the glow of her face. + +"Yes, I do. Almost the very first thing. It clears my brain of city +noise and sights and grime. It soothes my nerves. Nothing does that +like our keen air with its scent of sagebrush." + +"Then I should see you riding up my way soon." + +"Oh, I'll certainly want to follow the progress of your work, Mr. +Bryant. With father's teams working for you, I'll feel as if we had a +part in the race." After a pause she proceeded, "The contractor's +outfit went up and you were just starting the dam and excavation about +the time I went East. Father mentioned in a letter to me that he had +dropped in at your camp once or twice when at Bartolo." + +"Yes, I showed him what we were doing. We've had other visitors +occasionally. Miss Gardner and Miss Martin--at Sarita Creek, you +remember--come at times. Miss Martin is a niece of Mr. McDonnell, of +Kennard." + +"So Mrs. McDonnell told me. Just before I left I called at their +cabins again. But I had no more luck that time than the first; they +were away somewhere. Well," she concluded, with a smile, "perhaps the +third time will win; that's the rule. I'll go another time soon." + +"You'll like them, I'm sure. They're both charming, I think. Unusual +girls." + +"I'll go soon," she repeated. + +"My desire possibly will be understood by you," said he, after a +slight hesitation, "when I say that Miss Gardner and I are engaged to +be married. So it would please me immensely if you two became good +friends." + +Louise Graham showed some surprise. But this immediately changed to +smiling interest. + +"Accept my congratulations, Mr. Bryant," she said. "You may count on +our being friends. Hereafter she and Miss Martin must come to our +ranch whenever they will. I suppose they ride up where you are nearly +every day; Miss Gardner, in particular, must be tremendously devoted +to your project and now tremendously excited, too, over your race +against time. Who wouldn't be, in her place!" + +"Naturally," said Lee, with all the heartiness he could muster in his +voice. But to himself, at least, his tone rang hollow. + +When an hour or so after they had finished their meal they alighted +from their Pullmans at Kennard, the echo of his forced reply still +sounded in his mind with persistent irony. He was glad he had an +interview with McDonnell before him that would silence it, the +negotiating of a large private loan. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +For Bryant there now began a period of activity compared to which his +earlier efforts were mere play. Headquarters were moved down to Perro +Creek, ten miles nearer Kennard. In an endless procession streamed +northward automobiles crammed with labourers, wagons heaped with +lumber, cement, implements, food, tents, forage, and long lines of +fresnos. From distant Mexican settlements came natives in ramshackle +wagons and driving half-wild ponies. Out of the hills came +sheep-herders and prospectors. The word of big wages ran everywhere. +The drive was on. + +By the dam and on the tongue of ground extending from the mountain +side where the canal would swing out upon the mesa, excavation for the +intake gate and weir and the drops was in progress, with a crew of +carpenters swiftly erecting wooden forms to receive the concrete when +the diggers finished and retired. On the mesa half a dozen young +engineers, using Bryant's notes and fixed points, ran anew the ditch +line and set grade stakes. North of Perro Creek white tents gleamed in +the sunshine; and beyond these a swarm of men and horses gashed a +yellow streak in the mesa, ever extending as the days passed--cutting +sagebrush, ripping through sod, flinging up earth with plow and +scraper. + +Yes, the fight was on. The fight to secure and keep horses, to get +and hold workmen, to feed and use them both mercilessly, to press them +ahead like a shaft of steel, to drive them forward under lash, mile by +mile, rod by rod, foot by foot, forcing a channel through the +resistant earth and across the mesa--a fight to outwit frost, to +outstrip time, to outreach and overcome the impossible. + +Bryant himself was everywhere, now at the dam, now with the +carpenters, now at Perro Creek. Morgan, in charge of the north camp, +succumbed to Bryant's own restless energy and matched it. The gang, +now beginning to pour concrete behind the carpenters, caught the +infection of his ardor. Foreman and crew on the hillside section, at +his word that they had the most difficult part of the dirt work, +toiled the harder. The other engineers promised to give him their best +and gave him more. And in the main camp at Perro Creek Pat Carrigan +extracted the last ounce of effort from man and beast. + +In Kennard Bryant had said to McDonnell, "Give me a good man for this +end, one who can work twenty hours a day." And the banker had given +him such an one: a short, bow-legged clerk with a pugnacious jaw, who +took the typewritten list of Bryant's immediate requirements, read it, +jerked on his hat, and bolted out of the door. He it was who kept the +road north from Kennard a-jiggle with freight wagons. + +The fierce struggle against time became generally known. Ranchers +visited the mesa for a sight of the toiling camps. Wagonloads of +Mexican families, curious, observant, came and went. Automobile +parties from Kennard and elsewhere made inspection trips to the spot. +Even a journalist representing a Denver paper appeared, made +photographs, and obtained an interview from Bryant consisting of +"Finish it on time? Certainly. Can't talk any longer." Which, together +with the pictures and the special writer's account, filled a page of a +Sunday issue. + +The anxiety ever in Bryant's and Carrigan's minds was of that grim and +implacable enemy, cold. Autumn had lasted amazingly; November yielded +to December, with the days still fine; but who could tell when the +white spectre, Winter, would lay his icy hand upon the earth? The +peaks and upper slopes of the mountains were already mantled with +snow. Each morning the engineer and the contractor marked with care +the fall of the thermometer during the night, examined the frost upon +the grass and tested its depth in the soil. They watched the barometer +like hawks. They observed every cloud along the Ventisquero Range. +They studied the wind, the sun, the sky. But the weather held fair. So +calm was the air that at times sounds of the dynamite blasts at the +granite outshoot, where a pair of miners were clearing a path for the +canal, came travelling down to Perro Creek. + +"The Lord surely has his arms around us," said Pat, one morning. + +Bryant nodded, but Dave spoke up, "A cattleman who went by here +yesterday, an old-timer, said: 'When December's clear, then January's +drear.'" + +"And an old-timer once told me that same thing when I was building a +railroad grade in Kansas," Pat remarked, "and I had to ship in +palm-leaf fans and ice to keep my 'paddies' from fainting with the +January heat." A slight exaggeration, to be sure, but showing the old +contractor's contempt for wise saws pertaining to weather. Yet no one +understood more than he the law of probabilities, or the balance of +seasons. Some time cold must follow warmth, foul follow fair, to work +the inevitable mean. And it was too much to hope that this natural law +would be suspended for them until the middle of February. + +In fact, the nights while remaining clear were hardening. The mercury +in the tube sank by possibly a degree every two nights, at last +touching zero; and it correspondingly failed to arise by as much at +noon. The days were cruelly short. Darkness lasted until eight in the +morning; it dropped down again at five. The frost crept deeper into +the earth. + +But construction advanced. The dam of brush and uncemented smooth +brown stones, stretching across the Pinas, was gradually rising. The +hillside section of ditch through the fields was finished and only the +miners continued at the granite reef, the ring of their hammers on +drills going steadily and the roar of the shots now and again booming +out at nightfall. Excavation went forward in the spaces between the +drops on the ridge leading forth upon the mesa. The carpenters had +finished and returned to Kennard. The concrete gang had moved their +mixer from the dam to the drops, for the intake gate and its +accompanying flood weir were made, and Bryant had had their wooden +frames knocked off so that the structures stood white and imposing +beside the dam, like pillars of accomplishment. From Perro Creek the +main camp had moved toward the northwest on the arc it must pursue, +until its tents touched the horizon and the clean yellow trench, +fifteen feet wide at the bottom, thirty feet wide at the top, and five +feet deep, with its flanking embankments, alone was left behind, a +forced and undeviating course through the sagebrush, the water way +driven by a determined man. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +Meanwhile Lee, under relentless pressure of work, saw less and less of +Ruth. She had come a number of times at the beginning of the drive, +sometimes with Gretzinger, sometimes with Imogene, to watch the +feverish spectacle on the mesa; as had Louise Graham, her father, and +at rare intervals Mr. McDonnell. Bryant, on his part, had gone +evenings to Sarita Creek when he could spare an hour, and, for that +matter, when he could not. But the meetings with her were infrequent, +and always left him with a sense of inadequacy, of dissatisfaction, +because partly Ruth and he seemed to have no common interests and +partly that she now let her affection go for granted. Her talk was not +of the subjects usually discussed by an engaged couple--of their +coming marriage (though no date had been fixed) and a home and +prospective joys together; it dealt wholly with amusements, dances, +friends at Kennard. And though her own eyes glistened at the recital, +Lee's lost their light and his speech was quenched. For his was the +role of an outsider. + +Certain friendships that she maintained, moreover, were exceedingly +distasteful to him. + +"Ruth, I've nothing against your going around so much with +Gretzinger," he said one evening, "except that I don't like the fellow +and believe he's crooked, and it may, under the circumstances, create +gossip." + +"Nonsense, Lee, don't be jealous. Gretzie never takes me anywhere +except in a crowd. And don't say he's crooked, or I shall be angry." + +"Well, let him pass," he went on. "It's Charlie Menocal I've more in +mind. He talks openly against my project; he calls me a thief and a +ruffian; he's an avowed enemy. Yet you run around with him as if that +were of no importance, as if it made no difference. The scoundrel no +doubt counts it a brilliant bit of smartness to carry about in his car +the fiancee of the man he hates, and brags of it. It reflects on us +both, Ruth. I ask you to consider my feelings at least that far." + +She regarded him speculatively for a time. Then the touch of obstinacy +hardened her chin and pushed up her under lip the barest trifle. But +there was no resentment in her voice when she answered and, indeed, +her tone was too casual. + +"Oh, nobody pays any particular attention to what Charlie says," she +remarked. "You surely don't really believe what you've just stated +about his bragging? I don't. Of course, he hasn't brains like Mr. +Gretzinger, but he's gentlemanly. And he's very kind. And so is Mr. +Menocal, his father. I've eaten dinner with a party of young folks at +their house twice. Your ideas of them are altogether wrong, for +they've been at pains to tell me that a business difference like that +with you shouldn't affect personal relations. I think the same. But +that isn't all. You never take me anywhere, you won't go to the +parties and shows and things. Am I to sit here every day and every +night at Sarita Creek until your canal is built?" By now her words +were not only casual but carried a trace of disdainfulness. + +"No, Ruth," said he. "I want you to have a good time and derive every +pleasure that you rightly can. My greatest regret is that I can't take +you and share the fun. But it goes without saying that I can't. Only, +Charlie Menocal----" + +"Lee, what's got into you to-night? If it were not for Mr. +Gretzinger's and Charlie's thoughtfulness, I'd have died of +lonesomeness long before this. You know how I hate this life, this +homestead business. You know I'm only waiting until you've finished +and we can be married and go away where there is something worth +while. Now be reasonable. You work too hard, so that every little +speck looks like a mountain. And it's making you narrow, too, or will +if you don't watch out. I have to kill time somehow till we can be +married and so you ought not to find fault with my doing it. Run along +over and talk to Imo in her cabin now, Lee; that's a good boy. I +didn't get back home from town last night until after midnight, and +I'm sleepy." + +He did not go to Imo's cabin, but to camp instead. For the bitterness +of his disappointment at his failure to move her made him desire the +darkness and solitude of the ride home. With her, it seemed, he was in +a worse predicament than he had been when faced with the problem of +his ditch; for that he had found an answer, found something to take +hold of. But she was not like the mesa, to be mastered by sheer will +and incessant labour. Character is intangible, and he found himself +balked. One cannot lay hands on the desires in a heart and pluck them +out, or on the spirit and twist it straight. + +His bitterness became acute when some time later Charlie Menocal came +driving with Ruth along the rutted trail by the canal to where he +stood inspecting a new drop. + +"You wait, Charlie; I'll not be long," she said, as she alighted. +"Come with me out of earshot, will you, Lee?" + +They moved to a spot that satisfied her. + +"I heard you were doing this and I asked Charlie to bring me here," +she began. "I wanted to see for myself. And it's true. You're going +ahead and make these things out of concrete. I'm indignant, I'm hurt. +After you led me to rely----" + +Bryant stopped her sharply. + +"No, Ruth, not that. I'm sorry that you gained the impression I should +use wood instead of concrete; and it never was in my mind to do so, to +use wood. My decision was fully made when you raised the matter in the +hotel parlour at Kennard, and I explained my reasons for the decision. +I didn't tell you bluntly, perhaps. I waited, trusting that you would +come round to my way of thinking and realize that I could only follow +my own best judgment." + +"I haven't changed my mind not one particle," she exclaimed, +vehemently. + +"But, Ruth----" + +"I think you're throwing away good money, deliberately. That is, if +you really ever make any money on your project. You may lose +everything." + +"I may not, also. But if I should, the father of the fellow sitting in +the car yonder waiting for you would be responsible. As for these +drops, Ruth, Gretzinger was wrong and I was right, and so they're +being built of concrete. Now please forget all about it." + +"And that you refused my request, I suppose." + +"Yes." + +"Well, I can't do that; it's too much to ask." An angry gleam shot +from her eyes. "You might have thought more of me and less of +yourself. You put your old canal first and me second." With which she +swung about and marched off to the car, and it went away, rocking and +lurching down the uneven trail. + +Lee stood looking after it. Her last words brought up the memory of +the occasion when she had playfully uttered the like, one night in +August, with the added inquiry, "What if you had to choose between +us?" Were things drifting to such an issue? Would she at last force +upon him that hard choice? He flung up a hand in a gesture of despair. +Some metamorphosis had occurred in her; she was not the simple and +loving Ruth to whom he had offered himself that day they picked +berries in the canon. Or was it that only now her real self was +revealed? Was it that she was capable of loving only selfishly? Did +she love him at all? + +The questions bit like acid into his heart. And a new one, that +startled and dismayed his soul: Did he love her? Yes--the Ruth she yet +was. But he could never love the woman she seemed on the way to +become, breathing an exciting and unhealthy atmosphere, seeking purely +personal gain, indifferent to worthy objects, selfish, hard, +mercenary, worldly. No, that kind of Ruth would kill love. + +He still stood there when Morgan, who had been on an errand to +headquarters, came galloping back on his way to the dam. + +"Accident down below," he said. "Man hurt in the mixer. Arm crushed." + +Bryant jerked his head about to look at the drop two hundred yards +farther down the ridge. He saw the workmen grouped together. The huge +cylindrical machine was motionless. + +"I'll see," he exclaimed, hurrying to his runabout. + +He drove recklessly to where the injured man lay, helped lift him into +the car, and bidding the foreman stand on the running board and +support the unconscious labourer, set off for headquarters at such +speed as was possible. Into the low shack used for hospital purposes +the two carried their charge, and as the doctor was absent Bryant +began a search to find him. He ran down the camp street shouting the +doctor's name and along the ditch where the teams moved, until he +encountered Carrigan. + +"Doc ain't here. Who's hurt?" Pat asked. For a call for the doctor +could mean but one thing. + +Bryant described the nature of the accident and both men hastened back +to the hospital. The door was now closed. Before it, stood the foreman +of the concrete gang, who was narrating for the benefit of a group of +cooks and freighters details of the mishap. + +Bryant turned the knob, but the door was locked. + +"He stationed me here to keep men out," the foreman said. + +"Then he's in there." + +"Yes, came a-running. Was loafing out there in the brush and having a +smoke. Said he was going to operate at once, then locked the door." + +"Not alone!" Lee exclaimed. + +"No, he has help. One of the engineers from the office, who had come +trotting over to see what was wrong, and a girl." + +"A girl! What girl?" + +The foreman shook his head. + +"Don't know who she is. She came riding in from the south. When she +saw us hustling round, she asked what had happened and jumped off her +horse and inquired of the Doc whether she could be of any help. He +looked at her, then said yes. She's in there now. One of the men is +caring for her horse." + +"A bay horse?" + +"Yes. And a pretty girl, too. I'd almost lose an arm to have a +good-looker like her hovering over me." + +"All right, Jenks. You can go back now. Get another man for your crew +from Morgan. I'll obtain this fellow's name and his address, if he has +any, from the time-keeper, in case he passes in his checks." + +The foreman started away. The group before the door disintegrated and +presently disappeared. Pat glanced at the sun, lighted a cigar, and +asked: + +"Do we start a night shift?" + +"Yes; whenever you can bring in the men." + +"Then I'll wire for some right away. The thermometer was five below +this morning, and only twenty-two above this noon. She's cold at +last." + +"Go to it, Pat. I'll stay here till Doc is through." + +When Carrigan had left him, Bryant sat down on a discarded oil tin +lying on the ground--one of the square ten-gallon cans common about +camps. He gazed at the door of the hospital shack. He could hear faint +sounds from within, a footfall on the board floor, an indistinct word +or murmur. Behind him and farther down the street, in the big cook +tents where the crews ate, was the rattle of pans and an occasional +oath or burst of laughter. There the cooks were peeling potatoes and +mixing great pans of biscuit dough and exchanging jests, while here in +the shack a fight was going on for a life. + +Bryant saw again that unshaven, heavy-faced workman, with the terribly +mangled arm, whom he had brought hither. Poor devil! Some oversight, +some carelessness, some mistake on the part of himself or another; and +if not a dead man, then one-armed for the rest of his days. He, +Bryant, could not consider these accidents with Pat Carrigan's +philosophic calm--a calm acquired from decades of camp tragedies and +disasters. They harrowed his spirit. Though they appeared inevitable +where men delved or builded or flung forth great spans, they made the +cost of constructive works seem too great. They took the glamor from +projects and left them hard, grim, uninspiring tasks. + +Lee felt a weariness like that of age. The strain under which he +laboured, the sustained effort of driving this furrow through earth +that was like iron, his unavailing endeavours to reclaim Ruth, +afflictions such as this of the past hour, the uncertainty of +everything--all sapped his energy and shook his faith. Yet before him +there were weeks of the same, or worse. He had put his hand to the +plow; he could not turn back. + +All at once the door of the shack opened. Louise Graham came out, +without hat, garbed in a great white surgical apron. Her knees seemed +about to give way. Her eyes were half shut. Her face was without +colour, drawn, dazed. With her from the interior came a reek of +chloroform. + +She had been the girl in there! Bryant had guessed it, feared it. He +ran forward and put an arm about her shoulders and led her to the tin +oil canister on which he urged her to be seated. + +"No, I won't faint," she said, weakly. He knelt beside her and +supported her form. "I just feel dizzy and a little sick," she went +on. "Better in a moment." Lee observed her shudder. Presently she +murmured, "Stuck it out, anyway. Dad says--dad says, 'Never be a +quitter.' And I wasn't one." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +Rymer, a sandy-haired, blue-eyed young fellow, one of Bryant's staff, +walked out of the shack, pulling on his coat. He had a cigarette in +the corner of his mouth, at which he was sucking rapidly. In spite of +its dark lacquer of tan his face had a grayish tinge. + +"Sick?" he asked of Bryant, jerking a nod toward Louise Graham. + +"A bit. Have Doc give you a little brandy in a glass. And bring out +her things, too." + +Rymer went back into the shack, presently returning with the liquor +and accompanied by the young doctor, who still had his sleeves rolled +up. Louise swallowed the fiery dram. + +"That--that would raise the dead!" she gasped, wiping sudden tears +from her eyes. She sat up, pushed back the hair from her brow, and +began to glance about. + +"How's your man?" Bryant asked the doctor. + +"Right as a trivet--if no complications set in. Have him stowed on a +cot in the inner room. Bring on your next." + +"You ought to be the next," said Lee, darkly. + +"Because I grabbed her? Well, I'll use her another time if she's +about. Steady as a pin. No wasted motion, either. Passed me +instruments and things like a veteran nurse. I just gave a nod or +glance and she had the right tray. I wanted to pat her on the +shoulder. Can't give people that thing; it's a born knack. Knowing +exactly what's wanted at the instant. She has it, has it to the tips +of her fingers." + +Lee said no more. The young doctor was still labouring under the +excitement of the past hour and swimming in exultation at performing +an operation that would have taxed the skill of an experienced +surgeon. It had been one of those wicked cases--arm crushed to the +shoulder, everything gone into a hodge-podge of flesh and arteries and +splintered bone, a case for fast work and at the same time for +delicate closure of the stump. This had been thrust at Higginson like +a flash, he out of a medical school but a year and a half, still +coaxing a moustache, so to speak. Lee perceived it all. The matter for +Higginson had been like the ditch with Bryant: something tremendous, +something to be met with the means at hand, something to be +accomplished at all costs. And now his brain was ringing with triumph. +He was superior to anything Bryant might think or say or do. For the +moment he was quite ecstatic. One in his exalted state could conceive +nothing unmeet in having haled a strange, sensitive girl into the +ghastly business for an assistant. + +"I'll conduct Miss Graham to my office, where she can remain until +she's wholly herself," Bryant said. "This air is too sharp. You have +everything, Rymer--cap, coat, gauntlets? Bring them along." + +"But I'm feeling better now," Louise protested. + +"You're not yet fit to start home. Over there it's warm and quiet." He +rose to help her remove the great apron. + +In the shack at the head of the street where he led her, he made her +comfortable in an old arm-chair from his ranch house with a Navajo rug +over her lap. As he stirred up the fire, she gazed about at the room. +In one corner was a desk knocked together of boards, littered with +papers; near it on the floor were boxes stuffed with rolls of +blue-prints; the wall spaces between windows were filled with +statements and reports; bulging card-board files rested on a shelf; +from nails hung an old coat and a camera; in another corner leaned a +tripod, rod, and a six-foot brass-edged measure specked with clay; and +piled in a heap beyond the stove were a saddle, a pair of boots, +chunks of pinon pine, and a discarded flannel shirt on which lay a +gray cat nursing a kitten. Through the inner door, standing open, she +had a glimpse of two cots with tumbled blankets. The place was the +office and temporary home of a busy man, a rough board-and-tar-paper +habitation that went forward on skids as the camp went forward, the +workshop and living-quarters of a director who was stripped down to +the hard essentials of toil and whose brain was the nerve centre of a +desperate effort by a host of horses and men. + +"You have companions, I see," Louise remarked, indicating the mother +cat and kitten. + +"Dave's," was his reply, as he finished at the stove. "He found them +somewhere. There were four kittens to begin with, but only one is +left. It's a hard game for cats to survive in a camp like this." + +"Poor little things!" + +"Dave says he'll save this kitten, or know why." + +"What about Dave himself with all these rough men?" + +"It leaves him untouched," Lee said. "Doesn't hurt a boy when he's +made of the right stuff. He'll be better for it, in fact. Many a grown +man would be more competent with the knowledge Dave's picking up here, +young as he is. He's learning what work means and what men are and +what's what generally. When this job is done, I'm going to send him +off to school; and he'll eat up his studies. Just watch and see." +Bryant laughed. "He's aching to become an engineer. He has his mark +already fixed, which not one boy in a thousand at his age has. And all +this is priming him to go to his mark like a shot." + +"I hadn't thought of that," she stated. + +"Actually he's soaking up more arithmetic, geology, physics, +veterinary knowledge, and so on, by pumping Pat Carrigan, the +engineers, and the men, than I supposed his head could hold," Lee +continued. "When he gets at his books, they won't be meaningless +things to him. Not much! He'll understand what prompted them and what +they open up. Well, now, are you feeling better?" + +"Yes, I think so." Then she said, "But I'm keeping you away from your +work. You go, and when I'm--" + +"Wouldn't think of it. Nothing pressing." And Bryant began to move +about thoughtfully, now going to gaze out a window and now returning +to stand and fix his eyes upon her intently. + +"That was a distressing experience for you," he went on, presently. "I +feel all upset at your being in there. Higginson was desperate, I +suppose, and grasped at you because you happened to be there and he +could not wait." + +She put out a hand toward Lee. + +"Don't scold him please," she said. + +"Little good it would do now," he replied. "He'll be so cocky that +he'll dare me to fire him if I say a word, and grin in my face, for he +knows now that he's a good man and that I know it and will never let +him go." + +"Higginson, is that his name?" Louise asked. "Well, he is a good man. +When he started the engineer using the chloroform and me arranging +things, he was swallowing hard. I saw he was terribly nervous and +keyed up. But he went right at the operation without faltering and +with a sort of doggedness. As if nothing should stop him. I myself was +doing rather mistily what he wanted. The chloroform, the smell of +antiseptics, the shiny instruments, the cutting, the nipping of +blood-vessels with forceps and tying them, the clipping with scissors, +the sewing--all went to my head. And I constantly had to tell myself, +'Don't be silly! You're not going to faint. He might fail if you did. +That tray, those forceps, those sponges, that thread, that's what he +wants now. Keep your head. Don't be a quitter.' And so on through +eternity--it seemed an eternity, anyway. I think the young engineer +with me thought so, too. He turned quite green once or twice. But then +I must have looked that way throughout. All at once it was over, +suddenly. Quite unexpectedly, too. I had come to believe that it would +go on and on forever. But, as I say, all at once it was done and the +men were wheeling the bandaged fellow into the other room. Then the +doctor called over his shoulder at me, 'Open the door, girl; let in +some air.' So I opened it as he wanted, and came out." + +Bryant was greatly affected by that simple recital. He began to walk +back and forth beside Louise, restlessly thrusting his hands in his +coat pockets but immediately pulling them out as if there were no +satisfaction in the action, and casting troubled glances at her from +under close-drawn brows. His disquietude moved her to speak. + +"You're worrying about me, Mr. Bryant; you mustn't do that. In a few +minutes more I'll be entirely recovered. I should be foolish to +pretend that the happening wasn't a shock to me, but I'm not a +weakling--I've health and strength. I'll not permit the thought of the +operation to depress my spirits. Indeed, I know I'll be very proud of +what I did this afternoon, for it was a chance to do a real, +disinterested service. And I can guess what father will say when he +learns of it--'Louise, you did just right. Exactly what you should do +under the circumstances.'" + +Already the colour had reappeared in her cheeks. A resilience of +nature was indeed hers, he perceived, that enabled her to undergo +ordeals that would prostrate many women. It came, undoubtedly, from +the same springs out of which rose her splendid courage, her fine +sympathy. Ah, that golden quality of sympathy! Because of it her duty +that day had seemed plain and clear. + +"Louise--may I not use that name, for we're friends?--Louise, you're +the bravest, kindest girl I have ever known. I mean it, really. I've +never forgotten your generous act that day when someone so brutally +killed my dog Mike, how you tried to save him. I didn't know you then, +but that made no difference to you. And now when you find an +opportunity to help save a man's life, you never flinch." + +"Why, it's the natural thing to do." + +"Is it? I was beginning to think selfishness was the natural thing," +he said, with a hard, twisted smile. + +She rested her hand on his sleeve for an instant. A smile and a shake +of her head accompanied the action. + +"I know better than that, Lee Bryant," she rejoined. "You're not +selfish yourself and will never arrive at a time when you'll believe +what you said." + +"But there are selfish people, many of them." + +"Yes. Of course." + +"And one can't change them, and they cause infinite anxiety in +others----" + +"Yes; that, too. Has Mr. Menocal been troubling you in some new way?" + +Lee rose hastily. "I wasn't thinking of him," said he; and he went to +a window and stared out at the engineers' shack across the street. Her +touch on his arm, her tone, her solicitude, agitated him more than he +dared let her see. Why in the name of heaven couldn't he have a Ruth +who was like her? A Ruth who was a Louise, with all of her lovable +qualities and splendid courage and fine nobility of heart? + +He swung about to gaze at her. She yet sat half turned in her seat so +that her clear profile was before his eyes. Her soft chestnut hair +glinted with gleams of the fire that escaped through a crack in the +door. Her features were in repose. Something in her attitude, in her +face, gave her a girlish appearance, as she might have looked when +sixteen--an infinite candor, an innocence and simplicity, that alone +comes from a serene spirit. + +Presently he discovered that she had moved her head about, that she +was looking straight at him. Bryant experienced a singular emotion. + +"Some serious trouble is disturbing you," she said. + +Her eyes continued fixed upon his, increasing his uneasiness. He felt +himself flushing. He made a gesture as if whatever it was might be +disregarded, then said, "Yes." + +"You're not still anxious concerning me? I'm rested--see!" + +She sprang up, casting off the rug and spreading her arms wide for his +scrutiny. The heat of the fire had put the glow into her cheeks again; +a smile rested on her lips; she seemed poised for an upward flight. + +"I'll take you home," he said, abruptly. + +"Oh, no. I can ride----" + +"One of the boys will bring your horse to you in the morning," he +continued, as if she had not spoken. "It would be dark before you +reached home; dusk is already at the windows. And you would be chilled +through. You've no business to be riding after what you've been +through. I'll bring my car to the door while you're putting on your +things." + +A vague fear sent him out of the door quickly. Ruth in his mind was +like a figure projected far off in the landscape, occupied, distant, +facing away; but Louise Graham was by, and despite his wish or will, +or her knowledge, drawing his heart. What he had sought in Ruth was in +her possession, the possibility of happiness. Life had deluded him and +seemed about to crush him in a savage clutch. As he moved along the +street, this apprehension lay cold in his breast; he could not dismiss +it; it persisted like a dull throb of pain. A sudden fury swept him. +The place was becoming intolerable, the mesa a hell. He burned to +chuck the whole wretched business. + +When he returned with the car he was at least outwardly calm. He +helped Louise into the seat. + +"I'll have you home in no time," said he. + +"And you must stay for supper." + +"Yes; why not. Might as well." + +"And we'll pick up the girls; all of us can crowd in here somewhere." + +The slightest pause followed before his answer. + +"Certainly," he said. "We can all ride." + +Imogene's cabin, however, was the only one showing a light when they +stopped before the pair of little houses, and only Imogene was at +home. She was delighted to go with Lee and Louise. Ruth had driven +with Charlie Menocal to Kennard earlier in the afternoon, she briefly +stated. Then she remarked: + +"Aren't you dissipating frightfully to-night, Lee?" + +"Like a regular devil," was the response. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +Imogene had been startled by a note in Lee's answer to her bantering +question that she never before had heard him use. Though his words +were uttered lightly, there nevertheless was a hard ring to them, a +grate, as if his teeth were on edge. Something had happened. Ruth had +driven during the afternoon to see him and returned exceedingly put +out. If anything had occurred, Imogene hoped it was--well, one certain +thing. + +When Bryant brought her home that evening, he went with her into her +cabin. In silence he built up the fire, fussed for a time with the +lamp-wick, lighted a cigarette, took a turn across the cabin, +inspected thoughtfully the back of one hand, and then lifted his gaze +to Imogene. She had been waiting, with a vague alarm. And this his +stern visage and burning eyes increased. + +"Will Ruth marry me at once, do you think?" he questioned. +"To-morrow--or the next day?" His tone was calm. He might have been +speaking of the cabin, asking if it kept out the wind. + +Imogene was dumbfounded by that voice and that inquiry. She had +expected anything but either. + +"Not then; not so soon, I suspect," she said, at length. + +"When? At the end of a week, the end of a fortnight?" + +"I can't say," she replied with a sensation now of being harried. +This would not do; she must get herself in hand. "The fact is, Lee, +I'm not in Ruth's confidence. Haven't been for some considerable time. +We've drifted a little apart." + +"Only a little?" + +"Only a little--I hope." + +The cigarette Bryant held had gone out. Presently he glanced at it, +then crushed it in his palm and dropped it into a coat pocket. + +"Don't fence with me, Imogene," he said. "Give me the truth." + +The truth--well, why not? He was entitled to it. Besides, since he had +eyes and a brain with which to reason he was not ignorant of the +girls' waning friendship. Pretense was foolish. Imogene leaned forward +in her seat and rested her crossed arms upon her knees, directing her +look at the floor. Her fluffy golden hair had been slightly +disarranged when she removed her hat and so remained. Her face was +thinner than in the summer, with a pinched aspect about her lips. + +"The situation is this," she began, slowly. "Ruth and I are not really +on good terms and we've been perilously near a break several times. +But I've restrained my temper and my tongue to avoid one, because I +feel I must remain as long as she does. No, I can't leave her here +alone--that would be brutal. And ruinous for her, too. I've thought it +all out pretty carefully. You see, we both agreed to stay when we +came, until we agreed to go or had proved up on our claims. Probably I +don't make myself very clear to you. I think now that I made a mistake +and that neither of us ought ever to have attempted homesteading. So +much has happened that is different from what I anticipated. Not the +existence itself; I don't mean that. Other things. Ruth's change, +chiefly. See, Lee, I speak frankly, for we've usually been frank +toward each other. You two are engaged, but"--she straightened up in +order to meet his eyes--"she's treating you abominably and +shamelessly. Ordinarily, I would hold my peace, I've held it hitherto, +but I can no longer. Why, I choke sometimes! Going constantly with +Gretzinger, who's so despicable that he tries to use her as a tool to +reach and corrupt you, or Charlie Menocal, who's your out-and-out +enemy, it's too much for me, Lee. And uncle and aunt are furious with +me for staying. She listen to me? Ruth listens neither to me nor any +one." She rose and came close to Bryant. "You're right to marry her +immediately. If you two love each other, that is." Her look was +penetrating, questioning. "For she needs a restraining influence. +People in Kennard are talking----" + +"My God!" Bryant cried, hoarsely. "No, no; not Ruth! She couldn't do +anything wrong!" + +"No, there's nothing bad. But she has given grounds for gossip, she +and some other girls. She sees too much of this Gretzinger and Charlie +Menocal and men like them; and the time may come when I'll tremble. +I've begged her to be discreet and considerate of your good opinion +and love, but she always declares that she's acting eminently proper. +Lee." + +"Yes." + +"There's something more. Gretzinger's not only finding amusement in +her company, he's in love with her. After the women he's been +accustomed to in New York, the rouged and jaded type he naturally +would know, her freshness and spirits appeal to him. But you know what +sort of man he is--cynical, unscrupulous, without principles." + +A long time passed before Bryant made a response. He stood knitting +his brows, as if preoccupied. Imogene wondered if he had been +following her at the last. + +"I'll speak to him about his principles in connection with Ruth," he +said. The utterance was amazingly dispassionate. Then quite +unexpectedly he remarked, "I've never yet had to kill a man, never as +yet." + +Imogene shuddered, and she was terrified. It was as if a curtain had +been jerked aside disclosing figures grouped for tragedy. + +"It must never come to that," she breathed. + +Bryant stirred, then began to look about the room. He grew observant. + +"This is bad for you, Imogene," he said, presently. "Impossible! Your +uncle is right. This wretched cabin doesn't keep out cold or wind; you +have to chop wood and carry water, tasks beyond your strength; you're +lonely, you're ill at times--" + +"And Ruth?" + +"Well?" + +"You know her situation. Financial, I mean." + +"I less than any one know it. Extraordinary, too, now that I think of +it," he said, reflectively. "What is her situation?" Immediately he +added, "Of course, I guess that she has no great means and she has +said that she lacks training to earn a livelihood. But her family?" + +"She lived with an aunt until she came here, Lee." + +"So she mentioned." + +"They didn't get on well together after Ruth went to stay with her on +her parents' death," Imogene explained. "The woman was narrow-minded +and exacting, especially in matters of amusements and religion. You +know the type." Bryant nodded. "And Ruth was young, exuberant, and, as +I now see, wilful. Their clashes were the cause of her desire to come +West. We had been good friends, but not intimates; and I marvel at +myself now at having gone so rashly into a thing like this, without +inquiring whether our habits, tastes, desires, natures, everything, +fitted us for prolonged companionship. Yes, I marvel." She sat +motionless, staring at the lamp fixedly. "However, I'm in it now up to +my neck. Ruth declares that she will never return to her aunt." + +"And she can't earn a living." + +"Nor would if she could, I fear," Imogene added, a little sadly. "At +least, now. It would be too dull." + +"Then I must marry her at once." + +Imogene gave him a strange look. + +"She is waiting," said she. + +"For marriage?" + +"No, to see how you succeed. Oh, to have to say these things is +dreadful, Lee!" she exclaimed. But Bryant brushed this aside with a +gesture almost august in its indifference. "If you finish your project +on time, she will be ready for the ceremony," the girl went on. "If +you fail, she'll postpone it until you're able to provide more than +just a roof, a chair, and a broom. Her very words! Love must not +prevent people from being practical, from her viewpoint. So, as I +say, she's waiting to discover the outcome." A corner of her mouth +twisted up while she paused. Then she concluded in a low voice, "And +probably something else." + +Bryant had again fallen into study. Imogene doubted if he had heard +her added remark, and she could not divine from his countenance how +fierce or in what direction his covered passion was beating. + +"It will be too late," said he, suddenly and, as it seemed to her, +irrelevantly. + +Then she thought that she understood. + +"He's going home in a few days, for the Christmas holidays," she +stated. "Possibly then Ruth will--I'm planning for us all to be at +uncle's, you with us." + +"Gretzinger wasn't in my mind." + +"You said 'too late'," she pursued. "Naturally I supposed your +reference to be of them." + +The gravity of his face deepened. + +"I was thinking of myself," said he, turning his eyes upon her. "If +we're not married soon, very soon, it will be too late. I mean that it +would be a mockery. For me, at any rate. One may wish to go one way, +and be swept another, especially when the mooring line is slack." His +breast rose and fell at a quick, agitated breath. "But promise me that +you'll not speak of this to Ruth." + +"The very thing to bring her round, perhaps." + +"More likely to fill her with despair." + +This was something Imogene could not grasp. It was so inexplicable, so +extravagant, so perverse, that her cheeks grew hot. + +"I can't follow you at all," she cried, indignantly. "Ruth alarmed, +jealous, in doubt--yes, I can credit her with any one of those +feelings. But despair! She lays her plans too far ahead to be led into +despair." + +"Even if she knew I had ceased to love her? When she understood our +marriage would be a hollow ceremony?" + +"Would it be that if you succeed with your project?" + +Bryant's eyes blazed suddenly. + +"Great God, you talk as if she were to marry the canal!" he exclaimed. +He glowered for a time. "I see now what you mean. You believe she +would marry me if I win out with the ditch. Being practical, she would +accept money as a substitute for love. That reminds me: she herself +once declared that if circumstances necessitated she could take a rich +man for his riches." Bryant uttered a harsh laugh. "My Lord, I was +frightened lest in a fit of anguish at losing my love she should go to +the devil!" Again he yielded to an outburst of laughter that made +Imogene shudder. "I fancied that at finding herself out of money, +unable to work, disinclined to work, unloved, miserable, she would +recklessly hurl herself into perdition. And I was going to save her +from that, marry her at once, sacrifice myself! Like an egotistical +fool! When all the while there was never the slightest danger or need, +when all the while she held the string, not I. And love isn't a +consideration whatever. And she will marry me when I've completed the +project. And complete it I must, of course. Not a way out, not a +single loop-hole. Oh, my Lord, my Lord, Imogene, did you ever know of +anything so devilishly laughable!" And his bitter, sardonic merriment +broke forth anew. + +The girl was appalled. All she could do was to gasp, "Oh, Lee, Lee! +Don't laugh like that, don't think of it like that. You make it out +worse than it is." + +He stopped short. By his look he might have detested her. + +"I state it as it is," he said. "Wherein is the actual situation +better?" + +"You could break your engagement; certainly she has given you +sufficient cause." + +"Yes, break with her, as might you. Why don't you?" + +Imogene put out a hand in protest. + +"You know why, Lee; I've told you," she said, earnestly. + +"No more can I, for the same reason," was his reply. He turned and +lifted his hat and gloves from the table. "I will have no act of mine +cut her adrift and push her under. Much better to stand the gaff. I +suppose one hardens to anything in time." His look wandered about the +room. "And the diabolic part of it all is that this squeamish feeling +of responsibility for another may achieve as much harm in the long run +as its lack. Who knows?" + +He glanced at her as if expecting an answer. Imogene remained silent; +indeed, nothing need be said to so evident an enigma. For that matter, +nothing more said at all. Bryant drew on his gloves and bade her +good-night. At the door he remarked, quite in his accustomed manner: + +"I'll send Dave over in the morning with more blankets and have him +chop some wood. There's a drop in the temperature coming." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +The predicted cold weather came, bringing winter in earnest. The frost +went deeper into the ground and construction grew slower, but the days +continued fine and without gales, those fierce and implacable winds +that sometimes rage over the frozen mesa hours at a time under a dull, +saffron sun, sharp as knives, shrieking like demons, and driving man +and beast to cover. They had not yet been unleashed. + +Night work was begun, amid a flare of gasolene torches that gave a +weird aspect to the plain. The yellow lights; the moving, shadowy +forms of the workmen and horses; the cries and shouts--all made a +scene gnome-like in character. Frost gleamed upon the earth in a +silvery sheen under the torches' smoky flames. The headquarters +building and the mess tents now glowed from dusk until dawn. Fires +where workmen could warm their cheeks and hands were burning +continually, fed from the great piles of wood brought from the +mountains. And so by day and by night, without halt and despite cold, +the restless life was maintained and the toil kept going and the hard +furrow driven ahead. + +With the approach of Christmas the advance of the project was marked. +The dam was nearing completion, with its long, gently inclined, +upstream face constructed of smooth cobbles--a slope up which any vast +and sudden rush of cloudburst water would slide unchecked to the crest +and harmlessly pass over. All of the drops, as well as the head-gate +and flood weirs, were finished, standing as if hewn out of solid white +stone. The miners had blasted out a channel through the reef of rock, +and gone. From the dam the canal section all along the hillside and +following the ridge, from drop to drop, and out to a point on the mesa +a mile beyond, was excavated, a great clean ditch; while from Perro +Creek the canal ran northward for six miles to the main camp, curving +in the great arc that constituted its line. Three and a half miles, +and complements, constructed at one end; six miles at the other. +Between, five miles of unbroken mesa. Seven weeks remained for the +small camp working down from the north and the great camp pushing from +the south to dig through those miles and meet--seven weeks; but in the +most bitter season of the year. + +It seemed that it was with infinitely greater effort that the two +sections of the canals were forced ahead each day. The surface of the +ground was like stone, only by repeated attempts pierced by plows and +torn apart; while the subsoil immediately froze if left unworked. The +weaker labourers began to break: the scrawny Mexicans, the debilitated +white men, the drifters and the dissatisfied; and they left the camps. +These the labour agencies found it harder and harder to replace as the +cold weather persisted, so that the force showed a considerable +diminishment. + +A few days before Christmas Gretzinger paid Bryant a visit. He had not +been to camp for a week and therefore on this occasion examined the +progress of work with care, studying the rate of excavation and +calculating the result. + +"You'll just about make it through, Bryant, if nothing happens to put +a crimp in your advance," he stated when he was about to take his +departure from the office, where he and Lee conferred. + +"Yes," said Bryant. + +"And if anything should happen, then good-bye canal." + +"That doesn't necessarily follow," said Lee, calmly. + +Gretzinger ignored this reply. He thrust an arm into his fur-lined +overcoat and began to draw it on. That evening he was leaving Kennard +for New York, and now was desirous of returning to town by noon, where +he had a luncheon engagement with Ruth Gardner. He had casually +mentioned to Bryant that the girls had gone the day before to the +McDonnells for the holidays. + +"My people were certainly handed a phony deal here," he remarked +shortly, as he buttoned the coat collar about his throat. +"Questionable title to the water! Extravagance and poor management! +Rotten project all through! If I had lined this thing up, I should +have learned what I actually had before a cent was expended. But of +course if the thing goes smash, we in the East have to stand the loss; +you're losing no cash, you have nothing in it but a shoestring. Well, +I'm expecting you to put your back into the job and do no loafing and +pull us out of the hole you've got us into." + +Bryant's face remained impassive. + +"I'll attend to my end," said he, "if the bondholders take care of +theirs. They'll have to dig up more cash." + +"What's that!" + +"More money, I said." + +"They'll see you in hell before they do." + +"Then that's where they'll look for payment of their bonds. You're not +fool enough, are you, to imagine a system can be built in winter and +under high pressure for what it could be constructed in summer and not +in haste? Strange the idea never occurred to you before--you, +Gretzinger, irrigation expert, though you never saw an irrigation +ditch till you came West. The sixty thousand dollars from bonds and +twenty thousand more I've put with it will be gone sometime next +month. Possibly I can stretch it out to the first of February. After +that, the bondholders will have to come forward to save their +investment." + +Gretzinger unbuttoned his overcoat and sought his cigarette case. His +scowl as he struck a match was lighted by vicious gleams from his +eyes. + +"Why didn't you stop work when you received notification from the +state engineer of the Land and Water Board's action?" he demanded. +"When you yet had the bulk of the money?" + +"I preferred to continue." + +"And now you're sinking it all." + +"It costs money to move frozen dirt," said Bryant. + +"Well, I tell you the bondholders won't put up another penny +unless----" The Easterner paused, growing thoughtful. Some minutes +passed before he resumed: "There's one condition on which they'll do +it, and I'll guarantee their support." + +"And the condition?" + +"That you surrender your stock to them." + +"For the twenty or twenty-five thousand dollars more that will be +needed? My shares representing a hundred thousand? And I presume I +should have to withdraw altogether." + +"Naturally," Gretzinger responded. "I should then take charge." + +Bryant's expression exhibited a certain amount of curiosity. + +"Do you really think you could finish the ditch on time?" he inquired. + +A slight sneer was the answer. Gretzinger was one not given to wasting +time with men of Bryant's type. + +"How about it? Am I to take back to New York with me your agreement to +this?" he asked, curtly. + +The other spread his feet apart and hooked his thumbs in his coat +pockets and directed his full regard at the speaker. + +"You think you have me in a hole, Gretzinger," he said. "You propose +to take me by the throat and shake everything out of my pockets and +then throw me aside. Well, I'm in a hole, no use denying that. But you +haven't me by the throat and you're not going to loot me. If I go +broke, it won't be through handing over what I have to you and your +gang of pirates, just make up your mind to that." + +"Then you intend to wreck this project. A court action will stop that, +I fancy." + +"The only court action you can demand is a receivership for the +company, and not until my money-bag is empty at that," Lee rejoined, +coolly. "And the time will expire and the company be a shell before +it's granted, at the rate courts move." + +The New Yorker considered. Finally he began to re-button his +overcoat. + +"I'll leave the offer open," said he. "I was uncertain before about +returning, but I'll probably do so now. You'll find as the pinch comes +that my proposition will look better--and we might pay you two or +three thousand so you'll not go out strapped. Besides, if we took over +and completed the project, it would save your face; you wouldn't be +wholly discredited; you would be able to get a job somewhere +afterward. Might as well make the most you can for yourself out of a +bad mess. Think it over, Bryant." He set his cap on his head with a +conclusive air. + +Lee pointed at a chair by the table. + +"Sit down for a moment; there's another matter." He crossed to his +desk, put his hand in a drawer for something, and came back. "Look at +that," he said, tossing a revolver cartridge on the table before +Gretzinger. + +The man picked it up and turned it over between thumb and finger, +examining it with mingled surprise and curiosity. + +"What about it?" he questioned. + +"I understand you're interested in a certain young lady," Bryant +stated, smoothly. + +Gretzinger straightened on his seat, flashing his look up to the +other's. A sudden tightening of his lips accompanied the action and he +ceased to revolve the cartridge he held. + +"I'll not discuss my personal affairs with you or----" + +"When they touch mine, you will," was the answer. + +"Are you jealous?" Gretzinger asked after a pause, with a trace of +insolence. "Believe you are. I thought, along with your other +shortcomings, you weren't capable of even that. Now that we're +talking, I'll say that I've taken Ruth round and found her +entertaining. What about it? And I've given her my opinion of the way +you've run this work, because she asked for it. I told her that you +had botched the business from the beginning. I told her you were +unpractical, incompetent, small-gauged, and lightweight, and would +make a failure of everything you touched. There you have it all. +Well?" + +Bryant's brows twitched for an instant. + +"I guessed as much." He stood staring in silence at the table, but +presently brought himself to attention. "Honour is something you don't +understand. So I thought that bullet might focus your mind on possible +consequences." + +"What's all this rot!" + +Lee leaned forward with his fists resting on the table and his eyes +probing Gretzinger's. + +"If any harm comes to Ruth through you, that bullet will pay it out," +he said, harshly. "You've felt its weight. It's forty-four calibre, +plenty heavy enough to do the business. I can smash a potato at thirty +paces. One shot is all I shall ask. I won't do any hemming and hawing +over the matter, or----" + +Gretzinger sprang up. + +"See here, Bryant!" he cried. + +"Or advertising in the newspapers," the other went on, in a level +tone. "I'll attend to your case, quickly and quietly. Here, or in New +York, or wherever you are. That's all." + +Gretzinger had gone a little pale. He was nervously drawing on his +cap. + +"Listen to me for a moment----" + +"I said that's all. Get out." And Bryant's mien brooked no +temporizing. + +It was of Lee's nature not to brood on such matters. He had given the +warning and must await the issue. Meanwhile, the burden of work and +the needs of the project would afford sufficient occupation for his +mind. + +Christmas came. Bryant had ordered that labour cease for twenty-four +hours, as the gruelling fight of weeks had worn down the spirit of the +men. A holiday would rest them, while a big turkey dinner and +unlimited cigars and pails of candy would put them in a good humour. +At dark on the afternoon before the day shift at both camps ceased +work, the horses were stabled, the torches left unlighted, the fires +along the ditch allowed to die down, and the project was idle. A light +skift of snow had fallen during the morning, whitening the earth, but +the clouds had passed away, so that the still air and clear sky gave +promise of a fine morrow. + +Christmas Eve, however, did not lapse without a disturbing incident. +About supper time Dave came running to Bryant and Pat Carrigan in +Lee's shack. He had seen workmen going furtively into a tent in +numbers that aroused his curiosity, and had crept unseen under the lee +of the canvas shelter, where, lifting the flap, he beheld in the +interior a keg on the ground and a Mexican, by light of a candle, +serving labourers whisky in tin cups. + +"Whisky in camp!" Lee roared. "Come with me, Pat." The two men, guided +by Dave, strode down the street. Before the tent indicated they halted +to listen. The shelter glowed dimly; formless shadows stirred on its +canvas walls; and from within came low, guarded voices and once a +muffled laugh. + +Jerking the flaps apart Bryant entered, followed by the contractor. He +forced an opening through the group of workmen by a savage sweep of +his arms and came to the keg, where the Mexican at the moment was +bending down and holding a cup under the spigot. When the man +perceived the engineer, he leaped up. The fellow's short, squat figure +and stony expression had for Bryant a vague familiarity--that face +especially, brown, stolid, brutal, with a fixed, snake-like gaze. + +But Lee had no time to speculate on the Mexican's identity. The liquor +was the important thing. The man stood motionless, holding in his left +hand the half-filled cup that gave off a pungent, sickening smell of +whisky; his eyes were intent on the engineer. Behind Lee, Carrigan was +already herding the others from the tent. + +"Where did you get that stuff?" Bryant demanded. But as the Mexican +only shook his head, he changed to Spanish. "Trying to start a big +drunk here?" + +"To-morrow is a fete day, senor," was the reply. "A friend made me a +present; I share it with the others. Besides, in cold weather it keeps +one warm." + +"How long have you worked here?" + +"Three days." + +"There's a camp order: 'No liquor allowed in camp.' You can't say that +you don't know it, for it's posted everywhere on placards in English +and in Spanish." + +He received no response. A faint shrug of the shoulders, perhaps. The +Mexican's glistening, sinister eyes, on the other hand, continued as +rigid as orbs of polished agate, and his face as expressionless. + +"Well, we'll lock you up and see if we can learn who your 'friend' is +that sent this barrel in," Lee stated. + +There was a slight movement of the man's elbow. + +"Watch him--his right hand!" Pat cried, sharply. + +The hand had darted swiftly to the fellow's hip, but Bryant's fist was +as quick. It shot up, catching the man's jaw and hoisting him off his +feet. Next instant the engineer had disarmed the prostrate ruffian. + +"The Kennard jail for you," said he, in English. "A bad _hombre_, eh! +Up with you, quick." + +But what followed neither the engineer nor the contractor anticipated. +With a lightning-like roll of his body the man vanished under the side +of the tent. When the others rushed out in search of him he had made +good his escape; and a search through the dark camp would be useless. +They therefore emptied the keg upon the ground, extinguished the lamp, +and returned to Lee's office. Though the Mexican had got away, they +nevertheless had put a foot on the malicious scheme. + +All at once Dave, who was walking at Bryant's and Pat's heels up the +street, exclaimed: + +"I've got that greaser's number now! We saw him once at the depot in +Kennard, Lee. He was watching you, remember?" + +"I guess you're right; I recall him." + +"Bet that old devil in Bartolo put him up to this." Dave asserted. + +"Tut, tut, kid! Language like that on Christmas Eve! Charlie +might--but not his father, I imagine." + +Dave, however, was not altogether to be suppressed. + +"Well, I don't put anything past either of them," he sniffed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +On Christmas morning the thought occurred to Lee that he had heard +nothing more from Imogene of the plan for him to spend the day at the +McDonnells', which she had mentioned the night of their talk. Rather +strangely, too, he had not received from either of the girls even a +note of holiday greeting; to Imogene he had had sent from Denver an +edition of Ibsen's plays, and to Ruth a splendid set of furs, both in +care of Mrs. McDonnell, who had promised they should be delivered when +Santa Claus came down the chimney. Odd, the girls' silence. + +He was at work on his accounts at the moment, but now he remained +biting the end of his pen-holder and staring through the window. From +somewhere in the sagebrush came the sound of shots: Dave potting tin +cans with the .22 rifle that had been Lee's gift to him. In the room +was only the snapping of the fire. Presently the telephone rang. + +"Imo now," he exclaimed. "I'll be hanged if I go down and carry out +the farce before the McDonnells." + +But the person proved to be Louise Graham. + +"I wondered--well, several things," she said, when he had answered. +"First, if you had gone away anywhere; next, in case you hadn't, +whether you were working; and last, should the camp be resting to-day, +if you wouldn't come to Christmas dinner with father and me." + +"No work's going on." + +"Then we'll be delighted to have you come--and Dave also, of course. +There's an especially fattened turkey ready to slide into the oven +now. Father has just said, too, to tell you that there's going to be +something else--Tom and Jerry. How does that sound?" + +"Like a man and a boy coming down the road toward Diamond Creek," Lee +answered, with a laugh. "Thank you for your thoughtfulness in +remembering us." + +"I'll judge how sincere you are by the amount of turkey you eat," she +said. "Dinner will be about one o'clock." + +"We shall be prompt." + +Lee hung up the receiver, then glanced at his watch. It was ten. He +reseated himself at his desk and endeavoured to fasten his thoughts +upon the entries in the book before him, but at last he exclaimed, +throwing down his pen: "Damned if I can or will!" and jumped up, and +went to tramping about the office, and when Dave's cat and kitten +presented themselves to be stroked, unfeelingly thrust them aside with +his boot as he tramped. And when Dave came in, about half-past eleven, +the boy found him part way into a clean white shirt, with the cat and +the kitten eying him resentfully, and received the order: "Get a move +on you; we're going to the Grahams' for dinner. See that you scrub +your face, too--and ears!" Which left Dave quite as indignant as the +cat, for he always washed his ears. + +They arrived at the Graham ranch house shortly after noon, where +wreaths of holly, strings of evergreen, and red paper bells created a +Christmas atmosphere. Coming from their cold ride into these cheerful +rooms and to a warm welcome, the hearts of both man and boy glowed +with unaccustomed feeling. And throughout the dinner that followed +betimes--during which Mr. Graham's pleasantries and Louise's gay +spirits and mirth evoked in Lee a blitheness to which he long had been +a stranger and in Dave a state of joyous bliss--they luxuriated in +halcyon well-being. After the meal Louise, at her father's suggestion, +went to the piano and sang while the men were smoking their cigars. +And then followed an hour at cards, High Five, at which Mr. Graham and +Dave won the most games; and then a maid, a Mexican girl, Rosita, +brought in a bowl of nuts and raisins for the rancher and the boy who +settled themselves for a match at checkers, and Lee and Louise +strolled to a window seat at the other end of the long living room. + +A delicate pink was in the girl's cheeks. Her eyes were tender under +their long lashes; a smile still lingered on her lips. It was as if +her countenance, her mind, her spirit, were suffused with the +happiness and peace of the hour, of the day. + +"My poor one-armed man, how is he?" she asked. "I intended to go see +him, but the cold has been so steady that I gave it up. You said over +the telephone several days ago that he was doing as well as could be +expected." + +"Quite out of danger now," Lee replied. "The doctor told him a lady +assisted at the operation and now he's full of curiosity regarding +you." + +"I'll surprise him some day by just walking up to his cot and saying: +'Good morning, how's my patient?' The day I'm going to pick is the +next one you move camp: I want to see how all those tents and shacks +and everything rise up on their feet and travel." + +"You shall," he stated, with a laugh. "I'll notify you of the date. +About New Year's Day the next migration will occur. You've had your +turn at hospital work and now perhaps you wish to try your hand at +transportation. I wager you'd make a good camp manager if you took +hold of the job." + +"Would you revive me a second time if I threatened to faint?" she +queried, gayly. "You and Imogene Martin gave me just the right +treatment that evening, for you kept my thoughts off the ordeal I'd +been through. Next day I was myself, as I told you when you called +up." + +"I haven't seen you since that day," Lee remarked. "I was really +worried that afternoon, you know." And an echo of the anxiety he had +suffered sounded in his voice. + +Her face showed that she noted it, and it softened. + +"And you have so many anxieties, too," said she. + +He stirred, then withdrew his gaze from her and directed it out a +window. The emotion he had experienced that afternoon when she sat +before his fire, when she sat there so frank and so simple-hearted, +was rising in his breast again. The breath trembled a little upon his +lips. But after a time he felt himself grow calmer. + +"I have anxieties, yes," he said, "but so, I suppose, has every man +and woman, of his or her own kind and degree. And they aren't the +important thing, after all. What has happened in the past, not what +may occur in the future, is what really matters. One can't change the +past, what's done; especially by one's own act. And if the act was a +serious mistake. That's fatal! I see now that failure to accomplish +what one sets out to do, as for instance in the building of my canal, +may not be ruinous to a man. A man may fail and be quite as able a man +as ever, as those who succeed; for human beings can do only so much +and no more. Nothing that he has done or not done would alter the +result. And he need not take the failure greatly to heart. But +voluntary and heedless acts of folly, precipitate and unconsidered +leaps in the dark, these indeed are ruinous. Oh, yes, they do the +business. They become balls and chains. Leave him no choice or action. +If it were only so simple as the game of checkers your father and Dave +are playing! When one game is over, they can start another. But +there's only one game to life." + +"But it is a long one, and changes," Louise said. + +She glanced at him. He intended that his words should be taken, she +perceived, in a general sense. But the mind always seeks the specific: +hers instinctively seized on the particular thorn that had prompted +his utterance. Of Ruth Gardner's extraordinary and inexplicable +behaviour she had become informed, like everyone else; it at first +amazed, then shocked, and finally outraged her sense of decency. It +repelled her--but, then, her early attempts at friendship with the +other had never advanced. The girl had always been absorbed in her own +doings, immersed in pleasure or in plans for pleasure, concerned +entirely with the friends she had, and, unlike Imogene, received +Louise's calls and approaches at cordiality with an indifference that +withered all feeling. With the passing of time Louise had considered +Lee's course in relation to the girl as a cause for wonder. The +engineer was singularly patient, or incredibly obtuse, or marvellously +in love. Whichever it was, her heart stirred with pity. He deserved +better, he deserved the best. As for Ruth Gardner, she could now only +think of her with a hot resentment that set her lips quivering; and +she was moved at moments by a profound desire to express her sympathy +to him and to give that warm encouragement his spirit on occasion must +need. But she must refrain. + +At his speech her conclusions, but not her feelings, underwent a sharp +revision. The revelation startled her. He had not been obtuse. He no +longer was marvellously in love with Ruth Gardner, nor in love with +her at all. Relief followed surprise in her mind, the relief that +comes at a fear unrealized, a disaster avoided. Disaster had been +precisely what she had sensed if not thought, since a union of two +persons whose natures were as utterly different, as essentially +opposed, as Lee's and Ruth's would inevitably lead to disillusionment, +antagonism, sorrow, havoc. That his eyes at last were open was a +blessing. + +"What are you thinking of?" he asked, all at once. + +She found his eyes full upon her. + +"Of what you had said," she responded. "And at this minute I'm +speculating on whether anything--one's decisions, or acts, or +sentiments--are ever quite conclusive or final. Or fatal, too, as you +said. We might possibly except murder and suicide." She smiled as she +mentioned this reservation. + +Lee shifted his position with a trace of impatience. + +"I'm not a pessimist," he exclaimed. + +"No, you're too active to be. Pessimism is at bottom a kind of mental +indolence, I'd say--an unpleasant kind." + +"Some matters are not solved by action," said he. "That is, when they +are out of one's hands and in another's." + +Her attention was caught by those words, and she hung on them for a +little. They distressed her; they caused her to understand the forced +immobility of his face as he spoke, and wish that he would give way to +his feeling. The phrase "out of one's hands and in another's" referred +undoubtedly to Ruth Gardner. She did not trust herself to speak. + +"What became of all those flowers that were in your garden last +summer?" he asked, suddenly. "Do you dig up the roots, or cover them, +or let them freeze? You have no idea how many times these cold days +the recollection of that hour with you last summer when we walked +among them recurs to me. It seems ages ago, however. That was one of +the happy days, Louise." + +A delicate tint of pink stole into her face. For to her also the day +had been one of happiness, as clear-cut in her memory as a cameo. The +thought that it and she had been dwelling in his mind produced in her +breast an unaccountable agitation. The coral pink in her cheeks +deepened to a flush; she lowered her eye-lashes and averted her look. + +"The flowers are banked with straw, the perennials," she said, to +prevent a silence. + +"I shall come and see them when they're blooming again," he stated. +"The more I recall them, the more beautiful it seems they were--yes, +and the orchard, too, and the grassy canals, and the sunshine that +day. And you in the picture--the centre of the picture, Louise. The +impressions one retains that stand out vividly in the mind are few: +that is one of the number for me. But perhaps not for you." + +"Oh, for me also," she exclaimed. + +Bryant stared at her round forearms and hands lying on her lap, but +without observing them. He had marked the quick sincerity of her +response. It affected him as would her soft hand-clasp. He began to +glance restlessly about the room. + +The dusk of the early winter night was at hand. It had thickened in +the corners and over where Mr. Graham and Dave were meditating their +game in silence. The flames crackling in the fireplace intensified the +forming shadows. Lee recognized that it was time to be going. +Nevertheless, he continued to linger for a while, with his eyes +sometimes resting on his companion in enjoyment of her face, engaged +in thought, experiencing a contentment in merely being in her +presence. + +"This will be another of those days," he at length remarked, in a +musing tone. + +His words aroused her from her own reflections. + +"One for winter as well as for summer," she said, raising her look. +"Did I seem to be dreaming when you spoke? I was doing scarcely that; +my mind was lulled; the quiet--the twilight--Christmas Day--they bring +a soothing mood." + +"Something that in a world of money, money can't buy," Lee said. He +appeared about to make a further remark, but failed to do so. His +thoughts, however, had gone off somewhere, Louise observed. Then he +inquired in a matter-of-fact way: "When will you ride up to camp +again?" + +"Not until it grows warmer. Twelve miles or more is rather too far for +a canter on a sharp day." + +He cast his eyes about at the strings of evergreen and the suspended +red bells and holly wreaths. + +"I'll run down again, if I may, before the holidays are over," said +he. "If only for another look at those things. They give a fellow a +pull--out of the ditch, so to speak." And he rose. + +"Come, by all means," Louise replied, with a nod. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +A week of twenty-below-zero weather opened the month of January and +halted work on the mesa. At that time four miles of canal remained to +be dug. Bryant and Pat Carrigan sat by the stove in Lee's shack and +waited, as the whole camp waited, for the thermometer to rise. On one +of these mornings, when Dave had gone across the street to the +engineers' building, Lee informed the contractor that company funds +were not far from exhausted and related his talk with Gretzinger +before the latter's departure for New York. + +"So he would squeeze you out," Pat remarked. "What you might expect +from him, nothing more! I've had the notion for some time that your +cash was getting low, from the way the money has gone." + +"I've spent five thousand on engineering, medical, and general +accounts," Lee stated, "twenty thousand on concrete work, and paid you +forty thousand. I've fifteen thousand left from the sale of bonds and +a personal loan I obtained from McDonnell. That will pay for about two +weeks' work. And I think we've made every dollar go as far as it would +under the circumstances." + +"My word for that." + +"It's this little trick of Menocal's that's burning up good coin. +Sixty thousand would have built the project ordinarily; my estimates +were correct enough. But having to do the job in this infernal weather +is what's raising the cost forty thousand more. I feel like entering +in the ledger 'To account of frost--$40,000.00.' Like that." Lee +scribbled the line on a sheet of paper and handed it to Pat. "But +there's one thing sure, I'll sink the last cent I have in the ground +before I quit and let those Eastern pirates get their claws into me. +I'll have you cut down your force if necessary and string the last +dollar and last day's work out till my three months' grace is up." + +"Might try McDonnell for another loan," Carrigan suggested. + +"I hate doing that worse than anything I know. He, not the bank, let +me have that twenty thousand on my unsecured note. I had nothing to +offer but my stock in this company, and until the project's finished +that's no better than so much blank paper. Loaned it to me because of +my nerve, he said. And at the time I told him it would be enough money +to carry me through, which I believed. Now to go back to him +again----" Lee stopped, with an expression of deep chagrin upon his +face. + +Pat tapped the dottle from his pipe and refilled the bowl. He glanced +once or twice at the engineer during the act. + +"You can make a better showing now than before," said he. "Four miles +more and you'll be to the good. One of the excitements of construction +enterprises, and of irrigation projects in particular, I've observed, +is the financing. The more often a man can go and pull his backers' +legs for cash, the better financier he is. It seems to be largely a +matter of keeping at them, talking them to death, wearing them out, +until they weaken and hand over the money. More than one railroad was +built that way. Try it on McDonnell." + +"You come with me." + +"No, thank you," said Pat, with vigour. + +"I thought you wouldn't," said Lee. + +He took Carrigan's suggestion, however, and went down through the +bitter cold to see the banker. But the visit was fruitless. The bank +could not make the loan, and money being tight because of first of the +year settlements, McDonnell was not in shape to make it personally, +nor would be in time to render any assistance. He was perfectly +willing, he said, to gamble another twenty thousand on Bryant's +ability to win through, but he did not have the cash. Then he went on +to say that Imogene had been suffering from a slight cold, and that +Ruth Gardner was visiting at present with other friends in Kennard. + +Lee had had a telephone call from each of them the morning after +Christmas, thanking him for his gift, and later a letter from Imogene +again expressing her appreciation, with a line that a change in Mrs. +McDonnell's plans had prevented having him with them on Christmas. + +Nothing from either since. He now asked the banker to convey to +Imogene his wishes for a quick recovery, then set out for camp. +Ruth--he did not even know where in town to look for Ruth, had he been +so inclined. Engaged! The thing would have been amusing if it was not +so horrible. + +"No luck," he said to Pat, briefly, when in his shack warming his +chilled body at the fire. "Your system may work in summer, but all +the money is froze up at this time of year, like everything else." + +At the end of the week the winter's frigid grip on the earth relaxed +and a period of mild, almost balmy days followed. Under the noon-day +sun the top ground even softened a little. The camps awoke, the rested +men and horses fell upon their task with new spirit, and excavation +went ahead steadily. If there had been a full force, as Carrigan +pointed out, he could have moved at the rate of a mile in six days +instead of in eight. Still the canal was being built, yard by yard, +rod by rod, until by the middle of January another mile of the total +was finished. The two camps were now easily within sight of each +other, the larger in the south, the smaller in the north, and but +three miles apart across the sagebrush. Moreover, the last stones of +the dam had been laid; it stood completed; and the men who had been +engaged there moved down to add their strength to the north camp. + +One day toward noon Lee entered his office and to his amazement found +Ruth seated there, glancing over an old magazine and toasting her feet +at the stove. The furs he had given her reposed on his desk, where she +had laid them aside. At his entrance she sprang up, uttered a +delighted exclamation, and rushing forward clasped her arms about his +neck and kissed him. + +"Lee, how good it seems to see you!" she said. "After so long! And I +can't thank you enough for those darling furs! I've thought of you so +much, working up here in the cold and alone with just men. My, your +face is like ice! Come to the fire. Poor thing, you look so thin and +tired! I hope that soon you'll be able to rest; I'll make it a point +to see that you do take a long vacation and rest, for you need it." +She concluded with a hug and another kiss. + +"Go easy with my ears, Ruth," he said, disengaging her arms. "They +were nipped the other night and are still tender. How did you get +here? I thought you were in Kennard." + +He led her back to her seat and began to remove his cap and long +sheep-lined overcoat, saying in an undertone that the weather was +really too warm for the things. Afterward he posted himself by the +stove near her, where he stuffed his pipe with tobacco and began to +smoke, while his eyes considered her face. + +"Imo and I returned to Sarita Creek yesterday," she remarked, with an +air of satisfaction. "It was good to be back, too. There has been so +much going on at Kennard that I felt quite worn out; one becomes weary +of too much buzzing around. I don't want any more of it for some time. +And I missed you dreadfully, Lee!" She flashed up a smile at him, +caught his hand for an instant, and gave it a squeeze. A thin stream +of smoke issued from one corner of Bryant's mouth at the action. "The +people were proving somewhat tiresome also. So as the weather had +moderated Imogene and I decided to return to our cabins." + +"Has she recovered from her cold?" Lee inquired, raising his look to +the ceiling. + +"Oh, yes; entirely. And we're quite comfortable. We had even thought +of having our ponies brought from the stable at Bartolo, so that we +could ride if it grew still milder." + +"Risky." + +"Well, you're probably right." She paused and scrutinized her toes to +see that they were not scorching. "Charlie brought Imo and me here on +his way home; you can take us back to our cabins when we're ready to +go." + +"Imo here?" Bryant's eyebrows lifted. + +"Over in the shack Dave called 'the hospital.' Dave was here when we +came and Imo asked him to take her to the place; she had heard +something of an injured man from Louise Graham. Did Louise really help +during an operation?" Lee nodded. "Well, she's odd in many ways. Must +be--what shall I say?--a little thick-skinned not to mind blood and +all the rest of it. And she doesn't go about much; not at all with the +real crowd at Kennard, only with a slow one when she does go. With her +father well off, I'd think she would want to be doing something worth +while. Charlie's still mad for her, but Gretzie thought after he met +her at our cabins that she was too self-conceited. When he asked her +if the men of New York, compared with Western men, didn't impress her +with superiority and smartness of dress, she said, 'Not those of my +acquaintance; they don't try to impress one; it isn't done in their +circle, you know. That's one of the differences in manners, I suppose, +that distinguishes Fifth Avenue from Broadway.' Gretzie was furious. +He had been speaking of Broadway shows and restaurants and things at +the time. He declared later that a little attention had turned her +head, and that what she had said was all rot. I don't care for her, +either. But let us talk of ourselves, Lee." + +"Yes, that's more interesting," he remarked, with an accent of irony +that escaped her. + +He was curious to learn what this talk was leading to. His curiosity +outweighed the irritation he felt at her calm ignoring of the past +weeks, at her complacent assumption of his love, at the kiss and the +caress she had bestowed, indeed, at her very presence in the room. + +"Tell me everything about your work and about yourself," she said, +folding her hands and gazing up at him. "I'm so impatient to hear." + +"Nothing worth relating has occurred," he replied. + +"You've been well?" + +"Oh, quite. This is a regular health resort." + +"And you're not working too hard?" + +"For a whole week I scarcely stirred from the stove," said he. + +"I'm so glad. You had earned a rest. You don't seem worried about +anything, either." + +"Worried?" His intonation was that of surprise. Then he added, as if +by after-thought, "Oh, no." + +"How relieved I am! I feared you might be worrying your head off about +difficulties--cold weather, the time limit set, perhaps money matters. +I gained the impression somewhere that you might run short before you +finished; I can't just say where I got it. From Imo, perhaps. Nothing +definite, you know. But it's so nice to know that you're no longer +anxious. That means you're sure you'll build the ditch. How much more +is there to do?" + +"You can see the north camp out of that window." + +Ruth rose and went to the window indicated, where she stood surveying +the men and teams at work beyond the camp and the stretch of +sagebrush extending to the white specks of tents in the distance. + +"That's all that's left to do, Lee?" + +"That's all. Three miles." + +"Charlie Menocal hasn't said anything about it lately." + +"Knowing Charlie, I'm amazed," he commented. + +Ruth resumed her seat and proceeded to toast her toes anew. Her +glances from time to time were directed at Lee's countenance somewhat +speculatively. Several times she smoothed her dress with slow +attention. Lee continued his deliberate smoking. + +"Well, it's a great comfort to know that you're well and that +everything is proceeding so brightly," she stated, at length. "You +must take time to run down and see me, now that I'm back. I'm not +going to be satisfied with anything less than almost every evening +with you. Bring along one of those nice engineer boys for Imogene +while we talk." + +Lee gave a shake of his head. + +"Don't count on me," he said. "We're doing night work as well as day. +We're near the end. Have to push the job. Little time to spare." He +jerked the phrases forth shortly, one after another. + +"Do try to come once in a while, though," she responded, gazing about +the room in a way that gave her speech a perfunctory character. That, +at any rate, was the impression made upon Lee; and he continued to +puzzle his brain as to what underlay it all--what motive, what object. +At the same time he was sickened by the suave interest she pretended, +by her shallow insincerity. "I've wondered if I could be of any help +here to you," she went on. But a sharp movement on his part caused +her to say, "Still, I know a man doesn't like a girl messing up his +work. That's one reason I've been careful not to propose it before, or +even to make the demands on your time that some girls would have made. +I'll be glad when the project is out of the way; then we can begin to +plan for ourselves." She cast her eyes upward at space. "There are +lots of things to decide--where to live, and so on. You come soon and +we'll set some of them down on paper for consideration." + +Lee could not escape that feeling of perfunctoriness in her twitter of +talk. It went no further than that, however; he had no chagrin or +repugnance or anger at the thin duplicity, not even at her complacent +confidence in his stupidity and infatuation. For to count on his being +blind to the past and deluded by her words, she could only believe him +both stupid and infatuated. He was quite calm. His actual state of +mind was, more than anything else, one of detachment. He imagined that +he had come to a point where she was incapable of arousing in him any +kind of sentiment or passion. + +Presently she took up her furs and walked humming about the office as +she adjusted them. + +"I'd like to stay all day, but must be going," she said. "Imo and I +were wondering, by the way, if you could send us a man with some +tar-paper to line our cabins." + +"Of course. I'll send him after dinner. And he can chop you some wood +and bring your water." + +She stood for a little examining a blue-print tacked on the wall. + +"That's like the one Mr. Gretzinger sometimes carries," she remarked. +"I suppose he'll be returning one of these days. Not that it matters; +he was tiresome at times, like Charlie Menocal." She studied the lines +of the map attentively. "He appeared anxious to get to New York. Said +something about a sweetheart there. You'll be glad if he doesn't come +back to bother you again, won't you, Lee dear?" She swung about, +laughing. + +"Oh, he'll show up." + +"I wasn't sure; he said he thought not." + +Lee emptied and put away his pipe. + +"He'll come," was his assured reply. + +"Then he must have been 'kidding' me." + +Her thoughtful air returned. She picked a raveling from her sleeve, +and stroked her fur, and inspected the tips of her gloves, and untied +and retied the strings of her cap--all with an inscrutable face. Then +suddenly her mind appeared to be made up. + +"Well, dear, run and bring your car and we'll pick up Imogene," she +said, giving him a quick pat on the cheek. + +Lee experienced an inward and involuntary shrinking at that touch. He +no more could have returned the caress than he could have risen off +the ground into the air, like those floating figures depicted in +sacred paintings. After all, she was quite capable of stirring a +sentiment in his heart--a sentiment of aversion. + +"Go join Imo," he replied. "One of the boys will bring the car to the +hospital and take you home. Impossible for me to drive you there +to-day." + +That was it--impossible, literally impossible, for his whole being was +in revolt. The threshold of the door might have been a dead-line; he +was unable to cross it, at any rate. With a stony aspect he watched +her depart and wave a hand back at him from a distance and at last +disappear. Then he closed the door and leaned his head against it, +with his features drawn in an expression of pain and desperation. His +position was diabolical. She meant to hold him to his word; she +believed he loved her; and, anyway, she had him fast in a coil. Yes, +she had him fast. And he did not love her, not at all. On the +contrary, he detested her--detested her with all his heart, almost to +hatred, utterly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +"Will you be so kind as to come here?" Mr. Menocal inquired of Bryant. + +It was an afternoon in late January, and the banker, bundled in a +great overcoat and numerous rugs, had reined his team to a halt at the +spot where he found the engineer. The air was cutting. Steam in sharp +jets came from the nostrils of his pair of bays, as from those of the +horses straining at the plows and scrapers in the stretch of partially +excavated canal near by. + +Lee went forward to the buggy, slapping his gloved hands together to +quicken their circulation. + +"What do you want of me, Mr. Menocal?" he asked. "You're picking a +frosty day to look at the scenery." + +"Well, there's a matter that's been troubling my mind for some time +and I decided to let it go no longer. We have our differences, Mr. +Bryant, but I wouldn't wish you to believe me responsible for a number +of annoyances to which you've been put. I am a gentleman; I fight +fair. For instance, I was quite within my rights in suggesting those +men take homesteads down yonder along the base of the mountains, +though I was wrong in my guess. Also, in taking advantage of the law +under which you were limited by the Land and Water Board, I wasn't +stepping out of bounds. But I've learned that some time ago a man +introduced whisky into camp against your rules, and I wish to tell +you that I knew nothing of it at the time and would countenance no +sort of disgraceful act like that." + +"I judged that you wouldn't," said Lee. + +"Then again last summer someone killed your dog, I understand. That +was a bad deed. I am fond of dogs, and had I been able to learn who +did it I should have informed you so that you could have had Winship +arrest him. Since that time, too, there have been other things, many +of them--men cutting your telephone wire, removing your survey stakes, +and the like. All making you angry. Well, I was angry when I heard +that those things were being done. Resorting to questionable and +criminal tactics against any man is the worst possible course a person +can follow. I do not do it in your case; I will prevent any one else +from doing it if I can. You have the right to work undisturbed." + +"I never connected you with these underhanded acts," the engineer +stated. + +"Thank you, Mr. Bryant. It pleases me to hear you say that. I should +like to see you lose your water right, of course; it would mean much +money in my pocket; but I'll not do contemptible things or crooked +things to get possession of it." + +Lee glanced at the speaker's face. It was sincere, earnest, and now +relieved. He felt an increase of respect for the man, opponent though +he was. Menocal appeared, to be sure, unable to comprehend the ethics +involved in seeking to thwart Bryant, but he was scrupulous and +honourable within his understanding. Far more so than Gretzinger, for +instance. Or Charlie Menocal. The thought of the banker's son pulled +Bryant up. Should he mention his conviction that Charlie was the +instigator of the mischief discussed? As he was still in doubt when +his visitor turned the subject, he let it rest. + +"The way you're going ahead with your canal, I'm afraid that my chance +of retaining the water is poor, very poor," Menocal said, with a +lugubrious sigh. He drew his fat chin deeper into his coat collar, +tugged at the ice on his big white moustache, and ran his eyes up and +down the long line of moving teams. "And it will cost me a lot of +money." Again the sigh. "I didn't think you could do it; I didn't +think any man in the world could do it. In cold weather, in ninety +days! I said it was impossible. Charlie said it was impossible. +Everyone said it was impossible." + +"Everyone except my contractor and me," Lee interjected, smiling a +tight smile. + +The other nodded. "Except you, yes. And you're showing us that after +all it's not impossible. I shall never say again that anything is +impossible. If I ever have a big ditch to build, I shall insist, Mr. +Bryant, that you take charge. Then I would say, 'I should like to have +it built so and so, and by such a time,' and sit down at my desk and +think no more of it, knowing it would be built." + +Bryant laughed softly. He could not help doing so. That naive avowal +from the one whom he considered his chief enemy tickled his fancy. And +presently Menocal, catching the humour of it, himself began to smile. + +"I shouldn't be surprised if we have had a misconception of each +other," Lee stated. + +"Ah, _cielos!_ That is nothing less than the truth. What a pity, too, +my young friend, that we could not have found it out earlier. Our +affair, perhaps--we might have reached a satisfactory agreement. This +winter work, it is costing you something." + +"A good many extra thousand." + +"And, alas, costing me even more! But it is too late now." He made a +tragic gesture. "It has gone too far. Within two or three weeks it +will be settled one way or the other. For you if the weather remains +good; for me if the weather becomes stormy." He again studied the +moving horses along the canal. "For me then--perhaps. You might not +allow even a great storm to stop you, in some way. This winter is +remarkable; there seem to be no storms to happen. You're very lucky." + +"Yes, I am in that respect." + +"Well, I've done all that I shall do in the matter. I've become quite +calm, fatalistic. There's nothing else to be." He gathered up his +reins. + +"That's a good team you have," Lee remarked. + +"Of the very best. I disliked to use them in this cold, but Charlie +had gone with the car to Kennard. Va! He is never at home any more. It +would be well if I made him drive a team on your ditch." + +"Send him along; I'll give him a job," Lee said. + +The banker shook his head. + +"He would say I was crazy and he wouldn't come. He doesn't even attend +to matters that require attention. This winter he has been running too +much with idle men in town and spending money as if it took no effort +to get it, as if it could be picked off of weeds. It's very +perplexing. I am too easy with Charlie, I let him have his way too +much. I should put him in a pair of overalls for a while and say, 'You +are going out with a band of sheep; you have to work.' Several times +I've made up my mind to do that, but when the moment came I couldn't +say it. He isn't robust, he has always had the best of everything, and +he's been educated in a college." + +"Cut off his allowance and take away his automobile. He would stay at +home and attend to business then," Lee offered. + +"But it would shame him. He isn't a little boy any longer; he's thirty +years old. The trouble is that he isn't like me, particular and +careful; he's wild and impatient and reckless. His mother wasn't that +way, I am not that way--I don't know where he got that nature." + +Menocal senior drove off and Bryant turned back to his work. The pity +of the thing was, as the banker had stated, that they had been hasty +in the beginning, that they had not sought to come to an +understanding, some arrangement. It was another mistake. To Lee his +whole past here was beginning to appear a record of oversights, +incredible misjudgements, blinded blunders, and ghastly mistakes. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +Ghastly mistakes! Some cynic has said the only mistake in life a man +can make is "to go broke." Bryant did not realize until afterward the +irony lurking in the penumbra of the talk with Menocal. He was broke, +unable to proceed, even while he listened to the banker's +commendation. The workmen were busy, it was true, and the horses were +pulling loaded fresnos, and plows were cutting the trench deeper; but +that was an expiring motion, a last falling gesture. Only a few +wretched dollars lay at the bottom of the money chest. A day more, and +Menocal would have won. + +That evening Lee climbed in his car and drove away from camp. Carrigan +had said nothing, but he as well as Bryant knew the company's bank +account was drained; he would expect a settlement and when it was +made, discharge the crews, pull up stakes, and move his property to +Kennard. At Sarita Creek Bryant alighted. + +"I wish to see Ruth," he told Imogene. "Is she away? Her cabin is dark +and I obtained no answer to my knock." + +"She's gone to town." + +"Well, I wanted to tell her I've failed. Work stops to-morrow. Out of +money. And less than two miles to build!" + +Imogene's face became a picture of dismay. + +"Oh, no, Lee! There must be some way to go on, some place to obtain +money," she cried. + +"None. I've tried, but have reached the end of my rope. Only twenty +thousand more needed, or maybe twenty-five. Just enough to hammer +through during the next two weeks. But it might as well be a million. +I decided to inform Ruth at once; she might consider it important." + +"She would," said she, positively. + +"I haven't been to Sarita Creek before since you returned. You can +guess why." + +"Yes." + +"Does Ruth suspect that I've ceased to love her?" he asked, frowning. + +"I think not. There was considerable talk on her part about being +bored with Kennard and how happy she would be when she was married, +but it was on the surface. She's really waiting for something I'm not +able to divine. I'm reminded when I observe her of a card-player +studying a hand before the cards begin to fall." + +"Where is she to-night? With Charlie Menocal?" + +"With Gretzinger." + +"Gretzinger back?" + +"Arrived in Kennard this morning. Two days ago Ruth received a letter +with a New York post-mark and became very animated. I'm sure she has +had none before. Then late this afternoon the man himself appeared +here, ate supper with us, and took Ruth off to a concert in town. He +said he had business in camp with you to-morrow." + +"Ruth's spirits have revived and her retirement has ended," Lee +remarked, with sarcasm. "Well, don't say anything about this now to +either of them." + +"Oh, I'll be long asleep when they return, and I'll not speak of it to +Ruth in the morning. She'll not rise before noon, I suspect, as it +will be one or two o'clock before they're home. Or she may stay with +one of the girls she's chummy with and come up with him to-morrow. +Probably that." + +Lee made ready to go. He gave Imogene a sardonic smile. + +"May the music she hears to-night strengthen her soul for the morrow's +smash," he said; and went out. + +Where the trail from the cabins debouched upon the main mesa road he +slowed the car to a stop and sat for a time in thought, with the +engine humming softly and the freezing night air biting at his cheeks. +It seemed to make little difference where he went, or if he went at +all. Nothing worth while was at the end of any road. His inclination, +however, was working and at last he set out for the Graham ranch. + +Since his Christmas visit he had made a number of calls there, a +rather large number, indeed, considering everything. He had schooled +his face and words on those occasions to a passivity he was far from +feeling, and had left Louise's presence each time with a greater +torment of mind. Now this was the end--of her as of everything so far +as he was concerned. To-morrow the project came down in wreckage. Then +he should go from Perro Creek, poorer in purse, poorer in spirit, +poorer in faith, sore, and bitterly disillusionized. + +Louise Graham observed a shadow upon his countenance as she invited +him to a seat before the fireplace. Her father was absent and she had +been reading a book when Bryant's knock came. She had been wondering, +too, if the engineer might not choose this night to call again. How +much these calls of his now meant to her she did not dare consider. + +"What's wrong, Lee?" she asked at once, anxiously. "I see something +has happened." + +He moved round on the divan that he might fully face her. + +"Everything so far as my affairs go," he replied. "Work stops on the +canal to-morrow. That will result, of course, in the water right +lapsing and in the ditch never being finished or used, except under +the circumstance of my handing over my interest gratis to Gretzinger +and the bondholders. If I did that even, I don't believe Gretzinger +could finish it on time, for neither Carrigan nor the men would exert +themselves for him as they have for me, and they would be sure of +their pay in any case. The trouble is, I've used up all the money and +can borrow no more. I'm through. And I can't bring myself to the point +of surrendering my interest in the company to the bondholders merely +to pull them out. They're trying to strangle me in order that they may +profit; they could put up the cash needed easily enough if they would; +but they count on my yielding. I shall not do so. And so the project +fails. Those New Yorkers will wait too long if ever they do put up the +funds; and I can do nothing myself. The uncompleted ditch will remain +simply a scar on the mesa." + +"I never dreamed you were in this strait!" + +"No, probably not. One always hopes to the last that somehow--by a +credulous belief in one's own letter of credit with Providence, I +presume--one will pull through. So I delayed telling you of what was +impending." + +"If--perhaps father----" + +"Your father? No. Above all persons, no. That's a suggestion I can't +consider for an instant." + +"But what will you do?" she exclaimed, nervously. + +Lee glanced at her, then compressed his lips. + +"I'm going away; I couldn't stay here on the scene of this disaster. +It would be intolerable. Before long people will be describing the +unfinished project by the name of 'Bryant's Folly', or the like. +Haven't you seen old, windowless structures that were never completed, +or grass-grown railroad enbankments never ironed, or rusting mine +machinery never assembled? Men's failures, men's 'follies'." + +"Lee, Lee! It never will be so!" she cried. "Nor will your project be +a failure to me who have known how you've striven and sacrificed." + +Bryant looked past her and about the room, but his eyes in the end +came back to hers. + +"You have always been generous in your thoughts of me," he said, in an +unsteady voice. + +"No more than you deserved." + +"Listen, Louise," he went on, after a pause. "This is the last time I +shall see you for a long time, possibly for all time, and it's of your +kindness I wish to speak--and of another matter. Of course, I +shouldn't be quite human if I hadn't complained a bit about this blow, +but my complaints are done now. I'll possibly do some grimacing to +myself hereafter, though. What I came to say is that wherever I go in +the future I'll always carry with me as a treasure the memory of your +goodness and of your face." + +Louise's lips had parted, while the colour slowly receded from her +cheeks. + +"But we shall see each other," she gasped. "We'll meet, we can keep in +touch." After a silence there came in a whisper, "Friends should." + +Bryant began to tremble. He turned away from her in order to gaze into +the fire. Her low utterance had wrung the chords of his heart; he +dared not allow his eyes to continue to dwell upon her face. + +"What good in that?" he asked. Then he gave a passionate shake of his +head. "The risk for me is too great. I shall seek an engineering +billet altogether out of the country, in South America, in Asia, +wherever one is open. A job without responsibility, preferably. No, +no; I can't remain and play with fire--any longer." + +An intense stillness rested in the room after these words. He doubted +if Louise even breathed. + +"Would it be that?" she asked, at last. + +"Of course. Haven't you seen?" + +"I--I----" Her voice failed her. + +"I could no more help loving you, Louise, after I came to know you, +than can the earth its blooming under a summer sun. The thing was +inevitable." He was speaking now in a slow, fixed attempt at +restraint. "And this love coming when it did, after I was betrothed to +Ruth Gardner, is the capping madness of the whole nightmarish +situation in which I find myself. 'Nightmarish' isn't an exaggeration, +honestly. By all the empty, senseless conventions I ought to seal my +lips on my love and to go dumbly away, because I'm engaged to Ruth +Gardner." He turned abruptly to her. "Do you think I should?" + +Her hands were locked together in a clasp that expelled the blood and +left them white. Her regard had the intentness of a stare. + +"If you love me, if you're going away--" She suddenly became agitated. +"Oh, I am unhappy!" And with a quick movement she bent her head aside. + +"Louise, forgive me for causing this distress," he exclaimed. + +Without looking about she put out a hand, touched and pressed his. The +unexpected act filled Bryant with amazement. He sat gazing stupidly at +the hand until she withdrew it. Then he found an explanation. + +"You feel compassion for me," he said. "You would." A sound, low, +inarticulate, reached him. "It's your kind nature to make some return +for my love even if it's not love you can give. Or ought to give! I'm +expecting nothing, can expect nothing. That is out of the question. If +I were entirely calm and rational, I should doubtless be asking myself +why I should speak of my passion instead of trying to tear it out of +my heart. But, of course, being in love I'm neither the one nor the +other. The only explanation for the impulse to pour out a confession +like this is overcharged nerves. Or, after all, is it just unconscious +egotism?" His composure had slipped off and his tone had grown savage. + +"Don't, don't, Lee! Don't cut at yourself!" + +"What was it I had started to say? Oh, yes. I had said I felt no +compunction in brushing aside the usual conventions of duty as +proscribed for an engaged man. Cobwebs in my case! Why pretend lies? +No honour is involved that I can discover. I don't love Ruth, and I +think she's incapable of loving me or any one else. She never felt +half the affection I did for her, and mine withered quickly, God +knows! A dash of passion on my part, and lonesomeness and the belief I +should have wealth on her side--there's the salad." + +Louise leaned forward a little breathlessly. + +"And if she believes you're ruined?" she asked. + +"She'll hold me if she thinks she can't do better," Lee responded, +bitterly. "I at least beat homesteading." + +"Lee!" + +Louise had risen. The pallor of her face startled him. Her hands were +fast clenched. + +"What is it?" he asked, fearfully. + +"I can bear this. To have you love me--love me and go away! It will +break my heart. To stay here alone!" + +The words struck his brain as if they were cast in a fierce glare of +light. The suddenness of the knowledge they gave, the revelation they +made, left him speechless. Louise loved him in return. The first +effect upon his mind was to produce a blank incredulity; he stared at +her as if to ascertain whether or not this was in truth she; for +though he well knew he possessed her friendship, he had never +conceived so fantastic a possibility as that of winning her love. Then +a swift exaltation succeeded. He swam in a kind of spiritual ether. + +"Louise, Louise, my dear beloved!" he murmured. + +He caught her hand, pressed it. She glanced at him without replying, +looked away, back again. Her bosom rose and fell with a slow and +tremulous movement, as though stirring with deep, soundless sighs. A +little smile hovered on her lips, tender, rapturous. + +But at length she withdrew her hand, while the soft gladness passed +from her face. + +"It cannot be; you must go, Lee," she said. + +Bryant remembered--and felt the ice forming about his heart. He +shivered slightly. The full cruelty of the situation was reached. Ruth +Gardner not only held him, but he held her as well by a thread to +which she could cling for safety against the blandishments of +scoundrels, and her own desires, and the dark uncertainty of the +future. And much as he loved Louise Graham, he could not snap that +thread; much as he detested Ruth, he lacked the flintiness of heart to +let her slip into the abyss. Nor would Louise have it otherwise. + +She was seeking his eyes, questioning them. + +"Well, this hour is worth it all to me," he said, calmly. "All of the +unhappiness of the past, and all the loneliness of the future! I am +poor now; in that fact lies what hope I have." + +A gentle inclination of her head answered him. + +"I am happy to-night, anyway," said she. + +"The only thing for me to do is to remain away from you," he answered. +"Heaven knows I shall be miserable enough then, but I should grow +desperate if I were near." + +"I know. We mustn't see each other, Lee dear." + +He walked to where his storm coat and cap lay on a chair by the door. +In silence he drew on and buttoned the former. She had accompanied +him to the spot and watched with moisture on her lashes his +preparation for departure. His eyes were lowered while his fingers +were engaged with the buttons. + +"You should understand about this," he said, grimly. "That man +Gretzinger is after her. She has no money, no training to earn money, +is crazy for pleasure and attention and clothes. I ought in all +decency to break our engagement. She has given me grounds enough. But +it's keeping her straight. If I broke it"--his hand dropped to his +side and he stood for a moment quite still--"he drags her under." His +gaze rose to hers. + +"I guessed it long ago," she said, in a choked voice. "And loved you +for it." Next instant she leaned forward, took his temples between her +hands, and lightly touched his brow with her lips. "Go, go!" she +exclaimed, with an accent of despair. + +She herself turned and went quickly out of the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + +Bryant had asked Carrigan to come to the office at two o'clock, +stating that the company was insolvent and but enough money remained +to square accounts with the contractor. Pat had cast a shrewd glance +at Lee and nodded. This was during the morning. Afterward the engineer +had gone for a visit to the dam, the drops, and the canal line, a last +view of the project as a whole; and the ride was pursued in that +peculiar melancholy of spirit which appertains to mortuary events. To +him, indeed, the ride marked a burial, a burial of high hopes and +ambition, and of his youth, with the partially excavated canal +providing their pit and the concrete work standing as a headstone. + +He came back to camp somewhat late for his appointment and found Pat +waiting in the office, but not alone. Gretzinger stood, back to the +stove, smoking a Turkish cigarette. + +"Well, Bryant, I've returned to discuss our little business +transaction," he greeted. "Judged this to be about the right time. +How's the exchequer?" + +"Little in it," said Lee, hanging his coat and cap on a hook. "But I +made sure it was locked before leaving here; you might come any +moment." + +"Oh, I don't waste time on an empty box," was the light answer. "Mind +if Carrigan hears what we say? Don't, eh? Neither do I. He knows, or +ought to know, you're through. And besides, I'll want to discuss +construction matters with him when you and I are done." + +"Perhaps Bryant can yet secure a loan somewhere," the contractor +remarked, mildly. + +"From Menocal, possibly," Gretzinger suggested, cocking his eyebrows +at Carrigan with mock enthusiasm. "If Bryant could have secured a +loan, he would have had it in his pocket before this. I made inquiry +of McDonnell when I reached Kennard concerning the company's cash +account and discovered that it looked awful sick. No, he can't get +money for the company except through me." + +"I see," said Pat. + +Gretzinger turned to Bryant. + +"Now, Lee, let's get down to brass tacks. You're played out as manager +and engineer-in-chief, so it's time for you to step out and give the +men who are able a chance to complete the work. I made you one offer; +I'm prepared to-day to make even a better one. The bondholders went +thoroughly into the subject with me of what they could afford to pay +you for your stock and a decision was finally reached to give you ten +thousand dollars for your interest in the company. Considering +everything, that's exceedingly liberal. I'm authorized to draw a check +for that amount to your order when you've assigned the shares." + +"Not enough," Lee replied. He sat down at his desk, lifted his feet to +a window ledge, and held a match to his pipe. + +"That's the limit." + +"It's not enough; I need more." + +"What you need and what you'll take are two different things," the +other stated, sarcastically. + +"Go higher," Lee said, with his gaze upon the window. + +"Not a cent!" + +"I owe McDonnell twenty thousand that has gone into the canal. I've +put in my ranch, and land I traded for it, and months of work and +organization--value twenty thousand; and I figure my present control +of things worth twenty thousand more. But let us say fifty thousand. +I'll sell for fifty thousand; that gives you my stock at fifty cents +on the dollar. Exceedingly liberal, I call it." + +The look the other directed at him was heavy with contempt. + +"Ten thousand is all--and make up your mind to that," said he. Then he +faced round toward Carrigan, whom he addressed. "I want you to +increase the force to double its strength at once, so that the work--" + +"What are you paying a yard for moving dirt?" + +"The same as before." + +"Not to me," Pat responded, complacently. + +"What do you mean?" Gretzinger demanded, angrily. + +"It's not enough." + +"Not enough! You seem to imagine your contract doesn't bind you." + +Pat slowly uncrossed his knees and stared at the speaker with a +countenance of bewilderment. + +"Now what in the world is the man talking about! Contract? The only +contract I had with Bryant was an oral agreement to build the dam and +move dirt at a certain day rate per man and per team, terminable at +his option. Oh, you mean the first contract to construct the ditch in +a year! We tore that up after he got notice from the Land and Water +Board." + +"Well, we'll continue the oral arrangement." + +"Not any more," said Pat. + +Gretzinger inspected the coal of his cigarette, replaced the latter +between his lips, and glanced at Bryant. But the engineer was +maintaining his consideration of objects on the outside of the window. + +"So you're trying to hold me up," was Gretzinger's remark. + +"You're slicing the fat off Bryant, and therefore I'll trim a bit off +you," Carrigan replied. "You're not the only one who can work a knife. +Once I used to sit back and let others keep all the easy money, but I +don't any more, not any more." With considerable relish he rolled the +words upon his tongue and nodded at Gretzinger. + +The latter scowled. + +"How much do you want?" he demanded. + +Pat spat, then remained pursing his lips while he engaged in +calculation. Once he shook his head and muttered, "Not enough," and +again after a time repeated the words. The man by the stove glared at +the seated contractor during the prolonged period of study as if he +hoped his look would consume him. + +"How much?" he questioned a second time, impatiently. + +Pat looked up at Gretzinger from under his bushy eyebrows with a +steely glint showing. The lines of his weather-beaten face had +hardened. + +"I don't like you," he stated. "I don't like you at all. When I work +for people I don't like, it costs them money. I like you less and less +all the time. If I go ahead and finish the ditch, I'll be liking you +so little that I'll be hating myself. And when I don't like any one +that much, I don't do it cheap. The job will cost you one hundred +thousand dollars." + +"You--you----" Gretzinger choked. + +"Cash down before I move a wheel," Pat added, calmly. + +The other was white with rage. He cast his cigarette upon the floor +and ground it under his heel. His lips worked and twisted in a vicious +snarl. Carrigan observed him unmoved; and Bryant had turned his head +about to see. + +"You grafters, you infernal thieves, you pair of rotten crooks!" he +shouted, shooting murderous glances from one to the other. "You've +'framed' me! Arranged it between you. Been waiting for me to come back +so you could spring your game! If there's any law in this state, I'll +have you both where you belong for deliberately wrecking this +company--in a cell!" + +His raving outburst continued for a while in this strain. His voice +had the high and squealing pitch of a wild pig caught fast by a foot; +on his pink, fleshy face, now distended with anger, was a look, too, +of porcine hate and fury. The cynical and patronizing manner he +usually affected had dropped off, leaving revealed his actual coarse, +spiteful, greedy, craven spirit--a creature of infinite meanness. At +length, however, Gretzinger's torrent of abuse diminished until it +ended in a last muddy dripping of threats and curses. With an effort +he strove to pull himself together and assume a composure his eyes +belied, while he lighted another of his offensive Turkish cigarettes. + +After a time he said shortly: + +"You can't bluff me. When you fellows get down to my figures, then +we'll do business." + +"Look out! Your coat is scorching--or is it only that tobacco?" Bryant +rejoined. + +Gretzinger stepped hastily aside and felt behind him, where his hand +moved about on the hot cloth fabric with searching movements. The +solicitude for his garment thus quickened seemed to effect the final +dispersion of his inward heat. + +"Well, are we going to get together on an arrangement?" he questioned, +when assured his coat was uninjured. + +"I stated my terms--fifty thousand," Lee said. "That or nothing." + +"You won't get it." + +"Then there's the alternative of the bondholders putting up money +enough to finish the work." + +"That, neither." + +"All right, Gretzinger," Bryant stated, rising. "You have an idea that +I'll give in----" + +"Yes, I have. You'll grab this ten thousand I offer, grab it quick by +to-morrow night, which is the limit I set for it to remain open. I've +seen men before in a tight hole who swore they wouldn't take the terms +handed them, but they always did in the end, and so will you. Only a +fool wouldn't. And I fancy Carrigan won't sacrifice a good piece of +work in a dull season and pull off his men and teams." + +Pat hoisted himself off his seat stiffly. + +"Why don't your outfit sell instead of trying to buy?" he asked, +crossing to Lee's desk and obtaining a can of tobacco sitting there. +"I suppose they'll sell." He began to stuff his pipe, pressing the +tobacco into the bowl with a brown forefinger. + +"Certainly; they would unload what they have in this rotten project so +fast that the bonds would smoke. But who in the devil would touch +them?" + +"I might." + +"You?" Gretzinger began to laugh. "What have you besides your outfit? +They're not taking worn-out fresnos in exchange to-day, thank you." + +"And what are the three bondholders you represent worth?" Pat +inquired, in a nettled tone. + +"Half a million each, or more." + +Carrigan's brows rose contemptuously. + +"Is that all?" he exclaimed. "Why, from the way you talked, I thought +they were real financiers! And they're only piffling tin-horns, after +all. What d'you know about that, Lee?" Pat turned to the engineer with +an amazed air. + +Gretzinger's anger surged up anew. + +"You never saw half a million in your life," he sneered. + +"I could buy out all three of them with what I have in one trust +company in Chicago alone," was the unperturbed reply. "It's cheap +sports like you that make a real man sick. How much for the bonds? You +want to unload. Speak up; how much?" + +Despite his anger, the other's brain perceived that the contractor was +in earnest. + +"The amount of the face of both bonds and stock, with interest on the +former to date," he answered quickly. + +"I buy only bargains," was Carrigan's dry statement. + +"One hundred thousand then." + +"You're still sailing way up in the clouds. The stock was a bonus, +Gretzinger; it cost your parties nothing. So it's only the bonds that +count. And the project is rotten, it may not be finished on time, be a +dead loss; your men want to get out from under; they'll jump at the +chance to sell, you say. All right. They can unload on me. Wire them +to deposit the bonds and stock in any New York bank and draw on +McDonnell for forty thousand dollars. That's what I'll give." + +Gretzinger walked to the wall, where he reached down his overcoat and +put it on. + +"The ditch will go to weeds first," he said. + +"The offer's open until to-morrow night," said Pat. + +"You bloodsuckers can't put anything over on me," was the Easterner's +departing declaration, as he opened the door. "I'm on to you, +Carrigan. You're backing Bryant and will finish the ditch. We'll just +sit tight on our bonds and stock." + +Pat watched him go. + +"I hate to make money for men like them," he remarked to the engineer, +"but I guess I can't help it, because I'll not let you down, Lee, for +a matter of cash payment. I'll advance what's necessary and take a +company note. Maybe you're wondering why I let you sweat all this +time? Because you needed the experience. You laid down too easy. All +the time that you were thinking the game was up, I was waiting for +you to grab my leg and begin to pull. But you never did." + +"You had done too much for me already, Pat; and though I supposed you +were well-fixed I had no idea you were wealthy. The thought you might +risk twenty thousand dollars----" + +"Why not? I know this project better than any banker; it's sound, it's +about completed," the old man interrupted. "All that's necessary is to +take a long breath and push hard for three weeks more. Sometimes I +think you have the making of a fair engineer, Lee, but you discourage +me dreadfully when I try to picture you as a financier. I'm afraid +you'll wind up like one of these bondholders of Gretzingers, just +piffling." + +Lee went to stand at the window, so that Carrigan could not see his +face. Emotion had unmanned him. He would not have even Pat know how +strongly he was moved by this act of magnanimity. + +"Well, I better be getting back to the ditch," said the contractor, +presently. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + +A week later the long-belated big storm appeared at hand. McDonnell +telephoned Bryant one morning, a morning in February now, that the +weather forecast predicted blizzard conditions sweeping down the Rocky +Mountain region from the Northwest. A mile of excavation yet remained +to do. Lee at once sent Saurez and other Mexicans abroad in the native +settlements with offers of double wages and this drew the most +indolent back to camp again. They were flung into the night shift, +which toiled with increased vigour at news of the impending storm. For +two days and nights the desperate effort was pushed while the sky +continued clear, with the crews of both camps attacking the iron earth +and steadily forging closer. + +Bryant scarcely slept during that time, or ate. Toward morning, when +the night shift went off, he would cast himself down fully dressed and +drawing the blankets to his chin sleep restlessly for two or three +hours, then again rise to drive the work. The third day came sunny and +quiet, but with heavy warmth in the air wholly strange to the season. +During the night both Lee and Pat had continually and anxiously +watched the peaks of the Ventisquero Range for portent of the change +imminent in the weather; and now on this morning they beheld about the +crests long, low-lying layers of gray cloud. + +Again McDonnell telephoned, but now with particulars of the storm. It +was general in character, covering the states from the Canadian line +southward, with very low temperatures and raging furiously, destroying +wire communications and blocking railroads, and at the moment was +bearing down across Utah, Colorado, and Kansas. The entire region from +the Pacific coast to the Mississippi was in its grasp. + +"Ten days is all that's left of our time," Lee said to the contractor, +with a heavy heart. "And no one can tell how long this weather spree +will last." + +"It's not a mile we've got to go any more, any way. With what we'll do +to-day it will be half a mile of dirt moved in three days. That leaves +but half a mile. This storm may be played out when it reaches us." But +the worry on his face showed that he put little faith in this +possibility. + +What he stated in regard to the ditch was true. The work of night and +day had eaten well into the remaining mile between the two camps. To +be sure, it had been rushed work: the sides of the ditch were gouged +and ragged, the bottom uneven and rutted, and the removed dirt was +piled anywhere along its banks. But nevertheless there was a canal, +dug on grade and to measurement, and capable of carrying water. + +During the afternoon a pair of men drove two lines of waist-high +stakes to mark the survey of the short section of ground yet +untouched, doing this under Carrigan's supervision. In case snow came, +he told Lee, he wanted something he could see. "Nine hundred yards of +unbuilt ditch will be lying buried," he added, "and I don't propose +to paw up the whole mesa finding this section." + +About four o'clock Bryant rejoined him. + +"Still lovely," said Pat with a grin. "I've just set some plows +tearing up the scalp on another two hundred yards. If this storm will +just hang off for three or four days longer, it can come and welcome. +I'll have my fresnos stacked and waiting to go down to Kennard." + +"Take a look at the northwest," said Bryant, significantly. + +A smoky haze lay along the horizon. + +"Aye, I see. That's her hair blowing out ahead. There will be plenty +of wind after awhile, I'm thinking. Get word to the men in camp, will +you, to make all the tents tight." + +At sundown the haze in the west had thickened somewhat. The air, +however, remained warm, almost oppressive, and the sharp cold that +usually fell at night was wanting. The Ventisquero Peaks were hidden +by a mass of cloud. At seven o'clock the night crew began work, as +ordinarily; no wind was stirring and the steam that came from the +horses' nostrils was light. + +"I'm taking a little time to skip down to Sarita Creek and see if +those girls are still there. If they took a notion to stick, they'd +try to do it, whether McDonnell sent after them or not. But I'll pry +them out. If the storm breaks in a hurry, get the men and teams into +camp at once. Don't take any chances, Pat." Thus spoke Bryant. + +"Aye, I've seen blizzards before," was the reply. + +Lee sped rapidly toward Sarita Creek, with the headlights of his car +casting their glow before him upon the dark road. The silence of the +night was broken only by the steady humming of his engine. The mesa +seemed very hushed, unstirring, unnatural. + +When he reached the girls' cabins, he saw that the windows of each +were lighted. The girls were there. What incredible folly! Then his +lamps brought into view an automobile. He breathed relief. Someone had +come for them. Alighting he walked forward and knocked on Ruth's door. +When it was opened by Ruth, he discovered Gretzinger seated within. + +"Oh, it's you, is it? Well, come in," Ruth said. + +She wore a pink party gown, with her throat and smooth, round arms +showing through some filmy stuff that was part of the creation. Bryant +had never seen her so dressed; she looked very youthful and charming, +almost beautiful. + +"There's a party at Kennard to-night," said she, before Lee could open +his mouth to make an explanation of his presence, "and Mr. +Gretzinger's taking me. He just came. Sorry you chose to-night to +call, Lee. And we're starting immediately." She reached forth and gave +Lee a pat on the cheek, at the same time smiling. + +Bryant continued stony under the touch, under the smile, under the +false affection. He gazed at her and detected beneath her apparent +good spirits and loveliness a suppressed excitement. His glance went +to Gretzinger; the man was observing them with a restless, frowning +face. On the instant the truth flashed into Bryant's brain. She was +cunningly playing him off against the New Yorker, using him as a lay +figure in her despicable game, bestowing endearments to anger +Gretzinger and arouse his jealousy. + +"I came to tell you a big storm is brewing," he said quickly. "You and +Imogene must plan to stay in Kennard for some time. If a heavy fall of +snow occurs, the mesa will be closed for ten days or two weeks with +the temperature very low." + +"Then I'll pack my things in my suit-case so that I can remain that +long," Ruth exclaimed. "I'll stay with Mabel Seybolt. Imogene's uncle +sent up his car this morning, but I didn't imagine there was any +really bad storm coming and sent it back. I doubt if the snow amounts +to much, anyway. The weather's too warm." Nevertheless, she began to +fill a suit-case. + +"I'll tell Imogene also," Lee said. + +Ruth's eyes turned toward Gretzinger with an inquiring look. + +"There won't be room for three of us, will there?" + +"No," he answered. + +Her regard still continued directed at him. + +"I'm sure there won't be," she said, with conviction. "It probably +won't storm before to-morrow, in any case. I'll tell Mr. McDonnell in +the morning and he can send up his big car for her." + +"Or you can take her to town yourself," Gretzinger added in an +indifferent tone. + +"I can't spare the time," Lee said. + +"But dearie, I'll be done packing in two minutes, while it will take +Imogene half an hour," Ruth replied. "She's too slow to wait for. And +she has one of her eternal headaches, too." + +Ruth was hurriedly removing articles from her trunk to the suit-case. + +"Listen, please," Lee said, addressing her. "If Imo remains she may +become snowbound, and if snowbound, freeze. I can't go, I can't +possibly go. With this storm coming, I must stay at camp. As things +are, a blizzard may put me out of business." + +Ruth straightened up to confront him. + +"You mean the work would stop, that you couldn't finish it on time?" + +"That's just what I mean." + +"Why?" Gretzinger spoke. "You have ten days left." + +"Yes, and what are ten days with two feet of snow on the ground and +the mercury forty below zero?" Bryant retorted. + +Gretzinger stood up, glanced at his watch, and buttoned his overcoat. +He then bent down and set to work buckling the straps of the suit-case +Ruth had closed. + +"You do seem to get into every possible kind of trouble, Lee," the +girl said. + +"Perhaps I do. But the point now is about Imogene. Will you take her +with you, or not?" + +"Mr. McDonnell can send for her to-morrow; that will be soon enough." + +"My God, you leave her! With a blizzard coming!" + +"I don't think there'll be a blizzard. Or if there is, she can get +along comfortably till her uncle comes." + +"Are you ready, Ruth?" Gretzinger asked, impatiently. + +"Yes, as soon as I fasten my gloves. Anyway, Lee, you can take her to +Kennard if you want to. It's because you're just obstinate. Besides, +she didn't have to come up here; I told her so; I could have got along +without her--much better, probably, for she's always finding fault; +she came on her own responsibility and so can look out for herself; +and if you're so anxious for fear she'll freeze, why, take her. It +won't make any difference about your ditch that I can see, for you say +you'll very likely lose it, anyway. Now you'll have to excuse us; +we're going. Blow out the light, please, and lock the door, our hands +are full. Give the key to Imo to keep." + +Two minutes later Gretzinger's car was gone with a swirl of the +headlights as it circled and with a sudden roar of its exhaust. Lee +extinguished the light and closed the cabin. To him that little house +seemed poignant with tragedy; and he knew, whatever came, his foot +would never be set in it again. + +He found Imogene sitting beside her sheet-iron stove, wrapped in a +quilt and coughing. + +"I heard your car come after his; I knew it was you," she greeted him. + +Lee regarded her closely. + +"You're sick," he said. "You ought to be in bed. Ruth stated that you +had a headache and now I discover you in a coughing fit bad enough to +take off your head. Is your throat sore?" + +"A little." + +"Why in the name of all that's sensible haven't you gone to your +uncle's? I begin to think you're unbalanced." + +"I explained my reasons once, Lee." She coughed again, then continued, +"Ruth and I quarrelled Christmas because of actions of hers and aunt +said she must leave the house. That's why you were not asked then. But +she made it up afterward and so I came when she did, for she was +determined to live here where she could be free. I just had to come." + +"And now she's leaving you in the face of the worst storm this winter, +the ingrate!" Bryant exclaimed. "To-night's work finishes her with me. +She may go to eternal damnation so far as I'm concerned. I'm done! She +refused, she would have left you here to freeze, she set your life +against her convenience! And after you had sacrificed your comfort and +undergone hardships to save her good name! There's no limit to her +selfishness and miserable hypocrisy. Our efforts and consideration +haven't restrained her a particle, and she will tread the road she +chooses irrespective of our desires or feelings. What fools we've +been! You and I, Imogene Martin, aren't going to chase a +will-o'-the-wisp any longer. We've wasted enough time on this delusion +of saving Ruth Gardner; if she's to be saved, she must save +herself--and if she will not do that, then the whole world together is +of no avail. You're never going to come here again, or have anything +to do with her, or let her have a part in your life. Nor am I. She +walks out of our book, and we draw a pen across the bottom of the +page." + +Imogene had covered her face with her hands during his terrible +denunciation and was weeping softly. She knew it was true. She knew +that Ruth had gone out of her life, for such baseness as her one-time +friend had shown was not to be forgiven. + +"You're right--I can't go on here longer," she sobbed. "I'm sick, I'm +really sick. I've been barely crawling about for the last two days. +And she knew it and left me! Oh, Ruth, Ruth!" + +"And would have left you, storm or no storm, and whether I came or +not! In order to be alone with Gretzinger!" Her heart-breaking sobs +went on. "Don't weep, Imogene. Put her out of your mind." He gently +placed an arm about her shoulders. "Come, I will take you to Louise." + +That she had been "crawling about the last two days" was apparent when +she attempted to rise. Her strength suddenly vanished, her knees gave +way. Bryant secured her coat and cap, wrapped her in blankets from the +bed, and carried her out to the car. Then he put out her lamp and +locked the door. + +And that turning of the lock, Lee felt, terminated a painful chapter +of his life. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + +As by the girls' cabins, so before the Graham house, Lee perceived a +motor car. He brought his own machine to a stop near it and cut off +his engine. At the same instant the door opened in the house, where by +the light shining through the portal he saw Louise's and Charlie +Menocal's figures. Menocal stepped forth. + +"You will please go now," Louise was saying. "When you telephoned I +told you then that I shouldn't go with you, or go to the dance at +all." + +Bryant had alighted and was arranging the blankets about Imogene. +Charlie's voice spoke, rather truculently: + +"I told you I was coming for you, didn't I? Now see what a position +that leaves me in! People think you're coming. I promised to bring +you." + +"Then you were too presumptuous," Louise said. "Now go. You're only +making a bad matter worse." + +"See here, Louise----" + +"You had my refusal and I've repeated it a dozen times," she +interrupted, indignantly. "Must I shut the door in your face to +silence you? And here's another car. Have some regard for my personal +feelings, sir." + +Lee by now had lifted Imogene into his arms and started toward the +speakers. + +"Be a good sport, Louise," Menocal pursued, in a tone intended to be +wheedling. "Run upstairs and put on a party dress while I wait for +you. You don't understand how much I want you to come along to this +dance." His words were a little thick and stumbling. + +"Hush! Don't you see someone has come? You've been drinking; and +you're sickening to me." + +"I don't care if someone is there! Let 'em hear, Louise. Let all the +world hear, let your father hear, let anybody hear! Because I love +you, and so you must come to the dance." Suddenly his tone changed to +an angry hiss. "You've been treating me like a cur, refusing to see me +or go with me, and not letting me come here. I came to-night! I've +stood for enough from you; you can't play me for a fool any longer. +And you're going to marry me, too." + +Bryant perceived by the lamplight of the doorway that the fellow had +snatched her hand, that the two were struggling. Burdened with Imogene +as he was, Lee was helpless to enterfere. But he went hastily up the +steps toward them. Louise tugged herself free. + +"Oh, you contemptible creature!" she cried, in a voice of quivering +passion. "It's only because you know father is out caring for stock +that you dare stay here to insult me." Then looking past Menocal, she +exclaimed, "Who is that?" + +"I, Bryant," said Lee. "With Imogene. She's ill, she needs to be put +to bed. There was no time to ask your permission to bring her, but I +knew----" + +"Of course! If this beast will stop making a scene and go!" + +Charlie Menocal was pulling on his fur cap. + +"So here's our swell-headed crook of an engineer butting in again," +he sneered. "You better be hunting up your own chicken, or Gretzinger +will have her. Who y' say you got there?" + +"Stand aside!" + +Bryant's voice struck the other like the lash of a whip, and the +half-drunken youth instinctively fell back a pace, so that Lee could +pass with his charge into the house. But as Louise was about to follow +Menocal seized her arm. + +"Girlie, you're not going to throw me down? You'll be good to me and +come----" + +Louise shook off his hand, darted through the doorway, and quickly +closing the door turned the key in the lock. Then still grasping the +door-knob she leaned with her head against the panels, face white, +lips trembling, and her breast rising and falling stormily. + +"Oh, Lee! For you to be forced to see and hear that!" she said, in a +tone of anguish. + +"I think nothing of it; you could not avoid him." + +After a moment she recovered herself and said, "Wait until I call +Rosita." + +When she returned with the Mexican girl, she conducted Bryant to an +upper chamber where he placed Imogene upon a bed, pressed the latter's +hand assuringly, and then left her in charge of the other two while he +went below to telephone to her uncle. McDonnell had already set out +for Sarita Creek, his wife informed Lee. He had started about half an +hour before. Bryant went out of the house and entering his car drove +down the lane to the main road, where he stopped. + +Soon far away in the south there was a flash of light, repeated at +intervals, until at length it grew into a steady, powerful glare that +threw his own machine into strong relief, that dazzled and blinded +him. Finally the other car stopped near by. + +"What's the trouble, Jack?" McDonnell's voice came, addressed to his +chauffeur. + +Bryant went forward to the banker, who was leaning out of the +limousine. He gave the information that neither of the girls was at +Sarita Creek and explained that Imogene was at the Graham house, +comfortable though ill. + +"She's too sick to be removed and will probably need a nurse for a +time," he concluded. "I brought her here as soon as I learned her +condition. Miss Graham put her to bed." + +"All right; I'll run in and see her. Much obliged to you, Bryant," was +the answer. Then in a vexed strain he went on, "What I expected to +happen has happened. Advice, pleadings, commands haven't prevented her +from following out this crazy affair. You may not believe it, but +she's as stubborn as a mule when she wants to be. My wife has been +almost distracted all winter. Well, I'll send up a doctor and a nurse +both as soon as I return to Kennard, if there's time before this +storm. Still at work?" + +"Still digging. Will keep at it till the last minute." + +"Supposed you would. That's the lane there, isn't it?" + +Next minute the big car had passed Lee's and was moving up the roadway +between the rows of cottonwoods toward the house. But Bryant did not +at once start for camp. His mind was busy with pictures--pictures of +the two girls as he first had seen them at Perro Creek, and at their +cabins afterward, and finally to-night: Imogene, weak and racked by a +cough and huddling in a quilt beside her sheet-iron stove, and Ruth in +her own cabin, standing in the lamplight in her pink party dress with +round arms and throat showing through its filmy gauze, unconcerned and +intent upon her own ends. + +At last he glanced up at the impenetrable sky. Something soft and wet +had floated against his cheek. Then he saw here and there in the +funnel of light projected by his car lamps what looked like solitary +bits of white down sinking through the radiance. Snow! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + +The first flakes were but the precursors of a heavy fall of snow that +almost immediately began, soundless, without wind, filling the air and +whitening the earth, and that was still continuing unabated two hours +later. It mantled the shoulders of the workmen and the withers of the +horses; it clogged the wheels of the fresnos so that dirt was moved +with ever-increasing difficulty; it veiled the flaring gasolene +torches and choked the night. Where a plow ran or a scraper scooped +earth, snow speedily obliterated the mark, and with the passing of +time both men and animals found it necessary to struggle more and more +desperately in the dirt cut against mud and snow and gloom. + +Carrigan contracted his working line, placing the torches at shorter +intervals and keeping the scrapers in close succession. The foremen +informed him frequently that the men were growing exhausted and +rebellious, but he ordered them to hold the crews at the task. He and +Bryant moved to and fro constantly, giving encouragement or lending a +hand to help start a stalled fresno. By sheer power of their wills +they were combatting the snow, forcing the work ahead, deepening the +stretch of excavation that had been opened that afternoon; by iron +determination they were wrenching out the last spadeful of earth +possible and exacting the final ounce of man power before the snow had +its way. + +The strange warmth continued. The temperature was not even down to +freezing and the men, muddied and wet to the knees, dripped with +perspiration, while the horses' flanks were soaked with both sweat and +melted snow. It was difficult to breathe, what with the heavy, +oppressive air and what with the fall of suffocating snow, constantly +growing thicker. Horses slipped and went down, but were raised again; +fresnos were mired, but freed once more; men gave out and were sent to +their camp. And the fight kept on. + +But about eleven o'clock Bryant felt a cool puff of air on his cheeks, +light and of brief duration. It was followed by a second, this time +quicker and stronger, blowing from the northwest and sending the snow +a-scurry in a slanting fog of flakes past the flames of the torches. +He studied this change for a moment, then sought out Carrigan. + +"Time to make a break for cover," he announced. "Wind is coming and +the devil will be to pay when once it picks up all this loose snow." + +"Well, we're about at a standstill, anyway," was the reply. "I'll have +the crews draw the scrapers and plows off at one side where we can get +at them. I had a spare horse tent put at the disposal of the Mexicans, +and have had men in both camps piling baled hay all evening around the +big tents for windbreaks. We'll issue extra blankets and crowd the +crews into the shacks and mess quarters where there are stoves." + +"What about water if our pipe freezes?" + +"Then the horses will eat snow like the range ponies, I guess--and the +rest of us, too." + +At that he went off to order the work stopped, as did Bryant. For some +time the wind blew only in those fitful puffs Lee had noted or died +down entirely for short periods; and of this fact the night shift took +advantage to assemble the fresnos and plows beside the canal and to +drive their horses to shelter. The crews of the north camp, being +fewer, got away first; and thither Bryant plowed through the snow with +them to see all made safe. When he returned, Carrigan was just herding +the last man and team toward the main camp. Together the contractor +and the engineer extinguished the torches, then made their way, +carrying a flare with them, toward the glow showing at the edge of the +camp, where an oil-soaked bale of hay burned as a guide. At their +backs the wind and snow blew with gradually increasing strength. + +They made the rounds of the horse tents packed with animals, the mess +tents packed with workmen--with those men only come and those newly +aroused from sleep and gathered here--of the shacks, the hospital, the +engineers' headquarters and the big commissary tent, all crowded with +white men and Mexicans, steaming with moisture, smoking cigarettes and +pipes, giving off a rank smell of clay and human bodies and wet +clothes and horses, who talked and laughed and waited restlessly. The +pair waded around examining guy-ropes, stakes, the protective walls +raised of hay bales. They took advantage of a sudden dropping of the +wind to go among the small tents, thrusting their flares within each +and having a look, to make certain no sleeper of the day shift had +been overlooked. Then at last they stumbled up the street to Bryant's +shack. + +The wind now had utterly died away. The snow had resumed its thick, +silent fall straight to earth. Carrigan was kicking his boots clean +against the door-sill when Lee exclaimed, "Listen to that, Pat!" + +Carrigan wiped the moisture from his ears and harkened. + +"That's the Limited coming, and making no stops," he remarked. "Get +in!" + +They entered the little building. The office contained the engineering +staff and several others. Tobacco smoke lay thick in the room. + +Outside, the faint whining sound was growing steadily in volume until +at last it deepened into a roar very like that of an approaching +express train, as Pat had suggested. Followed a smart blow on the +shack. Then it reeled and the night was filled with a howling tumult +that deafened the men inside; the blizzard had burst upon the mesa. +Through the windows one could see nothing, for the air had become a +black maelstrom of whirling snow and darkness where a choked roar +persisted as steadily as the bass thunder of Niagara. The warmth had +vanished; a cutting cold, as if striking direct from arctic ice, +minute by minute drove the mercury in the thermometer on Bryant's wall +downward with unbelievable swiftness. If anything, the fury of the +storm seemed to increase as time passed, swelling to such terrible +violence that one imagined nothing could withstand its force, its mad +blasts, its deadliness. + +"Those mess tents and horse tents," Lee said to Carrigan, anxiously. + +"They're safer under their lee of hay than is this little paper box +we're sitting in," the contractor replied. "I've been through +blizzards before, and know how to meet them." + +From by the stove one of the engineers spoke. + +"But we'll never see some of those little tents any more. There are +several travelling toward Mexico by now." + +"And my new flannel shirt!" cried another, suddenly. "Washed it this +noon and hung it out on a line and forgot all about it. Oh, Lord, +where is it now?" + +"Good-bye, little shirt, we'll never see you more!" said the first, +sentimentally. "You'll be hanging on the Equator by morning." + +"While we're left here in the drifts," said a third. "Oh, the lovely, +big, white drifts there'll be to-morrow!" + +Toward one o'clock the first furious rush of the storm had passed and +it had settled into a fifty-mile-an-hour wind, bitterly cold, with +snow that drove against the building in fine particles. Freezing air +never ceased to enter the thin walls of boards and tar paper. It was +necessary to keep the cast-iron stove red-hot to secure anything like +comfort. + +And to this dreadful cold and snow, thought Lee, Imogene would have +been left deliberately by Ruth Gardner and Gretzinger! + +Carrigan bade the others roll up in their blankets and get what sleep +they could while he and Bryant tended the fire. Lee saw that Dave was +warm and well-wrapped. The men, worn out by prolonged exertions, made +themselves beds on the floor or stretched themselves out on their +seats, drew their coverings closer, closed their eyes, slept. + +The contractor and the engineer, together before the fire, continued +to talk in low tones. + +"Haven't told you yet," said Pat, presently, "but we picked up that +Mexican this evening who was trying to start a drunk Christmas Eve. It +was while you were at Sarita Creek. Saurez told me he had sneaked into +camp and meant mischief. Some of us caught him behind the commissary +tent with a can of oil, just ready to fire the camp." + +"A fine night for us all to have been left without shelter," Lee +remarked. "Where is he?" + +"In the hospital tied up, with a trusty man to watch him. Here's what +I found on him. Look inside." And Pat handed over a dirty leather bag +with a long string. "Found this around his neck." + +Lee extracted four pieces of paper from the sack--all checks drawn to +the order of F. Alvarez. Besides these there were two twenty-dollar +gold pieces, three rings, and several unset turquoises. + +"Well, we can make use of these checks," he said, after thought. "I'll +talk to the fellow to-morrow." He restored the miscellaneous +collection of property to the sack. + +On the panes of the small windows the snow beat and the wind hammered. +Carrigan stuffed the stove with pine knots. Afterward he refilled his +pipe, cast a sharp glance about at the sleeping occupants of the room, +and said: + +"You've got what you need now to mix medicine with the banker." He +confirmed his words with several satisfied nods. + +"Yes," said Bryant. + +Carrigan proceeded to meditate. + +"Awhile back I sent for some more dynamite," he stated, breaking the +silence. "Didn't say anything to you about it at the time. It was +there in the commissary tent under a stack of cases of peaches and +bags of coffee. If this Alvarez had got his oil on that canvas and a +fire going, there sure would have been some fire-works. You would have +had a reservoir blown right in the middle of your project, I'm +thinking." + +"What in the name of heaven do you want with dynamite!" + +"Well, my boy, there's a lot of ground that can't be dug, but I never +saw any that nitro wouldn't move. What I got is dirt-blowing dynamite, +the kind powder companies sell for making drainage ditches and blowing +stumps and so on. I didn't know whether I should have to use it, but I +always like to have a trick up my sleeve. Powder is ordinarily too +expensive to employ when fresnos can work, yet it's just the thing in +a pinch. We're in an emergency now. If it should set in and snow right +along, with one storm on top of another, as may happen after so long a +mild season, powder even may not help us out. These last eight hundred +yards are going to make us weep before we're through, I'm guessing. +But just the same, I'm counting on this dynamite. It can't blow like +this forever, and the minute it quits we'll grab hold." + +Lee twisted about to look at a window. The particles of snow were +biting at the glass relentlessly, while the howl of the gale told only +too plainly how the drifts were being heaped on the dark mesa. + +"We'll finish this ditch on time even if hell freezes over," he said, +slowly. "I'm not going to be beaten at this late day." + +He continued to sit gazing at the frosted panes and harkening to the +roaring blasts. On the floor and in the chairs the blanketed men slept +heavily. Pat fed the fire anew. But through the cracks of the walls +the cold sifted more and more intense, while along the edges of the +boards there formed thick fringes of glistening frost. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + +For four days the bitter cold and fierce wind held the camps in +thrall, then the latter blew itself out. The cold, however, still +endured though the sun shone. When one looked forth from camp, all +that could be seen was a snowbound earth; mesa and mountains were as +white and silent as some polar region; nothing moved; nothing seemed +to live out yonder. It was like a dazzling, frigid, extinct world. + +The main mesa road was blocked and telephone wires were down. What +went on outside the limits of the camp's snow-drifted horizon its +dwellers knew not--nor for the moment cared. Work was the only +thought. With hastily constructed snow-plows roads had been broken +among the tents and shacks as soon as the weather allowed, and +afterward broad paths made to the working ground. The section of undug +canal was now scraped bare. There, sheltered by tents and warmed by +sagebrush fires, men bored in the iron-like earth powder-holes in rows +that exactly aligned the canal. On the morning of the fifth day a +first stretch of fifty yards was blown out, whereupon teams and +scrapers were rushed into the ragged cavity to deepen and clear the +ditch before the soil froze anew. This was at the north end. In the +afternoon one hundred yards at the south end went up in a blast and +crews from the main camp fell upon this area. + +That night the sky clouded over again. All the next day snow came down +steadily. The workmen played cards in the mess tents and waited. +Carrigan busied himself at accounts and waited. Bryant waited, with +impatience and anxiety gnawing at his heart. There were six hundred +yards and more unexcavated, and but three days of his time remained. + +The snow ceased at nightfall and work was instantly resumed by aid of +the torches; again the desperate scraping of snow, bundled men at +fires and sheltered by windbreaks, the drilling of holes in the frozen +ground, the reliefs every two hours, the thawing of nipped fingers and +toes and noses. All night hot food and boiling coffee were served at +intervals to the cold and hungry labourers. At nine o'clock next +morning two hundred yards of dirt went spraying into the air, with the +subsequent struggle in the long hole: fresnos bearing forth what earth +was loose and what the plows broke out; the horses, blinded by the +glare of snow, staggering forward under curse and lash; the men +toiling in a sort of grim fury. A maximum of effort finished one +hundred and fifty yards more by eleven o'clock. Carrigan ordered all +work to stop until nine next morning. + +"The men are 'all in'," he told Lee. "We'll crack this last nut +to-morrow." + +"But what if it sets in to snow? More than two hundred and fifty yards +left to do, and only to-morrow and the day after to work." + +"We'll have to risk it." + +"Will your powder hold out?" + +"Yes." He regarded Bryant keenly. "Say, what you need isn't +information but sleep. You worked all day yesterday, and all last +night, and to-day again, and here it is going on midnight. I'm going +to tell you the schedule for to-morrow to calm your mind, then you +roll into your blankets. At nine o'clock in the morning all hands +except the cooks go at the drills and stay by them till the stretch is +holed. Whenever that's done, which should be about evening, we shoot +the chunk. And after that we hit the bottom with every scraper and +fresno and horse and man, with the cooks fighting the coffee-boilers, +and never come out of the ditch till the last lump of dirt is moved. +That's the programme. I figure it will be about midnight when the last +card's turned, maybe an hour or so after. I promised the men double +wages and a box of cigars apiece out of the store and a few other +things perhaps--I don't remember. So you get your sleep, for there's a +big day ahead to-morrow. That dirt all goes out before you'll have +another chance to hit the hay." + +Bryant arose next morning at seven. The sky was overcast and the +thermometer was sixteen below zero when he examined it. Across the +snow he could see the north camp stirring to life, awakening in the +frosty, pallid light of dawn. Stretching thither ran uneven snowy +ridges, save at one place where they lay bare and brown--the banks of +the canal. When the small interval still undug was moved, the ditch +would be finished from river to ranch, from the Pinas down to Perro. +And this was to be the last day of toil! To-day the camps were to hurl +themselves at that short remaining strip of earth and tear it out; the +furrow so long pressed ahead through the iron ground was to be brought +to an end; the enemy, frost, was to be conquered at last. When he +thought of the inexorable labour done under heart-breaking conditions, +in spite of cold and wind and snow, and with sufferings and +deprivations little considered. Bryant felt for the workmen, rough +though they were, a strong affection. They had done the bitter work. + +"Out goes the chunk to-day," was Pat's greeting that morning. + +A spirit of eagerness, almost of enthusiasm, pervaded the crews that +first went forth in the cold to work at the drills. It was the final +attack, and they went from their steaming breakfast with jests and +laughter that rang back over the snow. Sixteen below zero, and they +laughed! Bryant had a sudden conviction that nothing could stop such +men--neither weather, nor elements, nor fate itself. They were heroes +not to be daunted. They swung the hammer of Thor against the earth and +were worthy of an epic. + +Toward the middle of the afternoon of that day Carrigan said to the +engineer: + +"We're making better time than I calculated. The holes will all be +drilled by five o'clock; we're loading them as they're done and we'll +shoot at five-thirty." + +"What about supper?" + +"Supper at five. Then the men will be back and ready to jump in the +ditch when the shot's fired." + +"And be done twenty-four hours before the hour set by the Land and +Water Board," said Lee. + +"That's cutting it fine enough as it is. Who's that waving yonder +toward camp?" And Carrigan pointed a mittened hand at a figure +swinging an arm and shouting Bryant's name. + +The engineer stared for a time. + +"Charlie Menocal," he said, finally. "Morgan--Morgan, come here!" he +called. And as Morgan came to join him, Lee addressed Pat, "I'll just +run over to Bartolo with this young scoundrel. The road's open and +I'll be back by dark. Want Morgan to come along to look after him and +Alvarez, the man you caught." + +"Better start back in plenty of time. The sky's thickening again. More +snow in sight, Lee." + +"I shall." + +"You might invite old man Menocal to return with you," Pat remarked, +with a grin, "and see us put the kibosh on his dream of owning the +Pinas River. What are you going to do with this boy of his? Send him +over the road?" + +"I haven't decided yet." + +"That's where he ought to go, after trying to burn us out the night of +the blizzard." He turned away to the work. + +"You're not to let this fellow over there waiting for us get away, +Morgan," Lee stated. + +"I'll freeze on to him." + +They went along the snowy path toward camp, coming up with Menocal, +who waited until they arrived and then accompanied them toward +Bryant's office. + +"Have a letter for you from Ruth," he said. "Had a terrible time +getting up from Kennard. Road isn't half opened, but I found a man to +drive me home. Promised Ruth to deliver this to you." + +He drew the letter from an inner pocket and handed it to the +engineer, who glanced at the writing on the envelope, his own name, +and shoved the epistle into his glove. When they gained camp, Lee +said: + +"Morgan and I are going to Bartolo with you, and also a friend of +yours called Alvarez. We nabbed him as he was trying to burn our camp +about two hours before the blizzard. Take this man to headquarters, +Morgan, and keep him till I come over." + +Menocal's face became livid with anger and alarm. + +"Let me go, damn you!" he shouted, shrilly. + +Bryant waved a hand towards the engineers' shack and thither Charlie +was propelled, cursing and struggling, in Morgan's firm grasp. +Entering his office, Lee closed the door, walked to the stove, and +standing there produced the letter. It was the first and only missive +he had ever received from Ruth. He gazed at the envelope and the +scrawled writing on it with an impression of strangeness, but this +gave way to a curiosity as to the contents. He had a strong suspicion +of the letter's purport. Ruth would have reviewed her conduct that +night at Sarita Creek, and, with her instinctive cunning, perceived it +would alienate Lee. The message doubtless carried an adroit +explanation and excuse, ending up with numerous declarations of her +affection and hypocritical assertions of her anxiety on his account. +Disgust overwhelmed him. He was minded to cast the thing into the +stove unread. At last, however, muttering to himself, he thrust a +forefinger under the flap and ripped the envelope open. A newspaper +clipping that had been enclosed in the letter dropped to the floor. He +read: + + DEAR LEE: + + After thinking the matter over very carefully, I've decided to + release you from our engagement. If this pains you, as I fear + it will, I'm extremely sorry, but I've discovered that we're + not temperamentally suited to each other. You've failed, + besides, so I understand, which further convinces me of that. + And in addition, I've learned of late that I love another, who + loves me. Therefore it's much better that I take this step, + much better and much wiser--don't you think so? However, Lee, + I shall always be your friend. + + It may interest you to know that this evening Mr. Gretzinger + and I are to be married. Privately, with only a few close + friends. We depart immediately after the ceremony for New + York. Mr. Menocal is to pack my things at Sarita Creek, so you + need not bother about them. I understand Imogene is visiting + at the Graham ranch; I'm dropping her a note there telling her + the news. + + With best wishes, + RUTH. + + +Bryant lifted from the floor and read the clipping. It was a short +announcement, evidently from a Kennard paper, of the prospective +wedding that night of Miss Ruth Gardner, of Sarita Creek, and Mr. J. +Senton Gretzinger, of New York. + +When he had read this, Lee gently tilted and shook the envelope. But +no diamond solitaire dropped out. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + + +They were waiting in the sheriff's office in the court house in +Bartolo. They were waiting for Mr. Menocal. Winship had sent a +messenger for him. At one place in the room, handcuffed and tied, sat +the evil-eyed Alvarez; at another sat Charlie Menocal, silent and +apprehensive and with a sickly pallor showing under his dusky skin; +and between them lounged Morgan. The sheriff and Bryant stood across +the room conversing of the storm. + +"I thought your goose was cooked when that blizzard hit us," Winship +was saying. + +"Froze, you mean," was Lee's smiling reply. "I thought so myself for a +while. We've hammered along, however. To-night the last dirt goes +out." + +"That was an idea now--powder." + +"It was Carrigan's, not mine. It saved us. The old man has forgotten +more than I ever knew. Here's the banker now." + +The door swung open, admitting Menocal, blinking from the snow's +sheen. He bade the sheriff and the engineer good day, glanced sharply +at them and then at the others. When his look encountered his son, his +eyebrows went up. + +"So you're home finally," he addressed him. "After two weeks' time!" +His regard moved about from one to another of the trio. "What does +this mean, Charlie? Who is that fellow wearing handcuffs?" He paused, +staring steadily at his son. "What have you been doing to bring you +into Winship's office?" As Charlie continued to sit silent, he turned +to the sheriff. + +"I'll explain, Mr. Menocal, but what I have to say won't be pleasant +hearing for you," Lee stated, at a nod from Winship. "Take this chair, +if you please." + +The banker sat down, heavily. He sighed, while his fat cheeks shook +with a slight tremble. + +"What has he done?" he asked, with his eyes fixed on an ink-well on +the sheriff's desk. + +Briefly and without temper Bryant related the circumstance of seeing +Alvarez in Kennard one day during the previous summer, when the man +appeared to be watching him. Charlie was also in town on that day. +Alvarez was the man who had attempted to make the workmen drunk in +camp on Christmas Eve, but he had escaped on that occasion. He had +stolen into camp again on the afternoon preceding the blizzard and two +hours after sundown had been captured seeking to fire the commissary +tent. When made a prisoner, he had been searched. On his person were +found several checks for sums ranging from fifty to one hundred +dollars. Bryant drew the leather sack from his pocket, extracted the +checks, and handed them to the banker. + +"You see they are given by your son," said he. "I've questioned this +Alvarez and he has finally admitted that he was employed by Charlie +and instructed by him what to do. Your son, therefore, is the +instigator of the attempted crime, and Alvarez, an ignorant and brutal +outlaw from Mexico, was merely his tool. I pass over the matter of the +whisky and the petty inconveniences earlier caused me and my men. But +here is an act of a different character, Mr. Menocal. The man's +endeavour to fire our camp, had it been successful, would perhaps have +resulted in the death of scores of men, as the storm broke shortly +after and they would have been without shelter." + +Charlie Menocal sprang to his feet. + +"Before God, I didn't know he would choose that night!" he cried, +passionately. "I meant only to stop their work!" + +His father shook his head sadly. + +"That makes no difference, my son; you planned a wicked deed," he +said, in a barely audible voice. + +Morgan pushed the young man back upon his chair and Bryant went on. As +he proceeded, he had found it harder and harder to address the parent; +and his task was no easier now. The eyes of the father had gone to the +slender, sagging figure of his son and seemed to be the eyes of an +expiring man; his plump cheeks were working under an excess of +emotion; then his head went down suddenly as under the blow of a club. + +"Because of the character of the act," Lee said, "it wasn't only a +stroke at me but at every animal and man in the entire south camp. I +want to make this clear in order to show how black and dastardly the +thing was. Whether Charlie understood or intended the destruction of +all the lives and property there is no excuse; it was a deed that +would have carried terrible results in its train. I don't even let my +mind conceive them. All this has followed, Mr. Menocal, from the +single fact that your son disliked me in the beginning. To that may +be added an idea that I was depriving you of something to which I had +no right, namely, the title to the Perro Creek canal appropriation. +And there, I think, responsibility for his course touches you." + +He paused to gaze at the Mexican, whose face had become drained of +colour. + +"Mr. Menocal, the water is mine," he continued, "and to-night some +time it will be mine beyond all dispute, for then the ditch will be +finished. So much for that. Some days ago we had a talk that, I +believe, led us each to a better opinion of the other. I think that as +a leader here in Bartolo and around about you're a force for good; you +believe in law, order, and education; and I know, from what I've +learned, that you carry many of the people on store accounts for long +periods when crops are bad or when they are distressed by sickness. +I'm confident you're endeavouring to elevate them so far as possible; +and I admit frankly that I've modified very greatly my first +estimation of you. That weighs in the scale against Charlie's actions. + +"Then there's one kindness Charlie himself has done me, though he may +not be aware of the fact. I'll not say what it is; let it suffice that +it is the case. A very great kindness it was, indeed! I count that +likewise in the opposite scale. And then there are other things to +consider, one among them that after all no harm has come to me. The +enmity he's held for me has simply recoiled upon his own head. All he +has to show for it after months of hating and contriving is his +position here in this room to-day--and a dead dog. Surely it must make +plain to him that his course has been not only futile but foolish." + +The engineer glanced at the young fellow. He sat in an attitude of +despair that almost equalled his father's. + +"Well, that brings me to the point," Bryant said. "You've been too +indulgent with Charlie, Mr. Menocal, as you once acknowledged to me. +You've given him too much money, too much admiration, too much head, +and it has led him up against the bars of the state prison. The +question is whether or not I shall open the gate and push him in, as +at first I determined to do on securing the proof in this leather +sack. If I thought he would keep on along his present line, I should +say yes, merely as a matter of public policy, but I've had several +days to think the thing over and have come to the conclusion he'll +soon realize his folly, if he doesn't now. And another restraint +should be the good name and the happiness of his father. I'm not +vindictive, Mr. Menocal, and less on this day than I've ever been. I +don't believe in causing people misery merely for the pleasure of +inflicting it or because I happen to have the power. We all have +enough to contend with, as it is. I don't propose to ruin your +position here, and end your influence, and blast your life, by sending +your son to the penitentiary. That would make me no happier, and would +make a number of people infinitely wretched, while perhaps starting +Charlie on the road to hell. Very likely so. I much prefer to see +everyone cheerful and at work. Suppose we ship this fellow yonder back +to Mexico--Winship can arrange that--and destroy the checks, and tear +up this sheet of Charlie's record, so to speak. Only one or two +persons besides ourselves know of the matter and I'll ask them to +forget it." + +Lee struck a match and ignited the checks, holding them while they +burned until at last he dropped them on the floor, where they blazed, +curled up in strips of black ash, and were no more. He glanced about +at the others. Winship was picking his teeth with a quill toothpick, +with his mind apparently far away on other matters. Morgan stolidly +chewed tobacco and kept a wary eye on the bandit, Alvarez. Charlie sat +pale, limp, gazing at nothing. The elder Menocal had lifted his eyes +to Bryant, at whom he looked mistily; he appeared to have aged +astonishingly, his cheeks having gone flabby, slack, and gray, while a +slight tremour shook his head. + +"That's all, I guess," Bryant said, briskly. "We'll just consider our +relations established on the same footing they were before this +occurrence." + +He put out a hand, smiling. The banker struggled to his feet and +clasped it in both of his. + +"They shall not be on the same footing, but on a better one, Mr. +Bryant, if it's in my power to make them so," he exclaimed, in a +choked voice. + +"That suits me right down to the ground, Mr. Menocal." + +The Mexican was silent. His lips parted, quivered, and shut again. His +hold on the engineer's hand tightened. + +"I--I can't talk now, can't say what I wish to say," he said, mastered +by feeling. "When I'm more myself, when I can talk--another time----" +He ceased, but presently finished, "Another time I'll tell the +gratitude in my heart. Now my shame for my son and for myself----Come, +Charlie, take me home." + +They went out. Winship came to life and crossing the room dragged the +outlaw Mexican to his feet, then pushed him over the floor and into +the hall on his way to the cells in the basement. Morgan pulled on his +hat. Bryant glanced at the paper ashes on the floor, then did +likewise. It was time to get back to camp. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + + +The first snowflakes of another storm were beginning to flutter down +by the time the two men reached camp, and dusk had set in. On the +drifted road from Bartolo, over which but few wagons had passed, +travel was slow and they had consumed an hour and a half on their +return. The torches were burning along the canal, appearing at a +distance like winter fireflies, but the crews of workmen had gone to +supper. Bryant and Morgan, when they drove down the street in camp, +could hear them at their meal in the glowing mess tents--a subdued +hubbub of plates and knives and voices. + +Half an hour later they were pouring forth toward the horse tents, +while the engineers were making their way along the torch-lit path to +the stretch of undug canal. + +"We'll allow fifteen minutes for them to get the teams out, then +shoot," Carrigan said to Lee, as they moved along. "All the shots are +in and double-fused. Doesn't appear to be any wind behind this snow." + +The air, though cold, was still. The flakes were not yet falling +heavily and they lay on the hard crust of snow as light as silk fluff. +What might be coming down in another hour from the darkness overhead, +however, could not be foretold, while if both a gale and a great fall +of snow occurred the labour of the night would be increased a +hundred-fold. + +Bryant's anxiety was no longer on account of the time limit fixed by +the Land and Water Board. He knew that since the revelations made in +the sheriff's office the claimant Rodriguez would never press his +case, even were the canal never completed. But he had the keen desire +of a tired man to clean up the job and be done, and a pride in keeping +faith with himself in accomplishing what he had sworn he should do, +build the project in ninety days. He would never have it said by any +one that he had failed in that. By Gretzinger, for example. Ruth in +particular! She believed that he had already failed when she wrote her +letter. + +By the end of the quarter of an hour prescribed by Carrigan teams and +workmen were coming along the snowy road in a long line. From the +north camp also a string of animals in pairs was advancing by light of +the torches. A warning shout sounded from the ditch section. Men +retreated. Then a roaring boom burst upon the night, with other +thunderous reports following in rapid succession, until it seemed that +the mined earth cascading upward in the darkness was the bombardment +of scores of cannon. The flames of the torches and the falling snow +tossed and whirled at the percussion of air. Showers of clay rained +upon the earth. Vibrations jarred the ground. + +Then the companies of horses and men, fastening upon scrapers, +hastened into the trench. The remaining strip that joined the two +sections of canal had been blown out and now this was the final, +culminating assault. When this two hundred and fifty yards of ditch +line had been widened and deepened to correspond to the rest, water +would flow of summers in a small river from the dam down to the broad +acres of Perro Creek ranch. + +Hour after hour the steady labour proceeded--plows ran; flat scrapers +and wheeled fresnos followed, scooped up the earth, bore it to the +banks above; horses tugged and strained; men toiled, pausing only to +thaw their feet and hands at fires burning by the ditch or to drain +great tin-cups of the scalding coffee that the cooks dipped from cans. +And steadily the excavation widened and deepened hour by hour, the +slope of the sides becoming apparent, the banks rising higher and the +ditch assuming its desired shape and size. At eleven o'clock the cooks +wheeled immense canisters of sliced beef and bread among the workmen, +who seized the food and ate it as they worked. At midnight the plows +were cutting near the bottom, and the work was going faster, as the +frost did not strike this deep into the soil. At one o'clock in the +morning, amid thickening snow, the last scraperfuls of dirt were going +out, while the engineers, with their long rules, were checking depths +and slopes. + +"By golly, she's about done!" exclaimed Dave, who had been permitted +to remain up on this eventful night and who had been moving about, +here, there, and everywhere, in a great state of excitement. "By +golly, she is, Lee!" + +"Yes, by golly; the ditch you helped me survey, too." + +"By golly, yes!" He had forgotten that. + +The last dirt moved with a rush. Then, even as the teams were dragging +the loads from the excavation, Carrigan passed to a foreman the word +that announced the end of work. It ran along the canal from mouth to +mouth, at first in a call but finally in a shout that swelled to a +roar of exultation. That roar rang over the snow and through the +night like the cry of an army which has gained a walled city. + +"Done!" said Bryant, to himself. + +Back to the camps trooped the teams and men by the flare of the +torches they carried in jubilation. Not a soul in all that company but +felt the triumph beating in Lee's heart. Finished, built! Despite +frost and snow they had driven the iron furrow through to the end, and +on time. Toil-weary though they were, their spirits were light. They +knew themselves fellow-workers in a redoubtable achievement. + +Carrigan and Bryant were among the last to go. To the latter there was +in the fact of completion a sense of unreality. As he took a final +view of the ditch before setting out for camp, events raced through +his mind--his coming, his first labours, the confused interplay of his +life with those of the Menocals, McDonnell, Gretzinger, Carrigan, +Imogene, Ruth, and Louise; the months of incessant toil; of +brain-racking and body-wearing endeavour to force the canal forward; +of unresting strife with frost and snow and earth, of being under a +pitiless hammer. He could not easily realize that he was now free of +all this. + +"I have an empty feeling," he remarked to Carrigan. + +"One always has a 'let-down' after a hard job," was Pat's sage +rejoinder. "You'll feel restless for maybe a week now." + +They went from the spot up the snowy road and turned in at Pat's shack +for a smoke. Late as it was, neither felt the need of sleep as yet. + +"Well, it's a comfort to know that we don't have to plug again at that +ground in the morning," Lee remarked, with a sigh of satisfaction. He +had his feet on the table, his body relaxed, and his pipe going. + +"Yeah. The only disappointment I have," Pat said, "is not having +lifted the bonds and stocks out of Gretzinger. If we hadn't been so +pressed for time, we might have played him a little till he took the +hook. I don't like his kind at all." + +Bryant laughed. + +"Why, he's the best friend I have," he exclaimed. "What do you think +he did for me?" + +"Well, what? Besides trying to shake you down?" + +"Pat, he carried off and married my girl." + +The contractor lowered his feet, placed his hands upon his knees, and +gazed at Bryant, with brows down-drawn and under lip up-thrust. + +"That good-for-nothing Ruth what's-her-name?" he demanded. In all the +months of their association it was the first time he had ever spoken +of her to Bryant. + +"Ruth Gardner, yes." + +Carrigan rose, gave Lee a long and solemn look, then went to a trunk +in the corner of the room. This he unlocked and opened. From its +interior he produced a black bottle. + +"I don't take a drink very often," he announced, coming forward and +setting the bottle on the table, "but this is one of the times. We'll +take one to celebrate your luck." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + +About the middle of the next afternoon Lee Bryant was riding southward +from camp on the main mesa trail. The road was difficult and his horse +Dick made slow time along the snowy path broken by wagons through the +drifts, but the rider let the animal choose his own gait, as he had +done that hot July day when coming up from the south to buy the Perro +Creek ranch. On reaching the ford Lee pulled rein. How different now +the creek from on that burning afternoon of his encounter with Ruth +Gardner and Imogene Martin! Snow covered its bed; the sands where he +had knelt, the little pool, the foot-prints, lay hidden from sight. +How much had happened since! And how different was his life! He had +suffered much and learned much since that hour of meeting; and he +should never henceforth view this spot without a little feeling of +melancholy. The youth and two girls who drank there at the rill were +no more: they had become other persons. + +Presently he dismissed thoughts of this and set Dick wading across the +ford. Yonder he now could see the three bare cottonwoods, with the low +adobe house near by where he and Dave had lived and laboured at the +surveys for the project. The bones of his dog Mike, too, rested there +under the ground. This brought to mind the meeting with Louise upon +the road--and it was Louise to whom at this moment he was going. He +began to urge Dick to greater efforts. Once on a stretch of road, bare +and wind-swept, he pushed him into a gallop. It seemed interminable, +this snow-bound trail. But at last he crossed Sarita Creek (with but a +single glance at the canon's mouth where the two cabins stood +untenanted and abandoned among the naked trees) and then covered the +long miles to Diamond Creek, and rode up the lane between the rows of +cottonwoods to the house, where Louise, who had perceived his approach +from a window, appeared at the door to greet him. + +"We were terribly alarmed for your safety the night of the blizzard," +she said, "but the mail-man finally made his trip to Bartolo and back, +and said you were still there and not blown away. And he also stated +that you were working night and day." + +"Not any more," said Lee, swinging from the saddle. + +"You have finished! I can read it on your face!" she cried, joyfully. + +"Yes; we threw out the last clod at one o'clock this morning." + +"I needn't tell you that I'm proud and happy; you know that, Lee. Even +happier than when I learned you were able to continue, at the time you +supposed you were unable. Put up your horse and come in. You're half +frozen." + +Bryant endeavoured to discover from her face what he wished to know, +but did not succeed. So he asked: + +"Have you had your mail lately?" + +"Not for three days. The mail-man made one trip and then the next snow +closed the road again to Kennard." + +Lee went off to stable Dick. On his return he found Louise at the door +still waiting, and she helped him to remove his overcoat and scarf +when they passed in to the fire. Then they pushed a divan forward and +she bade him spread out his hands before the blaze. + +"It wasn't so long ago that we agreed we mustn't see each other again, +and here we are together," he stated, with a pretense of solemnity. He +extended his hands to the heat and moved his fingers about to expel +their numbness. "I don't know what your father would say if he knew +all the circumstances." + +"I--I don't know, either," Louise stammered, in dismay at the thought. + +"How's Imogene?" he inquired. + +"Improving slowly. All she needed was to get away from that horrid +cabin and horrid--well, surroundings." + +"And your father's here?" + +"At one of the feed corrals, I think. He had all the cattle rounded up +before the blizzard and held here and fed. A big task, with several +thousand head." + +"Then we're safe," said Lee. + +Louise looked at him doubtfully. She knew not what to make of this +talk and his portentous air, and felt a new apprehension rising in her +mind. + +"What is it? What has happened now, Lee?" she whispered. + +But all at once he began to laugh. He caught her hand and holding it +gazed, smiling, into her eyes. Then he drew from his pocket an +envelope, which (still keeping prisoner the hand he had captured) he +waved to and fro before her eyes. + +"If I didn't know you well, I'd think you had lost your wits," she +cried. + +"I have--wits and heart both. With joy! Wait, I'll take the letter out +so that you can read it. The only blessed thing I ever knew her to do! +I bless her for it, at any rate." He pulled the letter and the +clipping from their cover and laid them in Louise's hand. "Read, read +the tidings!" + +The girl's fingers began to tremble as her eyes flitted along the +lines. But she read no more than the first part of the letter. She +turned to him with her eyes misty, her face radiant. + +"I could weep for happiness--but I'm not going to." She made a little +dab with her handkerchief at her lashes. "Oh, Lee, to think you're +free! And that now we may love each other!" + +"I thought we did." + +"Of course we did--but you know what I mean." + +"You didn't read it all," said he. "You don't know yet the poor +opinion she has of me." + +Louise crumpled the letter in her hand and cast it into the flames. + +"Nor do I want to know it," she exclaimed. "All I care about is my own +opinion of you, and our love. That's enough. Perhaps we shall be all +the happier for the little misery she caused us." + +Her eyes dwelt proudly upon him, upon his face that showed new lines +of strength, that was clear and calm, that revealed a spirit come to +full manhood, that was luminous with the love she inspired. He had +taken her hands and was regarding her tenderly. + +"Ruth rendered me one service," said he. "She taught me that there's +an appearance which may be mistaken for the substance. That shall be +to her credit." He sat silent, smiling thoughtfully for a moment. Then +he raised his eyes and drew Louise toward him. "But you, Louise, awoke +real love." + +His arms enclosed her fast and their lips met in a first kiss. + +"We shall walk among the flowers and in the orchard again, Lee dear," +she murmured, "as we did once before. And I shall bring you buttermilk +as I did that morning--but there will be no Charlie Menocal." + +"No. Charlie won't annoy us in the future." + +"And when the snow is gone we'll ride along your canal----" + +"Our canal now, sweetheart." + +"Along our canal and see where you worked so hard and struggled and +won, and I'll listen while you point here and there and tell of the +obstacles overcome, and of all you did. We shall be gay and happy." + +"As I'm happy now," he said, softly. "Do you know what I see there in +the firelight? A building, a house--our home." + +Louise's face lifted to his, all sweetness and trust. + +"I see it, too," she murmured. + +"On Perro Creek ranch," Lee continued, "with the sagebrush gone and in +its place fields of grain and alfalfa spreading out to the horizon, +with water rippling along in little canals and fat cows standing +about, and contented farmers at work, and perhaps a railroad somewhere +in the background, and ourselves in the foreground by our new home, +where flowers are growing, too, and--and----" + +Louise's arms slipped up and about his neck, until her cheek rested +against his. + +"You dream and then you build--you dream and make your dreams come +true," she said. "You're my dreamer-builder." + +Lee was smiling. The caress in her words, the warm touch of her cheek, +her heart beating against his, all made his happiness complete. + +"And your lover," he whispered. + + +THE END + + + * * * * * + + + + +=Popular Copyright Novels= + +_AT MODERATE PRICES_ + +Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular +Copyright Fiction + + * * * * * + +=Adventures of Jimmie Dale, The.= By Frank L. Packard. +=Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.= By A. Conan Doyle. +=After House, The.= By Mary Roberts Rinehart. +=Ailsa Paige.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Alton of Somasco.= By Harold Bindloss. +=Amateur Gentleman, The.= By Jeffery Farnol. +=Anna, the Adventuress.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Anne's House of Dreams.= By L.M. Montgomery. +=Around Old Chester.= By Margaret Deland. +=Athalie.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=At the Mercy of Tiberius.= By Augusta Evans Wilson. +=Auction Block, The.= By Rex Beach. +=Aunt Jane of Kentucky.= By Eliza C. 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Richmond. +=Bruce of the Circle A.= By Harold Titus. +=Buck Peters, Ranchman.= By Clarence E. Mulford. +=Business of Life, The.= By Robert W. Chambers. + + + + +Popular Copyright Novels + +_AT MODERATE PRICES_ + +Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular +Copyright Fiction + + * * * * * + +=Cabbages and Kings.= By O. Henry. +=Cabin Fever.= By B.M. Bower. +=Calling of Dan Matthews, The.= By Harold Bell Wright. +=Cape Cod Stories.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. +=Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper.= By James A. Cooper. +=Cap'n Dan's Daughter.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. +=Cap'n Eri.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. +=Cap'n Jonah's Fortune.= By James A. Cooper. +=Cap'n Warren's Wards.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. +=Chain of Evidence, A.= By Carolyn Wells. +=Chief Legatee, The.= By Anna Katharine Green. +=Cinderella Jane.= By Marjorie B. Cooke. +=Cinema Murder, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=City of Masks, The.= By George Barr McCutcheon. +=Cleek of Scotland Yard.= By T.W. Hanshew. +=Cleek, The Man of Forty Faces.= By Thomas W. Hanshew. +=Cleek's Government Cases.= By Thomas W. Hanshew. +=Clipped Wings.= By Rupert Hughes. +=Clue, The.= By Carolyn Wells. +=Clutch of Circumstance, The.= By Marjorie Benton Cooke. +=Coast of Adventure, The.= By Harold Bindloss. +=Coming of Cassidy, The.= By Clarence E. Mulford. +=Coming of the Law, The.= By Chas. A. Seltzer. +=Conquest of Canaan, The.= By Booth Tarkington. +=Conspirators, The.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Court of Inquiry, A.= By Grace S. Richmond. +=Cow Puncher, The.= By Robert J.C. Stead. +=Crimson Gardenia, The, and Other Tales of Adventure.= By Rex Beach. +=Cross Currents.= By Author of "Pollyanna." +=Cry in the Wilderness, A.= By Mary E. Waller. + +=Danger, And Other Stories.= By A. Conan Doyle. +=Dark Hollow, The.= By Anna Katharine Green. +=Dark Star, The.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Daughter Pays, The.= By Mrs. Baillie Reynolds. +=Day of Days, The.= By Louis Joseph Vance. +=Depot Master, The.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. +=Desired Woman, The.= By Will N. Harben. + + + + +=Popular Copyright Novels= + +_AT MODERATE PRICES_ + +Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular +Copyright Fiction + + * * * * * + +=Destroying Angel, The=. By Louis Jos. Vance. +=Devil's Own, The.= By Randall Parrish. +=Double Traitor, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. + +=Empty Pockets.= By Rupert Hughes. +=Eyes of the Blind, The.= By Arthur Somers Roche. +=Eye of Dread, The.= By Payne Erskine. +=Eyes of the World, The.= By Harold Bell Wright. +=Extricating Obadiah.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. + +=Felix O'Day.= By F. Hopkinson Smith. +=54-40 or Fight.= By Emerson Hough. +=Fighting Chance, The.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Fighting Shepherdess, The.= By Caroline Lockhart. +=Financier, The.= By Theodore Dreiser. +=Flame, The.= By Olive Wadsley. +=Flamsted Quarries=. By Mary E. Wallar. +=Forfeit, The.= By Ridgwell Cullum. +=Four Million, The.= By O. Henry. +=Fruitful Vine, The.= By Robert Hichens. +=Further Adventures of Jimmie Dale, The.= By Frank L. Packard. + +=Girl of the Blue Ridge, A.= By Payne Erskine. +=Girl from Keller's, The.= By Harold Bindloss. +=Girl Philippa, The.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Girls at His Billet, The.= By Berta Ruck. +=God's Country and the Woman.= By James Oliver Curwood. +=Going Some.= By Rex Beach. +=Golden Slipper, The.= By Anna Katharine Green. +=Golden Woman, The.= By Ridgwell Cullum. +=Greater Love Hath No Man.= By Frank L. Packard. +=Greyfriars Bobby.= By Eleanor Atkinson. +=Gun Brand, The.= By James B. Hendryx. + +=Halcyone.= By Elinor Glyn. +=Hand of Fu-Manchu, The.= By Sax Rohmer. +=Havoc.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Heart of the Desert, The.= By Honore Willsie. +=Heart of the Hills, The.= By John Fox, Jr. + + + + +=Popular Copyright Novels= + +_AT MODERATE PRICES_ + +Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular +Copyright Fiction + + * * * * * + +=Heart of the Sunset.= By Rex Beach. +=Heart of Thunder Mountain, The.= By Edfrid A. Bingham. +=Her Weight in Gold.= By Geo. B. McCutcheon. +=Hidden Children, The.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Hidden Spring, The.= By Clarence B. Kelland. +=Hillman, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Hills of Refuge, The.= By Will N. Harben. +=His Official Fiancee.= By Berta Ruck. +=Honor of the Big Snows.= By James Oliver Curwood. +=Hopalong Cassidy.= By Clarence E. Mulford. +=Hound from the North, The.= By Ridgwell Cullum. +=House of the Whispering Pines, The.= By Anna Katharine Green. +=Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker.= By S. Weir Mitchell, M.D. + +=I Conquered.= By Harold Titus. +=Illustrious Prince, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=In Another Girl's Shoes.= By Berta Ruck. +=Indifference of Juliet, The.= By Grace S. Richmond. +=Infelice.= By Augusta Evans Wilson. +=Initials Only.= By Anna Katharine Green. +=Inner Law, The.= By Will N. Harben. +=Innocent.= By Marie Corelli. +=Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu, The.= By Sax Rohmer. +=In the Brooding Wild.= By Ridgwell Cullum. +=Intriguers, The.= By Harold Bindloss. +=Iron Trail, The.= By Rex Beach. +=Iron Woman, The.= By Margaret Deland. +=I Spy.= By Natalie Sumner Lincoln. + +=Japonette.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Jean of the Lazy A.= By B.M. Bower. +=Jeanne of the Marshes.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Jennie Gerhardt.= By Theodore Dreiser. +=Judgment House, The.= By Gilbert Parker. + +=Keeper of the Door, The.= By Ethel M. Dell. +=Keith of the Border.= By Randall Parrish. +=Kent Knowles: Quahaug.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. +=Kingdom of the Blind, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. + + + + +=Popular Copyright Novels= + +_AT MODERATE PRICES_ + +Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular +Copyright Fiction + + * * * * * + +=King Spruce.= By Holman Day. +=King's Widow, The.= By Mrs. Baillie Reynolds. +=Knave of Diamonds, The.= By Ethel M. Dell. + +=Ladder of Swords.= By Gilbert Parker. +=Lady Betty Across the Water.= By C.N. & A.M. Williamson. +=Land-Girl's Love Story, A.= By Berta Ruck. +=Landloper, The.= By Holman Day. +=Land of Long Ago, The.= By Eliza Calvert Hall. +=Land of Strong Men, The.= By A.M. Chisholm. +=Last Trail, The.= By Zane Grey. +=Laugh and Live.= By Douglas Fairbanks. +=Laughing Bill Hyde.= By Rex Beach. +=Laughing Girl, The.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Law Breakers, The.= By Ridgwell Cullum. +=Lifted Veil, The.= By Basil King. +=Lighted Way, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Lin McLean.= By Owen Wister. +=Lonesome Land.= By B.M. Bower. +=Lone Wolf, The.= By Louis Joseph Vance. +=Long Ever Ago.= By Rupert Hughes. +=Lonely Stronghold, The.= By Mrs. Baillie Reynolds. +=Long Live the King..= By Mary Roberts Rinehart. +=Long Roll, The.= By Mary Johnston. +=Lord Tony's Wife.= By Baroness Orczy. +=Lost Ambassador.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Lost Prince, The.= By Frances Hodgson Burnett. +=Lydia of the Pines.= By Honore Willsie. + +=Maid of the Forest, The.= By Randall Parrish. +=Maid of the Whispering Hills, The.= By Vingie E. Roe. +=Maids of Paradise, The.= By Robert W. Chambers. +=Major, The.= By Ralph Connor. +=Maker of History; A.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Malefactor, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Man from Bar 20, The.= By Clarence E. Mulford. +=Man in Grey, The.= By Baroness Orczy. +=Man Trail, The.= By Henry Oyen. +=Man Who Couldn't Sleep, The.= By Arthur Stringer. + + + + +=Popular Copyright Novels= + +_AT MODERATE PRICES_ + +Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular +Copyright Fiction + + * * * * * + +=Man with the Club Foot, The.= By Valentine Williams. +=Mary-'Gusta.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. +=Mary Moreland.= By Marie Van Vorst. +=Mary Regan.= By Leroy Scott. +=Master Mummer, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.= By A. Conan Doyle. +=Men Who Wrought, The.= By Ridgwell Cullum. +=Mischief Maker, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Missioner, The.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Miss Million's Maid.= By Berta Ruck. +=Molly McDonald.= By Randall Parrish. +=Money Master, The.= By Gilbert Parker. +=Money Moon, The.= By Jeffery Farnol. +=Mountain Girl, The.= By Payne Erskine. +=Moving Finger, The.= By Natalie Sumner Lincoln. +=Mr. Bingle.= By George Barr McCutcheon. +=Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo.= By E. Phillips Oppenheim. +=Mr. Pratt.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. +=Mr. Pratt's Patients.= By Joseph C. Lincoln. +=Mrs. Belfame.= By Gertrude Atherton. +=Mrs. Red Pepper.= By Grace S. Richmond. +=My Lady Caprice.= By Jeffrey Farnol. +=My Lady of the North.= By Randall Parrish. +=My Lady of the South.= By Randall Parrish. +=Mystery of the Hasty Arrow, The.= By Anna K. Green. + +=Nameless Man, The.= By Natalie Sumner Lincoln. +=Ne'er-Do-Well, The.= By Rex Beach. +=Nest Builders, The.= By Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale. +=Net, The.= By Rex Beach. +=New Clarion.= By Will N. Harben. +=Night Operator, The.= By Frank L. Packard. +=Night Riders, The.= By Ridgwell Cullum. +=Nobody.= By Louis Joseph Vance. + +=Okewood of the Secret Service.= By the Author of + "The Man with the Club Foot." +=One Way Trail, The.= By Ridgwell Cullum. +=Open, Sesame.= By Mrs. Baillie Reynolds. +=Otherwise Phyllis.= By Meredith Nicholson. +=Outlaw, The.= By Jackson Gregory. + + + * * * * * + + + +------------------------------------------------------+ + | Typographical errors corrected in text: | + | | + | page 19: mortage replaced by mortgage | + | page 62: Monocal replaced by Menocal | + | page 63: Monocal replaced by Menocal | + | page 66: dissappointed replaced by disappointed | + | page 130: Sante replaced by Santa | + | | + +------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Iron Furrow, by George C. 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