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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/2285-0.txt b/2285-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f6884a --- /dev/null +++ b/2285-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8064 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ridgway of Montana, by William MacLeod Raine + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: Ridgway of Montana + A story of to-day, in which the hero is also the villain + +Author: William MacLeod Raine + +Release Date: August, 2000 [eBook #2285] +[Most recently updated: December 12, 2022] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: Mary Starr + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RIDGWAY OF MONTANA *** + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +Ridgway of Montana + + +A story of to-day, +in which the hero is also the villain + +by William Macleod Raine + + + + +To JEAN +AND THAT KINGDOM + +“Where you and I through this world’s weather +Work, and give praise and thanks together.” + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER I. Two Men and a Woman + CHAPTER II. The Freebooter + CHAPTER III. One to One + CHAPTER IV. Fort Salvation + CHAPTER V. Enter Simon Harley + CHAPTER VI. On the Snow-trail + CHAPTER VII. Back from Arcadia + CHAPTER VIII. The Honorable Thomas B. Pelton + CHAPTER IX. An Evening Call + CHAPTER X. Harley Makes a Proposition + CHAPTER XI. Virginia Intervenes + CHAPTER XII. Aline Makes a Discovery + CHAPTER XIII. First Blood + CHAPTER XIV. A Conspiracy + CHAPTER XV. Laska Opens a Door + CHAPTER XVI. An Explosion in the Taurus + CHAPTER XVII. The Election + CHAPTER XVIII. Further Developments + CHAPTER XIX. One Million Dollars + CHAPTER XX. A Little Lunch at Alphonse’s + CHAPTER XXI. Harley Scores + CHAPTER XXII. “Not Guilty”—“Guilty” + CHAPTER XXIII. Aline Turns a Corner + CHAPTER XXIV. A Good Samaritan + CHAPTER XXV. Friendly Enemies + CHAPTER XXVI. Breaks One and Makes Another Engagement + + + + +CHAPTER I. +TWO MEN AND A WOMAN + + +“Mr. Ridgway, ma’am.” + +The young woman who was giving the last touches to the very effective +picture framed in her long looking-glass nodded almost imperceptibly. + +She had come to the parting of the ways, and she knew it, with a shrewd +suspicion as to which she would choose. She had asked for a week to +decide, and her heart-searching had told her nothing new. It was +characteristic of Virginia Balfour that she did not attempt to deceive +herself. If she married Waring Ridgway it would be for what she +considered good and sufficient reasons, but love would not be one of +them. He was going to be a great man, for one thing, and probably a +very rich one, which counted, though it would not be a determining +factor. This she could find only in the man himself, in the masterful +force that made him what he was. The sandstings of life did not disturb +his confidence in his victorious star, nor did he let fine-spun moral +obligations hamper his predatory career. He had a genius for success in +whatever he undertook, pushing his way to his end with a shrewd, direct +energy that never faltered. She sometimes wondered whether she, too, +like the men he used as tools, was merely a pawn in his game, and her +consent an empty formality conceded to convention. Perhaps he would +marry her even if she did not want to, she told herself, with the +sudden illuminating smile that was one of her chief charms. + +But Ridgway’s wary eyes, appraising her mood as she came forward to +meet him, read none of this doubt in her frank greeting. Anything more +sure and exquisite than the cultivation Virginia Balfour breathed he +would have been hard put to it to conceive. That her gown and its +accessories seemed to him merely the extension of a dainty personality +was the highest compliment he could pay her charm, and an entirely +unconscious one. + +“Have I kept you waiting?” she smiled, giving him her hand. + +His answering smile, quite cool and unperturbed, gave the lie to his +words. “For a year, though the almanac called it a week.” + +“You must have suffered,” she told him ironically, with a glance at the +clear color in his good-looking face. + +“Repressed emotion,” he explained. “May I hope that my suffering has +reached a period?” + +They had been sauntering toward a little conservatory at the end of the +large room, but she deflected and brought up at a table on which lay +some books. One of these she picked up and looked at incuriously for a +moment before sweeping them aside. She rested her hands on the table +behind her and leaned back against it, her eyes meeting his fairly. + +“You’re still of the same mind, are you?” she demanded. + +“Oh! very much.” + +She lifted herself to the table, crossing her feet and dangling them +irresponsibly. “We might as well be comfy while we talk;” and she +indicated, by a nod, a chair. + +“Thanks. If you don’t mind, I think I’ll take it standing.” + +She did not seem in any hurry to begin, and Ridgway gave evidence of no +desire to hasten her. But presently he said, with a little laugh that +seemed to offer her inclusion in the joke: + +“I’m on the anxious seat, you know—waiting to find out whether I’m to +be the happiest man alive.” + +“You know as much about it as I do.” She echoed his laugh ruefully. +“I’m still as much at sea as I was last week. I couldn’t tell then, and +I can’t now.” + +“No news is good news, they say.” + +“I don’t want to marry you a bit, but you’re a great catch, as you are +very well aware.” + +“I suppose I am rather a catch,” he agreed, the shadow of a smile at +the corners of his mouth. + +“It isn’t only your money; though, of course, that’s a temptation,” she +admitted audaciously. + +“I’m glad it’s not only my money.” He could laugh with her about it +because he was shrewd enough to understand that it was not at all his +wealth. Her cool frankness might have frightened away another man. It +merely served to interest Ridgway. For, with all his strength, he was a +vain man, always ready to talk of himself. He spent a good deal of his +spare time interpreting himself to attractive and attracted young +women. + +Her gaze fastened on the tip of her suede toe, apparently studying it +attentively. “It would be a gratification to my vanity to parade you as +the captive of my bow and spear. You’re such a magnificent specimen, +such a berserk in broadcloth. Still. I shan’t marry you if I can help +it—but, then, I’m not sure that I can help it. Of course, I disapprove +of you entirely, but you’re rather fascinating, you know.” Her eye +traveled slowly up to his, appraising the masterful lines of his square +figure, the dominant strength of his close-shut mouth and resolute +eyes. “Perhaps ‘fascinating’ isn’t just the word, but I can’t help +being interested in you, whether I like you or not. I suppose you +always get what you want very badly?” she flung out by way of question. + +“That’s what I’m trying to discover”—he smiled. + +“There are things to be considered both ways,” she said, taking him +into her confidence. “You trample on others. How do I know you wouldn’t +tread on me?” + +“That would be one of the risks you would take,” he agreed +impersonally. + +“I shouldn’t like that at all. If I married you it would be because as +your wife I should have so many opportunities. I should expect to do +exactly as I please. I shouldn’t want you to interfere with me, though +I should want to be able to influence you.” + +“Nothing could be fairer than that,” was his amiably ironical comment. + +“You see, I don’t know you—not really—and they say all sorts of things +about you.” + +“They don’t say I am a quitter, do they?” + +She leaned forward, chin in hand and elbow on knee. It was a part of +the accent of her distinction that as a rebel she was both demure and +daring. “I wonder if I might ask you some questions—the intimate kind +that people think but don’t say—at least, they don’t say them to you.” + +“It would be a pleasure to me to be put on the witness-stand. I should +probably pick up some interesting side-lights about myself.” + +“Very well.” Her eyes danced with excitement. “You’re what they call a +buccaneer of business, aren’t you?” + +Here were certainly diverting pastimes. “I believe I have been called +that; but, then, I’ve had the hardest names in the dictionary thrown at +me so often that I can’t be sure.” + +“I suppose you are perfectly unscrupulous in a business way—stop at +nothing to gain your point?” + +He took her impudence smilingly. + +“‘Unscrupulous’ isn’t the word I use when I explain myself to myself, +but as an unflattered description, such as one my enemies might use to +describe me, I dare say it is fairly accurate.” + +“I wonder why. Do you dispense with a conscience entirely?” + +“Well, you see, Miss Balfour, if I nursed a New England conscience I +could stand up to the attacks of the Consolidated about as long as a +dove to a hawk. I meet fire with fire to avoid being wiped off the map +of the mining world. I play the game. I can’t afford to keep a button +on my foil when my opponent doesn’t.” + +She nodded an admission of his point. “And yet there are rules of the +game to be observed, aren’t there? The Consolidated people claim you +steal their ore, I believe.” Her slanted eyes studied the effect of her +daring. + +He laughed grimly. “Do they? I claim they steal mine. It’s rather +difficult to have an exact regard for mine and thine before the courts +decide which is which.” + +“And meanwhile, in order to forestall an adverse decision, you are +working extra shifts to get all the ore out of the disputed veins.” + +“Precisely, just as they are,” he admitted dryly. “Then the side that +loses will not be so disappointed, since the value of the veins will be +less. Besides, stealing ore openly doesn’t count. It is really a moral +obligation in a fight like this,” he explained. + +“A moral obligation?” + +“Exactly. You can’t hit a trust over the head with the decalogue. +Modern business is war. Somebody is bound to get hurt. If I win out it +will be because I put up a better fight than the Consolidated, and +cripple it enough to make it let me alone. I’m looking out for myself, +and I don’t pretend to be any better than my neighbors. When you get +down to bed-rock honesty, I’ve never seen it in business. We’re all of +us as honest as we think we can afford to be. I haven’t noticed that +there is any premium on it in Mesa. Might makes right. I’ll win if I’m +strong enough; I’ll fail if I’m not. That’s the law of life. I didn’t +make this strenuous little world, and I’m not responsible for it. If I +play I have to take the rules the way they are, not the way I should +like them to be. I’m not squeamish, and I’m not a hypocrite. Simon +Harley isn’t squeamish, either, but he happens to be a hypocrite. So +there you have the difference between us.” + +The president of the Mesa Ore-producing Company set forth his creed +jauntily, without the least consciousness of need for apology for the +fact that it happened to be divorced from morality. Its frank disregard +of ethical considerations startled Miss Balfour without shocking her. +She liked his candor, even though it condemned him. It was really very +nice of him to take her impudence so well. He certainly wasn’t a prig, +anyway. + +“And morality,” she suggested tentatively. + +“—hasn’t a thing to do with success, the parsons to the contrary +notwithstanding. The battle is to the strong.” + +“Then the Consolidated will beat you finally.” + +He smiled. “They would if I’d let them; but brains and resource and +finesse all count for power. Granted that they have a hundred dollars +to my one. Still, I have elements of strength they can’t even estimate. +David beat Goliath, you know, even though he didn’t do it with a big +stick.” + +“So you think morality is for old women?” + +“And young women,” he amended, smiling. + +“And every man is to be a law unto himself?” + +“Not quite. Some men aren’t big enough to be. Let them stick to the +conventional code. For me, if I make my own laws I don’t break them.” + +“And you’re sure that you’re on the road to true success?” she asked +lightly. + +“Now, you have heaven in the back of your mind.” + +“Not exactly,” she laughed. “But I didn’t expect you to understand.” + +“Then I won’t disappoint you,” he said cheerfully. + +She came back to the concrete. + +“I should like to know whether it is true that you own the courts of +Yuba County and have the decisions of the judges written at your +lawyer’s offices in cases between you and the Consolidated.” + +“If I do,” he answered easily, “I am doing just what the Consolidated +would do in case they had been so fortunate as to have won the last +election and seated their judicial candidates. One expects a friendly +leaning from the men one put in office.” + +“Isn’t the judiciary supposed to be the final, incorruptible bulwark of +the nation?” she pretended to want to know. + +“I believe it is supposed to be.” + +“Isn’t it rather—loading the dice, to interfere with the courts?” + +“I find the dice already loaded. I merely substitute others of my own.” + +“You don’t seem a bit ashamed of yourself.” + +“I’m ashamed of the Consolidated”—he smiled. + +“That’s a comfortable position to be able to take.” She fixed him for a +moment with her charming frown of interrogation. “You won’t mind my +asking these questions? I’m trying to decide whether you are too much +of a pirate for me. Perhaps when I’ve made up my mind you won’t want +me,” she added. + +“Oh, I’ll want you!” Then coolly: “Shall we wait till you make up your +mind before announcing the engagement?” + +“Don’t be too sure,” she flashed at him. + +“I’m horribly unsure.” + +“Of course, you’re laughing at me, just as you would”—she tilted a +sudden sideways glance at him—“if I asked you WHY you wanted to marry +me.” + +“Oh, if you take me that way——” + +She interrupted airily. “I’m trying to make up my mind whether to take +you at all.” + +“You certainly have a direct way of getting at things.” + +He studied appreciatively her piquant, tilted face; the long, graceful +lines of her slender, perfect figure. “I take it you don’t want the +sentimental reason for my wishing to marry you, though I find that +amply justified. But if you want another, you must still look to +yourself for it. My business leads me to appreciate values correctly. +When I desire you to sit at the head of my table, to order my house, my +judgment justifies itself. I have a fancy always for the best. When I +can’t gratify it I do without.” + +“Thank you.” She made him a gay little mock curtsy “I had heard you +were no carpet-knight, Mr. Ridgway. But rumor is a lying jade, for I am +being told—am I not?—that in case I don’t take pity on you, the lone +future of a celibate stretches drear before you.” + +“Oh, certainly.” + +Having come to the end of that passage, she tried another. “A young man +told me yesterday you were a fighter. He said he guessed you would +stand the acid. What did he mean?” + +Ridgway was an egoist from head to heel. He could voice his own praises +by the hour when necessary, but now he side-stepped her little trap to +make him praise himself at second-hand. + +“Better ask him.” + +“ARE you a fighter, then?” + +Had he known her and her whimsies less well, he might have taken her +audacity for innocence. + +“One couldn’t lie down, you know.” + +“Of course, you always fight fair,” she mocked. + +“When a fellow’s attacked by a gang of thugs he doesn’t pray for +boxing-gloves. He lets fly with a coupling-pin if that’s what comes +handy.” + +Her eyes, glinting sparks of mischief, marveled at him with mock +reverence, but she knew in her heart that her mockery was a fraud. She +did admire him; admired him even while she disapproved the magnificent +lawlessness of him. + +For Waring Ridgway looked every inch the indomitable fighter he was. He +stood six feet to the line, straight and strong, carrying just +sufficient bulk to temper his restless energy without impairing its +power. Nor did the face offer any shock of disappointment to the +promise given by the splendid figure. Salient-jawed and forceful, set +with cool, flinty, blue-gray eyes, no place for weakness could be found +there. One might have read a moral callousness, a colorblindness in +points of rectitude, but when the last word had been said, its +masterful capability, remained the outstanding impression. + +“Am I out of the witness-box?” he presently asked, still leaning +against the mantel from which he had been watching her impersonally as +an intellectual entertainment. + +“I think so.” + +“And the verdict?” + +“You know what it ought to be,” she accused. + +“Fortunately, kisses go by favor, not by, merit.” + +“You don’t even make a pretense of deserving.” + +“Give me credit for being an honest rogue, at least.” + +“But a rogue?” she insisted lightly. + +“Oh, a question of definitions. I could make a very good case for +myself as an honest man.” + +“If you thought it worth while?” + +“If I didn’t happen to want to be square with you”—he smiled. + +“You’re so fond of me, I suppose, that you couldn’t bear to have me +think too well of you.” + +“You know how fond of you I am.” + +“Yes, it is a pity about you,” she scoffed. + +“Believe me, yes,” he replied cheerfully. + +She drummed with her pink finger-tips on her chin, studying him +meditatively. To do him justice, she had to admit that he did not even +pretend much. He wanted her because she was a step up in the social +ladder, and, in his opinion, the most attractive girl he knew. That he +was not in love with her relieved the situation, as Miss Balfour +admitted to herself in impersonal moods. But there were times when she +could have wished he were. She felt it to be really due her attractions +that his pulses should quicken for her, and in the interests of +experience she would have liked to see how he would make love if he +really meant it from the heart and not the will. + +“It’s really an awful bother,” she sighed. + +“Referring to the little problem of your future?” + +“Yes.” + +“Can’t make up your mind whether I come in?” + +“No.” She looked up brightly, with an effect of impulsiveness. “I don’t +suppose you want to give me another week?” + +“A reprieve! But why? You’re going to marry me.” + +“I suppose so.” She laughed. “I wish I could have my cake, and eat it, +too.” + +“It would be a moral iniquity to encourage such a system of ethics.” + +“So you won’t give me a week?” she sighed. “All sorts of things might +have happened in that week. I shall always believe that the fairy +prince would have come for me.” + +“Believe that he HAS come,” he claimed. + +“Oh, I didn’t mean a prince of pirates, though there is a triumph in +having tamed a pirate chief to prosaic matrimony. In one way it will be +a pity, too. You won’t be half so picturesque. You remember how +Stevenson puts it: ‘that marriage takes from a man the capacity for +great things, whether good or bad.’” + +“I can stand a good deal of taming.” + +“Domesticating a pirate ought to be an interesting process,” she +conceded, her rare smile flashing. “It should prove a cure for ENNUI, +but then I’m never a victim of that malady.” + +“Am I being told that I am to be the happiest pirate alive?” + +“I expect you are.” + +His big hand gripped hers till it tingled. She caught his eye on a +roving quest to the door. + +“We don’t have to do that,” she announced hurriedly, with an +embarrassed flush. + +“I don’t do it because I have to,” he retorted, kissing her on the +lips. + +She fell back, protesting. “Under the circumstances—” + +The butler, with a card on a tray, interrupted silently. She glanced at +the card, devoutly grateful his impassive majesty’s entrance had not +been a moment earlier. + +“Show him in here.” + +“The fairy prince, five minutes too late?” asked Ridgway, when the man +had gone. + +For answer she handed him the card, yet he thought the pink that +flushed her cheek was something more pronounced than usual. But he was +willing to admit there might be a choice of reasons for that. + +“Lyndon Hobart” was the name he read. + +“I think the Consolidated is going to have its innings. I should like +to stay, of course, but I fear I must plead a subsequent engagement and +leave the field to the enemy.” + +Pronouncing “Mr. Hobart” without emphasis, the butler vanished. The +newcomer came forward with the quiet assurance of the born aristocrat. +He was a slender, well-knit man, dressed fastidiously, with clear-cut, +classical features; cool, keen eyes, and a gentle, you-be-damned manner +to his inferiors. Beside him Ridgway bulked too large, too florid. His +ease seemed a little obvious, his prosperity overemphasized. Even his +voice, strong and reliant, lacked the tone of gentle blood that Hobart +had inherited with his nice taste. + +When Miss Balfour said: “I think you know each other,” the manager of +the Consolidated bowed with stiff formality, but his rival laughed +genially and said: “Oh, yes, I know Mr. Hobart.” The geniality was +genuine enough, but through it ran a note of contempt. Hobart read in +it a veiled taunt. To him it seemed to say: + +“Yes, I have met him, and beaten him at every turn of the road, though +he has been backed by a power with resources a hundred times as great +as mine.” + +In his parting excuses to Miss Balfour, Ridgway’s audacity crystallized +in words that Hobart could only regard as a shameless challenge. “I +regret that an appointment with Judge Purcell necessitates my leaving +such good company,” he said urbanely. + +Purcell was the judge before whom was pending a suit between the +Consolidated and the Mesa Ore-producing Company, to determine the +ownership of the Never Say Die Mine; and it was current report that +Ridgway owned him as absolutely as he did the automobile waiting for +him now at the door. + +If Ridgway expected his opponent to pay his flippant gibe the honor of +repartee, he was disappointed. To be sure, Hobart, admirably erect in +his slender grace, was moved to a slight, disdainful smile, but it +evidenced scarcely the appreciation that anybody less impervious to +criticism than Ridgway would have cared to see. + + + + +CHAPTER II. +THE FREEBOOTER + + +When next Virginia Balfour saw Waring Ridgway she was driving her trap +down one of the hit-or-miss streets of Mesa, where derricks, +shaft-houses, and gray slag-dumps shoulder ornate mansions conglomerate +of many unharmonious details of architecture. To Miss Balfour these +composites and their owners would have been joys unalloyed except for +the microbe of society ambition that was infecting the latter, and +transforming them from simple, robust, self-reliant Westerners into a +class of servile, nondescript newly rich, that resembled their +unfettered selves as much as tame bears do the grizzlies of their own +Rockies. As she had once complained smilingly to Hobart, she had not +come to the West to study ragged edges of the social fringe. She might +have done that in New York. + +Virginia was still a block or two from the court-house on the hill, +when it emptied into the street a concourse of excited men. That this +was an occasion of some sort it was easy to guess, and of what sort she +began to have an inkling, when Ridgway came out, the center of a circle +of congratulating admirers. She was obliged to admit that he accepted +their applause without in the least losing his head. Indeed, he took it +as imperturbably as did Hobart, against whom a wave of the enthusiasm +seemed to be directed in the form of a jeer, when he passed down the +steps with Mott, one of the Consolidated lawyers. Miss Balfour timed +her approach to meet Hobart at a right angle. + +“What is it all about?” she asked, after he had reached her side. + +“Judge Purcell has just decided the Never Say Die case in favor of Mr. +Ridgway and against the Consolidated.” + +“Is that a great victory for him?” + +“Yes, it’s a victory, though, of course, we appeal,” admitted Hobart. +“But we can’t say we didn’t expect it,” he added cheerfully. + +“Mayn’t I give you a lift if you are going down-town?” she said +quickly, for Ridgway, having detached himself from the group, was +working toward her, and she felt an instinctive sympathy for the man +who had lost. Furthermore, she had something she wanted to tell him +before he heard it on the tongue of rumor. + +“Since you are so kind;” and he climbed to the place beside her. + +“Congratulate me, Miss Balfour,” demanded Ridgway, as he shook hands +with her, nodding coolly at her companion. “I’m a million dollars +richer than I was an hour ago. I have met the enemy and he is mine.” + +Virginia, resenting the bad taste of his jeer at the man who sat beside +her, misunderstood him promptly. “Did you say you had met the enemy and +won his mine?” + +He laughed. “You’re a good one!” + +“Thank you very much for this unsolicited testimonial,” she said +gravely. “In the meantime, to avoid a congestion of traffic, we’ll be +moving, if you will kindly give me back my front left wheel.” + +He did not lift his foot from the spoke on which it rested. “My +congratulations,” he reminded her. + +“I wish you all the joy in your victory that you deserve, and I hope +the supreme court will reaffirm the decision of Judge Purcell, if it is +a just one,” was the form in which she acceded to his demand. + +She flicked her whip, and Ridgway fell back, laughing. “You’ve been +subsidized by the Consolidated,” he shouted after her. + +Hobart watched silently the businesslike directness with which the girl +handled the ribbons. She looked every inch the thoroughbred in her +well-made covert coat and dainty driving gauntlets. The grace of the +alert, slender figure, the perfect poise of the beautiful little tawny +head, proclaimed her distinction no less certainly than the fine +modeling of the mobile face. It was a distinction that stirred the +pulse of his emotion and disarmed his keen, critical sense. Ridgway +could study her with an amused, detached interest, but Hobart’s +admiration had traveled past that point. He found it as impossible to +define her charm as to evade it. Her inheritance of blood and her +environment should have made her a finished product of civilization, +but her salty breeziness, her nerve, vivid as a flame at times, +disturbed delightfully the poise that held her when in repose. + +When Virginia spoke, it was to ask abruptly: “Is it really his mine?” + +“Judge Purcell says so.” + +“But do YOU think so—down in the bottom of your heart?” + +“Wouldn’t I naturally be prejudiced?” + +“I suppose you would. Everybody in Mesa seems to have taken sides +either with Mr. Ridgway or the Consolidated. Still, you have an option. +Is he what his friends proclaim him—the generous-hearted independent +fighting against trust domination? Or is he merely an audacious +ore-thief, as his enemies say? The truth must be somewhere.” + +“It seems to lie mostly in point of view here the angle of observation +being determined by interest,” he answered. + +“And from your angle of observation?” + +“He is the most unusual man I ever saw, the most resourceful and the +most competent. He never knows when he is beaten. I suppose that’s the +reason he never is beaten finally. We have driven him to the wall a +score of times. My experience with him is that he’s most dangerous when +one thinks he must be about hammered out. He always hits back then in +the most daring and unexpected way.” + +“With a coupling-pin,” she suggested with a little reminiscent laugh. + +“Metaphorically speaking. He reaches for the first effective weapon to +his hand.” + +“You haven’t quite answered my question yet,” she reminded him. “Is he +what his friends or what his enemies think him?” + +“If you ask me I can only say that I’m one of his enemies.” + +“But a fair-minded man,” she replied quickly. + +“Thank you. Then I’ll say that perhaps he is neither just what his +friends or his foes think him. One must make allowances for his +training and temperament, and for that quality of bigness in him. +‘Mediocre men go soberly on the highroads, but saints and scoundrels +meet in the jails,’” he smilingly quoted. + +“He would make a queer sort of saint,” she laughed. + +“A typical twentieth century one of a money-mad age.” + +She liked it in him that he would not use the opportunity she had made +to sneer at his adversary, none the less because she knew that Ridgway +might not have been so scrupulous in his place. That Lyndon Hobart’s +fastidious instincts for fair play had stood in the way of his success +in the fight to down Ridgway she had repeatedly heard. Of late, rumors +had persisted in reporting dissatisfaction with his management of the +Consolidated at the great financial center on Broadway which controlled +the big copper company. Simon Harley, the dominating factor in the +octopus whose tentacles reached out in every direction to monopolize +the avenues of wealth, demanded of his subordinates results. Methods +were no concern of his, and failure could not be explained to him. He +wanted Ridgway crushed, and the pulse of the copper production +regulated lay the Consolidated. Instead, he had seen Ridgway rise +steadily to power and wealth despite his efforts to wipe him off the +slate. Hobart was perfectly aware that his head was likely to fall when +Harley heard of Purcell’s decision in regard to the Never Say Die. + +“He certainly is an amazing man,” Virginia mused, her fiancee in mind. +“It would be interesting to discover what he can’t do—along utilitarian +lines, I mean. Is he as good a miner underground as he is in the +courts?” she flung out. + +“He is the shrewdest investor I know. Time and again he has leased or +bought apparently worthless claims, and made them pay inside of a few +weeks. Take the Taurus as a case in point. He struck rich ore in a +fortnight. Other men had done development work for years and found +nothing.” + +“I’m naturally interested in knowing all about him, because I have just +become engaged to him,” explained Miss Virginia, as calmly as if her +pulse were not fluttering a hundred to the minute. + +Virginia was essentially a sportsman. She did not flinch from the guns +when the firing was heavy. It had been remarked of her even as a child +that she liked to get unpleasant things over with as soon as possible, +rather than postpone them. Once, _aetat_ eight, she had marched in to +her mother like a stoic and announced: “I’ve come to be whipped, +momsie, ’cause I broke that horrid little Nellie Vaile’s doll. I did it +on purpose, ’cause I was mad at her. I’m glad I broke it, so there!” + +Hobart paled slightly beneath his outdoors Western tan, but his eyes +met hers very steadily and fairly. “I wish you happiness, Miss Balfour, +from the bottom of my heart.” + +She nodded a brisk “Thank you,” and directed her attention again to the +horses. + +“Take him by and large, Mr. Ridgway is the most capable, energetic, and +far-sighted business man I have ever known. He has a bigger grasp of +things than almost any financier in the country. I think you’ll find he +will go far,” he said, choosing his words with care to say as much for +Waring Ridgway as he honestly could. + +“I have always thought so,” agreed Virginia. + +She had reason for thinking so in that young man’s remarkable career. +When Waring Ridgway had first come to Mesa he had been a draftsman for +the Consolidated at five dollars a day. He was just out of Cornell, and +his assets consisted mainly of a supreme confidence in himself and an +imposing presence. He was a born leader, and he flung himself into the +raw, turbid life of the mining town with a readiness that had not a +little to do with his subsequent success. + +That success began to take tangible form almost from the first. A +small, independent smelter that had for long been working at a loss was +about to fall into the hands of the Consolidated when Ridgway bought it +on promises to pay, made good by raising money on a flying trip he took +to the East. His father died about this time and left him fifty +thousand dollars, with which he bought the Taurus, a mine in which +several adventurous spirits had dropped small fortunes. He acquired +other properties; a lease here, an interest there. It began to be +observed that he bought always with judgment. He seemed to have the +touch of Midas. Where other men had lost money he made it. + +When the officers of the Consolidated woke up to the menace of his +presence, one of their lawyers called on him. The agent of the +Consolidated smiled at his luxurious offices, which looked more like a +woman’s boudoir than the business place of a Western miner. But that +was merely part of Ridgway’s vanity, and did not in the least interfere +with his predatory instincts. Many people who walked into that parlor +to do business played fly to his spider. + +The lawyer had been ready to patronize the upstart who had ventured so +boldly into the territory of the great trust, but one glance at the +clear-cut resolute face of the young man changed his mind. + +“I’ve come to make you an offer for your smelter, Mr. Ridgway,” he +began. “We’ll take it off your hands at the price it cost you.” + +“Not for sale, Mr. Bartel.” + +“Very well. We’ll give you ten thousand more than you paid for it.” + +“You misunderstand me. It is not for sale.” + +“Oh, come! You bought it to sell to us. What can you do with it?” + +“Run it,” suggested Ridgway. + +“Without ore?” + +“You forget that I own a few properties, and have leases on others. +When the Taurus begins producing, I’ll have enough to keep the smelter +going.” + +“When the Taurus begins producing?”—Bartel smiled skeptically. “Didn’t +Johnson and Leroy drop fortunes on that expectation?” + +“I’ll bet five thousand dollars we make a strike within two weeks.” + +“Chimerical!” pronounced the graybeard as he rose to go, with an air of +finality. “Better sell the smelter while you have the chance.” + +“Think not,” disagreed Ridgway. + +At the door the lawyer turned. “Oh, there’s another matter! It had +slipped my mind.” He spoke with rather elaborate carelessness. “It +seems that there is a little triangle—about ten and four feet +across—wedged in between the Mary K, the Diamond King, and the Marcus +Daly. For some reason we accidentally omitted to file on it. Our chief +engineer finds that you have taken it up, Mr. Ridgway. It is really of +no value, but it is in the heart of our properties, and so it ought to +belong to us. Of course, it is of no use to you. There isn’t any +possible room to sink a shaft. We’ll take it from you if you like, and +even pay you a nominal price. For what will you sell?” + +Ridgway lit a cigar before he answered: “One million dollars.” + +“What?” screamed Bartel. + +“Not a cent less. I call it the Trust Buster. Before I’m through, +you’ll find it is worth that to me.” + +The lawyer reported him demented to the Consolidated officials, who +declared war on him from that day. + +They found the young adventurer more than prepared for them. If he had +a Napoleonic sense of big vital factors, he had no less a genius for +detail. He had already picked up an intimate knowledge of the hundreds +of veins and crossveins that traverse the Mesa copper-fields, and he +had delved patiently into the tangled history of the litigation that +the defective mining laws in pioneer days had made possible. When the +Consolidated attempted to harass him by legal process, he countered by +instituting a score of suits against the company within the week. These +had to do with wills, insanity cases, extra lateral rights, mine +titles, and land and water rights. Wherever Ridgway saw room for an +entering wedge to dispute the title of the Consolidated, he drove a new +suit home. To say the least, the trust found it annoying to be enjoined +from working its mines, to be cited for contempt before judges employed +in the interests of its opponent, to be served with restraining orders +when clearly within its rights. But when these adverse legal decisions +began to affect vital issues, the Consolidated looked for reasons why +Ridgway should control the courts. It found them in politics. + +For Ridgway was already dominating the politics of Yuba County, +displaying an amazing acumen and a surprising ability as a +stumpspeaker. He posed as a friend of the people, an enemy of the +trust. He declared an eight-hour day for his own miners, and called +upon the Consolidated to do the same. Hobart refused, acting on orders +from Broadway, and fifteen thousand Consolidated miners went to the +polls and reelected Ridgway’s corrupt judges, in spite of the fight the +Consolidated was making against them. + +Meanwhile, Ridgway’s colossal audacity made the Consolidated’s copper +pay for the litigation with which he was harassing it. In following his +ore-veins, or what he claimed to be his veins, he crossed boldly into +the territory of the enemy. By the law of extra lateral rights, a man +is entitled to mine within the lines of other property than his own, +provided he is following the dip of a vein which has its apex in his +claim. Ridgway’s experts were prepared to swear that all the best veins +in the field apexed in his property. Pending decisions of the courts, +they assumed it, tunneling through granite till they tapped the veins +of the Consolidated mines, meanwhile enjoining that company from +working the very ore of which Ridgway was robbing it. + +Many times the great trust back of the Consolidated had him close to +ruin, but Ridgway’s alert brain and supreme audacity carried him +through. From their mines or from his own he always succeeded in +extracting enough ore to meet his obligations when they fell due. His +powerful enemy, as Hobart had told Miss Balfour, found him most +dangerous when it seemed to have him with his back to the wall. Then +unexpectedly would fall some crushing blow that put the financial kings +of Broadway on the defensive long enough for him to slip out of the +corner into which they had driven him. Greatly daring, he had the +successful cavalryman’s instinct of risking much to gain much. A +gambler, his enemies characterized him fitly enough. But it was also +true, as Mesa phrased it, that he gambled “with the lid off,” playing +for large stakes, neither asking nor giving quarter. + +At the end of five years of desperate fighting, the freebooter was more +strongly entrenched than he had been at any previous time. The +railroads, pledged to give rebates to the Consolidated, had been forced +by Ridgway, under menace of adverse legislation from the men he +controlled at the State-house, to give him secretly a still better rate +than the trust. He owned the county courts, he was supported by the +people, and had become a political dictator, and the financial outlook +for him grew brighter every day. + +Such were the conditions when Judge Purcell handed down his Never Say +Die decision. Within an hour Hobart was reading a telegram in cipher +from the Broadway headquarters. It announced the immediate departure +for Mesa of the great leader of the octopus. Simon Harley, the Napoleon +of finance, was coming out to attend personally to the destruction of +the buccaneer who had dared to fire on the trust flag. + +Before night some one of his corps of spies in the employ of the enemy +carried the news to Waring Ridgway. He smiled grimly, his bluegray eyes +hardening to the temper of steel. Here at last was a foeman worthy of +his metal; one as lawless, unscrupulous, daring, and far-seeing as +himself, with a hundred times his resources. + + + + +CHAPTER III. +ONE TO ONE + + +The solitary rider stood for a moment in silhouette against the somber +sky-line, his keen eyes searching the lowering clouds. + +“Getting its back up for a blizzard,” he muttered to himself, as he +touched his pony with the spur. + +Dark, heavy billows banked in the west, piling over each other as they +drove forward. Already the advance-guard had swept the sunlight from +the earth, except for a flutter of it that still protested near the +horizon. Scattering snowflakes were flying, and even in a few minutes +the temperature had fallen many degrees. + +The rider knew the signs of old. He recognized the sudden stealthy +approach that transformed a sun-drenched, friendly plain into an +unknown arctic waste. Not for nothing had he been last year one of a +search-party to find the bodies of three miners frozen to death not +fifty yards from their own cabin. He understood perfectly what it meant +to be caught away from shelter when the driven white pall wiped out +distance and direction; made long familiar landmarks strange, and +numbed the will to a helpless surrender. The knowledge of it was spur +enough to make him ride fast while he still retained the sense of +direction. + +But silently, steadily, the storm increased, and he was forced to +slacken his pace. As the blinding snow grew thick, the sound of the +wind deadened, unable to penetrate the dense white wall through which +he forced his way. The world narrowed to a space whose boundaries he +could touch with his extended hands. In this white mystery that wrapped +him, nothing was left but stinging snow, bitter cold, and the silence +of the dead. + +So he thought one moment, and the next was almost flung by his swerving +horse into a vehicle that blocked the road. Its blurred outlines +presently resolved themselves into an automobile, crouched in the +bottom of which was an inert huddle of humanity. + +He shouted, forgetting that no voice could carry through the muffled +scream of the storm. When he got no answer, he guided his horse close +to the machine and reached down to snatch away the rug already heavy +with snow. To his surprise, it was a girl’s despairing face that looked +up at him. She tried to rise, but fell back, her muscles too numb to +serve. + +“Don’t leave me,” she implored, stretching her, arms toward him. + +He reached out and lifted her to his horse. “Are you alone?” + +“Yes. He went for help when the machine broke down—before the storm,” +she sobbed. He had to put his ear to her mouth to catch the words. + +“Come, keep up your heart.” There was that in his voice pealed like a +trumpet-call to her courage. + +“I’m freezing to death,” she moaned. + +She was exhausted and benumbed, her lips blue, her flesh gray. It was +plain to him that she had reached the limit of endurance, that she was +ready to sink into the last torpor. He ripped open his overcoat and +shook the snow from it, then gathered her close so that she might get +the warmth of his body. The rugs from the automobile he wrapped round +them both. + +“Courage!” he cried. “There’s a miner’s cabin near. Don’t give up, +child.” + +But his own courage was of the heart and will, not of the head. He had +small hope of reaching the hut at the entrance of Dead Man’s Gulch or, +if he could struggle so far, of finding it in the white swirl that +clutched at them. Near and far are words not coined for a blizzard. He +might stagger past with safety only a dozen feet from him. He might lie +down and die at the very threshold of the door. Or he might wander in +an opposite direction and miss the cabin by a mile. + +Yet it was not in the man to give up. He must stagger on till he could +no longer stand. He must fight so long as life was in him. He must +crawl forward, though his forlorn hope had vanished. And he did. When +the worn-out horse slipped down and could not be coaxed to its feet +again, he picked up the bundle of rugs and plowed forward blindly, soul +and body racked, but teeth still set fast with the primal instinct +never to give up. The intense cold of the air, thick with gray sifted +ice, searched the warmth from his body and sapped his vitality. His +numbed legs doubled under him like springs. He was down and up again a +dozen times, but always the call of life drove him on, dragging his +helpless burden with him. + +That he did find the safety of the cabin in the end was due to no +wisdom on his part. He had followed unconsciously the dip of the ground +that led him into the little draw where it had been built, and by sheer +luck stumbled against it. His strength was gone, but the door gave to +his weight, and he buckled across the threshold like a man helpless +with drink. He dropped to the floor, ready to sink into a stupor, but +he shook sleep from him and dragged himself to his feet. Presently his +numb fingers found a match, a newspaper, and some wood. As soon as he +had control over his hands, he fell to chafing hers. He slipped off her +dainty shoes, pathetically inadequate for such an experience, and +rubbed her feet back to feeling. She had been torpid, but when the +blood began to circulate, she cried out in agony at the pain. + +Every inch of her bore the hall-mark of wealth. The ermine-lined +motoring-cloak, the broadcloth cut on simple lines of elegance, the +quality of her lingerie and of the hosiery which incased the +wonderfully small feet, all told of a padded existence from which the +cares of life had been excluded. The satin flesh he massaged, to renew +the flow of the dammed blood, was soft and tender like a babe’s. Quite +surely she was an exotic, the last woman in the world fitted for the +hardships of this frontier country. She had none of the deep-breasted +vitality of those of her sex who have fought with grim nature and won. +His experience told him that a very little longer in the storm would +have snuffed out the wick of her life. + +But he knew, too, that the danger was past. Faint tints of pink were +beginning to warm the cheeks that had been so deathly pallid. Already +crimson lips were offering a vivid contrast to the still, almost +colorless face. + +For she was biting the little lips to try and keep back the cries of +pain that returning life wrung from her. Big tears coursed down her +cheeks, and broken sobs caught her breath. She was helpless as an +infant before the searching pain that wracked her. + +“I can’t stand it—I can’t stand it,” she moaned, and in her distress +stretched out her little hand for relief as a baby might to its mother. + +The childlike appeal of the flinching violet eyes in the tortured face +moved him strangely. He was accounted a hard man, not without reason. +His eyes were those of a gambler, cold and vigilant. It was said that +he could follow an undeviating course without relenting at the ruin and +misery wrought upon others by his operations. But the helpless +loveliness of this exquisitely dainty child-woman, the sense of +intimacy bred of a common peril endured, of the strangeness of their +environment and of her utter dependence upon him, carried the man out +of himself and away from conventions. + +He stooped and gathered her into his arms, walking the floor with her +and cheering her as if she had indeed been the child they both for the +moment conceived her. + +“You don’t know how it hurts,” she pleaded between sobs, looking up +into the strong face so close to hers. + +“I know it must, dear. But soon it will be better. Every twinge is one +less, and shows that you are getting well. Be brave for just a few +minutes more now.” + +She smiled wanly through her tears. “But I’m not brave. I’m a little +coward—and it does pain so.” + +“I know—I know. It is dreadful. But just a few minutes now.” + +“You’re good to me,” she said presently, simply as a little girl might +have said it. + +To neither of them did it seem strange that she should be there in his +arms, her fair head against his shoulder, nor that she should cling +convulsively to him when the fierce pain tingled unbearably. She had +reached out for the nearest help, and he gave of his strength and +courage abundantly. + +Presently the prickling of the flowing blood grew less sharp. She began +to grow drowsy with warmth after the fatigue and pain. The big eyes +shut, fluttered open, smiled at him, and again closed. She had fallen +asleep from sheer exhaustion. + +He looked down with an odd queer feeling at the small aristocratic face +relaxed upon his ann. The long lashes had drooped to the cheeks and +shuttered the eyes that had met his with such confident appeal, but +they did not hide the dark rings underneath, born of the hardships she +had endured. As he walked the floor with her, he lived once more the +terrible struggle through which they had passed. He saw Death +stretching out icy hands for her, and as his arms unconsciously +tightened about the soft rounded body, his square jaw set and the +fighting spark leaped to his eyes. + +“No, by Heaven,” he gave back aloud his defiance. + +Troubled dreams pursued her in her sleep. She clung close to him, her +arm creeping round his neck for safety. He was a man not given to fine +scruples, but all the best in him responded to her unconscious trust. + +It was so she found herself when she awakened, stiff from her cramped +position. She slipped at once to the floor and sat there drying her +lace skirts, the sweet piquancy of her childish face set out by the +leaping fire-glow that lit and shadowed her delicate coloring. Outside +in the gray darkness raged the death from which he had snatched her by +a miracle. Beyond—a million miles away—the world whose claim had +loosened on them was going through its routine of lies and love, of +hypocrisies and heroisms. But here were just they two, flung back to +the primordial type by the fierce battle for existence that had +encompassed them—Adam and Eve in the garden, one to one, all else +forgot, all other ties and obligations for the moment obliterated. Had +they not struggled, heart beating against heart, with the breath of +death icing them, and come out alive? Was their world not contracted to +a space ten feet by twelve, shut in from every other planet by an +illimitable stretch of storm? + +“Where should I have been if you had not found me?” she murmured, her +haunting eyes fixed on the flames. + +“But I should have found you—no matter where you had been, I should +have found you.” + +The words seemed to leap from him of themselves. He was sure he had not +meant to speak them, to voice so soon the claim that seemed to him so +natural and reasonable. + +She considered his words and found delight in acquiescing at once. The +unconscious demand for life, for love, of her starved soul had never +been gratified. But he had come to her through that fearful valley of +death, because he must, because it had always been meant he should. + +Her lustrous eyes, big with faith, looked up and met his. + +The far, wise voices of the world were storm-deadened. They cried no +warning to these drifting hearts. How should they know in that moment +when their souls reached toward each other that the wisdom of the ages +had decreed their yearning futile? + + + + +CHAPTER IV. +FORT SALVATION + + +She must have fallen asleep there, for when she opened her eyes it was +day. Underneath her was a lot of bedding he had found in the cabin, and +tucked about her were the automobile rugs. For a moment her brain, +still sodden with sleep, struggled helplessly with her surroundings. +She looked at the smoky rafters without understanding, and her eyes +searched the cabin wonderingly for her maid. When she remembered, her +first thought was to look for the man. That he had gone, she saw with +instinctive terror. + +But not without leaving a message. She found his penciled note, +weighted for security by a dollar, at the edge of the hearth. + +“Gone on a foraging expedition. Back in an hour, Little Partner,” was +all it said. The other man also had promised to be back in an hour, and +he had not come, but the strong chirography of the note, recalling the +resolute strength of this man’s face, brought content to her eyes. He +had said he would come back. She rested secure in that pledge. + +She went to the window and looked out over the great white wastes that +rose tier on tier to the dull sky-line. She shuddered at the arctic +desolation of the vast snow-fields. The mountains were sheeted with +silence and purity. It seemed to the untaught child-woman that she was +face to face with the Almighty. + +Once during the night she had partially awakened to hear the roaring +wind as it buffeted snow-clouds across the range. It had come tearing +along the divide with the black storm in its vanguard, and she had +heard fearfully the shrieks and screams of the battle as it raged up +and down the gulches and sifted into them the deep drifts. + +Half-asleep as she was, she had been afraid and had cried out with +terror at this strange wakening; and he had been beside her in an +instant. + +“It’s all right, partner. There’s nothing to be afraid of,” he had said +cheerfully, taking her little hand in his big warm one. + +Her fears had slipped away at once. Nestling down into her rug, she had +smiled sleepily at him and fallen asleep with her cheek on her hand, +her other hand still in his. + +While she had been asleep the snow-tides had filled the gulch, had +risen level with the top of the lower pane of the window. Nothing broke +the smoothness of its flow save the one track he had made in breaking a +way out. That he should have tried to find his way through such an +untracked desolation amazed her. He could never do it. No puny human +atom could fight successfully against the barriers nature had dropped +so sullenly to fence them. They were set off from the world by a +quarantine of God. There was something awful to her in the knowledge. +It emphasized their impotence. Yet, this man had set himself to fight +the inevitable. + +With a little shudder she turned from the window to the cheerless room. +The floor was dirty; unwashed dishes were piled upon the table. Here +and there were scattered muddy boots and overalls, just as their owner, +the prospector, had left them before he had gone to the nearest town to +restock his exhausted supply of provisions. Disorder and dirt filled +the rough cabin, or so it seemed to her fastidious eye. + +The inspiration of the housewife seized her. She would surprise him on +his return by opening the door to him upon a house swept and garnished. +She would show him that she could be of some use even in such a +primitive topsy-turvy world as this into which Fate had thrust her +willy-nilly. + +First, she carried red live coals on a shovel from the fireplace to the +cook-stove, and piled kindling upon them till it lighted. It was a new +experience to her. She knew nothing of housework; had never lit a fire +in her life, except once when she had been one of a camping party. The +smoke choked her before she had the lids back in their places, but +despite her awkwardness, the girl went about her unaccustomed tasks +with a light heart. It was for her new-found hero that she played at +housekeeping. For his commendation she filled the tea-kettle, enveloped +herself in a cloud of dust as she wielded the stub of a broom she +discovered, and washed the greasy dishes after the water was hot. A +childish pleasure suffused her. All her life her least whims had been +ministered to; she was reveling in a first attempt at service. As she +moved to and fro with an improvised dust-rag, sunshine filled her +being. From her lips the joy notes fell in song, shaken from her throat +for sheer happiness. This surely was life, that life from which she had +so carefully been hedged all the years of her young existence. + +As he came down the trail he had broken, with a pack on his back, the +man heard her birdlike carol in the clear frosty air. He emptied his +chest in a deep shout, and she was instantly at the window, waving him +a welcome with her dust-rag. + +“I thought you were never coming,” she cried from the open door as he +came up the path. + +Her eyes were starry in their eagerness. Every sensitive feature was +alert with interest, so that the man thought he had never seen so +mobile and attractive a face. + +“Did it seem long?” he asked. + +“Oh, weeks and weeks! You must be frozen to an icicle. Come in and get +warm.” + +“I’m as warm as toast,” he assured her. + +He was glowing with exercise and the sting of the cold, for he had +tramped two miles through drifts from three to five feet deep, battling +with them every step of the way, and carrying with him on the return +trip a box of provisions. + +“With all that snow on you and the pack on your back, it’s like Santa +Claus,” she cried, clapping her hands. + +“Before we’re through with the adventure we may think that box a sure +enough gift from Santa,” he replied. + +After he had put it down, he took off his overcoat on the threshold and +shook the snow from it. Then, with much feet stamping and scattering of +snow, he came in. She fluttered about him, dragging a chair up to the +fire for him, and taking his hat and gloves. It amused and pleased him +that she should be so solicitous, and he surrendered himself to her +ministrations. + +His quick eye noticed the swept floor and the evanishment of disorder. +“Hello! What’s this clean through a fall house-cleaning? I’m not the +only member of the firm that has been working. Dishes washed, floor +swept, bed made, kitchen fire lit. You’ve certainly been going some, +unless the fairies helped you. Aren’t you afraid of blistering these +little hands?” he asked gaily, taking one of them in his and touching +the soft palm gently with the tip of his finger. + +“I should preserve those blisters in alcohol to show that I’ve really +been of some use,” she answered, happy in his approval. + +“Sho! People are made for different uses. Some are fit only to shovel +and dig. Others are here simply to decorate the world. Hard world. Hard +work is for those who can’t give society anything else, but beauty is +its own excuse for being,” he told her breezily. + +“Now that’s the first compliment you have given me,” she pouted +prettily. “I can get them in plenty back in the drawing-rooms where I +am supposed to belong. We’re to be real comrades here, and compliments +are barred.” + +“I wasn’t complimenting you,” he maintained. “I was merely stating a +principle of art.” + +“Then you mustn’t make your principles of art personal, sir. But since +you have, I’m going to refute the application of your principle and +show how useful I’ve been. Now, sir, do you know what provisions we +have outside of those you have just brought?” + +He knew exactly, since he had investigated during the night. That they +might possibly have to endure a siege of some weeks, he was quite well +aware, and his first thought, after she had gone to sleep before the +fire, had been to make inventory of such provisions as the prospector +had left in his cabin. A knuckle of ham, part of a sack of flour, some +navy beans, and some tea siftings at the bottom of a tin can; these +constituted the contents of the larder which the miner had gone to +replenish. But though the man knew he assumed ignorance, for he saw +that she was bubbling over with the desire to show her forethought. + +“Tell me,” he begged of her, and after she had done so, he marveled +aloud over her wisdom in thinking of it. + +“Now tell me about your trip,” she commanded, setting herself tailor +fashion on the rug to listen. + +“There isn’t much to tell,” he smiled “I should like to make an +adventure of it, but I can’t. I just went and came back.” + +“Oh, you just went and came back, did you?” she scoffed. “That won’t do +at all. I want to know all about it. Did you find the machine all +right?” + +“I found it where we left it, buried in four feet of snow. You needn’t +be afraid that anybody will run away with it for a day or two. The +pantry was cached pretty deep itself, but I dug it out.” + +Her shy glance admired the sturdy lines of his powerful frame. “I am +afraid it must have been a terrible task to get there through the +blizzard.” + +“Oh, the blizzard is past. You never saw a finer, more bracing morning. +It’s a day for the gods,” he laughed boyishly. + +She could have conceived no Olympian more heroic than he, and certainly +none with so compelling a vitality. “Such a warm, kind light in them!” +she thought of the eyes others had found hard and calculating. + +It was lucky that the lunch the automobilists had brought from +Avalanche was ample and as yet untouched. The hotel waiter, who had +attended to the packing of it, had fortunately been used to reckon with +outdoor Montana appetites instead of cloyed New York ones. They +unpacked the little hamper with much gaiety. Everything was frozen +solid, and the wine had cracked its bottle. + +“Shipped right through on our private refrigerator-car. That +cold-storage chicken looks the finest that ever happened. What’s this +rolled up in tissue-paper? Deviled eggs and ham sandwiches AND caviar, +not to speak of claret frappe. I’m certainly grateful to the gentleman +finished in ebony who helped to provision us for this siege. He’ll +never know what a tip he missed by not being here to collect.” + +“Here’s jelly, too, and cake,” she said, exploring with him. + +“Not to mention peaches and pears. Oh, this is luck of a special brand! +I was expecting to put up at Starvation Camp. Now we may name it Point +Plenty.” + +“Or Fort Salvation,” she suggested shyly. “Because you brought me here +to save my life.” + +She was such a child, in spite of her charming grown-up airs, that he +played make-believe with a zest that surprised himself when he came to +think of it. She elected him captain of Fort Salvation, with full power +of life and death over the garrison, and he appointed her second in +command. His first general order was to put the garrison on two meals a +day. + +She clapped her little hands, eyes sparkling with excitement. “Are we +really snow-bound? Must we go on half-rations?” + +“It is the part of wisdom, lieutenant,” he answered, smiling at her +enthusiasm. “We don’t know how long this siege is going to last. If it +should set in to snow, we may be here several days before the +relief-party reaches us.” But, though he spoke cheerfully, he was aware +of sinister possibilities in the situation. “Several weeks” would have +been nearer his real guess. + +They ate breakfast at the shelf-table nailed in place underneath the +western window. They made a picnic of it, and her spirits skipped upon +the hilltops. For the first time she ate from tin plates, drank from a +tin cup, and used a tin spoon the worse for rust. What mattered it to +her that the teapot was grimy and the fryingpan black with soot! It was +all part of the wonderful new vista that had suddenly opened before her +gaze. She had awakened into life and already she was dimly realizing +that many and varied experiences lay waiting for her in that untrodden +path beyond her cloistered world. + +A reconnaissance in the shed behind the house showed him no plethora of +firewood. But here was ax, shovel, and saw, and he asked no more. First +he shoveled out a path along the eaves of the house where she might +walk in sentry fashion to take the deep breaths of clear sharp air he +insisted upon. He made it wide enough so that her skirt would not sweep +against the snow-bank, and trod down the trench till the footing was +hard and solid. Then with ax and saw he climbed the hillside back of +the house and set himself to get as much fuel as he could. The sky was +still heavy with unshed snow, and he knew that with the coming of night +the storm would be renewed. + +Came noon, mid-afternoon, the early dusk of a mountain winter, and +found him still hewing and sawing, still piling load after load in the +shed. Now and again she came out and watched him, laughing at the +figure he made as he would come plunging through the snow with his +armful of fuel. + +She did not know, as he did, the vital necessity of filling the lean-to +before winter fell upon them in earnest and buried them deep with his +frozen blanket, and she was a little piqued that he should spend the +whole day away from her in such unsocial fashion. + +“Let me help,” she begged so often that he trod down a path, made boots +for her out of torn gunny-sacks which he tied round her legs, and let +her drag wood to the house on a pine branch which served for a sled. +She wore her gauntlets to protect her tender hands, and thereafter was +happy until, detecting signs of fatigue, he made her go into the house +and rest. + +As soon as she dared she was back again, making fun of him and the +earnestness with which he worked. + +“Robinson Crusoe” was one name she fastened upon him, and she was not +satisfied till she had made him call her “Friday.” + +Twilight fell austere and sudden upon them with an immediate fall of +temperature that found a thermometer in her blue face. + +He recommended the house, but she was of a contrary mood. + +“I don’t want to,” she announced debonairly. + +In a stiff military attitude he gave raucous mandate from his throat. + +“Commanding officer’s orders, lieutenant.” + +“I think I’m going to mutiny,” she informed him, with chin saucily in +air. + +This would not do at all. The chill wind sweeping down the canon was +searching her insufficient clothing already. He picked her up in his +arms and ran with her toward the house, setting her down in the trench +outside the door. She caught her startled breath and looked at him in +shy, dubious amazement. + +“Really you” she was beginning when he cut her short. + +“Commanding officer’s orders, lieutenant,” came briskly from lips that +showed just a hint of a smile. + +At once she clicked her heels together, saluted, and wheeled into the +cabin. + +From the grimy window she watched his broad-shouldered vigor, waving +her hand whenever his face was turned her way. He worked like a Titan, +reveling in the joy of physical labor, but it was long past dark before +he finished and came striding to the hut. + +They made a delightful evening of it, living in the land of Never Was. +For one source of her charm lay in the gay, childlike whimsicality of +her imagination. She believed in fairies and heroes with all her heart, +which with her was an organ not located in her brain. The delicious +gurgle of gaiety in her laugh was a new find to him in feminine +attractions. + +There had been many who thought the career of this pirate of industry +beggared fiction, though, few had found his flinty personality a +radiaton of romance. But this convent-nurtured child had made a +discovery in men, one out of the rut of the tailor-made, +convention-bound society youths to whom her experience for the most +part had been limited. She delighted in his masterful strength, in the +confidence of his careless dominance. She liked to see that look of +power in his gray-blue eyes softened to the droll, half-tender, +expression with which he played the game of make-believe. There were no +to-morrows; to-day marked the limit of time for them. By tacit consent +they lived only in the present, shutting out deliberately from their +knowledge of each other, that past which was not common to both. Even +their names were unknown to each other, and both of them were glad that +it was so. + +The long winter evening had fallen early, and they dined by +candle-light, considering merrily how much they might with safety eat +and yet leave enough for the to-morrows that lay before them. Afterward +they sat before the fire, in the shadow and shine of the flickering +logs, happy and content in each other’s presence. She dreamed, and he, +watching her, dreamed, too. The wild, sweet wonder of life surged +through them, touching their squalid surroundings to the high mystery +of things unreal. + +The strangeness of it was that he was a man of large and not very +creditable experience of women, yet her deep, limpid eyes, her sweet +voice, the immature piquancy of her movements that was the expression +of her, had stirred his imagination more potently than if he had been +the veriest schoolboy nursing a downy lip. He could not keep his eyes +from this slender, exquisite girl, so dainty and graceful in her mobile +piquancy. Fire and passion were in his heart and soul, restraint and +repression in his speech and manner. For the fire and passion in him +were pure and clean as the winds that sweep the hills. + +But for the girl—she was so little mistress of her heart that she had +no prescience of the meaning of this sweet content that filled her. And +the voices that should have warned her were silent, busy behind the +purple hills with lies and love and laughter and tears. + + + + +CHAPTER V. +ENTER SIMON HARLEY + + +The prospector’s house in which they had found refuge was perched on +the mountainside just at one edge of the draw. Rough as the girl had +thought it, there was a more pretentious appearance to it than might +have been expected. The cabin was of hewn logs mortared with mud, and +care had been taken to make it warm. The fireplace was a huge affair +that ate fuel voraciously. It was built of stone, which had been +gathered from the immediate hillside. + +The prospect itself showed evidence of having been worked a good deal, +and it was an easy guess for the man who now stood looking into the +tunnel that it belonged to some one of the thousands of miners who +spend half their time earning a grubstake, and the other half +dissipating it upon some hole in the ground which they have duped +themselves into believing is a mine. + +From the tunnel his eye traveled up the face of the white mountain to +the great snow-comb that yawned over the edge of the rock-rim far +above. It had snowed again heavily all night, and now showed symptoms +of a thaw. Not once nor twice, but a dozen times, the man’s anxious +gaze had swept up to that great overhanging bank. Snowslides ran every +year in this section with heavy loss to life and property. Given a +rising temperature and some wind, the comb above would gradually settle +lower and lower, at last break off, plunge down the precipitous slope, +bringing thousands of tons of rock and snow with it, and, perhaps, bury +them in a Titanic grave of ice. There had been a good deal of timber +cut from the shoulder of the mountain during the past summer, and this +very greatly increased the danger. That there was a real peril the man +looking at it did not attempt to deny to himself. It would be enough to +deny it to her in case she should ever suspect. + +He had hoped for cold weather, a freeze hard enough to crust the +surface of the snow. Upon this he might have made shift somehow to get +her to Yesler’s ranch, eighteen miles away though it was, but he knew +this would not be feasible with the snow in its present condition. It +was not certain that he could make the ranch alone; encumbered with +her, success would be a sheer impossibility. On the other hand, their +provisions would not last long. The outlook was not a cheerful one, +from whichever point of view he took it; yet there was one phase of it +he could not regret. The factors which made the difficulties of the +situation made also its delights. Though they were prisoners in this +solitary untrodden canyon, the sentence was upon both of them. She +could look to none other than he for aid; and, at least, the drifts +which kept them in held others out. + +Her voice at his shoulder startled him. + +“Wherefore this long communion with nature, my captain?” she gaily +asked. “Behold, my lord’s hot cakes are ready for the pan and his +servant to wait upon him.” She gave him a demure smiling little curtsy +of mock deference. + +Never had her distracting charm been more in evidence. He had not seen +her since they parted on the previous night. He had built for himself a +cot in the woodshack, and had contrived a curtain that could be drawn +in front of her bed in the living-room. Thus he could enter in the +morning, light the fires, and start breakfast without disturbing her. +She had dressed her hair, now in a different way, so that it fell in +low waves back from the forehead and was bunched at the nape of her +neck. The light swiftness of her dainty grace, the almost exaggerated +carnation of the slightly parted lips, the glad eagerness that sparked +her eyes, brought out effectively the picturesqueness of her beauty. + +His grave eyes rested on her so long that a soft glow mantled her +cheeks. Perhaps her words had been too free, though she had not meant +them so. For the first time some thought of the conventions distressed +her. Ought she to hold herself more in reserve toward him? Must she +restrain her natural impulses to friendliness? + +His eyes released her presently, but not before she read in them the +feelings that had softened them as they gazed into hers. They mirrored +his poignant pleasure at the delight of her sweet slenderness so close +to him, his perilous joy at the intimacy fate had thrust upon them. +Shyly her lids fell to the flushed cheeks. + +“Breakfast is ready,” she added self-consciously, her girlish innocence +startled like a fawn of the forest at the hunter’s approach. + +For whereas she had been blind now she saw in part. Some flash of +clairvoyance had laid bare a glimpse of his heart and her own to her. +Without misunderstanding the perfect respect for her which he felt, she +knew the turbid banked emotions which this dammed. Her heart seemed to +beat in her bosom like an imprisoned dove. + +It was his voice, calm and resonant with strength, that brought her to +earth again. + +“And I am ready for it, lieutenant. Right about face. Forward—march!” + +After breakfast they went out and tramped together the little path of +hard-trodden snow in front of the house. She broached the prospect of a +rescue or the chances of escape. + +“We shall soon be out of food, and, anyhow, we can’t stay here all +winter,” she suggested with a tremulous little laugh. + +“You are naturally very tired of it already,” he hazarded. + +“It has been the experience of my life. I shall fence it off from all +the days that have passed and all that are to come,” she made answer +vividly. + +Their eyes met, but only for an instant. + +“I am glad,” he said quietly. + +He began, then, to tell her what he must do, but at the first word of +it she broke out in protest. + +“No—no—no! We shall stay together. If you go I am going, too.” + +“I wish you could, but it is not possible. You could never get there. +The snow is too soft and heavy for wading and not firm enough to bear +your weight.” + +“But you will have to wade.” + +“I am stronger than you, lieutenant.” + +“I know, but——” She broke down and confessed her terror. “Would you +leave me here—alone—with all this snow Oh, I couldn’t stay—I couldn’t.” + +“It’s the only way,” he said steadily. Every fiber in him rebelled at +leaving her here to face peril alone, but his reason overrode the +desire and rebellion that were hot within him. He must think first of +her ultimate safety, and this lay in getting her away from here at the +first chance. + +Tears splashed down from the big eyes. “I didn’t think you would leave +me here alone. With you I don’t mind it, but— Oh, I should die if I +stayed alone.” + +“Only for twenty-four hours. Perhaps less. I shouldn’t think of it if +it weren’t necessary.” + +“Take me with you. I am strong. You don’t know how strong I am. I +promise to keep up with you. Please!” + +He shook his head. “I would take you with me if I could. You know that. +But it’s a man’s fight. I shall have to stand up to it hour after hour +till I reach Yesler’s ranch. I shall get through, but it would not be +possible for you to make it.” + +“And if you don’t get through?” + +He refused to consider that contingency. “But I shall. You may look to +see me back with help by this time to-morrow morning.” + +“I’m not afraid with you. But if you go away Oh, I can’t stand it. You +don’t know—you don’t know.” She buried her face in her hands. + +He had to swallow down his sympathy before he went on. “Yes, I know. +But you must be brave. You must think of every minute as being one +nearer to the time of my return.” + +“You will think me a dreadful coward, and I am. But I can’t help it. I +AM afraid to stay alone. There’s nothing in the world but mountains of +snow. They are horrible—like death—except when you are here.” + +Her child eyes coaxed him to stay. The mad longing was in him to kiss +the rosy little mouth with the queer alluring droop to its corners. It +was a strange thing how, with that arched twist to her eyebrows and +with that smile which came and went like sunshine in her eyes, she +toppled his lifelong creed. The cardinal tenet of his faith had been a +belief in strength. He had first been drawn to Virginia by reason of +her pluck and her power. Yet this child’s very weakness was her +fountain of strength. She cried out with pain, and he counted it an +asset of virtue in her. She acknowledged herself a coward, and his +heart went out to her because of it. The battle assignments of life +were not for the soft curves and shy winsomeness of this dainty lamb. + +“You will be brave. I expect you to be brave, lieutenant.” Words of +love and comfort were crowding to his brain, but he would not let them +out. + +“How long will you be gone?” she sobbed. + +“I may possibly get back before midnight, but you mustn’t begin to +expect me until to-morrow morning, perhaps not till to-morrow +afternoon.” + +“Oh, I couldn’t—I couldn’t stay here at night alone. Don’t go, please. +I’ll not get hungry, truly I won’t, and to-morrow they will find us.” + +He rose, his face working. “I MUST go, child. It’s the thing to do. I +wish to Heaven it weren’t. You must think of yourself as quite safe +here. You ARE safe. Don’t make it hard for me to go, dear.” + +“I AM a coward. But I can’t help it. There is so much snow—and the +mountains are so big.” She tried valiantly to crush down her sobs. “But +go. I’ll—I’ll not be afraid.” + +He buried her little hands in his two big ones and looked deep into her +eyes. “Every minute of the time I am away from you I shall be with you +in spirit. You’ll not be alone any minute of the day or night. Whether +you are awake or asleep I shall be with you.” + +“I’ll try to remember that,” she answered, smiling up at him but with a +trembling lip. + +She put him up some lunch while he made his simple preparations. To the +end of the trench she walked with him, neither of them saying a word. +The moment of parting had come. + +She looked up at him with a crooked wavering little smile. She wanted +to be brave, but she could not trust herself to say a word. + +“Remember, dear. I am not leaving you. My body has gone on an errand. +That is all.” + +Just now she found small comfort in this sophistry, but she did not +tell him so. + +“I—I’ll remember.” She gulped down a sob and still smiled through the +mist that filmed her sight. + +In his face she could see how much he was moved at her distress. Always +a creature of impulse, one mastered her now, the need to let her +weakness rest on his strength. Her arms slipped quickly round his neck +and her head lay buried on his shoulder. He held her tight, eyes +shining, the desire of her held in leash behind set teeth, the while +sobs shook her soft round body in gusts. + +“My lamb—my sweet precious lamb,” she heard him murmur in anguish. + +From some deep sex trait it comforted her that he suffered. With the +mother instinct she began to regain control of herself that she might +help him. + +“It will not be for long,” she assured him. “And every step of your way +I shall pray for, your safety,” she whispered. + +He held her at arm’s length while his gaze devoured her, then silently +he wheeled away and plunged waist deep into the drifts. As long as he +was in sight he saw her standing there, waving her handkerchief to him +in encouragement. Her slight, dark figure, outlined against the snow, +was the last thing his eyes fell upon before he turned a corner of the +gulch and dropped downward toward the plains. + +But when he was surely gone, after one fearful look at the white sea +which encompassed her, the girl fled to the cabin, slammed the door +after her, and flung herself on the bed to weep out her lonely terror +in an ecstasy of tears. She had spent the first violence of her grief, +and was sitting crouched on the rug before the open fire when the sound +of a footstep, crunching the snow, startled her. The door opened, to +let in the man who had just left her. + +“You are back—already,” she cried, her tear? stained face lifted toward +him. + +“Yes,” he smiled’ from the doorway. “Come here, little partner.” + +And when she had obediently joined him her eye followed his finger up +the mountain-trail to a bend round which men and horses were coming. + +“It’s a relief-party,” he said, and caught up his field-glasses to look +them over more certainly. Two men on horseback, leading a third animal, +were breaking a way down the trail, black spots against the background +of white. “I guess Fort Salvation’s about to be relieved,” he added +grimly, following the party through the glasses. + +She touched the back of his hand with a finger. “Are you glad?” she +asked softly. + +“No, by Heaven!” he cried, lowering his glasses swiftly. + +As he looked into her eyes the blood rushed to his brain with a surge. +Her face turned to his unconsciously, and their lips met. + +“And I don’t even know your name,” she murmured. + +“Waring Ridgway; and yours?” + +“Aline Hope,” she said absently. Then a hot Rush ran over the girlish +face. “No, no, I had forgotten. I was married last week.” + +The gates of paradise, open for two days, clanged to on Ridgway. He +stared out with unseeing eyes into the silent wastes of snow. The +roaring in his ears and the mountainsides that churned before his eyes +were reflections of the blizzard raging within him. + +“I’ll never forget—never,” he heard her falter, and her voice was a +thousand miles away. + +From the storm within him he was aroused by a startled cry from the +girl at his side. Her fascinated gaze was fixed on the summit of the +ridge above them. There was a warning crackle. The overhanging comb +snapped, slid slowly down, and broke off. With gathering momentum it +descended, sweeping into its heart rocks, trees, and debris. A terrific +roar filled the air as the great white cloud came tearing down like an +express-train. + +Ridgway caught her round the waist and flung the girl against the wall +of the cabin, protecting her with his body. The avalanche was upon +them, splitting great trees to kindling-wood in the fury of its rush. +The concussion of the wind shattered every window to fragments, almost +tore the cabin from its foundations. Only the extreme tail of the slide +touched them, yet they were buried deep in flying snow. + +He found no great difficulty in digging a way out, and when he lifted +her to the surface she was conscious. Yet she was pale even to the lips +and trembled like an aspen in the summer breeze, clinging to him for +support helplessly. + +His cheerful voice rang like a bugle to her shocked brain. + +“It’s all past. We’re safe now, dear—quite safe.” + +The first of the trail-breakers had dismounted and was plowing his way +hurriedly to the cabin, but neither of them saw him as he came up the +slope. + +“Are you sure?” She shuddered, her hands still in his. “Wasn’t it +awful? I thought—” Her sentence trailed out unfinished. + +“Are you unhurt, Aline?” cried the newcomer. And when he saw she was, +he added: “Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is +good: for His mercy endureth forever. He saved them for His name’s +sake, that He might make His mighty power to be known.” + +At sound of the voice they turned and saw the man hurrying toward them. +He was tall, gray, and seventy, of massive frame and gaunt, still +straight and vigorous, with the hooked nose and piercing eyes of a +hawk. At first glance he looked always the bird of prey, but at the +next as invariably the wolf, an effect produced by the salient reaching +jaw and the glint of white teeth bared for a lip smile. Just now he was +touched to a rare emotion. His hands trembled and an expression of +shaken thankfulness rested in his face. + +Aline, still with Ridgway’s strong arms about her, slowly came back to +the inexorable facts of life. + +“You—here?” + +“As soon as we could get through—and thank God in time.” + +“I would have died, except for—” This brought her immediately to an +introduction, and after she had quietly released herself the man who +had saved her heard himself being formally presented: “Mr. Ridgway, I +want you to meet my husband, Mr. Harley.” + +Ridgway turned to Simon Harley a face of hammered steel and bowed, +putting his hands deliberately behind his back. + +“I’ve been expecting you at Mesa, Mr. Harley,” he said rigidly. “I’ll +be glad to have the pleasure of welcoming you there.” + +The great financier was wondering where he had heard the man’s name +before, but he only said gravely: “You have a claim on me I can never +forget, Mr. Ridgway.” + +Scornfully the other disdained this proffer. “Not at all. You owe me +nothing, Mr. Harley—absolutely nothing. What I have done I have done +for her. It is between her and me.” + +At this moment the mind of Harley fitted the name Ridgway to its niche +in his brain. So this was the audacious filibuster who had dared to +fire on the trust flag, the man he had come West to ruin and to humble. + +“I think you will have to include me, Mr. Ridgway,” he said suavely. +“What is done for my wife is done, also, for me.” + + + + +CHAPTER VI. +ON THE SNOW-TRAIL + + +Aline had passed into the house, moved by an instinct which shrank from +publicity in the inevitable personal meeting between her and her +husband. Now, Harley, with the cavalier nod of dismissal, which only a +multimillionaire can afford, followed her and closed the door. A +passionate rush of blood swept Ridgway’s face. He saw red as he stood +there with eyes burning into that door which had been shut in his face. +The nails of his clenched fingers bit into his palms, and his muscles +gathered themselves tensely. He had been cast aside, barred from the +woman he loved by this septuagenarian, as carelessly as if he had no +claim. + +And it came home to him that now he had no claim, none before the law +and society. They had walked in Arcadia where shepherds pipe. They had +taken life for granted as do the creatures of the woods, forgetful of +the edicts of a world that had seemed far and remote. But that world +had obtruded itself and shattered their dream. In the person of Simon +Harley it had shut the door which was to separate him and her. Hitherto +he had taken from life what he had wanted, but already he was grappling +with the blind fear of a fate for once too strong for him. + +“Well, I’m damned if it isn’t Waring Ridgway,” called a mellow voice +from across the gulch. + +The man named turned, and gradually the set lines of his jaw relaxed. + +“I didn’t notice it was you, Sam. Better bring the horses across this +side of that fringe of aspens.” + +The dismounted horseman followed directions and brought the floundering +horses through, and after leaving them in the cleared place where +Ridgway had cut his firewood he strolled leisurely forward to meet the +mine-owner. He was a youngish man, broad of shoulder and slender of +waist, a trifle bowed in the legs from much riding, but with an elastic +sufficiency that promised him the man for an emergency, a pledge which +his steady steel-blue eyes, with the humorous lines about the corners, +served to make more valuable. His apparel suggested the careless +efficiency of the cow-man, from the high-heeled boots into which were +thrust his corduroys to the broad-brimmed white Stetson set on his +sunreddened wavy hair. A man’s man, one would vote him at first sight, +and subsequent impressions would not contradict the first. + +“Didn’t know you were down in this neck of woods, Waring,” he said +pleasantly, as they shook hands. + +An onlooker might have noticed that both of them gripped hands heartily +and looked each other squarely in the eye. + +“I came down on business and got caught in the blizzard on my way back. +Came on her freezing in the machine and brought her here along with me. +I had my eye on that slide. The snow up there didn’t look good to me, +and the grub was about out, anyhow, so I was heading for the C B Ranch +when I sighted you.” + +“Golden luck for her. I knew it was a chance in a million that she was +still alive, but Harley wanted to take it. Say, that old fellow’s made +of steel wire. Two of my boys are plugging along a mile or two behind +us, but he stayed right with the game to a finish—and him +seventy-three, mind you, and a New Yorker at that. The old boy rides +like he was born in a saddle,” said Sam Yesler with enthusiasm. + +“I never said he was a quitter,” conceded Ridgway ungraciously. + +“You’re right he ain’t. And say, but he’s fond of his wife. Soon as he +struck the ranch the old man butted out again into the blizzard to get +her—slipped out before we knew it. The boys rounded him up wandering +round the big pasture, and none too soon neither. All the time we had +to keep herd on him to keep him from taking another whirl at it. He was +like a crazy man to tackle it, though he must a-known it was suicide. +Funny how a man takes a shine to a woman and thinks the sun rises and +sets by her. Far, as I have been able to make out women are much of a +sameness, though I ain’t setting up for a judge. Like as not this woman +don’t care a hand’s turn for him.” + +“Why should she? He bought her with his millions, I suppose. What right +has an old man like that with one foot in the grave to pick out a child +and marry her? I tell you, Sam, there’s something ghastly about it.” + +“Oh, well, I reckon when she sold herself she knew what she was +getting. It’s about an even thing—six of one and half a dozen of the +other. There must be something rotten about a woman who will do a thing +of that sort.” + +“Wait till you’ve seen her before passing judgment. And after you have +you’ll apologize if you’re a white man for thinking such a thing about +her,” the miner said hotly. + +Yesler looked at his friend in amiable surprise. “I don’t reckon we +need to quarrel about Simon Harley’s matrimonial affairs, do we?” he +laughed. + +“Not unless you want to say any harm of that lamb.” + +A glitter of mischief gleamed from the cattleman’s eyes. “Meaning +Harley, Waring?” + +“You know who I mean. I tell you she’s an angel from heaven, pure as +the driven snow.” + +“And I tell you that I’ll take your word for it without quarreling with +you,” was the goodhumored retort. “What’s up, anyhow? I never saw you +so touchy before. You’re a regular pepper-box.” + +The rescuers had brought food with them, and the party ate lunch before +starting back. The cow-punchers of the C B had now joined them, both of +them, as well as their horses, very tired with the heavy travel. + +“This here Marathon race business through three-foot snow ain’t for +invalids like me and Husky,” one of them said cheerfully, with his +mouth full of sandwich. “We’re also rans, and don’t even show for +place.” + +Yet though two of them had, temporarily at least, been rescued from +imminent danger, and success beyond their expectations had met the +others, it was a silent party. A blanket of depression seemed to rest +upon it, which the good stories of Yesler and the genial nonsense of +his man, Chinn, were unable to lift. Three of them, at least, were +brooding over what the morning had brought forth, and trying to realize +what it might mean for them. + +“We’d best be going, I expect,” said Yesler at last. “We’ve got a right +heavy bit of work cut out for us, and the horses are through feeding. +We can’t get started any too soon for me.” + +Ridgway nodded silently. He knew that the stockman was dubious, as he +himself was, about being able to make the return trip in safety. The +horses were tired; so, too, were the men who had broken the heavy trail +for so many miles, with the exception of Sam himself, who seemed built +of whipcord and elastic. They would be greatly encumbered by the woman, +for she would certainly give out during the journey. The one point in +their favor was that they could follow a trail which had already been +trodden down. + +Simon Harley helped his wife into the boy’s saddle on the back of the +animal they had led, but his inexperience had to give way to Yesler’s +skill in fitting the stirrups to the proper length for her feet. To +Ridgway, who had held himself aloof during this preparation, the +stockman now turned with a wave of his hand toward his horse. + +“You ride, Waring.” + +“No, I’m fresh.” + +“All right. We’ll take turns.” + +Ridgway led the party across the gulch, following the trail that had +been swept by the slide. The cowboys followed him, next came Harley, +his wife, and in the rear the cattleman. They descended the draw, and +presently dipped over rolling ground to the plain beyond. The +procession plowed steadily forward mile after mile, the pomes +floundering through drifts after the man ahead. + +Chinn, who had watched him breasting the soft heavy blanket that lay on +the ground so deep and hemmed them in, turned to his companion. + +“On the way coming I told you, Husky, we had the best man in Montana at +our head. We got that beat now to a fare-you-well. We got the two best +in this party, by crickey.” + +“He’s got the guts, all right, but there ain’t nothing on two legs can +keep it up much longer,” replied the other. “If you want to know, I’m +about all in myself.” + +“Here, too,” grunted the other. “And so’s the bronc.” + +It was not, however, until dusk was beginning to fall that the leader +stopped. Yesler’s voice brought him up short in his tracks. + +“Hold on, Waring. The lady’s down.” + +Ridgway strode back past the exhausted cowboys and Harley, the latter +so beaten with fatigue that he could scarce cling to the pommel of his +saddle. + +“I saw it coming. She’s been done for a long time, but she hung on like +a thoroughbred,” explained Yesler from the snow-bank where Aline had +fallen. + +He had her in his arms and was trying to get at a flask of whisky in +his hip-pocket. + +“All right. I’ll take care of her, Sam. You go ahead with your horse +and break trail. I don’t like the way this wind is rising. It’s wiping +out the path you made when you broke through. How far’s the ranch now?” + +“Close to five miles.” + +Both men had lowered their voices almost to a whisper. + +“It’s going to be a near thing, Sam. Your men are played out. Harley +will never make it without help. From now on every mile will be worse +than the last.” + +Yesler nodded quietly. “Some one has got to go ahead for help. That’s +the only way.” + +“It will have to be you, of course. You know the road best and can get +back quickest. Better take her pony. It’s the fittest.” + +The owner of the C B hesitated an instant before he answered. He was +the last man in the world to desert a comrade that was down, but his +common sense told him his friend had spoken wisely. The only chance for +the party was to get help to it from the ranch. + +“All right. If anybody plays out beside her try to keep him going. If +it comes to a showdown leave him for me to pick up. Don’t let him stop +the whole outfit.” + +“Sure. Better leave me that bottle of whisky. So-long.” + +“You’re going to ride, I reckon?” + +“Yes. I’ll have to.” + +“Get up on my horse and I’ll give her to you. That’s right Well, I’ll +see you later.” + +And with that the stockman was gone. For long they could see him, +plunging slowly forward through the drifts, getting always smaller and +smaller, till distance and the growing darkness swallowed him. + +Presently the girl in Ridgway’s arms opened her eyes. + +“I heard what you and he said,” she told him quietly. + +“About what?” he smiled down into the white face that looked up into +his. + +“You know. About our danger. I’m not afraid, not the least little bit.” + +“You needn’t be. We’re coming through, all right. Sam will make it to +the ranch. He’s a man in a million.” + +“I don’t mean that. I’m not afraid, anyway, whether we do or not.” + +“Why?” he asked, his heart beating wildly. + +“I don’t know, but I’m not,” she murmured with drowsy content. + +But he knew if she did not. Her fear had passed because he was there, +holding her in his arms, fighting to the last ounce of power in him for +her life. She felt he would never leave her, and that, if it came to +the worst, she would pass from life with him close to her. Again he +knew that wild exultant beat of blood no woman before this one had ever +stirred in him. + +Harley was the first to give up. He lurched forward and slipped from +the saddle to the snow, and could not be cursed into rising. The man +behind dismounted, put down his burden, and dragged the old man to his +feet. + +“Here! This won’t do. You’ve got to stick it out.” + +“I can’t. I’ve reached my limit.” Then testily: “‘Are not my days few? +Cease then, and let me alone,’” he added wearily, with his everready +tag of Scripture. + +The instant the other’s hold on him relaxed the old man sank back. +Ridgway dragged him up and cuffed him like a troublesome child. He knew +this was no time for reasoning. + +“Are you going to lie down and quit, you old loafer? I tell you the +ranch is only a mile or two. Here, get into the saddle.” + +By sheer strength the younger man hoisted him into the seat. He was +very tired himself, but the vital sap of youth in him still ran strong +in his blood. For a few yards farther they pushed on before Harley slid +down again and his horse stopped. + +Ridgway passed him by, guiding his bronco in a half-circle through the +snow. + +“I’ll send back help for you,” he promised. + +“It will be too late, but save her—save her,” the old man begged. + +“I will,” called back the other between set teeth. + +Chinn was the next to drop out, and after him the one he called Husky. +Both their horses had been abandoned a mile or two back, too exhausted +to continue. Each of them Ridgway urged to stick to the trail and come +on as fast as they could. + +He knew the horse he was riding could not much longer keep going with +the double weight, and when at length its strength gave out completely +he went on afoot, carrying her in his arms as on that eventful night +when he had saved her from the blizzard. + +It was so the rescue-party found him, still staggering forward with her +like a man in a sleep, flesh and blood and muscles all protestant +against the cruelty of his indomitable will that urged them on in spite +of themselves. In a dream he heard Yesler’s cheery voice, gave up his +burden to one of the rescuers, and found himself being lifted to a +fresh horse. From this dream he awakened to find himself before the +great fire of the living-room of the ranch-house, wakened from it only +long enough to know that somebody was undressing him and helping him +into bed. + +Nature, with her instinct for renewing life, saw to it that Ridgway +slept round the clock. He arose fit for anything. His body, hard as +nails, suffered no reaction from the terrific strain he had put upon +it, and he went down to his breakfast with an appetite ravenous for +whatever good things Yesler’s Chinese cook might have prepared for him. + +He found his host already at work on a juicy steak. + +“Mornin’,” nodded that gentleman. “Hope you feel as good as you look.” + +“I’m all right, barring a little stiffness in my muscles. I’ll feel +good as the wheat when I’ve got outside of the twin steak to that one +you have.” + +Yesler touched a bell, whereupon a soft-footed Oriental appeared, +turned almond eyes on his proprietor, took orders and padded silently +back to his kingdom—the kitchen. Almost immediately he reappeared with +a bowl of oatmeal and a pitcher of cream. + +“Go to it, Waring.” + +His host waved him the freedom of the diningroom, and Ridgway fell to. +Never before had food tasted so good. He had been too sleepy to eat +last night, but now he made amends. The steak, the muffins, the coffee, +were all beyond praise, and when he came to the buckwheat hot cakes, +sandwiched with butter and drenched with real maple syrup, his +satisfied soul rose up and called Hop Lee blessed. When he had +finished, Sam capped the climax by shoving toward him his case of +Havanas. + +Ridgway’s eyes glistened. “I haven’t smoked for days,” he explained, +and after the smoke had begun to rise, he added: “Ask what you will, +even to the half of my kingdom, it’s yours.” + +“Or half of the Consolidated’s,” amended his friend with twinkling +eyes. + +“Even so, Sam,” returned the other equably. “And now, tell me how you +managed to round us all up safely.” + +“You’ve heard, then, that we got the whole party in time?” + +“Yes, I’ve been talking with one of your enthusiastic riders that went +out with you after us. He’s been flimflammed into believing you the +greatest man in the United States. Tell me how you do it.” + +“Nick’s a good boy, but I reckon he didn’t tell you quite all that.” + +“Didn’t he? You should have heard him reel off your praises by the +yard. I got the whole story of how you headed the relief-party after +you had reached the ranch more dead than alive.” + +“Then, if you’ve got it, I don’t need to tell you. I WAS a bit worried +about the old man. He was pretty far gone when we reached him, but he +pulled through all right. He’s still sleeping like a top.” + +“Is he?” His guest’s hard gaze came round to meet his. “And the lady? +Do you know how she stood it?” + +“My sister says she was pretty badly played out, but all she needs is +rest. Nell put her in her own bed, and she, too, has been doing nothing +but sleep.” + +Ridgway smoked out his cigar in silence then tossed it into the +fireplace as he rose briskly. + +“I want to talk to Mesa over the phone, Sam.” + +“Can’t do it. The wires are down. This storm played the deuce with +them.” + +“The devil! I’ll have to get through myself then.” + +“Forget business for a day or two, Waring, and take it easy up here,” +counseled his host. + +“Can’t do it. I have to make arrangements to welcome Simon Harley to +Mesa. The truth is, Sam, that there are several things that won’t wait. +I’ve got to frame them up my way. Can you get me through to the +railroad in time to catch the Limited?” + +“I think so. The road has been traveled for two or three days. If you +really must go. I hate to have you streak off like this.” + +“I’d like to stay, Sam, but I can’t. For one thing, there’s that +senatorial fight coming on. Now that Harley’s on the ground in person, +I’ll have to look after my fences pretty close. He’s a good fighter, +and he’ll be out to win.” + +“After what you’ve done for him. Don’t you think that will make a +difference, Waring?” + +His friend laughed without mirth. “What have I done for him? I left him +in the snow to die, and while a good many thousand other people would +bless me for it, probably he has a different point of view.” + +“I was thinking of what you did for his wife.” + +“You’ve said it exactly. I did it for her, not for him. I’ll accept +nothing from Harley on that account. He is outside of the friendship +between her and me, and he can’t jimmy his way in.” + +Yesler shrugged his shoulders. “All right. I’ll order a rig hitched for +you and drive you over myself. I want to talk over this senatorial +fight anyhow. The way things look now it’s going to be the rottenest +session of the legislature we’ve ever had. Sometimes I’m sick of being +mixed up in the thing, but I got myself elected to help straighten out +things, and I’m certainly going to try.” + +“That’s right, Sam. With a few good fighters like you we can win out. +Anything to beat the Consolidated.” + +“Anything to keep our politics decent,” corrected the other. “I’ve got +nothing against the Consolidated, but I won’t lie down and let it or +any other private concern hog-tie this State—not if I can help it, +anyhow.” + +Behind wary eyes Ridgway studied him. He was wondering how far this man +would go as his tool. Sam Yesler held a unique position in the State. +His influence was commanding among the sturdy old-time population +represented by the non-mining interests of the smaller towns and open +plains. He must be won at all hazards to lend it in the impending fight +against Harley. The mine-owner knew that no thought of personal gain +would move him. He must be made to feel that it was for the good of the +State that the Consolidated be routed. Ridgway resolved to make him see +it that way. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. +BACK FROM ARCADIA + + +The president of the Mesa Ore-producing Company stepped from the +parlor-car of the Limited at the hour when all wise people are taking +life easy after a good dinner. He did not, however, drive to his club, +but took a cab straight for his rooms, where he had telegraphed Eaton +to meet him with the general superintendent of all his properties and +his private secretary, Smythe. For nearly a week his finger had been +off the pulse of the situation, and he wanted to get in touch again as +soon as possible. For in a struggle as tense as the one between him and +the trust, a hundred vital things might have happened in that time. He +might be coming back to catastrophe and ruin, brought about while he +had been a prisoner to love in that snow-bound cabin. + +Prisoner to love he had been and still was, but the business men who +met him at his rooms, fellow adventurers in the forlorn hope he had +hitherto led with such signal success, could have read nothing of this +in the marble, chiseled face of their sagacious general, so indomitable +of attack and insatiate of success. His steel-hard eyes gave no hint of +the Arcadia they had inhabited so eagerly a short twenty-four hours +before. The intoxicating madness he had known was chained deep within +him. Once more he had a grip on himself; was sheathed in a cannonproof +plate armor of selfishness. No more magic nights of starshine, +breathing fire and dew; no more lifted moments of exaltation stinging +him to a pulsating wonder at life’s wild delight. He was again the +inexorable driver of men, with no pity for their weaknesses any more +than for his own. + +The men whom he found waiting for him at his rooms were all young +Westerners picked out by him because he thought them courageous, +unscrupulous and loyal. Like him, they were privateers in the seas of +commerce, and sailed under no flag except the one of insurrection he +had floated. But all of them, though they were associated with him and +hoped to ride to fortune on the wave that carried him there, recognized +themselves as subordinates in the enterprises he undertook. They were +merely heads of departments, and they took orders like trusted clerks +with whom the owner sometimes unbends and advises. + +Now he heard their reports, asked an occasional searching question, and +swiftly gave decisions of far-reaching import. It was past midnight +before he had finished with them, and instead of retiring for the sleep +he might have been expected to need, he spent the rest of the night +inspecting the actual workings of the properties he had not seen for +six days. Hour after hour he passed examining the developments, +sometimes in the breasts of the workings and again consulting with +engineers and foremen in charge. Light was breaking in the sky before +he stepped from the cage of the Jack Pot and boarded a street-car for +his rooms. Cornishmen and Hungarians and Americans, going with their +dinner-buckets to work, met him and received each a nod or a word of +greeting from this splendidly built young Hermes in miners’ slops, who +was to many of them, in their fancy, a deliverer from the slavery which +the Consolidated was ready to force upon them. + +Once at his rooms, Ridgway took a cold bath, dressed carefully, +breakfasted, and was ready to plunge into the mass of work which had +accumulated during his absence at the mining camp of Alpine and the +subsequent period while he was snowbound. These his keen, practical +mind grasped and disposed of in crisp sentences. To his private +secretary he rapped out order sharply and decisively. + +“Phone Ballard and Dalton I want to see them at once. Tell Murphy I +won’t talk with him. What I said before I left was final. Write +Cadwallader we can’t do business on the terms he proposes, but add that +I’m willing to continue his Mary Kinney lease. Dictate a letter to +Riley’s lawyer, telling him I can’t afford to put a premium on +incompetence and negligence; that if his client was injured in the Jack +Pot explosion, he has nobody but himself to blame for it. Otherwise, of +course, I should be glad to pension him. Let me see the letter before +you send it. I don’t want anything said that will offend the union. +Have two tons of good coal sent up to Riley’s house, and notify his +grocer that all bills for the next three months may be charged to me. +And, Smythe, ask Mr. Eaton to step this way.” + +Stephen Eaton, an alert, clear-eyed young fellow who served as fidus +Achates to Ridgway, and was the secretary and treasurer of the Mesa +Ore-producing Company, took the seat Smythe had vacated. He was +good-looking, after a boyish, undistinguished fashion, but one disposed +to be critical might have voted the chin not quite definite enough. He +had been a clerk of the Consolidated, working for one hundred dollars a +month, when Ridgway picked him out and set his feet in the way of +fortune. He had done this out of personal liking, and, in return, the +subordinate was frankly devoted to his chief. + +“Steve, my opinion is that Alpine is a false alarm. Unless I guess +wrong, it is merely a surface proposition and low-grade at that.” + +“Miller says—” + +“Yes, I know what Miller says. He’s wrong. I don’t care if he is the +biggest copper expert in the country.” + +“Then you won’t invest?” + +“I have invested—bought the whole outfit, lock, stock and barrel.” + +“But why? What do you want with it if the property is no good?” asked +Eaton in surprise. + +Ridgway laughed shortly. “I don’t want it, but the Consolidated does. +Two of their experts were up at Alpine last week, and both of them +reported favorably. I’ve let it leak out to their lawyer, O’Malley, +that Miller thought well of it; in fact, I arranged to let one of their +spies steal a copy of his report to us.” + +“But when they know you have bought it?” + +“They won’t know till too late. I bought through a dummy. It seemed a +pity not to let then have the property since they wanted it so badly, +so this morning he sold out for me to the Consolidated at a profit of a +hundred and fifty thousand.” + +Eaton grinned appreciatively. It was in startling finesse of this sort +his chief excelled, and Stephen was always ready with applause. + +“I notice that Hobart slipped out of town last night. That is where he +must have been going. He’ll be sick when he learns how you did him.” + +Ridgway permitted himself an answering smile. “I suppose it will +irritate him a trifle, but that can’t be helped. I needed that money to +get clear on that last payment for the Sherman Bell.” + +“Yes, I was worried about that. Notes have been piling up against us +that must be met. There’s the Ransom note, too. It’s for a hundred +thousand.” + +“He’ll extend it,” said the chief confidently. + +“He told me he would have to have his money when it came due. I’ve +noticed he has been pretty close to Mott lately. I expect he has an +arrangement with the Consolidated to push us.” + +“I’m watching him, Steve. Don’t worry about that. He did arrange to +sell the note to Mott, but I stopped that little game.” + +“How?” + +“For a year I’ve had all the evidence of that big government timber +steal of his in a safety-deposit vault. Before he sold, I had a few +words with him. He changed his mind and decided he preferred to hold +the notes. More, he is willing to let us have another hundred thousand +if we have to have it.” + +Eaton’s delight bubbled out of him in boyish laughter. “You’re a +wonder, Waring. There’s nobody like you. Can’t any of them touch +you—not Harley himself, by Jove.” + +“We’ll have a chance to find that out soon, Steve.” + +“Yes, they say he’s coming out in person to run the fight against you. +I hope not.” + +“It isn’t a matter of hoping any longer. He’s here,” calmly announced +his leader. + +“Here! On the ground?” + +“Yes.” + +“But—he can’t be here without us knowing it.” + +“I’m telling you that I do know it.” + +“Have you seen him yourself?” demanded the treasurer incredulously. + +“Seen him, talked with him, cursed him and cuffed him,” announced +Ridgway with a reminiscent gleam in his eye. + +“Er—what’s that you say?” gasped the astounded Eaton. + +“Merely that I have already met Simon Harley.” + +“But you said—” + +“—that I had cursed and cuffed him. That’s all right. I have.” + +The president of the Mesa Ore-producing Company leaned back with his +thumbs in the armholes of his fancy waistcoat and smiled debonairly at +his associate’s perplexed amazement. + +“Did you say—CUFFED him?” + +“That’s what I meant to say. I roughed him around quite a +bit—manhandled him in general. But all FOR HIS GOOD, you know.” + +“For his good?” Eaton’s dazed brain tried to conceive the situation of +a billionaire being mauled for his good, and gave it up in despair. If +Steve Eaton worshipped anything, it was wealth. He was a born +sycophant, and it was partly because his naive unstinted admiration had +contributed to satisfy his chief’s vanity that the latter had made of +him a confidant. Now he sat dumb before the lese-majeste of laying +forcible hands upon the richest man in the world. + +“But, of course, you’re only joking,” he finally decided. + +“You haven’t been back twelve hours. Where COULD you have seen him?” + +“Nevertheless I have met him and been properly introduced by his wife.” + +“His wife?” + +“Yes, I picked her out of a snow-drift.” + +“Is this a riddle?” + +“If it is, I don’t know the answer, Steve. But it is a true one, +anyhow, not made to order merely to astonish you.” + +“True that you picked Simon Harley’s wife out of a snow-drift and +kicked him around?” + +“I didn’t say kicked, did I?” inquired the other, judicially. “But I +rather think I did knee him some.” + +“Of course, I read all about his marriage two weeks ago to Miss Aline +Hope. Did he bring her out here with him for the honeymoon?” + +“If he did, I euchred him out of it. She spent it with me alone in a +miner’s cabin,” the other cried, malevolence riding triumph on his +face. + +“Whenever you’re ready to explain,” suggested Eaton helplessly. “You’ve +piled up too many miracles for me even to begin guessing them.” + +“You know I was snow-bound, but you did not know my only companion was +this Aline Hope you speak of. I found her in the blizzard, and took her +to an empty cabin near. She and her husband were motoring from +Avalanche to Mesa, and the machine had broken down. Harley had gone for +help and left her there alone when the blizzard came up. Three days +later Sam Yesler and the old man broke trail through from the C B Ranch +and rescued us.” + +It was so strange a story that it came home to Eaton piecemeal. + +“Three days—alone with Harley’s wife—and he rescued you himself.” + +“He didn’t rescue me any. I could have broken through any time I wanted +to leave her. On the way back his strength gave out, and that was when +I roughed him. I tried to bullyrag him into keeping on, but it was no +go. I left him there, and Sam went back after him with a relief-party.” + +“You left him! With his wife?” + +“No!” cried Ridgway. “Do I look like a man to desert a woman on a +snow-trail? I took her with me.” + +“Oh!” There was a significant silence before Eaton asked the question +in his mind. “I’ve seen her pictures in the papers. Does she look like +them?” + +His chief knew what was behind the question, and he knew, too, that +Eaton might be taken to represent public opinion. The world would cast +an eye of review over his varied and discreditable record with women. +It would imagine the story of those three days of enforced confinement +together, and it would look to the woman in the case for an answer to +its suspicions. That she was young, lovely, and yet had sold herself to +an old man for his millions, would go far in itself to condemn her; and +he was aware that there were many who would accept her very childish +innocence as the sophistication of an artist. + +Waring Ridgway put his arms akimbo on the table and leaned across with +his steady eyes fastened on his friend. + +“Steve, I’m going to answer that question. I haven’t seen any pictures +of her in the papers, but if they show a face as pure and true as the +face of God himself then they are like her. You know me. I’ve got no +apologies or explanations to make for the life I’ve led. That’s my +business. But you’re my friend, and I tell you I would rather be hacked +in pieces by Apaches than soil that child’s white soul by a single +unclean breath. There mustn’t be any talk. Do you understand? Keep the +story out of the newspapers. Don’t let any of our people gossip about +it. I have told you because I want you to know the truth. If any one +should speak lightly about this thing stop him at once. This is the one +point on which Simon Harley and I will pull together. Any man who joins +that child’s name with mine loosely will have to leave this camp—and +suddenly.” + +“It won’t be the men—it will be the women that will talk.” + +“Then garble the story. Change that three days to three hours, Steve. +Anything to stop their foul-clacking tongues!” + +“Oh, well! I dare say the story won’t get out at all, but if it does +I’ll see the gossips get the right version. I suppose Sam Yesler will +back it up.” + +“Of course. He’s a white man. And I don’t need to tell you that I’ll be +a whole lot obliged to you, Stevie.” + +“That’s all right. Sometimes I’m a white man, too, Waring,” laughed +Steve. Ridgway circled the table and put a hand on the younger man’s +shoulder affectionately. Steve Eaton was the one of all his associates +for whom he had the closest personal feeling. + +“I don’t need to be told that, old pal,” he said quietly. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. +THE HONORABLE THOMAS B. PELTON + + +It was next morning that Steve came into Ridgway’s offices with a copy +of the Rocky Mountain Herald in his hands. As soon as the president of +the Mesa Ore-producing Company was through talking with Dalton, the +superintendent of the Taurus, about the best means of getting to the +cage a quantity of ore he was looting from the Consolidated property +adjoining, the treasurer plumped out with his news. + +“Seen to-day’s paper, Waring? It smokes out Pelton to a finish. They’ve +moled out some facts we can’t get away from.” + +Ridgway glanced rapidly over the paper. “We’ll have to drop Pelton and +find another candidate for the Senate. Sorry, but it can’t be helped. +They’ve got his record down too fine. That affidavit from Quinton puts +an end to his chances.” + +“He’ll kick like a bay steer.” + +“His own fault for not covering his tracks better. This exposure +doesn’t help us any at best. If we still tried to carry Pelton, we +should last about as long as a snowball in hell.” + +“Shall I send for him?” + +“No. He’ll be here as quick as he can cover the ground. Have him shown +in as soon as he comes. And Steve—did Harley arrive on the eight-thirty +this morning?” + +“Yes. He is putting up at the Mesa House. He reserved an entire floor +by wire, so that he has bed-rooms, dining-rooms, parlors, +reception-halls and private offices all together. The place is policed +thoroughly, and nobody can get up without an order.” + +“I haven’t been thinking of going up and shooting him, even though it +would be a blessing to the country,” laughed his chief. + +“No, but it is possible somebody else might. This town is full of +ignorant foreigners who would hardly think twice of it. If he had asked +my advice, it would have been to stay away from Mesa.” + +“He wouldn’t have taken it,” returned Ridgway carelessly. “Whatever +else is true about him, Simon Harley isn’t a coward. He would have told +you that not a sparrow falls to the ground without the permission of +the distorted God he worships, and he would have come on the next +train.” + +“Well, it isn’t my funeral,” contributed Steve airily. + +“All the same I’m going to pass his police patrols and pay a visit to +the third floor of the Mesa House.” + +“You are going to compromise with him?” cried Eaton swiftly. + +“Compromise nothing, I’m going to pay a formal social call on Mrs. +Harley, and respectfully hope that she has suffered no ill effects from +her exposure to the cold.” + +Eaton made no comment, unless to whistle gently were one. + +“You think it isn’t wise?” + +“Well, is it?” asked Steve. + +“I think so. We’ll scotch the lying tongue of rumor by a strict +observance of the conventions. Madam Grundy is padlocked when we reduce +the situation to the absurdity of the common place.” + +“Perhaps you are right, if it doesn’t become too common commonplace.” + +“I think we may trust Simon Harley to see to that,” answered his chief +with a grim smile “Obviously our social relations aren’t likely to be +very intimate. Now it’s ‘Just before the battle mother,’ but once the +big guns begin to boor we’ll neither of us be in the mood for functions +social.” + +“You’ve established a sort of claim on him. It wouldn’t surprise me if +he would meet you halfway in settling the trouble between you,” said +Eaton thoughtfully. + +“I expect he would,” agreed Ridgway indifferently as he lit a cigar. + +“Well, then?” + +“The trouble is that I won’t meet him halfway. I can’t afford to be +reasonable, Steve. Just suppose for an instant that I had been +reasonable five years ago when this fight began. They would have bought +me out for a miserable pittance of a hundred and fifty thousand or so. +That would have been a reasonable figure then. You might put it now at +five or six millions, and that would be about right. I don’t want their +money. I want power, and I’d rather fight for it than not. Besides, I +mean to make what I have already wrung from them a lever for getting +more. I’m going to show Harley that he has met a man at last he can’t +either freeze out or bully out. I’m going to let him and his bunch know +I’m on earth and here to stay; that I can beat them at their own game +to a finish.” + +“Did it ever occur to you, Waring, that it might pay to make this a +limited round contest? You’ve won on points up to date by a mile, but +in a finish fight endurance counts. Money is the same as endurance +here, and that’s where they are long.” + +Eaton made this suggestion diffidently, for though he was a stockholder +and official of the Mesa Ore-producing Company, he was not used to +offering its head unasked advice. The latter, however, took it without +a trace of resentment. + +“Glad of it, my boy. There’s no credit in beating a cripple.” + +To this jaunty retort Eaton had found no answer when Smythe opened the +door to announce the arrival of the Honorable Thomas B. Pelton, very +anxious for an immediate interview with Mr. Ridgway. + +“Show him in,” nodded the president, adding in an aside: “You better +stay, Steve.” + +Pelton was a rotund oracular individual in silk hat and a Prince Albert +coat of broadcloth. He regarded himself solemnly as a statesman because +he had served two inconspicuous terms in the House at Washington. He +was fond of proclaiming himself a Southern gentleman, part of which +statement was unnecessary and part untrue. Like many from his section, +he had a decided penchant for politics. + +“Have you seen the infamous libel in that scurrilous sheet of the +gutters the Herald?” he demanded immediately of Ridgway. + +“Which libel? They don’t usually stop at one, colonel.” + +“The one, seh, which slanders my honorable name; which has the +scoundrelly audacity to charge me with introducing the mining extension +bill for venal reasons, seh.” + +“Oh! Yes, I’ve seen that. Rather an unfortunate story to come out just +now.” + +“I shall force a retraction, seh, or I shall demand the satisfaction +due a Southern gentleman. + +“Yes, I would, colonel,” replied Ridgway, secretly amused at the vain +threats of this bag of wind which had been punctured. + +“It’s a vile calumny, an audacious and villainous lie.” + +“What part of it? I’ve just glanced over it, but the part I read seems +to be true. That’s the trouble with it. If it were a lie you could +explode it.” + +“I shall deny it over my signature.” + +“Of course. The trouble will be to get people to believe your denial +with Quinton’s affidavit staring them in the face. It seems they have +got hold of a letter, too, that you wrote. Deny it, of course, then lie +low and give the public time to forget it.” + +“Do you mean that I should withdraw from the senatorial race?” + +“That’s entirely as you please, colonel, but I’m afraid you’ll find +your support will slip away from you.” + +“Do you mean that YOU won’t support me, seh?” + +Ridgway locked his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair. +“We’ve got to face facts, colonel. In the light of this exposure you +can’t be elected.” + +“But I tell you, by Gad, seh, that I mean to deny it.” + +“Certainly. I should in your place,” agreed the mine-owner coolly. “The +question is, how many people are going to believe you?” + +Tiny sweat-beads stood on the forehead of the Arkansan. His manner was +becoming more and more threatening. “You pledged me your support. Are +you going to throw me down, seh?” + +“You have thrown yourself down, Pelton. Is it my fault you bungled the +thing and left evidence against you? Am I to blame because you wrote +incriminating letters?” + +“Whatever I did was done for you,” retorted the cornered man +desperately. + +“I beg your pardon. It was done for what was in it for you. The +arrangement between us was purely a business one.” + +The coolness of his even voice maddened the harassed Pelton. + +“So I’m to get burnt drawing your chestnuts out of the fire, am I? +You’re going to stand back and let my career be sacrificed, are you? By +Gad, seh, I’ll show you whether I’ll be your catspaw,” screamed the +congressman. + +“Use your common sense, Pelton, and don’t shriek like a fish-wife,” +ordered Ridgway sharply. “No sane man floats a leaky ship. Go to +drydock and patch up your reputation, and in a few years you’ll come +out as good as new.” + +All his unprincipled life Pelton had compromised with honor to gain the +coveted goal he now saw slipping from him. A kind of madness of despair +surged up in him. He took a step threateningly toward the seated man, +his hand slipping back under his coat-tails toward his hip pocket. +Acridly his high voice rang out. + +“As a Southern gentleman, seh, I refuse to tolerate the imputations you +cast upon me. I demand an apology here and now, seh.” + +Ridgway was on his feet and across the room like a flash. + +“Don’t try to bully ME, you false alarm. Call yourself a Southern +gentleman! You’re a shallow scurvy impostor. No more like the real +article than a buzzard is like an eagle. Take your hand from under that +coat or I’ll break every bone in your flabby body.” + +Flabby was the word, morally no less than physically. Pelton quailed +under that gaze which bored into him like a gimlet. The ebbing color in +his face showed he could summon no reserve of courage sufficient to +meet it. Slowly his empty hand came forth. + +“Don’t get excited, Mr. Ridgway. You have mistaken my purpose, seh. I +had no intention of drawing,” he stammered with a pitiable attempt at +dignity. + +“Liar,” retorted his merciless foe, crowding him toward the door. + +“I don’t care to have anything more to do with you. Our relations are +at an end, seh,” quavered Pelton as he vanished into the outer once and +beat a hasty retreat to the elevator. + +Ridgway returned to his chair, laughing ruefully. “I couldn’t help it, +Steve. He would have it. I suppose I’ve made one more enemy.” + +“A nasty one, too. He’ll stick at nothing to get even.” + +“We’ll draw his fangs while there is still time. Get a good story in +the Sun to the effect that I quarreled with him as soon as I discovered +his connection with this mining extension bill graft. Have it in this +afternoon’s edition, Steve. Better get Brayton to write it.” + +Steve nodded. “That’s a good idea. We may make capital out of it after +all. I’ll have an editorial in, too. ‘We love him for the enemies he +has made.’ How would that do for a heading?” + +“Good. And now we’ll have to look around for a candidate to put against +Mott. I’m hanged if I know where we’ll find one.” + +Eaton had an inspiration. + +“I do?” + +“One that will run well, popular enough to catch the public fancy?” + +“Yes.” + +“Who, then?” + +“Waring Ridgway.” + +The owner of the name stared at his lieutenant in astonishment, but +slowly the fascination o the idea sank in. + +“By Jove! Why not?” + + + + +CHAPTER IX. +AN EVENING CALL + + +“Says you’re to come right up, Mr. Ridgway,” the bell-hop reported, and +after he had pocketed his tip, went sliding off across the polished +floor to answer another call. + +The president of the Mesa Ore-producing Company turned with a +good-humored smile to the chief clerk. + +“You overwork your boys, Johnson. I wasn’t through with that one. I’ll +have to ask you to send another up to show me the Harley suite.” + +They passed muster under the eye of the chief detective, and, after the +bell-boy had rung, were admitted to the private parlor where Simon +Harley lay stretched on a lounge with his wife beside him. She had been +reading, evidently aloud and when her visitor was announced rose with +her finger still keeping the place in the closed book. + +The gaze she turned on him was of surprise, almost of alarm, so that +the man on the threshold knew he was not expected. + +“You received my card?” he asked quickly. + +“No. Did you send one?” Then, with a little gesture of half-laughing +irritation: “It must have gone to Mr. Harvey again. He is Mr. Harley’s +private secretary, and ever since we arrived it has been a comedy of +errors. The hotel force refuses to differentiate.” + +“I must ask you to accept my regrets for an unintentional intrusion, +Mrs. Harley. When I was told to come up, I could not guess that my card +had gone amiss.” + +The great financier had got to his feet and now came forward with +extended hand. + +“Nevertheless we are glad to see you, Mr. Ridgway, and to get the +opportunity to express our thanks for all that you have done for us.” + +The cool fingers of the younger man touched his lightly before they met +those of his wife. + +“Yes, we are very glad, indeed, to see you, Mr. Ridgway,” she added to +her husband’s welcome. + +“I could not feel quite easy in my mind without hearing from your own +lips that you are none the worse for the adventures you have suffered,” +their visitor explained after they had found seats. + +“Thanks to you, my wife is quite herself again, Mr. Ridgway,” Harley +announced from the davenport. “Thanks also to God, who so mercifully +shelters us beneath the shadow of His wing.” + +But her caller preferred to force from Aline’s own lips this affidavit +of health. Even his audacity could not ignore his host entirely, but it +gave him the least consideration possible. To the question which still +rested in his eyes the girl-wife answered shyly. + +“Indeed, I am perfectly well. I have done nothing but sleep to-day and +yesterday. Miss Yesler was very good to me. I do not know how I can +repay the great kindness of so many friends,” she said with a swift +descent of fluttering lashes to the soft cheeks upon which a faint +color began to glow. + +“Perhaps they find payment for the service in doing it for you,” he +suggested. + +“Yet, I shall take care not to forget it,” Harley said pointedly. + +“Indeed!” Ridgway put it with polite insolence, the hostility in his +face scarcely veiled. + +“It has pleased Providence to multiply my portion so abundantly that I +can reward those well who serve me.” + +“At how much do you estimate Mrs. Harley’s life?” his rival asked with +quiet impudence. + +In the course of the past two days Aline had made the discovery that +her husband and her rescuer were at swords drawn in a business way. +This had greatly distressed her, and in her innocence she had resolved +to bring them together. How could her inexperience know that she might +as well have tried to induce the lion and the lamb to lie down together +peaceably? Now she tried timidly to drift the conversation from the +awkwardness into which Harley’s suggestion of a reward and his +opponent’s curt retort had blundered it. + +“I hope you did not find upon your return that your business was +disarranged so much as you feared it might be by your absence.” + +“I found my affairs in very good condition,” Ridgway smiled. “But I am +glad to be back in time to welcome to Mesa you—and Mr. Harley.” + +“It seems so strange a place,” the girl ventured, with a hesitation +that showed her anxiety not to offend his local pride. “You see I never +before was in a place where there was no grass and nothing green in +sight. And to-night, when I looked out of the window and saw streams of +red-hot fire running down hills, I thought of Paradise Lost and Dante. +I suppose it doesn’t seem at all uncanny to you?” + +“At night sometimes I still get that feeling, but I have to cultivate +it a bit,” he confessed. “My sober second thought insists that those +molten rivers are merely business, refuse disgorged as lava from the +great smelters.” + +“I looked for the sun to-day through the pall of sulphur smoke that +hangs so heavy over the town, but instead I saw a London gas-lamp +hanging in the heavens. Is it always so bad?” + +“Not when the drift of the wind is right. In fact, a day like this is +quite unusual.” + +“I’m glad of that. I feel more cheerful in the sunshine. I know that’s +a bit of the child still left in me. Mr. Harley takes all days alike.” + +The Wall Street operator was in slippers and house-jacket. His wife, +too, was dressed comfortably in some soft clinging stuff. Their visitor +saw that they had disposed themselves for a quiet uninterrupted evening +by the fireside. The domesticity of it all stirred the envy in him. He +did not want her to be contented and at peace with his enemy. Something +deeper than his vanity cried out in protest against it. + +She was still making talk against the gloom of the sulphur fog which +seemed to have crept into the spirit of the room. + +“We were reading before you came in, Mr. Ridgway. I suppose you read a +good deal. Mr. Harley likes to have me read aloud to him when he is +tired.” + +An impulse came upon Ridgway to hear her, some such impulse as makes a +man bite on sore tooth even though he knows he must pay later for it. + +“Will you not go on with your reading? I should like to hear it. I +really should.” + +She was a little taken aback, but she looked inquiringly at her +husband, who bowed silently. + +“I was just beginning the fifty-ninth psalm. We have been reading the +book through. Mr. Harley finds great comfort in it,” she explained. + +Her eyes fell to the printed page and her clear, sweet voice took up +the ancient tale of vengeance. + +“Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise +up against me. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me +from bloody men. + +“For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against +me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord. They run and +prepare themselves without my fault: awake to help me, and behold. + +“Thou, therefore, O Lord God of Hosts, the God of Israel, awake to +visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. +Selah.” + +Ridgway glanced across in surprise at the strong old man lying on the +lounge. His hands were locked in front of him, and his gaze rested +peacefully on the fair face of the child reading. His foe’s mind swept +up the insatiable cruel years that lay behind this man, and he marveled +that with such a past he could still hold fast to that simple faith of +David. He wondered whether this ruthless spoiler went back to the Old +Testament for the justification of his life, or whether his credo had +given the impulse to his career. One thing he no longer doubted: Simon +Harley believed his Bible implicitly and literally, and not only the +New Testament. + +“For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips even be taken +in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak. + +“Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let +them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth.” + +The fresh young girlish voice died away into silence. Harley, +apparently deep in meditation, gazed at the ceiling. His guest felt a +surge of derision at this man who thought he had a compact with God to +rule the world for his benefit. + +“I am sure Mr. Harley must enjoy the Psalms a great deal,” he said +ironically, but it was in simple faith the young wife answered eagerly: + +“He does. He finds so much in them that is applicable to life.” + +“I can see how he might,” agreed the young man. + +“Few people take their religion so closely into their every-day lives +as he does,” she replied in a low voice, seeing that her husband was +lost in thought. + +“I am sure you are right.” + +“He is very greatly misunderstood, Mr. Ridgway. I am sure if people +knew how good he is— But how can they know when the newspapers are so +full of falsehoods about him? And the magazines are as bad, he says. It +seems to be the fashion to rake up bitter things to say about prominent +business men. You must have noticed it.” + +“Yes. I believe I have noticed that,” he answered with a grim little +laugh. + +“Don’t you think it could be explained to these writers? They can’t +WANT to distort the truth. It must be they don’t know.” + +“You must not take the muckrakers too seriously. They make a living +roasting us. A good deal of what they say is true in a way. Personally, +I don’t object to it much. It’s a part of the penalty of being +successful. That’s how I look at it.” + +“Do they say bad things about you, too?” she asked in open-eyed +surprise. + +“Occasionally,” he smiled. “When they think I’m important enough.” + +“I don’t see how they can,” he heard her murmur to herself. + +“Oh, most of what they say is true.” + +“Then I know it can’t be very bad,” she made haste to answer. + +“You had better read it and see.” + +“I don’t understand business at all,” she said + +“But—sometimes it almost frightens me. Business isn’t really like war, +is it?” + +“A good deal like it. But that need not frighten you. All life is a +battle—sometimes, at least. Success implies fighting.” + +“And does that in turn imply tragedy—for the loser?” + +“Not if one is a good loser. We lose and make another start.” + +“But if success is a battle, it must be gained at the expense of +another.” + +“Sometimes. But you must look at it in a big way.” The secretary of the +trust magnate had come in and was in low-toned conversation with him. +The visitor led her to the nearest window and drew back the curtains so +that they looked down on the lusty life of the turbid young city, at +the lights in the distant smelters and mills, at the great hill +opposite, with its slagdumps, gallows-frames and shaft-houses black +against the dim light, which had yielded its millions and millions of +tons of ore for the use of mankind. “All this had to be fought for. It +didn’t grow of itself. And because men fought for it, the place is what +it is. Sixty thousand people live here, fed by the results of the +battle. The highest wages in the world are paid the miners here. They +live in rough comfort and plenty, whereas in the countries they came +from they were underpaid and underfed. Is that not good?” + +“Yes,” she admitted. + +“Life for you and for me must be different, thank God. You are in the +world to make for the happiness of those you meet. That is good. But +unless I am to run away from my work, what I do must make some unhappy. +I can’t help that if I am to do big things. When you hear people +talking of the harm I do, you will remember what I have told you +to-night, and you will think that a man and his work cannot be judged +by isolated fragments.” + +“Yes,” she breathed softly, for she knew that this man was saying +good-by to her and was making his apologia. + +“And you will remember that no matter how bitter the fight may grow +between me and Mr. Harley, it has nothing to do with you. We shall +still be friends, though we may never meet again.” + +“I shall remember that, too,” he heard her murmur. + +“You have been hoping that Mr. Harley and I would be friends. That is +impossible. He came out here to crush me. For years his subordinates +have tried to do this and failed. I am the only man alive that has ever +resisted him successfully. I don’t underestimate his power, which is +greater than any czar or emperor that ever lived, but I don’t think he +will succeed. I shall win because I understand the forces against me. +He will lose because he scorns those against him.” + +“I am sorry. Oh, I am so sorry,” she wailed, gently as a breath of +summer wind. For she saw now that the cleavage between them was too +wide for a girl’s efforts to bridge. + +“That I am going to win?” he smiled gravely. + +“That you must be enemies; that he came here to ruin you, since you say +he did.” + +“You need not be too hard on him for that. By his code I am a +freebooter and a highwayman. Business offers legitimate ways of +robbery, and I transgress them. His ways are not my ways, and mine are +not his, but it is only fair to say that his are the accepted ones.” + +“I don’t understand it at all. You are both good men. I know you are. +Surely you need not be enemies.” + +But she knew she could hope for no reassurance from the man beside her. + +Presently she led him back across the big room to the fireplace near +where her husband lay. His secretary had gone, and he was lying resting +on the lounge. He opened his eyes and smiled at her. “Has Mr. Ridgway +been pointing out to you the places of interest?” he asked quietly. + +“Yes, dear.” The last word came hesitantly after the slightest of +pauses. “He says he must be going now.” + +The head of the greatest trust on earth got to his feet and smiled +benignantly as he shook hands with the departing guest. “I shall hope +to see you very soon and have a talk regarding business, Mr. Ridgway,” +he said. + +“Whenever you like, Mr. Harley.” To the girl he said merely, “Good +night,” and was gone. + +The old man put an arm affectionately across his young wife’s shoulder. + +“Shall we read another psalm, my dear? Or are you tired?” + +She repressed the little shiver that ran through her before she +answered wearily. “I am a little tired. If you don’t mind I would like +to retire, please.” + +He saw her as far as the door of her apartments and left her with her +maid after he had kissed the cold cheek she dutifully turned toward +him. + + + + +CHAPTER X. +HARLEY MAKES A PROPOSITION + + +Apparently the head of the great trust intended to lose no time in +having that business talk with Ridgway, which he had graciously +promised the latter. Eaton and his chief were busy over some +applications for leases when Smythe came into the room with a letter. + +“Messenger-boy brought it; said it was important,” he explained. + +Ridgway ripped open the envelope, read through the letter swiftly, and +tossed it to Eaton. His eyes had grown hard and narrow. + +“Write to Mr. Hobart that I am sorry I haven’t time to call on Mr. +Harley at the Consolidated offices, as he suggests. Add that I expect +to be in my offices all morning, and shall be glad to make an +appointment to talk with Mr. Harley here, if he thinks he has any +business with me that needs a personal interview.” + +Smythe’s leathery face had as much expression as a blank wall, but +Eaton gasped. The unparalleled audacity of flinging the billionaire’s +overture back in his face left him for the moment speechless. He knew +that Ridgway had tempted Providence a hundred times without coming to +disaster, but surely this was going too far. Any reasonable compromise +with the great trust builder would be cause for felicitation. He had +confidence in his chief to any point in reason, but he could not blind +himself to the fact that the wonderful successes he had gained were +provisional rather than final. He likened them to Stonewall Jackson’s +Shenandoah raid, very successful in irritating, disorganizing and +startling the enemy, but with no serious bearing on the final +inevitable result. In the end Harley would crush his foes if he set in +motion the whole machinery of his limitless resources. That was Eaton’s +private opinion, and he was very much of the feeling that this was an +opportune time to get in out of the rain. + +“Don’t you think we had better consider that answer before we send it, +Waring?” he suggested in a low voice. + +His chief nodded a dismissal to the secretary before answering. + +“I have considered it.” + +“But—surely it isn’t wise to reject his advances before we know what +they are.” + +“I haven’t rejected them. I’ve simply explained that we are doing +business on equal terms. Even if I meant to compromise, it would pay me +to let him know he doesn’t own me.” + +“He may decide not to offer his proposition.” + +“It wouldn’t worry me if he did.” + +Eaton knew he must speak now if his protest were to be of any avail. +“It would worry me a good deal. He has shown an inclination to be +friendly. This answer is like a slap in the face.” + +“Is it?” + +“Doesn’t it look like that to you?” + +Ridgway leaned back in his chair and looked thoughtfully at his friend. +“Want to sell out, Steve?” + +“Why—what do you mean?” asked the surprised treasurer. + +“If you do, I’ll pay anything in reason for your stock.” He got up and +began to pace the floor with long deliberate strides. “I’m a born +gambler, Steve. It clears my head to take big chances. Give me a good +fight on my hands with the chances against me, and I’m happy. You’ve +got to take the world by the throat and shake success out of it if +you’re going to score heavily. That’s how Harley made good years ago. +Read the story of his life. See the chances he took. He throttled +combinations a dozen times as strong as his. Some people say he was an +accident. Don’t you believe it. Accidents like him don’t happen. He won +because he was the biggest, brainiest, most daring and unscrupulous +operator in the field. That’s why I’m going to win—if I do win.” + +“Yes, if you win.” + +“Well, that’s the chance I take,” flung back the other as he swung +buoyantly across the room. “But YOU don’t need to take it. If you want, +you can get out now at the top market price. I feel it in my bones I’m +going to win; but if you don’t feel it, you’d be a fool to take +chances.” + +Eaton’s mercurial temperament responded with a glow. + +“No, sir. I’ll sit tight. I’m no quitter.” + +“Good for you, Steve. I knew it. I’ll tell you now that I would have +hated like hell to see you leave me. You’re the only man I can rely on +down to the ground, twenty-four hours of every day.” + +The answer was sent, and Eaton’s astonishment at his chief’s temerity +changed to amazement when the great Harley, pocketing his pride, asked +for an appointment, and appeared at the offices of the Mesa +Ore-producing Company at the time set. That Ridgway, who was busy with +one of his superintendents, should actually keep the most powerful man +in the country waiting in an outer office while he finished his +business with Dalton seemed to him insolence florescent. + +“Whom the gods would destroy,” he murmured to himself as the only +possible explanation, for the reaction of his enthusiasm was on him. + +Nor did his chief’s conference with Dalton show any leaning toward +compromise. Ridgway had sent for his engineer to outline a program in +regard to some ore-veins in the Sherman Bell, that had for months been +in litigation between the two big interests at Mesa. Neither party to +the suit had waited for the legal decision, but each of them had put a +large force at work stoping out the ore. Occasional conflicts had +occurred when the men of the opposing factions came in touch, as they +frequently did, since crews were at work below and above each other at +every level. But none of these as yet had been serious. + +“Dalton, I was down last night to see that lease of Heyburn’s on the +twelfth level of the Taurus. The Consolidated will tap our workings +about noon to-day, just below us. I want you to turn on them the +air-drill pipe as soon as they break through. Have a lot of loose rock +there mixed with a barrel of lime. Let loose the air pressure full on +the pile, and give it to their men straight. Follow them up to the end +of their own tunnel when they retreat, and hold it against them. Get +control of the levels above and below, too. Throw as many men as you +can into their workings, and gut them till there is no ore left.” + +Dalton had the fighting edge. “You’ll stand by me, no matter what +happens?” + +“Nothing will happen. They’re not expecting trouble. But if anything +does, I’ll see you through. Eaton is your witness that I ordered it.” + +“Then it’s as good as done, Mr. Ridgway,” said Dalton, turning away. + +“There may be bloodshed,” suggested Eaton dubiously, in a low voice. + +Ridgway’s laugh had a touch of affectionate contempt. “Don’t cross +bridges till you get to them, Steve. Haven’t you discovered, man, that +the bold course is always the safe one? It’s the quitter that loses out +every time. The strong man gets there; the weak one falls down. It’s as +invariable as the law of gravity.” He got up and stretched his broad +shoulders in a deep breath. “Now for Mr. Harley. Send him in, Eaton.” + +That morning Simon Harley had done two things for many years foreign to +his experience: He had gone to meet another man instead of making the +man come to him, and he had waited the other man’s pleasure in an outer +office. That he had done so implied a strong motive. + +Ridgway waved Harley to a chair without rising to meet him. The eyes of +the two men fastened, wary and unwavering. They might have been jungle +beasts of prey crouching for the attack, so tense was their attention. +The man from Broadway was the first to speak. + +“I have called, Mr. Ridgway, to arrange, if possible, a compromise. I +need hardly say this is not my usual method, but the circumstances are +extremely unusual. I rest under so great a personal obligation to you +that I am willing to overlook a certain amount of youthful +presumption.” His teeth glittered behind a lip smile, intended to give +the right accent to the paternal reproof. “My personal obligation—” + +“What obligation? I left you to die in the snow.’, + +“You forget what you did for Mrs. Harley.” + +“You may eliminate that,” retorted the younger man curtly. “You are +under no obligations whatever to me.” + +“That is very generous of you, Mr. Ridgway, but—” + +Ridgway met his eyes directly, cutting his sentence as with a knife. +“‘Generous’ is the last word to use. It is not a question of generosity +at all. What I mean is that the thing I did was done with no reference +whatever to you. It is between me and her alone. I refuse to consider +it as a service to you, as having anything at all to do with you. I +told you that before. I tell you again.” + +Harley’s spirit winced. This bold claim to a bond with his wife that +excluded him, the scornful thrust of his enemy—he was already beginning +to consider him in that light rather than as a victim—had touched the +one point of human weakness in this money-making Juggernaut. He saw +himself for the moment without illusions, an old man and an unlovable +one, without near kith or kin. He was bitterly aware that the child he +had married had been sold to him by her guardian, under fear of +imminent ruin, before her ignorance of the world had given her +experience to judge for herself. The money and the hidden hunger of +sentiment he wasted on her brought him only timid thanks and wan +obedience. But for this man, with his hateful, confident youth, he had +seen the warm smile touch her lips and the delicate color rose her +cheeks. Nay, he had seen more her arms around his neck and her, warm +breath on his cheek. They had lived romance, these two, in the days +they had been alone together. They had shared danger and the joys of +that Bohemia of youth from which he was forever excluded. It was his +resolve to wipe out by financial favors—he could ruin the fellow later +if need be—any claims of Ridgway upon her gratitude or her foolish +imagination. He did not want the man’s appeal upon her to carry the +similitude of martyrdom as well as heroism. + +“Yet, the fact remains that it was a service”—his thin lips smiled. “I +must be the best judge of that, I think. I want to be perfectly frank, +Mr. Ridgway. The Consolidated is an auxiliary enterprise so far as I am +concerned, but I have always made it a rule to look after details when +it became necessary. I came to Montana to crush you. I have always +regarded you as a menace to our legitimate interests, and I had quite +determined to make an end of it. You are a good fighter, and you’ve +been on the ground in person, which counts for a great deal. But you +must know that if I give myself to it in earnest, you are a ruined +man.” + +The Westerner laughed hardily. “I hear you say it.” + +“But you don’t believe,” added the other quietly. “Many men have heard +and not believed. They have KNOWN when it was too late. + +“If you don’t mind, I’ll buy my experience instead of borrowing it,” +Ridgway flung back flippantly. + +“One moment, Mr. Ridgway. I have told you my purpose in coming to +Montana. That purpose no longer exists. Circumstances have completely +altered my intentions. The finger of God is in it. He has not brought +us together thus strangely, except to serve some purpose of His own. I +think I see that purpose. ‘The stone which the builders refused is +become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing; it is +marvelous in our eyes,’” he quoted unctiously. “I am convinced that it +is a waste of good material to crush you; therefore I desire to effect +a consolidation with you, buy all the other copper interests of any +importance in the country, and put you at the head of the resulting +combination.” + +In spite of himself, Ridgway’s face betrayed him. It was a magnificent +opportunity, the thing he had dreamed of as the culmination of a +lifetime of fighting. Nobody knew better than he on how precarious a +footing he stood, on how slight a rock his fortunes might be wrecked. +Here was his chance to enter that charmed, impregnable inner circle of +finance that in effect ruled the nation. That Harley’s suave +friendliness would bear watching he did not doubt for a moment, but, +once inside, so his vital youth told him proudly, he would see to it +that the billionaire did not betray him. A week ago he could have asked +nothing better than this chance to bloat himself into a some-day +colossus. But now the thing stuck in his gorge. He understood the +implied obligation. Payment for his service to Aline Harley was to be +given, and the ledger balanced. Well, why not? Had he not spent the +night in a chaotic agony of renunciation? But to renounce voluntarily +was one thing, to be bought off another. + +He looked up and met Harley’s thin smile, the smile that on Wall Street +was a synonym for rapacity and heartlessness, in the memory of which +men had committed murder and suicide. On the instant there jumped +between him and his ambition the face that had worked magic on him. +What a God’s pity that such a lamb should be cast to this ravenous +wolf! He felt again her arms creeping round his neck, the divine trust +of her lovely eyes. He had saved her when this man who called himself +her husband had left her to perish in the storm. He had made her happy, +as she had never been in all her starved life. Had she not promised +never to forget, and was there not a deeper promise in her wistful eyes +that the years could not wipe out? She was his by every right of +natural law. By God! he would not sell his freedom of choice to this +white haired robber! + +“I seldom make mistakes in my judgment of men, Mr. Ridgway,” the oily +voice ran on. “No small share of such success as it has been given me +to attain has been due to this instinct for putting my finger on the +right man. I am assured that in you I find one competent for the great +work lying before you. The opportunity is waiting; I furnish it, and +you the untiring energy of youth to make the most of the chance.” His +wolfish smile bared the tusks for a moment. “I find myself not so young +as I was. The great work I have started is well under way. I must trust +its completion to younger and stronger hands than mine. I intend to +rest, to devote myself to my home, more directly to such philanthropic +and educational work as God has committed to my hands.” + +The Westerner gave him look for look, his eyes burning to get over the +impasse of the expressionless mask no man had ever penetrated. He began +to see why nobody had ever understood Harley. He knew there would be no +rest for that consuming energy this side of the grave. Yet the man +talked as if he believed his own glib lies. + +“Consolidated is the watchword of the age; it means elimination of +ruinous competition, and consequent harmony and reduced expense in +management. Mr. Ridgway, may I count you with us? Together we should go +far. Do you say peace or war?” + +The younger man rose, leaning forward with his strong, sinewy hands +gripping the table. His face was pale with the repression of a rage +that had been growing intense. “I say war, and without quarter. I don’t +believe you can beat me. I defy you to the test. And if you should—even +then I had rather go down fighting you than win at your side.” + +Simon Harley had counted acceptance a foregone conclusion, but he never +winked a lash at the ringing challenge of his opponent. He met his +defiance with an eye cold and steady as jade. + +“As you please, Mr. Ridgway. I wash my hands of your ruin, and when you +are nothing but a broken gambler, you will remember that I offered you +the greatest chance that ever came to a man of your age. You are one of +those men, I see, that would rather be first in hell than second in +heaven. So be it.” He rose and buttoned his overcoat. + +“Say, rather, that I choose to go to hell my own master and not as the +slave of Simon Harley,” retorted the Westerner bitterly. + +Ridgway’s eyes blazed, but those of the New Yorker were cool and fishy. + +“There is no occasion for dramatics,” he said, the cruel, passionless +smile at his thin lips. “I make you a business proposition and you +decline it. That is all. I wish you good day.” + +The other strode past him and flung the door open. He had never before +known such a passion of hatred as raged within him. Throughout his life +Simon Harley had left in his wake wreckage and despair. He was the +best-hated man of his time, execrated by the working classes, despised +by the country at large, and distrusted by his fellow exploiters. Yet, +as a business opponent, Ridgway had always taken him impersonally, had +counted him for a condition rather than an individual. But with the new +influence that had come into his life, reason could not reckon, and +when it was dominant with him, Harley stood embodied as the wolf ready +to devour his ewe lamb. + +For he couldn’t get away from her. Wherever he went he carried with him +the picture of her sweet, shy smile, her sudden winsome moments, the +deep light in her violet eyes; and in the background the sinister bared +fangs of the wild beast dogging her patiently, and yet lovingly. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. +VIRGINIA INTERVENES + + +James K. Mott, local chief attorney for the Consolidated, was +struggling with a white tie before the glass and crumpling it +atrociously. + +“This dress-suit habit is the most pernicious I know. It’s sapping the +liberties of the American people,” he grunted at last in humorous +despair. + +“Let me, dear.” + +His wife tied it with neatness and dispatch, and returned to the +inspection of how her skirt hung. + +“Mr. Harley asked me to thank you for calling on his wife. He says she +gets lonesome during the day while he is away so much. I was wondering +if you couldn’t do something for her so that she could meet some of the +ladies of Mesa. A luncheon, or something of that sort, you know. Have +you seen my hat-brush anywhere?” + +“It’s on that drawer beside your hat-box. She told me she would rather +not. I suggested it. But I’ll tell you what I could do: take Virginia +Balfour round to see her. She’s lively and good company, and knows some +of the people Mrs. Harley knows.” + +“That’s a good idea. I want Harley to know that we appreciate his +suggestions, and are ready to do our part. He has shown a disposition +to consult me on a good many things that ought to lie in Hobart’s +sphere rather than mine. Something’s going to drop. Now, I like Hobart, +but I want to show myself in a receptive mood for advancement when his +head falls, as it certainly will soon.” + + +Virginia responded eagerly to Mrs. Mott’s suggestion that they call +together on Mrs. Harley at the hotel. + +“My dear, you have saved my life. I’ve been dying of curiosity, and I +haven’t been able to find vestige of an excuse to hang my call on. I +couldn’t ask Mr. Ridgway to introduce me, could I?” + +“No, I don’t see that you could,” smiled Mrs. Mott, a motherly little +woman with pleasant brown eyes. “I suppose Mr. Ridgway isn’t exactly on +calling terms with Mr. Harley’s wife, even if he did save her life.” + +“Oh, Mr. Ridgway isn’t the man to let a little thing like a war a +outrance stand in the way of his social duties, especially when those +duties happen to be inclinations, too. I understand he DID call the +evening of their arrival here.” + +“He didn’t!” screamed Mrs. Mott, who happened to possess a voice of the +normal national register. “And what did Mr. Harley say?” + +“Ah, that’s what one would like to know. My informant deponeth not +beyond the fact unadorned. One may guess there must have been +undercurrents of embarrassment almost as pronounced as if the President +were to invite his Ananias Club to a pink tea. I can imagine Mr. Harley +saying: ‘Try this cake, Mr. Ridgway; it isn’t poisoned;’ and Mr. +Ridgway answering: ‘Thanks! After you, my dear Gaston.’” + +Miss Balfour’s anxiety to meet the young woman her fiance had rescued +from the blizzard was not unnatural. Her curiosity was tinged with +frank envy, though jealousy did not enter into it at all. Virginia had +come West explicitly to take the country as she found it, and she had +found it, unfortunately, no more hazardous than little old New York, +though certainly a good deal more diverting to a young woman with +democratic proclivities that still survived the energetic weeding her +training had subjected them to. + +She did not quite know what she had expected to find in Mesa. Certainly +she knew that Indians were no longer on the map, and cowboys were +kicking up their last dust before vanishing, but she had supposed that +they had left compensations in their wake. On the principle that +adventures are to the adventurous, her life should have been a whirl of +hairbreadth escapes. + +But what happened? She took all sorts of chances without anything +coming of it. Her pirate fiance was the nearest approach to an +adventure she had flushed, and this pink-and-white chit of a married +schoolgirl had borrowed him for the most splendid bit of excitement +that would happen in a hundred years. She had been spinning around the +country in motor-cars for months without the sign of a blizzard, but +the chit had hit one the first time. It wasn’t fair. That was her +blizzard by rights. In spirit, at least, she had “spoken for it,” as +she and her brother used to say when they were children of some coveted +treasure not yet available. Virginia was quite sure that if she had +seen Waring Ridgway at the inspired moment when he was plowing through +the drifts with Mrs. Harley in his arms—only, of course, it would have +been she instead of Mrs. Harley, and he would not have been carrying +her so long as she could stand and take it—she would have fallen in +love with him on the spot. And those two days in the cabin on +half-ration they would have put an end forever to her doubts and to +that vision of Lyndon Hobart that persisted in her mind. What luck +glace’ some people did have! + +But Virginia discovered the chit to be rather a different personality +than she had supposed. In truth, she lost her heart to her at once. She +could have stood out against Aline’s mere good looks and been the +stiffer for them. She was no MAN, to be moved by the dark hair’s dusky +glory, the charm of soft girlish lines, the effect of shy +unsophistication that might be merely the highest art of social +experience. But back of the sweet, trembling mouth that seemed to be +asking to be kissed, of the pathetic appeal for friendliness from the +big, deep violet eyes, was a quality of soul not to be counterfeited. +Miss Balfour had furbished up the distant hauteur of the society manner +she had at times used effectively, but she found herself instead taking +the beautiful, forlorn little creature in her arms. + +“Oh, my dear; my dear, how glad I am that dreadful blizzard did not +hurt you!” + +Aline clung to this gracious young queen as if she had known her a +lifetime. “You are so good to me everybody is. You know how Mr. Ridgway +saved me. If it had not been for him I should have died. I didn’t +care—I wanted to die in peace, I think—but he wouldn’t let me.” + +“I should think not.” + +“If you only knew him—perhaps you do.” + +“A little,” confessed Virginia, with a flash of merry eyes at Mrs. +Mott. + +“He is the bravest man—and the strongest.” + +“Yes. He is both,” agreed his betrothed, with pride. + +“His tenderness, his unselfishness, his consideration for others—did +you ever know anybody like him for these things?” + +“Never,” agreed Virginia, with the mental reservations that usually +accompanied her skeptical smile. She was getting at her fiance from a +novel point of view. + +“And so modest, with all his strength and courage.’, + +“It’s almost a fault in him,” she murmured. + +“The woman that marries him will be blessed among women.” + +“I count it a great privilege,” said Miss Balfour absently, but she +pulled up with a hurried addendum: “To have known him.” + +“Indeed, yes. If one met more men like him this would be a better +world.” + +“It would certainly be a different world.” + +It was a relief to Aline to talk, to put into words the external +skeleton facts of the surging current that had engulfed her existence +since she had turned a corner upon this unexpected consciousness of +life running strong and deep. Harley was not a confidant she could have +chosen under the most favorable circumstances, and her instinct told +her that in this matter he was particularly impossible. But to Virginia +Balfour—Mrs. Mott had to leave early to preside over the Mesa Woman’s +Club, and her friend allowed herself to be persuaded to stay longer—she +did not find it at all hard to talk. Indeed, she murmured into the +sympathetic ear of this astute young searcher of hearts more than her +words alone said, with the result that Virginia guessed what she +herself had not yet quite found out, though her heart was hovering +tremblingly on the brink of discovery. + +But Virginia’s sympathy for the trouble fate had in store for this +helpless innocent consisted with an alert appreciation of its obvious +relation to herself. What she meant to discover was the attitude toward +the situation of one neither particularly innocent nor helpless. Was +he, too, about to be “caught in the coil of a God’s romances,” or was +he merely playing on the vibrating strings of an untaught heart? + +It was in part to satisfy this craving for knowledge that she wrote +Ridgway a note as soon as she reached home. It said: + +MY DEAR RECREANT LAGGARD: If you are not too busy playing Sir Lancelot +to fair dames in distress, or splintering lances with the doughty +husbands of these same ladies, I pray you deign to allow your servant +to feast her eyes upon her lord’s face. Hopefully and gratefully yours, +VIRGINIA. + + +P. S.—Have you forgotten, sir, that I have not seen you since that +terrible blizzard and your dreadful imprisonment in Fort Salvation? + + +P. P. S.—I have seen somebody else, though. She’s a dear, and full of +your praises. I hardly blame you. + + +V. + + +She thought that ought to bring him soon, and it did. + +“I’ve been busy night and day,” he apologized when they met. + +Virginia gave him a broadside demurely. + +“I suppose your social duties do take up a good deal of your time.” + +“My social duties? Oh, I see!” He laughed appreciation of her hit. +Evidently through her visit she knew a good deal more than he had +expected. Since he had nothing to hide from her except his feelings, +this did not displease him. “My duties in that line have been confined +to one formal call.” + +She sympathized with him elaborately. “Calls of that sort do bore men +so. I’ll not forget the first time you called on me.” + +“Nor I,” he came back gallantly. + +“I marveled how you came through alive, but I learned then that a man +can’t be bored to death.” + +“I came again nevertheless,” he smiled. “And again—and again.” + +“I am still wondering why.” + +“‘Oh, wad some power the giffie gite us +To see ourselves as others see us!’” + + +he quoted with a bow. + +“Is that a compliment?” she asked dubiously. + +“I have never heard it used so before. Anyhow, it is a little hackneyed +for anybody so original as you.” + +“It was the best I could do offhand.” + +She changed the subject abruptly. “Has the new campaign of the war +begun yet?” + +“Well, we’re maneuvering for position.” + +“You’ve seen him. How does he impress you?” + +“The same as he does others. A hard, ruthless fighter. Unless all signs +fail, he is an implacable foe.” + +“But you are not afraid?” + +He smiled. “Do I look frightened?” + +“No, you remind me of something a burglar once told me—” + +“A what?” + +“A burglar—a reformed burglar!” She gave him a saucy flash of her dark +eyes. “Do you think I don’t know any lawbreakers except those I have +met in this State? I came across this one in a mission where I used to +think I was doing good. He said it was not the remuneration of the +profession that had attracted him, but the excitement. It was +dreadfully frowned down upon and underpaid. He could earn more at his +old trade of a locksmith, but it seemed to him that every impediment to +success was a challenge to him. Poor man, he relapsed again, and they +put him in Sing Sing. I was so interested in him, too.” + +“You’ve had some queer friends in your time,” he laughed, but without a +trace of disapproval. + +“I have some queer ones yet,” she thrust back. + +“Let’s not talk of them,” he cried, in pretended alarm. + +Her inextinguishable gaiety brought back the smile he liked. “We’ll +talk of SOME ONE else—some one of interest to us both.” + +“I am always ready to talk of Miss Virginia Balfour,” he said, +misunderstanding promptly. + +She smiled her disdain of his obtuseness in an elaborately long survey +of him. + +“Well?” he wanted to know. + +“That’s how you look—very well, indeed. I believe the storm was greatly +exaggerated,” she remarked. + +“Isn’t that rather a good definition for a blizzard—a greatly +exaggerated storm?” + +“You don’t look the worse for wear—not the wreck I expected to behold.” + +“Ah, you should have seen me before I saw you.” + +“Thank you. I have no doubt you find the sight of my dear face as +refreshing as your favorite cocktail. I suppose that is why it has +taken you three days after your return to reach me and then by special +request.” + +“A pleasure delayed is twice a pleasure anticipation and realization.” + +Miss Balfour made a different application of his text, her eyes trained +on him with apparent indifference. “I’ve been enjoying a delayed +pleasure myself. I went to see her this afternoon.” + +He did not ask whom, but his eyes brightened. + +“She’s worth a good deal of seeing, don’t you think?” + +“Oh, I’m in love with her, but it doesn’t follow you ought to be.” + +“Am I?”—he smiled. + +“You are either in love or else you ought to be ashamed of yourself.” + +“An interesting thing about you is your point of view. Now, anybody +else would tell me I ought to be ashamed if I am in love.” + +“I’m not worried about your morals,” she scoffed. “It’s that poor child +I’m thinking of.” + +“I think of her a good deal, too.” + +“Ah! and does she think of you a good deal That’s what we must guard +against.” + +“Is it?” + +“Yes. You see I’m her confidante.” She told it him with sparkling eyes, +for the piquancy of it amused her. Not every engaged young woman can +hear her lover’s praises sung by the woman whose life he has saved with +the proper amount of romance. + +“Really?” + +She nodded, laughing at him. “I didn’t get a chance to tell her about +me.” + +“I suppose not.” + +“I think I’ll tell her about you, though—just what a ruthless barbarian +you are.” + +His eyes gleamed “I wish you would. I’d like to find out whether she +would believe you. I have tried to tell her myself, but the honest +truth is, I funk it.” + +“You haven’t any right to let her know you are interested in her.” She +interrupted him before he could speak. “Don’t trifle with her, Waring. +She’s not like other girls.” + +He met her look gravely. “I wouldn’t trifle with her for any reason.” + +Her quick rejoinder overlapped his sentence. “Then you love her!” + +“Is that an alternative?” + +“With you—yes.” + +“Faith, my lady, you’re frank!” + +“I’m not mealy-mouthed. You don’t think yourself scrupulous, do you?” + +“I’m afraid I am not.” + +“I don’t mind so much your being in love with HER, though it’s not +flattering to my vanity, but—” She stopped, letting him make the +inference. + +“Do you think that likely?” he asked, the color flushing his face. + +He wondered how much Aline had told this confidante. Certain specific +things he knew she had not revealed, but had she let her guess the +situation between them? + +She compromised with her conscience. “I don’t know. She is romantic—and +Simon Harley isn’t a very fertile field for romance, I suppose.” + +“You would imply?” + +“Oh, you have points, and nobody knows them better than Waring +Ridgway,” she told him jauntily. “But you needn’t play that role to the +address of Aline Harley. Try ME. I’m immune to romance. Besides, I’m +engaged to you,” she added, laughing at the inconsequence the fact +seemed to have for both of them. + +“I’m afraid I can’t help the situation, for if I’ve been playing a +part, it has been an unconscious one.” + +“That’s the worst of it. When you star as Waring Ridgway you are most +dangerous. What I want is total abstinence.” + +“You’d rather I didn’t see her at all?” + +Virginia dimpled, a gleam of reminiscent laughter in her eyes. “When I +was in Denver last month a Mrs. Smythe—it was Smith before her husband +struck it rich last year—sent out cards for a bridge afternoon. A Mrs. +Mahoney had just come to the metropolis from the wilds of Cripple +Creek. Her husband had struck a gold-mine, too, and Mr. Smythe was +under obligations to him. Anyhow, she was a stranger, and Mrs. Smythe +took her in. It was Mrs. Mahoney’s introduction to bridge, and she did +not know she was playing for keeps. When the afternoon was over, Mrs. +Smythe hovered about her with the sweetest sympathy. ‘So sorry you had +such a horrid run of cards, dear. Better luck next time.’ It took Mrs. +Mahoney some time to understand that her social afternoon had cost one +hundred and twenty dollars, but next day her husband sent a check for +one hundred and twenty-two dollars to Mrs. Smythe. The extra two +dollars were for the refreshments, he naively explained, adding that +since his wife was so poor a gambler as hardly to be able to keep +professionals interested, he would not feel offended if Mrs. Smythe +omitted her in future from her social functions.” + +Ridgway took it with a smile. “Simon Harley brought his one hundred and +twenty-two dollars in person.” + +“He didn’t! When?” + +“This morning. He proposed benevolent assimilation as a solution of our +troubles.” + +“Just how?” + +“He offered to consolidate all the copper interests of the country and +put me at the head of the resulting combine.” + +“If you wouldn’t play bridge with Mrs. Harley?” + +“Exactly.” + +“And you?” + +“Declined to pledge myself.” + +She clapped her hands softly. “Well done, Waring Ridgway! There are +times when you are magnificent, when I could put you on a pedestal, you +great big, unafraid man. But you mustn’t play with her, just the same.” + +“Why mustn’t I?” + +“For her sake.” + +He frowned past her into space, his tight-shut jaw standing out +saliently. “You’re right, Virginia. I’ve been thinking so myself. I’ll +keep off the grass,” he said, at last. + +“You’re a good fellow,” slipped out impulsively. + +“Well, I know where there’s another,” he said. “I ought to think myself +a lucky dog.” + +Virginia lifted quizzical eyebrows. “Ought to! That tastes of duty. +Don’t let it come to that. We’ll take it off if you like.” She touched +the solitaire he had given her. + +“Ah, but I don’t like”—he smiled. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. +ALINE MAKES A DISCOVERY + + +Aline pulled her horse to a walk. “You know Mr. Ridgway pretty well, +don’t you?” + +Miss Balfour gently flicked her divided skirt with a riding-whip, +considering whether she might be said to know him well. “Yes, I think I +do,” she ventured. + +“Mrs. Mott says you and he are great friends, that you seem very fond +of each other.” + +“Goodness me! I hope I don’t seem fond of him. I don’t think ‘fond’ is +exactly the word, anyway, though we are good friends.” Quickly, keenly, +her covert glance swept Aline; then, withdrawing her eyes, she flung +her little bomb. “I suppose we may be said to appreciate each other. At +any rate, we are engaged.” + +Mrs. Harley’s pony came to an abrupt halt. “I thought I had dropped my +whip,” she explained, in a low voice not quite true. + +Virginia, though she executed an elaborate survey of the scenery, could +not help noticing that the color had washed from her friend’s face. “I +love this Western country—its big sweep of plains, of low, rolling +hills, with a background of mountains. One can see how it gets into a +man’s blood so that the East seems insipid ever afterward,” discoursed +Miss Balfour. + +A question trembled on Aline’s blanched lips. + +“Say it,” permitted Virginia. + +“Do you mean that you are engaged to him—that you are going to marry +Mr. Ridgway—without caring for him?” + +“I don’t mean that at all. I like him immensely.” + +“But—do you love him?” It was almost a cry—these low words wrung from +the tortured heart. + +“No fair,” warned her friend smilingly. + +Aline rode in silence, her stricken face full of trouble. How could +she, from her glass house, throw stones at a loveless marriage? But +this was different from her own case! Nobody was worthy to marry her +hero without giving the best a woman had to give. If she were a girl—a +sudden tide of color swept her face; a wild, delirious tingle of joy +flooded her veins—oh, if she were a girl, what a wealth of love could +she give him! Clarity of vision had come to her in a blinding flash. +Untutored of life, the knowledge of its meaning had struck home of the +suddenest. She knew her heart now that it was too late; knew that she +could never be indifferent to what concerned Waring Ridgway. + +Aline caught at the courage behind her childishness, and accomplished +her congratulations “You will be happy, I am sure. He is good.” + +“Goodness does not impress me as his most outstanding quality,” smiled +Miss Balfour. + +“No, one never feels it emphasized. He is too free of selfishness to +make much of his goodness. But one can’t help feeling it in everything +he does and says.” + +“Does Mr. Harley agree with you? Does he feel it?” + +“I don’t think Mr. Harley understands him. I can’t help thinking that +he is prejudiced.” She was becoming mistress of her voice and color +again. + +“And you are not?” + +“Perhaps I am. In my thought of him he would still be good, even if he +had done all the bad things his enemies accuse him of.” + +Virginia gave her up. This idealized interpretation of her betrothed +was not the one she had, but for Aline it might be the true one. At +least, she could not disparage him very consistently under the +circumstances. + +“Isn’t there a philosophy current that we find in people what we look +for in them? Perhaps that is why you and Mr. Harley read in Mr. Ridgway +men so diverse as you do. It is not impossible you are both right and +both wrong. Heaven knows, I suppose. At least, we poor mortals fog +around enough when we sit in judgment.” And Virginia shrugged the +matter from her careless shoulders. + +But Aline seemed to have a difficulty in getting away from the subject. +“And you—what do you read?” she asked timidly. + +“Sometimes one thing and sometimes another. To-day I see him as a +living refutation of all the copy-book rules to success. He shatters +the maxims with a touch-and-go manner that is fascinating in its +immorality. A gambler, a plunger, an adventurer, he wins when a +careful, honest business man would fail to a certainty.” + +Aline was amazed. “You misjudge him. I am sure you do. But if you think +this of him why—” + +“Why do I marry him? I have asked myself that a hundred times, my dear. +I wish I knew. I have told you what I see in him to-day; but +tomorrow—why, to-morrow I shall see him an altogether different man. He +will be perhaps a radiating center of altruism, devoted to his friends, +a level-headed protector of the working classes, a patron of the arts +in his own clearminded, unlettered way. But whatever point of view one +gets at him, he spares one dullness. Will you explain to me, my dear, +why picturesque rascality is so much more likable than humdrum virtue?” + +Mrs. Harley’s eyes blazed. “And you can talk this way of the man you +are going to marry, a man—” She broke off, her voice choked. + +Miss Balfour was cool as a custard. “I can, my dear, and without the +least disloyalty. In point of fact, he asked me to tell you the kind of +man I think him. I’m trying to oblige him, you see.” + +“He asked you—to tell me this about him?” Aline pulled in her pony in +order to read with her astonished eyes the amused ones of her +companion. + +“Yes. He was afraid you were making too much of his saving you. He +thinks he won’t do to set on a pedestal.” + +“Then I think all the more of him for his modesty.” + +“Don’t invest too heavily on his modesty, my dear. He wouldn’t be the +man he is if he owned much of that commodity.” + +“The man he is?” + +“Yes, the man born to win, the man certain of himself no matter what +the odds against him. He knows he is a man of destiny; knows quite well +that there is something big about him that dwarfs other men. I know it, +too. Wherefore I seize my opportunity. It would be a sin to let a man +like that get away from one. I could never forgive myself,” she +concluded airily. + +“Don’t you see any human, lovable things in him?” Aline’s voice was an +accusation. + +“He is the staunchest friend conceivable. No trouble is too great for +him to take for one he likes, and where once he gives his trust he does +not take it back. Oh, for all his force, he is intensely human! Take +his vanity, my dear. It soars to heaven.” + +“If I cared for him I couldn’t dissect his qualities as you do.” + +“That’s because you are a triumph of the survival of nature and impulse +over civilization, in spite of its attempts to sap your freshness. For +me, I fear I’m a sophisticated daughter of a critical generation. If I +weren’t, I should not hold my judgment so safely in my own keeping, but +would surrender it and my heart.” + +“There is something about the way you look at him that shocks me. One +ought not to let oneself believe all that seems easy to believe.” + +“That is your faith, but mine is a different one. You see, I’m a +Unitarian,” returned Virginia blithely. + +“He will make you love him if you marry him,” sighed Aline, coming back +to her obsession. + +Virginia nodded eagerly. “In my secret heart that is what I am hoping +for, my dear.” + +“Unless there is another man,” added Aline, as if alone with her +thoughts. + +Virginia was irritably aware of a flood of color beating into her +cheeks. “There isn’t any other man,” she said impatiently. + +Yet she thought of Lyndon Hobart. Curiously enough, whenever she +conceived herself as marrying Ridgway, the reflex of her brain carried +to her a picture of Hobart, clean-handed, fine of instinct, with the +inherited inflections of voice and unconscious pride of caste that come +from breeding and not from cultivation. If he were not born to +greatness, like his rival, at least he satisfied her critical judgment +of what a gentleman should be; and she was quite sure that the +potential capacity lay in her to care a good deal more for him than for +anybody else she had met. Since it was not on the cards, as Miss +Virginia had shuffled the pack, that she should marry primarily for +reasons sentimental, this annoyed her in her sophisticated hours. + +But in the hours when she was a mere girl when she was not so +confidently the heir of all the feminine wisdom of the ages, her +annoyance took another form. She had told Lyndon Hobart of her +engagement because it was the honest thing to do; because she supposed +she ought to discourage any hopes he might be entertaining. But it did +not follow that he need have let these hopes be extinguished so +summarily. She could have wished his scrupulous regard for the proper +thing had not had the effect of taking him so completely out of her +external life, while leaving him more insistently than ever the subject +of her inner contemplation. + +Virginia’s conscience was of the twentieth century and American, though +she was a good deal more honest with herself than most of her sex in +the same social circle. Also she was straightforward with her neighbors +so far as she could reasonably be. But she was not a Puritan in the +least, though she held herself to a more rigid account than she did her +friends. She judged her betrothed as little as she could, but this was +not to be entirely avoided, since she expected her life to become +merged so largely in his. There were hours when she felt she must +escape the blighting influence of his lawlessness. There were others +when it seemed to her magnificent. + +Except for the occasional jangle of a bit or the ring of a horse’s shoe +on a stone, there was silence which lasted many minutes. Each was busy +with her thoughts, and the narrowness of the trail, which here made +them go in single file, served as an excuse against talk. + +“Perhaps we had better turn back,” suggested Virginia, after the path +had descended to a gulch and merged itself in a wagon-road. “We shall +have no more than time to get home and dress for dinner.” + +Aline turned her pony townward, and they rode at a walk side by side. + +“Do you know much about the difficulty between Mr. Harley and Mr. +Ridgway? I mean about the mines—the Sherman Bell, I think they called +it?” + +“I know something about the trouble in a general way. Both the +Consolidated and Mr. Ridgway’s company claim certain veins. That is +true of several mines, I have been told.” + +“I don’t know anything about business. Mr. Harley does not tell me +anything about his. To day I was sitting in the open window, and two +men stopped beneath it. They thought there would be trouble in this +mine—that men would be hurt. I could not make it all out, but that was +part of it. I sent for Mr. Harley and made him tell me what he knew. It +would be dreadful if anything like that happened.” + +“Don’t worry your head about it, my dear. Things are always threatening +and never happening. It seems to be a part of the game of business to +bluff, as they call it.” + +“I wish it weren’t,” sighed the girl-wife. + +Virginia observed that she looked both sad and weary. She had started +on her ride like a prisoner released from his dungeon, happy in the +sunshine, the swift motion, the sting of the wind in her face. There +had been a sparkle in her eye and a ring of gaiety in her laugh. Into +her cheeks a faint color had glowed, so that the contrast of their +clear pallor with the vivid scarlet of the little lips had been less +pronounced than usual. But now she was listless and distraite, the +girlish abandon all stricken out of her. It needed no clairvoyant to +see that her heart was heavy and that she was longing for the moment +when she could be alone with her pain. + +Her friend had learned what she wanted to know, and the knowledge of it +troubled her. She would have given a good deal to have been able to +lift this sorrow from the girl riding beside her. For she was aware +that Aline Harley might as well have reached for the moon as that +toward which her untutored heart yearned. She had come to life late and +traveled in it but a little way. Yet the tragedy of it was about to +engulf her. No lifeboat was in sight. She must sink or swim alone. +Virginia’s unspoiled heart went out to her with a rush of pity and +sympathy. Almost the very words that Waring Ridgway had used came to +her lips. + +“You poor lamb! You poor, forsaken lamb!” + +But she spoke instead with laughter and lightness, seeing nothing of +the girl’s distress, at least, until after they separated at the door +of the hotel. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. +FIRST BLOOD + + +After Ridgway’s cavalier refusal to negotiate a peace treaty, Simon +Harley and his body-guard walked back to the offices of the +Consolidated, where they arrived at the same time as the news of the +enemy’s first blow since the declaration of renewed war. + +Hobart was at his desk with his ear to the telephone receiver when the +great financier came into the inner office of the manager. + +“Yes. When? Driven out, you say? Yes—yes. Anybody hurt? Followed our +men through into our tunnel? No, don’t do anything till you hear from +me. Send Rhys up at once. Let me know any further developments that +occur.” + +Hobart hung up the receiver and turned on his swivel-chair toward his +chief. “Another outrage, sir, at the hands of Ridgway. It is in regard +to those veins in the Copper King that he claims. Dalton, his +superintendent of the Taurus, drove a tunnel across our lateral lines +and began working them, though their own judge has not yet rendered a +decision in their favor. Of course, I put a large force in them at +once. To-day we tapped their workings at the twelfth level. Our +foreman, Miles, has just telephoned me that Dalton turned the air +pressure on our men, blew out their candles, and flung a mixture of +lime and rocks at them. Several of the men are hurt, though none badly. +It seems that Dalton has thrown a force into our tunnels and is holding +the entrances against us at the point where the eleventh, twelfth, and +thirteenth levels touch the cage. It means that he will work those +veins, and probably others that are acknowledged to be ours, unless we +drive them out, which would probably be a difficult matter.” + +Harley listened patiently, eyes glittering and clean-shaven lips +pressed tightly against his teeth. “What do you propose to do?” + +“I haven’t decided yet. If we could get any justice from the courts, an +injunction.” + +“Can’t be got from Purcell. Don’t waste time considering it. Fight it +out yourself. Find his weakest spot, then strike hard and suddenly.” +Harley’s low metallic voice was crisp and commanding. + +“His weakest spot?” + +“Exactly. Has he no mines upon which we can retaliate?” + +“There is the Taurus. It lies against the Copper King end to end. He +drove a tunnel into some of our workings last winter. That would give a +passageway to send our men through, if we decide to do so. Then there +is his New York. Its workings connect with those of the Jim Hill.” + +“Good! Send as many men through as is necessary to capture and hold +both mines. Get control of the entire workings of them both, and begin +taking ore out at once. Station armed guards at every point where it is +necessary, and as many as are necessary. Use ten thousand men, if you +need that many. But don’t fail. We’ll give Ridgway a dose of his own +medicine, and teach him that for every pound of our ore he steals we’ll +take ten.” + +“He’ll get an injunction from the courts.” + +“Let him get forty. I’ll show him that his robber courts will not save +him. Anyhow, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” + +Hobart, almost swept from his moorings by the fiery energy of his +chief, braced himself to withstand the current. + +“I shall have to think about that. We can’t fight lawlessness with +lawlessness except for selfpreservation.” + +“Think! You do nothing but think, Mr. Hobart. You are here to act,” +came the scornful retort; “And what is this but self-preservation.” + +“I am willing to recapture our workings in the Copper King. I’ll lead +the attack in person, sir. But as to a retaliatory attack—the facts +will not justify a capture of his property because he has seized ours.” + +“Wrong, sir. This is no time for half-way measures. I have resolved to +crush this freebooter; since he has purchased your venal courts, then +by the only means left us—force.” + +Hobart rose from his seat, very pale and erect. His eyes met those of +the great man unflinchingly. “You realize that this may mean murder, +Mr. Harley? That a clash cannot possibly be avoided if you pursue this +course?” + +“I realize that it is self-preservation,” came the cold retort. “There +is no law here, none, at least, that gives us justice. We are back to +savagery, dragged back by the madness of this ruffian. It is his +choice, not mine. Let him abide by it.” + +“Your intention to follow this course is irrevocable?” + +“Absolutely.” + +“In that case, I must regretfully offer my resignation as manager of +the Consolidated.” + +“It is accepted, Mr. Hobart. I can’t have men working under me that are +not loyal, body and soul, to the hand that feeds them. No man can serve +two masters, Mr. Hobart.” + +“That is why I resign, Mr. Harley. You give me the devil’s work to do. +I have done enough of it. By Heaven, I will be a free man hereafter.” +The disgust and dissatisfaction that had been pent within him for many +a month broke forth hot from the lips of this self-repressed man. “It +is all wrong on both sides. Two wrongs do not make a right. The system +of espionage we employ over everybody both on his side and ours, the +tyrannical use we make of our power, the corruption we foster in +politics, our secret bargains with railroads, our evasions of law as to +taxes, and in every other way that suits us: it is all wrong—all wrong. +I’ll be a party to it no longer. You see to what it leads—murder and +anarchy. I’ll be a poor man if I must, but I’ll be a free and honest +one at least.” + +“You are talking wickedly and wildly, Mr. Hobart. You are criticizing +God when you criticize the business conditions he has put into the +world. I did not know that you were a socialist, but what you have just +said explains your course,” the old man reproved sadly and +sanctimonious. + +“I am not a socialist, Mr. Harley, but you and your methods have made +thousands upon thousands of them in this country during the past ten +years.” + +“We shall not discuss that, Mr. Hobart, nor, indeed, is any discussion +necessary. Frankly, I am greatly disappointed in you. I have for some +time been dissatisfied with your management, but I did not, of course, +know you held these anarchistic views. I want, however, to be perfectly +just. You are a very good business man indeed, careful and thorough. +That you have not a bold enough grasp of mind for the place you hold is +due, perhaps, to these dangerous ideas that have unsettled you. Your +salary will be continued for six months. Is that satisfactory?” + +“No, sir. I could not be willing to accept it longer than to-day. And +when you say bold enough, why not be plain and say unscrupulous +enough?” amended the younger man. + +“As you like. I don’t juggle with words. The point is, you don’t +succeed. This adventurer, Ridgway, scores continually against you. He +has beaten you clear down the line from start to finish. Is that not +true?” + +“Because he does not hesitate to stoop to anything, because—” + +“Precisely. You have given the very reason why he must be fought in the +same spirit. Business ethics would be as futile against him as chivalry +in dealing with a jungle-tiger.” + +“You would then have had me stoop to any petty meanness to win, no +matter how contemptible?” + +The New Yorker waved him aside with a patient, benignant gesture. “I +don’t care for excuses. I ask of my subordinates success. You do not +get it for me. I must find a man who can.” + +Hobart bowed with fine dignity. The touch of disdain in his slight +smile marked his sense of the difference between them. He was again his +composed rigid self. + +“Can you arrange to allow my resignation to take effect as soon as +possible? I should prefer to have my connection with the company +severed before any action is taken against these mines.” + +“At once—to-day. Your resignation may be published in the Herald this +afternoon, and you will then be acquitted of whatever may follow.” + +“Thank you.” Hobart hesitated an instant before he said: “There is a +point that I have already mentioned to you which, with your permission, +I must again advert to. The temper of the miners has been very bitter +since you refused to agree to Mr. Ridgway’s proposal for an eight-hour +day. I would urge upon you to take greater precautions against a +personal attack. You have many lawless men among your employees. They +are foreigners for the most part, unused to self-restraint. It is only +right you should know they execrate your name.” + +The great man smiled blandly. “Popularity is nothing to me. I have +neither sought it nor desired it. Given a great work to do, with the +Divine help I have done it, irrespective of public clamor. For many +years I have lived in the midst of alarms, Mr. Hobart. I am not +foolhardy. What precautions I can reasonably take I do. For the rest, +my confidence is in an all-wise Providence. It is written that not even +a sparrow falls without His decree. In that promise I put my trust. If +I am to be cut off it can only be by His will. ‘The Lord gave, and the +Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’ Such, I pray, +may be the humble and grateful spirit with which I submit myself to His +will.” + +The retiring manager urged the point no further. “If you have decided +upon my successor and he is on the ground I shall be glad to give the +afternoon to running over with him the affairs of the office. It would +be well for him to retain for a time my private secretary and +stenographer.” + +“Mr. Mott will succeed you. He will no doubt be glad to have your +assistance in helping him fall into the routine of the office, Mr. +Hobart.” + +Harley sent for Mott at once and told him of his promotion. The two men +were closeted together for hours, while trusted messengers went and +came incessantly to and from the mines. Hobart knew, of course, that +plans were in progress to arm such of the Consolidated men as could be +trusted, and that arrangements were being made to rush the Taurus and +the New York. Everything was being done as secretly as possible, but +Hobart’s experience of Ridgway made it obvious to him that this +excessive activity could not pass without notice. His spies, like those +of the trust, swarmed everywhere. + +It was not till mid-afternoon of the next day that Mott found time to +join him and run over with him the details of such unfinished business +as the office had taken up. The retiring manager was courtesy itself, +nor did he feel any bitterness against his successor. Nevertheless, he +came to the end of office hours with great relief. The day had been a +very hard one, and it left him with a longing for solitude and the wide +silent spaces of the open hills. He struck out in the direction which +promised him the quickest opportunity to leave the town behind him. A +good walker, he covered the miles rapidly, and under the physical +satisfaction of the tramp the brain knots unraveled and smoothed +themselves out. It was better so—better to live his own life than the +one into which he was being ground by the inexorable facts of his +environment. He was a young man and ambitious, but his hopes were not +selfish. At bottom he was an idealist, though a practical one. He had +had to shut his eyes to many things which he deplored, had been driven +to compromises which he despised. Essentially clean-handed, the soul of +him had begun to wither at the contact of that which he saw about him +and was so large a part of. + +“I am not fit for it. That is the truth. Mott has no imagination, and +property rights are the most sacred thing on earth to him. He will do +better at it than I,” he told himself, as he walked forward bareheaded +into the great sunset glow that filled the saddle between two purple +hills in front of him. + +As he swung round a bend in the road a voice, clear and sweet, came to +him through the light filtered air. + +“Laska!” + +A young woman on horseback was before him. Her pony stood across the +road, and she looked up a trail which ran down into it. The lifted +poise of the head brought out its fine lines and the distinction with +which it was set upon the well-molded throat column. Apparently she was +calling to some companion on the trail who had not yet emerged into +view. + +At sound of his footsteps the rider’s head turned. + +“Good afternoon, Mr. Hobart,” she said quietly, as coolly as if her +heart had not suddenly begun to beat strangely fast. + +“Good afternoon, Miss Balfour.” + +Each of them was acutely conscious of the barrier between them. Since +the day when she had told him of her engagement they had not met, even +casually, and this their first sight of each other was not without +embarrassment. + +“We have been to Lone Pine Cone,” she said rather hurriedly, to bridge +an impending silence. + +He met this obvious statement with another as brilliant. + +“I walked out from town. My horse is a little lame.” + +But there was something she wanted to say to him, and the time for +saying it, before the arrival of her companion, was short. She would +not waste it in commonplaces. + +“I don’t usually read the papers very closely, but this morning I read +both the Herald and the Sun. Did you get my note?” + +“Your note? No.” + +“I sent it by mail. I wanted you to know that your friends are proud of +you. We know why you resigned. It is easy to read between the lines.” + +“Thank you,” he said simply. “I knew you would know.” + +“Even the Sun recognizes that it was because you are too good a man for +the place.” + +“Praise from the Sun has rarely shone my way,” he said, with a touch of +irony, for that paper was controlled by the Ridgway interest. “In its +approval I am happy.” + +Her impulsive sympathy for this man whom she so greatly liked would not +accept the rebuff imposed by this reticence. She stripped the gauntlet +from her hand and offered it in congratulation. + +He took it in his, a slight flush in his face. + +“I have done nothing worthy of praise. One cannot ask less of a man +than that he remain independent and honest. I couldn’t do that and stay +with the Consolidated, or, so it seemed to me. So I resigned. That is +all there is to it.” + +“It is enough. I don’t know another man would have done it, would have +had the courage to do it after his feet were set so securely in the way +of success. The trouble with Americans is that they want too much +success. They want it at too big a price.” + +“I’m not likely ever to have too much of it,” he laughed sardonically. + +“Success in life and success in living aren’t the same thing. It is +because you have discovered this that you have sacrificed the less for +the greater.” She smiled, and added: “I didn’t mean that to sound as +preachy as it does.” + +“I’m afraid you make too much of a small thing. My squeamishness has +probably made me the laughing-stock of Mesa.” + +“If so, that is to the discredit of Mesa,” she insisted stanchly. “But +I don’t think so. A great many people who couldn’t have done it +themselves will think more of you for having done it.” + +Another pony, which had been slithering down the steep trail in the +midst of a small rock slide, now brought its rider safely to a halt in +the road. Virginia introduced them, and Hobart, remembered that he had +heard Miss Balfour speak of a young woman whom she had met on the way +out, a Miss Laska Lowe, who was coming to Mesa to teach domestic +science in the public schools. There was something about the young +teacher’s looks that he liked, though she was of a very different type +than Virginia. Not at all pretty in any accepted sense, she yet had a +charm born of the vital honesty in her. She looked directly at one out +of sincere gray eyes, wide-awake and fearless. As it happened, her +friend had been telling her about Hobart, and she was interested in him +from the first. For she was of that minority which lives not by bread +alone, and she felt a glow of pride in the man who could do what the +Sun had given this man credit for editorially. + +They talked at haphazard for a few minutes before the young women +cantered away. As Hobart trudged homeward he knew that in the eyes of +these two women, at least, he had not been a fool. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. +A CONSPIRACY + + +Tucked away in an obscure corner of the same issue of the papers which +announced the resignation of Lyndon Hobart as manager of the +Consolidated properties, and the appointment of James K. Mott as his +temporary successor, were little one-stick paragraphs regarding +explosions, which had occurred the night before in tunnels of the +Taurus and the New York. The general public paid little attention to +these, but those on the inside knew that Ridgway had scored again. His +spies had carried the news to him of the projected capture of these two +properties by the enemy. Instead of attempting to defend them by force, +he had set off charges of giant powder which had brought down the +tunnel roofs and effectually blocked the entrances from the +Consolidated mines adjoining. + +With the indefatigable patience which characterized him, Harley set +about having the passages cleared of the rock and timber with which +they were filled. Before he had succeeded in doing this his enemy +struck another telling blow. From Judge Purcell he secured an +injunction against the Consolidated from working its mines, the Diamond +King, the Mary K, and the Marcus Daly, on the absurd contention that +the principal ore-vein of the Marcus Daly apexed on the tin, triangle +wedged in between these three great mines, and called by Ridgway the +Trust Buster. Though there was not room enough upon this fragment to +sink a shaft, it was large enough to found this claim of a vein +widening as it descended until it crossed into the territory of each of +these properties. Though Harley could ignore court injunctions which +erected only under-ground territory, he was forced to respect this one, +since it could not be violated except in the eyes of the whole country. +The three mines closed down, and several thousand workmen were thrown +out of employment. These were immediately reemployed by Ridgway and set +to work both in his own and the Consolidated’s territory. + +Within a week a dozen new suits were instituted against the +Consolidated by its enemy. He harassed it by contempt proceedings, by +applications for receiverships, and by other ingenious devices, which +greatly tormented the New York operator. For the first time in his life +the courts, which Harley had used to much advantage in his battles to +maintain and extend the trusts he controlled, could not be used even to +get scant justice. + +Meanwhile both leaders were turning their attention to the political +situation. The legislators were beginning to gather for the coming +session, and already the city was full of rumors about corruption. For +both the Consolidated and its enemy were making every effort to secure +enough votes to win the election of a friendly United States senator. +The man chosen would have the distribution of the federal patronage of +the State. This meant the control of the most influential local +politicians of the party in power at Washington as well as their +followers, an almost vital factor for success in a State where +political corruption had so interwoven itself into the business life of +the community. + +The hotel lobbies were filled with politicians gathered from every +county in the State. Big bronzed cattlemen brushed shoulders with +budding lawyers from country towns and ward bosses from the larger +cities. The bars were working overtime, and the steady movement of +figures in the corridors lasted all day and most of the night. Here and +there were collected groups, laughing and talking about the old +frontier days, or commenting in lowered tones on some phase of the +feverish excitement that was already beginning to be apparent. +Elevators shot up and down, subtracting and adding to the kaleidoscope +of human life in the rotundas. Bellboys hurried to and fro with +messages and cocktails. The ring of the telephone-bell cut occasionally +into the deep hum of many voices. All was confusion, keen interest, +expectancy. + +For it was known that Simon Harley had sent for $300,000 in cold cash +to secure the election of his candidate, Roger D. Warner, a lawyer who +had all his life been close to corporate interests. It was known, too, +that Waring Ridgway had gathered together every element in the State +that opposed the domination of the Consolidated, to fight their man to +a finish. Bets for large sums were offered and taken as to the result, +heavy odds being given in favor of the big copper trust’s candidate. +For throughout the State at large the Consolidated influence was very +great indeed. It owned forest lands and railroads and mines. It +controlled local transportation largely. Nearly one-half the working +men in the State were in its employ. Into every town and village the +ramifications of its political organization extended. The feeling +against it was very bitter, but this was usually expressed in whispers. +For it was in a position to ruin almost any business man upon whom it +fastened a grudge, and to make wealthy any upon whom it chose to cast +its favors. + +Nevertheless, there were some not so sure that the Consolidated would +succeed in electing its man. Since Ridgway had announced himself as a +candidate there had been signs of defection on the part of some of +those expected to vote for Warner. He had skillfully wielded together +in opposition to the trust all the elements of the State that were +hostile to it; and already the word was being passed that he had not +come to the campaign without a barrel of his own. + +The balloting for United States senator was not to begin until the +eighth day of the session, but the opening week was full of a tense and +suppressed excitement. It was known that agents of both sides were +moving to and fro among the representatives and State senators, +offering fabulous prices for their votes and the votes of any others +they might be able to control. Men who had come to the capital +confident in their strength and integrity now looked at their neighbors +furtively and guiltily. Day by day the legislators were being debauched +to serve the interest of the factions which were fighting for control +of the State. Night after night secret meetings were being held in +out-of-the-way places to seduce those who clung desperately to their +honesty or held out for a bigger price. Bribery was in the air, +rampant, unashamed. Thousand-dollar bills were as common as ten-dollar +notes in ordinary times. + +Sam Yesler, commenting on the situation to his friend Jack Roper, a +fellow member of the legislature who had been a cattleman from the time +he had given up driving a stage thirty years before, shook his head +dejectedly over his blue points. + +“I tell you, Jack, a man has to be bed-rocked in honesty or he’s gone. +Think of it. A country lawyer comes here who has never seen five +thousand dollars in a lump sum, and they shove fifteen thousand at him +for his vote. He is poor, ambitious, struggling along from hand to +mouth. I reckon we ain’t in a position to judge that poor devil of a +harassed fellow. Mebbe he’s always been on the square, came here to do +what was right, we’ll say, but he sees corruption all round him. How +can he help getting a warped notion of things? He sees his friends and +his neighbors falling by the wayside. By God, it’s got to the point in +this legislature that an honest man’s an object of obloquy.” + +“That’s right,” agreed Roper. “Easy enough for us to be square. We got +good ranches back of us and can spend the winter playing poker at the +Mesa Club if we feel like it. But if we stood where Billy George and +Garner and Roberts and Munz do, I ain’t so damn sure my virtue would +stand the strain. Can you reach that salt, Sam?” + +“Billy George has got a sick wife, and he’s been wanting to send her +back to her folks in the East, but he couldn’t afford it. The doctors +figured she ought to stay a year, and Billy would have to hire a woman +to take care of his kids. I said to him: ‘Hell, Billy, what’s a friend +for?’ And I shoves a check at him. He wouldn’t look at it; said he +didn’t know whether he could ever pay it, and he had not come down to +charity yet.” + +“Billy’s a white man. That’s what makes me sick. Right on top of all +his bad luck he comes here and sees that everybody is getting a big +roll. He thinks of that white-faced wife of his dragging herself round +among the kids and dying by inches for lack of what money can buy her. +I tell you I don’t blame him. It’s the fellows putting the temptation +up to him that ought to be strung up.” + +“I see that hound Pelton’s mighty active in it. He’s got it in for +Ridgway since Waring threw him down, and he’s plugging night and day +for Warner. Stays pretty well tanked up. Hopper tells me he’s been +making threats to kill Waring on sight.” + +“I heard that and told Waring. He laughed and said he hoped he would +live till Pelton killed him. I like Waring. He’s got the guts, as his +miners say. But he’s away off on this fight. He’s using money right and +left just as Harley is.” + +Yesler nodded. “The whole town’s corrupted. It takes bribery for +granted. Men meet on the street and ask what the price of votes is this +morning. Everybody feels prosperous.” + +“I heard that a chambermaid at the Quartzite Hotel found seven thousand +dollars in big bills pinned to the bottom of a mattress in Garner’s +room yesterday. He didn’t dare bank it, of course.” + +“Poor devil! He’s another man that would like to be honest, but with +the whole place impregnated with bribery he couldn’t stand the +pressure. But after this is all over he’ll go home to his wife and his +neighbors with the canker of this thing at his heart until he dies. I +tell you, Jack, I’m for stopping it if we can.” + +“How?” + +“There’s one way. I’ve been approached indirectly by Pelton, to deliver +our vote to the Consolidated. Suppose we arrange to do it, get +evidence, and make a public exposure.” + +They were alone in a private dining-room of a restaurant, but Yesler’s +voice had fallen almost to a whisper. With his steady gray eyes he +looked across at the man who had ridden the range with him fifteen +years ago when he had not had a sou to bless himself with. + +Roper tugged at his long drooping mustache and gazed at his friend. +“It’s a large order, Sam, a devilish large order. Do you reckon we +could deliver?” + +“I think so. There are six of us that will stand pat at any cost. If we +play our cards right and keep mum the surprise of it is bound to shake +votes loose when we spring the bomb. The whole point is whether we can +take advantage of that surprise to elect a decent man. I don’t say it +can be done, but there’s a chance of it.” + +The old stage-driver laughed softly. “We’ll be damned good and plenty +by both sides.” + +“Of course. It won’t be a pleasant thing to do, but then it isn’t +exactly pleasant to sit quiet and let these factions use the State as a +pawn in their game of grab.” + +“I’m with you, Sam. Go to it, my boy, and I’ll back you to the limit.” + +“We had better not talk it over here. Come to my room after dinner and +bring Landor and James with you. I’ll have Reedy and Keller there. I’ll +mention casually that it’s a big game of poker, and I’ll have cards and +drinks sent up. You want to remember we can’t be too careful. If it +leaks out we lose.” + +“I’m a clam, Sam. Do you want I should speak of it to Landor and +James?” + +“Better wait till we get together.” + +“What about Ward? He’s always been with us.” + +“He talks too much. We can take him in at the last minute if we like.” + +“That would be better. I ain’t so sure about Reedy, either. He’s +straight as a string, of course; not a crooked hair in his head. But +when he gets to drinking he’s likely to let things out.” + +“You’re right. We’ll leave him out, too, until the last minute. There’s +another thing I’ve thought of. Ridgway can’t win. At least I don’t see +how he can control more than twenty five votes. Suppose at the very +last moment we make a deal with him and with the Democrats to pool our +votes on some square man. With Waring it’s anything to beat the +Consolidated. He’ll jump at the chance if he’s sure he is out of the +running himself. Those of the Democrats that Harley can’t buy will be +glad to beat his man. I don’t say it can be done, Jack. All I say is +that it is worth a trial.” + +“You bet.” + +They met that night in Yesler’s rooms round a card-table. The hands +were dealt for form’s sake, since there were spies everywhere, and it +was necessary to ring for cigars and refreshments occasionally to avoid +suspicion. They were all cattlemen, large or small, big outdoors +sunburned men, who rode the range in the spring and fall with their +punchers and asked no odds of any man. + +Until long past midnight they talked the details over, and when they +separated in the small hours it was with a well-defined plan to save +the State from its impending disgrace if the thing could be done. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. +LASKA OPENS A DOOR + + +The first ballots for a United States senator taken by the legislature +in joint session failed to disclose the alignment of some of the +doubtful members. The Democratic minority of twenty-eight votes were +cast for Springer, the senator whose place would be taken by whoever +should win in the contest now on. Warner received forty-four, Ridgway +twenty-six, eight went to Pascom, a former governor whom the cattlemen +were supporting, and the remaining three were scattered. Each day one +ballot was taken, and for a week there was a slight sifting down of the +complimentary votes until at the end of it the count stood: + +Warner 45 +Ridgway 28 +Springer 28 +Pascom 8 + + +Warner still lacked ten votes of an election, but It was pretty +thoroughly understood that several of the Democratic minority were +waiting only long enough for a colorable excuse to switch to him. All +kinds of rumors were in the air as to how many of these there were. The +Consolidated leaders boldly claimed that they had only to give the word +to force the election of their candidate on any ballot. Yesler did not +believe this claim could be justified, since Pelton and Harley were +already negotiating with him for the delivery of the votes belonging to +the cattlemen’s contingent. + +He had held off for some time with hints that it would take a lot of +money to swing the votes of such men as Roper and Landor, but he had +finally come to an agreement that the eight votes should be given to +Warner for a consideration of $300,000. This was to be paid to Yesler +in the presence of the other seven members on the night before the +election, and was to be held in escrow by him and Roper until the pact +was fulfilled, the money to be kept in a safety deposit vault with a +key in possession of each of the two. + +On the third day of the session, before the voting had begun, Stephen +Eaton, who was a State senator from Mesa, moved that a committee be +appointed to investigate the rumors of bribery that were so common. The +motion caught the Consolidated leaders napping, for this was the last +man they had expected to propose such a course, and it went through +with little opposition, as a similar motion did in the House at the +same time. The lieutenant-governor and the speaker of the House were +both opposed to Warner, and the joint committee had on it the names of +no Consolidated men. The idea of such a committee had originated with +Ridgway, and had been merely a bluff to show that he at least was +willing that the world should know the whole story of the election. Nor +had this committee held even formal meetings before word reached Eaton +through Yesler that if it would appoint a conference in some very +private place, evidence would be submitted implicating agents of the +Warner forces in attempts at bribery. + +It was close to eleven o’clock when Sam Yesler stepped quietly from a +side door of his hotel and slipped into the street. He understood +perfectly that in following the course he did, he was taking his life +in his hands. The exposure of the bribery traffic would blast forever +the reputations of many men who had hitherto held a high place in the +community, and he knew the temper of some of them well enough to be +aware that an explosion was probable. Spies had been dogging him ever +since the legislature convened. Within an hour one of them would be +flying to Pelton with the news that he was at a meeting of the +committee, and all the thugs of the other side would be turned loose on +his heels. As he walked briskly through the streets toward the place +appointed, his hand lay on the hilt of a revolver in the outside pocket +of his overcoat. He was a man who would neither seek trouble nor let it +overwhelm him. If his life were attempted, he meant to defend it to the +last. + +He followed side streets purposely, and his footsteps echoed along the +deserted road. He knew he was being dogged, for once, when he glanced +back, he caught sight of a skulking figure edging along close to a +wall. The sight of the spy stirred his blood. Grimly he laughed to +himself. They might murder him for what he was doing, but not in time +to save the exposure which would be brought to light on the morrow. + +The committee met at a road-house near the outskirts of the city, but +only long enough to hear Yesler’s facts and to appoint another meeting +for three hours later at the offices of Eaton. For the committee had +come here for secrecy, and they knew that it would be only a short time +before Pelton’s heelers would be down upon them in force. It was agreed +they should divide and slip quietly back to town, wait until everything +was quiet and convene again. Meanwhile Eaton would make arrangements to +see that his offices would be sufficiently guarded for protection +against any attack. + +Yesler walked back to town and was within a couple of blocks of his +hotel when he glimpsed two figures crouching against the fence of the +alley. He stopped in his tracks, watched them intently an instant, and +was startled by a whistle from the rear. He knew at once his retreat, +too, was cut off, and without hesitation vaulted the fence in front of +a big gray stone house he was passing. A revolver flashed from the +alley, and he laughed with a strange kind of delight. His thought was +to escape round the house, but trellis work barred the way, and he +could not open the gate. + +“Trapped, by Jove,” he told himself coolly as a bullet struck the +trellis close to his head. + +He turned back, ran up the steps of the porch and found momentary +safety in the darkness of its heavy vines. But this he knew could not +last. Running figures were converging toward him at a focal point. He +could hear oaths and cries. Some one was throwing aimless shots from a +revolver at the porch. + +He heard a window go up in the second story and a woman’s frightened +voice ask. “What is it? Who is there?” + +“Let me in. I’m ambushed by thugs,” he called back. + +“There he is—in the doorway,” a voice cried out of the night, and it +was followed by a spatter of bullets about him. + +He fired at a man leaping the fence. The fellow tumbled back with a +kind of scream. + +“God! I’m hit.” + +He could hear steps coming down the stairway and fingers fumbling at +the key of the door. His attackers were gathering for a rush, and he +wondered whether the rescue was to be too late. They came together, the +opening door and the forward pour of huddled figures. He stepped back +into the hall. + +There was a raucous curse, a shot, and Yesler had slammed the door +shut. He was alone in the darkness with his rescuer. + +“We must get out of here. They’re firing through the door,” he said, +and “Yes” came faintly back to him from across the hall. + +“Do you know where the switch is?” he asked, wondering whether she was +going to be such an idiot as to faint at this inopportune moment. + +His answer came in a flood of light, and showed him a young woman +crouched on the hall-rack a dozen feet from the switch. She was very +white, and there was a little stain of crimson on the white lace of her +sleeve. + +A voice from the landing above demanded quickly, “Who are you, sir?” +and after he had looked up’, cried in surprise, “Mr. Yesler.” + +“Miss Balfour,” he replied. “I’ll explain later. I’m afraid the lady +has been hit by a bullet.” + +He was already beside his rescuer. She looked at him with a trace of a +tired smile and said: + +“In my arm.” + +After which she fainted. He picked up the young woman, carried her to +the stairs, and mounted them. + +“This way,” said Virginia, leading him into a bedroom, the door of +which was open. + +He observed with surprise that she, too, was dressed in evening +clothes, and rightly surmised that they had just come back from some +social function. + +“Is it serious?” asked Virginia, when he had laid his burden on the +bed. + +She was already clipping with a pair of scissors the sleeve from round +the wound. + +“It ought not to be,” he said after he had examined it. “The bullet has +scorched along the fleshy part of the forearm. We must telephone for a +doctor at once.” + +She did so, then found water and cotton for bandages, and helped him +make a temporary dressing. The patient recovered consciousness under +the touch of the cold water, and asked: what was the matter. + +“You have been hurt a little, but not badly I think. Don’t you +remember? You came down and opened the door to let me in.” + +“They were shooting at you. What for?” she wanted to know. + +He smiled. “Don’t worry about that. It’s all over with. I’m sorry you +were hurt in saving me,” said Yesler gently. + +“Did I save you?” The gray eyes showed a gleam of pleasure. + +“You certainly did.” + +“This is Mr. Yesler, Laska. Mr. Yesler—Miss Lowe. I think you have +never met.” + +“Never before to-night,” he said, pinning the bandage in place round +the plump arm. “There. That’s all just now, ma’am. Did I hurt you very +much?” + +The young woman felt oddly exhilarated. “Not much. I’ll forgive you if +you’ll tell me all about the affair. Why did they want to hurt you?” + +His big heart felt very tender toward this girl who had been wounded +for him, but he showed it only by a smiling deference. + +“You’re right persistent, ma’am. You hadn’t ought to be bothering your +head about any such thing, but if you feel that way I’ll be glad to +tell you.” + +He did. While they sat there and waited for the coming of the doctor, +he told her the whole story of his attempt to stop the corruption that +was eating like a canker at the life of the State. He was a plain man, +not in the least eloquent, and he told his story without any sense that +he had played any unusual part. In fact, he was ashamed that he had +been forced to assume a role which necessitated a kind of treachery to +those who thought they had bought him. + +Laska Lowe’s eyes shone with the delight his tale inspired in her. She +lived largely in the land of ideals, and this fight against wrong moved +her mightily. She could feel for him none of the shame which he felt +for himself at being mixed up in so bad a business. He was playing a +man’s part, had chosen it at risk of his life. That was enough. In +every fiber of her, she was glad that good fortune had given her the +chance to bear a part of the battle. In her inmost heart she was even +glad that to the day of her death she must bear the scar that would +remind her she had suffered in so good a cause. + +Virginia, for once obliterating herself, perceived how greatly taken +they were with each other. At bottom, nearly every woman is a +match-maker. This one was no exception. She liked both this man and +this woman, and her fancy had already begun to follow her hopes. Never +before had Laska appeared to show much interest in any of the opposite +sex with whom her friend had seen her. Now she was all enthusiasm, had +forgotten completely the pain of her wound in the spirit’s glow. + +“She loved me for the danger I had pass’d, +And I loved her that she did pity them. +This only is the witchcraft I have us’d.’” + + +Virginia quoted softly to herself, her eyes on the young woman so +finely unconscious of the emotion that thrilled her. + +Not until the clock in the hall below struck two did Yesler remember +his appointment in the Ridgway Building. The doctor had come and was +about to go. He suggested that if Yesler felt it would be safe for him +to go, they might walk across to the hotel together. + +“And leave us alone.” Laska could have bitten her tongue after the +words were out. + +Virginia explained. “The Leighs are out of the city to-night, and it +happens that even the servants are gone. I asked Miss Lowe to stay with +me all night, but, of course, she feels feverish and nervous after this +excitement. Couldn’t you send a man to watch the rest of the night out +in the house?” + +“Why don’t you stay, Mr. Yesler?” the doctor suggested. “You could +sleep here, no doubt.” + +“You might have your meeting here. It is neutral ground. I can phone to +Mr. Ridgway,” proposed Virginia in a low voice to Yesler. + +“Doesn’t that seem to imply that I’m afraid to leave?” laughed Yesler. + +“It implies that we are afraid to have you. Laska would worry both on +your account and our own. I think you owe it to her to stay.” + +“Oh, if that’s the way it strikes you,” he agreed. “Fact is, I don’t +quite like to leave you anyhow. We’ll take Leigh’s study. I don’t think +we shall disturb you at all.” + +“I’m sure you won’t—and before you go, you’ll let us know what you have +decided to do.” + +“We shall not be through before morning. You’ll be asleep by then,” he +made answer. + +“No, I couldn’t sleep till I know all about it.” + +“Nor I,” agreed Laska. “I want to know all about everything.” + +“My dear young lady, you are to take the sleeping-powders and get a +good rest,” the doctor demurred. “All about everything is too large an +order for your good just now.” + +Virginia nodded in a businesslike way. “Yes, you’re to go to sleep, +Laska, and when you waken I’ll tell you all about it.” + +“That would be better,” smiled Yesler, and Virginia thought it +significant that her friend made no further protest. + +Gray streaks began to show in the sky before Yesler tapped on the door +of Virginia’s room. She had discarded the rather elaborate evening gown +he had last seen her in, and was wearing some soft fabric which hung +from the shoulders in straight lines, and defined the figure while +lending the effect of a loose and flowing drapery. + +“How is your patient?” he asked. + +“She has dropped into a good sleep,” the girl whispered. “I am sure we +don’t need to worry about her at all.” + +“Nevertheless, it’s a luxury I’m going to permit myself for a day or +two,” he smiled. “I don’t have my life saved by a young lady very +often.” + +“I’m sure you will enjoy worrying about her,” she laughed. + +He got back at her promptly. “There’s somebody down-stairs worrying +about you. He wants to know if there is anything he can do for you, and +suggests inviting himself for breakfast in order to make sure.” + +“Mr. Ridgway?” + +“How did you guess it first crack? Mr. Ridgway it is.” + +She considered a moment. “Yes, tell him to stay. Molly will be back in +time to make breakfast, and I want to talk to him. Now tell me what you +did.” + +“We did Mr. Warner. At least I hope so,” he chuckled. + +“I’m so glad. And who is to be senator? Is it Waring?” + +“No. It wouldn’t have been possible to elect him even if we had wanted +to.” + +“And you didn’t want to,” she flashed. + +“No, we didn’t,” he admitted frankly. “We couldn’t afford to have it +generally understood that this was merely a partisan fight on the +Consolidated, and that we were pulling Waring’s chestnuts out of the +fire for him.” + +He did not add, though he might have, that Ridgway was tarred with the +same brush as the enemy in this matter. + +“Then who is it to be?” + +“That’s a secret. I can’t tell even you that. But we have agreed on a +man. Waring is to withdraw and throw his influence for him. The +Democratic minority will swing in line for him, and we’ll do the rest. +That’s the plan. It may not go through, however.” + +“I don’t see who it can be that you all unite on. Of course, it isn’t +Mr. Pelton?” + +“I should hope not.” + +“Or Mr. Samuel Yesler?” + +“You’ve used up all the guesses allowed you. If you want to know, why +don’t you attend the joint session to-day? It ought to be highly +interesting.” + +“I shall,” she announced promptly. “And I’ll bring Laska with me.” + +“She won’t be able to come.” + +“I think she will. It’s only a scratch.” + +“I don’t like to think how much worse it might have been.” + +“Then don’t think of it. Tell Waring I’ll be down presently.” + +He went down-stairs again, and Miss Balfour returned to the room. + +“Was that Mr. Yesler?” quietly asked a voice from the bed. + +“Yes, dear. He has gone back to the hotel. He asked about you, of +course.” + +“He is very kind.” + +“It was thoughtful, since you only saved his life,” admitted the +ironical Miss Balfour. + +“Wasn’t it fortunate that we were up?” + +“Very fortunate for him that you were.” + +Virginia crossed the room to the bed and kissed her friend with some +subtle significance too elusive for words. Laska appeared, however to +appreciate it. At least, she blushed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. +AN EXPLOSION IN THE TAURUS + + +The change of the relationship between Ridgway and his betrothed, +brought about by the advent of a third person into his life, showed +itself in the manner of their greeting. She had always been chary of +lovers’ demonstrations, but until his return from Alpine he had been +wont to exact his privilege in spite of her reluctance. Now he was +content with the hand she offered him. + +“You’ve had a strenuous night of it,” he said, after a glance at the +rather wan face she offered the new day. + +“Yes, we have—and for that matter, I suppose you have, too.” + +Man of iron that he was, he looked fresh as morning dew. With his usual +lack of self-consciousness, he had appropriated Leigh’s private bath, +and was glowing from contact with ice-cold water and a crash towel. + +“We’ve been making history,” he agreed. “How’s your friend?” + +“She has no fever at all. It was only a scratch. She will be down to +breakfast in a minute.” + +“Good. She must be a thoroughbred to come running down into the bullets +for a stranger she has never seen.” + +“She is. You’ll like Laska.” + +“I’m glad she saved Sam from being made a colander. I can’t help liking +him, though he doesn’t approve of me very much.” + +“I suppose not.” + +“He is friendly, too.” Ridgway laughed as he recalled their battle over +who should be the nominee. “But his conscience rules him. It’s a free +and liberal conscience, generally speaking—nothing Puritan about it, +but a distinctive product of the West. Yet, he would not have me for +senator at any price.” + +“Why?” + +“Didn’t think I was fit to represent the people; said if I went in, it +would be to use the office for my personal profit.” + +“Wasn’t he right?” + +“More or less. If I were elected, I would build up my machine, of +course, but I would see the people got a show, too.” + +She nodded agreement. “I don’t think you would make a bad senator.” + +“I would be a live wire, anyhow. Sam had other objections to me. He +thought I had been using too much money in this campaign.” + +“And have you?” she asked, curious to see how he would defend himself. + +“Yes. I had to if I were going to stand any chance. It wasn’t from +choice. I didn’t really want to be senator. I can’t afford to give the +time to it, but I couldn’t afford to let Harley name the man either. I +was between the devil and the deep sea.” + +“Then, really, Mr. Yesler came to your rescue.” + +“That’s about it, though he didn’t intend it that way.” + +“And who is to be the senator?” + +He gave her a cynical smile. “Warner.” + +“But I thought—why, surely he—” The surprise of his cool announcement +took her breath away. + +“No, he isn’t the man our combination decided on, but the trouble is +that our combination is going to fall through. Sam’s an optimist, but +you’ll see I’m right. There are too many conflicting elements of us in +one boat. We can’t lose three votes and win, and it’s a safe bet we +lose them. The Consolidated must know by this time what we have been +about all night. They’re busy now sapping at our weak links. Our only +chance is to win on the first vote, and I am very sure we won’t be able +to do it.” + +“Oh, I hope you are not right.” A young woman was standing in the +doorway, her arm in a sling. She had come in time to hear his prophesy, +and in the disappointment of it had forgotten that he was a stranger. + +Virginia remedied this, and they went in to breakfast. Laska was full +of interest, and poured out eager questions at Ridgway. It was not for +several minutes that Virginia recollected to ask again who was the man +they had decided upon. + +Her betrothed found some inner source of pleasure that brought out a +sardonic smile. “He’s a slap in the face at both Harley and me.” + +“I can’t think who—is he honest?” + +“As the day.” + +“And capable?” + +“Oh, yes. He’s competent enough.” + +“Presentable?” + +“Yes. He’ll do the State credit, or rather he would if he were going to +be elected.” + +“Then I give it up.” + +He was leaning forward to tell, when the sharp buzz of the electric +door-bell, continued and sustained, diverted the attention of all of +them. + +Ridgway put down his napkin. “Probably some one to see me.” + +He had risen to his feet when the maid opened the door of the +dining-room. + +“A gentleman to see Mr. Ridgway. He says it is very important.” + +From the dining-room they could hear the murmur of quick voices, and +soon Ridgway returned. He was a transformed man. His eyes were hard as +diamonds, and there was the bulldog look of the fighter about his mouth +and chin. + +“What is it, Waring?” cried Virginia. + +“Trouble in the mines. An hour ago Harley’s men rushed the Taurus and +the New York, and drove my men out. One of my shift-foremen and two of +his drillers were killed by an explosion set off by Mike Donleavy, a +foreman in the Copper King.” + +“Did they mean to kill them?” asked the girl whitely. + +“I suppose not. But they took the chance. It’s murder just the same—by +Jove, it’s a club with which to beat the legislators into line.” + +He stopped, his brain busy solving the problem as to how he might best +turn this development to his own advantage. Part of his equipment was +his ability to decide swiftly and surely issues as they came to him. +Now he strode to the telephone and began massing his forces. + +“Main 234—Yes—Yes—This the Sun?—Give me Brayton—Hello, Brayton. Get out +a special edition at once charging Harley with murder. Run the word as +a red headline clear across the page. Show that Vance Edwards and the +other boys were killed while on duty by an attack ordered by Harley. +Point out that this is the logical result of his course. Don’t mince +words. Give it him right from the shoulder. Rush it, and be sure a copy +of the paper is on the desk of every legislator before the session +opens this morning. Have a reliable man there to see that every man +gets one. Scatter the paper broadcast among the miners, too. This is +important.” + +He hung up the receiver, took it down again, and called up Eaton. + +“Hello! This you, Steve? Send for Trelawney and Straus right away. Get +them to call a mass meeting of the unions for ten o’clock at the +courthouse square. Have dodgers printed and distributed announcing it. +Shut down all our mines so that the men can come. I want Straus and +Trelawney and two or three of the other prominent labor leaders to +denounce Harley and lay the responsibility for this thing right at his +door. I’ll be up there and outline what they had better say.” + +He turned briskly round to the young women, his eyes shining with a +hard bright light. “I’m sorry, but I have got to cut out breakfast this +morning. Business is piling up on me too fast. If you’ll excuse me, +I’ll go now.” + +“What are you going to do?” asked Virginia. + +“I haven’t time to tell you now. Just watch my smoke,” he laughed +without mirth. + +No sooner did the news of the tragedy reach Simon Harley than he knew +the mistake of his subordinates would be a costly one. The foreman, +Donleavy, who had directed the attack on the Taurus, had to be brought +from the shafthouse under the protection of a score of Pinkerton +detectives to safeguard him from the swift vengeance of the miners, who +needed but a word to fling themselves against the cordon of police. +Harley himself kept his apartments, the hotel being heavily patrolled +by guards on the lookout for suspicious characters. The current of +public opinion, never in his favor, now ran swiftly against him, and +threats were made openly by the infuriated miners to kill him on sight. + +The members of the unions came to the massmeeting reading the story of +the tragedy as the Sun colored the affair. They stayed sullenly to +listen to red-hot speeches against the leader of the trust, and +gradually the wrath which was simmering in them began to boil. Ridgway, +always with a keen sense of the psychological moment, descended the +court-house steps just as this fury was at its height. There were +instant cries for a speech from him so persistent that he yielded, +though apparently with reluctance. His fine presence and strong deep +voice soon gave him the ears of all that dense throng. He was far out +of the ordinary as a public speaker, and within a few minutes he had +his audience with him. He deprecated any violence; spoke strongly for +letting the law take its course; and dropped a suggestion that they +send a committee to the State-house to urge that Harley’s candidate be +defeated for the senatorship. + +Like wild-fire this hint spread. Here was something tangible they could +do that was still within the law. Harley had set his mind on electing +Warner. They would go up there in a body and defeat his plans. Marshals +and leaders of companies were appointed. They fell into ranks by fours, +nearly ten thousand of them all told. The big clock in the court-house +was striking twelve when they began their march to the Statehouse. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. +THE ELECTION + + +At the very moment that the tramp of twenty thousand feet turned toward +the State-house, the report of the bribery investigating committee was +being read to the legislature met in joint session. The committee +reported that it had examined seven witnesses, Yesler, Roper, Landor, +James, Reedy, Kellor, and Ward, and that each of then had testified +that former Congressman Pelton or others had approached him on behalf +of Warner; that an agreement had been made by which the eight votes +being cast for Bascom would be give to Warner in consideration of +$300,000 in cash, to be held in escrow by Yesler, and that the +committee now had the said package, supposed to contain the bills for +that amount, in its possession, and was prepared to turn it over to the +legislature for examination. + +Except for the clerk’s voice, as he read the report, a dead silence lay +tensely over the crowded hall. Men dared not look at their neighbors, +scarce dared breathe, for the terror that hung heavy on their hearts. +Scores were there who expected their guilt to be blazoned forth for all +the world to read. They waited whitely as the monotonous voice of the +clerk went from paragraph to paragraph, and when at last he sat down, +having named only the bribers and not the receivers of bribes, a long +deep sigh of relief swept the house. Fear still racked them, but for +the moment they were safe. Furtively their glances began to go from one +to another of their neighbors and ask for how long safety would endure. + +One could have heard the rustle of a leaf as the chairman of the +committee stepped forward and laid on the desk of the presiding officer +the incriminating parcel. It seemed an age while the chief clerk opened +it, counted the bills, and announced that one hundred thousand dollars +was the sum contained within. + +Stephen Eaton then rose in his seat and presented quietly his +resolution, that since the evidence submitted was sufficient to convict +of bribery, the judge of the district court of the County of Mesa be +requested to call a special session of the grand jury to investigate +the report. It was not until Sam Yesler rose to speak upon that report +that the pent-up storm broke loose. + +He stood there in the careless garb of the cattleman, a strong +clean-cut figure as one would see in a day’s ride, facing with +unflinching steel-blue eyes the tempest of human passion he had evoked. +The babel of voices rose and fell and rose again before he could find a +chance to make himself heard. In the gallery two quietly dressed young, +women, one of them with her arm in a sling, leaned forward breathlessly +and waited. Laska’s eyes glowed with deep fire. She was living her hour +of hours, and the man who stood with such quiet courage the focus of +that roar of rage was the hero of it. + +“You call me Judas, and I ask you what Christ I have betrayed. You call +me traitor, but traitor to what? Like you, I am under oath to receive +no compensation for my services here other than that allowed by law. To +that oath I have been true. Have you? + +“For many weeks we have been living in a carnival of bribery, in a +debauched hysteria of money-madness. The souls of men have been sifted +as by fire. We have all been part and parcel of a man-hunt, an eager, +furious, persistent hunt that has relaxed neither night nor day. The +lure of gold has been before us every waking hour, and has pursued us +into our dreams. The temptation has been ever-present. To some it has +been irresistible, to some maddening, to others, thank God! it has but +proved their strength. Our hopes, our fears, our loves, our hates: +these seducers of honor have pandered to them all. Our debts and our +business, our families and our friendships, have all been used to hound +us. To-day I put the stigma for this shame where it belongs—upon Simon +Harley, head of the Consolidated and a score of other trusts, and upon +Waring Ridgway, head of the Mesa Ore-producing Company. These are the +debauchers of our commonwealth’s fair name, and you, alas! the +traffickers who hope to live upon its virtue. I call upon you to-day to +pass this resolution and to elect a man to the United States senate who +shall owe no allegiance to any power except the people, or to receive +forever the brand of public condemnation. Are you free men? Or do you +wear the collar of the Consolidated, the yoke of Waring Ridgway? The +vote which you will cast to-day is an answer that shall go flying to +the farthest corner of your world, an answer you can never hope to +change so long as you live.” + +He sat down in a dead silence. Again men drew counsel from their fears. +The resolution passed unanimously, for none dared vote against it lest +he brand himself as bought and sold. + +It was in this moment, while the hearts of the guilty were like water, +that there came from the lawn outside the roar of a multitude of +voices. Swiftly the word passed that ten thousand miners had come to +see that Warner was not elected. That they were in a dangerous frame of +mind, all knew. It was a passionate undisciplined mob and to thwart +them would have been to invite a riot. + +Under these circumstances the joint assembly proceeded to ballot for a +senator. The first name called was that of Adams. He was an old +cattleman and a Democrat. + +“Before voting, I want to resign my plate a few moments to Mr. Landor, +of Kit Carson County,” he said. + +Landor was recognized, a big broad-shouldered plainsman with a leathery +face as honest as the sun. He was known and liked by everybody, even by +those opposed to him. + +“I’m going to make a speech,” he announced with the broad smile that +showed a flash of white teeth. “I reckon it’ll be the first I ever made +here, and I promise it will be the last, boys. But I won’t keep you +long, either. You all know how things have been going; how men have +been moving in and out and buying men here like as if they were cattle +on the hoof. You’ve seen it, and I’ve seen it. But we didn’t have the +nerve to say it should stop. One man did. He’s the biggest man in this +big State to-day, and it ain’t been five minutes since I heard you +hollar your lungs out cursing him. You know who I mean—Sam Yesler.” + +He waited till the renewed storm of cheers and hisses had died away. + +“It don’t do him any harm for you to hollar at him, boys—not a mite. I +want to say to you that he’s a man. He saw our old friends falling by +the wayside and some of you poor weaklings selling yourselves for +dollars. Because he is an honest, game man, he set out to straighten +things up. I want to tell you that my hat’s off to Sam Yesler. + +“But that ain’t what I rose for. I’m going to name for the United +States senate a clean man, one who doesn’t wear either the Harley or +the Ridgway brand. He’s as straight as a string, not a crooked hair in +his head, and every manjack of you knows it. I’m going to name a +man”—he stopped an instant to smile genially around upon the circle of +uplifted faces—“who isn’t any friend of either one faction or another, +a man who has just had independence enough to quit a big job because it +wasn’t on the square. That man’s name is Lyndon Hobart. If you want to +do yourselves proud, gentlemen, you’ll certainly elect him.” + +If it was a sensation he had wanted to create, he had it. The Warner +forces were taken with dumb surprise. But many of them were already +swiftly thinking it would be the best way out of a bad business. He +would be conservative, as fair to the Consolidated as to the enemy. +More, just now his election would appeal to the angry mob howling +outside the building, for they could ask nothing more than the election +of the man who had resigned rather than order the attack on the Taurus, +which had resulted in the death of some of their number. + +Hoyle, of the Democrats, seconded the nomination, as also did Eaton, in +a speech wherein he defended the course of Ridgway and withdrew his +name. + +Within a few minutes of the time that Eaton sat down, the roll had been +called and Hobart elected by a vote of seventy-three to twenty-four, +the others refusing to cast a ballot. + +The two young women, sitting together in the front row of the gallery, +were glowing with triumphant happiness. Virginia was still clapping her +hands when a voice behind her suggested that the circumstances did not +warrant her being so happy over the result. She turned, to see Waring +Ridgway smiling down at her. + +“But I can’t help being pleased. Wasn’t Mr. Yesler magnificent?” + +“Sam was all right, though he might have eased up a bit when he pitched +into me.” + +“He had to do that to be fair. Everybody knows you and he are friends. +I think it was fine of him not to let that make any difference in his +telling the truth.” + +“Oh, I knew it would please you,” her betrothed laughed. “What do you +say to going out to lunch with me? I’ll get Sam, too, if I can.” + +The young women consulted eyes and agreed very readily. Both of them +enjoyed being so near to the heart of things. + +“If Mr. Yesler will lunch with the debaucher of the commonwealth, we +shall be very happy to join the party,” said Virginia demurely. + +Ridgway led them down to the floor of the House. Through the dense +throng they made their way slowly toward him, Ridgway clearing a path +with his broad shoulders. + +Suddenly they heard him call sharply, “Look out, Sam.” + +The explosion of a revolver followed sharply his words. Ridgway dived +through the press, tossing men to right and left of him as a steamyacht +does the waves. Through the open lane he left in his wake, the young +women caught the meaning of the turmoil: the crumpled figure was Yesler +swaying into the arms of his friend, Roper, the furious drink-flushed +face of Pelton and the menace of the weapon poised for a second shot, +the swift impact of Waring’s body, and the blow which sent the next +bullet crashing into the chandelier overhead. All this they glimpsed +momentarily before the press closed in on the tragic scene and cut off +their view. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. +FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS + + +While Harley had been in no way responsible for Pelton’s murderous +attack upon Yesler, public opinion held him to account. The Pinkertons +who had, up till this time, been employed at the mines, were now moved +to the hotel to be ready for an emergency. A special train was held in +readiness to take the New Yorker out of the State in the event that the +stockman should die. Meanwhile, the harassing attacks of Ridgway +continued. Through another judge than Purcell, the absurd injunction +against working the Diamond King, the Mary K, and the Marcus Daly had +been dissolved, but even this advantage had been neutralized by the +necessity of giving back to the enemy the Taurus and the New York, of +which he had just possessed himself. All his life he had kept a +wheather-eye upon the impulsive and fickle public. There were times +when its feeling could be abused with impunity, and other times when +this must be respected. Reluctantly, Harley gave the word for the +withdrawal of his men from the territory gained. Ridgway pushed his +advantage home and secured an injunction, not only against the working, +but against the inspection of the Copper King and the Jim Hill. The +result of the Consolidated move had been in effect to turn over, +temporarily, its two rich mines to be looted by the pirate, and to make +him very much stronger than before with his allies, the unions. By his +own imprudence, Harley had made a bad situation worse, and delivered +himself, with his hands tied, into the power of the enemy. + +In the days of turmoil that followed, Waring Ridgway’s telling blows +scored once and again. The morning after the explosion, he started a +relief fund in his paper, the Sun, for the families of the dead miners, +contributing two thousand dollars himself. He also insisted that the +Consolidated pay damages to the bereaved families to the extent of +twenty thousand dollars for each man killed. The town rang with his +praises. Mesa had always been proud of his success; had liked the +democratic spirit of him that led him to mix on apparently equal terms +with his working men, and had backed him in his opposition to the trust +because his plucky and unscrupulous fight had been, in a measure, its +fight. But now it idolized him. He was the buffer between it and the +trust, fighting the battles of labor against the great octopus of +Broadway, and beating it to a standstill. He was the Moses destined to +lead the working man out of the Egypt of his discontent. Had he not +maintained the standard of wages and forced the Consolidated to do the +same? Had he not declared an eight-hour day, and was not the trust +almost ready to do this also, forced by the impetus his example had +given the unions? So Ridgway’s agents whispered, and the union leaders, +whom he had bought, took up the burden of their tale and preached it +both in private talk and in their speeches. + +In an attempt to stem the rising tide of denunciation that was +spreading from Mesa to the country at large, Harley announced an eight +hour day and an immense banquet to all the Consolidated employees in +celebration of the occasion. Ten thousand men sat down to the long +tables, but when one of the speakers injudiciously mentioned the name +of Ridgway, there was steady cheering for ten minutes. It was quite +plain that the miners gave him the credit for having forced the +Consolidated to the eight-hour day. + +The verdict of the coroner’s jury was that Vance Edwards and the other +deceased miners had come to their death at the hands of the foreman, +Michael Donleavy, at the instigation of Simon Harley. True bills were +at once drawn up by the prosecuting attorney of Mesa County, an +official elected by Ridgway, charging Harley and Donleavy with +conspiracy, resulting in the murder of Vance Edwards. The billionaire +furnished bail for himself and foreman, treating the indictments merely +as part of the attacks of the enemy. + +The tragedy in the Taurus brought to the surface a bitterness that had +hitherto not been apparent in the contest between the rival copper +interests. The lines of division became more sharply drawn, and every +business man in Mesa was forced to declare himself on one side or the +other. Harley scattered detectives broadcast and imported five hundred +Pinkertons to meet any emergency that might arise. The spies of the +Consolidated were everywhere, gathering evidence against the Mesa +Ore-producing Company, its conduct of the senatorial campaign, its +judges, and its supporters Criminal indictments flew back and forth +thick as snowflakes in a Christmas storm. + +It began to be noticed that an occasional foreman, superintendent, or +mining engineer was slipping from the employ of Ridgway to that of the +trust, carrying secrets and evidence that would be invaluable later in +the courts. Everywhere the money of the Consolidated, scattered +lavishly where it would do the most good, attempted to sap the loyalty +of the followers of the other candidates. Even Eaton was approached +with the offer of a bribe. + +But Ridgway’s potent personality had built up an esprit de corps not +easily to be broken. The adventurers gathered to his side were, for the +most part, bound to him by ties personal in their nature. They were +financial fillibusters, pledged to stand or fall together, with an +interest in their predatory leader’s success that was not entirely +measurable in dollars and cents. Nor was that leader the man to allow +the organization he had builded with such care to become disintegrated +while he slept. His alert eye and cheery smile were everywhere, +instilling confidence in such as faltered, and dread in those +contemplating defection. + +He harassed his rival with an audacity that was almost devilish in its +unexpected ingenuity. For the first time in his life Simon Harley, the +town back on the defensive by a combination of circumstances engineered +by a master brain, knew what it was to be checkmated. He had not the +least doubt of ultimate victory, but the tentative success of the +brazen young adventurer, were gall and wormwood to his soul. He had +made money his god, had always believed it would buy anything worth +while except life, but this Western buccaneer had taught him it could +not purchase the love of a woman nor the immediate defeat of a man so +well armed as Waring Ridgway. In truth, though Harley stuck at nothing, +his success in accomplishing the destruction of this thorn in his side +was no more appreciable than had been that of Hobart. The Westerner +held his own and more, the while he robbed the great trust of its ore +under cover of the courts. + +In the flush of success, Ridgway, through his lieutenant, Eaton, came +to Judge Purcell asking that a receiver be appointed for the +Consolidated Supply Company, a subsidiary branch of the trust, on the +ground that its affairs were not being properly administered. The +Supply Company had paid dividends ranging from fifteen to twenty-five +per cent for many years, but Ridgway exercised his right as a +stockholder to ask for a receivership. In point of fact, he owned, in +the name of Eaton, only one-tenth of one per cent of the stock, but it +was enough to serve. For Purcell was a bigoted old Missourian, as +courageous and obstinate as perfect health and ignorance could make +him. He was quite innocent of any legal knowledge, his own rule of law +being to hit a Consolidated head whenever he saw one. Lawyers might +argue themselves black in the face without affecting his serenity or +his justice. + +Purcell granted the application, as well as a restraining order against +the payment of dividends until further notice, and appointed Eaton +receiver over the protests of the Consolidated lawyers. + +Ridgway and Eaton left the court-room together, jubilant over their +success. They dined at a restaurant, and spent the evening at the +ore-producing company’s offices, discussing ways and means. When they +had finished, his chief followed Eaton to the doors, an arm thrown +affectionately round his shoulder. + +“Steve, we’re going to make a big killing. I was never so sure of +anything in my life as that we shall beat Simon Harley at his own game. +We’re bound to win. We’ve got to win.” + +“I wish I were as sure as you.” + +“It’s hard pounding does it, my boy. We’ll drive him out of the Montana +copper-fields yet. We’ll show him there is one little corner of the U. +S. where Simon Harley’s orders don’t go as the last word.” + +“He has a hundred dollars to your one.” + +“And I have youth and mining experience and the inside track, as well +as stancher friends than he ever dreamed of,” laughed Ridgway, clapping +the other on the back. “Well, good night, Steve. Pleasant dreams, old +man.” + +The boyish secretary shook hands warmly. “You’re a MAN, chief. If +anybody can pull us through it will be you.” + +Triumphant confidence rang in the other’s answering laugh. “You bet I +can, Steve.” + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. +ONE MILLION DOLLARS + + +Eaton, standing on the street curb at the corner of the Ridgway +Building, lit a cigar while he hesitated between his rooms and the +club. He decided for the latter, and was just turning up the hill, when +a hand covered his mouth and an arm was flung around his neck in a +stranglehold. He felt himself lifted like a child, and presently +discovered that he was being whirled along the street in a closed +carriage. + +“You needn’t be alarmed, Mr. Eaton. We’re not going to injure you in +the least,” a low voice explained in his ear. “If you’ll give me your +word not to cry out, I’ll release your throat.” + +Eaton nodded a promise, and, when he could find his voice, demanded: +“Where are you taking me?” + +“You’ll see in a minute, sir. It’s all right.” + +The carriage turned into an alley and stopped. Eaton was led to a +ladder that hung suspended from the fire-escape, and was bidden to +mount. He did so, following his guide to the second story, and being in +turn followed by the other man. He was taken along a corridor and into +the first of a suite of rooms opening into it. He knew he was in the +Mesa House, and suspected at once that he was in the apartments of +Simon Harley. + +His suspicion ripened to conviction when his captors led him through +two more rooms, into one fitted as an office. The billionaire sat at a +desk, busy over some legal papers he was reading, but he rose at once +and came forward with hand extended to meet Eaton. The young man took +his hand mechanically. + +“Glad to have the pleasure of talking with, you, Mr. Eaton. You must +accept my apologies for my methods of securing a meeting. They are +rather primitive, but since you declined to call and see me, I can hold +only you to blame.” An acid smile touched his lips for a moment, though +his eyes were expressionless as a wall. “Mr. Eaton, I have brought you +here in this way to have a confidential talk with you, in order that it +might not in any way reflect upon you in case we do not come to an +arrangement satisfactory to both of us. Your friends cannot justly +blame you for this conference, since you could not avoid it. Mr. Eaton, +take a chair.” + +The wills of the two men flashed into each other’s eyes like rapiers. +The weaker man knew what was before him and braced himself to meet it. +He would not sit down. He would not discuss anything. So he told +himself once and again to hold himself steady against the impulse to +give way to those imperious eyes behind which was the impassive, +compelling will. + +“Sit down, Mr. Eaton.” + +“I’ll stand, Mr. Harley.” + +“SIT DOWN.” + +The cold jade eyes were not to be denied. Eaton’s gaze fell sullenly, +and he slid into a chair. + +“I’ll discuss no business except in the presence of Mr. Ridgway,” he +said doggedly, falling back to his second line of defenses. + +“To the contrary, my business is with you and not with Mr. Ridgway.” + +“I know of no business you can have with me.” + +“Wherefore I have brought you here to acquaint you with it.” + +The young man lifted his head reluctantly and waited. If he had been +willing to confess it to himself, he feared greatly this ruthless +spoiler who had built up the greatest fortune in the world from +thousands of wrecked lives. He felt himself choking, just as if those +skeleton fingers had been at his throat, but he promised himself never +to yield. + +The fathomless, dominant gaze caught and held his eyes. “Mr. Eaton, I +came here to crush Ridgway. I am going to stay here till I do. I’m +going to wipe him from the map of Montana—ruin him so utterly that he +can never recover. It has been my painful duty to do this with a +hundred men as strong and as confident as he is. After undertaking such +an enterprise, I have never faltered and never relented. The men I have +ruined were ruined beyond hope of recovery. None of them have ever +struggled to their feet again. I intend to make Waring Ridgway a +pauper.” + +Stephen Eaton could have conceived nothing more merciless than this +man’s callous pronouncement, than the calm certainty of his +unemphasized words. He started to reply, but Harley took the words out +of his mouth. + +“Don’t make a mistake. Don’t tie to the paltry successes he has gained. +I have not really begun to fight yet.” + +The young man had nothing to say. His heart was water. He accepted +Harley’s words as true, for he had told himself the same thing a +hundred times. Why had Ridgway rejected the overtures of this colossus +of finance? It had been the sheerest folly born of madness to suppose +that anybody could stand against him. + +“For Ridgway, the die is cast,” the iron voice went on. “He is doomed +beyond hope. But there is still a chance for you. What do you consider +your interest in the Mesa Ore-producing Company worth, Mr. Eaton?” + +The sudden question caught Eaton with the force of a surprise. “About +three hundred thousand dollars,” he heard himself say; and it seemed to +him that his voice was speaking the words without his volition. + +“I’m going to buy you out for twice that sum. Furthermore, I’m going to +take care of your future—going to see that you have a chance to rise.” + +The waverer’s will was in flux, but the loyalty in him still protested. +“I can’t desert my chief, Mr. Harley.” + +“Do you call it desertion to leave a raging madman in a sinking boat +after you have urged him to seek the safety of another ship?” + +“He made me what I am.” + +“And I will make you ten times what you are. With Ridgway you have no +chance to be anything but a subordinate. He is the Mesa Ore-producing +Company, and you are merely a cipher. I offer your individuality a +chance. I believe in you, and know you to be a strong man.” No ironic +smile touched Harley’s face at this statement. “You need a chance, and +I offer it to you. For your own sake take it.” + +Every grievance Eaton had ever felt against his chief came trooping to +his mind. He was domineering. He did ride rough-shod over his allies’ +opinions and follow the course he had himself mapped out. All the glory +of the victory he absorbed as his due. In the popular opinion, Eaton +was as a farthing-candle to a great electric search-light in comparison +with Ridgway. + +“He trusts me,” the tempted man urged weakly. He was slipping, and he +knew it, even while he assured himself he would never betray his chief. + +“He would sell you out to-morrow if it paid him. And what is he but a +robber? Every dollar of his holdings is stolen from me. I ask only +restitution of you—and I propose to buy at twice, nay at three times, +the value of your stolen property. You owe that freebooter no loyalty.” + +“I can’t do it. I can’t do it.” + +“You shall do it.” Harley dominated him as bullying schoolmaster does a +cringing boy under the lash. + +“I can’t do it,” the young man repeated, all his weak will flung into +the denial. + +“Would you choose ruin?” + +“Perhaps. I don’t know,” he faltered miserable. + +“It’s merely a business proposition, young man. The stock you have to +sell is valuable to-day. Reject my offer, and a month from now it will +be quoted on the market at half its present figure, and go begging at +that. It will be absolutely worthless before I finish. You are not +selling out Ridgway. He is a ruined man, anyway. But you—I am going to +save you in spite of yourself. I am going to shake you from that +robber’s clutches.” + +Eaton got to his feet, pallid and limp as a rag. “Don’t tempt me,” he +cried hoarsely. “I tell you I can’t do it, sir.” + +Harley’s cold eye did not release him for an instant. “One million +dollars and an assured future, or—absolute, utter ruin, complete and +final.” + +“He would murder me—and he ought to,” groaned the writhing victim. + +“No fear of that. I’ll put you where he can’t reach you. Just sign your +name to this paper, Mr. Eaton.” + +“I didn’t agree. I didn’t say I would.” + +“Sign here. Or, wait one moment, till I get witnesses.” Harley touched +a bell, and his secretary appeared in the doorway. “Ask Mr. Mott and +young Jarvis to step this way.” + +Harley held out the pen toward Eaton, looking steadily at him. In a +strong man the human eye is a sword among weapons. Eaton quailed. The +fingers of the unhappy wretch went out mechanically for the pen. He was +sweating terror and remorse, but the essential weakness of the man +could not stand out unbacked against the masterful force of this man’s +imperious will. He wrote his name in the places directed, and flung +down the pen like a child in a rage. + +“Now get me out of Montana before Ridgway knows,” he cried brokenly. + +“You may leave to-morrow night, Mr. Eaton. You’ll only have to appear +in court once personally. We’ll arrange it quietly for to-morrow +afternoon. Ridgway won’t know until it is done and you are gone.” + + + + +CHAPTER XX. +A LITTLE LUNCH AT APHONSE’S + + +It chanced that Ridgway, through the swinging door of a department +store, caught a glimpse of Miss Balfour as he was striding along the +street. He bethought him that it was the hour of luncheon, and that she +was no end better company than the revamped noon edition of the morning +paper. Wherefore he wheeled into the store and interrupted her +inspection of gloves. + +“I know the bulliest little French restaurant tucked away in a side +street just three blocks from here. The happiness disseminated in this +world by that chef’s salads will some day carry him past St. Peter with +no questions asked.” + +“You believe in salvation by works?” she parried, while she considered +his invitation. + +“So will you after a trial of Alphonse’s salad.” + +“Am I to understand that I am being invited to a theological discussion +of a heavenly salad concocted by Father Alphonse?” + +“That is about the specifications.” + +“Then I accept. For a week my conscience has condemned me for excess of +frivolity. You offer me a chance to expiate without discomfort. That is +my idea of heaven. I have always believed it a place where one pastures +in rich meadows of pleasure, with penalties and consciences all +excluded from its domains.” + +“You should start a church,” he laughed. “It would have a great +following—especially if you could operate your heaven this side of the +Styx.” + +She found his restaurant all he had claimed, and more. The little +corner of old Paris set her eyes shining. The fittings were Parisian to +the least detail. Even the waiter spoke no English. + +“But I don’t see how they make it pay. How did he happen to come here? +Are there enough people that appreciate this kind of thing in Mesa to +support it?” + +He smiled at her enthusiasm. “Hardly. The place has a scarce dozen of +regular patrons. Hobart comes here a good deal. So does Eaton. But it +doesn’t pay financially. You see, I know because I happen to own it. I +used to eat at Alphonse’s restaurant in Paris. So I sent for him. It +doesn’t follow that one has to be less a slave to the artificial +comforts of a supercivilized world because one lives at Mesa.” + +“I see it doesn’t. You are certainly a wonderful man.” + +“Name anything you like. I’ll warrant Alphonse can make good if it is +not outside of his national cuisine,” he boasted. + +She did not try his capacity to the limit, but the oysters, the salad, +the chicken soup were delicious, with the ultimate perfection that +comes only out of Gaul. + +They made a delightfully gay and intimate hour of it, and were still +lingering over their demi-tasse when Yesler’s name was mentioned. + +“Isn’t it splendid that he’s doing so well?” cried the girl with +enthusiasm. “The doctor says that if the bullet had gone a fraction of +an inch lower, he would have died. Most men would have died anyhow, +they say. It was his clean outdoor life and magnificent constitution +that saved him.” + +“That’s what pulled him through,” he nodded. “It would have done his +heart good to see how many friends he had. His recovery was a +continuous performance ovation. It would have been a poorer world for a +lot of people if Sam Yesler had crossed the divide.” + +“Yes. It would have been a very much poorer one for several I know.” + +He glanced shrewdly at her. “I’ve learned to look for a particular +application when you wear that particularly sapient air of mystery.” + +Her laugh admitted his hit. “Well, I was thinking of Laska. I begin to +think HER fair prince has come.” + +“Meaning Yesler?” + +“Yes. She hasn’t found it out herself yet. She only knows she is +tremendously interested.” + +“He’s a prince all right, though he isn’t quite a fairy. The woman that +gets him will be lucky. + +“The man that gets Laska will be more than lucky,” she protested +loyally. + +“I dare say,” he agreed carelessly. “But, then, good women are not so +rare as good men. There are still enough of them left to save the +world. But when it comes to men like Sam—well, it would take a Diogenes +to find another.” + +“I don’t see how even Mr. Pelton, angry as he was, dared shoot him.” + +“He had been drinking hard for a week. That will explain anything when +you add it to his temperament. I never liked the fellow.” + +“I suppose that is why you saved his life when the miners took him and +were going to lynch him?” + +“I would not have lifted a hand for him. That’s the bald truth. But I +couldn’t let the boys spoil the moral effect of their victory by so +gross a mistake. It would have been playing right into Harley’s hands.” + +“Can a man get over being drunk in five minutes? I never saw anybody +more sober than Mr. Pelton when the mob were crying for vengeance and +you were fighting them back.” + +“A great shock will sober a man. Pelton is an errant coward, and he had +pretty good reason to think he had come to the end of the passage. The +boys weren’t playing. They meant business.” + +“They would not have listened to another man in the world except you,” +she told him proudly. + +“It was really Sam they listened to—when he sent out the message asking +them to let the law have its way.” + +“No, I think it was the way you handled the message. You’re a wizard at +a speech, you know.” + +“Thanks.” + +He glanced up, for Alphonse was waiting at his elbow. + +“You’re wanted on the telephone, monsieur.” + +“You can’t get away from business even for an hour, can you?” she +rallied. “My heaven wouldn’t suit you at all, unless I smuggled in a +trust for you to fight.” + +“I expect it is Eaton,” he explained. “Steve phoned down to the office +that he isn’t feeling well to-day. I asked him to have me called up +here. If he isn’t better, I’m going to drop round and see him.” + +But when she caught sight of his face as he returned she knew it was +serious. + +“What’s the matter? Is it Mr. Eaton? Is he very ill?” she cried. + +His face was set like broken ice refrozen. “Yes, it’s Eaton. They +say—but it can’t be true!” + +She had never seen him so moved. “What is it, Waring?” + +“The boy has sold me out. He is at the courthouse now, undoing my +work—the Judas!” + +The angry blood swept imperiously into her cheeks. “Don’t waste any +more time with me, Waring. Go—go and save yourself from the traitor. +Perhaps it is not too late yet.” + +He flung her a grateful look. “You’re true blue, Virginia. Come! I’ll +leave you at the store as we pass.” + +The defection of Eaton bit his chief to the quick. The force of the +blow itself was heavy—how heavy he could not tell till he could take +stock of the situation. He could see that he would be thrown out of +court in the matter of the Consolidated Supply Company receivership, +since Eaton’s stock would now be in the hands of the enemy. But what +was of more importance was the fact that Eaton’s interest in the Mesa +Ore-producing Company now belonged to Harley, who could work any amount +of mischief with it as a lever for litigation. + +The effect, too, of the man’s desertion upon the morale of the M. O. P. +forces must be considered and counteracted, if possible. He fancied he +could see his subordinates looking shiftyeyed at each other and +wondering who would slip away next. + +If it had been anybody but Steve! He would as soon have distrusted his +right hand as Steve Eaton. Why, he had made the man, had picked him out +when he was a mere clerk, and tied him to himself by a hundred favors. +Up on the Snake River he had saved Steve’s life once when he was +drowning. The boy had always been as close to him as a brother. That +Steve should turn traitor was not conceivable. He knew all his intimate +plans, stood second to himself in the company. Oh, it was a numbing +blow! Ridgway’s sense of personal loss and outrage almost obliterated +for the moment his appreciation of the business loss. + +The motion to revoke the receivership of the Supply Company was being +argued when Ridgway entered the court-room. Within a few minutes the +news had spread like wild-fire that Eaton was lined up with the +Consolidated, and already the paltry dozen of loafers in the court-room +had swelled into hundreds, all of them eager for any sensation that +might develop. + +Ridgway’s broad shoulders flung aside the crowd and opened a way to the +vacant chair waiting for him. One of his lawyers had the floor and was +flaying Eaton with a vitriolic tongue, the while men craned forward all +over the room to get a glimpse of the traitor’s face. + +Eaton sat beside Mott, dry-lipped and pallid, his set eyes staring +vacantly into space. Once or twice he flung a furtive glance about him. +His stripped and naked soul was enduring a foretaste of the Judgment +Day. The whip of scorn with which the lawyer lashed him cut into his +shrinking sensibilities, and left him a welter of raw and livid wales. +Good God! why had he not known it would be like this? He was paying for +his treachery and usury, and it was being burnt into him that as the +years passed he must continue to pay in self-contempt and the distrust +of his fellows. + +The case had come to a hearing before Judge Hughes, who was not one of +Ridgway’s creatures. That on its merits it would be decided in favor of +the Consolidated was a foregone conclusion. It was after the judge had +rendered the expected decision that the dramatic moment of the day came +to gratify the seasoned court frequenters. + +Eaton, trying to slip as quietly as possible from the room, came face +to face with his former chief. For an interminable instant the man he +had betrayed, blocking the way squarely, held the trembling wretch in +the blaze of his scorn. Ridgway’s contemptuous eyes sifted to the +ingrate’s soul until it shriveled. Then he stood disdainfully to one +side so that the man might not touch him as he passed. + +Some one in the back of the room broke the tense silence and hissed: +“The damned Judas!” Instantly echoes of “Judas! Judas!” filled the +room, and pursued Eaton to his cab. It would be many years before he +could recall without scalding shame that moment when the finger of +public scorn was pointed at him in execration. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. +HARLEY SCORES + + +What Harley had sought in the subornation of Eaton had been as much the +moral effect of his defection as the tangible results themselves. If he +could shake the confidence of the city and State in the freebooter’s +victorious star, he would have done a good day’s work. He wanted the +impression to spread that Ridgway’s success had passed its meridian. + +Nor did he fail of his purpose by more than a hair’s breadth. The talk +of the street saw the beginning of the end. The common voice ran: “It’s +‘God help Ridgway’ now. He’s down and out.” + +But Waring Ridgway was never more dangerous than in apparent defeat. If +he were hit hard by Eaton’s treachery, no sign of it was apparent in +the jaunty insouciance of his manner. Those having business with him +expected to find him depressed and worried, but instead met a man the +embodiment of vigorous and confident activity. If the subject were +broached, he was ready to laugh with them at Eaton’s folly in deserting +at the hour when victory was assured. + +It was fortunate for Ridgway that the county elections came on early in +the spring and gave him a chance to show that his power was still +intact. He arranged to meet at once the political malcontents of the +State who were banded together against the growing influence of the +Consolidated. He had a few days before called together representative +men from all parts of the State to discuss a program of action against +the enemy, and Ridgway gave a dinner for them at the Quartzite, the +evening of Eaton’s defection. + +He was at the critical moment when any obvious irresolution would have +been fatal. His allies were ready to concede his defeat if he would let +them. But he radiated such an assured atmosphere of power, such an +unconquerable current of vigor, that they could not escape his own +conviction of unassailability. He was at his genial, indomitable best, +the magnetic charm of fellowship putting into eclipse the selfishness +of the man. He had been known to boast of his political exploits, of +how he had been the Warwick that had made and unmade governors and +United States senators; but the fraternal “we” to-night replaced his +usual first person singular. + +The business interests of the Consolidated were supreme all over the +State. That corporation owned forests and mills and railroads and +mines. It ran sheep and cattle-ranches as well as stores and +manufactories. Most of the newspapers in the State were dominated by +it. Of a population of two hundred and fifty thousand, it controlled +more than half directly by the simple means of filling dinner-pails. +That so powerful a corporation, greedy for power and wealth, should +create a strong but scattered hostility in the course of its growth, +became inevitable. This enmity Ridgway proposed to consolidate into a +political organization, with opposition to the trust as its cohesive +principle, that should hold the balance of power in the State. + +When he rose to explain his object in calling them together, Ridgway’s +clear, strong presentment of the situation, backed by his splendid bulk +and powerful personality, always bold and dramatic, shocked dormant +antagonisms to activity as a live current does sluggish inertia. For he +had eminently the gift of moving speech. The issue was a simple one, he +pointed out. Reduced to ultimates, the question was whether the State +should control the Consolidated or the Consolidated the State. With +simple, telling force he faced the insidious growth of the big copper +company, showing how every independent in the State was fighting for +his business life against its encroachments, and was bound to lose +unless the opposition was a united one. Let the independents obtain and +keep control of the State politically and the trust might be curbed; +not otherwise. In eternal vigilance and in union lay safety. + +He sat down in silence more impressive than any applause. But after the +silence came a deluge of cheers, the thunder of them sweeping up and +down the long table like a summer storm across a lake. + +Presently the flood-gates of talk were unloosed, and the conservatives +began to be heard. Opposition was futile because it was too late, they +claimed. A young Irishman, primed for the occasion, jumped to his feet +with an impassioned harangue that pedestaled Ridgway as the Washington +of the West. He showed how one man, in coalition with the labor-unions, +had succeeded in carrying the State against the big copper company; how +he had elected senators and governors, and legislators and judges. If +one man could so cripple the octopus, what could the best blood of the +State, standing together, not accomplish? He flung Patrick Henry and +Robert Emmet and Daniel Webster at their devoted heads, demanding +liberty or death with the bridled eloquence of his race. + +But Ridgway was not such a tyro at the game of politics as to depend +upon speeches for results. His fine hand had been working quietly for +months to bring the malcontents into one camp, shaping every passion to +which men are heir to serve his purpose. As he looked down the table he +could read in the faces before him hatred, revenge, envy, fear, hope, +avarice, recklessness, and even love, as the motives which he must fuse +to one common end. His vanity stood on tiptoe at his superb skill in +playing on men’s wills. He knew he could mold these men to work his +desire, and the sequel showed he was right. + +When the votes were counted at the end of the bitter campaign that +followed, Simon Harley’s candidates went down to disastrous defeat all +over the State, though he had spent money with a lavish hand. In Mesa +County, Ridgway had elected every one of his judges and retired to +private life those he could not influence. + +Harley’s grim lips tightened when the news reached him. “Very well,” he +said to Mott “We’ll see if these patriots can’t be reached through +their stomachs better than their brains. Order every mill and mine and +smelter of the Consolidated closed to-night. Our employees have voted +for this man Ridgway. Let him feed them or let them starve.” + +“But the cost to you—won’t it be enormous?” asked Mott, startled at his +chief’s drastic decision. + +Harley bared his fangs with a wolfish smile. “We’ll make the public +pay. Our store-houses are full of copper. Prices will jump when the +supply is reduced fifty per cent. We’ll sell at an advance, and clean +up a few millions out of the shut-down. Meanwhile we’ll starve this +patriotic State into submission.” + +It came to pass even as Harley had predicted. With the Consolidated +mines closed, copper, jumped up—up—up. The trust could sit still and +coin money without turning a hand, while its employees suffered in the +long, bitter Northern winter. All the troubles usually pursuant on a +long strike began to fall upon the families of the miners. + +When a delegation from the miners’ union came to discuss the situation +with Harley he met them blandly, with many platitudes of sympathy. He +regretted—he regretted exceedingly—the necessity that had been forced +upon him of closing the mines. He had delayed doing so in the hope that +the situation might be relieved. But it had grown worse, until he had +been forced to close. No, he was afraid he could not promise to reopen +this winter, unless something were done to ameliorate conditions in the +court. Work would begin at once, however, if the legislators would pass +a bill making it optional with any party to a suit to have the case +transferred to another judge in case he believed the bias of the +presiding judge would be prejudicial to an impartial hearing. + +Ridgway was flung at once upon the defensive. His allies, the working +men, demanded of him that his legislature pass the bill wanted by +Harley, in order that work might recommence. He evaded their demands by +proposing to arbitrate his difficulties with the Consolidated, by +offering to pay into the union treasury hall a million dollars to help +carry its members through the winter. He argued to the committee that +Harley was bluffing, that within a few weeks the mines and smelters +would again be running at their full capacity; but when the pressure on +the legislators he had elected became so great that he feared they +would be swept from their allegiance to him, he was forced to yield to +the clamor. + +It was a great victory for Harley. Nobody recognized how great a one +more accurately than Waring Ridgway. The leader of the octopus had +dogged him over the shoulders of the people, had destroyed at a single +blow one of his two principal sources of power. He could no longer rely +on the courts to support him, regardless of justice. + +Very well. If he could not play with cogged dice, he was gambler enough +to take the honest chances of the game without flinching. No despair +rang in his voice. The look in his eye was still warm and confident. +Mesa questioned him with glimpses friendly but critical. They found no +fear in his bearing, no hint of doubt in his indomitable assurance. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. +“NOT GUILTY”—“GUILTY” + + +Ridgway’s answer to the latest move of Simon Harley was to put him on +trial for his life to answer the charge of having plotted and +instigated the death of Vance Edwards. Not without reason, the defense +had asked for a change of venue, alleging the impossibility of securing +a fair trial at Mesa. The courts had granted the request and removed +the case to Avalanche. + +On the second day of the trial Aline sat beside her husband, a dainty +little figure of fear, shrinking from the observation focused upon her +from all sides. The sight of her forlorn sensitiveness so touched +Ridgway’s heart that he telegraphed Virginia Balfour to come and help +support her through the ordeal. + +Virginia came, and henceforth two women, both of them young and +unusually attractive, gave countenance to the man being tried for his +life. Not that he needed their support for himself, but for the effect +they might have on the jury. Harley had shrewdly guessed that the +white-faced child he had married, whose pathetic beauty was of so +haunting a type, and whose big eyes were so quick to reflect emotions, +would be a valuable asset to set against the black-clad widow of Vance +Edwards. + +For its effect upon himself, so far as the trial was concerned, Simon +Harley cared not a whit. He needed no bolstering. The old wrecker +carried an iron face to the ordeal. His leathern heart was as foreign +to fear as to pity. The trial was an unpleasant bore to him, but +nothing worse. He had, of course, cast an anchor of caution to windward +by taking care to have the jury fixed. For even though his array of +lawyers was a formidably famous one, he was no such child as to trust +his case to a Western jury on its merits while the undercurrent of +popular opinion was setting so strongly against him. Nor had he +neglected to see that the court-room was packed with detectives to +safeguard him in the event that the sympathy of the attending miners +should at any time become demonstrative against him. + +The most irritating feature of the trial to the defendant was the +presence of the little woman in black, whose burning eyes never left +for long his face. He feigned to be unconscious of her regard, but +nobody in the court-room was more sure of that look of enduring, +passionate hatred than its victim. He had made her a widow, and her +heart cried for revenge. That was the story the eyes told dumbly. + +From first to last the case was bitterly contested, and always with the +realization among those present—except for that somber figure in black, +whose beady eyes gimleted the defendant—that it was another move in the +fight between the rival copper kings. The district attorney had worked +up his case very carefully, not with much hope of securing a +conviction, but to mass a total of evidence that would condemn the +Consolidated leader-before the world. + +To this end, the foreman, Donleavy, had been driven by a process of +sweating to turn State’s evidence against his master. His testimony +made things look black for Harley, but when Hobart took the stand, a +palpably unwilling witness, and supported his evidence, the Ridgway +adherents were openly jubilant. The lawyers for the defense made much +of the fact that Hobart had just left the Consolidated service after a +disagreement with the defendant and had been elected to the senate by +his enemies, but the impression made by his moderation and the fine +restraint of his manner, combined with his reputation for scrupulous +honesty, was not to be shaken by the subtle innuendos and blunt +aspersions of the legal array he faced. + +Nor did the young district attorney content himself with Hobart’s +testimony. He put his successor, Mott, on the stand, and gave him a bad +hour while he tried to wring the admission out of him that Harley had +personally ordered the attack on the miners of the Taurus. But for the +almost constant objections of the opposing counsel, which gave him time +to recover himself, the prosecuting attorney would have succeeded. + +Ridgway, meeting him by chance after luncheon at the foot of the hotel +elevator—for in a town the size of Avalanche, Waring had found it +necessary to put up at the same hotel as the enemy or take second best, +an alternative not to his fastidious taste—rallied him upon the +predicament in which he had found himself. + +“It’s pretty hard to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but +the truth, without making indiscreet admissions about one’s friends, +isn’t it?” he asked, with his genial smile. + +“Did I make any indiscreet admissions?” + +“I don’t say you did, though you didn’t look as if you were enjoying +yourself. I picked up an impression that you had your back to the wall; +seemed to me the jury rather sized it up that way, Mott.” + +“We’ll know what the jury thinks in a few days.” + +“Shall we?” the other laughed aloud. “Now, I’m wondering whether we +shall know what they really think.” + +“If you mean that the jury has been tampered with it is your duty to +place your evidence before the court, Mr. Ridgway.” + +“When I hear the verdict I’ll tell you what I think about the jury,” +returned the president of the Ore-producing Company, with easy +impudence as he passed into the elevator. + +At the second floor Waring left it and turned toward the ladies’ +parlor. It had seemed to him that Aline had looked very tired and frail +at the morning session, and he wanted to see Virginia about arranging +to have them take a long drive into the country that afternoon. He had +sent his card up with a penciled note to the effect that he would wait +for her in the parlor. + +But when he stepped through the double doorway of the ornate room it +was to become aware of a prior occupant. She was reclining on a divan +at the end of the large public room. Neither lying nor sitting, but +propped up among a dozen pillows with head and limbs inert and the long +lashes drooped on the white cheeks, Aline looked the pathetic figure of +a child fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion after a long strain. + +Since he was the man he was, unhampered by any too fine sense of what +was fitting, he could no more help approaching than he could help the +passionate pulse of pity that stirred in his heart at sight of her +forlorn weariness. + +Her eyes opened to find his grave compassion looking down at her. She +showed no surprise at his presence, though she had not previously known +of it. Nor did she move by even so much as the stir of a limb. + +“This is wearing you out,” he said, after the long silence in which her +gaze was lost helplessly in his. “You must go home—away from it all. +You must forget it, and if it ever crosses your mind think of it as +something with which you have no concern.” + +“How can I do that—now.” + +The last word slipped out not of her will, but from an undisciplined +heart. It stood for the whole tangled story of her troubles: the +unloved marriage which had bereft her of her heritage of youth and joy, +the love that had found her too late and was so poignant a fount of +distress to her, the web of untoward circumstance in which she was so +inextricably entangled. + +“How did you ever come to do it?” he asked roughly, out of the bitter +impulse of his heart. + +She knew that the harshness was not for her, as surely as she knew what +he meant by his words. + +“I did wrong. I know that now, but I didn’t know it then. Though even +then I felt troubled about it. But my guardian said it was best, and I +knew so little. Oh, so very, very little. Why was I not taught things, +what every girl has a right to know—until life teaches me—too late?” + +Nothing he could say would comfort her. For the inexorable facts +forbade consolation. She had made shipwreck of her life before the +frail raft of her destiny had well pushed forth from harbor. He would +have given much to have been able to take the sadness out of her great +childeyes, but he knew that not even by the greatness of his desire +could he take up her burden. She must carry it alone or sink under it. + +“You must go away from here back to your people. If not now, then as +soon as the trial is over. Make him take you to your friends for a +time.” + +“I have no friends that can help me.” She said it in an even little +voice of despair. + +“You have many friends. You have made some here. Virginia is one.” He +would not name himself as only a friend, though he had set his iron +will to claim no more. + +“Yes, Virginia is my friend. She is good to me. But she is going to +marry you, and then you will both forget me.” + +“I shall never forget you.” He cried it in a low, tense voice, his +clenched hands thrust into the pockets of his sack coat. + +Her wan smile thanked him. It was the most he would let himself say. +Though her heart craved more, she knew she must make the most of this. + +“I came up to see Virginia,” he went on, with a change of manner. “I +want her to take you driving this afternoon. Forget about that wretched +trial if you can. Nothing of importance will take place to-day.” + +He turned at the sound of footsteps, and saw that Miss Balfour had come +into the room. + +“I want you to take Mrs. Harley into the fresh sunshine and clear air +this afternoon. I have been telling her to forget this trial. It’s a +farce, anyhow. Nothing will come of it. Take her out to the Homes—take +and cheer her up.” + +“Yes, my lord.” Virginia curtseyed obediently. + +“It will do you good, too.” + +She shot a mocking little smile at him. “It’s very good of you to think +of me.” + +“Still, I do sometimes.” + +“Whenever it is convenient,” she added. + +But with Aline watching them the spirit of badinage in him was +overmatched. He gave it up and asked what kind of a rig he should send +round. Virginia furnished him the necessary specifications, and he +turned to go. + +As he left the room Simon Harley entered. They met face to face, and +after an instant’s pause each drew aside to allow the other to pass. +The New Yorker inclined his head silently and moved forward toward his +wife. Ridgway passed down the corridor and into the elevator. + +As the days of the trial passed excitement grew more tense. The lawyers +for the prosecution and the defense made their speeches to a crowded +and enthralled court-room. There was a feverish uncertainty in the air. +It reached a climax when the jury stayed out for eleven hours before +coming to a verdict. From the moment it filed back into the court-room +with solemn faces the dramatic tensity began to foreshadow the tragedy +about to be enacted. The woman Harley had made a widow sat erect and +rigid in the seat where she had been throughout the trial. Her eyes +blazed with a hatred that bordered madness. Ridgway had observed that +neither Aline Harley nor Virginia was present, and a note from the +latter had just reached him to the effect that Aline was ill with the +strain of the long trial. Afterward Ridgway could never thank his pagan +gods enough that she was absent. + +There was a moment of tense waiting before the judge asked: + +“Gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict?” + +The foreman rose. “We have, your honor.” + +A folded note was handed to the judge. He read it slowly, with an +inscrutable face. + +“Is this your verdict, gentlemen of the jury?” + +“It is, your honor.” + +Silence, full and rigid, held the room after the words “Not guilty” had +fallen from the lips of the judge. The stillness was broken by a shock +as of an electric bolt from heaven. + +The exploding echoes of a pistol-shot reverberated. Men sprang wildly +to their feet, gazing at each other in the distrust that fear +generates. But one man was beyond being startled by any more earthly +sounds. His head fell forward on the table in front of him, and a thin +stream of blood flowed from his lips. It was Simon Harley, found +guilty, sentenced, and executed by the judge and jury sitting in the +outraged, insane heart of the woman he had made a widow. + +Mrs. Edwards had shot him through the head with a revolver she had +carried in her shoppingbag to exact vengeance in the event of a +miscarriage of justice. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. +ALINE TURNS A CORNER + + +Aline might have been completely prostrated by the news of her +husband’s sudden end, coming as it did as the culmination of a week of +strain and horror. That she did not succumb was due, perhaps, to +Ridgway’s care for her. When Harley’s massive gray head had dropped +forward to the table, his enemy’s first thought had been of her. As +soon as he knew that death was sure, he hurried to the hotel. + +He sent his card up, and followed it so immediately that he found her +scarcely risen from the divan on which she had been lying in the +receiving-room of her apartments. The sleep was not yet shaken from her +lids, nor was the wrinkled flush smoothed from the soft cheek that had +been next the cushion. Even in his trouble for her he found time to be +glad that Virginia was not at the moment with her. It gave him the +sense of another bond between them that this tragic hour should belong +to him and her alone—this hour of destiny when their lives swung round +a corner beyond which lay wonderful vistas of kindly sunbeat and dewy +starlight stretching to the horizon’s edge of the long adventure. + +She checked the rush of glad joy in her heart the sight of him always +brought, and came forward slowly. One glance at his face showed that he +had brought grave news. + +“What is it? Why are you here?” she cried tensely. + +“To bring you trouble, Aline.” + +“Trouble!” Her hand went to her heart quickly. + +“It is about—Mr. Harley.” + +She questioned him with wide, startled eyes, words hesitating on her +trembling lips and flying unvoiced. + +“Child—little partner—the orders are to be brave.” He came forward and +took her hands in his, looking down at her with eyes she thought full +of infinitely kind pity. + +“Is it—have they—do you mean the verdict?” + +“Yes, the verdict; but not the verdict of which you are thinking.” + +She turned a quivering face to his. “Tell me. I shall be brave.” + +He told her the brutal fact as gently as he could, while he watched the +blood ebb from her face. As she swayed he caught her in his arms and +carried her to the divan. When, presently, her eyes fluttered open, it +was to look into his pitiful ones. He was kneeling beside her, and her +head was pillowed on his arm. + +“Say it isn’t true,” she murmured. + +“It is true, dear.” + +She moved her head restlessly, and he took away his arm, rising to draw +a chair close to the lounge. She slipped her two hands under her head, +letting them lie palm to palm on the sofapillow. The violet eyes looked +past him into space. Her tangled thoughts were in a chaos of disorder. +Even though she had known but a few months and loved not at all the +grim, gray-haired man she had called husband, the sense of wretched +bereavement, the nearness of death, was strong on her. He had been kind +to her in his way, and the inevitable closeness of their relationship, +repugnant as it had been to her, made its claims felt. An hour ago he +had been standing here, the strong and virile ruler over thousands. Now +he lay stiff and cold, all his power shorn from him without a second’s +warning. He had kissed her good-by, solicitous for her welfare, and it +had been he that had been in need of care rather than she. Two big +tears hung on her lids and splashed to her cheeks. She began to sob, +and half-turned on the divan, burying her face in her hands. + +Ridgway let her weep without interruption for a time, knowing that it +would be a relief to her surcharged heart and overwrought nerves. But +when her sobs began to abate she became aware of his hand resting on +her shoulder. She sat up, wiping her eyes, and turned to him a face +sodden with grief. + +“You are good to me,” she said simply. + +“If my goodness were only less futile! Heaven knows what I would give +to ward off trouble from you. But I can’t, nor can I bear it for you.” + +“But it is a help to know you would if you could. He—I think he wanted +to ward off grief from me, but he could not, either. I was often lonely +and sad, even though he was kind to me. And now he has gone. I wish I +had told him how much I appreciated his goodness to me.” + +“Yes, we all feel that when we have lost some one we love. It is +natural to wish we had been better to them and showed them how much we +cared. Let me tell you about my mother. I was thirteen when she died. +It was in summer. She had not been well for a long time. The boys were +going fishing that day and she asked me to stay at home. I had set my +heart on going, and I thought it was only a fancy of hers. She did not +insist on my staying, so I went, but felt uncomfortable all day. When I +came back in the evening they told me she was dead. I felt as if some +great icy hand were tightening, on my heart. Somehow I couldn’t break +down and cry it out. I went around with a white, set face and gave no +sign. Even at the funeral it was the same. The neighbors called me +hard-hearted and pointed me out to their sons as a terrible warning. +And all the time I was torn with agony.” + +“You poor boy.” + +“And one night she came to me in a dream. She did not look as she had +just before she died, but strong and beautiful, with the color in her +face she used to have. She smiled at me and kissed me and rumpled my +hair as she used to do. I knew, then, it was all right. She understood, +and I didn’t care whether others did or not. I woke up crying, and +after I had had my grief out I was myself again.” + +“It was so sweet of her to think to come to you. She must have been +loving you up in heaven and saw you were troubled, and came down just +to comfort you and tell you it was all right,” the girl cried with soft +sympathy. + +“That’s how I understood it. Of course, I was only a boy, but somehow I +knew it was more than a dream. I’m not a spiritualist. I don’t believe +such things happen, but I know it happened to me,” he finished +illogically, with a smile. + +She sighed. “He was always so thoughtful of me, too. I do wish I +had—could have been—more—” + +She broke off without finishing, but he understood. + +“You must not blame yourself for that. He would be the first to tell +you so. He took you for what you could give him, and these last days +were the best he had known for many years.” + +“He was so good to me. Oh, you don’t know how good.” + +“It was a great pleasure to him to be good to you, the greatest +pleasure he knew.” + +She looked up as he spoke, and saw shining deep in his eyes the spirit +that had taught him to read so well the impulse of another lover, and, +seeing it, she dropped her eyes quickly in order not to see what was +there. With him it had been only an instant’s uncontrollable surge of +ecstasy. He meant to wait. Every instinct of the decent thing told him +not to take advantage of her weakness, her need of love to rest upon in +her trouble, her transparent care for him and confidence in him so +childlike in its entirety. For convention he did not care a turn of his +hand, but he would do nothing that might shock her self-respect when +she came to think of it later. Sternly he brought himself back to +realities. + +“Shall I see Mr. Mott for you and send him here? It would be better +that he should make the arrangements than I.” + +“If you please. I shall not see you again before I go, then?” Her lips +trembled as she asked the question. + +“I shall come down to the hotel again and see you before you go. And +now good-by. Be brave, and don’t reproach yourself. Remember that he +would not wish it.” + +The door opened, and Virginia came in, flushed with rapid walking. She +had heard the news on the street and had hurried back to the hotel. + +Her eyes asked of Ridgway: “Does she know?” and he answered in the +affirmative. Straight to Aline she went and wrapped her in her arms, +the latent mothering instinct that is in every woman aroused and +dormant. + +“Oh, my dear, my dear,” she cried softly. + +Ridgway slipped quietly from the room and left them together. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. +A GOOD SAMARITAN + + +Yesler, still moving slowly with a walking stick by reason of his green +wound, left the street-car and made his way up Forest Road to the house +which bore the number 792. In the remote past there had been some +spasmodic attempt to cultivate grass and raise some shade-trees along +the sidewalks, but this had long since been given up as abortive. An +air of decay hung over the street, the unmistakable suggestion of +better days. This was writ large over the house in front of which +Yesler stopped. The gate hung on one hinge, boards were missing from +the walk, and a dilapidated shutter, which had once been green, swayed +in the breeze. + +A woman of about thirty, dark and pretty but poorly dressed, came to +the door in answer to his ring. Two little children, a boy and a girl, +with their mother’s shy long-lashed Southern eyes of brown, clung to +her skirts and gazed at the stranger. + +“This is where Mr. Pelton lives, is it not?” he asked. + +“Yes, sir.” + +“Is he at home?” + +“Yes, sir.” + +“May I see him?” + +“He’s sick.” + +“I’m sorry to hear it. Too sick to be seen? If not, I should like very +much to see him. I have business with him.” + +The young woman looked at him a little defiantly and a little +suspiciously. “Are you a reporter?” + +Sam smiled. “No, ma’am.” + +“Does he owe you money?” He could see the underlying blood dye her +dusky cheeks when she asked the question desperately, as it seemed to +him with a kind of brazen shame to which custom had inured her. She had +somehow the air of some gentle little creature of the forests defending +her young. + +“Not a cent, ma’am. I don’t want to do him any harm.” + +“I didn’t hear your name.” + +“I haven’t mentioned it,” he admitted, with the sunny smile that was a +letter of recommendation in itself. “Fact is I’d rather not tell it +till he sees me.” + +From an adjoining room a querulous voice broke into their conversation. +“Who is it, Norma?” + +“A gentleman to see you, Tom.” + +“Who is it?” more sharply. + +“It is I, Mr. Pelton. I came to have a talk with you.” Yesler pushed +forward into the dingy sitting-room with the pertinacity of a +bookagent. “I heard you were not well, and I came to find out if I can +do anything for you.” + +The stout man lying on the lounge grew pale before the blood reacted in +a purple flush. His very bulk emphasized the shabbiness of the stained +and almost buttonless Prince Albert coat he wore, the dinginess of the +little room he seemed to dwarf. + +“Leave my house, seh. You have ruined this family, and you come to +gloat on your handiwork. Take a good look, and then go, Mr. Yesler. You +see my wife in cotton rags doing her own work. Is it enough, seh?” + +The slim little woman stepped across the room and took her place beside +her husband. Her eyes flashed fire at the man she held responsible for +the fall of her husband. Yesler’s generous heart applauded the loyalty +which was proof against both disgrace and poverty. For in the past +month both of these had fallen heavily upon her. Tom Pelton had always +lived well, and during the past few years he had speculated in ventures +far beyond his means. Losses had pursued him, and he had looked to the +senatorship to recoup himself and to stand off the creditors pressing +hard for payment. Instead he had been exposed, disgraced, and finally +disbarred for attempted bribery. Like a horde of hungry rats his +creditors had pounced upon the discredited man and wrested from him the +remnants of his mortgaged property. He had been forced to move into a +mere cottage and was a man without a future. For the only profession at +which he had skill enough to make a living was the one from which he +had been cast as unfit to practise it. The ready sympathy of the +cattleman had gone out to the politician who was down and out. He had +heard the situation discussed enough to guess pretty close to the +facts, and he could not let himself rest until he had made some effort +to help the man whom his exposure had ruined, or, rather, had hastened +to ruin, for that result had been for years approaching. + +“I’m sorry, Mr. Pelton. If I’ve injured you I want to make it right.” + +“Make it right!” The former congressman got up with an oath. “Make it +right! Can you give me back my reputation, my future? Can you take away +the shame that has come upon my wife, and that my children will have to +bear in the years to come? Can you give us back our home, our comfort, +our peace of mind?” + +“No, I can’t do this, but I can help you to do it all,” the cattleman +made answer quietly. + +He offered no defense, though he knew perfectly well none was needed. +He had no responsibility in the calamity that had befallen this family. +Pelton’s wrong-doing had come home to those he loved, and he could +rightly blame nobody but himself. However much he might arraign those +who had been the agents of his fall, he knew in his heart that the +fault had been his own. + +Norma Pelton, tensely self-repressed, spoke now. “How can you do this, +sir?” + +“I can’t do it so long as you hold me for an enemy, ma’am. I’m ready to +cry quits with your husband and try a new deal. If I injured him he +tried to even things up. Well, let’s say things are squared and start +fresh. I’ve got a business proposition to make if you’re willing to +listen to it.” + +“What sort of a proposition?” + +“I’m running about twenty-five thousand sheep up in the hills. I’ve +just bought a ranch with a comfortable ranch-house on it for a kind of +central point. My winter feeding will all be done from it as a chief +place of distribution. Same with the shearing and shipping. I want a +good man to put in charge of my sheep as head manager, and I would be +willing to pay a proper salary. There ain’t any reason why this +shouldn’t work into a partnership if he makes good. With wool jumping, +as it’s going to do in the next four years, the right kind of man can +make himself independent for life. My idea is to increase my holdings +right along, and let my manager in as a partner as soon as he shows he +is worth it. Now that ranch-house is a decent place. There’s a pretty +good school, ma’am, for the children. The folks round that neighborhood +may not have any frills, but—” + +“Are you offering Tom the place as manager?” she demanded, in +amazement. + +“That was my idea, ma’am. It’s not what you been used to, o’ course, +but if you’re looking for a change I thought I’d speak of it,” he said +diffidently. + +She looked at him in a dumb surprise. She, too, in her heart knew that +this man was blameless. He had done his duty, and had nearly lost his +life for it at the hands of her husband. Now, he had come to lift them +out of the hideous nightmare into which they had fallen. He had come to +offer them peace and quiet and plenty in exchange for the future of +poverty and shame and despair which menaced them. They were to escape +into God’s great hills, away from the averted looks and whispering +tongues and the temptations to drown his trouble that so constantly +beset the father of her children. Despite his faults she still loved +Tom Pelton; he was a kind and loving husband and father. Out on the +range there still waited a future for him. When she thought of it a +lump rose in her throat for very happiness. She, who had been like a +rock beside him in his trouble, broke down now and buried her head in +her husband’s coat. + +“Don’t you, honey—now, don’t you cry.” The big man had lost all his +pomposity, and was comforting his sweetheart as simply as a boy. “It’s +all been my fault. I’ve been doing wrong for years—trying to pull +myself out of the mire by my bootstraps. By Gad, you’re a man, Sam +Yesler, that’s what you are. If I don’t turn ovah a new leaf I’d ought +to be shot. We’ll make a fresh start, sweetheart. Dash me, I’m nothing +but a dashed baby.” And with that the overwrought man broke down, too. + +Yesler, moved a good deal himself, maintained the burden of the +conversation cheerfully. + +“That’s all settled, then. Tell you I’m right glad to get a competent +man to put in charge. Things have been running at loose ends, because I +haven’t the time to look after them. This takes a big load off my mind. +You better arrange to go up there with me as soon as you have time, +Pelton, and look the ground over. You’ll want to make some changes if +you mean to take your family up there. Better to spend a few hundreds +and have things the way you want them for Mrs. Pelton than to move in +with things not up to the mark. Of course, I’ll put the house in the +shape you want it. But we can talk of that after we look it over.” + +In his embarrassment he looked so much the boy, so much the culprit +caught stealing apples and up for sentence, that Norma Pelton’s +gratitude took courage. She came across to him and held out both hands, +the shimmer of tears still in the soft brown eyes. + +“You’ve given us more than life, Mr. Yesler. You can’t ever know what +you have done for us. Some things are worse than death to some people. +I don’t mean poverty, but—other things. We can begin again far away +from this tainted air that has poisoned us. I know it isn’t good form +to be saying this. One shouldn’t have feelings in public. But I don’t +care. I think of the children—and Tom. I didn’t expect ever to be happy +again, but we shall. I feel it.” + +She broke down again and dabbed at her eyes with her kerchief. Sam, +very much embarrassed but not at all displeased at this display of +feeling, patted her dark hair and encouraged her to composure. + +“There. It’s all right, now, ma’am. Sure you’ll be happy. Any mother +that’s got kids like these—” + +He caught up the little girl in his arms by way of diverting attention +from himself. + +This gave a new notion to the impulsive little woman. + +“I want you to kiss them both. Come here, Kennie. This is Mr. Yesler, +and he is the best man you’ve ever seen. I want you to remember that he +has been our best friend.” + +“Yes, mama.” + +“Oh, sho, ma’am!” protested the overwhelmed cattleman, kissing both the +children, nevertheless. + +Pelton laughed. He felt a trifle hysterical himself. “If she thinks it +she’ll say it when she feels that way. I’m right surprised she don’t +kiss you, too.” + +“I will,” announced Norma promptly, with a pretty little tide of color. + +She turned toward him, and Yesler, laughing, met the red lips of the +new friend he had made. + +“Now, you’ve got just grounds for shooting me,” he said gaily, and +instantly regretted his infelicitous remark. + +For both husband and wife fell grave at his words. It was Pelton that +answered them. + +“I’ve been taught a lesson, Mr. Yesler. I’m never going to pack a gun +again as long as I live, unless I’m hunting or something of that sort, +and I’m never going to drink another drop of liquor. It’s all right for +some men, but it isn’t right for me.” + +“Glad to hear it. I never did believe in the hip-pocket habit. I’ve +lived here twenty years, and I never found it necessary except on +special occasions. When it comes to whisky, I reckon we’d all be better +without it.” + +Yesler made his escape at the earliest opportunity and left them alone +together. He lunched at the club, attended to some correspondence he +had, and about 3:30 drifted down the street toward the post-office. He +had expectations of meeting a young woman who often passed about that +time on her way home from school duties. + +It was, however, another young woman whose bow he met in front of +Mesa’s largest department store. + +“Good afternoon, Miss Balfour.” + +She nodded greeting and cast eyes of derision on him. + +“I’ve been hearing about you. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?” + +“Yes, ma’am. What for in particular? There are so many things.” + +“You’re a fine Christian, aren’t you?” she scoffed. + +“I ain’t much of a one. That’s a fact,” he admitted. “What is it this +time—poker?” + +“No, it isn’t poker. Worse than that. You’ve been setting a deplorable +example to the young.” + +“To young ladies—like Miss Virginia?” he wanted to know. + +“No, to young Christians. I don’t know what our good deacons will say +about it.” She illuminated her severity with a flashing smile. “Don’t +you know that the sins of the fathers are to descend upon their +children even to the third and fourth generation? Don’t you know that +when a man does wrong he must die punished, and his children and his +wife, of course, and that the proper thing to do is to stand back and +thank Heaven we haven’t been vile sinners?” + +“Now, don’t you begin on that, Miss Virginia,” he warned. + +“And after the man had disgraced himself and shot you, after all +respectable people had given him an extra kick to let him know he must +stay down and had then turned their backs upon him. I’m not surprised +that you’re ashamed.” + +“Where did you get hold of this fairy-tale?” he plucked up courage to +demand. + +“From Norma Pelton. She told me everything, the whole story from +beginning to end.” + +“It’s right funny you should be calling on her, and you a respectable +young lady—unless you went to deliver that extra kick you was +mentioning,” he grinned. + +She dropped her raillery. “It was splendid. I meant to ask Mr. Ridgway +to do something for them, but this is so much better. It takes them +away from the place of his disgrace and away from temptation. Oh, I +don’t wonder Norma kissed you.” + +“She told you that, too, did she?” + +“Yes. I should have done it, too, in her place.” + +He glanced round placidly. “It’s a right public place here, but—” + +“Don’t be afraid. I’m not going to.” And before she disappeared within +the portals of the department store she gave him one last thrust. “It’s +not so public up in the library. Perhaps if you happen to be going that +way?” + +She left her communication a fragment, but he thought it worth acting +upon. Among the library shelves he found Laska deep in a new volume on +domestic science. + +“This ain’t any kind of day to be fooling away your time on cook-books. +Come out into the sun and live,” he invited. + +They walked past the gallows-frames and the slag-dumps and the +shaft-houses into the brown hills beyond the point where green copper +streaks showed and spurred the greed of man. It was a day of spring +sunshine, the good old earth astir with her annual recreation. The +roadside was busy with this serious affair of living. Ants and crawling +things moved to and fro about their business. Squirrels raced across +the road and stood up at a safe distance to gaze at these intruders. +Birds flashed back and forth, hurried little carpenters busy with the +specifications for their new nests. Eager palpitating life was the +key-note of the universe. + +“Virginia told me about the Peltons,” Laska said, after a pause. + +“It’s spreading almost as fast as if it were a secret,” he smiled. “I’m +expecting to find it in the paper when we get back.” + +“I’m so glad you did it.” + +“Well, you’re to blame.” + +“I!” She looked at him in surprise. + +“Partly. You told me how things were going with them. That seemed to +put it up to me to give Pelton a chance.” + +“I certainly didn’t mean it that way. I had no right to ask you to do +anything about it.” + +“Mebbe it was the facts put it up to me. Anyhow, I felt responsible.” + +“Mr. Roper once told me that you always feel responsible when you hear +anybody is in trouble,” the young woman answered. + +“Roper’s a goat. Nobody ever pays any attention to him.” + +Presently they diverged from the road and sat down on a great flat rock +which dropped out from the hillside like a park seat. For he was still +far from strong and needed frequent rests. Their talk was desultory, +for they had reached that stage of friendship at which it is not +necessary to bridge silence with idle small talk. Here, by some whim of +fate, the word was spoken. He knew he loved her, but he had not meant +to say it yet. + +But when her steady gray eyes came back to his after a long stillness, +the meeting brought him a strange feeling that forced his hand. + +“I love you, Laska. Will you be my wife?” he asked quietly. + +“Yes, Sam,” she answered directly. That was all. It was settled with a +word. There in the sunshine he kissed her and sealed the compact, and +afterward, when the sun was low among the hill spurs, they went back +happily to take up again the work that awaited them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. +FRIENDLY ENEMIES + + +Ridgway had promised Aline that he would see her soon, and when he +found himself in New York he called at the big house on Fifth Avenue, +which had for so long been identified as the home of Simon Harley. It +bore his impress stamped on it. Its austerity suggested the Puritan +rather than the classic conception of simplicity. The immense rooms +were as chill as dungeons, and the forlorn little figure in black, lost +in the loneliness of their bleakness, wandered to and fro among her +retinue of servants like a butterfly beating its wings against a pane +of glass. + +With both hands extended she ran forward to meet her guest. + +“I’m so glad, so glad, so glad to see you.” + +The joy-note in her voice was irrepressible. She had been alone for +weeks with the conventional gloom that made an obsession of the shadow +of death which enveloped the house. All voices and footsteps had been +subdued to harmonize with the grief of the mistress of this mausoleum. +Now she heard the sharp tread of this man unafraid, and saw the alert +vitality of his confident bearing. It was like a breath of the hills to +a parched traveler. + +“I told you I would come.” + +“Yes. I’ve been looking for you every day. I’ve checked each one off on +my calendar. It’s been three weeks and five days since I saw you.” + +“I thought it was a year,” he laughed, and the sound of his uncurbed +voice rang strangely in this room given to murmurs. + +“Tell me about everything. How is Virginia, and Mrs. Mott, and Mr. +Yesler? And is he really engaged to that sweet little school-teacher? +And how does Mr. Hobart like being senator?” + +“Not more than a dozen questions permitted at a time. Begin again, +please.” + +“First, then, when did you reach the city?” + +He consulted his watch. “Just two hours and twenty-seven minutes ago.” + +“And how long are you going to stay?” + +“That depends.” + +“On what?” + +“For one thing, on whether you treat me well,” he smiled. + +“Oh, I’ll treat you well. I never was so glad to see a real live +somebody in my life. It’s been pretty bad here.” She gave a dreary +little smile as she glanced around at the funereal air of the place. +“Do you know, I don’t think we think of death in the right way? Or, +maybe, I’m a heathen and haven’t the proper feelings.” + +She had sat down on one of the stiff divans, and Ridgway found a place +beside her. + +“Suppose you tell me about it,” he suggested. + +“I know I must be wrong, and you’ll be shocked when you hear.” + +“Very likely.” + +“I can’t help feeling that the living have rights, too,” she began +dubiously. “If they would let me alone I could be sorry in my own way, +but I don’t see why I have to make a parade of grief. It seems to—to +cheapen one’s feelings, you know.” + +He nodded. “Just as if you had to measure your friendship for the dead +with a yardstick of Mother Grundy. It’s a hideous imposition laid on us +by custom, one of Ibsen’s ghosts.” + +“It’s so good to hear you say that. And do you think I may begin to be +happy again?” + +“I think it would be allowable to start with one smile a day, say, and +gradually increase the dose,” he jested. “In the course of a week, if +it seems to agree with you, try a laugh.” + +She made the experiment without waiting the week, amused at his +whimsical way of putting it. Nevertheless, the sound of her own +laughter gave her a little shock. + +“You came on business, I suppose?” she said presently. + +“Yes. I came to raise a million dollars for some improvements I want to +make.” + +“Let me lend it to you,” she proposed eagerly. + +“That would be a good one. I’m going to use it to fight the +Consolidated. Since you are now its chief stockholder you would be +letting me have money with which to fight you.” + +“I shouldn’t care about that. I hope you beat me.” + +“You’re my enemy now. That’s not the way to talk.” His eyes twinkled +merrily. + +“Am I your enemy? Let’s be friendly enemies, then. And there’s +something I want to talk to you about. Before he died Mr. Harley told +me he had made you an offer. I didn’t understand the details, but you +were to be in charge of all the copper-mines in the country. Wasn’t +that it?” + +“Something of that sort. I declined the proposition.” + +“I want you to take it now and manage everything for me. I don’t know +Mr. Harley’s associates, but I can trust you. You can arrange it any +way you like, but I want to feel that you have the responsibility.” + +He saw again that vision of power—all the copper interests of the +country pooled, with himself at the head of the combination. He knew it +would not be so easy to arrange as she thought, for, though she had +inherited Harley’s wealth, she had not taken over his prestige and +force. There would be other candidates for leadership. But if he +managed her campaign Aline’s great wealth must turn the scale in their +favor. + +“You must think this over again. You must talk it over with your +advisers before we come to a decision,” he said gravely. + +“I’ve told Mr. Jarmyn. He says the idea is utterly impossible. But +we’ll show him, won’t we? It’s my money and my stock, not his. I don’t +see why he should dictate. He’s always ‘My dear ladying’ me. I won’t +have it,” she pouted. + +The fighting gleam was in Ridgway’s eyes now. “So Mr. Jannyn thinks it +is impossible, does he?” + +“That’s what he said. He thinks you wouldn’t do at all.” + +“If you really mean it we’ll show him about that.” + +She shook hands with him on it. + +“You’re very good to me,” she said, so naively that he could not keep +back his smile. + +“Most people would say I was very good to myself. What you offer me is +a thing I might have fought for all my life and never won.” + +“Then I’m glad if it pleases you. That’s enough about business. Now, +we’ll talk about something important.” + +He could think of only one thing more important to him than this, but +it appeared she meant plans to see as much as possible of him while he +was in the city. + +“I suppose you have any number of other friends here that will want +you?” she said. + +“They can’t have me if this friend wants me,” he answered, with that +deep glow in his eyes she recognized from of old; and before she could +summon her reserves of defense he asked: “Do you want me, Aline?” + +His meaning came to her with a kind of sweet shame. “No, no, no—not +yet,” she cried. + +“Dear,” he answered, taking her little hand in his big one, “only this +now: that I can’t help wanting to be near you to comfort you, because I +love you. For everything else, I am content to wait.” + +“And I love you,” the girl-widow answered, a flush dyeing her cheeks. +“But I ought not to tell you yet, ought I?” + +There was that in her radiant tear-dewed eyes that stirred the deepest +stores of tenderness in the man. His finer instincts, vandal and pagan +though he was, responded to it. + +“It is right that you should tell me, since it is true, but it is +right, too, that we should wait.” + +“It is sweet to know that you love me. There are so many things I don’t +understand. You must help me. You are so strong and so sure, and I am +so helpless.” + +“You dear innocent, so strong in your weakness,” he murmured to +himself. + +“You must be a guide to me and a teacher.” + +“And you a conscience to me,” he smiled, not without amusement at the +thought. + +She took it seriously. “But I’m afraid I can’t. You know so much better +than I do what is right.” + +“I’m quite a paragon of virtue,” he confessed. + +“You’re so sure of everything. You took it for granted that I loved +you. Why were you so sure?” + +“I was just as sure as you were that I cared for you. Confess.” + +She whispered it. “Yes, I knew it, but when you did not come I thought, +perhaps—— You see, I’m not strong or clever. I can’t help you as +Virginia could.” She stopped, the color washing from her face. “I had +forgotten. You have no right to love me—nor I you,” she faltered. + +“Girl o’ mine, we have every right in the world. Love is never wrong +unless it is a theft or a robbery. There is nothing between me and +Virginia that is not artificial and conventional, no tie that ought not +to be broken, none that should ever of right have existed. Love has the +right of way before mere convention a hundredfold.” + +“Ah! If I were sure.” + +“But I was to be a teacher to you and a judge for you.” + +“And I was to be a conscience to you.” + +“But on this I am quite clear. I can be a conscience to myself. +However, there is no hurry. Time’s a great solvent.” + +“And we can go on loving each other in the meantime.” + +He lifted her little pink fingers and kissed them. “Yes, we can do that +all the time.” + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. +BREAKS ONE AND MAKES ANOTHER ENGAGEMENT + + +Miss Balfour’s glass made her irritably aware of cheeks unduly flushed +and eyes unusually bright. Since she prided herself on being sufficient +for the emergencies of life, she cast about in her mind to determine +which of the interviews that lay before her was responsible for her +excitement. It was, to be sure, an unusual experience for a young woman +to be told that her fiance would be unable to marry her, owing to a +subsequent engagement, but she looked forward to it with keen +anticipation, and would not have missed it for the world. Since she +pushed the thought of the other interview into the background of her +mind and refused to contemplate it at all, she did not see how that +could lend any impetus to her pulse. + +But though she was pleasantly excited as she swept into the +reception-room, Ridgway was unable to detect the fact in her cool +little nod and frank, careless handshake. Indeed, she looked so +entirely mistress of herself, so much the perfectly gowned exquisite, +that he began to dread anew the task he had set himself. It is not a +pleasant thing under the most favorable circumstances to beg off from +marrying a young woman one has engaged oneself to, and Ridgway did not +find it easier because the young woman looked every inch a queen, and +was so manifestly far from suspecting the object of his call. + +“I haven’t had a chance to congratulate you personally yet,” she said, +after they had drifted to chairs. “I’ve been immensely proud of you.” + +“I got your note. It was good of you to write as soon as you heard.” + +She swept him with one of her smile-lit side glances. “Though, of +course, in a way, I was felicitating myself when I congratulated you.” + +“You mean?” + +She laughed with velvet maliciousness. “Oh, well, I’m dragged into the +orbit of your greatness, am I not? As the wife of the president of the +Greater Consolidated Copper Company—the immense combine that takes in +practically all the larger copper properties in the country—I should +come in for a share of reflected glory, you know.” + +Ridgway bit his lip and took a deep breath, but before he had found +words she was off again. She had no intention of letting him descent +from the rack yet. + +“How did you do it? By what magic did you bring it about? Of course, +I’ve read the newspapers’ accounts, seen your features and your history +butchered in a dozen Sunday horrors, and thanked Heaven no enterprising +reporter guessed enough to use me as copy. Every paper I have picked up +for weeks has been full of you and the story of how you took Wall +Street by the throat. But I suspect they were all guesses, merely +superficial rumors except as to the main facts. What I want to know is +the inside story—the lever by means of which you pried open the door +leading to the inner circle of financial magnates. You have often told +me how tightly barred that door is. What was the open-sesame you used +as a countersign to make the keeper of the gate unbolt?” + +He thought he saw his chance. “The countersign was ‘Aline Harley,’” he +said, and looked her straight in the face. He wished he could find some +way of telling her without making him feel so like a cad. + +She clapped her hands. “I thought so. She backed you with that +uncounted fortune her husband left her. Is that it?” + +“That is it exactly. She gave me a free hand, and the immense fortune +she inherited from Harley put me in a position to force recognition +from the leaders. After that it was only a question of time till I had +convinced them my plan was good.” He threw back his shoulders and tried +to take the fence again. “Would you like to know why Mrs. Harley put +her fortune at my command?” + +“I suppose because she is interested in us and our little affair. +Doesn’t all the world love a lover?” she asked, with a disarming +candor. + +“She had a better reason,” he said, meeting her eyes gravely. + +“You must tell me it—but not just yet. I have something to tell you +first.” She held out her little clenched hand. “Here is something that +belongs to you. Can you open it?” + +He straightened her fingers one by one, and took from her palm the +engagement-ring he had given her. Instantly he looked up, doubt and +relief sweeping his face. + +“Am I to understand that you terminate our engagement?” + +She nodded. + +“May I ask why?” + +“I couldn’t bring myself to it, Waring. I honestly tried, but I +couldn’t do it.” + +“When did you find this out?” + +“I began to find it out the first day of our engagement. I couldn’t +make it seem right. I’ve been in a process of learning it ever since. +It wouldn’t be fair to you for me to marry you.” + +“You’re a brick, Virginia!” he cried jubilantly. + +“No, I’m not. That is a minor reason. The really important one is that +it wouldn’t be fair to me.” + +“No, it would not,” he admitted, with an air of candor. + +“Because, you see, I happen to care for another man,” she purred. + +His vanity leaped up fully armed. “Another man! Who?” + +“That’s my secret,” she answered, smiling at his chagrin. + +“And his?” + +“I said mine. At any rate, if three knew, it wouldn’t be a secret,” was +her quick retort. + +“Do you think you have been quite fair to me, Virginia?” he asked, with +gloomy dignity. + +“I think so,” she answered, and touched him with the riposte: “I’m +ready now to have you tell me when you expect to marry Aline Harley.” + +His dignity collapsed like a pricked bladder. “How did you know?” he +demanded, in astonishment. + +“Oh well, I have eyes.” + +“But I didn’t know—I thought—” + +“Oh, you thought! You are a pair of children at the game,” this +thousand-year-old young woman scoffed. “I have known for months that +you worshiped each other.” + +“If you mean to imply” he began severely. + +“Hit somebody of your size, Warry,” she interrupted cheerfully, as to +an infant. “If you suppose I am so guileless as not to know that you +were coming here this afternoon to tell me you were regretfully +compelled to give me up on account of a more important engagement, then +you conspicuously fail to guess right. I read it in your note.” + +He gave up attempting to reprove her. It did not seem feasible under +the circumstances. Instead, he held out the hand of peace, and she took +it with a laugh of gay camaraderie. + +“Well,” he smiled, “it seems possible that we may both soon be subjects +for congratulation. That just shows how things work around right. We +never would have suited each other, you know.” + +“I’m quite sure we shouldn’t,” agreed Virginia promptly. “But I don’t +think I’ll trouble you to congratulate me till you see me wearing +another solitaire.” + +“We’ll hope for the best,” he said cheerfully. “If it is the man I +think, he is a better man than I am.” + +“Yes, he is,” she nodded, without the least hesitation. + +“I hope you will be happy with him.” + +“I’m likely to be happy without him.” + +“Not unless he is a fool.” + +“Or prefers another lady, as you do.” + +She settled herself back in the low easy chair, with her hands clasped +behind her head. + +“And now I’d like to know why you prefer her to me,” she demanded +saucily. “Do you think her handsomer?” + +He looked her over from the rippling brown hair to the trim suede +shoes. “No,” he smiled; “they don’t make them handsomer.” + +“More intellectual?” + +“No.” + +“Of a better disposition?” + +“I like yours, too.” + +“More charming?” + +“I find her so, saving your presence.” + +“Please justify yourself in detail.” + +He shook his head, still smiling. “My justification is not to be +itemized. It lies deeper—in destiny, or fate, or whatever one calls +it.” + +“I see.” She offered Markham’s verses as an explanation: + +“Perhaps we are led and our loves are fated, +And our steps are counted one by one; +Perhaps we shall meet and our souls be mated, +After the burnt-out sun.” + + +“I like that. Who did you say wrote it?” + +The immobile butler, as once before, presented a card for her +inspection. Ridgway, with recollections of the previous occasion, +ventured to murmur again: “The fairy prince.” + +Virginia blushed to her hair, and this time did not offer the card for +his disapproval. + +“Shall I congratulate him?” he wanted to know. + +The imperious blood came to her cheeks on the instant. The sudden storm +in her eyes warned him better than words. + +“I’ll be good,” he murmured, as Lyndon Hobart came into the room. + +His goodness took the form of a speedy departure. She followed him to +the door for a parting fling at him. + +“In your automobile you may reach a telegraph-office in about five +minutes. With luck you may be engaged inside of an hour.” + +“You have the advantage of me by fifty-five minutes,” he flung back. + +“You ought to thank me on your knees for having saved you a wretched +scene this afternoon,” was the best she could say to cover her +discomfiture. + +“I do. I do. My thanks are taking the form of leaving you with the +prince.” + +“That’s very crude, sir—and I’m not sure it isn’t impertinent.” + +Miss Balfour was blushing when she returned to Hobart. He mistook the +reason, and she could not very well explain that her blushes were due +to the last wordless retort of the retiring “old love,” whose hand had +gone up in a ridiculous bless-you-my-children attitude just before he +left her. + +Their conversation started stiffly. He had come, he explained, to say +good-by. He was leaving the State to go to Washington prior to the +opening of the session. + +This gave her a chance to congratulate him upon his election. “I +haven’t had an opportunity before. You’ve been so busy, of course, +preparing to save the country, that your time must have been very fully +occupied.” + +He did not show his surprise at this interpretation of the fact that he +had quietly desisted from his attentions to her, but accepted it as the +correct explanation, since she had chosen to offer it. + +Miss Balfour expressed regret that he was going, though she did not +suppose she would see any less of him than she had during the past two +months. He did not take advantage of her little flings to make the talk +less formal, and Virginia, provoked at his aloofness, offered no more +chances. Things went very badly, indeed, for ten minutes, at the end of +which time Hobart rose to go. Virginia was miserably aware of being +wretched despite the cool hauteur of her seeming indifference. But he +was too good a sportsman to go without letting her know he held no +grudge. + +“I hope you will be very happy with Mr. Ridgway. Believe me, there is +nobody whose happiness I would so rejoice at as yours.” + +“Thank you,” she smiled coolly, and her heart raced. “May I hope that +your good wishes still obtain even though I must seek my happiness +apart from Mr. Ridgway?” + +He held her for an instant’s grave, astonished questioning, before +which her eyes fell. Her thoughts side-tracked swiftly to long for and +to dread what was coming. + +“Am I being told—you must pardon me if I have misunderstood your +meaning—that you are no longer engaged to Mr. Ridgway?” + +She made obvious the absence of the solitaire she had worn. + +Before the long scrutiny of his steady gaze: her eyes at last fell. + +“If you don’t mind, I’ll postpone going just yet,” he said quietly. + +Her racing heart assured her fearfully, delightfully, that she did not +mind at all. + +“I have no time and no compass to take my bearings. You will pardon me +if what I say seems presumptuous?” + +Silence, which is not always golden, oppressed her. Why could she not +make light talk as she had been wont to do with Waring Ridgway? + +“But if I ask too much, I shall not be hurt if you deny me,” he +continued. “For how long has your engagement with Mr. Ridgway been +broken, may I ask?” + +“Between fifteen and twenty minutes.” + +“A lovers’ quarrel, perhaps!” he hazarded gently. + +“On the contrary, quite final and irrevocable Mr. Ridgway and I have +never been lovers. She was not sure whether this last was meant as a +confession or a justification. + +“Not lovers?” He waited for her to explain Her proud eyes faced him. +“We became engaged for other reasons. I thought that did not matter. +But I find my other reasons were not sufficient. To-day I terminated +the engagement. But it is only fair to say that Mr. Ridgway had come +here for that purpose. I merely anticipated him.” Her self-contempt +would not let her abate one jot of the humiliating truth. She flayed +herself with a whip of scorn quite lost on Hobart. + +A wave of surging hope was flushing his heart, but he held himself well +in hand. + +“I must be presumptuous still,” he said. “I must find out if you broke +the engagement because you care for another man?” + +She tried to meet his shining eyes and could not. “You have no right to +ask that.” + +“Perhaps not till I have asked something else. I wonder if I should +have any chance if I were to tell you that I love you?” + +Her glance swept him shyly with a delicious little laugh. “You never +can tell till you try.” + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RIDGWAY OF MONTANA *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law 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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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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Ridgway of Montana<br /> + A story of to-day, in which the hero is also the villain</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: William MacLeod Raine</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: August, 2000 [eBook #2285]<br /> +[Most recently updated: December 12, 2022]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Mary Starr</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RIDGWAY OF MONTANA ***</div> + +<div class="fig" style="width:55%;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</div> + +<h1>Ridgway of Montana</h1> + +<h3>A story of to-day,<br/> +in which the hero is also the villain</h3> + +<h2 class="no-break">by William Macleod Raine</h2> + +<hr /> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3>To JEAN<br/> +AND THAT KINGDOM</h3> + +<p class="poem"> +“Where you and I through this world’s weather<br/> +Work, and give praise and thanks together.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I. Two Men and a Woman</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II. The Freebooter</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III. One to One</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap04">CHAPTER IV. Fort Salvation</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap05">CHAPTER V. Enter Simon Harley</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap06">CHAPTER VI. On the Snow-trail</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap07">CHAPTER VII. Back from Arcadia</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII. The Honorable Thomas B. Pelton</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap09">CHAPTER IX. An Evening Call</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X. Harley Makes a Proposition</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI. Virginia Intervenes</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap12">CHAPTER XII. Aline Makes a Discovery</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII. First Blood</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV. A Conspiracy</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap15">CHAPTER XV. Laska Opens a Door</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap16">CHAPTER XVI. An Explosion in the Taurus</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap17">CHAPTER XVII. The Election</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap18">CHAPTER XVIII. Further Developments</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap19">CHAPTER XIX. One Million Dollars</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap20">CHAPTER XX. A Little Lunch at Alphonse’s</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap21">CHAPTER XXI. Harley Scores</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap22">CHAPTER XXII. “Not Guilty”—“Guilty”</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap23">CHAPTER XXIII. Aline Turns a Corner</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap24">CHAPTER XXIV. A Good Samaritan</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap25">CHAPTER XXV. Friendly Enemies</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap26">CHAPTER XXVI. Breaks One and Makes Another Engagement</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a> +CHAPTER I.<br/> +TWO MEN AND A WOMAN</h2> + +<p> +“Mr. Ridgway, ma’am.” +</p> + +<p> +The young woman who was giving the last touches to the very effective picture +framed in her long looking-glass nodded almost imperceptibly. +</p> + +<p> +She had come to the parting of the ways, and she knew it, with a shrewd +suspicion as to which she would choose. She had asked for a week to decide, and +her heart-searching had told her nothing new. It was characteristic of Virginia +Balfour that she did not attempt to deceive herself. If she married Waring +Ridgway it would be for what she considered good and sufficient reasons, but +love would not be one of them. He was going to be a great man, for one thing, +and probably a very rich one, which counted, though it would not be a +determining factor. This she could find only in the man himself, in the +masterful force that made him what he was. The sandstings of life did not +disturb his confidence in his victorious star, nor did he let fine-spun moral +obligations hamper his predatory career. He had a genius for success in +whatever he undertook, pushing his way to his end with a shrewd, direct energy +that never faltered. She sometimes wondered whether she, too, like the men he +used as tools, was merely a pawn in his game, and her consent an empty +formality conceded to convention. Perhaps he would marry her even if she did +not want to, she told herself, with the sudden illuminating smile that was one +of her chief charms. +</p> + +<p> +But Ridgway’s wary eyes, appraising her mood as she came forward to meet him, +read none of this doubt in her frank greeting. Anything more sure and exquisite +than the cultivation Virginia Balfour breathed he would have been hard put to +it to conceive. That her gown and its accessories seemed to him merely the +extension of a dainty personality was the highest compliment he could pay her +charm, and an entirely unconscious one. +</p> + +<p> +“Have I kept you waiting?” she smiled, giving him her hand. +</p> + +<p> +His answering smile, quite cool and unperturbed, gave the lie to his words. +“For a year, though the almanac called it a week.” +</p> + +<p> +“You must have suffered,” she told him ironically, with a glance at the clear +color in his good-looking face. +</p> + +<p> +“Repressed emotion,” he explained. “May I hope that my suffering has reached a +period?” +</p> + +<p> +They had been sauntering toward a little conservatory at the end of the large +room, but she deflected and brought up at a table on which lay some books. One +of these she picked up and looked at incuriously for a moment before sweeping +them aside. She rested her hands on the table behind her and leaned back +against it, her eyes meeting his fairly. +</p> + +<p> +“You’re still of the same mind, are you?” she demanded. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! very much.” +</p> + +<p> +She lifted herself to the table, crossing her feet and dangling them +irresponsibly. “We might as well be comfy while we talk;” and she indicated, by +a nod, a chair. +</p> + +<p> +“Thanks. If you don’t mind, I think I’ll take it standing.” +</p> + +<p> +She did not seem in any hurry to begin, and Ridgway gave evidence of no desire +to hasten her. But presently he said, with a little laugh that seemed to offer +her inclusion in the joke: +</p> + +<p> +“I’m on the anxious seat, you know—waiting to find out whether I’m to be +the happiest man alive.” +</p> + +<p> +“You know as much about it as I do.” She echoed his laugh ruefully. “I’m still +as much at sea as I was last week. I couldn’t tell then, and I can’t now.” +</p> + +<p> +“No news is good news, they say.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t want to marry you a bit, but you’re a great catch, as you are very +well aware.” +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose I am rather a catch,” he agreed, the shadow of a smile at the +corners of his mouth. +</p> + +<p> +“It isn’t only your money; though, of course, that’s a temptation,” she +admitted audaciously. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m glad it’s not only my money.” He could laugh with her about it because he +was shrewd enough to understand that it was not at all his wealth. Her cool +frankness might have frightened away another man. It merely served to interest +Ridgway. For, with all his strength, he was a vain man, always ready to talk of +himself. He spent a good deal of his spare time interpreting himself to +attractive and attracted young women. +</p> + +<p> +Her gaze fastened on the tip of her suede toe, apparently studying it +attentively. “It would be a gratification to my vanity to parade you as the +captive of my bow and spear. You’re such a magnificent specimen, such a berserk +in broadcloth. Still. I shan’t marry you if I can help it—but, then, I’m +not sure that I can help it. Of course, I disapprove of you entirely, but +you’re rather fascinating, you know.” Her eye traveled slowly up to his, +appraising the masterful lines of his square figure, the dominant strength of +his close-shut mouth and resolute eyes. “Perhaps ‘fascinating’ isn’t just the +word, but I can’t help being interested in you, whether I like you or not. I +suppose you always get what you want very badly?” she flung out by way of +question. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s what I’m trying to discover”—he smiled. +</p> + +<p> +“There are things to be considered both ways,” she said, taking him into her +confidence. “You trample on others. How do I know you wouldn’t tread on me?” +</p> + +<p> +“That would be one of the risks you would take,” he agreed impersonally. +</p> + +<p> +“I shouldn’t like that at all. If I married you it would be because as your +wife I should have so many opportunities. I should expect to do exactly as I +please. I shouldn’t want you to interfere with me, though I should want to be +able to influence you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing could be fairer than that,” was his amiably ironical comment. +</p> + +<p> +“You see, I don’t know you—not really—and they say all sorts of +things about you.” +</p> + +<p> +“They don’t say I am a quitter, do they?” +</p> + +<p> +She leaned forward, chin in hand and elbow on knee. It was a part of the accent +of her distinction that as a rebel she was both demure and daring. “I wonder if +I might ask you some questions—the intimate kind that people think but +don’t say—at least, they don’t say them to you.” +</p> + +<p> +“It would be a pleasure to me to be put on the witness-stand. I should probably +pick up some interesting side-lights about myself.” +</p> + +<p> +“Very well.” Her eyes danced with excitement. “You’re what they call a +buccaneer of business, aren’t you?” +</p> + +<p> +Here were certainly diverting pastimes. “I believe I have been called that; +but, then, I’ve had the hardest names in the dictionary thrown at me so often +that I can’t be sure.” +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose you are perfectly unscrupulous in a business way—stop at +nothing to gain your point?” +</p> + +<p> +He took her impudence smilingly. +</p> + +<p> +“‘Unscrupulous’ isn’t the word I use when I explain myself to myself, but as an +unflattered description, such as one my enemies might use to describe me, I +dare say it is fairly accurate.” +</p> + +<p> +“I wonder why. Do you dispense with a conscience entirely?” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, you see, Miss Balfour, if I nursed a New England conscience I could +stand up to the attacks of the Consolidated about as long as a dove to a hawk. +I meet fire with fire to avoid being wiped off the map of the mining world. I +play the game. I can’t afford to keep a button on my foil when my opponent +doesn’t.” +</p> + +<p> +She nodded an admission of his point. “And yet there are rules of the game to +be observed, aren’t there? The Consolidated people claim you steal their ore, I +believe.” Her slanted eyes studied the effect of her daring. +</p> + +<p> +He laughed grimly. “Do they? I claim they steal mine. It’s rather difficult to +have an exact regard for mine and thine before the courts decide which is +which.” +</p> + +<p> +“And meanwhile, in order to forestall an adverse decision, you are working +extra shifts to get all the ore out of the disputed veins.” +</p> + +<p> +“Precisely, just as they are,” he admitted dryly. “Then the side that loses +will not be so disappointed, since the value of the veins will be less. +Besides, stealing ore openly doesn’t count. It is really a moral obligation in +a fight like this,” he explained. +</p> + +<p> +“A moral obligation?” +</p> + +<p> +“Exactly. You can’t hit a trust over the head with the decalogue. Modern +business is war. Somebody is bound to get hurt. If I win out it will be because +I put up a better fight than the Consolidated, and cripple it enough to make it +let me alone. I’m looking out for myself, and I don’t pretend to be any better +than my neighbors. When you get down to bed-rock honesty, I’ve never seen it in +business. We’re all of us as honest as we think we can afford to be. I haven’t +noticed that there is any premium on it in Mesa. Might makes right. I’ll win if +I’m strong enough; I’ll fail if I’m not. That’s the law of life. I didn’t make +this strenuous little world, and I’m not responsible for it. If I play I have +to take the rules the way they are, not the way I should like them to be. I’m +not squeamish, and I’m not a hypocrite. Simon Harley isn’t squeamish, either, +but he happens to be a hypocrite. So there you have the difference between us.” +</p> + +<p> +The president of the Mesa Ore-producing Company set forth his creed jauntily, +without the least consciousness of need for apology for the fact that it +happened to be divorced from morality. Its frank disregard of ethical +considerations startled Miss Balfour without shocking her. She liked his +candor, even though it condemned him. It was really very nice of him to take +her impudence so well. He certainly wasn’t a prig, anyway. +</p> + +<p> +“And morality,” she suggested tentatively. +</p> + +<p> +“—hasn’t a thing to do with success, the parsons to the contrary +notwithstanding. The battle is to the strong.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then the Consolidated will beat you finally.” +</p> + +<p> +He smiled. “They would if I’d let them; but brains and resource and finesse all +count for power. Granted that they have a hundred dollars to my one. Still, I +have elements of strength they can’t even estimate. David beat Goliath, you +know, even though he didn’t do it with a big stick.” +</p> + +<p> +“So you think morality is for old women?” +</p> + +<p> +“And young women,” he amended, smiling. +</p> + +<p> +“And every man is to be a law unto himself?” +</p> + +<p> +“Not quite. Some men aren’t big enough to be. Let them stick to the +conventional code. For me, if I make my own laws I don’t break them.” +</p> + +<p> +“And you’re sure that you’re on the road to true success?” she asked lightly. +</p> + +<p> +“Now, you have heaven in the back of your mind.” +</p> + +<p> +“Not exactly,” she laughed. “But I didn’t expect you to understand.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then I won’t disappoint you,” he said cheerfully. +</p> + +<p> +She came back to the concrete. +</p> + +<p> +“I should like to know whether it is true that you own the courts of Yuba +County and have the decisions of the judges written at your lawyer’s offices in +cases between you and the Consolidated.” +</p> + +<p> +“If I do,” he answered easily, “I am doing just what the Consolidated would do +in case they had been so fortunate as to have won the last election and seated +their judicial candidates. One expects a friendly leaning from the men one put +in office.” +</p> + +<p> +“Isn’t the judiciary supposed to be the final, incorruptible bulwark of the +nation?” she pretended to want to know. +</p> + +<p> +“I believe it is supposed to be.” +</p> + +<p> +“Isn’t it rather—loading the dice, to interfere with the courts?” +</p> + +<p> +“I find the dice already loaded. I merely substitute others of my own.” +</p> + +<p> +“You don’t seem a bit ashamed of yourself.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m ashamed of the Consolidated”—he smiled. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s a comfortable position to be able to take.” She fixed him for a moment +with her charming frown of interrogation. “You won’t mind my asking these +questions? I’m trying to decide whether you are too much of a pirate for me. +Perhaps when I’ve made up my mind you won’t want me,” she added. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I’ll want you!” Then coolly: “Shall we wait till you make up your mind +before announcing the engagement?” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t be too sure,” she flashed at him. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m horribly unsure.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course, you’re laughing at me, just as you would”—she tilted a sudden +sideways glance at him—“if I asked you WHY you wanted to marry me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, if you take me that way——” +</p> + +<p> +She interrupted airily. “I’m trying to make up my mind whether to take you at +all.” +</p> + +<p> +“You certainly have a direct way of getting at things.” +</p> + +<p> +He studied appreciatively her piquant, tilted face; the long, graceful lines of +her slender, perfect figure. “I take it you don’t want the sentimental reason +for my wishing to marry you, though I find that amply justified. But if you +want another, you must still look to yourself for it. My business leads me to +appreciate values correctly. When I desire you to sit at the head of my table, +to order my house, my judgment justifies itself. I have a fancy always for the +best. When I can’t gratify it I do without.” +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you.” She made him a gay little mock curtsy “I had heard you were no +carpet-knight, Mr. Ridgway. But rumor is a lying jade, for I am being +told—am I not?—that in case I don’t take pity on you, the lone +future of a celibate stretches drear before you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, certainly.” +</p> + +<p> +Having come to the end of that passage, she tried another. “A young man told me +yesterday you were a fighter. He said he guessed you would stand the acid. What +did he mean?” +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway was an egoist from head to heel. He could voice his own praises by the +hour when necessary, but now he side-stepped her little trap to make him praise +himself at second-hand. +</p> + +<p> +“Better ask him.” +</p> + +<p> +“ARE you a fighter, then?” +</p> + +<p> +Had he known her and her whimsies less well, he might have taken her audacity +for innocence. +</p> + +<p> +“One couldn’t lie down, you know.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course, you always fight fair,” she mocked. +</p> + +<p> +“When a fellow’s attacked by a gang of thugs he doesn’t pray for boxing-gloves. +He lets fly with a coupling-pin if that’s what comes handy.” +</p> + +<p> +Her eyes, glinting sparks of mischief, marveled at him with mock reverence, but +she knew in her heart that her mockery was a fraud. She did admire him; admired +him even while she disapproved the magnificent lawlessness of him. +</p> + +<p> +For Waring Ridgway looked every inch the indomitable fighter he was. He stood +six feet to the line, straight and strong, carrying just sufficient bulk to +temper his restless energy without impairing its power. Nor did the face offer +any shock of disappointment to the promise given by the splendid figure. +Salient-jawed and forceful, set with cool, flinty, blue-gray eyes, no place for +weakness could be found there. One might have read a moral callousness, a +colorblindness in points of rectitude, but when the last word had been said, +its masterful capability, remained the outstanding impression. +</p> + +<p> +“Am I out of the witness-box?” he presently asked, still leaning against the +mantel from which he had been watching her impersonally as an intellectual +entertainment. +</p> + +<p> +“I think so.” +</p> + +<p> +“And the verdict?” +</p> + +<p> +“You know what it ought to be,” she accused. +</p> + +<p> +“Fortunately, kisses go by favor, not by, merit.” +</p> + +<p> +“You don’t even make a pretense of deserving.” +</p> + +<p> +“Give me credit for being an honest rogue, at least.” +</p> + +<p> +“But a rogue?” she insisted lightly. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, a question of definitions. I could make a very good case for myself as an +honest man.” +</p> + +<p> +“If you thought it worth while?” +</p> + +<p> +“If I didn’t happen to want to be square with you”—he smiled. +</p> + +<p> +“You’re so fond of me, I suppose, that you couldn’t bear to have me think too +well of you.” +</p> + +<p> +“You know how fond of you I am.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, it is a pity about you,” she scoffed. +</p> + +<p> +“Believe me, yes,” he replied cheerfully. +</p> + +<p> +She drummed with her pink finger-tips on her chin, studying him meditatively. +To do him justice, she had to admit that he did not even pretend much. He +wanted her because she was a step up in the social ladder, and, in his opinion, +the most attractive girl he knew. That he was not in love with her relieved the +situation, as Miss Balfour admitted to herself in impersonal moods. But there +were times when she could have wished he were. She felt it to be really due her +attractions that his pulses should quicken for her, and in the interests of +experience she would have liked to see how he would make love if he really +meant it from the heart and not the will. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s really an awful bother,” she sighed. +</p> + +<p> +“Referring to the little problem of your future?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes.” +</p> + +<p> +“Can’t make up your mind whether I come in?” +</p> + +<p> +“No.” She looked up brightly, with an effect of impulsiveness. “I don’t suppose +you want to give me another week?” +</p> + +<p> +“A reprieve! But why? You’re going to marry me.” +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose so.” She laughed. “I wish I could have my cake, and eat it, too.” +</p> + +<p> +“It would be a moral iniquity to encourage such a system of ethics.” +</p> + +<p> +“So you won’t give me a week?” she sighed. “All sorts of things might have +happened in that week. I shall always believe that the fairy prince would have +come for me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Believe that he HAS come,” he claimed. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I didn’t mean a prince of pirates, though there is a triumph in having +tamed a pirate chief to prosaic matrimony. In one way it will be a pity, too. +You won’t be half so picturesque. You remember how Stevenson puts it: ‘that +marriage takes from a man the capacity for great things, whether good or bad.’” +</p> + +<p> +“I can stand a good deal of taming.” +</p> + +<p> +“Domesticating a pirate ought to be an interesting process,” she conceded, her +rare smile flashing. “It should prove a cure for ENNUI, but then I’m never a +victim of that malady.” +</p> + +<p> +“Am I being told that I am to be the happiest pirate alive?” +</p> + +<p> +“I expect you are.” +</p> + +<p> +His big hand gripped hers till it tingled. She caught his eye on a roving quest +to the door. +</p> + +<p> +“We don’t have to do that,” she announced hurriedly, with an embarrassed flush. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t do it because I have to,” he retorted, kissing her on the lips. +</p> + +<p> +She fell back, protesting. “Under the circumstances—” +</p> + +<p> +The butler, with a card on a tray, interrupted silently. She glanced at the +card, devoutly grateful his impassive majesty’s entrance had not been a moment +earlier. +</p> + +<p> +“Show him in here.” +</p> + +<p> +“The fairy prince, five minutes too late?” asked Ridgway, when the man had +gone. +</p> + +<p> +For answer she handed him the card, yet he thought the pink that flushed her +cheek was something more pronounced than usual. But he was willing to admit +there might be a choice of reasons for that. +</p> + +<p> +“Lyndon Hobart” was the name he read. +</p> + +<p> +“I think the Consolidated is going to have its innings. I should like to stay, +of course, but I fear I must plead a subsequent engagement and leave the field +to the enemy.” +</p> + +<p> +Pronouncing “Mr. Hobart” without emphasis, the butler vanished. The newcomer +came forward with the quiet assurance of the born aristocrat. He was a slender, +well-knit man, dressed fastidiously, with clear-cut, classical features; cool, +keen eyes, and a gentle, you-be-damned manner to his inferiors. Beside him +Ridgway bulked too large, too florid. His ease seemed a little obvious, his +prosperity overemphasized. Even his voice, strong and reliant, lacked the tone +of gentle blood that Hobart had inherited with his nice taste. +</p> + +<p> +When Miss Balfour said: “I think you know each other,” the manager of the +Consolidated bowed with stiff formality, but his rival laughed genially and +said: “Oh, yes, I know Mr. Hobart.” The geniality was genuine enough, but +through it ran a note of contempt. Hobart read in it a veiled taunt. To him it +seemed to say: +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I have met him, and beaten him at every turn of the road, though he has +been backed by a power with resources a hundred times as great as mine.” +</p> + +<p> +In his parting excuses to Miss Balfour, Ridgway’s audacity crystallized in +words that Hobart could only regard as a shameless challenge. “I regret that an +appointment with Judge Purcell necessitates my leaving such good company,” he +said urbanely. +</p> + +<p> +Purcell was the judge before whom was pending a suit between the Consolidated +and the Mesa Ore-producing Company, to determine the ownership of the Never Say +Die Mine; and it was current report that Ridgway owned him as absolutely as he +did the automobile waiting for him now at the door. +</p> + +<p> +If Ridgway expected his opponent to pay his flippant gibe the honor of +repartee, he was disappointed. To be sure, Hobart, admirably erect in his +slender grace, was moved to a slight, disdainful smile, but it evidenced +scarcely the appreciation that anybody less impervious to criticism than +Ridgway would have cared to see. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a> +CHAPTER II.<br/> +THE FREEBOOTER</h2> + +<p> +When next Virginia Balfour saw Waring Ridgway she was driving her trap down one +of the hit-or-miss streets of Mesa, where derricks, shaft-houses, and gray +slag-dumps shoulder ornate mansions conglomerate of many unharmonious details +of architecture. To Miss Balfour these composites and their owners would have +been joys unalloyed except for the microbe of society ambition that was +infecting the latter, and transforming them from simple, robust, self-reliant +Westerners into a class of servile, nondescript newly rich, that resembled +their unfettered selves as much as tame bears do the grizzlies of their own +Rockies. As she had once complained smilingly to Hobart, she had not come to +the West to study ragged edges of the social fringe. She might have done that +in New York. +</p> + +<p> +Virginia was still a block or two from the court-house on the hill, when it +emptied into the street a concourse of excited men. That this was an occasion +of some sort it was easy to guess, and of what sort she began to have an +inkling, when Ridgway came out, the center of a circle of congratulating +admirers. She was obliged to admit that he accepted their applause without in +the least losing his head. Indeed, he took it as imperturbably as did Hobart, +against whom a wave of the enthusiasm seemed to be directed in the form of a +jeer, when he passed down the steps with Mott, one of the Consolidated lawyers. +Miss Balfour timed her approach to meet Hobart at a right angle. +</p> + +<p> +“What is it all about?” she asked, after he had reached her side. +</p> + +<p> +“Judge Purcell has just decided the Never Say Die case in favor of Mr. Ridgway +and against the Consolidated.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is that a great victory for him?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, it’s a victory, though, of course, we appeal,” admitted Hobart. “But we +can’t say we didn’t expect it,” he added cheerfully. +</p> + +<p> +“Mayn’t I give you a lift if you are going down-town?” she said quickly, for +Ridgway, having detached himself from the group, was working toward her, and +she felt an instinctive sympathy for the man who had lost. Furthermore, she had +something she wanted to tell him before he heard it on the tongue of rumor. +</p> + +<p> +“Since you are so kind;” and he climbed to the place beside her. +</p> + +<p> +“Congratulate me, Miss Balfour,” demanded Ridgway, as he shook hands with her, +nodding coolly at her companion. “I’m a million dollars richer than I was an +hour ago. I have met the enemy and he is mine.” +</p> + +<p> +Virginia, resenting the bad taste of his jeer at the man who sat beside her, +misunderstood him promptly. “Did you say you had met the enemy and won his +mine?” +</p> + +<p> +He laughed. “You’re a good one!” +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you very much for this unsolicited testimonial,” she said gravely. “In +the meantime, to avoid a congestion of traffic, we’ll be moving, if you will +kindly give me back my front left wheel.” +</p> + +<p> +He did not lift his foot from the spoke on which it rested. “My +congratulations,” he reminded her. +</p> + +<p> +“I wish you all the joy in your victory that you deserve, and I hope the +supreme court will reaffirm the decision of Judge Purcell, if it is a just +one,” was the form in which she acceded to his demand. +</p> + +<p> +She flicked her whip, and Ridgway fell back, laughing. “You’ve been subsidized +by the Consolidated,” he shouted after her. +</p> + +<p> +Hobart watched silently the businesslike directness with which the girl handled +the ribbons. She looked every inch the thoroughbred in her well-made covert +coat and dainty driving gauntlets. The grace of the alert, slender figure, the +perfect poise of the beautiful little tawny head, proclaimed her distinction no +less certainly than the fine modeling of the mobile face. It was a distinction +that stirred the pulse of his emotion and disarmed his keen, critical sense. +Ridgway could study her with an amused, detached interest, but Hobart’s +admiration had traveled past that point. He found it as impossible to define +her charm as to evade it. Her inheritance of blood and her environment should +have made her a finished product of civilization, but her salty breeziness, her +nerve, vivid as a flame at times, disturbed delightfully the poise that held +her when in repose. +</p> + +<p> +When Virginia spoke, it was to ask abruptly: “Is it really his mine?” +</p> + +<p> +“Judge Purcell says so.” +</p> + +<p> +“But do YOU think so—down in the bottom of your heart?” +</p> + +<p> +“Wouldn’t I naturally be prejudiced?” +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose you would. Everybody in Mesa seems to have taken sides either with +Mr. Ridgway or the Consolidated. Still, you have an option. Is he what his +friends proclaim him—the generous-hearted independent fighting against +trust domination? Or is he merely an audacious ore-thief, as his enemies say? +The truth must be somewhere.” +</p> + +<p> +“It seems to lie mostly in point of view here the angle of observation being +determined by interest,” he answered. +</p> + +<p> +“And from your angle of observation?” +</p> + +<p> +“He is the most unusual man I ever saw, the most resourceful and the most +competent. He never knows when he is beaten. I suppose that’s the reason he +never is beaten finally. We have driven him to the wall a score of times. My +experience with him is that he’s most dangerous when one thinks he must be +about hammered out. He always hits back then in the most daring and unexpected +way.” +</p> + +<p> +“With a coupling-pin,” she suggested with a little reminiscent laugh. +</p> + +<p> +“Metaphorically speaking. He reaches for the first effective weapon to his +hand.” +</p> + +<p> +“You haven’t quite answered my question yet,” she reminded him. “Is he what his +friends or what his enemies think him?” +</p> + +<p> +“If you ask me I can only say that I’m one of his enemies.” +</p> + +<p> +“But a fair-minded man,” she replied quickly. +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you. Then I’ll say that perhaps he is neither just what his friends or +his foes think him. One must make allowances for his training and temperament, +and for that quality of bigness in him. ‘Mediocre men go soberly on the +highroads, but saints and scoundrels meet in the jails,’” he smilingly quoted. +</p> + +<p> +“He would make a queer sort of saint,” she laughed. +</p> + +<p> +“A typical twentieth century one of a money-mad age.” +</p> + +<p> +She liked it in him that he would not use the opportunity she had made to sneer +at his adversary, none the less because she knew that Ridgway might not have +been so scrupulous in his place. That Lyndon Hobart’s fastidious instincts for +fair play had stood in the way of his success in the fight to down Ridgway she +had repeatedly heard. Of late, rumors had persisted in reporting +dissatisfaction with his management of the Consolidated at the great financial +center on Broadway which controlled the big copper company. Simon Harley, the +dominating factor in the octopus whose tentacles reached out in every direction +to monopolize the avenues of wealth, demanded of his subordinates results. +Methods were no concern of his, and failure could not be explained to him. He +wanted Ridgway crushed, and the pulse of the copper production regulated lay +the Consolidated. Instead, he had seen Ridgway rise steadily to power and +wealth despite his efforts to wipe him off the slate. Hobart was perfectly +aware that his head was likely to fall when Harley heard of Purcell’s decision +in regard to the Never Say Die. +</p> + +<p> +“He certainly is an amazing man,” Virginia mused, her fiancee in mind. “It +would be interesting to discover what he can’t do—along utilitarian +lines, I mean. Is he as good a miner underground as he is in the courts?” she +flung out. +</p> + +<p> +“He is the shrewdest investor I know. Time and again he has leased or bought +apparently worthless claims, and made them pay inside of a few weeks. Take the +Taurus as a case in point. He struck rich ore in a fortnight. Other men had +done development work for years and found nothing.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m naturally interested in knowing all about him, because I have just become +engaged to him,” explained Miss Virginia, as calmly as if her pulse were not +fluttering a hundred to the minute. +</p> + +<p> +Virginia was essentially a sportsman. She did not flinch from the guns when the +firing was heavy. It had been remarked of her even as a child that she liked to +get unpleasant things over with as soon as possible, rather than postpone them. +Once, <i>aetat</i> eight, she had marched in to her mother like a stoic and +announced: “I’ve come to be whipped, momsie, ’cause I broke that horrid little +Nellie Vaile’s doll. I did it on purpose, ’cause I was mad at her. I’m glad I +broke it, so there!” +</p> + +<p> +Hobart paled slightly beneath his outdoors Western tan, but his eyes met hers +very steadily and fairly. “I wish you happiness, Miss Balfour, from the bottom +of my heart.” +</p> + +<p> +She nodded a brisk “Thank you,” and directed her attention again to the horses. +</p> + +<p> +“Take him by and large, Mr. Ridgway is the most capable, energetic, and +far-sighted business man I have ever known. He has a bigger grasp of things +than almost any financier in the country. I think you’ll find he will go far,” +he said, choosing his words with care to say as much for Waring Ridgway as he +honestly could. +</p> + +<p> +“I have always thought so,” agreed Virginia. +</p> + +<p> +She had reason for thinking so in that young man’s remarkable career. When +Waring Ridgway had first come to Mesa he had been a draftsman for the +Consolidated at five dollars a day. He was just out of Cornell, and his assets +consisted mainly of a supreme confidence in himself and an imposing presence. +He was a born leader, and he flung himself into the raw, turbid life of the +mining town with a readiness that had not a little to do with his subsequent +success. +</p> + +<p> +That success began to take tangible form almost from the first. A small, +independent smelter that had for long been working at a loss was about to fall +into the hands of the Consolidated when Ridgway bought it on promises to pay, +made good by raising money on a flying trip he took to the East. His father +died about this time and left him fifty thousand dollars, with which he bought +the Taurus, a mine in which several adventurous spirits had dropped small +fortunes. He acquired other properties; a lease here, an interest there. It +began to be observed that he bought always with judgment. He seemed to have the +touch of Midas. Where other men had lost money he made it. +</p> + +<p> +When the officers of the Consolidated woke up to the menace of his presence, +one of their lawyers called on him. The agent of the Consolidated smiled at his +luxurious offices, which looked more like a woman’s boudoir than the business +place of a Western miner. But that was merely part of Ridgway’s vanity, and did +not in the least interfere with his predatory instincts. Many people who walked +into that parlor to do business played fly to his spider. +</p> + +<p> +The lawyer had been ready to patronize the upstart who had ventured so boldly +into the territory of the great trust, but one glance at the clear-cut resolute +face of the young man changed his mind. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve come to make you an offer for your smelter, Mr. Ridgway,” he began. +“We’ll take it off your hands at the price it cost you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Not for sale, Mr. Bartel.” +</p> + +<p> +“Very well. We’ll give you ten thousand more than you paid for it.” +</p> + +<p> +“You misunderstand me. It is not for sale.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, come! You bought it to sell to us. What can you do with it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Run it,” suggested Ridgway. +</p> + +<p> +“Without ore?” +</p> + +<p> +“You forget that I own a few properties, and have leases on others. When the +Taurus begins producing, I’ll have enough to keep the smelter going.” +</p> + +<p> +“When the Taurus begins producing?”—Bartel smiled skeptically. “Didn’t +Johnson and Leroy drop fortunes on that expectation?” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll bet five thousand dollars we make a strike within two weeks.” +</p> + +<p> +“Chimerical!” pronounced the graybeard as he rose to go, with an air of +finality. “Better sell the smelter while you have the chance.” +</p> + +<p> +“Think not,” disagreed Ridgway. +</p> + +<p> +At the door the lawyer turned. “Oh, there’s another matter! It had slipped my +mind.” He spoke with rather elaborate carelessness. “It seems that there is a +little triangle—about ten and four feet across—wedged in between +the Mary K, the Diamond King, and the Marcus Daly. For some reason we +accidentally omitted to file on it. Our chief engineer finds that you have +taken it up, Mr. Ridgway. It is really of no value, but it is in the heart of +our properties, and so it ought to belong to us. Of course, it is of no use to +you. There isn’t any possible room to sink a shaft. We’ll take it from you if +you like, and even pay you a nominal price. For what will you sell?” +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway lit a cigar before he answered: “One million dollars.” +</p> + +<p> +“What?” screamed Bartel. +</p> + +<p> +“Not a cent less. I call it the Trust Buster. Before I’m through, you’ll find +it is worth that to me.” +</p> + +<p> +The lawyer reported him demented to the Consolidated officials, who declared +war on him from that day. +</p> + +<p> +They found the young adventurer more than prepared for them. If he had a +Napoleonic sense of big vital factors, he had no less a genius for detail. He +had already picked up an intimate knowledge of the hundreds of veins and +crossveins that traverse the Mesa copper-fields, and he had delved patiently +into the tangled history of the litigation that the defective mining laws in +pioneer days had made possible. When the Consolidated attempted to harass him +by legal process, he countered by instituting a score of suits against the +company within the week. These had to do with wills, insanity cases, extra +lateral rights, mine titles, and land and water rights. Wherever Ridgway saw +room for an entering wedge to dispute the title of the Consolidated, he drove a +new suit home. To say the least, the trust found it annoying to be enjoined +from working its mines, to be cited for contempt before judges employed in the +interests of its opponent, to be served with restraining orders when clearly +within its rights. But when these adverse legal decisions began to affect vital +issues, the Consolidated looked for reasons why Ridgway should control the +courts. It found them in politics. +</p> + +<p> +For Ridgway was already dominating the politics of Yuba County, displaying an +amazing acumen and a surprising ability as a stumpspeaker. He posed as a friend +of the people, an enemy of the trust. He declared an eight-hour day for his own +miners, and called upon the Consolidated to do the same. Hobart refused, acting +on orders from Broadway, and fifteen thousand Consolidated miners went to the +polls and reelected Ridgway’s corrupt judges, in spite of the fight the +Consolidated was making against them. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile, Ridgway’s colossal audacity made the Consolidated’s copper pay for +the litigation with which he was harassing it. In following his ore-veins, or +what he claimed to be his veins, he crossed boldly into the territory of the +enemy. By the law of extra lateral rights, a man is entitled to mine within the +lines of other property than his own, provided he is following the dip of a +vein which has its apex in his claim. Ridgway’s experts were prepared to swear +that all the best veins in the field apexed in his property. Pending decisions +of the courts, they assumed it, tunneling through granite till they tapped the +veins of the Consolidated mines, meanwhile enjoining that company from working +the very ore of which Ridgway was robbing it. +</p> + +<p> +Many times the great trust back of the Consolidated had him close to ruin, but +Ridgway’s alert brain and supreme audacity carried him through. From their +mines or from his own he always succeeded in extracting enough ore to meet his +obligations when they fell due. His powerful enemy, as Hobart had told Miss +Balfour, found him most dangerous when it seemed to have him with his back to +the wall. Then unexpectedly would fall some crushing blow that put the +financial kings of Broadway on the defensive long enough for him to slip out of +the corner into which they had driven him. Greatly daring, he had the +successful cavalryman’s instinct of risking much to gain much. A gambler, his +enemies characterized him fitly enough. But it was also true, as Mesa phrased +it, that he gambled “with the lid off,” playing for large stakes, neither +asking nor giving quarter. +</p> + +<p> +At the end of five years of desperate fighting, the freebooter was more +strongly entrenched than he had been at any previous time. The railroads, +pledged to give rebates to the Consolidated, had been forced by Ridgway, under +menace of adverse legislation from the men he controlled at the State-house, to +give him secretly a still better rate than the trust. He owned the county +courts, he was supported by the people, and had become a political dictator, +and the financial outlook for him grew brighter every day. +</p> + +<p> +Such were the conditions when Judge Purcell handed down his Never Say Die +decision. Within an hour Hobart was reading a telegram in cipher from the +Broadway headquarters. It announced the immediate departure for Mesa of the +great leader of the octopus. Simon Harley, the Napoleon of finance, was coming +out to attend personally to the destruction of the buccaneer who had dared to +fire on the trust flag. +</p> + +<p> +Before night some one of his corps of spies in the employ of the enemy carried +the news to Waring Ridgway. He smiled grimly, his bluegray eyes hardening to +the temper of steel. Here at last was a foeman worthy of his metal; one as +lawless, unscrupulous, daring, and far-seeing as himself, with a hundred times +his resources. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap03"></a> +CHAPTER III.<br/> +ONE TO ONE</h2> + +<p> +The solitary rider stood for a moment in silhouette against the somber +sky-line, his keen eyes searching the lowering clouds. +</p> + +<p> +“Getting its back up for a blizzard,” he muttered to himself, as he touched his +pony with the spur. +</p> + +<p> +Dark, heavy billows banked in the west, piling over each other as they drove +forward. Already the advance-guard had swept the sunlight from the earth, +except for a flutter of it that still protested near the horizon. Scattering +snowflakes were flying, and even in a few minutes the temperature had fallen +many degrees. +</p> + +<p> +The rider knew the signs of old. He recognized the sudden stealthy approach +that transformed a sun-drenched, friendly plain into an unknown arctic waste. +Not for nothing had he been last year one of a search-party to find the bodies +of three miners frozen to death not fifty yards from their own cabin. He +understood perfectly what it meant to be caught away from shelter when the +driven white pall wiped out distance and direction; made long familiar +landmarks strange, and numbed the will to a helpless surrender. The knowledge +of it was spur enough to make him ride fast while he still retained the sense +of direction. +</p> + +<p> +But silently, steadily, the storm increased, and he was forced to slacken his +pace. As the blinding snow grew thick, the sound of the wind deadened, unable +to penetrate the dense white wall through which he forced his way. The world +narrowed to a space whose boundaries he could touch with his extended hands. In +this white mystery that wrapped him, nothing was left but stinging snow, bitter +cold, and the silence of the dead. +</p> + +<p> +So he thought one moment, and the next was almost flung by his swerving horse +into a vehicle that blocked the road. Its blurred outlines presently resolved +themselves into an automobile, crouched in the bottom of which was an inert +huddle of humanity. +</p> + +<p> +He shouted, forgetting that no voice could carry through the muffled scream of +the storm. When he got no answer, he guided his horse close to the machine and +reached down to snatch away the rug already heavy with snow. To his surprise, +it was a girl’s despairing face that looked up at him. She tried to rise, but +fell back, her muscles too numb to serve. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t leave me,” she implored, stretching her, arms toward him. +</p> + +<p> +He reached out and lifted her to his horse. “Are you alone?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. He went for help when the machine broke down—before the storm,” she +sobbed. He had to put his ear to her mouth to catch the words. +</p> + +<p> +“Come, keep up your heart.” There was that in his voice pealed like a +trumpet-call to her courage. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m freezing to death,” she moaned. +</p> + +<p> +She was exhausted and benumbed, her lips blue, her flesh gray. It was plain to +him that she had reached the limit of endurance, that she was ready to sink +into the last torpor. He ripped open his overcoat and shook the snow from it, +then gathered her close so that she might get the warmth of his body. The rugs +from the automobile he wrapped round them both. +</p> + +<p> +“Courage!” he cried. “There’s a miner’s cabin near. Don’t give up, child.” +</p> + +<p> +But his own courage was of the heart and will, not of the head. He had small +hope of reaching the hut at the entrance of Dead Man’s Gulch or, if he could +struggle so far, of finding it in the white swirl that clutched at them. Near +and far are words not coined for a blizzard. He might stagger past with safety +only a dozen feet from him. He might lie down and die at the very threshold of +the door. Or he might wander in an opposite direction and miss the cabin by a +mile. +</p> + +<p> +Yet it was not in the man to give up. He must stagger on till he could no +longer stand. He must fight so long as life was in him. He must crawl forward, +though his forlorn hope had vanished. And he did. When the worn-out horse +slipped down and could not be coaxed to its feet again, he picked up the bundle +of rugs and plowed forward blindly, soul and body racked, but teeth still set +fast with the primal instinct never to give up. The intense cold of the air, +thick with gray sifted ice, searched the warmth from his body and sapped his +vitality. His numbed legs doubled under him like springs. He was down and up +again a dozen times, but always the call of life drove him on, dragging his +helpless burden with him. +</p> + +<p> +That he did find the safety of the cabin in the end was due to no wisdom on his +part. He had followed unconsciously the dip of the ground that led him into the +little draw where it had been built, and by sheer luck stumbled against it. His +strength was gone, but the door gave to his weight, and he buckled across the +threshold like a man helpless with drink. He dropped to the floor, ready to +sink into a stupor, but he shook sleep from him and dragged himself to his +feet. Presently his numb fingers found a match, a newspaper, and some wood. As +soon as he had control over his hands, he fell to chafing hers. He slipped off +her dainty shoes, pathetically inadequate for such an experience, and rubbed +her feet back to feeling. She had been torpid, but when the blood began to +circulate, she cried out in agony at the pain. +</p> + +<p> +Every inch of her bore the hall-mark of wealth. The ermine-lined +motoring-cloak, the broadcloth cut on simple lines of elegance, the quality of +her lingerie and of the hosiery which incased the wonderfully small feet, all +told of a padded existence from which the cares of life had been excluded. The +satin flesh he massaged, to renew the flow of the dammed blood, was soft and +tender like a babe’s. Quite surely she was an exotic, the last woman in the +world fitted for the hardships of this frontier country. She had none of the +deep-breasted vitality of those of her sex who have fought with grim nature and +won. His experience told him that a very little longer in the storm would have +snuffed out the wick of her life. +</p> + +<p> +But he knew, too, that the danger was past. Faint tints of pink were beginning +to warm the cheeks that had been so deathly pallid. Already crimson lips were +offering a vivid contrast to the still, almost colorless face. +</p> + +<p> +For she was biting the little lips to try and keep back the cries of pain that +returning life wrung from her. Big tears coursed down her cheeks, and broken +sobs caught her breath. She was helpless as an infant before the searching pain +that wracked her. +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t stand it—I can’t stand it,” she moaned, and in her distress +stretched out her little hand for relief as a baby might to its mother. +</p> + +<p> +The childlike appeal of the flinching violet eyes in the tortured face moved +him strangely. He was accounted a hard man, not without reason. His eyes were +those of a gambler, cold and vigilant. It was said that he could follow an +undeviating course without relenting at the ruin and misery wrought upon others +by his operations. But the helpless loveliness of this exquisitely dainty +child-woman, the sense of intimacy bred of a common peril endured, of the +strangeness of their environment and of her utter dependence upon him, carried +the man out of himself and away from conventions. +</p> + +<p> +He stooped and gathered her into his arms, walking the floor with her and +cheering her as if she had indeed been the child they both for the moment +conceived her. +</p> + +<p> +“You don’t know how it hurts,” she pleaded between sobs, looking up into the +strong face so close to hers. +</p> + +<p> +“I know it must, dear. But soon it will be better. Every twinge is one less, +and shows that you are getting well. Be brave for just a few minutes more now.” +</p> + +<p> +She smiled wanly through her tears. “But I’m not brave. I’m a little +coward—and it does pain so.” +</p> + +<p> +“I know—I know. It is dreadful. But just a few minutes now.” +</p> + +<p> +“You’re good to me,” she said presently, simply as a little girl might have +said it. +</p> + +<p> +To neither of them did it seem strange that she should be there in his arms, +her fair head against his shoulder, nor that she should cling convulsively to +him when the fierce pain tingled unbearably. She had reached out for the +nearest help, and he gave of his strength and courage abundantly. +</p> + +<p> +Presently the prickling of the flowing blood grew less sharp. She began to grow +drowsy with warmth after the fatigue and pain. The big eyes shut, fluttered +open, smiled at him, and again closed. She had fallen asleep from sheer +exhaustion. +</p> + +<p> +He looked down with an odd queer feeling at the small aristocratic face relaxed +upon his ann. The long lashes had drooped to the cheeks and shuttered the eyes +that had met his with such confident appeal, but they did not hide the dark +rings underneath, born of the hardships she had endured. As he walked the floor +with her, he lived once more the terrible struggle through which they had +passed. He saw Death stretching out icy hands for her, and as his arms +unconsciously tightened about the soft rounded body, his square jaw set and the +fighting spark leaped to his eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“No, by Heaven,” he gave back aloud his defiance. +</p> + +<p> +Troubled dreams pursued her in her sleep. She clung close to him, her arm +creeping round his neck for safety. He was a man not given to fine scruples, +but all the best in him responded to her unconscious trust. +</p> + +<p> +It was so she found herself when she awakened, stiff from her cramped position. +She slipped at once to the floor and sat there drying her lace skirts, the +sweet piquancy of her childish face set out by the leaping fire-glow that lit +and shadowed her delicate coloring. Outside in the gray darkness raged the +death from which he had snatched her by a miracle. Beyond—a million miles +away—the world whose claim had loosened on them was going through its +routine of lies and love, of hypocrisies and heroisms. But here were just they +two, flung back to the primordial type by the fierce battle for existence that +had encompassed them—Adam and Eve in the garden, one to one, all else +forgot, all other ties and obligations for the moment obliterated. Had they not +struggled, heart beating against heart, with the breath of death icing them, +and come out alive? Was their world not contracted to a space ten feet by +twelve, shut in from every other planet by an illimitable stretch of storm? +</p> + +<p> +“Where should I have been if you had not found me?” she murmured, her haunting +eyes fixed on the flames. +</p> + +<p> +“But I should have found you—no matter where you had been, I should have +found you.” +</p> + +<p> +The words seemed to leap from him of themselves. He was sure he had not meant +to speak them, to voice so soon the claim that seemed to him so natural and +reasonable. +</p> + +<p> +She considered his words and found delight in acquiescing at once. The +unconscious demand for life, for love, of her starved soul had never been +gratified. But he had come to her through that fearful valley of death, because +he must, because it had always been meant he should. +</p> + +<p> +Her lustrous eyes, big with faith, looked up and met his. +</p> + +<p> +The far, wise voices of the world were storm-deadened. They cried no warning to +these drifting hearts. How should they know in that moment when their souls +reached toward each other that the wisdom of the ages had decreed their +yearning futile? +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap04"></a> +CHAPTER IV.<br/> +FORT SALVATION</h2> + +<p> +She must have fallen asleep there, for when she opened her eyes it was day. +Underneath her was a lot of bedding he had found in the cabin, and tucked about +her were the automobile rugs. For a moment her brain, still sodden with sleep, +struggled helplessly with her surroundings. She looked at the smoky rafters +without understanding, and her eyes searched the cabin wonderingly for her +maid. When she remembered, her first thought was to look for the man. That he +had gone, she saw with instinctive terror. +</p> + +<p> +But not without leaving a message. She found his penciled note, weighted for +security by a dollar, at the edge of the hearth. +</p> + +<p> +“Gone on a foraging expedition. Back in an hour, Little Partner,” was all it +said. The other man also had promised to be back in an hour, and he had not +come, but the strong chirography of the note, recalling the resolute strength +of this man’s face, brought content to her eyes. He had said he would come +back. She rested secure in that pledge. +</p> + +<p> +She went to the window and looked out over the great white wastes that rose +tier on tier to the dull sky-line. She shuddered at the arctic desolation of +the vast snow-fields. The mountains were sheeted with silence and purity. It +seemed to the untaught child-woman that she was face to face with the Almighty. +</p> + +<p> +Once during the night she had partially awakened to hear the roaring wind as it +buffeted snow-clouds across the range. It had come tearing along the divide +with the black storm in its vanguard, and she had heard fearfully the shrieks +and screams of the battle as it raged up and down the gulches and sifted into +them the deep drifts. +</p> + +<p> +Half-asleep as she was, she had been afraid and had cried out with terror at +this strange wakening; and he had been beside her in an instant. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s all right, partner. There’s nothing to be afraid of,” he had said +cheerfully, taking her little hand in his big warm one. +</p> + +<p> +Her fears had slipped away at once. Nestling down into her rug, she had smiled +sleepily at him and fallen asleep with her cheek on her hand, her other hand +still in his. +</p> + +<p> +While she had been asleep the snow-tides had filled the gulch, had risen level +with the top of the lower pane of the window. Nothing broke the smoothness of +its flow save the one track he had made in breaking a way out. That he should +have tried to find his way through such an untracked desolation amazed her. He +could never do it. No puny human atom could fight successfully against the +barriers nature had dropped so sullenly to fence them. They were set off from +the world by a quarantine of God. There was something awful to her in the +knowledge. It emphasized their impotence. Yet, this man had set himself to +fight the inevitable. +</p> + +<p> +With a little shudder she turned from the window to the cheerless room. The +floor was dirty; unwashed dishes were piled upon the table. Here and there were +scattered muddy boots and overalls, just as their owner, the prospector, had +left them before he had gone to the nearest town to restock his exhausted +supply of provisions. Disorder and dirt filled the rough cabin, or so it seemed +to her fastidious eye. +</p> + +<p> +The inspiration of the housewife seized her. She would surprise him on his +return by opening the door to him upon a house swept and garnished. She would +show him that she could be of some use even in such a primitive topsy-turvy +world as this into which Fate had thrust her willy-nilly. +</p> + +<p> +First, she carried red live coals on a shovel from the fireplace to the +cook-stove, and piled kindling upon them till it lighted. It was a new +experience to her. She knew nothing of housework; had never lit a fire in her +life, except once when she had been one of a camping party. The smoke choked +her before she had the lids back in their places, but despite her awkwardness, +the girl went about her unaccustomed tasks with a light heart. It was for her +new-found hero that she played at housekeeping. For his commendation she filled +the tea-kettle, enveloped herself in a cloud of dust as she wielded the stub of +a broom she discovered, and washed the greasy dishes after the water was hot. A +childish pleasure suffused her. All her life her least whims had been +ministered to; she was reveling in a first attempt at service. As she moved to +and fro with an improvised dust-rag, sunshine filled her being. From her lips +the joy notes fell in song, shaken from her throat for sheer happiness. This +surely was life, that life from which she had so carefully been hedged all the +years of her young existence. +</p> + +<p> +As he came down the trail he had broken, with a pack on his back, the man heard +her birdlike carol in the clear frosty air. He emptied his chest in a deep +shout, and she was instantly at the window, waving him a welcome with her +dust-rag. +</p> + +<p> +“I thought you were never coming,” she cried from the open door as he came up +the path. +</p> + +<p> +Her eyes were starry in their eagerness. Every sensitive feature was alert with +interest, so that the man thought he had never seen so mobile and attractive a +face. +</p> + +<p> +“Did it seem long?” he asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, weeks and weeks! You must be frozen to an icicle. Come in and get warm.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m as warm as toast,” he assured her. +</p> + +<p> +He was glowing with exercise and the sting of the cold, for he had tramped two +miles through drifts from three to five feet deep, battling with them every +step of the way, and carrying with him on the return trip a box of provisions. +</p> + +<p> +“With all that snow on you and the pack on your back, it’s like Santa Claus,” +she cried, clapping her hands. +</p> + +<p> +“Before we’re through with the adventure we may think that box a sure enough +gift from Santa,” he replied. +</p> + +<p> +After he had put it down, he took off his overcoat on the threshold and shook +the snow from it. Then, with much feet stamping and scattering of snow, he came +in. She fluttered about him, dragging a chair up to the fire for him, and +taking his hat and gloves. It amused and pleased him that she should be so +solicitous, and he surrendered himself to her ministrations. +</p> + +<p> +His quick eye noticed the swept floor and the evanishment of disorder. “Hello! +What’s this clean through a fall house-cleaning? I’m not the only member of the +firm that has been working. Dishes washed, floor swept, bed made, kitchen fire +lit. You’ve certainly been going some, unless the fairies helped you. Aren’t +you afraid of blistering these little hands?” he asked gaily, taking one of +them in his and touching the soft palm gently with the tip of his finger. +</p> + +<p> +“I should preserve those blisters in alcohol to show that I’ve really been of +some use,” she answered, happy in his approval. +</p> + +<p> +“Sho! People are made for different uses. Some are fit only to shovel and dig. +Others are here simply to decorate the world. Hard world. Hard work is for +those who can’t give society anything else, but beauty is its own excuse for +being,” he told her breezily. +</p> + +<p> +“Now that’s the first compliment you have given me,” she pouted prettily. “I +can get them in plenty back in the drawing-rooms where I am supposed to belong. +We’re to be real comrades here, and compliments are barred.” +</p> + +<p> +“I wasn’t complimenting you,” he maintained. “I was merely stating a principle +of art.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you mustn’t make your principles of art personal, sir. But since you +have, I’m going to refute the application of your principle and show how useful +I’ve been. Now, sir, do you know what provisions we have outside of those you +have just brought?” +</p> + +<p> +He knew exactly, since he had investigated during the night. That they might +possibly have to endure a siege of some weeks, he was quite well aware, and his +first thought, after she had gone to sleep before the fire, had been to make +inventory of such provisions as the prospector had left in his cabin. A knuckle +of ham, part of a sack of flour, some navy beans, and some tea siftings at the +bottom of a tin can; these constituted the contents of the larder which the +miner had gone to replenish. But though the man knew he assumed ignorance, for +he saw that she was bubbling over with the desire to show her forethought. +</p> + +<p> +“Tell me,” he begged of her, and after she had done so, he marveled aloud over +her wisdom in thinking of it. +</p> + +<p> +“Now tell me about your trip,” she commanded, setting herself tailor fashion on +the rug to listen. +</p> + +<p> +“There isn’t much to tell,” he smiled “I should like to make an adventure of +it, but I can’t. I just went and came back.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, you just went and came back, did you?” she scoffed. “That won’t do at all. +I want to know all about it. Did you find the machine all right?” +</p> + +<p> +“I found it where we left it, buried in four feet of snow. You needn’t be +afraid that anybody will run away with it for a day or two. The pantry was +cached pretty deep itself, but I dug it out.” +</p> + +<p> +Her shy glance admired the sturdy lines of his powerful frame. “I am afraid it +must have been a terrible task to get there through the blizzard.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, the blizzard is past. You never saw a finer, more bracing morning. It’s a +day for the gods,” he laughed boyishly. +</p> + +<p> +She could have conceived no Olympian more heroic than he, and certainly none +with so compelling a vitality. “Such a warm, kind light in them!” she thought +of the eyes others had found hard and calculating. +</p> + +<p> +It was lucky that the lunch the automobilists had brought from Avalanche was +ample and as yet untouched. The hotel waiter, who had attended to the packing +of it, had fortunately been used to reckon with outdoor Montana appetites +instead of cloyed New York ones. They unpacked the little hamper with much +gaiety. Everything was frozen solid, and the wine had cracked its bottle. +</p> + +<p> +“Shipped right through on our private refrigerator-car. That cold-storage +chicken looks the finest that ever happened. What’s this rolled up in +tissue-paper? Deviled eggs and ham sandwiches AND caviar, not to speak of +claret frappe. I’m certainly grateful to the gentleman finished in ebony who +helped to provision us for this siege. He’ll never know what a tip he missed by +not being here to collect.” +</p> + +<p> +“Here’s jelly, too, and cake,” she said, exploring with him. +</p> + +<p> +“Not to mention peaches and pears. Oh, this is luck of a special brand! I was +expecting to put up at Starvation Camp. Now we may name it Point Plenty.” +</p> + +<p> +“Or Fort Salvation,” she suggested shyly. “Because you brought me here to save +my life.” +</p> + +<p> +She was such a child, in spite of her charming grown-up airs, that he played +make-believe with a zest that surprised himself when he came to think of it. +She elected him captain of Fort Salvation, with full power of life and death +over the garrison, and he appointed her second in command. His first general +order was to put the garrison on two meals a day. +</p> + +<p> +She clapped her little hands, eyes sparkling with excitement. “Are we really +snow-bound? Must we go on half-rations?” +</p> + +<p> +“It is the part of wisdom, lieutenant,” he answered, smiling at her enthusiasm. +“We don’t know how long this siege is going to last. If it should set in to +snow, we may be here several days before the relief-party reaches us.” But, +though he spoke cheerfully, he was aware of sinister possibilities in the +situation. “Several weeks” would have been nearer his real guess. +</p> + +<p> +They ate breakfast at the shelf-table nailed in place underneath the western +window. They made a picnic of it, and her spirits skipped upon the hilltops. +For the first time she ate from tin plates, drank from a tin cup, and used a +tin spoon the worse for rust. What mattered it to her that the teapot was grimy +and the fryingpan black with soot! It was all part of the wonderful new vista +that had suddenly opened before her gaze. She had awakened into life and +already she was dimly realizing that many and varied experiences lay waiting +for her in that untrodden path beyond her cloistered world. +</p> + +<p> +A reconnaissance in the shed behind the house showed him no plethora of +firewood. But here was ax, shovel, and saw, and he asked no more. First he +shoveled out a path along the eaves of the house where she might walk in sentry +fashion to take the deep breaths of clear sharp air he insisted upon. He made +it wide enough so that her skirt would not sweep against the snow-bank, and +trod down the trench till the footing was hard and solid. Then with ax and saw +he climbed the hillside back of the house and set himself to get as much fuel +as he could. The sky was still heavy with unshed snow, and he knew that with +the coming of night the storm would be renewed. +</p> + +<p> +Came noon, mid-afternoon, the early dusk of a mountain winter, and found him +still hewing and sawing, still piling load after load in the shed. Now and +again she came out and watched him, laughing at the figure he made as he would +come plunging through the snow with his armful of fuel. +</p> + +<p> +She did not know, as he did, the vital necessity of filling the lean-to before +winter fell upon them in earnest and buried them deep with his frozen blanket, +and she was a little piqued that he should spend the whole day away from her in +such unsocial fashion. +</p> + +<p> +“Let me help,” she begged so often that he trod down a path, made boots for her +out of torn gunny-sacks which he tied round her legs, and let her drag wood to +the house on a pine branch which served for a sled. She wore her gauntlets to +protect her tender hands, and thereafter was happy until, detecting signs of +fatigue, he made her go into the house and rest. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as she dared she was back again, making fun of him and the earnestness +with which he worked. +</p> + +<p> +“Robinson Crusoe” was one name she fastened upon him, and she was not satisfied +till she had made him call her “Friday.” +</p> + +<p> +Twilight fell austere and sudden upon them with an immediate fall of +temperature that found a thermometer in her blue face. +</p> + +<p> +He recommended the house, but she was of a contrary mood. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t want to,” she announced debonairly. +</p> + +<p> +In a stiff military attitude he gave raucous mandate from his throat. +</p> + +<p> +“Commanding officer’s orders, lieutenant.” +</p> + +<p> +“I think I’m going to mutiny,” she informed him, with chin saucily in air. +</p> + +<p> +This would not do at all. The chill wind sweeping down the canon was searching +her insufficient clothing already. He picked her up in his arms and ran with +her toward the house, setting her down in the trench outside the door. She +caught her startled breath and looked at him in shy, dubious amazement. +</p> + +<p> +“Really you” she was beginning when he cut her short. +</p> + +<p> +“Commanding officer’s orders, lieutenant,” came briskly from lips that showed +just a hint of a smile. +</p> + +<p> +At once she clicked her heels together, saluted, and wheeled into the cabin. +</p> + +<p> +From the grimy window she watched his broad-shouldered vigor, waving her hand +whenever his face was turned her way. He worked like a Titan, reveling in the +joy of physical labor, but it was long past dark before he finished and came +striding to the hut. +</p> + +<p> +They made a delightful evening of it, living in the land of Never Was. For one +source of her charm lay in the gay, childlike whimsicality of her imagination. +She believed in fairies and heroes with all her heart, which with her was an +organ not located in her brain. The delicious gurgle of gaiety in her laugh was +a new find to him in feminine attractions. +</p> + +<p> +There had been many who thought the career of this pirate of industry beggared +fiction, though, few had found his flinty personality a radiaton of romance. +But this convent-nurtured child had made a discovery in men, one out of the rut +of the tailor-made, convention-bound society youths to whom her experience for +the most part had been limited. She delighted in his masterful strength, in the +confidence of his careless dominance. She liked to see that look of power in +his gray-blue eyes softened to the droll, half-tender, expression with which he +played the game of make-believe. There were no to-morrows; to-day marked the +limit of time for them. By tacit consent they lived only in the present, +shutting out deliberately from their knowledge of each other, that past which +was not common to both. Even their names were unknown to each other, and both +of them were glad that it was so. +</p> + +<p> +The long winter evening had fallen early, and they dined by candle-light, +considering merrily how much they might with safety eat and yet leave enough +for the to-morrows that lay before them. Afterward they sat before the fire, in +the shadow and shine of the flickering logs, happy and content in each other’s +presence. She dreamed, and he, watching her, dreamed, too. The wild, sweet +wonder of life surged through them, touching their squalid surroundings to the +high mystery of things unreal. +</p> + +<p> +The strangeness of it was that he was a man of large and not very creditable +experience of women, yet her deep, limpid eyes, her sweet voice, the immature +piquancy of her movements that was the expression of her, had stirred his +imagination more potently than if he had been the veriest schoolboy nursing a +downy lip. He could not keep his eyes from this slender, exquisite girl, so +dainty and graceful in her mobile piquancy. Fire and passion were in his heart +and soul, restraint and repression in his speech and manner. For the fire and +passion in him were pure and clean as the winds that sweep the hills. +</p> + +<p> +But for the girl—she was so little mistress of her heart that she had no +prescience of the meaning of this sweet content that filled her. And the voices +that should have warned her were silent, busy behind the purple hills with lies +and love and laughter and tears. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap05"></a> +CHAPTER V.<br/> +ENTER SIMON HARLEY</h2> + +<p> +The prospector’s house in which they had found refuge was perched on the +mountainside just at one edge of the draw. Rough as the girl had thought it, +there was a more pretentious appearance to it than might have been expected. +The cabin was of hewn logs mortared with mud, and care had been taken to make +it warm. The fireplace was a huge affair that ate fuel voraciously. It was +built of stone, which had been gathered from the immediate hillside. +</p> + +<p> +The prospect itself showed evidence of having been worked a good deal, and it +was an easy guess for the man who now stood looking into the tunnel that it +belonged to some one of the thousands of miners who spend half their time +earning a grubstake, and the other half dissipating it upon some hole in the +ground which they have duped themselves into believing is a mine. +</p> + +<p> +From the tunnel his eye traveled up the face of the white mountain to the great +snow-comb that yawned over the edge of the rock-rim far above. It had snowed +again heavily all night, and now showed symptoms of a thaw. Not once nor twice, +but a dozen times, the man’s anxious gaze had swept up to that great +overhanging bank. Snowslides ran every year in this section with heavy loss to +life and property. Given a rising temperature and some wind, the comb above +would gradually settle lower and lower, at last break off, plunge down the +precipitous slope, bringing thousands of tons of rock and snow with it, and, +perhaps, bury them in a Titanic grave of ice. There had been a good deal of +timber cut from the shoulder of the mountain during the past summer, and this +very greatly increased the danger. That there was a real peril the man looking +at it did not attempt to deny to himself. It would be enough to deny it to her +in case she should ever suspect. +</p> + +<p> +He had hoped for cold weather, a freeze hard enough to crust the surface of the +snow. Upon this he might have made shift somehow to get her to Yesler’s ranch, +eighteen miles away though it was, but he knew this would not be feasible with +the snow in its present condition. It was not certain that he could make the +ranch alone; encumbered with her, success would be a sheer impossibility. On +the other hand, their provisions would not last long. The outlook was not a +cheerful one, from whichever point of view he took it; yet there was one phase +of it he could not regret. The factors which made the difficulties of the +situation made also its delights. Though they were prisoners in this solitary +untrodden canyon, the sentence was upon both of them. She could look to none +other than he for aid; and, at least, the drifts which kept them in held others +out. +</p> + +<p> +Her voice at his shoulder startled him. +</p> + +<p> +“Wherefore this long communion with nature, my captain?” she gaily asked. +“Behold, my lord’s hot cakes are ready for the pan and his servant to wait upon +him.” She gave him a demure smiling little curtsy of mock deference. +</p> + +<p> +Never had her distracting charm been more in evidence. He had not seen her +since they parted on the previous night. He had built for himself a cot in the +woodshack, and had contrived a curtain that could be drawn in front of her bed +in the living-room. Thus he could enter in the morning, light the fires, and +start breakfast without disturbing her. She had dressed her hair, now in a +different way, so that it fell in low waves back from the forehead and was +bunched at the nape of her neck. The light swiftness of her dainty grace, the +almost exaggerated carnation of the slightly parted lips, the glad eagerness +that sparked her eyes, brought out effectively the picturesqueness of her +beauty. +</p> + +<p> +His grave eyes rested on her so long that a soft glow mantled her cheeks. +Perhaps her words had been too free, though she had not meant them so. For the +first time some thought of the conventions distressed her. Ought she to hold +herself more in reserve toward him? Must she restrain her natural impulses to +friendliness? +</p> + +<p> +His eyes released her presently, but not before she read in them the feelings +that had softened them as they gazed into hers. They mirrored his poignant +pleasure at the delight of her sweet slenderness so close to him, his perilous +joy at the intimacy fate had thrust upon them. Shyly her lids fell to the +flushed cheeks. +</p> + +<p> +“Breakfast is ready,” she added self-consciously, her girlish innocence +startled like a fawn of the forest at the hunter’s approach. +</p> + +<p> +For whereas she had been blind now she saw in part. Some flash of clairvoyance +had laid bare a glimpse of his heart and her own to her. Without +misunderstanding the perfect respect for her which he felt, she knew the turbid +banked emotions which this dammed. Her heart seemed to beat in her bosom like +an imprisoned dove. +</p> + +<p> +It was his voice, calm and resonant with strength, that brought her to earth +again. +</p> + +<p> +“And I am ready for it, lieutenant. Right about face. Forward—march!” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +After breakfast they went out and tramped together the little path of +hard-trodden snow in front of the house. She broached the prospect of a rescue +or the chances of escape. +</p> + +<p> +“We shall soon be out of food, and, anyhow, we can’t stay here all winter,” she +suggested with a tremulous little laugh. +</p> + +<p> +“You are naturally very tired of it already,” he hazarded. +</p> + +<p> +“It has been the experience of my life. I shall fence it off from all the days +that have passed and all that are to come,” she made answer vividly. +</p> + +<p> +Their eyes met, but only for an instant. +</p> + +<p> +“I am glad,” he said quietly. +</p> + +<p> +He began, then, to tell her what he must do, but at the first word of it she +broke out in protest. +</p> + +<p> +“No—no—no! We shall stay together. If you go I am going, too.” +</p> + +<p> +“I wish you could, but it is not possible. You could never get there. The snow +is too soft and heavy for wading and not firm enough to bear your weight.” +</p> + +<p> +“But you will have to wade.” +</p> + +<p> +“I am stronger than you, lieutenant.” +</p> + +<p> +“I know, but——” She broke down and confessed her terror. “Would you +leave me here—alone—with all this snow Oh, I couldn’t stay—I +couldn’t.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s the only way,” he said steadily. Every fiber in him rebelled at leaving +her here to face peril alone, but his reason overrode the desire and rebellion +that were hot within him. He must think first of her ultimate safety, and this +lay in getting her away from here at the first chance. +</p> + +<p> +Tears splashed down from the big eyes. “I didn’t think you would leave me here +alone. With you I don’t mind it, but— Oh, I should die if I stayed +alone.” +</p> + +<p> +“Only for twenty-four hours. Perhaps less. I shouldn’t think of it if it +weren’t necessary.” +</p> + +<p> +“Take me with you. I am strong. You don’t know how strong I am. I promise to +keep up with you. Please!” +</p> + +<p> +He shook his head. “I would take you with me if I could. You know that. But +it’s a man’s fight. I shall have to stand up to it hour after hour till I reach +Yesler’s ranch. I shall get through, but it would not be possible for you to +make it.” +</p> + +<p> +“And if you don’t get through?” +</p> + +<p> +He refused to consider that contingency. “But I shall. You may look to see me +back with help by this time to-morrow morning.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m not afraid with you. But if you go away Oh, I can’t stand it. You don’t +know—you don’t know.” She buried her face in her hands. +</p> + +<p> +He had to swallow down his sympathy before he went on. “Yes, I know. But you +must be brave. You must think of every minute as being one nearer to the time +of my return.” +</p> + +<p> +“You will think me a dreadful coward, and I am. But I can’t help it. I AM +afraid to stay alone. There’s nothing in the world but mountains of snow. They +are horrible—like death—except when you are here.” +</p> + +<p> +Her child eyes coaxed him to stay. The mad longing was in him to kiss the rosy +little mouth with the queer alluring droop to its corners. It was a strange +thing how, with that arched twist to her eyebrows and with that smile which +came and went like sunshine in her eyes, she toppled his lifelong creed. The +cardinal tenet of his faith had been a belief in strength. He had first been +drawn to Virginia by reason of her pluck and her power. Yet this child’s very +weakness was her fountain of strength. She cried out with pain, and he counted +it an asset of virtue in her. She acknowledged herself a coward, and his heart +went out to her because of it. The battle assignments of life were not for the +soft curves and shy winsomeness of this dainty lamb. +</p> + +<p> +“You will be brave. I expect you to be brave, lieutenant.” Words of love and +comfort were crowding to his brain, but he would not let them out. +</p> + +<p> +“How long will you be gone?” she sobbed. +</p> + +<p> +“I may possibly get back before midnight, but you mustn’t begin to expect me +until to-morrow morning, perhaps not till to-morrow afternoon.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I couldn’t—I couldn’t stay here at night alone. Don’t go, please. +I’ll not get hungry, truly I won’t, and to-morrow they will find us.” +</p> + +<p> +He rose, his face working. “I MUST go, child. It’s the thing to do. I wish to +Heaven it weren’t. You must think of yourself as quite safe here. You ARE safe. +Don’t make it hard for me to go, dear.” +</p> + +<p> +“I AM a coward. But I can’t help it. There is so much snow—and the +mountains are so big.” She tried valiantly to crush down her sobs. “But go. +I’ll—I’ll not be afraid.” +</p> + +<p> +He buried her little hands in his two big ones and looked deep into her eyes. +“Every minute of the time I am away from you I shall be with you in spirit. +You’ll not be alone any minute of the day or night. Whether you are awake or +asleep I shall be with you.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll try to remember that,” she answered, smiling up at him but with a +trembling lip. +</p> + +<p> +She put him up some lunch while he made his simple preparations. To the end of +the trench she walked with him, neither of them saying a word. The moment of +parting had come. +</p> + +<p> +She looked up at him with a crooked wavering little smile. She wanted to be +brave, but she could not trust herself to say a word. +</p> + +<p> +“Remember, dear. I am not leaving you. My body has gone on an errand. That is +all.” +</p> + +<p> +Just now she found small comfort in this sophistry, but she did not tell him +so. +</p> + +<p> +“I—I’ll remember.” She gulped down a sob and still smiled through the +mist that filmed her sight. +</p> + +<p> +In his face she could see how much he was moved at her distress. Always a +creature of impulse, one mastered her now, the need to let her weakness rest on +his strength. Her arms slipped quickly round his neck and her head lay buried +on his shoulder. He held her tight, eyes shining, the desire of her held in +leash behind set teeth, the while sobs shook her soft round body in gusts. +</p> + +<p> +“My lamb—my sweet precious lamb,” she heard him murmur in anguish. +</p> + +<p> +From some deep sex trait it comforted her that he suffered. With the mother +instinct she began to regain control of herself that she might help him. +</p> + +<p> +“It will not be for long,” she assured him. “And every step of your way I shall +pray for, your safety,” she whispered. +</p> + +<p> +He held her at arm’s length while his gaze devoured her, then silently he +wheeled away and plunged waist deep into the drifts. As long as he was in sight +he saw her standing there, waving her handkerchief to him in encouragement. Her +slight, dark figure, outlined against the snow, was the last thing his eyes +fell upon before he turned a corner of the gulch and dropped downward toward +the plains. +</p> + +<p> +But when he was surely gone, after one fearful look at the white sea which +encompassed her, the girl fled to the cabin, slammed the door after her, and +flung herself on the bed to weep out her lonely terror in an ecstasy of tears. +She had spent the first violence of her grief, and was sitting crouched on the +rug before the open fire when the sound of a footstep, crunching the snow, +startled her. The door opened, to let in the man who had just left her. +</p> + +<p> +“You are back—already,” she cried, her tear? stained face lifted toward +him. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” he smiled’ from the doorway. “Come here, little partner.” +</p> + +<p> +And when she had obediently joined him her eye followed his finger up the +mountain-trail to a bend round which men and horses were coming. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s a relief-party,” he said, and caught up his field-glasses to look them +over more certainly. Two men on horseback, leading a third animal, were +breaking a way down the trail, black spots against the background of white. “I +guess Fort Salvation’s about to be relieved,” he added grimly, following the +party through the glasses. +</p> + +<p> +She touched the back of his hand with a finger. “Are you glad?” she asked +softly. +</p> + +<p> +“No, by Heaven!” he cried, lowering his glasses swiftly. +</p> + +<p> +As he looked into her eyes the blood rushed to his brain with a surge. Her face +turned to his unconsciously, and their lips met. +</p> + +<p> +“And I don’t even know your name,” she murmured. +</p> + +<p> +“Waring Ridgway; and yours?” +</p> + +<p> +“Aline Hope,” she said absently. Then a hot Rush ran over the girlish face. +“No, no, I had forgotten. I was married last week.” +</p> + +<p> +The gates of paradise, open for two days, clanged to on Ridgway. He stared out +with unseeing eyes into the silent wastes of snow. The roaring in his ears and +the mountainsides that churned before his eyes were reflections of the blizzard +raging within him. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll never forget—never,” he heard her falter, and her voice was a +thousand miles away. +</p> + +<p> +From the storm within him he was aroused by a startled cry from the girl at his +side. Her fascinated gaze was fixed on the summit of the ridge above them. +There was a warning crackle. The overhanging comb snapped, slid slowly down, +and broke off. With gathering momentum it descended, sweeping into its heart +rocks, trees, and debris. A terrific roar filled the air as the great white +cloud came tearing down like an express-train. +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway caught her round the waist and flung the girl against the wall of the +cabin, protecting her with his body. The avalanche was upon them, splitting +great trees to kindling-wood in the fury of its rush. The concussion of the +wind shattered every window to fragments, almost tore the cabin from its +foundations. Only the extreme tail of the slide touched them, yet they were +buried deep in flying snow. +</p> + +<p> +He found no great difficulty in digging a way out, and when he lifted her to +the surface she was conscious. Yet she was pale even to the lips and trembled +like an aspen in the summer breeze, clinging to him for support helplessly. +</p> + +<p> +His cheerful voice rang like a bugle to her shocked brain. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s all past. We’re safe now, dear—quite safe.” +</p> + +<p> +The first of the trail-breakers had dismounted and was plowing his way +hurriedly to the cabin, but neither of them saw him as he came up the slope. +</p> + +<p> +“Are you sure?” She shuddered, her hands still in his. “Wasn’t it awful? I +thought—” Her sentence trailed out unfinished. +</p> + +<p> +“Are you unhurt, Aline?” cried the newcomer. And when he saw she was, he added: +“Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good: for His mercy +endureth forever. He saved them for His name’s sake, that He might make His +mighty power to be known.” +</p> + +<p> +At sound of the voice they turned and saw the man hurrying toward them. He was +tall, gray, and seventy, of massive frame and gaunt, still straight and +vigorous, with the hooked nose and piercing eyes of a hawk. At first glance he +looked always the bird of prey, but at the next as invariably the wolf, an +effect produced by the salient reaching jaw and the glint of white teeth bared +for a lip smile. Just now he was touched to a rare emotion. His hands trembled +and an expression of shaken thankfulness rested in his face. +</p> + +<p> +Aline, still with Ridgway’s strong arms about her, slowly came back to the +inexorable facts of life. +</p> + +<p> +“You—here?” +</p> + +<p> +“As soon as we could get through—and thank God in time.” +</p> + +<p> +“I would have died, except for—” This brought her immediately to an +introduction, and after she had quietly released herself the man who had saved +her heard himself being formally presented: “Mr. Ridgway, I want you to meet my +husband, Mr. Harley.” +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway turned to Simon Harley a face of hammered steel and bowed, putting his +hands deliberately behind his back. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve been expecting you at Mesa, Mr. Harley,” he said rigidly. “I’ll be glad +to have the pleasure of welcoming you there.” +</p> + +<p> +The great financier was wondering where he had heard the man’s name before, but +he only said gravely: “You have a claim on me I can never forget, Mr. Ridgway.” +</p> + +<p> +Scornfully the other disdained this proffer. “Not at all. You owe me nothing, +Mr. Harley—absolutely nothing. What I have done I have done for her. It +is between her and me.” +</p> + +<p> +At this moment the mind of Harley fitted the name Ridgway to its niche in his +brain. So this was the audacious filibuster who had dared to fire on the trust +flag, the man he had come West to ruin and to humble. +</p> + +<p> +“I think you will have to include me, Mr. Ridgway,” he said suavely. “What is +done for my wife is done, also, for me.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap06"></a> +CHAPTER VI.<br/> +ON THE SNOW-TRAIL</h2> + +<p> +Aline had passed into the house, moved by an instinct which shrank from +publicity in the inevitable personal meeting between her and her husband. Now, +Harley, with the cavalier nod of dismissal, which only a multimillionaire can +afford, followed her and closed the door. A passionate rush of blood swept +Ridgway’s face. He saw red as he stood there with eyes burning into that door +which had been shut in his face. The nails of his clenched fingers bit into his +palms, and his muscles gathered themselves tensely. He had been cast aside, +barred from the woman he loved by this septuagenarian, as carelessly as if he +had no claim. +</p> + +<p> +And it came home to him that now he had no claim, none before the law and +society. They had walked in Arcadia where shepherds pipe. They had taken life +for granted as do the creatures of the woods, forgetful of the edicts of a +world that had seemed far and remote. But that world had obtruded itself and +shattered their dream. In the person of Simon Harley it had shut the door which +was to separate him and her. Hitherto he had taken from life what he had +wanted, but already he was grappling with the blind fear of a fate for once too +strong for him. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I’m damned if it isn’t Waring Ridgway,” called a mellow voice from +across the gulch. +</p> + +<p> +The man named turned, and gradually the set lines of his jaw relaxed. +</p> + +<p> +“I didn’t notice it was you, Sam. Better bring the horses across this side of +that fringe of aspens.” +</p> + +<p> +The dismounted horseman followed directions and brought the floundering horses +through, and after leaving them in the cleared place where Ridgway had cut his +firewood he strolled leisurely forward to meet the mine-owner. He was a +youngish man, broad of shoulder and slender of waist, a trifle bowed in the +legs from much riding, but with an elastic sufficiency that promised him the +man for an emergency, a pledge which his steady steel-blue eyes, with the +humorous lines about the corners, served to make more valuable. His apparel +suggested the careless efficiency of the cow-man, from the high-heeled boots +into which were thrust his corduroys to the broad-brimmed white Stetson set on +his sunreddened wavy hair. A man’s man, one would vote him at first sight, and +subsequent impressions would not contradict the first. +</p> + +<p> +“Didn’t know you were down in this neck of woods, Waring,” he said pleasantly, +as they shook hands. +</p> + +<p> +An onlooker might have noticed that both of them gripped hands heartily and +looked each other squarely in the eye. +</p> + +<p> +“I came down on business and got caught in the blizzard on my way back. Came on +her freezing in the machine and brought her here along with me. I had my eye on +that slide. The snow up there didn’t look good to me, and the grub was about +out, anyhow, so I was heading for the C B Ranch when I sighted you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Golden luck for her. I knew it was a chance in a million that she was still +alive, but Harley wanted to take it. Say, that old fellow’s made of steel wire. +Two of my boys are plugging along a mile or two behind us, but he stayed right +with the game to a finish—and him seventy-three, mind you, and a New +Yorker at that. The old boy rides like he was born in a saddle,” said Sam +Yesler with enthusiasm. +</p> + +<p> +“I never said he was a quitter,” conceded Ridgway ungraciously. +</p> + +<p> +“You’re right he ain’t. And say, but he’s fond of his wife. Soon as he struck +the ranch the old man butted out again into the blizzard to get +her—slipped out before we knew it. The boys rounded him up wandering +round the big pasture, and none too soon neither. All the time we had to keep +herd on him to keep him from taking another whirl at it. He was like a crazy +man to tackle it, though he must a-known it was suicide. Funny how a man takes +a shine to a woman and thinks the sun rises and sets by her. Far, as I have +been able to make out women are much of a sameness, though I ain’t setting up +for a judge. Like as not this woman don’t care a hand’s turn for him.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why should she? He bought her with his millions, I suppose. What right has an +old man like that with one foot in the grave to pick out a child and marry her? +I tell you, Sam, there’s something ghastly about it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, well, I reckon when she sold herself she knew what she was getting. It’s +about an even thing—six of one and half a dozen of the other. There must +be something rotten about a woman who will do a thing of that sort.” +</p> + +<p> +“Wait till you’ve seen her before passing judgment. And after you have you’ll +apologize if you’re a white man for thinking such a thing about her,” the miner +said hotly. +</p> + +<p> +Yesler looked at his friend in amiable surprise. “I don’t reckon we need to +quarrel about Simon Harley’s matrimonial affairs, do we?” he laughed. +</p> + +<p> +“Not unless you want to say any harm of that lamb.” +</p> + +<p> +A glitter of mischief gleamed from the cattleman’s eyes. “Meaning Harley, +Waring?” +</p> + +<p> +“You know who I mean. I tell you she’s an angel from heaven, pure as the driven +snow.” +</p> + +<p> +“And I tell you that I’ll take your word for it without quarreling with you,” +was the goodhumored retort. “What’s up, anyhow? I never saw you so touchy +before. You’re a regular pepper-box.” +</p> + +<p> +The rescuers had brought food with them, and the party ate lunch before +starting back. The cow-punchers of the C B had now joined them, both of them, +as well as their horses, very tired with the heavy travel. +</p> + +<p> +“This here Marathon race business through three-foot snow ain’t for invalids +like me and Husky,” one of them said cheerfully, with his mouth full of +sandwich. “We’re also rans, and don’t even show for place.” +</p> + +<p> +Yet though two of them had, temporarily at least, been rescued from imminent +danger, and success beyond their expectations had met the others, it was a +silent party. A blanket of depression seemed to rest upon it, which the good +stories of Yesler and the genial nonsense of his man, Chinn, were unable to +lift. Three of them, at least, were brooding over what the morning had brought +forth, and trying to realize what it might mean for them. +</p> + +<p> +“We’d best be going, I expect,” said Yesler at last. “We’ve got a right heavy +bit of work cut out for us, and the horses are through feeding. We can’t get +started any too soon for me.” +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway nodded silently. He knew that the stockman was dubious, as he himself +was, about being able to make the return trip in safety. The horses were tired; +so, too, were the men who had broken the heavy trail for so many miles, with +the exception of Sam himself, who seemed built of whipcord and elastic. They +would be greatly encumbered by the woman, for she would certainly give out +during the journey. The one point in their favor was that they could follow a +trail which had already been trodden down. +</p> + +<p> +Simon Harley helped his wife into the boy’s saddle on the back of the animal +they had led, but his inexperience had to give way to Yesler’s skill in fitting +the stirrups to the proper length for her feet. To Ridgway, who had held +himself aloof during this preparation, the stockman now turned with a wave of +his hand toward his horse. +</p> + +<p> +“You ride, Waring.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, I’m fresh.” +</p> + +<p> +“All right. We’ll take turns.” +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway led the party across the gulch, following the trail that had been swept +by the slide. The cowboys followed him, next came Harley, his wife, and in the +rear the cattleman. They descended the draw, and presently dipped over rolling +ground to the plain beyond. The procession plowed steadily forward mile after +mile, the pomes floundering through drifts after the man ahead. +</p> + +<p> +Chinn, who had watched him breasting the soft heavy blanket that lay on the +ground so deep and hemmed them in, turned to his companion. +</p> + +<p> +“On the way coming I told you, Husky, we had the best man in Montana at our +head. We got that beat now to a fare-you-well. We got the two best in this +party, by crickey.” +</p> + +<p> +“He’s got the guts, all right, but there ain’t nothing on two legs can keep it +up much longer,” replied the other. “If you want to know, I’m about all in +myself.” +</p> + +<p> +“Here, too,” grunted the other. “And so’s the bronc.” +</p> + +<p> +It was not, however, until dusk was beginning to fall that the leader stopped. +Yesler’s voice brought him up short in his tracks. +</p> + +<p> +“Hold on, Waring. The lady’s down.” +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway strode back past the exhausted cowboys and Harley, the latter so beaten +with fatigue that he could scarce cling to the pommel of his saddle. +</p> + +<p> +“I saw it coming. She’s been done for a long time, but she hung on like a +thoroughbred,” explained Yesler from the snow-bank where Aline had fallen. +</p> + +<p> +He had her in his arms and was trying to get at a flask of whisky in his +hip-pocket. +</p> + +<p> +“All right. I’ll take care of her, Sam. You go ahead with your horse and break +trail. I don’t like the way this wind is rising. It’s wiping out the path you +made when you broke through. How far’s the ranch now?” +</p> + +<p> +“Close to five miles.” +</p> + +<p> +Both men had lowered their voices almost to a whisper. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s going to be a near thing, Sam. Your men are played out. Harley will never +make it without help. From now on every mile will be worse than the last.” +</p> + +<p> +Yesler nodded quietly. “Some one has got to go ahead for help. That’s the only +way.” +</p> + +<p> +“It will have to be you, of course. You know the road best and can get back +quickest. Better take her pony. It’s the fittest.” +</p> + +<p> +The owner of the C B hesitated an instant before he answered. He was the last +man in the world to desert a comrade that was down, but his common sense told +him his friend had spoken wisely. The only chance for the party was to get help +to it from the ranch. +</p> + +<p> +“All right. If anybody plays out beside her try to keep him going. If it comes +to a showdown leave him for me to pick up. Don’t let him stop the whole +outfit.” +</p> + +<p> +“Sure. Better leave me that bottle of whisky. So-long.” +</p> + +<p> +“You’re going to ride, I reckon?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. I’ll have to.” +</p> + +<p> +“Get up on my horse and I’ll give her to you. That’s right Well, I’ll see you +later.” +</p> + +<p> +And with that the stockman was gone. For long they could see him, plunging +slowly forward through the drifts, getting always smaller and smaller, till +distance and the growing darkness swallowed him. +</p> + +<p> +Presently the girl in Ridgway’s arms opened her eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“I heard what you and he said,” she told him quietly. +</p> + +<p> +“About what?” he smiled down into the white face that looked up into his. +</p> + +<p> +“You know. About our danger. I’m not afraid, not the least little bit.” +</p> + +<p> +“You needn’t be. We’re coming through, all right. Sam will make it to the +ranch. He’s a man in a million.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t mean that. I’m not afraid, anyway, whether we do or not.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why?” he asked, his heart beating wildly. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know, but I’m not,” she murmured with drowsy content. +</p> + +<p> +But he knew if she did not. Her fear had passed because he was there, holding +her in his arms, fighting to the last ounce of power in him for her life. She +felt he would never leave her, and that, if it came to the worst, she would +pass from life with him close to her. Again he knew that wild exultant beat of +blood no woman before this one had ever stirred in him. +</p> + +<p> +Harley was the first to give up. He lurched forward and slipped from the saddle +to the snow, and could not be cursed into rising. The man behind dismounted, +put down his burden, and dragged the old man to his feet. +</p> + +<p> +“Here! This won’t do. You’ve got to stick it out.” +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t. I’ve reached my limit.” Then testily: “‘Are not my days few? Cease +then, and let me alone,’” he added wearily, with his everready tag of +Scripture. +</p> + +<p> +The instant the other’s hold on him relaxed the old man sank back. Ridgway +dragged him up and cuffed him like a troublesome child. He knew this was no +time for reasoning. +</p> + +<p> +“Are you going to lie down and quit, you old loafer? I tell you the ranch is +only a mile or two. Here, get into the saddle.” +</p> + +<p> +By sheer strength the younger man hoisted him into the seat. He was very tired +himself, but the vital sap of youth in him still ran strong in his blood. For a +few yards farther they pushed on before Harley slid down again and his horse +stopped. +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway passed him by, guiding his bronco in a half-circle through the snow. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll send back help for you,” he promised. +</p> + +<p> +“It will be too late, but save her—save her,” the old man begged. +</p> + +<p> +“I will,” called back the other between set teeth. +</p> + +<p> +Chinn was the next to drop out, and after him the one he called Husky. Both +their horses had been abandoned a mile or two back, too exhausted to continue. +Each of them Ridgway urged to stick to the trail and come on as fast as they +could. +</p> + +<p> +He knew the horse he was riding could not much longer keep going with the +double weight, and when at length its strength gave out completely he went on +afoot, carrying her in his arms as on that eventful night when he had saved her +from the blizzard. +</p> + +<p> +It was so the rescue-party found him, still staggering forward with her like a +man in a sleep, flesh and blood and muscles all protestant against the cruelty +of his indomitable will that urged them on in spite of themselves. In a dream +he heard Yesler’s cheery voice, gave up his burden to one of the rescuers, and +found himself being lifted to a fresh horse. From this dream he awakened to +find himself before the great fire of the living-room of the ranch-house, +wakened from it only long enough to know that somebody was undressing him and +helping him into bed. +</p> + +<p> +Nature, with her instinct for renewing life, saw to it that Ridgway slept round +the clock. He arose fit for anything. His body, hard as nails, suffered no +reaction from the terrific strain he had put upon it, and he went down to his +breakfast with an appetite ravenous for whatever good things Yesler’s Chinese +cook might have prepared for him. +</p> + +<p> +He found his host already at work on a juicy steak. +</p> + +<p> +“Mornin’,” nodded that gentleman. “Hope you feel as good as you look.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m all right, barring a little stiffness in my muscles. I’ll feel good as the +wheat when I’ve got outside of the twin steak to that one you have.” +</p> + +<p> +Yesler touched a bell, whereupon a soft-footed Oriental appeared, turned almond +eyes on his proprietor, took orders and padded silently back to his +kingdom—the kitchen. Almost immediately he reappeared with a bowl of +oatmeal and a pitcher of cream. +</p> + +<p> +“Go to it, Waring.” +</p> + +<p> +His host waved him the freedom of the diningroom, and Ridgway fell to. Never +before had food tasted so good. He had been too sleepy to eat last night, but +now he made amends. The steak, the muffins, the coffee, were all beyond praise, +and when he came to the buckwheat hot cakes, sandwiched with butter and +drenched with real maple syrup, his satisfied soul rose up and called Hop Lee +blessed. When he had finished, Sam capped the climax by shoving toward him his +case of Havanas. +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway’s eyes glistened. “I haven’t smoked for days,” he explained, and after +the smoke had begun to rise, he added: “Ask what you will, even to the half of +my kingdom, it’s yours.” +</p> + +<p> +“Or half of the Consolidated’s,” amended his friend with twinkling eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“Even so, Sam,” returned the other equably. “And now, tell me how you managed +to round us all up safely.” +</p> + +<p> +“You’ve heard, then, that we got the whole party in time?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I’ve been talking with one of your enthusiastic riders that went out with +you after us. He’s been flimflammed into believing you the greatest man in the +United States. Tell me how you do it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Nick’s a good boy, but I reckon he didn’t tell you quite all that.” +</p> + +<p> +“Didn’t he? You should have heard him reel off your praises by the yard. I got +the whole story of how you headed the relief-party after you had reached the +ranch more dead than alive.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then, if you’ve got it, I don’t need to tell you. I WAS a bit worried about +the old man. He was pretty far gone when we reached him, but he pulled through +all right. He’s still sleeping like a top.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is he?” His guest’s hard gaze came round to meet his. “And the lady? Do you +know how she stood it?” +</p> + +<p> +“My sister says she was pretty badly played out, but all she needs is rest. +Nell put her in her own bed, and she, too, has been doing nothing but sleep.” +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway smoked out his cigar in silence then tossed it into the fireplace as he +rose briskly. +</p> + +<p> +“I want to talk to Mesa over the phone, Sam.” +</p> + +<p> +“Can’t do it. The wires are down. This storm played the deuce with them.” +</p> + +<p> +“The devil! I’ll have to get through myself then.” +</p> + +<p> +“Forget business for a day or two, Waring, and take it easy up here,” counseled +his host. +</p> + +<p> +“Can’t do it. I have to make arrangements to welcome Simon Harley to Mesa. The +truth is, Sam, that there are several things that won’t wait. I’ve got to frame +them up my way. Can you get me through to the railroad in time to catch the +Limited?” +</p> + +<p> +“I think so. The road has been traveled for two or three days. If you really +must go. I hate to have you streak off like this.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’d like to stay, Sam, but I can’t. For one thing, there’s that senatorial +fight coming on. Now that Harley’s on the ground in person, I’ll have to look +after my fences pretty close. He’s a good fighter, and he’ll be out to win.” +</p> + +<p> +“After what you’ve done for him. Don’t you think that will make a difference, +Waring?” +</p> + +<p> +His friend laughed without mirth. “What have I done for him? I left him in the +snow to die, and while a good many thousand other people would bless me for it, +probably he has a different point of view.” +</p> + +<p> +“I was thinking of what you did for his wife.” +</p> + +<p> +“You’ve said it exactly. I did it for her, not for him. I’ll accept nothing +from Harley on that account. He is outside of the friendship between her and +me, and he can’t jimmy his way in.” +</p> + +<p> +Yesler shrugged his shoulders. “All right. I’ll order a rig hitched for you and +drive you over myself. I want to talk over this senatorial fight anyhow. The +way things look now it’s going to be the rottenest session of the legislature +we’ve ever had. Sometimes I’m sick of being mixed up in the thing, but I got +myself elected to help straighten out things, and I’m certainly going to try.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s right, Sam. With a few good fighters like you we can win out. Anything +to beat the Consolidated.” +</p> + +<p> +“Anything to keep our politics decent,” corrected the other. “I’ve got nothing +against the Consolidated, but I won’t lie down and let it or any other private +concern hog-tie this State—not if I can help it, anyhow.” +</p> + +<p> +Behind wary eyes Ridgway studied him. He was wondering how far this man would +go as his tool. Sam Yesler held a unique position in the State. His influence +was commanding among the sturdy old-time population represented by the +non-mining interests of the smaller towns and open plains. He must be won at +all hazards to lend it in the impending fight against Harley. The mine-owner +knew that no thought of personal gain would move him. He must be made to feel +that it was for the good of the State that the Consolidated be routed. Ridgway +resolved to make him see it that way. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap07"></a> +CHAPTER VII.<br/> +BACK FROM ARCADIA</h2> + +<p> +The president of the Mesa Ore-producing Company stepped from the parlor-car of +the Limited at the hour when all wise people are taking life easy after a good +dinner. He did not, however, drive to his club, but took a cab straight for his +rooms, where he had telegraphed Eaton to meet him with the general +superintendent of all his properties and his private secretary, Smythe. For +nearly a week his finger had been off the pulse of the situation, and he wanted +to get in touch again as soon as possible. For in a struggle as tense as the +one between him and the trust, a hundred vital things might have happened in +that time. He might be coming back to catastrophe and ruin, brought about while +he had been a prisoner to love in that snow-bound cabin. +</p> + +<p> +Prisoner to love he had been and still was, but the business men who met him at +his rooms, fellow adventurers in the forlorn hope he had hitherto led with such +signal success, could have read nothing of this in the marble, chiseled face of +their sagacious general, so indomitable of attack and insatiate of success. His +steel-hard eyes gave no hint of the Arcadia they had inhabited so eagerly a +short twenty-four hours before. The intoxicating madness he had known was +chained deep within him. Once more he had a grip on himself; was sheathed in a +cannonproof plate armor of selfishness. No more magic nights of starshine, +breathing fire and dew; no more lifted moments of exaltation stinging him to a +pulsating wonder at life’s wild delight. He was again the inexorable driver of +men, with no pity for their weaknesses any more than for his own. +</p> + +<p> +The men whom he found waiting for him at his rooms were all young Westerners +picked out by him because he thought them courageous, unscrupulous and loyal. +Like him, they were privateers in the seas of commerce, and sailed under no +flag except the one of insurrection he had floated. But all of them, though +they were associated with him and hoped to ride to fortune on the wave that +carried him there, recognized themselves as subordinates in the enterprises he +undertook. They were merely heads of departments, and they took orders like +trusted clerks with whom the owner sometimes unbends and advises. +</p> + +<p> +Now he heard their reports, asked an occasional searching question, and swiftly +gave decisions of far-reaching import. It was past midnight before he had +finished with them, and instead of retiring for the sleep he might have been +expected to need, he spent the rest of the night inspecting the actual workings +of the properties he had not seen for six days. Hour after hour he passed +examining the developments, sometimes in the breasts of the workings and again +consulting with engineers and foremen in charge. Light was breaking in the sky +before he stepped from the cage of the Jack Pot and boarded a street-car for +his rooms. Cornishmen and Hungarians and Americans, going with their +dinner-buckets to work, met him and received each a nod or a word of greeting +from this splendidly built young Hermes in miners’ slops, who was to many of +them, in their fancy, a deliverer from the slavery which the Consolidated was +ready to force upon them. +</p> + +<p> +Once at his rooms, Ridgway took a cold bath, dressed carefully, breakfasted, +and was ready to plunge into the mass of work which had accumulated during his +absence at the mining camp of Alpine and the subsequent period while he was +snowbound. These his keen, practical mind grasped and disposed of in crisp +sentences. To his private secretary he rapped out order sharply and decisively. +</p> + +<p> +“Phone Ballard and Dalton I want to see them at once. Tell Murphy I won’t talk +with him. What I said before I left was final. Write Cadwallader we can’t do +business on the terms he proposes, but add that I’m willing to continue his +Mary Kinney lease. Dictate a letter to Riley’s lawyer, telling him I can’t +afford to put a premium on incompetence and negligence; that if his client was +injured in the Jack Pot explosion, he has nobody but himself to blame for it. +Otherwise, of course, I should be glad to pension him. Let me see the letter +before you send it. I don’t want anything said that will offend the union. Have +two tons of good coal sent up to Riley’s house, and notify his grocer that all +bills for the next three months may be charged to me. And, Smythe, ask Mr. +Eaton to step this way.” +</p> + +<p> +Stephen Eaton, an alert, clear-eyed young fellow who served as fidus Achates to +Ridgway, and was the secretary and treasurer of the Mesa Ore-producing Company, +took the seat Smythe had vacated. He was good-looking, after a boyish, +undistinguished fashion, but one disposed to be critical might have voted the +chin not quite definite enough. He had been a clerk of the Consolidated, +working for one hundred dollars a month, when Ridgway picked him out and set +his feet in the way of fortune. He had done this out of personal liking, and, +in return, the subordinate was frankly devoted to his chief. +</p> + +<p> +“Steve, my opinion is that Alpine is a false alarm. Unless I guess wrong, it is +merely a surface proposition and low-grade at that.” +</p> + +<p> +“Miller says—” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I know what Miller says. He’s wrong. I don’t care if he is the biggest +copper expert in the country.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you won’t invest?” +</p> + +<p> +“I have invested—bought the whole outfit, lock, stock and barrel.” +</p> + +<p> +“But why? What do you want with it if the property is no good?” asked Eaton in +surprise. +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway laughed shortly. “I don’t want it, but the Consolidated does. Two of +their experts were up at Alpine last week, and both of them reported favorably. +I’ve let it leak out to their lawyer, O’Malley, that Miller thought well of it; +in fact, I arranged to let one of their spies steal a copy of his report to +us.” +</p> + +<p> +“But when they know you have bought it?” +</p> + +<p> +“They won’t know till too late. I bought through a dummy. It seemed a pity not +to let then have the property since they wanted it so badly, so this morning he +sold out for me to the Consolidated at a profit of a hundred and fifty +thousand.” +</p> + +<p> +Eaton grinned appreciatively. It was in startling finesse of this sort his +chief excelled, and Stephen was always ready with applause. +</p> + +<p> +“I notice that Hobart slipped out of town last night. That is where he must +have been going. He’ll be sick when he learns how you did him.” +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway permitted himself an answering smile. “I suppose it will irritate him a +trifle, but that can’t be helped. I needed that money to get clear on that last +payment for the Sherman Bell.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I was worried about that. Notes have been piling up against us that must +be met. There’s the Ransom note, too. It’s for a hundred thousand.” +</p> + +<p> +“He’ll extend it,” said the chief confidently. +</p> + +<p> +“He told me he would have to have his money when it came due. I’ve noticed he +has been pretty close to Mott lately. I expect he has an arrangement with the +Consolidated to push us.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m watching him, Steve. Don’t worry about that. He did arrange to sell the +note to Mott, but I stopped that little game.” +</p> + +<p> +“How?” +</p> + +<p> +“For a year I’ve had all the evidence of that big government timber steal of +his in a safety-deposit vault. Before he sold, I had a few words with him. He +changed his mind and decided he preferred to hold the notes. More, he is +willing to let us have another hundred thousand if we have to have it.” +</p> + +<p> +Eaton’s delight bubbled out of him in boyish laughter. “You’re a wonder, +Waring. There’s nobody like you. Can’t any of them touch you—not Harley +himself, by Jove.” +</p> + +<p> +“We’ll have a chance to find that out soon, Steve.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, they say he’s coming out in person to run the fight against you. I hope +not.” +</p> + +<p> +“It isn’t a matter of hoping any longer. He’s here,” calmly announced his +leader. +</p> + +<p> +“Here! On the ground?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes.” +</p> + +<p> +“But—he can’t be here without us knowing it.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m telling you that I do know it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Have you seen him yourself?” demanded the treasurer incredulously. +</p> + +<p> +“Seen him, talked with him, cursed him and cuffed him,” announced Ridgway with +a reminiscent gleam in his eye. +</p> + +<p> +“Er—what’s that you say?” gasped the astounded Eaton. +</p> + +<p> +“Merely that I have already met Simon Harley.” +</p> + +<p> +“But you said—” +</p> + +<p> +“—that I had cursed and cuffed him. That’s all right. I have.” +</p> + +<p> +The president of the Mesa Ore-producing Company leaned back with his thumbs in +the armholes of his fancy waistcoat and smiled debonairly at his associate’s +perplexed amazement. +</p> + +<p> +“Did you say—CUFFED him?” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s what I meant to say. I roughed him around quite a bit—manhandled +him in general. But all FOR HIS GOOD, you know.” +</p> + +<p> +“For his good?” Eaton’s dazed brain tried to conceive the situation of a +billionaire being mauled for his good, and gave it up in despair. If Steve +Eaton worshipped anything, it was wealth. He was a born sycophant, and it was +partly because his naive unstinted admiration had contributed to satisfy his +chief’s vanity that the latter had made of him a confidant. Now he sat dumb +before the lese-majeste of laying forcible hands upon the richest man in the +world. +</p> + +<p> +“But, of course, you’re only joking,” he finally decided. +</p> + +<p> +“You haven’t been back twelve hours. Where COULD you have seen him?” +</p> + +<p> +“Nevertheless I have met him and been properly introduced by his wife.” +</p> + +<p> +“His wife?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I picked her out of a snow-drift.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is this a riddle?” +</p> + +<p> +“If it is, I don’t know the answer, Steve. But it is a true one, anyhow, not +made to order merely to astonish you.” +</p> + +<p> +“True that you picked Simon Harley’s wife out of a snow-drift and kicked him +around?” +</p> + +<p> +“I didn’t say kicked, did I?” inquired the other, judicially. “But I rather +think I did knee him some.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course, I read all about his marriage two weeks ago to Miss Aline Hope. Did +he bring her out here with him for the honeymoon?” +</p> + +<p> +“If he did, I euchred him out of it. She spent it with me alone in a miner’s +cabin,” the other cried, malevolence riding triumph on his face. +</p> + +<p> +“Whenever you’re ready to explain,” suggested Eaton helplessly. “You’ve piled +up too many miracles for me even to begin guessing them.” +</p> + +<p> +“You know I was snow-bound, but you did not know my only companion was this +Aline Hope you speak of. I found her in the blizzard, and took her to an empty +cabin near. She and her husband were motoring from Avalanche to Mesa, and the +machine had broken down. Harley had gone for help and left her there alone when +the blizzard came up. Three days later Sam Yesler and the old man broke trail +through from the C B Ranch and rescued us.” +</p> + +<p> +It was so strange a story that it came home to Eaton piecemeal. +</p> + +<p> +“Three days—alone with Harley’s wife—and he rescued you himself.” +</p> + +<p> +“He didn’t rescue me any. I could have broken through any time I wanted to +leave her. On the way back his strength gave out, and that was when I roughed +him. I tried to bullyrag him into keeping on, but it was no go. I left him +there, and Sam went back after him with a relief-party.” +</p> + +<p> +“You left him! With his wife?” +</p> + +<p> +“No!” cried Ridgway. “Do I look like a man to desert a woman on a snow-trail? I +took her with me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh!” There was a significant silence before Eaton asked the question in his +mind. “I’ve seen her pictures in the papers. Does she look like them?” +</p> + +<p> +His chief knew what was behind the question, and he knew, too, that Eaton might +be taken to represent public opinion. The world would cast an eye of review +over his varied and discreditable record with women. It would imagine the story +of those three days of enforced confinement together, and it would look to the +woman in the case for an answer to its suspicions. That she was young, lovely, +and yet had sold herself to an old man for his millions, would go far in itself +to condemn her; and he was aware that there were many who would accept her very +childish innocence as the sophistication of an artist. +</p> + +<p> +Waring Ridgway put his arms akimbo on the table and leaned across with his +steady eyes fastened on his friend. +</p> + +<p> +“Steve, I’m going to answer that question. I haven’t seen any pictures of her +in the papers, but if they show a face as pure and true as the face of God +himself then they are like her. You know me. I’ve got no apologies or +explanations to make for the life I’ve led. That’s my business. But you’re my +friend, and I tell you I would rather be hacked in pieces by Apaches than soil +that child’s white soul by a single unclean breath. There mustn’t be any talk. +Do you understand? Keep the story out of the newspapers. Don’t let any of our +people gossip about it. I have told you because I want you to know the truth. +If any one should speak lightly about this thing stop him at once. This is the +one point on which Simon Harley and I will pull together. Any man who joins +that child’s name with mine loosely will have to leave this camp—and +suddenly.” +</p> + +<p> +“It won’t be the men—it will be the women that will talk.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then garble the story. Change that three days to three hours, Steve. Anything +to stop their foul-clacking tongues!” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, well! I dare say the story won’t get out at all, but if it does I’ll see +the gossips get the right version. I suppose Sam Yesler will back it up.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course. He’s a white man. And I don’t need to tell you that I’ll be a whole +lot obliged to you, Stevie.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s all right. Sometimes I’m a white man, too, Waring,” laughed Steve. +Ridgway circled the table and put a hand on the younger man’s shoulder +affectionately. Steve Eaton was the one of all his associates for whom he had +the closest personal feeling. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t need to be told that, old pal,” he said quietly. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap08"></a> +CHAPTER VIII.<br/> +THE HONORABLE THOMAS B. PELTON</h2> + +<p> +It was next morning that Steve came into Ridgway’s offices with a copy of the +Rocky Mountain Herald in his hands. As soon as the president of the Mesa +Ore-producing Company was through talking with Dalton, the superintendent of +the Taurus, about the best means of getting to the cage a quantity of ore he +was looting from the Consolidated property adjoining, the treasurer plumped out +with his news. +</p> + +<p> +“Seen to-day’s paper, Waring? It smokes out Pelton to a finish. They’ve moled +out some facts we can’t get away from.” +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway glanced rapidly over the paper. “We’ll have to drop Pelton and find +another candidate for the Senate. Sorry, but it can’t be helped. They’ve got +his record down too fine. That affidavit from Quinton puts an end to his +chances.” +</p> + +<p> +“He’ll kick like a bay steer.” +</p> + +<p> +“His own fault for not covering his tracks better. This exposure doesn’t help +us any at best. If we still tried to carry Pelton, we should last about as long +as a snowball in hell.” +</p> + +<p> +“Shall I send for him?” +</p> + +<p> +“No. He’ll be here as quick as he can cover the ground. Have him shown in as +soon as he comes. And Steve—did Harley arrive on the eight-thirty this +morning?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. He is putting up at the Mesa House. He reserved an entire floor by wire, +so that he has bed-rooms, dining-rooms, parlors, reception-halls and private +offices all together. The place is policed thoroughly, and nobody can get up +without an order.” +</p> + +<p> +“I haven’t been thinking of going up and shooting him, even though it would be +a blessing to the country,” laughed his chief. +</p> + +<p> +“No, but it is possible somebody else might. This town is full of ignorant +foreigners who would hardly think twice of it. If he had asked my advice, it +would have been to stay away from Mesa.” +</p> + +<p> +“He wouldn’t have taken it,” returned Ridgway carelessly. “Whatever else is +true about him, Simon Harley isn’t a coward. He would have told you that not a +sparrow falls to the ground without the permission of the distorted God he +worships, and he would have come on the next train.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, it isn’t my funeral,” contributed Steve airily. +</p> + +<p> +“All the same I’m going to pass his police patrols and pay a visit to the third +floor of the Mesa House.” +</p> + +<p> +“You are going to compromise with him?” cried Eaton swiftly. +</p> + +<p> +“Compromise nothing, I’m going to pay a formal social call on Mrs. Harley, and +respectfully hope that she has suffered no ill effects from her exposure to the +cold.” +</p> + +<p> +Eaton made no comment, unless to whistle gently were one. +</p> + +<p> +“You think it isn’t wise?” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, is it?” asked Steve. +</p> + +<p> +“I think so. We’ll scotch the lying tongue of rumor by a strict observance of +the conventions. Madam Grundy is padlocked when we reduce the situation to the +absurdity of the common place.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps you are right, if it doesn’t become too common commonplace.” +</p> + +<p> +“I think we may trust Simon Harley to see to that,” answered his chief with a +grim smile “Obviously our social relations aren’t likely to be very intimate. +Now it’s ‘Just before the battle mother,’ but once the big guns begin to boor +we’ll neither of us be in the mood for functions social.” +</p> + +<p> +“You’ve established a sort of claim on him. It wouldn’t surprise me if he would +meet you halfway in settling the trouble between you,” said Eaton thoughtfully. +</p> + +<p> +“I expect he would,” agreed Ridgway indifferently as he lit a cigar. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, then?” +</p> + +<p> +“The trouble is that I won’t meet him halfway. I can’t afford to be reasonable, +Steve. Just suppose for an instant that I had been reasonable five years ago +when this fight began. They would have bought me out for a miserable pittance +of a hundred and fifty thousand or so. That would have been a reasonable figure +then. You might put it now at five or six millions, and that would be about +right. I don’t want their money. I want power, and I’d rather fight for it than +not. Besides, I mean to make what I have already wrung from them a lever for +getting more. I’m going to show Harley that he has met a man at last he can’t +either freeze out or bully out. I’m going to let him and his bunch know I’m on +earth and here to stay; that I can beat them at their own game to a finish.” +</p> + +<p> +“Did it ever occur to you, Waring, that it might pay to make this a limited +round contest? You’ve won on points up to date by a mile, but in a finish fight +endurance counts. Money is the same as endurance here, and that’s where they +are long.” +</p> + +<p> +Eaton made this suggestion diffidently, for though he was a stockholder and +official of the Mesa Ore-producing Company, he was not used to offering its +head unasked advice. The latter, however, took it without a trace of +resentment. +</p> + +<p> +“Glad of it, my boy. There’s no credit in beating a cripple.” +</p> + +<p> +To this jaunty retort Eaton had found no answer when Smythe opened the door to +announce the arrival of the Honorable Thomas B. Pelton, very anxious for an +immediate interview with Mr. Ridgway. +</p> + +<p> +“Show him in,” nodded the president, adding in an aside: “You better stay, +Steve.” +</p> + +<p> +Pelton was a rotund oracular individual in silk hat and a Prince Albert coat of +broadcloth. He regarded himself solemnly as a statesman because he had served +two inconspicuous terms in the House at Washington. He was fond of proclaiming +himself a Southern gentleman, part of which statement was unnecessary and part +untrue. Like many from his section, he had a decided penchant for politics. +</p> + +<p> +“Have you seen the infamous libel in that scurrilous sheet of the gutters the +Herald?” he demanded immediately of Ridgway. +</p> + +<p> +“Which libel? They don’t usually stop at one, colonel.” +</p> + +<p> +“The one, seh, which slanders my honorable name; which has the scoundrelly +audacity to charge me with introducing the mining extension bill for venal +reasons, seh.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! Yes, I’ve seen that. Rather an unfortunate story to come out just now.” +</p> + +<p> +“I shall force a retraction, seh, or I shall demand the satisfaction due a +Southern gentleman. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I would, colonel,” replied Ridgway, secretly amused at the vain threats +of this bag of wind which had been punctured. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s a vile calumny, an audacious and villainous lie.” +</p> + +<p> +“What part of it? I’ve just glanced over it, but the part I read seems to be +true. That’s the trouble with it. If it were a lie you could explode it.” +</p> + +<p> +“I shall deny it over my signature.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course. The trouble will be to get people to believe your denial with +Quinton’s affidavit staring them in the face. It seems they have got hold of a +letter, too, that you wrote. Deny it, of course, then lie low and give the +public time to forget it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you mean that I should withdraw from the senatorial race?” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s entirely as you please, colonel, but I’m afraid you’ll find your +support will slip away from you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you mean that YOU won’t support me, seh?” +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway locked his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair. “We’ve +got to face facts, colonel. In the light of this exposure you can’t be +elected.” +</p> + +<p> +“But I tell you, by Gad, seh, that I mean to deny it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Certainly. I should in your place,” agreed the mine-owner coolly. “The +question is, how many people are going to believe you?” +</p> + +<p> +Tiny sweat-beads stood on the forehead of the Arkansan. His manner was becoming +more and more threatening. “You pledged me your support. Are you going to throw +me down, seh?” +</p> + +<p> +“You have thrown yourself down, Pelton. Is it my fault you bungled the thing +and left evidence against you? Am I to blame because you wrote incriminating +letters?” +</p> + +<p> +“Whatever I did was done for you,” retorted the cornered man desperately. +</p> + +<p> +“I beg your pardon. It was done for what was in it for you. The arrangement +between us was purely a business one.” +</p> + +<p> +The coolness of his even voice maddened the harassed Pelton. +</p> + +<p> +“So I’m to get burnt drawing your chestnuts out of the fire, am I? You’re going +to stand back and let my career be sacrificed, are you? By Gad, seh, I’ll show +you whether I’ll be your catspaw,” screamed the congressman. +</p> + +<p> +“Use your common sense, Pelton, and don’t shriek like a fish-wife,” ordered +Ridgway sharply. “No sane man floats a leaky ship. Go to drydock and patch up +your reputation, and in a few years you’ll come out as good as new.” +</p> + +<p> +All his unprincipled life Pelton had compromised with honor to gain the coveted +goal he now saw slipping from him. A kind of madness of despair surged up in +him. He took a step threateningly toward the seated man, his hand slipping back +under his coat-tails toward his hip pocket. Acridly his high voice rang out. +</p> + +<p> +“As a Southern gentleman, seh, I refuse to tolerate the imputations you cast +upon me. I demand an apology here and now, seh.” +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway was on his feet and across the room like a flash. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t try to bully ME, you false alarm. Call yourself a Southern gentleman! +You’re a shallow scurvy impostor. No more like the real article than a buzzard +is like an eagle. Take your hand from under that coat or I’ll break every bone +in your flabby body.” +</p> + +<p> +Flabby was the word, morally no less than physically. Pelton quailed under that +gaze which bored into him like a gimlet. The ebbing color in his face showed he +could summon no reserve of courage sufficient to meet it. Slowly his empty hand +came forth. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t get excited, Mr. Ridgway. You have mistaken my purpose, seh. I had no +intention of drawing,” he stammered with a pitiable attempt at dignity. +</p> + +<p> +“Liar,” retorted his merciless foe, crowding him toward the door. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t care to have anything more to do with you. Our relations are at an +end, seh,” quavered Pelton as he vanished into the outer once and beat a hasty +retreat to the elevator. +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway returned to his chair, laughing ruefully. “I couldn’t help it, Steve. +He would have it. I suppose I’ve made one more enemy.” +</p> + +<p> +“A nasty one, too. He’ll stick at nothing to get even.” +</p> + +<p> +“We’ll draw his fangs while there is still time. Get a good story in the Sun to +the effect that I quarreled with him as soon as I discovered his connection +with this mining extension bill graft. Have it in this afternoon’s edition, +Steve. Better get Brayton to write it.” +</p> + +<p> +Steve nodded. “That’s a good idea. We may make capital out of it after all. +I’ll have an editorial in, too. ‘We love him for the enemies he has made.’ How +would that do for a heading?” +</p> + +<p> +“Good. And now we’ll have to look around for a candidate to put against Mott. +I’m hanged if I know where we’ll find one.” +</p> + +<p> +Eaton had an inspiration. +</p> + +<p> +“I do?” +</p> + +<p> +“One that will run well, popular enough to catch the public fancy?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes.” +</p> + +<p> +“Who, then?” +</p> + +<p> +“Waring Ridgway.” +</p> + +<p> +The owner of the name stared at his lieutenant in astonishment, but slowly the +fascination o the idea sank in. +</p> + +<p> +“By Jove! Why not?” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap09"></a> +CHAPTER IX.<br/> +AN EVENING CALL</h2> + +<p> +“Says you’re to come right up, Mr. Ridgway,” the bell-hop reported, and after +he had pocketed his tip, went sliding off across the polished floor to answer +another call. +</p> + +<p> +The president of the Mesa Ore-producing Company turned with a good-humored +smile to the chief clerk. +</p> + +<p> +“You overwork your boys, Johnson. I wasn’t through with that one. I’ll have to +ask you to send another up to show me the Harley suite.” +</p> + +<p> +They passed muster under the eye of the chief detective, and, after the +bell-boy had rung, were admitted to the private parlor where Simon Harley lay +stretched on a lounge with his wife beside him. She had been reading, evidently +aloud and when her visitor was announced rose with her finger still keeping the +place in the closed book. +</p> + +<p> +The gaze she turned on him was of surprise, almost of alarm, so that the man on +the threshold knew he was not expected. +</p> + +<p> +“You received my card?” he asked quickly. +</p> + +<p> +“No. Did you send one?” Then, with a little gesture of half-laughing +irritation: “It must have gone to Mr. Harvey again. He is Mr. Harley’s private +secretary, and ever since we arrived it has been a comedy of errors. The hotel +force refuses to differentiate.” +</p> + +<p> +“I must ask you to accept my regrets for an unintentional intrusion, Mrs. +Harley. When I was told to come up, I could not guess that my card had gone +amiss.” +</p> + +<p> +The great financier had got to his feet and now came forward with extended +hand. +</p> + +<p> +“Nevertheless we are glad to see you, Mr. Ridgway, and to get the opportunity +to express our thanks for all that you have done for us.” +</p> + +<p> +The cool fingers of the younger man touched his lightly before they met those +of his wife. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, we are very glad, indeed, to see you, Mr. Ridgway,” she added to her +husband’s welcome. +</p> + +<p> +“I could not feel quite easy in my mind without hearing from your own lips that +you are none the worse for the adventures you have suffered,” their visitor +explained after they had found seats. +</p> + +<p> +“Thanks to you, my wife is quite herself again, Mr. Ridgway,” Harley announced +from the davenport. “Thanks also to God, who so mercifully shelters us beneath +the shadow of His wing.” +</p> + +<p> +But her caller preferred to force from Aline’s own lips this affidavit of +health. Even his audacity could not ignore his host entirely, but it gave him +the least consideration possible. To the question which still rested in his +eyes the girl-wife answered shyly. +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed, I am perfectly well. I have done nothing but sleep to-day and +yesterday. Miss Yesler was very good to me. I do not know how I can repay the +great kindness of so many friends,” she said with a swift descent of fluttering +lashes to the soft cheeks upon which a faint color began to glow. +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps they find payment for the service in doing it for you,” he suggested. +</p> + +<p> +“Yet, I shall take care not to forget it,” Harley said pointedly. +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed!” Ridgway put it with polite insolence, the hostility in his face +scarcely veiled. +</p> + +<p> +“It has pleased Providence to multiply my portion so abundantly that I can +reward those well who serve me.” +</p> + +<p> +“At how much do you estimate Mrs. Harley’s life?” his rival asked with quiet +impudence. +</p> + +<p> +In the course of the past two days Aline had made the discovery that her +husband and her rescuer were at swords drawn in a business way. This had +greatly distressed her, and in her innocence she had resolved to bring them +together. How could her inexperience know that she might as well have tried to +induce the lion and the lamb to lie down together peaceably? Now she tried +timidly to drift the conversation from the awkwardness into which Harley’s +suggestion of a reward and his opponent’s curt retort had blundered it. +</p> + +<p> +“I hope you did not find upon your return that your business was disarranged so +much as you feared it might be by your absence.” +</p> + +<p> +“I found my affairs in very good condition,” Ridgway smiled. “But I am glad to +be back in time to welcome to Mesa you—and Mr. Harley.” +</p> + +<p> +“It seems so strange a place,” the girl ventured, with a hesitation that showed +her anxiety not to offend his local pride. “You see I never before was in a +place where there was no grass and nothing green in sight. And to-night, when I +looked out of the window and saw streams of red-hot fire running down hills, I +thought of Paradise Lost and Dante. I suppose it doesn’t seem at all uncanny to +you?” +</p> + +<p> +“At night sometimes I still get that feeling, but I have to cultivate it a +bit,” he confessed. “My sober second thought insists that those molten rivers +are merely business, refuse disgorged as lava from the great smelters.” +</p> + +<p> +“I looked for the sun to-day through the pall of sulphur smoke that hangs so +heavy over the town, but instead I saw a London gas-lamp hanging in the +heavens. Is it always so bad?” +</p> + +<p> +“Not when the drift of the wind is right. In fact, a day like this is quite +unusual.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m glad of that. I feel more cheerful in the sunshine. I know that’s a bit of +the child still left in me. Mr. Harley takes all days alike.” +</p> + +<p> +The Wall Street operator was in slippers and house-jacket. His wife, too, was +dressed comfortably in some soft clinging stuff. Their visitor saw that they +had disposed themselves for a quiet uninterrupted evening by the fireside. The +domesticity of it all stirred the envy in him. He did not want her to be +contented and at peace with his enemy. Something deeper than his vanity cried +out in protest against it. +</p> + +<p> +She was still making talk against the gloom of the sulphur fog which seemed to +have crept into the spirit of the room. +</p> + +<p> +“We were reading before you came in, Mr. Ridgway. I suppose you read a good +deal. Mr. Harley likes to have me read aloud to him when he is tired.” +</p> + +<p> +An impulse came upon Ridgway to hear her, some such impulse as makes a man bite +on sore tooth even though he knows he must pay later for it. +</p> + +<p> +“Will you not go on with your reading? I should like to hear it. I really +should.” +</p> + +<p> +She was a little taken aback, but she looked inquiringly at her husband, who +bowed silently. +</p> + +<p> +“I was just beginning the fifty-ninth psalm. We have been reading the book +through. Mr. Harley finds great comfort in it,” she explained. +</p> + +<p> +Her eyes fell to the printed page and her clear, sweet voice took up the +ancient tale of vengeance. +</p> + +<p> +“Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up +against me. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody +men. +</p> + +<p> +“For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not +for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord. They run and prepare themselves +without my fault: awake to help me, and behold. +</p> + +<p> +“Thou, therefore, O Lord God of Hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all +the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.” +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway glanced across in surprise at the strong old man lying on the lounge. +His hands were locked in front of him, and his gaze rested peacefully on the +fair face of the child reading. His foe’s mind swept up the insatiable cruel +years that lay behind this man, and he marveled that with such a past he could +still hold fast to that simple faith of David. He wondered whether this +ruthless spoiler went back to the Old Testament for the justification of his +life, or whether his credo had given the impulse to his career. One thing he no +longer doubted: Simon Harley believed his Bible implicitly and literally, and +not only the New Testament. +</p> + +<p> +“For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips even be taken in their +pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak. +</p> + +<p> +“Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let them know +that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth.” +</p> + +<p> +The fresh young girlish voice died away into silence. Harley, apparently deep +in meditation, gazed at the ceiling. His guest felt a surge of derision at this +man who thought he had a compact with God to rule the world for his benefit. +</p> + +<p> +“I am sure Mr. Harley must enjoy the Psalms a great deal,” he said ironically, +but it was in simple faith the young wife answered eagerly: +</p> + +<p> +“He does. He finds so much in them that is applicable to life.” +</p> + +<p> +“I can see how he might,” agreed the young man. +</p> + +<p> +“Few people take their religion so closely into their every-day lives as he +does,” she replied in a low voice, seeing that her husband was lost in thought. +</p> + +<p> +“I am sure you are right.” +</p> + +<p> +“He is very greatly misunderstood, Mr. Ridgway. I am sure if people knew how +good he is— But how can they know when the newspapers are so full of +falsehoods about him? And the magazines are as bad, he says. It seems to be the +fashion to rake up bitter things to say about prominent business men. You must +have noticed it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. I believe I have noticed that,” he answered with a grim little laugh. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t you think it could be explained to these writers? They can’t WANT to +distort the truth. It must be they don’t know.” +</p> + +<p> +“You must not take the muckrakers too seriously. They make a living roasting +us. A good deal of what they say is true in a way. Personally, I don’t object +to it much. It’s a part of the penalty of being successful. That’s how I look +at it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do they say bad things about you, too?” she asked in open-eyed surprise. +</p> + +<p> +“Occasionally,” he smiled. “When they think I’m important enough.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t see how they can,” he heard her murmur to herself. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, most of what they say is true.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then I know it can’t be very bad,” she made haste to answer. +</p> + +<p> +“You had better read it and see.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t understand business at all,” she said +</p> + +<p> +“But—sometimes it almost frightens me. Business isn’t really like war, is +it?” +</p> + +<p> +“A good deal like it. But that need not frighten you. All life is a +battle—sometimes, at least. Success implies fighting.” +</p> + +<p> +“And does that in turn imply tragedy—for the loser?” +</p> + +<p> +“Not if one is a good loser. We lose and make another start.” +</p> + +<p> +“But if success is a battle, it must be gained at the expense of another.” +</p> + +<p> +“Sometimes. But you must look at it in a big way.” The secretary of the trust +magnate had come in and was in low-toned conversation with him. The visitor led +her to the nearest window and drew back the curtains so that they looked down +on the lusty life of the turbid young city, at the lights in the distant +smelters and mills, at the great hill opposite, with its slagdumps, +gallows-frames and shaft-houses black against the dim light, which had yielded +its millions and millions of tons of ore for the use of mankind. “All this had +to be fought for. It didn’t grow of itself. And because men fought for it, the +place is what it is. Sixty thousand people live here, fed by the results of the +battle. The highest wages in the world are paid the miners here. They live in +rough comfort and plenty, whereas in the countries they came from they were +underpaid and underfed. Is that not good?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” she admitted. +</p> + +<p> +“Life for you and for me must be different, thank God. You are in the world to +make for the happiness of those you meet. That is good. But unless I am to run +away from my work, what I do must make some unhappy. I can’t help that if I am +to do big things. When you hear people talking of the harm I do, you will +remember what I have told you to-night, and you will think that a man and his +work cannot be judged by isolated fragments.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” she breathed softly, for she knew that this man was saying good-by to +her and was making his apologia. +</p> + +<p> +“And you will remember that no matter how bitter the fight may grow between me +and Mr. Harley, it has nothing to do with you. We shall still be friends, +though we may never meet again.” +</p> + +<p> +“I shall remember that, too,” he heard her murmur. +</p> + +<p> +“You have been hoping that Mr. Harley and I would be friends. That is +impossible. He came out here to crush me. For years his subordinates have tried +to do this and failed. I am the only man alive that has ever resisted him +successfully. I don’t underestimate his power, which is greater than any czar +or emperor that ever lived, but I don’t think he will succeed. I shall win +because I understand the forces against me. He will lose because he scorns +those against him.” +</p> + +<p> +“I am sorry. Oh, I am so sorry,” she wailed, gently as a breath of summer wind. +For she saw now that the cleavage between them was too wide for a girl’s +efforts to bridge. +</p> + +<p> +“That I am going to win?” he smiled gravely. +</p> + +<p> +“That you must be enemies; that he came here to ruin you, since you say he +did.” +</p> + +<p> +“You need not be too hard on him for that. By his code I am a freebooter and a +highwayman. Business offers legitimate ways of robbery, and I transgress them. +His ways are not my ways, and mine are not his, but it is only fair to say that +his are the accepted ones.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t understand it at all. You are both good men. I know you are. Surely +you need not be enemies.” +</p> + +<p> +But she knew she could hope for no reassurance from the man beside her. +</p> + +<p> +Presently she led him back across the big room to the fireplace near where her +husband lay. His secretary had gone, and he was lying resting on the lounge. He +opened his eyes and smiled at her. “Has Mr. Ridgway been pointing out to you +the places of interest?” he asked quietly. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, dear.” The last word came hesitantly after the slightest of pauses. “He +says he must be going now.” +</p> + +<p> +The head of the greatest trust on earth got to his feet and smiled benignantly +as he shook hands with the departing guest. “I shall hope to see you very soon +and have a talk regarding business, Mr. Ridgway,” he said. +</p> + +<p> +“Whenever you like, Mr. Harley.” To the girl he said merely, “Good night,” and +was gone. +</p> + +<p> +The old man put an arm affectionately across his young wife’s shoulder. +</p> + +<p> +“Shall we read another psalm, my dear? Or are you tired?” +</p> + +<p> +She repressed the little shiver that ran through her before she answered +wearily. “I am a little tired. If you don’t mind I would like to retire, +please.” +</p> + +<p> +He saw her as far as the door of her apartments and left her with her maid +after he had kissed the cold cheek she dutifully turned toward him. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap10"></a> +CHAPTER X.<br/> +HARLEY MAKES A PROPOSITION</h2> + +<p> +Apparently the head of the great trust intended to lose no time in having that +business talk with Ridgway, which he had graciously promised the latter. Eaton +and his chief were busy over some applications for leases when Smythe came into +the room with a letter. +</p> + +<p> +“Messenger-boy brought it; said it was important,” he explained. +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway ripped open the envelope, read through the letter swiftly, and tossed +it to Eaton. His eyes had grown hard and narrow. +</p> + +<p> +“Write to Mr. Hobart that I am sorry I haven’t time to call on Mr. Harley at +the Consolidated offices, as he suggests. Add that I expect to be in my offices +all morning, and shall be glad to make an appointment to talk with Mr. Harley +here, if he thinks he has any business with me that needs a personal +interview.” +</p> + +<p> +Smythe’s leathery face had as much expression as a blank wall, but Eaton +gasped. The unparalleled audacity of flinging the billionaire’s overture back +in his face left him for the moment speechless. He knew that Ridgway had +tempted Providence a hundred times without coming to disaster, but surely this +was going too far. Any reasonable compromise with the great trust builder would +be cause for felicitation. He had confidence in his chief to any point in +reason, but he could not blind himself to the fact that the wonderful successes +he had gained were provisional rather than final. He likened them to Stonewall +Jackson’s Shenandoah raid, very successful in irritating, disorganizing and +startling the enemy, but with no serious bearing on the final inevitable +result. In the end Harley would crush his foes if he set in motion the whole +machinery of his limitless resources. That was Eaton’s private opinion, and he +was very much of the feeling that this was an opportune time to get in out of +the rain. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t you think we had better consider that answer before we send it, Waring?” +he suggested in a low voice. +</p> + +<p> +His chief nodded a dismissal to the secretary before answering. +</p> + +<p> +“I have considered it.” +</p> + +<p> +“But—surely it isn’t wise to reject his advances before we know what they +are.” +</p> + +<p> +“I haven’t rejected them. I’ve simply explained that we are doing business on +equal terms. Even if I meant to compromise, it would pay me to let him know he +doesn’t own me.” +</p> + +<p> +“He may decide not to offer his proposition.” +</p> + +<p> +“It wouldn’t worry me if he did.” +</p> + +<p> +Eaton knew he must speak now if his protest were to be of any avail. “It would +worry me a good deal. He has shown an inclination to be friendly. This answer +is like a slap in the face.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Doesn’t it look like that to you?” +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway leaned back in his chair and looked thoughtfully at his friend. “Want +to sell out, Steve?” +</p> + +<p> +“Why—what do you mean?” asked the surprised treasurer. +</p> + +<p> +“If you do, I’ll pay anything in reason for your stock.” He got up and began to +pace the floor with long deliberate strides. “I’m a born gambler, Steve. It +clears my head to take big chances. Give me a good fight on my hands with the +chances against me, and I’m happy. You’ve got to take the world by the throat +and shake success out of it if you’re going to score heavily. That’s how Harley +made good years ago. Read the story of his life. See the chances he took. He +throttled combinations a dozen times as strong as his. Some people say he was +an accident. Don’t you believe it. Accidents like him don’t happen. He won +because he was the biggest, brainiest, most daring and unscrupulous operator in +the field. That’s why I’m going to win—if I do win.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, if you win.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, that’s the chance I take,” flung back the other as he swung buoyantly +across the room. “But YOU don’t need to take it. If you want, you can get out +now at the top market price. I feel it in my bones I’m going to win; but if you +don’t feel it, you’d be a fool to take chances.” +</p> + +<p> +Eaton’s mercurial temperament responded with a glow. +</p> + +<p> +“No, sir. I’ll sit tight. I’m no quitter.” +</p> + +<p> +“Good for you, Steve. I knew it. I’ll tell you now that I would have hated like +hell to see you leave me. You’re the only man I can rely on down to the ground, +twenty-four hours of every day.” +</p> + +<p> +The answer was sent, and Eaton’s astonishment at his chief’s temerity changed +to amazement when the great Harley, pocketing his pride, asked for an +appointment, and appeared at the offices of the Mesa Ore-producing Company at +the time set. That Ridgway, who was busy with one of his superintendents, +should actually keep the most powerful man in the country waiting in an outer +office while he finished his business with Dalton seemed to him insolence +florescent. +</p> + +<p> +“Whom the gods would destroy,” he murmured to himself as the only possible +explanation, for the reaction of his enthusiasm was on him. +</p> + +<p> +Nor did his chief’s conference with Dalton show any leaning toward compromise. +Ridgway had sent for his engineer to outline a program in regard to some +ore-veins in the Sherman Bell, that had for months been in litigation between +the two big interests at Mesa. Neither party to the suit had waited for the +legal decision, but each of them had put a large force at work stoping out the +ore. Occasional conflicts had occurred when the men of the opposing factions +came in touch, as they frequently did, since crews were at work below and above +each other at every level. But none of these as yet had been serious. +</p> + +<p> +“Dalton, I was down last night to see that lease of Heyburn’s on the twelfth +level of the Taurus. The Consolidated will tap our workings about noon to-day, +just below us. I want you to turn on them the air-drill pipe as soon as they +break through. Have a lot of loose rock there mixed with a barrel of lime. Let +loose the air pressure full on the pile, and give it to their men straight. +Follow them up to the end of their own tunnel when they retreat, and hold it +against them. Get control of the levels above and below, too. Throw as many men +as you can into their workings, and gut them till there is no ore left.” +</p> + +<p> +Dalton had the fighting edge. “You’ll stand by me, no matter what happens?” +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing will happen. They’re not expecting trouble. But if anything does, I’ll +see you through. Eaton is your witness that I ordered it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then it’s as good as done, Mr. Ridgway,” said Dalton, turning away. +</p> + +<p> +“There may be bloodshed,” suggested Eaton dubiously, in a low voice. +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway’s laugh had a touch of affectionate contempt. “Don’t cross bridges till +you get to them, Steve. Haven’t you discovered, man, that the bold course is +always the safe one? It’s the quitter that loses out every time. The strong man +gets there; the weak one falls down. It’s as invariable as the law of gravity.” +He got up and stretched his broad shoulders in a deep breath. “Now for Mr. +Harley. Send him in, Eaton.” +</p> + +<p> +That morning Simon Harley had done two things for many years foreign to his +experience: He had gone to meet another man instead of making the man come to +him, and he had waited the other man’s pleasure in an outer office. That he had +done so implied a strong motive. +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway waved Harley to a chair without rising to meet him. The eyes of the two +men fastened, wary and unwavering. They might have been jungle beasts of prey +crouching for the attack, so tense was their attention. The man from Broadway +was the first to speak. +</p> + +<p> +“I have called, Mr. Ridgway, to arrange, if possible, a compromise. I need +hardly say this is not my usual method, but the circumstances are extremely +unusual. I rest under so great a personal obligation to you that I am willing +to overlook a certain amount of youthful presumption.” His teeth glittered +behind a lip smile, intended to give the right accent to the paternal reproof. +“My personal obligation—” +</p> + +<p> +“What obligation? I left you to die in the snow.’, +</p> + +<p> +“You forget what you did for Mrs. Harley.” +</p> + +<p> +“You may eliminate that,” retorted the younger man curtly. “You are under no +obligations whatever to me.” +</p> + +<p> +“That is very generous of you, Mr. Ridgway, but—” +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway met his eyes directly, cutting his sentence as with a knife. +“‘Generous’ is the last word to use. It is not a question of generosity at all. +What I mean is that the thing I did was done with no reference whatever to you. +It is between me and her alone. I refuse to consider it as a service to you, as +having anything at all to do with you. I told you that before. I tell you +again.” +</p> + +<p> +Harley’s spirit winced. This bold claim to a bond with his wife that excluded +him, the scornful thrust of his enemy—he was already beginning to +consider him in that light rather than as a victim—had touched the one +point of human weakness in this money-making Juggernaut. He saw himself for the +moment without illusions, an old man and an unlovable one, without near kith or +kin. He was bitterly aware that the child he had married had been sold to him +by her guardian, under fear of imminent ruin, before her ignorance of the world +had given her experience to judge for herself. The money and the hidden hunger +of sentiment he wasted on her brought him only timid thanks and wan obedience. +But for this man, with his hateful, confident youth, he had seen the warm smile +touch her lips and the delicate color rose her cheeks. Nay, he had seen more +her arms around his neck and her, warm breath on his cheek. They had lived +romance, these two, in the days they had been alone together. They had shared +danger and the joys of that Bohemia of youth from which he was forever +excluded. It was his resolve to wipe out by financial favors—he could +ruin the fellow later if need be—any claims of Ridgway upon her gratitude +or her foolish imagination. He did not want the man’s appeal upon her to carry +the similitude of martyrdom as well as heroism. +</p> + +<p> +“Yet, the fact remains that it was a service”—his thin lips smiled. “I +must be the best judge of that, I think. I want to be perfectly frank, Mr. +Ridgway. The Consolidated is an auxiliary enterprise so far as I am concerned, +but I have always made it a rule to look after details when it became +necessary. I came to Montana to crush you. I have always regarded you as a +menace to our legitimate interests, and I had quite determined to make an end +of it. You are a good fighter, and you’ve been on the ground in person, which +counts for a great deal. But you must know that if I give myself to it in +earnest, you are a ruined man.” +</p> + +<p> +The Westerner laughed hardily. “I hear you say it.” +</p> + +<p> +“But you don’t believe,” added the other quietly. “Many men have heard and not +believed. They have KNOWN when it was too late. +</p> + +<p> +“If you don’t mind, I’ll buy my experience instead of borrowing it,” Ridgway +flung back flippantly. +</p> + +<p> +“One moment, Mr. Ridgway. I have told you my purpose in coming to Montana. That +purpose no longer exists. Circumstances have completely altered my intentions. +The finger of God is in it. He has not brought us together thus strangely, +except to serve some purpose of His own. I think I see that purpose. ‘The stone +which the builders refused is become the headstone of the corner. This is the +Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes,’” he quoted unctiously. “I am +convinced that it is a waste of good material to crush you; therefore I desire +to effect a consolidation with you, buy all the other copper interests of any +importance in the country, and put you at the head of the resulting +combination.” +</p> + +<p> +In spite of himself, Ridgway’s face betrayed him. It was a magnificent +opportunity, the thing he had dreamed of as the culmination of a lifetime of +fighting. Nobody knew better than he on how precarious a footing he stood, on +how slight a rock his fortunes might be wrecked. Here was his chance to enter +that charmed, impregnable inner circle of finance that in effect ruled the +nation. That Harley’s suave friendliness would bear watching he did not doubt +for a moment, but, once inside, so his vital youth told him proudly, he would +see to it that the billionaire did not betray him. A week ago he could have +asked nothing better than this chance to bloat himself into a some-day +colossus. But now the thing stuck in his gorge. He understood the implied +obligation. Payment for his service to Aline Harley was to be given, and the +ledger balanced. Well, why not? Had he not spent the night in a chaotic agony +of renunciation? But to renounce voluntarily was one thing, to be bought off +another. +</p> + +<p> +He looked up and met Harley’s thin smile, the smile that on Wall Street was a +synonym for rapacity and heartlessness, in the memory of which men had +committed murder and suicide. On the instant there jumped between him and his +ambition the face that had worked magic on him. What a God’s pity that such a +lamb should be cast to this ravenous wolf! He felt again her arms creeping +round his neck, the divine trust of her lovely eyes. He had saved her when this +man who called himself her husband had left her to perish in the storm. He had +made her happy, as she had never been in all her starved life. Had she not +promised never to forget, and was there not a deeper promise in her wistful +eyes that the years could not wipe out? She was his by every right of natural +law. By God! he would not sell his freedom of choice to this white haired +robber! +</p> + +<p> +“I seldom make mistakes in my judgment of men, Mr. Ridgway,” the oily voice ran +on. “No small share of such success as it has been given me to attain has been +due to this instinct for putting my finger on the right man. I am assured that +in you I find one competent for the great work lying before you. The +opportunity is waiting; I furnish it, and you the untiring energy of youth to +make the most of the chance.” His wolfish smile bared the tusks for a moment. +“I find myself not so young as I was. The great work I have started is well +under way. I must trust its completion to younger and stronger hands than mine. +I intend to rest, to devote myself to my home, more directly to such +philanthropic and educational work as God has committed to my hands.” +</p> + +<p> +The Westerner gave him look for look, his eyes burning to get over the impasse +of the expressionless mask no man had ever penetrated. He began to see why +nobody had ever understood Harley. He knew there would be no rest for that +consuming energy this side of the grave. Yet the man talked as if he believed +his own glib lies. +</p> + +<p> +“Consolidated is the watchword of the age; it means elimination of ruinous +competition, and consequent harmony and reduced expense in management. Mr. +Ridgway, may I count you with us? Together we should go far. Do you say peace +or war?” +</p> + +<p> +The younger man rose, leaning forward with his strong, sinewy hands gripping +the table. His face was pale with the repression of a rage that had been +growing intense. “I say war, and without quarter. I don’t believe you can beat +me. I defy you to the test. And if you should—even then I had rather go +down fighting you than win at your side.” +</p> + +<p> +Simon Harley had counted acceptance a foregone conclusion, but he never winked +a lash at the ringing challenge of his opponent. He met his defiance with an +eye cold and steady as jade. +</p> + +<p> +“As you please, Mr. Ridgway. I wash my hands of your ruin, and when you are +nothing but a broken gambler, you will remember that I offered you the greatest +chance that ever came to a man of your age. You are one of those men, I see, +that would rather be first in hell than second in heaven. So be it.” He rose +and buttoned his overcoat. +</p> + +<p> +“Say, rather, that I choose to go to hell my own master and not as the slave of +Simon Harley,” retorted the Westerner bitterly. +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway’s eyes blazed, but those of the New Yorker were cool and fishy. +</p> + +<p> +“There is no occasion for dramatics,” he said, the cruel, passionless smile at +his thin lips. “I make you a business proposition and you decline it. That is +all. I wish you good day.” +</p> + +<p> +The other strode past him and flung the door open. He had never before known +such a passion of hatred as raged within him. Throughout his life Simon Harley +had left in his wake wreckage and despair. He was the best-hated man of his +time, execrated by the working classes, despised by the country at large, and +distrusted by his fellow exploiters. Yet, as a business opponent, Ridgway had +always taken him impersonally, had counted him for a condition rather than an +individual. But with the new influence that had come into his life, reason +could not reckon, and when it was dominant with him, Harley stood embodied as +the wolf ready to devour his ewe lamb. +</p> + +<p> +For he couldn’t get away from her. Wherever he went he carried with him the +picture of her sweet, shy smile, her sudden winsome moments, the deep light in +her violet eyes; and in the background the sinister bared fangs of the wild +beast dogging her patiently, and yet lovingly. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap11"></a> +CHAPTER XI.<br/> +VIRGINIA INTERVENES</h2> + +<p> +James K. Mott, local chief attorney for the Consolidated, was struggling with a +white tie before the glass and crumpling it atrociously. +</p> + +<p> +“This dress-suit habit is the most pernicious I know. It’s sapping the +liberties of the American people,” he grunted at last in humorous despair. +</p> + +<p> +“Let me, dear.” +</p> + +<p> +His wife tied it with neatness and dispatch, and returned to the inspection of +how her skirt hung. +</p> + +<p> +“Mr. Harley asked me to thank you for calling on his wife. He says she gets +lonesome during the day while he is away so much. I was wondering if you +couldn’t do something for her so that she could meet some of the ladies of +Mesa. A luncheon, or something of that sort, you know. Have you seen my +hat-brush anywhere?” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s on that drawer beside your hat-box. She told me she would rather not. I +suggested it. But I’ll tell you what I could do: take Virginia Balfour round to +see her. She’s lively and good company, and knows some of the people Mrs. +Harley knows.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s a good idea. I want Harley to know that we appreciate his suggestions, +and are ready to do our part. He has shown a disposition to consult me on a +good many things that ought to lie in Hobart’s sphere rather than mine. +Something’s going to drop. Now, I like Hobart, but I want to show myself in a +receptive mood for advancement when his head falls, as it certainly will soon.” +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +Virginia responded eagerly to Mrs. Mott’s suggestion that they call together on +Mrs. Harley at the hotel. +</p> + +<p> +“My dear, you have saved my life. I’ve been dying of curiosity, and I haven’t +been able to find vestige of an excuse to hang my call on. I couldn’t ask Mr. +Ridgway to introduce me, could I?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, I don’t see that you could,” smiled Mrs. Mott, a motherly little woman +with pleasant brown eyes. “I suppose Mr. Ridgway isn’t exactly on calling terms +with Mr. Harley’s wife, even if he did save her life.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Mr. Ridgway isn’t the man to let a little thing like a war a outrance +stand in the way of his social duties, especially when those duties happen to +be inclinations, too. I understand he DID call the evening of their arrival +here.” +</p> + +<p> +“He didn’t!” screamed Mrs. Mott, who happened to possess a voice of the normal +national register. “And what did Mr. Harley say?” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah, that’s what one would like to know. My informant deponeth not beyond the +fact unadorned. One may guess there must have been undercurrents of +embarrassment almost as pronounced as if the President were to invite his +Ananias Club to a pink tea. I can imagine Mr. Harley saying: ‘Try this cake, +Mr. Ridgway; it isn’t poisoned;’ and Mr. Ridgway answering: ‘Thanks! After you, +my dear Gaston.’” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Balfour’s anxiety to meet the young woman her fiance had rescued from the +blizzard was not unnatural. Her curiosity was tinged with frank envy, though +jealousy did not enter into it at all. Virginia had come West explicitly to +take the country as she found it, and she had found it, unfortunately, no more +hazardous than little old New York, though certainly a good deal more diverting +to a young woman with democratic proclivities that still survived the energetic +weeding her training had subjected them to. +</p> + +<p> +She did not quite know what she had expected to find in Mesa. Certainly she +knew that Indians were no longer on the map, and cowboys were kicking up their +last dust before vanishing, but she had supposed that they had left +compensations in their wake. On the principle that adventures are to the +adventurous, her life should have been a whirl of hairbreadth escapes. +</p> + +<p> +But what happened? She took all sorts of chances without anything coming of it. +Her pirate fiance was the nearest approach to an adventure she had flushed, and +this pink-and-white chit of a married schoolgirl had borrowed him for the most +splendid bit of excitement that would happen in a hundred years. She had been +spinning around the country in motor-cars for months without the sign of a +blizzard, but the chit had hit one the first time. It wasn’t fair. That was her +blizzard by rights. In spirit, at least, she had “spoken for it,” as she and +her brother used to say when they were children of some coveted treasure not +yet available. Virginia was quite sure that if she had seen Waring Ridgway at +the inspired moment when he was plowing through the drifts with Mrs. Harley in +his arms—only, of course, it would have been she instead of Mrs. Harley, +and he would not have been carrying her so long as she could stand and take +it—she would have fallen in love with him on the spot. And those two days +in the cabin on half-ration they would have put an end forever to her doubts +and to that vision of Lyndon Hobart that persisted in her mind. What luck +glace’ some people did have! +</p> + +<p> +But Virginia discovered the chit to be rather a different personality than she +had supposed. In truth, she lost her heart to her at once. She could have stood +out against Aline’s mere good looks and been the stiffer for them. She was no +MAN, to be moved by the dark hair’s dusky glory, the charm of soft girlish +lines, the effect of shy unsophistication that might be merely the highest art +of social experience. But back of the sweet, trembling mouth that seemed to be +asking to be kissed, of the pathetic appeal for friendliness from the big, deep +violet eyes, was a quality of soul not to be counterfeited. Miss Balfour had +furbished up the distant hauteur of the society manner she had at times used +effectively, but she found herself instead taking the beautiful, forlorn little +creature in her arms. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, my dear; my dear, how glad I am that dreadful blizzard did not hurt you!” +</p> + +<p> +Aline clung to this gracious young queen as if she had known her a lifetime. +“You are so good to me everybody is. You know how Mr. Ridgway saved me. If it +had not been for him I should have died. I didn’t care—I wanted to die in +peace, I think—but he wouldn’t let me.” +</p> + +<p> +“I should think not.” +</p> + +<p> +“If you only knew him—perhaps you do.” +</p> + +<p> +“A little,” confessed Virginia, with a flash of merry eyes at Mrs. Mott. +</p> + +<p> +“He is the bravest man—and the strongest.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. He is both,” agreed his betrothed, with pride. +</p> + +<p> +“His tenderness, his unselfishness, his consideration for others—did you +ever know anybody like him for these things?” +</p> + +<p> +“Never,” agreed Virginia, with the mental reservations that usually accompanied +her skeptical smile. She was getting at her fiance from a novel point of view. +</p> + +<p> +“And so modest, with all his strength and courage.’, +</p> + +<p> +“It’s almost a fault in him,” she murmured. +</p> + +<p> +“The woman that marries him will be blessed among women.” +</p> + +<p> +“I count it a great privilege,” said Miss Balfour absently, but she pulled up +with a hurried addendum: “To have known him.” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed, yes. If one met more men like him this would be a better world.” +</p> + +<p> +“It would certainly be a different world.” +</p> + +<p> +It was a relief to Aline to talk, to put into words the external skeleton facts +of the surging current that had engulfed her existence since she had turned a +corner upon this unexpected consciousness of life running strong and deep. +Harley was not a confidant she could have chosen under the most favorable +circumstances, and her instinct told her that in this matter he was +particularly impossible. But to Virginia Balfour—Mrs. Mott had to leave +early to preside over the Mesa Woman’s Club, and her friend allowed herself to +be persuaded to stay longer—she did not find it at all hard to talk. +Indeed, she murmured into the sympathetic ear of this astute young searcher of +hearts more than her words alone said, with the result that Virginia guessed +what she herself had not yet quite found out, though her heart was hovering +tremblingly on the brink of discovery. +</p> + +<p> +But Virginia’s sympathy for the trouble fate had in store for this helpless +innocent consisted with an alert appreciation of its obvious relation to +herself. What she meant to discover was the attitude toward the situation of +one neither particularly innocent nor helpless. Was he, too, about to be +“caught in the coil of a God’s romances,” or was he merely playing on the +vibrating strings of an untaught heart? +</p> + +<p> +It was in part to satisfy this craving for knowledge that she wrote Ridgway a +note as soon as she reached home. It said: +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +MY DEAR RECREANT LAGGARD: If you are not too busy playing Sir Lancelot to fair +dames in distress, or splintering lances with the doughty husbands of these +same ladies, I pray you deign to allow your servant to feast her eyes upon her +lord’s face. Hopefully and gratefully yours, VIRGINIA. +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +P. S.—Have you forgotten, sir, that I have not seen you since that +terrible blizzard and your dreadful imprisonment in Fort Salvation? +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +P. P. S.—I have seen somebody else, though. She’s a dear, and full of +your praises. I hardly blame you. +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +V. +</p> + +<p> +She thought that ought to bring him soon, and it did. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve been busy night and day,” he apologized when they met. +</p> + +<p> +Virginia gave him a broadside demurely. +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose your social duties do take up a good deal of your time.” +</p> + +<p> +“My social duties? Oh, I see!” He laughed appreciation of her hit. Evidently +through her visit she knew a good deal more than he had expected. Since he had +nothing to hide from her except his feelings, this did not displease him. “My +duties in that line have been confined to one formal call.” +</p> + +<p> +She sympathized with him elaborately. “Calls of that sort do bore men so. I’ll +not forget the first time you called on me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Nor I,” he came back gallantly. +</p> + +<p> +“I marveled how you came through alive, but I learned then that a man can’t be +bored to death.” +</p> + +<p> +“I came again nevertheless,” he smiled. “And again—and again.” +</p> + +<p> +“I am still wondering why.” +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“‘Oh, wad some power the giffie gite us <br/> +To see ourselves as others see us!’” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +he quoted with a bow. +</p> + +<p> +“Is that a compliment?” she asked dubiously. +</p> + +<p> +“I have never heard it used so before. Anyhow, it is a little hackneyed for +anybody so original as you.” +</p> + +<p> +“It was the best I could do offhand.” +</p> + +<p> +She changed the subject abruptly. “Has the new campaign of the war begun yet?” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, we’re maneuvering for position.” +</p> + +<p> +“You’ve seen him. How does he impress you?” +</p> + +<p> +“The same as he does others. A hard, ruthless fighter. Unless all signs fail, +he is an implacable foe.” +</p> + +<p> +“But you are not afraid?” +</p> + +<p> +He smiled. “Do I look frightened?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, you remind me of something a burglar once told me—” +</p> + +<p> +“A what?” +</p> + +<p> +“A burglar—a reformed burglar!” She gave him a saucy flash of her dark +eyes. “Do you think I don’t know any lawbreakers except those I have met in +this State? I came across this one in a mission where I used to think I was +doing good. He said it was not the remuneration of the profession that had +attracted him, but the excitement. It was dreadfully frowned down upon and +underpaid. He could earn more at his old trade of a locksmith, but it seemed to +him that every impediment to success was a challenge to him. Poor man, he +relapsed again, and they put him in Sing Sing. I was so interested in him, +too.” +</p> + +<p> +“You’ve had some queer friends in your time,” he laughed, but without a trace +of disapproval. +</p> + +<p> +“I have some queer ones yet,” she thrust back. +</p> + +<p> +“Let’s not talk of them,” he cried, in pretended alarm. +</p> + +<p> +Her inextinguishable gaiety brought back the smile he liked. “We’ll talk of +SOME ONE else—some one of interest to us both.” +</p> + +<p> +“I am always ready to talk of Miss Virginia Balfour,” he said, misunderstanding +promptly. +</p> + +<p> +She smiled her disdain of his obtuseness in an elaborately long survey of him. +</p> + +<p> +“Well?” he wanted to know. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s how you look—very well, indeed. I believe the storm was greatly +exaggerated,” she remarked. +</p> + +<p> +“Isn’t that rather a good definition for a blizzard—a greatly exaggerated +storm?” +</p> + +<p> +“You don’t look the worse for wear—not the wreck I expected to behold.” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah, you should have seen me before I saw you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you. I have no doubt you find the sight of my dear face as refreshing as +your favorite cocktail. I suppose that is why it has taken you three days after +your return to reach me and then by special request.” +</p> + +<p> +“A pleasure delayed is twice a pleasure anticipation and realization.” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Balfour made a different application of his text, her eyes trained on him +with apparent indifference. “I’ve been enjoying a delayed pleasure myself. I +went to see her this afternoon.” +</p> + +<p> +He did not ask whom, but his eyes brightened. +</p> + +<p> +“She’s worth a good deal of seeing, don’t you think?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I’m in love with her, but it doesn’t follow you ought to be.” +</p> + +<p> +“Am I?”—he smiled. +</p> + +<p> +“You are either in love or else you ought to be ashamed of yourself.” +</p> + +<p> +“An interesting thing about you is your point of view. Now, anybody else would +tell me I ought to be ashamed if I am in love.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m not worried about your morals,” she scoffed. “It’s that poor child I’m +thinking of.” +</p> + +<p> +“I think of her a good deal, too.” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah! and does she think of you a good deal That’s what we must guard against.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. You see I’m her confidante.” She told it him with sparkling eyes, for the +piquancy of it amused her. Not every engaged young woman can hear her lover’s +praises sung by the woman whose life he has saved with the proper amount of +romance. +</p> + +<p> +“Really?” +</p> + +<p> +She nodded, laughing at him. “I didn’t get a chance to tell her about me.” +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose not.” +</p> + +<p> +“I think I’ll tell her about you, though—just what a ruthless barbarian +you are.” +</p> + +<p> +His eyes gleamed “I wish you would. I’d like to find out whether she would +believe you. I have tried to tell her myself, but the honest truth is, I funk +it.” +</p> + +<p> +“You haven’t any right to let her know you are interested in her.” She +interrupted him before he could speak. “Don’t trifle with her, Waring. She’s +not like other girls.” +</p> + +<p> +He met her look gravely. “I wouldn’t trifle with her for any reason.” +</p> + +<p> +Her quick rejoinder overlapped his sentence. “Then you love her!” +</p> + +<p> +“Is that an alternative?” +</p> + +<p> +“With you—yes.” +</p> + +<p> +“Faith, my lady, you’re frank!” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m not mealy-mouthed. You don’t think yourself scrupulous, do you?” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m afraid I am not.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t mind so much your being in love with HER, though it’s not flattering +to my vanity, but—” She stopped, letting him make the inference. +</p> + +<p> +“Do you think that likely?” he asked, the color flushing his face. +</p> + +<p> +He wondered how much Aline had told this confidante. Certain specific things he +knew she had not revealed, but had she let her guess the situation between +them? +</p> + +<p> +She compromised with her conscience. “I don’t know. She is romantic—and +Simon Harley isn’t a very fertile field for romance, I suppose.” +</p> + +<p> +“You would imply?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, you have points, and nobody knows them better than Waring Ridgway,” she +told him jauntily. “But you needn’t play that role to the address of Aline +Harley. Try ME. I’m immune to romance. Besides, I’m engaged to you,” she added, +laughing at the inconsequence the fact seemed to have for both of them. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m afraid I can’t help the situation, for if I’ve been playing a part, it has +been an unconscious one.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s the worst of it. When you star as Waring Ridgway you are most +dangerous. What I want is total abstinence.” +</p> + +<p> +“You’d rather I didn’t see her at all?” +</p> + +<p> +Virginia dimpled, a gleam of reminiscent laughter in her eyes. “When I was in +Denver last month a Mrs. Smythe—it was Smith before her husband struck it +rich last year—sent out cards for a bridge afternoon. A Mrs. Mahoney had +just come to the metropolis from the wilds of Cripple Creek. Her husband had +struck a gold-mine, too, and Mr. Smythe was under obligations to him. Anyhow, +she was a stranger, and Mrs. Smythe took her in. It was Mrs. Mahoney’s +introduction to bridge, and she did not know she was playing for keeps. When +the afternoon was over, Mrs. Smythe hovered about her with the sweetest +sympathy. ‘So sorry you had such a horrid run of cards, dear. Better luck next +time.’ It took Mrs. Mahoney some time to understand that her social afternoon +had cost one hundred and twenty dollars, but next day her husband sent a check +for one hundred and twenty-two dollars to Mrs. Smythe. The extra two dollars +were for the refreshments, he naively explained, adding that since his wife was +so poor a gambler as hardly to be able to keep professionals interested, he +would not feel offended if Mrs. Smythe omitted her in future from her social +functions.” +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway took it with a smile. “Simon Harley brought his one hundred and +twenty-two dollars in person.” +</p> + +<p> +“He didn’t! When?” +</p> + +<p> +“This morning. He proposed benevolent assimilation as a solution of our +troubles.” +</p> + +<p> +“Just how?” +</p> + +<p> +“He offered to consolidate all the copper interests of the country and put me +at the head of the resulting combine.” +</p> + +<p> +“If you wouldn’t play bridge with Mrs. Harley?” +</p> + +<p> +“Exactly.” +</p> + +<p> +“And you?” +</p> + +<p> +“Declined to pledge myself.” +</p> + +<p> +She clapped her hands softly. “Well done, Waring Ridgway! There are times when +you are magnificent, when I could put you on a pedestal, you great big, +unafraid man. But you mustn’t play with her, just the same.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why mustn’t I?” +</p> + +<p> +“For her sake.” +</p> + +<p> +He frowned past her into space, his tight-shut jaw standing out saliently. +“You’re right, Virginia. I’ve been thinking so myself. I’ll keep off the +grass,” he said, at last. +</p> + +<p> +“You’re a good fellow,” slipped out impulsively. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I know where there’s another,” he said. “I ought to think myself a lucky +dog.” +</p> + +<p> +Virginia lifted quizzical eyebrows. “Ought to! That tastes of duty. Don’t let +it come to that. We’ll take it off if you like.” She touched the solitaire he +had given her. +</p> + +<p> +“Ah, but I don’t like”—he smiled. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap12"></a> +CHAPTER XII.<br/> +ALINE MAKES A DISCOVERY</h2> + +<p> +Aline pulled her horse to a walk. “You know Mr. Ridgway pretty well, don’t +you?” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Balfour gently flicked her divided skirt with a riding-whip, considering +whether she might be said to know him well. “Yes, I think I do,” she ventured. +</p> + +<p> +“Mrs. Mott says you and he are great friends, that you seem very fond of each +other.” +</p> + +<p> +“Goodness me! I hope I don’t seem fond of him. I don’t think ‘fond’ is exactly +the word, anyway, though we are good friends.” Quickly, keenly, her covert +glance swept Aline; then, withdrawing her eyes, she flung her little bomb. “I +suppose we may be said to appreciate each other. At any rate, we are engaged.” +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Harley’s pony came to an abrupt halt. “I thought I had dropped my whip,” +she explained, in a low voice not quite true. +</p> + +<p> +Virginia, though she executed an elaborate survey of the scenery, could not +help noticing that the color had washed from her friend’s face. “I love this +Western country—its big sweep of plains, of low, rolling hills, with a +background of mountains. One can see how it gets into a man’s blood so that the +East seems insipid ever afterward,” discoursed Miss Balfour. +</p> + +<p> +A question trembled on Aline’s blanched lips. +</p> + +<p> +“Say it,” permitted Virginia. +</p> + +<p> +“Do you mean that you are engaged to him—that you are going to marry Mr. +Ridgway—without caring for him?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t mean that at all. I like him immensely.” +</p> + +<p> +“But—do you love him?” It was almost a cry—these low words wrung +from the tortured heart. +</p> + +<p> +“No fair,” warned her friend smilingly. +</p> + +<p> +Aline rode in silence, her stricken face full of trouble. How could she, from +her glass house, throw stones at a loveless marriage? But this was different +from her own case! Nobody was worthy to marry her hero without giving the best +a woman had to give. If she were a girl—a sudden tide of color swept her +face; a wild, delirious tingle of joy flooded her veins—oh, if she were a +girl, what a wealth of love could she give him! Clarity of vision had come to +her in a blinding flash. Untutored of life, the knowledge of its meaning had +struck home of the suddenest. She knew her heart now that it was too late; knew +that she could never be indifferent to what concerned Waring Ridgway. +</p> + +<p> +Aline caught at the courage behind her childishness, and accomplished her +congratulations “You will be happy, I am sure. He is good.” +</p> + +<p> +“Goodness does not impress me as his most outstanding quality,” smiled Miss +Balfour. +</p> + +<p> +“No, one never feels it emphasized. He is too free of selfishness to make much +of his goodness. But one can’t help feeling it in everything he does and says.” +</p> + +<p> +“Does Mr. Harley agree with you? Does he feel it?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t think Mr. Harley understands him. I can’t help thinking that he is +prejudiced.” She was becoming mistress of her voice and color again. +</p> + +<p> +“And you are not?” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps I am. In my thought of him he would still be good, even if he had done +all the bad things his enemies accuse him of.” +</p> + +<p> +Virginia gave her up. This idealized interpretation of her betrothed was not +the one she had, but for Aline it might be the true one. At least, she could +not disparage him very consistently under the circumstances. +</p> + +<p> +“Isn’t there a philosophy current that we find in people what we look for in +them? Perhaps that is why you and Mr. Harley read in Mr. Ridgway men so diverse +as you do. It is not impossible you are both right and both wrong. Heaven +knows, I suppose. At least, we poor mortals fog around enough when we sit in +judgment.” And Virginia shrugged the matter from her careless shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +But Aline seemed to have a difficulty in getting away from the subject. “And +you—what do you read?” she asked timidly. +</p> + +<p> +“Sometimes one thing and sometimes another. To-day I see him as a living +refutation of all the copy-book rules to success. He shatters the maxims with a +touch-and-go manner that is fascinating in its immorality. A gambler, a +plunger, an adventurer, he wins when a careful, honest business man would fail +to a certainty.” +</p> + +<p> +Aline was amazed. “You misjudge him. I am sure you do. But if you think this of +him why—” +</p> + +<p> +“Why do I marry him? I have asked myself that a hundred times, my dear. I wish +I knew. I have told you what I see in him to-day; but tomorrow—why, +to-morrow I shall see him an altogether different man. He will be perhaps a +radiating center of altruism, devoted to his friends, a level-headed protector +of the working classes, a patron of the arts in his own clearminded, unlettered +way. But whatever point of view one gets at him, he spares one dullness. Will +you explain to me, my dear, why picturesque rascality is so much more likable +than humdrum virtue?” +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Harley’s eyes blazed. “And you can talk this way of the man you are going +to marry, a man—” She broke off, her voice choked. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Balfour was cool as a custard. “I can, my dear, and without the least +disloyalty. In point of fact, he asked me to tell you the kind of man I think +him. I’m trying to oblige him, you see.” +</p> + +<p> +“He asked you—to tell me this about him?” Aline pulled in her pony in +order to read with her astonished eyes the amused ones of her companion. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. He was afraid you were making too much of his saving you. He thinks he +won’t do to set on a pedestal.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then I think all the more of him for his modesty.” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t invest too heavily on his modesty, my dear. He wouldn’t be the man he is +if he owned much of that commodity.” +</p> + +<p> +“The man he is?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, the man born to win, the man certain of himself no matter what the odds +against him. He knows he is a man of destiny; knows quite well that there is +something big about him that dwarfs other men. I know it, too. Wherefore I +seize my opportunity. It would be a sin to let a man like that get away from +one. I could never forgive myself,” she concluded airily. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t you see any human, lovable things in him?” Aline’s voice was an +accusation. +</p> + +<p> +“He is the staunchest friend conceivable. No trouble is too great for him to +take for one he likes, and where once he gives his trust he does not take it +back. Oh, for all his force, he is intensely human! Take his vanity, my dear. +It soars to heaven.” +</p> + +<p> +“If I cared for him I couldn’t dissect his qualities as you do.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s because you are a triumph of the survival of nature and impulse over +civilization, in spite of its attempts to sap your freshness. For me, I fear +I’m a sophisticated daughter of a critical generation. If I weren’t, I should +not hold my judgment so safely in my own keeping, but would surrender it and my +heart.” +</p> + +<p> +“There is something about the way you look at him that shocks me. One ought not +to let oneself believe all that seems easy to believe.” +</p> + +<p> +“That is your faith, but mine is a different one. You see, I’m a Unitarian,” +returned Virginia blithely. +</p> + +<p> +“He will make you love him if you marry him,” sighed Aline, coming back to her +obsession. +</p> + +<p> +Virginia nodded eagerly. “In my secret heart that is what I am hoping for, my +dear.” +</p> + +<p> +“Unless there is another man,” added Aline, as if alone with her thoughts. +</p> + +<p> +Virginia was irritably aware of a flood of color beating into her cheeks. +“There isn’t any other man,” she said impatiently. +</p> + +<p> +Yet she thought of Lyndon Hobart. Curiously enough, whenever she conceived +herself as marrying Ridgway, the reflex of her brain carried to her a picture +of Hobart, clean-handed, fine of instinct, with the inherited inflections of +voice and unconscious pride of caste that come from breeding and not from +cultivation. If he were not born to greatness, like his rival, at least he +satisfied her critical judgment of what a gentleman should be; and she was +quite sure that the potential capacity lay in her to care a good deal more for +him than for anybody else she had met. Since it was not on the cards, as Miss +Virginia had shuffled the pack, that she should marry primarily for reasons +sentimental, this annoyed her in her sophisticated hours. +</p> + +<p> +But in the hours when she was a mere girl when she was not so confidently the +heir of all the feminine wisdom of the ages, her annoyance took another form. +She had told Lyndon Hobart of her engagement because it was the honest thing to +do; because she supposed she ought to discourage any hopes he might be +entertaining. But it did not follow that he need have let these hopes be +extinguished so summarily. She could have wished his scrupulous regard for the +proper thing had not had the effect of taking him so completely out of her +external life, while leaving him more insistently than ever the subject of her +inner contemplation. +</p> + +<p> +Virginia’s conscience was of the twentieth century and American, though she was +a good deal more honest with herself than most of her sex in the same social +circle. Also she was straightforward with her neighbors so far as she could +reasonably be. But she was not a Puritan in the least, though she held herself +to a more rigid account than she did her friends. She judged her betrothed as +little as she could, but this was not to be entirely avoided, since she +expected her life to become merged so largely in his. There were hours when she +felt she must escape the blighting influence of his lawlessness. There were +others when it seemed to her magnificent. +</p> + +<p> +Except for the occasional jangle of a bit or the ring of a horse’s shoe on a +stone, there was silence which lasted many minutes. Each was busy with her +thoughts, and the narrowness of the trail, which here made them go in single +file, served as an excuse against talk. +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps we had better turn back,” suggested Virginia, after the path had +descended to a gulch and merged itself in a wagon-road. “We shall have no more +than time to get home and dress for dinner.” +</p> + +<p> +Aline turned her pony townward, and they rode at a walk side by side. +</p> + +<p> +“Do you know much about the difficulty between Mr. Harley and Mr. Ridgway? I +mean about the mines—the Sherman Bell, I think they called it?” +</p> + +<p> +“I know something about the trouble in a general way. Both the Consolidated and +Mr. Ridgway’s company claim certain veins. That is true of several mines, I +have been told.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know anything about business. Mr. Harley does not tell me anything +about his. To day I was sitting in the open window, and two men stopped beneath +it. They thought there would be trouble in this mine—that men would be +hurt. I could not make it all out, but that was part of it. I sent for Mr. +Harley and made him tell me what he knew. It would be dreadful if anything like +that happened.” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t worry your head about it, my dear. Things are always threatening and +never happening. It seems to be a part of the game of business to bluff, as +they call it.” +</p> + +<p> +“I wish it weren’t,” sighed the girl-wife. +</p> + +<p> +Virginia observed that she looked both sad and weary. She had started on her +ride like a prisoner released from his dungeon, happy in the sunshine, the +swift motion, the sting of the wind in her face. There had been a sparkle in +her eye and a ring of gaiety in her laugh. Into her cheeks a faint color had +glowed, so that the contrast of their clear pallor with the vivid scarlet of +the little lips had been less pronounced than usual. But now she was listless +and distraite, the girlish abandon all stricken out of her. It needed no +clairvoyant to see that her heart was heavy and that she was longing for the +moment when she could be alone with her pain. +</p> + +<p> +Her friend had learned what she wanted to know, and the knowledge of it +troubled her. She would have given a good deal to have been able to lift this +sorrow from the girl riding beside her. For she was aware that Aline Harley +might as well have reached for the moon as that toward which her untutored +heart yearned. She had come to life late and traveled in it but a little way. +Yet the tragedy of it was about to engulf her. No lifeboat was in sight. She +must sink or swim alone. Virginia’s unspoiled heart went out to her with a rush +of pity and sympathy. Almost the very words that Waring Ridgway had used came +to her lips. +</p> + +<p> +“You poor lamb! You poor, forsaken lamb!” +</p> + +<p> +But she spoke instead with laughter and lightness, seeing nothing of the girl’s +distress, at least, until after they separated at the door of the hotel. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap13"></a> +CHAPTER XIII.<br/> +FIRST BLOOD</h2> + +<p> +After Ridgway’s cavalier refusal to negotiate a peace treaty, Simon Harley and +his body-guard walked back to the offices of the Consolidated, where they +arrived at the same time as the news of the enemy’s first blow since the +declaration of renewed war. +</p> + +<p> +Hobart was at his desk with his ear to the telephone receiver when the great +financier came into the inner office of the manager. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. When? Driven out, you say? Yes—yes. Anybody hurt? Followed our men +through into our tunnel? No, don’t do anything till you hear from me. Send Rhys +up at once. Let me know any further developments that occur.” +</p> + +<p> +Hobart hung up the receiver and turned on his swivel-chair toward his chief. +“Another outrage, sir, at the hands of Ridgway. It is in regard to those veins +in the Copper King that he claims. Dalton, his superintendent of the Taurus, +drove a tunnel across our lateral lines and began working them, though their +own judge has not yet rendered a decision in their favor. Of course, I put a +large force in them at once. To-day we tapped their workings at the twelfth +level. Our foreman, Miles, has just telephoned me that Dalton turned the air +pressure on our men, blew out their candles, and flung a mixture of lime and +rocks at them. Several of the men are hurt, though none badly. It seems that +Dalton has thrown a force into our tunnels and is holding the entrances against +us at the point where the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth levels touch the +cage. It means that he will work those veins, and probably others that are +acknowledged to be ours, unless we drive them out, which would probably be a +difficult matter.” +</p> + +<p> +Harley listened patiently, eyes glittering and clean-shaven lips pressed +tightly against his teeth. “What do you propose to do?” +</p> + +<p> +“I haven’t decided yet. If we could get any justice from the courts, an +injunction.” +</p> + +<p> +“Can’t be got from Purcell. Don’t waste time considering it. Fight it out +yourself. Find his weakest spot, then strike hard and suddenly.” Harley’s low +metallic voice was crisp and commanding. +</p> + +<p> +“His weakest spot?” +</p> + +<p> +“Exactly. Has he no mines upon which we can retaliate?” +</p> + +<p> +“There is the Taurus. It lies against the Copper King end to end. He drove a +tunnel into some of our workings last winter. That would give a passageway to +send our men through, if we decide to do so. Then there is his New York. Its +workings connect with those of the Jim Hill.” +</p> + +<p> +“Good! Send as many men through as is necessary to capture and hold both mines. +Get control of the entire workings of them both, and begin taking ore out at +once. Station armed guards at every point where it is necessary, and as many as +are necessary. Use ten thousand men, if you need that many. But don’t fail. +We’ll give Ridgway a dose of his own medicine, and teach him that for every +pound of our ore he steals we’ll take ten.” +</p> + +<p> +“He’ll get an injunction from the courts.” +</p> + +<p> +“Let him get forty. I’ll show him that his robber courts will not save him. +Anyhow, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” +</p> + +<p> +Hobart, almost swept from his moorings by the fiery energy of his chief, braced +himself to withstand the current. +</p> + +<p> +“I shall have to think about that. We can’t fight lawlessness with lawlessness +except for selfpreservation.” +</p> + +<p> +“Think! You do nothing but think, Mr. Hobart. You are here to act,” came the +scornful retort; “And what is this but self-preservation.” +</p> + +<p> +“I am willing to recapture our workings in the Copper King. I’ll lead the +attack in person, sir. But as to a retaliatory attack—the facts will not +justify a capture of his property because he has seized ours.” +</p> + +<p> +“Wrong, sir. This is no time for half-way measures. I have resolved to crush +this freebooter; since he has purchased your venal courts, then by the only +means left us—force.” +</p> + +<p> +Hobart rose from his seat, very pale and erect. His eyes met those of the great +man unflinchingly. “You realize that this may mean murder, Mr. Harley? That a +clash cannot possibly be avoided if you pursue this course?” +</p> + +<p> +“I realize that it is self-preservation,” came the cold retort. “There is no +law here, none, at least, that gives us justice. We are back to savagery, +dragged back by the madness of this ruffian. It is his choice, not mine. Let +him abide by it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Your intention to follow this course is irrevocable?” +</p> + +<p> +“Absolutely.” +</p> + +<p> +“In that case, I must regretfully offer my resignation as manager of the +Consolidated.” +</p> + +<p> +“It is accepted, Mr. Hobart. I can’t have men working under me that are not +loyal, body and soul, to the hand that feeds them. No man can serve two +masters, Mr. Hobart.” +</p> + +<p> +“That is why I resign, Mr. Harley. You give me the devil’s work to do. I have +done enough of it. By Heaven, I will be a free man hereafter.” The disgust and +dissatisfaction that had been pent within him for many a month broke forth hot +from the lips of this self-repressed man. “It is all wrong on both sides. Two +wrongs do not make a right. The system of espionage we employ over everybody +both on his side and ours, the tyrannical use we make of our power, the +corruption we foster in politics, our secret bargains with railroads, our +evasions of law as to taxes, and in every other way that suits us: it is all +wrong—all wrong. I’ll be a party to it no longer. You see to what it +leads—murder and anarchy. I’ll be a poor man if I must, but I’ll be a +free and honest one at least.” +</p> + +<p> +“You are talking wickedly and wildly, Mr. Hobart. You are criticizing God when +you criticize the business conditions he has put into the world. I did not know +that you were a socialist, but what you have just said explains your course,” +the old man reproved sadly and sanctimonious. +</p> + +<p> +“I am not a socialist, Mr. Harley, but you and your methods have made thousands +upon thousands of them in this country during the past ten years.” +</p> + +<p> +“We shall not discuss that, Mr. Hobart, nor, indeed, is any discussion +necessary. Frankly, I am greatly disappointed in you. I have for some time been +dissatisfied with your management, but I did not, of course, know you held +these anarchistic views. I want, however, to be perfectly just. You are a very +good business man indeed, careful and thorough. That you have not a bold enough +grasp of mind for the place you hold is due, perhaps, to these dangerous ideas +that have unsettled you. Your salary will be continued for six months. Is that +satisfactory?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, sir. I could not be willing to accept it longer than to-day. And when you +say bold enough, why not be plain and say unscrupulous enough?” amended the +younger man. +</p> + +<p> +“As you like. I don’t juggle with words. The point is, you don’t succeed. This +adventurer, Ridgway, scores continually against you. He has beaten you clear +down the line from start to finish. Is that not true?” +</p> + +<p> +“Because he does not hesitate to stoop to anything, because—” +</p> + +<p> +“Precisely. You have given the very reason why he must be fought in the same +spirit. Business ethics would be as futile against him as chivalry in dealing +with a jungle-tiger.” +</p> + +<p> +“You would then have had me stoop to any petty meanness to win, no matter how +contemptible?” +</p> + +<p> +The New Yorker waved him aside with a patient, benignant gesture. “I don’t care +for excuses. I ask of my subordinates success. You do not get it for me. I must +find a man who can.” +</p> + +<p> +Hobart bowed with fine dignity. The touch of disdain in his slight smile marked +his sense of the difference between them. He was again his composed rigid self. +</p> + +<p> +“Can you arrange to allow my resignation to take effect as soon as possible? I +should prefer to have my connection with the company severed before any action +is taken against these mines.” +</p> + +<p> +“At once—to-day. Your resignation may be published in the Herald this +afternoon, and you will then be acquitted of whatever may follow.” +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you.” Hobart hesitated an instant before he said: “There is a point that +I have already mentioned to you which, with your permission, I must again +advert to. The temper of the miners has been very bitter since you refused to +agree to Mr. Ridgway’s proposal for an eight-hour day. I would urge upon you to +take greater precautions against a personal attack. You have many lawless men +among your employees. They are foreigners for the most part, unused to +self-restraint. It is only right you should know they execrate your name.” +</p> + +<p> +The great man smiled blandly. “Popularity is nothing to me. I have neither +sought it nor desired it. Given a great work to do, with the Divine help I have +done it, irrespective of public clamor. For many years I have lived in the +midst of alarms, Mr. Hobart. I am not foolhardy. What precautions I can +reasonably take I do. For the rest, my confidence is in an all-wise Providence. +It is written that not even a sparrow falls without His decree. In that promise +I put my trust. If I am to be cut off it can only be by His will. ‘The Lord +gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’ Such, I +pray, may be the humble and grateful spirit with which I submit myself to His +will.” +</p> + +<p> +The retiring manager urged the point no further. “If you have decided upon my +successor and he is on the ground I shall be glad to give the afternoon to +running over with him the affairs of the office. It would be well for him to +retain for a time my private secretary and stenographer.” +</p> + +<p> +“Mr. Mott will succeed you. He will no doubt be glad to have your assistance in +helping him fall into the routine of the office, Mr. Hobart.” +</p> + +<p> +Harley sent for Mott at once and told him of his promotion. The two men were +closeted together for hours, while trusted messengers went and came incessantly +to and from the mines. Hobart knew, of course, that plans were in progress to +arm such of the Consolidated men as could be trusted, and that arrangements +were being made to rush the Taurus and the New York. Everything was being done +as secretly as possible, but Hobart’s experience of Ridgway made it obvious to +him that this excessive activity could not pass without notice. His spies, like +those of the trust, swarmed everywhere. +</p> + +<p> +It was not till mid-afternoon of the next day that Mott found time to join him +and run over with him the details of such unfinished business as the office had +taken up. The retiring manager was courtesy itself, nor did he feel any +bitterness against his successor. Nevertheless, he came to the end of office +hours with great relief. The day had been a very hard one, and it left him with +a longing for solitude and the wide silent spaces of the open hills. He struck +out in the direction which promised him the quickest opportunity to leave the +town behind him. A good walker, he covered the miles rapidly, and under the +physical satisfaction of the tramp the brain knots unraveled and smoothed +themselves out. It was better so—better to live his own life than the one +into which he was being ground by the inexorable facts of his environment. He +was a young man and ambitious, but his hopes were not selfish. At bottom he was +an idealist, though a practical one. He had had to shut his eyes to many things +which he deplored, had been driven to compromises which he despised. +Essentially clean-handed, the soul of him had begun to wither at the contact of +that which he saw about him and was so large a part of. +</p> + +<p> +“I am not fit for it. That is the truth. Mott has no imagination, and property +rights are the most sacred thing on earth to him. He will do better at it than +I,” he told himself, as he walked forward bareheaded into the great sunset glow +that filled the saddle between two purple hills in front of him. +</p> + +<p> +As he swung round a bend in the road a voice, clear and sweet, came to him +through the light filtered air. +</p> + +<p> +“Laska!” +</p> + +<p> +A young woman on horseback was before him. Her pony stood across the road, and +she looked up a trail which ran down into it. The lifted poise of the head +brought out its fine lines and the distinction with which it was set upon the +well-molded throat column. Apparently she was calling to some companion on the +trail who had not yet emerged into view. +</p> + +<p> +At sound of his footsteps the rider’s head turned. +</p> + +<p> +“Good afternoon, Mr. Hobart,” she said quietly, as coolly as if her heart had +not suddenly begun to beat strangely fast. +</p> + +<p> +“Good afternoon, Miss Balfour.” +</p> + +<p> +Each of them was acutely conscious of the barrier between them. Since the day +when she had told him of her engagement they had not met, even casually, and +this their first sight of each other was not without embarrassment. +</p> + +<p> +“We have been to Lone Pine Cone,” she said rather hurriedly, to bridge an +impending silence. +</p> + +<p> +He met this obvious statement with another as brilliant. +</p> + +<p> +“I walked out from town. My horse is a little lame.” +</p> + +<p> +But there was something she wanted to say to him, and the time for saying it, +before the arrival of her companion, was short. She would not waste it in +commonplaces. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t usually read the papers very closely, but this morning I read both the +Herald and the Sun. Did you get my note?” +</p> + +<p> +“Your note? No.” +</p> + +<p> +“I sent it by mail. I wanted you to know that your friends are proud of you. We +know why you resigned. It is easy to read between the lines.” +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you,” he said simply. “I knew you would know.” +</p> + +<p> +“Even the Sun recognizes that it was because you are too good a man for the +place.” +</p> + +<p> +“Praise from the Sun has rarely shone my way,” he said, with a touch of irony, +for that paper was controlled by the Ridgway interest. “In its approval I am +happy.” +</p> + +<p> +Her impulsive sympathy for this man whom she so greatly liked would not accept +the rebuff imposed by this reticence. She stripped the gauntlet from her hand +and offered it in congratulation. +</p> + +<p> +He took it in his, a slight flush in his face. +</p> + +<p> +“I have done nothing worthy of praise. One cannot ask less of a man than that +he remain independent and honest. I couldn’t do that and stay with the +Consolidated, or, so it seemed to me. So I resigned. That is all there is to +it.” +</p> + +<p> +“It is enough. I don’t know another man would have done it, would have had the +courage to do it after his feet were set so securely in the way of success. The +trouble with Americans is that they want too much success. They want it at too +big a price.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m not likely ever to have too much of it,” he laughed sardonically. +</p> + +<p> +“Success in life and success in living aren’t the same thing. It is because you +have discovered this that you have sacrificed the less for the greater.” She +smiled, and added: “I didn’t mean that to sound as preachy as it does.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m afraid you make too much of a small thing. My squeamishness has probably +made me the laughing-stock of Mesa.” +</p> + +<p> +“If so, that is to the discredit of Mesa,” she insisted stanchly. “But I don’t +think so. A great many people who couldn’t have done it themselves will think +more of you for having done it.” +</p> + +<p> +Another pony, which had been slithering down the steep trail in the midst of a +small rock slide, now brought its rider safely to a halt in the road. Virginia +introduced them, and Hobart, remembered that he had heard Miss Balfour speak of +a young woman whom she had met on the way out, a Miss Laska Lowe, who was +coming to Mesa to teach domestic science in the public schools. There was +something about the young teacher’s looks that he liked, though she was of a +very different type than Virginia. Not at all pretty in any accepted sense, she +yet had a charm born of the vital honesty in her. She looked directly at one +out of sincere gray eyes, wide-awake and fearless. As it happened, her friend +had been telling her about Hobart, and she was interested in him from the +first. For she was of that minority which lives not by bread alone, and she +felt a glow of pride in the man who could do what the Sun had given this man +credit for editorially. +</p> + +<p> +They talked at haphazard for a few minutes before the young women cantered +away. As Hobart trudged homeward he knew that in the eyes of these two women, +at least, he had not been a fool. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap14"></a> +CHAPTER XIV.<br/> +A CONSPIRACY</h2> + +<p> +Tucked away in an obscure corner of the same issue of the papers which +announced the resignation of Lyndon Hobart as manager of the Consolidated +properties, and the appointment of James K. Mott as his temporary successor, +were little one-stick paragraphs regarding explosions, which had occurred the +night before in tunnels of the Taurus and the New York. The general public paid +little attention to these, but those on the inside knew that Ridgway had scored +again. His spies had carried the news to him of the projected capture of these +two properties by the enemy. Instead of attempting to defend them by force, he +had set off charges of giant powder which had brought down the tunnel roofs and +effectually blocked the entrances from the Consolidated mines adjoining. +</p> + +<p> +With the indefatigable patience which characterized him, Harley set about +having the passages cleared of the rock and timber with which they were filled. +Before he had succeeded in doing this his enemy struck another telling blow. +From Judge Purcell he secured an injunction against the Consolidated from +working its mines, the Diamond King, the Mary K, and the Marcus Daly, on the +absurd contention that the principal ore-vein of the Marcus Daly apexed on the +tin, triangle wedged in between these three great mines, and called by Ridgway +the Trust Buster. Though there was not room enough upon this fragment to sink a +shaft, it was large enough to found this claim of a vein widening as it +descended until it crossed into the territory of each of these properties. +Though Harley could ignore court injunctions which erected only under-ground +territory, he was forced to respect this one, since it could not be violated +except in the eyes of the whole country. The three mines closed down, and +several thousand workmen were thrown out of employment. These were immediately +reemployed by Ridgway and set to work both in his own and the Consolidated’s +territory. +</p> + +<p> +Within a week a dozen new suits were instituted against the Consolidated by its +enemy. He harassed it by contempt proceedings, by applications for +receiverships, and by other ingenious devices, which greatly tormented the New +York operator. For the first time in his life the courts, which Harley had used +to much advantage in his battles to maintain and extend the trusts he +controlled, could not be used even to get scant justice. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile both leaders were turning their attention to the political situation. +The legislators were beginning to gather for the coming session, and already +the city was full of rumors about corruption. For both the Consolidated and its +enemy were making every effort to secure enough votes to win the election of a +friendly United States senator. The man chosen would have the distribution of +the federal patronage of the State. This meant the control of the most +influential local politicians of the party in power at Washington as well as +their followers, an almost vital factor for success in a State where political +corruption had so interwoven itself into the business life of the community. +</p> + +<p> +The hotel lobbies were filled with politicians gathered from every county in +the State. Big bronzed cattlemen brushed shoulders with budding lawyers from +country towns and ward bosses from the larger cities. The bars were working +overtime, and the steady movement of figures in the corridors lasted all day +and most of the night. Here and there were collected groups, laughing and +talking about the old frontier days, or commenting in lowered tones on some +phase of the feverish excitement that was already beginning to be apparent. +Elevators shot up and down, subtracting and adding to the kaleidoscope of human +life in the rotundas. Bellboys hurried to and fro with messages and cocktails. +The ring of the telephone-bell cut occasionally into the deep hum of many +voices. All was confusion, keen interest, expectancy. +</p> + +<p> +For it was known that Simon Harley had sent for $300,000 in cold cash to secure +the election of his candidate, Roger D. Warner, a lawyer who had all his life +been close to corporate interests. It was known, too, that Waring Ridgway had +gathered together every element in the State that opposed the domination of the +Consolidated, to fight their man to a finish. Bets for large sums were offered +and taken as to the result, heavy odds being given in favor of the big copper +trust’s candidate. For throughout the State at large the Consolidated influence +was very great indeed. It owned forest lands and railroads and mines. It +controlled local transportation largely. Nearly one-half the working men in the +State were in its employ. Into every town and village the ramifications of its +political organization extended. The feeling against it was very bitter, but +this was usually expressed in whispers. For it was in a position to ruin almost +any business man upon whom it fastened a grudge, and to make wealthy any upon +whom it chose to cast its favors. +</p> + +<p> +Nevertheless, there were some not so sure that the Consolidated would succeed +in electing its man. Since Ridgway had announced himself as a candidate there +had been signs of defection on the part of some of those expected to vote for +Warner. He had skillfully wielded together in opposition to the trust all the +elements of the State that were hostile to it; and already the word was being +passed that he had not come to the campaign without a barrel of his own. +</p> + +<p> +The balloting for United States senator was not to begin until the eighth day +of the session, but the opening week was full of a tense and suppressed +excitement. It was known that agents of both sides were moving to and fro among +the representatives and State senators, offering fabulous prices for their +votes and the votes of any others they might be able to control. Men who had +come to the capital confident in their strength and integrity now looked at +their neighbors furtively and guiltily. Day by day the legislators were being +debauched to serve the interest of the factions which were fighting for control +of the State. Night after night secret meetings were being held in +out-of-the-way places to seduce those who clung desperately to their honesty or +held out for a bigger price. Bribery was in the air, rampant, unashamed. +Thousand-dollar bills were as common as ten-dollar notes in ordinary times. +</p> + +<p> +Sam Yesler, commenting on the situation to his friend Jack Roper, a fellow +member of the legislature who had been a cattleman from the time he had given +up driving a stage thirty years before, shook his head dejectedly over his blue +points. +</p> + +<p> +“I tell you, Jack, a man has to be bed-rocked in honesty or he’s gone. Think of +it. A country lawyer comes here who has never seen five thousand dollars in a +lump sum, and they shove fifteen thousand at him for his vote. He is poor, +ambitious, struggling along from hand to mouth. I reckon we ain’t in a position +to judge that poor devil of a harassed fellow. Mebbe he’s always been on the +square, came here to do what was right, we’ll say, but he sees corruption all +round him. How can he help getting a warped notion of things? He sees his +friends and his neighbors falling by the wayside. By God, it’s got to the point +in this legislature that an honest man’s an object of obloquy.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s right,” agreed Roper. “Easy enough for us to be square. We got good +ranches back of us and can spend the winter playing poker at the Mesa Club if +we feel like it. But if we stood where Billy George and Garner and Roberts and +Munz do, I ain’t so damn sure my virtue would stand the strain. Can you reach +that salt, Sam?” +</p> + +<p> +“Billy George has got a sick wife, and he’s been wanting to send her back to +her folks in the East, but he couldn’t afford it. The doctors figured she ought +to stay a year, and Billy would have to hire a woman to take care of his kids. +I said to him: ‘Hell, Billy, what’s a friend for?’ And I shoves a check at him. +He wouldn’t look at it; said he didn’t know whether he could ever pay it, and +he had not come down to charity yet.” +</p> + +<p> +“Billy’s a white man. That’s what makes me sick. Right on top of all his bad +luck he comes here and sees that everybody is getting a big roll. He thinks of +that white-faced wife of his dragging herself round among the kids and dying by +inches for lack of what money can buy her. I tell you I don’t blame him. It’s +the fellows putting the temptation up to him that ought to be strung up.” +</p> + +<p> +“I see that hound Pelton’s mighty active in it. He’s got it in for Ridgway +since Waring threw him down, and he’s plugging night and day for Warner. Stays +pretty well tanked up. Hopper tells me he’s been making threats to kill Waring +on sight.” +</p> + +<p> +“I heard that and told Waring. He laughed and said he hoped he would live till +Pelton killed him. I like Waring. He’s got the guts, as his miners say. But +he’s away off on this fight. He’s using money right and left just as Harley +is.” +</p> + +<p> +Yesler nodded. “The whole town’s corrupted. It takes bribery for granted. Men +meet on the street and ask what the price of votes is this morning. Everybody +feels prosperous.” +</p> + +<p> +“I heard that a chambermaid at the Quartzite Hotel found seven thousand dollars +in big bills pinned to the bottom of a mattress in Garner’s room yesterday. He +didn’t dare bank it, of course.” +</p> + +<p> +“Poor devil! He’s another man that would like to be honest, but with the whole +place impregnated with bribery he couldn’t stand the pressure. But after this +is all over he’ll go home to his wife and his neighbors with the canker of this +thing at his heart until he dies. I tell you, Jack, I’m for stopping it if we +can.” +</p> + +<p> +“How?” +</p> + +<p> +“There’s one way. I’ve been approached indirectly by Pelton, to deliver our +vote to the Consolidated. Suppose we arrange to do it, get evidence, and make a +public exposure.” +</p> + +<p> +They were alone in a private dining-room of a restaurant, but Yesler’s voice +had fallen almost to a whisper. With his steady gray eyes he looked across at +the man who had ridden the range with him fifteen years ago when he had not had +a sou to bless himself with. +</p> + +<p> +Roper tugged at his long drooping mustache and gazed at his friend. “It’s a +large order, Sam, a devilish large order. Do you reckon we could deliver?” +</p> + +<p> +“I think so. There are six of us that will stand pat at any cost. If we play +our cards right and keep mum the surprise of it is bound to shake votes loose +when we spring the bomb. The whole point is whether we can take advantage of +that surprise to elect a decent man. I don’t say it can be done, but there’s a +chance of it.” +</p> + +<p> +The old stage-driver laughed softly. “We’ll be damned good and plenty by both +sides.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course. It won’t be a pleasant thing to do, but then it isn’t exactly +pleasant to sit quiet and let these factions use the State as a pawn in their +game of grab.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m with you, Sam. Go to it, my boy, and I’ll back you to the limit.” +</p> + +<p> +“We had better not talk it over here. Come to my room after dinner and bring +Landor and James with you. I’ll have Reedy and Keller there. I’ll mention +casually that it’s a big game of poker, and I’ll have cards and drinks sent up. +You want to remember we can’t be too careful. If it leaks out we lose.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m a clam, Sam. Do you want I should speak of it to Landor and James?” +</p> + +<p> +“Better wait till we get together.” +</p> + +<p> +“What about Ward? He’s always been with us.” +</p> + +<p> +“He talks too much. We can take him in at the last minute if we like.” +</p> + +<p> +“That would be better. I ain’t so sure about Reedy, either. He’s straight as a +string, of course; not a crooked hair in his head. But when he gets to drinking +he’s likely to let things out.” +</p> + +<p> +“You’re right. We’ll leave him out, too, until the last minute. There’s another +thing I’ve thought of. Ridgway can’t win. At least I don’t see how he can +control more than twenty five votes. Suppose at the very last moment we make a +deal with him and with the Democrats to pool our votes on some square man. With +Waring it’s anything to beat the Consolidated. He’ll jump at the chance if he’s +sure he is out of the running himself. Those of the Democrats that Harley can’t +buy will be glad to beat his man. I don’t say it can be done, Jack. All I say +is that it is worth a trial.” +</p> + +<p> +“You bet.” +</p> + +<p> +They met that night in Yesler’s rooms round a card-table. The hands were dealt +for form’s sake, since there were spies everywhere, and it was necessary to +ring for cigars and refreshments occasionally to avoid suspicion. They were all +cattlemen, large or small, big outdoors sunburned men, who rode the range in +the spring and fall with their punchers and asked no odds of any man. +</p> + +<p> +Until long past midnight they talked the details over, and when they separated +in the small hours it was with a well-defined plan to save the State from its +impending disgrace if the thing could be done. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap15"></a> +CHAPTER XV.<br/> +LASKA OPENS A DOOR</h2> + +<p> +The first ballots for a United States senator taken by the legislature in joint +session failed to disclose the alignment of some of the doubtful members. The +Democratic minority of twenty-eight votes were cast for Springer, the senator +whose place would be taken by whoever should win in the contest now on. Warner +received forty-four, Ridgway twenty-six, eight went to Pascom, a former +governor whom the cattlemen were supporting, and the remaining three were +scattered. Each day one ballot was taken, and for a week there was a slight +sifting down of the complimentary votes until at the end of it the count stood: +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +Warner 45<br/> +Ridgway 28<br/> +Springer 28<br/> +Pascom 8 +</p> + +<p> +Warner still lacked ten votes of an election, but It was pretty thoroughly +understood that several of the Democratic minority were waiting only long +enough for a colorable excuse to switch to him. All kinds of rumors were in the +air as to how many of these there were. The Consolidated leaders boldly claimed +that they had only to give the word to force the election of their candidate on +any ballot. Yesler did not believe this claim could be justified, since Pelton +and Harley were already negotiating with him for the delivery of the votes +belonging to the cattlemen’s contingent. +</p> + +<p> +He had held off for some time with hints that it would take a lot of money to +swing the votes of such men as Roper and Landor, but he had finally come to an +agreement that the eight votes should be given to Warner for a consideration of +$300,000. This was to be paid to Yesler in the presence of the other seven +members on the night before the election, and was to be held in escrow by him +and Roper until the pact was fulfilled, the money to be kept in a safety +deposit vault with a key in possession of each of the two. +</p> + +<p> +On the third day of the session, before the voting had begun, Stephen Eaton, +who was a State senator from Mesa, moved that a committee be appointed to +investigate the rumors of bribery that were so common. The motion caught the +Consolidated leaders napping, for this was the last man they had expected to +propose such a course, and it went through with little opposition, as a similar +motion did in the House at the same time. The lieutenant-governor and the +speaker of the House were both opposed to Warner, and the joint committee had +on it the names of no Consolidated men. The idea of such a committee had +originated with Ridgway, and had been merely a bluff to show that he at least +was willing that the world should know the whole story of the election. Nor had +this committee held even formal meetings before word reached Eaton through +Yesler that if it would appoint a conference in some very private place, +evidence would be submitted implicating agents of the Warner forces in attempts +at bribery. +</p> + +<p> +It was close to eleven o’clock when Sam Yesler stepped quietly from a side door +of his hotel and slipped into the street. He understood perfectly that in +following the course he did, he was taking his life in his hands. The exposure +of the bribery traffic would blast forever the reputations of many men who had +hitherto held a high place in the community, and he knew the temper of some of +them well enough to be aware that an explosion was probable. Spies had been +dogging him ever since the legislature convened. Within an hour one of them +would be flying to Pelton with the news that he was at a meeting of the +committee, and all the thugs of the other side would be turned loose on his +heels. As he walked briskly through the streets toward the place appointed, his +hand lay on the hilt of a revolver in the outside pocket of his overcoat. He +was a man who would neither seek trouble nor let it overwhelm him. If his life +were attempted, he meant to defend it to the last. +</p> + +<p> +He followed side streets purposely, and his footsteps echoed along the deserted +road. He knew he was being dogged, for once, when he glanced back, he caught +sight of a skulking figure edging along close to a wall. The sight of the spy +stirred his blood. Grimly he laughed to himself. They might murder him for what +he was doing, but not in time to save the exposure which would be brought to +light on the morrow. +</p> + +<p> +The committee met at a road-house near the outskirts of the city, but only long +enough to hear Yesler’s facts and to appoint another meeting for three hours +later at the offices of Eaton. For the committee had come here for secrecy, and +they knew that it would be only a short time before Pelton’s heelers would be +down upon them in force. It was agreed they should divide and slip quietly back +to town, wait until everything was quiet and convene again. Meanwhile Eaton +would make arrangements to see that his offices would be sufficiently guarded +for protection against any attack. +</p> + +<p> +Yesler walked back to town and was within a couple of blocks of his hotel when +he glimpsed two figures crouching against the fence of the alley. He stopped in +his tracks, watched them intently an instant, and was startled by a whistle +from the rear. He knew at once his retreat, too, was cut off, and without +hesitation vaulted the fence in front of a big gray stone house he was passing. +A revolver flashed from the alley, and he laughed with a strange kind of +delight. His thought was to escape round the house, but trellis work barred the +way, and he could not open the gate. +</p> + +<p> +“Trapped, by Jove,” he told himself coolly as a bullet struck the trellis close +to his head. +</p> + +<p> +He turned back, ran up the steps of the porch and found momentary safety in the +darkness of its heavy vines. But this he knew could not last. Running figures +were converging toward him at a focal point. He could hear oaths and cries. +Some one was throwing aimless shots from a revolver at the porch. +</p> + +<p> +He heard a window go up in the second story and a woman’s frightened voice ask. +“What is it? Who is there?” +</p> + +<p> +“Let me in. I’m ambushed by thugs,” he called back. +</p> + +<p> +“There he is—in the doorway,” a voice cried out of the night, and it was +followed by a spatter of bullets about him. +</p> + +<p> +He fired at a man leaping the fence. The fellow tumbled back with a kind of +scream. +</p> + +<p> +“God! I’m hit.” +</p> + +<p> +He could hear steps coming down the stairway and fingers fumbling at the key of +the door. His attackers were gathering for a rush, and he wondered whether the +rescue was to be too late. They came together, the opening door and the forward +pour of huddled figures. He stepped back into the hall. +</p> + +<p> +There was a raucous curse, a shot, and Yesler had slammed the door shut. He was +alone in the darkness with his rescuer. +</p> + +<p> +“We must get out of here. They’re firing through the door,” he said, and “Yes” +came faintly back to him from across the hall. +</p> + +<p> +“Do you know where the switch is?” he asked, wondering whether she was going to +be such an idiot as to faint at this inopportune moment. +</p> + +<p> +His answer came in a flood of light, and showed him a young woman crouched on +the hall-rack a dozen feet from the switch. She was very white, and there was a +little stain of crimson on the white lace of her sleeve. +</p> + +<p> +A voice from the landing above demanded quickly, “Who are you, sir?” and after +he had looked up’, cried in surprise, “Mr. Yesler.” +</p> + +<p> +“Miss Balfour,” he replied. “I’ll explain later. I’m afraid the lady has been +hit by a bullet.” +</p> + +<p> +He was already beside his rescuer. She looked at him with a trace of a tired +smile and said: +</p> + +<p> +“In my arm.” +</p> + +<p> +After which she fainted. He picked up the young woman, carried her to the +stairs, and mounted them. +</p> + +<p> +“This way,” said Virginia, leading him into a bedroom, the door of which was +open. +</p> + +<p> +He observed with surprise that she, too, was dressed in evening clothes, and +rightly surmised that they had just come back from some social function. +</p> + +<p> +“Is it serious?” asked Virginia, when he had laid his burden on the bed. +</p> + +<p> +She was already clipping with a pair of scissors the sleeve from round the +wound. +</p> + +<p> +“It ought not to be,” he said after he had examined it. “The bullet has +scorched along the fleshy part of the forearm. We must telephone for a doctor +at once.” +</p> + +<p> +She did so, then found water and cotton for bandages, and helped him make a +temporary dressing. The patient recovered consciousness under the touch of the +cold water, and asked: what was the matter. +</p> + +<p> +“You have been hurt a little, but not badly I think. Don’t you remember? You +came down and opened the door to let me in.” +</p> + +<p> +“They were shooting at you. What for?” she wanted to know. +</p> + +<p> +He smiled. “Don’t worry about that. It’s all over with. I’m sorry you were hurt +in saving me,” said Yesler gently. +</p> + +<p> +“Did I save you?” The gray eyes showed a gleam of pleasure. +</p> + +<p> +“You certainly did.” +</p> + +<p> +“This is Mr. Yesler, Laska. Mr. Yesler—Miss Lowe. I think you have never +met.” +</p> + +<p> +“Never before to-night,” he said, pinning the bandage in place round the plump +arm. “There. That’s all just now, ma’am. Did I hurt you very much?” +</p> + +<p> +The young woman felt oddly exhilarated. “Not much. I’ll forgive you if you’ll +tell me all about the affair. Why did they want to hurt you?” +</p> + +<p> +His big heart felt very tender toward this girl who had been wounded for him, +but he showed it only by a smiling deference. +</p> + +<p> +“You’re right persistent, ma’am. You hadn’t ought to be bothering your head +about any such thing, but if you feel that way I’ll be glad to tell you.” +</p> + +<p> +He did. While they sat there and waited for the coming of the doctor, he told +her the whole story of his attempt to stop the corruption that was eating like +a canker at the life of the State. He was a plain man, not in the least +eloquent, and he told his story without any sense that he had played any +unusual part. In fact, he was ashamed that he had been forced to assume a role +which necessitated a kind of treachery to those who thought they had bought +him. +</p> + +<p> +Laska Lowe’s eyes shone with the delight his tale inspired in her. She lived +largely in the land of ideals, and this fight against wrong moved her mightily. +She could feel for him none of the shame which he felt for himself at being +mixed up in so bad a business. He was playing a man’s part, had chosen it at +risk of his life. That was enough. In every fiber of her, she was glad that +good fortune had given her the chance to bear a part of the battle. In her +inmost heart she was even glad that to the day of her death she must bear the +scar that would remind her she had suffered in so good a cause. +</p> + +<p> +Virginia, for once obliterating herself, perceived how greatly taken they were +with each other. At bottom, nearly every woman is a match-maker. This one was +no exception. She liked both this man and this woman, and her fancy had already +begun to follow her hopes. Never before had Laska appeared to show much +interest in any of the opposite sex with whom her friend had seen her. Now she +was all enthusiasm, had forgotten completely the pain of her wound in the +spirit’s glow. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“She loved me for the danger I had pass’d,<br/> +And I loved her that she did pity them.<br/> +This only is the witchcraft I have us’d.’” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Virginia quoted softly to herself, her eyes on the young woman so finely +unconscious of the emotion that thrilled her. +</p> + +<p> +Not until the clock in the hall below struck two did Yesler remember his +appointment in the Ridgway Building. The doctor had come and was about to go. +He suggested that if Yesler felt it would be safe for him to go, they might +walk across to the hotel together. +</p> + +<p> +“And leave us alone.” Laska could have bitten her tongue after the words were +out. +</p> + +<p> +Virginia explained. “The Leighs are out of the city to-night, and it happens +that even the servants are gone. I asked Miss Lowe to stay with me all night, +but, of course, she feels feverish and nervous after this excitement. Couldn’t +you send a man to watch the rest of the night out in the house?” +</p> + +<p> +“Why don’t you stay, Mr. Yesler?” the doctor suggested. “You could sleep here, +no doubt.” +</p> + +<p> +“You might have your meeting here. It is neutral ground. I can phone to Mr. +Ridgway,” proposed Virginia in a low voice to Yesler. +</p> + +<p> +“Doesn’t that seem to imply that I’m afraid to leave?” laughed Yesler. +</p> + +<p> +“It implies that we are afraid to have you. Laska would worry both on your +account and our own. I think you owe it to her to stay.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, if that’s the way it strikes you,” he agreed. “Fact is, I don’t quite like +to leave you anyhow. We’ll take Leigh’s study. I don’t think we shall disturb +you at all.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m sure you won’t—and before you go, you’ll let us know what you have +decided to do.” +</p> + +<p> +“We shall not be through before morning. You’ll be asleep by then,” he made +answer. +</p> + +<p> +“No, I couldn’t sleep till I know all about it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Nor I,” agreed Laska. “I want to know all about everything.” +</p> + +<p> +“My dear young lady, you are to take the sleeping-powders and get a good rest,” +the doctor demurred. “All about everything is too large an order for your good +just now.” +</p> + +<p> +Virginia nodded in a businesslike way. “Yes, you’re to go to sleep, Laska, and +when you waken I’ll tell you all about it.” +</p> + +<p> +“That would be better,” smiled Yesler, and Virginia thought it significant that +her friend made no further protest. +</p> + +<p> +Gray streaks began to show in the sky before Yesler tapped on the door of +Virginia’s room. She had discarded the rather elaborate evening gown he had +last seen her in, and was wearing some soft fabric which hung from the +shoulders in straight lines, and defined the figure while lending the effect of +a loose and flowing drapery. +</p> + +<p> +“How is your patient?” he asked. +</p> + +<p> +“She has dropped into a good sleep,” the girl whispered. “I am sure we don’t +need to worry about her at all.” +</p> + +<p> +“Nevertheless, it’s a luxury I’m going to permit myself for a day or two,” he +smiled. “I don’t have my life saved by a young lady very often.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m sure you will enjoy worrying about her,” she laughed. +</p> + +<p> +He got back at her promptly. “There’s somebody down-stairs worrying about you. +He wants to know if there is anything he can do for you, and suggests inviting +himself for breakfast in order to make sure.” +</p> + +<p> +“Mr. Ridgway?” +</p> + +<p> +“How did you guess it first crack? Mr. Ridgway it is.” +</p> + +<p> +She considered a moment. “Yes, tell him to stay. Molly will be back in time to +make breakfast, and I want to talk to him. Now tell me what you did.” +</p> + +<p> +“We did Mr. Warner. At least I hope so,” he chuckled. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m so glad. And who is to be senator? Is it Waring?” +</p> + +<p> +“No. It wouldn’t have been possible to elect him even if we had wanted to.” +</p> + +<p> +“And you didn’t want to,” she flashed. +</p> + +<p> +“No, we didn’t,” he admitted frankly. “We couldn’t afford to have it generally +understood that this was merely a partisan fight on the Consolidated, and that +we were pulling Waring’s chestnuts out of the fire for him.” +</p> + +<p> +He did not add, though he might have, that Ridgway was tarred with the same +brush as the enemy in this matter. +</p> + +<p> +“Then who is it to be?” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s a secret. I can’t tell even you that. But we have agreed on a man. +Waring is to withdraw and throw his influence for him. The Democratic minority +will swing in line for him, and we’ll do the rest. That’s the plan. It may not +go through, however.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t see who it can be that you all unite on. Of course, it isn’t Mr. +Pelton?” +</p> + +<p> +“I should hope not.” +</p> + +<p> +“Or Mr. Samuel Yesler?” +</p> + +<p> +“You’ve used up all the guesses allowed you. If you want to know, why don’t you +attend the joint session to-day? It ought to be highly interesting.” +</p> + +<p> +“I shall,” she announced promptly. “And I’ll bring Laska with me.” +</p> + +<p> +“She won’t be able to come.” +</p> + +<p> +“I think she will. It’s only a scratch.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t like to think how much worse it might have been.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then don’t think of it. Tell Waring I’ll be down presently.” +</p> + +<p> +He went down-stairs again, and Miss Balfour returned to the room. +</p> + +<p> +“Was that Mr. Yesler?” quietly asked a voice from the bed. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, dear. He has gone back to the hotel. He asked about you, of course.” +</p> + +<p> +“He is very kind.” +</p> + +<p> +“It was thoughtful, since you only saved his life,” admitted the ironical Miss +Balfour. +</p> + +<p> +“Wasn’t it fortunate that we were up?” +</p> + +<p> +“Very fortunate for him that you were.” +</p> + +<p> +Virginia crossed the room to the bed and kissed her friend with some subtle +significance too elusive for words. Laska appeared, however to appreciate it. +At least, she blushed. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap16"></a> +CHAPTER XVI.<br/> +AN EXPLOSION IN THE TAURUS</h2> + +<p> +The change of the relationship between Ridgway and his betrothed, brought about +by the advent of a third person into his life, showed itself in the manner of +their greeting. She had always been chary of lovers’ demonstrations, but until +his return from Alpine he had been wont to exact his privilege in spite of her +reluctance. Now he was content with the hand she offered him. +</p> + +<p> +“You’ve had a strenuous night of it,” he said, after a glance at the rather wan +face she offered the new day. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, we have—and for that matter, I suppose you have, too.” +</p> + +<p> +Man of iron that he was, he looked fresh as morning dew. With his usual lack of +self-consciousness, he had appropriated Leigh’s private bath, and was glowing +from contact with ice-cold water and a crash towel. +</p> + +<p> +“We’ve been making history,” he agreed. “How’s your friend?” +</p> + +<p> +“She has no fever at all. It was only a scratch. She will be down to breakfast +in a minute.” +</p> + +<p> +“Good. She must be a thoroughbred to come running down into the bullets for a +stranger she has never seen.” +</p> + +<p> +“She is. You’ll like Laska.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m glad she saved Sam from being made a colander. I can’t help liking him, +though he doesn’t approve of me very much.” +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose not.” +</p> + +<p> +“He is friendly, too.” Ridgway laughed as he recalled their battle over who +should be the nominee. “But his conscience rules him. It’s a free and liberal +conscience, generally speaking—nothing Puritan about it, but a +distinctive product of the West. Yet, he would not have me for senator at any +price.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why?” +</p> + +<p> +“Didn’t think I was fit to represent the people; said if I went in, it would be +to use the office for my personal profit.” +</p> + +<p> +“Wasn’t he right?” +</p> + +<p> +“More or less. If I were elected, I would build up my machine, of course, but I +would see the people got a show, too.” +</p> + +<p> +She nodded agreement. “I don’t think you would make a bad senator.” +</p> + +<p> +“I would be a live wire, anyhow. Sam had other objections to me. He thought I +had been using too much money in this campaign.” +</p> + +<p> +“And have you?” she asked, curious to see how he would defend himself. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. I had to if I were going to stand any chance. It wasn’t from choice. I +didn’t really want to be senator. I can’t afford to give the time to it, but I +couldn’t afford to let Harley name the man either. I was between the devil and +the deep sea.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then, really, Mr. Yesler came to your rescue.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s about it, though he didn’t intend it that way.” +</p> + +<p> +“And who is to be the senator?” +</p> + +<p> +He gave her a cynical smile. “Warner.” +</p> + +<p> +“But I thought—why, surely he—” The surprise of his cool +announcement took her breath away. +</p> + +<p> +“No, he isn’t the man our combination decided on, but the trouble is that our +combination is going to fall through. Sam’s an optimist, but you’ll see I’m +right. There are too many conflicting elements of us in one boat. We can’t lose +three votes and win, and it’s a safe bet we lose them. The Consolidated must +know by this time what we have been about all night. They’re busy now sapping +at our weak links. Our only chance is to win on the first vote, and I am very +sure we won’t be able to do it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I hope you are not right.” A young woman was standing in the doorway, her +arm in a sling. She had come in time to hear his prophesy, and in the +disappointment of it had forgotten that he was a stranger. +</p> + +<p> +Virginia remedied this, and they went in to breakfast. Laska was full of +interest, and poured out eager questions at Ridgway. It was not for several +minutes that Virginia recollected to ask again who was the man they had decided +upon. +</p> + +<p> +Her betrothed found some inner source of pleasure that brought out a sardonic +smile. “He’s a slap in the face at both Harley and me.” +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t think who—is he honest?” +</p> + +<p> +“As the day.” +</p> + +<p> +“And capable?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes. He’s competent enough.” +</p> + +<p> +“Presentable?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. He’ll do the State credit, or rather he would if he were going to be +elected.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then I give it up.” +</p> + +<p> +He was leaning forward to tell, when the sharp buzz of the electric door-bell, +continued and sustained, diverted the attention of all of them. +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway put down his napkin. “Probably some one to see me.” +</p> + +<p> +He had risen to his feet when the maid opened the door of the dining-room. +</p> + +<p> +“A gentleman to see Mr. Ridgway. He says it is very important.” +</p> + +<p> +From the dining-room they could hear the murmur of quick voices, and soon +Ridgway returned. He was a transformed man. His eyes were hard as diamonds, and +there was the bulldog look of the fighter about his mouth and chin. +</p> + +<p> +“What is it, Waring?” cried Virginia. +</p> + +<p> +“Trouble in the mines. An hour ago Harley’s men rushed the Taurus and the New +York, and drove my men out. One of my shift-foremen and two of his drillers +were killed by an explosion set off by Mike Donleavy, a foreman in the Copper +King.” +</p> + +<p> +“Did they mean to kill them?” asked the girl whitely. +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose not. But they took the chance. It’s murder just the same—by +Jove, it’s a club with which to beat the legislators into line.” +</p> + +<p> +He stopped, his brain busy solving the problem as to how he might best turn +this development to his own advantage. Part of his equipment was his ability to +decide swiftly and surely issues as they came to him. Now he strode to the +telephone and began massing his forces. +</p> + +<p> +“Main 234—Yes—Yes—This the Sun?—Give me +Brayton—Hello, Brayton. Get out a special edition at once charging Harley +with murder. Run the word as a red headline clear across the page. Show that +Vance Edwards and the other boys were killed while on duty by an attack ordered +by Harley. Point out that this is the logical result of his course. Don’t mince +words. Give it him right from the shoulder. Rush it, and be sure a copy of the +paper is on the desk of every legislator before the session opens this morning. +Have a reliable man there to see that every man gets one. Scatter the paper +broadcast among the miners, too. This is important.” +</p> + +<p> +He hung up the receiver, took it down again, and called up Eaton. +</p> + +<p> +“Hello! This you, Steve? Send for Trelawney and Straus right away. Get them to +call a mass meeting of the unions for ten o’clock at the courthouse square. +Have dodgers printed and distributed announcing it. Shut down all our mines so +that the men can come. I want Straus and Trelawney and two or three of the +other prominent labor leaders to denounce Harley and lay the responsibility for +this thing right at his door. I’ll be up there and outline what they had better +say.” +</p> + +<p> +He turned briskly round to the young women, his eyes shining with a hard bright +light. “I’m sorry, but I have got to cut out breakfast this morning. Business +is piling up on me too fast. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go now.” +</p> + +<p> +“What are you going to do?” asked Virginia. +</p> + +<p> +“I haven’t time to tell you now. Just watch my smoke,” he laughed without +mirth. +</p> + +<p> +No sooner did the news of the tragedy reach Simon Harley than he knew the +mistake of his subordinates would be a costly one. The foreman, Donleavy, who +had directed the attack on the Taurus, had to be brought from the shafthouse +under the protection of a score of Pinkerton detectives to safeguard him from +the swift vengeance of the miners, who needed but a word to fling themselves +against the cordon of police. Harley himself kept his apartments, the hotel +being heavily patrolled by guards on the lookout for suspicious characters. The +current of public opinion, never in his favor, now ran swiftly against him, and +threats were made openly by the infuriated miners to kill him on sight. +</p> + +<p> +The members of the unions came to the massmeeting reading the story of the +tragedy as the Sun colored the affair. They stayed sullenly to listen to +red-hot speeches against the leader of the trust, and gradually the wrath which +was simmering in them began to boil. Ridgway, always with a keen sense of the +psychological moment, descended the court-house steps just as this fury was at +its height. There were instant cries for a speech from him so persistent that +he yielded, though apparently with reluctance. His fine presence and strong +deep voice soon gave him the ears of all that dense throng. He was far out of +the ordinary as a public speaker, and within a few minutes he had his audience +with him. He deprecated any violence; spoke strongly for letting the law take +its course; and dropped a suggestion that they send a committee to the +State-house to urge that Harley’s candidate be defeated for the senatorship. +</p> + +<p> +Like wild-fire this hint spread. Here was something tangible they could do that +was still within the law. Harley had set his mind on electing Warner. They +would go up there in a body and defeat his plans. Marshals and leaders of +companies were appointed. They fell into ranks by fours, nearly ten thousand of +them all told. The big clock in the court-house was striking twelve when they +began their march to the Statehouse. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap17"></a> +CHAPTER XVII.<br/> +THE ELECTION</h2> + +<p> +At the very moment that the tramp of twenty thousand feet turned toward the +State-house, the report of the bribery investigating committee was being read +to the legislature met in joint session. The committee reported that it had +examined seven witnesses, Yesler, Roper, Landor, James, Reedy, Kellor, and +Ward, and that each of then had testified that former Congressman Pelton or +others had approached him on behalf of Warner; that an agreement had been made +by which the eight votes being cast for Bascom would be give to Warner in +consideration of $300,000 in cash, to be held in escrow by Yesler, and that the +committee now had the said package, supposed to contain the bills for that +amount, in its possession, and was prepared to turn it over to the legislature +for examination. +</p> + +<p> +Except for the clerk’s voice, as he read the report, a dead silence lay tensely +over the crowded hall. Men dared not look at their neighbors, scarce dared +breathe, for the terror that hung heavy on their hearts. Scores were there who +expected their guilt to be blazoned forth for all the world to read. They +waited whitely as the monotonous voice of the clerk went from paragraph to +paragraph, and when at last he sat down, having named only the bribers and not +the receivers of bribes, a long deep sigh of relief swept the house. Fear still +racked them, but for the moment they were safe. Furtively their glances began +to go from one to another of their neighbors and ask for how long safety would +endure. +</p> + +<p> +One could have heard the rustle of a leaf as the chairman of the committee +stepped forward and laid on the desk of the presiding officer the incriminating +parcel. It seemed an age while the chief clerk opened it, counted the bills, +and announced that one hundred thousand dollars was the sum contained within. +</p> + +<p> +Stephen Eaton then rose in his seat and presented quietly his resolution, that +since the evidence submitted was sufficient to convict of bribery, the judge of +the district court of the County of Mesa be requested to call a special session +of the grand jury to investigate the report. It was not until Sam Yesler rose +to speak upon that report that the pent-up storm broke loose. +</p> + +<p> +He stood there in the careless garb of the cattleman, a strong clean-cut figure +as one would see in a day’s ride, facing with unflinching steel-blue eyes the +tempest of human passion he had evoked. The babel of voices rose and fell and +rose again before he could find a chance to make himself heard. In the gallery +two quietly dressed young, women, one of them with her arm in a sling, leaned +forward breathlessly and waited. Laska’s eyes glowed with deep fire. She was +living her hour of hours, and the man who stood with such quiet courage the +focus of that roar of rage was the hero of it. +</p> + +<p> +“You call me Judas, and I ask you what Christ I have betrayed. You call me +traitor, but traitor to what? Like you, I am under oath to receive no +compensation for my services here other than that allowed by law. To that oath +I have been true. Have you? +</p> + +<p> +“For many weeks we have been living in a carnival of bribery, in a debauched +hysteria of money-madness. The souls of men have been sifted as by fire. We +have all been part and parcel of a man-hunt, an eager, furious, persistent hunt +that has relaxed neither night nor day. The lure of gold has been before us +every waking hour, and has pursued us into our dreams. The temptation has been +ever-present. To some it has been irresistible, to some maddening, to others, +thank God! it has but proved their strength. Our hopes, our fears, our loves, +our hates: these seducers of honor have pandered to them all. Our debts and our +business, our families and our friendships, have all been used to hound us. +To-day I put the stigma for this shame where it belongs—upon Simon +Harley, head of the Consolidated and a score of other trusts, and upon Waring +Ridgway, head of the Mesa Ore-producing Company. These are the debauchers of +our commonwealth’s fair name, and you, alas! the traffickers who hope to live +upon its virtue. I call upon you to-day to pass this resolution and to elect a +man to the United States senate who shall owe no allegiance to any power except +the people, or to receive forever the brand of public condemnation. Are you +free men? Or do you wear the collar of the Consolidated, the yoke of Waring +Ridgway? The vote which you will cast to-day is an answer that shall go flying +to the farthest corner of your world, an answer you can never hope to change so +long as you live.” +</p> + +<p> +He sat down in a dead silence. Again men drew counsel from their fears. The +resolution passed unanimously, for none dared vote against it lest he brand +himself as bought and sold. +</p> + +<p> +It was in this moment, while the hearts of the guilty were like water, that +there came from the lawn outside the roar of a multitude of voices. Swiftly the +word passed that ten thousand miners had come to see that Warner was not +elected. That they were in a dangerous frame of mind, all knew. It was a +passionate undisciplined mob and to thwart them would have been to invite a +riot. +</p> + +<p> +Under these circumstances the joint assembly proceeded to ballot for a senator. +The first name called was that of Adams. He was an old cattleman and a +Democrat. +</p> + +<p> +“Before voting, I want to resign my plate a few moments to Mr. Landor, of Kit +Carson County,” he said. +</p> + +<p> +Landor was recognized, a big broad-shouldered plainsman with a leathery face as +honest as the sun. He was known and liked by everybody, even by those opposed +to him. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m going to make a speech,” he announced with the broad smile that showed a +flash of white teeth. “I reckon it’ll be the first I ever made here, and I +promise it will be the last, boys. But I won’t keep you long, either. You all +know how things have been going; how men have been moving in and out and buying +men here like as if they were cattle on the hoof. You’ve seen it, and I’ve seen +it. But we didn’t have the nerve to say it should stop. One man did. He’s the +biggest man in this big State to-day, and it ain’t been five minutes since I +heard you hollar your lungs out cursing him. You know who I mean—Sam +Yesler.” +</p> + +<p> +He waited till the renewed storm of cheers and hisses had died away. +</p> + +<p> +“It don’t do him any harm for you to hollar at him, boys—not a mite. I +want to say to you that he’s a man. He saw our old friends falling by the +wayside and some of you poor weaklings selling yourselves for dollars. Because +he is an honest, game man, he set out to straighten things up. I want to tell +you that my hat’s off to Sam Yesler. +</p> + +<p> +“But that ain’t what I rose for. I’m going to name for the United States senate +a clean man, one who doesn’t wear either the Harley or the Ridgway brand. He’s +as straight as a string, not a crooked hair in his head, and every manjack of +you knows it. I’m going to name a man”—he stopped an instant to smile +genially around upon the circle of uplifted faces—“who isn’t any friend +of either one faction or another, a man who has just had independence enough to +quit a big job because it wasn’t on the square. That man’s name is Lyndon +Hobart. If you want to do yourselves proud, gentlemen, you’ll certainly elect +him.” +</p> + +<p> +If it was a sensation he had wanted to create, he had it. The Warner forces +were taken with dumb surprise. But many of them were already swiftly thinking +it would be the best way out of a bad business. He would be conservative, as +fair to the Consolidated as to the enemy. More, just now his election would +appeal to the angry mob howling outside the building, for they could ask +nothing more than the election of the man who had resigned rather than order +the attack on the Taurus, which had resulted in the death of some of their +number. +</p> + +<p> +Hoyle, of the Democrats, seconded the nomination, as also did Eaton, in a +speech wherein he defended the course of Ridgway and withdrew his name. +</p> + +<p> +Within a few minutes of the time that Eaton sat down, the roll had been called +and Hobart elected by a vote of seventy-three to twenty-four, the others +refusing to cast a ballot. +</p> + +<p> +The two young women, sitting together in the front row of the gallery, were +glowing with triumphant happiness. Virginia was still clapping her hands when a +voice behind her suggested that the circumstances did not warrant her being so +happy over the result. She turned, to see Waring Ridgway smiling down at her. +</p> + +<p> +“But I can’t help being pleased. Wasn’t Mr. Yesler magnificent?” +</p> + +<p> +“Sam was all right, though he might have eased up a bit when he pitched into +me.” +</p> + +<p> +“He had to do that to be fair. Everybody knows you and he are friends. I think +it was fine of him not to let that make any difference in his telling the +truth.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I knew it would please you,” her betrothed laughed. “What do you say to +going out to lunch with me? I’ll get Sam, too, if I can.” +</p> + +<p> +The young women consulted eyes and agreed very readily. Both of them enjoyed +being so near to the heart of things. +</p> + +<p> +“If Mr. Yesler will lunch with the debaucher of the commonwealth, we shall be +very happy to join the party,” said Virginia demurely. +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway led them down to the floor of the House. Through the dense throng they +made their way slowly toward him, Ridgway clearing a path with his broad +shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly they heard him call sharply, “Look out, Sam.” +</p> + +<p> +The explosion of a revolver followed sharply his words. Ridgway dived through +the press, tossing men to right and left of him as a steamyacht does the waves. +Through the open lane he left in his wake, the young women caught the meaning +of the turmoil: the crumpled figure was Yesler swaying into the arms of his +friend, Roper, the furious drink-flushed face of Pelton and the menace of the +weapon poised for a second shot, the swift impact of Waring’s body, and the +blow which sent the next bullet crashing into the chandelier overhead. All this +they glimpsed momentarily before the press closed in on the tragic scene and +cut off their view. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap18"></a> +CHAPTER XVIII.<br/> +FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS</h2> + +<p> +While Harley had been in no way responsible for Pelton’s murderous attack upon +Yesler, public opinion held him to account. The Pinkertons who had, up till +this time, been employed at the mines, were now moved to the hotel to be ready +for an emergency. A special train was held in readiness to take the New Yorker +out of the State in the event that the stockman should die. Meanwhile, the +harassing attacks of Ridgway continued. Through another judge than Purcell, the +absurd injunction against working the Diamond King, the Mary K, and the Marcus +Daly had been dissolved, but even this advantage had been neutralized by the +necessity of giving back to the enemy the Taurus and the New York, of which he +had just possessed himself. All his life he had kept a wheather-eye upon the +impulsive and fickle public. There were times when its feeling could be abused +with impunity, and other times when this must be respected. Reluctantly, Harley +gave the word for the withdrawal of his men from the territory gained. Ridgway +pushed his advantage home and secured an injunction, not only against the +working, but against the inspection of the Copper King and the Jim Hill. The +result of the Consolidated move had been in effect to turn over, temporarily, +its two rich mines to be looted by the pirate, and to make him very much +stronger than before with his allies, the unions. By his own imprudence, Harley +had made a bad situation worse, and delivered himself, with his hands tied, +into the power of the enemy. +</p> + +<p> +In the days of turmoil that followed, Waring Ridgway’s telling blows scored +once and again. The morning after the explosion, he started a relief fund in +his paper, the Sun, for the families of the dead miners, contributing two +thousand dollars himself. He also insisted that the Consolidated pay damages to +the bereaved families to the extent of twenty thousand dollars for each man +killed. The town rang with his praises. Mesa had always been proud of his +success; had liked the democratic spirit of him that led him to mix on +apparently equal terms with his working men, and had backed him in his +opposition to the trust because his plucky and unscrupulous fight had been, in +a measure, its fight. But now it idolized him. He was the buffer between it and +the trust, fighting the battles of labor against the great octopus of Broadway, +and beating it to a standstill. He was the Moses destined to lead the working +man out of the Egypt of his discontent. Had he not maintained the standard of +wages and forced the Consolidated to do the same? Had he not declared an +eight-hour day, and was not the trust almost ready to do this also, forced by +the impetus his example had given the unions? So Ridgway’s agents whispered, +and the union leaders, whom he had bought, took up the burden of their tale and +preached it both in private talk and in their speeches. +</p> + +<p> +In an attempt to stem the rising tide of denunciation that was spreading from +Mesa to the country at large, Harley announced an eight hour day and an immense +banquet to all the Consolidated employees in celebration of the occasion. Ten +thousand men sat down to the long tables, but when one of the speakers +injudiciously mentioned the name of Ridgway, there was steady cheering for ten +minutes. It was quite plain that the miners gave him the credit for having +forced the Consolidated to the eight-hour day. +</p> + +<p> +The verdict of the coroner’s jury was that Vance Edwards and the other deceased +miners had come to their death at the hands of the foreman, Michael Donleavy, +at the instigation of Simon Harley. True bills were at once drawn up by the +prosecuting attorney of Mesa County, an official elected by Ridgway, charging +Harley and Donleavy with conspiracy, resulting in the murder of Vance Edwards. +The billionaire furnished bail for himself and foreman, treating the +indictments merely as part of the attacks of the enemy. +</p> + +<p> +The tragedy in the Taurus brought to the surface a bitterness that had hitherto +not been apparent in the contest between the rival copper interests. The lines +of division became more sharply drawn, and every business man in Mesa was +forced to declare himself on one side or the other. Harley scattered detectives +broadcast and imported five hundred Pinkertons to meet any emergency that might +arise. The spies of the Consolidated were everywhere, gathering evidence +against the Mesa Ore-producing Company, its conduct of the senatorial campaign, +its judges, and its supporters Criminal indictments flew back and forth thick +as snowflakes in a Christmas storm. +</p> + +<p> +It began to be noticed that an occasional foreman, superintendent, or mining +engineer was slipping from the employ of Ridgway to that of the trust, carrying +secrets and evidence that would be invaluable later in the courts. Everywhere +the money of the Consolidated, scattered lavishly where it would do the most +good, attempted to sap the loyalty of the followers of the other candidates. +Even Eaton was approached with the offer of a bribe. +</p> + +<p> +But Ridgway’s potent personality had built up an esprit de corps not easily to +be broken. The adventurers gathered to his side were, for the most part, bound +to him by ties personal in their nature. They were financial fillibusters, +pledged to stand or fall together, with an interest in their predatory leader’s +success that was not entirely measurable in dollars and cents. Nor was that +leader the man to allow the organization he had builded with such care to +become disintegrated while he slept. His alert eye and cheery smile were +everywhere, instilling confidence in such as faltered, and dread in those +contemplating defection. +</p> + +<p> +He harassed his rival with an audacity that was almost devilish in its +unexpected ingenuity. For the first time in his life Simon Harley, the town +back on the defensive by a combination of circumstances engineered by a master +brain, knew what it was to be checkmated. He had not the least doubt of +ultimate victory, but the tentative success of the brazen young adventurer, +were gall and wormwood to his soul. He had made money his god, had always +believed it would buy anything worth while except life, but this Western +buccaneer had taught him it could not purchase the love of a woman nor the +immediate defeat of a man so well armed as Waring Ridgway. In truth, though +Harley stuck at nothing, his success in accomplishing the destruction of this +thorn in his side was no more appreciable than had been that of Hobart. The +Westerner held his own and more, the while he robbed the great trust of its ore +under cover of the courts. +</p> + +<p> +In the flush of success, Ridgway, through his lieutenant, Eaton, came to Judge +Purcell asking that a receiver be appointed for the Consolidated Supply +Company, a subsidiary branch of the trust, on the ground that its affairs were +not being properly administered. The Supply Company had paid dividends ranging +from fifteen to twenty-five per cent for many years, but Ridgway exercised his +right as a stockholder to ask for a receivership. In point of fact, he owned, +in the name of Eaton, only one-tenth of one per cent of the stock, but it was +enough to serve. For Purcell was a bigoted old Missourian, as courageous and +obstinate as perfect health and ignorance could make him. He was quite innocent +of any legal knowledge, his own rule of law being to hit a Consolidated head +whenever he saw one. Lawyers might argue themselves black in the face without +affecting his serenity or his justice. +</p> + +<p> +Purcell granted the application, as well as a restraining order against the +payment of dividends until further notice, and appointed Eaton receiver over +the protests of the Consolidated lawyers. +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway and Eaton left the court-room together, jubilant over their success. +They dined at a restaurant, and spent the evening at the ore-producing +company’s offices, discussing ways and means. When they had finished, his chief +followed Eaton to the doors, an arm thrown affectionately round his shoulder. +</p> + +<p> +“Steve, we’re going to make a big killing. I was never so sure of anything in +my life as that we shall beat Simon Harley at his own game. We’re bound to win. +We’ve got to win.” +</p> + +<p> +“I wish I were as sure as you.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s hard pounding does it, my boy. We’ll drive him out of the Montana +copper-fields yet. We’ll show him there is one little corner of the U. S. where +Simon Harley’s orders don’t go as the last word.” +</p> + +<p> +“He has a hundred dollars to your one.” +</p> + +<p> +“And I have youth and mining experience and the inside track, as well as +stancher friends than he ever dreamed of,” laughed Ridgway, clapping the other +on the back. “Well, good night, Steve. Pleasant dreams, old man.” +</p> + +<p> +The boyish secretary shook hands warmly. “You’re a MAN, chief. If anybody can +pull us through it will be you.” +</p> + +<p> +Triumphant confidence rang in the other’s answering laugh. “You bet I can, +Steve.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap19"></a> +CHAPTER XIX.<br/> +ONE MILLION DOLLARS</h2> + +<p> +Eaton, standing on the street curb at the corner of the Ridgway Building, lit a +cigar while he hesitated between his rooms and the club. He decided for the +latter, and was just turning up the hill, when a hand covered his mouth and an +arm was flung around his neck in a stranglehold. He felt himself lifted like a +child, and presently discovered that he was being whirled along the street in a +closed carriage. +</p> + +<p> +“You needn’t be alarmed, Mr. Eaton. We’re not going to injure you in the +least,” a low voice explained in his ear. “If you’ll give me your word not to +cry out, I’ll release your throat.” +</p> + +<p> +Eaton nodded a promise, and, when he could find his voice, demanded: “Where are +you taking me?” +</p> + +<p> +“You’ll see in a minute, sir. It’s all right.” +</p> + +<p> +The carriage turned into an alley and stopped. Eaton was led to a ladder that +hung suspended from the fire-escape, and was bidden to mount. He did so, +following his guide to the second story, and being in turn followed by the +other man. He was taken along a corridor and into the first of a suite of rooms +opening into it. He knew he was in the Mesa House, and suspected at once that +he was in the apartments of Simon Harley. +</p> + +<p> +His suspicion ripened to conviction when his captors led him through two more +rooms, into one fitted as an office. The billionaire sat at a desk, busy over +some legal papers he was reading, but he rose at once and came forward with +hand extended to meet Eaton. The young man took his hand mechanically. +</p> + +<p> +“Glad to have the pleasure of talking with, you, Mr. Eaton. You must accept my +apologies for my methods of securing a meeting. They are rather primitive, but +since you declined to call and see me, I can hold only you to blame.” An acid +smile touched his lips for a moment, though his eyes were expressionless as a +wall. “Mr. Eaton, I have brought you here in this way to have a confidential +talk with you, in order that it might not in any way reflect upon you in case +we do not come to an arrangement satisfactory to both of us. Your friends +cannot justly blame you for this conference, since you could not avoid it. Mr. +Eaton, take a chair.” +</p> + +<p> +The wills of the two men flashed into each other’s eyes like rapiers. The +weaker man knew what was before him and braced himself to meet it. He would not +sit down. He would not discuss anything. So he told himself once and again to +hold himself steady against the impulse to give way to those imperious eyes +behind which was the impassive, compelling will. +</p> + +<p> +“Sit down, Mr. Eaton.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll stand, Mr. Harley.” +</p> + +<p> +“SIT DOWN.” +</p> + +<p> +The cold jade eyes were not to be denied. Eaton’s gaze fell sullenly, and he +slid into a chair. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll discuss no business except in the presence of Mr. Ridgway,” he said +doggedly, falling back to his second line of defenses. +</p> + +<p> +“To the contrary, my business is with you and not with Mr. Ridgway.” +</p> + +<p> +“I know of no business you can have with me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Wherefore I have brought you here to acquaint you with it.” +</p> + +<p> +The young man lifted his head reluctantly and waited. If he had been willing to +confess it to himself, he feared greatly this ruthless spoiler who had built up +the greatest fortune in the world from thousands of wrecked lives. He felt +himself choking, just as if those skeleton fingers had been at his throat, but +he promised himself never to yield. +</p> + +<p> +The fathomless, dominant gaze caught and held his eyes. “Mr. Eaton, I came here +to crush Ridgway. I am going to stay here till I do. I’m going to wipe him from +the map of Montana—ruin him so utterly that he can never recover. It has +been my painful duty to do this with a hundred men as strong and as confident +as he is. After undertaking such an enterprise, I have never faltered and never +relented. The men I have ruined were ruined beyond hope of recovery. None of +them have ever struggled to their feet again. I intend to make Waring Ridgway a +pauper.” +</p> + +<p> +Stephen Eaton could have conceived nothing more merciless than this man’s +callous pronouncement, than the calm certainty of his unemphasized words. He +started to reply, but Harley took the words out of his mouth. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t make a mistake. Don’t tie to the paltry successes he has gained. I have +not really begun to fight yet.” +</p> + +<p> +The young man had nothing to say. His heart was water. He accepted Harley’s +words as true, for he had told himself the same thing a hundred times. Why had +Ridgway rejected the overtures of this colossus of finance? It had been the +sheerest folly born of madness to suppose that anybody could stand against him. +</p> + +<p> +“For Ridgway, the die is cast,” the iron voice went on. “He is doomed beyond +hope. But there is still a chance for you. What do you consider your interest +in the Mesa Ore-producing Company worth, Mr. Eaton?” +</p> + +<p> +The sudden question caught Eaton with the force of a surprise. “About three +hundred thousand dollars,” he heard himself say; and it seemed to him that his +voice was speaking the words without his volition. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m going to buy you out for twice that sum. Furthermore, I’m going to take +care of your future—going to see that you have a chance to rise.” +</p> + +<p> +The waverer’s will was in flux, but the loyalty in him still protested. “I +can’t desert my chief, Mr. Harley.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you call it desertion to leave a raging madman in a sinking boat after you +have urged him to seek the safety of another ship?” +</p> + +<p> +“He made me what I am.” +</p> + +<p> +“And I will make you ten times what you are. With Ridgway you have no chance to +be anything but a subordinate. He is the Mesa Ore-producing Company, and you +are merely a cipher. I offer your individuality a chance. I believe in you, and +know you to be a strong man.” No ironic smile touched Harley’s face at this +statement. “You need a chance, and I offer it to you. For your own sake take +it.” +</p> + +<p> +Every grievance Eaton had ever felt against his chief came trooping to his +mind. He was domineering. He did ride rough-shod over his allies’ opinions and +follow the course he had himself mapped out. All the glory of the victory he +absorbed as his due. In the popular opinion, Eaton was as a farthing-candle to +a great electric search-light in comparison with Ridgway. +</p> + +<p> +“He trusts me,” the tempted man urged weakly. He was slipping, and he knew it, +even while he assured himself he would never betray his chief. +</p> + +<p> +“He would sell you out to-morrow if it paid him. And what is he but a robber? +Every dollar of his holdings is stolen from me. I ask only restitution of +you—and I propose to buy at twice, nay at three times, the value of your +stolen property. You owe that freebooter no loyalty.” +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t do it. I can’t do it.” +</p> + +<p> +“You shall do it.” Harley dominated him as bullying schoolmaster does a +cringing boy under the lash. +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t do it,” the young man repeated, all his weak will flung into the +denial. +</p> + +<p> +“Would you choose ruin?” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps. I don’t know,” he faltered miserable. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s merely a business proposition, young man. The stock you have to sell is +valuable to-day. Reject my offer, and a month from now it will be quoted on the +market at half its present figure, and go begging at that. It will be +absolutely worthless before I finish. You are not selling out Ridgway. He is a +ruined man, anyway. But you—I am going to save you in spite of yourself. +I am going to shake you from that robber’s clutches.” +</p> + +<p> +Eaton got to his feet, pallid and limp as a rag. “Don’t tempt me,” he cried +hoarsely. “I tell you I can’t do it, sir.” +</p> + +<p> +Harley’s cold eye did not release him for an instant. “One million dollars and +an assured future, or—absolute, utter ruin, complete and final.” +</p> + +<p> +“He would murder me—and he ought to,” groaned the writhing victim. +</p> + +<p> +“No fear of that. I’ll put you where he can’t reach you. Just sign your name to +this paper, Mr. Eaton.” +</p> + +<p> +“I didn’t agree. I didn’t say I would.” +</p> + +<p> +“Sign here. Or, wait one moment, till I get witnesses.” Harley touched a bell, +and his secretary appeared in the doorway. “Ask Mr. Mott and young Jarvis to +step this way.” +</p> + +<p> +Harley held out the pen toward Eaton, looking steadily at him. In a strong man +the human eye is a sword among weapons. Eaton quailed. The fingers of the +unhappy wretch went out mechanically for the pen. He was sweating terror and +remorse, but the essential weakness of the man could not stand out unbacked +against the masterful force of this man’s imperious will. He wrote his name in +the places directed, and flung down the pen like a child in a rage. +</p> + +<p> +“Now get me out of Montana before Ridgway knows,” he cried brokenly. +</p> + +<p> +“You may leave to-morrow night, Mr. Eaton. You’ll only have to appear in court +once personally. We’ll arrange it quietly for to-morrow afternoon. Ridgway +won’t know until it is done and you are gone.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap20"></a> +CHAPTER XX.<br/> +A LITTLE LUNCH AT APHONSE’S</h2> + +<p> +It chanced that Ridgway, through the swinging door of a department store, +caught a glimpse of Miss Balfour as he was striding along the street. He +bethought him that it was the hour of luncheon, and that she was no end better +company than the revamped noon edition of the morning paper. Wherefore he +wheeled into the store and interrupted her inspection of gloves. +</p> + +<p> +“I know the bulliest little French restaurant tucked away in a side street just +three blocks from here. The happiness disseminated in this world by that chef’s +salads will some day carry him past St. Peter with no questions asked.” +</p> + +<p> +“You believe in salvation by works?” she parried, while she considered his +invitation. +</p> + +<p> +“So will you after a trial of Alphonse’s salad.” +</p> + +<p> +“Am I to understand that I am being invited to a theological discussion of a +heavenly salad concocted by Father Alphonse?” +</p> + +<p> +“That is about the specifications.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then I accept. For a week my conscience has condemned me for excess of +frivolity. You offer me a chance to expiate without discomfort. That is my idea +of heaven. I have always believed it a place where one pastures in rich meadows +of pleasure, with penalties and consciences all excluded from its domains.” +</p> + +<p> +“You should start a church,” he laughed. “It would have a great +following—especially if you could operate your heaven this side of the +Styx.” +</p> + +<p> +She found his restaurant all he had claimed, and more. The little corner of old +Paris set her eyes shining. The fittings were Parisian to the least detail. +Even the waiter spoke no English. +</p> + +<p> +“But I don’t see how they make it pay. How did he happen to come here? Are +there enough people that appreciate this kind of thing in Mesa to support it?” +</p> + +<p> +He smiled at her enthusiasm. “Hardly. The place has a scarce dozen of regular +patrons. Hobart comes here a good deal. So does Eaton. But it doesn’t pay +financially. You see, I know because I happen to own it. I used to eat at +Alphonse’s restaurant in Paris. So I sent for him. It doesn’t follow that one +has to be less a slave to the artificial comforts of a supercivilized world +because one lives at Mesa.” +</p> + +<p> +“I see it doesn’t. You are certainly a wonderful man.” +</p> + +<p> +“Name anything you like. I’ll warrant Alphonse can make good if it is not +outside of his national cuisine,” he boasted. +</p> + +<p> +She did not try his capacity to the limit, but the oysters, the salad, the +chicken soup were delicious, with the ultimate perfection that comes only out +of Gaul. +</p> + +<p> +They made a delightfully gay and intimate hour of it, and were still lingering +over their demi-tasse when Yesler’s name was mentioned. +</p> + +<p> +“Isn’t it splendid that he’s doing so well?” cried the girl with enthusiasm. +“The doctor says that if the bullet had gone a fraction of an inch lower, he +would have died. Most men would have died anyhow, they say. It was his clean +outdoor life and magnificent constitution that saved him.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s what pulled him through,” he nodded. “It would have done his heart good +to see how many friends he had. His recovery was a continuous performance +ovation. It would have been a poorer world for a lot of people if Sam Yesler +had crossed the divide.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. It would have been a very much poorer one for several I know.” +</p> + +<p> +He glanced shrewdly at her. “I’ve learned to look for a particular application +when you wear that particularly sapient air of mystery.” +</p> + +<p> +Her laugh admitted his hit. “Well, I was thinking of Laska. I begin to think +HER fair prince has come.” +</p> + +<p> +“Meaning Yesler?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. She hasn’t found it out herself yet. She only knows she is tremendously +interested.” +</p> + +<p> +“He’s a prince all right, though he isn’t quite a fairy. The woman that gets +him will be lucky. +</p> + +<p> +“The man that gets Laska will be more than lucky,” she protested loyally. +</p> + +<p> +“I dare say,” he agreed carelessly. “But, then, good women are not so rare as +good men. There are still enough of them left to save the world. But when it +comes to men like Sam—well, it would take a Diogenes to find another.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t see how even Mr. Pelton, angry as he was, dared shoot him.” +</p> + +<p> +“He had been drinking hard for a week. That will explain anything when you add +it to his temperament. I never liked the fellow.” +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose that is why you saved his life when the miners took him and were +going to lynch him?” +</p> + +<p> +“I would not have lifted a hand for him. That’s the bald truth. But I couldn’t +let the boys spoil the moral effect of their victory by so gross a mistake. It +would have been playing right into Harley’s hands.” +</p> + +<p> +“Can a man get over being drunk in five minutes? I never saw anybody more sober +than Mr. Pelton when the mob were crying for vengeance and you were fighting +them back.” +</p> + +<p> +“A great shock will sober a man. Pelton is an errant coward, and he had pretty +good reason to think he had come to the end of the passage. The boys weren’t +playing. They meant business.” +</p> + +<p> +“They would not have listened to another man in the world except you,” she told +him proudly. +</p> + +<p> +“It was really Sam they listened to—when he sent out the message asking +them to let the law have its way.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, I think it was the way you handled the message. You’re a wizard at a +speech, you know.” +</p> + +<p> +“Thanks.” +</p> + +<p> +He glanced up, for Alphonse was waiting at his elbow. +</p> + +<p> +“You’re wanted on the telephone, monsieur.” +</p> + +<p> +“You can’t get away from business even for an hour, can you?” she rallied. “My +heaven wouldn’t suit you at all, unless I smuggled in a trust for you to +fight.” +</p> + +<p> +“I expect it is Eaton,” he explained. “Steve phoned down to the office that he +isn’t feeling well to-day. I asked him to have me called up here. If he isn’t +better, I’m going to drop round and see him.” +</p> + +<p> +But when she caught sight of his face as he returned she knew it was serious. +</p> + +<p> +“What’s the matter? Is it Mr. Eaton? Is he very ill?” she cried. +</p> + +<p> +His face was set like broken ice refrozen. “Yes, it’s Eaton. They say—but +it can’t be true!” +</p> + +<p> +She had never seen him so moved. “What is it, Waring?” +</p> + +<p> +“The boy has sold me out. He is at the courthouse now, undoing my +work—the Judas!” +</p> + +<p> +The angry blood swept imperiously into her cheeks. “Don’t waste any more time +with me, Waring. Go—go and save yourself from the traitor. Perhaps it is +not too late yet.” +</p> + +<p> +He flung her a grateful look. “You’re true blue, Virginia. Come! I’ll leave you +at the store as we pass.” +</p> + +<p> +The defection of Eaton bit his chief to the quick. The force of the blow itself +was heavy—how heavy he could not tell till he could take stock of the +situation. He could see that he would be thrown out of court in the matter of +the Consolidated Supply Company receivership, since Eaton’s stock would now be +in the hands of the enemy. But what was of more importance was the fact that +Eaton’s interest in the Mesa Ore-producing Company now belonged to Harley, who +could work any amount of mischief with it as a lever for litigation. +</p> + +<p> +The effect, too, of the man’s desertion upon the morale of the M. O. P. forces +must be considered and counteracted, if possible. He fancied he could see his +subordinates looking shiftyeyed at each other and wondering who would slip away +next. +</p> + +<p> +If it had been anybody but Steve! He would as soon have distrusted his right +hand as Steve Eaton. Why, he had made the man, had picked him out when he was a +mere clerk, and tied him to himself by a hundred favors. Up on the Snake River +he had saved Steve’s life once when he was drowning. The boy had always been as +close to him as a brother. That Steve should turn traitor was not conceivable. +He knew all his intimate plans, stood second to himself in the company. Oh, it +was a numbing blow! Ridgway’s sense of personal loss and outrage almost +obliterated for the moment his appreciation of the business loss. +</p> + +<p> +The motion to revoke the receivership of the Supply Company was being argued +when Ridgway entered the court-room. Within a few minutes the news had spread +like wild-fire that Eaton was lined up with the Consolidated, and already the +paltry dozen of loafers in the court-room had swelled into hundreds, all of +them eager for any sensation that might develop. +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway’s broad shoulders flung aside the crowd and opened a way to the vacant +chair waiting for him. One of his lawyers had the floor and was flaying Eaton +with a vitriolic tongue, the while men craned forward all over the room to get +a glimpse of the traitor’s face. +</p> + +<p> +Eaton sat beside Mott, dry-lipped and pallid, his set eyes staring vacantly +into space. Once or twice he flung a furtive glance about him. His stripped and +naked soul was enduring a foretaste of the Judgment Day. The whip of scorn with +which the lawyer lashed him cut into his shrinking sensibilities, and left him +a welter of raw and livid wales. Good God! why had he not known it would be +like this? He was paying for his treachery and usury, and it was being burnt +into him that as the years passed he must continue to pay in self-contempt and +the distrust of his fellows. +</p> + +<p> +The case had come to a hearing before Judge Hughes, who was not one of +Ridgway’s creatures. That on its merits it would be decided in favor of the +Consolidated was a foregone conclusion. It was after the judge had rendered the +expected decision that the dramatic moment of the day came to gratify the +seasoned court frequenters. +</p> + +<p> +Eaton, trying to slip as quietly as possible from the room, came face to face +with his former chief. For an interminable instant the man he had betrayed, +blocking the way squarely, held the trembling wretch in the blaze of his scorn. +Ridgway’s contemptuous eyes sifted to the ingrate’s soul until it shriveled. +Then he stood disdainfully to one side so that the man might not touch him as +he passed. +</p> + +<p> +Some one in the back of the room broke the tense silence and hissed: “The +damned Judas!” Instantly echoes of “Judas! Judas!” filled the room, and pursued +Eaton to his cab. It would be many years before he could recall without +scalding shame that moment when the finger of public scorn was pointed at him +in execration. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap21"></a> +CHAPTER XXI.<br/> +HARLEY SCORES</h2> + +<p> +What Harley had sought in the subornation of Eaton had been as much the moral +effect of his defection as the tangible results themselves. If he could shake +the confidence of the city and State in the freebooter’s victorious star, he +would have done a good day’s work. He wanted the impression to spread that +Ridgway’s success had passed its meridian. +</p> + +<p> +Nor did he fail of his purpose by more than a hair’s breadth. The talk of the +street saw the beginning of the end. The common voice ran: “It’s ‘God help +Ridgway’ now. He’s down and out.” +</p> + +<p> +But Waring Ridgway was never more dangerous than in apparent defeat. If he were +hit hard by Eaton’s treachery, no sign of it was apparent in the jaunty +insouciance of his manner. Those having business with him expected to find him +depressed and worried, but instead met a man the embodiment of vigorous and +confident activity. If the subject were broached, he was ready to laugh with +them at Eaton’s folly in deserting at the hour when victory was assured. +</p> + +<p> +It was fortunate for Ridgway that the county elections came on early in the +spring and gave him a chance to show that his power was still intact. He +arranged to meet at once the political malcontents of the State who were banded +together against the growing influence of the Consolidated. He had a few days +before called together representative men from all parts of the State to +discuss a program of action against the enemy, and Ridgway gave a dinner for +them at the Quartzite, the evening of Eaton’s defection. +</p> + +<p> +He was at the critical moment when any obvious irresolution would have been +fatal. His allies were ready to concede his defeat if he would let them. But he +radiated such an assured atmosphere of power, such an unconquerable current of +vigor, that they could not escape his own conviction of unassailability. He was +at his genial, indomitable best, the magnetic charm of fellowship putting into +eclipse the selfishness of the man. He had been known to boast of his political +exploits, of how he had been the Warwick that had made and unmade governors and +United States senators; but the fraternal “we” to-night replaced his usual +first person singular. +</p> + +<p> +The business interests of the Consolidated were supreme all over the State. +That corporation owned forests and mills and railroads and mines. It ran sheep +and cattle-ranches as well as stores and manufactories. Most of the newspapers +in the State were dominated by it. Of a population of two hundred and fifty +thousand, it controlled more than half directly by the simple means of filling +dinner-pails. That so powerful a corporation, greedy for power and wealth, +should create a strong but scattered hostility in the course of its growth, +became inevitable. This enmity Ridgway proposed to consolidate into a political +organization, with opposition to the trust as its cohesive principle, that +should hold the balance of power in the State. +</p> + +<p> +When he rose to explain his object in calling them together, Ridgway’s clear, +strong presentment of the situation, backed by his splendid bulk and powerful +personality, always bold and dramatic, shocked dormant antagonisms to activity +as a live current does sluggish inertia. For he had eminently the gift of +moving speech. The issue was a simple one, he pointed out. Reduced to +ultimates, the question was whether the State should control the Consolidated +or the Consolidated the State. With simple, telling force he faced the +insidious growth of the big copper company, showing how every independent in +the State was fighting for his business life against its encroachments, and was +bound to lose unless the opposition was a united one. Let the independents +obtain and keep control of the State politically and the trust might be curbed; +not otherwise. In eternal vigilance and in union lay safety. +</p> + +<p> +He sat down in silence more impressive than any applause. But after the silence +came a deluge of cheers, the thunder of them sweeping up and down the long +table like a summer storm across a lake. +</p> + +<p> +Presently the flood-gates of talk were unloosed, and the conservatives began to +be heard. Opposition was futile because it was too late, they claimed. A young +Irishman, primed for the occasion, jumped to his feet with an impassioned +harangue that pedestaled Ridgway as the Washington of the West. He showed how +one man, in coalition with the labor-unions, had succeeded in carrying the +State against the big copper company; how he had elected senators and +governors, and legislators and judges. If one man could so cripple the octopus, +what could the best blood of the State, standing together, not accomplish? He +flung Patrick Henry and Robert Emmet and Daniel Webster at their devoted heads, +demanding liberty or death with the bridled eloquence of his race. +</p> + +<p> +But Ridgway was not such a tyro at the game of politics as to depend upon +speeches for results. His fine hand had been working quietly for months to +bring the malcontents into one camp, shaping every passion to which men are +heir to serve his purpose. As he looked down the table he could read in the +faces before him hatred, revenge, envy, fear, hope, avarice, recklessness, and +even love, as the motives which he must fuse to one common end. His vanity +stood on tiptoe at his superb skill in playing on men’s wills. He knew he could +mold these men to work his desire, and the sequel showed he was right. +</p> + +<p> +When the votes were counted at the end of the bitter campaign that followed, +Simon Harley’s candidates went down to disastrous defeat all over the State, +though he had spent money with a lavish hand. In Mesa County, Ridgway had +elected every one of his judges and retired to private life those he could not +influence. +</p> + +<p> +Harley’s grim lips tightened when the news reached him. “Very well,” he said to +Mott “We’ll see if these patriots can’t be reached through their stomachs +better than their brains. Order every mill and mine and smelter of the +Consolidated closed to-night. Our employees have voted for this man Ridgway. +Let him feed them or let them starve.” +</p> + +<p> +“But the cost to you—won’t it be enormous?” asked Mott, startled at his +chief’s drastic decision. +</p> + +<p> +Harley bared his fangs with a wolfish smile. “We’ll make the public pay. Our +store-houses are full of copper. Prices will jump when the supply is reduced +fifty per cent. We’ll sell at an advance, and clean up a few millions out of +the shut-down. Meanwhile we’ll starve this patriotic State into submission.” +</p> + +<p> +It came to pass even as Harley had predicted. With the Consolidated mines +closed, copper, jumped up—up—up. The trust could sit still and coin +money without turning a hand, while its employees suffered in the long, bitter +Northern winter. All the troubles usually pursuant on a long strike began to +fall upon the families of the miners. +</p> + +<p> +When a delegation from the miners’ union came to discuss the situation with +Harley he met them blandly, with many platitudes of sympathy. He +regretted—he regretted exceedingly—the necessity that had been +forced upon him of closing the mines. He had delayed doing so in the hope that +the situation might be relieved. But it had grown worse, until he had been +forced to close. No, he was afraid he could not promise to reopen this winter, +unless something were done to ameliorate conditions in the court. Work would +begin at once, however, if the legislators would pass a bill making it optional +with any party to a suit to have the case transferred to another judge in case +he believed the bias of the presiding judge would be prejudicial to an +impartial hearing. +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway was flung at once upon the defensive. His allies, the working men, +demanded of him that his legislature pass the bill wanted by Harley, in order +that work might recommence. He evaded their demands by proposing to arbitrate +his difficulties with the Consolidated, by offering to pay into the union +treasury hall a million dollars to help carry its members through the winter. +He argued to the committee that Harley was bluffing, that within a few weeks +the mines and smelters would again be running at their full capacity; but when +the pressure on the legislators he had elected became so great that he feared +they would be swept from their allegiance to him, he was forced to yield to the +clamor. +</p> + +<p> +It was a great victory for Harley. Nobody recognized how great a one more +accurately than Waring Ridgway. The leader of the octopus had dogged him over +the shoulders of the people, had destroyed at a single blow one of his two +principal sources of power. He could no longer rely on the courts to support +him, regardless of justice. +</p> + +<p> +Very well. If he could not play with cogged dice, he was gambler enough to take +the honest chances of the game without flinching. No despair rang in his voice. +The look in his eye was still warm and confident. Mesa questioned him with +glimpses friendly but critical. They found no fear in his bearing, no hint of +doubt in his indomitable assurance. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap22"></a> +CHAPTER XXII.<br/> +“NOT GUILTY”—“GUILTY”</h2> + +<p> +Ridgway’s answer to the latest move of Simon Harley was to put him on trial for +his life to answer the charge of having plotted and instigated the death of +Vance Edwards. Not without reason, the defense had asked for a change of venue, +alleging the impossibility of securing a fair trial at Mesa. The courts had +granted the request and removed the case to Avalanche. +</p> + +<p> +On the second day of the trial Aline sat beside her husband, a dainty little +figure of fear, shrinking from the observation focused upon her from all sides. +The sight of her forlorn sensitiveness so touched Ridgway’s heart that he +telegraphed Virginia Balfour to come and help support her through the ordeal. +</p> + +<p> +Virginia came, and henceforth two women, both of them young and unusually +attractive, gave countenance to the man being tried for his life. Not that he +needed their support for himself, but for the effect they might have on the +jury. Harley had shrewdly guessed that the white-faced child he had married, +whose pathetic beauty was of so haunting a type, and whose big eyes were so +quick to reflect emotions, would be a valuable asset to set against the +black-clad widow of Vance Edwards. +</p> + +<p> +For its effect upon himself, so far as the trial was concerned, Simon Harley +cared not a whit. He needed no bolstering. The old wrecker carried an iron face +to the ordeal. His leathern heart was as foreign to fear as to pity. The trial +was an unpleasant bore to him, but nothing worse. He had, of course, cast an +anchor of caution to windward by taking care to have the jury fixed. For even +though his array of lawyers was a formidably famous one, he was no such child +as to trust his case to a Western jury on its merits while the undercurrent of +popular opinion was setting so strongly against him. Nor had he neglected to +see that the court-room was packed with detectives to safeguard him in the +event that the sympathy of the attending miners should at any time become +demonstrative against him. +</p> + +<p> +The most irritating feature of the trial to the defendant was the presence of +the little woman in black, whose burning eyes never left for long his face. He +feigned to be unconscious of her regard, but nobody in the court-room was more +sure of that look of enduring, passionate hatred than its victim. He had made +her a widow, and her heart cried for revenge. That was the story the eyes told +dumbly. +</p> + +<p> +From first to last the case was bitterly contested, and always with the +realization among those present—except for that somber figure in black, +whose beady eyes gimleted the defendant—that it was another move in the +fight between the rival copper kings. The district attorney had worked up his +case very carefully, not with much hope of securing a conviction, but to mass a +total of evidence that would condemn the Consolidated leader-before the world. +</p> + +<p> +To this end, the foreman, Donleavy, had been driven by a process of sweating to +turn State’s evidence against his master. His testimony made things look black +for Harley, but when Hobart took the stand, a palpably unwilling witness, and +supported his evidence, the Ridgway adherents were openly jubilant. The lawyers +for the defense made much of the fact that Hobart had just left the +Consolidated service after a disagreement with the defendant and had been +elected to the senate by his enemies, but the impression made by his moderation +and the fine restraint of his manner, combined with his reputation for +scrupulous honesty, was not to be shaken by the subtle innuendos and blunt +aspersions of the legal array he faced. +</p> + +<p> +Nor did the young district attorney content himself with Hobart’s testimony. He +put his successor, Mott, on the stand, and gave him a bad hour while he tried +to wring the admission out of him that Harley had personally ordered the attack +on the miners of the Taurus. But for the almost constant objections of the +opposing counsel, which gave him time to recover himself, the prosecuting +attorney would have succeeded. +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway, meeting him by chance after luncheon at the foot of the hotel +elevator—for in a town the size of Avalanche, Waring had found it +necessary to put up at the same hotel as the enemy or take second best, an +alternative not to his fastidious taste—rallied him upon the predicament +in which he had found himself. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s pretty hard to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the +truth, without making indiscreet admissions about one’s friends, isn’t it?” he +asked, with his genial smile. +</p> + +<p> +“Did I make any indiscreet admissions?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t say you did, though you didn’t look as if you were enjoying yourself. +I picked up an impression that you had your back to the wall; seemed to me the +jury rather sized it up that way, Mott.” +</p> + +<p> +“We’ll know what the jury thinks in a few days.” +</p> + +<p> +“Shall we?” the other laughed aloud. “Now, I’m wondering whether we shall know +what they really think.” +</p> + +<p> +“If you mean that the jury has been tampered with it is your duty to place your +evidence before the court, Mr. Ridgway.” +</p> + +<p> +“When I hear the verdict I’ll tell you what I think about the jury,” returned +the president of the Ore-producing Company, with easy impudence as he passed +into the elevator. +</p> + +<p> +At the second floor Waring left it and turned toward the ladies’ parlor. It had +seemed to him that Aline had looked very tired and frail at the morning +session, and he wanted to see Virginia about arranging to have them take a long +drive into the country that afternoon. He had sent his card up with a penciled +note to the effect that he would wait for her in the parlor. +</p> + +<p> +But when he stepped through the double doorway of the ornate room it was to +become aware of a prior occupant. She was reclining on a divan at the end of +the large public room. Neither lying nor sitting, but propped up among a dozen +pillows with head and limbs inert and the long lashes drooped on the white +cheeks, Aline looked the pathetic figure of a child fallen asleep from sheer +exhaustion after a long strain. +</p> + +<p> +Since he was the man he was, unhampered by any too fine sense of what was +fitting, he could no more help approaching than he could help the passionate +pulse of pity that stirred in his heart at sight of her forlorn weariness. +</p> + +<p> +Her eyes opened to find his grave compassion looking down at her. She showed no +surprise at his presence, though she had not previously known of it. Nor did +she move by even so much as the stir of a limb. +</p> + +<p> +“This is wearing you out,” he said, after the long silence in which her gaze +was lost helplessly in his. “You must go home—away from it all. You must +forget it, and if it ever crosses your mind think of it as something with which +you have no concern.” +</p> + +<p> +“How can I do that—now.” +</p> + +<p> +The last word slipped out not of her will, but from an undisciplined heart. It +stood for the whole tangled story of her troubles: the unloved marriage which +had bereft her of her heritage of youth and joy, the love that had found her +too late and was so poignant a fount of distress to her, the web of untoward +circumstance in which she was so inextricably entangled. +</p> + +<p> +“How did you ever come to do it?” he asked roughly, out of the bitter impulse +of his heart. +</p> + +<p> +She knew that the harshness was not for her, as surely as she knew what he +meant by his words. +</p> + +<p> +“I did wrong. I know that now, but I didn’t know it then. Though even then I +felt troubled about it. But my guardian said it was best, and I knew so little. +Oh, so very, very little. Why was I not taught things, what every girl has a +right to know—until life teaches me—too late?” +</p> + +<p> +Nothing he could say would comfort her. For the inexorable facts forbade +consolation. She had made shipwreck of her life before the frail raft of her +destiny had well pushed forth from harbor. He would have given much to have +been able to take the sadness out of her great childeyes, but he knew that not +even by the greatness of his desire could he take up her burden. She must carry +it alone or sink under it. +</p> + +<p> +“You must go away from here back to your people. If not now, then as soon as +the trial is over. Make him take you to your friends for a time.” +</p> + +<p> +“I have no friends that can help me.” She said it in an even little voice of +despair. +</p> + +<p> +“You have many friends. You have made some here. Virginia is one.” He would not +name himself as only a friend, though he had set his iron will to claim no +more. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Virginia is my friend. She is good to me. But she is going to marry you, +and then you will both forget me.” +</p> + +<p> +“I shall never forget you.” He cried it in a low, tense voice, his clenched +hands thrust into the pockets of his sack coat. +</p> + +<p> +Her wan smile thanked him. It was the most he would let himself say. Though her +heart craved more, she knew she must make the most of this. +</p> + +<p> +“I came up to see Virginia,” he went on, with a change of manner. “I want her +to take you driving this afternoon. Forget about that wretched trial if you +can. Nothing of importance will take place to-day.” +</p> + +<p> +He turned at the sound of footsteps, and saw that Miss Balfour had come into +the room. +</p> + +<p> +“I want you to take Mrs. Harley into the fresh sunshine and clear air this +afternoon. I have been telling her to forget this trial. It’s a farce, anyhow. +Nothing will come of it. Take her out to the Homes—take and cheer her +up.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, my lord.” Virginia curtseyed obediently. +</p> + +<p> +“It will do you good, too.” +</p> + +<p> +She shot a mocking little smile at him. “It’s very good of you to think of me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Still, I do sometimes.” +</p> + +<p> +“Whenever it is convenient,” she added. +</p> + +<p> +But with Aline watching them the spirit of badinage in him was overmatched. He +gave it up and asked what kind of a rig he should send round. Virginia +furnished him the necessary specifications, and he turned to go. +</p> + +<p> +As he left the room Simon Harley entered. They met face to face, and after an +instant’s pause each drew aside to allow the other to pass. The New Yorker +inclined his head silently and moved forward toward his wife. Ridgway passed +down the corridor and into the elevator. +</p> + +<p> +As the days of the trial passed excitement grew more tense. The lawyers for the +prosecution and the defense made their speeches to a crowded and enthralled +court-room. There was a feverish uncertainty in the air. It reached a climax +when the jury stayed out for eleven hours before coming to a verdict. From the +moment it filed back into the court-room with solemn faces the dramatic tensity +began to foreshadow the tragedy about to be enacted. The woman Harley had made +a widow sat erect and rigid in the seat where she had been throughout the +trial. Her eyes blazed with a hatred that bordered madness. Ridgway had +observed that neither Aline Harley nor Virginia was present, and a note from +the latter had just reached him to the effect that Aline was ill with the +strain of the long trial. Afterward Ridgway could never thank his pagan gods +enough that she was absent. +</p> + +<p> +There was a moment of tense waiting before the judge asked: +</p> + +<p> +“Gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict?” +</p> + +<p> +The foreman rose. “We have, your honor.” +</p> + +<p> +A folded note was handed to the judge. He read it slowly, with an inscrutable +face. +</p> + +<p> +“Is this your verdict, gentlemen of the jury?” +</p> + +<p> +“It is, your honor.” +</p> + +<p> +Silence, full and rigid, held the room after the words “Not guilty” had fallen +from the lips of the judge. The stillness was broken by a shock as of an +electric bolt from heaven. +</p> + +<p> +The exploding echoes of a pistol-shot reverberated. Men sprang wildly to their +feet, gazing at each other in the distrust that fear generates. But one man was +beyond being startled by any more earthly sounds. His head fell forward on the +table in front of him, and a thin stream of blood flowed from his lips. It was +Simon Harley, found guilty, sentenced, and executed by the judge and jury +sitting in the outraged, insane heart of the woman he had made a widow. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Edwards had shot him through the head with a revolver she had carried in +her shoppingbag to exact vengeance in the event of a miscarriage of justice. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap23"></a> +CHAPTER XXIII.<br/> +ALINE TURNS A CORNER</h2> + +<p> +Aline might have been completely prostrated by the news of her husband’s sudden +end, coming as it did as the culmination of a week of strain and horror. That +she did not succumb was due, perhaps, to Ridgway’s care for her. When Harley’s +massive gray head had dropped forward to the table, his enemy’s first thought +had been of her. As soon as he knew that death was sure, he hurried to the +hotel. +</p> + +<p> +He sent his card up, and followed it so immediately that he found her scarcely +risen from the divan on which she had been lying in the receiving-room of her +apartments. The sleep was not yet shaken from her lids, nor was the wrinkled +flush smoothed from the soft cheek that had been next the cushion. Even in his +trouble for her he found time to be glad that Virginia was not at the moment +with her. It gave him the sense of another bond between them that this tragic +hour should belong to him and her alone—this hour of destiny when their +lives swung round a corner beyond which lay wonderful vistas of kindly sunbeat +and dewy starlight stretching to the horizon’s edge of the long adventure. +</p> + +<p> +She checked the rush of glad joy in her heart the sight of him always brought, +and came forward slowly. One glance at his face showed that he had brought +grave news. +</p> + +<p> +“What is it? Why are you here?” she cried tensely. +</p> + +<p> +“To bring you trouble, Aline.” +</p> + +<p> +“Trouble!” Her hand went to her heart quickly. +</p> + +<p> +“It is about—Mr. Harley.” +</p> + +<p> +She questioned him with wide, startled eyes, words hesitating on her trembling +lips and flying unvoiced. +</p> + +<p> +“Child—little partner—the orders are to be brave.” He came forward +and took her hands in his, looking down at her with eyes she thought full of +infinitely kind pity. +</p> + +<p> +“Is it—have they—do you mean the verdict?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, the verdict; but not the verdict of which you are thinking.” +</p> + +<p> +She turned a quivering face to his. “Tell me. I shall be brave.” +</p> + +<p> +He told her the brutal fact as gently as he could, while he watched the blood +ebb from her face. As she swayed he caught her in his arms and carried her to +the divan. When, presently, her eyes fluttered open, it was to look into his +pitiful ones. He was kneeling beside her, and her head was pillowed on his arm. +</p> + +<p> +“Say it isn’t true,” she murmured. +</p> + +<p> +“It is true, dear.” +</p> + +<p> +She moved her head restlessly, and he took away his arm, rising to draw a chair +close to the lounge. She slipped her two hands under her head, letting them lie +palm to palm on the sofapillow. The violet eyes looked past him into space. Her +tangled thoughts were in a chaos of disorder. Even though she had known but a +few months and loved not at all the grim, gray-haired man she had called +husband, the sense of wretched bereavement, the nearness of death, was strong +on her. He had been kind to her in his way, and the inevitable closeness of +their relationship, repugnant as it had been to her, made its claims felt. An +hour ago he had been standing here, the strong and virile ruler over thousands. +Now he lay stiff and cold, all his power shorn from him without a second’s +warning. He had kissed her good-by, solicitous for her welfare, and it had been +he that had been in need of care rather than she. Two big tears hung on her +lids and splashed to her cheeks. She began to sob, and half-turned on the +divan, burying her face in her hands. +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway let her weep without interruption for a time, knowing that it would be +a relief to her surcharged heart and overwrought nerves. But when her sobs +began to abate she became aware of his hand resting on her shoulder. She sat +up, wiping her eyes, and turned to him a face sodden with grief. +</p> + +<p> +“You are good to me,” she said simply. +</p> + +<p> +“If my goodness were only less futile! Heaven knows what I would give to ward +off trouble from you. But I can’t, nor can I bear it for you.” +</p> + +<p> +“But it is a help to know you would if you could. He—I think he wanted to +ward off grief from me, but he could not, either. I was often lonely and sad, +even though he was kind to me. And now he has gone. I wish I had told him how +much I appreciated his goodness to me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, we all feel that when we have lost some one we love. It is natural to +wish we had been better to them and showed them how much we cared. Let me tell +you about my mother. I was thirteen when she died. It was in summer. She had +not been well for a long time. The boys were going fishing that day and she +asked me to stay at home. I had set my heart on going, and I thought it was +only a fancy of hers. She did not insist on my staying, so I went, but felt +uncomfortable all day. When I came back in the evening they told me she was +dead. I felt as if some great icy hand were tightening, on my heart. Somehow I +couldn’t break down and cry it out. I went around with a white, set face and +gave no sign. Even at the funeral it was the same. The neighbors called me +hard-hearted and pointed me out to their sons as a terrible warning. And all +the time I was torn with agony.” +</p> + +<p> +“You poor boy.” +</p> + +<p> +“And one night she came to me in a dream. She did not look as she had just +before she died, but strong and beautiful, with the color in her face she used +to have. She smiled at me and kissed me and rumpled my hair as she used to do. +I knew, then, it was all right. She understood, and I didn’t care whether +others did or not. I woke up crying, and after I had had my grief out I was +myself again.” +</p> + +<p> +“It was so sweet of her to think to come to you. She must have been loving you +up in heaven and saw you were troubled, and came down just to comfort you and +tell you it was all right,” the girl cried with soft sympathy. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s how I understood it. Of course, I was only a boy, but somehow I knew it +was more than a dream. I’m not a spiritualist. I don’t believe such things +happen, but I know it happened to me,” he finished illogically, with a smile. +</p> + +<p> +She sighed. “He was always so thoughtful of me, too. I do wish I +had—could have been—more—” +</p> + +<p> +She broke off without finishing, but he understood. +</p> + +<p> +“You must not blame yourself for that. He would be the first to tell you so. He +took you for what you could give him, and these last days were the best he had +known for many years.” +</p> + +<p> +“He was so good to me. Oh, you don’t know how good.” +</p> + +<p> +“It was a great pleasure to him to be good to you, the greatest pleasure he +knew.” +</p> + +<p> +She looked up as he spoke, and saw shining deep in his eyes the spirit that had +taught him to read so well the impulse of another lover, and, seeing it, she +dropped her eyes quickly in order not to see what was there. With him it had +been only an instant’s uncontrollable surge of ecstasy. He meant to wait. Every +instinct of the decent thing told him not to take advantage of her weakness, +her need of love to rest upon in her trouble, her transparent care for him and +confidence in him so childlike in its entirety. For convention he did not care +a turn of his hand, but he would do nothing that might shock her self-respect +when she came to think of it later. Sternly he brought himself back to +realities. +</p> + +<p> +“Shall I see Mr. Mott for you and send him here? It would be better that he +should make the arrangements than I.” +</p> + +<p> +“If you please. I shall not see you again before I go, then?” Her lips trembled +as she asked the question. +</p> + +<p> +“I shall come down to the hotel again and see you before you go. And now +good-by. Be brave, and don’t reproach yourself. Remember that he would not wish +it.” +</p> + +<p> +The door opened, and Virginia came in, flushed with rapid walking. She had +heard the news on the street and had hurried back to the hotel. +</p> + +<p> +Her eyes asked of Ridgway: “Does she know?” and he answered in the affirmative. +Straight to Aline she went and wrapped her in her arms, the latent mothering +instinct that is in every woman aroused and dormant. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, my dear, my dear,” she cried softly. +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway slipped quietly from the room and left them together. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap24"></a> +CHAPTER XXIV.<br/> +A GOOD SAMARITAN</h2> + +<p> +Yesler, still moving slowly with a walking stick by reason of his green wound, +left the street-car and made his way up Forest Road to the house which bore the +number 792. In the remote past there had been some spasmodic attempt to +cultivate grass and raise some shade-trees along the sidewalks, but this had +long since been given up as abortive. An air of decay hung over the street, the +unmistakable suggestion of better days. This was writ large over the house in +front of which Yesler stopped. The gate hung on one hinge, boards were missing +from the walk, and a dilapidated shutter, which had once been green, swayed in +the breeze. +</p> + +<p> +A woman of about thirty, dark and pretty but poorly dressed, came to the door +in answer to his ring. Two little children, a boy and a girl, with their +mother’s shy long-lashed Southern eyes of brown, clung to her skirts and gazed +at the stranger. +</p> + +<p> +“This is where Mr. Pelton lives, is it not?” he asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, sir.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is he at home?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, sir.” +</p> + +<p> +“May I see him?” +</p> + +<p> +“He’s sick.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m sorry to hear it. Too sick to be seen? If not, I should like very much to +see him. I have business with him.” +</p> + +<p> +The young woman looked at him a little defiantly and a little suspiciously. +“Are you a reporter?” +</p> + +<p> +Sam smiled. “No, ma’am.” +</p> + +<p> +“Does he owe you money?” He could see the underlying blood dye her dusky cheeks +when she asked the question desperately, as it seemed to him with a kind of +brazen shame to which custom had inured her. She had somehow the air of some +gentle little creature of the forests defending her young. +</p> + +<p> +“Not a cent, ma’am. I don’t want to do him any harm.” +</p> + +<p> +“I didn’t hear your name.” +</p> + +<p> +“I haven’t mentioned it,” he admitted, with the sunny smile that was a letter +of recommendation in itself. “Fact is I’d rather not tell it till he sees me.” +</p> + +<p> +From an adjoining room a querulous voice broke into their conversation. “Who is +it, Norma?” +</p> + +<p> +“A gentleman to see you, Tom.” +</p> + +<p> +“Who is it?” more sharply. +</p> + +<p> +“It is I, Mr. Pelton. I came to have a talk with you.” Yesler pushed forward +into the dingy sitting-room with the pertinacity of a bookagent. “I heard you +were not well, and I came to find out if I can do anything for you.” +</p> + +<p> +The stout man lying on the lounge grew pale before the blood reacted in a +purple flush. His very bulk emphasized the shabbiness of the stained and almost +buttonless Prince Albert coat he wore, the dinginess of the little room he +seemed to dwarf. +</p> + +<p> +“Leave my house, seh. You have ruined this family, and you come to gloat on +your handiwork. Take a good look, and then go, Mr. Yesler. You see my wife in +cotton rags doing her own work. Is it enough, seh?” +</p> + +<p> +The slim little woman stepped across the room and took her place beside her +husband. Her eyes flashed fire at the man she held responsible for the fall of +her husband. Yesler’s generous heart applauded the loyalty which was proof +against both disgrace and poverty. For in the past month both of these had +fallen heavily upon her. Tom Pelton had always lived well, and during the past +few years he had speculated in ventures far beyond his means. Losses had +pursued him, and he had looked to the senatorship to recoup himself and to +stand off the creditors pressing hard for payment. Instead he had been exposed, +disgraced, and finally disbarred for attempted bribery. Like a horde of hungry +rats his creditors had pounced upon the discredited man and wrested from him +the remnants of his mortgaged property. He had been forced to move into a mere +cottage and was a man without a future. For the only profession at which he had +skill enough to make a living was the one from which he had been cast as unfit +to practise it. The ready sympathy of the cattleman had gone out to the +politician who was down and out. He had heard the situation discussed enough to +guess pretty close to the facts, and he could not let himself rest until he had +made some effort to help the man whom his exposure had ruined, or, rather, had +hastened to ruin, for that result had been for years approaching. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m sorry, Mr. Pelton. If I’ve injured you I want to make it right.” +</p> + +<p> +“Make it right!” The former congressman got up with an oath. “Make it right! +Can you give me back my reputation, my future? Can you take away the shame that +has come upon my wife, and that my children will have to bear in the years to +come? Can you give us back our home, our comfort, our peace of mind?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, I can’t do this, but I can help you to do it all,” the cattleman made +answer quietly. +</p> + +<p> +He offered no defense, though he knew perfectly well none was needed. He had no +responsibility in the calamity that had befallen this family. Pelton’s +wrong-doing had come home to those he loved, and he could rightly blame nobody +but himself. However much he might arraign those who had been the agents of his +fall, he knew in his heart that the fault had been his own. +</p> + +<p> +Norma Pelton, tensely self-repressed, spoke now. “How can you do this, sir?” +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t do it so long as you hold me for an enemy, ma’am. I’m ready to cry +quits with your husband and try a new deal. If I injured him he tried to even +things up. Well, let’s say things are squared and start fresh. I’ve got a +business proposition to make if you’re willing to listen to it.” +</p> + +<p> +“What sort of a proposition?” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m running about twenty-five thousand sheep up in the hills. I’ve just bought +a ranch with a comfortable ranch-house on it for a kind of central point. My +winter feeding will all be done from it as a chief place of distribution. Same +with the shearing and shipping. I want a good man to put in charge of my sheep +as head manager, and I would be willing to pay a proper salary. There ain’t any +reason why this shouldn’t work into a partnership if he makes good. With wool +jumping, as it’s going to do in the next four years, the right kind of man can +make himself independent for life. My idea is to increase my holdings right +along, and let my manager in as a partner as soon as he shows he is worth it. +Now that ranch-house is a decent place. There’s a pretty good school, ma’am, +for the children. The folks round that neighborhood may not have any frills, +but—” +</p> + +<p> +“Are you offering Tom the place as manager?” she demanded, in amazement. +</p> + +<p> +“That was my idea, ma’am. It’s not what you been used to, o’ course, but if +you’re looking for a change I thought I’d speak of it,” he said diffidently. +</p> + +<p> +She looked at him in a dumb surprise. She, too, in her heart knew that this man +was blameless. He had done his duty, and had nearly lost his life for it at the +hands of her husband. Now, he had come to lift them out of the hideous +nightmare into which they had fallen. He had come to offer them peace and quiet +and plenty in exchange for the future of poverty and shame and despair which +menaced them. They were to escape into God’s great hills, away from the averted +looks and whispering tongues and the temptations to drown his trouble that so +constantly beset the father of her children. Despite his faults she still loved +Tom Pelton; he was a kind and loving husband and father. Out on the range there +still waited a future for him. When she thought of it a lump rose in her throat +for very happiness. She, who had been like a rock beside him in his trouble, +broke down now and buried her head in her husband’s coat. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t you, honey—now, don’t you cry.” The big man had lost all his +pomposity, and was comforting his sweetheart as simply as a boy. “It’s all been +my fault. I’ve been doing wrong for years—trying to pull myself out of +the mire by my bootstraps. By Gad, you’re a man, Sam Yesler, that’s what you +are. If I don’t turn ovah a new leaf I’d ought to be shot. We’ll make a fresh +start, sweetheart. Dash me, I’m nothing but a dashed baby.” And with that the +overwrought man broke down, too. +</p> + +<p> +Yesler, moved a good deal himself, maintained the burden of the conversation +cheerfully. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s all settled, then. Tell you I’m right glad to get a competent man to +put in charge. Things have been running at loose ends, because I haven’t the +time to look after them. This takes a big load off my mind. You better arrange +to go up there with me as soon as you have time, Pelton, and look the ground +over. You’ll want to make some changes if you mean to take your family up +there. Better to spend a few hundreds and have things the way you want them for +Mrs. Pelton than to move in with things not up to the mark. Of course, I’ll put +the house in the shape you want it. But we can talk of that after we look it +over.” +</p> + +<p> +In his embarrassment he looked so much the boy, so much the culprit caught +stealing apples and up for sentence, that Norma Pelton’s gratitude took +courage. She came across to him and held out both hands, the shimmer of tears +still in the soft brown eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“You’ve given us more than life, Mr. Yesler. You can’t ever know what you have +done for us. Some things are worse than death to some people. I don’t mean +poverty, but—other things. We can begin again far away from this tainted +air that has poisoned us. I know it isn’t good form to be saying this. One +shouldn’t have feelings in public. But I don’t care. I think of the +children—and Tom. I didn’t expect ever to be happy again, but we shall. I +feel it.” +</p> + +<p> +She broke down again and dabbed at her eyes with her kerchief. Sam, very much +embarrassed but not at all displeased at this display of feeling, patted her +dark hair and encouraged her to composure. +</p> + +<p> +“There. It’s all right, now, ma’am. Sure you’ll be happy. Any mother that’s got +kids like these—” +</p> + +<p> +He caught up the little girl in his arms by way of diverting attention from +himself. +</p> + +<p> +This gave a new notion to the impulsive little woman. +</p> + +<p> +“I want you to kiss them both. Come here, Kennie. This is Mr. Yesler, and he is +the best man you’ve ever seen. I want you to remember that he has been our best +friend.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, mama.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, sho, ma’am!” protested the overwhelmed cattleman, kissing both the +children, nevertheless. +</p> + +<p> +Pelton laughed. He felt a trifle hysterical himself. “If she thinks it she’ll +say it when she feels that way. I’m right surprised she don’t kiss you, too.” +</p> + +<p> +“I will,” announced Norma promptly, with a pretty little tide of color. +</p> + +<p> +She turned toward him, and Yesler, laughing, met the red lips of the new friend +he had made. +</p> + +<p> +“Now, you’ve got just grounds for shooting me,” he said gaily, and instantly +regretted his infelicitous remark. +</p> + +<p> +For both husband and wife fell grave at his words. It was Pelton that answered +them. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve been taught a lesson, Mr. Yesler. I’m never going to pack a gun again as +long as I live, unless I’m hunting or something of that sort, and I’m never +going to drink another drop of liquor. It’s all right for some men, but it +isn’t right for me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Glad to hear it. I never did believe in the hip-pocket habit. I’ve lived here +twenty years, and I never found it necessary except on special occasions. When +it comes to whisky, I reckon we’d all be better without it.” +</p> + +<p> +Yesler made his escape at the earliest opportunity and left them alone +together. He lunched at the club, attended to some correspondence he had, and +about 3:30 drifted down the street toward the post-office. He had expectations +of meeting a young woman who often passed about that time on her way home from +school duties. +</p> + +<p> +It was, however, another young woman whose bow he met in front of Mesa’s +largest department store. +</p> + +<p> +“Good afternoon, Miss Balfour.” +</p> + +<p> +She nodded greeting and cast eyes of derision on him. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve been hearing about you. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, ma’am. What for in particular? There are so many things.” +</p> + +<p> +“You’re a fine Christian, aren’t you?” she scoffed. +</p> + +<p> +“I ain’t much of a one. That’s a fact,” he admitted. “What is it this +time—poker?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, it isn’t poker. Worse than that. You’ve been setting a deplorable example +to the young.” +</p> + +<p> +“To young ladies—like Miss Virginia?” he wanted to know. +</p> + +<p> +“No, to young Christians. I don’t know what our good deacons will say about +it.” She illuminated her severity with a flashing smile. “Don’t you know that +the sins of the fathers are to descend upon their children even to the third +and fourth generation? Don’t you know that when a man does wrong he must die +punished, and his children and his wife, of course, and that the proper thing +to do is to stand back and thank Heaven we haven’t been vile sinners?” +</p> + +<p> +“Now, don’t you begin on that, Miss Virginia,” he warned. +</p> + +<p> +“And after the man had disgraced himself and shot you, after all respectable +people had given him an extra kick to let him know he must stay down and had +then turned their backs upon him. I’m not surprised that you’re ashamed.” +</p> + +<p> +“Where did you get hold of this fairy-tale?” he plucked up courage to demand. +</p> + +<p> +“From Norma Pelton. She told me everything, the whole story from beginning to +end.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s right funny you should be calling on her, and you a respectable young +lady—unless you went to deliver that extra kick you was mentioning,” he +grinned. +</p> + +<p> +She dropped her raillery. “It was splendid. I meant to ask Mr. Ridgway to do +something for them, but this is so much better. It takes them away from the +place of his disgrace and away from temptation. Oh, I don’t wonder Norma kissed +you.” +</p> + +<p> +“She told you that, too, did she?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. I should have done it, too, in her place.” +</p> + +<p> +He glanced round placidly. “It’s a right public place here, but—” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t be afraid. I’m not going to.” And before she disappeared within the +portals of the department store she gave him one last thrust. “It’s not so +public up in the library. Perhaps if you happen to be going that way?” +</p> + +<p> +She left her communication a fragment, but he thought it worth acting upon. +Among the library shelves he found Laska deep in a new volume on domestic +science. +</p> + +<p> +“This ain’t any kind of day to be fooling away your time on cook-books. Come +out into the sun and live,” he invited. +</p> + +<p> +They walked past the gallows-frames and the slag-dumps and the shaft-houses +into the brown hills beyond the point where green copper streaks showed and +spurred the greed of man. It was a day of spring sunshine, the good old earth +astir with her annual recreation. The roadside was busy with this serious +affair of living. Ants and crawling things moved to and fro about their +business. Squirrels raced across the road and stood up at a safe distance to +gaze at these intruders. Birds flashed back and forth, hurried little +carpenters busy with the specifications for their new nests. Eager palpitating +life was the key-note of the universe. +</p> + +<p> +“Virginia told me about the Peltons,” Laska said, after a pause. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s spreading almost as fast as if it were a secret,” he smiled. “I’m +expecting to find it in the paper when we get back.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m so glad you did it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, you’re to blame.” +</p> + +<p> +“I!” She looked at him in surprise. +</p> + +<p> +“Partly. You told me how things were going with them. That seemed to put it up +to me to give Pelton a chance.” +</p> + +<p> +“I certainly didn’t mean it that way. I had no right to ask you to do anything +about it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Mebbe it was the facts put it up to me. Anyhow, I felt responsible.” +</p> + +<p> +“Mr. Roper once told me that you always feel responsible when you hear anybody +is in trouble,” the young woman answered. +</p> + +<p> +“Roper’s a goat. Nobody ever pays any attention to him.” +</p> + +<p> +Presently they diverged from the road and sat down on a great flat rock which +dropped out from the hillside like a park seat. For he was still far from +strong and needed frequent rests. Their talk was desultory, for they had +reached that stage of friendship at which it is not necessary to bridge silence +with idle small talk. Here, by some whim of fate, the word was spoken. He knew +he loved her, but he had not meant to say it yet. +</p> + +<p> +But when her steady gray eyes came back to his after a long stillness, the +meeting brought him a strange feeling that forced his hand. +</p> + +<p> +“I love you, Laska. Will you be my wife?” he asked quietly. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Sam,” she answered directly. That was all. It was settled with a word. +There in the sunshine he kissed her and sealed the compact, and afterward, when +the sun was low among the hill spurs, they went back happily to take up again +the work that awaited them. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap25"></a> +CHAPTER XXV.<br/> +FRIENDLY ENEMIES</h2> + +<p> +Ridgway had promised Aline that he would see her soon, and when he found +himself in New York he called at the big house on Fifth Avenue, which had for +so long been identified as the home of Simon Harley. It bore his impress +stamped on it. Its austerity suggested the Puritan rather than the classic +conception of simplicity. The immense rooms were as chill as dungeons, and the +forlorn little figure in black, lost in the loneliness of their bleakness, +wandered to and fro among her retinue of servants like a butterfly beating its +wings against a pane of glass. +</p> + +<p> +With both hands extended she ran forward to meet her guest. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m so glad, so glad, so glad to see you.” +</p> + +<p> +The joy-note in her voice was irrepressible. She had been alone for weeks with +the conventional gloom that made an obsession of the shadow of death which +enveloped the house. All voices and footsteps had been subdued to harmonize +with the grief of the mistress of this mausoleum. Now she heard the sharp tread +of this man unafraid, and saw the alert vitality of his confident bearing. It +was like a breath of the hills to a parched traveler. +</p> + +<p> +“I told you I would come.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. I’ve been looking for you every day. I’ve checked each one off on my +calendar. It’s been three weeks and five days since I saw you.” +</p> + +<p> +“I thought it was a year,” he laughed, and the sound of his uncurbed voice rang +strangely in this room given to murmurs. +</p> + +<p> +“Tell me about everything. How is Virginia, and Mrs. Mott, and Mr. Yesler? And +is he really engaged to that sweet little school-teacher? And how does Mr. +Hobart like being senator?” +</p> + +<p> +“Not more than a dozen questions permitted at a time. Begin again, please.” +</p> + +<p> +“First, then, when did you reach the city?” +</p> + +<p> +He consulted his watch. “Just two hours and twenty-seven minutes ago.” +</p> + +<p> +“And how long are you going to stay?” +</p> + +<p> +“That depends.” +</p> + +<p> +“On what?” +</p> + +<p> +“For one thing, on whether you treat me well,” he smiled. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I’ll treat you well. I never was so glad to see a real live somebody in my +life. It’s been pretty bad here.” She gave a dreary little smile as she glanced +around at the funereal air of the place. “Do you know, I don’t think we think +of death in the right way? Or, maybe, I’m a heathen and haven’t the proper +feelings.” +</p> + +<p> +She had sat down on one of the stiff divans, and Ridgway found a place beside +her. +</p> + +<p> +“Suppose you tell me about it,” he suggested. +</p> + +<p> +“I know I must be wrong, and you’ll be shocked when you hear.” +</p> + +<p> +“Very likely.” +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t help feeling that the living have rights, too,” she began dubiously. +“If they would let me alone I could be sorry in my own way, but I don’t see why +I have to make a parade of grief. It seems to—to cheapen one’s feelings, +you know.” +</p> + +<p> +He nodded. “Just as if you had to measure your friendship for the dead with a +yardstick of Mother Grundy. It’s a hideous imposition laid on us by custom, one +of Ibsen’s ghosts.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s so good to hear you say that. And do you think I may begin to be happy +again?” +</p> + +<p> +“I think it would be allowable to start with one smile a day, say, and +gradually increase the dose,” he jested. “In the course of a week, if it seems +to agree with you, try a laugh.” +</p> + +<p> +She made the experiment without waiting the week, amused at his whimsical way +of putting it. Nevertheless, the sound of her own laughter gave her a little +shock. +</p> + +<p> +“You came on business, I suppose?” she said presently. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. I came to raise a million dollars for some improvements I want to make.” +</p> + +<p> +“Let me lend it to you,” she proposed eagerly. +</p> + +<p> +“That would be a good one. I’m going to use it to fight the Consolidated. Since +you are now its chief stockholder you would be letting me have money with which +to fight you.” +</p> + +<p> +“I shouldn’t care about that. I hope you beat me.” +</p> + +<p> +“You’re my enemy now. That’s not the way to talk.” His eyes twinkled merrily. +</p> + +<p> +“Am I your enemy? Let’s be friendly enemies, then. And there’s something I want +to talk to you about. Before he died Mr. Harley told me he had made you an +offer. I didn’t understand the details, but you were to be in charge of all the +copper-mines in the country. Wasn’t that it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Something of that sort. I declined the proposition.” +</p> + +<p> +“I want you to take it now and manage everything for me. I don’t know Mr. +Harley’s associates, but I can trust you. You can arrange it any way you like, +but I want to feel that you have the responsibility.” +</p> + +<p> +He saw again that vision of power—all the copper interests of the country +pooled, with himself at the head of the combination. He knew it would not be so +easy to arrange as she thought, for, though she had inherited Harley’s wealth, +she had not taken over his prestige and force. There would be other candidates +for leadership. But if he managed her campaign Aline’s great wealth must turn +the scale in their favor. +</p> + +<p> +“You must think this over again. You must talk it over with your advisers +before we come to a decision,” he said gravely. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve told Mr. Jarmyn. He says the idea is utterly impossible. But we’ll show +him, won’t we? It’s my money and my stock, not his. I don’t see why he should +dictate. He’s always ‘My dear ladying’ me. I won’t have it,” she pouted. +</p> + +<p> +The fighting gleam was in Ridgway’s eyes now. “So Mr. Jannyn thinks it is +impossible, does he?” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s what he said. He thinks you wouldn’t do at all.” +</p> + +<p> +“If you really mean it we’ll show him about that.” +</p> + +<p> +She shook hands with him on it. +</p> + +<p> +“You’re very good to me,” she said, so naively that he could not keep back his +smile. +</p> + +<p> +“Most people would say I was very good to myself. What you offer me is a thing +I might have fought for all my life and never won.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then I’m glad if it pleases you. That’s enough about business. Now, we’ll talk +about something important.” +</p> + +<p> +He could think of only one thing more important to him than this, but it +appeared she meant plans to see as much as possible of him while he was in the +city. +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose you have any number of other friends here that will want you?” she +said. +</p> + +<p> +“They can’t have me if this friend wants me,” he answered, with that deep glow +in his eyes she recognized from of old; and before she could summon her +reserves of defense he asked: “Do you want me, Aline?” +</p> + +<p> +His meaning came to her with a kind of sweet shame. “No, no, no—not yet,” +she cried. +</p> + +<p> +“Dear,” he answered, taking her little hand in his big one, “only this now: +that I can’t help wanting to be near you to comfort you, because I love you. +For everything else, I am content to wait.” +</p> + +<p> +“And I love you,” the girl-widow answered, a flush dyeing her cheeks. “But I +ought not to tell you yet, ought I?” +</p> + +<p> +There was that in her radiant tear-dewed eyes that stirred the deepest stores +of tenderness in the man. His finer instincts, vandal and pagan though he was, +responded to it. +</p> + +<p> +“It is right that you should tell me, since it is true, but it is right, too, +that we should wait.” +</p> + +<p> +“It is sweet to know that you love me. There are so many things I don’t +understand. You must help me. You are so strong and so sure, and I am so +helpless.” +</p> + +<p> +“You dear innocent, so strong in your weakness,” he murmured to himself. +</p> + +<p> +“You must be a guide to me and a teacher.” +</p> + +<p> +“And you a conscience to me,” he smiled, not without amusement at the thought. +</p> + +<p> +She took it seriously. “But I’m afraid I can’t. You know so much better than I +do what is right.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m quite a paragon of virtue,” he confessed. +</p> + +<p> +“You’re so sure of everything. You took it for granted that I loved you. Why +were you so sure?” +</p> + +<p> +“I was just as sure as you were that I cared for you. Confess.” +</p> + +<p> +She whispered it. “Yes, I knew it, but when you did not come I thought, +perhaps—— You see, I’m not strong or clever. I can’t help you as +Virginia could.” She stopped, the color washing from her face. “I had +forgotten. You have no right to love me—nor I you,” she faltered. +</p> + +<p> +“Girl o’ mine, we have every right in the world. Love is never wrong unless it +is a theft or a robbery. There is nothing between me and Virginia that is not +artificial and conventional, no tie that ought not to be broken, none that +should ever of right have existed. Love has the right of way before mere +convention a hundredfold.” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah! If I were sure.” +</p> + +<p> +“But I was to be a teacher to you and a judge for you.” +</p> + +<p> +“And I was to be a conscience to you.” +</p> + +<p> +“But on this I am quite clear. I can be a conscience to myself. However, there +is no hurry. Time’s a great solvent.” +</p> + +<p> +“And we can go on loving each other in the meantime.” +</p> + +<p> +He lifted her little pink fingers and kissed them. “Yes, we can do that all the +time.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap26"></a> +CHAPTER XXVI.<br/> +BREAKS ONE AND MAKES ANOTHER ENGAGEMENT</h2> + +<p> +Miss Balfour’s glass made her irritably aware of cheeks unduly flushed and eyes +unusually bright. Since she prided herself on being sufficient for the +emergencies of life, she cast about in her mind to determine which of the +interviews that lay before her was responsible for her excitement. It was, to +be sure, an unusual experience for a young woman to be told that her fiance +would be unable to marry her, owing to a subsequent engagement, but she looked +forward to it with keen anticipation, and would not have missed it for the +world. Since she pushed the thought of the other interview into the background +of her mind and refused to contemplate it at all, she did not see how that +could lend any impetus to her pulse. +</p> + +<p> +But though she was pleasantly excited as she swept into the reception-room, +Ridgway was unable to detect the fact in her cool little nod and frank, +careless handshake. Indeed, she looked so entirely mistress of herself, so much +the perfectly gowned exquisite, that he began to dread anew the task he had set +himself. It is not a pleasant thing under the most favorable circumstances to +beg off from marrying a young woman one has engaged oneself to, and Ridgway did +not find it easier because the young woman looked every inch a queen, and was +so manifestly far from suspecting the object of his call. +</p> + +<p> +“I haven’t had a chance to congratulate you personally yet,” she said, after +they had drifted to chairs. “I’ve been immensely proud of you.” +</p> + +<p> +“I got your note. It was good of you to write as soon as you heard.” +</p> + +<p> +She swept him with one of her smile-lit side glances. “Though, of course, in a +way, I was felicitating myself when I congratulated you.” +</p> + +<p> +“You mean?” +</p> + +<p> +She laughed with velvet maliciousness. “Oh, well, I’m dragged into the orbit of +your greatness, am I not? As the wife of the president of the Greater +Consolidated Copper Company—the immense combine that takes in practically +all the larger copper properties in the country—I should come in for a +share of reflected glory, you know.” +</p> + +<p> +Ridgway bit his lip and took a deep breath, but before he had found words she +was off again. She had no intention of letting him descent from the rack yet. +</p> + +<p> +“How did you do it? By what magic did you bring it about? Of course, I’ve read +the newspapers’ accounts, seen your features and your history butchered in a +dozen Sunday horrors, and thanked Heaven no enterprising reporter guessed +enough to use me as copy. Every paper I have picked up for weeks has been full +of you and the story of how you took Wall Street by the throat. But I suspect +they were all guesses, merely superficial rumors except as to the main facts. +What I want to know is the inside story—the lever by means of which you +pried open the door leading to the inner circle of financial magnates. You have +often told me how tightly barred that door is. What was the open-sesame you +used as a countersign to make the keeper of the gate unbolt?” +</p> + +<p> +He thought he saw his chance. “The countersign was ‘Aline Harley,’” he said, +and looked her straight in the face. He wished he could find some way of +telling her without making him feel so like a cad. +</p> + +<p> +She clapped her hands. “I thought so. She backed you with that uncounted +fortune her husband left her. Is that it?” +</p> + +<p> +“That is it exactly. She gave me a free hand, and the immense fortune she +inherited from Harley put me in a position to force recognition from the +leaders. After that it was only a question of time till I had convinced them my +plan was good.” He threw back his shoulders and tried to take the fence again. +“Would you like to know why Mrs. Harley put her fortune at my command?” +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose because she is interested in us and our little affair. Doesn’t all +the world love a lover?” she asked, with a disarming candor. +</p> + +<p> +“She had a better reason,” he said, meeting her eyes gravely. +</p> + +<p> +“You must tell me it—but not just yet. I have something to tell you +first.” She held out her little clenched hand. “Here is something that belongs +to you. Can you open it?” +</p> + +<p> +He straightened her fingers one by one, and took from her palm the +engagement-ring he had given her. Instantly he looked up, doubt and relief +sweeping his face. +</p> + +<p> +“Am I to understand that you terminate our engagement?” +</p> + +<p> +She nodded. +</p> + +<p> +“May I ask why?” +</p> + +<p> +“I couldn’t bring myself to it, Waring. I honestly tried, but I couldn’t do +it.” +</p> + +<p> +“When did you find this out?” +</p> + +<p> +“I began to find it out the first day of our engagement. I couldn’t make it +seem right. I’ve been in a process of learning it ever since. It wouldn’t be +fair to you for me to marry you.” +</p> + +<p> +“You’re a brick, Virginia!” he cried jubilantly. +</p> + +<p> +“No, I’m not. That is a minor reason. The really important one is that it +wouldn’t be fair to me.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, it would not,” he admitted, with an air of candor. +</p> + +<p> +“Because, you see, I happen to care for another man,” she purred. +</p> + +<p> +His vanity leaped up fully armed. “Another man! Who?” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s my secret,” she answered, smiling at his chagrin. +</p> + +<p> +“And his?” +</p> + +<p> +“I said mine. At any rate, if three knew, it wouldn’t be a secret,” was her +quick retort. +</p> + +<p> +“Do you think you have been quite fair to me, Virginia?” he asked, with gloomy +dignity. +</p> + +<p> +“I think so,” she answered, and touched him with the riposte: “I’m ready now to +have you tell me when you expect to marry Aline Harley.” +</p> + +<p> +His dignity collapsed like a pricked bladder. “How did you know?” he demanded, +in astonishment. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh well, I have eyes.” +</p> + +<p> +“But I didn’t know—I thought—” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, you thought! You are a pair of children at the game,” this +thousand-year-old young woman scoffed. “I have known for months that you +worshiped each other.” +</p> + +<p> +“If you mean to imply” he began severely. +</p> + +<p> +“Hit somebody of your size, Warry,” she interrupted cheerfully, as to an +infant. “If you suppose I am so guileless as not to know that you were coming +here this afternoon to tell me you were regretfully compelled to give me up on +account of a more important engagement, then you conspicuously fail to guess +right. I read it in your note.” +</p> + +<p> +He gave up attempting to reprove her. It did not seem feasible under the +circumstances. Instead, he held out the hand of peace, and she took it with a +laugh of gay camaraderie. +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” he smiled, “it seems possible that we may both soon be subjects for +congratulation. That just shows how things work around right. We never would +have suited each other, you know.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m quite sure we shouldn’t,” agreed Virginia promptly. “But I don’t think +I’ll trouble you to congratulate me till you see me wearing another solitaire.” +</p> + +<p> +“We’ll hope for the best,” he said cheerfully. “If it is the man I think, he is +a better man than I am.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, he is,” she nodded, without the least hesitation. +</p> + +<p> +“I hope you will be happy with him.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m likely to be happy without him.” +</p> + +<p> +“Not unless he is a fool.” +</p> + +<p> +“Or prefers another lady, as you do.” +</p> + +<p> +She settled herself back in the low easy chair, with her hands clasped behind +her head. +</p> + +<p> +“And now I’d like to know why you prefer her to me,” she demanded saucily. “Do +you think her handsomer?” +</p> + +<p> +He looked her over from the rippling brown hair to the trim suede shoes. “No,” +he smiled; “they don’t make them handsomer.” +</p> + +<p> +“More intellectual?” +</p> + +<p> +“No.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of a better disposition?” +</p> + +<p> +“I like yours, too.” +</p> + +<p> +“More charming?” +</p> + +<p> +“I find her so, saving your presence.” +</p> + +<p> +“Please justify yourself in detail.” +</p> + +<p> +He shook his head, still smiling. “My justification is not to be itemized. It +lies deeper—in destiny, or fate, or whatever one calls it.” +</p> + +<p> +“I see.” She offered Markham’s verses as an explanation: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Perhaps we are led and our loves are fated,<br/> +And our steps are counted one by one;<br/> +Perhaps we shall meet and our souls be mated,<br/> +After the burnt-out sun.” +</p> + +<p> +“I like that. Who did you say wrote it?” +</p> + +<p> +The immobile butler, as once before, presented a card for her inspection. +Ridgway, with recollections of the previous occasion, ventured to murmur again: +“The fairy prince.” +</p> + +<p> +Virginia blushed to her hair, and this time did not offer the card for his +disapproval. +</p> + +<p> +“Shall I congratulate him?” he wanted to know. +</p> + +<p> +The imperious blood came to her cheeks on the instant. The sudden storm in her +eyes warned him better than words. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll be good,” he murmured, as Lyndon Hobart came into the room. +</p> + +<p> +His goodness took the form of a speedy departure. She followed him to the door +for a parting fling at him. +</p> + +<p> +“In your automobile you may reach a telegraph-office in about five minutes. +With luck you may be engaged inside of an hour.” +</p> + +<p> +“You have the advantage of me by fifty-five minutes,” he flung back. +</p> + +<p> +“You ought to thank me on your knees for having saved you a wretched scene this +afternoon,” was the best she could say to cover her discomfiture. +</p> + +<p> +“I do. I do. My thanks are taking the form of leaving you with the prince.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s very crude, sir—and I’m not sure it isn’t impertinent.” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Balfour was blushing when she returned to Hobart. He mistook the reason, +and she could not very well explain that her blushes were due to the last +wordless retort of the retiring “old love,” whose hand had gone up in a +ridiculous bless-you-my-children attitude just before he left her. +</p> + +<p> +Their conversation started stiffly. He had come, he explained, to say good-by. +He was leaving the State to go to Washington prior to the opening of the +session. +</p> + +<p> +This gave her a chance to congratulate him upon his election. “I haven’t had an +opportunity before. You’ve been so busy, of course, preparing to save the +country, that your time must have been very fully occupied.” +</p> + +<p> +He did not show his surprise at this interpretation of the fact that he had +quietly desisted from his attentions to her, but accepted it as the correct +explanation, since she had chosen to offer it. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Balfour expressed regret that he was going, though she did not suppose she +would see any less of him than she had during the past two months. He did not +take advantage of her little flings to make the talk less formal, and Virginia, +provoked at his aloofness, offered no more chances. Things went very badly, +indeed, for ten minutes, at the end of which time Hobart rose to go. Virginia +was miserably aware of being wretched despite the cool hauteur of her seeming +indifference. But he was too good a sportsman to go without letting her know he +held no grudge. +</p> + +<p> +“I hope you will be very happy with Mr. Ridgway. Believe me, there is nobody +whose happiness I would so rejoice at as yours.” +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you,” she smiled coolly, and her heart raced. “May I hope that your good +wishes still obtain even though I must seek my happiness apart from Mr. +Ridgway?” +</p> + +<p> +He held her for an instant’s grave, astonished questioning, before which her +eyes fell. Her thoughts side-tracked swiftly to long for and to dread what was +coming. +</p> + +<p> +“Am I being told—you must pardon me if I have misunderstood your +meaning—that you are no longer engaged to Mr. Ridgway?” +</p> + +<p> +She made obvious the absence of the solitaire she had worn. +</p> + +<p> +Before the long scrutiny of his steady gaze: her eyes at last fell. +</p> + +<p> +“If you don’t mind, I’ll postpone going just yet,” he said quietly. +</p> + +<p> +Her racing heart assured her fearfully, delightfully, that she did not mind at +all. +</p> + +<p> +“I have no time and no compass to take my bearings. You will pardon me if what +I say seems presumptuous?” +</p> + +<p> +Silence, which is not always golden, oppressed her. Why could she not make +light talk as she had been wont to do with Waring Ridgway? +</p> + +<p> +“But if I ask too much, I shall not be hurt if you deny me,” he continued. “For +how long has your engagement with Mr. Ridgway been broken, may I ask?” +</p> + +<p> +“Between fifteen and twenty minutes.” +</p> + +<p> +“A lovers’ quarrel, perhaps!” he hazarded gently. +</p> + +<p> +“On the contrary, quite final and irrevocable Mr. Ridgway and I have never been +lovers. She was not sure whether this last was meant as a confession or a +justification. +</p> + +<p> +“Not lovers?” He waited for her to explain Her proud eyes faced him. “We became +engaged for other reasons. I thought that did not matter. But I find my other +reasons were not sufficient. To-day I terminated the engagement. But it is only +fair to say that Mr. Ridgway had come here for that purpose. I merely +anticipated him.” Her self-contempt would not let her abate one jot of the +humiliating truth. She flayed herself with a whip of scorn quite lost on +Hobart. +</p> + +<p> +A wave of surging hope was flushing his heart, but he held himself well in +hand. +</p> + +<p> +“I must be presumptuous still,” he said. “I must find out if you broke the +engagement because you care for another man?” +</p> + +<p> +She tried to meet his shining eyes and could not. “You have no right to ask +that.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps not till I have asked something else. I wonder if I should have any +chance if I were to tell you that I love you?” +</p> + +<p> +Her glance swept him shyly with a delicious little laugh. “You never can tell +till you try.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RIDGWAY OF MONTANA ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..020f775 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #2285 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2285) diff --git a/old/2285.txt b/old/2285.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..86a214d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2285.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7999 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ridgway of Montana, by William MacLeod Raine + +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: Ridgway of Montana + (Story of To-Day, in Which the Hero Is Also the Villain) + +Author: William MacLeod Raine + +Posting Date: March 21, 2009 [EBook #2285] +Release Date: August, 2000 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RIDGWAY OF MONTANA *** + + + + +Produced by Mary Starr. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +RIDGWAY OF MONTANA + +(STORY OF TO-DAY, IN WHICH THE HERO IS ALSO THE VILLAIN) + + +by + +WILLIAM MACLEOD RAINE + + + + +To JEAN + +AND THAT KINGDOM + + "Where you and I through this world's weather + Work, and give praise and thanks together." + + + + +CONTENTS + + 1. Two Men and a Woman + 2. The Freebooter + 3. One to One + 4. Fort Salvation + 5. Enter Simon Harley + 6. On the Snow-trail + 7. Back from Arcadia + 8. The Honorable Thomas B. Pelton + 9. An Evening Call + 10. Harley Makes a Proposition + 11. Virginia Intervenes + 12. Aline Makes a Discovery + 13. First Blood + 14. A Conspiracy + 15. Laska Opens a Door + 16. An Explosion in the Taurus + 17. The Election + 18. Further Developments + 19. One Million Dollars + 20. A Little Lunch at Alphonse's + 21. Harley Scores + 22. "Not Guilty"--"Guilty" + 23. Aline Turns a Corner + 24. A Good Samaritan + 25. Friendly Enemies + 26. Breaks One and Makes Another Engagement + + + + +CHAPTER 1. TWO MEN AND A WOMAN + +"Mr. Ridgway, ma'am." + +The young woman who was giving the last touches to the very effective +picture framed in her long looking-glass nodded almost imperceptibly. + +She had come to the parting of the ways, and she knew it, with a shrewd +suspicion as to which she would choose. She had asked for a week to +decide, and her heart-searching had told her nothing new. It was +characteristic of Virginia Balfour that she did not attempt to deceive +herself. If she married Waring Ridgway it would be for what she +considered good and sufficient reasons, but love would not be one of +them. He was going to be a great man, for one thing, and probably a +very rich one, which counted, though it would not be a determining +factor. This she could find only in the man himself, in the masterful +force that made him what he was. The sandstings of life did not disturb +his confidence in his victorious star, nor did he let fine-spun moral +obligations hamper his predatory career. He had a genius for success in +whatever he undertook, pushing his way to his end with a shrewd, direct +energy that never faltered. She sometimes wondered whether she, too, +like the men he used as tools, was merely a pawn in his game, and her +consent an empty formality conceded to convention. Perhaps he would +marry her even if she did not want to, she told herself, with the +sudden illuminating smile that was one of her chief charms. + +But Ridgway's wary eyes, appraising her mood as she came forward to +meet him, read none of this doubt in her frank greeting. Anything more +sure and exquisite than the cultivation Virginia Balfour breathed he +would have been hard put to it to conceive. That her gown and its +accessories seemed to him merely the extension of a dainty personality +was the highest compliment he could pay her charm, and an entirely +unconscious one. + +"Have I kept you waiting?" she smiled, giving him her hand. + +His answering smile, quite cool and unperturbed, gave the lie to his +words. "For a year, though the almanac called it a week." + +"You must have suffered," she told him ironically, with a glance at the +clear color in his good-looking face. + +"Repressed emotion," he explained. "May I hope that my suffering has +reached a period?" + +They had been sauntering toward a little conservatory at the end of the +large room, but she deflected and brought up at a table on which lay +some books. One of these she picked up and looked at incuriously for a +moment before sweeping them aside. She rested her hands on the table +behind her and leaned back against it, her eyes meeting his fairly. + +"You're still of the same mind, are you?" she demanded. + +"Oh! very much." + +She lifted herself to the table, crossing her feet and dangling them +irresponsibly. "We might as well be comfy while we talk;" and she +indicated, by a nod, a chair. + +"Thanks. If you don't mind, I think I'll take it standing." + +She did not seem in any hurry to begin, and Ridgway gave evidence of no +desire to hasten her. But presently he said, with a little laugh that +seemed to offer her inclusion in the joke: + +"I'm on the anxious seat, you know--waiting to find out whether I'm to +be the happiest man alive." + +"You know as much about it as I do." She echoed his laugh ruefully. +"I'm still as much at sea as I was last week. I couldn't tell then, and +I can't now." + +"No news is good news, they say." + +"I don't want to marry you a bit, but you're a great catch, as you are +very well aware." + +"I suppose I am rather a catch," he agreed, the shadow of a smile at +the corners of his mouth. + +"It isn't only your money; though, of course, that's a temptation," she +admitted audaciously. + +"I'm glad it's not only my money." He could laugh with her about it +because he was shrewd enough to understand that it was not at all his +wealth. Her cool frankness might have frightened away another man. It +merely served to interest Ridgway. For, with all his strength, he was a +vain man, always ready to talk of himself. He spent a good deal of his +spare time interpreting himself to attractive and attracted young women. + +Her gaze fastened on the tip of her suede toe, apparently studying it +attentively. "It would be a gratification to my vanity to parade you as +the captive of my bow and spear. You're such a magnificent specimen, +such a berserk in broadcloth. Still. I shan't marry you if I can help +it--but, then, I'm not sure that I can help it. Of course, I disapprove +of you entirely, but you're rather fascinating, you know." Her eye +traveled slowly up to his, appraising the masterful lines of his square +figure, the dominant strength of his close-shut mouth and resolute +eyes. "Perhaps 'fascinating' isn't just the word, but I can't help +being interested in you, whether I like you or not. I suppose you +always get what you want very badly?" she flung out by way of question. + +"That's what I'm trying to discover"--he smiled. + +"There are things to be considered both ways," she said, taking him +into her confidence. "You trample on others. How do I know you wouldn't +tread on me?" + +"That would be one of the risks you would take," he agreed impersonally. + +"I shouldn't like that at all. If I married you it would be because as +your wife I should have so many opportunities. I should expect to do +exactly as I please. I shouldn't want you to interfere with me, though +I should want to be able to influence you." + +"Nothing could be fairer than that," was his amiably ironical comment. + +"You see, I don't know you--not really--and they say all sorts of +things about you." + +"They don't say I am a quitter, do they?" + +She leaned forward, chin in hand and elbow on knee. It was a part of +the accent of her distinction that as a rebel she was both demure and +daring. "I wonder if I might ask you some questions--the intimate kind +that people think but don't say--at least, they don't say them to you." + +"It would be a pleasure to me to be put on the witness-stand. I should +probably pick up some interesting side-lights about myself." + +"Very well." Her eyes danced with excitement. "You're what they call a +buccaneer of business, aren't you?" + +Here were certainly diverting pastimes. "I believe I have been called +that; but, then, I've had the hardest names in the dictionary thrown at +me so often that I can't be sure." + +"I suppose you are perfectly unscrupulous in a business way--stop at +nothing to gain your point?" + +He took her impudence smilingly. + +"'Unscrupulous' isn't the word I use when I explain myself to myself, +but as an unflattered description, such as one my enemies might use to +describe me, I dare say it is fairly accurate." + +"I wonder why. Do you dispense with a conscience entirely?" + +"Well, you see, Miss Balfour, if I nursed a New England conscience I +could stand up to the attacks of the Consolidated about as long as a +dove to a hawk. I meet fire with fire to avoid being wiped off the map +of the mining world. I play the game. I can't afford to keep a button +on my foil when my opponent doesn't." + +She nodded an admission of his point. "And yet there are rules of the +game to be observed, aren't there? The Consolidated people claim you +steal their ore, I believe." Her slanted eyes studied the effect of her +daring. + +He laughed grimly. "Do they? I claim they steal mine. It's rather +difficult to have an exact regard for mine and thine before the courts +decide which is which." + +"And meanwhile, in order to forestall an adverse decision, you are +working extra shifts to get all the ore out of the disputed veins." + +"Precisely, just as they are," he admitted dryly. "Then the side that +loses will not be so disappointed, since the value of the veins will be +less. Besides, stealing ore openly doesn't count. It is really a moral +obligation in a fight like this," he explained. + +"A moral obligation?" + +"Exactly. You can't hit a trust over the head with the decalogue. +Modern business is war. Somebody is bound to get hurt. If I win out it +will be because I put up a better fight than the Consolidated, and +cripple it enough to make it let me alone. I'm looking out for myself, +and I don't pretend to be any better than my neighbors. When you get +down to bed-rock honesty, I've never seen it in business. We're all of +us as honest as we think we can afford to be. I haven't noticed that +there is any premium on it in Mesa. Might makes right. I'll win if I'm +strong enough; I'll fail if I'm not. That's the law of life. I didn't +make this strenuous little world, and I'm not responsible for it. If I +play I have to take the rules the way they are, not the way I should +like them to be. I'm not squeamish, and I'm not a hypocrite. Simon +Harley isn't squeamish, either, but he happens to be a hypocrite. So +there you have the difference between us." + +The president of the Mesa Ore-producing Company set forth his creed +jauntily, without the least consciousness of need for apology for the +fact that it happened to be divorced from morality. Its frank disregard +of ethical considerations startled Miss Balfour without shocking her. +She liked his candor, even though it condemned him. It was really very +nice of him to take her impudence so well. He certainly wasn't a prig, +anyway. + +"And morality," she suggested tentatively. + +"--hasn't a thing to do with success, the parsons to the contrary +notwithstanding. The battle is to the strong." + +"Then the Consolidated will beat you finally." + +He smiled. "They would if I'd let them; but brains and resource and +finesse all count for power. Granted that they have a hundred dollars +to my one. Still, I have elements of strength they can't even estimate. +David beat Goliath, you know, even though he didn't do it with a big +stick." + +"So you think morality is for old women?" + +"And young women," he amended, smiling. + +"And every man is to be a law unto himself?" + +"Not quite. Some men aren't big enough to be. Let them stick to the +conventional code. For me, if I make my own laws I don't break them." + +"And you're sure that you're on the road to true success?" she asked +lightly. + +"Now, you have heaven in the back of your mind." + +"Not exactly," she laughed. "But I didn't expect you to understand." + +"Then I won't disappoint you," he said cheerfully. + +She came back to the concrete. + +"I should like to know whether it is true that you own the courts of +Yuba County and have the decisions of the judges written at your +lawyer's offices in cases between you and the Consolidated." + +"If I do," he answered easily, "I am doing just what the Consolidated +would do in case they had been so fortunate as to have won the last +election and seated their judicial candidates. One expects a friendly +leaning from the men one put in office." + +"Isn't the judiciary supposed to be the final, incorruptible bulwark of +the nation?" she pretended to want to know. + +"I believe it is supposed to be." + +"Isn't it rather--loading the dice, to interfere with the courts?" + +"I find the dice already loaded. I merely substitute others of my own." + +"You don't seem a bit ashamed of yourself." + +"I'm ashamed of the Consolidated"--he smiled. + +"That's a comfortable position to be able to take." She fixed him for a +moment with her charming frown of interrogation. "You won't mind my +asking these questions? I'm trying to decide whether you are too much +of a pirate for me. Perhaps when I've made up my mind you won't want +me," she added. + +"Oh, I'll want you!" Then coolly: "Shall we wait till you make up your +mind before announcing the engagement?" + +"Don't be too sure," she flashed at him. + +"I'm horribly unsure." + +"Of course, you're laughing at me, just as you would"--she tilted a +sudden sideways glance at him--"if I asked you WHY you wanted to marry +me." + +"Oh, if you take me that way----" + +She interrupted airily. "I'm trying to make up my mind whether to take +you at all." + +"You certainly have a direct way of getting at things." + +He studied appreciatively her piquant, tilted face; the long, graceful +lines of her slender, perfect figure. "I take it you don't want the +sentimental reason for my wishing to marry you, though I find that +amply justified. But if you want another, you must still look to +yourself for it. My business leads me to appreciate values correctly. +When I desire you to sit at the head of my table, to order my house, my +judgment justifies itself. I have a fancy always for the best. When I +can't gratify it I do without." + +"Thank you." She made him a gay little mock curtsy "I had heard you +were no carpet-knight, Mr. Ridgway. But rumor is a lying jade, for I am +being told--am I not?--that in case I don't take pity on you, the lone +future of a celibate stretches drear before you." + +"Oh, certainly." + +Having come to the end of that passage, she tried another. "A young man +told me yesterday you were a fighter. He said he guessed you would +stand the acid. What did he mean?" + +Ridgway was an egoist from head to heel. He could voice his own praises +by the hour when necessary, but now he side-stepped her little trap to +make him praise himself at second-hand. + +"Better ask him." + +"ARE you a fighter, then?" + +Had he known her and her whimsies less well, he might have taken her +audacity for innocence. + +"One couldn't lie down, you know." + +"Of course, you always fight fair," she mocked. + +"When a fellow's attacked by a gang of thugs he doesn't pray for +boxing-gloves. He lets fly with a coupling-pin if that's what comes +handy." + +Her eyes, glinting sparks of mischief, marveled at him with mock +reverence, but she knew in her heart that her mockery was a fraud. She +did admire him; admired him even while she disapproved the magnificent +lawlessness of him. + +For Waring Ridgway looked every inch the indomitable fighter he was. He +stood six feet to the line, straight and strong, carrying just +sufficient bulk to temper his restless energy without impairing its +power. Nor did the face offer any shock of disappointment to the +promise given by the splendid figure. Salient-jawed and forceful, set +with cool, flinty, blue-gray eyes, no place for weakness could be found +there. One might have read a moral callousness, a colorblindness in +points of rectitude, but when the last word had been said, its +masterful capability, remained the outstanding impression. + +"Am I out of the witness-box?" he presently asked, still leaning +against the mantel from which he had been watching her impersonally as +an intellectual entertainment. + +"I think so." + +"And the verdict?" + +"You know what it ought to be," she accused. + +"Fortunately, kisses go by favor, not by, merit." + +"You don't even make a pretense of deserving." + +"Give me credit for being an honest rogue, at least." + +"But a rogue?" she insisted lightly. + +"Oh, a question of definitions. I could make a very good case for +myself as an honest man." + +"If you thought it worth while?" + +"If I didn't happen to want to be square with you"--he smiled. + +"You're so fond of me, I suppose, that you couldn't bear to have me +think too well of you." + +"You know how fond of you I am." + +"Yes, it is a pity about you," she scoffed. + +"Believe me, yes," he replied cheerfully. + +She drummed with her pink finger-tips on her chin, studying him +meditatively. To do him justice, she had to admit that he did not even +pretend much. He wanted her because she was a step up in the social +ladder, and, in his opinion, the most attractive girl he knew. That he +was not in love with her relieved the situation, as Miss Balfour +admitted to herself in impersonal moods. But there were times when she +could have wished he were. She felt it to be really due her attractions +that his pulses should quicken for her, and in the interests of +experience she would have liked to see how he would make love if he +really meant it from the heart and not the will. + +"It's really an awful bother," she sighed. + +"Referring to the little problem of your future?" + +"Yes." + +"Can't make up your mind whether I come in?" + +"No." She looked up brightly, with an effect of impulsiveness. "I don't +suppose you want to give me another week?" + +"A reprieve! But why? You're going to marry me." + +"I suppose so." She laughed. "I wish I could have my cake, and eat it, +too." + +"It would be a moral iniquity to encourage such a system of ethics." + +"So you won't give me a week?" she sighed. "All sorts of things might +have happened in that week. I shall always believe that the fairy +prince would have come for me." + +"Believe that he HAS come," he claimed. + +"Oh, I didn't mean a prince of pirates, though there is a triumph in +having tamed a pirate chief to prosaic matrimony. In one way it will be +a pity, too. You won't be half so picturesque. You remember how +Stevenson puts it: 'that marriage takes from a man the capacity for +great things, whether good or bad.'" + +"I can stand a good deal of taming." + +"Domesticating a pirate ought to be an interesting process," she +conceded, her rare smile flashing. "It should prove a cure for ENNUI, +but then I'm never a victim of that malady." + +"Am I being told that I am to be the happiest pirate alive?" + +"I expect you are." + +His big hand gripped hers till it tingled. She caught his eye on a +roving quest to the door. + +"We don't have to do that," she announced hurriedly, with an +embarrassed flush. + +"I don't do it because I have to," he retorted, kissing her on the lips. + +She fell back, protesting. "Under the circumstances--" + +The butler, with a card on a tray, interrupted silently. She glanced at +the card, devoutly grateful his impassive majesty's entrance had not +been a moment earlier. + +"Show him in here." + +"The fairy prince, five minutes too late?" asked Ridgway, when the man +had gone. + +For answer she handed him the card, yet he thought the pink that +flushed her cheek was something more pronounced than usual. But he was +willing to admit there might be a choice of reasons for that. + +"Lyndon Hobart" was the name he read. + +"I think the Consolidated is going to have its innings. I should like +to stay, of course, but I fear I must plead a subsequent engagement and +leave the field to the enemy." + +Pronouncing "Mr. Hobart" without emphasis, the butler vanished. The +newcomer came forward with the quiet assurance of the born aristocrat. +He was a slender, well-knit man, dressed fastidiously, with clear-cut, +classical features; cool, keen eyes, and a gentle, you-be-damned manner +to his inferiors. Beside him Ridgway bulked too large, too florid. His +ease seemed a little obvious, his prosperity overemphasized. Even his +voice, strong and reliant, lacked the tone of gentle blood that Hobart +had inherited with his nice taste. + +When Miss Balfour said: "I think you know each other," the manager of +the Consolidated bowed with stiff formality, but his rival laughed +genially and said: "Oh, yes, I know Mr. Hobart." The geniality was +genuine enough, but through it ran a note of contempt. Hobart read in +it a veiled taunt. To him it seemed to say: + +"Yes, I have met him, and beaten him at every turn of the road, though +he has been backed by a power with resources a hundred times as great +as mine." + +In his parting excuses to Miss Balfour, Ridgway's audacity crystallized +in words that Hobart could only regard as a shameless challenge. "I +regret that an appointment with Judge Purcell necessitates my leaving +such good company," he said urbanely. + +Purcell was the judge before whom was pending a suit between the +Consolidated and the Mesa Ore-producing Company, to determine the +ownership of the Never Say Die Mine; and it was current report that +Ridgway owned him as absolutely as he did the automobile waiting for +him now at the door. + +If Ridgway expected his opponent to pay his flippant gibe the honor of +repartee, he was disappointed. To be sure, Hobart, admirably erect in +his slender grace, was moved to a slight, disdainful smile, but it +evidenced scarcely the appreciation that anybody less impervious to +criticism than Ridgway would have cared to see. + + + +CHAPTER 2. THE FREEBOOTER + +When next Virginia Balfour saw Waring Ridgway she was driving her trap +down one of the hit-or-miss streets of Mesa, where derricks, +shaft-houses, and gray slag-dumps shoulder ornate mansions conglomerate +of many unharmonious details of architecture. To Miss Balfour these +composites and their owners would have been joys unalloyed except for +the microbe of society ambition that was infecting the latter, and +transforming them from simple, robust, self-reliant Westerners into a +class of servile, nondescript newly rich, that resembled their +unfettered selves as much as tame bears do the grizzlies of their own +Rockies. As she had once complained smilingly to Hobart, she had not +come to the West to study ragged edges of the social fringe. She might +have done that in New York. + +Virginia was still a block or two from the court-house on the hill, +when it emptied into the street a concourse of excited men. That this +was an occasion of some sort it was easy to guess, and of what sort she +began to have an inkling, when Ridgway came out, the center of a circle +of congratulating admirers. She was obliged to admit that he accepted +their applause without in the least losing his head. Indeed, he took it +as imperturbably as did Hobart, against whom a wave of the enthusiasm +seemed to be directed in the form of a jeer, when he passed down the +steps with Mott, one of the Consolidated lawyers. Miss Balfour timed +her approach to meet Hobart at a right angle. + +"What is it all about?" she asked, after he had reached her side. + +"Judge Purcell has just decided the Never Say Die case in favor of Mr. +Ridgway and against the Consolidated." + +"Is that a great victory for him?" + +"Yes, it's a victory, though, of course, we appeal," admitted Hobart. +"But we can't say we didn't expect it," he added cheerfully. + +"Mayn't I give you a lift if you are going down-town?" she said +quickly, for Ridgway, having detached himself from the group, was +working toward her, and she felt an instinctive sympathy for the man +who had lost. Furthermore, she had something she wanted to tell him +before he heard it on the tongue of rumor. + +"Since you are so kind;" and he climbed to the place beside her. + +"Congratulate me, Miss Balfour," demanded Ridgway, as he shook hands +with her, nodding coolly at her companion. "I'm a million dollars +richer than I was an hour ago. I have met the enemy and he is mine." + +Virginia, resenting the bad taste of his jeer at the man who sat beside +her, misunderstood him promptly. "Did you say you had met the enemy and +won his mine?" + +He laughed. "You're a good one!" + +"Thank you very much for this unsolicited testimonial," she said +gravely. "In the meantime, to avoid a congestion of traffic, we'll be +moving, if you will kindly give me back my front left wheel." + +He did not lift his foot from the spoke on which it rested. "My +congratulations," he reminded her. + +"I wish you all the joy in your victory that you deserve, and I hope +the supreme court will reaffirm the decision of Judge Purcell, if it is +a just one," was the form in which she acceded to his demand. + +She flicked her whip, and Ridgway fell back, laughing. "You've been +subsidized by the Consolidated," he shouted after her. + +Hobart watched silently the businesslike directness with which the girl +handled the ribbons. She looked every inch the thoroughbred in her +well-made covert coat and dainty driving gauntlets. The grace of the +alert, slender figure, the perfect poise of the beautiful little tawny +head, proclaimed her distinction no less certainly than the fine +modeling of the mobile face. It was a distinction that stirred the +pulse of his emotion and disarmed his keen, critical sense. Ridgway +could study her with an amused, detached interest, but Hobart's +admiration had traveled past that point. He found it as impossible to +define her charm as to evade it. Her inheritance of blood and her +environment should have made her a finished product of civilization, +but her salty breeziness, her nerve, vivid as a flame at times, +disturbed delightfully the poise that held her when in repose. + +When Virginia spoke, it was to ask abruptly: "Is it really his mine?" + +"Judge Purcell says so." + +"But do YOU think so--down in the bottom of your heart?" + +"Wouldn't I naturally be prejudiced?" + +"I suppose you would. Everybody in Mesa seems to have taken sides +either with Mr. Ridgway or the Consolidated. Still, you have an option. +Is he what his friends proclaim him--the generous-hearted independent +fighting against trust domination? Or is he merely an audacious +ore-thief, as his enemies say? The truth must be somewhere." + +"It seems to lie mostly in point of view here the angle of observation +being determined by interest," he answered. + +"And from your angle of observation?" + +"He is the most unusual man I ever saw, the most resourceful and the +most competent. He never knows when he is beaten. I suppose that's the +reason he never is beaten finally. We have driven him to the wall a +score of times. My experience with him is that he's most dangerous when +one thinks he must be about hammered out. He always hits back then in +the most daring and unexpected way." + +"With a coupling-pin," she suggested with a little reminiscent laugh. + +"Metaphorically speaking. He reaches for the first effective weapon to +his hand." + +"You haven't quite answered my question yet," she reminded him. "Is he +what his friends or what his enemies think him?" + +"If you ask me I can only say that I'm one of his enemies." + +"But a fair-minded man," she replied quickly. + +"Thank you. Then I'll say that perhaps he is neither just what his +friends or his foes think him. One must make allowances for his +training and temperament, and for that quality of bigness in him. +'Mediocre men go soberly on the highroads, but saints and scoundrels +meet in the jails,'" he smilingly quoted. + +"He would make a queer sort of saint," she laughed. + +"A typical twentieth century one of a money-mad age." + +She liked it in him that he would not use the opportunity she had made +to sneer at his adversary, none the less because she knew that Ridgway +might not have been so scrupulous in his place. That Lyndon Hobart's +fastidious instincts for fair play had stood in the way of his success +in the fight to down Ridgway she had repeatedly heard. Of late, rumors +had persisted in reporting dissatisfaction with his management of the +Consolidated at the great financial center on Broadway which controlled +the big copper company. Simon Harley, the dominating factor in the +octopus whose tentacles reached out in every direction to monopolize +the avenues of wealth, demanded of his subordinates results. Methods +were no concern of his, and failure could not be explained to him. He +wanted Ridgway crushed, and the pulse of the copper production +regulated lay the Consolidated. Instead, he had seen Ridgway rise +steadily to power and wealth despite his efforts to wipe him off the +slate. Hobart was perfectly aware that his head was likely to fall when +Harley heard of Purcell's decision in regard to the Never Say Die. + +"He certainly is an amazing man," Virginia mused, her fiancee in mind. +"It would be interesting to discover what he can't do--along +utilitarian lines, I mean. Is he as good a miner underground as he is +in the courts?" she flung out. + +"He is the shrewdest investor I know. Time and again he has leased or +bought apparently worthless claims, and made them pay inside of a few +weeks. Take the Taurus as a case in point. He struck rich ore in a +fortnight. Other men had done development work for years and found +nothing." + +"I'm naturally interested in knowing all about him, because I have just +become engaged to him," explained Miss Virginia, as calmly as if her +pulse were not fluttering a hundred to the minute. + +Virginia was essentially a sportsman. She did not flinch from the guns +when the firing was heavy. It had been remarked of her even as a child +that she liked to get unpleasant things over with as soon as possible, +rather than postpone them. Once, _aetat_ eight, she had marched in to +her mother like a stoic and announced: "I've come to be whipped, +momsie, 'cause I broke that horrid little Nellie Vaile's doll. I did it +on purpose, 'cause I was mad at her. I'm glad I broke it, so there!" + +Hobart paled slightly beneath his outdoors Western tan, but his eyes +met hers very steadily and fairly. "I wish you happiness, Miss Balfour, +from the bottom of my heart." + +She nodded a brisk "Thank you," and directed her attention again to the +horses. + +"Take him by and large, Mr. Ridgway is the most capable, energetic, and +far-sighted business man I have ever known. He has a bigger grasp of +things than almost any financier in the country. I think you'll find he +will go far," he said, choosing his words with care to say as much for +Waring Ridgway as he honestly could. + +"I have always thought so," agreed Virginia. + +She had reason for thinking so in that young man's remarkable career. +When Waring Ridgway had first come to Mesa he had been a draftsman for +the Consolidated at five dollars a day. He was just out of Cornell, and +his assets consisted mainly of a supreme confidence in himself and an +imposing presence. He was a born leader, and he flung himself into the +raw, turbid life of the mining town with a readiness that had not a +little to do with his subsequent success. + +That success began to take tangible form almost from the first. A +small, independent smelter that had for long been working at a loss was +about to fall into the hands of the Consolidated when Ridgway bought it +on promises to pay, made good by raising money on a flying trip he took +to the East. His father died about this time and left him fifty +thousand dollars, with which he bought the Taurus, a mine in which +several adventurous spirits had dropped small fortunes. He acquired +other properties; a lease here, an interest there. It began to be +observed that he bought always with judgment. He seemed to have the +touch of Midas. Where other men had lost money he made it. + +When the officers of the Consolidated woke up to the menace of his +presence, one of their lawyers called on him. The agent of the +Consolidated smiled at his luxurious offices, which looked more like a +woman's boudoir than the business place of a Western miner. But that +was merely part of Ridgway's vanity, and did not in the least interfere +with his predatory instincts. Many people who walked into that parlor +to do business played fly to his spider. + +The lawyer had been ready to patronize the upstart who had ventured so +boldly into the territory of the great trust, but one glance at the +clear-cut resolute face of the young man changed his mind. + +"I've come to make you an offer for your smelter, Mr. Ridgway," he +began. "We'll take it off your hands at the price it cost you." + +"Not for sale, Mr. Bartel." + +"Very well. We'll give you ten thousand more than you paid for it." + +"You misunderstand me. It is not for sale." + +"Oh, come! You bought it to sell to us. What can you do with it?" + +"Run it," suggested Ridgway. + +"Without ore?" + +"You forget that I own a few properties, and have leases on others. +When the Taurus begins producing, I'll have enough to keep the smelter +going." + +"When the Taurus begins producing?"--Bartel smiled skeptically. "Didn't +Johnson and Leroy drop fortunes on that expectation?" + +"I'll bet five thousand dollars we make a strike within two weeks." + +"Chimerical!" pronounced the graybeard as he rose to go, with an air of +finality. "Better sell the smelter while you have the chance." + +"Think not," disagreed Ridgway. + +At the door the lawyer turned. "Oh, there's another matter! It had +slipped my mind." He spoke with rather elaborate carelessness. "It +seems that there is a little triangle--about ten and four feet +across--wedged in between the Mary K, the Diamond King, and the Marcus +Daly. For some reason we accidentally omitted to file on it. Our chief +engineer finds that you have taken it up, Mr. Ridgway. It is really of +no value, but it is in the heart of our properties, and so it ought to +belong to us. Of course, it is of no use to you. There isn't any +possible room to sink a shaft. We'll take it from you if you like, and +even pay you a nominal price. For what will you sell?" + +Ridgway lit a cigar before he answered: "One million dollars." + +"What?" screamed Bartel. + +"Not a cent less. I call it the Trust Buster. Before I'm through, +you'll find it is worth that to me." + +The lawyer reported him demented to the Consolidated officials, who +declared war on him from that day. + +They found the young adventurer more than prepared for them. If he had +a Napoleonic sense of big vital factors, he had no less a genius for +detail. He had already picked up an intimate knowledge of the hundreds +of veins and crossveins that traverse the Mesa copper-fields, and he +had delved patiently into the tangled history of the litigation that +the defective mining laws in pioneer days had made possible. When the +Consolidated attempted to harass him by legal process, he countered by +instituting a score of suits against the company within the week. These +had to do with wills, insanity cases, extra lateral rights, mine +titles, and land and water rights. Wherever Ridgway saw room for an +entering wedge to dispute the title of the Consolidated, he drove a new +suit home. To say the least, the trust found it annoying to be enjoined +from working its mines, to be cited for contempt before judges employed +in the interests of its opponent, to be served with restraining orders +when clearly within its rights. But when these adverse legal decisions +began to affect vital issues, the Consolidated looked for reasons why +Ridgway should control the courts. It found them in politics. + +For Ridgway was already dominating the politics of Yuba County, +displaying an amazing acumen and a surprising ability as a +stumpspeaker. He posed as a friend of the people, an enemy of the +trust. He declared an eight-hour day for his own miners, and called +upon the Consolidated to do the same. Hobart refused, acting on orders +from Broadway, and fifteen thousand Consolidated miners went to the +polls and reelected Ridgway's corrupt judges, in spite of the fight the +Consolidated was making against them. + +Meanwhile, Ridgway's colossal audacity made the Consolidated's copper +pay for the litigation with which he was harassing it. In following his +ore-veins, or what he claimed to be his veins, he crossed boldly into +the territory of the enemy. By the law of extra lateral rights, a man +is entitled to mine within the lines of other property than his own, +provided he is following the dip of a vein which has its apex in his +claim. Ridgway's experts were prepared to swear that all the best veins +in the field apexed in his property. Pending decisions of the courts, +they assumed it, tunneling through granite till they tapped the veins +of the Consolidated mines, meanwhile enjoining that company from +working the very ore of which Ridgway was robbing it. + +Many times the great trust back of the Consolidated had him close to +ruin, but Ridgway's alert brain and supreme audacity carried him +through. From their mines or from his own he always succeeded in +extracting enough ore to meet his obligations when they fell due. His +powerful enemy, as Hobart had told Miss Balfour, found him most +dangerous when it seemed to have him with his back to the wall. Then +unexpectedly would fall some crushing blow that put the financial kings +of Broadway on the defensive long enough for him to slip out of the +corner into which they had driven him. Greatly daring, he had the +successful cavalryman's instinct of risking much to gain much. A +gambler, his enemies characterized him fitly enough. But it was also +true, as Mesa phrased it, that he gambled "with the lid off," playing +for large stakes, neither asking nor giving quarter. + +At the end of five years of desperate fighting, the freebooter was more +strongly entrenched than he had been at any previous time. The +railroads, pledged to give rebates to the Consolidated, had been forced +by Ridgway, under menace of adverse legislation from the men he +controlled at the State-house, to give him secretly a still better rate +than the trust. He owned the county courts, he was supported by the +people, and had become a political dictator, and the financial outlook +for him grew brighter every day. + +Such were the conditions when Judge Purcell handed down his Never Say +Die decision. Within an hour Hobart was reading a telegram in cipher +from the Broadway headquarters. It announced the immediate departure +for Mesa of the great leader of the octopus. Simon Harley, the Napoleon +of finance, was coming out to attend personally to the destruction of +the buccaneer who had dared to fire on the trust flag. + +Before night some one of his corps of spies in the employ of the enemy +carried the news to Waring Ridgway. He smiled grimly, his bluegray eyes +hardening to the temper of steel. Here at last was a foeman worthy of +his metal; one as lawless, unscrupulous, daring, and far-seeing as +himself, with a hundred times his resources. + + + +CHAPTER 3. ONE TO ONE + +The solitary rider stood for a moment in silhouette against the somber +sky-line, his keen eyes searching the lowering clouds. + +"Getting its back up for a blizzard," he muttered to himself, as he +touched his pony with the spur. + +Dark, heavy billows banked in the west, piling over each other as they +drove forward. Already the advance-guard had swept the sunlight from +the earth, except for a flutter of it that still protested near the +horizon. Scattering snowflakes were flying, and even in a few minutes +the temperature had fallen many degrees. + +The rider knew the signs of old. He recognized the sudden stealthy +approach that transformed a sun-drenched, friendly plain into an +unknown arctic waste. Not for nothing had he been last year one of a +search-party to find the bodies of three miners frozen to death not +fifty yards from their own cabin. He understood perfectly what it meant +to be caught away from shelter when the driven white pall wiped out +distance and direction; made long familiar landmarks strange, and +numbed the will to a helpless surrender. The knowledge of it was spur +enough to make him ride fast while he still retained the sense of +direction. + +But silently, steadily, the storm increased, and he was forced to +slacken his pace. As the blinding snow grew thick, the sound of the +wind deadened, unable to penetrate the dense white wall through which +he forced his way. The world narrowed to a space whose boundaries he +could touch with his extended hands. In this white mystery that wrapped +him, nothing was left but stinging snow, bitter cold, and the silence +of the dead. + +So he thought one moment, and the next was almost flung by his swerving +horse into a vehicle that blocked the road. Its blurred outlines +presently resolved themselves into an automobile, crouched in the +bottom of which was an inert huddle of humanity. + +He shouted, forgetting that no voice could carry through the muffled +scream of the storm. When he got no answer, he guided his horse close +to the machine and reached down to snatch away the rug already heavy +with snow. To his surprise, it was a girl's despairing face that looked +up at him. She tried to rise, but fell back, her muscles too numb to +serve. + +"Don't leave me," she implored, stretching her, arms toward him. + +He reached out and lifted her to his horse. "Are you alone?" + +"Yes. He went for help when the machine broke down--before the storm," +she sobbed. He had to put his ear to her mouth to catch the words. + +"Come, keep up your heart." There was that in his voice pealed like a +trumpet-call to her courage. + +"I'm freezing to death," she moaned. + +She was exhausted and benumbed, her lips blue, her flesh gray. It was +plain to him that she had reached the limit of endurance, that she was +ready to sink into the last torpor. He ripped open his overcoat and +shook the snow from it, then gathered her close so that she might get +the warmth of his body. The rugs from the automobile he wrapped round +them both. + +"Courage!" he cried. "There's a miner's cabin near. Don't give up, +child." + +But his own courage was of the heart and will, not of the head. He had +small hope of reaching the hut at the entrance of Dead Man's Gulch or, +if he could struggle so far, of finding it in the white swirl that +clutched at them. Near and far are words not coined for a blizzard. He +might stagger past with safety only a dozen feet from him. He might lie +down and die at the very threshold of the door. Or he might wander in +an opposite direction and miss the cabin by a mile. + +Yet it was not in the man to give up. He must stagger on till he could +no longer stand. He must fight so long as life was in him. He must +crawl forward, though his forlorn hope had vanished. And he did. When +the worn-out horse slipped down and could not be coaxed to its feet +again, he picked up the bundle of rugs and plowed forward blindly, soul +and body racked, but teeth still set fast with the primal instinct +never to give up. The intense cold of the air, thick with gray sifted +ice, searched the warmth from his body and sapped his vitality. His +numbed legs doubled under him like springs. He was down and up again a +dozen times, but always the call of life drove him on, dragging his +helpless burden with him. + +That he did find the safety of the cabin in the end was due to no +wisdom on his part. He had followed unconsciously the dip of the ground +that led him into the little draw where it had been built, and by sheer +luck stumbled against it. His strength was gone, but the door gave to +his weight, and he buckled across the threshold like a man helpless +with drink. He dropped to the floor, ready to sink into a stupor, but +he shook sleep from him and dragged himself to his feet. Presently his +numb fingers found a match, a newspaper, and some wood. As soon as he +had control over his hands, he fell to chafing hers. He slipped off her +dainty shoes, pathetically inadequate for such an experience, and +rubbed her feet back to feeling. She had been torpid, but when the +blood began to circulate, she cried out in agony at the pain. + +Every inch of her bore the hall-mark of wealth. The ermine-lined +motoring-cloak, the broadcloth cut on simple lines of elegance, the +quality of her lingerie and of the hosiery which incased the +wonderfully small feet, all told of a padded existence from which the +cares of life had been excluded. The satin flesh he massaged, to renew +the flow of the dammed blood, was soft and tender like a babe's. Quite +surely she was an exotic, the last woman in the world fitted for the +hardships of this frontier country. She had none of the deep-breasted +vitality of those of her sex who have fought with grim nature and won. +His experience told him that a very little longer in the storm would +have snuffed out the wick of her life. + +But he knew, too, that the danger was past. Faint tints of pink were +beginning to warm the cheeks that had been so deathly pallid. Already +crimson lips were offering a vivid contrast to the still, almost +colorless face. + +For she was biting the little lips to try and keep back the cries of +pain that returning life wrung from her. Big tears coursed down her +cheeks, and broken sobs caught her breath. She was helpless as an +infant before the searching pain that wracked her. + +"I can't stand it--I can't stand it," she moaned, and in her distress +stretched out her little hand for relief as a baby might to its mother. + +The childlike appeal of the flinching violet eyes in the tortured face +moved him strangely. He was accounted a hard man, not without reason. +His eyes were those of a gambler, cold and vigilant. It was said that +he could follow an undeviating course without relenting at the ruin and +misery wrought upon others by his operations. But the helpless +loveliness of this exquisitely dainty child-woman, the sense of +intimacy bred of a common peril endured, of the strangeness of their +environment and of her utter dependence upon him, carried the man out +of himself and away from conventions. + +He stooped and gathered her into his arms, walking the floor with her +and cheering her as if she had indeed been the child they both for the +moment conceived her. + +"You don't know how it hurts," she pleaded between sobs, looking up +into the strong face so close to hers. + +"I know it must, dear. But soon it will be better. Every twinge is one +less, and shows that you are getting well. Be brave for just a few +minutes more now." + +She smiled wanly through her tears. "But I'm not brave. I'm a little +coward--and it does pain so." + +"I know--I know. It is dreadful. But just a few minutes now." + +"You're good to me," she said presently, simply as a little girl might +have said it. + +To neither of them did it seem strange that she should be there in his +arms, her fair head against his shoulder, nor that she should cling +convulsively to him when the fierce pain tingled unbearably. She had +reached out for the nearest help, and he gave of his strength and +courage abundantly. + +Presently the prickling of the flowing blood grew less sharp. She began +to grow drowsy with warmth after the fatigue and pain. The big eyes +shut, fluttered open, smiled at him, and again closed. She had fallen +asleep from sheer exhaustion. + +He looked down with an odd queer feeling at the small aristocratic face +relaxed upon his ann. The long lashes had drooped to the cheeks and +shuttered the eyes that had met his with such confident appeal, but +they did not hide the dark rings underneath, born of the hardships she +had endured. As he walked the floor with her, he lived once more the +terrible struggle through which they had passed. He saw Death +stretching out icy hands for her, and as his arms unconsciously +tightened about the soft rounded body, his square jaw set and the +fighting spark leaped to his eyes. + +"No, by Heaven," he gave back aloud his defiance. + +Troubled dreams pursued her in her sleep. She clung close to him, her +arm creeping round his neck for safety. He was a man not given to fine +scruples, but all the best in him responded to her unconscious trust. + +It was so she found herself when she awakened, stiff from her cramped +position. She slipped at once to the floor and sat there drying her +lace skirts, the sweet piquancy of her childish face set out by the +leaping fire-glow that lit and shadowed her delicate coloring. Outside +in the gray darkness raged the death from which he had snatched her by +a miracle. Beyond--a million miles away--the world whose claim had +loosened on them was going through its routine of lies and love, of +hypocrisies and heroisms. But here were just they two, flung back to +the primordial type by the fierce battle for existence that had +encompassed them--Adam and Eve in the garden, one to one, all else +forgot, all other ties and obligations for the moment obliterated. Had +they not struggled, heart beating against heart, with the breath of +death icing them, and come out alive? Was their world not contracted to +a space ten feet by twelve, shut in from every other planet by an +illimitable stretch of storm? + +"Where should I have been if you had not found me?" she murmured, her +haunting eyes fixed on the flames. + +"But I should have found you--no matter where you had been, I should +have found you." + +The words seemed to leap from him of themselves. He was sure he had not +meant to speak them, to voice so soon the claim that seemed to him so +natural and reasonable. + +She considered his words and found delight in acquiescing at once. The +unconscious demand for life, for love, of her starved soul had never +been gratified. But he had come to her through that fearful valley of +death, because he must, because it had always been meant he should. + +Her lustrous eyes, big with faith, looked up and met his. + +The far, wise voices of the world were storm-deadened. They cried no +warning to these drifting hearts. How should they know in that moment +when their souls reached toward each other that the wisdom of the ages +had decreed their yearning futile? + + + +CHAPTER 4. FORT SALVATION + +She must have fallen asleep there, for when she opened her eyes it was +day. Underneath her was a lot of bedding he had found in the cabin, and +tucked about her were the automobile rugs. For a moment her brain, +still sodden with sleep, struggled helplessly with her surroundings. +She looked at the smoky rafters without understanding, and her eyes +searched the cabin wonderingly for her maid. When she remembered, her +first thought was to look for the man. That he had gone, she saw with +instinctive terror. + +But not without leaving a message. She found his penciled note, +weighted for security by a dollar, at the edge of the hearth. + +"Gone on a foraging expedition. Back in an hour, Little Partner," was +all it said. The other man also had promised to be back in an hour, and +he had not come, but the strong chirography of the note, recalling the +resolute strength of this man's face, brought content to her eyes. He +had said he would come back. She rested secure in that pledge. + +She went to the window and looked out over the great white wastes that +rose tier on tier to the dull sky-line. She shuddered at the arctic +desolation of the vast snow-fields. The mountains were sheeted with +silence and purity. It seemed to the untaught child-woman that she was +face to face with the Almighty. + +Once during the night she had partially awakened to hear the roaring +wind as it buffeted snow-clouds across the range. It had come tearing +along the divide with the black storm in its vanguard, and she had +heard fearfully the shrieks and screams of the battle as it raged up +and down the gulches and sifted into them the deep drifts. + +Half-asleep as she was, she had been afraid and had cried out with +terror at this strange wakening; and he had been beside her in an +instant. + +"It's all right, partner. There's nothing to be afraid of," he had said +cheerfully, taking her little hand in his big warm one. + +Her fears had slipped away at once. Nestling down into her rug, she had +smiled sleepily at him and fallen asleep with her cheek on her hand, +her other hand still in his. + +While she had been asleep the snow-tides had filled the gulch, had +risen level with the top of the lower pane of the window. Nothing broke +the smoothness of its flow save the one track he had made in breaking a +way out. That he should have tried to find his way through such an +untracked desolation amazed her. He could never do it. No puny human +atom could fight successfully against the barriers nature had dropped +so sullenly to fence them. They were set off from the world by a +quarantine of God. There was something awful to her in the knowledge. +It emphasized their impotence. Yet, this man had set himself to fight +the inevitable. + +With a little shudder she turned from the window to the cheerless room. +The floor was dirty; unwashed dishes were piled upon the table. Here +and there were scattered muddy boots and overalls, just as their owner, +the prospector, had left them before he had gone to the nearest town to +restock his exhausted supply of provisions. Disorder and dirt filled +the rough cabin, or so it seemed to her fastidious eye. + +The inspiration of the housewife seized her. She would surprise him on +his return by opening the door to him upon a house swept and garnished. +She would show him that she could be of some use even in such a +primitive topsy-turvy world as this into which Fate had thrust her +willy-nilly. + +First, she carried red live coals on a shovel from the fireplace to the +cook-stove, and piled kindling upon them till it lighted. It was a new +experience to her. She knew nothing of housework; had never lit a fire +in her life, except once when she had been one of a camping party. The +smoke choked her before she had the lids back in their places, but +despite her awkwardness, the girl went about her unaccustomed tasks +with a light heart. It was for her new-found hero that she played at +housekeeping. For his commendation she filled the tea-kettle, enveloped +herself in a cloud of dust as she wielded the stub of a broom she +discovered, and washed the greasy dishes after the water was hot. A +childish pleasure suffused her. All her life her least whims had been +ministered to; she was reveling in a first attempt at service. As she +moved to and fro with an improvised dust-rag, sunshine filled her +being. From her lips the joy notes fell in song, shaken from her throat +for sheer happiness. This surely was life, that life from which she had +so carefully been hedged all the years of her young existence. + +As he came down the trail he had broken, with a pack on his back, the +man heard her birdlike carol in the clear frosty air. He emptied his +chest in a deep shout, and she was instantly at the window, waving him +a welcome with her dust-rag. + +"I thought you were never coming," she cried from the open door as he +came up the path. + +Her eyes were starry in their eagerness. Every sensitive feature was +alert with interest, so that the man thought he had never seen so +mobile and attractive a face. + +"Did it seem long?" he asked. + +"Oh, weeks and weeks! You must be frozen to an icicle. Come in and get +warm." + +"I'm as warm as toast," he assured her. + +He was glowing with exercise and the sting of the cold, for he had +tramped two miles through drifts from three to five feet deep, battling +with them every step of the way, and carrying with him on the return +trip a box of provisions. + +"With all that snow on you and the pack on your back, it's like Santa +Claus," she cried, clapping her hands. + +"Before we're through with the adventure we may think that box a sure +enough gift from Santa," he replied. + +After he had put it down, he took off his overcoat on the threshold and +shook the snow from it. Then, with much feet stamping and scattering of +snow, he came in. She fluttered about him, dragging a chair up to the +fire for him, and taking his hat and gloves. It amused and pleased him +that she should be so solicitous, and he surrendered himself to her +ministrations. + +His quick eye noticed the swept floor and the evanishment of disorder. +"Hello! What's this clean through a fall house-cleaning? I'm not the +only member of the firm that has been working. Dishes washed, floor +swept, bed made, kitchen fire lit. You've certainly been going some, +unless the fairies helped you. Aren't you afraid of blistering these +little hands?" he asked gaily, taking one of them in his and touching +the soft palm gently with the tip of his finger. + +"I should preserve those blisters in alcohol to show that I've really +been of some use," she answered, happy in his approval. + +"Sho! People are made for different uses. Some are fit only to shovel +and dig. Others are here simply to decorate the world. Hard world. Hard +work is for those who can't give society anything else, but beauty is +its own excuse for being," he told her breezily. + +"Now that's the first compliment you have given me," she pouted +prettily. "I can get them in plenty back in the drawing-rooms where I +am supposed to belong. We're to be real comrades here, and compliments +are barred." + +"I wasn't complimenting you," he maintained. "I was merely stating a +principle of art." + +"Then you mustn't make your principles of art personal, sir. But since +you have, I'm going to refute the application of your principle and +show how useful I've been. Now, sir, do you know what provisions we +have outside of those you have just brought?" + +He knew exactly, since he had investigated during the night. That they +might possibly have to endure a siege of some weeks, he was quite well +aware, and his first thought, after she had gone to sleep before the +fire, had been to make inventory of such provisions as the prospector +had left in his cabin. A knuckle of ham, part of a sack of flour, some +navy beans, and some tea siftings at the bottom of a tin can; these +constituted the contents of the larder which the miner had gone to +replenish. But though the man knew he assumed ignorance, for he saw +that she was bubbling over with the desire to show her forethought. + +"Tell me," he begged of her, and after she had done so, he marveled +aloud over her wisdom in thinking of it. + +"Now tell me about your trip," she commanded, setting herself tailor +fashion on the rug to listen. + +"There isn't much to tell," he smiled "I should like to make an +adventure of it, but I can't. I just went and came back." + +"Oh, you just went and came back, did you?" she scoffed. "That won't do +at all. I want to know all about it. Did you find the machine all +right?" + +"I found it where we left it, buried in four feet of snow. You needn't +be afraid that anybody will run away with it for a day or two. The +pantry was cached pretty deep itself, but I dug it out." + +Her shy glance admired the sturdy lines of his powerful frame. "I am +afraid it must have been a terrible task to get there through the +blizzard." + +"Oh, the blizzard is past. You never saw a finer, more bracing morning. +It's a day for the gods," he laughed boyishly. + +She could have conceived no Olympian more heroic than he, and certainly +none with so compelling a vitality. "Such a warm, kind light in them!" +she thought of the eyes others had found hard and calculating. + +It was lucky that the lunch the automobilists had brought from +Avalanche was ample and as yet untouched. The hotel waiter, who had +attended to the packing of it, had fortunately been used to reckon with +outdoor Montana appetites instead of cloyed New York ones. They +unpacked the little hamper with much gaiety. Everything was frozen +solid, and the wine had cracked its bottle. + +"Shipped right through on our private refrigerator-car. That +cold-storage chicken looks the finest that ever happened. What's this +rolled up in tissue-paper? Deviled eggs and ham sandwiches AND caviar, +not to speak of claret frappe. I'm certainly grateful to the gentleman +finished in ebony who helped to provision us for this siege. He'll +never know what a tip he missed by not being here to collect." + +"Here's jelly, too, and cake," she said, exploring with him. + +"Not to mention peaches and pears. Oh, this is luck of a special brand! +I was expecting to put up at Starvation Camp. Now we may name it Point +Plenty." + +"Or Fort Salvation," she suggested shyly. "Because you brought me here +to save my life." + +She was such a child, in spite of her charming grown-up airs, that he +played make-believe with a zest that surprised himself when he came to +think of it. She elected him captain of Fort Salvation, with full power +of life and death over the garrison, and he appointed her second in +command. His first general order was to put the garrison on two meals a +day. + +She clapped her little hands, eyes sparkling with excitement. "Are we +really snow-bound? Must we go on half-rations?" + +"It is the part of wisdom, lieutenant," he answered, smiling at her +enthusiasm. "We don't know how long this siege is going to last. If it +should set in to snow, we may be here several days before the +relief-party reaches us." But, though he spoke cheerfully, he was aware +of sinister possibilities in the situation. "Several weeks" would have +been nearer his real guess. + +They ate breakfast at the shelf-table nailed in place underneath the +western window. They made a picnic of it, and her spirits skipped upon +the hilltops. For the first time she ate from tin plates, drank from a +tin cup, and used a tin spoon the worse for rust. What mattered it to +her that the teapot was grimy and the fryingpan black with soot! It was +all part of the wonderful new vista that had suddenly opened before her +gaze. She had awakened into life and already she was dimly realizing +that many and varied experiences lay waiting for her in that untrodden +path beyond her cloistered world. + +A reconnaissance in the shed behind the house showed him no plethora of +firewood. But here was ax, shovel, and saw, and he asked no more. First +he shoveled out a path along the eaves of the house where she might +walk in sentry fashion to take the deep breaths of clear sharp air he +insisted upon. He made it wide enough so that her skirt would not sweep +against the snow-bank, and trod down the trench till the footing was +hard and solid. Then with ax and saw he climbed the hillside back of +the house and set himself to get as much fuel as he could. The sky was +still heavy with unshed snow, and he knew that with the coming of night +the storm would be renewed. + +Came noon, mid-afternoon, the early dusk of a mountain winter, and +found him still hewing and sawing, still piling load after load in the +shed. Now and again she came out and watched him, laughing at the +figure he made as he would come plunging through the snow with his +armful of fuel. + +She did not know, as he did, the vital necessity of filling the lean-to +before winter fell upon them in earnest and buried them deep with his +frozen blanket, and she was a little piqued that he should spend the +whole day away from her in such unsocial fashion. + +"Let me help," she begged so often that he trod down a path, made boots +for her out of torn gunny-sacks which he tied round her legs, and let +her drag wood to the house on a pine branch which served for a sled. +She wore her gauntlets to protect her tender hands, and thereafter was +happy until, detecting signs of fatigue, he made her go into the house +and rest. + +As soon as she dared she was back again, making fun of him and the +earnestness with which he worked. + +"Robinson Crusoe" was one name she fastened upon him, and she was not +satisfied till she had made him call her "Friday." + +Twilight fell austere and sudden upon them with an immediate fall of +temperature that found a thermometer in her blue face. + +He recommended the house, but she was of a contrary mood. + +"I don't want to," she announced debonairly. + +In a stiff military attitude he gave raucous mandate from his throat. + +"Commanding officer's orders, lieutenant." + +"I think I'm going to mutiny," she informed him, with chin saucily in +air. + +This would not do at all. The chill wind sweeping down the canon was +searching her insufficient clothing already. He picked her up in his +arms and ran with her toward the house, setting her down in the trench +outside the door. She caught her startled breath and looked at him in +shy, dubious amazement. + +"Really you" she was beginning when he cut her short. + +"Commanding officer's orders, lieutenant," came briskly from lips that +showed just a hint of a smile. + +At once she clicked her heels together, saluted, and wheeled into the +cabin. + +From the grimy window she watched his broad-shouldered vigor, waving +her hand whenever his face was turned her way. He worked like a Titan, +reveling in the joy of physical labor, but it was long past dark before +he finished and came striding to the hut. + +They made a delightful evening of it, living in the land of Never Was. +For one source of her charm lay in the gay, childlike whimsicality of +her imagination. She believed in fairies and heroes with all her heart, +which with her was an organ not located in her brain. The delicious +gurgle of gaiety in her laugh was a new find to him in feminine +attractions. + +There had been many who thought the career of this pirate of industry +beggared fiction, though, few had found his flinty personality a +radiaton of romance. But this convent-nurtured child had made a +discovery in men, one out of the rut of the tailor-made, +convention-bound society youths to whom her experience for the most +part had been limited. She delighted in his masterful strength, in the +confidence of his careless dominance. She liked to see that look of +power in his gray-blue eyes softened to the droll, half-tender, +expression with which he played the game of make-believe. There were no +to-morrows; to-day marked the limit of time for them. By tacit consent +they lived only in the present, shutting out deliberately from their +knowledge of each other, that past which was not common to both. Even +their names were unknown to each other, and both of them were glad that +it was so. + +The long winter evening had fallen early, and they dined by +candle-light, considering merrily how much they might with safety eat +and yet leave enough for the to-morrows that lay before them. Afterward +they sat before the fire, in the shadow and shine of the flickering +logs, happy and content in each other's presence. She dreamed, and he, +watching her, dreamed, too. The wild, sweet wonder of life surged +through them, touching their squalid surroundings to the high mystery +of things unreal. + +The strangeness of it was that he was a man of large and not very +creditable experience of women, yet her deep, limpid eyes, her sweet +voice, the immature piquancy of her movements that was the expression +of her, had stirred his imagination more potently than if he had been +the veriest schoolboy nursing a downy lip. He could not keep his eyes +from this slender, exquisite girl, so dainty and graceful in her mobile +piquancy. Fire and passion were in his heart and soul, restraint and +repression in his speech and manner. For the fire and passion in him +were pure and clean as the winds that sweep the hills. + +But for the girl--she was so little mistress of her heart that she had +no prescience of the meaning of this sweet content that filled her. And +the voices that should have warned her were silent, busy behind the +purple hills with lies and love and laughter and tears. + + + +CHAPTER 5. ENTER SIMON HARLEY + +The prospector's house in which they had found refuge was perched on +the mountainside just at one edge of the draw. Rough as the girl had +thought it, there was a more pretentious appearance to it than might +have been expected. The cabin was of hewn logs mortared with mud, and +care had been taken to make it warm. The fireplace was a huge affair +that ate fuel voraciously. It was built of stone, which had been +gathered from the immediate hillside. + +The prospect itself showed evidence of having been worked a good deal, +and it was an easy guess for the man who now stood looking into the +tunnel that it belonged to some one of the thousands of miners who +spend half their time earning a grubstake, and the other half +dissipating it upon some hole in the ground which they have duped +themselves into believing is a mine. + +From the tunnel his eye traveled up the face of the white mountain to +the great snow-comb that yawned over the edge of the rock-rim far +above. It had snowed again heavily all night, and now showed symptoms +of a thaw. Not once nor twice, but a dozen times, the man's anxious +gaze had swept up to that great overhanging bank. Snowslides ran every +year in this section with heavy loss to life and property. Given a +rising temperature and some wind, the comb above would gradually settle +lower and lower, at last break off, plunge down the precipitous slope, +bringing thousands of tons of rock and snow with it, and, perhaps, bury +them in a Titanic grave of ice. There had been a good deal of timber +cut from the shoulder of the mountain during the past summer, and this +very greatly increased the danger. That there was a real peril the man +looking at it did not attempt to deny to himself. It would be enough to +deny it to her in case she should ever suspect. + +He had hoped for cold weather, a freeze hard enough to crust the +surface of the snow. Upon this he might have made shift somehow to get +her to Yesler's ranch, eighteen miles away though it was, but he knew +this would not be feasible with the snow in its present condition. It +was not certain that he could make the ranch alone; encumbered with +her, success would be a sheer impossibility. On the other hand, their +provisions would not last long. The outlook was not a cheerful one, +from whichever point of view he took it; yet there was one phase of it +he could not regret. The factors which made the difficulties of the +situation made also its delights. Though they were prisoners in this +solitary untrodden canyon, the sentence was upon both of them. She +could look to none other than he for aid; and, at least, the drifts +which kept them in held others out. + +Her voice at his shoulder startled him. + +"Wherefore this long communion with nature, my captain?" she gaily +asked. "Behold, my lord's hot cakes are ready for the pan and his +servant to wait upon him." She gave him a demure smiling little curtsy +of mock deference. + +Never had her distracting charm been more in evidence. He had not seen +her since they parted on the previous night. He had built for himself a +cot in the woodshack, and had contrived a curtain that could be drawn +in front of her bed in the living-room. Thus he could enter in the +morning, light the fires, and start breakfast without disturbing her. +She had dressed her hair, now in a different way, so that it fell in +low waves back from the forehead and was bunched at the nape of her +neck. The light swiftness of her dainty grace, the almost exaggerated +carnation of the slightly parted lips, the glad eagerness that sparked +her eyes, brought out effectively the picturesqueness of her beauty. + +His grave eyes rested on her so long that a soft glow mantled her +cheeks. Perhaps her words had been too free, though she had not meant +them so. For the first time some thought of the conventions distressed +her. Ought she to hold herself more in reserve toward him? Must she +restrain her natural impulses to friendliness? + +His eyes released her presently, but not before she read in them the +feelings that had softened them as they gazed into hers. They mirrored +his poignant pleasure at the delight of her sweet slenderness so close +to him, his perilous joy at the intimacy fate had thrust upon them. +Shyly her lids fell to the flushed cheeks. + +"Breakfast is ready," she added self-consciously, her girlish innocence +startled like a fawn of the forest at the hunter's approach. + +For whereas she had been blind now she saw in part. Some flash of +clairvoyance had laid bare a glimpse of his heart and her own to her. +Without misunderstanding the perfect respect for her which he felt, she +knew the turbid banked emotions which this dammed. Her heart seemed to +beat in her bosom like an imprisoned dove. + +It was his voice, calm and resonant with strength, that brought her to +earth again. + +"And I am ready for it, lieutenant. Right about face. Forward--march!" + + +After breakfast they went out and tramped together the little path of +hard-trodden snow in front of the house. She broached the prospect of a +rescue or the chances of escape. + +"We shall soon be out of food, and, anyhow, we can't stay here all +winter," she suggested with a tremulous little laugh. + +"You are naturally very tired of it already," he hazarded. + +"It has been the experience of my life. I shall fence it off from all +the days that have passed and all that are to come," she made answer +vividly. + +Their eyes met, but only for an instant. + +"I am glad," he said quietly. + +He began, then, to tell her what he must do, but at the first word of +it she broke out in protest. + +"No--no--no! We shall stay together. If you go I am going, too." + +"I wish you could, but it is not possible. You could never get there. +The snow is too soft and heavy for wading and not firm enough to bear +your weight." + +"But you will have to wade." + +"I am stronger than you, lieutenant." + +"I know, but----" She broke down and confessed her terror. "Would you +leave me here--alone--with all this snow Oh, I couldn't stay--I +couldn't." + +"It's the only way," he said steadily. Every fiber in him rebelled at +leaving her here to face peril alone, but his reason overrode the +desire and rebellion that were hot within him. He must think first of +her ultimate safety, and this lay in getting her away from here at the +first chance. + +Tears splashed down from the big eyes. "I didn't think you would leave +me here alone. With you I don't mind it, but-- Oh, I should die if I +stayed alone." + +"Only for twenty-four hours. Perhaps less. I shouldn't think of it if +it weren't necessary." + +"Take me with you. I am strong. You don't know how strong I am. I +promise to keep up with you. Please!" + +He shook his head. "I would take you with me if I could. You know that. +But it's a man's fight. I shall have to stand up to it hour after hour +till I reach Yesler's ranch. I shall get through, but it would not be +possible for you to make it." + +"And if you don't get through?" + +He refused to consider that contingency. "But I shall. You may look to +see me back with help by this time to-morrow morning." + +"I'm not afraid with you. But if you go away Oh, I can't stand it. You +don't know--you don't know." She buried her face in her hands. + +He had to swallow down his sympathy before he went on. "Yes, I know. +But you must be brave. You must think of every minute as being one +nearer to the time of my return." + +"You will think me a dreadful coward, and I am. But I can't help it. I +AM afraid to stay alone. There's nothing in the world but mountains of +snow. They are horrible--like death--except when you are here." + +Her child eyes coaxed him to stay. The mad longing was in him to kiss +the rosy little mouth with the queer alluring droop to its corners. It +was a strange thing how, with that arched twist to her eyebrows and +with that smile which came and went like sunshine in her eyes, she +toppled his lifelong creed. The cardinal tenet of his faith had been a +belief in strength. He had first been drawn to Virginia by reason of +her pluck and her power. Yet this child's very weakness was her +fountain of strength. She cried out with pain, and he counted it an +asset of virtue in her. She acknowledged herself a coward, and his +heart went out to her because of it. The battle assignments of life +were not for the soft curves and shy winsomeness of this dainty lamb. + +"You will be brave. I expect you to be brave, lieutenant." Words of +love and comfort were crowding to his brain, but he would not let them +out. + +"How long will you be gone?" she sobbed. + +"I may possibly get back before midnight, but you mustn't begin to +expect me until to-morrow morning, perhaps not till to-morrow +afternoon." + +"Oh, I couldn't--I couldn't stay here at night alone. Don't go, please. +I'll not get hungry, truly I won't, and to-morrow they will find us." + +He rose, his face working. "I MUST go, child. It's the thing to do. I +wish to Heaven it weren't. You must think of yourself as quite safe +here. You ARE safe. Don't make it hard for me to go, dear." + +"I AM a coward. But I can't help it. There is so much snow--and the +mountains are so big." She tried valiantly to crush down her sobs. "But +go. I'll--I'll not be afraid." + +He buried her little hands in his two big ones and looked deep into her +eyes. "Every minute of the time I am away from you I shall be with you +in spirit. You'll not be alone any minute of the day or night. Whether +you are awake or asleep I shall be with you." + +"I'll try to remember that," she answered, smiling up at him but with a +trembling lip. + +She put him up some lunch while he made his simple preparations. To the +end of the trench she walked with him, neither of them saying a word. +The moment of parting had come. + +She looked up at him with a crooked wavering little smile. She wanted +to be brave, but she could not trust herself to say a word. + +"Remember, dear. I am not leaving you. My body has gone on an errand. +That is all." + +Just now she found small comfort in this sophistry, but she did not +tell him so. + +"I--I'll remember." She gulped down a sob and still smiled through the +mist that filmed her sight. + +In his face she could see how much he was moved at her distress. Always +a creature of impulse, one mastered her now, the need to let her +weakness rest on his strength. Her arms slipped quickly round his neck +and her head lay buried on his shoulder. He held her tight, eyes +shining, the desire of her held in leash behind set teeth, the while +sobs shook her soft round body in gusts. + +"My lamb--my sweet precious lamb," she heard him murmur in anguish. + +From some deep sex trait it comforted her that he suffered. With the +mother instinct she began to regain control of herself that she might +help him. + +"It will not be for long," she assured him. "And every step of your way +I shall pray for, your safety," she whispered. + +He held her at arm's length while his gaze devoured her, then silently +he wheeled away and plunged waist deep into the drifts. As long as he +was in sight he saw her standing there, waving her handkerchief to him +in encouragement. Her slight, dark figure, outlined against the snow, +was the last thing his eyes fell upon before he turned a corner of the +gulch and dropped downward toward the plains. + +But when he was surely gone, after one fearful look at the white sea +which encompassed her, the girl fled to the cabin, slammed the door +after her, and flung herself on the bed to weep out her lonely terror +in an ecstasy of tears. She had spent the first violence of her grief, +and was sitting crouched on the rug before the open fire when the sound +of a footstep, crunching the snow, startled her. The door opened, to +let in the man who had just left her. + +"You are back--already," she cried, her tear? stained face lifted +toward him. + +"Yes," he smiled' from the doorway. "Come here, little partner." + +And when she had obediently joined him her eye followed his finger up +the mountain-trail to a bend round which men and horses were coming. + +"It's a relief-party," he said, and caught up his field-glasses to look +them over more certainly. Two men on horseback, leading a third animal, +were breaking a way down the trail, black spots against the background +of white. "I guess Fort Salvation's about to be relieved," he added +grimly, following the party through the glasses. + +She touched the back of his hand with a finger. "Are you glad?" she +asked softly. + +"No, by Heaven!" he cried, lowering his glasses swiftly. + +As he looked into her eyes the blood rushed to his brain with a surge. +Her face turned to his unconsciously, and their lips met. + +"And I don't even know your name," she murmured. + +"Waring Ridgway; and yours?" + +"Aline Hope," she said absently. Then a hot Rush ran over the girlish +face. "No, no, I had forgotten. I was married last week." + +The gates of paradise, open for two days, clanged to on Ridgway. He +stared out with unseeing eyes into the silent wastes of snow. The +roaring in his ears and the mountainsides that churned before his eyes +were reflections of the blizzard raging within him. + +"I'll never forget--never," he heard her falter, and her voice was a +thousand miles away. + +From the storm within him he was aroused by a startled cry from the +girl at his side. Her fascinated gaze was fixed on the summit of the +ridge above them. There was a warning crackle. The overhanging comb +snapped, slid slowly down, and broke off. With gathering momentum it +descended, sweeping into its heart rocks, trees, and debris. A terrific +roar filled the air as the great white cloud came tearing down like an +express-train. + +Ridgway caught her round the waist and flung the girl against the wall +of the cabin, protecting her with his body. The avalanche was upon +them, splitting great trees to kindling-wood in the fury of its rush. +The concussion of the wind shattered every window to fragments, almost +tore the cabin from its foundations. Only the extreme tail of the slide +touched them, yet they were buried deep in flying snow. + +He found no great difficulty in digging a way out, and when he lifted +her to the surface she was conscious. Yet she was pale even to the lips +and trembled like an aspen in the summer breeze, clinging to him for +support helplessly. + +His cheerful voice rang like a bugle to her shocked brain. + +"It's all past. We're safe now, dear--quite safe." + +The first of the trail-breakers had dismounted and was plowing his way +hurriedly to the cabin, but neither of them saw him as he came up the +slope. + +"Are you sure?" She shuddered, her hands still in his. "Wasn't it +awful? I thought--" Her sentence trailed out unfinished. + +"Are you unhurt, Aline?" cried the newcomer. And when he saw she was, +he added: "Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is +good: for His mercy endureth forever. He saved them for His name's +sake, that He might make His mighty power to be known." + +At sound of the voice they turned and saw the man hurrying toward them. +He was tall, gray, and seventy, of massive frame and gaunt, still +straight and vigorous, with the hooked nose and piercing eyes of a +hawk. At first glance he looked always the bird of prey, but at the +next as invariably the wolf, an effect produced by the salient reaching +jaw and the glint of white teeth bared for a lip smile. Just now he was +touched to a rare emotion. His hands trembled and an expression of +shaken thankfulness rested in his face. + +Aline, still with Ridgway's strong arms about her, slowly came back to +the inexorable facts of life. + +"You--here?" + +"As soon as we could get through--and thank God in time." + +"I would have died, except for--" This brought her immediately to an +introduction, and after she had quietly released herself the man who +had saved her heard himself being formally presented: "Mr. Ridgway, I +want you to meet my husband, Mr. Harley." + +Ridgway turned to Simon Harley a face of hammered steel and bowed, +putting his hands deliberately behind his back. + +"I've been expecting you at Mesa, Mr. Harley," he said rigidly. "I'll +be glad to have the pleasure of welcoming you there." + +The great financier was wondering where he had heard the man's name +before, but he only said gravely: "You have a claim on me I can never +forget, Mr. Ridgway." + +Scornfully the other disdained this proffer. "Not at all. You owe me +nothing, Mr. Harley--absolutely nothing. What I have done I have done +for her. It is between her and me." + +At this moment the mind of Harley fitted the name Ridgway to its niche +in his brain. So this was the audacious filibuster who had dared to +fire on the trust flag, the man he had come West to ruin and to humble. + + +"I think you will have to include me, Mr. Ridgway," he said suavely. +"What is done for my wife is done, also, for me." + + + +CHAPTER 6. ON THE SNOW-TRAIL + +Aline had passed into the house, moved by an instinct which shrank from +publicity in the inevitable personal meeting between her and her +husband. Now, Harley, with the cavalier nod of dismissal, which only a +multimillionaire can afford, followed her and closed the door. A +passionate rush of blood swept Ridgway's face. He saw red as he stood +there with eyes burning into that door which had been shut in his face. +The nails of his clenched fingers bit into his palms, and his muscles +gathered themselves tensely. He had been cast aside, barred from the +woman he loved by this septuagenarian, as carelessly as if he had no +claim. + +And it came home to him that now he had no claim, none before the law +and society. They had walked in Arcadia where shepherds pipe. They had +taken life for granted as do the creatures of the woods, forgetful of +the edicts of a world that had seemed far and remote. But that world +had obtruded itself and shattered their dream. In the person of Simon +Harley it had shut the door which was to separate him and her. Hitherto +he had taken from life what he had wanted, but already he was grappling +with the blind fear of a fate for once too strong for him. + +"Well, I'm damned if it isn't Waring Ridgway," called a mellow voice +from across the gulch. + +The man named turned, and gradually the set lines of his jaw relaxed. + +"I didn't notice it was you, Sam. Better bring the horses across this +side of that fringe of aspens." + +The dismounted horseman followed directions and brought the floundering +horses through, and after leaving them in the cleared place where +Ridgway had cut his firewood he strolled leisurely forward to meet the +mine-owner. He was a youngish man, broad of shoulder and slender of +waist, a trifle bowed in the legs from much riding, but with an elastic +sufficiency that promised him the man for an emergency, a pledge which +his steady steel-blue eyes, with the humorous lines about the corners, +served to make more valuable. His apparel suggested the careless +efficiency of the cow-man, from the high-heeled boots into which were +thrust his corduroys to the broad-brimmed white Stetson set on his +sunreddened wavy hair. A man's man, one would vote him at first sight, +and subsequent impressions would not contradict the first. + +"Didn't know you were down in this neck of woods, Waring," he said +pleasantly, as they shook hands. + +An onlooker might have noticed that both of them gripped hands heartily +and looked each other squarely in the eye. + +"I came down on business and got caught in the blizzard on my way back. +Came on her freezing in the machine and brought her here along with me. +I had my eye on that slide. The snow up there didn't look good to me, +and the grub was about out, anyhow, so I was heading for the C B Ranch +when I sighted you." + +"Golden luck for her. I knew it was a chance in a million that she was +still alive, but Harley wanted to take it. Say, that old fellow's made +of steel wire. Two of my boys are plugging along a mile or two behind +us, but he stayed right with the game to a finish--and him +seventy-three, mind you, and a New Yorker at that. The old boy rides +like he was born in a saddle," said Sam Yesler with enthusiasm. + +"I never said he was a quitter," conceded Ridgway ungraciously. + +"You're right he ain't. And say, but he's fond of his wife. Soon as he +struck the ranch the old man butted out again into the blizzard to get +her--slipped out before we knew it. The boys rounded him up wandering +round the big pasture, and none too soon neither. All the time we had +to keep herd on him to keep him from taking another whirl at it. He was +like a crazy man to tackle it, though he must a-known it was suicide. +Funny how a man takes a shine to a woman and thinks the sun rises and +sets by her. Far, as I have been able to make out women are much of a +sameness, though I ain't setting up for a judge. Like as not this woman +don't care a hand's turn for him." + +"Why should she? He bought her with his millions, I suppose. What right +has an old man like that with one foot in the grave to pick out a child +and marry her? I tell you, Sam, there's something ghastly about it." + +"Oh, well, I reckon when she sold herself she knew what she was +getting. It's about an even thing--six of one and half a dozen of the +other. There must be something rotten about a woman who will do a thing +of that sort." + +"Wait till you've seen her before passing judgment. And after you have +you'll apologize if you're a white man for thinking such a thing about +her," the miner said hotly. + +Yesler looked at his friend in amiable surprise. "I don't reckon we +need to quarrel about Simon Harley's matrimonial affairs, do we?" he +laughed. + +"Not unless you want to say any harm of that lamb." + +A glitter of mischief gleamed from the cattleman's eyes. "Meaning +Harley, Waring?" + +"You know who I mean. I tell you she's an angel from heaven, pure as +the driven snow." + +"And I tell you that I'll take your word for it without quarreling with +you," was the goodhumored retort. "What's up, anyhow? I never saw you +so touchy before. You're a regular pepper-box." + +The rescuers had brought food with them, and the party ate lunch before +starting back. The cow-punchers of the C B had now joined them, both of +them, as well as their horses, very tired with the heavy travel. + +"This here Marathon race business through three-foot snow ain't for +invalids like me and Husky," one of them said cheerfully, with his +mouth full of sandwich. "We're also rans, and don't even show for +place." + +Yet though two of them had, temporarily at least, been rescued from +imminent danger, and success beyond their expectations had met the +others, it was a silent party. A blanket of depression seemed to rest +upon it, which the good stories of Yesler and the genial nonsense of +his man, Chinn, were unable to lift. Three of them, at least, were +brooding over what the morning had brought forth, and trying to realize +what it might mean for them. + +"We'd best be going, I expect," said Yesler at last. "We've got a right +heavy bit of work cut out for us, and the horses are through feeding. +We can't get started any too soon for me." + +Ridgway nodded silently. He knew that the stockman was dubious, as he +himself was, about being able to make the return trip in safety. The +horses were tired; so, too, were the men who had broken the heavy trail +for so many miles, with the exception of Sam himself, who seemed built +of whipcord and elastic. They would be greatly encumbered by the woman, +for she would certainly give out during the journey. The one point in +their favor was that they could follow a trail which had already been +trodden down. + +Simon Harley helped his wife into the boy's saddle on the back of the +animal they had led, but his inexperience had to give way to Yesler's +skill in fitting the stirrups to the proper length for her feet. To +Ridgway, who had held himself aloof during this preparation, the +stockman now turned with a wave of his hand toward his horse. + +"You ride, Waring." + +"No, I'm fresh." + +"All right. We'll take turns." + +Ridgway led the party across the gulch, following the trail that had +been swept by the slide. The cowboys followed him, next came Harley, +his wife, and in the rear the cattleman. They descended the draw, and +presently dipped over rolling ground to the plain beyond. The +procession plowed steadily forward mile after mile, the pomes +floundering through drifts after the man ahead. + +Chinn, who had watched him breasting the soft heavy blanket that lay on +the ground so deep and hemmed them in, turned to his companion. + +"On the way coming I told you, Husky, we had the best man in Montana at +our head. We got that beat now to a fare-you-well. We got the two best +in this party, by crickey." + +"He's got the guts, all right, but there ain't nothing on two legs can +keep it up much longer," replied the other. "If you want to know, I'm +about all in myself." + +"Here, too," grunted the other. "And so's the bronc." + +It was not, however, until dusk was beginning to fall that the leader +stopped. Yesler's voice brought him up short in his tracks. + +"Hold on, Waring. The lady's down." + +Ridgway strode back past the exhausted cowboys and Harley, the latter +so beaten with fatigue that he could scarce cling to the pommel of his +saddle. + +"I saw it coming. She's been done for a long time, but she hung on like +a thoroughbred," explained Yesler from the snow-bank where Aline had +fallen. + +He had her in his arms and was trying to get at a flask of whisky in +his hip-pocket. + +"All right. I'll take care of her, Sam. You go ahead with your horse +and break trail. I don't like the way this wind is rising. It's wiping +out the path you made when you broke through. How far's the ranch now?" + + +"Close to five miles." + +Both men had lowered their voices almost to a whisper. + +"It's going to be a near thing, Sam. Your men are played out. Harley +will never make it without help. From now on every mile will be worse +than the last." + +Yesler nodded quietly. "Some one has got to go ahead for help. That's +the only way." + +"It will have to be you, of course. You know the road best and can get +back quickest. Better take her pony. It's the fittest." + +The owner of the C B hesitated an instant before he answered. He was +the last man in the world to desert a comrade that was down, but his +common sense told him his friend had spoken wisely. The only chance for +the party was to get help to it from the ranch. + +"All right. If anybody plays out beside her try to keep him going. If +it comes to a showdown leave him for me to pick up. Don't let him stop +the whole outfit." + +"Sure. Better leave me that bottle of whisky. So-long." + +"You're going to ride, I reckon?" + +"Yes. I'll have to." + +"Get up on my horse and I'll give her to you. That's right Well, I'll +see you later." + +And with that the stockman was gone. For long they could see him, +plunging slowly forward through the drifts, getting always smaller and +smaller, till distance and the growing darkness swallowed him. + +Presently the girl in Ridgway's arms opened her eyes. + +"I heard what you and he said," she told him quietly. + +"About what?" he smiled down into the white face that looked up into +his. + +"You know. About our danger. I'm not afraid, not the least little bit." + + +"You needn't be. We're coming through, all right. Sam will make it to +the ranch. He's a man in a million." + +"I don't mean that. I'm not afraid, anyway, whether we do or not." + +"Why?" he asked, his heart beating wildly. + +"I don't know, but I'm not," she murmured with drowsy content. + +But he knew if she did not. Her fear had passed because he was there, +holding her in his arms, fighting to the last ounce of power in him for +her life. She felt he would never leave her, and that, if it came to +the worst, she would pass from life with him close to her. Again he +knew that wild exultant beat of blood no woman before this one had ever +stirred in him. + +Harley was the first to give up. He lurched forward and slipped from +the saddle to the snow, and could not be cursed into rising. The man +behind dismounted, put down his burden, and dragged the old man to his +feet. + +"Here! This won't do. You've got to stick it out." + +"I can't. I've reached my limit." Then testily: "'Are not my days few? +Cease then, and let me alone,'" he added wearily, with his everready +tag of Scripture. + +The instant the other's hold on him relaxed the old man sank back. +Ridgway dragged him up and cuffed him like a troublesome child. He knew +this was no time for reasoning. + +"Are you going to lie down and quit, you old loafer? I tell you the +ranch is only a mile or two. Here, get into the saddle." + +By sheer strength the younger man hoisted him into the seat. He was +very tired himself, but the vital sap of youth in him still ran strong +in his blood. For a few yards farther they pushed on before Harley slid +down again and his horse stopped. + +Ridgway passed him by, guiding his bronco in a half-circle through the +snow. + +"I'll send back help for you," he promised. + +"It will be too late, but save her--save her," the old man begged. + +"I will," called back the other between set teeth. + +Chinn was the next to drop out, and after him the one he called Husky. +Both their horses had been abandoned a mile or two back, too exhausted +to continue. Each of them Ridgway urged to stick to the trail and come +on as fast as they could. + +He knew the horse he was riding could not much longer keep going with +the double weight, and when at length its strength gave out completely +he went on afoot, carrying her in his arms as on that eventful night +when he had saved her from the blizzard. + +It was so the rescue-party found him, still staggering forward with her +like a man in a sleep, flesh and blood and muscles all protestant +against the cruelty of his indomitable will that urged them on in spite +of themselves. In a dream he heard Yesler's cheery voice, gave up his +burden to one of the rescuers, and found himself being lifted to a +fresh horse. From this dream he awakened to find himself before the +great fire of the living-room of the ranch-house, wakened from it only +long enough to know that somebody was undressing him and helping him +into bed. + +Nature, with her instinct for renewing life, saw to it that Ridgway +slept round the clock. He arose fit for anything. His body, hard as +nails, suffered no reaction from the terrific strain he had put upon +it, and he went down to his breakfast with an appetite ravenous for +whatever good things Yesler's Chinese cook might have prepared for him. + + +He found his host already at work on a juicy steak. + +"Mornin'," nodded that gentleman. "Hope you feel as good as you look." + + +"I'm all right, barring a little stiffness in my muscles. I'll feel +good as the wheat when I've got outside of the twin steak to that one +you have." + +Yesler touched a bell, whereupon a soft-footed Oriental appeared, +turned almond eyes on his proprietor, took orders and padded silently +back to his kingdom--the kitchen. Almost immediately he reappeared with +a bowl of oatmeal and a pitcher of cream. + +"Go to it, Waring." + +His host waved him the freedom of the diningroom, and Ridgway fell to. +Never before had food tasted so good. He had been too sleepy to eat +last night, but now he made amends. The steak, the muffins, the coffee, +were all beyond praise, and when he came to the buckwheat hot cakes, +sandwiched with butter and drenched with real maple syrup, his +satisfied soul rose up and called Hop Lee blessed. When he had +finished, Sam capped the climax by shoving toward him his case of +Havanas. + +Ridgway's eyes glistened. "I haven't smoked for days," he explained, +and after the smoke had begun to rise, he added: "Ask what you will, +even to the half of my kingdom, it's yours." + +"Or half of the Consolidated's," amended his friend with twinkling eyes. + +"Even so, Sam," returned the other equably. "And now, tell me how you +managed to round us all up safely." + +"You've heard, then, that we got the whole party in time?" + +"Yes, I've been talking with one of your enthusiastic riders that went +out with you after us. He's been flimflammed into believing you the +greatest man in the United States. Tell me how you do it." + +"Nick's a good boy, but I reckon he didn't tell you quite all that." + +"Didn't he? You should have heard him reel off your praises by the +yard. I got the whole story of how you headed the relief-party after +you had reached the ranch more dead than alive." + +"Then, if you've got it, I don't need to tell you. I WAS a bit worried +about the old man. He was pretty far gone when we reached him, but he +pulled through all right. He's still sleeping like a top." + +"Is he?" His guest's hard gaze came round to meet his. "And the lady? +Do you know how she stood it?" + +"My sister says she was pretty badly played out, but all she needs is +rest. Nell put her in her own bed, and she, too, has been doing nothing +but sleep." + +Ridgway smoked out his cigar in silence then tossed it into the +fireplace as he rose briskly. + +"I want to talk to Mesa over the phone, Sam." + +"Can't do it. The wires are down. This storm played the deuce with +them." + +"The devil! I'll have to get through myself then." + +"Forget business for a day or two, Waring, and take it easy up here," +counseled his host. + +"Can't do it. I have to make arrangements to welcome Simon Harley to +Mesa. The truth is, Sam, that there are several things that won't wait. +I've got to frame them up my way. Can you get me through to the +railroad in time to catch the Limited?" + +"I think so. The road has been traveled for two or three days. If you +really must go. I hate to have you streak off like this." + +"I'd like to stay, Sam, but I can't. For one thing, there's that +senatorial fight coming on. Now that Harley's on the ground in person, +I'll have to look after my fences pretty close. He's a good fighter, +and he'll be out to win." + +"After what you've done for him. Don't you think that will make a +difference, Waring?" + +His friend laughed without mirth. "What have I done for him? I left him +in the snow to die, and while a good many thousand other people would +bless me for it, probably he has a different point of view." + +"I was thinking of what you did for his wife." + +"You've said it exactly. I did it for her, not for him. I'll accept +nothing from Harley on that account. He is outside of the friendship +between her and me, and he can't jimmy his way in." + +Yesler shrugged his shoulders. "All right. I'll order a rig hitched for +you and drive you over myself. I want to talk over this senatorial +fight anyhow. The way things look now it's going to be the rottenest +session of the legislature we've ever had. Sometimes I'm sick of being +mixed up in the thing, but I got myself elected to help straighten out +things, and I'm certainly going to try." + +"That's right, Sam. With a few good fighters like you we can win out. +Anything to beat the Consolidated." + +"Anything to keep our politics decent," corrected the other. "I've got +nothing against the Consolidated, but I won't lie down and let it or +any other private concern hog-tie this State--not if I can help it, +anyhow." + +Behind wary eyes Ridgway studied him. He was wondering how far this man +would go as his tool. Sam Yesler held a unique position in the State. +His influence was commanding among the sturdy old-time population +represented by the non-mining interests of the smaller towns and open +plains. He must be won at all hazards to lend it in the impending fight +against Harley. The mine-owner knew that no thought of personal gain +would move him. He must be made to feel that it was for the good of the +State that the Consolidated be routed. Ridgway resolved to make him see +it that way. + + + +CHAPTER 7. BACK FROM ARCADIA + +The president of the Mesa Ore-producing Company stepped from the +parlor-car of the Limited at the hour when all wise people are taking +life easy after a good dinner. He did not, however, drive to his club, +but took a cab straight for his rooms, where he had telegraphed Eaton +to meet him with the general superintendent of all his properties and +his private secretary, Smythe. For nearly a week his finger had been +off the pulse of the situation, and he wanted to get in touch again as +soon as possible. For in a struggle as tense as the one between him and +the trust, a hundred vital things might have happened in that time. He +might be coming back to catastrophe and ruin, brought about while he +had been a prisoner to love in that snow-bound cabin. + +Prisoner to love he had been and still was, but the business men who +met him at his rooms, fellow adventurers in the forlorn hope he had +hitherto led with such signal success, could have read nothing of this +in the marble, chiseled face of their sagacious general, so indomitable +of attack and insatiate of success. His steel-hard eyes gave no hint of +the Arcadia they had inhabited so eagerly a short twenty-four hours +before. The intoxicating madness he had known was chained deep within +him. Once more he had a grip on himself; was sheathed in a cannonproof +plate armor of selfishness. No more magic nights of starshine, +breathing fire and dew; no more lifted moments of exaltation stinging +him to a pulsating wonder at life's wild delight. He was again the +inexorable driver of men, with no pity for their weaknesses any more +than for his own. + +The men whom he found waiting for him at his rooms were all young +Westerners picked out by him because he thought them courageous, +unscrupulous and loyal. Like him, they were privateers in the seas of +commerce, and sailed under no flag except the one of insurrection he +had floated. But all of them, though they were associated with him and +hoped to ride to fortune on the wave that carried him there, recognized +themselves as subordinates in the enterprises he undertook. They were +merely heads of departments, and they took orders like trusted clerks +with whom the owner sometimes unbends and advises. + +Now he heard their reports, asked an occasional searching question, and +swiftly gave decisions of far-reaching import. It was past midnight +before he had finished with them, and instead of retiring for the sleep +he might have been expected to need, he spent the rest of the night +inspecting the actual workings of the properties he had not seen for +six days. Hour after hour he passed examining the developments, +sometimes in the breasts of the workings and again consulting with +engineers and foremen in charge. Light was breaking in the sky before +he stepped from the cage of the Jack Pot and boarded a street-car for +his rooms. Cornishmen and Hungarians and Americans, going with their +dinner-buckets to work, met him and received each a nod or a word of +greeting from this splendidly built young Hermes in miners' slops, who +was to many of them, in their fancy, a deliverer from the slavery which +the Consolidated was ready to force upon them. + +Once at his rooms, Ridgway took a cold bath, dressed carefully, +breakfasted, and was ready to plunge into the mass of work which had +accumulated during his absence at the mining camp of Alpine and the +subsequent period while he was snowbound. These his keen, practical +mind grasped and disposed of in crisp sentences. To his private +secretary he rapped out order sharply and decisively. + +"Phone Ballard and Dalton I want to see them at once. Tell Murphy I +won't talk with him. What I said before I left was final. Write +Cadwallader we can't do business on the terms he proposes, but add that +I'm willing to continue his Mary Kinney lease. Dictate a letter to +Riley's lawyer, telling him I can't afford to put a premium on +incompetence and negligence; that if his client was injured in the Jack +Pot explosion, he has nobody but himself to blame for it. Otherwise, of +course, I should be glad to pension him. Let me see the letter before +you send it. I don't want anything said that will offend the union. +Have two tons of good coal sent up to Riley's house, and notify his +grocer that all bills for the next three months may be charged to me. +And, Smythe, ask Mr. Eaton to step this way." + +Stephen Eaton, an alert, clear-eyed young fellow who served as fidus +Achates to Ridgway, and was the secretary and treasurer of the Mesa +Ore-producing Company, took the seat Smythe had vacated. He was +good-looking, after a boyish, undistinguished fashion, but one disposed +to be critical might have voted the chin not quite definite enough. He +had been a clerk of the Consolidated, working for one hundred dollars a +month, when Ridgway picked him out and set his feet in the way of +fortune. He had done this out of personal liking, and, in return, the +subordinate was frankly devoted to his chief. + +"Steve, my opinion is that Alpine is a false alarm. Unless I guess +wrong, it is merely a surface proposition and low-grade at that." + +"Miller says--" + +"Yes, I know what Miller says. He's wrong. I don't care if he is the +biggest copper expert in the country." + +"Then you won't invest?" + +"I have invested--bought the whole outfit, lock, stock and barrel." + +"But why? What do you want with it if the property is no good?" asked +Eaton in surprise. + +Ridgway laughed shortly. "I don't want it, but the Consolidated does. +Two of their experts were up at Alpine last week, and both of them +reported favorably. I've let it leak out to their lawyer, O'Malley, +that Miller thought well of it; in fact, I arranged to let one of their +spies steal a copy of his report to us." + +"But when they know you have bought it?" + +"They won't know till too late. I bought through a dummy. It seemed a +pity not to let then have the property since they wanted it so badly, +so this morning he sold out for me to the Consolidated at a profit of a +hundred and fifty thousand." + +Eaton grinned appreciatively. It was in startling finesse of this sort +his chief excelled, and Stephen was always ready with applause. + +"I notice that Hobart slipped out of town last night. That is where he +must have been going. He'll be sick when he learns how you did him." + +Ridgway permitted himself an answering smile. "I suppose it will +irritate him a trifle, but that can't be helped. I needed that money to +get clear on that last payment for the Sherman Bell." + +"Yes, I was worried about that. Notes have been piling up against us +that must be met. There's the Ransom note, too. It's for a hundred +thousand." + +"He'll extend it," said the chief confidently. + +"He told me he would have to have his money when it came due. I've +noticed he has been pretty close to Mott lately. I expect he has an +arrangement with the Consolidated to push us." + +"I'm watching him, Steve. Don't worry about that. He did arrange to +sell the note to Mott, but I stopped that little game." + +"How?" + +"For a year I've had all the evidence of that big government timber +steal of his in a safety-deposit vault. Before he sold, I had a few +words with him. He changed his mind and decided he preferred to hold +the notes. More, he is willing to let us have another hundred thousand +if we have to have it." + +Eaton's delight bubbled out of him in boyish laughter. "You're a +wonder, Waring. There's nobody like you. Can't any of them touch +you--not Harley himself, by Jove." + +"We'll have a chance to find that out soon, Steve." + +"Yes, they say he's coming out in person to run the fight against you. +I hope not." + +"It isn't a matter of hoping any longer. He's here," calmly announced +his leader. + +"Here! On the ground?" + +"Yes." + +"But--he can't be here without us knowing it." + +"I'm telling you that I do know it." + +"Have you seen him yourself?" demanded the treasurer incredulously. + +"Seen him, talked with him, cursed him and cuffed him," announced +Ridgway with a reminiscent gleam in his eye. + +"Er--what's that you say?" gasped the astounded Eaton. + +"Merely that I have already met Simon Harley." + +"But you said--" + +"--that I had cursed and cuffed him. That's all right. I have." + +The president of the Mesa Ore-producing Company leaned back with his +thumbs in the armholes of his fancy waistcoat and smiled debonairly at +his associate's perplexed amazement. + +"Did you say--CUFFED him?" + +"That's what I meant to say. I roughed him around quite a +bit--manhandled him in general. But all FOR HIS GOOD, you know." + +"For his good?" Eaton's dazed brain tried to conceive the situation of +a billionaire being mauled for his good, and gave it up in despair. If +Steve Eaton worshipped anything, it was wealth. He was a born +sycophant, and it was partly because his naive unstinted admiration had +contributed to satisfy his chief's vanity that the latter had made of +him a confidant. Now he sat dumb before the lese-majeste of laying +forcible hands upon the richest man in the world. + +"But, of course, you're only joking," he finally decided. + +"You haven't been back twelve hours. Where COULD you have seen him?" + +"Nevertheless I have met him and been properly introduced by his wife." + +"His wife?" + +"Yes, I picked her out of a snow-drift." + +"Is this a riddle?" + +"If it is, I don't know the answer, Steve. But it is a true one, +anyhow, not made to order merely to astonish you." + +"True that you picked Simon Harley's wife out of a snow-drift and +kicked him around?" + +"I didn't say kicked, did I?" inquired the other, judicially. "But I +rather think I did knee him some." + +"Of course, I read all about his marriage two weeks ago to Miss Aline +Hope. Did he bring her out here with him for the honeymoon?" + +"If he did, I euchred him out of it. She spent it with me alone in a +miner's cabin," the other cried, malevolence riding triumph on his face. + +"Whenever you're ready to explain," suggested Eaton helplessly. "You've +piled up too many miracles for me even to begin guessing them." + +"You know I was snow-bound, but you did not know my only companion was +this Aline Hope you speak of. I found her in the blizzard, and took her +to an empty cabin near. She and her husband were motoring from +Avalanche to Mesa, and the machine had broken down. Harley had gone for +help and left her there alone when the blizzard came up. Three days +later Sam Yesler and the old man broke trail through from the C B Ranch +and rescued us." + +It was so strange a story that it came home to Eaton piecemeal. + +"Three days--alone with Harley's wife--and he rescued you himself." + +"He didn't rescue me any. I could have broken through any time I wanted +to leave her. On the way back his strength gave out, and that was when +I roughed him. I tried to bullyrag him into keeping on, but it was no +go. I left him there, and Sam went back after him with a relief-party." + +"You left him! With his wife?" + +"No!" cried Ridgway. "Do I look like a man to desert a woman on a +snow-trail? I took her with me." + +"Oh!" There was a significant silence before Eaton asked the question +in his mind. "I've seen her pictures in the papers. Does she look like +them?" + +His chief knew what was behind the question, and he knew, too, that +Eaton might be taken to represent public opinion. The world would cast +an eye of review over his varied and discreditable record with women. +It would imagine the story of those three days of enforced confinement +together, and it would look to the woman in the case for an answer to +its suspicions. That she was young, lovely, and yet had sold herself to +an old man for his millions, would go far in itself to condemn her; and +he was aware that there were many who would accept her very childish +innocence as the sophistication of an artist. + +Waring Ridgway put his arms akimbo on the table and leaned across with +his steady eyes fastened on his friend. + +"Steve, I'm going to answer that question. I haven't seen any pictures +of her in the papers, but if they show a face as pure and true as the +face of God himself then they are like her. You know me. I've got no +apologies or explanations to make for the life I've led. That's my +business. But you're my friend, and I tell you I would rather be hacked +in pieces by Apaches than soil that child's white soul by a single +unclean breath. There mustn't be any talk. Do you understand? Keep the +story out of the newspapers. Don't let any of our people gossip about +it. I have told you because I want you to know the truth. If any one +should speak lightly about this thing stop him at once. This is the one +point on which Simon Harley and I will pull together. Any man who joins +that child's name with mine loosely will have to leave this camp--and +suddenly." + +"It won't be the men--it will be the women that will talk." + +"Then garble the story. Change that three days to three hours, Steve. +Anything to stop their foul-clacking tongues!" + +"Oh, well! I dare say the story won't get out at all, but if it does +I'll see the gossips get the right version. I suppose Sam Yesler will +back it up." + +"Of course. He's a white man. And I don't need to tell you that I'll be +a whole lot obliged to you, Stevie." + +"That's all right. Sometimes I'm a white man, too, Waring," laughed +Steve. Ridgway circled the table and put a hand on the younger man's +shoulder affectionately. Steve Eaton was the one of all his associates +for whom he had the closest personal feeling. + +"I don't need to be told that, old pal," he said quietly. + + + +CHAPTER 8. THE HONORABLE THOMAS B. PELTON + +It was next morning that Steve came into Ridgway's offices with a copy +of the Rocky Mountain Herald in his hands. As soon as the president of +the Mesa Ore-producing Company was through talking with Dalton, the +superintendent of the Taurus, about the best means of getting to the +cage a quantity of ore he was looting from the Consolidated property +adjoining, the treasurer plumped out with his news. + +"Seen to-day's paper, Waring? It smokes out Pelton to a finish. They've +moled out some facts we can't get away from." + +Ridgway glanced rapidly over the paper. "We'll have to drop Pelton and +find another candidate for the Senate. Sorry, but it can't be helped. +They've got his record down too fine. That affidavit from Quinton puts +an end to his chances." + +"He'll kick like a bay steer." + +"His own fault for not covering his tracks better. This exposure +doesn't help us any at best. If we still tried to carry Pelton, we +should last about as long as a snowball in hell." + +"Shall I send for him?" + +"No. He'll be here as quick as he can cover the ground. Have him shown +in as soon as he comes. And Steve--did Harley arrive on the +eight-thirty this morning?" + +"Yes. He is putting up at the Mesa House. He reserved an entire floor +by wire, so that he has bed-rooms, dining-rooms, parlors, +reception-halls and private offices all together. The place is policed +thoroughly, and nobody can get up without an order." + +"I haven't been thinking of going up and shooting him, even though it +would be a blessing to the country," laughed his chief. + +"No, but it is possible somebody else might. This town is full of +ignorant foreigners who would hardly think twice of it. If he had asked +my advice, it would have been to stay away from Mesa." + +"He wouldn't have taken it," returned Ridgway carelessly. "Whatever +else is true about him, Simon Harley isn't a coward. He would have told +you that not a sparrow falls to the ground without the permission of +the distorted God he worships, and he would have come on the next +train." + +"Well, it isn't my funeral," contributed Steve airily. + +"All the same I'm going to pass his police patrols and pay a visit to +the third floor of the Mesa House." + +"You are going to compromise with him?" cried Eaton swiftly. + +"Compromise nothing, I'm going to pay a formal social call on Mrs. +Harley, and respectfully hope that she has suffered no ill effects from +her exposure to the cold." + +Eaton made no comment, unless to whistle gently were one. + +"You think it isn't wise?" + +"Well, is it?" asked Steve. + +"I think so. We'll scotch the lying tongue of rumor by a strict +observance of the conventions. Madam Grundy is padlocked when we reduce +the situation to the absurdity of the common place." + +"Perhaps you are right, if it doesn't become too common commonplace." + +"I think we may trust Simon Harley to see to that," answered his chief +with a grim smile "Obviously our social relations aren't likely to be +very intimate. Now it's 'Just before the battle mother,' but once the +big guns begin to boor we'll neither of us be in the mood for functions +social." + +"You've established a sort of claim on him. It wouldn't surprise me if +he would meet you halfway in settling the trouble between you," said +Eaton thoughtfully. + +"I expect he would," agreed Ridgway indifferently as he lit a cigar. + +"Well, then?" + +"The trouble is that I won't meet him halfway. I can't afford to be +reasonable, Steve. Just suppose for an instant that I had been +reasonable five years ago when this fight began. They would have bought +me out for a miserable pittance of a hundred and fifty thousand or so. +That would have been a reasonable figure then. You might put it now at +five or six millions, and that would be about right. I don't want their +money. I want power, and I'd rather fight for it than not. Besides, I +mean to make what I have already wrung from them a lever for getting +more. I'm going to show Harley that he has met a man at last he can't +either freeze out or bully out. I'm going to let him and his bunch know +I'm on earth and here to stay; that I can beat them at their own game +to a finish." + +"Did it ever occur to you, Waring, that it might pay to make this a +limited round contest? You've won on points up to date by a mile, but +in a finish fight endurance counts. Money is the same as endurance +here, and that's where they are long." + +Eaton made this suggestion diffidently, for though he was a stockholder +and official of the Mesa Ore-producing Company, he was not used to +offering its head unasked advice. The latter, however, took it without +a trace of resentment. + +"Glad of it, my boy. There's no credit in beating a cripple." + +To this jaunty retort Eaton had found no answer when Smythe opened the +door to announce the arrival of the Honorable Thomas B. Pelton, very +anxious for an immediate interview with Mr. Ridgway. + +"Show him in," nodded the president, adding in an aside: "You better +stay, Steve." + +Pelton was a rotund oracular individual in silk hat and a Prince Albert +coat of broadcloth. He regarded himself solemnly as a statesman because +he had served two inconspicuous terms in the House at Washington. He +was fond of proclaiming himself a Southern gentleman, part of which +statement was unnecessary and part untrue. Like many from his section, +he had a decided penchant for politics. + +"Have you seen the infamous libel in that scurrilous sheet of the +gutters the Herald?" he demanded immediately of Ridgway. + +"Which libel? They don't usually stop at one, colonel." + +"The one, seh, which slanders my honorable name; which has the +scoundrelly audacity to charge me with introducing the mining extension +bill for venal reasons, seh." + +"Oh! Yes, I've seen that. Rather an unfortunate story to come out just +now." + +"I shall force a retraction, seh, or I shall demand the satisfaction +due a Southern gentleman. + +"Yes, I would, colonel," replied Ridgway, secretly amused at the vain +threats of this bag of wind which had been punctured. + +"It's a vile calumny, an audacious and villainous lie." + +"What part of it? I've just glanced over it, but the part I read seems +to be true. That's the trouble with it. If it were a lie you could +explode it." + +"I shall deny it over my signature." + +"Of course. The trouble will be to get people to believe your denial +with Quinton's affidavit staring them in the face. It seems they have +got hold of a letter, too, that you wrote. Deny it, of course, then lie +low and give the public time to forget it." + +"Do you mean that I should withdraw from the senatorial race?" + +"That's entirely as you please, colonel, but I'm afraid you'll find +your support will slip away from you." + +"Do you mean that YOU won't support me, seh?" + +Ridgway locked his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair. +"We've got to face facts, colonel. In the light of this exposure you +can't be elected." + +"But I tell you, by Gad, seh, that I mean to deny it." + +"Certainly. I should in your place," agreed the mine-owner coolly. "The +question is, how many people are going to believe you?" + +Tiny sweat-beads stood on the forehead of the Arkansan. His manner was +becoming more and more threatening. "You pledged me your support. Are +you going to throw me down, seh?" + +"You have thrown yourself down, Pelton. Is it my fault you bungled the +thing and left evidence against you? Am I to blame because you wrote +incriminating letters?" + +"Whatever I did was done for you," retorted the cornered man +desperately. + +"I beg your pardon. It was done for what was in it for you. The +arrangement between us was purely a business one." + +The coolness of his even voice maddened the harassed Pelton. + +"So I'm to get burnt drawing your chestnuts out of the fire, am I? +You're going to stand back and let my career be sacrificed, are you? By +Gad, seh, I'll show you whether I'll be your catspaw," screamed the +congressman. + +"Use your common sense, Pelton, and don't shriek like a fish-wife," +ordered Ridgway sharply. "No sane man floats a leaky ship. Go to +drydock and patch up your reputation, and in a few years you'll come +out as good as new." + +All his unprincipled life Pelton had compromised with honor to gain the +coveted goal he now saw slipping from him. A kind of madness of despair +surged up in him. He took a step threateningly toward the seated man, +his hand slipping back under his coat-tails toward his hip pocket. +Acridly his high voice rang out. + +"As a Southern gentleman, seh, I refuse to tolerate the imputations you +cast upon me. I demand an apology here and now, seh." + +Ridgway was on his feet and across the room like a flash. + +"Don't try to bully ME, you false alarm. Call yourself a Southern +gentleman! You're a shallow scurvy impostor. No more like the real +article than a buzzard is like an eagle. Take your hand from under that +coat or I'll break every bone in your flabby body." + +Flabby was the word, morally no less than physically. Pelton quailed +under that gaze which bored into him like a gimlet. The ebbing color in +his face showed he could summon no reserve of courage sufficient to +meet it. Slowly his empty hand came forth. + +"Don't get excited, Mr. Ridgway. You have mistaken my purpose, seh. I +had no intention of drawing," he stammered with a pitiable attempt at +dignity. + +"Liar," retorted his merciless foe, crowding him toward the door. + +"I don't care to have anything more to do with you. Our relations are +at an end, seh," quavered Pelton as he vanished into the outer once and +beat a hasty retreat to the elevator. + +Ridgway returned to his chair, laughing ruefully. "I couldn't help it, +Steve. He would have it. I suppose I've made one more enemy." + +"A nasty one, too. He'll stick at nothing to get even." + +"We'll draw his fangs while there is still time. Get a good story in +the Sun to the effect that I quarreled with him as soon as I discovered +his connection with this mining extension bill graft. Have it in this +afternoon's edition, Steve. Better get Brayton to write it." + +Steve nodded. "That's a good idea. We may make capital out of it after +all. I'll have an editorial in, too. 'We love him for the enemies he +has made.' How would that do for a heading?" + +"Good. And now we'll have to look around for a candidate to put against +Mott. I'm hanged if I know where we'll find one." + +Eaton had an inspiration. + +"I do?" + +"One that will run well, popular enough to catch the public fancy?" + +"Yes." + +"Who, then?" + +"Waring Ridgway." + +The owner of the name stared at his lieutenant in astonishment, but +slowly the fascination of the idea sank in. + +"By Jove! Why not?" + + + +CHAPTER 9. AN EVENING CALL + +"Says you're to come right up, Mr. Ridgway," the bell-hop reported, and +after he had pocketed his tip, went sliding off across the polished +floor to answer another call. + +The president of the Mesa Ore-producing Company turned with a +good-humored smile to the chief clerk. + +"You overwork your boys, Johnson. I wasn't through with that one. I'll +have to ask you to send another up to show me the Harley suite." + +They passed muster under the eye of the chief detective, and, after the +bell-boy had rung, were admitted to the private parlor where Simon +Harley lay stretched on a lounge with his wife beside him. She had been +reading, evidently aloud and when her visitor was announced rose with +her finger still keeping the place in the closed book. + +The gaze she turned on him was of surprise, almost of alarm, so that +the man on the threshold knew he was not expected. + +"You received my card?" he asked quickly. + +"No. Did you send one?" Then, with a little gesture of half-laughing +irritation: "It must have gone to Mr. Harvey again. He is Mr. Harley's +private secretary, and ever since we arrived it has been a comedy of +errors. The hotel force refuses to differentiate." + +"I must ask you to accept my regrets for an unintentional intrusion, +Mrs. Harley. When I was told to come up, I could not guess that my card +had gone amiss." + +The great financier had got to his feet and now came forward with +extended hand. + +"Nevertheless we are glad to see you, Mr. Ridgway, and to get the +opportunity to express our thanks for all that you have done for us." + +The cool fingers of the younger man touched his lightly before they met +those of his wife. + +"Yes, we are very glad, indeed, to see you, Mr. Ridgway," she added to +her husband's welcome. + +"I could not feel quite easy in my mind without hearing from your own +lips that you are none the worse for the adventures you have suffered," +their visitor explained after they had found seats. + +"Thanks to you, my wife is quite herself again, Mr. Ridgway," Harley +announced from the davenport. "Thanks also to God, who so mercifully +shelters us beneath the shadow of His wing." + +But her caller preferred to force from Aline's own lips this affidavit +of health. Even his audacity could not ignore his host entirely, but it +gave him the least consideration possible. To the question which still +rested in his eyes the girl-wife answered shyly. + +"Indeed, I am perfectly well. I have done nothing but sleep to-day and +yesterday. Miss Yesler was very good to me. I do not know how I can +repay the great kindness of so many friends," she said with a swift +descent of fluttering lashes to the soft cheeks upon which a faint +color began to glow. + +"Perhaps they find payment for the service in doing it for you," he +suggested. + +"Yet, I shall take care not to forget it," Harley said pointedly. + +"Indeed!" Ridgway put it with polite insolence, the hostility in his +face scarcely veiled. + +"It has pleased Providence to multiply my portion so abundantly that I +can reward those well who serve me." + +"At how much do you estimate Mrs. Harley's life?" his rival asked with +quiet impudence. + +In the course of the past two days Aline had made the discovery that +her husband and her rescuer were at swords drawn in a business way. +This had greatly distressed her, and in her innocence she had resolved +to bring them together. How could her inexperience know that she might +as well have tried to induce the lion and the lamb to lie down together +peaceably? Now she tried timidly to drift the conversation from the +awkwardness into which Harley's suggestion of a reward and his +opponent's curt retort had blundered it. + +"I hope you did not find upon your return that your business was +disarranged so much as you feared it might be by your absence." + +"I found my affairs in very good condition," Ridgway smiled. "But I am +glad to be back in time to welcome to Mesa you--and Mr. Harley." + +"It seems so strange a place," the girl ventured, with a hesitation +that showed her anxiety not to offend his local pride. "You see I never +before was in a place where there was no grass and nothing green in +sight. And to-night, when I looked out of the window and saw streams of +red-hot fire running down hills, I thought of Paradise Lost and Dante. +I suppose it doesn't seem at all uncanny to you?" + +"At night sometimes I still get that feeling, but I have to cultivate +it a bit," he confessed. "My sober second thought insists that those +molten rivers are merely business, refuse disgorged as lava from the +great smelters." + +"I looked for the sun to-day through the pall of sulphur smoke that +hangs so heavy over the town, but instead I saw a London gas-lamp +hanging in the heavens. Is it always so bad?" + +"Not when the drift of the wind is right. In fact, a day like this is +quite unusual." + +"I'm glad of that. I feel more cheerful in the sunshine. I know that's +a bit of the child still left in me. Mr. Harley takes all days alike." + +The Wall Street operator was in slippers and house-jacket. His wife, +too, was dressed comfortably in some soft clinging stuff. Their visitor +saw that they had disposed themselves for a quiet uninterrupted evening +by the fireside. The domesticity of it all stirred the envy in him. He +did not want her to be contented and at peace with his enemy. Something +deeper than his vanity cried out in protest against it. + +She was still making talk against the gloom of the sulphur fog which +seemed to have crept into the spirit of the room. + +"We were reading before you came in, Mr. Ridgway. I suppose you read a +good deal. Mr. Harley likes to have me read aloud to him when he is +tired." + +An impulse came upon Ridgway to hear her, some such impulse as makes a +man bite on sore tooth even though he knows he must pay later for it. + +"Will you not go on with your reading? I should like to hear it. I +really should." + +She was a little taken aback, but she looked inquiringly at her +husband, who bowed silently. + +"I was just beginning the fifty-ninth psalm. We have been reading the +book through. Mr. Harley finds great comfort in it," she explained. + +Her eyes fell to the printed page and her clear, sweet voice took up +the ancient tale of vengeance. + +"Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise +up against me. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me +from bloody men. + +"For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against +me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord. They run and +prepare themselves without my fault: awake to help me, and behold. + +"Thou, therefore, O Lord God of Hosts, the God of Israel, awake to +visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. +Selah." + +Ridgway glanced across in surprise at the strong old man lying on the +lounge. His hands were locked in front of him, and his gaze rested +peacefully on the fair face of the child reading. His foe's mind swept +up the insatiable cruel years that lay behind this man, and he marveled +that with such a past he could still hold fast to that simple faith of +David. He wondered whether this ruthless spoiler went back to the Old +Testament for the justification of his life, or whether his credo had +given the impulse to his career. One thing he no longer doubted: Simon +Harley believed his Bible implicitly and literally, and not only the +New Testament. + +"For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips even be taken +in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak. + +"Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let +them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth." + +The fresh young girlish voice died away into silence. Harley, +apparently deep in meditation, gazed at the ceiling. His guest felt a +surge of derision at this man who thought he had a compact with God to +rule the world for his benefit. + +"I am sure Mr. Harley must enjoy the Psalms a great deal," he said +ironically, but it was in simple faith the young wife answered eagerly: + +"He does. He finds so much in them that is applicable to life." + +"I can see how he might," agreed the young man. + +"Few people take their religion so closely into their every-day lives +as he does," she replied in a low voice, seeing that her husband was +lost in thought. + +"I am sure you are right." + +"He is very greatly misunderstood, Mr. Ridgway. I am sure if people +knew how good he is-- But how can they know when the newspapers are so +full of falsehoods about him? And the magazines are as bad, he says. It +seems to be the fashion to rake up bitter things to say about prominent +business men. You must have noticed it." + +"Yes. I believe I have noticed that," he answered with a grim little +laugh. + +"Don't you think it could be explained to these writers? They can't +WANT to distort the truth. It must be they don't know." + +"You must not take the muckrakers too seriously. They make a living +roasting us. A good deal of what they say is true in a way. Personally, +I don't object to it much. It's a part of the penalty of being +successful. That's how I look at it." + +"Do they say bad things about you, too?" she asked in open-eyed +surprise. + +"Occasionally," he smiled. "When they think I'm important enough." + +"I don't see how they can," he heard her murmur to herself. + +"Oh, most of what they say is true." + +"Then I know it can't be very bad," she made haste to answer. + +"You had better read it and see." + +"I don't understand business at all," she said + +"But--sometimes it almost frightens me. Business isn't really like war, +is it?" + +"A good deal like it. But that need not frighten you. All life is a +battle--sometimes, at least. Success implies fighting." + +"And does that in turn imply tragedy--for the loser?" + +"Not if one is a good loser. We lose and make another start." + +"But if success is a battle, it must be gained at the expense of +another." + +"Sometimes. But you must look at it in a big way." The secretary of the +trust magnate had come in and was in low-toned conversation with him. +The visitor led her to the nearest window and drew back the curtains so +that they looked down on the lusty life of the turbid young city, at +the lights in the distant smelters and mills, at the great hill +opposite, with its slagdumps, gallows-frames and shaft-houses black +against the dim light, which had yielded its millions and millions of +tons of ore for the use of mankind. "All this had to be fought for. It +didn't grow of itself. And because men fought for it, the place is what +it is. Sixty thousand people live here, fed by the results of the +battle. The highest wages in the world are paid the miners here. They +live in rough comfort and plenty, whereas in the countries they came +from they were underpaid and underfed. Is that not good?" + +"Yes," she admitted. + +"Life for you and for me must be different, thank God. You are in the +world to make for the happiness of those you meet. That is good. But +unless I am to run away from my work, what I do must make some unhappy. +I can't help that if I am to do big things. When you hear people +talking of the harm I do, you will remember what I have told you +to-night, and you will think that a man and his work cannot be judged +by isolated fragments." + +"Yes," she breathed softly, for she knew that this man was saying +good-by to her and was making his apologia. + +"And you will remember that no matter how bitter the fight may grow +between me and Mr. Harley, it has nothing to do with you. We shall +still be friends, though we may never meet again." + +"I shall remember that, too," he heard her murmur. + +"You have been hoping that Mr. Harley and I would be friends. That is +impossible. He came out here to crush me. For years his subordinates +have tried to do this and failed. I am the only man alive that has ever +resisted him successfully. I don't underestimate his power, which is +greater than any czar or emperor that ever lived, but I don't think he +will succeed. I shall win because I understand the forces against me. +He will lose because he scorns those against him." + +"I am sorry. Oh, I am so sorry," she wailed, gently as a breath of +summer wind. For she saw now that the cleavage between them was too +wide for a girl's efforts to bridge. + +"That I am going to win?" he smiled gravely. + +"That you must be enemies; that he came here to ruin you, since you say +he did." + +"You need not be too hard on him for that. By his code I am a +freebooter and a highwayman. Business offers legitimate ways of +robbery, and I transgress them. His ways are not my ways, and mine are +not his, but it is only fair to say that his are the accepted ones." + +"I don't understand it at all. You are both good men. I know you are. +Surely you need not be enemies." + +But she knew she could hope for no reassurance from the man beside her. + +Presently she led him back across the big room to the fireplace near +where her husband lay. His secretary had gone, and he was lying resting +on the lounge. He opened his eyes and smiled at her. "Has Mr. Ridgway +been pointing out to you the places of interest?" he asked quietly. + +"Yes, dear." The last word came hesitantly after the slightest of +pauses. "He says he must be going now." + +The head of the greatest trust on earth got to his feet and smiled +benignantly as he shook hands with the departing guest. "I shall hope +to see you very soon and have a talk regarding business, Mr. Ridgway," +he said. + +"Whenever you like, Mr. Harley." To the girl he said merely, "Good +night," and was gone. + +The old man put an arm affectionately across his young wife's shoulder. + +"Shall we read another psalm, my dear? Or are you tired?" + +She repressed the little shiver that ran through her before she +answered wearily. "I am a little tired. If you don't mind I would like +to retire, please." + +He saw her as far as the door of her apartments and left her with her +maid after he had kissed the cold cheek she dutifully turned toward him. + + + +CHAPTER 10. HARLEY MAKES A PROPOSITION + +Apparently the head of the great trust intended to lose no time in +having that business talk with Ridgway, which he had graciously +promised the latter. Eaton and his chief were busy over some +applications for leases when Smythe came into the room with a letter. + +"Messenger-boy brought it; said it was important," he explained. + +Ridgway ripped open the envelope, read through the letter swiftly, and +tossed it to Eaton. His eyes had grown hard and narrow. + +"Write to Mr. Hobart that I am sorry I haven't time to call on Mr. +Harley at the Consolidated offices, as he suggests. Add that I expect +to be in my offices all morning, and shall be glad to make an +appointment to talk with Mr. Harley here, if he thinks he has any +business with me that needs a personal interview." + +Smythe's leathery face had as much expression as a blank wall, but +Eaton gasped. The unparalleled audacity of flinging the billionaire's +overture back in his face left him for the moment speechless. He knew +that Ridgway had tempted Providence a hundred times without coming to +disaster, but surely this was going too far. Any reasonable compromise +with the great trust builder would be cause for felicitation. He had +confidence in his chief to any point in reason, but he could not blind +himself to the fact that the wonderful successes he had gained were +provisional rather than final. He likened them to Stonewall Jackson's +Shenandoah raid, very successful in irritating, disorganizing and +startling the enemy, but with no serious bearing on the final +inevitable result. In the end Harley would crush his foes if he set in +motion the whole machinery of his limitless resources. That was Eaton's +private opinion, and he was very much of the feeling that this was an +opportune time to get in out of the rain. + +"Don't you think we had better consider that answer before we send it, +Waring?" he suggested in a low voice. + +His chief nodded a dismissal to the secretary before answering. + +"I have considered it." + +"But--surely it isn't wise to reject his advances before we know what +they are." + +"I haven't rejected them. I've simply explained that we are doing +business on equal terms. Even if I meant to compromise, it would pay me +to let him know he doesn't own me." + +"He may decide not to offer his proposition." + +"It wouldn't worry me if he did." + +Eaton knew he must speak now if his protest were to be of any avail. +"It would worry me a good deal. He has shown an inclination to be +friendly. This answer is like a slap in the face." + +"Is it?" + +"Doesn't it look like that to you?" + +Ridgway leaned back in his chair and looked thoughtfully at his friend. +"Want to sell out, Steve?" + +"Why--what do you mean?" asked the surprised treasurer. + +"If you do, I'll pay anything in reason for your stock." He got up and +began to pace the floor with long deliberate strides. "I'm a born +gambler, Steve. It clears my head to take big chances. Give me a good +fight on my hands with the chances against me, and I'm happy. You've +got to take the world by the throat and shake success out of it if +you're going to score heavily. That's how Harley made good years ago. +Read the story of his life. See the chances he took. He throttled +combinations a dozen times as strong as his. Some people say he was an +accident. Don't you believe it. Accidents like him don't happen. He won +because he was the biggest, brainiest, most daring and unscrupulous +operator in the field. That's why I'm going to win--if I do win." + +"Yes, if you win." + +"Well, that's the chance I take," flung back the other as he swung +buoyantly across the room. "But YOU don't need to take it. If you want, +you can get out now at the top market price. I feel it in my bones I'm +going to win; but if you don't feel it, you'd be a fool to take +chances." + +Eaton's mercurial temperament responded with a glow. + +"No, sir. I'll sit tight. I'm no quitter." + +"Good for you, Steve. I knew it. I'll tell you now that I would have +hated like hell to see you leave me. You're the only man I can rely on +down to the ground, twenty-four hours of every day." + +The answer was sent, and Eaton's astonishment at his chief's temerity +changed to amazement when the great Harley, pocketing his pride, asked +for an appointment, and appeared at the offices of the Mesa +Ore-producing Company at the time set. That Ridgway, who was busy with +one of his superintendents, should actually keep the most powerful man +in the country waiting in an outer office while he finished his +business with Dalton seemed to him insolence florescent. + +"Whom the gods would destroy," he murmured to himself as the only +possible explanation, for the reaction of his enthusiasm was on him. + +Nor did his chief's conference with Dalton show any leaning toward +compromise. Ridgway had sent for his engineer to outline a program in +regard to some ore-veins in the Sherman Bell, that had for months been +in litigation between the two big interests at Mesa. Neither party to +the suit had waited for the legal decision, but each of them had put a +large force at work stoping out the ore. Occasional conflicts had +occurred when the men of the opposing factions came in touch, as they +frequently did, since crews were at work below and above each other at +every level. But none of these as yet had been serious. + +"Dalton, I was down last night to see that lease of Heyburn's on the +twelfth level of the Taurus. The Consolidated will tap our workings +about noon to-day, just below us. I want you to turn on them the +air-drill pipe as soon as they break through. Have a lot of loose rock +there mixed with a barrel of lime. Let loose the air pressure full on +the pile, and give it to their men straight. Follow them up to the end +of their own tunnel when they retreat, and hold it against them. Get +control of the levels above and below, too. Throw as many men as you +can into their workings, and gut them till there is no ore left." + +Dalton had the fighting edge. "You'll stand by me, no matter what +happens?" + +"Nothing will happen. They're not expecting trouble. But if anything +does, I'll see you through. Eaton is your witness that I ordered it." + +"Then it's as good as done, Mr. Ridgway," said Dalton, turning away. + +"There may be bloodshed," suggested Eaton dubiously, in a low voice. + +Ridgway's laugh had a touch of affectionate contempt. "Don't cross +bridges till you get to them, Steve. Haven't you discovered, man, that +the bold course is always the safe one? It's the quitter that loses out +every time. The strong man gets there; the weak one falls down. It's as +invariable as the law of gravity." He got up and stretched his broad +shoulders in a deep breath. "Now for Mr. Harley. Send him in, Eaton." + +That morning Simon Harley had done two things for many years foreign to +his experience: He had gone to meet another man instead of making the +man come to him, and he had waited the other man's pleasure in an outer +office. That he had done so implied a strong motive. + +Ridgway waved Harley to a chair without rising to meet him. The eyes of +the two men fastened, wary and unwavering. They might have been jungle +beasts of prey crouching for the attack, so tense was their attention. +The man from Broadway was the first to speak. + +"I have called, Mr. Ridgway, to arrange, if possible, a compromise. I +need hardly say this is not my usual method, but the circumstances are +extremely unusual. I rest under so great a personal obligation to you +that I am willing to overlook a certain amount of youthful +presumption." His teeth glittered behind a lip smile, intended to give +the right accent to the paternal reproof. "My personal obligation--" + +"What obligation? I left you to die in the snow.', + +"You forget what you did for Mrs. Harley." + +"You may eliminate that," retorted the younger man curtly. "You are +under no obligations whatever to me." + +"That is very generous of you, Mr. Ridgway, but--" + +Ridgway met his eyes directly, cutting his sentence as with a knife. +"'Generous' is the last word to use. It is not a question of generosity +at all. What I mean is that the thing I did was done with no reference +whatever to you. It is between me and her alone. I refuse to consider +it as a service to you, as having anything at all to do with you. I +told you that before. I tell you again." + +Harley's spirit winced. This bold claim to a bond with his wife that +excluded him, the scornful thrust of his enemy--he was already +beginning to consider him in that light rather than as a victim--had +touched the one point of human weakness in this money-making +Juggernaut. He saw himself for the moment without illusions, an old man +and an unlovable one, without near kith or kin. He was bitterly aware +that the child he had married had been sold to him by her guardian, +under fear of imminent ruin, before her ignorance of the world had +given her experience to judge for herself. The money and the hidden +hunger of sentiment he wasted on her brought him only timid thanks and +wan obedience. But for this man, with his hateful, confident youth, he +had seen the warm smile touch her lips and the delicate color rose her +cheeks. Nay, he had seen more her arms around his neck and her, warm +breath on his cheek. They had lived romance, these two, in the days +they had been alone together. They had shared danger and the joys of +that Bohemia of youth from which he was forever excluded. It was his +resolve to wipe out by financial favors--he could ruin the fellow later +if need be--any claims of Ridgway upon her gratitude or her foolish +imagination. He did not want the man's appeal upon her to carry the +similitude of martyrdom as well as heroism. + +"Yet, the fact remains that it was a service"--his thin lips smiled. "I +must be the best judge of that, I think. I want to be perfectly frank, +Mr. Ridgway. The Consolidated is an auxiliary enterprise so far as I am +concerned, but I have always made it a rule to look after details when +it became necessary. I came to Montana to crush you. I have always +regarded you as a menace to our legitimate interests, and I had quite +determined to make an end of it. You are a good fighter, and you've +been on the ground in person, which counts for a great deal. But you +must know that if I give myself to it in earnest, you are a ruined man." + +The Westerner laughed hardily. "I hear you say it." + +"But you don't believe," added the other quietly. "Many men have heard +and not believed. They have KNOWN when it was too late. + +"If you don't mind, I'll buy my experience instead of borrowing it," +Ridgway flung back flippantly. + +"One moment, Mr. Ridgway. I have told you my purpose in coming to +Montana. That purpose no longer exists. Circumstances have completely +altered my intentions. The finger of God is in it. He has not brought +us together thus strangely, except to serve some purpose of His own. I +think I see that purpose. 'The stone which the builders refused is +become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing; it is +marvelous in our eyes,'" he quoted unctiously. "I am convinced that it +is a waste of good material to crush you; therefore I desire to effect +a consolidation with you, buy all the other copper interests of any +importance in the country, and put you at the head of the resulting +combination." + +In spite of himself, Ridgway's face betrayed him. It was a magnificent +opportunity, the thing he had dreamed of as the culmination of a +lifetime of fighting. Nobody knew better than he on how precarious a +footing he stood, on how slight a rock his fortunes might be wrecked. +Here was his chance to enter that charmed, impregnable inner circle of +finance that in effect ruled the nation. That Harley's suave +friendliness would bear watching he did not doubt for a moment, but, +once inside, so his vital youth told him proudly, he would see to it +that the billionaire did not betray him. A week ago he could have asked +nothing better than this chance to bloat himself into a some-day +colossus. But now the thing stuck in his gorge. He understood the +implied obligation. Payment for his service to Aline Harley was to be +given, and the ledger balanced. Well, why not? Had he not spent the +night in a chaotic agony of renunciation? But to renounce voluntarily +was one thing, to be bought off another. + +He looked up and met Harley's thin smile, the smile that on Wall Street +was a synonym for rapacity and heartlessness, in the memory of which +men had committed murder and suicide. On the instant there jumped +between him and his ambition the face that had worked magic on him. +What a God's pity that such a lamb should be cast to this ravenous +wolf! He felt again her arms creeping round his neck, the divine trust +of her lovely eyes. He had saved her when this man who called himself +her husband had left her to perish in the storm. He had made her happy, +as she had never been in all her starved life. Had she not promised +never to forget, and was there not a deeper promise in her wistful eyes +that the years could not wipe out? She was his by every right of +natural law. By God! he would not sell his freedom of choice to this +white haired robber! + +"I seldom make mistakes in my judgment of men, Mr. Ridgway," the oily +voice ran on. "No small share of such success as it has been given me +to attain has been due to this instinct for putting my finger on the +right man. I am assured that in you I find one competent for the great +work lying before you. The opportunity is waiting; I furnish it, and +you the untiring energy of youth to make the most of the chance." His +wolfish smile bared the tusks for a moment. "I find myself not so young +as I was. The great work I have started is well under way. I must trust +its completion to younger and stronger hands than mine. I intend to +rest, to devote myself to my home, more directly to such philanthropic +and educational work as God has committed to my hands." + +The Westerner gave him look for look, his eyes burning to get over the +impasse of the expressionless mask no man had ever penetrated. He began +to see why nobody had ever understood Harley. He knew there would be no +rest for that consuming energy this side of the grave. Yet the man +talked as if he believed his own glib lies. + +"Consolidated is the watchword of the age; it means elimination of +ruinous competition, and consequent harmony and reduced expense in +management. Mr. Ridgway, may I count you with us? Together we should go +far. Do you say peace or war?" + +The younger man rose, leaning forward with his strong, sinewy hands +gripping the table. His face was pale with the repression of a rage +that had been growing intense. "I say war, and without quarter. I don't +believe you can beat me. I defy you to the test. And if you +should--even then I had rather go down fighting you than win at your +side." + +Simon Harley had counted acceptance a foregone conclusion, but he never +winked a lash at the ringing challenge of his opponent. He met his +defiance with an eye cold and steady as jade. + +"As you please, Mr. Ridgway. I wash my hands of your ruin, and when you +are nothing but a broken gambler, you will remember that I offered you +the greatest chance that ever came to a man of your age. You are one of +those men, I see, that would rather be first in hell than second in +heaven. So be it." He rose and buttoned his overcoat. + +"Say, rather, that I choose to go to hell my own master and not as the +slave of Simon Harley," retorted the Westerner bitterly. + +Ridgway's eyes blazed, but those of the New Yorker were cool and fishy. + +"There is no occasion for dramatics," he said, the cruel, passionless +smile at his thin lips. "I make you a business proposition and you +decline it. That is all. I wish you good day." + +The other strode past him and flung the door open. He had never before +known such a passion of hatred as raged within him. Throughout his life +Simon Harley had left in his wake wreckage and despair. He was the +best-hated man of his time, execrated by the working classes, despised +by the country at large, and distrusted by his fellow exploiters. Yet, +as a business opponent, Ridgway had always taken him impersonally, had +counted him for a condition rather than an individual. But with the new +influence that had come into his life, reason could not reckon, and +when it was dominant with him, Harley stood embodied as the wolf ready +to devour his ewe lamb. + +For he couldn't get away from her. Wherever he went he carried with him +the picture of her sweet, shy smile, her sudden winsome moments, the +deep light in her violet eyes; and in the background the sinister bared +fangs of the wild beast dogging her patiently, and yet lovingly. + + + +CHAPTER 11. VIRGINIA INTERVENES + +James K. Mott, local chief attorney for the Consolidated, was +struggling with a white tie before the glass and crumpling it +atrociously. + +"This dress-suit habit is the most pernicious I know. It's sapping the +liberties of the American people," he grunted at last in humorous +despair. + +"Let me, dear." + +His wife tied it with neatness and dispatch, and returned to the +inspection of how her skirt hung. + +"Mr. Harley asked me to thank you for calling on his wife. He says she +gets lonesome during the day while he is away so much. I was wondering +if you couldn't do something for her so that she could meet some of the +ladies of Mesa. A luncheon, or something of that sort, you know. Have +you seen my hat-brush anywhere?" + +"It's on that drawer beside your hat-box. She told me she would rather +not. I suggested it. But I'll tell you what I could do: take Virginia +Balfour round to see her. She's lively and good company, and knows some +of the people Mrs. Harley knows." + +"That's a good idea. I want Harley to know that we appreciate his +suggestions, and are ready to do our part. He has shown a disposition +to consult me on a good many things that ought to lie in Hobart's +sphere rather than mine. Something's going to drop. Now, I like Hobart, +but I want to show myself in a receptive mood for advancement when his +head falls, as it certainly will soon." + + * * * * * + +Virginia responded eagerly to Mrs. Mott's suggestion that they call +together on Mrs. Harley at the hotel. + +"My dear, you have saved my life. I've been dying of curiosity, and I +haven't been able to find vestige of an excuse to hang my call on. I +couldn't ask Mr. Ridgway to introduce me, could I?" + +"No, I don't see that you could," smiled Mrs. Mott, a motherly little +woman with pleasant brown eyes. "I suppose Mr. Ridgway isn't exactly on +calling terms with Mr. Harley's wife, even if he did save her life." + +"Oh, Mr. Ridgway isn't the man to let a little thing like a war a +outrance stand in the way of his social duties, especially when those +duties happen to be inclinations, too. I understand he DID call the +evening of their arrival here." + +"He didn't!" screamed Mrs. Mott, who happened to possess a voice of the +normal national register. "And what did Mr. Harley say?" + +"Ah, that's what one would like to know. My informant deponeth not +beyond the fact unadorned. One may guess there must have been +undercurrents of embarrassment almost as pronounced as if the President +were to invite his Ananias Club to a pink tea. I can imagine Mr. Harley +saying: 'Try this cake, Mr. Ridgway; it isn't poisoned;' and Mr. +Ridgway answering: 'Thanks! After you, my dear Gaston."' + +Miss Balfour's anxiety to meet the young woman her fiance had rescued +from the blizzard was not unnatural. Her curiosity was tinged with +frank envy, though jealousy did not enter into it at all. Virginia had +come West explicitly to take the country as she found it, and she had +found it, unfortunately, no more hazardous than little old New York, +though certainly a good deal more diverting to a young woman with +democratic proclivities that still survived the energetic weeding her +training had subjected them to. + +She did not quite know what she had expected to find in Mesa. Certainly +she knew that Indians were no longer on the map, and cowboys were +kicking up their last dust before vanishing, but she had supposed that +they had left compensations in their wake. On the principle that +adventures are to the adventurous, her life should have been a whirl of +hairbreadth escapes. + +But what happened? She took all sorts of chances without anything +coming of it. Her pirate fiance was the nearest approach to an +adventure she had flushed, and this pink-and-white chit of a married +schoolgirl had borrowed him for the most splendid bit of excitement +that would happen in a hundred years. She had been spinning around the +country in motor-cars for months without the sign of a blizzard, but +the chit had hit one the first time. It wasn't fair. That was her +blizzard by rights. In spirit, at least, she had "spoken for it," as +she and her brother used to say when they were children of some coveted +treasure not yet available. Virginia was quite sure that if she had +seen Waring Ridgway at the inspired moment when he was plowing through +the drifts with Mrs. Harley in his arms--only, of course, it would have +been she instead of Mrs. Harley, and he would not have been carrying +her so long as she could stand and take it--she would have fallen in +love with him on the spot. And those two days in the cabin on +half-ration they would have put an end forever to her doubts and to +that vision of Lyndon Hobart that persisted in her mind. What luck +glace' some people did have! + +But Virginia discovered the chit to be rather a different personality +than she had supposed. In truth, she lost her heart to her at once. She +could have stood out against Aline's mere good looks and been the +stiffer for them. She was no MAN, to be moved by the dark hair's dusky +glory, the charm of soft girlish lines, the effect of shy +unsophistication that might be merely the highest art of social +experience. But back of the sweet, trembling mouth that seemed to be +asking to be kissed, of the pathetic appeal for friendliness from the +big, deep violet eyes, was a quality of soul not to be counterfeited. +Miss Balfour had furbished up the distant hauteur of the society manner +she had at times used effectively, but she found herself instead taking +the beautiful, forlorn little creature in her arms. + +"Oh, my dear; my dear, how glad I am that dreadful blizzard did not +hurt you!" + +Aline clung to this gracious young queen as if she had known her a +lifetime. "You are so good to me everybody is. You know how Mr. Ridgway +saved me. If it had not been for him I should have died. I didn't +care--I wanted to die in peace, I think--but he wouldn't let me." + +"I should think not." + +"If you only knew him--perhaps you do." + +"A little," confessed Virginia, with a flash of merry eyes at Mrs. Mott. + +"He is the bravest man--and the strongest." + +"Yes. He is both," agreed his betrothed, with pride. + +"His tenderness, his unselfishness, his consideration for others--did +you ever know anybody like him for these things?" + +"Never," agreed Virginia, with the mental reservations that usually +accompanied her skeptical smile. She was getting at her fiance from a +novel point of view. + +"And so modest, with all his strength and courage.', + +"It's almost a fault in him," she murmured. + +"The woman that marries him will be blessed among women." + +"I count it a great privilege," said Miss Balfour absently, but she +pulled up with a hurried addendum: "To have known him." + +"Indeed, yes. If one met more men like him this would be a better +world." + +"It would certainly be a different world." + +It was a relief to Aline to talk, to put into words the external +skeleton facts of the surging current that had engulfed her existence +since she had turned a corner upon this unexpected consciousness of +life running strong and deep. Harley was not a confidant she could have +chosen under the most favorable circumstances, and her instinct told +her that in this matter he was particularly impossible. But to Virginia +Balfour--Mrs. Mott had to leave early to preside over the Mesa Woman's +Club, and her friend allowed herself to be persuaded to stay +longer--she did not find it at all hard to talk. Indeed, she murmured +into the sympathetic ear of this astute young searcher of hearts more +than her words alone said, with the result that Virginia guessed what +she herself had not yet quite found out, though her heart was hovering +tremblingly on the brink of discovery. + +But Virginia's sympathy for the trouble fate had in store for this +helpless innocent consisted with an alert appreciation of its obvious +relation to herself. What she meant to discover was the attitude toward +the situation of one neither particularly innocent nor helpless. Was +he, too, about to be "caught in the coil of a God's romances," or was +he merely playing on the vibrating strings of an untaught heart? + +It was in part to satisfy this craving for knowledge that she wrote +Ridgway a note as soon as she reached home. It said: + + +MY DEAR RECREANT LAGGARD: If you are not too busy playing Sir Lancelot +to fair dames in distress, or splintering lances with the doughty +husbands of these same ladies, I pray you deign to allow your servant +to feast her eyes upon her lord's face. Hopefully and gratefully yours, +VIRGINIA. + +P. S.--Have you forgotten, sir, that I have not seen you since that +terrible blizzard and your dreadful imprisonment in Fort Salvation? + +P. P. S.--I have seen somebody else, though. She's a dear, and full of +your praises. I hardly blame you. + +V. + + +She thought that ought to bring him soon, and it did. + +"I've been busy night and day," he apologized when they met. + +Virginia gave him a broadside demurely. + +"I suppose your social duties do take up a good deal of your time." + +"My social duties? Oh, I see!" He laughed appreciation of her hit. +Evidently through her visit she knew a good deal more than he had +expected. Since he had nothing to hide from her except his feelings, +this did not displease him. "My duties in that line have been confined +to one formal call." + +She sympathized with him elaborately. "Calls of that sort do bore men +so. I'll not forget the first time you called on me." + +"Nor I," he came back gallantly. + +"I marveled how you came through alive, but I learned then that a man +can't be bored to death." + +"I came again nevertheless," he smiled. "And again--and again." + +"I am still wondering why." + + "'Oh, wad some power the giffie gite us + To see ourselves as others see us!"' + +he quoted with a bow. + +"Is that a compliment?" she asked dubiously. + +"I have never heard it used so before. Anyhow, it is a little hackneyed +for anybody so original as you." + +"It was the best I could do offhand." + +She changed the subject abruptly. "Has the new campaign of the war +begun yet?" + +"Well, we're maneuvering for position." + +"You've seen him. How does he impress you?" + +"The same as he does others. A hard, ruthless fighter. Unless all signs +fail, he is an implacable foe." + +"But you are not afraid?" + +He smiled. "Do I look frightened?" + +"No, you remind me of something a burglar once told me--" + +"A what?" + +"A burglar--a reformed burglar!" She gave him a saucy flash of her dark +eyes. "Do you think I don't know any lawbreakers except those I have +met in this State? I came across this one in a mission where I used to +think I was doing good. He said it was not the remuneration of the +profession that had attracted him, but the excitement. It was +dreadfully frowned down upon and underpaid. He could earn more at his +old trade of a locksmith, but it seemed to him that every impediment to +success was a challenge to him. Poor man, he relapsed again, and they +put him in Sing Sing. I was so interested in him, too." + +"You've had some queer friends in your time," he laughed, but without a +trace of disapproval. + +"I have some queer ones yet," she thrust back. + +"Let's not talk of them," he cried, in pretended alarm. + +Her inextinguishable gaiety brought back the smile he liked. "We'll +talk of SOME ONE else--some one of interest to us both." + +"I am always ready to talk of Miss Virginia Balfour," he said, +misunderstanding promptly. + +She smiled her disdain of his obtuseness in an elaborately long survey +of him. + +"Well?" he wanted to know. + +"That's how you look--very well, indeed. I believe the storm was +greatly exaggerated," she remarked. + +"Isn't that rather a good definition for a blizzard--a greatly +exaggerated storm?" + +"You don't look the worse for wear--not the wreck I expected to behold." + +"Ah, you should have seen me before I saw you." + +"Thank you. I have no doubt you find the sight of my dear face as +refreshing as your favorite cocktail. I suppose that is why it has +taken you three days after your return to reach me and then by special +request." + +"A pleasure delayed is twice a pleasure anticipation and realization." + +Miss Balfour made a different application of his text, her eyes trained +on him with apparent indifference. "I've been enjoying a delayed +pleasure myself. I went to see her this afternoon." + +He did not ask whom, but his eyes brightened. + +"She's worth a good deal of seeing, don't you think?" + +"Oh, I'm in love with her, but it doesn't follow you ought to be." + +"Am I?"--he smiled. + +"You are either in love or else you ought to be ashamed of yourself." + +"An interesting thing about you is your point of view. Now, anybody +else would tell me I ought to be ashamed if I am in love." + +"I'm not worried about your morals," she scoffed. "It's that poor child +I'm thinking of." + +"I think of her a good deal, too." + +"Ah! and does she think of you a good deal That's what we must guard +against." + +"Is it?" + +"Yes. You see I'm her confidante." She told it him with sparkling eyes, +for the piquancy of it amused her. Not every engaged young woman can +hear her lover's praises sung by the woman whose life he has saved with +the proper amount of romance. + +"Really?" + +She nodded, laughing at him. "I didn't get a chance to tell her about +me." + +"I suppose not." + +"I think I'll tell her about you, though--just what a ruthless +barbarian you are." + +His eyes gleamed "I wish you would. I'd like to find out whether she +would believe you. I have tried to tell her myself, but the honest +truth is, I funk it." + +"You haven't any right to let her know you are interested in her." She +interrupted him before he could speak. "Don't trifle with her, Waring. +She's not like other girls." + +He met her look gravely. "I wouldn't trifle with her for any reason." + +Her quick rejoinder overlapped his sentence. "Then you love her!" + +"Is that an alternative?" + +"With you--yes." + +"Faith, my lady, you're frank!" + +"I'm not mealy-mouthed. You don't think yourself scrupulous, do you?" + +"I'm afraid I am not." + +"I don't mind so much your being in love with HER, though it's not +flattering to my vanity, but--" She stopped, letting him make the +inference. + +"Do you think that likely?" he asked, the color flushing his face. + +He wondered how much Aline had told this confidante. Certain specific +things he knew she had not revealed, but had she let her guess the +situation between them? + +She compromised with her conscience. "I don't know. She is +romantic--and Simon Harley isn't a very fertile field for romance, I +suppose." + +"You would imply?" + +"Oh, you have points, and nobody knows them better than Waring +Ridgway," she told him jauntily. "But you needn't play that role to the +address of Aline Harley. Try ME. I'm immune to romance. Besides, I'm +engaged to you," she added, laughing at the inconsequence the fact +seemed to have for both of them. + +"I'm afraid I can't help the situation, for if I've been playing a +part, it has been an unconscious one." + +"That's the worst of it. When you star as Waring Ridgway you are most +dangerous. What I want is total abstinence." + +"You'd rather I didn't see her at all?" + +Virginia dimpled, a gleam of reminiscent laughter in her eyes. "When I +was in Denver last month a Mrs. Smythe--it was Smith before her husband +struck it rich last year--sent out cards for a bridge afternoon. A Mrs. +Mahoney had just come to the metropolis from the wilds of Cripple +Creek. Her husband had struck a gold-mine, too, and Mr. Smythe was +under obligations to him. Anyhow, she was a stranger, and Mrs. Smythe +took her in. It was Mrs. Mahoney's introduction to bridge, and she did +not know she was playing for keeps. When the afternoon was over, Mrs. +Smythe hovered about her with the sweetest sympathy. 'So sorry you had +such a horrid run of cards, dear. Better luck next time.' It took Mrs. +Mahoney some time to understand that her social afternoon had cost one +hundred and twenty dollars, but next day her husband sent a check for +one hundred and twenty-two dollars to Mrs. Smythe. The extra two +dollars were for the refreshments, he naively explained, adding that +since his wife was so poor a gambler as hardly to be able to keep +professionals interested, he would not feel offended if Mrs. Smythe +omitted her in future from her social functions." + +Ridgway took it with a smile. "Simon Harley brought his one hundred and +twenty-two dollars in person." + +"He didn't! When?" + +"This morning. He proposed benevolent assimilation as a solution of our +troubles." + +"Just how?" + +"He offered to consolidate all the copper interests of the country and +put me at the head of the resulting combine." + +"If you wouldn't play bridge with Mrs. Harley?" + +"Exactly." + +"And you?" + +"Declined to pledge myself." + +She clapped her hands softly. "Well done, Waring Ridgway! There are +times when you are magnificent, when I could put you on a pedestal, you +great big, unafraid man. But you mustn't play with her, just the same." + +"Why mustn't I?" + +"For her sake." + +He frowned past her into space, his tight-shut jaw standing out +saliently. "You're right, Virginia. I've been thinking so myself. I'll +keep off the grass," he said, at last. + +"You're a good fellow," slipped out impulsively. + +"Well, I know where there's another," he said. "I ought to think myself +a lucky dog." + +Virginia lifted quizzical eyebrows. "Ought to! That tastes of duty. +Don't let it come to that. We'll take it off if you like." She touched +the solitaire he had given her. + +"Ah, but I don't like"--he smiled. + + + +CHAPTER 12. ALINE MAKES A DISCOVERY + +Aline pulled her horse to a walk. "You know Mr. Ridgway pretty well, +don't you?" + +Miss Balfour gently flicked her divided skirt with a riding-whip, +considering whether she might be said to know him well. "Yes, I think I +do," she ventured. + +"Mrs. Mott says you and he are great friends, that you seem very fond +of each other." + +"Goodness me! I hope I don't seem fond of him. I don't think 'fond' is +exactly the word, anyway, though we are good friends." Quickly, keenly, +her covert glance swept Aline; then, withdrawing her eyes, she flung +her little bomb. "I suppose we may be said to appreciate each other. At +any rate, we are engaged." + +Mrs. Harley's pony came to an abrupt halt. "I thought I had dropped my +whip," she explained, in a low voice not quite true. + +Virginia, though she executed an elaborate survey of the scenery, could +not help noticing that the color had washed from her friend's face. "I +love this Western country--its big sweep of plains, of low, rolling +hills, with a background of mountains. One can see how it gets into a +man's blood so that the East seems insipid ever afterward," discoursed +Miss Balfour. + +A question trembled on Aline's blanched lips. + +"Say it," permitted Virginia. + +"Do you mean that you are engaged to him--that you are going to marry +Mr. Ridgway--without caring for him?" + +"I don't mean that at all. I like him immensely." + +"But--do you love him?" It was almost a cry--these low words wrung from +the tortured heart. + +"No fair," warned her friend smilingly. + +Aline rode in silence, her stricken face full of trouble. How could +she, from her glass house, throw stones at a loveless marriage? But +this was different from her own case! Nobody was worthy to marry her +hero without giving the best a woman had to give. If she were a girl--a +sudden tide of color swept her face; a wild, delirious tingle of joy +flooded her veins--oh, if she were a girl, what a wealth of love could +she give him! Clarity of vision had come to her in a blinding flash. +Untutored of life, the knowledge of its meaning had struck home of the +suddenest. She knew her heart now that it was too late; knew that she +could never be indifferent to what concerned Waring Ridgway. + +Aline caught at the courage behind her childishness, and accomplished +her congratulations "You will be happy, I am sure. He is good." + +"Goodness does not impress me as his most outstanding quality," smiled +Miss Balfour. + +"No, one never feels it emphasized. He is too free of selfishness +to make much of his goodness. But one can't help feeling it +in everything he does and says." + +"Does Mr. Harley agree with you? Does he feel it?" + +"I don't think Mr. Harley understands him. I can't help thinking that +he is prejudiced." She was becoming mistress of her voice and color +again. + +"And you are not?" + +"Perhaps I am. In my thought of him he would still be good, even if he +had done all the bad things his enemies accuse him of." + +Virginia gave her up. This idealized interpretation of her betrothed +was not the one she had, but for Aline it might be the true one. At +least, she could not disparage him very consistently under the +circumstances. + +"Isn't there a philosophy current that we find in people what we look +for in them? Perhaps that is why you and Mr. Harley read in Mr. Ridgway +men so diverse as you do. It is not impossible you are both right and +both wrong. Heaven knows, I suppose. At least, we poor mortals fog +around enough when we sit in judgment." And Virginia shrugged the +matter from her careless shoulders. + +But Aline seemed to have a difficulty in getting away from the subject. +"And you--what do you read?" she asked timidly. + +"Sometimes one thing and sometimes another. To-day I see him as a +living refutation of all the copy-book rules to success. He shatters +the maxims with a touch-and-go manner that is fascinating in its +immorality. A gambler, a plunger, an adventurer, he wins when a +careful, honest business man would fail to a certainty." + +Aline was amazed. "You misjudge him. I am sure you do. But if you think +this of him why--" + +"Why do I marry him? I have asked myself that a hundred times, my dear. +I wish I knew. I have told you what I see in him to-day; but +tomorrow--why, to-morrow I shall see him an altogether different man. +He will be perhaps a radiating center of altruism, devoted to his +friends, a level-headed protector of the working classes, a patron of +the arts in his own clearminded, unlettered way. But whatever point of +view one gets at him, he spares one dullness. Will you explain to me, +my dear, why picturesque rascality is so much more likable than humdrum +virtue?" + +Mrs. Harley's eyes blazed. "And you can talk this way of the man you +are going to marry, a man--" She broke off, her voice choked. + +Miss Balfour was cool as a custard. "I can, my dear, and without the +least disloyalty. In point of fact, he asked me to tell you the kind of +man I think him. I'm trying to oblige him, you see." + +"He asked you--to tell me this about him?" Aline pulled in her pony in +order to read with her astonished eyes the amused ones of her companion. + +"Yes. He was afraid you were making too much of his saving you. He +thinks he won't do to set on a pedestal." + +"Then I think all the more of him for his modesty." + +"Don't invest too heavily on his modesty, my dear. He wouldn't be the +man he is if he owned much of that commodity." + +"The man he is?" + +"Yes, the man born to win, the man certain of himself no matter what +the odds against him. He knows he is a man of destiny; knows quite well +that there is something big about him that dwarfs other men. I know it, +too. Wherefore I seize my opportunity. It would be a sin to let a man +like that get away from one. I could never forgive myself," she +concluded airily. + +"Don't you see any human, lovable things in him?" Aline's voice was an +accusation. + +"He is the staunchest friend conceivable. No trouble is too great for +him to take for one he likes, and where once he gives his trust he does +not take it back. Oh, for all his force, he is intensely human! Take +his vanity, my dear. It soars to heaven." + +"If I cared for him I couldn't dissect his qualities as you do." + +"That's because you are a triumph of the survival of nature and impulse +over civilization, in spite of its attempts to sap your freshness. For +me, I fear I'm a sophisticated daughter of a critical generation. If I +weren't, I should not hold my judgment so safely in my own keeping, but +would surrender it and my heart." + +"There is something about the way you look at him that shocks me. One +ought not to let oneself believe all that seems easy to believe." + +"That is your faith, but mine is a different one. You see, I'm a +Unitarian," returned Virginia blithely. + +"He will make you love him if you marry him," sighed Aline, coming back +to her obsession. + +Virginia nodded eagerly. "In my secret heart that is what I am hoping +for, my dear." + +"Unless there is another man," added Aline, as if alone with her +thoughts. + +Virginia was irritably aware of a flood of color beating into her +cheeks. "There isn't any other man," she said impatiently. + +Yet she thought of Lyndon Hobart. Curiously enough, whenever she +conceived herself as marrying Ridgway, the reflex of her brain carried +to her a picture of Hobart, clean-handed, fine of instinct, with the +inherited inflections of voice and unconscious pride of caste that come +from breeding and not from cultivation. If he were not born to +greatness, like his rival, at least he satisfied her critical judgment +of what a gentleman should be; and she was quite sure that the +potential capacity lay in her to care a good deal more for him than for +anybody else she had met. Since it was not on the cards, as Miss +Virginia had shuffled the pack, that she should marry primarily for +reasons sentimental, this annoyed her in her sophisticated hours. + +But in the hours when she was a mere girl when she was not so +confidently the heir of all the feminine wisdom of the ages, her +annoyance took another form. She had told Lyndon Hobart of her +engagement because it was the honest thing to do; because she supposed +she ought to discourage any hopes he might be entertaining. But it did +not follow that he need have let these hopes be extinguished so +summarily. She could have wished his scrupulous regard for the proper +thing had not had the effect of taking him so completely out of her +external life, while leaving him more insistently than ever the subject +of her inner contemplation. + +Virginia's conscience was of the twentieth century and American, though +she was a good deal more honest with herself than most of her sex in +the same social circle. Also she was straightforward with her neighbors +so far as she could reasonably be. But she was not a Puritan in the +least, though she held herself to a more rigid account than she did her +friends. She judged her betrothed as little as she could, but this was +not to be entirely avoided, since she expected her life to become +merged so largely in his. There were hours when she felt she must +escape the blighting influence of his lawlessness. There were others +when it seemed to her magnificent. + +Except for the occasional jangle of a bit or the ring of a horse's shoe +on a stone, there was silence which lasted many minutes. Each was busy +with her thoughts, and the narrowness of the trail, which here made +them go in single file, served as an excuse against talk. + +"Perhaps we had better turn back," suggested Virginia, after the path +had descended to a gulch and merged itself in a wagon-road. "We shall +have no more than time to get home and dress for dinner." + +Aline turned her pony townward, and they rode at a walk side by side. + +"Do you know much about the difficulty between Mr. Harley and Mr. +Ridgway? I mean about the mines--the Sherman Bell, I think they called +it?" + +"I know something about the trouble in a general way. Both the +Consolidated and Mr. Ridgway's company claim certain veins. That is +true of several mines, I have been told." + +"I don't know anything about business. Mr. Harley does not tell me +anything about his. To day I was sitting in the open window, and two +men stopped beneath it. They thought there would be trouble in this +mine--that men would be hurt. I could not make it all out, but that was +part of it. I sent for Mr. Harley and made him tell me what he knew. It +would be dreadful if anything like that happened." + +"Don't worry your head about it, my dear. Things are always threatening +and never happening. It seems to be a part of the game of business to +bluff, as they call it." + +"I wish it weren't," sighed the girl-wife. + +Virginia observed that she looked both sad and weary. She had started +on her ride like a prisoner released from his dungeon, happy in the +sunshine, the swift motion, the sting of the wind in her face. There +had been a sparkle in her eye and a ring of gaiety in her laugh. Into +her cheeks a faint color had glowed, so that the contrast of their +clear pallor with the vivid scarlet of the little lips had been less +pronounced than usual. But now she was listless and distraite, the +girlish abandon all stricken out of her. It needed no clairvoyant to +see that her heart was heavy and that she was longing for the moment +when she could be alone with her pain. + +Her friend had learned what she wanted to know, and the knowledge of it +troubled her. She would have given a good deal to have been able to +lift this sorrow from the girl riding beside her. For she was aware +that Aline Harley might as well have reached for the moon as that +toward which her untutored heart yearned. She had come to life late and +traveled in it but a little way. Yet the tragedy of it was about to +engulf her. No lifeboat was in sight. She must sink or swim alone. +Virginia's unspoiled heart went out to her with a rush of pity and +sympathy. Almost the very words that Waring Ridgway had used came to +her lips. + +"You poor lamb! You poor, forsaken lamb!" + +But she spoke instead with laughter and lightness, seeing nothing of +the girl's distress, at least, until after they separated at the door +of the hotel. + + + +CHAPTER 13. FIRST BLOOD + +After Ridgway's cavalier refusal to negotiate a peace treaty, Simon +Harley and his body-guard walked back to the offices of the +Consolidated, where they arrived at the same time as the news of the +enemy's first blow since the declaration of renewed war. + +Hobart was at his desk with his ear to the telephone receiver when the +great financier came into the inner office of the manager. + +"Yes. When? Driven out, you say? Yes--yes. Anybody hurt? Followed our +men through into our tunnel? No, don't do anything till you hear from +me. Send Rhys up at once. Let me know any further developments that +occur." + +Hobart hung up the receiver and turned on his swivel-chair toward his +chief. "Another outrage, sir, at the hands of Ridgway. It is in regard +to those veins in the Copper King that he claims. Dalton, his +superintendent of the Taurus, drove a tunnel across our lateral lines +and began working them, though their own judge has not yet rendered a +decision in their favor. Of course, I put a large force in them at +once. To-day we tapped their workings at the twelfth level. Our +foreman, Miles, has just telephoned me that Dalton turned the air +pressure on our men, blew out their candles, and flung a mixture of +lime and rocks at them. Several of the men are hurt, though none badly. +It seems that Dalton has thrown a force into our tunnels and is holding +the entrances against us at the point where the eleventh, twelfth, and +thirteenth levels touch the cage. It means that he will work those +veins, and probably others that are acknowledged to be ours, unless we +drive them out, which would probably be a difficult matter." + +Harley listened patiently, eyes glittering and clean-shaven lips +pressed tightly against his teeth. "What do you propose to do?" + +"I haven't decided yet. If we could get any justice from the courts, an +injunction." + +"Can't be got from Purcell. Don't waste time considering it. Fight it +out yourself. Find his weakest spot, then strike hard and suddenly." +Harley's low metallic voice was crisp and commanding. + +"His weakest spot?" + +"Exactly. Has he no mines upon which we can retaliate?" + +"There is the Taurus. It lies against the Copper King end to end. He +drove a tunnel into some of our workings last winter. That would give a +passageway to send our men through, if we decide to do so. Then there +is his New York. Its workings connect with those of the Jim Hill." + +"Good! Send as many men through as is necessary to capture and hold +both mines. Get control of the entire workings of them both, and begin +taking ore out at once. Station armed guards at every point where it is +necessary, and as many as are necessary. Use ten thousand men, if you +need that many. But don't fail. We'll give Ridgway a dose of his own +medicine, and teach him that for every pound of our ore he steals we'll +take ten." + +"He'll get an injunction from the courts." + +"Let him get forty. I'll show him that his robber courts will not save +him. Anyhow, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." + +Hobart, almost swept from his moorings by the fiery energy of his +chief, braced himself to withstand the current. + +"I shall have to think about that. We can't fight lawlessness with +lawlessness except for selfpreservation." + +"Think! You do nothing but think, Mr. Hobart. You are here to act," +came the scornful retort; "And what is this but self-preservation." + +"I am willing to recapture our workings in the Copper King. I'll lead +the attack in person, sir. But as to a retaliatory attack--the facts +will not justify a capture of his property because he has seized ours." + +"Wrong, sir. This is no time for half-way measures. I have resolved to +crush this freebooter; since he has purchased your venal courts, then +by the only means left us--force." + +Hobart rose from his seat, very pale and erect. His eyes met those of +the great man unflinchingly. "You realize that this may mean murder, +Mr. Harley? That a clash cannot possibly be avoided if you pursue this +course?" + +"I realize that it is self-preservation," came the cold retort. "There +is no law here, none, at least, that gives us justice. We are back to +savagery, dragged back by the madness of this ruffian. It is his +choice, not mine. Let him abide by it." + +"Your intention to follow this course is irrevocable?" + +"Absolutely." + +"In that case, I must regretfully offer my resignation as manager of +the Consolidated." + +"It is accepted, Mr. Hobart. I can't have men working under me that are +not loyal, body and soul, to the hand that feeds them. No man can serve +two masters, Mr. Hobart." + +"That is why I resign, Mr. Harley. You give me the devil's work to do. +I have done enough of it. By Heaven, I will be a free man hereafter." +The disgust and dissatisfaction that had been pent within him for many +a month broke forth hot from the lips of this self-repressed man. "It +is all wrong on both sides. Two wrongs do not make a right. The system +of espionage we employ over everybody both on his side and ours, the +tyrannical use we make of our power, the corruption we foster in +politics, our secret bargains with railroads, our evasions of law as to +taxes, and in every other way that suits us: it is all wrong--all +wrong. I'll be a party to it no longer. You see to what it +leads--murder and anarchy. I'll be a poor man if I must, but I'll be a +free and honest one at least." + +"You are talking wickedly and wildly, Mr. Hobart. You are criticizing +God when you criticize the business conditions he has put into the +world. I did not know that you were a socialist, but what you have just +said explains your course," the old man reproved sadly and +sanctimonious. + +"I am not a socialist, Mr. Harley, but you and your methods have made +thousands upon thousands of them in this country during the past ten +years." + +"We shall not discuss that, Mr. Hobart, nor, indeed, is any discussion +necessary. Frankly, I am greatly disappointed in you. I have for some +time been dissatisfied with your management, but I did not, of course, +know you held these anarchistic views. I want, however, to be perfectly +just. You are a very good business man indeed, careful and thorough. +That you have not a bold enough grasp of mind for the place you hold is +due, perhaps, to these dangerous ideas that have unsettled you. Your +salary will be continued for six months. Is that satisfactory?" + +"No, sir. I could not be willing to accept it longer than to-day. And +when you say bold enough, why not be plain and say unscrupulous +enough?" amended the younger man. + +"As you like. I don't juggle with words. The point is, you don't +succeed. This adventurer, Ridgway, scores continually against you. He +has beaten you clear down the line from start to finish. Is that not +true?" + +"Because he does not hesitate to stoop to anything, because--" + +"Precisely. You have given the very reason why he must be fought in the +same spirit. Business ethics would be as futile against him as chivalry +in dealing with a jungle-tiger." + +"You would then have had me stoop to any petty meanness to win, no +matter how contemptible?" + +The New Yorker waved him aside with a patient, benignant gesture. "I +don't care for excuses. I ask of my subordinates success. You do not +get it for me. I must find a man who can." + +Hobart bowed with fine dignity. The touch of disdain in his slight +smile marked his sense of the difference between them. He was again his +composed rigid self. + +"Can you arrange to allow my resignation to take effect as soon as +possible? I should prefer to have my connection with the company +severed before any action is taken against these mines." + +"At once--to-day. Your resignation may be published in the Herald this +afternoon, and you will then be acquitted of whatever may follow." + +"Thank you." Hobart hesitated an instant before he said: "There is a +point that I have already mentioned to you which, with your permission, +I must again advert to. The temper of the miners has been very bitter +since you refused to agree to Mr. Ridgway's proposal for an eight-hour +day. I would urge upon you to take greater precautions against a +personal attack. You have many lawless men among your employees. They +are foreigners for the most part, unused to self-restraint. It is only +right you should know they execrate your name." + +The great man smiled blandly. "Popularity is nothing to me. I have +neither sought it nor desired it. Given a great work to do, with the +Divine help I have done it, irrespective of public clamor. For many +years I have lived in the midst of alarms, Mr. Hobart. I am not +foolhardy. What precautions I can reasonably take I do. For the rest, +my confidence is in an all-wise Providence. It is written that not even +a sparrow falls without His decree. In that promise I put my trust. If +I am to be cut off it can only be by His will. 'The Lord gave, and the +Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.' Such, I pray, +may be the humble and grateful spirit with which I submit myself to His +will." + +The retiring manager urged the point no further. "If you have decided +upon my successor and he is on the ground I shall be glad to give the +afternoon to running over with him the affairs of the office. It would +be well for him to retain for a time my private secretary and +stenographer." + +"Mr. Mott will succeed you. He will no doubt be glad to have your +assistance in helping him fall into the routine of the office, Mr. +Hobart." + +Harley sent for Mott at once and told him of his promotion. The two men +were closeted together for hours, while trusted messengers went and +came incessantly to and from the mines. Hobart knew, of course, that +plans were in progress to arm such of the Consolidated men as could be +trusted, and that arrangements were being made to rush the Taurus and +the New York. Everything was being done as secretly as possible, but +Hobart's experience of Ridgway made it obvious to him that this +excessive activity could not pass without notice. His spies, like those +of the trust, swarmed everywhere. + +It was not till mid-afternoon of the next day that Mott found time to +join him and run over with him the details of such unfinished business +as the office had taken up. The retiring manager was courtesy itself, +nor did he feel any bitterness against his successor. Nevertheless, he +came to the end of office hours with great relief. The day had been a +very hard one, and it left him with a longing for solitude and the wide +silent spaces of the open hills. He struck out in the direction which +promised him the quickest opportunity to leave the town behind him. A +good walker, he covered the miles rapidly, and under the physical +satisfaction of the tramp the brain knots unraveled and smoothed +themselves out. It was better so--better to live his own life than the +one into which he was being ground by the inexorable facts of his +environment. He was a young man and ambitious, but his hopes were not +selfish. At bottom he was an idealist, though a practical one. He had +had to shut his eyes to many things which he deplored, had been driven +to compromises which he despised. Essentially clean-handed, the soul of +him had begun to wither at the contact of that which he saw about him +and was so large a part of. + +"I am not fit for it. That is the truth. Mott has no imagination, and +property rights are the most sacred thing on earth to him. He will do +better at it than I," he told himself, as he walked forward bareheaded +into the great sunset glow that filled the saddle between two purple +hills in front of him. + +As he swung round a bend in the road a voice, clear and sweet, came to +him through the light filtered air. + +"Laska!" + +A young woman on horseback was before him. Her pony stood across the +road, and she looked up a trail which ran down into it. The lifted +poise of the head brought out its fine lines and the distinction with +which it was set upon the well-molded throat column. Apparently she was +calling to some companion on the trail who had not yet emerged into +view. + +At sound of his footsteps the rider's head turned. + +"Good afternoon, Mr. Hobart," she said quietly, as coolly as if her +heart had not suddenly begun to beat strangely fast. + +"Good afternoon, Miss Balfour." + +Each of them was acutely conscious of the barrier between them. Since +the day when she had told him of her engagement they had not met, even +casually, and this their first sight of each other was not without +embarrassment. + +"We have been to Lone Pine Cone," she said rather hurriedly, to bridge +an impending silence. + +He met this obvious statement with another as brilliant. + +"I walked out from town. My horse is a little lame." + +But there was something she wanted to say to him, and the time for +saying it, before the arrival of her companion, was short. She would +not waste it in commonplaces. + +"I don't usually read the papers very closely, but this morning I read +both the Herald and the Sun. Did you get my note?" + +"Your note? No." + +"I sent it by mail. I wanted you to know that your friends are proud of +you. We know why you resigned. It is easy to read between the lines." + +"Thank you," he said simply. "I knew you would know." + +"Even the Sun recognizes that it was because you are too good a man for +the place." + +"Praise from the Sun has rarely shone my way," he said, with a touch of +irony, for that paper was controlled by the Ridgway interest. "In its +approval I am happy." + +Her impulsive sympathy for this man whom she so greatly liked would not +accept the rebuff imposed by this reticence. She stripped the gauntlet +from her hand and offered it in congratulation. + +He took it in his, a slight flush in his face. + +"I have done nothing worthy of praise. One cannot ask less of a man +than that he remain independent and honest. I couldn't do that and stay +with the Consolidated, or, so it seemed to me. So I resigned. That is +all there is to it." + +"It is enough. I don't know another man would have done it, would have +had the courage to do it after his feet were set so securely in the way +of success. The trouble with Americans is that they want too much +success. They want it at too big a price." + +"I'm not likely ever to have too much of it," he laughed sardonically. + +"Success in life and success in living aren't the same thing. It is +because you have discovered this that you have sacrificed the less for +the greater." She smiled, and added: "I didn't mean that to sound as +preachy as it does." + +"I'm afraid you make too much of a small thing. My squeamishness has +probably made me the laughing-stock of Mesa." + +"If so, that is to the discredit of Mesa," she insisted stanchly. "But +I don't think so. A great many people who couldn't have done it +themselves will think more of you for having done it." + +Another pony, which had been slithering down the steep trail in the +midst of a small rock slide, now brought its rider safely to a halt in +the road. Virginia introduced them, and Hobart, remembered that he had +heard Miss Balfour speak of a young woman whom she had met on the way +out, a Miss Laska Lowe, who was coming to Mesa to teach domestic +science in the public schools. There was something about the young +teacher's looks that he liked, though she was of a very different type +than Virginia. Not at all pretty in any accepted sense, she yet had a +charm born of the vital honesty in her. She looked directly at one out +of sincere gray eyes, wide-awake and fearless. As it happened, her +friend had been telling her about Hobart, and she was interested in him +from the first. For she was of that minority which lives not by bread +alone, and she felt a glow of pride in the man who could do what the +Sun had given this man credit for editorially. + +They talked at haphazard for a few minutes before the young women +cantered away. As Hobart trudged homeward he knew that in the eyes of +these two women, at least, he had not been a fool. + + + +CHAPTER 14. A CONSPIRACY + +Tucked away in an obscure corner of the same issue of the papers which +announced the resignation of Lyndon Hobart as manager of the +Consolidated properties, and the appointment of James K. Mott as his +temporary successor, were little one-stick paragraphs regarding +explosions, which had occurred the night before in tunnels of the +Taurus and the New York. The general public paid little attention to +these, but those on the inside knew that Ridgway had scored again. His +spies had carried the news to him of the projected capture of these two +properties by the enemy. Instead of attempting to defend them by force, +he had set off charges of giant powder which had brought down the tunnel +roofs and effectually blocked the entrances from the Consolidated mines +adjoining. + +With the indefatigable patience which characterized him, Harley set +about having the passages cleared of the rock and timber with which +they were filled. Before he had succeeded in doing this his enemy +struck another telling blow. From Judge Purcell he secured an +injunction against the Consolidated from working its mines, the Diamond +King, the Mary K, and the Marcus Daly, on the absurd contention that +the principal ore-vein of the Marcus Daly apexed on the tin, triangle +wedged in between these three great mines, and called by Ridgway the +Trust Buster. Though there was not room enough upon this fragment to +sink a shaft, it was large enough to found this claim of a vein +widening as it descended until it crossed into the territory of each of +these properties. Though Harley could ignore court injunctions which +erected only under-ground territory, he was forced to respect this one, +since it could not be violated except in the eyes of the whole country. +The three mines closed down, and several thousand workmen were thrown +out of employment. These were immediately reemployed by Ridgway and set +to work both in his own and the Consolidated's territory. + +Within a week a dozen new suits were instituted against the +Consolidated by its enemy. He harassed it by contempt proceedings, by +applications for receiverships, and by other ingenious devices, which +greatly tormented the New York operator. For the first time in his life +the courts, which Harley had used to much advantage in his battles to +maintain and extend the trusts he controlled, could not be used even to +get scant justice. + +Meanwhile both leaders were turning their attention to the political +situation. The legislators were beginning to gather for the coming +session, and already the city was full of rumors about corruption. For +both the Consolidated and its enemy were making every effort to secure +enough votes to win the election of a friendly United States senator. +The man chosen would have the distribution of the federal patronage of +the State. This meant the control of the most influential local +politicians of the party in power at Washington as well as their +followers, an almost vital factor for success in a State where +political corruption had so interwoven itself into the business life of +the community. + +The hotel lobbies were filled with politicians gathered from every +county in the State. Big bronzed cattlemen brushed shoulders with +budding lawyers from country towns and ward bosses from the larger +cities. The bars were working overtime, and the steady movement of +figures in the corridors lasted all day and most of the night. Here and +there were collected groups, laughing and talking about the old +frontier days, or commenting in lowered tones on some phase of the +feverish excitement that was already beginning to be apparent. +Elevators shot up and down, subtracting and adding to the kaleidoscope +of human life in the rotundas. Bellboys hurried to and fro with +messages and cocktails. The ring of the telephone-bell cut occasionally +into the deep hum of many voices. All was confusion, keen interest, +expectancy. + +For it was known that Simon Harley had sent for $300,000 in cold cash +to secure the election of his candidate, Roger D. Warner, a lawyer who +had all his life been close to corporate interests. It was known, too, +that Waring Ridgway had gathered together every element in the State +that opposed the domination of the Consolidated, to fight their man to +a finish. Bets for large sums were offered and taken as to the result, +heavy odds being given in favor of the big copper trust's candidate. +For throughout the State at large the Consolidated influence was very +great indeed. It owned forest lands and railroads and mines. It +controlled local transportation largely. Nearly one-half the working +men in the State were in its employ. Into every town and village the +ramifications of its political organization extended. The feeling +against it was very bitter, but this was usually expressed in whispers. +For it was in a position to ruin almost any business man upon whom it +fastened a grudge, and to make wealthy any upon whom it chose to cast +its favors. + +Nevertheless, there were some not so sure that the Consolidated would +succeed in electing its man. Since Ridgway had announced himself as a +candidate there had been signs of defection on the part of some of +those expected to vote for Warner. He had skillfully wielded together +in opposition to the trust all the elements of the State that were +hostile to it; and already the word was being passed that he had not +come to the campaign without a barrel of his own. + +The balloting for United States senator was not to begin until the +eighth day of the session, but the opening week was full of a tense and +suppressed excitement. It was known that agents of both sides were +moving to and fro among the representatives and State senators, +offering fabulous prices for their votes and the votes of any others +they might be able to control. Men who had come to the capital +confident in their strength and integrity now looked at their neighbors +furtively and guiltily. Day by day the legislators were being debauched +to serve the interest of the factions which were fighting for control +of the State. Night after night secret meetings were being held in +out-of-the-way places to seduce those who clung desperately to their +honesty or held out for a bigger price. Bribery was in the air, +rampant, unashamed. Thousand-dollar bills were as common as ten-dollar +notes in ordinary times. + +Sam Yesler, commenting on the situation to his friend Jack Roper, a +fellow member of the legislature who had been a cattleman from the time +he had given up driving a stage thirty years before, shook his head +dejectedly over his blue points. + +"I tell you, Jack, a man has to be bed-rocked in honesty or he's gone. +Think of it. A country lawyer comes here who has never seen five +thousand dollars in a lump sum, and they shove fifteen thousand at him +for his vote. He is poor, ambitious, struggling along from hand to +mouth. I reckon we ain't in a position to judge that poor devil of a +harassed fellow. Mebbe he's always been on the square, came here to do +what was right, we'll say, but he sees corruption all round him. How +can he help getting a warped notion of things? He sees his friends and +his neighbors falling by the wayside. By God, it's got to the point in +this legislature that an honest man's an object of obloquy." + +"That's right," agreed Roper. "Easy enough for us to be square. We got +good ranches back of us and can spend the winter playing poker at the +Mesa Club if we feel like it. But if we stood where Billy George and +Garner and Roberts and Munz do, I ain't so damn sure my virtue would +stand the strain. Can you reach that salt, Sam?" + +"Billy George has got a sick wife, and he's been wanting to send her +back to her folks in the East, but he couldn't afford it. The doctors +figured she ought to stay a year, and Billy would have to hire a woman +to take care of his kids. I said to him: 'Hell, Billy, what's a friend +for?' And I shoves a check at him. He wouldn't look at it; said he +didn't know whether he could ever pay it, and he had not come down to +charity yet." + +"Billy's a white man. That's what makes me sick. Right on top of all +his bad luck he comes here and sees that everybody is getting a big +roll. He thinks of that white-faced wife of his dragging herself round +among the kids and dying by inches for lack of what money can buy her. +I tell you I don't blame him. It's the fellows putting the temptation +up to him that ought to be strung up." + +"I see that hound Pelton's mighty active in it. He's got it in for +Ridgway since Waring threw him down, and he's plugging night and day +for Warner. Stays pretty well tanked up. Hopper tells me he's been +making threats to kill Waring on sight." + +"I heard that and told Waring. He laughed and said he hoped he would +live till Pelton killed him. I like Waring. He's got the guts, as his +miners say. But he's away off on this fight. He's using money right and +left just as Harley is." + +Yesler nodded. "The whole town's corrupted. It takes bribery for +granted. Men meet on the street and ask what the price of votes is this +morning. Everybody feels prosperous." + +"I heard that a chambermaid at the Quartzite Hotel found seven thousand +dollars in big bills pinned to the bottom of a mattress in Garner's +room yesterday. He didn't dare bank it, of course." + +"Poor devil! He's another man that would like to be honest, but with +the whole place impregnated with bribery he couldn't stand the +pressure. But after this is all over he'll go home to his wife and his +neighbors with the canker of this thing at his heart until he dies. I +tell you, Jack, I'm for stopping it if we can." + +"How?" + +"There's one way. I've been approached indirectly by Pelton, to deliver +our vote to the Consolidated. Suppose we arrange to do it, get +evidence, and make a public exposure." + +They were alone in a private dining-room of a restaurant, but Yesler's +voice had fallen almost to a whisper. With his steady gray eyes he +looked across at the man who had ridden the range with him fifteen +years ago when he had not had a sou to bless himself with. + +Roper tugged at his long drooping mustache and gazed at his friend. +"It's a large order, Sam, a devilish large order. Do you reckon we +could deliver?" + +"I think so. There are six of us that will stand pat at any cost. If we +play our cards right and keep mum the surprise of it is bound to shake +votes loose when we spring the bomb. The whole point is whether we can +take advantage of that surprise to elect a decent man. I don't say it +can be done, but there's a chance of it." + +The old stage-driver laughed softly. "We'll be damned good and plenty +by both sides." + +"Of course. It won't be a pleasant thing to do, but then it isn't +exactly pleasant to sit quiet and let these factions use the State as a +pawn in their game of grab." + +"I'm with you, Sam. Go to it, my boy, and I'll back you to the limit." + +"We had better not talk it over here. Come to my room after dinner and +bring Landor and James with you. I'll have Reedy and Keller there. I'll +mention casually that it's a big game of poker, and I'll have cards and +drinks sent up. You want to remember we can't be too careful. If it +leaks out we lose." + +"I'm a clam, Sam. Do you want I should speak of it to Landor and James?" + +"Better wait till we get together." + +"What about Ward? He's always been with us." + +"He talks too much. We can take him in at the last minute if we like." + +"That would be better. I ain't so sure about Reedy, either. He's +straight as a string, of course; not a crooked hair in his head. But +when he gets to drinking he's likely to let things out." + +"You're right. We'll leave him out, too, until the last minute. There's +another thing I've thought of. Ridgway can't win. At least I don't see +how he can control more than twenty five votes. Suppose at the very +last moment we make a deal with him and with the Democrats to pool our +votes on some square man. With Waring it's anything to beat the +Consolidated. He'll jump at the chance if he's sure he is out of the +running himself. Those of the Democrats that Harley can't buy will be +glad to beat his man. I don't say it can be done, Jack. All I say is +that it is worth a trial." + +"You bet." + +They met that night in Yesler's rooms round a card-table. The hands +were dealt for form's sake, since there were spies everywhere, and it +was necessary to ring for cigars and refreshments occasionally to avoid +suspicion. They were all cattlemen, large or small, big outdoors +sunburned men, who rode the range in the spring and fall with their +punchers and asked no odds of any man. + +Until long past midnight they talked the details over, and when they +separated in the small hours it was with a well-defined plan to save +the State from its impending disgrace if the thing could be done. + + + +CHAPTER 15. LASKA OPENS A DOOR + +The first ballots for a United States senator taken by the legislature +in joint session failed to disclose the alignment of some of the +doubtful members. The Democratic minority of twenty-eight votes were +cast for Springer, the senator whose place would be taken by whoever +should win in the contest now on. Warner received forty-four, Ridgway +twenty-six, eight went to Pascom, a former governor whom the cattlemen +were supporting, and the remaining three were scattered. Each day one +ballot was taken, and for a week there was a slight sifting down of the +complimentary votes until at the end of it the count stood: + + Warner 45 + Ridgway 28 + Springer 28 + Pascom 8 + +Warner still lacked ten votes of an election, but It was pretty +thoroughly understood that several of the Democratic minority were +waiting only long enough for a colorable excuse to switch to him. All +kinds of rumors were in the air as to how many of these there were. The +Consolidated leaders boldly claimed that they had only to give the word +to force the election of their candidate on any ballot. Yesler did not +believe this claim could be justified, since Pelton and Harley were +already negotiating with him for the delivery of the votes belonging to +the cattlemen's contingent. + +He had held off for some time with hints that it would take a lot of +money to swing the votes of such men as Roper and Landor, but he had +finally come to an agreement that the eight votes should be given to +Warner for a consideration of $300,000. This was to be paid to Yesler +in the presence of the other seven members on the night before the +election, and was to be held in escrow by him and Roper until the pact +was fulfilled, the money to be kept in a safety deposit vault with a +key in possession of each of the two. + +On the third day of the session, before the voting had begun, Stephen +Eaton, who was a State senator from Mesa, moved that a committee be +appointed to investigate the rumors of bribery that were so common. The +motion caught the Consolidated leaders napping, for this was the last +man they had expected to propose such a course, and it went through +with little opposition, as a similar motion did in the House at the +same time. The lieutenant-governor and the speaker of the House were +both opposed to Warner, and the joint committee had on it the names of +no Consolidated men. The idea of such a committee had originated with +Ridgway, and had been merely a bluff to show that he at least was +willing that the world should know the whole story of the election. Nor +had this committee held even formal meetings before word reached Eaton +through Yesler that if it would appoint a conference in some very +private place, evidence would be submitted implicating agents of the +Warner forces in attempts at bribery. + +It was close to eleven o'clock when Sam Yesler stepped quietly from a +side door of his hotel and slipped into the street. He understood +perfectly that in following the course he did, he was taking his life +in his hands. The exposure of the bribery traffic would blast forever +the reputations of many men who had hitherto held a high place in the +community, and he knew the temper of some of them well enough to be +aware that an explosion was probable. Spies had been dogging him ever +since the legislature convened. Within an hour one of them would be +flying to Pelton with the news that he was at a meeting of the +committee, and all the thugs of the other side would be turned loose on +his heels. As he walked briskly through the streets toward the place +appointed, his hand lay on the hilt of a revolver in the outside pocket +of his overcoat. He was a man who would neither seek trouble nor let it +overwhelm him. If his life were attempted, he meant to defend it to the +last. + +He followed side streets purposely, and his footsteps echoed along the +deserted road. He knew he was being dogged, for once, when he glanced +back, he caught sight of a skulking figure edging along close to a +wall. The sight of the spy stirred his blood. Grimly he laughed to +himself. They might murder him for what he was doing, but not in time +to save the exposure which would be brought to light on the morrow. + +The committee met at a road-house near the outskirts of the city, but +only long enough to hear Yesler's facts and to appoint another meeting +for three hours later at the offices of Eaton. For the committee had +come here for secrecy, and they knew that it would be only a short time +before Pelton's heelers would be down upon them in force. It was agreed +they should divide and slip quietly back to town, wait until everything +was quiet and convene again. Meanwhile Eaton would make arrangements to +see that his offices would be sufficiently guarded for protection +against any attack. + +Yesler walked back to town and was within a couple of blocks of his +hotel when he glimpsed two figures crouching against the fence of the +alley. He stopped in his tracks, watched them intently an instant, and +was startled by a whistle from the rear. He knew at once his retreat, +too, was cut off, and without hesitation vaulted the fence in front of +a big gray stone house he was passing. A revolver flashed from the +alley, and he laughed with a strange kind of delight. His thought was +to escape round the house, but trellis work barred the way, and he +could not open the gate. + +"Trapped, by Jove," he told himself coolly as a bullet struck the +trellis close to his head. + +He turned back, ran up the steps of the porch and found momentary +safety in the darkness of its heavy vines. But this he knew could not +last. Running figures were converging toward him at a focal point. He +could hear oaths and cries. Some one was throwing aimless shots from a +revolver at the porch. + +He heard a window go up in the second story and a woman's frightened +voice ask. "What is it? Who is there?" + +"Let me in. I'm ambushed by thugs," he called back. + +"There he is--in the doorway," a voice cried out of the night, and it +was followed by a spatter of bullets about him. + +He fired at a man leaping the fence. The fellow tumbled back with a +kind of scream. + +"God! I'm hit." + +He could hear steps coming down the stairway and fingers fumbling at +the key of the door. His attackers were gathering for a rush, and he +wondered whether the rescue was to be too late. They came together, the +opening door and the forward pour of huddled figures. He stepped back +into the hall. + +There was a raucous curse, a shot, and Yesler had slammed the door +shut. He was alone in the darkness with his rescuer. + +"We must get out of here. They're firing through the door," he said, +and "Yes" came faintly back to him from across the hall. + +"Do you know where the switch is?" he asked, wondering whether she was +going to be such an idiot as to faint at this inopportune moment. + +His answer came in a flood of light, and showed him a young woman +crouched on the hall-rack a dozen feet from the switch. She was very +white, and there was a little stain of crimson on the white lace of her +sleeve. + +A voice from the landing above demanded quickly, "Who are you, sir?" +and after he had looked up', cried in surprise, "Mr. Yesler." + +"Miss Balfour," he replied. "I'll explain later. I'm afraid the lady +has been hit by a bullet." + +He was already beside his rescuer. She looked at him with a trace of a +tired smile and said: + +"In my arm." + +After which she fainted. He picked up the young woman, carried her to +the stairs, and mounted them. + +"This way," said Virginia, leading him into a bedroom, the door of +which was open. + +He observed with surprise that she, too, was dressed in evening +clothes, and rightly surmised that they had just come back from some +social function. + +"Is it serious?" asked Virginia, when he had laid his burden on the bed. + +She was already clipping with a pair of scissors the sleeve from round +the wound. + +"It ought not to be," he said after he had examined it. "The bullet has +scorched along the fleshy part of the forearm. We must telephone for a +doctor at once." + +She did so, then found water and cotton for bandages, and helped him +make a temporary dressing. The patient recovered consciousness under +the touch of the cold water, and asked: what was the matter. + +"You have been hurt a little, but not badly I think. Don't you +remember? You came down and opened the door to let me in." + +"They were shooting at you. What for?" she wanted to know. + +He smiled. "Don't worry about that. It's all over with. I'm sorry you +were hurt in saving me," said Yesler gently. + +"Did I save you?" The gray eyes showed a gleam of pleasure. + +"You certainly did." + +"This is Mr. Yesler, Laska. Mr. Yesler--Miss Lowe. I think you have +never met." + +"Never before to-night," he said, pinning the bandage in place round +the plump arm. "There. That's all just now, ma'am. Did I hurt you very +much?" + +The young woman felt oddly exhilarated. "Not much. I'll forgive you if +you'll tell me all about the affair. Why did they want to hurt you?" + +His big heart felt very tender toward this girl who had been wounded +for him, but he showed it only by a smiling deference. + +"You're right persistent, ma'am. You hadn't ought to be bothering your +head about any such thing, but if you feel that way I'll be glad to +tell you." + +He did. While they sat there and waited for the coming of the doctor, +he told her the whole story of his attempt to stop the corruption that +was eating like a canker at the life of the State. He was a plain man, +not in the least eloquent, and he told his story without any sense that +he had played any unusual part. In fact, he was ashamed that he had +been forced to assume a role which necessitated a kind of treachery to +those who thought they had bought him. + +Laska Lowe's eyes shone with the delight his tale inspired in her. She +lived largely in the land of ideals, and this fight against wrong moved +her mightily. She could feel for him none of the shame which he felt +for himself at being mixed up in so bad a business. He was playing a +man's part, had chosen it at risk of his life. That was enough. In +every fiber of her, she was glad that good fortune had given her the +chance to bear a part of the battle. In her inmost heart she was even +glad that to the day of her death she must bear the scar that would +remind her she had suffered in so good a cause. + +Virginia, for once obliterating herself, perceived how greatly taken +they were with each other. At bottom, nearly every woman is a +match-maker. This one was no exception. She liked both this man and +this woman, and her fancy had already begun to follow her hopes. Never +before had Laska appeared to show much interest in any of the opposite +sex with whom her friend had seen her. Now she was all enthusiasm, had +forgotten completely the pain of her wound in the spirit's glow. + + "She loved me for the danger I had pass'd, + And I loved her that she did pity them. + This only is the witchcraft I have us'd.'" + +Virginia quoted softly to herself, her eyes on the young woman so +finely unconscious of the emotion that thrilled her. + +Not until the clock in the hall below struck two did Yesler remember +his appointment in the Ridgway Building. The doctor had come and was +about to go. He suggested that if Yesler felt it would be safe for him +to go, they might walk across to the hotel together. + +"And leave us alone." Laska could have bitten her tongue after the +words were out. + +Virginia explained. "The Leighs are out of the city to-night, and it +happens that even the servants are gone. I asked Miss Lowe to stay with +me all night, but, of course, she feels feverish and nervous after this +excitement. Couldn't you send a man to watch the rest of the night out +in the house?" + +"Why don't you stay, Mr. Yesler?" the doctor suggested. "You could +sleep here, no doubt." + +"You might have your meeting here. It is neutral ground. I can phone to +Mr. Ridgway," proposed Virginia in a low voice to Yesler. + +"Doesn't that seem to imply that I'm afraid to leave?" laughed Yesler. + +"It implies that we are afraid to have you. Laska would worry both on +your account and our own. I think you owe it to her to stay." + +"Oh, if that's the way it strikes you," he agreed. "Fact is, I don't +quite like to leave you anyhow. We'll take Leigh's study. I don't think +we shall disturb you at all." + +"I'm sure you won't--and before you go, you'll let us know what you +have decided to do." + +"We shall not be through before morning. You'll be asleep by then," he +made answer. + +"No, I couldn't sleep till I know all about it." + +"Nor I," agreed Laska. "I want to know all about everything." + +"My dear young lady, you are to take the sleeping-powders and get a +good rest," the doctor demurred. "All about everything is too large an +order for your good just now." + +Virginia nodded in a businesslike way. "Yes, you're to go to sleep, +Laska, and when you waken I'll tell you all about it." + +"That would be better," smiled Yesler, and Virginia thought it +significant that her friend made no further protest. + +Gray streaks began to show in the sky before Yesler tapped on the door +of Virginia's room. She had discarded the rather elaborate evening gown +he had last seen her in, and was wearing some soft fabric which hung +from the shoulders in straight lines, and defined the figure while +lending the effect of a loose and flowing drapery. + +"How is your patient?" he asked. + +"She has dropped into a good sleep," the girl whispered. "I am sure we +don't need to worry about her at all." + +"Nevertheless, it's a luxury I'm going to permit myself for a day or +two," he smiled. "I don't have my life saved by a young lady very +often." + +"I'm sure you will enjoy worrying about her," she laughed. + +He got back at her promptly. "There's somebody down-stairs worrying +about you. He wants to know if there is anything he can do for you, and +suggests inviting himself for breakfast in order to make sure." + +"Mr. Ridgway?" + +"How did you guess it first crack? Mr. Ridgway it is." + +She considered a moment. "Yes, tell him to stay. Molly will be back in +time to make breakfast, and I want to talk to him. Now tell me what you +did." + +"We did Mr. Warner. At least I hope so," he chuckled. + +"I'm so glad. And who is to be senator? Is it Waring?" + +"No. It wouldn't have been possible to elect him even if we had wanted +to." + +"And you didn't want to," she flashed. + +"No, we didn't," he admitted frankly. "We couldn't afford to have it +generally understood that this was merely a partisan fight on the +Consolidated, and that we were pulling Waring's chestnuts out of the +fire for him." + +He did not add, though he might have, that Ridgway was tarred with the +same brush as the enemy in this matter. + +"Then who is it to be?" + +"That's a secret. I can't tell even you that. But we have agreed on a +man. Waring is to withdraw and throw his influence for him. The +Democratic minority will swing in line for him, and we'll do the rest. +That's the plan. It may not go through, however." + +"I don't see who it can be that you all unite on. Of course, it isn't +Mr. Pelton?" + +"I should hope not." + +"Or Mr. Samuel Yesler?" + +"You've used up all the guesses allowed you. If you want to know, why +don't you attend the joint session to-day? It ought to be highly +interesting." + +"I shall," she announced promptly. "And I'll bring Laska with me." + +"She won't be able to come." + +"I think she will. It's only a scratch." + +"I don't like to think how much worse it might have been." + +"Then don't think of it. Tell Waring I'll be down presently." + +He went down-stairs again, and Miss Balfour returned to the room. + +"Was that Mr. Yesler?" quietly asked a voice from the bed. + +"Yes, dear. He has gone back to the hotel. He asked about you, of +course." + +"He is very kind." + +"It was thoughtful, since you only saved his life," admitted the +ironical Miss Balfour. + +"Wasn't it fortunate that we were up?" + +"Very fortunate for him that you were." + +Virginia crossed the room to the bed and kissed her friend with some +subtle significance too elusive for words. Laska appeared, however to +appreciate it. At least, she blushed. + + + +CHAPTER 16. AN EXPLOSION IN THE TAURUS + +The change of the relationship between Ridgway and his betrothed, +brought about by the advent of a third person into his life, showed +itself in the manner of their greeting. She had always been chary of +lovers' demonstrations, but until his return from Alpine he had been +wont to exact his privilege in spite of her reluctance. Now he was +content with the hand she offered him. + +"You've had a strenuous night of it," he said, after a glance at the +rather wan face she offered the new day. + +"Yes, we have--and for that matter, I suppose you have, too." + +Man of iron that he was, he looked fresh as morning dew. With his usual +lack of self-consciousness, he had appropriated Leigh's private bath, +and was glowing from contact with ice-cold water and a crash towel. + +"We've been making history," he agreed. "How's your friend?" + +"She has no fever at all. It was only a scratch. She will be down to +breakfast in a minute." + +"Good. She must be a thoroughbred to come running down into the bullets +for a stranger she has never seen." + +"She is. You'll like Laska." + +"I'm glad she saved Sam from being made a colander. I can't help liking +him, though he doesn't approve of me very much." + +"I suppose not." + +"He is friendly, too." Ridgway laughed as he recalled their battle over +who should be the nominee. "But his conscience rules him. It's a free +and liberal conscience, generally speaking--nothing Puritan about it, +but a distinctive product of the West. Yet, he would not have me for +senator at any price." + +"Why?" + +"Didn't think I was fit to represent the people; said if I went in, it +would be to use the office for my personal profit." + +"Wasn't he right?" + +"More or less. If I were elected, I would build up my machine, of +course, but I would see the people got a show, too." + +She nodded agreement. "I don't think you would make a bad senator." + +"I would be a live wire, anyhow. Sam had other objections to me. He +thought I had been using too much money in this campaign." + +"And have you?" she asked, curious to see how he would defend himself. + +"Yes. I had to if I were going to stand any chance. It wasn't from +choice. I didn't really want to be senator. I can't afford to give the +time to it, but I couldn't afford to let Harley name the man either. I +was between the devil and the deep sea." + +"Then, really, Mr. Yesler came to your rescue." + +"That's about it, though he didn't intend it that way." + +"And who is to be the senator?" + +He gave her a cynical smile. "Warner." + +"But I thought--why, surely he--" The surprise of his cool announcement +took her breath away. + +"No, he isn't the man our combination decided on, but the trouble is +that our combination is going to fall through. Sam's an optimist, but +you'll see I'm right. There are too many conflicting elements of us in +one boat. We can't lose three votes and win, and it's a safe bet we +lose them. The Consolidated must know by this time what we have been +about all night. They're busy now sapping at our weak links. Our only +chance is to win on the first vote, and I am very sure we won't be able +to do it." + +"Oh, I hope you are not right." A young woman was standing in the +doorway, her arm in a sling. She had come in time to hear his prophesy, +and in the disappointment of it had forgotten that he was a stranger. + +Virginia remedied this, and they went in to breakfast. Laska was full +of interest, and poured out eager questions at Ridgway. It was not for +several minutes that Virginia recollected to ask again who was the man +they had decided upon. + +Her betrothed found some inner source of pleasure that brought out a +sardonic smile. "He's a slap in the face at both Harley and me." + +"I can't think who--is he honest?" + +"As the day." + +"And capable?" + +"Oh, yes. He's competent enough." + +"Presentable?" + +"Yes. He'll do the State credit, or rather he would if he were going to +be elected." + +"Then I give it up." + +He was leaning forward to tell, when the sharp buzz of the electric +door-bell, continued and sustained, diverted the attention of all of +them. + +Ridgway put down his napkin. "Probably some one to see me." + +He had risen to his feet when the maid opened the door of the +dining-room. + +"A gentleman to see Mr. Ridgway. He says it is very important." + +From the dining-room they could hear the murmur of quick voices, and +soon Ridgway returned. He was a transformed man. His eyes were hard as +diamonds, and there was the bulldog look of the fighter about his mouth +and chin. + +"What is it, Waring?" cried Virginia. + +"Trouble in the mines. An hour ago Harley's men rushed the Taurus and +the New York, and drove my men out. One of my shift-foremen and two of +his drillers were killed by an explosion set off by Mike Donleavy, a +foreman in the Copper King." + +"Did they mean to kill them?" asked the girl whitely. + +"I suppose not. But they took the chance. It's murder just the same--by +Jove, it's a club with which to beat the legislators into line." + +He stopped, his brain busy solving the problem as to how he might best +turn this development to his own advantage. Part of his equipment was +his ability to decide swiftly and surely issues as they came to him. +Now he strode to the telephone and began massing his forces. + +"Main 234--Yes--Yes--This the Sun?--Give me Brayton--Hello, Brayton. +Get out a special edition at once charging Harley with murder. Run the +word as a red headline clear across the page. Show that Vance Edwards +and the other boys were killed while on duty by an attack ordered by +Harley. Point out that this is the logical result of his course. Don't +mince words. Give it him right from the shoulder. Rush it, and be sure +a copy of the paper is on the desk of every legislator before the +session opens this morning. Have a reliable man there to see that every +man gets one. Scatter the paper broadcast among the miners, too. This +is important." + +He hung up the receiver, took it down again, and called up Eaton. + +"Hello! This you, Steve? Send for Trelawney and Straus right away. Get +them to call a mass meeting of the unions for ten o'clock at the +courthouse square. Have dodgers printed and distributed announcing it. +Shut down all our mines so that the men can come. I want Straus and +Trelawney and two or three of the other prominent labor leaders to +denounce Harley and lay the responsibility for this thing right at his +door. I'll be up there and outline what they had better say." + +He turned briskly round to the young women, his eyes shining with a +hard bright light. "I'm sorry, but I have got to cut out breakfast this +morning. Business is piling up on me too fast. If you'll excuse me, +I'll go now." + +"What are you going to do?" asked Virginia. + +"I haven't time to tell you now. Just watch my smoke," he laughed +without mirth. + +No sooner did the news of the tragedy reach Simon Harley than he knew +the mistake of his subordinates would be a costly one. The foreman, +Donleavy, who had directed the attack on the Taurus, had to be brought +from the shafthouse under the protection of a score of Pinkerton +detectives to safeguard him from the swift vengeance of the miners, who +needed but a word to fling themselves against the cordon of police. +Harley himself kept his apartments, the hotel being heavily patrolled +by guards on the lookout for suspicious characters. The current of +public opinion, never in his favor, now ran swiftly against him, and +threats were made openly by the infuriated miners to kill him on sight. + +The members of the unions came to the massmeeting reading the story of +the tragedy as the Sun colored the affair. They stayed sullenly to +listen to red-hot speeches against the leader of the trust, and +gradually the wrath which was simmering in them began to boil. Ridgway, +always with a keen sense of the psychological moment, descended the +court-house steps just as this fury was at its height. There were +instant cries for a speech from him so persistent that he yielded, +though apparently with reluctance. His fine presence and strong deep +voice soon gave him the ears of all that dense throng. He was far out +of the ordinary as a public speaker, and within a few minutes he had +his audience with him. He deprecated any violence; spoke strongly for +letting the law take its course; and dropped a suggestion that they +send a committee to the State-house to urge that Harley's candidate be +defeated for the senatorship. + +Like wild-fire this hint spread. Here was something tangible they could +do that was still within the law. Harley had set his mind on electing +Warner. They would go up there in a body and defeat his plans. Marshals +and leaders of companies were appointed. They fell into ranks by fours, +nearly ten thousand of them all told. The big clock in the court-house +was striking twelve when they began their march to the Statehouse. + + + +CHAPTER 17. THE ELECTION + +At the very moment that the tramp of twenty thousand feet turned toward +the State-house, the report of the bribery investigating committee was +being read to the legislature met in joint session. The committee +reported that it had examined seven witnesses, Yesler, Roper, Landor, +James, Reedy, Kellor, and Ward, and that each of then had testified +that former Congressman Pelton or others had approached him on behalf +of Warner; that an agreement had been made by which the eight votes +being cast for Bascom would be give to Warner in consideration of +$300,000 in cash, to be held in escrow by Yesler, and that the +committee now had the said package, supposed to contain the bills for +that amount, in its possession, and was prepared to turn it over to the +legislature for examination. + +Except for the clerk's voice, as he read the report, a dead silence lay +tensely over the crowded hall. Men dared not look at their neighbors, +scarce dared breathe, for the terror that hung heavy on their hearts. +Scores were there who expected their guilt to be blazoned forth for all +the world to read. They waited whitely as the monotonous voice of the +clerk went from paragraph to paragraph, and when at last he sat down, +having named only the bribers and not the receivers of bribes, a long +deep sigh of relief swept the house. Fear still racked them, but for +the moment they were safe. Furtively their glances began to go from one +to another of their neighbors and ask for how long safety would endure. + +One could have heard the rustle of a leaf as the chairman of the +committee stepped forward and laid on the desk of the presiding officer +the incriminating parcel. It seemed an age while the chief clerk opened +it, counted the bills, and announced that one hundred thousand dollars +was the sum contained within. + +Stephen Eaton then rose in his seat and presented quietly his +resolution, that since the evidence submitted was sufficient to convict +of bribery, the judge of the district court of the County of Mesa be +requested to call a special session of the grand jury to investigate +the report. It was not until Sam Yesler rose to speak upon that report +that the pent-up storm broke loose. + +He stood there in the careless garb of the cattleman, a strong +clean-cut figure as one would see in a day's ride, facing with +unflinching steel-blue eyes the tempest of human passion he had evoked. +The babel of voices rose and fell and rose again before he could find a +chance to make himself heard. In the gallery two quietly dressed young, +women, one of them with her arm in a sling, leaned forward breathlessly +and waited. Laska's eyes glowed with deep fire. She was living her hour +of hours, and the man who stood with such quiet courage the focus of +that roar of rage was the hero of it. + +"You call me Judas, and I ask you what Christ I have betrayed. You call +me traitor, but traitor to what? Like you, I am under oath to receive +no compensation for my services here other than that allowed by law. To +that oath I have been true. Have you? + +"For many weeks we have been living in a carnival of bribery, in a +debauched hysteria of money-madness. The souls of men have been sifted +as by fire. We have all been part and parcel of a man-hunt, an eager, +furious, persistent hunt that has relaxed neither night nor day. The +lure of gold has been before us every waking hour, and has pursued us +into our dreams. The temptation has been ever-present. To some it has +been irresistible, to some maddening, to others, thank God! it has but +proved their strength. Our hopes, our fears, our loves, our hates: +these seducers of honor have pandered to them all. Our debts and our +business, our families and our friendships, have all been used to hound +us. To-day I put the stigma for this shame where it belongs--upon Simon +Harley, head of the Consolidated and a score of other trusts, and upon +Waring Ridgway, head of the Mesa Ore-producing Company. These are the +debauchers of our commonwealth's fair name, and you, alas! the +traffickers who hope to live upon its virtue. I call upon you to-day to +pass this resolution and to elect a man to the United States senate who +shall owe no allegiance to any power except the people, or to receive +forever the brand of public condemnation. Are you free men? Or do you +wear the collar of the Consolidated, the yoke of Waring Ridgway? The +vote which you will cast to-day is an answer that shall go flying to +the farthest corner of your world, an answer you can never hope to +change so long as you live." + +He sat down in a dead silence. Again men drew counsel from their fears. +The resolution passed unanimously, for none dared vote against it lest +he brand himself as bought and sold. + +It was in this moment, while the hearts of the guilty were like water, +that there came from the lawn outside the roar of a multitude of +voices. Swiftly the word passed that ten thousand miners had come to see +that Warner was not elected. That they were in a dangerous frame of +mind, all knew. It was a passionate undisciplined mob and to thwart +them would have been to invite a riot. + +Under these circumstances the joint assembly proceeded to ballot for a +senator. The first name called was that of Adams. He was an old +cattleman and a Democrat. + +"Before voting, I want to resign my plate a few moments to Mr. Landor, +of Kit Carson County," he said. + +Landor was recognized, a big broad-shouldered plainsman with a leathery +face as honest as the sun. He was known and liked by everybody, even by +those opposed to him. + +"I'm going to make a speech," he announced with the broad smile that +showed a flash of white teeth. "I reckon it'll be the first I ever made +here, and I promise it will be the last, boys. But I won't keep you +long, either. You all know how things have been going; how men have +been moving in and out and buying men here like as if they were cattle +on the hoof. You've seen it, and I've seen it. But we didn't have the +nerve to say it should stop. One man did. He's the biggest man in this +big State to-day, and it ain't been five minutes since I heard you +hollar your lungs out cursing him. You know who I mean--Sam Yesler." + +He waited till the renewed storm of cheers and hisses had died away. + +"It don't do him any harm for you to hollar at him, boys--not a mite. I +want to say to you that he's a man. He saw our old friends falling by +the wayside and some of you poor weaklings selling yourselves for +dollars. Because he is an honest, game man, he set out to straighten +things up. I want to tell you that my hat's off to Sam Yesler. + +"But that ain't what I rose for. I'm going to name for the United +States senate a clean man, one who doesn't wear either the Harley or +the Ridgway brand. He's as straight as a string, not a crooked hair in +his head, and every manjack of you knows it. I'm going to name a +man"--he stopped an instant to smile genially around upon the circle of +uplifted faces--"who isn't any friend of either one faction or another, +a man who has just had independence enough to quit a big job because it +wasn't on the square. That man's name is Lyndon Hobart. If you want to +do yourselves proud, gentlemen, you'll certainly elect him." + +If it was a sensation he had wanted to create, he had it. The Warner +forces were taken with dumb surprise. But many of them were already +swiftly thinking it would be the best way out of a bad business. He +would be conservative, as fair to the Consolidated as to the enemy. +More, just now his election would appeal to the angry mob howling +outside the building, for they could ask nothing more than the election +of the man who had resigned rather than order the attack on the Taurus, +which had resulted in the death of some of their number. + +Hoyle, of the Democrats, seconded the nomination, as also did Eaton, in +a speech wherein he defended the course of Ridgway and withdrew his +name. + +Within a few minutes of the time that Eaton sat down, the roll had been +called and Hobart elected by a vote of seventy-three to twenty-four, +the others refusing to cast a ballot. + +The two young women, sitting together in the front row of the gallery, +were glowing with triumphant happiness. Virginia was still clapping her +hands when a voice behind her suggested that the circumstances did not +warrant her being so happy over the result. She turned, to see Waring +Ridgway smiling down at her. + +"But I can't help being pleased. Wasn't Mr. Yesler magnificent?" + +"Sam was all right, though he might have eased up a bit when he pitched +into me." + +"He had to do that to be fair. Everybody knows you and he are friends. +I think it was fine of him not to let that make any difference in his +telling the truth." + +"Oh, I knew it would please you," her betrothed laughed. "What do you +say to going out to lunch with me? I'll get Sam, too, if I can." + +The young women consulted eyes and agreed very readily. Both of them +enjoyed being so near to the heart of things. + +"If Mr. Yesler will lunch with the debaucher of the commonwealth, we +shall be very happy to join the party," said Virginia demurely. + +Ridgway led them down to the floor of the House. Through the dense +throng they made their way slowly toward him, Ridgway clearing a path +with his broad shoulders. + +Suddenly they heard him call sharply, "Look out, Sam." + +The explosion of a revolver followed sharply his words. Ridgway dived +through the press, tossing men to right and left of him as a steamyacht +does the waves. Through the open lane he left in his wake, the young +women caught the meaning of the turmoil: the crumpled figure was Yesler +swaying into the arms of his friend, Roper, the furious drink-flushed +face of Pelton and the menace of the weapon poised for a second shot, +the swift impact of Waring's body, and the blow which sent the next +bullet crashing into the chandelier overhead. All this they glimpsed +momentarily before the press closed in on the tragic scene and cut off +their view. + + + +CHAPTER 18. FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS + +While Harley had been in no way responsible for Pelton's murderous +attack upon Yesler, public opinion held him to account. The Pinkertons +who had, up till this time, been employed at the mines, were now moved +to the hotel to be ready for an emergency. A special train was held in +readiness to take the New Yorker out of the State in the event that the +stockman should die. Meanwhile, the harassing attacks of Ridgway +continued. Through another judge than Purcell, the absurd injunction +against working the Diamond King, the Mary K, and the Marcus Daly had +been dissolved, but even this advantage had been neutralized by the +necessity of giving back to the enemy the Taurus and the New York, of +which he had just possessed himself. All his life he had kept a +wheather-eye upon the impulsive and fickle public. There were times +when its feeling could be abused with impunity, and other times when +this must be respected. Reluctantly, Harley gave the word for the +withdrawal of his men from the territory gained. Ridgway pushed his +advantage home and secured an injunction, not only against the working, +but against the inspection of the Copper King and the Jim Hill. The +result of the Consolidated move had been in effect to turn over, +temporarily, its two rich mines to be looted by the pirate, and to make +him very much stronger than before with his allies, the unions. By his +own imprudence, Harley had made a bad situation worse, and delivered +himself, with his hands tied, into the power of the enemy. + +In the days of turmoil that followed, Waring Ridgway's telling blows +scored once and again. The morning after the explosion, he started a +relief fund in his paper, the Sun, for the families of the dead miners, +contributing two thousand dollars himself. He also insisted that the +Consolidated pay damages to the bereaved families to the extent of +twenty thousand dollars for each man killed. The town rang with his +praises. Mesa had always been proud of his success; had liked the +democratic spirit of him that led him to mix on apparently equal terms +with his working men, and had backed him in his opposition to the trust +because his plucky and unscrupulous fight had been, in a measure, its +fight. But now it idolized him. He was the buffer between it and the +trust, fighting the battles of labor against the great octopus of +Broadway, and beating it to a standstill. He was the Moses destined to +lead the working man out of the Egypt of his discontent. Had he not +maintained the standard of wages and forced the Consolidated to do the +same? Had he not declared an eight-hour day, and was not the trust +almost ready to do this also, forced by the impetus his example had +given the unions? So Ridgway's agents whispered, and the union leaders, +whom he had bought, took up the burden of their tale and preached it +both in private talk and in their speeches. + +In an attempt to stem the rising tide of denunciation that was +spreading from Mesa to the country at large, Harley announced an eight +hour day and an immense banquet to all the Consolidated employees in +celebration of the occasion. Ten thousand men sat down to the long +tables, but when one of the speakers injudiciously mentioned the name +of Ridgway, there was steady cheering for ten minutes. It was quite +plain that the miners gave him the credit for having forced the +Consolidated to the eight-hour day. + +The verdict of the coroner's jury was that Vance Edwards and the other +deceased miners had come to their death at the hands of the foreman, +Michael Donleavy, at the instigation of Simon Harley. True bills were +at once drawn up by the prosecuting attorney of Mesa County, an +official elected by Ridgway, charging Harley and Donleavy with +conspiracy, resulting in the murder of Vance Edwards. The billionaire +furnished bail for himself and foreman, treating the indictments merely +as part of the attacks of the enemy. + +The tragedy in the Taurus brought to the surface a bitterness that had +hitherto not been apparent in the contest between the rival copper +interests. The lines of division became more sharply drawn, and every +business man in Mesa was forced to declare himself on one side or the +other. Harley scattered detectives broadcast and imported five hundred +Pinkertons to meet any emergency that might arise. The spies of the +Consolidated were everywhere, gathering evidence against the Mesa +Ore-producing Company, its conduct of the senatorial campaign, its +judges, and its supporters Criminal indictments flew back and forth +thick as snowflakes in a Christmas storm. + +It began to be noticed that an occasional foreman, superintendent, or +mining engineer was slipping from the employ of Ridgway to that of the +trust, carrying secrets and evidence that would be invaluable later in +the courts. Everywhere the money of the Consolidated, scattered +lavishly where it would do the most good, attempted to sap the loyalty +of the followers of the other candidates. Even Eaton was approached +with the offer of a bribe. + +But Ridgway's potent personality had built up an esprit de corps not +easily to be broken. The adventurers gathered to his side were, for the +most part, bound to him by ties personal in their nature. They were +financial fillibusters, pledged to stand or fall together, with an +interest in their predatory leader's success that was not entirely +measurable in dollars and cents. Nor was that leader the man to allow +the organization he had builded with such care to become disintegrated +while he slept. His alert eye and cheery smile were everywhere, +instilling confidence in such as faltered, and dread in those +contemplating defection. + +He harassed his rival with an audacity that was almost devilish in its +unexpected ingenuity. For the first time in his life Simon Harley, the +town back on the defensive by a combination of circumstances engineered +by a master brain, knew what it was to be checkmated. He had not the +least doubt of ultimate victory, but the tentative success of the +brazen young adventurer, were gall and wormwood to his soul. He had +made money his god, had always believed it would buy anything worth +while except life, but this Western buccaneer had taught him it could +not purchase the love of a woman nor the immediate defeat of a man so +well armed as Waring Ridgway. In truth, though Harley stuck at nothing, +his success in accomplishing the destruction of this thorn in his side +was no more appreciable than had been that of Hobart. The Westerner +held his own and more, the while he robbed the great trust of its ore +under cover of the courts. + +In the flush of success, Ridgway, through his lieutenant, Eaton, came +to Judge Purcell asking that a receiver be appointed for the +Consolidated Supply Company, a subsidiary branch of the trust, on the +ground that its affairs were not being properly administered. The +Supply Company had paid dividends ranging from fifteen to twenty-five +per cent for many years, but Ridgway exercised his right as a +stockholder to ask for a receivership. In point of fact, he owned, in +the name of Eaton, only one-tenth of one per cent of the stock, but it +was enough to serve. For Purcell was a bigoted old Missourian, as +courageous and obstinate as perfect health and ignorance could make +him. He was quite innocent of any legal knowledge, his own rule of law +being to hit a Consolidated head whenever he saw one. Lawyers might +argue themselves black in the face without affecting his serenity or +his justice. + +Purcell granted the application, as well as a restraining order against +the payment of dividends until further notice, and appointed Eaton +receiver over the protests of the Consolidated lawyers. + +Ridgway and Eaton left the court-room together, jubilant over their +success. They dined at a restaurant, and spent the evening at the +ore-producing company's offices, discussing ways and means. When they +had finished, his chief followed Eaton to the doors, an arm thrown +affectionately round his shoulder. + +"Steve, we're going to make a big killing. I was never so sure of +anything in my life as that we shall beat Simon Harley at his own game. +We're bound to win. We've got to win." + +"I wish I were as sure as you." + +"It's hard pounding does it, my boy. We'll drive him out of the Montana +copper-fields yet. We'll show him there is one little corner of the U. +S. where Simon Harley's orders don't go as the last word." + +"He has a hundred dollars to your one." + +"And I have youth and mining experience and the inside track, as well +as stancher friends than he ever dreamed of," laughed Ridgway, clapping +the other on the back. "Well, good night, Steve. Pleasant dreams, old +man." + +The boyish secretary shook hands warmly. "You're a MAN, chief. If +anybody can pull us through it will be you." + +Triumphant confidence rang in the other's answering laugh. "You bet I +can, Steve." + + + +CHAPTER 19. ONE MILLION DOLLARS + +Eaton, standing on the street curb at the corner of the Ridgway +Building, lit a cigar while he hesitated between his rooms and the +club. He decided for the latter, and was just turning up the hill, when +a hand covered his mouth and an arm was flung around his neck in a +stranglehold. He felt himself lifted like a child, and presently +discovered that he was being whirled along the street in a closed +carriage. + +"You needn't be alarmed, Mr. Eaton. We're not going to injure you in +the least," a low voice explained in his ear. "If you'll give me your +word not to cry out, I'll release your throat." + +Eaton nodded a promise, and, when he could find his voice, demanded: +"Where are you taking me?" + +"You'll see in a minute, sir. It's all right." + +The carriage turned into an alley and stopped. Eaton was led to a +ladder that hung suspended from the fire-escape, and was bidden to +mount. He did so, following his guide to the second story, and being in +turn followed by the other man. He was taken along a corridor and into +the first of a suite of rooms opening into it. He knew he was in the +Mesa House, and suspected at once that he was in the apartments of +Simon Harley. + +His suspicion ripened to conviction when his captors led him through +two more rooms, into one fitted as an office. The billionaire sat at a +desk, busy over some legal papers he was reading, but he rose at once +and came forward with hand extended to meet Eaton. The young man took +his hand mechanically. + +"Glad to have the pleasure of talking with, you, Mr. Eaton. You must +accept my apologies for my methods of securing a meeting. They are +rather primitive, but since you declined to call and see me, I can hold +only you to blame." An acid smile touched his lips for a moment, though +his eyes were expressionless as a wall. "Mr. Eaton, I have brought you +here in this way to have a confidential talk with you, in order that it +might not in any way reflect upon you in case we do not come to an +arrangement satisfactory to both of us. Your friends cannot justly +blame you for this conference, since you could not avoid it. Mr. Eaton, +take a chair." + +The wills of the two men flashed into each other's eyes like rapiers. +The weaker man knew what was before him and braced himself to meet it. +He would not sit down. He would not discuss anything. So he told +himself once and again to hold himself steady against the impulse to +give way to those imperious eyes behind which was the impassive, +compelling will. + +"Sit down, Mr. Eaton." + +"I'll stand, Mr. Harley." + +"SIT DOWN." + +The cold jade eyes were not to be denied. Eaton's gaze fell sullenly, +and he slid into a chair. + +"I'll discuss no business except in the presence of Mr. Ridgway," he +said doggedly, falling back to his second line of defenses. + +"To the contrary, my business is with you and not with Mr. Ridgway." + +"I know of no business you can have with me." + +"Wherefore I have brought you here to acquaint you with it." + +The young man lifted his head reluctantly and waited. If he had been +willing to confess it to himself, he feared greatly this ruthless +spoiler who had built up the greatest fortune in the world from +thousands of wrecked lives. He felt himself choking, just as if those +skeleton fingers had been at his throat, but he promised himself never +to yield. + +The fathomless, dominant gaze caught and held his eyes. "Mr. Eaton, I +came here to crush Ridgway. I am going to stay here till I do. I'm +going to wipe him from the map of Montana--ruin him so utterly that he +can never recover. It has been my painful duty to do this with a +hundred men as strong and as confident as he is. After undertaking such +an enterprise, I have never faltered and never relented. The men I have +ruined were ruined beyond hope of recovery. None of them have ever +struggled to their feet again. I intend to make Waring Ridgway a +pauper." + +Stephen Eaton could have conceived nothing more merciless than this +man's callous pronouncement, than the calm certainty of his +unemphasized words. He started to reply, but Harley took the words out +of his mouth. + +"Don't make a mistake. Don't tie to the paltry successes he has gained. +I have not really begun to fight yet." + +The young man had nothing to say. His heart was water. He accepted +Harley's words as true, for he had told himself the same thing a +hundred times. Why had Ridgway rejected the overtures of this colossus +of finance? It had been the sheerest folly born of madness to suppose +that anybody could stand against him. + +"For Ridgway, the die is cast," the iron voice went on. "He is doomed +beyond hope. But there is still a chance for you. What do you consider +your interest in the Mesa Ore-producing Company worth, Mr. Eaton?" + +The sudden question caught Eaton with the force of a surprise. "About +three hundred thousand dollars," he heard himself say; and it seemed to +him that his voice was speaking the words without his volition. + +"I'm going to buy you out for twice that sum. Furthermore, I'm going to +take care of your future--going to see that you have a chance to rise." + +The waverer's will was in flux, but the loyalty in him still protested. +"I can't desert my chief, Mr. Harley." + +"Do you call it desertion to leave a raging madman in a sinking boat +after you have urged him to seek the safety of another ship?" + +"He made me what I am." + +"And I will make you ten times what you are. With Ridgway you have no +chance to be anything but a subordinate. He is the Mesa Ore-producing +Company, and you are merely a cipher. I offer your individuality a +chance. I believe in you, and know you to be a strong man." No ironic +smile touched Harley's face at this statement. "You need a chance, and +I offer it to you. For your own sake take it." + +Every grievance Eaton had ever felt against his chief came trooping to +his mind. He was domineering. He did ride rough-shod over his allies' +opinions and follow the course he had himself mapped out. All the glory +of the victory he absorbed as his due. In the popular opinion, Eaton +was as a farthing-candle to a great electric search-light in comparison +with Ridgway. + +"He trusts me," the tempted man urged weakly. He was slipping, and he +knew it, even while he assured himself he would never betray his chief. + +"He would sell you out to-morrow if it paid him. And what is he but a +robber? Every dollar of his holdings is stolen from me. I ask only +restitution of you--and I propose to buy at twice, nay at three times, +the value of your stolen property. You owe that freebooter no loyalty." + +"I can't do it. I can't do it." + +"You shall do it." Harley dominated him as bullying schoolmaster does a +cringing boy under the lash. + +"I can't do it," the young man repeated, all his weak will flung into +the denial. + +"Would you choose ruin?" + +"Perhaps. I don't know," he faltered miserable. + +"It's merely a business proposition, young man. The stock you have to +sell is valuable to-day. Reject my offer, and a month from now it will +be quoted on the market at half its present figure, and go begging at +that. It will be absolutely worthless before I finish. You are not +selling out Ridgway. He is a ruined man, anyway. But you--I am going to +save you in spite of yourself. I am going to shake you from that +robber's clutches." + +Eaton got to his feet, pallid and limp as a rag. "Don't tempt me," he +cried hoarsely. "I tell you I can't do it, sir." + +Harley's cold eye did not release him for an instant. "One million +dollars and an assured future, or--absolute, utter ruin, complete and +final." + +"He would murder me--and he ought to," groaned the writhing victim. + +"No fear of that. I'll put you where he can't reach you. Just sign your +name to this paper, Mr. Eaton." + +"I didn't agree. I didn't say I would." + +"Sign here. Or, wait one moment, till I get witnesses." Harley touched +a bell, and his secretary appeared in the doorway. "Ask Mr. Mott and +young Jarvis to step this way." + +Harley held out the pen toward Eaton, looking steadily at him. In a +strong man the human eye is a sword among weapons. Eaton quailed. The +fingers of the unhappy wretch went out mechanically for the pen. He was +sweating terror and remorse, but the essential weakness of the man +could not stand out unbacked against the masterful force of this man's +imperious will. He wrote his name in the places directed, and flung +down the pen like a child in a rage. + +"Now get me out of Montana before Ridgway knows," he cried brokenly. + +"You may leave to-morrow night, Mr. Eaton. You'll only have to appear +in court once personally. We'll arrange it quietly for to-morrow +afternoon. Ridgway won't know until it is done and you are gone." + + + +CHAPTER 20. A LITTLE LUNCH AT APHONSE'S + +It chanced that Ridgway, through the swinging door of a department +store, caught a glimpse of Miss Balfour as he was striding along the +street. He bethought him that it was the hour of luncheon, and that she +was no end better company than the revamped noon edition of the morning +paper. Wherefore he wheeled into the store and interrupted her +inspection of gloves. + +"I know the bulliest little French restaurant tucked away in a side +street just three blocks from here. The happiness disseminated in this +world by that chef's salads will some day carry him past St. Peter with +no questions asked." + +"You believe in salvation by works?" she parried, while she considered +his invitation. + +"So will you after a trial of Alphonse's salad." + +"Am I to understand that I am being invited to a theological discussion +of a heavenly salad concocted by Father Alphonse?" + +"That is about the specifications." + +"Then I accept. For a week my conscience has condemned me for excess of +frivolity. You offer me a chance to expiate without discomfort. That is +my idea of heaven. I have always believed it a place where one pastures +in rich meadows of pleasure, with penalties and consciences all +excluded from its domains." + +"You should start a church," he laughed. "It would have a great +following--especially if you could operate your heaven this side of the +Styx." + +She found his restaurant all he had claimed, and more. The little +corner of old Paris set her eyes shining. The fittings were Parisian to +the least detail. Even the waiter spoke no English. + +"But I don't see how they make it pay. How did he happen to come here? +Are there enough people that appreciate this kind of thing in Mesa to +support it?" + +He smiled at her enthusiasm. "Hardly. The place has a scarce dozen of +regular patrons. Hobart comes here a good deal. So does Eaton. But it +doesn't pay financially. You see, I know because I happen to own it. I +used to eat at Alphonse's restaurant in Paris. So I sent for him. It +doesn't follow that one has to be less a slave to the artificial +comforts of a supercivilized world because one lives at Mesa." + +"I see it doesn't. You are certainly a wonderful man." + +"Name anything you like. I'll warrant Alphonse can make good if it is +not outside of his national cuisine," he boasted. + +She did not try his capacity to the limit, but the oysters, the salad, +the chicken soup were delicious, with the ultimate perfection that +comes only out of Gaul. + +They made a delightfully gay and intimate hour of it, and were still +lingering over their demi-tasse when Yesler's name was mentioned. + +"Isn't it splendid that he's doing so well?" cried the girl with +enthusiasm. "The doctor says that if the bullet had gone a fraction of +an inch lower, he would have died. Most men would have died anyhow, +they say. It was his clean outdoor life and magnificent constitution +that saved him." + +"That's what pulled him through," he nodded. "It would have done his +heart good to see how many friends he had. His recovery was a +continuous performance ovation. It would have been a poorer world for a +lot of people if Sam Yesler had crossed the divide." + +"Yes. It would have been a very much poorer one for several I know." + +He glanced shrewdly at her. "I've learned to look for a particular +application when you wear that particularly sapient air of mystery." + +Her laugh admitted his hit. "Well, I was thinking of Laska. I begin to +think HER fair prince has come." + +"Meaning Yesler?" + +"Yes. She hasn't found it out herself yet. She only knows she is +tremendously interested." + +"He's a prince all right, though he isn't quite a fairy. The woman that +gets him will be lucky. + +"The man that gets Laska will be more than lucky," she protested +loyally. + +"I dare say," he agreed carelessly. "But, then, good women are not so +rare as good men. There are still enough of them left to save the +world. But when it comes to men like Sam--well, it would take a +Diogenes to find another." + +"I don't see how even Mr. Pelton, angry as he was, dared shoot him." + +"He had been drinking hard for a week. That will explain anything when +you add it to his temperament. I never liked the fellow." + +"I suppose that is why you saved his life when the miners took him and +were going to lynch him?" + +"I would not have lifted a hand for him. That's the bald truth. But I +couldn't let the boys spoil the moral effect of their victory by so +gross a mistake. It would have been playing right into Harley's hands." + +"Can a man get over being drunk in five minutes? I never saw anybody +more sober than Mr. Pelton when the mob were crying for vengeance and +you were fighting them back." + +"A great shock will sober a man. Pelton is an errant coward, and he had +pretty good reason to think he had come to the end of the passage. The +boys weren't playing. They meant business." + +"They would not have listened to another man in the world except you," +she told him proudly. + +"It was really Sam they listened to--when he sent out the message +asking them to let the law have its way." + +"No, I think it was the way you handled the message. You're a wizard at +a speech, you know." + +"Thanks." + +He glanced up, for Alphonse was waiting at his elbow. + +"You're wanted on the telephone, monsieur." + +"You can't get away from business even for an hour, can you?" she +rallied. "My heaven wouldn't suit you at all, unless I smuggled in a +trust for you to fight." + +"I expect it is Eaton," he explained. "Steve phoned down to the office +that he isn't feeling well to-day. I asked him to have me called up +here. If he isn't better, I'm going to drop round and see him." + +But when she caught sight of his face as he returned she knew it was +serious. + +"What's the matter? Is it Mr. Eaton? Is he very ill?" she cried. + +His face was set like broken ice refrozen. "Yes, it's Eaton. They +say--but it can't be true!" + +She had never seen him so moved. "What is it, Waring?" + +"The boy has sold me out. He is at the courthouse now, undoing my +work--the Judas!" + +The angry blood swept imperiously into her cheeks. "Don't waste any +more time with me, Waring. Go--go and save yourself from the traitor. +Perhaps it is not too late yet." + +He flung her a grateful look. "You're true blue, Virginia. Come! I'll +leave you at the store as we pass." + +The defection of Eaton bit his chief to the quick. The force of the +blow itself was heavy--how heavy he could not tell till he could take +stock of the situation. He could see that he would be thrown out of +court in the matter of the Consolidated Supply Company receivership, +since Eaton's stock would now be in the hands of the enemy. But what +was of more importance was the fact that Eaton's interest in the Mesa +Ore-producing Company now belonged to Harley, who could work any amount +of mischief with it as a lever for litigation. + +The effect, too, of the man's desertion upon the morale of the M. O. P. +forces must be considered and counteracted, if possible. He fancied he +could see his subordinates looking shiftyeyed at each other and +wondering who would slip away next. + +If it had been anybody but Steve! He would as soon have distrusted his +right hand as Steve Eaton. Why, he had made the man, had picked him out +when he was a mere clerk, and tied him to himself by a hundred favors. +Up on the Snake River he had saved Steve's life once when he was +drowning. The boy had always been as close to him as a brother. That +Steve should turn traitor was not conceivable. He knew all his intimate +plans, stood second to himself in the company. Oh, it was a numbing +blow! Ridgway's sense of personal loss and outrage almost obliterated +for the moment his appreciation of the business loss. + +The motion to revoke the receivership of the Supply Company was being +argued when Ridgway entered the court-room. Within a few minutes the +news had spread like wild-fire that Eaton was lined up with the +Consolidated, and already the paltry dozen of loafers in the court-room +had swelled into hundreds, all of them eager for any sensation that +might develop. + +Ridgway's broad shoulders flung aside the crowd and opened a way to the +vacant chair waiting for him. One of his lawyers had the floor and was +flaying Eaton with a vitriolic tongue, the while men craned forward all +over the room to get a glimpse of the traitor's face. + +Eaton sat beside Mott, dry-lipped and pallid, his set eyes staring +vacantly into space. Once or twice he flung a furtive glance about him. +His stripped and naked soul was enduring a foretaste of the Judgment +Day. The whip of scorn with which the lawyer lashed him cut into his +shrinking sensibilities, and left him a welter of raw and livid wales. +Good God! why had he not known it would be like this? He was paying for +his treachery and usury, and it was being burnt into him that as the +years passed he must continue to pay in self-contempt and the distrust +of his fellows. + +The case had come to a hearing before Judge Hughes, who was not one of +Ridgway's creatures. That on its merits it would be decided in favor of +the Consolidated was a foregone conclusion. It was after the judge had +rendered the expected decision that the dramatic moment of the day came +to gratify the seasoned court frequenters. + +Eaton, trying to slip as quietly as possible from the room, came face +to face with his former chief. For an interminable instant the man he +had betrayed, blocking the way squarely, held the trembling wretch in +the blaze of his scorn. Ridgway's contemptuous eyes sifted to the +ingrate's soul until it shriveled. Then he stood disdainfully to one +side so that the man might not touch him as he passed. + +Some one in the back of the room broke the tense silence and hissed: +"The damned Judas!" Instantly echoes of "Judas! Judas!" filled the +room, and pursued Eaton to his cab. It would be many years before he +could recall without scalding shame that moment when the finger of +public scorn was pointed at him in execration. + + + +CHAPTER 21. HARLEY SCORES + +What Harley had sought in the subornation of Eaton had been as much the +moral effect of his defection as the tangible results themselves. If he +could shake the confidence of the city and State in the freebooter's +victorious star, he would have done a good day's work. He wanted the +impression to spread that Ridgway's success had passed its meridian. + +Nor did he fail of his purpose by more than a hair's breadth. The talk +of the street saw the beginning of the end. The common voice ran: "It's +'God help Ridgway' now. He's down and out." + +But Waring Ridgway was never more dangerous than in apparent defeat. If +he were hit hard by Eaton's treachery, no sign of it was apparent in +the jaunty insouciance of his manner. Those having business with him +expected to find him depressed and worried, but instead met a man the +embodiment of vigorous and confident activity. If the subject were +broached, he was ready to laugh with them at Eaton's folly in deserting +at the hour when victory was assured. + +It was fortunate for Ridgway that the county elections came on early in +the spring and gave him a chance to show that his power was still +intact. He arranged to meet at once the political malcontents of the +State who were banded together against the growing influence of the +Consolidated. He had a few days before called together representative +men from all parts of the State to discuss a program of action against +the enemy, and Ridgway gave a dinner for them at the Quartzite, the +evening of Eaton's defection. + +He was at the critical moment when any obvious irresolution would have +been fatal. His allies were ready to concede his defeat if he would let +them. But he radiated such an assured atmosphere of power, such an +unconquerable current of vigor, that they could not escape his own +conviction of unassailability. He was at his genial, indomitable best, +the magnetic charm of fellowship putting into eclipse the selfishness +of the man. He had been known to boast of his political exploits, of +how he had been the Warwick that had made and unmade governors and +United States senators; but the fraternal "we" to-night replaced his +usual first person singular. + +The business interests of the Consolidated were supreme all over the +State. That corporation owned forests and mills and railroads and +mines. It ran sheep and cattle-ranches as well as stores and +manufactories. Most of the newspapers in the State were dominated by +it. Of a population of two hundred and fifty thousand, it controlled +more than half directly by the simple means of filling dinner-pails. +That so powerful a corporation, greedy for power and wealth, should +create a strong but scattered hostility in the course of its growth, +became inevitable. This enmity Ridgway proposed to consolidate into a +political organization, with opposition to the trust as its cohesive +principle, that should hold the balance of power in the State. + +When he rose to explain his object in calling them together, Ridgway's +clear, strong presentment of the situation, backed by his splendid bulk +and powerful personality, always bold and dramatic, shocked dormant +antagonisms to activity as a live current does sluggish inertia. For he +had eminently the gift of moving speech. The issue was a simple one, he +pointed out. Reduced to ultimates, the question was whether the State +should control the Consolidated or the Consolidated the State. With +simple, telling force he faced the insidious growth of the big copper +company, showing how every independent in the State was fighting for +his business life against its encroachments, and was bound to lose +unless the opposition was a united one. Let the independents obtain and +keep control of the State politically and the trust might be curbed; +not otherwise. In eternal vigilance and in union lay safety. + +He sat down in silence more impressive than any applause. But after the +silence came a deluge of cheers, the thunder of them sweeping up and +down the long table like a summer storm across a lake. + +Presently the flood-gates of talk were unloosed, and the conservatives +began to be heard. Opposition was futile because it was too late, they +claimed. A young Irishman, primed for the occasion, jumped to his feet +with an impassioned harangue that pedestaled Ridgway as the Washington +of the West. He showed how one man, in coalition with the labor-unions, +had succeeded in carrying the State against the big copper company; how +he had elected senators and governors, and legislators and judges. If +one man could so cripple the octopus, what could the best blood of the +State, standing together, not accomplish? He flung Patrick Henry and +Robert Emmet and Daniel Webster at their devoted heads, demanding +liberty or death with the bridled eloquence of his race. + +But Ridgway was not such a tyro at the game of politics as to depend +upon speeches for results. His fine hand had been working quietly for +months to bring the malcontents into one camp, shaping every passion to +which men are heir to serve his purpose. As he looked down the table he +could read in the faces before him hatred, revenge, envy, fear, hope, +avarice, recklessness, and even love, as the motives which he must fuse +to one common end. His vanity stood on tiptoe at his superb skill in +playing on men's wills. He knew he could mold these men to work his +desire, and the sequel showed he was right. + +When the votes were counted at the end of the bitter campaign that +followed, Simon Harley's candidates went down to disastrous defeat all +over the State, though he had spent money with a lavish hand. In Mesa +County, Ridgway had elected every one of his judges and retired to +private life those he could not influence. + +Harley's grim lips tightened when the news reached him. "Very well," he +said to Mott "We'll see if these patriots can't be reached through +their stomachs better than their brains. Order every mill and mine and +smelter of the Consolidated closed to-night. Our employees have voted +for this man Ridgway. Let him feed them or let them starve." + +"But the cost to you--won't it be enormous?" asked Mott, startled at +his chief's drastic decision. + +Harley bared his fangs with a wolfish smile. "We'll make the public +pay. Our store-houses are full of copper. Prices will jump when the +supply is reduced fifty per cent. We'll sell at an advance, and clean +up a few millions out of the shut-down. Meanwhile we'll starve this +patriotic State into submission." + +It came to pass even as Harley had predicted. With the Consolidated +mines closed, copper, jumped up--up--up. The trust could sit still and +coin money without turning a hand, while its employees suffered in the +long, bitter Northern winter. All the troubles usually pursuant on a +long strike began to fall upon the families of the miners. + +When a delegation from the miners' union came to discuss the situation +with Harley he met them blandly, with many platitudes of sympathy. He +regretted--he regretted exceedingly--the necessity that had been forced +upon him of closing the mines. He had delayed doing so in the hope that +the situation might be relieved. But it had grown worse, until he had +been forced to close. No, he was afraid he could not promise to reopen +this winter, unless something were done to ameliorate conditions in the +court. Work would begin at once, however, if the legislators would pass +a bill making it optional with any party to a suit to have the case +transferred to another judge in case he believed the bias of the +presiding judge would be prejudicial to an impartial hearing. + +Ridgway was flung at once upon the defensive. His allies, the working +men, demanded of him that his legislature pass the bill wanted by +Harley, in order that work might recommence. He evaded their demands by +proposing to arbitrate his difficulties with the Consolidated, by +offering to pay into the union treasury hall a million dollars to help +carry its members through the winter. He argued to the committee that +Harley was bluffing, that within a few weeks the mines and smelters +would again be running at their full capacity; but when the pressure on +the legislators he had elected became so great that he feared they +would be swept from their allegiance to him, he was forced to yield to +the clamor. + +It was a great victory for Harley. Nobody recognized how great a one +more accurately than Waring Ridgway. The leader of the octopus had +dogged him over the shoulders of the people, had destroyed at a single +blow one of his two principal sources of power. He could no longer rely +on the courts to support him, regardless of justice. + +Very well. If he could not play with cogged dice, he was gambler enough +to take the honest chances of the game without flinching. No despair +rang in his voice. The look in his eye was still warm and confident. +Mesa questioned him with glimpses friendly but critical. They found no +fear in his bearing, no hint of doubt in his indomitable assurance. + + + +CHAPTER 22. "NOT GUILTY"--"GUILTY" + +Ridgway's answer to the latest move of Simon Harley was to put him on +trial for his life to answer the charge of having plotted and +instigated the death of Vance Edwards. Not without reason, the defense +had asked for a change of venue, alleging the impossibility of securing +a fair trial at Mesa. The courts had granted the request and removed +the case to Avalanche. + +On the second day of the trial Aline sat beside her husband, a dainty +little figure of fear, shrinking from the observation focused upon her +from all sides. The sight of her forlorn sensitiveness so touched +Ridgway's heart that he telegraphed Virginia Balfour to come and help +support her through the ordeal. + +Virginia came, and henceforth two women, both of them young and +unusually attractive, gave countenance to the man being tried for his +life. Not that he needed their support for himself, but for the effect +they might have on the jury. Harley had shrewdly guessed that the +white-faced child he had married, whose pathetic beauty was of so +haunting a type, and whose big eyes were so quick to reflect emotions, +would be a valuable asset to set against the black-clad widow of Vance +Edwards. + +For its effect upon himself, so far as the trial was concerned, Simon +Harley cared not a whit. He needed no bolstering. The old wrecker +carried an iron face to the ordeal. His leathern heart was as foreign +to fear as to pity. The trial was an unpleasant bore to him, but +nothing worse. He had, of course, cast an anchor of caution to windward +by taking care to have the jury fixed. For even though his array of +lawyers was a formidably famous one, he was no such child as to trust +his case to a Western jury on its merits while the undercurrent of +popular opinion was setting so strongly against him. Nor had he +neglected to see that the court-room was packed with detectives to +safeguard him in the event that the sympathy of the attending miners +should at any time become demonstrative against him. + +The most irritating feature of the trial to the defendant was the +presence of the little woman in black, whose burning eyes never left +for long his face. He feigned to be unconscious of her regard, but +nobody in the court-room was more sure of that look of enduring, +passionate hatred than its victim. He had made her a widow, and her +heart cried for revenge. That was the story the eyes told dumbly. + +From first to last the case was bitterly contested, and always with the +realization among those present--except for that somber figure in +black, whose beady eyes gimleted the defendant--that it was another +move in the fight between the rival copper kings. The district attorney +had worked up his case very carefully, not with much hope of securing a +conviction, but to mass a total of evidence that would condemn the +Consolidated leader-before the world. + +To this end, the foreman, Donleavy, had been driven by a process of +sweating to turn State's evidence against his master. His testimony +made things look black for Harley, but when Hobart took the stand, a +palpably unwilling witness, and supported his evidence, the Ridgway +adherents were openly jubilant. The lawyers for the defense made much +of the fact that Hobart had just left the Consolidated service after a +disagreement with the defendant and had been elected to the senate by +his enemies, but the impression made by his moderation and the fine +restraint of his manner, combined with his reputation for scrupulous +honesty, was not to be shaken by the subtle innuendos and blunt +aspersions of the legal array he faced. + +Nor did the young district attorney content himself with Hobart's +testimony. He put his successor, Mott, on the stand, and gave him a bad +hour while he tried to wring the admission out of him that Harley had +personally ordered the attack on the miners of the Taurus. But for the +almost constant objections of the opposing counsel, which gave him time +to recover himself, the prosecuting attorney would have succeeded. + +Ridgway, meeting him by chance after luncheon at the foot of the hotel +elevator--for in a town the size of Avalanche, Waring had found it +necessary to put up at the same hotel as the enemy or take second best, +an alternative not to his fastidious taste--rallied him upon the +predicament in which he had found himself. + +"It's pretty hard to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but +the truth, without making indiscreet admissions about one's friends, +isn't it?" he asked, with his genial smile. + +"Did I make any indiscreet admissions?" + +"I don't say you did, though you didn't look as if you were enjoying +yourself. I picked up an impression that you had your back to the wall; +seemed to me the jury rather sized it up that way, Mott." + +"We'll know what the jury thinks in a few days." + +"Shall we?" the other laughed aloud. "Now, I'm wondering whether we +shall know what they really think." + +"If you mean that the jury has been tampered with it is your duty to +place your evidence before the court, Mr. Ridgway." + +"When I hear the verdict I'll tell you what I think about the jury," +returned the president of the Ore-producing Company, with easy +impudence as he passed into the elevator. + +At the second floor Waring left it and turned toward the ladies' +parlor. It had seemed to him that Aline had looked very tired and frail +at the morning session, and he wanted to see Virginia about arranging +to have them take a long drive into the country that afternoon. He had +sent his card up with a penciled note to the effect that he would wait +for her in the parlor. + +But when he stepped through the double doorway of the ornate room it +was to become aware of a prior occupant. She was reclining on a divan +at the end of the large public room. Neither lying nor sitting, but +propped up among a dozen pillows with head and limbs inert and the long +lashes drooped on the white cheeks, Aline looked the pathetic figure of +a child fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion after a long strain. + +Since he was the man he was, unhampered by any too fine sense of what +was fitting, he could no more help approaching than he could help the +passionate pulse of pity that stirred in his heart at sight of her +forlorn weariness. + +Her eyes opened to find his grave compassion looking down at her. She +showed no surprise at his presence, though she had not previously known +of it. Nor did she move by even so much as the stir of a limb. + +"This is wearing you out," he said, after the long silence in which her +gaze was lost helplessly in his. "You must go home--away from it all. +You must forget it, and if it ever crosses your mind think of it as +something with which you have no concern." + +"How can I do that--now." + +The last word slipped out not of her will, but from an undisciplined +heart. It stood for the whole tangled story of her troubles: the +unloved marriage which had bereft her of her heritage of youth and joy, +the love that had found her too late and was so poignant a fount of +distress to her, the web of untoward circumstance in which she was so +inextricably entangled. + +"How did you ever come to do it?" he asked roughly, out of the bitter +impulse of his heart. + +She knew that the harshness was not for her, as surely as she knew what +he meant by his words. + +"I did wrong. I know that now, but I didn't know it then. Though even +then I felt troubled about it. But my guardian said it was best, and I +knew so little. Oh, so very, very little. Why was I not taught things, +what every girl has a right to know--until life teaches me--too late?" + +Nothing he could say would comfort her. For the inexorable facts +forbade consolation. She had made shipwreck of her life before the +frail raft of her destiny had well pushed forth from harbor. He would +have given much to have been able to take the sadness out of her great +childeyes, but he knew that not even by the greatness of his desire +could he take up her burden. She must carry it alone or sink under it. + +"You must go away from here back to your people. If not now, then as +soon as the trial is over. Make him take you to your friends for a +time." + +"I have no friends that can help me." She said it in an even little +voice of despair. + +"You have many friends. You have made some here. Virginia is one." He +would not name himself as only a friend, though he had set his iron +will to claim no more. + +"Yes, Virginia is my friend. She is good to me. But she is going to +marry you, and then you will both forget me." + +"I shall never forget you." He cried it in a low, tense voice, his +clenched hands thrust into the pockets of his sack coat. + +Her wan smile thanked him. It was the most he would let himself say. +Though her heart craved more, she knew she must make the most of this. + +"I came up to see Virginia," he went on, with a change of manner. "I +want her to take you driving this afternoon. Forget about that wretched +trial if you can. Nothing of importance will take place to-day." + +He turned at the sound of footsteps, and saw that Miss Balfour had come +into the room. + +"I want you to take Mrs. Harley into the fresh sunshine and clear air +this afternoon. I have been telling her to forget this trial. It's a +farce, anyhow. Nothing will come of it. Take her out to the Homes--take +and cheer her up." + +"Yes, my lord." Virginia curtseyed obediently. + +"It will do you good, too." + +She shot a mocking little smile at him. "It's very good of you to think +of me." + +"Still, I do sometimes." + +"Whenever it is convenient," she added. + +But with Aline watching them the spirit of badinage in him was +overmatched. He gave it up and asked what kind of a rig he should send +round. Virginia furnished him the necessary specifications, and he +turned to go. + +As he left the room Simon Harley entered. They met face to face, and +after an instant's pause each drew aside to allow the other to pass. +The New Yorker inclined his head silently and moved forward toward his +wife. Ridgway passed down the corridor and into the elevator. + +As the days of the trial passed excitement grew more tense. The lawyers +for the prosecution and the defense made their speeches to a crowded +and enthralled court-room. There was a feverish uncertainty in the air. +It reached a climax when the jury stayed out for eleven hours before +coming to a verdict. From the moment it filed back into the court-room +with solemn faces the dramatic tensity began to foreshadow the tragedy +about to be enacted. The woman Harley had made a widow sat erect and +rigid in the seat where she had been throughout the trial. Her eyes +blazed with a hatred that bordered madness. Ridgway had observed that +neither Aline Harley nor Virginia was present, and a note from the +latter had just reached him to the effect that Aline was ill with the +strain of the long trial. Afterward Ridgway could never thank his pagan +gods enough that she was absent. + +There was a moment of tense waiting before the judge asked: + +"Gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict?" + +The foreman rose. "We have, your honor." + +A folded note was handed to the judge. He read it slowly, with an +inscrutable face. + +"Is this your verdict, gentlemen of the jury?" + +"It is, your honor." + +Silence, full and rigid, held the room after the words "Not guilty" had +fallen from the lips of the judge. The stillness was broken by a shock +as of an electric bolt from heaven. + +The exploding echoes of a pistol-shot reverberated. Men sprang wildly +to their feet, gazing at each other in the distrust that fear +generates. But one man was beyond being startled by any more earthly +sounds. His head fell forward on the table in front of him, and a thin +stream of blood flowed from his lips. It was Simon Harley, found +guilty, sentenced, and executed by the judge and jury sitting in the +outraged, insane heart of the woman he had made a widow. + +Mrs. Edwards had shot him through the head with a revolver she had +carried in her shoppingbag to exact vengeance in the event of a +miscarriage of justice. + + + +CHAPTER 23. ALINE TURNS A CORNER + +Aline might have been completely prostrated by the news of her +husband's sudden end, coming as it did as the culmination of a week of +strain and horror. That she did not succumb was due, perhaps, to +Ridgway's care for her. When Harley's massive gray head had dropped +forward to the table, his enemy's first thought had been of her. As +soon as he knew that death was sure, he hurried to the hotel. + +He sent his card up, and followed it so immediately that he found her +scarcely risen from the divan on which she had been lying in the +receiving-room of her apartments. The sleep was not yet shaken from her +lids, nor was the wrinkled flush smoothed from the soft cheek that had +been next the cushion. Even in his trouble for her he found time to be +glad that Virginia was not at the moment with her. It gave him the +sense of another bond between them that this tragic hour should belong +to him and her alone--this hour of destiny when their lives swung round +a corner beyond which lay wonderful vistas of kindly sunbeat and dewy +starlight stretching to the horizon's edge of the long adventure. + +She checked the rush of glad joy in her heart the sight of him always +brought, and came forward slowly. One glance at his face showed that he +had brought grave news. + +"What is it? Why are you here?" she cried tensely. + +"To bring you trouble, Aline." + +"Trouble!" Her hand went to her heart quickly. + +"It is about--Mr. Harley." + +She questioned him with wide, startled eyes, words hesitating on her +trembling lips and flying unvoiced. + +"Child--little partner--the orders are to be brave." He came forward +and took her hands in his, looking down at her with eyes she thought +full of infinitely kind pity. + +"Is it--have they--do you mean the verdict?" + +"Yes, the verdict; but not the verdict of which you are thinking." + +She turned a quivering face to his. "Tell me. I shall be brave." + +He told her the brutal fact as gently as he could, while he watched the +blood ebb from her face. As she swayed he caught her in his arms and +carried her to the divan. When, presently, her eyes fluttered open, it +was to look into his pitiful ones. He was kneeling beside her, and her +head was pillowed on his arm. + +"Say it isn't true," she murmured. + +"It is true, dear." + +She moved her head restlessly, and he took away his arm, rising to draw +a chair close to the lounge. She slipped her two hands under her head, +letting them lie palm to palm on the sofapillow. The violet eyes looked +past him into space. Her tangled thoughts were in a chaos of disorder. +Even though she had known but a few months and loved not at all the +grim, gray-haired man she had called husband, the sense of wretched +bereavement, the nearness of death, was strong on her. He had been kind +to her in his way, and the inevitable closeness of their relationship, +repugnant as it had been to her, made its claims felt. An hour ago he +had been standing here, the strong and virile ruler over thousands. Now +he lay stiff and cold, all his power shorn from him without a second's +warning. He had kissed her good-by, solicitous for her welfare, and it +had been he that had been in need of care rather than she. Two big +tears hung on her lids and splashed to her cheeks. She began to sob, +and half-turned on the divan, burying her face in her hands. + +Ridgway let her weep without interruption for a time, knowing that it +would be a relief to her surcharged heart and overwrought nerves. But +when her sobs began to abate she became aware of his hand resting on +her shoulder. She sat up, wiping her eyes, and turned to him a face +sodden with grief. + +"You are good to me," she said simply. + +"If my goodness were only less futile! Heaven knows what I would give +to ward off trouble from you. But I can't, nor can I bear it for you." + +"But it is a help to know you would if you could. He--I think he wanted +to ward off grief from me, but he could not, either. I was often lonely +and sad, even though he was kind to me. And now he has gone. I wish I +had told him how much I appreciated his goodness to me." + +"Yes, we all feel that when we have lost some one we love. It is +natural to wish we had been better to them and showed them how much we +cared. Let me tell you about my mother. I was thirteen when she died. +It was in summer. She had not been well for a long time. The boys were +going fishing that day and she asked me to stay at home. I had set my +heart on going, and I thought it was only a fancy of hers. She did not +insist on my staying, so I went, but felt uncomfortable all day. When I +came back in the evening they told me she was dead. I felt as if some +great icy hand were tightening, on my heart. Somehow I couldn't break +down and cry it out. I went around with a white, set face and gave no +sign. Even at the funeral it was the same. The neighbors called me +hard-hearted and pointed me out to their sons as a terrible warning. +And all the time I was torn with agony." + +"You poor boy." + +"And one night she came to me in a dream. She did not look as she had +just before she died, but strong and beautiful, with the color in her +face she used to have. She smiled at me and kissed me and rumpled my +hair as she used to do. I knew, then, it was all right. She understood, +and I didn't care whether others did or not. I woke up crying, and +after I had had my grief out I was myself again." + +"It was so sweet of her to think to come to you. She must have been +loving you up in heaven and saw you were troubled, and came down just +to comfort you and tell you it was all right," the girl cried with soft +sympathy. + +"That's how I understood it. Of course, I was only a boy, but somehow I +knew it was more than a dream. I'm not a spiritualist. I don't believe +such things happen, but I know it happened to me," he finished +illogically, with a smile. + +She sighed. "He was always so thoughtful of me, too. I do wish I +had--could have been--more--" + +She broke off without finishing, but he understood. + +"You must not blame yourself for that. He would be the first to tell +you so. He took you for what you could give him, and these last days +were the best he had known for many years." + +"He was so good to me. Oh, you don't know how good." + +"It was a great pleasure to him to be good to you, the greatest +pleasure he knew." + +She looked up as he spoke, and saw shining deep in his eyes the spirit +that had taught him to read so well the impulse of another lover, and, +seeing it, she dropped her eyes quickly in order not to see what was +there. With him it had been only an instant's uncontrollable surge of +ecstasy. He meant to wait. Every instinct of the decent thing told him +not to take advantage of her weakness, her need of love to rest upon in +her trouble, her transparent care for him and confidence in him so +childlike in its entirety. For convention he did not care a turn of his +hand, but he would do nothing that might shock her self-respect when +she came to think of it later. Sternly he brought himself back to +realities. + +"Shall I see Mr. Mott for you and send him here? It would be better +that he should make the arrangements than I." + +"If you please. I shall not see you again before I go, then?" Her lips +trembled as she asked the question. + +"I shall come down to the hotel again and see you before you go. And +now good-by. Be brave, and don't reproach yourself. Remember that he +would not wish it." + +The door opened, and Virginia came in, flushed with rapid walking. She +had heard the news on the street and had hurried back to the hotel. + +Her eyes asked of Ridgway: "Does she know?" and he answered in the +affirmative. Straight to Aline she went and wrapped her in her arms, +the latent mothering instinct that is in every woman aroused and +dormant. + +"Oh, my dear, my dear," she cried softly. + +Ridgway slipped quietly from the room and left them together. + + + +CHAPTER 24. A GOOD SAMARITAN + +Yesler, still moving slowly with a walking stick by reason of his green +wound, left the street-car and made his way up Forest Road to the house +which bore the number 792. In the remote past there had been some +spasmodic attempt to cultivate grass and raise some shade-trees along +the sidewalks, but this had long since been given up as abortive. An +air of decay hung over the street, the unmistakable suggestion of +better days. This was writ large over the house in front of which +Yesler stopped. The gate hung on one hinge, boards were missing from +the walk, and a dilapidated shutter, which had once been green, swayed +in the breeze. + +A woman of about thirty, dark and pretty but poorly dressed, came to +the door in answer to his ring. Two little children, a boy and a girl, +with their mother's shy long-lashed Southern eyes of brown, clung to +her skirts and gazed at the stranger. + +"This is where Mr. Pelton lives, is it not?" he asked. + +"Yes, sir." + +"Is he at home?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"May I see him?" + +"He's sick." + +"I'm sorry to hear it. Too sick to be seen? If not, I should like very +much to see him. I have business with him." + +The young woman looked at him a little defiantly and a little +suspiciously. "Are you a reporter?" + +Sam smiled. "No, ma'am." + +"Does he owe you money?" He could see the underlying blood dye her +dusky cheeks when she asked the question desperately, as it seemed to +him with a kind of brazen shame to which custom had inured her. She had +somehow the air of some gentle little creature of the forests defending +her young. + +"Not a cent, ma'am. I don't want to do him any harm." + +"I didn't hear your name." + +"I haven't mentioned it," he admitted, with the sunny smile that was a +letter of recommendation in itself. "Fact is I'd rather not tell it +till he sees me." + +From an adjoining room a querulous voice broke into their conversation. +"Who is it, Norma?" + +"A gentleman to see you, Tom." + +"Who is it?" more sharply. + +"It is I, Mr. Pelton. I came to have a talk with you." Yesler pushed +forward into the dingy sitting-room with the pertinacity of a +bookagent. "I heard you were not well, and I came to find out if I can +do anything for you." + +The stout man lying on the lounge grew pale before the blood reacted in +a purple flush. His very bulk emphasized the shabbiness of the stained +and almost buttonless Prince Albert coat he wore, the dinginess of the +little room he seemed to dwarf. + +"Leave my house, seh. You have ruined this family, and you come to +gloat on your handiwork. Take a good look, and then go, Mr. Yesler. You +see my wife in cotton rags doing her own work. Is it enough, seh?" + +The slim little woman stepped across the room and took her place beside +her husband. Her eyes flashed fire at the man she held responsible for +the fall of her husband. Yesler's generous heart applauded the loyalty +which was proof against both disgrace and poverty. For in the past +month both of these had fallen heavily upon her. Tom Pelton had always +lived well, and during the past few years he had speculated in ventures +far beyond his means. Losses had pursued him, and he had looked to the +senatorship to recoup himself and to stand off the creditors pressing +hard for payment. Instead he had been exposed, disgraced, and finally +disbarred for attempted bribery. Like a horde of hungry rats his +creditors had pounced upon the discredited man and wrested from him the +remnants of his mortgaged property. He had been forced to move into a +mere cottage and was a man without a future. For the only profession at +which he had skill enough to make a living was the one from which he +had been cast as unfit to practise it. The ready sympathy of the +cattleman had gone out to the politician who was down and out. He had +heard the situation discussed enough to guess pretty close to the +facts, and he could not let himself rest until he had made some effort +to help the man whom his exposure had ruined, or, rather, had hastened +to ruin, for that result had been for years approaching. + +"I'm sorry, Mr. Pelton. If I've injured you I want to make it right." + +"Make it right!" The former congressman got up with an oath. "Make it +right! Can you give me back my reputation, my future? Can you take away +the shame that has come upon my wife, and that my children will have to +bear in the years to come? Can you give us back our home, our comfort, +our peace of mind?" + +"No, I can't do this, but I can help you to do it all," the cattleman +made answer quietly. + +He offered no defense, though he knew perfectly well none was needed. +He had no responsibility in the calamity that had befallen this family. +Pelton's wrong-doing had come home to those he loved, and he could +rightly blame nobody but himself. However much he might arraign those +who had been the agents of his fall, he knew in his heart that the +fault had been his own. + +Norma Pelton, tensely self-repressed, spoke now. "How can you do this, +sir?" + +"I can't do it so long as you hold me for an enemy, ma'am. I'm ready to +cry quits with your husband and try a new deal. If I injured him he +tried to even things up. Well, let's say things are squared and start +fresh. I've got a business proposition to make if you're willing to +listen to it." + +"What sort of a proposition?" + +"I'm running about twenty-five thousand sheep up in the hills. I've +just bought a ranch with a comfortable ranch-house on it for a kind of +central point. My winter feeding will all be done from it as a chief +place of distribution. Same with the shearing and shipping. I want a +good man to put in charge of my sheep as head manager, and I would be +willing to pay a proper salary. There ain't any reason why this +shouldn't work into a partnership if he makes good. With wool jumping, +as it's going to do in the next four years, the right kind of man can +make himself independent for life. My idea is to increase my holdings +right along, and let my manager in as a partner as soon as he shows he +is worth it. Now that ranch-house is a decent place. There's a pretty +good school, ma'am, for the children. The folks round that neighborhood +may not have any frills, but--" + +"Are you offering Tom the place as manager?" she demanded, in amazement. + +"That was my idea, ma'am. It's not what you been used to, o' course, +but if you're looking for a change I thought I'd speak of it," he said +diffidently. + +She looked at him in a dumb surprise. She, too, in her heart knew that +this man was blameless. He had done his duty, and had nearly lost his +life for it at the hands of her husband. Now, he had come to lift them +out of the hideous nightmare into which they had fallen. He had come to +offer them peace and quiet and plenty in exchange for the future of +poverty and shame and despair which menaced them. They were to escape +into God's great hills, away from the averted looks and whispering +tongues and the temptations to drown his trouble that so constantly +beset the father of her children. Despite his faults she still loved +Tom Pelton; he was a kind and loving husband and father. Out on the +range there still waited a future for him. When she thought of it a +lump rose in her throat for very happiness. She, who had been like a +rock beside him in his trouble, broke down now and buried her head in +her husband's coat. + +"Don't you, honey--now, don't you cry." The big man had lost all his +pomposity, and was comforting his sweetheart as simply as a boy. "It's +all been my fault. I've been doing wrong for years--trying to pull +myself out of the mire by my bootstraps. By Gad, you're a man, Sam +Yesler, that's what you are. If I don't turn ovah a new leaf I'd ought +to be shot. We'll make a fresh start, sweetheart. Dash me, I'm nothing +but a dashed baby." And with that the overwrought man broke down, too. + +Yesler, moved a good deal himself, maintained the burden of the +conversation cheerfully. + +"That's all settled, then. Tell you I'm right glad to get a competent +man to put in charge. Things have been running at loose ends, because I +haven't the time to look after them. This takes a big load off my mind. +You better arrange to go up there with me as soon as you have time, +Pelton, and look the ground over. You'll want to make some changes if +you mean to take your family up there. Better to spend a few hundreds +and have things the way you want them for Mrs. Pelton than to move in +with things not up to the mark. Of course, I'll put the house in the +shape you want it. But we can talk of that after we look it over." + +In his embarrassment he looked so much the boy, so much the culprit +caught stealing apples and up for sentence, that Norma Pelton's +gratitude took courage. She came across to him and held out both hands, +the shimmer of tears still in the soft brown eyes. + +"You've given us more than life, Mr. Yesler. You can't ever know what +you have done for us. Some things are worse than death to some people. +I don't mean poverty, but--other things. We can begin again far away +from this tainted air that has poisoned us. I know it isn't good form +to be saying this. One shouldn't have feelings in public. But I don't +care. I think of the children--and Tom. I didn't expect ever to be +happy again, but we shall. I feel it." + +She broke down again and dabbed at her eyes with her kerchief. Sam, +very much embarrassed but not at all displeased at this display of +feeling, patted her dark hair and encouraged her to composure. + +"There. It's all right, now, ma'am. Sure you'll be happy. Any mother +that's got kids like these--" + +He caught up the little girl in his arms by way of diverting attention +from himself. + +This gave a new notion to the impulsive little woman. + +"I want you to kiss them both. Come here, Kennie. This is Mr. Yesler, +and he is the best man you've ever seen. I want you to remember that he +has been our best friend." + +"Yes, mama." + +"Oh, sho, ma'am!" protested the overwhelmed cattleman, kissing both the +children, nevertheless. + +Pelton laughed. He felt a trifle hysterical himself. "If she thinks it +she'll say it when she feels that way. I'm right surprised she don't +kiss you, too." + +"I will," announced Norma promptly, with a pretty little tide of color. + +She turned toward him, and Yesler, laughing, met the red lips of the +new friend he had made. + +"Now, you've got just grounds for shooting me," he said gaily, and +instantly regretted his infelicitous remark. + +For both husband and wife fell grave at his words. It was Pelton that +answered them. + +"I've been taught a lesson, Mr. Yesler. I'm never going to pack a gun +again as long as I live, unless I'm hunting or something of that sort, +and I'm never going to drink another drop of liquor. It's all right for +some men, but it isn't right for me." + +"Glad to hear it. I never did believe in the hip-pocket habit. I've +lived here twenty years, and I never found it necessary except on +special occasions. When it comes to whisky, I reckon we'd all be better +without it." + +Yesler made his escape at the earliest opportunity and left them alone +together. He lunched at the club, attended to some correspondence he +had, and about 3:30 drifted down the street toward the post-office. He +had expectations of meeting a young woman who often passed about that +time on her way home from school duties. + +It was, however, another young woman whose bow he met in front of +Mesa's largest department store. + +"Good afternoon, Miss Balfour." + +She nodded greeting and cast eyes of derision on him. + +"I've been hearing about you. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" + +"Yes, ma'am. What for in particular? There are so many things." + +"You're a fine Christian, aren't you?" she scoffed. + +"I ain't much of a one. That's a fact," he admitted. "What is it this +time--poker?" + +"No, it isn't poker. Worse than that. You've been setting a deplorable +example to the young." + +"To young ladies--like Miss Virginia?" he wanted to know. + +"No, to young Christians. I don't know what our good deacons will say +about it." She illuminated her severity with a flashing smile. "Don't +you know that the sins of the fathers are to descend upon their +children even to the third and fourth generation? Don't you know that +when a man does wrong he must die punished, and his children and his +wife, of course, and that the proper thing to do is to stand back and +thank Heaven we haven't been vile sinners?" + +"Now, don't you begin on that, Miss Virginia," he warned. + +"And after the man had disgraced himself and shot you, after all +respectable people had given him an extra kick to let him know he must +stay down and had then turned their backs upon him. I'm not surprised +that you're ashamed." + +"Where did you get hold of this fairy-tale?" he plucked up courage to +demand. + +"From Norma Pelton. She told me everything, the whole story from +beginning to end." + +"It's right funny you should be calling on her, and you a respectable +young lady--unless you went to deliver that extra kick you was +mentioning," he grinned. + +She dropped her raillery. "It was splendid. I meant to ask Mr. Ridgway +to do something for them, but this is so much better. It takes them +away from the place of his disgrace and away from temptation. Oh, I +don't wonder Norma kissed you." + +"She told you that, too, did she?" + +"Yes. I should have done it, too, in her place." + +He glanced round placidly. "It's a right public place here, but--" + +"Don't be afraid. I'm not going to." And before she disappeared within +the portals of the department store she gave him one last thrust. "It's +not so public up in the library. Perhaps if you happen to be going that +way?" + +She left her communication a fragment, but he thought it worth acting +upon. Among the library shelves he found Laska deep in a new volume on +domestic science. + +"This ain't any kind of day to be fooling away your time on cook-books. +Come out into the sun and live," he invited. + +They walked past the gallows-frames and the slag-dumps and the +shaft-houses into the brown hills beyond the point where green copper +streaks showed and spurred the greed of man. It was a day of spring +sunshine, the good old earth astir with her annual recreation. The +roadside was busy with this serious affair of living. Ants and crawling +things moved to and fro about their business. Squirrels raced across +the road and stood up at a safe distance to gaze at these intruders. +Birds flashed back and forth, hurried little carpenters busy with the +specifications for their new nests. Eager palpitating life was the +key-note of the universe. + +"Virginia told me about the Peltons," Laska said, after a pause. + +"It's spreading almost as fast as if it were a secret," he smiled. "I'm +expecting to find it in the paper when we get back." + +"I'm so glad you did it." + +"Well, you're to blame." + +"I!" She looked at him in surprise. + +"Partly. You told me how things were going with them. That seemed to +put it up to me to give Pelton a chance." + +"I certainly didn't mean it that way. I had no right to ask you to do +anything about it." + +"Mebbe it was the facts put it up to me. Anyhow, I felt responsible." + +"Mr. Roper once told me that you always feel responsible when you hear +anybody is in trouble," the young woman answered. + +"Roper's a goat. Nobody ever pays any attention to him." + +Presently they diverged from the road and sat down on a great flat rock +which dropped out from the hillside like a park seat. For he was still +far from strong and needed frequent rests. Their talk was desultory, +for they had reached that stage of friendship at which it is not +necessary to bridge silence with idle small talk. Here, by some whim of +fate, the word was spoken. He knew he loved her, but he had not meant +to say it yet. + +But when her steady gray eyes came back to his after a long stillness, +the meeting brought him a strange feeling that forced his hand. + +"I love you, Laska. Will you be my wife?" he asked quietly. + +"Yes, Sam," she answered directly. That was all. It was settled with a +word. There in the sunshine he kissed her and sealed the compact, and +afterward, when the sun was low among the hill spurs, they went back +happily to take up again the work that awaited them. + + + +CHAPTER 25. FRIENDLY ENEMIES + +Ridgway had promised Aline that he would see her soon, and when he +found himself in New York he called at the big house on Fifth Avenue, +which had for so long been identified as the home of Simon Harley. It +bore his impress stamped on it. Its austerity suggested the Puritan +rather than the classic conception of simplicity. The immense rooms +were as chill as dungeons, and the forlorn little figure in black, lost +in the loneliness of their bleakness, wandered to and fro among her +retinue of servants like a butterfly beating its wings against a pane +of glass. + +With both hands extended she ran forward to meet her guest. + +"I'm so glad, so glad, so glad to see you." + +The joy-note in her voice was irrepressible. She had been alone for +weeks with the conventional gloom that made an obsession of the shadow +of death which enveloped the house. All voices and footsteps had been +subdued to harmonize with the grief of the mistress of this mausoleum. +Now she heard the sharp tread of this man unafraid, and saw the alert +vitality of his confident bearing. It was like a breath of the hills to +a parched traveler. + +"I told you I would come." + +"Yes. I've been looking for you every day. I've checked each one off on +my calendar. It's been three weeks and five days since I saw you." + +"I thought it was a year," he laughed, and the sound of his uncurbed +voice rang strangely in this room given to murmurs. + +"Tell me about everything. How is Virginia, and Mrs. Mott, and Mr. +Yesler? And is he really engaged to that sweet little school-teacher? +And how does Mr. Hobart like being senator?" + +"Not more than a dozen questions permitted at a time. Begin again, +please." + +"First, then, when did you reach the city?" + +He consulted his watch. "Just two hours and twenty-seven minutes ago." + +"And how long are you going to stay?" + +"That depends." + +"On what?" + +"For one thing, on whether you treat me well," he smiled. + +"Oh, I'll treat you well. I never was so glad to see a real live +somebody in my life. It's been pretty bad here." She gave a dreary +little smile as she glanced around at the funereal air of the place. +"Do you know, I don't think we think of death in the right way? Or, +maybe, I'm a heathen and haven't the proper feelings." + +She had sat down on one of the stiff divans, and Ridgway found a place +beside her. + +"Suppose you tell me about it," he suggested. + +"I know I must be wrong, and you'll be shocked when you hear." + +"Very likely." + +"I can't help feeling that the living have rights, too," she began +dubiously. "If they would let me alone I could be sorry in my own way, +but I don't see why I have to make a parade of grief. It seems to--to +cheapen one's feelings, you know." + +He nodded. "Just as if you had to measure your friendship for the dead +with a yardstick of Mother Grundy. It's a hideous imposition laid on us +by custom, one of Ibsen's ghosts." + +"It's so good to hear you say that. And do you think I may begin to be +happy again?" + +"I think it would be allowable to start with one smile a day, say, and +gradually increase the dose," he jested. "In the course of a week, if +it seems to agree with you, try a laugh." + +She made the experiment without waiting the week, amused at his +whimsical way of putting it. Nevertheless, the sound of her own +laughter gave her a little shock. + +"You came on business, I suppose?" she said presently. + +"Yes. I came to raise a million dollars for some improvements I want to +make." + +"Let me lend it to you," she proposed eagerly. + +"That would be a good one. I'm going to use it to fight the +Consolidated. Since you are now its chief stockholder you would be +letting me have money with which to fight you." + +"I shouldn't care about that. I hope you beat me." + +"You're my enemy now. That's not the way to talk." His eyes twinkled +merrily. + +"Am I your enemy? Let's be friendly enemies, then. And there's +something I want to talk to you about. Before he died Mr. Harley told +me he had made you an offer. I didn't understand the details, but you +were to be in charge of all the copper-mines in the country. Wasn't +that it?" + +"Something of that sort. I declined the proposition." + +"I want you to take it now and manage everything for me. I don't know +Mr. Harley's associates, but I can trust you. You can arrange it any +way you like, but I want to feel that you have the responsibility." + +He saw again that vision of power--all the copper interests of the +country pooled, with himself at the head of the combination. He knew it +would not be so easy to arrange as she thought, for, though she had +inherited Harley's wealth, she had not taken over his prestige and +force. There would be other candidates for leadership. But if he +managed her campaign Aline's great wealth must turn the scale in their +favor. + +"You must think this over again. You must talk it over with your +advisers before we come to a decision," he said gravely. + +"I've told Mr. Jarmyn. He says the idea is utterly impossible. But +we'll show him, won't we? It's my money and my stock, not his. I don't +see why he should dictate. He's always 'My dear ladying' me. I won't +have it," she pouted. + +The fighting gleam was in Ridgway's eyes now. "So Mr. Jannyn thinks it +is impossible, does he?" + +"That's what he said. He thinks you wouldn't do at all." + +"If you really mean it we'll show him about that." + +She shook hands with him on it. + +"You're very good to me," she said, so naively that he could not keep +back his smile. + +"Most people would say I was very good to myself. What you offer me is +a thing I might have fought for all my life and never won." + +"Then I'm glad if it pleases you. That's enough about business. Now, +we'll talk about something important." + +He could think of only one thing more important to him than this, but +it appeared she meant plans to see as much as possible of him while he +was in the city. + +"I suppose you have any number of other friends here that will want +you?" she said. + +"They can't have me if this friend wants me," he answered, with that +deep glow in his eyes she recognized from of old; and before she could +summon her reserves of defense he asked: "Do you want me, Aline?" + +His meaning came to her with a kind of sweet shame. "No, no, no--not +yet," she cried. + +"Dear," he answered, taking her little hand in his big one, "only this +now: that I can't help wanting to be near you to comfort you, because I +love you. For everything else, I am content to wait." + +"And I love you," the girl-widow answered, a flush dyeing her cheeks. +"But I ought not to tell you yet, ought I?" + +There was that in her radiant tear-dewed eyes that stirred the deepest +stores of tenderness in the man. His finer instincts, vandal and pagan +though he was, responded to it. + +"It is right that you should tell me, since it is true, but it is +right, too, that we should wait." + +"It is sweet to know that you love me. There are so many things I don't +understand. You must help me. You are so strong and so sure, and I am +so helpless." + +"You dear innocent, so strong in your weakness," he murmured to himself. + +"You must be a guide to me and a teacher." + +"And you a conscience to me," he smiled, not without amusement at the +thought. + +She took it seriously. "But I'm afraid I can't. You know so much better +than I do what is right." + +"I'm quite a paragon of virtue," he confessed. + +"You're so sure of everything. You took it for granted that I loved +you. Why were you so sure?" + +"I was just as sure as you were that I cared for you. Confess." + +She whispered it. "Yes, I knew it, but when you did not come I thought, +perhaps---- You see, I'm not strong or clever. I can't help you as +Virginia could." She stopped, the color washing from her face. "I had +forgotten. You have no right to love me--nor I you," she faltered. + +"Girl o' mine, we have every right in the world. Love is never wrong +unless it is a theft or a robbery. There is nothing between me and +Virginia that is not artificial and conventional, no tie that ought not +to be broken, none that should ever of right have existed. Love has the +right of way before mere convention a hundredfold." + +"Ah! If I were sure." + +"But I was to be a teacher to you and a judge for you." + +"And I was to be a conscience to you." + +"But on this I am quite clear. I can be a conscience to myself. +However, there is no hurry. Time's a great solvent." + +"And we can go on loving each other in the meantime." + +He lifted her little pink fingers and kissed them. "Yes, we can do that +all the time." + + + +CHAPTER 26. BREAKS ONE AND MAKES ANOTHER ENGAGEMENT + +Miss Balfour's glass made her irritably aware of cheeks unduly flushed +and eyes unusually bright. Since she prided herself on being sufficient +for the emergencies of life, she cast about in her mind to determine +which of the interviews that lay before her was responsible for her +excitement. It was, to be sure, an unusual experience for a young woman +to be told that her fiance would be unable to marry her, owing to a +subsequent engagement, but she looked forward to it with keen +anticipation, and would not have missed it for the world. Since she +pushed the thought of the other interview into the background of her +mind and refused to contemplate it at all, she did not see how that +could lend any impetus to her pulse. + +But though she was pleasantly excited as she swept into the +reception-room, Ridgway was unable to detect the fact in her cool +little nod and frank, careless handshake. Indeed, she looked so +entirely mistress of herself, so much the perfectly gowned exquisite, +that he began to dread anew the task he had set himself. It is not a +pleasant thing under the most favorable circumstances to beg off from +marrying a young woman one has engaged oneself to, and Ridgway did not +find it easier because the young woman looked every inch a queen, and +was so manifestly far from suspecting the object of his call. + +"I haven't had a chance to congratulate you personally yet," she said, +after they had drifted to chairs. "I've been immensely proud of you." + +"I got your note. It was good of you to write as soon as you heard." + +She swept him with one of her smile-lit side glances. "Though, of +course, in a way, I was felicitating myself when I congratulated you." + +"You mean?" + +She laughed with velvet maliciousness. "Oh, well, I'm dragged into the +orbit of your greatness, am I not? As the wife of the president of the +Greater Consolidated Copper Company--the immense combine that takes in +practically all the larger copper properties in the country--I should +come in for a share of reflected glory, you know." + +Ridgway bit his lip and took a deep breath, but before he had found +words she was off again. She had no intention of letting him descent +from the rack yet. + +"How did you do it? By what magic did you bring it about? Of course, +I've read the newspapers' accounts, seen your features and your history +butchered in a dozen Sunday horrors, and thanked Heaven no enterprising +reporter guessed enough to use me as copy. Every paper I have picked up +for weeks has been full of you and the story of how you took Wall +Street by the throat. But I suspect they were all guesses, merely +superficial rumors except as to the main facts. What I want to know is +the inside story--the lever by means of which you pried open the door +leading to the inner circle of financial magnates. You have often told +me how tightly barred that door is. What was the open-sesame you used +as a countersign to make the keeper of the gate unbolt?" + +He thought he saw his chance. "The countersign was 'Aline Harley,'" he +said, and looked her straight in the face. He wished he could find some +way of telling her without making him feel so like a cad. + +She clapped her hands. "I thought so. She backed you with that +uncounted fortune her husband left her. Is that it?" + +"That is it exactly. She gave me a free hand, and the immense fortune +she inherited from Harley put me in a position to force recognition +from the leaders. After that it was only a question of time till I had +convinced them my plan was good." He threw back his shoulders and tried +to take the fence again. "Would you like to know why Mrs. Harley put +her fortune at my command?" + +"I suppose because she is interested in us and our little affair. +Doesn't all the world love a lover?" she asked, with a disarming candor. + +"She had a better reason," he said, meeting her eyes gravely. + +"You must tell me it--but not just yet. I have something to tell you +first." She held out her little clenched hand. "Here is something that +belongs to you. Can you open it?" + +He straightened her fingers one by one, and took from her palm the +engagement-ring he had given her. Instantly he looked up, doubt and +relief sweeping his face. + +"Am I to understand that you terminate our engagement?" + +She nodded. + +"May I ask why?" + +"I couldn't bring myself to it, Waring. I honestly tried, but I +couldn't do it." + +"When did you find this out?" + +"I began to find it out the first day of our engagement. I couldn't +make it seem right. I've been in a process of learning it ever since. +It wouldn't be fair to you for me to marry you." + +"You're a brick, Virginia!" he cried jubilantly. + +"No, I'm not. That is a minor reason. The really important one is that +it wouldn't be fair to me." + +"No, it would not," he admitted, with an air of candor. + +"Because, you see, I happen to care for another man," she purred. + +His vanity leaped up fully armed. "Another man! Who?" + +"That's my secret," she answered, smiling at his chagrin. + +"And his?" + +"I said mine. At any rate, if three knew, it wouldn't be a secret," was +her quick retort. + +"Do you think you have been quite fair to me, Virginia?" he asked, with +gloomy dignity. + +"I think so," she answered, and touched him with the riposte: "I'm +ready now to have you tell me when you expect to marry Aline Harley." + +His dignity collapsed like a pricked bladder. "How did you know?" he +demanded, in astonishment. + +"Oh well, I have eyes." + +"But I didn't know--I thought--" + +"Oh, you thought! You are a pair of children at the game," this +thousand-year-old young woman scoffed. "I have known for months that +you worshiped each other." + +"If you mean to imply" he began severely. + +"Hit somebody of your size, Warry," she interrupted cheerfully, as to +an infant. "If you suppose I am so guileless as not to know that you +were coming here this afternoon to tell me you were regretfully +compelled to give me up on account of a more important engagement, then +you conspicuously fail to guess right. I read it in your note." + +He gave up attempting to reprove her. It did not seem feasible under +the circumstances. Instead, he held out the hand of peace, and she took +it with a laugh of gay camaraderie. + +"Well," he smiled, "it seems possible that we may both soon be subjects +for congratulation. That just shows how things work around right. We +never would have suited each other, you know." + +"I'm quite sure we shouldn't," agreed Virginia promptly. "But I don't +think I'll trouble you to congratulate me till you see me wearing +another solitaire." + +"We'll hope for the best," he said cheerfully. "If it is the man I +think, he is a better man than I am." + +"Yes, he is," she nodded, without the least hesitation. + +"I hope you will be happy with him." + +"I'm likely to be happy without him." + +"Not unless he is a fool." + +"Or prefers another lady, as you do." + +She settled herself back in the low easy chair, with her hands clasped +behind her head. + +"And now I'd like to know why you prefer her to me," she demanded +saucily. "Do you think her handsomer?" + +He looked her over from the rippling brown hair to the trim suede +shoes. "No," he smiled; "they don't make them handsomer." + +"More intellectual?" + +"No." + +"Of a better disposition?" + +"I like yours, too." + +"More charming?" + +"I find her so, saving your presence." + +"Please justify yourself in detail." + +He shook his head, still smiling. "My justification is not to be +itemized. It lies deeper--in destiny, or fate, or whatever one calls +it." + +"I see." She offered Markham's verses as an explanation: + + "Perhaps we are led and our loves are fated, + And our steps are counted one by one; + Perhaps we shall meet and our souls be mated, + After the burnt-out sun." + + +"I like that. Who did you say wrote it?" + +The immobile butler, as once before, presented a card for her +inspection. Ridgway, with recollections of the previous occasion, +ventured to murmur again: "The fairy prince." + +Virginia blushed to her hair, and this time did not offer the card for +his disapproval. + +"Shall I congratulate him?" he wanted to know. + +The imperious blood came to her cheeks on the instant. The sudden storm +in her eyes warned him better than words. + +"I'll be good," he murmured, as Lyndon Hobart came into the room. + +His goodness took the form of a speedy departure. She followed him to +the door for a parting fling at him. + +"In your automobile you may reach a telegraph-office in about five +minutes. With luck you may be engaged inside of an hour." + +"You have the advantage of me by fifty-five minutes," he flung back. + +"You ought to thank me on your knees for having saved you a wretched +scene this afternoon," was the best she could say to cover her +discomfiture. + +"I do. I do. My thanks are taking the form of leaving you with the +prince." + +"That's very crude, sir--and I'm not sure it isn't impertinent." + +Miss Balfour was blushing when she returned to Hobart. He mistook the +reason, and she could not very well explain that her blushes were due +to the last wordless retort of the retiring "old love," whose hand had +gone up in a ridiculous bless-you-my-children attitude just before he +left her. + +Their conversation started stiffly. He had come, he explained, to say +good-by. He was leaving the State to go to Washington prior to the +opening of the session. + +This gave her a chance to congratulate him upon his election. "I +haven't had an opportunity before. You've been so busy, of course, +preparing to save the country, that your time must have been very fully +occupied." + +He did not show his surprise at this interpretation of the fact that he +had quietly desisted from his attentions to her, but accepted it as the +correct explanation, since she had chosen to offer it. + +Miss Balfour expressed regret that he was going, though she did not +suppose she would see any less of him than she had during the past two +months. He did not take advantage of her little flings to make the talk +less formal, and Virginia, provoked at his aloofness, offered no more +chances. Things went very badly, indeed, for ten minutes, at the end of +which time Hobart rose to go. Virginia was miserably aware of being +wretched despite the cool hauteur of her seeming indifference. But he +was too good a sportsman to go without letting her know he held no +grudge. + +"I hope you will be very happy with Mr. Ridgway. Believe me, there is +nobody whose happiness I would so rejoice at as yours." + +"Thank you," she smiled coolly, and her heart raced. "May I hope that +your good wishes still obtain even though I must seek my happiness +apart from Mr. Ridgway?" + +He held her for an instant's grave, astonished questioning, before +which her eyes fell. Her thoughts side-tracked swiftly to long for and +to dread what was coming. + +"Am I being told--you must pardon me if I have misunderstood your +meaning--that you are no longer engaged to Mr. Ridgway?" + +She made obvious the absence of the solitaire she had worn. + +Before the long scrutiny of his steady gaze: her eyes at last fell. + +"If you don't mind, I'll postpone going just yet," he said quietly. + +Her racing heart assured her fearfully, delightfully, that she did not +mind at all. + +"I have no time and no compass to take my bearings. You will pardon me +if what I say seems presumptuous?" + +Silence, which is not always golden, oppressed her. Why could she not +make light talk as she had been wont to do with Waring Ridgway? + +"But if I ask too much, I shall not be hurt if you deny me," he +continued. "For how long has your engagement with Mr. Ridgway been +broken, may I ask?" + +"Between fifteen and twenty minutes." + +"A lovers' quarrel, perhaps!" he hazarded gently. + +"On the contrary, quite final and irrevocable Mr. Ridgway and I have +never been lovers. She was not sure whether this last was meant as a +confession or a justification. + +"Not lovers?" He waited for her to explain Her proud eyes faced him. +"We became engaged for other reasons. I thought that did not matter. +But I find my other reasons were not sufficient. To-day I terminated +the engagement. But it is only fair to say that Mr. Ridgway had come +here for that purpose. I merely anticipated him." Her self-contempt +would not let her abate one jot of the humiliating truth. She flayed +herself with a whip of scorn quite lost on Hobart. + +A wave of surging hope was flushing his heart, but he held himself well +in hand. + +"I must be presumptuous still," he said. "I must find out if you broke +the engagement because you care for another man?" + +She tried to meet his shining eyes and could not. "You have no right to +ask that." + +"Perhaps not till I have asked something else. I wonder if I should +have any chance if I were to tell you that I love you?" + +Her glance swept him shyly with a delicious little laugh. "You never +can tell till you try." + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Ridgway of Montana, by William MacLeod Raine + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RIDGWAY OF MONTANA *** + +***** This file should be named 2285.txt or 2285.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/8/2285/ + +Produced by Mary Starr. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This Etext prepared by marystarr@earthlink.net + + + + + +RIDGWAY OF MONTANA + +(STORY OF TO-DAY, IN WHICH THE HERO IS ALSO THE VILLAIN) + +by WILLIAM MACLEOD RAINE + + + + +To JEAN + +AND THAT KINGDOM + +"Where you and I through this world's weather +Work, and give praise and thanks together." + + +WILLIAM MACLEOD RAINE +CONTENTS + +1. Two Men and a Woman +2. The Freebooter +3. One to One +4. Fort Salvation +5. Enter Simon Harley +6. On the Snow-trail +7. Back from Arcadia +8. The Honorable Thomas B. Pelton +9. An Evening Call +10. Harley Makes a Proposition +11. Virginia Intervenes +12. Aline Makes a Discovery +13. First Blood +14. A Conspiracy +15. Laska Opens a Door +16. An Explosion in the Taurus +17. The Election +18. Further Developments +19. One Million Dollars +20. A Little Lunch at Alphonse's +21. Harley Scores +22. "Not Guilty"--"Guilty" +23. Aline Turns a Corner +24. A Good Samaritan +25. Friendly Enemies +26. Breaks One and Makes Another Engagement + + + + +WILLIAM MACLEOD RAINE + +by WILLIAM MACLEOD RAINE + + + + +CHAPTER 1. TWO MEN AND A WOMAN + +"Mr. Ridgway, ma'am." + +The young woman who was giving the last touches to the very effective +picture framed in her long looking-glass nodded almost imperceptibly. + +She had come to the parting of the ways, and she knew it, with a shrewd +suspicion as to which she would choose. She had asked for a week to +decide, and her heart-searching had told her nothing new. It was +characteristic of Virginia Balfour that she did not attempt to deceive +herself. If she married Waring Ridgway it would be for what she considered +good and sufficient reasons, but love would not be one of them. He was +going to be a great man, for one thing, and probably a very rich one, +which counted, though it would not be a determining factor. This she could +find only in the man himself, in the masterful force that made him what he +was. The sandstings of life did not disturb his confidence in his +victorious star, nor did he let fine-spun moral obligations hamper his +predatory career. He had a genius for success in whatever he undertook, +pushing his way to his end with a shrewd, direct energy that never +faltered. She sometimes wondered whether she, too, like the men he used as +tools, was merely a pawn in his game, and her consent an empty formality +conceded to convention. Perhaps he would marry her even if she did not +want to, she told herself, with the sudden illuminating smile that was one +of her chief charms. + +But Ridgway's wary eyes, appraising her mood as she came forward to meet +him, read none of this doubt in her frank greeting. Anything more sure and +exquisite than the cultivation Virginia Balfour breathed he would have +been hard put to it to conceive. That her gown and its accessories seemed +to him merely the extension of a dainty personality was the highest +compliment he could pay her charm, and an entirely unconscious one. + +"Have I kept you waiting?" she smiled, giving him her hand. + +His answering smile, quite cool and unperturbed, gave the lie to his +words. "For a year, though the almanac called it a week." + +"You must have suffered," she told him ironically, with a glance at the +clear color in his good-looking face. + +"Repressed emotion," he explained. "May I hope that my suffering has +reached a period?" + +They had been sauntering toward a little conservatory at the end of the +large room, but she deflected and brought up at a table on which lay some +books. One of these she picked up and looked at incuriously for a moment +before sweeping them aside. She rested her hands on the table behind her +and leaned back against it, her eyes meeting his fairly. + +"You're still of the same mind, are you?" she demanded. + +"Oh! very much." + +She lifted herself to the table, crossing her feet and dangling them +irresponsibly. "We might as well be comfy while we talk;" and she +indicated, by a nod, a chair. + +"Thanks. If you don't mind, I think I'll take it standing." + +She did not seem in any hurry to begin, and Ridgway gave evidence of no +desire to hasten her. But presently he said, with a little laugh that +seemed to offer her inclusion in the joke: + +"I'm on the anxious seat, you know--waiting to find out whether I'm to be +the happiest man alive." + +"You know as much about it as I do." She echoed his laugh ruefully. "I'm +still as much at sea as I was last week. I couldn't tell then, and I can't +now." + +"No news is good news, they say." + +"I don't want to marry you a bit, but you're a great catch, as you are +very well aware." + +"I suppose I am rather a catch," he agreed, the shadow of a smile at the +corners of his mouth. + +"It isn't only your money; though, of course, that's a temptation," she +admitted audaciously. + +"I'm glad it's not only my money." He could laugh with her about it +because he was shrewd enough to understand that it was not at all his +wealth. Her cool frankness might have frightened away another man. It +merely served to interest Ridgway. For, with all his strength, he was a +vain man, always ready to talk of himself. He spent a good deal of his +spare time interpreting himself to attractive and attracted young women. + +Her gaze fastened on the tip of her suede toe, apparently studying it +attentively. "It would be a gratification to my vanity to parade you as +the captive of my bow and spear. You're such a magnificent specimen, such +a berserk in broadcloth. Still. I shan't marry you if I can help it--but, +then, I'm not sure that I can help it. Of course, I disapprove of you +entirely, but you're rather fascinating, you know." Her eye traveled +slowly up to his, appraising the masterful lines of his square figure, the +dominant strength of his close-shut mouth and resolute eyes. "Perhaps +'fascinating' isn't just the word, but I can't help being interested in +you, whether I like you or not. I suppose you always get what you want +very badly?" she flung out by way of question. + +"That's what I'm trying to discover"--he smiled. + +"There are things to be considered both ways," she said, taking him into +her confidence. "You trample on others. How do I know you wouldn't tread +on me?" + +"That would be one of the risks you would take," he agreed impersonally. + +"I shouldn't like that at all. If I married you it would be because as +your wife I should have so many opportunities. I should expect to do +exactly as I please. I shouldn't want you to interfere with me, though I +should want to be able to influence you." + +"Nothing could be fairer than that," was his amiably ironical comment. + +"You see, I don't know you--not really--and they say all sorts of things +about you." + +"They don't say I am a quitter, do they?" + +She leaned forward, chin in hand and elbow on knee. It was a part of the +accent of her distinction that as a rebel she was both demure and daring. +"I wonder if I might ask you some questions--the intimate kind that people +think but don't say--at least, they don't say them to you." + +"It would be a pleasure to me to be put on the witness-stand. I should +probably pick up some interesting side-lights about myself." + +"Very well." Her eyes danced with excitement. "You're what they call a +buccaneer of business, aren't you?" + +Here were certainly diverting pastimes. "I believe I have been called +that; but, then, I've had the hardest names in the dictionary thrown at me +so often that I can't be sure." + +"I suppose you are perfectly unscrupulous in a business way--stop at +nothing to gain your point?" + +He took her impudence smilingly. + +"'Unscrupulous' isn't the word I use when I explain myself to myself, but +as an unflattered description, such as one my enemies might use to +describe me, I dare say it is fairly accurate." + +"I wonder why. Do you dispense with a conscience entirely?" + +"Well, you see, Miss Balfour, if I nursed a New England conscience I could +stand up to the attacks of the Consolidated about as long as a dove to a +hawk. I meet fire with fire to avoid being wiped off the map of the mining +world. I play the game. I can't afford to keep a button on my foil when my +opponent doesn't." + +She nodded an admission of his point. "And yet there are rules of the game +to be observed, aren't there? The Consolidated people claim you steal +their ore, I believe." Her slanted eyes studied the effect of her daring. + +He laughed grimly. "Do they? I claim they steal mine. It's rather +difficult to have an exact regard for mine and thine before the courts +decide which is which." + +"And meanwhile, in order to forestall an adverse decision, you are working +extra shifts to get all the ore out of the disputed veins." + +"Precisely, just as they are," he admitted dryly. "Then the side that +loses will not be so disappointed, since the value of the veins will be +less. Besides, stealing ore openly doesn't count. It is really a moral +obligation in a fight like this," he explained. + +"A moral obligation?" + +"Exactly. You can't hit a trust over the head with the decalogue. Modern +business is war. Somebody is bound to get hurt. If I win out it will be +because I put up a better fight than the Consolidated, and cripple it +enough to make it let me alone. I'm looking out for myself, and I don't +pretend to be any better than my neighbors. When you get down to bed-rock +honesty, I've never seen it in business. We're all of us as honest as we +think we can afford to be. I haven't noticed that there is any premium on +it in Mesa. Might makes right. I'll win if I'm strong enough; I'll fail if +I'm not. That's the law of life. I didn't make this strenuous little +world, and I'm not responsible for it. If I play I have to take the rules +the way they are, not the way I should like them to be. I'm not squeamish, +and I'm not a hypocrite. Simon Harley isn't squeamish, either, but he +happens to be a hypocrite. So there you have the difference between us." + +The president of the Mesa Ore-producing Company set forth his creed +jauntily, without the least consciousness of need for apology for the fact +that it happened to be divorced from morality. Its frank disregard of +ethical considerations startled Miss Balfour without shocking her. She +liked his candor, even though it condemned him. It was really very nice of +him to take her impudence so well. He certainly wasn't a prig, anyway. + +"And morality," she suggested tentatively. + +"--hasn't a thing to do with success, the parsons to the contrary +notwithstanding. The battle is to the strong." + +"Then the Consolidated will beat you finally." + +He smiled. "They would if I'd let them; but brains and resource and +finesse all count for power. Granted that they have a hundred dollars to +my one. Still, I have elements of strength they can't even estimate. David +beat Goliath, you know, even though he didn't do it with a big stick." + +"So you think morality is for old women?" + +"And young women," he amended, smiling. + +"And every man is to be a law unto himself?" + +"Not quite. Some men aren't big enough to be. Let them stick to the +conventional code. For me, if I make my own laws I don't break them." + +"And you're sure that you're on the road to true success?" she asked +lightly. + +"Now, you have heaven in the back of your mind." + +"Not exactly," she laughed. "But I didn't expect you to understand." + +"Then I won't disappoint you," he said cheerfully. + +She came back to the concrete. + +"I should like to know whether it is true that you own the courts of Yuba +County and have the decisions of the judges written at your lawyer's +offices in cases between you and the Consolidated." + +"If I do," he answered easily, "I am doing just what the Consolidated +would do in case they had been so fortunate as to have won the last +election and seated their judicial candidates. One expects a friendly +leaning from the men one put in office." + +"Isn't the judiciary supposed to be the final, incorruptible bulwark of +the nation?" she pretended to want to know. + +"I believe it is supposed to be." + +"Isn't it rather--loading the dice, to interfere with the courts?" + +"I find the dice already loaded. I merely substitute others of my own." + +"You don't seem a bit ashamed of yourself." + +"I'm ashamed of the Consolidated"--he smiled. + +"That's a comfortable position to be able to take." She fixed him for a +moment with her charming frown of interrogation. "You won't mind my asking +these questions? I'm trying to decide whether you are too much of a pirate +for me. Perhaps when I've made up my mind you won't want me," she added. + +"Oh, I'll want you!" Then coolly: "Shall we wait till you make up your +mind before announcing the engagement?" + +"Don't be too sure," she flashed at him. + +"I'm horribly unsure." + +"Of course, you're laughing at me, just as you would"--she tilted a sudden +sideways glance at him--"if I asked you WHY you wanted to marry me." + +"Oh, if you take me that way----" + +She interrupted airily. "I'm trying to make up my mind whether to take you +at all." + +"You certainly have a direct way of getting at things." + +He studied appreciatively her piquant, tilted face; the long, graceful +lines of her slender, perfect figure. "I take it you don't want the +sentimental reason for my wishing to marry you, though I find that amply +justified. But if you want another, you must still look to yourself for +it. My business leads me to appreciate values correctly. When I desire you +to sit at the head of my table, to order my house, my judgment +justifies itself. I have a fancy always for the best. When I can't gratify +it I do without." + +"Thank you." She made him a gay little mock curtsy "I had heard you were +no carpet-knight, Mr. Ridgway. But rumor is a lying jade, for I am being +told--am I not?--that in case I don't take pity on you, the lone future of +a celibate stretches drear before you." + +"Oh, certainly." + +Having come to the end of that passage, she tried another. "A young man +told me yesterday you were a fighter. He said he guessed you would stand +the acid. What did he mean?" + +Ridgway was an egoist from head to heel. He could voice his own praises by +the hour when necessary, but now he side-stepped her little trap to make +him praise himself at second-hand. + +"Better ask him." + +"ARE you a fighter, then?" + +Had he known her and her whimsies less well, he might have taken her +audacity for innocence. + +"One couldn't lie down, you know." + +"Of course, you always fight fair," she mocked. + +"When a fellow's attacked by a gang of thugs he doesn't pray for +boxing-gloves. He lets fly with a coupling-pin if that's what comes +handy." + +Her eyes, glinting sparks of mischief, marveled at him with mock +reverence, but she knew in her heart that her mockery was a fraud. She did +admire him; admired him even while she disapproved the magnificent +lawlessness of him. + +For Waring Ridgway looked every inch the indomitable fighter he was. He +stood six feet to the line, straight and strong, carrying just sufficient +bulk to temper his restless energy without impairing its power. Nor did +the face offer any shock of disappointment to the promise given by the +splendid figure. Salient-jawed and forceful, set with cool, flinty, +blue-gray eyes, no place for weakness could be found there. One might have +read a moral callousness, a colorblindness in points of rectitude, but +when the last word had been said, its masterful capability, remained the +outstanding impression. + +"Am I out of the witness-box?" he presently asked, still leaning against +the mantel from which he had been watching her impersonally as an +intellectual entertainment. + +"I think so." + +"And the verdict?" + +"You know what it ought to be," she accused. + +"Fortunately, kisses go by favor, not by, merit." + +"You don't even make a pretense of deserving." + +"Give me credit for being an honest rogue, at least." + +"But a rogue?" she insisted lightly. + +"Oh, a question of definitions. I could make a very good case for myself +as an honest man." + +"If you thought it worth while?" + +"If I didn't happen to want to be square with you"--he smiled. + +"You're so fond of me, I suppose, that you couldn't bear to have me think +too well of you." + +"You know how fond of you I am." + +"Yes, it is a pity about you," she scoffed. + +"Believe me, yes," he replied cheerfully. + +She drummed with her pink finger-tips on her chin, studying him +meditatively. To do him justice, she had to admit that he did not even +pretend much. He wanted her because she was a step up in the social +ladder, and, in his opinion, the most attractive girl he knew. That he was +not in love with her relieved the situation, as Miss Balfour admitted to +herself in impersonal moods. But there were times when she could have +wished he were. She felt it to be really due her attractions that his +pulses should quicken for her, and in the interests of experience she +would have liked to see how he would make love if he really meant it from +the heart and not the will. + +"It's really an awful bother," she sighed. + +"Referring to the little problem of your future?" + +"Yes." + +"Can't make up your mind whether I come in?" + +"No." She looked up brightly, with an effect of impulsiveness. "I don't +suppose you want to give me another week?" + +"A reprieve! But why? You're going to marry me." + +"I suppose so." She laughed. "I wish I could have my cake, and eat it, +too." + +"It would be a moral iniquity to encourage such a system of ethics." + +"So you won't give me a week?" she sighed. "All sorts of things might have +happened in that week. I shall always believe that the fairy prince would +have come for me." + +"Believe that he HAS come," he claimed. + +"Oh, I didn't mean a prince of pirates, though there is a triumph in +having tamed a pirate chief to prosaic matrimony. In one way it will be a +pity, too. You won't be half so picturesque. You remember how Stevenson +puts it: 'that marriage takes from a man the capacity for great things, +whether good or bad.'" + +"I can stand a good deal of taming." + +"Domesticating a pirate ought to be an interesting process," she conceded, +her rare smile flashing. "It should prove a cure for ENNUI, but then I'm +never a victim of that malady." + +"Am I being told that I am to be the happiest pirate alive?" + +"I expect you are." + +His big hand gripped hers till it tingled. She caught his eye on a roving +quest to the door. + +"We don't have to do that," she announced hurriedly, with an embarrassed +flush. + +"I don't do it because I have to," he retorted, kissing her on the lips. + +She fell back, protesting. "Under the circumstances--" + +The butler, with a card on a tray, interrupted silently. She glanced at +the card, devoutly grateful his impassive majesty's entrance had not been +a moment earlier. + +"Show him in here." + +"The fairy prince, five minutes too late?" asked Ridgway, when the man had +gone. + +For answer she handed him the card, yet he thought the pink that flushed +her cheek was something more pronounced than usual. But he was willing to +admit there might be a choice of reasons for that. + +"Lyndon Hobart" was the name he read. + +"I think the Consolidated is going to have its innings. I should like to +stay, of course, but I fear I must plead a subsequent engagement and leave +the field to the enemy." + +Pronouncing "Mr. Hobart" without emphasis, the butler vanished. The +newcomer came forward with the quiet assurance of the born aristocrat. He +was a slender, well-knit man, dressed fastidiously, with clear-cut, +classical features; cool, keen eyes, and a gentle, you-be-damned manner to +his inferiors. Beside him Ridgway bulked too large, too florid. His ease +seemed a little obvious, his prosperity overemphasized. Even his voice, +strong and reliant, lacked the tone of gentle blood that Hobart had +inherited with his nice taste. + +When Miss Balfour said: "I think you know each other," the manager of the +Consolidated bowed with stiff formality, but his rival laughed genially +and said: "Oh, yes, I know Mr. Hobart." The geniality was genuine enough, +but through it ran a note of contempt. Hobart read in it a veiled taunt. +To him it seemed to say + +"Yes, I have met him, and beaten him at every turn of the road, though he +has been backed by a power with resources a hundred times as great as +mine." + +In his parting excuses to Miss Balfour, Ridgway's audacity crystallized in +words that Hobart could only regard as a shameless challenge. "I regret +that an appointment with Judge Purcell necessitates my leaving such good +company," he said urbanely. + +Purcell was the judge before whom was pending a suit between the +Consolidated and the Mesa Ore-producing Company, to determine the +ownership of the Never Say Die Mine; and it was current report that +Ridgway owned him as absolutely as he did the automobile waiting for him +now at the door. + +If Ridgway expected his opponent to pay his flippant gibe the honor of +repartee, he was disappointed. To be sure, Hobart, admirably erect in his +slender grace, was moved to a slight, disdainful smile, but it evidenced +scarcely the appreciation that anybody less impervious to criticism than +Ridgway would have cared to see. + + + +CHAPTER 2. THE FREEBOOTER + +When next Virginia Balfour saw Waring Ridgway she was driving her trap +down one of the hit-or-miss streets of Mesa, where derricks, shaft-houses, +and gray slag-dumps shoulder ornate mansions conglomerate of many +unharmonious details of architecture. To Miss Balfour these composites and +their owners would have been joys unalloyed except for the microbe of +society ambition that was infecting the latter, and transforming them from +simple, robust, self-reliant Westerners into a class of servile, +nondescript newly rich, that resembled their unfettered selves as much as +tame bears do the grizzlies of their own Rockies. As she had once +complained smilingly to Hobart, she had not come to the West to study +ragged edges of the social fringe. She might have done that in New York. + +Virginia was still a block or two from the court-house on the hill, when +it emptied into the street a concourse of excited men. That this was an +occasion of some sort it was easy to guess, and of what sort she began to +have an inkling, when Ridgway came out, the center of a circle of +congratulating admirers. She was obliged to admit that he accepted their +applause without in the least losing his head. Indeed, he took it as +imperturbably as did Hobart, against whom a wave of the enthusiasm seemed +to be directed in the form of a jeer, when he passed down the steps with +Mott, one of the Consolidated lawyers. Miss Balfour timed her approach to +meet Hobart at a right angle. + +"What is it all about?" she asked, after he had reached her side. + +"Judge Purcell has just decided the Never Say Die case in favor of Mr. +Ridgway and against the Consolidated." + +"Is that a great victory for him?" + +"Yes, it's a victory, though, of course, we appeal," admitted Hobart. "But +we can't say we didn't expect it," he added cheerfully. + +"Mayn't I give you a lift if you are going down-town?" she said quickly, +for Ridgway, having detached himself from the group, was working toward +her, and she felt an instinctive sympathy for the man who had lost. +Furthermore, she had something she wanted to tell him before he heard it +on the tongue of rumor. + +"Since you are so kind;" and he climbed to the place beside her. + +"Congratulate me, Miss Balfour," demanded Ridgway, as he shook hands with +her, nodding coolly at her companion. "I'm a million dollars richer than I +was an hour ago. I have met the enemy and he is mine." + +Virginia, resenting the bad taste of his jeer at the man who sat beside +her, misunderstood him promptly. "Did you say you had met the enemy and +won his mine?" + +He laughed. "You're a good one!" + +"Thank you very much for this unsolicited testimonial," she said gravely. +"In the meantime, to avoid a congestion of traffic, we'll be moving, if +you will kindly give me back my front left wheel." + +He did not lift his foot from the spoke on which it rested. "My +congratulations," he reminded her. + +"I wish you all the joy in your victory that you deserve, and I hope the +supreme court will reaffirm the decision of Judge Purcell, if it is a just +one," was the form in which she acceded to his demand. + +She flicked her whip, and Ridgway fell back, laughing. "You've been +subsidized by the Consolidated," he shouted after her. + +Hobart watched silently the businesslike directness with which the girl +handled the ribbons. She looked every inch the thoroughbred in her +well-made covert coat and dainty driving gauntlets. The grace of the +alert, slender figure, the perfect poise of the beautiful little tawny +head, proclaimed her distinction no less certainly than the fine modeling +of the mobile face. It was a distinction that stirred the pulse of his +emotion and disarmed his keen, critical sense. Ridgway could study her +with an amused, detached interest, but Hobart's admiration had traveled +past that point. He found it as impossible to define her charm as to evade +it. Her inheritance of blood and her environment should have made her a +finished product of civilization, but her salty breeziness, her nerve, +vivid as a flame at times, disturbed delightfully the poise that held her +when in repose. + +When Virginia spoke, it was to ask abruptly: "Is it really his mine?" + +"Judge Purcell says so." + +"But do YOU think so--down in the bottom of your heart?" + +"Wouldn't I naturally be prejudiced?" + +"I suppose you would. Everybody in Mesa seems to have taken sides either +with Mr. Ridgway or the Consolidated. Still, you have an option. Is he +what his friends proclaim him--the generous-hearted independent fighting +against trust domination? Or is he merely an audacious ore-thief, as his +enemies say? The truth must be somewhere." + +"It seems to lie mostly in point of view here the angle of observation +being determined by interest," he answered. + +"And from your angle of observation?" + +"He is the most unusual man I ever saw, the most resourceful and the most +competent. He never knows when he is beaten. I suppose that's the reason +he never is beaten finally. We have driven him to the wall a score of +times. My experience with him is that he's most dangerous when one thinks +he must be about hammered out. He always hits back then in the most daring +and unexpected way." + +"With a coupling-pin," she suggested with a little reminiscent laugh. + +"Metaphorically speaking. He reaches for the first effective weapon to his +hand." + +"You haven't quite answered my question yet," she reminded him. "Is he +what his friends or what his enemies think him?" + +"If you ask me I can only say that I'm one of his enemies." + +"But a fair-minded man," she replied quickly. + +"Thank you. Then I'll say that perhaps he is neither just what his friends +or his foes think him. One must make allowances for his training and +temperament, and for that quality of bigness in him. 'Mediocre men go +soberly on the highroads, but saints and scoundrels meet in the jails,'" +he smilingly quoted. + +"He would make a queer sort of saint," she laughed. + +"A typical twentieth century one of a money-mad age." + +She liked it in him that he would not use the opportunity she had made to +sneer at his adversary, none the less because she knew that Ridgway might +not have been so scrupulous in his place. That Lyndon Hobart's fastidious +instincts for fair play had stood in the way of his success in the fight +to down Ridgway she had repeatedly heard. Of late, rumors had persisted in +reporting dissatisfaction with his management of the Consolidated at the +great financial center on Broadway which controlled the big copper +company. Simon Harley, the dominating factor in the octopus whose +tentacles reached out in every direction to monopolize the avenues of +wealth, demanded of his subordinates results. Methods were no concern of +his, and failure could not be explained to him. He wanted Ridgway crushed, +and the pulse of the copper production regulated lay the Consolidated. +Instead, he had seen Ridgway rise steadily to power and wealth despite his +efforts to wipe him off the slate. Hobart was perfectly aware that his +head was likely to fall when Harley heard of Purcell's decision in regard +to the Never Say Die. + +"He certainly is an amazing man," Virginia mused, her fiancee in mind. "It +would be interesting to discover what he can't do--along utilitarian +lines, I mean. Is he as good a miner underground as he is in the courts?" +she flung out. + +"He is the shrewdest investor I know. Time and again he has leased or +bought apparently worthless claims, and made them pay inside of a few +weeks. Take the Taurus as a case in point. He struck rich ore in a +fortnight. Other men had done development work for years and found +nothing." + +"I'm naturally interested in knowing all about him, because I have just +become engaged to him," explained Miss Virginia, as calmly as if her pulse +were not fluttering a hundred to the minute + +Virginia was essentially a sportsman. She did not flinch from the guns +when the firing was heavy. It had been remarked of her even as a child +that she liked to get unpleasant things over with as soon as possible, +rather than postpone them. Once, _aetat_ eight, she had marched in to her +mother like a stoic and announced: "I've come to be whipped, momsie, +'cause I broke that horrid little Nellie Vaile's doll. I did it on +purpose, 'cause I was mad at her. I'm glad I broke it, so there!" + +Hobart paled slightly beneath his outdoors Western tan, but his eyes met +hers very steadily and fairly. "I wish you happiness, Miss Balfour, from +the bottom of my heart." + +She nodded a brisk "Thank you," and directed her attention again to the +horses. + +"Take him by and large, Mr. Ridgway is the most capable, energetic, and +far-sighted business man I have ever known. He has a bigger grasp of +things than almost any financier in the country. I think you'll find he +will go far," he said, choosing his words with care to say as much for +Waring Ridgway as he honestly could. + +"I have always thought so," agreed Virginia. + +She had reason for thinking so in that young man's remarkable career. When +Waring Ridgway had first come to Mesa he had been a draftsman for the +Consolidated at five dollars a day. He was just out of Cornell, and his +assets consisted mainly of a supreme confidence in himself and an imposing +presence. He was a born leader, and he flung himself into the raw, turbid +life of the mining town with a readiness that had not a little to do with +his subsequent success. + +That success began to take tangible form almost from the first. A small, +independent smelter that had for long been working at a loss was about to +fall into the hands of the Consolidated when Ridgway bought it on promises +to pay, made good by raising money on a flying trip he took to the East. +His father died about this time and left him fifty thousand dollars, with +which he bought the Taurus, a mine in which several adventurous spirits +had dropped small fortunes. He acquired other properties; a lease here, an +interest there. It began to be observed that he bought always with +judgment. He seemed to have the touch of Midas. Where other men had lost +money he made it. + +When the officers of the Consolidated woke up to the menace of his +presence, one of their lawyers called on him. The agent of the +Consolidated smiled at his luxurious offices, which looked more like a +woman's boudoir than the business place of a Western miner. But that was +merely part of Ridgway's vanity, and did not in the least interfere with +his predatory instincts. Many people who walked into that parlor to do +business played fly to his spider. + +The lawyer had been ready to patronize the upstart who had ventured so +boldly into the territory of the great trust, but one glance at the +clear-cut resolute face of the young man changed his mind. + +"I've come to make you an offer for your smelter, Mr. Ridgway," he began. +"We'll take it off your hands at the price it cost you." + +"Not for sale, Mr. Bartel." + +"Very well. We'll give you ten thousand more than you paid for it." + +"You misunderstand me. It is not for sale." + +"Oh, come! You bought it to sell to us. What can you do with it?" + +"Run it," suggested Ridgway. + +"Without ore?" + +"You forget that I own a few properties, and have leases on others. When +the Taurus begins producing, I'll have enough to keep the smelter going." + +"When the Taurus begins producing?"--Bartel smiled skeptically. "Didn't +Johnson and Leroy drop fortunes on that expectation?" + +"I'll bet five thousand dollars we make a strike within two weeks." + +"Chimerical!" pronounced the graybeard as he rose to go, with an air of +finality. "Better sell the smelter while you have the chance." + +"Think not," disagreed Ridgway. + +At the door the lawyer turned. "Oh, there's another matter! It had slipped +my mind." He spoke with rather elaborate carelessness. "It seems that +there is a little triangle--about ten and four feet across--wedged in +between the Mary K, the Diamond King, and the Marcus Daly. For some reason +we accidentally omitted to file on it. Our chief engineer finds that you +have taken it up, Mr. Ridgway. It is really of no value, but it is in the +heart of our properties, and so it ought to belong to us. Of course, it is +of no use to you. There isn't any possible room to sink a shaft. We'll +take it from you if you like, and even pay you a nominal price. For what +will you sell?" + +Ridgway lit a cigar before he answered: "One million dollars." + +"What?" screamed Bartel. + +"Not a cent less. I call it the Trust Buster. Before I'm through, you'll +find it is worth that to me." + +The lawyer reported him demented to the Consolidated officials, who +declared war on him from that day. + +They found the young adventurer more than prepared for them. If he had a +Napoleonic sense of big vital factors, he had no less a genius for detail. +He had already picked up an intimate knowledge of the hundreds of veins +and crossveins that traverse the Mesa copper-fields, and he had delved +patiently into the tangled history of the litigation that the defective +mining laws in pioneer days had made possible. When the Consolidated +attempted to harass him by legal process, he countered by instituting a +score of suits against the company within the week. These had to do with +wills, insanity cases, extra lateral rights, mine titles, and land and +water rights. Wherever Ridgway saw room for an entering wedge to dispute +the title of the Consolidated, he drove a new suit home. To say the least, +the trust found it annoying to be enjoined from working its mines, to be +cited for contempt before judges employed in the interests of its +opponent, to be served with restraining orders when clearly within its +rights. But when these adverse legal decisions began to affect vital +issues, the Consolidated looked for reasons why Ridgway should control the +courts. It found them in politics. + +For Ridgway was already dominating the politics of Yuba County, displaying +an amazing acumen and a surprising ability as a stumpspeaker. He posed as +a friend of the people, an enemy of the trust. He declared an eight-hour +day for his own miners, and called upon the Consolidated to do the same. +Hobart refused, acting on orders from Broadway, and fifteen thousand +Consolidated miners went to the polls and reelected Ridgway's corrupt +judges, in spite of the fight the Consolidated was making against them. + +Meanwhile, Ridgway's colossal audacity made the Consolidated's copper pay +for the litigation with which he was harassing it. In following his +ore-veins, or what he claimed to be his veins, he crossed boldly into the +territory of the enemy. By the law of extra lateral rights, a man is +entitled to mine within the lines of other property than his own, provided +he is following the dip of a vein which has its apex in his claim. +Ridgway's experts were prepared to swear that all the best veins in the +field apexed in his property. Pending decisions of the courts, they +assumed it, tunneling through granite till they tapped the veins of the +Consolidated mines, meanwhile enjoining that company from working the very +ore of which Ridgway was robbing it. + +Many times the great trust back of the Consolidated had him close to ruin, +but Ridgway's alert brain and supreme audacity carried him through. From +their mines or from his own he always succeeded in extracting enough ore +to meet his obligations when they fell due. His powerful enemy, as Hobart +had told Miss Balfour, found him most dangerous when it seemed to have him +with his back to the wall. Then unexpectedly would fall some crushing blow +that put the financial kings of Broadway on the defensive long enough for +him to slip out of the corner into which they had driven him. Greatly +daring, he had the successful cavalryman's instinct of risking much to +gain much. A gambler, his enemies characterized him fitly enough. But it +was also true, as Mesa phrased it, that he gambled "with the lid off," +playing for large stakes, neither asking nor giving quarter. + +At the end of five years of desperate fighting, the freebooter was more +strongly entrenched than he had been at any previous time. The railroads, +pledged to give rebates to the Consolidated, had been forced by Ridgway, +under menace of adverse legislation from the men he controlled at the +State-house, to give him secretly a still better rate than the trust. He +owned the county courts, he was supported by the people, and had become a +political dictator, and the financial outlook for him grew brighter every +day. + +Such were the conditions when Judge Purcell handed down his Never Say Die +decision. Within an hour Hobart was reading a telegram in cipher from the +Broadway headquarters. It announced the immediate departure for Mesa of +the great leader of the octopus. Simon Harley, the Napoleon of finance, +was coming out to attend personally to the destruction of the buccaneer +who had dared to fire on the trust flag. + +Before night some one of his corps of spies in the employ of the enemy +carried the news to Waring Ridgway. He smiled grimly, his bluegray eyes +hardening to the temper of steel. Here at last was a foeman worthy of his +metal; one as lawless, unscrupulous, daring, and far-seeing as himself, +with a hundred times his resources. + + + +CHAPTER 3. ONE TO ONE + +The solitary rider stood for a moment in silhouette against the somber +sky-line, his keen eyes searching the lowering clouds. + +"Getting its back up for a blizzard," he muttered to himself, as he +touched his pony with the spur. + +Dark, heavy billows banked in the west, piling over each other as they +drove forward. Already the advance-guard had swept the sunlight from the +earth, except for a flutter of it that still protested near the horizon. +Scattering snowflakes were flying, and even in a few minutes the +temperature had fallen many degrees. + +The rider knew the signs of old. He recognized the sudden stealthy +approach that transformed a sun-drenched, friendly plain into an unknown +arctic waste. Not for nothing had he been last year one of a search-party +to find the bodies of three miners frozen to death not fifty yards from +their own cabin. He understood perfectly what it meant to be caught away +from shelter when the driven white pall wiped out distance and direction; +made long familiar landmarks strange, and numbed the will to a helpless +surrender. The knowledge of it was spur enough to make him ride fast while +he still retained the sense of direction. + +But silently, steadily, the storm increased, and he was forced to slacken +his pace. As the blinding snow grew thick, the sound of the wind deadened, +unable to penetrate the dense white wall through which he forced his way. +The world narrowed to a space whose boundaries he could touch with his +extended hands. In this white mystery that wrapped him, nothing was left +but stinging snow, bitter cold, and the silence of the dead. + +So he thought one moment, and the next was almost flung by his swerving +horse into a vehicle that blocked the road. Its blurred outlines presently +resolved themselves into an automobile, crouched in the bottom of which +was an inert huddle of humanity. + +He shouted, forgetting that no voice could carry through the muffled +scream of the storm. When he got no answer, he guided his horse close to +the machine and reached down to snatch away the rug already heavy with +snow. To his surprise, it was a girl's despairing face that looked up at +him. She tried to rise, but fell back, her muscles too numb to serve. + +"Don't leave me," she implored, stretching her, arms toward him. + +He reached out and lifted her to his horse. "Are you alone?" + +"Yes. He went for help when the machine broke down--before the storm," she +sobbed. He had to put his ear to her mouth to catch the words. + +"Come, keep up your heart." There was that in his voice pealed like a +trumpet-call to her courage. + +"I'm freezing to death," she moaned. + +She was exhausted and benumbed, her lips blue, her flesh gray. It was +plain to him that she had reached the limit of endurance, that she was +ready to sink into the last torpor. He ripped open his overcoat and shook +the snow from it, then gathered her close so that she might get the warmth +of his body. The rugs from the automobile he wrapped round them both. + +"Courage!" he cried. "There's a miner's cabin near. Don't give up, child." + +But his own courage was of the heart and will, not of the head. He had +small hope of reaching the hut at the entrance of Dead Man's Gulch or, if +he could struggle so far, of finding it in the white swirl that clutched +at them. Near and far are words not coined for a blizzard. He might +stagger past with safety only a dozen feet from him. He might lie down and +die at the very threshold of the door. Or he might wander in an opposite +direction and miss the cabin by a +mile. + +Yet it was not in the man to give up. He must stagger on till he could no +longer stand. He must fight so long as life was in him. He must crawl +forward, though his forlorn hope had vanished. And he did. When the +worn-out horse slipped down and could not be coaxed to its feet again, he +picked up the bundle of rugs and plowed forward blindly, soul and body +racked, but teeth still set fast with the primal instinct never to give +up. The intense cold of the air, thick with gray sifted ice, searched the +warmth from his body and sapped his vitality. His numbed legs doubled +under him like springs. He was down and up again a dozen times, but always +the call of life drove him on, dragging his helpless burden with him. + +That he did find the safety of the cabin in the end was due to no wisdom +on his part. He had followed unconsciously the dip of the ground that led +him into the little draw where it had been built, and by sheer luck +stumbled against it. His strength was gone, but the door gave to his +weight, and he buckled across the threshold like a man helpless with +drink. He dropped to the floor, ready to sink into a stupor, but he shook +sleep from him and dragged himself to his feet. Presently his numb fingers +found a match, a newspaper, and some wood. As soon as he had control over +his hands, he fell to chafing hers. He slipped off her dainty shoes, +pathetically inadequate for such an experience, and rubbed her feet back +to feeling. She had been torpid, but when the blood began to circulate, +she cried out in agony at the pain. + +Every inch of her bore the hall-mark of wealth. The ermine-lined +motoring-cloak, the broadcloth cut on simple lines of elegance, the +quality of her lingerie and of the hosiery which incased the wonderfully +small feet, all told of a padded existence from which the cares of life +had been excluded. The satin flesh he massaged, to renew the flow of the +dammed blood, was soft and tender like a babe's. Quite surely she was an +exotic, the last woman in the world fitted for the hardships of this +frontier country. She had none of the deep-breasted vitality of those of +her sex who have fought with grim nature and won. His experience told him +that a very little longer in the storm would have snuffed out the wick of +her life. + +But he knew, too, that the danger was past. Faint tints of pink were +beginning to warm the cheeks that had been so deathly pallid. Already +crimson lips were offering a vivid contrast to the still, almost colorless +face. + +For she was biting the little lips to try and keep back the cries of pain +that returning life wrung from her. Big tears coursed down her cheeks, and +broken sobs caught her breath. She was helpless as an infant before the +searching pain that wracked her + +"I can't stand it--I can't stand it," she moaned, and in her distress +stretched out her little hand for relief as a baby might to its mother. + +The childlike appeal of the flinching violet eyes in the tortured face +moved him strangely. He was accounted a hard man, not without reason. His +eyes were those of a gambler, cold and vigilant. It was said that he could +follow an undeviating course without relenting at the ruin and misery +wrought upon others by his operations. But the helpless loveliness of this +exquisitely dainty child-woman, the sense of intimacy bred of a common +peril endured, of the strangeness of their environment and of her utter +dependence upon him, carried the man out of himself and away from +conventions. + +He stooped and gathered her into his arms, walking the floor with her and +cheering her as if she had indeed been the child they both for the moment +conceived her. + +"You don't know how it hurts," she pleaded between sobs, looking up into +the strong face so close to hers. + +"I know it must, dear. But soon it will be better. Every twinge is one +less, and shows that you are getting well. Be brave for just a few minutes +more now." + +She smiled wanly through her tears. "But I'm not brave. I'm a little +coward--and it does pain so." + +"I know--I know. It is dreadful. But just a few minutes now." + +"You're good to me," she said presently, simply as a little girl might +have said it. + +To neither of them did it seem strange that she should be there in his +arms, her fair head against his shoulder, nor that she should cling +convulsively to him when the fierce pain tingled unbearably. She had +reached out for the nearest help, and he gave of his strength and courage +abundantly. + +Presently the prickling of the flowing blood grew less sharp. She began to +grow drowsy with warmth after the fatigue and pain. The big eyes shut, +fluttered open, smiled at him, and again closed. She had fallen asleep +from sheer exhaustion. + +He looked down with an odd queer feeling at the small aristocratic face +relaxed upon his ann. The long lashes had drooped to the cheeks and +shuttered the eyes that had met his with such confident appeal, but they +did not hide the dark rings underneath, born of the hardships she had +endured. As he walked the floor with her, he lived once more the terrible +struggle through which they had passed. He saw Death stretching out icy +hands for her, and as his arms unconsciously tightened about the soft +rounded body, his square jaw set and the fighting spark leaped to his +eyes. + +"No, by Heaven," he gave back aloud his defiance. + +Troubled dreams pursued her in her sleep. She clung close to him, her arm +creeping round his neck for safety. He was a man not given to fine +scruples, but all the best in him responded to her unconscious trust. + +It was so she found herself when she awakened, stiff from her cramped +position. She slipped at once to the floor and sat there drying her lace +skirts, the sweet piquancy of her childish face set out by the leaping +fire-glow that lit and shadowed her delicate coloring. Outside in the gray +darkness raged the death from which he had snatched her by a miracle. +Beyond--a million miles away--the world whose claim had loosened on them +was going through its routine of lies and love, of hypocrisies and +heroisms. But here were just they two, flung back to the primordial type +by the fierce battle for existence that had encompassed them--Adam and Eve +in the garden, one to one, all else forgot, all other ties and obligations +for the moment obliterated. Had they not struggled, heart beating against +heart, with the breath of death icing them, and come out alive? Was their +world not contracted to a space ten feet by twelve, shut in from every +other planet by an illimitable stretch of storm? + +"Where should I have been if you had not found me?" she murmured, her +haunting eyes fixed on the flames. + +"But I should have found you--no matter where you had been, I should have +found you." + +The words seemed to leap from him of themselves. He was sure he had not +meant to speak them, to voice so soon the claim that seemed to him so +natural and reasonable. + +She considered his words and found delight in acquiescing at once. The +unconscious demand for life, for love, of her starved soul had never been +gratified. But he had come to her through that fearful valley of death, +because he must, because it had always been meant he should. + +Her lustrous eyes, big with faith, looked up and met his. + +The far, wise voices of the world were storm-deadened. They cried no +warning to these drifting hearts. How should they know in that moment when +their souls reached toward each other that the wisdom of the ages had +decreed their yearning futile? + + + +CHAPTER 4. TORT SALVATION + +She must have fallen asleep there, for when she opened her eyes it was +day. Underneath her was a lot of bedding he had found in the cabin, and +tucked about her were the automobile rugs. For a moment her brain, still +sodden with sleep, struggled helplessly with her surroundings. She looked +at the smoky rafters without understanding, and her eyes searched the +cabin wonderingly for her maid. When she remembered, her first thought was +to look for the man. That he had gone, she saw with instinctive terror. + +But not without leaving a message. She found his penciled note, weighted +for security by a dollar, at the edge of the hearth. + +"Gone on a foraging expedition. Back in an hour, Little Partner," was all +it said. The other man also had promised to be back in an hour, and he had +not come, but the strong chirography of the note, recalling the resolute +strength of this man's face, brought content to her eyes. He had said he +would come back. She rested secure in that pledge. + +She went to the window and looked out over the great white wastes that +rose tier on tier to the dull sky-line. She shuddered at the arctic +desolation of the vast snow-fields. The mountains were sheeted with +silence and purity. It seemed to the untaught child-woman that she was +face to face with the Almighty. + +Once during the night she had partially awakened to hear the roaring wind +as it buffeted snow-clouds across the range. It had come tearing along the +divide with the black storm in its vanguard, and she had heard fearfully +the shrieks and screams of the battle as it raged up and down the gulches +and sifted into them the deep drifts. + +Half-asleep as she was, she had been afraid and had cried out with terror +at this strange wakening; and he had been beside her in an instant. + +"It's all right, partner. There's nothing to be afraid of," he had said +cheerfully, taking her little hand in his big warm one. + +Her fears had slipped away at once. Nestling down into her rug, she had +smiled sleepily at him and fallen asleep with her cheek on her hand, her +other hand still in his. + +While she had been asleep the snow-tides had filled the gulch, had risen +level with the top of the lower pane of the window. Nothing broke the +smoothness of its flow save the one track he had made in breaking a way +out. That he should have tried to find his way through such an untracked +desolation amazed her. He could never do it. No puny human atom could +fight successfully against the barriers nature had dropped so sullenly to +fence them. They were set off from the world by a quarantine of God. There +was something awful to her in the knowledge. It emphasized their +impotence. Yet, this man had set himself to fight the inevitable. + +With a little shudder she turned from the window to the cheerless room. +The floor was dirty; unwashed dishes were piled upon the table. Here and +there were scattered muddy boots and overalls, just as their owner, the +prospector, had left them before he had gone to the nearest town to +restock his exhausted supply of provisions. Disorder and dirt filled the +rough cabin, or so it seemed to her fastidious eye. + +The inspiration of the housewife seized her. She would surprise him on his +return by opening the door to him upon a house swept and garnished. She +would show him that she could be of some use even in such a primitive +topsy-turvy world as this into which Fate had thrust her willy-nilly. + +First, she carried red live coals on a shovel from the fireplace to the +cook-stove, and piled kindling upon them till it lighted. It was a new +experience to her. She knew nothing of housework; had never lit a fire in +her life, except once when she had been one of a camping party. The smoke +choked her before she had the lids back in their places, but despite her +awkwardness, the girl went about her unaccustomed tasks with a light +heart. It was for her new-found hero that she played at housekeeping. For +his commendation she filled the tea-kettle, enveloped herself in a cloud +of dust as she wielded the stub of a broom she discovered, and washed the +greasy dishes after the water was hot. A childish pleasure suffused her. +All her life her least whims had been ministered to; she was reveling in a +first attempt at service. As she moved to and fro with an improvised +dust-rag, sunshine filled her being. From her lips the joy notes fell in +song, shaken from her throat for sheer happiness. This surely was life, +that life from which she had so carefully been hedged all the years of her +young existence. + +As he came down the trail he had broken, with a pack on his back, the man +heard her birdlike carol in the clear frosty air. He emptied his chest in +a deep shout, and she was instantly at the window, waving him a welcome +with her dust-rag. + +"I thought you were never coming," she cried from the open door as he came +up the path. + +Her eyes were starry in their eagerness. Every sensitive feature was alert +with interest, so that the man thought he had never seen so mobile and +attractive a face. + +"Did it seem long?" he asked. + +"Oh, weeks and weeks! You must be frozen to an icicle. Come in and get +warm." + +"I'm as warm as toast," he assured her. + +He was glowing with exercise and the sting of the cold, for he had tramped +two miles through drifts from three to five feet deep, battling with them +every step of the way, and carrying with him on the return trip a box of +provisions. + +"With all that snow on you and the pack on your back, it's like Santa +Claus," she cried, clapping her hands. + +"Before we're through with the adventure we may think that box a sure +enough gift from Santa," he replied. + +After he had put it down, he took off his overcoat on the threshold and +shook the snow from it. Then, with much feet stamping and scattering of +snow, he came in. She fluttered about him, dragging a chair up to the fire +for him, and taking his hat and gloves. It amused and pleased him that she +should be so solicitous, and he surrendered himself to her ministrations. + +His quick eye noticed the swept floor and the +evanishment of disorder. "Hello! What's this clean through a fall +house-cleaning? I'm not the only member of the firm that has been working. +Dishes washed, floor swept, bed made, kitchen fire lit. You've certainly +been going some, unless the fairies helped you. Aren't you afraid of +blistering these little hands?" he asked gaily, taking one of them in his +and touching the soft palm gently with the tip of his finger. + +"I should preserve those blisters in alcohol to show that I've really been +of some use," she answered, happy in his approval. + +"Sho! People are made for different uses. Some are fit only to shovel and +dig. Others are here simply to decorate the world. Hard world. Hard work +is for those who can't give society anything else, but beauty is its own +excuse for being," he told her breezily. + +"Now that's the first compliment you have given me," she pouted prettily. +"I can get them in plenty back in the drawing-rooms where I am supposed to +belong. We're to be real comrades here, and compliments are barred." + +"I wasn't complimenting you," he maintained. "I was merely stating a +principle of art." + +"Then you mustn't make your principles of art personal, sir. But since you +have, I'm going to refute the application of your principle and show how +useful I've been. Now, sir, do you know what provisions we have outside of +those you have just brought?" + +He knew exactly, since he had investigated during the night. That they +might possibly have to endure a siege of some weeks, he was quite well +aware, and his first thought, after she had gone to sleep before the fire, +had been to make inventory of such provisions as the prospector had left +in his cabin. A knuckle of ham, part of a sack of flour, some navy beans, +and some tea siftings at the bottom of a tin can; these constituted the +contents of the larder which the miner had gone to replenish. But though +the man knew he assumed ignorance, for he saw that she was bubbling over +with the desire to show her forethought. + +"Tell me," he begged of her, and after she had done so, he marveled aloud +over her wisdom in thinking of it. + +"Now tell me about your trip," she commanded, setting herself tailor +fashion on the rug to listen. + +"There isn't much to tell," he smiled "I should like to make an adventure +of it, but I can't. I just went and came back." + +"Oh, you just went and came back, did you?" she scoffed. "That won't do at +all. I want to know all about it. Did you find the machine all right?" + +"I found it where we left it, buried in four feet of snow. You needn't be +afraid that anybody will run away with it for a day or two. The pantry was +cached pretty deep itself, but I dug it out." + +Her shy glance admired the sturdy lines of his powerful frame. "I am +afraid it must have been a terrible task to get there through the +blizzard." + +"Oh, the blizzard is past. You never saw a finer, more bracing morning. +It's a day for the gods," he laughed boyishly. + +She could have conceived no Olympian more heroic than he, and certainly +none with so compelling a vitality. "Such a warm, kind light in them!" she +thought of the eyes others had found hard and calculating. + +It was lucky that the lunch the automobilists had brought from Avalanche +was ample and as yet untouched. The hotel waiter, who had attended to the +packing of it, had fortunately been used to reckon with outdoor Montana +appetites instead of cloyed New York ones. They unpacked the little hamper +with much gaiety. Everything was frozen solid, and the wine had cracked +its bottle. + +"Shipped right through on our private refrigerator-car. That cold-storage +chicken looks the finest that ever happened. What's this rolled up in +tissue-paper? Deviled eggs and ham sandwiches AND caviar, not to speak of +claret frappe. I'm certainly grateful to the gentleman finished in ebony +who helped to provision us for this siege. He'll never know what a tip he +missed by not being here to collect." + +"Here's jelly, too, and cake," she said, exploring with him. + +"Not to mention peaches and pears. Oh, this is luck of a special brand! I +was expecting to put up at Starvation Camp. Now we may name it Point +Plenty." + +"Or Fort Salvation," she suggested shyly. "Because you brought me here to +save my life." + +She was such a child, in spite of her charming grown-up airs, that he +played make-believe with a zest that surprised himself when he came to +think of it. She elected him captain of Fort Salvation, with full power of +life and death over the garrison, and he appointed her second in command. +His first general order was to put the garrison on two meals a day. + +She clapped her little hands, eyes sparkling with excitement. "Are we +really snow-bound? Must we go on half-rations?" + +"It is the part of wisdom, lieutenant," he answered, smiling at her +enthusiasm. "We don't know how long this siege is going to last. If it +should set in to snow, we may be here several days before the relief-party +reaches us." But, though he spoke cheerfully, he was aware of sinister +possibilities in the situation. "Several weeks" would have been nearer his +real guess. + +They ate breakfast at the shelf-table nailed in place underneath the +western window. They made a picnic of it, and her spirits skipped upon the +hilltops. For the first time she ate from tin plates, drank from a tin +cup, and used a tin spoon the worse for rust. What mattered it to her that +the teapot was grimy and the fryingpan black with soot! It was all part of +the wonderful new vista that had suddenly opened before her gaze. She had +awakened into life and already she was dimly realizing that many and +varied experiences lay waiting for her in that untrodden path beyond her +cloistered world. + +A reconnaissance in the shed behind the house showed him no plethora of +firewood. But here was ax, shovel, and saw, and he asked no more. First he +shoveled out a path along the eaves of the house where she might walk in +sentry fashion to take the deep breaths of clear sharp air he insisted +upon. He made it wide enough so that her skirt would not sweep against the +snow-bank, and trod down the trench till the footing was hard and solid. +Then with ax and saw he climbed the hillside back of the house and set +himself to get as much fuel as he could. The sky was still heavy with +unshed snow, and he knew that with the coming of night the storm would be +renewed. + +Came noon, mid-afternoon, the early dusk of a mountain winter, and found +him still hewing and sawing, still piling load after load in the shed. Now +and again she came out and watched him, laughing at the figure he made as +he would come plunging through the snow with his armful of fuel. + +She did not know, as he did, the vital necessity of filling the lean-to +before winter fell upon them in earnest and buried them deep with his +frozen blanket, and she was a little piqued that he should spend the whole +day away from her in such unsocial fashion. + +"Let me help," she begged so often that he trod down a path, made boots +for her out of torn gunny-sacks which he tied round her legs, and let her +drag wood to the house on a pine branch which served for a sled. She wore +her gauntlets to protect her tender hands, and thereafter was happy until, +detecting signs of fatigue, he made her go into the house and rest. + +As soon as she dared she was back again, making fun of him and the +earnestness with which he worked. + +"Robinson Crusoe" was one name she fastened upon him, and she was not +satisfied till she had made him call her "Friday." + +Twilight fell austere and sudden upon them with an immediate fall of +temperature that found a thermometer in her blue face. + +He recommended the house, but she was of a contrary mood. + +"I don't want to," she announced debonairly. + +In a stiff military attitude he gave raucous mandate from his throat. + +"Commanding officer's orders, lieutenant." + +"I think I'm going to mutiny," she informed him, with chin saucily in air. + +This would not do at all. The chill wind sweeping down the canon was +searching her insufficient clothing already. He picked her up in his arms +and ran with her toward the house, setting her down in the trench outside +the door. She caught her startled breath and looked at him in shy, dubious +amazement. + +"Really you " she was beginning when he cut her short. + +"Commanding officer's orders, lieutenant," came briskly from lips that +showed just a hint of a smile. + +At once she clicked her heels together, saluted, and wheeled into the +cabin. + +From the grimy window she watched his broad-shouldered vigor, waving her +hand whenever his face was turned her way. He worked like a Titan, +reveling in the joy of physical labor, but it was long past dark before he +finished and came striding to the hut. + +They made a delightful evening of it, living in the land of Never Was. For +one source of her charm lay in the gay, childlike whimsicality o her +imagination. She believed in fairies and heroes with all her heart, which +with her was an organ not located in her brain. The delicious gurgle of +gaiety in her laugh was a new find to him in feminine attractions. + +There had been many who thought the career of this pirate of industry +beggared fiction, though, few had found his flinty personality a radiaton +of romance. But this convent-nurtured child had made a discovery in men, +one out of the rut of the tailor-made, convention-bound society youths to +whom her experience for the most part had been limited. She delighted in +his masterful strength, in the confidence of his careless dominance. She +liked to see that look of power in his gray-blue eyes softened to the +droll, half-tender, expression with which he played the game of +make-believe. There were no to-morrows; to-day marked the limit of time +for them. By tacit consent they lived only in the present, shutting out +deliberately from their knowledge of each other, that past which was not +common to both. Even their names were unknown to each other, and both of +them were glad that it was so. + +The long winter evening had fallen early, and they dined by candle-light, +considering merrily how much they might with safety eat and yet leave +enough for the to-morrows that lay before them. Afterward they sat before +the fire, in the shadow and shine of the flickering logs, happy and +content in each other's presence. She dreamed, and he, watching her, +dreamed, too. The wild, sweet wonder of life surged through them, touching +their squalid surroundings to the high mystery of things unreal. + +The strangeness of it was that he was a man of large and not very +creditable experience of women, yet her deep, limpid eyes, her sweet +voice, the immature piquancy of her movements that was the expression of +her, had stirred his imagination more potently than if he had been the +veriest schoolboy nursing a downy lip. He could not keep his eyes from +this slender, exquisite girl, so dainty and graceful in her mobile +piquancy. Fire and passion were in his heart and soul, restraint and +repression in his speech and manner. For the fire and passion in him were +pure and clean as the winds that sweep the hills. + +But for the girl--she was so little mistress of her heart that she had no +prescience of the meaning of this sweet content that filled her. And the +voices that should have warned her were silent, busy behind the purple +hills with lies and love and laughter and tears. + + + +CHAPTER 5. ENTER SIMON HARLEY + +The prospector's house in which they had found refuge was perched on the +mountainside just at one edge of the draw. Rough as the girl had thought +it, there was a more pretentious appearance to it than might have been +expected. The cabin was of hewn logs mortared with mud, and care had been +taken to make it warm. The fireplace was a huge affair that ate fuel +voraciously. It was built of stone, which had been gathered from the +immediate hillside. + +The prospect itself showed evidence of having been worked a good deal, and +it was an easy guess for the man who now stood looking into the tunnel +that it belonged to some one of the thousands of miners who spend half +their time earning a grubstake, and the other half dissipating it upon +some hole in the ground which they have duped themselves into believing is +a mine. + +From the tunnel his eye traveled up the face of the white mountain to the +great snow-comb that yawned over the edge of the rock-rim far above. It +had snowed again heavily all night, and now showed symptoms of a thaw. Not +once nor twice, but a dozen times, the man's anxious gaze had swept up to +that great overhanging bank. Snowslides ran every year in this section +with heavy loss to life and property. Given a rising temperature and some +wind, the comb above would gradually settle lower and lower, at last break +off, plunge down the precipitous slope, bringing thousands of tons of rock +and snow with it, and, perhaps, bury them in a Titanic grave of ice. There +had been a good deal of timber cut from the shoulder of the mountain +during the past summer, and this very greatly increased the danger. That +there was a real peril the man looking at it did not attempt to deny to +himself. It would be enough to deny it to her in case she should ever +suspect. + +He had hoped for cold weather, a freeze hard enough to crust the surface +of the snow. Upon this he might have made shift somehow to get her to +Yesler's ranch, eighteen miles away though it was, but he knew this would +not be feasible with the snow in its present condition. It was not certain +that he could make the ranch alone; encumbered with her, success would be +a sheer impossibility. On the other hand, their provisions would not last +long. The outlook was not a cheerful one, from whichever point of view he +took it; yet there was one phase of it he could not regret. The factors +which made the difficulties of the situation made also its delights. +Though they were prisoners in this solitary untrodden caynon, the sentence +was upon both of them. She could look to none other than he for aid; and, +at least, the drifts which kept them in held others out. + +Her voice at his shoulder startled him. + +"Wherefore this long communion with nature, my captain?" she gaily asked. +"Behold, my, lord's hot cakes are ready for the pan and his servant to +wait upon him." She gave him a demure smiling little curtsy of mock +deference. + +Never had her distracting charm been more in evidence. He had not seen her +since they parted on the previous night. He had built for himself a cot in +the woodshack, and had contrived a curtain that could be drawn in front of +her bed in the living-room. Thus he could enter in the morning, light the +fires, and start breakfast without disturbing her. She had dressed her +hair, now in a different way, so that it fell in low waves back from the +forehead and was bunched at the nape of her neck. The light swiftness of +her dainty grace, the almost exaggerated carnation of the slightly parted +lips, the glad eagerness that sparked her eyes, brought out effectively +the picturesqueness of her beauty. + +His grave eyes rested on her so long that a soft glow mantled her cheeks. +Perhaps her words had been too free, though she had not meant them so. For +the first time some thought of the conventions distressed her. Ought she +to hold herself more in reserve toward him? Must she restrain her natural +impulses to friendliness? + +His eyes released her presently, but not before she read in them the +feelings that had softened them as they gazed into hers. They mirrored his +poignant pleasure at the delight of her sweet slenderness so close to him, +his perilous joy at the intimacy fate had thrust upon them. Shyly her lids +fell to the flushed cheeks. + +"Breakfast is ready," she added self-consciously, her girlish innocence +startled like a fawn of the forest at the hunter's approach + +For whereas she had been blind now she saw in part. Some flash of +clairvoyance had laid bare a glimpse of his heart and her own to her. +Without misunderstanding the perfect respect for her which he felt, she +knew the turbid banked emotions which this dammed. Her heart seemed to +beat in her bosom like an imprisoned dove. + +It was his voice, calm and resonant with strength, that brought her to +earth again. + +"And I am ready for it, lieutenant. Right about face. Forward--march!" + + +After breakfast they went out and tramped together the little path of +hard-trodden snow in front of the house. She broached the prospect of a +rescue or the chances of escape. + +"We shall soon be out of food, and, anyhow, we can't stay here all +winter," she suggested with a tremulous little laugh. + +"You are naturally very tired of it already," he hazarded. + +"It has been the experience of my life. I shall fence it off from all the +days that have passed and all that are to come," she made answer vividly. + +Their eyes met, but only for an instant. + +"I am glad," he said quietly. + +He began, then, to tell her what he must do, but at the first word of it +she broke out in protest. + +"No--no--no! We shall stay together. If you go I am going, too." + +"I wish you could, but it is not possible. You could never get there. The +snow is too soft and heavy for wading and not firm enough to bear your +weight." + +"But you will have to wade." + +"I am stronger than you, lieutenant." + +"I know, but----" She broke down and confessed her terror. "Would you +leave me here-- alone--with all this snow Oh, I couldn't stay--I +couldn't." + +"It's the only way," he said steadily. Every fiber in him rebelled at +leaving her here to face peril alone, but his reason overrode the desire +and rebellion that were hot within him. He must think first of her +ultimate safety, and this lay in getting her away from here at the first +chance. + +Tears splashed down from the big eyes. "I didn't think you would leave me +here alone. With you I don't mind it, but-- Oh, I should die if I stayed +alone." + +"Only for twenty-four hours. Perhaps less. I shouldn't think of it if it +weren't necessary." + +"Take me with you. I am strong. You don't know how strong I am. I promise +to keep up with you. Please!" + +He shook his head. "I would take you with me if I could. You know that. +But it's a man's fight. I shall have to stand up to it hour after hour +till I reach Yesler's ranch. I shall get through, but it would not be +possible for you to make it." + +"And if you don't get through?" + +He refused to consider that contingency. -"But I shall. You may look to +see me back with help by this time to-morrow morning." + +"I'm not afraid with you. But if you go away Oh, I can't stand it. You +don't know--you don't know." She buried her face in her hands. + +He had to swallow down his sympathy before he went on. "Yes, I know. But +you must be brave. You must think of every minute as being one nearer to +the time of my return." + +"You will think me a dreadful coward, and I am. But I can't help it. I AM +afraid to stay alone. There's nothing in the world but mountains of snow. +They are horrible--like death-- +except when you are here." + +Her child eyes coaxed him to stay. The mad longing was in him to kiss the +rosy little mouth with the queer alluring droop to its corners. It was a +strange thing how, with that arched twist to her eyebrows and with that +smile which came and went like sunshine in her eyes, she toppled his +lifelong creed. The cardinal tenet of his faith had been a belief in +strength. He had first been drawn to Virginia by reason of her pluck and +her power. Yet this child's very weakness was her fountain of strength. +She cried out with pain, and he counted it an asset of virtue in her. She +acknowledged herself a coward, and his heart went out to her because of +it. The battle assignments of life were not for the soft curves and shy +winsomeness of this dainty lamb. + +"You will be brave. I expect you to be brave, lieutenant." Words of love +and comfort were crowding to his brain, but he would not let them out. + +"How long will you be gone?" she sobbed. + +"I may possibly get back before midnight, but you mustn't begin to expect +me until to-morrow morning, perhaps not till to-morrow afternoon." + +"Oh, I couldn't--I couldn't stay here at night alone. Don't go, please. +I'll not get hungry, truly I won't, and to-morrow they will find us." + +He rose, his face working. "I MUST go, child. It's the thing to do. I wish +to Heaven it weren't. You must think of yourself as quite safe here. You +ARE safe. Don't make it hard for me to go, dear." + +"I AM a coward. But I can't help it. There is so much snow--and the +mountains are so big." She tried valiantly to crush down her sobs. "But +go. I'll--I'll not be afraid." + +He buried her little hands in his two big ones and looked deep into her +eyes. "Every minute of the time I am away from you I shall be with you in +spirit. You'll not be alone any minute of the day or night. Whether you +are awake or asleep I shall be with you." + +"I'll try to remember that," she answered, smiling up at him but with a +trembling lip. + +She put him up some lunch while he made his simple preparations. To the +end of the trench she walked with him, neither of them saying a word. The +moment of parting had come. + +She looked up at him with a crooked wavering little smile. She wanted to +be brave, but she could not trust herself to say a word. + +"Remember, dear. I am not leaving you. My body has gone on an errand. That +is all." + +Just now she found small comfort in this sophistry, but she did not tell +him so. + +"I--I'll remember." She gulped down a sob and still smiled through the +mist that filmed her sight. + +In his face she could see how much he was moved at her distress. Always a +creature of impulse, one mastered her now, the need to let her weakness +rest on his strength. Her arms slipped quickly round his neck and her head +lay buried on his shoulder. He held her tight, eyes shining, the desire of +her held in leash behind set teeth, the while sobs shook her soft round +body in gusts. + +"My lamb--my sweet precious lamb," she heard him murmur in anguish. + +From some deep sex trait it comforted her that he suffered. With the +mother instinct she began to regain control of herself that she might help +him. + +"It will not be for long," she assured him. "And every step of your way I +shall pray for, your safety," she whispered. + +He held her at arm's length while his gaze devoured her, then silently he +wheeled away and plunged waist deep into the drifts. As long as he was in +sight he saw her standing there, waving her handkerchief to him in +encouragement. Her slight, dark figure, outlined against the snow, was the +last thing his eyes fell upon before he turned a corner of the gulch and +dropped downward toward the plains. + +But when he was surely gone, after one fearful look at the white sea which +encompassed her, the girl fled to the cabin, slammed the door after her, +and flung herself on the bed to weep out her lonely terror in an ecstasy +of tears. She had spent the first violence of her grief, and was sitting +crouched on the rug before the open fire when the sound of a footstep, +crunching the snow, startled her. The door opened, to let in the man who +had just left her. + +"You are back--already," she cried, her tear? stained face lifted toward +him. + +"Yes," he smiled' from the doorway. "Come here, little partner." + +And when she had obediently joined him her eye followed his finger up the +mountain-trail to a bend round which men and horses were coming. + +"It's a relief-party," he said, and caught up his field-glasses to look +them over more certainly. Two men on horseback, leading a third animal, +were breaking a way down the trail, black spots against the background of +white. "I guess Fort Salvation's about to be relieved," he added grimly, +following the party through the glasses. + +She touched the back of his hand with a finger. "Are you glad?" she asked +softly. + +"No, by Heaven!" he cried, lowering his glasses swiftly. + +As he looked into her eyes the blood rushed to his brain with a surge. Her +face turned to his unconsciously, and their lips met. + +"And I don't even know your name," she murmured. + +"Waring Ridgway; and yours?" + +"Aline Hope," she said absently. Then a hot Rush ran over the girlish +face. "No, no, I had forgotten. I was married last week." + +The gates of paradise, open for two days, clanged to on Ridgway. He stared +out with unseeing eyes into the silent wastes of snow. The roaring in his +ears and the mountainsides that churned before his eyes were reflections +of the blizzard raging within him. + +"I'll never forget--never," he heard her falter, and her voice was a +thousand miles away. + +From the storm within him he was aroused by a startled cry from the girl +at his side. Her fascinated gaze was fixed on the summit of the ridge +above them. There was a warning crackle. The overhanging comb snapped, +slid slowly down, and broke off. With gathering momentum it descended, +sweeping into its heart rocks, trees, and debris. A terrific roar filled +the air as the great white cloud came tearing down like an express-train. + +Ridgway caught her round the waist and flung the girl against the wall of +the cabin, protecting her with his body. The avalanche was upon them, +splitting great trees to kindling-wood in the fury of its rush. The +concussion of the wind shattered every window to fragments, almost tore +the cabin from its foundations. Only the extreme tail of the slide touched +them, yet they were buried deep in flying snow. + +He found no great difficulty in digging a way out, and when he lifted her +to the surface she was conscious. Yet she was pale even to the lips and +trembled like an aspen in the summer breeze, clinging to him for support +helplessly. + +His cheerful voice rang like a bugle to her shocked brain. + +"It's all past. We're safe now, dear--quite safe." + +The first of the trail-breakers had dismounted and was plowing his way +hurriedly to the cabin, but neither of them saw him as he came up the +slope. + +"Are you sure?" She shuddered, her hands still in his. "Wasn't it awful? I +thought--" Her sentence trailed out unfinished. + +"Are you unhurt, Aline?" cried the newcomer. And when he saw she was, he +added: "Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good: +for His mercy endureth forever. He saved them for His name's sake, that He +might make His mighty power to be known." + +At sound of the voice they turned and saw the man hurrying toward them. He +was tall, gray, and seventy, of massive frame and gaunt, still straight +and vigorous, with the hooked nose and piercing eyes of a hawk. At first +glance he looked always the bird of prey, but at the next as invariably +the wolf, an effect produced by the salient reaching jaw and the glint of +white teeth bared for a lip smile. Just now he was touched to a rare +emotion. His hands trembled and an expression of shaken thankfulness +rested in his face. + +Aline, still with Ridgway's strong arms about her, slowly came back to the +inexorable facts of life. + +"You--here?" + +"As soon as we could get through--and thank God in time." + +"I would have died, except for--" This brought her immediately to an +introduction, and after she had quietly released herself the man who had +saved her heard himself being formally presented: "Mr. Ridgway, I want you +to meet my husband, Mr. Harley." + +Ridgway turned to Simon Harley a face of hammered steel and bowed, putting +his hands deliberately behind his back. + +"I've been expecting you at Mesa, Mr. Harley," he said rigidly. "I'll be +glad to have the pleasure of welcoming you there." + +The great financier was wondering where he had heard the man's name +before, but he only said gravely: "You have a claim on me I can never +forget, Mr. Ridgway." + +Scornfully the other disdained this proffer. "Not at all. You owe me +nothing, Mr. Harley--absolutely nothing. What I have done I have done for +her. It is between her and me." + +At this moment the mind of Harley fitted the name Ridgway to its niche in +his brain. So this was the audacious filibuster who had dared to fire on +the trust flag, the man he had come West to ruin and to humble. + + +"I think you will have to include me, Mr. Ridgway," he said suavely. "What +is done for my wife is done, also, for me." + + + +CHAPTER 6. 0N THE SNOW-TRAIL + +Aline had passed into the house, moved by an instinct which shrank from +publicity in the inevitable personal meeting between her and her husband. +Now, Harley, with the cavalier nod of dismissal, which only a +multimillionaire can afford, followed her and closed the door. A +passionate rush of blood swept Ridgway's face. He saw red as he stood +there with eyes burning into that door which had been shut in his face. +The nails of his clenched fingers bit into his palms, and his muscles +gathered themselves tensely. He had been cast aside, barred from the woman +he loved by this septuagenarian, as carelessly as if he had no claim. + +And it came home to him that now he had no claim, none before the law and +society. They had walked in Arcadia where shepherds pipe. They had taken +life for granted as do the creatures of the woods, forgetful of the edicts +of a world that had seemed far and remote. But that world had obtruded +itself and shattered their dream. In the person of Simon Harley it had +shut the door which was to separate him and her. Hitherto he had taken +from life what he had wanted, but already he was grappling with the blind +fear of a fate for once too strong for him. + +"Well, I'm damned if it isn't Waring Ridgway," called a mellow voice from +across the gulch. + +The man named turned, and gradually the set lines of his jaw relaxed. + +"I didn't notice it was you, Sam. Better bring the horses across this side +of that fringe of aspens." + +The dismounted horseman followed directions and brought the floundering +horses through, and after leaving them in the cleared place where Ridgway +had cut his firewood he strolled leisurely forward to meet the mine-owner. +He was a youngish man, broad of shoulder and slender of waist, a trifle +bowed in the legs from much riding, but with an elastic sufficiency that +promised him the man for an emergency, a pledge which his steady +steel-blue eyes, with the humorous lines about the corners, served to make +more valuable. His apparel suggested the careless efficiency of the +cow-man, from the high-heeled boots into which were thrust his corduroys +to the broad-brimmed white Stetson set on his sunreddened wavy hair. A +man's man, one would vote him at first sight, and subsequent impressions +would not contradict the first. + +"Didn't know you were down in this neck of woods, Waring," he said +pleasantly, as they shook hands. + +An onlooker might have noticed that both of them gripped hands heartily +and looked each other squarely in the eye. + +"I came down on business and got caught in the blizzard on my way back. +Came on her freezing in the machine and brought her here along with me. I +had my eye on that slide. The snow up there didn't look good to me, and +the grub was about out, anyhow, so I was heading for the C B Ranch when I +sighted you." + +"Golden luck for her. I knew it was a chance in a million that she was +still alive, but Harley wanted to take it. Say, that old fellow's made of +steel wire. Two of my boys are plugging along a mile or two behind us, but +he stayed right with the game to a finish--and him seventy-three, mind +you, and a New Yorker at that. The old boy rides like he was born in a +saddle," said Sam Yesler with enthusiasm. + +"I never said he was a quitter," conceded Ridgway ungraciously. + +"You're right he ain't. And say, but he's fond of his wife. Soon as he +struck the ranch the old man butted out again into the blizzard to get +her--slipped out before we knew it. The boys rounded him up wandering +round the big pasture, and none too soon neither. All the time we had to +keep herd on him to keep him from taking another whirl at it. He was like +a crazy man to tackle it, though he must a-known it was suicide. Funny how +a man takes a shine to a woman and thinks the sun rises and sets by her. +Far, as I have been able to make out women are much of a sameness, though +I ain't setting up for a judge. Like as not this woman don't care a hand's +turn for him." + +"Why should she? He bought her with his millions, I suppose. What right +has an old man like that with one foot in the grave to pick out a child +and marry her? I tell you, Sam, there's something ghastly about it." + +"Oh, well, I reckon when she sold herself she knew what she was getting. +It's about an even thing--six of one and half a dozen of the other. There +must be something rotten about a woman who will do a thing of that sort." + +"Wait till you've seen her before passing judgment. And after you have +you'll apologize if you're a white man for thinking such a thing about +her," the miner said hotly. + +Yesler looked at his friend in amiable surprise. "I don't reckon we need +to quarrel about Simon Harley's matrimonial affairs, do we?" he laughed. + +"Not unless you want to say any harm of that lamb." + +A glitter of mischief gleamed from the cattleman's eyes. "Meaning Harley, +Waring?" + +"You know who I mean. I tell you she's an angel from heaven, pure as the +driven snow." + +"And I tell you that I'll take your word for it without quarreling with +you," was the goodhumored retort. "What's up, anyhow? I never saw you so +touchy before. You're a regular pepper-box." + +The rescuers had brought food with them, and the party ate lunch before +starting back. The cow-punchers of the C B had now joined them, both of +them, as well as their horses, very tired with the heavy travel. + +"This here Marathon race business through three-foot snow ain't for +invalids like me and Husky," one of them said cheerfully, with his mouth +full of sandwich. "We're also rans, and don't even show for place." + +Yet though two of them had, temporarily at least, been rescued from +imminent danger, and success beyond their expectations had met the others, +it was a silent party. A blanket of depression seemed to rest upon it, +which the good stories of Yesler and the genial nonsense of his man, +Chinn, were unable to lift. Three of them, at least, were brooding over +what the morning had brought forth, and trying to realize what it might +mean for them. + +"We'd best be going, I expect," said Yesler at last. "We've got a right +heavy bit of work cut out for us, and the horses are through feeding. We +can't get started any too soon for me." + +Ridgway nodded silently. He knew that the stockman was dubious, as he +himself was, about being able to make the return trip in safety. The +horses were tired; so, too, were the men who had broken the heavy trail +for so many miles, with the exception of Sam himself, who seemed built of +whipcord and elastic. They would be greatly encumbered by the woman, for +she would certainly give out during the journey. The one point in their +favor was that they could follow a trail which had already been trodden +down. + +Simon Harley helped his wife into the boy's saddle on the back of the +animal they had led, but his inexperience had to give way to Yesler's +skill in fitting the stirrups to the proper length for her feet. To +Ridgway, who had held himself aloof during this preparation, the stockman +now turned with a wave of his hand toward his horse + +"You ride, Waring." + +"No, I'm fresh." + +"All right. We'll take turns." + +Ridgway led the party across the gulch, following the trail that had been +swept by the slide. The cowboys followed him, next came Harley, his wife, +and in the rear the cattleman. They descended the draw, and presently +dipped over rolling ground to the plain beyond. The procession plowed +steadily forward mile after mile, the pomes floundering through drifts +after the man ahead. + +Chinn, who had watched him breasting the soft heavy blanket that lay on +the ground so deep and hemmed them in, turned to his companion. + +"On the way coming I told you, Husky, we had the best man in Montana at +our head. We got that beat now to a fare-you-well. We got the two best in +this party, by crickey." + +"He's got the guts, all right, but there ain't nothing on two legs can +keep it up much longer," replied the other. "If you want to know, I'm +about all in myself." + +"Here, too," grunted the other. "And so's the bronc." + +It was not, however, until dusk was beginning to fall that the leader +stopped. Yesler's voice brought him up short in his tracks. + +"Hold on, Waring. The lady's down." + +Ridgway strode back past the exhausted cowboys and Harley, the latter so +beaten with fatigue that he could scarce cling to the pommel of his +saddle. + +"I saw it coming. She's been done for a long time, but she hung on like a +thoroughbred," explained Yesler from the snow-bank where Aline had fallen. + +He had her in his arms and was trying to get at a flask of whisky in his +hip-pocket. + +"All right. I'll take care of her, Sam. You go ahead with your horse and +break trail. I don't like the way this wind is rising. It's wiping out the +path you made when you broke through. How far's the ranch now?" + + +"Close to five miles." + +Both men had lowered their voices almost to a whisper. + +"It's going to be a near thing, Sam. Your men are played out. Harley will +never make it without help. From now on every mile will be worse than the +last." + +Yesler nodded quietly. "Some one has got to go ahead for help. That's the +only way." + +"It will have to be you, of course. You know the road best and can get +back quickest. Better take her pony. It's the fittest." + +The owner of the C B hesitated an instant before he answered. He was the +last man in the world to desert a comrade that was down, but his common +sense told him his friend had spoken wisely. The only chance for the party +was to get help to it from the ranch. + +"All right. If anybody plays out beside her try to keep him going. If it +comes to a showdown leave him for me to pick up. Don't let him stop the +whole outfit." + +"Sure. Better leave me that bottle of whisky. So-long." + +"You're going to ride, I reckon?" + +"Yes. I'll have to." + +"Get up on my horse and I'll give her to you. That's right Well, I'll see +you later." + +And with that the stockman was gone. For long they could see him, plunging +slowly forward through the drifts, getting always smaller and smaller, +till distance and the growing darkness swallowed him. + +Presently the girl in Ridgway's arms opened her eyes. + +"I heard what you and he said," she told him quietly. + +"About what?" he smiled down into the white face that looked up into his. + +"You know. About our danger. I'm not afraid, not the least little bit." + + +"You needn't be. We're coming through, all right. Sam will make it to the +ranch. He's a man in a million." + +"I don't mean that. I'm not afraid, anyway, whether we do or not." + +"Why?" he asked, his heart beating wildly. + +"I don't know, but I'm not," she murmured with drowsy content. + +But he knew if she did not. Her fear had passed because he was there, +holding her in his arms, fighting to the last ounce of power in him for +her life. She felt he would never leave her, and that, if it came to the +worst, she would pass from life with him close to her. Again he knew that +wild exultant beat of blood no woman before this one had ever stirred in +him. + +Harley was the first to give up. He lurched forward and slipped from the +saddle to the snow, and could not be cursed into rising. The man behind +dismounted, put down his burden, and dragged the old man to his feet. + +"Here! This won't do. You've got to stick it out." + +"I can't. I've reached my limit." Then testily: "'Are not my days few? +Cease then, and let me alone,'" he added wearily, with his everready tag +of Scripture. + +The instant the other's hold on him relaxed the old man sank back. Ridgway +dragged him up and cuffed him like a troublesome child. He knew this was +no time for reasoning. + +"Are you going to lie down and quit, you old loafer? I tell you the ranch +is only a mile or two. Here, get into the saddle." + +By sheer strength the younger man hoisted him into the seat. He was very +tired himself, but the vital sap of youth in him still ran strong in his +blood. For a few yards farther they pushed on before Harley slid down +again and his horse stopped. + +Ridgway passed him by, guiding his bronco in a half-circle through the +snow. + +"I'll send back help for you," he promised. + +"It will be too late, but save her--save her," the old man begged. + +"I will," called back the other between set teeth. + +Chinn was the next to drop out, and after him the one he called Husky. +Both their horses had been abandoned a mile or two back, too exhausted to +continue. Each of them Ridgway urged to stick to the trail and come on as +fast as they could. + +He knew the horse he was riding could not much longer keep going with the +double weight, and when at length its strength gave out completely he went +on afoot, carrying her in his arms as on that eventful night when he had +saved her from the blizzard. + +It was so the rescue-party found him, still staggering forward with her +like a man in a sleep, flesh and blood and muscles all protestant against +the cruelty of his indomitable will that urged them on in spite of +themselves. In a dream he heard Yesler's cheery voice, gave up his burden +to one of the rescuers, and found himself being lifted to a fresh horse. +From this dream he awakened to find himself before the great fire of the +living-room of the ranch-house, wakened from it only long enough to know +that somebody was undressing him and helping him into bed. + +Nature, with her instinct for renewing life, saw to it that Ridgway slept +round the clock. He arose fit for anything. His body, hard as nails, +suffered no reaction from the terrific strain he had put upon it, and he +went down to his breakfast with an appetite ravenous for whatever good +things Yesler's Chinese cook might have prepared for him. + + +He found his host already at work on a juicy steak. + +"Mornin'," nodded that gentleman. "Hope you feel as good as you look." + + +"I'm all right, barring a little stiffness in my muscles. I'll feel good +as the wheat when I've got outside of the twin steak to that one you +have." + +Yesler touched a bell, whereupon a soft-footed Oriental appeared, turned +almond eyes on his proprietor, took orders and padded silently back to his +kingdom--the kitchen. Almost immediately he reappeared with a bowl of +oatmeal and a pitcher of cream. + +"Go to it, Waring." + +His host waved him the freedom of the diningroom, and Ridgway fell to. +Never before had food tasted so good. He had been too sleepy to cat last +night, but now he made amends. The steak, the muffins, the coffee, were +all beyond praise, and when he came to the buckwheat hot cakes, sandwiched +with butter and drenched with real maple syrup, his satisfied soul rose up +and called Hop Lee blessed. When he had finished, Sam capped the climax by +shoving toward him his case of Havanas. + +Ridgway's eyes glistened. "I haven't smoked for days," he explained, and +after the smoke had begun to rise, he added: "Ask what you will, even to +the half of my kingdom, it's yours." + +"Or half of the Consolidated's," amended his friend with twinkling eyes. + +"Even so, Sam," returned the other equably. "And now, tell me how you +managed to round us all up safely." + +"You've heard, then, that we got the whole party in time?" + +"Yes, I've been talking with one of your enthusiastic riders that went out +with you after us. He's been flimflammed into believing you the greatest +man in the United States. Tell me how you do it." + +"Nick's a good boy, but I reckon he didn't tell you quite all that." + +"Didn't he? You should have heard him reel off your praises by the yard. I +got the whole story of how you headed the relief-party after you had +reached the ranch more dead than alive." + +"Then, if you've got it, I don't need to tell you. I WAS a bit worried +about the old man. He was pretty far gone when we reached him, but he +pulled through all right. He's still sleeping like a top." + +"Is he?" His guest's hard gaze came round to meet his. "And the lady? Do +you know how she stood it?" + +"My sister says she was pretty badly played out, but all she needs is +rest. Nell put her in her own bed, and she, too, has been doing nothing +but sleep." + +Ridgway smoked out his cigar in silence then tossed it into the fireplace +as he rose briskly. + +"I want to talk to Mesa over the phone, Sam." + +"Can't do it. The wires are down. This storm played the deuce with them." + +"The devil! I'll have to get through myself then." + +"Forget business for a day or two, Waring, and take it easy up here," +counseled his host. + +"Can't do it. I have to make arrangements to welcome Simon Harley to Mesa. +The truth is, Sam, that there are several things that won't wait. I've got +to frame them up my way. Can you get me through to the railroad in time to +catch the Limited?" + +"I think so. The road has been traveled for two or three days. If you +really must go. I hate to have you streak off like this." + +"I'd like to stay, Sam, but I can't. For one thing, there's that +senatorial fight coming on. Now that Harley's on the ground in person, +I'll have to look after my fences pretty close. He's a good fighter, and +he'll be out to win." + +"After what you've done for him. Don't you think that will make a +difference, Waring?" + +His friend laughed without mirth. "What have I done for him? I left him in +the snow to die, and while a good many thousand other people would bless +me for it, probably he has a different point of view." + +"I was thinking of what you did for his wife." + +"You've said it exactly. I did it for her, not for him. I'll accept +nothing from Harley on that account. He is outside of the friendship +between her and me, and he can't jimmy his way in." + +Yesler shrugged his shoulders. " All right. I'll order a rig hitched for +you and drive you over myself. I want to talk over this senatorial fight +anyhow. The way things look now it's going to be the rottenest session of +the legislature we've ever had. Sometimes I'm sick of being mixed up in +the thing, but I got myself elected to help straighten out things, and I'm +certainly going to try." + +"That's right, Sam. With a few good fighters like you we can win out. +Anything to beat the Consolidated." + +"Anything to keep our politics decent," corrected the other. "I've got +nothing against the Consolidated, but I won't lie down and let it or any +other private concern hog-tie this State--not if I can help it, anyhow." + +Behind wary eyes Ridgway studied him. He was wondering how far this man +would go as his tool. Sam Yesler held a unique position in the State. His +influence was commanding among the sturdy old-time population represented +by the non-mining interests of the smaller towns and open plains. He must +be won at all hazards to lend it in the impending fight against Harley. +The mine-owner knew that no thought of personal gain would move him. He +must be made to feel that it was for the good of the State that the +Consolidated be routed. Ridgway resolved to make him see it that way. + + +CHAPTER 7. BACK FROM ARCADIA + +The president of the Mesa Ore-producing Company stepped from the parlor-car +of the Limited at the hour when all wise people are taking life easy after +a good dinner. He did not, however, drive to his club, but took a cab +straight for his rooms, where he had telegraphed Eaton to meet him with the +general superintendent of all his properties and his private secretary, +Smythe. For nearly a week his finger had been off the pulse of the +situation, and he wanted to get in touch again as soon as possible. For in +a struggle as tense as the one between him and the trust, a hundred vital +things might have happened in that time. He might be coming back to +catastrophe and ruin, brought about while he had been a prisoner to love in +that snow-bound cabin. + +Prisoner to love he had been and still was, but the business men who met +him at his rooms, fellow adventurers in the forlorn hope he had hitherto +led with such signal success, could have read nothing of this in the +marble, chiseled face of their sagacious general, so indomitable of attack +and insatiate of success. His steel-hard eyes gave no hint of the Arcadia +they had inhabited so eagerly a short twenty-four hours before. The +intoxicating madness he had known was chained deep within him. Once more he +had a grip on himself; was sheathed in a cannonproof plate armor of +selfishness. No more magic nights of starshine, breathing fire and dew; no +more lifted moments of exaltation stinging him to a pulsating wonder at +life's wild delight. He was again the inexorable driver of men, with no +pity for their weaknesses any more than for his own. + +The men whom he found waiting for him at his rooms were all young +Westerners picked out by him because he thought them courageous, +unscrupulous and loyal. Like him, they were privateers in the seas of +commerce, and sailed under no flag except the one of insurrection he had +floated. But all of them, though they were associated with him and hoped to +ride to fortune on the wave that carried him there, recognized themselves +as subordinates in the enterprises he undertook. They were merely heads of +departments, and they took orders like trusted clerks with whom the owner +sometimes unbends and advises. + +Now he heard their reports, asked an occasional searching question, and +swiftly gave decisions of far-reaching import. It was past midnight before +he had finished with them, and instead of retiring for the sleep he might +have been expected to need, he spent the rest of the night inspecting the +actual workings of the properties he had not seen for six days. Hour after +hour he passed examining the developments, sometimes in the breasts of the +workings and again consulting with engineers and foremen in charge. Light +was breaking in the sky before he stepped from the cage of the Jack Pot and +boarded a street-car for his rooms. Cornishmen and Hungarians and +Americans, going with their dinner-buckets to work, met him and received +each a nod or a word of greeting from this splendidly built young Hermes in +miners' slops, who was to many of them, in their fancy, a deliverer from +the slavery which the Consolidated was ready to force upon them. + +Once at his rooms, Ridgway took a cold bath, dressed carefully, +breakfasted, and was ready to plunge into the mass of work which had +accumulated during his absence at the mining camp of Alpine and the +subsequent period while he was snowbound. These his keen, practical mind +grasped and disposed of in crisp sentences. To his private secretary he +rapped out order sharply and decisively. + +"Phone Ballard and Dalton I want to see them at once. Tell Murphy I won't +talk with him. What I said before I left was final. Write Cadwallader we +can't do business on the terms he proposes, but add that I'm willing to +continue his Mary Kinney lease. Dictate a letter to Riley's lawyer, telling +him I can't afford to put a premium on incompetence and negligence; that if +his client was injured in the Jack Pot explosion, he has nobody but himself +to blame for it. Otherwise, of course, I should be glad to pension him. Let +me see the letter before you send it. I don't want anything said that will +offend the union. Have two tons of good coal sent up to Riley's house, and +notify his grocer that all bills for the next three months may be charged +to me. And, Smythe, ask Mr. Eaton to step this way." + +Stephen Eaton, an alert, clear-eyed young fellow who served as fidus +Achates to Ridgway, and was the secretary and treasurer of the Mesa +Ore-producing Company, took the seat Smythe had vacated. He was +good-looking, after a boyish, undistinguished fashion, but one disposed to +be critical might have voted the chin not quite definite enough. He had +been a clerk of the Consolidated, working for one hundred dollars a month, +when Ridgway picked him out and set his feet in the way of fortune. He had +done this out of personal liking, and, in return, the subordinate was +frankly devoted to his chief. + +"Steve, my opinion is that Alpine is a false alarm. Unless I guess wrong, +it is merely a surface proposition and low-grade at that." + +"Miller says--" + +"Yes, I know what Miller says. He's wrong. I don't care if he is the +biggest copper expert in the country." + +"Then you won't invest?" + +"I have invested--bought the whole outfit, lock, stock and barrel." + +"But why? What do you want with it if the property is no good?" asked Eaton +in surprise. + +Ridgway laughed shortly. "I don't want it, but the Consolidated does. Two +of their experts were up at Alpine last week, and both of them reported +favorably. I've let it leak out to their lawyer, O'Malley, that Miller +thought well of it; in fact, I arranged to let one of their spies steal a +copy of his report to us." + +"But when they know you have bought it " + +"They won't know till too late. I bought through a dummy. It seemed a pity +not to let then have the property since they wanted it so badly, so this +morning he sold out for me to the Consolidated at a profit of a hundred and +fifty thousand." + +Eaton grinned appreciatively. It was in startling finesse of this sort his +chief excelled, and Stephen was always ready with applause. + +"I notice that Hobart slipped out of town last night. That is where he must +have been going. He'll be sick when he learns how you did him." + +Ridgway permitted himself an answering smile. "I suppose it will irritate +him a trifle, but that can't be helped. I needed that money to get clear on +that last payment for the Sherman Bell." + +"Yes, I was worried about that. Notes have been piling up against us that +must be met. There's the Ransom note, too. It's for a hundred thousand." + +"He'll extend it," said the chief confidently. + +"He told me he would have to have his money when it came due. I've noticed +he has been pretty close to Mott lately. I expect he has an arrangement +with the Consolidated to push us." + +"I'm watching him, Steve. Don't worry about that. He did arrange to sell +the note to Mott, but I stopped that little game." + +"How?" + +"For a year I've had all the evidence of that big government timber steal +of his in a safety-deposit vault. Before he sold, I had a few words with +him. He changed his mind and decided he preferred to hold the notes. More, +he is willing to let us have another hundred thousand if we have to have +it." + +Eaton's delight bubbled out of him in boyish laughter. "You're a wonder, +Waring. There's nobody like you. Can't any of them touch you--not Harley +himself, by Jove." + +"We'll have a chance to find that out soon, Steve." + +"Yes, they say he's coming out in person to run the fight against you. I +hope not." + +"It isn't a matter of hoping any longer. He's here," calmly announced his +leader. + +"Here! On the ground?" + +"Yes." + +"But--he can't be here without us knowing it." + +"I'm telling you that I do know it." + +"Have you seen him yourself?" demanded the treasurer incredulously. + +"Seen him, talked with him, cursed him and cuffed him," announced Ridgway +with a reminiscent gleam in his eye. + +"Er--what's that you say?" gasped the astounded Eaton. + +"Merely that I have already met Simon Harley." + +"But you said--" + +"--that I had cursed and cuffed him. That's all right. I have." + +The president of the Mesa Ore-producing Company leaned back with his thumbs +in the armholes of his fancy waistcoat and smiled debonairly at his +associate's perplexed amazement. + +"Did you say--CUFFED him?" + +"That's what I meant to say. I roughed him around quite a bit--manhandled +him in general. But all FOR HIS GOOD, you know." + +"For his good?" Eaton's dazed brain tried to conceive the situation of a +billionaire being mauled for his good, and gave it up in despair. If Steve +Eaton worshipped anything, it was wealth. He was a born sycophant, and it +was partly because his naive unstinted admiration had contributed to +satisfy his chief's vanity that the latter had made of him +a confidant. Now he sat dumb before the lese-majeste of laying forcible +hands upon the richest man in the world. + +"But, of course, you're only joking," he finally decided. + +"You haven't been back twelve hours. Where COULD you have seen him?," + +"Nevertheless I have met him and been properly introduced by his wife." + +"His wife?" + +"Yes, I picked her out of a snow-drift." + +"Is this a riddle?" + +"If it is, I don't know the answer, Steve. But it is a true one, anyhow, +not made to order merely to astonish you." + +"True that you picked Simon Harley's wife out of a snow-drift and kicked +him around?" + +"I didn't say kicked, did I?" inquired the other, judicially. "But I rather +think I did knee him some." + +"Of course, I read all about his marriage two weeks ago to Miss Aline Hope. +Did he bring her out here with him for the honeymoon?" + +"If he did, I euchred him out of it. She spent it with me alone in a +miner's cabin," the other cried, malevolence riding triumph on his face. + +"Whenever you're ready to explain," suggested Eaton helplessly. "You've +piled up too many miracles for me even to begin guessing them." + +"You know I was snow-bound, but you did not know my only companion was this +Aline Hope you speak of. I found her in the blizzard, and took her to an +empty cabin near. She and her husband were motoring from Avalanche to Mesa, +and the machine had broken down. Harley had gone for help and left her +there alone when the blizzard came up. Three days later Sam Yesler and the +old man broke trail through from the C B Ranch and rescued us." + +It was so strange a story that it came home to Eaton piecemeal. + +"Three days--alone with Harley's wife--and he rescued you himself." + +"He didn't rescue me any. I could have broken through any time I wanted to +leave her. On the way back his strength gave out, and that was when I +roughed him. I tried to bullyrag him into keeping on, but it was no go. I +left him there, and Sam went back after him with a relief-party." + +"You left him! With his wife?" + +"No!" cried Ridgway. "Do I look like a man to desert a woman on a +snow-trail? I took her with me." + +"Oh!" There was a significant silence before Eaton asked the question in +his mind. "I've seen her pictures in the papers. Does she look like them?" + +His chief knew what was behind the question, and he knew, too, that Eaton +might be taken to represent public opinion. The world would cast an eye of +review over his varied and discreditable record with women. It would +imagine the story of those three days of enforced confinement together, and +it would look to the woman in the case for an answer to its suspicions. +That she was young, lovely, and yet had sold herself to an old man for his +millions, would go far in itself to condemn her; and he was aware that +there were many who would accept her very childish innocence as the +sophistication of an artist. + +Waring Ridgway put his arms akimbo on the table and leaned across with his +steady eyes fastened on his friend. + +"Steve, I'm going to answer that question. I haven't seen any pictures of +her in the papers, but if they show a face as pure and true as the face of +God himself then they are like her. You know me. I've got no apologies or +explanations to make for the life I've led. That's my business. But you're +my friend, and I tell you I would rather be hacked in pieces by Apaches +than soil that child's white soul by a single unclean breath. There mustn't +be any talk. Do you understand? Keep the story out of the newspapers. Don't +let any of our people gossip about it. I have told you because I want you +to know the truth. If any one should speak lightly about this thing stop +him at once. This is the one point on which Simon Harley and I will pull +together. + +Any man who joins that child's name with mine loosely will have to leave +this camp--and suddenly." + +"It won't be the men--it will be the women that will talk." + +"Then garble the story. Change that three days to three hours, Steve. +Anything to stop their foul-clacking tongues!" + +"Oh, well! I dare say the story won't get out at all, but if it does I'll +see the gossips get the right version. I suppose Sam Yesler will back it +up." + +"Of course. He's a white man. And I don't need to tell you that I'll be a +whole lot obliged to you, Stevie." + +"That's all right. Sometimes I'm a white man, too, Waring," laughed Steve. +Ridgway circled the table and put a hand on +the younger man's shoulder affectionately. Steve Eaton was the one of all +his associates for whom he had the closest personal feeling. + +"I don't need to be told that, old pal," he said quietly. + + + +CHAPTER 8. THE HONORABLE THOMAS B. PELTON + +It was next morning that Steve came into Ridgway's offices with a copy of +the Rocky Mountain Herald in his hands. As soon as the president of the +Mesa Ore-producing Company was through talking with Dalton, the +superintendent of the Taurus, about the best means of getting to the cage a +quantity of ore he was looting from the Consolidated property adjoining, +the treasurer plumped out with his news. + +"Seen to-day's paper, Waring? It smokes out Pelton to a finish. They've +moled out some facts we can't get away from." + +Ridgway glanced rapidly over the paper. "We'll have to drop Pelton and find +another candidate for the Senate. Sorry, but it can't be helped. They've +got his record down too fine. That affidavit from Quinton puts an end to +his chances." + +"He'll kick like a bay steer." + +"His own fault for not covering his tracks better. This exposure doesn't +help us any at best. If we still tried to carry Pelton, we should last +about as long as a snowball in hell." + +"Shall I send for him?" + +"No. He'll be here as quick as he can cover the ground. Have him shown in +as soon as he comes. And Steve--did Harley arrive on the eight-thirty this +morning?" + +"Yes. He is putting up at the Mesa House. He reserved an entire floor by +wire, so that he has bed-rooms, dining-rooms, parlors, reception-halls and +private offices all together. The place is policed thoroughly, and nobody +can get up without an order." + +"I haven't been thinking of going up and shooting him, even though it would +be a blessing to the country," laughed his chief. + +"No, but it is possible somebody else might. This town is full of ignorant +foreigners who would hardly think twice of it. If he had asked my advice, +it would have been to stay away from Mesa." + +"He wouldn't have taken it," returned Ridgway carelessly. "Whatever else is +true about him, Simon Harley isn't a coward. He would have told you that +not a sparrow falls to the ground without the permission of the distorted +God he worships, and he would have come on the next train." + +"Well, it isn't my funeral," contributed Steve airily. + +"All the same I'm going to pass his police patrols and pay a visit to the +third floor of the Mesa House." + +"You are going to compromise with him?" cried Eaton swiftly. + +"Compromise nothing, I'm going to pay a formal social call on Mrs. Harley, +and respectfully hope that she has suffered no ill effects from her +exposure to the cold." + +Eaton made no comment, unless to whistle gently were one. + +"You think it isn't wise " + +"Well, is it?" asked Steve. + +"I think so. We'll scotch the lying tongue of rumor by a strict observance +of the conventions. Madam Grundy is padlocked when we reduce the situation +to the absurdity of the common place." + +"Perhaps you are right, if it doesn't become too common commonplace." + +"I think we may trust Simon Harley to see to that," answered his chief with +a grim smile "Obviously our social relations aren't likely to be very +intimate. Now it's 'Just before the battle mother,' but once the big guns +begin to boor we'll neither of us be in the mood for functions social." + +"You've established a sort of claim on him. It wouldn't surprise me if he +would meet you halfway in settling the trouble between you," said Eaton +thoughtfully. + +"I expect he would," agreed Ridgway indifferently as he lit a cigar. + +"Well, then?" + +"The trouble is that I won't meet him halfway. I can't afford to be +reasonable, Steve. Just suppose for an instant that I had been reasonable +five years ago when this fight began. They would have bought me out for a +miserable pittance of a hundred and fifty thousand or so. That would have +been a reasonable figure then. You might put it now at five or six +millions, and that would be about right. I don't want their money. I want +power, and I'd rather fight for it than not. Besides, I mean to make what I +have already wrung from them a lever for getting more. I'm going to show +Harley that he has met a man at last he can't either freeze out or bully +out. I'm going to let him and his bunch know I'm on earth and here to stay; +that I can beat them at their own game to a finish." + +"Did it ever occur to you, Waring, that it might pay to make this a limited +round contest? You've won on points up to date by a mile, but in a finish +fight endurance counts. Money is the same as endurance here, and that's +where they are long." + +Eaton made this suggestion diffidently, for though he was a stockholder and +official of the Mesa Ore-producing Company, he was not used to offering its +head unasked advice. The latter, however, took it without a trace of +resentment. + +"Glad of it, my boy. There's no credit in beating a cripple." + +To this jaunty retort Eaton had found no answer when Smythe opened the door +to announce the arrival of the Honorable Thomas B. Pelton, very anxious for +an immediate interview with Mr. Ridgway. + +"Show him in," nodded the president, adding in an aside: "You better stay, +Steve." + +Pelton was a rotund oracular individual in silk hat and a Prince Albert +coat of broadcloth. He regarded himself solemnly as a statesman because he +had served two inconspicuous terms in the House at Washington. He was fond +of proclaiming himself a Southern gentleman, part of which statement was +unnecessary and part untrue. Like many from his section, he had a decided +penchant for politics. + +"Have you seen the infamous libel in that scurrilous sheet of the gutters +the Herald?" he demanded immediately of Ridgway. + +"Which libel? They don't usually stop at one, colonel." + +"The one, seh, which slanders my honorable name; which has the scoundrelly +audacity to charge me with introducing the mining extension bill for venal +reasons, seh." + +"Oh! Yes, I've seen that. Rather an unfortunate story to come out just now." + +"I shall force a retraction, seh, or I shall demand the satisfaction due a +Southern gentleman. + +"Yes, I would, colonel," replied Ridgway, secretly amused at the vain +threats of this bag of wind which had been punctured. + +"It's a vile calumny, an audacious and villainous lie." + +"What part of it? I've just glanced over it, but the part I read seems to +be true. That's the trouble with it. If it were a lie you could explode +it." + +"I shall deny it over my signature." + +"Of course. The trouble will be to get people to believe your denial with +Quinton's affidavit staring them in the face. It seems they have got hold +of a letter, too, that you wrote. Deny it, of course, then lie low and give +the public time to forget it." + +"Do you mean that I should withdraw from the senatorial race?" + +"That's entirely as you please, colonel, but I'm afraid you'll find your +support will slip away from you." + +"Do you mean that YOU won't support me, seh?" + +Ridgway locked his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair. +"We've got to face facts, colonel. In the light of this exposure you can't +be elected." + +"But I tell you, by Gad, seh, that I mean to deny it." + +"Certainly. I should in your place," agreed the mine-owner coolly. "The +question is, how many people are going to believe you?" + +Tiny sweat-beads stood on the forehead of the Arkansan. His manner was +becoming more and more threatening. "You pledged me your support. Are you +going to throw me down, seh?" + +"You have thrown yourself down, Pelton. Is it my fault you bungled the +thing and left evidence against you? Am I to blame because you wrote +incriminating letters?" + +"Whatever I did was done for you," retorted the cornered man desperately. + +"I beg your pardon. It was done for what was in it for you. The arrangement +between us was purely a business one." + +The coolness of his even voice maddened the harassed Pelton. + +"So I'm to get burnt drawing your chestnuts out of the fire, am I? You're +going to stand back and let my career be sacrificed, are you? By Gad, seh, +I'll show you whether I'll be your catspaw," screamed the congressman. + +"Use your common sense, Pelton, and don't shriek like a fish-wife," ordered +Ridgway sharply. "No sane man floats a leaky ship. Go to drydock and patch +up your reputation, and in a few years you'll come out as good as new." + +All his unprincipled life Pelton had compromised with honor to gain the +coveted goal he now saw slipping from him. A kind of madness of despair +surged up in him. He took a step threateningly toward the seated man, his +hand slipping back under his coat-tails toward his hip pocket. Acridly his +high voice rang out. + +"As a Southern gentleman, seh, I refuse to tolerate the imputations you +cast upon me. I demand an apology here and now, seh." + +Ridgway was on his feet and across the room like a flash. + +"Don't try to bully ME, you false alarm. Call yourself a Southern +gentleman! You're a shallow scurvy impostor. No more like the real article +than a buzzard is like an eagle. Take your hand from under that coat or +I'll break every bone in your flabby body." + +Flabby was the word, morally no less than physically. Pelton quailed under +that gaze which bored into him like a gimlet. The ebbing color in his face +showed he could summon no reserve of courage sufficient to meet it. Slowly +his empty hand came forth. + +"Don't get excited, Mr. Ridgway. You have mistaken my purpose, seh. I had +no intention of drawing," he stammered with a pitiable attempt at dignity. + +"Liar," retorted his merciless foe, crowding him toward the door. + +"I don't care to have anything more to do with you. Our relations are at an +end, seh," quavered Pelton as he vanished into the outer once and beat a +hasty retreat to the elevator. + +Ridgway returned to his chair, laughing ruefully. "I couldn't help it, +Steve. He would have it. I suppose I've made one more enemy." + +"A nasty one, too. He'll stick at nothing to get even." + +"We'll draw his fangs while there is still time. Get a good story in the +Sun to the effect that I quarreled with him as soon as I discovered his +connection with this mining extension bill graft. Have it in this +afternoon's edition, Steve. Better get Brayton to write it." + +Steve nodded. "That's a good idea. We may make capital out of it after all. +I'll have an editorial in, too. 'We love him for the enemies he has made.' +How would that do for a heading?" + +"Good. And now we'll have to look around for a candidate to put against +Mott. I'm hanged if I know where we'll find one." + +Eaton had an inspiration. + +"I do?" + +"One that will run well, popular enough to catch the public fancy?" + +"Yes." + +"Who, then?" + +"Waring Ridgway." + +The owner of the name stared at his lieutenant in astonishment, but slowly +the fascination o the idea sank in. + +"By Jove! Why not?" + + + +CHAPTER 9. AN EVENING CALL + +"Says you're to come right up, Mr. Ridgway," the bell-hop reported, and +after he had pocketed his tip, went sliding off across the polished floor +to answer another call. + +The president of the Mesa Ore-producing Company turned with a good-humored +smile to the chief clerk. + +"You overwork your boys, Johnson. I wasn't through with that one. I'll have +to ask you to send another up to show me the Harley suite." + +They passed muster under the eye of the chief detective, and, after the +bell-boy had rung, were admitted to the private parlor where Simon Harley +lay stretched on a lounge with his wife beside him. She had been reading, +evidently aloud and when her visitor was announced rose with her finger +still keeping the place in the closed book. + +The gaze she turned on him was of surprise, almost of alarm, so that the +man on the threshold knew he was not expected. + +"You received my card?" he asked quickly. + +"No. Did you send one?" Then, with a little gesture of half-laughing +irritation: "It must have gone to Mr. Harvey again. He is Mr. Harley's +private secretary, and ever since we arrived it has been a comedy of +errors. The hotel force refuses to differentiate." + +"I must ask you to accept my regrets for an unintentional intrusion, Mrs. +Harley. When I was told to come up, I could not guess that my card had gone +amiss." + +The great financier had got to his feet and now came forward with extended +hand. + +"Nevertheless we are glad to see you, Mr. Ridgway, and to get the +opportunity to express our thanks for all that you have done for us." + +The cool fingers of the younger man touched his lightly before they met +those of his wife. + +"Yes, we are very glad, indeed, to see you, Mr. Ridgway," she added to her +husband's welcome. + +"I could not feel quite easy in my mind without hearing from your own lips +that you are none the worse for the adventures you have suffered," their +visitor explained after they had found seats. + +"Thanks to you, my wife is quite herself again, Mr. Ridgway," Harley +announced from the davenport. "Thanks also to God, who so mercifully +shelters us beneath the shadow of His wing." + +But her caller preferred to force from Aline's own lips this affidavit of +health. Even his audacity could not ignore his host entirely, but it gave +him the least consideration possible. To the question which still rested in +his eyes the girl-wife answered shyly. + +"Indeed, I am perfectly well. I have done nothing but sleep to-day and +yesterday. Miss Yesler was very good to me. I do not know how I can repay +the great kindness of so many friends," she said with a swift descent of +fluttering lashes to the soft cheeks upon which a faint color began to +glow. + +"Perhaps they find payment for the service in doing it for you," he suggested. + +"Yet, I shall take care not to forget it," Harley said pointedly. + +"Indeed!" Ridgway put it with polite insolence, the hostility in his face +scarcely veiled. + +"It has pleased Providence to multiply my portion so abundantly that I can +reward those well who serve me." + +"At how much do you estimate Mrs. Harley's life?" his rival asked with +quiet impudence. + +In the course of the past two days Aline had made the discovery that her +husband and her rescuer were at swords drawn in a business way. This had +greatly distressed her, and in her innocence she had resolved to bring them +together. How could her inexperience know that she might as well have tried +to induce the lion and the lamb to lie down together peaceably? Now she +tried timidly to drift the conversation from the awkwardness into which +Harley's suggestion of a reward and his opponent's curt retort had +blundered it. + +"I hope you did not find upon your return that your business was +disarranged so much as you feared it might be by your absence." + +"I found my affairs in very good condition," Ridgway smiled. "But I am glad +to be back in time to welcome to Mesa you--and Mr. Harley." + +"It seems so strange a place," the girl ventured, with a hesitation that +showed her anxiety not to offend his local pride. "You see I never before +was in a place where there was no grass and nothing green in sight. And +to-night, when I looked out of the window and saw streams of red-hot fire +running down hills, I thought of Paradise Lost and Dante. I suppose it +doesn't seem at all uncanny to you?" + +"At night sometimes I still get that feeling, but I have to cultivate it a +bit," he confessed. "My sober second thought insists that those molten +rivers are merely business, refuse disgorged as lava from the great +smelters." + +"I looked for the sun to-day through the pall of sulphur smoke that hangs +so heavy over the town, but instead I saw a London gas-lamp hanging in the +heavens. Is it always so bad?" + +"Not when the drift of the wind is right. In fact, a day like this is quite +unusual." + +"I'm glad of that. I feel more cheerful in the sunshine. I know that's a +bit of the child still left in me. Mr. Harley takes all days alike." + +The Wall Street operator was in slippers and house-jacket. His wife, too, +was dressed comfortably in some soft clinging stuff. Their visitor saw that +they had disposed themselves for a quiet uninterrupted evening by the +fireside. The domesticity of it all stirred the envy in him. He did not +want her to be contented and at peace with his enemy. Something deeper than +his vanity cried out in protest against it. + +She was still making talk against the gloom of the sulphur fog which seemed +to have crept into the spirit of the room. + +"We were reading before you came in, Mr. Ridgway. I suppose you read a good +deal. Mr. Harley likes to have me read aloud to him when he is tired." + +An impulse came upon Ridgway to hear her, some such impulse as makes a man +bite on sore tooth even though he knows he must pay later for it. + +"Will you not go on with your reading? I should like to hear it. I really +should." + +She was a little taken aback, but she looked inquiringly at her husband, +who bowed silently. + +"I was just beginning the fifty-ninth psalm. We have been reading the book +through. Mr. Harley finds great comfort in it," she explained. + +Her eyes fell to the printed page and her clear, sweet voice took up the +ancient tale of vengeance + +"Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up +against me. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from +bloody men. + +"For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; +not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord. They run and prepare +themselves without my fault: awake to help me, and behold. + +"Thou, therefore, O Lord God of Hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit +all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah." + +Ridgway glanced across in surprise at the strong old man lying on the +lounge. His hands were locked in front of him, and his gaze rested +peacefully on the fair face of the child reading. His foe's mind swept up +the insatiable cruel years that lay behind this man, and he marveled that +with such a past he could still hold fast to that simple faith of David. He +wondered whether this ruthless spoiler went back to the Old Testament for +the justification of his life, or whether his credo had given the impulse +to his career. One thing he no longer doubted: Simon Harley believed his +Bible implicitly and literally, and not only the New Testament. + +"For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips even be taken in +their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak. + +"Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let them +know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth." + +The fresh young girlish voice died away into silence. Harley, apparently +deep in meditation, gazed at the ceiling. His guest felt a surge of +derision at this man who thought he had a compact with God to rule the +world for his benefit. + +"I am sure Mr. Harley must enjoy the Psalms a great deal," he said +ironically, but it was in simple faith the young wife answered eagerly: + +"He does. He finds so much in them that is applicable to life." + +"I can see how he might," agreed the young man. + +"Few people take their religion so closely into their every-day lives as he +does," she replied in a low voice, seeing that her husband was lost in +thought. + +"I am sure you are right." + +"He is very greatly misunderstood, Mr. Ridgway. I am sure if people knew +how good he is-- But how can they know when the newspapers are so full of +falsehoods about him? And the magazines are as bad, he says. It seems to be +the fashion to rake up bitter things to say about prominent business men. +You must have noticed it." + +"Yes. I believe I have noticed that," he answered with a grim little laugh. + +"Don't you think it could be explained to these writers? They can't WANT to +distort the truth. It must be they don't know." + +"You must not take the muckrakers too seriously. They make a living +roasting us. A good deal of what they say is true in a way. Personally, I +don't object to it much. It's a part of the penalty of being successful. +That's how I look at it." + +"Do they say bad things about you, too?" she asked in open-eyed surprise. + +"Occasionally," he smiled. "When they think I'm important enough." + +"I don't see how they can," he heard her murmur to herself. + +"Oh, most of what they say is true." + +"Then I know it can't be very bad," she made haste to answer. + +"You had better read it and see." + +"I don't understand business at all," she said + +"But--sometimes it almost frightens me. Business isn't really like war, is +it?" + +"A good deal like it. But that need not frighten you. All life is a +battle--sometimes, at least. Success implies fighting." + +"And does that in turn imply tragedy--for the loser?" + +"Not if one is a good loser. We lose and make another start." + +"But if success is a battle, it must be gained at the expense of another." + +"Sometimes. But you must look at it in a big way." The secretary of the +trust magnate had come in and was in low-toned conversation with him. The +visitor led her to the nearest window and drew back the curtains so that +they looked down on the lusty life of the turbid young city, at the lights +in the distant smelters and mills, at the great hill opposite, with its +slagdumps, gallows-frames and shaft-houses black against the dim light, +which had yielded its millions and millions of tons of ore for the use of +mankind. "All this had to be fought for. It didn't grow of itself. And +because men fought for it, the place is what it is. Sixty thousand people +live here, fed by the results of the battle. The highest wages in the world +are paid the miners here. They live in rough comfort and plenty, whereas in +the countries they came from they were underpaid and underfed. Is that not +good?" + +"Yes," she admitted. + +"Life for you and for me must be different, thank God. You are in the world +to make for the happiness of those you meet. That is good. But unless I am +to run away from my work, what I do must make some unhappy. I can't help +that if I am to do big things. When you hear people talking of the harm I +do, you will remember what I have told you to-night, and you will think +that a man and his work cannot be judged by isolated fragments." + +"Yes," she breathed softly, for she knew that this man was saying good-by +to her and was making his apologia. + +"And you will remember that no matter how bitter the fight may grow between +me and Mr. Harley, it has nothing to do with you. We shall still be +friends, though we may never meet again." + +"I shall remember that, too," he heard her murmur. + +"You have been hoping that Mr. Harley and I would be friends. That is +impossible. He came out here to crush me. For years his subordinates have +tried to do this and failed. I am the only man alive that has ever resisted +him successfully. I don't underestimate his power, which is greater than +any czar or emperor that ever lived, but I don't think he will succeed. I +shall win because I understand the forces against me. He will lose because +he scorns those against him." + +"I am sorry. Oh, I am so sorry," she wailed, gently as a breath of summer +wind. For she saw now that the cleavage between them was too wide for a +girl's efforts to bridge. + +"That I am going to win?" he smiled gravely. + +"That you must be enemies; that he came here to ruin you, since you say he +did." + +"You need not be too hard on him for that. By his code I am a freebooter +and a highwayman. Business offers legitimate ways of robbery, and I +transgress them. His ways are not my ways, and mine are not his, but it is +only fair to say that his are the accepted ones." + +"I don't understand it at all. You are both good men. I know you are. +Surely you need not be enemies." + +But she knew she could hope for no reassurance from the man beside her. + +Presently she led him back across the big room to the fireplace near where +her husband lay. His secretary had gone, and he was lying resting on the +lounge. He opened his eyes and smiled at her. "Has Mr. Ridgway been +pointing out to you the places of interest?" he asked quietly. + +"Yes, dear." The last word came hesitantly after the slightest of pauses. +"He says he must be going now." + +The head of the greatest trust on earth got to his feet and smiled +benignantly as he shook hands with the departing guest. "I shall hope to +see you very soon and have a talk regarding business, Mr. Ridgway," he +said. + +"Whenever you like, Mr. Harley." To the girl he said merely, "Good night," +and was gone. + +The old man put an arm affectionately across his young wife's shoulder. + +"Shall we read another psalm, my dear? Or are you tired?" + +She repressed the little shiver that ran through her before she answered +wearily. "I am a little tired. If you don't mind I would like to retire, +please." + +He saw her as far as the door of her apartments and left her with her maid +after he had kissed the cold cheek she dutifully turned toward him. + + + +CHAPTER 10. HARLEY MAKES A PROPOSITION + +Apparently the head of the great trust intended to lose no time in having +that business talk with Ridgway, which he had graciously promised the +latter. Eaton and his chief were busy over some applications for leases +when Smythe came into the room with a letter + +"Messenger-boy brought it; said it was important," he explained. + +Ridgway ripped open the envelope, read through the letter swiftly, and +tossed it to Eaton. His eyes had grown hard and narrow + +"Write to Mr. Hobart that I am sorry I haven't time to call on Mr. Harley +at the Consolidated offices, as he suggests. Add that I expect to be in my +offices all morning, and shall be glad to make an appointment to talk with +Mr. Harley here, if he thinks he has any business with me that needs a +personal interview." + +Smythe's leathery face had as much expression as a blank wall, but Eaton +gasped. The unparalleled audacity of flinging the billionaire's overture +back in his face left him for the moment speechless. He knew that Ridgway +had tempted Providence a hundred times without coming to disaster, but +surely this was going too far. Any reasonable compromise with the great +trust builder would be cause for felicitation. He had confidence in his +chief to any point in reason, but he could not blind himself to the fact +that the wonderful successes he had gained were provisional rather than +final. He likened them to Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah raid, very +successful in irritating, disorganizing and startling the enemy, but with +no serious bearing on the final inevitable result. In the end Harley would +crush his foes if he set in motion the whole machinery of his limitless +resources. That was Eaton's private opinion, and he was very much of the +feeling that this was an opportune time to get in out of the rain. + +"Don't you think we had better consider that answer before we send it, +Waring?" he suggested in a low voice. + +His chief nodded a dismissal to the secretary before answering. + +"I have considered it." + +"But--surely it isn't wise to reject his advances before we know what they +are." + +"I haven't rejected them. I've simply explained that we are doing business +on equal terms. Even if I meant to compromise, it would pay me to let him +know he doesn't own me." + +"He may decide not to offer his proposition." + +"It wouldn't worry me if he did." + +Eaton knew he must speak now if his protest were to be of any avail. "It +would worry me a good deal. He has shown an inclination to be friendly. +This answer is like a slap in the face." + +"Is it?" + +"Doesn't it look like that to you?" + +Ridgway leaned back in his chair and looked thoughtfully at his friend. +"Want to sell out, Steve?" + +"Why--what do you mean?" asked the surprised treasurer. + +"If you do, I'll pay anything in reason for your stock." He got up and +began to pace the floor with long deliberate strides. "I'm a born gambler, +Steve. It clears my head to take big chances. Give me a good fight on my +hands with the chances against me, and I'm happy. You've got to take the +world by the throat and shake success out of it if you're going to score +heavily. That's how Harley made good years ago. Read the story of his life. +See the chances he took. He throttled combinations a dozen times as strong +as his. Some people say he was an accident. Don't you believe it. Accidents +like him don't happen. He won because he was the +biggest, brainiest, most daring and unscrupulous operator in the field. +That's why I'm going to win--if I do win." + +"Yes, if you win." + +"Well, that's the chance I take," flung back the other as he swung +buoyantly across the room. "But YOU don't need to take it. If you want, you +can get out now at the top market price. I feel it in my bones I'm going to +win; but if you don't feel it, you'd be a fool to take chances." + +Eaton's mercurial temperament responded with a glow. + +"No, sir. I'll sit tight. I'm no quitter." + +"Good for you, Steve. I knew it. I'll tell you now that I would have hated +like hell to see you leave me. You're the only man I can rely on down to +the ground, twenty-four hours of every day." + +The answer was sent, and Eaton's astonishment at his chief's temerity +changed to amazement when the great Harley, pocketing his pride, asked for +an appointment, and appeared at the offices of the Mesa Ore-producing +Company at the time set. That Ridgway, who was busy with one of his +superintendents, should actually keep the most powerful man in the country +waiting in an outer office while he finished his business with Dalton +seemed to him insolence florescent. + +"Whom the gods would destroy," he murmured to himself as the only possible +explanation, for the reaction of his enthusiasm was on him. + +Nor did his chief's conference with Dalton show any leaning toward +compromise. Ridgway had sent for his engineer to outline a program in +regard to some ore-veins in the Sherman Bell, that had for months been in +litigation between the two big interests at Mesa. Neither party to the suit +had waited for the legal decision, but each of them had put a large force +at work stoping out the ore. Occasional conflicts had occurred when the men +of the opposing factions came in touch, as they frequently did, since crews +were at work below and above each other at every level. But none of these +as yet had been serious. + +"Dalton, I was down last night to see that lease of Heyburn's on the +twelfth level of the Taurus. The Consolidated will tap our workings about +noon to-day, just below us. I want you to turn on them the air-drill pipe +as soon as they break through. Have a lot of loose rock there mixed with a +barrel of lime. Let loose the air pressure full on the pile, and give it to +their men straight. Follow them up to the end of their own tunnel when they +retreat, and hold it against them. Get control of the levels above and +below, too. Throw as many men as you can into their workings, and gut them +till there is no ore left." + +Dalton had the fighting edge. "You'll stand by me, no matter what happens?" + +"Nothing will happen. They're not expecting trouble. But if anything does, +I'll see you through. Eaton is your witness that I ordered it." + +"Then it's as good as done, Mr. Ridgway," said Dalton, turning away. + +"There may be bloodshed," suggested Eaton dubiously, in a low voice. + +Ridgway's laugh had a touch of affectionate contempt. "Don't cross bridges +till you get to them, Steve. Haven't you discovered, man, that the bold +course is always the safe one? It's the quitter that loses out every time. +The strong man gets there; the weak one falls down. It's as invariable as +the law of gravity." He got up and stretched his broad shoulders in a deep +breath. "Now for Mr. Harley. Send him in, Eaton. + +That morning Simon Harley had done two things for many years foreign to his +experience: He had gone to meet another man instead of making the man come +to him, and he had waited the other man's pleasure in an outer office. That +he had done so implied a strong motive. + +Ridgway waved Harley to a chair without rising to meet him. The eyes of the +two men fastened, wary and unwavering. They might have been jungle beasts +of prey crouching for the attack, so tense was their attention. The man +from Broadway was the first to speak. + +"I have called, Mr. Ridgway, to arrange, if possible, a compromise. I need +hardly say this is not my usual method, but the circumstances are extremely +unusual. I rest under so great a personal obligation to you that I am +willing to overlook a certain amount of youthful presumption." His teeth +glittered behind a lip smile, intended to give the right accent to the +paternal reproof. "My personal obligation--" + +"What obligation? I left you to die in the snow.', + +"You forget what you did for Mrs. Harley." + +"You may eliminate that," retorted the younger man curtly. "You are under +no obligations whatever to me." + +"That is very generous of you, Mr. Ridgway, but--" + +Ridgway met his eyes directly, cutting his sentence as with a knife. +"'Generous' is the last word to use. It is not a question of generosity at +all. What I mean is that the thing I did was done with no reference +whatever to you. It is between me and her alone. I refuse to consider it as +a service to you, as having anything at all to do with you. I told you that +before. I tell you again." + +Harley's spirit winced. This bold claim to a bond with his wife that +excluded him, the scornful thrust of his enemy--he was already beginning to +consider him in that light rather than as a victim--had touched the one +point of human weakness in this money-making Juggernaut. He saw himself for +the moment without illusions, an old man and an unlovable one, without near +kith or kin. He was bitterly aware that the child he had married had been +sold to him by her guardian, under fear of imminent ruin, before her +ignorance of the world had given her experience to judge for herself. The +money and the hidden hunger of sentiment he wasted on her brought him only +timid thanks and wan obedience. But for this man, with his hateful, +confident youth, he had seen the warm smile touch her lips and the delicate +color rose her cheeks. Nay, he had seen more her arms around his neck and +her, warm breath on his cheek. They had lived romance, these two, in the +days they had been alone together. They had shared danger and the joys of +that Bohemia of youth from which he was forever excluded. It was his +resolve to wipe out by financial favors--he could ruin the fellow later if +need be--any claims of Ridgway upon her gratitude or her foolish +imagination. He did not want the man's appeal upon her to carry the +similitude of martyrdom as well as heroism. + +"Yet, the fact remains that it was a service" --his thin lips smiled. "I +must be the best judge of that, I think. I want to be perfectly frank, Mr. +Ridgway. The Consolidated is an auxiliary enterprise so far as I am +concerned, but I have always made it a rule to look after details when it +became necessary. I came to Montana to crush you. I have always regarded +you as a menace to our legitimate interests, and I had quite determined to +make an end of it. You are a good fighter, and you've been on the ground in +person, which counts for a great deal. But you must know that if I give +myself to it in earnest, you are a ruined man." + +The Westerner laughed hardily. "I hear you say it." + +"But you don't believe," added the other quietly. "Many men have heard and +not believed. They have KNOWN when it was too late. + +"If you don't mind, I'll buy my experience instead of borrowing it," +Ridgway flung back flippantly. + +"One moment, Mr. Ridgway. I have told you my purpose in coming to Montana. +That purpose no longer exists. Circumstances have completely altered my +intentions. The finger of God is in it. He has not brought us together thus +strangely, except to serve some purpose of His own. I think I see that +purpose. 'The stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of +the corner. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes,'" he +quoted unctiously. +"I am convinced that it is a waste of good material to crush you; therefore +I desire to effect a consolidation with you, buy all the other copper +interests of any importance in the country, and put you at the head of the +resulting +combination." + +In spite of himself, Ridgway's face betrayed him. It was a magnificent +opportunity, the thing he had dreamed of as the culmination of a lifetime +of fighting. Nobody knew better than he on how precarious a footing he +stood, on how slight a rock his fortunes might be wrecked. Here was his +chance to enter that charmed, impregnable inner circle of finance that in +effect ruled the nation. That Harley's suave friendliness would bear +watching he did not doubt for a moment, but, once inside, so his vital +youth told him proudly, he would see to it that the billionaire did not +betray him. A week ago he could have asked nothing better than this chance +to bloat himself into a some-day colossus. But now the thing stuck in his +gorge. He understood the implied obligation. Payment for his service to +Aline Harley was to be given, and the ledger +balanced. Well, why not? Had he not spent the night in a chaotic agony of +renunciation? But to renounce voluntarily was one thing, to be bought off +another. + +He looked up and met Harley's thin smile, the smile that on Wall Street was +a synonym for rapacity and heartlessness, in the memory of which men had +committed murder and suicide. On the instant there jumped between him and +his ambition the face that had worked magic on him. What a God's pity that +such a lamb should be cast to this ravenous wolf! He felt again her arms +creeping round his neck, the divine trust of her lovely eyes. He had saved +her when this man who called himself her husband had left her to perish in +the storm. He had made her happy, as she had never been in all her starved +life. Had she not promised never to forget, and was there not a deeper +promise in her wistful eyes that the years could not wipe out? She was his +by every right of natural law. By God! he would not sell his freedom of +choice to this white +haired robber! + +"I seldom make mistakes in my judgment of men, Mr. Ridgway," the oily voice +ran on. "No small share of such success as it has been given me to attain +has been due to this instinct for +putting my finger on the right man. I am assured that in you I find one +competent for the great work lying before you. The opportunity is waiting; +I furnish it, and you the untiring energy of youth to make the most of the +chance." His wolfish smile bared the tusks for a moment. "I find myself not +so young as I was. The great work I have started is well under way. I must +trust its completion to younger and stronger +hands than mine. I intend to rest, to devote myself to my home, more +directly to such philanthropic and educational work as God has committed to +my hands." + +The Westerner gave him look for look, his eyes burning to get over the +impasse of the expressionless mask no man had ever penetrated. He began +to see why nobody had ever understood Harley. He knew there would be no +rest for that consuming energy this side of the grave. Yet the man talked +as if he believed his own glib lies. + +"Consolidated is the watchword of the age; it means elimination of ruinous +competition, and consequent harmony and reduced expense in management. Mr. +Ridgway, may I count you with us? Together we should go far. Do you say +peace or war?" + +The younger man rose, leaning forward with his strong, sinewy hands +gripping the table. His face was pale with the repression of a rage that +had been growing intense. "I say war, and without quarter. I don't believe +you can beat me. I defy you to the test. And if you should--even then I had +rather go down fighting you than win at your side." + +Simon Harley had counted acceptance a foregone conclusion, but he never +winked a lash at the ringing challenge of his opponent. He met his defiance +with an eye cold and steady as jade. + +"As you please, Mr. Ridgway. I wash my hands of your ruin, and when you are +nothing but a broken gambler, you will remember that I offered you the +greatest chance that ever came to a man of your age. You are one of those +men, I see, that would rather be first in hell than second in heaven. So be +it." He rose and buttoned his overcoat. + +"Say, rather, that I choose to go to hell my own master and not as the +slave of Simon Harley," retorted the Westerner bitterly. + +Ridgway's eyes blazed, but those of the New Yorker were cool and fishy. + +"There is no occasion for dramatics," he said, the cruel, passionless smile +at his thin lips. "I make you a business proposition and you decline it. +That is all. I wish you good day." + +The other strode past him and flung the door open. He had never before +known such a passion of hatred as raged within him. Throughout his life +Simon Harley had left in his wake wreckage and despair. He was the +best-hated man of his time, execrated by the working classes, despised by +the country at large, and distrusted by his fellow exploiters. Yet, as a +business opponent, Ridgway had always taken him impersonally, had counted +him for a condition rather than an individual. But with the new influence +that had come into his life, reason could not reckon, and when it was +dominant with him, Harley stood embodied as the wolf ready to devour his +ewe lamb. + +For he couldn't get away from her. Wherever he went he carried with him the +picture of her sweet, shy smile, her sudden winsome moments, the deep light +in her violet eyes; and in the background the sinister bared fangs of the +wild beast dogging her patiently, and yet lovingly. + + + +CHAPTER 11. VIRGINIA INTERVENES + +James K. Mott, local chief attorney for the Consolidated, was struggling +with a white tie before the glass and crumpling it atrociously. + +"This dress-suit habit is the most pernicious I know. It's sapping the +liberties of the American people," he grunted at last in humorous despair. + +"Let me, dear." + +His wife tied it with neatness and dispatch, and returned to the inspection +of how her skirt hung. + +"Mr. Harley asked me to thank you for calling on his wife. He says she gets +lonesome during the day while he is away so much. I was wondering if you +couldn't do something for her so that she could meet some of the ladies of +Mesa. A luncheon, or something of that sort, you know. Have you seen my +hat-brush anywhere?" + +"It's on that drawer beside your hat-box. She told me she would rather not. +I suggested it. But I'll tell you what I could do: take Virginia Balfour +round to see her. She's lively and good company, and knows some of the +people Mrs. Harley knows." + +"That's a good idea. I want Harley to know that we appreciate his +suggestions, and are ready to do our part. He has shown a disposition to +consult me on a good many things that ought to lie in Hobart's sphere +rather than mine. Something's going to drop. Now, I like Hobart, but I want +to show myself in a receptive mood for advancement when his head falls, as +it certainly will soon." + +* * * * * * * +Virginia responded eagerly to Mrs. Mott's suggestion that they call +together on Mrs. Harley at the hotel. + +"My dear, you have saved my life. I've been dying of curiosity, and I +haven't been able to find vestige of an excuse to hang my call on. I +couldn't ask Mr. Ridgway to introduce me, could I?" + +"No, I don't see that you could," smiled Mrs. Mott, a motherly little woman +with pleasant brown eyes. "I suppose Mr. Ridgway isn't exactly on calling +terms with Mr. Harley's wife, even if he did save her life." + +"Oh, Mr. Ridgway isn't the man to let a little thing like a war a +outrance stand in the way of his social duties, especially when those +duties happen to be inclinations, too. I understand he DID call the evening +of their arrival here." + +"He didn't!" screamed Mrs. Mott, who happened to possess a voice of the +normal national register. "And what did Mr. Harley say?" + +"Ah, that's what one would like to know. My informant deponeth not beyond +the fact unadorned. One may guess there must have been undercurrents of +embarrassment almost as pronounced as if the President were to invite his +Ananias Club to a pink tea. I can imagine Mr. Harley saying: 'Try this +cake, Mr. Ridgway; it isn't poisoned;' and Mr. Ridgway answering: 'Thanks! +After you, my dear Gaston."' + +Miss Balfour's anxiety to meet the young woman her fiance had rescued from +the blizzard was not unnatural. Her curiosity was tinged with frank envy, +though jealousy did not enter into it at all. Virginia had come West +explicitly to take the country as she found it, and she had found it, +unfortunately, no more hazardous than little old New York, though certainly +a good deal more diverting to a young woman with democratic proclivities +that still survived the energetic weeding her training had subjected them +to. + +She did not quite know what she had expected to find in Mesa. Certainly she +knew that Indians were no longer on the map, and cowboys were kicking up +their last dust before vanishing, but she had supposed that they had left +compensations in their wake. On the principle that adventures are to the +adventurous, her life should have been a whirl of hairbreadth escapes. + +But what happened? She took all sorts of chances without anything coming of +it. Her pirate fiance was the nearest approach to an adventure she had +flushed, and this pink-and-white chit of a married schoolgirl had borrowed +him for the most splendid bit of excitement that would happen in a hundred +years. She had been spinning around the country in motor-cars for months +without the sign of a blizzard, but the chit had hit one the first time. It +wasn't fair. That was her blizzard by rights. In spirit, at least, she had +"spoken for it," as she and her brother used to say when they were children +of some coveted treasure not yet available. Virginia was quite sure that if +she had seen Waring Ridgway at the inspired moment when he was plowing +through the drifts with Mrs. Harley in his arms--only, of course, it would +have been she instead of Mrs. Harley, and he would not have been carrying +her so long as she could stand and take it--she would have fallen in love +with him on the spot. And those two days in the cabin on half-ration they +would have put an end forever to her doubts and to that vision of Lyndon +Hobart that persisted in her mind. What luck glace' some people did have! + +But Virginia discovered the chit to be rather a different personality than +she had supposed. In truth, she lost her heart to her at once. She could +have stood out against Aline's mere good looks and been the stiffer for +them. She was no MAN, to be moved by the dark hair's dusky glory, the charm +of soft girlish lines, the effect of shy unsophistication that might be +merely the highest art of social experience. But back of the sweet, +trembling mouth that seemed to be asking to be kissed, of the pathetic +appeal for friendliness from the big, deep violet eyes, was a quality of +soul not to be counterfeited. Miss Balfour had furbished up the distant +hauteur of the society manner she had at times used effectively, but she +found herself instead taking the beautiful, forlorn little creature in her +arms. + +"Oh, my dear; my dear, how glad I am that dreadful blizzard did not hurt you!" + +Aline clung to this gracious young queen as if she had known her a +lifetime. "You are so good to me everybody is. You know how Mr. Ridgway +saved me. If it had not been for him I should have died. I didn't care--I +wanted to die in peace, I think--but he wouldn't let me." + +"I should think not." + +"If you only knew him--perhaps you do." + +"A little," confessed Virginia, with a flash of merry eyes at Mrs. Mott. + +"He is the bravest man--and the strongest." + +"Yes. He is both," agreed his betrothed, with pride. + +"His tenderness, his unselfishness, his consideration for others--did you +ever know anybody like him for these things?" + +"Never," agreed Virginia, with the mental reservations that usually +accompanied her skeptical smile. She was getting at her fiance from a novel +point of view. + +"And so modest, with all his strength and courage.', + +"It's almost a fault in him," she murmured. + +"The woman that marries him will be blessed among women." + +"I count it a great privilege," said Miss Balfour absently, but she pulled +up with a hurried addendum: "To have known him." + +"Indeed, yes. If one met more men like him this would be a better world." + +"It would certainly be a different world." + +It was a relief to Aline to talk, to put into words the external skeleton +facts of the surging current that had engulfed her existence since she had +turned a corner upon this unexpected consciousness of life running strong +and deep. Harley was not a confidant she could have chosen under the most +favorable circumstances, and her instinct told her that in this matter he +was particularly impossible. But to Virginia Balfour--Mrs. Mott had to +leave early to preside over the Mesa Woman's Club, and her friend allowed +herself to be persuaded to stay longer--she did not find it at all hard to +talk. Indeed, she murmured into the sympathetic ear of this astute young +searcher of hearts more than her words alone said, with the result that +Virginia guessed what she herself had not yet quite found out, though her +heart was hovering tremblingly on the brink of discovery. + +But Virginia's sympathy for the trouble fate had in store for this helpless +innocent consisted with an alert appreciation of its obvious relation to +herself. What she meant to discover was the attitude toward the situation +of one neither particularly innocent nor helpless. Was he, too, about to be +"caught in the coil of a God's romances," or was he merely playing on the +vibrating strings of an untaught heart? + +It was in part to satisfy this craving for knowledge that she wrote Ridgway +a note as soon as she reached home. It said: + +MY DEAR RECREANT LAGGARD: If you are not too busy playing Sir Lancelot to +fair dames in distress, or splintering lances with the doughty husbands of +these same ladies, I pray you deign to allow your servant to feast her eyes +upon her lord's face. Hopefully and gratefully yours, VIRGINIA. + +P. S.--Have you forgotten, sir, that I have not seen you since that +terrible blizzard and your dreadful imprisonment in Fort Salvation? + +P. P. S.--I have seen somebody else, though. She's a dear, and full of your +praises. I hardly blame you. + +V. + +She thought that ought to bring him soon, and it did. + +"I've been busy night and day," he apologized + +when they met. + +Virginia gave him a broadside demurely. + +"I suppose your social duties do take up a good deal of your time." + +"My social duties? Oh, I see!" He laughed appreciation of her hit. +Evidently through her visit she knew a good deal more than he had expected. +Since he had nothing to hide from her except his feelings, this did not +displease him. "My duties in that line have been confined to one formal +call." + +She sympathized with him elaborately. "Calls of that sort do bore men so. +I'll not forget the first time you called on me." + +"Nor I," he came back gallantly. + +"I marveled how you came through alive, but I learned then that a man can't +be bored to death." + +"I came again nevertheless," he smiled. "And again--and again." + +"I am still wondering why." + +"'Oh, wad some power the giffie gite us +To see ourselves as others see us!"' + +he quoted with a bow. + +"Is that a compliment?" she asked dubiously. + +"I have never heard it used so before. Anyhow, it is a little hackneyed for +anybody so original as you." + +"It was the best I could do offhand." + +She changed the subject abruptly. "Has the new campaign of the war begun yet?" + +"Well, we're maneuvering for position." + +"You've seen him. How does he impress you?" + +"The same as he does others. A hard, ruthless fighter. Unless all signs +fail, he is an implacable foe." + +"But you are not afraid?" + +He smiled. "Do I look frightened?" + +"No, you remind me of something a burglar once told me--" + +"A what?" + +"A burglar--a reformed burglar!" She gave him a saucy flash of her dark +eyes. "Do you think I don't know any lawbreakers except those I have met in +this State? I came across this one in a mission where I used to think I was +doing good. He said it was not the remuneration of the profession that had +attracted him, but the excitement. It was dreadfully frowned down upon and +underpaid. He could earn more at his old trade of a locksmith, but it +seemed to him that every impediment to success was a challenge to him. Poor +man, he relapsed again, and they put him in Sing Sing. I was so interested +in him, too." + +"You've had some queer friends in your time," he laughed, but without a +trace of disapproval. + +"I have some queer ones yet," she thrust back. + +"Let's not talk of them," he cried, in pretended alarm. + +Her inextinguishable gaiety brought back the smile he liked. "We'll talk of +SOME ONE else--some one of interest to us both." | + +"I am always ready to talk of Miss Virginia Balfour," he said, +misunderstanding promptly. + +She smiled her disdain of his obtuseness in an elaborately long survey of him. + +"Well?" he wanted to know. + +"That's how you look--very well, indeed. I believe the storm was greatly +exaggerated," she remarked. + +"Isn't that rather a good definition for a blizzard--a greatly exaggerated +storm?" + +"You don't look the worse for wear--not the wreck I expected to behold." + +"Ah, you should have seen me before I saw you." + +"Thank you. I have no doubt you find the sight of my dear face as +refreshing as your favorite cocktail. I suppose that is why it has taken +you three days after your return to reach me and then by special request." + +"A pleasure delayed is twice a pleasure anticipation and realization." + +Miss Balfour made a different application of his text, her eyes trained on +him with apparent indifference. "I've been enjoying a delayed pleasure +myself. I went to see her this afternoon." + +He did not ask whom, but his eyes brightened. + +"She's worth a good deal of seeing, don't you think?" + +"Oh, I'm in love with her, but it doesn't follow you ought to be." + +"Am I?"--he smiled. + +"You are either in love or else you ought to be ashamed of yourself." + +"An interesting thing about you is your point of view. Now, anybody else +would tell me I ought to be ashamed if I am in love." + +"I'm not worried about your morals," she scoffed. "It's that poor child I'm +thinking of." + +"I think of her a good deal, too." + +"Ah! and does she think of you a good deal That's what we must guard against." + +"Is it?" + +"Yes. You see I'm her confidante." She told it him with sparkling eyes, for +the piquancy of it amused her. Not every engaged young woman can hear her +lover's praises sung by the woman whose life he has saved with the proper +amount of romance. + +"Really?" + +She nodded, laughing at him. "I didn't get a chance to tell her about me." + +"I suppose not." + +"I think I'll tell her about you, though--just what a ruthless barbarian +you are." + +His eyes gleamed "I wish you would. I'd like to find out whether she would +believe you. I have tried to tell her myself, but the honest truth is, I +funk it." + +"You haven't any right to let her know you are interested in her." She +interrupted him before he could speak. "Don't trifle with her, Waring. +She's not like other girls." + +He met her look gravely. "I wouldn't trifle with her for any reason." + +Her quick rejoinder overlapped his sentence. "Then you love her!" + +"Is that an alternative?" + +"With you--yes." + +"Faith, my lady, you're frank!" + +"I'm not mealy-mouthed. You don't think yourself scrupulous, do you?" + +"I'm afraid I am not." + +"I don't mind so much your being in love with HER, though it's not +flattering to my vanity, but --" She stopped, letting him make the +inference. + +"Do you think that likely?" he asked, the color flushing his face. + +He wondered how much Aline had told this confidante. Certain specific +things he knew she had not revealed, but had she let her guess the +situation between them? + +She compromised with her conscience. "I don't know. She is romantic--and +Simon Harley isn't a very fertile field for romance, I suppose." + +"You would imply " + +"Oh, you have points, and nobody knows them better than Waring Ridgway," +she told him jauntily. "But you needn't play that role to the address of +Aline Harley. Try ME. I'm immune to romance. Besides, I'm engaged to you," +she added, laughing at the inconsequence the fact seemed to have for both +of them. + +"I'm afraid I can't help the situation, for if I've been playing a part, it +has been an unconscious one." + +"That's the worst of it. When you star as Waring Ridgway you are most +dangerous. What I want is total abstinence." + +"You'd rather I didn't see her at all?" + +Virginia dimpled, a gleam of reminiscent laughter in her eyes. "When I was +in Denver last month a Mrs. Smythe--it was Smith before her husband struck +it rich last year--sent out cards for a bridge afternoon. A Mrs. Mahoney +had just come to the metropolis from the wilds of Cripple Creek. Her +husband had struck a gold-mine, too, and Mr. Smythe was under obligations +to him. Anyhow, she was a stranger, and Mrs. Smythe took her in. It was +Mrs. Mahoney's introduction to bridge, and she did not know she was playing +for keeps. When the afternoon was over, Mrs. Smythe hovered about her with +the sweetest sympathy. 'So sorry you had such a horrid run of cards, dear. +Better luck next time.' It took Mrs. Mahoney some time to understand that +her social afternoon had cost one hundred and twenty dollars, but next day +her husband sent a check for one hundred and twenty-two dollars to Mrs. +Smythe. The extra two dollars were for the refreshments, he naively +explained, adding that since his wife was so poor a gambler as hardly to be +able to keep professionals interested, he would not feel offended if Mrs. +Smythe omitted her in future from her social functions." + +Ridgway took it with a smile. "Simon Harley brought his one hundred and +twenty-two dollars in person." + +"He didn't! When?" + +"This morning. He proposed benevolent assimilation as a solution of our +troubles." + +"Just how?" + +"He offered to consolidate all the copper interests of the country and put +me at the head of the resulting combine." + +"If you wouldn't play bridge with Mrs. Harley?" + +"Exactly." + +"And you " + +"Declined to pledge myself." + +She clapped her hands softly. "Well done, Waring Ridgway! There are times +when you are magnificent, when I could put you on a pedestal, you great +big, unafraid man. But you mustn't play with her, just the same." + +"Why mustn't I?" + +"For her sake." + +He frowned past her into space, his tight-shut jaw standing out saliently. +"You're right, Virginia. I've been thinking so myself. I'll keep off the +grass," he said, at last. + +"You're a good fellow," slipped out impulsively. + +"Well, I know where there's another," he said. "I ought to think myself a +lucky dog." + +Virginia lifted quizzical eyebrows. "Ought to! That tastes of duty. Don't +let it come to that. We'll take it off if you like." She touched the +solitaire he had given her. + +"Ah, but I don't like"--he smiled. + + + +CHAPTER 12. ALINE MAKES A DISCOVERY + +Aline pulled her horse to a walk. "You know Mr. Ridgway pretty well, don't +you?" + +Miss Balfour gently flicked her divided skirt with a riding-whip, +considering whether she might be said to know him well. "Yes, I think I +do," she ventured. + +"Mrs. Mott says you and he are great friends, that you seem very fond of +each other." + +"Goodness me! I hope I don't seem fond of him. I don't think 'fond' is +exactly the word, anyway, though we are good friends." Quickly, keenly, her +covert glance swept Aline; then, withdrawing her eyes, she flung her little +bomb. "I suppose we may be said to appreciate each other. At any rate, we +are engaged." + +Mrs. Harley's pony came to an abrupt halt. "I thought I had dropped my +whip," she explained, in a low voice not quite true. + +Virginia, though she executed an elaborate survey of the scenery, could not +help noticing that the color had washed from her friend's face. "I love +this Western country--its big sweep of plains, of low, rolling hills, with +a background of mountains. One can see how it gets into a man's blood so +that the East seems insipid ever afterward," discoursed Miss Balfour. + +A question trembled on Aline's blanched lips. + +"Say it," permitted Virginia. + +"Do you mean that you are engaged to him--that you are going to marry Mr. +Ridgway--without caring for him?" + +"I don't mean that at all. I like him immensely." + +"But--do you love him?" It was almost a cry--these low words wrung from the +tortured heart. + +"No fair," warned her friend smilingly. + +Aline rode in silence, her stricken face full of trouble. How could she, +from her glass house, throw stones at a loveless marriage? But this was +different from her own case! Nobody was worthy to marry her hero without +giving the best a woman had to give. If she were a girl--a sudden tide of +color swept her face; a wild, delirious tingle of joy flooded her +veins--oh, if she were a girl, what a wealth of love could she give him! +Clarity of vision had come to her in a blinding flash. Untutored of life, +the knowledge of its meaning had struck home of the suddenest. She knew her +heart now that it was too late; knew that she could never be indifferent to +what concerned Waring Ridgway. + +Aline caught at the courage behind her childishness, and accomplished her +congratulations "You will be happy, I am sure. He is good." + +"Goodness does not impress me as his most outstanding quality," smiled Miss +Balfour. + +"No, one never feels it emphasized. He is too He is too free of selfishness +to make much of his goodness. But one can't help feeling it in everything +he does and says." + +"Does Mr. Harley agree with you? Does he feel it?" + +"I don't think Mr. Harley understands him. I can't help thinking that he is +prejudiced." She was becoming mistress of her voice and color again. + +"And you are not?" + +"Perhaps I am. In my thought of him he would still be good, even if he had +done all the bad things his enemies accuse him of." + +Virginia gave her up. This idealized interpretation of her betrothed was +not the one she had, but for Aline it might be the true one. At least, she +could not disparage him very consistently under the circumstances. + +"Isn't there a philosophy current that we find in people what we look for +in them? Perhaps that is why you and Mr. Harley read in Mr. Ridgway men so +diverse as you do. It is not impossible you are both right and both wrong. +Heaven knows, I suppose. At least, we poor mortals fog around enough when +we sit in judgment." And Virginia shrugged the matter from her careless +shoulders. + +But Aline seemed to have a difficulty in getting away from the subject. +"And you--what do you read?" she asked timidly. + +"Sometimes one thing and sometimes another. To-day I see him as a living +refutation of all the copy-book rules to success. He shatters the maxims +with a touch-and-go manner that is fascinating in its immorality. A +gambler, a plunger, an adventurer, he wins when a careful, honest business +man would fail to a certainty." + +Aline was amazed. "You misjudge him. I am sure you do. But if you think +this of him why--" + +"Why do I marry him? I have asked myself that a hundred times, my dear. I +wish I knew. I have told you what I see in him to-day; but tomorrow--why, +to-morrow I shall see him an altogether different man. He will be perhaps a +radiating center of altruism, devoted to his friends, a level-headed +protector of the working classes, a patron of the arts in his own +clearminded, unlettered way. But whatever point of view one gets at him, he +spares one dullness. Will you explain to me, my dear, why picturesque +rascality is so much more likable than humdrum virtue?" + +Mrs. Harley's eyes blazed. "And you can talk this way of the man you are +going to marry, a man--" She broke off, her voice choked. + +Miss Balfour was cool as a custard. "I can, my dear, and without the least +disloyalty. In point of fact, he asked me to tell you the kind of man I +think him. I'm trying to oblige him, you see." + +"He asked you--to tell me this about him?" Aline pulled in her pony in +order to read with her astonished eyes the amused ones of her companion. + +"Yes. He was afraid you were making too much of his saving you. He thinks +he won't do to set on a pedestal." + +"Then I think all the more of him for his modesty." + +"Don't invest too heavily on his modesty, my dear. He wouldn't be the man +he is if he owned much of that commodity." + +"The man he is?" + +"Yes, the man born to win, the man certain of himself no matter what the +odds against him. + +He knows he is a man of destiny; knows quite well that there is something +big about him that dwarfs other men. I know it, too. Wherefore I seize my +opportunity. It would be a sin to let a man like that get away from one. I +could never forgive myself," she concluded airily. + +"Don't you see any human, lovable things in him?" Aline's voice was an +accusation. + +"He is the staunchest friend conceivable. No trouble is too great for him +to take for one he likes, and where once he gives his trust he does not +take it back. Oh, for all his force, he is intensely human! Take his +vanity, my dear. It soars to heaven." + +"If I cared for him I couldn't dissect his qualities as you do." + +"That's because you are a triumph of the survival of nature and impulse +over civilization, in spite of its attempts to sap your freshness. For me, +I fear I'm a sophisticated daughter of a critical generation. If I weren't, +I should not hold my judgment so safely in my own keeping, but would +surrender it and my heart." + +"There is something about the way you look at him that shocks me. One ought +not to let oneself believe all that seems easy to believe." + +"That is your faith, but mine is a different one. You see, I'm a +Unitarian," returned Virginia blithely. + +"He will make you love him if you marry him," sighed Aline, coming back to +her obsession. + +Virginia nodded eagerly. "In my secret heart that is what I am hoping for, +my dear." + +"Unless there is another man," added Aline, as if alone with her thoughts. + +Virginia was irritably aware of a flood of color beating into her cheeks. +"There isn't any other man," she said impatiently. + +Yet she thought of Lyndon Hobart. Curiously enough, whenever she conceived +herself as marrying Ridgway, the reflex of her brain carried to her a +picture of Hobart, clean-handed, fine of instinct, with the inherited +inflections of voice and unconscious pride of caste that come from breeding +and not from cultivation. If he were not born to greatness, like his rival, +at least he satisfied her critical judgment of what a gentleman should be; +and she was quite sure that the potential capacity lay in her to care a +good deal more for him than for anybody else she had met. Since it was not +on the cards, as Miss Virginia had shuffled the pack, that she should marry +primarily for reasons sentimental, this annoyed her in her sophisticated +hours. + +But in the hours when she was a mere girl when she was not so confidently +the heir of all the feminine wisdom of the ages, her annoyance took another +form. She had told Lyndon Hobart of her engagement because it was the +honest thing to do; because she supposed she ought to discourage any hopes +he might be entertaining. But it did not follow that he need have let these +hopes be extinguished so summarily. She could have wished his scrupulous +regard for the proper thing had not had the effect of taking him so +completely out of her external life, while leaving him more insistently +than ever the subject of her inner contemplation. + +Virginia's conscience was of the twentieth century and American, though she +was a good deal more honest with herself than most of her sex in the same +social circle. Also she was straightforward with her neighbors so far as +she could reasonably be. But she was not a Puritan in the least, though she +held herself to a more rigid account than she did her friends. She judged +her betrothed as little as she could, but this was not to be entirely +avoided, since she expected her life to become merged so largely in his. +There were hours when she felt she must escape the blighting influence of +his lawlessness. There were others when it seemed to her magnificent. + +Except for the occasional jangle of a bit or the ring of a horse's shoe on +a stone, there was silence which lasted many minutes. Each was busy with +her thoughts, and the narrowness of the trail, which here made them go in +single file, served as an excuse against talk. + +"Perhaps we had better turn back," suggested Virginia, after the path had +descended to a gulch and merged itself in a wagon-road. "We shall have no +more than time to get home and dress for dinner." + +Aline turned her pony townward, and they rode at a walk side by side. + +"Do you know much about the difficulty between Mr. Harley and Mr. Ridgway? +I mean about the mines--the Sherman Bell, I think they called it?" + +"I know something about the trouble in a general way. Both the Consolidated +and Mr. Ridgway's company claim certain veins. That is true of several +mines, I have been told." + +"I don't know anything about business. Mr. Harley does not tell me anything +about his. To day I was sitting in the open window, and two men stopped +beneath it. They thought there would be trouble in this mine--that men +would be hurt. I could not make it all out, but that was part of it. I sent +for Mr. Harley and made him tell me what he knew. It would be dreadful if +anything like that happened." + +"Don't worry your head about it, my dear. Things are always threatening and +never happening. It seems to be a part of the game of business to bluff, as +they call it." + +"I wish it weren't," sighed the girl-wife. + +Virginia observed that she looked both sad and weary. She had started on +her ride like a prisoner released from his dungeon, happy in the sunshine, +the swift motion, the sting of the wind in her face. There had been a +sparkle in her eye and a ring of gaiety in her laugh. Into her cheeks a +faint color had glowed, so that the contrast of their clear pallor with the +vivid scarlet of the little lips had been less pronounced than usual. But +now she was listless and distraite, the girlish abandon all stricken out +of her. It needed no clairvoyant to see that her heart was heavy and that +she was longing for the moment when she could be alone with her pain. + +Her friend had learned what she wanted to know, and the knowledge of it +troubled her. She would have given a good deal to have been able to lift +this sorrow from the girl riding beside her. For she was aware that Aline +Harley might as well have reached for the moon as that toward which her +untutored heart yearned. She had come to life late and traveled in it but a +little way. Yet the tragedy of it was about to engulf her. No lifeboat was +in sight. She must sink or swim alone. Virginia's unspoiled heart went out +to her with a rush of pity and sympathy. Almost the very words that Waring +Ridgway had used came to her lips. + +"You poor lamb! You poor, forsaken lamb!" + +But she spoke instead with laughter and lightness, seeing nothing of the +girl's distress, at least, until after they separated at the door of the +hotel. + + + +CHAPTER 13. FIRST BLOOD + +After Ridgway's cavalier refusal to negotiate a peace treaty, Simon Harley +and his body-guard walked back to the offices of the Consolidated, where +they arrived at the same time as the news of the enemy's first blow since +the declaration of renewed war. + +Hobart was at his desk with his ear to the telephone receiver when the +great financier came into the inner office of the manager. + +"Yes. When? Driven out, you say? Yes--yes. Anybody hurt? Followed our men +through into our tunnel? No, don't do anything till you hear from me. Send +Rhys up at once. Let me know any further developments that occur." + +Hobart hung up the receiver and turned on his swivel-chair toward his +chief. "Another outrage, sir, at the hands of Ridgway. It is in regard to +those veins in the Copper King that he claims. Dalton, his superintendent +of the Taurus, drove a tunnel across our lateral lines and began working +them, though their own judge has not yet rendered a decision in their +favor. + +Of course, I put a large force in them at once. To-day we tapped their +workings at the twelfth level. Our foreman, Miles, has just telephoned me +that Dalton turned the air pressure on our men, blew out their candles, and +flung a mixture of lime and rocks at them. Several of the men are hurt, +though none badly. It seems that Dalton has thrown a force into our tunnels +and is holding the entrances against us at the point where the eleventh, +twelfth, and thirteenth levels touch the cage. It means that he will work +those veins, and probably others that are acknowledged to be ours, unless +we drive them out, which would probably be a difficult matter." + +Harley listened patiently, eyes glittering and clean-shaven lips pressed +tightly against his teeth. "What do you propose to do?" + +"I haven't decided yet. If we could get any justice from the courts, an +injunction " + +"Can't be got from Purcell. Don't waste time considering it. Fight it out +yourself. Find his weakest spot, then strike hard and suddenly." Harley's +low metallic voice was crisp and commanding. + +"His weakest spot?" + +"Exactly. Has he no mines upon which we can retaliate?" + +"There is the Taurus. It lies against the Copper King end to end. He drove +a tunnel into some of our workings last winter. That would give a +passageway to send our men through, if we decide to do so. Then there is +his New York. Its workings connect with those of the Jim Hill." + +"Good! Send as many men through as is necessary to capture and hold both +mines. Get control of the entire workings of them both, and begin taking +ore out at once. Station armed guards at every point where it is necessary, +and as many as are necessary. Use ten thousand men, if you need that many. +But don't fail. We'll give Ridgway a dose of his own medicine, and teach +him that for every pound of our ore he steals we'll take ten." + +"He'll get an injunction from the courts." + +"Let him get forty. I'll show him that his robber courts will not save him. +Anyhow, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." + +Hobart, almost swept from his moorings by the fiery energy of his chief, +braced himself to withstand the current. + +"I shall have to think about that. We can't fight lawlessness with +lawlessness except for selfpreservation." + +"Think! You do nothing but think, Mr. Hobart. You are here to act," came +the scornful retort; "And what is this but self-preservation." + +"I am willing to recapture our workings in the Copper King. I'll lead the +attack in person, sir. But as to a retaliatory attack--the facts will not +justify a capture of his property because he has seized ours." + +"Wrong, sir. This is no time for half-way measures. I have resolved to +crush this freebooter; since he has purchased your venal courts, then by +the only means left us--force." + +Hobart rose from his seat, very pale and erect. His eyes met those of the +great man unflinchingly. "You realize that this may mean murder, Mr. +Harley? That a clash cannot possibly be avoided if you pursue this course?" + +"I realize that it is self-preservation," came the cold retort. "There is +no law here, none, at least, that gives us justice. We are back to +savagery, dragged back by the madness of this ruffian. It is his choice, +not mine. Let him abide by it." + +"Your intention to follow this course is irrevocable?" + +"Absolutely." + +"In that case, I must regretfully offer my resignation as manager of the +Consolidated." + +"It is accepted, Mr. Hobart. I can't have men working under me that are not +loyal, body and soul, to the hand that feeds them. No man can serve two +masters, Mr. Hobart." + +"That is why I resign, Mr. Harley. You give me the devil's work to do. I +have done enough of it. By Heaven, I will be a free man hereafter." The +disgust and dissatisfaction that had been pent within him for many a month +broke forth hot from the lips of this self-repressed man. "It is all wrong +on both sides. Two wrongs do not make a right. The system of espionage we +employ over everybody both on his side and ours, the tyrannical use we make +of our power, the corruption we foster in politics, our secret bargains +with railroads, our evasions of law as to taxes, and in every other way +that suits us: it is all wrong--all wrong. I'll be a party to it no longer. +You see to what it leads--murder and anarchy. I'll be a poor man if I must, +but I'll be a free and honest one at least." + +"You are talking wickedly and wildly, Mr. Hobart. You are criticizing God +when you criticize the business conditions he has put into the world. I did +not know that you were a socialist, but what you have just said explains +your course," the old man reproved sadly and sanctimonious. + +"I am not a socialist, Mr. Harley, but you and your methods have made +thousands upon thousands of them in this country during the past ten years." + +"We shall not discuss that, Mr. Hobart, nor, indeed, is any discussion +necessary. Frankly, I am greatly disappointed in you. I have for some time +been dissatisfied with your management, but I did not, of course, know you +held these anarchistic views. I want, however, to be perfectly just. You +are a very good business man indeed, careful and thorough. That you have +not a bold enough grasp of mind for the place you hold is due, perhaps, to +these dangerous ideas that have unsettled you. Your salary will be +continued for six months. Is that satisfactory?" + +"No, sir. I could not be willing to accept it longer than to-day. And when +you say bold enough, why not be plain and say unscrupulous enough?" amended +the younger man. + +"As you like. I don't juggle with words. The point is, you don't succeed. +This adventurer, Ridgway, scores continually against you. He has beaten you +clear down the line from start to finish. Is that not true?" + +"Because he does not hesitate to stoop to anything, because--" + +"Precisely. You have given the very reason why he must be fought in the +same spirit. Business ethics would be as futile against him as chivalry in +dealing with a jungle-tiger." + +"You would then have had me stoop to any petty meanness to win, no matter +how contemptible?" + +The New Yorker waved him aside with a patient, benignant gesture. "I don't +care for excuses. I ask of my subordinates success. You do not get it for +me. I must find a man who can." + +Hobart bowed with fine dignity. The touch of disdain in his slight smile +marked his sense of the difference between them. He was again his composed +rigid self. + +"Can you arrange to allow my resignation to take effect as soon as +possible? I should prefer to have my connection with the company severed +before any action is taken against these mines." + +"At once--to-day. Your resignation may be published in the Herald this +afternoon, and you will then be acquitted of whatever may follow." + +"Thank you." Hobart hesitated an instant before he said: "There is a point +that I have already mentioned to you which, with your permission, I must +again advert to. The temper of the miners has been very bitter since you +refused to agree to Mr. Ridgway's proposal for an eight-hour day. I would +urge upon you to take greater precautions against a personal attack. You +have many lawless men among your employees. They are foreigners for the +most part, unused to self-restraint. It is only right you should know they +execrate your name." + +The great man smiled blandly. "Popularity is nothing to me. I have neither +sought it nor desired it. Given a great work to do, with the Divine help I +have done it, irrespective of public clamor. For many years I have lived in +the midst of alarms, Mr. Hobart. I am not foolhardy. What precautions I can +reasonably take I do. For the rest, my confidence is in an all-wise +Providence. It is written that not even a sparrow falls without His decree. +In that promise I put my trust. If I am to be cut off it can only be by His +will. 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of +the Lord.' Such, I pray, may be the humble and grateful spirit with which I +submit myself to His will." + +The retiring manager urged the point no further. "If you have decided upon +my successor and he is on the ground I shall be glad to give the afternoon +to running over with him the affairs of the office. It would be well for +him to retain for a time my private secretary and stenographer." + +"Mr. Mott will succeed you. He will no doubt be glad to have your +assistance in helping him fall into the routine of the office, Mr. Hobart." + +Harley sent for Mott at once and told him of his promotion. The two men +were closeted together for hours, while trusted messengers went and came +incessantly to and from the mines. Hobart knew, of course, that plans were +in progress to arm such of the Consolidated men as could be trusted, and +that arrangements were being made to rush the Taurus and the New York. +Everything was being done as secretly as possible, but Hobart's experience +of Ridgway made it obvious to him that this excessive activity could not +pass without notice. His spies, like those of the trust, swarmed +everywhere. + +It was not till mid-afternoon of the next day that Mott found time to join +him and run over with him the details of such unfinished business as the +office had taken up. The retiring manager was courtesy itself, nor did he +feel any bitterness against his successor. Nevertheless, he came to the end +of office hours with great relief. The day had been a very hard one, and it +left him with a longing for solitude and the wide silent spaces of the open +hills. He struck out in the direction which promised him the quickest +opportunity to leave the town behind him. A good walker, he covered the +miles rapidly, and under the physical satisfaction of the tramp the brain +knots unraveled and smoothed themselves out. It was better so--better to +live his own life than the one into which he was being ground by the +inexorable facts of his environment. He was a young man and ambitious, but +his hopes were not selfish. At bottom he was an idealist, though a +practical one. He had had to shut his eyes to many things which he +deplored, had been driven to compromises which he despised. Essentially +clean-handed, the soul of him had begun to wither at the contact of that +which he saw about him and was so large a part of. + +"I am not fit for it. That is the truth. Mott has no imagination, and +property rights are the most sacred thing on earth to him. He will do +better at it than I," he told himself, as he walked forward bareheaded into +the great sunset glow that filled the saddle between two purple hills in +front of him. + +As he swung round a bend in the road a voice, clear and sweet. came to him +through the light filtered air. + +"Laska!" + +young woman on horseback was before him. Her pony stood across the road, +and she looked up a trail which ran down into it. The lifted poise of the +head brought out its fine lines and the distinction with which it was set +upon the well-molded throat column. Apparently she was calling to some +companion on the trail who had not yet emerged into view. + +At sound of his footsteps the rider's head turned. + +"Good afternoon, Mr. Hobart," she said quietly, as coolly as if her heart +had not suddenly begun to beat strangely fast. + +"Good afternoon, Miss Balfour." + +Each of them was acutely conscious of the barrier between them. Since the +day when she had told him of her engagement they had not met, even +casually, and this their first sight of each other was not without +embarrassment. + +"We have been to Lone Pine Cone," she said rather hurriedly, to bridge an +impending silence. + +He met this obvious statement with another as brilliant. + +"I walked out from town. My horse is a little lame." + +But there was something she wanted to say to him, and the time for saying +it, before the arrival of her companion, was short. She would not waste it +in commonplaces. + +"I don't usually read the papers very closely, but this morning I read both +the Herald and the Sun. Did you get my note?" + +"Your note? No." + +"I sent it by mail. I wanted you to know that your friends are proud of +you. We know why you resigned. It is easy to read between the lines." + +"Thank you," he said simply. "I knew you would know." + +"Even the Sun recognizes that it was because you are too good a man for the +place." + +"Praise from the Sun has rarely shone my way," he said, with a touch of +irony, for that paper was controlled by the Ridgway interest. "In its +approval I am happy." + +Her impulsive sympathy for this man whom she so greatly liked would not +accept the rebuff imposed by this reticence. She stripped the gauntlet from +her hand and offered it in congratulation. + +He took it in his, a slight flush in his face. + +"I have done nothing worthy of praise. One cannot ask less of a man than +that he remain independent and honest. I couldn't do that and stay with the +Consolidated, or, so it seemed to me. So I resigned. That is all there is +to it." + +"It is enough. I don't know another man would have done it, would have had +the courage to do it after his feet were set so securely in the way of +success. The trouble with Americans is that they want too much success. +They want it at too big a price." + +"I'm not likely ever to have too much of it," he laughed sardonically. + +"Success in life and success in living aren't the same thing. It is because +you have discovered this that you have sacrificed the less for the +greater." She smiled, and added: "I didn't mean that to sound as preachy as +it does." + +"I'm afraid you make too much of a small thing. My squeamishness has +probably made me the laughing-stock of Mesa." + +"If so, that is to the discredit of Mesa," she insisted stanchly. "But I +don't think so. A great many people who couldn't have done it themselves +will think more of you for having done it." + +Another pony, which had been slithering down the steep trail in the midst +of a small rock slide, now brought its rider safely to a halt in the road. +Virginia introduced them, and Hobart, remembered that he had heard Miss +Balfour speak of a young woman whom she had met on the way out, a Miss +Laska Lowe, who was coming to Mesa to teach domestic science in the public +schools. There was something about the young teacher's looks that he liked, +though she was of a very different type than Virginia. Not at all pretty in +any accepted sense, she yet had a charm born of the vital honesty in her. +She looked directly at one out of sincere gray eyes, wide-awake and +fearless. As it happened, her friend had been telling her about Hobart, and +she was interested in him from the first. For she was of that minority +which lives not by bread alone, and she felt a glow of pride in the man who +could do what the Sun had given this man credit for editorially. + +They talked at haphazard for a few minutes before the young women cantered +away. As Hobart trudged homeward he knew that in the eyes of these two +women, at least, he had not been a fool. + + +CHAPTER 14. A CONSPIRACY + +Tucked away in an obscure corner of the same issue of the papers which +announced the resignation of Lyndon Hobart as manager of the Consolidated +properties, and the appointment of James K. Mott as his temporary +successor, were little one-stick paragraphs regarding explosions, which had +occurred the night before in tunnels of the Taurus and the New York. The +general public paid little attention to these, but those on the inside knew +that Ridgway had scored again. His spies had carried the news to him of the +projected capture of these two properties by the enemy. Instead of +attempting to defend them by force, he had set of charges of giant powder +which had brought down the tunnel roofs and effectually blocked the +entrances from the Consolidated mines adjoining. + +With the indefatigable patience which characterized him, Harley set about +having the passages cleared of the rock and timber with which they were +filled. Before he had succeeded in doing this his enemy struck another +telling blow. From Judge Purcell he secured an injunction against the +Consolidated from working its mines, the Diamond King, the Mary K, and the +Marcus Daly, on the absurd contention that the principal ore-vein of the +Marcus Daly apexed on the tin, triangle wedged in between these three great +mines, and called by Ridgway the Trust Buster. Though there was not room +enough upon this fragment to sink a shaft, it was large enough to found +this claim of a vein widening as it descended until it crossed into the +territory of each of these properties. Though Harley could ignore court +injunctions which erected only under-ground territory, he was forced to +respect this one, since it could not be violated except in the eyes of the +whole country. The three mines closed down, and several thousand workmen +were thrown out of employment. These were immediately reemployed by Ridgway +and set to work both in his own and the Consolidated's territory. + +Within a week a dozen new suits were instituted against the Consolidated by +its enemy. He harassed it by contempt proceedings, by applications for +receiverships, and by other ingenious devices, which greatly tormented the +New York operator. For the first time in his life the courts, which Harley +had used to much advantage in his battles to maintain and extend the trusts +he controlled, could not be used even to get scant justice. + +Meanwhile both leaders were turning their attention to the political +situation. The legislators were beginning to gather for the coming session, +and already the city was full of rumors about corruption. For both the +Consolidated and its enemy were making every effort to secure enough votes +to win the election of a friendly United States senator. The man chosen +would have the distribution of the federal patronage of the State. This +meant the control of the most influential local politicians of the party in +power at Washington as well as their followers, an almost vital factor for +success in a State where political corruption had so interwoven itself into +the business life of the community. + +The hotel lobbies were filled with politicians gathered from every county +in the State. Big bronzed cattlemen brushed shoulders with budding lawyers +from country towns and ward bosses from the larger cities. The bars were +working overtime, and the steady movement of figures in the corridors +lasted all day and most of the night. Here and there were collected groups, +laughing and talking about the old frontier days, or commenting in lowered +tones on some phase of the feverish excitement that was already beginning +to be apparent. Elevators shot up and down, subtracting and adding to the +kaleidoscope of human life in the rotundas. Bellboys hurried to and fro +with messages and cocktails. The ring of the telephone-bell cut +occasionally into the deep hum of many voices. All was confusion, keen +interest, expectancy. + +For it was known that Simon Harley had sent for $300,000 in cold cash to +secure the election of his candidate, Roger D. Warner, a lawyer who had all +his life been close to corporate interests. It was known, too, that Waring +Ridgway had gathered together every element in the State that opposed the +domination of the Consolidated, to fight their man to a finish. Bets for +large sums were offered and taken as to the result, heavy odds being given +in favor of the big copper trust's candidate. For throughout the State at +large the Consolidated influence was very great indeed. It owned forest +lands and railroads and mines. It controlled local transportation largely. +Nearly one-half the working men in the State were in its employ. Into every +town and village the ramifications of its political organization extended. +The feeling against it was very bitter, but this was usually expressed in +whispers. For it was in a position to ruin almost any business man upon +whom it fastened a grudge, and to make wealthy any upon whom it chose to +cast its favors. + +Nevertheless, there were some not so sure that the Consolidated would +succeed in electing its man. Since Ridgway had announced himself as a +candidate there had been signs of defection on the part of some of those +expected to vote for Warner. He had skillfully wielded together in +opposition to the trust all the elements of the State that were hostile to +it; and already the word was being passed that he had not come to the +campaign without a barrel of his own. + +The balloting for United States senator was not to begin until the eighth +day of the session, but the opening week was full of a tense and suppressed +excitement. It was known that agents of both sides were moving to and fro +among the representatives and State senators, offering fabulous prices for +their votes and the votes of any others they might be able to control. Men +who had come to the capital confident in their strength and integrity now +looked at their neighbors furtively and guiltily. Day by day the +legislators were being debauched to serve the interest of the factions +which were fighting for control of the State. Night after night secret +meetings were being held in out-of-the-way places to seduce those who clung +desperately to their honesty or held out for a bigger price. Bribery was in +the air, rampant, unashamed. Thousand-dollar bills were as common as +ten-dollar notes in ordinary times. + +Sam Yesler, commenting on the situation to his friend Jack Roper, a fellow +member of the legislature who had been a cattleman from the time he had +given up driving a stage thirty years before, shook his head dejectedly +over his blue points. + +"I tell you, Jack, a man has to be bed-rocked in honesty or he's gone. +Think of it. A country lawyer comes here who has never seen five thousand +dollars in a lump sum, and they shove fifteen thousand at him for his vote. +He is poor, ambitious, struggling along from hand to mouth. I reckon we +ain't in a position to judge that poor devil of a harassed fellow. Mebbe +he's always been on the square, came here to do what was right, we'll say, +but he sees corruption all round him. How can he help getting a warped +notion of things? He sees his friends and his neighbors falling by the +wayside. By God, it's got to the point in this legislature that an honest +man's an object of obloquy." + +"That's right," agreed Roper. "Easy enough for us to be square. We got good +ranches back of us and can spend the winter playing poker at the Mesa Club +if we feel like it. But if we stood where Billy George and Garner and +Roberts and Munz do, I ain't so damn sure my virtue would stand the strain. +Can you reach that salt, Sam?" + +"Billy George has got a sick wife, and he's been wanting to send her back +to her folks in the East, but he couldn't afford it. The doctors figured +she ought to stay a year, and Billy would have to hire a woman to take care +of his kids. I said to him: 'Hell, Billy, what's a friend for?' And I +shoves a check at him. He wouldn't look at it; said he didn't know whether +he could ever pay it, and he had not come down to charity yet." + +"Billy's a white man. That's what makes me sick. Right on top of all his +bad luck he comes here and sees that everybody is getting a big roll. He +thinks of that white-faced wife of his dragging herself round among the +kids and dying by inches for lack of what money can buy her. I tell you I +don't blame him. It's the fellows putting the temptation up to him that +ought to be strung up." + +"I see that hound Pelton's mighty active in it. He's got it in for Ridgway +since Waring threw him down, and he's plugging night and day for Warner. +Stays pretty well tanked up. Hopper +tells me he's been making threats to kill Waring on sight." + +"I heard that and told Waring. He laughed and said he hoped he would live +till Pelton killed him. I like Waring. He's got the guts, as his miners +say. But he's away off on this fight. He's using money right and left just +as Harley is." + +Yesler nodded. "The whole town's corrupted. It takes bribery for granted. +Men meet on the street and ask what the price of votes is this morning. +Everybody feels prosperous." + +"I heard that a chambermaid at the Quartzite Hotel found seven thousand +dollars in big bills pinned to the bottom of a mattress in Garner's room +yesterday. He didn't dare bank it, of course." + +"Poor devil! He's another man that would like to be honest, but with the +whole place impregnated with bribery he couldn't stand the pressure. But +after this is all over he'll go home to his wife and his neighbors with the +canker of this thing at his heart until he dies. I tell you, Jack, I'm for +stopping it if we can." + +"How?" + +"There's one way. I've been approached indirectly by Pelton, to deliver our +vote to the Consolidated. Suppose we arrange to do it, get evidence, and +make a public exposure." + +They were alone in a private dining-room of a restaurant, but Yesler's +voice had fallen almost to a whisper. With his steady gray eyes he looked +across at the man who had ridden the range with him fifteen years ago when +he had not had a sou to bless himself with. + +Roper tugged at his long drooping mustache and gazed at his friend. "It's a +large order, Sam, a devilish large order. Do you reckon we could deliver?" + +"I think so. There are six of us that will stand pat at any cost. If we +play our cards right and keep mum the surprise of it is bound to shake +votes loose when we spring the bomb. The whole point is whether we can take +advantage of that surprise to elect a decent man. I don't say it can be +done, but there's a chance of it." + +The old stage-driver laughed softly. "We'll be damned good and plenty by +both sides." + +"Of course. It won't be a pleasant thing to do, but then it isn't exactly +pleasant to sit quiet and let these factions use the State as a pawn in +their game of grab." + +"I'm with you, Sam. Go to it, my boy, and I'll back you to the limit." + +"We had better not talk it over here. Come to my room after dinner and +bring Landor and James with you. I'll have Reedy and Keller there. I'll +mention casually that it's a big game of poker, and I'll have cards and +drinks sent up. You want to remember we can't be too careful. If it leaks +out we lose." + +"I'm a clam, Sam. Do you want I should speak of it to Landor and James?" + +"Better wait till we get together." + +"What about Ward? He's always been with us." + +"He talks too much. We can take him in at the last minute if we like." + +"That would be better. I ain't so sure about Reedy, either. He's straight +as a string, of course; not a crooked hair in his head. But when he gets to +drinking he's likely to let things out." + +"You're right. We'll leave him out, too, until the last minute. There's +another thing I've thought of. Ridgway can't win. At least I don't see how +he can control more than twenty five votes. Suppose at the very last moment +we make a deal with him and with the Democrats to pool our votes on some +square man. With Waring it's anything to beat the Consolidated. He'll jump +at the chance if he's sure he is out of the running himself. Those of the +Democrats that Harley can't buy will be glad to beat his man. I don't say +it can be done, Jack. All I say is that it is worth a trial." + +"You bet." + +They met that night in Yesler's rooms round a card-table. The hands were +dealt for form's sake, since there were spies everywhere, and it was +necessary to ring for cigars and refreshments occasionally to avoid +suspicion. They were all cattlemen, large or small, big outdoors sunburned +men, who rode the range in the spring and fall with their punchers and +asked no odds of any man. + +Until long past midnight they talked the details over, and when they +separated in the small hours it was with a well-defined plan to save the +State from its impending disgrace if the thing could be done. + + + +CHAPTER 15. LASKA OPENS A DOOR + +The first ballots for a United States senator taken by the legislature in +joint session failed to disclose the alignment of some of the doubtful +members. The Democratic minority of twenty-eight votes were cast for +Springer, the senator whose place would be taken by whoever should win in +the contest now on. Warner received forty-four, Ridgway twenty-six, eight +went to Pascom, a former governor whom the cattlemen were supporting, and +the remaining three were scattered. Each day one ballot was taken, and for +a week there was a slight sifting down of the complimentary votes until at +the end of it the count stood: + +Warner 45 +Ridgway 28 +Springer 28 +Pascom 8 + +Warner still lacked ten votes of an election, but It was pretty thoroughly +understood that several of the Democratic minority were waiting only long +enough for a colorable excuse to switch to him. All kinds of rumors were in +the air as to how many of these there were. The Consolidated leaders boldly +claimed that they had only to give the word to force the election of their +candidate on any ballot. Yesler did not believe this claim could be +justified, since Pelton and Harley were already negotiating with him for +the delivery of the votes belonging to the cattlemen's contingent. + +He had held off for some time with hints that it would take a lot of money +to swing the votes of such men as Roper and Landor, but he had finally come +to an agreement that the eight votes should be given to Warner for a +consideration of $300,000. This was to be paid to Yesler in the presence of +the other seven members on the night before the election, and was to be +held in escrow by him and Roper until the pact was fulfilled, the money to +be kept in a safety deposit vault with a key in possession of each of the +two. + +On the third day of the session, before the voting had begun, Stephen +Eaton, who was a State senator from Mesa, moved that a committee be +appointed to investigate the rumors of bribery that were so common. The +motion caught the Consolidated leaders napping, for this was the last man +they had expected to propose such a course, and it went through with little +opposition, as a similar motion did in the House at the same time. The +lieutenant-governor and the speaker of the House were both opposed to +Warner, and the joint committee had on it the names of no Consolidated men. +The idea of such a committee had originated with Ridgway, and had been +merely a bluff to show that he at least was willing that the world should +know the whole story of the election. Nor had this committee held even +formal meetings before word reached Eaton through Yesler that if it would +appoint a conference in some very private place, evidence would be +submitted implicating agents of the Warner forces in attempts at bribery. + +It was close to eleven o'clock when Sam Yesler stepped quietly from a side +door of his hotel and slipped into the street. He understood perfectly that +in following the course he did, he was taking his life in his hands. The +exposure of the bribery traffic would blast forever the reputations of many +men who had hitherto held a high place in the community, and he knew the +temper of some of them well enough to be aware that an explosion was +probable. Spies had been dogging him ever since the legislature convened. +Within an hour one of them would be flying to Pelton with the news that he +was at a meeting of the committee, and all the thugs of the other side +would be turned loose on his heels. As he walked briskly through the +streets toward the place appointed, his hand lay on the hilt of a revolver +in the outside pocket of his overcoat. He was a man who would neither seek +trouble nor let it overwhelm him. If his life were attempted, he meant to +defend it to the last. + +He followed side streets purposely, and his footsteps echoed along the +deserted road. He knew he was being dogged, for once, when he glanced back, +he caught sight of a skulking figure edging along close to a wall. The +sight of the spy stirred his blood. Grimly he laughed to himself. They +might murder him for what he was doing, but not in time to save the +exposure which would be brought to light on the morrow. + +The committee met at a road-house near the outskirts of the city, but only +long enough to hear Yesler's facts and to appoint another meeting for three +hours later at the offices of Eaton. For the committee had come here for +secrecy, and they knew that it would be only a short time before Pelton's +heelers would be down upon them in force. It was agreed they should divide +and slip quietly back to town, wait until everything was quiet and convene +again. Meanwhile Eaton would make arrangements to see that his offices +would be sufficiently guarded for protection against any attack. + +Yesler walked back to town and was within a couple of blocks of his hotel +when he glimpsed two figures crouching against the fence of the alley. He +stopped in his tracks, watched them intently an instant, and was startled +by a whistle from the rear. He knew at once his retreat, too, was cut off, +and without hesitation vaulted the fence in front of a big gray stone house +he was passing. A revolver flashed from the alley, and he laughed with a +strange kind of delight. His thought was to escape round the house, but +trellis work barred the way, and he could not open the gate. + +"Trapped, by Jove," he told himself coolly as a bullet struck the trellis +close to his head. + +He turned back, ran up the steps of the porch and found momentary safety in +the darkness of its heavy vines. But this he knew could not last. Running +figures were converging toward him at a focal point. He could hear oaths +and cries. Some one was throwing aimless shots from a revolver at the +porch. + +He heard a window go up in the second story and a woman's frightened voice +ask. "What is it? Who is there?" + +"Let me in. I'm ambushed by thugs," he called back. + +"There he is--in the doorway," a voice cried out of the night, and it was +followed by a spatter of bullets about him. + +He fired at a man leaping the fence. The fellow tumbled back with a kind of +scream. + +"God! I'm hit." + +He could hear steps coming down the stairway and fingers fumbling at the +key of the door. His attackers were gathering for a rush, and he wondered +whether the rescue was to be too late. They came together, the opening door +and the forward pour of huddled figures. He stepped back into the hall. + +There was a raucous curse, a shot, and Yesler had slammed the door shut. He +was alone in the darkness with his rescuer. + +"We must get out of here. They're firing through the door," he said, and +"Yes" came faintly back to him from across the hall. + +"Do you know where the switch is?" he asked, wondering whether she was +going to be such an idiot as to faint at this inopportune moment. + +His answer came in a flood of light, and showed him a young woman crouched +on the hall-rack a dozen feet from the switch. She was very white, and +there was a little stain of crimson on the white lace of her sleeve. + +A voice from the landing above demanded quickly, "Who are you, sir?" and +after he had looked up', cried in surprise, "Mr. Yesler." + +"Miss Balfour," he replied. "I'll explain later. I'm afraid the lady has +been hit by a bullet." + +He was already beside his rescuer. She looked at him with a trace of a +tired smile and said: + +"In my arm." + +After which she fainted. He picked up the young woman, carried her to the +stairs, and mounted them. + +"This way," said Virginia, leading him into a bedroom, the door of which +was open. + +He observed with surprise that she, too, was dressed in evening clothes, +and rightly surmised that they had just come back from some social +function. + +"Is it serious?" asked Virginia, when he had laid his burden on the bed. + +She was already clipping with a pair of scissors the sleeve from round the +wound. + +"It ought not to be," he said after he had examined it. "The bullet has +scorched along the fleshy part of the forearm. We must telephone for a +doctor at once." + +She did so, then found water and cotton for bandages, and helped him make a +temporary dressing. The patient recovered consciousness under the touch of +the cold water, and asked: what was the matter. + +"You have been hurt a little, but not badly I think. Don't you remember? +You came down and opened the door to let me in." + +"They were shooting at you. What for?" she wanted to know. + +He smiled. "Don't worry about that. It's all over with. I'm sorry you were +hurt in saving me," said Yesler gently. + +"Did I save you?" The gray eyes showed a gleam of pleasure. + +"You certainly did." + +"This is Mr. Yesler, Laska. Mr. Yesler--Miss Lowe. I think you have never +met." + +"Never before to-night," he said, pinning the bandage in place round the +plump arm. "There. That's all just now, ma'am. Did I hurt you very much?" + +The young woman felt oddly exhilarated. "Not much. I'll forgive you if +you'll tell me all about the affair. Why did they want to hurt you?" + +His big heart felt very tender toward this girl who had been wounded for +him, but he showed it only by a smiling deference. + +"You're right persistent, ma'am. You hadn't ought to be bothering your head +about any such thing, but if you feel that way I'll be glad to tell you." + +He did. While they sat there and waited for the coming of the doctor, he +told her the whole story of his attempt to stop the corruption that was +eating like a canker at the life of the State. He was a plain man, not in +the least eloquent, and he told his story without any sense that he had +played any unusual part. In fact, he was ashamed that he had been forced to +assume a role which necessitated a kind of treachery to those who thought +they had bought him. + +Laska Lowe's eyes shone with the delight his tale inspired in her. She +lived largely in the land of ideals, and this fight against wrong moved her +mightily. She could feel for him none of the shame which he felt for +himself at being mixed up in so bad a business. He was playing a man's +part, had chosen it at risk of his life. That was enough. In every fiber of +her, she was glad that good fortune had given her the chance to bear a part +of the battle. In her inmost heart she was even glad that to the day of her +death she must bear the scar that would remind her she had suffered in so +good a cause. + +Virginia, for once obliterating herself, perceived how greatly taken they +were with each other. At bottom, nearly every woman is a match-maker. This +one was no exception. She liked both this man and this woman, and her fancy +had already begun to follow her hopes. Never before had Laska appeared to +show much interest in any of the opposite sex with whom her friend had seen +her. Now she was all enthusiasm, had forgotten completely the pain of her +wound in the spirit's glow. + +"She loved me for the danger I had pass'd, + And I loved her that she did pity them. + This only is the witchcraft I have us'd.'" + +Virginia quoted softly to herself, her eyes on the young woman so finely +unconscious of the emotion that thrilled her. + +Not until the clock in the hall below struck two did Yesler remember his +appointment in the Ridgway Building. The doctor had come and was about to +go. He suggested that if Yesler felt it would be safe for him to go, they +might walk across to the hotel together. + +"And leave us alone." Laska could have bitten her tongue after the words +were out. + +Virginia explained. "The Leighs are out of the city to-night, and it +happens that even the servants are gone. I asked Miss Lowe to stay with me +all night, but, of course, she feels feverish and nervous after this +excitement. Couldn't you send a man to watch the rest of the night out in +the house?" + +"Why don't You stay, Mr. Yesler?" the doctor suggested. "You could sleep +here, no doubt." + +"You might have your meeting here. It is neutral ground. I can phone to Mr. +Ridgway," proposed Virginia in a low voice to Yesler. + +"Doesn't that seem to imply that I'm afraid to leave?" laughed Yesler. + +"It implies that we are afraid to have you. Laska would worry both on your +account and our own. I think you owe it to her to stay." + +"Oh, if that's the way it strikes you," he agreed. "Fact is, I don't quite +like to leave you anyhow. We'll take Leigh's study. I don't think we shall +disturb you at all." + +"I'm sure you won't--and before you go, you'll let us know what you have +decided to do." + +"We shall not be through before morning. You'll be asleep by then," he made +answer. + +"No, I couldn't sleep till I know all about it." + +"Nor I," agreed Laska. "I want to know all about everything." + +"My dear young lady, you are to take the sleeping-powders and get a good +rest," the doctor demurred. "All about everything is too large an order for +your good just now." + +Virginia nodded in a businesslike way. "Yes, you're to go to sleep, Laska, +and when you waken I'll tell you all about it." + +"That would be better," smiled Yesler, and Virginia thought it significant +that her friend made no further protest. + +Gray streaks began to show in the sky before Yesler tapped on the door of +Virginia's room. She had discarded the rather elaborate evening gown he had +last seen her in, and was wearing some soft fabric which hung from the +shoulders in straight lines, and defined the figure while lending the +effect of a loose and flowing drapery. + +"How is your patient?" he asked. + +"She has dropped into a good sleep," the girl whispered. "I am sure we +don't need to worry about her at all." + +"Nevertheless, it's a luxury I'm going to permit myself for a day or two," +he smiled. "I don't have my life saved by a young lady very often." + +"I'm sure you will enjoy worrying about her," she laughed. + +He got back at her promptly. "There's somebody down-stairs worrying about +you. He wants to know if there is anything he can do for you, and suggests +inviting himself for breakfast in order to make sure." + +"Mr. Ridgway?" + +"How did you guess it first crack? Mr. Ridgway it is." + +She considered a moment. "Yes, tell him to stay. Molly will be back in time +to make breakfast, and I want to talk to him. Now tell me what you did." + +"We did Mr. Warner. At least I hope so," he chuckled. + +"I'm so glad. And who is to be senator? Is it Waring?" + +"No. It wouldn't have been possible to elect him even if we had wanted to." + +"And you didn't want to," she flashed. + +"No, we didn't," he admitted frankly. "We couldn't afford to have it +generally understood that this was merely a partisan fight on the +Consolidated, and that we were pulling Waring's chestnuts out of the fire +for him." + +He did not add, though he might have, that Ridgway was tarred with the same +brush as the enemy in this matter. + +"Then who is it to be?" + +"That's a secret. I can't tell even you that. But we have agreed on a man. +Waring is to withdraw and throw his influence for him. The Democratic +minority will swing in line for him, and we'll do the rest. That's the +plan. It may not go through, however." + +"I don't see who it can be that you all unite on. Of course, it isn't Mr. +Pelton?" + +"I should hope not." + +"Or Mr. Samuel Yesler?" + +"You've used up all the guesses allowed you. If you want to know, why don't +you attend the joint session to-day? It ought to be highly interesting." + +"I shall," she announced promptly. "And I'll bring Laska with me." + +"She won't be able to come." + +"I think she will. It's only a scratch." + +"I don't like to think how much worse it might have been." + +"Then don't think of it. Tell Waring I'll be down presently." + +He went down-stairs again, and Miss Balfour returned to the room. + +"Was that Mr. Yesler?" quietly asked a voice from the bed. + +"Yes, dear. He has gone back to the hotel. He asked about you, of course." + +"He is very kind." + +"It was thoughtful, since you only saved his life," admitted the ironical +Miss Balfour. + +"Wasn't it fortunate that we were up?" + +"Very fortunate for him that you were." + +Virginia crossed the room to the bed and kissed her friend with some subtle +significance too elusive for words. Laska appeared, however to appreciate +it. At least, she blushed. + + + +CHAPTER 16. AN EXPLOSION IN THE TAURUS + +The change of the relationship between Ridgway and his betrothed, brought +about by the advent of a third person into his life, showed itself in the +manner of their greeting. She had always been chary of lovers' +demonstrations, but until his return from Alpine he had been wont to exact +his privilege in spite of her reluctance. Now he was content with the hand +she offered him. + +"You've had a strenuous night of it," he said, after a glance at the rather +wan face she offered the new day. + +"Yes, we have--and for that matter, I suppose you have, too." + +Man of iron that he was, he looked fresh as morning dew. With his usual +lack of self-consciousness, he had appropriated Leigh's private bath, and +was glowing from contact with ice-cold water and a crash towel. + +"We've been making history," he agreed. "How's your friend?" + +"She has no fever at all. It was only a scratch. She will be down to +breakfast in a minute." + +"Good. She must be a thoroughbred to come running down into the bullets for +a stranger she has never seen." + +"She is. You'll like Laska." + +"I'm glad she saved Sam from being made a colander. I can't help liking +him, though he doesn't approve of me very much." + +"I suppose not." + +"He is friendly, too." Ridgway laughed as he recalled their battle over who +should be the nominee. "But his conscience rules him. It's a free and +liberal conscience, generally speaking--nothing Puritan about it, but a +distinctive product of the West. Yet, he would not have me for senator at +any price." + +"Why?" + +"Didn't think I was fit to represent the people; said if I went in, it +would be to use the office for my personal profit." + +"Wasn't he right?" + +"More or less. If I were elected, I would build up my machine, of course, +but I would see the people got a show, too." + +She nodded agreement. "I don't think you would make a bad senator." + +"I would be a live wire, anyhow. Sam had other objections to me. He thought +I had been using too much money in this campaign." + +"And have you?" she asked, curious to see how he would defend himself. + +"Yes. I had to if I were going to stand any chance. It wasn't from choice. +I didn't really want to be senator. I can't afford to give the time to it, +but I couldn't afford to let Harley name the man either. I was between the +devil and the deep sea." + +"Then, really, Mr. Yesler came to your rescue." + +"That's about it, though he didn't intend it that way." + +"And who is to be the senator?" + +He gave her a cynical smile. "Warner." + +"But I thought--why, surely he--" The surprise of his cool announcement +took her breath away. + +"No, he isn't the man our combination decided on, but the trouble is that +our combination is going to fall through. Sam's an optimist, but you'll see +I'm right. There are too many conflicting elements of us in one boat. We +can't lose three votes and win, and it's a safe bet we lose them. The +Consolidated must know by this time what we have been about all night. +They're busy now sapping at our weak links. Our only chance is to win on +the first vote, and I am very sure we won't be able to do it." + +"0h, I hope you are not right." A young woman was standing in the doorway, +her arm in a sling. She had come in time to hear his prophesy, and in the +disappointment of it had forgotten that he was a stranger. + +Virginia remedied this, and they went in to breakfast. Laska was full of +interest, and poured out eager questions at Ridgway. It was not for several +minutes that Virginia recollected to ask again who was the man they had +decided upon. + +Her betrothed found some inner source of pleasure that brought out a +sardonic smile. "He's a slap in the face at both Harley and me." + +"I can't think who--is he honest?" + +"As the day." + +"And capable?" + +"Oh, yes. He's competent enough." + +"Presentable?" + +"Yes. He'll do the State credit, or rather he would if he were going to be +elected." + +"Then I give it up." + +He was leaning forward to tell, when the sharp buzz of the electric +door-bell, continued and sustained, diverted the attention of all of them. + +Ridgway put down his napkin. "Probably some one to see me." + +He had risen to his feet when the maid opened the door of the dining-room. + +"A gentleman to see Mr. Ridgway. He says it is very important." + +From the dining-room they could hear the murmur of quick voices, and soon +Ridgway returned. He was a transformed man. His eyes were hard as diamonds, +and there was the bulldog look of the fighter about his mouth and chin. + +"What is it, Waring?" cried Virginia. + +"Trouble in the mines. An hour ago Harley's men rushed the Taurus and the +New York, and drove my men out. One of my shift-foremen and two of his +drillers were killed by an explosion set off by Mike Donleavy, a foreman in +the Copper King." + +"Did they mean to kill them?" asked the girl whitely. + +"I suppose not. But they took the chance. It's murder just the same--by +Jove, it's a club with which to beat the legislators into line." + +He stopped, his brain busy solving the problem as to how he might best turn +this development to his own advantage. Part of his equipment was his +ability to decide swiftly and surely issues as they came to him. Now he +strode to the telephone and began massing his forces. + +"Main 234--Yes--Yes--This the Sun?-- + +Give me Brayton--Hello, Brayton. Get out a special edition at once charging +Harley with murder. Run the word as a red headline clear across the page. +Show that Vance Edwards and the other boys were killed while on duty by an +attack ordered by Harley. Point out that this is the logical result of his +course. Don't mince words. Give it him right from the shoulder. Rush it, +and be sure a copy of the paper is on the desk of every legislator before +the session opens this morning. Have a reliable man there to see that every +man gets one. Scatter the paper broadcast among the miners, too. This is +important." + +He hung up the receiver, took it down again, and called up Eaton. + +"Hello! This you, Steve? Send for Trelawney and Straus right away. Get them +to call a mass meeting of the unions for ten o'clock at the courthouse +square. Have dodgers printed and distributed announcing it. Shut down all +our mines so that the men can come. I want Straus and Trelawney and two or +three of the other prominent labor leaders to denounce Harley and lay the +responsibility for this thing right at his door. I'll be up there and +outline what they had better say." + +He turned briskly round to the young women, his eyes shining with a hard +bright light. "I'm sorry, but I have got to cut out breakfast this morning. +Business is piling up on me too fast. If you'll excuse me, I'll go now." + +"What are you going to do?" asked Virginia. + +"I haven't time to tell you now. Just watch my smoke," he laughed without +mirth. + +No sooner did the news of the tragedy reach Simon Harley than he knew the +mistake of his subordinates would be a costly one. The foreman, Donleavy, +who had directed the attack on the Taurus, had to be brought from the +shafthouse under the protection of a score of Pinkerton detectives to +safeguard him from the swift vengeance of the miners, who needed but a word +to fling themselves against the cordon of police. Harley himself kept his +apartments, the hotel being heavily patrolled by guards on the lookout for +suspicious characters. The current of public opinion, never in his favor, +now ran swiftly against him, and threats were made openly by the infuriated +miners to kill him on sight. + +The members of the unions came to the massmeeting reading the story of the +tragedy as the Sun colored the affair. They stayed sullenly to listen to +red-hot speeches against the leader of the trust, and gradually the wrath +which was simmering in them began to boil. Ridgway, always with a keen +sense of the psychological moment, descended the court-house steps just as +this fury was at its height. There were instant cries for a speech from him +so persistent that he yielded, though apparently with reluctance. His fine +presence and strong deep voice soon gave him the ears of all that dense +throng. He was far out of the ordinary as a public speaker, and within a +few minutes he had his audience with him. He deprecated any violence; spoke +strongly for letting the law take its course; and dropped a suggestion that +they send a committee to the State-house to urge that Harley's candidate be +defeated for the senatorship. + +Like wild-fire this hint spread. Here was something tangible they could do +that was still within the law. Harley had set his mind on electing Warner. +They would go up there in a body and defeat his plans. Marshals and leaders +of companies were appointed. They fell into ranks by fours, nearly ten +thousand of them all told. The big clock in the court-house was striking +twelve when they began their march to the Statehouse. + + + +CHAPTER 17. THE ELECTION + +At the very moment that the tramp of twenty thousand feet turned toward the +State-house, the report of the bribery investigating committee was being +read to the legislature met in joint session. The committee reported that +it had examined seven witnesses, Yesler, Roper, Landor, James, Reedy, +Kellor, and Ward, and that each of then had testified that former +Congressman Pelton or others had approached him on behalf of Warner; that +an agreement had been made by which the eight votes being cast for Bascom +would be give to Warner in consideration of $300,000 in cash, to be held in +escrow by Yesler, and that the committee now had the said package, supposed +to contain the bills for that amount, in its possession, and was prepared +to turn it over to the legislature for examination. + +Except for the clerk's voice, as he read the report, a dead silence lay +tensely over the crowded hall. Men dared not look at their neighbors, +scarce dared breathe, for the terror that hung heavy on their hearts. +Scores were there who expected their guilt to be blazoned forth for all the +world to read. They waited whitely as the monotonous voice of the clerk +went from paragraph to paragraph, and when at last he sat down, having +named only the bribers and not the receivers of bribes, a long deep sigh of +relief swept the house. Fear still racked them, but for the moment they +were safe. Furtively their glances began to go from one to another of their +neighbors and ask for how long safety would endure. + +One could have heard the rustle of a leaf as the chairman of the committee +stepped forward and laid on the desk of the presiding officer the +incriminating parcel. It seemed an age while the chief clerk opened it, +counted the bills, and announced that one hundred thousand dollars was the +sum contained within. + +Stephen Eaton then rose in his seat and presented quietly his resolution, +that since the evidence submitted was sufficient to convict of bribery, the +judge of the district court of the County of Mesa be requested to call a +special session of the grand jury to investigate the report. It was not +until Sam Yesler rose to speak upon that report that the pent-up storm +broke loose. + +He stood there in the careless garb of the cattleman, a strong clean-cut +figure as one would see in a day's ride, facing with unflinching steel-blue +eyes the tempest of human passion he had evoked. The babel of voices rose +and fell and rose again before he could find a chance to make himself +heard. In the gallery two quietly dressed young, women, one of them with +her arm in a sling, leaned forward breathlessly and waited Laska's eyes +glowed with deep fire. She was living her hour of hours, and the man who +stood with such quiet courage the focus of that roar of rage was the hero +of it. + +"You call me Judas, and I ask you what Christ I have betrayed. You call me +traitor, but traitor to what? Like you, I am under oath to receive no +compensation for my services here other than that allowed by law. To that +oath I have been true. Have you? + +"For many weeks we have been living in a carnival of bribery, in a +debauched hysteria of money-madness. The souls of men have been sifted as +by fire. We have all been part and parcel of a man-hunt, an eager, furious, +persistent hunt that has relaxed neither night nor day. The lure of gold +has been before us every waking hour, and has pursued us into our dreams. +The temptation has been ever-present. To some it has been irresistible, to +some maddening, to others, thank God! it has but proved their strength. Our +hopes, our fears, our loves, our hates: these seducers of honor have +pandered to them all. Our debts and our business, our families and our +friendships, have all been used to hound us. To-day I put the stigma for +this shame where it belongs--upon Simon Harley, head of the Consolidated +and a score of other trusts, and upon Waring Ridgway, head of the Mesa +Ore-producing Company. These are the debauchers of our commonwealth's fair +name, and you, alas! the traffickers who hope to live upon its virtue. I +call upon you to-day to pass this resolution and to elect a man to the +United States senate who shall owe no allegiance to any power except the +people, or to receive forever the brand of public condemnation. Are you +free men? Or do you wear the collar of the Consolidated, the yoke of Waring +Ridgway? The vote which you will cast to-day is an answer that shall go +flying to the farthest corner of your world, an answer you can never hope +to change so long as you live." + +He sat down in a dead silence. Again men drew counsel from their fears. The +resolution passed unanimously, for none dared vote against it lest he brand +himself as bought and sold. + +It was in this moment, while the hearts of the guilty were like water, that +there came from the lawn outside the roar of a multitude of voices. Swiftly +the word passed that ten thousand miner had come to see that Warner was not +elected. That they were in a dangerous frame of mind, all knew. It was a +passionate undisciplined mob and to thwart them would have been to invite a +riot. + +Under these circumstances the joint assembly proceeded to ballot for a +senator. The first name called was that of Adams. He was an old cattleman +and a Democrat. + +"Before voting, I want to resign my plate a few moments to Mr. Landor, of +Kit Carson County," he said. + +Landor was recognized, a big broad-shouldered plainsman with a leathery +face as honest as the sun. He was known and liked by everybody, even by +those opposed to him. + +"I'm going to make a speech," he announced with the broad smile that showed +a flash of white teeth. "I reckon it'll be the first I ever made here, and +I promise it will be the last, boys. But I won't keep you long, either. You +all know how things have been going; how men have been moving in and out +and buying men here like as if they were cattle on the hoof. You've seen +it, and I've seen it. But we didn't have the nerve to say it should stop. +One man did. He's the biggest man in this big State to-day, and it ain't +been five minutes since I heard you hollar your lungs out cursing him. You +know who I mean--Sam Yesler." + +He waited till the renewed storm of cheers and hisses had died away. + +"It don't do him any harm for you to hollar at him, boys--not a mite. I +want to say to you that he's a man. He saw our old friends falling by the +wayside and some of you poor weaklings selling yourselves for dollars. +Because he is an honest, game man, he set out to straighten things up. I +want to tell you that my hat's off to Sam Yesler. + +"But that ain't what I rose for. I'm going to name for the United States +senate a clean man, one who doesn't wear either the Harley or the Ridgway +brand. He's as straight as a string, not a crooked hair in his head, and +every manjack of you knows it. I'm going to name a man"--he stopped an +instant to smile genially around upon the circle of uplifted faces--"who +isn't any friend of either one faction or another, a man who has just had +independence enough to quit a big job because it wasn't on the square. That +man's name is Lyndon Hobart. If you want to do yourselves proud, gentlemen, +you'll certainly elect him." + +If it was a sensation he had wanted to create, he had it. The Warner forces +were taken with dumb surprise. But many of them were already swiftly +thinking it would be the best way out of a bad business. He would be +conservative, as fair to the Consolidated as to the enemy. More, just now +his election would appeal to the angry mob howling outside the building, +for they could ask nothing more than the election of the man who had +resigned rather than order the attack on the Taurus, which had resulted in +the death of some of their number. + +Hoyle, of the Democrats, seconded the nomination, as also did Eaton, in a +speech wherein he defended the course of Ridgway and withdrew his name. + +Within a few minutes of the time that Eaton sat down, the roll had been +called and Hobart elected by a vote of seventy-three to twenty-four, the +others refusing to cast a ballot. + +The two young women, sitting together in the front row of the gallery, were +glowing with triumphant happiness. Virginia was still clapping her hands +when a voice behind her suggested that the circumstances did not warrant +her being so happy over the result. She turned, to see Waring Ridgway +smiling down at her. + +"But I can't help being pleased. Wasn't Mr. Yesler magnificent?" + +"Sam was all right, though he might have eased up a bit when he pitched +into me." + +"He had to do that to be fair. Everybody knows you and he are friends. I +think it was fine of him not to let that make any difference in his telling +the truth." + +"Oh, I knew it would please you," her betrothed laughed. "What do you say +to going out to lunch with me? I'll get Sam, too, if I can." + +The young women consulted eyes and agreed very readily. Both of them +enjoyed being so near to the heart of things. + +"If Mr. Yesler will lunch with the debaucher of the commonwealth, we shall +be very happy to join the party," said Virginia demurely. + +Ridgway led them down to the floor of the House. Through the dense throng +they made their way slowly toward him, Ridgway clearing a path with his +broad shoulders. + +Suddenly they heard him call sharply, "Look out, Sam." + +The explosion of a revolver followed sharply his words. Ridgway dived +through the press, tossing men to right and left of him as a steamyacht +does the waves. Through the open lane he left in his wake, the young women +caught the meaning of the turmoil: the crumpled figure was Yesler swaying +into the arms of his friend, Roper, the furious drink-flushed face of +Pelton and the menace of the weapon poised for a second shot, the swift +impact of Waring's body, and the blow which sent the next bullet crashing +into the chandelier overhead. All this they glimpsed momentarily before the +press closed in on the tragic scene and cut off their view. + + + +CHAPTER 18. FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS + +While Harley had been in no way responsible for Pelton's murderous attack +upon Yesler, public opinion held him to account. The Pinkertons who had, up +till this time, been employed at the mines, were now moved to the hotel to +be ready for an emergency. A special train was held in readiness to take +the New Yorker out of the State in the event that the stockman should die. +Meanwhile, the harassing attacks of Ridgway continued. Through another +judge than Purcell, the absurd injunction against working the Diamond King, +the Mary K, and the Marcus Daly had been dissolved, but even this advantage +had been neutralized by the necessity of giving back to the enemy the +Taurus and the New York, of which he had just possessed himself. All his +life he had kept a wheather-eye upon the impulsive and fickle public. There +were times when its feeling could be abused with impunity, and other times +when this must be respected. Reluctantly, Harley gave the word for the +withdrawal of his men from the territory gained. Ridgway pushed his +advantage home and secured an injunction, not only against the working, but +against the inspection of the Copper King and the Jim Hill. The result of +the Consolidated move had been in effect to turn over, temporarily, its two +rich mines to be looted by the pirate, and to make him very much stronger +than before with his allies, the unions. By his own imprudence, Harley had +made a bad situation worse, and delivered himself, with his hands tied, +into the power of the enemy. + +In the days of turmoil that followed, Waring Ridgway's telling blows scored +once and again. The morning after the explosion, he started a relief fund +in his paper, the Sun, for the families of the dead miners, contributing +two thousand dollars himself. He also insisted that the Consolidated pay +damages to the bereaved families to the extent of twenty thousand dollars +for each man killed. The town rang with his praises. Mesa had always been +proud of his success; had liked the democratic spirit of him that led him +to mix on apparently equal terms with his working men, and had backed him +in his opposition to the trust because his plucky and unscrupulous fight +had been, in a measure, its fight. But now it idolized him. He was the +buffer between it and the trust, fighting the battles of labor against the +great octopus of Broadway, and beating it to a standstill. He was the Moses +destined to lead the working man out of the Egypt of his discontent. Had he +not maintained the standard of wages and forced the Consolidated to do the +same? Had he not declared an eight-hour day, and was not the trust almost +ready to do this also, forced by the impetus his example had given the +unions? So Ridgway's agents whispered, and the union leaders, whom he had +bought, took up the burden of their tale and preached it both in private +talk and in their speeches. + +In an attempt to stem the rising tide of denunciation that was spreading +from Mesa to the country at large, Harley announced an eight hour day and +an immense banquet to all the Consolidated employees in celebration of the +occasion. Ten thousand men sat down to the long tables, but when one of the +speakers injudiciously mentioned the name of Ridgway, there was steady +cheering for ten minutes. It was quite plain that the miners gave him the +credit for having forced the Consolidated to the eight-hour day. + +The verdict of the coroner's jury was that Vance Edwards and the other +deceased miners had come to their death at the hands of the foreman, +Michael Donleavy, at the instigation of Simon Harley. True bills were at +once drawn up by the prosecuting attorney of Mesa County, an official +elected by Ridgway, charging Harley and Donleavy with conspiracy, resulting +in the murder of Vance Edwards. The billionaire furnished bail for himself +and foreman, treating the indictments merely as part of the attacks of the +enemy. + +The tragedy in the Taurus brought to the surface a bitterness that had +hitherto not been apparent in the contest between the rival copper +interests. The lines of division became more sharply drawn, and every +business man in Mesa was forced to declare himself on one side or the +other. Harley scattered detectives broadcast and imported five hundred +Pinkertons to meet any emergency that might arise. The spies of the +Consolidated were everywhere, gathering evidence against the Mesa +Ore-producing Company, its conduct of the senatorial campaign, its judges, +and its supporters Criminal indictments flew back and forth thick as +snowflakes in a Christmas storm. + +It began to be noticed that an occasional foreman, superintendent, or +mining engineer was slipping from the employ of Ridgway to that of the +trust, carrying secrets and evidence that would be invaluable later in the +courts. Everywhere the money of the Consolidated, scattered lavishly where +it would do the most good, attempted to sap the loyalty of the followers of +the other candidates. Even Eaton was approached with the offer of a bribe. + +But Ridgway's potent personality had built up an esprit de corps not +easily to be broken. The adventurers gathered to his side were, for the +most part, bound to him by ties personal in their nature. They were +financial fillibusters, pledged to stand or fall together, with an interest +in their predatory leader's success that was not entirely measurable in +dollars and cents. Nor was that leader the man to allow the organization he +had builded with such care to become disintegrated while he slept. His +alert eye and cheery smile were everywhere, instilling confidence in such +as faltered, and dread in those contemplating defection. + +He harassed his rival with an audacity that was almost devilish in its +unexpected ingenuity. For the first time in his life Simon Harley, the town +back on the defensive by a combination of circumstances engineered by a +master brain, knew what it was to be checkmated. He had hot the least doubt +of ultimate victory, but the tentative success of the brazen young +adventurer, were gall and wormwood to his soul. He had made money his god, +had always believed it would buy anything worth while except life, but this +Western buccaneer had taught him it could not purchase the love of a woman +nor the immediate defeat of a man so well armed as Waring Ridgway. In +truth, though Harley stuck at nothing, his success in accomplishing the +destruction of this thorn in his side was no more appreciable than had been +that of Hobart. The Westerner held his own and more, the while he robbed +the great trust of its ore under cover of the courts. + +In the flush of success, Ridgway, through his lieutenant, Eaton, came to +Judge Purcell asking that a receiver be appointed for the Consolidated +Supply Company, a subsidiary branch of the trust, on the ground that its +affairs were not being properly administered. The Supply Company had paid +dividends ranging from fifteen to twenty-five per cent for many years, but +Ridgway exercised his right as a stockholder to ask for a receivership. In +point of fact, he owned, in the name of Eaton, only one-tenth of one per +cent of the stock, but it was enough to serve. For Purcell was a bigoted +old Missourian, as courageous and obstinate as perfect health and ignorance +could make him. He was quite innocent of any legal knowledge, his own rule +of law being to hit a Consolidated head whenever he saw one. Lawyers might +argue themselves black in the face without affecting his serenity or his +justice. + +Purcell granted the application, as well as a restraining order against the +payment of dividends until further notice, and appointed Eaton receiver +over the protests of the Consolidated lawyers. + +Ridgway and Eaton left the court-room together, jubilant over their +success. They dined at a restaurant, and spent the evening at the +ore-producing company's offices, discussing ways and means. When they had +finished, his chief followed Eaton to the doors, an arm thrown +affectionately round his shoulder. + +"Steve, we're going to make a big killing. I was never so sure of anything +in my life as that we shall beat Simon Harley at his own game. We're bound +to win. We've got to win." + +"I wish I were as sure as you." + +"It's hard pounding does it, my boy. We'll drive him out of the Montana +copper-fields yet. We'll show him there is one little corner of the U. S. +where Simon Harley's orders don't go as the last word." + +"He has a hundred dollars to your one." + +"And I have youth and mining experience and the inside track, as well as +stancher friends than he ever dreamed of," laughed Ridgway, clapping the +other on the back. "Well, good night, Steve. Pleasant dreams, old man." + +The boyish secretary shook hands warmly. "You're a MAN, chief. If anybody +can pull us through it will be you." + +Triumphant confidence rang in the other's answering laugh. "You bet I can, +Steve," + + + +CHAPTER 19. ONE MILLION DOLLARS + +Eaton, standing on the street curb at the corner of the Ridgway Building, +lit a cigar while he hesitated between his rooms and the club. He decided +for the latter, and was just turning up the hill, when a hand covered his +mouth and an arm was flung around his neck in a stranglehold. He felt +himself lifted like a child, and presently discovered that he was being +whirled along the street in a closed carriage. + +"You needn't be alarmed, Mr. Eaton. We're not going to injure you in the +least," a low voice explained in his ear. "If you'll give me your word not +to cry out, I'll release your throat." + +Eaton nodded a promise, and, when he could find his voice, demanded: "Where +are you taking me?" + +"You'll see in a minute, sir. It's all right." + +The carriage turned into an alley and stopped. Eaton was led to a ladder +that hung suspended from the fire-escape, and was bidden to mount. He did +so, following his guide to the second story, and being in turn followed by +the other man. He was taken along a corridor and into the first of a suite +of rooms opening into it. He knew he was in the Mesa House, and suspected +at once that he was in the apartments of Simon Harley. + +His suspicion ripened to conviction when his captors led him through two +more rooms, into one fitted as an office. The billionaire sat at a desk, +busy over some legal papers he was reading, but he rose at once and came +forward with hand extended to meet Eaton. The young man took his hand +mechanically. + +"Glad to have the pleasure of talking with, you, Mr. Eaton. You must accept +my apologies for my methods of securing a meeting. They are rather +primitive, but since you declined to call and see me, I can hold only you +to blame." An acid smile touched his lips for a moment, though his eyes +were expressionless as a wall. "Mr. Eaton, I have brought you here in this +way to have a confidential talk with you, in order that it might not in any +way reflect upon you in case we do not come to an arrangement satisfactory +to both of us. Your friends cannot justly blame you for this conference, +since you could not avoid it. Mr. Eaton, take a chair." + +The wills of the two men flashed into each other's eyes like rapiers. The +weaker man knew that was before him and braced himself to meet it. He would +not sit down. He would not discuss anything. So he told himself once and +again to hold himself steady against the impulse to give way to those +imperious eyes behind which was the impassive, compelling will. + +"Sit down, Mr. Eaton." + +"I'll stand, Mr. Harley." + +"SIT DOWN." + +The cold jade eyes were not to be denied. Eaton's gaze fell sullenly, and +he slid into a chair. + +"I'll discuss no business except in the presence of Mr. Ridgway," he said +doggedly, falling back to his second line of defenses. + +"To the contrary, my business is with you and not with Mr. Ridgway." + +"I know of no business you can have with me." + +"Wherefore I have brought you here to acquaint you with it." + +The young man lifted his head reluctantly and waited. If he had been +willing to confess it to himself, he feared greatly this ruthless spoiler +who had built up the greatest fortune in the world from thousands of +wrecked lives. He felt himself choking, just as if those skeleton fingers +had been at his throat. but he promised himself ever to yield. + +The fathomless, dominant gaze caught and held his eyes. "Mr. Eaton, I came +here to crush Ridgway. I am going to stay here till I do. I'm going to wipe +him from the map of Montana-- ruin him so utterly that he can never +recover. It has been my painful duty to do this with a hundred men as +strong and as confident as he is. After undertaking such an enterprise, I +have never faltered and never relented. The men I have ruined were ruined +beyond hope of recovery. None of them have ever struggled to their feet +again. I intend to make Waring Ridgway a pauper." + +Stephen Eaton could have conceived nothing more merciless than this man's +callous pronouncement, than the calm certainty of his unemphasized words. +He started to reply, but Harley took the words out of his mouth. + +"Don't make a mistake. Don't tie to the paltry successes he has gained. I +have not really begun to fight yet." + +The young man had nothing to say. His heart was water. He accepted Harley's +words as true, for he had told himself the same thing a hundred times. Why +had Ridgway rejected the overtures of this colossus of finance? It had been +the sheerest folly born of madness to suppose that anybody could stand +against him. + +"For Ridgway, the die is cast," the iron voice went on. "He is doomed +beyond hope. But there is still a chance for you. What do you consider your +interest in the Mesa Ore-producing Company worth, Mr. Eaton?" + +The sudden question caught Eaton with the force of a surprise. "About three +hundred thousand dollars," he heard himself say; and it seemed to him that +his voice was speaking the words without his volition. + +"I'm going to buy you out for twice that sum. Furthermore, I'm going to +take care of your future--going to see that you have a chance to rise." + +The waverer's will was in flux, but the loyalty in him still protested. "I +can't desert my chief, Mr. Harley." + +"Do you call it desertion to leave a raging madman in a sinking boat after +you have urged him to seek the safety of another ship?" + +"He made me what I am." + +"And I will make you ten times what you are. With Ridgway you have no +chance to be anything but a subordinate. He is the Mesa Ore-producing +Company, and you are merely a cipher. I offer your individuality a chance. +I believe in you, and know you to be a strong man." No ironic smile touched +Harley's face at this statement. "You need a chance, and I offer it to you. +For your own sake take it." + +Every grievance Eaton had ever felt against his chief came trooping to his +mind. He was domineering. He did ride rough-shod over his allies' opinions +and follow the course he had himself mapped out. All the glory of the +victory he absorbed as his due. In the popular opinion, Eaton was as a +farthing-candle to a great electric search-light in comparison with +Ridgway. + +"He trusts me," the tempted man urged weakly. He was slipping, and he knew +it, even while he assured himself he would never betray his chief. + +"He would sell you out to-morrow if it paid him. And what is he but a +robber? Every dollar of his holdings is stolen from me. I ask only +restitution of you--and I propose to buy at twice, nay at three times, the +value of your stolen property. You owe that freebooter no loyalty." + +"I can't do it. I can't do it." + +"You shall do it." Harley dominated him as bullying schoolmaster does a +cringing boy under the lash. + +"I can't do it," the young man repeated, all his weak will flung into the +denial. + +"Would you choose ruin?" + +"Perhaps. I don't know," he faltered miserable. + +"It's merely a business proposition, young man. The stock you have to sell +is valuable to-day. Reject my offer, and a month from now it will be quoted +on the market at half its present figure, and go begging at that. It will +be absolutely worthless before I finish. You are not selling out Ridgway. +He is a ruined man, anyway. But you--I am going to save you in spite of +yourself. I am going to shake you from that robber's clutches." + +Eaton got to his feet, pallid and limp as a rag. "Don't tempt me," he cried +hoarsely. "I tell you I can't do it, sir." + +Harley's cold eye did not release him for an instant. "One million dollars +and an assured future, or--absolute, utter ruin, complete and final." + +"He would murder me--and he ought to," groaned the writhing victim. + +"No fear of that. I'll put you where he can't reach you. Just sign your +name to this paper, Mr. Eaton." + +"I didn't agree. I didn't say I would." + +"Sign here. Or, wait one moment, till I get witnesses." Harley touched a +bell, and his secretary appeared in the doorway. "Ask Mr. Mott and young +Jarvis to step this way." + +Harley held out the pen toward Eaton, looking steadily at him. In a strong +man the human eye is a sword among weapons. Eaton quailed. The fingers of +the unhappy wretch went out mechanically for the pen. He was sweating +terror and remorse, but the essential weakness of the man could not stand +out unbacked against the masterful force of this man's imperious will. He +wrote his name in the places directed, and flung down the pen like a child +in a rage. + +"Now get me out of Montana before Ridgway knows," he cried brokenly. + +"You may leave to-morrow night, Mr. Eaton. You'll only have to appear in +court once personally. We'll arrange it quietly for to-morrow afternoon. +Ridgway won't know until it is done and you are gone." + + + +CHAPTER 20. A LITTLE LUNCH AT APHONSE'S + +It chanced that Ridgway, through the swinging door of a department store, +caught a glimpse of Miss Balfour as he was striding along the street. He +bethought him that it was the hour of luncheon, and that she was no end +better company than the revamped noon edition of the morning paper. +Wherefore he wheeled into the store and interrupted her inspection of +gloves. + +"I know the bulliest little French restaurant tucked away in a side street +just three blocks from here. The happiness disseminated in this world by +that chef's salads will some day carry him past St. Peter with no questions +asked." + +"You believe in salvation by works?" she parried, while she considered his +invitation. + +"So will you after a trial of Alphonse's salad." + +"Am I to understand that I am being invited to a theological discussion of +a heavenly salad concocted by Father Alphonse?" + +"That is about the specifications." + +"Then I accept. For a week my conscience has condemned me for excess of +frivolity. You offer me a chance to expiate without discomfort. That is my +idea of heaven. I have always believed it a place where one pastures in +rich meadows of pleasure, with penalties and consciences all excluded from +its domains." + +"You should start a church," he laughed. "It would have a great +following--especially if you could operate your heaven this side of the +Styx." + +She found his restaurant all he had claimed, and more. The little corner of +old Paris set her eyes shining. The fittings were Parisian to the least +detail. Even the waiter spoke no English. + +"But I don't see how they make it pay. How did he happen to come here? Are +there enough people that appreciate this kind of thing in Mesa to support +it?" + +He smiled at her enthusiasm. "Hardly. The place has a scarce dozen of +regular patrons. Hobart comes here a good deal. So does Eaton. But it +doesn't pay financially. You see, I know because I happen to own it. I used +to eat at Alphonse's restaurant in Paris. So I sent for him. It doesn't +follow that one has to be less a slave to the artificial comforts of a +supercivilized world because one lives at Mesa." + +"I see it doesn't. You are certainly a wonderful man." + +"Name anything you like. I'll warrant Alphonse can make good if it is not +outside of his national cuisine," he boasted. + +She did not try his capacity to the limit, but the oysters, the salad, the +chicken soup were delicious, with the ultimate perfection that comes only +out of Gaul. + +They made a delightfully gay and intimate hour of it, and were still +lingering over their demi-tasse when Yesler's name was mentioned. + +"Isn't it splendid that he's doing so well?" cried the girl with +enthusiasm. "The doctor says that if the bullet had gone a fraction of an +inch lower, he would have died. Most men would have died anyhow, they say. +It was his clean outdoor life and magnificent constitution that saved him." + +"That's what pulled him through," he nodded. "It would have done his heart +good to see how many friends he had. His recovery was a continuous +performance ovation. It would have been a poorer world for a lot of people +if Sam Yesler had crossed the divide." + +"Yes. It would have been a very much poorer one for several I know." + +He glanced shrewdly at her. "I've learned to look for a particular +application when you wear that particularly sapient air of mystery." + +Her laugh admitted his hit. "Well, I was thinking of Laska. I begin to +think HER fair prince has come." + +"Meaning Yesler?" + +"Yes. She hasn't found it out herself yet. She only knows she is +tremendously interested." + +"He's a prince all right, though he isn't quite a fairy. The woman that +gets him will be lucky. + +"The man that gets Laska will be more that lucky," she protested loyally. + +"I dare say," he agreed carelessly. "But, then, good women are not so rare +as good men. There. are still enough of them left to save the world. But +when it comes to men like Sam--well, it would take a Diogenes to find +another." + +"I don't see how even Mr. Pelton, angry as he was, dared shoot him." + +"He had been drinking hard for a week. That will explain anything when you +add it to his, temperament. I never liked the fellow." + +"I suppose that is why you saved his life when the miners took him and were +going to lynch him?" + +"I would not have lifted a hand for him. That's the bald truth. But I +couldn't let the boys spoil the moral effect of their victory by so gross a +mistake. It would have been playing right into Harley's hands." + +"Can a man get over being drunk in five minutes? I never saw anybody more +sober than Mr. Pelton when the mob were crying for vengeance and you were +fighting them back." + +"A great shock will sober a man. Pelton is an errant coward, and he had +pretty good reason to think he had come to the end of the passage. The boys +weren't playing. They meant business." + +"They would not have listened to another man in the world except you," she +told him proudly. + +"It was really Sam they listened to--when he sent out the message asking +them to let the law have its way." + +"No, I think it was the way you handled the message. You're a wizard at a +speech, you know." + +"Thanks." + +He glanced up, for Alphonse was waiting at his elbow. + +"You're wanted on the telephone, monsieur." + +"You can't get away from business even for an hour, can you?" she rallied. +"My heaven ,wouldn't suit you at all, unless I smuggled in a trust for you +to fight." + +"I expect it is Eaton," he explained. "Steve phoned down to the office that +he isn't feeling well to-day. I asked him to have me called up here. If he +isn't better, I'm going to drop round and see him." + +But when she caught sight of his face as he returned she knew it was serious. + +"What's the matter? Is it Mr. Eaton? Is he very ill?" she cried. + +His face was set like broken ice refrozen. "Yes, it's Eaton. They say--but +it can't be true!" + +She had never seen him so moved. "What is it, Waring?" + +"The boy has sold me out. He is at the courthouse now, undoing my work--the +Judas!" + +The angry blood swept imperiously into her cheeks. "Don't waste any more +time with me, Waring. Go--go and save yourself from the traitor. Perhaps it +is not too late yet." + +He flung her a grateful look. "You're true blue, Virginia. Come! I'll leave +you at the store as we pass." + +The defection of Eaton bit his chief to the quick. The force of the blow +itself was heavy--how heavy he could not tell till he could take stock of +the situation. He could see that he would be thrown out of court in the +matter of the Consolidated Supply Company receivership, since Eaton's stock +would now be in the hands of the enemy. But what was of more importance was +the fact that Eaton's interest in the Mesa Ore-producing Company now +belonged to Harley, who could work any amount of mischief with it as a +lever for litigation. + +The effect, too, of the man's desertion upon the morale of the M. O. P. +forces must be considered and counteracted, if possible. He fancied he +could see his subordinates looking shiftyeyed at each other and wondering +who would slip away next. + +If it had been anybody but Steve! He would as soon have distrusted his +right hand as Steve Eaton. Why, he had made the man, had picked him out +when he was a mere clerk, and tied him to himself by a hundred favors. Up +on the Snake River he had saved Steve's life once when he was drowning. The +boy had always been as close to him as a brother. That Steve should turn +traitor was not conceivable. He knew all his intimate plans, stood second +to himself in the company. Oh, it was a numbing blow! Ridgway's sense of +personal loss and outrage almost obliterated for the moment his +appreciation of the business loss. + +The motion to revoke the receivership of the Supply Company was being +argued when Ridgway entered the court-room. Within a few minutes the news +had spread like wild-fire that Eaton was lined up with the Consolidated, +and already the paltry dozen of loafers in the court-room had swelled into +hundreds, all of them eager for any sensation that might develop. + +Ridgway's broad shoulders flung aside the crowd and opened a way to the +vacant chair waiting for him. One of his lawyers had the floor and was +flaying Eaton with a vitriolic tongue, the while men craned forward all +over the room to get a glimpse of the traitor's face. + +Eaton sat beside Mott, dry-lipped and pallid, his set eyes staring vacantly +into space. Once or twice he flung a furtive glance about him. His stripped +and naked soul was enduring a foretaste of the Judgment Day. The whip of +scorn with which the lawyer lashed him cut into his shrinking +sensibilities, and left him a welter of raw and livid wales. Good God! why +had he not known it would be like this? He was paying for his treachery and +usury, and it was being burnt into him that as the years passed he must +continue to pay in self-contempt and the distrust of his fellows. + +The case had come to a hearing before Judge Hughes, who was not one of +Ridgway's creatures. That on its merits it would be decided in favor of the +Consolidated was a foregone conclusion. It was after the judge had rendered +the expected decision that the dramatic moment of the day came to gratify +the seasoned court frequenters. + +Eaton, trying to slip as quietly as possible from the room, came face to +face with his former chief. For an interminable instant the man he had +betrayed, blocking the way squarely, held the trembling wretch in the blaze +of his scorn. Ridgway's contemptuous eyes sifted to the ingrate's soul +until it shriveled. Then he stood disdainfully to one side so that the man +might not touch him as he passed. + +Some one in the back of the room broke the tense silence and hissed: "The +damned Judas!" Instantly echoes of "Judas! Judas!" filled the room, and +pursued Eaton to his cab. It would be many years before he could recall +without scalding shame that moment when the finger of public scorn was +pointed at him in execration. + + +CHAPTER 21. HARLEY SCORES + +What Harley had sought in the subornation of Eaton had been as much the +moral effect of his defection as the tangible results themselves. If he +could shake the confidence of the city and State in the freebooter's +victorious star, he would have done a good day's work. He wanted the +impression to spread that Ridgway's success had passed its meridian. + +Nor did he fail of his purpose by more than a hair's breadth. The talk of +the street saw the beginning of the end. The common voice ran: "It's 'God +help Ridgway' now. He's down and out." + +But Waring Ridgway was never more dangerous than in apparent defeat. If he +were hit hard by Eaton's treachery, no sign of it was apparent in the +jaunty insouciance of his manner. Those having business with him expected +to find him depressed and worried, but instead met a man the embodiment of +vigorous and confident activity. If the subject were broached, he was ready +to laugh with them at Eaton's folly in deserting at the hour when victory +was assured. + +It was fortunate for Ridgway that the county elections came on early in the +spring and gave him a chance to show that his power was still intact. He +arranged to meet at once the political malcontents of the State who were +banded together against the growing influence of the Consolidated. He had a +few days before called together representative men from all parts of the +State to discuss a program of action against the enemy, and Ridgway gave a +dinner for them at the Quartzite, the evening of Eaton's defection. + +He was at the critical moment when any obvious irresolution would have been +fatal. His allies were ready to concede his defeat if he would let them. +But he radiated such an assured atmosphere of power, such an unconquerable +current of vigor, that they could not escape his own conviction of +unassailability. He was at his genial, indomitable best, the magnetic charm +of fellowship putting into eclipse the selfishness of the man. He had been +known to boast of his political exploits, of how he had been the Warwick +that had made and unmade governors and United States senators; but the +fraternal "we" to-night replaced his usual first person singular. + +The business interests of the Consolidated were supreme all over the State. +That corporation owned forests and mills and railroads and mines. It ran +sheep and cattle-ranches as well as stores and manufactories. Most of the +newspapers in the State were dominated by it. Of a population of two +hundred and fifty thousand, it controlled more than half directly by the +simple means of filling dinner-pails. That so powerful a corporation, +greedy for power and wealth, should create a strong but scattered hostility +in the course of its growth, became inevitable. This enmity Ridgway +proposed to consolidate into a political organization, with opposition to +the trust as its cohesive principle, that should hold the balance of power +in the State. + +When he rose to explain his object in calling them together, Ridgway's +clear, strong presentment of the situation, backed by his splendid bulk and +powerful personality, always bold and dramatic, shocked dormant antagonisms +to activity as a live current does sluggish inertia. For he had eminently +the gift of moving speech. The issue was a simple one, he pointed out. +Reduced to ultimates, the question was whether the State should control the +Consolidated or the Consolildated the State. With simple, telling force he +faced the insidious growth of the big copper company, showing how every +independent in the State was fighting for his business life against its +encroachments, and was bound to lose unless the opposition was a united +one. Let the independents obtain and keep control of the State politically +and the trust might be curbed; not otherwise. In eternal vigilance and in +union lay safety. + +He sat down in silence more impressive than any applause. But after the +silence came a deluge of cheers, the thunder of them sweeping up and down +the long table like a summer storm across a lake. + +Presently the flood-gates of talk were unloosed, and the conservatives +began to be heard. Opposition was futile because it was too late, they +claimed. A young Irishman, primed for the occasion, jumped to his feet with +an impassioned harangue that pedestaled Ridgway as the Washington of the +West. He showed how one man, in coalition with the labor-unions, had +succeeded in carrying the State against the big copper company; how he had +elected senators and governors, and legislators and judges. If one man +could so cripple the octopus, what could the best blood of the State, +standing together, not accomplish? He flung Patrick Henry and Robert Emmet +and Daniel Webster at their devoted +heads, demanding liberty or death with the bridled eloquence of his race. + +But Ridgway was not such a tyro at the game of politics as to depend upon +speeches for results. His fine hand had been working quietly for months to +bring the malcontents into one camp, shaping every passion to which men are +heir to serve his purpose. As he looked down the table he could read in the +faces before him hatred, revenge, envy, fear, hope, avarice, recklessness, +and even love, as the motives which he must fuse to one common end. His +vanity stood on tiptoe at his superb skill in playing on men's wills. He +knew he could mold these men to work his desire, and the sequel showed he +was right. + +When the votes were counted at the end of the bitter campaign that +followed, Simon Harley's candidates went down to disastrous defeat all over +the State, though he had spent money with a lavish hand. In Mesa County, +Ridgway had elected every one of his judges and retired to private life +those he could not influence. + +Harley's grim lips tightened when the news reached him. "Very well," he +said to Mott "We'll see if these patriots can't be reached through their +stomachs better than their brains. Order every mill and mine and smelter of +the Consolidated closed to-night. Our employees have voted for this man +Ridgway. Let him feed them or let them starve." + +"But the cost to you--won't it be enormous?" asked Mott, startled at his +chief's drastic decision. + +Harley bared his fangs with a wolfish smile. "We'll make the public pay. +Our store-houses are full of copper. Prices will jump when the supply is +reduced fifty per cent. We'll sell at an advance, and clean up a few +millions out of the shut-down. Meanwhile we'll starve this patriotic State +into submission." + +It came to pass even as Harley had predicted. With the Consolidated mines +closed, copper, jumped up--up--up. The trust could sit still and coin money +without turning a hand, while its employees suffered in the long, bitter +Northern winter. All the troubles usually pursuant on a long strike began +to fall upon the families of the miners. + +When a delegation from the miners' union came to discuss the situation with +Harley he met them blandly, with many platitudes of sympathy. He +regretted--he regretted exceedingly--the necessity that had been forced +upon him of closing the mines. He had delayed doing so in the hope that the +situation might be relieved. But it had grown worse, until he had been +forced to close. No, he was afraid he could not promise to reopen this +winter, unless something were done to ameliorate conditions in the court. +Work would begin at once, however, if the legislators would pass a bill +making it optional with any party to a suit to have the case transferred to +another judge in case he believed the bias of the presiding judge would be +prejudicial to an impartial hearing. + +Ridgway was flung at once upon the defensive. His allies, the working men, +demanded of him that his legislature pass the bill wanted by Harley, in +order that work might recommence. He evaded their demands by proposing to +arbitrate his difficulties with the Consolidated, by offering to pay into +the union treasury hall a million dollars to help carry its members through +the winter. He argued to the committee that Harley was bluffing, that +within a few weeks the mines and smelters would again be running at their +full capacity; but when the pressure on the legislators he had elected +became so great that he feared they would be swept from their allegiance to +him, he was forced to yield to the clamor. + +It was a great victory for Harley. Nobody recognized how great a one more +accurately than Waring Ridgway. The leader of the octopus had dogged him +over the shoulders of the people, had destroyed at a single blow one of his +two principal sources of power. He could no longer rely on the courts to +support him, regardless of justice. + +Very well. If he could not play with cogged dice, he was gambler enough to +take the honest chances of the game without flinching. No despair rang in +his voice. The look in his eye was still warm and confident. Mesa +questioned him with glimpses friendly but critical. They found no fear in +his bearing, no hint of doubt in his indomitable assurance. + + + +CHAPTER 22. "NOT GUILTY"--"GUILTY" + +Ridgway's answer to the latest move of Simon Harley was to put him on trial +for his life to answer the charge of having plotted and instigated the +death of Vance Edwards. Not without reason, the defense had asked for a +change of venue, alleging the impossibility of securing a fair trial at +Mesa. The courts had granted the request and removed the case to Avalanche. + +On the second day of the trial Aline sat beside her husband, a dainty +little figure of fear, shrinking from the observation focused upon her from +all sides. The sight of her forlorn sensitiveness so touched Ridgway's +heart that he telegraphed Virginia Balfour to come and help support her +through the ordeal. + +Virginia came, and henceforth two women, both of them young +and unusually attractive, gave countenance to the man being tried for his +life. Not that he needed their support for himself, but for the effect they +might have on the jury. Harley had shrewdly guessed that the white-faced +child he had married, whose pathetic beauty was of so haunting a type, and +whose big eyes were so quick to reflect emotions, would be a valuable asset +to set against the black-clad widow of Vance Edwards. + +For its effect upon himself, so far as the trial was concerned, Simon +Harley cared not a whit. He needed no bolstering. The old wrecker carried +an iron face to the ordeal. His leathern heart was as foreign to fear as to +pity. The trial was an unpleasant bore to him, but nothing worse. He had, +of course, cast an anchor of caution to windward by taking care to have the +jury fixed. For even though his array of lawyers was a formidably famous +one, he was no such child as to trust his case to a Western jury on its +merits while the undercurrent of popular opinion was setting so strongly +against him. Nor had he neglected to see that the court-room was packed +with detectives to safeguard him in the event that the sympathy of the +attending miners should at any time become demonstrative against him. + +The most irritating feature of the trial to the defendant was the presence +of the little woman in black, whose burning eyes never left for long his +face. He feigned to be unconscious of her regard, but nobody in the +court-room was more sure of that look of enduring, passionate hatred than +its victim. He had made her a widow, and her heart cried for revenge. That +was the story the eyes told dumbly. + +From first to last the case was bitterly contested, and always with the +realization among those present--except for that somber figure in black, +whose beady eyes gimleted the defendant--that it was another move in the +fight between the rival copper kings. The district attorney had worked up +his case very carefully, not with much hope of securing a conviction, but +to mass a total of evidence that would condemn the Consolidated +leader-before the world. + +To this end, the foreman, Donleavy, had been driven by a process of +sweating to turn State's evidence against his master. His testimony made +things look black for Harley, but when Hobart took the stand, a palpably +unwilling witness, and supported his evidence, the Ridgway adherents were +openly jubilant. The lawyers for the defense made much of the fact that +Hobart had just left the Consolidated service after a disagreement with the +defendant and had been elected to the senate by his enemies, but the +impression made by his moderation and the fine restraint of his manner, +combined with his reputation for scrupulous honesty, was not to be shaken +by the subtle innuendos and blunt aspersions of the legal array he faced. + +Nor did the young district attorney content himself with Hobart's +testimony. He put his successor, Mott, on the stand, and gave him a bad +hour while he tried to wring the admission out of him that Harley had +personally ordered the attack on the miners of the Taurus. But for the +almost constant objections of the opposing counsel, which gave him time to +recover himself, the prosecuting attorney would have succeeded. + +Ridgway, meeting him by chance after luncheon at the foot of the hotel +elevator--for in a town the size of Avalanche, Waring had found it +necessary to put up at the same hotel as the enemy or take second best, an +alternative not to his fastidious taste--rallied him upon the predicament +in which he had found himself. + +"It's pretty hard to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the +truth, without making indiscreet admissions about one's friends, isn't it?" +he asked, with his genial smile. + +"Did I make any indiscreet admissions?" + +"I don't say you did, though you didn't look as if you were enjoying +yourself. I picked up an impression that you had your back to the wall; +seemed to me the jury rather sized it up that way, Mott." + +"We'll know what the jury thinks in a few days." + +"Shall we?" the other laughed aloud. "Now, I'm wondering whether we shall +know what they really think." + +"If you mean that the jury has been tampered with it is your duty to place +your evidence before the court, Mr. Ridgway." + +"When I hear the verdict I'll tell you what I think about the jury," +returned the president of the Ore-producing Company, with easy impudence as +he passed into the elevator. + +At the second floor Waring left it and turned toward the ladies' parlor. It +had seemed to him that Aline had looked very tired and frail at the morning +session, and he wanted to see Virginia about arranging to have them take a +long drive into the country that afternoon. He had sent his card up with a +penciled note to the effect that he would wait for her in the parlor. + +But when he stepped through the double doorway of the ornate room it was to +become aware of a prior occupant. She was reclining on a divan at the end +of the large public room. Neither lying nor sitting, but propped up among a +dozen pillows with head and limbs inert and the long lashes drooped on the +white cheeks, Aline looked the pathetic figure of a child fallen asleep +from sheer exhaustion after a long strain. + +Since he was the man he was, unhampered by any too fine sense of what was +fitting, he could no more help approaching than he could help the +passionate pulse of pity that stirred in his heart at sight of her forlorn +weariness. + +Her eyes opened to find his grave compassion looking down at her. She +showed no surprise at his presence, though she had not previously known of +it. Nor did she move by even so much as the stir of a limb. + +"This is wearing you out," he said, after the long silence in which her +gaze was lost helplessly in his. "You must go home--away from it all. You +must forget it, and if it ever crosses your mind think of it as something +with which you have no concern." + +"How can I do that--now." + +The last word slipped out not of her will, but from an undisciplined heart. +It stood for the whole tangled story of her troubles: the unloved marriage +which had bereft her of her heritage of youth and joy, the love that had +found her too late and was so poignant a fount of distress to her, the web +of untoward circumstance in which she was so inextricably entangled. + +"How did you ever come to do it?" he asked roughly, out of the bitter +impulse of his heart. + +She knew that the harshness was not for her, as surely as she knew what he +meant by his words. + +"I did wrong. I know that now, but I didn't know it then. Though even then +I felt troubled about it. But my guardian said it was best, and I knew so +little. Oh, so very, very little. Why was I not taught things, what every +girl has a right to know--until life teaches me--too late?" + +Nothing he could say would comfort her. For the inexorable facts forbade +consolation. She had made shipwreck of her life before the frail raft of +her destiny had well pushed forth from harbor. He would have given much to +have been able to take the sadness out of her great childeyes, but he knew +that not even by the greatness of his desire could he take up her burden. +She must carry it alone or sink under it. + +"You must go away from here back to your people. If not now, then as soon +as the trial is over. Make him take you to your friends for a time." + +"I have no friends that can help me." She said it in an even little voice +of despair. + +"You have many friends. You have made some here. Virginia is one." He would +not name himself as only a friend, though he had set his iron will to claim +no more. + +"Yes, Virginia is my friend. She is good to me. But she is going to marry +you, and then you will both forget me." + +"I shall never forget you." He cried it in a low, tense voice, his clenched +hands thrust into the pockets of his sack coat. + +Her wan smile thanked him. It was the most he would let himself say. Though +her heart craved more, she knew she must make the most of this. + +"I came up to see Virginia," he went on, with a change of manner. "I want +her to take you driving this afternoon. Forget about that wretched trial if +you can. Nothing of importance will take place to-day." + +He turned at the sound of footsteps, and saw that Miss Balfour had come +into the room. + +"I want you to take Mrs. Harley into the fresh sunshine and clear air this +afternoon. I have been telling her to forget this trial. It's a farce, +anyhow. Nothing will come of it. Take her out to the Homes--take and cheer +her up." + +"Yes, my lord." Virginia curtseyed obediently. + +"It will do you good, too." + +She shot a mocking little smile at him. "It's very good of you to think of +me." + +"Still, I do sometimes." + +"Whenever it is convenient," she added. + +But with Aline watching them the spirit of badinage in him was overmatched. +He gave it up and asked what kind of a rig he should send round. Virginia +furnished him the necessary specifications, and he turned to go. + +As he left the room Simon Harley entered. They met face to face, and after +an instant's pause each drew aside to allow the other to pass. The New +Yorker inclined his head silently and moved forward toward his wife. +Ridgway passed down the corridor and into the elevator. + +As the days of the trial passed excitement grew more tense. The lawyers for +the prosecution and the defense made their speeches to a crowded and +enthralled court-room. There was a feverish uncertainty in the air. It +reached a climax when the jury stayed out for eleven hours before coming to +a verdict. From the moment it filed back into the court-room with solemn +faces the dramatic tensity began to foreshadow the tragedy about to be +enacted. The woman Harley had made a widow sat erect and rigid in the seat +where she had been throughout the trial. Her eyes blazed with a hatred that +bordered madness. Ridgway had observed that neither Aline Harley nor +Virginia was present, and a note from the latter had just reached him to +the effect that Aline was ill with the strain of the long trial. Afterward +Ridgway could never thank his pagan gods enough that she was absent. + +There was a moment of tense waiting before the judge asked: + +"Gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict?" + +The foreman rose. "We have, your honor." + +A folded note was handed to the judge. He read it slowly, with an +inscrutable face. + +"Is this your verdict, gentlemen of the jury?" + +"It is, your honor." + +Silence, full and rigid, held the room after the words "Not guilty" had +fallen from the lips of the judge. The stillness was broken by a shock as +of an electric bolt from heaven. + +The exploding echoes of a pistol-shot reverberated. Men sprang wildly to +their feet, gazing at each other in the distrust that fear generates. But +one man was beyond being startled by any more earthly sounds. His head fell +forward on the table in front of him, and a thin stream of blood flowed +from his lips. It was Simon Harley, found guilty, sentenced, and executed +by the judge and jury sitting in the outraged, insane heart of the woman he +had made a widow. + +Mrs. Edwards had shot him through the head with a revolver she had carried +in her shoppingbag to exact vengeance in the event of a miscarriage of +justice. + + + +CHAPTER 23. ALINE TURNS A CORNER + +Aline might have been completely prostrated by the news of her husband's +sudden end, coming as it did as the culmination of a week of strain and +horror. That she did not succumb was due, perhaps, to Ridgway's care for +her. When Harley's massive gray head had dropped forward to the table, his +enemy's first thought had been of her. As soon as he knew that death was +sure, he hurried to the hotel. + +He sent his card up, and followed it so immediately that he found her +scarcely risen from the divan on which she had been lying in the +receiving-room of her apartments. The sleep was not yet shaken from her +lids, nor was the wrinkled flush smoothed from the soft cheek that had been +next the cushion. Even in his trouble for her he found time to be glad that +Virginia was not at the moment with her. It gave him the sense of another +bond between them that this tragic hour. should belong to him and her +alone--this hour of destiny when their lives swung round a corner beyond +which lay wonderful vistas of kindly sunbeat and dewy starlight stretching +to the horizon's edge of the long adventure. + +She checked the rush of glad joy in her heart the sight of him always +brought, and came forward slowly. One glance at his face showed that he had +brought grave news. + +"What is it? Why are you here?" she cried tensely. + +"To bring you trouble, Aline." + +"Trouble!" Her hand went to her heart quickly. + +"It is about--Mr. Harley." + +She questioned him with wide, startled eyes, words hesitating on her +trembling lips and flying unvoiced. + +"Child--little partner--the orders are to be brave." He came forward and +took her hands in his, looking down at her with eyes she thought full of +infinitely kind pity. + +"Is it--have they--do you mean the verdict?" + +"Yes, the verdict; but not the verdict of which you are thinking." + +She turned a quivering face to his. "Tell me. I shall be brave." + +He told her the brutal fact as gently as he could, while he watched the +blood ebb from her face. As she swayed he caught her in his arms and +carried her to the divan. When, presently, her eyes fluttered open, it was +to look into his pitiful ones. He was kneeling beside her, and her head was +pillowed on his arm. + +"Say it isn't true," she murmured. + +"It is true, dear." + +She moved her head restlessly, and he took away his arm, rising to draw a +chair close to the lounge. She slipped her two hands under her head, +letting them lie palm to palm on the sofapillow. The violet eyes looked +past him into space. Her tangled thoughts were in a chaos of disorder. Even +though she had known but a few months and loved not at all the grim, +gray-haired man she had called husband, the sense of wretched bereavement, +the nearness of death, was strong on her. He had been kind to her in his +way, and the inevitable closeness of their relationship, repugnant as it +had been to her, made its claims felt. An hour ago he had been standing +here, the strong and virile ruler over thousands. Now he lay stiff and +cold, all his power shorn from him without a second's warning. He had +kissed her good-by, solicitous for her welfare, and it had been he that had +been in need of care rather than she. Two big tears hung on her lids and +splashed to her cheeks. She began to sob, and half-turned on the divan, +burying her face in her hands. + +Ridgway let her weep without interruption for a time, knowing that it would +be a relief to her surcharged heart and overwrought nerves. But when her +sobs began to abate she became aware of his hand resting on her shoulder. +She sat up, wiping her eyes, and turned to him a face sodden with grief. + +"You are good to me," she said simply. + +"If my goodness were only less futile! Heaven knows what I would give to +ward off trouble from you. But I can't, nor can I bear it for you." + +"But it is a help to know you would if you could. He--I think he wanted to +ward off grief from me, but he could not, either. I was often lonely and +sad, even though he was kind to me. And now he has gone. I wish I had told +him how much I appreciated his goodness to me." + +"Yes, we all feel that when we have lost some one we love. It is natural to +wish we had been better to them and showed them how much we cared. Let me +tell you about my mother. I was thirteen when she died. It was in summer. +She had not been well for a long time. The boys were going fishing that day +and she asked me to stay at home. I had set my heart on going, and I +thought it was only a fancy of hers. She did not insist on my staying, so I +went, but felt uncomfortable all day. When I came back in the evening they +told me she was dead. I felt as if some great icy hand were tightening, on +my heart. Somehow I couldn't break down and cry it out. I went around with +a white, set face and gave no sign. Even at the funeral it was the same. +The neighbors called me hard-hearted and pointed me out to their sons as a +terrible warning. And all the time I was torn with agony." + +"You poor boy." + +"And one night she came to me in a dream. She did not look as she had just +before she died, but strong and beautiful, with the color in her face she +used to have. She smiled at me and kissed me and rumpled my hair as she +used to do. I knew, then, it was all right. She understood, and I didn't +care whether others did or not. I woke up crying, and after I had had my +grief out I was myself again." + +"It was so sweet of her to think to come to you. She must have been loving +you up in heaven and saw you were troubled, and came down just to comfort +you and tell you it was all right," the girl cried with soft sympathy. + +"That's how I understood it. Of course, I was only a boy, but somehow I +knew it was more than a dream. I'm not a spiritualist. I don't believe such +things happen, but I know it happened to me," he finished illogically, with +a smile. + +She sighed. "He was always so thoughtful of me, too. I do wish I had--could +have been--more--" + +She broke off without finishing, but he understood. + +"You must not blame yourself for that. He would be the first to tell you +so. He took you for what you could give him, and these last days were the +best he had known for many years." + +"He was so good to me. Oh, you don't know how good." + +"It was a great pleasure to him to be good to you, the greatest pleasure he +knew." + +She looked up as he spoke, and saw shining deep in his eyes the spirit that +had taught him to read so well the impulse of another lover, and, seeing +it, she dropped her eyes quickly in order not to see what was there. With +him it had been only an instant's uncontrollable surge of ecstasy. He meant +to wait. Every instinct of the decent thing told him not to take advantage +of her weakness, her need of love to rest upon in her trouble, her +transparent care for him and confidence in him so childlike in its +entirety. For convention he did not care a turn of his hand, but he would +do nothing that might shock her self-respect when she came to think of it +later. Sternly he brought himself back to realities. + +"Shall I see Mr. Mott for you and send him here? It would be better that he +should make the arrangements than I." + +"If you please. I shall not see you again before I go, then?" Her lips +trembled as she asked the question. + +"I shall come down to the hotel again and see you before you go. And now +good-by. Be brave, and don't reproach yourself. Remember that he would not +wish it." + +The door opened, and Virginia came in, flushed with rapid walking. She had +heard the news on the street and had hurried back to the hotel. + +Her eyes asked of Ridgway: "Does she know?" and he answered in the +affirmative. Straight to Aline she went and wrapped her in her arms, the +latent mothering instinct that is in every woman aroused and dormant. + +"Oh, my dear, my dear," she cried softly. + +Ridgway slipped quietly from the room and left them together. + + + +CHAPTER 24. A GOOD SAMARITAN + +Yesler, still moving slowly with a walking stick by reason of his green +wound, left the street-car and made his way up Forest Road to the house +which bore the number 792. In the remote past there had been some spasmodic +attempt to cultivate grass and raise some shade-trees along the sidewalks, +but this had long since been given up as abortive. An air of decay hung +over the street, the unmistakable suggestion of better days. This was writ +large over the house in front of which Yesler stopped. The gate hung on one +hinge, boards were missing from the walk, and a dilapidated shutter, which +had once been green, swayed in the breeze. + +A woman of about thirty, dark and pretty but poorly dressed, came to the +door in answer to his ring. Two little children, a boy and a girl, with +their mother's shy long-lashed Southern eyes of brown, clung to her skirts +and gazed at the stranger. + +"This is where Mr. Pelton lives, is it not?" he asked. + +"Yes, sir." + +"Is he at home?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"May I see him?" + +"He's sick." + +"I'm sorry to hear it. Too sick to be seen? If not, I should like very much +to see him. I have business with him." + +The young woman looked at him a little defiantly and a little suspiciously. +"Are you a reporter?" + +Sam smiled. "No, ma'am." + +"Does he owe you money" He could see the underlying blood dye her dusky +cheeks when she asked the question desperately, as it seemed to him with a +kind of brazen shame to which custom had inured her. She had somehow the +air of some gentle little creature of the forests defending her young. + +"Not a cent, ma'am. I don't want to do him any harm." + +"I didn't hear your name." + +"I haven't mentioned it," he admitted, with the sunny smile that was a +letter of recommendation in itself. "Fact is I'd rather not tell it till he +sees me." + +From an adjoining room a querulous voice broke into their conversation. +"Who is it, Norma?" + +"A gentleman to see you, Tom." + +"Who is it?" more sharply. + +"It is I, Mr. Pelton. I came to have a talk with you." Yesler pushed +forward into the dingy sitting-room with the pertinacity of a bookagent. "I +heard you were not well, and I came to find out if I can do anything for +you." + +The stout man lying on the lounge grew pale before the blood reacted in a +purple flush. His very bulk emphasized the shabbiness of the stained and +almost buttonless Prince Albert coat he wore, the dinginess of the little +room he seemed to dwarf. + +"Leave my house, seh. You have ruined this family, and you come to gloat on +your handiwork. Take a good look, and then go, Mr. Yesler. You see my wife +in cotton rags doing her own work. Is it enough, seh?" + +The slim little woman stepped across the room and took her place beside her +husband. Her eyes flashed fire at the man she held responsible for the fall +of her husband. Yesler's generous heart applauded the loyalty which was +proof against both disgrace and poverty. For in the past month both of +these had fallen heavily upon her. Tom Pelton had always lived well, and +during the past few years he had speculated in ventures far beyond his +means. Losses had pursued him, and he had looked to the senatorship to +recoup himself and to stand off the creditors pressing hard for payment. +Instead he had been exposed, disgraced, and finally disbarred for attempted +bribery. Like a horde of hungry rats his creditors had pounced upon the +discredited man and wrested from him the remnants of his mortgaged +property. He had been forced to move into a mere cottage and was a man +without a future. For the only profession at which he had skill enough to +make a living was the one from which he had been cast as unfit to practise +it. The ready sympathy of the cattleman had gone out to the politician who +was down and out. He had heard the situation discussed enough to guess +pretty close to the facts, and he could not let himself rest until he had +made some effort to help the man whom his exposure had ruined, or, rather, +had hastened to ruin, for that result had been for years approaching. + +"I'm sorry, Mr. Pelton. If I've injured you I want to make it right." + +"Make it right!" The former congressman got up with an oath. "Make it +right! Can you give me back my reputation, my future? Can you take away the +shame that has come upon my wife, and that my children will have to bear in +the years to come? Can you give us back our home, our comfort, our peace of +mind?" + +"No, I can't do this, but I can help you to do it all," the cattleman made +answer quietly. + +He offered no defense, though he knew perfectly well none was needed. He +had no responsibility in the calamity that had befallen this family. +Pelton's wrong-doing had come home to those he loved, and he could rightly +blame nobody but himself. However much he might arraign those who had been +the agents of his fall, he knew in his heart that the fault had been his +own. + +Norma Pelton, tensely self-repressed, spoke now. "How can you do this, sir?" + +"I can't do it so long as you hold me for an enemy, ma'am. I'm ready to cry +quits with your husband and try a new deal. If I injured him he tried to +even things up. Well, let's say things are squared and start fresh. I've +got a business proposition to make if you're willing to listen to it." + +"What sort of a proposition?" + +"I'm running about twenty-five thousand sheep up in the hills. I've just +bought a ranch with a comfortable ranch-house on it for a kind of central +point. My winter feeding will all be done from it as a chief place of +distribution. Same with the shearing and shipping. I want a good man to put +in charge of my sheep as head manager, and I would be willing to pay a +proper salary. There ain't any reason why this shouldn't work into a +partnership if he makes good. With wool jumping, as it's going to do in the +next four years, the right kind of man can make himself independent for +life. My idea is to increase my holdings right along, and let my manager in +as a partner as soon as he shows he is worth it. Now that ranch-house is a +decent place. There's a pretty good school, ma'am, for the children. The +folks round that neighborhood may not have any frills, but--" + +"Are you offering Tom the place as manager?" she demanded, in amazement. + +"That was my idea, ma'am. It's not what you been used to, o' course, but if +you're looking for a change I thought I'd speak of it," he said +diffidently. + +She looked at him in a dumb surprise. She, too, in her heart knew that this +man was blameless. He had done his duty, and had nearly lost his life for +it at the hands of her husband. Now, he had come to lift them out of the +hideous nightmare into which they had fallen. He had come to offer them +peace and quiet and plenty in exchange for the future of poverty and shame +and despair which menaced them. They were to escape into God's great hills, +away from the averted looks and whispering tongues and the temptations to +drown his trouble that so constantly beset the father of her children. +Despite his faults she still loved Tom Pelton; he was a kind and loving +husband and father. Out on the range there still waited a future for him. +When she thought of it a lump rose in her throat for very happiness. She, +who had been like a rock beside him in his trouble, broke down now and +buried her head in her husband's coat. + +"Don't you, honey--now, don't you cry." The big man had lost all his +pomposity, and was comforting his sweetheart as simply as a boy. "It's all +been my fault. I've been doing wrong for years--trying to pull myself out +of the mire by my bootstraps. By Gad, you're a man, Sam Yesler, that's what +you are. If I don't turn ovah a new leaf I'd ought to be shot. We'll make a +fresh start, sweetheart. Dash me, I'm nothing but a dashed baby." And with +that the overwrought man broke down, too. + +Yesler, moved a good deal himself, maintained the burden of the +conversation cheerfully. + +"That's all settled, then. Tell you I'm right glad to get a competent man +to put in charge. Things have been running at loose ends, because I haven't +the time to look after them. This takes a big load off my mind. You better +arrange to go up there with me as soon as you have time, Pelton, and look +the ground over. You'll want to make some changes if you mean to take your +family up there. Better to spend a few hundreds and have things the way you +want them for Mrs. Pelton than to move in with things not up to the mark. +Of course, I'll put the house in the shape you want it. But we can talk of +that after we look it over." + +In his embarrassment he looked so much the boy, so much the culprit caught +stealing apples and up for sentence, that Norma Pelton's gratitude took +courage. She came across to him and held out both hands, the shimmer of +tears still in the soft brown eyes. + +"You've given us more than life, Mr. Yesler. You can't ever know what you +have done for us. Some things are worse than death to some people. I don't +mean poverty, but--other things. We can begin again far away from this +tainted air that has poisoned us. I know it isn't good form to be saying +this. One shouldn't have feelings in public. But I don't care. I think of +the children--and Tom. I didn't expect ever to be happy again, but we +shall. I feel it." + +She broke down again and dabbed at her eyes with her kerchief. Sam, very +much embarrassed but not at all displeased at this display of feeling, +patted her dark hair and encouraged her to composure. + +"There. It's all right, now, ma'am. Sure you'll be happy. Any mother that's +got kids like these--" + +He caught up the little girl in his arms by way of diverting attention from +himself. + +This gave a new notion to the impulsive little woman. + +"I want you to kiss them both. Come here, Kennie. This is Mr. Yesler, and +he is the best man you've ever seen. I want you to remember that he has +been our best friend." + +"Yes, mama." + +"Oh, sho, ma'am!" protested the overwhelmed cattleman, kissing both the +children, nevertheless. + +Pelton laughed. He felt a trifle hysterical himself. "If she thinks it +she'll say it when she feels that way. I'm right surprised she don't kiss +you, too." + +"I will," announced Norma promptly, with a pretty little tide of color. + +She turned toward him, and Yesler, laughing, met the red lips of the new +friend he had made. + +"Now, you've got just grounds for shooting me," he said gaily, and +instantly regretted his infelicitous remark + +For both husband and wife fell grave at his words. It was Pelton that +answered them. + +"I've been taught a lesson, Mr. Yesler. I'm never going to pack a gun again +as long as I live, unless I'm hunting or something of that sort, and I'm +never going to drink another drop of liquor. It's all right for some men, +but it isn't right for me." + +"Glad to hear it. I never did believe in the hip-pocket habit. I've lived +here twenty years, and I never found it necessary except on special +occasions. When it comes to whisky, I reckon we'd all be better without +it." + +Yesler made his escape at the earliest opportunity and left them alone +together. He lunched at the club, attended to some correspondence he had, +and about 3:30 drifted down the street toward the post-office. He had +expectations of meeting a young woman who often passed about that time on +her way home from school duties. + +It was, however, another young woman whose bow he met in front of Mesa's +largest department store. + +"Good afternoon, Miss Balfour." + +She nodded greeting and cast eyes of derision on him. + +"I've been hearing about you. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" + +"Yes, ma'am. What for in particular? There are so many things." + +"You're a fine Christian, aren't you?" she scoffed. + +"I ain't much of a one. That's a fact," he admitted. "What is it this +time--poker?" + +"No, it isn't poker. Worse than that. You've been setting a deplorable +example to the young." + +"To young ladies--like Miss Virginia?" he wanted to know. + +"No, to young Christians. I don't know what our good deacons will say about +it." She illuminated her severity with a flashing smile. "Don't you know +that the sins of the fathers are to descend upon their children even to the +third and fourth generation? Don't you know that when a man does wrong he +must die punished, and his children and his wife, of course, and that the +proper thing to do is to stand back and thank Heaven we haven't been vile +sinners?" + +"Now, don't you begin on that, Miss Virginia," he warned. + +"And after the man had disgraced himself and shot you, after all +respectable people had given him an extra kick to let him know he must stay +down and had then turned their backs upon him. I'm not surprised that +you're ashamed." + +"Where did you get hold of this fairy-tale?" he plucked up courage to demand. + +"From Norma Pelton. She told me everything, the whole story from beginning +to end." + +"It's right funny you should be calling on her, and you a respectable young +lady--unless you went to deliver that extra kick you was mentioning," he +grinned. + +She dropped her raillery. "It was splendid. I meant to ask Mr. Ridgway to +do something for them, but this is so much better. It takes them away from +the place of his disgrace and away from temptation. Oh, I don't wonder +Norma kissed you." + +"She told you that, too, did she?" + +"Yes. I should have done it, too, in her place." + +He glanced round placidly. "It's a right public place here, but--" + +"Don't be afraid. I'm not going to." And before she disappeared within the +portals of the department store she gave him one last thrust. "It's not so +public up in the library. Perhaps if you happen to be going that way " + +She left her communication a fragment, but he thought it worth acting upon. +Among the library shelves he found Laska deep in a new volume on domestic +science. + +"This ain't any kind of day to be fooling away your time on cook-books. +Come out into the sun and live," he invited. + +They walked past the gallows-frames and the slag-dumps and the shaft-houses +into the brown hills beyond the point where green copper streaks showed and +spurred the greed of man. It was a day of spring sunshine, the good old +earth astir with her annual recreation. The roadside was busy with this +serious affair of living. Ants and crawling things moved to and fro about +their business. Squirrels raced across the road and stood up at a safe +distance to gaze at these intruders. Birds flashed back and forth, hurried +little carpenters busy with the specifications for their new nests. Eager +palpitating life was the key-note of the universe. + +"Virginia told me about the Peltons," Laska said, after a pause. + +"It's spreading almost as fast as if it were a secret," he smiled. "I'm +expecting to find it in the paper when we get back." + +"I'm so glad you did it." + +"Well, you're to blame." + +"I!" She looked at him in surprise. + +"Partly. You told me how things were going with them. That seemed to put it +up to me to give Pelton a chance." + +"I certainly didn't mean it that way. I had no right to ask you to do +anything about it." + +"Mebbe it was the facts put it up to me. Anyhow, I felt responsible." + +"Mr. Roper once told me that you always feel responsible when you hear +anybody is in trouble," the young woman answered. + +"Roper's a goat. Nobody ever pays any attention to him." + +Presently they diverged from the road and sat down on a great flat rock +which dropped out from the hillside like a park seat. For he was still far +from strong and needed frequent rests. Their talk was desultory, for they +had reached that stage of friendship at which it is not necessary to bridge +silence with idle small talk. Here, by some whim of fate, the word was +spoken. He knew he loved her, but he had not meant to say it yet. + +But when her steady gray eyes came back to his after a long stillness, the +meeting brought him a strange feeling that forced his hand. + +"I love you, Laska. Will you be my wife?" he asked quietly. + +"Yes, Sam," she answered directly. That was all. It was settled with a +word. There in the sunshine he kissed her and sealed the compact, and +afterward, when the sun was low among the hill spurs, they went back +happily to take up again the work that awaited them. + + + +CHAPTER 25. FRIENDLY ENEMIES + +Ridgway had promised Aline that he would see her soon, and when he found +himself in New York he called at the big house on Fifth Avenue, which had +for so long been identified as the home of Simon Harley. It bore his +impress stamped on it. Its austerity suggested the Puritan rather than the +classic conception of simplicity. The immense rooms were as chill as +dungeons, and the forlorn little figure in black, lost in the loneliness of +their bleakness, wandered to and fro among her retinue of servants like a +butterfly beating its wings against a pane of glass. + +With both hands extended she ran forward to meet her guest. + +"I'm so glad, so glad, so glad to see you." + +The joy-note in her voice was irrepressible. She had been alone for weeks +with the conventional gloom that made an obsession of the shadow of death +which enveloped the house. All voices and footsteps had been subdued to +harmonize with the grief of the mistress of this mausoleum. Now she heard +the sharp tread of this man unafraid, and saw the alert vitality of his +confident bearing. It was like a breath of the hills to a parched traveler. + +"I told you I would come." + +"Yes. I've been looking for you every day. I've checked each one off on my +calendar. It's been three weeks and five days since I saw you." + +"I thought it was a year," he laughed, and the sound of his uncurbed voice +rang strangely in this room given to murmurs. + +"Tell me about everything. How is Virginia, and Mrs. Mott, and Mr. Yesler? +And is he really engaged to that sweet little school-teacher? And how does +Mr. Hobart like being senator?" + +"Not more than a dozen questions permitted at a time. Begin again, please." + +"First, then, when did you reach the city?" + +He consulted his watch. "Just two hours and twenty-seven minutes ago." + +"And how long are you going to stay?" + +"That depends." + +"On what?" + +"For one thing, on whether you treat me well," he smiled. + +"Oh, I'll treat you well. I never was so glad to see a real live somebody +in my life. It's been pretty bad here." She gave a dreary little smile as +she glanced around at the funereal air of the place. "Do you know, I don't +think we think of death in the right way? Or, maybe, I'm a heathen and +haven't the proper feelings." + +She had sat down on one of the stiff divans, and Ridgway found a place +beside her. + +"Suppose you tell me about it," he suggested. + +"I know I must be wrong, and you'll be shocked when you hear." + +"Very likely." + +"I can't help feeling that the living have rights, too," she began +dubiously. "If they would let me alone I could be sorry in my own way, but +I don't see why I have to make a parade of grief. It seems to--to cheapen +one's feelings, you know." + +He nodded. "Just as if you had to measure your friendship for the dead with +a yardstick of Mother Grundy. It's a hideous imposition laid on us by +custom, one of Ibsen's ghosts." + +"It's so good to hear you say that. And do you think I may begin to be +happy again?" + +"I think it would be allowable to start with one smile a day, say, and +gradually increase the dose," he jested. "In the course of a week, if it +seems to agree with you, try a laugh." + +She made the experiment without waiting the week, amused at his whimsical +way of putting it. Nevertheless, the sound of her own laughter gave her a +little shock. + +"You came on business, I suppose?" she said presently. + +"Yes. I came to raise a million dollars for some improvements I want to make." + +"Let me lend it to you," she proposed eagerly. + +"That would be a good one. I'm going to use it to fight the Consolidated. +Since you are now its chief stockholder you would be letting me have money +with which to fight you." + +"I shouldn't care about that. I hope you beat me." + +"You're my enemy now. That's not the way to talk." His eyes twinkled merrily. + +"Am I your enemy? Let's be friendly enemies, then. And there's something I +want to talk to you about. Before he died Mr. Harley told me he had made +you an offer. I didn't understand the details, but you were to be in charge +of all the copper-mines in the country. Wasn't that it?" + +"Something of that sort. I declined the proposition." + +"I want you to take it now and manage everything for me. I don't know Mr. +Harley's associates, but I can trust you. You can arrange it any way you +like, but I want to feel that you have the responsibility." + +He saw again that vision of power--all the copper interests of the country +pooled, with himself at the head of the combination. He knew it would not +be so easy to arrange as she thought, for, though she had inherited +Harley's wealth, she had not taken over his prestige and force. There would +be other candidates for leadership. But if he managed her campaign Aline's +great wealth must turn the scale in their favor. + +"You must think this over again. You must talk it over with your advisers +before we come to a decision," he said gravely. + +"I've told Mr. Jarmyn. He says the idea is utterly impossible. But we'll +show him, won't we? It's my money and my stock, not his. I don't see why he +should dictate. He's always 'My dear ladying' me. I won't have it," she +pouted. + +The fighting gleam was in Ridgway's eyes now. "So Mr. Jannyn thinks it is +impossible, does he?" + +"That's what he said. He thinks you wouldn't do at all." + +"If you really mean it we'll show him about that." + +She shook hands with him on it. + +"You're very good to me," she said, so naively that he could not keep back +his smile. + +"Most people would say I was very good to myself. What you offer me is a +thing I might have fought for all my life and never won." + +"Then I'm glad if it pleases you. That's enough about business. Now, we'll +talk about something important." + +He could think of only one thing more important to him than this, but it +appeared she meant plans to see as much as possible of him while he was in +the city. + +"I suppose you have any number of other friends here that will want you?" +she said. + +"They can't have me if this friend wants me," he answered, with that deep +glow in his eyes she recognized from of old; and before she could summon +her reserves of defense he asked: "Do you want me, Aline?" + +His meaning came to her with a kind of sweet shame. "No, no, no--not yet," +she cried. + +"Dear," he answered, taking her little hand in his big one, "only this now: +that I can't help wanting to be near you to comfort you, because I love +you. For everything else, I am content to wait." + +"And I love you," the girl-widow answered, a flush dyeing her cheeks. "But +I ought not to tell you yet, ought I?" + +There was that in her radiant tear-dewed eyes that stirred the deepest +stores of tenderness in the man. His finer instincts, vandal and pagan +though he was, responded to it. + +"It is right that you should tell me, since it is true, but it is right, +too, that we should wait." + +"It is sweet to know that you love me. There are so many things I don't +understand. You must help me. You are so strong and so sure, and I am so +helpless." + +"You dear innocent, so strong in your weakness," he murmured to himself. + +"You must be a guide to me and a teacher." + +"And you a conscience to me," he smiled, not without amusement at the thought. + +She took it seriously. "But I'm afraid I can't. You know so much better +than I do what is right." + +"I'm quite a paragon of virtue," he confessed. + +"You're so sure of everything. You took it for granted that I loved you. +Why were you so sure?" + +"I was just as sure as you were that I cared for you. Confess." + +She whispered it. "Yes, I knew it, but when you did not come I thought, +perhaps You see, I'm not strong or clever. I can't help you as Virginia +could." She stopped, the color washing from her face. "I had forgotten. You +have no right to love me--nor I you," she faltered. + +"Girl o'mine, we have every right in the world. Love is never wrong unless +it is a theft or a robbery. There is nothing between me and Virginia that +is not artificial and conventional, no tie that ought not to be broken, +none that should ever of right have existed. Love has the right of way +before mere convention a hundredfold." + +"Ah! If I were sure." + +"But I was to be a teacher to you and a judge for you." + +"And I was to be a conscience to you." + +"But on this I am quite clear. I can be a conscience to myself. However, +there is no hurry. Time's a great solvent." + +"And we can go on loving each other in the meantime." + +He lifted her little pink fingers and kissed them. "Yes, we can do that all +the time." + + + +CHAPTER 26. BREAKS ONE AND MAKES ANOTHER ENGAGEMENT + +Miss Balfour's glass made her irritably aware of cheeks unduly flushed and +eyes unusually bright. Since she prided herself on being sufficient for the +emergencies of life, she cast about in her mind to determine which of the +interviews that lay before her was responsible for her excitement. It was, +to be sure, an unusual experience for a young woman to be told that her +fiance would be unable to marry her, owing to a subsequent engagement, but +she looked forward to it with keen anticipation, and would not have missed +it for the world. Since she pushed the thought of the other interview into +the background of her mind and refused to contemplate it at all, she did +not see how that could lend any impetus to her pulse. + +But though she was pleasantly excited as she swept into the reception-room, +Ridgway was unable to detect the fact in her cool little nod and frank, +careless handshake. Indeed, she looked so entirely mistress of herself, so +much the perfectly gowned exquisite, that he began to dread anew the task +he had set himself. It is not a pleasant thing under the most favorable +circumstances to beg off from marrying a young woman one has engaged +oneself to, and Ridgway did not find it easier because the young woman +looked every inch a queen, and was so manifestly far from suspecting the +object of his call. +"I haven't had a chance to congratulate you personally yes," she said, +after they had drifted to chairs. "I've been immensely proud of you." + +"I got your note. It was good of you to write as soon as you heard." + +She swept him with one of her smile-lit side glances. "Though, of course, +in a way, I was felicitating myself when I congratulated you." + +"You mean?" + +She laughed with velvet maliciousness. "Oh, well, I'm dragged into the +orbit of your greatness, am I not? As the wife of the president of the +Greater Consolidated Copper Company--the immense combine that takes in +practically all the larger copper properties in the country--I should come +in for a share of reflected glory, you know." + +Ridgway bit his lip and took a deep breath, but before he had found words +she was off again. She had no intention of letting him descent from the +rack yet. + +"How did you do it? By what magic did you bring it about? Of course, I've +read the newspapers' accounts, seen your features and your history +butchered in a dozen Sunday horrors, and thanked Heaven no enterprising +reporter guessed enough to use me as copy. Every paper I have picked up for +weeks has been full of you and the story of how you took Wall Street by the +throat. But I suspect they were all guesses, merely superficial rumors +except as to the main facts. What I want to know is the inside story--the +lever by means of which you pried open the door leading to the inner circle +of financial magnates. You have often told me how tightly barred that door +is. What was the open-sesame you used as a countersign to make the keeper +of the gate unbolt? + +He thought he saw his chance. "The countersign was 'Aline Harley,'" he +said, and looked her straight in the face. He wished he could find some way +of telling her without making him feel so like a cad. + +She clapped her hands. "I thought so. She backed you with that uncounted +fortune her husband left her. Is that it?" + +That is it exactly. She gave me a free hand, and the immense fortune she +inherited from Harley put me in a position to force recognition from the +leaders. After that it was only a question of time till I had convinced +them my plan was good." He threw back his shoulders and tried to take the +fence again. "Would you like to know why Mrs. Harley put her fortune at my +command?" + +"I suppose because she is interested in us and our little affair. Doesn't +all the world love a lover?" she asked, with a disarming candor. + +"She had a better reason," he said, meeting her eyes gravely. + +"You must tell me it--but not just yet. I have something to tell you +first." She held out her little clenched hand. "Here is something that +belongs to you. Can you open it?" + +He straightened her fingers one by one, and took from her palm the +engagement-ring he had given her. Instantly he looked up, doubt and relief +sweeping his face. + +"Am I to understand that you terminate our engagement?" + +She nodded. + +"May I ask why?" + +"I couldn't bring myself to it, Waring. I honestly tried, but I couldn't do +it." + +"When did you find this out?" + +"I began to find it out the first day of our engagement. I couldn't make it +seem right. I've been in a process of learning it ever since. It wouldn't +be fair to you for me to marry you." + +"You're a brick, Virginia!" he cried jubilantly. + +"No, I'm not. That is a minor reason. The really important one is that it +wouldn't be fair to me." + +"No, it would not," he admitted, with an air of candor. + +"Because, you see, I happen to care for another man," she purred. + +His vanity leaped up fully armed. "Another man! Who?" + +"That's my secret," she answered, smiling at his chagrin. + +"And his?" + +"I said mine. At any rate, if three knew, it wouldn't be a secret," was her +quick retort. + +"Do you think you have been quite fair to me, Virginia?" he asked, with +gloomy dignity. + +"I think so," she answered, and touched him with the riposte: "I'm ready +now to have you tell me when you expect to marry Aline Harley." + +His dignity collapsed like a pricked bladder. "How did you know?" he +demanded, in astonishment. + +"Oh well, I have eyes." + +"But I didn't know--I thought--" + +"Oh, you thought! You are a pair of children at the game," this +thousand-year-old young woman scoffed. "I have known for months that you +worshiped each other." + +"If you mean to imply " he began severely. + +"Hit somebody of your size, Warry," she interrupted cheerfully, as to an +infant. "If you suppose I am so guileless as not to know that you were +coming here this afternoon to tell me you were regretfully compelled to +give me up on account of a more important engagement, then you +conspicuously fail to guess right. I read it in your note." + +He gave up attempting to reprove her. It did not seem feasible under the +circumstances. Instead, he held out the hand of peace, and she took it with +a laugh of gay camaraderie. + +"Well," he smiled, "it seems possible that we may both soon be subjects for +congratulation. That just shows how things work around right. We never +would have suited each other, you know." + +"I'm quite sure we shouldn't," agreed Virginia promptly. "But I don't think +I'll trouble you to congratulate me till you see me wearing another +solitaire." + +"We'll hope for the best," he said cheerfully. "If it is the man I think, +he is a better man than I am." + +"Yes, he is," she nodded, without the least hesitation. + +"I hope you will be happy with him." + +"I'm likely to be happy without him." + +"Not unless he is a fool." + +"Or prefers another lady, as you do." + +She settled herself back in the low easy chair, with her hands clasped +behind her head. + +"And now I'd like to know why you prefer her to me," she demanded saucily. +"Do you think her handsomer?" + +He looked her over from the rippling brown hair to the trim suede shoes. +"No," he smiled; "they don't make them handsomer." + +"More intellectual?" + +"No." + +"Of a better disposition?" + +"I like yours, too." + +"More charming?" + +"I find her so, saving your presence." "Please justify yourself in detail." +He shook his head, still smiling. "My justification is not to be itemized. +It lies deeper--in destiny, or fate, or whatever one calls it." + +"I see." She offered Markham's verses as an explanation: + +"Perhaps we are led and our loves are fated, +And our steps are counted one by one; +Perhaps we shall meet and our souls be mated, After the burnt-out sun." + +"I like that. Who did you say wrote it?" + +The immobile butler, as once before, presented a card for her inspection. +Ridgway, with recollections of the previous occasion, ventured to murmur +again: "The fairy prince." + +Virginia blushed to her hair, and this time did not offer the card for his +disapproval. + +"Shall I congratulate him?" he wanted to know. + +The imperious blood came to her cheeks on the instant. The sudden storm in +her eyes warned him better than words. + +"I'll be good," he murmured, as Lyndon Hobart came into the room. + +His goodness took the form of a speedy departure. She followed him to the +door for a parting fling at him. + +"In your automobile you may reach a telegraph-office in about five minutes. +With luck you may be engaged inside of an hour." + +"You have the advantage of me by fifty-five minutes," he flung back. + +"You ought to thank me on your knees for having saved you a wretched scene +this afternoon," was the best she could say to cover her discomfiture. + +"I do. I do. My thanks are taking the form of leaving you with the prince." + +"That's very crude, sir--and I'm not sure it isn't impertinent." + +Miss Balfour was blushing when she returned to Hobart. He mistook the +reason, and she could not very well explain that her blushes were due to +the last wordless retort of the retiring "old love," whose hand had gone up +in a ridiculous bless-you-my-children attitude just before he left her. + +Their conversation started stiffly. He had come, he explained, to say +good-by. He was leaving the State to go to Washington prior to the opening +of the session. + +This gave her a chance to congratulate him upon his election. "I haven't +had an opportunity before. You've been so busy, of course, preparing to +save the country, that your time must have been very fully occupied." + +He did not show his surprise at this interpretation of the fact that he had +quietly desisted from his attentions to her, but accepted it as the correct +explanation, since she had chosen to offer it. + +Miss Balfour expressed regret that he was going, though she did not suppose +she would see any less of him than she had during the past two months. He +did not take advantage of her little flings to make the talk less formal, +and Virginia, provoked at his aloofness, offered no more chances. Things +went very badly, indeed, for ten minutes, at the end of which time Hobart +rose to go. Virginia was miserably aware of being +wretched despite the cool hauteur of her seeming indifference. But he was +too good a sportsman to go without letting her know he held no grudge. + +"I hope you will be very happy with Mr. Ridgway. Believe me, there is +nobody whose happiness I would so rejoice at as yours." + +"Thank you," she smiled coolly, and her heart raced. "May I hope that your +good wishes still obtain even though I must seek my happiness apart from +Mr. Ridgway?" + +He held her for an instant's grave, astonished questioning, before which +her eyes fell. Her thoughts side-tracked swiftly to long for and to dread +what was coming. + +"Am I being told--you must pardon me if I have misunderstood your +meaning--that you are no longer engaged to Mr. Ridgway?" + +She made obvious the absence of the solitaire she had worn. + +Before the long scrutiny of his steady gaze: her eyes at last fell. + +"If you don't mind, I'll postpone going just yet," he said quietly. + +Her racing heart assured her fearfully, delightfully, that she did not mind +at all. + +"I have no time and no compass to take my bearings. You will pardon me if +what I say seems presumptuous?" + +Silence, which is not always golden, oppressed her. Why could she not make +light talk as she had been wont to do with Waring Ridgway? + +"But if I ask too much, I shall not be hurt if you deny me," he continued. +"For how long has your engagement with Mr. Ridgway been broken, may I ask?" + +"Between fifteen and twenty minutes." + +"A lovers' quarrel, perhaps!" he hazarded gently. + +"On the contrary, quite final and irrevocable Mr. Ridgway and I have never +been lovers. She was not sure whether this last was mean as a confession +or a justification. + +"Not lovers?" He waited for her to explain Her proud eyes faced him. "We +became engaged for other reasons. I thought that did not matter. But I find +my other reasons were not sufficient. To-day I terminated the engagement. +But it is only fair to say that Mr. Ridgway had come here for that purpose. +I merely anticipated him." Her self-contempt would not let her abate one +jot of the humiliating truth. She flayed herself with a whip of scorn quite +lost on Hobart. + +A wave of surging hope was flushing his heart, but he held himself well in +hand. + +"I must be presumptuous still," he said. "I must find out if you broke the +engagement because you care for another man?" + +She tried to meet his shining eyes and could not. "You have no right to ask +that." + +"Perhaps not till I have asked something else. I wonder if I should have +any chance if I were to tell you that I love you?" + +Her glance swept him shyly with a delicious little laugh. "You never can +tell till you try." + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Ridgway of Montana, by Raine + diff --git a/old/rdgwy10.zip b/old/rdgwy10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d10041b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/rdgwy10.zip |
