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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 + |