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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6425.txt b/6425.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..98c5ea2 --- /dev/null +++ b/6425.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14384 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Flowing Gold, by Rex Beach + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Flowing Gold + +Author: Rex Beach + +Posting Date: December 24, 2009 [EBook #6425] +Release Date: September, 2004 +First Posted: December 10, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLOWING GOLD *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Charles Aldarondo and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: See p. 34 "I'M AWFULLY SORRY, TOO, DAD"] + + +FLOWING GOLD + +By Rex Beach + +TO THE ONE WHOSE FAITH, ENTHUSIASM, AND DEVOTION CONSTITUTE A +NEVER-FAILING SOURCE OF INSPIRATION, MY WIFE, SWEETHEART, AND PARTNER. + + + +FLOWING GOLD + + + +CHAPTER I + +Room service at the Ajax is of a quality befitting the newest, the +largest, and the most expensive hotel in Dallas. While the standard of +excellence is uniformly high, nevertheless some extra care usually +attaches to a breakfast ordered from the Governor's suite--most elegant +and most expensive of all the suites--hence the waiter checked over his +card and made a final, fluttering examination to be sure that the +chilled fruit was chilled and that the hot plates were hot before he +rapped on the door. A voice, loud and cheery, bade him enter. + +Would the gentleman wish his breakfast served in the parlor or--No, the +gentleman would have it right in his bedroom; but first, where were his +cigarettes? He hoped above all things that the waiter had not forgotten +his cigarettes. Some people began their days with cold showers--nothing +less than a cruel shock to a languid nervous system. An atrocious +practice, the speaker called it--a relic of barbarism--a fetish of +ignorance. Much preferable was a hygienic, stimulating cigarette which +served the same purpose and left no deleterious aftereffects. + +The pajama-clad guest struck a light, inhaled with abundant +satisfaction, and then cast a hungry eye over the contents of the +rubber-tired breakfast table. He, too, tested the temperature of the +melon and felt the cover of the toast plate. + +"Splendid!" he cried. "Nice rooms, prompt service, a pleasant-faced +waiter. Why, I couldn't fare better in my best club. Thanks to you, my +first impression of Dallas is wholly delightful." He seated himself in +a padded boudoir chair, unfolded a snowy serviette and attacked his +breakfast with the enthusiasm of a perfectly healthy animal. + +"Is this your first visit here, sir?" + +"Absolutely. Dallas is as foreign to me as Lhasa. It is the Baghdad of +my dreams and its streets are strange. Perhaps they are full of +adventure for me. I hope so. Anything exciting can happen in a town +where one has neither friends nor acquaintances, eh? You are a +well-read man, I take it." + +"I? Why--" + +"At any rate, you have heard it said that this is a small world." + +"Yes, sir." + +"Good! I merely wish to deny authorship of the saying, for it is false. +This is a large world. What is more, it is a world full of cities like +Dallas where men like you and me, Heaven be praised, have neither +friends, acquaintances, nor relatives. In that respect, it is a fine +world and we should devoutly give thanks for its Dallases and +its--Dalsatians. Jove! This ham is delicious!" + +The waiter was accustomed to "morning talkers," but this gentleman was +different. He had an air of consequence, and his voice, so deep, so +well modulated, so pleasant, invested him with unusual distinction. +Probably he was an actor! But no! Not in the Governor's suite. More +likely he was one of the big men of the Standard, or the Gulf, or the +Texas. To make sure, the waiter inquired: + +"May I ask if you are in oil, sir?" + +"In oil? Bless me, what a nauseating question--at this hour of the day!" + +"'Most everybody here is in oil. We turn dozens away every day, we're +that full. It's the boom. I'm in oil myself--in a small way, of course. +It's like this: sometimes gentlemen like--well, like you, sir--give me +tips. They drop a hint, like, about their stocks, and I've done +well--in a small way, of course. It doesn't cost them anything +and--some of them are very kind. You'd really be surprised." + +"Oh, not at all." The occupant of the Governor's suite leaned back in +his chair and smiled widely. "As a matter of fact, I am flattered, for +it is evident that you are endowed with the money-making instinct and +that you unerringly recognize it in others. Very well, I shall see what +I can do for you. But while we are on the subject of tips, would you +mind helping yourself to a dollar out of my trousers pocket?" + +The waiter proceeded to do as directed, but a moment later announced, +apologetically: "Here's all I find, sir. It's mostly pennies." He +exposed a handful of small coins. + +"Look in my coat, if you will." + +But the second search resulted as had the first. "Strange!" murmured +the guest, without rising. "I must have been robbed. I remember now, a +fellow crowded me as I left my train. Um--m! Robbed--at the very gates +of Baghdad! Dallas _is_ a City of Adventure. Please add your tip to the +check, and--make it two dollars. I'd like to have you serve me every +morning, for I cannot abide an acid face at breakfast. It sours my +whole day." + +Calvin Gray finished his breakfast, smoked a second cigarette as he +scanned the morning paper, then he dressed himself with meticulous +care. He possessed a tall, erect, athletic form, his perfectly fitting +clothes had that touch of individuality affected by a certain few of +New York's exclusive tailors, and when he finally surveyed himself in +the glass, there was no denying the fact that he presented an +appearance of unusual distinction. As he turned away, his eyes fell +upon the scanty handful of small coins which the waiter had removed +from his pocket and for a moment he stared at them reflectively, then +he scooped them into his palm and, with a smile, announced to his image: + +"It would seem that it is time for us to introduce ourselves to the +management." + +He was humming a tune as he strode out of his richly furnished quarters. + +The Governor's suite at the Ajax is on the mezzanine floor, at the head +of the grand staircase. As Gray descended the spacious marble steps, he +saw that the hotel was indeed doing a big business, for already the +lobby was thickly peopled and at the desk a group of new arrivals were +plaintively arguing with a bored and supercilious room clerk. + +Some men possess an effortless knack of commanding attention and +inspiring courtesy. Calvin Gray was one of these. Before many moments, +he was in the manager's office, explaining, suavely, "Now that I have +introduced myself, I wish to thank you for taking care of me upon such +short notice." + +"It was the only space we had. If you wish, I'll have your rooms +changed as soon as--" + +"Have you something better?" + +Haviland, the manager, laughed and shook his head. "Scarcely! That +suite is our pet and our pride. There's nothing to beat it in the whole +Southwest." + +"It is very nice. May I inquire the rate?" + +"Twenty-five dollars a day." + +"Quite reasonable." Mr. Gray beamed his satisfaction. + +"It is the only suite we have left. We've put beds in the parlors of +the others, and frequently we have to double up our guests. This oil +excitement is a blessing to us poor innkeepers. I presume it's oil that +brings you here?" + +Gray met the speaker's interrogatory gaze with a negative shake of the +head and a smile peculiarly noncommittal. "No," he declared. "I'm not +in the oil business and I have no money to invest in it. I don't even +represent a syndicate of Eastern capitalists. On the contrary, I am a +penniless adventurer whom chance alone has cast upon your hospitable +grand staircase." These words were spoken with a suggestion of mock +modesty that had precisely the effect of a deliberate wink, and Mr. +Haviland smiled and nodded his complete comprehension. + +"I get you," said he. "And you're right. The lease hounds would devil +you to death if you gave them a chance. Now then, if there's any way in +which I can be of service--" + +"There is." Gray's tone was at once businesslike. "Please give me the +names of your leading bankers. I mean the strongest and the most--well, +discreet." + +During the next few minutes Gray received and swiftly tabulated in his +mind a deal of inside information usually denied to the average +stranger; the impression his swift, searching questions made upon the +hotel manager was evident when the latter told him as he rose to go: + +"Don't feel that you have to identify yourself at the banks to-day. If +we can accommodate you--cash a check or the like--" + +"Thank you." The caller shook his head and smiled his appreciation of +the offer. "Your manner of conducting a hotel impresses me deeply, and +I shall speak of it to some of my Eastern friends. Live executives are +hard to find." + +It is impossible to analyze or to describe that quality of magnetic +charm which we commonly term personality, nevertheless it is the most +potent influence in our social and our business lives. It is a gift of +the gods, and most conspicuous successes, in whatever line, are due to +it. Now and then comes an individual who is cold, even repellent, and +yet who rises to full accomplishment by reason of pure intellectual +force or strength of character; but nine times out of ten the man who +gets ahead, be he merchant, banker, promoter, or crook, does so by +reason of this abstract asset, this intangible birthright. + +Gray possessed that happy quality. It had made itself felt by the +waiter who brought his breakfast and by the manager of the hotel; its +effect was equally noticeable upon the girl behind the cigar counter, +where he next went. An intimate word or two and she was in a flutter. +She sidetracked her chewing gum, completely ignored her other +customers, and helped him select a handful of her choicest sixty-cent +Havanas. When he finally decided to have her send the rest of the box +of fifty up to his room and signed for them, she considered the +transaction a tribute to her beauty rather than to her ability as a +saleswoman. Her admiring eyes followed him clear across the lobby. + +Even the blase bell-captain, by virtue of his calling a person of few +enthusiasms and no illusions, edged up to the desk and inquired the +name of the distinguished stranger "from the No'th." + +Gray appeared to know exactly what he wanted to do, for he stopped at +the telephone booths, inquired the number of the leading afternoon +newspaper, and put in a call for it. When it came through he asked for +the city editor. He closed the sound-proof door before voicing his +message, then he began, rapidly: + +"City editor? Well, I'm from the Ajax Hotel, and I have a tip for you. +I'm one of the room clerks. Listen! Calvin Gray is registered here--got +in last night, on gum shoes.... Gray! _Calvin Gray_! Better shoot a +reporter around and get a story.... You _don't_? Well, other people +know him. He's a character--globe trotter, soldier of fortune, +financier. He's been everywhere and done everything, and you can get a +great story if you've got a man clever enough to make him talk. But he +won't loosen easily.... Oil, I suppose, but--... Sure! Under cover. +Mystery stuff! Another big syndicate probably.... Oh, that's all right. +I'm an old newspaper man myself. Don't mention it." + +All American cities, these days, are much the same. Character, +atmosphere, distinctiveness, have been squeezed out in the general +mold. For all Calvin Gray could see, as he made his first acquaintance +with Dallas, he might have been treading the streets of Los Angeles, of +Indianapolis, of Portland, Maine, or of Portland, Oregon. A California +brightness and a Florida warmth to the air, a New England alertness to +the pedestrians, a Manhattan majesty to some of the newer office +buildings, these were the most outstanding of his first impressions. + +Into the largest and the newest of these buildings Gray went, a white +tile and stone skyscraper, the entire lower floor of which was devoted +to an impressive banking room. He sent his card in to the president, +and spent perhaps ten minutes with that gentleman. He had called merely +to get acquainted, so he explained; he wished to meet only the heads of +the strongest financial institutions; he had no favors to ask--as yet, +and he might have no business whatever with them. On the other +hand--well, he was a slow and careful investigator, but when he moved, +it was with promptitude and vigor, and in such an event he wished them +to know who he was. Meanwhile, he desired no publicity, and he hoped +his presence in Dallas would not become generally known--it might +seriously interfere with his plans. + +Before he left the bank Gray had met the other officers, and from their +manner he saw that he had created a decided impression upon them. The +bank president himself walked with him to the marble railing, then said: + +"I'd like to have you wait and meet my son, Lieutenant Roswell. He's +just back from overseas, and--the boy served with some distinction. A +father's pride, you understand?" + +"Was Lieutenant Roswell in France?" Gray inquired, quickly. + +"Oh yes. He'll be in at any minute." + +A shadow of regret crossed the caller's face. "I'm sorry, but I've +arranged to call on the mayor, and I've no time to lose. What unit was +your son with?" + +"The Ninety-eighth Field Artillery." + +The shadow fled. Mr. Gray was vexed at the necessity for haste, but he +would look forward to meeting the young hero later. + +"And meanwhile," Roswell, senior, said, warmly, "if we can be of +service to you, please feel free to call upon us. I dare say we'd be +safe in honoring a small check." He laughed pleasantly and clapped his +caller on the back. + +A fine man, Gray decided as he paused outside the bank. And here was +another offer to cash a check--the second this morning. Good address +and an expensive tailor certainly did count: with them as capital, a +man could take a profit at any time. Gray's fingers strayed to the +small change in his trousers pocket and he turned longing eyes back +toward the bank interior. Without doubt it was a temptation, especially +inasmuch as at that moment his well-manicured right hand held in its +grasp every cent that he possessed. + +This was not the first time he had been broke. On the contrary, during +his younger days he had more than once found himself in that condition +and had looked upon it as an exciting experience, as a not unpleasant +form of adventure. To be strapped in a mining camp, for instance, was +no more than a mild embarrassment. But to find oneself thirty-eight +years old, friendless and without funds in a city the size of +Dallas--well, that was more than an adventure, and it afforded a sort +of excitement that he believed he could very well do without. Dallas +was no open-handed frontier town; it was a small New York, where life +is settled, where men are suspicious, and where fortunes are slow in +the making. He wondered now if hard, fast living had robbed him of the +punch to make a new beginning; he wondered, too, if the vague plans at +the back of his mind had anything to them or if they were entirely +impracticable. Here was opportunity, definite, concrete, and spelled +with a capital O, here was a deliberate invitation to avail himself of +a short cut out of his embarrassment. A mere scratch of a pen and he +would have money enough to move on to some other Dallas, and there gain +the start he needed--enough, at least, so that he could tip his waiter +and pay cash for his Coronas. Business men are too gullible, any how; +it would be a good lesson to Roswell and Haviland. Why not--? + +Calvin Gray started, he recoiled slightly, the abstracted stare was +wiped from his face, for an officer in uniform had brushed past him and +entered the bank. That damned khaki again! Those service stripes! They +were forever obtruding themselves, it seemed. Was there no place where +one could escape the hateful sight of them? His chain of thought had +been snapped, and he realized that there could be no short cut for him. +He had climbed through the ropes, taken his corner, and the gong had +rung; it was now a fight to a finish, with no quarter given. He squared +his shoulders and set out for the hotel, where he felt sure he would +find a reporter awaiting him. + + + +CHAPTER II + +The representative of the Dallas _Post_ had anticipated some difficulty +in interviewing the elusive Calvin Gray--whoever he might be--but luck +appeared to be with him, for shortly after his arrival at the hotel the +object of his quest appeared. Mr. Gray was annoyed at being discovered; +he was, in fact, loath to acknowledge his identity. Having just +returned from an important conference with some of the leading +financiers of the city, his mind was burdened with affairs of weight, +and then, too, the mayor was expecting him--luncheon probably--hence he +was in no mood to be interviewed. Usually Mr. Gray's secretary saw +interviewers. However, now that his identity was known, he had not the +heart to be discourteous to a fellow journalist. Yes! He had once owned +a newspaper--in Alaska. Incidentally, it was the farthest-north +publication in the world. + +Alaska! The reporter pricked up his ears. He managed to elicit the fact +that Mr. Gray had operated mines and built railroads there; that he had +been forced into the newspaper game merely to protect his interests +from the depredations of a gang of political grafters, and that it had +been a sensational fight while it lasted. This item was duly jotted +down in the reportorial memory. + +Alaska was a hard country, quite so, but nothing like Mexico during the +revolution. Mexican sugar and mahogany, it transpired, had occupied Mr. +Gray's attention for a time, as had Argentine cattle, Yucatan +hennequin, and an engineering enterprise in Bolivia, not to mention +other investments closer to home. + +Once the speaker had become reconciled to the distasteful necessity of +talking about himself, he suggested an adjournment to his rooms, where +he would perhaps suffer less embarrassment by reason of his unavoidable +use of the personal pronoun. + +Gray noted the effect upon his visitor of the Governor's suite and soon +had the young man at ease, with a Corona between his teeth. Then +followed a full three-quarters of an hour, during which the visitor +discoursed in his very best style and his caller sat spellbound, making +occasional hieroglyphic hen tracks upon his note paper and +congratulating himself upon his good luck in striking a man like this +in one of his rare, talkative moods. Gray had set himself deliberately +to the task of selling himself to this gentleman of the press, and, +having succeeded, he was enough of a salesman to avoid the fatal error +of overselling. + +Alone at last, a sardonic grin crept over his features. So far, so +good. Now for the rest of those bankers and the mayor. Gray was working +rapidly, but he knew no other way of working, and speed was essential. +It seemed to him not unlikely that delay of the slightest might force +him to turn in desperation to a length of lead pipe and a mask, for--a +man must live. As yet he had no very definite plans, he had merely +undertaken to establish himself in a position to profit by the first +opportunity, whatever it might be. And opportunity of some sort would +surely come. It always did. What is more, it had an agreeable way of +turning up just when he was most in need of it. + +Gray called at several other banks that morning. He strode in swiftly, +introduced himself with quick incisiveness, and tarried only long +enough to fix himself indelibly in the minds of those he had come to +see, then he left. There are right and wrong ways of closing a deal or +of ending an interview, and Gray flattered himself that he possessed +"terminal facilities." He was very busy, always a bit pressed for time, +always a moment late; his theory of constant forward motion never +permitted an awkward pause in conversation. On the street, his long +legs covered the ground at something less than a run, his eyes were +keenly alert, his face set in purposeful lines. Pedestrians turned to +look after him. + +At the mayor's office he was denied admission to the chief executive, +but insisted so peremptorily as to gain his end. Once inside, he +conveyed his compliments with such a graceful flourish that his +intrusion assumed the importance of a ceremony and the People's Choice +was flattered. He inferred that this Calvin Gray made a practice of +presenting his formal respects to the dignitaries of all the large +cities he visited and deemed it a favor to them. No doubt it was, if he +so considered it, for he appeared to be fully aware of his own +importance. After all, it was an agreeable practice. Since no man in +public life can risk offending people of importance, His Honor unbent. +Gray turned a current jest upon Texas politics into a neat compliment +to the city's executive; they laughed; formality vanished; personal +magnetism made itself felt. The call ended by the two men lunching +together at the City Club, as Gray had assumed it would, and he took +pains that the bankers upon whom he had called earlier in the morning +should see him in company with the mayor. + +He returned to his hotel that afternoon pretty well satisfied with his +efforts and hopeful that some of the seed he had sown broadcast would +be ripe for the reaping ere-long. But he received an electric shock as +he approached the desk, for the bell captain addressed him, saying: + +"Mr. Haviland wishes to see you at once, in his office." + +"Indeed? Anything important?" + +"Very important, sir. I've been waiting for you to come in." There was +something ominous about this unexpected summons, or perhaps about the +manner of its delivery. At any rate, suspicion leaped into Gray's mind. + +So! Haviland was wise! Quick work that. Evidently he had investigated, +through those mysterious sources of information available to great +hotels. Or perhaps some one had seen and recognized him. Well, that was +the way his luck had run, lately--every break against him. + +Now--Gray's shoulders lifted in a shrug of resignation--there was +nothing to do except wave aside the blindfold and face the firing squad +like an officer and a gentleman. But it was a pity that the crash had +come so soon; fortune might have given him at least a short interval of +grace. Haviland was probably in a cold rage at the discovery of the +fraud, and Gray could only hope that he wouldn't get noisy over it, for +scenes were always annoying and sometimes they ran to unfortunate +lengths. + +There was a curious brightness to the imposter's eyes, a reckless, +mocking smile upon his lips, when he stepped into the manager's office +and stood beside the desk. He declined Haviland's invitation to be +seated--it seemed more fitting that a man should take sentence on his +feet. + +"Have you seen the Post?" the manager inquired. + +"No." + +Haviland handed him a copy of the leading afternoon paper, and Gray's +eyes flashed to the headline of an article reading: + +CALVIN GRAY, HERO OF SENSATIONAL EXPLOITS, IN DALLAS ADVENTURES READ +LIKE PAGE OF ROMANCE FAMOUS FINANCIER ADMITS LARGE OIL INTERESTS BEHIND +HIM + +From the opening paragraph Gray judged that he had impressed the +reporter even more deeply than he had supposed, but he took no +satisfaction there from, for Haviland was saying: + +"I've read the whole story, but I want you to tell me something more +about yourself." + +"What do you wish to know?" + +"Were you in France?" + +Over the visitor's face there came a subtle change. Whereas, upon +entering, he had worn an expression of careless defiance, now he +appeared to harden in every fiber and to go on guard. + +"I have been many times in France." + +"I mean during the war. Did you serve?" + +There was a pause. "I did." Gray's eyes remained fixed upon his +interrogator, but they had begun to smolder. + +"Then you're Colonel Gray. Colonel Calvin Gray." + +"Quite so." The speaker's voice was harsh, and it came with an effort. +"But you didn't read _that_ in the _Post_. Come! What's the idea? Out +with it." + +The interview had taken an unexpectedly disagreeable turn. Gray had +anticipated an unpleasant moment or two, but this--well, it was indeed +the crash. Calamity had overtaken him from the very quarter he had +least expected and most dreaded, and his mind raced off at a tangent; a +dozen unwelcome queries presented themselves. + +"Strange what circles we move in," Haviland was saying. "Do you know +who owns the controlling interest in this hotel? Surely you must know +or can guess. Think a moment. It's somebody you met over there and have +reason to remember." + +A sound escaped, from the throat of Colonel Gray--not a cry, but rather +a gasp of amazement, or of rage. + +"Aha!" Haviland grinned in triumph. "I thought--" + +His guest leaned forward over the desk, with face twitching. Passion +had driven the blood from it, and his whole expression was one of such +hatred, such fury, the metamorphosis was so startling, that the hotel +man stiffened in his chair and stared upward in sudden amazement. + +"_Nelson!_" Gray ejaculated. "Nelson! By God! So! He's _here_!" + +During the moment that Haviland sat petrified, Gray turned his head +slowly, his blazing eyes searched the office as if expecting to +discover a presence concealed somewhere; they returned to the hotel +man's face, and he inquired: + +"Well, where is he?" + +Haviland stirred. "I don't know what you're talking about. Who's +Nelson?" After a second he exclaimed: "Good Lord! I thought I had a +pleasant surprise for you, and I was gracefully leading up to it, +but--I must have jazzed it all up. I was going to tell you that the +hotel and everything in it is yours." + +"Eh?" + +"Why, the Ajax is one of the Dietz chain! Herman Dietz of Cincinnati +owns it. He left for the North not an hour ago. At the last minute he +heard you were here--read this story in the paper--and had bellboys +scouring the place for you. You must know why he wanted to see you, and +what he said when he found that he'd have to leave before you came in." + +Colonel Gray uttered another exclamation, this time an expletive of +deep relief. He fought with himself a moment, then murmured an apology. +"Sorry. You gave me a start-decidedly. Herman Dietz, eh? Well, well! +You made me think for a moment that I was a guest in the house of some +other--friend." + +"_Friend?_" + +"Exactly!" Gray was himself again now. He ran a loosening finger +between his collar and throat. "Quite a start, I'll admit, but--some of +my friends are great practical jokers. They have a way of jumping out +at me and crying 'Boo!' when I least expect it." + +"Um-m! I see. Mr. Dietz told me that he was under lifelong obligation +to a certain Colonel Calvin Gray. Something to do with passports--" + +"I once rendered him a slight favor." + +"He doesn't regard the favor as 'slight.' He was about to be imprisoned +for the duration of the war and you managed to get him back home." + +"Merely a matter of official routine. I felt sure he was a loyal +American citizen." + +"Exactly. But he makes more of the incident than you do, and he gave me +my instructions. So--what can I do for you on his behalf? You have only +to ask." + +Gray pondered the unexpected offer. He was still a bit shaken, for a +moment ago he had been more deeply stirred even than Haviland +suspected, and the emotional reaction had left him weak. After all the +hollow pretense of this day a genuine proffer of aid was welcome, and +the temptation to accept was strong. Herman Dietz was indeed indebted +to him, and he believed the old German-American would do anything, lend +him any amount of money, for instance, that he might ask for. Gray +wondered why he had not thought of Dietz before he came to Texas; it +would have made things much easier. But the offer had come too late, it +seemed to him; at this moment he could see no means of profiting by it +without wrecking the flimsy house of cards he had that very day erected +and exposing himself to ridicule, to obloquy as a rank four-flusher. +The scarcely dry headlines of that afternoon paper ran before his +eyes--"_Famous Financier Admits Large Oil Interests Behind Him_." +Probably there were other things in the body of the article that would +not harmonize with an appeal to Haviland for funds, nor sound well to +Mr. Dietz, once he learned the truth. The more Gray pondered the +matter, the more regretfully he realized that he had overplayed his +hand, as it were. + +Here was a situation indeed! To be occupying the most expensive suite +in the hotel of a man who wished to lend him money, to be unable to pay +one day's rent therefore, and yet to be stopped from accepting aid. +There was a grim irony about it, for a fact. Then, too, the seed he had +sown in banking circles, and his luncheon with the mayor! Haviland had +a sense of humor; it would make a story too good to keep--the new oil +operator, the magnificent and mysterious New York financier, a +"deadhead" at the Ajax. Oh, murder! + +"Well, name your poison! Isn't there something, anything we can do for +you?" Haviland repeated. + +"There is, decidedly." Gray smiled his warm appreciation of the tender. +"If it is not too great a drain upon the Dietz millions, you may keep a +supply of cut flowers in my room. I'm passionately fond of roses, and I +should like to have my vases filled every morning." + +"You shall dwell in a perfumed bridal bower." + +Gray paused at the door to light one of those sixty-cent cigars and +between puffs observed: "Please assure Mr. Dietz that--his obligation +is squared and that I am--deeply touched. I shall revel in the scent of +those flowers." + +That evening, when Calvin Gray, formally and faultlessly attired, +strolled into the Ajax dining room he was conscious of attracting no +little attention. For one thing, few of the other guests were in +evening dress, and also that article in the _Post_, which he had read +with a curiously detached amusement, had been of a nature to excite +general notice. The interview had jarred upon him in only one +respect--_viz_., in describing him as a "typical soldier of fortune." +No doubt the reporter had intended that phrase in the kindest spirit; +nevertheless, it implied a certain recklessness and instability of +character that did not completely harmonize with Gray's inchoate, +undeveloped banking projects. Bankers are wary of anything that sounds +adventurous--or they pretend to be. As a matter of fact, Gray had +learned enough that very day about Texas bankers to convince him that +most of them were good, game gamblers, and that a large part of the +dividends paid by most of the local institutions of finance were +derived from oil profits. However, the newspaper story, as a whole, was +such as to give him the publicity he desired, and he was well content +with it. + +Its first results were prompt in coming. Even while the head waiter was +seating him, another diner arose and approached him with a smile. Gray +recognized the fellow instantly--one of that vast army of casuals that +march through every active man's life and disappear down the avenues of +forgetfulness. + +After customary greetings had been exchanged, the newcomer, Coverly by +name, explained that he had read the _Post_ article not five minutes +before, and was delighted to learn how well the world had used Gray. He +was dining alone; with alacrity he accepted an invitation to join his +old friend, and straightway he launched himself upon the current of +reminiscence. In answer to Gray's inquiry, he confessed modestly enough: + +"Oh, I'm not in your class, old man. I'm no 'modern Gil Blas,' as the +paper calls you. No Wall Street money barons are eating out of my hand, +and I have no international interests 'reaching from the Yukon to the +Plate,' but--I stand all right in little old Dallas. I'm the V. P. of +our biggest jewelry house, and business is great." After their order +had been given, he recited in greater detail the nature of his success. + +Gray was interested. "Texas is booming," he said, at the conclusion of +the story. "I'm told the new oil towns are something like our old +mining camps." + +"Except that they are more so. The same excitement, the same quick +fortunes, only quicker and larger. Believe me, it's fine for the +jewelry business. Look here." Coverly drew from his pocket a letter +written in a painfully cramped hand upon cheap note paper, and this he +spread out for his companion to read. "There's an example in point." + +The letter, which bore the Ranger postmark, ran as follows: + + DERE SIR--Your store has bin rekomend to me for dimons and I + want some for my wife and dauter. Send me prises on rings of + large sises. + + Yours truley GUS BRISKOW. + +"Um-m! Who is Mr. Briskow?" + +Coverly shrugged. "Probably some nester who never saw a hundred dollars +all in one place until recently. When they strike oil, they buy +diamonds, nice large yellow ones, as a rule; then as the money +continues to flow in, they pay off the mortgage and buy a bank--or an +interest in one." + +"In Heaven's name, introduce me to the opulent Gus Briskow." + +"I wish I might. But I don't expect to make his acquaintance. The head +of our firm is away and I haven't a man I'd dare trust to send out into +the field. Usually I handle these inquiries myself when the victim +can't tear himself away from contemplating the miraculous flow of +liquid gold long enough to come here. I take an assortment of gems with +me and beard the _nouveau riche_ right on his derrick floor. Why, I've +carried as much as a hundred thousand dollars' worth of merchandise on +some of my trips." Coverly sighed regretfully. "Tough luck! Too bad +you're not a good jewelry salesman?" + +"I am," Gray declared. "I can sell anything. As for diamonds--I've +bought enough in my time to know their value." + +Coverly laughed in ready agreement with this statement. "Gad! I'm sore +at missing this sale." + +"You needn't miss it. I'll go." + +"Don't kid an unfortunate--" + +"I'm not joking. If it's worth while, pack up your saffron +solitaires--all that you dare trust me with--and I'll be your +gentlemanly representative." + +"Worth while? Good Lord! I'd probably get a ten-thousand-dollar order!" + +"Very well. It's settled." Gray's decision had been quickly made. +Opportunity had knocked--he was not one to deny her admission, no +matter how queer her garb. A hundred thousand dollars' worth of gems! +The very figures intrigued him and--diamonds are readily negotiable. +There would be a natural risk attached to the handling of so large an +amount. A thousand things might happen to a treasure chest of that +size. Gray began to believe that his luck had changed. + +"Where does Mr. Briskow live?" he inquired. + +"Out beyond Ranger, somewhere. But--" + +"I'm going to visit that field, anyhow. This will give me an excuse." + +"Nonsense!" The jeweler did not like to have fun poked at him. For some +time he refused to take the offer seriously, and even when his host +insisted that he would enjoy the lark, he expostulated: "Why, the idea +is ridiculous! You--Calvin Gray, the financier, peddling jewelry? Ha! +Outside of the fact that you wouldn't, couldn't do it, it's not the +safest thing in the world to carry a small fortune in stones through +the oil fields." + +"Of course you insure it against theft?" + +"That's the point. We can't. Have you ever heard of 'high-jackers'? +That's the Texas term for hold-up men, robbers. Well, the country is +full of them." + +"Excellent! There no longer is any question about my going," Gray +announced, firmly. "I am bored; I am stale; a thrill, of whatever sort, +would stir my blood. Animated by purely selfish motives, I now insist +upon a serious consideration of my offer. First, you say I 'wouldn't, +couldn't'; I assure you that I would, could--and _shall_, provided I +can qualify as a salesman." + +Coverly admitted without much argument that anybody could probably +effect a sale in this instance, if the diamonds were plainly marked +with their prices; it would be a mere question of displaying the goods. +That was not the point. Gray was a rich, a busy man--the idea was +fantastic. + +"Why, you're offering to do this as an accommodation to an old friend, +and your time is probably worth more than our whole profit on the sale +would amount to." + +"My time is worth nothing. If you hesitate to intrust this king's +ransom to me, I'll go personally responsible for its value. That's +fair, isn't it?" + +"Don't be silly. How could I pay you if you did go?" + +"Um-m!" This idea, it seemed, had not occurred to Mr. Gray. It was +plain that money meant nothing to him. + +"You see? We couldn't permit--" + +"I have it. We'll divorce friendship and sentiment entirely from the +discussion and reduce it to a strictly business basis. You shall ease +your conscience by paying my traveling expenses. The emotional suspense +that I undergo shall be my reward. I'll take my commission in thrills." + +This offer evoked a light laugh from Gray's guest. "You'd get enough of +'em," he asserted. "I'll advance a mild one, on account, at this +moment. Notice the couple dining at the third table to your left." Gray +lifted his eyes. "What do you see?" + +"A rather well-dressed, hard-faced man and a decidedly attractive +woman--brunette. There's a suggestion of repressed widowhood about her. +It's the gown, probably. I am not yet in my dotage, and I had seen her +before I saw you." + +"She's living here. I don't know much about her, but the man goes by +the name of Mallow." + +"No thrill yet." + +"He's been hanging about our store for the past month, making a few +purchases and getting acquainted with some of the clerks. Wherever I +go, lately, there he is. I'll wager if I took to-night's train for +Ranger, he'd be on it." + +"And still my pulses do not leap." + +"Wait! I got a sort of report on him and it's bad. I believe, and so +does the chief of police, that Mr. Mallow has something to do with the +gang of crooks that infests this country. One thing is certain, they're +not the native product, and our hold-ups aren't staged by rope-chokers +out of work." + +Calvin Gray turned now and openly stared at the object of Coverly's +suspicions. There was an alert interest in his eyes. "You've cinched +the matter with me," he declared, after a moment. "Get out your +diamonds to-morrow; I'm going to take the night train to Ranger." + +Later that evening, after his guest had gone, Gray took occasion +deliberately to put himself in Mallow's way and to get into +conversation with him. This was not a difficult maneuver, for it was +nearly midnight and the lobby was well-nigh deserted; moreover, it +almost appeared as if the restless Mr. Mallow was seeking an +acquaintance. + +For the better part of an hour the two men smoked and talked, and had +Coverly overheard their conversation his blood would have chilled and +he would have prematurely aged, for his distinguished host, Calvin +Gray, the worldly-wise, suave man of affairs, actually permitted +himself to be pumped like a farmer's son. It would have been a ghastly +surprise to the jeweler to learn how careless and how confiding his +friend could be in an off moment; he would have swooned when Gray told +about his coming trip to Ranger and actually produced the misspelled +Briskow letter for the edification of his chance acquaintance. Any +lingering doubt as to his friend's honesty of purpose would have +vanished utterly had he heard Mallow announce that he, too, was going +to Ranger, the very next night--a curious coincidence, truly--and +Gray's expression of pleasure at the prospect of such a congenial +traveling companion. The agitated Coverly no doubt would have phoned a +frantic call for the police, then and there. + +Once Gray was in his rooms, however, his manner changed, and into his +eyes there came a triumphant glitter. Hastily he rummaged through one +of his bags, and from a collection of trinkets, souvenirs, and the like +he selected an object which he examined carefully, then took into the +bathroom for further experiment. His step was springy, his lips were +puckered, he was whistling blithely when he emerged, for at last those +vaguely outlined plans that had been at the back of his mind had +assumed form and pattern. His luck had turned, he had made a new start. +Mallow was indeed a crook, and Gray blessed the prompt good fortune +that had thrown both him and Coverly in his way. + +It had been a busy day; he was well content with its fruitage. + + + +CHAPTER III + +Old Tom Parker was a "type." He was one of a small class of men at one +time common to the West, but now rapidly disappearing. A turbulent +lifetime spent in administering the law in a lawless region had stamped +him with the characteristics of a frontier officer--_viz_., vigilance, +caution, self-restraint, sang-froid. For more than thirty years he had +worn a badge of some sort and, in the serving of warrants and other +processes of law, he had covered, first in the saddle or on buckboard, +later in Pullman car or automobile, most of that vast region lying +between the Arkansas and the Pecos, the Cimarron, and the +Sabine--virtually all of what is now Texas and Oklahoma. He still spoke +of the latter state, by the way, as "the Territory," and there were few +corners of it that he had not explored long before it ceased to be a +haven of hunted men. + +That is what Tom Parker had been--a hunter of men--and time was when +his name had been famous. But he had played his part. The times had +caught up with and passed him, and no longer in the administration of +justice was there need of abilities like his, hence the shield of his +calling had been taken away. + +Now Tom did not reckon himself obsolete. He was badger-gray, to be +sure, and stiff in one knee--a rheumatic legacy of office inherited by +reason of wet nights in the open and a too-diligent devotion to +duty--but in no other respect did he believe his age to be apparent. +His smoke-blue eyes were as bright as ever, his hand was quick; +realization that he had been shunted upon a side track filled him with +surprise and bewilderment. It was characteristic of the man that he +still considered himself a bulwark of law and order, a _de facto_ +guardian of the peace, and that from force of habit he still sat facing +the door and never passed between a lighted lamp and a window. + +Among the late comers to Wichita Falls, where he lived, Tom was known +as a quiet-spoken, emotionless old fellow with an honorable past, but +with a gift for tiresome reminiscence quite out of place in the new and +impatient order of things, and none but old-timers and his particular +cronies were aware of the fact that he had another side to his +character. It was not generally known, for instance, that he was a kind +and indulgent father and had a daughter whom he worshiped with blind +adulation. This ignorance was not strange, for Miss Barbara Parker had +been away at college for four years now, and during that time she had +not once returned home. + +There was a perfectly good reason for this protracted separation of +father and daughter; since Old Tom was no longer on pay, it took all he +could rake and scrape to meet her bills, and railroad fares are high. +That Hudson River institution was indeed a finishing school; not only +had it polished off Barbara, but also it had about administered the +_coup de grace_ to her father. There had been a ranch over near Electra +with some "shallow production," from which Tom had derived a small +royalty--this was when Barbara Parker went East and before the +Burk-burnett wells hit deep sand--but income from that source had been +used up faster than it had come in, and "Bob," as Tom insisted upon +calling her, would have had to come home had it not been for an +interesting discovery on her father's part--_viz._, the discovery of a +quaint device of the law entitled a "mortgage." Mortgages had to do +with a department of the law unfamiliar to Tom, his wit, his +intelligence, and his dexterity of hand having been exercised solely in +upholding the dignity of the criminal branch, but once he had realized +that a mortgage, so called, was no more than a meaningless banking term +used to cloak the impulsive generosity of moneyed men, he availed +himself of this discovery and was duly grateful. + +Tom carried on a nominal fire-insurance business, but as a matter of +fact the tiny two-roomed frame structure that bore his painted sign was +nothing more or less than a loafing place for him and his rheumatic +friends, and a place in which the owner could spend the heat of the day +in a position of comfort to his stiff leg--that is to say, asleep in a +high-backed office chair, his feet propped upon his desk. It was here +that Tom could usually be found, and when one of those hateful +statements arrived from the East he merely roused himself, put on his +wide gray hat, limped around to the bank, and pledged more of his oil +royalties or signed another mortgage. What insurance policies he wrote +were brought to him by his old pals; the money derived there from he +sent on to "Bob" with love and an admonition to be a good girl and +study hard and hurry home, because he was dying to see her. This +office, by the way, no longer suited Tom; it was becoming too noisy and +he would have sold it and sought another farther out had it not been +mortgaged for more than it was worth. So, too, was the house where he +lived amid the dirt and disorder of all bachelor establishments. + +Now Old Tom would have resented an accusation of indolence; the bare +implication of such a charge would have aroused his instant +indignation, and Tom Parker indignant was a man to shun. As a matter of +fact, he believed himself sadly overworked, and was forever complaining +about it. + +The time came, however, when he was forced to shed his habit of +slothfulness as completely as a snake sheds its skin, and that was +during the week before "Bob's" arrival. Then, indeed, he swept and he +dusted, he mopped and he polished, he rubbed and he scrubbed, trying +his best to put the house in order. Never in all his life had he +labored as he did then, for four years of "batching" will make a bear's +nest out of the most orderly house, but he was jealous of his task and +he refused to share it with other hands. Pots and pans, rusty from +disuse or bearing the accumulated evidence of many hastily prepared +meals, he took out in the back yard and scrubbed with sand, leaving his +bony knuckles skinned and bleeding from the process; he put down a new +carpet in "Bob's" room, no easy task for a man with an ossified knee +joint--incidentally, the "damn thing" kept him awake for two nights +thereafter; he nailed up fresh curtains, or they looked fresh to him, +at her windows, and smashed a perfectly good thumb-nail in doing so. +This and many other abominable duties he performed. But love means +suffering, and every pang gave Old Tom a thrill of fierce delight +for--"Bob" was coming. The lonely, hungry, aching wait was over. + +Constant familiarity with the house had mercifully dulled the +occupant's appreciation of its natural deterioration and the effects of +his neglect, so when he finally straightened his aching back and +regarded the results of his heroic efforts, it seemed to him that +everything shone like new and that the place was as neat and as clean +as on the day "Bob" went away. Probably Hercules thought the Augean +stables were spotless and fragrant when he had finished with them. And +perhaps they were, but Tom Parker was no demigod. He was just a clumsy +old man, unaccustomed to indoor "doings," and his eyes at times during +the last few days had been unaccountably dim--as, for instance, while +he was at work in Barbara's chamber. + +He did not sleep much on the night before the girl's arrival. He sat +until late with the framed photograph of Barbara's mother on his knee, +and tried to tell the dead and gone original that he had done his best +for the girl so far, and if he had failed, it was because he knew +nothing about raising girls and--nature hadn't cut him out to be a +father, anyhow. He had been considerably older than Barbara's mother +when he married her, and he had never ceased to wonder what there had +been in him to win the love of a woman like her, or to regret that fate +had not taken him instead of her. Heaven knows his calling had been +risky enough. But--that was how things went sometimes--the wheat was +taken and the chaff remained. + +And in the morning! Tom was up before daylight and had his dishes +washed and his things in order long ere the town was awake. Then he +went down to the office and waited--with the jumps. Repeatedly he +consulted his heavy gold watch, engraved: "With the admiration and +gratitude of the citizens of Burlingame. November fifth, 1892." It was +still two hours of train time when he locked up and limped off toward +the station, but--it was well to be there early. + +Of course he met Judge Halloran on the street--he always did--and of +course the judge asked when "Bob" was coming home. The judge always did +that, too. Old Tom had lied diligently to the judge every day for a +month now, for he had no intention of sharing this day of days with a +tiresome old pest, and now he again made an evasive answer. + +"Mendacity is at once the lowest and the commonest form of deceit," the +judge indignantly announced. "You know perfectly well when she's +coming, damn you!" + +"Honest, I don't--not exactly." + +But the judge was unconvinced. "You've been as mysterious as a +bootlegger for the last week, but I could always read you like a book, +Tom Parker. You know, all right. Mrs. Halloran wants to come over and +fix things up for her. She said so this--" + +"Oh, I got everything fixed," Tom hastily declared. "Ha! What did I +tell you?" The judge glared; Tom could have bitten his tongue for that +slip. "Your pitiful attempts to mislead Barbara's admirers expose you +to ridicule, and offend those of us who tolerate you out of regard for +her." (The judge had a nice Texas drawl, and he pronounced it +"reegy'ad.") "You're on your way to the train at this moment and--I +propose to accompany you." + +"What would I be going to the train for, now?" Tom inquired, in a +deceitfully mild tone. Inwardly he was raging, and he cursed the judge +for a meddlesome old fool. + +"Hm-m! Thought you'd sneak down there, unobserved, probably." There was +a pause; then the speaker went on in an altered tone: "D'you suppose +she has forgotten all her native accomplishments, Tom? I wonder if she +can still ride and rope and shoot, or if those thin-blooded Eastern +schoolma'ams have taught her that such things are unladylike and +coarse." + +"Pshaw! You never forget how to do those things." + +"She could handle a horse or a rope or a gun as well as you at your +best." + +"_Better!_" Tom declared, with swelling pride. + +Halloran wagged his white head in agreement, an unusual procedure, +inasmuch as he never agreed with Tom on any subject which offered +possible ground for disagreement. "A wonderful girl! And I'll wager +they haven't spoiled her. Even _you_ couldn't spoil 'Bob.'" He raised +his red, belligerent eyes and fixed them upon his old friend, but there +was now a kindly light in them. "You made a real son of her, didn't +you, Tom?" + +"Almost. I was mighty disappointed because she was a girl, but--I don't +know as a boy could of turned out much better. Well, Judge, I got to be +moving." + +"You are neither grammatical nor precise," snapped Judge Halloran. "You +mean _we_ must be moving." He linked arms with Tom and fell into step +with him; he clung to that rigid arm, moreover, despite Tom's surly +displeasure. Not until a friend stopped them for a word or two was the +distracted parent enabled to escape from that spidery embrace; then, +indeed, he slipped it as a filibustering schooner slips its moorings, +and made off as rapidly and as unobtrusively as possible. + +Judge Halloran stared after the retreating figure, then he showed his +decayed teeth in a smile. "'Bob' is coming home to-day and the old +Mountain Lion is on edge," he explained. "I must warn the boys to stay +away from the station and give him his hour. Poor Tom! He has held his +breath for four years." + +Tom Parker had heard of children spoiled by schooling, of daughters +educated away from their commonplace parents and rendered disdainful of +them, but never for one instant did he fear that his girl was that +sort. He just knew better. He could no more have doubted "Bob's" love +for him than his for her, or-God's love for both of them. Such love is +perfect, absolute. He took no thought, therefore, of the changes time +and poverty had wrought in his appearance: "Bob" wouldn't notice. He +bet she wouldn't care if he was plumb ragged. They were one and +indivisible; she was _his_, just like his right arm; she was his boy +and his girl; his son-daughter. The old gunman choked and his tonsils +ached abominably. He hoped he wasn't in for another attack of quinsy +sore throat. But--why lie to himself? The truth was, he wanted to cry +and he wanted to laugh at the same time, and the impulses were crossed +in his windpipe. He shook his watch like a child's rattle, to be sure +it was still running. + +Barbara did not disappoint her father. On the contrary, she was perhaps +more deeply moved than he at their meeting. At sight of him she uttered +a strangled little cry, then she ran into his arms and clung there, +tightly, her cheek pressed against his breast. It was only upon +occasions like this that "Bob" kissed her father, for she had been +reared as a boy and taught to shun emotional display. Boys kiss their +mothers. She snuggled close, and Tom could feel her whole body shaking; +but she kept her head averted to conceal a distressingly unmasculine +weakness. It was a useless precaution, however, for Tom was blind, his +eyes were as wet as hers, and tears were trickling down the seams in +his wrinkled face. + +"Oh, daddy, it has been a long time!" Those were the first words either +of them had spoken. + +Tom opened his lips, then he closed them. He patted Barbara clumsily, +and finally cleared his aching throat with a loud "_Harrumph!_" He +dashed the tears from his eyes with the heel of one harsh palm, then +leveled a defiant glare over her head, directed at anyone who might be +looking on at his weakness. It was a blurry glare, however, and not +nearly so ferocious as he intended it to be. After several efforts he +managed to regain control of his vocal powers. + +"Well, son!" he cried, huskily; then, "_Harrumph_!" + +Barbara's clutch tightened appreciatively. "Such a long, long time!" +Still with her cheek pressed close against him, she ran a small gloved +hand into the pocket of his coat and brought forth a bandana +handkerchief which she thrust into his palm, saying: "It's a good thing +I'm home, for you've caught another cold, haven't you? Now blow your +nose." + +Barbara was anything but boyish to look at; quite the opposite, in +fact. She was delightfully feminine from the crown of her smart little +traveling hat to her dainty French heels, and although her suit was not +expensive, it was worn with an air and was perhaps as fetching as any +that had ever come to Wichita Falls. It gave the impression of +perfectly setting off a figure and a personality that required no +setting off. She had the Parker eyes of quenchless blue. + +"Well, son, there's a boom on and the town has grown some; but I guess +things here are about the same as when you left 'em." Tom spoke with +pride and satisfaction as he paid the driver, took Barbara's suitcase, +and opened the gate for her. + +The girl turned from her first long, appraising gaze at the modest +home. No change, indeed! The paint on the house was peeling, gutters +had rusted out, some of the porch flooring had rotted through, the yard +was an unkempt tangle of matted grass and weeds and neglected +shrubbery. The sight of it was like a stab to her, for she remembered +the place as it had been, and the shock was akin to that of seeing a +loved one in the garb of a tramp. But she smiled up at the gray face +above her--Tom, too, was as seedy as the premises--and she nodded. + +"It hasn't changed a mite," she said, bravely. + +A moment later she paused upon the threshold, tense, thrilled, +apparently speechless. Tom was reminded of a trim little wren poised +upon the edge of its nest. This time it was more difficult to +counterfeit an exclamation of joy, but the catch in "Bob's" voice, the +moisture in her eyes, was attributed by her father to gladness at the +sight of old familiar things. This was pay for the thought and the love +and the labor expended, truly. + +"Why, everything is right where it belongs! How _wonderfully_ you've +kept house! You must have a perfect jewel of a girl, dad!" + +"I let Aunt Lizzie go 'bout three years back," Tom explained. "She +got--shiftless and I been sort of batching it since. Clean, though, +ain't it?" + +Barbara turned; blindly she walked to the center table and buried her +face in a bouquet of wild flowers garnered from the yard. She held it +there for a moment before she spoke. "You--didn't even forget that I +love bluebonnets, did you, dad?" + +"Pshaw! I 'ain't had much to do but remember what you like, son." + +"What's the matter? Business bad?" "Bob's" face was still hidden. + +"Oh no! I'm busy as usual. But, now you're home, I'll probably feel +like doing more. I got a lot of work left in me yet, now I got somebody +to work for." + +"So you fixed everything with your own hands." + +"Sure! I knew how you like the place to look, and--well, a man gets +used to doing without help. The kitchen's clean, too." + +Side by side the two moved from room to room, and, once the girl had +regained control of herself, she maintained an admirable +self-restraint. She petted and she cooed over objects dear to her; she +loved every inch of everything; she laughed and she exclaimed, and with +her laughter sunshine suddenly broke into the musty, threadbare +interior for the first time in four years. + +"Bob's" room was saved for the last, and Old Tom stood back, glowing at +her delight. He could not refrain from showing her his blackened +thumb-nail--the price of his carpentry--for he hoped she'd kiss it. And +she did. Not until she had "shooed" him out and sent him downstairs, +smiling and chuckling at her radiant happiness, did she give way to +those emotions she had been fighting this long time; then her face grew +white and tragic. "Oh, daddy, daddy!" she whispered. "What _have_ I +done to you?" + +Tom Parker had raised his girl like a son, and like a son she took hold +of things, but with a daughter's tact. Her intuition told her much, but +she did not arrive at a full appreciation of the family affairs until +she had the house running and went down to put his office in order. +Then, indeed, she learned at what cost had come those four expensive +years in the East, and the truth left her limp. She went through Tom's +dusty, disordered papers, ostensibly rearranging and filing them, and +they told her much; what they did not tell her she learned from Judge +Halloran and other old cronies who came in to pay their garrulous +compliments. + +Tom was mortgaged to the hilt, his royalties were pledged; a crow could +not pick a living out of his insurance business. + +Such a condition was enough to dismay any girl who had never seriously +considered money matters and who had returned home to take up a life of +comparative ease and superlative enjoyment where she had left it off, +but "Bob" said nothing to her father. She knew every one of his +shortcomings, and they endeared him to her, quite as a son's faults and +failures deepen a mother's love, but she knew, too, that he was +cantankerous and required careful handling. Tom's toes were tender, and +he forever exposed them where they were easily trodden upon, therefore +the girl stepped cautiously and never even referred to his sacrifices, +which would have cruelly embarrassed both of them. + +But something had to be done, and quickly; a new hand needed to mend +the family fortunes. Barbara determined to lend that hand. + +A great change had come over the town and the whole country round +about, a change which the girl believed afforded her an opportunity to +prove that she was not a mere daughter, not an ornament and a drag, but +a real son-daughter such as Tom considered her. Wichita Falls was +overcrowded with oil men, drawn thither by the town-site strike at +Burkburnett, a few miles northwest, and excitement was mounting as new +wells continued to come in. Central north Texas was nearing an +epoch-making petroleum boom, for Ranger, away to the south, had set the +oil world by the ears, and now this new sand at "Burk" lent color to +the wild assertion that these north counties were completely underlaid +with the precious fluid. At any rate, the price of thirsty ranch lands +was somersaulting and prosperity was apparent in the homes of all +Barbara's girl friends. Her admirers of the opposite sex could talk of +little except leases and bonuses and "production"; they were almost too +busy making money to call upon her. + +Barbara knew something about oil, for she had watched the drilling of +every one of those shallow wells that had kept her in college, and what +is more, she knew most of the property owners in this part of the +state. In that advantage she believed lay her chance of accomplishment. + +After a fortnight of careful consideration she decided to enter the oil +business and deal in leases. + +"Good idea," Tom declared, when she had made known her plan. "The +town's so full of scamps it looks like Rodeo Day, and most of 'em are +doing well. If they can make good, it seems like an honest firm could +do better." + +"We'll be partners, dad. You run the insurance and I'll be the lease +hound." + +"Say--" Tom's eyes brightened. "I'll put a desk right alongside of +mine--a little feller, just your size--and a nice lounge in the back +room, where you can lay down when you're tired. You been away so long +it seems like I can't have you close enough." Another thought presented +itself, and he manifested sudden excitement. "I tell you! I'll get a +new sign painted, too! 'Tom and Bob Parker. Real Estate and Insurance. +Oil Prop'ties and Leases.' _Gosh!_ It's a _great_ idea, son!" His smile +lingered, but a moment later there came into his eyes a half-regretful +light. + +Barbara read his thought almost before he was aware of it, and, rising, +she laid her hand upon his shoulder. Wistfully she said, "I'm awfully +sorry, too, dad--" + +"Eh?" + +"--that I disappointed you so by not being a boy. But--it wasn't my +fault, and maybe I'll show you that a daughter can help as much as a +son." + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A year before this story opens the town of Ranger, Texas, consisted of +a weatherbeaten, run-down railroad station, a blacksmith shop, and a +hitching rail, town enough, incidentally, for the limited number of +people and the scanty amount of merchandise that passed through it. +Ranger lay in the dry belt--considered an almost entirely useless part +of the state--where killing droughts were not uncommon, and where for +months on end the low, flinty hills radiate heat like the rolls of a +steel mill. In such times even the steep, tortuous canyons dried out +and there was neither shade nor moisture in them. The few farms and +ranches round about were scattered widely, and life thereon was a grim +struggle against heartbreak, by reason of the gaunt, gray, ever-present +specter of the drought. Of late this particular region had proven +itself to be one of violent extremes, of extreme dryness during which +flowers failed to bloom, the grass shriveled and died, and even the +trees refused to put forth leaves; or, more rarely, of extreme wetness, +when the country was drowned beneath torrential rains. Sometimes, +during unusual winters, the heavens opened and spilled themselves, +choking the narrow watercourses, washing out roads and destroying +fields, changing the arid arroyos into raging river beds. At such times +life for the country people was scarcely less burdensome than during +the droughts, for the heavy bottom lands became quagmires, and the clay +of the higher levels turned into putty or a devilish agglutinous +substance that rendered travel for man or beast or vehicle almost +impossible. + +There appeared to be no law of average here. In dry times it was a +desert, lacking wholly, however, in the beauty, the mystery, and the +spell of a desert; in wet times it was a gehenna of mud and slush and +stickiness, and entirely minus that beauty and freshness that attends +the rainy seasons in a tropic clime. It was a land peopled by a +hard-bitten race of nesters--come from God knows where and for God +knows why--starved in mind and body, slaves of a hideous environment +from which they lacked means of escape. + +Geologists had claimed for some time that there must be coal in these +north Texas counties, a contention perhaps based upon a comfortable +belief in the law of compensation, upon a theory that a region so poor +aboveground must of necessity contain values of some sort beneath the +surface. But as for other natural resources, they scouted the belief in +such. Other parts of the state yielded oil, for instance, but here the +formation was all wrong. Who ever heard of oil in hard lime? + +Nevertheless, petroleum was discovered, and among the fraternity that +dealt in it Ranger became a word of contradiction and of deep meaning. +Aladdin rubbed his lamp, and, lo! a magic transformation occurred; one +of those thrilling dramas of a dramatic industry was played. A gypsy +camp sprang up beside the blacksmith shop, and as the weeks fled by it +changed into a village of wooden houses, then into a town, and soon +into a city of brick and iron and concrete. The railroad became clogged +with freight, a tidal wave of men broke over the town. Wagons, giant +motor trucks, caterpillar tractors towing long strings of trailers, +lurched and groaned and creaked over the hills, following roads unfit +for a horse and buggy. Straddling derricks reared themselves +everywhere; their feet were set in garden patches, in plowed fields, in +lonely mesquite pastures, and even high up on the crests of stony +ridges. One day their timbers were raw and clean, the next day they +were black and greasy, advertising the fact that once again the heavy +rock pressure far below had sent another fountain of fortune spraying +over the top. Then pipe lines were laid and unsightly tank farms were +built. + +Ranger became a mobilization point, a vast concentration camp for +supplies, and amid its feverish activity there was no rest, no Sundays +or holidays; the work went on at top tension night and day amid a +clangor of metal, a ceaseless roar of motors, a bedlam of hammers and +saws and riveters. Men lived in greasy clothes, breathing dust and the +odors of burnt gas mainly, eating poor food and drinking warm, fetid +water when they were lucky enough to get any at all. + +This was about the state of affairs that Calvin Gray found on the +morning of his arrival. He and Mallow had managed to secure a Pullman +section on the night train from Dallas; the fact that they were forced +to carry their own luggage from the station uptown to the restaurant +where they hoped to get breakfast was characteristic of the place. En +route thither they had to elbow their way through a crowd that filled +the sidewalks as if on a fair day. + +Mallow was well acquainted with the town, it appeared, and during +breakfast he maintained a running fire of comment, some of which was +worth listening to. + +"Ever hear how the first discovery was made? Well, the T. P. Company +had the whole country plastered with coal leases and finally decided to +put down a fifteen-hundred-foot wildcat. The guy that ran the rig had a +hunch there was oil here if he went deep enough, but he knew the +company wouldn't stick, so he faked the log of the well as long as he +could, then he kept on drilling, against orders--refused to open his +mail, for fear he'd find he was fired and the job called off. He was a +thousand feet deeper than he'd been ordered to go when--blooie! Over +the top she went with fourteen hundred barrels.... Desdemona's the name +of a camp below here, but they call it Hog Town. More elegant! Down +there the derricks actually straddle one another, and they have to +board them over to keep from drowning one another out when they blow +in. Fellow in Dallas brought in the first well, and it was so big that +his stock went from a hundred dollars a share to twelve thousand. All +in a few weeks. Of course, he started a bank. Funniest people I ever +saw, that way. Usually when a rube makes a winning he gambles or gets +him a woman, but these hicks take their coin and buy banks.... Ranger's +a real town; everything wide open and the law in on the play. That +makes good times. Show me a camp where the gamblers play solitaire and +the women take in washing and I'll show you a dead village. The joints +here have big signs on the wall, '_Gambling Positively Prohibited_,' +and underneath the games are running high, wide, and fancy. Refined +humor, I call it.... There were nine killings one day, but that's above +the average. The last time I was in town a couple of tool dressers got +into a row with a laundryman--claimed they'd been overcharged six +cents. It came to a shooting, and we buried all three of them. Two +cents apiece! That was their closing price. The cost of living is high +enough, but it isn't expensive to die here." + +In this vein ran Mallow's talk. From the first he had laid himself out +to be entertaining and helpful, and Gray obligingly permitted him to +have his way. When they had finished breakfast, he even allowed his +companion to hire an automobile and driver for him. They shook hands +finally, the best of friends. Mallow wished him good luck and gravely +voiced the hope that he would have fewer diamonds when he returned. +Gray warmly thanked his companion for his many courtesies and declared +they would soon meet again. + +Thus far the trip had worked out much as Gray had expected. Now, as his +service car left the town and joined the dusty procession of vehicles +moving country-ward, he covertly studied its driver and was gratified +to note that the fellow bore all the ear-marks of a thorough scoundrel. +What conversation the man indulged in strengthened that impression. + +The Briskow farm, it appeared, lay about twenty miles out, but twenty +miles over oil-field roads proved to be quite a journey. During the +muddy season the driver declared, it might well take a whole day to +make that distance; now that the roads were dry, they could probably +cover it in two or three hours, if the car held together. Traffic near +Ranger was terrific, and how it managed to move, even at a snail's +pace, was a mystery, for to sit a car was like riding a bucking horse. +If there had been the slightest attempts at road building they were now +invisible, and the vehicular streams followed meandering wagon trails +laid down by the original inhabitants of pre-petroleum days, which had +not been bettered by the ceaseless pounding of the past twelve months. +Up and down, over armored ridges and into sandy arroyos, along leaning +hillsides and across 'dobe flats, baked brick hard by the sun, the +current of travel roared and pounded with reckless disregard of tire +and bolt and axle. In the main, it was a motor-driven procession. There +were, to be sure, occasional teams of fine imported draft horses, but +for every head of live stock there were a dozen huge trucks, and for +every truck a score of passenger cars. These last were battered and +gray with mud, and their dusty occupants were of a color to match, for +they drove blindly through an asphyxiating cloud. Even the thirsty +vegetation beside the roads was coated gray, and was so tinder dry that +it seemed as if a lighted match would explode it. + +The sun glared cruelly, and the pyramidal piles of iron pipe chained to +the groaning trucks and plunging trailers were hot enough to fry eggs +upon, but neither they nor the steaming radiators gave off more heat +than the soil and the rocks. + +Detours were common--testimony to man's inherent optimism--but each was +worse than the other, the roadbeds everywhere were rutted, torn, broken +up as if from long-continued heavy shell fire. + +From every ridge skeleton derricks were in sight as far as the eye +could reach, the scattered ones, whose clean timbers gleamed in the +sunlight, testifying to dry holes; the blackened ones, usually in +clumps, indicating "production"--magic word. + +There were a few crossroads settlements--"hitch-rail towns"--unpainted +and ramshackle, but nowhere was there an attempt at farming, for this +part of Texas had gone hog wild over oil. Abandoned straw stacks had +settled and molded, cornfields had grown up to weeds, what few head of +cattle still remained lolled near the artificial surface tanks, all but +dried into mud holes. + +It was a farm of this character that Gray's driver finally pointed out +as the Briskow ranch. The house, an unsightly story-and-a-half affair, +stood at the back of what had once been a cultivated field, and the +place was distinctive only in the fact that it gave evidence of a good +water well, or a capacious reservoir, in the form of a vivid green +garden patch and a few flourishing peach trees immediately behind the +residence--welcome relief to the eye. + +Nobody answered Gray's knock at the front door, so he walked around the +house. Over the garden fence, grown thick with brambles, he beheld two +feminine figures, or rather two faded sunbonnets topping two pairs of +shoulders, and as he drew nearer he saw that one woman was bent and +slow moving, while the other was a huge creature, wide of hip and deep +of bosom, whose bare arms, burnt to a rich golden brown, were like +those of a blacksmith, and who wielded her heavy hoe as if it were a +toy. She was singing in a thin, nasal, uncultivated voice. + +Evidently they were the Briskow "help," therefore Gray made his +presence known and inquired for the master or mistress of the place. + +The elder woman turned, exposing a shrewd, benevolent face, and after a +moment of appraisal said, "I'm Miz' Briskow." + +"Indeed!" The visitor smiled his best and announced the nature of his +errand. + +"Lawsy me!" Mrs. Briskow planted her hoe in the soil and turned her +back upon Gray. "Allie! Yore pa has gone an' done it again. Here's +another of his fool notions." + +The women regarded each other silently, their facial expressions hidden +beneath their bonnets; then the mother exposed her countenance a second +time, and said, "Mister, this is Allegheny, our girl." + +Miss Allegheny Briskow lifted her head, nodded shortly, and stared over +the hoe handle at Gray. Her gaze was one of frank curiosity, and he +returned it in kind, for he had never beheld a creature like her. Gray +was a tall man, but this girl's eyes met his on a level, and her +figure, if anything, was heavier than his. Nor was its appearance +improved by her shapeless garment of faded wash material. Her feet were +incased in a pair of men's cheap "brogans" that Gray could have worn; +drops of perspiration gleamed upon her face, and her hair, what little +was visible beneath the sunbonnet, was wet and untidy. Altogether she +presented a picture such as some painter of peasant types might have +sketched. Garbed appropriately, in shawl and sabots, she would have +passed for some European plowwoman of Amazonian proportions. Allegheny! +It was a suitable name, indeed, for such a mountainous person. Her size +was truly heroic; she would have been grotesque, ridiculous, except for +a certain youthful plasticity and a suggestion of tremendous vigor and +strength that gave her dignity. Her ample, ill-fitting dress failed to +hide the fact that her robust body was well, even splendidly molded. + +Gray's attention, however, was particularly challenged by the girl's +face and eyes. It was a handsome countenance, cut in large, bold +features, but of a stony immobility; the eyes were watchful, brooding, +sullen. They regarded him with mingled defiance and shyness for an +instant, then they avoided his; she averted her gaze; she appeared to +be meditating ignominious flight. + +The mother abandoned her labor, wiped her hands upon her skirt, and +said, with genuine hospitality: "Come right into the house and rest +yourself. Pa and Buddy'll be home at dinner time." By now a fuller +significance of this stranger's presence had struck home and she +laughed softly as she led the way toward the dwelling. "Di'mon's for +Allie and me, eh? Land sakes! Pa's up to something new every day, +lately. I wonder what next." + +As Gray stepped aside for the younger woman to precede him, his +curiosity must have been patent, for Allegheny became even more +self-conscious than before, and her face flamed a fiery red. As yet she +had not spoken. + +There were three rooms to the Briskow residence, bedrooms all, with a +semi-detached, ramshackle, whitewashed kitchen at the rear and +separated from the main house by a narrow "gallery." Into the front +chamber, which evidently did service also as a parlor, Mrs. Briskow led +the way. By now she was in quite a flutter of excitement. For the guest +she drew forth the one rocking chair, a patent contraption, the rockers +of which were held upon a sort of track by stout spiral springs. Its +seat and back were of cheap carpet material stretched over a lacquered +frame, and these she hastily dusted with her apron; then she seated +herself upon the edge of the bed and beamed expectantly. + +Allegheny had carelessly brushed back her sunbonnet, exposing a mane of +damp, straight, brown hair of a quantity and length to match her +tremendous vigor of limb; but she remained standing at the foot of the +bed, too ill at ease to take a chair or perhaps too agitated to see +one. She was staring straight ahead, her eyes fixed a foot or two over +the caller's head. + +Gray ignored her manifest embarrassment, made a gingerly acquaintance +with the chair of honor, and then devoted his attention to the elder +woman. At every move the coiled springs under him strained and snapped +alarmingly. + +"We don't often see jewelry peddlers," the mother announced; "but, +sakes alive! things is changin' so fast we get a new surprise most +every day. I s'pose you got those rings in that valise?" She indicated +Gray's stout leather sample case. + +"Precisely," said he. "If you have time I'd like to show them to you." + +Mrs. Briskow's bent figure stirred, she uttered a throaty chuckle, and +her weary face, lined with the marks of toil and hardship, flushed +faintly. Her misshapen hands tightly clasped themselves and her faded +eyes began to sparkle. Gray felt a warm thrill of compassion at the +agitation of this kindly, worn old soul, and he rose quickly. As he +gained his feet that amazing chair behaved in a manner wholly unusual +and startling; relieved of strain, the springs snapped and whined, +there was a violent oscillation of the back, a shudder convulsed the +thing, and it sprang after him, much as a tame rabbit thumps its feet +upon the ground in an effort to bluff a kitten. + +The volunteer salesman spread out his dazzling wares upon the patchwork +counterpane, then stepped back to observe the effect. Ma Briskow's +hands fluttered toward the gems, then reclasped themselves in her lap; +she bent closer and regarded them fixedly. The Juno-like daughter also +stared down at the display with fascination. + +After a moment Allegheny spoke, and her speaking voice was in pleasing +contrast to the nasal notes of that interrupted song. "Are them _real_ +di'mon's?" she queried, darkly. + +"Oh yes! And most of them are of very fine quality." + +"Pa never told us a word," breathed the mother. "He's _allus_ up to +some trick." + +"Please examine them. I want you to look them all over," Gray urged. + +Mrs. Briskow acted upon this invitation only after she had dried her +hands, and then with trepidation. Gingerly, reverently she removed a +ring from its resting place and held it up to the light. "My! Ain't it +sparkly?" she gasped, after an ecstatic pause. + +Again the girl spoke, her eyes fixed defiantly upon Gray. "You could +fool us easy, 'cause we never saw _real_ di'mon's. We've allus been too +pore." + +The man nodded. "I hope you're not disappointed in them and I hope you +are going to see and to own a great many finer ones. + +"We've never seen noth--anything, nor been anywhere, yet." It was Mrs. +Briskow speaking. "But we're goin'. We're goin' lots of places and +we're goin' to see everything wuth seein', so Pa says. Anyhow, the +children is. First off, Pa's goin' to take us to the mountains." The +mother faced the visitor at this announcement and for a moment she +appeared to be gazing at a vision, for her wrinkled countenance was +glorified. "You've seen 'em, haven't you, mister?" + +"Mountains? A great many." + +Allegheny broke in: "I dunno's these di'mon's is just what _I_ expected +'em to be. They are and--they ain't. I'm kind of disapp'inted." + +Gray smiled. "That is true of most things that we anticipate or aspire +to. It's the tragedy of accomplishment--to find that our rewards are +never quite up to our expectations." + +"Do they cost much?" + +"Oh, decidedly! The prices are all plainly marked. Please look them +over." + +Ma Briskow did as urged, but the shock was paralyzing; delight, +admiration, expectancy, gave place to horrified amazement at the +figures upon the tags. She shook her head slowly and made repeated +sounds of disapproval. + +"Tse! Tse! Tse! Why, your pa's crazy! Plumb crazy!" + +Although the mother's principal emotion for the moment was aroused by +the price marks on the price tags, Allegheny paid little attention to +them and began vainly fitting ring after ring to her fingers. All were +too small, however; most of them refused to pass even the first joint, +and Gray realized now what Gus Briskow had meant when he wrote for +rings "of large sises." Eventually the girl found one that slipped into +place, and this she regarded with complacent admiration. + +"This one'll do for me," she declared. "And it's a whopper!" + +Gray took her hand in his; as yet it had not been greatly distorted by +manual labor, but the nails were dull and cracked and ragged and they +were inlaid in deep mourning. "I don't believe you'll like that +mounting," he said, gently. "It's what we call a man's ring. This is +the kind women usually wear." He held up a thin platinum band of +delicate workmanship which Allegheny examined with frank disdain. + +[Image: "THIS ONE'LL DO FOR ME," SHE DECLARED. "AND IT'S A WHOPPER!"] + +"Pshaw! I'd bust that the first time I hoed a row of 'taters," she +declared. "I got to have things stout, for me." + +"But," Gray protested, in even a milder voice, "you probably wouldn't +want to wear expensive jewelry in the garden." + +Miss Briskow held her hand high, admiring the play of light upon the +facets of the splendid jewel, then she voiced a complacent thought that +has been variously expressed by other women better circumstanced than +she--"If we can afford to buy 'em, I reckon we can afford to wear 'em." + +Not until Gray had suggested that her days of work in the fields were +probably about ended did the girl's expression change. Then indeed her +interest was arrested. She regarded him with a sudden quickening of +imagination; she revolved the novel idea in her mind. + +"From what my driver has told me about the Briskow farm," he ran on, +"you won't have to work at anything, unless you care to." + +Allie continued to weigh this new thought in her mind; that it +intrigued her was plain, but she made no audible comment. + + + +CHAPTER V + +For perhaps half an hour the women tried on one piece of jewelry after +another, exclaiming, admiring, arguing, then the mother realized with a +start that meal time was near and that the menfolks would soon be home. +Leaving Allie to entertain their guest, she hurried out, and the sound +of splitting kindling, the clatter of stove lids, the rattle of +utensils came from the kitchen. + +Gray retired to the patent rocker, Miss Briskow settled herself upon a +straight-backed chair and folded her capable hands in her lap; an +oppressive silence fell upon the room. Evidently the duties of hostess +lay with crushing weight upon the girl, for her face became stony, her +cheeks paled, her eyes glazed; the power of speech completely failed +her and she answered Gray with nods or shakes of her head. The most +that he could elicit from her were brief "yeps" and "nopes." It was not +unlike a "spirit reading," or a ouija-board seance. He told himself, in +terms of the oil fields, that here was a dry well--that the girl was a +"duster." Having exhausted the usual commonplace topics in the course +of a monologue that induced no reaction whatever, he voiced a perfectly +natural remark about the wonder of sudden riches. He was, in a way, +thinking aloud of the changes wrought in drab lives like the Briskows' +by the discovery of oil. He was surprised when Allegheny responded: + +"Ma and me stand it all right, but it's an awful strain on Pa," said +she. + +"Indeed?" + +The girl nodded. "He's got _more_ nutty notions." + +Gray endeavored to learn the nature of Pa's recently acquired +eccentricities, but Allie was flushing and paling as a result of her +sudden excursion into the audible. Eventually she trembled upon the +verge of speech once more, then she took another desperate plunge. + +"He says folks are going to laugh _at_ us or _with_ us, and--and rich +people have got to _act rich_. They got to be elegant." She laughed +loudly, abruptly, and the explosive nature of the sound startled her as +greatly as it did her hearer. "He's going to get somebody to teach +Buddy and me how to behave." + +"I think he's right," Gray said, quietly. + +"Why, he's sent to Fort Worth for a piano, already, and for a lady to +come out for a coupla days and show me how to play it!" There was +another black hiatus in the conversation. "We haven't got a spare room, +but--I'm quick at learnin' tunes. She could bunk in with me for a night +or two." + +Gray eyed the speaker suspiciously, but it was evident that she was in +sober earnest, and the tragedy of such profound ignorance smote the man +sharply. Here was a girl of at least average intelligence and of +sensitive makeup; a girl with looks, too, in spite of her size, and no +doubt a full share of common sense--perhaps even talents of some +sort--yet with the knowledge of a child. For the first time he realized +what playthings of Fate are men and women, how completely circumstance +can make or mar them, and what utter paralysis results from the +strangling grip of poverty. + +History hints that during the Middle Ages there flourished an +association known as Comprachicos--"child-buyers"--which traded in +children. The Comprachicos bought little human beings and disfigured +their features, distorted their bodies, fashioned them into ludicrous, +grotesque, or hideous monstrosities for king and populace to laugh at, +and then resold them. Soft, immature faces were made into animal +likenesses; tender, unformed bodies were put into wicker forms or +porcelain vases and allowed to grow; then when they had become things +of compressed flesh and twisted bone, the wicker was cut, the vase was +broken, leaving a man in the shape of a bottle or a mug. + +That is precisely what environment does. + +In the case of Allegheny Briskow, poverty, the drought, the grinding +hardships of these hard-scrabble Texas counties, had dwarfed the +intellect, the very soul of a splendid young animal. Or so, at least, +Gray told himself. It was a thought that evoked profound consideration. + +Now that the girl was beginning to lose her painful embarrassment, she +showed to somewhat better advantage and no longer impressed him, as +bovine, stolid, almost stupid; he could not but note again her full +young figure, her well-shaped, well-poised head, and her regular +features, and the pity of it seemed all the greater by reason thereof. +He tried to visualize her perfectly groomed, clad in a smart gown +molded over a well-fitting corset, with her feet properly shod and her +hair dressed--but the task was beyond him. Probably she had never worn +a corset, never seen a pair of silk stockings. He thought, too, of what +was in store for her and wondered how she would fit into the new world +she was about to enter. Not very well, he feared. Might not this prove +to be the happiest period of all her new life, he asked himself. As yet +the wonder and the glory of the new estate left room in her imagination +for little else; the mold was broken, but the child was not conscious +of its bottle shape. Nevertheless the shape was there. When that child +learned the truth, when it heard the laughter and felt the ridicule, +what then? He could not bring himself to envy Allegheny Briskow. + +"First off, Ma and me are goin' over to Dallas to do some tradin'," the +girl was saying. "After that we're goin' to the mountains." + +"Your mother mentioned mountains." + +"Yep. Her and Pa have allus been crazy about mountains, but they never +seen 'em. That's the first thing Ma said when Number One blowed in. +When we saw that oil go over the crown block, and when they told us +that black stuff was really oil, Ma busted out cryin' and said she'd +see the mountains, after all--then she wouldn't mind if she died. Pa he +cried, too, we'd allus been so pore--You see, Ma's kind of marked about +mountains--been that way since she was a girl. She cuts out stories and +pictures of 'em. And that's how me and Buddy came to be named Allegheny +and Ozark. But we never expected to _see_ 'em. The drought burned us +out too often." + +Allegheny and Ozark. Quaint names. "Times must have been hard." The +remark was intended only as a spur. + +"_Hard!_" There was a pause; slowly the girl's eyes began to smolder, +and as she went on in her deliberate way, memory set a tragic shadow +over her face. "I'll say they was hard! Nobody but us nesters knows +what hard times is. Out west of here they went three years without +rain, and all around here people was starvin'. Grown folks was thin and +tired, and children was sickly--they was too peaked to play. Why, we +took in a hull family--wagon-folks. Their hosses died and they couldn't +go on, so we kep' 'em--'til _we_ burned out. I don't know how we +managed to get by except that Pa and Buddy are rustlers and I can do +more 'n a hired man. We _never_ had enough to eat. Stuff just wouldn't +grow. The stock got bonier and bonier and finally died, 'count of no +grass and the tanks dryin' out. And all the time the sun was a-blazin' +and the dust was a-blowin and the clouds would roll up and then drift +away and the sun would come out hotter 'n ever. Day after day, month +after month, we waited--eighteen, I think it was. People got so they +wouldn't pray no more, and the preachers moved away. I guess we was as +bad off as them pore folks in Beljum. Why, even the rattlesnakes pulled +out of the country! Somehow the papers got hold of it and bime-by some +grub was shipped in and give around, but--us Briskows didn't get none. +Pa'd die before he'd beg." + +The girl was herself now; she was talking naturally, feelingly, and her +voice was both deep and pleasing. + +"The thinner Ma got, the more she talked about the mountains, where +there was water--cool, clear water in the criks. And timber on the +hills--timber with green leaves on it. And grass that you could lay +down in and smell. I guess Ma was kind of feverish. We was drier 'n a +lime-burner's boot when the rain did come. I'll never forget--we all +stood out in it and soaked it up. It was wonderful, to get all wet and +soaky, and not with sweat." + +"Then on top of that the oil came, too. It _must_ have been wonderful." + +"Yep. Now we're rich. And buyin' di'mon's and pianos and goin' to +Dallas for pretty fixin's. Seems kinda dreamy." Allegheny Briskow +closed her eyes, her massive crown of damp, disordered hair drooped +backward and for a moment Gray was able, unobserved, to study her. + +She had revealed herself to him, suddenly, in the space of a few +moments, and the revelation added such poignancy to his previous +thoughts that he regarded her with a wholly new sympathy. There was +nothing dull about this girl. On the contrary, she had intelligence and +feeling. There had been a rich vibrance in her voice as she told of +that frightful ordeal; a dimness had come into her eyes as she spoke of +her mother gabbling feverishly of the green hills and babbling brooks; +she had yearned maternally at mention of those wretched little +children. No, there was a sincere emotional quality concealed in this +young giantess, and a sensitiveness quite unexpected. + +Gray remained silent until she opened her eyes; then he said: "When you +and your mother come to Dallas to do your shopping, won't you let me +take you around to the right shops and see that you get the right +things?" Then, prompted by the girl's quick resentment, he added, +hastily, "--at the right prices?" + +Allie's face cleared. "Why, that's right nice of you!" she declared. +"I--I reckon we'd be glad to." + +Gus Briskow was a sandy, angular man; a ring of air holes cut in the +crown of his faded felt hat showed a head of hair faded to match the +color of his headgear; his greasy overalls were tucked into boots, and +a ragged Joseph's coat covered his flannel shirt. Both the man and his +makeup were thoroughly typical of this part of the country, except in +one particular--Pa Briskow possessed the brightest, the shrewdest pair +of blue eyes that Calvin Gray had ever seen, and they were surrounded +by a network of prepossessing wrinkles. + +He came directly in to greet his visitor, then said: "I never expected +you'd come 'way out here an' bring your plunder with you. Ma says you +got a hull gripful o' di'mon's." + +"I have, indeed." Gray pointed to the glittering display still spread +out upon the varicolored counterpane. + +Briskow approached the bed and gazed curiously, silently down at the +treasure, then his face broke into a sunshiny smile. He wiped his hands +upon his trousers legs and picked up a ring. But instead of examining +the jewel, he looked at the price mark, after which his smile broadened. + +Ozark had entered behind his father, and his sister introduced him now. +He was a year or two younger than Allegheny, but cast in the same +heroic mold. They formed a massive pair of children indeed, and, as in +her case, a sullen distrust of strangers was inherent in him. He stared +coldly, resentfully, at Gray, mumbled an unintelligible greeting, then +rudely turned his back upon the visitor and joined his father. + +The elder Briskow spoke first, and it was evident that he feared to +betray lack of conservatism, for he said, with admirable restraint: + +"Likely-lookin' lot of trinkets, eh, Bud?" + +Bud grunted. After a moment he inquired of Gray, "How much is that hull +lot wuth, Mister?" + +"Close to a hundred thousand dollars." + +Brother and sister exchanged glances; the father considered briefly, +smilingly, then he said, "With oil at three an' a quarter, it wouldn't +take long for a twelve-hundred bar'ler to get the hull caboodle, would +it?" + +"Is your well producing twelve hundred barrels a day?" + +"Huh!" Briskow, junior, grinned at his sister, exposing a mouth full of +teeth as white and as sound as railroad crockery, but his next words +were directed at Gray: "We got _four_ wells and the p'orest one is +makin' twelve hundred bar'l." + +The guests' mental calculations as to the Briskow royalties were +interrupted by an announcement that dinner was ready, whereupon the +father announced: + +"Mister, it looks like you'd have to stay overnight with us, 'cause I +got important business after dinner an' I wouldn't trust Ma to pick out +no jewelry by herself--them prices would skeer her to death. We're +ignorant people and we ain't used to spendin' money, so it'll take time +for us to make up our minds. Kin you wait?" + +"I'll stay as long as you'll keep me," Gray declared, heartily. + +A moment later, having learned that a place at the table had been set +for his driver as well as himself, Gray stepped out to summon the man +and to effect the necessary change in his arrangements. He was not +surprised to find the chauffeur with nose flattened against a pane of +the front-room window, his hands cupped over his eyes. Ignoring the +fellow's confusion at being discovered, Gray told him of his change of +plan and instructed him to drive back to Ranger and to return late the +following afternoon. Then he led the way toward the kitchen. + +That stay at the Briskows' turned out to be less irksome than the +visitor had anticipated, for the afternoon was spent with Buddy +examining the Briskow wells and others near by. It was an interesting +experience, and Gray obtained a deal of first-hand information that he +believed would come in handy. Buddy's first mistrust was not long in +passing, and, once Gray had penetrated his guard, the boy was won +completely, the pendulum swung to the opposite extreme, and erelong +suspicion changed to liking, then to approval, and at last to open, +extravagant admiration. + +And Gray liked the youthful giant, too, once the latter had dropped his +hostility and had become his natural self, for Ozark was a lad with +temper and with temperament. They got along together swimmingly; in +fact, they grew thicker than thieves in the course of time. The elder +man soon became conscious of the fact that he was being studied, +analyzed, even copied--the sincerest form of flattery--and it pleased +his vanity. Buddy's mind was thirsty, his curiosity was boundless, +questions popped out of him at every step, and every answer, every bit +of information or of philosophy that fell from the visitor's lips he +pounced upon, avidly examined, then carefully put away for future use. +He was like a magpie filling its nest. Gray's personal habits, +mannerisms, tricks--all were grist for Buddy's mill. The stranger's +suit, for instance, was a curiosity to the boy, who could not +understand wherein it was so different from any other he had ever seen; +young Briskow attributed that difference to the fact that it had +probably come from a bigger store than any he had known. It amazed him +to learn, in answer to a pointed question, that it had been cut and +fitted to the wearer by expert workmen. It disappointed him bitterly to +be informed that there was not another one exactly like it which he +could buy. + +And the visitor's silk shirt, with double cuffs and a monogram on the +sleeve! Fancy "fixin's" like this, Buddy confessed, he had always +associated with womenfolks, but if Gray wore them there could be +nothing disgraceful, nothing effeminate about the practice. There was a +decided thrill in the prospect of possessing such finery, all initialed +with huge, silken O. B's. Life was presenting wholly novel and exciting +possibilities to the youth. + +When Gray offered him a cigarette, Buddy rudely took the gold case out +of his hand and examined it, then he laughed in raucous delight. + +"Gosh! I never knew men had _purty_ things. I--I'm goin' to get me one +like that." + +"Do you like it?" + +"Gee! It's _swell_!" + +"Good! I'll make you a present of it." + +Buddy stared at the speaker in speechless surprise. "What--what for?" +he finally stammered. + +"Because you admire it." + +"Why--it's solid gold, ain't it?" + +"To be sure." + +"How much d'it cost?" + +"My dear fellow," Gray protested, "you shouldn't ask questions like +that. You embarrass me." + +Buddy examined the object anew, then he inquired, "Say, why'd you offer +to gimme this?" + +"I've just told you." Gray was becoming impatient. "It is a custom in +some countries to present an object to one who is polite enough to +admire it." + +"Nobody never give _me_ a present," Buddy said. "Not one that I wanted. +I never had _nothing_ that I didn't have to have and couldn't get along +without. This cigareet case is worth more 'n all the stuff I ever +owned, an' I'm sure obliged to you." He replaced the article in Gray's +hand. + +"Eh? Won't you accept it? Why not?" + +"I--Oh, I dunno." + +Gray pondered this refusal for a moment before saying, "Perhaps you +think I'm--trying to make a good impression on you, so you'll buy some +diamonds?" + +"Mebbe." Buddy averted his eyes. He was in real distress. + +"Um-m! I ought to punch your head." Gray slipped the case into young +Briskow's pocket. "I don't have to bribe people. Some day you'll +realize that I like you." + +"_Honest?_" + +"Cross my heart." + +The boy laughed in frank delight, his brown cheeks colored, his eyes +sparkled. "Gosh!" said he. "I--like _you!_" For some time thereafter he +remained red and silent, but he kept one big hand in the pocket where +lay the gold cigarette case. There was a wordless song in Buddy +Briskow's heart, for--he had made a friend. And such a friend! + +The Briskow children possessed each other's fullest confidence, hence +Ozark took the first occasion to show his gift to Allegheny, and to +tell her in breathless excitement all about that wonderful afternoon. + +"He said he'd a mind to lick me, an' I bet he could 'a' done it, too," +the boy concluded. + +"Lick you? Hunh!" + +"Oh, he's hard-boiled! That's why I like him. He's been 'round the +world and speaks furrin language like a natif. That suit of clo's was +_made_ for him, an' he's got thirty others, all better 'n this one. +Shoes, too! Made special, in New York. Forty dollars a pair!" + +"What's he doin' here if he's so rich?" It was the doubting female of +the species speaking. "Drummers is terrible liars." + +Buddy flew to the defense of his hero. "He's doin' this to he'p a +friend. Told me all about it. I'm goin' to have thirty suits--" + +"Shoes don't cost forty dollars. _Clo's_ don't cost that much." Allie +regarded her brother keenly, understandingly, then she said, somberly, +"It ain't no use, Buddy." + +"What ain't?" + +"It ain't no use to wish. Mebbe you can have thirty suits--if the wells +hold out, but they won't look like his. And me, too. We're too big, +Buddy, an' the more money we got, the more clo's we put on, the more +folks is goin' to laugh at us. It shames me to go places with anybody +but you." + +"_He_ wouldn't laugh. He's been all over the world," the boy asserted. +Then, after some deliberation, "I bet he's seen bigger people than us." + +As a matter of fact, Allegheny's sensitiveness about her size had been +quickly apparent to Gray, and during that day he did his utmost to +overcome it, but with what success he could not know. Buddy was his, +body and soul, that much was certain; he made the conquest doubly +secure by engaging the young Behemoth in a scuffle and playfully +putting him on his back. Defeat, at other hands than Gray's, would have +enraged Ozark to the point of frenzy, it would have been considered by +him an indignity and a disgrace. Now, however, he looked upon it as a +natural and wholly satisfactory demonstration of his idol's supreme +prowess, and he roared with delight at being bested. Gray promptly +taught him the wrestling trick by which he had accomplished the feat, +and flattered the boy immensely by refusing to again try his skill. The +older man, when he really played, could enter into sport with +tremendous zest and he did so now; he taught Buddy trick after trick; +they matched each other in feats of strength and agility. They wound up +finally on opposite sides of the Briskow kitchen table, elbows planted, +fingers interlocked, straining furiously in that muscle-racking, +joint-cracking pastime of the lumber camps known as "twisting arms." +Here again Gray was victorious, until he showed Buddy how to gain +greater leverage by changing the position of his wrist and by slightly +altering his grip, whereupon the boy's superior strength told. They +were red in the face, out of breath, and soaked with perspiration, when +Pa Briskow drove up in his expensive new touring car. + +By this time Buddy's admiration had turned to adulation; he had passed +under the yoke and he gloried shamelessly in his captive state. At +supper time he appeared with his hair wetly combed in imitation of +Gray's. He wore a necktie, too, and into it he had fastened a cheap +brass stickpin, much as Gray wore his. During the meal he watched how +the guest used his knife and fork and made awkward attempts to do +likewise, but a table fork was an instrument which, heretofore, Buddy +had looked upon as a weapon of pure offense, like a whaler's harpoon, +and conveniently designed either for spearing edibles beyond his reach +or for retrieving fragments of meat lurking between his back teeth. He +even did some hasty manicuring under the edge of the table with his +jack-knife. + +Pa Briskow was scarcely less observant than his son. He watched Gray's +every move; he sounded him out adroitly; he pondered his lightest word. +After the supper things had been cleared away and the dishes washed, +the entire family adjourned to the front room and again examined the +jewelry. It was an absorbing task, they did not hurry it. Not until the +following afternoon, in fact, did they finally make their selections, +and then they were guided almost wholly by the good taste of their +guest. Gray did not exploit them. On the contrary, his effort was to +limit their extravagance; but in this he had little success, for Pa +Briskow had decided to indulge his generous impulses to the full and +insisted upon so doing. The check he finally wrote was one of five +figures. + +By this time the visitor had become aware of arousing a queer reaction +in Allegheny Briskow. He had overcome her diffidence early enough; he +had unsealed her lips; he had obtained an insight into her character; +but once that was done, the girl retired within herself again and he +could get nothing more out of her. He would have believed that she +actually disliked him, had it not been for the fact that whatever he +said, she took as gospel, that wherever he chanced to be there she was, +her ears open, her somber, meditative eyes fixed upon him. Evidently +she did not actually dislike him; he decided finally that she was +studying him, striving to analyze and to weigh him to her own complete +satisfaction before trusting him further than she had. + +When it drew near the time for him to leave, and he announced that the +driver of his hired car had been instructed to return for him, there +was protest, loud and earnest, from the Briskows, father and son. Buddy +actually sulked at being denied the pleasure of driving his hero to +town in the new car, and told about a smooth place on a certain detour +where he could "get her up to sixty mile an hour." + +"If it was longer, she'd do a hundred," he declared. + +Pa Briskow was worried for the security of the diamonds, and assured +Gray that it was unsafe to trust those service-car drivers. + +But the latter, seeing a threat to his carefully matured plans, refused +to listen. "There's one thing you can do for me," he told them. "You +can give me a pint of cream." + +"Cream? What for?" The family regarded him with amazement. + +"I'm fond of it. If you have no cream, milk will do." + +"Pshaw! I'll put up a hull basket of lunch for you," Mrs. Briskow +declared. "Buddy, go kill a rooster, an' you, Allie, get them eggs out +of the nest in the garden, an' a jar of them peach preserves, while I +make up a pan of biscuits." + +Protest was unavailing. + +When the others had hurried away, Pa Briskow said: "I been studyin' +you, Mister Gray, and I got you down as a first-class man. When Ma and +Allie come over to Dallas to get rigged out, I'd like you to help 'em. +They 'ain't never been fu'ther from home than Cisco--that's thirty +mile. I'll pay you for your time." + +Gray's hearty acceptance of the first and his prompt refusal of the +second proposal pleased the speaker. + +"Bein' rich is mighty fine, but--" Gus Briskow shook his head +doubtfully. "It takes a lot of thinkin', and I ain't used to thinkin'. +Some day, mebbe, I'll get you to give _me_ a hand in figgerin' out some +worries." + +"Business worries?" + +"No. I got enough of them, an' more comin', but it ain't that. We're +goin' to have a heap of money, and"--he looked up with straightforward +eyes--"we ain't goin' to lose it, if I have my way. We've rubbed along, +half starved, all our lives, an' done without things till we're--Well, +look at us! I reckon we've made you laugh. Oh, I bet we have! Ma an' me +can stand it, but, mister, I don't want folks to laugh at my children, +and there's other things I don't want to happen to 'em. Buddy's a wild +hoss and he's got a streak of the Old Nick in him. And Allie ain't +broke no better 'n him. I got a feelin' there may be trouble ahead, +an'--sometimes I 'most wish we'd never had no oil in Texas." + + + +CHAPTER VI + +"Well, did you land them hicks?" It was Gray's driver speaking. Through +the gloom of early evening he was guiding his car back toward Ranger. +The road was the same they had come, but darkness had invested it with +unfamiliar perils, or so it seemed, for the headlights threw every rock +and ridge into bold relief and left the holes filled with mysterious +shadows; the vehicle strained, its motor raced, its gears clashed +noisily as it rocked along like a dory in a boisterous tide rip. Only +now and then did a few rods of smooth going permit the chauffeur to +take his attention from the streak of illumination ahead long enough to +light another cigarette, a swift maneuver, the dexterity of which +bespoke long practice. + +"Yes. And I made a good sale," the passenger declared. With pride he +announced the size of the Briskow check. + +"J'ever see a dame the size of that gal?" A short laugh issued from the +driver. "She'd clean up in vaudeville, wouldn't she? Why, she could +lift a ton, in harness. And hoein' the garden, with their coin! It's +like a woman I heard of: they got a big well on their farm and she came +to town to do some shoppin'; somebody told her she'd ought to buy a +present for her old man, so she got him a new handle for the ax. +_Gawd!_" + +A few miles farther on the fellow confessed: "I wasn't crazy about +comin' for you to-night. Not after I got a flash at what's in that +valise." + +"No?" + +"You're takin' a chance, stranger." + +"Nothing new about that." Gray remained unperturbed. His left arm was +behind the driver; with it he clung rigidly to the back of the seat as +the car plunged and rolled. "Frequently we are in danger when we least +suspect it. Now you, for instance." + +"Me?" The man at the wheel shot a quick glance at his fare. + +"You probably take more chances than you dream of." + +"How so?" + +"Um-m! These roads are a menace to life and limb; the country is +infested with robbers--" + +"Oh, sure! That's what I had in mind. Joy-ridin' at night with a hatful +of diamonds is my idea of a sucker's amusement. Of course, we won't +'get it'--" + +"Of course! One never does." + +"Sure! But if we should, there's just one thing to do." + +"Indeed?" Gray was pleasantly inquisitive, but it was plain that he +suffered no apprehensions. "And that is--?" + +"Sit tight and take your medicine." + +"I never take medicine." + +The chauffeur shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I do, when it's put down +my throat. I _been_ stuck up." + +"Really!" + +"Twice. Tame as a house cat, me--both times. I s'pose I'll get nicked +again sometime." + +"And you won't offer any resistance?" + +"Not a one, cull." + +"I'm relieved to be assured of that." + +For a second time the driver flashed a glance at his companion. It was +a peculiar remark and voiced in a queer tone. "Yes? Why?" + +"Because--" Gray slightly shifted his position, there was a movement of +his right hand--the one farthest away from the man at the wheel--and +simultaneously his left arm slipped from the back of the seat and +tightly encircled the latter's waist. He finished in a wholly +unfamiliar voice, "Because, my good man, you are now held up for the +third time, and it would distress me to have to kill you." + +The driver uttered a loud grunt, for something sharp and hard had been +thrust deeply into that soft, sensitive region overlying his liver, and +now it was held there. It was unnecessary for Gray to order the car +stopped; its brakes squealed, it ceased its progress as abruptly as if +its front wheels had fetched up against a stone wall. + +"Hey! What the--?" + +"Don't try to 'heel' me with your elbow," Gray warned, sharply. "Now, +up with 'em--you know. That's nice." + +The faces of the men were close together. Gray's was blazing, the +driver's was stiff with amazement and stamped with an incredulous +grimace. Paralyzed for the moment with astonishment, he made no +resistance, not even when he felt that long muscular left arm relax and +the hand at the end of it go searching over his pockets. + +Gray was grim, mocking; some vibrant, evil quality to his voice +suggested extreme malignity at full cock, like that unseen weapon the +muzzle of which was buried beneath the driver's short ribs. "Ah! You go +armed, I see. A shoulder holster, as I suspected. I knew you had +nothing on this side." Seizing his victim's upstretched right hand with +his own left, he gave it a sudden fierce wrench that all but snapped +the wrist, and at the same instant he reached across and snatched the +concealed weapon from its resting place. He flung the chauffeur's body +away from him; there was a sharp click as he swiftly jammed the barrel +of the automatic back and let it fly into place. + +The entire maneuver had been deftly executed, even yet the object of +the assault was speechless. + +"Now then"--the passenger faced about in his seat and showed his teeth +in a smile--"it is customary to permit the condemned to enjoy the last +word. What have you to say for yourself?" + +"I--got this to say. It's a hell of a joke--" the man exploded. + +"Do I act as if I were joking?" + +"If you think it's funny to jab a gun in a man's belly when he ain't +lookin'--" + +"A gun? My simple friend, you have--or had--the only gun in this party, +and you may thank whatever gods you worship that you didn't try to use +it, for--I would have been rough with you. Oh, very rough! I might even +have made you eat it. Now, inasmuch as you may be tempted to embellish +this story with some highly imaginary details, I prefer that you know +the truth. This is the 'gun' I used to stick you up." With a rigidly +outthrust thumb Gray prodded the driver in the side. "Simple, isn't it? +And no chance for accidents." The speaker's shoulders were shaking. + +"Well, I'll be damned!" + +"Not a doubt of it!" chuckled the other. "Especially if you follow in +the course you have chosen. And a similar fate will overtake your pal, +Mallow. By the way, is that his right name?... Never mind, I know him +as Mallow. A shallow, trusting man, and, I hope, a better judge of +diamonds than of character. As for me, I look deeper than the surface +and am seldom deceived in people--witness your case, for example. I +knew you at once for a crook. It might save you several miles of bad +walking to tell me where Mallow is waiting to high-jack me.... No?" + +"I dunno what you're ravin' about," growled the unhappy owner of the +automobile. "But, believe me, I'll have you pinched for this." + +"How sharper than a serpent's tooth is ingratitude! And what bad taste +to prattle of prosecution. I sha'n't steal your car, it needs too much +overhauling. And I abominate cheap machines. It is true that I'm one +pistol to the good, but in view of the law against carrying lethal +weapons, surely you won't prefer charges against me for removing it +from your person. Oh, not that! It seems to me that I'm treating you +handsomely, for I shall even pay you the agreed price for this trip, +provided only you tell me where you expect to meet Mr. Mallow." + +"Go to hell!" + +"Very well. Oblige me now by getting out.... And make it snappy!" + +The driver did as directed. Gray pocketed the automatic, slipped in +behind the steering wheel, and drove away into the night, followed by +loud and earnest objurgations. + +He was still smiling cheerfully when, a mile farther on, he brought the +car to a stop and clambered out. Passing forward into the illumination +of the headlights, he busied himself there for several moments before +resuming his journey. + +For the first time in a long while Calvin Gray was thoroughly enjoying +himself. Here was an enterprise with all the possibilities of a +first-class adventure, and of the sort, moreover, that he was +peculiarly qualified to cope with. It possessed enough hazard to lend +it the requisite zest, it was sufficiently unusual to awaken his +keenest interest; he experienced an agreeable exaltation of spirit, but +no misgivings whatever as to the outcome, for he held the commanding +cards. Little remained, it seemed to him, except to play them +carefully and to take the tricks as they fell. He had not the slightest +notion of permitting Mallow to lay hands upon that case of jewels. + +There was no mistaking the road, but Gray did not bother to stick to +the main-traveled course when detours or short cuts promised better +going, for he knew full well that Mallow would be waiting, if at all, +in some place he was bound to pass. It was an ideal country for a +holdup; lonely and lawless. Derrick lights twinkled over the mesquite +tops, and occasionally the flaming red mouth of some boiler gaped at +him, or the foliage was illuminated by the glare of gas +flambeaux--vertical iron pipes at the ends of which the surplus from +neighboring wells was consumed in what seemed a reckless wastage. +Occasionally, too, a belated truck thundered past, but the traffic was +pretty thin. + +At last, however, he beheld some distance ahead the white glare of two +stationary lights. The road was narrow and sandy here, and shut in by +banks of underbrush; as he drew nearer a figure stepped out and stood +in silhouette until his own lights picked it up. The figure waved its +arms, and called attention to the car behind--evidently broken down. +Here, then, the drama was to be played. + +Gray brought his machine on at such a pace and so close to the man in +the road that the latter was forced to step aside, then he swung it far +to the right, brought it back with a quick twist of the steering wheel, +and killed his motor. He was now in the ditch and outside the blinding +glare of the opposing headlights; the stalled machine was in the full +illumination of his own lamps. + +Contrary to Gray's expectations, the car in the road was empty and the +man who had hailed him was a stranger. As the latter approached, he +inquired: + +"What's wrong?" + +"Out of gas, I guess. Anyhow--I--" The speaker noted that there was but +one new arrival, where he had expected two, and the discovery appeared +to nonplus him momentarily. He stammered, involuntarily he turned his +head. + +Gray looked in the same direction, but without changing his position, +and out of the corner of his eye he glimpsed a new figure emerging from +the shadows behind him. Very clever! But, at least, his unexpected +maneuver with his own car had made it necessary for both men to +approach him from the same side. + +While the first stranger continued to mumble, Gray sat motionless, +keenly conscious, meanwhile, of that other presence closing in upon him +from the rear. He simulated a violent start when a second voice cried: + +"Don't move. I've got you covered." + +"My God!" Gray twisted about in his seat and exposed a startled +countenance. A masked man was standing close to the left running board, +and he held a revolver near Gray's head; the apparition appeared to +paralyze the unhappy traveler, for he still tightly clutched the +steering wheel with both hands. + +"Just sit still." The cloth of the mask blew outward as the words +issued; through the slits two malevolent eyes gleamed. "Act pretty, and +you won't get hurt." + +"Why! It's--it's Mr. _Mallow_!" Gray hitched himself farther around in +his seat and leaned forward in justifiable amazement. "As I live it's +you, Mallow!" Both highwaymen were in front of him, now, and shoulder +to shoulder; he made sure there were no others behind them. + +"Shut up!" Mallow snapped. "Frisk him, Tony, and--" + +The command was cut short by a startled, throaty cry--a hoarse sound of +astonishment and rage--and simultaneously a strange, a phenomenal thing +occurred. An unseen hand appeared to strike down both Mallow and his +accomplice where they stood, and it smote them, moreover, with +appalling force and terrifying effect. One moment they were in complete +mastery of the situation, the next they were groveling in the road, +coughing, sneezing, barking, retching, blaspheming poisonously. Baffled +fury followed their first surprise. Mallow tore the mask from his face +and groped blindly for the weapon he had dropped, but before he could +recover it, pain mastered him and he fell back, clawing at himself, +rubbing at his eyes that had been stricken sightless. He yelled. Tony +yelled. Then upon the startled night there burst a duet of squeals and +curses, a hideous medley of mingled pain and fright, at once terrifying +and unnatural. Both bandits appeared to be in paroxysms of agony; from +Tony issued sounds that might have issued from the throat of a woman in +deadly fear and excruciating torment; Mallow's face had been partially +protected, hence he was the lesser sufferer; nevertheless, his eyes +were boiling in their sockets, his lungs were ablaze, ungovernable +convulsions ran over him. + +The men understood vaguely what had afflicted them, for they had seen +Gray lift one hand from the wheel, and out of that hand they had seen a +stream of liquid, or a jet of aqueous vapor, leap. It was too close to +dodge. It had sprung directly into their faces, vaporizing as it came, +and at its touch, at the first scent of its fumes, their legs had +collapsed, their eyes had tightly closed, and every cell in their +outraged bodies had rebelled. It was as if acid had been dashed upon +them, destroying in one blinding instant all power for evil. With every +breath, now, a new misery smote them. But worse than this torture was +the monstrous nature of their afflictions. It was mysterious, horrible; +they believed themselves to be dying and screamed in abysmal terror of +the unknown. + +Gray squeezed again the rubber bulb that he had carried in his hand +these last several miles, ejecting from it the last few drops of its +contents, then he opened the car door, stepped out of it and stood over +his strangling victims. He kicked Mallow's revolver off the road, and, +holding his breath, relieved the other high-jacker of his weapon. This +he flung after the first, then he withdrew himself a few paces and +lighted a cigarette, for a raw, pungent odor offended his nostrils. +Both of the bawling bandits reeked of it, but their plight left him +indifferent. They reminded him of a pair of horses he had seen +disemboweled by a bursting shell, but he felt much less pity for them. + +His lack of concern made itself felt finally. Mallow, who was the first +to show signs of recovery, struggled to his feet and clawed blindly +toward the automobile. He clung to it, sick and shaking; profanely he +appealed for aid. + +"So! It _is_ Mr. Mallow," Gray said. "Fancy meeting you here!" + +A stream of incoherencies issued from the wretched object of this +mockery. Tony, the other man, stifled his groans, rose to his knees, +and, with his hands clasped over his eyes, shuffled slowly away, as if +to escape the sound of Gray's voice. + +"Better quiet down and let me do something at once, if you wish to save +your sight," the latter suggested. "Otherwise I won't answer for the +result. And you needn't tell me how it hurts. I know." This proffer of +aid appeared to throw the sufferers into new depths of dismay. They +called to him in the name of God. They were harmless, now, and anyhow +they had intended to do him no bodily harm. They implored him to lend +succor or to put them out of their distress. + +Gray fell to work promptly. The bottle of cream he had begged from Ma +Briskow he now put to use. With this soothing liquid he first washed +out their eyes, the membranes of which were raw and spongy, and +excruciatingly sensitive to light, then he bandaged them as best he +could with compresses, wet in it. + +"You'll breathe easier as time goes on," he announced. "You'll cough a +good deal for a few days, but where you are going that won't disturb +anybody. Your eyes will get well, too, if you take care of them as I +direct. But, meanwhile, let me warn you against lifting those bandages. +Advise me as they dry out and I'll wet them again." + +A blessed relief stole over the unfortunate pair; they were still sick +and weak, but in a short time the acuteness of their suffering had +diminished sufficiently for Gray to help them into the back seat of his +car and resume his journey. + +Sarcastically he referred to the sample case on the tonneau floor. "If +those diamonds are in your way, I'll take them in front with me. If +not, I'll ask you to keep an eye on them--or, let us say, keep a foot +on them. If you should be foolish enough to heave them overboard or try +to renew your assault upon me, I would be tempted to break this milk +bottle. In that event, my dear Mallow, you'd go through life with a tin +cup in your hand and a dog on a string." + +Tony groaned in abject misery of body and soul. Mallow cursed feebly. + +"What--is that devilish stuff?" the latter queried. It was plain from +his voice that he meditated no treachery. "Oh! I was going to tell you. +It is a product of German ingenuity, designed, I believe, for the +purpose of quelling riotous and insurrectionary prisoners. It was +efficacious, also, in taking pill boxes and clearing out dug-outs and +the like. With some care one is safe in using it in an ordinary ammonia +gun--the sort policemen use on mad dogs. Forgive me, if I say that you +have demonstrated its utility in peace as well as in war. If there were +more high-jackers in the world the device might be commercialized at +some profit; but, alas, my good Mallow, your profession is not a common +one." + +"Cut out the kidding," Mallow growled, then he fell into a new +convulsion of coughing. The car proceeded for some time to the tune of +smothered complaints from the miserable figures bouncing upon the rear +seat before Gray said: "I fear you are a selfish pair of rascals. Have +you no concern regarding the fate of the third member of your +treasure-hunting trio?" Evidently they had none. "Too bad! It's a good +story." + +Whatever their indifference to the welfare of the chauffeur, they still +had some curiosity as to their own, for Mallow asked: + +"What are you going to do with us?" + +"What would you do, if you were in my place?" + +"I'd--listen to reason." + +"Meaning--?" + +"Hell! You know what he means," Tony cried, feebly. + +"So! You do me the honor to offer a bribe." Gray laughed. "Pardon my +amusement. It sounds callous, I know, but, frankly, your unhappy +condition fails to distress me. Well, how much do you offer?" + +"All we got. A coupla thousand." + +"A temptation, truly." + +Mallow addressed his companion irritably. "Have a little sense. He +don't need money." + +Calvin Gray had never been more pleased with himself than now, for +matters had worked out almost exactly according to plan, a compliment +indeed to his foresight and to his executive ability. He loved +excitement, he lived upon it, and much of his life had been devoted to +the stage-management of sensational exploits like this one. As a boy +plays with a toy, so did Gray amuse himself with adventure, and now he +was determined to exact from this one the last particle of enjoyment +and whatever profit it afforded. + +Within a few minutes of his arrival at Ranger, the town was noisy with +the story, for he drove down the brightly lighted main street and +stopped in front of the most populous cafe. There he called loudly for +a policeman, and when the latter elbowed his way through the crowd, +Gray told him, in plain hearing of all, enough of his experience to +electrify everybody. He told the story well; he even made known the +value of his diamond stock; mercilessly he pilloried the two +blindfolded bandits. When he drove to the jail the running boards of +his car were jammed with inquisitive citizens, and those who could not +find footing thereon followed at a run, laughing, shouting, acclaiming +him and jeering at his prisoners. + +Having surrendered custody of the latter, he dressed their eyes once +more and explained the sort of care they required, then he made an +appeal from the front steps of the jail, adjuring the mob to disperse +quietly and permit the law to take its course. + +Nothing like this had occurred during the brief, busy life of the town. +It was a dramatic incident, but the manner in which this capable +stranger had handled it and the discomfiture he had brought upon his +assailants appealed more to the risibilities than to the anger of +Ranger. Admiration for him displaced indignation at the high-jackers; +cries for vengeance upon them were drowned in noisy appreciation of +their captor. Gray became a popular character; men clamored to shake +his hand, and complimented him upon his nerve. The editor of the local +newspaper dragged him, protesting, to the office and there interviewed +him. Gray was covered with confusion. Reluctantly he made known his +identity, and retold the whole story of his trip, this time beginning +at his meeting with Coverly in Dallas. He displayed the bewildering +contents of his sample case, now guarded by a uniformed arm of the law, +and explained how he had volunteered his services out of pure love of +adventure, then how he had played into Mallow's hands while aware of +his malign purpose at all times. + +This was more than a local story; it was big enough for the wire. Gray +sat at the editor's elbow while that enthusiastic gentleman called +Dallas and gave it to the papers there. + +He was escorted to the railroad station by an admiring crowd; he was +cheered as he passed, smiling, into his Pullman car. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +Coverly was at the station when Gray's train arrived at Dallas the next +morning. He was suffering intense excitement, and he deluged his friend +with a flood of questions, meanwhile flourishing the morning papers, +all of which appeared to have devoted much space to the Ranger episode. +He hugged Gray, and he pumped his hand; he laughed and he chattered; he +insisted upon hearing the whole story without delay. On their way +uptown, the returning hero gave it to him, together with Gus Briskow's +check. + +At the size of the latter Coverly gasped. "Didn't I say you were a good +salesman? And Mallow! You got him, didn't you? I _told_ you he was a +crook. Just the same, old man, you ran a terrible risk and I feel +mighty guilty. Why, those fellows would have killed you." + +"Probably." + +"Why didn't you take along a policeman or somebody?" + +"And miss all the fun? Miss my pay for the trip? I agreed to take my +commission in thrills." + +The jeweler was frankly curious. "Weren't you frightened?" + +"Frightened? No." Gray shook his head. "I've never been really afraid +of anything or anybody, so far as I recall. I've never been able to +understand the necessity of being frightened. I dare say the capacity +for enjoying that particular emotion was omitted from my make-up--the +result of some peculiar prenatal influence, probably. I'm sorry, too, +for fear must have a fascination and I like unusual sensations." + +"Speaking of your commissions, how am I going to pay you--not for the +sale you made, although I wouldn't have done as well, but for the loss +you saved the firm and for the risk you ran?" + +Gray felt a momentary desire to have done with pretense, to confess his +true condition and to beg not only a suitable reward for his services, +but also as large a loan as Coverly could spare. It is hard to maintain +an attitude of opulence on less than nothing; it would be so much +easier to have done with this counterfeit gesture and trust to a +straightforward appeal. But he dared not yield to the impulse. + +"You may give me anything you see fit," he declared, "and I sha'n't +embarrass you by refusing. On the contrary, go as strongly as you +possibly can." + +Coverly actually appeared to be relieved at this statement, but he +inquired, curiously: "What have you got up your sleeve? You don't need +money." + +"Obviously not. But I know a needy object of charity; a worthy case, I +assure you. I can scarcely call him a friend, but I used to admire him +greatly, and he is still an agreeable companion--a man at once capable, +extravagant, entertaining, dissipated. He is in a bad way, temporarily, +and can scarcely afford even the bare necessities of life. It is only +with my help, in fact, that he maintains its luxuries. Your money shall +go to him, and with every dollar of it that he squanders, there shall +arise an earnest orison to you." + +The jeweler was delighted. "Good!" he cried. "I detest the deserving +poor as heartily as you do. And now I'd like to open a bottle of +champagne with our breakfast." + +On the very day that the new sign, "Tom and Bob Parker," went up over +the door of the insurance office at Wichita Falls, the junior partner +announced: + +"Well, dad, the firm gets busy at once. I'm off for Dallas to-night." + +"What for?" Tom was dismayed by such a prompt manifestation of energy. +"I'll have to tell you--" Barbara perched herself upon her father's +desk and began speaking with a note of excitement in her voice. "I +heard Henry Nelson was in town, so I went to the bank this morning to +see him. He's such a big man in the oil business I thought he might +help me. He was there, but in conference with his father and another +man. There were several people waiting, so I sat down. When the man +they were talking to came out, it was Pete, that driller who put down +the first well for us. He was glad to see me, and we had quite a talk, +but I noticed he was fidgety. He said he was running a rig over near +'Burk,' and had a fishing job on his hands. With all the excitement and +everybody running double 'towers' and trying to beat the other fellow +down to the sand, it struck me as queer that a contract driller like +Pete would be here in Wichita in conference with Bell and Henry Nelson, +when he ought to be out on the lease fishing for a lost bit. It didn't +sound right. The more I got out of him, the queerer it sounded, for he +had all the fishing tools he needed, so I accused him of being a fraud. +I told him I'd bet he had a showing of oil and was trying to borrow +money to buy the offset or to get the Nelsons to buy it and carry him +for an interest." + +"Where'd you pick up this lingo?" Tom inquired. "You talk like them +wild men at the Westland Hotel." + +Barbara laughed delightedly. "Didn't I put down all our shallow wells? +If I didn't, I thought I did. Anyhow, I spent most of my time around +the rigs and Pete used to call me his boss. Well, that wretched man +turned all colors when I accused him, and tried to 'shush' me. He said +I mustn't talk about things I knew nothing about--somebody might +overhear me. He declared the outfit he was working for were no good and +wouldn't pay a driller a bonus if he made a well for them. He was sick +of making other people rich and getting nothing for himself.... It was +time the drilling crews shared in the profits.... He'd see that nobody +froze him out again if he had to spoil the hole. He wound up by denying +everything, and I pretended to swallow it, but when he had gone I went +over my maps and located the lease where he's drilling. Three of the +adjoining tracts are owned by the big companies, so that eliminated +them, but the twenty to the west belongs to Knute Hoaglund. Henry was +glad to see me when my turn came to go in, and--" + +"I bet he was glad," Tom declared. + +Barbara's smooth cheeks flushed faintly. "He is too busy and too rich +to--think about girls." + +"He wasn't too busy and too rich to inquire about you 'most every day +since he got back from the war." + +"I didn't forget to call him 'Colonel,' and that pleased both him and +Bell. Then I told them that I proposed to become a rich and successful +oil operator and wanted their advice how to begin. Old Bell was amused, +but Henry--I beg pardon, _Colonel_--Nelson was shocked. He couldn't +bear to think of women, and of me especially, in business. He might +have become disagreeably personal if his father hadn't been there." + +"Dunno's I care much for Henry," Tom said, mildly. + +"Oh, he's all right, but--I _hate_ Bell! It makes anybody mad to be +laughed at. Henry was more diplomatic. He tried to convince me that the +oil game is altogether a man's business and that no woman could succeed +at it. 'It is a contest of wits,' he explained. 'You've got to outguess +the other fellow. You've got to know everything he's doing and keep him +from knowing anything you're doing. The minute he knows as much as you +do, he's got it on you.' That seemed to prove to Henry that no woman +could win at it, for men are such superior creatures. They know so much +more than a woman can possibly learn; their wits are so much keener! + +"I was duly impressed. I asked him to call this evening, for I did so +wish to have him teach me what little I was capable of learning. But he +couldn't come, because he had been called to Dallas, unexpectedly. That +was my cue. In my most sweetly girlish manner I said: 'Oh, indeed! Do +you expect to see Knute Hoaglund while you're there?'" + +Two hectic spots had come into "Bob's" cheeks during this recital; she +was teetering upon the desk now like a nodding Japanese doll, and her +blue eyes were dancing. + +"I heard Old Bell's chair creak and I saw him shoot a quick glance at +Henry. Henry admitted, casually, that he might drop in on Knute. Why?" + +"'You'll be wasting time,' I told him, even more sweetly, 'for dad and +I have that twenty west of Burkburnett.' + +"_Well!_ You'd have thought I had stuck a hatpin into Bell. And Henry's +mouth actually dropped open. Think of it: Colonel Henry Nelson, the +hero of Whatever-it-is, with his imperial mouth open and nothing coming +out of it--not even the imperial breath!" + +"Bob" rocked backward and kicked up her neatly shod feet; she hugged +herself and snickered with a malicious enjoyment not wholly +Christian-like. + +"But--we 'ain't even got an option! It takes _money_ to lease close-in +stuff." Tom was bewildered. + +"Of course. And they realized that, or Bell did, as soon as he'd had +time to collect himself. But it was too late then; he had betrayed +himself and he knew it. Oh, he was sore! He'd have flung me out if I'd +been a man. I got mad, too, and I told him it made no real difference +whether I was bluffing or not; the jig was up, so far as he was +concerned. I reminded him of what Henry had just said--that the oil +business is a game of wits, and that when you know what the other +fellow is doing you have him licked. I admitted that he could probably +keep me from getting the lease, but I could also keep him from getting +it. Bell nearly had a stroke at that threat. Henry behaved very +decently throughout. I think it must have pleased him to find that +somebody in Wichita, besides him, had the courage to defy his father; +anyhow, he said, '"Bob" has beaten us at our own game. She knows enough +now to place that lease in half an hour, and I think we'd better take +her in. Otherwise she'll wire Knute, and he'll probably protect her for +an interest.' + +"That made me feel awfully fraudulent, but his smarty remarks about +women in the oil business still rankled, so I just sat pretty and +blinked like a little owl. Bell swore. In his best and most horrible +manner, he swore, but--he gave in." "Bob" laughed again, a bit +hysterically. "That's about all, dad. They agreed to put up the money +and carry me--us, I mean--for a quarter interest if I can get the lease +from Knute Hoaglund. So, I'm leaving on the night train." + +"Son! I--I'm darned if I don't believe we'll make a go of this +business," Tom Parker declared. + +With a little cry Barbara flung herself into his arms. + +* * * * * + +The publicity Calvin Gray received from his exploit at Ranger could be +nothing except agreeable to one of his temperament. Gratefully he +basked in his notoriety, meanwhile continuing assiduously to cultivate +the moneyed men of Dallas. His sudden leap into prominence aroused +curiosity among the wives and families of the latter, and he became the +recipient of some social attentions. He accepted every invitation, and +so well did he carry himself in company, so ornamental and engaging was +he as a dinner guest, that he was soon in great demand. He possessed +accomplishments, too, that increased the respect of his masculine +acquaintances. For instance, he displayed a proficiency at golf quite +unusual in men of athletic training, and they argued that any man who +could do par whenever he felt like it must be either a professional or +a person of limitless leisure. And limitless leisure means limitless +funds. + +Gray studiously maintained his air of financial mystery; he was in and +out of offices, always purposeful, always in a hurry, but always with +sufficient time to observe the strictest niceties of polite behavior. +It was a part of his plan to create an atmosphere of his own, to +emphasize his knack for quick, decisive, well-calculated action. The +money he received from Coverly enabled him to maintain the posture he +had assumed; he spent it with his usual prodigality, receiving little +direct benefit, but making each dollar look like four. Extravagance +with him was an art, money ran out of his pockets like water, but +although he was already in a position to borrow, he did not do so. He +merely marked time, deriving a grim amusement at the way his popularity +grew as his currency dwindled. It was a game, enjoyable so long as it +lasted. Egotistical he knew himself to be, but it was a conscious +fault; to tickle his own vanity filled him with the same satisfaction a +cat feels at having its back rubbed, and he excused himself by +reasoning that his deceit harmed nobody. Meanwhile, with feline +alertness he waited for a mouse to appear. + +He was relieved one day to receive a telegram from Gus Briskow asking +him to meet Ma and Allie at the evening train and "get them a hotel." +He managed to secure a good suite at the Ajax, and it was with +genuinely pleasurable anticipation that he drove to the station. + +Dismay smote him, however, at first sight of the new arrivals. Ma +Briskow resembled nothing so much as one of those hideous "crayon +enlargements" he had seen in farmhouses--atrocities of an art long +dead--for she was clad in an old-fashioned basque and skirt of some +stiff, near-silk material, and her waist, which buttoned far down the +front and terminated in deep points, served merely to roof over but not +to conceal a peculiarity of figure which her farm dress had mercifully +hidden. Gray discovered that Ma's body, alas! bore a quaint resemblance +in outline to a gourd. A tiny black bonnet, with a wide surcingle of +ribbon tied under her chin, was ornamented with a sort of centerpiece +built of rigid artificial fruit and flowers. Her hair, in brave +defiance of current styles, was rolled into a high pompadour. Beneath +that pompadour, however, her face was aglow with interest and her eyes +gleamed almost as brightly as did the brand-new lavalliere and the bar +pin with its huge six-carat center diamond. + +If the mother's appearance was unusual, the daughter's was startling, +what with her size and the barbaric latitude of color she had indulged +herself in. Allegheny's get-up screamed. In the general store at Cisco, +whence it had originated, it had doubtless been considered a sport +costume, for there was a skirt of huge blue and white checks, a crepe +waist of burnt orange, and over that a vegetable-silk sweater, with the +broadest, greenest stripes Gray had ever seen. A violent, offensive +green, it was; and the sweater was too tight. Her hat was large and +floppy and adorned with preposterous purple blooms; one of her hands +was gloved, but upon the other she wore her splendid solitaire. She +"shone" it, as a watchman shines his flashlight. + +They were enough to daunt a stronger man than Calvin Gray, these two. +He could well imagine the sensation he and they would create in the +lobby of the modish Ajax. But his first surprise was succeeded by a +gentle pity, for Ma Briskow greeted him rapturously, and in Allegheny's +somber eyes he detected a look of mingled suffering and defiance. She +knew, somehow or other, that she was conspicuous, grotesque, and her +soul was in agony at the knowledge. Before he had spoken a half dozen +words to her, Gray realized that this girl was in torture, and that it +had required a magnificent courage on her part to meet him as bravely +as she did. He was ashamed of himself; amusement at their expense did +him no credit, and he determined to relieve her pain and to help her +attain the likeness of other women if it was in his power to do so. It +was a tribute to his inherent chivalry that he rose to the occasion and +welcomed the women with a cordiality that warmed their hearts. +Enthusiastically he took charge of Ma's lunch basket; against Allie's +muttered protest he despoiled her of her bilious, near-leather +suitcase; he complimented them upon their appearance and showed such +pleasure at seeing them again that they surrendered gratefully to him. +By the time he had them in a taxicab they were as talkative as a pair +of magpies. + +Of course, they had to know all about the holdup, and his manner of +telling the story made them feel that they had played an important part +in it. Arrived at the hotel, he swept them along with him so swiftly +that they had no time in which to become dismayed or self-conscious, +and finally he deposited them in their rooms quite out of breath and +quite delighted. He left them palpitating with excitement at the +wonders he proposed unfolding for them on the morrow. + +Allie answered his phone call about eight o'clock the next morning. + +"Ready for breakfast?" he inquired. + +"Why, we et at daylight," she told him, in some astonishment. "I been +ridin' since then." + +"Indeed! Putting roses in your cheeks, eh? With whom did you go?" + +"Oh, one of the elevator men." + +"B--but--" Gray sputtered, deeply shocked. "Why, Miss Briskow, they're +_negroes!_ Riding with a nigger! My heavens! Where did you go?" + +"Nowhere. Just up and down." + +It was a moment before the man could speak, then he said, in a queerly +repressed voice: "That--is quite different. I'll run down and get a +bite and join you in no time." + +"Seems awful funny not to have any housework to do in the morning," Ma +Briskow confessed, as they left the Ajax. "A hotel would spoil me in no +time." + +"I couldn't keep her from makin' up the beds," Allie announced. + +Gray took the elder woman's hand in his and scolded her gently. +Smilingly, he lectured her on the art of doing nothing, and voiced some +elemental truths about living. + +"Mr. Briskow has but one idea, and that is to surround you two, and +Buddy, with the advantages and luxuries you have been denied," he +reminded her. "You owe it to him to get the most out of your money, and +you mustn't begin by making hotel beds and robbing some poor woman of +her livelihood. Not one person in ten really knows how to live, for it +isn't an easy task, and the saddest thing about the newly rich is that +they won't learn. They refuse to enjoy their wealth. I propose to help +you good people get started, if you'll permit me. It is not with +contrition, but with pride, that I recommend myself to you as one of +the greatest living authorities upon extravagance, idleness, and the +minor vices of the prosperous." + +The mother nodded, a bit vaguely. "That's kind of like Pa talks. He +sent you this, and says to tell you it's our first spendin' spree and +act accordin'." From her pocket she drew a folded check, made out in +blank to Calvin Gray and signed by Gus Briskow. + +"So! I assume that I'm to pay the bills. Very well. The sky is the +limit, eh?" + +"That's it. Of course, I don't need anything for myself--this dress and +bunnit are good enough--but Allie's got to have new fixin's, from the +inside out. I s'pose her things'll eat up the best part of a hundred +dollars, won't they?" The speaker's look of worried inquiry bespoke a +lifetime of habitual economy. + +"We're not going to buy what you _need_, but what you want. You're +going to have just as many pretty things as Allie." + +Ma was panic-stricken at this suggestion. When Gray insisted she +demurred; when he told her that one nice dress would cost at least a +hundred dollars, she confessed: + +"Why, I don't s'pose all the clo's I've had since I was married cost +much more 'n that." + +"I'll spend at least a thousand on you before noon," he laughed. + +Mrs. Briskow gasped, she rolled her eyes and fanned herself; she +appealed to Allegheny, but it was evident that the latter had kept her +eyes open and had done some thinking, for she broke out, passionately: +"You make me sick, Ma! It'll take all Pa can afford, and then some, to +make us look like other people. I never knew how plumb ridic'lous we +are till--" + +"Not that," Gray protested. + +"You _know_ we're ridic'lous," she cried, fiercely. "We're a couple of +sow's ears and all Pa's royalties can't make us into silk purses. +But--mebbe we can manage to look like silk, if we spend enough." + +Gray determined that the girl should not be disappointed if he could +help it, so he went directly to the head saleswoman of the first store, +and asked her to assume the role of counselor where circumstance +compelled him to relinquish it, explaining that in addition to hats, +gowns, shoes, and the like, both Ma and Allie needed a variety of +confidential apparel with which he had only the vaguest acquaintance. +Although the woman agreed to his request, he found before long that his +trust in her had been misplaced. Not only did she threaten to take +advantage of her customers' ignorance, but also, to Gray's anger, she +displayed a poorly veiled contempt for and amusement at his charges. + +Allegheny was not long in feeling this. She had entered the +establishment aquiver with hope and anticipation. This was her great +adventure. She was like a timid child, enraptured at sight of its first +tinseled Christmas tree; to have that ecstacy spoiled, to see the +girl's tenderest sensibilities wounded by a haughty clerk, enraged the +man who played Santa Claus. Abruptly he resumed charge of the Briskow +purchases, and it gave him a pang to note how Allegheny ran to him with +her hurt, as it were. + +But matters did not progress as well as he had expected. Allie's +disappointment at the death of her dream she hid under an assumption of +indifference; she merely pawed over the pretty things shown her and +pretended to ignore the ridicule she and her mother excited. But her +face was stony, her eyes were hopeless, miserable. + +For once in his life Calvin Gray was at a loss, and knowledge of that +fact caused him to chew savagely at his cigar. To his bewildered +companions he remained enthusiastic, effervescent, but behind their +backs he glowered at the well-groomed customers and cursed the +snickering models who paraded their wares. Engaged thus, he became +aware of a stranger who looked on at the pitiful little comedy without +amusement. She was a pretty thing. Gray stared at her openly and his +scowl vanished. When she moved away, he made a sudden decision, excused +himself, and followed her. + +He was gratified at the manner in which she accepted his breathless +apology for speaking to her, at the poise with which she listened while +he made himself and his companions known to her and explained the +plight in which he found himself. + +"You can save the reason of a distracted man and add to the happiness +of two poor, bewildered women, if you will," he concluded, earnestly. +"It isn't a funny situation; it's tragic." + +"What do you wish me to do?" the girl inquired. + +"It's a lot to ask, I know, but won't you help them buy the things they +need and save them from further humiliation at the hands of these +highbrow clerks and lowbrow customers? I--I want to punch somebody in +the nose." + +"I was sure you did. That is what attracted my attention." + +"You are a person of taste, if you will pardon a perfectly obvious +compliment from a total stranger, and they need such a woman's +guidance. But they need, even more, a little bit of feminine tact and +sympathy. Look!" He showed Gus Briskow's blank check. "The whole store +is theirs, if they wish it. Think what that ought to mean to two poor +starved creatures who have never owned enough clothing to wad a +shotgun." + +"The girl is stunning. All she needs is the right sort of things--" + +Impulsively Gray seized the speaker's hand. "I _knew_ it!" he cried. "I +can choose gowns for her, but how can I tell her the sort of--well, +corsets she ought to wear? How can I select for her things a bachelor +is presumed to know nothing about? Haven't you an hour or two in which +to play Fairy Godmother?" + +"I have all day," the young woman confessed. "I merely came in to yearn +over the pretty things." + +"O messenger from Heaven!" he cried, more hopefully. "Would it appear +presumptuous if I asked you, in return for this favor, to select the +very prettiest gown in this shop for your very own?" + +The offer was refused pleasantly, but firmly. "I'd be paid ten times +over by the fun of spending oodles of money even if it were not my own. +But would they consent to have a stranger--?" + +"If you will permit a tiny deceit, I'm sure they will. I shall burden +my conscience with a white lie and pretend that you are a friend to +whose judgment I have appealed. My poor conscience is scandalously +overburdened, but--that girl is suffering!" + +"I thought they must have struck oil. I've seen others like them." + +Without further ado, Gray hurried his new acquaintance back to the +dress department, then, in his easiest manner, introduced her to the +Briskows. She flashed him a look of amusement as he glibly made her +known as "Miss Good." He had invited Miss Good to join their picnic +immediately upon hearing that Ma and Allie were coming to Dallas, and +she had been overjoyed. Miss Good, as they could see, possessed +unerring good taste, but what was more, she had a real genius for +finding bargains. As a bargain hunter Miss Good was positively unique. + +Ma Briskow pricked up her ears at this, soon she and the newcomer had +their heads together, and within a few minutes Gray realized that his +experiment was a success. The stranger possessed enthusiasm, but it was +coupled with common sense, and before her sunshiny smile even +Allegheny's sullen distrust slowly began to thaw. She drew Gray aside +finally, and said: "It's all right. They're perfect dears, and, now, +the best thing you can do is to take yourself off." + +He agreed promptly, but cautioned her against economy. "That +bargain-hunting remark was only a bait. Remember, Gus Briskow wants +them to have everything, and be everything they should be, regardless +of expense. Why, both he and I would like nothing better than to have +Allegheny look like you, if that were possible." + +Miss Good eyed the speaker curiously. "Who are you?" she inquired. +"What are these nesters to you?" + +"I am nobody. They were kind to me and I'm interested in their future." + +"Are you a fortune hunter, Mr. Gray?" + +"I am." Gray's face instantly lighted. "I am the most conscienceless +fortune hunter you ever met, but--I am hunting my own fortune, not +Allie Briskow's." + +"You needn't laugh. She's very--unusual and--But I dare say you +wouldn't tell me, anyhow." + +"If I have excited your curiosity, I am delighted," Gray declared. +"Please let me return at lunch time and gratify it. I promise to talk +upon that subject which every man can discuss to best +advantage--himself--and I pledge myself not to ask one single question +about you, Miss Good. Not one--" He bowed ceremoniously over her hand. +"Although, as you can imagine, I'm dying to ask a thousand." + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +The luncheon hour was long in arriving, and when it did come around +Calvin Gray regretted that he had elected to play a game of +make-believe with "Miss Good," for she rigidly held him to his promise, +and however adroitly he undertook to ascertain who or what she was, she +foiled him. It gave her a mischievous pleasure to evade his carefully +laid conversational traps, and what little he learned came from Ma +Briskow. Briefly, it amounted to this: Miss Good was what the elder +woman called "home folks," but she had been schooled in the East. +Moreover, she was in the oil business. This last bit of intelligence +naturally intrigued the man, and he undertook to gain further +illumination, but only to have the girl pretend that he knew all about +it. He accepted this checkmate with the best possible grace, but +revenged himself by assuming the airs and privileges of a friend more +intimate even than Miss Good had implied, a pretense that confused and +even annoyed her. For some reason this counterfeit pleased him; it was +extremely agreeable even to pretend a close acquaintance with this girl. + +The luncheon went off gaily enough, then Gray was again banished with +instructions to return at closing time. + +"You took a mean, a malicious advantage of an offer intended only to +spare your feelings. And you haven't any," he told Miss Good when they +had a chance for a word alone. + +"I have no feelings?" + +"None. Or you'd see that I'm perishing of curiosity." + +She shook her head, and her blue eyes laughed at him provokingly. +"Curiosity is fatal only to cats. It is good for people." + +"I shall find out all about you." + +"How?" + +"By cross-examining the Briskows, perhaps." + +"But they're waiting to have you tell them what you know. I've seen to +that." + +"If they ask any questions, I'll invent a story. I'll act confused, +self-conscious. I'll make them think you are a much dearer friend than +I have pretended, so far; dearer, even, than I can hope you ever will +be." + +"That wouldn't be fair." + +"There are occasions when everything is fair. Perhaps these store +people know something--" + +"Nothing whatever." + +"Then, for Heaven's sake, release me from my pledge!" Gray spoke +desperately. "When I return, permit me to ask those thousand questions, +and what others occur to me. Won't you?" + +The girl pondered this request briefly, then smiled. "Very well. If you +are still curious, when you see me, I'll tell you who I am." + +"A bargain! I'll be back early." More seriously, Gray declared: "I must +tell you right now how perfectly splendid I think you are. You have +completely renewed my belief in human kindness, and I'm sure your name +must be Miss Good." + +But a disappointment awaited Calvin Gray when, late that afternoon, he +returned to the store. Miss Good had gone. At first he refused to +believe Ma Briskow's statement, but it was true: she had disappeared as +quietly and as unobtrusively as she had appeared, and, what was more +annoying, she had left no word whatever for him. This was practical +joking, for a certainty, and Gray told himself that he abhorred +practical jokes. It was a jolt to his pride to have his attentions thus +ignored, but what irked him most was the fact that he was stopped, by +reason of his deceit, from making any direct inquiries that might lead +to a further acquaintance with the girl. + +Mrs. Briskow, however, was in no condition either to note his dismay or +to volunteer information upon any except one subject; to wit, corns. +Human hearts were of less concern to her, for the time being, than +human feet, and hers were killing her. She began a recital of her +sufferings, as intimate, as agonizing, and as confidential as if Gray +were a practicing chiropodist. What she had to say about tight shoes +was bitter in the extreme; she voiced a gloomy conviction that the +alarming increase in suicides was due to bunions. The good woman +confessed that she dearly loved finery and had bought right and left +with reckless extravagance, but all the merchandise in this department +store was not worth the anguish she had endured this day. With her +stiff little bonnet tilted carelessly over her wrinkled forehead, she +declared emphatically that she would gladly swap all her purchases at +this moment for a tub of hot water. + +"Where is Allie?" Gray inquired. + +"Lord knows! She's som'eres around bein' worked over by a couple of +women. Gettin' her hair washed an' her finger nails cured an' I dunno +what not. Mercy me! The things Miss Good had 'em do to her! An' the +money we've spent! Allie's gone hog wild." The complaint ended in a +stifled moan induced perhaps by some darting pain, then without further +ado Ma Briskow unbuttoned one shoe and removed it. "Whew!" She leaned +back in her chair, wiggled her stockinged toes, and feebly fanned +herself. "But wait till you see her. I can't scarcely reco'nize my own +flesh an' blood. I never seen such a change in a human person." + +Gray pretended to listen as the good woman babbled on, but he was +thinking about the girl who had disappeared. He was surprised at the +keenness of his chagrin. He had seen Miss Good but a short time, and +she had made no effort whatever to excite his interest; nevertheless, +she remained a tantalizingly vivid picture in his mind. It was +extraordinary. + +So engrossed was he in his thoughts that he did not notice Allegheny +Briskow until she stood close beside him. Then, indeed, he experienced +a shock, for it was difficult to recognize in this handsome, modish +young woman the awkward, ill-dressed country girl he had seen at noon. +Allie was positively stunning. She was completely transformed from the +soles of her well-shod feet to the tip of her French coiffure, and what +was more astonishing, she had lost much of her self-consciousness and +carried herself with a native grace that became her well. + +"Why, _Allie!_" Gray exclaimed. "You're wonderful! Let me see you." He +stood off and gazed at her while she revolved before him. + +"Sakes alive! Who'd ever s'pose you'd look like _that!_" the mother +exclaimed. + +"Miss Good told me I'd look nice, but I didn't believe her. Do I?" + +"You're wonderful, Allie." Gray said it with conviction. + +"Honest? You ain't laughin' at me?" The amazon's voice quavered. + +"Can't you see? Look at yourself. I'm proud of you." + +"I--She said--" Allegheny twisted her hands, she cast an appealing +glance at her mother, but the latter was staring at her in open +amazement, slowly nodding her head and clucking. + +"Tse! Tse! Tse!" It was an approving cluck, and it had a peculiar +effect upon the girl. Allegheny's tears started, she turned suddenly +and hid her face in her hands. + +Gray crossed quickly to her side, saying: "There! We've overdone it the +first day, and you're tired." + +"I _ain't_ tired." His sympathy brought audible sobs; the girl's +shoulders began to heave. + +"Well, _I_ am," the mother complained. "I'm wore to the bone. Allie! +You dry up an' stop that snivelin' so we kin go home and I kin let my +feet swell, an' scream." + +"You're not too tired, I hope, to have dinner with Allie and me in the +big dining room at the Ajax?" Gray said, gayly. "You'll be all right +after an hour's rest, and--'I want to show her off, if her nose isn't +too red." + +"I 'ain't seen that girl cry in ten years," Ma declared, in mingled +wonderment and irritation. "Why, she didn't cry when Number One blowed +in." + +Allie spoke between her sobs. "There wasn't nothin' to cry for, then. +But--Miss Good said I--I'd look jest as purty as other folks when I got +fixed up. An' _he_ says--I do." + +Gray decided that all women are vain. Nevertheless, it surprised him to +discover the trait so early in Allegheny Briskow. + +It was on the second day thereafter that Gus Briskow appeared at the +hotel. He came unexpectedly, and he still wore his rough ranch clothes. +After an hour or more spent with his wife and daughter, he went down to +Gray's room and thanked him for the assistance he had rendered the two +women. + +Followed a few moments of desultory conversation, then he put an abrupt +question: "Mr. Gray, you're a rich man, ain't you?" + +"I--am so considered." + +"Um-m! Dunno's I'm glad or sorry." + +"Indeed! What difference can it make to you?" + +"A lot. It's like this: my boy Buddy has took a turrible shine to you, +an' he can't talk about nothin' else. I was sort of hopin'--" + +"Yes?" + +"Buddy's ignerunt. He can read an' write an' figger some, but he's got +about the same company manners as a steer, an' he's skeered of crowds. +When he sees strangers he's liable to charge 'em or else throw up his +head an' his tail an' run plumb over a cliff. He'd ought to go to +school, but he says he's too big, an' he'd have to set with a lot of +little children. Him an' Allie's alike, that way--it r'ars 'em up on +their hind feet to be laughed at." + +"Get a tutor for them." + +"A what?" When Gray had explained the meaning of the word, Mr. +Briskow's face cleared. "That's what I figgered on, but I didn't know +what you called 'em. That's why I'm sorry you're so well off. Y' see +I'd of paid you anything--I'd of doubled whatever you're gettin'--" The +speaker raised a hopeful gaze; he paused as if to make sure that his +hearer was beyond temptation. "I thought mebbe him and you'd like to +travel some--go to furrin places--see the hull world. I kin afford it." + +"Thank you for the compliment, but--" + +"I got some big deals on, an' Buddy's got to learn enough so's to hang +onto what's comin' to him an' Allie. He needs a man like you to learn +him, an' be an example. It would be a payin' job, Mister Gray." + +It was in a voice graver than usual that the younger man spoke: +"Briskow, you're sensible enough to understand plain talk. I'm not a +fit man to teach Buddy what he ought to know. In fact, I'm about the +worst person you could select." + +"How so?" + +"Because I'm a good deal of a--rotter. I couldn't permit Buddy to make +a mess of his life, such as I've made of mine." + +The father sighed. "I s'pose you know, but--Well, I'm disapp'inted. But +it wasn't hully on that account I come to Dallas. Ma told me over the +telephone how nice you been an' what you done for her 'n' Allie, so I +says to myself I'll square things by givin' him a chance to make some +money." + +Gray stirred slightly in his chair and regarded the speaker more keenly. + +"When oil come in at Ranger, nobody thought it would get out our way, +but Ma had a dream--a lot of dreams--about oil on our farm, so I got an +outfit to come there an' drill. Folks thought we was crazy, and we +didn't expect they'd find much, ourselves--a few bar'l a day would of +looked big--but I allus had ambitions to be good an' rich, so I got +options on quite a bit of acreage. It didn't take no money at the time, +'cause land was what people had most of. Along with the rest, there's a +hundred an' sixty right next to ours--hill stuff that wouldn't feed a +goat. It's wuth a lot of money now, but the option's 'most run out." + +"When does it expire?" + +"Saturday." + +"That's to-morrow." + +Gus Briskow nodded. "It's cheap at a thousand dollars an acre, an' it +costs two hundred." + +"Of course you'll take it." + +"Nope." + +"Why not?" + +"Per one thing, I got a lot of other land just as good an' mebbe +better, an' I been takin' it up out of the royalties that come in. We +got enough sure money in sight to do us, but I promised Ma to play +safe, an'--we can't take everything. You kin have that option, Mister +Gray, for nothin'. You kin sell the lease inside of a week an' make +fifty thousand dollars, or you kin hold it an' make mebbe a million. +All it'll cost you is thirty-two thousand dollars. I don't make a cent +out of it." + +"Thirty-two thousand dollars! Not much, is it?" + +"It ain't nothin' to a man like you." + +Gray nodded and smiled queerly as he thanked the nester, then from his +pockets he removed several crumpled wads of currency and a handful of +silver. These he counted before saying: "What capital I have is +entirely liquid--it's all in cash. There is eighty-seven dollars and +forty-three cents. It is every dollar in the world that I possess." + +"Huh?" Gus Briskow's bright eyes searched the smiling countenance +before him. "You're--jokin'. I thought you said you was rich." + +"I am rich. I don't owe a nickel, and won't, until my hotel bill is +due, day after to-morrow. I'm in full possession of all my faculties. +I'm perfectly healthy and cheerful. I know men who would pay a million +dollars for my health alone, and another million to enjoy my frame of +mind. That's two million--" + +"Well--doggone _me_!" There was a pause, then the speaker brightened. +"Mebbe you'll take Buddy, after all? You kin set your own wages." + +Gray shook his head. "There are two good reasons why I couldn't accept, +even if I wished. I've told you one; I'm too fond of you Briskows to +risk ruining Buddy." + +"What's the other one?" + +"A purely personal reason. I have a definite something to do here in +Texas. Before I can accomplish it, I shall have to make a lot of money, +but that I shall do easily. I make money rapidly when I start." + +"You gotta git goin' afore long." Briskow allowed his eyes to rove +about the spacious Governor's suite. "'Specially with only eighty-seven +forty--" + +"That is nearly eighty-seven dollars more than I had when I arrived. +Three weeks ago I was an utter stranger here; to-day I know everybody +worth knowing in a business way, and some of them are my friends." + +"If you could learn Buddy to make friends like that--" + +But Gray raised his hand. "I derive a certain amusement from my own +peculiar characteristics and capabilities, but I should detest them in +another." + +"Well, you sure need money, and--I kin he'p you out." + +"Thank you, but I sha'n't borrow. If the time were not so short, I +could probably turn this lease you so kindly offered me. But something +else will happen along." + +Briskow sighed. "I could of sold it myself--thought I had it sold to a +bunch from Wichita, but they tricked me. I offered it the day you was +at our house for eighty thousand and Nelson more 'n half agreed to--" + +"_Who?_" + +Briskow looked up at the tone of this inquiry. "One of the fellers from +Wichita Falls. I s'pose he knowed the option was about run out; anyhow, +he's been holdin' me off from day to day till it's too late now fer me +to--" + +"What is his name?" Gray broke in, sharply. "Name's Nelson. Bell +Nelson's son. Bell's hard-boiled, but--" + +"Henry Nelson?" + +"That's him." + +Gray rose from his chair and strode swiftly to the window. He stood +there staring down into the street for a moment before saying, curtly, +"Go on!" + +"You know them Nelsons?" + +"I know--Henry." + +"He's hard-boilder 'n his old man. They got a lot o' money behind +'em--too much money to act like he done with me. I sure hate to see him +git that Evans lease for next to nothin', after the way he done. I'd +call it cheat-in', but--well, I can't han'le it." + +The man at the window wheeled suddenly and his face was white, his +brows were drawn down. "By God!" he cried, tensely. "He _won't_ get it. +Where's that option?" + +"I got it right here." Briskow handed over a paper. "An' I got the hull +title abstrack, too. Had it all ready for Nelson." + +When he had swiftly scanned the document, Gray said: "This deal means +little to you, Briskow, but it means much to me, and I'll make it worth +something to both of us. At first I thought the time was too short, +but--I work best when I work fast. You've had your chance and failed. +Now then, step aside and let a man run who knows how." + +Mr. Roswell, president of the bank where Gray had first made himself +known, was a shrewd, forceful man who had attained a position in +business and arrived at a time of life when he could well afford to +indulge his likes and his dislikes. Those likes and dislikes were +strong, for his was a positive character. As is the case with most +successful men who pride themselves upon their cold caution and +business acumen--and Mr. Roswell did so pride himself--he really was a +person of impulse, and intuition played a much larger part in his +conduct of affairs than he would have acknowledged. Such people make +mistakes, but they also make friends; occasionally they read character +wrong, but they inspire loyalty, and big institutions are founded upon +friendship and loyalty as well as upon stability and fair dealing. + +Roswell had liked Gray upon their first meeting, and that liking had +deepened. Owing to that fact, he had neglected to secure a report upon +him, assuring himself that there was always time for such formalities. +He was cordial to-day when Gray strode into his office bringing Gus +Briskow with him. + +The banker listened with interest to what he was told, then he studied +the map that Briskow spread upon his desk showing the location of his +own and other near-by wells. + +"That looks like a sure thing," Roswell said, finally. "As sure as +anything in oil can be. What is on your mind?" + +"I'd like to get the opinion of the bank's oil expert," Gray told him. + +This was a matter easily disposed of; the expert was summoned and he +rendered a prompt opinion. He knew the property; he considered it a +cheap lease at a thousand dollars an acre. It was proven stuff and +within thirty days it would probably treble in value. When he had gone, +the banker smiled. + +"Well, Gray," said he, "I knew you'd land something good. You're a +hustler. You'll make a fortune out of that land." + +Gray handed him Gus Briskow's option, and the assignment thereof, the +ink upon which was scarcely dry. "There's the joker. It expires +to-morrow night and--it will go to the Nelsons. They've double-crossed +Mr. Briskow." + +"Then don't let them get away with it. Take it yourself." + +"It is now three o'clock and this is the golfing season in New York," +Gray told him. "I couldn't reach my--associates and get any action +before Monday." + +"No funds of your own available?" + +"Not enough, at such short notice." + +"Well?" + +"That lease is worth one hundred and sixty thousand dollars, isn't it?" +The banker nodded. "I'm going to sell it before six o'clock for--eighty +thousand. I know people here who will take it, but I've come first to +you. Get together a little syndicate right here in the bank, and buy +it. I'll agree to take it off your hands within thirty days at one +hundred and sixty thousand dollars. In other words, it is worth to me +eighty thousand dollars to have you carry it for a month." + +"Is your guaranty any good?" + +"That is for you to determine. Assume that it is not, and I'll better +my first offer. I'll undertake to sell off the land in twenties right +here in Dallas, double your money, and divide the profits thereafter +with you. It is a safe speculation and a quick one. You know I can put +it through." + +Mr. Roswell considered briefly before replying. "There's no use denying +that we've made money on deals like this--everybody has. So it's +nothing new. There's a big play on Ranger stuff and we couldn't lose. +But I know nothing about you except the little you've told me. When I +go into a deal I put my trust more in the man than the proposition." + +"And I trust my own judgment of human character more than that of +strangers," Gray said, quickly. "So do you. Thirty days is a long time +with me, and the oil business is just my speed. Permit me to remind you +that time is flying and that I have given myself only three hours in +which to turn this property. I intend to beat Nelson, and apply that +beating on account of an old score. This is more than a mere business +deal." + +"I like your energy," the banker confessed, "and I'm inclined to bet +some of my own money on you. Now"--he pushed a button on his +desk--"let's see if there are any others here who feel as I do." It was +early evening when Gus Briskow returned to his wife's and his +daughter's rooms at the Ajax. He slipped in quietly and sank into a +chair. + +"Mercy me! I thought you was run over," Ma Briskow exclaimed. + +"I feel like I was," the nester declared, with a grin. "Say! Mister +Gray sold the Evans lease an'--we got more money than ever." + +"Then mebbe you can afford a new suit," Allie told him. "You look like +sin." + +Her father nodded, but his mind was full of the incidents of that +afternoon and he began at once to recount them. He told the story +badly, but in a language that the women understood. He had not gone +far, however, when the girl interrupted him to exclaim: + +"Wait! Why, Pa! You mean to say Mister Gray 'ain't got no money?" + +"He had less 'n a hundred dollars. An' him livin' here like a king with +everybody bowin' an' scrapin'!" + +Ignoring the effect upon Allie of this intelligence, he continued his +recital. "All I done was set around while him an' them bank people +talked it over," he said, finally. "Then they got their lawyer in an' +he examined the title papers. Seemed like he'd never git through, but +he did, an' they signed some things an' we come out, an' Mister Gray +told me I'd made forty-eight thousand dollars." + +"Goodness me!" Ma Briskow's eyes widened. "Why, that Evans place ain't +wuth the taxes." + +"It's more 'n likely wuth a million. But think! Him tellin' me _I'd_ +made forty-eight thousand dollars! It give me a jolt, an' I says _I_ +didn't make it. I told him I'd fell down an' turned the hull thing over +to him. 'It's _you_ that's made forty-eight thousand,' I says." + +"_What?_" Allie inquired, sharply. Then when her father had repeated +himself, she asked with even greater intensity: "Wha'd he say to that? +He didn't take it, did he?" + +"He laughed kinda queer an' says all I got to do to give him a good +night's rest is to wire Henry Nelson the deal's closed. An' him with +less 'n a hundred dollars!" + +Allie spoke again in great relief. "Lord! You give me a turn." Her +expression altered, her lips parted in a slow smile. "So! He's pore, +eh? Pore as we was. Well, I declare!" She rose and turned her back upon +her father. + +"No, he ain't pore," Briskow said, irritably. "Not now he ain't. I says +it's his deal an' his money, an' we got plenty. An' I stuck to it." + +Allie wheeled suddenly at this announcement. She uttered a cry of +protest; then, "What are you talkin' about?" she roughly demanded. + +"We had some argyment an' I got kinda r'iled. Finally he says if I feel +that way we'll go pardners. He wouldn't listen to nothin' else, +an'--that's how it stands. He made twenty-four thousand an' I--" + +"You--You _fool!_" + +Gus Briskow looked up with a start to find his daughter standing over +him, her face ablaze, her deep bosom heaving. He stared at her in frank +amazement, doubting his senses. Never had Allegheny used toward him a +word, a tone like this, never had he seen her look as she did at this +moment. He could not believe his eyes, for the girl had become a +scowling fury, and she seemed upon the verge of destroying him with her +strong hands, a task she was amply able to accomplish. + +"Allie-_Allie!_" the mother gasped. She, too, was aghast. "You--you're +talkin' to your pa!" + +"You give him twenty-four thousan' dollars? _Give_ it to him? Wha'd you +do it for? Wha'd you--?" Allie's voice failed her completely, she +groped at her throat, uttering unintelligible, animal-like sounds. + +"Why, Allie, you're _mad!_ And after all he done for me an' you," Mrs. +Briskow cried, accusingly. "You oughter be ashamed." + +"Sure! Didn't he make us twenty-four thousan' dollars, where we +wouldn't of got nothin'? An' us rich as we are, an' him broke? I'm +supprised at you." A harsh exclamation burst from the girl--to the +astonished parents it sounded like an oath, but it could not have +been--then she swung herself heavily about and rushed blindly into the +next room, slamming the stout metal door behind her with a crash that +threatened to unhinge it. + +"Well, I be--darned!" Gus Briskow turned a slack, empty face upon the +partner of his joys. "I--I never s'posed that girl would turn +out--_greedy_." + +The mother's countenance slowly wrinkled into lines of grief and worry, +she wrung her hands and rocked from side to side. "I dunno what's come +over the child," she moaned, tearfully. "She behaves so queer over them +silk stockin's an' corsets an' lingeries an' things that she skeers me. +Sometimes I'm afeerd she's goin' crazy--or something." + + + +CHAPTER IX + +No industry can boast a history more dramatic, more exciting, than that +of oil. From the discovery of petroleum, on through the development of +its usefulness and the vast expansion of its production, the story is +one of intense human interest, and not even the story of mining has +chapters more stirring or more spectacular. + +The average man has never stopped to consider how close he is to the +oil business or how dependent he is upon it; from babyhood, when his +nose is greased with vaseline, to the occasion when a motor hearse +carries him on his last journey, there is not often a day when he fails +to make use of mineral oil or some of its by-products. Ocean liners and +farmers' plows are driven by it; it takes the rich man to his office +and it cleans the shopgirl's gloves; it gives us dominion over the air +and beneath the waters of the sea. We live in a mechanical age, and +without oil our bearings would run hot and civilization, as we know it, +would stop. It is the very blood of the earth. + +Oil production is a highly specialized industry, and it has developed a +type of man with a type of mind quite as characteristic as the type of +machinery employed in the drilling of wells. The latter, for instance, +appears at first glance to be crude and awkward, but as a matter of +fact it is amazingly ingenious and extremely efficient, and your +oil-field operator is pretty much the same. Nor is there any business +in which practical experience is more valuable. As a result, most of +the big oil men, especially those engaged in production, are graduates +of the school of hard knocks; they are big-fisted, harsh-handed fellows +who are as thoroughly at home on the "thribble board" of a derrick as +at a desk or a directors' table, and they are quite as colorful as the +oil fields themselves. Their lives are full and vigorous. + +Of all the oil excitements, that which occurred in North Texas was +perhaps the most remarkable; at any rate, the world has never witnessed +such scenes as were enacted there. The California gold rush, the great +Alaskan stampede, the diamond frenzies of South Africa and of +Australia, all were epic in their way, but none bred a wilder insanity +than did the discovery of oil in the Red River district. + +For one thing, the time was ripe and conditions were propitious for the +staging of an unprecedented drama. The enormous wastage of a world's +war, resulting in a cry for more production, a new level of high prices +for crude, rumors of an alarming shortage of supply, the success of +independent producers, large and small--all these, and other reasons, +too, caused many people hitherto uninterested to turn their serious +attention to petroleum. The country was prosperous, banks were bulging +with money, pockets were stuffed with profits; poor men had the means +with which to gamble and rich men were looking for quicker gains. +Inasmuch as the world had lived for four years upon a steady diet of +excitement, it was indeed the psychological moment for a spectacular +boom. + +The strike at Ranger lit the fuse, the explosion came with the first +gush of inflammable liquid from the Fowler farm at Burkburnett. Then, +indeed, a conflagration occurred, the comprehensive story of which can +never be written, owing to the fact that no human mind could follow the +swift events of the next few tumultuous months, no brain could record +it. Chaos came. Life in the oil fields became a phantasmagoria of +ceaseless action and excitement--a fantastic stereopticon that changed +hourly. + +"Burk" was a sleepy little town, dozing amid parched wheat fields. The +paint was off it; nothing much more exciting than a crop failure ever +happened there. The main topic of conversation was the weather and, as +Mark Twain said, everybody talked about it, but nothing was done. +Within sixty days this soporific village became a roaring bedlam; every +town lot was leased, derricks rose out of chicken runs, boilers panted +in front yards, mobs of strangers surged through the streets and the +air grew shrill with their bickerings. From a distance, the sky line of +the town looked like a thick nest of lattice battle masts, and at night +it blazed like Coney Island. + +The black-lime territory farther south had proven too expensive for +individual operators and small companies to handle, but here the oil +was closer to the surface and the ground was easily drilled, hence it +quickly became known as a poor man's pool. Then, too, experienced oil +men and the large companies who had seen town-site booms in other +states, kept away, surrendering the place to tenderfeet and to +promoters. Of these, thousands came, and never was there a harvest so +ripe for their gleaning. + +Naturally a little country town like this could not hold the newcomers, +therefore Wichita Falls became their headquarters. Here there were at +least a few hotels and some sort of office quarters--sheds beneath +which the shearing could take place--and there the herd assembled. + +Of course, the cougars followed, and, oh, the easy pickings for them! A +fresh kill daily. Warm meat with every meal. Such hunting they had +never known, hence they gorged themselves openly, seldom quarreling +among themselves nor even bothering to conceal the carcasses of their +prey. It was easier to pull down a new victim than to return to the one +of the day before. + +Rooming houses slept their guests in relays, canvas dormitories sprang +up on vacant lots, the lobbies of the hotels were packed with +shouldering maniacs until they resembled wheat pits, the streets were +clogged with motor cars, and the sidewalks were jammed like subway +platforms. Store fronts were knocked out and the floor space was railed +off into rows of tiny bull-pen brokers' offices, and in these companies +by the hundred were promoted. Stock in them was sold on the sidewalks +by bally-hoo men with megaphone voices. It seldom required more than a +few hours to dispose of an entire issue, for this was a credulous and +an elated mob, and its daily fare was exaggeration. Stock exchanges +were opened up where, amid frenzied shoutings, went on a feverish +commerce in wildcat securities; shopgirls, matrons, housemaids gambled +in shares quite as wildly as did the unkempt disreputables from the oil +fields or the newcomers spilled out of every train. People trafficked +not in oil, but in stocks and in leases, the values of which were +entirely chimerical. + +But this speculative frenzy was by no means local. Burkburnett became a +name to conjure with and there was no lack of conjurers. These latter +spread to the four points of the compass, and the printing presses ran +hot to meet their demands. A flood of money flowed into their pockets. +While this boom was at its height a new pool, vaster and richer, was +penetrated and the world heard of the Northwest Extension of the +Burkburnett field, a veritable lake--an ocean--of oil. Then a wilder +madness reigned. Daily came reports of new wells in the Extension with +a flush production running up into the thousands of barrels. There +appeared to be no limit to the size of this deposit, and now the +old-line operators who had shunned the town-site boom bid feverishly +against the promoters and the tenderfeet for acreage. Farms and ranches +previously all but worthless were cut up into small tracts and drilling +sites, and these were sold for unheard-of prices. Up leaped another +forest of skeleton towers some ten miles long and half as wide. + +But this was the open range with nothing except the sky for shelter, so +towns were knocked together--queer, greasy, ramshackle settlements of +flimsy shacks--and so quickly were they built that they outran the law, +which is ever deliberate. The camps of the black-lime district, which +had been considered hell holes, were in reality models of order +compared with these mushroom cities of raw boards, tar paper, and tin. +Gambling joints, dance halls, and dens more vicious flourished openly, +and around them gathered the scum and the flotsam that crests a rising +tide. + +Winter brought the rains, and existence in the new fields became an +ugly and a troublesome thing. Roads there were none, and supplies +became difficult to secure. The surface of the land melted and spinning +wheels churned it; traffic halted, vehicles sank, horses drowned. +Between rains the sun dried the mud, the wind whirled it into +suffocating clouds. Sandstorms swept over the miserable inhabitants; +tornadoes, thick with a burden of cutting particles, harried them until +they cursed the fate that had brought them thither. + +But in Wichita Falls, where there was shelter overhead and pavements +underfoot, the sheep shearing proceeded gayly. + +Of the men engaged in this shearing business, none, perhaps, had +gathered more wool in the same length of time than the two members of +the firm of McWade & Stoner. Mr. Billy McWade, junior partner, was a +man of wide experience and some accomplishments, but until his arrival +at Wichita Falls he had never made a conspicuous success of any +business enterprise. The unforeseen invariably had intervened to +prevent a killing. Either a pal had squealed, or the postal authorities +had investigated, or a horse had fallen--anyhow, whenever victory had +perched upon his banner something always had happened to frighten the +bird before its wings were fairly folded. + +Mr. McWade had finally determined to wipe off the slate and commence +all over. Accordingly, he had selected a new field, and, in order to +make it a real standing start, he had likewise chosen a new name. He +had arrived at Wichita Falls with one suit of clothes and nothing more, +except an assortment of contusions ranging in color from angry red to +black-and-blue, these same being the direct result of repeated +altercations with roughshod members of a train crew. These collisions +McWade had not sought. On the contrary, when, for instance, outside the +yards at Fort Worth his unobtrusive presence on the blind baggage had +been discovered, he had done his best to avoid trouble. He had +explained earnestly that he simply must leave the city by that +particular train. The circumstances were such that no other train would +do at all, so he declared. When he had been booted off he swung under +and rode the trucks to the next stop. There a man with a lantern had +searched him out, much as a nigger shines the eyes of a possum, and had +dragged him forth. He was dragged forth at the second stop, and again +at the third. Finally, the train was halted far out on a lonely prairie +and a large brakeman with gold teeth and corns on his palms held a knee +upon Mr. McWade's chest until the train started. Ignoring the hoarse +warning breathed into his dusty countenance, along with the odor of +young onions, the traveler argued volubly, but with no heat, that it +was vitally necessary to his affairs that he continue this journey +without interruption; then, when the brakeman rose and raced after the +departing train, he sprang to his feet and outran him. McWade was lithe +and nervous and fleet; he managed to swing under the last Pullman at +the same instant his captor reached its rear platform. + +It is probable that a blithe determination even such as this would have +eventually succumbed to repeated discouragements, but at the next stop, +a watering tank, aid came from an unexpected quarter. From the roof of +the car another knight of the road signaled, and thither McWade +clambered, kicking off the clutching hand of his former enemy. + +The second traveler was a robust man, deliberate but sure of movement, +and his pockets were filled with nuts and bolts. This ammunition he +divided with his companion, and such was their unerring aim that they +maintained their sanctuary for the remainder of the journey. + +On the way in to Wichita Falls the stranger introduced himself as Brick +Stoner. He was a practical oil man, a driller and a sort of promoter, +too. It was his last promotion, he confided, that had made it necessary +for him to travel in this fashion. He had many practical ideas, had Mr. +Stoner, as, for instance, the use to be made of a stick with a crook in +it or a lath with a nail in the end. Armed thus, he declared, it was +possible for a man on the roof of a sleeping car to pick up a +completely new wardrobe in the course of a night's ride, provided the +upper berths were occupied and the ventilators were open. Mr. Stoner +deeply regretted the lack of such a simple aid, but agreed that it was +better to leave well enough alone. + +McWade warmed to his traveling companion, and they talked of many +things, such as money and finance, sudden riches, and ways and means. +This led them back naturally to a discussion of Stoner's latest +promotion; he called it the Lost Bull well, and the circumstances +connected therewith he related with a subtlety of humor rare in a man +of his sorts. The nature of the story appealed keenly to McWade, and it +ran like this: Stoner had been working in the Louisiana gas fields near +the scene of a railroad accident--three bulls had strayed upon the +right of way with results disastrous to a freight train and fatal to +themselves. After the wreckage had been cleared away, the claim agent +settled with the owner of the bulls and the carcasses were buried in an +adjoining field. This had occurred some time prior to Stoner's arrival; +in fact, it was only by chance that he heard of it. + +One day in passing the spot Stoner noticed a slight depression in the +ground, filled with water through which occasional bubbles of gas rose. +Being of an inquisitive turn of mind, he had amused himself with some +experiments and found that the gas was inflammable. Moreover, it gave +off an odor not unlike that of natural gas. It was a phenomenon of +decomposition new to the driller, and it gave him a great idea. He went +to town and very cautiously told of his discovery--a gas seepage, with +traces of oil. His story caused a sensation, and he led several of the +wealthiest citizens to the spot, then watched them in all gravity while +they ignited the gas, smelled it, tasted the soil. They were convinced. +They appointed Stoner their agent to buy the farm, under cover, which +he did at a nice profit--to himself. This profit he spent in riotous +living while a rig was being moved upon the ground. Not until the +derrick was up and the crew, in the presence of the excited +stockholders, came to "spud in," was the true source of that gas +discovered--then the enterprise assumed such a bad odor that bystanders +fled and Mr. Stoner was forced to leave the state without his baggage. + +This had been the nature of McWade's and Stoner's meeting; on the roof +of that swaying Pullman they laid the corner stone of their partnership. + +Arrived at Wichita Falls, Stoner went into the field and McWade +obtained employment in a restaurant. It was a position of trust, for +upon him developed the entire responsibility of removing the traces of +food from the used dishes, and drying them without a too great +percentage of breakage. It kept McWade upon his feet, but, anyhow, he +could not sit with comfort, and it enabled him, in the course of a +week, to purchase a change of linen and to have his suit sponged and +pressed. This done, he resigned and went to the leading bank, where he +opened an account by depositing a check drawn upon a Chicago +institution for fifty thousand dollars. McWade made it a practice +always to have a few blank checks on hand. Airily, but in all +earnestness, he invited the Texas bank to verify the check at its +convenience. + +So many were the strangers in Wichita Falls, so great the rush of new +customers, that the banks had no means of investigating their accounts +except by wiring at their own expense. This was Saturday afternoon, +which gave McWade two days of grace, so he pocketed his new pass and +check books, then mingled with the crowd at the Westland Hotel. He +bought leases and drilling sites, issuing local checks in payment +thereof--nobody could question the validity of those checks with the +evidence of fifty thousand dollars deposited that very day--and on +Sunday he sold them. By the time the Wichita Falls bank opened its +doors on Monday morning he had turned his last lease and had made ten +thousand dollars. + +A few days later he and Stoner incorporated their first company. This +was at the height of the town-site boom, and within a few hours McWade +had sold the stock. Thereafter prosperity dogged the pair, and before +long they had made reputations for themselves as the only sure-fire +wildcat promoters in town. McWade possessed the gift of sidewalk +oratory; Stoner posed as the practical field man whose word upon +prospects was final. He it was who did the investigating, the +"experting"; his partner was the bally-hoo. + +But competition grew steadily keener, other promoters followed their +lead, and it became necessary to introduce new and original methods of +gathering an audience. Mere vocal persuasiveness did not serve to +arrest the flow of pedestrians, and so McWade's ingenuity was taxed. +But he was equal to the task; seldom did he fail of ideas, and, once he +had the attention of a crowd, the rest was easy. + +One morning he and his partner provided themselves with some dice and +several hundred dollars in gold coin. With these they began shooting +craps on the sidewalk in front of their office. Now gambling was taboo, +hence the spectacle of two expensively dressed, eminently prosperous +men squatting upon their heels with a stack of double eagles before +them caused a sensation, and people halted to witness their impending +arrest. Soon traffic was blocked. + +The gamblers remained engrossed in their pastime, as well they could, +having thoughtfully arranged the matter with the policeman on duty; +gravely they breathed upon the cubes; earnestly they called upon +"Little Joe," "Long Liz," "Ada," and the rest; silently they exchanged +their stacks of gold pieces as they won or lost. + +Calvin Gray, but just arrived from Dallas, looked on at the game with +some curiosity, not divining its purpose, until McWade pocketed the +dice, then mounted a box at the curb and began, loudly: + +"Now, gentlemen, that is one way of making money, but it is a foolish +and a hazardous way. There is a much saner, safer method, and I'm going +to tell you about it. Don't pass on until you hear me, for I have a +most incredible story to relate, and you'll be sorry you missed it." + +There was a ripple of appreciative laughter, but the crowd pressed +closer as the orator continued: + +"You've all heard about these 'doodlebugs' who go around locating oil +with a divining rod, haven't you? And you don't believe in them. Of +course you don't. Neither do I. I can't put any trust in willow twigs, +but--we'll all admit that there are forces of nature that we don't +understand. Who can explain the principle of magnetic attraction, for +instance? What causes the glowing splendor of the Aurora Borealis? What +force holds the compass needle to the north? What makes a carpet tack +jump onto a magnet like"--the speaker paused and stared hard at a +member of his audience who had passed a humorous remark at his +expense--"just like I'll jump you, stranger, if you don't keep your +trap closed. I say who can read those secrets, who can harness those +forces? The man who can has got the world by the tail and a downhill +pull. Now then, for the plot of my story, and it will pay you to do a +week of listening in the next five minutes. Awhile ago an eminent +scientist, unknown to me or to my partner, Mr. Stoner, came into our +office, which is at your backs, one flight up, second door to the +right, and showed us an electrical device he has been working on for +the last eight years. He claimed he had it perfected and that it would +indicate the presence of oil on the same principle that one mineral +attracts another. 'Oil is a mineral,' said he, 'and I think I've got +its magnetic complement. I believe my invention will work.' + +"'I'll bet a thousand dollars it won't,' I told him. But what do you +think that pilgrim did? He took me up. Then he bet Stoner another +thousand that I'd made a bad bet." McWade grinned in sympathy with the +general amusement. "We arranged a thorough test. We took him, +blindfolded, through the field, and, believe me or not, he called the +turn on forty-three wells straight and never missed it once. Call it a +miracle if you choose, but it cost Brick and me two thousand iron men, +and I've got ten thousand more that says he can do the trick for you. +I'll let a committee of responsible citizens take a dozen five-gallon +cans and fill one with oil and the rest with water and set them in a +row behind a brick wall. My ten, or any part of it, says his electric +wiggle stick will point to the one with the oil. What do you say to +that? Here's a chance for a quick clean-up. Who cares to take me on?" + +From the edge of the crowd Gray watched the effect of this offer. +Divining rods, he well knew, were as old as the oil industry, but he +was surprised to see that fully half of this audience appeared to put +faith in the claim, and the other half were not entirely skeptical. A +man at his side began reciting an experience of his own. + +McWade now introduced the miracle worker himself, and Gray rose on +tiptoe to see him. A moment, then he smiled widely, for the eminent +scientist was none other than Mr. Mallow--Mallow, a bit pallid and +pasty, as if from confinement, and with eyes hidden behind dark +goggles. With a show of some embarrassment, the inventor displayed his +tester, a sufficiently impressive device with rubber handles and a +resistance coil attached to a dry battery, which he carried in his +pocket. + +Gray looked on as the comedy was played out. It transpired that +Professor Mallow had tested, among other properties, the newest +McWade-Stoner lease, a company to drill which had just been formed +under the title of "The Desert Scorpion," and he really judged from the +behavior of his machine that a remarkable pool underlaid the tract. He +was willing to risk his reputation upon the guaranty that the first +well would produce not less than three thousand barrels a day. He was +interested in the out-come only from a scientific standpoint; he owned +not one single share of stock. Then McWade resumed his sway over the +crowd, and soon shares in "The Desert Scorpion" were selling rapidly. + +Shortly after lunch, Mallow and the two partners were seated in the +office upstairs, their work done for the day. Another successful +promotion had gone to the credit of McWade and Stoner; all three were +in a triumphal mood. Mallow was recounting a story that had just come +to his ears. + +"Remember that old silver tip that took a stand in front of the Owl +Drug Store a few days back? He called his company 'The Star of Hope.'" + +Stoner nodded. "He had a good piece of ground, right adjoining the Moon +Petroleum tract--three wells down to the sand. I wondered how he ever +got hold of it." + +"He didn't. That's the big laugh. He didn't own that land at all. He +just had himself a map drawn, with the numbers changed. His ground was +a mile away. He sold his stock in two days, thirty-five thousand +shares, then he blew. Some Coal-oil John, who had plunged for about +three shares, got to studying his own map, found there was something +wrong and let up a squawk. But Silver Tip had faded like the mists of +early morn--thirty-five stronger than he was. Snappy work, eh?" + +McWade frowned his disapproval. "Something ought to be done to stop +those crooks or they'll kill us legitimate promoters. You can't sting a +crowd too often in the same spot." + +There came a knock at the door, and in answer to an invitation to enter +it opened. The next instant both McWade and Stoner sat erect in their +chairs, with eyes alert and questioning, for at sight of the stranger +Mallow had leaped to his feet with a smothered exclamation, and now +stood with his back to the desk and with his head outthrust in a +peculiar attitude of strained intensity. + + + +CHAPTER X + +"Well, well, Mallow!" The caller's face broke into an engaging smile as +he crossed the threshold. "Still wearing dark glasses, eh? I'm afraid +you didn't heed my instructions." + +Mallow spoke huskily, "What the hell you doing here?" + +"Following the excitement, merely. I shall open an office and spend a +good deal of my time in Wichita Falls. I hoped I'd find you here, for +this morning I heard you describe your invention and--admiration +overcame me. I felt constrained to congratulate you upon your +scientific attainments. Marvelous, my dear Doctor! Or is it Professor +Mallow?" The speaker laughed heartily. "Won't you introduce me to +these--let us say magnetic forces of nature that you have discovered?" +He indicated the two partners. + +"What do you want?" Mallow barked. + +"Momentary agitation has robbed our Professor of his habitual +politeness--a not unusual phenomenon of the preoccupied scientific +mind." These words were directed at McWade and Stoner. "My name is +Gray. Perhaps Doctor Mallow has made mention of me." + +"So you're the lad that threw pepper in his eyes?" Brick Stoner stared +at the newcomer with undisguised interest. He rose, as did McWade. +"I'll say we've heard of you. Your name's getting as common as +safety-razor blades. You've been cleaning up, haven't you?" + +"Um-m, moderately." Calvin Gray shook hands with the promoters, then to +the agitated Mallow, who still peered at him apprehensively, he said: +"Come, come! Let down your hammer! Uncoil!" + +"Listen, you!" the other burst forth. "I beat that thing out. I'm clean +and I don't intend to go back. You're a strong guy and you got a bunch +of kale, and you're a getter, but the taller they come the harder they +fall. You can be had." The speaker was desperate; his face was flushed +with anger, the tone of his voice was defiant and threatening. + +Gray helped himself to a chair, crossed his legs, and lit a cigar. +McWade and Stoner neither moved nor spoke. + +"My dear Mallow, you wrong me." In the newcomer's voice there was no +longer any mockery. "I gave you credit for more intelligence. We played +our little farce and it is done--the episode is closed, so far as I am +concerned. I supposed you understood that much. I helped you and I came +here to enlist your help." + +"You helped _me_?" Mallow showed his teeth in a snarl. + +"Precisely. Think a moment. Was it not odd that I failed to appear +against you? That the case was never pressed, the prosecution dropped?" + +"I s'pose you were afraid to go through. Thought I'd get you." + +Gray shook his head impatiently. "Afraid? Of you? Oh, Mallow! Had I +feared your majestic wrath, do you think I would have arranged for that +doctor to see you every day? And paid his bill? Who, pray, sent in +those good things for you to eat?" + +There was a pause. + +"Did you?" + +"I did." + +Again there was silence. + +"Why?" + +"For one thing, I was sorry for you. I really was. I had caused you and +Tony a great deal of suffering, and I cannot bring myself to inflict +actual suffering upon anyone without doing my best to alleviate it. +Then again, I had nothing against you personally. We merely clashed in +the course of--business." Mallow allowed himself to sink back upon the +desk; he turned his dark goggles upon his friends in a blind stare of +bewilderment. + +"Well, I'll be damned!" he said, finally. + +"Mallow thought _we_ had helped to spring him." It was McWade speaking. +"That's why he beat it up here and that's how we happened to put him to +work." + +"I don't get you yet," the man in glasses muttered. "I can't understand +why--" + +"What's the odds why he done it?" Stoner inquired, sharply. "Any man +that can squirt my eyes full of tobasco, and me with a six gun on him, +is all right. And him with a bottle of milk duly made and provided!" +The field member of the firm slapped his thigh and laughed loudly. +"Then to forget the whole fracas and shake hands on it! That's +handsome! Mr. Gray, I'm here to say there's a lot of boys going to lay +off you like you was a cactus." + +The object of this commendation was pleased. "Gratitude is rare," he +murmured. "I thank you. Now then, I was thinking of making friend +Mallow a business proposition, but--perhaps I can interest you, also, +in doing something for me. I'll pay well." + +"We're live ones," Stoner asserted. + +"It is business of a confidential nature." + +"All the talking we do is on the street. We're promoting wildcats, but +I guess we know as much about the good wells as the big companies +themselves, and when it comes to actual drilling, I've forgotten more +than all these boll weevils will ever learn. What can we do for you?" + +"For one thing, I wish to hire the brightest oil scout in the district, +but I don't want him, nor anyone else, for the time being, to suspect +that he's working for me. I will double his salary to watch one +operator. Perhaps he could appear to be in your employ? Furthermore, I +intend to do considerable secret buying and selling, and I will need +several dummies--moral character unimportant. All I insist upon is +absolute loyalty and obedience to my orders." + +During the silence that followed, Gray felt the three men staring at +him curiously. + +"You're after big game, I take it?" McWade inquired, mildly. + +"The biggest in these woods." + +"One man, did you say?" + +"One man." + +"Some--grudge, perhaps?" + +"Perhaps." + +"A yacht is too expensive for most men, but they don't burn money as +fast as a grudge." + +"This one will take his last dollar--or mine." + +"We're a legitimate firm, you know--" + +Gray's eyes twinkled as he exclaimed: "Exactly! If I have caused you to +infer that I shall employ anything except legitimate means to effect my +purpose, it is my error. At the same time, my proposition is not one +that I could well afford to take to the ordinary, conservative type of +broker. Now then, how about you, Mallow? Would you care to work for me?" + +The latter's pale face broke into a grin. "I am working for you," he +declared. "I've been on your pay roll now for five minutes. What's +more, if it'll save money to croak this certain party and be done with +it, why, maybe that can be arranged, too. My new wiggle stick may not +find oil every crack, but I bet I can make it point to half a dozen men +who--" + +Gray lifted an admonitory hand. "Patience! It may come to something +like that, but I intend to break him first. Can I arrive at terms with +you gentlemen?" + +"Write your own ticket," McWade declared, and Mr. Stoner echoed this +statement with enthusiasm. + +"Very well! Details later. Now, I shall give myself the pleasure of +calling upon my man and telling him exactly what I intend doing." The +speaker rose and shook hands with the three precious scoundrels. When +the door had closed behind him McWade inquired: "Now what do you make +of that? Going to serve notice on his bird!" + +"Say! He's the hardest guy I ever saw," Stoner declared, admiringly. +Mallow spoke last, but he spoke with conviction. "You said it, Brick. I +had his number from the start. He's a master crook, and--it'll pay us +all to string with him." + +Henry Nelson's activities in the oil fields did not leave him much time +in which to attend to his duties as vice-president of his father's +bank, for what success he and Old Bell Nelson had had since the boom +started was the direct result of the younger man's personal attention +to their joint operations. That attention was close; their success, +already considerable, promised to be enormous. + +But of late things had not been going well. The turn had come with the +loss of the Evans lease, and that misfortune had been followed by +others. Contrary to custom, it was Henry, and not Bell, who had flown +into a rage at receipt of Gus Briskow's telegram announcing a slip-up +in the deal--a sale to Calvin Gray; that message, in fact, had affected +the son in a most peculiar manner. For days thereafter he had been +nervous, almost apprehensive, and his nervousness had increased when he +secured the back files of the Dallas papers and read those issues which +he had missed while out of town. Since that time he had made excuses to +avoid trips into the Ranger field and had conducted much of his work +over the telephone. Perhaps for that reason it was that trouble with +drilling crews had arisen, and that one well had been "jimmed"; perhaps +that explained why a deal as good as closed had gotten away, why a +certain lease had cost fully double what it should have cost, and why +the sale of another tract had not gone through. + +Be that as it may, it was this generally unsatisfactory state of +affairs that accounted for the junior Nelson's presence in Wichita +Falls at this time. He and Bell had spent a stormy forenoon together; +he was in an irritable mood when, early in the afternoon, a card was +brought into his office. + +Nelson could not restrain a start at sight of the name engraved +thereon; his impulse was to leap to his feet. But the partition +separating him from the bank lobby was of glass, and he knew his every +action to be visible. He allowed himself a moment in which to collect +his wits, then he opened slightly the desk drawer in which he kept his +revolver and gave instructions to admit the caller. + +Nelson revolved slowly in his chair; he stared curiously at the +newcomer, and his voice was cold, unfriendly, as he said: + +"This is quite a surprise, Gray." + +"Not wholly unexpected, I hope." + +"Entirely! I knew you were in Texas, but I hardly expected you to +present yourself here." + +Gray seated himself. For a moment the two men eyed each other, the one +stony, forbidding, suspicious, the other smiling, suave, apparently +frank. + +"To what am I indebted for this--_honor?_" Nelson inquired, with a lift +of his lip. + +"My dear Colonel, would you expect me to come to Wichita Falls without +paying my respects to my ranking officer, my immediate superior?" + +"Bosh! All that is over, forgotten." + +"Forgotten?" The caller's brows arched incredulously. "You are a busy +and a successful man; the late war lives in your mind only as a +disagreeable memory to be banished as quickly as possible, but--" + +Henry Nelson stirred impatiently. "Come! Come! Don't let's waste time." + +"--but I retain distinct recollections of our Great Adventure, and +always shall." + +"That means, I infer, that you refuse to close the chapter?" + +As if he had not heard this last remark, Gray continued easily: "It is +a selfish motive that brings me here. I come to crow. It is my peculiar +weakness that I demand an audience for what I do; I must share my +triumphs with some one, else they taste flat, and since you are perhaps +the one man in Texas who knows me best, or has the slightest interest +in my doings, it is natural that I come to you." + +This guileless confession evoked a positive scowl. "What have you +done," the banker sneered, "except get your name in the papers?" + +"I have made a large amount of money, for one thing, and I am having a +glorious time. Now that Evans lease, for instance--" + +"Oh! You've come to crow about that." + +"Not loudly, but a little. I turned the greater part of that land for +as much as five thousand dollars an acre. Odd that we should have come +into competition with each other on my very first undertaking, isn't +it? Fascinating business, this oil. All one needs, to succeed, is +experience and capital." + +"What do you know about the business?" + +"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. But I am learning. Luck, I find, is a +good substitute for experience, and I certainly am lucky. As for +capital--of course I was blessed in having unlimited money with which +to operate. You inferred as much, I take it. Of course! Yes, Colonel, I +have the money touch and everything I have put my hand to has turned +out well." + +Nelson burst forth in sudden irritation. "What are you getting at? You +know I don't care a damn what you're doing, how much money you're +making--" + +"Strange! Inasmuch as practically every dollar I have made has come out +of you, indirectly." + +For a moment Nelson said nothing; then, "Just what do you mean by that?" + +"Exactly what I said. I've cut under you wherever possible. When you +wanted acreage, I bid against you and ran the price up until you paid +more than it was worth. That which I secured I managed--" + +"_You!_ So--_you're_ the one back of that!" Nelson's amazement +destroyed the insecure hold he had thus far maintained upon himself. +Furiously he cried: "You're out to get me! That's it, eh?" + +"I am, indeed. And half my satisfaction in doing so will be in knowing +that you know what I'm up to. One needs steady nerves and a sure touch +in any speculative enterprise; he daren't wabble. I'm going to get your +nerve, Nelson. I'm going to make you wabble. You're going to think +twice and doubt your own hunches, and make mistakes, and I--I shall +take advantage of them. Of course I shall do more than merely--" + +"Well, by God! I knew you had the gall of the devil, but--See here, +Gray, don't you understand what I can do to you? I don't want any +trouble with you, but one word from me and--" + +"Of course you want no trouble with me; but, alas! my dear Colonel, you +are going to have it. Oh, a great deal of trouble. More trouble than +you ever had in all your life. Either you are going broke, or I am. You +see, I have all the advantage in this little game, for I will pay a +dollar for every dollar I can cause you to lose, and that is too high a +price for you to meet. If I should go bankrupt, which of course I +sha'n't, it would mean nothing to me, while to you--" The speaker +shrugged. "You haven't my temperament. No, the advantage is all mine." +Gray's tone changed abruptly. "For your own good remove your hand from +the neighborhood of that drawer. I am too close to you for a gun-play. +Good! Now about that one word from you. You won't speak it, for that +would force me to utter nasty truths about you, and you would suffer +more than I, this being your home town where you are respected. And the +truth is nasty, isn't it?" + +Colonel Nelson had grown very white during this long speech. He rose to +his feet and laid one shaking hand upon his desk as if to steady +himself; his tongue was thick in his mouth as he said, hoarsely: + +"I'd like to think you are crazy, but--you're not." + +"Almost a compliment, coming from you!" + +"You think you can beat me--Want to make it a money fight, do you? +Well, I'll give you a bellyful. Every dollar I've got will go to smash +you--smash you!" + +"Splendid!" Gray was on his feet now and he was smiling icily. "One or +the other of us will be ruined, and then perhaps we can resort to those +methods which both of us would enjoy using. Of the two, I believe I am +the more primitive, for the mere act of killing does not satisfy me. +I've come a long way to sink my teeth into you. Now that they're in, +they'll stay. So long as you're willing to fight clean, I'll--" + +"Are you gentlemen going to talk forever?" The inquiry came in a +woman's voice. Both Nelson and Gray turned to behold a smiling, +animated face framed in a crack of the door. + +"Miss Good!" Calvin Gray strode forward, took the girl's hands in his +and drew her over the threshold. "My dear Miss Good, I have rummaged +half the state, looking for you." + +"I hope I'm not interrupting.--I recognized you and--" The girl turned +her eyes to Henry Nelson, but at sight of his face her smile vanished. +"Oh, I'm sorry!" she cried. "Let me run out--" + +Gray held her hands more firmly. "Never. Do you think I shall risk +losing you again? Colonel Nelson and I had finished our chat and were +merely exchanging pleasantries." + +"Cross your heart?" + +"Cross my heart and hope to die." Gray laughed joyously and again shook +the girl's hands. + +"Yes. Colonel Gray was just leaving," Nelson managed to say. + +"Colonel? Are you a colonel, too?" the girl inquired, and Gray bowed. + +"I was." + +"And you knew each other abroad?" + +"We came to know each other very well. We were, in fact, commissioned +at the same time and place, but Colonel Nelson received his a moment +earlier than I received mine, therefore he outranked me. Now then, +permit me to retire while you and he--" + +"Oh, there's nothing confidential about what I have to say. It's good +news for my partner, and I'm sure he'd love to share it." To Nelson she +announced, "Pete has a showing of oil!" + +The vice-president of the bank murmured something which was lost in +Gray's quick inquiry: "Partner? Are you a partner of Colonel Nelson's?" + +"After a fashion. We own a twenty-acre lease west of 'Burk'--that is, I +have a quarter interest and Henry is putting down a well. I drove out +there, and his driller told me it is looking good." + +Gray turned a keenly inquisitive gaze upon his enemy, and what he saw, +or fancied he saw, gave him the thrill of a new discovery. It may have +been no more than intuition on his part, but something convinced him +that his acquaintance with Miss Good deeply displeased the man. If he +knew Henry Nelson as well as he believed he did, it was more than +disapproval, more than mere personal dislike, that smoldered in the +latter's eyes. This was luck! + +In his warmest tone he cried: "Congratulations, my dear Colonel. +However badly you have fared in the Ranger district, fortune favors you +here. But why only a quarter interest? You put too low a price upon +your blessings. I'll better that arrangement. Why, I was ready to offer +Miss Good a full half of all I have, when she played a heartless jest +upon me. Ran away! Disappeared! I'll admit I was piqued. I was deeply +resentful, but--" + +Nelson interrupted this flow of extravagance. "'Miss Good'?" he said, +curiously. "Why does he call you that, 'Bob'?" + +"A secret! A little game of pretense," Gray declared, nastily. "For the +sake of our friendship, Colonel, don't tell me her real name and rob me +of the pleasure of hearing it from her own lips. Come, Miss Good! +Enough of money making and oil wells and stupid business affairs. I am +going to bear you away upon my arm, even at the risk of displeasing my +superior officer. Ha! Lucky the war is over. Now then, your promise." + +Gray's impetuosity, his buoyancy, robbed his speech of boldness, +nevertheless Barbara Parker flushed faintly. She was ill at ease; she +felt sure she had erred in interrupting these two men; she was glad of +an excuse to leave. + +Gray lingered a moment, long enougn for his eyes to meet those of the +banker. In his there was a light of triumph, of mockery, as he said: + +"A pleasant interview, wasn't it, Colonel? And now we understand each +other perfectly. A fair fight and no quarter asked." + +Henry Nelson stood motionless as he watched his two callers leave the +bank together, then slowly he clenched his muscular hands, and from his +lips there issued an oath better left unwritten. + + + +CHAPTER XI + +It was several moments after they had left the bank before "Bob" Parker +could manage to slip a word in edgewise, so rapid, so eager was Gray's +flow of conversation, so genuine was his pleasure at again seeing her. +Finally, however, she inquired, curiously: + +"What was it you said to Henry Nelson as I came out? 'No quarter +asked'?" + +Her escort stared down at her, his brows lifted, his tone betrayed +blank astonishment. "'No quarter asked'? Bless me! What are you talking +about?" Then his face cleared. "Now I remember--I said I had found +quarters at last. The town is so crowded, you know; I didn't want him +to feel bound to put me up. I abhor visiting. Don't you?" + +"Are you really good friends? I felt very queer, the instant after I +had walked in. But--I was bursting with good news and I couldn't see +Henry's face until too late. Then, it seemed to me--" + +"Nelson and I are scarcely 'good' friends--we never were chummy--but we +were thrown together in France and saw a lot of each other. At first, +my respect for him was not great, for he is a--difficult person to +understand; but as my understanding grew, so did my respect. He is a +remarkably capable man and a determined fighter. Admirable qualities in +a soldier. My call to-day was in the nature of a ceremonial." + +"Um-m! There's a ceremony before every duel--the salute. I thought I +could hear the ring of steel." + +Gray laughed off the suggestion. "Merely the jingle of officers' spurs, +I assure you. We amateurs cling to the Regular Army pomp and practice. +Frankly, I love it; I admire the military method--a rule for every +occasion, a rigid adherence to form, no price too high for a necessary +objective. And the army code! Ironclad and exacting! Honors difficult +and disgrace easy. One learns to set great store by both. You've no +idea, Miss Good, how precious is the one and how-hideous is the other." + +"You mustn't call me Miss Good any longer," the girl told him. "My name +is Barbara Parker." + +"Oh, I like that!" + +"I'm more generally known as 'Bob.'" + +"Even better! It sounds tomboyish." + +"It's not. It is Tom Parkerish. Father insisted on calling me that +and--it stuck. He's a man's man and my being a girl was a total +surprise to him. It completely upset his plans. So I did my best to +remedy the mistake and learn to do and to take an interest in the +things he was interested in." + +"Those were--?" + +Miss Parker looked up from beneath her trim velvet hat and her blue +eyes were defiant. "All that people like you disapprove of; all that +you probably consider undignified and unladylike, such as riding, +roping, shooting--" + +"Riding--unladylike? It's very smart. And why do you say people 'like +me'? There are no people like me." + +"You know what I mean. You're not a Westerner. You are what a +cowpuncher would call a swell Easterner." Ignoring Gray's grimace of +dislike she went on, deliberately exaggerating her musical Texas drawl. +"You are a person of education and culture; you speak languages; you +have the broad 'a,' and if you had to go unshaven it would be a living +death. You are rich, too, and probably play the piano. People like that +don't admire cow-girls." + +The man laughed heartily. "In spite of my broad 'a' and my safety +razor, I'm as much of a man's man as your father. Frankly, I don't +admire cowgirls, but I do admire you and everything you say about +yourself adds to that admiration. If your father is Tom Parker--well. I +congratulate you upon an admirable taste in the selection of parents." + +"Do you know him?" Barbara eagerly inquired. + +"No. But I know of him and I know what he stands for. I think we have +many things in common, and I venture to say that he is going to like +me." + +Barbara smiled. This vibrant stranger had an air about him and an +irresistible magnetism. It was flattering to receive marked attentions +from a person of his age and consequence--the girl felt an access of +importance--and the tone of his voice, his every look, assured her that +she had indeed challenged his deepest interest. She colored faintly as +he ran on: + +"So you're a partner of Henry Nelson's! He doesn't deserve it and--our +friendship ceases. I shall now hate him. Yes, henceforth he and I shall +be enemies." + +"I love to be flattered, but please don't become Henry's enemy. The +most dreadful things happen to them." + +"He pretends to be a friend, but in reality he is a suitor--a +detestable suitor--and the ties of business bind you closer! I see it +all. I--I consider it abominable." Gray's tone was as gay as his +demeanor had been thus far, nevertheless he was probing deliberately, +and the result appeared to verify his earlier suspicions. Calm as he +had appeared to be during that interview in the bank, in reality he had +been, and still was, in a state of intense nervous excitement; his mind +was galloping; the effect of that clash had been to rouse in him a keen +exaltation and a sense of resistless power. If Henry Nelson was +seriously interested in this girl, he reasoned, here then was another +weapon ready shaped--a rapier aimed at his enemy's breast--and all he +had to do was grasp it. That promised to be a pleasant undertaking. Nor +had he any doubt of success, for Barbara Parker had aroused his liking +so promptly that reason--and experience--told him they must be in close +sentimental accord. Even had she proven less responsive, he would still +have been confident of himself, for few women remained long indifferent +to his zeal, once he deliberately set about winning them. To build upon +that subtle, involuntary attraction, therefore, and to profit by it, +appeared advisable, nay, necessary, for henceforth all must be grist +that came to his mill. In view of his declaration of war, he could +afford to scorn no advantage, however direct or indirect its bearing. + +"Tell me about the Briskows," Barbara demanded. + +"Of course! I'm dying to do so, but"--Gray looked at his watch--"even +the good must lunch. No doubt you abhor the public eating places, but, +alas--" + +"I do. So does everybody who tries them. But our cook has been +speculating in shares, and yesterday she stalked majestically from the +kitchen. She was a wretched cook, anyhow; but we couldn't afford a +better one. We're very poor, dad and I." + +"Were poor. Not poor any longer, I hope." + +"Oh, that well! It is exciting, isn't it? Dad has gone out there to see +it, so--Yes, I'll lunch with you and be duly grateful." + +"Where shall we go?" + +Barbara's brows drew together in a frown of consideration, and Gray +told himself that she was even more charming when serious than when +smiling. "Wherever we go, we'll be sorry we didn't go somewhere else. +We might try the Professor's place. He's a Greek scholar--left his +university to get rich quick in the oil fields, but failed. He started +a sandwich and pie counter--a good one--and it pays better than a +pumper. But we'd have to sit on high stools and be scowled at if we +didn't gobble our food and make room for others. Then there is Ptomaine +Tommy's. Cafes are good and bad by comparison. After you've been here a +few days you'll enjoy Tommy's." + +"Then I vote for his poison palace. The very name has a thrill to it." + +On their way to the restaurant, Gray said: "Pa and Ma and Allie Briskow +and the tutoress have gone to the mountains--Ma's beloved +mountains--and they appear to be living up to her expectations. The +mountains, I mean. The old dear writes me every week, and her letters +are wonderful, even outside of the spelling. She hasn't lost a single +illusion. She has a soul for adventure, has Ma; she's hunting for caves +now--keeps her ears open to hear if the ground sounds hollow; wants to +find a mysterious cavern and explore it, with her heart in her mouth. +She revels in the clean, green foliage and the spring brooks. She says +the trees are awful crowded in places and there's no dust on them." + +"And Allie has a tutor!" + +"The best money could secure. And, by the way, you wouldn't have known +the girl after you got through with her that day. That was only the +beginning, too. She fills the eye now, and she's growing." + +"_Growing?_" + +Gray chuckled. "Not physically, but mentally, psychologically, +intellectually." + +"I said she had possibilities." + +"Yes. More than I gave her credit for, but what they are, where they +will lead her, I don't know. I'm a foolish person, Miss Parker, for I +take an intense interest in the affairs of other people, especially my +friends. My favorite dissipation is to share the troubles of those whom +I like, and right now I'm quite as worried over Allie as her father is. +You see, she has outdistanced her parents already; the dream part is +wearing off and her new life is a reality. She is confronted with the +grim and appalling necessity of adapting herself to a completely new +and bewildering set of conditions. I'm not sure that she will be equal +to it." + +"I presume you mean that she is sensitive." + +"Supersensitive! And ambitious! That's the trouble. If she were dull +and conceited she could be both happy and contented. But she's bright, +and she lacks egotism, so she'll never be either. Adversity would +temper a girl like her; prosperity may--spoil her." + +"There is a boy, too, isn't there?" + +"Oh, Buddy! He's away at school. He'll make a hand, or--well, if he +doesn't, I'll beat the foolishness out of him. I've assumed complete +responsibility for Buddy, and he'll be a credit to me." + +There was a tone in Gray's voice when he spoke of the Briskows that +gave Barbara Parker a wholly new insight into his character; it was +with a feeling that she knew him and liked him better that she said: + +"You think a lot of those nesters, don't you?" + +"More than they believe, and more than I would have thought possible," +he readily declared. "I'm a lonesome institution. There's nobody +dependent upon me; I owe no bills, no gratitude, and I've canceled the +obligations that others owe me. You've no idea how unnecessary I am. It +gives me a pleasing sense of importance, therefore, to feel that I fill +a place in somebody's affairs." + +Wichita Falls's facilities for public entertainment reflected perhaps +as correctly as anything else the general chaos consequent upon its +swift expansion into a city. Such hotels as had been capable of caring +for the transient trade of pre-petroleum days were full and carried +waiting lists like exclusive clubs; rooming houses and private +dwellings were crowded. A new and modern fireproof hotel was stretching +skeleton fingers of steel skyward, but meanwhile the task of +sheltering, and especially of feeding three times a day, the hungry +hordes that bulged the sides of the little city was a difficult one. To +wrest possession of a cafe table for two at the rush hour was an +undertaking almost as hazardous as jumping a mining claim, but Calvin +Gray succeeded and eventually he and "Bob" found themselves facing each +other over a discolored tablecloth, reading a soiled menu card to a +perspiring waiter. It was in some ways an ideal retreat for a +tete-a-tete, for the bellowed orders, the rattle of crockery, the voice +of the hungry food battlers, and the clash of their steel made intimate +conversation easy. Gray noted with approval the ease with which his +dainty companion adapted herself to the surroundings and remarked upon +it. + +"After four years in the East it took me a little while to get used to +it," she confessed. "The Wichita I left was a quiet town; the one I +came home to was a madhouse. At first the excitement frightened me, for +I felt as if I were being run over, tossed aside. But now that I've +fallen in with the chase, why--I think it is splendid." + +"Just what are you doing and how do you do it?" Gray wanted to know. + +Barbara was glad to tell him about her brief but eventful experience +since that morning at the Nelson bank when she had executed her coup, +and she recited the story with enthusiasm. + +"Having no capital to go on," she explained, "I've merely bought and +sold on commission so far, but I'm not always going to be a broker. I'm +making good, and some day dad and I will be big operators. I've been +able to buy a car, and most of my time I'm out in the field. They tell +me I'm as good an oil scout as some of the' men working for the big +companies; but, of course, I'm not. I merely have an advantage; +drillers tell me more than they'd tell a man." + +"Of course, with your father along you're safe in going anywhere, but +to go through the fields alone--" + +"Oh, dad doesn't go!" + +"What?" Gray looked up incredulously, but "Bob" nodded her head +vigorously. + +"Dad hates automobiles; they frighten him. So I go out alone while he +runs the office." + +"Extraordinary! But, my dear girl, it's dangerous." + +"Naturally, I avoid 'Burk' and the Northwest Extension after dark--even +the scouts do that. But it wouldn't pay anybody to high-jack me. No. I +go right in on the derrick floors and hobnob with the drillers, talk +about their wives and their families, discuss croup and fishing jobs; +sometimes they let me taste the sand and even show me the logs of their +wells. It amused them at first to think of a girl playing the game +single-handed--most men, however rough, have a sense of chivalry, you +know, and are better sports than they realize. Now--well, they're +beginning to respect my business ability. They have learned that I keep +my mouth closed and that I'll treat them squarely. Some of them would +fight for me. I tell you it is the greatest experience, the most +thrilling adventure, a girl ever had." + +"You are a brave child, and I admire your courage," Gray declared. + +"But I'm not. I'm afraid of everything that other girls are afraid of." +Leaning forward confidentially, the girl continued: "I'm a hollow sham, +Mr. Gray, but dad doesn't know it. After I learned how badly he wanted +me to be a boy, and how he had set his heart on teaching me the things +he thought a son of his should know, I had a secret meeting with myself +and I voted unanimously to fill the specifications if it killed me. So +I began a fraudulent life. I'm in earnest. For instance, I abhor guns, +but I learned to shoot with either hand until--well, I'm pretty expert. +And roping! I can build a loop, jump through it, do straight and fancy +catches like a cowboy. I worked at it for months, years it seemed to +me. I knew very well it was a ridiculous waste of time, but I'll never +forget how proud dad was when I learned the 'butterfly.' That was my +reward. Horses used to frighten me blue, but I learned to ride well +enough. In fact, it has been a keen disappointment to him that I won't +enter the Frontier Day contests. He'd like nothing better than to see +me win the bucking-horse match. Think of it! And I'm so timid I can't +look an oat in the face!" Barbara attempted a shy laugh, but there was +a quaver to her voice, and when Gray continued to stare at her gravely, +sympathetically, her face quickly sobered. "Now you understand why my +father doesn't think it necessary to go along on my trips through the +oil fields. It has never occurred to him that I'm anything but 'Bob' +Parker, his boy. Mind you, he is lost in admiration of me and I rule +him like a slave. I think he is great, too, and he _is_. He is the +dearest, gentlest, sweetest father in the world, and I wouldn't have +him learn the hideous truth about me for anything." + +For a moment Barbara's listener studied her thoughtfully, then he said: +"I'm immensely flattered that you like me well enough to make me your +confessor. Now I'm going to confess to you that I also am an arrant +coward." + +"Please don't joke. You have become quite a famous character, and if +the stories I hear are true--" + +"The stories one hears are never true. I have my share of physical +courage, perhaps; that's a common, elementary virtue, like generosity, +gratitude, sympathy. The most mediocre people are blessed that way." + +"Oh! Generosity and gratitude are divine qualities!" + +Gray shook his head positively. "Impulses! Heart impulses, not brain +impulses. They have nothing to do with character. Now I'm deathly +afraid of one thing." + +"What, pray?" + +"Ridicule! You see, I'm egotistical and ostentatious. Oh, very! +Disgustingly vain, in fact. If I were unconscious of it, I'd be +unbearable, but--it amuses me as much as it amuses others, and that +takes the curse off of it. I am delighted at some of my own antics. I +love to swagger and I adore an audience, but to be laughed at by others +would kill me. Ridicule! Scorn! I'm insensible to anything except +those." + +"You're a queer man." + +Gray's gaze became fixed; there was a peculiar light--almost a +glitter--in his eyes; he talked on as if voicing some engrossing +thought. "Of course, I'm vindictive--that's a part of the swashbuckling +character; it goes with the ruffles, the jack boots, and the swagger. +It is a luxury of which I am extremely jealous." Bringing his attention +back to the girl, he smiled and his manner changed abruptly. "There! +I've proved it all by talking about myself when I'm interested only in +you. However, it is sometimes easier to sell a thing by frankly +decrying it than by covering up its bad points, and I'm trying +desperately to make a good impression upon you. Now then, I'm +tremendously interested in what you have told me about yourself, and +I'm sure you are a better oil man--oil girl--than you have led me to +suppose. But these are no times for social pleasantries. We are living +in bedlam. There is nothing in the air but business--oil--profits. You +are a business woman, and if we are to become as well acquainted as I +hope we will, it must be the result of a common business interest. So, +then, for a bargain. I am going to enter this field in a large way; if +you will take me for a client, I will buy and sell through you whenever +possible. Perhaps we can even speculate together now and then. I'll +guarantee you against loss. What do you say?" + +"Why--it's a splendid opportunity for me. And I know of some good +things; I'm overflowing with information, in fact. For instance--" +Barbara hurriedly produced her oil map and, shoving aside the dishes in +front of her, she spread it upon the table. "There is a wildcat going +down out here that looks awfully good." As she indicated a tiny circle +marked into the corner of one square, Gray noted that there was a +dimple at the base of her finger. "The scouts don't think much of it, +but I happen to know it is on a structure and has a good showing of +oil. The driller is a friend of mine, and he has told me that his +casing is set. He'll tip me off when he intends to drill through, and +if you like we'll go out there and see what happens. If it comes in, it +will mean a big play on surrounding property; prices will double, +treble. My theory is this--" + +Gray's head was close to the speaker's, but, although he pretended to +listen to her words and to follow the tracings of her finger with +studious consideration, in reality his attention was fixed upon the +tantalizing curve of her smooth cheek and throat. In some perplexity of +spirit he asked himself why it was that mere proximity to this wholly +sensible and matter-of-fact young creature filled him with such a vague +yet pleasurable excitement. He realized that he was not easily +thrilled; feminine beauty, feminine charm were nothing new, +nevertheless at this moment he experienced an intense elation, an +eagerness of spirit, such as he had not felt since he was in the first +resistless vigor of youth, and his voice, when he spoke, carried an +unconscious quality strange to his ears. + +It was the more bewildering because nothing had happened to awaken such +feelings. He had met this unworldly, inexperienced prairie girl but +twice, and on her part she had betrayed no particular attraction for +him. As a matter of fact, she probably considered him an old man--young +girls were like that. Of course, that was absurd. He was right in his +prime, youth sang through his veins at this moment, and yet--she must +like him, he must have somehow impressed her. That was fortunate, in +view of her relations with Henry Nelson; luck was coming his way, and +she would undoubtedly prove useful. The last thing Calvin Gray +contemplated was a sentimental woman complication, but on account of +this girl's peculiar knowledge it seemed to him the part of wisdom to +cultivate her--to see as much of her as possible. + +"If you will come over to the office, I'll show you how I think that +pool lies," Barbara was saying, and Gray came to with a start. + +It was midafternoon when he left the Parker office--at least he thought +it must be midafternoon until he consulted his watch and discovered +that, to all intents and purposes, he had completely lost two hours. An +amazing loss, truly. There was no lack of youthful vigor in Calvin +Gray's movements at any time, but now there was an unusual lightness to +his tread and his lips puckered into a joyous whistle. It had been a +great day, a day of the widest extremes, a day of adventure and +romance. And that is what every day should be. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +If Gray cherished any lingering doubts as to the loyalty of Mallow, +erstwhile victim of his ruthlessness, or of McWade and Stoner, the +wildcat promoters, those doubts vanished during the next day or two. As +a matter of fact, the readiness, nay, the enthusiasm with which they +fell in with his schemes convinced him that he had acted wisely in +yielding to an impulse to trust them. At first, when he divulged his +enemy's identity, they were thunderstruck; mere mention of Henry +Nelson's name rendered them speechless and caused them to regard their +employer as a harmless madman, but as he unfolded his plans in greater +detail they listened with growing respect. The idea seized them +finally. In the first place, it was sufficiently fantastic to appeal to +their imaginations, for they saw in Gray a lone wolf with the courage +and the ferocity to single out and pull down the leader of the herd, +and, what was more, they scented profit to themselves in trailing with +him. Then, too, the enterprise promised to afford free scope for their +ingenuity, their cunning, their devious business methods, and that +could be nothing less than pleasing to men of their type. + +But early enough he made it plain that he intended and would tolerate +no actual dishonesty; crooked methods were both dangerous and +unsatisfactory, he told them, hence the fight must be fair even though +merciless. To annoy, to harass, to injure, and if possible actually to +ruin the banker, that was his intention; to accomplish those ends he +was willing to employ any legitimate device, however shrewd, however +smart. His entire fortune--and his associates, of course, greatly +exaggerated its size--would be available for the purpose, and when he +sketched out the measures he had in mind the trio of rogues realized +that here indeed was a field wide enough for the exercise of their +peculiar gifts. They acknowledged, too, a certain pleasure in the +comfortable assurance that they would involve themselves in no illegal +consequences. + +At their first council of war Gray gave each of them a number of +definite things to do or to have done, the while he sought certain +facts; when they assembled for a second time, it was to compare, to +tabulate, and to consider an amount of information concerning the +activities of Henry Nelson that would have greatly surprised that +gentleman had he been present to hear it. + +For one thing, there had been prepared a comprehensive list of the +Nelson holdings, together with maps showing their acreage and +production, the location of drilling wells, the ownership of adjoining +properties, and the like. There was also a considerable amount of data +concerning the terms of the Nelson leases, renewal dates, and such +matters. Gray was forced reluctantly to admit that his enemy was more +strongly intrenched than he had supposed; careful study of the data +showed that the Nelson acreage had been well selected and that it was +scientifically "checkerboarded" throughout the various fields. What was +more significant was the amount of proven or semiproven stuff. + +"It took work and money to get together that group of leases," Brick +Stoner declared, after he had checked them off. "That's one of the best +layouts in Texas, and they're shaped up to put over a big deal if they +want to." + +"They lack production," said Gray. + +"Sure! But they'll have it before long. Lookit the wells they're +putting down and that's going down around 'em." + +The former speaker chewed his cigar thoughtfully for a while, then: "I +don't believe they contemplate a big deal. They're not that sort. Henry +Nelson is selfish and suspicious, and I'm told that Bell wouldn't trust +anybody. I'm informed also that every dollar they have made has gone +back into new leases and wells and that they intend to hold everything +for themselves. It is rumored, quietly, that they are overextended." + +"I wouldn't care how thin I was stretched if I had their gamble," +McWade asserted. "All they have to do is to sit tight. The law of +average will pull them out. What do you intend to do?" + +"To begin with, I intend to stretch them even thinner--so thin they'll +break, if that is possible." + +"You can't load them up with more property." + +"Certainly not, but I can make them drill more wells." + +"Offsets, eh?" Stoner studied the map a bit doubtfully. "You can't make +'em offset dry holes, and if they strike oil in their wells the other +fellers will have to do the offsetting." + +"True. I can, of course, prevent them from extending their renewals. I +can cost them a pretty penny just by forcing them to a rigid adherence +to the terms of their leases and agreements and--" + +"What do you mean, 'offsets'?" Mallow inquired. "How you going to break +a man by bringing in wells alongside of his property? That'll make him +rich." + +"Can you beat that?" Stoner inquired. "Mallow's been selling oil stock +and experting wells for us with the Marvelous Magnetic Finder and he +don't know an offset from a headache post." + +"Certainly, I know--" + +"Why, Professor! Is it possible we have been deceived in you? An offset +is the thing that sets off to one side of the crown block and it's a +light blue, the same as a formation. It's the shape of a syncline, only +bigger." + +"Don't get funny. You drill an offset well to keep a man from sucking +all the oil out from under your land." + +"Right!" said Gray. "Wells, as you know, are drilled as close to the +side lines as the law allows. When oil is found, the adjoining +landowner can compel his lessee to put down a well to offset every one +that threatens to draw oil from beneath his property." "That's what +I've just been telling you." + +"Many an operator has gone broke offsetting wells in order to protect +his leases, especially if he has a number of neighbors who all start +drilling promptly. That is one of the many production troubles--and +there's a saying that trouble begins when the oil starts." + +"You said it. But to offset the Nelsons so's to cripple 'em--" Brick +Stoner shook his head. "It ain't hard to borrow money for good offsets. +'Most any bank will lend." + +"It is hard for anybody who is overextended to borrow. Possibly my plan +won't work, but to annoy, to harass, to embarrass, to stretch them +thin--it's all a part of the game. People are never as well off as we +think they are. The Nelsons are close to the sand in a number of +places. I want to procure the adjoining acreage. For every well they +make, I'll force them to drill six more. The day they strike oil I'll +have a string of derricks every two hundred feet along their side +lines." + +It was Mallow who spoke next. "That will cost you dollar for dollar, +boss. Have you got chips enough to match their stack?" + +"I don't have to invest dollar for dollar. My money will go for leases, +and I'll let drilling contracts, fifty-fifty, sixty-forty, +seventy-thirty--anything to get quick action. Other people's money will +do the work for me. Remember, I'm not after oil, I'm after a man." + +"I'll say you are!" Stoner looked up from a frowning contemplation of +the maps. "And if you'll take a chance I'll show you how you can drill +one well and cost them three--that is, provided you hit." As the others +leaned over his shoulder he explained: "Here's a square block of four +twenties--separate leases, all of 'em--and the Nelsons own three. You +can cop the fourth twenty, drill right at the inside corner, where all +the lines cross. If you pull a duster, you'll be out and injured, maybe +twenty-five thousand, but if it comes wet they'll have to protect those +three leases with three offsets. It ain't a bad-looking piece of +ground; you'll have about a one-to-three chance of making a well." + +"How many companies have you gentlemen promoted?" Gray inquired. + +"Twenty-two. And from a shoestring. Every well went down, or is going +down, and every dollar we got right here on the street." + +"And all of them are dry, are they not?" + +McWade spoke up, defensively: "Sure. They were all wildcats of the +wildest kind. But we don't deal in oil, we sell stock. Every issue +we've put out has gone above par at some time or other, and that's +playing the game square with our customers, ain't it? We see that they +have a chance to get out with a profit; if they hang on it's their own +fault. That's how we've built up a clienteel." + +"It wouldn't hurt your reputation to bring in a wet well for a change, +would it?" Both partners agreed that it would not. "I'll buy this +twenty-acre lease, and you can promote a company to drill ten of it, +Stoner says it's a one-to-three shot." + +McWade blazed with enthusiasm at the suggestion. "Take a piece of the +stock yourself, Mr. Gray, and we'll put it over in a day. With your +name at the top of the list it will bally-hoo itself." + +"Not a share. Your amiable proposition brings me directly to another +point which has a bearing upon our main campaign. Law is a dry subject, +but I must bore you with a brief dissertation upon a provision of one +statute which has doubtless escaped your notice. It has escaped the +notice of most people, even of Henry Nelson, I believe. You realize +that all but a few Texas oil companies are not organized as +corporations, but as joint stock associations--in effect declarations +of trust." + +"We oughta know it," Stoner said. "It saves paying a big corporation +tax and lets you sell all the full-paid, nonassessable stock you want +to issue, regardless of what the property is worth. Oh, we got wise to +that, _muy pronto!_ Why, these here Texas laws are the bunk! Them +fellows at Austin, if they had their way, would make it impossible to +promote a legitimate enterprise--on a paying basis. They'd make you +turn in cash or property the equivocal thereto every time you +organized. Wouldn't that be sweet? This joint-stock arrangement is the +only way to beat the game. It's a shrewd device, and my hat's off to +the guy that invented it." + +"Very true. Very well expressed. But in the statute governing the +procedure there is wrapped up a bundle of bad news, for it is provided +that any officer or stockholder may become personally liable for the +entire debt of the association. There is going to be a lot of sleep +lost over that fact when the truth becomes known." + +"You mean if I got stock in a company that's blowed up, and I'm living +in Oshkosh, all pretty, that I can be hooked for the debts some crook +runs up here in Texas?" + +"Precisely." + +This intelligence brought no consternation to the partners; on the +contrary, McWade, the optimist, grinned widely. "Goes to show you we +have been playing the game along safe and legitimate lines," said he. +"We don't own a share in any of our own enterprises, and if we have to +pick up a few now and then to boost the market, we drop them again as +if they were hot. It's a pretty thought, though. Why, I can see years +of activity ahead of Brick and me, buying up the debts of defunct oil +companies and collecting in full from prosperous strangers hither and +yon. For Heaven's sake, don't let it get out!" + +"I won't, at least until after I have accumulated a number of potential +judgments against Henry Nelson. He has had his share of cats and dogs, +of course, and some day I hope to lead them back to his doorstep. If +they return at the right moment, they may prove an embarrassment. Who +knows?" + +"Got anything else up your sleeve?" Behind Mallow's dark glasses his +eyes could be dimly seen, and they were active with curiosity. + +"Plenty. But we have enough here to start on. First, I want these +various leases, then I want a company promoted and a well started on +that twenty we talked about." + +For some time longer the conspirators busied themselves over the +details of their plans, and Gray was beginning to feel some +satisfaction at his rate of progress when an interruption occurred that +threatened to delay action and even to rob him of the services of the +two partners. That interruption took the form of a call from a group of +highly excited and indignant purchasers of stock in the Desert Scorpion +Company, that promotion in which Professor Mallow had assisted on the +morning of Gray's arrival. These stockholders swarmed into the office, +bringing with them an air of angry menace; they were noisy; they all +talked at once. + +From out of the confusion it soon became apparent that they had a real +grievance, and one which called for immediate satisfaction; moreover, +it was made plain that the callers cared little what form that +satisfaction took, whether tar and feathers or a rope and a lamp-post. +They had been sold, victimized, flimflammed, skinned; the scorpion had +stung them and the poison was boiling in their veins. Briefly, the +swindle was this: investigation had shown that the land owned by the +Desert Scorpion was not where it had been represented to be, but more +than a mile distant therefrom. Chance alone had brought forth the +truth; the hour of vengeance had struck. + +Calvin Gray withdrew quietly from the hubbub and asked Mallow, "Can +that be true?" + +The eminent scientist shrugged; out of the corner of his mouth he +murmured: "Why not? It all looks alike." + +McWade and Stoner were not in the least dismayed by this amazing +intelligence; as a matter of fact, the former assumed an air of even +greater geniality than usual and nodded a careless agreement to every +accusation hurled against him. "Right you are, men! Absolutely right. +We were victimized, but we're tickled to death to rectify the error. +Mighty fortunate mistake, as a matter of fact. Brick, out with the old +check book and give these birds back their money." With alacrity Mr. +Stoner cleared off his desk and seated himself, pen in hand. "Step up +and get a dollar a share--just what you paid. Fair enough, I calls it. +The banks are open and the checks are good." + +Immediately the repurchase of stock began, but anger and suspicion +still smoldered; there were dissatisfied mutterings. One investor, a +field man in greasy overalls, spoke out: + +"We'll get ours, all right. Don't worry. But how about the other +suckers? There's fifty thousand shares out. What you going to do about +that?" + +"Buy it back. Know where you can get any more?" + +"Maybe." + +"We'll pay a dollar and a half a share for all you can get, to-morrow." + +"What?" + +"You heard me. Breast up, boys, and get your money back. Our offer +stands--a dollar a share to-day, a dollar and a half to-morrow." + +There was a stir among the indignant speculators; the man for whom +Stoner was writing a check inquired: "What's the idea? Why not a dollar +and a half now?" + +Stoner and McWade exchanged a meaning glance--it was not lost upon +their attentive audience--but the latter shrugged and smiled +provocatively. "That's our business," he declared, lightly. "You ghost +dancers want your money back and we're giving it to you. You're letting +up a holler that you were robbed, so come and get it. The faster you +come the better it'll suit us. Scorpion stock will close at a dollar +and a half or better to-morrow night." + +"Bluff!" somebody growled. + +Stoner finished his signature with a nourish, blotted it, then he +hesitated. He flung down his pen and turned defiantly upon his partner, +crying: + +"This ain't fair to these men, Mac. They're customers of ours and we +owe 'em the chance to make a killing. It's up to us to tell 'em the +truth." + +McWade was angry. His indignation flamed. Vigorously he denied the +charge of unfairness. A spirited argument ensued, with Stoner asserting +that the firm was morally obligated to protect its clients to a greater +extent than merely by returning their money, and with McWade as stoutly +maintaining that all obligations, moral and legal, were canceled with +the repurchase of the stock. + +Meanwhile it became evident that the alarming rumor about Desert +Scorpion was rapidly spreading, for other investors were climbing the +stairs now, and the office was becoming crowded. The later arrivals +were in time to witness McWade finally defer to his partner and to hear +him announce that a rare stroke of fortune had favored purchasers of +this particular issue of stock, for the land which really belonged to +the company had turned out to be much better than that which it owned. +Certain information from the field had arrived that very day which was +bound to send the stock to two dollars. If anybody wanted to sell, the +promoters would be glad to buy, and they would advance their price on +the morrow, as McWade had promised, so here was a chance for those +present to turn a pretty penny by getting busy at once. Frankly, +however, he advised his hearers to hang on and make a real clean-up. +The information, which was not yet public, had nothing to do with the +fact that Doctor Mallow had experted both properties with his +scientific device and pronounced the new acreage much richer than the +old--this latter was merely corroborative evidence, and in view of the +fact that some people put no credence in so-called "doodle bugs," he +merely offered the record of the tester for what it was worth. His +original bet of ten to one still held, by the way, and once again he +repeated that those who wished to sell out would be accommodated with +the greatest alacrity. Only they mustn't return later and squawk. + +McWade confessed that he was neither angry nor offended at the recent +attitude of suspicion--he was merely amused. It made him laugh. The +idea of his firm turning a crooked trick, when it was an established +institution as strong as Gibraltar and as conservative as a national +bank, was ridiculous. He and Stoner could point with pride to an +unbroken record of successes and to a list of satisfied investors as +long as a Santa Fe time-table. Desert Scorpion stock would go to two +dollars, and five would get you ten if you didn't think so. Now then, +step lively! + +The refunding of money halted; there was a deal of noisy argument. Some +of the disgruntled investors still insisted upon selling out; others +decided to hold on; even a few asked to repurchase the stock they had +turned in, and this they were reluctantly permitted to do at an advance +of fifty per cent. + +When the last caller had disappeared, Gray inquired, curiously: "How +are you going to make good on your assertion that the stock will rise?" + +"Easy!" said Stoner. "I'll change into my old clothes, put four mud +chains on my car, and drive up, to the exchange in a hurry, then give +some gabby guy a tip to grab Desert Scorpion for me at a dollar and a +half--all he can get. After that I'll shoot out of town on high, with +the cut-out open. There will be a string of cars after me inside of +half an hour, and the stock will be up before I can get back." + +"We'll make good, all right," McWade asserted. "Those customers are in +luck dealing with a house like us. All they expect is a chance to get +out with a profit and sting the next fellow. They don't want oil; they +want a run for their money and a quick turn. We give it to them." + +"And do they always buy your issues?" + +"I ain't saying they do. Sometimes they're cold until you put on the +Indian sign. But all you have to do when stock don't sell is to raise +the price. Oh, if you know how, it ain't hard to make an honest dollar +in the oil business!" Mr. McWade smiled with conscious satisfaction. + +"I'm sure of it," Gray said, heartily. "There is so little competition." + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +Ma Briskow always had been known as a woman without guile, but of late +she had developed rare powers of dissimulation. She was, in fact, +leading a double life, and neither her husband nor her daughter +suspected the extent of her deception. To the patrons of the Burlington +Notch Hotel she was merely a drab, indistinct, washed-out old woman, +unmarked except by a choice of clashing colors in dress; to her family +she remained what she always had been; nobody dreamed that she was in +reality a bandit queen, the leader of a wild, unfettered band of +mountaineers. But that is what she was. And worse at times. + +Yes, Ma had slipped the leash. She was a robber baroness; she dwelt in +a rocky "fastness"--whatever that was--surrounded by a crew of outlaws +as desperate as any that ever drew cutlass and dagger, and she ruled +them not only by native strength of character, but also by the aid of +other forces, for she was on friendly terms with the more prominent +wood sprites, fairies, and the like, and they brought her wisdom. +Moreover, she had learned the language of dumb animals and could talk +to squirrels, beetles, porcupines, frogs. + +All this, as may be surmised, had come about as the result of Ma's +early reading: a haphazard choice of story books, in which were tales +of treasure trove, of pirates, of wronged maidens and gallant +squires--romantic stories peculiarly designed to stir a cramped +imagination like hers. It was from them that she had gained her ideas +of the world, her notions of manners, even her love of the mountains, +and that unquenchable desire to see them that she had confided to +Calvin Gray. + +He it was, by the way, who had selected the Notch for these Texas +nesters. It had proved a happy choice, for the hotel sat upon the top +of the world, and beneath it lay outspread the whole green and purple +vastness of the earth. The Briskows were entranced, of course, and, +once they had established themselves here, they never thought of +moving, nor did it occur to them that there might--be other mountains +than these, other hotels as good as this. To them Burlington Notch +became merely a colloquial name for Paradise, and life in the great +hotel itself a beautiful dream. + +The place was famous the country over as a health resort, and, indeed, +it must have possessed miraculous curative properties, otherwise Gus +Briskow, strong and vigorous as he was, could never have survived the +shock of receiving his first week's bill. It was with conflicting +emotions that he had divided the sum at the foot of the statement into +seven parts and realized the daily ransom in which he and his family +were held; it had given him a feeling of tremendous importance and +extreme insignificance. He spoke feelingly that night about the high +cost of loafing, but Ma showed such dismay at the mere suggestion of +leaving that he had resigned himself, and thereafter the sight of his +weekly bill evoked nothing more than a shudder and a prayer--a prayer +that none of his wells would go dry overnight. + +But lifelong habits of prudence are not easily broken. The Notch Hotel +was altogether too rich for Gus Briskow's blood, so he sought a more +congenial environment. He found it in the village, in a livery stable; +there, amid familiar odors and surroundings both agreeable and +economical, he spent most of his time, leaving Ma to amuse herself and +Allie to pursue the routine of studies laid down by her tutoress. + +Now Ma had not gone wild all at once; her atavism had been gradual--the +result of her persistent explorations. She had never seen a real +waterfall, for instance, and the first one proved so amazing that she +was impelled to seek more, after which she became interested in caves, +and before long her ramblings had taken her up every watercourse and +into every ravine in the neighborhood. This sense of treading untrodden +ground roused in Ma a venturesome spirit of independence, an +unsuspected capacity for adventure, and when the wealth of her +discoveries failed to awaken interest in her family she ceased +reporting them and became more solitary than ever in her habits. Every +morning she slipped out of the hotel, meandered through the grounds +apparently without purpose, but in reality pursuing a circuitous route +and taking sudden twistings and turnings to throw pursuers off the +scent. Ever deeper into the wilderness she penetrated, but with the sly +caution of an old fox returning to its lair, for she was always being +followed by wicked people, such, for instance, as minions of the law, +members of the Black Hand, foreign spies, gen-darmys, and detectifs. +Having baffled them all, she laughed scornfully, flung deceit to the +winds, then hurried straight to the "fastness," and there uttered the +tribal call. At the sound her gypsy band came bounding forth to meet +her, and she gave them her royal hand to kiss, raising them graciously +when they knelt, giving a kind word here or a sharp reprimand there. + +They were the fiercest gypsies in the world, and quarrelsome, too. They +were forever fighting among themselves and crying: "Curse you, Jack +Dalton! Take that!" and plunging swords into one another, but they had +good hearts and they loved Ma and were devoted to her lost cause. She +could handle them where others would have failed. + +Having accepted their homage and heard the details of their latest +raids against her enemy, the false Duke of Dallas--he whose treachery +had made her what she was--she assumed her throne and held formal court. + +The throne was a low, flat rock beside a stream, and usually Ma removed +her shoes and stockings and paddled her feet in the water while she +gave audience to visiting potentates. Those enlarged joints never +seemed to accommodate themselves wholly to the sort of shoes Allie made +her wear. Court "let out" when Ma's feet had become rested, after which +there were less formal affairs of state to settle. These out of the +way, it was time for the queen's recreations, which took the form of +singing, dancing, conversations with animals, visits with the invisible +fairy folk who lived in flowers and gave them their pretty smells. + +Ma never had any trouble putting in the whole day in some such manner +as this; evening came all too soon, as a matter of fact. Then it was +that she bade good-by to her faithful subjects and prepared once more +to fare forth and mingle, in the cunning guise of an old woman, with +the followers of the false and lying Duke of Dallas. But courage! +Patience! The day of reckoning was at hand when she would come into her +own and the world would recognize her as the wronged but rightful +Princess Pensacola. + +Thus would Ma Briskow spend one morning. Another perhaps she would be +an altogether different character, but always she was young and +beautiful and full of grace, and only when it came time to go did she +assume the disguise of an aged, wrinkled, bent old woman. Sometimes she +ran miles and miles at a stretch, darting, springing like a fawn, +rushing through the soft, green leaves, leaping rock and rill, her +laughter echoing, her bare limbs flashing, her gold hair streaming, her +scanty silken draperies whipped to shreds behind her by the very +swiftness of her going. Oh, the ecstasy of that! The excitement! + +Of course Ma did not actually run. Neither did her bare limbs +flash--being incased in flannels. And her hair was not gold. It was +gray, what little there was of it. No, she ambled a bit, perhaps, where +the grass was short and the ground smooth, then she stood still, closed +her eyes, and ran and leaped and swayed and darted--with her arms. +Anybody can do it. + +At other times she defied gravitation, a secret accomplishment all her +own, which she manifested in this wise. She would begin to jump, higher +and higher, and the higher she jumped the lighter she became, until +finally she weighed no more than a thistledown, and the effort of +leaping became a pure joy and an exhilaration. Having attained this +perfect state of buoyancy, she would set out upon wonderful journeys, +springing lightly as far as it pleased her to spring, soaring +gracefully over obstacles, and deriving a delirious pleasure from the +sensation. One cannot appreciate the enjoyment to be had from this +method of locomotion without trying it. + +And always when Ma came back to earth and opened her eyes there were +the great smiling mountains, the clear, clean waters foaming over the +rocks, and underfoot was the cool, green grass, not that hot, hard +'dobe clay she had always known. Trees, too! Beautiful whispering +trees, with smooth leaves instead of burrs and spines and stickers. Nor +was there the faintest choking smell of dust; no sand blowing up her +nose and smarting her eyes. + +Ma Briskow had never dreamed that the world was so clean. She blessed +God for making oil to lie in the rocks of the earth, and she prayed +that none of "them hotel people" would discover her retreat. + +But, of course, somebody did discover it. Mr. Delamater, the dancing +instructor, for one, stumbled upon it while Ma Briskow was in the midst +of one of her imaginary games, and he reported his discovery to the day +clerk. + +"What ails that old dame, anyhow?" he inquired, after recounting Ma's +peculiar behavior. + +"Not a thing in the world except money," the clerk declared. + +Doubtfully Mr. Delamater shook his handsome auburn head. "People with +good sense don't act like that. She was doing an Isadora Duncan when I +saw her. Dancing--if you care to call it that! Anyhow, her hair was +hanging, she was flapping her arms and jiggling up and down." Delamater +laughed at the memory. "There's a big, awkward bird--sort of a crane or +buzzard of some kind--that dances. I never saw one, but she reminded me +of it. And she _sang_! Gee! it was fierce!" + +"Did she see you?" + +"Scarcely. I don't mind being alone with Allie"--Delamater's teeth +shone in a smile, then, seeing his reflection in a convenient mirror, +he studied it with complacent favor. He tried the smile again, and, +getting it to his better satisfaction, concluded--"don't mind it a bit, +but a bosky dell with a mad woman is my idea of no place to be." + +"Allie?" The clerk lifted his brows. "So--'_Allie_'! Has it gone as far +as that, Del?" + +"Oh, you know how it is! A lesson every day, soft music, arm around the +waist, a kind word. The girl is human. I'm probably different to +anything that ever came into her young life. Look at my wardrobe! She's +not so bad to take, either, and yet--" The immaculate speaker frowned. +"Father smells like a horse, and mother's a nut! Gee! It would take +some coin to square that." + +"That's one thing they've got," asserted the clerk. "Nothing but!" + +Mr. Delamater debated further. "Think of marrying The Powerful +Katrinka! I'll admit it has its points. If anything went wrong with the +bank roll Allie could make a good living for both of us. Suppose, for +instance, the old Statue of Liberty slipped and fell. Allie could jump +over to Bedloe's Island and take a turn at holding the torch. Ifi +they've got the coin you say they have, I think I'll have to see more +of her." + +"You won't see any more than you do. She's hitting on all four." + +"What is she up to all day?" + +"I don't know. Working, studying, exercising. Rehearsing for the +movies, I guess. She has worn that companion of hers down to a frazzle. +She has her own masseuse in the bath department, she rides a horse +three days a week, and every morning she takes a long walk--" + +"I've got it!" Mr. Delamater slapped his thigh. "Road work! She's +getting ready to take on Dempsey." He laughed musically. "If she +marries me her days of labor will be over; it will mean for her the +dawn of a new life--provided, of course, those oil wells are what you +say they are. Kidding aside, though, I don't dislike the girl and--I've +a notion to give her a chance." + +What the clerk said was true. Allie Briskow was indeed in training, +both physical and mental, and the application, the energy she displayed +had surprised not only her parents, who could but dimly understand the +necessity of self-culture, but also Mrs. Ring, the instructress. Mrs. +Ring, a handsome, middle-aged woman whose specialty was the finishing +of wealthy young "ladies," had been induced to accept this position +partly by reason of the attractive salary mentioned in Calvin Gray's +telegram, and partly by reason of the fact that she needed a rest. She +had met the Briskows in Dallas only a short time before their departure +for the north, and although that first interview had been a good deal +of a shock to her--almost as much of a shock as if she had been asked +to tutor the offspring of a pair of chimpanzees--nevertheless she had +nerved herself to the necessary sacrifice of dignity. After all, +Allegheny was only an overgrown child in need of advanced kindergarten +training, and in the meantime there was the prospect of a season at +Burlington Notch. The latter was, in itself, a prospect alluring to one +suffering from the wear and tear of a trying profession. After some +hesitation, Mrs. Ring had accepted the position, feeling sure that it +would rest her nerves. + +But never had the good woman suffered such a disillusionment. Allie, +she soon discovered, was anything but a child, or rather she was an +amazing and contradictory combination of child and adult. What Mrs. +Ring had taken to be mental apathy, inherent dullness, was in reality +caution, diffidence, the shyness of some wild animal. + +Nor was that the most bewildering of the teacher's surprises; Allie +possessed character and will power. For some time she had accepted Mrs. +Ring's tutorship without comment or question--Calvin Gray had +recommended it, therefore she obeyed blindly--but one day, after they +had become settled in the mountains, she came out with a forceful +declaration. + +She knew full well her own shortcomings, so she declared, and she was +not content to learn a few things day by day. She demanded intensified +training; education under forced draught. + +"They took green country boys durin' the war--" + +"During the war. Don't drop your g's, my dear." + +"--during the war, and learned 'em--" + +"Taught them!" + +"--taught them to be soldiers in six months. Well, I'm strong as a +horse, and I've got a brain, and I'm quick at pickin'--I mean I pick up +things quick--" + +"You pick them up quickly. Quickly is an adverb; quick is an--" + +Allie's dark eyes grew darker. Imperiously she cried: "All right! But +let me say this my own way. It won't be right or elegant, but you'll +understand. And that's what we got to have first off--a good +understanding. After I've said it, you can rub it down and curry it. I +been watching you like a hawk, Miz' Ring, and you're just what he said +you was. You got everything I want, but--I can't go so slow; I got to +get it quick--quickly. You been teaching me to read and talk, and how +to laugh, and how to set--sit--but we been _playing_. We got to _work_! +Oh, I know I'm forgetting everything for a minute. Miz' Ring, I gotta +learn how to act pretty and talk pretty and _look_ pretty. And I gotta +learn how, _quick_." + +"You are a fine-looking girl as it is, Allegheny." + +"Oh, I guess I look _dressed up_, but I'm awkward. I'm stiff as a hired +hand, and I fall over my feet. Look at 'em. Biggest live things in the +world without lungs! I got to get slim and graceful--" + +"I'll teach you a setting-up routine, if you wish, although it is +scarcely in my line. Goodness knows you don't need physical culture." + +"But I do," cried the girl. + +"Very well. Riding is a smart accomplishment. Can you ride a horse?" + +"Pshaw! I can carry a horse." + +"You'd look well in a habit, and with baths, massage, dancing, and a +little diet I dare say you can reduce." + +"I'll starve," Allie asserted, fiercely. "But that ain't half enough. +You gotta give me more studyin'. I got callouses on my hands and I'm +used to work. We'll get up at daylight-" + +"Good heavens!" Mrs. Ring exclaimed, faintly. + +"You learn me how to do the sitting-up things first off, then I'll do +'em alone. Ride me hard, Miz' Ring. I'll remember. I'll work; you won't +have to tell me twice. But I gotta make speed. I 'ain't got the time +other girls have." + +"My dear child, all this cannot be done in a day, a week, a month." + +"How long you allow it will take?" + +The elder woman shrugged. "Years, perhaps." + +"Years?" + +"Real culture, social accomplishments, are the results of generations +of careful training. I'm not a miracle worker. But why this impatience?" + +"I got-" + +"I have." + +"I have a reason. I can't take a generation; I'd be too late." + +"Too late for what?" + +But Allie refused to answer. "We'll start in to-day and we'll work +double tower till one of us plays out. What d'you say?" + +At first Mrs. Ring took this energetic declaration with some reserve, +but before long she realized with consternation that Allie Briskow was +in deep earnest and that this was not a soft berth. Instead of +obtaining a rest she was being worked as never before. Allie was a +thing of iron; she was indefatigable; and her thirst for knowledge was +insatiate; it grew daily as she gained fuller understanding of her +ignorance. There was a frantic eagerness to her efforts, almost +pitiful. As time went on she began to hate herself for her stupidity +and to blame her people for her condition. She was a harder taskmaster +than her teacher. Most things she apprehended readily enough, but when +she failed to learn, when mental or physical awkwardness halted +progress, then she flew into a fury. Her temper appalled Mrs. Ring. + +At such times Allie was more than disagreeable. Hate flamed in her +eyes, she beat herself with her fists, she kicked the furniture, and +she broke things. Once she even butted her head against the wall, +uttering language meanwhile that all but caused her companion to swoon. + +Mrs. Ring resigned after this final exhibition, but, lacking the +courage to face Allie in a mood like that, she went to Gus Briskow. + +"It is simply impossible to remain," she told him. "Already I'm a +physical wreck, for I never get a moment's rest. The salary is +attractive, but Allegheny is too much for me. She saps every ounce of +vitality I have; she keeps me going every hour. And her terrific +tempers are actually--dangerous." + +"She don't ever get mad at you, does she?" + +"Oh no! And she repents quickly enough. As a matter of fact, I am +afraid she is overdoing her studies, but there's no holding her back." + +"You're kinda worked up, Miz' Ring. Mebbe I can make it pleasanter for +you." + +"In what way, may I ask?" + +"Well, by payin' you more." + +"You are generous. The salary we agreed upon isn't low." + +"Yes'm--No, ma'am!" + +"I wouldn't feel right to accept more." + +"Try it, ma'am, for a little while. Mebbe it won't bother you so much +after you get used to it. Allie likes you." + +"And I--I _am_ interested in her. She is progressing, too; in fact, I +have never seen anyone learn more rapidly. But--she is so unusual. +Still, perhaps I _am_ the one--perhaps it is my duty, under the +circumstances--" + +With this disposition to compromise the father had little difficulty in +dealing, so the daily routine was continued. Allie applied herself to +the cultivation of the ordinary social niceties with the same zeal that +she followed her studies and her physical exercises. Fortunately these +exercises afforded outlet for the impatience and the scorn that she +felt for herself. Otherwise there would have been no living with her. +As it was she showed herself no mercy. Daylight found her stirring, her +Swedish drill she took with a vigor that fairly shook the floor, and, +having finished this, she donned sweater and boots and went for a swift +walk over the hills. At this hour she had the roads to herself and was +glad of it, for she felt ridiculous. At breakfast, although she had a +ravenous appetite, she ate sparingly. The day was spent in reading +aloud, in lessons in deportment, voice modulation, conversation, and +the like; in learning how to enter and how to leave a room, how to +behave at a tea or a reception, how to accept and how to make an +introduction, how to walk, how to sit, how to rise. Allie did sums in +arithmetic, she studied grammar and geography and penmanship--in short, +she took an intensified common-school course. Here was where her +tutoress had trouble, for when the girl's brain became weary or +confused she relieved her baffled rage in her most natural way, the +while Mrs. Ring stopped her ears and moaned. It was a regimen that no +ordinary woman could have endured; it would have taxed the strength of +an athlete. + +Late in the afternoon Allie went riding, and here was one +accomplishment in which she required no coaching. Frequently she vented +her spite upon her horse, and more than once she brought it home with +its mouth bleeding and its flanks white with lather. She rode with a +magnificent recklessness that finally caused comment among the other +guests. + +Allie was sitting alone in her room one evening, fagged out from a hard +day. Some people were talking on the veranda outside her window, and +she heard one say: + +"The girl can look really stunning." + +"Exactly. I don't understand where she gets her looks, for her parents +are--impossible. Wouldn't you _know_ what they were?" + +Allie needed no clearer indication of who was under discussion. +Instinctive resentment at the reference to her father and mother was +followed by amazement, delight, at the compliment to herself--the first +she had ever received. She leaned forward, straining to hear more. What +mattered it how these contemptuous outsiders referred to her parents? +They agreed that she was "stunning," which was their way of saying that +she was pretty, nay, more--beautiful, perhaps. + +"She's a glorious rider," the first speaker was saying. "She passed me +the other day, going like sin, with her face blazing and that big, +lively chestnut running flat. The way she took that curve above the +Devil's Slide brought my heart into my mouth." + +The breathless eavesdropper felt a hot wave of delight pour over her, +her very flesh seemed to ripple like the fur of a cat when it is +stroked. + +"Oh, she's a picture, mounted! Seems to have complete confidence in +herself; and the strength of a giantess, too. But--my God! when she's +on her feet! And have you heard her talk?" Evidently the other speaker +had, for there came the sound of low laughter, a sound that stabbed +Allie Briskow like a bayonet and left her white and furious. She sat +motionless for a long time, and something told her that as long as she +lived she would never forget, never forgive, that laughter. + +She was unusually silent and somber for the next three or four days; +she went through her exercises without vim; at her studies she was both +stupid and sullen. When Mrs. Ring's patience was exhausted and her +frayed nerves finally gave out, Allie rounded upon her with a violence +unparalleled. Those previous exhibitions of temper were tame as +compared with this one; the girl spat scorn and bitterness and hatred; +she became a volcano in active eruption. + +In a panic Mrs. Ring sought out Gus Briskow and again resigned. By this +time, however, the novelty of her resignation had largely worn off, for +seldom did more than two weeks elapse without a hysterical threat to +quit. But this one required more than the usual amount of persuasion, +and it was not without long and patient pleading, coupled with the +periodical raise, that the father induced her to change her mind. Gus +told himself somberly that the price of Allegheny's education was +mounting so rapidly that it might be the part of economy to take Mrs. +Ring in as a full partner in the Briskow oil wells. He decided, after +some consideration, to wire Calvin Gray and offer to pay his traveling +expenses if he would come to Burlington Notch for a few days. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +One accomplishment that Allegheny mastered with gratifying ease was +dancing. It came naturally to her, for both she and Buddy were full of +music. At first she had been extremely self-conscious; Professor +Delamater had found her to be as heavy as stone and as awkward as a +bear; but later, as her embarrassment became less painful, she relaxed. +She regained her power of speech, also, and in time she voiced an eager +desire to learn all there was to learn. + +Having quickly schooled her in the simpler forms of ballroom dancing, +Delamater suggested a course in the deeper intricacies of fancy dancing. + +"You're getting on," he told her, one day. "That last was splendid--top +hole, absolutely." + +Delamater, who was quite thoroughly American, affected at times an +English turn to his conversation, believing that it gave him an air. It +went particularly well, he thought, with light trousers, spats, and an +afternoon coat cut close at the waist. + +"Don't fool me," panted the red-faced Juno. "You must have iron feet." + +"My word! Spoof you, indeed! Not for worlds, if you know what I mean? I +shall expect to see you in the ballroom every evening." + +But Allie's confidence forsook her at this. "I'd--be scared stiff. +Folks would laugh. They haven't got--haven't anything to do but laugh +at other folks, and I don't like to be laughed at." + +"Laugh at you! Fancy that! You're too modest." Delamater adopted the +cooing note of a dove. "'Pon my word, you're too modest. If you could +hear the things I hear--" He paused, not knowing exactly what to say he +had heard, but his vagueness, the very eloquence of his hesitation, +caused Allie's face to light up. This was the second compliment paid +her since her arrival at the Notch, therefore when the phonograph +resumed its melodious measures she yielded herself with abandon to the +arms of her partner, and her red lips were parted, her somber eyes were +shining. That day she began a course of exhibition dancing. + +It was on that afternoon that Delamater had told the clerk of +discovering Ma Briskow alone in the woods. There was an open golf +tournament at the Notch, prominent amateurs and professionals were +competing, and the hotel was crowded to its capacity with players, +fashionable followers of the game and a small army of society reporters +and sport writers. This being the height of the season, social doings +at the resort were featured in all the large Eastern papers, for famous +names were on the register and the hotel switch was jammed with private +cars. + +Allie Briskow was in one of her trying moods to-day, for the +out-of-doors called to her. Sounds of laughter and gayety, strains of +music, had distracted her from her studies, her monotonous routine had +become hopelessly unbearable all at once. From her window she could see +young people, hear young voices, and envy flamed in her soul. Those +girls were her age; those men, easy, immaculate, different from +anything she had ever seen--except Calvin Gray--they, too, were young +and they courted those girls. Contemplation of the chattering throngs +showed Allie more clearly than ever the chasm separating her from these +people, and reawakened in her that black resentment which at times made +her so difficult to manage. She was thankful that her mother had +disappeared and that her father was at the livery stable; she hoped +they would stay away all day. At least, they were safe from ridicule. +She wondered if she might not induce them to dine in their rooms that +evening, and thus spare herself the embarrassment she always suffered +when she accompanied them into the public dining room. + +It seemed to her that whenever they went to dinner--Gus in his baggy +pepper-and-salt sack suit, his loose, lay-down collar, and his +wide-toed shoes, Ma in one of her giddy, gaudy dinner dresses--it +seemed as if the entire assemblage was stricken dumb and as if every +eye was turned upon them in mockery and amusement. Even the waiters, +Allie felt sure, noted the difference between the Briskows and the +other guests, and only with difficulty concealed their contempt. + +The occasional presence of Mrs. Ring, handsome, dignified, unruffled, +intensified that contrast and fairly shouted the humiliating +announcement that here were three nobodies who wanted to be somebodies, +but never could. + +Invariably when they went out in public together Mrs. Ring made Allie +feel as if she belonged to a lower, cruder order of animal life; as if +she were an inhabitant of another sphere. And yet, Mrs. Ring was poor; +she worked for wages! Allie could not understand this phenomenon; +thought of it now caused her resentment to kindle. + +Of course it was the lot of the hapless tutoress to select such a +moment as this in which to sweetly chide the girl for some lapse of +form. Allie exploded. She reduced the elder woman to tears, then, +ashamed of herself, she flung blindly out of the room, crashing the +door to behind her. She decided to dance her anger away. It was some +consolation to know that she could dance as well, or better, than those +slim and pampered beauties outside her window. Some consolation, even +though she never expected to have a chance of proving it. + +Delamater was especially agreeable to-day, more than usually nattering. +Not for some time did his scholar become conscious of the subtle change +in his demeanor, and even then its significance awoke only a shadowy +contentment. Allie hated herself too thoroughly to-day to believe that +anybody could really approve of her. As for him, he entirely +misconstrued the meaning of her silent acceptance of his flattery. + +They had become well acquainted by now and were on a basis of easy +familiarity, nevertheless it came as a shock to Allie to be called by +her first name-such a shock that she missed a step and trod on +Delamater's foot. They came to a pause. + +The dancing master was tall and slim, his face was on a level with +hers, and now he smiled into it, saying, "My mistake, my dear." + +"I--reckon it was." The girl's eyes were glowing queerly, and the man +was amused at her evident agitation. His first word had thrown the poor +thing into a flurry. + +They began to dance again, and, after a moment, with a gently rising +inflection, Delamater murmured, "You heard what I called you?" He +approved of the sachet that Allie used, and he became acutely conscious +of the jewels resting in the palm of his left hand. The girl was rich +and she was--different, unusual. Ever since she had learned to yield +herself to his embrace, he had been conscious of her strong physical +attraction, and now it got the better of him. "You don't care?" he +said, with his lips close to her ear. + +"Humph! I'm not caring for anything or anybody to-day." + +"Somebody has hurt my little girl." + +Allie threw back her head and stared at him with quick suspicion. "Your +little girl?" she repeated. + +It is the lot of any man in the heat of his desire to make mistakes, +and Delamater erred gravely at this moment. He kissed Allie. Without +warning he kissed her full and fair upon her red, half-open lips. + +For the briefest instant of amazement the two stood motionless in the +middle of the polished floor while the phonograph brayed on; then Allie +shook herself free of her partner, and in the same movement she smote +him a mighty slap that sent him reeling. Delamater saw stars. The +constellation of Orion gleamed in dazzling splendor within his tightly +shut lids; he collided with a chair and went sprawling. + +With a cry he scrambled to his feet. "What the hell--?" he growled, +savagely. + +Allie's face was chalky. Breathlessly, curiously she inquired, "Wha'd +you do that for?" + +"What did I _do_ it for? Say! You ought to be complimented--tickled to +death." Delamater rubbed his cheek and glared at her. "By God! I wish +you were a man. Oh, don't worry, I won't touch you again! Who the hell +would, after that?" Allie opened her lips to speak, but he ran on more +angrily as the pain bit into him. "Thought I meant it, eh? Why, you +lumbering ox--" + +"Then you ain't--in love with me or--or anything?" + +"_Love_?" The speaker uttered an unpleasant sound indicative of scorn. +"Wake up, sister! What d'you take me for? Why, your mother talks bird +talk, and your dad lives in a box stall and eats oats with his knife! +Here I kid you along a little bit--slip you a little kiss, as I would +any girl, and you--you--" Delamater stuttered impotently. "_Love_? I +guess I'm the first regular fellow that ever gave you a chance." + +Delamater was surprised when his pupil turned her back upon him, strode +to the nearest window, and flung it open as if for air; his surprise +deepened when she faced him again and moved in his direction. Her +expression caused him to utter a profane warning, but she continued to +bear down upon him, and when she reached out to seize him he struck at +her as he would have struck at a man. + +To those who are familiar with Burlington Notch, it will be remembered +that the hotel is pitched upon a slope and that the rooms on the first +floor of the east wing are raised a considerable distance above the +lawn. The windows of these east rooms overlook the eighteenth green, +and during tournaments they are favorite vantage points of golf widows +and enthusiasts who are too old to follow the competitors around the +course. To-day they were filled, for an international title was at +issue and Herring, prince of amateurs, was playing off the final round +of his match with the dour Scotch professional, McLeod. + +A highly enthusiastic "gallery" accompanied the pair, a crowd composed +not only of spectators, but also of officials, defeated players, +newspaper writers, camera men, caddies, and the like. They streamed up +the final fairway behind the gladiators and for the moment they were +enveloped in gloom, for Herring had sliced off the seventeenth tee and +a marvelous recovery, together with a good approach, had still left his +ball on the edge of the green, while McLeod, man of iron, had laid his +third shot within three feet of the flag. It meant a sure four for the +latter, with not less than a five for Herring. One of those golfing +miracles, a forty-foot putt, would halve the match, to be sure, but in +tournament golf miracles have a way of occurring on any except the +deciding hole. + +Sympathy usually follows the amateur, therefore it was a silent throng +that ranged itself about the gently undulating expanse of velvet sod in +the shadow of the east wing. Herring had played a wonderful match; he +stood for all that is clean and fine in golf. The end of the balcony +was jammed; nearly every window framed eager faces; amid a breathless +intensity of interest the youthful contender tested the turf with the +head of his club and studied the run of the green. A moment, then he +took his stance and swung his putter smoothly. The ball sped away, +taking a curving course, and followed by five hundred pairs of eyes. It +ran too swiftly! Herring, in desperation, had overplayed! But no--it +lost momentum as it topped a rise, then gathered speed, all but died at +the edge of the cup and--toppled in amid a salvo of handclaps and roar +of "Bravo!" + +That was nerve, courage, skill! That was golf! The miracle had +happened! Another hole to decide the match. + +Quickly the crowd became still again as McLeod, his teeth set upon the +stem of his pipe, his stony face masking a murderous disappointment, +stepped forward to run down his four. + +The silence was broken by a cry. Out of the air overhead came the sound +of a disturbance, and every face turned. A most amazing thing was in +the way of happening, a phenomenon unique in the history of +tournaments, for a man was being thrust forth from one of the hotel +windows, perhaps twenty-five feet above the ground--a writhing, +struggling, kicking man with fawn-colored spats. He was being ejected +painlessly but firmly, and by a girl--a grim-faced young woman of +splendid proportions. For a moment she allowed him to dangle; then she +dropped him into a handsome Dorothy Perkins rosebush. He landed with a +shriek. Briefly the amazon remained framed in the casement, staring +with dark defiance down into the upturned faces; her deep bosom was +heaving, her smoky hair was slightly disarranged; she allowed her eyes +to rest upon the figure entangled among the thorns beneath her, then +she closed the window. + +Nothing like this had ever occurred in Scotland. The mighty McLeod +missed his putt and took a five. + +As Allie Briskow passed through the lobby with her head erect and her +fists clenched, she heard the sound of a great shouting outside and she +believed it was directed at her. She fled into her room and flung +herself upon her bed, sobbing hoarsely. + +Mrs. Ring was waiting on the veranda for Gus Briskow when he returned +to the hotel about dark. He had learned to dread the sight of her on +that veranda, for it was her favorite resigning place--what Gus called +her "quitting spot," and it was evident to-night that she was in a +quitting mood, a mood more hysterical than ever before. It was some +time before he could get at the facts, and even then he could not fully +appreciate the enormity of the disgrace that had overwhelmed Allie's +instructress. + +"She chucked the dancin' teacher out of a winder?" he repeated, +blankly. "What for?" + +"Goodness knows, Mr. Briskow! Something he said, or did--I couldn't +make out precisely. I found her in a dreadful state, and I tried to +comfort her, I did really, but--oh! If you could have _heard_ her! +Where she learned such language I don't know. My ears _burn_! But that +isn't the worst; you should hear what--" + +"He must of said something pretty low down." Briskow spoke quietly; his +bright blue eyes were hard. "I reckon she'll tell me." + +"You don't understand," chattered the woman. "She flung the man bodily +out of the window and into a bed of thorns. It nearly killed him; he +was painfully lacerated and bruised and--Right in the middle of a golf +game! It did something dreadful--I don't know what--just as the world's +champion caught the ball, or something." + +"If he's crippled I'll get him that much easier," said Briskow, and at +the purposeful expression upon his weather-beaten face Mrs. Ring +uttered a faint bleat of terror. She pawed at him as he undertook to +pass her. + +"Oh, my heavens! What are you going to do?" + +"Depends on what he said to Allie." + +The woman wrung her hands. "What people! What--_savages_! You're--going +to shoot him, I suppose, just because--" + +"Yes'm!" the father nodded. "You got it right, motif an' all. 'Just +because'!" + +"You _can't_. I sha'n't permit it. I--I'll call the police." + +"Don't do that, ma'am. I've stood a lot from you, in one way or +another." + +"But it's _murder_! You--you can't mean it." Moans issued from the +speaker. "What _ever_ possessed me to accept this position? It's +unendurable, and I'll be involved--" + +"I've saw your last raise, Miz' Ring." + +"Do you think I'd stay, after this? It's bad enough to be made +ridiculous--the whole hotel is in laughter; laughter at me, I dare say, +as much as at her. Imagine! Hurling a full-grown man from a window--" + +"I don't hear nobody laughing." Briskow swung his head slowly from side +to side. + +"But to contemplate murder--" + +"What's more, I don't intend to hear nobody laugh. By God! Now I come +to think about it, there ain't a-goin' to be no laughing at all around +here." Gus continued slowly to swing his head, like a bear. "She's my +kid!" He pushed past Mrs. Ring, still muttering, "My kid--there ain't +a-goin' to be no laughing at all." + +Going directly to the desk, he asked for the manager, then stood aside, +hat in hand, until the latter made his appearance. The manager began a +hasty and rather mixed apology on behalf of the hotel for what had +occurred in the dancing room, but his tone of annoyance was an +accusation in itself. It was plain that, to his mind, the catastrophe +on the eighteenth green outweighed in importance whatever may have led +up to it. That was something actually tragic, something frightful, +appalling; it involved the good name of the hotel and affected the +world's golf title. + +"Very--unfortunate," he lamented. "We haven't heard the last of it, by +any means. McLeod may file a protest. And there is something to be said +on both sides; rather a nice question, in fact." + +"Prob'ly so," the father agreed. "An' I got something to say about it, +too. Get that dancin' perfessor off the place quick or I'll kill him." + +The manager recoiled; his startled eyes searched Briskow's face +incredulously. "I--beg pardon?" + +"I 'ain't heard my kid's side of the story yet, but I'm goin' to see +her now, so you better get word to that jumpin' jack in a hurry. That +is, if you want to save him." + +"He is discharged, of course, for we tolerate no rudeness on the part +of our employees--or our guests, for that matter; but I believe he is +suffering some effects from the shock. I couldn't well ask him to go +before--" + +"It'll take me prob'ly twenty minutes, talkin' to my girl. That'll give +him time, if he moves fast. But I may get through in fifteen." + +At the door to his suite Gus Briskow paused to wipe his countenance +clean of the expression it had worn for the last few minutes, and when +he entered it was with his usual friendly smile. Allie and her mother +were waiting; they were white and silent. Gus kissed his daughter +before saying: + +"Don't worry, honey; he won't bother you no more." + +Allie averted her face. Mrs. Briskow inquired, "Did you see the skunk?" + +"No. I give him a few minutes to clear out." + +"Hadn't we better leave, too?" ventured Allie. + +"Oh-h!" In Ma's eyes was such bleak dismay, such a piteous appeal, that +Gus shook his head. + +"What fer? We got nice quarters and your ma likes it here--" + +"They're laughing at me. I heard 'em hollering." + +"They won't laugh long. No, you're learnin' fast, and we're all havin' +a nice time. Only one thing--I'm kinda tired of that Miz' Ring. I let +her go, but I'll get you another--" + +"She quit, eh?" + +"Um-m, not exactly. I--" + +"I don't blame her. I've been mighty mean. But I couldn't help it, pa. +When you put a wild horse in a pen, it don't do to prod him and throw +things and--That's what they've done to me. I bite and kick like any +bronc. When you're hurt, constant, you get spells when you've got to +hurt back. I've been rotten to her, and now this coming on top of it--" + +"Wha'd that dancin' dude do, anyhow?" + +Allie related her experience with Professor Delamater; she told it all +up to the burst of shouting that followed her through the lobby. "You +should of heard 'em yelling, clapping their hands--! I"--she choked, +her voice failed her, miserably she concluded--"I wish to God we'd +never struck oil!" + +"You're just wore out, dearie," her mother said, comfortingly, and +Briskow agreed. He assured her that all would be well. + +All was not well, however. The next morning when Gus Briskow was about +to leave the hotel as usual--Professor Delamater having departed +hurriedly the evening before with fully four minutes of his twenty to +spare--he was stopped by the manager, who requested him to give up his +rooms. The Texan was bewildered; he could not understand the reason for +such a request. + +"'Ain't I paid my bills?" he queried. + +The manager assured him that he had; he was profoundly regretful, as a +matter of fact; but it so happened that the Briskow suite had been +reserved early in the season, and the party who had made the +reservation had just wired that he was arriving that day. He was a +gentleman of importance--it was indeed unfortunate--the management +appreciated Mr. Briskow's patronage--they hoped he and his family would +return to the Notch sometime. + +"Mebbe you got some other rooms that would do us," Gus ventured. + +It was too bad, but the hotel was overcrowded. Later, perhaps--Now at +that very moment the lobby was filled with tournament golfers who were +leaving on the morning train, and Briskow knew it. He studied the +speaker with an expression that caused the latter extreme discomfort; +it was much the same expression he had worn the night before when he +had served warning upon Delamater. + +"Lemme get this right," he said. "You can talk straight to me. Bein' +ignerunt, I 'ain't got the same feelin's as these other folks got. I +got a shell like a land turtle." + +"It is quite customary, I assure you. No offense, my dear sir." + +"That's how I figgered! Just bouncin' a low-down var mint ain't offense +enough to be throwed out about, when you pay your bills--" + +"You quite misapprehend--" + +"Fired, eh? It 'll go hard with Ma. She's gainin' here, and she likes +it. That's why I never told her you was chargin' us about double what +you charge these rich folks." + +The manager stiffened. "I regret exceedingly, sir, that you take it +this way. But there is nothing more to be said, is there?" + +It was with a heavy heart and a heavy tread that Briskow returned to +his room. Ma took the announcement like a death blow, for it meant the +end of all her dreams, all her joyous games of "pretend." Her +mountains--those clean, green, friendly mountains that she loved with a +passion so intense that she fairly ached--those and her caves, her +waterfalls, her gypsy band, were to be taken from her. She was to be +banished, exiled. + +She did not weep a great deal, but she seemed suddenly to grow older +and more bent. Listlessly, laboriously she began to pack, and her +husband noticed with a pang that her hands shook wretchedly. + +As for Allie, she told herself that this was the end. She had tried to +make something of herself and had failed. She had crucified herself; +she had bled her body and scourged her soul only to gain ridicule and +disgrace. There was no use of trying further; Gray had been mistaken in +her, and her misery, her shame at the realization was intolerable. +There was no facing him, after this. + +Allie decided to do away with herself. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +Gus Briskow was waiting at the cashier's desk for his bill when the +bustle of incoming guests told him that the morning train had arrived. +Probably it had brought that "gentleman of importance" to whom the +manager had referred. "To hell with people like that manager!" the +Texan muttered. He would take his family back home and chance no more +humiliations like this. And to think that he had allowed that dancing +monkey to escape when he could have shot him as well as not! + +Briskow's chain of thought was broken by a slap on the back that nearly +drove him through the cashier's window; then by a loud, cheery +greeting. The next moment he found himself actually embraced by--Gus +could not believe his eyes--by Calvin Gray! + +The latter's affectionate greeting, his frank delight at seeing the +Texan, caused people in the lobby to center amused attention upon them, +and induced those behind the desk to regard Briskow with new respect. + +"Gus! You precious pirate! My, but I'm glad to see you! Ma and Allie +are well, I know; they couldn't be otherwise here. Great place, isn't +it? Nothing in this country or Europe that compares with it, and I've +sent dozens of my friends here. I came north on business and couldn't +bear to go back without seeing you. Come! Give me a welcome, for I've +traveled across three states to get here." + +The two stood hand in hand. Gray beamed approvingly. Gus, too, was +smiling, but earnestly he said, "I'm right glad to see you, Mr. Gray, +for we're in trouble." + +"Trouble? What sort? Not illness?" + +"No. We're leavin'--been throwed out." + +The younger man's face sobered. "Don't joke!" he cried, sharply. + +"I ain't joking. Feller insulted Allie and she throwed him out of a +window--" + +"Exactly! It's in the morning paper." + +"They don't seem to think it was reefined, so they--throwed _us_ out." + +"Nonsense! Why, it is a corking story, and Allie was splendid--she gave +the championship to Herring, who deserved it, thereby delighting every +golfer on this side of the Atlantic. Jove! that girl is developing and +I'm going to hug her--if there's no window handy! Throw you out? Why, +there's some mistake, surely!" + +Briskow shook his head; in greater detail he made known the facts. When +he had finished his halting recital Calvin Gray's face was flushed with +anger, there was a dark frown between his eyes. + +"We'll see!" he muttered. "Wait here--or go back and tell Ma to +commence unpacking." Then he was gone. + +For perhaps ten minutes Gus waited nervously; he was amazed finally to +see Gray approaching arm in arm with the manager; both were laughing, +the hotel man's face was radiant with good humor. To the departing +guest he said, genially: + +"You are not going to leave us, after all, Mr. Briskow. On the +contrary, we are going to keep you at the Notch as long as you'll stay. +Stupid misunderstanding on my part, and I apologize. I'm going to ask +you to move, but into a better suite--the very best one we have. And +the rate will be the same. Come! What do you say?" When he was met by a +stammered protest, he insisted forcefully: "I sha'n't take 'no' for an +answer, my dear sir; we simply refuse to let you leave. The best we +have is yours, and I guarantee that you will be made comfortable." + +"He offered to extend you the courtesies of the house--make you guests +of the hotel," Gray added, "but I knew you wouldn't accept." + +"Dunno's I want to stay at all," Gus murmured, angrily. "We ain't no +better'n we was a half hour ago." + +"To be sure, but I've made you better known. You are too shy; you +didn't afford my friend here the pleasure of making your acquaintance, +and I had to tell him the sort of person you really are. Serves you +right, Gus, for being so exclusive. Gad! I think I'll give you a few +lessons in democracy. Now then, come along! I'm dying to see Ma." + +As the father trotted down the hall beside his swiftly striding +deliverer, he gasped, "How'd you do it?" + +"Nothing simpler. I merely showed Mr. What's-his-name that he was +making an ass of himself. I've spent a fortune here; know the owners, +too. Nice chap, that manager, but he has no business running a hotel, +and I so informed him. He'll probably annoy you to death with his +attentions. He'll let you play 'shinny' in the halls if you want to. +Now--wait!" The speaker laid a finger upon his lips; his eyes were +dancing. He knocked sharply at the Briskow door and cried, "Baggage +ready, ma'am?" + +There was a stir from within, the door was slowly opened by a bent, +pathetic figure of grief. + +"Ma!" Gray cried, and he held out his arms. + +Perhaps it was his virile personality radiating confidence, security, +or perhaps it was Gus Briskow's shining face that told the story; +whatever the fact, Ma Briskow uttered a thin, broken wail, then walked +into those open arms and laid her head upon Gray's breast. She clung to +him eagerly and the tears she had been blinking so hard to restrain +flowed silently. + +"Oh-n-h! We ain't goin'away!" she said. "We ain't--goin' away!" + +"Of course not. Gus misunderstood. The manager merely wanted you to +move--into a larger, finer suite, and he is positively distressed at +the thought of your leaving. The poor man is dashing about collecting +an armful of roses for you and Allie. He wants to come in person and +apologize." + +There was another sound and Gray looked up to see Allie standing in the +doorway to her bedroom; with one hand she clutched the jamb, the other +was pressed to her bosom; she was staring at him as at an apparition. +The girl was quite colorless, there was a look almost of fright in her +eyes, and when he came toward her she swayed weakly. Her hands, when he +took them, were icy; it shocked him to see how worn, how weary she had +grown. + +It was several hours later. In the parlor of the new suite, a spacious, +sunny room, fragrant with flowers and cheerful with brilliant +cretonnes, Gray and Briskow were talking. Allie and her mother could be +seen in their bedrooms putting away the last of their belongings. +Gray's eyes had been drawn, at frequent intervals, to the younger +woman, for the change in her became the more amazing the more he +observed her, and he was still striving to reconcile this creature to +the picture he had held in his mind. In a few months Allie had become +almost a stranger to him. It was a marked and yet a subtle change that +had come over her; she was anything but a polished young woman, of +course; nevertheless she had been modified, toned down, vastly +improved, and not until her first queer emotion at seeing him had +disappeared was the full extent of that improvement manifest to the +newcomer. He wondered why she had acted so oddly at first; surely she +did not fear him. No, Allie's face at this moment was alight with +supreme joy and satisfaction; she appeared to be quite as happily at +her ease as Ma, who was singing steadily in a thin, rusty voice. + +Gray sent the father away on some pretext, finally; then he called to +Allie: "Come in here and talk to me. I am a guest and I demand +entertainment." He observed with silent approval her carriage as she +entered the room and accepted the chair he offered her. Faint trace of +the nester's daughter here. "I want a good chance to look at you." + +Allie colored faintly. "I guess I'm not much to look at." + +"Hm-m! You don't in the least resemble that girl I found hoeing in the +garden. You are terribly thin." + +"Spinach!" said Allie. + +"Dieting, eh?" + +"Yes. Spinach and water and a rubber suit. Sometimes I have a party and +eat a whole soda cracker." + +"It isn't too high a price to pay for beauty--beauty, 'the fading +rainbow's pride.' We men should thank Heaven for women's courage in +pursuing it. It is all that makes this world an attractive dwelling +place for nice people." + +"Sometimes I think it's kind of wicked to spend so much time and money +that way, but--I guess it's all right. I want to look as good as other +people." + +"I'm in a mood for quotations. 'Is beauty vain because it will fade? +Then are earth's green robe and heaven's light vain.' Pride, even +vanity, is less of a vice than slovenliness, my dear. Now then, do you +like Mrs. Ring?" + +Allie nodded. "I like her, but--I hate her. She makes me feel awful mad +because she can't understand that I ain't--I am not mad at her, but at +myself. I don't hardly know how to explain it. If I was her I'd hate +me, like I do." + +"Would you like to have her remain?" + +"Oh, I would! She knows everything, and she makes me learn. But she +won't stay. I just found out that she's been quitting every few weeks, +and Pa's been raising her wages. No, the disgrace, and our being thrown +out--" + +"My dear girl, let me assure you, once for all, there is no suggestion +of disgrace about this affair. You behaved with spirit, and those who +have heard about it admire you. I have talked with a number of them, +and I know. I had a talk with Mrs. Ring also, and she will remain if +you wish her to do so." + +"You're a--a good man, ain't--" + +"Aren't!" + +"--aren't you, Mr. Gray? You fix everything." + +"Not a good, but a convenient man. My specialty is making things easier +for my friends." + +"Are these other folks, these rich ones around the hotel, like you?" + +"Oh, much nicer than I!" Gray laughed. "You must meet some of them." + +Allie's face whitened at this suggestion. "Please, sir--I'm scared!" + +"Very well. As you wish. Tell me, what are you going to do with me this +afternoon?" + +"I dunno!" Allie looked blank. "I don't do anything but study. I s'pose +I got to study." + +"Nothing of the sort. You have circles under your eyes now from +overwork, and this is your vacation. I am a visitor, a restless +visitor; I abhor being asked to make myself at home, and I never do. I +demand amusement. Do you know what I'd like to do best of all?" Allie +did not know. "I'd like to sit here and smoke while you show me all +your pretty dresses. Ah! Those dark eyes brighten. You're dying to show +them to me, aren't you?" + +"_Would_ you? Honest?" + +"Cross my heart. But remember, I have a color sense and I'm not easily +pleased. I'll probably condemn some of them." + +Allie breathed deeply. "Oh, Gee!" she said. + +"Run along and try them on, then I'll borrow a pair of puttees and +we'll go for a ride." + +For the next two hours Allegheny Briskow was in heaven. Never had she +dreamed of anything like this. To have Calvin Gray alone, all to +herself--Ma, as usual, had disappeared--and to discuss with him +exciting questions of dress and good taste that she could not discuss +with her own people; to meet his occasional hearty approval--well, it +was enough to make a girl drunk with happiness. Gowns that he liked +became precious; she hated those that he condemned. Her fingers grew +clumsy with haste, her cheeks burned. He said she wore her clothes +well, that she carried herself well. He approved of her--liked her! God +above! And to think that she had contemplated suicide! Of course she +was pitifully ignorant as yet, and she had not even learned to talk as +he talked, but there were books. She would study. Oh, the fury with +which she would apply herself after this! She would beat the contents +of those books into her head with her fists, if necessary; she would +show him how fast she could learn; she would astonish him. Her heart +sang at the thought that she was rich--richer than he. That would +count, too, for men liked money. + +"Where is Ma?" Gray inquired, when the last gown had been paraded and +when Allie appeared in her riding suit. + +"Out with the fairies, I suppose. She won't tell Pa or me where she +goes or what she does--says it's all foolishness." + +"Perhaps she will tell me, for I believe in fairies," Gray said, +seriously. + +Allie smiled at him. "I reckon she will. Folks tell you 'most anything +you want them to, I reckon." + +This was the busiest hour of the afternoon. Gray had purposely ordered +the horses sent around at a time when he knew that the veranda, the +walks, and the tennis courts would be filled, for ever since his +interview with the hotel manager a plan had been shaping in his mind +and already he had dropped a few words, a hint or two here and there, +that were calculated to stimulate interest in Allie Briskow. + +It gratified his craving for the theatric now to lead the girl out +before so many curious eyes. For himself, he knew that he commanded +attention, and as he noted the lines of this young Juno he could find +nothing in her that needed betterment. Allie's suit was the latest, +smartest thing in riding habits, and it set off her magnificent figure +as nothing else could. Systematic exercise and hard work, like the +final touch of a skilled sculptor, had given it beauty and refinement; +harmony and proportion had destroyed the impression of unusual size. +How deep was her bosom, how smooth and flowing were her curves, how +superbly tall she was! As a thing of flesh and blood, she made these +other women look like females of an insignificant race. + +It thrilled him pleasantly to observe the confidence with which she +swung herself into the saddle and the instant mastery she exercised +over her restless mount. No timidity there, no need of assistance; no +absurd, hampering skirts and artificial posture, either, but a seat +astride as befits anyone who chooses to honor the king of four-footed +creatures. + +Under cover, Gray noted Allie's effect upon her attentive audience, and +he smiled. If only he could spend a few days here he would make her a +woman to be sought after by some of the best people. She refused to +meet them, eh? Well, that would be as it was to be. + +"We've been having supper in our rooms lately," she told him, when they +returned at dark. "You're going to eat with us, ain--aren't you?" + +"I am, to be sure. But not in your rooms," he declared. + +"I'd rather--" + +"You'd rather do exactly what would please me, now wouldn't you?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then run along and put on that dinner dress that I liked best. And +tell Ma to look her prettiest, too. We'll not spoil this day." + +It was seven-thirty when Gray, in evening clothes, appeared at the +Briskow suite. Allie told herself there had never been a man so +handsome, so distinguished, so Godlike as he. God, she now felt sure, +must wear full dress. + +Gus Briskow beamed as the visitor smiled approvingly at his daughter. +"She is purty, ain't she? Don't look much like the girl I sent to +Dallas for fixin's." + +"Allie is more then pretty, she's regal. 'Such another peerless queen +only could her mirror show.' But--her head is turned already, Gus. +Don't spoil her." The speaker stood with arms folded and head lowered +while he studied the girl impersonally. Allie wore an expensive black +lace dress, sleeveless and sufficiently low of neck to display her +charms. "Plain! A little too somber," Gray declared. "She can afford +colors, ornaments. Jove! I'd like some time to see her in something +Oriental, something barbaric. The next time I'm in New York I'll select +a gown--" + +Ma Briskow entered at the moment, greatly flustered and extremely +self-conscious, and here, certainly, was no lack of ornamentation or of +color. Ma wore all her jewelry, and her dress was an elaborate creation +of brilliant jade green, from one shoulder of which depended a filmy +streamer of green chiffon. In her desire to gild the lily she had +knotted a Roman scarf about her waist--a scarf of many colors, of red, +of yellow, of purple, of blue, of orange--a very spectrum of vivid +stripes, and it utterly ruined her. It lent her an air of extreme +superfluity; it was as if she had put on everything except the +bedspread. + +"You said to look my nicest," she bubbled, "so I done the best I could." + +"You _are_ lovely, both of you, but--this is my party, isn't it? I can +do anything I please?" Gray looked from one to the other in eager +inquiry. "Then let me fix you my way. Ma Briskow, your face is too +sweet, too gentle, to be spoiled. Your charm is in your simplicity. +Here, I have it!" + +With swift impetuosity he untied the scarf and whipped it from Ma's +waist. "Watch me now and you'll see I'm right." With his penknife he +cut the threads that held the chiffon streamer in place and removed it. +"_Voila_! Even so little, and we see an adorable motherly person, +richly but unostentatiously gowned. Don't you agree with me?" + +Without pausing for an answer, he wheeled upon the daughter and drew +her into the range of a pier glass. "Now close your eyes and keep them +closed." Around Allie's hips he flung the scarf, drew it snug and +smooth, then knotted it. Next he snatched the length of chiffon and +bound it about her head. His touch was deft and certain; a moment and +it had been fashioned to suit him. Then he stood back and eyed the +_tout ensemble._ + +"Gorgeous!" he cried, genuinely enthusiastic. "That was the touch. I +defy any costumer to better it. Open your eyes, oh, gypsy princess! And +what do you see?" + +"It--it sort of makes a difference, doesn't it?" Allie said. "'A +_difference'!_" Gray flung aloft his hands in exaggerated despair. +"Heaven help me! I am inspired; I have a flash of genius, a divine +impulse, and with a magic pass I work a miracle. I transform you from +something somber, dark, morose, into a creature of life, of passion, of +allurement." He groaned. "And you stand there like a stalagmite. Why, +girl, _look_ at yourself!" + +"Darned if she don't look like a pitcher I seen som'er's--on an +almanac," Gus declared. + +"Aha! A man with a soul! A human being who sees beauty where I see it. +An artist with my fire!" Gray burst into infectious laughter, and the +others joined him. + +This proved to be an evening when people really did turn their heads as +the Briskows were shown to their table, but for once Allie suffered no +embarrassment, for she felt sure they were looking at Calvin Gray, and +in the shining glory of his presence she knew that she and her parents +were invisible. + +It was the sort of situation in which Gray appeared to best advantage, +so he talked incessantly during the meal, and in a key that kept his +companions unconscious of their surroundings. On their way out they +passed the entrance to the ballroom and paused to look in. The beat of +the music swayed Allie unconsciously; then, before she knew it, Gray's +arm was around her waist and he was guiding her out upon the floor. + +"Oh, n-no!" she gasped. She stumbled, but he drew her closer, saying: + +"I'm proud of you, and I want you to show these people that you dance +even better than you ride." + +Allie rose to the challenge. + +About midnight Calvin Gray strolled outdoors for a breath of fresh air +before retiring. He glowed with the consciousness of a worthy deed well +done. He had come to the Notch expecting to spend one night, but events +of the last few hours had induced him to change his plans, and he now +made up his mind to stay several days. He was burning to be back in the +oil fields, to be sure; every hour away from them was an hour wasted, +and although he told himself it was his feud that drew him, he knew +better. As a matter of fact, when he thought of Texas it was of Wichita +Falls, and when he visualized the latter place it was to picture a +cottage with the paint off or a small office with the sign, "Tom and +Bob Parker, Real Estate and Insurance." + +He had been eagerly, selfishly, counting the hours until his return, +but here, it seemed, was work to be done, a task that he alone could +accomplish, and his decision to remain had been made final when Allie +Briskow told him with tremulous earnestness that he had saved her +life--when she confessed that she had intended to kill herself, and why. + +Naturally Gray had put no faith in that wild declaration, nevertheless +it was plain that the girl--that all three Briskows--needed a friend to +guide them. He sighed with resignation, but reflected that, inasmuch as +he had put his hand to the plow, he must turn the furrow. After all, he +could well afford to spare a week to put that girl on the road to +happiness. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +From the day of their first meeting, Henry Nelson and Calvin Gray had +clashed. No two people could be more different in disposition and +temper, hence it was only natural that every characteristic, every +action of the one should have aroused the other's antagonism. Nelson +was a cool, selfish, calculating plodder with little imagination and +less originality; he thought in grooves. His was a splendid type of +mind for a banker. He had but one weak point--_viz_., a villainous +temper, a capacity for blind, vindictive rage--a weakness, truly, for a +man who dealt in money--but a weakness that lent him a certain humanity +and without which he would have been altogether too mechanical, too +colorless, too efficient. Nature seldom errs by making supermen. A drab +man, in many ways, Nelson was extraordinary mainly in this, that his +mind followed straight, obvious channels, and that never, except under +the urge of extreme passion, did he depart from the strictly logical +line of action. In this, of course, he was superior to the average +person, who too frequently undertakes the unusual. Calvin Gray's +ebullience, his dash, his magnificence of demeanor, could be nothing +less than an affront to such a man; Nelson could see in him only a +pompous braggart, an empty, arrogant strutter. + +Age and easy success had not improved the banker's apoplectic turn of +mind, hence Gray's defiant declaration of war, his impudent assurance +that the recent misfortunes to the house of Nelson were the direct +results of his own deliberate efforts, had proven almost unendurable. +In the first place, Nelson could not imagine a man making such a +declaration; it was new to his entire experience and contrary to his +code. It was unconservative, therefore it staggered him. It was, in +fact, a phenomenon so unique as to leave him numb. He told himself that +it must have been the act of a madman or a fool. Under no circumstances +could he conceive of himself warning an enemy of his intentions; on the +contrary, when he undertook to crush a rival he went about it slyly, +secretly, in the only regular and proper way. As a matter of fact, it +had come as a disagreeable surprise to learn that his former comrade at +arms cherished any resentment whatever toward him, for he had thought +his tracks were well covered. + +What left the banker actually gasping, however, that which he came back +to with unfailing astonishment, was Gray's effrontery in coming to +Wichita Falls to boast of his accomplishments. That bespoke such +contempt, such supreme self-confidence in his ability to wreak further +damage, that Nelson wanted to shout aloud his rage and his defiance. + +Following the departure of his two callers on that day of the meeting +in the bank, Nelson closed his desk and went home. He could work no +more. For several days thereafter he was an unpleasant person to do +business with. + +On mature consideration, what amazed him as much as anything else was +the fact that Gray had made good in so short a time and in such a big +way. Evidently, however, it was only another story of a lucky break and +an overnight fortune--a common occurrence these days. But it was doubly +unfortunate under the circumstances, for already Nelson was carrying a +load equal to his strength, and he told himself that he could not +afford to be distracted, even temporarily, by the irresponsible actions +of a maniac. One never could tell what a madman would do. And Gray had +confessed himself a madman--a fanatic of the most dangerous type. There +was but one course of action open--viz., to eliminate him, destroy him +without delay. That was no easy task, even in these lawless times, but +the stakes were too high to permit of half measures. There must be a +way. + +One would have to be careful, of course, not to put oneself too much in +the power of unscrupulous people, and, alas! the world was full of +unscrupulous people. It was a pity that people could be so unscrupulous +as to take advantage of a bargain made in good faith. That was +blackmail. However, the prestige of the Nelson name was great, the +power of its money was potent, and Henry believed that he could protect +himself from eventualities. After cautious deliberation he sent word to +one of his men in the Ranger field that he wished to see him. + +The man came promptly, and when he left Henry Nelson's house after a +conference he carried with him a perfectly clear idea why he had been +sent for. This despite the fact that he had not been told in so many +words. He knew, for instance, that a certain Calvin Gray had become a +menace to his employers, so dangerous that it was worth to them a +substantial fortune to be rid of him, and that while Henry Nelson could +under no circumstances countenance anything illegal, anything savoring +of violence, nevertheless if some accident should befall Gray, if some +act of God should put an end to him, there would be no disposition on +Henry's part to question the divine origin of that calamity. +Furthermore, the speaker had made it plain that if Providence did take +a hand in some such mysterious manner, he would then be in a position +amply to reward his employee for many acts of loyalty that had +apparently passed unrecognized. For instance, profitable deals were +forever coming up, new acreage was constantly being acquired, and it +would be easy to carry a third party for an interest which was bound to +make that third party rich. + +All this was expressed with admirable vagueness, but the man understood. + +So much accomplished, Nelson went to Dallas and there undertook to +learn something about the size of Calvin Gray's profits, who was behind +him and the extent of their backing, and what his prospects were. He +followed every avenue of information; he even went so far as to hire an +investigator and send him north to look up Gray's record and to follow +his tracks as far back as possible. Nelson was reconnoitering behind +the enemy's lines and testing the strength of his position. + +When he returned home Gray was gone, whither he could not learn. As the +days passed without further developments, Nelson began to believe that +he had had a bad dream and that Gray had merely been talking to hear +his own voice. He devoutly hoped that such would prove to be the case. + +A time came, however, when his apprehensions were roused afresh, and it +was Barbara Parker who rekindled them. She had come to the bank with an +excellent proposition and was doing her best to sell it; in the course +of her conversation she referred to Gray in a manner that gave Nelson +cause for thought. + +"I've looked this lease over," "Bob" was saying, "and I've seen the +books. It has been producing a hundred and fifty barrels a day +steadily. Production like that is cheap at a thousand dollars a barrel. +It is worth a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, Henry." + +"Why is it offered for seventy-five?" + +"Bob" shrugged. "How did a 'boll weevil' like this Jackson ever make +even a hundred-and-fifty-barrel well, in the first place? Where did he +get the money to drill? He is sick of the game, I suppose, and would be +satisfied to get his money back with a reasonable profit. It is a find, +really." + +"Looks so, for a fact. How did you get on to it, 'Bob'?" + +"Purely by chance. Through a man named Mallow, a 'scientist' of some +sort with a magic tester." The girl laughed. + +"Don't know him." + +"Mallow is as queer as the rest of his kind, and I put no faith in his +story until I investigated. But the well is there and doing a hundred +and fifty barrels as regular as clockwork." + +"You'll have no trouble in selling it." + +"Then you're not interested?" + +"Interested? Yes, indeed." Nelson nodded. "I'm quite excited, as a +matter of fact, but--I can't handle it at this particular time." + +"Frankly, I'm glad you can't," Barbara told him, "for now I can sell it +to Mr. Gray." + +"Gray?" Henry looked up quickly. "If you wanted it for him, why did you +bring it to me?" + +"Because Mr. Mallow insisted. He felt sure you'd jump at it. Besides, +Mr. Gray is away and prompt action is necessary. I'll wire him at once +and ask him to accept my judgment." + +"Will he do so?" + +The girl colored faintly at the tone of this inquiry. "Perhaps. I think +he believes in me, and--that's more than you do. It's mighty flattering +to a girl to have a man like Mr. Gray believe in her. Why, I am +practically his agent! He buys and sells through me whenever he can." + +"He's buying and selling, is he? He said something about entering this +field in a big way--" + +"He's in." "Bob's" eyes were sparkling. "Oh, things are looking up for +dad and me. Mr. Gray is a real miracle man, isn't he?" When this +question evoked no response, the girl inquired, curiously, "Tell me, +are you and he such good friends as he says you are?" + +"Does he say we are good friends?" + +"Um-m--well, he speaks admiringly of you, and if people admire me I +_love_ them. He thinks you are a remarkably capable person. 'A +determined fighter,' I think he called you. That should be high praise, +coming from a fellow officer. He probably outlined his plans to you." + +"He did." Nelson spoke dryly. + +"I assumed that he was relying on your judgment and taking your tips." + +"Why? How so?" + +"Because he has bought so much land alongside of yours." + +"Where?" + +Barbara was surprised. "I--why, I supposed you knew!" After a moment of +hesitation she said: "I think I'd better keep my mouth closed. Just the +same, he couldn't have done better than to follow your lead. That is +the first compliment I ever paid you, Henry." + +"I've paid you enough. And I do believe in you, 'Bob,' but I'm not the +flattering kind. He's a great ladies' man. I wonder if he is going to +make me jealous." + +"You? Jealous? Coming from Wichita's most emotionless banker, from the +cold county Croesus, that speech is almost a--a declaration." Miss +Parker laughed frankly. "Why, Henry! My haughty little nose is turning +up--I can feel it. But, alas! it proves your insincerity. If you had +faith in my judgment you'd pick up this snap." + +With some hesitation the man said: "We're in deep, 'Bob.' Awfully deep! +And things haven't gone as well as they should, lately. It's temporary, +of course, but it would require an extraordinary effort at this time to +take on anything new. That's the worst of this oil game, it takes so +much money to protect your holdings. It doesn't pay to prospect land +for the benefit of your neighbor; the risks are too great. Gray has +been pretty attentive to you, hasn't he?" + +"That's a part of the man; he is attentive to everybody. I have +received more candy and flowers and delightful little surprises than in +all my short, neglected life." + +"I didn't know you liked candy." + +"I don't. But I adore getting it. The thought counts. I don't care much +for canaries, either--I have such bad luck with them--but he sent me +the dearest thing from New York. A tiny mechanical bird with actual +feathers. And it sings! It is a really, truly yellow canary in a +beautiful gold cage, and when you press a spring it perks its head, +opens its beak, flirts its tail, and utters the most angelic song. It +must have cost a fortune. Couldn't you _love_ a man who would think of +a present like that?" + +"Hm-m! Could _you_?" + +"Oh, I'm joking, of course," "Bob" said, seriously. "We are merely +business associates, Mr. Gray and I, but he has the faculty of taking +his personality into his business, and that's why I know he is bound to +make a great success." + +"Some day," Nelson said, with an effort at lightness, "when we have +finished with this infernal oil excitement and the fever has subsided, +perhaps I'll have a chance to--well, to play ladies' man. It won't last +long--" + +"I'm sure it won't," laughed the girl. "You'd never make a go of it, +Henry." + +"I mean this boom won't last. These fools think it will, but it won't. +While it does last, we busy men have no time for anything else, no +chance to think of anything, no room in our minds--" The speaker stared +gloomily into space. He shook his head. "When a fellow is worried about +important matters, he neglects the little things." + +"To me that is the tragedy of this oil excitement. It devours +everything fine in us. I wonder if the 'little things' of life aren't, +after all, the most important. Mind you, I'm not hinting--I don't want +your attentions--I wouldn't have time for them, anyhow, for I'm just as +feverish as anybody else. But in the midst of all these new concerns, +these sudden millions, this overnight success, our ambitious schemes, +we are forgetting the things that really count. Gentleness, courtesy, +love, home, children: they're pretty big, Henry. Candy and roses and +yellow canaries, too. But "--the speaker rose, briskly--"I didn't come +here to talk about them; I came here to sell you an oil well. Sorry you +can't take it." + +When she had gone Nelson sat in a frowning study for some time. So, it +was not all a bad dream. What could be Gray's object in buying acreage +adjoining his? Was it faith in his, Nelson's, judgment, a desire to +ride to success on the tail of his enemy's kite, or did it mean a war +of offsets, drilling operations the instant a well came in? More likely +the latter, if the maniac really meant what he had said. That promised +to be an expensive and a hazardous undertaking on Gray's part; that was +playing the game on a scale too big for the fellow's limited resources, +and yet--it might be well to study the maps. Yes, and it was like +Gray's effrontery to pay deliberate court to "Bob" Parker, knowing his +rival's feelings toward the girl. Another insult! The upstart certainly +possessed an uncanny dexterity in pricking armor joints. But what if +Gray were in earnest? "Bob" had become a wonderfully desirable +creature, she was the most attractive girl in Wichita Falls-- + +It was a thought that had not previously presented itself to Henry +Wilson, and it disturbed him now. He was glad, indeed, that he had sent +to Ranger for that field man. + +In and around the office of McWade & Stoner these were busy days, what +with a couple of new wildcat promotions and a well going down on +semiproven ground--that lease which cornered into the Nelson holdings, +and to which Stoner had called attention. It had been easy to sell +stock in the latter enterprise, and now the deeper went the hole, the +higher rose the hopes of the promoters. Stoner himself was directing +operations, and he had named the well "Avenger Number One." + +To-day he and his partner had been listening to Mallow, who concluded +an earnest discourse with these words: + +"Nelson and her are pardners in one deal and he's stuck on her. If +anybody can put it over, she's the one." + +"If he buys that well it'll be the biggest laugh this town ever had," +McWade declared. + +"Buy it? A hundred and fifty barrels in the heart of settled production +for seventy-five thousand? I bet he'll buy it." + +"Think the boss will stand for that kind of a deal?" + +"Why not? They can't hang it on him, and Heaven knows I'm honest." + +"He said 'nothing crooked'--" + +Mallow snorted. "Say, I bet you believe in Santa Claus! Gray's a great +man, and what makes him great is that he does his own crooked work." + +Stoner was inclined to agree with Mallow's measure of their associate. +"That's how I got him figgered. His honesty talk didn't go far with me, +and I don't believe he'll kick at anything. He's willing to pay any +price to break this banker, but you can't bankrupt a feller unless you +rip his coin loose; you can't _ask_ him to please loosen. If we make a +well of the Avenger we'll force him to shoot maybe a hundred thousand +right away, and that may cramp him for a while; but suppose he makes +the turn and hits it like we do? We've made him that much stronger, +haven't we? Gray plans to keep him spending faster than he can get it +in, and that's all right--if it works, but if Mallow can bilk him for +seventy-five thousand at one fell swipe--Well, I'll bet my best gold +tooth that the boss will stand the shock like a man." + +"I think you've both got Gray all wrong," said McWade. "He's too smart +to be crooked." + +This was a statement so absurd that Mallow proceeded to riddle it. It +was, upon its face, a contradiction, for none but smart men could be +crooked, and the laws of logic proved the converse to be equally true. + +Stoner sat in frowning silence while the argument raged, but he broke +in finally: "I've always wanted to pull a real salting job, just to +show how easy it is to gyp the cagy ones--not an oil-can job like this, +but something big. This looks like the piscological moment." + +"Lay off, I tell you!" McWade cried. "We're a legitimate firm,' solid +as Gibraltar and safe as a church.' That's our motto, and we've got to +live up to it. I came into Wichita on the roof of a Pullman; I'm going +out in a drawing-room. Me and sin are strangers." + +"Nothing sinful about my idea, Mac. One fall or two won't break Nelson; +we've got to spill him hard. If we can pick up a few pennies ourselves +in the process, why, that's legitimate. The dealer is entitled to his +percentage, ain't he? Now listen. Everybody's getting set for a big +play over in Arkansas, as you know--salting away cheap acreage and +waiting for some of the wildcats to come in. Well, last year I had a +tool dresser from up there; nice boy, but he got pneumonia and it +turned into the 'con,' so I took him home. He's back on his farm now, +coughing his life away and doing a little bootleggin' to keep body and +cough together. He's got a big place, but it's all run down and so poor +you couldn't raise a dust on it with a bellows. It would be a Christian +act to help him sell that goat pasture for enough to go to some nice +warm country where he'd get well and they couldn't extradite him." + +"Of course, if you've got a scheme that is perfectly safe," McWade +ventured, charitably, "and our bit was worth it--" + +"I been thinking we might help the boy sell that farm to Nelson." + +"How?" + +Mallow, too, was curious. "Nelson's lungs are healthy; he wouldn't +cough a nickel unless the place had oil on it." + +"I meant to tell you it's got oil on it. Best indications I ever saw. +There's a drinking well, only the water ain't fit to drink till you +skim off the 'rainbow.' Then there's a wonderful seepage into the +creek. You can see the oil oozing out from under the bank, in one +place. Certainly is pretty." + +Stoner's hearers were intent; they exchanged puzzled glances. + +Mallow was the first to speak. "Come on. What's the joker? I ain't +saying you'd murder the guy for that farm, but if it's as good as that +he'd of died of the plague or something, and left it to you long before +this." + +"In a way, I'm getting ahead of my story," Stoner continued, +imperturbably. "The oil ain't actually visible, but it will be if, +when, and as, Henry Nelson gets ready to buy it." + +"Easy enough to pour oil into a water well, I suppose, but that +wouldn't fool a child. As for salting _running_ water, a creek--show +me." + +"There's a lot for you to learn in this business, Mallow. The point is, +can we lay Nelson against a bunch of acreage like that?" + +"You could lay _me_ against it if it looks like you say it does," +McWade declared. + +"This bootlegger, being half dead and non compost mentis, would help +put it over with a man like Nelson; he'd set him in a draught while he +was signing the option. I'll guarantee the seepage to last for a month, +even if he has the well bailed out every day, and the creek will carry +oil for half a mile." + +"Would your one-lunged friend know how to play in?" + +"_Would_ he? It was his idea, and all that kept us off of it last year +was the fact that the oil would have to be hauled about thirty miles, +and we didn't have the price between us to hire a truck." + +For some time the trio discussed the various angles of Stoner's +proposition, endeavoring if possible to devise some natural way of +intriguing the interest of Henry Nelson. On this score McWade had fewer +apprehensions than did his companions, his contention being that it +mattered not how the matter was brought to the banker's attention so +long as the property would stand investigation. Nelson was bound to be +suspicious, anyhow, and a sale depended entirely upon the character of +the oil showing. McWade's coolness toward the enterprise, it +transpired, was occasioned not by a loftier sense of rectitude than his +associates displayed, but by lingering doubts as to the profits +involved. + +Not until Brick declared that his tubercular friend would accede to any +arrangement he saw fit to make did the junior partner fall in with the +proposal. "If it's a fair, square deal all around, I'm for it," the +latter finally agreed. "But we can't afford to have any guy squawking +that we did him up--especially if he's only got one lung to holler +with. We're a legitimate firm, and we've got to treat our clients +right. I think a fifty-fifty split would be reasonable." + +Stoner, too, thought that would be about right, and so it was left. + +Mallow was highly enthusiastic. "This will be a great surprise to +Gray," he said, with animation. "It's mighty lucky he's got a gang like +us to help him." + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +To learn that her mountain retreat had been invaded and that she had +been spied upon filled Ma Briskow with dismay, but when Allie found +fault with her behavior the elder woman burned with resentment. + +"We're queer enough," the girl said, "without you cutting up crazy and +making folks talk. If you want to dance, for goodness' sake hire +somebody to lear--to teach you, same as I did." + +Mrs. Briskow had silently endured her daughter's criticism up to this +point, but now her lips tightened and there was a defiant tilt to her +head. + +"Who says I want to dance?" she demanded. "I can dance good enough." + +"What was you up to the other day? That Delamater man said you was +acting plumb nutty." + +"I wasn't doin' anything." + +"Where do you go every day, Ma? You stay around nice and quiet till +Miz' Ring or I look the other way, then--you're gone." + +"I kinda--visit around." + +"Who d'you visit with? You don't know anybody. Nobody ever speaks to +us. You ain't in earnest about those fairies and things, are you?" + +"It ain't anybody's business where I go or what I do," Ma declared, in +sullen exasperation. "I ain't bothering anybody, am I?" + +"Don't say 'ain't,' say 'isn't.'" + +For once in her patient life the mother flamed into open rebellion. +"Don't 'don't' me!" she cried. "You're gettin' the 'don't' habit off +Miz' Ring an' nothin' I say or do is right any more. You mind your own +'isn'ts' an' I'll handle my 'ain'ts.' I got places where I go an' +things I do an' I don't bother nobody. I guess we got enough money so I +can do things I want to, as long as I don't bother nobody." + +"Why don't you take Pa along? He'd go, then people--" + +"Mind your own business!" the old woman snapped. She flounced out of +the room, leaving Allie amazed and indignant at this burst of temper. + +That day Ma Briskow abandoned her mountain fastness. She took her +faithful retainers with her and led them farther up the ravine to a +retreat that was truly inaccessible. She moved them, bag and baggage. +Of course, there was a scene; the children cried, the women wailed, the +men wept. But she told them that traitors had betrayed their hiding +place to the dastardly Duke of Dallas, and any moment might bring his +cutthroat crew upon them. Some of the younger bloods were for remaining +and selling their lives dearly, but Ma would not hear to it. + +It was quite an undertaking to move a whole nomad tribe, for there were +all the household belongings, the cattle, the sheep, the goats, the +milk-white Arabian steeds, the butter and eggs and homemade preserves, +and all the paraphernalia of a warlike people. It is surprising how +stuff accumulates in a mountain fastness. But she managed the retreat +with conspicuous ability. Ma led the long caravan into the bed of a +running stream, so that there would remain not a single footprint to +guide pursuers, then she sat in her saddle and gazed back at the silent +camping place. + +Trap her, eh? Come upon her unprepared, would they? Ha! ha! She laughed +scornfully and tossed her head of midnight hair as she pictured the +duke's rage at finding he had been foiled again, and by a mere slip of +a girl! + +This was a good game and exciting, too. Fetch Pa Briskow along, indeed! +Why, these wild mountain folk would kill him; in their present mood +they would rend a stranger hip from thigh. If they dreamed, for +instance, that she, their queen, was married-- + +Here was a new thought, and Ma's imagination leaped at it. If these +passionate people suspected that she had contracted a secret marriage +with the--the Earl of Briskow, their jealousy would know no bounds. +They would probably slay Pa. Ma shuddered at the horrid vision of what +would happen to Pa. This was truly thrilling. + +Later on in the morning Mrs. Briskow discovered that she possessed +another amazing accomplishment--_viz_., the ability to walk on a +ceiling, upside down, like a fly. It was extremely amusing, for it +enabled a person to see right into everything. Pa and Allie looked very +funny from above. + +The next day, when she stealthily slipped out of her French window, she +found Calvin Gray idly rocking on the veranda. He welcomed her +appearance and pretended not to see her embarrassment at the meeting; +he was glad of this chance for a visit with her alone. Perhaps she was +going for a walk and would take him along? + +Ma was annoyed and suspicious. She liked Gray, but--she was as wary as +a trout and she refused to be baited. She would allow him to walk with +her--but lead him to the retreat? Well, hardly. + +The man was piqued, for suspicion irked him. It was a tribute to his +patience and to his knack of inspiring confidence that Ma finally told +him about Allie's criticism and her resentment thereat. + +"I got my own way of enjoyin' myself, an' I don't care what people +think," she declared, with some heat. + +"Quite right. It's none of their darned business, Ma." + +"She thinks I'm kind of crazy an'--I guess I am. But it comes from +livin' so long in the heat an' the drought an' allus wantin' things I +couldn't have--allus bein' sort of thirsty in the head. When you want +things all your life an' never have 'em, you get so you _play_ you've +got 'em." + +The man nodded. "You had a hard time. Your life was starved. I'm so +glad the money came in time." + +"You see, I never had time to play, or a good place to play in, even +when I was a little girl. But this is like--like books I've read." + +"Are these mountains what you thought they would be?" + +"Oh, they're better!" Ma breathed. "It's too bad Allie's got to spoil +ever'thing." + +"I shall speak to her. We won't let her spoil anything. Now tell me how +you play." + +But Ma flushed faintly, and for some time longer she refused her +confidence. It didn't matter; it was all an old woman's foolishness; +nobody would understand. Gray was not insistent; nevertheless, before +long they were on their way toward the glen. + +It was a glorious morning, the forest was beautiful, and as the two +strolled through it Ma's companion told her many things about trees and +flowers and birds and bees that she had never dreamed of. Now Gray's +natural history was shockingly inaccurate, nevertheless it was +interesting, and it was told in a manner both whimsical and sprightly. +He made up outrageous stories, and he took no shame in seriously +recounting experiences of his own that Ma knew were wholly imaginary. +She told him, finally: + +"Sakes alive! You're as crazy as I am." + +This he denied with spirit. Forests were enchanted places, and trolls +dwelt in the mountains. There was no question about that; most people +never took time to see them, that was all. Now as for him, he had +actually beheld naiads and dryads, nixies and pixies, at play--at least +he had practically been upon the point of seeing them. Ma, herself, +must have come across places they had just left, but probably she had +lacked the patience to await their return or the faith to woo them into +being. There were little woods people, too, no bigger than your thumb, +whose drinking goblets were acorn cups, and whose plates were shiny +leaves. He showed her how to set a fairy tablecloth with her +handkerchief and with toadstools for seats. + +In a reckless burst of confidence Ma told him how it felt to walk +upside down, like a fly, and to go bounding through the woods like a +thistledown. Gray had never tried it, but he was interested. + +Then, finally, alas! the inconsistency of woman! she told him all about +her hidden band of mountaineers. + +Now this was something he _could_ understand. This was more his speed. +He insisted upon making the personal acquaintance of those bold +followers of hers and upon hearing the whole sad story of the Princess +Pensacola. The history of her struggle against the wicked Duke of +Dallas moved him; he wove new details of his own into it, and before Ma +knew it he was actually playing the part of the duke. + +The duke, it appeared, was a hard and haughty man, but at heart he was +not all bad; when he had listened to the story of his victim's wrongs +and more fully appreciated the courage, the devotion of her doughty +followers, he was touched. For her sake, and theirs, he proposed a +truce to this ruinous struggle. What kind of a truce? Well, he refused +entirely to renounce his claim to the throne, but--they might share it. +He was a handsome man and no wickeder than the general run of dukes; he +would make a becoming husband to the beauteous princess, and if she set +her mind to it she could probably make a better person of him. Thus +would the warring factions be united, thus would the blessings of peace +descend-- + +But the princess raised her slim, jeweled hand, and spoke thus: "Too +late, Your Honor! I been married to His Royal Highness the Earl of +Briskow, and it serves you right the way you done both of us." + +The duke fell into a great rage at this. He refused to believe it, and +threatened to annul the marriage. + +"Oh, you can't do that," tittered the princess. "We was married by the +Royal Justice of the Peace and--we got two children." + +Here _was_ a blow! The duke was crushed, until a happy thought came to +him. If cruel fate prevented him from claiming the Princess Pensacola +for a bride he would take her for a mother. He had always wanted a +mother, anyhow; lack of maternal care it was that accounted for his +wildness--it was enough to ruin any duke--and mothers were much nicer +than wives. They were much harder to get, also. + +"Lord! I wish you meant it!" Ma exclaimed, in a matter-of-fact tone. "I +wish Allie was a real princess. Mebbe--" + +Gray broke in with a laugh. "There! You've spoiled the play. The duke +has fled." + +Mrs. Briskow's wrinkled face beamed. "Think of a gre't big man like you +playin' 'pretend' with a foolish old woman like me! I thought you had +more sense." + +"I live in my own land of 'pretend,' just as you do. Why, I have a real +princess of my own." + +"Honest?" + +Gray nodded. "The Princess of Wichita Falls. Would you like to hear +about her? Well, she's small and dainty, as princesses should be, and +her eyes are like bluebells, Ma. They are brave, honest eyes that can +laugh or cry--the sort of eyes that make a man's head swim when he +looks into them too long. She carries herself like a great lady, and +she's very cool and business--I mean princess-like, to men. But in +reality she's just an adorable feminine creature who wants to be loved. +When she laughs two deep dimples come into her cheeks--marks of royal +favor. Some people may consider her too stern, too matter-of-fact, but +she isn't; in her boudoir there is scent and sachet and frilly, ribbony +things that nobody ever sees. And flowers from me. She loves roses best +of all and she says she buries her face in them. I send her roses, +mostly, so they can kiss her cheeks for me. A tiny yellow love bird in +a tiny yellow cage sings her awake every morning. I taught it the song +it warbles, but--she'll never understand what the little bird is trying +to say." + +Ma Briskow had listened with rapt attention. Now, she inquired, "Does +she love you?" + +"Didn't I tell you this was my game of pretense?" Gray said, gayly. "Do +you really think that an adorable creature whose head is full of +girlish notions and youthful ideals could care for the worldly, wicked +old Duke of Dallas? I am old, Ma, and I've gone the gait." + +"Pshaw! You ain't any such thing." + +"Well, perhaps I'm a better lover than I believe. Who knows? +Fortunately, however, it is all just an amusing game." The speaker rose +and looked at his watch. "It is lunch time, Mother Briskow, and I'm +famished." + +As the two entered the hotel grounds, Gus and Allie hurried to meet +them, and the latter exclaimed, irritably: "It's about time you showed +up. We've been looking everywhere for you." + +At sight of her husband's face Ma inquired, in sudden anxiety, "What's +wrong, Gus?" + +"It's Buddy," Allie declared. + +"'Tain't serious," Briskow said. "And it is, too. He's left school--run +away! Here, Mr. Gray, see what you make out of it." + +Gray read aloud the letter that was handed to him, a letter from the +principal of the institution that he himself had recommended, stating +that Ozark had disappeared without doing the college authorities the +courtesy of leaving an address. Inasmuch as he had never expressed the +slightest dissatisfaction with his surroundings, the writer was at a +loss to explain the reason for this disappearance. As to Ozark's +safety, there was no immediate cause for apprehension, for he had taken +with him three trunks of clothing, a high-powered touring car, and a +Belgian police dog; but certain of the young man's exploits that had +come to light since his departure aroused grave doubts in the +principal's mind of his moral well-being. + +"What's it mean?" the mother inquired. + +"It means that Buddy has taken a vacation. How much money has he?" + +"He's got plenty," Gus declared. "More 'n is good for him if--" + +"If what?" Ma queried. + +Gus halted; it was Allie who answered: "If he's done what we think he's +done--gone away after some woman." + +"Some _woman_?" Ma stared blankly from one face to another. "Buddy in +love? Why, he never wrote me nothing about bein' in love." Reading a +further message in her husband's expression, she cried, fiercely: "He's +a good boy. He wouldn't take up with--with nobody that wasn't nice. +What makes you think it's a girl?" + +"I didn't say 'girl,' Ma, I said '_woman_.' Buddy's been writin' to me +and--" + + +"What's the difference? Mebbe he's in love with some nice young woman +an' they've run away to git married. Buddy's han'some, and they got +nice women everywhere--" + +"_Love_? With all his money? And him only up to fractions?" Allegheny +laughed scornfully. + +Gus Briskow wiped his face with a nervous hand. "I'm 'most sick over +it," he confessed. "The perfessor has written me a coupla times about +him. Buddy's gone kinda wild, I guess, drinkin' an'--" + +"Drinking?" Gray interrupted, sharply. "Why didn't you tell me? So, you +gave him unlimited money, in spite of my warning?" + +"He wanted his own bank account; his share of the royalties. Made him +feel more like a man, he said. I--I never learned how to say 'no' to +him or Allie. Ma an' I allus said 'no' to each other, but it was allus +'yes' to them. We never had much to give 'em, noway." + +"Drinking, eh?" Gray was frowning. "The woman part I don't care so much +about--he'll probably get over that if it isn't too serious. But +whisky! That's different. I'm responsible for that boy; in a manner of +speaking, I adopted him because--well, because he flattered me by +pretending to admire me. It was a unique experience. I took Buddy for +my own. Will you let me handle this matter?" The speaker looked from +one parent to the other, and they saw that his face was grimly set. +"Give me my way and I'll bring that young rascal to time or--" He +shrugged, he smiled faintly. "Give me permission to treat him as if he +really were my own, will you?" + +"You got my leave," said the father; but Ma Briskow bristled. + +"Don't you dast to hurt him," she cried. + +Again Gray shrugged, this time with resignation. "As you will. I was +wild, myself; I think I know what he needs." + +"You can't beat anything into Buddy's head." It was Allie speaking. +"After all, he's grown up, and what right has anybody got to interfere +with him? S'pose it _is_ a woman? S'pose she _is_ after his money? It's +his. Men can get what they want by payin' for it. An hour, a day, a +week of happiness! Ain't that worth all Buddy 'll have to pay? I'd pay. +I'd go through torture the rest of my life--" + +"_Allegheny Briskow!_" the mother exclaimed. + +"Well, I would." The girl's voice broke, a sudden agitation seized her; +in passionate defiance she went on: "What's the use of wanting +something all your life and never getting it? What's money for if you +can't buy the one thing you want worst of all? That's where men have +got the best of it; they can buy love. I wish I was a man; I wish I was +Buddy! I'd have my day, my week--and as much more as I could pay for. +I'd have happiness that long if it broke my heart. But I'm a _girl_!" + +It was with a sudden interest that Gray studied the speaker. Here was a +side to the Briskow character that he had not suspected, and it gave +him a new light upon Buddy, for brother and sister were much alike; it +showed him more clearly the size of the task he had volunteered to +undertake. He heard the father speaking, and reluctantly withdrew his +eyes from Allie's flaming face. + +"He likes you, Mr. Gray, an' mebbe you could keep him from spoilin' his +hull life. That's what he's liable to do an'--I'm skeered. He wouldn't +listen to me. Boys don't listen to their fathers." + +"I'll find him, Gus, and I'll make him listen to me. If it is drink, +I'll break him of it. If it is a woman--I'll break him of that, too, +for it can't be more than a passing fancy." Noting the tragic concern +that wrinkled Ma Briskow's face, he put an arm about her, saying more +gently: "Now, now! I won't deny you the luxury of worrying, Ma dear. +That is a mother's divine prerogative, but rest assured Buddy sha'n't +do himself any great harm. Now then, let's get to a long-distance +phone." + +It was perhaps two hours before Gray reported to Gus Briskow: "They +don't know much more at the school than was written in that letter. He +has been going a rather lively pace lately, it seems." + +"Did you find out anything about the--the woman?" + +"Nothing definite. I have put detectives on the case, and they will +report to me at Wichita Falls. As soon as they uncover his trail, I'll +go to Buddy at once." + +"You goin' to leave us?" + +"I must. I've just received a telegram from my--my agent. About the +purchase of a well. It is a matter that can't wait." + +"I can't thank you for all you done for us. We was in bad shape till +you come. Now--" + +"Now everything is straight again. That's my job, Gus--to do little odd +favors for those I love. You must stay here, for Ma is happy, and this +place is making a girl of her. Allie is doing wonders with herself, +too. By the way, she needn't be lonely any more; I've talked to some of +the guests, and they want to make friends with her. She'll find them +nice people, and you must make her meet them halfway. Perhaps she'll +become interested in some decent young fellow. I'd like that, wouldn't +you?" + +"Would ye?" + +The tone of this inquiry caused Gray to glance more keenly at the +speaker, but Briskow's bright eyes told him nothing. + +"Why, naturally. Allie is becoming more attractive every day, and she +is going to make something of herself. She is going to 'do us all +proud.'" + +As soon as he was alone Gray eagerly reread his telegram from Wichita +Falls. It was from Barbara Parker--the first, by the way, that he had +ever received--and he smiled at the girl's effort to be thoroughly +businesslike, and at the same time to convey the full urgency of her +message. Why had she economized on words when every one was precious to +him? Buy that well? Of course he would, if she so earnestly desired it. +But what was better by far than the prospect of a profitable purchase +was the fact of her personal interest in him. When it came to the last +line of her message, "Bob" had plunged into a ten-word riot of +extravagance. + +"The bird is darling. I have named him after you." + +Gray wondered if these words really meant what they seemed to imply, or +if it was merely her bubbling, enthusiasm that spoke. Well, he would +soon find out. Already he had wasted too much time on the Briskows--a +man's duty ever lies in the way of his desire--but once he had rounded +up Buddy perhaps the family would be able to take care of itself. He +hoped so, for it was assuming the character of a liability. + +It was late that night. The southbound flyer had gone through. The +Briskows were sitting in the pleasant parlor of their handsome suite, +but they were like three mourners. Ma and Pa were soberly discussing +the news about Buddy, Allegheny was staring in somber meditation at +nothing. The girl was bitter, rebellious, for never had she felt so +utterly alone as at this moment. To that question which monotonously +repeated itself, she could form no answer. Did he care, or was it all +pity--just his way? + +She heard his name and her own mentioned, and she became attentive. +"What's that? He wants me to meet these people halfway?" she inquired. +"What for? I don't like 'em." + +"He says you'll git to like 'em, an' they'll git to like you. He says +you're goin' ahead tremendous, and we'll all be proud of you. Mebbe +you'll meet some nice young feller--" + +"He said that, did he?" Allie's voice was sharp. + +"N-not exactly, but--" + +"He asked 'em to be nice to me--he fixed it all up. Is that it? I got +lots of money; some man 'll make love to me and I'll--I'll fall in love +with him. Is that what he said?" + +"He didn't put it that way. What he said was more--" + +Allegheny rose with an exclamation of anger. "Well, I won't meet 'em. +He'd better mind his own business." + +"Why, _Allie_!" the mother exclaimed, in mild reproach. + +"I won't! I hate 'em. I hate everybody. Him, with his high an' fancy +ways--" the girl choked. "He looks down on us the same as other folks +does, an' I don't blame him. He acts like we was cattle, an' we are." +Her own scorn appeared to whip the speaker into a higher frenzy. "Now +he's gone off to spoil Buddy's doin's. Buttin' in, that's what it is. +If I knew where Buddy is, I'd warn him. I'd tell him to look out. I'd +tell him to grab his chance when it comes along, if it takes all the +Briskow money, all the Briskow wells. He's lucky, Buddy is. It don't +make any difference _who_ he took up with, if he loves her." + +Never but once before had the Briskows seen their daughter in a mood +like this, and that was on the occasion of their first visit to Dallas. +Now they sat numb and speechless as she raved on: + +"Playin' with us to amuse himself! It's a game with him. He 'ain't got +anything better to do. Why, he even shows us how to dress! 'With a +touch,' he says, 'I work miracles. I transfer--transform you from +something dark an'--an' common into a thing of passion.' _Passion!_ +What the hell does he know about passion? He's a doctor, he is, cuttin' +up a live dog to see what ails it. A live dog that's tied down! Cuttin' +it up--Oh, my God, I wish I was Buddy!" It was several moments after +the door of Allie's room had slammed behind her before Gus Briskow +spoke, and then it was with a deep sigh. + +"I been afraid of something like this, Ma. I reckon we're goin' to pay +dear for our money before we get through." + +"An' him with a princess in Wichita Falls!" the mother quavered. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +There are many arguments against industry; much is to be said against +its wholesale practice. For one thing, habitual diligence, of whatever +sort, begets other habits hard to break, habits that persist in +plaguing a man during his periods of indolence and perhaps during his +whole life. Early rising is one of the most annoying of these habits. +While it cannot be said that Tom Parker had ever labored arduously at +anything, nevertheless he had followed his calling faithfully, and the +peculiar exigencies of that calling had made of him a light and fitful +sleeper. He had so often used the earth as a mattress and his saddle as +a pillow, that sunup invariably roused him, and as a consequence he +liked to tell people that he could do with less sleep than any man in +Texas. That was, in fact, one of his pet complaints. + +It was true that Old Tom never slept long, but it was also true that he +slept oftener than any man in Texas. He was up and dressed by daylight, +and until breakfast time he engaged himself in purposeless and noisy +pursuits. This futile energy, however, diminished steadily until about +nine-thirty, after which his day was punctuated by a series of cat +naps, as a broken sentence is punctuated by dots and dashes. + +That small room at the rear of his office Barbara had cleared of its +dusty accumulations--of its saddles and saddle-bags, its rusty +Winchesters, its old newspapers and disorderly files--and had +transformed into a retreat for him. She had overcome his inherent +prejudice against innovations of any sort by arguing gravely that the +head of every firm should, nay must, have a private sanctum. + +Tom approved of the change after he became accustomed to it, for he was +subjected to fewer irritating distractions there than elsewhere. Before +long, in fact, he acquired the ability to doze placidly through almost +any sort of business conference in the outer office. It was his +practice to sleep from nine-thirty until eleven, when "Bob" fetched him +a glass of orange juice with a "spike" in it. This refreshing beverage +filled him with new energy to tackle the issues of the day, and +thereupon began a routine as fixed as some religious ritual. First, he +smacked his lips, then he cleared his throat loudly several times, +after which his chair creaked as he massaged his rheumatic leg. +Promptly upon the count of twenty he emerged from the inner office, +slamming the door energetically behind him. + +Whether "Bob" was alone or engaged with clients, Old Tom's air was +always the same; it was that of a busy man weighted with grave +responsibilities. He frowned; he muttered, hurriedly: + +"Got to see a man; back in an hour. Anybody calls, tell 'em to wait." + +This took him to the front door, which he also slammed behind +him--there being a certain force and determination to the sound of a +slamming door. Then he limped down the street to Judge Halloran's +office. The judge usually had the checkerboard out and set when Tom +arrived. + +Afternoons passed in much the same manner, and night found Tom, if not +actually exhausted from the unceasing grind, at least pleasurably +fatigued thereby and ready for an after-dinner doze. He considered +himself seriously overworked. + +This morning "Bob" was alone at her desk when he came out, and +something about her appearance caused the old warrior to look twice. He +was exactly on time, but the judge could wait. He was a cranky old +scoundrel anyhow, was Judge Halloran, and it would do him good to cool +his heels for a few minutes. Tom paused with his hand upon the door +knob. + +"My goodness! son, you're all dressed up!" he said, as he noted "Bob's" +crisp white dress, the rose upon her bosom, the floppy hat that framed +her face. "Church sociable som'er's?" + +"No, dad." + +"What's going on?" + +"Nothing in particular." + +"You certainly are sweet." Tom's bleak, gray face softened, then some +vague regret peered forth from his eyes. "Certainly are sweet, but--" + +"But what?" The girl smiled up at him. + +"Oh, I don't know--seems like you ain't quite the same boy you was. +You're changing lately, somehow. Getting more like your mother every +week. I like that, of course," he said, quickly, "but--I'd like awful +well to see you in your ranch clothes again. I bet you've clean forgot +how to ride and rope and--" + +"You know very well I haven't. I'm a little bit rusty, perhaps, but +remember I'm a pretty busy girl these days." + +"I know." Tom sighed. "I'm wore out, too. What d'you say we close up +the ol' factory and take a rest? Let's get us a couple of broncs and go +up to the Territory for a spell. Used to be a lot of wild turkeys in a +place I know. It'd do us a lot of good." + +"Why, dad, we can't do that! And, besides, those turkeys were killed +out years ago." + +"Um-m! I s'pose so. Ain't much left to shoot at but tin cans, come to +think of it." There was a pause. "I don't reckon you could han'le a six +gun like you used to, 'Bob.'" + +"You think not? Try me sometime and see," said the girl. Apparently Tom +believed there was no time like the present, for he slid his right hand +under the left lapel of his coat, and when he brought it away there was +a large single-action Colt's revolver in it--a massive weapon upon the +mother-of-pearl handle plates of which were carved two steers' heads. +Those steers' heads Tom had removed from a gun belonging to a famous +bad man, suddenly deceased, and there was a story that went with them. + +"Now see here," "Bob" protested, "one of these new policemen will pick +you up some day." + +"Pshaw! Nobody wouldn't pick me up, just for totin' a gun," the old man +declared. With practiced fingers he extracted the shells, one by one. +"I feel right naked without a six-shooter. I feel like I'd cast a shoe, +or something." + +"I wish you'd give up carrying it." + +"Lessee you do a few tricks,'Bob'. Do the roll. Remember she don't +stand cocked." + +Miss Parker rose to her feet and took the weapon. She balanced it in +her hand, then she spun it, rolled it, fanned it, went through a +routine of lightninglike sleight-of-hand that Tom had taught her long +before. + +"Lessee you do a few shots," her father urged, when she handed it back +to him. + +"In _here_?" + +"Sure! It's our shanty. Drive a few nails or--I'll tell you; kill that +bear and save that tenderfoot's life." Tom pointed to a Winchester +calendar on the rear wall, which bore the lithographic likeness of an +enraged grizzly upon the point of helping himself to a hunter. + +"Why, we'd have the whole town running in." + +"Go on, son. Make it speak. Bears is easy killed." + +"Nonsense." + +Reluctantly Tom reloaded his weapon and thrust it back into its +shoulder holster; regretfully he murmured: "Doggone! We never have any +more fun." He turned toward the door. + +"Where are you going, dad?" + +"I got to see a man; back in an hour. Anybody calls--" + +"You know you won't be back in an hour. Where are you going?" + +"I got to see--What is it?" + +"Bob" hesitated. "I wish you'd stay here. I think Mr. Gray arrived this +morning, and I expect him in." + +Tom decided that he had made Judge Halloran wait long enough. He should +have been in the old rascal's king row by this time. So he said, +briskly, "Wish I could, son, but I got to see a man." + +"Mr. Gray was here several times before he went away, but you were +always out." When her father showed no inclination to tarry, Barbara +spoke with more impatience than she had ever used toward him. "I want +him to meet you, dad, for he has come back on purpose to take up that +Jackson well. If I devote all my time to business, it seems to me you +could afford to sacrifice an hour to it, just this once. That checker +game can wait." + +Tom Parker stiffened. Sacrifice an hour to business, just once! That +_was_ a blow. As if his nose was not at the grindstone day in and day +out! As if he were not practically chained to this office! As if +unremitting application to business had not wrecked him--worn him to +the bone--made an insomniac of him! That was the worst about children, +boys especially; they twitted their elders; they thought they were the +whole works; they assumed undue importance. Tom was offended, and, +being a stubborn man, he bowed his back. + +"Tell him to wait," he said, curtly. "I'll get around to it soon as I +can." + +"Why, _dad_! He isn't a man who can wait. This deal won't wait, either." + +"I been talking over that Jackson well with--with a man, and I got +him--" + +"I asked you not to mention it--not to a soul. It is a very important +matter and--" + +Now Tom had not discussed the Jackson well, except casually with Judge +Halloran, but every word that "Bob" spoke rankled, so he interrupted +with a resentful query: + +"Ain't I equal to han'le an important deal?" + +"Bob" acknowledged quickly that he was. She had not meant to criticize +his ability to conduct negotiations of the very highest importance, but +she was surprised, in view of her earnest request, that he had even +mentioned this particular matter to anybody. She reminded him that +insurance was his forte, and that their understanding had been that she +was to take exclusive charge of their oil business. While she was +talking, Tom realized with a disagreeable shock that of late there had +been no insurance written, none whatever. He had given the matter no +thought, but such was undoubtedly the case, and in his daughter's words +he felt a rebuke. Now he could not abide rebukes; he had never +permitted anybody to criticize him. For once that unconscious +irritation that had been slowly accumulating within him flamed up. It +was an irritation too vague, too formless to put into words, especially +inasmuch as words did not come easily to Tom Parker when he was mad. + +Without further comment the old man pulled his gray wide-awake lower +over his eyes and limped out of the room. But he did not go to Judge +Halloran's office; he was too sore to risk further offense at the hands +of one who took malicious delight in antagonizing him, so he walked the +streets. The more he pondered "Bob's" accusation--and accusation it +surely was--the angrier he became; not at her, of course, for she was +blood of his blood, his other and better self; but angry at himself for +allowing the reins to slip out of his fingers. He was the head of the +firm. It was due to his ripe judgment and keen common sense that the +business ran on; his name and standing it was that gave it stability. +Perhaps he had permitted the girl to do more than her share of the +work, and hence her inclination to take all the credit for their joint +success was only natural, but it was time to change all that; time to +turn a big deal without her assistance. That was the thing to do, +handle the Jackson lease in his own way and turn it over for a price +far in excess of seventy-five thousand dollars. Anybody could sell +things for less than they were worth, but it took real ability to +realize their full value. Here was a snap, a chance to clean up big +money--"Bob" said so--why not, then, take over the lease for himself +and her, pay something down, hold it for a few weeks, and then resell +it at a staggering profit? Such things were being done--Tom did not +know just how, but he could easily find out--and there were several +thousand dollars in the bank to the firm's account. If that was not +enough to meet the first payment he could probably get Bell Nelson to +give him another mortgage on something. Or was it he that would have to +give the mortgage to Bell? It didn't matter. The thing to do was to +jump out to the Extension, buy the well, and show "Bob" that he was as +good a business man as she--better, in fact. + +A bus was about to leave, so Tom clambered in. + +Barbara Parker had to acknowledge that she was more than a little bit +thrilled at the prospect of seeing Calvin Gray again. She had assured +her father glibly enough that there was nothing "going on" that day, +but--there was. It was something to realize that a mere telegram from +her had brought a man of Mr. Gray's importance clear across the +country, and that he was coming straight to her. What mysterious magic +lay in the telegraph! + +Ever since their first meeting he had awakened in her a sort of +breathless excitement, the precise significance of which she could not +fathom, and that excitement now was growing hourly. It could not mean +love--"Bob" flushed at the thought, for she had no intention of falling +in love with anybody. She was too young; the world was too new and too +exciting for that, and, besides, her life was too full, her obligations +were too many to permit of distractions, agreeable or disagreeable. +Nor, for that matter, was Gray the sort of man to become seriously +interested in a simple person like her; he was complex, many-sided, +cosmopolitan. His extravagant attentions were meaningless--And yet, one +could never tell; men were queer creatures; perhaps-- + +Little prickles ran over "Bob"; she felt her whole body galvanize when +she saw Gray coming. + +He entered, as she knew he would enter, with the suggestion of having +been blown thither upon the breast of a gale. He was electric; he +throbbed with energy; he was bursting with enthusiasm, and his delight +at seeing her was boyish. + +"Bob" colored rosily at his instant and extravagant appreciation of her +effort to look more pleasing than usual, but embarrassment followed her +first thrill. She could not believe his compliments were entirely +genuine, therefore she took refuge behind her coolest, her most +businesslike demeanor. For a while they talked about nothing, although +to each the other was eloquent, then "Bob" came as quickly as might be +to the matter she had wired him about. + +He listened with smiling lips and shining eyes, but he heard only the +bare essentials of her story, for his thoughts were galloping, his mind +was busy with new impressions of her, other voices than hers were in +his ears. That was his rose at her breast. She had been pleased at his +coming, otherwise she would not have paid him the girlish compliment of +wearing her best. Evidently she cared for him--or was she merely +impressed, flattered? Women had called him romantic, whereas he knew +himself to be theatric; he wondered if she-- + +"I told Jackson you'd be out to look at the well and the books to-day," +"Bob" was saying. "He won't wait an hour longer." + +"Splendid! I came the instant you telegraphed--dropped everything, in +fact. Some of my men are waiting to see me, but I haven't even notified +them of my arrival. Important business, too; nevertheless, I hurried +right here. They can wait." Gray laughed gladly. "Jove! How becoming +that hat is. I hired the best-looking car I could find, and it will be +here in a minute. I told myself I had earned a day with you, and I +wouldn't spoil it by permitting you to drive. I've so much to talk to +you about--business of all sorts--that I scarcely know where to begin." + +Now "Bob" had expected to drive to the Northwest Extension with Gray; +nothing else had been in her mind; her field clothing was even laid out +ready for a quick change, but a sudden contrariness took hold of her; +she experienced a shy perversity that she could not explain. + +"Oh, I'm sorry! I--can't go. I simply can't," she declared. + +He was so obviously disappointed that her determination gained +strength; she was surprised at her own mendacity when she explained the +utter impossibility of leaving the office, and told a circumstantial +fib about a title that had to be closed with people from out of town. +The more she talked the more panicky she became at thought of being for +hours alone with this forceful, this magnetic, this overwhelming +person. Strange, in view of the fact that she had been looking forward +to it for days! + +In order finally to get him away before she could change her mind, she +promised to hurry through her affairs and then drive out and bring him +home. There was no time to lose; Jackson was growing impatient; it was +a wonderful deal; there were other days coming-- + +When Gray had gone and "Bob" was alone, she drew a deep breath. Her +pulse was rapid, she was tingling as if from some stimulating current. +What a man! What an effect he had upon people! What a fool she had been +not to go! + +The road to Burkburnett is well surfaced for some distance outside of +Wichita Falls, therefore Gray leaned back with eyes closed as the car +sped over it, picturing again his meeting with Barbara, recalling her +words of greeting, puzzling over the subtle change in her demeanor at +the last. Perhaps he had frightened her. He was given to +overenthusiasm; this would be a lesson. + +Queer how women interfere with business. Here he was going at things +backward, whirling out to the oil fields when he should be with McWade +and Stoner. They would probably be distracted at his nonarrival, +but--this was business, too. And she would drive out to get him. There +would be the long ride back. Far away across the undulating prairie +fields the horizon was broken by a low, dark barricade, the massed +derricks of the town-site pool. So thickly were they grouped that they +resembled a dense forest of high, black pines, and not until Gray drew +closer could he note that this strange forest was leafless. + +By now the roads were quagmires, and the unceasing current of traffic +had thickened and slowed down until Gray's car rocked and plunged +through a hub-deep channel of slime. There was but one route to the +Extension, and it led through the very heart of Burkburnett; there were +no detours around the town, no way of beating the traffic, therefore +vehicles, no matter how urgent their business, were forced to fall in +line and allow themselves to be carried along like chips in a stream of +tar. + +"Burk" was a one-story town, or at least most of its buildings +projected only one story above the mud, and that mud was mixed with +oil. Leakage from wells, pipe lines, storagetanks, had made the mass +underfoot doubly foul and sticky, and where it was liquid it shone with +iridescent colors. Mud was everywhere; on the sidewalks, inside the +stores, on walls and signboards, on the skins and clothing of the +people. + +Through the main street the procession of cars plowed, then out across +the railroad tracks and toward the open country beyond. When it came to +a halt, as it frequently did, above the hum of idle motors could be +heard the clank of pumps, the fitful coughing of gasengines, the hiss +of steam. This, of course, was soon drowned in a terrific din of +impatient horns, a blaring, brazen snarl at the delay. The whole line +roared metallic curses at the cause of its stoppage. + +Even the railroad right of way had been drilled. Switch engines shunted +rows of flats almost between the straddling derrick legs. + +Gray's driver had been dumb thus far, now he broke out abruptly: +"Speaking about mud; I was crossing this street on a plank the other +day when I saw a bran'-new derby lying in the mud and picked it up. +Underneath it was a guy's head. + +"'Hullo!' I said. 'You're in pretty deep, ain't you?' + +"The feller looked up at me and said: 'This ain't bad. You'd ought to +see my brother. I'm standing on his shoulders!'" + +The chauffeur laughed loudly at his own humor. "_Some_ country, I call +it! But the sun's out, so it will be blowing sand to-morrow." + +When Burkburnett had been left behind, another and a vaster island of +derricks came into view. It marked the Burk-Waggoner pool, part of the +Northwest Extension, so called. + +The car was waiting its turn to cross a tiny toll bridge spanning a +sluggish creek, the bed of which ran seepage oil from the wells beyond, +when the driver grumbled aloud: + +"Four bits to cross a forty-foot bridge. There's a graft for you! One +old nester above here tore a hole in his fence opposite a wet place in +the road and charged us half a dollar to drive through his pasture. But +it was cheaper than getting stuck. He had to carry his coin home in an +oat sack. After a few weeks somebody got to wondering why that spot +never dried out, and, come to investigate, wha' d'you think?" + +"I seldom think when I am being entertained," his passenger declared. + +"Well, that poor stupid had dammed the creek, and every night he shut +the gate and flooded his road." + +If the clustered derricks of the town-site pool were impressive, there +was something positively dramatic about the Extension. Burkburnett had +been laid out in lots and blocks, and the drilling had followed some +sort of orderly system; but here were no streets, no visible plan. This +had been a wheat field, and as well after well had come in, derricks, +drilling rigs, buildings, tanks, piles of timber, and casing had been +laid down with complete disregard of all save the owner's convenience. +Overnight new pipe lines were being laid, for hours counted here and +the crude had to find outlet--fuel had to be brought in. These pipe +lines were never buried, and in consequence the ceaseless flow of +traffic was forever forced to seek new channels. The place became a +bewildering maze through which teams floundered and motor vehicles +plunged at random. + +Towns had sprung up, for this army of workers was isolated in a sea of +mud, but whereas "Burk" was more or less permanent, Newtown, Bradley's +Corners, Bridgetown, were cities of canvas, boards, and corrugated +iron. By day they were mean, filthy, grotesque; by night they became +incandescent, for every derrick was strung with lights, and the surplus +supply of gas was burned in torches to prevent it from accumulating in +ravines or hollows in explosive quantities. They were Mardi Gras cities. + +Day by day this field spread onward toward the Red River; the whole +region smelled of oil. + +Fire, of course, was an ever-present menace. Newtown, for instance, had +been wiped out several times, for it lay on a slope down which a broken +pipe line could belch a resistless wave of flame, and even yet the +place was a litter of charred timber, twisted pipe, and crumpled sheets +of galvanized iron. Owing to this menace the residents had taken the +only possible precaution. They had dug in. Behind each place of +business was a cyclone cellar--a bomb-proof shelter--into which human +bodies and stocks of merchandise could be crowded. + +Gray drove directly to the lease he had come to examine, and was +disappointed to learn that the owner had just left. This was annoying; +"Bob" had assured him that he was expected. Inquiry elicited from the +surly individual in charge no more than the reluctant admission that +Jackson had been called to the nearest telephone, but would be back +sometime. + +There was nothing to do but wait. Gray let his car go, then made a +cursory examination of the property. He could see little and learn +less. The caretaker agreed that the well was pumping one hundred and +fifty barrels a day. + +Some evasiveness in this fellow's demeanor awoke Gray's suspicion. A +sudden telephone call. The owner's absence when he expected a +purchaser. Probably somebody else was after the property. It was +decidedly worth while to wait. + +Gray was unaccustomed to inattention, incivility, and had anybody +except "Bob" Parker put him in this position he would have resented it. +Under the circumstances, however, he could do nothing except cool his +heels. As time passed he began to feel foolish; by late lunch time he +was irritable; and as the afternoon wore on he grew angry. Why didn't +"Bob" come, as she had promised? He had lost a day, and days were +precious. + +Evening found him wandering about aimlessly, in a villainous mood, but +stubbornly determined to see this thing through at whatever cost. He +had no wish to spend a night amid these surroundings, for respectable +people shunned these oil-field camps after dark, and he knew himself to +be conspicuous. It would add a ridiculous climax to a trying day to be +"high-jacked"--to be frisked of his jewelry. + +During the early dusk he returned to the lease, only to find even the +greasy caretaker gone. By this time Gray was decidedly uncomfortable, +and, to add to his discomfort, he conceived the notion that he was +being followed. On second thought he dismissed this idea, nevertheless +he took a roundabout course back toward the main street. + +It seemed odd to be floundering through inky shadows, feeling a way +through this miry chaos, when aloft, as far as the eye could see, the +sky was lit. This phantom city of twinkling beacons gave one a sense of +acute unreality, for it was an empty city, a city the work of which +went on almost without the aid of human hands. The very soul of it was +mechanical. Only here and there, where a drill crew was at work, did an +occasional human figure move back and forth in the glare of low-hung +incandescents, nevertheless the whole place breathed and throbbed; it +was instinct with a tremendous vigor. From all sides came the ceaseless +rhythmic clank of pumps, the hiss of gas and steam, the gurgling flow +of liquid--they were the pulse beats, the respirations, the blood flow +of this live thing. And its body odor stung the nostrils. All night +long it panted with its heavy labors--as if the jinns that lifted those +giant pump beams were vying with one another in a desperate endeavor. +They were, for a fact. Haste, avarice, an arduous diligence, was in the +very air. + +Gray stared and marveled, for imagination was not lacking in him. Those +derricks with their fires were high altars upon which were heaped ten +thousand hopes and prayers. Altars of Avarice! Towers of Greed! That is +what they were. + +He marvelled, too, at the extremes these last few days had brought him; +at the long cry from the luxurious Burlington Notch to this primitive +land of fire worshipers. Here, only a few hours by motor from paved +streets and comfortable homes, was a section of the real frontier, as +crude and as lawless as any he had ever seen. Yonder, for instance, was +the Red Lion, a regular Klondike dance hall. + +He looked in for a moment, but the sight of hard-faced houris revolving +cheek to cheek with men in overalls and boots was nothing new. It did +remind him of the march of progress, however, to notice that the +bartenders served coca-cola instead of "hootch." Hygienic, but vain, he +reflected. Not at all like the brave old days. + +Farther up the street was a flaming theater decorated with gaudy +lithographs of women in tights. That awoke a familiar echo. The grimy +figures headed thither might well be miners just in from Eldorado or +Anvil Creek. + +Gambling was practically wide open, too, and before long Gray found +himself in a superheated, overcrowded back room with a stack of silver +dollars which he scattered carelessly upon the numbers of a roulette +table. Roulette was much like the oil game. This was a good way in +which to kill an hour. + +Absorbed in his own thoughts, Gray paid little heed to those about him, +until a large hand picked up one of his bets. Then he raised his eyes. +The hand was attached to a muscular arm, which in turn was attached to +a burly stranger of unpleasant mien. Gray voiced a good-natured +protest, but the fellow scowled and refused to acknowledge his mistake. +Noting that the man was flushed, Gray shrugged and allowed the incident +to pass. This bootleg whisky from across Red River was of a quality to +scatter a person's eyesight. + +For some time the game continued before Gray won again, and the dealer +deposited thirty-five silver dollars beside his bet. Again that +sun-browned hand reached forth, but this time Gray seized it by the +wrist. He and the stranger eyed each other for a silent moment, during +which the other players looked on. + +Gray was the first to speak. "If you're not as drunk as you seem," he +said, easily, "you'll excuse yourself. If you are, you need sobering." + +With a wrench the man undertook to free his hand; he uttered a +threatening oath. The next instant he was treated to a surprise, for +Gray jerked him forward and simultaneously his empty palm struck the +fellow a blinding, a resounding smack. Twice he smote that reddened +cheek with the sound of an explosion, then, as the victim flung his +body backward, Gray kicked his feet from under him. Again he cuffed the +fellow's face, this time from the other side. When he finally desisted +the stranger rocked in his tracks; he shook his head; he blinked and he +cursed; it was a moment before he could focus his whirling sight upon +his assailant. When he succeeded it was to behold the latter staring at +him with a mocking, threatening smile. + +The drunken man hesitated, he cast a slow glance around the room, then +muttering, hoarsely, he turned and made for the door. He was followed +by a burst of derisive laughter that grew louder as he went. + +Gray was in a better mood now than for several hours; he had vented his +irritation; the air had cleared. After a while he discovered that he +was hungry; no longer was he too resentful to heed the healthy warning +of his stomach, so he left the place. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +Newton's eating places were not appetizing at best, but a meal could be +endured with less discomfort by night than by day, for at such times +most of the flies were on the ceilings. The restaurant Gray entered was +about what he had expected; along one side ran a quick-order counter at +which were seated several customers; across from it was an +oilcloth-covered table, perfectly bare except for a revolving +centerpiece--one of those silver-plated whirligigs fitted with a glass +salt-and-pepper shaker, a toothpick holder, an unpleasant oil bottle, +and a cruet intended for vinegar, but now filled with some mysterious +embalming fluid acting as a preservative of numerous lifelike insect +remains. Here, facing an elderly man in a wide gray-felt hat, Gray +seated himself. + +Gray's neighbor was in no pleasant mood, for he whacked impatiently at +such buzzing pests as were still on the wing, and when a perspiring +Greek set a plate of soup before him he took umbrage at the presence of +the fellow's thumb in the liquid. The argument that followed angered +the old man still further, for it arrived nowhere except to prove that +the offending thumb was the property of the proprietor of the +restaurant, and by inference, therefore, a privileged digit. + +When a departing customer left the door open, the elderly diner +grumbled bitterly at the draught and draped his overcoat over his bent +shoulders. + +"Dam' Eskimos!" he muttered. "----raised in a chicken coop--Windy as a +derrick!" + +Gray liked old people, and he was tolerant of their crotchets. +Irascibility indicates force of character, at least so he believed, and +old folks are apt to accept too meekly the approach of decay. Here was +a spirit that time had not dulled--it was like wine soured in an old +cask. At any rate, wine it had been, not water, and that was something. + +Most of the counter customers had drifted out when, without warning, +the screen door banged loudly open and Gray looked up from his plate to +see his recent acquaintance of the gambling table approaching. This +time purpose was stamped upon the man's face, but whether it was +deliberate or merely the result of more drinking there was no telling. +He lurched directly up to the table and stared across at Gray. + +"Slapped my face, didn't you?" he cried, after a menacing moment. + +"I did, indeed," the speaker nodded, pleasantly. + +"You ain't going to slap it again. You ain't going to slap anybody's--" + +"What makes you think I won't?" Gray became aware as he spoke that his +elderly neighbor had raised to the intruder a countenance stamped with +a peculiar expression of incredulity, almost of anger, at the +interruption, and that the two remaining counter customers had turned +startled faces over their shoulders, while the proprietor, his arms +full of dishes, had paused beside the swinging door to the kitchen. + +That which occurred next came unexpectedly. The stranger whipped out +from under his coat a revolver, at the same time voicing a profane +answer to the challenge. The proprietor uttered a bleat of terror; he +dropped his dishes and dived out of the room; the men on the stools +scrambled down and plunged after him. + +As Calvin Gray rose to his feet it was with a flash of mingled anger +and impatience. This quarrel was so utterly senseless, it served so +little purpose. + +"My friend," he cried, sharply, "if you don't put up that gun, one of +us will go to a hospital." + +In spite of the intruder's haste in drawing his weapon, he appeared now +to lack the will promptly to use it--his laggard spirit required a +further scourge, so it seemed; something more to goad it into final +fury. It was a phenomenon by no means uncommon, for it is not easy to +shoot down an unarmed victim. + +By way of rousing his savagery, the fellow uttered a bellow, then, like +a warrior smiting his shield with his spear before the charge, he swung +his heavy weapon, smashing at one blow that silver-plated +merry-go-round with its cluster of bottles. + +A shower of toothpicks, fragments of glass, a spatter of oil and +vinegar covered the old man in the end chair, and he rose with a cry +that drew a swift glance from the desperado. + +Gray was upon the point of launching himself over the table when he +witnessed a peculiar transformation in his assailant. The man's +expression altered with almost comic suddenness, he lowered his weapon +and took a backward step. Gray, too, had cause for astonishment, for +the elderly man was moving slowly toward the disturber, his overcoat, +meanwhile, hanging loosely from his left shoulder, like a mantle. His +gray face had grown white, malignant, threatening; he advanced with a +queer, sidling gait, edging forward behind the shelter of his garment +as if behind a barricade. But what challenged Gray's instant attention +was the certainty of purpose, the cold, confident menace behind the old +fellow's demeanor. There was something appalling about him; he had +suddenly become huge and dominant. + +That he had been recognized was plain, for the armed man cried, +agitatedly: "Look out, Tom! I don't want any truck with _you_." + +The deliberate advance continued; in a harsh voice Tom answered: "I +don't allow anybody to interfere with me when I'm eating!" For every +step he shuffled forward the man before him fell back a corresponding +distance. + +Again the newcomer rasped out his warning, and Gray, too, added his +voice, saying: "Leave him to me, old man. This is my quarrel." As he +spoke he moved around the end of the table, but the mantled figure +halted him with an imperious jerk of the head. Without in the slightest +diverting his steady gaze, Tom snapped: + +"Hands off, stranger! I won't have you buttin' in, either. I don't +allow anybody to interfere with me when I'm eating." + +Gray was checked less by the exasperation, by the authority in the +speaker's tone, than by the fact that the entire complexion of the +affair had changed. The ruffian, who had entered so confidently, was no +longer the aggressor; a mere look, a word, a gesture from this aged, +unknown person had put him upon the defensive. More extraordinary still +was the fact that his power of initiative was for the moment completely +paralyzed, and that he was tortured by a deplorable indecision. He was +furious, that was plain, nevertheless his anger had been halted in +mid-flight, as it were; desperation battled with an inexplicable dread. +He raised his hands now, but more in a gesture of surrender than of +threat. + +"Don't come any closer," he cried, hoarsely. "Don't do it, I tell you! +_Don't--do it!_'" There was no longer any thickness to his tongue; he +spoke as one quite sober. + +When for the third time that malevolent voice repeated, "I don't allow +anybody to interfere with me when I'm eating," the solitary onlooker +felt an absurd desire to laugh. During intensely dramatic moments +nervous laughter is near the surface, and there was something rigidly +dramatic about the methodical, sidling advance of that man half +crouched behind his overcoat. Tom, as he had been called, gave Gray the +impression of Death itself marching slowly forward to drape that black +shroud upon his cowering victim. + +Brief as had been the whole episode, already passers-by had halted, +staring faces were glued to the front windows of the cafe. Well they +might stare at those two tense figures, one advancing, the other +retreating, as if to the measures of some slow dance. + +[Illustration: "DON'T COME ANY CLOSER. DON'T DO IT, I TELL YOU!"] + +But the tempo changed abruptly. The desperado's back brought up against +the swinging kitchen door; it gave to his weight and decision was born +of that instant. With a cry he flung himself backward, the spring door +snapped to and swallowed him up with the speed of a camera shutter; +then followed the sound of his heavy rushing footsteps. + +"Hell!" exclaimed the old man. "I had his buttons counted!" With the +words he let fall his overcoat, and there, beneath it, Gray beheld what +he had more than half suspected, what indeed was ample cause for the +quarrelsome stranger's apprehension. Held close to the owner's body was +what in the inelegant jargon of the West is known as a "dog leg." The +weapon, a frontier Colt's of heavy caliber, was full cocked under the +old man's thumb; the hand holding it was as steady as the blazing eyes +above. + +With a smile Gray said, "Allow me to congratulate you, sir, upon a most +impressive demonstration of the power of mind over matter." + +"A little killin' helps those scoun'rels," breathed the white-haired +warrior. "Surgin' around, wreakin' vengeance on vinegar bottles! And me +with a bad indigestion!" + +"I don't often permit others to do my fighting. But you wouldn't let--" + +"I don't allow anybody--" doggedly began the former speaker, but the +street door burst open, a noisy crowd poured into the room, a volley of +excited questions was raised. Amid the confusion Gray heard his own +name shouted, and found himself set upon by two agitated friends, +Mallow and Stoner. They had been combing Newtown for him, so they +declared, and were near by when attracted by the excitement on the +sidewalk. What was the trouble? Was Gray hurt? + +He assured them that he was not, and explained in a few words the +origin of the encounter. But other concerns, it seemed, occupied the +minds of the pair, and before he had finished Mallow was dragging him +towards the door, crying, breathlessly: "Gee, Governor! You gave us a +run. We've been coming since noon." + +"It was only by the grace of God," Stoner declared, "that we heard you +were out here and why you'd come. We managed to get a phone call +through to Jackson, but it was--" + +"Jackson? I've been looking for him all the afternoon." + +"Sure! Mallow swore he was all right, but Mac and I don't know him, and +we figured he might turn a trick. Anyhow, Mallow and I jumped the +Lizzie and looped it. Boy! I tramped on her some, until we hit bottom +the other side of Burk. Mallow went clean through the top. I guess I +smashed the whole rear end, but we couldn't wait to see. They'll have +her stripped naked, tires, cushions, and all, before we get back. +Motor, too, probably. We've been hitting it afoot, on wagons and pipe +trucks--managed to get a service car finally, but it fell open like a +book. Just one of those dam' unlucky trips." + +"Jackson didn't get to you, did he?" Mallow inquired, anxiously. + +"Get to me? No. Nor I to him." Gray spoke impatiently. "What is this +all about?" + +"Simply this, Governor: Jackson's well is a 'set-up'! For Nelson! We +nearly dropped dead when we found out that Parker kid had laid _you_ +against it. Why didn't you _tell us_--?" + +"What are you saying? I don't--" + +"The well's phony. Dry as a pretzel." + +"In what way? I saw the oil--" + +"Never mind. Lay off!" + +"I think I'm entitled to an explanation." + +"Well, then, it's salted!" + +"Impossible! I saw it pumping." + +"I'll say you did." Mallow chuckled. "Live oil, too; right out of old +Mamma Earth. Cheap lease at seventy-five thousand, eh? It's like this: +the pipe line of the Atlantic runs across Jackson's lease, and one dark +and stormy night he tapped it. It wasn't a hard thing to do; just took +a little care and some digging. Now he runs the oil in, pumps it out +and sells it back to them. He's a regular subsidiary of the great and +only Atlantic Petroleum Company. It can't last long, of course, +but--oh, what a well to hand Nelson! What a laugh it would have been!" + +"Outrageous!" Gray exclaimed. "I can't believe you are in earnest." + +"It _is_ shocking, isn't it? Such dishonesty is incredible. And what an +unhappy surprise for the company when they finally locate the leak!" + +Gray clamped a heavy hand upon the speaker's shoulder; harshly he +inquired, "Do you mean to say that Miss Parker deliberately--" + +"She don't know anything about it." + +"You said she 'laid me' against it." + +"No, no! I merely tipped her to it because she's one of Nelson's +brokers." + +"She's his sweetie," Stoner added. "He's going to marry her, so Mallow +thought he'd surely fall for it, coming from her." + +"You--you're not fit to mention that girl's name, either of you." +Gray's tone was one of quivering anger. "If you involve her in your +crooked dealings, even indirectly, I'll--God! What a dirty trick." He +flung Mallow aside in disgust. "You ought to be shot." + +"Why, Governor! We wouldn't hurt that kid. She's aces." + +"I told you my fight with Nelson was to be fair and square." + +There followed a moment of silence. Mallow and Stoner exchanged +glances. "What percentage of that goes?" the former finally inquired. + +"One hundred." + +"So? Then it's lucky Nelson didn't fall. But there's no harm +done--nobody's hurt." + +"It is lucky, indeed-for me. I'd have felt bound to make good his loss, +if you had hooked him. I presume I ought to expose this swindle." + +"Expose Jackson?" Stoner inquired, quickly. When Gray nodded, there was +another brief silence before the speaker ventured to say: "I know this +bird Nelson, and, take it from me, you're giving him the best of it. If +I hadn't known him as well as I do, I wouldn't of put in with you to +break him. It's all right to trim a sucker once; it's like letting the +blood of a sick man--he's better for it. But to ride a square guy to +death, to keep his veins open--well, I ain't in that kind of business. +Now about this Jackson; you can land him, I s'pose, if you try, but it +would be lower than a frog's foot, after him playing square with you." + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"He could have stung you, easy, couldn't he? You surged out here on +purpose to buy the lease, but he hid out all afternoon to avoid you." + +"He is a thief. He is stealing hundreds of dollars a day." + +"Sure! From the Atlantic, that has stolen hundreds of thousands from +the likes of him--yes, millions. It was the Atlantic that broke the +market to sixty-five cents, filled their storage tanks and contracted a +million barrels more than they had tankage for, then gypped the price +to three dollars. I can't shed any tears over that outfit." + +"Let's not argue the ethics of big business. The law of supply and +demand--" + +"Supply and demand, eh? Ever strike you as queer that crude never +breaks as long as the big companies have got their tanks full? The +price always toboggans when they're empty, and comes back when they're +filled up. That's supply and demand with the reverse English, ain't it? +Say, the Atlantic and those others play with us outsiders like we was +mice. When their bellies get empty they eat as many of us as they want, +then they let the rest of us scurry around and hunt up new fields. We +run all the risks; we spend our coin, and when we strike a new pool +they burgle us over again." Stoner was speaking with a good deal of +heat. "Big business, eh? Well, here's some little business--dam' +little. The Atlantic leased a lot of scattered acreage I know about and +drilled it. Pulled off their crews at the top of the sand and drilled +in with men they could trust. It turned out good, but they capped their +wells, wrecked their rigs, and, of course, that condemned the whole +territory. Then they set about buying it all in, cheap--through +dummies. Double-crossed the farmers, see? Friend of mine took a chance; +put down a well on his own. The usual thing happened; they broke him. +It took a lot of doing, but they broke him. One little trick they did +was to cock a bit and drop it in the hole. That prank cost him sixteen +thousand dollars before he could 'side track' the tool. He quit, +finally, less 'n a hundred feet from big pay. Then, having bought up +solid for near nothing they came back and started business, laughing +merrily. That's the Atlantic." + +"A splendid lecture on commercial honesty. I am inspired by it, and I +reverence your scruples, but--I grope for the moral of the story." + +"The moral is, mind your own business and--and give a guy a chance." + +"Um-m! Suppose we leave it at that for the present." + +Mallow, who had remained silent during his friend's argument, greeted +this suggestion with relief. He was glad to change the subject. "Good!" +he cried, heartily. "I'd about as soon face Old Tom Parker, like that +fellow in the restaurant did, as to face Jackson. He'd sink a stillson +in my head, sure, if--" + +"Parker? Was that old man Miss Parker's father?" + +"Certainly! What d'you think ailed that gunman? D'you think he got the +flu or something, all of a sudden? There ain't anybody left tough +enough to hanker for Tom's scalp. He's pinned a rose on all of those +old-timers, and he's deadly poison to the new crop." + +For the first time Calvin Gray understood clearly the reason for the +unexpected outcome of that encounter in the cafe. No wonder the +stranger's trigger finger had been paralyzed. Barbara's father, indeed! +How stupid of him not to guess. On the heels of his first surprise came +another thought; suppose that old Paladin should consider that he, +Gray, had shown weakness in allowing another to assume the burden of +his quarrel? And suppose he should tell his daughter about it! That +would be a situation, indeed. + +"I must find him, quickly," Gray declared. "Perhaps he'll ride back to +town with us." + +It was not a difficult task to locate the veteran officer, and Tom was +delighted at the chance to ride home with his new acquaintance. + +That journey back to civilization was doubly pleasant, for Mr. Parker +cherished no such feelings as Gray had feared, and, moreover, he +responded quickly to the younger man's efforts to engage his liking. +They got along famously from the start, and Tom positively blossomed +under the attentions he received. It had been a trying day for him, but +his ill humor quickly disappeared in the warmth of a new-found +friendship, and he talked more than was his custom. He was even led to +speak of old days, old combats, of which the bloodless encounter that +evening was but a tame reminder. The pictures he conjured up were +colorful. + +A unique and an engaging person he proved to be; an odd compound of +gentleness and acerbity, of kindliness and rancor; a quiet, guileless, +stubborn, violent old man-at-arms, who would not be interrupted while +he was eating. He was both scornful and contemptuous of evildoers. All +needed killing. + +"Hard luck, I call it, for a budding desperado to wreck a career of +promise the way that wretched fellow did," Gray told him with a laugh. +"Out of all the men in Texas, to pick you--" + +"Oh, he ain't a bud! He's quite a killer." + +"Indeed?" + +"He kills Mexicans and niggers and folks without guns, mostly. Low-down +stuff! He's got three or four, I believe. I never could see why the +Nelsons kep' him." + +There was a brief silence. "I beg pardon?" said Gray. + +"He's been on the Nelson pay roll for years--doing odd jobs that wasn't +fit to be done. But I guess they got tired of him, anyhow he's been +hanging around Wichita for the last two or three weeks. He's been in an +out of our office quite a bit." + +"Your office? What for?" + +"I dunno, unless he took a shine to 'Bob.'" + +"Not--really?" + +Mr. Parker uttered an unpleasant sound. "She never said anything about +it, but I suspicioned she had to order him out, finally. I'd of split +his third shirt button if he'd stood his ground. He knew I had +something on him, but he couldn't figure just what it was." Old Tom's +teeth shone through the gloom. "A man will 'most always act like that +when he don't know just where he's at. I knew where _I_ was at, all the +time, only I wanted to see that button plain. I allus know where _I'm_ +at." + +Later, when the journey was over and Tom Parker had been dropped at his +gate, Gray spoke to his two companions. + +"Did you hear what he said?" + +"We did." + +"Do you believe I was framed?" + +Both Mallow and Stoner nodded. "Don't you?" the former inquired. When +no answer was forthcoming, he said: "Better give us the flag, Governor. +We're rar'ing to go." + +"You mean--?" + +"You know what I mean. Nelson's so crooked his bedclothes fall off. We +pulled a boner this time, but Brick has got another window dressed for +him." + +"I'll think it over," said Gray. + + + +CHAPTER XX + +Ozark Briskow, like his sister Allegheny, was studying hard and +learning rapidly, but he had adopted an educational plan, a curriculum, +so to speak, far different from hers. Whereas she lived between book +covers and the thousand and one details of her daily existence were +governed by a bewildering army of "don'ts," Buddy had devised his own +peculiar system of acquiring wisdom, and from it the word "don't" had +been deliberately dropped. His excursion into the halls of learning, +brief as it had been, had convinced him that books could teach him only +words, whereas he craved experiences, ideas, adventures. Adventure +comes at night; pleasure walks by gaslight. Young Briskow told himself +that he had missed a lot of late hours and would have to work +diligently to catch up, but he undertook the effort with commendable +courage. + +It is said that all wish to possess knowledge, but few are willing to +pay the price. Buddy was one of the minority. Early he adopted the +motto, "Money no object," and it provoked him not at all to learn that +there is a scale of night prices considerably higher than the scale of +day prices; to find, for instance, that a nocturnal highball costs +twice as much as one purchased during daylight hours. That phenomenon, +by the way, had nothing to do with the provisions of the Eighteenth +Amendment, it merely explained why farmers went to bed early--they +couldn't afford to sit up, so Buddy decided. + +He had learned a lot since leaving school, not only about prohibition, +but also about speed laws, men's fashions, facial massage, the fox trot +and the shimmy, caviar, silk pajamas, bromo-seltzer, the language of +flowers, and many of the pleasures and displeasures of the higher +intellectual life, such as love and insomnia. + +His education was progressing apace, for love is the greatest of +educators, and Buddy was in love--madly, extravagantly in love. Love it +was that accounted for his presence in Dallas, and his occupancy of the +Governor's suite at the Ajax. A fellow in love with the most wonderful +woman in the world couldn't afford to look cheap in his home town, +could he? + +Of course Dallas was not Buddy's home town, but it had been his point +of departure into the world, and it was the home of his bank account, +hence some pride of proprietorship was pardonable. It gave him such a +pleasing sense of importance to adopt the city as his own that he +adopted everything and everybody in it. + +In spite of the fact that the train from Wichita Falls was behind time, +one morning shortly after Buddy's arrival, he was still abed when +Calvin Gray arrived at the hotel. Instead of disturbing the slumbers of +youth, Gray went directly to the detective who had telegraphed him, and +for half an hour or more the two talked. + +Later, during the course of a leisurely bath and shave, the new arrival +pondered the information he had received. Here was a problem. Having +dressed himself, he strolled around to Coverly's place of business and +interviewed the jeweler. + +"Sure! He has bought quite a bit of stuff in the last few days," +Coverly told him. "He was in only yesterday and ordered a fine piece +made up. He wanted a ruby heart pierced with a diamond arrow, but I got +him off that and onto a blue Brazilian solitaire. We're mounting it in +a platinum lady's ring." + +"What is the price?" + +"Forty-five hundred, and the value is there." + +"Have you seen the woman?" + +Coverly nodded. "The boy is a good picker. I don't blame her much, +either, for I've seen a lot of worse-looking fellows than Buddy." + +"Hold the ring. He may change his mind." + +"I say!" Coverly was in dismay. "Are you going to spoil the best sale +I've made in two weeks?" + +"Oh, I'll take it off your hands if he doesn't. Make some excuse not to +deliver it until I say the word. You don't know the woman, eh?" + +"Never saw her before." + +Gray knocked several times at the Governor's suite before a sleepy +response, a succession of yawns and mutterings, told him that he had +been heard. The door opened finally and the pride of the Briskow +family, his eyes all but swelled shut, his muscular figure splendidly +arrayed in futuristic silken pajamas, mumbled: + +"What's eatin' you, any--?" The eyes opened wider, Buddy's face broke +into a slow smile. "Why, Mr. Gray!" He extended a palm, a bit dry and +feverish, and drew his caller inside. "Dawg_-gone!_ I'm glad to see +you." + +Gray entered with a buoyant laugh and a hearty greeting; he clapped the +young giant heavily upon the back. At the blow Buddy voiced a sharp cry +and seized his head. + +"Easy over the bumps! I'm carryin' a cargo of nitroglycerine, and I'll +let go if you jar me," he explained. + +"Sorry! I know how it feels. But, man alive, it's afternoon! I began to +think you were dead." + +Buddy led the way into his bedroom, piled his pillows together and +gingerly lowered himself upon them. He showed his strong white teeth in +a wide grin and winked meaningly. "I'll be all right directly. It's +this here sim--sympathetic booze they talk about. Have a drink, Mr. +Gray? There's a coupla bottles of real liquor in the closet--not this +tiger's milk you get--" + +The caller declined the invitation. "Where the devil have you been, +Buddy? We were getting worried." + +"Who, me? Oh, I been--lookin' around." + +"Your mother is nearly frantic." + +Buddy stirred uneasily. "Pshaw! I'm fine. I can take keer of myself. +Nobody don't need to worry about me." + +"Good! Now then, you young scoundrel, I'm going to order you the sort +of breakfast that goes with what ails you, and while it is coming up, +you are going to jump under the shower." + +"Where d'you get that 'jump' stuff?" the youth inquired, faintly. +"Besides, I'm clean." + +But Gray had seized the phone, and as soon as he had given his order he +strode into the bathroom and turned on the water. He was out again in a +moment, then laughingly he dragged the aching Texan from his couch. +"Under you go," he insisted, "or I'll wet down your whole Japanese +flower garden." + +"Some pajamas, ain't they? I got a dozen pairs," Buddy said, proudly. + +"Quick! If you think I'll consent to hang around a lonesome hotel while +you sleep, you're mistaken. I can't tell you how glad I am to run into +you, Buddy. I'm dying to have a riotous time." + +"Eh?" Briskow turned an inquiring face to the speaker. + +"I've been hibernating in the wilderness, sucking my paw and living off +my fat, like a bear. I want you to shown me this town." + +A bath, a brisk rubdown, and breakfast put Buddy in fairly good fettle +once more; so marked was his improvement, in fact, that Gray envied him +his glorious gift of youth. + +"Flying pretty high, aren't you?" the elder man inquired, with a wave +of the hand that took in the expensive suite. + +"Well, I ain't exactly broke." + +"True. But I know what these rooms cost. That's going strong for a lad +like you." + +"You took 'em, didn't you, when you had less 'n I got?" + +"Ahem! It is embarrassing to be held up as an example. I've done a good +many things, Buddy, that I wouldn't like to see you do." + +"If they wouldn't hurt me any more 'n they've hurt you I'd like to +try'em." + +"Another proof that you are still in short pants. I'm a bad person to +copy. By the way, why did you quit school?" + +Buddy considered his reply, then: "I reckon it was because of them +short pants you speak about. I can't stand bein' laughed at, Mr. Gray. +It comes hard to stand up in a class along with a bunch of children and +make mistakes and have a little boy in a lace collar and spring heels +snap his fingers and sing out in a sweet soprano, 'Oh, tee-_cher!_' +Then have him show you up. They put me in with a lot of nursin' babes. +What the hell? I weigh a hundred and ninety and I got a beard!" + +"Didn't you learn anything?" + +Buddy closed a meaning eye, and his pleasant features wrinkled into +that infectious smile. "I'll tell the world I did! After the whistlin' +squabs was asleep in their nests I went out among the whippoorwills an' +the bats. Ain't it funny how quick folks can learn to put up with bad +grammar when you got a jingle in your jeans? I guess I've got enough +education to do me; anyhow, I can write Ozark Briskow in the lower +right-hand corner and that seems to get me by." + +"You wouldn't consent to go back or--have a tutor, like Allie?" + +"Who, _me?_" Briskow laughed scornfully. + +"Um-m! Merely a suggestion. You are the architect of your own career." + +"I'm fed up on that kind of schoolin', Mr. Gray. I--" Buddy's face +reddened, he dropped his eyes. "I don't mind tellin' _you_--I--It's +like this--I kinda got a girl!" + +"_No!_" The speaker was surprised, incredulous. + +"Sure have. She's--wonderful. She's right here in this hotel!" + +"Buddy, you're developing!" Gray exclaimed, with apparent admiration. + +"I been showin' her the sights--that's what ails me this morning. She +lets me take her around to places--trusts me, you understand? She +thinks I'm aces." + +"Splendid! I wish you'd ask her to dig up a friend." + +"How d'you mean?" + +"Why, ask her to find another good-looking girl for me--I assume she +_is_ good looking--then we can make it a foursome. I'm a great +entertainer, and, while I don't drink, I haven't the slightest +objection to ladies who do. Dallas, I believe, is a pretty lively--" + +"She's a stranger here," Buddy broke in, stiffly. His enthusiasm had +cooled; he regarded Gray with veiled displeasure. "An' besides, she +ain't that kind of a girl." + +"Oh! Sorry! I thought from what you said--that headache--bottles in +your closet, too! My mistake, Buddy." + +"She'll take a drink, with me," the youth confessed. "Anyhow, she's +gettin' so she will. I don't see anything wrong in a woman takin' a +drink now an' then with a man she--with a man that's honorable." The +last words were voiced defiantly. + +Hastily Buddy's caller averred: "Nor do I. We sha'n't come to blows +over an abstract moral issue like that. This is an age of tolerance, an +age of equality. I flatter myself that I'm quite as lawless and broad +minded as the average bachelor of our very smartest set." + +"I'm--" the speaker gulped. "I'm goin' to marry her." + +"Oh, fine!" Gray's enthusiasm was positively electric. He seized +Buddy's hand and crushed it. "Education, indeed! No use for that now, +is there?" + +"I mean I'm goin' to, if I can; if she'll let me." + +"Let you? With your money? Why, she'll jump at the chance. No doubt you +have already asked her--or she suspects--" + +The lad shook his head. "She don't have to marry nobody. She's got +money--an _es_-tate. You think it's all right for me to do it?" + +"Simpler men than you have asked that question, and wiser men than I +have refused to answer. As for me, I've never had the courage to take +the plunge. However, the worst you can get is a heartbreak and a +lifetime of regrets. But, of course, the woman takes some chances, too. +Tell me about her." + +"Well--" Buddy beamed fatuously. "I dunno hardly where to begin." Into +his voice, as he spoke, there crept a breathless excitement, into his +eyes a dumb adoration. "She's--wonderful! She's too good for me." + +"Once and a while they are." + +"She's educated, too--more in your class, Mr. Gray. I dunno how she +stands for me. She's the smartest, purtiest girl--" + +"She's young, eh?" + +"She's--older 'n I am. I reckon she's mebbe twenty-five. I never ast +her." + +"Naturally. How did you meet her? When? Where? I'm a terribly romantic +old fool." Gray hitched his chair closer and leaned forward, his face +keen with interest. + +"Well, sir, it's a regular story, like in a book. I was in a restaurant +with a coupla fellers an' a feller she was with struck her--" + +"Struck her?" + +"Yep. He was her brother, so she told me. Anyhow, I bounced him. I sure +spoiled him up a lot. She was cryin' an' she ast me to take her home. +That's how I got to know her. I s'pose she cottoned to me for takin' +her part that-a-way. She didn't know the sort of place it was her +brother had took her. Pore kid! She's had a hard time, an' every man +she ever knew, but me, done her dirt. Even her husband." Buddy scowled. + +After a moment Gray said, quietly, "So, she's married?" + +"She was. He's dead, or something. I was bashful about callin' around +to see her, not havin' anything to talk about but school an' oil wells, +but she took an interest right away, 'specially in the wells. You'd +ought to hear the story of her life, Mr. Gray. It's as sad as any +novel. You see, her folks had lots of money, but her ma died an' her pa +was too busy to be bothered, so he sent her off to a convent. Them nuns +at the convent was so cruel to her that she run away--" + +"And went on the stage." + +"How'd you know?" + +"I didn't. But--the stage is the usual refuge for convent-bred girls +who are abused. I've met several. Did she--Was the old home in +Virginia?" + +"Sure! Mebbe you know her!" Buddy cried. + +"Perhaps. I seem to remember the story. What is her name?" + +"Arline Montague." + +The elder man shook his head. "You said something about a marriage. I +dare say she married some rich John whose family disapproved of the +match--so many show girls have been deceived like that. You can't +imagine the prejudice of those Fifth Avenue parents--" + +"That's what she done. An' he went off an' joined the French Legion of +Honor an' was killed." + +"Foreign Legion, no doubt." + +"Anyhow, he never made no pervision for her. But she wouldn't of +touched a penny of his money if he'd left it to her, she's that +honorable." Now that the lover had fairly launched himself upon the +engrossing life story of his sweetheart he was in deep earnest, and his +listener's quick understanding, his sympathy, his grasp of the +situation, was a spur to further confidences. It was a blessing to have +a friend so old, so wise, and so worldly. + +"What is the estate you mentioned?" + +"Oh, that's her own! It's all she had to fall back on. It's bein' +settled up now an' she'll have her money before long." + +"The old Virginia homestead and the slaves--?" + +"Good thing she met me when she did, for them lawyers had it all tied +up in court and wouldn't let go till she paid their fees." + +"A providential meeting, truly. You fixed that up, of course, and got +rid of the wretched bloodsuckers. I've done much the same thing, more +than once. Now, one other question--how does she happen to be in +Dallas? I infer from your account that she is a model of virtue, and +that she accepted your aid only upon the condition that your attentions +to her should be characterized by the deepest respect. So? Well then, +'how come'?" + +"That was just a lucky chance. She's got some interests here; stocks +an' things, belongin' to the _es_-tate. She dunno, herself, how +valuable they are, but me comin' right from Texas an' bein' in oil an' +all, she ast me to he'p her out. So I got her to come. All that had +kep' her back was the expense. Mind you"--Buddy's tone became one of +deeper admiration--"she ain't blue, or anything. No sir-ee! Her life's +been sad, but you'd never know it. She's full of pep; allus out for +fun, an'--that's what I like about her. Gee! You gotta meet her, Mr. +Gray." + +"Well, rather! But meanwhile, we must telegraph your parents not only +that you have been found, but also the further good news." + +"I--We better not say anything about my gettin' married." + +"Why not? They'd like to know." + +"I'd oughta wired 'em long ago, but--you understand! Miss Montague +ain't exactly Ma an' Allie's kind." + +"You're not ashamed of her?" + +"Hunh!" The tone of this exclamation was an eloquent denial. + +"Then let's have them come on and get acquainted. They'll probably take +right to her." But when this suggestion met with disapproval, Gray +inquired: "Is it because you are ashamed of _them_--of your mother and +sister?" + +Buddy stirred uneasily. "Pshaw, no!" A sudden thought came to him. +"Why, it's this way: I haven't ast her yet. Mebbe she won't have me. If +she says yes--I'll let 'em know." + +"Good! We'll make it, for the time being, a mere message of +reassurance. To-night you and Miss Montague shall dine with me and +we'll go to a theater." This arrangement met with young Briskow's +enthusiastic approval, and so it was left. + +It was with something more than mere impatience that Calvin Gray +awaited the dinner hour; he was angry, restless; his mind was back in +Wichita Falls, whence the message from his detective had abruptly +summoned him. Matters of moment were at issue there, and with a love +affair of his own upon his mind he could think of no undertaking less +to his taste than this: of saving a young fool from his folly. He could +expect no thanks, if he succeeded, and if he failed he would in all +probability incur Buddy's enmity, if not that of the whole Briskow +family. Families are like that. It would all take time, and meanwhile +his business was bound to suffer. However, he was not one to turn back, +and he remembered with a pang the last look he had seen in Ma Briskow's +eyes. + +Gray was prepared to find his young friend's light o' love +superficially attractive, and she was all of that. He was not prepared, +however, to find her quite as good an actress as she appeared to be. In +spite of the fact that she probably took less pleasure in the meeting +than did he, she admirably covered her feelings. She was delighted, +flattered--Buddy had so often spoken of him that she almost felt +acquainted--She was quite excited at knowing the famous Colonel +Gray--She would have recognized him anywhere from Buddy's glowing +description. + +Gray's heart sank as he studied Miss Montague. She was blond--to his +suspicious eye a trifle too blond--and she wore her hair bobbed. She +was petite and, both in appearance and in mannerism, she was girlish; +nevertheless, she was self-reliant, and there was a certain maturity to +her well-rounded figure, a suggestion of weariness about her eyes, that +told a story. + +Following his first critical appraisal, Gray was vaguely conscious of +something familiar about her; somewhere within him the chords of +remembrance were lightly brushed; but try as he would he could not make +himself believe that he had ever seen her. Probably it was the type +that was familiar. He undertook to make sure by talking "show business" +at the first opportunity; she responded with enough spontaneity to give +an impression of candor, but her theatrical experience was limited and +that line of exploration led nowhere. + +Whatever the pose she had adopted for Buddy's benefit, it was evident +now that she credited his friend with intelligence equal to her own, +and recognized the futility of deceit, therefore she made no attempt to +pass as anything except an experienced young woman of the world, and +Gray admired her for it. She smoked a good many cigarettes; her taste +in amusements was broad; she had sparkle and enthusiasm. She was, in +fact, a vibrant young person, and referred gayly to a road house +whither Buddy had taken her on the night before and where they had +danced until all hours. She loved to dance. + +The elder man played host in his best and easiest style, both at dinner +and at the theater; then he passed the burden of entertainment over to +Buddy, first cheerfully declaring that he would not be sidetracked and +that he intended to impose his company upon the young couple whether +they wanted him or not. This was precisely to young Briskow's liking, +and soon they were speeding out to that road house mentioned earlier in +the evening. + +Buddy drove, with Miss Montague by his side, the while Gray sat alone +in the back seat of the car quietly objurgating the follies of youth +and mournfully estimating his chances of surviving the night. Frankly, +those chances appeared pretty slim, for Buddy drove with a +death-defying carelessness. By the time they had arrived at their +destination, Gray's respect for the girl had increased; she had nerves +of steel. + +The resort was run on rather liberal principles; a number of flushed +and noisy couples were dancing to the music of a colored orchestra. It +was a "hip-pocket" crowd, and while there was no public drinking, the +high-pitched volubility of the merrymakers was plainly of alcoholic +origin. Gray realized that he was in for an ordeal, for he had become +too well known to escape notice. Consternation filled him, therefore, +at thought of the effect his presence here might have. But the music +went straight to Buddy's feet; syncopation intoxicated him much as the +throbbing of midnight drums and the pounding of tom-toms mesmerizes a +voodoo worshiper, and he whirled Miss Montague away in his arms without +so much as an apology to his other guest. + +There was nothing conservative about Buddy's dancing. He embellished +his steps with capricious figures, and when he led his partner back to +the table where he had left Gray, like a sailor marooned upon a thirsty +atoll, he was red faced and perspiring; his enthusiasm was boiling +over. "Dawg-_gone!_" he cried. "Now, if we had something wet, eh? These +pants is cut purpose for a brace of form-fittin' flasks, but I left 'em +in the room on account of you not drinkin', Mr. Gray." + +"Miss Montague," the elder man exclaimed, "I am not a kill-joy and I +hastily resent Buddy's accusation. I have pursued folly as far as any +man of my years." + +"I bet him that you were a good fellow," the girl said, with a smile. + +"Exactly! Abstinence comes as much from old age as from principle, and +I am in my very prime. With all vigor I defend myself against the +odious charge of virtuousness. Dyspepsia alone accounts for it." + +"You don't object to drinking?" + +"A wiser man than I has said, 'There are many things which we can +afford to forget which it is yet well to learn.' I have had my day. May +I claim the next dance?" + +In spite of the fact that Ozark Briskow was compelled to sit out every +alternate dance in a distressing condition of sobriety, he enjoyed +himself, for he was playing host to the one woman and the one man for +whom he cared most. He had dreaded meeting Gray, fearing the effect of +an open confession, expecting opposition, but Gray was broad minded, he +was a regular guy. In the relief of this hour, Buddy could have +worshiped him except for the fact that he was too darned nice to +Arline--nobody had the right to show her attentions as marked as his +own--Gray was a man no woman could help loving-- + +Before long Buddy experienced a new sensation--jealousy. It was mild, +to be sure, but it hurt a little. + +Once Miss Montague's suspicions had been allayed, she, too, devoted +herself to having a good time. She rather enjoyed Gray and her sense of +victory over him. She retired to the ladies' room, finally, to powder +her nose, and when she reappeared it was with added animation and with +a new sparkle to her eyes. When next it came the elder man's turn to +dance with her, he caught upon her breath a faint familiar odor, only +half disguised by the peppermint lozenge that was dissolving upon her +tongue, and he smiled. Evidently this charmer maintained herself in a +state of constant preparedness, and her vanity bag hid secrets even +from Buddy. + +Where had he seen her? For the hundredth time he asked himself that +question, for amid these hectic surroundings that first haunting +suggestion of familiarity had become more pronounced. But patient +delving into the dark corners of his memory was unavailing, and her +conversation afforded him no clue. + +As time passed the young woman made other trips to the dressing room, +returning always with an access of brightness and a stronger breath; +she assumed with Gray a coquetry which Buddy did not like. Buddy, +indeed, strongly disapproved of it, but that only drove her to more +daring lengths. She ventured, at last, to discuss the young millionaire +with his friend. + +"He's a dear boy, isn't he? And so innocent." + +"He's learning." + +"I'll say he is. He has learned a lot from me." + +"'Delightful task, to rear the tender thought.' But aren't you afraid +he'll learn, for instance, why you are eating peppermints?" + +"Oho!" Gray's petite partner lifted her head and eyed him curiously. +"Do you know why?" + +"I have a suspicion," he said, with a smile, "that when a girl +deliberately perfumes her breath it is in preparation for the struggle +in the cab." + +Miss Montague laughed unaffectedly. "Say! I could like you, Mr. +Wisenblum, in spite of the fact that I ought to hate you." + +"Hate me? But why?" + +"Why shouldn't I?" + +"Because--I'm rather nice; I dance well." + +"You are, and you do. You'd be a perfect dear if you'd only mind your +own business. Buddy is of age, and you and I will get along like ham +and eggs if you'll remember that." + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +"Why the SOS?" Mallow voiced this question as he entered Gray's hotel +room early the following evening. + +"I'm in a predicament and I hope you can help me," the latter +explained. "I'm trying to remember something and I can't. I have a cold +spot in my head." + +Mallow deposited his bag with a sigh of relief. "Glad it's no worse. +Anybody can cure a cold in the head." + +"Sit down and light up while I tell you about it." In a few sentences +Gray made known the story of Ozark Briskow's infatuation, and the +reason for his own interest therein. "The woman is of the common +'get-rich-quick' variety," he concluded, "and she won't do." + +"She didn't pull the family estate and her father's slaves and the +orange grove on you, did she?" + +"Oh no. She used that on Buddy and he believes it implicitly--so +implicitly that she warned me to keep off the track. She showed her +teeth, in a nice way. I've seen her somewhere; in some place where I +should not have been. But where? It must have been in this country, +too--not abroad--or I'd remember her." + +"Maybe I haven't been as wild as you, Governor. This is a big country +and I've missed a lot of disreputable joints." + +The former speaker smiled. "You have trained yourself to remember +faces, Mallow. Your researches--scientific researches, my dear +Professor--have led you into quarters which I have never explored. I +must identify this venturesome little gold digger without delay, for +Buddy yearns to make her all his; matrimony is becoming the one object +of his life." + +"Why not let the poor carp have her? It's tough enough for a dame to +get by since prohibition. I don't see how they make it, with everybody +sober. Chances are she'd get the worst of the swap, at that." + +"Not unlikely, but that is neither here nor there. Understand me, I'm +no seraph; I pose as no model of rectitude, and, unfortunately for my +peace of mind, Miss Montague is a really likable young person. But +Buddy has a mother and a sister, and they hold me responsible for him. +We three are dining downstairs in an hour; perhaps you could look in on +us?" + +"Sure. I'll give her the once over," Mallow agreed. "If she's anybody +in our set, I'll know her." + +The dinner had scarcely started when Gray heard his name paged and left +the table. In the lobby Mallow was waiting with a grin upon his face. + +"Is that her?" he inquired. + +"That is the girl." + +"_Girl?_ 'Arline Montague,' eh? Her name is Margie Fulton and she had +her hair up when they built the Union Pacific." + +"Nonsense! You're mistaken. She can't be more than twenty-five--thirty +at most." + +"A woman can be as young as she wants to be if she'll pay the price. +Margie had her face tucked up two years ago. Cost her five thousand +bucks." + +"I--can't believe it." + +"You see it every day. Look at the accordion-pleated beauts in the +movies. Why, some of those dolls nursed in the Civil War! Those face +surgeons have ironed the wrinkles out of many a withered peach, and +you're dining with Margie Fulton, the Suicide Blonde. I know her kid." + +"Her _what?_" Mallow's hearer gasped. + +"Sure. She was married to Bennie Fulton, the jockey, and they had a +boy. Bennie was ruled off in New Orleans and started a gambling house." + +"New Orleans! Wait--I'm beginning to remember." + +Into Gray's mind came an indistinct memory; the blurred picture of a +race track with its shouting thousands, a crowded betting ring; then, +more clearly, a garish, over-furnished room in a Southern mansion; +clouds of tobacco smoke rising in the cones of bright light above +roulette and poker tables; negro servants in white, with trays; mint +juleps in tall, frosted glasses; a pretty girl with straw-colored +hair--"You're right!" he agreed, finally. "She was a 'come-on.'" + +"That's her. She worked the betting ring daytimes and boosted in +Bennie's place at night. Whenever she was caught she suicided. That's +how she got her name." + +"Just what do you mean by that?" + +"Why, the usual stuff. A bottle of water with a poison label. If a +mullet threatened to call the police, she'd cry, 'You have ruined my +life!' Then with shaking hand she'd pull the old skull bottle and drink +herself to death. Of course, the poor leaping tuna usually got the acid +out of her hand in time to save her. She saw to that." + +Gray was laughing silently. "My dear Professor," he confessed, "wisdom, +of a sort, is mine; sometimes I grow weary with the weight of my +experiences and wonder why the world so seldom shows me something new. +But beside you I am as a babe. Tell me, what has become of the +ex-jockey husband?" + +"She divorced him. Mind you, Margie was square, like most of those +'come-ons.' She'd 'how dare' a guy that so much as looked at her. You +know the kind I mean." + +"And the child? Where do you suppose she keeps it?" + +Mallow reflected. "The last time I saw the little cherub he was singing +bass in a bellboys' quartette at Hot Springs. He hops bells at the +Arlington summers and butchers peanuts at the track during the +season--you know, hollers 'Here they come!' before they start, then +when the women jump up he pinches the betting tickets out of their laps +and cashes them with the bookies." + +"Could you get hold of this--this boy basso and bring him here without +letting him or his mother know?" + +"I can if he's still at Hot Springs, and I saw him there the last time +I was up. The little darling got me into a crap game and ran in some +shaped dice. Of course, it would cost something to get him." + +"How much?" + +Mallow "shot" his cuff and upon it gravely figured up the probable +expense. "Well, there would be the fares and the eats and his bit--he +wouldn't come for nothing. He'd gyp me for ten dollars, but he'd +probably come for five. I'd offer him three--" + +"There is a thousand dollars in it if you can produce him within the +next forty-eight hours. I doubt my ability to sit on the safety valve +much longer than that, for Buddy Briskow is rapidly breaking out with +matrimonial measles. If I throw cold water on him it will only +aggravate the disease." + +"A thousand dollars!" Mallow cried. "Why, for a thousand berries I'll +bring you his head on a platter. I'll car the little devil down and +lock him in a suitcase." The speaker hesitated a moment before +concluding. "It's a dirty trick on Margie, though." + +"I know. But I'm thinking of Buddy. Now, in Heaven's name, hurry! My +constitution may survive a few more road houses, but my reputation will +not." + +That night was a repetition of the one before, but with variations and +with trimmings, for Buddy wore his "two-pint trousers" again, and this +time they were loaded, hence Gray had a chance to observe him at his +best--or worst. A little liquor went a long way with the boy; he +derived much effect, many by-products, so to speak, from even a few +drinks, and the elder man was forcibly reminded of Gus Briskow's +statement that his son had a streak of the Old Nick in him. It was +true; Buddy was indeed like a wild horse. Artificially stimulated, he +became a creature of pure impulse, and those impulses ran the entire +gamut of hilarity: he played the drum; he wrestled with a burly +doorman; he yelled, whenever he found what he called a good "yelling +place"; he demonstrated his ability to sing "Silver Threads Among the +Gold" to the accompaniment of a four-piece orchestra energetically +engaged in playing something quite modern and altogether different. +These, and many other accomplishments equally unsuspected, he +displayed. On the way from one lively resort to a livelier he conceived +the unique idea that he could "swap ends" with his touring car in much +the same manner that he could turn a nimble cow pony, and he tried it. +Happily, the asphalt was wet, and in consequence the maneuver was not a +total failure, although it did result in a crumpled mud guard and a +runaway. Milk-wagon horses in Dallas, it appeared, were not schooled to +the sight of spinning motor cars, and the phenomenon filled at least +one with abysmal horror. + +Gray felt sure that he had visibly aged as a result of that ride, and +he began to understand why a new crop of wrinkles was appearing about +the corners of Margie Fulton's eyes. No wonder she was beginning to +look a trifle weary. + +Fearing that Buddy was likely to turn sentimental without warning, the +elder man monopolized as much of "Miss Montague's" time and attention +as possible; he danced with her frequently, and he assiduously devoted +himself to winning her favor. The result was a tribute to his acting +and to his magnetism. In a moment of abandon she confided to him that +she wished he had Buddy's money or--that he was a marrying man. Both of +Buddy's flasks had been emptied by this time, however, so Gray was not +unduly beguiled by this flattery. + +On the whole, it was a horrible night. + +As Gray languidly crept into bed about daylight he had the satisfaction +of knowing that he had at least excited his young friend's open +jealousy. That might act as a stay. On the other hand, of course, it +might have directly the opposite effect--one could never tell--and it +might be the part of wisdom, therefore, to gain possession of that +diamond ring. + +Buddy sought him out in the lobby, early the next afternoon, and after +a colorless greeting, said, queerly, "Would you mind comin' up to my +room for a minute?" + +"Certainly not. I'd have looked in on you before this if I'd thought +you were up." As the two mounted the wide marble stairs Gray went on, +cheerfully: "Not looking your best this morn--afternoon, my lad. As for +me, I am, in a manner of speaking, reborn. I have taken a new start. +Careful reflection upon the providential outcome of that amazing skid +has convinced me that whatever joys or sorrows assail me hereafter, +however much or little of life is spared me, it will be all 'velvet.' A +touch of mascaro about my temples and I shall look as young as I did +yesterday. What are we going to do to-night?" + +"I dunno." + +Once inside his spacious suite, Buddy flung himself into a chair and +with trembling fingers lit a cigarette. It was evident that he had +something to say, but either dreaded saying it or knew not where to +begin. His companion, meanwhile, pretended to look out upon the street +below. In reality, he was observing the young giant. Poor Buddy! He was +suffering. + +The latter cleared his throat several times before he managed to say, +"You don't want me to marry Arline, do you, Mr. Gray?" + +"Frankly, my boy, I do not." + +"Why?" + +"There are many reasons." + +"What's one?" + +"I don't think you love her." + +Briskow stirred. "Is that why you--went an' got that di'mon' ring I had +made?" When this query met with a nod the young Texan's face flamed and +his eyes glowed. "What in hell--" He swallowed his anger, rose to his +feet and made a nervous circuit of the room before coming to a pause at +Gray's side. His lips were working; there was a tragic, a piteous +appeal in his eyes; his voice shook as he stammered: "I didn't mean to +break out at you, Mr. Gray. I like you. Gee! I--You're kinda like God +to me. I'd ruther be like you than--well, there ain't nobody I like +like I like you--You could get her away from me if you wanted to, +but--you wouldn't do a trick like that, would you? I was mighty happy +till you came--You--got that ring with you?" + +"I have it in my pocket." + +"I want it." Buddy extended a quivering hand. + +"Why?" + +"I'm goin' to ask her to marry me, to-day. If she won't I'm goin' to--" + +"She will." + +Buddy gasped. "You _sure?_" + +"I'm quite sure she would if you asked her. But I don't want you to ask +her." When an expression of pained reproach leaped into the lad's face, +the speaker explained, quickly: "Don't think for a moment that I care +for her, nor that she has the slightest interest in me. It is you that +I care for. What you just said pleased me, touched me. I wish you could +understand how much I really do care for you, Buddy. Won't you wait--a +few days, before you--" + +"I _can't_ wait." + +"You must." + +The men eyed each other steadily for a moment, then Buddy demanded, +querulously, "What have you got against her, anyhow?" + +"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." + +"She told me everything there is to tell an' I told you. I don't care +what she's done--if she ever done anything. She's had a hard time." + +"Will you wait forty-eight hours?" + +"No." + +"Twenty-four?" + +"Gimme that ring!" When Gray made no move the speaker ran on, +excitedly: "I'm a man. I'm of age. It's none of your business what I +do--nor Pa's or Ma's, either. It won't do no good for them to come." + +Gray went to the door, locked it and pocketed the key. "Buddy"--his +voice was firm, his face was set--"you are a man, yes, although you +were only a boy a few weeks ago. You are going to act like a man, now." + +"You goin' to try an' _hold_ me here?" The inquiry was one of mingled +astonishment and anger, for young Briskow could scarcely believe his +eyes. "Don't do that, Mr. Gray. I--Nobody can't _make_ me do anything. +Please don't! That's plumb foolish." + +"What if I told you that Miss Montague is--" + +Buddy interrupted with a harsh cry. "Damn it! I said I wouldn't listen +to anything against her. I'm tellin' you, again, keep your mouth shut +about her." The youth's face was purple; he was trembling; his fists +were clenched, and with difficulty he restrained even a wilder +outburst. "You can have the ring, but--you lemme out of here, quick." +When this command went unheeded he strode toward the bedroom, intending +to use the other exit, but his caller intercepted him. "Lemme out!" the +young man shouted. + +"One of us is going to remain in this room, and I think it will be +you." As Gray spoke he jerked off his coat and flung it aside. "Better +strip, Buddy, if you mean to try it." + +Buddy recoiled a step. Incredulously he exclaimed: "You--you wouldn't +try _that_! This is my room. You must be crazy." + +"I think I am, indeed, to endure what I have endured these last two +days; to make myself ridiculous; to be humiliated; to risk my business +ruin just to save a young fool from his folly." Impatience, resentment, +anger were in the speaker's tone. + +"I never ast you. You butted in--tried to cut me out. That's dirty. You +was lyin' when you said--" + +"Have it that way. I've run out of patience." + +Ozark Briskow, too, had reached the limit of his endurance; he +exploded. Momentarily he lost his head and cursed Gray vilely. For +answer the latter moved close and slapped him across the mouth, saying: +"Fight, you idiot!" + +Buddy's low, gasping cry had the effect of a roar; it left the room +echoing, then savagely he lunged at his assailant. He was blind, in him +was a sudden maniacal impulse to destroy; he had no thought of +consequences. Gray knocked him down. + +It was a blow that would have felled an ox. As the youth lay half +dazed, he heard the other taunting him, mocking him. "Get up, you +lummox, and defend yourself. You'll be a man when I get through with +you." + +Codes of combat are peculiar to localities. In the north woods, for +instance, lumberjacks fight with fist and heel; in the Southwest, when +a man is mad enough to fight at all, he is usually mad enough to kill. +As Buddy Briskow rose to his knees he groped for the nearest weapon, +the nearest missile, something--anything with which to slay. His hand +fell upon a heavy metal vase, and with this he struck wickedly as Gray +closed with him. This time they went down together and rolled across +the floor. The legs of a desk crashed and a litter of writing materials +was spilled over them. + +Gray was the first to regain his feet, but his shirt had been torn half +off and he tasted blood upon his lips. He had met strong men in his +time, but never had he felt such a rocklike mass of bone and muscle as +now. Buddy was like a kicking horse; his fists were as hard as hoofs, +and that which they smote they crushed or bruised or lacerated. He +possessed now the supreme strength of a madman, and he was quite +insensible to pain. He was uttering strange animal sounds. + +"Shut up!" Gray panted. "Have the guts to--keep still. You'll--rouse +the--" + +He dodged an awkward swinging blow from the giant and sent him reeling. +Buddy fetched up against the solid wall with a crash, for Gray had +centered every pound of his weight behind his punch, but the countryman +rebounded like a thing of rubber and again they clinched. + +A room cluttered with heavy furniture is not like a boxing ring. In +spite of Gray's skill and an agility uncommon in a man of his size, it +was impossible to stop the other's rushes or to avoid them. Straining +with each other they ricocheted against tables and chairs, and only the +fact that much of the furniture was padded, and the floor thickly +carpeted, prevented the sound of their struggle from alarming the +occupants of the halls and the lobby. They fought furiously, moving the +while like two wrestlers trying for flying holds; time and again they +fell with first one on top and then the other; their flesh suffered and +they grew bloody. The room soon became a litter, for its fittings were +upset, flung about, splintered, as if the room itself had been picked +up and shaken like a doll's house. + +Gray managed to floor his antagonist whenever he had time and space in +which to set himself, but this was not often, for Buddy closed with him +at every opportunity. At such times it was the elder man who suffered +most. + +In a way it was an unequal struggle, for youth, ablaze with a holy +fire, was matched against age, stiffened only by stubborn +determination. Neither man longer had any compunctions; each fought +with a ferocious singleness of purpose. + +Buddy's face had been hammered to a pulp, but Gray was groaning; he +could breathe only from the top of his lungs, and the bones of his left +hand had been telescoped. Agonizing pains ran clear to his shoulder, +and the hand itself was well-nigh useless. + +It was an extraordinary combat; certainly the walls of this luxurious +suite had never looked down upon a scene so strange as this fight +between friends. How long it continued, neither man knew--not a great +while, surely, measured by the clock; but an interminable time as they +gauged it. Nor could Calvin Gray afterward recall just how it came to +an end. He vaguely remembered Buddy Briskow weaving loosely, rocking +forward upon uncertain legs, blindly groping for him--the memory was +like that of a figure seen dimly through a mist of dreams--then he +remembered calling up his last reserve of failing vigor. Even as he +launched the blow he knew it was a knockout. The colossus fell, lay +motionless. + +It was a moment or two before Gray could summon strength to lend +succor, then he righted an armchair and dragged Buddy into it. He +reeled as he made for the bathroom, for he was desperately sick; as he +wet a towel, meanwhile clinging dizzily to the faucet, his reflection +leered forth from the mirror--a battered, repulsive countenance, +shockingly unlike his own. + +He was gently mopping young Briskow's face when the latter revived. +Buddy's eyes were wild, he did not recognize this unpleasant stranger +until a familiar voice issued from the shapeless lips. + +"You'll be all right in a few minutes, my lad." + +Briskow lifted his head; he tried to rise, but fell back limply, for as +yet his body refused to obey his will. + +"You--licked me," he declared, faintly. "Licked me good, didn't you?" + +"_Buddy!_ Oh, Buddy--" It was a yearning cry; Gray's streaked, swollen +features were grotesquely contorted. "You won't be mad with me, will +you?" + +"Want to fight any more?" + +The victor groaned. "My God, _no!_ You nearly killed me." + +This time Buddy managed to gain his feet. "Then I reckon I'll--go to +bed. I feel purty rotten." + +Gray laughed aloud, in his deep relief. "Righto! And after I've phoned +for a doctor, if you don't mind, I'll crawl in with you." + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +On the morning after the fight Mallow knocked at Gray's door, then in +answer to an indistinct and irritable command to be gone, he made +himself known. + +"It's me, Governor. And I've got Exhibit A." + +"Really?" came the startled query. There was a stir from within, the +lock snapped and the door opened. + +"I've got a little friend here that I want you to--" Mallow paused +inside the threshold, his mouth fell open, he stared in frank +amazement. "Sweet spirits of niter!" he gasped. "What happened to +_you?_" + +"I was playing tag in the hall with some other old men, and one of them +struck me." + +"My God, you're a sight!" Mallow remained petrified. "I never saw a +worse mess." + +"Come in and close the door. I am vain, therefore I have a certain +shyness about exposing my beauty to the curious gaze. Pardon me if I +seat myself first; I find it more comfortable to sit than to stand, to +recline than to sit." Stiffly the speaker let himself into an +upholstered divan and fitted the cushions to his aches and his pains, +his bruises and his abrasions. He sighed miserably. His features were +discolored, shapeless; his lips were cut; strips of adhesive tape held +the edges of a wound together; his left hand was tightly bandaged and +the room reeked with the odor of liniment. + +"You've been hit with a safe, or something," Mallow declared. +"Evidences of some blunt instrument, as the newspapers say; maybe a +pair of chain tongs." + +"Blunt and heavy, yes. Buddy Briskow and I had an argument--" + +"That big bum? Did he lay it on you like that? Say, he's got the +makings of a champ!" + +"Pride impels me to state that he got the worst of it. He is scarcely +presentable, while I--" + +"Your side won?" + +"It did. Now, where is the boy?" + +"He's outside." Without shifting his astonished gaze, Mallow raised his +voice and cried, "Hey, Bennie!" The door opened, a trim, diminutive +figure entered. "Bennie, mit my friend Colonel Gray." + +The youngster, a boy of indeterminate age, advanced and shook hands. +There was no mistaking him; he was Margie Fulton's son in size, in +coloring, in features. "I told Bennie you could use a bright kid about +his age. And he's bright." + +It required no clever analysis of the lad to convince Gray that he was +indeed bright, as bright--and as hard--as a silver dollar. He had a +likable face, or it would have been likable had it been in repose. It +was twitching now, and Gray said, with a smile, "Go ahead and laugh, +son." + +The urchin's lips parted in a wide grin, and he spoke for the first +time. "Did the Germans do that?" The effect of his voice was startling, +for it was deep and husky; it was the older man's turn to be astonished. + +"He could pass for fifteen on the street," Mallow said; "but when he +talks I chalk him down for thirty-five. How old are you, Ben?" + +"Seventeen. What's the big idea, anyhow?" The question was directed +impudently at the occupant of the divan. "Did you send all the way to +Hot Springs to get a guy you can lick?" + +"Your mother is here in Dallas, my boy." + +"Yeah?" There was a pause. "How's it breaking for her?" + +"Um-m, very well. I thought she'd like to see you." + +Bennie cocked his head, he eyed the speaker curiously, suspiciously. +"Come clean," he rumbled. "Mallow said you could use me." + +"I can. I will." + +The boy shrugged. "All right, Sharkey. I s'pose it'll come out, in +time. Only remember, I've got twenty coming, win or lose." + +"Of course" Gray waved toward the dresser, upon which was a handful of +bills. "Help yourself. Better make it twenty-five. Then wait outside, +please. We will join you in a few minutes." + +"And don't make it thirty," Bennie's traveling companion sharply +cautioned. + +When the door had closed, Gray gave his friend certain instructions, +after which he limped to the telephone and called Arline Montague. "May +I ask you to step down to Buddy's room?" he inquired, after making +himself known. "Oh, it will be quite all right--We three must have a +little talk--But he _couldn't_ see you last night. He was quite ill, +really; I sat up with him most of--" There was a longer hiatus then. +"Hadn't we better argue that in Buddy's presence? Thank you. In five +minutes, then." + +As he and Gray prepared to leave, Mallow said, sourly: "Margie is a +good little dame, in her way, and I feel like a--like a damned'stool.'" + +"My dear fellow," the other told him, "I understand, and I'd gladly +take another beating like this one to escape this wretched denouement." + +When Ozark Briskow answered Gray's request for admittance, he was +deeply embarrassed to find Miss Montague also waiting; his stammered +protest was interrupted by her sharp inquiry: + +"What is the meaning of all this mystery? He said you were too sick to +see me." + +"Permit me to explain," Gray began, as he closed the door behind them. +"Buddy and I came to blows over you; you were, in a manner of speaking, +an apple of discord between us, and the melancholy results you behold. +Jealousy of your charms was not my motive; I merely asked Buddy to +defer a contemplated action. He refused; I insisted. Argument failed to +budge either of us and--" + +The young woman's sympathetic regard of Gray's victim changed to a +glare of hostility as she turned upon the speaker, crying: "You +_brute!_ You ought to be arrested!" + +"He ast me to wait, Arline--" + +"To delay asking you a question which I felt should be more seriously +considered. In the absence of his family I took it upon myself to--" + +"To butt in!" Miss Montague exclaimed, with curling lip. + +"Quite so. I merit your disapproval, but not your disdain." + +With some heat Buddy declared: "Pa an' Ma know that I got a mind of my +own. It won't do 'em any good to come." + +"See here," the woman demanded. "What have you been telling Buddy about +me? I told him all there was to tell." + +"Quite all? I fear you have not been as frank as you would have me +believe. That, in fact, explains my connection with the affair. Believe +me when I say that I am interested only in seeing justice done to both +of you young people, and in making sure that you do not deceive each +other. It is an impulse of artless youth to trick itself in glowing +colors, but you should know the whole truth about Buddy and he about +you. If, after you are thoroughly acquainted with each other, you still +maintain a mutual regard I shall have nothing further to say--except to +beg that I be allowed to show my true friendship for both of you." + +"Well, spring the bad news," said Miss Montague. Briskow now displayed +the first open resentment he had shown since his defeat of the day +before. "You licked me, Mr. Gray, an' I took my medicine," he growled. +"You changed my looks, but you didn't change my mind. I'm waitin' for +the folks to come, but I ain't goin' to listen to 'em." + +"Let him get this off his chest, Buddy. Go ahead with the scandal, +Saint Anthony." + +Gray bowed. "Suppose we ignore the early convent training and the Old +Kentucky Home and agree that they are pleasant fictions, like the +estate which you are in such imminent danger of inheriting. Those, I'm +sure you will admit, are entirely imaginary." Buddy Briskow's swollen +eyelids opened wider, his tumid lips parted, and an expression of +surprise spread over his dropsical countenance. + +"Step on it," sneered Miss Montague. "Dish the dirt!" + +"Buddy's belief, however, that your stage career was blasted and your +young life laid waste by the scion of a rich New York house should, in +the interests of truth, be corrected." + +"He knows I was married." + +"True. But not to Bennie Fulton, the jockey." + +"That is a--lie!" + +"Nor that the estimable Mr. Fulton, instead of perishing upon the field +of glory, dodged the draft and is doing as well as could be expected of +a jockey who has been ruled off every track in the country, and is now +a common gambler against whom the finger of suspicion is leveled--" + +"It's a lie!" the woman stormed. Of Buddy she inquired: "You don't +believe that, do you? You don't intend to listen to that sort of stuff?" + +The object of this appeal was torn by conflicting emotions. Doubt is a +weed that sprouts fastest in dull minds; suspicion is the ready armor +of ignorance; to young Briskow came the unwelcome vision of those oil +wells. Was Gray telling the truth? Could it be that Arline had made a +fool of him? But no, she was smaller, prettier, more adorable than +ever, now that she was whipped by this gale of anger, and a girl like +that could not be a deceiver. Buddy longed desperately to believe her +refutation of the charge. He closed his eyes and made himself believe. + +"Even now," Gray was saying, "if you would tell the boy all he ought to +know, I would take myself off and have nothing more to say." + +"You-you make me _sick!_" Miss Montague cried, vibrantly. "What right +have _you_ to preach? What kind of a man are you? If he believed your +lies for a minute I'd never want to see him again. He has been a true +friend to me"--her voice quavered, caught in her throat--"the only true +friend I ever had. _I_ don't care whether he's rich or poor, but men +like you are all alike. What chance has a girl got against you? You +want to use his money, so you p-poison his mind--break a woman's +heart--just b-because you--hate me." The last words were sobbed forth. +Miss Montague broke down. + +"Hell!" hoarsely exclaimed young Briskow. "You're makin' her cry!" + +Gray sighed; he stepped to the door, opened it and called, "Come in, +both of you." + +Arline Montague's shoulders ceased to shake, she lifted her blond head +alertly. Then she uttered a breathless exclamation. + +Buddy, meanwhile, had been staring at the door, and he was surprised +when, instead of his family, he saw entering a strange man and a boy +small of stature but old of face, a boy insouciant, impudent, +swaggering. It was this boy who spoke first. + +"Hello, momma!" he cried. + +At sound of that voice Buddy recoiled, for it was deeper than his own. +His expression of dismay was no doubt ludicrous, at any rate the +urchin's lively eyes leaped to his face and remained there, while a +grin spread over his features. + +"Hully Gee!" rumbled the lad. "Here's _another_ one that ought to be +buried!" + +"Mrs. Fulton"--it was Gray speaking--"I took the liberty of asking your +son--" + +Buddy Briskow heard no more, for his ears were roaring. Her son! That +voice! Being little more than a boy himself, nothing could have hurt +him more cruelly than this; his impulse was to flee the room, for his +world had come down in crashing ruin. She _had_ lied! She _had_ made a +fool of him. Gray had been right. + +The others were still talking when Buddy broke in faintly. His battered +visage was white, his lips were colorless. "I reckon this--ends my +part of the entertainment," said he. Slowly he seated himself and +bowed his head in his hands, for he had become quite ill. + +Arline Montague--Margie Fulton--once the blow had fallen, behaved +rather well; she took Bennie in her arms and kissed him, then in answer +to his quick look of dismay at her agitation, she patted him on the +shoulder and said: "It's all right, son. You didn't know." + +"Didn't know what?" demanded the lad. "Say--" He stared angrily from +one face to another. "Is it a plant?" + +"Hush! You wouldn't understand." + +Bennie's suspicions now were in full play, and his gaze came to rest +upon Calvin Gray; his eyes began to blaze. "You--you big bum!" he +cried. "I might have known you were a double-crosser." + +"Hush, Bennie, please!" + +"I'll get you for this." The midget was quivering with rage. "You'll +look worse 'n that, you--you big bum!" + +"Take my key. Here!" The mother thrust her room key into the boy's +hand. "Run along. I--I'll see you in a few minutes." To Mallow she +said: "Take him out, please. You brought him." + +Mallow, flushing uncomfortably, took Bennie by the wrist and dragged +him to the door. + +"Dirty work!" said the woman, when the two had gone. Her eyes were dark +with anger as she stared at Gray. + +"It must look so to you," he agreed. "Frankly, I didn't enjoy it." + +"Bah!" Margie turned to Briskow, but in his attitude, his averted gaze, +she read the doom of her hopes. One final chance remained, however, and +desperately she snatched at it. "Buddy!" she cried. "_Buddy!_" Her +voice was poignant as she pleaded. "I couldn't tell you the truth. I +wanted to--I laid awake nights trying to get the courage, but I was +afraid you wouldn't understand. I'd have told you the whole thing, if +you'd ever given me the chance. You know I've been married; does it +make so much difference that I have a son?" When the object of her +appeal only stirred, she went on, reproachfully: "Are you going to +allow this--this man to--come between us?" + +"I wouldn't believe you now, if--" Buddy choked. "I'm through!" + +"You mean that?" The young fellow nodded. "Very well!" Something in the +tone of the last words, some accent of desperation, caused Buddy to +raise his head. He was in time to see Margie fumble with her purse and +extract something therefrom; to Buddy's eyes it resembled a bottle. +"There is no use fighting any more. You have ruined my life." + +"My God!" young Briskow yelled, in dismay. "Don't do that! Stop her!" +He leaped to his feet and lunged for the poison vial which was +trembling upon Arline's lips. Gray, too, had been galvanized into +action, but of an unexpected nature; he grappled with Buddy and held +him. "Look out!" the latter gasped. "She's killin' herself." The Texan +was weak with horror; he could only paw impotently at his captor and +cry: "Arline! You wouldn't do _that?_ For _me?_ Lemme go. Arline--" + +"This is the end," moaned the woman, still holding the bottle to her +lips. Her despair was tragic; nevertheless, she did not instantly hurl +herself into the hereafter. This hesitation at meeting death was only +natural, perhaps, for none but the bravest can leap into the unknown +without a moment of farewell. + +"Drink hearty!" Gray exclaimed, over his shoulder, meanwhile closing +tighter his embrace of the terrified youth. + +Buddy's struggles suddenly ceased, for at last the bottle had been +drained; the girl was groping blindly toward the nearest chair. + +"God'lmighty! You let her do it!" he cried, hoarsely. "You--you +_murderer_! We--we gotta get a doctor, quick." + +"Nonsense! Water won't hurt her; and that's all it is. She's known as +'the Suicide Blonde.'" + +"Say! You're bursting with information, aren't you?" It was Miss +Montague, tottering upon the brink of the grave, who voiced this +explosive inquiry. Her drooping shoulders straightened, she raised her +head and flung the empty bottle violently from her. Her face was +deathly white, to be sure, but not with darting agonies. "You know +_everything_, don't you? You make plain the past, the present, and the +future. Well, Madame Thebes, you're under the wire with the horseshoe +on your neck." With head erect and with firm tread she moved to the +door; she turned there and blazed forth in bitter scorn, her bobbed +curls shaking as she spoke: "Take that selling plater back to the car +barn, where he belongs. I'm off boobs for life. I knew you had a jinx +on me the minute I saw you, for I broke my mirror the day you breezed +in. Seven years bad luck? My God, you're all of that and more! Why, +you'd bring bad luck to a church! I'll beat it now while you give +little Rollo his bottle and rock him to sleep. If he cries, tell me +and--and I'll furnish the rock." + +The door slammed to behind the diminutive fury, and Gray sank feebly +into a chair. He was laughing silently. + +"By Jove! She's splendid!" he chuckled. "Buddy, I--I like that woman." + +It was midforenoon of the next day. Mrs. Fulton, after a restless +night, was packing her trunks; her room was in disarray, what with open +suitcases and piles of dresses, lingerie, shoes and the like strewn +carelessly about. She had halted her labors for a second time to scan a +brief note that had arrived a few moments before and ran as follows: + +DEAR MRS. FULTON,--I am not really such a bad sort as you consider me, +and I'm genuinely interested in that boy of yours. Let's cry quits and +have a serious talk about him and--perhaps other things. + +Sincerely yours, + +CALVIN GRAY. She was thus engaged when there came a knock, and in +answer to her voice the writer entered. + +"Thank you for letting me come up," he began. "I'm becoming accustomed +to dodging chambermaids and scurrying up back stairs. But I'm looking +better, don't you think?" + +"There's only one way you'd look better to me," the woman said, +unsmilingly, "and that is laid out." + +"Please put me at my ease. I am physically sore and mentally +distressed." + +"_You_ sore, distressed! Humph! I wouldn't have consented to see you +except for what Mallow told me. After what he said I'd like to give you +a piece of my mind. What right have _you_ doing a thing like this? Do +you know what I think of you?" + +"I do. Also what Mallow thinks of me, for he told me. You see, he +believes firmly that I am a--well, a person of much looser principles +than I really am, and my protestations of honesty only excite his +veiled derision." + +"He says he's sorry. Sorry! After spilling the beans." + +"Mrs. Fulton, I have learned that life is a mixed affair, and that most +of our actions are the results of conflicting motives. Yes, and that we +ourselves are products of conflicting forces, good and evil. Few of us +are as good as we would like to have people believe nor as bad as we +appear. I wonder if you will believe me when I say that I--like you." + +"Certainly not." + +"Nevertheless, I do. For one thing, you are a good fighter and a good +loser. I try to be, but I fear I lack your spirit. I would not have +hurt you willingly." + +The woman tossed her head and turned away; when she spoke, it was +wearily: "I might have known I couldn't make the jump. I never did win +a big race. A good loser, eh? Well, I've had enough practice at it. How +is Buddy? Hurt, I suppose. His young life is blasted; he'll never trust +another woman." + +"He is standing it pretty well, and is greatly cheered by the fact that +he can see out of his left eye practically as well as ever. He is going +back to the oil fields and learn the business. I am going to put him to +work. What are you going to do with Bennie?" + +"Do with him? What can I do with him?" + +"He is a bright boy." + +"I'm bright, too, but I have all I can do to get by." + +"It is a shame to think he will grow up into what his father was." + +Margie Fulton wheeled and her blue eyes were dark. "I suppose you think +I'm a bad mother. But what do you know about it? How do you know what +I've gone through for him; the sacrifices I've made? I've made plenty +and they came hard." + +"I'd like to help you make a man of him." + +"What? _You_? How?" + +"I'd like to put him in business and teach him that there is no profit +in short-changing customers; that the real wise guy isn't the fellow +who gets the best of every bag of peanuts, but the one who can go back +to the same customer and sell him another bag. The abstract principle +has been put much more succinctly, but I doubt if it would carry the +same weight with him. I'd enjoy giving the boy a hand up, but--he is +more than I'd care to tackle alone." + +"There's Mallow to help you. He'd be a refining influence." The +mother's lip curled. + +"How about you?" + +"Me?" + +"Isn't the--sort of life you are living becoming a bit tiresome? Aren't +you about fed up on uncertainties?" The object of these queries drew a +deep breath; her eyelids flickered, but she continued to stare at the +speaker. "Worry brings deeper wrinkles than old age. Wouldn't you like +to tie to something solid and be able to show Bennie that you are, at +heart, the sort of woman I consider you? He'll soon be getting old +enough to wonder if you are what he thinks you are or if--" + +"I suppose you learned this--bayonet practice in the army," Mrs. Fulton +said, hoarsely. + +"Anybody can make a good living in a country like this if he cares +enough to try. I'll back you if you need money." + +"And--what's the price?" + +"My price? Oh, I'd feel well repaid if some day Bennie acknowledged +that I was a 'regular guy,' and if you agreed." + +"Is that all?" + +"Quite all. Is there something you do--well?" + +"I can cook. I'm a good cook. Women like me usually have hobbies they +never can follow--and I have two. I can make a fool of a stove, and +I--I can design children's clothes, wonderful things, new things--" + +"Will you come to Wichita Falls and start a restaurant and make good +things to eat, if I supply the money and the customers?" + +"_Will_ I?" The speaker's face had flushed, her eyes had begun to +sparkle. "Then it's a bargain," Gray declared, gayly. "Why, you'll get +rich, for it is the chance of a lifetime. I'll guarantee patronage; +I'll drum up trade if I have to turn sandwich man and ring a bell. +Leave the details to me." + +Margie Fulton sank slowly into the nearest chair, regardless of the +fact that it was piled full of lacy, white, expensive things; her voice +quavered, broke, as she said: "Gee, Mr. Gray! I figured there must be +some decent men in the world, but--I never thought I'd meet one." + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +In a long, relentless struggle between two men psychology may play a +part as important as in a campaign between two opposing armies, or so +at least Calvin Gray believed. That, in fact, was one of his pet +theories and from the first he had planned to test it. It was +characteristic of Henry Nelson, on the other hand, that he put no faith +whatever in "imponderables," hence Gray's reference to morale, on that +day of their first meeting, had amused him. Morale, indeed! As if a man +of his tough fiber could be affected by the mere chanting of a Hymn of +Hate! He considered himself the captain of his soul, and the antics of +a malicious enemy, the wild waving of false danger signals, instead of +distracting a resolute mariner, would merely cause him to steer a truer +course. + +But Nelson was a brooder. Time came when doubts distressed him, when he +began to put faith in "malicious animal magnetism" and, despite his +better sense, to wonder if some evil spell really had not been put upon +him. + +In his arrogance it had seemed at first a simple matter to do away with +Gray. That had been mistake number one. The miserable breakdown of that +plan, the refusal of his hireling to go forward, and the impossibility +of securing a trustworthy substitute convinced him finally that he had +erred grievously in his method. Some men are invulnerable to open +attack, and Gray, it seemed, had been wet in the waters of the Styx. +No, that had been a bad beginning and Nelson regretted it, for he +feared it had served as a warning. + +So, indeed, it appeared, for not long thereafter he actually felt, or +thought he felt, the vengeful claws of his enemy. A new strike in one +of the western counties had become public, and a brand-new oil +excitement was born overnight. Trains were crowded, roads were jammed +with racing automobiles; in the neighborhood of the new well ensued +scenes to duplicate those of other pools. For the first week or two +there was a frenzy of buying and selling, a speculation in oil acreage +and town lots. + +The Nelsons, of course, were early on the ground, for in spite of the +father's contention that they could ill afford, at the moment, to tie +up more money in unproductive properties, the son had argued that they +must have "protection," and his arguments had prevailed. + +Henry went in person, and he was disagreeably surprised to discover +Gray on the ground ahead of him. The latter bore evidences of hard +usage in the shape of a black eye and numerous bandages, reputed to be +the result of an automobile collision. Henry regretted that his enemy's +injuries were so trivial. It was indeed a pity that so few accidents +are fatal. + +He bought rapidly, right and left, as much to forestall Gray as +anything else, and he was back at the bank shortly with a number of +leases. Not until some time later did he learn that he had paid a price +for them twice as high as that charged for properties closer in. + +It was Bell who brought this unwelcome information home to him--brought +it home in his characteristic manner. + +"What the hell ails you, anyhow?" the father inquired, in apoplectic +wrath. "Have you gone clean crazy?" + +After some inquiry Henry realized what ailed him and who had caused him +to throw away his money, but he did not apprise Bell. More than once +they had been parties to "wash sales," and had helped to establish +artificial values, but to be victimized in the same manner was like the +taste of poison. + +Of course, it meant little in the big game. At most, the firm had been +"gypped" only a comparatively few thousand dollars, and the loss could +probably be recouped by a resale; nevertheless, the incident was +significant, and, upon second thought, it appeared to shed light upon +certain other expensive transactions in other fields. + +Now, oddly enough, this new oil discovery did not develop as had been +expected--in fact, the excitement died out quickly--and when Henry +Nelson undertook to dispose of his holdings he was faced by a heavy +loss, for Gray was offering adjoining acreage at low prices. + +Following this unhappy experience, the scandal about the Jackson well +became public--the Atlantic Company having at last located the leak in +its pipe line--and the whole Red River district enjoyed a great laugh. +Henry Nelson did not laugh. He turned green when he realized how close +he had come to buying that lease. Of course, here was a swindle that +Gray could have had nothing to do with, and yet--Nelson wondered why +"Bob" Parker had failed to sell it to him. "Bob" had tied it upon an +option, awaiting his return, and he had hurried back on purpose to +examine it. Why hadn't he bought it? Henry asked that question of the +girl, and, when she told him as much as she knew, he began to believe +that the whole thing was, indeed, an incredibly bold attempt to swindle +him, and him alone. + +Miss Parker, of course, was deeply chagrined at her connection with the +fraud; nevertheless, the banker felt his flesh turn cold at the +narrowness of his escape. He assured himself, upon calmer thought, that +his imagination was running away with him; this was too devilishly +ingenious, too crooked! And besides, Gray had promised to fight fair. +All the same, the thing had a suspicious odor, and Nelson slept badly +for a few nights. He decided to use extra caution thereafter and see +that he neither paid more for leases than they were worth nor permitted +anybody to "salt" him. Salting, after all, was rare; one read about it +in books, but no experienced operator had ever been fooled in that way. + +About this time a big gasser blew in north of the Louisiana fields, and +wise oil men began to talk about Arkansas and quietly to gather in +acreage. Less than a week later one of Nelson's field men brought into +the bank a youth who owned some property in the latter state. This +yokel was a sick man; he was thin and white; he had a racking cough, +and he knew nothing about oil except from hearsay. All he knew was that +he would die if he didn't get to a warmer, drier climate; but the story +he told caused Henry Nelson to stare queerly at his field man. That +very night the latter left town. + +On the third night thereafter, in answer to a telegram, Nelson and the +Arkansas farmer slipped unobtrusively out of Wichita Falls. It so +happened that Brick Stoner, en route to Hot Springs for a little rest, +was a passenger on the same train. + +Stoner returned in due time, much rested, and he brought with him a +large check to the firm's account. + +"We timed it to the minute," he told McWade and Mallow. "That gasser +couldn't have come in better if we'd ordered it. Nelson's dickering +under cover for more acreage near what he's got, but I tipped off who +he was." + +"He fell easy, eh?" + +Stoner grinned. "He was so pleased with himself at swindling an +invalid, and so scared somebody would discover those seepages that he +couldn't hardly wait to sign up. If it hadn't of been for the general +excitement, he might of insisted on time to do some exploring, but he's +pulled a rig off another job and he's sending it right up." + +"We've got some good news, too," McWade asserted. "Avenger Number One +is trying hard to come in." + +"No?" + +"I tell you Gray's got a rabbit foot. If we continue to trail along +with him, I'll be losing you as a partner, Brick." + +"How so?" + +"Why, I'll be turning honest. It seems to pay." + +"Um-m. Probably I'd better keep all this Nelson money and leave you--" + +"Oh, not at all," the junior partner said, quickly. "That isn't an oil +deal, strictly speaking, for you say there ain't oil enough on the land +to grease a jackknife. I look on it as a real-estate speculation." + +With a laugh Stoner accepted this explanation, and then announced that +he was hungry for his breakfast. + +This time Mallow spoke up. "I'm bally-hooing for a new joint; Fulton's +Fancy Waffle Foundry. Follow me and I'll try to wedge you in. But +you'll have to eat fast and pick your teeth on the sidewalk, for we +need the room." In answer to Stoner's stare, the speaker explained his +interest in the welfare of Wichita Falls's newest eating place, and en +route thereto he told how Margie Fulton came to be running it. "Gray +did it. He got the Parker girl to help us, and we had the place all +fixed up by the time Margie got here. She's tickled pink, and it'll +coin money--if it isn't pinched." + +"Pinched?" + +"Sure! Bennie's the cashier, and he palms everything from dimes to +dishtowels. Force of habit! Better count your change till I break him +of short-changing the customers." + +"_You_--" Stoner stopped in his tracks. + +"Oh, I'm giving him lessons in elemental honesty." + +"My God! Are you turning honest, too?" the other man exclaimed. "Seems +like that's all I hear lately." + +It was a blue day for Henry Nelson when Avenger Number One came in, for +it made necessary immediate drilling operations on his part. And the +worst of it was the well was not big enough to establish a high value +for his holdings. It was just enough of a producer to force him to +begin three offsets and that, for the moment, was an undertaking +decidedly inconvenient. + +Bell Nelson was even more dismayed at the prospect than was his son, +for upon him fell the necessity of raising the money. "Hell of a note," +the old fellow grumbled, "when a wet well puts a crimp in us! A little +more good luck like this and we'll go broke." + +"We can't afford to let go, or to sub-lease--" + +"Of course not, after the stand we've taken. There's talk on the street +about the bank, now, and--I'd give a good deal to know where it comes +from." The junior Nelson had heard similar echoes, but he held his +tongue. "I never did like your way of doing business," the speaker +resumed, fretfully. "We've overreached. You wanted it all and--this is +the result." + +Now Henry Nelson was warranted in resenting this accusation, for it had +ever been Bell's way to pursue a grasping policy, therefore he cried, +angrily: + +"That's right; pass the buck. You know you wouldn't listen to anything +else. If we're in deep, you're more to blame than I." + +"Nothing of the sort." Old Bell began a profane denial, but the younger +man broke in, irritably: + +"I've never won an argument with you, so have it your own way. But +while you're raising money for the Avenger offsets, you'd better raise +plenty, for Gray is going to punch holes down as fast as ever he can." + +"Who is this Gray? What's he got against you?" + +Henry's eyes shifted. "Has he got anything against me? He bought a good +lease and was wise enough to get somebody to make a well for him--" + +"Those crooks! Those wildcatters!" + +"Now, he proposes to develop his acreage as rapidly as possible. +Nothing strange about that, is there?" + +"Is he sore at you?" + +"We didn't get along very well in France." + +"Humph! I suppose that means you fought like hell. And now he's getting +even. By the way, where am I going to get this money?" + +"That is up to you," said Henry, with a disagreeable grin, whereupon +his father stamped into his own office in a fine fury. + +Not long after this father and son quarreled again, for of a sudden a +perfect avalanche of lawsuits was released, the mysterious origin and +purpose of which completely mystified Old Bell. The Nelsons, like +everybody else, had unsuccessfully dabbled in oil stocks and drilling +companies for some time before the boom started, also during its early +stages, and most of those failures had been forgotten. They were +painfully brought to mind, however, when Henry was served with a dozen +or more citations, and when inquiry elicited the reluctant admission +from the bank's attorney that a genuine liability existed--a liability +which included the entire debts of those defunct joint-stock +associations in which he and his father had invested. This was enough +to enrage a saint. + +Henry argued that he had invariably signed those articles of +association with the words, in parentheses, "No personal liability," +and he was genuinely amazed to learn that this precaution had been +useless. He protested that scores--nay, hundreds--of other people were +in the same fix as he, and that if this outrageous provision of the law +were strictly enforced and judgments rendered widespread ruin would +result. His lawyer agreed to this in all sympathy, but read aloud the +provisions of the statute, and Nelson derived no comfort from the +reading. The lawyer was curious to know, by the way, who had taken the +trouble to acquire all of these claims--a task of heroic size--but +about all the encouragement he could offer was the probability of a +long and expensive series of legal battles, the outcome of which was +problematical. That meant annoyance, at best, and a possible impairment +of credit, and the Nelson credit right now was a precious thing, as +Henry well knew. Eloquently he cursed the day he had met Calvin Gray. +What next, he wondered. + +He discovered what next when the driller he had sent up to Arkansas in +charge of his rig one day came into the office in great agitation. The +man's story caused his employer's face to whiten. + +"_Salted!_ I--don't believe it." Nelson seized his head in his hands. +"Oh, my God!" he gasped. Misfortunes were coming with a swiftness +incredible. Salted! Victimized, like the greenest tenderfoot! A small +fortune sunk while the whole country was still chuckling over the +Jackson scandal! This _was_ a nightmare. + +Henry was glad that his father was in Tulsa in conference with some +other bankers over that Avenger offset money, otherwise there was no +telling to what extreme the old man's rage would have carried him at +this final calamity. And that whining, coughing crook, that bogus +farmer, was in Arizona--or elsewhere--out of reach of the law! The +younger Nelson turned desperately sick. If this was not more of Gray's +work, it was the direct result of the curse he had called down. + +"Does anybody know?" Henry inquired, after he had somewhat recovered +his equilibrium. + +"Nobody but us fellows." + +"You--you mustn't shut down. You've got to keep up the bluff +until--until I get time to turn." + +"You going to bump off that land to somebody else?" + +"What do you think I'm going to do?" Nelson was on his feet now and +pacing his office with jerky strides. "Take a loss like that?" He +paused and glared at the bearer of bad tidings, then growled: "What are +you grinning about? Oh, you needn't say it. You want yours, eh? Is that +it?" + +"Well--it's worth something to turn a trick like this." + +"How much?" + +"It's a big deal. It'll take something substantial--something +substantial and paid in advance--to make our boys forget all the +interesting sights they've seen. But I'd rather leave the amount to +you, Henry. You know me; I wouldn't be a party to a crooked deal, not +for anything, except to help you out--" + +"How much?" the banker repeated, hoarsely. + +But the field man merely smiled and shrugged, so, with a grunt of +understanding, Henry seated himself and wrote out a check to bearer, +the amount of which caused him to grind his teeth. + +Now it was impossible to dispose of a large holding like that Arkansas +tract at a moment's notice. In order to evade suspicion, it was +necessary to go about it slowly, tactfully, hence the financier moved +with as much circumspection as possible. His careful plans exploded, +however, when he met Calvin Gray a day or so later. + +Gray had made it an invariable practice to speak affably to his enemy +in passing, mainly because it so angered the latter; this time he +insisted upon stopping. He was debonair and smiling, as always, but +there was more than a trace of mockery in his tone as he said: + +"So your luck has changed, hasn't it? That Avenger well of mine has put +a good value on your property. I congratulate you, Colonel." + +"Humph! I don't believe in luck," Nelson mumbled. "And the Avenger +isn't enough of a well to brag about." + +"So? You don't believe in luck? It seems to be our lot invariably to +differ, doesn't it? Now, my dear Colonel, I'm not ashamed to confess +that I am deeply superstitious, and that I believe implicitly in signs +and prodigies. You see, I was born under a happy star; 'at my nativity +the front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,' as it were. Comfortable +feeling, I assure you. Take that incident at New-town, not long ago; +doesn't that prove my contention?" + +"What incident?" + +Gray's brows lifted whimsically. "Of course. How should you know? There +was a clumsy attempt to do me bodily harm, to--assassinate me. Funny, +isn't it? So ill considered and so impracticable.--But about this +Avenger matter, if you find it inconvenient to offset my wells as fast +as I put them down, perhaps you'd consider selling--" + +"_Inconvenient?_" Nelson felt the blood rush to his face at this +insufferable insult, but he calmed himself with the thought that his +opponent was deliberately goading him. After all, it served him right +for permitting the fellow to stop him. "Inconvenient! Ha!" He turned +away carelessly. + +"No offense, my dear Colonel. I thought, after your Arkansas fiasco, +you might wish--" + +"What Arkansas fiasco?" Nelson wheeled, and in spite of himself his +voice cracked. + +"Ah! Another secret, eh?" Gray winked elaborately--nothing could have +been more deliberately offensive than that counterfeit of a friendly +understanding. "Very well, I sha'n't say a word." + +"You--" The banker was gasping. "You're doing your damnedest to--to +start something, aren't you?" + +"Every day. Every hour. Every minute." The speaker bowed. "In defense +of my promise to fight fair, let me assure you, however, that I did not +start this. As a matter of fact, I knew nothing about it until you had +been hooked. Apropos of that quixotic promise, please remember that +your own actions have absolved me from it." + +The men stared at each other for a moment that seemed interminable. +Gray was watchful, expectant; Nelson was plainly shaken by a desire so +desperate that resistance left him weak. He was like an animal frozen +in the very attitude of springing. + +"Foxy, aren't you?" he managed to say, at last. "Tempting me to--make +the first move." With a mighty effort of will he forced his tense body +to relax. "The act of a bully! Bah! Wouldn't I be a fool--" + +"A bully is usually a coward," Gray said, slowly. "Neither of us is a +coward. I'm not ready to--join the issue that way, especially in a +place like this. The game is too exciting to--" + +"You'll get all the excitement you're looking for," Nelson cried, +wrathfully. "You've cost me a lot of money, but you could have cost me +a lot more if you hadn't been fool enough to brag about it and give me +warning. Now--I'll send you out of Texas afoot." + +"On my back, perhaps, but never on my feet." + +Without another word the banker passed on, but he went blindly, for his +mind was in black chaos. No chance now for secrecy; he was in for a bit +of hell. He managed to kill the story in the local papers, but it +appeared in the Dallas journals, which was even worse, and for the +first time in his life he found himself an object of ridicule. The +Arkansas transaction was made to appear the most outrageous swindle of +recent oil history, and, coming so quickly after the Jackson exposure, +it excited double interest and amusement. + +In truth, the facts about the salting of that Arkansas tract did make a +story, for the methods employed had been both new and ingenious. Nelson +had been fooled by a showing of oil in an ordinary farm well, and by a +generous seepage into a running stream some distance away. Not until a +considerable sum had been spent in actual drilling operations, however, +did those seepages diminish sufficiently to excite suspicion +sufficiently, in fact, to induce the crew to pump the water well dry. +This done, an amazing fraud had been discovered. It had been found that +the vendor of the land had removed the rock curbing and behind it had +packed a liberal quantity of petroleum-soaked cotton waste. Naturally, +when the well had been walled up again and permitted to resume its +natural level, the result was all that the unscrupulous owner could +have expected. + +The creek seepage had turned out to be equally counterfeit, but even +more ingeniously contrived. It had manifested itself where a stratum of +clean white sand, underlaid with clay, outcropped at the foot of a high +bank. In the undergrowth, quite a way back from the stream, tardy +investigation disclosed that a hole had been dug down to that layer of +sand and into the hole had been poured several barrels of "crude." The +earth from the digging had been removed and the hole had been cunningly +covered up. Naturally, the oil from this reservoir had followed the +sand stratum and--the resultant phenomenon at the water's edge had been +well calculated to excite even the coldest-blooded observer. It had +excited Henry Nelson to such an extent that he had bought not only this +farm, but a lot of other farms. And Nelson was shrewd. Oh, it was a +great joke! The whole mid-continent field rocked with laughter at it. + +Nelson, senior, returned from Tulsa bull-mad, and he came without the +money he had expected to get. What went on in his office that morning +after he sent for his son none of the bank's employees ever knew, but +they could guess, for the rumblings of the old man's rage penetrated +even the mahogany-paneled walls. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +Gray had once told Barbara Parker that there was no one quite like +him--a remark more egotistical in the sound than in the meaning. +Unusual in many ways he probably was, but, like most men, the discovery +that his proudest virtues were linked with vices of which he was +ashamed struck him as extraordinary. As if nature were not forever +aiming at a balance. + +In spite of the fact that he was impulsive, headstrong, swift in most +things, this girl possessed the unique faculty of rendering him acutely +self-conscious, and it annoyed him the more, therefore, to find how +timorous he could be in putting her feelings to the test. That was the +one thing he could never quite summon courage to do. She was so young, +so cool, so disconcertingly straightforward that, in contrast, his own +age appeared the greater, and his many counterfeit qualities were +thrown into uglier relief. + +Then, too, her answer meant so much that fear of refusal became an +actual torture, and the mere thought of it left his arrogant spirit +strangely humble. To a man in his vengeful mood, to a man whipped by +one savage purpose, love had come as a blessed relief; and, in +consequence, anger at his indecision was the greater. Sometimes he told +himself that he deserved to lose her. + +One such occasion was after he had taken her out to the Avenger lease. + +There was more than one well by this time; Avenger Number Two and Three +and Four were going down, and offsetting the first Avenger were three +of Nelson's rigs. "Bob" studied the situation briefly, then, with a +dubious shake of her head, she announced: "You are taking a big risk, +Mr. Gray." + +"You mean these new holes may come dry? Of course, but I believe in +crowding my luck. I don't know any other way to work." + +"You _have_ been lucky, haven't you?" She stared at him with a +detached, impersonal interest. "Everything is coming your way, even +down in the Ranger district." + +"Oh, I have my share of troubles. I lost a crooked hole, recently--had +to skid the derrick and start over. Then a pair of chaintongs was +dropped into another hole--" + +"That makes an expensive fishing job." + +"The worst ever." + +"Somebody must have it in for you." When Gray nodded, "Bob's" face lit +up with surprise. "Really. Do you suspect someone in particular?" + +"I know." + +"How interesting." After a moment had passed and he had explained no +further, the girl went on: "Everybody is talking about you and your +success. They say you have the golden touch." + +"That is a good reputation to enjoy; but this country is full of +fellows who came here knowing as little about oil as I knew and who +have accomplished more sensational results. I've come up like a rocket, +to be sure; it remains to be seen whether I shall fall like a stick." + +"You won't fall." + +"Do you really believe that?" The inquiry was eagerly put. "I'd trust +your intuition, Miss--"Bob." Sometimes I have moments of uneasiness, +for, you see, I'm drilling more wells than I should. It is double or +quits, you understand? If my luck breaks, so do I." + +"You have always impressed me as a--a man of destiny. I think fate has +selected you as an instrument with which to do big things. That's why +I'm always a bit overawed by you." + +"Overawed?" Gray laughed. "Why, I feel the same with you. If you knew +how little I am, how little it all signifies, except as a means to an +end. If you only knew what it is that I want so much more than oil, or +money, or--" + +"I thought you were like all the others here--absorbed only in the +game." + +"I was, at first. I had reason to be; a very great reason, I assure +you. Then I saw something far more desirable than fortune, far more +absorbing than--than the motive that brought me here. Some days, like +today, I think I'm going to win it, then again I grow faint-hearted." + +"Faint-hearted? _You?_" There was an elaborate skepticism in "Bob's" +tone, but as the meaning of Gray's ardent gaze struck home to her, she +turned her head with a lightly affected laugh. She was coloring, but +she knew that her companion's agitation was so much greater than hers +that he did not notice it. + +"Fair lady," he said, a bit uncertainly, "you multiply my courage +tenfold, and I shall retain the guerdon of your faith. But we +swashbuckling fellows are proud; we must come as victors or not at all, +and I am anything but victorious, yet. I've had many a fall, and my +armor is dented in a dozen places. I have a record of failures that +only a lasting success can wipe out. When, if ever, that record is +wiped out, why--my tongue shall be my heart's ambassador." This was the +boldest speech that Gray had ever permitted himself. + +Never had he felt "Bob" to be so close to him as on this day, and in +consequence he made of it a festival. He played the lover with a +respectful ardor, doubly thrilling by reason of its restraint, and that +night it was not Henry Nelson's face that lingered last in his memory. +He wondered, before he fell asleep, if he had acted wisely in letting +slip his hour. Opportunity has a fickle way of jilting those who ignore +her, and yet--how could he speak with honor to himself? + +It must not be inferred that Henry Nelson endured with patience the +blows that were rained upon him. On the contrary, he fought back with +every weapon he could lay hands upon, and there were many. In this he +was aided by Old Bell, for father and son were much alike and their +friction had been only such as results from the rubbing of two hard +bodies of identical composition; now that they were put under heavy +pressure, they adhered and functioned without heat. + +They were handicapped, however, in that they had the bank to think +about, and, in times of frenzied finance such as this, a banking +business is more of a liability than an asset. Under normal conditions +no single individual of Gray's limited resources could have caused them +more than temporary annoyance; but in the midst of a speculative +frenzy, in a time of vast "paper profits" and overnight losses, at an +hour when they themselves were overextended and the financial fabric of +the whole oil industry was stretched to a point of inflation where a +pin prick was apt to cause complete collapse, the feat of warding off a +lance in the hands of a destructive enemy was one that kept them in a +constant state of nervous panic. + +To make matters worse, the crest of the wave had passed, the boom was +nearly over, and money was no longer easy. Outside investors were +cooling; mysterious and powerful influences were at work, and there +were rumors of a break in the price of crude. Meanwhile, so far as the +Nelsons were concerned, it was necessary to pour a steady stream of +dollars into the earth in order to save that which had been +accomplished at immense cost, and such oil as their producing wells +gave forth was swallowed up in other holes. It became, with them, a +problem of how to hold on, how to finance from day to day until +production returns overtook exploitation expense--a problem that put +gray hairs in their heads and lines about their eyes. They were forced +to many expedients. + +How they managed it at all baffled Gray, and worried him, too, for he +knew that if ever they turned the corner they would be safe from him, +and his vengeance would fall [Illustration: NEVER HAD HE FELT "BOB" TO +BE SO CLOSE TO HIM AS ON THIS DAY] to the ground. One big well would +set them up, and there was always that danger, for scarcely a week went +by without news of some gigantic gusher. Knowing all there was to know +about their field activities, he set himself to the task of learning +more about the bank itself and about their method of operating it. This +was a task, indeed, and he spent much time at it--time he could ill +afford, by the way, for he, too, had about exhausted his last resource. + +He was surprised one day to receive from Roswell, the banker who had +first backed him, an almost peremptory summons to Dallas. Gray had made +much money for Roswell and his crowd; they were still heavily +interested with him, and he was counting upon their further support. +The tone of this letter, therefore, gave him a disagreeable shock. On +the whole, however, he was glad of an excuse to go, for the Briskows +had returned and had bought a home in Dallas, and he was eager for a +sight of them. + +Mr. Roswell's greeting was quite as cool as his letter; but he betrayed +a keen interest in the progress of their joint affairs and asked a good +many searching questions. Gray answered frankly. + +"You surprise me," the banker announced, finally, "for you confirm +something I did not wish to believe. I have just learned that you are +using us to further a private grudge and to ruin a reputable man. I +couldn't credit such a statement without--" + +"It is quite true, except that I haven't 'used' you. Not, at least, in +the sense you imply." + +"You have used our money. It is the same thing." + +"Oh, not at all I have handled a number of speculations--investments is +a better word--for you and your group and I've made a lot of money for +you. That's the most you expected; that's all I promised. So long as I +continue to do that, my motives, my personal likes and dislikes, +concern you in no wise. Neither are you concerned in the use I make of +my winnings." + +"Legitimate competition is one thing; malice, double-dealing, +dishonesty is--" + +"Dishonesty?" Gray interrupted, sharply. "I am a quick-tempered man, +Mr. Roswell. I'll ask you to choose your words more carefully." + +"Don't you call salting a well dishonest?" + +"I do. I didn't salt that Arkansas property--and I assume you refer to +that. In fact, I knew nothing about it, and I so informed Nelson. +Evidently he didn't believe me, and I don't expect you to do so. +Nevertheless, it is true. I have never lied to you, and I never shall. +Now, malice--Yes, I bear malice toward Henry Nelson and I shall +continue to bear him malice long after I have put him in his grave." +Roswell's startled eyes leaped to the speaker's face. "Exactly! I +propose to put him in his grave, and he knows it." + +"Nonsense! That's wild talk and you'll regret it. What has he done to +you?" + +The object of this inquiry shrugged. "A private matter, purely. As to +double-dealing--is it double-dealing to go to an enemy and tell him +frankly that you intend to down him and how you propose to do it?" + +"Did you do that?" + +"I did. What is more, I offered to fight fair and he agreed. But, of +course, he broke that, as he feels free to break any agreement when it +becomes onerous or unprofitable. He began by trying to assassinate me." + +"What are you saying?" Roswell cried. "This is incredible." + +Gray's cigar had gone out; he lighted it with steady and deliberate +fingers before he said: "I am giving you facts. The fighting has not +been all on my side. For instance, I haven't hired men to drop tools in +his wells or run crooked holes, and that sort of thing, as he has. Not +that I wouldn't follow his lead if he forced me to, but I haven't had +to resort to petty annoyances. I haven't had to make any 'small +change,' for I have originality, imagination--even a small amount of +daring, while he--Well, he is obvious. He has nothing except physical +courage. Thank God, he's not a coward! He'll die hard." + +"Amazing!" The banker was at a loss for words. After a moment, he +inquired: "What about Bell Nelson?" + +"A harsh, headstrong, ruthless old man whose history will not bear +careful reading. His sins shall be visited upon him through his +offspring. He will have to go, too." + +Roswell stirred as if to shake off the effect of some oppressive, +mesmeric influence; reluctantly he admitted, "All I can say is you have +a colossal nerve--" + +"Precisely. And that is all I had when I came to Texas." + +"I was coming to that. You deceived me, Gray. You said you represented +big capital; had friends and connections--" + +"A pardonable deceit, under the circumstances, was it not? As a matter +of fact, I said nothing of the sort; I merely allowed you to infer--" + +"You're splitting hairs." The banker was impatient. "The fact remains +that you led me to make a fool of myself. Why, man alive, I have your +whole history here, and it's a record of one sensational failure after +another. You had no backing whatever, no--" + +"Is that the result of your own investigation?" + +"Partly." + +"For the rest, you took Nelson's word, eh? Very well, I've beaten him +out from cover sooner than I expected. Now as to my failures. Failure +proves only this: that one's determination to succeed is not strong +enough. Who fail, except those who try? You have not always succeeded; +neither have I invariably failed. Your report is a bit unfair." + +"You will fail now. And you deserve to fail." + +"Indeed? Why?" + +"Because you're doing an outrageous thing; because--See here, Gray, I +know why you hate Nelson." There ensued a moment of silence. + +"He told you that?" The younger man's face had slowly whitened; he +spoke with difficulty. + +"He told me everything. He told me that you were dishonorably +discharged from the army--cashiered, we used to call it--and that you +blame him. I don't mind saying it was a shock--worst I've had in years. +In time of war, too! The army doesn't do that unless--without +ample--Well, Gray, it's damned nasty!" + +"Quite the nastiest thing that can happen to a man," the other agreed +in a thin, flat voice. + +"I couldn't, wouldn't believe it." + +"Why not? You believed everything else he told you." + +"I wouldn't accept his word on a thing like _that_ without asking you." +Another pause followed. "There's probably some explanation. I told him +so--" Mr. Roswell showed his genuine distress by the frown upon his +brow and by his averted eyes. He stirred uncomfortably, then he broke +out, irritably: "Well, well? Why in hell don't you say something?" + +"There is nothing to say." + +"What? My God, man! You don't mean--See here, you're not a coward, or a +thief, or an incompetent. What's your side of the story? What's the +explanation?" + +"Explanations are hateful. The man who makes them deceives either +himself or the other fellow--usually both. It is easy to be plausible. +Would a mere statement from me, unsupported by proof, convince you +where it failed to convince a court martial? Of course not. Then why +make you uncomfortable by doubting my word?" Gray's smile was like the +mirthless grin of a mummy. "I was found guilty, all in due military +order, and--disgraced, branded! My uniform was taken from me, and I +can't wear it again. I can never again serve my country. It was handled +quietly, with admirable discretion, for those things are bad for the +morale, you understand? Very few know about it. I'm a proud man, a vain +man; I assure you the death penalty would have been much easier to +bear." + +"What did Henry Nelson have to do with it?" + +"He alone can answer that." + +"An extraordinary situation! This is your revenge, eh?" + +"As a man of spirit, I had a choice of but two things, revenge +or--suicide." + +"Hm-m! It is an embarrassing situation for me." + +"Indeed?" + +"Nelson has sold a large block of his bank stock to one of our +directors." + +"Tell him to get out from under, quick," Gray said, sharply, "for I'll +break Henry Nelson or--I'll kill him!" + +"Tut, tut! You're excited. You mustn't talk like that. I give you +credit for an honest hatred, but--I can't sympathize with it. Neither +can I believe so ill of Henry Nelson. Remember, I've known him and Bell +for years." With a complete finality the banker concluded, "You'll have +to give it up, Gray." + +"I beg pardon?" + +"I say we sha'n't permit you to go on with this murderous feud. We +can't be parties to it. What you've told me warrants us in withdrawing +our support instantly, but I--I--Damn it all, I can't help liking you +and believing in you! Frankly, there's something sublime about a grudge +like yours. However, we can't go on like this. We can't put up more +money now that we know what you have in mind. Call this thing off and +perhaps I can induce our crowd to leave their money in until it can be +worked out. That's the most I can undertake." + +"I need your money and your support now more than ever," the other man +gravely confessed. "I need it at once; to-day. Nevertheless, I sha'n't +quit." + +"You _must!_" Roswell cried, impatiently. "You can't defy us." + +"The devil I can't!" It was Gray's turn to blaze. "That's exactly what +I'm doing. I defy you to get your money out. I defy you to interfere +with me in the slightest or to wring a particle of mercy out of me. I +knew this would come, sooner or later, and I planned accordingly. What +d'you think I am, eh? I tell you I've got him! Otherwise he'd never +squeal about this--army matter. Now then, tell your crowd to try and +pull out! That's not a threat, sir, for they have played fair with me, +and I sha'n't sacrifice a penny of their money--unless they force me to +do so. But--I'm in control. I'm sitting pretty. They can't unseat me, +and I warn them not to try." + +"You are making a great mistake. We will find a way to--to _pull_ you +off." + +"Ever try to pull a bulldog out of a fight when he had the other dog +down and his teeth in its throat? I have. There's something rather +horrible about it--rather beastly and shocking. And there's always the +danger of losing a hand." The speaker rose. He hesitated, before +leaving, to say: "Your son served with honor, Mr. Roswell. I know how +you must feel about this--other matter, therefore I shall spare you the +embarrassment of declining my hand." + +The financier's face reddened; rather stiffly he said, "You know +whether you have a right to offer it." + +Instantly the departing visitor extended his palm, and Roswell realized +that he had seldom seen a man more deeply moved. "Thanks! I--It is a +blow to lose your support, but--nothing can swerve me. Meanwhile, I'm +glad that we do not part as enemies." + +When he had gone, when he had passed out with head up and shoulders +square, the banker shivered slightly. Audibly he murmured: "God, what a +man! What a hatred!" + +The Briskows had just moved into their new home, and the place was +still in some confusion when Gray mounted the steps. Pa answered the +bell in his shirt sleeves and with a claw hammer in his hand, for he +had been hanging pictures. He favored his visitor with a wide smile of +welcome and a hearty greeting-quite a feat, inasmuch as his mouth was +full of nails--then, having rid it of its contents, he explained: + +"We got a slave that tends the door, but I 'ain't got gentled up to +bells an' things yet. Allie's away an' Ma's layin' down, so--" + +"Ma isn't ill, I hope?" + +"N--no. Just ailin'. I thought mebbe one of the neighbors had run in to +see her, but--I guess they're busy. We got lots of neighbors here, rich +ones, an' we made up our minds to like 'em, if they'll give us a +chance." + +"You were in luck to find a house in such a smart neighborhood, Gus. +Now show me around, quickly, for I'm dying to see it." + +"Lord, I'm dyin' to show it to _somebody!_ You're the first one that's +dropped in an' we been here 'most two weeks. Say, you'll stay an' eat +supper, won't you?" + +"Of course I will, and breakfast, too, if you can take care of me." + +"Pshaw! Didn't we take keer of you when you come to the ranch? We got +three niggers now, just doin' the housework." As if in justification of +this riotous mode of life, the oil man explained: "Ma wanted to do it +herself, but she's porely, an' Allie vetoed it complete. She says we'll +be stylish an' enjoy life if it kills all three of us. I'd of bought a +bigger house if they'd of let me, but--" + +"It is large enough. Anything more would merely add to your cares." + +"Her and Ma picked out the furniture. Swell, ain't it?" + +"Beautiful!" Gray exclaimed. Inwardly he groaned, for, although the +contents of the home appeared to be expensive, almost ostentatious, +they nevertheless betrayed a conspicuous lack of taste both in +character and in arrangement. Here and there were color combinations so +atrocious that they positively hurt the caller. On the whole, however, +the place looked better than he had expected, and such indications of +harmony and restraint as he detected he attributed to Allie. It was a +nice enough home, and with a little change, a little rearrangement, it +could be made attractive even to one of elegant tastes. Those changes, +of course, Gray determined to make. + +Gus, plainly, was not yet accustomed to the sense of ownership, and he +hung with eagerness upon his guest's expressions of approval. After a +tour of inspection the men wound up in the library--an absurd misnomer +under the circumstances, inasmuch as the shelves were entirely bare +except for Allie's dog-eared school books--and there, before a blazing +gas log, they discussed the miracle. + +"Allie's gone out to the old farm to get some stuff for Ma," the father +explained in due time. "Some pitchers of her an' Buddy when they was +little, an' a rockin'-chair, an' Ma's favorite bedspread, an' some +other things she likes." + +Gray remembered the portraits, executed by a St. Louis "enlargement" +concern. They had wide gilt frames, and were protected from ravaging +flies by mosquito netting. He hoped that Ma would not hang them in the +hall or the living-room. And that rocker, for which she yearned, was +probably the one with the creaking coiled springs--the one that had +leaped after him and clashed its jaws like an alligator. + +"By the way, how does Buddy like the new home?" the latter inquired. + +"He 'ain't seen it yet. Says he's too busy to leave the job. What you +done to that boy, anyhow?" + +"I'm making a real man out of him--and an oil man, too. He knew how to +dress tools when I got him, but he's a pretty good driller now. Before +long he'll be able to take charge of your property and run it on +practical lines. I told you he had it in him, and that he'd make a +'hand.'" + +"You never wrote us nothin' about his--his trouble." + +"I left the explaining for him." + +Gus smiled meditatively. "First we knew that you an' him had been +fightin' was when he wrote us a letter sayin' he was doin' great an' +could see out of one eye." Then, more gravely: "It was worryin' over +Buddy's affair that got Ma to ailin'. She 'ain't been right well since. +Say, wha'd you do with that--woman?" Briskow pronounced the last word +with an accent of scorn and hatred. + +"I gave her a chance to make an honest, decent living. I set her up in +business." + +"_What?_" + +"And she is making good." When the elder man shook his head impatiently +Gray went on, "I'm pretty worldly and calloused, but if one virtue has +been spared me, it is charity." + +For a moment the father studied his caller. "Tell me," he began, "was +it altogether on Buddy's account that you an' him tied into one +another?" + +Gray threw back his head and laughed frankly. "Altogether, I assure +you. That's why I found it so hard." + +"He _oughta_ been licked! Takin' up with a--a thing like her." Gus was +groping for words more eloquent of his displeasure at his son and his +hatred for the object of Buddy's misplaced affections, when Gray +forestalled him. + +"Just a minute. You are a rich man and you are growing richer. Careful, +frugal, prosperous people like you are apt to become unduly hard and +oversuspicious; but you mustn't permit it. Think, for instance, what +environment did to your children, then remember that under slightly +different circumstances it might have made evildoers even of them. Most +people would like to run straight, and would do so if they had a +chance. Anyhow, it is an interesting experiment to put the chance in +their way. Tell me, Gus, how much money have you got?" + +"I dunno. Figgers over a thousand dollars don't mean much to me." + +Gray searched the speaker's face with a speculative gaze. "It's mostly +liquid, I presume." There was a pause. "I mean it's in cash or the +equivalent?" + +"Oh, sure! These bonds an' stocks an' things--" Briskow shook his head +disapprovingly. "Land ain't any too safe, either. It's rainin' now, an' +it 'll keep on rainin' till the farmers is all drowned out. Next year +it'll be droughty an' fry 'em to a crisp. No, I'm skeered of land. I'm +skeered of everything!" This last was said plaintively. "Why, lookit +these Liberty bonds! Goin' down steady. I wouldn't put no money into +the gov'ment unless I had something to say about runnin' it. An' s'pose +I did? I wouldn't know how it oughta be run." + +"How about oil properties? Wouldn't you like to invest in a good, safe +proposition, with the prospect of big--" + +"Gosh, _no!_ I'm skeerder of oil than anything, 'cause I know somethin' +about it. Feller been tryin' to sell me life insurance, lately, but you +gotta die to get your money back. No; there's a catch in all them +propositions. Sometimes I wake up nights dreamin' we're all back at the +old place an' pore again. That ends my sleepin'. You see, Allie's a +lady now, an' she's used to silk stockin's, an' Buddy's been out in the +world spendin' money on women, an' Ma's gettin' old. I could go back to +corn bread, but it would kill them. Worst of it is, the black lime +ain't holdin' up, an' our wells will give out some day." Briskow sighed +heavily and his brows drew together in an anxious pucker. + +"You'll have enough money in bank to do you." + +"Banks bust. I tell you the hull world's full of skullduggery. +Suspicious? I should say I was! I use' to think if we had money our +troubles would be over, but--Lord, that's when they begin! You see, if +I was bright an' knew what slick people is up to, I'd be all right; +but--Why, I'm like a settin' hen. I can feel the eggs under me, but how +am I goin' to keep the skunks away when they smell the nest? I'm 'most +tempted to turn everything I got over to some honest man an' let him +han'le it. Some feller that had the savvy." + +"Unfortunately, such people are rare." + +"I don't know but one." + +"Indeed? Who is he?" + +"I reckon you know," said Briskow. + +The listener looked up with quickened interest; there was a sharp ring +to his voice when he said: "Let me get this right." + +"You're the only man I ever knowed that I'd bank my life on. An' you're +smart. You wouldn't take Buddy, but mebbe you'd kinda--take me; take +all of us. I tell you I'm skeered!" + +"Just how much confidence do I inspire in you?" Gray's expression was +peculiar, for amazement, doubt, eagerness were equally blended. + +"This much: I'd turn the hull works over to you, if you'd look out for +us." + +"You--scarcely know me." + +"Oh, I know you well enough!" Briskow smiled his slow, shrewd smile. +"So does Ma. So does Allie an' Bud." + +For quite a while the caller sat with head bowed, with his gaze fixed +upon the flames; when he looked up his face was red, his eyes were +brighter than usual. + +"To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved. Yes, and it's +hell to be born with a conscience." He fell silent again, for this was +a moment to be treasured and he could not let it pass too quickly. "You +say you want nothing to do with oil?" + +"Anything but that. I know it so well, an'--Ma's gettin' feeble." Again +silence. "Of course, if you'd do it, I wouldn't ask no questions. I'd +rather shut my eyes an' trust you than keep 'em open an'--" + +"You don't know how much I'd like to say yes, but I fought Buddy to +prevent him from making a mistake, and I sha'n't allow you to make this +one." + +"Hm-m! Will you keep me from makin' _other_ mistakes?" + +"I will, if I can." + +"Mebbe that's enough. Anyhow, I'll sleep better to-night for seein' +you." + +"I think I hear Ma stirring," said Gray, as he rose. "I brought her a +few little presents, and I'd like to take them up to her." As he left +the room there was the same queer light in his eyes; nevertheless, he +moved slowly, like a man tired. + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +Gray was shocked at the change in Ma Briskow. She had failed +surprisingly. Pleasure lit her face, and she fell into a brief flutter +of delight at seeing him; but as soon as their first greeting was over +he led her to her lounge and insisted upon making her comfortable. He +had tricks with cushions and pillows, so he declared; they became his +obedient servants, and there was a knack in arranging them--the same +knack that a robin uses in building its nest. This he demonstrated +quite conclusively. + +It was nice to have a great, masterful man like this take charge of +one, and Ma sighed gratefully as she lay back. "It does kinda feel like +a bird's nest," she declared. "And you kinda look like a robin, too; +you're allus dressed so neat." + +"Exactly," he chuckled. "Robins are the very neatest dressers of all +the birds. But look! Like a real robin, I've brought spring with me." +He opened a huge box of long-stemmed roses and held their cool, dewy +buds against Ma Briskow's withered face, then, laughing and chatting, +he arranged them in vases where she could see them. Next, he drew down +the shades, shutting out the dreary afternoon, after which he lit the +gas log, and soon the room, whether by reason of his glowing +personality or his deft rearrangement of its contents, or both, became +a warm and cheerful place. + +He had brought other gifts than flowers, too; thoughtful, expensive +things that fairly took Ma's breath. No one had ever given her +presents; to be remembered, therefore, with useless, delightful little +luxuries filled her gentle soul with a guilty rapture. + +But these were not gifts in the ordinary sense; they were offerings +from the Duke of Dallas, and his manner of presenting them invested +every article with ducal dignity. The Princess Pensacola had not played +for a long time, and so to recline languidly in a beautiful Japanese +kimono, with her feet in a pair of wonderful soft boudoir slippers spun +by the duke's private silkworms and knit by his own oriental knitting +slaves, while he paid court to her, was doubly thrilling. + +The duke certainly was a reckless spender, but thank goodness he hadn't +bought things for the house--things just to _look_ at and to share with +other people! He knew enough to buy intimate things, things a woman +could wear and feel rich in. Ma hugged herself and tried to look +beautiful. + +Gray was seated on the side of her couch with her cold hand between his +warm palms, and he was telling her about the princess of Wichita Falls +when the summons to dinner interrupted them. + +Ma was not hungry, and she had expected to have a bite in her own room; +but her caller was so vigorous in his objections to this plan that she +finally agreed to come downstairs. + +The Briskow household was poorly organized as yet, and it was only +natural that it should function imperfectly; nevertheless, Gray was +annoyed at the clumsy manner in which the dinner was served. Being a +meticulous man and accustomed to comfort, incompetent servants +distressed him beyond measure, and he soon discovered that the Briskow +help was as completely incompetent as any he had ever seen. The butler, +for instance, a pleasant-faced colored man, had evidently come straight +from the docks, for he passed the food much as a stoker passes coal to +a boiler, while the sound of a crashing platter in the butler's pantry +gave evidence that the second girl was a house wrecker. + +"See here, Ma!" Gray threw down his napkin. "You have a beautiful home, +and you want it to be perfect, don't you?" + +"Why, of Course. We bought everything we' could buy--" + +"Everything except skillful servants, and they are hard to find. You +are capable of training your cook and teaching your upstairs girl to +sweep and make beds; but the test of a well-run house is a well-served +meal. Dish-breaking ought to be a felony, and when I become President I +propose to make the spoiling of food a capital offense. Now then, +you're not eating a bite, anyhow, and Gus won't mind waiting awhile for +his dinner. With your permission, I'd like to take things in hand and +add a hundred per cent to your future comfort?" + +In some bewilderment Ma agreed that she would do anything her guest +suggested, whereupon he rose energetically and called the three +domestics into the dining room. + +"We are going to start this dinner all over again," he announced, "and +we are going to begin by swapping places. I am going to serve it as a +dinner should be served, and you are going to eat it as--Well, I dare +say nature will have to take its course. I shall explain, as I go +along, and I want you to remember every word I say, every move I make. +Mr. and Mrs. Briskow are going to look on. After we have finished you +are going to serve us exactly as I served you." + +Naturally, this proposition amazed the "help"; in fact, its absurdity +convulsed them. The man laughed loudly; the cook buried her ebony face +in her apron; the second girl bent double with mirth. Here was a quaint +gentleman, indeed, and a great joker. But the gentleman was not joking. +On the contrary, he brought this levity to an abrupt end, then, +gravely, ceremoniously, he seated the trio. They sobered quickly enough +at this; they became, in fact, as funereal as three crows; but their +astonishment at what followed was no greater than that of the Briskows. + +Gray played butler with a correctness and a poise deeply impressive to +his round-eyed audience, and as he served the courses he delivered a +lecture upon the etiquette of domestic service, the art of cooking, and +the various niceties of a servant's calling. Nothing could have been +more impressive than being waited upon by a person of his magnificence, +and his lecture, moreover, was delivered in a way that drove +understanding into their thick heads. + +It was an uncomfortable experience for all except Gray himself--he +actually enjoyed it--and when the last dish had been removed, and he +had given instructions to serve the meal over again exactly as he had +served it, the three negroes were glad to obey. Of course they made +mistakes, but these Gray instantly corrected, and the results of his +dress rehearsal were, on the whole, surprising. + +"There!" he said, when the ordeal had finally come to an end. "A little +patience, a little practice, and you'll be proud of them. Incidentally, +I have saved you a fortune in dishes." + +"I wish Allie'd been here. She'd remember everything you said," Ma +declared. + +"Lord! Think of Mr. Gray waitin' on them niggers!" Gus was still deeply +shocked. + +"You see what a meddlesome busybody I am," the guest laughed. "I don't +know how to mind my own business, and the one luxury I enjoy most of +all is regulating other people's affairs." He was still talking, still +lecturing his hearers upon the obligations prosperity had put upon +them, when he was summoned to the telephone by a long-distance call. He +returned in some agitation to announce: "Well, at last I have business +of my own to attend." + +"Was that Buddy talkin'?" + +"It was, and he gave me some good news. He says that well on +thirty-five is liable to come in at any minute, and it looks like a big +one." The speaker's eyes were glowing, and he ran on, breathlessly, "He +says they're betting it will do better than ten thousand barrels!" + +"_Ten thousand bar'ls!_" Briskow echoed. + +"That's what he said. Of course, they can't tell a thing about it. +Buddy's only guessing, but--I haven't had a big well yet." Gray took a +nervous turn about the room. + +"Ten thousand barrels! Lord! That would help. That would do the trick. +And to think that it should come now, this very day--" He laughed +triumphantly and ran on as if talking to himself: "'The wicked are +fatted for destruction. Their happiness shall pass away like a +torrent.' Pull out and leave me, eh?" A second time he laughed, more +loudly. "Luck? It isn't luck, it's Destiny. The mills of the Gods are +grinding. Ma Briskow, the fairy ladies danced upon the hearth when I +was born. Do you know what that means?" + +"Ten thousand bar'ls a day, an' you buttlin' for three niggers!" gasped +the head of the house. + +"I'm going out on to-night's train and see it come in--if it does come +in. I told Buddy to stop work; not to drop another tool until I +arrived. 'Fatted for destruction.' I like the sound of that. Ten +thousand barrels! Ho! I'll write this day in brass. Why, that lease +will sell for a million. It--it may mean the end." + +Gray brought himself to with an effort, hastily he kissed Ma Briskow's +faded cheek and wrung her husband's hand. A moment later he was gone. + +"Thirty-five," where Buddy was working, was only a few miles from the +Briskow ranch, therefore the boy was able to meet his sister at Ranger +and drive her directly to the old home. The place was much the same as +when they had left it, thanks to the watchful attention of the men in +charge of the Briskow wells, and there they spent the night. Buddy and +his sister had always been close confidants, and their long separation, +their varied experiences, left many things to be discussed. + +The ranch house seemed very mean, very insignificant to Allie, but she +slipped into one of her old dresses and prepared the supper while Buddy +straddled a kitchen chair and chattered upon ten thousand topics of +mutual interest. + +"Doggone!" he exclaimed, finally. "I hardly knew you when you stepped +off that train, but it seems like old times now, with you hustlin' +around in that gingham." + +"I wish it was." + +"Hunh?" + +"I wish, sometimes, that we'd never struck oil." + +"Good Lord! Why?" + +"Oh"--Allie turned her back and bent over the stove--"for lots of +reasons! Ma never had a sick day till lately. Now she's failin' fast." +Buddy frowned at this intelligence. "And Pa's as restless as a +squirrel. All the time scared of losing his money." + +"Well, _you_ got no kick coming, sis. You've sure made good." + +"How?" + +"I dunno--You've got rich ways. An' rich _looks_, too!" + +Allie lifted an interested face, and her brother undertook, somewhat +awkwardly, to tell her wherein she had improved. She listened with +greedy delight, but when he had finished she shook her head skeptically +and declared: "It sounds nice, and God knows I've tried hard enough, +but-there's a difference, Bud. We're 'trash' and always will be." + +Of course young Briskow's mind was full of business, and he could not +long stay off that absorbing topic. When, during their supper, he +announced the fact that the well on thirty-five showed signs of coming +in shortly, and that he intended to send for Calvin Gray, Allie changed +her mind about returning home and decided to wait over until the latter +arrived. + +She and Buddy talked until a late hour that night, but although she was +dying to have him tell her about his romance, his dream of love, he +never so much as referred to it, and she could not bring herself to +disregard his reticence. Nor could she bear to discuss with him the +problem that lay nearest her own heart. She had brooded long over that +problem, and her soul was hungry to share its bitter secret; +nevertheless, she could not do so, for it is often easier to bare our +wounds to strangers than to those we love. If her breedings, her +bitterness of spirit manifested themselves, it was in a fixed undertone +of pessimism and in an occasional outburst of recklessness that +bewildered her brother. + +On the morning of Gray's coming she rode with Buddy over to +thirty-five. It was a wretched, rainy day, and nothing is more bleak +than a rainy day in a drilling camp. Work had been halted and the men +were loafing in their bunk house. Brother and sister spent the +impatient hours in the mess tent. As usual, they talked a good deal +about Calvin Gray. + +"Funny, him comin' here a stranger, an' gettin' to run our whole +family, ain't it?" Buddy said. + +Allie nodded. "Funnier thing than that is your working for him." Buddy +was surprised, so she asked him: "Aren't you sore at him for--what he +did? For breaking up that affair?" It was a question that had been upon +her lips more than once; she could not credit her brother with entire +sincerity when he answered, frankly enough: + +"Sore? Not the least bit." + +"Didn't you--care for her?" + +"Why, sure. I was all tore up, at first. But he did me the biggest kind +of a favor." + +Allie shook her head uncomprehendingly. "Men are queer things. You +_must_ have loved her, for a while." + +"I reckon I did, if you're a mind to call it that. But he says that +sort of thing ain't real love." + +"'_He says_'!" the girl cried, scornfully. "My God, Buddy! Would you +let _him_ tell you--? Is he pickin' out women for you like he picks out +a dress for me and a hotel for Ma? How does _he_ know what's the real +thing?" + +"She was a--grafter," the brother explained, with a flush of +embarrassment. "She'd of probably took my money an' quit me cold." + +"Bah!" The girl rose and, with somber defiance in her smoldering eyes, +stared out at the desolate day. "You'd have had her for a while, +wouldn't you? You'd have lived while it lasted. What's the difference +if she was a grafter? D'you think you're going to fall in love and +marry a duchess, or something? I wish I'd had your chance, that's all." + +"What d'you mean by that?" Buddy queried, sharply. + +"I mean this," Allie flamed at him. "We're nobodies and we've got +nothing but our money. A counterfeit is as good as ever we'll get--and +it's as good as we're entitled to. I'd rather know what it is to live +for an hour than to go on forever just pretending to live. If I've got +to be unhappy, then give me something to be unhappy over; something to +look back on. I'd rather be--But, pshaw! You don't understand. You +couldn't." + +"I dunno what's got into you lately," Buddy declared, with a frown. + +"Nothing's got into me. Only, what's the use of starving when the +world's full of good things and you've got the price to buy them? _I_ +won't do it. If ever I get my chance, you watch me!" + +Gray's trip from the railroad was more like a voyage than a motor +journey, for the creek beds, usually dry, were angry torrents, and the +'dobe flats were quagmires through which his vehicle plowed hub deep; +nevertheless, he was fresh and alert when he arrived. After a buoyant +greeting to Allie, he and Buddy inspected the well, then he issued +orders for work to be resumed. + +"We're gettin' close to something," young Briskow declared. "She's +making gas an' rumblin' like she'd let go any minute. We got reservoys +built an' the boiler's moved back, so we can douse the fire when she +starts. I figger she'll drownd us out." + +"What are the indications at Nelson's well?" Gray turned his eyes in +the direction of a derrick on the adjoining property, the top of which +showed over the mesquite. + +"Nothin' extra. They won't tell us anything, but they're deeper 'n we +are." + +"How do you know?" + +Buddy winked wisely. "We counted the layers of cable on the bull-wheel +drum. Checked up their casing, too, an' watched their cuttin's. They +got their eye on us, too, an' they'll be over when we blow in." + +That was an anxious afternoon, for as the drill bit deeper into the +rock it provoked indications of a terrific force imprisoned far below. +To the observers it seemed as if that sharp-edged tool was tap-tapping +upon the thin shell of some vast reservoir already leaking and charged +to the bursting point with a mighty pressure. An odor of gas escaped +from the casing mouth, occasionally there came hoarse, throaty +gurglings of the thick liquid at the bottom of the well. The bailer was +run frequently. + +Word had gone forth that there was something doing on thirty-five, and +from the chaparral emerged muddy motor cars bringing scouts, +neighboring lease owners, and even the members of a near-by casing crew. + +Supper was a jumpy meal, and nobody had much to say, Allie Briskow +least of all. She was silent, intense; she curtly refused Buddy's offer +to send her home, and when the meal was over she followed Gray back to +the derrick. He was on edge, of course. It seemed to him that every +blow of that bit was struck upon his naked nerves, for he had a deep +conviction that this was to prove the night of his life, and the strain +of waiting was becoming onerous. This well meant so much. Ten thousand +barrels, fifteen, five--even one thousand; it mattered little how heavy +the flow, for a good-paying well would see him through his immediate +troubles. And this was a well of some sort, or else indications meant +nothing and everybody was greatly mistaken. Of course, a big well, +something to create a furor--that was what he needed, for that not only +would bridge his financial crisis, but also it would mean a frenzy of +quick drilling, new wells crowded close together, hundreds of thousands +of dollars poured into the earth, and the Nelsons couldn't stand that. +It would break them--break them, and he would taste the full sweetness +of revenge. Oh, he had waited long! Nor was that all. Once he had Henry +Nelson down, and his foot on the fellow's throat, he'd have something +to say to Barbara Parker. He could say it then and look her in the +eyes. He wished she was here to-night while he stood on the top of the +world. Ten thousand barrels! Twenty thousand! Twenty-thousand-barrel +gushers were not unknown. A well like that would mean a fortune every +day. But why didn't it start? + +They were bailing again and curiosity drew the owner in upon the +derrick floor. This time the flow might begin; at any moment now oil +might come with the water. There is some danger in standing close to a +well during this bailing process, but Gray was like a bit of iron in +the field of a magnet; spellbound, he watched the cable as it ran +smoothly off the drum, flowed up over the crown block and down into the +casing mouth. That heavy, torpedolike weight on the end of the line was +dropping almost half a mile. Up it came swiftly, as if greased; up, up, +until it emerged into the glare of the incandescent overhead and hung +there dripping. It was swung aside and lowered, and out gushed its +muddy contents. + +Water! Black and thick as molasses, but water nevertheless. + +Buddy Briskow was running the rig, and the dexterity with which he +handled brake and control rod gave him pride. He had seated his sister +on a bench out of the way, where she was protected from the drizzle, +and he felt her eyes upon him. It gave him a sense of importance to +have Allie watching him at such a crisis; he wished his parents were +with her. If this well blew in big, as it seemed bound to do, it would +be a personal triumph, for not many cub drillers could boast of +bringing in a gusher the first time. It was, in fact, no mean +accomplishment to make any sort of a well; to pierce the earth with an +absolutely vertical shaft a half mile deep and line it with tons upon +tons of heavy casing joined air-tight and fitted to a hair's breadth +was an engineering feat in itself. It was something that only an oil +man could appreciate. And he was an oil man; a darn good one, too, so +Buddy told himself. + +He eased the brake and the massive bailer slid into the casing as a +heavy shell slips into the breech of a cannon. As he further released +his pressure, the cable began to pour serpentlike from the drum. Buddy +turned his wet, grimy face and flashed a grin at Allie. She smiled back +at him faintly. Some lightninglike change in her expression, or perhaps +some occult sense of the untoward warned him that all was not as it +should be, and he jerked his head back to attention. + +There are moments of catastrophe when for a brief interval nature +slows, time stops, and we are carried in suspense. Such an instant +Buddy Briskow experienced now. He knew at first glance what had +happened, and a frightened cry burst from his throat, but it was a cry +too short, too hoarse, to serve as a warning. + +During that moment of inattention the bailer had stuck. Perhaps five +hundred feet below, friction had checked its plunge, and meanwhile the +velvet-running drum, spinning at its maximum velocity by reason of the +whirling bull wheel, was unreeling its cable down upon the derrick +platform. Down it poured in giant loops, and within those coils, either +unconscious of his danger or paralyzed by its suddenness, stood Calvin +Gray. + +Men schooled in hazardous enterprises carry subconscious mental +photographs of the perils with which their callings are invested and +they react involuntarily to them. Buddy had heard of drillers +decapitated by flying cables, of human bodies caught within those wire +loops and cut in twain as if made of lard, for when a wedged tool +resumes its downward plunge it straightens those coils above ground in +the twinkling of an eye. Instinct, rather than reason, warned Buddy not +to check the blinding revolutions of the bull wheel. Without thought he +leaped forward into the midst of those swiftly forming loops, and as he +landed upon the slippery floor he clenched his fist and struck with all +the power he could put behind his massive arm. Gray's back was to him, +the blow was like that of a walking beam, and it sent the elder man +flying as a tenpin is hurled ahead of a bowling ball. Buddy fell, too. +He went sprawling. As he slid across the muddy floor he felt the steel +cable writhing under him like a thing alive, and the touch of it as it +streamed into the well burned his flesh. He kicked and fought it as he +would have fought the closing folds of a python, for the bailer was +falling again and the wire loops were vanishing as the coils in a +whiplash vanish during its flight. + +Buddy's booted legs were thrown high, he was tossed aside like a thing +of paper, but blind, half stunned, he scrambled back to his post. By +this time the whole structure of the derrick was rocking to the mad +gyrations of the bull wheel; the giant spool was spinning with a speed +that threatened to send it flying, like the fragments of a bursting +bomb, but the youth understood dimly the danger of stopping it too +suddenly--to fetch up that plunging weight at the cable end might snap +the line, collapse the derrick, "jim" the well. Buddy weaved dizzily in +his tracks; nevertheless, his hand was steady, and he applied a +gradually increasing pressure to the brake. Nor did he take his eyes +from his task until the drum had ceased revolving and the runaway +bailer hung motionless in the well. + +When he finally looked about it seemed to him that he had lived a long +time and was very old. Gray lay motionless where he had fallen, and his +body was twisted into a shockingly unnatural posture. He was bleeding. +Allie Briskow was bending over him. Other dim, dreamlike figures were +swarming out of the gloom and into the radiance of the derrick lights; +there was a far-away clamor of shouting voices. Buddy Briskow felt +himself growing deathly sick. + +They carried Gray to the bunk house, and his limbs hung loosely, his +head lolled in a manner terrifying to Buddy and his sister. As they +stumbled along beside the group, the girl cried: + +"Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" She repeated the cry over and over again in a +voice strange to her brother's ears. + +"It--it wasn't my fault," he told her, hoarsely. "I aimed to save him." + +"You killed him!" + +"He ain't--" Buddy choked and clung to her. "He's just stunned like. He +ain't--that!" The youth was amazed when Allie turned and cursed him +with oaths that he himself seldom ventured to employ. + +But Gray was not dead. Buddy's blow had well-nigh broken his neck, and +he had suffered a further injury to his head in falling; nevertheless, +he responded to such medical aid as they could supply, and in time he +opened his eyes. His gaze was dull, however, and for a long while he +lay in a sort of coma, quite as alarming as his former condition. They +brought him to at last long enough to acquaint him with what had +happened, and although it was plain that he understood their words only +dimly, he ordered the work resumed. + +When for a second time he lapsed into semiconsciousness, it was Allie +Briskow who put his orders into execution. "You ain't doing any good +standing around staring at him and whispering. Bring in that well, as +fast as ever you can, and bring it in _big_. Now, get out and leave him +to me." + +Buddy was the last to go. He inquired, miserably: "Honest, he ain't +hurt bad, is he? You don't think--" + +"Get out!" + +"He won't--die? Ain't no chance of him doin' that, is there?" + +"If he does, I'll--" The speaker's face was ashen, but her eyes blazed. +"I'll fix you, Buddy Briskow. I will, so help me God!" + +It was late that night when the well came in. It came with a rush and a +roar, drenching the derrick with a geyser of muddy water and driving +both crew and spectators out into the gloom. Up, up the column rose, +spraying itself into mist, and from its iron throat issued a sound +unlike that of any other phenomenon. It was a hoarse, rumbling bellow, +growing in volume and rising in pitch second by second until it finally +attained a shrieking crescendo. Ten thousand safety valves had let go, +and they steadily gathered strength and shrillness as they functioned. +A shocking sound it became, a sound that carried for miles, rocking the +air and stunning the senses. It beat upon the eardrums, pierced them; +men shouted at each other, but heard their own voices only faintly. + +Calvin Gray had recovered his senses sufficiently to understand the +meaning of that uproar, and he tried to get up, but Allie held him down +upon his bed. She was still struggling with him when her brother burst +into the house, shouting: + +"It's a gasser, Mr. Gray! Biggest I ever seen." + +"Gas?" the latter mumbled, indistinctly. "Isn't there any--oil?" His +words were almost like a whisper because of the noise. + +"Not yet. May be later. Say, she's a heller, ain't she? I'll bet she's +makin' twenty million feet--" + +"Gasser's no good." + +"Can't tell yet. We gotta shut her down easy so she don't blow the +casing out--run wild on us, understand?" Buddy was still breathless, +but he plunged out the door and back into that sea of sound. + +With a tragic intensity akin to wildness, Gray stared up into Allie +Briskow's face. "Worthless, eh? And they told me ten thousand barrels." +He carried a shaking hand to his bandaged head and tried vainly to +collect his wits. "What's matter?" he queried, thickly. "Everything +whirling--sick--" + +"You had an accident, but it's all right; all right--No, no! Please lie +still." + +"Running wild, eh? Tha's what hurts my head so. Blown the casing +out--Bad, isn't it? Sometimes they run wild for weeks, years--ruin +everything." He tried again to rise, then insisted, querulously: "Goto +get oil in this well! I've got to! Last chance, Allie. Got to get ten +thousand barrels!" + +"Please! You mustn't--" Allie had her strong hands upon his shoulders; +she was arguing firmly but as gently as possible under the +circumstances, when something occurred so extraordinary, so unexpected, +as to paralyze her. Of a sudden the interior of the dim-lit, +canvas-roofed shack was illuminated as if by a searchlight, and she +turned her head to see that the whole out-of-doors was visible and that +the night itself had turned into day. + +With a cry that died weakly amid the chaos of sound beating over her, +the girl ran to the window and looked out. What she beheld was a +nightmare scene. The well was afire. It had exploded into flame. Where, +a moment before, it had been belching skyward an enormous stream of +gaseous vapor, all but invisible except at the casing head, now it was +a monstrous blow torch, the flaming crest of which was tossed a hundred +feet high. Nothing in the nature of a conflagration could have been +more awe-inspiring, more confounding to the faculties than that roaring +column of consuming fire. It was a thing incredibly huge, incredibly +furious, incredibly wild. Human figures, black against its glare, were +flying to safety, near-by silhouettes were flinging their arms aloft +and dashing backward and forward; faces upturned to it were white and +terrified. The scattered mesquite stood against the night like a wall, +spotted with inky shadows, and, above, the heavens resembled a boiling +caldron. + +It was a hellish picture; it remained indelibly fixed upon Allie +Briskow's mind. As she looked on in horrid fascination, she saw the +derrick change into a latticelike tower of flame, saw its upper part +begin slowly to crumble and disintegrate. The force with which the gas +issued blew the blaze high and held it dancing, tumbling in mid-air, a +phenomenon indescribably weird and impressive. The men who stood +nearest bent their heads and shielded their faces from the heat. + +Allie tore her eyes away from the spectacle finally. She turned back to +the bed, then she halted, for it was empty. The door, still ajar from +Buddy's headlong exit, informed her whence her patient had gone, and +she flew after him. + +She found him not half a dozen paces away. In fact, she stumbled over +his prostrate body. With an amazon's strength, she gathered him into +her arms, then staggered with him back to his couch, and as she +strained him to herself she loudly called his name. Amid that demoniac +din, amid the shrieking of those million devils, freed from the black +chasms of the rock, her voice was as feeble as the wail of a sick child. + +When she had laid her inert burden upon the bed, Allie knelt and took +Gray's head upon her bosom. Then, for the first time, those forces +imprisoned deep within her being ran wild, and under the red glare of +that flaming geyser she kissed his hair, his eyes, his lips. Over and +over again she kissed them with the hungry passion of a woman starved. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +A subdued but continuous whispering irritated Calvin Gray. When it +persisted, minute after minute, he opened his eyes, asking himself, +dully, why it was that people couldn't let a fellow sleep. He lay, for +some time, trying to recognize his unfamiliar surroundings; oddly +enough, he could not discover the origin of that low-pitched murmur, +since there was nobody in his bedroom. Evidently he had slept too hard, +for his eyes were heavy, his vision was distorted, and an unaccustomed +lassitude bore down his body and stupefied his brain. A thousand +indistinct memories were moving about in the penumbral borderland of +consciousness, but they refused to take shape. They would emerge into +the light presently, of course. Meanwhile, it was restful to remain in +this state of semi-stupefaction. He was pretty tired. + +That whispering, he realized after a while, was nothing more than the +monotonous murmur of rain upon a shingle roof, and the gurgle from +dripping eaves. Oh yes! It had been pouring for several days; raining +buckets, barrels--Ten thousand barrels a day! + +Yonder was something familiar; a patent, spring rocking-chair. Gray +knew it well. It creaked miserably when you sat in it, and when you got +up to look at diamond rings it snapped its jaws at you like an +alligator. Odd that they'd let an alligator into the Ajax Hotel. +Nelson's doings, probably. Always up to some deviltry, that Nelson. +But, thank God, the fire was out, and that ear-splitting racket that +hurt his head had changed into the soothing patter of raindrops. There +couldn't be any fire with ten thousand barrels of rain falling. + +Gray closed his eyes and dozed briefly. But he had dreams; calamity +haunted him; he awoke to the realization of some horror. Slowly his +brain began to function, then more swiftly, until, like a flood +released, memory returned. He groaned aloud. + +Allegheny Briskow appeared out of nowhere and laid a soothing hand upon +his brow. When she saw the light of sanity in his eyes, her face +brightened and she cried, eagerly: + +"You're coming around all right, aren't you?" + +"Ten thousand barrels!" he mumbled. "They said it would be a big well +and I counted on it." + +"Don't try to think--" + +"But it came in a gasser. I remember it all now--nearly all. I--I'm +about ruined, I guess." + +"No, no!" + +"It caught fire." + +"You mustn't talk. Everything is all right--all right, honestly. I'll +tell you everything, but just you rest now until Buddy comes." There +was magnetism to the girl's touch and comfort in her voice. + +It was some time later that Gray opened his eyes and spoke in a more +natural voice, saying, "How do I happen to be here in your house, +Allie?" + +"We brought you over at daylight. Buddy's gone for a doctor, but he'll +be back." The girl averted her face quickly and moved toward the window. + +"I remember being hurt in some way--derrick fell on me, or something. +Then the well caught fire. What time is it?" + +"It's afternoon. About four o'clock. Buddy 'll be back--" Allie's voice +caught queerly. "He'll get back somehow." + +"He ought to be at the well--putting it out. God! What a sight! I see +it yet!" + +"The well is out!" Allie returned and seated herself beside the bed. +"You probably won't understand it or believe it--I can scarcely believe +it myself, for it's a miracle. All the same, it is out, shut in, and +not much damage done. You're not ruined, either, for Buddy says they're +short of fuel here, and a gasser this size is worth a good deal--'most +as much as a fair oil well.'" + +"How can it be shut in? It was blazing, roaring--a tower of flame. The +derrick itself was going--" + +"I know, but the strangest thing--" Allie spoke breathlessly. "Let me +do the talking, please. You remember the drill stems were standing over +in one corner? Well, the fire drove everybody off, of course; there was +no facing it, and they thought sure they'd have a job--have to send for +boilers and smother it down with steam, maybe, or tunnel under, or +something--work for days, maybe weeks, and spend a fortune. Anyhow, +they were in a panic, but when the derrick went down what do you think? +That stack of drill stems fell in such a way as to close the gate valve +at the top of the casing." + +Gray frowned, he shook his head. "Impossible. You're trying to ease my +mind." + +"Of course it's impossible. But it happened, just as I tell you. Buddy +had a bar fixed in the valve wheel, like a long handle, so that a half +turn, or maybe a quarter, would shut it. Anyhow, those drill stems +caught that bar in falling and closed the valve. Somebody said it +happened once before, to an oil well over in Louisiana--" + +"It--sounds incredible." The speaker made an effort to collect himself, +he raised an uncertain hand to his bandaged head. "What ails me? I +recall a lot of things, but they're pretty well confused." + +Allie made known, the nature of the accident resulting in Gray's +injury, and he nodded his understanding. "So Buddy saved my life!" He +smiled. "Great boy, Buddy! I'll know better than to mix it with him +again--he learns too quickly." + +"Oh, it was terrible! I've been so--so frightened!" Allie Briskow +suddenly lost control of herself and, bowing her head, she hid her face +in the musty patchwork quilt. Her shoulders shook, her whole strong +body twitched and trembled. "You've b-been awful sick. I did the best I +could, but--" + +"There, there!" Gray placed his hand upon the girl's head; he took her +palm in his and stroked it. "I'm not worth your tears, child. And, +anyhow, I'm all right again; I am, indeed. I'm as well as ever, so far +as I can tell. By the way, what set the well afire?" + +"Buddy thinks somebody must have dropped a cigarette when the stampede +came." The girl raised her face and wiped the tears from it. "It +doesn't seem possible anybody would be so careless as to smoke near a +well that was coming in, but--Just think, Mr. Gray, those drill stems +shut it off! Why, it was the hand of God!" + +"It seems so. My luck hasn't run out, that's plain." The speaker +pondered briefly, then he said: "Shut in! Safe! Jove, it's wonderful! +Buddy can take me to the railroad to-night and--" + +"Oh, you can't leave. You're not able." + +"I must. This gasser was a great disappointment to me. I allowed myself +to count on a big well, and now I have a serious problem to meet. It +must be met without delay. Buddy will soon be back, I dare say?" Allie +undertook to evade the speaker's eye, but unsuccessfully, and he +inquired, sharply: "What's wrong? What's happened to him?" + +"Nothing. He's all right, but"--Gray's evident alarm demanded the +truth, therefore she explained--"but I don't know when he'll be back. +That's why I've been so frightened. It has been raining cats and dogs; +the creek has overflowed and everything is under water." + +"Under water? Here? Why, that can't be." Gray insisted upon rising, and +Allie finally consented to his doing so; then, despite his protest that +he was quite able to take care of himself, she helped him to the +window. From that position he beheld a surprising scene. + +The Briskow farm lay in a flat, saucerlike valley, arid and dusty at +most seasons of the year, but now a shallow lake, the surface of which +was broken by occasional fences, misty clumps of bushes, or the tops of +dead weeds. The nearest Briskow derrick was dimly visible, its floor +awash, its shape suggestive of the battle mast of a sunken man-of-war. + +"It's not more than a foot or two deep on the level," Allie explained, +"but that's enough. And it has come up six inches since Buddy left. +He'd have been back before this if he could have made it." + +"Did you ever see it like this before?" + +"Once, when I was a little girl. Some years the creek never has a drop +in it." + +"Then we're marooned." + +"We were cut off for three days that time." + +Gray frowned. What next? he asked himself. Here was a calamity that +could not be dodged. He shrugged, finally. "No use to fret. No use to +crouch beneath a load. I'd give my right arm to be back in Dallas, +but--this is our chance to cultivate the Christian virtue of +submission. So be it! One must have a heart for every fate, but," he +smiled at the girl, "it is hard to be philosophical when you're hungry. +And I'm hungry." + +"Oh, you _are_ better!" + +"I'm well, I tell you, except for the bruises bequeathed me by your +brutal brother. Three days--a week, maybe! My God! By the way, is there +any food in the house?" + +"Plenty." + +"Then--we've nothing to do except get better acquainted, and that is +something I've wanted to do for some time." + +Allegheny Briskow sang while she prepared supper, for the reaction from +the strain of the last twelve hours was like an intoxication. Mr. Gray +was in no further danger; he was well except for a bandaged head and +some bruises. And he was here alone with her. They were as completely +cut off from the outside world as if shipwrecked on some island, and, +for the time being at least, he was hers to look out for, hers to wait +upon and to guard. Allie laughed at the drumming of the rain upon the +kitchen roof, and she thrilled at memory of some of the things she had +done. She could feel again Gray's head upon her bosom, his lips against +hers, his body strained to hers. She had listened to his heartbeats; +with her own abundant strength she had shielded him, fought for him, +drawn him, by very force of her will, back to life; the anguish she had +suffered during those long hours became, in retrospect, a poignant +pleasure. + +She wondered if by any chance he would remember--there had been times +when he had seemed to be almost rational. She hoped not. And yet--why +not? If he did remember, if indeed he had felt her kisses or heard her +pleadings, that memory, even if subconscious, might serve to awaken +him. It might evoke some response to the flaming passion that had +finally escaped her control. Gray was a strong man; his emotions, once +roused, were probably as wild as hers, therefore who could tell what +might happen? Irresistible forces, fire and flood, had thrown them +together. They were at the mercy of elemental powers, and they were +alone with each other--a man and a woman. Allie hoped against hope; she +prayed recklessly, defiantly, that her hour had struck. + +Gray came into the kitchen after a while to warm himself over the +stove. He was still a little bit unsteady on his feet, and his head +felt queer; but he assumed a certain gayety and insisted upon bearing +an awkward hand with the cooking and the dishes. He had never seen +Allie as she was now, nor in a mood to compare with this, and for the +first time he realized how fully she had developed. It was not +surprising that her metamorphosis had escaped his attention, for he had +never taken time to do more than briefly appraise her. With leisure for +observation, however, he noted that she had made good her promise of +rare physical charm, and that her comeliness had ripened into real +beauty--beauty built on an overwhelming scale, to be sure, and hence +doubly striking--moreover, he saw that all traces of her stolidity had +vanished. She was an intelligent, wide-awake, vibrant person, and at +this moment a genial fire, a breathless excitement, was ablaze within +her. Gray complimented her frankly, and she was extravagantly pleased. + +"Buddy said almost the same thing," she told him. "I don't care whether +it's true or not, if you believe it." + +"Oh, it's true! I saw great things in you, but--" + +"Even when you saw me hoeing in the garden that first day?" + +"Even then; but I wasn't prepared for a miracle. You were an enchanted +princess, and it required only a magic word to break the spell." + +"It is all your doings, Mr. Gray. Whatever I am I owe it all to you. +And it's the same with the rest of the family. I--" Allie hesitated, +looked up from her work, then shook her head smilingly. + +"What?" + +"I feel as if--well, as if you'd made me and I--belonged to you." It +was dusk by this time; the girl's face was lit only by the indirect +glow from the open door of the stove, therefore Gray could make nothing +of her expression. + +"How very flattering!" he laughed. "As a real matter of fact, I had +almost nothing to do with it." + +"All the same that's how I feel--as if I owed you everything and had to +give something back. Women are queer, I guess. They love to give. And +yet they're selfish--more selfish than men." + +"I wouldn't say so." + +"You don't know how bad hurt you were, Mr. Gray. I saved your life as +much as Buddy did. You'd have died only for--only I wouldn't let you." + +"I believe it. So, you see, you have more than evened the score. After +all, I merely awakened the Sleeping Beauty, while you--" + +"The prince woke her up with a kiss, didn't he?" Allie said, with a +smile. + +"So the story goes. Fairy stories, by the way, are the only kind one +can afford to believe." + +"Then I've got--something coming to me, haven't I?" + +This time the girl turned her face invitingly to the speaker and waited. + +Here was a new Allie Briskow, indeed, and one that amazed, nay, +disturbed, Gray. Romance, he told himself. The girl meant nothing by +this; nevertheless, her fancy had run far enough. He ignored her +invitation, and instead of kissing her he patted her shoulder +affectionately, saying: + +"You're a dear child, and I can never repay you for mending my poor +cracked head." + +He turned his back, went to the table and lit the lamp, uncomfortably +aware of the fact, meanwhile, that Allie remained motionless where he +had left her. He ran on, casually, during the time he adjusted chimney +and wick: "I was on the porch just now and found a rabbit crouching +there. The poor thing was too wet and frightened to move." Allie did +not seem to hear him. "All sorts of things are floating about; dead +chickens, rattlesnakes, and--Oh yes, another thing I noticed; there's a +good deal of oil on the water! I wonder where it comes from?" + +Allie stirred herself; she jerked open the oven door, peered in, then +slammed it shut. Her voice was sullen as she said: "They've been +expecting a gusher on sixteen. Maybe the reservoirs have overflowed, or +a pipe line has broken. Maybe it came in wild, you can't tell. This +flood will cost a good many people a lot." + +Supper, when the two sat down to it, proved to be a pleasant meal, for +the soft glow of the lamp, the warmth from the stove, made of the +Briskow kitchen a cozy place, while the drumming of the rain overhead +enhanced their feeling of comfort and security. Gray's appetite was not +that of a sick man, and Allie, who had regained her agreeable humor by +this time, waited upon him with eager face and shining eyes. He paused, +finally, to say: + +"See here! You're not eating a bite." + +"I'm not hungry. I couldn't eat, to-night. Please--I'm perfectly happy. +I feel like a slave at the great lord's table; all I care to do is look +on." After a moment she continued: "It couldn't have been so bad to be +a slave--a girl slave. Somebody owned them, anyhow; they belonged to +their masters, body and soul, and that's something. Women are like +that. They've got to belong to somebody to be happy." + +Gray was a talkative man, therefore he argued this point until he began +to suspect that his companion was not heeding his words so much as the +sound of his voice. More plainly than before he realized that there was +something about Allie to-night utterly strange and quite contrary to +his conception of her, but, because he believed her to be unlike other +women, he did not try to understand it. + +During the night an explosive crash followed by a loud reverberation +awoke Calvin Gray and brought him up sitting. His room was lit by white +flickers, against which he saw that the rain still sheeted his windows; +he fumbled for his watch and found that it was two o'clock. This was a +storm, indeed, and he began to fear that this deluge might swell the +waters to a danger point; therefore he rose, struck a light, and +dressed himself. Sleep was out of the question, anyhow, amid such an +uproar. As he stepped out upon the front porch, his attention was +instantly drawn to a yellow glow in the west, a distant torch, the +flame of which illuminated the angry night. He stared at it for a +moment before he realized its meaning. A well was afire! Lightning had +wrecked a derrick and ignited the stream of oil. No wonder, he told +himself, for this field was dotted with towers well calculated to lead +lightning out of the skies, and amid a play of destructive forces such +as this nothing less than a miracle could have prevented something of +the sort. But it was a pity, for yonder a small-sized fortune was going +up in smoke. + +By the next flare he saw that the waters had crept higher. They were +nearly up to the porch floor now, and, obviously, they were still +rising. That rabbit was crouched where he had last seen it, a wet ball +of fur with round, black eyes. The heavens echoed almost constantly, +now to a thick, distant rumble, again to an appalling din directly +overhead; for seconds at a time there was light enough to read by. The +house, Gray decided, was in no danger, except from a direct bolt, for +the valley was nothing more than a shallow lake; nevertheless-- + +A blinding, blue-white streak came, and he counted the seconds before +the sound reached him. Sound traveled something like a thousand feet a +second, he reflected; that bolt must have struck about a mile distant. +Nothing alarming about that, surely. A moment, then he blinked and +rubbed his eyes, for out of the murk was born another bonfire like that +to the westward. + +Hearing an exclamation behind him, Gray turned to behold Allie +Briskow's dim figure in the door. + +"Hello!" he cried, excitedly. "Did you see that? Yonder are two wells +afire." + +"I know. I haven't closed my eyes. You can see another one from my +window." Allia snapped the light from a pocket flash upon Gray, and, +noting that he was only partly clad, she urged him to come into the +house. When he ignored the request she joined him, and together they +stared at the mounting flames. + +"Jove! That's terrible!" he muttered. + +"Look here." Allie directed the beam of her light down over the edge of +the porch, and moved it slowly from side to side. The surface of the +water was not only burdened with debris, but also it was thick with +oil. "It's just like that on the other side. That gusher on sixteen +must be wild." + +"Why didn't you call me?" the man inquired, sharply. + +"What was the use? There's no chance for us to get out." + +"How far is it back to high ground?" + +"Quite a ways. Too far to wade. It would be over our heads in places, +too. I don't like the look of it, do you? Not with those fires going, +and--" + +"I dare say it won't get any worse." Gray spoke with a carelessness +that he was far from feeling, but his tone did not deceive the girl. + +"It doesn't have to get any worse," she declared, im patiently. +"There's oil enough here to burn. We're in the middle of a lake of it. +What 'll happen if it catches fire?" + +"Frankly, I don't know. I've never been marooned in a lake of oil. +Probably this rain would quench it-" + +"You know better than that!" Allie cried. "Don't act as if I were a +kid. We're in a bad fix, with fire on three sides of us." + +"At least we'll be as well off inside as out here," Gray declared, and +his companion agreed, so together they went into her room, where, side +by side, they peered through her window. What Allie had said was true, +and the man pinched himself to see if he were dreaming. This +conflagration was even closer than the others, and he could not doubt +that there was every likelihood of its spreading to the surface of the +lake itself. Here was a situation, truly. For the life of him he could +think of no way out of it. + +"I've read about this sort of thing," Allie was saying. "Tanks bursting +and rivers afire. It spreads all over, the fire does, and there's no +putting it out." + +"One thing sure, this lightning won't last long--" + +A blue glare and a ripping explosion gave the lie to Gray's cheering +words. Allie Briskow recoiled from the window. + +"We'll be burned alive!" she gasped. "Roasted like rats in a trap. +I--I'm frightened, Mr. Gray." She drew closer to him. + +"No need of that. We'll get out of this scrape somehow--people always +do." A flicker lit the room, and he saw that the face upturned to his +was wide eyed, strained. That brief glimpse of Allie, like a picture +seen through the shutter of a camera, remained long with the man, for +her hair was unbound, her lips were parted, and her dark eyes were +peculiarly brilliant; through the opening of her lacy negligee her +round, white neck and swelling bosom were exposed. It was a head, a +bust, to be remembered. + +"I--You got to--hold me," she said, huskily, and he felt her body +shrink close to his. She clung tightly to him, trembling at first, then +shaking in every limb. Fright, it seemed, had suddenly mastered Allie +Briskow. + +Gray endeavored for a moment to soothe her, then gently to loosen her +hold; he spoke to her as he would have spoken to a terrified child, but +the wildness of her emotion matched the wildness of the night, and her +strength was nearly equal to his. Knowing her as he did, this abysmal +terror was inexplicable; such abandon was entirely out of keeping with +her. But she had acted queerly ever since--Gray was ashamed of the +thought that leaped into his mind; he hated himself for harboring it. +He hated himself also for the thrill that coursed through him at +contact with this disheveled creature. The touch of her flesh disturbed +him unbearably. Roughly he tore her arms from about his neck and put +her away from him; by main strength he forced her into a chair, then +snatched a covering of some sort from the bed and folded it around her +shoulders. His voice was hoarse--to him it sounded almost brutal as he +said: + +"Get hold of yourself! We're in no great danger, really. Now then, a +light will help us both." With clumsy hands he struck a match and lit +the lamp. "Light's a great thing--drives away foolishness--nightmares +and fancies of all sorts." Without looking at her he seized the +electric torch and muttered: "I'll take a look around, just to see that +things are snug. Back presently." + +Gray despised himself thoroughly when the turmoil within him persisted; +when he still felt the unruly urge to return whence he had come. Wild +horses! That was how Gus Briskow had described his children. Well, +Allie had followed Buddy's example and jumped the fence. Here was +something unique in the way of an experience, sure enough; here were +forces at play as savage and as destructive as those that lit the +heavens. The girl was magnificent, maddening--and he was running away +from her! He, a man of the world, as ruthless as most men of his type! +It was a phenomenon to awaken sardonic mirth. He wondered what had come +over him. He had changed, indeed. + +Could it be that he had read a wrong significance into Allie's actions? +Thus his mind worked when he grew calmer. He tried to answer in the +affirmative, but already he hated himself sufficiently. No, the night +had done it. Texas cattle stampede on stormy nights. They run blindly +to destruction. The very air was surcharged, electric, and the girl was +untamed, only a step removed from the soil. The possibility that she +could be seriously interested in him, strangely enough, never presented +itself. + +Gray laid strong hold of himself, but it is not easy to subdue thought, +and he could feel those strong, smooth, velvet arms encircling him. +Disorder without and chaos within this house! The heavens rumbled like +a mighty drumhead, the lightning made useless the feeble ray in his +hand. It was the place, the hour of impulse. Gray swore savagely at +himself, then he stumbled into his room and dressed himself more fully. + +"Well, there doesn't seem to be much change," he said, cheerfully, as +he opened Allie's door awhile later. "The fires don't seem to be +spreading." She was sitting where he had left her, she had not moved. +"Anything new on this side?" + +Allie shrugged; slowly she turned, exposing a face tragic and stony. "I +guess you don't think much of me," she said. + +"Indeed!" he declared, heartily. "This is enough to frighten anybody. I +don't mind saying it has upset me. But the worst is over." He laid a +reassuring hand upon her shoulder. + +Allie moved her body convulsively. "Lemme be!" she cried, sharply. "I +don't mind the lightning. I ain't scared of the fire, either--hell fire +or any other kind. I ain't scared of anything, and yet--I'm a dam' +coward!" + +She rose, gathered her loose robe more closely about her, and made +blindly toward the bed. She flung herself upon it and buried her face +in the pillows. "Just a--dam' coward!" she repeated, in a muffled wail. +"My God, I wish the blaze would come!" + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +Buddy Briskow had difficulty in getting out of the valley on his way +for a doctor, for never had the roads been like this. He drove +recklessly; where necessary he disregarded fences and pushed across +pastures that were hub deep; he even burst through occasional thickets +in defiance of axle and tire. It was a mad journey, like the ride in a +death-defying movie serial; only by some miraculous power of cohesion +did the machine hold together and thus enable him to keep it under way +and bring it out to high ground. Since he had not taken time before +leaving to change into dry clothing, he was drenched to the skin; he +was, in fact, sheeted with mud like the car itself. + +To find a doctor, however, was a problem. Buddy tried first one camp, +then another, but without success. Meanwhile, the downpour continued +and the creeks rose steadily, obliging him to make numerous detours and +to follow the ridge roads wherever possible. He was aching in every +bone and muscle from the pounding he had received, his arms were numb, +his back was broken. He drowned his motor finally in fording a roily +stream and abandoned the car. + +He came into Ranger that afternoon on the back of a truck horse that he +had borrowed--without the owner's consent. For a time it seemed that if +he got a doctor at all he would have to follow a similar procedure, but +the Briskow name was powerful, and Buddy talked in big figures, so +eventually he set out on the return journey--this time in a springless +freight wagon drawn by the stoutest team in town. A medical man was on +the seat beside him. + +Progress was maddeningly slow, incredibly tedious; creek beds, long +dry, had become foaming torrents; in places even the level roads were +belly deep and the horses floundered. When one of them fell, it +required infinite labor and patience to get it upon its feet again. + +It was after midnight when Buddy and his miserable companion gained the +comparatively easy going of the last ridge, that flinty range beyond +which lay the Briskow farm. Here they drove in the glare of lightning +and under a sky that rumbled almost steadily, for a frightful electric +storm had broken. Here it was that they saw what havoc was being +wrought--they counted several blazing wells ahead of them. + +Buddy stopped at a drilling camp where lights showed the occupants to +be astir, and there he received confirmation of his fears. The flats +beyond were inundated to a depth rendering travel impossible, and +although some of the men stationed out there had managed to work their +way back, others were, for the time being, hopelessly cut off. What was +more alarming by far, in view of these blazing beacons, was the news +that a huge gusher on sixteen was wild and pouring its inflammable +flood out upon the surface of the water. + +Buddy stood in the midst of a spreading puddle from his streaming +clothes, and through chattering teeth announced: "My sister and Mr. +Gray are out there. I _gotta_ get through!" + +"How you going to get through, kid?" one of the drillers inquired. "Our +men had to swim in places." + +"I guess I can swim, if I try. Feller can do 'most anything if he has +to. How about you, Doc?" Buddy turned to his traveling companion. + +The latter shook his head positively. "You're crazy, Briskow. We'd +probably drown. If we didn't, we'd be burned alive when that loose oil +catches fire." + +"Looks like it's bound to catch if this lightning keeps up," some one +declared. "Listen to that!" + +Buddy cursed furiously and lurched toward the door. It took force to +restrain him from going. + +That was indeed a night of terror in the oil fields, for destruction +was wholesale, and to those who were fortunate enough to be in no +danger it was scarcely less trying than for the luckless ones out in +the flooded area. Buddy Briskow was half demented. At one time it +seemed certain that the surface oil was aflame near his father's farm, +and the pictures he conjured up were unbearable. + +The rain ceased with the passing of the electrical storm, but the late +hours of the night were thick and the fires continued to burn. It +seemed as if morning would never come. With the first light Buddy +mounted one of his horses, and, regardless of admonitions, set out. In +miles he had no great distance to go; nevertheless, it was midday +before he came in sight of his father's unpainted farmhouse, and when +he dismounted at the front porch he fell rather than walked through the +door. + +He broke down and blubbered weakly when he saw Calvin Gray up and +around and apparently well. He collapsed into a chair and huddled there +in a wet heap, the while he sobbed and laughed hysterically. He was +considerably ashamed of his show of feeling. + +Even after he had been helped into the kitchen and his wet clothes had +been stripped from him, he could tell little about his trip, but hot +food and drink brought him around and then, indeed, his story was one +that deeply touched the elder man. + +Already the waters had ceased to rise, but Buddy's difficulty in +getting through proved the folly of attempting escape for the time +being; his horse had been forced to swim with him in more than one +place; in others he had waded waist deep, stumbling through thickets, +hauling the animal after him by main strength. There was nothing to do, +it seemed, but await a subsidence of the flood. Then, too, the boy was +half dead for sleep. + +Under the circumstances it was not easy for the elder man to face this +delay. His affairs were in a precarious condition and more in need of +his immediate attention than ever before; to be cut off, therefore, to +be lost for several days at this particular time was more than a +misfortune--it was a catastrophe. Such vague plans as he had considered +he was now forced to abandon. He could see ruin ahead. + +One purpose this enforced idleness did serve, however; it enabled +him--nay, it forced him--to evolve a new scheme of relief. Some minds +become paralyzed in moments of panic, others function with unexpected +clearness and ingenuity, and his was such a mind. An idea came to him, +finally, which seemed sound, the more he thought about it. Indeed, its +possibilities galvanized him, and he wondered why he had been so long +in arriving at it. It was spectacular, daring, it might prove to be +impossible of accomplishment; nevertheless, it was worth trying, and he +could scarcely wait for Buddy Briskow to wake up so that he could put +it to him. + +Late that evening, after Allie had gone to bed, he had a long talk with +his young friend, during which he told him more about his affairs than +he had made known even to Roswell, the banker. + +Buddy listened with the closest attention. He drew a deep breath at +last and said: "I knew you was in deep, but I thought it was just your +way. Now I _know_ it was Nelson's crew that fired our gasser. Why, they +might have cost us thousands--yes, hundreds of thousands--if it had +been the kind of a gusher we figgered on! Say"--the speaker's brows +drew together in an angry scowl--"what ails this Nelson, anyhow--tryin' +to get you shot, an' firin' your wells, an' everything?" + +"He once did me a great injury." + +"What kind?" + +There was a pause. "I'd rather not go into that now, Buddy. To repeat +what I've been telling you, however, the situation is this: I've gone +as far as I can go with the backing I have, and I must make a quick +turn--strike one final blow or give up. Nelson and I are like two +wrestlers floundering on the mat. We're both tired, groggy, out of +breath. Whichever one gets the first hold will win, for the other lacks +strength to break it. Do you think your father would trust me? Do you +think he'd go it blind on my say-so?" + +"If he won't, I will. I got money. So's Allie." + +Gray declined this offer with a positive shake of the head. "It must +appeal to him on its merits. I wouldn't permit you to go contrary to +his judgment." + +"Judgment? What's Pa's judgment worth? He knows it's no good, an' so do +we. Everybody's tryin' to do him up but you; you're the only one he +trusts. An' the same here. There's my bank roll--you can shoot the +whole piece. I don't care if it never comes back. Tryin' to get you +killed! An' spoilin' a well on me!" + +"Thank you, Buddy! You--make me slow to trust my own judgment. I--I +seem to be developing a conscience. But I'm sure this is the thing to +do, for you and your father as well as for me. People can't stand +still; they must go forward. The Briskow fortune must grow or it will +crumble." + +"I dunno if we've got as much in us as you seem to think," the boy +said, doubtfully. + +"Look at Allie! And, you, too! You took hold of this field work and ran +it like a man. I said you'd make a hand, and you have. The day is +coming when people like you, who went from poverty to affluence +overnight, will retrace that journey. That's the time when the truly +dramatic story of the Texas oil boom will be written. Then will come +the real tragedy, and you mustn't be caught in it. Money isn't a +servant, Buddy; it is a master, and a mighty stern, relentless master, +at that. When your first well blew in, it didn't mean ease and +enjoyment, as you thought; it meant hard work for the rest of your +life." + +"If you'd talked to me like this when I went off to school," the boy +said, after a moment of consideration, "mebbe I'd of made myself +swallow some more education, even if I had to take it out of a bottle +along with the little kids." + +Gray smiled. "You have common sense, at least, and that's something you +can't get in school. Men wear smooth from contact with one another, and +it is time you got in touch with something bigger than mere drilling. +If you're willing, I'll take you to Wichita Falls with me." + +"_Willing?_" Buddy's eyes sparkled. Guiltily he confessed: "It's been +pretty--lonesome out here with the scorpions. But I wanted to show you +I could make good." + +"Do you drink any more?" + +"Haven't touched a drop. I don't reckon I ever will, either. I don't +take to the idea of back-trackin' to this farm an' gettin' old in +overalls, like you say. I'm sort of penurious an' I aim to keep what +little sense I got. A feller as dull as I am can't afford to drink." + +"One thing more." Gray nodded approvingly. "I want you to promise me +that you won't fall in love with the first woman you meet. I'd never be +able to lick you again." + +Buddy showed his strong, white teeth in a broad grin. "I promise! That +boy with the bass voice cured me. I'm goin' to be a hermit." + +News of the damage wrought by the recent storm was naturally of grave +concern to Henry Nelson, but owing to the fact that lines were down, +about his only source of information, during the days immediately +following it, was the press reports. He was reading the Dallas papers +with interest one morning when his attention was arrested by the name +of Calvin Gray. Now Gray's name in print affected the banker almost as +disagreeably as did a sight of the man himself; therefore it was with +intense resentment that he read the article in which it appeared. It +was a vividly written account of the former's experience during the +flood, and, due no doubt to Gray's personal touch, it read a good deal +like fiction. The man had a unique turn for publicity, a knack for +self-advertising that infuriated Nelson. To read this anybody would +think that he was one of the dominant figures in the oil industry, and +that his enterprises were immensely successful. With a sneer Nelson +flung the paper aside. So, that was how it had happened. The well had +been fired--Henry believed he could account for that--but a miracle had +quenched the flame. Falling drill stems! Who ever heard of such a +thing? Such luck was uncanny--enough to give one the creeps. If Gray +were tied hand and foot and thrown into a river, somebody would drag +him out--with his pockets full of fish! And to be marooned for days in +the midst of a blazing lake--Damnation! Well, luck like that was bound +to change. It had changed. The note of assurance in this self-edited +story was patently counterfeit, or so Henry told himself, for surely +the fellow must know by this time that his race was run. Probably this +was a desperate effort to secure further backing. If so, it would fail. + +Henry believed that he had weakened his enemy's support so completely +that he would fall of his own weight; he considered it, in fact, about +the cleverest move he had ever made to dispose of a block of bank stock +in such a way as not only to tide him over his own difficulties, but +also to make allies of Gray's associates--the very men who had been +fighting him. Those men were through with the scoundrel now, and who +else could he appeal to, once they abandoned him? Nobody. No, the ice +had been thin, at times--Henry had felt it bending under him--but he +was safe at last. The crossing had been made. + +So much accomplished; now that the fellow was down and could no longer +fight back, it was time to see that Barbara Parker learned the truth +about her gallant suitor. The next time Tom Parker came into the bank +Henry called him into his private office and had a talk with him. + +Old Tom listened silently; nevertheless, it was plain that he was +deeply shocked. + +"I s'pose you ain't lyin'," he said, coldly, when the banker had +finished. + +"It's a matter of record, Tom. He can't deny it." + +"Why did you--hold off so long?" + +"We're not exactly friends. He foolishly believes that I had something +to do with his disgrace, and he has done his best to injure me. Under +the circumstances, I couldn't very well say anything. I wouldn't speak +now, except for the fact that 'Bob' is interested in him and--well, I'm +interested in 'Bob.'" + +"She's been interested in him from the first. I don't see that the +circumstances are much different than they have been," Tom said, sourly. + +"Put it down to jealousy, if you wish." Henry was impatient. + +"And I don't know as 'Bob' ever encouraged you to think--" + +"Perhaps not. But she is the only woman I ever saw that I'd make Mrs. +Nelson." + +"What was it he did?" + +"'Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman' is the way the record +stands. That covers a lot." + +"Did he welch--quit under fire?" + +"No." + +"Steal something?" + +"No." + +"Woman scrape?" + +"There was--a woman concerned. Pretty nasty mess, Tom. He's the sort of +man to intrigue any foolish woman. Women can't see far." + +"I s'pose so." Mr. Parker rose stiffly. "But we don't have to worry +about 'Bob.' She ain't foolish and her eyesight is good. She's got more +sense than all three of us men." With this noncommittal remark the +father limped out. + +But Tom was more deeply troubled than he had shown. Nothing to be said +against a man could have weighed more heavily with him than this +particular charge. To a man of his type dereliction of duty was a +crime; dishonorable discharge from the army of his country was an +appalling indictment implying utter moral turpitude. Tom had known more +than one fellow who was guilty of conduct unbecoming a gentleman--as a +matter of fact, he had reason to respect certain of them for some of +their ungentlemanly conduct--but conduct unbecoming an officer was +something altogether different. He had never met but one such, and he +had shot that fellow just above the bridge of the nose. A traitor to +his oath of office, a man who could dishonor his state, his country, +was worse than a renegade; his name was a hissing upon the lips of +decent people. Scalawags like that were not to be tolerated. It seemed +incredible that Gray could be one. + +Yes, and "Bob" liked the fellow--but so did he, for that matter. In +great perturbation of spirit Tom consulted Judge Halloran. + +The judge listened to him in astonishment; angrily he cried: "The idea +of his paying court to 'Bob'! The insufferable insolence of it! Why, I +consider it a personal affront." + +"Where do _you_ come in to get all het up?" Tom growled. + +"_What?_" Halloran's irascible face reddened. '"Where do I--'? My God! +Haven't I--? Don't I stand in _loco parentis_ to the girl?" + +"You ain't as _loco parentis_ to her as I am. She's my son. Trouble is, +I like Mr. Gray. You don't think Henry could be lying?" + +"He wouldn't dare. It is too serious. No, Tom, there's just one thing +to do; you and I will go directly to the scoundrel, tell him we are +aware of his infamy, and order him out of town. Ha! That's the way to +go about it; cut deep and quickly. Tar and feathers are too good for--" + +"Trouble is," Tom repeated, with a reluctant sigh, "I like him and I +ain't sure--" + +"The trouble is you're a weakling!" Halloran snapped. "You are +a--sentimentalist. You lack my stern, uncompromising moral fiber. +_Like_ him? Pah! What has that to do with it? I have no weakness, no +bowels of compassion. I am a Spartan. I am--" + +"You're a damned old fool--if you think you can run _him_. He's liable +to run you." + +Judge Halloran was furious at this; he was hurt, too. He sputtered for +a moment before managing to say: "Have it your own way. You are trying +to be unpleasant--not that it requires conscious effort--but I won't +argue with you." + +"Don't! I hate arguments. That's why I don't like to talk this over +with Mr. Gray. When I'm mad enough to argue I'm mad enough to fight, +and I fight better than I argue." + +If, indeed, Calvin Gray's affairs were in a condition as precarious as +Nelson believed, he showed no signs of it when he returned to Wichita +Falls. On the contrary, he was in an exultant mood, and even on the +train young Briskow, who accompanied him, was amazed at the change that +had come over his friend. With every mile they traveled Gray's buoyancy +increased and upon his arrival he trod the street to his office like a +conqueror. McWade and Stoner, who came in for a conference with minds +preoccupied and faces grave, left with a smile and a jest. + +When they had gone, Gray rose with relief and surprised Buddy by +saying: "That's enough for now, thank goodness! Business is only one +side of life, my boy. You are going to make this city your home, so you +must begin by meeting the right people, the influential people. Nicest +people in the world right here, Buddy; nicest place in the world, too!" + +Now to a youth who, for months, had been immured in the oil fields, +Wichita Falls did indeed resemble a city of marvelous portent. +Pavements, large buildings, bright lights, theaters--Buddy was +thrilled. He prepared himself for introduction to oil operators, to men +of finance sitting in marble and mahogany offices; he made ready to +step forth into the big world. + +Great was his astonishment, therefore, when after a swift walk Gray +turned into a tiny frame insurance office on a side street. Funny place +to look for people of influence, Buddy cogitated. + +A girl was seated at a desk; she rose at sight of Gray, and her face +broke into a smile. Her greeting was warm; her hand lingered in his; +for the moment neither of them seemed to remember Buddy's presence. +When she did hear his name, however, her face lightened and she gave +her hand to him as to an old friend. When she smiled at him, as she had +smiled at his companion, Buddy dropped his hat. He had never seen +anyone in the least like this creature and--she knew Allie! She knew +his mother! That was astonishing. He wondered why they had never said +anything about it. Before she had finished telling him about that +meeting in the store at Dallas, Buddy realized that here indeed was an +influential person, a citizen of supreme importance. He had missed her +name, but probably she owned that Dallas department store, or was the +Mayor of Wichita Falls. He had never before been so embarrassed. + +Mr. Gray certainly was a wonderful man. His poise, his air of +respectful but easy familiarity with this--this angel raised him +immensely in Buddy's esteem. Think of joking, chatting, making pretty +speeches to an--an angel! That was going some. The gall of it! + +They were talking about that big gasser of Gray's; the fire; the +overflow; and the melodramatic occurrences of the past fortnight. Gray +was telling her how Buddy had saved his life at the well, how he had +risked his own, later, in braving the flood, and she was listening with +eager smiles and nods and exclamations. When she turned admiring, +grateful eyes upon the hero of Gray's story--and the story had been +told in a manner to make Buddy no less--that youth felt himself +suffocating, burning up. Mr. Gray sure knew how to talk; he could sling +language. And _lie_--! Gosh, how beautifully he could lie! It was +splendid of him to exaggerate like this, so as to set him in solid with +the most important person in town. That was noble! People were awful +nice. And this certainly was a grand city. Buddy knew he was going to +get along fine; and he'd never forget Mr. Gray for this. + +After a while, when the two men were on the street again, Buddy +inquired: "Who is that young lady? I mean--her name?" + +Gray told him, then with a friendly twinkle: "Well, speak out! What do +you think of her?" + +"Oh--_Gee_!" Buddy cried, breathlessly, whereupon his companion laughed +in perfect satisfaction. + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +Gray returned to his desk that morning after his call on "Bob" Parker +determined to tackle energetically the numerous business details +needing his attention, but he found that he could not do so. As usual, +his brief sight of the girl, instead of satisfying him, had merely +increased his hunger; made him the more restless, the more eager to see +her again--alone. He gave up fighting his desires, presently, and +invented the necessity of a hurried trip to the Avenger lease. + +Her ready acceptance of the invitation he construed to indicate an +eagerness akin to his own, and during the several hours they were +together he had hard work to keep from breaking his resolve and telling +her all she had come to mean to him. + +"Bob" seemed to expect something of the sort, as a matter of fact. Her +shyness, her fluttering agitation when his voice unconsciously became +tender--and he realized that, in spite of himself, the tone of his +voice conveyed a message quite at variance with his words--taxed his +self-control to the utmost. Well, it wouldn't be long now--another two +weeks perhaps! But two weeks is an eternity when hearts are pounding, +when ears are strained and lips are waiting. + +Two callers were awaiting Gray when, late that afternoon, he mounted +the stairs to his office--Tom Parker and Judge Halloran--and something +in their formal, awkward greeting sent a quick chill of alarm through +him. Mechanically he ushered them into his private room and offered +them chairs. He heard himself chatting casually enough, but neither his +own words nor theirs conveyed much meaning to him. Nelson, it seemed, +scorned no advantage, however dishonorable. Gray's hatred of the man +attained deeper, blacker depths than ever. To-day of all days! What a +reckoning was due! + +The two old men were talking, one lamely supplementing the other's +efforts to lead up to the object of their visit. Gray turned a set face +to Tom Parker finally, and interrupted by saying: + +"Permit me to ease your embarrassment, sir. You object to my attentions +to your daughter. Is that it?" Tom dropped his eyes and mumbled an +uncomfortable affirmative. "Not, I hope, because you question the +nature of my intentions?" + +"Oh no!" + +"I'd say yes and no to that," Halloran declared, argu-mentatively. "Tom +and I are gentlemen of the old school; we live by the code and 'Bob' is +our joint property, in a way. Any man who aspires to the honor +of--well, of even paying attentions to that girl must stand the acid +test. There must be no blot upon his 'scutcheon." + +"You imply, then, that there is a blot upon mine?" + +"That is what prompts our visit, sir. Can you assure us that there is +none?" + +After a moment of hesitation Gray inquired, curiously: "Judge, do you +believe that a man can live down disgrace?" + +"Disgrace, yes. Dishonor, never! A man's honor is so sensitive that to +stain it is to wound it. Like the human eye it cannot suffer the +slightest injury without serious damage." + +The younger man ignored the pompous tone of this speech; he nodded. "I +see. Someone said also that it is like an island, rugged and without +landing place; and once outside of it we can never re-enter. That is +your idea, I dare say." + +"Precisely!" + +Tom Parker stirred; irritably he broke out, "I'm damned if I think you +did it!" + +"Did what?" + +Tom remained silent, but when his companion drew a deep, preparatory +breath, Gray lifted a hand. He rose nervously and in a changed tone +continued: + +"Again let me speak for you and shorten our mutual distress. First, +however, I must make my own position plain. I--love your daughter, Mr. +Parker." The declaration came at great cost, the speaker turned away to +hide his emotion. "I think--I hope she is not indifferent to me. I +would give my life to marry her and, God willing, I shall. So much for +that." He swung himself about and met the eyes of first one old man, +then the other. Harshly, defiantly, he added: "Understand me, nothing +you can do, nothing on earth--nothing in Heaven or in hell, for that +matter--will stop me from telling her about my love, when the time +comes. Now then, Henry Nelson has told you that I was--that I was sent +back from overseas in disgrace. You want to know if he spoke the truth. +He did!" + +After a moment of silence Judge Halloran said, with stiff finality: +"Under the circumstances there is nothing more to talk about. You amaze +me when you say--" + +"I want to know more than if he was just telling the truth," Tom +interrupted, grimly. "I want to know if you were guilty." + +"That was the verdict of the court martial." + +"To hell with that! Innocent men have been hung." + +A faint smile softened Gray's face. "And guilty men have gone to the +gallows protesting their innocence. Which are you to believe? I made +the best defense possible, but it was insufficient. I have no new +evidence. I would rather endure the stigma of guilt than have you +consider me a liar, and, of course, that is what you would think if I +denied it." + +Halloran was on his feet now, and evidently anxious to terminate the +interview. "There are two sides to every case, of course, and justice +is not always done. However, that really makes no difference in this +instance. The findings of a military tribunal are as conclusive as +those of any court of law, and it is not for us to question them. To +repeat what I started to say just now, I fail to understand how you can +expect us to tolerate your further attentions to Miss Barbara or how +you can persist in your insane determination to ask her hand in +marriage." + +"Perhaps you'll understand when I say that I propose to clear myself." + +"How? When?" + +"Soon, I hope." + +"And in the meantime?" + +Gray considered this question briefly. "In the meantime--if you will +agree to say nothing to 'Bob,' I will promise not to declare my +feelings, not to see her alone." + +"That's a go," said the father. + +"Mind you, I may fail to right myself. In that event I shall feel at +liberty to tell her the facts and ask her to believe in me against the +world. I trust she will do so. If she loves me as I love her, she will +marry me even though she knows I am a liar and a blackguard." + +"Never!" Halloran exploded. "'Bob' isn't that sort of a girl." + +"I hope it never comes to the test." + +"I hope so, too," the father declared, earnestly. "I'm--right fond of +'Bob,' and I wouldn't like to see her team up with a man she couldn't +be proud of. _I_ wouldn't take it easy." Mild as were these words, +coming from Tom Parker they had the ominous effect of a threat. + +Without further ado the two old men left. + +There was little sleep that night for Calvin Gray, and the days that +followed were a torture. It was a torment to avoid "Bob," for +self-denial only whetted his appetite to see her, and those cunning +plans he had laid at the time of their last meeting--plans devised +solely to bring them together--he had to alter upon one excuse or +another; he even forced Buddy Briskow to substitute for him. +Fortunately, there were certain negotiations requiring his presence in +Dallas, in Tulsa, and elsewhere, and it some what relieved his +irritation to put miles between him and the city he had come to regard +as his home. + +The Nelsons' bank was known as the Security National, and it +represented the life work of two generations of the family. Bell's +father had founded it, in the early cattle days, but to the genius and +industry of Bell himself had been due its growth into one of the +influential institutions of the state. Other banks had finer quarters, +but none in this part of the country had a more solid standing nor more +powerful names upon its directorate. Bennett Swope, for instance, was +the richest of the big cattle barons; Martin Murphy was known as the +Arkansas hardwood king, and Herman Gage owned and operated a chain of +department stores. The other two--there were but seven, including Bell +and his son--were Northern capitalists who took no very active interest +in the bank and almost never attended its meetings. For that matter, +the three local men above named concerned themselves little with the +actual running of the institution, for the Nelsons, who owned +nine-tenths of the stock, were supreme in that sphere. It was only at +the annual meetings when directors were re-elected--and invariably they +succeeded themselves--that they forgathered to conduct the dull routine +business which is a part of all annual meetings. After they had +adjourned as stockholders they reconvened as directors, and again +mumbled hurried and perfunctory ayes to the motions put before them, so +that Bell could the more quickly get out his bottle of fine old +Bourbon, the one really ceremonious procedure of the day. The Security +National was as conservative, as rock ribbed, as respectable, and as +uninteresting as any bank could well be, and its directors were always +bored when election time came around. + +In spite of the fact that the program this year was as thoroughly cut +and dried as usual, the day of the meeting found both father and son +decidedly nervous, for there were certain questions of management and +of policy which they did not wish to touch upon, and their nervousness +manifested itself in an assumption of friendliness and good fellowship +quite unusual. + +Senator Lowe, the bank's attorney and secretary, was arranging his +minute books, his reports, and his miscellaneous papers, Martin Murphy +was telling his latest story, when a knock came at the door to the +directors' room. Bell himself answered it, but his protest at the +interruption died upon his lips when he beheld Calvin Gray, Gus +Briskow, and the latter's son, Ozark, facing him. + +Gray spoke sharply, and his words fell with the effect of a bomb, at +least upon Bell and Henry, for what he said was: "We are attending this +meeting as stockholders, and we came early to enable the secretary to +record the necessary transfer of our shares." + +Disregarding the president's gasp of astonishment, the speaker pushed +past him and entered, then introduced himself and his companions to the +other men present. + +Henry Nelson experienced a sick moment of dizziness; the room grew +black before his eyes. It was Bell who broke out, harshly: + +"_Stockholders?_ Where did _you_ get any stock in this bank, I'd like +to know?" + +"We bought it. Picked it up here and there--" + +"I don't believe it!" Bell glared at the speaker, then he turned his +eyes upon Swope, upon Murphy, upon Gage. "Did any of you sell out?" + +"We don't own enough to make it worth while," Swope said, dryly. Murphy +and Gage agreed. Bell's peculiar display of emotion surprised them; +they exchanged glances. "I thought there wasn't any stock outside of +what's owned by our group. What's the idea?" + +Gray answered, easily. "There is now a considerable amount outside of +that. A very considerable amount." + +Henry Nelson made himself audible for the first time, and sneered +angrily. "Quite theatric, Gray, this eleventh-hour move. How much have +you got? What's your--your object?" In spite of himself his voice shook. + +"My object is purely selfish." Gray's tone was equally unpleasant. He +had expected to create a sensation, and he was not disappointed. "Mr. +Briskow and his son are looking for a secure investment, and I have +convinced them of the soundness of your institution. My operations make +it necessary for me to establish a close banking affiliation--one where +I can ask for and receive consideration"--his mockery was now +unmistakable--"so where should I turn, except to my friends? I assume +you make no objection to the stock transfer? Very well." He drew from +his pocket a bundle of shares and tossed them across the table to +Senator Lowe. + +Henry made his way to his father's side; they withdrew to a corner and +bent their heads together, murmuring inaudibly. Gray watched them with +unblinking intensity; he nodded to Buddy Briskow, and the latter, as if +heeding some prearranged signal, removed his hands from his pockets and +stepped farther into the room. He, too, watched the agitated pair. + +"Why--look here!" the secretary gasped, after a moment or two. +"This--this gives you control!" + +Bell Nelson raised a stricken face. "Control?" he repeated, faintly. +"_Control_?" He strode to the end of the table, and with shaking hands +he ran through the sheaf of neatly folded certificates. "Sold out, by +God!" He fell to cursing certain men, the names of whom caused Swope +and Murphy and Gage to prick up their ears. + +Gray was still staring at the junior Nelson; it was to him more than to +the father that he spoke: "Sold out is right! It came high, but I think +it was worth the price. We intend to vote our stock." + +"By that I infer that you're going to take the bank over--take its +management away from Bell and Henry?" Bennett Swope ventured. + +"Naturally." + +The elder Nelson voiced an unintelligible exclamation. + +"That's a pretty rough deal. Bell has put his life into it. It is +an--an institution, a credit to the community. It would be a misfortune +if it fell into the hands of--into the control of somebody who--" The +ranchman hesitated, then blurted forth, angrily: "Well, I don't like +the look of this thing. I want to know what it means." + +"I'll tell you," Henry cried, unevenly. "I'll tell you what it means. +Persecution! Revenge! Hatred! I quarreled with this man, in France. +He's vindictive; he followed me here--tried every way to ruin me--cost +me thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Father and I were--we +were pinched. We had to realize some quick money to protect our oil +holdings--offsets and the like--and we sold a lot of our stock with the +understanding that we could--that we would buy it back at a higher +figure. We only borrowed on it, you might say--hypothecated it. We +thought we were dealing with friends, but--_Friends_! My God!" The +speaker seized his head. + +"The stock was not hypothecated. You sold it," Gray said, quietly, "and +we bought it in." + +"It is all a personal matter, a grudge." + +"Is that true, Mr. Gray?" Swope inquired. + +"Substantially. But I'm waiting for Colonel Nelson to tell you more; to +tell you the whole story of our antagonism." + +Martin Murphy, who had been a silent onlooker up to this point, made +himself heard. "Mr. Gray, I don't like the look of this any better than +Swope does. Your quarrel with Henry is wholly your and his affair, but +the welfare of the Security National is partly ours. Banks are not +toys, to be juggled and played with in mischief or in spite. You say +you paid high for your stock; do you intend to wreck the institution, +lose a fortune--?" + +"By no means." + +"That's precisely what you will succeed in doing." + +"I had ventured to hope that you three gentlemen would remain on the +board." + +"Am I dreaming?" Bell Nelson's collar appeared to be choking him, and +with clumsy fingers he tugged at it. "Going to kick Henry and me off +the board, eh? Rob us? Well, I'm damned if you do! You'll not kick us +off--" + +"He doesn't want the bank," the son exclaimed, hoarsely. "That's all a +bluff. He wants blackmail. That's the kind of man he is. He wants his +price. I know him. How much, Gray? What'll it cost us?" + +"I'll tell you what it will cost--" + +"Ha! Didn't I say so?" + +"Oh, there is a price for everything! Mine will surprise you, however, +it is so low. Can't you guess what it is?" The speaker's intent gaze +had never left Henry Nelson's face; it was fixed there now, as cold, as +relentless as the stare of a python. + +Bell Nelson leaned forward, his lips parted, a new eagerness came into +his purple countenance. "Well, well! What is it?" he demanded, +querulously. + +"Vindication!" + +There was a moment of silence. "What is he talking about, Henry?" +Bell's eyes were strained toward his son. + +"I don't know," the latter said, in a thin voice. "He's crazy--always +was." + +"I'm giving you a chance, Colonel. You'd better take it. Think +carefully." When there came no response to this warning, Gray shrugged. +"Very well! There is nothing further, except to complete the transfer +and proceed with the business of the meeting. Mr. Briskow will be the +next president, and I shall occupy the position of vice-president and +treasurer now held by you--" + +The effect of this declaration was electric. With a cry the younger +Nelson lunged forward. Confusion followed. It was of short duration, +however, for Henry found himself locked in the arms of the Briskow +giant. Others lent Buddy their assistance, and, in spite of his +struggles, the vice-president was flung backward upon a deep leather +divan. He rose unsteadily, but, meeting Buddy's threatening gaze and +realizing the impossibility of getting past him, he cried: "Let me out +of here! Let me out, damn you! I--I'll get you for this, Gray. Let me +out, I tell you!" + +"Buddy!" Gray jerked his head in the direction of the door to one of +the adjoining offices. "He keeps a gun in his desk--top drawer. Get it +before me makes a fool of himself." Young Briskow stepped out of the +room. Gray continued, speaking to the others, "I have something to say +to you gentlemen before we go on with the meeting, and I wish to say it +in the presence of Colonel Nelson and his--" + +"You'll not keep me here. I refuse to stay," Henry shouted, and he +pushed past Swope toward the door. + +"Wait!" It was the elder Nelson speaking, and in his voice was a new +note--a note of triumph. "Stock can't be transferred at an annual +meeting. It has to be done in advance--ten days, I think it is. Am I +right, Senator?" + +"That is the usual procedure," Senator Lowe agreed. + +"Better look it up and make sure," Gray directed. + +There followed a few moments of uncomfortable silence while the bank's +attorney ran through the by-laws. It seemed to those waiting that it +was a long time before he frowned and shook his head. + +"I--ah--I can find nothing against it. It seems I have nothing to do +except transfer the shares." + +"Then there won't be any meeting!" Bell loudly declared. + +The three directors greeted this remark with exclamations of genuine +relief. "Sure! Let's adjourn--put it over until--" one of them began, +but the bank's president was bellowing in rising fury at the +interlopers: + +"Get out! Get out of my office, d'you hear? Get out--" + +"Looks to me like it's _my_ office," Gus Briskow said, quietly, "or it +will be, directly. You, Bell, put on the muffler! I came a long ways to +attend this meetin'. It's the first one I ever been to, an' it's goin' +to happen. Shut up your fuss! I want you to hear what Mr. Gray's got to +say." + +"To hell with him, and you, too!" stormed the financier. "Hold the +meeting, eh? Hold it if you dare! I defy you. Steal my bank, +double-cross me--We'll see about that. Come along, Henry." + +"You're in," Gray said, menacingly; "you'd better stay and vote your +stock or you may never get back again." But neither father nor son +heeded him. When they had gone he frowned. "I'm sorry. Really I am. I +hoped I could force--" + +"I think we'd better go, too," some one said. "This is too +extraordinary--We're in no frame of mind to go ahead--" + +"I must insist that you remain long enough to hear me out. You have no +right to refuse. There is something you _must_ be told." + +"I'll admit I'm curious to know what the devil it all means," Murphy, +the lumberman, confessed; "but I don't know that I should accept an +explanation from you. Not after Henry's accusations. I've known him and +Bell for years--" + +"I respect your friendship for them, and I sha'n't expect you to put +trust in my words. It seems to me, however, that you owe it to that +friendship to hear me. This incident has taken a turn wholly +unexpected, and, I must confess, disappointing. I looked for a +different outcome--hoped I'd be able to force an explanation--" The +speaker shook his head and frowned again, perplexedly. When, after a +moment of indecisive murmuring, the three directors seated themselves, +Gray thanked them with a bow. "I'll be as brief as possible, and if you +don't mind I'll stand as I talk. I'm in no mood to sit. I'll have to go +back a bit--" It was several seconds before he resumed. + +"When it became evident that the United States was going to war, I +managed to get in at Plattsburg and took the officers' training course. +It was easy for me to complete that course, because I had served in the +Spanish War and had kept up my interest in military affairs. Something +convinced those who ought to know that I possessed qualifications of +unusual value to the country--a wide business experience at home and +abroad, a knowledge of languages perhaps--anyhow, I was called to +Washington. There I met Henry Nelson--a valuable man, too, in his way. +We were commissioned at the same time and sent overseas on the same +ship to engage in the same work--military intelligence. I didn't like +the job, but it was considered important, and naturally I couldn't pick +and choose. Of course it was secret, confidential work. No need of +going into that here. + +"Nelson's and my duties were identical, our authority was equal; we +were ordered to work hand in hand, and although we were commissioned +together, technically, he outranked me owing to the fact that he was +given his commission a moment before I got mine. + +"That's where the trouble started. We clashed, even on shipboard. He +proved himself to be authoritative, overbearing; he immediately assumed +the position of my superior officer. I'm not a mild-tempered man, but I +put up with it, figuring that our paths would soon separate. But they +didn't. When we arrived in France I tackled my job with all the energy +in me; I tried for results. Nelson, I discovered in time, was concerned +only in taking entire credit for all that he and I and the whole +organization under us accomplished and in advancing himself. I worked; +he played politics. + +"You are not military men, so I sha'n't bore you with army terms or +technical details, but--by one means or another he managed to intrench +himself in a position of actual authority over me not at all in accord +with our purpose or our instructions. I swallowed my resentment, for it +seemed rather petty, rather selfish, in a time like that, to divert my +attention from the important work in hand to quarrel with him. You +understand? Then, too, he was not making good and I was, and I thought +time would surely cure the trouble. He must have appreciated my +feelings--nevertheless, he persisted in abusing his powers; he began +finally to really interfere with me, to call me off of important tasks +and humiliate me with futile assignments, and I realized that I was +threatened with failure through his meddling. This may sound trivial to +you"--the speaker raised his eyes to his audience--"but, take my word +for it, there were many instances of the kind over there. Jealousy, +intrigue, malevolence, petty spite, drove more than one earnest, +patriotic officer to rebellion and--ruined many a career. + +"I rebelled. I had to, or be made ridiculous. I warned him, privately, +as man to man. He ignored the warning. Then I prepared a complete +report showing by the copies of his orders, by the records of our +respective accomplishments, by our correspondence, how he had +systematically and maliciously endeavored to nullify my work and--and +the like. It was not a pretty report to read. I turned it in to him for +submission higher up. + +"Then it was that he outgeneraled me. He was furious, of course, but he +apologized--abjectly. He admitted that he had been wrong; that he had +imposed upon me. He promised to play fair if I'd permit him to withhold +the report, and--I was deceived. No man likes to be thought a cry-baby. +Those were eventful times; personal complaints were not welcomed in any +quarter--not with the world rocking on its foundations. I was glad to +accept his promises. + +"For a while we worked in harmony. I became engaged in an intricate +case, having to do with a leak concerning transport sailings and +routes--a matter involving the lives of thousands of our boys, millions +of dollars in supplies, and I went to Brest, under cover. It had to be +handled with extreme care--some danger about it, too. A very +interesting case, I assure you. I lived in a house with some of the +people under surveillance. One of them was a woman, extremely +attractive--thoroughly unscrupulous. My avenue of approach was through +her. Nelson, of course, knew what I was doing; he was about the only +one who did. + +"I worked a long while and I was upon the verge of success--it would +have been a real accomplishment, too--when, without apparent cause, the +gang took warning, scattered, the whole thing blew up. Months of work +for nothing! I had made worse than a failure this time." + +"You mean to accuse Henry of--of treachery of that sort?" Swope +inquired. + +"I do. And that's not all. Out of a clear sky charges were preferred +against me. Outrageous charges in which that woman figured." Up to this +point Gray had spoken smoothly, rapidly, but now his tone changed, his +words became hesitant, jerky. "I was amazed! Joke, I called it at +first. Sort of a blanket indictment, it was, charging me with +inefficiency, negligence, exceeding my authority, dishonesty--and +things even worse. Those were some of the least serious, the +least--nasty. It was all too absurd! Being peculiarly vain and +sensitive, my impulse was to shoot Henry Nelson. But I couldn't believe +the charges would be taken seriously. + +"Well, there was an investigation. I was court-martialed. I disproved a +good deal; I think I'd have exonerated myself on every count only for +the woman--that one I spoke about. She turned the trick. I was found +guilty, disgraced, sent back. Even though you are not military men, you +can appreciate the extent of my dishonor. + +"There, gentlemen, you have in a few words an unconvincing summary of a +long and complicated story--one that I detest telling. However, I could +not permit you to sit with me at the directors' table of this bank +without knowing who I am, what I am, and why I have run that rat into +his hole. Colonel Nelson spoke the truth when he said this was purely a +personal matter between us. It is so purely personal that I was willing +to spare humiliation to his father--leave Old Bell in control of his +bank and end our fight--if he'd right that old wrong. But you heard him +refuse. So they must both fall. He said I've been persecuting him--" +Gray smiled grimly. "Let me tell you how. That disgrace cost me my +friends, and what money I had, for I tried long and earnestly to get +back, to get a rehearing, to enter the navy--anything to re-establish +myself. Failing that, I came to Texas. I came without a dollar, without +an acquaintance, and--began my 'persecution' of Henry Nelson. I began +it by coming here to the bank and telling him what I was up to. I put +him on guard, and we engaged each other, as the French would say, 'to +the death.' I--won. That's all there is to the story." + +"Well, I'll be damned!" Martin Murphy exclaimed. + +"At least Henry played fair in this; he didn't betray your secret," +Gage said, coldly. + +"Oh, I meant to tell you that he didn't dare betray me, for he, too, +came back in disgrace. The pot couldn't very well talk about the +kettle." + +"_What_?" + +"Henry Nelson?" + +"Impossible!" + +"I mean exactly what I say. No man of his type could have lasted over +there. Then, too, the story of our quarrel leaked out, that old report +of mine turned up--Yes, he got the same medicine he gave me. But he had +influence in Washington, and he managed to delay final action almost up +to the day of the armistice. Even then he succeeded in pretty well +covering up the reason for his dismissal." + +"Why, even Bell doesn't know that!" + +"Henry's been a terrible hero, hereabouts," said Gus Briskow. After a +moment he addressed the other men. "Mr. Gray told me this, an' I wanted +him to tell it to you. I dunno what you-all think of his story, but I +know him an' I believe every word of it. What's more, I believe this +bank is goin' to be run as well as ever it was even if I am president. +A man can be president an' stay at home, if he's got folks under him +that know more than he does. What d'you say if we start that meetin' we +been talkin' about? I'm willing to see Mr. Gray settin' in yonder at +Henry's desk if you are." + +"I don't see that it makes much difference whether we're willing or +not," Swope confessed. "You have the votes, between you, to do about as +you choose." + +"Of course we have, but, with Bell an' Henry gone, it seems like some +of their neighbors ought to stay an' look out for what potaters they've +left in the ground. What d'you say?" + +Swope eyed his companions briefly, then he nodded. "We'll stay." + +"Then, Mr. Secretary, let her go!" + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +One morning, several days after the annual meeting, Gus Briskow opened +the door between his and Gray's office and inquired, "Busy?" + +The new vice-president of the Security National raised a preoccupied +face to the new president and said: "I'm never too busy to talk to you. +What is it?" + +"Nothing! I'm just kinda lonesome; kinda tired of lookin' bright about +things I don't savvy." Gus seated himself and crossed his thin legs. +"Folks give an owl credit for bein' wise just because he keeps his +mouth shut. Prob'ly he's got nothing of interest to say." + +"Perhaps. But you can say 'no,' Gus, and that's about all the average +banker is called upon to say." + +"Um-m!" The elder man nodded reflectively. "I heard about a captain of +industry that allus smelled a pink when he did his heavy thinkin'. Now +me, I'm goin' in for bananas. I keep a bag of 'em in my desk. I 'most +killed myself on bananas when our first well came in--never thought I'd +be able to afford all I wanted. How's the bank?" + +"Why, it's still here, as you see." + +"I know. That's the remarkable part. I keep thinkin' it's goin' to +bust--I mean blow up an' disappear. I wake up nights dreamin' it's +gone. It's all right, is it?" + +"Positively! I put an accountant at work on the books and he should be +ready to report any time now." + +"No chance of Bell Nelson throwin' us out, is there? He's in Dallas +tryin' to stir up money--" + +"Not a chance, unless you want him to do so; unless you're afraid we'll +make a failure of the business." + +"_We?_" Gus smiled quizzically. "_You_ won't fail. Folks around town +are talkin' about how quick you're takin' hold, an' they're beginning +to think you'll make a better banker than the Nelsons. Funny, ain't it, +how easy reconciled folks is to losin' a coupla prominent citizens like +that? Looks like Bell an' Henry are about the only ones that take it +hard." + +"The funny thing is"--Gray frowned, perplexedly--"they _don't_ take it +hard. At least, Henry doesn't appear to do so. That's what puzzles me. +No move of any sort--That's not like him." + +Gus agreed to this. "I been expectin' him to cut some capers. That's +why I been hangin' around so steady." + +"I know." + +"Every time I peel a banana I peel an eye for Henry. I worry whenever +you go out alone." + +The younger man rose and nervously paced the floor. "I'm completely +mystified," he admitted. "The whole affair has been a great +disappointment to me. I thought I'd sprung a coup, but--I'm at a +standstill. I'm stumped--checkmated." + +"About that trouble between you an' him, eh? Why, we took your word for +that." + +"Unfortunately, that didn't help me very greatly. Other people aren't +so easily convinced as you and Swope and Gage and Murphy. Damnation! I +thought my troubles were over." + +"Well, your money troubles is over--" + +"They're the smallest part. I'd go back and start all over again if I +could clean up that--that army record. It's a pretty flat triumph." + +"Humph! Most triumphs is. A feller has a dream--a longin', an' he bows +his back an' works his life away tryin' to realize it. If he does, the +chances is he's disappointed. He finds he's kep' his back bent so long +he can't straighten it. Look at me--pore as dirt an' scarcely enough to +eat! I used to pray for a miracle; pray for money enough to do +something for Ma an' the children--for a thousan' dollars. Here I am, +president of a whole bank, but Ma's sick, Allie's miserable, an' I +can't sleep nights for fear I'll lose what I got!" + +"Poverty wouldn't have helped Ma's health--" + +"Oh, I ain't sayin' I'd trade!" Gus wagged his sandy head. "I get my +shoes shined every two hours because that bootblackin' stand is a nice +place to look at the bank from. I set there an' tell myself I'm +president of it! But that's the biggest dividend I've got, so far--five +shines a day an' all the bananas I can eat. 'Flat' is the word." + +Gray smiled affectionately at the speaker. "At least Buddy is happy. +He's reaping his dividends, if I'm any judge." + +"I figger he's in love again." + +"Good heavens!" Gray paused in his restless pacing and turned an +expression of almost comic dread upon the father. "With that woman, eh? +Well, I refuse to interfere again. I haven't fully recovered from his +first infatuation for her." + +"I can tell the boy's symptoms. I felt the same way when I was courtin' +Ma. I acted just like him." + +"He has been trying to tell me something for a week, but I've been too +busy and too worried to listen." + +Briskow's kindly face had settled into graver lines when next he spoke. +"You prob'ly wonder why I take it so easy. Well, I remember what you +told me once about judgin' people I don't know. Mebbe Allie was right, +too, when she said a little genuine happiness is worth all it costs. +Anyhow, if Buddy wants that woman, I won't say a word. She's turned out +pretty good, an' people speak well of her. Buddy's a man, an' some men +just _have_ to get married--the sooner it's over, the better for 'em. +He's like that. But what's more 'n all that, love between two young +people is a pretty sacred thing, an' when old folks keep interferin' it +seems to me they're settin' themselves up to be wiser than God. Ma's +folks didn't care much for me." + +"I feel a rebuke in your words," Gray said; "and no doubt I've earned +it, for it has always been my weakness to rearrange the lives of those +I love. But--who am I, after all? If I were so divinely wise, why is my +own life what it is? When I marry, perhaps I shall have to ask B--ask +the girl to ignore in me things as--as disagreeable to think about as +those which Buddy will have to ignore in Margie's past. That boy, in +fact all you Briskows, have put me so deeply in your debt that I'm +afraid I shall have to conquer my meddlesome instincts." The speaker +looked up suddenly. "You'll never know, by the way, how deep is my debt +of gratitude. When a vainglorious, supersensitive man finds himself +under a cloud, it is pretty nice to know that there is somebody whose +faith is unshakable; somebody who needs no legal proof that +he's--Proof! Here I am, back again right where I was when you came in; +back to my own selfish concerns. I can't get away from them. What to do +next? The Nelsons are on their last legs. The loss of this bank will +certainly destroy what credit remained, and even a good well now would +scarcely tide them over. But--damn it, Gus, I can't kick a man if he +refuses to stand up! I can't beat a corpse!" + +There came a rap at the door, and the accountant whom Gray had put to +work upon the bank's books entered. "I'd like to talk to you about this +report," the man began. + +"Don't go," Gray said, as Briskow unfolded his legs and rose. + +But the president of the Security National shook his head, saying: +"Bookkeepin' is all Choctaw to me. I saw one statement an' I thought +'liquid assets' meant that bottle of whisky Bell left in his desk." + +"Mr. Gray," the auditor announced, when they were alone, "I wish you'd +ask somebody else to take this job off my hands." + +"Why?" + +"Well, somebody else could probably do it better." There was a pause. +"I've known Bell Nelson all my life--" + +"That is why I engaged you. You've been over these books before." Again +there was an instant of silence, then into Gray's face there flashed a +curious alertness. "Come!" he cried, sharply. "What is it?" + +"I'm sorry to be the one to--" The auditor shrugged. "If you insist on +an explanation, I suppose I shall have to tell you. Perhaps it's just +as well, anyhow. They say figures don't lie, but you and I know better. +I only wish they didn't." + +"Have you caught them lying, here?" + +"I have. And--it has made me rather ill. You'd better prepare yourself +for a shock." + +It was nearly an hour later that Gray telephoned to Senator Lowe, the +bank's attorney, and to Bennett Swope, the latter being the only member +of the board available at short notice. This done, he wrote a note to +Henry Nelson. In spite of his effort to control his hand, it shook when +he signed his name, and on second thought he destroyed the missive. +There is something ominous about the written word. If Nelson grew +suspicious, he'd never come. + +Gray stepped into Gus Briskow's office and asked him to call the former +vice-president, first, however, explaining exactly what he wished Gus +to say. The ruse succeeded; then Gray returned to his own office. He +drew a deep breath. Within him he felt a ferocious eagerness take fire, +for it seemed to him that the day of reckoning had come. Henry's +behavior was now easily understandable; the fellow was cringing, +cowering in anticipation of a second blow. Well, the whip was in Gray's +hands, and he proposed to use it ruthlessly--to sink the lash, to cut +to the bone, to leave scars such as Henry had left upon him. Nor was +that his only weapon. There was, for instance, Old Bell Nelson's honor. +If coercion failed, there were rewards, inducements. Oh, Henry would +have to speak! The Nelson fortune, or what remained for salvage from +the wreck thereof, the bank itself, they were pawns which Gray could, +and would, sacrifice, if necessary. His hunger for a sight of "Bob" had +become unbearable. Freedom to declare his overwhelming love--and that +love he knew was no immature infatuation, but the deep-set passion of a +full-grown man--was worth any price he might be called upon to pay. +Yes, Henry would speak the truth to-day or--for one of them, at least, +there would be an end to the feud. + +Gray, too, kept a revolver in his desk. He removed it and placed it in +his pocket. + +Buddy Briskow chose this, of all moments, to thrust his grinning visage +into the door and to inquire, "Got time for me now, Mr. Gray?" + +"Not now, Buddy." + +"When?" + +"Why--almost any other time." + +"I wouldn't bother you, but it's important and I--I promised a certain +party--" The youth's face reddened, his smile widened vacuously. + +"Later, if you don't mind." + +It was plain that Buddy did mind; nevertheless, he withdrew. + +When Swope and Lowe arrived, Gray could with difficulty restrain +himself from blurting out the reason for his urgent summons, but he +contented himself by asking them to wait in the president's office. + +Henry Nelson entered the bank with his head up, with a contemptuous +smile upon his lips and an easy confidence in his bearing. His hand was +outstretched toward the knob of Briskow's door, when the one adjoining +opened and, from the office he himself had so long occupied, Calvin +Gray spoke to him. + +"Please step in here, Colonel." + +Nelson recoiled. "No, thank you!" he said, curtly. + +"Briskow and I are amateur bankers; there is a matter upon which we +need your advice." + +"Indeed? Finding it isn't as easy to run a bank as a drilling rig? He +said you were out, otherwise--" + +"Will you come in?" + +Stiffly, reluctantly, as if impelled by some force outside of himself, +Nelson stepped within, but he ignored the chair that was proffered him. + +Gray closed the door before saying: "The deception was mine, not +Briskow's. You prefer to stand? Um-m--I appreciate your feeling of +formality. I felt a bit ill at ease on the occasion of my first call +here, when our positions were reversed--" + +"If you got me here just to be nasty--" + +"By no means. Nevertheless, it gratifies my vanity to remind you that +you considered me a braggart, a bluffer, whereas--" + +"I haven't changed my opinion." + +"So be it. One matter, only, remains between us. I am about to ring up +on the last act of our little comedy." + +"Theatrical, as always, aren't you?" Nelson's lip curled. + +For a moment Gray stared at the speaker curiously; his tone had altered +when he said: "You're a better poker player than I thought. You're +almost as good a bluffer as I am. That, by the way, is probably the +last compliment I shall pay you." + +"Come! I've no time to waste." + +"You will soon have ample time--if not to waste, at least to meditate--" + +"What do you mean by that?" The query came sharply. + +"I've had an examination of the bank's books. That, as you will readily +understand, explains why I sent for you." + +"Why--no. I don't--" + +"I wondered how you and your father got the money to keep going so +long, for I discovered you were in a bad way even before I turned up. +It is no longer a mystery. When you and he, as directors of the +Security National, lent yourselves money, as individuals, you must have +realized that you were--well, arranging ample leisure for yourselves in +which to meditate upon the stringency of the banking laws--" + +"Nonsense! That's n-nothing--nothing serious." Nelson's ruddy color had +slowly vanished; with uncertain hand he reached for the nearest chair, +and upon it he leaned as he continued, jerkily: "Irregular, +perhaps--I'll admit it was irregular, but--there's nothing _wrong_--Oh, +you'll make it look as bad as possible, I dare say! But you don't +understand the circumstances. Anyhow, father is getting it straightened +out; all he needs is time. We'll be able to handle it, all right. We're +good, you know, perfectly good--" + +"You're broke! Everybody else knows it, if you don't. '_Irregular_'! +Ha! There's a choice of words!" The speaker laughed silently. "It is an +'irregularity' that carries with it free board and lodging at the +state's expense." + +An incoherent protest issued from Nelson's throat. When next he managed +to make himself audible, his words were such as really to amaze his +hearer. "_I_ didn't do it," he cried, in a panic-stricken voice. "It +was father's idea! You had us crowded--there was no other way. I warned +him--" + +"Wait a minute! You blame it on _him_?" Gray's inquiry was harsh, +incredulous. After a momentary pause his lips moved, but for once he +stammered, his ready tongue refused its duty. He exploded, finally, +with an oath; he jerked open a drawer in his desk. From his pocket he +removed his revolver, flung it inside, then jammed the drawer back into +place with a crash. "You--_rat_!" he exclaimed. He turned his back upon +Henry Nelson and made a circuit of the little room. + +"It's a thing you and I can easily fix up," the latter feebly insisted. +"Now that personal matter of yours--Perhaps I could help you reopen it +somehow, clear it up." + +"Ah! Indeed!" + +"Give and take, I say. I'm willing to do anything I can, if--" + +"There won't be any 'ifs'! No conditions whatever." + +"Is that so?" Nelson flamed forth, in a momentary explosion of +resentment. "If you think I intend to stand the brunt of this, you're +crazy. I can't afford to figure in a scandal--banking scandal--like +this. I'm a young man. Bell has had his day. He's old. You can hush +this up. There are lots of ways to do that. Keep me out of it and--and +I'll do what's right by you; I'll do anything you say." + +"You'll do that, anyhow," Gray replied, in a voice that grated. He +flung himself into his desk chair and, seizing pen and paper, he began +to write rapidly, shakily. + +"I want to see what I'm signing," Nelson warned. A growl was his answer. + +For an interminable time the only sound in the office was the +scratching of that pen. When at last it came to an end, Gray rose, +thrust the loose sheets into Nelson's hand, then, indicating the vacant +chair, said: + +"Sign that!" + +The wretched recipient of this curt command read the lines carefully. +He read them twice, thrice, for his mind no longer functioned clearly. +He raised a sick face, finally, and shook his head. + +"Wouldn't I be a fool?" he queried. + +"Listen, you--" Gray's body was shaking, his words were uneven. "I'm +sorry for Bell, but not for you. I'll never forget nor forgive what you +did to me. Nothing can undo that. Disgrace clings to a man. You're +going to get yours, now, and you can't squirm out of it, or lie out of +it, no matter how you try, for I sha'n't let you. You're ruined, +discredited, blown up, but--I don't think I want to send you to the +penitentiary. I'd rather see you walking the streets with dandruff on +your collar. I'd rather keep you to look at. Anyhow, you'll have to +sign that." + +"If you'll guarantee to keep this bank matter quiet--if you'll protect +me, I'll sign. Otherwise, you can go to hell. We'll beat it out, +somehow. We can do it." + +Inflexibly Gray asserted: "I'm going to turn you over, whether or no. +But I'll help Bell get the money to repay those loans. He'll probably +manage to save himself and--save you, too." + +"I won't do it!" Nelson flung down the pen. "Not on those conditions. +You can't bulldoze me. It's your day to crow, but, I warn you, don't +push me too far." + +Gray voiced an epithet. It was low pitched, but its explosive force, +the impelling fury back of it, fairly caused the room to vibrate. He +was white of lip, his rage had reached the foaming point. + +"Don't make me lay hands on you--choke you into it," he cried, +hoarsely. "If you do, by God, I'll finish you!" + +Like a man fighting some hypnotic influence stronger than his will, +Henry Nelson took up the pen and signed his name waveringly. The next +moment Gray smote the door to Briskow's office a heavy blow and, as it +flew open, he barked: + +"Come in here! All three of you!" He stood aside as Gus, Bennett Swope, +and Senator Lowe entered. "Yonder is a statement which I want you to +read and witness. When you've done that, I'm going to tell you why +Henry Nelson signed it. The rest will be up to you." + +It was midafternoon. Swope and Lowe had left the bank. Briskow drew a +deep breath and said, with genuine relief: "I'm glad _that's_ over. We +can handle the debt between us, an', after all, Old Bell's a pretty +good citizen. As for Henry, I s'pose he'll wiggle out of it, somehow. I +dunno as I'd of been so easy on him if I'd been in your place." + +"I'll tell you why I was easy on him," Gray confessed. "I'm tired of +fighting; I'm worn out. I've won my point, and he'll carry the sort of +load I've been carrying. But there is this difference: for him there +will be no vindication at the end." Taking from his pocket Nelson's +statement, he stared at it, then slowly his face lightened. "I was +blind mad at first. I felt as if I couldn't keep my hands off him. It +was such a dirty trick he did me and so reasonless! He had no excuse +whatever for injuring me, Gus. However, I suppose most quarrels sprout +from tiny seeds. Well, I'm square with the game! I--I'm afraid, even +yet, that it's all a dream. I've wanted to yell--" The speaker +chuckled; the chuckle grew to a laugh. "There's magic in this document, +Gus, old boy. I've grown young all at once." + +"You needn't of took it so hard. Us fellers would have stood by you if +you'd turned out to be a horse thief. Texas men are like that." + +"You proved it. But that wasn't enough. A man's business associates +will frequently overlook a lot more than their wives and daughters will +overlook. There's a certain loyalty that doesn't apply outside of the +office." Gray rose and filled his lungs. "D'you know why I felt this +thing so keenly? Why I fought so long? Of course you don't, for I've +held out on you. Fact! I've held out on my partner--had a secret from +him. Now then, steel yourself for a surprise. I'm suffering from +Buddy's complaint, only ten times aggravated!" + +"What?" Briskow stared up at the animated countenance above him. "You +thinkin' about gettin' _married_?" + +"I'm thinking about nothing else. That's what ails me. Why, Gus, you've +no idea what a perfectly charming person I can be when--when I can be +what I am. I thought I was too old and too blase ever to become +seriously interested in a woman, above all in a girl, but--Do you +remember when Ma and Allie came to Dallas that first time? Something +happened about then to upset all my ideas." + +Briskow's sun-parched face slowly lightened, his bright, inquisitive +eyes grew bluer, brighter. "I'm--mighty glad! I allus hoped--" He tried +to finish his sentence, then shook his head and murmured, huskily, +"Mighty glad!" + +Here was a marvel, a miracle, for which he had never dared even hope. +He thought of Allie and a lump came into his throat. She had reached +the stars. His girl! he would be mighty glad, too-- + +Gray was speaking, and in his voice was a new, vibrant quality, a new +vigor. "Now you'll know why this is the biggest day of my life; why I +thought those men would never go. I'm shaking all over, Gus. You'll +have to run the bank for a while; I'm too young and irresponsible. I'm +going out to buy a hoop and a jumping rope and a pair of roller +skates." Again he laughed, boyishly; then, with a slap that knocked the +breath from Briskow's lungs, he walked lightly into his own office and +seized his hat. + +For a long time the father sat at his big, empty desk, staring, smiling +into space. This would make Ma well. Money wasn't altogether a worry, +after all; it bought things that nothing else could buy--stars and--and +things. + +From the expressions upon the faces Gray passed in leaving the bank, he +realized that his own must wear a grin; but, in spite of his dignified +effort to wipe it off, he felt it widening. Well, this was his day to +grin; his day to dance and caper. People were too grave, anyhow. They +should feel free to vent their joy in living. Why act as if the world +were a place of gloom and shadow? Why shouldn't they hop, skip, and +jump to and from business, if so inclined? He visualized the streets of +the city peopled with pedestrians, old and young, fat and thin, thus +engaged, and he laughed aloud. Nevertheless, it was a good idea, and +when he became mayor, or perhaps the junior Senator from Texas, he'd +advocate public playgrounds for grown-ups. "Bob" would help him put it +through. There was a girl who would never grow old. They would grow +young together. He caught sight of his reflection in a shop window and +slowed down his gait, telling himself that pending the time his new +idea was definitely planted it might be well to walk in the +old-fashioned manner. Men of substance, bankers, for instance, +shouldn't rush through the streets as if going to a fire; they +shouldn't dash over crossings and take curbstones as if they were +hurdles. It wasn't being done. No reason, however, why a banker +shouldn't throw his shoulders back and walk springily upon his toes. + +When he beheld the familiar painted sign, "Tom and Bob Parker. Real +Estate and Insurance," he paused. The mere sight of the little wooden +building, the name, gave him an odd shortness of breath. It was weeks +since he had been here. + +He realized of a sudden that he had brought nothing with him; no gift, +not even flowers. But there was enough to talk about. She'd forget +that. What a shower of gifts he would pour upon her--and upon Old Tom, +too! Good Old Tom! Tom had wanted to believe. Tom and he would be great +pals. They couldn't help being pals with just one thing, between them, +to love; one thing in all the world! + +It was a disappointment to find the office empty, except for the father +himself, but Gray began with a rush, "Well, I told you I'd clear +myself, and--here I am, walking on air." + +"You did it, eh? That's good news." + +"We had a show-down at the bank. Henry Nelson and I locked horns +and--But here! Read what he signed. That cleans the slate. He'll do +anything further that may be necessary, officially. Where's "Bob"?" + +"They're fishin' for a bit in one of your Avenger wells. She's out +there." + +"So? I'd forgotten." + +"Did you see--? Did Buddy have a talk with you? To-day, I mean?" + +"Buddy? Oh, Buddy Briskow! I saw him for a moment only. She'll be back +soon, I dare say?" + +Tom Parker stirred; it was a moment before he spoke, then it was with +apparent irrelevance that he said: "I'm sorry you and he didn't have a +good talk. 'Bob' asked him to see you--sent him there a-purpose." The +sight of Gray's smiling, eager, uncomprehending face caused the old +man's steady gaze to waver. He cleared his throat. "Buddy's a fine boy." + +"Finest in the world! I claim responsibility for him, in a way. He's +part mine." Gray laughed; his eyes sparkled. + +"Him and 'Bob' are out there together. They've been together a lot, Mr. +Gray. Both of 'em young, that-away--" + +"Of course. I knew you'd both like--" Some quality in Tom's voice, some +reluctant evasiveness to his eyes, bore a belated message to the +younger man--snapped his chain of thought--dried the words upon his +lips. Into his eyes leaped a sudden, strained incredulity. Sharply, he +cried, "What do you mean?" Then, after an instant, "Why did he want to +see me?" The two men gazed squarely at each other for the first time. +"My God! Why--that's absurd! I--I brought him here. He's just a _boy_!" + +"And she's just a girl, Mr. Gray." + +The younger man shrank as if at a blow. He closed his eyes; he raised a +shaking hand to his face, which was slowly assuming the color of ashes. +"That's too--rottenly unfair!" he said, faintly. "I brought him +here--made a man of him. Of course he doesn't know--" His eyes opened; +eagerly he ran on: "Why, Tom, it's just the boy and girl of it! Puppy +love! You know how that is." + +"I didn't notice how things was going till if was too late. We might as +well talk frankly, Mr. Gray. Prob'ly it's well you saw me first, eh? +Well, when I understood where they was heading, I worried a lot--after +what you said that day, understand? But those two! Pshaw! It was like +they had known each other always. It was like 'Bob's' mother and me +when we first met; her beautiful and fine and educated, and me rough +and awkward. Only Buddy's a better boy than I was. He's got more in +him. I s'pose all womenfolks have that mother feeling that makes 'em +yearn over the unlikeliest fellers." Parker looked appealingly at his +stricken hearer, then quickly dropped his eyes, for Gray's countenance +was like that of a dying man--or of a man suffering the stroke of a +surgeon's knife. + +"After all, it's youth. You're a good deal older than 'Bob,' and I +s'pose you sort of dazzled her. She likes you. She thinks you're great. +You kinda thrill her, but--I don't believe she ever dreamed you was +actually--that you actually cared for her. You've got a grand way, you +know, and she ain't a bit conceited about herself. Why, I _know_ she +never figgered it that way, because she made Buddy promise to tell you +the first thing; sent him to the bank a-purpose, thinking you'd be so +glad on his account." + +"Then they've--settled it between them?" + +Tom nodded gravely. "She told me last night. And from the way she told +me, I know it's not just boy and girl love. She's been singing like a +bird all day. And Buddy! He's breathless. I know how he feels. I +couldn't draw a full breath for two weeks after 'Bob's' mother--" + +Gray uttered a wordless, gasping cry. He moved unsteadily toward the +door, then paused with his hand upon the knob. Tom Parker was surprised +when, after a moment, he saw the man's shoulders shake and heard him +utter a thin, cackling laugh. "Time is a grim old joker, isn't he? No +way of beating him, none at all. Now I thought I was young, but--Lucky +I found you here and spared my vanity." He turned, exposing a face +strangely contorted. "You won't mention my foolish mistake, will you? +No use hurting the ones we love. You know how we feel--fatherly. That's +it, fatherly love. I was a silly old fool. They'll be happy. Young +people like that--" The speaker choked. "Young people--Well, _adios_, +old man!" He opened the door and walked blindly forth. + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +Calvin Gray did not return to the bank. He went straight to his hotel +and, as soon as he could sufficiently control himself to do so, he +telephoned Gus Briskow, telling him that he intended to leave town. +Then he began mechanically to pack his bag. He moved like a man in a +trance, for the blow had fallen so suddenly as to numb him; his only +impulse was to escape, to hide himself from these people who, of a +sudden, had become hateful. His city of dreams had collapsed. The +ruins, as they lay, meant nothing as yet, for his mind refused to +envisage them and he could see them only as they had stood. He groped +amid a hopeless confusion of thought--at one moment bewildered, +piteously hurt, at the next suffering a sense of shameful betrayal. He +had grown old and dull and feeble, too, and for the time being he was +incapable of feeling the full force of a strong man's resentment. This +surprised him vaguely. + +Soon, however, like kindling fires among the ruins, his fury rose--fury +at himself, at Buddy, at Barbara--and in the heat of those scorching +flames he writhed. She _had_ loved him. He'd swear to that. He had +swayed her, overpowered her; he had lacked only the courage to trust +his instinct. Coward's luck! It served him right. He had held her in +his arms and had let her slip through; her lips had been raised to his, +and he had refused to press them. Imbecile! + +He groaned; he tore the collar and the tie from his neck, for they were +choking him. Old, eh? Too old! That was the grimmest jest of all, for +at the mere thought of Barbara's lips unruly forces took possession of +him; he experienced a fierce, resistless vigor such as he had never +felt in his younger days. It was a dreadful, an unappeasable yearning +of soul and body, and when the paroxysm had passed, it left him weak. +He sank into a chair and lay there stupid, inert, until again those +fires began to lick at him and again he twisted in dumb agony. Buddy +Briskow! Buddy, of all people! That lout; that awkward simpleton, who +owed him everything! But Buddy was _young_! + +Gray heard himself laughing in hoarse derision. He rose and tramped +heavily around his room, and, as he went, he crushed and ripped and +mutilated whatever his hands encountered. His slow, deliberate, +murderous rage demanded some such outlet. All the while he felt within +himself two conflicting impulses, heard two voices: the one voice +shouted at him to search out Buddy and visit upon him the punishment +warranted by a base betrayal; the other told him jeeringly to lay the +scourge upon his own shoulders and endure the pain, since he had +betrayed himself. His mind was like a battle ground, torn, up-heaved, +obscured by a frightful murk--he remembered a night in France, a black +night of rumbling, crashing terror, when, as now, the whole world +rocked and tumbled. Some remnant of self-control induced him to lock +his door and pocket the key, for Buddy might come. He probably would +look him up, all grins and smirks and giggles, to tell him the glorious +news, to acclaim the miracle. That would be too much. + +One thing was certain, there was no safety except in flight, +ignominious, cowardly flight... After all, how could Buddy have known? +He was a good boy, and he had shown his love, his loyalty, in a +thousand ways. Gray hated him at this moment, but, more bitterly even, +he hated himself. It was fate.... He fell to cursing aloud, but there +was no relief in that, and again the appalling irony of the situation +silenced him. He had deified himself, set himself upon a high place, +bent men and affairs to his own ends, until he had acquired a godlike +belief in his power to accomplish all things. His victory had been +complete. He had won all--except the one thing he most desired, the +very fruit of victory. + +Some time later he heard Buddy come whistling merrily down the hall and +knock at his door. Gray cowered in his chair, listening in breathless +dread until the footsteps retreated. When he rose he moved about +stealthily. + +When night came he took his bag and slunk out of the hotel, for it +seemed that men must surely know what a fool he had made of himself. It +would have been a relief to feel that he was leaving never to return; +but even that was denied him, for, after his first panic, the truth had +come home. He could not run away. He had forged chains for his own +limbs. Like a tethered mustang he could plunge only to the end of his +rope. Friendship, again! There was simple, trustful, faithful Gus +Briskow. And the bank. God, what a mess things were in! Gray knew he +would have to return, have to see "Bob" and Buddy day after day, month +after month, and the prospect was too distressing to dwell upon. Again +his mind grew weary, baffled; he experienced a wretched physical +illness... Where to go, where to hide until his sickness had passed? +That was the question. + +For the first time he appreciated the full extent of his loneliness; +his utter lack of resource in a crisis like this. Most men, however +solitary, lay by material things for themselves, build homes and +surround themselves with personal possessions from which, or amid +which, they can gain some sort of solace in times of trial. But he had +not fashioned so much as a den into which he could creep and lick his +wounds. Once he had left his hotel room behind him he was in the open +and without cover. Not a single soul cared whether he came or went, not +another door stood ajar for him. And he had planned so much upon having +a home, a real home--But he could not trust himself to think much along +that line; it induced an absurd desire to weep at his plight. It made +him feel like a child lost in a wood. That was silly, just an emotional +reaction; nevertheless, the impulse was real and caused him to yearn +poignantly for human comfort. + +He thought of Ma Briskow, finally. She was human; she had a heart. And +Dallas was a sort of homey place; anyhow, the bellboys at the Ajax knew +and liked him. That was probably because he had tipped them handsomely, +but what of that? If they'd be kind to him now he'd tip them more +handsomely than ever. Lonely men--old ones--must expect to pay for what +they get. He bought a ticket to Dallas. + +Ma Briskow's eyes were dim; nevertheless, she saw the change in Calvin +Gray when, late the following afternoon, he came to see her. + +"Land sakes!" she exclaimed, in a shocked voice. "Pa never said you was +ailin'. Why, Mr. Gray!" + +"I'm not really ill," he told her, wearily, "just old. I've had a bad +night." Seating himself beside her couch, he took her hand in his and +made her tell him all about herself. He had brought her an armful of +flowers, as usual, and extravagant gifts for her adornment--giving, it +seemed, was his unconscious habit. While she admired them with ecstatic +"Ohs!" and "Ahs!" he busied himself with bowls and vases, but Ma noted +his fumbling uncertainty of touch and the evident effort with which he +kept up his assumption of good cheer. She told him, finally: + +"Something mighty bad has happened to you, Mr. Gray." + +He gazed at her mutely, then nodded. + +"Is it something about the--the Princess of Wichita Falls?" + +"Yes, Ma." + +"Tse! Tse! Tse!" It was a sympathetic cluck. "Was she a wicked +princess?" The query was gently put, but it deeply affected the man. He +tried to smile, failed, then like a forlorn little boy he came and +bowed his head beneath her hand. + +"I knew you'd understand, Mother Briskow, so I--I ran to you with my +hurt, just as I used to run to my Mother Gray." After a while he +continued in a smothered voice: "She isn't a wicked princess. She +didn't mean to hurt me and--that's what makes it hurt so deep. She +tumbled the old duke's castle down upon his head; tumbled the old duke +out of his dreams. He isn't a duke any longer." + +"He'll allus be a duke," Mrs. Briskow firmly declared. "He was born +that way." + +"At any rate, he's a sad old duke now; all his conceit is gone. You +see, he was a vain old gentleman, and his courtiers used to tell him he +was splendid, handsome--They said he looked as handsome as a king, and +by and by he began to think he must be a king. His enemies sneered at +this and said he was neither duke nor king, but a--a mountebank. That +made him furious, so he went to war with them, and, by Jove, he fought +pretty well for an old fellow! Anyhow, he licked 'em. When they fell +down and begged for mercy he knew he was indeed a great person--greater +even than he had suspected and worthy of any princess in the land." + +"Pshaw! Ain't a duke higher than a princess?" + +"No, Ma. Not higher than this princess. Her father made all the laws. +She is very noble and very good. Good princesses are scarce and--and +so, of course, they're very high. But the Duke of Dallas didn't stop to +think of that. He told himself that he was so strong and so rich and so +desirable that she would be flattered at his notice. He got all dressed +up and went to call on her, and, on the way, whenever he looked into a +shop window, he didn't see the buns and the candies and the dolls +inside; all he saw was his own reflection. It looked so magnificent +that he strutted higher and thought how proud he was going to make her. + +"I guess that was the trouble with the old duke all along; he had never +looked deeply enough to see what was inside. Anyhow, what do you think, +Ma? While he'd been off at war conquering people and making them +acknowledge that he was a king, the little princess had fallen in love +with--with his nephew. Nice boy, that nephew, and the duke thought a +lot of him." + +Ma Briskow's hand, which had been slowly stroking Gray's bent head, +ceased its movement; she drew a sharp breath. + +"There happened to be an old mirror in the princess's boudoir, and +while the duke was waiting for her he saw himself in it. He saw himself +just as he was, not as he had looked in the shop windows, for it was a +truthful mirror and it told everything. My! That was a bad moment for +the Duke of Dallas, when he saw that he wasn't young and beautiful, but +old and wrinkled and--funny. That was bad enough, but when he looked +again and saw the princess whom he loved in the arms of his handsome +nephew, why, he gave up. All his fine garments fell off and he realized +with shame that, after all, he was only the withered mountebank. + +"When he got home his castle had collapsed. There wasn't a stone +standing, so he ran away--ran to his mother." + +"Oh, Mr. Gray!" Ma Briskow quavered. "I could cry. An' after all you +done for Buddy!" + +The man shook his head vigorously, still with his face hidden. "It +isn't Buddy. It's youth. Youth needs no fine adornment, no crown, no +victory." + +"What you goin' to do?" she asked him. + +"Go on playing the duke, I suppose; rebuild the castle the best way I +can. That's the hard part. If I could run away and forget, but--I +can't. The old duke walled himself in. He must grin and strut and keep +people from guessing that he's only a fraud until he can find a hole in +the wall through which he can creep." + +There was a long silence, then Ma inquired: "Would you like to tell me +something about the little princess? Sometimes it helps, to talk." + +"N-not yet." + +"You're a duke, an' the best one that ever lived, Mr. Gray. You can't +fool me; I've met too many of 'em. That lookin'-glass lied! Real dukes +an' kings an' such people don't get old. It's only common folks. +There's lots of magic, the world's full of it, an' your castle is goin' +up again." + +"After a fashion, perhaps"--Gray raised his head and smiled +crookedly--"but it will never be a home, and that's what I wanted most +of all. Do you think I'm very weak, very silly to come to you for a +little mothering?" + +"That's the kind of children mothers love best," the old woman said, +then she drew him down to her and laid her cheek against his. + +"There! I've made you cry," he exclaimed, reproachfully. "What a +selfish beast I am! I'll go now." + +"Won't you stay an' have supper with Allie an' me? We're awful lonesome +with Pa gone. Allie's out som'er's, but--it would do me good to know +you was here an' it 'll do you good to stay. You can rest yourself +while I take my nap." + +Ma Briskow did not wish to take a nap, but she knew that Gray needed +the solace of his own thoughts just now, so, when he agreed, she sent +him downstairs. + +First balm, indeed, had come to the man; the smart was less intense. To +put his trouble into words somehow lightened it; then, too, the +grateful knowledge that some warmth of sympathy was his made it easier +to bear. But it remained a cruel burden. That gentle, dreamy soul up +yonder could not know how it hurt. How could she understand, for +instance, what it meant to go back and face the deadly dull routine of +a life from which all zest, all interest, had fled? A routine broken +only by moments of downright torture. Yes, and the effort it would take +to smile! God! If there were only some way to break his fetters, slip +his gyves! + +Gray's brain, like his body, had grown tired and feverish. To be sure, +little more than a day had gone by since he had sallied forth like a +knight, but it seemed a year, an age, and every hour brought a new and +keener distress. He found it possible now, for the first time, to relax +a bit physically, so he closed his eyes and lay back in an easy chair +while the twilight stole in upon him. Sooner or later his mind, too, +would cease its torment, for pain distils its own anodyne. Then he +would sleep. It would be a blessing to forget for even an hour, and +thus gain strength with which to carry on the fight. But what a useless +battle it was! He could never win; peace would never come. + +He heard Allie enter the house, but he did not stir. He would have to +put on the mask soon enough, for, of course, she must never suspect, on +Buddy's account. The room, which had grown agreeably dark, was suddenly +illuminated, and he lurched to his feet to find the girl facing him +from the door. She was neither startled nor surprised at his presence, +and when he tried to smile and to greet her in his accustomed manner, +she interrupted him by saying: + +"I knew you were here." + +"So? Then Ma is awake again?" + +Allie shook her head vaguely. "I knew you were here the minute I came +in. I can 'most always tell." There had been a shadow of a smile upon +her lips, but it vanished; a look of growing concern crept over her +face. "What's the matter? Whatever has happened, Mr. Gray?" + +"Why, nothing. I was feeling tired, worn out. Indulging myself in a +thoroughly enjoyable fit of the blues." His voice broke when he tried +to laugh. + +Allie uttered a quick, low cry, a wordless, sympathetic sound. Her dark +eyes widened, grew darker; she came forward a step or two, then she +halted. "Would you rather be alone?" she asked. He signified his +dissent, and she went on: "I know what the blues are like. I sit alone +in the dark a good deal." + +She busied herself about the room for a few moments, straightening +things, adjusting the window shades. Allie had the knack of silence, +blessed attribute in man or woman, and to Gray's surprise he found that +her mere presence was comforting. She startled him by saying, suddenly: + +"You're hurt! Hurt badly!" + +He looked up at her with an instinctive denial upon his lips, but, +realizing the futility of deceit, he nodded. "Yes, Allie." + +The girl drew a deep breath, her strong hands closed, harshly she said: +"I could kill anybody that hurt you. I wanted to kill Buddy that time. +Is it those Nelsons? Have they got you down?" There was something +fierce and masterful in Allie's concern, and her inquiry carried with +it even more than a proffer of help; she had, in fact, flung herself +into a protective attitude. She suggested nothing so much as a lioness +roused. + +"No, no! It is nothing like that. I merely fooled myself--had a dream. +You wouldn't understand, my dear." + +Allie studied him soberly for a moment. "Oh yes, I would! I do! I +understand perfectly. Nobody _could_ understand as well as I do." + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"I've been hurt, too." She laid a hand upon her breast. "That's why I +sit in the dark." + +"My dear child! I'm sorry. Gus said you were unhappy, but I thought it +was merely--the new life. You're young; you can forget. It's only us +old ones who can't forget. Sometime you must tell me all about it." The +girl smiled faintly, but he nodded, positively: "Oh, it's a relief to +tell somebody! I feel better already for confiding in Ma. Yes, and your +sympathy is mighty soothing, too. It seems almost as if I had come +home." He closed his eyes and laid his head back. + +Allie placed her hand upon his forehead and held it there for a moment +before she moved away. It was a cool and tranquilizing palm and he +wished she would hold it there for a long time, so that he could sleep, +forget-- + +Allie Briskow went to her room, and there she studied her reflection in +the mirror carefully, deliberately, before saying: "You can do it. +You've _got_ to do it, for he's hurt. When a girl is hurt like that, it +makes a woman of her, but when a man's hurt it makes him a little boy. +I--I guess it pays to keep on praying." + +It was perhaps a half hour later that Ma Briskow heard a sound that +caused her to rise upon her elbow and listen with astonishment. It was +the sound of low, indistinct, but joyous singing; it came from Allie's +room. Allie singing again! What could have happened? Slowly Ma's face +became wistful, eager. "Oh, Mister Fairy King!" she whispered. "Please +build up his castle again. You can do it. There's magic in the world. +Make him a duke again, an' her a queen, for yours is the power an' the +glory for ever an' ever. Amen!" + +THE END + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Flowing Gold, by Rex Beach + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLOWING GOLD *** + +***** This file should be named 6425.txt or 6425.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/6/4/2/6425/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Charles Aldarondo and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Flowing Gold + +Author: Rex Beach + +Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6425] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on December 10, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, FLOWING GOLD *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Charles Aldarondo and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + +[Illustration: See p. 34 "I'M AWFULLY SORRY, TOO, DAD"] + + +FLOWING GOLD + +By Rex Beach + +TO THE ONE WHOSE FAITH, ENTHUSIASM, AND DEVOTION CONSTITUTE A +NEVER-FAILING SOURCE OF INSPIRATION, MY WIFE, SWEETHEART, AND +PARTNER. + + + +FLOWING GOLD + + + +CHAPTER I + +Room service at the Ajax is of a quality befitting the newest, the +largest, and the most expensive hotel in Dallas. While the +standard of excellence is uniformly high, nevertheless some extra +care usually attaches to a breakfast ordered from the Governor's +suite--most elegant and most expensive of all the suites--hence +the waiter checked over his card and made a final, fluttering +examination to be sure that the chilled fruit was chilled and that +the hot plates were hot before he rapped on the door. A voice, +loud and cheery, bade him enter. + +Would the gentleman wish his breakfast served in the parlor or +--No, the gentleman would have it right in his bedroom; but first, +where were his cigarettes? He hoped above all things that the +waiter had not forgotten his cigarettes. Some people began their +days with cold showers--nothing less than a cruel shock to a +languid nervous system. An atrocious practice, the speaker called +it--a relic of barbarism--a fetish of ignorance. Much preferable +was a hygienic, stimulating cigarette which served the same +purpose and left no deleterious aftereffects. + +The pajama-clad guest struck a light, inhaled with abundant +satisfaction, and then cast a hungry eye over the contents of the +rubber-tired breakfast table. He, too, tested the temperature of the +melon and felt the cover of the toast plate. + +"Splendid!" he cried. "Nice rooms, prompt service, a pleasant-faced +waiter. Why, I couldn't fare better in my best club. Thanks to you, +my first impression of Dallas is wholly delightful." He seated himself +in a padded boudoir chair, unfolded a snowy serviette and attacked his +breakfast with the enthusiasm of a perfectly healthy animal. + +"Is this your first visit here, sir?" + +"Absolutely. Dallas is as foreign to me as Lhasa. It is the Baghdad +of my dreams and its streets are strange. Perhaps they are full of +adventure for me. I hope so. Anything exciting can happen in a +town where one has neither friends nor acquaintances, eh? You are +a well-read man, I take it." + +"I? Why--" + +"At any rate, you have heard it said that this is a small world." + +"Yes, sir." + +"Good! I merely wish to deny authorship of the saying, for it is +false. This is a large world. What is more, it is a world full of +cities like Dallas where men like you and me, Heaven be praised, +have neither friends, acquaintances, nor relatives. In that +respect, it is a fine world and we should devoutly give thanks for +its Dallases and its--Dalsatians. Jove! This ham is delicious!" + +The waiter was accustomed to "morning talkers," but this gentleman +was different. He had an air of consequence, and his voice, so +deep, so well modulated, so pleasant, invested him with unusual +distinction. Probably he was an actor! But no! Not in the +Governor's suite. More likely he was one of the big men of the +Standard, or the Gulf, or the Texas. To make sure, the waiter +inquired: + +"May I ask if you are in oil, sir?" + +"In oil? Bless me, what a nauseating question--at this hour of the +day!" + +"'Most everybody here is in oil. We turn dozens away every day, +we're that full. It's the boom. I'm in oil myself--in a small way, +of course. It's like this: sometimes gentlemen like--well, like +you, sir--give me tips. They drop a hint, like, about their stocks, +and I've done well--in a small way, of course. It doesn't cost them +anything and--some of them are very kind. You'd really be surprised." + +"Oh, not at all." The occupant of the Governor's suite leaned back +in his chair and smiled widely. "As a matter of fact, I am +flattered, for it is evident that you are endowed with the money- +making instinct and that you unerringly recognize it in others. +Very well, I shall see what I can do for you. But while we are on +the subject of tips, would you mind helping yourself to a dollar +out of my trousers pocket?" + +The waiter proceeded to do as directed, but a moment later +announced, apologetically: "Here's all I find, sir. It's mostly +pennies." He exposed a handful of small coins. + +"Look in my coat, if you will." + +But the second search resulted as had the first. "Strange!" +murmured the guest, without rising. "I must have been robbed. I +remember now, a fellow crowded me as I left my train. Um--m! +Robbed--at the very gates of Baghdad! Dallas _is_ a City of +Adventure. Please add your tip to the check, and--make it two +dollars. I'd like to have you serve me every morning, for I cannot +abide an acid face at breakfast. It sours my whole day." + +Calvin Gray finished his breakfast, smoked a second cigarette as +he scanned the morning paper, then he dressed himself with +meticulous care. He possessed a tall, erect, athletic form, his +perfectly fitting clothes had that touch of individuality affected +by a certain few of New York's exclusive tailors, and when he +finally surveyed himself in the glass, there was no denying the +fact that he presented an appearance of unusual distinction. As he +turned away, his eyes fell upon the scanty handful of small coins +which the waiter had removed from his pocket and for a moment he +stared at them reflectively, then he scooped them into his palm +and, with a smile, announced to his image: + +"It would seem that it is time for us to introduce ourselves to +the management." + +He was humming a tune as he strode out of his richly furnished +quarters. + +The Governor's suite at the Ajax is on the mezzanine floor, at the +head of the grand staircase. As Gray descended the spacious marble +steps, he saw that the hotel was indeed doing a big business, for +already the lobby was thickly peopled and at the desk a group of new +arrivals were plaintively arguing with a bored and supercilious room +clerk. + +Some men possess an effortless knack of commanding attention and +inspiring courtesy. Calvin Gray was one of these. Before many +moments, he was in the manager's office, explaining, suavely, "Now +that I have introduced myself, I wish to thank you for taking care +of me upon such short notice." + +"It was the only space we had. If you wish, I'll have your rooms +changed as soon as--" + +"Have you something better?" + +Haviland, the manager, laughed and shook his head. "Scarcely! That +suite is our pet and our pride. There's nothing to beat it in the +whole Southwest." + +"It is very nice. May I inquire the rate?" + +"Twenty-five dollars a day." + +"Quite reasonable." Mr. Gray beamed his satisfaction. + +"It is the only suite we have left. We've put beds in the parlors +of the others, and frequently we have to double up our guests. +This oil excitement is a blessing to us poor innkeepers. I presume +it's oil that brings you here?" + +Gray met the speaker's interrogatory gaze with a negative shake of +the head and a smile peculiarly noncommittal. "No," he declared. +"I'm not in the oil business and I have no money to invest in it. +I don't even represent a syndicate of Eastern capitalists. On the +contrary, I am a penniless adventurer whom chance alone has cast +upon your hospitable grand staircase." These words were spoken +with a suggestion of mock modesty that had precisely the +effect of a deliberate wink, and Mr. Haviland smiled and nodded +his complete comprehension. + +"I get you," said he. "And you're right. The lease hounds would +devil you to death if you gave them a chance. Now then, if there's +any way in which I can be of service--" + +"There is." Gray's tone was at once businesslike. "Please give me +the names of your leading bankers. I mean the strongest and the +most--well, discreet." + +During the next few minutes Gray received and swiftly tabulated +in his mind a deal of inside information usually denied to the +average stranger; the impression his swift, searching questions +made upon the hotel manager was evident when the latter told him +as he rose to go: + +"Don't feel that you have to identify yourself at the banks to- +day. If we can accommodate you--cash a check or the like--" + +"Thank you." The caller shook his head and smiled his appreciation +of the offer. "Your manner of conducting a hotel impresses me +deeply, and I shall speak of it to some of my Eastern friends. +Live executives are hard to find." + +It is impossible to analyze or to describe that quality of +magnetic charm which we commonly term personality, nevertheless it +is the most potent influence in our social and our business lives. +It is a gift of the gods, and most conspicuous successes, in +whatever line, are due to it. Now and then comes an individual who +is cold, even repellent, and yet who rises to full accomplishment +by reason of pure intellectual force or strength of character; but +nine times out of ten the man who gets ahead, be he merchant, +banker, promoter, or crook, does so by reason of this abstract +asset, this intangible birthright. + +Gray possessed that happy quality. It had made itself felt by the +waiter who brought his breakfast and by the manager of the hotel; +its effect was equally noticeable upon the girl behind the cigar +counter, where he next went. An intimate word or two and she was +in a flutter. She sidetracked her chewing gum, completely ignored +her other customers, and helped him select a handful of her +choicest sixty-cent Havanas. When he finally decided to have her +send the rest of the box of fifty up to his room and signed for +them, she considered the transaction a tribute to her beauty +rather than to her ability as a saleswoman. Her admiring eyes +followed him clear across the lobby. + +Even the blase bell-captain, by virtue of his calling a person of +few enthusiasms and no illusions, edged up to the desk and +inquired the name of the distinguished stranger "from the No'th." + +Gray appeared to know exactly what he wanted to do, for he stopped +at the telephone booths, inquired the number of the leading +afternoon newspaper, and put in a call for it. When it came +through he asked for the city editor. He closed the sound-proof +door before voicing his message, then he began, rapidly: + +"City editor? Well, I'm from the Ajax Hotel, and I have a tip for +you. I'm one of the room clerks. Listen! Calvin Gray is registered +here--got in last night, on gum shoes.... Gray! _Calvin Gray_! +Better shoot a reporter around and get a story.... You _don't_? +Well, other people know him. He's a character--globe trotter, +soldier of fortune, financier. He's been everywhere and done +everything, and you can get a great story if you've got a man +clever enough to make him talk. But he won't loosen easily.... +Oil, I suppose, but--... Sure! Under cover. Mystery stuff! Another +big syndicate probably.... Oh, that's all right. I'm an old +newspaper man myself. Don't mention it." + +All American cities, these days, are much the same. Character, +atmosphere, distinctiveness, have been squeezed out in the general +mold. For all Calvin Gray could see, as he made his first +acquaintance with Dallas, he might have been treading the streets +of Los Angeles, of Indianapolis, of Portland, Maine, or of +Portland, Oregon. A California brightness and a Florida warmth to the air, +a New England alertness to the pedestrians, a Manhattan majesty to +some of the newer office buildings, these were the most +outstanding of his first impressions. + +Into the largest and the newest of these buildings Gray went, a +white tile and stone skyscraper, the entire lower floor of which +was devoted to an impressive banking room. He sent his card in to +the president, and spent perhaps ten minutes with that gentleman. +He had called merely to get acquainted, so he explained; he wished +to meet only the heads of the strongest financial institutions; he +had no favors to ask--as yet, and he might have no business +whatever with them. On the other hand--well, he was a slow and +careful investigator, but when he moved, it was with promptitude +and vigor, and in such an event he wished them to know who he was. +Meanwhile, he desired no publicity, and he hoped his presence in +Dallas would not become generally known--it might seriously +interfere with his plans. + +Before he left the bank Gray had met the other officers, and from +their manner he saw that he had created a decided impression upon +them. The bank president himself walked with him to the marble +railing, then said: + +"I'd like to have you wait and meet my son, Lieutenant Roswell. +He's just back from overseas, and--the boy served with some +distinction. A father's pride, you understand?" + +"Was Lieutenant Roswell in France?" Gray inquired, quickly. + +"Oh yes. He'll be in at any minute." + +A shadow of regret crossed the caller's face. "I'm sorry, but I've +arranged to call on the mayor, and I've no time to lose. What unit +was your son with?" + +"The Ninety-eighth Field Artillery." + +The shadow fled. Mr. Gray was vexed at the necessity for haste, +but he would look forward to meeting the young hero later. + +"And meanwhile," Roswell, senior, said, warmly, "if we can be of +service to you, please feel free to call upon us. I dare say we'd +be safe in honoring a small check." He laughed pleasantly and +clapped his caller on the back. + +A fine man, Gray decided as he paused outside the bank. And here +was another offer to cash a check--the second this morning. Good +address and an expensive tailor certainly did count: with them as +capital, a man could take a profit at any time. Gray's fingers +strayed to the small change in his trousers pocket and he turned +longing eyes back toward the bank interior. Without doubt it was a +temptation, especially inasmuch as at that moment his well- +manicured right hand held in its grasp every cent that he +possessed. + +This was not the first time he had been broke. On the contrary, +during his younger days he had more than once found himself in +that condition and had looked upon it as an exciting experience, +as a not unpleasant form of adventure. To be strapped in a mining +camp, for instance, was no more than a mild embarrassment. But to +find oneself thirty-eight years old, friendless and without funds +in a city the size of Dallas--well, that was more than an +adventure, and it afforded a sort of excitement that he believed +he could very well do without. Dallas was no open-handed frontier +town; it was a small New York, where life is settled, where men +are suspicious, and where fortunes are slow in the making. He +wondered now if hard, fast living had robbed him of the punch to +make a new beginning; he wondered, too, if the vague plans at the +back of his mind had anything to them or if they were entirely +impracticable. Here was opportunity, definite, concrete, and +spelled with a capital O, here was a deliberate invitation to +avail himself of a short cut out of his embarrassment. A mere +scratch of a pen and he would have money enough to move on to some +other Dallas, and there gain the start he needed--enough, at +least, so that he could tip his waiter and pay cash for his +Coronas. Business men are too gullible, any how; it would be a +good lesson to Roswell and Haviland. Why not--? + +Calvin Gray started, he recoiled slightly, the abstracted stare +was wiped from his face, for an officer in uniform had brushed +past him and entered the bank. That damned khaki again! Those +service stripes! They were forever obtruding themselves, it +seemed. Was there no place where one could escape the hateful +sight of them? His chain of thought had been snapped, and he +realized that there could be no short cut for him. He had climbed +through the ropes, taken his corner, and the gong had rung; it was +now a fight to a finish, with no quarter given. He squared his +shoulders and set out for the hotel, where he felt sure he would +find a reporter awaiting him. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +The representative of the Dallas _Post_ had anticipated some +difficulty in interviewing the elusive Calvin Gray--whoever he +might be--but luck appeared to be with him, for shortly after his +arrival at the hotel the object of his quest appeared. Mr. Gray +was annoyed at being discovered; he was, in fact, loath to +acknowledge his identity. Having just returned from an important +conference with some of the leading financiers of the city, his +mind was burdened with affairs of weight, and then, too, the mayor +was expecting him--luncheon probably--hence he was in no mood to +be interviewed. Usually Mr. Gray's secretary saw interviewers. +However, now that his identity was known, he had not the heart to +be discourteous to a fellow journalist. Yes! He had once owned a +newspaper--in Alaska. Incidentally, it was the farthest-north +publication in the world. + +Alaska! The reporter pricked up his ears. He managed to elicit the +fact that Mr. Gray had operated mines and built railroads there; +that he had been forced into the newspaper game merely to protect +his interests from the depredations of a gang of political +grafters, and that it had been a sensational fight while it +lasted. This item was duly jotted down in the reportorial memory. + +Alaska was a hard country, quite so, but nothing like Mexico +during the revolution. Mexican sugar and mahogany, it transpired, +had occupied Mr. Gray's attention for a time, as had Argentine +cattle, Yucatan hennequin, and an engineering enterprise in +Bolivia, not to mention other investments closer to home. + +Once the speaker had become reconciled to the distasteful +necessity of talking about himself, he suggested an adjournment to +his rooms, where he would perhaps suffer less embarrassment by reason +of his unavoidable use of the personal pronoun. + +Gray noted the effect upon his visitor of the Governor's suite and +soon had the young man at ease, with a Corona between his teeth. +Then followed a full three-quarters of an hour, during which the +visitor discoursed in his very best style and his caller sat +spellbound, making occasional hieroglyphic hen tracks upon his +note paper and congratulating himself upon his good luck in +striking a man like this in one of his rare, talkative moods. Gray +had set himself deliberately to the task of selling himself to +this gentleman of the press, and, having succeeded, he was enough +of a salesman to avoid the fatal error of overselling. + +Alone at last, a sardonic grin crept over his features. So far, so +good. Now for the rest of those bankers and the mayor. Gray was +working rapidly, but he knew no other way of working, and speed +was essential. It seemed to him not unlikely that delay of the +slightest might force him to turn in desperation to a length of +lead pipe and a mask, for--a man must live. As yet he had no very +definite plans, he had merely undertaken to establish himself in a +position to profit by the first opportunity, whatever it might be. +And opportunity of some sort would surely come. It always did. +What is more, it had an agreeable way of turning up just when he +was most in need of it. + +Gray called at several other banks that morning. He strode in +swiftly, introduced himself with quick incisiveness, and tarried +only long enough to fix himself indelibly in the minds of those he +had come to see, then he left. There are right and wrong ways of +closing a deal or of ending an interview, and Gray flattered +himself that he possessed "terminal facilities." He was very busy, +always a bit pressed for time, always a moment late; his theory of +constant forward motion never permitted an awkward pause in +conversation. On the street, his long legs covered the ground at +something less than a run, his eyes were keenly alert, his face set +in purposeful lines. Pedestrians turned to look after him. + +At the mayor's office he was denied admission to the chief +executive, but insisted so peremptorily as to gain his end. Once +inside, he conveyed his compliments with such a graceful flourish +that his intrusion assumed the importance of a ceremony and the +People's Choice was flattered. He inferred that this Calvin Gray +made a practice of presenting his formal respects to the +dignitaries of all the large cities he visited and deemed it a +favor to them. No doubt it was, if he so considered it, for he +appeared to be fully aware of his own importance. After all, it +was an agreeable practice. Since no man in public life can risk +offending people of importance, His Honor unbent. Gray turned a +current jest upon Texas politics into a neat compliment to the +city's executive; they laughed; formality vanished; personal +magnetism made itself felt. The call ended by the two men lunching +together at the City Club, as Gray had assumed it would, and he +took pains that the bankers upon whom he had called earlier in the +morning should see him in company with the mayor. + +He returned to his hotel that afternoon pretty well satisfied with +his efforts and hopeful that some of the seed he had sown +broadcast would be ripe for the reaping ere-long. But he received +an electric shock as he approached the desk, for the bell captain +addressed him, saying: + +"Mr. Haviland wishes to see you at once, in his office." + +"Indeed? Anything important?" + +"Very important, sir. I've been waiting for you to come in." There +was something ominous about this unexpected summons, or perhaps +about the manner of its delivery. At any rate, suspicion leaped +into Gray's mind. + +So! Haviland was wise! Quick work that. Evidently he had +investigated, through those mysterious sources of information +available to great hotels. Or perhaps some one had seen and +recognized him. Well, that was the way his luck had run, lately +--every break against him. + +Now--Gray's shoulders lifted in a shrug of resignation--there +was nothing to do except wave aside the blindfold and face the +firing squad like an officer and a gentleman. But it was a pity +that the crash had come so soon; fortune might have given him at +least a short interval of grace. Haviland was probably in a cold +rage at the discovery of the fraud, and Gray could only hope that +he wouldn't get noisy over it, for scenes were always annoying and +sometimes they ran to unfortunate lengths. + +There was a curious brightness to the imposter's eyes, a reckless, +mocking smile upon his lips, when he stepped into the manager's +office and stood beside the desk. He declined Haviland's +invitation to be seated--it seemed more fitting that a man should +take sentence on his feet. + +"Have you seen the Post?" the manager inquired. + +"No." + +Haviland handed him a copy of the leading afternoon paper, and +Gray's eyes flashed to the headline of an article reading: + +CALVIN GRAY, HERO OF SENSATIONAL EXPLOITS, IN DALLAS ADVENTURES +READ LIKE PAGE OF ROMANCE FAMOUS FINANCIER ADMITS LARGE OIL +INTERESTS BEHIND HIM + +From the opening paragraph Gray judged that he had impressed the +reporter even more deeply than he had supposed, but he took no +satisfaction there from, for Haviland was saying: + +"I've read the whole story, but I want you to tell me something +more about yourself." + +"What do you wish to know?" + +"Were you in France?" + +Over the visitor's face there came a subtle change. Whereas, upon +entering, he had worn an expression of careless defiance, now he appeared +to harden in every fiber and to go on guard. + +"I have been many times in France." + +"I mean during the war. Did you serve?" + +There was a pause. "I did." Gray's eyes remained fixed upon his +interrogator, but they had begun to smolder. + +"Then you're Colonel Gray. Colonel Calvin Gray." + +"Quite so." The speaker's voice was harsh, and it came with an +effort. "But you didn't read _that_ in the _Post_. Come! What's +the idea? Out with it." + +The interview had taken an unexpectedly disagreeable turn. Gray +had anticipated an unpleasant moment or two, but this--well, it +was indeed the crash. Calamity had overtaken him from the very +quarter he had least expected and most dreaded, and his mind raced +off at a tangent; a dozen unwelcome queries presented themselves. + +"Strange what circles we move in," Haviland was saying. "Do you +know who owns the controlling interest in this hotel? Surely you +must know or can guess. Think a moment. It's somebody you met over +there and have reason to remember." + +A sound escaped, from the throat of Colonel Gray--not a cry, but +rather a gasp of amazement, or of rage. + +"Aha!" Haviland grinned in triumph. "I thought--" + +His guest leaned forward over the desk, with face twitching. +Passion had driven the blood from it, and his whole expression was +one of such hatred, such fury, the metamorphosis was so startling, +that the hotel man stiffened in his chair and stared upward in +sudden amazement. + +"_Nelson!_" Gray ejaculated. "Nelson! By God! So! He's _here_!" + +During the moment that Haviland sat petrified, Gray turned his +head slowly, his blazing eyes searched the office as if expecting +to discover a presence concealed somewhere; they returned to the +hotel man's face, and he inquired: + +"Well, where is he?" + +Haviland stirred. "I don't know what you're talking about. Who's +Nelson?" After a second he exclaimed: "Good Lord! I thought I had +a pleasant surprise for you, and I was gracefully leading up to +it, but--I must have jazzed it all up. I was going to tell you +that the hotel and everything in it is yours." + +"Eh?" + +"Why, the Ajax is one of the Dietz chain! Herman Dietz of +Cincinnati owns it. He left for the North not an hour ago. At the +last minute he heard you were here--read this story in the paper +--and had bellboys scouring the place for you. You must know why he +wanted to see you, and what he said when he found that he'd have +to leave before you came in." + +Colonel Gray uttered another exclamation, this time an expletive +of deep relief. He fought with himself a moment, then murmured an +apology. "Sorry. You gave me a start-decidedly. Herman Dietz, eh? +Well, well! You made me think for a moment that I was a guest in +the house of some other--friend." + +"_Friend?_" + +"Exactly!" Gray was himself again now. He ran a loosening finger +between his collar and throat. "Quite a start, I'll admit, but +--some of my friends are great practical jokers. They have a way of +jumping out at me and crying 'Boo!' when I least expect it." + +"Um-m! I see. Mr. Dietz told me that he was under lifelong +obligation to a certain Colonel Calvin Gray. Something to do with +passports--" + +"I once rendered him a slight favor." + +"He doesn't regard the favor as 'slight.' He was about to be +imprisoned for the duration of the war and you managed to get him +back home." + +"Merely a matter of official routine. I felt sure he was a loyal +American citizen." + +"Exactly. But he makes more of the incident than you do, and he +gave me my instructions. So--what can I do for you on his behalf? +You have only to ask." + +Gray pondered the unexpected offer. He was still a bit shaken, +for a moment ago he had been more deeply stirred even than +Haviland suspected, and the emotional reaction had left him weak. +After all the hollow pretense of this day a genuine proffer of aid +was welcome, and the temptation to accept was strong. Herman Dietz +was indeed indebted to him, and he believed the old German- +American would do anything, lend him any amount of money, for +instance, that he might ask for. Gray wondered why he had not +thought of Dietz before he came to Texas; it would have made +things much easier. But the offer had come too late, it seemed to +him; at this moment he could see no means of profiting by it +without wrecking the flimsy house of cards he had that very day +erected and exposing himself to ridicule, to obloquy as a rank +four-flusher. The scarcely dry headlines of that afternoon paper +ran before his eyes--"_Famous Financier Admits Large Oil Interests +Behind Him_." Probably there were other things in the body of the +article that would not harmonize with an appeal to Haviland for +funds, nor sound well to Mr. Dietz, once he learned the truth. The +more Gray pondered the matter, the more regretfully he realized +that he had overplayed his hand, as it were. + +Here was a situation indeed! To be occupying the most expensive +suite in the hotel of a man who wished to lend him money, to be +unable to pay one day's rent therefore, and yet to be stopped from +accepting aid. There was a grim irony about it, for a fact. Then, +too, the seed he had sown in banking circles, and his luncheon +with the mayor! Haviland had a sense of humor; it would make a +story too good to keep--the new oil operator, the magnificent and +mysterious New York financier, a "deadhead" at the Ajax. Oh, +murder! + +"Well, name your poison! Isn't there something, anything we can do +for you?" Haviland repeated. + +"There is, decidedly." Gray smiled his warm appreciation of the +tender. "If it is not too great a drain upon the Dietz millions, +you may keep a supply of cut flowers in my room. I'm passionately +fond of roses, and I should like to have my vases filled every morning." + +"You shall dwell in a perfumed bridal bower." + +Gray paused at the door to light one of those sixty-cent cigars +and between puffs observed: "Please assure Mr. Dietz that--his +obligation is squared and that I am--deeply touched. I shall revel +in the scent of those flowers." + +That evening, when Calvin Gray, formally and faultlessly attired, +strolled into the Ajax dining room he was conscious of attracting +no little attention. For one thing, few of the other guests were +in evening dress, and also that article in the _Post_, which he +had read with a curiously detached amusement, had been of a nature +to excite general notice. The interview had jarred upon him in +only one respect--_viz_., in describing him as a "typical soldier +of fortune." No doubt the reporter had intended that phrase in the +kindest spirit; nevertheless, it implied a certain recklessness +and instability of character that did not completely harmonize +with Gray's inchoate, undeveloped banking projects. Bankers are +wary of anything that sounds adventurous--or they pretend to be. +As a matter of fact, Gray had learned enough that very day about +Texas bankers to convince him that most of them were good, game +gamblers, and that a large part of the dividends paid by most of +the local institutions of finance were derived from oil profits. +However, the newspaper story, as a whole, was such as to give him +the publicity he desired, and he was well content with it. + +Its first results were prompt in coming. Even while the head +waiter was seating him, another diner arose and approached him +with a smile. Gray recognized the fellow instantly--one of that +vast army of casuals that march through every active man's life +and disappear down the avenues of forgetfulness. + +After customary greetings had been exchanged, the newcomer, +Coverly by name, explained that he had read the _Post_ article not +five minutes before, and was delighted to learn how well the world +had used Gray. He was dining alone; with alacrity he accepted an +invitation to join his old friend, and straightway he launched +himself upon the current of reminiscence. In answer to Gray's +inquiry, he confessed modestly enough: + +"Oh, I'm not in your class, old man. I'm no 'modern Gil Blas,' as +the paper calls you. No Wall Street money barons are eating out of +my hand, and I have no international interests 'reaching from the +Yukon to the Plate,' but--I stand all right in little old Dallas. +I'm the V. P. of our biggest jewelry house, and business is +great." After their order had been given, he recited in greater +detail the nature of his success. + +Gray was interested. "Texas is booming," he said, at the +conclusion of the story. "I'm told the new oil towns are something +like our old mining camps." + +"Except that they are more so. The same excitement, the same quick +fortunes, only quicker and larger. Believe me, it's fine for the +jewelry business. Look here." Coverly drew from his pocket a +letter written in a painfully cramped hand upon cheap note paper, +and this he spread out for his companion to read. "There's an +example in point." + +The letter, which bore the Ranger postmark, ran as follows: + + DERE SIR--Your store has bin rekomend to me for dimons and I + want some for my wife and dauter. Send me prises on rings of + large sises. + + Yours truley GUS BRISKOW. + +"Um-m! Who is Mr. Briskow?" + +Coverly shrugged. "Probably some nester who never saw a hundred +dollars all in one place until recently. When they strike oil, +they buy diamonds, nice large yellow ones, as a rule; then as the +money continues to flow in, they pay off the mortgage and buy a +bank--or an interest in one." + +"In Heaven's name, introduce me to the opulent Gus Briskow." + +"I wish I might. But I don't expect to make his acquaintance. +The head of our firm is away and I haven't a man I'd dare trust to +send out into the field. Usually I handle these inquiries myself +when the victim can't tear himself away from contemplating the +miraculous flow of liquid gold long enough to come here. I take an +assortment of gems with me and beard the _nouveau riche_ right on +his derrick floor. Why, I've carried as much as a hundred thousand +dollars' worth of merchandise on some of my trips." Coverly sighed +regretfully. "Tough luck! Too bad you're not a good jewelry +salesman?" + +"I am," Gray declared. "I can sell anything. As for diamonds--I've +bought enough in my time to know their value." + +Coverly laughed in ready agreement with this statement. "Gad! I'm +sore at missing this sale." + +"You needn't miss it. I'll go." + +"Don't kid an unfortunate--" + +"I'm not joking. If it's worth while, pack up your saffron +solitaires--all that you dare trust me with--and I'll be your +gentlemanly representative." + +"Worth while? Good Lord! I'd probably get a ten-thousand-dollar +order!" + +"Very well. It's settled." Gray's decision had been quickly made. +Opportunity had knocked--he was not one to deny her admission, no +matter how queer her garb. A hundred thousand dollars' worth of +gems! The very figures intrigued him and--diamonds are readily +negotiable. There would be a natural risk attached to the handling +of so large an amount. A thousand things might happen to a +treasure chest of that size. Gray began to believe that his luck +had changed. + +"Where does Mr. Briskow live?" he inquired. + +"Out beyond Ranger, somewhere. But--" + +"I'm going to visit that field, anyhow. This will give me an +excuse." + +"Nonsense!" The jeweler did not like to have fun poked at him. For +some time he refused to take the offer seriously, and even when his +host insisted that he would enjoy the lark, he expostulated: "Why, +the idea is ridiculous! You--Calvin Gray, the financier, peddling +jewelry? Ha! Outside of the fact that you wouldn't, couldn't do it, +it's not the safest thing in the world to carry a small fortune in +stones through the oil fields." + +"Of course you insure it against theft?" + +"That's the point. We can't. Have you ever heard of 'high- +jackers'? That's the Texas term for hold-up men, robbers. Well, +the country is full of them." + +"Excellent! There no longer is any question about my going," Gray +announced, firmly. "I am bored; I am stale; a thrill, of whatever +sort, would stir my blood. Animated by purely selfish motives, I +now insist upon a serious consideration of my offer. First, you +say I 'wouldn't, couldn't'; I assure you that I would, could--and +_shall_, provided I can qualify as a salesman." + +Coverly admitted without much argument that anybody could probably +effect a sale in this instance, if the diamonds were plainly +marked with their prices; it would be a mere question of +displaying the goods. That was not the point. Gray was a rich, a +busy man--the idea was fantastic. + +"Why, you're offering to do this as an accommodation to an old +friend, and your time is probably worth more than our whole profit +on the sale would amount to." + +"My time is worth nothing. If you hesitate to intrust this king's +ransom to me, I'll go personally responsible for its value. That's +fair, isn't it?" + +"Don't be silly. How could I pay you if you did go?" + +"Um-m!" This idea, it seemed, had not occurred to Mr. Gray. It was +plain that money meant nothing to him. + +"You see? We couldn't permit--" + +"I have it. We'll divorce friendship and sentiment entirely from +the discussion and reduce it to a strictly business basis. You +shall ease your conscience by paying my traveling expenses. The +emotional suspense that I undergo shall be my reward. I'll take my +commission in thrills." + +This offer evoked a light laugh from Gray's guest. "You'd get +enough of 'em," he asserted. "I'll advance a mild one, on account, +at this moment. Notice the couple dining at the third table to +your left. "Gray lifted his eyes. "What do you see?" + +"A rather well-dressed, hard-faced man and a decidedly attractive +woman--brunette. There's a suggestion of repressed widowhood about +her. It's the gown, probably. I am not yet in my dotage, and I had +seen her before I saw you." + +"She's living here. I don't know much about her, but the man goes +by the name of Mallow." + +"No thrill yet." + +"He's been hanging about our store for the past month, making a +few purchases and getting acquainted with some of the clerks. +Wherever I go, lately, there he is. I'll wager if I took to- +night's train for Ranger, he'd be on it." + +"And still my pulses do not leap." + +"Wait! I got a sort of report on him and it's bad. I believe, and +so does the chief of police, that Mr. Mallow has something to do +with the gang of crooks that infests this country. One thing is +certain, they're not the native product, and our hold-ups aren't +staged by rope-chokers out of work." + +Calvin Gray turned now and openly stared at the object of +Coverly's suspicions. There was an alert interest in his eyes. +"You've cinched the matter with me," he declared, after a moment. +"Get out your diamonds to-morrow; I'm going to take the night +train to Ranger." + +Later that evening, after his guest had gone, Gray took occasion +deliberately to put himself in Mallow's way and to get into +conversation with him. This was not a difficult maneuver, for it +was nearly midnight and the lobby was well-nigh deserted; +moreover, it almost appeared as if the restless Mr. Mallow was +seeking an acquaintance. + +For the better part of an hour the two men smoked and talked, +and had Coverly overheard their conversation his blood would have +chilled and he would have prematurely aged, for his distinguished +host, Calvin Gray, the worldly-wise, suave man of affairs, +actually permitted himself to be pumped like a farmer's son. It +would have been a ghastly surprise to the jeweler to learn how +careless and how confiding his friend could be in an off moment; +he would have swooned when Gray told about his coming trip to +Ranger and actually produced the misspelled Briskow letter for the +edification of his chance acquaintance. Any lingering doubt as to +his friend's honesty of purpose would have vanished utterly had he +heard Mallow announce that he, too, was going to Ranger, the very +next night--a curious coincidence, truly--and Gray's expression of +pleasure at the prospect of such a congenial traveling companion. +The agitated Coverly no doubt would have phoned a frantic call for +the police, then and there. + +Once Gray was in his rooms, however, his manner changed, and into +his eyes there came a triumphant glitter. Hastily he rummaged +through one of his bags, and from a collection of trinkets, +souvenirs, and the like he selected an object which he examined +carefully, then took into the bathroom for further experiment. His +step was springy, his lips were puckered, he was whistling +blithely when he emerged, for at last those vaguely outlined plans +that had been at the back of his mind had assumed form and +pattern. His luck had turned, he had made a new start. Mallow was +indeed a crook, and Gray blessed the prompt good fortune that had +thrown both him and Coverly in his way. + +It had been a busy day; he was well content with its fruitage. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Old Tom Parker was a "type." He was one of a small class of men at +one time common to the West, but now rapidly disappearing. A +turbulent lifetime spent in administering the law in a lawless +region had stamped him with the characteristics of a frontier +officer--_viz_., vigilance, caution, self-restraint, sang-froid. +For more than thirty years he had worn a badge of some sort and, +in the serving of warrants and other processes of law, he had +covered, first in the saddle or on buckboard, later in Pullman car +or automobile, most of that vast region lying between the Arkansas +and the Pecos, the Cimarron, and the Sabine--virtually all of what +is now Texas and Oklahoma. He still spoke of the latter state, by +the way, as "the Territory," and there were few corners of it that +he had not explored long before it ceased to be a haven of hunted +men. + +That is what Tom Parker had been--a hunter of men--and time was +when his name had been famous. But he had played his part. The +times had caught up with and passed him, and no longer in the +administration of justice was there need of abilities like his, +hence the shield of his calling had been taken away. + +Now Tom did not reckon himself obsolete. He was badger-gray, to be +sure, and stiff in one knee--a rheumatic legacy of office +inherited by reason of wet nights in the open and a too-diligent +devotion to duty--but in no other respect did he believe his age +to be apparent. His smoke-blue eyes were as bright as ever, his +hand was quick; realization that he had been shunted upon a side +track filled him with surprise and bewilderment. It was +characteristic of the man that he still considered himself a +bulwark of law and order, a _de facto_ guardian of the peace, +and that from force of habit he still sat facing the door and +never passed between a lighted lamp and a window. + +Among the late comers to Wichita Falls, where he lived, Tom was +known as a quiet-spoken, emotionless old fellow with an honorable +past, but with a gift for tiresome reminiscence quite out of place +in the new and impatient order of things, and none but old-timers +and his particular cronies were aware of the fact that he had +another side to his character. It was not generally known, for +instance, that he was a kind and indulgent father and had a +daughter whom he worshiped with blind adulation. This ignorance +was not strange, for Miss Barbara Parker had been away at college +for four years now, and during that time she had not once returned +home. + +There was a perfectly good reason for this protracted separation +of father and daughter; since Old Tom was no longer on pay, it +took all he could rake and scrape to meet her bills, and railroad +fares are high. That Hudson River institution was indeed a +finishing school; not only had it polished off Barbara, but also +it had about administered the _coup de grace_ to her father. There +had been a ranch over near Electra with some "shallow production," +from which Tom had derived a small royalty--this was when Barbara +Parker went East and before the Burk-burnett wells hit deep sand +--but income from that source had been used up faster than it had +come in, and "Bob," as Tom insisted upon calling her, would have +had to come home had it not been for an interesting discovery on +her father's part--_viz._, the discovery of a quaint device of the +law entitled a "mortgage." Mortgages had to do with a department +of the law unfamiliar to Tom, his wit, his intelligence, and his +dexterity of hand having been exercised solely in upholding the +dignity of the criminal branch, but once he had realized that a +mortgage, so called, was no more than a meaningless banking term +used to cloak the impulsive generosity of moneyed men, he availed +himself of this discovery and was duly grateful. + +Tom carried on a nominal fire-insurance business, but as a +matter of fact the tiny two-roomed frame structure that bore his +painted sign was nothing more or less than a loafing place for him +and his rheumatic friends, and a place in which the owner could +spend the heat of the day in a position of comfort to his stiff +leg--that is to say, asleep in a high-backed office chair, his +feet propped upon his desk. It was here that Tom could usually be +found, and when one of those hateful statements arrived from the +East he merely roused himself, put on his wide gray hat, limped +around to the bank, and pledged more of his oil royalties or +signed another mortgage. What insurance policies he wrote were +brought to him by his old pals; the money derived there from he +sent on to "Bob" with love and an admonition to be a good girl and +study hard and hurry home, because he was dying to see her. This +office, by the way, no longer suited Tom; it was becoming too +noisy and he would have sold it and sought another farther out had +it not been mortgaged for more than it was worth. So, too, was the +house where he lived amid the dirt and disorder of all bachelor +establishments. + +Now Old Tom would have resented an accusation of indolence; the +bare implication of such a charge would have aroused his instant +indignation, and Tom Parker indignant was a man to shun. As a +matter of fact, he believed himself sadly overworked, and was +forever complaining about it. + +The time came, however, when he was forced to shed his habit of +slothfulness as completely as a snake sheds its skin, and that was +during the week before "Bob's" arrival. Then, indeed, he swept and +he dusted, he mopped and he polished, he rubbed and he scrubbed, +trying his best to put the house in order. Never in all his life +had he labored as he did then, for four years of "batching" will +make a bear's nest out of the most orderly house, but he was +jealous of his task and he refused to share it with other hands. +Pots and pans, rusty from disuse or bearing the accumulated evidence +of many hastily prepared meals, he took out in the back yard and +scrubbed with sand, leaving his bony knuckles skinned and bleeding from +the process; he put down a new carpet in "Bob's" room, no easy task +for a man with an ossified knee joint--incidentally, the "damn +thing" kept him awake for two nights thereafter; he nailed up +fresh curtains, or they looked fresh to him, at her windows, and +smashed a perfectly good thumb-nail in doing so. This and many +other abominable duties he performed. But love means suffering, +and every pang gave Old Tom a thrill of fierce delight for--"Bob" +was coming. The lonely, hungry, aching wait was over. + +Constant familiarity with the house had mercifully dulled the +occupant's appreciation of its natural deterioration and the +effects of his neglect, so when he finally straightened his aching +back and regarded the results of his heroic efforts, it seemed to +him that everything shone like new and that the place was as neat +and as clean as on the day "Bob" went away. Probably Hercules +thought the Augean stables were spotless and fragrant when he had +finished with them. And perhaps they were, but Tom Parker was no +demigod. He was just a clumsy old man, unaccustomed to indoor +"doings," and his eyes at times during the last few days had been +unaccountably dim--as, for instance, while he was at work in +Barbara's chamber. + +He did not sleep much on the night before the girl's arrival. He +sat until late with the framed photograph of Barbara's mother on +his knee, and tried to tell the dead and gone original that he had +done his best for the girl so far, and if he had failed, it was +because he knew nothing about raising girls and--nature hadn't cut +him out to be a father, anyhow. He had been considerably older +than Barbara's mother when he married her, and he had never ceased +to wonder what there had been in him to win the love of a woman +like her, or to regret that fate had not taken him instead of her. +Heaven knows his calling had been risky enough. But--that was how +things went sometimes--the wheat was taken and the chaff remained. + +And in the morning! Tom was up before daylight and had his dishes +washed and his things in order long ere the town was awake. Then +he went down to the office and waited--with the jumps. Repeatedly +he consulted his heavy gold watch, engraved: "With the admiration +and gratitude of the citizens of Burlingame. November fifth, +1892." It was still two hours of train time when he locked up and +limped off toward the station, but--it was well to be there early. + +Of course he met Judge Halloran on the street--he always did--and +of course the judge asked when "Bob" was coming home. The judge +always did that, too. Old Tom had lied diligently to the judge +every day for a month now, for he had no intention of sharing this +day of days with a tiresome old pest, and now he again made an +evasive answer. + +"Mendacity is at once the lowest and the commonest form of +deceit," the judge indignantly announced. "You know perfectly well +when she's coming, damn you!" + +"Honest, I don't--not exactly." + +But the judge was unconvinced. "You've been as mysterious as a +bootlegger for the last week, but I could always read you like a +book, Tom Parker. You know, all right. Mrs. Halloran wants to come +over and fix things up for her. She said so this--" + +"Oh, I got everything fixed," Tom hastily declared. "Ha! What +did I tell you?" The judge glared; Tom could have bitten his +tongue for that slip. "Your pitiful attempts to mislead Barbara's +admirers expose you to ridicule, and offend those of us who +tolerate you out of regard for her." (The judge had a nice Texas +drawl, and he pronounced it "reegy'ad.") "You're on your way to +the train at this moment and--I propose to accompany you." + +"What would I be going to the train for, now?" Tom inquired, in a +deceitfully mild tone. Inwardly he was raging, and he cursed the +judge for a meddlesome old fool. + +"Hm-m! Thought you'd sneak down there, unobserved, probably." +There was a pause; then the speaker went on in an altered tone: +"D'you suppose she has forgotten all her native accomplishments, +Tom? I wonder if she can still ride and rope and shoot, or if +those thin-blooded Eastern schoolma'ams have taught her that such +things are unladylike and coarse." + +"Pshaw! You never forget how to do those things." + +"She could handle a horse or a rope or a gun as well as you at +your best." + +"_Better!_" Tom declared, with swelling pride. + +Halloran wagged his white head in agreement, an unusual procedure, +inasmuch as he never agreed with Tom on any subject which offered +possible ground for disagreement. "A wonderful girl! And I'll +wager they haven't spoiled her. Even _you_ couldn't spoil 'Bob.'" +He raised his red, belligerent eyes and fixed them upon his old +friend, but there was now a kindly light in them. "You made a real +son of her, didn't you, Tom?" + +"Almost. I was mighty disappointed because she was a girl, but--I +don't know as a boy could of turned out much better. Well, Judge, +I got to be moving." + +"You are neither grammatical nor precise," snapped Judge Halloran. +"You mean _we_ must be moving." He linked arms with Tom and fell +into step with him; he clung to that rigid arm, moreover, despite +Tom's surly displeasure. Not until a friend stopped them for a +word or two was the distracted parent enabled to escape from that +spidery embrace; then, indeed, he slipped it as a filibustering +schooner slips its moorings, and made off as rapidly and as +unobtrusively as possible. + +Judge Halloran stared after the retreating figure, then he showed +his decayed teeth in a smile. "'Bob' is coming home to-day and the +old Mountain Lion is on edge," he explained. "I must warn the boys +to stay away from the station and give him his hour. Poor Tom! He +has held his breath for four years." + +Tom Parker had heard of children spoiled by schooling, of +daughters educated away from their commonplace parents and +rendered disdainful of them, but never for one instant did he fear +that his girl was that sort. He just knew better. He could no more +have doubted "Bob's" love for him than his for her, or-God's love +for both of them. Such love is perfect, absolute. He took no +thought, therefore, of the changes time and poverty had wrought in +his appearance: "Bob" wouldn't notice. He bet she wouldn't care if +he was plumb ragged. They were one and indivisible; she was _his_, +just like his right arm; she was his boy and his girl; his son- +daughter. The old gunman choked and his tonsils ached abominably. +He hoped he wasn't in for another attack of quinsy sore throat. +But--why lie to himself? The truth was, he wanted to cry and he +wanted to laugh at the same time, and the impulses were crossed in +his windpipe. He shook his watch like a child's rattle, to be sure +it was still running. + +Barbara did not disappoint her father. On the contrary, she was +perhaps more deeply moved than he at their meeting. At sight of +him she uttered a strangled little cry, then she ran into his arms +and clung there, tightly, her cheek pressed against his breast. It +was only upon occasions like this that "Bob" kissed her father, +for she had been reared as a boy and taught to shun emotional +display. Boys kiss their mothers. She snuggled close, and Tom +could feel her whole body shaking; but she kept her head averted +to conceal a distressingly unmasculine weakness. It was a useless +precaution, however, for Tom was blind, his eyes were as wet as +hers, and tears were trickling down the seams in his wrinkled +face. + +"Oh, daddy, it has been a long time!" Those were the first words +either of them had spoken. + +Tom opened his lips, then he closed them. He patted Barbara +clumsily, and finally cleared his aching throat with a loud +"_Harrumph!_" He dashed the tears from his eyes with the heel of +one harsh palm, then leveled a defiant glare over her head, directed +at anyone who might be looking on at his weakness. It was a blurry +glare, however, andnot nearly so ferocious as he intended it to be. +After several efforts he managed to regain control of his vocal powers. + +"Well, son!" he cried, huskily; then, "_Harrumph_!" + +Barbara's clutch tightened appreciatively. "Such a long, long +time!" Still with her cheek pressed close against him, she ran a +small gloved hand into the pocket of his coat and brought forth a +bandana handkerchief which she thrust into his palm, saying: "It's +a good thing I'm home, for you've caught another cold, haven't +you? Now blow your nose." + +Barbara was anything but boyish to look at; quite the opposite, in +fact. She was delightfully feminine from the crown of her smart +little traveling hat to her dainty French heels, and although her +suit was not expensive, it was worn with an air and was perhaps as +fetching as any that had ever come to Wichita Falls. It gave the +impression of perfectly setting off a figure and a personality +that required no setting off. She had the Parker eyes of +quenchless blue. + +"Well, son, there's a boom on and the town has grown some; but I +guess things here are about the same as when you left 'em." Tom +spoke with pride and satisfaction as he paid the driver, took +Barbara's suitcase, and opened the gate for her. + +The girl turned from her first long, appraising gaze at the modest +home. No change, indeed! The paint on the house was peeling, +gutters had rusted out, some of the porch flooring had rotted +through, the yard was an unkempt tangle of matted grass and weeds +and neglected shrubbery. The sight of it was like a stab to her, +for she remembered the place as it had been, and the shock was +akin to that of seeing a loved one in the garb of a tramp. But she +smiled up at the gray face above her--Tom, too, was as seedy as +the premises--and she nodded. + +"It hasn't changed a mite," she said, bravely. + +A moment later she paused upon the threshold, tense, thrilled, +apparently speechless. Tom was reminded of a trim little wren +poised upon the edge of its nest. This time it was more difficult +to counterfeit an exclamation of joy, but the catch in "Bob's" +voice, the moisture in her eyes, was attributed by her father to +gladness at the sight of old familiar things. This was pay for the +thought and the love and the labor expended, truly. + +"Why, everything is right where it belongs! How _wonderfully_ +you've kept house! You must have a perfect jewel of a girl, dad!" + +"I let Aunt Lizzie go 'bout three years back," Tom explained. "She +got--shiftless and I been sort of batching it since. Clean, +though, ain't it?" + +Barbara turned; blindly she walked to the center table and buried +her face in a bouquet of wild flowers garnered from the yard. She +held it there for a moment before she spoke. "You--didn't even +forget that I love bluebonnets, did you, dad?" + +"Pshaw! I 'ain't had much to do but remember what you like, son." + +"What's the matter? Business bad?" "Bob's" face was still hidden. + +"Oh no! I'm busy as usual. But, now you're home, I'll probably +feel like doing more. I got a lot of work left in me yet, now I +got somebody to work for." + +"So you fixed everything with your own hands." + +"Sure! I knew how you like the place to look, and--well, a man +gets used to doing without help. The kitchen's clean, too." + +Side by side the two moved from room to room, and, once the girl +had regained control of herself, she maintained an admirable self- +restraint. She petted and she cooed over objects dear to her; she +loved every inch of everything; she laughed and she exclaimed, and +with her laughter sunshine suddenly broke into the musty, +threadbare interior for the first time in four years. + +"Bob's" room was saved for the last, and Old Tom stood back, glowing +at her delight. He could not refrain from showing her his blackened +thumb-nail--the price of his carpentry--for he hoped she'd kiss it. +And she did. Not until she had "shooed" him out and sent him +downstairs, smiling and chuckling at her radiant happiness, did she +give way to those emotions she had been fighting this long time; then +her face grew white and tragic. "Oh, daddy, daddy!" she whispered. +"What _have_ I done to you?" + +Tom Parker had raised his girl like a son, and like a son she took +hold of things, but with a daughter's tact. Her intuition told her +much, but she did not arrive at a full appreciation of the family +affairs until she had the house running and went down to put his +office in order. Then, indeed, she learned at what cost had come +those four expensive years in the East, and the truth left her +limp. She went through Tom's dusty, disordered papers, ostensibly +rearranging and filing them, and they told her much; what they did +not tell her she learned from Judge Halloran and other old cronies +who came in to pay their garrulous compliments. + +Tom was mortgaged to the hilt, his royalties were pledged; a crow +could not pick a living out of his insurance business. + +Such a condition was enough to dismay any girl who had never +seriously considered money matters and who had returned home to +take up a life of comparative ease and superlative enjoyment where +she had left it off, but "Bob" said nothing to her father. She +knew every one of his shortcomings, and they endeared him to her, +quite as a son's faults and failures deepen a mother's love, but +she knew, too, that he was cantankerous and required careful +handling. Tom's toes were tender, and he forever exposed them +where they were easily trodden upon, therefore the girl stepped +cautiously and never even referred to his sacrifices, which would +have cruelly embarrassed both of them. + +But something had to be done, and quickly; a new hand needed to +mend the family fortunes. Barbara determined to lend that hand. + +A great change had come over the town and the whole country round +about, a change which the girl believed afforded her an +opportunity to prove that she was not a mere daughter, not an +ornament and a drag, but a real son-daughter such as Tom +considered her. Wichita Falls was overcrowded with oil man, drawn +thither by the town-site strike at Burkburnett, a few miles +northwest, and excitement was mounting as new wells continued to +come in. Central north Texas was nearing an epoch-making petroleum +boom, for Ranger, away to the south, had set the oil world by the +ears, and now this new sand at "Burk" lent color to the wild +assertion that these north counties were completely underlaid with +the precious fluid. At any rate, the price of thirsty ranch lands +was somersaulting and prosperity was apparent in the homes of all +Barbara's girl friends. Her admirers of the opposite sex could +talk of little except leases and bonuses and "production"; they +were almost too busy making money to call upon her. + +Barbara knew something about oil, for she had watched the drilling +of every one of those shallow wells that had kept her in college, +and what is more, she knew most of the property owners in this +part of the state. In that advantage she believed lay her chance +of accomplishment. + +After a fortnight of careful consideration she decided to enter +the oil business and deal in leases. + +"Good idea," Tom declared, when she had made known her plan. "The +town's so full of scamps it looks like Rodeo Day, and most of 'em +are doing well. If they can make good, it seems like an honest +firm could do better." + +"We'll be partners, dad. You run the insurance and I'll be the +lease hound." + +"Say--" Tom's eyes brightened. "I'll put a desk right alongside of +mine--a little feller, just your size--and a nice lounge in the +back room, where you can lay down when you're tired. You been away so +long it seems like I can't have you close enough." Another thought +presented itself, and he manifested sudden excitement. "I tell you! +I'll get a new sign painted, too! 'Tom and Bob Parker. Real Estate +and Insurance. Oil Prop'ties and Leases.' _Gosh!_ It's a _great_ idea, +son!" His smile lingered, but a moment later there came into his eyes a +half-regretful light. + +Barbara read his thought almost before he was aware of it, and, +rising, she laid her hand upon his shoulder. Wistfully she said, +"I'm awfully sorry, too, dad--" + +"Eh?" + +"--that I disappointed you so by not being a boy. But--it wasn't +my fault, and maybe I'll show you that a daughter can help as much +as a son." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A year before this story opens the town of Ranger, Texas, +consisted of a weatherbeaten, run-down railroad station, a +blacksmith shop, and a hitching rail, town enough, incidentally, +for the limited number of people and the scanty amount of +merchandise that passed through it. Ranger lay in the dry belt +--considered an almost entirely useless part of the state--where +killing droughts were not uncommon, and where for months on end +the low, flinty hills radiate heat like the rolls of a steel mill. +In such times even the steep, tortuous canyons dried out and there +was neither shade nor moisture in them. The few farms and ranches +round about were scattered widely, and life thereon was a grim +struggle against heartbreak, by reason of the gaunt, gray, ever- +present specter of the drought. Of late this particular region had +proven itself to be one of violent extremes, of extreme dryness +during which flowers failed to bloom, the grass shriveled and +died, and even the trees refused to put forth leaves; or, more +rarely, of extreme wetness, when the country was drowned beneath +torrential rains. Sometimes, during unusual winters, the heavens +opened and spilled themselves, choking the narrow watercourses, +washing out roads and destroying fields, changing the arid arroyos +into raging river beds. At such times life for the country people +was scarcely less burdensome than during the droughts, for the +heavy bottom lands became quagmires, and the clay of the higher +levels turned into putty or a devilish agglutinous substance that +rendered travel for man or beast or vehicle almost impossible. + +There appeared to be no law of average here. In dry times it was a +desert, lacking wholly, however, in the beauty, the mystery, and the +spell of a desert; in wet times it was a gehenna of mud and slush +and stickiness, and entirely minus that beauty and freshness that +attends the rainy seasons in a tropic clime. It was a land peopled +by a hard-bitten race of nesters--come from God knows where and for +God knows why--starved in mind and body, slaves of a hideous +environment from which they lacked means of escape. + +Geologists had claimed for some time that there must be coal in +these north Texas counties, a contention perhaps based upon a +comfortable belief in the law of compensation, upon a theory that +a region so poor aboveground must of necessity contain values of +some sort beneath the surface. But as for other natural resources, +they scouted the belief in such. Other parts of the state yielded +oil, for instance, but here the formation was all wrong. Who ever +heard of oil in hard lime? + +Nevertheless, petroleum was discovered, and among the fraternity +that dealt in it Ranger became a word of contradiction and of deep +meaning. Aladdin rubbed his lamp, and, lo! a magic transformation +occurred; one of those thrilling dramas of a dramatic industry was +played. A gypsy camp sprang up beside the blacksmith shop, and as +the weeks fled by it changed into a village of wooden houses, then +into a town, and soon into a city of brick and iron and concrete. +The railroad became clogged with freight, a tidal wave of men +broke over the town. Wagons, giant motor trucks, caterpillar +tractors towing long strings of trailers, lurched and groaned and +creaked over the hills, following roads unfit for a horse and +buggy. Straddling derricks reared themselves everywhere; their +feet were set in garden patches, in plowed fields, in lonely +mesquite pastures, and even high up on the crests of stony ridges. +One day their timbers were raw and clean, the next day they were +black and greasy, advertising the fact that once again the heavy +rock pressure far below had sent another fountain of fortune +spraying over the top. Then pipe lines were laid and unsightly +tank farms were built. + +Ranger became a mobilization point, a vast concentration camp +for supplies, and amid its feverish activity there was no rest, no +Sundays or holidays; the work went on at top tension night and day +amid a clangor of metal, a ceaseless roar of motors, a bedlam of +hammers and saws and riveters. Men lived in greasy clothes, +breathing dust and the odors of burnt gas mainly, eating poor food +and drinking warm, fetid water when they were lucky enough to get +any at all. + +This was about the state of affairs that Calvin Gray found on the +morning of his arrival. He and Mallow had managed to secure a Pullman +section on the night train from Dallas; the fact that they were forced +to carry their own luggage from the station uptown to the restaurant +where they hoped to get breakfast was characteristic of the place. En +route thither they had to elbow their way through a crowd that filled +the sidewalks as if on a fair day. + +Mallow was well acquainted with the town, it appeared, and during +breakfast he maintained a running fire of comment, some of which +was worth listening to. + +"Ever hear how the first discovery was made? Well, the T. P. +Company had the whole country plastered with coal leases and +finally decided to put down a fifteen-hundred-foot wildcat. The +guy that ran the rig had a hunch there was oil here if he went +deep enough, but he knew the company wouldn't stick, so he faked +the log of the well as long as he could, then he kept on drilling, +against orders--refused to open his mail, for fear he'd find he +was fired and the job called off. He was a thousand feet deeper +than he'd been ordered to go when--blooie! Over the top she went +with fourteen hundred barrels.... Desdemona's the name of a camp +below here, but they call it Hog Town. More elegant! Down there +the derricks actually straddle one another, and they have to board +them over to keep from drowning one another out when they blow in. +Fellow in Dallas brought in the first well, and it was so big that +his stock went from a hundred dollars a share to twelve thousand. +All in a few weeks. Of course, he started a bank. Funniest people +I ever saw, that way. Usually when a rube makes a winning he +gambles or gets him a woman, but these hicks take their coin and +buy banks.... Ranger's a real town; everything wide open and the +law in on the play. That makes good times. Show me a camp where +the gamblers play solitaire and the women take in washing and I'll +show you a dead village. The joints here have big signs on the +wall, '_Gambling Positively Prohibited_,' and underneath the games +are running high, wide, and fancy. Refined humor, I call it.... +There were nine killings one day, but that's above the average. +The last time I was in town a couple of tool dressers got into a +row with a laundryman--claimed they'd been overcharged six cents. +It came to a shooting, and we buried all three of them. Two cents +apiece! That was their closing price. The cost of living is high +enough, but it isn't expensive to die here." + +In this vein ran Mallow's talk. From the first he had laid himself +out to be entertaining and helpful, and Gray obligingly permitted +him to have his way. When they had finished breakfast, he even +allowed his companion to hire an automobile and driver for him. +They shook hands finally, the best of friends. Mallow wished him +good luck and gravely voiced the hope that he would have fewer +diamonds when he returned. Gray warmly thanked his companion for +his many courtesies and declared they would soon meet again. + +Thus far the trip had worked out much as Gray had expected. Now, +as his service car left the town and joined the dusty procession +of vehicles moving country-ward, he covertly studied its driver +and was gratified to note that the fellow bore all the ear-marks +of a thorough scoundrel. What conversation the man indulged in +strengthened that impression. + +The Briskow farm, it appeared, lay about twenty miles out, but +twenty miles over oil-field roads proved to be quite a journey. +During the muddy season the driver declared, it might well take a +whole day to make that distance; now that the roads were dry, they +could probably cover it in two or three hours, if the car held +together. Traffic near Ranger was terrific, and how it managed to +move, even at a snail's pace, was a mystery, for to sit a car was +like riding a bucking horse. If there had been the slightest +attempts at road building they were now invisible, and the +vehicular streams followed meandering wagon trails laid down by +the original inhabitants of pre-petroleum days, which had not been +bettered by the ceaseless pounding of the past twelve months. Up +and down, over armored ridges and into sandy arroyos, along +leaning hillsides and across 'dobe flats, baked brick hard by the +sun, the current of travel roared and pounded with reckless +disregard of tire and bolt and axle. In the main, it was a motor- +driven procession. There were, to be sure, occasional teams of +fine imported draft horses, but for every head of live stock there +were a dozen huge trucks, and for every truck a score of passenger +cars. These last were battered and gray with mud, and their dusty +occupants were of a color to match, for they drove blindly through +an asphyxiating cloud. Even the thirsty vegetation beside the +roads was coated gray, and was so tinder dry that it seemed as if +a lighted match would explode it. + +The sun glared cruelly, and the pyramidal piles of iron pipe +chained to the groaning trucks and plunging trailers were hot +enough to fry eggs upon, but neither they nor the steaming +radiators gave off more heat than the soil and the rocks. + +Detours were common--testimony to man's inherent optimism--but +each was worse than the other, the roadbeds everywhere were +rutted, torn, broken up as if from long-continued heavy shell +fire. + +From every ridge skeleton derricks were in sight as far as the eye +could reach, the scattered ones, whose clean timbers gleamed in +the sunlight, testifying to dry holes; the blackened ones, usually +in clumps, indicating "production"--magic word. + +There were a few crossroads settlements--"hitch-rail towns" +--unpainted and ramshackle, but nowhere was there an attempt at +farming, for this part of Texas had gone hog wild over oil. +Abandoned straw stacks had settled and molded, cornfields had +grown up to weeds, what few head of cattle still remained lolled +near the artificial surface tanks, all but dried into mud holes. + +It was a farm of this character that Gray's driver finally pointed +out as the Briskow ranch. The house, an unsightly story-and-a-half +affair, stood at the back of what had once been a cultivated +field, and the place was distinctive only in the fact that it gave +evidence of a good water well, or a capacious reservoir, in the +form of a vivid green garden patch and a few flourishing peach +trees immediately behind the residence--welcome relief to the eye. + +Nobody answered Gray's knock at the front door, so he walked +around the house. Over the garden fence, grown thick with +brambles, he beheld two feminine figures, or rather two faded +sunbonnets topping two pairs of shoulders, and as he drew nearer +he saw that one woman was bent and slow moving, while the other +was a huge creature, wide of hip and deep of bosom, whose bare +arms, burnt to a rich golden brown, were like those of a +blacksmith, and who wielded her heavy hoe as if it were a toy. She +was singing in a thin, nasal, uncultivated voice. + +Evidently they were the Briskow "help," therefore Gray made his +presence known and inquired for the master or mistress of the +place. + +The elder woman turned, exposing a shrewd, benevolent face, and +after a moment of appraisal said, "I'm Miz' Briskow." + +"Indeed!" The visitor smiled his best and announced the nature of +his errand. + +"Lawsy me!" Mrs. Briskow planted her hoe in the soil and turned +her back upon Gray. "Allie! Yore pa has gone an' done it again. +Here's another of his fool notions." + +The women regarded each other silently, their facial expressions +hidden beneath their bonnets; then the mother exposed her +countenance a second time, and said, "Mister, this is Allegheny, +our girl." + +Miss Allegheny Briskow lifted her head, nodded shortly, and stared +over the hoe handle at Gray. Her gaze was one of frank curiosity, +and he returned it in kind, for he had never beheld a creature +like her. Gray was a tall man, but this girl's eyes met his on a +level, and her figure, if anything, was heavier than his. Nor was +its appearance improved by her shapeless garment of faded wash +material. Her feet were incased in a pair of men's cheap "brogans" +that Gray could have worn; drops of perspiration gleamed upon her +face, and her hair, what little was visible beneath the sunbonnet, +was wet and untidy. Altogether she presented a picture such as +some painter of peasant types might have sketched. Garbed +appropriately, in shawl and sabots, she would have passed for some +European plowwoman of Amazonian proportions. Allegheny! It was a +suitable name, indeed, for such a mountainous person. Her size was +truly heroic; she would have been grotesque, ridiculous, except +for a certain youthful plasticity and a suggestion of tremendous +vigor and strength that gave her dignity. Her ample, ill-fitting +dress failed to hide the fact that her robust body was well, even +splendidly molded. + +Gray's attention, however, was particularly challenged by the +girl's face and eyes. It was a handsome countenance, cut in large, +bold features, but of a stony immobility; the eyes were watchful, +brooding, sullen. They regarded him with mingled defiance and +shyness for an instant, then they avoided his; she averted her +gaze; she appeared to be meditating ignominious flight. + +The mother abandoned her labor, wiped her hands upon her skirt, +and said, with genuine hospitality: "Come right into the house and +rest yourself. Pa and Buddy'll be home at dinner time." By now a +fuller significance of this stranger's presence had struck home +and she laughed softly as she led the way toward the dwelling. +"Di'mon's for Allie and me, eh? Land sakes! Pa's up to something +new every day, lately. I wonder what next." + +As Gray stepped aside for the younger woman to precede him, his +curiosity must have been patent, for Allegheny became even more +self-conscious than before, and her face flamed a fiery red. As +yet she had not spoken. + +There were three rooms to the Briskow residence, bedrooms all, +with a semi-detached, ramshackle, whitewashed kitchen at the rear +and separated from the main house by a narrow "gallery." Into the +front chamber, which evidently did service also as a parlor, Mrs. +Briskow led the way. By now she was in quite a flutter of +excitement. For the guest she drew forth the one rocking chair, a +patent contraption, the rockers of which were held upon a sort of +track by stout spiral springs. Its seat and back were of cheap +carpet material stretched over a lacquered frame, and these she +hastily dusted with her apron; then she seated herself upon the +edge of the bed and beamed expectantly. + +Allegheny had carelessly brushed back her sunbonnet, exposing a +mane of damp, straight, brown hair of a quantity and length to +match her tremendous vigor of limb; but she remained standing at +the foot of the bed, too ill at ease to take a chair or perhaps +too agitated to see one. She was staring straight ahead, her eyes +fixed a foot or two over the caller's head. + +Gray ignored her manifest embarrassment, made a gingerly +acquaintance with the chair of honor, and then devoted his +attention to the elder woman. At every move the coiled springs +under him strained and snapped alarmingly. + +"We don't often see jewelry peddlers," the mother announced; "but, +sakes alive! things is changin' so fast we get a new surprise most +every day. I s'pose you got those rings in that valise?" She +indicated Gray's stout leather sample case. + +"Precisely," said he. "If you have time I'd like to show them to +you." + +Mrs. Briskow's bent figure stirred, she uttered a throaty +chuckle, and her weary face, lined with the marks of toil and +hardship, flushed faintly. Her misshapen hands tightly clasped +themselves and her faded eyes began to sparkle. Gray felt a warm +thrill of compassion at the agitation of this kindly, worn old +soul, and he rose quickly. As he gained his feet that amazing +chair behaved in a manner wholly unusual and startling; relieved +of strain, the springs snapped and whined, there was a violent +oscillation of the back, a shudder convulsed the thing, and it +sprang after him, much as a tame rabbit thumps its feet upon the +ground in an effort to bluff a kitten. + +The volunteer salesman spread out his dazzling wares upon the +patchwork counterpane, then stepped back to observe the effect. Ma +Briskow's hands fluttered toward the gems, then reclasped +themselves in her lap; she bent closer and regarded them fixedly. +The Juno-like daughter also stared down at the display with +fascination. + +After a moment Allegheny spoke, and her speaking voice was in +pleasing contrast to the nasal notes of that interrupted song. +"Are them _real_ di'mon's?" she queried, darkly. + +"Oh yes! And most of them are of very fine quality." + +"Pa never told us a word," breathed the mother. "He's _allus_ up +to some trick." + +"Please examine them. I want you to look them all over," Gray +urged. + +Mrs. Briskow acted upon this invitation only after she had dried +her hands, and then with trepidation. Gingerly, reverently she +removed a ring from its resting place and held it up to the light. +"My! Ain't it sparkly?" she gasped, after an ecstatic pause. + +Again the girl spoke, her eyes fixed defiantly upon Gray. "You +could fool us easy, 'cause we never saw _real_ di'mon's. We've +allus been too pore." + +The man nodded. "I hope you're not disappointed in them and I hope +you are going to see and to own a great many finer ones. + +"We've never seen noth--anything, nor been anywhere, yet." It +was Mrs. Briskow speaking. "But we're goin'. We're goin' lots of +places and we're goin' to see everything wuth seein', so Pa says. +Anyhow, the children is. First off, Pa's goin' to take us to the +mountains." The mother faced the visitor at this announcement and +for a moment she appeared to be gazing at a vision, for her +wrinkled countenance was glorified. "You've seen 'em, haven't you, +mister?" + +"Mountains? A great many." + +Allegheny broke in: "I dunno's these di'mon's is just what _I_ +expected 'em to be. They are and--they ain't. I'm kind of +disapp'inted." + +Gray smiled. "That is true of most things that we anticipate or +aspire to. It's the tragedy of accomplishment--to find that our +rewards are never quite up to our expectations." + +"Do they cost much?" + +"Oh, decidedly! The prices are all plainly marked. Please look +them over." + +Ma Briskow did as urged, but the shock was paralyzing; delight, +admiration, expectancy, gave place to horrified amazement at the +figures upon the tags. She shook her head slowly and made repeated +sounds of disapproval. + +"Tse! Tse! Tse! Why, your pa's crazy! Plumb crazy!" + +Although the mother's principal emotion for the moment was aroused +by the price marks on the price tags, Allegheny paid little +attention to them and began vainly fitting ring after ring to her +fingers. All were too small, however; most of them refused to pass +even the first joint, and Gray realized now what Gus Briskow had +meant when he wrote for rings "of large sises." Eventually the +girl found one that slipped into place, and this she regarded with +complacent admiration. + +"This one'll do for me," she declared. "And it's a whopper!" + +Gray took her hand in his; as yet it had not been greatly distorted by +manual labor, but the nails were dull and cracked and ragged and they +were inlaid in deep mourning. "I don't believe you'll like that +mounting," he said, gently. "It's what we call a man's ring. This is +the kind women usually wear." He held up a thin platinum band of +delicate workmanship which Allegheny examined with frank disdain. + +[Image: "THIS ONE'LL DO FOR ME," SHE DECLARED. "AND IT'S A WHOPPER!"] + +"Pshaw! I'd bust that the first time I hoed a row of 'taters," she +declared. "I got to have things stout, for me." + +"But," Gray protested, in even a milder voice, "you probably +wouldn't want to wear expensive jewelry in the garden." + +Miss Briskow held her hand high, admiring the play of light upon +the facets of the splendid jewel, then she voiced a complacent +thought that has been variously expressed by other women better +circumstanced than she--"If we can afford to buy 'em, I reckon we +can afford to wear 'em." + +Not until Gray had suggested that her days of work in the fields +were probably about ended did the girl's expression change. Then +indeed her interest was arrested. She regarded him with a sudden +quickening of imagination; she revolved the novel idea in her +mind. + +"From what my driver has told me about the Briskow farm," he ran +on, "you won't have to work at anything, unless you care to." + +Allie continued to weigh this new thought in her mind; that it +intrigued her was plain, but she made no audible comment. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +For perhaps half an hour the women tried on one piece of jewelry +after another, exclaiming, admiring, arguing, then the mother +realized with a start that meal time was near and that the +menfolks would soon be home. Leaving Allie to entertain their +guest, she hurried out, and the sound of splitting kindling, the +clatter of stove lids, the rattle of utensils came from the +kitchen. + +Gray retired to the patent rocker, Miss Briskow settled herself +upon a straight-backed chair and folded her capable hands in her +lap; an oppressive silence fell upon the room. Evidently the +duties of hostess lay with crushing weight upon the girl, for her +face became stony, her cheeks paled, her eyes glazed; the power of +speech completely failed her and she answered Gray with nods or +shakes of her head. The most that he could elicit from her were +brief "yeps" and "nopes." It was not unlike a "spirit reading," or +a ouija-board seance. He told himself, in terms of the oil fields, +that here was a dry well--that the girl was a "duster." Having +exhausted the usual commonplace topics in the course of a +monologue that induced no reaction whatever, he voiced a perfectly +natural remark about the wonder of sudden riches. He was, in a +way, thinking aloud of the changes wrought in drab lives like the +Briskows' by the discovery of oil. He was surprised when Allegheny +responded: + +"Ma and me stand it all right, but it's an awful strain on Pa," +said she. + +"Indeed?" + +The girl nodded. "He's got _more_ nutty notions." + +Gray endeavored to learn the nature of Pa's recently acquired +eccentricities, but Allie was flushing and paling as a result of her +sudden excursion into the audible. Eventually she trembled upon the +verge of speech once more, then she took another desperate plunge. + +"He says folks are going to laugh _at_ us or _with_ us, and--and +rich people have got to _act rich_. They got to be elegant." She +laughed loudly, abruptly, and the explosive nature of the sound +startled her as greatly as it did her hearer. "He's going to get +somebody to teach Buddy and me how to behave." + +"I think he's right," Gray said, quietly. + +"Why, he's sent to Fort Worth for a piano, already, and for a lady +to come out for a coupla days and show me how to play it!" There +was another black hiatus in the conversation. "We haven't got a +spare room, but--I'm quick at learnin' tunes. She could bunk in +with me for a night or two." + +Gray eyed the speaker suspiciously, but it was evident that she +was in sober earnest, and the tragedy of such profound ignorance +smote the man sharply. Here was a girl of at least average +intelligence and of sensitive makeup; a girl with looks, too, in +spite of her size, and no doubt a full share of common sense +--perhaps even talents of some sort--yet with the knowledge of a +child. For the first time he realized what playthings of Fate are +men and women, how completely circumstance can make or mar them, +and what utter paralysis results from the strangling grip of +poverty. + +History hints that during the Middle Ages there flourished an +association known as Comprachicos--"child-buyers"--which traded in +children. The Comprachicos bought little human beings and +disfigured their features, distorted their bodies, fashioned them +into ludicrous, grotesque, or hideous monstrosities for king and +populace to laugh at, and then resold them. Soft, immature faces +were made into animal likenesses; tender, unformed bodies were put +into wicker forms or porcelain vases and allowed to grow; then +when they had become things of compressed flesh and twisted bone, +the wicker was cut, the vase was broken, leaving a man in the shape +of a bottle or a mug. + +That is precisely what environment does. + +In the case of Allegheny Briskow, poverty, the drought, the +grinding hardships of these hard-scrabble Texas counties, had +dwarfed the intellect, the very soul of a splendid young animal. +Or so, at least, Gray told himself. It was a thought that evoked +profound consideration. + +Now that the girl was beginning to lose her painful embarrassment, +she showed to somewhat better advantage and no longer impressed +him, as bovine, stolid, almost stupid; he could not but note again +her full young figure, her well-shaped, well-poised head, and her +regular features, and the pity of it seemed all the greater by +reason thereof. He tried to visualize her perfectly groomed, clad +in a smart gown molded over a well-fitting corset, with her feet +properly shod and her hair dressed--but the task was beyond him. +Probably she had never worn a corset, never seen a pair of silk +stockings. He thought, too, of what was in store for her and +wondered how she would fit into the new world she was about to +enter. Not very well, he feared. Might not this prove to be the +happiest period of all her new life, he asked himself. As yet the +wonder and the glory of the new estate left room in her +imagination for little else; the mold was broken, but the child +was not conscious of its bottle shape. Nevertheless the shape was +there. When that child learned the truth, when it heard the +laughter and felt the ridicule, what then? He could not bring +himself to envy Allegheny Briskow. + +"First off, Ma and me are goin' over to Dallas to do some +tradin'," the girl was saying. "After that we're goin' to the +mountains." + +"Your mother mentioned mountains." + +"Yep. Her and Pa have allus been crazy about mountains, but they +never seen 'em. That's the first thing Ma said when Number One +blowed in. When we saw that oil go over the crown block, and when +they told us that black stuff was really oil, Ma busted out cryin' and +said she'd see the mountains, after all--then she wouldn't mind if +she died. Pa he cried, too, we'd allus been so pore--You see, Ma's +kind of marked about mountains--been that way since she was a +girl. She cuts out stories and pictures of 'em. And that's how me +and Buddy came to be named Allegheny and Ozark. But we never +expected to _see_ 'em. The drought burned us out too often." + +Allegheny and Ozark. Quaint names. "Times must have been hard." +The remark was intended only as a spur. + +"_Hard!_" There was a pause; slowly the girl's eyes began to +smolder, and as she went on in her deliberate way, memory set a +tragic shadow over her face. "I'll say they was hard! Nobody but +us nesters knows what hard times is. Out west of here they went +three years without rain, and all around here people was starvin'. +Grown folks was thin and tired, and children was sickly--they was +too peaked to play. Why, we took in a hull family--wagon-folks. +Their hosses died and they couldn't go on, so we kep' 'em--'til +_we_ burned out. I don't know how we managed to get by except that +Pa and Buddy are rustlers and I can do more 'n a hired man. We +_never_ had enough to eat. Stuff just wouldn't grow. The stock got +bonier and bonier and finally died, 'count of no grass and the +tanks dryin' out. And all the time the sun was a-blazin' and the +dust was a-blowin and the clouds would roll up and then drift away +and the sun would come out hotter 'n ever. Day after day, month +after month, we waited--eighteen, I think it was. People got so +they wouldn't pray no more, and the preachers moved away. I guess +we was as bad off as them pore folks in Beljum. Why, even the +rattlesnakes pulled out of the country! Somehow the papers got +hold of it and bime-by some grub was shipped in and give around, +but--us Briskows didn't get none. Pa'd die before he'd beg." + +The girl was herself now; she was talking naturally, feelingly, +and her voice was both deep and pleasing. + +"The thinner Ma got, the more she talked about the mountains, +where there was water--cool, clear water in the criks. And timber +on the hills--timber with green leaves on it. And grass that you +could lay down in and smell. I guess Ma was kind of feverish. We +was drier 'n a lime-burner's boot when the rain did come. I'll +never forget--we all stood out in it and soaked it up. It was +wonderful, to get all wet and soaky, and not with sweat." + +"Then on top of that the oil came, too. It _must_ have been +wonderful." + +"Yep. Now we're rich. And buyin' di'mon's and pianos and goin' to +Dallas for pretty fixin's. Seems kinda dreamy." Allegheny Briskow +closed her eyes, her massive crown of damp, disordered hair +drooped backward and for a moment Gray was able, unobserved, to +study her. + +She had revealed herself to him, suddenly, in the space of a few +moments, and the revelation added such poignancy to his previous +thoughts that he regarded her with a wholly new sympathy. There +was nothing dull about this girl. On the contrary, she had +intelligence and feeling. There had been a rich vibrance in her +voice as she told of that frightful ordeal; a dimness had come +into her eyes as she spoke of her mother gabbling feverishly of +the green hills and babbling brooks; she had yearned maternally at +mention of those wretched little children. No, there was a sincere +emotional quality concealed in this young giantess, and a +sensitiveness quite unexpected. + +Gray remained silent until she opened her eyes; then he said: +"When you and your mother come to Dallas to do your shopping, +won't you let me take you around to the right shops and see that +you get the right things?" Then, prompted by the girl's quick +resentment, he added, hastily, "--at the right prices?" + +Allie's face cleared. "Why, that's right nice of you!" she +declared. "I--I reckon we'd be glad to." + +Gus Briskow was a sandy, angular man; a ring of air holes cut in +the crown of his faded felt hat showed a head of hair faded to +match the color of his headgear; his greasy overalls were tucked +into boots, and a ragged Joseph's coat covered his flannel shirt. +Both the man and his makeup were thoroughly typical of this part +of the country, except in one particular--Pa Briskow possessed the +brightest, the shrewdest pair of blue eyes that Calvin Gray had +ever seen, and they were surrounded by a network of prepossessing wrinkles. + +He came directly in to greet his visitor, then said: "I never +expected you'd come 'way out here an' bring your plunder with you. +Ma says you got a hull gripful o' di'mon's." + +"I have, indeed." Gray pointed to the glittering display still +spread out upon the varicolored counterpane. + +Briskow approached the bed and gazed curiously, silently down at +the treasure, then his face broke into a sunshiny smile. He wiped +his hands upon his trousers legs and picked up a ring. But instead +of examining the jewel, he looked at the price mark, after which +his smile broadened. + +Ozark had entered behind his father, and his sister introduced him +now. He was a year or two younger than Allegheny, but cast in the +same heroic mold. They formed a massive pair of children indeed, +and, as in her case, a sullen distrust of strangers was inherent +in him. He stared coldly, resentfully, at Gray, mumbled an +unintelligible greeting, then rudely turned his back upon the +visitor and joined his father. + +The elder Briskow spoke first, and it was evident that he feared +to betray lack of conservatism, for he said, with admirable +restraint: + +"Likely-lookin' lot of trinkets, eh, Bud?" + +Bud grunted. After a moment he inquired of Gray, "How much is that +hull lot wuth, Mister?" + +"Close to a hundred thousand dollars." + +Brother and sister exchanged glances; the father considered +briefly, smilingly, then he said, "With oil at three an' a +quarter, it wouldn't take long for a twelve-hundred bar'ler to get +the hull caboodle, would it?" "Is your well producing twelve +hundred barrels a day?" + +"Huh!" Briskow, junior, grinned at his sister, exposing a mouth +full of teeth as white and as sound as railroad crockery, but his +next words were directed at Gray: "We got _four_ wells and the +p'orest one is makin' twelve hundred bar'l." + +The guests' mental calculations as to the Briskow royalties were +interrupted by an announcement that dinner was ready, whereupon +the father announced: + +"Mister, it looks like you'd have to stay overnight with us, +'cause I got important business after dinner an' I wouldn't trust +Ma to pick out no jewelry by herself--them prices would skeer her +to death. We're ignorant people and we ain't used to spendin' +money, so it'll take time for us to make up our minds. Kin you +wait?" + +"I'll stay as long as you'll keep me," Gray declared, heartily. + +A moment later, having learned that a place at the table had been +set for his driver as well as himself, Gray stepped out to summon +the man and to effect the necessary change in his arrangements. He +was not surprised to find the chauffeur with nose flattened +against a pane of the front-room window, his hands cupped over his +eyes. Ignoring the fellow's confusion at being discovered, Gray +told him of his change of plan and instructed him to drive back to +Ranger and to return late the following afternoon. Then he led the +way toward the kitchen. + +That stay at the Briskows' turned out to be less irksome than the +visitor had anticipated, for the afternoon was spent with Buddy +examining the Briskow wells and others near by. It was an +interesting experience, and Gray obtained a deal of first-hand +information that he believed would come in handy. Buddy's first +mistrust was not long in passing, and, once Gray had penetrated +his guard, the boy was won completely, the pendulum swung to the +opposite extreme, and erelong suspicion changed to liking, then to +approval, and at last to open, extravagant admiration. + +And Gray liked the youthful giant, too, once the latter had +dropped his hostility and had become his natural self, for Ozark +was a lad with temper and with temperament. They got along +together swimmingly; in fact, they grew thicker than thieves in +the course of time. The elder man soon became conscious of the +fact that he was being studied, analyzed, even copied--the +sincerest form of flattery--and it pleased his vanity. Buddy's +mind was thirsty, his curiosity was boundless, questions popped +out of him at every step, and every answer, every bit of +information or of philosophy that fell from the visitor's lips he +pounced upon, avidly examined, then carefully put away for future +use. He was like a magpie filling its nest. Gray's personal +habits, mannerisms, tricks--all were grist for Buddy's mill. The +stranger's suit, for instance, was a curiosity to the boy, who +could not understand wherein it was so different from any other he +had ever seen; young Briskow attributed that difference to the +fact that it had probably come from a bigger store than any he had +known. It amazed him to learn, in answer to a pointed question, +that it had been cut and fitted to the wearer by expert workmen. +It disappointed him bitterly to be informed that there was not +another one exactly like it which he could buy. + +And the visitor's silk shirt, with double cuffs and a monogram on +the sleeve! Fancy "fixin's" like this, Buddy confessed, he had +always associated with womenfolks, but if Gray wore them there +could be nothing disgraceful, nothing effeminate about the +practice. There was a decided thrill in the prospect of possessing +such finery, all initialed with huge, silken O. B's. Life was +presenting wholly novel and exciting possibilities to the youth. + +When Gray offered him a cigarette, Buddy rudely took the gold case +out of his hand and examined it, then he laughed in raucous +delight. + +"Gosh! I never knew men had _purty_ things. I--I'm goin' to get me +one like that." + +"Do you like it?" "Gee! It's _swell_!" + +"Good! I'll make you a present of it." + +Buddy stared at the speaker in speechless surprise. "What--what +for?" he finally stammered. + +"Because you admire it." + +"Why--it's solid gold, ain't it?" + +"To be sure." + +"How much d'it cost?" + +"My dear fellow," Gray protested, "you shouldn't ask questions +like that. You embarrass me." + +Buddy examined the object anew, then he inquired, "Say, why'd you +offer to gimme this?" + +"I've just told you." Gray was becoming impatient. "It is a custom +in some countries to present an object to one who is polite enough +to admire it." + +"Nobody never give _me_ a present," Buddy said. "Not one that I +wanted. I never had _nothing_ that I didn't have to have and +couldn't get along without. This cigareet case is worth more 'n +all the stuff I ever owned, an' I'm sure obliged to you." He +replaced the article in Gray's hand. + +"Eh? Won't you accept it? Why not?" + +"I--Oh, I dunno." + +Gray pondered this refusal for a moment before saying, "Perhaps +you think I'm--trying to make a good impression on you, so you'll +buy some diamonds?" + +"Mebbe." Buddy averted his eyes. He was in real distress. + +"Um-m! I ought to punch your head." Gray slipped the case into +young Briskow's pocket. "I don't have to bribe people. Some day +you'll realize that I like you." + +"_Honest?_" + +"Cross my heart." + +The boy laughed in frank delight, his brown cheeks colored, his +eyes sparkled. "Gosh!" said he. "I--like _you!_" For some time +thereafter he remained red and silent, but he kept one big hand in +the pocket where lay the gold cigarette case. There was a wordless +song in Buddy Briskow's heart, for--he had made a friend. And such +a friend! + +The Briskow children possessed each other's fullest confidence, +hence Ozark took the first occasion to show his gift to Allegheny, +and to tell her in breathless excitement all about that wonderful +afternoon. + +"He said he'd a mind to lick me, an' I bet he could 'a' done it, +too," the boy concluded. + +"Lick you? Hunh!" + +"Oh, he's hard-boiled! That's why I like him. He's been 'round the +world and speaks furrin language like a natif. That suit of clo's +was _made_ for him, an' he's got thirty others, all better 'n this +one. Shoes, too! Made special, in New York. Forty dollars a pair!" + +"What's he doin' here if he's so rich?" It was the doubting female +of the species speaking. "Drummers is terrible liars." + +Buddy flew to the defense of his hero. "He's doin' this to he'p a +friend. Told me all about it. I'm goin' to have thirty suits--" + +"Shoes don't cost forty dollars. _Clo's_ don't cost that much." +Allie regarded her brother keenly, understandingly, then she said, +somberly, "It ain't no use, Buddy." + +"What ain't?" + +"It ain't no use to wish. Mebbe you can have thirty suits--if the +wells hold out, but they won't look like his. And me, too. We're +too big, Buddy, an' the more money we got, the more clo's we put +on, the more folks is goin' to laugh at us. It shames me to go +places with anybody but you." + +"_He_ wouldn't laugh. He's been all over the world," the boy +asserted. Then, after some deliberation, "I bet he's seen bigger +people than us." + +As a matter of fact, Allegheny's sensitiveness about her size had +been quickly apparent to Gray, and during that day he did his +utmost to overcome it, but with what success he could not know. +Buddy was his, body and soul, that much was certain; he made the +conquest doubly secure by engaging the young Behemoth in a scuffle +and playfully putting him on his back. Defeat, at other hands than +Gray's, would have enraged Ozark to the point of frenzy, it would +have been considered by him an indignity and a disgrace. Now, +however, he looked upon it as a natural and wholly satisfactory +demonstration of his idol's supreme prowess, and he roared with +delight at being bested. Gray promptly taught him the wrestling +trick by which he had accomplished the feat, and flattered the boy +immensely by refusing to again try his skill. The older man, when +he really played, could enter into sport with tremendous zest and +he did so now; he taught Buddy trick after trick; they matched +each other in feats of strength and agility. They wound up finally +on opposite sides of the Briskow kitchen table, elbows planted, +fingers interlocked, straining furiously in that muscle-racking, +joint-cracking pastime of the lumber camps known as "twisting +arms." Here again Gray was victorious, until he showed Buddy how +to gain greater leverage by changing the position of his wrist and +by slightly altering his grip, whereupon the boy's superior +strength told. They were red in the face, out of breath, and +soaked with perspiration, when Pa Briskow drove up in his +expensive new touring car. + +By this time Buddy's admiration had turned to adulation; he had +passed under the yoke and he gloried shamelessly in his captive +state. At supper time he appeared with his hair wetly combed in +imitation of Gray's. He wore a necktie, too, and into it he had +fastened a cheap brass stickpin, much as Gray wore his. During the +meal he watched how the guest used his knife and fork and made +awkward attempts to do likewise, but a table fork was an +instrument which, heretofore, Buddy had looked upon as a weapon of +pure offense, like a whaler's harpoon, and conveniently designed +either for spearing edibles beyond his reach or for retrieving +fragments of meat lurking between his back teeth. He even did some +hasty manicuring under the edge of the table with his jack-knife. + +Pa Briskow was scarcely less observant than his son. He watched +Gray's every move; he sounded him out adroitly; he pondered his +lightest word. After the supper things had been cleared away and +the dishes washed, the entire family adjourned to the front room +and again examined the jewelry. It was an absorbing task, they did +not hurry it. Not until the following afternoon, in fact, did they +finally make their selections, and then they were guided almost +wholly by the good taste of their guest. Gray did not exploit +them. On the contrary, his effort was to limit their extravagance; +but in this he had little success, for Pa Briskow had decided to +indulge his generous impulses to the full and insisted upon so +doing. The check he finally wrote was one of five figures. + +By this time the visitor had become aware of arousing a queer +reaction in Allegheny Briskow. He had overcome her diffidence +early enough; he had unsealed her lips; he had obtained an insight +into her character; but once that was done, the girl retired +within herself again and he could get nothing more out of her. He +would have believed that she actually disliked him, had it not +been for the fact that whatever he said, she took as gospel, that +wherever he chanced to be there she was, her ears open, her +somber, meditative eyes fixed upon him. Evidently she did not +actually dislike him; he decided finally that she was studying +him, striving to analyze and to weigh him to her own complete +satisfaction before trusting him further than she had. + +When it drew near the time for him to leave, and he announced that +the driver of his hired car had been instructed to return for him, +there was protest, loud and earnest, from the Briskows, father and +son. Buddy actually sulked at being denied the pleasure of driving +his hero to town in the new car, and told about a smooth place on +a certain detour where he could "get her up to sixty mile an +hour." "If it was longer, she'd do a hundred," he declared. + +Pa Briskow was worried for the security of the diamonds, and +assured Gray that it was unsafe to trust those service-car +drivers. + +But the latter, seeing a threat to his carefully matured plans, +refused to listen. "There's one thing you can do for me," he told +them. "You can give me a pint of cream." + +"Cream? What for?" The family regarded him with amazement. + +"I'm fond of it. If you have no cream, milk will do." + +"Pshaw! I'll put up a hull basket of lunch for you," Mrs. Briskow +declared. "Buddy, go kill a rooster, an' you, Allie, get them eggs +out of the nest in the garden, an' a jar of them peach preserves, +while I make up a pan of biscuits." + +Protest was unavailing. + +When the others had hurried away, Pa Briskow said: "I been +studyin' you, Mister Gray, and I got you down as a first-class +man. When Ma and Allie come over to Dallas to get rigged out, I'd +like you to help 'em. They 'ain't never been fu'ther from home +than Cisco--that's thirty mile. I'll pay you for your time." + +Gray's hearty acceptance of the first and his prompt refusal of +the second proposal pleased the speaker. + +"Bein' rich is mighty fine, but--" Gus Briskow shook his head +doubtfully. "It takes a lot of thinkin', and I ain't used to +thinkin'. Some day, mebbe, I'll get you to give _me_ a hand in +figgerin' out some worries." + +"Business worries?" + +"No. I got enough of them, an' more comin', but it ain't that. +We're goin' to have a heap of money, and"--he looked up with +straightforward eyes--"we ain't goin' to lose it, if I have my +way. We've rubbed along, half starved, all our lives, an' done +without things till we're--Well, look at us! I reckon we've made +you laugh. Oh, I bet we have! Ma an' me can stand it, but, mister, +I don't want folks to laugh at my children, and there's other +things I don't want to happen to 'em. Buddy's a wild hoss and he's +got a streak of the Old Nick in him. And Allie ain't broke no +better 'n him. I got a feelin' there may be trouble ahead, an' +--sometimes I 'most wish we'd never had no oil in Texas." + + + +CHAPTER VI + +"Well, did you land them hicks?" It was Gray's driver speaking. +Through the gloom of early evening he was guiding his car back +toward Ranger. The road was the same they had come, but darkness +had invested it with unfamiliar perils, or so it seemed, for the +headlights threw every rock and ridge into bold relief and left +the holes filled with mysterious shadows; the vehicle strained, +its motor raced, its gears clashed noisily as it rocked along like +a dory in a boisterous tide rip. Only now and then did a few rods +of smooth going permit the chauffeur to take his attention from +the streak of illumination ahead long enough to light another +cigarette, a swift maneuver, the dexterity of which bespoke long +practice. + +"Yes. And I made a good sale," the passenger declared. With pride +he announced the size of the Briskow check. + +"J'ever see a dame the size of that gal?" A short laugh issued +from the driver. "She'd clean up in vaudeville, wouldn't she? Why, +she could lift a ton, in harness. And hoein' the garden, with +their coin! It's like a woman I heard of: they got a big well on +their farm and she came to town to do some shoppin'; somebody told +her she'd ought to buy a present for her old man, so she got him a +new handle for the ax. _Gawd!_" + +A few miles farther on the fellow confessed: "I wasn't crazy about +comin' for you to-night. Not after I got a flash at what's in that +valise." + +"No?" + +"You're takin' a chance, stranger." + +"Nothing new about that." Gray remained unperturbed. His left arm +was behind the driver; with it he clung rigidly to the back of the +seat as the car plunged and rolled. "Frequently we are in danger +when we least suspect it. Now you, for instance." + +"Me?" The man at the wheel shot a quick glance at his fare. + +"You probably take more chances than you dream of." + +"How so?" + +"Um-m! These roads are a menace to life and limb; the country is +infested with robbers--" + +"Oh, sure! That's what I had in mind. Joy-ridin' at night with a +hatful of diamonds is my idea of a sucker's amusement. Of course, +we won't 'get it'--" + +"Of course! One never does." + +"Sure! But if we should, there's just one thing to do." + +"Indeed?" Gray was pleasantly inquisitive, but it was plain that +he suffered no apprehensions. "And that is--?" + +"Sit tight and take your medicine." + +"I never take medicine." + +The chauffeur shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I do, when it's put +down my throat. I _been_ stuck up." + +"Really!" + +"Twice. Tame as a house cat, me--both times. I s'pose I'll get +nicked again sometime." + +"And you won't offer any resistance?" + +"Not a one, cull." + +"I'm relieved to be assured of that." + +For a second time the driver flashed a glance at his companion. It +was a peculiar remark and voiced in a queer tone. "Yes? Why?" + +"Because--" Gray slightly shifted his position, there was a +movement of his right hand--the one farthest away from the man at +the wheel--and simultaneously his left arm slipped from the back +of the seat and tightly encircled the latter's waist. He finished +in a wholly unfamiliar voice, "Because, my good man, you are now +held up for the third time, and it would distress me to have to +kill you." + +The driver uttered a loud grunt, for something sharp and hard had +been thrust deeply into that soft, sensitive region overlying his +liver, and now it was held there. It was unnecessary for Gray to +order the car stopped; its brakes squealed, it ceased its progress +as abruptly as if its front wheels had fetched up against a stone +wall. + +"Hey! What the--?" + +"Don't try to 'heel' me with your elbow," Gray warned, sharply. +"Now, up with 'em--you know. That's nice." + +The faces of the men were close together. Gray's was blazing, the +driver's was stiff with amazement and stamped with an incredulous +grimace. Paralyzed for the moment with astonishment, he made no +resistance, not even when he felt that long muscular left arm +relax and the hand at the end of it go searching over his pockets. + +Gray was grim, mocking; some vibrant, evil quality to his voice +suggested extreme malignity at full cock, like that unseen weapon +the muzzle of which was buried beneath the driver's short ribs. +"Ah! You go armed, I see. A shoulder holster, as I suspected. I +knew you had nothing on this side." Seizing his victim's +upstretched right hand with his own left, he gave it a sudden +fierce wrench that all but snapped the wrist, and at the same +instant he reached across and snatched the concealed weapon from +its resting place. He flung the chauffeur's body away from him; +there was a sharp click as he swiftly jammed the barrel of the +automatic back and let it fly into place. + +The entire maneuver had been deftly executed, even yet the object +of the assault was speechless. + +"Now then"--the passenger faced about in his seat and showed his +teeth in a smile--"it is customary to permit the condemned to +enjoy the last word. What have you to say for yourself?" + +"I--got this to say. It's a hell of a joke--" the man exploded. + +"Do I act as if I were joking?" + +"If you think it's funny to jab a gun in a man's belly when he +ain't lookin'--" "A gun? My simple friend, you have--or had--the +only gun in this party, and you may thank whatever gods you +worship that you didn't try to use it, for--I would have been +rough with you. Oh, very rough! I might even have made you eat it. +Now, inasmuch as you may be tempted to embellish this story with +some highly imaginary details, I prefer that you know the truth. +This is the 'gun' I used to stick you up." With a rigidly +outthrust thumb Gray prodded the driver in the side. "Simple, +isn't it? And no chance for accidents." The speaker's shoulders +were shaking. + +"Well, I'll be damned!" + +"Not a doubt of it!" chuckled the other. "Especially if you follow +in the course you have chosen. And a similar fate will overtake +your pal, Mallow. By the way, is that his right name?... Never +mind, I know him as Mallow. A shallow, trusting man, and, I hope, +a better judge of diamonds than of character. As for me, I look +deeper than the surface and am seldom deceived in people--witness +your case, for example. I knew you at once for a crook. It might +save you several miles of bad walking to tell me where Mallow is +waiting to high-jack me.... No?" + +"I dunno what you're ravin' about," growled the unhappy owner of +the automobile. "But, believe me, I'll have you pinched for this." + +"How sharper than a serpent's tooth is ingratitude! And what bad +taste to prattle of prosecution. I sha'n't steal your car, it +needs too much overhauling. And I abominate cheap machines. It is +true that I'm one pistol to the good, but in view of the law +against carrying lethal weapons, surely you won't prefer charges +against me for removing it from your person. Oh, not that! It +seems to me that I'm treating you handsomely, for I shall even pay +you the agreed price for this trip, provided only you tell me +where you expect to meet Mr. Mallow." + +"Go to hell!" "Very well. Oblige me now by getting out.... And +make it snappy!" + +The driver did as directed. Gray pocketed the automatic, slipped +in behind the steering wheel, and drove away into the night, +followed by loud and earnest objurgations. + +He was still smiling cheerfully when, a mile farther on, he +brought the car to a stop and clambered out. Passing forward into +the illumination of the headlights, he busied himself there for +several moments before resuming his journey. + +For the first time in a long while Calvin Gray was thoroughly enjoying +himself. Here was an enterprise with all the possibilities of a +first-class adventure, and of the sort, moreover, that he was +peculiarly qualified to cope with. It possessed enough hazard to lend +it the requisite zest, it was sufficiently unusual to awaken his +keenest interest; he experienced an agreeable exaltation of spirit, +but no misgivings whatever as to the outcome, for he held the +commanding cards. Little remained, it seemed to him, except to play +them carefully and to take the tricks as they fell. He had not the +slightest notion of permitting Mallow to lay hands upon that case of +jewels. + +There was no mistaking the road, but Gray did not bother to stick +to the main-traveled course when detours or short cuts promised +better going, for he knew full well that Mallow would be waiting, +if at all, in some place he was bound to pass. It was an ideal +country for a holdup; lonely and lawless. Derrick lights twinkled +over the mesquite tops, and occasionally the flaming red mouth of +some boiler gaped at him, or the foliage was illuminated by the +glare of gas flambeaux--vertical iron pipes at the ends of which +the surplus from neighboring wells was consumed in what seemed a +reckless wastage. Occasionally, too, a belated truck thundered +past, but the traffic was pretty thin. + +At last, however, he beheld some distance ahead the white glare of +two stationary lights. The road was narrow and sandy here, and +shut in by banks of underbrush; as he drew nearer a figure stepped +out and stood in silhouette until his own lights picked it up. The +figure waved its arms, and called attention to the car behind--evidently +broken down. Here, then, the drama was to be played. + +Gray brought his machine on at such a pace and so close to the man +in the road that the latter was forced to step aside, then he +swung it far to the right, brought it back with a quick twist of +the steering wheel, and killed his motor. He was now in the ditch +and outside the blinding glare of the opposing headlights; the +stalled machine was in the full illumination of his own lamps. + +Contrary to Gray's expectations, the car in the road was empty and +the man who had hailed him was a stranger. As the latter +approached, he inquired: + +"What's wrong?" + +"Out of gas, I guess. Anyhow--I--" The speaker noted that there +was but one new arrival, where he had expected two, and the +discovery appeared to nonplus him momentarily. He stammered, +involuntarily he turned his head. + +Gray looked in the same direction, but without changing his +position, and out of the corner of his eye he glimpsed a new +figure emerging from the shadows behind him. Very clever! But, at +least, his unexpected maneuver with his own car had made it +necessary for both men to approach him from the same side. + +While the first stranger continued to mumble, Gray sat motionless, +keenly conscious, meanwhile, of that other presence closing in +upon him from the rear. He simulated a violent start when a second +voice cried: + +"Don't move. I've got you covered." + +"My God!" Gray twisted about in his seat and exposed a startled +countenance. A masked man was standing close to the left running +board, and he held a revolver near Gray's head; the apparition +appeared to paralyze the unhappy traveler, for he still tightly +clutched the steering wheel with both hands. + +"Just sit still." The cloth of the mask blew outward as the words +issued; through the slits two malevolent eyes gleamed. "Act +pretty, and you won't get hurt." + +"Why! It's--it's Mr. _Mallow_!" Gray hitched himself farther +around in his seat and leaned forward in justifiable amazement. +"As I live it's you, Mallow!" Both highwaymen were in front of +him, now, and shoulder to shoulder; he made sure there were no +others behind them. + +"Shut up!" Mallow snapped. "Frisk him, Tony, and--" + +The command was cut short by a startled, throaty cry--a hoarse +sound of astonishment and rage--and simultaneously a strange, a +phenomenal thing occurred. An unseen hand appeared to strike down +both Mallow and his accomplice where they stood, and it smote +them, moreover, with appalling force and terrifying effect. One +moment they were in complete mastery of the situation, the next +they were groveling in the road, coughing, sneezing, barking, +retching, blaspheming poisonously. Baffled fury followed their +first surprise. Mallow tore the mask from his face and groped +blindly for the weapon he had dropped, but before he could recover +it, pain mastered him and he fell back, clawing at himself, +rubbing at his eyes that had been stricken sightless. He yelled. +Tony yelled. Then upon the startled night there burst a duet of +squeals and curses, a hideous medley of mingled pain and fright, +at once terrifying and unnatural. Both bandits appeared to be in +paroxysms of agony; from Tony issued sounds that might have issued +from the throat of a woman in deadly fear and excruciating +torment; Mallow's face had been partially protected, hence he was +the lesser sufferer; nevertheless, his eyes were boiling in their +sockets, his lungs were ablaze, ungovernable convulsions ran over +him. + +The men understood vaguely what had afflicted them, for they had +seen Gray lift one hand from the wheel, and out of that hand they +had seen a stream of liquid, or a jet of aqueous vapor, leap. It +was too close to dodge. It had sprung directly into their faces, +vaporizing as it came, and at its touch, at the first scent of its +fumes, their legs had collapsed, their eyes had tightly closed, +and every cell in their outraged bodies had rebelled. It was as if +acid had been dashed upon them, destroying in one blinding instant +all power for evil. With every breath, now, a new misery smote them. +But worse than this torture was the monstrous nature of their +afflictions. It was mysterious, horrible; they believed themselves +to be dying and screamed in abysmal terror of the unknown. + +Gray squeezed again the rubber bulb that he had carried in his +hand these last several miles, ejecting from it the last few drops +of its contents, then he opened the car door, stepped out of it +and stood over his strangling victims. He kicked Mallow's revolver +off the road, and, holding his breath, relieved the other high- +jacker of his weapon. This he flung after the first, then he +withdrew himself a few paces and lighted a cigarette, for a raw, +pungent odor offended his nostrils. Both of the bawling bandits +reeked of it, but their plight left him indifferent. They reminded +him of a pair of horses he had seen disemboweled by a bursting +shell, but he felt much less pity for them. + +His lack of concern made itself felt finally. Mallow, who was the +first to show signs of recovery, struggled to his feet and clawed +blindly toward the automobile. He clung to it, sick and shaking; +profanely he appealed for aid. + +"So! It _is_ Mr. Mallow," Gray said. "Fancy meeting you here!" + +A stream of incoherencies issued from the wretched object of this +mockery. Tony, the other man, stifled his groans, rose to his +knees, and, with his hands clasped over his eyes, shuffled slowly +away, as if to escape the sound of Gray's voice. + +"Better quiet down and let me do something at once, if you wish +to save your sight," the latter suggested. "Otherwise I won't +answer for the result. And you needn't tell me how it hurts. I +know." This proffer of aid appeared to throw the sufferers into +new depths of dismay. They called to him in the name of God. They +were harmless, now, and anyhow they had intended to do him no +bodily harm. They implored him to lend succor or to put them out +of their distress. + +Gray fell to work promptly. The bottle of cream he had begged from +Ma Briskow he now put to use. With this soothing liquid he first +washed out their eyes, the membranes of which were raw and spongy, +and excruciatingly sensitive to light, then he bandaged them as +best he could with compresses, wet in it. + +"You'll breathe easier as time goes on," he announced. "You'll +cough a good deal for a few days, but where you are going that +won't disturb anybody. Your eyes will get well, too, if you take +care of them as I direct. But, meanwhile, let me warn you against +lifting those bandages. Advise me as they dry out and I'll wet +them again." + +A blessed relief stole over the unfortunate pair; they were still +sick and weak, but in a short time the acuteness of their +suffering had diminished sufficiently for Gray to help them into +the back seat of his car and resume his journey. + +Sarcastically he referred to the sample case on the tonneau floor. +"If those diamonds are in your way, I'll take them in front with +me. If not, I'll ask you to keep an eye on them--or, let us say, +keep a foot on them. If you should be foolish enough to heave them +overboard or try to renew your assault upon me, I would be tempted +to break this milk bottle. In that event, my dear Mallow, you'd go +through life with a tin cup in your hand and a dog on a string." + +Tony groaned in abject misery of body and soul. Mallow cursed +feebly. + +"What--is that devilish stuff?" the latter queried. It was plain +from his voice that he meditated no treachery. "Oh! I was going +to tell you. It is a product of German ingenuity, designed, I +believe, for the purpose of quelling riotous and insurrectionary +prisoners. It was efficacious, also, in taking pill boxes and +clearing out dug-outs and the like. With some care one is safe in +using it in an ordinary ammonia gun--the sort policemen use on mad +dogs. Forgive me, if I say that you have demonstrated its utility +in peace as well as in war. If there were more high-jackers in the +world the device might be commercialized at some profit; but, +alas, my good Mallow, your profession is not a common one." + +"Cut out the kidding," Mallow growled, then he fell into a new +convulsion of coughing. The car proceeded for some time to the +tune of smothered complaints from the miserable figures bouncing +upon the rear seat before Gray said: "I fear you are a selfish +pair of rascals. Have you no concern regarding the fate of the +third member of your treasure-hunting trio?" Evidently they had +none. "Too bad! It's a good story." + +Whatever their indifference to the welfare of the chauffeur, they +still had some curiosity as to their own, for Mallow asked: + +"What are you going to do with us?" + +"What would you do, if you were in my place?" + +"I'd--listen to reason." + +"Meaning--?" + +"Hell! You know what he means," Tony cried, feebly. + +"So! You do me the honor to offer a bribe." Gray laughed. "Pardon +my amusement. It sounds callous, I know, but, frankly, your +unhappy condition fails to distress me. Well, how much do you +offer?" + +"All we got. A coupla thousand." + +"A temptation, truly." + +Mallow addressed his companion irritably. "Have a little sense. He +don't need money." + +Calvin Gray had never been more pleased with himself than now, for +matters had worked out almost exactly according to plan, a +compliment indeed to his foresight and to his executive ability. +He loved excitement, he lived upon it, and much of his life had +been devoted to the stage-management of sensational exploits like +this one. As a boy plays with a toy, so did Gray amuse himself +with adventure, and now he was determined to exact from this one +the last particle of enjoyment and whatever profit it afforded. + +Within a few minutes of his arrival at Ranger, the town was noisy +with the story, for he drove down the brightly lighted main street +and stopped in front of the most populous cafe. There he called +loudly for a policeman, and when the latter elbowed his way +through the crowd, Gray told him, in plain hearing of all, enough +of his experience to electrify everybody. He told the story well; +he even made known the value of his diamond stock; mercilessly he +pilloried the two blindfolded bandits. When he drove to the jail +the running boards of his car were jammed with inquisitive +citizens, and those who could not find footing thereon followed at +a run, laughing, shouting, acclaiming him and jeering at his +prisoners. + +Having surrendered custody of the latter, he dressed their eyes +once more and explained the sort of care they required, then he +made an appeal from the front steps of the jail, adjuring the mob +to disperse quietly and permit the law to take its course. + +Nothing like this had occurred during the brief, busy life of the +town. It was a dramatic incident, but the manner in which this +capable stranger had handled it and the discomfiture he had +brought upon his assailants appealed more to the risibilities than +to the anger of Ranger. Admiration for him displaced indignation +at the high-jackers; cries for vengeance upon them were drowned in +noisy appreciation of their captor. Gray became a popular +character; men clamored to shake his hand, and complimented him +upon his nerve. The editor of the local newspaper dragged him, +protesting, to the office and there interviewed him. Gray was +covered with confusion. Reluctantly he made known his identity, +and retold the whole story of his trip, this time beginning at his +meeting with Coverly in Dallas. He displayed the bewildering +contents of his sample case, now guarded by a uniformed arm of the +law, and explained how he had volunteered his services out of pure +love of adventure, then how he had played into Mallow's hands +while aware of his malign purpose at all times. + +This was more than a local story; it was big enough for the wire. +Gray sat at the editor's elbow while that enthusiastic gentleman +called Dallas and gave it to the papers there. + +He was escorted to the railroad station by an admiring crowd; he +was cheered as he passed, smiling, into his Pullman car. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +Coverly was at the station when Gray's train arrived at Dallas the +next morning. He was suffering intense excitement, and he deluged +his friend with a flood of questions, meanwhile flourishing the +morning papers, all of which appeared to have devoted much space +to the Ranger episode. He hugged Gray, and he pumped his hand; he +laughed and he chattered; he insisted upon hearing the whole story +without delay. On their way uptown, the returning hero gave it to +him, together with Gus Briskow's check. + +At the size of the latter Coverly gasped. "Didn't I say you were a +good salesman? And Mallow! You got him, didn't you? I _told_ you +he was a crook. Just the same, old man, you ran a terrible risk +and I feel mighty guilty. Why, those fellows would have killed +you." + +"Probably." + +"Why didn't you take along a policeman or somebody?" + +"And miss all the fun? Miss my pay for the trip? I agreed to take +my commission in thrills." + +The jeweler was frankly curious. "Weren't you frightened?" + +"Frightened? No." Gray shook his head. "I've never been really +afraid of anything or anybody, so far as I recall. I've never been +able to understand the necessity of being frightened. I dare say +the capacity for enjoying that particular emotion was omitted from +my make-up--the result of some peculiar prenatal influence, +probably. I'm sorry, too, for fear must have a fascination and I +like unusual sensations." + +"Speaking of your commissions, how am I going to pay you--not for +the sale you made, although I wouldn't have done as well, but for +the loss you saved the firm and for the risk you ran?" + +Gray felt a momentary desire to have done with pretense, to +confess his true condition and to beg not only a suitable reward +for his services, but also as large a loan as Coverly could spare. +It is hard to maintain an attitude of opulence on less than +nothing; it would be so much easier to have done with this +counterfeit gesture and trust to a straightforward appeal. But he +dared not yield to the impulse. + +"You may give me anything you see fit," he declared, "and I +sha'n't embarrass you by refusing. On the contrary, go as strongly +as you possibly can." + +Coverly actually appeared to be relieved at this statement, but he +inquired, curiously: "What have you got up your sleeve? You don't +need money." + +"Obviously not. But I know a needy object of charity; a worthy +case, I assure you. I can scarcely call him a friend, but I used +to admire him greatly, and he is still an agreeable companion--a +man at once capable, extravagant, entertaining, dissipated. He is +in a bad way, temporarily, and can scarcely afford even the bare +necessities of life. It is only with my help, in fact, that he +maintains its luxuries. Your money shall go to him, and with every +dollar of it that he squanders, there shall arise an earnest +orison to you." + +The jeweler was delighted. "Good!" he cried. "I detest the +deserving poor as heartily as you do. And now I'd like to open a +bottle of champagne with our breakfast." + +On the very day that the new sign, "Tom and Bob Parker," went up +over the door of the insurance office at Wichita Falls, the junior +partner announced: + +"Well, dad, the firm gets busy at once. I'm off for Dallas to- +night." + +"What for?" Tom was dismayed by such a prompt manifestation of +energy. "I'll have to tell you--" Barbara perched herself upon +her father's desk and began speaking with a note of excitement in +her voice. "I heard Henry Nelson was in town, so I went to the +bank this morning to see him. He's such a big man in the oil +business I thought he might help me. He was there, but in +conference with his father and another man. There were several +people waiting, so I sat down. When the man they were talking to +came out, it was Pete, that driller who put down the first well +for us. He was glad to see me, and we had quite a talk, but I +noticed he was fidgety. He said he was running a rig over near +'Burk,' and had a fishing job on his hands. With all the +excitement and everybody running double 'towers' and trying to +beat the other fellow down to the sand, it struck me as queer that +a contract driller like Pete would be here in Wichita in +conference with Bell and Henry Nelson, when he ought to be out on +the lease fishing for a lost bit. It didn't sound right. The more +I got out of him, the queerer it sounded, for he had all the +fishing tools he needed, so I accused him of being a fraud. I told +him I'd bet he had a showing of oil and was trying to borrow money +to buy the offset or to get the Nelsons to buy it and carry him +for an interest." + +"Where'd you pick up this lingo?" Tom inquired. "You talk like +them wild men at the Westland Hotel." + +Barbara laughed delightedly. "Didn't I put down all our shallow +wells? If I didn't, I thought I did. Anyhow, I spent most of my +time around the rigs and Pete used to call me his boss. Well, that +wretched man turned all colors when I accused him, and tried to +'shush' me. He said I mustn't talk about things I knew nothing +about--somebody might overhear me. He declared the outfit he was +working for were no good and wouldn't pay a driller a bonus if he +made a well for them. He was sick of making other people rich and +getting nothing for himself.... It was time the drilling crews +shared in the profits.... He'd see that nobody froze him out again +if he had to spoil the hole. He wound up by denying everything, +and I pretended to swallow it, but when he had gone I went over my +maps and located the lease where he's drilling. Three of the +adjoining tracts are owned by the big companies, so that +eliminated them, but the twenty to the west belongs to Knute +Hoaglund. Henry was glad to see me when my turn came to go in, +and--" + +"I bet he was glad," Tom declared. + +Barbara's smooth cheeks flushed faintly. "He is too busy and too +rich to--think about girls." + +"He wasn't too busy and too rich to inquire about you 'most every +day since he got back from the war." + +"I didn't forget to call him 'Colonel,' and that pleased both him +and Bell. Then I told them that I proposed to become a rich and +successful oil operator and wanted their advice how to begin. Old +Bell was amused, but Henry--I beg pardon, _Colonel_--Nelson was +shocked. He couldn't bear to think of women, and of me especially, +in business. He might have become disagreeably personal if his +father hadn't been there." + +"Dunno's I care much for Henry," Tom said, mildly. + +"Oh, he's all right, but--I _hate_ Bell! It makes anybody mad to +be laughed at. Henry was more diplomatic. He tried to convince me +that the oil game is altogether a man's business and that no woman +could succeed at it. 'It is a contest of wits,' he explained. +'You've got to outguess the other fellow. You've got to know +everything he's doing and keep him from knowing anything you're +doing. The minute he knows as much as you do, he's got it on you.' +That seemed to prove to Henry that no woman could win at it, for +men are such superior creatures. They know so much more than a +woman can possibly learn; their wits are so much keener! + +"I was duly impressed. I asked him to call this evening, for I did +so wish to have him teach me what little I was capable of +learning. But he couldn't come, because he had been called to +Dallas, unexpectedly. That was my cue. In my most sweetly girlish +manner I said: 'Oh, indeed! Do you expect to see Knute Hoaglund while +you're there?'" + +Two hectic spots had come into "Bob's" cheeks during this recital; +she was teetering upon the desk now like a nodding Japanese doll, +and her blue eyes were dancing. + +"I heard Old Bell's chair creak and I saw him shoot a quick glance +at Henry. Henry admitted, casually, that he might drop in on +Knute. Why?" + +"'You'll be wasting time,' I told him, even more sweetly, 'for dad +and I have that twenty west of Burkburnett.' + +"_Well!_ You'd have thought I had stuck a hatpin into Bell. And +Henry's mouth actually dropped open. Think of it: Colonel Henry +Nelson, the hero of Whatever-it-is, with his imperial mouth open +and nothing coming out of it--not even the imperial breath!" + +"Bob" rocked backward and kicked up her neatly shod feet; she +hugged herself and snickered with a malicious enjoyment not wholly +Christian-like. + +"But--we 'ain't even got an option! It takes _money_ to lease +close-in stuff." Tom was bewildered. + +"Of course. And they realized that, or Bell did, as soon as he'd +had time to collect himself. But it was too late then; he had +betrayed himself and he knew it. Oh, he was sore! He'd have flung +me out if I'd been a man. I got mad, too, and I told him it made +no real difference whether I was bluffing or not; the jig was up, +so far as he was concerned. I reminded him of what Henry had just +said--that the oil business is a game of wits, and that when you +know what the other fellow is doing you have him licked. I +admitted that he could probably keep me from getting the lease, +but I could also keep him from getting it. Bell nearly had a +stroke at that threat. Henry behaved very decently throughout. I +think it must have pleased him to find that somebody in Wichita, +besides him, had the courage to defy his father; anyhow, he said, +'"Bob" has beaten us at our own game. She knows enough now to +place that lease in half an hour, and I think we'd better take +her in. Otherwise she'll wire Knute, and he'll probably protect +her for an interest.' + +"That made me feel awfully fraudulent, but his smarty remarks +about women in the oil business still rankled, so I just sat +pretty and blinked like a little owl. Bell swore. In his best and +most horrible manner, he swore, but--he gave in." "Bob" laughed +again, a bit hysterically. "That's about all, dad. They agreed to +put up the money and carry me--us, I mean--for a quarter interest +if I can get the lease from Knute Hoaglund. So, I'm leaving on the +night train." + +"Son! I--I'm darned if I don't believe we'll make a go of this +business," Tom Parker declared. + +With a little cry Barbara flung herself into his arms. +* * * * * + +The publicity Calvin Gray received from his exploit at Ranger could be +nothing except agreeable to one of his temperament. Gratefully he +basked in his notoriety, meanwhile continuing assiduously to cultivate +the moneyed men of Dallas. His sudden leap into prominence aroused +curiosity among the wives and families of the latter, and he became +the recipient of some social attentions. He accepted every invitation, +and so well did he carry himself in company, so ornamental and +engaging was he as a dinner guest, that he was soon in great +demand. He possessed accomplishments, too, that increased the respect +of his masculine acquaintances. For instance, he displayed a +proficiency at golf quite unusual in men of athletic training, and +they argued that any man who could do par whenever he felt like it +must be either a professional or a person of limitless leisure. And +limitless leisure means limitless funds. + +Gray studiously maintained his air of financial mystery; he was in +and out of offices, always purposeful, always in a hurry, but +always with sufficient time to observe the strictest niceties of +polite behavior. It was a part of his plan to create an atmosphere +of his own, to emphasize his knack for quick, decisive, well- +calculated action. The money he received from Coverly enabled him +to maintain the posture he had assumed; he spent it with his usual +prodigality, receiving little direct benefit, but making each +dollar look like four. Extravagance with him was an art, money ran +out of his pockets like water, but although he was already in a +position to borrow, he did not do so. He merely marked time, +deriving a grim amusement at the way his popularity grew as his +currency dwindled. It was a game, enjoyable so long as it lasted. +Egotistical he knew himself to be, but it was a conscious fault; +to tickle his own vanity filled him with the same satisfaction a +cat feels at having its back rubbed, and he excused himself by +reasoning that his deceit harmed nobody. Meanwhile, with feline +alertness he waited for a mouse to appear. + +He was relieved one day to receive a telegram from Gus Briskow +asking him to meet Ma and Allie at the evening train and "get them +a hotel." He managed to secure a good suite at the Ajax, and it +was with genuinely pleasurable anticipation that he drove to the +station. + +Dismay smote him, however, at first sight of the new arrivals. Ma +Briskow resembled nothing so much as one of those hideous "crayon +enlargements" he had seen in farmhouses--atrocities of an art long +dead--for she was clad in an old-fashioned basque and skirt of +some stiff, near-silk material, and her waist, which buttoned far +down the front and terminated in deep points, served merely to +roof over but not to conceal a peculiarity of figure which her +farm dress had mercifully hidden. Gray discovered that Ma's body, +alas! bore a quaint resemblance in outline to a gourd. A tiny +black bonnet, with a wide surcingle of ribbon tied under her chin, +was ornamented with a sort of centerpiece built of rigid +artificial fruit and flowers. Her hair, in brave defiance of +current styles, was rolled into a high pompadour. Beneath that +pompadour, however, her face was aglow with interest and her eyes +gleamed almost as brightly as did the brand-new lavalliere and the +bar pin with its huge six-carat center diamond. + +If the mother's appearance was unusual, the daughter's was +startling, what with her size and the barbaric latitude of color +she had indulged herself in. Allegheny's get-up screamed. In the +general store at Cisco, whence it had originated, it had doubtless +been considered a sport costume, for there was a skirt of huge +blue and white checks, a crepe waist of burnt orange, and over +that a vegetable-silk sweater, with the broadest, greenest stripes +Gray had ever seen. A violent, offensive green, it was; and the +sweater was too tight. Her hat was large and floppy and adorned +with preposterous purple blooms; one of her hands was gloved, but +upon the other she wore her splendid solitaire. She "shone" it, as +a watchman shines his flashlight. + +They were enough to daunt a stronger man than Calvin Gray, these +two. He could well imagine the sensation he and they would create in +the lobby of the modish Ajax. But his first surprise was succeeded by +a gentle pity, for Ma Briskow greeted him rapturously, and in +Allegheny's somber eyes he detected a look of mingled suffering and +defiance. She knew, somehow or other, that she was conspicuous, +grotesque, and her soul was in agony at the knowledge. Before he had +spoken a half dozen words to her, Gray realized that this girl was in +torture, and that it had required a magnificent courage on her part to +meet him as bravely as she did. He was ashamed of himself; amusement +at their expense did him no credit, and he determined to relieve her +pain and to help her attain the likeness of other women if it was in +his power to do so. It was a tribute to his inherent chivalry that he +rose to the occasion and welcomed the women with a cordiality that +warmed their hearts. Enthusiastically he took charge of Ma's lunch +basket; against Allie's muttered protest he despoiled her of her +bilious, near-leather suitcase; he complimented them upon their +appearance and showed such pleasure at seeing them again that they +surrendered gratefully to him. By the time he had them in a taxicab +they were as talkative as a pair of magpies. + +Of course, they had to know all about the holdup, and his manner +of telling the story made them feel that they had played an +important part in it. Arrived at the hotel, he swept them along +with him so swiftly that they had no time in which to become +dismayed or self-conscious, and finally he deposited them in their +rooms quite out of breath and quite delighted. He left them +palpitating with excitement at the wonders he proposed unfolding +for them on the morrow. + +Allie answered his phone call about eight o'clock the next +morning. + +"Ready for breakfast?" he inquired. + +"Why, we et at daylight," she told him, in some astonishment. "I +been ridin' since then." + +"Indeed! Putting roses in your cheeks, eh? With whom did you go?" + +"Oh, one of the elevator men." + +"B--but--" Gray sputtered, deeply shocked. "Why, Miss Briskow, +they're _negroes!_ Riding with a nigger! My heavens! Where did you +go?" + +"Nowhere. Just up and down." + +It was a moment before the man could speak, then he said, in a +queerly repressed voice: "That--is quite different. I'll run down +and get a bite and join you in no time." + +"Seems awful funny not to have any housework to do in the +morning," Ma Briskow confessed, as they left the Ajax. "A hotel +would spoil me in no time." + +"I couldn't keep her from makin' up the beds," Allie announced. + +Gray took the elder woman's hand in his and scolded her gently. +Smilingly, he lectured her on the art of doing nothing, and voiced +some elemental truths about living. + +"Mr. Briskow has but one idea, and that is to surround you two, +and Buddy, with the advantages and luxuries you have been denied," +he reminded her. "You owe it to him to get the most out of your +money, and you mustn't begin by making hotel beds and robbing some +poor woman of her livelihood. Not one person in ten really knows how +to live, for it isn't an easy task, and the saddest thing about the +newly rich is that they won't learn. They refuse to enjoy their +wealth. I propose to help you good people get started, if you'll +permit me. It is not with contrition, but with pride, that I +recommend myself to you as one of the greatest living authorities +upon extravagance, idleness, and the minor vices of the prosperous." + +The mother nodded, a bit vaguely. "That's kind of like Pa talks. +He sent you this, and says to tell you it's our first spendin' +spree and act accordin'." From her pocket she drew a folded check, +made out in blank to Calvin Gray and signed by Gus Briskow. + +"So! I assume that I'm to pay the bills. Very well. The sky is the +limit, eh?" + +"That's it. Of course, I don't need anything for myself--this +dress and bunnit are good enough--but Allie's got to have new +fixin's, from the inside out. I s'pose her things'll eat up the +best part of a hundred dollars, won't they?" The speaker's look of +worried inquiry bespoke a lifetime of habitual economy. + +"We're not going to buy what you _need_, but what you want. You're +going to have just as many pretty things as Allie." + +Ma was panic-stricken at this suggestion. When Gray insisted she +demurred; when he told her that one nice dress would cost at least +a hundred dollars, she confessed: + +"Why, I don't s'pose all the clo's I've had since I was married +cost much more 'n that." + +"I'll spend at least a thousand on you before noon," he laughed. + +Mrs. Briskow gasped, she rolled her eyes and fanned herself; she +appealed to Allegheny, but it was evident that the latter had kept +her eyes open and had done some thinking, for she broke out, +passionately: "You make me sick, Ma! It'll take all Pa can +afford, and then some, to make us look like other people. I never +knew how plumb ridic'lous we are till--" + +"Not that," Gray protested. + +"You _know_ we're ridic'lous," she cried, fiercely. "We're a +couple of sow's ears and all Pa's royalties can't make us into +silk purses. But--mebbe we can manage to look like silk, if we +spend enough." + +Gray determined that the girl should not be disappointed if he +could help it, so he went directly to the head saleswoman of the +first store, and asked her to assume the role of counselor where +circumstance compelled him to relinquish it, explaining that in +addition to hats, gowns, shoes, and the like, both Ma and Allie +needed a variety of confidential apparel with which he had only +the vaguest acquaintance. Although the woman agreed to his +request, he found before long that his trust in her had been +misplaced. Not only did she threaten to take advantage of her +customers' ignorance, but also, to Gray's anger, she displayed a +poorly veiled contempt for and amusement at his charges. + +Allegheny was not long in feeling this. She had entered the +establishment aquiver with hope and anticipation. This was her +great adventure. She was like a timid child, enraptured at sight +of its first tinseled Christmas tree; to have that ecstacy +spoiled, to see the girl's tenderest sensibilities wounded by a +haughty clerk, enraged the man who played Santa Claus. Abruptly he +resumed charge of the Briskow purchases, and it gave him a pang to +note how Allegheny ran to him with her hurt, as it were. + +But matters did not progress as well as he had expected. Allie's +disappointment at the death of her dream she hid under an +assumption of indifference; she merely pawed over the pretty +things shown her and pretended to ignore the ridicule she and her +mother excited. But her face was stony, her eyes were hopeless, +miserable. + +For once in his life Calvin Gray was at a loss, and knowledge of +that fact caused him to chew savagely at his cigar. To his bewildered +companions he remained enthusiastic, effervescent, but behind their +backs he glowered at the well-groomed customers and cursed the +snickering models who paraded their wares. Engaged thus, he became +aware of a stranger who looked on at the pitiful little comedy without +amusement. She was a pretty thing. Gray stared at her openly and his +scowl vanished. When she moved away, he made a sudden decision, excused +himself, and followed her. + +He was gratified at the manner in which she accepted his +breathless apology for speaking to her, at the poise with which +she listened while he made himself and his companions known to her +and explained the plight in which he found himself. + +"You can save the reason of a distracted man and add to the +happiness of two poor, bewildered women, if you will," he +concluded, earnestly. "It isn't a funny situation; it's tragic." + +"What do you wish me to do?" the girl inquired. + +"It's a lot to ask, I know, but won't you help them buy the things +they need and save them from further humiliation at the hands of +these highbrow clerks and lowbrow customers? I--I want to punch +somebody in the nose." + +"I was sure you did. That is what attracted my attention." + +"You are a person of taste, if you will pardon a perfectly obvious +compliment from a total stranger, and they need such a woman's +guidance. But they need, even more, a little bit of feminine tact +and sympathy. Look!" He showed Gus Briskow's blank check. "The +whole store is theirs, if they wish it. Think what that ought to +mean to two poor starved creatures who have never owned enough +clothing to wad a shotgun." + +"The girl is stunning. All she needs is the right sort of things +--" + +Impulsively Gray seized the speaker's hand. "I _knew_ it!" he +cried. "I can choose gowns for her, but how can I tell her the +sort of--well, corsets she ought to wear? How can I select for her +things a bachelor is presumed to know nothing about? Haven't you +an hour or two in which to play Fairy Godmother?" + +"I have all day," the young woman confessed. "I merely came in to +yearn over the pretty things." + +"O messenger from Heaven!" he cried, more hopefully. "Would it +appear presumptuous if I asked you, in return for this favor, to +select the very prettiest gown in this shop for your very own?" + +The offer was refused pleasantly, but firmly. "I'd be paid ten +times over by the fun of spending oodles of money even if it were +not my own. But would they consent to have a stranger--?" + +"If you will permit a tiny deceit, I'm sure they will. I shall +burden my conscience with a white lie and pretend that you are a +friend to whose judgment I have appealed. My poor conscience is +scandalously overburdened, but--that girl is suffering!" + +"I thought they must have struck oil. I've seen others like them." + +Without further ado, Gray hurried his new acquaintance back to the +dress department, then, in his easiest manner, introduced her to +the Briskows. She flashed him a look of amusement as he glibly +made her known as "Miss Good." He had invited Miss Good to join +their picnic immediately upon hearing that Ma and Allie were +coming to Dallas, and she had been overjoyed. Miss Good, as they +could see, possessed unerring good taste, but what was more, she +had a real genius for finding bargains. As a bargain hunter Miss +Good was positively unique. + +Ma Briskow pricked up her ears at this, soon she and the newcomer +had their heads together, and within a few minutes Gray realized +that his experiment was a success. The stranger possessed +enthusiasm, but it was coupled with common sense, and before her +sunshiny smile even Allegheny's sullen distrust slowly began to +thaw. She drew Gray aside finally, and said: "It's all right. They're +perfect dears, and, now, the best thing you can do is to take yourself +off." + +He agreed promptly, but cautioned her against economy. "That +bargain-hunting remark was only a bait. Remember, Gus Briskow +wants them to have everything, and be everything they should be, +regardless of expense. Why, both he and I would like nothing +better than to have Allegheny look like you, if that were +possible." + +Miss Good eyed the speaker curiously. "Who are you?" she inquired. +"What are these nesters to you?" + +"I am nobody. They were kind to me and I'm interested in their +future." + +"Are you a fortune hunter, Mr. Gray?" + +"I am." Gray's face instantly lighted. "I am the most +conscienceless fortune hunter you ever met, but--I am hunting my +own fortune, not Allie Briskow's." + +"You needn't laugh. She's very--unusual and--But I dare say you +wouldn't tell me, anyhow." + +"If I have excited your curiosity, I am delighted," Gray declared. +"Please let me return at lunch time and gratify it. I promise to +talk upon that subject which every man can discuss to best +advantage--himself--and I pledge myself not to ask one single +question about you, Miss Good. Not one--" He bowed ceremoniously +over her hand. "Although, as you can imagine, I'm dying to ask a +thousand." + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +The luncheon hour was long in arriving, and when it did come +around Calvin Gray regretted that he had elected to play a game of +make-believe with "Miss Good," for she rigidly held him to his +promise, and however adroitly he undertook to ascertain who or +what she was, she foiled him. It gave her a mischievous pleasure +to evade his carefully laid conversational traps, and what little +he learned came from Ma Briskow. Briefly, it amounted to this: +Miss Good was what the elder woman called "home folks," but she +had been schooled in the East. Moreover, she was in the oil +business. This last bit of intelligence naturally intrigued the +man, and he undertook to gain further illumination, but only to +have the girl pretend that he knew all about it. He accepted this +checkmate with the best possible grace, but revenged himself by +assuming the airs and privileges of a friend more intimate even +than Miss Good had implied, a pretense that confused and even +annoyed her. For some reason this counterfeit pleased him; it was +extremely agreeable even to pretend a close acquaintance with this +girl. + +The luncheon went off gaily enough, then Gray was again banished +with instructions to return at closing time. + +"You took a mean, a malicious advantage of an offer intended only +to spare your feelings. And you haven't any," he told Miss Good +when they had a chance for a word alone. + +"I have no feelings?" + +"None. Or you'd see that I'm perishing of curiosity." + +She shook her head, and her blue eyes laughed at him provokingly. +"Curiosity is fatal only to cats. It is good for people." + +"I shall find out all about you." + +"How?" + +"By cross-examining the Briskows, perhaps." + +"But they're waiting to have you tell them what you know. I've +seen to that." + +"If they ask any questions, I'll invent a story. I'll act +confused, self-conscious. I'll make them think you are a much +dearer friend than I have pretended, so far; dearer, even, than I +can hope you ever will be." + +"That wouldn't be fair." + +"There are occasions when everything is fair. Perhaps these store +people know something--" + +"Nothing whatever." + +"Then, for Heaven's sake, release me from my pledge!" Gray spoke +desperately. "When I return, permit me to ask those thousand +questions, and what others occur to me. Won't you?" + +The girl pondered this request briefly, then smiled. "Very well. +If you are still curious, when you see me, I'll tell you who I +am." + +"A bargain! I'll be back early." More seriously, Gray declared: "I +must tell you right now how perfectly splendid I think you are. +You have completely renewed my belief in human kindness, and I'm +sure your name must be Miss Good." + +But a disappointment awaited Calvin Gray when, late that +afternoon, he returned to the store. Miss Good had gone. At first +he refused to believe Ma Briskow's statement, but it was true: she +had disappeared as quietly and as unobtrusively as she had +appeared, and, what was more annoying, she had left no word +whatever for him. This was practical joking, for a certainty, and +Gray told himself that he abhorred practical jokes. It was a jolt +to his pride to have his attentions thus ignored, but what irked +him most was the fact that he was stopped, by reason of his +deceit, from making any direct inquiries that might lead to a +further acquaintance with the girl. + +Mrs. Briskow, however, was in no condition either to note his dismay +or to volunteer information upon any except one subject; to wit, corns. +Human hearts were of less concern to her, for the time being, than +human feet, and hers were killing her. She began a recital of her +sufferings, as intimate, as agonizing, and as confidential as if Gray +were a practicing chiropodist. What she had to say about tight shoes +was bitter in the extreme; she voiced a gloomy conviction that the +alarming increase in suicides was due to bunions. The good woman +confessed that she dearly loved finery and had bought right and left +with reckless extravagance, but all the merchandise in this department +store was not worth the anguish she had endured this day. With her +stiff little bonnet tilted carelessly over her wrinkled forehead, she +declared emphatically that she would gladly swap all her purchases at +this moment for a tub of hot water. + +"Where is Allie?" Gray inquired. + +"Lord knows! She's som'eres around bein' worked over by a couple +of women. Gettin' her hair washed an' her finger nails cured an' I +dunno what not. Mercy me! The things Miss Good had 'em do to her! +An' the money we've spent! Allie's gone hog wild." The complaint +ended in a stifled moan induced perhaps by some darting pain, then +without further ado Ma Briskow unbuttoned one shoe and removed +it. "Whew!" She leaned back in her chair, wiggled her stockinged +toes, and feebly fanned herself. "But wait till you see her. I +can't scarcely reco'nize my own flesh an' blood. I never seen such +a change in a human person." + +Gray pretended to listen as the good woman babbled on, but he was +thinking about the girl who had disappeared. He was surprised at +the keenness of his chagrin. He had seen Miss Good but a short +time, and she had made no effort whatever to excite his interest; +nevertheless, she remained a tantalizingly vivid picture in his +mind. It was extraordinary. + +So engrossed was he in his thoughts that he did not notice +Allegheny Briskow until she stood close beside him. Then, indeed, he +experienced a shock, for it was difficult to recognize in this handsome, +modish young woman the awkward, ill-dressed country girl he had seen at +noon. Allie was positively stunning. She was completely transformed from +the soles of her well-shod feet to the tip of her French coiffure, and +what was more astonishing, she had lost much of her self-consciousness and +carried herself with a native grace that became her well. + +"Why, _Allie!_" Gray exclaimed. "You're wonderful! Let me see +you." He stood off and gazed at her while she revolved before him. + +"Sakes alive! Who'd ever s'pose you'd look like _that!_" the +mother exclaimed. + +"Miss Good told me I'd look nice, but I didn't believe her. Do I?" + +"You're wonderful, Allie." Gray said it with conviction. + +"Honest? You ain't laughin' at me?" The amazon's voice quavered. + +"Can't you see? Look at yourself. I'm proud of you." + +"I--She said--" Allegheny twisted her hands, she cast an appealing +glance at her mother, but the latter was staring at her in open +amazement, slowly nodding her head and clucking. + +"Tse! Tse! Tse!" It was an approving cluck, and it had a peculiar +effect upon the girl. Allegheny's tears started, she turned +suddenly and hid her face in her hands. + +Gray crossed quickly to her side, saying: "There! We've overdone +it the first day, and you're tired." + +"I _ain't_ tired." His sympathy brought audible sobs; the girl's +shoulders began to heave. + +"Well, _I_ am," the mother complained. "I'm wore to the bone. +Allie! You dry up an' stop that snivelin' so we kin go home and I +kin let my feet swell, an' scream." + +"You're not too tired, I hope, to have dinner with Allie and me in +the big dining room at the Ajax?" Gray said, gayly. "You'll be +all right after an hour's rest, and--'I want to show her off, if +her nose isn't too red." + +"I 'ain't seen that girl cry in ten years," Ma declared, in +mingled wonderment and irritation. "Why, she didn't cry when +Number One blowed in." + +Allie spoke between her sobs. "There wasn't nothin' to cry for, +then. But--Miss Good said I--I'd look jest as purty as other folks +when I got fixed up. An' _he_ says--I do." + +Gray decided that all women are vain. Nevertheless, it surprised +him to discover the trait so early in Allegheny Briskow. + +It was on the second day thereafter that Gus Briskow appeared at +the hotel. He came unexpectedly, and he still wore his rough ranch +clothes. After an hour or more spent with his wife and daughter, +he went down to Gray's room and thanked him for the assistance he +had rendered the two women. + +Followed a few moments of desultory conversation, then he put an +abrupt question: "Mr. Gray, you're a rich man, ain't you?" + +"I--am so considered." + +"Um-m! Dunno's I'm glad or sorry." + +"Indeed! What difference can it make to you?" + +"A lot. It's like this: my boy Buddy has took a turrible shine to +you, an' he can't talk about nothin' else. I was sort of hopin'--" + +"Yes?" + +"Buddy's ignerunt. He can read an' write an' figger some, but he's +got about the same company manners as a steer, an' he's skeered of +crowds. When he sees strangers he's liable to charge 'em or else +throw up his head an' his tail an' run plumb over a cliff. He'd +ought to go to school, but he says he's too big, an' he'd have to +set with a lot of little children. Him an' Allie's alike, that +way--it r'ars 'em up on their hind feet to be laughed at." + +"Get a tutor for them." + +"A what?" When Gray had explained the meaning of the word, +Mr. Briskow's face cleared. "That's what I figgered on, but I didn't +know what you called 'em. That's why I'm sorry you're so well off. Y' +see I'd of paid you anything--I'd of doubled whatever you're +gettin'--" The speaker raised a hopeful gaze; he paused as if to make +sure that his hearer was beyond temptation. "I thought mebbe him and +you'd like to travel some--go to furrin places--see the hull world. I +kin afford it." + +"Thank you for the compliment, but--" + +"I got some big deals on, an' Buddy's got to learn enough so's to +hang onto what's comin' to him an' Allie. He needs a man like you +to learn him, an' be an example. It would be a payin' job, Mister +Gray." + +It was in a voice graver than usual that the younger man spoke: +"Briskow, you're sensible enough to understand plain talk. I'm not +a fit man to teach Buddy what he ought to know. In fact, I'm about +the worst person you could select." + +"How so?" + +"Because I'm a good deal of a--rotter. I couldn't permit Buddy to +make a mess of his life, such as I've made of mine." + +The father sighed. "I s'pose you know, but--Well, I'm +disapp'inted. But it wasn't hully on that account I come to Dallas. Ma +told me over the telephone how nice you been an' what you done for her +'n' Allie, so I says to myself I'll square things by givin' him a +chance to make some money." + +Gray stirred slightly in his chair and regarded the speaker more +keenly. + +"When oil come in at Ranger, nobody thought it would get out our +way, but Ma had a dream--a lot of dreams--about oil on our farm, +so I got an outfit to come there an' drill. Folks thought we was +crazy, and we didn't expect they'd find much, ourselves--a few +bar'l a day would of looked big--but I allus had ambitions to be +good an' rich, so I got options on quite a bit of acreage. It +didn't take no money at the time, 'cause land was what people had +most of. Along with the rest, there's a hundred an' sixty right +next to ours--hill stuff that wouldn't feed a goat. It's wuth a +lot of money now, but the option's 'most run out." + +"When does it expire?" + +"Saturday." + +"That's to-morrow." + +Gus Briskow nodded. "It's cheap at a thousand dollars an acre, an' +it costs two hundred." + +"Of course you'll take it." + +"Nope." + +"Why not?" + +"Per one thing, I got a lot of other land just as good an' mebbe +better, an' I been takin' it up out of the royalties that come in. +We got enough sure money in sight to do us, but I promised Ma to +play safe, an'--we can't take everything. You kin have that +option, Mister Gray, for nothin'. You kin sell the lease inside of +a week an' make fifty thousand dollars, or you kin hold it an' +make mebbe a million. All it'll cost you is thirty-two thousand +dollars. I don't make a cent out of it." + +"Thirty-two thousand dollars! Not much, is it?" + +"It ain't nothin' to a man like you." + +Gray nodded and smiled queerly as he thanked the nester, then from +his pockets he removed several crumpled wads of currency and a +handful of silver. These he counted before saying: "What capital I +have is entirely liquid--it's all in cash. There is eighty-seven +dollars and forty-three cents. It is every dollar in the world +that I possess." + +"Huh?" Gus Briskow's bright eyes searched the smiling countenance +before him. "You're--jokin'. I thought you said you was rich." + +"I am rich. I don't owe a nickel, and won't, until my hotel bill +is due, day after to-morrow. I'm in full possession of all my +faculties. I'm perfectly healthy and cheerful. I know men who +would pay a million dollars for my health alone, and another +million to enjoy my frame of mind. That's two million--" + +"Well--doggone _me_!" There was a pause, then the speaker +brightened. "Mebbe you'll take Buddy, after all? You kin set your +own wages." + +Gray shook his head. "There are two good reasons why I couldn't +accept, even if I wished. I've told you one; I'm too fond of you +Briskows to risk ruining Buddy." + +"What's the other one?" + +"A purely personal reason. I have a definite something to do here +in Texas. Before I can accomplish it, I shall have to make a lot +of money, but that I shall do easily. I make money rapidly when I +start." + +"You gotta git goin' afore long." Briskow allowed his eyes to rove +about the spacious Governor's suite. "'Specially with only eighty- +seven forty--" + +"That is nearly eighty-seven dollars more than I had when I +arrived. Three weeks ago I was an utter stranger here; to-day I +know everybody worth knowing in a business way, and some of them +are my friends." + +"If you could learn Buddy to make friends like that--" + +But Gray raised his hand. "I derive a certain amusement from my +own peculiar characteristics and capabilities, but I should detest +them in another." + +"Well, you sure need money, and--I kin he'p you out." + +"Thank you, but I sha'n't borrow. If the time were not so short, I +could probably turn this lease you so kindly offered me. But +something else will happen along." + +Briskow sighed. "I could of sold it myself--thought I had it sold +to a bunch from Wichita, but they tricked me. I offered it the day +you was at our house for eighty thousand and Nelson more 'n half +agreed to--" + +"_Who?_" + +Briskow looked up at the tone of this inquiry. "One of the fellers +from Wichita Falls. I s'pose he knowed the option was about run +out; anyhow, he's been holdin' me off from day to day till it's +too late now fer me to--" + +"What is his name?" Gray broke in, sharply. "Name's Nelson. Bell +Nelson's son. Bell's hard-boiled, but--" + +"Henry Nelson?" + +"That's him." + +Gray rose from his chair and strode swiftly to the window. He +stood there staring down into the street for a moment before +saying, curtly, "Go on!" + +"You know them Nelsons?" + +"I know--Henry." + +"He's hard-boilder 'n his old man. They got a lot o' money behind +'em--too much money to act like he done with me. I sure hate to +see him git that Evans lease for next to nothin', after the way he +done. I'd call it cheat-in', but--well, I can't han'le it." + +The man at the window wheeled suddenly and his face was white, his +brows were drawn down. "By God!" he cried, tensely. "He _won't_ +get it. Where's that option?" + +"I got it right here." Briskow handed over a paper. "An' I got the +hull title abstrack, too. Had it all ready for Nelson." + +When he had swiftly scanned the document, Gray said: "This deal +means little to you, Briskow, but it means much to me, and I'll +make it worth something to both of us. At first I thought the time +was too short, but--I work best when I work fast. You've had your +chance and failed. Now then, step aside and let a man run who +knows how." + +Mr. Roswell, president of the bank where Gray had first made himself +known, was a shrewd, forceful man who had attained a position in +business and arrived at a time of life when he could well afford to +indulge his likes and his dislikes. Those likes and dislikes were +strong, for his was a positive character. As is the case with most +successful men who pride themselves upon their cold caution and +business acumen--and Mr. Roswell did so pride himself--he really was +a person of impulse, and intuition played a much larger part in his +conduct of affairs than he would have acknowledged. Such people make +mistakes, but they also make friends; occasionally they read character +wrong, but they inspire loyalty, and big institutions are founded upon +friendship and loyalty as well as upon stability and fair dealing. + +Roswell had liked Gray upon their first meeting, and that liking +had deepened. Owing to that fact, he had neglected to secure a +report upon him, assuring himself that there was always time for +such formalities. He was cordial to-day when Gray strode into his +office bringing Gus Briskow with him. + +The banker listened with interest to what he was told, then he +studied the map that Briskow spread upon his desk showing the +location of his own and other near-by wells. + +"That looks like a sure thing," Roswell said, finally. "As sure as +anything in oil can be. What is on your mind?" + +"I'd like to get the opinion of the bank's oil expert," Gray told +him. + +This was a matter easily disposed of; the expert was summoned and +he rendered a prompt opinion. He knew the property; he considered +it a cheap lease at a thousand dollars an acre. It was proven +stuff and within thirty days it would probably treble in value. +When he had gone, the banker smiled. + +"Well, Gray," said he, "I knew you'd land something good. You're a +hustler. You'll make a fortune out of that land." + +Gray handed him Gus Briskow's option, and the assignment thereof, +the ink upon which was scarcely dry. "There's the joker. It +expires to-morrow night and--it will go to the Nelsons. They've +double-crossed Mr. Briskow." + +"Then don't let them get away with it. Take it yourself." + +"It is now three o'clock and this is the golfing season in New +York," Gray told him. "I couldn't reach my--associates and get any +action before Monday." "No funds of your own available?" + +"Not enough, at such short notice." + +"Well?" + +"That lease is worth one hundred and sixty thousand dollars, isn't +it?" The banker nodded. "I'm going to sell it before six o'clock +for--eighty thousand. I know people here who will take it, but +I've come first to you. Get together a little syndicate right here +in the bank, and buy it. I'll agree to take it off your hands +within thirty days at one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. In +other words, it is worth to me eighty thousand dollars to have you +carry it for a month." + +"Is your guaranty any good?" + +"That is for you to determine. Assume that it is not, and I'll +better my first offer. I'll undertake to sell off the land in +twenties right here in Dallas, double your money, and divide the +profits thereafter with you. It is a safe speculation and a quick +one. You know I can put it through." + +Mr. Roswell considered briefly before replying. "There's no use +denying that we've made money on deals like this--everybody has. +So it's nothing new. There's a big play on Ranger stuff and we +couldn't lose. But I know nothing about you except the little +you've told me. When I go into a deal I put my trust more in the +man than the proposition." + +"And I trust my own judgment of human character more than that of +strangers," Gray said, quickly. "So do you. Thirty days is a long +time with me, and the oil business is just my speed. Permit me to +remind you that time is flying and that I have given myself only +three hours in which to turn this property. I intend to beat +Nelson, and apply that beating on account of an old score. This is +more than a mere business deal." + +"I like your energy," the banker confessed, "and I'm inclined to +bet some of my own money on you. Now"--he pushed a button on his +desk--"let's see if there are any others here who feel as I do." +It was early evening when Gus Briskow returned to his wife's and +his daughter's rooms at the Ajax. He slipped in quietly and sank +into a chair. + +"Mercy me! I thought you was run over," Ma Briskow exclaimed. + +"I feel like I was," the nester declared, with a grin. "Say! +Mister Gray sold the Evans lease an'--we got more money than +ever." + +"Then mebbe you can afford a new suit," Allie told him. "You look +like sin." + +Her father nodded, but his mind was full of the incidents of that +afternoon and he began at once to recount them. He told the story +badly, but in a language that the women understood. He had not +gone far, however, when the girl interrupted him to exclaim: + +"Wait! Why, Pa! You mean to say Mister Gray 'ain't got no money?" + +"He had less 'n a hundred dollars. An' him livin' here like a king +with everybody bowin' an' scrapin'!" + +Ignoring the effect upon Allie of this intelligence, he continued +his recital. "All I done was set around while him an' them bank +people talked it over," he said, finally. "Then they got their +lawyer in an' he examined the title papers. Seemed like he'd never +git through, but he did, an' they signed some things an' we come +out, an' Mister Gray told me I'd made forty-eight thousand +dollars." + +"Goodness me!" Ma Briskow's eyes widened. "Why, that Evans place +ain't wuth the taxes." + +"It's more 'n likely wuth a million. But think! Him tellin' me +_I'd_ made forty-eight thousand dollars! It give me a jolt, an' I +says _I_ didn't make it. I told him I'd fell down an' turned the +hull thing over to him. 'It's _you_ that's made forty-eight +thousand,' I says." + +"_What?_" Allie inquired, sharply. Then when her father had +repeated himself, she asked with even greater intensity: "Wha'd he +say to that? He didn't take it, did he?" + +"He laughed kinda queer an' says all I got to do to give him a +good night's rest is to wire Henry Nelson the deal's closed. An' +him with less 'n a hundred dollars!" + +Allie spoke again in great relief. "Lord! You give me a turn." Her +expression altered, her lips parted in a slow smile. "So! He's +pore, eh? Pore as we was. Well, I declare!" She rose and turned +her back upon her father. + +"No, he ain't pore," Briskow said, irritably. "Not now he ain't. I +says it's his deal an' his money, an' we got plenty. An' I stuck +to it." + +Allie wheeled suddenly at this announcement. She uttered a cry of +protest; then, "What are you talkin' about?" she roughly demanded. + +"We had some argyment an' I got kinda r'iled. Finally he says if I +feel that way we'll go pardners. He wouldn't listen to nothin' +else, an'--that's how it stands. He made twenty-four thousand an' +I--" + +"You--You _fool!_" + +Gus Briskow looked up with a start to find his daughter standing +over him, her face ablaze, her deep bosom heaving. He stared at +her in frank amazement, doubting his senses. Never had Allegheny +used toward him a word, a tone like this, never had he seen her +look as she did at this moment. He could not believe his eyes, for +the girl had become a scowling fury, and she seemed upon the verge +of destroying him with her strong hands, a task she was amply able +to accomplish. + +"Allie-_Allie!_" the mother gasped. She, too, was aghast. "You +--you're talkin' to your pa!" + +"You give him twenty-four thousan' dollars? _Give_ it to him? +Wha'd you do it for? Wha'd you--?" Allie's voice failed her +completely, she groped at her throat, uttering unintelligible, +animal-like sounds. + +"Why, Allie, you're _mad!_ And after all he done for me an' you," +Mrs. Briskow cried, accusingly. "You oughter be ashamed." + +"Sure! Didn't he make us twenty-four thousan' dollars, where we +wouldn't of got nothin'? An' us rich as we are, an' him broke? I'm +supprised at you." A harsh exclamation burst from the girl--to +the astonished parents it sounded like an oath, but it could not +have been--then she swung herself heavily about and rushed blindly +into the next room, slamming the stout metal door behind her with +a crash that threatened to unhinge it. + +"Well, I be--darned!" Gus Briskow turned a slack, empty face upon +the partner of his joys. "I--I never s'posed that girl would turn +out--_greedy_." + +The mother's countenance slowly wrinkled into lines of grief and +worry, she wrung her hands and rocked from side to side. "I dunno +what's come over the child," she moaned, tearfully. "She behaves so +queer over them silk stockin's an' corsets an' lingeries an' things +that she skeers me. Sometimes I'm afeerd she's goin' crazy--or +something." + + + +CHAPTER IX + +No industry can boast a history more dramatic, more exciting, than +that of oil. From the discovery of petroleum, on through the +development of its usefulness and the vast expansion of its +production, the story is one of intense human interest, and not +even the story of mining has chapters more stirring or more +spectacular. + +The average man has never stopped to consider how close he is to +the oil business or how dependent he is upon it; from babyhood, +when his nose is greased with vaseline, to the occasion when a +motor hearse carries him on his last journey, there is not often a +day when he fails to make use of mineral oil or some of its by- +products. Ocean liners and farmers' plows are driven by it; it +takes the rich man to his office and it cleans the shopgirl's +gloves; it gives us dominion over the air and beneath the waters +of the sea. We live in a mechanical age, and without oil our +bearings would run hot and civilization, as we know it, would +stop. It is the very blood of the earth. + +Oil production is a highly specialized industry, and it has developed +a type of man with a type of mind quite as characteristic as the type +of machinery employed in the drilling of wells. The latter, for +instance, appears at first glance to be crude and awkward, but as a +matter of fact it is amazingly ingenious and extremely efficient, and +your oil-field operator is pretty much the same. Nor is there any +business in which practical experience is more valuable. As a result, +most of the big oil men, especially those engaged in production, are +graduates of the school of hard knocks; they are big-fisted, +harsh-handed fellows who are as thoroughly at home on the "thribble +board" of a derrick as at a desk or a directors' table, and they are +quite as colorful as the oil fields themselves. Their lives are full +and vigorous. + +Of all the oil excitements, that which occurred in North Texas was +perhaps the most remarkable; at any rate, the world has never +witnessed such scenes as were enacted there. The California gold +rush, the great Alaskan stampede, the diamond frenzies of South +Africa and of Australia, all were epic in their way, but none bred +a wilder insanity than did the discovery of oil in the Red River +district. + +For one thing, the time was ripe and conditions were propitious +for the staging of an unprecedented drama. The enormous wastage of +a world's war, resulting in a cry for more production, a new level +of high prices for crude, rumors of an alarming shortage of +supply, the success of independent producers, large and small--all +these, and other reasons, too, caused many people hitherto +uninterested to turn their serious attention to petroleum. The +country was prosperous, banks were bulging with money, pockets +were stuffed with profits; poor men had the means with which to +gamble and rich men were looking for quicker gains. Inasmuch as +the world had lived for four years upon a steady diet of +excitement, it was indeed the psychological moment for a +spectacular boom. + +The strike at Ranger lit the fuse, the explosion came with the +first gush of inflammable liquid from the Fowler farm at +Burkburnett. Then, indeed, a conflagration occurred, the +comprehensive story of which can never be written, owing to the +fact that no human mind could follow the swift events of the next +few tumultuous months, no brain could record it. Chaos came. Life +in the oil fields became a phantasmagoria of ceaseless action and +excitement--a fantastic stereopticon that changed hourly. + +"Burk" was a sleepy little town, dozing amid parched wheat fields. +The paint was off it; nothing much more exciting than a crop +failure ever happened there. The main topic of conversation was +the weather and, as Mark Twain said, everybody talked about it, +but nothing was done. Within sixty days this soporific village +became a roaring bedlam; every town lot was leased, derricks rose +out of chicken runs, boilers panted in front yards, mobs of +strangers surged through the streets and the air grew shrill with +their bickerings. From a distance, the sky line of the town looked +like a thick nest of lattice battle masts, and at night it blazed +like Coney Island. + +The black-lime territory farther south had proven too expensive +for individual operators and small companies to handle, but here +the oil was closer to the surface and the ground was easily +drilled, hence it quickly became known as a poor man's pool. Then, +too, experienced oil men and the large companies who had seen +town-site booms in other states, kept away, surrendering the place +to tenderfeet and to promoters. Of these, thousands came, and +never was there a harvest so ripe for their gleaning. + +Naturally a little country town like this could not hold the +newcomers, therefore Wichita Falls became their headquarters. Here +there were at least a few hotels and some sort of office +quarters--sheds beneath which the shearing could take place--and +there the herd assembled. + +Of course, the cougars followed, and, oh, the easy pickings for +them! A fresh kill daily. Warm meat with every meal. Such hunting +they had never known, hence they gorged themselves openly, seldom +quarreling among themselves nor even bothering to conceal the +carcasses of their prey. It was easier to pull down a new victim +than to return to the one of the day before. + +Rooming houses slept their guests in relays, canvas dormitories +sprang up on vacant lots, the lobbies of the hotels were packed +with shouldering maniacs until they resembled wheat pits, the +streets were clogged with motor cars, and the sidewalks were +jammed like subway platforms. Store fronts were knocked out and +the floor space was railed off into rows of tiny bull-pen brokers' +offices, and in these companies by the hundred were promoted. +Stock in them was sold on the sidewalks by bally-hoo men with +megaphone voices. It seldom required more than a few hours to +dispose of an entire issue, for this was a credulous and an elated +mob, and its daily fare was exaggeration. Stock exchanges were +opened up where, amid frenzied shoutings, went on a feverish +commerce in wildcat securities; shopgirls, matrons, housemaids +gambled in shares quite as wildly as did the unkempt disreputables +from the oil fields or the newcomers spilled out of every train. +People trafficked not in oil, but in stocks and in leases, the +values of which were entirely chimerical. + +But this speculative frenzy was by no means local. Burkburnett +became a name to conjure with and there was no lack of conjurers. +These latter spread to the four points of the compass, and the +printing presses ran hot to meet their demands. A flood of money +flowed into their pockets. While this boom was at its height a new +pool, vaster and richer, was penetrated and the world heard of the +Northwest Extension of the Burkburnett field, a veritable lake--an +ocean--of oil. Then a wilder madness reigned. Daily came reports +of new wells in the Extension with a flush production running up +into the thousands of barrels. There appeared to be no limit to +the size of this deposit, and now the old-line operators who had +shunned the town-site boom bid feverishly against the promoters +and the tenderfeet for acreage. Farms and ranches previously all +but worthless were cut up into small tracts and drilling sites, +and these were sold for unheard-of prices. Up leaped another +forest of skeleton towers some ten miles long and half as wide. + +But this was the open range with nothing except the sky for +shelter, so towns were knocked together--queer, greasy, ramshackle +settlements of flimsy shacks--and so quickly were they built that +they outran the law, which is ever deliberate. The camps of the +black-lime district, which had been considered hell holes, were in +reality models of order compared with these mushroom cities of raw +boards, tar paper, and tin. Gambling joints, dance halls, and dens +more vicious flourished openly, and around them gathered the +scum and the flotsam that crests a rising tide. + +Winter brought the rains, and existence in the new fields became +an ugly and a troublesome thing. Roads there were none, and +supplies became difficult to secure. The surface of the land +melted and spinning wheels churned it; traffic halted, vehicles +sank, horses drowned. Between rains the sun dried the mud, the +wind whirled it into suffocating clouds. Sandstorms swept over the +miserable inhabitants; tornadoes, thick with a burden of cutting +particles, harried them until they cursed the fate that had +brought them thither. + +But in Wichita Falls, where there was shelter overhead and +pavements underfoot, the sheep shearing proceeded gayly. + +Of the men engaged in this shearing business, none, perhaps, had +gathered more wool in the same length of time than the two members +of the firm of McWade & Stoner. Mr. Billy McWade, junior partner, +was a man of wide experience and some accomplishments, but until +his arrival at Wichita Falls he had never made a conspicuous +success of any business enterprise. The unforeseen invariably had +intervened to prevent a killing. Either a pal had squealed, or the +postal authorities had investigated, or a horse had fallen +--anyhow, whenever victory had perched upon his banner something +always had happened to frighten the bird before its wings were +fairly folded. + +Mr. McWade had finally determined to wipe off the slate and +commence all over. Accordingly, he had selected a new field, and, +in order to make it a real standing start, he had likewise chosen +a new name. He had arrived at Wichita Falls with one suit of +clothes and nothing more, except an assortment of contusions +ranging in color from angry red to black-and-blue, these same +being the direct result of repeated altercations with roughshod +members of a train crew. These collisions McWade had not sought. +On the contrary, when, for instance, outside the yards at Fort +Worth his unobtrusive presence on the blind baggage had been +discovered, he had done his best to avoid trouble. He had +explained earnestly that he simply must leave the city by that +particular train. The circumstances were such that no other train +would do at all, so he declared. When he had been booted off he +swung under and rode the trucks to the next stop. There a man with +a lantern had searched him out, much as a nigger shines the eyes +of a possum, and had dragged him forth. He was dragged forth at +the second stop, and again at the third. Finally, the train was +halted far out on a lonely prairie and a large brakeman with gold +teeth and corns on his palms held a knee upon Mr. McWade's chest +until the train started. Ignoring the hoarse warning breathed into +his dusty countenance, along with the odor of young onions, the +traveler argued volubly, but with no heat, that it was vitally +necessary to his affairs that he continue this journey without +interruption; then, when the brakeman rose and raced after the +departing train, he sprang to his feet and outran him. McWade was +lithe and nervous and fleet; he managed to swing under the last +Pullman at the same instant his captor reached its rear platform. + +It is probable that a blithe determination even such as this would +have eventually succumbed to repeated discouragements, but at the +next stop, a watering tank, aid came from an unexpected quarter. +From the roof of the car another knight of the road signaled, and +thither McWade clambered, kicking off the clutching hand of his +former enemy. + +The second traveler was a robust man, deliberate but sure of +movement, and his pockets were filled with nuts and bolts. This +ammunition he divided with his companion, and such was their +unerring aim that they maintained their sanctuary for the +remainder of the journey. + +On the way in to Wichita Falls the stranger introduced himself as +Brick Stoner. He was a practical oil man, a driller and a sort of +promoter, too. It was his last pro motion, he confided, that had +made it necessary for him to travel in this fashion. He had many +practical ideas, had Mr. Stoner, as, for instance, the use to be +made of a stick with a crook in it or a lath with a nail in the +end. Armed thus, he declared, it was possible for a man on the +roof of a sleeping car to pick up a completely new wardrobe in the +course of a night's ride, provided the upper berths were occupied +and the ventilators were open. Mr. Stoner deeply regretted the +lack of such a simple aid, but agreed that it was better to leave +well enough alone. + +McWade warmed to his traveling companion, and they talked of +many things, such as money and finance, sudden riches, and ways +and means. This led them back naturally to a discussion of +Stoner's latest promotion; he called it the Lost Bull well, and +the circumstances connected therewith he related with a subtlety +of humor rare in a man of his sorts. The nature of the story +appealed keenly to McWade, and it ran like this: Stoner had been +working in the Louisiana gas fields near the scene of a railroad +accident--three bulls had strayed upon the right of way with +results disastrous to a freight train and fatal to themselves. +After the wreckage had been cleared away, the claim agent settled +with the owner of the bulls and the carcasses were buried in an +adjoining field. This had occurred some time prior to Stoner's +arrival; in fact, it was only by chance that he heard of it. + +One day in passing the spot Stoner noticed a slight depression in +the ground, filled with water through which occasional bubbles of +gas rose. Being of an inquisitive turn of mind, he had amused +himself with some experiments and found that the gas was +inflammable. Moreover, it gave off an odor not unlike that of +natural gas. It was a phenomenon of decomposition new to the +driller, and it gave him a great idea. He went to town and very +cautiously told of his discovery--a gas seepage, with traces of +oil. His story caused a sensation, and he led several of the +wealthiest citizens to the spot, then watched them in all gravity +while they ignited the gas, smelled it, tasted the soil. They +were convinced. They appointed Stoner their agent to buy the farm, +under cover, which he did at a nice profit--to himself. This +profit he spent in riotous living while a rig was being moved upon +the ground. Not until the derrick was up and the crew, in the +presence of the excited stockholders, came to "spud in," was the +true source of that gas discovered--then the enterprise assumed +such a bad odor that bystanders fled and Mr. Stoner was forced to +leave the state without his baggage. + +This had been the nature of McWade's and Stoner's meeting; on the +roof of that swaying Pullman they laid the corner stone of their +partnership. + +Arrived at Wichita Falls, Stoner went into the field and McWade +obtained employment in a restaurant. It was a position of trust, +for upon him developed the entire responsibility of removing the +traces of food from the used dishes, and drying them without a too +great percentage of breakage. It kept McWade upon his feet, but, +anyhow, he could not sit with comfort, and it enabled him, in the +course of a week, to purchase a change of linen and to have his +suit sponged and pressed. This done, he resigned and went to the +leading bank, where he opened an account by depositing a check +drawn upon a Chicago institution for fifty thousand dollars. +McWade made it a practice always to have a few blank checks on +hand. Airily, but in all earnestness, he invited the Texas bank to +verify the check at its convenience. + +So many were the strangers in Wichita Falls, so great the rush of +new customers, that the banks had no means of investigating their +accounts except by wiring at their own expense. This was Saturday +afternoon, which gave McWade two days of grace, so he pocketed his +new pass and check books, then mingled with the crowd at the +Westland Hotel. He bought leases and drilling sites, issuing local +checks in payment thereof--nobody could question the validity of +those checks with the evidence of fifty thousand dollars deposited +that very day--and on Sunday he sold them. By the time the +Wichita Falls bank opened its doors on Monday morning he had +turned his last lease and had made ten thousand dollars. + +A few days later he and Stoner incorporated their first company. +This was at the height of the town-site boom, and within a few +hours McWade had sold the stock. Thereafter prosperity dogged the +pair, and before long they had made reputations for themselves as +the only sure-fire wildcat promoters in town. McWade possessed the +gift of sidewalk oratory; Stoner posed as the practical field man +whose word upon prospects was final. He it was who did the +investigating, the "experting"; his partner was the bally-hoo. + +But competition grew steadily keener, other promoters followed +their lead, and it became necessary to introduce new and original +methods of gathering an audience. Mere vocal persuasiveness did +not serve to arrest the flow of pedestrians, and so McWade's +ingenuity was taxed. But he was equal to the task; seldom did he +fail of ideas, and, once he had the attention of a crowd, the rest +was easy. + +One morning he and his partner provided themselves with some +dice and several hundred dollars in gold coin. With these they +began shooting craps on the sidewalk in front of their office. Now +gambling was taboo, hence the spectacle of two expensively +dressed, eminently prosperous men squatting upon their heels with +a stack of double eagles before them caused a sensation, and +people halted to witness their impending arrest. Soon traffic was +blocked. + +The gamblers remained engrossed in their pastime, as well they +could, having thoughtfully arranged the matter with the policeman +on duty; gravely they breathed upon the cubes; earnestly they +called upon "Little Joe," "Long Liz," "Ada," and the rest; +silently they exchanged their stacks of gold pieces as they won or +lost. + +Calvin Gray, but just arrived from Dallas, looked on at the game +with some curiosity, not divining its purpose, until McWade +pocketed the dice, then mounted a box at the curb and began, +loudly: + +"Now, gentlemen, that is one way of making money, but it is a +foolish and a hazardous way. There is a much saner, safer method, +and I'm going to tell you about it. Don't pass on until you hear +me, for I have a most incredible story to relate, and you'll be +sorry you missed it." + +There was a ripple of appreciative laughter, but the crowd +pressed closer as the orator continued: + +"You've all heard about these 'doodlebugs' who go around locating +oil with a divining rod, haven't you? And you don't believe in +them. Of course you don't. Neither do I. I can't put any trust in +willow twigs, but--we'll all admit that there are forces of nature +that we don't understand. Who can explain the principle of +magnetic attraction, for instance? What causes the glowing +splendor of the Aurora Borealis? What force holds the compass +needle to the north? What makes a carpet tack jump onto a magnet +like"--the speaker paused and stared hard at a member of his +audience who had passed a humorous remark at his expense--"just +like I'll jump you, stranger, if you don't keep your trap closed. +I say who can read those secrets, who can harness those forces? +The man who can has got the world by the tail and a downhill pull. +Now then, for the plot of my story, and it will pay you to do a +week of listening in the next five minutes. Awhile ago an eminent +scientist, unknown to me or to my partner, Mr. Stoner, came into +our office, which is at your backs, one flight up, second door to +the right, and showed us an electrical device he has been working +on for the last eight years. He claimed he had it perfected and +that it would indicate the presence of oil on the same principle +that one mineral attracts another. 'Oil is a mineral,' said he, +'and I think I've got its magnetic complement. I believe my +invention will work.' + +"'I'll bet a thousand dollars it won't,' I told him. But what do +you think that pilgrim did? He took me up. Then he bet Stoner +another thousand that I'd made a bad bet." McWade grinned in +sympathy with the general amusement. "We arranged a thorough test. +We took him, blindfolded, through the field, and, believe me or +not, he called the turn on forty-three wells straight and never +missed it once. Call it a miracle if you choose, but it cost Brick +and me two thousand iron men, and I've got ten thousand more that +says he can do the trick for you. I'll let a committee of +responsible citizens take a dozen five-gallon cans and fill one +with oil and the rest with water and set them in a row behind a +brick wall. My ten, or any part of it, says his electric wiggle +stick will point to the one with the oil. What do you say to that? +Here's a chance for a quick clean-up. Who cares to take me on?" + +From the edge of the crowd Gray watched the effect of this offer. +Divining rods, he well knew, were as old as the oil industry, but +he was surprised to see that fully half of this audience appeared +to put faith in the claim, and the other half were not entirely +skeptical. A man at his side began reciting an experience of his +own. + +McWade now introduced the miracle worker himself, and Gray rose on +tiptoe to see him. A moment, then he smiled widely, for the +eminent scientist was none other than Mr. Mallow--Mallow, a bit +pallid and pasty, as if from confinement, and with eyes hidden +behind dark goggles. With a show of some embarrassment, the +inventor displayed his tester, a sufficiently impressive device +with rubber handles and a resistance coil attached to a dry +battery, which he carried in his pocket. + +Gray looked on as the comedy was played out. It transpired that +Professor Mallow had tested, among other properties, the newest +McWade-Stoner lease, a company to drill which had just been formed +under the title of "The Desert Scorpion," and he really judged +from the behavior of his machine that a remarkable pool underlaid +the tract. He was willing to risk his reputation upon the guaranty +that the first well would produce not less than three thousand +barrels a day. He was interested in the out-come only from a +scientific standpoint; he owned not one single share of stock. +Then McWade resumed his sway over the crowd, and soon shares in +"The Desert Scorpion" were selling rapidly. + +Shortly after lunch, Mallow and the two partners were seated in +the office upstairs, their work done for the day. Another +successful promotion had gone to the credit of McWade and Stoner; +all three were in a triumphal mood. Mallow was recounting a story +that had just come to his ears. + +"Remember that old silver tip that took a stand in front of the +Owl Drug Store a few days back? He called his company 'The Star of +Hope.'" + +Stoner nodded. "He had a good piece of ground, right adjoining the +Moon Petroleum tract--three wells down to the sand. I wondered how +he ever got hold of it." + +"He didn't. That's the big laugh. He didn't own that land at all. +He just had himself a map drawn, with the numbers changed. His +ground was a mile away. He sold his stock in two days, thirty-five +thousand shares, then he blew. Some Coal-oil John, who had plunged +for about three shares, got to studying his own map, found there +was something wrong and let up a squawk. But Silver Tip had faded +like the mists of early morn--thirty-five stronger than he was. +Snappy work, eh?" + +McWade frowned his disapproval. "Something ought to be done to +stop those crooks or they'll kill us legitimate promoters. You +can't sting a crowd too often in the same spot." + +There came a knock at the door, and in answer to an invitation to +enter it opened. The next instant both McWade and Stoner sat erect +in their chairs, with eyes alert and questioning, for at sight of +the stranger Mallow had leaped to his feet with a smothered +exclamation, and now stood with his back to the desk and with his +head outthrust in a peculiar attitude of strained intensity. + + + +CHAPTER X + +"Well, well, Mallow!" The caller's face broke into an engaging +smile as he crossed the threshold. "Still wearing dark glasses, +eh? I'm afraid you didn't heed my instructions." + +Mallow spoke huskily, "What the hell you doing here?" + +"Following the excitement, merely. I shall open an office and +spend a good deal of my time in Wichita Falls. I hoped I'd find +you here, for this morning I heard you describe your invention +and--admiration overcame me. I felt constrained to congratulate +you upon your scientific attainments. Marvelous, my dear Doctor! +Or is it Professor Mallow?" The speaker laughed heartily. "Won't +you introduce me to these--let us say magnetic forces of nature +that you have discovered?" He indicated the two partners. + +"What do you want?" Mallow barked. + +"Momentary agitation has robbed our Professor of his habitual +politeness--a not unusual phenomenon of the preoccupied scientific +mind." These words were directed at McWade and Stoner. "My name is +Gray. Perhaps Doctor Mallow has made mention of me." + +"So you're the lad that threw pepper in his eyes?" Brick Stoner +stared at the newcomer with undisguised interest. He rose, as did +McWade. "I'll say we've heard of you. Your name's getting as +common as safety-razor blades. You've been cleaning up, haven't +you?" + +"Um-m, moderately." Calvin Gray shook hands with the promoters, then +to the agitated Mallow, who still peered at him apprehensively, he +said: "Come, come! Let down your hammer! Uncoil!" + +"Listen, you!" the other burst forth. "I beat that thing out. I'm +clean and I don't intend to go back. You're a strong guy and you +got a bunch of kale, and you're a getter, but the taller they come +the harder they fall. You can be had." The speaker was desperate; +his face was flushed with anger, the tone of his voice was defiant +and threatening. + +Gray helped himself to a chair, crossed his legs, and lit a cigar. +McWade and Stoner neither moved nor spoke. + +"My dear Mallow, you wrong me." In the newcomer's voice there was +no longer any mockery. "I gave you credit for more intelligence. +We played our little farce and it is done--the episode is closed, +so far as I am concerned. I supposed you understood that much. I +helped you and I came here to enlist your help." + +"You helped _me_?" Mallow showed his teeth in a snarl. + +"Precisely. Think a moment. Was it not odd that I failed to appear +against you? That the case was never pressed, the prosecution +dropped?" + +"I s'pose you were afraid to go through. Thought I'd get you." + +Gray shook his head impatiently. "Afraid? Of you? Oh, Mallow! Had +I feared your majestic wrath, do you think I would have arranged +for that doctor to see you every day? And paid his bill? Who, +pray, sent in those good things for you to eat?" + +There was a pause. + +"Did you?" + +"I did." + +Again there was silence. + +"Why?" + +"For one thing, I was sorry for you. I really was. I had caused +you and Tony a great deal of suffering, and I cannot bring myself +to inflict actual suffering upon anyone without doing my best to +alleviate it. Then again, I had nothing against you personally. We +merely clashed in the course of--business." Mallow allowed himself +to sink back upon the desk; he turned his dark goggles upon his +friends in a blind stare of bewilderment. + +"Well, I'll be damned!" he said, finally. + +"Mallow thought _we_ had helped to spring him." It was McWade +speaking. "That's why he beat it up here and that's how we +happened to put him to work." + +"I don't get you yet," the man in glasses muttered. "I can't +understand why--" + +"What's the odds why he done it?" Stoner inquired, sharply. "Any +man that can squirt my eyes full of tobasco, and me with a six gun +on him, is all right. And him with a bottle of milk duly made and +provided!" The field member of the firm slapped his thigh and +laughed loudly. "Then to forget the whole fracas and shake hands +on it! That's handsome! Mr. Gray, I'm here to say there's a lot of +boys going to lay off you like you was a cactus." + +The object of this commendation was pleased. "Gratitude is rare," +he murmured. "I thank you. Now then, I was thinking of making +friend Mallow a business proposition, but--perhaps I can interest +you, also, in doing something for me. I'll pay well." + +"We're live ones," Stoner asserted. + +"It is business of a confidential nature." + +"All the talking we do is on the street. We're promoting wildcats, +but I guess we know as much about the good wells as the big +companies themselves, and when it comes to actual drilling, I've +forgotten more than all these boll weevils will ever learn. What +can we do for you?" + +"For one thing, I wish to hire the brightest oil scout in the +district, but I don't want him, nor anyone else, for the time +being, to suspect that he's working for me. I will double his +salary to watch one operator. Perhaps he could appear to be in +your employ? Furthermore, I intend to do considerable secret +buying and selling, and I will need several dummies--moral +character unimportant. All I insist upon is absolute loyalty and +obedience to my orders." + +During the silence that followed, Gray felt the three men staring +at him curiously. + +"You're after big game, I take it?" McWade inquired, mildly. + +"The biggest in these woods." + +"One man, did you say?" + +"One man." + +"Some--grudge, perhaps?" + +"Perhaps." + +"A yacht is too expensive for most men, but they don't burn money +as fast as a grudge." + +"This one will take his last dollar--or mine." + +"We're a legitimate firm, you know--" + +Gray's eyes twinkled as he exclaimed: "Exactly! If I have caused +you to infer that I shall employ anything except legitimate means +to effect my purpose, it is my error. At the same time, my +proposition is not one that I could well afford to take to the +ordinary, conservative type of broker. Now then, how about you, +Mallow? Would you care to work for me?" + +The latter's pale face broke into a grin. "I am working for you," +he declared. "I've been on your pay roll now for five minutes. +What's more, if it'll save money to croak this certain party and +be done with it, why, maybe that can be arranged, too. My new +wiggle stick may not find oil every crack, but I bet I can make it +point to half a dozen men who--" + +Gray lifted an admonitory hand. "Patience! It may come to +something like that, but I intend to break him first. Can I arrive +at terms with you gentlemen?" + +"Write your own ticket," McWade declared, and Mr. Stoner echoed +this statement with enthusiasm. + +"Very well! Details later. Now, I shall give myself the pleasure +of calling upon my man and telling him exactly what I intend +doing." The speaker rose and shook hands with the three precious +scoundrels. When the door had closed behind him McWade inquired: +"Now what do you make of that? Going to serve notice on his bird!" + +"Say! He's the hardest guy I ever saw," Stoner declared, +admiringly. Mallow spoke last, but he spoke with conviction. +"You said it, Brick. I had his number from the start. He's a +master crook, and--it'll pay us all to string with him." + +Henry Nelson's activities in the oil fields did not leave him much +time in which to attend to his duties as vice-president of his +father's bank, for what success he and Old Bell Nelson had had +since the boom started was the direct result of the younger man's +personal attention to their joint operations. That attention was +close; their success, already considerable, promised to be +enormous. + +But of late things had not been going well. The turn had come with +the loss of the Evans lease, and that misfortune had been followed +by others. Contrary to custom, it was Henry, and not Bell, who had +flown into a rage at receipt of Gus Briskow's telegram announcing +a slip-up in the deal--a sale to Calvin Gray; that message, in +fact, had affected the son in a most peculiar manner. For days +thereafter he had been nervous, almost apprehensive, and his +nervousness had increased when he secured the back files of the +Dallas papers and read those issues which he had missed while out +of town. Since that time he had made excuses to avoid trips into +the Ranger field and had conducted much of his work over the +telephone. Perhaps for that reason it was that trouble with +drilling crews had arisen, and that one well had been "jimmed"; +perhaps that explained why a deal as good as closed had gotten +away, why a certain lease had cost fully double what it should +have cost, and why the sale of another tract had not gone through. + +Be that as it may, it was this generally unsatisfactory state of +affairs that accounted for the junior Nelson's presence in Wichita +Falls at this time. He and Bell had spent a stormy forenoon +together; he was in an irritable mood when, early in the +afternoon, a card was brought into his office. + +Nelson could not restrain a start at sight of the name engraved +thereon; his impulse was to leap to his feet. But the partition +separating him from the bank lobby was of glass, and he knew his +every action to be visible. He allowed himself a moment in which +to collect his wits, then he opened slightly the desk drawer in +which he kept his revolver and gave instructions to admit the +caller. + +Nelson revolved slowly in his chair; he stared curiously at the +newcomer, and his voice was cold, unfriendly, as he said: + +"This is quite a surprise, Gray." + +"Not wholly unexpected, I hope." + +"Entirely! I knew you were in Texas, but I hardly expected you to +present yourself here." + +Gray seated himself. For a moment the two men eyed each other, the +one stony, forbidding, suspicious, the other smiling, suave, +apparently frank. + +"To what am I indebted for this--_honor?_" Nelson inquired, with a +lift of his lip. + +"My dear Colonel, would you expect me to come to Wichita Falls +without paying my respects to my ranking officer, my immediate +superior?" + +"Bosh! All that is over, forgotten." + +"Forgotten?" The caller's brows arched incredulously. "You are a +busy and a successful man; the late war lives in your mind only as +a disagreeable memory to be banished as quickly as possible, but +--" + +Henry Nelson stirred impatiently. "Come! Come! Don't let's waste +time." + +"--but I retain distinct recollections of our Great Adventure, and +always shall." + +"That means, I infer, that you refuse to close the chapter?" + +As if he had not heard this last remark, Gray continued easily: +"It is a selfish motive that brings me here. I come to crow. It is +my peculiar weakness that I demand an audience for what I do; I must +share my triumphs with some one, else they taste flat, and since you +are perhaps the one man in Texas who knows me best, or has the +slightest interest in my doings, it is natural that I come to you." + +This guileless confession evoked a positive scowl. "What have you +done," the banker sneered, "except get your name in the papers?" + +"I have made a large amount of money, for one thing, and I am +having a glorious time. Now that Evans lease, for instance--" + +"Oh! You've come to crow about that." + +"Not loudly, but a little. I turned the greater part of that land +for as much as five thousand dollars an acre. Odd that we should +have come into competition with each other on my very first +undertaking, isn't it? Fascinating business, this oil. All one +needs, to succeed, is experience and capital." + +"What do you know about the business?" + +"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. But I am learning. Luck, I find, is +a good substitute for experience, and I certainly am lucky. As for +capital--of course I was blessed in having unlimited money with +which to operate. You inferred as much, I take it. Of course! Yes, +Colonel, I have the money touch and everything I have put my hand +to has turned out well." + +Nelson burst forth in sudden irritation. "What are you getting at? +You know I don't care a damn what you're doing, how much money +you're making--" + +"Strange! Inasmuch as practically every dollar I have made has +come out of you, indirectly." + +For a moment Nelson said nothing; then, "Just what do you mean by +that?" + +"Exactly what I said. I've cut under you wherever possible. When +you wanted acreage, I bid against you and ran the price up until +you paid more than it was worth. That which I secured I managed--" + +"_You!_ So--_you're_ the one back of that!" Nelson's amazement +destroyed the insecure hold he had thus far maintained upon +himself. Furiously he cried: "You're out to get me! That's it, +eh?" + +"I am, indeed. And half my satisfaction in doing so will be in +knowing that you know what I'm up to. One needs steady nerves and +a sure touch in any speculative enterprise; he daren't wabble. I'm +going to get your nerve, Nelson. I'm going to make you wabble. +You're going to think twice and doubt your own hunches, and make +mistakes, and I--I shall take advantage of them. Of course I shall +do more than merely--" + +"Well, by God! I knew you had the gall of the devil, but--See +here, Gray, don't you understand what I can do to you? I don't +want any trouble with you, but one word from me and--" + +"Of course you want no trouble with me; but, alas! my dear +Colonel, you are going to have it. Oh, a great deal of trouble. +More trouble than you ever had in all your life. Either you are +going broke, or I am. You see, I have all the advantage in this +little game, for I will pay a dollar for every dollar I can cause +you to lose, and that is too high a price for you to meet. If I +should go bankrupt, which of course I sha'n't, it would mean +nothing to me, while to you--" The speaker shrugged. "You haven't +my temperament. No, the advantage is all mine." Gray's tone +changed abruptly. "For your own good remove your hand from the +neighborhood of that drawer. I am too close to you for a gun-play. +Good! Now about that one word from you. You won't speak it, for +that would force me to utter nasty truths about you, and you would +suffer more than I, this being your home town where you are +respected. And the truth is nasty, isn't it?" + +Colonel Nelson had grown very white during this long speech. He +rose to his feet and laid one shaking hand upon his desk as if to +steady himself; his tongue was thick in his mouth as he said, +hoarsely: + +"I'd like to think you are crazy, but--you're not." + +"Almost a compliment, coming from you!" + +"You think you can beat me--Want to make it a money fight, do you? +Well, I'll give you a bellyful. Every dollar I've got will go to +smash you--smash you!" + +"Splendid!" Gray was on his feet now and he was smiling icily. +"One or the other of us will be ruined, and then perhaps we can +resort to those methods which both of us would enjoy using. Of the +two, I believe I am the more primitive, for the mere act of +killing does not satisfy me. I've come a long way to sink my teeth +into you. Now that they're in, they'll stay. So long as you're +willing to fight clean, I'll--" + +"Are you gentlemen going to talk forever?" The inquiry came in a +woman's voice. Both Nelson and Gray turned to behold a smiling, +animated face framed in a crack of the door. + +"Miss Good!" Calvin Gray strode forward, took the girl's hands in +his and drew her over the threshold. "My dear Miss Good, I have +rummaged half the state, looking for you." + +"I hope I'm not interrupting.--I recognized you and--" The girl +turned her eyes to Henry Nelson, but at sight of his face her +smile vanished. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she cried. "Let me run out--" + +Gray held her hands more firmly. "Never. Do you think I shall risk +losing you again? Colonel Nelson and I had finished our chat and +were merely exchanging pleasantries." + +"Cross your heart?" + +"Cross my heart and hope to die." Gray laughed joyously and again +shook the girl's hands. + +"Yes. Colonel Gray was just leaving," Nelson managed to say. + +"Colonel? Are you a colonel, too?" the girl inquired, and Gray +bowed. + +"I was." + +"And you knew each other abroad?" + +"We came to know each other very well. We were, in fact, +commissioned at the same time and place, but Colonel Nelson +received his a moment earlier than I received mine, therefore he +outranked me. Now then, permit me to retire while you and he--" + +"Oh, there's nothing confidential about what I have to say. It's +good news for my partner, and I'm sure he'd love to share it." To +Nelson she announced, "Pete has a showing of oil!" + +The vice-president of the bank murmured something which was lost +in Gray's quick inquiry: "Partner? Are you a partner of Colonel +Nelson's?" + +"After a fashion. We own a twenty-acre lease west of 'Burk'--that +is, I have a quarter interest and Henry is putting down a well. I +drove out there, and his driller told me it is looking good." + +Gray turned a keenly inquisitive gaze upon his enemy, and what he +saw, or fancied he saw, gave him the thrill of a new discovery. It +may have been no more than intuition on his part, but something +convinced him that his acquaintance with Miss Good deeply +displeased the man. If he knew Henry Nelson as well as he believed +he did, it was more than disapproval, more than mere personal +dislike, that smoldered in the latter's eyes. This was luck! + +In his warmest tone he cried: "Congratulations, my dear Colonel. +However badly you have fared in the Ranger district, fortune +favors you here. But why only a quarter interest? You put too low +a price upon your blessings. I'll better that arrangement. Why, I +was ready to offer Miss Good a full half of all I have, when she +played a heartless jest upon me. Ran away! Disappeared! I'll admit +I was piqued. I was deeply resentful, but--" + +Nelson interrupted this flow of extravagance. "'Miss Good'?" he +said, curiously. "Why does he call you that, 'Bob'?" + +"A secret! A little game of pretense," Gray declared, nastily. +"For the sake of our friendship, Colonel, don't tell me her real +name and rob me of the pleasure of hearing it from her own lips. +Come, Miss Good! Enough of money making and oil wells and stupid +business affairs. I am going to bear you away upon my arm, even at +the risk of displeasing my superior officer. Ha! Lucky the war is +over. Now then, your promise." + +Gray's impetuosity, his buoyancy, robbed his speech of boldness, +nevertheless Barbara Parker flushed faintly. She was ill at ease; +she felt sure she had erred in interrupting these two men; she was +glad of an excuse to leave. + +Gray lingered a moment, long enougn for his eyes to meet those of +the banker. In his there was a light of triumph, of mockery, as he +said: + +"A pleasant interview, wasn't it, Colonel? And now we understand +each other perfectly. A fair fight and no quarter asked." + +Henry Nelson stood motionless as he watched his two callers leave +the bank together, then slowly he clenched his muscular hands, and +from his lips there issued an oath better left unwritten. + + + +CHAPTER XI + +It was several moments after they had left the bank before "Bob" +Parker could manage to slip a word in edgewise, so rapid, so eager +was Gray's flow of conversation, so genuine was his pleasure at +again seeing her. Finally, however, she inquired, curiously: + +"What was it you said to Henry Nelson as I came out? 'No quarter +asked'?" + +Her escort stared down at her, his brows lifted, his tone betrayed +blank astonishment. "'No quarter asked'? Bless me! What are you +talking about?" Then his face cleared. "Now I remember--I said I +had found quarters at last. The town is so crowded, you know; I +didn't want him to feel bound to put me up. I abhor visiting. +Don't you?" + +"Are you really good friends? I felt very queer, the instant after +I had walked in. But--I was bursting with good news and I couldn't +see Henry's face until too late. Then, it seemed to me--" + +"Nelson and I are scarcely 'good' friends--we never were chummy +--but we were thrown together in France and saw a lot of each other. +At first, my respect for him was not great, for he is a--difficult +person to understand; but as my understanding grew, so did my +respect. He is a remarkably capable man and a determined fighter. +Admirable qualities in a soldier. My call to-day was in the nature +of a ceremonial." + +"Um-m! There's a ceremony before every duel--the salute. I thought +I could hear the ring of steel." + +Gray laughed off the suggestion. "Merely the jingle of officers' +spurs, I assure you. We amateurs cling to the Regular Army pomp +and practice. Frankly, I love it; I admire the military method +--a rule for every occasion, a rigid adherence to form, no price too +high for a necessary objective. And the army code! Ironclad and +exacting! Honors difficult and disgrace easy. One learns to set +great store by both. You've no idea, Miss Good, how precious is +the one and how-hideous is the other." + +"You mustn't call me Miss Good any longer," the girl told him. "My +name is Barbara Parker." + +"Oh, I like that!" + +"I'm more generally known as 'Bob.'" + +"Even better! It sounds tomboyish." + +"It's not. It is Tom Parkerish. Father insisted on calling me that +and--it stuck. He's a man's man and my being a girl was a total +surprise to him. It completely upset his plans. So I did my best +to remedy the mistake and learn to do and to take an interest in +the things he was interested in." + +"Those were--?" + +Miss Parker looked up from beneath her trim velvet hat and her +blue eyes were defiant. "All that people like you disapprove of; +all that you probably consider undignified and unladylike, such as +riding, roping, shooting--" + +"Riding--unladylike? It's very smart. And why do you say people +'like me'? There are no people like me." + +"You know what I mean. You're not a Westerner. You are what a +cowpuncher would call a swell Easterner." Ignoring Gray's grimace +of dislike she went on, deliberately exaggerating her musical +Texas drawl. "You are a person of education and culture; you speak +languages; you have the broad 'a,' and if you had to go unshaven +it would be a living death. You are rich, too, and probably play +the piano. People like that don't admire cow-girls." + +The man laughed heartily. "In spite of my broad 'a' and my safety +razor, I'm as much of a man's man as your father. Frankly, I don't +admire cowgirls, but I do admire you and everything you say about +yourself adds to that admiration. If your father is Tom Parker +--well. I congratulate you upon an admirable taste in the +selection of parents." + +"Do you know him?" Barbara eagerly inquired. + +"No. But I know of him and I know what he stands for. I think we +have many things in common, and I venture to say that he is going +to like me." + +Barbara smiled. This vibrant stranger had an air about him and an +irresistible magnetism. It was flattering to receive marked +attentions from a person of his age and consequence--the girl felt +an access of importance--and the tone of his voice, his every +look, assured her that she had indeed challenged his deepest +interest. She colored faintly as he ran on: + +"So you're a partner of Henry Nelson's! He doesn't deserve it and--our +friendship ceases. I shall now hate him. Yes, henceforth he and I +shall be enemies." + +"I love to be flattered, but please don't become Henry's enemy. +The most dreadful things happen to them." + +"He pretends to be a friend, but in reality he is a suitor--a +detestable suitor--and the ties of business bind you closer! I see it +all. I--I consider it abominable." Gray's tone was as gay as his +demeanor had been thus far, nevertheless he was probing deliberately, +and the result appeared to verify his earlier suspicions. Calm as he +had appeared to be during that interview in the bank, in reality he +had been, and still was, in a state of intense nervous excitement; his +mind was galloping; the effect of that clash had been to rouse in him +a keen exaltation and a sense of resistless power. If Henry Nelson was +seriously interested in this girl, he reasoned, here then was another +weapon ready shaped--a rapier aimed at his enemy's breast--and all he +had to do was grasp it. That promised to be a pleasant undertaking. +Nor had he any doubt of success, for Barbara Parker had aroused his +liking so promptly that reason--and experience--told him they must be +in close sentimental accord. Even had she proven less responsive, he +would still have been confident of himself, for few women remained +long indifferent to his zeal, once he deliberately set about winning +them. To build upon that subtle, involuntary attraction, therefore, +and to profit by it, appeared advisable, nay, necessary, for +henceforth all must be grist that came to his mill. In view of his +declaration of war, he could afford to scorn no advantage, however +direct or indirect its bearing. + +"Tell me about the Briskows," Barbara demanded. + +"Of course! I'm dying to do so, but"--Gray looked at his watch +--"even the good must lunch. No doubt you abhor the public eating +places, but, alas--" + +"I do. So does everybody who tries them. But our cook has been +speculating in shares, and yesterday she stalked majestically from +the kitchen. She was a wretched cook, anyhow; but we couldn't +afford a better one. We're very poor, dad and I." + +"Were poor. Not poor any longer, I hope." + +"Oh, that well! It is exciting, isn't it? Dad has gone out there +to see it, so--Yes, I'll lunch with you and be duly grateful." + +"Where shall we go?" + +Barbara's brows drew together in a frown of consideration, and +Gray told himself that she was even more charming when serious +than when smiling. "Wherever we go, we'll be sorry we didn't go +somewhere else. We might try the Professor's place. He's a Greek +scholar--left his university to get rich quick in the oil fields, +but failed. He started a sandwich and pie counter--a good one--and +it pays better than a pumper. But we'd have to sit on high stools +and be scowled at if we didn't gobble our food and make room for +others. Then there is Ptomaine Tommy's. Cafes are good and bad by +comparison. After you've been here a few days you'll enjoy +Tommy's." + +"Then I vote for his poison palace. The very name has a thrill to +it." + +On their way to the restaurant, Gray said: "Pa and Ma and Allie +Briskow and the tutoress have gone to the mountains--Ma's beloved +mountains--and they appear to be living up to her expectations. +The mountains, I mean. The old dear writes me every week, and her +letters are wonderful, even outside of the spelling. She hasn't +lost a single illusion. She has a soul for adventure, has Ma; +she's hunting for caves now--keeps her ears open to hear if the +ground sounds hollow; wants to find a mysterious cavern and +explore it, with her heart in her mouth. She revels in the clean, +green foliage and the spring brooks. She says the trees are awful +crowded in places and there's no dust on them." + +"And Allie has a tutor!" + +"The best money could secure. And, by the way, you wouldn't have +known the girl after you got through with her that day. That was +only the beginning, too. She fills the eye now, and she's +growing." + +"_Growing?_" + +Gray chuckled. "Not physically, but mentally, psychologically, +intellectually." + +"I said she had possibilities." + +"Yes. More than I gave her credit for, but what they are, where +they will lead her, I don't know. I'm a foolish person, Miss +Parker, for I take an intense interest in the affairs of other +people, especially my friends. My favorite dissipation is to share +the troubles of those whom I like, and right now I'm quite as +worried over Allie as her father is. You see, she has outdistanced +her parents already; the dream part is wearing off and her new +life is a reality. She is confronted with the grim and appalling +necessity of adapting herself to a completely new and bewildering +set of conditions. I'm not sure that she will be equal to it." + +"I presume you mean that she is sensitive." + +"Supersensitive! And ambitious! That's the trouble. If she were +dull and conceited she could be both happy and contented. But +she's bright, and she lacks egotism, so she'll never be either. +Adversity would temper a girl like her; prosperity may--spoil +her." + +"There is a boy, too, isn't there?" + +"Oh, Buddy! He's away at school. He'll make a hand, or--well, if +he doesn't, I'll beat the foolishness out of him. I've assumed +complete responsibility for Buddy, and he'll be a credit to me." + +There was a tone in Gray's voice when he spoke of the Briskows +that gave Barbara Parker a wholly new insight into his character; +it was with a feeling that she knew him and liked him better that +she said: + +"You think a lot of those nesters, don't you?" + +"More than they believe, and more than I would have thought +possible," he readily declared. "I'm a lonesome institution. +There's nobody dependent upon me; I owe no bills, no gratitude, +and I've canceled the obligations that others owe me. You've no +idea how unnecessary I am. It gives me a pleasing sense of +importance, therefore, to feel that I fill a place in somebody's +affairs." + +Wichita Falls's facilities for public entertainment reflected +perhaps as correctly as anything else the general chaos consequent +upon its swift expansion into a city. Such hotels as had been +capable of caring for the transient trade of pre-petroleum days +were full and carried waiting lists like exclusive clubs; rooming +houses and private dwellings were crowded. A new and modern +fireproof hotel was stretching skeleton fingers of steel skyward, +but meanwhile the task of sheltering, and especially of feeding +three times a day, the hungry hordes that bulged the sides of the +little city was a difficult one. To wrest possession of a cafe +table for two at the rush hour was an undertaking almost as +hazardous as jumping a mining claim, but Calvin Gray succeeded and +eventually he and "Bob" found themselves facing each other over a +discolored tablecloth, reading a soiled menu card to a perspiring +waiter. It was in some ways an ideal retreat for a tete-a-tete, +for the bellowed orders, the rattle of crockery, the voice of the +hungry food battlers, and the clash of their steel made intimate +conversation easy. Gray noted with approval the ease with which +his dainty companion adapted herself to the surroundings and +remarked upon it. + +"After four years in the East it took me a little while to get +used to it," she confessed. "The Wichita I left was a quiet town; +the one I came home to was a madhouse. At first the excitement +frightened me, for I felt as if I were being run over, tossed +aside. But now that I've fallen in with the chase, why--I think it +is splendid." + +"Just what are you doing and how do you do it?" Gray wanted to +know. + +Barbara was glad to tell him about her brief but eventful +experience since that morning at the Nelson bank when she had +executed her coup, and she recited the story with enthusiasm. + +"Having no capital to go on," she explained, "I've merely bought +and sold on commission so far, but I'm not always going to be a +broker. I'm making good, and some day dad and I will be big +operators. I've been able to buy a car, and most of my time I'm +out in the field. They tell me I'm as good an oil scout as some of +the' men working for the big companies; but, of course, I'm not. I +merely have an advantage; drillers tell me more than they'd tell a +man." + +"Of course, with your father along you're safe in going anywhere, +but to go through the fields alone--" + +"Oh, dad doesn't go!" + +"What?" Gray looked up incredulously, but "Bob" nodded her head +vigorously. + +"Dad hates automobiles; they frighten him. So I go out alone while +he runs the office." + +"Extraordinary! But, my dear girl, it's dangerous." + +"Naturally, I avoid 'Burk' and the Northwest Extension after +dark--even the scouts do that. But it wouldn't pay anybody to +high-jack me. No. I go right in on the derrick floors and hobnob with +the drillers, talk about their wives and their families, discuss croup +and fishing jobs; sometimes they let me taste the sand and even show +me the logs of their wells. It amused them at first to think of a girl +playing the game single-handed--most men, however rough, have a sense +of chivalry, you know, and are better sports than they realize. +Now--well, they're beginning to respect my business ability. They have +learned that I keep my mouth closed and that I'll treat them +squarely. Some of them would fight for me. I tell you it is the +greatest experience, the most thrilling adventure, a girl ever had." + +"You are a brave child, and I admire your courage," Gray declared. + +"But I'm not. I'm afraid of everything that other girls are afraid +of." Leaning forward confidentially, the girl continued: "I'm a +hollow sham, Mr. Gray, but dad doesn't know it. After I learned +how badly he wanted me to be a boy, and how he had set his heart +on teaching me the things he thought a son of his should know, I +had a secret meeting with myself and I voted unanimously to fill +the specifications if it killed me. So I began a fraudulent life. +I'm in earnest. For instance, I abhor guns, but I learned to shoot +with either hand until--well, I'm pretty expert. And roping! I can +build a loop, jump through it, do straight and fancy catches like +a cowboy. I worked at it for months, years it seemed to me. I knew +very well it was a ridiculous waste of time, but I'll never forget +how proud dad was when I learned the 'butterfly.' That was my +reward. Horses used to frighten me blue, but I learned to ride +well enough. In fact, it has been a keen disappointment to him +that I won't enter the Frontier Day contests. He'd like nothing +better than to see me win the bucking-horse match. Think of it! +And I'm so timid I can't look an oat in the face!" Barbara +attempted a shy laugh, but there was a quaver to her voice, and +when Gray continued to stare at her gravely, sympathetically, her +face quickly sobered. "Now you understand why my father doesn't +think it necessary to go along on my trips through the oil fields. +It has never occurred to him that I'm anything but 'Bob' Parker, +his boy. Mind you, he is lost in admiration of me and I rule him +like a slave. I think he is great, too, and he _is_. He is the +dearest, gentlest, sweetest father in the world, and I wouldn't +have him learn the hideous truth about me for anything." + +For a moment Barbara's listener studied her thoughtfully, then he +said: "I'm immensely flattered that you like me well enough to +make me your confessor. Now I'm going to confess to you that I +also am an arrant coward." + +"Please don't joke. You have become quite a famous character, and +if the stories I hear are true--" + +"The stories one hears are never true. I have my share of physical +courage, perhaps; that's a common, elementary virtue, like +generosity, gratitude, sympathy. The most mediocre people are +blessed that way." + +"Oh! Generosity and gratitude are divine qualities!" + +Gray shook his head positively. "Impulses! Heart impulses, not +brain impulses. They have nothing to do with character. Now I'm +deathly afraid of one thing." + +"What, pray?" + +"Ridicule! You see, I'm egotistical and ostentatious. Oh, very! +Disgustingly vain, in fact. If I were unconscious of it, I'd be +unbearable, but--it amuses me as much as it amuses others, and +that takes the curse off of it. I am delighted at some of my own +antics. I love to swagger and I adore an audience, but to be +laughed at by others would kill me. Ridicule! Scorn! I'm +insensible to anything except those." + +"You're a queer man." + +Gray's gaze became fixed; there was a peculiar light--almost a +glitter--in his eyes; he talked on as if voicing some engrossing +thought. "Of course, I'm vindictive--that's a part of the +swashbuckling character; it goes with the ruffles, the jack boots, and +the swagger. It is a luxury of which I am extremely jealous." +Bringing his attention back to the girl, he smiled and his manner +changed abruptly. "There! I've proved it all by talking about myself +when I'm interested only in you. However, it is sometimes easier to +sell a thing by frankly decrying it than by covering up its bad +points, and I'm trying desperately to make a good impression upon +you. Now then, I'm tremendously interested in what you have told me +about yourself, and I'm sure you are a better oil man--oil girl--than +you have led me to suppose. But these are no times for social +pleasantries. We are living in bedlam. There is nothing in the air but +business--oil--profits. You are a business woman, and if we are to +become as well acquainted as I hope we will, it must be the result of +a common business interest. So, then, for a bargain. I am going to +enter this field in a large way; if you will take me for a client, I +will buy and sell through you whenever possible. Perhaps we can even +speculate together now and then. I'll guarantee you against loss. What +do you say?" + +"Why--it's a splendid opportunity for me. And I know of some good +things; I'm overflowing with information, in fact. For instance--" +Barbara hurriedly produced her oil map and, shoving aside the +dishes in front of her, she spread it upon the table. "There is a +wildcat going down out here that looks awfully good." As she +indicated a tiny circle marked into the corner of one square, Gray +noted that there was a dimple at the base of her finger. "The +scouts don't think much of it, but I happen to know it is on a +structure and has a good showing of oil. The driller is a friend +of mine, and he has told me that his casing is set. He'll tip me +off when he intends to drill through, and if you like we'll go out +there and see what happens. If it comes in, it will mean a big +play on surrounding property; prices will double, treble. My +theory is this--" + +Gray's head was close to the speaker's, but, although he pretended +to listen to her words and to follow the tracings of her finger +with studious consideration, in reality his attention was fixed +upon the tantalizing curve of her smooth cheek and throat. In some +perplexity of spirit he asked himself why it was that mere +proximity to this wholly sensible and matter-of-fact young +creature filled him with such a vague yet pleasurable excitement. +He realized that he was not easily thrilled; feminine beauty, +feminine charm were nothing new, nevertheless at this moment he +experienced an intense elation, an eagerness of spirit, such as he +had not felt since he was in the first resistless vigor of youth, +and his voice, when he spoke, carried an unconscious quality +strange to his ears. + +It was the more bewildering because nothing had happened to awaken +such feelings. He had met this unworldly, inexperienced prairie +girl but twice, and on her part she had betrayed no particular +attraction for him. As a matter of fact, she probably considered +him an old man--young girls were like that. Of course, that was +absurd. He was right in his prime, youth sang through his veins at +this moment, and yet--she must like him, he must have somehow +impressed her. That was fortunate, in view of her relations with +Henry Nelson; luck was coming his way, and she would undoubtedly +prove useful. The last thing Calvin Gray contemplated was a +sentimental woman complication, but on account of this girl's +peculiar knowledge it seemed to him the part of wisdom to +cultivate her--to see as much of her as possible. + +"If you will come over to the office, I'll show you how I think +that pool lies," Barbara was saying, and Gray came to with a +start. + +It was midafternoon when he left the Parker office--at least he +thought it must be midafternoon until he consulted his watch and +discovered that, to all intents and purposes, he had completely +lost two hours. An amazing loss, truly. There was no lack of +youthful vigor in Calvin Gray's movements at any time, but now +there was an unusual lightness to his tread and his lips puckered +into a joyous whistle. It had been a great day, a day of the +widest extremes, a day of adventure and romance. And that is what +every day should be. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +If Gray cherished any lingering doubts as to the loyalty of +Mallow, erstwhile victim of his ruthlessness, or of McWade and +Stoner, the wildcat promoters, those doubts vanished during the +next day or two. As a matter of fact, the readiness, nay, the +enthusiasm with which they fell in with his schemes convinced him +that he had acted wisely in yielding to an impulse to trust them. +At first, when he divulged his enemy's identity, they were +thunderstruck; mere mention of Henry Nelson's name rendered them +speechless and caused them to regard their employer as a harmless +madman, but as he unfolded his plans in greater detail they +listened with growing respect. The idea seized them finally. In +the first place, it was sufficiently fantastic to appeal to their +imaginations, for they saw in Gray a lone wolf with the courage +and the ferocity to single out and pull down the leader of the +herd, and, what was more, they scented profit to themselves in +trailing with him. Then, too, the enterprise promised to afford +free scope for their ingenuity, their cunning, their devious +business methods, and that could be nothing less than pleasing to +men of their type. + +But early enough he made it plain that he intended and would tolerate +no actual dishonesty; crooked methods were both dangerous and +unsatisfactory, he told them, hence the fight must be fair even though +merciless. To annoy, to harass, to injure, and if possible actually to +ruin the banker, that was his intention; to accomplish those ends he +was willing to employ any legitimate device, however shrewd, however +smart. His entire fortune--and his associates, of course, greatly +exaggerated its size--would be available for the purpose, and when he +sketched out the measures he had in mind the trio of rogues realized +that here indeed was a field wide enough for the exercise of their +peculiar gifts. They acknowledged, too, a certain pleasure in the +comfortable assurance that they would involve themselves in no illegal +consequences. + +At their first council of war Gray gave each of them a number of +definite things to do or to have done, the while he sought certain +facts; when they assembled for a second time, it was to compare, +to tabulate, and to consider an amount of information concerning +the activities of Henry Nelson that would have greatly surprised +that gentleman had he been present to hear it. + +For one thing, there had been prepared a comprehensive list of the +Nelson holdings, together with maps showing their acreage and +production, the location of drilling wells, the ownership of +adjoining properties, and the like. There was also a considerable +amount of data concerning the terms of the Nelson leases, renewal +dates, and such matters. Gray was forced reluctantly to admit that +his enemy was more strongly intrenched than he had supposed; +careful study of the data showed that the Nelson acreage had been +well selected and that it was scientifically "checkerboarded" +throughout the various fields. What was more significant was the +amount of proven or semiproven stuff. + +"It took work and money to get together that group of leases," +Brick Stoner declared, after he had checked them off. "That's one +of the best layouts in Texas, and they're shaped up to put over a +big deal if they want to." + +"They lack production," said Gray. + +"Sure! But they'll have it before long. Lookit the wells they're +putting down and that's going down around 'em." + +The former speaker chewed his cigar thoughtfully for a while, +then: "I don't believe they contemplate a big deal. They're not +that sort. Henry Nelson is selfish and suspicious, and I'm told +that Bell wouldn't trust anybody. I'm informed also that every +dollar they have made has gone back into new leases and wells and +that they intend to hold everything for themselves. It is rumored, +quietly, that they are overextended." + +"I wouldn't care how thin I was stretched if I had their gamble," +McWade asserted. "All they have to do is to sit tight. The law of +average will pull them out. What do you intend to do?" + +"To begin with, I intend to stretch them even thinner--so thin +they'll break, if that is possible." + +"You can't load them up with more property." + +"Certainly not, but I can make them drill more wells." + +"Offsets, eh?" Stoner studied the map a bit doubtfully. "You can't +make 'em offset dry holes, and if they strike oil in their wells +the other fellers will have to do the offsetting." + +"True. I can, of course, prevent them from extending their +renewals. I can cost them a pretty penny just by forcing them to a +rigid adherence to the terms of their leases and agreements and--" + +"What do you mean, 'offsets'?" Mallow inquired. "How you going to +break a man by bringing in wells alongside of his property? +That'll make him rich." + +"Can you beat that?" Stoner inquired. "Mallow's been selling oil +stock and experting wells for us with the Marvelous Magnetic +Finder and he don't know an offset from a headache post." + +"Certainly, I know--" + +"Why, Professor! Is it possible we have been deceived in you? An +offset is the thing that sets off to one side of the crown block +and it's a light blue, the same as a formation. It's the shape of +a syncline, only bigger." + +"Don't get funny. You drill an offset well to keep a man from +sucking all the oil out from under your land." + +"Right!" said Gray. "Wells, as you know, are drilled as close to +the side lines as the law allows. When oil is found, the adjoining +landowner can compel his lessee to put down a well to offset every +one that threatens to draw oil from beneath his property." +"That's what I've just been telling you." + +"Many an operator has gone broke offsetting wells in order to +protect his leases, especially if he has a number of neighbors who +all start drilling promptly. That is one of the many production +troubles--and there's a saying that trouble begins when the oil +starts." + +"You said it. But to offset the Nelsons so's to cripple 'em--" +Brick Stoner shook his head. "It ain't hard to borrow money for +good offsets. "Most any bank will lend." + +"It is hard for anybody who is overextended to borrow. Possibly my +plan won't work, but to annoy, to harass, to embarrass, to stretch +them thin--it's all a part of the game. People are never as well +off as we think they are. The Nelsons are close to the sand in a +number of places. I want to procure the adjoining acreage. For +every well they make, I'll force them to drill six more. The day +they strike oil I'll have a string of derricks every two hundred +feet along their side lines." + +It was Mallow who spoke next. "That will cost you dollar for +dollar, boss. Have you got chips enough to match their stack?" + +"I don't have to invest dollar for dollar. My money will go for +leases, and I'll let drilling contracts, fifty-fifty, sixty-forty, +seventy-thirty--anything to get quick action. Other people's money +will do the work for me. Remember, I'm not after oil, I'm after a +man." + +"I'll say you are!" Stoner looked up from a frowning contemplation +of the maps. "And if you'll take a chance I'll show you how you +can drill one well and cost them three--that is, provided you +hit." As the others leaned over his shoulder he explained: "Here's +a square block of four twenties--separate leases, all of 'em--and +the Nelsons own three. You can cop the fourth twenty, drill right +at the inside corner, where all the lines cross. If you pull a +duster, you'll be out and injured, maybe twenty-five thousand, but +if it comes wet they'll have to protect those three leases with +three offsets. It ain't a bad-looking piece of ground; you'll have about +a one-to-three chance of making a well." + +"How many companies have you gentlemen promoted?" Gray inquired. + +"Twenty-two. And from a shoestring. Every well went down, or is +going down, and every dollar we got right here on the street." + +"And all of them are dry, are they not?" + +McWade spoke up, defensively: "Sure. They were all wildcats of the +wildest kind. But we don't deal in oil, we sell stock. Every issue +we've put out has gone above par at some time or other, and that's +playing the game square with our customers, ain't it? We see that +they have a chance to get out with a profit; if they hang on it's +their own fault. That's how we've built up a clienteel." + +"It wouldn't hurt your reputation to bring in a wet well for a +change, would it?" Both partners agreed that it would not. "I'll +buy this twenty-acre lease, and you can promote a company to drill +ten of it, Stoner says it's a one-to-three shot." + +McWade blazed with enthusiasm at the suggestion. "Take a piece of +the stock yourself, Mr. Gray, and we'll put it over in a day. With +your name at the top of the list it will bally-hoo itself." + +"Not a share. Your amiable proposition brings me directly to +another point which has a bearing upon our main campaign. Law is a +dry subject, but I must bore you with a brief dissertation upon a +provision of one statute which has doubtless escaped your notice. +It has escaped the notice of most people, even of Henry Nelson, I +believe. You realize that all but a few Texas oil companies are +not organized as corporations, but as joint stock associations--in +effect declarations of trust." + +"We oughta know it," Stoner said. "It saves paying a big +corporation tax and lets you sell all the full-paid, nonassessable +stock you want to issue, regardless of what the property is worth. +Oh, we got wise to that, _muy pronto!_ Why, these here Texas +laws are the bunk! Them fellows at Austin, if they had their way, +would make it impossible to promote a legitimate enterprise--on a +paying basis. They'd make you turn in cash or property the +equivocal thereto every time you organized. Wouldn't that be +sweet? This joint-stock arrangement is the only way to beat the +game. It's a shrewd device, and my hat's off to the guy that +invented it." + +"Very true. Very well expressed. But in the statute governing the +procedure there is wrapped up a bundle of bad news, for it is +provided that any officer or stockholder may become personally +liable for the entire debt of the association. There is going to +be a lot of sleep lost over that fact when the truth becomes +known." + +"You mean if I got stock in a company that's blowed up, and I'm +living in Oshkosh, all pretty, that I can be hooked for the debts +some crook runs up here in Texas?" + +"Precisely." + +This intelligence brought no consternation to the partners; on the +contrary, McWade, the optimist, grinned widely. "Goes to show you +we have been playing the game along safe and legitimate lines," +said he. "We don't own a share in any of our own enterprises, and +if we have to pick up a few now and then to boost the market, we +drop them again as if they were hot. It's a pretty thought, +though. Why, I can see years of activity ahead of Brick and me, +buying up the debts of defunct oil companies and collecting in +full from prosperous strangers hither and yon. For Heaven's sake, +don't let it get out!" + +"I won't, at least until after I have accumulated a number of +potential judgments against Henry Nelson. He has had his share of +cats and dogs, of course, and some day I hope to lead them back to +his doorstep. If they return at the right moment, they may prove +an embarrassment. Who knows?" + +"Got anything else up your sleeve?" Behind Mallow's dark glasses his +eyes could be dimly seen, and they were active with curiosity. + +"Plenty. But we have enough here to start on. First, I want these +various leases, then I want a company promoted and a well started +on that twenty we talked about." + +For some time longer the conspirators busied themselves over the +details of their plans, and Gray was beginning to feel some +satisfaction at his rate of progress when an interruption occurred +that threatened to delay action and even to rob him of the +services of the two partners. That interruption took the form of a +call from a group of highly excited and indignant purchasers of +stock in the Desert Scorpion Company, that promotion in which +Professor Mallow had assisted on the morning of Gray's arrival. +These stockholders swarmed into the office, bringing with them an +air of angry menace; they were noisy; they all talked at once. + +From out of the confusion it soon became apparent that they had a +real grievance, and one which called for immediate satisfaction; +moreover, it was made plain that the callers cared little what +form that satisfaction took, whether tar and feathers or a rope +and a lamp-post. They had been sold, victimized, flimflammed, +skinned; the scorpion had stung them and the poison was boiling in +their veins. Briefly, the swindle was this: investigation had +shown that the land owned by the Desert Scorpion was not where it +had been represented to be, but more than a mile distant +therefrom. Chance alone had brought forth the truth; the hour of +vengeance had struck. + +Calvin Gray withdrew quietly from the hubbub and asked Mallow, +"Can that be true?" + +The eminent scientist shrugged; out of the corner of his mouth he +murmured: "Why not? It all looks alike." + +Me Wade and Stoner were not in the least dismayed by this amazing +intelligence; as a matter of fact, the former assumed an air of +even greater geniality than usual and nodded a careless agreement +to every accusation hurled against him. "Right you are, men! +Absolutely right. We were victimized, but we're tickled to death +to rectify the error. Mighty fortunate mistake, as a matter of +fact. Brick, out with the old check book and give these birds back +their money." With alacrity Mr. Stoner cleared off his desk and +seated himself, pen in hand. "Step up and get a dollar a share +--just what you paid. Fair enough, I calls it. The banks are open +and the checks are good." + +Immediately the repurchase of stock began, but anger and suspicion +still smoldered; there were dissatisfied mutterings. One investor, +a field man in greasy overalls, spoke out: + +"We'll get ours, all right. Don't worry. But how about the other +suckers? There's fifty thousand shares out. What you going to do +about that?" + +"Buy it back. Know where you can get any more?" + +"Maybe." + +"We'll pay a dollar and a half a share for all you can get, to- +morrow." + +"What?" + +"You heard me. Breast up, boys, and get your money back. Our offer +stands--a dollar a share to-day, a dollar and a half to-morrow." + +There was a stir among the indignant speculators; the man for whom +Stoner was writing a check inquired: "What's the idea? Why not a +dollar and a half now?" + +Stoner and McWade exchanged a meaning glance--it was not lost upon +their attentive audience--but the latter shrugged and smiled +provocatively. "That's our business," he declared, lightly. "You +ghost dancers want your money back and we're giving it to you. +You're letting up a holler that you were robbed, so come and get +it. The faster you come the better it'll suit us. Scorpion stock +will close at a dollar and a half or better to-morrow night." + +"Bluff!" somebody growled. + +Stoner finished his signature with a nourish, blotted it, then he +hesitated. He flung down his pen and turned defiantly upon his partner, +crying: + +"This ain't fair to these men, Mac. They're customers of ours and +we owe 'em the chance to make a killing. It's up to us to tell 'em +the truth." + +McWade was angry. His indignation flamed. Vigorously he denied the +charge of unfairness. A spirited argument ensued, with Stoner +asserting that the firm was morally obligated to protect its +clients to a greater extent than merely by returning their money, +and with McWade as stoutly maintaining that all obligations, moral +and legal, were canceled with the repurchase of the stock. + +Meanwhile it became evident that the alarming rumor about Desert +Scorpion was rapidly spreading, for other investors were climbing +the stairs now, and the office was becoming crowded. The later +arrivals were in time to witness McWade finally defer to his +partner and to hear him announce that a rare stroke of fortune had +favored purchasers of this particular issue of stock, for the land +which really belonged to the company had turned out to be much +better than that which it owned. Certain information from the +field had arrived that very day which was bound to send the stock +to two dollars. If anybody wanted to sell, the promoters would be +glad to buy, and they would advance their price on the morrow, as +McWade had promised, so here was a chance for those present to +turn a pretty penny by getting busy at once. Frankly, however, he +advised his hearers to hang on and make a real clean-up. The +information, which was not yet public, had nothing to do with the +fact that Doctor Mallow had experted both properties with his +scientific device and pronounced the new acreage much richer than +the old--this latter was merely corroborative evidence, and in +view of the fact that some people put no credence in so-called +"doodle bugs," he merely offered the record of the tester for what +it was worth. His original bet of ten to one still held, by the +way, and once again he repeated that those who wished to sell out +would be accommodated with the greatest alacrity. Only they +mustn't return later and squawk. + +McWade confessed that he was neither angry nor offended at the +recent attitude of suspicion--he was merely amused. It made him +laugh. The idea of his firm turning a crooked trick, when it was +an established institution as strong as Gibraltar and as +conservative as a national bank, was ridiculous. He and Stoner +could point with pride to an unbroken record of successes and to a +list of satisfied investors as long as a Santa Fe time-table. +Desert Scorpion stock would go to two dollars, and five would get +you ten if you didn't think so. Now then, step lively! + +The refunding of money halted; there was a deal of noisy argument. +Some of the disgruntled investors still insisted upon selling out; +others decided to hold on; even a few asked to repurchase the +stock they had turned in, and this they were reluctantly permitted +to do at an advance of fifty per cent. + +When the last caller had disappeared, Gray inquired, curiously: +"How are you going to make good on your assertion that the stock +will rise?" + +"Easy!" said Stoner. "I'll change into my old clothes, put four +mud chains on my car, and drive up, to the exchange in a hurry, +then give some gabby guy a tip to grab Desert Scorpion for me at a +dollar and a half--all he can get. After that I'll shoot out of +town on high, with the cut-out open. There will be a string of +cars after me inside of half an hour, and the stock will be up +before I can get back." + +"We'll make good, all right," McWade asserted. "Those customers +are in luck dealing with a house like us. All they expect is a +chance to get out with a profit and sting the next fellow. They +don't want oil; they want a run for their money and a quick turn. +We give it to them." + +"And do they always buy your issues?" + +"I ain't saying they do. Sometimes they're cold until you put on +the Indian sign. But all you have to do when stock don't sell is +to raise the price. Oh, if you know how, it ain't hard to make an +honest dollar in the oil business!" Mr. McWade smiled with conscious +satisfaction. + +"I'm sure of it," Gray said, heartily. "There is so little +competition." + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +Ma Briskow always had been known as a woman without guile, but of +late she had developed rare powers of dissimulation. She was, in +fact, leading a double life, and neither her husband nor her +daughter suspected the extent of her deception. To the patrons of +the Burlington Notch Hotel she was merely a drab, indistinct, +washed-out old woman, unmarked except by a choice of clashing +colors in dress; to her family she remained what she always had +been; nobody dreamed that she was in reality a bandit queen, the +leader of a wild, unfettered band of mountaineers. But that is +what she was. And worse at times. + +Yes, Ma had slipped the leash. She was a robber baroness; she +dwelt in a rocky "fastness"--whatever that was--surrounded by a +crew of outlaws as desperate as any that ever drew cutlass and +dagger, and she ruled them not only by native strength of +character, but also by the aid of other forces, for she was on +friendly terms with the more prominent wood sprites, fairies, and +the like, and they brought her wisdom. Moreover, she had learned +the language of dumb animals and could talk to squirrels, beetles, +porcupines, frogs. + +All this, as may be surmised, had come about as the result of Ma's +early reading: a haphazard choice of story books, in which were +tales of treasure trove, of pirates, of wronged maidens and +gallant squires--romantic stories peculiarly designed to stir a +cramped imagination like hers. It was from them that she had +gained her ideas of the world, her notions of manners, even her +love of the mountains, and that unquenchable desire to see them +that she had confided to Calvin Gray. + +He it was, by the way, who had selected the Notch for these Texas +nesters. It had proved a happy choice, for the hotel sat upon the +top of the world, and beneath it lay outspread the whole green and +purple vastness of the earth. The Briskows were entranced, of +course, and, once they had established themselves here, they never +thought of moving, nor did it occur to them that there might--be +other mountains than these, other hotels as good as this. To them +Burlington Notch became merely a colloquial name for Paradise, and +life in the great hotel itself a beautiful dream. + +The place was famous the country over as a health resort, and, +indeed, it must have possessed miraculous curative properties, +otherwise Gus Briskow, strong and vigorous as he was, could never +have survived the shock of receiving his first week's bill. It was +with conflicting emotions that he had divided the sum at the foot +of the statement into seven parts and realized the daily ransom in +which he and his family were held; it had given him a feeling of +tremendous importance and extreme insignificance. He spoke +feelingly that night about the high cost of loafing, but Ma showed +such dismay at the mere suggestion of leaving that he had resigned +himself, and thereafter the sight of his weekly bill evoked +nothing more than a shudder and a prayer--a prayer that none of +his wells would go dry overnight. + +But lifelong habits of prudence are not easily broken. The Notch +Hotel was altogether too rich for Gus Briskow's blood, so he +sought a more congenial environment. He found it in the village, +in a livery stable; there, amid familiar odors and surroundings +both agreeable and economical, he spent most of his time, leaving +Ma to amuse herself and Allie to pursue the routine of studies +laid down by her tutoress. + +Now Ma had not gone wild all at once; her atavism had been +gradual--the result of her persistent explorations. She had never +seen a real waterfall, for instance, and the first one proved so +amazing that she was impelled to seek more, after which she became +interested in caves, and before long her ramblings had taken her up +every watercourse and into every ravine in the neighborhood. This sense +of treading untrodden ground roused in Ma a venturesome spirit of +independence, an unsuspected capacity for adventure, and when the wealth +of her discoveries failed to awaken interest in her family she ceased +reporting them and became more solitary than ever in her habits. +Every morning she slipped out of the hotel, meandered through the +grounds apparently without purpose, but in reality pursuing a +circuitous route and taking sudden twistings and turnings to throw +pursuers off the scent. Ever deeper into the wilderness she +penetrated, but with the sly caution of an old fox returning to +its lair, for she was always being followed by wicked people, +such, for instance, as minions of the law, members of the Black +Hand, foreign spies, gen-darmys, and detectifs. Having baffled +them all, she laughed scornfully, flung deceit to the winds, then +hurried straight to the "fastness," and there uttered the tribal +call. At the sound her gypsy band came bounding forth to meet her, +and she gave them her royal hand to kiss, raising them graciously +when they knelt, giving a kind word here or a sharp reprimand +there. + +They were the fiercest gypsies in the world, and quarrelsome, too. +They were forever fighting among themselves and crying: "Curse +you, Jack Dalton! Take that!" and plunging swords into one +another, but they had good hearts and they loved Ma and were +devoted to her lost cause. She could handle them where others +would have failed. + +Having accepted their homage and heard the details of their latest +raids against her enemy, the false Duke of Dallas--he whose +treachery had made her what she was--she assumed her throne and +held formal court. + +The throne was a low, flat rock beside a stream, and usually Ma +removed her shoes and stockings and paddled her feet in the water +while she gave audience to visiting potentates. Those enlarged joints +never seemed to ac commodate themselves wholly to the sort of shoes +Allie made her wear. Court "let out" when Ma's feet had become rested, +after which there were less formal affairs of state to settle. These +out of the way, it was time for the queen's recreations, which took +the form of singing, dancing, conversations with animals, visits with +the invisible fairy folk who lived in flowers arid gave them their +pretty smells. + +Ma never had any trouble putting in the whole day in some such +manner as this; evening came all too soon, as a matter of fact. +Then it was that she bade good-by to her faithful subjects and +prepared once more to fare forth and mingle, in the cunning guise +of an old woman, with the followers of the false and lying Duke of +Dallas. But courage! Patience! The day of reckoning was at hand +when she would come into her own and the world would recognize her +as the wronged but rightful Princess Pensacola. + +Thus would Ma Briskow spend one morning. Another perhaps she would +be an altogether different character, but always she was young and +beautiful and full of grace, and only when it came time to go did +she assume the disguise of an aged, wrinkled, bent old woman. +Sometimes she ran miles and miles at a stretch, darting, springing +like a fawn, rushing through the soft, green leaves, leaping rock +and rill, her laughter echoing, her bare limbs flashing, her gold +hair streaming, her scanty silken draperies whipped to shreds +behind her by the very swiftness of her going. Oh, the ecstasy of +that! The excitement! + +Of course Ma did not actually run. Neither did her bare limbs +flash--being incased in flannels. And her hair was not gold. It +was gray, what little there was of it. No, she ambled a bit, +perhaps, where the grass was short and the ground smooth, then she +stood still, closed her eyes, and ran and leaped and swayed and +darted--with her arms. Anybody can do it. + +At other times she defied gravitation, a secret accomplishment +all her own, which she manifested in this wise. She would begin to +jump, higher and higher, and the higher she jumped the lighter she +became, until finally she weighed no more than a thistledown, and +the effort of leaping became a pure joy and an exhilaration. +Having attained this perfect state of buoyancy, she would set out +upon wonderful journeys, springing lightly as far as it pleased +her to spring, soaring gracefully over obstacles, and deriving a +delirious pleasure from the sensation. One cannot appreciate the +enjoyment to be had from this method of locomotion without trying +it. + +And always when Ma came back to earth and opened her eyes there +were the great smiling mountains, the clear, clean waters foaming +over the rocks, and underfoot was the cool, green grass, not that +hot, hard 'dobe clay she had always known. Trees, too! Beautiful +whispering trees, with smooth leaves instead of burrs and spines +and stickers. Nor was there the faintest choking smell of dust; no +sand blowing up her nose and smarting her eyes. + +Ma Briskow had never dreamed that the world was so clean. She +blessed God for making oil to lie in the rocks of the earth, and +she prayed that none of "them hotel people" would discover her +retreat. + +But, of course, somebody did discover it. Mr. Delamater, the +dancing instructor, for one, stumbled upon it while Ma Briskow was +in the midst of one of her imaginary games, and he reported his +discovery to the day clerk. + +"What ails that old dame, anyhow?" he inquired, after recounting +Ma's peculiar behavior. + +"Not a thing in the world except money," the clerk declared. + +Doubtfully Mr. Delamater shook his handsome auburn head. "People with +good sense don't act like that. She was doing an Isadora Duncan when I +saw her. Dancing--if you care to call it that! Anyhow, her hair was +hanging, she was flapping her arms and jiggling up and down." +Delamater laughed at the memory. "There's a big, awkward bird--sort of +a crane or buzzard of some kind--that dances. I never saw one, but +she reminded me of it. And she _sang_! Gee! it was fierce!" + +"Did she see you?" + +"Scarcely. I don't mind being alone with Allie"--Delamater's teeth +shone in a smile, then, seeing his reflection in a convenient +mirror, he studied it with complacent favor. He tried the smile +again, and, getting it to his better satisfaction, concluded +--"don't mind it a bit, but a bosky dell with a mad woman is my idea +of no place to be." + +"Allie?" The clerk lifted his brows. "So--'_Allie_'! Has it gone +as far as that, Del?" + +"Oh, you know how it is! A lesson every day, soft music, arm +around the waist, a kind word. The girl is human. I'm probably +different to anything that ever came into her young life. Look at +my wardrobe! She's not so bad to take, either, and yet--" The +immaculate speaker frowned. "Father smells like a horse, and +mother's a nut! Gee! It would take some coin to square that." + +"That's one thing they've got," asserted the clerk. "Nothing but!" + +Mr. Delamater debated further. "Think of marrying The Powerful +Katrinka! I'll admit it has its points. If anything went wrong +with the bank roll Allie could make a good living for both of us. +Suppose, for instance, the old Statue of Liberty slipped and fell. +Allie could jump over to Bedloe's Island and take a turn at +holding the torch. Ifi they've got the coin you say they have, I +think I'll have to see more of her." + +"You won't see any more than you do. She's hitting on all four." + +"What is she up to all day?" + +"I don't know. Working, studying, exercising. Rehearsing for the +movies, I guess. She has worn that companion of hers down to a +frazzle. She has her own masseuse in the bath department, she +rides a horse three days a week, and every morning she takes a +long walk--" + +"I've got it!" Mr. Delamater slapped his thigh. "Road work! She's +getting ready to take on Dempsey." He laughed musically. "If she +marries me her days of labor will be over; it will mean for her +the dawn of a new life--provided, of course, those oil wells are +what you say they are. Kidding aside, though, I don't dislike the +girl and--I've a notion to give her a chance." + +What the clerk said was true. Allie Briskow was indeed in +training, both physical and mental, and the application, the +energy she displayed had surprised not only her parents, who could +but dimly understand the necessity of self-culture, but also Mrs. +Ring, the instructress. Mrs. Ring, a handsome, middle-aged woman +whose specialty was the finishing of wealthy young "ladies," had +been induced to accept this position partly by reason of the +attractive salary mentioned in Calvin Gray's telegram, and partly +by reason of the fact that she needed a rest. She had met the +Briskows in Dallas only a short time before their departure for +the north, and although that first interview had been a good deal +of a shock to her--almost as much of a shock as if she had been +asked to tutor the offspring of a pair of chimpanzees-- +nevertheless she had nerved herself to the necessary sacrifice of +dignity. After all, Allegheny was only an overgrown child in need +of advanced kindergarten training, and in the meantime there was +the prospect of a season at Burlington Notch. The latter was, in +itself, a prospect alluring to one suffering from the wear and +tear of a trying profession. After some hesitation, Mrs. Ring had +accepted the position, feeling sure that it would rest her nerves. + +But never had the good woman suffered such a disillusionment. +Allie, she soon discovered, was anything but a child, or rather +she was an amazing and contradictory combination of child and +adult. What Mrs. Ring had taken to be mental apathy, inherent +dullness, was in reality caution, diffidence, the shyness of some +wild animal. + +Nor was that the most bewildering of the teacher's surprises; +Allie possessed character and will power. For some time she had +accepted Mrs. Ring's tutorship without comment or question--Calvin +Gray had recommended it, therefore she obeyed blindly--but one +day, after they had become settled in the mountains, she came out +with a forceful declaration. + +She knew full well her own shortcomings, so she declared, and she +was not content to learn a few things day by day. She demanded +intensified training; education under forced draught. + +"They took green country boys durin' the war--" + +"During the war. Don't drop your g's, my dear." + +"--during the war, and learned 'em--" + +"Taught them!" + +"--taught them to be soldiers in six months. Well, I'm strong as a +horse, and I've got a brain, and I'm quick at pickin'--I mean I +pick up things quick--" + +"You pick them up quickly. Quickly is an adverb; quick is an--" + +Allie's dark eyes grew darker. Imperiously she cried: "All right! +But let me say this my own way. It won't be right or elegant, but +you'll understand. And that's what we got to have first off--a +good understanding. After I've said it, you can rub it down and +curry it. I been watching you like a hawk, Miz' Ring, and you're +just what he said you was. You got everything I want, but--I can't +go so slow; I got to get it quick--quickly. You been teaching me +to read and talk, and how to laugh, and how to set--sit--but we +been _playing_. We got to _work_! Oh, I know I'm forgetting +everything for a minute. Miz' Ring, I gotta learn how to act +pretty and talk pretty and _look_ pretty. And I gotta learn how, +_quick_." + +"You are a fine-looking girl as it is, Allegheny." + +"Oh, I guess I look _dressed up_, but I'm awkward. I'm stiff as a +hired hand, and I fall over my feet. Look at 'em. Biggest live +things in the world without lungs! I got to get slim and graceful--" + +"I'll teach you a setting-up routine, if you wish, although it +is scarcely in my line. Goodness knows you don't need physical +culture." + +"But I do," cried the girl. + +"Very well. Riding is a smart accomplishment. Can you ride a +horse?" + +"Pshaw! I can carry a horse." + +"You'd look well in a habit, and with baths, massage, dancing, and +a little diet I dare say you can reduce." + +"I'll starve," Allie asserted, fiercely. "But that ain't half +enough. You gotta give me more studyin'. I got callouses on my +hands and I'm used to work. We'll get up at daylight-" + +"Good heavens!" Mrs. Ring exclaimed, faintly. + +"You learn me how to do the sitting-up things first off, then I'll +do 'em alone. Ride me hard, Miz' Ring. I'll remember. I'll work; +you won't have to tell me twice. But I gotta make speed. I 'ain't +got the time other girls have." + +"My dear child, all this cannot be done in a day, a week, a +month." + +"How long you allow it will take?" + +The elder woman shrugged. "Years, perhaps." + +"Years?" + +"Real culture, social accomplishments, are the results of +generations of careful training. I'm not a miracle worker. But why +this impatience?" + +"I got-" + +"I have." + +"I have a reason. I can't take a generation; I'd be too late." + +"Too late for what?" + +But Allie refused to answer. "We'll start in to-day and we'll work +double tower till one of us plays out. What d'you say?" + +At first Mrs. Ring took this energetic declaration with some +reserve, but before long she realized with consternation that +Allie Briskow was in deep earnest and that this was not a soft berth. +Instead of obtaining a rest she was being worked as never before. Allie +was a thing of iron; she was indefatigable; and her thirst for +knowledge was insatiate; it grew daily as she gained fuller understanding +of her ignorance. There was a frantic eagerness to her efforts, almost +pitiful. As time went on she began to hate herself for her stupidity +and to blame her people for her condition. She was a harder taskmaster +than her teacher. Most things she apprehended readily enough, but when she +failed to learn, when mental or physical awkwardness halted +progress, then she flew into a fury. Her temper appalled Mrs. +Ring. + +At such times Allie was more than disagreeable. Hate flamed in her +eyes, she beat herself with her fists, she kicked the furniture, +and she broke things. Once she even butted her head against the +wall, uttering language meanwhile that all but caused her +companion to swoon. + +Mrs. Ring resigned after this final exhibition, but, lacking the +courage to face Allie in a mood like that, she went to Gus +Briskow. + +"It is simply impossible to remain," she told him. "Already I'm a +physical wreck, for I never get a moment's rest. The salary is +attractive, but Allegheny is too much for me. She saps every ounce +of vitality I have; she keeps me going every hour. And her +terrific tempers are actually--dangerous." + +"She don't ever get mad at you, does she?" + +"Oh no! And she repents quickly enough. As a matter of fact, I am +afraid she is overdoing her studies, but there's no holding her +back." + +"You're kinda worked up, Miz' Ring. Mebbe I can make it pleasanter +for you." + +"In what way, may I ask?" + +"Well, by payin' you more." + +"You are generous. The salary we agreed upon isn't low." + +"Yes'm--No, ma'am!" + +"I wouldn't feel right to accept more." + +"Try it, ma'am, for a little while. Mebbe it won't bother you so +much after you get used to it. Allie likes you." + +"And I--I _am_ interested in her. She is progressing, too; in +fact, I have never seen anyone learn more rapidly. But--she is so +unusual. Still, perhaps I _am_ the one--perhaps it is my duty, +under the circumstances--" + +With this disposition to compromise the father had little +difficulty in dealing, so the daily routine was continued. Allie +applied herself to the cultivation of the ordinary social niceties +with the same zeal that she followed her studies and her physical +exercises. Fortunately these exercises afforded outlet for the +impatience and the scorn that she felt for herself. Otherwise +there would have been no living with her. As it was she showed +herself no mercy. Daylight found her stirring, her Swedish drill +she took with a vigor that fairly shook the floor, and, having +finished this, she donned sweater and boots and went for a swift +walk over the hills. At this hour she had the roads to herself and +was glad of it, for she felt ridiculous. At breakfast, although +she had a ravenous appetite, she ate sparingly. The day was spent +in reading aloud, in lessons in deportment, voice modulation, +conversation, and the like; in learning how to enter and how to +leave a room, how to behave at a tea or a reception, how to accept +and how to make an introduction, how to walk, how to sit, how to +rise. Allie did sums in arithmetic, she studied grammar and +geography and penmanship--in short, she took an intensified +common-school course. Here was where her tutoress had trouble, for +when the girl's brain became weary or confused she relieved her +baffled rage in her most natural way, the while Mrs. Ring stopped +her ears and moaned. It was a regimen that no ordinary woman could +have endured; it would have taxed the strength of an athlete. + +Late in the afternoon Allie went riding, and here was one +accomplishment in which she required no coaching. Frequently she +vented her spite upon her horse, and more than once she brought it +home with its mouth bleeding and its flanks white with lather. She +rode with a magnificent recklessness that finally caused comment among +the other guests. + +Allie was sitting alone in her room one evening, fagged out from a +hard day. Some people were talking on the veranda outside her +window, and she heard one say: + +"The girl can look really stunning." + +"Exactly. I don't understand where she gets her looks, for her +parents are--impossible. Wouldn't you _know_ what they were?" + +Allie needed no clearer indication of who was under discussion. +Instinctive resentment at the reference to her father and mother +was followed by amazement, delight, at the compliment to herself +--the first she had ever received. She leaned forward, straining to +hear more. What mattered it how these contemptuous outsiders +referred to her parents? They agreed that she was "stunning," +which was their way of saying that she was pretty, nay, more +--beautiful, perhaps. + +"She's a glorious rider," the first speaker was saying. "She +passed me the other day, going like sin, with her face blazing and +that big, lively chestnut running flat. The way she took that +curve above the Devil's Slide brought my heart into my mouth." + +The breathless eavesdropper felt a hot wave of delight pour over +her, her very flesh seemed to ripple like the fur of a cat when it +is stroked. + +"Oh, she's a picture, mounted! Seems to have complete confidence +in herself; and the strength of a giantess, too. But--my God! when +she's on her feet! And have you heard her talk?" Evidently the +other speaker had, for there came the sound of low laughter, a +sound that stabbed Allie Briskow like a bayonet and left her white +and furious. She sat motionless for a long time, and something +told her that as long as she lived she would never forget, never +forgive, that laughter. + +She was unusually silent and somber for the next three or four +days; she went through her exercises without vim; at her studies +she was both stupid and sullen. When Mrs. Ring's patience was +exhausted and her frayed nerves finally gave out, Allie rounded +upon her with a violence unparalleled. Those previous exhibitions +of temper were tame as compared with this one; the girl spat scorn +and bitterness and hatred; she became a volcano in active +eruption. + +In a panic Mrs. Ring sought out Gus Briskow and again resigned. By +this time, however, the novelty of her resignation had largely +worn off, for seldom did more than two weeks elapse without a +hysterical threat to quit. But this one required more than the +usual amount of persuasion, and it was not without long and +patient pleading, coupled with the periodical raise, that the +father induced her to change her mind. Gus told himself somberly +that the price of Allegheny's education was mounting so rapidly +that it might be the part of economy to take Mrs. Ring in as a +full partner in the Briskow oil wells. He decided, after some +consideration, to wire Calvin Gray and offer to pay his traveling +expenses if he would come to Burlington Notch for a few days. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +One accomplishment that Allegheny mastered with gratifying ease +was dancing. It came naturally to her, for both she and Buddy were +full of music. At first she had been extremely self-conscious; +Professor Delamater had found her to be as heavy as stone and as +awkward as a bear; but later, as her embarrassment became less +painful, she relaxed. She regained her power of speech, also, and +in time she voiced an eager desire to learn all there was to +learn. + +Having quickly schooled her in the simpler forms of ballroom +dancing, Delamater suggested a course in the deeper intricacies of +fancy dancing. + +"You're getting on," he told her, one day. "That last was +splendid--top hole, absolutely." + +Delamater, who was quite thoroughly American, affected at times an +English turn to his conversation, believing that it gave him an +air. It went particularly well, he thought, with light trousers, +spats, and an afternoon coat cut close at the waist. + +"Don't fool me," panted the red-faced Juno. "You must have iron +feet." + +"My word! Spoof you, indeed! Not for worlds, if you know what I +mean? I shall expect to see you in the ballroom every evening." + +But Allie's confidence forsook her at this. "I'd--be scared stiff. +Folks would laugh. They haven't got--haven't anything to do but +laugh at other folks, and I don't like to be laughed at." + +"Laugh at you! Fancy that! You're too modest." Delamater adopted +the cooing note of a dove. "'Pon my word, you're too modest. If +you could hear the things I hear--" He paused, not knowing exactly +what to say he had heard, but his vagueness, the very eloquence of his +hesitation, caused Allie's face to light up. This was the second +compliment paid her since her arrival at the Notch, therefore when +the phonograph resumed its melodious measures she yielded herself +with abandon to the arms of her partner, and her red lips were +parted, her somber eyes were shining. That day she began a course +of exhibition dancing. + +It was on that afternoon that Delamater had told the clerk of +discovering Ma Briskow alone in the woods. There was an open golf +tournament at the Notch, prominent amateurs and professionals were +competing, and the hotel was crowded to its capacity with players, +fashionable followers of the game and a small army of society +reporters and sport writers. This being the height of the season, +social doings at the resort were featured in all the large Eastern +papers, for famous names were on the register and the hotel switch +was jammed with private cars. + +Allie Briskow was in one of her trying moods to-day, for the out- +of-doors called to her. Sounds of laughter and gayety, strains of +music, had distracted her from her studies, her monotonous routine +had become hopelessly unbearable all at once. From her window she +could see young people, hear young voices, and envy flamed in her +soul. Those girls were her age; those men, easy, immaculate, +different from anything she had ever seen--except Calvin Gray +--they, too, were young and they courted those girls. Contemplation +of the chattering throngs showed Allie more clearly than ever the +chasm separating her from these people, and reawakened in her that +black resentment which at times made her so difficult to manage. +She was thankful that her mother had disappeared and that her +father was at the livery stable; she hoped they would stay away +all day. At least, they were safe from ridicule. She wondered if +she might not induce them to dine in their rooms that evening, and +thus spare herself the embarrassment she always suffered when she +accompanied them into the public dining room. + +It seemed to her that whenever they went to dinner--Gus in his +baggy pepper-and-salt sack suit, his loose, lay-down collar, and +his wide-toed shoes, Ma in one of her giddy, gaudy dinner dresses +--it seemed as if the entire assemblage was stricken dumb and as if +every eye was turned upon them in mockery and amusement. Even the +waiters, Allie felt sure, noted the difference between the +Briskows and the other guests, and only with difficulty concealed +their contempt. + +The occasional presence of Mrs. Ring, handsome, dignified, +unruffled, intensified that contrast and fairly shouted the +humiliating announcement that here were three nobodies who wanted +to be somebodies, but never could. + +Invariably when they went out in public together Mrs. Ring made +Allie feel as if she belonged to a lower, cruder order of animal +life; as if she were an inhabitant of another sphere. And yet, +Mrs. Ring was poor; she worked for wages! Allie could not +understand this phenomenon; thought of it now caused her +resentment to kindle. + +Of course it was the lot of the hapless tutoress to select such a +moment as this in which to sweetly chide the girl for some lapse +of form. Allie exploded. She reduced the elder woman to tears, +then, ashamed of herself, she flung blindly out of the room, +crashing the door to behind her. She decided to dance her anger +away. It was some consolation to know that she could dance as +well, or better, than those slim and pampered beauties outside her +window. Some consolation, even though she never expected to have a +chance of proving it. + +Delamater was especially agreeable to-day, more than usually +nattering. Not for some time did his scholar become conscious of +the subtle change in his demeanor, and even then its significance +awoke only a shadowy contentment. Allie hated herself too +thoroughly to-day to believe that anybody could really approve of +her. As for him, he entirely misconstrued the meaning of her +silent acceptance of his flattery. + +They had become well acquainted by now and were on a basis of easy +familiarity, nevertheless it came as a shock to Allie to be called +by her first name-such a shock that she missed a step and trod on +Delamater's foot. They came to a pause. + +The dancing master was tall and slim, his face was on a level with +hers, and now he smiled into it, saying, "My mistake, my dear." + +"I--reckon it was." The girl's eyes were glowing queerly, and the +man was amused at her evident agitation. His first word had thrown +the poor thing into a flurry. + +They began to dance again, and, after a moment, with a gently +rising inflection, Delamater murmured, "You heard what I called +you?" He approved of the sachet that Allie used, and he became +acutely conscious of the jewels resting in the palm of his left +hand. The girl was rich and she was--different, unusual. Ever +since she had learned to yield herself to his embrace, he had been +conscious of her strong physical attraction, and now it got the +better of him. "You don't care?" he said, with his lips close to +her ear. + +"Humph! I'm not caring for anything or anybody to-day." + +"Somebody has hurt my little girl." + +Allie threw back her head and stared at him with quick suspicion. +"Your little girl?" she repeated. + +It is the lot of any man in the heat of his desire to make +mistakes, and Delamater erred gravely at this moment. He kissed +Allie. Without warning he kissed her full and fair upon her red, +half-open lips. + +For the briefest instant of amazement the two stood motionless in the +middle of the polished floor while the phonograph brayed on; then +Allie shook herself free of her partner, and in the same movement she +smote him a mighty slap that sent him reeling. Delamater saw +stars. The constellation of Orion gleamed in dazzling splendor within +his tightly shut lids; he collided with a chair and went sprawling. + +With a cry he scrambled to his feet. "What the hell--?" he +growled, savagely. + +Allie's face was chalky. Breathlessly, curiously she inquired, +"Wha'd you do that for?" + +"What did I _do_ it for? Say! You ought to be complimented +--tickled to death." Delamater rubbed his cheek and glared at her. +"By God! I wish you were a man. Oh, don't worry, I won't touch you +again! Who the hell would, after that?" Allie opened her lips to +speak, but he ran on more angrily as the pain bit into him. +"Thought I meant it, eh? Why, you lumbering ox--" + +"Then you ain't--in love with me or--or anything?" + +"_Love_?" The speaker uttered an unpleasant sound indicative of +scorn. "Wake up, sister! What d'you take me for? Why, your mother +talks bird talk, and your dad lives in a box stall and eats oats +with his knife! Here I kid you along a little bit--slip you a +little kiss, as I would any girl, and you--you--" Delamater +stuttered impotently. "_Love_? I guess I'm the first regular +fellow that ever gave you a chance." + +Delamater was surprised when his pupil turned her back upon him, +strode to the nearest window, and flung it open as if for air; his +surprise deepened when she faced him again and moved in his +direction. Her expression caused him to utter a profane warning, +but she continued to bear down upon him, and when she reached out +to seize him he struck at her as he would have struck at a man. + +To those who are familiar with Burlington Notch, it will be remembered +that the hotel is pitched upon a slope and that the rooms on the first +floor of the east wing are raised a considerable distance above the +lawn. The windows of these east rooms overlook the eighteenth green, +and during tournaments they are favorite vantage points of golf widows +and enthusiasts who are too old to follow the competitors around the +course. To-day they were filled, for an international title was at +issue and Herring, prince of amateurs, was playing off the final round +of his match with the dour Scotch professional, McLeod. + +A highly enthusiastic "gallery" accompanied the pair, a crowd composed +not only of spectators, but also of officials, defeated players, +newspaper writers, camera men, caddies, and the like. They streamed +up the final fairway behind the gladiators and for the moment they +were enveloped in gloom, for Herring had sliced off the seventeenth +tee and a marvelous recovery, together with a good approach, had still +left his ball on the edge of the green, while McLeod, man of iron, had +laid his third shot within three feet of the flag. It meant a sure +four for the latter, with not less than a five for Herring. One of +those golfing miracles, a forty-foot putt, would halve the match, to +be sure, but in tournament golf miracles have a way of occurring on +any except the deciding hole. + +Sympathy usually follows the amateur, therefore it was a silent +throng that ranged itself about the gently undulating expanse of +velvet sod in the shadow of the east wing. Herring had played a +wonderful match; he stood for all that is clean and fine in golf. +The end of the balcony was jammed; nearly every window framed +eager faces; amid a breathless intensity of interest the youthful +contender tested the turf with the head of his club and studied +the run of the green. A moment, then he took his stance and swung +his putter smoothly. The ball sped away, taking a curving course, +and followed by five hundred pairs of eyes. It ran too swiftly! +Herring, in desperation, had overplayed! But no--it lost momentum +as it topped a rise, then gathered speed, all but died at the edge +of the cup and--toppled in amid a salvo of handclaps and roar of +"Bravo!" + +That was nerve, courage, skill! That was golf! The miracle had +happened! Another hole to decide the match. + +Quickly the crowd became still again as McLeod, his teeth set upon +the stem of his pipe, his stony face masking a murderous +disappointment, stepped forward to run down his four. + +The silence was broken by a cry. Out of the air overhead came the +sound of a disturbance, and every face turned. A most amazing +thing was in the way of happening, a phenomenon unique in the +history of tournaments, for a man was being thrust forth from one +of the hotel windows, perhaps twenty-five feet above the ground--a +writhing, struggling, kicking man with fawn-colored spats. He was +being ejected painlessly but firmly, and by a girl--a grim-faced +young woman of splendid proportions. For a moment she allowed him +to dangle; then she dropped him into a handsome Dorothy Perkins +rosebush. He landed with a shriek. Briefly the amazon remained +framed in the casement, staring with dark defiance down into the +upturned faces; her deep bosom was heaving, her smoky hair was +slightly disarranged; she allowed her eyes to rest upon the figure +entangled among the thorns beneath her, then she closed the +window. + +Nothing like this had ever occurred in Scotland. The mighty McLeod +missed his putt and took a five. + +As Allie Briskow passed through the lobby with her head erect and +her fists clenched, she heard the sound of a great shouting +outside and she believed it was directed at her. She fled into her +room and flung herself upon her bed, sobbing hoarsely. + +Mrs. Ring was waiting on the veranda for Gus Briskow when he +returned to the hotel about dark. He had learned to dread the +sight of her on that veranda, for it was her favorite resigning +place--what Gus called her "quitting spot," and it was evident to- +night that she was in a quitting mood, a mood more hysterical than +ever before. It was some time before he could get at the facts, +and even then he could not fully appreciate the enormity of the +disgrace that had overwhelmed Allie's instructress. + +"She chucked the dancin' teacher out of a winder?" he repeated, +blankly. "What for?" + +"Goodness knows, Mr. Briskow! Something he said, or did--I +couldn't make out precisely. I found her in a dreadful state, and +I tried to comfort her, I did really, but--oh! If you could have +_heard_ her! Where she learned such language I don't know. My ears +_burn_! But that isn't the worst; you should hear what--" + +"He must of said something pretty low down." Briskow spoke +quietly; his bright blue eyes were hard. "I reckon she'll tell +me." + +"You don't understand," chattered the woman. "She flung the man +bodily out of the window and into a bed of thorns. It nearly +killed him; he was painfully lacerated and bruised and--Right in +the middle of a golf game! It did something dreadful--I don't know +what--just as the world's champion caught the ball, or something." + +"If he's crippled I'll get him that much easier," said Briskow, +and at the purposeful expression upon his weather-beaten face Mrs. +Ring uttered a faint bleat of terror. She pawed at him as he +undertook to pass her. + +"Oh, my heavens! What are you going to do?" + +"Depends on what he said to Allie." + +The woman wrung her hands. "What people! What--_savages_! You're +--going to shoot him, I suppose, just because--" + +"Yes'm!" the father nodded. "You got it right, motif an' all. +'Just because'!" + +"You _can't_. I sha'n't permit it. I--I'll call the police." + +"Don't do that, ma'am. I've stood a lot from you, in one way or +another." + +"But it's _murder_! You--you can't mean it." Moans issued from the +speaker. "What _ever_ possessed me to accept this position? It's +unendurable, and I'll be involved--" + +"I've saw your last raise, Miz' Ring." + +"Do you think I'd stay, after this? It's bad enough to be made +ridiculous--the whole hotel is in laughter; laughter at me, I dare say, +as much as at her. Imagine! Hurling a full-grown man from a window--" + +"I don't hear nobody laughing." Briskow swung his head slowly from +side to side. + +"But to contemplate murder--" + +"What's more, I don't intend to hear nobody laugh. By God! Now I +come to think about it, there ain't a-goin' to be no laughing at +all around here." Gus continued slowly to swing his head, like a +bear. "She's my kid!" He pushed past Mrs. Ring, still muttering, +"My kid--there ain't a-goin' to be no laughing at all." + +Going directly to the desk, he asked for the manager, then stood +aside, hat in hand, until the latter made his appearance. The +manager began a hasty and rather mixed apology on behalf of the +hotel for what had occurred in the dancing room, but his tone of +annoyance was an accusation in itself. It was plain that, to his +mind, the catastrophe on the eighteenth green outweighed in +importance whatever may have led up to it. That was something +actually tragic, something frightful, appalling; it involved the +good name of the hotel and affected the world's golf title. + +"Very--unfortunate," he lamented. "We haven't heard the last of +it, by any means. McLeod may file a protest. And there is +something to be said on both sides; rather a nice question, in +fact." + +"Prob'ly so," the father agreed. "An' I got something to say about +it, too. Get that dancin' perfessor off the place quick or I'll +kill him." + +The manager recoiled; his startled eyes searched Briskow's face +incredulously. "I--beg pardon?" + +"I 'ain't heard my kid's side of the story yet, but I'm goin' to +see her now, so you better get word to that jumpin' jack in a +hurry. That is, if you want to save him." + +"He is discharged, of course, for we tolerate no rudeness on the +part of our employees--or our guests, for that matter; but I +believe he is suffering some effects from the shock. I couldn't +well ask him to go before--" + +"It'll take me prob'ly twenty minutes, talkin' to my girl. +That'll give him time, if he moves fast. But I may get through in +fifteen." + +At the door to his suite Gus Briskow paused to wipe his +countenance clean of the expression it had worn for the last few +minutes, and when he entered it was with his usual friendly smile. +Allie and her mother were waiting; they were white and silent. Gus +kissed his daughter before saying: + +"Don't worry, honey; he won't bother you no more." + +Allie averted her face. Mrs. Briskow inquired, "Did you see the +skunk?" + +"No. I give him a few minutes to clear out." + +"Hadn't we better leave, too?" ventured Allie. + +"Oh-h!" In Ma's eyes was such bleak dismay, such a piteous appeal, +that Gus shook his head. + +"What fer? We got nice quarters and your ma likes it here--" + +"They're laughing at me. I heard 'em hollering." + +"They won't laugh long. No, you're learnin' fast, and we're all +havin' a nice time. Only one thing--I'm kinda tired of that Miz' +Ring. I let her go, but I'll get you another--" + +"She quit, eh?" + +"Um-m, not exactly. I--" + +"I don't blame her. I've been mighty mean. But I couldn't help it, +pa. When you put a wild horse in a pen, it don't do to prod him +and throw things and--That's what they've done to me. I bite and +kick like any bronc. When you're hurt, constant, you get spells +when you've got to hurt back. I've been rotten to her, and now +this coming on top of it--" + +"Wha'd that dancin' dude do, anyhow?" + +Allie related her experience with Professor Delamater; she told it +all up to the burst of shouting that followed her through the +lobby. "You should of heard 'em yelling, clapping their hands--! +I"--she choked, her voice failed her, miserably she concluded--"I +wish to God we'd never struck oil!" + +"You're just wore out, dearie," her mother said, comfortingly, and +Briskow agreed. He assured her that all would be well. + +All was not well, however. The next morning when Gus Briskow was +about to leave the hotel as usual--Professor Delamater having +departed hurriedly the evening before with fully four minutes of +his twenty to spare--he was stopped by the manager, who requested +him to give up his rooms. The Texan was bewildered; he could not +understand the reason for such a request. + +"'Ain't I paid my bills?" he queried. + +The manager assured him that he had; he was profoundly regretful, +as a matter of fact; but it so happened that the Briskow suite had +been reserved early in the season, and the party who had made the +reservation had just wired that he was arriving that day. He was a +gentleman of importance--it was indeed unfortunate--the management +appreciated Mr. Briskow's patronage--they hoped he and his family +would return to the Notch sometime. + +"Mebbe you got some other rooms that would do us," Gus ventured. + +It was too bad, but the hotel was overcrowded. Later, perhaps-- +Now at that very moment the lobby was filled with tournament +golfers who were leaving on the morning train, and Briskow knew +it. He studied the speaker with an expression that caused the +latter extreme discomfort; it was much the same expression he had +worn the night before when he had served warning upon Delamater. + +"Lemme get this right," he said. "You can talk straight to me. +Bein' ignerunt, I 'ain't got the same feelin's as these other +folks got. I got a shell like a land turtle." + +"It is quite customary, I assure you. No offense, my dear sir." + +"That's how I figgered! Just bouncin' a low-down var mint ain't +offense enough to be throwed out about, when you pay your bills--" + +"You quite misapprehend--" + +"Fired, eh? It 'll go hard with Ma. She's gainin' here, and she +likes it. That's why I never told her you was chargin' us about +double what you charge these rich folks." + +The manager stiffened. "I regret exceedingly, sir, that you take +it this way. But there is nothing more to be said, is there?" + +It was with a heavy heart and a heavy tread that Briskow returned +to his room. Ma took the announcement like a death blow, for it +meant the end of all her dreams, all her joyous games of +"pretend." Her mountains--those clean, green, friendly mountains +that she loved with a passion so intense that she fairly ached +--those and her caves, her waterfalls, her gypsy band, were to be +taken from her. She was to be banished, exiled. + +She did not weep a great deal, but she seemed suddenly to grow +older and more bent. Listlessly, laboriously she began to pack, +and her husband noticed with a pang that her hands shook +wretchedly. + +As for Allie, she told herself that this was the end. She had +tried to make something of herself and had failed. She had +crucified herself; she had bled her body and scourged her soul +only to gain ridicule and disgrace. There was no use of trying +further; Gray had been mistaken in her, and her misery, her shame +at the realization was intolerable. There was no facing him, after +this. + +Allie decided to do away with herself. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +Gus Briskow was waiting at the cashier's desk for his bill when +the bustle of incoming guests told him that the morning train had +arrived. Probably it had brought that "gentleman of importance" to +whom the manager had referred. "To hell with people like that +manager!" the Texan muttered. He would take his family back home +and chance no more humiliations like this. And to think that he +had allowed that dancing monkey to escape when he could have shot +him as well as not! + +Briskow's chain of thought was broken by a slap on the back that +nearly drove him through the cashier's window; then by a loud, +cheery greeting. The next moment he found himself actually +embraced by--Gus could not believe his eyes--by Calvin Gray! + +The latter's affectionate greeting, his frank delight at seeing +the Texan, caused people in the lobby to center amused attention +upon them, and induced those behind the desk to regard Briskow +with new respect. + +"Gus! You precious pirate! My, but I'm glad to see you! Ma and +Allie are well, I know; they couldn't be otherwise here. Great +place, isn't it? Nothing in this country or Europe that compares +with it, and I've sent dozens of my friends here. I came north on +business and couldn't bear to go back without seeing you. Come! +Give me a welcome, for I've traveled across three states to get +here." + +The two stood hand in hand. Gray beamed approvingly. Gus, too, was +smiling, but earnestly he said, "I'm right glad to see you, Mr. +Gray, for we're in trouble." + +"Trouble? What sort? Not illness?" + +"No. We're leavin'--been throwed out." + +The younger man's face sobered. "Don't joke!" he cried, sharply. + +"I ain't joking. Feller insulted Allie and she throwed him out of +a window--" + +"Exactly! It's in the morning paper." + +"They don't seem to think it was reefined, so they--throwed _us_ +out." + +"Nonsense! Why, it is a corking story, and Allie was splendid--she +gave the championship to Herring, who deserved it, thereby +delighting every golfer on this side of the Atlantic. Jove! that +girl is developing and I'm going to hug her--if there's no window +handy! Throw you out? Why, there's some mistake, surely!" + +Briskow shook his head; in greater detail he made known the facts. +When he had finished his halting recital Calvin Gray's face was +flushed with anger, there was a dark frown between his eyes. + +"We'll see!" he muttered. "Wait here--or go back and tell Ma to +commence unpacking." Then he was gone. + +For perhaps ten minutes Gus waited nervously; he was amazed +finally to see Gray approaching arm in arm with the manager; both +were laughing, the hotel man's face was radiant with good humor. +To the departing guest he said, genially: + +"You are not going to leave us, after all, Mr. Briskow. On the +contrary, we are going to keep you at the Notch as long as you'll +stay. Stupid misunderstanding on my part, and I apologize. I'm +going to ask you to move, but into a better suite--the very best +one we have. And the rate will be the same. Come! What do you +say?" When he was met by a stammered protest, he insisted +forcefully: "I sha'n't take 'no' for an answer, my dear sir; we +simply refuse to let you leave. The best we have is yours, and I +guarantee that you will be made comfortable." + +"He offered to extend you the courtesies of the house--make you +guests of the hotel," Gray added, "but I knew you wouldn't accept." + +"Dunno's I want to stay at all," Gus murmured, angrily. "We ain't +no better'n we was a half hour ago." + +"To be sure, but I've made you better known. You are too shy; you +didn't afford my friend here the pleasure of making your +acquaintance, and I had to tell him the sort of person you really +are. Serves you right, Gus, for being so exclusive. Gad! I think +I'll give you a few lessons in democracy. Now then, come along! +I'm dying to see Ma." + +As the father trotted down the hall beside his swiftly striding +deliverer, he gasped, "How'd you do it?" + +"Nothing simpler. I merely showed Mr. What's-his-name that he was +making an ass of himself. I've spent a fortune here; know the +owners, too. Nice chap, that manager, but he has no business +running a hotel, and I so informed him. He'll probably annoy you +to death with his attentions. He'll let you play 'shinny' in the +halls if you want to. Now--wait!" The speaker laid a finger upon +his lips; his eyes were dancing. He knocked sharply at the Briskow +door and cried, "Baggage ready, ma'am?" + +There was a stir from within, the door was slowly opened by a +bent, pathetic figure of grief. + +"Ma!" Gray cried, and he held out his arms. + +Perhaps it was his virile personality radiating confidence, +security, or perhaps it was Gus Briskow's shining face that told +the story; whatever the fact, Ma Briskow uttered a thin, broken +wail, then walked into those open arms and laid her head upon +Gray's breast. She clung to him eagerly and the tears she had been +blinking so hard to restrain flowed silently. + +"Oh-n-h! We ain't goin'away!" she said. "We ain't--goin' away!" + +"Of course not. Gus misunderstood. The manager merely wanted you +to move--into a larger, finer suite, and he is positively +distressed at the thought of your leaving. The poor man is dashing +about collecting an armful of roses for you and Allie. He wants to +come in person and apologize." + +There was another sound and Gray looked up to see Allie standing +in the doorway to her bedroom; with one hand she clutched the +jamb, the other was pressed to her bosom; she was staring at him +as at an apparition. The girl was quite colorless, there was a +look almost of fright in her eyes, and when he came toward her she +swayed weakly. Her hands, when he took them, were icy; it shocked +him to see how worn, how weary she had grown. + +It was several hours later. In the parlor of the new suite, a +spacious, sunny room, fragrant with flowers and cheerful with +brilliant cretonnes, Gray and Briskow were talking. Allie and her +mother could be seen in their bedrooms putting away the last of +their belongings. Gray's eyes had been drawn, at frequent +intervals, to the younger woman, for the change in her became the +more amazing the more he observed her, and he was still striving +to reconcile this creature to the picture he had held in his mind. +In a few months Allie had become almost a stranger to him. It was +a marked and yet a subtle change that had come over her; she was +anything but a polished young woman, of course; nevertheless she +had been modified, toned down, vastly improved, and not until her +first queer emotion at seeing him had disappeared was the full +extent of that improvement manifest to the newcomer. He wondered +why she had acted so oddly at first; surely she did not fear him. +No, Allie's face at this moment was alight with supreme joy and +satisfaction; she appeared to be quite as happily at her ease as +Ma, who was singing steadily in a thin, rusty voice. + +Gray sent the father away on some pretext, finally; then he called +to Allie: "Come in here and talk to me. I am a guest and I demand +entertainment." He observed with silent approval her carriage as +she entered the room and accepted the chair he offered her. Faint +trace of the nester's daughter here. "I want a good chance to look +at you." + +Allie colored faintly. "I guess I'm not much to look at." + +"Hm-m! You don't in the least resemble that girl I found hoeing in +the garden. You are terribly thin." + +"Spinach!" said Allie. + +"Dieting, eh?" + +"Yes. Spinach and water and a rubber suit. Sometimes I have a +party and eat a whole soda cracker." + +"It isn't too high a price to pay for beauty--beauty, 'the fading +rainbow's pride.' We men should thank Heaven for women's courage +in pursuing it. It is all that makes this world an attractive +dwelling place for nice people." + +"Sometimes I think it's kind of wicked to spend so much time and +money that way, but--I guess it's all right. I want to look as +good as other people." + +"I'm in a mood for quotations. 'Is beauty vain because it will +fade? Then are earth's green robe and heaven's light vain.' Pride, +even vanity, is less of a vice than slovenliness, my dear. Now +then, do you like Mrs. Ring?" + +Allie nodded. "I like her, but--I hate her. She makes me feel +awful mad because she can't understand that I ain't--I am not mad +at her, but at myself. I don't hardly know how to explain it. If I +was her I'd hate me, like I do." + +"Would you like to have her remain?" + +"Oh, I would! She knows everything, and she makes me learn. But +she won't stay. I just found out that she's been quitting every +few weeks, and Pa's been raising her wages. No, the disgrace, and +our being thrown out--" + +"My dear girl, let me assure you, once for all, there is no +suggestion of disgrace about this affair. You behaved with spirit, +and those who have heard about it admire you. I have talked with a +number of them, and I know. I had a talk with Mrs. Ring also, and +she will remain if you wish her to do so." + +"You're a--a good man, ain't--" + +"Aren't!" + +"--aren't you, Mr. Gray? You fix everything." + +"Not a good, but a convenient man. My specialty is making things +easier for my friends." + +"Are these other folks, these rich ones around the hotel, like +you?" + +"Oh, much nicer than I!" Gray laughed. "You must meet some of +them." + +Allie's face whitened at this suggestion. "Please, sir--I'm +scared!" + +"Very well. As you wish. Tell me, what are you going to do with me +this afternoon?" + +"I dunno!" Allie looked blank. "I don't do anything but study. I +s'pose I got to study." + +"Nothing of the sort. You have circles under your eyes now from +overwork, and this is your vacation. I am a visitor, a restless +visitor; I abhor being asked to make myself at home, and I never +do. I demand amusement. Do you know what I'd like to do best of +all?" Allie did not know. "I'd like to sit here and smoke while +you show me all your pretty dresses. Ah! Those dark eyes brighten. +You're dying to show them to me, aren't you?" + +"_Would_ you? Honest?" + +"Cross my heart. But remember, I have a color sense and I'm not +easily pleased. I'll probably condemn some of them." + +Allie breathed deeply. "Oh, Gee!" she said. + +"Run along and try them on, then I'll borrow a pair of puttees and +we'll go for a ride." + +For the next two hours Allegheny Briskow was in heaven. Never had +she dreamed of anything like this. To have Calvin Gray alone, all +to herself--Ma, as usual, had disappeared--and to discuss with him +exciting questions of dress and good taste that she could not +discuss with her own people; to meet his occasional hearty +approval--well, it was enough to make a girl drunk with happiness. +Gowns that he liked became precious; she hated those that he condemned. +Her fingers grew clumsy with haste, her cheeks burned. He said she wore +her clothes well, that she carried herself well. He approved of her--liked +her! God above! And to think that she had contemplated suicide! Of course +she was pitifully ignorant as yet, and she had not even learned to +talk as he talked, but there were books. She would study. Oh, the +fury with which she would apply herself after this! She would beat +the contents of those books into her head with her fists, if +necessary; she would show him how fast she could learn; she would +astonish him. Her heart sang at the thought that she was rich +--richer than he. That would count, too, for men liked money. + +"Where is Ma?" Gray inquired, when the last gown had been paraded +and when Allie appeared in her riding suit. + +"Out with the fairies, I suppose. She won't tell Pa or me where +she goes or what she does--says it's all foolishness." + +"Perhaps she will tell me, for I believe in fairies," Gray said, +seriously. + +Allie smiled at him. "I reckon she will. Folks tell you 'most +anything you want them to, I reckon." + +This was the busiest hour of the afternoon. Gray had purposely +ordered the horses sent around at a time when he knew that the +veranda, the walks, and the tennis courts would be filled, for +ever since his interview with the hotel manager a plan had been +shaping in his mind and already he had dropped a few words, a hint +or two here and there, that were calculated to stimulate interest +in Allie Briskow. + +It gratified his craving for the theatric now to lead the girl out +before so many curious eyes. For himself, he knew that he +commanded attention, and as he noted the lines of this young Juno +he could find nothing in her that needed betterment. Allie's suit +was the latest, smartest thing in riding habits, and it set off +her magnificent figure as nothing else could. Systematic exercise +and hard work, like the final touch of a skilled sculptor, had +given it beauty and refinement; harmony and proportion had +destroyed the impression of unusual size. How deep was her bosom, +how smooth and flowing were her curves, how superbly tall she was! +As a thing of flesh and blood, she made these other women look +like females of an insignificant race. + +It thrilled him pleasantly to observe the confidence with which +she swung herself into the saddle and the instant mastery she +exercised over her restless mount. No timidity there, no need of +assistance; no absurd, hampering skirts and artificial posture, +either, but a seat astride as befits anyone who chooses to honor +the king of four-footed creatures. + +Under cover, Gray noted Allie's effect upon her attentive +audience, and he smiled. If only he could spend a few days here he +would make her a woman to be sought after by some of the best +people. She refused to meet them, eh? Well, that would be as it +was to be. + +"We've been having supper in our rooms lately," she told him, when +they returned at dark. "You're going to eat with us, ain--aren't +you?" + +"I am, to be sure. But not in your rooms," he declared. + +"I'd rather--" + +"You'd rather do exactly what would please me, now wouldn't you?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then run along and put on that dinner dress that I liked best. +And tell Ma to look her prettiest, too. We'll not spoil this day." + +It was seven-thirty when Gray, in evening clothes, appeared at the +Briskow suite. Allie told herself there had never been a man so +handsome, so distinguished, so Godlike as he. God, she now felt +sure, must wear full dress. + +Gus Briskow beamed as the visitor smiled approvingly at his +daughter. "She is purty, ain't she? Don't look much like the girl +I sent to Dallas for fixin's." + +"Allie is more then pretty, she's regal. 'Such another peerless +queen only could her mirror show.' But--her head is turned +already, Gus. Don't spoil her." The speaker stood with arms folded +and head lowered while he studied the girl impersonally. Allie +wore an expensive black lace dress, sleeveless and sufficiently +low of neck to display her charms. "Plain! A little too somber," +Gray declared. "She can afford colors, ornaments. Jove! I'd like +some time to see her in something Oriental, something barbaric. +The next time I'm in New York I'll select a gown--" + +Ma Briskow entered at the moment, greatly flustered and extremely +self-conscious, and here, certainly, was no lack of ornamentation +or of color. Ma wore all her jewelry, and her dress was an +elaborate creation of brilliant jade green, from one shoulder of +which depended a filmy streamer of green chiffon. In her desire to +gild the lily she had knotted a Roman scarf about her waist--a +scarf of many colors, of red, of yellow, of purple, of blue, of +orange--a very spectrum of vivid stripes, and it utterly ruined +her. It lent her an air of extreme superfluity; it was as if she +had put on everything except the bedspread. + +"You said to look my nicest," she bubbled, "so I done the best I +could." + +"You _are_ lovely, both of you, but--this is my party, isn't it? I +can do anything I please?" Gray looked from one to the other in +eager inquiry. "Then let me fix you my way. Ma Briskow, your face +is too sweet, too gentle, to be spoiled. Your charm is in your +simplicity. Here, I have it!" + +With swift impetuosity he untied the scarf and whipped it from +Ma's waist. "Watch me now and you'll see I'm right." With his +penknife he cut the threads that held the chiffon streamer in +place and removed it. "_Voila_! Even so little, and we see an +adorable motherly person, richly but unostentatiously gowned. +Don't you agree with me?" + +Without pausing for an answer, he wheeled upon the daughter and +drew her into the range of a pier glass. "Now close your eyes and +keep them closed." Around Allie's hips he flung the scarf, drew it +snug and smooth, then knotted it. Next he snatched the length of +chiffon and bound it about her head. His touch was deft and +certain; a moment and it had been fashioned to suit him. Then he +stood back and eyed the _tout ensemble._ + +"Gorgeous!" he cried, genuinely enthusiastic. "That was the touch. +I defy any costumer to better it. Open your eyes, oh, gypsy +princess! And what do you see?" + +"It--it sort of makes a difference, doesn't it?" Allie said. "'A +_difference'!_" Gray flung aloft his hands in exaggerated despair. +"Heaven help me! I am inspired; I have a flash of genius, a divine +impulse, and with a magic pass I work a miracle. I transform you +from something somber, dark, morose, into a creature of life, of +passion, of allurement." He groaned. "And you stand there like a +stalagmite. Why, girl, _look_ at yourself!" + +"Darned if she don't look like a pitcher I seen som'er's--on an +almanac," Gus declared. + +"Aha! A man with a soul! A human being who sees beauty where I see +it. An artist with my fire!" Gray burst into infectious laughter, +and the others joined him. + +This proved to be an evening when people really did turn their +heads as the Briskows were shown to their table, but for once +Allie suffered no embarrassment, for she felt sure they were +looking at Calvin Gray, and in the shining glory of his presence +she knew that she and her parents were invisible. + +It was the sort of situation in which Gray appeared to best +advantage, so he talked incessantly during the meal, and in a key +that kept his companions unconscious of their surroundings. On +their way out they passed the entrance to the ballroom and paused +to look in. The beat of the music swayed Allie unconsciously; +then, before she knew it, Gray's arm was around her waist and he +was guiding her out upon the floor. + +"Oh, n-no!" she gasped. She stumbled, but he drew her closer, +saying: + +"I'm proud of you, and I want you to show these people that you +dance even better than you ride." + +Allie rose to the challenge. + +About midnight Calvin Gray strolled outdoors for a breath of fresh +air before retiring. He glowed with the consciousness of a worthy +deed well done. He had come to the Notch expecting to spend one +night, but events of the last few hours had induced him to change +his plans, and he now made up his mind to stay several days. He +was burning to be back in the oil fields, to be sure; every hour +away from them was an hour wasted, and although he told himself it +was his feud that drew him, he knew better. As a matter of fact, +when he thought of Texas it was of Wichita Falls, and when he +visualized the latter place it was to picture a cottage with the +paint off or a small office with the sign, "Tom and Bob Parker, +Real Estate and Insurance." + +He had been eagerly, selfishly, counting the hours until his +return, but here, it seemed, was work to be done, a task that he +alone could accomplish, and his decision to remain had been made +final when Allie Briskow told him with tremulous earnestness that +he had saved her life--when she confessed that she had intended to +kill herself, and why. + +Naturally Gray had put no faith in that wild declaration, +nevertheless it was plain that the girl--that all three Briskows +--needed a friend to guide them. He sighed with resignation, but +reflected that, inasmuch as he had put his hand to the plow, he +must turn the furrow. After all, he could well afford to spare a +week to put that girl on the road to happiness. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +From the day of their first meeting, Henry Nelson and Calvin Gray +had clashed. No two people could be more different in disposition +and temper, hence it was only natural that every characteristic, +every action of the one should have aroused the other's +antagonism. Nelson was a cool, selfish, calculating plodder with +little imagination and less originality; he thought in grooves. +His was a splendid type of mind for a banker. He had but one weak +point--_viz_., a villainous temper, a capacity for blind, +vindictive rage--a weakness, truly, for a man who dealt in money +--but a weakness that lent him a certain humanity and without which +he would have been altogether too mechanical, too colorless, too +efficient. Nature seldom errs by making supermen. A drab man, in +many ways, Nelson was extraordinary mainly in this, that his mind +followed straight, obvious channels, and that never, except under +the urge of extreme passion, did he depart from the strictly +logical line of action. In this, of course, he was superior to the +average person, who too frequently undertakes the unusual. Calvin +Gray's ebullience, his dash, his magnificence of demeanor, could +be nothing less than an affront to such a man; Nelson could see in +him only a pompous braggart, an empty, arrogant strutter. + +Age and easy success had not improved the banker's apoplectic turn +of mind, hence Gray's defiant declaration of war, his impudent +assurance that the recent misfortunes to the house of Nelson were +the direct results of his own deliberate efforts, had proven +almost unendurable. In the first place, Nelson could not imagine a +man making such a declaration; it was new to his entire experience and +contrary to his code. It was unconservative, therefore it +staggered him. It was, in fact, a phenomenon so unique as to leave +him numb. He told himself that it must have been the act of a +madman or a fool. Under no circumstances could he conceive of +himself warning an enemy of his intentions; on the contrary, when +he undertook to crush a rival he went about it slyly, secretly, in +the only regular and proper way. As a matter of fact, it had come +as a disagreeable surprise to learn that his former comrade at +arms cherished any resentment whatever toward him, for he had +thought his tracks were well covered. + +What left the banker actually gasping, however, that which he came +back to with unfailing astonishment, was Gray's effrontery in +coming to Wichita Falls to boast of his accomplishments. That +bespoke such contempt, such supreme self-confidence in his ability +to wreak further damage, that Nelson wanted to shout aloud his +rage and his defiance. + +Following the departure of his two callers on that day of the +meeting in the bank, Nelson closed his desk and went home. He +could work no more. For several days thereafter he was an +unpleasant person to do business with. + +On mature consideration, what amazed him as much as anything else +was the fact that Gray had made good in so short a time and in +such a big way. Evidently, however, it was only another story of a +lucky break and an overnight fortune--a common occurrence these +days. But it was doubly unfortunate under the circumstances, for +already Nelson was carrying a load equal to his strength, and he +told himself that he could not afford to be distracted, even +temporarily, by the irresponsible actions of a maniac. One never +could tell what a madman would do. And Gray had confessed himself +a madman--a fanatic of the most dangerous type. There was but one +course of action open--viz., to eliminate him, destroy him without +delay. That was no easy task, even in these lawless times, but the +stakes were too high to permit of half measures. There must be a way. + +One would have to be careful, of course, not to put oneself too +much in the power of unscrupulous people, and, alas! the world was +full of unscrupulous people. It was a pity that people could be so +unscrupulous as to take advantage of a bargain made in good faith. +That was blackmail. However, the prestige of the Nelson name was +great, the power of its money was potent, and Henry believed that +he could protect himself from eventualities. After cautious +deliberation he sent word to one of his men in the Ranger field +that he wished to see him. + +The man came promptly, and when he left Henry Nelson's house after +a conference he carried with him a perfectly clear idea why he had +been sent for. This despite the fact that he had not been told in +so many words. He knew, for instance, that a certain Calvin Gray +had become a menace to his employers, so dangerous that it was +worth to them a substantial fortune to be rid of him, and that +while Henry Nelson could under no circumstances countenance +anything illegal, anything savoring of violence, nevertheless if +some accident should befall Gray, if some act of God should put an +end to him, there would be no disposition on Henry's part to +question the divine origin of that calamity. Furthermore, the +speaker had made it plain that if Providence did take a hand in +some such mysterious manner, he would then be in a position amply +to reward his employee for many acts of loyalty that had +apparently passed unrecognized. For instance, profitable deals +were forever coming up, new acreage was constantly being acquired, +and it would be easy to carry a third party for an interest which +was bound to make that third party rich. + +All this was expressed with admirable vagueness, but the man +understood. + +So much accomplished, Nelson went to Dallas and there undertook to +learn something about the size of Calvin Gray's profits, who was +behind him and the extent of their backing, and what his +prospects were. He followed every avenue of information; he even +went so far as to hire an investigator and send him north to look +up Gray's record and to follow his tracks as far back as possible. +Nelson was reconnoitering behind the enemy's lines and testing the +strength of his position. + +When he returned home Gray was gone, whither he could not learn. +As the days passed without further developments, Nelson began to +believe that he had had a bad dream and that Gray had merely been +talking to hear his own voice. He devoutly hoped that such would +prove to be the case. + +A time came, however, when his apprehensions were roused afresh, +and it was Barbara Parker who rekindled them. She had come to the +bank with an excellent proposition and was doing her best to sell +it; in the course of her conversation she referred to Gray in a +manner that gave Nelson cause for thought. + +"I've looked this lease over," "Bob" was saying, "and I've seen +the books. It has been producing a hundred and fifty barrels a day +steadily. Production like that is cheap at a thousand dollars a +barrel. It is worth a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, Henry." + +"Why is it offered for seventy-five?" + +"Bob" shrugged. "How did a 'boll weevil' like this Jackson ever +make even a hundred-and-fifty-barrel well, in the first place? +Where did he get the money to drill? He is sick of the game, I +suppose, and would be satisfied to get his money back with a +reasonable profit. It is a find, really." + +"Looks so, for a fact. How did you get on to it, 'Bob'?" + +"Purely by chance. Through a man named Mallow, a 'scientist' of +some sort with a magic tester." The girl laughed. + +"Don't know him." + +"Mallow is as queer as the rest of his kind, and I put no faith in +his story until I investigated. But the well is there and doing a +hundred and fifty barrels as regular as clockwork." + +"You'll have no trouble in selling it." + +"Then you're not interested?" + +"Interested? Yes, indeed." Nelson nodded. "I'm quite excited, as a +matter of fact, but--I can't handle it at this particular time." + +"Frankly, I'm glad you can't," Barbara told him, "for now I can +sell it to Mr. Gray." + +"Gray?" Henry looked up quickly. "If you wanted it for him, why +did you bring it to me?" + +"Because Mr. Mallow insisted. He felt sure you'd jump at it. +Besides, Mr. Gray is away and prompt action is necessary. I'll +wire him at once and ask him to accept my judgment." + +"Will he do so?" + +The girl colored faintly at the tone of this inquiry. "Perhaps. I +think he believes in me, and--that's more than you do. It's mighty +flattering to a girl to have a man like Mr. Gray believe in her. +Why, I am practically his agent! He buys and sells through me +whenever he can." + +"He's buying and selling, is he? He said something about entering +this field in a big way--" + +"He's in." "Bob's" eyes were sparkling. "Oh, things are looking up +for dad and me. Mr. Gray is a real miracle man, isn't he?" When +this question evoked no response, the girl inquired, curiously, +"Tell me, are you and he such good friends as he says you are?" + +"Does he say we are good friends?" + +"Um-m--well, he speaks admiringly of you, and if people admire me +I _love_ them. He thinks you are a remarkably capable person. 'A +determined fighter,' I think he called you. That should be high +praise, coming from a fellow officer. He probably outlined his +plans to you." + +"He did." Nelson spoke dryly. + +"I assumed that he was relying on your judgment and taking your +tips." "Why? How so?" + +"Because he has bought so much land alongside of yours." + +"Where?" + +Barbara was surprised. "I--why, I supposed you knew!" After a +moment of hesitation she said: "I think I'd better keep my mouth +closed. Just the same, he couldn't have done better than to follow +your lead. That is the first compliment I ever paid you, Henry." + +"I've paid you enough. And I do believe in you, 'Bob,' but I'm not +the flattering kind. He's a great ladies' man. I wonder if he is +going to make me jealous." + +"You? Jealous? Coming from Wichita's most emotionless banker, from +the cold county Croesus, that speech is almost a--a declaration." +Miss Parker laughed frankly. "Why, Henry! My haughty little nose +is turning up--I can feel it. But, alas! it proves your +insincerity. If you had faith in my judgment you'd pick up this +snap." + +With some hesitation the man said: "We're in deep, 'Bob.' Awfully +deep! And things haven't gone as well as they should, lately. It's +temporary, of course, but it would require an extraordinary effort +at this time to take on anything new. That's the worst of this oil +game, it takes so much money to protect your holdings. It doesn't +pay to prospect land for the benefit of your neighbor; the risks +are too great. Gray has been pretty attentive to you, hasn't he?" + +"That's a part of the man; he is attentive to everybody. I have +received more candy and flowers and delightful little surprises +than in all my short, neglected life." + +"I didn't know you liked candy." + +"I don't. But I adore getting it. The thought counts. I don't care +much for canaries, either--I have such bad luck with them--but he +sent me the dearest thing from New York. A tiny mechanical bird +with actual feathers. And it sings! It is a really, truly yellow +canary in a beautiful gold cage, and when you press a spring it +perks its head, opens its beak, flirts its tail, and utters the most +angelic song. It must have cost a fortune. Couldn't you _love_ a +man who would think of a present like that?" + +"Hm-m! Could _you_?" + +"Oh, I'm joking, of course," "Bob" said, seriously. "We are merely +business associates, Mr. Gray and I, but he has the faculty of +taking his personality into his business, and that's why I know he +is bound to make a great success." + +"Some day," Nelson said, with an effort at lightness, "when we +have finished with this infernal oil excitement and the fever has +subsided, perhaps I'll have a chance to--well, to play ladies' +man. It won't last long--" + +"I'm sure it won't," laughed the girl. "You'd never make a go of +it, Henry." + +"I mean this boom won't last. These fools think it will, but it +won't. While it does last, we busy men have no time for anything +else, no chance to think of anything, no room in our minds--" The +speaker stared gloomily into space. He shook his head. "When a +fellow is worried about important matters, he neglects the little; +things." + +"To me that is the tragedy of this oil excitement. It devours +everything fine in us. I wonder if the 'little things' of life +aren't, after all, the most important. Mind you, I'm not hinting +--I don't want your attentions--I wouldn't have time for them, +anyhow, for I'm just as feverish as anybody else. But in the midst +of all these new concerns, these sudden millions, this overnight +success, our ambitious schemes, we are forgetting the things that +really count. Gentleness, courtesy, love, home, children: they're +pretty big, Henry. Candy and roses and yellow canaries, too. But +"--the speaker rose, briskly--"I didn't come here to talk about +them; I came here to sell you an oil well. Sorry you can't take +it." + +When she had gone Nelson sat in a frowning study for some time. +So, it was not all a bad dream. What could be Gray's object in +buying acreage adjoining his? Was it faith in his, Nelson's, +judgment, a desire to ride to success on the tail of his enemy's +kite, or did it mean a war of offsets, drilling operations the +instant a well came in? More likely the latter, if the maniac +really meant what he had said. That promised to be an expensive +and a hazardous undertaking on Gray's part; that was playing the +game on a scale too big for the fellow's limited resources, and +yet--it might be well to study the maps. Yes, and it was like +Gray's effrontery to pay deliberate court to "Bob" Parker, knowing +his rival's feelings toward the girl. Another insult! The upstart +certainly possessed an uncanny dexterity in pricking armor joints. +But what if Gray were in earnest? "Bob" had become a wonderfully +desirable creature, she was the most attractive girl in Wichita +Falls-- + +It was a thought that had not previously presented itself to Henry +Wilson, and it disturbed him now. He was glad, indeed, that he had +sent to Ranger for that field man. + +In and around the office of McWade & Stoner these were busy days, +what with a couple of new wildcat promotions and a well going down +on semiproven ground--that lease which cornered into the Nelson +holdings, and to which Stoner had called attention. It had been +easy to sell stock in the latter enterprise, and now the deeper +went the hole, the higher rose the hopes of the promoters. Stoner +himself was directing operations, and he had named the well +"Avenger Number One." + +To-day he and his partner had been listening to Mallow, who +concluded an earnest discourse with these words: + +"Nelson and her are pardners in one deal and he's stuck on her. If +anybody can put it over, she's the one." + +"If he buys that well it'll be the biggest laugh this town ever +had," McWade declared. + +"Buy it? A hundred and fifty barrels in the heart of settled +production for seventy-five thousand? I bet he'll buy it." + +"Think the boss will stand for that kind of a deal?" + +"Why not? They can't hang it on him, and Heaven knows I'm honest." + +"He said 'nothing crooked'--" + +Mallow snorted. "Say, I bet you believe in Santa Claus! Gray's a +great man, and what makes him great is that he does his own +crooked work." + +Stoner was inclined to agree with Mallow's measure of their +associate. "That's how I got him figgered. His honesty talk didn't +go far with me, and I don't believe he'll kick at anything. He's +willing to pay any price to break this banker, but you can't +bankrupt a feller unless you rip his coin loose; you can't _ask_ +him to please loosen. If we make a well of the Avenger we'll force +him to shoot maybe a hundred thousand right away, and that may +cramp him for a while; but suppose he makes the turn and hits it +like we do? We've made him that much stronger, haven't we? Gray +plans to keep him spending faster than he can get it in, and +that's all right--if it works, but if Mallow can bilk him for +seventy-five thousand at one fell swipe--Well, I'll bet my best +gold tooth that the boss will stand the shock like a man." + +"I think you've both got Gray all wrong," said McWade. "He's too +smart to be crooked." + +This was a statement so absurd that Mallow proceeded to riddle it. +It was, upon its face, a contradiction, for none but smart men +could be crooked, and the laws of logic proved the converse to be +equally true. + +Stoner sat in frowning silence while the argument raged, but he +broke in finally: "I've always wanted to pull a real salting job, +just to show how easy it is to gyp the cagy ones--not an oil-can +job like this, but something big. This looks like the piscological +moment." + +"Lay off, I tell you!" McWade cried. "We're a legitimate firm,' +solid as Gibraltar and safe as a church.' That's our motto, and +we've got to live up to it. I came into Wichita on the roof of a +Pullman; I'm going out in a drawing-room. Me and sin are +strangers." "Nothing sinful about my idea, Mac. One fall or two +won't break Nelson; we've got to spill him hard. If we can pick up +a few pennies ourselves in the process, why, that's legitimate. +The dealer is entitled to his percentage, ain't he? Now listen. +Everybody's getting set for a big play over in Arkansas, as you +know--salting away cheap acreage and waiting for some of the +wildcats to come in. Well, last year I had a tool dresser from up +there; nice boy, but he got pneumonia and it turned into the +'con,' so I took him home. He's back on his farm now, coughing his +life away and doing a little bootleggin' to keep body and cough +together. He's got a big place, but it's all run down and so poor +you couldn't raise a dust on it with a bellows. It would be a +Christian act to help him sell that goat pasture for enough to go +to some nice warm country where he'd get well and they couldn't +extradite him." + +"Of course, if you've got a scheme that is perfectly safe," McWade +ventured, charitably, "and our bit was worth it--" + +"I been thinking we might help the boy sell that farm to Nelson." + +"How?" + +Mallow, too, was curious. "Nelson's lungs are healthy; he wouldn't +cough a nickel unless the place had oil on it." + +"I meant to tell you it's got oil on it. Best indications I ever +saw. There's a drinking well, only the water ain't fit to drink +till you skim off the 'rainbow.' Then there's a wonderful seepage +into the creek. You can see the oil oozing out from under the +bank, in one place. Certainly is pretty." + +Stoner's hearers were intent; they exchanged puzzled glances. + +Mallow was the first to speak. "Come on. What's the joker? I ain't +saying you'd murder the guy for that farm, but if it's as good as +that he'd of died of the plague or something, and left it to you +long before this." + +"In a way, I'm getting ahead of my story," Stoner continued, +imperturbably. "The oil ain't actually visible, but it will be if, +when, and as, Henry Nelson gets ready to buy it." + +"Easy enough to pour oil into a water well, I suppose, but that +wouldn't fool a child. As for salting _running_ water, a creek +--show me." + +"There's a lot for you to learn in this business, Mallow. The +point is, can we lay Nelson against a bunch of acreage like that?" + +"You could lay _me_ against it if it looks like you say it does," +McWade declared. + +"This bootlegger, being half dead and non compost mentis, would +help put it over with a man like Nelson; he'd set him in a draught +while he was signing the option. I'll guarantee the seepage to +last for a month, even if he has the well bailed out every day, +and the creek will carry oil for half a mile." + +"Would your one-lunged friend know how to play in?" + +"_Would_ he? It was his idea, and all that kept us off of it last +year was the fact that the oil would have to be hauled about +thirty miles, and we didn't have the price between us to hire a +truck." + +For some time the trio discussed the various angles of Stoner's +proposition, endeavoring if possible to devise some natural way of +intriguing the interest of Henry Nelson. On this score McWade had +fewer apprehensions than did his companions, his contention being +that it mattered not how the matter was brought to the banker's +attention so long as the property would stand investigation. +Nelson was bound to be suspicious, anyhow, and a sale depended +entirely upon the character of the oil showing. McWade's coolness +toward the enterprise, it transpired, was occasioned not by a +loftier sense of rectitude than his associates displayed, but by +lingering doubts as to the profits involved. + +Not until Brick declared that his tubercular friend would accede +to any arrangement he saw fit to make did the junior partner fall +in with the proposal. "If it's a fair, square deal all around, I'm for it," +the latter finally agreed. "But we can't afford to have any guy squawking +that we did him up--especially if he's only got one lung to holler with. +We're a legitimate firm, and we've got to treat our clients right. I +think a fifty-fifty split would be reasonable." + +Stoner, too, thought that would be about right, and so it was +left. + +Mallow was highly enthusiastic. "This will be a great surprise to +Gray," he said, with animation. "It's mighty lucky he's got a gang +like us to help him." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +To learn that her mountain retreat had been invaded and that she +had been spied upon filled Ma Briskow with dismay, but when Allie +found fault with her behavior the elder woman burned with +resentment. + +"We're queer enough," the girl said, "without you cutting up crazy +and making folks talk. If you want to dance, for goodness' sake +hire somebody to lear--to teach you, same as I did." + +Mrs. Briskow had silently endured her daughter's criticism up to +this point, but now her lips tightened and there was a defiant +tilt to her head. + +"Who says I want to dance?" she demanded. "I can dance good +enough." + +"What was you up to the other day? That Delamater man said you was +acting plumb nutty." + +"I wasn't doin' anything." + +"Where do you go every day, Ma? You stay around nice and quiet +till Miz' Ring or I look the other way, then--you're gone." + +"I kinda--visit around." + +"Who d'you visit with? You don't know anybody. Nobody ever speaks +to us. You ain't in earnest about those fairies and things, are +you?" + +"It ain't anybody's business where I go or what I do," Ma +declared, in sullen exasperation. "I ain't bothering anybody, am +I?" + +"Don't say 'ain't,' say 'isn't.'" + +For once in her patient life the mother flamed into open +rebellion. "Don't 'don't' me!" she cried. "You're gettin' the +'don't' habit off Miz' Ring an' nothin' I say or do is right any +more. You mind your own 'isn'ts' an' I'll handle my 'ain'ts.' I got +places where I go an' things I do an' I don't bother nobody. I guess +we got enough money so I can do things I want to, as long as I don't +bother nobody." + +"Why don't you take Pa along? He'd go, then people--" + +"Mind your own business!" the old woman snapped. She flounced out +of the room, leaving Allie amazed and indignant at this burst of +temper. + +That day Ma Briskow abandoned her mountain fastness. She took her +faithful retainers with her and led them farther up the ravine to +a retreat that was truly inaccessible. She moved them, bag and +baggage. Of course, there was a scene; the children cried, the +women wailed, the men wept. But she told them that traitors had +betrayed their hiding place to the dastardly Duke of Dallas, and +any moment might bring his cutthroat crew upon them. Some of the +younger bloods were for remaining and selling their lives dearly, +but Ma would not hear to it. + +It was quite an undertaking to move a whole nomad tribe, for there +were all the household belongings, the rattle, the sheep, the +goats, the milk-white Arabian steeds, the butter and eggs and +homemade preserves, and all the paraphernalia of a warlike people. +It is surprising how stuff accumulates in a mountain fastness. But +she managed the retreat with conspicuous ability. Ma led the long +caravan into the bed of a running stream, so that there would +remain not a single footprint to guide pursuers, then she sat in +her saddle and gazed back at the silent camping place. + +Trap her, eh? Come upon her unprepared, would they? Ha! ha! She +laughed scornfully and tossed her head of midnight hair as she +pictured the duke's rage at finding he had been foiled again, and +by a mere slip of a girl! + +This was a good game and exciting, too. Fetch Pa Briskow along, +indeed! Why, these wild mountain folk would kill him; in their +present mood they would rend a stranger hip from thigh. If they dreamed, +for instance, that she, their queen, was married-- + +Here was a new thought, and Ma's imagination leaped at it. If +these passionate people suspected that she had contracted a secret +marriage with the--the Earl of Briskow, their jealousy would know +no bounds. They would probably slay Pa. Ma shuddered at the horrid +vision of what would happen to Pa. This was truly thrilling. + +Later on in the morning Mrs. Briskow discovered that she possessed +another amazing accomplishment--_viz_., the ability to walk on a +ceiling, upside down, like a fly. It was extremely amusing, for it +enabled a person to see right into everything. Pa and Allie looked +very funny from above. + +The next day, when she stealthily slipped out of her French +window, she found Calvin Gray idly rocking on the veranda. He +welcomed her appearance and pretended not to see her embarrassment +at the meeting; he was glad of this chance for a visit with her +alone. Perhaps she was going for a walk and would take him along? + +Ma was annoyed and suspicious. She liked Gray, but--she was as +wary as a trout and she refused to be baited. She would allow him +to walk with her--but lead him to the retreat? Well, hardly. + +The man was piqued, for suspicion irked him. It was a tribute to +his patience and to his knack of inspiring confidence that Ma +finally told him about Allie's criticism and her resentment +thereat. + +"I got my own way of enjoyin' myself, an' I don't care what people +think," she declared, with some heat. + +"Quite right. It's none of their darned business, Ma." + +"She thinks I'm kind of crazy an'--I guess I am. But it comes from +livin' so long in the heat an' the drought an' allus wantin' +things I couldn't have--allus bein' sort of thirsty in the head. +When you want things all your life an' never have 'em, you get so +you _play_ you've got 'em." + +The man nodded. "You had a hard time. Your life was starved. I'm +so glad the money came in time." "You see, I never had time to +play, or a good place to play in, even when I was a little girl. +But this is like--like books I've read." + +"Are these mountains what you thought they would be?" + +"Oh, they're better!" Ma breathed. "It's too bad Allie's got to +spoil ever'thing." + +"I shall speak to her. We won't let her spoil anything. Now tell +me how you play." + +But Ma flushed faintly, and for some time longer she refused her +confidence. It didn't matter; it was all an old woman's +foolishness; nobody would understand. Gray was not insistent; +nevertheless, before long they were on their way toward the glen. + +It was a glorious morning, the forest was beautiful, and as the +two strolled through it Ma's companion told her many things about +trees and flowers and birds and bees that she had never dreamed +of. Now Gray's natural history was shockingly inaccurate, +nevertheless it was interesting, and it was told in a manner both +whimsical and sprightly. He made up outrageous stories, and he +took no shame in seriously recounting experiences of his own that +Ma knew were wholly imaginary. She told him, finally: + +"Sakes alive! You're as crazy as I am." + +This he denied with spirit. Forests were enchanted places, and +trolls dwelt in the mountains. There was no question about that; +most people never took time to see them, that was all. Now as for +him, he had actually beheld naiads and dryads, nixies and pixies, +at play--at least he had practically been upon the point of seeing +them. Ma, herself, must have come across places they had just +left, but probably she had lacked the patience to await their +return or the faith to woo them into being. There were little +woods people, too, no bigger than your thumb, whose drinking +goblets were acorn cups, and whose plates were shiny leaves. He +showed her how to set a fairy tablecloth with her handkerchief and +with toadstools for seats. + +In a reckless burst of confidence Ma told him how it felt to +walk upside down, like a fly, and to go bounding through the woods +like a thistledown. Gray had never tried it, but he was +interested. + +Then, finally, alas! the inconsistency of woman! she told him all +about her hidden band of mountaineers. + +Now this was something he _could_ understand. This was more his +speed. He insisted upon making the personal acquaintance of those +bold followers of hers and upon hearing the whole sad story of the +Princess Pensacola. The history of her struggle against the wicked +Duke of Dallas moved him; he wove new details of his own into it, +and before Ma knew it he was actually playing the part of the +duke. + +The duke, it appeared, was a hard and haughty man, but at heart he +was not all bad; when he had listened to the story of his victim's +wrongs and more fully appreciated the courage, the devotion of her +doughty followers, he was touched. For her sake, and theirs, he +proposed a truce to this ruinous struggle. What kind of a truce? +Well, he refused entirely to renounce his claim to the throne, +but--they might share it. He was a handsome man and no wickeder +than the general run of dukes; he would make a becoming husband to +the beauteous princess, and if she set her mind to it she could +probably make a better person of him. Thus would the warring +factions be united, thus would the blessings of peace descend-- + +But the princess raised her slim, jeweled hand, and spoke thus: +"Too late, Your Honor! I been married to His Royal Highness the +Earl of Briskow, and it serves you right the way you done both of +us." + +The duke fell into a great rage at this. He refused to believe it, +and threatened to annul the marriage. + +"Oh, you can't do that," tittered the princess. "We was married by +the Royal Justice of the Peace and--we got two children." + +Here _was_ a blow! The duke was crushed, until a happy thought +came to him. If cruel fate prevented him from claiming the +Princess Pensacola for a bride he would take her for a mother. He +had always wanted a mother, anyhow; lack of maternal care it was +that accounted for his wildness--it was enough to ruin any duke +--and mothers were much nicer than wives. They were much harder to +get, also. + +"Lord! I wish you meant it!" Ma exclaimed, in a matter-of-fact +tone. "I wish Allie was a real princess. Mebbe--" + +Gray broke in with a laugh. "There! You've spoiled the play. The +duke has fled." + +Mrs. Briskow's wrinkled face beamed. "Think of a gre't big man +like you playin' 'pretend' with a foolish old woman like me! I +thought you had more sense." + +"I live in my own land of 'pretend,' just as you do. Why, I have a +real princess of my own." + +"Honest?" + +Gray nodded. "The Princess of Wichita Falls. Would you like to +hear about her? Well, she's small and dainty, as princesses should +be, and her eyes are like bluebells, Ma. They are brave, honest +eyes that can laugh or cry--the sort of eyes that make a man's +head swim when he looks into them too long. She carries herself +like a great lady, and she's very cool and business--I mean +princess-like, to men. But in reality she's just an adorable +feminine creature who wants to be loved. When she laughs two deep +dimples come into her cheeks--marks of royal favor. Some people +may consider her too stern, too matter-of-fact, but she isn't; in +her boudoir there is scent and sachet and frilly, ribbony things +that nobody ever sees. And flowers from me. She loves roses best +of all and she says she buries her face in them. I send her roses, +mostly, so they can kiss her cheeks for me. A tiny yellow love +bird in a tiny yellow cage sings her awake every morning. I taught +it the song it warbles, but--she'll never understand what the +little bird is trying to say." + +Ma Briskow had listened with rapt attention. Now, she inquired, +"Does she love you?" + +"Didn't I tell you this was my game of pretense?" Gray said, +gayly. "Do you really think that an adorable creature whose head +is full of girlish notions and youthful ideals could care for the +worldly, wicked old Duke of Dallas? I am old, Ma, and I've gone +the gait." + +"Pshaw! You ain't any such thing." + +"Well, perhaps I'm a better lover than I believe. Who knows? +Fortunately, however, it is all just an amusing game." The speaker +rose and looked at his watch. "It is lunch time, Mother Briskow, +and I'm famished." + +As the two entered the hotel grounds, Gus and Allie hurried to +meet them, and the latter exclaimed, irritably: "It's about time +you showed up. We've been looking everywhere for you." + +At sight of her husband's face Ma inquired, in sudden anxiety, +"What's wrong, Gus?" + +"It's Buddy," Allie declared. + +"'Tain't serious," Briskow said. "And it is, too. He's left +school--run away! Here, Mr. Gray, see what you make out of it." + +Gray read aloud the letter that was handed to him, a letter from the +principal of the institution that he himself had recommended, stating +that Ozark had disappeared without doing the college authorities the +courtesy of leaving an address. Inasmuch as he had never expressed the +slightest dissatisfaction with his surroundings, the writer was at a +loss to explain the reason for this disappearance. As to Ozark's +safety, there was no immediate cause for apprehension, for he had +taken with him three trunks of clothing, a high-powered touring car, +and a Belgian police dog; but certain of the young man's exploits that +had come to light since his departure aroused grave doubts in the +principal's mind of his moral well-being. + +"What's it mean?" the mother inquired. + +"It means that Buddy has taken a vacation. How much money has he?" + +"He's got plenty," Gus declared. "More 'n is good for him if--" + +"If what?" Ma queried. + +Gus halted; it was Allie who answered: "If he's done what we think +he's done--gone away after some woman." + +"Some _woman_?" Ma stared blankly from one face to another. "Buddy +in love? Why, he never wrote me nothing about bein' in love." +Reading a further message in her husband's expression, she cried, +fiercely: "He's a good boy. He wouldn't take up with--with nobody +that wasn't nice. What makes you think it's a girl?" + +"I didn't say 'girl,' Ma, I said '_woman_.' Buddy's been writin' +to me and--" + + +"What's the difference? Mebbe he's in love with some nice young +woman an' they've run away to git married. Buddy's han'some, and +they got nice women everywhere--" + +"_Love_? With all his money? And him only up to fractions?" +Allegheny laughed scornfully. + +Gus Briskow wiped his face with a nervous hand. "I'm 'most sick +over it," he confessed. "The perfessor has written me a coupla +times about him. Buddy's gone kinda wild, I guess, drinkin' an'--" + +"Drinking?" Gray interrupted, sharply. "Why didn't you tell me? +So, you gave him unlimited money, in spite of my warning?" + +"He wanted his own bank account; his share of the royalties. Made +him feel more like a man, he said. I--I never learned how to say +'no' to him or Allie. Ma an' I allus said 'no' to each other, but +it was allus 'yes' to them. We never had much to give 'em, noway." + +"Drinking, eh?" Gray was frowning. "The woman part I don't care so +much about--he'll probably get over that if it isn't too serious. +But whisky! That's different. I'm responsible for that boy; in a +manner of speaking, I adopted him because--well, because he +flattered me by pretending to admire me. It was a unique +experience. I took Buddy for my own. Will you let me handle this +matter?" The speaker looked from one parent to the other, and they +saw that his face was grimly set. "Give me my way and I'll bring +that young rascal to time or--" He shrugged, he smiled faintly. +"Give me permission to treat him as if he really were my own, will +you?" + +"You got my leave," said the father; but Ma Briskow bristled. + +"Don't you dast to hurt him," she cried. + +Again Gray shrugged, this time with resignation. "As you will. I +was wild, myself; I think I know what he needs." + +"You can't beat anything into Buddy's head." It was Allie +speaking. "After all, he's grown up, and what right has anybody +got to interfere with him? S'pose it _is_ a woman? S'pose she _is_ +after his money? It's his. Men can get what they want by payin' +for it. An hour, a day, a week of happiness! Ain't that worth all +Buddy 'll have to pay? I'd pay. I'd go through torture the rest of +my life--" + +"_Allegheny Briskow!_" the mother exclaimed. + +"Well, I would." The girl's voice broke, a sudden agitation seized +her; in passionate defiance she went on: "What's the use of +wanting something all your life and never getting it? What's money +for if you can't buy the one thing you want worst of all? That's +where men have got the best of it; they can buy love. I wish I was +a man; I wish I was Buddy! I'd have my day, my week--and as much +more as I could pay for. I'd have happiness that long if it broke +my heart. But I'm a _girl_!" + +It was with a sudden interest that Gray studied the speaker. Here +was a side to the Briskow character that he had not suspected, and +it gave him a new light upon Buddy, for brother and sister were +much alike; it showed him more clearly the size of the task he had +volunteered to undertake. He heard the father speaking, and +reluctantly withdrew his eyes from Allie's flaming face. + +"He likes you, Mr. Gray, an' mebbe you could keep him from +spoilin' his hull life. That's what he's liable to do an'--I'm +skeered. He wouldn't listen to me. Boys don't listen to their +fathers." + +"I'll find him, Gus, and I'll make him listen to me. If it is drink, +I'll break him of it. If it is a woman--I'll break him of that, too, +for it can't be more than a passing fancy." Noting the tragic concern +that wrinkled Ma Briskow's. face, he put an arm about her, saying more +gently: "Now, now! I won't deny you the luxury of worrying, Ma +dear. That is a mother's divine prerogative, but rest assured Buddy +sha'n't do himself any great harm. Now then, let's get to a +long-distance phone." + +It was perhaps two hours before Gray reported to Gus Briskow: +"They don't know much more at the school than was written in that +letter. He has been going a rather lively pace lately, it seems." + +"Did you find out anything about the--the woman?" + +"Nothing definite. I have put detectives on the case, and they +will report to me at Wichita Falls. As soon as they uncover his +trail, I'll go to Buddy at once." + +"You goin' to leave us?" + +"I must. I've just received a telegram from my--my agent. About +the purchase of a well. It is a matter that can't wait." + +"I can't thank you for all you done for us. We was in bad shape +till you come. Now--" + +"Now everything is straight again. That's my job, Gus--to do +little odd favors for those I love. You must stay here, for Ma is +happy, and this place is making a girl of her. Allie is doing +wonders with herself, too. By the way, she needn't be lonely any +more; I've talked to some of the guests, and they want to make +friends with her. She'll find them nice people, and you must make +her meet them halfway. Perhaps she'll become interested in some +decent young fellow. I'd like that, wouldn't you?" + +"Would ye?" + +The tone of this inquiry caused Gray to glance more keenly at the +speaker, but Briskow's bright eyes told him nothing. + +"Why, naturally. Allie is becoming more attractive every day, and +she is going to make something of herself. She is going to 'do us +all proud.'" + +As soon as he was alone Gray eagerly reread his telegram from +Wichita Falls. It was from Barbara Parker--the first, by the way, +that he had ever received--and he smiled at the girl's effort to +be thoroughly businesslike, and at the same time to convey the +full urgency of her message. Why had she economized on words when +every one was precious to him? Buy that well? Of course he would, +if she so earnestly desired it. But what was better by far than +the prospect of a profitable purchase was the fact of her personal +interest in him. When it came to the last line of her message, +"Bob" had plunged into a ten-word riot of extravagance. + +"The bird is darling. I have named him after you." + +Gray wondered if these words really meant what they seemed to +imply, or if it was merely her bubbling, enthusiasm that spoke. +Well, he would soon find out. Already he had wasted too much time +on the Briskows--a man's duty ever lies in the way of his desire +--but once he had rounded up Buddy perhaps the family would be able +to take care of itself. He hoped so, for it was assuming the +character of a liability. + +It was late that night. The southbound flyer had gone through. The +Briskows were sitting in the pleasant parlor of their handsome +suite, but they were like three mourners. Ma and Pa were soberly +discussing the news about Buddy, Allegheny was staring in somber +meditation at nothing. The girl was bitter, rebellious, for never +had she felt so utterly alone as at this moment. To that question +which monotonously repeated itself, she could form no answer. Did +he care, or was it all pity--just his way? + +She heard his name and her own mentioned, and she became +attentive. "What's that? He wants me to meet these people +halfway?" she inquired. "What for? I don't like 'em." + +"He says you'll git to like 'em, an' they'll git to like you. He +says you're goin' ahead tremendous, and we'll all be proud of you. +Mebbe you'll meet some nice young feller--" + +"He said that, did he?" Allie's voice was sharp. + +"N-not exactly, but--" + +"He asked 'em to be nice to me--he fixed it all up. Is that it? I +got lots of money; some man 'll make love to me and I'll--I'll +fall in love with him. Is that what he said?" + +"He didn't put it that way. What he said was more--" + +Allegheny rose with an exclamation of anger. "Well, I won't meet +'em. He'd better mind his own business." + +"Why, _Allie_!" the mother exclaimed, in mild reproach. + +"I won't! I hate 'em. I hate everybody. Him, with his high an' +fancy ways--" the girl choked. "He looks down on us the same as +other folks does, an' I don't blame him. He acts like we was +cattle, an' we are." Her own scorn appeared to whip the speaker +into a higher frenzy. "Now he's gone off to spoil Buddy's doin's. +Buttin' in, that's what it is. If I knew where Buddy is, I'd warn +him. I'd tell him to look out. I'd tell him to grab his chance +when it comes along, if it takes all the Briskow money, all the +Briskow wells. He's lucky, Buddy is. It don't make any difference +_who_ he took up with, if he loves her." + +Never but once before had the Briskows seen their daughter in a +mood like this, and that was on the occasion of their first visit +to Dallas. Now they sat numb and speechless as she raved on: + +"Playin' with us to amuse himself! It's a game with him. He 'ain't +got anything better to do. Why, he even shows us how to dress! +'With a touch,' he says, 'I work miracles. I transfer--transform +you from something dark an'--an' common into a thing of passion.' +_Passion!_ What the hell does he know about passion? He's a +doctor, he is, cuttin' up a live dog to see what ails it. A live +dog that's tied down! Cuttin' it up--Oh, my God, I wish I was +Buddy!" It was several moments after the door of Allie's room had +slammed behind her before Gus Briskow spoke, and then it was with +a deep sigh. + +"I been afraid of something like this, Ma. I reckon we're goin' to +pay dear for our money before we get through." + +"An' him with a princess in Wichita Falls!" the mother quavered. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +There are many arguments against industry; much is to be said +against its wholesale practice. For one thing, habitual diligence, +of whatever sort, begets other habits hard to break, habits that +persist in plaguing a man during his periods of indolence and +perhaps during his whole life. Early rising is one of the most +annoying of these habits. While it cannot be said that Tom Parker +had ever labored arduously at anything, nevertheless he had +followed his calling faithfully, and the peculiar exigencies of +that calling had made of him a light and fitful sleeper. He had so +often used the earth as a mattress and his saddle as a pillow, +that sunup invariably roused him, and as a consequence he liked to +tell people that he could do with less sleep than any man in +Texas. That was, in fact, one of his pet complaints. + +It was true that Old Tom never slept long, but it was also true +that he slept oftener than any man in Texas. He was up and dressed +by daylight, and until breakfast time he engaged himself in +purposeless and noisy pursuits. This futile energy, however, +diminished steadily until about nine-thirty, after which his day +was punctuated by a series of cat naps, as a broken sentence is +punctuated by dots and dashes. + +That small room at the rear of his office Barbara had cleared of +its dusty accumulations--of its saddles and saddle-bags, its rusty +Winchesters, its old newspapers and disorderly files--and had +transformed into a retreat for him. She had overcome his inherent +prejudice against innovations of any sort by arguing gravely that +the head of every firm should, nay must, have a private sanctum. + +Tom approved of the change after he became accustomed to it, for +he was subjected to fewer irritating distractions there than +elsewhere. Before long, in fact, he acquired the ability to doze +placidly through almost any sort of business conference in the +outer office. It was his practice to sleep from nine-thirty until +eleven, when "Bob" fetched him a glass of orange juice with a +"spike" in it. This refreshing beverage filled him with new energy +to tackle the issues of the day, and thereupon began a routine as +fixed as some religious ritual. First, he smacked his lips, then +he cleared his throat loudly several times, after which his chair +creaked as he massaged his rheumatic leg. Promptly upon the count +of twenty he emerged from the inner office, slamming the door +energetically behind him. + +Whether "Bob" was alone or engaged with clients, Old Tom's air was +always the same; it was that of a busy man weighted with grave +responsibilities. He frowned; he muttered, hurriedly: + +"Got to see a man; back in an hour. Anybody calls, tell 'em to +wait." + +This took him to the front door, which he also slammed behind him +--there being a certain force and determination to the sound of a +slamming door. Then he limped down the street to Judge Halloran's +office. The judge usually had the checkerboard out and set when +Tom arrived. + +Afternoons passed in much the same manner, and night found Tom, if +not actually exhausted from the unceasing grind, at least +pleasurably fatigued thereby and ready for an after-dinner doze. +He considered himself seriously overworked. + +This morning "Bob" was alone at her desk when he came out, and +something about her appearance caused the old warrior to look +twice. He was exactly on time, but the judge could wait. He was a +cranky old scoundrel anyhow, was Judge Halloran, and it would do +him good to cool his heels for a few minutes. Tom paused with his +hand upon the door knob. + +"My goodness! son, you're all dressed up!" he said, as he noted +"Bob's" crisp white dress, the rose upon her bosom, the floppy hat +that framed her face. "Church sociable som'er's?" + +"No, dad." + +"What's going on?" + +"Nothing in particular." + +"You certainly are sweet." Tom's bleak, gray face softened, then +some vague regret peered forth from his eyes. "Certainly are +sweet, but--" + +"But what?" The girl smiled up at him. + +"Oh, I don't know--seems like you ain't quite the same boy you +was. You're changing lately, somehow. Getting more like your +mother every week. I like that, of course," he said, quickly, +"but--I'd like awful well to see you in your ranch clothes again. +I bet you've clean forgot how to ride and rope and--" + +"You know very well I haven't. I'm a little bit rusty, perhaps, +but remember I'm a pretty busy girl these days." + +"I know." Tom sighed. "I'm wore out, too. What d'you say we close +up the ol' factory and take a rest? Let's get us a couple of +broncs and go up to the Territory for a spell. Used to be a lot of +wild turkeys in a place I know. It'd do us a lot of good." + +"Why, dad, we can't do that! And, besides, those turkeys were +killed out years ago." + +"Um-m! I s'pose so. Ain't much left to shoot at but tin cans, come +to think of it." There was a pause. "I don't reckon you could +han'le a six gun like you used to, 'Bob.'" + +"You think not? Try me sometime and see," said the girl. +Apparently Tom believed there was no time like the present, for he +slid his right hand under the left lapel of his coat, and when he +brought it away there was a large single-action Colt's revolver in +it--a massive weapon upon the mother-of-pearl handle plates of +which were carved two steers' heads. Those steers' heads Tom had +removed from a gun belonging to a famous bad man, suddenly +deceased, and there was a story that went with them. + +"Now see here," "Bob" protested, "one of these new policemen will +pick you up some day." + +"Pshaw! Nobody wouldn't pick me up, just for totin' a gun," the +old man declared. With practiced fingers he extracted the shells, +one by one. "I feel right naked without a six-shooter. I feel like +I'd cast a shoe, or something." + +"I wish you'd give up carrying it." + +"Lessee you do a few tricks,'Bob'. Do the roll. Remember she don't +stand cocked." + +Miss Parker rose to her feet and took the weapon. She balanced it +in her hand, then she spun it, rolled it, fanned it, went through +a routine of lightninglike sleight-of-hand that Tom had taught her +long before. + +"Lessee you do a few shots," her father urged, when she handed it +back to him. + +"In _here_?" + +"Sure! It's our shanty. Drive a few nails or--I'll tell you; kill +that bear and save that tenderfoot's life." Tom pointed to a +Winchester calendar on the rear wall, which bore the lithographic +likeness of an enraged grizzly upon the point of helping himself +to a hunter. + +"Why, we'd have the whole town running in." + +"Go on, son. Make it speak. Bears is easy killed." + +"Nonsense." + +Reluctantly Tom reloaded his weapon and thrust it back into its +shoulder holster; regretfully he murmured: "Doggone! We never have +any more fun." He turned toward the door. + +"Where are you going, dad?" + +"I got to see a man; back in an hour. Anybody calls--" + +"You know you won't be back in an hour. Where are you going?" + +"I got to see--What is it?" + +"Bob" hesitated. "I wish you'd stay here. I think Mr. Gray +arrived this morning, and I expect him in." + +Tom decided that he had made Judge Halloran wait long enough. He +should have been in the old rascal's king row by this time. So he +said, briskly, "Wish I could, son, but I got to see a man." + +"Mr. Gray was here several times before he went away, but you were +always out." When her father showed no inclination to tarry, +Barbara spoke with more impatience than she had ever used toward +him. "I want him to meet you, dad, for he has come back on purpose +to take up that Jackson well. If I devote all my time to business, +it seems to me you could afford to sacrifice an hour to it, just +this once. That checker game can wait." + +Tom Parker stiffened. Sacrifice an hour to business, just once! +That _was_ a blow. As if his nose was not at the grindstone day in +and day out! As if he were not practically chained to this office! +As if unremitting application to business had not wrecked him +--worn him to the bone--made an insomniac of him! That was the worst +about children, boys especially; they twitted their elders; they +thought they were the whole works; they assumed undue importance. +Tom was offended, and, being a stubborn man, he bowed his back. + +"Tell him to wait," he said, curtly. "I'll get around to it soon +as I can." + +"Why, _dad_! He isn't a man who can wait. This deal won't wait, +either." + +"I been talking over that Jackson well with--with a man, and I got +him--" + +"I asked you not to mention it--not to a soul. It is a very +important matter and--" + +Now Tom had not discussed the Jackson well, except casually with +Judge Halloran, but every word that "Bob" spoke rankled, so he +interrupted with a resentful query: + +"Ain't I equal to han'le an important deal?" + +"Bob" acknowledged quickly that he was. She had not meant to +criticize his ability to conduct negotiations of the very highest +importance, but she was surprised, in view of her earnest request, +that he had even mentioned this particular matter to anybody. She +reminded him that insurance was his forte, and that their +understanding had been that she was to take exclusive charge of +their oil business. While she was talking, Tom realized with a +disagreeable shock that of late there had been no insurance +written, none whatever. He had given the matter no thought, but +such was undoubtedly the case, and in his daughter's words he felt +a rebuke. Now he could not abide rebukes; he had never permitted +anybody to criticize him. For once that unconscious irritation +that had been slowly accumulating within him flamed up. It was an +irritation too vague, too formless to put into words, especially +inasmuch as words did not come easily to Tom Parker when he was +mad. + +Without further comment the old man pulled his gray wide-awake lower +over his eyes and limped out of the room. But he did not go to Judge +Halloran's office; he was too sore to risk further offense at the +hands of one who took malicious delight in antagonizing him, so he +walked the streets. The more he pondered "Bob's" accusation--and +accusation it surely was--the angrier he became; not at her, of +course, for she was blood of his blood, his other and better self; but +angry at himself for allowing the reins to slip out of his fingers. He +was the head of the firm. It was due to his ripe judgment and keen +common sense that the business ran on; his name and standing it was +that gave it stability. Perhaps he had permitted the girl to do more +than her share of the work, and hence her inclination to take all the +credit for their joint success was only natural, but it was time to +change all that; time to turn a big deal without her assistance. That +was the thing to do, handle the Jackson lease in his own way and turn +it over for a price far in excess of seventy-five thousand dollars. +Anybody could sell things for less than they were worth, but it took +real ability to realize their full value. Here was a snap, a chance to +clean up big money--"Bob" said so--why not, then, take over the lease +for himself and her, pay something down, hold it for a few weeks, and +then resell it at a staggering profit? Such things were being +done--Tom did not know just how, but he could easily find out--and +there were several thousand dollars in the bank to the firm's +account. If that was not enough to meet the first payment he could +probably get Bell Nelson to give him another mortgage on something. Or +was it he that would have to give the mortgage to Bell? It didn't +matter. The thing to do was to jump out to the Extension, buy the +well, and show "Bob" that he was as good a business man as she +--better, in fact. + +A bus was about to leave, so Tom clambered in. + +Barbara Parker had to acknowledge that she was more than a little +bit thrilled at the prospect of seeing Calvin Gray again. She had +assured her father glibly enough that there was nothing "going on" +that day, but--there was. It was something to realize that a mere +telegram from her had brought a man of Mr. Gray's importance clear +across the country, and that he was coming straight to her. What +mysterious magic lay in the telegraph! + +Ever since their first meeting he had awakened in her a sort of +breathless excitement, the precise significance of which she could +not fathom, and that excitement now was growing hourly. It could +not mean love--"Bob" flushed at the thought, for she had no +intention of falling in love with anybody. She was too young; the +world was too new and too exciting for that, and, besides, her +life was too full, her obligations were too many to permit of +distractions, agreeable or disagreeable. Nor, for that matter, was +Gray the sort of man to become seriously interested in a simple +person like her; he was complex, many-sided, cosmopolitan. His +extravagant attentions were meaningless--And yet, one could never +tell; men were queer creatures; perhaps-- + +Little prickles ran over "Bob"; she felt her whole body galvanize +when she saw Gray coming. + +He entered, as she knew he would enter, with the suggestion of +having been blown thither upon the breast of a gale. He was +electric; he throbbed with energy; he was bursting with +enthusiasm, and his delight at seeing her was boyish. + +"Bob" colored rosily at his instant and extravagant appreciation +of her effort to look more pleasing than usual, but embarrassment +followed her first thrill. She could not believe his compliments +were entirely genuine, therefore she took refuge behind her +coolest, her most businesslike demeanor. For a while they talked +about nothing, although to each the other was eloquent, then "Bob" +came as quickly as might be to the matter she had wired him about. + +He listened with smiling lips and shining eyes, but he heard only +the bare essentials of her story, for his thoughts were galloping, +his mind was busy with new impressions of her, other voices than +hers were in his ears. That was his rose at her breast. She had +been pleased at his coming, otherwise she would not have paid him +the girlish compliment of wearing her best. Evidently she cared +for him--or was she merely impressed, flattered? Women had called +him romantic, whereas he knew himself to be theatric; he wondered +if she-- + +"I told Jackson you'd be out to look at the well and the books to- +day," "Bob" was saying. "He won't wait an hour longer." + +"Splendid! I came the instant you telegraphed--dropped everything, in +fact. Some of my men are waiting to see me, but I haven't even +notified them of my arrival. Important business, too; nevertheless, I +hurried right here. They can wait." Gray laughed gladly. "Jove! How +becoming that hat is. I hired the best-looking car I could find, and +it will be here in a minute. I told myself I had earned a day with +you, and I wouldn't spoil it by permitting you to drive. I've so much +to talk to you about--business of all sorts--that I scarcely know +where to begin." + +Now "Bob" had expected to drive to the Northwest Ex tension with +Gray; nothing else had been in her mind; her field clothing was +even laid out ready for a quick change, but a sudden contrariness +took hold of her; she experienced a shy perversity that she could +not explain. + +"Oh, I'm sorry! I--can't go. I simply can't," she declared. + +He was so obviously disappointed that her determination gained +strength; she was surprised at her own mendacity when she explained +the utter impossibility of leaving the office, and told a +circumstantial fib about a title that had to be closed with people +from out of town. The more she talked the more panicky she became at +thought of being for hours alone with this forceful, this magnetic, +this overwhelming person. Strange, in view of the fact that she had +been looking forward to it for days! + +In order finally to get him away before she could change her mind, +she promised to hurry through her affairs and then drive out and +bring him home. There was no time to lose; Jackson was growing +impatient; it was a wonderful deal; there were other days coming-- + +When Gray had gone and "Bob" was alone, she drew a deep breath. +Her pulse was rapid, she was tingling as if from some stimulating +current. What a man! What an effect he had upon people! What a +fool she had been not to go! + +The road to Burkburnett is well surfaced for some distance outside +of Wichita Falls, therefore Gray leaned back with eyes closed as +the car sped over it, picturing again his meeting with Barbara, +recalling her words of greeting, puzzling over the subtle change +in her demeanor at the last. Perhaps he had frightened her. He was +given to overenthusiasm; this would be a lesson. + +Queer how women interfere with business. Here he was going at +things backward, whirling out to the oil fields when he should be +with McWade and Stoner. They would probably be distracted at his +nonarrival, but--this was business, too. And she would drive out +to get him. There would be the long ride back. Far away across the +undulating prairie fields the horizon was broken by a low, dark +barricade, the massed derricks of the town-site pool. So thickly +were they grouped that they resembled a dense forest of high, +black pines, and not until Gray drew closer could he note that +this strange forest was leafless. + +By now the roads were quagmires, and the unceasing current of +traffic had thickened and slowed down until Gray's car rocked and +plunged through a hub-deep channel of slime. There was but one +route to the Extension, and it led through the very heart of +Burkburnett; there were no detours around the town, no way of +beating the traffic, therefore vehicles, no matter how urgent +their business, were forced to fall in line and allow themselves +to be carried along like chips in a stream of tar. + +"Burk" was a one-story town, or at least most of its buildings +projected only one story above the mud, and that mud was mixed +with oil. Leakage from wells, pipe lines, storagetanks, had made +the mass underfoot doubly foul and sticky, and where it was liquid +it shone with iridescent colors. Mud was everywhere; on the +sidewalks, inside the stores, on walls and signboards, on the +skins and clothing of the people. + +Through the main street the procession of cars plowed, then out +across the railroad tracks and toward the open country beyond. +When it came to a halt, as it frequently did, above the hum of +idle motors could be heard the clank of pumps, the fitful coughing +of gasengines, the hiss of steam. This, of course, was soon +drowned in a terrific din of impatient horns, a blaring, brazen +snarl at the delay. The whole line roared metallic curses at the +cause of its stoppage. + +Even the railroad right of way had been drilled. Switch engines +shunted rows of flats almost between the straddling derrick legs. + +Gray's driver had been dumb thus far, now he broke out abruptly: +"Speaking about mud; I was crossing this street on a plank the +other day when I saw a bran'-new derby lying in the mud and picked +it up. Underneath it was a guy's head. + +"'Hullo!' I said. 'You're in pretty deep, ain't you?' + +"The feller looked up at me and said: 'This ain't bad. You'd ought +to see my brother. I'm standing on his shoulders!'" + +The chauffeur laughed loudly at his own humor. "_Some_ country, I +call it! But the sun's out, so it will be blowing sand to-morrow." + +When Burkburnett had been left behind, another and a vaster island +of derricks came into view. It marked the Burk-Waggoner pool, part +of the Northwest Extension, so called. + +The car was waiting its turn to cross a tiny toll bridge spanning +a sluggish creek, the bed of which ran seepage oil from the wells +beyond, when the driver grumbled aloud: + +"Four bits to cross a forty-foot bridge. There's a graft for you! +One old nester above here tore a hole in his fence opposite a wet +place in the road and charged us half a dollar to drive through +his pasture. But it was cheaper than getting stuck. He had to +carry his coin home in an oat sack. After a few weeks somebody got +to wondering why that spot never dried out, and, come to +investigate, wha' d'you think?" + +"I seldom think when I am being entertained," his passenger +declared. + +"Well, that poor stupid had dammed the creek, and every night he +shut the gate and flooded his road." + +If the clustered derricks of the town-site pool were impressive, +there was something positively dramatic about the Extension. +Burkburnett had been laid out in lots and blocks, and the drilling +had followed some sort of orderly system; but here were no +streets, no visible plan. This had been a wheat field, and as well +after well had come in, derricks, drilling rigs, buildings, tanks, +piles of timber, and casing had been laid down with complete +disregard of all save the owner's convenience. Overnight new pipe +lines were being laid, for hours counted here and the crude had to +find outlet--fuel had to be brought in. These pipe lines were +never buried, and in consequence the ceaseless flow of traffic was +forever forced to seek new channels. The place became a +bewildering maze through which teams floundered and motor vehicles +plunged at random. + +Towns had sprung up, for this army of workers was isolated in a +sea of mud, but whereas "Burk" was more or less permanent, +Newtown, Bradley's Corners, Bridgetown, were cities of canvas, +boards, and corrugated iron. By day they were mean, filthy, +grotesque; by night they became incandescent, for every derrick +was strung with lights, and the surplus supply of gas was burned +in torches to prevent it from accumulating in ravines or hollows +in explosive quantities. They were Mardi Gras cities. + +Day by day this field spread onward toward the Red River; the +whole region smelled of oil. + +Fire, of course, was an ever-present menace. Newtown, for +instance, had been wiped out several times, for it lay on a slope +down which a broken pipe line could belch a resistless wave of +flame, and even yet the place was a litter of charred timber, +twisted pipe, and crumpled sheets of galvanized iron. Owing to +this menace the residents had taken the only possible precaution. +They had dug in. Behind each place of business was a cyclone +cellar--a bomb-proof shelter--into which human bodies and stocks +of merchandise could be crowded. + +Gray drove directly to the lease he had come to examine, and was +disappointed to learn that the owner had just left. This was +annoying; "Bob" had assured him that he was expected. Inquiry +elicited from the surly individual in charge no more than the +reluctant admission that Jackson had been called to the nearest +telephone, but would be back sometime. + +There was nothing to do but wait. Gray let his car go, then made a +cursory examination of the property. He could see little and learn +less. The caretaker agreed that the well was pumping one hundred +and fifty barrels a day. + +Some evasiveness in this fellow's demeanor awoke Gray's suspicion. +A sudden telephone call. The owner's absence when he expected a +purchaser. Probably somebody else was after the property. It was +decidedly worth while to wait. + +Gray was unaccustomed to inattention, incivility, and had anybody +except "Bob" Parker put him in this position he would have +resented it. Under the circumstances, however, he could do nothing +except cool his heels. As time passed he began to feel foolish; by +late lunch time he was irritable; and as the afternoon wore on he +grew angry. Why didn't "Bob" come, as she had promised? He had +lost a day, and days were precious. + +Evening found him wandering about aimlessly, in a villainous mood, +but stubbornly determined to see this thing through at whatever +cost. He had no wish to spend a night amid these surroundings, for +respectable people shunned these oil-field camps after dark, and +he knew himself to be conspicuous. It would add a ridiculous +climax to a trying day to be "high-jacked"--to be frisked of his +jewelry. + +During the early dusk he returned to the lease, only to find even +the greasy caretaker gone. By this time Gray was decidedly +uncomfortable, and, to add to his discomfort, he conceived the +notion that he was being followed. On second thought he dismissed +this idea, nevertheless he took a roundabout course back toward +the main street. + +It seemed odd to be floundering through inky shadows, feeling a +way through this miry chaos, when aloft, as far as the eye could +see, the sky was lit. This phantom city of twinkling beacons gave +one a sense of acute unreality, for it was an empty city, a city +the work of which went on almost without the aid of human hands. +The very soul of it was mechanical. Only here and there, where a +drill crew was at work, did an occasional human figure move back +and forth in the glare of low-hung incandescents, nevertheless the +whole place breathed and throbbed; it was instinct with a +tremendous vigor. From all sides came the ceaseless rhythmic clank +of pumps, the hiss of gas and steam, the gurgling flow of liquid-- +they were the pulse beats, the respirations, the blood flow of +this live thing. And its body odor stung the nostrils. All night +long it panted with its heavy labors--as if the jinns that lifted +those giant pump beams were vying with one another in a desperate +endeavor. They were, for a fact. Haste, avarice, an arduous +diligence, was in the very air. + +Gray stared and marveled, for imagination was not lacking in him. +Those derricks with their fires were high altars upon which were +heaped ten thousand hopes and prayers. Altars of Avarice! Towers +of Greed! That is what they were. + +He marvelled, too, at the extremes these last few days had brought +him; at the long cry from the luxurious Burlington Notch to this +primitive land of fire worshipers. Here, only a few hours by motor +from paved streets and comfortable homes, was a section of the +real frontier, as crude and as lawless as any he had ever seen. +Yonder, for instance, was the Red Lion, a regular Klondike dance +hall. + +He looked in for a moment, but the sight of hard-faced houris +revolving cheek to cheek with men in overalls and boots was +nothing new. It did remind him of the march of progress, however, +to notice that the bartenders served coca-cola instead of +"hootch." Hygienic, but vain, he reflected. Not at all like the +brave old days. + +Farther up the street was a flaming theater decorated with gaudy +lithographs of women in tights. That awoke a familiar echo. The +grimy figures headed thither might well be miners just in from +Eldorado or Anvil Creek. + +Gambling was practically wide open, too, and before long Gray +found himself in a superheated, overcrowded back room with a stack +of silver dollars which he scattered carelessly upon the numbers +of a roulette table. Roulette was much like the oil game. This was +a good way in which to kill an hour. + +Absorbed in his own thoughts, Gray paid little heed to those about +him, until a large hand picked up one of his bets. Then he raised +his eyes. The hand was attached to a muscular arm, which in turn +was attached to a burly stranger of unpleasant mien. Gray voiced a +good-natured protest, but the fellow scowled and refused to +acknowledge his mistake. Noting that the man was flushed, Gray +shrugged and allowed the incident to pass. This bootleg whisky +from across Red River was of a quality to scatter a person's +eyesight. + +For some time the game continued before Gray won again, and the +dealer deposited thirty-five silver dollars beside his bet. Again +that sun-browned hand reached forth, but this time Gray seized it +by the wrist. He and the stranger eyed each other for a silent +moment, during which the other players looked on. + +Gray was the first to speak. "If you're not as drunk as you seem," +he said, easily, "you'll excuse yourself. If you are, you need +sobering." + +With a wrench the man undertook to free his hand; he uttered a +threatening oath. The next instant he was treated to a surprise, +for Gray jerked him forward and simultaneously his empty palm +struck the fellow a blinding, a resounding smack. Twice he smote +that reddened cheek with the sound of an explosion, then, as the +victim flung his body backward, Gray kicked his feet from under +him. Again he cuffed the fellow's face, this time from the other +side. When he finally desisted the stranger rocked in his tracks; +he shook his head; he blinked and he cursed; it was a moment +before he could focus his whirling sight upon his assailant. When +he succeeded it was to behold the latter staring at him with a +mocking, threatening smile. + +The drunken man hesitated, he cast a slow glance around the room, +then muttering, hoarsely, he turned and made for the door. He was +followed by a burst of derisive laughter that grew louder as he +went. + +Gray was in a better mood now than for several hours; he had +vented his irritation; the air had cleared. After a while he +discovered that he was hungry; no longer was he too resentful to +heed the healthy warning of his stomach, so he left the place. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +Newton's eating places were not appetizing at best, but a meal +could be endured with less discomfort by night than by day, for at +such times most of the flies were on the ceilings. The restaurant +Gray entered was about what he had expected; along one side ran a +quick-order counter at which were seated several customers; across +from it was an oilcloth-covered table, perfectly bare except for a +revolving centerpiece--one of those silver-plated whirligigs +fitted with a glass salt-and-pepper shaker, a toothpick holder, an +unpleasant oil bottle, and a cruet intended for vinegar, but now +filled with some mysterious embalming fluid acting as a +preservative of numerous lifelike insect remains. Here, facing an +elderly man in a wide gray-felt hat, Gray seated himself. + +Gray's neighbor was in no pleasant mood, for he whacked +impatiently at such buzzing pests as were still on the wing, and +when a perspiring Greek set a plate of soup before him he took +umbrage at the presence of the fellow's thumb in the liquid. The +argument that followed angered the old man still further, for it +arrived nowhere except to prove that the offending thumb was the +property of the proprietor of the restaurant, and by inference, +therefore, a privileged digit. + +When a departing customer left the door open, the elderly diner +grumbled bitterly at the draught and draped his overcoat over his +bent shoulders. + +"Dam' Eskimos!" he muttered. "----raised in a chicken coop--Windy +as a derrick!" + +Gray liked old people, and he was tolerant of their crotchets. +Irascibility indicates force of character, at least so he +believed, and old folks are apt to accept too meekly the +approach of decay. Here was a spirit that time had not dulled--it +was like wine soured in an old cask. At any rate, wine it had +been, not water, and that was something. + +Most of the counter customers had drifted out when, without +warning, the screen door banged loudly open and Gray looked up +from his plate to see his recent acquaintance of the gambling +table approaching. This time purpose was stamped upon the man's +face, but whether it was deliberate or merely the result of more +drinking there was no telling. He lurched directly up to the table +and stared across at Gray. + +"Slapped my face, didn't you?" he cried, after a menacing moment. + +"I did, indeed," the speaker nodded, pleasantly. + +"You ain't going to slap it again. You ain't going to slap +anybody's--" + +"What makes you think I won't?" Gray became aware as he spoke that +his elderly neighbor had raised to the intruder a countenance +stamped with a peculiar expression of incredulity, almost of +anger, at the interruption, and that the two remaining counter +customers had turned startled faces over their shoulders, while +the proprietor, his arms full of dishes, had paused beside the +swinging door to the kitchen. + +That which occurred next came unexpectedly. The stranger whipped +out from under his coat a revolver, at the same time voicing a +profane answer to the challenge. The proprietor uttered a bleat of +terror; he dropped his dishes and dived out of the room; the men +on the stools scrambled down and plunged after him. + +As Calvin Gray rose to his feet it was with a flash of mingled +anger and impatience. This quarrel was so utterly senseless, it +served so little purpose. + +"My friend," he cried, sharply, "if you don't put up that gun, one +of us will go to a hospital." + +In spite of the intruder's haste in drawing his weapon, he +appeared now to lack the will promptly to use it--his laggard spirit +required a further scourge, so it seemed; something more to goad it +into final fury. It was a phenomenon by no means uncommon, for it is +not easy to shoot down an unarmed victim. + +By way of rousing his savagery, the fellow uttered a bellow, then, +like a warrior smiting his shield with his spear before the +charge, he swung his heavy weapon, smashing at one blow that +silver-plated merry-go-round with its cluster of bottles. + +A shower of toothpicks, fragments of glass, a spatter of oil and +vinegar covered the old man in the end chair, and he rose with a +cry that drew a swift glance from the desperado. + +Gray was upon the point of launching himself over the table when +he witnessed a peculiar transformation in his assailant. The man's +expression altered with almost comic suddenness, he lowered his +weapon and took a backward step. Gray, too, had cause for +astonishment, for the elderly man was moving slowly toward the +disturber, his overcoat, meanwhile, hanging loosely from his left +shoulder, like a mantle. His gray face had grown white, malignant, +threatening; he advanced with a queer, sidling gait, edging +forward behind the shelter of his garment as if behind a +barricade. But what challenged Gray's instant attention was the +certainty of purpose, the cold, confident menace behind the old +fellow's demeanor. There was something appalling about him; he had +suddenly become huge and dominant. + +That he had been recognized was plain, for the armed man cried, +agitatedly: "Look out, Tom! I don't want any truck with _you_." + +The deliberate advance continued; in a harsh voice Tom answered: +"I don't allow anybody to interfere with me when I'm eating!" For +every step he shuffled forward the man before him fell back a +corresponding distance. + +Again the newcomer rasped out his warning, and Gray, too, added +his voice, saying: "Leave him to me, old man. This is my quarrel." +As he spoke he moved around the end of the table, but the mantled +figure halted him with an imperious jerk of the head. Without in the +slightest diverting his steady gaze, Tom snapped: + +"Hands off, stranger! I won't have you buttin' in, either. I don't +allow anybody to interfere with me when I'm eating." + +Gray was checked less by the exasperation, by the authority in the +speaker's tone, than by the fact that the entire complexion of the +affair had changed. The ruffian, who had entered so confidently, was +no longer the aggressor; a mere look, a word, a gesture from this +aged, unknown person had put him upon the defensive. More +extraordinary still was the fact that his power of initiative was for +the moment completely paralyzed, and that he was tortured by a +deplorable indecision. He was furious, that was plain, nevertheless +his anger had been halted in mid-flight, as it were; desperation +battled with an inexplicable dread. He raised his hands now, but more +in a gesture of surrender than of threat. + +"Don't come any closer," he cried, hoarsely. "Don't do it, I tell +you! _Don't--do it!_'" There was no longer any thickness to his +tongue; he spoke as one quite sober. + +When for the third time that malevolent voice repeated, "I don't +allow anybody to interfere with me when I'm eating," the solitary +onlooker felt an absurd desire to laugh. During intensely dramatic +moments nervous laughter is near the surface, and there was +something rigidly dramatic about the methodical, sidling advance +of that man half crouched behind his overcoat. Tom, as he had been +called, gave Gray the impression of Death itself marching slowly +forward to drape that black shroud upon his cowering victim. + +Brief as had been the whole episode, already passers-by had +halted, staring faces were glued to the front windows of the cafe. +Well they might stare at those two tense figures, one advancing, +the other retreating, as if to the measures of some slow dance. + +[Illustration: "DON'T COME ANY CLOSER. DON'T DO IT, I TELL +YOU!"] + +But the tempo changed abruptly. The desperado's +back brought up against the swinging kitchen door; it gave +to his weight and decision was born of that instant. With a cry he +flung himself backward, the spring door snapped to and swallowed +him up with the speed of a camera shutter; then followed the sound +of his heavy rushing footsteps. + +"Hell!" exclaimed the old man. "I had his buttons counted!" With +the words he let fall his overcoat, and there, beneath it, Gray +beheld what he had more than half suspected, what indeed was ample +cause for the quarrelsome stranger's apprehension. Held close to +the owner's body was what in the inelegant jargon of the West is +known as a "dog leg." The weapon, a frontier Colt's of heavy +caliber, was full cocked under the old man's thumb; the hand +holding it was as steady as the blazing eyes above. + +With a smile Gray said, "Allow me to congratulate you, sir, upon a +most impressive demonstration of the power of mind over matter." + +"A little killin' helps those scoun'rels," breathed the white- +haired warrior. "Surgin' around, wreakin' vengeance on vinegar +bottles! And me with a bad indigestion!" + +"I don't often permit others to do my fighting. But you wouldn't +let--" + +"I don't allow anybody--" doggedly began the former speaker, but +the street door burst open, a noisy crowd poured into the room, a +volley of excited questions was raised. Amid the confusion Gray +heard his own name shouted, and found himself set upon by two +agitated friends, Mallow and Stoner. They had been combing Newtown +for him, so they declared, and were near by when attracted by the +excitement on the sidewalk. What was the trouble? Was Gray hurt? + +He assured them that he was not, and explained in a few words the +origin of the encounter. But other concerns, it seemed, occupied +the minds of the pair, and before he had finished Mallow was +dragging him towards the door, crying, breathlessly: "Gee, +Governor! You gave us a run. We've been coming since noon." + +"It was only by the grace of God," Stoner declared, "that we heard +you were out here and why you'd come. We managed to get a phone +call through to Jackson, but it was--" + +"Jackson? I've been looking for him all the afternoon." + +"Sure! Mallow swore he was all right, but Mac and I don't know +him, and we figured he might turn a trick. Anyhow, Mallow and I +jumped the Lizzie and looped it. Boy! I tramped on her some, until +we hit bottom the other side of Burk. Mallow went clean through +the top. I guess I smashed the whole rear end, but we couldn't +wait to see. They'll have her stripped naked, tires, cushions, and +all, before we get back. Motor, too, probably. We've been hitting +it afoot, on wagons and pipe trucks--managed to get a service car +finally, but it fell open like a book. Just one of those dam' +unlucky trips." + +"Jackson didn't get to you, did he?" Mallow inquired, anxiously. + +"Get to me? No. Nor I to him." Gray spoke impatiently. "What is +this all about?" + +"Simply this, Governor: Jackson's well is a 'set-up'! For Nelson! +We nearly dropped dead when we found out that Parker kid had laid +_you_ against it. Why didn't you _tell us_--?" + +"What are you saying? I don't--" + +"The well's phony. Dry as a pretzel." + +"In what way? I saw the oil--" + +"Never mind. Lay off!" + +"I think I'm entitled to an explanation." + +"Well, then, it's salted!" + +"Impossible! I saw it pumping." + +"I'll say you did." Mallow chuckled. "Live oil, too; right out of +old Mamma Earth. Cheap lease at seventy-five thousand, eh? It's +like this: the pipe line of the Atlantic runs across Jackson's lease, +and one dark and stormy night he tapped it. It wasn't a hard thing to do; +just took a little care and some digging. Now he runs the oil in, pumps +it out and sells it back to them. He's a regular subsidiary of the great +and only Atlantic Petroleum Company. It can't last long, of +course, but--oh, what a well to hand Nelson! What a laugh it would +have been!" + +"Outrageous!" Gray exclaimed. "I can't believe you are in +earnest." + +"It _is_ shocking, isn't it? Such dishonesty is incredible. And +what an unhappy surprise for the company when they finally locate +the leak!" + +Gray clamped a heavy hand upon the speaker's shoulder; harshly he +inquired, "Do you mean to say that Miss Parker deliberately--" + +"She don't know anything about it." + +"You said she 'laid me' against it." + +"No, no! I merely tipped her to it because she's one of Nelson's +brokers." + +"She's his sweetie," Stoner added. "He's going to marry her, so +Mallow thought he'd surely fall for it, coming from her." + +"You--you're not fit to mention that girl's name, either of you." +Gray's tone was one of quivering anger. "If you involve her in +your crooked dealings, even indirectly, I'll--God! What a dirty +trick." He flung Mallow aside in disgust. "You ought to be shot." + +"Why, Governor! We wouldn't hurt that kid. She's aces." + +"I told you my fight with Nelson was to be fair and square." + +There followed a moment of silence. Mallow and Stoner exchanged +glances. "What percentage of that goes?" the former finally +inquired. + +"One hundred." + +"So? Then it's lucky Nelson didn't fall. But there's no harm done +--nobody's hurt." + +"It is lucky, indeed-for me. I'd have felt bound to make good +his loss, if you had hooked him. I presume I ought to expose this +swindle." + +"Expose Jackson?" Stoner inquired, quickly. When Gray nodded, +there was another brief silence before the speaker ventured to +say: "I know this bird Nelson, and, take it from me, you're giving +him the best of it. If I hadn't known him as well as I do, I +wouldn't of put in with you to break him. It's all right to trim a +sucker once; it's like letting the blood of a sick man--he's +better for it. But to ride a square guy to death, to keep his +veins open--well, I ain't in that kind of business. Now about this +Jackson; you can land him, I s'pose, if you try, but it would be +lower than a frog's foot, after him playing square with you." + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"He could have stung you, easy, couldn't he? You surged out here +on purpose to buy the lease, but he hid out all afternoon to avoid +you." + +"He is a thief. He is stealing hundreds of dollars a day." + +"Sure! From the Atlantic, that has stolen hundreds of thousands +from the likes of him--yes, millions. It was the Atlantic that +broke the market to sixty-five cents, filled their storage tanks +and contracted a million barrels more than they had tankage for, +then gypped the price to three dollars. I can't shed any tears +over that outfit." + +"Let's not argue the ethics of big business. The law of supply and +demand--" + +"Supply and demand, eh? Ever strike you as queer that crude never +breaks as long as the big companies have got their tanks full? The +price always toboggans when they're empty, and comes back when +they're filled up. That's supply and demand with the reverse +English, ain't it? Say, the Atlantic and those others play with us +outsiders like we was mice. When their bellies get empty they eat +as many of us as they want, then they let the rest of us scurry +around and hunt up new fields. We run all the risks; we spend our +coin, and when we strike a new pool they burgle us over again." +Stoner was speaking with a good deal of heat. "Big business, eh? +Well, here's some little business--dam' little. The Atlantic +leased a lot of scattered acreage I know about and drilled it. +Pulled off their crews at the top of the sand and drilled in with +men they could trust. It turned out good, but they capped their +wells, wrecked their rigs, and, of course, that condemned the +whole territory. Then they set about buying it all in, cheap-- +through dummies. Double-crossed the farmers, see? Friend of mine +took a chance; put down a well on his own. The usual thing +happened; they broke him. It took a lot of doing, but they broke +him. One little trick they did was to cock a bit and drop it in +the hole. That prank cost him sixteen thousand dollars before he +could 'side track' the tool. He quit, finally, less 'n a hundred +feet from big pay. Then, having bought up solid for near nothing +they came back and started business, laughing merrily. That's the +Atlantic." + +"A splendid lecture on commercial honesty. I am inspired by it, +and I reverence your scruples, but--I grope for the moral of the +story." + +"The moral is, mind your own business and--and give a guy a +chance." + +"Um-m! Suppose we leave it at that for the present." + +Mallow, who had remained silent during his friend's argument, +greeted this suggestion with relief. He was glad to change the +subject. "Good!" he cried, heartily. "I'd about as soon face Old +Tom Parker, like that fellow in the restaurant did, as to face +Jackson. He'd sink a stillson in my head, sure, if--" + +"Parker? Was that old man Miss Parker's father?" + +"Certainly! What d'you think ailed that gunman? D'you think he got +the flu or something, all of a sudden? There ain't anybody left +tough enough to hanker for Tom's scalp. He's pinned a rose on all +of those old-timers, and he's deadly poison to the new crop." + +For the first time Calvin Gray understood clearly the reason for +the unexpected outcome of that encounter in the cafe. No wonder +the stranger's trigger finger had been paralyzed. Barbara's +father, indeed! How stupid of him not to guess. On the heels of +his first surprise came another thought; suppose that old Paladin +should consider that he, Gray, had shown weakness in allowing +another to assume the burden of his quarrel? And suppose he should +tell his daughter about it! That would be a situation, indeed. + +"I must find him, quickly," Gray declared. "Perhaps he'll ride +back to town with us." + +It was not a difficult task to locate the veteran officer, and Tom was +delighted at the chance to ride home with his new acquaintance. + +That journey back to civilization was doubly pleasant, for Mr. +Parker cherished no such feelings as Gray had feared, and, +moreover, he responded quickly to the younger man's efforts to +engage his liking. They got along famously from the start, and Tom +positively blossomed under the attentions he received. It had been +a trying day for him, but his ill humor quickly disappeared in the +warmth of a new-found friendship, and he talked more than was his +custom. He was even led to speak of old days, old combats, of +which the bloodless encounter that evening was but a tame +reminder. The pictures he conjured up were colorful. + +A unique and an engaging person he proved to be; an odd compound of +gentleness and acerbity, of kindliness and rancor; a quiet, guileless, +stubborn, violent old man-at-arms, who would not be interrupted while +he was eating. He was both scornful and contemptuous of evildoers. All +needed killing. + +"Hard luck, I call it, for a budding desperado to wreck a career +of promise the way that wretched fellow did," Gray told him with a +laugh. "Out of all the men in Texas, to pick you--" + +"Oh, he ain't a bud! He's quite a killer." + +"Indeed?" + +"He kills Mexicans and niggers and folks without guns, mostly. +Low-down stuff! He's got three or four, I believe. I never could +see why the Nelsons kep' him." + +There was a brief silence. "I beg pardon?" said Gray. + +"He's been on the Nelson pay roll for years--doing odd jobs that +wasn't fit to be done. But I guess they got tired of him, anyhow +he's been hanging around Wichita for the last two or three weeks. +He's been in an out of our office quite a bit." + +"Your office? What for?" + +"I dunno, unless he took a shine to 'Bob.'" + +"Not--really?" + +Mr. Parker uttered an unpleasant sound. "She never said anything +about it, but I suspicioned she had to order him out, finally. I'd +of split his third shirt button if he'd stood his ground. He knew +I had something on him, but he couldn't figure just what it was." +Old Tom's teeth shone through the gloom. "A man will 'most always +act like that when he don't know just where he's at. I knew where +_I_ was at, all the time, only I wanted to see that button plain. +I allus know where _I'm_ at." + +Later, when the journey was over and Tom Parker had been dropped +at his gate, Gray spoke to his two companions. + +"Did you hear what he said?" + +"We did." + +"Do you believe I was framed?" + +Both Mallow and Stoner nodded. "Don't you?" the former inquired. +When no answer was forthcoming, he said: "Better give us the flag, +Governor. We're rar'ing to go." + +"You mean--?" + +"You know what I mean. Nelson's so crooked his bedclothes fall +off. We pulled a boner this time, but Brick has got another window +dressed for him." + +"I'll think it over," said Gray. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +Ozark Briskow, like his sister Allegheny, was studying hard and +learning rapidly, but he had adopted an educational plan, a +curriculum, so to speak, far different from hers. Whereas she +lived between book covers and the thousand and one details of her +daily existence were governed by a bewildering army of "don'ts," +Buddy had devised his own peculiar system of acquiring wisdom, and +from it the word "don't" had been deliberately dropped. His +excursion into the halls of learning, brief as it had been, had +convinced him that books could teach him only words, whereas he +craved experiences, ideas, adventures. Adventure comes at night; +pleasure walks by gaslight. Young Briskow told himself that he had +missed a lot of late hours and would have to work diligently to +catch up, but he undertook the effort with commendable courage. + +It is said that all wish to possess knowledge, but few are willing +to pay the price. Buddy was one of the minority. Early he adopted +the motto, "Money no object," and it provoked him not at all to +learn that there is a scale of night prices considerably higher +than the scale of day prices; to find, for instance, that a +nocturnal highball costs twice as much as one purchased during +daylight hours. That phenomenon, by the way, had nothing to do +with the provisions of the Eighteenth Amendment, it merely +explained why farmers went to bed early--they couldn't afford to +sit up, so Buddy decided. + +He had learned a lot since leaving school, not only about +prohibition, but also about speed laws, men's fashions, facial +massage, the fox trot and the shimmy, caviar, silk pajamas, bromo- +seltzer, the language of flowers, and many of the pleasures and +displeasures of the higher intellectual life, such as love and insomnia. + +His education was progressing apace, for love is the greatest of +educators, and Buddy was in love--madly, extravagantly in love. +Love it was that accounted for his presence in Dallas, and his +occupancy of the Governor's suite at the Ajax. A fellow in love +with the most wonderful woman in the world couldn't afford to look +cheap in his home town, could he? + +Of course Dallas was not Buddy's home town, but it had been his +point of departure into the world, and it was the home of his bank +account, hence some pride of proprietorship was pardonable. It +gave him such a pleasing sense of importance to adopt the city as +his own that he adopted everything and everybody in it. + +In spite of the fact that the train from Wichita Falls was behind +time, one morning shortly after Buddy's arrival, he was still abed +when Calvin Gray arrived at the hotel. Instead of disturbing the +slumbers of youth, Gray went directly to the detective who had +telegraphed him, and for half an hour or more the two talked. + +Later, during the course of a leisurely bath and shave, the new +arrival pondered the information he had received. Here was a +problem. Having dressed himself, he strolled around to Coverly's +place of business and interviewed the jeweler. + +"Sure! He has bought quite a bit of stuff in the last few days," +Coverly told him. "He was in only yesterday and ordered a fine +piece made up. He wanted a ruby heart pierced with a diamond +arrow, but I got him off that and onto a blue Brazilian solitaire. +We're mounting it in a platinum lady's ring." + +"What is the price?" + +"Forty-five hundred, and the value is there." + +"Have you seen the woman?" + +Coverly nodded. "The boy is a good picker. I don't blame her much, +either, for I've seen a lot of worse-looking fellows than Buddy." + +"Hold the ring. He may change his mind." + +"I say!" Coverly was in dismay. "Are you going to spoil the best +sale I've made in two weeks?" + +"Oh, I'll take it off your hands if he doesn't. Make some excuse +not to deliver it until I say the word. You don't know the woman, +eh?" + +"Never saw her before." + +Gray knocked several times at the Governor's suite before a sleepy +response, a succession of yawns and mutterings, told him that he +had been heard. The door opened finally and the pride of the +Briskow family, his eyes all but swelled shut, his muscular figure +splendidly arrayed in futuristic silken pajamas, mumbled: + +"What's eatin' you, any--?" The eyes opened wider, Buddy's face +broke into a slow smile. "Why, Mr. Gray!" He extended a palm, a +bit dry and feverish, and drew his caller inside. "Dawg_-gone!_ +I'm glad to see you." + +Gray entered with a buoyant laugh and a hearty greeting; he +clapped the young giant heavily upon the back. At the blow Buddy +voiced a sharp cry and seized his head. + +"Easy over the bumps! I'm carryin' a cargo of nitroglycerine, and +I'll let go if you jar me," he explained. + +"Sorry! I know how it feels. But, man alive, it's afternoon! I +began to think you were dead." + +Buddy led the way into his bedroom, piled his pillows together and +gingerly lowered himself upon them. He showed his strong white +teeth in a wide grin and winked meaningly. "I'll be all right +directly. It's this here sim--sympathetic booze they talk about. +Have a drink, Mr. Gray? There's a coupla bottles of real liquor in +the closet--not this tiger's milk you get--" + +The caller declined the invitation. "Where the devil have you +been, Buddy? We were getting worried." + +"Who, me? Oh, I been--lookin' around." + +"Your mother is nearly frantic." + +Buddy stirred uneasily. "Pshaw! I'm fine. I can take keer of +myself. Nobody don't need to worry about me." + +"Good! Now then, you young scoundrel, I'm going to order you the sort +of breakfast that goes with what ails you, and while it is coming up, +you are going to jump under the shower." + +"Where d'you get that 'jump' stuff?" the youth inquired, faintly. +"Besides, I'm clean." + +But Gray had seized the phone, and as soon as he had given his +order he strode into the bathroom and turned on the water. He was +out again in a moment, then laughingly he dragged the aching Texan +from his couch. "Under you go," he insisted, "or I'll wet down +your whole Japanese flower garden." + +"Some pajamas, ain't they? I got a dozen pairs," Buddy said, +proudly. + +"Quick! If you think I'll consent to hang around a lonesome hotel +while you sleep, you're mistaken. I can't tell you how glad I am +to run into you, Buddy. I'm dying to have a riotous time." + +"Eh?" Briskow turned an inquiring face to the speaker. + +"I've been hibernating in the wilderness, sucking my paw and +living off my fat, like a bear. I want you to shown me this town." + +A bath, a brisk rubdown, and breakfast put Buddy in fairly good +fettle once more; so marked was his improvement, in fact, that +Gray envied him his glorious gift of youth. + +"Flying pretty high, aren't you?" the elder man inquired, with a +wave of the hand that took in the expensive suite. + +"Well, I ain't exactly broke." + +"True. But I know what these rooms cost. That's going strong for a +lad like you." + +"You took 'em, didn't you, when you had less 'n I got?" + +"Ahem! It is embarrassing to be held up as an example. I've done a +good many things, Buddy, that I wouldn't like to see you do." + +"If they wouldn't hurt me any more 'n they've hurt you I'd like +to try'em." + +"Another proof that you are still in short pants. I'm a bad person +to copy. By the way, why did you quit school?" + +Buddy considered his reply, then: "I reckon it was because of them +short pants you speak about. I can't stand bein' laughed at, Mr. +Gray. It comes hard to stand up in a class along with a bunch of +children and make mistakes and have a little boy in a lace collar +and spring heels snap his fingers and sing out in a sweet soprano, +'Oh, tee-_cher!_' Then have him show you up. They put me in with a +lot of nursin' babes. What the hell? I weigh a hundred and ninety +and I got a beard!" + +"Didn't you learn anything?" + +Buddy closed a meaning eye, and his pleasant features wrinkled +into that infectious smile. "I'll tell the world I did! After the +whistlin' squabs was asleep in their nests I went out among the +whippoorwills an' the bats. Ain't it funny how quick folks can +learn to put up with bad grammar when you got a jingle in your +jeans? I guess I've got enough education to do me; anyhow, I can +write Ozark Briskow in the lower right-hand corner and that seems +to get me by." + +"You wouldn't consent to go back or--have a tutor, like Allie?" + +"Who, _me?_" Briskow laughed scornfully. + +"Um-m! Merely a suggestion. You are the architect of your own +career." + +"I'm fed up on that kind of schoolin', Mr. Gray. I--" Buddy's face +reddened, he dropped his eyes. "I don't mind tellin' _you_--I-- +It's like this--I kinda got a girl!" + +"_No!_" The speaker was surprised, incredulous. + +"Sure have. She's--wonderful. She's right here in this hotel!" + +"Buddy, you're developing!" Gray exclaimed, with apparent +admiration. + +"I been showin" her the sights--that's what ails me this morning. She +lets me take her around to places--trusts me, you understand? She +thinks I'm aces." + +"Splendid! I wish you'd ask her to dig up a friend." + +"How d'you mean?" + +"Why, ask her to find another good-looking girl for me--I assume +she _is_ good looking--then we can make it a foursome. I'm a great +entertainer, and, while I don't drink, I haven't the slightest +objection to ladies who do. Dallas, I believe, is a pretty lively--" + +"She's a stranger here," Buddy broke in, stiffly. His enthusiasm had +cooled; he regarded Gray with veiled displeasure. "An" besides, she +ain't that kind of a girl." + +"Oh! Sorry! I thought from what you said--that headache--bottles +in your closet, too! My mistake, Buddy." + +"She'll take a drink, with me," the youth confessed. "Anyhow, +she's gettin' so she will. I don't see anything wrong in a woman +takin' a drink now an' then with a man she--with a man that's +honorable." The last words were voiced defiantly. + +Hastily Buddy's caller averred: "Nor do I. We sha'n't come to +blows over an abstract moral issue like that. This is an age of +tolerance, an age of equality. I flatter myself that I'm quite as +lawless and broad minded as the average bachelor of our very +smartest set." + +"I'm--" the speaker gulped. "I'm goin' to marry her." + +"Oh, fine!" Gray's enthusiasm was positively electric. He seized +Buddy's hand and crushed it. "Education, indeed! No use for that +now, is there?" + +"I mean I'm goin' to, if I can; if she'll let me." + +"Let you? With your money? Why, she'll jump at the chance. No +doubt you have already asked her--or she suspects--" + +The lad shook his head. "She don't have to marry nobody. She's got +money--an _es_-tate. You think it's all right for me to do it?" + +"Simpler men than you have asked that question, and wiser men than +I have refused to answer. As for me, I've never had the courage to take +the plunge. However, the worst you can get is a heartbreak and a lifetime +of regrets. But, of course, the woman takes some chances, too. Tell me +about her." + +"Well--" Buddy beamed fatuously. "I dunno hardly where to begin." +Into his voice, as he spoke, there crept a breathless excitement, +into his eyes a dumb adoration. "She's--wonderful! She's too good +for me." + +"Once and a while they are." + +"She's educated, too--more in your class, Mr. Gray. I dunno how +she stands for me. She's the smartest, purtiest girl--" + +"She's young, eh?" + +"She's--older 'n I am. I reckon she's mebbe twenty-five. I never +ast her." + +"Naturally. How did you meet her? When? Where? I'm a terribly +romantic old fool." Gray hitched his chair closer and leaned +forward, his face keen with interest. + +"Well, sir, it's a regular story, like in a book. I was in a +restaurant with a coupla fellers an' a feller she was with struck +her--" + +"Struck her?" + +"Yep. He was her brother, so she told me. Anyhow, I bounced him. I +sure spoiled him up a lot. She was cryin' an' she ast me to take +her home. That's how I got to know her. I s'pose she cottoned to +me for takin' her part that-a-way. She didn't know the sort of +place it was her brother had took her. Pore kid! She's had a hard +time, an' every man she ever knew, but me, done her dirt. Even her +husband." Buddy scowled. + +After a moment Gray said, quietly, "So, she's married?" + +"She was. He's dead, or something. I was bashful about callin' +around to see her, not havin' anything to talk about but school +an' oil wells, but she took an interest right away, 'specially in +the wells. You'd ought to hear the story of her life, Mr. Gray. +It's as sad as any novel. You see, her folks had lots of money, +but her ma died an' her pa was too busy to be bothered, so he sent +her off to a convent. Them nuns at the convent was so cruel to her +that she run away--" + +"And went on the stage." + +"How'd you know?" + +"I didn't. But--the stage is the usual refuge for convent-bred +girls who are abused. I've met several. Did she--Was the old home +in Virginia?" + +"Sure! Mebbe you know her!" Buddy cried. + +"Perhaps. I seem to remember the story. What is her name?" + +"Arline Montague." + +The elder man shook his head. "You said something about a +marriage. I dare say she married some rich John whose family +disapproved of the match--so many show girls have been deceived +like that. You can't imagine the prejudice of those Fifth Avenue +parents--" + +"That's what she done. An' he went off an' joined the French +Legion of Honor an' was killed." + +"Foreign Legion, no doubt." + +"Anyhow, he never made no pervision for her. But she wouldn't of +touched a penny of his money if he'd left it to her, she's that +honorable." Now that the lover had fairly launched himself upon +the engrossing life story of his sweetheart he was in deep +earnest, and his listener's quick understanding, his sympathy, his +grasp of the situation, was a spur to further confidences. It was +a blessing to have a friend so old, so wise, and so worldly. + +"What is the estate you mentioned?" + +"Oh, that's her own! It's all she had to fall back on. It's bein' +settled up now an' she'll have her money before long." + +"The old Virginia homestead and the slaves--?" + +"Good thing she met me when she did, for them lawyers had it all +tied up in court and wouldn't let go till she paid their fees." + +"A providential meeting, truly. You fixed that up, of course, and +got rid of the wretched bloodsuckers. I've done much the same +thing, more than once. Now, one other question--how does she +happen to be in Dallas? I infer from your account that she is a +model of virtue, and that she accepted your aid only upon the +condition that your attentions to her should be characterized by +the deepest respect. So? Well then, 'how come'?" + +"That was just a lucky chance. She's got some interests here; +stocks an' things, belongin' to the _es_-tate. She dunno, herself, +how valuable they are, but me comin' right from Texas an' bein' in +oil an' all, she ast me to he'p her out. So I got her to come. All +that had kep' her back was the expense. Mind you"--Buddy's tone +became one of deeper admiration--"she ain't blue, or anything. No +sir-ee! Her life's been sad, but you'd never know it. She's full +of pep; allus out for fun, an'--that's what I like about her. Gee! +You gotta meet her, Mr. Gray." + +"Well, rather! But meanwhile, we must telegraph your parents not +only that you have been found, but also the further good news." + +"I--We better not say anything about my gettin' married." + +"Why not? They'd like to know." + +"I'd oughta wired 'em long ago, but--you understand! Miss Montague +ain't exactly Ma an' Allie's kind." + +"You're not ashamed of her?" + +"Hunh!" The tone of this exclamation was an eloquent denial. + +"Then let's have them come on and get acquainted. They'll probably +take right to her." But when this suggestion met with disapproval, +Gray inquired: "Is it because you are ashamed of _them_--of your +mother and sister?" + +Buddy stirred uneasily. "Pshaw, no!" A sudden thought came to him. +"Why, it's this way: I haven't ast her yet. Mebbe she won't have +me. If she says yes--I'll let 'em know." + +"Good! We'll make it, for the time being, a mere message of +reassurance. To-night you and Miss Montague shall dine with me and +we'll go to a theater." This arrangement met with young Briskow's +enthusiastic approval, and so it was left. + +It was with something more than mere impatience that Calvin Gray +awaited the dinner hour; he was angry, restless; his mind was back +in Wichita Falls, whence the message from his detective had +abruptly summoned him. Matters of moment were at issue there, and +with a love affair of his own upon his mind he could think of no +undertaking less to his taste than this: of saving a young fool +from his folly. He could expect no thanks, if he succeeded, and if +he failed he would in all probability incur Buddy's enmity, if not +that of the whole Briskow family. Families are like that. It would +all take time, and meanwhile his business was bound to suffer. +However, he was not one to turn back, and he remembered with a +pang the last look he had seen in Ma Briskow's eyes. + +Gray was prepared to find his young friend's light o' love +superficially attractive, and she was all of that. He was not +prepared, however, to find her quite as good an actress as she +appeared to be. In spite of the fact that she probably took less +pleasure in the meeting than did he, she admirably covered her +feelings. She was delighted, flattered--Buddy had so often spoken +of him that she almost felt acquainted--She was quite excited at +knowing the famous Colonel Gray--She would have recognized him +anywhere from Buddy's glowing description. + +Gray's heart sank as he studied Miss Montague. She was blond--to +his suspicious eye a trifle too blond--and she wore her hair +bobbed. She was petite and, both in appearance and in mannerism, +she was girlish; nevertheless, she was self-reliant, and there was +a certain maturity to her well-rounded figure, a suggestion of +weariness about her eyes, that told a story. + +Following his first critical appraisal, Gray was vaguely conscious +of something familiar about her; somewhere within him the chords +of remembrance were lightly brushed; but try as he would he could +not make himself believe that he had ever seen her. Probably it +was the type that was familiar. He undertook to make sure by +talking "show business" at the first opportunity; she responded +with enough spontaneity to give an impression of candor, but her +theatrical experience was limited and that line of exploration led +nowhere. + +Whatever the pose she had adopted for Buddy's benefit, it was +evident now that she credited his friend with intelligence equal +to her own, and recognized the futility of deceit, therefore she +made no attempt to pass as anything except an experienced young +woman of the world, and Gray admired her for it. She smoked a good +many cigarettes; her taste in amusements was broad; she had +sparkle and enthusiasm. She was, in fact, a vibrant young person, +and referred gayly to a road house whither Buddy had taken her on +the night before and where they had danced until all hours. She +loved to dance. + +The elder man played host in his best and easiest style, both at +dinner and at the theater; then he passed the burden of +entertainment over to Buddy, first cheerfully declaring that he +would not be sidetracked and that he intended to impose his +company upon the young couple whether they wanted him or not. This +was precisely to young Briskow's liking, and soon they were +speeding out to that road house mentioned earlier in the evening. + +Buddy drove, with Miss Montague by his side, the while Gray sat +alone in the back seat of the car quietly objurgating the follies +of youth and mournfully estimating his chances of surviving the +night. Frankly, those chances appeared pretty slim, for Buddy +drove with a death-defying carelessness. By the time they had +arrived at their destination, Gray's respect for the girl had +increased; she had nerves of steel. + +The resort was run on rather liberal principles; a number of +flushed and noisy couples were dancing to the music of a colored +orchestra. It was a "hip-pocket" crowd, and while there was no +public drinking, the high-pitched volubility of the merrymakers +was plainly of alcoholic origin. Gray realized that he was in +for an ordeal, for he had become too well known to escape notice. +Consternation filled him, therefore, at thought of the effect his +presence here might have. But the music went straight to Buddy's +feet; syncopation intoxicated him much as the throbbing of +midnight drums and the pounding of tom-toms mesmerizes a voodoo +worshiper, and he whirled Miss Montague away in his arms without +so much as an apology to his other guest. + +There was nothing conservative about Buddy's dancing. He +embellished his steps with capricious figures, and when he led his +partner back to the table where he had left Gray, like a sailor +marooned upon a thirsty atoll, he was red faced and perspiring; +his enthusiasm was boiling over. "Dawg-_gone!_" he cried. "Now, +if we had something wet, eh? These pants is cut purpose for a +brace of form-fittin' flasks, but I left 'em in the room on +account of you not drinkin', Mr. Gray." + +"Miss Montague," the elder man exclaimed, "I am not a kill-joy and +I hastily resent Buddy's accusation. I have pursued folly as far +as any man of my years." + +"I bet him that you were a good fellow," the girl said, with a +smile. + +"Exactly! Abstinence comes as much from old age as from principle, +and I am in my very prime. With all vigor I defend myself against +the odious charge of virtuousness. Dyspepsia alone accounts for +it." + +"You don't object to drinking?" + +"A wiser man that I has said, 'There are many things which we can +afford to forget which it is yet well to learn.' I have had my +day. May I claim the next dance?" + +In spite of the fact that Ozark Briskow was compelled to sit out +every alternate dance in a distressing condition of sobriety, he +enjoyed himself, for he was playing host to the one woman and the +one man for whom he cared most. He had dreaded meeting Gray, +fearing the effect of an open confession, expecting opposition, +but Gray was broad minded, he was a regular guy. In the relief of this +hour, Buddy could have worshiped him except for the fact that he +was too darned nice to Arline--nobody had the right to show her +attentions as marked as his own--Gray was a man no woman could +help loving-- + +Before long Buddy experienced a new sensation--jealousy. It was +mild, to be sure, but it hurt a little. + +Once Miss Montague's suspicions had been allayed, she, too, +devoted herself to having a good time. She rather enjoyed Gray and +her sense of victory over him. She retired to the ladies' room, +finally, to powder her nose, and when she reappeared it was with +added animation and with a new sparkle to her eyes. When next it +came the elder man's turn to dance with her, he caught upon her +breath a faint familiar odor, only half disguised by the +peppermint lozenge that was dissolving upon her tongue, and he +smiled. Evidently this charmer maintained herself in a state of +constant preparedness, and her vanity bag hid secrets even from +Buddy. + +Where had he seen her? For the hundredth time he asked himself +that question, for amid these hectic surroundings that first +haunting suggestion of familiarity had become more pronounced. But +patient delving into the dark corners of his memory was +unavailing, and her conversation afforded him no clue. + +As time passed the young woman made other trips to the dressing +room, returning always with an access of brightness and a stronger +breath; she assumed with Gray a coquetry which Buddy did not like. +Buddy, indeed, strongly disapproved of it, but that only drove her +to more daring lengths. She ventured, at last, to discuss the +young millionaire with his friend. + +"He's a dear boy, isn't he? And so innocent." + +"He's learning." + +"I'll say he is. He has learned a lot from me." + +"'Delightful task, to rear the tender thought.' But aren't you +afraid he'll learn, for instance, why you are eating peppermints?" + +"Oho!" Gray's petite partner lifted her head and eyed him +curiously. "Do you know why?" + +"I have a suspicion," he said, with a smile, "that when a girl +deliberately perfumes her breath it is in preparation for the +struggle in the cab." + +Miss Montague laughed unaffectedly. "Say! I could like you, Mr. +Wisenblum, in spite of the fact that I ought to hate you." + +"Hate me? But why?" + +"Why shouldn't I?" + +"Because--I'm rather nice; I dance well." + +"You are, and you do. You'd be a perfect dear if you'd only mind +your own business. Buddy is of age, and you and I will get along +like ham and eggs if you'll remember that." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +"Why the SOS?" Mallow voiced this question as he entered Gray's +hotel room early the following evening. + +"I'm in a predicament and I hope you can help me," the latter +explained. "I'm trying to remember something and I can't. I have a +cold spot in my head." + +Mallow deposited his bag with a sigh of relief. "Glad it's no +worse. Anybody can cure a cold in the head." + +"Sit down and light up while I tell you about it." In a few sentences +Gray made known the story of Ozark Briskow's infatuation, and the +reason for his own interest therein. "The woman is of the common +'get-rich-quick' variety," he concluded, "and she won't do." + +"She didn't pull the family estate and her father's slaves and the +orange grove on you, did she?" + +"Oh no. She used that on Buddy and he believes it implicitly--so +implicitly that she warned me to keep off the track. She showed +her teeth, in a nice way. I've seen her somewhere; in some place +where I should not have been. But where? It must have been in this +country, too--not abroad--or I'd remember her." + +"Maybe I haven't been as wild as you, Governor. This is a big +country and I've missed a lot of disreputable joints." + +The former speaker smiled. "You have trained yourself to remember +faces, Mallow. Your researches--scientific researches, my dear +Professor--have led you into quarters which I have never explored. +I must identify this venturesome little gold digger without delay, +for Buddy yearns to make her all his; matrimony is becoming the +one object of his life." + +"Why not let the poor carp have her? It's tough enough for a +dame to get by since prohibition. I don't see how they make it, +with everybody sober. Chances are she'd get the worst of the swap, +at that." + +"Not unlikely, but that is neither here nor there. Understand me, +I'm no seraph; I pose as no model of rectitude, and, unfortunately +for my peace of mind, Miss Montague is a really likable young +person. But Buddy has a mother and a sister, and they hold me +responsible for him. We three are dining downstairs in an hour; +perhaps you could look in on us?" + +"Sure. I'll give her the once over," Mallow agreed. "If she's +anybody in our set, I'll know her." + +The dinner had scarcely started when Gray heard his name paged and +left the table. In the lobby Mallow was waiting with a grin upon +his face. + +"Is that her?" he inquired. + +"That is the girl." + +"_Girl?_ 'Arline Montague,' eh? Her name is Margie Fulton and she +had her hair up when they built the Union Pacific." + +"Nonsense! You're mistaken. She can't be more than twenty-five +--thirty at most." + +"A woman can be as young as she wants to be if she'll pay the +price. Margie had her face tucked up two years ago. Cost her five +thousand bucks." + +"I--can't believe it." + +"You see it every day. Look at the accordion-pleated beauts in the +movies. Why, some of those dolls nursed in the Civil War! Those +face surgeons have ironed the wrinkles out of many a withered +peach, and you're dining with Margie Fulton, the Suicide Blonde. I +know her kid." + +"Her _what?_" Mallow's hearer gasped. + +"Sure. She was married to Bennie Fulton, the jockey, and they had +a boy. Bennie was ruled off in New Orleans and started a gambling +house." + +"New Orleans! Wait--I'm beginning to remember." + +Into Gray's mind came an indistinct memory; the blurred picture +of a race track with its shouting thousands, a crowded betting +ring; then, more clearly, a garish, over-furnished room in a +Southern mansion; clouds of tobacco smoke rising in the cones of +bright light above roulette and poker tables; negro servants in +white, with trays; mint juleps in tall, frosted glasses; a pretty +girl with straw-colored hair--"You're right!" he agreed, finally. +"She was a 'come-on.'" + +"That's her. She worked the betting ring daytimes and boosted in +Bennie's place at night. Whenever she was caught she suicided. +That's how she got her name." + +"Just what do you mean by that?" + +"Why, the usual stuff. A bottle of water with a poison label. If a +mullet threatened to call the police, she'd cry, 'You have ruined +my life!' Then with shaking hand she'd pull the old skull bottle +and drink herself to death. Of course, the poor leaping tuna +usually got the acid out of her hand in time to save her. She saw +to that." + +Gray was laughing silently. "My dear Professor," he confessed, +"wisdom, of a sort, is mine; sometimes I grow weary with the +weight of my experiences and wonder why the world so seldom shows +me something new. But beside you I am as a babe. Tell me, what has +become of the ex-jockey husband?" + +"She divorced him. Mind you, Margie was square, like most of those +'come-ons.' She'd 'how dare' a guy that so much as looked at her. +You know the kind I mean." + +"And the child? Where do you suppose she keeps it?" + +Mallow reflected. "The last time I saw the little cherub he was +singing bass in a bellboys' quartette at Hot Springs. He hops +bells at the Arlington summers and butchers peanuts at the track +during the season--you know, hollers 'Here they come!' before they +start, then when the women jump up he pinches the betting tickets +out of their laps and cashes them with the bookies." + +"Could you get hold of this--this boy basso and bring him here +without letting him or his mother know?" "I can if he's still at +Hot Springs, and I saw him there the last time I was up. The +little darling got me into a crap game and ran in some shaped +dice. Of course, it would cost something to get him." + +"How much?" + +Mallow "shot" his cuff and upon it gravely figured up the probable +expense. "Well, there would be the fares and the eats and his bit +--he wouldn't come for nothing. He'd gyp me for ten dollars, but +he'd probably come for five. I'd offer him three--" + +"There is a thousand dollars in it if you can produce him within +the next forty-eight hours. I doubt my ability to sit on the +safety valve much longer than that, for Buddy Briskow is rapidly +breaking out with matrimonial measles. If I throw cold water on +him it will only aggravate the disease." + +"A thousand dollars!" Mallow cried. "Why, for a thousand berries +I'll bring you his head on a platter. I'll car the little devil +down and lock him in a suitcase." The speaker hesitated a moment +before concluding. "It's a dirty trick on Margie, though." + +"I know. But I'm thinking of Buddy. Now, in Heaven's name, hurry! +My constitution may survive a few more road houses, but my +reputation will not." + +That night was a repetition of the one before, but with variations +and with trimmings, for Buddy wore his "two-pint trousers" again, +and this time they were loaded, hence Gray had a chance to observe +him at his best--or worst. A little liquor went a long way with +the boy; he derived much effect, many by-products, so to speak, +from even a few drinks, and the elder man was forcibly reminded of +Gus Briskow's statement that his son had a streak of the Old Nick +in him. It was true; Buddy was indeed like a wild horse. +Artificially stimulated, he became a creature of pure impulse, and +those impulses ran the entire gamut of hilarity: he played the +drum; he wrestled with a burly doorman; he yelled, whenever he +found what he called a good "yelling place"; he demonstrated his +ability to sing "Silver Threads Among the Gold" to the accompaniment of +a four-piece orchestra energetically engaged in playing something +quite modern and altogether different. These, and many other +accomplishments equally unsuspected, he displayed. On the way from +one lively resort to a livelier he conceived the unique idea that +he could "swap ends" with his touring car in much the same manner +that he could turn a nimble cow pony, and he tried it. Happily, +the asphalt was wet, and in consequence the maneuver was not a +total failure, although it did result in a crumpled mud guard and +a runaway. Milk-wagon horses in Dallas, it appeared, were not +schooled to the sight of spinning motor cars, and the phenomenon +filled at least one with abysmal horror. + +Gray felt sure that he had visibly aged as a result of that ride, +and he began to understand why a new crop of wrinkles was +appearing about the corners of Margie Fulton's eyes. No wonder she +was beginning to look a trifle weary. + +Fearing that Buddy was likely to turn sentimental without warning, +the elder man monopolized as much of "Miss Montague's" time and +attention as possible; he danced with her frequently, and he +assiduously devoted himself to winning her favor. The result was a +tribute to his acting and to his magnetism. In a moment of abandon +she confided to him that she wished he had Buddy's money or--that +he was a marrying man. Both of Buddy's flasks had been emptied by +this time, however, so Gray was not unduly beguiled by this +flattery. + +On the whole, it was a horrible night. + +As Gray languidly crept into bed about daylight he had the +satisfaction of knowing that he had at least excited his young +friend's open jealousy. That might act as a stay. On the other +hand, of course, it might have directly the opposite effect--one +could never tell--and it might be the part of wisdom, therefore, +to gain possession of that diamond ring. + +Buddy sought him out in the lobby, early the next afternoon, and +after a colorless greeting, said, queerly, "Would you mind comin' +up to my room for a minute?" + +"Certainly not. I'd have looked in on you before this if I'd +thought you were up." As the two mounted the wide marble stairs +Gray went on, cheerfully: "Not looking your best this morn +--afternoon, my lad. As for me, I am, in a manner of speaking, +reborn. I have taken a new start. Careful reflection upon the +providential outcome of that amazing skid has convinced me that +whatever joys or sorrows assail me hereafter, however much or +little of life is spared me, it will be all 'velvet.' A touch of +mascaro about my temples and I shall look as young as I did +yesterday. What are we going to do to-night?" + +"I dunno." + +Once inside his spacious suite, Buddy flung himself into a chair +and with trembling fingers lit a cigarette. It was evident that he +had something to say, but either dreaded saying it or knew not +where to begin. His companion, meanwhile, pretended to look out +upon the street below. In reality, he was observing the young +giant. Poor Buddy! He was suffering. + +The latter cleared his throat several times before he managed to +say, "You don't want me to marry Arline, do you, Mr. Gray?" + +"Frankly, my boy, I do not." + +"Why?" + +"There are many reasons." + +"What's one?" + +"I don't think you love her." + +Briskow stirred. "Is that why you--went an' got that di'mon' ring +I had made?" When this query met with a nod the young Texan's face +flamed and his eyes glowed. "What in hell--" He swallowed his +anger, rose to his feet and made a nervous circuit of the room +before coming to a pause at Gray's side. His lips were working; +there was a tragic, a piteous appeal in his eyes; his voice shook +as he stammered: "I didn't mean to break out at you, Mr. Gray. I +like you. Gee! I--You're kinda like God to me. I'd ruther be like +you than--well, there ain't nobody I like like I like you--You +could get her away from me if you wanted to, but--you wouldn't do +a trick like that, would you? I was mighty happy till you came +--You--got that ring with you?" + +"I have it in my pocket." + +"I want it." Buddy extended a quivering hand. + +"Why?" + +"I'm goin' to ask her to marry me, to-day. If she won't I'm goin' +to--" + +"She will." + +Buddy gasped. "You _sure?_" + +"I'm quite sure she would if you asked her. But I don't want you +to ask her." When an expression of pained reproach leaped into the +lad's face, the speaker explained, quickly: "Don't think for a +moment that I care for her, nor that she has the slightest +interest in me. It is you that I care for. What you just said +pleased me, touched me. I wish you could understand how much I +really do care for you, Buddy. Won't you wait--a few days, before +you--" + +"I _can't_ wait." + +"You must." + +The men eyed each other steadily for a moment, then Buddy +demanded, querulously, "What have you got against her, anyhow?" + +"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." + +"She told me everything there is to tell an' I told you. I don't +care what she's done--if she ever done anything. She's had a hard +time." + +"Will you wait forty-eight hours?" + +"No." + +"Twenty-four?" + +"Gimme that ring!" When Gray made no move the speaker ran on, +excitedly: "I'm a man. I'm of age. It's none of your business what +I do--nor Pa's or Ma's, either. It won't do no good for them to +come." + +Gray went to the door, locked it and pocketed the key. "Buddy" +--his voice was firm, his face was set--"you are a man, yes, +although you were only a boy a few weeks ago. You are going to act +like a man, now." + +"You goin' to try an' _hold_ me here?" The inquiry was one of +mingled astonishment and anger, for young Briskow could scarcely +believe his eyes. "Don't do that, Mr. Gray. I--Nobody can't _make_ +me do anything. Please don't! That's plumb foolish." + +"What if I told you that Miss Montague is--" + +Buddy interrupted with a harsh cry. "Damn it! I said I wouldn't +listen to anything against her. I'm tellin' you, again, keep your +mouth shut about her." The youth's face was purple; he was +trembling; his fists were clenched, and with difficulty he +restrained even a wilder outburst. "You can have the ring, but +--you lemme out of here, quick." When this command went unheeded he +strode toward the bedroom, intending to use the other exit, but +his caller intercepted him. "Lemme out!" the young man shouted. + +"One of us is going to remain in this room, and I think it will be +you." As Gray spoke he jerked off his coat and flung it aside. +"Better strip, Buddy, if you mean to try it." + +Buddy recoiled a step. Incredulously he exclaimed: "You--you +wouldn't try _that_! This is my room. You must be crazy." + +"I think I am, indeed, to endure what I have endured these last +two days; to make myself ridiculous; to be humiliated; to risk my +business ruin just to save a young fool from his folly." +Impatience, resentment, anger were in the speaker's tone. + +"I never ast you. You butted in--tried to cut me out. That's +dirty. You was lyin' when you said--" + +"Have it that way. I've run out of patience." + +Ozark Briskow, too, had reached the limit of his endurance; he +exploded. Momentarily he lost his head and cursed Gray vilely. For +answer the latter moved close and slapped him across the mouth, +saying: "Fight, you idiot!" + +Buddy's low, gasping cry had the effect of a roar; it left the +room echoing, then savagely he lunged at his assailant. He was +blind, in him was a sudden maniacal impulse to destroy; he had no +thought of consequences. Gray knocked him down. + +It was a blow that would have felled an ox. As the youth lay half +dazed, he heard the other taunting him, mocking him. "Get up, you +lummox, and defend yourself. You'll be a man when I get through +with you." + +Codes of combat are peculiar to localities. In the north woods, +for instance, lumberjacks fight with fist and heel; in the +Southwest, when a man is mad enough to fight at all, he is usually +mad enough to kill. As Buddy Briskow rose to his knees he groped +for the nearest weapon, the nearest missile, something--anything +with which to slay. His hand fell upon a heavy metal vase, and +with this he struck wickedly as Gray closed with him. This time +they went down together and rolled across the floor. The legs of a +desk crashed and a litter of writing materials was spilled over +them. + +Gray was the first to regain his feet, but his shirt had been torn +half off and he tasted blood upon his lips. He had met strong men +in his time, but never had he felt such a rocklike mass of bone +and muscle as now. Buddy was like a kicking horse; his fists were +as hard as hoofs, and that which they smote they crushed or +bruised or lacerated. He possessed now the supreme strength of a +madman, and he was quite insensible to pain. He was uttering +strange animal sounds. + +"Shut up!" Gray panted. "Have the guts to--keep still. You'll +--rouse the--" + +He dodged an awkward swinging blow from the giant and sent him +reeling. Buddy fetched up against the solid wall with a crash, for +Gray had centered every pound of his weight behind his punch, but +the countryman rebounded like a thing of rubber and again they +clinched. + +A room cluttered with heavy furniture is not like a boxing ring. +In spite of Gray's skill and an agility uncommon in a man of his +size, it was impossible to stop the other's rushes or to avoid +them. Straining with each other they ricocheted against tables and +chairs, and only the fact that much of the furniture was padded, +and the floor thickly carpeted, prevented the sound of their +struggle from alarming the occupants of the halls and the lobby. +They fought furiously, moving the while like two wrestlers trying +for flying holds; time and again they fell with first one on top +and then the other; their flesh suffered and they grew bloody. The +room soon became a litter, for its fittings were upset, flung +about, splintered, as if the room itself had been picked up and +shaken like a doll's house. + +Gray managed to floor his antagonist whenever he had time and +space in which to set himself, but this was not often, for Buddy +closed with him at every opportunity. At such times it was the +elder man who suffered most. + +In a way it was an unequal struggle, for youth, ablaze with a holy +fire, was matched against age, stiffened only by stubborn +determination. Neither man longer had any compunctions; each +fought with a ferocious singleness of purpose. + +Buddy's face had been hammered to a pulp, but Gray was groaning; +he could breathe only from the top of his lungs, and the bones of +his left hand had been telescoped. Agonizing pains ran clear to +his shoulder, and the hand itself was well-nigh useless. + +It was an extraordinary combat; certainly the walls of this +luxurious suite had never looked down upon a scene so strange as +this fight between friends. How long it continued, neither man +knew--not a great while, surely, measured by the clock; but an +interminable time as they gauged it. Nor could Calvin Gray +afterward recall just how it came to an end. He vaguely remembered +Buddy Briskow weaving loosely, rocking forward upon uncertain +legs, blindly groping for him--the memory was like that of a +figure seen dimly through a mist of dreams--then he remembered +calling up his last reserve of failing vigor. Even as he launched +the blow he knew it was a knockout. The colossus fell, lay +motionless. + +It was a moment or two before Gray could summon strength to lend +succor, then he righted an armchair and dragged Buddy into it. He +reeled as he made for the bathroom, for he was desperately sick; +as he wet a towel, meanwhile clinging dizzily to the faucet, his +reflection leered forth from the mirror--a battered, repulsive +countenance, shockingly unlike his own. + +He was gently mopping young Briskow's face when the latter +revived. Buddy's eyes were wild, he did not recognize this +unpleasant stranger until a familiar voice issued from the +shapeless lips. + +"You'll be all right in a few minutes, my lad." + +Briskow lifted his head; he tried to rise, but fell back limply, +for as yet his body refused to obey his will. + +"You--licked me," he declared, faintly. "Licked me good, didn't +you?" + +"_Buddy!_ Oh, Buddy--" It was a yearning cry; Gray's streaked, +swollen features were grotesquely contorted. "You won't be mad +with me, will you?" + +"Want to fight any more?" + +The victor groaned. "My God, _no!_ You nearly killed me." + +This time Buddy managed to gain his feet. "Then I reckon I'll--go +to bed. I feel purty rotten." + +Gray laughed aloud, in his deep relief. "Righto! And after I've +phoned for a doctor, if you don't mind, I'll crawl in with you." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +On the morning after the fight Mallow knocked at Gray's door, then +in answer to an indistinct and irritable command to be gone, he +made himself known. + +"It's me, Governor. And I've got Exhibit A." + +"Really?" came the startled query. There was a stir from within, +the lock snapped and the door opened. + +"I've got a little friend here that I want you to--" Mallow paused +inside the threshold, his mouth fell open, he stared in frank +amazement. "Sweet spirits of niter!" he gasped. "What happened to +_you?_" + +"I was playing tag in the hall with some other old men, and one of +them struck me." + +"My God, you're a sight!" Mallow remained petrified. "I never saw +a worse mess." + +"Come in and close the door. I am vain, therefore I have a certain +shyness about exposing my beauty to the curious gaze. Pardon me if +I seat myself first; I find it more comfortable to sit than to +stand, to recline than to sit." Stiffly the speaker let himself +into an upholstered divan and fitted the cushions to his aches and +his pains, his bruises and his abrasions. He sighed miserably. His +features were discolored, shapeless; his lips were cut; strips of +adhesive tape held the edges of a wound together; his left hand +was tightly bandaged and the room reeked with the odor of +liniment. + +"You've been hit with a safe, or something," Mallow declared. +"Evidences of some blunt instrument, as the newspapers say; maybe +a pair of chain tongs." + +"Blunt and heavy, yes. Buddy Briskow and I had an argument--" + +"That big bum? Did he lay it on you like that? Say, he's got the +makings of a champ!" + +"Pride impels me to state that he got the worst of it. He is +scarcely presentable, while I--" + +"Your side won?" + +"It did. Now, where is the boy?" + +"He's outside." Without shifting his astonished gaze, Mallow +raised his voice and cried, "Hey, Bennie!" The door opened, a +trim, diminutive figure entered. "Bennie, mit my friend Colonel +Gray." + +The youngster, a boy of indeterminate age, advanced and shook +hands. There was no mistaking him; he was Margie Fulton's son in +size, in coloring, in features. "I told Bennie you could use a +bright kid about his age. And he's bright." + +It required no clever analysis of the lad to convince Gray that he +was indeed bright, as bright--and as hard--as a silver dollar. He +had a likable face, or it would have been likable had it been in +repose. It was twitching now, and Gray said, with a smile, "Go +ahead and laugh, son." + +The urchin's lips parted in a wide grin, and he spoke for the +first time. "Did the Germans do that?" The effect of his voice was +startling, for it was deep and husky; it was the older man's turn +to be astonished. + +"He could pass for fifteen on the street," Mallow said; "but when +he talks I chalk him down for thirty-five. How old are you, Ben?" + +"Seventeen. What's the big idea, anyhow?" The question was +directed impudently at the occupant of the divan. "Did you send +all the way to Hot Springs to get a guy you can lick?" + +"Your mother is here in Dallas, my boy." + +"Yeah?" There was a pause. "How's it breaking for her?" + +"Um-m, very well. I thought she'd like to see you." + +Bennie cocked his head, he eyed the speaker curiously, +suspiciously. "Come clean," he rumbled. "Mallow said you could use +me." "I can. I will." The boy shrugged. "All right, Sharkey. I +s'pose it'll come out, in time. Only remember, I've got twenty +coming, win or lose." + +"Of course" Gray waved toward the dresser, upon which was a +handful of bills. "Help yourself. Better make it twenty-five. Then +wait outside, please. We will join you in a few minutes." + +"And don't make it thirty," Bennie's traveling companion sharply +cautioned. + +When the door had closed, Gray gave his friend certain +instructions, after which he limped to the telephone and called +Arline Montague. "May I ask you to step down to Buddy's room?" he +inquired, after making himself known. "Oh, it will be quite all +right--We three must have a little talk--But he _couldn't_ see you +last night. He was quite ill, really; I sat up with him most of--" +There was a longer hiatus then. "Hadn't we better argue that in +Buddy's presence? Thank you. In five minutes, then." + +As he and Gray prepared to leave, Mallow said, sourly: "Margie is +a good little dame, in her way, and I feel like a--like a +damned'stool.'" + +"My dear fellow," the other told him, "I understand, and I'd +gladly take another beating like this one to escape this wretched +denouement." + +When Ozark Briskow answered Gray's request for admittance, he was +deeply embarrassed to find Miss Montague also waiting; his +stammered protest was interrupted by her sharp inquiry: + +"What is the meaning of all this mystery? He said you were too +sick to see me." + +"Permit me to explain," Gray began, as he closed the door behind +them. "Buddy and I came to blows over you; you were, in a manner +of speaking, an apple of discord between us, and the melancholy +results you behold. Jealousy of your charms was not my motive; I +merely asked Buddy to defer a contemplated action. He refused; I +insisted. Argument failed to budge either of us and--" + +The young woman's sympathetic regard of Gray's victim changed to +a glare of hostility as she turned upon the speaker, crying: "You +_brute!_ You ought to be arrested!" + +"He ast me to wait, Arline--" + +"To delay asking you a question which I felt should be more +seriously considered. In the absence of his family I took it upon +myself to--" + +"To butt in!" Miss Montague exclaimed, with curling lip. + +"Quite so. I merit your disapproval, but not your disdain." + +With some heat Buddy declared: "Pa an' Ma know that I got a mind +of my own. It won't do 'em any good to come." + +"See here," the woman demanded. "What have you been telling Buddy +about me? I told him all there was to tell." + +"Quite all? I fear you have not been as frank as you would have me +believe. That, in fact, explains my connection with the affair. +Believe me when I say that I am interested only in seeing justice +done to both of you young people, and in making sure that you do +not deceive each other. It is an impulse of artless youth to trick +itself in glowing colors, but you should know the whole truth +about Buddy and he about you. If, after you are thoroughly +acquainted with each other, you still maintain a mutual regard I +shall have nothing further to say--except to beg that I be allowed +to show my true friendship for both of you." + +"Well, spring the bad news," said Miss Montague. Briskow now +displayed the first open resentment he had shown since his defeat +of the day before. "You licked me, Mr. Gray, an' I took my +medicine," he growled. "You changed my looks, but you didn't +change my mind. I'm waitin' for the folks to come, but I ain't +goin' to listen to 'em." + +"Let him get this off his chest, Buddy. Go ahead with the scandal, +Saint Anthony." + +Gray bowed. "Suppose we ignore the early convent training and +the Old Kentucky Home and agree that they are pleasant fictions, +like the estate which you are in such imminent danger of +inheriting. Those, I'm sure you will admit, are entirely +imaginary." Buddy Briskow's swollen eyelids opened wider, his +tumid lips parted, and an expression of surprise spread over his +dropsical countenance. + +"Step on it," sneered Miss Montague. "Dish the dirt!" + +"Buddy's belief, however, that your stage career was blasted and +your young life laid waste by the scion of a rich New York house +should, in the interests of truth, be corrected." + +"He knows I was married." + +"True. But not to Bennie Fulton, the jockey." + +"That is a--lie!" + +"Nor that the estimable Mr. Fulton, instead of perishing upon the +field of glory, dodged the draft and is doing as well as could be +expected of a jockey who has been ruled off every track in the +country, and is now a common gambler against whom the finger of +suspicion is leveled--" + +"It's a lie!" the woman stormed. Of Buddy she inquired: "You don't +believe that, do you? You don't intend to listen to that sort of +stuff?" + +The object of this appeal was torn by conflicting emotions. Doubt +is a weed that sprouts fastest in dull minds; suspicion is the +ready armor of ignorance; to young Briskow came the unwelcome +vision of those oil wells. Was Gray telling the truth? Could it be +that Arline had made a fool of him? But no, she was smaller, +prettier, more adorable than ever, now that she was whipped by +this gale of anger, and a girl like that could not be a deceiver. +Buddy longed desperately to believe her refutation of the charge. +He closed his eyes and made himself believe. + +"Even now," Gray was saying, "if you would tell the boy all he +ought to know, I would take myself off and have nothing more to +say." + +"You-you make me _sick!_" Miss Montague cried, vibrantly. "What +right have _you_ to preach? What kind of a man are you? If he believed +your lies for a minute I'd never want to see him again. He has been a +true friend to me"--her voice quavered, caught in her throat--"the only +true friend I ever had. _I_ don't care whether he's rich or poor, but men +like you are all alike. What chance has a girl got against you? You want +to use his money, so you p-poison his mind--break a woman's heart--just +b-because you--hate me." The last words were sobbed forth. Miss +Montague broke down. + +"Hell!" hoarsely exclaimed young Briskow. "You're makin' her cry!" + +Gray sighed; he stepped to the door, opened it and called, "Come +in, both of you." + +Arline Montague's shoulders ceased to shake, she lifted her blond +head alertly. Then she uttered a breathless exclamation. + +Buddy, meanwhile, had been staring at the door, and he was +surprised when, instead of his family, he saw entering a strange +man and a boy small of stature but old of face, a boy insouciant, +impudent, swaggering. It was this boy who spoke first. + +"Hello, momma!" he cried. + +At sound of that voice Buddy recoiled, for it was deeper than his +own. His expression of dismay was no doubt ludicrous, at any rate +the urchin's lively eyes leaped to his face and remained there, +while a grin spread over his features. + +"Hully Gee!" rumbled the lad. "Here's _another_ one that ought to +be buried!" + +"Mrs. Fulton"--it was Gray speaking--"I took the liberty of asking +your son--" + +Buddy Briskow heard no more, for his ears were roaring. Her son! +That voice! Being little more than a boy himself, nothing could +have hurt him more cruelly than this; his impulse was to flee the +room, for his world had come down in crashing ruin. She _had_ +lied! She _had_ made a fool of him. Gray had been right. + +The others were still talking when Buddy broke in faintly. His +battered visage was white, his lips were colorless. "I reckon +this--ends my part of the entertainment," said he. Slowly he seated +himself and bowed his head in his hands, for he had become quite ill. + +Arline Montague--Margie Fulton--once the blow had fallen, behaved +rather well; she took Bennie in her arms and kissed him, then in +answer to his quick look of dismay at her agitation, she patted +him on the shoulder and said: "It's all right, son. You didn't +know." + +"Didn't know what?" demanded the lad. "Say--" He stared angrily +from one face to another. "Is it a plant?" + +"Hush! You wouldn't understand." + +Bennie's suspicions now were in full play, and his gaze came to +rest upon Calvin Gray; his eyes began to blaze. "You--you big +bum!" he cried. "I might have known you were a double-crosser." + +"Hush, Bennie, please!" + +"I'll get you for this." The midget was quivering with rage. +"You'll look worse 'n that, you--you big bum!" + +"Take my key. Here!" The mother thrust her room key into the boy's +hand. "Run along. I--I'll see you in a few minutes." To Mallow she +said: "Take him out, please. You brought him." + +Mallow, flushing uncomfortably, took Bennie by the wrist and +dragged him to the door. + +"Dirty work!" said the woman, when the two had gone. Her eyes were +dark with anger as she stared at Gray. + +"It must look so to you," he agreed. "Frankly, I didn't enjoy it." + +"Bah!" Margie turned to Briskow, but in his attitude, his averted +gaze, she read the doom of her hopes. One final chance remained, +however, and desperately she snatched at it. "Buddy!" she cried. +"_Buddy!_" Her voice was poignant as she pleaded. "I couldn't tell +you the truth. I wanted to--I laid awake nights trying to get the +courage, but I was afraid you wouldn't understand. I'd have told +you the whole thing, if you'd ever given me the chance. You know I've +been married; does it make so much difference that I have a son?" When +the object of her appeal only stirred, she went on, reproachfully: "Are +you going to allow this--this man to--come between us?" + +"I wouldn't believe you now, if--" Buddy choked. "I'm through!" + +"You mean that?" The young fellow nodded. "Very well!" Something +in the tone of the last words, some accent of desperation, caused +Buddy to raise his head. He was in time to see Margie fumble with +her purse and extract something therefrom; to Buddy's eyes it +resembled a bottle. "There is no use fighting any more. You have +ruined my life." + +"My God!" young Briskow yelled, in dismay. "Don't do that! Stop +her!" He leaped to his feet and lunged for the poison vial which +was trembling upon Arline's lips. Gray, too, had been galvanized +into action, but of an unexpected nature; he grappled with Buddy +and held him. "Look out!" the latter gasped. "She's killin' +herself." The Texan was weak with horror; he could only paw +impotently at his captor and cry: "Arline! You wouldn't do _that?_ +For _me?_ Lemme go. Arline--" + +"This is the end," moaned the woman, still holding the bottle to +her lips. Her despair was tragic; nevertheless, she did not +instantly hurl herself into the hereafter. This hesitation at +meeting death was only natural, perhaps, for none but the bravest +can leap into the unknown without a moment of farewell. + +"Drink hearty!" Gray exclaimed, over his shoulder, meanwhile +closing tighter his embrace of the terrified youth. + +Buddy's struggles suddenly ceased, for at last the bottle had been +drained; the girl was groping blindly toward the nearest chair. + +"God'lmighty! You let her do it!" he cried, hoarsely. "You--you +_murderer_! We--we gotta get a doctor, quick." + +"Nonsense! Water won't hurt her; and that's all it is. She's known +as 'the Suicide Blonde.'" + +"Say! You're bursting with information, +aren't you?" It was Miss Montague, tottering upon the brink of the +grave, who voiced this explosive inquiry. Her drooping shoulders +straightened, she raised her head and flung the empty bottle +violently from her. Her face was deathly white, to be sure, but +not with darting agonies. "You know _everything_, don't you? You +make plain the past, the present, and the future. Well, Madame +Thebes, you're under the wire with the horseshoe on your neck." +With head erect and with firm tread she moved to the door; she +turned there and blazed forth in bitter scorn, her bobbed curls +shaking as she spoke: "Take that selling plater back to the car +barn, where he belongs. I'm off boobs for life. I knew you had a +jinx on me the minute I saw you, for I broke my mirror the day you +breezed in. Seven years bad luck? My God, you're all of that and +more! Why, you'd bring bad luck to a church! I'll beat it now +while you give little Rollo his bottle and rock him to sleep. If +he cries, tell me and--and I'll furnish the rock." + +The door slammed to behind the diminutive fury, and Gray sank +feebly into a chair. He was laughing silently. + +"By Jove! She's splendid!" he chuckled. "Buddy, I--I like that +woman." + +It was midforenoon of the next day. Mrs. Fulton, after a restless +night, was packing her trunks; her room was in disarray, what with +open suitcases and piles of dresses, lingerie, shoes and the like +strewn carelessly about. She had halted her labors for a second +time to scan a brief note that had arrived a few moments before +and ran as follows: + +DEAR MRS. FULTON,--I am not really such a bad sort as you consider +me, and I'm genuinely interested in that boy of yours. Let's cry +quits and have a serious talk about him and--perhaps other things. + +Sincerely yours, + +CALVIN GRAY. She was thus engaged when there came a knock, and in +answer to her voice the writer entered. + +"Thank you for letting me come up," he began. "I'm becoming +accustomed to dodging chambermaids and scurrying up back stairs. +But I'm looking better, don't you think?" + +"There's only one way you'd look better to me," the woman said, +unsmilingly, "and that is laid out." + +"Please put me at my ease. I am physically sore and mentally +distressed." + +"_You_ sore, distressed! Humph! I wouldn't have consented to see +you except for what Mallow told me. After what he said I'd like to +give you a piece of my mind. What right have _you_ doing a thing +like this? Do you know what I think of you?" + +"I do. Also what Mallow thinks of me, for he told me. You see, he +believes firmly that I am a--well, a person of much looser +principles than I really am, and my protestations of honesty only +excite his veiled derision." + +"He says he's sorry. Sorry! After spilling the beans." + +"Mrs. Fulton, I have learned that life is a mixed affair, and that +most of our actions are the results of conflicting motives. Yes, +and that we ourselves are products of conflicting forces, good and +evil. Few of us are as good as we would like to have people +believe nor as bad as we appear. I wonder if you will believe me +when I say that I--like you." + +"Certainly not." + +"Nevertheless, I do. For one thing, you are a good fighter and a +good loser. I try to be, but I fear I lack your spirit. I would +not have hurt you willingly." + +The woman tossed her head and turned away; when she spoke, it was +wearily: "I might have known I couldn't make the jump. I never did +win a big race. A good loser, eh? Well, I've had enough practice +at it. How is Buddy? Hurt, I suppose. His young life is blasted; +he'll never trust another woman." + +"He is standing it pretty well, and is greatly cheered by the +fact that he can see out of his left eye practically as well as +ever. He is going back to the oil fields and learn the business. I +am going to put him to work. What are you going to do with +Bennie?" + +"Do with him? What can I do with him?" + +"He is a bright boy." + +"I'm bright, too, but I have all I can do to get by." + +"It is a shame to think he will grow up into what his father was." + +Margie Fulton wheeled and her blue eyes were dark. "I suppose you +think I'm a bad mother. But what do you know about it? How do you +know what I've gone through for him; the sacrifices I've made? +I've made plenty and they came hard." + +"I'd like to help you make a man of him." + +"What? _You_? How?" + +"I'd like to put him in business and teach him that there is no +profit in short-changing customers; that the real wise guy isn't +the fellow who gets the best of every bag of peanuts, but the one +who can go back to the same customer and sell him another bag. The +abstract principle has been put much more succinctly, but I doubt +if it would carry the same weight with him. I'd enjoy giving the +boy a hand up, but--he is more than I'd care to tackle alone." + +"There's Mallow to help you. He'd be a refining influence." The +mother's lip curled. + +"How about you?" + +"Me?" + +"Isn't the--sort of life you are living becoming a bit tiresome? +Aren't you about fed up on uncertainties?" The object of these +queries drew a deep breath; her eyelids flickered, but she +continued to stare at the speaker. "Worry brings deeper wrinkles +than old age. Wouldn't you like to tie to something solid and be +able to show Bennie that you are, at heart, the sort of woman I +consider you? He'll soon be getting old enough to wonder if you +are what he thinks you are or if--" "I suppose you learned this +--bayonet practice in the army," Mrs. Fulton said, hoarsely. + +"Anybody can make a good living in a country like this if he cares +enough to try. I'll back you if you need money." + +"And--what's the price?" + +"My price? Oh, I'd feel well repaid if some day Bennie +acknowledged that I was a 'regular guy,' and if you agreed." + +"Is that all?" + +"Quite all. Is there something you do--well?" + +"I can cook. I'm a good cook. Women like me usually have hobbies +they never can follow--and I have two. I can make a fool of a +stove, and I--I can design children's clothes, wonderful things, +new things--" + +"Will you come to Wichita Falls and start a restaurant and make +good things to eat, if I supply the money and the customers?" + +"_Will_ I?" The speaker's face had flushed, her eyes had begun to +sparkle. "Then it's a bargain," Gray declared, gayly. "Why, +you'll get rich, for it is the chance of a lifetime. I'll +guarantee patronage; I'll drum up trade if I have to turn sandwich +man and ring a bell. Leave the details to me." + +Margie Fulton sank slowly into the nearest chair, regardless of +the fact that it was piled full of lacy, white, expensive things; +her voice quavered, broke, as she said: "Gee, Mr. Gray! I figured +there must be some decent men in the world, but--I never thought +I'd meet one." + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +In a long, relentless struggle between two men psychology may play +a part as important as in a campaign between two opposing armies, +or so at least Calvin Gray believed. That, in fact, was one of his +pet theories and from the first he had planned to test it. It was +characteristic of Henry Nelson, on the other hand, that he put no +faith whatever in "imponderables," hence Gray's reference to +morale, on that day of their first meeting, had amused him. +Morale, indeed! As if a man of his tough fiber could be affected +by the mere chanting of a Hymn of Hate! He considered himself the +captain of his soul, and the antics of a malicious enemy, the wild +waving of false danger signals, instead of distracting a resolute +mariner, would merely cause him to steer a truer course. + +But Nelson was a brooder. Time came when doubts distressed him, +when he began to put faith in "malicious animal magnetism" and, +despite his better sense, to wonder if some evil spell really had +not been put upon him. + +In his arrogance it had seemed at first a simple matter to do away +with Gray. That had been mistake number one. The miserable +breakdown of that plan, the refusal of his hireling to go forward, +and the impossibility of securing a trustworthy substitute +convinced him finally that he had erred grievously in his method. +Some men are invulnerable to open attack, and Gray, it seemed, had +been wet in the waters of the Styx. No, that had been a bad +beginning and Nelson regretted it, for he feared it had served as +a warning. + +So, indeed, it appeared, for not long thereafter he actually felt, +or thought he felt, the vengeful claws of his enemy. A new strike +in one of the western counties had become public, and a brand-new +oil excitement was born overnight. Trains were crowded, roads were +jammed with racing automobiles; in the neighborhood of the new +well ensued scenes to duplicate those of other pools. For the +first week or two there was a frenzy of buying and selling, a +speculation in oil acreage and town lots. + +The Nelsons, of course, were early on the ground, for in spite of +the father's contention that they could ill afford, at the moment, +to tie up more money in unproductive properties, the son had +argued that they must have "protection," and his arguments had +prevailed. + +Henry went in person, and he was disagreeably surprised to +discover Gray on the ground ahead of him. The latter bore +evidences of hard usage in the shape of a black eye and numerous +bandages, reputed to be the result of an automobile collision. +Henry regretted that his enemy's injuries were so trivial. It was +indeed a pity that so few accidents are fatal. + +He bought rapidly, right and left, as much to forestall Gray as +anything else, and he was back at the bank shortly with a number +of leases. Not until some time later did he learn that he had paid +a price for them twice as high as that charged for properties +closer in. + +It was Bell who brought this unwelcome information home to him +--brought it home in his characteristic manner. + +"What the hell ails you, anyhow?" the father inquired, in +apoplectic wrath. "Have you gone clean crazy?" + +After some inquiry Henry realized what ailed him and who had +caused him to throw away his money, but he did not apprise Bell. +More than once they had been parties to "wash sales," and had +helped to establish artificial values, but to be victimized in the +same manner was like the taste of poison. + +Of course, it meant little in the big game. At most, the firm had +been "gypped" only a comparatively few thousand dollars, and the +loss could probably be recouped by a resale; nevertheless, the +incident was significant, and, upon second thought, it appeared to shed +light upon certain other expensive transactions in other fields. + +Now, oddly enough, this new oil discovery did not develop as had +been expected--in fact, the excitement died out quickly--and when +Henry Nelson undertook to dispose of his holdings he was faced by +a heavy loss, for Gray was offering adjoining acreage at low +prices. + +Following this unhappy experience, the scandal about the Jackson +well became public--the Atlantic Company having at last located +the leak in its pipe line--and the whole Red River district +enjoyed a great laugh. Henry Nelson did not laugh. He turned green +when he realized how close he had come to buying that lease. Of +course, here was a swindle that Gray could have had nothing to do +with, and yet--Nelson wondered why "Bob" Parker had failed to sell +it to him. "Bob" had tied it upon an option, awaiting his return, +and he had hurried back on purpose to examine it. Why hadn't he +bought it? Henry asked that question of the girl, and, when she +told him as much as she knew, he began to believe that the whole +thing was, indeed, an incredibly bold attempt to swindle him, and +him alone. + +Miss Parker, of course, was deeply chagrined at her connection +with the fraud; nevertheless, the banker felt his flesh turn cold +at the narrowness of his escape. He assured himself, upon calmer +thought, that his imagination was running away with him; this was +too devilishly ingenious, too crooked! And besides, Gray had +promised to fight fair. All the same, the thing had a suspicious +odor, and Nelson slept badly for a few nights. He decided to use +extra caution thereafter and see that he neither paid more for +leases than they were worth nor permitted anybody to "salt" him. +Salting, after all, was rare; one read about it in books, but no +experienced operator had ever been fooled in that way. + +About this time a big gasser blew in north of the Louisiana +fields, and wise oil men began to talk about Arkansas and quietly +to gather in acreage. Less than a week later one of Nelson's field +men brought into the bank a youth who owned some property in the +latter state. This yokel was a sick man; he was thin and white; he +had a racking cough, and he knew nothing about oil except from +hearsay. All he knew was that he would die if he didn't get to a +warmer, drier climate; but the story he told caused Henry Nelson +to stare queerly at his field man. That very night the latter left +town. + +On the third night thereafter, in answer to a telegram, Nelson and +the Arkansas farmer slipped unobtrusively out of Wichita Falls. It +so happened that Brick Stoner, en route to Hot Springs for a +little rest, was a passenger on the same train. + +Stoner returned in due time, much rested, and he brought with him +a large check to the firm's account. + +"We timed it to the minute," he told McWade and Mallow. "That +gasser couldn't have come in better if we'd ordered it. Nelson's +dickering under cover for more acreage near what he's got, but I +tipped off who he was." + +"He fell easy, eh?" + +Stoner grinned. "He was so pleased with himself at swindling an +invalid, and so scared somebody would discover those seepages that +he couldn't hardly wait to sign up. If it hadn't of been for the +general excitement, he might of insisted on time to do some +exploring, but he's pulled a rig off another job and he's sending +it right up." + +"We've got some good news, too," McWade asserted. "Avenger Number +One is trying hard to come in." + +"No?" + +"I tell you Gray's got a rabbit foot. If we continue to trail +along with him, I'll be losing you as a partner, Brick." + +"How so?" + +"Why, I'll be turning honest. It seems to pay." + +"Um-m. Probably I'd better keep all this Nelson money and leave +you--" + +"Oh, not at all," the junior partner said, quickly. "That isn't +an oil deal, strictly speaking, for you say there ain't oil enough +on the land to grease a jackknife. I look on it as a real-estate +speculation." + +With a laugh Stoner accepted this explanation, and then announced +that he was hungry for his breakfast. + +This time Mallow spoke up. "I'm bally-hooing for a new joint; +Fulton's Fancy Waffle Foundry. Follow me and I'll try to wedge you +in. But you'll have to eat fast and pick your teeth on the +sidewalk, for we need the room." In answer to Stoner's stare, the +speaker explained his interest in the welfare of Wichita Falls's +newest eating place, and en route thereto he told how Margie +Fulton came to be running it. "Gray did it. He got the Parker girl +to help us, and we had the place all fixed up by the time Margie +got here. She's tickled pink, and it'll coin money--if it isn't +pinched." + +"Pinched?" + +"Sure! Bennie's the cashier, and he palms everything from dimes to +dishtowels. Force of habit! Better count your change till I break +him of short-changing the customers." + +"_You_--" Stoner stopped in his tracks. + +"Oh, I'm giving him lessons in elemental honesty." + +"My God! Are you turning honest, too?" the other man exclaimed. +"Seems like that's all I hear lately." + +It was a blue day for Henry Nelson when Avenger Number One came +in, for it made necessary immediate drilling operations on his +part. And the worst of it was the well was not big enough to +establish a high value for his holdings. It was just enough of a +producer to force him to begin three offsets and that, for the +moment, was an undertaking decidedly inconvenient. + +Bell Nelson was even more dismayed at the prospect than was his +son, for upon him fell the necessity of raising the money. "Hell +of a note," the old fellow grumbled, "when a wet well puts a crimp +in us! A little more good luck like this and we'll go broke." "We +can't afford to let go, or to sub-lease--" + +"Of course not, after the stand we've taken. There's talk on the +street about the bank, now, and--I'd give a good deal to know +where it comes from." The junior Nelson had heard similar echoes, +but he held his tongue. "I never did like your way of doing +business," the speaker resumed, fretfully. "We've overreached. You +wanted it all and--this is the result." + +Now Henry Nelson was warranted in resenting this accusation, for +it had ever been Bell's way to pursue a grasping policy, therefore +he cried, angrily: + +"That's right; pass the buck. You know you wouldn't listen to +anything else. If we're in deep, you're more to blame than I." + +"Nothing of the sort." Old Bell began a profane denial, but the +younger man broke in, irritably: + +"I've never won an argument with you, so have it your own way. But +while you're raising money for the Avenger offsets, you'd better +raise plenty, for Gray is going to punch holes down as fast as +ever he can." + +"Who is this Gray? What's he got against you?" + +Henry's eyes shifted. "Has he got anything against me? He bought a +good lease and was wise enough to get somebody to make a well for +him--" + +"Those crooks! Those wildcatters!" + +"Now, he proposes to develop his acreage as rapidly as possible. +Nothing strange about that, is there?" + +"Is he sore at you?" + +"We didn't get along very well in France." + +"Humph! I suppose that means you fought like hell. And now he's +getting even. By the way, where am I going to get this money?" + +"That is up to you," said Henry, with a disagreeable grin, +whereupon his father stamped into his own office in a fine fury. + +Not long after this father and son quarreled again, for of a +sudden a perfect avalanche of lawsuits was released, the +mysterious origin and purpose of which completely mystified Old +Bell. The Nelsons, like everybody else, had unsuccessfully dabbled +in oil stocks and drilling companies for some time before the boom +started, also during its early stages, and most of those failures +had been forgotten. They were painfully brought to mind, however, +when Henry was served with a dozen or more citations, and when +inquiry elicited the reluctant admission from the bank's attorney +that a genuine liability existed--a liability which included the +entire debts of those defunct joint-stock associations in which he +and his father had invested. This was enough to enrage a saint. + +Henry argued that he had invariably signed those articles of +association with the words, in parentheses, "No personal +liability," and he was genuinely amazed to learn that this +precaution had been useless. He protested that scores--nay, +hundreds--of other people were in the same fix as he, and that if +this outrageous provision of the law were strictly enforced and +judgments rendered widespread ruin would result. His lawyer agreed +to this in all sympathy, but read aloud the provisions of the +statute, and Nelson derived no comfort from the reading. The +lawyer was curious to know, by the way, who had taken the trouble +to acquire all of these claims--a task of heroic size--but about +all the encouragement he could offer was the probability of a long +and expensive series of legal battles, the outcome of which was +problematical. That meant annoyance, at best, and a possible +impairment of credit, and the Nelson credit right now was a +precious thing, as Henry well knew. Eloquently he cursed the day +he had met Calvin Gray. What next, he wondered. + +He discovered what next when the driller he had sent up to +Arkansas in charge of his rig one day came into the office in +great agitation. The man's story caused his employer's face to +whiten. + +"_Salted!_ I--don't believe it." Nelson seized his head in his +hands. "Oh, my God!" he gasped. Misfortunes were coming with a +swiftness incredible. Salted! Victimized, like the greenest +tenderfoot! A small fortune sunk while the whole country was still +chuckling over the Jackson scandal! This _was_ a nightmare. + +Henry was glad that his father was in Tulsa in conference with +some other bankers over that Avenger offset money, otherwise there +was no telling to what extreme the old man's rage would have +carried him at this final calamity. And that whining, coughing +crook, that bogus farmer, was in Arizona--or elsewhere--out of +reach of the law! The younger Nelson turned desperately sick. If +this was not more of Gray's work, it was the direct result of the +curse he had called down. + +"Does anybody know?" Henry inquired, after he had somewhat +recovered his equilibrium. + +"Nobody but us fellows." + +"You--you mustn't shut down. You've got to keep up the bluff +until--until I get time to turn." + +"You going to bump off that land to somebody else?" + +"What do you think I'm going to do?" Nelson was on his feet now +and pacing his office with jerky strides. "Take a loss like that?" +He paused and glared at the bearer of bad tidings, then growled: +"What are you grinning about? Oh, you needn't say it. You want +yours, eh? Is that it?" + +"Well--it's worth something to turn a trick like this." + +"How much?" + +"It's a big deal. It'll take something substantial--something +substantial and paid in advance--to make our boys forget all the +interesting sights they've seen. But I'd rather leave the amount +to you, Henry. You know me; I wouldn't be a party to a crooked +deal, not for anything, except to help you out--" + +"How much?" the banker repeated, hoarsely. + +But the field man merely smiled and shrugged, so, with a grunt of +understanding, Henry seated himself and wrote out a check to +bearer, the amount of which caused him to grind his teeth. + +Now it was impossible to dispose of a large holding like that +Arkansas tract at a moment's notice. In order to evade suspicion, +it was necessary to go about it slowly, tactfully, hence the +financier moved with as much circumspection as possible. His +careful plans exploded, however, when he met Calvin Gray a day or +so later. + +Gray had made it an invariable practice to speak affably to his +enemy in passing, mainly because it so angered the latter; this +time he insisted upon stopping. He was debonair and smiling, as +always, but there was more than a trace of mockery in his tone as +he said: + +"So your luck has changed, hasn't it? That Avenger well of mine +has put a good value on your property. I congratulate you, +Colonel." + +"Humph! I don't believe in luck," Nelson mumbled. "And the Avenger +isn't enough of a well to brag about." + +"So? You don't believe in luck? It seems to be our lot invariably +to differ, doesn't it? Now, my dear Colonel, I'm not ashamed to +confess that I am deeply superstitious, and that I believe +implicitly in signs and prodigies. You see, I was born under a +happy star; 'at my nativity the front of heaven was full of fiery +shapes,' as it were. Comfortable feeling, I assure you. Take that +incident at New-town, not long ago; doesn't that prove my +contention?" + +"What incident?" + +Gray's brows lifted whimsically. "Of course. How should you know? +There was a clumsy attempt to do me bodily harm, to--assassinate +me. Funny, isn't it? So ill considered and so impracticable.--But +about this Avenger matter, if you find it inconvenient to offset +my wells as fast as I put them down, perhaps you'd consider +selling--" + +"_Inconvenient?_" Nelson felt the blood rush to his face at this +insufferable insult, but he calmed himself with the thought that +his opponent was deliberately goading him. After all, it served +him right for permitting the fellow to stop him. "Inconvenient! +Ha!" He turned away carelessly. + +"No offense, my dear Colonel. I thought, after your Arkansas +fiasco, you might wish--" + +"What Arkansas fiasco?" Nelson wheeled, and in spite of himself +his voice cracked. + +"Ah! Another secret, eh?" Gray winked elaborately--nothing could +have been more deliberately offensive than that counterfeit of a +friendly understanding. "Very well, I sha'n't say a word." + +"You--" The banker was gasping. "You're doing your damnedest to +--to start something, aren't you?" + +"Every day. Every hour. Every minute." The speaker bowed. "In +defense of my promise to fight fair, let me assure you, however, +that I did not start this. As a matter of fact, I knew nothing +about it until you had been hooked. Apropos of that quixotic +promise, please remember that your own actions have absolved me +from it." + +The men stared at each other for a moment that seemed +interminable. Gray was watchful, expectant; Nelson was plainly +shaken by a desire so desperate that resistance left him weak. He +was like an animal frozen in the very attitude of springing. + +"Foxy, aren't you?" he managed to say, at last. "Tempting me to +--make the first move." With a mighty effort of will he forced his +tense body to relax. "The act of a bully! Bah! Wouldn't I be a +fool--" + +"A bully is usually a coward," Gray said, slowly. "Neither of us +is a coward. I'm not ready to--join the issue that way, especially +in a place like this. The game is too exciting to--" + +"You'll get all the excitement you're looking for," Nelson cried, +wrathfully. "You've cost me a lot of money, but you could have +cost me a lot more if you hadn't been fool enough to brag about it +and give me warning. Now--I'll send you out of Texas afoot." + +"On my back, perhaps, but never on my feet." + +Without another word the banker passed on, but he went blindly, +for his mind was in black chaos. No chance now for secrecy; he was +in for a bit of hell. He managed to kill the story in the local +papers, but it appeared in the Dallas journals, which was even +worse, and for the first time in his life he found himself an +object of ridicule. The Arkansas transaction was made to appear +the most outrageous swindle of recent oil history, and, coming so +quickly after the Jackson exposure, it excited double interest and +amusement. + +In truth, the facts about the salting of that Arkansas tract did +make a story, for the methods employed had been both new and +ingenious. Nelson had been fooled by a showing of oil in an +ordinary farm well, and by a generous seepage into a running +stream some distance away. Not until a considerable sum had been +spent in actual drilling operations, however, did those seepages +diminish sufficiently to excite suspicion sufficiently, in fact, +to induce the crew to pump the water well dry. This done, an +amazing fraud had been discovered. It had been found that the +vendor of the land had removed the rock curbing and behind it had +packed a liberal quantity of petroleum-soaked cotton waste. +Naturally, when the well had been walled up again and permitted to +resume its natural level, the result was all that the unscrupulous +owner could have expected. + +The creek seepage had turned out to be equally counterfeit, but +even more ingeniously contrived. It had manifested itself where a +stratum of clean white sand, underlaid with clay, outcropped at +the foot of a high bank. In the undergrowth, quite a way back from +the stream, tardy investigation disclosed that a hole had been dug +down to that layer of sand and into the hole had been poured +several barrels of "crude." The earth from the digging had been +removed and the hole had been cunningly covered up. Naturally, the +oil from this reservoir had followed the sand stratum and--the +resultant phenomenon at the water's edge had been well calculated +to excite even the coldest-blooded observer. It had excited Henry +Nelson to such an extent that he had bought not only this farm, +but a lot of other farms. And Nelson was shrewd. Oh, it was a great joke! +The whole mid-continent field rocked with laughter at it. + +Nelson, senior, returned from Tulsa bull-mad, and he came without +the money he had expected to get. What went on in his office that +morning after he sent for his son none of the bank's employees +ever knew, but they could guess, for the rumblings of the old +man's rage penetrated even the mahogany-paneled walls. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +Gray had once told Barbara Parker that there was no one quite like +him--a remark more egotistical in the sound than in the meaning. +Unusual in many ways he probably was, but, like most men, the +discovery that his proudest virtues were linked with vices of +which he was ashamed struck him as extraordinary. As if nature +were not forever aiming at a balance. + +In spite of the fact that he was impulsive, headstrong, swift in most +things, this girl possessed the unique faculty of rendering him +acutely self-conscious, and it annoyed him the more, therefore, to +find how timorous he could be in putting her feelings to the +test. That was the one thing he could never quite summon courage to +do. She was so young, so cool, so disconcertingly straightforward +that, in contrast, his own age appeared the greater, and his many +counterfeit qualities were thrown into uglier relief. + +Then, too, her answer meant so much that fear of refusal became an +actual torture, and the mere thought of it left his arrogant +spirit strangely humble. To a man in his vengeful mood, to a men +whipped by one savage purpose, love had come as a blessed relief; +and, in consequence, anger at his indecision was the greater. +Sometimes he told himself that he deserved to lose her. + +One such occasion was after he had taken her out to the Avenger +lease. + +There was more than one well by this time; Avenger Number Two and +Three and Four were going down, and offsetting the first Avenger +were three of Nelson's rigs. "Bob" studied the situation briefly, +then, with a dubious shake of her head, she announced: "You are +taking a big risk, Mr. Gray." + +"You mean these new holes may come dry? Of course, but I believe +in crowding my luck. I don't know any other way to work." + +"You _have_ been lucky, haven't you?" She stared at him with a +detached, impersonal interest. "Everything is coming your way, +even down in the Ranger district." + +"Oh, I have my share of troubles. I lost a crooked hole, recently +--had to skid the derrick and start over. Then a pair of chaintongs +was dropped into another hole--" + +"That makes an expensive fishing job." + +"The worst ever." + +"Somebody must have it in for you." When Gray nodded, "Bob's" face +lit up with surprise. "Really. Do you suspect someone in +particular?" + +"I know." + +"How interesting." After a moment had passed and he had explained +no further, the girl went on: "Everybody is talking about you and +your success. They say you have the golden touch." + +"That is a good reputation to enjoy; but this country is full of +fellows who came here knowing as little about oil as I knew and +who have accomplished more sensational results. I've come up like +a rocket, to be sure; it remains to be seen whether I shall fall +like a stick." + +"You won't fall." + +"Do you really believe that?" The inquiry was eagerly put. "I'd +trust your intuition, Miss--"Bob." Sometimes I have moments of +uneasiness, for, you see, I'm drilling more wells than I should. +It is double or quits, you understand? If my luck breaks, so do +I." + +"You have always impressed me as a--a man of destiny. I think fate +has selected you as an instrument with which to do big things. +That's why I'm always a bit overawed by you." + +"Overawed?" Gray laughed. "Why, I feel the same with you. If you +knew how little I am, how little it all signifies, except as a +means to an end. If you only knew what it is that I want so much +more than oil, or money, or--" + +"I thought you were like all the others here--absorbed only in the +game." + +"I was, at first. I had reason to be; a very great reason, I +assure you. Then I saw something far more desirable than fortune, +far more absorbing than--than the motive that brought me here. +Some days, like today, I think I'm going to win it, then again I +grow faint-hearted." + +"Faint-hearted? _You?_" There was an elaborate skepticism in +"Bob's" tone, but as the meaning of Gray's ardent gaze struck home +to her, she turned her head with a lightly affected laugh. She was +coloring, but she knew that her companion's agitation was so much +greater than hers that he did not notice it. + +"Fair lady," he said, a bit uncertainly, "you multiply my courage +tenfold, and I shall retain the guerdon of your faith. But we +swashbuckling fellows are proud; we must come as victors or not at +all, and I am anything but victorious, yet. I've had many a fall, +and my armor is dented in a dozen places. I have a record of +failures that only a lasting success can wipe out. When, if ever, +that record is wiped out, why--my tongue shall be my heart's +ambassador." This was the boldest speech that Gray had ever +permitted himself. + +Never had he felt "Bob" to be so close to him as on this day, and +in consequence he made of it a festival. He played the lover with +a respectful ardor, doubly thrilling by reason of its restraint, +and that night it was not Henry Nelson's face that lingered last +in his memory. He wondered, before he fell asleep, if he had acted +wisely in letting slip his hour. Opportunity has a fickle way of +jilting those who ignore her, and yet--how could he speak with +honor to himself? + +It must not be inferred that Henry Nelson endured with patience +the blows that were rained upon him. On the contrary, he fought back with +every weapon he could lay hands upon, and there were many. In this he was +aided by Old Bell, for father and son were much alike and their friction +had been only such as results from the rubbing of two hard bodies of +identical composition; now that they were put under heavy pressure, +they adhered and functioned without heat. + +They were handicapped, however, in that they had the bank to think +about, and, in times of frenzied finance such as this, a banking +business is more of a liability than an asset. Under normal conditions +no single individual of Gray's limited resources could have caused +them more than temporary annoyance; but in the midst of a speculative +frenzy, in a time of vast "paper profits" and overnight losses, at an +hour when they themselves were overextended and the financial fabric +of the whole oil industry was stretched to a point of inflation where +a pin prick was apt to cause complete collapse, the feat of warding +off a lance in the hands of a destructive enemy was one that kept them +in a constant state of nervous panic. + +To make matters worse, the crest of the wave had passed, the boom +was nearly over, and money was no longer easy. Outside investors +were cooling; mysterious and powerful influences were at work, and +there were rumors of a break in the price of crude. Meanwhile, so +far as the Nelsons were concerned, it was necessary to pour a +steady stream of dollars into the earth in order to save that +which had been accomplished at immense cost, and such oil as their +producing wells gave forth was swallowed up in other holes. It +became, with them, a problem of how to hold on, how to finance +from day to day until production returns overtook exploitation +expense--a problem that put gray hairs in their heads and lines +about their eyes. They were forced to many expedients. + +How they managed it at all baffled Gray, and worried him, too, for +he knew that if ever they turned the corner they would be safe +from him, and his vengeance would fall [Illustration: NEVER HAD HE +FELT "BOB" TO BE SO CLOSE TO HIM AS ON THIS DAY] to the ground. +One big well would set them up, and there was always that danger, +for scarcely a week went by without news of some gigantic gusher. +Knowing all there was to know about their field activities, he set +himself to the task of learning more about the bank itself and +about their method of operating it. This was a task, indeed, and +he spent much time at it--time he could ill afford, by the way, +for he, too, had about exhausted his last resource. + +He was surprised one day to receive from Roswell, the banker who +had first backed him, an almost peremptory summons to Dallas. Gray +had made much money for Roswell and his crowd; they were still +heavily interested with him, and he was counting upon their +further support. The tone of this letter, therefore, gave him a +disagreeable shock. On the whole, however, he was glad of an +excuse to go, for the Briskows had returned and had bought a home +in Dallas, and he was eager for a sight of them. + +Mr. Roswell's greeting was quite as cool as his letter; but he +betrayed a keen interest in the progress of their joint affairs +and asked a good many searching questions. Gray answered frankly. + +"You surprise me," the banker announced, finally, "for you confirm +something I did not wish to believe. I have just learned that you +are using us to further a private grudge and to ruin a reputable +man. I couldn't credit such a statement without--" + +"It is quite true, except that I haven't 'used' you. Not, at +least, in the sense you imply." + +"You have used our money. It is the same thing." + +"Oh, not at all I have handled a number of speculations +--investments is a better word--for you and your group and I've made +a lot of money for you. That's the most you expected; that's all I +promised. So long as I continue to do that, my motives, my +personal likes and dislikes, concern you in no wise. Neither are +you concerned in the use I make of my winnings." "Legitimate +competition is one thing; malice, double-dealing, dishonesty is--" + +"Dishonesty?" Gray interrupted, sharply. "I am a quick-tempered +man, Mr. Roswell. I'll ask you to choose your words more +carefully." + +"Don't you call salting a well dishonest?" + +"I do. I didn't salt that Arkansas property--and I assume you +refer to that. In fact, I knew nothing about it, and I so informed +Nelson. Evidently he didn't believe me, and I don't expect you to +do so. Nevertheless, it is true. I have never lied to you, and I +never shall. Now, malice--Yes, I bear malice toward Henry Nelson +and I shall continue to bear him malice long after I have put him +in his grave." Roswell's startled eyes leaped to the speaker's +face. "Exactly! I propose to put him in his grave, and he knows +it." + +"Nonsense! That's wild talk and you'll regret it. What has he done +to you?" + +The object of this inquiry shrugged. "A private matter, purely. As +to double-dealing--is it double-dealing to go to an enemy and tell +him frankly that you intend to down him and how you propose to do +it?" + +"Did you do that?" + +"I did. What is more, I offered to fight fair and he agreed. But, +of course, he broke that, as he feels free to break any agreement +when it becomes onerous or unprofitable. He began by trying to +assassinate me." + +"What are you saying?" Roswell cried. "This is incredible." + +Gray's cigar had gone out; he lighted it with steady and +deliberate fingers before he said: "I am giving you facts. The +fighting has not been all on my side. For instance, I haven't +hired men to drop tools in his wells or run crooked holes, and +that sort of thing, as he has. Not that I wouldn't follow his lead +if he forced me to, but I haven't had to resort to petty +annoyances. I haven't had to make any 'small change,' for I have +originality, imagination--even a small amount of daring, while he--Well, he +is obvious. He has nothing except physical courage. Thank God, he's not a +coward! He'll die hard." + +"Amazing!" The banker was at a loss for words. After a moment, he +inquired: "What about Bell Nelson?" + +"A harsh, headstrong, ruthless old man whose history will not bear +careful reading. His sins shall be visited upon him through his +offspring. He will have to go, too." + +Roswell stirred as if to shake off the effect of some oppressive, +mesmeric influence; reluctantly he admitted, "All I can say is you +have a colossal nerve--" + +"Precisely. And that is all I had when I came to Texas." + +"I was coming to that. You deceived me, Gray. You said you +represented big capital; had friends and connections--" + +"A pardonable deceit, under the circumstances, was it not? As a +matter of fact, I said nothing of the sort; I merely allowed you +to infer--" + +"You're splitting hairs." The banker was impatient. "The fact +remains that you led me to make a fool of myself. Why, man alive, +I have your whole history here, and it's a record of one +sensational failure after another. You had no backing whatever, +no--" + +"Is that the result of your own investigation?" + +"Partly." + +"For the rest, you took Nelson's word, eh? Very well, I've beaten +him out from cover sooner than I expected. Now as to my failures. +Failure proves only this: that one's determination to succeed is +not strong enough. Who fail, except those who try? You have not +always succeeded; neither have I invariably failed. Your report is +a bit unfair." + +"You will fail now. And you deserve to fail." + +"Indeed? Why?" + +"Because you're doing an outrageous thing; because--See here, +Gray, I know why you hate Nelson." There ensued a moment of +silence. + +"He told you that?" The younger man's face had slowly whitened; he +spoke with difficulty. + +"He told me everything. He told me that you were dishonorably +discharged from the army--cashiered, we used to call it--and that +you blame him. I don't mind saying it was a shock--worst I've had +in years. In time of war, too! The army doesn't do that unless +--without ample--Well, Gray, it's damned nasty!" + +"Quite the nastiest thing that can happen to a man," the other +agreed in a thin, flat voice. + +"I couldn't, wouldn't believe it." + +"Why not? You believed everything else he told you." + +"I wouldn't accept his word on a thing like _that_ without asking +you." Another pause followed. "There's probably some explanation. +I told him so--" Mr. Roswell showed his genuine distress by the +frown upon his brow and by his averted eyes. He stirred +uncomfortably, then he broke out, irritably: "Well, well? Why in +hell don't you say something?" + +"There is nothing to say." + +"What? My God, man! You don't mean--See here, you're not a coward, +or a thief, or an incompetent. What's your side of the story? +What's the explanation?" + +"Explanations are hateful. The man who makes them deceives either +himself or the other fellow--usually both. It is easy to be +plausible. Would a mere statement from me, unsupported by proof, +convince you where it failed to convince a court martial? Of +course not. Then why make you uncomfortable by doubting my word?" +Gray's smile was like the mirthless grin of a mummy. "I was found +guilty, all in due military order, and--disgraced, branded! My +uniform was taken from me, and I can't wear it again. I can never +again serve my country. It was handled quietly, with admirable +discretion, for those things are bad for the morale, you +understand? Very few know about it. I'm a proud man, a vain man; I +assure you the death penalty would have been much easier to bear." + +"What did Henry Nelson have to do with it?" + +"He alone can answer that." + +"An extraordinary situation! This is your revenge, eh?" + +"As a man of spirit, I had a choice of but two things, revenge or +--suicide." + +"Hm-m! It is an embarrassing situation for me." + +"Indeed?" + +"Nelson has sold a large block of his bank stock to one of our +directors." + +"Tell him to get out from under, quick," Gray said, sharply, "for +I'll break Henry Nelson or--I'll kill him!" + +"Tut, tut! You're excited. You mustn't talk like that. I give you +credit for an honest hatred, but--I can't sympathize with it. +Neither can I believe so ill of Henry Nelson. Remember, I've known +him and Bell for years." With a complete finality the banker +concluded, "You'll have to give it up, Gray." + +"I beg pardon?" + +"I say we sha'n't permit you to go on with this murderous feud. We +can't be parties to it. What you've told me warrants us in +withdrawing our support instantly, but I--I--Damn it all, I can't +help liking you and believing in you! Frankly, there's something +sublime about a grudge like yours. However, we can't go on like +this. We can't put up more money now that we know what you have in +mind. Call this thing off and perhaps I can induce our crowd to +leave their money in until it can be worked out. That's the most I +can undertake." + +"I need your money and your support now more than ever," the other +man gravely confessed. "I need it at once; to-day. Nevertheless, I +sha'n't quit." + +"You _must!_" Roswell cried, impatiently. "You can't defy us." + +"The devil I can't!" It was Gray's turn to blaze. "That's exactly +what I'm doing. I defy you to get your money out. I defy you to +interfere with me in the slightest or to wring a particle of mercy +out of me. I knew this would come, sooner or later, and I planned +accordingly. What d'you think I am, eh? I tell you I've got him! +Otherwise he'd never squeal about this--army matter. Now then, +tell your crowd to try and pull out! That's not a threat, sir, for +they have played fair with me, and I sha'n't sacrifice a penny +of their money--unless they force me to do so. But--I'm in +control. I'm sitting pretty. They can't unseat me, and I warn them +not to try." + +"You are making a great mistake. We will find a way to--to _pull_ +you off." + +"Ever try to pull a bulldog out of a fight when he had the other +dog down and his teeth in its throat? I have. There's something +rather horrible about it--rather beastly and shocking. And there's +always the danger of losing a hand." The speaker rose. He +hesitated, before leaving, to say: "Your son served with honor, +Mr. Roswell. I know how you must feel about this--other matter, +therefore I shall spare you the embarrassment of declining my +hand." + +The financier's face reddened; rather stiffly he said, "You know +whether you have a right to offer it." + +Instantly the departing visitor extended his palm, and Roswell +realized that he had seldom seen a man more deeply moved. "Thanks! +I--It is a blow to lose your support, but--nothing can swerve me. +Meanwhile, I'm glad that we do not part as enemies." + +When he had gone, when he had passed out with head up and +shoulders square, the banker shivered slightly. Audibly he +murmured: "God, what a man! What a hatred!" + +The Briskows had just moved into their new home, and the place was +still in some confusion when Gray mounted the steps. Pa answered +the bell in his shirt sleeves and with a claw hammer in his hand, +for he had been hanging pictures. He favored his visitor with a +wide smile of welcome and a hearty greeting-quite a feat, inasmuch +as his mouth was full of nails--then, having rid it of its +contents, he explained: + +"We got a slave that tends the door, but I 'ain't got gentled up +to bells an' things yet. Allie's away an' Ma's layin' down, so--" + +"Ma isn't ill, I hope?" + +"N--no. Just ailin'. I thought mebbe one of the neighbors had run +in to see her, but--I guess they're busy. We got lots of neighbors +here, rich ones, an' we made up our minds to like 'em, if they'll +give us a chance." + +"You were in luck to find a house in such a smart neighborhood, +Gus. Now show me around, quickly, for I'm dying to see it." + +"Lord, I'm dyin' to show it to _somebody!_ You're the first one +that's dropped in an' we been here 'most two weeks. Say, you'll +stay an' eat supper, won't you?" + +"Of course I will, and breakfast, too, if you can take care of +me." + +"Pshaw! Didn't we take keer of you when you come to the ranch? We +got three niggers now, just doin' the housework." As if in +justification of this riotous mode of life, the oil man explained: +"Ma wanted to do it herself, but she's porely, an' Allie vetoed it +complete. She says we'll be stylish an' enjoy life if it kills all +three of us. I'd of bought a bigger house if they'd of let me, +but--" + +"It is large enough. Anything more would merely add to your +cares." + +"Her and Ma picked out the furniture. Swell, ain't it?" + +"Beautiful!" Gray exclaimed. Inwardly he groaned, for, although +the contents of the home appeared to be expensive, almost +ostentatious, they nevertheless betrayed a conspicuous lack of +taste both in character and in arrangement. Here and there were +color combinations so atrocious that they positively hurt the +caller. On the whole, however, the place looked better than he had +expected, and such indications of harmony and restraint as he +detected he attributed to Allie. It was a nice enough home, and +with a little change, a little rearrangement, it could be made +attractive even to one of elegant tastes. Those changes, of +course, Gray determined to make. + +Gus, plainly, was not yet accustomed to the sense of ownership, +and he hung with eagerness upon his guest's expressions of +approval. After a tour of inspection the men wound up in the +library--an absurd misnomer under the circumstances, inasmuch as +the shelves were entirely bare except for Allie's dog-eared school +books--and there, before a blazing gas log, they discussed the +miracle. + +"Allie's gone out to the old farm to get some stuff for Ma," the +father explained in due time. "Some pitchers of her an' Buddy when +they was little, an' a rockin'-chair, an' Ma's favorite bedspread, +an' some other things she likes." + +Gray remembered the portraits, executed by a St. Louis +"enlargement" concern. They had wide gilt frames, and were +protected from ravaging flies by mosquito netting. He hoped that +Ma would not hang them in the hall or the living-room. And that +rocker, for which she yearned, was probably the one with the +creaking coiled springs--the one that had leaped after him and +clashed its jaws like an alligator. + +"By the way, how does Buddy like the new home?" the latter +inquired. + +"He 'ain't seen it yet. Says he's too busy to leave the job. What +you done to that boy, anyhow?" + +"I'm making a real man out of him--and an oil man, too. He knew +how to dress tools when I got him, but he's a pretty good driller +now. Before long he'll be able to take charge of your property and +run it on practical lines. I told you he had it in him, and that +he'd make a 'hand.'" + +"You never wrote us nothin' about his--his trouble." + +"I left the explaining for him." + +Gus smiled meditatively. "First we knew that you an' him had been +fightin' was when he wrote us a letter sayin' he was doin' great +an' could see out of one eye." Then, more gravely: "It was worryin' +over Buddy's affair that got Ma to ailin'. She 'ain't been right well +since. Say, wha'd you do with that--woman?" Briskow pronounced the +last word with an accent of scorn and hatred. + +"I gave her a chance to make an honest, decent living. I set her +up in business." + +"_What?_" + +"And she is making good." When the elder man shook his head +impatiently Gray went on, "I'm pretty worldly and calloused, but +if one virtue has been spared me, it is charity." + +For a moment the father studied his caller. "Tell me," he began, +"was it altogether on Buddy's account that you an' him tied into +one another?" + +Gray threw back his head and laughed frankly. "Altogether, I +assure you. That's why I found it so hard." + +"He _oughta_ been licked! Takin' up with a--a thing like her." Gus +was groping for words more eloquent of his displeasure at his son +and his hatred for the object of Buddy's misplaced affections, +when Gray forestalled him. + +"Just a minute. You are a rich man and you are growing richer. +Careful, frugal, prosperous people like you are apt to become +unduly hard and oversuspicious; but you mustn't permit it. Think, +for instance, what environment did to your children, then remember +that under slightly different circumstances it might have made +evildoers even of them. Most people would like to run straight, +and would do so if they had a chance. Anyhow, it is an interesting +experiment to put the chance in their way. Tell me, Gus, how much +money have you got?" + +"I dunno. Figgers over a thousand dollars don't mean much to me." + +Gray searched the speaker's face with a speculative gaze. "It's +mostly liquid, I presume." There was a pause. "I mean it's in cash +or the equivalent?" + +"Oh, sure! These bonds an' stocks an' things--" Briskow shook his +head disapprovingly. "Land ain't any too safe, either. It's +rainin' now, an' it 'll keep on rainin' till the farmers is all +drowned out. Next year it'll be droughty an' fry 'em to a crisp. +No, I'm skeered of land. I'm skeered of everything!" This last was +said plaintively. "Why, lookit these Liberty bonds! Goin' down +steady. I wouldn't put no money into the gov'ment unless I had +something to say about runnin' it. An' s'pose I did? I wouldn't +know how it oughta be run." + +"How about oil properties? Wouldn't you like to invest in a good, +safe proposition, with the prospect of big--" + +"Gosh, _no!_ I'm skeerder of oil than anything, 'cause I know +somethin' about it. Feller been tryin' to sell me life insurance, +lately, but you gotta die to get your money back. No; there's a +catch in all them propositions. Sometimes I wake up nights +dreamin' we're all back at the old place an' pore again. That ends +my sleepin'. You see, Allie's a lady now, an' she's used to silk +stockin's, an' Buddy's been out in the world spendin' money on +women, an' Ma's gettin' old. I could go back to corn bread, but it +would kill them. Worst of it is, the black lime ain't holdin' up, +an' our wells will give out some day." Briskow sighed heavily and +his brows drew together in an anxious pucker. + +"You'll have enough money in bank to do you." + +"Banks bust. I tell you the hull world's full of skullduggery. +Suspicious? I should say I was! I use' to think if we had money +our troubles would be over, but--Lord, that's when they begin! You +see, if I was bright an' knew what slick people is up to, I'd be +all right; but--Why, I'm like a settin' hen. I can feel the eggs +under me, but how am I goin' to keep the skunks away when they +smell the nest? I'm 'most tempted to turn everything I got over to +some honest man an' let him han'le it. Some feller that had the +savvy." + +"Unfortunately, such people are rare." + +"I don't know but one." + +"Indeed? Who is he?" + +"I reckon you know," said Briskow. + +The listener looked up with quickened interest; there was a sharp +ring to his voice when he said: "Let me get this right." + +"You're the only man I ever knowed that I'd bank my life on. An' +you're smart. You wouldn't take Buddy, but mebbe you'd kinda--take +me; take all of us. I tell you I'm skeered!" + +"Just how much confidence do I inspire in you?" Gray's expression +was peculiar, for amazement, doubt, eagerness were equally +blended. + +"This much: I'd turn the hull works over to you, if you'd look out +for us." + +"You--scarcely know me." + +"Oh, I know you well enough!" Briskow smiled his slow, shrewd +smile. "So does Ma. So does Allie an' Bud." + +For quite a while the caller sat with head bowed, with his gaze +fixed upon the flames; when he looked up his face was red, his +eyes were brighter than usual. + +"To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved. Yes, and +it's hell to be born with a conscience." He fell silent again, for +this was a moment to be treasured and he could not let it pass too +quickly. "You say you want nothing to do with oil?" + +"Anything but that. I know it so well, an'--Ma's gettin' feeble." +Again silence. "Of course, if you'd do it, I wouldn't ask no +questions. I'd rather shut my eyes an' trust you than keep 'em +open an'--" + +"You don't know how much I'd like to say yes, but I fought Buddy +to prevent him from making a mistake, and I sha'n't allow you to +make this one." + +"Hm-m! Will you keep me from makin' _other_ mistakes?" + +"I will, if I can." + +"Mebbe that's enough. Anyhow, I'll sleep better to-night for +seein' you." + +"I think I hear Ma stirring," said Gray, as he rose. "I brought +her a few little presents, and I'd like to take them up to her." +As he left the room there was the same queer light in his eyes; +nevertheless, he moved slowly, like a man tired. + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +Gray was shocked at the change in Ma Briskow. She had failed +surprisingly. Pleasure lit her face, and she fell into a brief +flutter of delight at seeing him; but as soon as their first +greeting was over he led her to her lounge and insisted upon +making her comfortable. He had tricks with cushions and pillows, +so he declared; they became his obedient servants, and there was a +knack in arranging them--the same knack that a robin uses in +building its nest. This he demonstrated quite conclusively. + +It was nice to have a great, masterful man like this take charge +of one, and Ma sighed gratefully as she lay back. "It does kinda +feel like a bird's nest," she declared. "And you kinda look like a +robin, too; you're allus dressed so neat." + +"Exactly," he chuckled. "Robins are the very neatest dressers of +all the birds. But look! Like a real robin, I've brought spring +with me." He opened a huge box of long-stemmed roses and held +their cool, dewy buds against Ma Briskow's withered face, then, +laughing and chatting, he arranged them in vases where she could +see them. Next, he drew down the shades, shutting out the dreary +afternoon, after which he lit the gas log, and soon the room, +whether by reason of his glowing personality or his deft +rearrangement of its contents, or both, became a warm and cheerful +place. + +He had brought other gifts than flowers, too; thoughtful, +expensive things that fairly took Ma's breath. No one had ever +given her presents; to be remembered, therefore, with useless, +delightful little luxuries filled her gentle soul with a guilty +rapture. + +But these were not gifts in the ordinary sense; they were +offerings from the Duke of Dallas, and his manner of presenting +them invested every article with ducal dignity. The Princess +Pensacola had not played for a long time, and so to recline +languidly in a beautiful Japanese kimono, with her feet in a pair +of wonderful soft boudoir slippers spun by the duke's private +silkworms and knit by his own oriental knitting slaves, while he +paid court to her, was doubly thrilling. + +The duke certainly was a reckless spender, but thank goodness he +hadn't bought things for the house--things just to _look_ at and +to share with other people! He knew enough to buy intimate things, +things a woman could wear and feel rich in. Ma hugged herself and +tried to look beautiful. + +Gray was seated on the side of her couch with her cold hand +between his warm palms, and he was telling her about the princess +of Wichita Falls when the summons to dinner interrupted them. + +Ma was not hungry, and she had expected to have a bite in her own +room; but her caller was so vigorous in his objections to this +plan that she finally agreed to come downstairs. + +The Briskow household was poorly organized as yet, and it was only +natural that it should function imperfectly; nevertheless, Gray +was annoyed at the clumsy manner in which the dinner was served. +Being a meticulous man and accustomed to comfort, incompetent +servants distressed him beyond measure, and he soon discovered +that the Briskow help was as completely incompetent as any he had +ever seen. The butler, for instance, a pleasant-faced colored man, +had evidently come straight from the docks, for he passed the food +much as a stoker passes coal to a boiler, while the sound of a +crashing platter in the butler's pantry gave evidence that the +second girl was a house wrecker. + +"See here, Ma!" Gray threw down his napkin. "You have a beautiful +home, and you want it to be perfect, don't you?" + +"Why, of Course. We bought everything we' could buy--" + +"Everything except skillful servants, and they are hard to find. +You are capable of training your cook and teaching your upstairs +girl to sweep and make beds; but the test of a well-run house is a +well-served meal. Dish-breaking ought to be a felony, and when I +become President I propose to make the spoiling of food a capital +offense. Now then, you're not eating a bite, anyhow, and Gus won't +mind waiting awhile for his dinner. With your permission, I'd like +to take things in hand and add a hundred per cent to your future +comfort?" + +In some bewilderment Ma agreed that she would do anything her +guest suggested, whereupon he rose energetically and called the +three domestics into the dining room. + +"We are going to start this dinner all over again," he announced, +"and we are going to begin by swapping places. I am going to serve +it as a dinner should be served, and you are going to eat it as +--Well, I dare say nature will have to take its course. I shall +explain, as I go along, and I want you to remember every word I +say, every move I make. Mr. and Mrs. Briskow are going to look on. +After we have finished you are going to serve us exactly as I +served you." + +Naturally, this proposition amazed the "help"; in fact, its +absurdity convulsed them. The man laughed loudly; the cook buried +her ebony face in her apron; the second girl bent double with +mirth. Here was a quaint gentleman, indeed, and a great joker. But +the gentleman was not joking. On the contrary, he brought this +levity to an abrupt end, then, gravely, ceremoniously, he seated +the trio. They sobered quickly enough at this; they became, in +fact, as funereal as three crows; but their astonishment at what +followed was no greater than that of the Briskows. + +Gray played butler with a correctness and a poise deeply +impressive to his round-eyed audience, and as he served the +courses he delivered a lecture upon the etiquette of domestic +service, the art of cooking, and the various niceties of a +servant's calling. Nothing could have been more impressive than +being waited upon by a person of his magnificence, and his +lecture, moreover, was delivered in a way that drove understanding +into their thick heads. + +It was an uncomfortable experience for all except Gray himself--he +actually enjoyed it--and when the last dish had been removed, and +he had given instructions to serve the meal over again exactly as +he had served it, the three negroes were glad to obey. Of course +they made mistakes, but these Gray instantly corrected, and the +results of his dress rehearsal were, on the whole, surprising. + +"There!" he said, when the ordeal had finally come to an end. "A +little patience, a little practice, and you'll be proud of them. +Incidentally, I have saved you a fortune in dishes." + +"I wish Allie'd been here. She'd remember everything you said," Ma +declared. + +"Lord! Think of Mr. Gray waitin' on them niggers!" Gus was still +deeply shocked. + +"You see what a meddlesome busybody I am," the guest laughed. "I +don't know how to mind my own business, and the one luxury I enjoy +most of all is regulating other people's affairs." He was still +talking, still lecturing his hearers upon the obligations +prosperity had put upon them, when he was summoned to the +telephone by a long-distance call. He returned in some agitation +to announce: "Well, at last I have business of my own to attend." + +"Was that Buddy talkin'?" + +"It was, and he gave me some good news. He says that well on +thirty-five is liable to come in at any minute, and it looks like +a big one." The speaker's eyes were glowing, and he ran on, +breathlessly, "He says they're betting it will do better than ten +thousand barrels!" + +"_Ten thousand bar'ls!_" Briskow echoed. + +"That's what he said. Of course, they can't tell a thing about it. +Buddy's only guessing, but--I haven't had a big well yet." Gray took +a nervous turn about the room. + +"Ten thousand barrels! Lord! That would help. That would do the +trick. And to think that it should come now, this very day--" He +laughed triumphantly and ran on as if talking to himself: "'The +wicked are fatted for destruction. Their happiness shall pass away +like a torrent.' Pull out and leave me, eh?" A second time he +laughed, more loudly. "Luck? It isn't luck, it's Destiny. The +mills of the Gods are grinding. Ma Briskow, the fairy ladies +danced upon the hearth when I was born. Do you know what that +means?" + +"Ten thousand bar'ls a day, an' you buttlin' for three niggers!" +gasped the head of the house. + +"I'm going out on to-night's train and see it come in--if it does +come in. I told Buddy to stop work; not to drop another tool until +I arrived. 'Fatted for destruction.' I like the sound of that. Ten +thousand barrels! Ho! I'll write this day in brass. Why, that +lease will sell for a million. It--it may mean the end." + +Gray brought himself to with an effort, hastily he kissed Ma +Briskow's faded cheek and wrung her husband's hand. A moment later +he was gone. + +"Thirty-five," where Buddy was working, was only a few miles from +the Briskow ranch, therefore the boy was able to meet his sister +at Ranger and drive her directly to the old home. The place was +much the same as when they had left it, thanks to the watchful +attention of the men in charge of the Briskow wells, and there +they spent the night. Buddy and his sister had always been close +confidants, and their long separation, their varied experiences, +left many things to be discussed. + +The ranch house seemed very mean, very insignificant to Allie, but +she slipped into one of her old dresses and prepared the supper +while Buddy straddled a kitchen chair and chattered upon ten +thousand topics of mutual interest. + +"Doggone!" he exclaimed, finally. "I hardly knew you when you +stepped off that train, but it seems like old times now, with you +hustlin' around in that gingham." + +"I wish it was." + +"Hunh?" + +"I wish, sometimes, that we'd never struck oil." + +"Good Lord! Why?" + +"Oh"--Allie turned her back and bent over the stove--"for lots of +reasons! Ma never had a sick day till lately. Now she's failin' +fast." Buddy frowned at this intelligence. "And Pa's as restless +as a squirrel. All the time scared of losing his money." + +"Well, _you_ got no kick coming, sis. You've sure made good." + +"How?" + +"I dunno--You've got rich ways. An' rich _looks_, too!" + +Allie lifted an interested face, and her brother undertook, +somewhat awkwardly, to tell her wherein she had improved. She +listened with greedy delight, but when he had finished she shook +her head skeptically and declared: "It sounds nice, and God knows +I've tried hard enough, but-there's a difference, Bud. We're +'trash' and always will be." + +Of course young Briskow's mind was full of business, and he could +not long stay off that absorbing topic. When, during their supper, +he announced the fact that the well on thirty-five showed signs of +coming in shortly, and that he intended to send for Calvin Gray, +Allie changed her mind about returning home and decided to wait +over until the latter arrived. + +She and Buddy talked until a late hour that night, but although +she was dying to have him tell her about his romance, his dream of +love, he never so much as referred to it, and she could not bring +herself to disregard his reticence. Nor could she bear to discuss +with him the problem that lay nearest her own heart. She had +brooded long over that problem, and her soul was hungry to share +its bitter secret; nevertheless, she could not do so, for it is often +easier to bare our wounds to strangers than to those we +love. If her breedings, her bitterness of spirit manifested +themselves, it was in a fixed undertone of pessimism and in an +occasional outburst of recklessness that bewildered her brother. + +On the morning of Gray's coming she rode with Buddy over to +thirty-five. It was a wretched, rainy day, and nothing is more +bleak than a rainy day in a drilling camp. Work had been halted +and the men were loafing in their bunk house. Brother and sister +spent the impatient hours in the mess tent. As usual, they talked +a good deal about Calvin Gray. + +"Funny, him comin' here a stranger, an' gettin' to run our whole +family, ain't it?" Buddy said. + +Allie nodded. "Funnier thing than that is your working for him." +Buddy was surprised, so she asked him: "Aren't you sore at him +for--what he did? For breaking up that affair?" It was a question +that had been upon her lips more than once; she could not credit +her brother with entire sincerity when he answered, frankly +enough: + +"Sore? Not the least bit." + +"Didn't you--care for her?" + +"Why, sure. I was all tore up, at first. But he did me the biggest +kind of a favor." + +Allie shook her head uncomprehendingly. "Men are queer things. You +_must_ have loved her, for a while." + +"I reckon I did, if you're a mind to call it that. But he says +that sort of thing ain't real love." + +"'_He says_'!" the girl cried, scornfully. "My God, Buddy! Would +you let _him_ tell you--? Is he pickin' out women for you like he +picks out a dress for me and a hotel for Ma? How does _he_ know +what's the real thing?" + +"She was a--grafter," the brother explained, with a flush of +embarrassment. "She'd of probably took my money an' quit me cold." + +"Bah!" The girl rose and, with somber defiance in her smoldering +eyes, stared out at the desolate day. "You'd have had her for a +while, wouldn't you? You'd have lived while it lasted. What's the +difference if she was a grafter? D'you think you're going to fall +in love and marry a duchess, or something? I wish I'd had your +chance, that's all." + +"What d'you mean by that?" Buddy queried, sharply. + +"I mean this," Allie flamed at him. "We're nobodies and we've got +nothing but our money. A counterfeit is as good as ever we'll get +--and it's as good as we're entitled to. I'd rather know what it is +to live for an hour than to go on forever just pretending to live. +If I've got to be unhappy, then give me something to be unhappy +over; something to look back on. I'd rather be--But, pshaw! You +don't understand. You couldn't." + +"I dunno what's got into you lately," Buddy declared, with a +frown. + +"Nothing's got into me. Only, what's the use of starving when the +world's full of good things and you've got the price to buy them? +_I_ won't do it. If ever I get my chance, you watch me!" + +Gray's trip from the railroad was more like a voyage than a motor +journey, for the creek beds, usually dry, were angry torrents, and +the 'dobe flats were quagmires through which his vehicle plowed +hub deep; nevertheless, he was fresh and alert when he arrived. +After a buoyant greeting to Allie, he and Buddy inspected the +well, then he issued orders for work to be resumed. + +"We're gettin' close to something," young Briskow declared. "She's +making gas an' rumblin' like she'd let go any minute. We got +reservoys built an' the boiler's moved back, so we can douse the +fire when she starts. I figger she'll drownd us out." + +"What are the indications at Nelson's well?" Gray turned his eyes +in the direction of a derrick on the adjoining property, the top +of which showed over the mesquite. + +"Nothin' extra. They won't tell us anything, but they're deeper 'n +we are." + +"How do you know?" + +Buddy winked wisely. "We counted the layers of cable on the bull- +wheel drum. Checked up their casing, too, an' watched their +cuttin's. They got their eye on us, too, an' they'll be over when +we blow in." + +That was an anxious afternoon, for as the drill bit deeper into +the rock it provoked indications of a terrific force imprisoned +far below. To the observers it seemed as if that sharp-edged tool +was tap-tapping upon the thin shell of some vast reservoir already +leaking and charged to the bursting point with a mighty pressure. +An odor of gas escaped from the casing mouth, occasionally there +came hoarse, throaty gurglings of the thick liquid at the bottom +of the well. The bailer was run frequently. + +Word had gone forth that there was something doing on thirty-five, +and from the chaparral emerged muddy motor cars bringing scouts, +neighboring lease owners, and even the members of a near-by casing +crew. + +Supper was a jumpy meal, and nobody had much to say, Allie Briskow +least of all. She was silent, intense; she curtly refused Buddy's +offer to send her home, and when the meal was over she followed +Gray back to the derrick. He was on edge, of course. It seemed to +him that every blow of that bit was struck upon his naked nerves, +for he had a deep conviction that this was to prove the night of +his life, and the strain of waiting was becoming onerous. This +well meant so much. Ten thousand barrels, fifteen, five--even one +thousand; it mattered little how heavy the flow, for a good-paying +well would see him through his immediate troubles. And this was a +well of some sort, or else indications meant nothing and everybody +was greatly mistaken. Of course, a big well, something to create a +furor--that was what he needed, for that not only would bridge his +financial crisis, but also it would mean a frenzy of quick +drilling, new wells crowded close together, hundreds of thousands +of dollars poured into the earth, and the Nelsons couldn't stand +that. It would break them--break them, and he would taste the full +sweetness of revenge. Oh, he had waited long! Nor was that all. +Once he had Henry Nelson down, and his foot on the fellow's +throat, he'd have something to say to Barbara Parker. He could say +it then and look her in the eyes. He wished she was here to-night +while he stood on the top of the world. Ten thousand barrels! +Twenty thousand! Twenty-thousand-barrel gushers were not unknown. +A well like that would mean a fortune every day. But why didn't it +start? + +They were bailing again and curiosity drew the owner in upon the +derrick floor. This time the flow might begin; at any moment now +oil might come with the water. There is some danger in standing +close to a well during this bailing process, but Gray was like a +bit of iron in the field of a magnet; spellbound, he watched the +cable as it ran smoothly off the drum, flowed up over the crown +block and down into the casing mouth. That heavy, torpedolike +weight on the end of the line was dropping almost half a mile. Up +it came swiftly, as if greased; up, up, until it emerged into the +glare of the incandescent overhead and hung there dripping. It was +swung aside and lowered, and out gushed its muddy contents. + +Water! Black and thick as molasses, but water nevertheless. + +Buddy Briskow was running the rig, and the dexterity with which he +handled brake and control rod gave him pride. He had seated his +sister on a bench out of the way, where she was protected from the +drizzle, and he felt her eyes upon him. It gave him a sense of +importance to have Allie watching him at such a crisis; he wished +his parents were with her. If this well blew in big, as it seemed +bound to do, it would be a personal triumph, for not many cub +drillers could boast of bringing in a gusher the first time. It +was, in fact, no mean accomplishment to make any sort of a well; +to pierce the earth with an absolutely vertical shaft a half mile +deep and line it with tons upon tons of heavy casing joined air- +tight and fitted to a hair's breadth was an engineering feat in itself. +It was something that only an oil man could appreciate. And he was an oil +man; a darn good one, too, so Buddy told himself. + +He eased the brake and the massive bailer slid into the casing as +a heavy shell slips into the breech of a cannon. As he further +released his pressure, the cable began to pour serpentlike from +the drum. Buddy turned his wet, grimy face and flashed a grin at +Allie. She smiled back at him faintly. Some lightninglike change +in her expression, or perhaps some occult sense of the untoward +warned him that all was not as it should be, and he jerked his +head back to attention. + +There are moments of catastrophe when for a brief interval nature +slows, time stops, and we are carried in suspense. Such an instant +Buddy Briskow experienced now. He knew at first glance what had +happened, and a frightened cry burst from his throat, but it was a +cry too short, too hoarse, to serve as a warning. + +During that moment of inattention the bailer had stuck. Perhaps +five hundred feet below, friction had checked its plunge, and +meanwhile the velvet-running drum, spinning at its maximum +velocity by reason of the whirling bull wheel, was unreeling its +cable down upon the derrick platform. Down it poured in giant +loops, and within those coils, either unconscious of his danger or +paralyzed by its suddenness, stood Calvin Gray. + +Men schooled in hazardous enterprises carry subconscious mental +photographs of the perils with which their callings are invested +and they react involuntarily to them. Buddy had heard of drillers +decapitated by flying cables, of human bodies caught within those +wire loops and cut in twain as if made of lard, for when a wedged +tool resumes its downward plunge it straightens those coils above +ground in the twinkling of an eye. Instinct, rather than reason, +warned Buddy not to check the blinding revolutions of the bull +wheel. Without thought he leaped forward into the midst of those +swiftly forming loops, and as he landed upon the slippery floor he +clenched his fist and struck with all the power he could put behind +his massive arm. Gray's back was to him, the blow was like that of +a walking beam, and it sent the elder man flying as a tenpin is +hurled ahead of a bowling ball. Buddy fell, too. He went sprawling. +As he slid across the muddy floor he felt the steel cable writhing +under him like a thing alive, and the touch of it as it streamed into +the well burned his flesh. He kicked and fought it as he would have +fought the closing folds of a python, for the bailer was falling +again and the wire loops were vanishing as the coils in a whiplash +vanish during its flight. + +Buddy's booted legs were thrown high, he was tossed aside like a +thing of paper, but blind, half stunned, he scrambled back to his +post. By this time the whole structure of the derrick was rocking +to the mad gyrations of the bull wheel; the giant spool was +spinning with a speed that threatened to send it flying, like the +fragments of a bursting bomb, but the youth understood dimly the +danger of stopping it too suddenly--to fetch up that plunging +weight at the cable end might snap the line, collapse the derrick, +"jim" the well. Buddy weaved dizzily in his tracks; nevertheless, +his hand was steady, and he applied a gradually increasing +pressure to the brake. Nor did he take his eyes from his task +until the drum had ceased revolving and the runaway bailer hung +motionless in the well. + +When he finally looked about it seemed to him that he had lived a +long time and was very old. Gray lay motionless where he had +fallen, and his body was twisted into a shockingly unnatural +posture. He was bleeding. Allie Briskow was bending over him. +Other dim, dreamlike figures were swarming out of the gloom and +into the radiance of the derrick lights; there was a far-away +clamor of shouting voices. Buddy Briskow felt himself growing +deathly sick. + +They carried Gray to the bunk house, and his limbs hung loosely, +his head lolled in a manner terrifying to Buddy and his sister. As they +stumbled along beside the group, the girl cried: + +"Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" She repeated the cry over and over again +in a voice strange to her brother's ears. + +"It--it wasn't my fault," he told her, hoarsely. "I aimed to save +him." + +"You killed him!" + +"He ain't--" Buddy choked and clung to her. "He's just stunned +like. He ain't--that!" The youth was amazed when Allie turned and +cursed him with oaths that he himself seldom ventured to employ. + +But Gray was not dead. Buddy's blow had well-nigh broken his neck, +and he had suffered a further injury to his head in falling; +nevertheless, he responded to such medical aid as they could +supply, and in time he opened his eyes. His gaze was dull, +however, and for a long while he lay in a sort of coma, quite as +alarming as his former condition. They brought him to at last long +enough to acquaint him with what had happened, and although it was +plain that he understood their words only dimly, he ordered the +work resumed. + +When for a second time he lapsed into semiconsciousness, it was +Allie Briskow who put his orders into execution. "You ain't doing +any good standing around staring at him and whispering. Bring in +that well, as fast as ever you can, and bring it in _big_. Now, +get out and leave him to me." + +Buddy was the last to go. He inquired, miserably: "Honest, he +ain't hurt bad, is he? You don't think--" + +"Get out!" + +"He won't--die? Ain't no chance of him doin' that, is there?" + +"If he does, I'll--" The speaker's face was ashen, but her eyes +blazed. "I'll fix you, Buddy Briskow. I will, so help me God!" + +It was late that night when the well came in. It came with a rush +and a roar, drenching the derrick with a geyser of muddy water and +driving both crew and spectators out into the gloom. Up, up the +column rose, spraying itself into mist, and from its iron throat +issued a sound unlike that of any other phenomenon. It was a +hoarse, rumbling bellow, growing in volume and rising in pitch +second by second until it finally attained a shrieking crescendo. +Ten thousand safety valves had let go, and they steadily gathered +strength and shrillness as they functioned. A shocking sound it +became, a sound that carried for miles, rocking the air and +stunning the senses. It beat upon the eardrums, pierced them; men +shouted at each other, but heard their own voices only faintly. + +Calvin Gray had recovered his senses sufficiently to understand +the meaning of that uproar, and he tried to get up, but Allie held +him down upon his bed. She was still struggling with him when her +brother burst into the house, shouting: + +"It's a gasser, Mr. Gray! Biggest I ever seen." + +"Gas?" the latter mumbled, indistinctly. "Isn't there any--oil?" +His words were almost like a whisper because of the noise. + +"Not yet. May be later. Say, she's a heller, ain't she? I'll bet +she's makin' twenty million feet--" + +"Gasser's no good." + +"Can't tell yet. We gotta shut her down easy so she don't blow the +casing out--run wild on us, understand?" Buddy was still +breathless, but he plunged out the door and back into that sea of +sound. + +With a tragic intensity akin to wildness, Gray stared up into +Allie Briskow's face. "Worthless, eh? And they told me ten +thousand barrels." He carried a shaking hand to his bandaged head +and tried vainly to collect his wits. "What's matter?" he queried, +thickly. "Everything whirling--sick--" + +"You had an accident, but it's all right; all right--No, no! Please +lie still." + +"Running wild, eh? Tha's what hurts my head so. Blown the casing +out--Bad, isn't it? Sometimes they run wild for weeks, years--ruin +everything." He tried again to rise, then insisted, querulously: "Goto +get oil in this well! I've got to! Last chance, Allie. Got to get ten +thousand barrels!" + +"Please! You mustn't--" Allie had her strong hands upon his shoulders; +she was arguing firmly but as gently as possible under the +circumstances, when something occurred so extraordinary, so +unexpected, as to paralyze her. Of a sudden the interior of the +dim-lit, canvas-roofed shack was illuminated as if by a searchlight, +and she turned her head to see that the whole out-of-doors was +visible and that the night itself had turned into day. + +With a cry that died weakly amid the chaos of sound beating over +her, the girl ran to the window and looked out. What she beheld +was a nightmare scene. The well was afire. It had exploded into +flame. Where, a moment before, it had been belching skyward an +enormous stream of gaseous vapor, all but invisible except at the +casing head, now it was a monstrous blow torch, the flaming crest +of which was tossed a hundred feet high. Nothing in the nature of +a conflagration could have been more awe-inspiring, more +confounding to the faculties than that roaring column of consuming +fire. It was a thing incredibly huge, incredibly furious, +incredibly wild. Human figures, black against its glare, were +flying to safety, near-by silhouettes were flinging their arms +aloft and dashing backward and forward; faces upturned to it were +white and terrified. The scattered mesquite stood against the +night like a wall, spotted with inky shadows, and, above, the +heavens resembled a boiling caldron. + +It was a hellish picture; it remained indelibly fixed upon Allie +Briskow's mind. As she looked on in horrid fascination, she saw +the derrick change into a latticelike tower of flame, saw its +upper part begin slowly to crumble and disintegrate. The force +with which the gas issued blew the blaze high and held it dancing, +tumbling in mid-air, a phenomenon indescribably weird and +impressive. The men who stood nearest bent their heads and shielded +their faces from the heat. + +Allie tore her eyes away from the spectacle finally. She turned +back to the bed, then she halted, for it was empty. The door, +still ajar from Buddy's headlong exit, informed her whence her +patient had gone, and she flew after him. + +She found him not half a dozen paces away. In fact, she stumbled +over his prostrate body. With an amazon's strength, she gathered +him into her arms, then staggered with him back to his couch, and +as she strained him to herself she loudly called his name. Amid +that demoniac din, amid the shrieking of those million devils, +freed from the black chasms of the rock, her voice was as feeble +as the wail of a sick child. + +When she had laid her inert burden upon the bed, Allie knelt and +took Gray's head upon her bosom. Then, for the first time, those +forces imprisoned deep within her being ran wild, and under the +red glare of that flaming geyser she kissed his hair, his eyes, +his lips. Over and over again she kissed them with the hungry +passion of a woman starved. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +A subdued but continuous whispering irritated Calvin Gray. When it +persisted, minute after minute, he opened his eyes, asking +himself, dully, why it was that people couldn't let a fellow +sleep. He lay, for some time, trying to recognize his unfamiliar +surroundings; oddly enough, he could not discover the origin of +that low-pitched murmur, since there was nobody in his bedroom. +Evidently he had slept too hard, for his eyes were heavy, his +vision was distorted, and an unaccustomed lassitude bore down his +body and stupefied his brain. A thousand indistinct memories were +moving about in the penumbral borderland of consciousness, but +they refused to take shape. They would emerge into the light +presently, of course. Meanwhile, it was restful to remain in this +state of semi-stupefaction. He was pretty tired. + +That whispering, he realized after a while, was nothing more than +the monotonous murmur of rain upon a shingle roof, and the gurgle +from dripping eaves. Oh yes! It had been pouring for several days; +raining buckets, barrels--Ten thousand barrels a day! + +Yonder was something familiar; a patent, spring rocking-chair. +Gray knew it well. It creaked miserably when you sat in it, and +when you got up to look at diamond rings it snapped its jaws at +you like an alligator. Odd that they'd let an alligator into the +Ajax Hotel. Nelson's doings, probably. Always up to some deviltry, +that Nelson. But, thank God, the fire was out, and that ear- +splitting racket that hurt his head had changed into the soothing +patter of raindrops. There couldn't be any fire with ten thousand +barrels of rain falling. + +Gray closed his eyes and dozed briefly. But he had dreams; +calamity haunted him; he awoke to the realization of some horror. +Slowly his brain began to function, then more swiftly, until, like +a flood released, memory returned. He groaned aloud. + +Allegheny Briskow appeared out of nowhere and laid a soothing hand +upon his brow. When she saw the light of sanity in his eyes, her +face brightened and she cried, eagerly: + +"You're coming around all right, aren't you?" + +"Ten thousand barrels!" he mumbled. "They said it would be a big +well and I counted on it." + +"Don't try to think--" + +"But it came in a gasser. I remember it all now--nearly all. I +--I'm about ruined, I guess." + +"No, no!" + +"It caught fire." + +"You mustn't talk. Everything is all right--all right, honestly. +I'll tell you everything, but just you rest now until Buddy +comes." There was magnetism to the girl's touch and comfort in her +voice. + +It was some time later that Gray opened his eyes and spoke in a +more natural voice, saying, "How do I happen to be here in your +house, Allie?" + +"We brought you over at daylight. Buddy's gone for a doctor, but +he'll be back." The girl averted her face quickly and moved toward +the window. + +"I remember being hurt in some way--derrick fell on me, or +something. Then the well caught fire. What time is it?" + +"It's afternoon. About four o'clock. Buddy 'll be back--" Allie's +voice caught queerly. "He'll get back somehow." + +"He ought to be at the well--putting it out. God! What a sight! I +see it yet!" + +"The well is out!" Allie returned and seated herself beside the +bed. "You probably won't understand it or believe it--I can +scarcely believe it myself, for it's a miracle. All the same, it +is out, shut in, and not much damage done. You're not ruined, +either, for Buddy says they're short of fuel here, and a gasser this +size is worth a good deal--'most as much as a fair oil well.'" + +"How can it be shut in? It was blazing, roaring--a tower of flame. +The derrick itself was going--" + +"I know, but the strangest thing--" Allie spoke breathlessly. "Let +me do the talking, please. You remember the drill stems were +standing over in one corner? Well, the fire drove everybody off, +of course; there was no facing it, and they thought sure they'd +have a job--have to send for boilers and smother it down with +steam, maybe, or tunnel under, or something--work for days, maybe +weeks, and spend a fortune. Anyhow, they were in a panic, but when +the derrick went down what do you think? That stack of drill stems +fell in such a way as to close the gate valve at the top of the +casing." + +Gray frowned, he shook his head. "Impossible. You're trying to +ease my mind." + +"Of course it's impossible. But it happened, just as I tell you. +Buddy had a bar fixed in the valve wheel, like a long handle, so +that a half turn, or maybe a quarter, would shut it. Anyhow, those +drill stems caught that bar in falling and closed the valve. +Somebody said it happened once before, to an oil well over in +Louisiana--" + +"It--sounds incredible." The speaker made an effort to collect +himself, he raised an uncertain hand to his bandaged head. "What +ails me? I recall a lot of things, but they're pretty well +confused." + +Allie made known, the nature of the accident resulting in Gray's +injury, and he nodded his understanding. "So Buddy saved my life!" +He smiled. "Great boy, Buddy! I'll know better than to mix it with +him again--he learns too quickly." + +"Oh, it was terrible! I've been so--so frightened!" Allie Briskow +suddenly lost control of herself and, bowing her head, she hid her +face in the musty patchwork quilt. Her shoulders shook, her whole +strong body twitched and trembled. "You've b-been awful sick. I +did the best I could, but--" + +"There, there!" Gray placed his hand upon the girl's head; he +took her palm in his and stroked it. "I'm not worth your tears, +child. And, anyhow, I'm all right again; I am, indeed. I'm as well +as ever, so far as I can tell. By the way, what set the well +afire?" + +"Buddy thinks somebody must have dropped a cigarette when the +stampede came." The girl raised her face and wiped the tears from +it. "It doesn't seem possible anybody would be so careless as to +smoke near a well that was coming in, but--Just think, Mr. Gray, +those drill stems shut it off! Why, it was the hand of God!" + +"It seems so. My luck hasn't run out, that's plain." The speaker +pondered briefly, then he said: "Shut in! Safe! Jove, it's +wonderful! Buddy can take me to the railroad to-night and--" + +"Oh, you can't leave. You're not able." + +"I must. This gasser was a great disappointment to me. I allowed +myself to count on a big well, and now I have a serious problem to +meet. It must be met without delay. Buddy will soon be back, I +dare say?" Allie undertook to evade the speaker's eye, but +unsuccessfully, and he inquired, sharply: "What's wrong? What's +happened to him?" + +"Nothing. He's all right, but"--Gray's evident alarm demanded the +truth, therefore she explained--"but I don't know when he'll be +back. That's why I've been so frightened. It has been raining cats +and dogs; the creek has overflowed and everything is under water." + +"Under water? Here? Why, that can't be." Gray insisted upon +rising, and Allie finally consented to his doing so; then, despite +his protest that ha was quite able to take care of himself, she +helped him to the window. From that position he beheld a +surprising scene. + +The Briskow farm lay in a flat, saucerlike valley, arid and dusty +at most seasons of the year, but now a shallow lake, the surface +of which was broken by occasional fences, misty clumps of bushes, +or the tops of dead weeds. The nearest Briskow derrick was dimly +visible, its floor awash, its shape suggestive of the battle mast +of a sunken man-of-war. + +"It's not more than a foot or two deep on the level," Allie +explained, "but that's enough. And it has come up six inches since +Buddy left. He'd have been back before this if he could have made +it." + +"Did you ever see it like this before?" + +"Once, when I was a little girl. Some years the creek never has a +drop in it." + +"Then we're marooned." + +"We were cut off for three days that time." + +Gray frowned. What next? he asked himself. Here was a calamity +that could not be dodged. He shrugged, finally. "No use to fret. +No use to crouch beneath a load. I'd give my right arm to be back +in Dallas, but--this is our chance to cultivate the Christian +virtue of submission. So be it! One must have a heart for every +fate, but," he smiled at the girl, "it is hard to be philosophical +when you're hungry. And I'm hungry." + +"Oh, you _are_ better!" + +"I'm well, I tell you, except for the bruises bequeathed me by +your brutal brother. Three days--a week, maybe! My God! By the +way, is there any food in the house?" + +"Plenty." + +"Then--we've nothing to do except get better acquainted, and that +is something I've wanted to do for some time." + +Allegheny Briskow sang while she prepared supper, for the reaction +from the strain of the last twelve hours was like an intoxication. +Mr. Gray was in no further danger; he was well except for a +bandaged head and some bruises. And he was here alone with her. +They were as completely cut off from the outside world as if +shipwrecked on some island, and, for the time being at least, he +was hers to look out for, hers to wait upon and to guard. Allie +laughed at the drumming of the rain upon the kitchen roof, and she +thrilled at memory of some of the things she had done. She could feel +again Gray's head upon her bosom, his lips against hers, his body +strained to hers. She had listened to his heartbeats; with her own +abundant strength she had shielded him, fought for him, drawn him, by +very force of her will, back to life; the anguish she had suffered +during those long hours became, in retrospect, a poignant pleasure. + +She wondered if by any chance he would remember--there had been +times when he had seemed to be almost rational. She hoped not. And +yet--why not? If he did remember, if indeed he had felt her kisses +or heard her pleadings, that memory, even if subconscious, might +serve to awaken him. It might evoke some response to the flaming +passion that had finally escaped her control. Gray was a strong +man; his emotions, once roused, were probably as wild as hers, +therefore who could tell what might happen? Irresistible forces, +fire and flood, had thrown them together. They were at the mercy +of elemental powers, and they were alone with each other--a man +and a woman. Allie hoped against hope; she prayed recklessly, +defiantly, that her hour had struck. + +Gray came into the kitchen after a while to warm himself over the +stove. He was still a little bit unsteady on his feet, and his +head felt queer; but he assumed a certain gayety and insisted upon +bearing an awkward hand with the cooking and the dishes. He had +never seen Allie as she was now, nor in a mood to compare with +this, and for the first time he realized how fully she had +developed. It was not surprising that her metamorphosis had +escaped his attention, for he had never taken time to do more than +briefly appraise her. With leisure for observation, however, he +noted that she had made good her promise of rare physical charm, +and that her comeliness had ripened into real beauty--beauty built +on an overwhelming scale, to be sure, and hence doubly striking +--moreover, he saw that all traces of her stolidity had vanished. +She was an intelligent, wide-awake, vibrant person, and at this +moment a genial fire, a breathless excitement, was ablaze within +her. Gray complimented her frankly, and she was extravagantly pleased. + +"Buddy said almost the same thing," she told him. "I don't care +whether it's true or not, if you believe it." + +"Oh, it's true! I saw great things in you, but--" + +"Even when you saw me hoeing in the garden that first day?" + +"Even then; but I wasn't prepared for a miracle. You were an +enchanted princess, and it required only a magic word to break the +spell." + +"It is all your doings, Mr. Gray. Whatever I am I owe it all to +you. And it's the same with the rest of the family. I--" Allie +hesitated, looked up from her work, then shook her head smilingly. + +"What?" + +"I feel as if--well, as if you'd made me and I--belonged to you." +It was dusk by this time; the girl's face was lit only by the +indirect glow from the open door of the stove, therefore Gray +could make nothing of her expression. + +"How very flattering!" he laughed. "As a real matter of fact, I +had almost nothing to do with it." + +"All the same that's how I feel--as if I owed you everything and +had to give something back. Women are queer, I guess. They love to +give. And yet they're selfish--more selfish than men." + +"I wouldn't say so." + +"You don't know how bad hurt you were, Mr. Gray. I saved your life +as much as Buddy did. You'd have died only for--only I wouldn't +let you." + +"I believe it. So, you see, you have more than evened the score. +After all, I merely awakened the Sleeping Beauty, while you--" + +"The prince woke her up with a kiss, didn't he?" Allie said, with +a smile. + +"So the story goes. Fairy stories, by the way, are the only kind +one can afford to believe." + +"Then I've got--something coming to me, haven't I?" + +This time the girl turned her face invitingly to the speaker and +waited. + +Here was a new Allie Briskow, indeed, and one that amazed, nay, +disturbed, Gray. Romance, he told himself. The girl meant nothing +by this; nevertheless, her fancy had run far enough. He ignored +her invitation, and instead of kissing her he patted her shoulder +affectionately, saying: + +"You're a dear child, and I can never repay you for mending my +poor cracked head." + +He turned his back, went to the table and lit the lamp, +uncomfortably aware of the fact, meanwhile, that Allie remained +motionless where he had left her. He ran on, casually, during the +time he adjusted chimney and wick: "I was on the porch just now +and found a rabbit crouching there. The poor thing was too wet and +frightened to move." Allie did not seem to hear him. "All sorts of +things are floating about; dead chickens, rattlesnakes, and--Oh +yes, another thing I noticed; there's a good deal of oil on the +water! I wonder where it comes from?" + +Allie stirred herself; she jerked open the oven door, peered in, +then slammed it shut. Her voice was sullen as she said: "They've +been expecting a gusher on sixteen. Maybe the reservoirs have +overflowed, or a pipe line has broken. Maybe it came in wild, you +can't tell. This flood will cost a good many people a lot." + +Supper, when the two sat down to it, proved to be a pleasant meal, +for the soft glow of the lamp, the warmth from the stove, made of +the Briskow kitchen a cozy place, while the drumming of the rain +overhead enhanced their feeling of comfort and security. Gray's +appetite was not that of a sick man, and Allie, who had regained +her agreeable humor by this time, waited upon him with eager face +and shining eyes. He paused, finally, to say: + +"See here! You're not eating a bite." + +"I'm not hungry. I couldn't eat, to-night. Please--I'm perfectly +happy. I feel like a slave at the great lord's table; all I care +to do is look on." After a moment she continued: "It couldn't have +been so bad to be a slave--a girl slave. Somebody owned them, +anyhow; they belonged to their masters, body and soul, and that's +something. Women are like that. They've got to belong to somebody +to be happy." + +Gray was a talkative man, therefore he argued this point until he +began to suspect that his companion was not heeding his words so +much as the sound of his voice. More plainly than before he +realized that there was something about Allie to-night utterly +strange and quite contrary to his conception of her, but, because +he believed her to be unlike other women, he did not try to +understand it. + +During the night an explosive crash followed by a loud +reverberation awoke Calvin Gray and brought him up sitting. His +room was lit by white flickers, against which he saw that the rain +still sheeted his windows; he fumbled for his watch and found that +it was two o'clock. This was a storm, indeed, and he began to fear +that this deluge might swell the waters to a danger point; +therefore he rose, struck a light, and dressed himself. Sleep was +out of the question, anyhow, amid such an uproar. As he stepped +out upon the front porch, his attention was instantly drawn to a +yellow glow in the west, a distant torch, the flame of which +illuminated the angry night. He stared at it for a moment before +he realized its meaning. A well was afire! Lightning had wrecked a +derrick and ignited the stream of oil. No wonder, he told himself, +for this field was dotted with towers well calculated to lead +lightning out of the skies, and amid a play of destructive forces +such as this nothing less than a miracle could have prevented +something of the sort. But it was a pity, for yonder a small-sized +fortune was going up in smoke. + +By the next flare he saw that the waters had crept higher. They +were nearly up to the porch floor now, and, obviously, they were +still rising. That rabbit was crouched where he had last seen it, +a wet ball of fur with round, black eyes. The heavens echoed +almost constantly, now to a thick, distant rumble, again to an +appalling din directly overhead; for seconds at a time there was light +enough to read by. The house, Gray decided, was in no danger, except from +a direct bolt, for the valley was nothing more than a shallow +lake; nevertheless-- + +A blinding, blue-white streak came, and he counted the seconds +before the sound reached him. Sound traveled something like a +thousand feet a second, he reflected; that bolt must have struck +about a mile distant. Nothing alarming about that, surely. A +moment, then he blinked and rubbed his eyes, for out of the murk +was born another bonfire like that to the westward. + +Hearing an exclamation behind him, Gray turned to behold Allie +Briskow's dim figure in the door. + +"Hello!" he cried, excitedly. "Did you see that? Yonder are two +wells afire." + +"I know. I haven't closed my eyes. You can see another one from my +window." Allia snapped the light from a pocket flash upon Gray, +and, noting that he was only partly clad, she urged him to come +into the house. When he ignored the request she joined him, and +together they stared at the mounting flames. + +"Jove! That's terrible!" he muttered. + +"Look here." Allie directed the beam of her light down over the +edge of the porch, and moved it slowly from side to side. The +surface of the water was not only burdened with debris, but also +it was thick with oil. "It's just like that on the other side. +That gusher on sixteen must be wild." + +"Why didn't you call me?" the man inquired, sharply. + +"What was the use? There's no chance for us to get out." + +"How far is it back to high ground?" + +"Quite a ways. Too far to wade. It would be over our heads in +places, too. I don't like the look of it, do you? Not with those +fires going, and--" + +"I dare say it won't get any worse." Gray spoke with a +carelessness that he was far from feeling, but his tone did not +deceive the girl. + +"It doesn't have to get any worse," she declared, im patiently. +"There's oil enough here to burn. We're in the middle of a lake of +it. What 'll happen if it catches fire?" + +"Frankly, I don't know. I've never been marooned in a lake of oil. +Probably this rain would quench it-" + +"You know better than that!" Allie cried. "Don't act as if I were +a kid. We're in a bad fix, with fire on three sides of us." + +"At least we'll be as well off inside as out here," Gray declared, +and his companion agreed, so together they went into her room, +where, side by side, they peered through her window. What Allie +had said was true, and the man pinched himself to see if he were +dreaming. This conflagration was even closer than the others, and +he could not doubt that there was every likelihood of its +spreading to the surface of the lake itself. Here was a situation, +truly. For the life of him he could think of no way out of it. + +"I've read about this sort of thing," Allie was saying. "Tanks +bursting and rivers afire. It spreads all over, the fire does, and +there's no putting it out." + +"One thing sure, this lightning won't last long--" + +A blue glare and a ripping explosion gave the lie to Gray's +cheering words. Allie Briskow recoiled from the window. + +"We'll be burned alive!" she gasped. "Roasted like rats in a trap. +I--I'm frightened, Mr. Gray." She drew closer to him. + +"No need of that. We'll get out of this scrape somehow--people +always do." A flicker lit the room, and he saw that the face +upturned to his was wide eyed, strained. That brief glimpse of +Allie, like a picture seen through the shutter of a camera, +remained long with the man, for her hair was unbound, her lips +were parted, and her dark eyes were peculiarly brilliant; through +the opening of her lacy negligee her round, white neck and +swelling bosom were exposed. It was a head, a bust, to be +remembered. + +"I--You got to--hold me," she said, huskily, and he felt her body +shrink close to his. She clung tightly to him, trembling at first, then +shaking in every limb. Fright, it seemed, had suddenly mastered Allie +Briskow. + +Gray endeavored for a moment to soothe her, then gently to loosen +her hold; he spoke to her as he would have spoken to a terrified +child, but the wildness of her emotion matched the wildness of the +night, and her strength was nearly equal to his. Knowing her as he +did, this abysmal terror was inexplicable; such abandon was +entirely out of keeping with her. But she had acted queerly ever +since--Gray was ashamed of the thought that leaped into his mind; +he hated himself for harboring it. He hated himself also for the +thrill that coursed through him at contact with this disheveled +creature. The touch of her flesh disturbed him unbearably. Roughly +he tore her arms from about his neck and put her away from him; by +main strength he forced her into a chair, then snatched a covering +of some sort from the bed and folded it around her shoulders. His +voice was hoarse--to him it sounded almost brutal as he said: + +"Get hold of yourself! We're in no great danger, really. Now then, +a light will help us both." With clumsy hands he struck a match +and lit the lamp. "Light's a great thing--drives away foolishness +--nightmares and fancies of all sorts." Without looking at her he +seized the electric torch and muttered: "I'll take a look around, +just to see that things are snug. Back presently." + +Gray despised himself thoroughly when the turmoil within him +persisted; when he still felt the unruly urge to return whence he +had come. Wild horses! That was how Gus Briskow had described his +children. Well, Allie had followed Buddy's example and jumped the +fence. Here was something unique in the way of an experience, sure +enough; here were forces at play as savage and as destructive as +those that lit the heavens. The girl was magnificent, maddening +--and he was running away from her! He, a man of the world, as +ruthless as most men of his type! It was a phenomenon to awaken +sardonic mirth. He wondered what had come over him. He had +changed, indeed. + +Could it be that he had read a wrong significance into Allie's +actions? Thus his mind worked when he grew calmer. He tried to +answer in the affirmative, but already he hated himself +sufficiently. No, the night had done it. Texas cattle stampede on +stormy nights. They run blindly to destruction. The very air was +surcharged, electric, and the girl was untamed, only a step +removed from the soil. The possibility that she could be seriously +interested in him, strangely enough, never presented itself. + +Gray laid strong hold of himself, but it is not easy to subdue +thought, and he could feel those strong, smooth, velvet arms +encircling him. Disorder without and chaos within this house! The +heavens rumbled like a mighty drumhead, the lightning made useless +the feeble ray in his hand. It was the place, the hour of impulse. +Gray swore savagely at himself, then he stumbled into his room and +dressed himself more fully. + +"Well, there doesn't seem to be much change," he said, cheerfully, +as he opened Allie's door awhile later. "The fires don't seem to +be spreading." She was sitting where he had left her, she had not +moved. "Anything new on this side?" + +Allie shrugged; slowly she turned, exposing a face tragic and +stony. "I guess you don't think much of me," she said. + +"Indeed!" he declared, heartily. "This is enough to frighten +anybody. I don't mind saying it has upset me. But the worst is +over." He laid a reassuring hand upon her shoulder. + +Allie moved her body convulsively. "Lemme be!" she cried, sharply. +"I don't mind the lightning. I ain't scared of the fire, either +--hell fire or any other kind. I ain't scared of anything, and yet +--I'm a dam' coward!" + +She rose, gathered her loose robe more closely about her, and made +blindly toward the bed. She flung herself upon it and buried her +face in the pillows. "Just a--dam' coward!" she repeated, in a +muffled wail. "My God, I wish the blaze would come!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +Buddy Briskow had difficulty in getting out of the valley on his +way for a doctor, for never had the roads been like this. He drove +recklessly; where necessary he disregarded fences and pushed +across pastures that were hub deep; he even burst through +occasional thickets in defiance of axle and tire. It was a mad +journey, like the ride in a death-defying movie serial; only by +some miraculous power of cohesion did the machine hold together +and thus enable him to keep it under way and bring it out to high +ground. Since he had not taken time before leaving to change into +dry clothing, he was drenched to the skin; he was, in fact, +sheeted with mud like the car itself. + +To find a doctor, however, was a problem. Buddy tried first one +camp, then another, but without success. Meanwhile, the downpour +continued and the creeks rose steadily, obliging him to make +numerous detours and to follow the ridge roads wherever possible. +He was aching in every bone and muscle from the pounding he had +received, his arms were numb, his back was broken. He drowned his +motor finally in fording a roily stream and abandoned the car. + +He came into Ranger that afternoon on the back of a truck horse +that he had borrowed--without the owner's consent. For a time it +seemed that if he got a doctor at all he would have to follow a +similar procedure, but the Briskow name was powerful, and Buddy +talked in big figures, so eventually he set out on the return +journey--this time in a springless freight wagon drawn by the +stoutest team in town. A medical man was on the seat beside him. + +Progress was maddeningly slow, incredibly tedious; creek beds, long dry, +had become foaming torrents; in places even the level roads were belly +deep and the horses floundered. When one of them fell, it required +infinite labor and patience to get it upon its feet again. + +It was after midnight when Buddy and his miserable companion +gained the comparatively easy going of the last ridge, that flinty +range beyond which lay the Briskow farm. Here they drove in the +glare of lightning and under a sky that rumbled almost steadily, +for a frightful electric storm had broken. Here it was that they +saw what havoc was being wrought--they counted several blazing +wells ahead of them. + +Buddy stopped at a drilling camp where lights showed the occupants +to be astir, and there he received confirmation of his fears. The +flats beyond were inundated to a depth rendering travel +impossible, and although some of the men stationed out there had +managed to work their way back, others were, for the time being, +hopelessly cut off. What was more alarming by far, in view of +these blazing beacons, was the news that a huge gusher on sixteen +was wild and pouring its inflammable flood out upon the surface of +the water. + +Buddy stood in the midst of a spreading puddle from his streaming +clothes, and through chattering teeth announced: "My sister and +Mr. Gray are out there. I _gotta_ get through!" + +"How you going to get through, kid?" one of the drillers inquired. +"Our men had to swim in places." + +"I guess I can swim, if I try. Feller can do 'most anything if he +has to. How about you, Doc?" Buddy turned to his traveling +companion. + +The latter shook his head positively. "You're crazy, Briskow. We'd +probably drown. If we didn't, we'd be burned alive when that loose +oil catches fire." + +"Looks like it's bound to catch if this lightning keeps up," some +one declared. "Listen to that!" + +Buddy cursed furiously and lurched toward the door. It took force +to restrain him from going. + +That was indeed a night of terror in the oil fields, for +destruction was wholesale, and to those who were fortunate enough +to be in no danger it was scarcely less trying than for the +luckless ones out in the flooded area. Buddy Briskow was half +demented. At one time it seemed certain that the surface oil was +aflame near his father's farm, and the pictures he conjured up +were unbearable. + +The rain ceased with the passing of the electrical storm, but the +late hours of the night were thick and the fires continued to +burn. It seemed as if morning would never come. With the first +light Buddy mounted one of his horses, and, regardless of +admonitions, set out. In miles he had no great distance to go; +nevertheless, it was midday before he came in sight of his +father's unpainted farmhouse, and when he dismounted at the front +porch he fell rather than walked through the door. + +He broke down and blubbered weakly when he saw Calvin Gray up and +around and apparently well. He collapsed into a chair and huddled +there in a wet heap, the while he sobbed and laughed hysterically. +He was considerably ashamed of his show of feeling. + +Even after he had been helped into the kitchen and his wet clothes +had been stripped from him, he could tell little about his trip, +but hot food and drink brought him around and then, indeed, his +story was one that deeply touched the elder man. + +Already the waters had ceased to rise, but Buddy's difficulty in +getting through proved the folly of attempting escape for the time +being; his horse had been forced to swim with him in more than one +place; in others he had waded waist deep, stumbling through +thickets, hauling the animal after him by main strength. There was +nothing to do, it seemed, but await a subsidence of the flood. +Then, too, the boy was half dead for sleep. + +Under the circumstances it was not easy for the elder man to face +this delay. His affairs were in a precarious condition and more in need +of his immediate attention than ever before; to be cut off, therefore, +to be lost for several days at this particular time was more than a +misfortune--it was a catastrophe. Such vague plans as he had considered +he was now forced to abandon. He could see ruin ahead. + +One purpose this enforced idleness did serve, however; it enabled +him--nay, it forced him--to evolve a new scheme of relief. Some +minds become paralyzed in moments of panic, others function with +unexpected clearness and ingenuity, and his was such a mind. An +idea came to him, finally, which seemed sound, the more he thought +about it. Indeed, its possibilities galvanized him, and he +wondered why he had been so long in arriving at it. It was +spectacular, daring, it might prove to be impossible of +accomplishment; nevertheless, it was worth trying, and he could +scarcely wait for Buddy Briskow to wake up so that he could put it +to him. + +Late that evening, after Allie had gone to bed, he had a long talk +with his young friend, during which he told him more about his +affairs than he had made known even to Roswell, the banker. + +Buddy listened with the closest attention. He drew a deep breath +at last and said: "I knew you was in deep, but I thought it was +just your way. Now I _know_ it was Nelson's crew that fired our +gasser. Why, they might have cost us thousands--yes, hundreds of +thousands--if it had been the kind of a gusher we figgered on! +Say"--the speaker's brows drew together in an angry scowl--"what +ails this Nelson, anyhow--tryin' to get you shot, an' firin' your +wells, an' everything?" + +"He once did me a great injury." + +"What kind?" + +There was a pause. "I'd rather not go into that now, Buddy. To +repeat what I've been telling you, however, the situation is this: +I've gone as far as I can go with the backing I have, and I must +make a quick turn--strike one final blow or give up. Nelson and I +are like two wrestlers floundering on the mat. We're both tired, groggy, +out of breath. Whichever one gets the first hold will win, for the +other lacks strength to break it. Do you think your father would +trust me? Do you think he'd go it blind on my say-so?" + +"If he won't, I will. I got money. So's Allie." + +Gray declined this offer with a positive shake of the head. "It +must appeal to him on its merits. I wouldn't permit you to go +contrary to his judgment." + +"Judgment? What's Pa's judgment worth? He knows it's no good, an' +so do we. Everybody's tryin' to do him up but you; you're the only +one he trusts. An' the same here. There's my bank roll--you can +shoot the whole piece. I don't care if it never comes back. Tryin' +to get you killed! An' spoilin' a well on me!" + +"Thank you, Buddy! You--make me slow to trust my own judgment. I +--I seem to be developing a conscience. But I'm sure this is the +thing to do, for you and your father as well as for me. People +can't stand still; they must go forward. The Briskow fortune must +grow or it will crumble." + +"I dunno if we've got as much in us as you seem to think," the boy +said, doubtfully. + +"Look at Allie! And, you, too! You took hold of this field work +and ran it like a man. I said you'd make a hand, and you have. The +day is coming when people like you, who went from poverty to +affluence overnight, will retrace that journey. That's the time +when the truly dramatic story of the Texas oil boom will be +written. Then will come the real tragedy, and you mustn't be +caught in it. Money isn't a servant, Buddy; it is a master, and a +mighty stern, relentless master, at that. When your first well +blew in, it didn't mean ease and enjoyment, as you thought; it +meant hard work for the rest of your life." + +"If you'd talked to me like this when I went off to school," the +boy said, after a moment of consideration, "mebbe I'd of made +myself swallow some more education, even if I had to take it out of a +bottle along with the little kids." + +Gray smiled. "You have common sense, at least, and that's +something you can't get in school. Men wear smooth from contact +with one another, and it is time you got in touch with something +bigger than mere drilling. If you're willing, I'll take you to +Wichita Falls with me." + +"_Willing?_" Buddy's eyes sparkled. Guiltily he confessed: "It's +been pretty--lonesome out here with the scorpions. But I wanted to +show you I could make good." + +"Do you drink any more?" + +"Haven't touched a drop. I don't reckon I ever will, either. I +don't take to the idea of back-trackin' to this farm an' gettin' +old in overalls, like you say. I'm sort of penurious an' I aim to +keep what little sense I got. A feller as dull as I am can't +afford to drink." + +"One thing more." Gray nodded approvingly. "I want you to promise +me that you won't fall in love with the first woman you meet. I'd +never be able to lick you again." + +Buddy showed his strong, white teeth in a broad grin. "I promise! +That boy with the bass voice cured me. I'm goin' to be a hermit." + +News of the damage wrought by the recent storm was naturally of +grave concern to Henry Nelson, but owing to the fact that lines +were down, about his only source of information, during the days +immediately following it, was the press reports. He was reading +the Dallas papers with interest one morning when his attention was +arrested by the name of Calvin Gray. Now Gray's name in print +affected the banker almost as disagreeably as did a sight of the +man himself; therefore it was with intense resentment that he read +the article in which it appeared. It was a vividly written account +of the former's experience during the flood, and, due no doubt to +Gray's personal touch, it read a good deal like fiction. The man +had a unique turn for publicity, a knack for self-advertising that +infuriated Nelson. To read this anybody would think that he was +one of the dominant figures in the oil industry, and that his +enterprises were immensely successful. With a sneer Nelson flung +the paper aside. So, that was how it had happened. The well had +been fired--Henry believed he could account for that--but a +miracle had quenched the flame. Falling drill stems! Who ever +heard of such a thing? Such luck was uncanny--enough to give one +the creeps. If Gray were tied hand and foot and thrown into a +river, somebody would drag him out--with his pockets full of fish! +And to be marooned for days in the midst of a blazing lake +--Damnation! Well, luck like that was bound to change. It had +changed. The note of assurance in this self-edited story was +patently counterfeit, or so Henry told himself, for surely the +fellow must know by this time that his race was run. Probably this +was a desperate effort to secure further backing. If so, it would +fail. + +Henry believed that he had weakened his enemy's support so +completely that he would fall of his own weight; he considered it, +in fact, about the cleverest move he had ever made to dispose of a +block of bank stock in such a way as not only to tide him over his +own difficulties, but also to make allies of Gray's associates +--the very men who had been fighting him. Those men were through +with the scoundrel now, and who else could he appeal to, once they +abandoned him? Nobody. No, the ice had been thin, at times--Henry +had felt it bending under him--but he was safe at last. The +crossing had been made. + +So much accomplished; now that the fellow was down and could no +longer fight back, it was time to see that Barbara Parker learned +the truth about her gallant suitor. The next time Tom Parker came +into the bank Henry called him into his private office and had a +talk with him. + +Old Tom listened silently; nevertheless, it was plain that he +was deeply shocked. + +"I s'pose you ain't lyin'," he said, coldly, when the banker had +finished. + +"It's a matter of record, Tom. He can't deny it." + +"Why did you--hold off so long?" + +"We're not exactly friends. He foolishly believes that I had +something to do with his disgrace, and he has done his best to +injure me. Under the circumstances, I couldn't very well say +anything. I wouldn't speak now, except for the fact that 'Bob' is +interested in him and--well, I'm interested in 'Bob.'" + +"She's been interested in him from the first. I don't see that the +circumstances are much different than they have been," Tom said, +sourly. + +"Put it down to jealousy, if you wish." Henry was impatient. + +"And I don't know as 'Bob' ever encouraged you to think--" + +"Perhaps not. But she is the only woman I ever saw that I'd make +Mrs. Nelson." + +"What was it he did?" + +"'Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman' is the way the +record stands. That covers a lot." + +"Did he welch--quit under fire?" + +"No." + +"Steal something?" + +"No." + +"Woman scrape?" + +"There was--a woman concerned. Pretty nasty mess, Tom. He's the +sort of man to intrigue any foolish woman. Women can't see far." + +"I s'pose so." Mr. Parker rose stiffly. "But we don't have to +worry about 'Bob.' She ain't foolish and her eyesight is good. +She's got more sense than all three of us men." With this +noncommittal remark the father limped out. + +But Tom was more deeply troubled than he had shown. Nothing to be +said against a man could have weighed more heavily with him than +this particular charge. To a man of his type dereliction of duty +was a crime; dishonorable discharge from the army of his country +was an appalling indictment implying utter moral turpitude. Tom +had known more than one fellow who was guilty of conduct +unbecoming a gentleman--as a matter of fact, he had reason to +respect certain of them for some of their ungentlemanly conduct +--but conduct unbecoming an officer was something altogether +different. He had never met but one such, and he had shot that +fellow just above the bridge of the nose. A traitor to his oath of +office, a man who could dishonor his state, his country, was worse +than a renegade; his name was a hissing upon the lips of decent +people. Scalawags like that were not to be tolerated. It seemed +incredible that Gray could be one. + +Yes, and "Bob" liked the fellow--but so did he, for that matter. +In great perturbation of spirit Tom consulted Judge Halloran. + +The judge listened to him in astonishment; angrily he cried: "The +idea of his paying court to 'Bob'! The insufferable insolence of +it! Why, I consider it a personal affront." + +"Where do _you_ come in to get all het up?" Tom growled. + +"_What?_" Halloran's irascible face reddened. '"Where do I--'? My +God! Haven't I--? Don't I stand in _loco parentis_ to the girl?" + +"You ain't as _loco parentis_ to her as I am. She's my son. +Trouble is, I like Mr. Gray. You don't think Henry could be +lying?" + +"He wouldn't dare. It is too serious. No, Tom, there's just one +thing to do; you and I will go directly to the scoundrel, tell him +we are aware of his infamy, and order him out of town. Ha! That's +the way to go about it; cut deep and quickly. Tar and feathers are +too good for--" + +"Trouble is," Tom repeated, with a reluctant sigh, "I like him and +I ain't sure--" "The trouble is you're a weakling!" Halloran +snapped. "You are a--sentimentalist. You lack my stern, +uncompromising moral fiber. _Like_ him? Pah! What has that to do +with it? I have no weakness, no bowels of compassion. I am a +Spartan. I am--" + +"You're a damned old fool--if you think you can run _him_. He's +liable to run you." + +Judge Halloran was furious at this; he was hurt, too. He sputtered +for a moment before managing to say: "Have it your own way. You +are trying to be unpleasant--not that it requires conscious +effort--but I won't argue with you." + +"Don't! I hate arguments. That's why I don't like to talk this +over with Mr. Gray. When I'm mad enough to argue I'm mad enough to +fight, and I fight better than I argue." + +If, indeed, Calvin Gray's affairs were in a condition as +precarious as Nelson believed, he showed no signs of it when he +returned to Wichita Falls. On the contrary, he was in an exultant +mood, and even on the train young Briskow, who accompanied him, +was amazed at the change that had come over his friend. With every +mile they traveled Gray's buoyancy increased and upon his arrival +he trod the street to his office like a conqueror. McWade and +Stoner, who came in for a conference with minds preoccupied and +faces grave, left with a smile and a jest. + +When they had gone, Gray rose with relief and surprised Buddy by +saying: "That's enough for now, thank goodness! Business is only +one side of life, my boy. You are going to make this city your +home, so you must begin by meeting the right people, the +influential people. Nicest people in the world right here, Buddy; +nicest place in the world, too!" + +Now to a youth who, for months, had been immured in the oil +fields, Wichita Falls did indeed resemble a city of marvelous +portent. Pavements, large buildings, bright lights, theaters--Buddy was +thrilled. He prepared himself for introduction to oil operators, to men +of finance sitting in marble and mahogany offices; he made ready to step +forth into the big world. + +Great was his astonishment, therefore, when after a swift walk +Gray turned into a tiny frame insurance office on a side street. +Funny place to look for people of influence, Buddy cogitated. + +A girl was seated at a desk; she rose at sight of Gray, and her +face broke into a smile. Her greeting was warm; her hand lingered +in his; for the moment neither of them seemed to remember Buddy's +presence. When she did hear his name, however, her face lightened +and she gave her hand to him as to an old friend. When she smiled +at him, as she had smiled at his companion, Buddy dropped his hat. +He had never seen anyone in the least like this creature and--she +knew Allie! She knew his mother! That was astonishing. He wondered +why they had never said anything about it. Before she had finished +telling him about that meeting in the store at Dallas, Buddy +realized that here indeed was an influential person, a citizen of +supreme importance. He had missed her name, but probably she owned +that Dallas department store, or was the Mayor of Wichita Falls. +He had never before been so embarrassed. + +Mr. Gray certainly was a wonderful man. His poise, his air of +respectful but easy familiarity with this--this angel raised him +immensely in Buddy's esteem. Think of joking, chatting, making +pretty speeches to an--an angel! That was going some. The gall of +it! + +They were talking about that big gasser of Gray's; the fire; the +overflow; and the melodramatic occurrences of the past fortnight. +Gray was telling her how Buddy had saved his life at the well, how +he had risked his own, later, in braving the flood, and she was +listening with eager smiles and nods and exclamations. When she +turned admiring, grateful eyes upon the hero of Gray's story--and +the story had been told in a manner to make Buddy no less--that +youth felt himself suffocating, burning up. Mr. Gray sure knew how +to talk; he could sling language. And _lie_--! Gosh, how +beautifully he could lie! It was splendid of him to exaggerate +like this, so as to set him in solid with the most important +person in town. That was noble! People were awful nice. And this +certainly was a grand city. Buddy knew he was going to get along +fine; and he'd never forget Mr. Gray for this. + +After a while, when the two men were on the street again, Buddy +inquired: "Who is that young lady? I mean--her name?" + +Gray told him, then with a friendly twinkle: "Well, speak out! +What do you think of her?" + +"Oh--_Gee_!" Buddy cried, breathlessly, whereupon his companion +laughed in perfect satisfaction. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +Gray returned to his desk that morning after his call on "Bob" +Parker determined to tackle energetically the numerous business +details needing his attention, but he found that he could not do +so. As usual, his brief sight of the girl, instead of satisfying +him, had merely increased his hunger; made him the more restless, +the more eager to see her again--alone. He gave up fighting his +desires, presently, and invented the necessity of a hurried trip +to the Avenger lease. + +Her ready acceptance of the invitation he construed to indicate an +eagerness akin to his own, and during the several hours they were +together he had hard work to keep from breaking his resolve and +telling her all she had come to mean to him. + +"Bob" seemed to expect something of the sort, as a matter of fact. +Her shyness, her fluttering agitation when his voice unconsciously +became tender--and he realized that, in spite of himself, the tone +of his voice conveyed a message quite at variance with his words +--taxed his self-control to the utmost. Well, it wouldn't be long +now--another two weeks perhaps! But two weeks is an eternity when +hearts are pounding, when ears are strained and lips are waiting. + +Two callers were awaiting Gray when, late that afternoon, he +mounted the stairs to his office--Tom Parker and Judge Halloran +--and something in their formal, awkward greeting sent a quick chill +of alarm through him. Mechanically he ushered them into his +private room and offered them chairs. He heard himself chatting +casually enough, but neither his own words nor theirs conveyed +much meaning to him. Nelson, it seemed, scorned no advantage, +however dishonorable. Gray's hatred of the man attained deeper, +blacker depths than ever. To-day of all days! What a reckoning was +due! + +The two old men were talking, one lamely supplementing the other's +efforts to lead up to the object of their visit. Gray turned a set +face to Tom Parker finally, and interrupted by saying: + +"Permit me to ease your embarrassment, sir. You object to my +attentions to your daughter. Is that it?" Tom dropped his eyes and +mumbled an uncomfortable affirmative. "Not, I hope, because you +question the nature of my intentions?" + +"Oh no!" + +"I'd say yes and no to that," Halloran declared, argu-mentatively. +"Tom and I are gentlemen of the old school; we live by the code +and 'Bob' is our joint property, in a way. Any man who aspires to +the honor of--well, of even paying attentions to that girl must +stand the acid test. There must be no blot upon his 'scutcheon." + +"You imply, then, that there is a blot upon mine?" + +"That is what prompts our visit, sir. Can you assure us that there +is none?" + +After a moment of hesitation Gray inquired, curiously: "Judge, do +you believe that a man can live down disgrace?" + +"Disgrace, yes. Dishonor, never! A man's honor is so sensitive +that to stain it is to wound it. Like the human eye it cannot +suffer the slightest injury without serious damage." + +The younger man ignored the pompous tone of this speech; he +nodded. "I see. Someone said also that it is like an island, +rugged and without landing place; and once outside of it we can +never re-enter. That is your idea, I dare say." + +"Precisely!" + +Tom Parker stirred; irritably he broke out, "I'm damned if I think +you did it!" + +"Did what?" + +Tom remained silent, but when his companion drew a deep, +preparatory breath, Gray lifted a hand. He rose nervously and in a +changed tone continued: + +"Again let me speak for you and shorten our mutual distress. +First, however, I must make my own position plain. I--love your +daughter, Mr. Parker." The declaration came at great cost, the +speaker turned away to hide his emotion. "I think--I hope she is +not indifferent to me. I would give my life to marry her and, God +willing, I shall. So much for that." He swung himself about and +met the eyes of first one old man, then the other. Harshly, +defiantly, he added: "Understand me, nothing you can do, nothing +on earth--nothing in Heaven or in hell, for that matter--will stop +me from telling her about my love, when the time comes. Now then, +Henry Nelson has told you that I was--that I was sent back from +overseas in disgrace. You want to know if he spoke the truth. He +did!" + +After a moment of silence Judge Halloran said, with stiff +finality: "Under the circumstances there is nothing more to talk +about. You amaze me when you say--" + +"I want to know more than if he was just telling the truth," Tom +interrupted, grimly. "I want to know if you were guilty." + +"That was the verdict of the court martial." + +"To hell with that! Innocent men have been hung." + +A faint smile softened Gray's face. "And guilty men have gone to +the gallows protesting their innocence. Which are you to believe? +I made the best defense possible, but it was insufficient. I have +no new evidence. I would rather endure the stigma of guilt than +have you consider me a liar, and, of course, that is what you +would think if I denied it." + +Halloran was on his feet now, and evidently anxious to terminate +the interview. "There are two sides to every case, of course, and +justice is not always done. However, that really makes no +difference in this instance. The findings of a military tribunal +are as conclusive as those of any court of law, and it is not for +us to question them. To repeat what I started to say just now, I +fail to understand how you can expect us to tolerate your further +attentions to Miss Barbara or how you can persist in your insane +determination to ask her hand in marriage." + +"Perhaps you'll understand when I say that I propose to clear +myself." + +"How? When?" + +"Soon, I hope." + +"And in the meantime?" + +Gray considered this question briefly. "In the meantime--if you +will agree to say nothing to 'Bob,' I will promise not to declare +my feelings, not to see her alone." + +"That's a go," said the father. + +"Mind you, I may fail to right myself. In that event I shall feel +at liberty to tell her the facts and ask her to believe in me +against the world. I trust she will do so. If she loves me as I +love her, she will marry me even though she knows I am a liar and +a blackguard." + +"Never!" Halloran exploded. "'Bob' isn't that sort of a girl." + +"I hope it never comes to the test." + +"I hope so, too," the father declared, earnestly. "I'm--right fond +of 'Bob,' and I wouldn't like to see her team up with a man she +couldn't be proud of. _I_ wouldn't take it easy." Mild as were +these words, coming from Tom Parker they had the ominous effect of +a threat. + +Without further ado the two old men left. + +There was little sleep that night for Calvin Gray, and the days +that followed were a torture. It was a torment to avoid "Bob," for +self-denial only whetted his appetite to see her, and those +cunning plans he had laid at the time of their last meeting--plans +devised solely to bring them together--he had to alter upon one +excuse or another; he even forced Buddy Briskow to substitute for +him. Fortunately, there were certain negotiations requiring his +presence in Dallas, in Tulsa, and elsewhere, and it some what +relieved his irritation to put miles between him and the city he +had come to regard as his home. + +The Nelsons' bank was known as the Security National, and it +represented the life work of two generations of the family. Bell's +father had founded it, in the early cattle days, but to the genius +and industry of Bell himself had been due its growth into one of +the influential institutions of the state. Other banks had finer +quarters, but none in this part of the country had a more solid +standing nor more powerful names upon its directorate. Bennett +Swope, for instance, was the richest of the big cattle barons; +Martin Murphy was known as the Arkansas hardwood king, and Herman +Gage owned and operated a chain of department stores. The other +two--there were but seven, including Bell and his son--were +Northern capitalists who took no very active interest in the bank +and almost never attended its meetings. For that matter, the three +local men above named concerned themselves little with the actual +running of the institution, for the Nelsons, who owned nine-tenths +of the stock, were supreme in that sphere. It was only at the +annual meetings when directors were re-elected--and invariably +they succeeded themselves--that they forgathered to conduct the +dull routine business which is a part of all annual meetings. +After they had adjourned as stockholders they reconvened as +directors, and again mumbled hurried and perfunctory ayes to the +motions put before them, so that Bell could the more quickly get +out his bottle of fine old Bourbon, the one really ceremonious +procedure of the day. The Security National was as conservative, +as rock ribbed, as respectable, and as uninteresting as any bank +could well be, and its directors were always bored when election +time came around. + +In spite of the fact that the program this year was as thoroughly +cut and dried as usual, the day of the meeting found both father +and son decidedly nervous, for there were certain questions of +management and of policy which they did not wish to touch upon, +and their nervousness manifested itself in an assumption of +friendliness and good fellowship quite unusual. + +Senator Lowe, the bank's attorney and secretary, was arranging his +minute books, his reports, and his miscellaneous papers, Martin +Murphy was telling his latest story, when a knock came at the door +to the directors' room. Bell himself answered it, but his protest +at the interruption died upon his lips when he beheld Calvin Gray, +Gus Briskow, and the latter's son, Ozark, facing him. + +Gray spoke sharply, and his words fell with the effect of a bomb, +at least upon Bell and Henry, for what he said was: "We are +attending this meeting as stockholders, and we came early to +enable the secretary to record the necessary transfer of our +shares." + +Disregarding the president's gasp of astonishment, the speaker +pushed past him and entered, then introduced himself and his +companions to the other men present. + +Henry Nelson experienced a sick moment of dizziness; the room grew +black before his eyes. It was Bell who broke out, harshly: + +"_Stockholders?_ Where did _you_ get any stock in this bank, I'd +like to know?" + +"We bought it. Picked it up here and there--" + +"I don't believe it!" Bell glared at the speaker, then he turned +his eyes upon Swope, upon Murphy, upon Gage. "Did any of you sell +out?" + +"We don't own enough to make it worth while," Swope said, dryly. +Murphy and Gage agreed. Bell's peculiar display of emotion +surprised them; they exchanged glances. "I thought there wasn't +any stock outside of what's owned by our group. What's the idea?" + +Gray answered, easily. "There is now a considerable amount outside +of that. A very considerable amount." + +Henry Nelson made himself audible for the first time, and sneered +angrily. "Quite theatric, Gray, this eleventh-hour move. How much +have you got? What's your--your object?" In spite of himself his +voice shook. + +"My object is purely selfish." Gray's tone was equally +unpleasant. He had expected to create a sensation, and he was not +disappointed. "Mr. Briskow and his son are looking for a secure +investment, and I have convinced them of the soundness of your +institution. My operations make it necessary for me to establish a +close banking affiliation--one where I can ask for and receive +consideration"--his mockery was now unmistakable--"so where should +I turn, except to my friends? I assume you make no objection to +the stock transfer? Very well." He drew from his pocket a bundle +of shares and tossed them across the table to Senator Lowe. + +Henry made his way to his father's side; they withdrew to a corner +and bent their heads together, murmuring inaudibly. Gray watched +them with unblinking intensity; he nodded to Buddy Briskow, and +the latter, as if heeding some prearranged signal, removed his +hands from his pockets and stepped farther into the room. He, too, +watched the agitated pair. + +"Why--look here!" the secretary gasped, after a moment or two. +"This--this gives you control!" + +Bell Nelson raised a stricken face. "Control?" he repeated, +faintly. "_Control_?" He strode to the end of the table, and with +shaking hands he ran through the sheaf of neatly folded +certificates. "Sold out, by God!" He fell to cursing certain men, +the names of whom caused Swope and Murphy and Gage to prick up +their ears. + +Gray was still staring at the junior Nelson; it was to him more +than to the father that he spoke: "Sold out is right! It came +high, but I think it was worth the price. We intend to vote our +stock." + +"By that I infer that you're going to take the bank over--take its +management away from Bell and Henry?" Bennett Swope ventured. + +"Naturally." + +The elder Nelson voiced an unintelligible exclamation. + +"That's a pretty rough deal. Bell has put his life into it. It is +an--an institution, a credit to the community. It would be a +misfortune if it fell into the hands of--into the control of +somebody who--" The ranchman hesitated, then blurted forth, +angrily: "Well, I don't like the look of this thing. I want to +know what it means." + +"I'll tell you," Henry cried, unevenly. "I'll tell you what it +means. Persecution! Revenge! Hatred! I quarreled with this man, in +France. He's vindictive; he followed me here--tried every way to +ruin me--cost me thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars. +Father and I were--we were pinched. We had to realize some quick +money to protect our oil holdings--offsets and the like--and we +sold a lot of our stock with the understanding that we could--that +we would buy it back at a higher figure. We only borrowed on it, +you might say--hypothecated it. We thought we were dealing with +friends, but--_Friends_! My God!" The speaker seized his head. + +"The stock was not hypothecated. You sold it," Gray said, quietly, +"and we bought it in." + +"It is all a personal matter, a grudge." + +"Is that true, Mr. Gray?" Swope inquired. + +"Substantially. But I'm waiting for Colonel Nelson to tell you +more; to tell you the whole story of our antagonism." + +Martin Murphy, who had been a silent onlooker up to this point, +made himself heard. "Mr. Gray, I don't like the look of this any +better than Swope does. Your quarrel with Henry is wholly your and +his affair, but the welfare of the Security National is partly +ours. Banks are not toys, to be juggled and played with in +mischief or in spite. You say you paid high for your stock; do you +intend to wreck the institution, lose a fortune--?" + +"By no means." + +"That's precisely what you will succeed in doing." + +"I had ventured to hope that you three gentlemen would remain on +the board." + +"Am I dreaming?" Bell Nelson's collar appeared to be choking him, +and with clumsy fingers he tugged at it. "Going to kick Henry and +me off the board, eh? Rob us? Well, I'm damned if you do! You'll not +kick us off--" + +"He doesn't want the bank," the son exclaimed, hoarsely. "That's +all a bluff. He wants blackmail. That's the kind of man he is. He +wants his price. I know him. How much, Gray? What'll it cost us?" + +"I'll tell you what it will cost--" + +"Ha! Didn't I say so?" + +"Oh, there is a price for everything! Mine will surprise you, +however, it is so low. Can't you guess what it is?" The speaker's +intent gaze had never left Henry Nelson's face; it was fixed there +now, as cold, as relentless as the stare of a python. + +Bell Nelson leaned forward, his lips parted, a new eagerness came +into his purple countenance. "Well, well! What is it?" he +demanded, querulously. + +"Vindication!" + +There was a moment of silence. "What is he talking about, Henry?" +Bell's eyes were strained toward his son. + +"I don't know," the latter said, in a thin voice. "He's crazy +--always was." + +"I'm giving you a chance, Colonel. You'd better take it. Think +carefully." When there came no response to this warning, Gray +shrugged. "Very well! There is nothing further, except to complete +the transfer and proceed with the business of the meeting. Mr. +Briskow will be the next president, and I shall occupy the +position of vice-president and treasurer now held by you--" + +The effect of this declaration was electric. With a cry the +younger Nelson lunged forward. Confusion followed. It was of short +duration, however, for Henry found himself locked in the arms of +the Briskow giant. Others lent Buddy their assistance, and, in +spite of his struggles, the vice-president was flung backward upon +a deep leather divan. He rose unsteadily, but, meeting Buddy's +threatening gaze and realizing the impossibility of getting past +him, he cried: "Let me out of here! Let me out, damn you! I +--I'll get you for this, Gray. Let me out, I tell you!" + +"Buddy!" Gray jerked his head in the direction of the door to one +of the adjoining offices. "He keeps a gun in his desk--top drawer. +Get it before me makes a fool of himself." Young Briskow stepped +out of the room. Gray continued, speaking to the others, "I have +something to say to you gentlemen before we go on with the +meeting, and I wish to say it in the presence of Colonel Nelson +and his--" + +"You'll not keep me here. I refuse to stay," Henry shouted, and he +pushed past Swope toward the door. + +"Wait!" It was the elder Nelson speaking, and in his voice was a +new note--a note of triumph. "Stock can't be transferred at an +annual meeting. It has to be done in advance--ten days, I think it +is. Am I right, Senator?" + +"That is the usual procedure," Senator Lowe agreed. + +"Better look it up and make sure," Gray directed. + +There followed a few moments of uncomfortable silence while the +bank's attorney ran through the by-laws. It seemed to those +waiting that it was a long time before he frowned and shook his +head. + +"I--ah--I can find nothing against it. It seems I have nothing to +do except transfer the shares." + +"Then there won't be any meeting!" Bell loudly declared. + +The three directors greeted this remark with exclamations of +genuine relief. "Sure! Let's adjourn--put it over until--" one of +them began, but the bank's president was bellowing in rising fury +at the interlopers: + +"Get out! Get out of my office, d'you hear? Get out--" + +"Looks to me like it's _my_ office," Gus Briskow said, quietly, +"or it will be, directly. You, Bell, put on the muffler! I came a +long ways to attend this meetin'. It's the first one I ever been +to, an' it's goin' to happen. Shut up your fuss! I want you to +hear what Mr. Gray's got to say." + +"To hell with him, and you, too!" stormed the financier. "Hold the meeting, +eh? Hold it if you dare! I defy you. Steal my bank, double-cross me--We'll +see about that. Come along, Henry." + +"You're in," Gray said, menacingly; "you'd better stay and vote +your stock or you may never get back again." But neither father +nor son heeded him. When they had gone he frowned. "I'm sorry. +Really I am. I hoped I could force--" + +"I think we'd better go, too," some one said. "This is too +extraordinary--We're in no frame of mind to go ahead--" + +"I must insist that you remain long enough to hear me out. You +have no right to refuse. There is something you _must_ be told." + +"I'll admit I'm curious to know what the devil it all means," +Murphy, the lumberman, confessed; "but I don't know that I should +accept an explanation from you. Not after Henry's accusations. +I've known him and Bell for years--" + +"I respect your friendship for them, and I sha'n't expect you to +put trust in my words. It seems to me, however, that you owe it to +that friendship to hear me. This incident has taken a turn wholly +unexpected, and, I must confess, disappointing. I looked for a +different outcome--hoped I'd be able to force an explanation--" +The speaker shook his head and frowned again, perplexedly. When, +after a moment of indecisive murmuring, the three directors seated +themselves, Gray thanked them with a bow. "I'll be as brief as +possible, and if you don't mind I'll stand as I talk. I'm in no +mood to sit. I'll have to go back a bit--" It was several seconds +before he resumed. + +"When it became evident that the United States was going to war, I +managed to get in at Plattsburg and took the officers' training +course. It was easy for me to complete that course, because I had +served in the Spanish War and had kept up my interest in military +affairs. Something convinced those who ought to know that I +possessed qualifications of unusual value to the country--a wide +business experience at home and abroad, a knowledge of languages +perhaps--anyhow, I was called to Washington. There I met Henry +Nelson--a valuable man, too, in his way. We were commissioned at +the same time and sent overseas on the same ship to engage in the +same work--military intelligence. I didn't like the job, but it +was considered important, and naturally I couldn't pick and +choose. Of course it was secret, confidential work. No need of +going into that here. + +"Nelson's and my duties were identical, our authority was equal; +we were ordered to work hand in hand, and although we were +commissioned together, technically, he outranked me owing to the +fact that he was given his commission a moment before I got mine. + +"That's where the trouble started. We clashed, even on shipboard. +He proved himself to be authoritative, overbearing; he immediately +assumed the position of my superior officer. I'm not a mild- +tempered man, but I put up with it, figuring that our paths would +soon separate. But they didn't. When we arrived in France I +tackled my job with all the energy in me; I tried for results. +Nelson, I discovered in time, was concerned only in taking entire +credit for all that he and I and the whole organization under us +accomplished and in advancing himself. I worked; he played +politics. + +"You are not military men, so I sha'n't bore you with army terms +or technical details, but--by one means or another he managed to +intrench himself in a position of actual authority over me not at +all in accord with our purpose or our instructions. I swallowed my +resentment, for it seemed rather petty, rather selfish, in a time +like that, to divert my attention from the important work in hand +to quarrel with him. You understand? Then, too, he was not making +good and I was, and I thought time would surely cure the trouble. +He must have appreciated my feelings--nevertheless, he persisted +in abusing his powers; he began finally to really interfere with me, to +call me off of important tasks and humiliate me with futile +assignments, and I realized that I was threatened with failure +through his meddling. This may sound trivial to you"--the speaker +raised his eyes to his audience--"but, take my word for it, there +were many instances of the kind over there. Jealousy, intrigue, +malevolence, petty spite, drove more than one earnest, patriotic +officer to rebellion and--ruined many a career. + +"I rebelled. I had to, or be made ridiculous. I warned him, +privately, as man to man. He ignored the warning. Then I prepared +a complete report showing by the copies of his orders, by the +records of our respective accomplishments, by our correspondence, +how he had systematically and maliciously endeavored to nullify my +work and--and the like. It was not a pretty report to read. I +turned it in to him for submission higher up. + +"Then it was that he outgeneraled me. He was furious, of course, +but he apologized--abjectly. He admitted that he had been wrong; +that he had imposed upon me. He promised to play fair if I'd +permit him to withhold the report, and--I was deceived. No man +likes to be thought a cry-baby. Those were eventful times; +personal complaints were not welcomed in any quarter--not with the +world rocking on its foundations. I was glad to accept his +promises. + +"For a while we worked in harmony. I became engaged in an +intricate case, having to do with a leak concerning transport +sailings and routes--a matter involving the lives of thousands of +our boys, millions of dollars in supplies, and I went to Brest, +under cover. It had to be handled with extreme care--some danger +about it, too. A very interesting case, I assure you. I lived in a +house with some of the people under surveillance. One of them was +a woman, extremely attractive--thoroughly unscrupulous. My avenue +of approach was through her. Nelson, of course, knew what I was +doing; he was about the only one who did. "I worked a long while +and I was upon the verge of success--it would hare been a real +accomplishment, too--when, without apparent cause, the gang took +warning, scattered, the whole thing blew up. Months of work for +nothing! I had made worse than a failure this time." + +"You mean to accuse Henry of--of treachery of that sort?" Swope +inquired. + +"I do. And that's not all. Out of a clear sky charges were +preferred against me. Outrageous charges in which that woman +figured." Up to this point Gray had spoken smoothly, rapidly, but +now his tone changed, his words became hesitant, jerky. "I was +amazed! Joke, I called it at first. Sort of a blanket indictment, +it was, charging me with inefficiency, negligence, exceeding my +authority, dishonesty--and things even worse. Those were some of +the least serious, the least--nasty. It was all too absurd! Being +peculiarly vain and sensitive, my impulse was to shoot Henry +Nelson. But I couldn't believe the charges would be taken +seriously. + +"Well, there was an investigation. I was court-martialed. I +disproved a good deal; I think I'd have exonerated myself on every +count only for the woman--that one I spoke about. She turned the +trick. I was found guilty, disgraced, sent back. Even though you +are not military men, you can appreciate the extent of my +dishonor. + +"There, gentlemen, you have in a few words an unconvincing summary +of a long and complicated story--one that I detest telling. +However, I could not permit you to sit with me at the directors' +table of this bank without knowing who I am, what I am, and why I +have run that rat into his hole. Colonel Nelson spoke the truth +when he said this was purely a personal matter between us. It is +so purely personal that I was willing to spare humiliation to his +father--leave Old Bell in control of his bank and end our fight +--if he'd right that old wrong. But you heard him refuse. So they +must both fall. He said I've been persecuting him--" Gray smiled +grimly. "Let me tell you how. That disgrace cost me my friends, and +what money I had, for I tried long and earnestly to get back, to +get a rehearing, to enter the navy--anything to re-establish +myself. Failing that, I came to Texas. I came without a dollar, +without an acquaintance, and--began my 'persecution' of Henry +Nelson. I began it by coming here to the bank and telling him what +I was up to. I put him on guard, and we engaged each other, as the +French would say, 'to the death.' I--won. That's all there is to +the story." + +"Well, I'll be damned!" Martin Murphy exclaimed. + +"At least Henry played fair in this; he didn't betray your +secret," Gage said, coldly. + +"Oh, I meant to tell you that he didn't dare betray me, for he, +too, came back in disgrace. The pot couldn't very well talk about +the kettle." + +"_What_?" + +"Henry Nelson?" + +"Impossible!" + +"I mean exactly what I say. No man of his type could have lasted +over there. Then, too, the story of our quarrel leaked out, that +old report of mine turned up--Yes, he got the same medicine he +gave me. But he had influence in Washington, and he managed to +delay final action almost up to the day of the armistice. Even +then he succeeded in pretty well covering up the reason for his +dismissal." + +"Why, even Bell doesn't know that!" + +"Henry's been a terrible hero, hereabouts," said Gus Briskow. +After a moment he addressed the other men. "Mr. Gray told me this, +an' I wanted him to tell it to you. I dunno what you-all think of +his story, but I know him an' I believe every word of it. What's +more, I believe this bank is goin' to be run as well as ever it +was even if I am president. A man can be president an' stay at +home, if he's got folks under him that know more than he does. +What d'you say if we start that meetin' we been talkin' about? I'm +willing to see Mr. Gray settin' in yonder at Henry's desk if you +are." + +"I don't see that it makes much difference whether we're willing +or not," Swope confessed. "You have the votes, between you, to do +about as you choose." + +"Of course we have, but, with Bell an' Henry gone, it seems like +some of their neighbors ought to stay an' look out for what +potaters they've left in the ground. What d'you say?" + +Swope eyed his companions briefly, then he nodded. "We'll stay." + +"Then, Mr. Secretary, let her go!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +One morning, several days after the annual meeting, Gus Briskow +opened the door between his and Gray's office and inquired, +"Busy?" + +The new vice-president of the Security National raised a +preoccupied face to the new president and said: "I'm never too +busy to talk to you. What is it?" + +"Nothing! I'm just kinda lonesome; kinda tired of lookin' bright +about things I don't savvy." Gus seated himself and crossed his +thin legs. "Folks give an owl credit for bein' wise just because +he keeps his mouth shut. Prob'ly he's got nothing of interest to +say." + +"Perhaps. But you can say 'no,' Gus, and that's about all the +average banker is called upon to say." + +"Um-m!" The elder man nodded reflectively. "I heard about a +captain of industry that allus smelled a pink when he did his +heavy thinkin'. Now me, I'm goin' in for bananas. I keep a bag of +'em in my desk. I'most killed myself on bananas when our first +well came in--never thought I'd be able to afford all I wanted. +How's the bank?" + +"Why, it's still here, as you see." + +"I know. That's the remarkable part. I keep thinkin' it's goin' to +bust--I mean blow up an' disappear. I wake up nights dreamin' it's +gone. It's all right, is it?" + +"Positively! I put an accountant at work on the books and he +should be ready to report any time now." + +"No chance of Bell Nelson throwin' us out, is there? He's in +Dallas tryin' to stir up money--" + +"Not a chance, unless you want him to do so; unless you're afraid +we'll make a failure of the business." + +"_We?_" Gus smiled quizzically. "_You_ won't fail. Folks around town are +talkin' about how quick you're takin' hold, an' they're beginning to +think you'll make a better banker than the Nelsons. Funny, ain't it, +how easy reconciled folks is to losin' a coupla prominent citizens like +that? Looks like Bell an' Henry are about the only ones that take it hard." + +"The funny thing is"--Gray frowned, perplexedly--"they _don't_ +take it hard. At least, Henry doesn't appear to do so. That's what +puzzles me. No move of any sort--That's not like him." + +Gus agreed to this. "I been expectin' him to cut some capers. +That's why I been hangin' around so steady." + +"I know." + +"Every time I peel a banana I peel an eye for Henry. I worry +whenever you go out alone." + +The younger man rose and nervously paced the floor. "I'm +completely mystified," he admitted. "The whole affair has been a +great disappointment to me. I thought I'd sprung a coup, but--I'm +at a standstill. I'm stumped--checkmated." + +"About that trouble between you an' him, eh? Why, we took your +word for that." + +"Unfortunately, that didn't help me very greatly. Other people +aren't so easily convinced as you and Swope and Gage and Murphy. +Damnation! I thought my troubles were over." + +"Well, your money troubles is over--" + +"They're the smallest part. I'd go back and start all over again +if I could clean up that--that army record. It's a pretty flat +triumph." + +"Humph! Most triumphs is. A feller has a dream--a longin', an' he +bows his back an' works his life away tryin' to realize it. If he +does, the chances is he's disappointed. He finds he's kep' his +back bent so long he can't straighten it. Look at me--pore as dirt +an' scarcely enough to eat! I used to pray for a miracle; pray for +money enough to do something for Ma an' the children--for a +thousan' dollars. Here I am, president of a whole bank, but Ma's +sick, Allie's miserable, an' I can't sleep nights for fear I'll +lose what I got!" + +"Poverty wouldn't have helped Ma's health--" + +"Oh, I ain't sayin' I'd trade!" Gus wagged his sandy head. "I get +my shoes shined every two hours because that bootblackin' stand is +a nice place to look at the bank from. I set there an' tell myself +I'm president of it! But that's the biggest dividend I've got, so +far--five shines a day an' all the bananas I can eat. 'Flat' is +the word." + +Gray smiled affectionately at the speaker. "At least Buddy is +happy. He's reaping his dividends, if I'm any judge." + +"I figger he's in love again." + +"Good heavens!" Gray paused in his restless pacing and turned an +expression of almost comic dread upon the father. "With that +woman, eh? Well, I refuse to interfere again. I haven't fully +recovered from his first infatuation for her." + +"I can tell the boy's symptoms. I felt the same way when I was +courtin' Ma. I acted just like him." + +"He has been trying to tell me something for a week, but I've been +too busy and too worried to listen." + +Briskow's kindly face had settled into graver lines when next he +spoke. "You prob'ly wonder why I take it so easy. Well, I remember +what you told me once about judgin' people I don't know. Mebbe +Allie was right, too, when she said a little genuine happiness is +worth all it costs. Anyhow, if Buddy wants that woman, I won't say +a word. She's turned out pretty good, an' people speak well of +her. Buddy's a man, an' some men just _have_ to get married--the +sooner it's over, the better for 'em. He's like that. But what's +more 'n all that, love between two young people is a pretty sacred +thing, an' when old folks keep interferin' it seems to me they're +settin' themselves up to be wiser than God. Ma's folks didn't care +much for me." + +"I feel a rebuke in your words," Gray said; "and no doubt I've earned it, +for it has always been my weakness to rearrange the lives of those I love. +But--who am I, after all? If I were so divinely wise, why is my own life +what it is? When I marry, perhaps I shall have to ask B--ask the girl +to ignore in me things as--as disagreeable to think about as those which +Buddy will have to ignore in Margie's past. That boy, in fact all you +Briskows, have put me so deeply in your debt that I'm afraid I +shall have to conquer my meddlesome instincts." The speaker looked +up suddenly. "You'll never know, by the way, how deep is my debt +of gratitude. When a vainglorious, supersensitive man finds +himself under a cloud, it is pretty nice to know that there is +somebody whose faith is unshakable; somebody who needs no legal +proof that he's--Proof! Here I am, back again right where I was +when you came in; back to my own selfish concerns. I can't get +away from them. What to do next? The Nelsons are on their last +legs. The loss of this bank will certainly destroy what credit +remained, and even a good well now would scarcely tide them over. +But--damn it, Gus, I can't kick a man if he refuses to stand up! I +can't beat a corpse!" + +There came a rap at the door, and the accountant whom Gray had put +to work upon the bank's books entered. "I'd like to talk to you +about this report," the man began. + +"Don't go," Gray said, as Briskow unfolded his legs and rose. + +But the president of the Security National shook his head, saying: +"Bookkeepin' is all Choctaw to me. I saw one statement an' I +thought 'liquid assets' meant that bottle of whisky Bell left in +his desk." + +"Mr. Gray," the auditor announced, when they were alone, "I wish +you'd ask somebody else to take this job off my hands." + +"Why?" + +"Well, somebody else could probably do it better." There was a +pause. "I've known Bell Nelson all my life--" "That is why I +engaged you. You've been over these books before." Again there was +an instant of silence, then into Gray's face there flashed a +curious alertness. "Come!" he cried, sharply. "What is it?" + +"I'm sorry to be the one to--" The auditor shrugged. "If you +insist on an explanation, I suppose I shall have to tell you. +Perhaps it's just as well, anyhow. They say figures don't lie, but +you and I know better. I only wish they didn't." + +"Have you caught them lying, here?" + +"I have. And--it has made me rather ill. You'd better prepare +yourself for a shock." + +It was nearly an hour later that Gray telephoned to Senator Lowe, +the bank's attorney, and to Bennett Swope, the latter being the +only member of the board available at short notice. This done, he +wrote a note to Henry Nelson. In spite of his effort to control +his hand, it shook when he signed his name, and on second thought +he destroyed the missive. There is something ominous about the +written word. If Nelson grew suspicious, he'd never come. + +Gray stepped into Gus Briskow's office and asked him to call the +former vice-president, first, however, explaining exactly what he +wished Gus to say. The ruse succeeded; then Gray returned to his own +office. He drew a deep breath. Within him he felt a ferocious +eagerness take fire, for it seemed to him that the day of reckoning +had come. Henry's behavior was now easily understandable; the fellow +was cringing, cowering in anticipation of a second blow. Well, the +whip was in Gray's hands, and he proposed to use it ruthlessly--to +sink the lash, to cut to the bone, to leave scars such as Henry had +left upon him. Nor was that his only weapon. There was, for instance, +Old Bell Nelson's honor. If coercion failed, there were rewards, +inducements. Oh, Henry would have to speak! The Nelson fortune, or +what remained for salvage from the wreck thereof, the bank itself, +they were pawns which Gray could, and would, sacrifice, if +necessary. His hunger for a sight of "Bob" had become unbearable. +Freedom to declare his overwhelming love--and that love he knew was no +immature infatuation, but the deep-set passion of a full-grown +man--was worth any price he might be called upon to pay. Yes, Henry +would speak the truth to-day or--for one of them, at least, there +would be an end to the feud. + +Gray, too, kept a revolver in his desk. He removed it and placed +it in his pocket. + +Buddy Briskow chose this, of all moments, to thrust his grinning +visage into the door and to inquire, "Got time for me now, Mr. +Gray?" + +"Not now, Buddy." + +"When?" + +"Why--almost any other time." + +"I wouldn't bother you, but it's important and I--I promised a +certain party--" The youth's face reddened, his smile widened +vacuously. + +"Later, if you don't mind." + +It was plain that Buddy did mind; nevertheless, he withdrew. + +When Swope and Lowe arrived, Gray could with difficulty restrain +himself from blurting out the reason for his urgent summons, but +he contented himself by asking them to wait in the president's +office. + +Henry Nelson entered the bank with his head up, with a +contemptuous smile upon his lips and an easy confidence in his +bearing. His hand was outstretched toward the knob of Briskow's +door, when the one adjoining opened and, from the office he +himself had so long occupied, Calvin Gray spoke to him. + +"Please step in here, Colonel." + +Nelson recoiled. "No, thank you!" he said, curtly. + +"Briskow and I are amateur bankers; there is a matter upon which +we need your advice." + +"Indeed? Finding it isn't as easy to run a bank as a drilling rig? +He said you were out, otherwise--" + +"Will you come in?" + +Stiffly, reluctantly, as if impelled by some force outside of himself, +Nelson stepped within, but he ignored the chair that was proffered him. + +Gray closed the door before saying: "The deception was mine, not +Briskow's. You prefer to stand? Um-m--I appreciate your feeling of +formality. I felt a bit ill at ease on the occasion of my first +call here, when our positions were reversed--" + +"If you got me here just to be nasty--" + +"By no means. Nevertheless, it gratifies my vanity to remind you +that you considered me a braggart, a bluffer, whereas--" + +"I haven't changed my opinion." + +"So be it. One matter, only, remains between us. I am about to +ring up on the last act of our little comedy." + +"Theatrical, as always, aren't you?" Nelson's lip curled. + +For a moment Gray stared at the speaker curiously; his tone had +altered when he said: "You're a better poker player than I +thought. You're almost as good a bluffer as I am. That, by the +way, is probably the last compliment I shall pay you." + +"Come! I've no time to waste." + +"You will soon have ample time--if not to waste, at least to +meditate--" + +"What do you mean by that?" The query came sharply. + +"I've had an examination of the bank's books. That, as you will +readily understand, explains why I sent for you." + +"Why--no. I don't--" + +"I wondered how you and your father got the money to keep going so +long, for I discovered you were in a bad way even before I turned +up. It is no longer a mystery. When you and he, as directors of +the Security National, lent yourselves money, as individuals, you +must have realized that you were--well, arranging ample leisure +for yourselves in which to meditate upon the stringency of the +banking laws--" + +"Nonsense! That's n-nothing--nothing serious." Nelson's ruddy +color had slowly vanished; with uncertain hand he reached for the +nearest chair, and upon it he leaned as he continued, jerkily: +"Irregular, perhaps--I'll admit it was irregular, but--there's +nothing _wrong_--Oh, you'll make it look as bad as possible, I +dare say! But you don't understand the circumstances. Anyhow, +father is getting it straightened out; all he needs is time. We'll +be able to handle it, all right. We're good, you know, perfectly +good--" + +"You're broke! Everybody else knows it, if you don't. +'_Irregular_'! Ha! There's a choice of words!" The speaker laughed +silently. "It is an 'irregularity' that carries with it free board +and lodging at the state's expense." + +An incoherent protest issued from Nelson's throat. When next he +managed to make himself audible, his words were such as really to +amaze his hearer. "_I_ didn't do it," he cried, in a panic- +stricken voice. "It was father's idea! You had us crowded--there +was no other way. I warned him--" + +"Wait a minute! You blame it on _him_?" Gray's inquiry was harsh, +incredulous. After a momentary pause his lips moved, but for once +he stammered, his ready tongue refused its duty. He exploded, +finally, with an oath; he jerked open a drawer in his desk. From +his pocket he removed his revolver, flung it inside, then jammed +the drawer back into place with a crash. "You--_rat_!" he +exclaimed. He turned his back upon Henry Nelson and made a circuit +of the little room. + +"It's a thing you and I can easily fix up," the latter feebly +insisted. "Now that personal matter of yours--Perhaps I could help +you reopen it somehow, clear it up." + +"Ah! Indeed!" + +"Give and take, I say. I'm willing to do anything I can, if--" + +"There won't be any 'ifs'! No conditions whatever." + +"Is that so?" Nelson flamed forth, in a momentary explosion of +resentment. "If you think I intend to stand the brunt of this, +you're crazy. I can't afford to figure in a scandal--banking +scandal--like this. I'm a young man. Bell has had his day. He's +old. You can hush this up. There are lots of ways to do that. Keep +me out of it and--and I'll do what's right by you; I'll do +anything you say." + +"You'll do that, anyhow," Gray replied, in a voice that grated. He +flung himself into his desk chair and, seizing pen and paper, he +began to write rapidly, shakily. + +"I want to see what I'm signing," Nelson warned. A growl was his +answer. + +For an interminable time the only sound in the office was the +scratching of that pen. When at last it came to an end, Gray rose, +thrust the loose sheets into Nelson's hand, then, indicating the +vacant chair, said: + +"Sign that!" + +The wretched recipient of this curt command read the lines +caiefully. He read them twice, thrice, for his mind no longer +functioned clearly. He raised a sick face, finally, and shook his +head. + +"Wouldn't I be a fool?" he queried. + +"Listen, you--" Gray's body was shaking, his words were uneven. +"I'm sorry for Bell, but not for you. I'll never forget nor +forgive what you did to me. Nothing can undo that. Disgrace clings +to a man. You're going to get yours, now, and you can't squirm out +of it, or lie out of it, no matter how you try, for I sha'n't let +you. You're ruined, discredited, blown up, but--I don't think I +want to send you to the penitentiary. I'd rather see you walking +the streets with dandruff on your collar. I'd rather keep you to +look at. Anyhow, you'll have to sign that." + +"If you'll guarantee to keep this bank matter quiet--if you'll +protect me, I'll sign. Otherwise, you can go to hell. We'll beat +it out, somehow. We can do it." + +Inflexibly Gray asserted: "I'm going to turn you over, whether or +no. But I'll help Bell get the money to repay those loans. He'll +probably manage to save himself and--save you, too." + +"I won't do it!" Nelson flung down the pen. "Not on those +conditions. You can't bulldoze me. It's your day to crow, but, I +warn you, don't push me too far." + +Gray voiced an epithet. It was low pitched, but its explosive +force, the impelling fury back of it, fairly caused the room to +vibrate. He was white of lip, his rage had reached the foaming +point. + +"Don't make me lay hands on you--choke you into it," he cried, +hoarsely. "If you do, by God, I'll finish you!" + +Like a man fighting some hypnotic influence stronger than his +will, Henry Nelson took up the pen and signed his name waveringly. +The next moment Gray smote the door to Briskow's office a heavy +blow and, as it flew open, he barked: + +"Come in here! All three of you!" He stood aside as Gus, Bennett +Swope, and Senator Lowe entered. "Yonder is a statement which I +want you to read and witness. When you've done that, I'm going to +tell you why Henry Nelson signed it. The rest will be up to you." + +It was midafternoon. Swope and Lowe had left the bank. Briskow +drew a deep breath and said, with genuine relief: "I'm glad +_that's_ over. We can handle the debt between us, an', after all, +Old Bell's a pretty good citizen. As for Henry, I s'pose he'll +wiggle out of it, somehow. I dunno as I'd of been so easy on him +if I'd been in your place." + +"I'll tell you why I was easy on him," Gray confessed. "I'm tired +of fighting; I'm worn out. I've won my point, and he'll carry the +sort of load I've been carrying. But there is this difference: for +him there will be no vindication at the end." Taking from his +pocket Nelson's statement, he stared at it, then slowly his face +lightened. "I was blind mad at first. I felt as if I couldn't keep +my hands off him. It was such a dirty trick he did me and so +reasonless! He had no excuse whatever for injuring me, Gus. +However, I suppose most quarrels sprout from tiny seeds. Well, I'm +square with the game! I--I'm afraid, even yet, that it's all a +dream. I've wanted to yell--" The speaker chuckled; the chuckle +grew to a laugh. "There's magic in this document, Gus, old boy. +I've grown young all at once." + +"You needn't of took it so hard. Us fellers would have stood by +you if you'd turned out to be a horse thief. Texas men are like +that." + +"You proved it. But that wasn't enough. A man's business +associates will frequently overlook a lot more than their wives +and daughters will overlook. There's a certain loyalty that +doesn't apply outside of the office." Gray rose and filled his +lungs. "D'you know why I felt this thing so keenly? Why I fought +so long? Of course you don't, for I've held out on you. Fact! I've +held out on my partner--had a secret from him. Now then, steel +yourself for a surprise. I'm suffering from Buddy's complaint, +only ten times aggravated!" + +"What?" Briskow stared up at the animated countenance above him. +"You thinkin' about gettin' _married_?" + +"I'm thinking about nothing else. That's what ails me. Why, Gus, +you've no idea what a perfectly charming person I can be when +--when I can be what I am. I thought I was too old and too blase +ever to become seriously interested in a woman, above all in a +girl, but--Do you remember when Ma and Allie came to Dallas that +first time? Something happened about then to upset all my ideas." + +Briskow's sun-parched face slowly lightened, his bright, +inquisitive eyes grew bluer, brighter. "I'm--mighty glad! I allus +hoped--" He tried to finish his sentence, then shook his head and +murmured, huskily, "Mighty glad!" + +Here was a marvel, a miracle, for which he had never dared even +hope. He thought of Allie and a lump came into his throat. She had +reached the stars. His girl! he would be mighty glad, too-- + +Gray was speaking, and in his voice was a new, vibrant quality, +a new vigor. "Now you'll know why this is the biggest day of my +life; why I thought those men would never go. I'm shaking all +over, Gus. You'll have to run the bank for a while; I'm too young +and irresponsible. I'm going out to buy a hoop and a jumping rope +and a pair of roller skates." Again he laughed, boyishly; then, +with a slap that knocked the breath from Briskow's lungs, he +walked lightly into his own office and seized his hat. + +For a long time the father sat at his big, empty desk, staring, +smiling into space. This would make Ma well. Money wasn't +altogether a worry, after all; it bought things that nothing else +could buy--stars and--and things. + +From the expressions upon the faces Gray passed in leaving the +bank, he realized that his own must wear a grin; but, in spite of +his dignified effort to wipe it off, he felt it widening. Well, +this was his day to grin; his day to dance and caper. People were +too grave, anyhow. They should feel free to vent their joy in +living. Why act as if the world were a place of gloom and shadow? +Why shouldn't they hop, skip, and jump to and from business, if so +inclined? He visualized the streets of the city peopled with +pedestrians, old and young, fat and thin, thus engaged, and he +laughed aloud. Nevertheless, it was a good idea, and when he +became mayor, or perhaps the junior Senator from Texas, he'd +advocate public playgrounds for grown-ups. "Bob" would help him +put it through. There was a girl who would never grow old. They +would grow young together. He caught sight of his reflection in a +shop window and slowed down his gait, telling himself that pending +the time his new idea was definitely planted it might be well to +walk in the old-fashioned manner. Men of substance, bankers, for +instance, shouldn't rush through the streets as if going to a +fire; they shouldn't dash over crossings and take curbstones as if +they were hurdles. It wasn't being done. No reason, however, why a +banker shouldn't throw his shoulders back and walk springily upon +his toes. + +When he beheld the familiar painted sign, "Tom and Bob Parker. +Real Estate and Insurance," he paused. The mere sight of the +little wooden building, the name, gave him an odd shortness of +breath. It was weeks since he had been here. + +He realized of a sudden that he had brought nothing with him; no +gift, not even flowers. But there was enough to talk about. She'd +forget that. What a shower of gifts he would pour upon her--and +upon Old Tom, too! Good Old Tom! Tom had wanted to believe. Tom +and he would be great pals. They couldn't help being pals with +just one thing, between them, to love; one thing in all the world! + +It was a disappointment to find the office empty, except for the +father himself, but Gray began with a rush, "Well, I told you I'd +clear myself, and--here I am, walking on air." + +"You did it, eh? That's good news." + +"We had a show-down at the bank. Henry Nelson and I locked horns +and--But here! Read what he signed. That cleans the slate. He'll +do anything further that may be necessary, officially. Where's +"Bob"?" + +"They're fishin' for a bit in one of your Avenger wells. She's out +there." + +"So? I'd forgotten." + +"Did you see--? Did Buddy have a talk with you? To-day, I mean?" + +"Buddy? Oh, Buddy Briskow! I saw him for a moment only. She'll be +back soon, I dare say?" + +Tom Parker stirred; it was a moment before he spoke, then it was with +apparent irrelevance that he said: "I'm sorry you and he didn't have a +good talk. 'Bob' asked him to see you--sent him there a-purpose." The +sight of Gray's smiling, eager, uncomprehending face caused the old +man's steady gaze to waver. He cleared his throat. "Buddy's a fine +boy." + +"Finest in the world! I claim responsibility for him, in a way. +He's part mine." Gray laughed; his eyes sparkled. + +"Him and 'Bob' are out there together. They've been together a +lot, Mr. Gray. Both of 'em young, that-away--" + +"Of course. I knew you'd both like--" Some quality in Tom's voice, +some reluctant evasiveness to his eyes, bore a belated message to the +younger man--snapped his chain of thought--dried the words upon his +lips. Into his eyes leaped a sudden, strained incredulity. Sharply, he +cried, "What do you mean?" Then, after an instant, "Why did he want to +see me?" The two men gazed squarely at each other for the first +time. "My God! Why--that's absurd! I--I brought him here. He's just +a _boy_!" + +"And she's just a girl, Mr. Gray." + +The younger man shrank as if at a blow. He closed his eyes; he +raised a shaking hand to his face, which was slowly assuming the +color of ashes. "That's too--rottenly unfair!" he said, faintly. +"I brought him here--made a man of him. Of course he doesn't know +--" His eyes opened; eagerly he ran on: "Why, Tom, it's just the +boy and girl of it! Puppy love! You know how that is." + +"I didn't notice how things was going till if was too late. We +might as well talk frankly, Mr. Gray. Prob'ly it's well you saw me +first, eh? Well, when I understood where they was heading, I +worried a lot--after what you said that day, understand? But those +two! Pshaw! It was like they had known each other always. It was +like 'Bob's' mother and me when we first met; her beautiful and +fine and educated, and me rough and awkward. Only Buddy's a better +boy than I was. He's got more in him. I s'pose all womenfolks have +that mother feeling that makes 'em yearn over the unlikeliest +fellers." Parker looked appealingly at his stricken hearer, then +quickly dropped his eyes, for Gray's countenance was like that of +a dying man--or of a man suffering the stroke of a surgeon's +knife. + +"After all, it's youth. You're a good deal older than 'Bob,' and I +s'pose you sort of dazzled her. She likes you. She thinks you're +great. You kinda thrill her, but--I don't believe she ever dreamed +you was actually--that you actually cared for her. You've got a +grand way, you know, and she ain't a bit conceited about herself. +Why, I _know_ she never figgered it that way, because she made +Buddy promise to tell you the first thing; sent him to the bank a- +purpose, thinking you'd be so glad on his account." + +"Then they've--settled it between them?" + +Tom nodded gravely. "She told me last night. And from the way she +told me, I know it's not just boy and girl love. She's been +singing like a bird all day. And Buddy! He's breathless. I know +how he feels. I couldn't draw a full breath for two weeks after +'Bob's' mother--" + +Gray uttered a wordless, gasping cry. He moved unsteadily toward +the door, then paused with his hand upon the knob. Tom Parker was +surprised when, after a moment, he saw the man's shoulders shake +and heard him utter a thin, cackling laugh. "Time is a grim old +joker, isn't he? No way of beating him, none at all. Now I thought +I was young, but--Lucky I found you here and spared my vanity." He +turned, exposing a face strangely contorted. "You won't mention my +foolish mistake, will you? No use hurting the ones we love. You +know how we feel--fatherly. That's it, fatherly love. I was a +silly old fool. They'll be happy. Young people like that--" The +speaker choked. "Young people--Well, _adios_, old man!" He opened +the door and walked blindly forth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +Calvin Gray did not return to the bank. He went straight to his +hotel and, as soon as he could sufficiently control himself to do +so, he telephoned Gus Briskow, telling him that he intended to +leave town. Then he began mechanically to pack his bag. He moved +like a man in a trance, for the blow had fallen so suddenly as to +numb him; his only impulse was to escape, to hide himself from +these people who, of a sudden, had become hateful. His city of +dreams had collapsed. The ruins, as they lay, meant nothing as +yet, for his mind refused to envisage them and he could see them +only as they had stood. He groped amid a hopeless confusion of +thought--at one moment bewildered, piteously hurt, at the next +suffering a sense of shameful betrayal. He had grown old and dull +and feeble, too, and for the time being he was incapable of +feeling the full force of a strong man's resentment. This +surprised him vaguely. + +Soon, however, like kindling fires among the ruins, his fury rose +--fury at himself, at Buddy, at Barbara--and in the heat of those +scorching flames he writhed. She _had_ loved him. He'd swear to +that. He had swayed her, overpowered her; he had lacked only the +courage to trust his instinct. Coward's luck! It served him right. +He had held her in his arms and had let her slip through; her lips +had been raised to his, and he had refused to press them. +Imbecile! + +He groaned; he tore the collar and the tie from his neck, for they +were choking him. Old, eh? Too old! That was the grimmest jest of +all, for at the mere thought of Barbara's lips unruly forces took +possession of him; he experienced a fierce, resistless vigor such +as he had never felt in his younger days. It was a dreadful, an +unappeasable yearning of soul and body, and when the paroxysm +had passed, it left him weak. He sank into a chair and lay there +stupid, inert, until again those fires began to lick at him and again +he twisted in dumb agony. Buddy Briskow! Buddy, of all people! +That lout; that awkward simpleton, who owed him everything! But +Buddy was _young_! + +Gray heard himself laughing in hoarse derision. He rose and +tramped heavily around his room, and, as he went, he crushed and +ripped and mutilated whatever his hands encountered. His slow, +deliberate, murderous rage demanded some such outlet. All the +while he felt within himself two conflicting impulses, heard two +voices: the one voice shouted at him to search out Buddy and visit +upon him the punishment warranted by a base betrayal; the other +told him jeeringly to lay the scourge upon his own shoulders and +endure the pain, since he had betrayed himself. His mind was like +a battle ground, torn, up-heaved, obscured by a frightful murk--he +remembered a night in France, a black night of rumbling, crashing +terror, when, as now, the whole world rocked and tumbled. Some +remnant of self-control induced him to lock his door and pocket +the key, for Buddy might come. He probably would look him up, all +grins and smirks and giggles, to tell him the glorious news, to +acclaim the miracle. That would be too much. + +One thing was certain, there was no safety except in flight, +ignominious, cowardly flight... After all, how could Buddy have +known? He was a good boy, and he had shown his love, his loyalty, +in a thousand ways. Gray hated him at this moment, but, more +bitterly even, he hated himself. It was fate.... He fell to +cursing aloud, but there was no relief in that, and again the +appalling irony of the situation silenced him. He had deified +himself, set himself upon a high place, bent men and affairs to +his own ends, until he had acquired a godlike belief in his power +to accomplish all things. His victory had been complete. He had +won all--except the one thing he most desired, the very fruit of +victory. + +Some time later he heard Buddy come whistling merrily down the +hall and knock at his door. Gray cowered in his chair, listening +in breathless dread until the footsteps retreated. When he rose he +moved about stealthily. + +When night came he took his bag and slunk out of the hotel, for it +seemed that men must surely know what a fool he had made of +himself. It would have been a relief to feel that he was leaving +never to return; but even that was denied him, for, after his +first panic, the truth had come home. He could not run away. He +had forged chains for his own limbs. Like a tethered mustang he +could plunge only to the end of his rope. Friendship, again! There +was simple, trustful, faithful Gus Briskow. And the bank. God, +what a mess things were in! Gray knew he would have to return, +have to see "Bob" and Buddy day after day, month after month, and +the prospect was too distressing to dwell upon. Again his mind +grew weary, baffled; he experienced a wretched physical illness... +Where to go, where to hide until his sickness had passed? That was +the question. + +For the first time he appreciated the full extent of his loneliness; +his utter lack of resource in a crisis like this. Most men, however +solitary, lay by material things for themselves, build homes and +surround themselves with personal possessions from which, or amid +which, they can gain some sort of solace in times of trial. But he had +not fashioned so much as a den into which he could creep and lick his +wounds. Once he had left his hotel room behind him he was in the open +and without cover. Not a single soul cared whether he came or went, +not another door stood ajar for him. And he had planned so much upon +having a home, a real home--But he could not trust himself to think +much along that line; it induced an absurd desire to weep at his +plight. It made him feel like a child lost in a wood. That was silly, +just an emotional reaction; nevertheless, the impulse was real and +caused him to yearn poignantly for human comfort. + +He thought of Ma Briskow, finally. She was human; she had a heart. +And Dallas was a sort of homey place; anyhow, the bellboys at the +Ajax knew and liked him. That was probably because he had tipped +them handsomely, but what of that? If they'd be kind to him now +he'd tip them more handsomely than ever. Lonely men--old ones +--must expect to pay for what they get. He bought a ticket to +Dallas. + +Ma Briskow's eyes were dim; nevertheless, she saw the change in +Calvin Gray when, late the following afternoon, he came to see +her. + +"Land sakes!" she exclaimed, in a shocked voice. "Pa never said +you was ailin'. Why, Mr. Gray!" + +"I'm not really ill," he told her, wearily, "just old. I've had a bad +night." Seating himself beside her couch, he took her hand in his and +made her tell him all about herself. He had brought her an armful of +flowers, as usual, and extravagant gifts for her adornment--giving, it +seemed, was his unconscious habit. While she admired them with +ecstatic "Ohs!" and "Ahs!" he busied himself with bowls and vases, but +Ma noted his fumbling uncertainty of touch and the evident effort with +which he kept up his assumption of good cheer. She told him, finally: + +"Something mighty bad has happened to you, Mr. Gray." + +He gazed at her mutely, then nodded. + +"Is it something about the--the Princess of Wichita Falls?" + +"Yes, Ma." + +"Tse! Tse! Tse!" It was a sympathetic cluck. "Was she a wicked +princess?" The query was gently put, but it deeply affected the +man. He tried to smile, failed, then like a forlorn little boy he +came and bowed his head beneath her hand. + +"I knew you'd understand, Mother Briskow, so I--I ran to you with +my hurt, just as I used to run to my Mother Gray." After a while he +continued in a smothered voice: "She isn't a wicked princess. +She didn't mean to hurt me and--that's what makes it hurt so deep. +She tumbled the old duke's castle down upon his head; tumbled +the old duke out of his dreams. He isn't a duke any longer." + +"He'll allus be a duke," Mrs. Briskow firmly declared. "He was +born that way." + +"At any rate, he's a sad old duke now; all his conceit is gone. +You see, he was a vain old gentleman, and his courtiers used to +tell him he was splendid, handsome--They said he looked as +handsome as a king, and by and by he began to think he must be a +king. His enemies sneered at this and said he was neither duke nor +king, but a--a mountebank. That made him furious, so he went to +war with them, and, by Jove, he fought pretty well for an old +fellow! Anyhow, he licked 'em. When they fell down and begged for +mercy he knew he was indeed a great person--greater even than he +had suspected and worthy of any princess in the land." + +"Pshaw! Ain't a duke higher than a princess?" + +"No, Ma. Not higher than this princess. Her father made all the +laws. She is very noble and very good. Good princesses are scarce +and--and so, of course, they're very high. But the Duke of Dallas +didn't stop to think of that. He told himself that he was so +strong and so rich and so desirable that she would be flattered at +his notice. He got all dressed up and went to call on her, and, on +the way, whenever he looked into a shop window, he didn't see the +buns and the candies and the dolls inside; all he saw was his own +reflection. It looked so magnificent that he strutted higher and +thought how proud he was going to make her. + +"I guess that was the trouble with the old duke all along; he had +never looked deeply enough to see what was inside. Anyhow, what do +you think, Ma? While he'd been off at war conquering people and +making them acknowledge that he was a king, the little princess +had fallen in love with--with his nephew. Nice boy, that nephew, +and the duke thought a lot of him." + +Ma Briskow's hand, which had been slowly stroking Gray's bent +head, ceased its movement; she drew a sharp breath. + +"There happened to be an old mirror in the princess's boudoir, and +while the duke was waiting for her he saw himself in it. He saw +himself just as he was, not as he had looked in the shop windows, +for it was a truthful mirror and it told everything. My! That was +a bad moment for the Duke of Dallas, when he saw that he wasn't +young and beautiful, but old and wrinkled and--funny. That was +bad enough, but when he looked again and saw the princess whom he +loved in the arms of his handsome nephew, why, he gave up. All his +fine garments fell off and he realized with shame that, after all, +he was only the withered mountebank. + +"When he got home his castle had collapsed. There wasn't a stone +standing, so he ran away--ran to his mother." + +"Oh, Mr. Gray!" Ma Briskow quavered. "I could cry. An' after all +you done for Buddy!" + +The man shook his head vigorously, still with his face hidden. "It +isn't Buddy. It's youth. Youth needs no fine adornment, no crown, +no victory." + +"What you goin' to do?" she asked him. + +"Go on playing the duke, I suppose; rebuild the castle the best +way I can. That's the hard part. If I could run away and forget, +but--I can't. The old duke walled himself in. He must grin and +strut and keep people from guessing that he's only a fraud until +he can find a hole in the wall through which he can creep." + +There was a long silence, then Ma inquired: "Would you like to +tell me something about the little princess? Sometimes it helps, +to talk." + +"N-not yet." + +"You're a duke, an' the best one that ever lived, Mr. Gray. You +can't fool me; I've met too many of 'em. That lookin'-glass lied! +Real dukes an' kings an' such people don't get old. It's only +common folks. There's lots of magic, the world's full of it, an' +your castle is goin' up again." + +"After a fashion, perhaps"--Gray raised his head and smiled +crookedly--"but it will never be a home, and that's what I wanted +most of all. Do you think I'm very weak, very silly to come to you +for a little mothering?" + +"That's the kind of children mothers love best," the old woman +said, then she drew him down to her and laid her cheek against +his. + +"There! I've made you cry," he exclaimed, reproachfully. "What a +selfish beast I am! I'll go now." + +"Won't you stay an' have supper with Allie an' me? We're awful +lonesome with Pa gone. Allie's out som'er's, but--it would do me +good to know you was here an' it 'll do you good to stay. You can +rest yourself while I take my nap." + +Ma Briskow did not wish to take a nap, but she knew that Gray +needed the solace of his own thoughts just now, so, when he +agreed, she sent him downstairs. + +First balm, indeed, had come to the man; the smart was less +intense. To put his trouble into words somehow lightened it; then, +too, the grateful knowledge that some warmth of sympathy was his +made it easier to bear. But it remained a cruel burden. That +gentle, dreamy soul up yonder could not know how it hurt. How +could she understand, for instance, what it meant to go back and +face the deadly dull routine of a life from which all zest, all +interest, had fled? A routine broken only by moments of downright +torture. Yes, and the effort it would take to smile! God! If there +were only some way to break his fetters, slip his gyves! + +Gray's brain, like his body, had grown tired and feverish. To be +sure, little more than a day had gone by since he had sallied +forth like a knight, but it seemed a year, an age, and every hour +brought a new and keener distress. He found it possible now, for +the first time, to relax a bit physically, so he closed his eyes +and lay back in an easy chair while the twilight stole in upon +him. Sooner or later his mind, too, would cease its torment, for +pain distils its own anodyne. Then he would sleep. It would be a +blessing to forget for even an hour, and thus gain strength with +which to carry on the fight. But what a useless battle it was! He +could never win; peace would never come. + +He heard Allie enter the house, but he did not stir. He would have +to put on the mask soon enough, for, of course, she must never +suspect, on Buddy's account. The room, which had grown agreeably +dark, was suddenly illuminated, and he lurched to his feet to find +the girl facing him from the door. She was neither startled nor +surprised at his presence, and when he tried to smile and to greet +her in his accustomed manner, she interrupted him by saying: + +"I knew you were here." + +"So? Then Ma is awake again?" + +Allie shook her head vaguely. "I knew you were here the minute I +came in. I can 'most always tell." There had been a shadow of a +smile upon her lips, but it vanished; a look of growing concern +crept over her face. "What's the matter? Whatever has happened, +Mr. Gray?" + +"Why, nothing. I was feeling tired, worn out. Indulging myself in +a thoroughly enjoyable fit of the blues." His voice broke when he +tried to laugh. + +Allie uttered a quick, low cry, a wordless, sympathetic sound. Her +dark eyes widened, grew darker; she came forward a step or two, +then she halted. "Would you rather be alone?" she asked. He +signified his dissent, and she went on: "I know what the blues are +like. I sit alone in the dark a good deal." + +She busied herself about the room for a few moments, straightening +things, adjusting the window shades. Allie had the knack of +silence, blessed attribute in man or woman, and to Gray's surprise +he found that her mere presence was comforting. She startled him +by saying, suddenly: + +"You're hurt! Hurt badly!" + +He looked up at her with an instinctive denial upon his lips, but, +realizing the futility of deceit, he nodded. "Yes, Allie." + +The girl drew a deep breath, her strong hands closed, harshly she +said: "I could kill anybody that hurt you. I wanted to kill Buddy +that time. Is it those Nelsons? Have they got you down?" There was +something fierce and masterful in Allie's concern, and her inquiry +carried with it even more than a proffer of help; she had, in +fact, flung herself into a protective attitude. She suggested +nothing so much as a lioness roused. + +"No, no! It is nothing like that. I merely fooled myself--had a +dream. You wouldn't understand, my dear." + +Allie studied him soberly for a moment. "Oh yes, I would! I do! I +understand perfectly. Nobody _could_ understand as well as I do." + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"I've been hurt, too." She laid a hand upon her breast. "That's +why I sit in the dark." + +"My dear child! I'm sorry. Gus said you were unhappy, but I +thought it was merely--the new life. You're young; you can forget. +It's only us old ones who can't forget. Sometime you must tell me +all about it." The girl smiled faintly, but he nodded, positively: +"Oh, it's a relief to tell somebody! I feel better already for +confiding in Ma. Yes, and your sympathy is mighty soothing, too. +It seems almost as if I had come home." He closed his eyes and +laid his head back. + +Allie placed her hand upon his forehead and held it there for a +moment before she moved away. It was a cool and tranquilizing palm +and he wished she would hold it there for a long time, so that he +could sleep, forget-- + +Allie Briskow went to her room, and there she studied her +reflection in the mirror carefully, deliberately, before saying: +"You can do it. You've _got_ to do it, for he's hurt. When a girl +is hurt like that, it makes a woman of her, but when a man's hurt it makes +him a little boy. I--I guess it pays to keep on praying." + +It was perhaps a half hour later that Ma Briskow heard a sound that +caused her to rise upon her elbow and listen with astonishment. It was +the sound of low, indistinct, but joyous singing; it came from Allie's +room. Allie singing again! What could have happened? Slowly Ma's face +became wistful, eager. "Oh, Mister Fairy King!" she whispered. "Please +build up his castle again. You can do it. There's magic in the +world. Make him a duke again, an' her a queen, for yours is the power +an' the glory for ever an' ever. Amen!" + +THE END + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, FLOWING GOLD *** + +This file should be named flwng10.txt or flwng10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, flwng11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, flwng10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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