CHAPTER I
Just after passing Carahers saloon on the County Road that ran south from Bonneville and that divided the Broderson ranch from that of Los Muertos Presley was suddenly aware of the faint and prolonged blowing of a steam whistle that he knew must come from the railroad shops near the depot at Bonneville In starting out from the ranch house that morning he had forgotten his watch and was now perplexed to know whether the whistle was blowing for twelve or for one oclock He hoped the former Early that morning he had decided to make a long excursion through the neighbouring country partly on foot and partly on his bicycle and now noon was come already and as yet he had hardly started As he was leaving the house after breakfast Mrs Derrick had asked him to go for the mail at Bonneville and he had not been able to refuse
He took a firmer hold of the cork grips of his handlebars—the road being in a wretched condition after the recent hauling of the crop—and quickened his pace He told himself that no matter what the time was he would not stop for luncheon at the ranch house but would push on to Guadalajara and have a Spanish dinner at Solotaris as he had originally planned
There had not been much of a crop to haul that year Half of the wheat on the Broderson ranch had failed entirely and Derrick himself had hardly raised more than enough to supply seed for the winters sowing But such little hauling as there had been had reduced the roads thereabouts to a lamentable condition and during the dry season of the past few months the layer of dust had deepened and thickened to such an extent that more than once Presley was obliged to dismount and trudge along on foot pushing his bicycle in front of him
It was the last half of September the very end of the dry season and all Tulare County all the vast reaches of the San Joaquin Valley—in fact all South Central California was bone dry parched and baked and crisped after four months of cloudless weather when the day seemed always at noon and the sun blazed white hot over the valley from the Coast Range in the west to the foothills of the Sierras in the east
As Presley drew near to the point where what was known as the Lower Road struck off through the Rancho de Los Muertos leading on to Guadalajara he came upon one of the county wateringtanks a great ironhooped tower of wood straddling clumsily on its four uprights by the roadside Since the day of its completion the storekeepers and retailers of Bonneville had painted their advertisements upon it It was a landmark In that reach of level fields the white letters upon it could be read for miles A wateringtrough stood near by and as he was very thirsty Presley resolved to stop for a moment to get a drink
He drew abreast of the tank and halted there leaning his bicycle against the fence A couple of men in white overalls were repainting the surface of the tank seated on swinging platforms that hung by hooks from the roof They were painting a sign—an advertisement It was all but finished and read S Behrman Real Estate Mortgages Main Street Bonneville Opposite the Post Office On the horsetrough that stood in the shadow of the tank was another freshly painted inscription S Behrman Has Something To Say To You
As Presley straightened up after drinking from the faucet at one end of the horsetrough the wateringcart itself laboured into view around the turn of the Lower Road Two mules and two horses white with dust strained leisurely in the traces moving at a snails pace their limp ears marking the time while perched high upon the seat under a yellow cotton wagon umbrella Presley recognised Hooven one of Derricks tenants a German whom every one called Bismarck an excitable little man with a perpetual grievance and an endless flow of broken English
Hello Bismarck said Presley as Hooven brought his team to a standstill by the tank preparatory to refilling
Yoost der men I look for Mistr Praicely cried the other twisting the reins around the brake Yoost one minute you wait hey I wanta talk mit you
Presley was impatient to be on his way again A little more time wasted and the day would be lost He had nothing to do with the management of the ranch and if Hooven wanted any advice from him it was so much breath wasted These uncouth brutes of farmhands and petty ranchers grimed with the soil they worked upon were odious to him beyond words Never could he feel in sympathy with them nor with their lives their ways their marriages deaths bickerings and all the monotonous round of their sordid existence
Well you must be quick about it Bismarck he answered sharply Im late for dinner as it is
Soh now Two minuten und I be mit you He drew down the overhanging spout of the tank to the vent in the circumference of the cart and pulled the chain that let out the water Then he climbed down from the seat jumping from the tire of the wheel and taking Presley by the arm led him a few steps down the road
Say he began Say I want to hef some converzations mit you Yoost der men I want to see Say Caraher he tole me dis morgen—say he tole me Mistr Derrick gowun to farm der whole demn rench hisseluf der next yahr No more tenants Say Caraher he tole me all der tenants get der sach Mistr Derrick gowun to work der whole demn rench hisseluf hey ME I get der sach alzoh hey You hef hear about dose ting Say me I hef on der ranch been sieben yahr—seven yahr Do I alzoh——
Youll have to see Derrick himself or Harran about that Bismarck interrupted Presley trying to draw away Thats something outside of me entirely
But Hooven was not to be put off No doubt he had been meditating his speech all the morning formulating his words preparing his phrases
Say no no he continued Me I wanta stay bei der place seven yahr I hef stay Mistr Derrick he doand want dot I should be gesacked Who den will der ditch getend Say you tell um Bismarck hef gotta sure stay bei der place Say you hef der pull mit der Governor You speak der gut word for me
Harran is the man that has the pull with his father Bismarck answered Presley You get Harran to speak for you and youre all right
Sieben yahr I hef stay protested Hooven and who will der ditch getend und alle dem cettles drive
Well Harrans your man answered Presley preparing to mount his bicycle
Say you hef hear about dose ting
I dont hear about anything Bismarck I dont know the first thing about how the ranch is run
UND DER PIPELINE GEMEND Hooven burst out suddenly remembering a forgotten argument He waved an arm Ach der pipeline bei der Mission Greek und der waaterhole for dose cettles Say he doand doo ut HIMSELLUF berhaps I doand tink
Well talk to Harran about it
Say he doand farm der whole demn rench bei hisseluf Me I gotta stay
But on a sudden the water in the cart gushed over the sides from the vent in the top with a smart sound of splashing Hooven was forced to turn his attention to it Presley got his wheel under way
I hef some converzations mit Herran Hooven called after him He doand doo ut bei hisseluf den Mistr Derrick ach no I stay bei der rench to drive dose cettles
He climbed back to his seat under the wagon umbrella and as he started his team again with great cracks of his long whip turned to the painters still at work upon the sign and declared with some defiance
Sieben yahr yais sir seiben yahr I hef been on dis rench Git oop you mule you hoop
Meanwhile Presley had turned into the Lower Road He was now on Derricks land division No I or as it was called the Home ranch of the great Los Muertos Rancho The road was better here the dust laid after the passage of Hoovens wateringcart and in a few minutes he had come to the ranch house itself with its white picket fence its few flower beds and grove of eucalyptus trees On the lawn at the side of the house he saw Harran in the act of setting out the automatic sprinkler In the shade of the house by the porch were two or three of the greyhounds part of the pack that were used to hunt down jackrabbits and Godfrey Harrans prize deerhound
Presley wheeled up the driveway and met Harran by the horseblock Harran was Magnus Derricks youngest son a very welllooking young fellow of twentythree or twentyfive He had the fine carriage that marked his father and still further resembled him in that he had the Derrick nose—hawklike and prominent such as one sees in the later portraits of the Duke of Wellington He was blond and incessant exposure to the sun had instead of tanning him brown merely heightened the colour of his cheeks His yellow hair had a tendency to curl in a forward direction just in front of the ears
Beside him Presley made the sharpest of contrasts Presley seemed to have come of a mixed origin appeared to have a nature more composite a temperament more complex Unlike Harran Derrick he seemed more of a character than a type The sun had browned his face till it was almost swarthy His eyes were a dark brown and his forehead was the forehead of the intellectual wide and high with a certain unmistakable lift about it that argued education not only of himself but of his people before him The impression conveyed by his mouth and chin was that of a delicate and highly sensitive nature the lips thin and loosely shut together the chin small and rather receding One guessed that Presleys refinement had been gained only by a certain loss of strength One expected to find him nervous introspective to discover that his mental life was not at all the result of impressions and sensations that came to him from without but rather of thoughts and reflections germinating from within Though morbidly sensitive to changes in his physical surroundings he would be slow to act upon such sensations would not prove impulsive not because he was sluggish but because he was merely irresolute It could be foreseen that morally he was of that sort who avoid evil through good taste lack of decision and want of opportunity His temperament was that of the poet when he told himself he had been thinking he deceived himself He had on such occasions been only brooding
Some eighteen months before this time he had been threatened with consumption and taking advantage of a standing invitation on the part of Magnus Derrick had come to stay in the dry even climate of the San Joaquin for an indefinite length of time He was thirty years old and had graduated and postgraduated with high honours from an Eastern college where he had devoted himself to a passionate study of literature and more especially of poetry
It was his insatiable ambition to write verse But up to this time his work had been fugitive ephemeral a note here and there heard appreciated and forgotten He was in search of a subject something magnificent he did not know exactly what some vast tremendous theme heroic terrible to be unrolled in all the thundering progression of hexameters
But whatever he wrote and in whatever fashion Presley was determined that his poem should be of the West that worlds frontier of Romance where a new race a new people—hardy brave and passionate—were building an empire where the tumultuous life ran like fire from dawn to dark and from dark to dawn again primitive brutal honest and without fear Something to his idea not much had been done to catch at that life in passing but its poet had not yet arisen The few sporadic attempts thus he told himself had only touched the keynote He strove for the diapason the great song that should embrace in itself a whole epoch a complete era the voice of an entire people wherein all people should be included—they and their legends their folk lore their fightings their loves and their lusts their blunt grim humour their stoicism under stress their adventures their treasures found in a day and gambled in a night their direct crude speech their generosity and cruelty their heroism and bestiality their religion and profanity their selfsacrifice and obscenity—a true and fearless setting forth of a passing phase of history uncompromising sincere each group in its proper environment the valley the plain and the mountain the ranch the range and the mine—all this all the traits and types of every community from the Dakotas to the Mexicos from Winnipeg to Guadalupe gathered together swept together welded and riven together in one single mighty song the Song of the West That was what he dreamed while things without names—thoughts for which no man had yet invented words terrible formless shapes vague figures colossal monstrous distorted—whirled at a gallop through his imagination
As Harran came up Presley reached down into the pouches of the sunbleached shooting coat he wore and drew out and handed him the packet of letters and papers
Heres the mail I think I shall go on
But dinner is ready said Harran we are just sitting down
Presley shook his head No Im in a hurry Perhaps I shall have something to eat at Guadalajara I shall be gone all day
He delayed a few moments longer tightening a loose nut on his forward wheel while Harran recognising his fathers handwriting on one of the envelopes slit it open and cast his eye rapidly over its pages
The Governor is coming home he exclaimed tomorrow morning on the early train wants me to meet him with the team at Guadalajara AND he cried between his clenched teeth as he continued to read weve lost the case
What case Oh in the matter of rates
Harran nodded his eyes flashing his face growing suddenly scarlet
Ulsteen gave his decision yesterday he continued reading from his fathers letter He holds Ulsteen does that grain rates as low as the new figure would amount to confiscation of property and that on such a basis the railroad could not be operated at a legitimate profit As he is powerless to legislate in the matter he can only put the rates back at what they originally were before the commissioners made the cut and it is so ordered Thats our friend S Behrman again added Harran grinding his teeth He was up in the city the whole of the time the new schedule was being drawn and he and Ulsteen and the Railroad Commission were as thick as thieves He has been up there all this last week too doing the railroads dirty work and backing Ulsteen up Legitimate profit legitimate profit he broke out Can we raise wheat at a legitimate profit with a tariff of four dollars a ton for moving it two hundred miles to tidewater with wheat at eightyseven cents Why not hold us up with a gun in our faces and say hands up and be done with it
He dug his bootheel into the ground and turned away to the house abruptly cursing beneath his breath
By the way Presley called after him Hooven wants to see you He asked me about this idea of the Governors of getting along without the tenants this year Hooven wants to stay to tend the ditch and look after the stock I told him to see you
Harran his mind full of other things nodded to say he understood Presley only waited till he had disappeared indoors so that he might not seem too indifferent to his trouble then remounting struck at once into a brisk pace and turning out from the carriage gate held on swiftly down the Lower Road going in the direction of Guadalajara These matters these eternal fierce bickerings between the farmers of the San Joaquin and the Pacific and Southwestern Railroad irritated him and wearied him He cared for none of these things They did not belong to his world In the picture of that huge romantic West that he saw in his imagination these dissensions made the one note of harsh colour that refused to enter into the great scheme of harmony It was material sordid deadly commonplace But however he strove to shut his eyes to it or his ears to it the thing persisted and persisted The romance seemed complete up to that point There it broke there it failed there it became realism grim unlovely unyielding To be true—and it was the first article of his creed to be unflinchingly true—he could not ignore it All the noble poetry of the ranch—the valley—seemed in his mind to be marred and disfigured by the presence of certain immovable facts Just what he wanted Presley hardly knew On one hand it was his ambition to portray life as he saw it—directly frankly and through no medium of personality or temperament But on the other hand as well he wished to see everything through a rosecoloured mist—a mist that dulled all harsh outlines all crude and violent colours He told himself that as a part of the people he loved the people and sympathised with their hopes and fears and joys and griefs and yet Hooven grimy and perspiring with his perpetual grievance and his contracted horizon only revolted him He had set himself the task of giving true absolutely true poetical expression to the life of the ranch and yet again and again he brought up against the railroad that stubborn iron barrier against which his romance shattered itself to froth and disintegrated flying spume His heart went out to the people and his groping hand met that of a slovenly little Dutchman whom it was impossible to consider seriously He searched for the True Romance and in the end found grain rates and unjust freight tariffs
But the stuff is HERE he muttered as he sent his wheel rumbling across the bridge over Broderson Creek The romance the real romance is here somewhere Ill get hold of it yet
He shot a glance about him as if in search of the inspiration By now he was not quite half way across the northern and narrowest corner of Los Muertos at this point some eight miles wide He was still on the Home ranch A few miles to the south he could just make out the line of wire fence that separated it from the third division and to the north seen faint and blue through the haze and shimmer of the noon sun a long file of telegraph poles showed the line of the railroad and marked Derricks northeast boundary The road over which Presley was travelling ran almost diametrically straight In front of him but at a great distance he could make out the giant liveoak and the red roof of Hoovens barn that stood near it
All about him the country was flat In all directions he could see for miles The harvest was just over Nothing but stubble remained on the ground With the one exception of the liveoak by Hoovens place there was nothing green in sight The wheat stubble was of a dirty yellow the ground parched cracked and dry of a cheerless brown By the roadside the dust lay thick and grey and on either hand stretching on toward the horizon losing itself in a mere smudge in the distance ran the illimitable parallels of the wire fence And that was all that and the burntout blue of the sky and the steady shimmer of the heat
The silence was infinite After the harvest small though that harvest had been the ranches seemed asleep It was as though the earth after its period of reproduction its pains of labour had been delivered of the fruit of its loins and now slept the sleep of exhaustion
It was the period between seasons when nothing was being done when the natural forces seemed to hang suspended There was no rain there was no wind there was no growth no life the very stubble had no force even to rot The sun alone moved
Toward two oclock Presley reached Hoovens place two or three grimy frame buildings infested with a swarm of dogs A hog or two wandered aimlessly about Under a shed by the barn a brokendown seeder lay rusting to its ruin But overhead a mammoth liveoak the largest tree in all the countryside towered superb and magnificent Grey bunches of mistletoe and festoons of trailing moss hung from its bark From its lowest branch hung Hoovens meatsafe a square box faced with wire screens
What gave a special interest to Hoovens was the fact that here was the intersection of the Lower Road and Derricks main irrigating ditch a vast trench not yet completed which he and Annixter who worked the Quien Sabe ranch were jointly constructing It ran directly across the road and at right angles to it and lay a deep groove in the field between Hoovens and the town of Guadalajara some three miles farther on Besides this the ditch was a natural boundary between two divisions of the Los Muertos ranch the first and fourth
Presley now had the choice of two routes His objective point was the spring at the headwaters of Broderson Creek in the hills on the eastern side of the Quien Sabe ranch The trail afforded him a short cut thitherward As he passed the house Mrs Hooven came to the door her little daughter Hilda dressed in a boys overalls and clumsy boots at her skirts Minna her oldest daughter a very pretty girl whose love affairs were continually the talk of all Los Muertos was visible through a window of the house busy at the weeks washing Mrs Hooven was a faded colourless woman middleaged and commonplace and offering not the least characteristic that would distinguish her from a thousand other women of her class and kind She nodded to Presley watching him with a stolid gaze from under her arm which she held across her forehead to shade her eyes
But now Presley exerted himself in good earnest His bicycle flew He resolved that after all he would go to Guadalajara He crossed the bridge over the irrigating ditch with a brusque spurt of hollow sound and shot forward down the last stretch of the Lower Road that yet intervened between Hoovens and the town He was on the fourth division of the ranch now the only one whereon the wheat had been successful no doubt because of the Little Mission Creek that ran through it But he no longer occupied himself with the landscape His only concern was to get on as fast as possible He had looked forward to spending nearly the whole day on the crest of the wooded hills in the northern corner of the Quien Sabe ranch reading idling smoking his pipe But now he would do well if he arrived there by the middle of the afternoon In a few moments he had reached the line fence that marked the limits of the ranch Here were the railroad tracks and just beyond—a huddled mass of roofs with here and there an adobe house on its outskirts—the little town of Guadalajara Nearer at hand and directly in front of Presley were the freight and passenger depots of the P and S W painted in the grey and white which seemed to be the official colours of all the buildings owned by the corporation The station was deserted No trains passed at this hour From the direction of the ticket window Presley heard the unsteady chittering of the telegraph key In the shadow of one of the baggage trucks upon the platform the great yellow cat that belonged to the agent dozed complacently her paws tucked under her body Three flat cars loaded with brightpainted farming machines were on the siding above the station while on the switch below a huge freight engine that lacked its cowcatcher sat back upon its monstrous drivingwheels motionless solid drawing long breaths that were punctuated by the subdued sound of its steampump clicking at exact intervals
But evidently it had been decreed that Presley should be stopped at every point of his ride that day for as he was pushing his bicycle across the tracks he was surprised to hear his name called Hello there Mr Presley Whats the good word
Presley looked up quickly and saw Dyke the engineer leaning on his folded arms from the cab window of the freight engine But at the prospect of this further delay Presley was less troubled Dyke and he were well acquainted and the best of friends The picturesqueness of the engineers life was always attractive to Presley and more than once he had ridden on Dykes engine between Guadalajara and Bonneville Once even he had made the entire run between the latter town and San Francisco in the cab
Dykes home was in Guadalajara He lived in one of the remodelled dobe cottages where his mother kept house for him His wife had died some five years before this time leaving him a little daughter Sidney to bring up as best he could Dyke himself was a heavy built welllooking fellow nearly twice the weight of Presley with great shoulders and massive hairy arms and a tremendous rumbling voice
Hello old man answered Presley coming up to the engine What are you doing about here at this time of day I thought you were on the night service this month
Weve changed about a bit answered the other Come up here and sit down and get out of the sun Theyve held us here to wait orders he explained as Presley after leaning his bicycle against the tender climbed to the firemans seat of worn green leather They are changing the run of one of the crack passenger engines down below and are sending her up to Fresno There was a smash of some kind on the Bakersfield division and shes to hell and gone behind her time I suppose when she comes shell come ahumming It will be stand clear and an open track all the way to Fresno They have held me here to let her go by
He took his pipe an old T D clay but coloured to a beautiful shiny black from the pocket of his jumper and filled and lit it
Well I dont suppose you object to being held here observed Presley Gives you a chance to visit your mother and the little girl
And precisely they choose this day to go up to Sacramento answered Dyke Just my luck Went up to visit my brothers people By the way my brother may come down here—locate here I mean—and go into the hopraising business Hes got an option on five hundred acres just back of the town here He says there is going to be money in hops I dont know may be Ill go in with him
Why whats the matter with railroading
Dyke drew a couple of puffs on his pipe and fixed Presley with a glance
Theres this the matter with it he said Im fired
Fired You exclaimed Presley turning abruptly toward him Thats what Im telling you returned Dyke grimly
You dont mean it Why what for Dyke
Now YOU tell me what for growled the other savagely Boy and man Ive worked for the P and S W for over ten years and never one yelp of a complaint did I ever hear from them They know damn well theyve not got a steadier man on the road And more than that more than that I dont belong to the Brotherhood And when the strike came along I stood by them—stood by the company You know that And you know and they know that at Sacramento that time I ran my train according to schedule with a gun in each hand never knowing when I was going over a mined culvert and there was talk of giving me a gold watch at the time To hell with their gold watches I want ordinary justice and fair treatment And now when hard times come along and they are cutting wages what do they do Do they make any discrimination in my case Do they remember the man that stood by them and risked his life in their service No They cut my pay down just as offhand as they do the pay of any dirty little wiper in the yard Cut me along with—listen to this—cut me along with men that they had BLACKLISTED strikers that they took back because they were short of hands He drew fiercely on his pipe I went to them yes I did I went to the General Office and ate dirt I told them I was a family man and that I didnt see how I was going to get along on the new scale and I reminded them of my service during the strike The swine told me that it wouldnt be fair to discriminate in favour of one man and that the cut must apply to all their employees alike Fair he shouted with laughter Fair Hear the P and S W talking about fairness and discrimination Thats good that is Well I got furious I was a fool I suppose I told them that in justice to myself I wouldnt do firstclass work for thirdclass pay And they said Well Mr Dyke you know what you can do Well I did know I said Ill ask for my time if you please and they gave it to me just as if they were glad to be shut of me So there you are Presley Thats the P S W Railroad Company of California I am on my last run now
Shameful declared Presley his sympathies all aroused now that the trouble concerned a friend of his Its shameful Dyke But he added an idea occurring to him that dont shut you out from work There are other railroads in the State that are not controlled by the P and S W
Dyke smote his knee with his clenched fist
NAME ONE
Presley was silent Dykes challenge was unanswerable There was a lapse in their talk Presley drumming on the arm of the seat meditating on this injustice Dyke looking off over the fields beyond the town his frown lowering his teeth rasping upon his pipestem The station agent came to the door of the depot stretching and yawning On ahead of the engine the empty rails of the track reaching out toward the horizon threw off visible layers of heat The telegraph key clicked incessantly
So Im going to quit Dyke remarked after a while his anger somewhat subsided My brother and I will take up this hop ranch Ive saved a good deal in the last ten years and there ought to be money in hops
Presley went on remounting his bicycle wheeling silently through the deserted streets of the decayed and dying Mexican town It was the hour of the siesta Nobody was about There was no business in the town It was too close to Bonneville for that Before the railroad came and in the days when the raising of cattle was the great industry of the country it had enjoyed a fierce and brilliant life Now it was moribund The drug store the two barrooms the hotel at the corner of the old Plaza and the shops where Mexican curios were sold to those occasional Eastern tourists who came to visit the Mission of San Juan sufficed for the towns activity
At Solotaris the restaurant on the Plaza diagonally across from the hotel Presley ate his longdeferred Mexican dinner—an omelette in SpanishMexican style frijoles and tortillas a salad and a glass of white wine In a corner of the room during the whole course of his dinner two young Mexicans one of whom was astonishingly handsome after the melodramatic fashion of his race and an old fellow the centenarian of the town decrepit beyond belief sang an interminable lovesong to the accompaniment of a guitar and an accordion
These SpanishMexicans decayed picturesque vicious and romantic never failed to interest Presley A few of them still remained in Guadalajara drifting from the saloon to the restaurant and from the restaurant to the Plaza relics of a former generation standing for a different order of things absolutely idle living God knew how happy with their cigarette their guitar their glass of mescal and their siesta The centenarian remembered Fremont and Governor Alvarado and the bandit Jesus Tejeda and the days when Los Muertos was a Spanish grant a veritable principality leagues in extent and when there was never a fence from Visalia to Fresno Upon this occasion Presley offered the old man a drink of mescal and excited him to talk of the things he remembered Their talk was in Spanish a language with which Presley was familiar
De La Cuesta held the grant of Los Muertos in those days the centenarian said a grand man He had the power of life and death over his people and there was no law but his word There was no thought of wheat then you may believe It was all cattle in those days sheep horses—steers not so many—and if money was scarce there was always plenty to eat and clothes enough for all and wine ah yes by the vat and oil too the Mission Fathers had that Yes and there was wheat as well now that I come to think but a very little—in the field north of the Mission where now it is the Seed ranch wheat fields were there and also a vineyard all on Mission grounds Wheat olives and the vine the Fathers planted those to provide the elements of the Holy Sacrament—bread oil and wine you understand It was like that those industries began in California—from the Church and now he put his chin in the air what would Father Ullivari have said to such a crop as Senor Derrick plants these days Ten thousand acres of wheat Nothing but wheat from the Sierra to the Coast Range I remember when De La Cuesta was married He had never seen the young lady only her miniature portrait painted—he raised a shoulder—I do not know by whom small a little thing to be held in the palm But he fell in love with that and marry her he would The affair was arranged between him and the girls parents But when the time came that De La Cuesta was to go to Monterey to meet and marry the girl behold Jesus Tejeda broke in upon the small rancheros near Terrabella It was no time for De La Cuesta to be away so he sent his brother Esteban to Monterey to marry the girl by proxy for him I went with Esteban We were a company nearly a hundred men And De La Cuesta sent a horse for the girl to ride white pure white and the saddle was of red leather the headstall the bit and buckles all the metal work of virgin silver Well there was a ceremony in the Monterey Mission and Esteban in the name of his brother was married to the girl On our way back De La Cuesta rode out to meet us His company met ours at Agatha dos Palos Never will I forget De La Cuestas face as his eyes fell upon the girl It was a look a glance come and gone like THAT he snapped his fingers No one but I saw it but I was close by There was no mistaking that look De La Cuesta was disappointed
And the girl demanded Presley
She never knew Ah he was a grand gentleman De La Cuesta Always he treated her as a queen Never was husband more devoted more respectful more chivalrous But love The old fellow put his chin in the air shutting his eyes in a knowing fashion It was not there I could tell They were married over again at the Mission San Juan de Guadalajara—OUR Mission—and for a week all the town of Guadalajara was in fete There were bullfights in the Plaza—this very one—for five days and to each of his tenantsinchief De La Cuesta gave a horse a barrel of tallow an ounce of silver and half an ounce of gold dust Ah those were days That was a gay life This—he made a comprehensive gesture with his left hand—this is stupid
You may well say that observed Presley moodily discouraged by the others talk All his doubts and uncertainty had returned to him Never would he grasp the subject of his great poem Today the life was colourless Romance was dead He had lived too late To write of the past was not what he desired Reality was what he longed for things that he had seen Yet how to make this compatible with romance He rose putting on his hat offering the old man a cigarette The centenarian accepted with the air of a grandee and extended his horn snuffbox Presley shook his head
I was born too late for that he declared for that and for many other things Adios
You are travelling today senor
A little turn through the country to get the kinks out of the muscles Presley answered I go up into the Quien Sabe into the high country beyond the Mission
Ah the Quien Sabe rancho The sheep are grazing there this week
Solotari the keeper of the restaurant explained
Young Annixter sold his wheat stubble on the ground to the sheep raisers off yonder he motioned eastward toward the Sierra foothills Since Sunday the herd has been down Very clever that young Annixter He gets a price for his stubble which else he would have to burn and also manures his land as the sheep move from place to place A true Yankee that Annixter a good gringo
After his meal Presley once more mounted his bicycle and leaving the restaurant and the Plaza behind him held on through the main street of the drowsing town—the street that farther on developed into the road which turned abruptly northward and led onward through the hopfields and the Quien Sabe ranch toward the Mission of San Juan
The Home ranch of the Quien Sabe was in the little triangle bounded on the south by the railroad on the northwest by Broderson Creek and on the east by the hop fields and the Mission lands It was traversed in all directions now by the trail from Hoovens now by the irrigating ditch—the same which Presley had crossed earlier in the day—and again by the road upon which Presley then found himself In its centre were Annixters ranch house and barns topped by the skeletonlike tower of the artesian well that was to feed the irrigating ditch Farther on the course of Broderson Creek was marked by a curved line of greygreen willows while on the low hills to the north as Presley advanced the ancient Mission of San Juan de Guadalajara with its belfry tower and redtiled roof began to show itself over the crests of the venerable pear trees that clustered in its garden
When Presley reached Annixters ranch house he found young Annixter himself stretched in his hammock behind the mosquitobar on the front porch reading David Copperfield and gorging himself with dried prunes
Annixter—after the two had exchanged greetings—complained of terrific colics all the preceding night His stomach was out of whack but you bet he knew how to take care of himself the last spell he had consulted a doctor at Bonneville a gibbering busyface who had filled him up to the neck with a dose of some hogwash stuff that had made him worse—a healthy lot the doctors knew anyhow HIS case was peculiar HE knew prunes were what he needed and by the pound
Annixter who worked the Quien Sabe ranch—some four thousand acres of rich clay and heavy loams—was a very young man younger even than Presley like him a college graduate He looked never a year older than he was He was smoothshaven and lean built But his youthful appearance was offset by a certain male cast of countenance the lower lip thrust out the chin large and deeply cleft His university course had hardened rather than polished him He still remained one of the people rough almost to insolence direct in speech intolerant in his opinions relying upon absolutely no one but himself yet with all this of an astonishing degree of intelligence and possessed of an executive ability little short of positive genius He was a ferocious worker allowing himself no pleasures and exacting the same degree of energy from all his subordinates He was widely hated and as widely trusted Every one spoke of his crusty temper and bullying disposition invariably qualifying the statement with a commendation of his resources and capabilities The devil of a driver a hard man to get along with obstinate contrary cantankerous but brains No doubt of that brains to his boots One would like to see the man who could get ahead of him on a deal Twice he had been shot at once from ambush on Ostermans ranch and once by one of his own men whom he had kicked from the sacking platform of his harvester for gross negligence At college he had specialised on finance political economy and scientific agriculture After his graduation he stood almost at the very top of his class he had returned and obtained the degree of civil engineer Then suddenly he had taken a notion that a practical knowledge of law was indispensable to a modern farmer In eight months he did the work of three years studying for his bar examinations His method of study was characteristic He reduced all the material of his textbooks to notes Tearing out the leaves of these notebooks he pasted them upon the walls of his room then in his shirtsleeves a cheap cigar in his teeth his hands in his pockets he walked around and around the room scowling fiercely at his notes memorising devouring digesting At intervals he drank great cupfuls of unsweetened black coffee When the bar examinations were held he was admitted at the very head of all the applicants and was complimented by the judge Immediately afterwards he collapsed with nervous prostration his stomach got out of whack and he all but died in a Sacramento boardinghouse obstinately refusing to have anything to do with doctors whom he vituperated as a rabble of quacks dosing himself with a patent medicine and stuffing himself almost to bursting with liver pills and dried prunes
He had taken a trip to Europe after this sickness to put himself completely to rights He intended to be gone a year but returned at the end of six weeks fulminating abuse of European cooking Nearly his entire time had been spent in Paris but of this sojourn he had brought back but two souvenirs an electroplated billhook and an empty bird cage which had tickled his fancy immensely
He was wealthy Only a year previous to this his father—a widower who had amassed a fortune in land speculation—had died and Annixter the only son had come into the inheritance
For Presley Annixter professed a great admiration holding in deep respect the man who could rhyme words deferring to him whenever there was question of literature or works of fiction No doubt there was not much use in poetry and as for novels to his mind there were only Dickenss works Everything else was a lot of lies But just the same it took brains to grind out a poem It wasnt every one who could rhyme brave and glaive and make sense out of it Sure not
But Presleys case was a notable exception On no occasion was Annixter prepared to accept another mans opinion without reserve In conversation with him it was almost impossible to make any direct statement however trivial that he would accept without either modification or open contradiction He had a passion for violent discussion He would argue upon every subject in the range of human knowledge from astronomy to the tariff from the doctrine of predestination to the height of a horse Never would he admit himself to be mistaken when cornered he would intrench himself behind the remark Yes thats all very well In some ways it is and then again in some ways it ISNT
Singularly enough he and Presley were the best of friends More than once Presley marvelled at this state of affairs telling himself that he and Annixter had nothing in common In all his circle of acquaintances Presley was the one man with whom Annixter had never quarrelled The two men were diametrically opposed in temperament Presley was easygoing Annixter alert Presley was a confirmed dreamer irresolute inactive with a strong tendency to melancholy the young farmer was a man of affairs decisive combative whose only reflection upon his interior economy was a morbid concern in the vagaries of his stomach Yet the two never met without a mutual pleasure taking a genuine interest in each others affairs and often putting themselves to great inconvenience to be of trifling service to help one another
As a last characteristic Annixter pretended to be a womanhater for no other reason than that he was a very bullcalf of awkwardness in feminine surroundings Feemales Rot There was a fine way for a man to waste his time and his good money lally gagging with a lot of feemales No thank you none of it in HIS if you please Once only he had an affair—a timid little creature in a glovecleaning establishment in Sacramento whom he had picked up Heaven knew how After his return to his ranch a correspondence had been maintained between the two Annixter taking the precaution to typewrite his letters and never affixing his signature in an excess of prudence He furthermore made carbon copies of all his letters filing them away in a compartment of his safe Ah it would be a clever feemale who would get him into a mess Then suddenly smitten with a panic terror that he had committed himself that he was involving himself too deeply he had abruptly sent the little woman about her business It was his only love affair After that he kept himself free No petticoats should ever have a hold on him Sure not
As Presley came up to the edge of the porch pushing his bicycle in front of him Annixter excused himself for not getting up alleging that the cramps returned the moment he was off his back
What are you doing up this way he demanded
Oh just having a look around answered Presley Hows the ranch
Say observed the other ignoring his question whats this I hear about Derrick giving his tenants the bounce and working Los Muertos himself—working ALL his land
Presley made a sharp movement of impatience with his free hand Ive heard nothing else myself since morning I suppose it must be so
Huh grunted Annixter spitting out a prune stone You give Magnus Derrick my compliments and tell him hes a fool What do you mean
I suppose Derrick thinks hes still running his mine and that the same principles will apply to getting grain out of the earth as to getting gold Oh let him go on and see where he brings up Thats right theres your Western farmer he exclaimed contemptuously Get the guts out of your land work it to death never give it a rest Never alternate your crop and then when your soil is exhausted sit down and roar about hard times
I suppose Magnus thinks the land has had rest enough these last two dry seasons observed Presley He has raised no crop to speak of for two years The land has had a good rest
Ah yes that sounds well Annixter contradicted unwilling to be convinced In a way the lands been rested and then again in a way it hasnt
But Presley scenting an argument refrained from answering and bethought himself of moving on
Im going to leave my wheel here for a while Buck he said if you dont mind Im going up to the spring and the road is rough between here and there
Stop in for dinner on your way back said Annixter Therell be a venison steak One of the boys got a deer over in the foothills last week Out of season but never mind that I cant eat it This stomach of mine wouldnt digest sweet oil today Get here about six
Well maybe I will thank you said Presley moving off By the way he added I see your barn is about done
You bet answered Annixter In about a fortnight now shell be all ready
Its a big barn murmured Presley glancing around the angle of the house toward where the great structure stood
Guess well have to have a dance there before we move the stock in observed Annixter Thats the custom all around here
Presley took himself off but at the gate Annixter called after him his mouth full of prunes Say take a look at that herd of sheep as you go up They are right off here to the east of the road about half a mile from here I guess thats the biggest lot of sheep YOU ever saw You might write a poem about em Lamb—ram sheep graze—sunny days Catch on
Beyond Broderson Creek as Presley advanced tramping along on foot now the land opened out again into the same vast spaces of dull brown earth sprinkled with stubble such as had been characteristic of Derricks ranch To the east the reach seemed infinite flat cheerless heatridden unrolling like a gigantic scroll toward the faint shimmer of the distant horizons with here and there an isolated liveoak to break the sombre monotony But bordering the road to the westward the surface roughened and raised clambering up to the higher ground on the crest of which the old Mission and its surrounding pear trees were now plainly visible
Just beyond the Mission the road bent abruptly eastward striking off across the Seed ranch But Presley left the road at this point going on across the open fields There was no longer any trail It was toward three oclock The sun still spun a silent blazing disc high in the heavens and tramping through the clods of uneven broken plough was fatiguing work The slope of the lowest foothills begun the surface of the country became rolling and suddenly as he topped a higher ridge Presley came upon the sheep
Already he had passed the larger part of the herd—an intervening rise of ground having hidden it from sight Now as he turned half way about looking down into the shallow hollow between him and the curve of the creek he saw them very plainly The fringe of the herd was some two hundred yards distant but its farther side in that illusive shimmer of hot surface air seemed miles away The sheep were spread out roughly in the shape of a figure eight two larger herds connected by a smaller and were headed to the southward moving slowly grazing on the wheat stubble as they proceeded But the number seemed incalculable Hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of grey rounded backs all exactly alike huddled closepacked alive hid the earth from sight It was no longer an aggregate of individuals It was a mass—a compact solid slowly moving mass huge without form like a thickpressed growth of mushrooms spreading out in all directions over the earth From it there arose a vague murmur confused inarticulate like the sound of very distant surf while all the air in the vicinity was heavy with the warm ammoniacal odour of the thousands of crowding bodies
All the colours of the scene were sombre—the brown of the earth the faded yellow of the dead stubble the grey of the myriad of undulating backs Only on the far side of the herd erect motionless—a single note of black a speck a dot—the shepherd stood leaning upon an empty watertrough solitary grave impressive
For a few moments Presley stood watching Then as he started to move on a curious thing occurred At first he thought he had heard some one call his name He paused listening there was no sound but the vague noise of the moving sheep Then as this first impression passed it seemed to him that he had been beckoned to Yet nothing stirred except for the lonely figure beyond the herd there was no one in sight He started on again and in half a dozen steps found himself looking over his shoulder Without knowing why he looked toward the shepherd then halted and looked a second time and a third Had the shepherd called to him Presley knew that he had heard no voice Brusquely all his attention seemed riveted upon this distant figure He put one forearm over his eyes to keep off the sun gazing across the intervening herd Surely the shepherd had called him But at the next instant he started uttering an exclamation under his breath The faraway speck of black became animated Presley remarked a sweeping gesture Though the man had not beckoned to him before there was no doubt that he was beckoning now Without any hesitation and singularly interested in the incident Presley turned sharply aside and hurried on toward the shepherd skirting the herd wondering all the time that he should answer the call with so little question so little hesitation
But the shepherd came forward to meet Presley followed by one of his dogs As the two men approached each other Presley closely studying the other began to wonder where he had seen him before It must have been a very long time ago upon one of his previous visits to the ranch Certainly however there was something familiar in the shepherds face and figure When they came closer to each other and Presley could see him more distinctly this sense of a previous acquaintance was increased and sharpened
The shepherd was a man of about thirtyfive He was very lean and spare His brown canvas overalls were thrust into laced boots A cartridge belt without any cartridges encircled his waist A grey flannel shirt open at the throat showed his breast tanned and ruddy He wore no hat His hair was very black and rather long A pointed beard covered his chin growing straight and fine from the hollow cheeks The absence of any covering for his head was no doubt habitual with him for his face was as brown as an Indians—a ruddy brown quite different from Presleys dark olive To Presleys morbidly keen observation the general impression of the shepherds face was intensely interesting It was uncommon to an astonishing degree Presleys vivid imagination chose to see in it the face of an ascetic of a recluse almost that of a young seer So must have appeared the halfinspired shepherds of the Hebraic legends the younger prophets of Israel dwellers in the wilderness beholders of visions having their existence in a continual dream talkers with God gifted with strange powers
Suddenly at some twenty paces distant from the approaching shepherd Presley stopped short his eyes riveted upon the other
Vanamee he exclaimed
The shepherd smiled and came forward holding out his hands saying I thought it was you When I saw you come over the hill I called you
But not with your voice returned Presley I knew that some one wanted me I felt it I should have remembered that you could do that kind of thing
I have never known it to fail It helps with the sheep
With the sheep
In a way I cant tell exactly how We dont understand these things yet There are times when if I close my eyes and dig my fists into my temples I can hold the entire herd for perhaps a minute Perhaps though its imagination who knows But its good to see you again How long has it been since the last time Two three nearly five years
It was more than that It was six years since Presley and Vanamee had met and then it had been for a short time only during one of the shepherds periodical brief returns to that part of the country During a week he and Presley had been much together for the two were devoted friends Then as abruptly as mysteriously as he had come Vanamee disappeared Presley awoke one morning to find him gone Thus it had been with Vanamee for a period of sixteen years He lived his life in the unknown one could not tell where—in the desert in the mountains throughout all the vast and vague Southwest solitary strange Three four five years passed The shepherd would be almost forgotten Never the most trivial scrap of information as to his whereabouts reached Los Muertos He had melted off into the surfaceshimmer of the desert into the mirage he sank below the horizons he was swallowed up in the waste of sand and sage Then without warning he would reappear coming in from the wilderness emerging from the unknown No one knew him well In all that countryside he had but three friends Presley Magnus Derrick and the priest at the Mission of San Juan de Guadalajara Father Sarria He remained always a mystery living a life halfreal halflegendary In all those years he did not seem to have grown older by a single day At this time Presley knew him to be thirtysix years of age But since the first day the two had met the shepherds face and bearing had to his eyes remained the same At this moment Presley was looking into the same face he had first seen many many years ago It was a face stamped with an unspeakable sadness a deathless grief the permanent imprint of a tragedy long past but yet a living issue Presley told himself that it was impossible to look long into Vanamees eyes without knowing that here was a man whose whole being had been at one time shattered and riven to its lowest depths whose life had suddenly stopped at a certain moment of its development
The two friends sat down upon the ledge of the wateringtrough their eyes wandering incessantly toward the slow moving herd grazing on the wheat stubble moving southward as they grazed
Where have you come from this time Presley had asked Where have you kept yourself
The other swept the horizon to the south and east with a vague gesture
Off there down to the south very far off So many places that I cant remember I went the Long Trail this time a long long ways Arizona The Mexicos and then afterwards Utah and Nevada following the horizon travelling at hazard Into Arizona first going in by Monument Pass and then on to the south through the country of the Navajos down by the Aga Thia Needle—a great blade of red rock jutting from out the desert like a knife thrust Then on and on through The Mexicos all through the Southwest then back again in a great circle by Chihuahua and Aldama to Laredo to Torreon and Albuquerque From there across the Uncompahgre plateau into the Uintah country then at last due west through Nevada to California and to the valley of the San Joaquin His voice lapsed to a monotone his eyes becoming fixed he continued to speak as though half awake his thoughts elsewhere seeing again in the eye of his mind the reach of desert and red hill the purple mountain the level stretch of alkali leper white all the savage gorgeous desolation of the Long Trail
He ignored Presley for the moment but on the other hand Presley himself gave him but half his attention The return of Vanamee had stimulated the poets memory He recalled the incidents of Vanamees life reviewing again that terrible drama which had uprooted his soul which had driven him forth a wanderer a shunner of men a sojourner in waste places He was strangely enough a college graduate and a man of wide reading and great intelligence but he had chosen to lead his own life which was that of a recluse
Of a temperament similar in many ways to Presleys there were capabilities in Vanamee that were not ordinarily to be found in the rank and file of men Living close to nature a poet by instinct where Presley was but a poet by training there developed in him a great sensitiveness to beauty and an almost abnormal capacity for great happiness and great sorrow he felt things intensely deeply He never forgot It was when he was eighteen or nineteen at the formative and most impressionable period of his life that he had met Angele Varian Presley barely remembered her as a girl of sixteen beautiful almost beyond expression who lived with an aged aunt on the Seed ranch back of the Mission At this moment he was trying to recall how she looked with her hair of gold hanging in two straight plaits on either side of her face making threecornered her round white forehead her wonderful eyes violet blue heavy lidded with their astonishing upward slant toward the temples the slant that gave a strange oriental cast to her face perplexing enchanting He remembered the Egyptian fulness of the lips the strange balancing movement of her head upon her slender neck the same movement that one sees in a snake at poise Never had he seen a girl more radiantly beautiful never a beauty so strange so troublous so out of all accepted standards It was small wonder that Vanamee had loved her and less wonder still that his love had been so intense so passionate so part of himself Angele had loved him with a love no less than his own It was one of those legendary passions that sometimes occur idyllic untouched by civilisation spontaneous as the growth of trees natural as dewfall strong as the firmseated mountains
At the time of his meeting with Angele Vanamee was living on the Los Muertos ranch It was there he had chosen to spend one of his college vacations But he preferred to pass it in outofdoor work sometimes herding cattle sometimes pitching hay sometimes working with pick and dynamitestick on the ditches in the fourth division of the ranch riding the range mending breaks in the wire fences making himself generally useful College bred though he was the life pleased him He was as he desired close to nature living the full measure of life a worker among workers taking enjoyment in simple pleasures healthy in mind and body He believed in an existence passed in this fashion in the country working hard eating full drinking deep sleeping dreamlessly
But every night after supper he saddled his pony and rode over to the garden of the old Mission The dobe dividing wall on that side which once had separated the Mission garden and the Seed ranch had long since crumbled away and the boundary between the two pieces of ground was marked only by a line of venerable pear trees Here under these trees he found Angele awaiting him and there the two would sit through the hot still evening their arms about each other watching the moon rise over the foothills listening to the trickle of the water in the mossencrusted fountain in the garden and the steady croak of the great frogs that lived in the damp north corner of the enclosure Through all one summer the enchantment of that newfound wonderful love pure and untainted filled the lives of each of them with its sweetness The summer passed the harvest moon came and went The nights were very dark In the deep shade of the pear trees they could no longer see each other When they met at the rendezvous Vanamee found her only with his groping hands They did not speak mere words were useless between them Silently as his reaching hands touched her warm body he took her in his arms searching for her lips with his Then one night the tragedy had suddenly leaped from out the shadow with the abruptness of an explosion
It was impossible afterwards to reconstruct the manner of its occurrence To Angeles mind—what there was left of it—the matter always remained a hideous blur a blot a vague terrible confusion No doubt they two had been watched the plan succeeded too well for any other supposition One moonless night Angele arriving under the black shadow of the pear trees a little earlier than usual found the apparently familiar figure waiting for her All unsuspecting she gave herself to the embrace of a strange pair of arms and Vanamee arriving but a score of moments later stumbled over her prostrate body inert and unconscious in the shadow of the overspiring trees
Who was the Other Angele was carried to her home on the Seed ranch delirious all but raving and Vanamee with knife and revolver ready ranged the countryside like a wolf He was not alone The whole county rose raging horrorstruck Posse after posse was formed sent out and returned without so much as a clue Upon no one could even the shadow of suspicion be thrown The Other had withdrawn into an impenetrable mystery There he remained He never was found he never was so much as heard of A legend arose about him this prowler of the night this strange fearful figure with an unseen face swooping in there from out the darkness come and gone in an instant but leaving behind him a track of terror and death and rage and undying grief Within the year in giving birth to the child Angele had died
The little babe was taken by Angeles parents and Angele was buried in the Mission garden near to the aged grey sun dial Vanamee stood by during the ceremony but half conscious of what was going forward At the last moment he had stepped forward looked long into the dead face framed in its plaits of gold hair the hair that made threecornered the round white forehead looked again at the closed eyes with their perplexing upward slant toward the temples oriental bizarre at the lips with their Egyptian fulness at the sweet slender neck the long slim hands then abruptly turned about The last clods were filling the grave at a time when he was already far away his horses head turned toward the desert
For two years no syllable was heard of him It was believed that he had killed himself But Vanamee had no thought of that For two years he wandered through Arizona living in the desert in the wilderness a recluse a nomad an ascetic But doubtless all his heart was in the little coffin in the Mission garden Once in so often he must come back thither One day he was seen again in the San Joaquin The priest Father Sarria returning from a visit to the sick at Bonneville met him on the Upper Road Eighteen years had passed since Angele had died but the thread of Vanamees life had been snapped Nothing remained now but the tangled ends He had never forgotten The long dull ache the poignant grief had now become a part of him Presley knew this to be so
While Presley had been reflecting upon all this Vanamee had continued to speak Presley however had not been wholly inattentive While his memory was busy reconstructing the details of the drama of the shepherds life another part of his brain had been swiftly registering picture after picture that Vanamees monotonous flow of words struck off as it were upon a steadily moving scroll The music of the unfamiliar names that occurred in his recital was a stimulant to the poets imagination Presley had the poets passion for expressive sonorous names As these came and went in Vanamees monotonous undertones like little notes of harmony in a musical progression he listened delighted with their resonance—Navajo Quijotoa Uintah Sonora Laredo Uncompahgre—to him they were so many symbols It was his West that passed unrolling there before the eye of his mind the open heatscourged round of desert the mesa like a vast altar shimmering purple in the royal sunset the still gigantic mountains heaving into the sky from out the canyons the strenuous fierce life of isolated towns lost and forgotten down there far off below the horizon Abruptly his great poem his Song of the West leaped up again in his imagination For the moment he all but held it It was there close at hand In another instant he would grasp it
Yes yes he exclaimed I can see it all The desert the mountains all wild primordial untamed How I should have loved to have been with you Then perhaps I should have got hold of my idea
Your idea
The great poem of the West Its that which I want to write Oh to put it all into hexameters strike the great iron note sing the vast terrible song the song of the People the forerunners of empire
Vanamee understood him perfectly He nodded gravely
Yes it is there It is Life the primitive simple direct Life passionate tumultuous Yes there is an epic there
Presley caught at the word It had never before occurred to him
Epic yes thats it It is the epic Im searching for And HOW I search for it You dont know It is sometimes almost an agony Often and often I can feel it right there there at my fingertips but I never quite catch it It always eludes me I was born too late Ah to get back to that first cleareyed view of things to see as Homer saw as Beowulf saw as the Nibelungen poets saw The life is here the same as then the Poem is here my West is here the primeval epic life is here here under our hands in the desert in the mountain on the ranch all over here from Winnipeg to Guadalupe It is the man who is lacking the poet we have been educated away from it all We are out of touch We are out of tune
Vanamee heard him to the end his grave sad face thoughtful and attentive Then he rose
I am going over to the Mission he said to see Father Sarria I have not seen him yet
How about the sheep
The dogs will keep them in hand and I shall not be gone long Besides that I have a boy here to help He is over yonder on the other side of the herd We cant see him from here
Presley wondered at the heedlessness of leaving the sheep so slightly guarded but made no comment and the two started off across the field in the direction of the Mission church
Well yes it is there—your epic observed Vanamee as they went along But why write Why not LIVE in it Steep oneself in the heat of the desert the glory of the sunset the blue haze of the mesa and the canyon
As you have done for instance
Vanamee nodded
No I could not do that declared Presley I want to go back but not so far as you I feel that I must compromise I must find expression I could not lose myself like that in your desert When its vastness overwhelmed me or its beauty dazzled me or its loneliness weighed down upon me I should have to record my impressions Otherwise I should suffocate
Each to his own life observed Vanamee
The Mission of San Juan built of brown dobe blocks covered with yellow plaster that at many points had dropped away from the walls stood on the crest of a low rise of the ground facing to the south A covered colonnade paved with round worn bricks from whence opened the doors of the abandoned cells once used by the monks adjoined it on the left The roof was of tiled halfcylinders split longitudinally and laid in alternate rows now concave now convex The main body of the church itself was at right angles to the colonnade and at the point of intersection rose the belfry tower an ancient campanile where swung the three cracked bells the gift of the King of Spain Beyond the church was the Mission garden and the graveyard that overlooked the Seed ranch in a little hollow beyond
Presley and Vanamee went down the long colonnade to the last door next the belfry tower and Vanamee pulled the leather thong that hung from a hole in the door setting a little bell jangling somewhere in the interior The place but for this noise was shrouded in a Sunday stillness an absolute repose Only at intervals one heard the trickle of the unseen fountain and the liquid cooing of doves in the garden
Father Sarria opened the door He was a small man somewhat stout with a smooth and shiny face He wore a frock coat that was rather dirty slippers and an old yachting cap of blue cloth with a broken leather vizor He was smoking a cheap cigar very fat and black
But instantly he recognised Vanamee His face went all alight with pleasure and astonishment It seemed as if he would never have finished shaking both his hands and as it was he released but one of them patting him affectionately on the shoulder with the other He was voluble in his welcome talking partly in Spanish partly in English So he had come back again this great fellow tanned as an Indian lean as an Indian with an Indians long black hair But he had not changed not in the very least His beard had not grown an inch Aha The rascal never to give warning to drop down as it were from out the sky Such a hermit To live in the desert A veritable Saint Jerome Did a lion feed him down there in Arizona or was it a raven like Elijah The good God had not fattened him at any rate and apropos he was just about to dine himself He had made a salad from his own lettuce The two would dine with him eh For this my son that was lost is found again
But Presley excused himself Instinctively he felt that Sarria and Vanamee wanted to talk of things concerning which he was an outsider It was not at all unlikely that Vanamee would spend half the night before the high altar in the church
He took himself away his mind still busy with Vanamees extraordinary life and character But as he descended the hill he was startled by a prolonged and raucous cry discordant very harsh thrice repeated at exact intervals and looking up he saw one of Father Sarrias peacocks balancing himself upon the topmost wire of the fence his long tail trailing his neck outstretched filling the air with his stupid outcry for no reason than the desire to make a noise
About an hour later toward four in the afternoon Presley reached the spring at the head of the little canyon in the northeast corner of the Quien Sabe ranch the point toward which he had been travelling since early in the forenoon The place was not without its charm Innumerable liveoaks overhung the canyon and Broderson Creek—there a mere rivulet running down from the spring—gave a certain coolness to the air It was one of the few spots thereabouts that had survived the dry season of the last year Nearly all the other springs had dried completely while Mission Creek on Derricks ranch was nothing better than a dusty cutting in the ground filled with brittle concave flakes of dried and suncracked mud
Presley climbed to the summit of one of the hills—the highest—that rose out of the canyon from the crest of which he could see for thirty fifty sixty miles down the valley and filling his pipe smoked lazily for upwards of an hour his head empty of thought allowing himself to succumb to a pleasant gentle inanition a little drowsy comfortable in his place prone upon the ground warmed just enough by such sunlight as filtered through the liveoaks soothed by the good tobacco and the prolonged murmur of the spring and creek By degrees the sense of his own personality became blunted the little wheels and cogs of thought moved slower and slower consciousness dwindled to a point the animal in him stretched itself purring A delightful numbness invaded his mind and his body He was not asleep he was not awake stupefied merely lapsing back to the state of the faun the satyr
After a while rousing himself a little he shifted his position and drawing from the pocket of his shooting coat his little treecalf edition of the Odyssey read far into the twentyfirst book where after the failure of all the suitors to bend Ulyssess bow it is finally put with mockery into his own hands Abruptly the drama of the story roused him from all his languor In an instant he was the poet again his nerves tingling alive to every sensation responsive to every impression The desire of creation of composition grew big within him Hexameters of his own clamoured tumultuous in his brain Not for a long time had he felt his poem as he called this sensation so poignantly For an instant he told himself that he actually held it
It was no doubt Vanamees talk that had stimulated him to this point The story of the Long Trail with its desert and mountain its cliffdwellers its Aztec ruins its colour movement and romance filled his mind with picture after picture The epic defiled before his vision like a pageant Once more he shot a glance about him as if in search of the inspiration and this time he all but found it He rose to his feet looking out and off below him
As from a pinnacle Presley from where he now stood dominated the entire country The sun had begun to set everything in the range of his vision was overlaid with a sheen of gold
First close at hand it was the Seed ranch carpeting the little hollow behind the Mission with a spread of greens some dark some vivid some pale almost to yellowness Beyond that was the Mission itself its venerable campanile in whose arches hung the Spanish Kings bells already glowing ruddy in the sunset Farther on he could make out Annixters ranch house marked by the skeletonlike tower of the artesian well and a little farther to the east the huddled tiled roofs of Guadalajara Far to the west and north he saw Bonneville very plain and the dome of the courthouse a purple silhouette against the glare of the sky Other points detached themselves swimming in a golden mist projecting blue shadows far before them the mammoth liveoak by Hoovens towering superb and magnificent the line of eucalyptus trees behind which he knew was the Los Muertos ranch house—his home the wateringtank the great ironhooped tower of wood that stood at the joining of the Lower Road and the County Road the long windbreak of poplar trees and the white walls of Carahers saloon on the County Road
But all this seemed to be only foreground a mere array of accessories—a mass of irrelevant details Beyond Annixters beyond Guadalajara beyond the Lower Road beyond Broderson Creek on to the south and west infinite illimitable stretching out there under the sheen of the sunset forever and forever flat vast unbroken a huge scroll unrolling between the horizons spread the great stretches of the ranch of Los Muertos bare of crops shaved close in the recent harvest Near at hand were hills but on that far southern horizon only the curve of the great earth itself checked the view Adjoining Los Muertos and widening to the west opened the Broderson ranch The Osterman ranch to the northwest carried on the great sweep of landscape ranch after ranch Then as the imagination itself expanded under the stimulus of that measureless range of vision even those great ranches resolved themselves into mere foreground mere accessories irrelevant details Beyond the fine line of the horizons over the curve of the globe the shoulder of the earth were other ranches equally vast and beyond these others and beyond these still others the immensities multiplying lengthening out vaster and vaster The whole gigantic sweep of the San Joaquin expanded Titanic before the eye of the mind flagellated with heat quivering and shimmering under the suns red eye At long intervals a faint breath of wind out of the south passed slowly over the levels of the baked and empty earth accentuating the silence marking off the stillness It seemed to exhale from the land itself a prolonged sigh as of deep fatigue It was the season after the harvest and the great earth the mother after its period of reproduction its pains of labour delivered of the fruit of its loins slept the sleep of exhaustion the infinite repose of the colossus benignant eternal strong the nourisher of nations the feeder of an entire world Ha there it was his epic his inspiration his West his thundering progression of hexameters A sudden uplift a sense of exhilaration of physical exaltation appeared abruptly to sweep Presley from his feet As from a point high above the world he seemed to dominate a universe a whole order of things He was dizzied stunned stupefied his morbid supersensitive mind reeling drunk with the intoxication of mere immensity Stupendous ideas for which there were no names drove headlong through his brain Terrible formless shapes vague figures gigantic monstrous distorted whirled at a gallop through his imagination
He started homeward still in his dream descending from the hill emerging from the canyon and took the short cut straight across the Quien Sabe ranch leaving Guadalajara far to his left He tramped steadily on through the wheat stubble walking fast his head in a whirl
Never had he so nearly grasped his inspiration as at that moment on the hilltop Even now though the sunset was fading though the wide reach of valley was shut from sight it still kept him company Now the details came thronging back—the component parts of his poem the signs and symbols of the West It was there close at hand he had been in touch with it all day It was in the centenarians vividly coloured reminiscences—De La Cuesta holding his grant from the Spanish crown with his power of life and death the romance of his marriage the white horse with its pillion of red leather and silver bridle mountings the bullfights in the Plaza the gifts of gold dust and horses and tallow It was in Vanamees strange history the tragedy of his love Angele Varian with her marvellous loveliness the Egyptian fulness of her lips the perplexing upward slant of her violet eyes bizarre oriental her white forehead made three cornered by her plaits of gold hair the mystery of the Other her death at the moment of her childs birth It was in Vanamees flight into the wilderness the story of the Long Trail the sunsets behind the altarlike mesas the baking desolation of the deserts the strenuous fierce life of forgotten towns down there far off lost below the horizons of the southwest the sonorous music of unfamiliar names—Quijotoa Uintah Sonora Laredo Uncompahgre It was in the Mission with its cracked bells its decaying walls its venerable sun dial its fountain and old garden and in the Mission Fathers themselves the priests the padres planting the first wheat and oil and wine to produce the elements of the Sacrament—a trinity of great industries taking their rise in a religious rite
Abruptly as if in confirmation Presley heard the sound of a bell from the direction of the Mission itself It was the de Profundis a note of the Old World of the ancient regime an echo from the hillsides of mediaeval Europe sounding there in this new land unfamiliar and strange at this endofthecentury time
By now however it was dark Presley hurried forward He came to the line fence of the Quien Sabe ranch Everything was very still The stars were all out There was not a sound other than the de Profundis still sounding from very far away At long intervals the great earth sighed dreamily in its sleep All about the feeling of absolute peace and quiet and security and untroubled happiness and content seemed descending from the stars like a benediction The beauty of his poem its idyl came to him like a caress that alone had been lacking It was that perhaps which had left it hitherto incomplete At last he was to grasp his song in all its entity But suddenly there was an interruption Presley had climbed the fence at the limit of the Quien Sabe ranch Beyond was Los Muertos but between the two ran the railroad He had only time to jump back upon the embankment when with a quivering of all the earth a locomotive single unattached shot by him with a roar filling the air with the reek of hot oil vomiting smoke and sparks its enormous eye cyclopean red throwing a glare far in advance shooting by in a sudden crash of confused thunder filling the night with the terrific clamour of its iron hoofs
Abruptly Presley remembered This must be the crack passenger engine of which Dyke had told him the one delayed by the accident on the Bakersfield division and for whose passage the track had been opened all the way to Fresno
Before Presley could recover from the shock of the irruption while the earth was still vibrating the rails still humming the engine was far away flinging the echo of its frantic gallop over all the valley For a brief instant it roared with a hollow diapason on the Long Trestle over Broderson Creek then plunged into a cutting farther on the quivering glare of its fires losing itself in the night its thunder abruptly diminishing to a subdued and distant humming All at once this ceased The engine was gone
But the moment the noise of the engine lapsed Presley—about to start forward again—was conscious of a confusion of lamentable sounds that rose into the night from out the engines wake Prolonged cries of agony sobbing wails of infinite pain heartrending pitiful
The noises came from a little distance He ran down the track crossing the culvert over the irrigating ditch and at the head of the long reach of track—between the culvert and the Long Trestle—paused abruptly held immovable at the sight of the ground and rails all about him
In some way the herd of sheep—Vanamees herd—had found a breach in the wire fence by the right of way and had wandered out upon the tracks A band had been crossing just at the moment of the engines passage The pathos of it was beyond expression It was a slaughter a massacre of innocents The iron monster had charged full into the midst merciless inexorable To the right and left all the width of the right of way the little bodies had been flung backs were snapped against the fence posts brains knocked out Caught in the barbs of the wire wedged in the bodies hung suspended Under foot it was terrible The black blood winking in the starlight seeped down into the clinkers between the ties with a prolonged sucking murmur
Presley turned away horrorstruck sick at heart overwhelmed with a quick burst of irresistible compassion for this brute agony he could not relieve The sweetness was gone from the evening the sense of peace of security and placid contentment was stricken from the landscape The hideous ruin in the engines path drove all thought of his poem from his mind The inspiration vanished like a mist The de Profundis had ceased to ring
He hurried on across the Los Muertos ranch almost running even putting his hands over his ears till he was out of hearing distance of that all but human distress Not until he was beyond earshot did he pause looking back listening The night had shut down again For a moment the silence was profound unbroken
Then faint and prolonged across the levels of the ranch he heard the engine whistling for Bonneville Again and again at rapid intervals in its flying course it whistled for road crossings for sharp curves for trestles ominous notes hoarse bellowing ringing with the accents of menace and defiance and abruptly Presley saw again in his imagination the galloping monster the terror of steel and steam with its single eye cyclopean red shooting from horizon to horizon but saw it now as the symbol of a vast power huge terrible flinging the echo of its thunder over all the reaches of the valley leaving blood and destruction in its path the leviathan with tentacles of steel clutching into the soil the soulless Force the ironhearted Power the monster the Colossus the Octopus
CHAPTER II
On the following morning Harran Derrick was up and about by a little after six oclock and a quarter of an hour later had breakfast in the kitchen of the ranch house preferring not to wait until the Chinese cook laid the table in the regular diningroom He scented a hard days work ahead of him and was anxious to be at it betimes He was practically the manager of Los Muertos and with the aid of his foreman and three division superintendents carried forward nearly the entire direction of the ranch occupying himself with the details of his fathers plans executing his orders signing contracts paying bills and keeping the books
For the last three weeks little had been done The crop—such as it was—had been harvested and sold and there had been a general relaxation of activity for upwards of a month Now however the fall was coming on the dry season was about at its end any time after the twentieth of the month the first rains might be expected softening the ground putting it into condition for the plough Two days before this Harran had notified his superintendents on Three and Four to send in such grain as they had reserved for seed On Two the wheat had not even shown itself above the ground while on One the Home ranch which was under his own immediate supervision the seed had already been graded and selected
It was Harrans intention to commence bluestoning his seed that day a delicate and important process which prevented rust and smut appearing in the crop when the wheat should come up But furthermore he wanted to find time to go to Guadalajara to meet the Governor on the morning train His day promised to be busy
But as Harran was finishing his last cup of coffee Phelps the foreman on the Home ranch who also looked after the storage barns where the seed was kept presented himself cap in hand on the back porch by the kitchen door
I thought Id speak to you about the seed from Four sir he said That hasnt been brought in yet
Harran nodded
Ill see about it Youve got all the bluestone you want have you Phelps and without waiting for an answer he added Tell the stableman I shall want the team about nine oclock to go to Guadalajara Put them in the buggy The bays you understand When the other had gone Harran drank off the rest of his coffee and rising passed through the diningroom and across a stonepaved hallway with a glass roof into the office just beyond
The office was the nervecentre of the entire ten thousand acres of Los Muertos but its appearance and furnishings were not in the least suggestive of a farm It was divided at about its middle by a wire railing painted green and gold and behind this railing were the high desks where the books were kept the safe the letterpress and letterfiles and Harrans typewriting machine A great map of Los Muertos with every watercourse depression and elevation together with indications of the varying depths of the clays and loams in the soil accurately plotted hung against the wall between the windows while near at hand by the safe was the telephone
But no doubt the most significant object in the office was the ticker This was an innovation in the San Joaquin an idea of shrewd quickwitted young Annixter which Harran and Magnus Derrick had been quick to adopt and after them Broderson and Osterman and many others of the wheat growers of the county The offices of the ranches were thus connected by wire with San Francisco and through that city with Minneapolis Duluth Chicago New York and at last and most important of all with Liverpool Fluctuations in the price of the worlds crop during and after the harvest thrilled straight to the office of Los Muertos to that of the Quien Sabe to Ostermans and to Brodersons During a flurry in the Chicago wheat pits in the August of that year which had affected even the San Francisco market Harran and Magnus had sat up nearly half of one night watching the strip of white tape jerking unsteadily from the reel At such moments they no longer felt their individuality The ranch became merely the part of an enormous whole a unit in the vast agglomeration of wheat land the whole world round feeling the effects of causes thousands of miles distant—a drought on the prairies of Dakota a rain on the plains of India a frost on the Russian steppes a hot wind on the llanos of the Argentine
Harran crossed over to the telephone and rang six bells the call for the division house on Four It was the most distant the most isolated point on all the ranch situated at its far southeastern extremity where few people ever went close to the line fence a dot a speck lost in the immensity of the open country By the road it was eleven miles distant from the office and by the trail to Hoovens and the Lower Road all of nine
How about that seed demanded Harran when he had got Cutter on the line
The other made excuses for an unavoidable delay and was adding that he was on the point of starting out when Harran cut in with
You had better go the trail It will save a little time and I am in a hurry Put your sacks on the horses backs And Cutter if you see Hooven when you go by his place tell him I want him and by the way take a look at the end of the irrigating ditch when you get to it See how they are getting along there and if Billy wants anything Tell him we are expecting those new scoops down tomorrow or next day and to get along with what he has until then Hows everything on Four All right then Give your seed to Phelps when you get here if I am not about I am going to Guadalajara to meet the Governor Hes coming down today And that makes me think we lost the case you know I had a letter from the Governor yesterday Yes hard luck S Behrman did us up Well goodbye and dont lose any time with that seed I want to bluestone today
After telephoning Cutter Harran put on his hat went over to the barns and found Phelps Phelps had already cleaned out the vat which was to contain the solution of bluestone and was now at work regrading the seed Against the wall behind him ranged the row of sacks Harran cut the fastenings of these and examined the contents carefully taking handfuls of wheat from each and allowing it to run through his fingers or nipping the grains between his nails testing their hardness
The seed was all of the white varieties of wheat and of a very high grade the berries hard and heavy rigid and swollen with starch
If it was all like that sir hey observed Phelps
Harran put his chin in the air
Bread would be as good as cake then he answered going from sack to sack inspecting the contents and consulting the tags affixed to the mouths
Hello he remarked heres a red wheat Where did this come from
Thats that red Clawson we sowed to the piece on Four north the Mission Creek just to see how it would do here We didnt get a very good catch
We cant do better than to stay by White Sonora and Propo remarked Harran Weve got our best results with that and European millers like it to mix with the Eastern wheats that have more gluten than ours That is if we have any wheat at all next year
A feeling of discouragement for the moment bore down heavily upon him At intervals this came to him and for the moment it was overpowering The idea of whatstheuse was upon occasion a veritable oppression Everything seemed to combine to lower the price of wheat The extension of wheat areas always exceeded increase of population competition was growing fiercer every year The farmers profits were the object of attack from a score of different quarters It was a flock of vultures descending upon a common prey—the commission merchant the elevator combine the mixinghouse ring the banks the warehouse men the labouring man and above all the railroad Steadily the Liverpool buyers cut and cut and cut Everything every element of the worlds markets tended to force down the price to the lowest possible figure at which it could be profitably farmed Now it was down to eightyseven It was at that figure the crop had sold that year and to think that the Governor had seen wheat at two dollars and five cents in the year of the TurkoRussian War
He turned back to the house after giving Phelps final directions gloomy disheartened his hands deep in his pockets wondering what was to be the outcome So narrow had the margin of profit shrunk that a dry season meant bankruptcy to the smaller farmers throughout all the valley He knew very well how widespread had been the distress the last two years With their own tenants on Los Muertos affairs had reached the stage of desperation Derrick had practically been obliged to carry Hooven and some of the others The Governor himself had made almost nothing during the last season a third year like the last with the price steadily sagging meant nothing else but ruin
But here he checked himself Two consecutive dry seasons in California were almost unprecedented a third would be beyond belief and the complete rest for nearly all the land was a compensation They had made no money that was true but they had lost none Thank God the homestead was free of mortgage one good season would more than make up the difference
He was in a better mood by the time he reached the driveway that led up to the ranch house and as he raised his eyes toward the house itself he could not but feel that the sight of his home was cheering The ranch house was set in a great grove of eucalyptus oak and cypress enormous trees growing from out a lawn that was as green as fresh and as wellgroomed as any in a garden in the city This lawn flanked all one side of the house and it was on this side that the family elected to spend most of its time The other side looking out upon the Home ranch toward Bonneville and the railroad was but little used A deep porch ran the whole length of the house here and in the lower branches of a liveoak near the steps Harran had built a little summer house for his mother To the left of the ranch house itself toward the County Road was the bunkhouse and kitchen for some of the hands From the steps of the porch the view to the southward expanded to infinity There was not so much as a twig to obstruct the view In one leap the eye reached the fine delicate line where earth and sky met miles away The flat monotony of the land clean of fencing was broken by one spot only the roof of the Division Superintendents house on Three—a mere speck just darker than the ground Cutters house on Four was not even in sight That was below the horizon
As Harran came up he saw his mother at breakfast The table had been set on the porch and Mrs Derrick stirring her coffee with one hand held open with the other the pages of Walter Paters Marius At her feet Princess Nathalie the white Angora cat sleek overfed selfcentred sat on her haunches industriously licking at the white fur of her breast while near at hand by the railing of the porch Presley pottered with a new bicycle lamp filling it with oil adjusting the wicks
Harran kissed his mother and sat down in a wicker chair on the porch removing his hat running his fingers through his yellow hair
Magnus Derricks wife looked hardly old enough to be the mother of two such big fellows as Harran and Lyman Derrick She was not far into the fifties and her brown hair still retained much of its brightness She could yet be called pretty Her eyes were large and easily assumed a look of inquiry and innocence such as one might expect to see in a young girl By disposition she was retiring she easily obliterated herself She was not made for the harshness of the world and yet she had known these harshnesses in her younger days Magnus had married her when she was twentyone years old at a time when she was a graduate of some years standing from the State Normal School and was teaching literature music and penmanship in a seminary in the town of Marysville She overworked herself here continually loathing the strain of teaching yet clinging to it with a tenacity born of the knowledge that it was her only means of support Both her parents were dead she was dependent upon herself Her one ambition was to see Italy and the Bay of Naples The Marble Faun Raphaels Madonnas and Il Trovatore were her beau ideals of literature and art She dreamed of Italy Rome Naples and the worlds great artcentres There was no doubt that her affair with Magnus had been a lovematch but Annie Payne would have loved any man who would have taken her out of the droning heartbreaking routine of the class and music room She had followed his fortunes unquestioningly First at Sacramento during the turmoil of his political career later on at Placerville in El Dorado County after Derrick had interested himself in the Corpus Christi group of mines and finally at Los Muertos where after selling out his fourth interest in Corpus Christi he had turned rancher and had come in on the new tracts of wheat land just thrown open by the railroad She had lived here now for nearly ten years But never for one moment since the time her glance first lost itself in the unbroken immensity of the ranches had she known a moments content Continually there came into her pretty wideopen eyes—the eyes of a young doe—a look of uneasiness of distrust and aversion Los Muertos frightened her She remembered the days of her young girlhood passed on a farm in eastern Ohio—five hundred acres neatly partitioned into the water lot the cow pasture the corn lot the barley field and wheat farm cosey comfortable homelike where the farmers loved their land caressing it coaxing it nourishing it as though it were a thing almost conscious where the seed was sown by hand and a single twohorse plough was sufficient for the entire farm where the scythe sufficed to cut the harvest and the grain was thrashed with flails
But this new order of things—a ranch bounded only by the horizons where as far as one could see to the north to the east to the south and to the west was all one holding a principality ruled with iron and steam bullied into a yield of three hundred and fifty thousand bushels where even when the land was resting unploughed unharrowed and unsown the wheat came up—troubled her and even at times filled her with an undefinable terror To her mind there was something inordinate about it all something almost unnatural The direct brutality of ten thousand acres of wheat nothing but wheat as far as the eye could see stunned her a little The onetime writingteacher of a young ladies seminary with her pretty deerlike eyes and delicate fingers shrank from it She did not want to look at so much wheat There was something vaguely indecent in the sight this food of the people this elemental force this basic energy weltering here under the sun in all the unconscious nakedness of a sprawling primordial Titan
The monotony of the ranch ate into her heart hour by hour year by year And with it all when was she to see Rome Italy and the Bay of Naples It was a different prospect truly Magnus had given her his promise that once the ranch was well established they two should travel But continually he had been obliged to put her off now for one reason now for another the machine would not as yet run of itself he must still feel his hand upon the lever next year perhaps when wheat should go to ninety or the rains were good She did not insist She obliterated herself only allowing from time to time her pretty questioning eyes to meet his In the meantime she retired within herself She surrounded herself with books Her taste was of the delicacy of point lace She knew her Austin Dobson by heart She read poems essays the ideas of the seminary at Marysville persisting in her mind Marius the Epicurean The Essays of Elia Sesame and Lilies The Stones of Venice and the little toy magazines full of the flaccid banalities of the Minor Poets were continually in her hands
When Presley had appeared on Los Muertos she had welcomed his arrival with delight Here at last was a congenial spirit She looked forward to long conversations with the young man on literature art and ethics But Presley had disappointed her That he—outside of his few chosen deities—should care little for literature shocked her beyond words His indifference to style to elegant English was a positive affront His savage abuse and open ridicule of the neatly phrased rondeaux and sestinas and chansonettes of the little magazines was to her mind a wanton and uncalledfor cruelty She found his Homer with its slaughters and hecatombs and barbaric feastings and headstrong passions violent and coarse She could not see with him any romance any poetry in the life around her she looked to Italy for that His Song of the West which only once incoherent and fierce he had tried to explain to her its swift tumultous life its truth its nobility and savagery its heroism and obscenity had revolted her
But Presley she had murmured that is not literature
No he had cried between his teeth no thank God it is not
A little later one of the stablemen brought the buggy with the team of bays up to the steps of the porch and Harran putting on a different coat and a black hat took himself off to Guadalajara The morning was fine there was no cloud in the sky but as Harrans buggy drew away from the grove of trees about the ranch house emerging into the open country on either side of the Lower Road he caught himself looking sharply at the sky and the faint line of hills beyond the Quien Sabe ranch There was a certain indefinite cast to the landscape that to Harrans eye was not to be mistaken Rain the first of the season was not far off
Thats good he muttered touching the bays with the whip we cant get our ploughs to hand any too soon
These ploughs Magnus Derrick had ordered from an Eastern manufacturer some months before since he was dissatisfied with the results obtained from the ones he had used hitherto which were of local make However there had been exasperating and unexpected delays in their shipment Magnus and Harran both had counted upon having the ploughs in their implement barns that very week but a tracer sent after them had only resulted in locating them still en route somewhere between The Needles and Bakersfield Now there was likelihood of rain within the week Ploughing could be undertaken immediately afterward so soon as the ground was softened but there was a fair chance that the ranch would lie idle for want of proper machinery
It was ten minutes before train time when Harran reached the depot at Guadalajara The San Francisco papers of the preceding day had arrived on an earlier train He bought a couple from the station agent and looked them over till a distant and prolonged whistle announced the approach of the down train
In one of the four passengers that alighted from the train he recognised his father He half rose in his seat whistling shrilly between his teeth waving his hand and Magnus Derrick catching sight of him came forward quickly
Magnus—the Governor—was all of six feet tall and though now well toward his sixtieth year was as erect as an officer of cavalry He was broad in proportion a fine commanding figure imposing an immediate respect impressing one with a sense of gravity of dignity and a certain pride of race He was smoothshaven thinlipped with a broad chin and a prominent hawklike nose—the characteristic of the family—thin with a high bridge such as one sees in the later portraits of the Duke of Wellington His hair was thick and irongrey and had a tendency to curl in a forward direction just in front of his ears He wore a tophat of grey with a wide brim and a frock coat and carried a cane with a yellowed ivory head
As a young man it had been his ambition to represent his native State—North Carolina—in the United States Senate Calhoun was his great man but in two successive campaigns he had been defeated His career checked in this direction he had come to California in the fifties He had known and had been the intimate friend of such men as Terry Broderick General Baker Lick Alvarado Emerich Larkin and above all of the unfortunate and misunderstood Ralston Once he had been put forward as the Democratic candidate for governor but failed of election After this Magnus had definitely abandoned politics and had invested all his money in the Corpus Christi mines Then he had sold out his interest at a small profit—just in time to miss his chance of becoming a multimillionaire in the Comstock boom—and was looking for reinvestments in other lines when the news that wheat had been discovered in California was passed from mouth to mouth Practically it amounted to a discovery Dr Glenns first harvest of wheat in Colusa County quietly undertaken but suddenly realised with dramatic abruptness gave a new matter for reflection to the thinking men of the New West California suddenly leaped unheralded into the worlds market as a competitor in wheat production In a few years her output of wheat exceeded the value of her output of gold and when later on the Pacific and Southwestern Railroad threw open to settlers the rich lands of Tulare County—conceded to the corporation by the government as a bonus for the construction of the road—Magnus had been quick to seize the opportunity and had taken up the ten thousand acres of Los Muertos Wherever he had gone Magnus had taken his family with him Lyman had been born at Sacramento during the turmoil and excitement of Derricks campaign for governor and Harran at Shingle Springs in El Dorado County six years later
But Magnus was in every sense the prominent man In whatever circle he moved he was the chief figure Instinctively other men looked to him as the leader He himself was proud of this distinction he assumed the grand manner very easily and carried it well As a public speaker he was one of the last of the followers of the old school of orators He even carried the diction and manner of the rostrum into private life It was said of him that his most colloquial conversation could be taken down in shorthand and read off as an admirable specimen of pure wellchosen English He loved to do things upon a grand scale to preside to dominate In his good humour there was something Jovian When angry everybody around him trembled But he had not the genius for detail was not patient The certain grandiose lavishness of his disposition occupied itself more with results than with means He was always ready to take chances to hazard everything on the hopes of colossal returns In the mining days at Placerville there was no more redoubtable poker player in the county He had been as lucky in his mines as in his gambling sinking shafts and tunnelling in violation of expert theory and finding pay in every case Without knowing it he allowed himself to work his ranch much as if he was still working his mine The oldtime spirit of 49 haphazard unscientific persisted in his mind Everything was a gamble—who took the greatest chances was most apt to be the greatest winner The idea of manuring Los Muertos of husbanding his great resources he would have scouted as niggardly Hebraic ungenerous
Magnus climbed into the buggy helping himself with Harrans outstretched hand which he still held The two were immensely fond of each other proud of each other They were constantly together and Magnus kept no secrets from his favourite son
Well boy
Well Governor
I am very pleased you came yourself Harran I feared that you might be too busy and send Phelps It was thoughtful
Harran was about to reply but at that moment Magnus caught sight of the three flat cars loaded with brightpainted farming machines which still remained on the siding above the station He laid his hands on the reins and Harran checked the team
Harran observed Magnus fixing the machinery with a judicial frown Harran those look singularly like our ploughs Drive over boy
The train had by this time gone on its way and Harran brought the team up to the siding
Ah I was right said the Governor Magnus Derrick Los Muertos Bonneville from Ditson Co Rochester These are ours boy
Harran breathed a sigh of relief
At last he answered and just in time too Well have rain before the week is out I think now that I am here I will telephone Phelps to send the wagon right down for these I started bluestoning today
Magnus nodded a grave approval
That was shrewd boy As to the rain I think you are well informed we will have an early season The ploughs have arrived at a happy moment
It means money to us Governor remarked Harran
But as he turned the horses to allow his father to get into the buggy again the two were surprised to hear a thick throaty voice wishing them goodmorning and turning about were aware of S Behrman who had come up while they were examining the ploughs Harrans eyes flashed on the instant and through his nostrils he drew a sharp quick breath while a certain rigour of carriage stiffened the set of Magnus Derricks shoulders and back Magnus had not yet got into the buggy but stood with the team between him and S Behrman eyeing him calmly across the horses backs S Behrman came around to the other side of the buggy and faced Magnus
He was a large fat man with a great stomach his cheek and the upper part of his thick neck ran together to form a great tremulous jowl shaven and bluegrey in colour a roll of fat sprinkled with sparse hair moist with perspiration protruded over the back of his collar He wore a heavy black moustache On his head was a roundtopped hat of stiff brown straw highly varnished A lightbrown linen vest stamped with innumerable interlocked horseshoes covered his protuberant stomach upon which a heavy watch chain of hollow links rose and fell with his difficult breathing clinking against the vest buttons of imitation motherofpearl
S Behrman was the banker of Bonneville But besides this he was many other things He was a real estate agent He bought grain he dealt in mortgages He was one of the local political bosses but more important than all this he was the representative of the Pacific and Southwestern Railroad in that section of Tulare County The railroad did little business in that part of the country that S Behrman did not supervise from the consignment of a shipment of wheat to the management of a damage suit or even to the repair and maintenance of the right of way During the time when the ranchers of the county were fighting the grainrate case S Behrman had been much in evidence in and about the San Francisco court rooms and the lobby of the legislature in Sacramento He had returned to Bonneville only recently a decision adverse to the ranchers being foreseen The position he occupied on the salary list of the Pacific and Southwestern could not readily be defined for he was neither freight agent passenger agent attorney realestate broker nor political servant though his influence in all these offices was undoubted and enormous But for all that the ranchers about Bonneville knew whom to look to as a source of trouble There was no denying the fact that for Osterman Broderson Annixter and Derrick S Behrman was the railroad
Mr Derrick goodmorning he cried as he came up Goodmorning Harran Glad to see you back Mr Derrick He held out a thick hand
Magnus head and shoulders above the other tall thin erect looked down upon S Behrman inclining his head failing to see his extended hand
Goodmorning sir he observed and waited for S Behrmans further speech
Well Mr Derrick continued S Behrman wiping the back of his neck with his handkerchief I saw in the city papers yesterday that our case had gone against you
I guess it wasnt any great news to YOU commented Harran his face scarlet I guess you knew which way Ulsteen was going to jump after your very first interview with him You dont like to be surprised in this sort of thing S Behrman
Now you know better than that Harran remonstrated S Behrman blandly I know what you mean to imply but I aint going to let it make me get mad I wanted to say to your Governor—I wanted to say to you Mr Derrick—as one man to another—letting alone for the minute that we were on opposite sides of the case—that Im sorry you didnt win Your side made a good fight but it was in a mistaken cause Thats the whole trouble Why you could have figured out before you ever went into the case that such rates are confiscation of property You must allow us—must allow the railroad—a fair interest on the investment You dont want us to go into the receivers hands do you now Mr Derrick
The Board of Railroad Commissioners was bought remarked Magnus sharply a keen brisk flash glinting in his eye
It was part of the game put in Harran for the Railroad Commission to cut rates to a ridiculous figure far below a REASONABLE figure just so that it WOULD be confiscation Whether Ulsteen is a tool of yours or not he had to put the rates back to what they were originally
If you enforced those rates Mr Harran returned S Behrman calmly we wouldnt be able to earn sufficient money to meet operating expenses or fixed charges to say nothing of a surplus left over to pay dividends——
Tell me when the P and S W ever paid dividends
The lowest rates continued S Behrman that the legislature can establish must be such as will secure us a fair interest on our investment
Well whats your standard Come lets hear it Who is to say whats a fair rate The railroad has its own notions of fairness sometimes
The laws of the State returned S Behrman fix the rate of interest at seven per cent Thats a good enough standard for us There is no reason Mr Harran why a dollar invested in a railroad should not earn as much as a dollar represented by a promissory note—seven per cent By applying your schedule of rates we would not earn a cent we would be bankrupt
Interest on your investment cried Harran furious Its fine to talk about fair interest I know and you know that the total earnings of the P and S W—their main branch and leased lines for last year—was between nineteen and twenty millions of dollars Do you mean to say that twenty million dollars is seven per cent of the original cost of the road
S Behrman spread out his hands smiling
That was the gross not the net figure—and how can you tell what was the original cost of the road Ah thats just it shouted Harran emphasising each word with a blow of his fist upon his knee his eyes sparkling you take cursed good care that we dont know anything about the original cost of the road But we know you are bonded for treble your value and we know this that the road COULD have been built for fiftyfour thousand dollars per mile and that you SAY it cost you eightyseven thousand It makes a difference S Behrman on which of these two figures you are basing your seven per cent
That all may show obstinacy Harran observed S Behrman vaguely but it dont show common sense
We are threshing out old straw I believe gentlemen remarked Magnus The question was thoroughly sifted in the courts
Quite right assented S Behrman The best way is that the railroad and the farmer understand each other and get along peaceably We are both dependent on each other Your ploughs I believe Mr Derrick S Behrman nodded toward the flat cars
They are consigned to me admitted Magnus
It looks a trifle like rain observed S Behrman easing his neck and jowl in his limp collar I suppose you will want to begin ploughing next week
Possibly said Magnus
Ill see that your ploughs are hurried through for you then Mr Derrick We will route them by fast freight for you and it wont cost you anything extra
What do you mean demanded Harran The ploughs are here We have nothing more to do with the railroad I am going to have my wagons down here this afternoon
I am sorry answered S Behrman but the cars are going north not as you thought coming FROM the north They have not been to San Francisco yet
Magnus made a slight movement of the head as one who remembers a fact hitherto forgotten But Harran was as yet unenlightened
To San Francisco he answered we want them here—what are you talking about
Well you know of course the regulations answered S Behrman Freight of this kind coming from the Eastern points into the State must go first to one of our common points and be reshipped from there
Harran did remember now but never before had the matter so struck home He leaned back in his seat in dumb amazement for the instant Even Magnus had turned a little pale Then abruptly Harran broke out violent and raging
What next My God why dont you break into our houses at night Why dont you steal the watch out of my pocket steal the horses out of the harness hold us up with a shotgun yes stand and deliver your money or your life Here we bring our ploughs from the East over your lines but youre not content with your longhaul rate between Eastern points and Bonneville You want to get us under your ruinous shorthaul rate between Bonneville and San Francisco AND RETURN Think of it Heres a load of stuff for Bonneville that cant stop at Bonneville where it is consigned but has got to go up to San Francisco first BY WAY OF Bonneville at forty cents per ton and then be reshipped from San Francisco back to Bonneville again at FIFTYONE cents per ton the shorthaul rate And we have to pay it all or go without Here are the ploughs right here in sight of the land they have got to be used on the season just ready for them and we cant touch them Oh he exclaimed in deep disgust isnt it a pretty mess Isnt it a farce the whole dirty business
S Behrman listened to him unmoved his little eyes blinking under his fat forehead the gold chain of hollow links clicking against the pearl buttons of his waistcoat as he breathed
It dont do any good to let loose like that Harran he said at length I am willing to do what I can for you Ill hurry the ploughs through but I cant change the freight regulation of the road
Whats your blackmail for this vociferated Harran How much do you want to let us go How much have we got to pay you to be ALLOWED to use our own ploughs—whats your figure Come spit it out
I see you are trying to make me angry Harran returned S Behrman but you wont succeed Better give up trying my boy As I said the best way is to have the railroad and the farmer get along amicably It is the only way we can do business Well slong Governor I must trot along Slong Harran He took himself off
But before leaving Guadalajara Magnus dropped into the towns small grocery store to purchase a box of cigars of a certain Mexican brand unprocurable elsewhere Harran remained in the buggy
While he waited Dyke appeared at the end of the street and seeing Derricks younger son came over to shake hands with him He explained his affair with the P and S W and asked the young man what he thought of the expected rise in the price of hops
Hops ought to be a good thing Harran told him The crop in Germany and in New York has been a dead failure for the last three years and so many people have gone out of the business that theres likely to be a shortage and a stiff advance in the price They ought to go to a dollar next year Sure hops ought to be a good thing Hows the old lady and Sidney Dyke
Why fairly well thank you Harran Theyre up to Sacramento just now to see my brother I was thinking of going in with my brother into this hop business But I had a letter from him this morning He may not be able to meet me on this proposition Hes got other business on hand If he pulls out—and he probably will—Ill have to go it alone but Ill have to borrow I had thought with his money and mine we would have enough to pull off the affair without mortgaging anything As it is I guess Ill have to see S Behrman
Ill be cursed if I would exclaimed Harran
Well S Behrman is a screw admitted the engineer and he is railroad to his boots but business is business and he would have to stand by a contract in black and white and this chance in hops is too good to let slide I guess well try it on Harran I can get a good foreman that knows all about hops just now and if the deal pays—well I want to send Sid to a seminary up in San Francisco
Well mortgage the crops but dont mortgage the homestead Dyke said Harran And by the way have you looked up the freight rates on hops
No I havent yet answered Dyke and I had better be sure of that hadnt I I hear that the rate is reasonable though
You be sure to have a clear understanding with the railroad first about the rate Harran warned him
When Magnus came out of the grocery store and once more seated himself in the buggy he said to Harran Boy drive over here to Annixters before we start home I want to ask him to dine with us tonight Osterman and Broderson are to drop in I believe and I should like to have Annixter as well
Magnus was lavishly hospitable Los Muertoss doors invariably stood open to all the Derricks neighbours and once in so often Magnus had a few of his intimates to dinner
As Harran and his father drove along the road toward Annixters ranch house Magnus asked about what had happened during his absence
He inquired after his wife and the ranch commenting upon the work on the irrigating ditch Harran gave him the news of the past week Dykes discharge his resolve to raise a crop of hops Vanamees return the killing of the sheep and Hoovens petition to remain upon the ranch as Magnuss tenant It needed only Harrans recommendation that the German should remain to have Magnus consent upon the instant You know more about it than I boy he said and whatever you think is wise shall be done
Harran touched the bays with the whip urging them to their briskest pace They were not yet at Annixters and he was anxious to get back to the ranch house to supervise the bluestoning of his seed
By the way Governor he demanded suddenly how is Lyman getting on
Lyman Magnuss eldest son had never taken kindly toward ranch life He resembled his mother more than he did Magnus and had inherited from her a distaste for agriculture and a tendency toward a profession At a time when Harran was learning the rudiments of farming Lyman was entering the State University and graduating thence had spent three years in the study of law But later on traits that were particularly his fathers developed Politics interested him He told himself he was a born politician was diplomatic approachable had a talent for intrigue a gift of making friends easily and most indispensable of all a veritable genius for putting influential men under obligations to himself Already he had succeeded in gaining for himself two important offices in the municipal administration of San Francisco—where he had his home—sheriffs attorney and later on assistant district attorney But with these small achievements he was by no means satisfied The largeness of his fathers character modified in Lyman by a counterinfluence of selfishness had produced in him an inordinate ambition Where his father during his political career had considered himself only as an exponent of principles he strove to apply Lyman saw but the office his own personal aggrandisement He belonged to the new school wherein objects were attained not by orations before senates and assemblies but by sessions of committees caucuses compromises and expedients His goal was to be in fact what Magnus was only in name—governor Lyman with shut teeth had resolved that some day he would sit in the gubernatorial chair in Sacramento
Lyman is doing well answered Magnus I could wish he was more pronounced in his convictions less willing to compromise but I believe him to be earnest and to have a talent for government and civics His ambition does him credit and if he occupied himself a little more with means and a little less with ends he would I am sure be the ideal servant of the people But I am not afraid The time will come when the State will be proud of him
As Harran turned the team into the driveway that led up to Annixters house Magnus remarked
Harran isnt that young Annixter himself on the porch
Harran nodded and remarked
By the way Governor I wouldnt seem too cordial in your invitation to Annixter He will be glad to come I know but if you seem to want him too much it is just like his confounded obstinacy to make objections
There is something in that observed Magnus as Harran drew up at the porch of the house He is a queer crossgrained fellow but in many ways sterling
Annixter was lying in the hammock on the porch precisely as Presley had found him the day before reading David Copperfield and stuffing himself with dried prunes When he recognised Magnus however he got up though careful to give evidence of the most poignant discomfort He explained his difficulty at great length protesting that his stomach was no better than a spongebag Would Magnus and Harran get down and have a drink There was whiskey somewhere about
Magnus however declined He stated his errand asking Annixter to come over to Los Muertos that evening for seven oclock dinner Osterman and Broderson would be there
At once Annixter even to Harrans surprise put his chin in the air making excuses fearing to compromise himself if he accepted too readily No he did not think he could get around—was sure of it in fact There were certain businesses he had on hand that evening He had practically made an appointment with a man at Bonneville then too he was thinking of going up to San Francisco tomorrow and needed his sleep would go to bed early and besides all that he was a very sick man his stomach was out of whack if he moved about it brought the gripes back No they must get along without him
Magnus knowing with whom he had to deal did not urge the point being convinced that Annixter would argue over the affair the rest of the morning He resettled himself in the buggy and Harran gathered up the reins
Well he observed you know your business best Come if you can We dine at seven
I hear you are going to farm the whole of Los Muertos this season remarked Annixter with a certain note of challenge in his voice
We are thinking of it replied Magnus
Annixter grunted scornfully
Did you get the message I sent you by Presley he began
Tactless blunt and direct Annixter was quite capable of calling even Magnus a fool to his face But before he could proceed S Behrman in his single buggy turned into the gate and driving leisurely up to the porch halted on the other side of Magnuss team
Goodmorning gentlemen he remarked nodding to the two Derricks as though he had not seen them earlier in the day Mr Annixter how do you do
What in hell do YOU want demanded Annixter with a stare
S Behrman hiccoughed slightly and passed a fat hand over his waistcoat
Why not very much Mr Annixter he replied ignoring the belligerency in the young ranchmans voice but I will have to lodge a protest against you Mr Annixter in the matter of keeping your line fence in repair The sheep were all over the track last night this side the Long Trestle and I am afraid they have seriously disturbed our ballast along there We—the railroad—cant fence along our right of way The farmers have the prescriptive right of that so we have to look to you to keep your fence in repair I am sorry but I shall have to protest—— Annixter returned to the hammock and stretched himself out in it to his full length remarking tranquilly
Go to the devil
It is as much to your interest as to ours that the safety of the public——
You heard what I said Go to the devil
That all may show obstinacy Mr Annixter but——
Suddenly Annixter jumped up again and came to the edge of the porch his face flamed scarlet to the roots of his stiff yellow hair He thrust out his jaw aggressively clenching his teeth
You he vociferated Ill tell you what you are Youre a—a—a PIP
To his mind it was the last insult the most outrageous calumny He had no worse epithet at his command
——may show obstinacy pursued S Behrman bent upon finishing the phrase but it dont show common sense
Ill mend my fence and then again maybe I wont mend my fence shouted Annixter I know what you mean—that wild engine last night Well youve no right to run at that speed in the town limits
How the town limits The sheep were this side the Long Trestle
Well thats in the town limits of Guadalajara Why Mr Annixter the Long Trestle is a good two miles out of Guadalajara
Annixter squared himself leaping to the chance of an argument
Two miles Its not a mile and a quarter No its not a mile Ill leave it to Magnus here
Oh I know nothing about it declared Magnus refusing to be involved
Yes you do Yes you do too Any fool knows how far it is from Guadalajara to the Long Trestle Its about fiveeighths of a mile
From the depot of the town remarked S Behrman placidly to the head of the Long Trestle is about two miles
Thats a lie and you know its a lie shouted the other furious at S Behrmans calmness and I can prove its a lie Ive walked that distance on the Upper Road and I know just how fast I walk and if I can walk four miles in one hour
Magnus and Harran drove on leaving Annixter trying to draw S Behrman into a wrangle
When at length S Behrman as well took himself away Annixter returned to his hammock finished the rest of his prunes and read another chapter of Copperfield Then he put the book open over his face and went to sleep
An hour later toward noon his own terrific snoring woke him up suddenly and he sat up rubbing his face and blinking at the sunlight There was a bad taste in his mouth from sleeping with it wide open and going into the diningroom of the house he mixed himself a drink of whiskey and soda and swallowed it in three great gulps He told himself that he felt not only better but hungry and pressed an electric button in the wall near the sideboard three times to let the kitchen—situated in a separate building near the ranch house—know that he was ready for his dinner As he did so an idea occurred to him He wondered if Hilma Tree would bring up his dinner and wait on the table while he ate it
In connection with his ranch Annixter ran a dairy farm on a very small scale making just enough butter and cheese for the consumption of the ranchs PERSONNEL Old man Tree his wife and his daughter Hilma looked after the dairy But there was not always work enough to keep the three of them occupied and Hilma at times made herself useful in other ways As often as not she lent a hand in the kitchen and two or three times a week she took her mothers place in looking after Annixters house making the beds putting his room to rights bringing his meals up from the kitchen For the last summer she had been away visiting with relatives in one of the towns on the coast But the week previous to this she had returned and Annixter had come upon her suddenly one day in the dairy making cheese the sleeves of her crisp blue shirt waist rolled back to her very shoulders Annixter had carried away with him a clearcut recollection of these smooth white arms of hers bare to the shoulder very round and cool and fresh He would not have believed that a girl so young should have had arms so big and perfect To his surprise he found himself thinking of her after he had gone to bed that night and in the morning when he woke he was bothered to know whether he had dreamed about Hilmas fine white arms over night Then abruptly he had lost patience with himself for being so occupied with the subject raging and furious with all the breed of feemales—a fine way for a man to waste his time He had had his experience with the timid little creature in the glovecleaning establishment in Sacramento That was enough Feemales Rot None of them in HIS thank you HE had seen Hilma Tree give him a look in the dairy Aha he saw through her She was trying to get a hold on him was she He would show her Wait till he saw her again He would send her about her business in a hurry He resolved upon a terrible demeanour in the presence of the dairy girl—a great show of indifference a fierce masculine nonchalance and when the next morning she brought him his breakfast he had been smitten dumb as soon as she entered the room glueing his eyes upon his plate his elbows close to his side awkward clumsy overwhelmed with constraint
While true to his convictions as a womanhater and genuinely despising Hilma both as a girl and as an inferior the idea of her worried him Most of all he was angry with himself because of his inane sheepishness when she was about He at first had told himself that he was a fool not to be able to ignore her existence as hitherto and then that he was a greater fool not to take advantage of his position Certainly he had not the remotest idea of any affection but Hilma was a fine looking girl He imagined an affair with her
As he reflected upon the matter now scowling abstractedly at the button of the electric bell turning the whole business over in his mind he remembered that today was buttermaking day and that Mrs Tree would be occupied in the dairy That meant that Hilma would take her place He turned to the mirror of the sideboard scrutinising his reflection with grim disfavour After a moment rubbing the roughened surface of his chin the wrong way he muttered to his image in the glass
That a mug Good Lord what a looking mug Then after a moments silence Wonder if that fool feemale will be up here today
He crossed over into his bedroom and peeped around the edge of the lowered curtain The window looked out upon the skeletonlike tower of the artesian well and the cookhouse and dairyhouse close beside it As he watched he saw Hilma come out from the cookhouse and hurry across toward the kitchen Evidently she was going to see about his dinner But as she passed by the artesian well she met young Delaney one of Annixters hands coming up the trail by the irrigating ditch leading his horse toward the stables a great coil of barbed wire in his gloved hands and a pair of nippers thrust into his belt No doubt he had been mending the break in the line fence by the Long Trestle Annixter saw him take off his widebrimmed hat as he met Hilma and the two stood there for some moments talking together Annixter even heard Hilma laughing very gayly at something Delaney was saying She patted his horses neck affectionately and Delaney drawing the nippers from his belt made as if to pinch her arm with them She caught at his wrist and pushed him away laughing again To Annixters mind the pair seemed astonishingly intimate Brusquely his anger flamed up
Ah that was it was it Delaney and Hilma had an understanding between themselves They carried on their affair right out there in the open under his very eyes It was absolutely disgusting Had they no sense of decency those two Well this ended it He would stop that sort of thing short off none of that on HIS ranch if he knew it No sir He would pack that girl off before he was a day older He wouldnt have that kind about the place Not much Shed have to get out He would talk to old man Tree about it this afternoon Whatever happened HE insisted upon morality
And my dinner he suddenly exclaimed Ive got to wait and go hungry—and maybe get sick again—while they carry on their disgusting lovemaking
He turned about on the instant and striding over to the electric bell rang it again with all his might
When that feemale gets up here he declared Ill just find out why Ive got to wait like this Ill take her down to the Queens taste Im lenient enough Lord knows but I dont propose to be imposed upon ALL the time
A few moments later while Annixter was pretending to read the county newspaper by the window in the diningroom Hilma came in to set the table At the time Annixter had his feet cocked on the window ledge and was smoking a cigar but as soon as she entered the room he—without premeditation—brought his feet down to the floor and crushed out the lighted tip of his cigar under the window ledge Over the top of the paper he glanced at her covertly from time to time
Though Hilma was only nineteen years old she was a large girl with all the development of a much older woman There was a certain generous amplitude to the full round curves of her hips and shoulders that suggested the precocious maturity of a healthy vigorous animal life passed under the hot southern sun of a halftropical country She was one knew at a glance warmblooded fullblooded with an even comfortable balance of temperament Her neck was thick and sloped to her shoulders with full beautiful curves and under her chin and under her ears the flesh was as white and smooth as floss satin shading exquisitely to a faint delicate brown on her nape at the roots of her hair Her throat rounded to meet her chin and cheek with a soft swell of the skin tinted pale amber in the shadows but blending by barely perceptible gradations to the sweet warm flush of her cheek This colour on her temples was just touched with a certain blueness where the flesh was thin over the fine veining underneath Her eyes were light brown and so wide open that on the slightest provocation the full disc of the pupil was disclosed the lids—just a fraction of a shade darker than the hue of her face—were edged with lashes that were almost black While these lashes were not long they were thick and rimmed her eyes with a fine thin line Her mouth was rather large the lips shut tight and nothing could have been more graceful more charming than the outline of these full lips of hers and her round white chin modulating downward with a certain delicious roundness to her neck her throat and the sweet feminine amplitude of her breast The slightest movement of her head and shoulders sent a gentle undulation through all this beauty of soft outlines and smooth surfaces the delicate amber shadows deepening or fading or losing themselves imperceptibly in the pretty rosecolour of her cheeks or the dark warmtinted shadow of her thick brown hair
Her hair seemed almost to have a life of its own almost Medusalike thick glossy and moist lying in heavy sweetsmelling masses over her forehead over her small ears with their pink lobes and far down upon her nape Deep in between the coils and braids it was of a bitumen brownness but in the sunlight it vibrated with a sheen like tarnished gold
Like most large girls her movements were not hurried and this indefinite deliberateness of gesture this slow grace this certain ease of attitude was a charm that was all her own
But Hilmas greatest charm of all was her simplicity—a simplicity that was not only in the calm regularity of her face with its statuesque evenness of contour its broad surface of cheek and forehead and the masses of her straight smooth hair but was apparent as well in the long line of her carriage from her foot to her waist and the single deep swell from her waist to her shoulder Almost unconsciously she dressed in harmony with this note of simplicity and on this occasion wore a skirt of plain dark blue calico and a white shirt waist crisp from the laundry
And yet for all the dignity of this rigourous simplicity there were about Hilma small contradictory suggestions of feminine daintiness charming beyond words Even Annixter could not help noticing that her feet were narrow and slender and that the little steel buckles of her low shoes were polished bright and that her fingertips and nails were of a fine rosy pink
He found himself wondering how it was that a girl in Hilmas position should be able to keep herself so pretty so trim so clean and feminine but he reflected that her work was chiefly in the dairy and even there of the lightest order She was on the ranch more for the sake of being with her parents than from any necessity of employment Vaguely he seemed to understand that in that great new land of the West in the openair healthy life of the ranches where the conditions of earning a livelihood were of the easiest refinement among the younger women was easily to be found—not the refinement of education nor culture but the natural intuitive refinement of the woman not as yet defiled and crushed out by the sordid strenuous lifestruggle of overpopulated districts It was the original intended and natural delicacy of an elemental existence close to nature close to life close to the great kindly earth
As Hilma laid the tablespread her arms opened to their widest reach the white cloth setting a little glisten of reflected light underneath the chin Annixter stirred in his place uneasily
Oh its you is it Miss Hilma he remarked for the sake of saying something Goodmorning How do you do
Goodmorning sir she answered looking up resting for a moment on her outspread palms I hope you are better
Her voice was low in pitch and of a velvety huskiness seeming to come more from her chest than from her throat
Well Im some better growled Annixter Then suddenly he demanded Wheres that dog
A decrepit Irish setter sometimes made his appearance in and about the ranch house sleeping under the bed and eating when anyone about the place thought to give him a plate of bread
Annixter had no particular interest in the dog For weeks at a time he ignored its existence It was not his dog But today it seemed as if he could not let the subject rest For no reason that he could explain even to himself he recurred to it continually He questioned Hilma minutely all about the dog Who owned him How old did she think he was Did she imagine the dog was sick Where had he got to Maybe he had crawled off to die somewhere He recurred to the subject all through the meal apparently he could talk of nothing else and as she finally went away after clearing off the table he went onto the porch and called after her
Say Miss Hilma
Yes sir
If that dog turns up again you let me know
Very well sir
Annixter returned to the diningroom and sat down in the chair he had just vacated To hell with the dog he muttered enraged he could not tell why
When at length he allowed his attention to wander from Hilma Tree he found that he had been staring fixedly at a thermometer upon the wall opposite and this made him think that it had long been his intention to buy a fine barometer an instrument that could be accurately depended on But the barometer suggested the present condition of the weather and the likelihood of rain In such case much was to be done in the way of getting the seed ready and overhauling his ploughs and drills He had not been away from the house in two days It was time to be up and doing He determined to put in the afternoon taking a look around and have a late supper He would not go to Los Muertos he would ignore Magnus Derricks invitation Possibly though it might be well to run over and see what was up
If I do he said to himself Ill ride the buckskin The buckskin was a halfbroken broncho that fought like a fiend under the saddle until the quirt and spur brought her to her senses But Annixter remembered that the Trees cottage next the dairyhouse looked out upon the stables and perhaps Hilma would see him while he was mounting the horse and be impressed with his courage
Huh grunted Annixter under his breath I should like to see that fool Delaney try to bust that bronch Thats what ID like to see
However as Annixter stepped from the porch of the ranch house he was surprised to notice a grey haze over all the sky the sunlight was gone there was a sense of coolness in the air the weathervane on the barn—a fine golden trotting horse with flamboyant mane and tail—was veering in a southwest wind Evidently the expected rain was close at hand
Annixter crossed over to the stables reflecting that he could ride the buckskin to the Trees cottage and tell Hilma that he would not be home to supper The conference at Los Muertos would be an admirable excuse for this and upon the spot he resolved to go over to the Derrick ranch house after all
As he passed the Trees cottage he observed with satisfaction that Hilma was going to and fro in the front room If he busted the buckskin in the yard before the stable she could not help but see Annixter found the stableman in the back of the barn greasing the axles of the buggy and ordered him to put the saddle on the buckskin
Why I dont think shes here sir answered the stableman glancing into the stalls No I remember now Delaney took her out just after dinner His other horse went lame and he wanted to go down by the Long Trestle to mend the fence He started out but had to come back
Oh Delaney got her did he
Yes sir He had a circus with her but he busted her right enough When it comes to horse Delaney can wipe the eye of any cowpuncher in the county I guess
He can can he observed Annixter Then after a silence Well all right Billy put my saddle on whatever youve got here Im going over to Los Muertos this afternoon
Want to look out for the rain Mr Annixter remarked Billy Guess well have rain before night
Ill take a rubber coat answered Annixter Bring the horse up to the ranch house when youre ready
Annixter returned to the house to look for his rubber coat in deep disgust not permitting himself to glance toward the dairyhouse and the Trees cottage But as he reached the porch he heard the telephone ringing his call It was Presley who rang up from Los Muertos He had heard from Harran that Annixter was perhaps coming over that evening If he came would he mind bringing over his—Presleys—bicycle He had left it at the Quien Sabe ranch the day before and had forgotten to come back that way for it
Well objected Annixter a surly note in his voice I WAS going to RIDE over Oh never mind then returned Presley easily I was to blame for forgetting it Dont bother about it Ill come over some of these days and get it myself
Annixter hung up the transmitter with a vehement wrench and stamped out of the room banging the door He found his rubber coat hanging in the hallway and swung into it with a fierce movement of the shoulders that all but started the seams Everything seemed to conspire to thwart him It was just like that absentminded crazy poet Presley to forget his wheel Well he could come after it himself He Annixter would ride SOME horse anyhow When he came out upon the porch he saw the wheel leaning against the fence where Presley had left it If it stayed there much longer the rain would catch it Annixter ripped out an oath At every moment his illhumour was increasing Yet for all that he went back to the stable pushing the bicycle before him and countermanded his order directing the stableman to get the buggy ready He himself carefully stowed Presleys bicycle under the seat covering it with a couple of empty sacks and a tarpaulin carriage cover
While he was doing this the stableman uttered an exclamation and paused in the act of backing the horse into the shafts holding up a hand listening
From the hollow roof of the barn and from the thick velvetlike padding of dust over the ground outside and from among the leaves of the few nearby trees and plants there came a vast monotonous murmur that seemed to issue from all quarters of the horizon at once a prolonged and subdued rustling sound steady even persistent
Theres your rain announced the stableman The first of the season
And I got to be out in it fumed Annixter and I suppose those swine will quit work on the big barn now
When the buggy was finally ready he put on his rubber coat climbed in and without waiting for the stableman to raise the top drove out into the rain a newlit cigar in his teeth As he passed the dairyhouse he saw Hilma standing in the doorway holding out her hand to the rain her face turned upward toward the grey sky amused and interested at this first shower of the wet season She was so absorbed that she did not see Annixter and his clumsy nod in her direction passed unnoticed
She did it on purpose Annixter told himself chewing fiercely on his cigar Cuts me now hey Well this DOES settle it She leaves this ranch before Im a day older
He decided that he would put off his tour of inspection till the next day Travelling in the buggy as he did he must keep to the road which led to Derricks in very roundabout fashion by way of Guadalajara This rain would reduce the thick dust of the road to two feet of viscid mud It would take him quite three hours to reach the ranch house on Los Muertos He thought of Delaney and the buckskin and ground his teeth And all this trouble if you please because of a fool feemale girl A fine way for him to waste his time Well now he was done with it His decision was taken now She should pack
Steadily the rain increased There was no wind The thick veil of wet descended straight from sky to earth blurring distant outlines spreading a vast sheen of grey over all the landscape Its volume became greater the prolonged murmuring note took on a deeper tone At the gate to the road which led across Dykes hopfields toward Guadalajara Annixter was obliged to descend and raise the top of the buggy In doing so he caught the flesh of his hand in the joint of the iron elbow that supported the top and pinched it cruelly It was the last misery the culmination of a long train of wretchedness On the instant he hated Hilma Tree so fiercely that his sharply set teeth all but bit his cigar in two
While he was grabbing and wrenching at the buggytop the water from his hat brim dripping down upon his nose the horse restive under the drench of the rain moved uneasily
Yahhh you he shouted inarticulate with exasperation You—you—Gorrr wait till I get hold of you WHOA you
But there was an interruption Delaney riding the buckskin came around a bend in the road at a slow trot and Annixter getting into the buggy again found himself face to face with him
Why hello Mr Annixter said he pulling up Kind of sort of wet isnt it
Annixter his face suddenly scarlet sat back in his place abruptly exclaiming
Oh—oh there you are are you
Ive been down there explained Delaney with a motion of his head toward the railroad to mend that break in the fence by the Long Trestle and I thought while I was about it Id follow down along the fence toward Guadalajara to see if there were any more breaks But I guess its all right
Oh you guess its all right do you observed Annixter through his teeth
Why—why—yes returned the other bewildered at the truculent ring in Annixters voice I mended that break by the Long Trestle just now and——
Well why didnt you mend it a week ago shouted Annixter wrathfully Ive been looking for you all the morning I have and who told you you could take that buckskin And the sheep were all over the right of way last night because of that break and here that filthy pip S Behrman comes down here this morning and wants to make trouble for me Suddenly he cried out What do I FEED you for What do I keep you around here for Think its just to fatten up your carcass hey
Why Mr Annixter—— began Delaney
And dont TALK to me vociferated the other exciting himself with his own noise Dont you say a word to me even to apologise If Ive spoken to you once about that break Ive spoken fifty times
Why sir declared Delaney beginning to get indignant the sheep did it themselves last night
I told you not to TALK to me clamoured Annixter
But say look here——
Get off the ranch You get off the ranch And taking that buckskin against my express orders I wont have your kind about the place not much Im easygoing enough Lord knows but I dont propose to be imposed on ALL the time Pack off you understand and do it lively Go to the foreman and tell him I told him to pay you off and then clear out And you hear me he concluded with a menacing outthrust of his lower jaw you hear me if I catch you hanging around the ranch house after this or if I so much as see you on Quien Sabe Ill show you the way off of it my friend at the toe of my boot Now then get out of the way and let me pass
Angry beyond the power of retort Delaney drove the spurs into the buckskin and passed the buggy in a single bound Annixter gathered up the reins and drove on muttering to himself and occasionally looking back to observe the buckskin flying toward the ranch house in a spattering shower of mud Delaney urging her on his head bent down against the falling rain
Huh grunted Annixter with grim satisfaction a certain sense of good humour at length returning to him that just about takes the saleratus out of YOUR dough my friend
A little farther on Annixter got out of the buggy a second time to open another gate that let him out upon the Upper Road not far distant from Guadalajara It was the road that connected that town with Bonneville and that ran parallel with the railroad tracks On the other side of the track he could see the infinite extension of the brown bare land of Los Muertos turning now to a soft moist welter of fertility under the insistent caressing of the rain The hard sunbaked clods were decomposing the crevices between drinking the wet with an eager sucking noise But the prospect was dreary the distant horizons were blotted under drifting mists of rain the eternal monotony of the earth lay open to the sombre low sky without a single adornment without a single variation from its melancholy flatness Near at hand the wires between the telegraph poles vibrated with a faint humming under the multitudinous fingering of the myriad of falling drops striking among them and dripping off steadily from one to another The poles themselves were dark and swollen and glistening with wet while the little cones of glass on the transverse bars reflected the dull grey light of the end of the afternoon
As Annixter was about to drive on a freight train passed coming from Guadalajara going northward toward Bonneville Fresno and San Francisco It was a long train moving slowly methodically with a measured coughing of its locomotive and a rhythmic cadence of its trucks over the interstices of the rails On two or three of the flat cars near its end Annixter plainly saw Magnus Derricks ploughs their bright coating of red and green paint setting a single brilliant note in all this array of grey and brown
Annixter halted watching the train file past carrying Derricks ploughs away from his ranch at this very time of the first rain when they would be most needed He watched it silent thoughtful and without articulate comment Even after it passed he sat in his place a long time watching it lose itself slowly in the distance its prolonged rumble diminishing to a faint murmur Soon he heard the engine sounding its whistle for the Long Trestle
But the moving train no longer carried with it that impression of terror and destruction that had so thrilled Presleys imagination the night before It passed slowly on its way with a mournful roll of wheels like the passing of a cortege like a file of artillerycaissons charioting dead bodies the engines smoke enveloping it in a mournful veil leaving a sense of melancholy in its wake moving past there lugubrious lamentable infinitely sad under the grey sky and under the grey mist of rain which continued to fall with a subdued rustling sound steady persistent a vast monotonous murmur that seemed to come from all quarters of the horizon at once
CHAPTER III
When Annixter arrived at the Los Muertos ranch house that same evening he found a little group already assembled in the diningroom Magnus Derrick wearing the frock coat of broadcloth that he had put on for the occasion stood with his back to the fireplace Harran sat close at hand one leg thrown over the arm of his chair Presley lounged on the sofa in corduroys and high laced boots smoking cigarettes Broderson leaned on his folded arms at one corner of the dining table and Genslinger editor and proprietor of the principal newspaper of the county the Bonneville Mercury stood with his hat and driving gloves under his arm opposite Derrick a halfemptied glass of whiskey and water in his hand
As Annixter entered he heard Genslinger observe Ill have a leader in the Mercury tomorrow that will interest you people Theres some talk of your ranch lands being graded in value this winter I suppose you will all buy
In an instant the editors words had riveted upon him the attention of every man in the room Annixter broke the moments silence that followed with the remark
Well its about time they graded these lands of theirs
The question in issue in Genslingers remark was of the most vital interest to the ranchers around Bonneville and Guadalajara Neither Magnus Derrick Broderson Annixter nor Osterman actually owned all the ranches which they worked As yet the vast majority of these wheat lands were the property of the P and S W The explanation of this condition of affairs went back to the early history of the Pacific and Southwestern when as a bonus for the construction of the road the national government had granted to the company the odd numbered sections of land on either side of the proposed line of route for a distance of twenty miles Indisputably these sections belonged to the P and S W The evennumbered sections being government property could be and had been taken up by the ranchers but the railroad sections or as they were called the alternate sections would have to be purchased direct from the railroad itself
But this had not prevented the farmers from coming in upon that part of the San Joaquin Long before this the railroad had thrown open these lands and by means of circulars distributed broadcast throughout the State had expressly invited settlement thereon At that time patents had not been issued to the railroad for their oddnumbered sections but as soon as the land was patented the railroad would grade it in value and offer it for sale the first occupants having the first chance of purchase The price of these lands was to be fixed by the price the government put upon its own adjoining lands—about two dollars and a half per acre
With cultivation and improvement the ranches must inevitably appreciate in value There was every chance to make fortunes When the railroad lands about Bonneville had been thrown open there had been almost a rush in the matter of settlement and Broderson Annixter Derrick and Osterman being foremost with their claims had secured the pick of the country But the land once settled upon the P and S W seemed to be in no hurry as to fixing exactly the value of its sections included in the various ranches and offering them for sale The matter dragged along from year to year was forgotten for months together being only brought to mind on such occasions as this when the rumour spread that the General Office was about to take definite action in the affair
As soon as the railroad wants to talk business with me observed Annixter about selling me their interest in Quien Sabe Im ready The land has more than quadrupled in value Ill bet I could sell it tomorrow for fifteen dollars an acre and if I buy of the railroad for two and a half an acre theres boodle in the game
For two and a half exclaimed Genslinger You dont suppose the railroad will let their land go for any such figure as that do you Wherever did you get that idea
From the circulars and pamphlets answered Harran that the railroad issued to us when they opened these lands They are pledged to that Even the P and S W couldnt break such a pledge as that You are new in the country Mr Genslinger You dont remember the conditions upon which we took up this land
And our improvements exclaimed Annixter Why Magnus and I have put about five thousand dollars between us into that irrigating ditch already I guess we are not improving the land just to make it valuable for the railroad people No matter how much we improve the land or how much it increases in value they have got to stick by their agreement on the basis of twofifty per acre Heres one case where the P and S W DONT get everything in sight
Genslinger frowned perplexed
I AM new in the country as Harran says he answered but it seems to me that theres no fairness in that proposition The presence of the railroad has helped increase the value of your ranches quite as much as your improvements Why should you get all the benefit of the rise in value and the railroad nothing The fair way would be to share it between you
I dont care anything about that declared Annixter They agreed to charge but twofifty and theyve got to stick to it
Well murmured Genslinger from what I know of the affair I dont believe the P and S W intends to sell for twofifty an acre at all The managers of the road want the best price they can get for everything in these hard times
Times arent ever very hard for the railroad hazards old Broderson
Broderson was the oldest man in the room He was about sixtyfive years of age venerable with a white beard his figure bent earthwards with hard work
He was a narrowminded man painfully conscientious in his statements lest he should be unjust to somebody a slow thinker unable to let a subject drop when once he had started upon it He had no sooner uttered his remark about hard times than he was moved to qualify it
Hard times he repeated a troubled perplexed note in his voice well yes—yes I suppose the road DOES have hard times maybe Everybody does—of course I didnt mean that exactly I believe in being just and fair to everybody I mean that weve got to use their lines and pay their charges good years AND bad years the P and S W being the only road in the State That is—well when I say the only road—no I wont say the ONLY road Of course there are other roads Theres the D P and M and the San Francisco and North Pacific that runs up to Ukiah I got a brotherinlaw in Ukiah Thats not much of a wheat country round Ukiah though they DO grow SOME wheat there come to think But I guess its too far north Well of course there isnt MUCH Perhaps sixty thousand acres in the whole county—if you include barley and oats I dont know maybe its nearer forty thousand I dont remember very well Thats a good many years ago I——
But Annixter at the end of all patience turned to Genslinger cutting short the old man
Oh rot Of course the railroad will sell at twofifty he cried Weve got the contracts
Look to them then Mr Annixter retorted Genslinger significantly look to them Be sure that you are protected
Soon after this Genslinger took himself away and Derricks Chinaman came in to set the table
What do you suppose he meant asked Broderson when Genslinger was gone
About this land business said Annixter Oh I dont know Some tom fool idea Havent we got their terms printed in black and white in their circulars Theres their pledge
Oh as to pledges murmured Broderson the railroad is not always TOO much hindered by those
Wheres Osterman demanded Annixter abruptly changing the subject as if it were not worth discussion Isnt that goat Osterman coming down here tonight
You telephoned him didnt you Presley inquired Magnus
Presley had taken Princess Nathalie upon his knee stroking her long sleek hair and the cat stupefied with beatitude had closed her eyes to two fine lines clawing softly at the corduroy of Presleys trousers with alternate paws
Yes sir returned Presley He said he would be here
And as he spoke young Osterman arrived
He was a young fellow but singularly inclined to baldness His ears very red and large stuck out at right angles from either side of his head and his mouth too was large—a great horizontal slit beneath his nose His cheeks were of a brownish red the cheek bones a little salient His face was that of a comic actor a singer of songs a man never at a loss for an answer continually striving to make a laugh But he took no great interest in ranching and left the management of his land to his superintendents and foremen he himself living in Bonneville He was a poser a wearer of clothes forever acting a part striving to create an impression to draw attention to himself He was not without a certain energy but he devoted it to small ends to perfecting himself in little accomplishments continually running after some new thing incapable of persisting long in any one course At one moment his mania would be fencing the next sleightofhand tricks the next archery For upwards of one month he had devoted himself to learning how to play two banjos simultaneously then abandoning this had developed a sudden passion for stamped leather work and had made a quantity of purses tennis belts and hat bands which he presented to young ladies of his acquaintance It was his policy never to make an enemy He was liked far better than he was respected People spoke of him as that goat Osterman or that fool Osterman kid and invited him to dinner He was of the sort who somehow cannot be ignored If only because of his clamour he made himself important If he had one abiding trait it was his desire of astonishing people and in some way best known to himself managed to cause the circulation of the most extraordinary stories wherein he himself was the chief actor He was glib voluble dexterous ubiquitous a teller of funny stories a cracker of jokes
Naturally enough he was heavily in debt but carried the burden of it with perfect nonchalance The year before S Behrman had held mortgages for fully a third of his crop and had squeezed him viciously for interest But for all that Osterman and S Behrman were continually seen arminarm on the main street of Bonneville Osterman was accustomed to slap S Behrman on his fat back declaring
Youre a good fellow old jellybelly after all hey
As Osterman entered from the porch after hanging his cavalry poncho and dripping hat on the rack outside Mrs Derrick appeared in the door that opened from the diningroom into the glassroofed hallway just beyond Osterman saluted her with effusive cordiality and with ingratiating blandness
I am not going to stay she explained smiling pleasantly at the group of men her pretty wideopen brown eyes with their look of inquiry and innocence glancing from face to face I only came to see if you wanted anything and to say how do you do
She began talking to old Broderson making inquiries as to his wife who had been sick the last week and Osterman turned to the company shaking hands all around keeping up an incessant stream of conversation
Hello boys and girls Hello Governor Sort of a gathering of the clans tonight Well if here isnt that man Annixter Hello Buck What do you know Kind of dusty out tonight
At once Annixter began to get red in the face retiring towards a corner of the room standing in an awkward position by the case of stuffed birds shambling and confused while Mrs Derrick was present standing rigidly on both feet his elbows close to his sides But he was angry with Osterman muttering imprecations to himself horribly vexed that the young fellow should call him Buck before Magnuss wife This goat Osterman Hadnt he any sense that fool Couldnt he ever learn how to behave before a feemale Calling him Buck like that while Mrs Derrick was there Why a stableboy would know better a hired man would have better manners All through the dinner that followed Annixter was out of sorts sulking in his place refusing to eat by way of vindicating his selfrespect resolving to bring Osterman up with a sharp turn if he called him Buck again
The Chinaman had made a certain kind of plum pudding for dessert and Annixter who remembered other dinners at the Derricks had been saving himself for this and had meditated upon it all through the meal No doubt it would restore all his good humour and he believed his stomach was so far recovered as to be able to stand it
But unfortunately the pudding was served with a sauce that he abhorred—a thick gruellike colourless mixture made from plain water and sugar Before he could interfere the Chinaman had poured a quantity of it upon his plate
Faugh exclaimed Annixter It makes me sick Such—such SLOOP Take it away Ill have mine straight if you dont mind
Thats good for your stomach Buck observed young Osterman makes it go down kind of sort of slick dont you see Sloop hey Thats a good name
Look here dont you call me Buck You dont seem to have any sense and besides it ISNT good for my stomach I know better What do YOU know about my stomach anyhow Just looking at sloop like that makes me sick
A little while after this the Chinaman cleared away the dessert and brought in coffee and cigars The whiskey bottle and the syphon of sodawater reappeared The men eased themselves in their places pushing back from the table lighting their cigars talking of the beginning of the rains and the prospects of a rise in wheat Broderson began an elaborate mental calculation trying to settle in his mind the exact date of his visit to Ukiah and Osterman did sleightofhand tricks with bread pills But Princess Nathalie the cat was uneasy Annixter was occupying her own particular chair in which she slept every night She could not go to sleep but spied upon him continually watching his every movement with her lambent yellow eyes clear as amber
Then at length Magnus who was at the head of the table moved in his place assuming a certain magisterial attitude Well gentlemen he observed I have lost my case against the railroad the grainrate case Ulsteen decided against me and now I hear rumours to the effect that rates for the hauling of grain are to be advanced
When Magnus had finished there was a moments silence each member of the group maintaining his attitude of attention and interest It was Harran who first spoke
S Behrman manipulated the whole affair Theres a big deal of some kind in the air and if there is we all know who is back of it S Behrman of course but whos back of him Its Shelgrim
Shelgrim The name fell squarely in the midst of the conversation abrupt grave sombre big with suggestion pregnant with huge associations No one in the group who was not familiar with it no one for that matter in the county the State the whole reach of the West the entire Union that did not entertain convictions as to the man who carried it a giant figure in the endofthecentury finance a product of circumstance an inevitable result of conditions characteristic typical symbolic of ungovernable forces In the New Movement the New Finance the reorganisation of capital the amalgamation of powers the consolidation of enormous enterprises—no one individual was more constantly in the eye of the world no one was more hated more dreaded no one more compelling of unwilling tribute to his commanding genius to the colossal intellect operating the width of an entire continent than the president and owner of the Pacific and Southwestern
I dont think however he has moved yet said Magnus
The thing for us then exclaimed Osterman is to stand from under before he does
Moved yet snorted Annixter Hes probably moved so long ago that weve never noticed it
In any case hazarded Magnus it is scarcely probable that the deal—whatever it is to be—has been consummated If we act quickly there may be a chance
Act quickly How demanded Annixter Good Lord what can you do Were cinched already It all amounts to just this YOU CANT BUCK AGAINST THE RAILROAD Weve tried it and tried it and we are stuck every time You yourself Derrick have just lost your grainrate case S Behrman did you up Shelgrim owns the courts Hes got men like Ulsteen in his pocket Hes got the Railroad Commission in his pocket Hes got the Governor of the State in his pocket He keeps a milliondollar lobby at Sacramento every minute of the time the legislature is in session hes got his own men on the floor of the United States Senate He has the whole thing organised like an army corps What ARE you going to do He sits in his office in San Francisco and pulls the strings and weve got to dance
But—well—but hazarded Broderson but theres the Interstate Commerce Commission At least on longhaul rates they——
Hoh yes the Interstate Commerce Commission shouted Annixter scornfully thats great aint it The greatest Punch and Judy show on earth Its almost as good as the Railroad Commission There never was and there never will be a California Railroad Commission not in the pay of the P and S W
It is to the Railroad Commission nevertheless remarked Magnus that the people of the State must look for relief That is our only hope Once elect Commissioners who would be loyal to the people and the whole system of excessive rates falls to the ground
Well why not HAVE a Railroad Commission of our own then suddenly declared young Osterman
Because it cant be done retorted Annixter YOU CANT BUCK AGAINST THE RAILROAD and if you could you cant organise the farmers in the San Joaquin We tried it once and it was enough to turn your stomach The railroad quietly bought delegates through S Behrman and did us up
Well thats the game to play said Osterman decisively buy delegates
Its the only game that seems to win admitted Harran gloomily Or ever will win exclaimed Osterman a sudden excitement seeming to take possession of him His face—the face of a comic actor with its great slit of mouth and stiff red ears—went abruptly pink
Look here he cried this thing is getting desperate Weve fought and fought in the courts and out and weve tried agitation and—and all the rest of it and S Behrman sacks us every time Now comes the time when theres a prospect of a big crop weve had no rain for two years and the land has had a long rest If there is any rain at all this winter well have a bonanza year and just at this very moment when weve got our chance—a chance to pay off our mortgages and get clear of debt and make a strike—here is Shelgrim making a deal to cinch us and put up rates And now heres the primaries coming off and a new Railroad Commission going in Thats why Shelgrim chose this time to make his deal If we wait till Shelgrim pulls it off were done for thats flat I tell you were in a fix if we dont keep an eye open Things are getting desperate Magnus has just said that the key to the whole thing is the Railroad Commission Well why not have a Commission of our own Never mind how we get it lets get it If its got to be bought lets buy it and put our own men on it and dictate what the rates will be Suppose it costs a hundred thousand dollars Well well get back more than that in cheap rates
Mr Osterman said Magnus fixing the young man with a swift glance Mr Osterman you are proposing a scheme of bribery sir
I am proposing repeated Osterman a scheme of bribery Exactly so
And a crazy wildeyed scheme at that said Annixter gruffly Even supposing you bought a Railroad Commission and got your schedule of low rates what happens The P and S W crowd get out an injunction and tie you up
They would tie themselves up too Hauling at low rates is better than no hauling at all The wheat has got to be moved Oh rot cried Annixter Arent you ever going to learn any sense Dont you know that cheap transportation would benefit the Liverpool buyers and not us Cant it be FED into you that you cant buck against the railroad When you try to buy a Board of Commissioners dont you see that youll have to bid against the railroad bid against a corporation that can chuck out millions to our thousands Do you think you can bid against the P and S W
The railroad dont need to know we are in the game against them till weve got our men seated
And when youve got them seated whats to prevent the corporation buying them right over your head
If weve got the right kind of men in they could not be bought that way interposed Harran I dont know but what theres something in what Osterman says Wed have the naming of the Commission and wed name honest men
Annixter struck the table with his fist in exasperation
Honest men he shouted the kind of men you could get to go into such a scheme would have to be DIShonest to begin with
Broderson shifting uneasily in his place fingering his beard with a vague uncertain gesture spoke again
It would be the CHANCE of them—our Commissioners—selling out against the certainty of Shelgrim doing us up That is he hastened to add ALMOST a certainty pretty near a certainty
Of course it would be a chance exclaimed Osterman But its come to the point where weve got to take chances risk a big stake to make a big strike and risk is better than sure failure
I can be no party to a scheme of avowed bribery and corruption Mr Osterman declared Magnus a ring of severity in his voice I am surprised sir that you should even broach the subject in my hearing
And cried Annixter it cant be done
I dont know muttered Harran maybe it just wants a little spark like this to fire the whole train
Magnus glanced at his son in considerable surprise He had not expected this of Harran But so great was his affection for his son so accustomed had he become to listening to his advice to respecting his opinions that for the moment after the first shock of surprise and disappointment he was influenced to give a certain degree of attention to this new proposition He in no way countenanced it At any moment he was prepared to rise in his place and denounce it and Osterman both It was trickery of the most contemptible order a thing he believed to be unknown to the old school of politics and statesmanship to which he was proud to belong but since Harran even for one moment considered it he Magnus who trusted Harran implicitly would do likewise—if it was only to oppose and defeat it in its very beginnings
And abruptly the discussion began Gradually Osterman by dint of his clamour his strident reiteration the plausibility of his glib ready assertions the ease with which he extricated himself when apparently driven to a corner completely won over old Broderson to his way of thinking Osterman bewildered him with his volubility the lightning rapidity with which he leaped from one subject to another garrulous witty flamboyant terrifying the old man with pictures of the swift approach of ruin the imminence of danger
Annixter who led the argument against him—loving argument though he did—appeared to poor advantage unable to present his side effectively He called Osterman a fool a goat a senseless crazyheaded jackass but was unable to refute his assertions His debate was the clumsy heaving of brickbats brutal direct He contradicted everything Osterman said as a matter of principle made conflicting assertions declarations that were absolutely inconsistent and when Osterman or Harran used these against him could only exclaim
Well in a way its so and then again in a way it isnt
But suddenly Osterman discovered a new argument If we swing this deal he cried weve got old jellybelly Behrman right where we want him
Hes the man that does us every time cried Harran If there is dirty work to be done in which the railroad doesnt wish to appear it is S Behrman who does it If the freight rates are to be adjusted to squeeze us a little harder it is S Behrman who regulates what we can stand If theres a judge to be bought it is S Behrman who does the bargaining If there is a jury to be bribed it is S Behrman who handles the money If there is an election to be jobbed it is S Behrman who manipulates it Its Behrman here and Behrman there It is Behrman we come against every time we make a move It is Behrman who has the grip of us and will never let go till he has squeezed us bone dry Why when I think of it all sometimes I wonder I keep my hands off the man
Osterman got on his feet leaning across the table gesturing wildly with his right hand his seriocomic face with its bald forehead and stiff red ears was inflamed with excitement He took the floor creating an impression attracting all attention to himself playing to the gallery gesticulating clamourous full of noise
Well now is your chance to get even he vociferated It is now or never You can take it and save the situation for yourselves and all California or you can leave it and rot on your own ranches Buck I know you I know youre not afraid of anything that wears skin I know youve got sand all through you and I know if I showed you how we could put our deal through and seat a Commission of our own you wouldnt hang back Governor youre a brave man You know the advantage of prompt and fearless action You are not the sort to shrink from taking chances To play for big stakes is just your game—to stake a fortune on the turn of a card You didnt get the reputation of being the strongest poker player in El Dorado County for nothing Now heres the biggest gamble that ever came your way If we stand up to it like men with guts in us well win out If we hesitate were lost
I dont suppose you can help playing the goat Osterman remarked Annixter but whats your idea What do you think we can do Im not saying he hastened to interpose that youve anyways convinced me by all this cackling I know as well as you that we are in a hole But I knew that before I came here tonight YOUVE not done anything to make me change my mind But just what do you propose Lets hear it
Well I say the first thing to do is to see Disbrow Hes the political boss of the Denver Pueblo and Mojave road We will have to get in with the machine some way and thats particularly why I want Magnus with us He knows politics better than any of us and if we dont want to get sold again we will have to have some one thats in the know to steer us
The only politics I understand Mr Osterman answered Magnus sternly are honest politics You must look elsewhere for your political manager I refuse to have any part in this matter If the Railroad Commission can be nominated legitimately if your arrangements can be made without bribery I am with you to the last iota of my ability
Well you cant get what you want without paying for it contradicted Annixter
Broderson was about to speak when Osterman kicked his foot under the table He himself held his peace He was quick to see that if he could involve Magnus and Annixter in an argument Annixter for the mere love of contention would oppose the Governor and without knowing it would commit himself to his—Ostermans—scheme
This was precisely what happened In a few moments Annixter was declaring at top voice his readiness to mortgage the crop of Quien Sabe if necessary for the sake of busting S Behrman He could see no great obstacle in the way of controlling the nominating convention so far as securing the naming of two Railroad Commissioners was concerned Two was all they needed Probably it WOULD cost money You didnt get something for nothing It would cost them all a good deal more if they sat like lumps on a log and played tiddledywinks while Shelgrim sold out from under them Then there was this too the P and S W were hard up just then The shortage on the States wheat crop for the last two years had affected them too They were retrenching in expenditures all along the line Hadnt they just cut wages in all departments There was this affair of Dykes to prove it The railroad didnt always act as a unit either There was always a party in it that opposed spending too much money He would bet that party was strong just now He was kind of sick himself of being kicked by S Behrman Hadnt that pip turned up on his ranch that very day to bully him about his own line fence Next he would be telling him what kind of clothes he ought to wear Harran had the right idea Somebody had got to be busted mighty soon now and he didnt propose that it should be he
Now you are talking something like sense observed Osterman I thought you would see it like that when you got my idea
Your idea YOUR idea cried Annixter Why Ive had this idea myself for over three years
What about Disbrow asked Harran hastening to interrupt Why do we want to see Disbrow
Disbrow is the political man for the Denver Pueblo and Mojave answered Osterman and you see its like this the Mojave road dont run up into the valley at all Their terminus is way to the south of us and they dont care anything about grain rates through the San Joaquin They dont care how antirailroad the Commission is because the Commissions rulings cant affect them But they divide traffic with the P and S W in the southern part of the State and they have a good deal of influence with that road I want to get the Mojave road through Disbrow to recommend a Commissioner of our choosing to the P and S W and have the P and S W adopt him as their own
Who for instance
Darrell that Los Angeles man—remember
Well Darrell is no particular friend of Disbrow said Annixter Why should Disbrow take him up
PREEcisely cried Osterman We make it worth Disbrows while to do it We go to him and say Mr Disbrow you manage the politics for the Mojave railroad and what you say goes with your Board of Directors We want you to adopt our candidate for Railroad Commissioner for the third district How much do you want for doing it I KNOW we can buy Disbrow That gives us one Commissioner We need not bother about that any more In the first district we dont make any move at all We let the political managers of the P and S W nominate whoever they like Then we concentrate all our efforts to putting in our man in the second district There is where the big fight will come
I see perfectly well what you mean Mr Osterman observed Magnus but make no mistake sir as to my attitude in this business You may count me as out of it entirely
Well suppose we win put in Annixter truculently already acknowledging himself as involved in the proposed undertaking suppose we win and get low rates for hauling grain How about you then You count yourself IN then dont you You get all the benefit of lower rates without sharing any of the risks we take to secure them No nor any of the expense either No you wont dirty your fingers with helping us put this deal through but you wont be so cursed particular when it comes to sharing the profits will you
Magnus rose abruptly to his full height the nostrils of his thin hawklike nose vibrating his smoothshaven face paler than ever
Stop right where you are sir he exclaimed You forget yourself Mr Annixter Please understand that I tolerate such words as you have permitted yourself to make use of from no man not even from my guest I shall ask you to apologise
In an instant he dominated the entire group imposing a respect that was as much fear as admiration No one made response For the moment he was the Master again the Leader Like so many delinquent schoolboys the others cowered before him ashamed put to confusion unable to find their tongues In that brief instant of silence following upon Magnuss outburst and while he held them subdued and overmastered the fabric of their scheme of corruption and dishonesty trembled to its base It was the last protest of the Old School rising up there in denunciation of the new order of things the statesman opposed to the politician honesty rectitude uncompromising integrity prevailing for the last time against the devious manoeuvring the evil communications the rotten expediency of a corrupted institution
For a few seconds no one answered Then Annixter moving abruptly and uneasily in his place muttered
I spoke upon provocation If you like well consider it unsaid I dont know whats going to become of us—go out of business I presume
I understand Magnus all right put in Osterman He dont have to go into this thing if its against his conscience Thats all right Magnus can stay out if he wants to but that wont prevent us going ahead and seeing what we can do Only theres this about it He turned again to Magnus speaking with every degree of earnestness every appearance of conviction I did not deny Governor from the very start that this would mean bribery But you dont suppose that I like the idea either If there was one legitimate hope that was yet left untried no matter how forlorn it was I would try it But theres not It is literally and soberly true that every means of help—every honest means—has been attempted Shelgrim is going to cinch us Grain rates are increasing while on the other hand the price of wheat is sagging lower and lower all the time If we dont do something we are ruined
Osterman paused for a moment allowing precisely the right number of seconds to elapse then altering and lowering his voice added
I respect the Governors principles I admire them They do him every degree of credit Then turning directly to Magnus he concluded with But I only want you to ask yourself sir if at such a crisis one ought to think of oneself to consider purely personal motives in such a desperate situation as this Now we want you with us Governor perhaps not openly if you dont wish it but tacitly at least I wont ask you for an answer tonight but what I do ask of you is to consider this matter seriously and think over the whole business Will you do it
Osterman ceased definitely to speak leaning forward across the table his eyes fixed on Magnuss face There was a silence Outside the rain fell continually with an even monotonous murmur In the group of men around the table no one stirred nor spoke They looked steadily at Magnus who for the moment kept his glance fixed thoughtfully upon the table before him In another moment he raised his head and looked from face to face around the group After all these were his neighbours his friends men with whom he had been upon the closest terms of association In a way they represented what now had come to be his world His single swift glance took in the men one after another Annixter rugged crude sitting awkwardly and uncomfortably in his chair his unhandsome face with its outthrust lower lip and deeply cleft masculine chin flushed and eager his yellow hair disordered the one tuft on the crown standing stiffly forth like the feather in an Indians scalp lock Broderson vaguely combing at his long beard with a persistent maniacal gesture distressed troubled and uneasy Osterman with his comedy face the face of a musichall singer his head bald and set off by his great red ears leaning back in his place softly cracking the knuckle of a forefinger and last of all and close to his elbow his son his support his confidant and companion Harran so like himself with his own erect fine carriage his thin beaklike nose and his blond hair with its tendency to curl in a forward direction in front of the ears young strong courageous full of the promise of the future years His blue eyes looked straight into his fathers with what Magnus could fancy a glance of appeal Magnus could see that expression in the faces of the others very plainly They looked to him as their natural leader their chief who was to bring them out from this abominable trouble which was closing in upon them and in them all he saw many types They—these men around his table on that night of the first rain of a coming season—seemed to stand in his imagination for many others—all the farmers ranchers and wheat growers of the great San Joaquin Their words were the words of a whole community their distress the distress of an entire State harried beyond the bounds of endurance driven to the wall coerced exploited harassed to the limits of exasperation I will think of it he said then hastened to add but I can tell you beforehand that you may expect only a refusal
After Magnus had spoken there was a prolonged silence The conference seemed of itself to have come to an end for that evening Presley lighted another cigarette from the butt of the one he had been smoking and the cat Princess Nathalie disturbed by his movement and by a whiff of drifting smoke jumped from his knee to the floor and picking her way across the room to Annixter rubbed gently against his legs her tail in the air her back delicately arched No doubt she thought it time to settle herself for the night and as Annixter gave no indication of vacating his chair she chose this way of cajoling him into ceding his place to her But Annixter was irritated at the Princesss attentions misunderstanding their motive
Get out he exclaimed lifting his feet to the rung of the chair Lord love me but I sure do hate a cat
By the way observed Osterman I passed Genslinger by the gate as I came in tonight Had he been here
Yes he was here said Harran and— but Annixter took the words out of his mouth
He says theres some talk of the railroad selling us their sections this winter
Oh he did did he exclaimed Osterman interested at once Where did he hear that
Where does a railroad paper get its news From the General Office I suppose
I hope he didnt get it straight from headquarters that the land was to be graded at twenty dollars an acre murmured Broderson
Whats that demanded Osterman Twenty dollars Here put me on somebody Whats all up What did Genslinger say
Oh you neednt get scared said Annixter Genslinger dont know thats all He thinks there was no understanding that the price of the land should not be advanced when the P and S W came to sell to us
Oh muttered Osterman relieved Magnus who had gone out into the office on the other side of the glassroofed hallway returned with a long yellow envelope in his hand stuffed with newspaper clippings and thin closely printed pamphlets
Here is the circular he remarked drawing out one of the pamphlets The conditions of settlement to which the railroad obligated itself are very explicit
He ran over the pages of the circular then read aloud
The Company invites settlers to go upon its lands before patents are issued or the road is completed and intends in such cases to sell to them in preference to any other applicants and at a price based upon the value of the land without improvements and on the other page here he remarked they refer to this again In ascertaining the value of the lands any improvements that a settler or any other person may have on the lands will not be taken into consideration neither will the price be increased in consequence thereof Settlers are thus insured that in addition to being accorded the first privilege of purchase at the graded price they will also be protected in their improvements And here he commented in Section IX it reads The lands are not uniform in price but are offered at various figures from 250 upward per acre Usually land covered with tall timber is held at 500 per acre and that with pine at 1000 Most is for sale at 250 and 500
When you come to read that carefully hazarded old Broderson it—its not so VERY REASSURING MOST is for sale at twofifty an acre it says That dont mean ALL that only means SOME I wish now that I had secured a more ironclad agreement from the P and S W when I took up its sections on my ranch and—and Genslinger is in a position to know the intentions of the railroad At least he—he—he is in TOUCH with them All newspaper men are Those I mean who are subsidised by the General Office But perhaps Genslinger isnt subsidised I dont know I—I am not sure Maybe—perhaps
Oh you dont know and you do know and maybe and perhaps and youre not so sure vociferated Annixter How about ignoring the value of our improvements Nothing hazy about THAT statement I guess It says in so many words that any improvements we make will not be considered when the land is appraised and thats the same thing isnt it The unimproved land is worth twofifty an acre only timber land is worth more and theres none too much timber about here
Well one thing at a time said Harran The thing for us now is to get into this primary election and the convention and see if we can push our men for Railroad Commissioners
Right declared Annixter He rose stretching his arms above his head Ive about talked all the wind out of me he said Think Ill be moving along Its pretty near midnight
But when Magnuss guests turned their attention to the matter of returning to their different ranches they abruptly realised that the downpour had doubled and trebled in its volume since earlier in the evening The fields and roads were veritable seas of viscid mud the night absolutely blackdark assuredly not a night in which to venture out Magnus insisted that the three ranchers should put up at Los Muertos Osterman accepted at once Annixter after an interminable discussion allowed himself to be persuaded in the end accepting as though granting a favour Broderson protested that his wife who was not well would expect him to return that night and would no doubt fret if he did not appear Furthermore he lived close by at the junction of the County and Lower Road He put a sack over his head and shoulders persistently declining Magnuss offered umbrella and rubber coat and hurried away remarking that he had no foreman on his ranch and had to be up and about at five the next morning to put his men to work
Fool muttered Annixter when the old man had gone Imagine farming a ranch the size of his without a foreman
Harran showed Osterman and Annixter where they were to sleep in adjoining rooms Magnus soon afterward retired
Osterman found an excuse for going to bed but Annixter and Harran remained in the latters room in a haze of blue tobacco smoke talking talking But at length at the end of all argument Annixter got up remarking
Well Im going to turn in Its nearly two oclock
He went to his room closing the door and Harran opening his window to clear out the tobacco smoke looked out for a moment across the country toward the south
The darkness was profound impenetrable the rain fell with an uninterrupted roar Near at hand one could hear the sound of dripping eaves and foliage and the eager sucking sound of the drinking earth and abruptly while Harran stood looking out one hand upon the upraised sash a great puff of the outside air invaded the room odourous with the reek of the soaking earth redolent with fertility pungent heavy tepid He closed the window again and sat for a few moments on the edge of the bed one shoe in his hand thoughtful and absorbed wondering if his father would involve himself in this new scheme wondering if after all he wanted him to
But suddenly he was aware of a commotion issuing from the direction of Annixters room and the voice of Annixter himself upraised in expostulation and exasperation The door of the room to which Annixter had been assigned opened with a violent wrench and an angry voice exclaimed to anybody who would listen
Oh yes funny isnt it In a way its funny and then again in a way it isnt
The door banged to so that all the windows of the house rattled in their frames
Harran hurried out into the diningroom and there met Presley and his father who had been aroused as well by Annixters clamour Osterman was there too his bald head gleaming like a bulb of ivory in the light of the lamp that Magnus carried
Whats all up demanded Osterman Whatever in the world is the matter with Buck
Confused and terrible sounds came from behind the door of Annixters room A prolonged monologue of grievance broken by explosions of wrath and the vague noise of some one in a furious hurry All at once and before Harran had a chance to knock on the door Annixter flung it open His face was blazing with anger his outthrust lip more prominent than ever his wiry yellow hair in disarray the tuft on the crown sticking straight into the air like the upraised hackles of an angry hound Evidently he had been dressing himself with the most headlong rapidity he had not yet put on his coat and vest but carried them over his arm while with his disengaged hand he kept hitching his suspenders over his shoulders with a persistent and hypnotic gesture Without a moments pause he gave vent to his indignation in a torrent of words
Ah yes in my bed sloop aha I know the man who put it there he went on glaring at Osterman and that man is a PIP Sloop Slimy disgusting stuff you heard me say I didnt like it when the Chink passed it to me at dinner—and just for that reason you put it in my bed and I stick my feet into it when I turn in Funny isnt it Oh yes too funny for any use Id laugh a little louder if I was you
Well Buck protested Harran as he noticed the hat in Annixters hand youre not going home just for——
Annixter turned on him with a shout
Ill get plumb out of here he trumpeted I wont stay here another minute
He swung into his waistcoat and coat scrabbling at the buttons in the violence of his emotions And I dont know but what it will make me sick again to go out in a night like this NO I wont stay Some things are funny and then again there are some things that are not Ah yes sloop Well thats all right I can be funny too when you come to that You dont get a cent of money out of me You can do your dirty bribery in your own dirty way I wont come into this scheme at all I wash my hands of the whole business Its rotten and its wildeyed its dirt from start to finish and youll all land in States prison You can count me out
But Buck look here you crazy fool cried Harran I dont know who put that stuff in your bed but Im not going to let you go back to Quien Sabe in a rain like this
I know who put it in clamoured the other shaking his fists and dont call me Buck and Ill do as I please I WILL go back home Ill get plumb out of here Sorry I came Sorry I ever lent myself to such a disgusting dishonest dirty bribery game as this all tonight I wont put a dime into it no not a penny
He stormed to the door leading out upon the porch deaf to all reason Harran and Presley followed him trying to dissuade him from going home at that time of night and in such a storm but Annixter was not to be placated He stamped across to the barn where his horse and buggy had been stabled splashing through the puddles under foot going out of his way to drench himself refusing even to allow Presley and Harran to help him harness the horse
Whats the use of making a fool of yourself Annixter remonstrated Presley as Annixter backed the horse from the stall You act just like a tenyearold boy If Osterman wants to play the goat why should you help him out
Hes a PIP vociferated Annixter You dont understand Presley It runs in my family to hate anything sticky Its—its—its heredity How would you like to get into bed at two in the morning and jam your feet down into a slimy mess like that Oh no Its not so funny then And you mark my words Mr Harran Derrick he continued as he climbed into the buggy shaking the whip toward Harran this business we talked over tonight—Im OUT of it Its yellow Its too CURSED dishonest
He cut the horse across the back with the whip and drove out into the pelting rain In a few seconds the sound of his buggy wheels was lost in the muffled roar of the downpour
Harran and Presley closed the barn and returned to the house sheltering themselves under a tarpaulin carriage cover Once inside Harran went to remonstrate with Osterman who was still up Magnus had again retired The house had fallen quiet again
As Presley crossed the diningroom on the way to his own apartment in the second story of the house he paused for a moment looking about him In the dull light of the lowered lamps the redwood panelling of the room showed a dark crimson as though stained with blood On the massive slab of the dining table the halfemptied glasses and bottles stood about in the confusion in which they had been left reflecting themselves deep into the polished wood the glass doors of the case of stuffed birds was a subdued shimmer the manycoloured Navajo blanket over the couch seemed a mere patch of brown
Around the table the chairs in which the men had sat throughout the evening still ranged themselves in a semicircle vaguely suggestive of the conference of the past few hours with all its possibilities of good and evil its significance of a future big with portent The room was still Only on the cushions of the chair that Annixter had occupied the cat Princess Nathalie at last comfortably settled in her accustomed place dozed complacently her paws tucked under her breast filling the deserted room with the subdued murmur of her contented purr
CHAPTER IV
On the Quien Sabe ranch in one of its western divisions near the line fence that divided it from the Osterman holding Vanamee was harnessing the horses to the plough to which he had been assigned two days before a stableboy from the division barn helping him
Promptly discharged from the employ of the sheepraisers after the lamentable accident near the Long Trestle Vanamee had presented himself to Harran asking for employment The season was beginning on all the ranches work was being resumed The rain had put the ground into admirable condition for ploughing and Annixter Broderson and Osterman all had their gangs at work Thus Vanamee was vastly surprised to find Los Muertos idle the horses still in the barns the men gathering in the shade of the bunkhouse and eatinghouse smoking dozing or going aimlessly about their arms dangling The ploughs for which Magnus and Harran were waiting in a fury of impatience had not yet arrived and since the management of Los Muertos had counted upon having these in hand long before this time no provision had been made for keeping the old stock in repair many of these old ploughs were useless broken and out of order some had been sold It could not be said definitely when the new ploughs would arrive Harran had decided to wait one week longer and then in case of their nonappearance to buy a consignment of the old style of plough from the dealers in Bonneville He could afford to lose the money better than he could afford to lose the season
Failing of work on Los Muertos Vanamee had gone to Quien Sabe Annixter whom he had spoken to first had sent him across the ranch to one of his division superintendents and this latter after assuring himself of Vanamees familiarity with horses and his previous experience—even though somewhat remote—on Los Muertos had taken him on as a driver of one of the gang ploughs then at work on his division
The evening before when the foreman had blown his whistle at six oclock the long line of ploughs had halted upon the instant and the drivers unharnessing their teams had taken them back to the division barns—leaving the ploughs as they were in the furrows But an hour after daylight the next morning the work was resumed After breakfast Vanamee riding one horse and leading the others had returned to the line of ploughs together with the other drivers Now he was busy harnessing the team At the division blacksmith shop—temporarily put up—he had been obliged to wait while one of his lead horses was shod and he had thus been delayed quite five minutes Nearly all the other teams were harnessed the drivers on their seats waiting for the foremans signal
All ready here inquired the foreman driving up to Vanamees team in his buggy
All ready sir answered Vanamee buckling the last strap
He climbed to his seat shaking out the reins and turning about looked back along the line then all around him at the landscape inundated with the brilliant glow of the early morning
The day was fine Since the first rain of the season there had been no other Now the sky was without a cloud pale blue delicate luminous scintillating with morning The great brown earth turned a huge flank to it exhaling the moisture of the early dew The atmosphere washed clean of dust and mist was translucent as crystal Far off to the east the hills on the other side of Broderson Creek stood out against the pallid saffron of the horizon as flat and as sharply outlined as if pasted on the sky The campanile of the ancient Mission of San Juan seemed as fine as frost work All about between the horizons the carpet of the land unrolled itself to infinity But now it was no longer parched with heat cracked and warped by a merciless sun powdered with dust The rain had done its work not a clod that was not swollen with fertility not a fissure that did not exhale the sense of fecundity One could not take a dozen steps upon the ranches without the brusque sensation that underfoot the land was alive roused at last from its sleep palpitating with the desire of reproduction Deep down there in the recesses of the soil the great heart throbbed once more thrilling with passion vibrating with desire offering itself to the caress of the plough insistent eager imperious Dimly one felt the deepseated trouble of the earth the uneasy agitation of its members the hidden tumult of its womb demanding to be made fruitful to reproduce to disengage the eternal renascent germ of Life that stirred and struggled in its loins
The ploughs thirtyfive in number each drawn by its team of ten stretched in an interminable line nearly a quarter of a mile in length behind and ahead of Vanamee They were arranged as it were en echelon not in file—not one directly behind the other but each succeeding plough its own width farther in the field than the one in front of it Each of these ploughs held five shears so that when the entire company was in motion one hundred and seventyfive furrows were made at the same instant At a distance the ploughs resembled a great column of field artillery Each driver was in his place his glance alternating between his horses and the foreman nearest at hand Other foremen in their buggies or buckboards were at intervals along the line like battery lieutenants Annixter himself on horseback in boots and campaign hat a cigar in his teeth overlooked the scene
The division superintendent on the opposite side of the line galloped past to a position at the head For a long moment there was a silence A sense of preparedness ran from end to end of the column All things were ready each man in his place The days work was about to begin
Suddenly from a distance at the head of the line came the shrill trilling of a whistle At once the foreman nearest Vanamee repeated it at the same time turning down the line and waving one arm The signal was repeated whistle answering whistle till the sounds lost themselves in the distance At once the line of ploughs lost its immobility moving forward getting slowly under way the horses straining in the traces A prolonged movement rippled from team to team disengaging in its passage a multitude of sounds—the click of buckles the creak of straining leather the subdued clash of machinery the cracking of whips the deep breathing of nearly four hundred horses the abrupt commands and cries of the drivers and last of all the prolonged soothing murmur of the thick brown earth turning steadily from the multitude of advancing shears
The ploughing thus commenced continued The sun rose higher Steadily the hundred iron hands kneaded and furrowed and stroked the brown humid earth the hundred iron teeth bit deep into the Titans flesh Perched on his seat the moist living reins slipping and tugging in his hands Vanamee in the midst of this steady confusion of constantly varying sensation sight interrupted by sound sound mingling with sight on this swaying vibrating seat quivering with the prolonged thrill of the earth lapsed to a sort of pleasing numbness in a sense hypnotised by the weaving maze of things in which he found himself involved To keep his team at an even regular gait maintaining the precise interval to run his furrows as closely as possible to those already made by the plough in front—this for the moment was the entire sum of his duties But while one part of his brain alert and watchful took cognisance of these matters all the greater part was lulled and stupefied with the long monotony of the affair
The ploughing now in full swing enveloped him in a vague slowmoving whirl of things Underneath him was the jarring jolting trembling machine not a clod was turned not an obstacle encountered that he did not receive the swift impression of it through all his body the very friction of the damp soil sliding incessantly from the shiny surface of the shears seemed to reproduce itself in his fingertips and along the back of his head He heard the horsehoofs by the myriads crushing down easily deeply into the loam the prolonged clinking of tracechains the working of the smooth brown flanks in the harness the clatter of wooden hames the champing of bits the click of iron shoes against pebbles the brittle stubble of the surface ground crackling and snapping as the furrows turned the sonorous steady breaths wrenched from the deep labouring chests strapbound shining with sweat and all along the line the voices of the men talking to the horses Everywhere there were visions of glossy brown backs straining heaving swollen with muscle harness streaked with specks of froth broad cupshaped hoofs heavy with brown loam mens faces red with tan blue overalls spotted with axlegrease muscled hands the knuckles whitened in their grip on the reins and through it all the ammoniacal smell of the horses the bitter reek of perspiration of beasts and men the aroma of warm leather the scent of dead stubble—and stronger and more penetrating than everything else the heavy enervating odour of the upturned living earth
At intervals from the tops of one of the rare low swells of the land Vanamee overlooked a wider horizon On the other divisions of Quien Sabe the same work was in progress Occasionally he could see another column of ploughs in the adjoining division—sometimes so close at hand that the subdued murmur of its movements reached his ear sometimes so distant that it resolved itself into a long brown streak upon the grey of the ground Farther off to the west on the Osterman ranch other columns came and went and once from the crest of the highest swell on his division Vanamee caught a distant glimpse of the Broderson ranch There too moving specks indicated that the ploughing was under way And farther away still far off there beyond the fine line of the horizons over the curve of the globe the shoulder of the earth he knew were other ranches and beyond these others and beyond these still others the immensities multiplying to infinity
Everywhere throughout the great San Joaquin unseen and unheard a thousand ploughs upstirred the land tens of thousands of shears clutched deep into the warm moist soil
It was the long stroking caress vigorous male powerful for which the Earth seemed panting The heroic embrace of a multitude of iron hands gripping deep into the brown warm flesh of the land that quivered responsive and passionate under this rude advance so robust as to be almost an assault so violent as to be veritably brutal There under the sun and under the speckless sheen of the sky the wooing of the Titan began the vast primal passion the two worldforces the elemental Male and Female locked in a colossal embrace at grapples in the throes of an infinite desire at once terrible and divine knowing no law untamed savage natural sublime
From time to time the gang in which Vanamee worked halted on the signal from foreman or overseer The horses came to a standstill the vague clamour of the work lapsed away Then the minutes passed The whole work hung suspended All up and down the line one demanded what had happened The division superintendent galloped past perplexed and anxious For the moment one of the ploughs was out of order a bolt had slipped a lever refused to work or a machine had become immobilised in heavy ground or a horse had lamed himself Once even toward noon an entire plough was taken out of the line so out of gear that a messenger had to be sent to the division forge to summon the machinist
Annixter had disappeared He had ridden farther on to the other divisions of his ranch to watch the work in progress there At twelve oclock according to his orders all the division superintendents put themselves in communication with him by means of the telephone wires that connected each of the division houses reporting the condition of the work the number of acres covered the prospects of each plough traversing its daily average of twenty miles
At halfpast twelve Vanamee and the rest of the drivers ate their lunch in the field the tin buckets having been distributed to them that morning after breakfast But in the evening the routine of the previous day was repeated and Vanamee unharnessing his team riding one horse and leading the others returned to the division barns and bunkhouse
It was between six and seven oclock The half hundred men of the gang threw themselves upon the supper the Chinese cooks had set out in the shed of the eatinghouse long as a bowling alley unpainted crude the seats benches the table covered with oil cloth Overhead a halfdozen kerosene lamps flared and smoked
The table was taken as if by assault the clatter of iron knives upon the tin plates was as the reverberation of hail upon a metal roof The ploughmen rinsed their throats with great draughts of wine and their elbows wide their foreheads flushed resumed the attack upon the beef and bread eating as though they would never have enough All up and down the long table where the kerosene lamps reflected themselves deep in the oilcloth cover one heard the incessant sounds of mastication and saw the uninterrupted movement of great jaws At every moment one or another of the men demanded a fresh portion of beef another pint of wine another halfloaf of bread For upwards of an hour the gang ate It was no longer a supper It was a veritable barbecue a crude and primitive feasting barbaric homeric
But in all this scene Vanamee saw nothing repulsive Presley would have abhorred it—this feeding of the People this gorging of the human animal eager for its meat Vanamee simple uncomplicated living so close to nature and the rudimentary life understood its significance He knew very well that within a short halfhour after this meal the men would throw themselves down in their bunks to sleep without moving inert and stupefied with fatigue till the morning Work food and sleep all life reduced to its bare essentials uncomplex honest healthy They were strong these men with the strength of the soil they worked in touch with the essential things back again to the starting point of civilisation coarse vital real and sane
For a brief moment immediately after the meal pipes were lit and the air grew thick with fragrant tobacco smoke On a corner of the diningroom table a game of poker was begun One of the drivers a Swede produced an accordion a group on the steps of the bunkhouse listened with alternate gravity and shouts of laughter to the acknowledged storyteller of the gang But soon the men began to turn in stretching themselves at full length on the horse blankets in the racklike bunks The sounds of heavy breathing increased steadily lights were put out and before the afterglow had faded from the sky the gang was asleep
Vanamee however remained awake The night was fine warm the sky silvergrey with starlight By and by there would be a moon In the first watch after the twilight a faint puff of breeze came up out of the south From all around the heavy penetrating smell of the newturned earth exhaled steadily into the darkness After a while when the moon came up he could see the vast brown breast of the earth turn toward it Far off distant objects came into view The giant oak tree at Hoovens ranch house near the irrigating ditch on Los Muertos the skeletonlike tower of the windmill on Annixters Home ranch the clump of willows along Broderson Creek close to the Long Trestle and last of all the venerable tower of the Mission of San Juan on the high ground beyond the creek
Thitherward like homing pigeons Vanamees thoughts turned irresistibly Near to that tower just beyond in the little hollow hidden now from his sight was the Seed ranch where Angele Varian had lived Straining his eyes peering across the intervening levels Vanamee fancied he could almost see the line of venerable pear trees in whose shadow she had been accustomed to wait for him On many such a night as this he had crossed the ranches to find her there His mind went back to that wonderful time of his life sixteen years before this when Angele was alive when they two were involved in the sweet intricacies of a love so fine so pure so marvellous that it seemed to them a miracle a manifestation a thing veritably divine put into the life of them and the hearts of them by God Himself To that they had been born For this loves sake they had come into the world and the mingling of their lives was to be the Perfect Life the intended ordained union of the soul of man with the soul of woman indissoluble harmonious as music beautiful beyond all thought a foretaste of Heaven a hostage of immortality
No he Vanamee could never never forget never was the edge of his grief to lose its sharpness never would the lapse of time blunt the tooth of his pain Once more as he sat there looking off across the ranches his eyes fixed on the ancient campanile of the Mission church the anguish that would not die leaped at his throat tearing at his heart shaking him and rending him with a violence as fierce and as profound as if it all had been but yesterday The ache returned to his heart a physical keen pain his hands gripped tight together twisting interlocked his eyes filled with tears his whole body shaken and riven from head to heel
He had lost her God had not meant it after all The whole matter had been a mistake That vast wonderful love that had come upon them had been only the flimsiest mockery Abruptly Vanamee rose He knew the night that was before him At intervals throughout the course of his prolonged wanderings in the desert on the mesa deep in the canon lost and forgotten on the flanks of unnamed mountains alone under the stars and under the moons white eye these hours came to him his grief recoiling upon him like the recoil of a vast and terrible engine Then he must fight out the night wrestling with his sorrow praying sometimes incoherent hardly conscious asking Why of the night and of the stars
Such another night had come to him now Until dawn he knew he must struggle with his grief torn with memories his imagination assaulted with visions of a vanished happiness If this paroxysm of sorrow was to assail him again that night there was but one place for him to be He would go to the Mission—he would see Father Sarria he would pass the night in the deep shadow of the aged pear trees in the Mission garden
He struck out across Quien Sabe his face the face of an ascetic lean brown infinitely sad set toward the Mission church In about an hour he reached and crossed the road that led northward from Guadalajara toward the Seed ranch and a little farther on forded Broderson Creek where it ran through one corner of the Mission land He climbed the hill and halted out of breath from his brisk wall at the end of the colonnade of the Mission itself
Until this moment Vanamee had not trusted himself to see the Mission at night On the occasion of his first daytime visit with Presley he had hurried away even before the twilight had set in not daring for the moment to face the crowding phantoms that in his imagination filled the Mission garden after dark In the daylight the place had seemed strange to him None of his associations with the old building and its surroundings were those of sunlight and brightness Whenever during his long sojourns in the wilderness of the Southwest he had called up the picture in the eye of his mind it had always appeared to him in the dim mystery of moonless nights the venerable pear trees black with shadow the fountain a thing to be heard rather than seen
But as yet he had not entered the garden That lay on the other side of the Mission Vanamee passed down the colonnade with its uneven pavement of worn red bricks to the last door by the belfry tower and rang the little bell by pulling the leather thong that hung from a hole in the door above the knob
But the maidservant who after a long interval opened the door blinking and confused at being roused from her sleep told Vanamee that Sarria was not in his room Vanamee however was known to her as the priests protege and great friend and she allowed him to enter telling him that no doubt he would find Sarria in the church itself The servant led the way down the cool adobe passage to a larger room that occupied the entire width of the bottom of the belfry tower and whence a flight of aged steps led upward into the dark At the foot of the stairs was a door opening into the church The servant admitted Vanamee closing the door behind her
The interior of the Mission a great oblong of whitewashed adobe with a flat ceiling was lighted dimly by the sanctuary lamp that hung from three long chains just over the chancel rail at the far end of the church and by two or three cheap kerosene lamps in brackets of imitation bronze All around the walls was the inevitable series of pictures representing the Stations of the Cross They were of a hideous crudity of design and composition yet were wrought out with an innocent unquestioning sincerity that was not without its charm Each picture framed alike in gilt bore its suitable inscription in staring black letters Simon The Cyrenean Helps Jesus to Carry His Cross Saint Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus Jesus Falls for the Fourth Time and so on Halfway up the length of the church the pews began coffinlike boxes of blackened oak shining from years of friction each with its door while over them and built out from the wall was the pulpit with its tarnished gilt soundingboard above it like the raised cover of a great hatbox Between the pews in the aisle the violent vermilion of a strip of ingrain carpet assaulted the eye Farther on were the steps to the altar the chancel rail of wormriddled oak the high altar with its napery from the bargain counters of a San Francisco store the massive silver candlesticks each as much as one man could lift the gift of a dead Spanish queen and last the pictures of the chancel the Virgin in a glory a Christ in agony on the cross and St John the Baptist the patron saint of the Mission the San Juan Bautista of the early days a gaunt grey figure in skins two fingers upraised in the gesture of benediction
The air of the place was cool and damp and heavy with the flat sweet scent of stale incense smoke It was of a vaultlike stillness and the closing of the door behind Vanamee reechoed from corner to corner with a prolonged reverberation of thunder
However Father Sarria was not in the church Vanamee took a couple of turns the length of the aisle looking about into the chapels on either side of the chancel But the building was deserted The priest had been there recently nevertheless for the altar furniture was in disarray as though he had been rearranging it but a moment before On both sides of the church and halfway up their length the walls were pierced by low archways in which were massive wooden doors clamped with iron bolts One of these doors on the pulpit side of the church stood ajar and stepping to it and pushing it wide open Vanamee looked diagonally across a little patch of vegetables—beets radishes and lettuce—to the rear of the building that had once contained the cloisters and through an open window saw Father Sarria diligently polishing the silver crucifix that usually stood on the high altar Vanamee did not call to the priest Putting a finger to either temple he fixed his eyes steadily upon him for a moment as he moved about at his work In a few seconds he closed his eyes but only part way The pupils contracted his forehead lowered to an expression of poignant intensity Soon afterward he saw the priest pause abruptly in the act of drawing the cover over the crucifix looking about him from side to side He turned again to his work and again came to a stop perplexed curious With uncertain steps and evidently wondering why he did so he came to the door of the room and opened it looking out into the night Vanamee hidden in the deep shadow of the archway did not move but his eyes closed and the intense expression deepened on his face The priest hesitated moved forward a step turned back paused again then came straight across the garden patch brusquely colliding with Vanamee still motionless in the recess of the archway
Sarria gave a great start catching his breath
Oh—oh its you Was it you I heard calling No I could not have heard—I remember now What a strange power I am not sure that it is right to do this thing Vanamee I—I HAD to come I do not know why It is a great force—a power—I dont like it Vanamee sometimes it frightens me
Vanamee put his chin in the air
If I had wanted to sir I could have made you come to me from back there in the Quien Sabe ranch
The priest shook his head
It troubles me he said to think that my own will can count for so little Just now I could not resist If a deep river had been between us I must have crossed it Suppose I had been asleep now It would have been all the easier answered Vanamee I understand as little of these things as you But I think if you had been asleep your power of resistance would have been so much the more weakened
Perhaps I should not have waked Perhaps I should have come to you in my sleep
Perhaps
Sarria crossed himself It is occult he hazarded No I do not like it Dear fellow he put his hand on Vanamees shoulder dont—call me that way again promise See he held out his hand I am all of a tremble There we wont speak of it further Wait for me a moment I have only to put the cross in its place and a fresh altar cloth and then I am done Tomorrow is the feast of The Holy Cross and I am preparing against it The night is fine We will smoke a cigar in the cloister garden
A few moments later the two passed out of the door on the other side of the church opposite the pulpit Sarria adjusting a silk skull cap on his tonsured head He wore his cassock now and was far more the churchman in appearance than when Vanamee and Presley had seen him on a former occasion
They were now in the cloister garden The place was charming Everywhere grew clumps of palms and magnolia trees A grapevine over a century old occupied a trellis in one angle of the walls which surrounded the garden on two sides Along the third side was the church itself while the fourth was open the wall having crumbled away its site marked only by a line of eight great pear trees older even than the grapevine gnarled twisted bearing no fruit Directly opposite the pear trees in the south wall of the garden was a round arched portal whose gate giving upon the esplanade in front of the Mission was always closed Small gravelled walks well kept bordered with mignonette twisted about among the flower beds and underneath the magnolia trees In the centre was a little fountain in a stone basin green with moss while just beyond between the fountain and the pear trees stood what was left of a sun dial the bronze gnomon green with the beatings of the weather the figures on the halfcircle of the dial worn away illegible
But on the other side of the fountain and directly opposite the door of the Mission ranged against the wall were nine graves—three with headstones the rest with slabs Two of Sarrias predecessors were buried here three of the graves were those of Mission Indians One was thought to contain a former alcalde of Guadalajara two more held the bodies of De La Cuesta and his young wife taking with her to the grave the illusion of her husbands love and the last one the ninth at the end of the line nearest the pear trees was marked by a little headstone the smallest of any on which together with the proper dates—only sixteen years apart—was cut the name Angele Varian
But the quiet the repose the isolation of the little cloister garden was infinitely delicious It was a tiny corner of the great valley that stretched in all directions around it—shut off discreet romantic a garden of dreams of enchantments of illusions Outside there far off the great grim world went clashing through its grooves but in here never an echo of the grinding of its wheels entered to jar upon the subdued modulation of the fountains uninterrupted murmur
Sarria and Vanamee found their way to a stone bench against the side wall of the Mission near the door from which they had just issued and sat down Sarria lighting a cigar Vanamee rolling and smoking cigarettes in Mexican fashion
All about them widened the vast calm night All the stars were out The moon was coming up There was no wind no sound The insistent flowing of the fountain seemed only as the symbol of the passing of time a thing that was understood rather than heard inevitable prolonged At long intervals a faint breeze hardly more than a breath found its way into the garden over the enclosing walls and passed overhead spreading everywhere the delicious mingled perfume of magnolia blossoms of mignonette of moss of grass and all the calm green life silently teeming within the enclosure of the walls
From where he sat Vanamee turning his head could look out underneath the pear trees to the north Close at hand a little valley lay between the high ground on which the Mission was built and the line of low hills just beyond Broderson Creek on the Quien Sabe In here was the Seed ranch which Angeles people had cultivated a unique and beautiful stretch of five hundred acres planted thick with roses violets lilies tulips iris carnations tuberoses poppies heliotrope—all manner and description of flowers five hundred acres of them solid thick exuberant blooming and fading and leaving their seed or slips to be marketed broadcast all over the United States This had been the vocation of Angeles parents—raising flowers for their seeds All over the country the Seed ranch was known Now it was arid almost dry but when in full flower toward the middle of summer the sight of these halfthousand acres royal with colour—vermilion azure flaming yellow—was a marvel When an east wind blew men on the streets of Bonneville nearly twelve miles away could catch the scent of this valley of flowers this chaos of perfume
And into this life of flowers this world of colour this atmosphere oppressive and clogged and cloyed and thickened with sweet odour Angele had been born There she had lived her sixteen years There she had died It was not surprising that Vanamee with his intense delicate sensitiveness to beauty his almost abnormal capacity for great happiness had been drawn to her had loved her so deeply
She came to him from out of the flowers the smell of the roses in her hair of gold that hung in two straight plaits on either side of her face the reflection of the violets in the profound dark blue of her eyes perplexing heavylidded almondshaped oriental the aroma and the imperial red of the carnations in her lips with their almost Egyptian fulness the whiteness of the lilies the perfume of the lilies and the lilies slender balancing grace in her neck Her hands disengaged the odour of the heliotropes The folds of her dress gave off the enervating scent of poppies Her feet were redolent of hyacinths
For a long time after sitting down upon the bench neither the priest nor Vanamee spoke But after a while Sarria took his cigar from his lips saying
How still it is This is a beautiful old garden peaceful very quiet Some day I shall be buried here I like to remember that and you too Vanamee
Quien sabe
Yes you too Where else No it is better here yonder by the side of the little girl
I am not able to look forward yet sir The things that are to be are somehow nothing to me at all For me they amount to nothing
They amount to everything my boy
Yes to one part of me but not to the part of me that belonged to Angele—the best part Oh you dont know he exclaimed with a sudden movement no one can understand What is it to me when you tell me that sometime after I shall die too somewhere in a vague place you call Heaven I shall see her again Do you think that the idea of that ever made any ones sorrow easier to bear Ever took the edge from any ones grief
But you believe that——
Oh believe believe echoed the other What do I believe I dont know I believe or I dont believe I can remember what she WAS but I cannot hope what she will be Hope after all is only memory seen reversed When I try to see her in another life—whatever you call it—in Heaven—beyond the grave—this vague place of yours when I try to see her there she comes to my imagination only as what she was material earthly as I loved her Imperfect you say but that is as I saw her and as I saw her I loved her and as she WAS material earthly imperfect she loved me Its that that I want he exclaimed I dont want her changed I dont want her spiritualised exalted glorified celestial I want HER I think it is only this feeling that has kept me from killing myself I would rather be unhappy in the memory of what she actually was than be happy in the realisation of her transformed changed made celestial I am only human Her soul That was beautiful no doubt But again it was something very vague intangible hardly more than a phrase But the touch of her hand was real the sound of her voice was real the clasp of her arms about my neck was real Oh he cried shaken with a sudden wrench of passion give those back to me Tell your God to give those back to me—the sound of her voice the touch of her hand the clasp of her dear arms REAL REAL and then you may talk to me of Heaven
Sarria shook his head But when you meet her again he observed in Heaven you too will be changed You will see her spiritualised with spiritual eyes As she is now she does not appeal to you I understand that It is because as you say you are only human while she is divine But when you come to be like her as she is now you will know her as she really is not as she seemed to be because her voice was sweet because her hair was pretty because her hand was warm in yours Vanamee your talk is that of a foolish child You are like one of the Corinthians to whom Paul wrote Do you remember Listen now I can recall the words and such words beautiful and terrible at the same time such a majesty They march like soldiers with trumpets But some man will say—as you have said just now—How are the dead raised up And with what body do they come Thou fool That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die and that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body that shall be but bare grain It may chance of wheat or of some other grain But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him and to every seed his own body It is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body It is because you are a natural body that you cannot understand her nor wish for her as a spiritual body but when you are both spiritual then you shall know each other as you are—know as you never knew before Your grain of wheat is your symbol of immortality You bury it in the earth It dies and rises again a thousand times more beautiful Vanamee your dear girl was only a grain of humanity that we have buried here and the end is not yet But all this is so old so old The world learned it a thousand years ago and yet each man that has ever stood by the open grave of any one he loved must learn it all over again from the beginning
Vanamee was silent for a moment looking off with unseeing eyes between the trunks of the pear trees over the little valley
That may all be as you say he answered after a while I have not learned it yet in any case Now I only know that I love her—oh as if it all were yesterday—and that I am suffering suffering always
He leaned forward his head supported on his clenched fists the infinite sadness of his face deepening like a shadow the tears brimming in his deepset eyes A question that he must ask which involved the thing that was scarcely to be thought of occurred to him at this moment After hesitating for a long moment he said
I have been away a long time and I have had no news of this place since I left Is there anything to tell Father Has any discovery been made any suspicion developed as to—the Other
The priest shook his head
Not a word not a whisper It is a mystery It always will be
Vanamee clasped his head between his clenched fists rocking himself to and fro
Oh the terror of it he murmured The horror of it And she—think of it Sarria only sixteen a little girl so innocent that she never knew what wrong meant pure as a little child is pure who believed that all things were good mature only in her love And to be struck down like that while your God looked down from Heaven and would not take her part All at once he seemed to lose control of himself One of those furies of impotent grief and wrath that assailed him from time to time blind insensate incoherent suddenly took possession of him A torrent of words issued from his lips and he flung out an arm the fist clenched in a fierce quick gesture partly of despair partly of defiance partly of supplication No your God would not take her part Where was Gods mercy in that Where was Heavens protection in that Where was the loving kindness you preach about Why did God give her life if it was to be stamped out Why did God give her the power of love if it was to come to nothing Sarria listen to me Why did God make her so divinely pure if He permitted that abomination Ha he exclaimed bitterly your God Why an Apache buck would have been more merciful Your God There is no God There is only the Devil The Heaven you pray to is only a joke a wretched trick a delusion It is only Hell that is real
Sarria caught him by the arm
You are a fool and a child he exclaimed and it is blasphemy that you are saying I forbid it You understand I forbid it
Vanamee turned on him with a sudden cry Then tell your God to give her back to me
Sarria started away from him his eyes widening in astonishment surprised out of all composure by the others outburst Vanamees swarthy face was pale the sunken cheeks and deepset eyes were marked with great black shadows The priest no longer recognised him The face that face of the ascetic lean framed in its long black hair and pointed beard was quivering with the excitement of hallucination It was the face of the inspired shepherds of the Hebraic legends living close to nature the younger prophets of Israel dwellers in the wilderness solitary imaginative believing in the Vision having strange delusions gifted with strange powers In a brief second of thought Sarria understood Out into the wilderness the vast arid desert of the Southwest Vanamee had carried his grief For days for weeks months even he had been alone a solitary speck lost in the immensity of the horizons continually he was brooding haunted with his sorrow thinking thinking often hard put to it for food The body was illnourished and the mind concentrated forever upon one subject had recoiled upon itself had preyed upon the naturally nervous temperament till the imagination had become exalted morbidly active diseased beset with hallucinations forever in search of the manifestation of the miracle It was small wonder that bringing a fancy so distorted back to the scene of a vanished happiness Vanamee should be racked with the most violent illusions beset in the throes of a veritable hysteria
Tell your God to give her back to me he repeated with fierce insistence
It was the pitch of mysticism the imagination harassed and goaded beyond the normal round suddenly flipping from the circumference spinning off at a tangent out into the void where all things seemed possible hurtling through the dark there groping for the supernatural clamouring for the miracle And it was also the human natural protest against the inevitable the irrevocable the spasm of revolt under the sting of death the rebellion of the soul at the victory of the grave
He can give her back to me if He only will Vanamee cried Sarria you must help me I tell you—I warn you sir I cant last much longer under it My head is all wrong with it—Ive no more hold on my mind Something must happen or I shall lose my senses I am breaking down under it all my body and my mind alike Bring her to me make God show her to me If all tales are true it would not be the first time If I cannot have her at least let me see her as she was real earthly not her spirit her ghost I want her real self undefiled again If this is dementia then let me be demented But help me you and your God create the delusion do the miracle
Stop cried the priest again shaking him roughly by the shoulder Stop Be yourself This is dementia but I shall NOT let you be demented Think of what you are saying Bring her back to you Is that the way of God I thought you were a man this is the talk of a weakminded girl
Vanamee stirred abruptly in his place drawing a long breath and looking about him vaguely as if he came to himself
You are right he muttered I hardly know what I am saying at times But there are moments when my whole mind and soul seem to rise up in rebellion against what has happened when it seems to me that I am stronger than death and that if I only knew how to use the strength of my will concentrate my power of thought—volition—that I could—I dont know—not call her back—but—something——
A diseased and distorted mind is capable of hallucinations if that is what you mean observed Sarria
Perhaps that is what I mean Perhaps I want only the delusion after all
Sarria did not reply and there was a long silence In the damp south corners of the walls a frog began to croak at exact intervals The little fountain rippled monotonously and a magnolia flower dropped from one of the trees falling straight as a plummet through the motionless air and settling upon the gravelled walk with a faint rustling sound Otherwise the stillness was profound
A little later the priests cigar long since out slipped from his fingers to the ground He began to nod gently Vanamee touched his arm
Asleep sir
The other started rubbing his eyes
Upon my word I believe I was
Better go to bed sir I am not tired I think I shall sit out here a little longer
Well perhaps I would be better off in bed YOUR bed is always ready for you here whenever you want to use it
No—I shall go back to Quien Sabe—later Goodnight sir
Goodnight my boy
Vanamee was left alone For a long time he sat motionless in his place his elbows on his knees his chin propped in his hands The minutes passed—then the hours The moon climbed steadily higher among the stars Vanamee rolled and smoked cigarette after cigarette the blue haze of smoke hanging motionless above his head or drifting in slowly weaving filaments across the open spaces of the garden
But the influence of the old enclosure this corner of romance and mystery this isolated garden of dreams savouring of the past with its legends its graves its crumbling sun dial its fountain with its rime of moss was not to be resisted Now that the priest had left him the same exaltation of spirit that had seized upon Vanamee earlier in the evening by degrees grew big again in his mind and imagination His sorrow assaulted him like the flagellations of a fine whiplash and his love for Angele rose again in his heart it seemed to him never so deep so tender so infinitely strong No doubt it was his familiarity with the Mission garden his clearcut remembrance of it as it was in the days when he had met Angele there tallying now so exactly with the reality there under his eyes that brought her to his imagination so vividly As yet he dared not trust himself near her grave but for the moment he rose and his hands clasped behind him walked slowly from point to point amid the tiny gravelled walks recalling the incidents of eighteen years ago On the bench he had quitted he and Angele had often sat Here by the crumbling sun dial he recalled the night when he had kissed her for the first time Here again by the rim of the fountain with its fringe of green she once had paused and baring her arm to the shoulder had thrust it deep into the water and then withdrawing it had given it to him to kiss all wet and cool and here at last under the shadow of the pear trees they had sat evening after evening looking off over the little valley below them watching the night build itself domelike from horizon to zenith
Brusquely Vanamee turned away from the prospect The Seed ranch was dark at this time of the year and flowerless Far off toward its centre he had caught a brief glimpse of the house where Angele had lived and a faint light burning in its window But he turned from it sharply The deepseated travail of his grief abruptly reached the paroxysm With long strides he crossed the garden and reentered the Mission church itself plunging into the coolness of its atmosphere as into a bath What he searched for he did not know or rather did not define He knew only that he was suffering that a longing for Angele for some object around which his great love could enfold itself was tearing at his heart with iron teeth He was ready to be deluded craved the hallucination begged pitifully for the illusion anything rather than the empty tenantless night the voiceless silence the vast loneliness of the overspanning arc of the heavens
Before the chancel rail of the altar under the sanctuary lamp Vanamee sank upon his knees his arms folded upon the rail his head bowed down upon them He prayed with what words he could not say for what he did not understand—for help merely for relief for an Answer to his cry
It was upon that at length that his disordered mind concentrated itself an Answer—he demanded he implored an Answer Not a vague visitation of Grace not a formless sense of Peace but an Answer something real even if the reality were fancied a voice out of the night responding to his a hand in the dark clasping his groping fingers a breath human warm fragrant familiar like a soft sweet caress on his shrunken cheeks Alone there in the dim halflight of the decaying Mission with its crumbling plaster its naive crudity of ornament and picture he wrestled fiercely with his desires—words fragments of sentences inarticulate incoherent wrenched from his tightshut teeth
But the Answer was not in the church Above him over the high altar the Virgin in a glory with downcast eyes and folded hands grew vague and indistinct in the shadow the colours fading tarnished by centuries of incense smoke The Christ in agony on the Cross was but a lamentable vision of tormented anatomy grey flesh spotted with crimson The St John the San Juan Bautista patron saint of the Mission the gaunt figure in skins two fingers upraised in the gesture of benediction gazed stolidly out into the halfgloom under the ceiling ignoring the human distress that beat itself in vain against the altar rail below and Angele remained as before—only a memory far distant intangible lost
Vanamee rose turning his back upon the altar with a vague gesture of despair He crossed the church and issuing from the lowarched door opposite the pulpit once more stepped out into the garden Here at least was reality The warm still air descended upon him like a cloak grateful comforting dispelling the chill that lurked in the damp mould of plaster and crumbling adobe
But now he found his way across the garden on the other side of the fountain where ranged against the eastern wall were nine graves Here Angele was buried in the smallest grave of them all marked by the little headstone with its two dates only sixteen years apart To this spot at last he had returned after the years spent in the desert the wilderness—after all the wanderings of the Long Trail Here if ever he must have a sense of her nearness Close at hand a short four feet under that mound of grass was the form he had so often held in the embrace of his arms the face the very face he had kissed that face with the hair of gold making threecornered the round white forehead the violetblue eyes heavylidded with their strange oriental slant upward toward the temples the sweet full lips almost Egyptian in their fulness—all that strange perplexing wonderful beauty so troublous so enchanting so out of all accepted standards
He bent down dropping upon one knee a hand upon the headstone and read again the inscription Then instinctively his hand left the stone and rested upon the low mound of turf touching it with the softness of a caress and then before he was aware of it he was stretched at full length upon the earth beside the grave his arms about the low mound his lips pressed against the grass with which it was covered The pentup grief of nearly twenty years rose again within his heart and overflowed irresistible violent passionate There was no one to see no one to hear Vanamee had no thought of restraint He no longer wrestled with his pain—strove against it There was even a sense of relief in permitting himself to be overcome But the reaction from this outburst was equally violent His revolt against the inevitable his protest against the grave shook him from head to foot goaded him beyond all bounds of reason hounded him on and into the domain of hysteria dementia Vanamee was no longer master of himself—no longer knew what he was doing
At first he had been content with merely a wild unreasoned cry to Heaven that Angele should be restored to him but the vast egotism that seems to run through all forms of disordered intelligence gave his fancy another turn He forgot God He no longer reckoned with Heaven He arrogated their powers to himself—struggled to be of his own unaided might stronger than death more powerful than the grave He had demanded of Sarria that God should restore Angele to him but now he appealed directly to Angele herself As he lay there his arms clasped about her grave she seemed so near to him that he fancied she MUST hear And suddenly at this moment his recollection of his strange compelling power—the same power by which he had called Presley to him halfway across the Quien Sabe ranch the same power which had brought Sarria to his side that very evening—recurred to him Concentrating his mind upon the one object with which it had so long been filled Vanamee his eyes closed his face buried in his arms exclaimed
Come to me—Angele—dont you hear Come to me
But the Answer was not in the Grave Below him the voiceless Earth lay silent moveless withholding the secret jealous of that which it held so close in its grip refusing to give up that which had been confided to its keeping untouched by the human anguish that above there on its surface clutched with despairing hands at a grave long made The Earth that only that morning had been so eager so responsive to the lightest summons so vibrant with Life now at night holding death within its embrace guarding inviolate the secret of the Grave was deaf to all entreaty refused the Answer and Angele remained as before only a memory far distant intangible lost
Vanamee lifted his head looking about him with unseeing eyes trembling with the exertion of his vain effort But he could not as yet allow himself to despair Never before had that curious power of attraction failed him He felt himself to be so strong in this respect that he was persuaded if he exerted himself to the limit of his capacity something—he could not say what—must come of it If it was only a selfdelusion an hallucination he told himself that he would be content
Almost of its own accord his distorted mind concentrated itself again every thought all the power of his will riveting themselves upon Angele As if she were alive he summoned her to him His eyes fixed upon the name cut into the headstone contracted the pupils growing small his fists shut tight his nerves braced rigid
For a few seconds he stood thus breathless expectant awaiting the manifestation the Miracle Then without knowing why hardly conscious of what was transpiring he found that his glance was leaving the headstone was turning from the grave Not only this but his whole body was following the direction of his eyes Before he knew it he was standing with his back to Angeles grave was facing the north facing the line of pear trees and the little valley where the Seed ranch lay At first he thought this was because he had allowed his will to weaken the concentrated power of his mind to grow slack And once more turning toward the grave he banded all his thoughts together in a consummate effort his teeth grinding together his hands pressed to his forehead He forced himself to the notion that Angele was alive and to this creature of his imagination he addressed himself
Angele he cried in a low voice Angele I am calling you—do you hear Come to me—come to me now now
Instead of the Answer he demanded that inexplicable counterinfluence cut across the current of his thought Strive as he would against it he must veer to the north toward the pear trees Obeying it he turned and still wondering took a step in that direction then another and another The next moment he came abruptly to himself in the black shadow of the pear trees themselves and opening his eyes found himself looking off over the Seed ranch toward the little house in the centre where Angele had once lived
Perplexed he returned to the grave once more calling upon the resources of his will and abruptly so soon as these reached a certain point the same crosscurrent set in He could no longer keep his eyes upon the headstone could no longer think of the grave and what it held He must face the north he must be drawn toward the pear trees and there left standing in their shadow looking out aimlessly over the Seed ranch wondering bewildered Farther than this the influence never drew him but up to this point—the line of pear trees—it was not to be resisted
For a time the peculiarity of the affair was of more interest to Vanamee than even his own distress of spirit and once or twice he repeated the attempt almost experimentally and invariably with the same result so soon as he seemed to hold Angele in the grip of his mind he was moved to turn about toward the north and hurry toward the pear trees on the crest of the hill that overlooked the little valley
But Vanamees unhappiness was too keen this night for him to dwell long upon the vagaries of his mind Submitting at length and abandoning the grave he flung himself down in the black shade of the pear trees his chin in his hands and resigned himself finally and definitely to the inrush of recollection and the exquisite grief of an infinite regret
To his fancy she came to him again He put himself back many years He remembered the warm nights of July and August profoundly still the sky encrusted with stars the little Mission garden exhaling the mingled perfumes that all through the scorching day had been distilled under the steady blaze of a summers sun He saw himself as another person arriving at this their rendezvous All day long she had been in his mind All day long he had looked forward to this quiet hour that belonged to her It was dark He could see nothing but by and by he heard a step a gentle rustle of the grass on the slope of the hill pressed under an advancing foot Then he saw the faint gleam of pallid gold of her hair a barely visible glow in the starlight and heard the murmur of her breath in the lapse of the overpassing breeze And then in the midst of the gentle perfumes of the garden the perfumes of the magnolia flowers of the mignonette borders of the crumbling walls there expanded a new odour or the faint mingling of many odours the smell of the roses that lingered in her hair of the lilies that exhaled from her neck of the heliotrope that disengaged itself from her hands and arms and of the hyacinths with which her little feet were redolent And then suddenly it was herself—her eyes heavylidded violet blue full of the love of him her sweet full lips speaking his name her hands clasping his hands his shoulders his neck—her whole dear body giving itself into his embrace her lips against his her hands holding his head drawing his face down to hers
Vanamee as he remembered all this flung out an arm with a cry of pain his eyes searching the gloom all his mind in strenuous mutiny against the triumph of Death His glance shot swiftly out across the night unconsciously following the direction from which Angele used to come to him
Come to me now he exclaimed under his breath tense and rigid with the vast futile effort of his will Come to me now now Dont you hear me Angele You must you must come
Suddenly Vanamee returned to himself with the abruptness of a blow His eyes opened He half raised himself from the ground Swiftly his scattered wits readjusted themselves Never more sane never more himself he rose to his feet and stood looking off into the night across the Seed ranch
What was it he murmured bewildered
He looked around him from side to side as if to get in touch with reality once more He looked at his hands at the rough bark of the pear tree next which he stood at the streaked and raineroded walls of the Mission and garden The exaltation of his mind calmed itself the unnatural strain under which he laboured slackened He became thoroughly master of himself again matteroffact practical keen
But just so sure as his hands were his own just so sure as the bark of the pear tree was rough the mouldering adobe of the Mission walls damp—just so sure had Something occurred It was vague intangible appealing only to some strange nameless sixth sense but none the less perceptible His mind his imagination sent out from him across the night across the little valley below him speeding hither and thither through the dark lost confused had suddenly paused hovering had found Something It had not returned to him emptyhanded It had come back but now there was a change—mysterious illusive There were no words for this that had transpired But for the moment one thing only was certain The night was no longer voiceless the dark was no longer empty Far off there beyond the reach of vision unlocalised strange a ripple had formed on the still black pool of the night had formed flashed one instant to the stars then swiftly faded again The night shut down once more There was no sound—nothing stirred
For the moment Vanamee stood transfixed struck rigid in his place stupefied his eyes staring breathless with utter amazement Then step by step he shrank back into the deeper shadow treading with the infinite precaution of a prowling leopard A qualm of something very much like fear seized upon him But immediately on the heels of this first impression came the doubt of his own senses Whatever had happened had been so ephemeral so faint so intangible that now he wondered if he had not deceived himself after all But the reaction followed Surely there had been Something And from that moment began for him the most poignant uncertainty of mind Gradually he drew back into the garden holding his breath listening to every faintest sound walking upon tiptoe He reached the fountain and wetting his hands passed them across his forehead and eyes Once more he stood listening The silence was profound
Troubled disturbed Vanamee went away passing out of the garden descending the hill He forded Broderson Creek where it intersected the road to Guadalajara and went on across Quien Sabe walking slowly his head bent down his hands clasped behind his back thoughtful perplexed
CHAPTER V
At seven oclock in the bedroom of his ranch house in the whitepainted iron bedstead with its bluegrey army blankets and red counterpane Annixter was still asleep his face red his mouth open his stiff yellow hair in wild disorder On the wooden chair at the bedhead stood the kerosene lamp by the light of which he had been reading the previous evening Beside it was a paper bag of dried prunes and the limp volume of Copperfield the place marked by a slip of paper torn from the edge of the bag
Annixter slept soundly making great work of the business unable to take even his rest gracefully His eyes were shut so tight that the skin at their angles was drawn into puckers Under his pillow his two hands were doubled up into fists At intervals he gritted his teeth ferociously while from time to time the abrupt sound of his snoring dominated the brisk ticking of the alarm clock that hung from the brass knob of the bedpost within six inches of his ear
But immediately after seven this clock sprung its alarm with the abruptness of an explosion and within the second Annixter had hurled the bedclothes from him and flung himself up to a sitting posture on the edge of the bed panting and gasping blinking at the light rubbing his head dazed and bewildered stupefied at the hideous suddenness with which he had been wrenched from his sleep
His first act was to take down the alarm clock and stifle its prolonged whirring under the pillows and blankets But when this had been done he continued to sit stupidly on the edge of the bed curling his toes away from the cold of the floor his halfshut eyes heavy with sleep fixed and vacant closing and opening by turns For upwards of three minutes he alternately dozed and woke his head and the whole upper half of his body sagging abruptly sideways from moment to moment But at length coming more to himself he straightened up ran his fingers through his hair and with a prodigious yawn murmured vaguely
Oh Lord Ohh LORD
He stretched three or four times twisting about in his place curling and uncurling his toes muttering from time to time between two yawns
Oh Lord Oh Lord
He stared about the room collecting his thoughts readjusting himself for the days work
The room was barren the walls of tongueandgroove sheathing—alternate brown and yellow boards—like the walls of a stable were adorned with two or three unframed lithographs the Christmas souvenirs of weekly periodicals fastened with great wire nails a bunch of herbs or flowers lamentably withered and grey with dust was affixed to the mirror over the black walnut washstand by the window and a yellowed photograph of Annixters combined harvester—himself and his men in a group before it—hung close at hand On the floor at the bedside and before the bureau were two oval ragcarpet rugs In the corners of the room were muddy boots a McClellan saddle a surveyors transit an empty coalhod and a box of iron bolts and nuts On the wall over the bed in a gilt frame was Annixters college diploma while on the bureau amid a litter of hairbrushes dirty collars driving gloves cigars and the like stood a broken machine for loading shells
It was essentially a mans room rugged uncouth virile full of the odours of tobacco of leather of rusty iron the bare floor hollowed by the grind of hobnailed boots the walls marred by the friction of heavy things of metal Strangely enough Annixters clothes were disposed of on the single chair with the precision of an old maid Thus he had placed them the night before the boots set carefully side by side the trousers with the overalls still upon them neatly folded upon the seat of the chair the coat hanging from its back
The Quien Sabe ranch house was a sixroom affair all on one floor By no excess of charity could it have been called a home Annixter was a wealthy man he could have furnished his dwelling with quite as much elegance as that of Magnus Derrick As it was however he considered his house merely as a place to eat to sleep to change his clothes in as a shelter from the rain an office where business was transacted—nothing more
When he was sufficiently awake Annixter thrust his feet into a pair of wicker slippers and shuffled across the office adjoining his bedroom to the bathroom just beyond and stood under the icy shower a few minutes his teeth chattering fulminating oaths at the coldness of the water Still shivering he hurried into his clothes and having pushed the button of the electric bell to announce that he was ready for breakfast immediately plunged into the business of the day While he was thus occupied the butchers cart from Bonneville drove into the yard with the days supply of meat This cart also brought the Bonneville paper and the mail of the previous night In the bundle of correspondence that the butcher handed to Annixter that morning was a telegram from Osterman at that time on his second trip to Los Angeles It read
Flotation of company in this district assured Have secured services of desirable party Am now in position to sell you your share stock as per original plan
Annixter grunted as he tore the despatch into strips Well he muttered that part is settled then
He made a little pile of the torn strips on the top of the unlighted stove and burned them carefully scowling down into the flicker of fire thoughtful and preoccupied
He knew very well what Osterman referred to by Flotation of company and also who was the desirable party he spoke of
Under protest as he was particular to declare and after interminable argument Annixter had allowed himself to be reconciled with Osterman and to be persuaded to reenter the proposed political deal A committee had been formed to finance the affair—Osterman old Broderson Annixter himself and with reservations hardly more than a lookeron Harran Derrick Of this committee Osterman was considered chairman Magnus Derrick had formally and definitely refused his adherence to the scheme He was trying to steer a middle course His position was difficult anomalous If freight rates were cut through the efforts of the members of the committee he could not very well avoid taking advantage of the new schedule He would be the gainer though sharing neither the risk nor the expense But meanwhile the days were passing the primary elections were drawing nearer The committee could not afford to wait and by way of a beginning Osterman had gone to Los Angeles fortified by a large sum of money—a purse to which Annixter Broderson and himself had contributed He had put himself in touch with Disbrow the political man of the Denver Pueblo and Mojave road and had had two interviews with him The telegram that Annixter received that morning was to say that Disbrow had been bought over and would adopt Parrell as the D P and M candidate for Railroad Commissioner from the third district
One of the cooks brought up Annixters breakfast that morning and he went through it hastily reading his mail at the same time and glancing over the pages of the Mercury Genslingers paper The Mercury Annixter was persuaded received a subsidy from the Pacific and Southwestern Railroad and was hardly better than the mouthpiece by which Shelgrim and the General Office spoke to ranchers about Bonneville
An editorial in that mornings issue said
It would not be surprising to the wellinformed if the longdeferred regrade of the value of the railroad sections included in the Los Muertos Quien Sabe Osterman and Broderson properties was made before the first of the year Naturally the tenants of these lands feel an interest in the price which the railroad will put upon its holdings and it is rumoured they expect the land will be offered to them for two dollars and fifty cents per acre It needs no seventh daughter of a seventh daughter to foresee that these gentlemen will be disappointed
Rot vociferated Annixter to himself as he finished He rolled the paper into a wad and hurled it from him
Rot rot What does Genslinger know about it I stand on my agreement with the P and S W—from two fifty to five dollars an acre—there it is in black and white The road IS obligated And my improvements I made the land valuable by improving it irrigating it draining it and cultivating it Talk to ME I know better
The most abiding impression that Genslingers editorial made upon him was that possibly the Mercury was not subsidised by the corporation after all If it was Genslinger would not have been led into making his mistake as to the value of the land He would have known that the railroad was under contract to sell at two dollars and a half an acre and not only this but that when the land was put upon the market it was to be offered to the present holders first of all Annixter called to mind the explicit terms of the agreement between himself and the railroad and dismissed the matter from his mind He lit a cigar put on his hat and went out
The morning was fine the air nimble brisk On the summit of the skeletonlike tower of the artesian well the windmill was turning steadily in a breeze from the southwest The water in the irrigating ditch was well up There was no cloud in the sky Far off to the east and west the bulwarks of the valley the Coast Range and the foothills of the Sierras stood out pale amethyst against the delicate pink and white sheen of the horizon The sunlight was a veritable flood crystal limpid sparkling setting a feeling of gayety in the air stirring up an effervescence in the blood a tumult of exuberance in the veins
But on his way to the barns Annixter was obliged to pass by the open door of the dairyhouse Hilma Tree was inside singing at her work her voice of a velvety huskiness more of the chest than of the throat mingling with the liquid dashing of the milk in the vats and churns and the clear sonorous clinking of the cans and pans Annixter turned into the dairyhouse pausing on the threshold looking about him Hilma stood bathed from head to foot in the torrent of sunlight that poured in upon her from the three wideopen windows She was charming delicious radiant of youth of health of wellbeing Into her eyes wide open brown rimmed with their fine thin line of intense black lashes the sun set a diamond flash the same golden light glowed all around her thick moist hair lambent beautiful a sheen of almost metallic lustre and reflected itself upon her wet lips moving with the words of her singing The whiteness of her skin under the caress of this hale vigorous morning light was dazzling pure of a fineness beyond words Beneath the sweet modulation of her chin the reflected light from the burnished copper vessel she was carrying set a vibration of pale gold Overlaying the flush of rose in her cheeks seen only when she stood against the sunlight was a faint sheen of down a lustrous floss delicate as the pollen of a flower or the impalpable powder of a moths wing She was moving to and fro about her work alert joyous robust and from all the fine full amplitude of her figure from her thick white neck sloping downward to her shoulders from the deep feminine swell of her breast the vigorous maturity of her hips there was disengaged a vibrant note of gayety of exuberant animal life sane honest strong She wore a skirt of plain blue calico and a shirtwaist of pink linen clean trim while her sleeves turned back to her shoulders showed her large white arms wet with milk redolent and fragrant with milk glowing and resplendent in the early morning light
On the threshold Annixter took off his hat
Good morning Miss Hilma
Hilma who had set down the copper can on top of the vat turned about quickly
Oh GOOD morning sir and unconsciously she made a little gesture of salutation with her hand raising it part way toward her head as a man would have done
Well began Annixter vaguely how are you getting along down here
Oh very fine Today there is not so much to do We drew the whey hours ago and now we are just done putting the curd to press I have been cleaning See my pans Wouldnt they do for mirrors sir And the copper things I have scrubbed and scrubbed Oh you can look into the tiniest corners everywhere you wont find so much as the littlest speck of dirt or grease I love CLEAN things and this room is my own particular place Here I can do just as I please and that is to keep the cement floor and the vats and the churns and the separators and especially the cans and coppers clean clean and to see that the milk is pure oh so that a little baby could drink it and to have the air always sweet and the sun—oh lots and lots of sun morning noon and afternoon so that everything shines You know I never see the sun set that it dont make me a little sad yes always just a little Isnt it funny I should want it to be day all the time And when the day is gloomy and dark I am just as sad as if a very good friend of mine had left me Would you believe it Just until within a few years when I was a big girl sixteen and over mamma had to sit by my bed every night before I could go to sleep I was afraid in the dark Sometimes I am now Just imagine and now I am nineteen—a young lady
You were hey observed Annixter for the sake of saying something Afraid in the dark What of—ghosts
Nno I dont know what I wanted the light I wanted—— She drew a deep breath turning towards the window and spreading her pink fingertips to the light Oh the SUN I love the sun See put your hand there—here on the top of the vat—like that Isnt it warm Isnt it fine And dont you love to see it coming in like that through the windows floods of it and all the little dust in it shining Where there is lots of sunlight I think the people must be very good Its only wicked people that love the dark And the wicked things are always done and planned in the dark I think Perhaps too thats why I hate things that are mysterious—things that I cant see that happen in the dark She wrinkled her nose with a little expression of aversion I hate a mystery Maybe thats why I am afraid in the dark—or was I shouldnt like to think that anything could happen around me that I couldnt see or understand or explain
She ran on from subject to subject positively garrulous talking in her lowpitched voice of velvety huskiness for the mere enjoyment of putting her ideas into speech innocently assuming that they were quite as interesting to others as to herself She was yet a great child ignoring the fact that she had ever grown up taking a childs interest in her immediate surroundings direct straightforward plain While speaking she continued about her work rinsing out the cans with a mixture of hot water and soda scouring them bright and piling them in the sunlight on top of the vat
Obliquely and from between his narrowed lids Annixter scrutinised her from time to time more and more won over by her adorable freshness her clean fine youth The clumsiness that he usually experienced in the presence of women was wearing off Hilma Trees direct simplicity put him at his ease He began to wonder if he dared to kiss Hilma and if he did dare how she would take it A spark of suspicion flickered up in his mind Did not her manner imply vaguely an invitation One never could tell with feemales That was why she was talking so much no doubt holding him there affording the opportunity Aha She had best look out or he would take her at her word
Oh I had forgotten suddenly exclaimed Hilma the very thing I wanted to show you—the new press You remember I asked for one last month This is it See this is how it works Here is where the curds go look And this cover is screwed down like this and then you work the lever this way She grasped the lever in both hands throwing her weight upon it her smooth bare arm swelling round and firm with the effort one slim foot in its low shoe set off with the bright steel buckle braced against the wall
My but that takes strength she panted looking up at him and smiling But isnt it a fine press Just what we needed
And Annixter cleared his throat and where do you keep the cheeses and the butter He thought it very likely that these were in the cellar of the dairy
In the cellar answered Hilma Down here see She raised the flap of the cellar door at the end of the room Would you like to see Come down Ill show you
She went before him down into the cool obscurity underneath redolent of new cheese and fresh butter Annixter followed a certain excitement beginning to gain upon him He was almost sure now that Hilma wanted him to kiss her At all events one could but try But as yet he was not absolutely sure Suppose he had been mistaken in her suppose she should consider herself insulted and freeze him with an icy stare Annixter winced at the very thought of it Better let the whole business go and get to work He was wasting half the morning Yet if she DID want to give him the opportunity of kissing her and he failed to take advantage of it what a ninny she would think him she would despise him for being afraid He afraid He Annixter afraid of a fool feemale girl Why he owed it to himself as a man to go as far as he could He told himself that that goat Osterman would have kissed Hilma Tree weeks ago To test his state of mind he imagined himself as having decided to kiss her after all and at once was surprised to experience a poignant qualm of excitement his heart beating heavily his breath coming short At the same time his courage remained with him He was not afraid to try He felt a greater respect for himself because of this His selfassurance hardened within him and as Hilma turned to him asking him to taste a cut from one of the ripe cheeses he suddenly stepped close to her throwing an arm about her shoulders advancing his head
But at the last second he bungled hesitated Hilma shrank from him supple as a young reed Annixter clutched harshly at her arm and trod his full weight upon one of her slender feet his cheek and chin barely touching the delicate pink lobe of one of her ears his lips brushing merely a fold of her shirt waist between neck and shoulder The thing was a failure and at once he realised that nothing had been further from Hilmas mind than the idea of his kissing her
She started back from him abruptly her hands nervously clasped against her breast drawing in her breath sharply and holding it with a little tremulous catch of the throat that sent a quivering vibration the length of her smooth white neck Her eyes opened wide with a childlike look more of astonishment than anger She was surprised out of all measure discountenanced taken all aback and when she found her breath gave voice to a great Oh of dismay and distress
For an instant Annixter stood awkwardly in his place ridiculous clumsy murmuring over and over again
Well—well—thats all right—whos going to hurt you You neednt be afraid—whos going to hurt you—thats all right
Then suddenly with a quick indefinite gesture of one arm he exclaimed
Goodbye I—Im sorry
He turned away striding up the stairs crossing the dairyroom and regained the open air raging and furious He turned toward the barns clapping his hat upon his head muttering the while under his breath
Oh you goat You beastly fool PIP Good LORD what an ass youve made of yourself now
Suddenly he resolved to put Hilma Tree out of his thoughts The matter was interfering with his work This kind of thing was sure not earning any money He shook himself as though freeing his shoulders of an irksome burden and turned his entire attention to the work nearest at hand
The prolonged rattle of the shinglers hammers upon the roof of the big barn attracted him and crossing over between the ranch house and the artesian well he stood for some time absorbed in the contemplation of the vast building amused and interested with the confusion of sounds—the clatter of hammers the cadenced scrape of saws and the rhythmic shuffle of planes—that issued from the gang of carpenters who were at that moment putting the finishing touches upon the roof and rows of stalls A boy and two men were busy hanging the great sliding door at the south end while the painters—come down from Bonneville early that morning—were engaged in adjusting the spray and force engine by means of which Annixter had insisted upon painting the vast surfaces of the barn condemning the use of brushes and pots for such work as oldfashioned and outofdate
He called to one of the foremen to ask when the barn would be entirely finished and was told that at the end of the week the hay and stock could be installed
And a precious long time youve been at it too Annixter declared
Well you know the rain——
Oh rot the rain I work in the rain You and your unions make me sick
But Mr Annixter we couldnt have begun painting in the rain The job would have been spoiled
Hoh yes spoiled Thats all very well Maybe it would and then again maybe it wouldnt
But when the foreman had left him Annixter could not forbear a growl of satisfaction It could not be denied that the barn was superb monumental even Almost any one of the other barns in the county could be swung birdcage fashion inside of it with room to spare In every sense the barn was precisely what Annixter had hoped of it In his pleasure over the success of his idea even Hilma for the moment was forgotten
And now murmured Annixter Ill give that dance in it Ill make em sit up
It occurred to him that he had better set about sending out the invitations for the affair He was puzzled to decide just how the thing should be managed and resolved that it might be as well to consult Magnus and Mrs Derrick
I want to talk of this telegram of the goats with Magnus anyhow he said to himself reflectively and theres things I got to do in Bonneville before the first of the month
He turned about on his heel with a last look at the barn and set off toward the stable He had decided to have his horse saddled and ride over to Bonneville by way of Los Muertos He would make a day of it would see Magnus Harran old Broderson and some of the business men of Bonneville
A few moments later he rode out of the barn and the stableyard a fresh cigar between his teeth his hat slanted over his face against the rays of the sun as yet low in the east He crossed the irrigating ditch and gained the trail—the short cut over into Los Muertos by way of Hoovens It led south and west into the low ground overgrown by greygreen willows by Broderson Creek at this time of the rainy season a stream of considerable volume farther on dipping sharply to pass underneath the Long Trestle of the railroad On the other side of the right of way Annixter was obliged to open the gate in Derricks line fence He managed this without dismounting swearing at the horse the while and spurring him continually But once inside the gate he cantered forward briskly
This part of Los Muertos was Hoovens holding some five hundred acres enclosed between the irrigating ditch and Broderson Creek and half the way across Annixter came up with Hooven himself busily at work replacing a broken washer in his seeder Upon one of the horses hitched to the machine her hands gripped tightly upon the harness of the collar Hilda his little daughter with her small hobnailed boots and boys canvas overalls sat exalted and petrified with ecstasy and excitement her eyes wide opened her hair in a tangle
Hello Bismarck said Annixter drawing up beside him What are YOU doing here I thought the Governor was going to manage without his tenants this year
Ach Meestr Ennixter cried the other straightening up Ach dats you eh Ach you bedt he doand menege mitout me Me I gotta stay I talk der straighd talk mit der Governor I fix em Ach you bedt Sieben yahr I hef bei der rench gestopped yais sir Efery oder sohnofaguhn bei der plaice ged der sach bud me Eh Wat you tink von dose ting
I think thats a crazylooking monkeywrench youve got there observed Annixter glancing at the instrument in Hoovens hand
Ach dot wrainch returned Hooven Soh Wail I tell you dose ting now whair I got em Say you see dot wrainch Dats not Emericen wrainch at alle I got em at Gravelotte der day we licked der stuffun oudt der Frainch ach you bedt Me I pelong to der Wurtemberg redgimend dot dey use to suppord der batterie von der Brince von Hohenlohe Alle der day we lay down bei der stomach in der feildt behindt der batterie und der schells von der Frainch cennon hef eggsblode—ach donnerwetter—I tink efery schell eggsblode bei der beckside my neck Und dat go on der whole day noddun else noddun aber der Frainch schell brr brr brr brAM und der smoag und unzer batterie dat go off slow steady yoost like der glock eins zwei boom eins zwei boom yoost like der glock ofer und ofer again alle der day Den vhen der night come dey say we hev der great victorie made I doand know Vhat do I see von der bettle Noddun Den we gedt oop und maerch und maerch alle night und in der morgen we hear dose cennon egain hell oaf der way faroff I doand know vhair Budt nefr mindt Bretty qnick ach Gott— his face flamed scarlet Ach du lieber Gott Bretty zoon dere wass der Kaiser glose bei und Fritz Unzer Fritz Bei Gott den I go grazy und yell ach you bedt der whole redgimend Hoch der Kaiser Hoch der Vaterland Und der dears come to der eyes I doand know because vhy und der mens gry und shaike der hend und der whole redgimend maerch off like dat fairy broudt bei Gott der head oop high und sing Die Wacht am Rhein Dot wass Gravelotte
And the monkeywrench
Ach I pick um oop vhen der batterie go Der cennoniers hef forgedt und leaf um I carry um in der sack I tink I use um vhen I gedt home in der business I was maker von vagons in Carlsruhe und I nefr gedt home again Vhen der war hef godt over I go beck to Ulm und gedt marriet und den I gedt demn sick von der armie Vhen I gedt der release I clair oudt you bedt I come to Emerica First New Yorruk den Milwaukee den SbringfieldtIllinoy den Galifornie und heir I stay
And the Fatherland Ever want to go back
Wail I tell you dose ting Meestr Ennixter Alleways I tink a lot oaf Shairmany und der Kaiser und nefr I forgedt Gravelotte Budt say I tell you dose ting Vhair der wife is und der kinder—der leedle girl Hilda—DERE IS DER VATERLAND Eh Emerica dats my gountry now und dere he pointed behind him to the house under the mammoth oak tree on the Lower Road dats my home Dats goot enough Vaterland for me
Annixter gathered up the reins about to go on
So you like America do you Bismarck he said Who do you vote for
Emerica I doand know returned the other insistently Dats my home yonder Dats my Vaterland Alle von we Shairmens yoost like dot Shairmany dots hell oaf some fine plaice sure Budt der Vaterland iss vhair der home und der wife und kinder iss Eh Yes Voad Ach no Me I nefr voad I doand bodder der haid mit dose ting I maig der wheat grow und ged der braid fur der wife und Hilda dots all Dots me dots Bismarck
Goodbye commented Annixter moving off
Hooven the washer replaced turned to his work again starting up the horses The seeder advanced whirring
Ach Hilda leedle girl he cried hold tight bei der shdrap on Hey MULE Hoop Gedt oop you
Annixter cantered on In a few moments he had crossed Broderson Creek and had entered upon the Home ranch of Los Muertos Ahead of him but so far off that the greater portion of its bulk was below the horizon he could see the Derricks home a roof or two between the dull green of cypress and eucalyptus Nothing else was in sight The brown earth smooth unbroken was as a limitless mudcoloured ocean The silence was profound
Then at length Annixters searching eye made out a blur on the horizon to the northward the blur concentrated itself to a speck the speck grew by steady degrees to a spot slowly moving a note of dull colour barely darker than the land but an inky black silhouette as it topped a low rise of ground and stood for a moment outlined against the pale blue of the sky Annixter turned his horse from the road and rode across the ranch land to meet this new object of interest As the spot grew larger it resolved itself into constituents a collection of units its shape grew irregular fragmentary A disintegrated nebulous confusion advanced toward Annixter preceded as he discovered on nearer approach by a medley of faint sounds Now it was no longer a spot but a column a column that moved accompanied by spots As Annixter lessened the distance these spots resolved themselves into buggies or men on horseback that kept pace with the advancing column There were horses in the column itself At first glance it appeared as if there were nothing else a riderless squadron tramping steadily over the upturned plough land of the ranch But it drew nearer The horses were in lines six abreast harnessed to machines The noise increased defined itself There was a shout or two occasionally a horse blew through his nostrils with a prolonged vibrating snort The click and clink of metal work was incessant the machines throwing off a continual rattle of wheels and cogs and clashing springs The column approached nearer was close at hand The noises mingled to a subdued uproar a bewildering confusion the impact of innumerable hoofs was a veritable rumble Machine after machine appeared and Annixter drawing to one side remained for nearly ten minutes watching and interested while like an array of chariots—clattering jostling creaking clashing an interminable procession machine succeeding machine sixhorse team succeeding sixhorse team—bustling hurried—Magnus Derricks thirtythree grain drills each with its eight hoes went clamouring past like an advance of military seeding the ten thousand acres of the great ranch fecundating the living soil implanting deep in the dark womb of the Earth the germ of life the sustenance of a whole world the food of an entire People
When the drills had passed Annixter turned and rode back to the Lower Road over the land now thick with seed He did not wonder that the seeding on Los Muertos seemed to be hastily conducted Magnus and Harran Derrick had not yet been able to make up the time lost at the beginning of the season when they had waited so long for the ploughs to arrive They had been behindhand all the time On Annixters ranch the land had not only been harrowed as well as seeded but in some cases crossharrowed as well The labour of putting in the vast crop was over Now there was nothing to do but wait while the seed silently germinated nothing to do but watch for the wheat to come up
When Annixter reached the ranch house of Los Muertos under the shade of the cypress and eucalyptus trees he found Mrs Derrick on the porch seated in a long wicker chair She had been washing her hair and the light brown locks that yet retained so much of their brightness were carefully spread in the sun over the back of her chair Annixter could not but remark that spite of her more than fifty years Annie Derrick was yet rather pretty Her eyes were still those of a young girl just touched with an uncertain expression of innocence and inquiry but as her glance fell upon him he found that that expression changed to one of uneasiness of distrust almost of aversion
The night before this after Magnus and his wife had gone to bed they had lain awake for hours staring up into the dark talking talking Magnus had not long been able to keep from his wife the news of the coalition that was forming against the railroad nor the fact that this coalition was determined to gain its ends by any means at its command He had told her of Ostermans scheme of a fraudulent election to seat a Board of Railroad Commissioners who should be nominees of the farming interests Magnus and his wife had talked this matter over and over again and the same discussion begun immediately after supper the evening before had lasted till far into the night
At once Annie Derrick had been seized with a sudden terror lest Magnus after all should allow himself to be persuaded should yield to the pressure that was every day growing stronger None better than she knew the iron integrity of her husbands character None better than she remembered how his dearest ambition that of political preferment had been thwarted by his refusal to truckle to connive to compromise with his ideas of right Now at last there seemed to be a change Long continued oppression petty tyranny injustice and extortion had driven him to exasperation S Behrmans insults still rankled He seemed nearly ready to countenance Ostermans scheme The very fact that he was willing to talk of it to her so often and at such great length was proof positive that it occupied his mind The pity of it the tragedy of it He Magnus the Governor who had been so staunch so rigidly upright so loyal to his convictions so bitter in his denunciation of the New Politics so scathing in his attacks on bribery and corruption in high places was it possible that now at last he could be brought to withhold his condemnation of the devious intrigues of the unscrupulous going on there under his very eyes That Magnus should not command Harran to refrain from all intercourse with the conspirators had been a matter of vast surprise to Mrs Derrick Time was when Magnus would have forbidden his son to so much as recognise a dishonourable man
But besides all this Derricks wife trembled at the thought of her husband and son engaging in so desperate a grapple with the railroad—that great monster ironhearted relentless infinitely powerful Always it had issued triumphant from the fight always S Behrman the Corporations champion remained upon the field as victor placid unperturbed unassailable But now a more terrible struggle than any hitherto loomed menacing over the rim of the future money was to be spent like water personal reputations were to be hazarded in the issue failure meant ruin in all directions financial ruin moral ruin ruin of prestige ruin of character Success to her mind was almost impossible Annie Derrick feared the railroad At night when everything else was still the distant roar of passing trains echoed across Los Muertos from Guadalajara from Bonneville or from the Long Trestle straight into her heart At such moments she saw very plainly the galloping terror of steam and steel with its single eye cyclopean red shooting from horizon to horizon symbol of a vast power huge and terrible the leviathan with tentacles of steel to oppose which meant to be ground to instant destruction beneath the clashing wheels No it was better to submit to resign oneself to the inevitable She obliterated herself shrinking from the harshness of the world striving with vain hands to draw her husband back with her
Just before Annixters arrival she had been sitting thoughtful in her long chair an open volume of poems turned down upon her lap her glance losing itself in the immensity of Los Muertos that from the edge of the lawn close by unrolled itself gigantic toward the far southern horizon wrinkled and serrated after the seasons ploughing The earth hitherto grey with dust was now upturned and brown As far as the eye could reach it was empty of all life bare mournful absolutely still and as she looked there seemed to her morbid imagination—diseased and disturbed with long brooding sick with the monotony of repeated sensation—to be disengaged from all this immensity a sense of a vast oppression formless disquieting The terror of sheer bigness grew slowly in her mind loneliness beyond words gradually enveloped her She was lost in all these limitless reaches of space Had she been abandoned in midocean in an open boat her terror could hardly have been greater She felt vividly that certain uncongeniality which when all is said forever remains between humanity and the earth which supports it She recognised the colossal indifference of nature not hostile even kindly and friendly so long as the human antswarm was submissive working with it hurrying along at its side in the mysterious march of the centuries Let however the insect rebel strive to make head against the power of this nature and at once it became relentless a gigantic engine a vast power huge terrible a leviathan with a heart of steel knowing no compunction no forgiveness no tolerance crushing out the human atom with sound less calm the agony of destruction sending never a jar never the faintest tremour through all that prodigious mechanism of wheels and cogs
Such thoughts as these did not take shape distinctly in her mind She could not have told herself exactly what it was that disquieted her She only received the vague sensation of these things as it were a breath of wind upon her face confused troublous an indefinite sense of hostility in the air
The sound of hoofs grinding upon the gravel of the driveway brought her to herself again and withdrawing her gaze from the empty plain of Los Muertos she saw young Annixter stopping his horse by the carriage steps But the sight of him only diverted her mind to the other trouble She could not but regard him with aversion He was one of the conspirators was one of the leaders in the battle that impended no doubt he had come to make a fresh attempt to win over Magnus to the unholy alliance
However there was little trace of enmity in her greeting Her hair was still spread like a broad patch of back and she made that her excuse for not getting up In answer to Annixters embarrassed inquiry after Magnus she sent the Chinese cook to call him from the office and Annixter after tying his horse to the ring driven into the trunk of one of the eucalyptus trees came up to the porch and taking off his hat sat down upon the steps
Is Harran anywhere about he asked Id like to see Harran too
No said Mrs Derrick Harran went to Bonneville early this morning
She glanced toward Annixter nervously without turning her head lest she should disturb her outspread hair
What is it you want to see Mr Derrick about she inquired hastily Is it about this plan to elect a Railroad Commission Magnus does not approve of it she declared with energy He told me so last night
Annixter moved about awkwardly where he sat smoothing down with his hand the one stiff lock of yellow hair that persistently stood up from his crown like an Indians scalplock At once his suspicions were all aroused Ah this feemale woman was trying to get a hold on him trying to involve him in a petticoat mess trying to cajole him Upon the instant he became very crafty an excess of prudence promptly congealed his natural impulses In an actual spasm of caution he scarcely trusted himself to speak terrified lest he should commit himself to something He glanced about apprehensively praying that Magnus might join them speedily relieving the tension
I came to see about giving a dance in my new barn he answered scowling into the depths of his hat as though reading from notes he had concealed there I wanted to ask how I should send out the invites I thought of just putting an ad in the Mercury
But as he spoke Presley had come up behind Annixter in time to get the drift of the conversation and now observed
Thats nonsense Buck Youre not giving a public ball You MUST send out invitations
Hello Presley you there exclaimed Annixter turning round The two shook hands
Send out invitations repeated Annixter uneasily Why must I
Because thats the only way to do
It is is it answered Annixter perplexed and troubled No other man of his acquaintance could have so contradicted Annixter without provoking a quarrel upon the instant Why the young rancher irascible obstinate belligerent should invariably defer to the poet was an inconsistency never to be explained It was with great surprise that Mrs Derrick heard him continue
Well I suppose you know what youre talking about Pres Must have written invites hey
Of course
Typewritten
Why what an ass you are Buck observed Presley calmly Before you get through with it you will probably insult threefourths of the people you intend to invite and have about a hundred quarrels on your hands and a lawsuit or two
However before Annixter could reply Magnus came out on the porch erect grave freshly shaven Without realising what he was doing Annixter instinctively rose to his feet It was as though Magnus was a commanderinchief of an unseen army and he a subaltern There was some little conversation as to the proposed dance and then Annixter found an excuse for drawing the Governor aside Mrs Derrick watched the two with eyes full of poignant anxiety as they slowly paced the length of the gravel driveway to the road gate and stood there leaning upon it talking earnestly Magnus tall thinlipped impassive one hand in the breast of his frock coat his head bare his keen blue eyes fixed upon Annixters face Annixter came at once to the main point
I got a wire from Osterman this morning Governor and well—weve got Disbrow That means that the Denver Pueblo and Mojave is back of us Theres half the fight won first off
Osterman bribed him I suppose observed Magnus
Annixter raised a shoulder vexatiously
Youve got to pay for what you get he returned You dont get something for nothing I guess Governor he went on I dont see how you can stay out of this business much longer You see how it will be Were going to win and I dont see how you can feel that its right of you to let us do all the work and stand all the expense Theres never been a movement of any importance that went on around you that you werent the leader in it All Tulare County all the San Joaquin for that matter knows you They want a leader and they are looking to you I know how you feel about politics nowadays But Governor standards have changed since your time everybody plays the game now as we are playing it—the most honourable men You cant play it any other way and pshaw if the right wins out in the end thats the main thing We want you in this thing and we want you bad Youve been chewing on this affair now a long time Have you made up your mind Do you come in I tell you what youve got to look at these things in a large way Youve got to judge by results Well now what do you think Do you come in
Magnuss glance left Annixters face and for an instant sought the ground His frown lowered but now it was in perplexity rather than in anger His mind was troubled harassed with a thousand dissensions
But one of Magnuss strongest instincts one of his keenest desires was to be if only for a short time the master To control men had ever been his ambition submission of any kind his greatest horror His energy stirred within him goaded by the lash of his anger his sense of indignity of insult Oh for one moment to be able to strike back to crush his enemy to defeat the railroad hold the Corporation in the grip of his fist put down S Behrman rehabilitate himself regain his selfrespect To be once more powerful to command to dominate His thin lips pressed themselves together the nostrils of his prominent hawklike nose dilated his erect commanding figure stiffened unconsciously For a moment he saw himself controlling the situation the foremost figure in his State feared respected thousands of men beneath him his ambition at length gratified his career once apparently brought to naught completed success a palpable achievement What if this were his chance after all come at last after all these years His chance The instincts of the oldtime gambler the most redoubtable poker player of El Dorado County stirred at the word Chance To know it when it came to recognise it as it passed fleet as a windflurry grip at it catch at it blind reckless staking all upon the hazard of the issue that was genius Was this his Chance All of a sudden it seemed to him that it was But his honour His cherished lifelong integrity the unstained purity of his principles At this late date were they to be sacrificed Could he now go counter to all the firm built fabric of his character How afterward could he bear to look Harran and Lyman in the face And yet—and yet—back swung the pendulum—to neglect his Chance meant failure a life begun in promise and ended in obscurity perhaps in financial ruin poverty even To seize it meant achievement fame influence prestige possibly great wealth
I am so sorry to interrupt said Mrs Derrick as she came up I hope Mr Annixter will excuse me but I want Magnus to open the safe for me I have lost the combination and I must have some money Phelps is going into town and I want him to pay some bills for me Cant you come right away Magnus Phelps is ready and waiting
Annixter struck his heel into the ground with a suppressed oath Always these fool feemale women came between him and his plans mixing themselves up in his affairs Magnus had been on the very point of saying something perhaps committing himself to some course of action and at precisely the wrong moment his wife had cut in The opportunity was lost The three returned toward the ranch house but before saying goodbye Annixter had secured from Magnus a promise to the effect that before coming to a definite decision in the matter under discussion he would talk further with him
Presley met him at the porch He was going into town with Phelps and proposed to Annixter that he should accompany them
I want to go over and see old Broderson Annixter objected
But Presley informed him that Broderson had gone to Bonneville earlier in the morning He had seen him go past in his buckboard The three men set off Phelps and Annixter on horseback Presley on his bicycle
When they had gone Mrs Derrick sought out her husband in the office of the ranch house She was at her prettiest that morning her cheeks flushed with excitement her innocent wideopen eyes almost girlish She had fastened her hair still moist with a black ribbon tied at the back of her head and the soft mass of light brown reached to below her waist making her look very young
What was it he was saying to you just now she exclaimed as she came through the gate in the greenpainted wire railing of the office What was Mr Annixter saying I know He was trying to get you to join him trying to persuade you to be dishonest wasnt that it Tell me Magnus wasnt that it
Magnus nodded
His wife drew close to him putting a hand on his shoulder
But you wont will you You wont listen to him again you wont so much as allow him—anybody—to even suppose you would lend yourself to bribery Oh Magnus I dont know what has come over you these last few weeks Why before this you would have been insulted if any one thought you would even consider anything like dishonesty Magnus it would break my heart if you joined Mr Annixter and Mr Osterman Why you couldnt be the same man to me afterward you who have kept yourself so clean till now And the boys what would Lyman say and Harran and every one who knows you and respects you if you lowered yourself to be just a political adventurer
For a moment Derrick leaned his head upon his hand avoiding her gaze At length he said drawing a deep breath I am troubled Annie These are the evil days I have much upon my mind
Evil days or not she insisted promise me this one thing that you will not join Mr Annixters scheme She had taken his hand in both of hers and was looking into his face her pretty eyes full of pleading
Promise me she repeated give me your word Whatever happens let me always be able to be proud of you as I always have been Give me your word I know you never seriously thought of joining Mr Annixter but I am so nervous and frightened sometimes Just to relieve my mind Magnus give me your word
Why—you are right he answered No I never thought seriously of it Only for a moment I was ambitious to be—I dont know what—what I had hoped to be once—well that is over now Annie your husband is a disappointed man
Give me your word she insisted We can talk about other things afterward
Again Magnus wavered about to yield to his better instincts and to the entreaties of his wife He began to see how perilously far he had gone in this business He was drifting closer to it every hour Already he was entangled already his foot was caught in the mesh that was being spun Sharply he recoiled Again all his instincts of honesty revolted No whatever happened he would preserve his integrity His wife was right Always she had influenced his better side At that moment Magnuss repugnance of the proposed political campaign was at its pitch of intensity He wondered how he had ever allowed himself to so much as entertain the idea of joining with the others Now he would wrench free would in a single instant of power clear himself of all compromising relations He turned to his wife Upon his lips trembled the promise she implored But suddenly there came to his mind the recollection of his newmade pledge to Annixter He had given his word that before arriving at a decision he would have a last interview with him To Magnus his given word was sacred Though now he wanted to he could not as yet draw back could not promise his wife that he would decide to do right The matter must be delayed a few days longer
Lamely he explained this to her Annie Derrick made but little response when he had done She kissed his forehead and went out of the room uneasy depressed her mind thronging with vague fears leaving Magnus before his office desk his head in his hands thoughtful gloomy assaulted by forebodings
Meanwhile Annixter Phelps and Presley continued on their way toward Bonneville In a short time they had turned into the County Road by the great wateringtank and proceeded onward in the shade of the interminable line of poplar trees the windbreak that stretched along the roadside bordering the Broderson ranch But as they drew near to Carahers saloon and grocery about half a mile outside of Bonneville they recognised Harrans horse tied to the railing in front of it Annixter left the others and went in to see Harran
Harran he said when the two had sat down on either side of one of the small tables youve got to make up your mind one way or another pretty soon What are you going to do Are you going to stand by and see the rest of the Committee spending money by the bucketful in this thing and keep your hands in your pockets If we win youll benefit just as much as the rest of us I suppose youve got some money of your own—you have havent you You are your fathers manager arent you
Disconcerted at Annixters directness Harran stammered an affirmative adding
Its hard to know just what to do Its a mean position for me Buck I want to help you others but I do want to play fair I dont know how to play any other way I should like to have a line from the Governor as to how to act but theres no getting a word out of him these days He seems to want to let me decide for myself
Well look here put in Annixter Suppose you keep out of the thing till its all over and then share and share alike with the Committee on campaign expenses
Harran fell thoughtful his hands in his pockets frowning moodily at the toe of his boot There was a silence Then
I dont like to go it blind he hazarded Im sort of sharing the responsibility of what you do then Im a silent partner And then—I dont want to have any difficulties with the Governor Weve always got along well together He wouldnt like it you know if I did anything like that Say exclaimed Annixter abruptly if the Governor says he will keep his hands off and that you can do as you please will you come in For Gods sake let us ranchers act together for once Lets stand in with each other in ONE fight
Without knowing it Annixter had touched the right spring
I dont know but what youre right Harran murmured vaguely His sense of discouragement that feeling of whatstheuse was never more oppressive All fair means had been tried The wheat grower was at last with his back to the wall If he chose his own means of fighting the responsibility must rest upon his enemies not on himself
Its the only way to accomplish anything he continued standing in with each other well go ahead and see what you can do If the Governor is willing Ill come in for my share of the campaign fund
Thats some sense exclaimed Annixter shaking him by the hand Half the fight is over already Weve got Disbrow you know and the next thing is to get hold of some of those rotten San Francisco bosses Osterman will—— But Harran interrupted him making a quick gesture with his hand
Dont tell me about it he said I dont want to know what you and Osterman are going to do If I did I shouldnt come in
Yet for all this before they said goodbye Annixter had obtained Harrans promise that he would attend the next meeting of the Committee when Osterman should return from Los Angeles and make his report Harran went on toward Los Muertos Annixter mounted and rode into Bonneville
Bonneville was very lively at all times It was a little city of some twenty or thirty thousand inhabitants where as yet the city hall the high school building and the opera house were objects of civic pride It was well governed beautifully clean full of the energy and strenuous young life of a new city An air of the briskest activity pervaded its streets and sidewalks The business portion of the town centring about Main Street was always crowded Annixter arriving at the Post Office found himself involved in a scene of swiftly shifting sights and sounds Saddle horses farm wagons—the inevitable Studebakers—buggies grey with the dust of country roads buckboards with squashes and grocery packages stowed under the seat twowheeled sulkies and training carts were hitched to the gnawed railings and zincsheathed telegraph poles along the curb Here and there on the edge of the sidewalk were bicycles wedged into bicycle racks painted with cigar advertisements Upon the asphalt sidewalk itself soft and sticky with the mornings heat was a continuous movement Men with large stomachs wearing linen coats but no vests laboured ponderously up and down Girls in lawn skirts shirt waists and garden hats went to and fro invariably in couples coming in and out of the drug store the grocery store and haberdashers or lingering in front of the Post Office which was on a corner under the IOOF hall Young men in shirt sleeves with brown wicker cuffprotectors over their forearms and pencils behind their ears bustled in front of the grocery store anxious and preoccupied A very old man a Mexican in ragged white trousers and bare feet sat on a horseblock in front of the barber shop holding a horse by a rope around its neck A Chinaman went by teetering under the weight of his market baskets slung on a pole across his shoulders In the neighbourhood of the hotel the Yosemite House travelling salesmen drummers for jewelry firms of San Francisco commercial agents insurance men welldressed metropolitan debonair stood about cracking jokes or hurried in and out of the flapping white doors of the Yosemite barroom The Yosemite bus and City bus passed up the street on the way from the morning train each with its two or three passengers A very narrow wagon belonging to the Cole Colemore Harvester Works went by loaded with long strips of iron that made a horrible din as they jarred over the unevenness of the pavement The electric car line the citys boast did a brisk business its cars whirring from end to end of the street with a jangling of bells and a moaning plaint of gearing On the stone bulkheads of the grass plat around the new City Hall the usual loafers sat chewing tobacco swapping stories In the park were the inevitable array of nursemaids skylarking couples and ragged little boys A single policeman in grey coat and helmet friend and acquaintance of every man and woman in the town stood by the park entrance leaning an elbow on the fence post twirling his club
But in the centre of the best business block of the street was a threestory building of rough brown stone set off with plate glass windows and goldlettered signs One of these latter read Pacific and Southwestern Railroad Freight and Passenger Office while another much smaller beneath the windows of the second story bore the inscription P and S W Land Office
Annixter hitched his horse to the iron post in front of this building and tramped up to the second floor letting himself into an office where a couple of clerks and bookkeepers sat at work behind a high wire screen One of these latter recognised him and came forward
Hello said Annixter abruptly scowling the while Is your boss in Is Ruggles in
The bookkeeper led Annixter to the private office in an adjoining room ushering him through a door on the frosted glass of which was painted the name Cyrus Blakelee Ruggles Inside a man in a frock coat shoestring necktie and Stetson hat sat writing at a rollertop desk Over this desk was a vast map of the railroad holdings in the country about Bonneville and Guadalajara the alternate sections belonging to the Corporation accurately plotted Ruggles was cordial in his welcome of Annixter He had a way of fiddling with his pencil continually while he talked scribbling vague lines and fragments of words and names on stray bits of paper and no sooner had Annixter sat down than he had begun to write in fullbellied script ANN ANN all over his blotting pad
I want to see about those lands of mine—I mean of yours—of the railroads Annixter commenced at once I want to know when I can buy Im sick of fooling along like this
Well Mr Annixter observed Ruggles writing a great L before the ANN and finishing it off with a flourishing D The lands—he crossed out one of the Ns and noted the effect with a hasty glance—the lands are practically yours You have an option on them indefinitely and as it is you dont have to pay the taxes
Rot your option I want to own them Annixter declared What have you people got to gain by putting off selling them to us Here this thing has dragged along for over eight years When I came in on Quien Sabe the understanding was that the lands—your alternate sections—were to be conveyed to me within a few months
The land had not been patented to us then answered Ruggles
Well it has been now I guess retorted Annixter
Im sure I couldnt tell you Mr Annixter
Annixter crossed his legs weariedly
Oh whats the good of lying Ruggles You know better than to talk that way to me
Ruggless face flushed on the instant but he checked his answer and laughed instead
Oh if you know so much about it— he observed
Well when are you going to sell to me
Im only acting for the General Office Mr Annixter returned Ruggles Whenever the Directors are ready to take that matter up Ill be only too glad to put it through for you
As if you didnt know Look here youre not talking to old Broderson Wake up Ruggles Whats all this talk in Genslingers rag about the grading of the value of our lands this winter and an advance in the price
Ruggles spread out his hands with a deprecatory gesture
I dont own the Mercury he said
Well your company does
If it does I dont know anything about it
Oh rot As if you and Genslinger and S Behrman didnt run the whole show down here Come on lets have it Ruggles What does S Behrman pay Genslinger for inserting that threeinch ad of the P and S W in his paper Ten thousand a year hey
Oh why not a hundred thousand and be done with it returned the other willing to take it as a joke
Instead of replying Annixter drew his checkbook from his inside pocket
Let me take that fountain pen of yours he said Holding the book on his knee he wrote out a check tore it carefully from the stub and laid it on the desk in front of Ruggles
Whats this asked Ruggles
Threefourths payment for the sections of railroad land included in my ranch based on a valuation of two dollars and a half per acre You can have the balance in sixtyday notes
Ruggles shook his head drawing hastily back from the check as though it carried contamination
I cant touch it he declared Ive no authority to sell to you yet
I dont understand you people exclaimed Annixter I offered to buy of you the same way four years ago and you sang the same song Why it isnt business You lose the interest on your money Seven per cent of that capital for four years—you can figure it out Its big money
Well then I dont see why youre so keen on parting with it You can get seven per cent the same as us
I want to own my own land returned Annixter I want to feel that every lump of dirt inside my fence is my personal property Why the very house I live in now—the ranch house—stands on railroad ground
But youve an option
I tell you I dont want your cursed option I want ownership and its the same with Magnus Derrick and old Broderson and Osterman and all the ranchers of the county We want to own our land want to feel we can do as we blame please with it Suppose I should want to sell Quien Sabe I cant sell it as a whole till Ive bought of you I cant give anybody a clear title The land has doubled in value ten times over again since I came in on it and improved it Its worth easily twenty an acre now But I cant take advantage of that rise in value so long as you wont sell so long as I dont own it Youre blocking me
But according to you the railroad cant take advantage of the rise in any case According to you you can sell for twenty dollars but we can only get two and a half
Who made it worth twenty cried Annixter Ive improved it up to that figure Genslinger seems to have that idea in his nut too Do you people think you can hold that land untaxed for speculative purposes until it goes up to thirty dollars and then sell out to some one else—sell it over our heads You and Genslinger werent in office when those contracts were drawn You ask your boss you ask S Behrman he knows The General Office is pledged to sell to us in preference to any one else for two and a half
Well observed Ruggles decidedly tapping the end of his pencil on his desk and leaning forward to emphasise his words were not selling NOW Thats said and signed Mr Annixter
Why not Come spit it out Whats the bunco game this time
Because were not ready Heres your check
You wont take it
No
Ill make it a cash payment money down—the whole of it—payable to Cyrus Blakelee Ruggles for the P and S W
No
Third and last time
No
Oh go to the devil
I dont like your tone Mr Annixter returned Ruggles flushing angrily I dont give a curse whether you like it or not retorted Annixter rising and thrusting the check into his pocket but never you mind Mr Ruggles you and S Behrman and Genslinger and Shelgrim and the whole gang of thieves of you—youll wake this State of California up some of these days by going just one little bit too far and therell be an election of Railroad Commissioners of by and for the people thatll get a twist of you my buncosteering friend—you and your backers and cappers and swindlers and thimbleriggers and smash you lock stock and barrel Thats my tip to you and be damned to you Mr Cyrus Blackleg Ruggles
Annixter stormed out of the room slamming the door behind him and Ruggles trembling with anger turned to his desk and to the blotting pad written all over with the words LANDS TWENTY DOLLARS TWO AND A HALF OPTION and over and over again with great swelling curves and flourishes RAILROAD RAILROAD RAILROAD
But as Annixter passed into the outside office on the other side of the wire partition he noted the figure of a man at the counter in conversation with one of the clerks There was something familiar to Annixters eye about the mans heavy built frame his great shoulders and massive back and as he spoke to the clerk in a tremendous rumbling voice Annixter promptly recognised Dyke
There was a meeting Annixter liked Dyke as did every one else in and about Bonneville He paused now to shake hands with the discharged engineer and to ask about his little daughter Sidney to whom he knew Dyke was devotedly attached
Smartest little tad in Tulare County asserted Dyke Shes getting prettier every day Mr Annixter THERES a little tad that was just born to be a lady Can recite the whole of Snow Bound without ever stopping You dont believe that maybe hey Well its true Shell be just old enough to enter the Seminary up at Marysville next winter and if my hop business pays two per cent on the investment theres where shes going to go
Hows it coming on inquired Annixter
The hop ranch Prime Ive about got the land in shape and Ive engaged a foreman who knows all about hops Ive been in luck Everybody will go into the business next year when they see hops go to a dollar and theyll overstock the market and bust the price But Im going to get the cream of it now I say two per cent Why Lord love you it will pay a good deal more than that Its got to Its cost more than I figured to start the thing so perhaps I may have to borrow somewheres but then on such a sure game as this—and I do want to make something out of that little tad of mine
Through here inquired Annixter making ready to move off
In just a minute answered Dyke Wait for me and Ill walk down the street with you
Annixter grumbled that he was in a hurry but waited nevertheless while Dyke again approached the clerk
I shall want some empty cars of you people this fall he explained Im a hopraiser now and I just want to make sure what your rates on hops are Ive been told but I want to make sure Savvy There was a long delay while the clerk consulted the tariff schedules and Annixter fretted impatiently Dyke growing uneasy leaned heavily on his elbows watching the clerk anxiously If the tariff was exorbitant he saw his plans brought to naught his money jeopardised the little tad Sidney deprived of her education He began to blame himself that he had not long before determined definitely what the railroad would charge for moving his hops He told himself he was not much of a business man that he managed carelessly
Two cents suddenly announced the clerk with a certain surly indifference
Two cents a pound
Yes two cents a pound—thats in carload lots of course I wont give you that rate on smaller consignments
Yes carload lots of course two cents Well all right
He turned away with a great sigh of relief
He sure did have me scared for a minute he said to Annixter as the two went down to the street fiddling and fussing so long Two cents is all right though Seems fair to me That fiddling of his was all put on I know em these railroad heelers He knew I was a discharged employee first off and he played the game just to make me seem small because I had to ask favours of him I dont suppose the General Office tips its slavees off to act like swine but theres the feeling through the whole herd of them Ye got to come to us We let ye live only so long as we choose and what are ye going to do about it If ye dont like it git out
Annixter and the engineer descended to the street and had a drink at the Yosemite bar and Annixter went into the General Store while Dyke bought a little pair of red slippers for Sidney Before the salesman had wrapped them up Dyke slipped a dime into the toe of each with a wink at Annixter
Let the little tad find em there he said behind his hand in a hoarse whisper Thatll be one on Sid
Where to now demanded Annixter as they regained the street Im going down to the Post Office and then pull out for the ranch Going my way
Dyke hesitated in some confusion tugging at the ends of his fine blonde beard
No no I guess Ill leave you here Ive got—got other things to do up the street So long
The two separated and Annixter hurried through the crowd to the Post Office but the mail that had come in on that mornings train was unusually heavy It was nearly half an hour before it was distributed Naturally enough Annixter placed all the blame of the delay upon the railroad and delivered himself of some pointed remarks in the midst of the waiting crowd He was irritated to the last degree when he finally emerged upon the sidewalk again cramming his mail into his pockets One cause of his bad temper was the fact that in the bundle of Quien Sabe letters was one to Hilma Tree in a mans handwriting
Huh Annixter had growled to himself that pip Delaney Seems now that Im to act as gobetween for em Well maybe that feemale girl gets this letter and then again maybe she dont
But suddenly his attention was diverted Directly opposite the Post Office upon the corner of the street stood quite the best business building of which Bonneville could boast It was built of Colusa granite very solid ornate imposing Upon the heavy plate of the window of its main floor in gold and red letters one read the words Loan and Savings Bank of Tulare County It was of this bank that S Behrman was president At the street entrance of the building was a curved sign of polished brass fixed upon the angle of the masonry this sign bore the name S Behrman and under it in smaller letters were the words Real Estate Mortgages
As Annixters glance fell upon this building he was surprised to see Dyke standing upon the curb in front of it apparently reading from a newspaper that he held in his hand But Annixter promptly discovered that he was not reading at all From time to time the former engineer shot a swift glance out of the corner of his eye up and down the street Annixter jumped at a conclusion An idea suddenly occurred to him Dyke was watching to see if he was observed—was waiting an opportunity when no one who knew him should be in sight Annixter stepped back a little getting a telegraph pole somewhat between him and the other Very interested he watched what was going on Pretty soon Dyke thrust the paper into his pocket and sauntered slowly to the windows of a stationery store next the street entrance of S Behrmans offices For a few seconds he stood there his back turned seemingly absorbed in the display but eyeing the street narrowly nevertheless then he turned around gave a last look about and stepped swiftly into the doorway by the great brass sign He disappeared Annixter came from behind the telegraph pole with a flush of actual shame upon his face There had been something so slinking so mean in the movements and manner of this great burly honest fellow of an engineer that he could not help but feel ashamed for him Circumstances were such that a simple business transaction was to Dyke almost culpable a degradation a thing to be concealed
Borrowing money of S Behrman commented Annixter mortgaging your little homestead to the railroad putting your neck in the halter Poor fool The pity of it Good Lord your hops must pay you big now old man
Annixter lunched at the Yosemite Hotel and then later on toward the middle of the afternoon rode out of the town at a canter by the way of the Upper Road that paralleled the railroad tracks and that ran diametrically straight between Bonneville and Guadalajara About halfway between the two places he overtook Father Sarria trudging back to San Juan his long cassock powdered with dust He had a wicker crate in one hand and in the other in a small square valise the materials for the Holy Sacrament Since early morning the priest had covered nearly fifteen miles on foot in order to administer Extreme Unction to a moribund goodfornothing a greaser half Indian half Portuguese who lived in a remote corner of Ostermans stock range at the head of a canon there But he had returned by way of Bonneville to get a crate that had come for him from San Diego He had been notified of its arrival the day before
Annixter pulled up and passed the time of day with the priest
I dont often get up your way he said slowing down his horse to accommodate Sarrias deliberate plodding Sarria wiped the perspiration from his smooth shiny face
You Well with you it is different he answered But there are a great many Catholics in the county—some on your ranch And so few come to the Mission At High Mass on Sundays there are a few—Mexicans and Spaniards from Guadalajara mostly but weekdays for matins vespers and the like I often say the offices to an empty church—the voice of one crying in the wilderness You Americans are not good churchmen Sundays you sleep—you read the newspapers
Well theres Vanamee observed Annixter I suppose hes there early and late
Sarria made a sharp movement of interest
Ah Vanamee—a strange lad a wonderful character for all that If there were only more like him I am troubled about him You know I am a very owl at night I come and go about the Mission at all hours Within the week three times I have seen Vanamee in the little garden by the Mission and at the dead of night He had come without asking for me He did not see me It was strange Once when I had got up at dawn to ring for early matins I saw him stealing away out of the garden He must have been there all the night He is acting queerly He is pale his cheeks are more sunken than ever There is something wrong with him I cant make it out It is a mystery Suppose you ask him
Not I Ive enough to bother myself about Vanamee is crazy in the head Some morning he will turn up missing again and drop out of sight for another three years Best let him alone Sarria Hes a crank How is that greaser of yours up on Ostermans stock range
Ah the poor fellow—the poor fellow returned the other the tears coming to his eyes He died this morning—as you might say in my arms painfully but in the faith in the faith A good fellow
A lazy cattlestealing knifeinhisboot Dago
You misjudge him A really good fellow on better acquaintance
Annixter grunted scornfully Sarrias kindness and goodwill toward the most outrageous reprobates of the ranches was proverbial He practically supported some halfdozen families that lived in forgotten cabins lost and all but inaccessible in the far corners of stock range and canyon This particular greaser was the laziest the dirtiest the most worthless of the lot But in Sarrias mind the lout was an object of affection sincere unquestioning Thrice a week the priest with a basket of provisions—cold ham a bottle of wine olives loaves of bread even a chicken or two—toiled over the interminable stretch of country between the Mission and his cabin Of late during the rascals sickness these visits had been almost daily Hardly once did the priest leave the bedside that he did not slip a halfdollar into the palm of his wife or oldest daughter And this was but one case out of many
His kindliness toward animals was the same A horde of mangecorroded curs lived off his bounty wolfish ungrateful often marking him with their teeth yet never knowing the meaning of a harsh word A burro overfed lazy incorrigible browsed on the hill back of the Mission obstinately refusing to be harnessed to Sarrias little cart squealing and biting whenever the attempt was made and the priest suffered him submitting to his humour inventing excuses for him alleging that the burro was foundered or was in need of shoes or was feeble from extreme age The two peacocks magnificent proud coldhearted resenting all familiarity he served with the timorous apologetic affection of a queens ladyinwaiting resigned to their disdain happy if only they condescended to enjoy the grain he spread for them
At the Long Trestle Annixter and the priest left the road and took the trail that crossed Broderson Creek by the clumps of greygreen willows and led across Quien Sabe to the ranch house and to the Mission farther on They were obliged to proceed in single file here and Annixter who had allowed the priest to go in front promptly took notice of the wicker basket he carried Upon his inquiry Sarria became confused It was a basket that he had had sent down to him from the city
Well I know—but whats in it
Why—Im sure—ah poultry—a chicken or two
Fancy breed
Yes yes thats it a fancy breed At the ranch house where they arrived toward five oclock Annixter insisted that the priest should stop long enough for a glass of sherry Sarria left the basket and his small black valise at the foot of the porch steps and sat down in a rocker on the porch itself fanning himself with his broadbrimmed hat and shaking the dust from his cassock Annixter brought out the decanter of sherry and glasses and the two drank to each others health
But as the priest set down his glass wiping his lips with a murmur of satisfaction the decrepit Irish setter that had attached himself to Annixters house came out from underneath the porch and nosed vigorously about the wicker basket He upset it The little peg holding down the cover slipped the basket fell sideways opening as it fell and a cock his head enclosed in a little chamois bag such as are used for gold watches struggled blindly out into the open air A second similarly hooded followed The pair stupefied in their headgear stood rigid and bewildered in their tracks clucking uneasily Their tails were closely sheared Their legs thickly muscled and extraordinarily long were furnished with enormous cruellooking spurs The breed was unmistakable Annixter looked once at the pair then shouted with laughter
Poultry—a chicken or two—fancy breed—ho yes I should think so Game cocks Fighting cocks Oh you old rat Youll be a dry nurse to a burro and keep a hospital for infirm puppies but you will fight game cocks Oh Lord Why Sarria this is as good a grind as I ever heard Theres the Spanish cropping out after all
Speechless with chagrin the priest bundled the cocks into the basket and catching up the valise took himself abruptly away almost running till he had put himself out of hearing of Annixters raillery And even ten minutes later when Annixter still chuckling stood upon the porch steps he saw the priest far in the distance climbing the slope of the high ground in the direction of the Mission still hurrying on at a great pace his cassock flapping behind him his head bent to Annixters notion the very picture of discomfiture and confusion
As Annixter turned about to reenter the house he found himself almost face to face with Hilma Tree She was just going in at the doorway and a great flame of the sunset shooting in under the eaves of the porch enveloped her from her head with its thick moist hair that hung low over her neck to her slim feet setting a golden flash in the little steel buckles of her low shoes She had come to set the table for Annixters supper Taken all aback by the suddenness of the encounter Annixter ejaculated an abrupt and senseless Excuse me But Hilma without raising her eyes passed on unmoved into the diningroom leaving Annixter trying to find his breath and fumbling with the brim of his hat that he was surprised to find he had taken from his head Resolutely and taking a quick advantage of his opportunity he followed her into the diningroom
I see that dog has turned up he announced with brisk cheerfulness That Irish setter I was asking about
Hilma a swift pink flush deepening the delicate rose of her cheeks did not reply except by nodding her head She flung the tablecloth out from under her arms across the table spreading it smooth with quick little caresses of her hands There was a moments silence Then Annixter said
Heres a letter for you He laid it down on the table near her and Hilma picked it up And see here Miss Hilma Annixter continued about that—this morning—I suppose you think I am a firstclass mucker If it will do any good to apologise why I will I want to be friends with you I made a bad mistake and started in the wrong way I dont know much about women people I want you to forget about that—this morning and not think I am a galoot and a mucker Will you do it Will you be friends with me
Hilma set the plate and coffee cup by Annixters place before answering and Annixter repeated his question Then she drew a deep quick breath the flush in her cheeks returning
I think it was—it was so wrong of you she murmured Oh you dont know how it hurt me I cried—oh for an hour
Well thats just it returned Annixter vaguely moving his head uneasily I didnt know what kind of a girl you were—I mean I made a mistake I thought it didnt make much difference I thought all feemales were about alike
I hope you know now murmured Hilma ruefully Ive paid enough to have you find out I cried—you dont know Why it hurt me worse than anything I can remember I hope you know now Well I do know now he exclaimed
It wasnt so much that you tried to do—what you did answered Hilma the single deep swell from her waist to her throat rising and falling in her emotion It was that you thought that you could—that anybody could that wanted to—that I held myself so cheap Oh she cried with a sudden sobbing catch in her throat I never can forget it and you dont know what it means to a girl
Well thats just what I do want he repeated I want you to forget it and have us be good friends
In his embarrassment Annixter could think of no other words He kept reiterating again and again during the pauses of the conversation
I want you to forget it Will you Will you forget it—that—this morning and have us be good friends
He could see that her trouble was keen He was astonished that the matter should be so grave in her estimation After all what was it that a girl should be kissed But he wanted to regain his lost ground
Will you forget it Miss Hilma I want you to like me
She took a clean napkin from the sideboard drawer and laid it down by the plate
I—I do want you to like me persisted Annixter I want you to forget all about this business and like me
Hilma was silent Annixter saw the tears in her eyes
How about that Will you forget it Will you—will—will you LIKE me
She shook her head
No she said
No what You wont like me Is that it
Hilma blinking at the napkin through her tears nodded to say Yes that was it Annixter hesitated a moment frowning harassed and perplexed
You dont like me at all hey
At length Hilma found her speech In her low voice lower and more velvety than ever she said
No—I dont like you at all
Then as the tears suddenly overpowered her she dashed a hand across her eyes and ran from the room and out of doors
Annixter stood for a moment thoughtful his protruding lower lip thrust out his hands in his pocket
I suppose shell quit now he muttered Suppose shell leave the ranch—if she hates me like that Well she can go—thats all—she can go Fool feemale girl he muttered between his teeth petticoat mess He was about to sit down to his supper when his eye fell upon the Irish setter on his haunches in the doorway There was an expectant ingratiating look on the dogs face No doubt he suspected it was time for eating
Get out—YOU roared Annixter in a tempest of wrath
The dog slunk back his tail shut down close his ears drooping but instead of running away he lay down and rolled supinely upon his back the very image of submission tame abject disgusting It was the one thing to drive Annixter to a fury He kicked the dog off the porch in a rolling explosion of oaths and flung himself down to his seat before the table fuming and panting
Damn the dog and the girl and the whole rotten business—and now he exclaimed as a sudden fancied qualm arose in his stomach now its all made me sick Might have known it Oh it only lacked that to wind up the whole day Let her go I dont care and the sooner the better
He countermanded the supper and went to bed before it was dark lighting his lamp on the chair near the head of the bed and opening his Copperfield at the place marked by the strip of paper torn from the bag of prunes For upward of an hour he read the novel methodically swallowing one prune every time he reached the bottom of a page About nine oclock he blew out the lamp and punching up his pillow settled himself for the night
Then as his mind relaxed in that strange hypnotic condition that comes just before sleep a series of pictures of the days doings passed before his imagination like the roll of a kinetoscope
First it was Hilma Tree as he had seen her in the dairyhouse—charming delicious radiant of youth her thick white neck with its pale amber shadows under the chin her wide open eyes rimmed with fine black lashes the deep swell of her breast and hips the delicate lustrous floss on her cheek impalpable as the pollen of a flower He saw her standing there in the scintillating light of the morning her smooth arms wet with milk redolent and fragrant of milk her whole desirable figure moving in the golden glory of the sun steeped in a lambent flame saturated with it glowing with it joyous as the dawn itself
Then it was Los Muertos and Hooven the sordid little Dutchman grimed with the soil he worked in yet vividly remembering a period of military glory exciting himself with recollections of Gravelotte and the Kaiser but contented now in the country of his adoption defining the Fatherland as the place where wife and children lived Then came the ranch house of Los Muertos under the grove of cypress and eucalyptus with its smooth gravelled driveway and wellgroomed lawns Mrs Derrick with her wideopened eyes that so easily took on a look of uneasiness of innocence of anxious inquiry her face still pretty her brown hair that still retained so much of its brightness spread over her chair back drying in the sun Magnus erect as an officer of cavalry smoothshaven grey thinlipped imposing with his hawklike nose and forwardcurling grey hair Presley with his dark face delicate mouth and sensitive loose lips in corduroys and laced boots smoking cigarettes—an interesting figure suggestive of a mixed origin morbid excitable melancholy brooding upon things that had no names Then it was Bonneville with the gayety and confusion of Main Street the whirring electric cars the zincsheathed telegraph poles the buckboards with squashes stowed under the seats Ruggles in frock coat Stetson hat and shoestring necktie writing abstractedly upon his blotting pad Dyke the engineer bigboned Powerful deepvoiced goodnatured with his fine blonde beard and massive arms rehearsing the praises of his little daughter Sidney guided only by the one ambition that she should be educated at a seminary slipping a dime into the toe of her diminutive slipper then later overwhelmed with shame slinking into S Behrmans office to mortgage his homestead to the heeler of the corporation that had discharged him By suggestion Annixter saw S Behrman too fat with a vast stomach the check and neck meeting to form a great tremulous jowl the roll of fat over his collar sprinkled with sparse stiff hairs saw his brown roundtopped hat of varnished straw the linen vest stamped with innumerable interlocked horseshoes the heavy watch chain clinking against the pearl vest buttons invariably placid unruffled never losing his temper serene unassailable enthroned
Then at the end of all it was the ranch again seen in a last brief glance before he had gone to bed the fecundated earth calm at last nursing the emplanted germ of life ruddy with the sunset the horizons purple the small clamour of the day lapsing into quiet the great still twilight building itself domelike toward the zenith The barn fowls were roosting in the trees near the stable the horses crunching their fodder in the stalls the days work ceasing by slow degrees and the priest the Spanish churchman Father Sarria relic of a departed regime kindly benign believing in all goodness a lover of his fellows and of dumb animals yet for all that hurrying away in confusion and discomfiture carrying in one hand the vessels of the Holy Communion and in the other a basket of game cocks
CHAPTER VI
It was high noon and the rays of the sun that hung poised directly overhead in an intolerable white glory fell straight as plummets upon the roofs and streets of Guadalajara The adobe walls and sparse brick sidewalks of the drowsing town radiated the heat in an oily quivering shimmer The leaves of the eucalyptus trees around the Plaza drooped motionless limp and relaxed under the scorching searching blaze The shadows of these trees had shrunk to their smallest circumference contracting close about the trunks The shade had dwindled to the breadth of a mere line The sun was everywhere The heat exhaling from brick and plaster and metal met the heat that steadily descended blanketwise and smothering from the pale scorched sky Only the lizards—they lived in chinks of the crumbling adobe and in interstices of the sidewalk—remained without motionless as if stuffed their eyes closed to mere slits basking stupefied with heat At long intervals the prolonged drone of an insect developed out of the silence vibrated a moment in a soothing somnolent long note then trailed slowly into the quiet again Somewhere in the interior of one of the dobe houses a guitar snored and hummed sleepily On the roof of the hotel a group of pigeons cooed incessantly with subdued liquid murmurs very plaintive a cat perfectly white with a pink nose and thin pink lips dozed complacently on a fence rail full in the sun In a corner of the Plaza three hens wallowed in the baking hot dust their wings fluttering clucking comfortably
And this was all A Sunday repose prevailed the whole moribund town peaceful profound A certain pleasing numbness a sense of grateful enervation exhaled from the scorching plaster There was no movement no sound of human business The faint hum of the insect the intermittent murmur of the guitar the mellow complainings of the pigeons the prolonged purr of the white cat the contented clucking of the hens—all these noises mingled together to form a faint drowsy bourdon prolonged stupefying suggestive of an infinite quiet of a calm complacent life centuries old lapsing gradually to its end under the gorgeous loneliness of a cloudless pale blue sky and the steady fire of an interminable sun
In Solotaris SpanishMexican restaurant Vanamee and Presley sat opposite each other at one of the tables near the door a bottle of white wine tortillas and an earthen pot of frijoles between them They were the sole occupants of the place It was the day that Annixter had chosen for his barndance and in consequence Quien Sabe was in fete and work suspended Presley and Vanamee had arranged to spend the day in each others company lunching at Solotaris and taking a long tramp in the afternoon For the moment they sat back in their chairs their meal all but finished Solotari brought black coffee and a small carafe of mescal and retiring to a corner of the room went to sleep
All through the meal Presley had been wondering over a certain change he observed in his friend He looked at him again
Vanamees lean spare face was of an olive pallor His long black hair such as one sees in the saints and evangelists of the preRaphaelite artists hung over his ears Presley again remarked his pointed beard black and fine growing from the hollow cheeks He looked at his face a face like that of a young seer like a halfinspired shepherd of the Hebraic legends a dweller in the wilderness gifted with strange powers He was dressed as when Presley had first met him herding his sheep in brown canvas overalls thrust into top boots grey flannel shirt open at the throat showing the breast ruddy with tan the waist encircled with a cartridge belt empty of cartridges
But now as Presley took more careful note of him he was surprised to observe a certain new look in Vanamees deepset eyes He remembered now that all through the morning Vanamee had been singularly reserved He was continually drifting into reveries abstracted distrait Indubitably something of moment had happened
At length Vanamee spoke Leaning back in his chair his thumbs in his belt his bearded chin upon his breast his voice was the even monotone of one speaking in his sleep
He told Presley in a few words what had happened during the first night he had spent in the garden of the old Mission of the Answer halffancied halfreal that had come to him
To no other person but you would I speak of this he said but you I think will understand—will be sympathetic at least and I feel the need of unburdening myself of it to some one At first I would not trust my own senses I was sure I had deceived myself but on a second night it happened again Then I was afraid—or no not afraid but disturbed—oh shaken to my very hearts core I resolved to go no further in the matter never again to put it to test For a long time I stayed away from the Mission occupying myself with my work keeping it out of my mind But the temptation was too strong One night I found myself there again under the black shadow of the pear trees calling for Angele summoning her from out the dark from out the night This time the Answer was prompt unmistakable I cannot explain to you what it was nor how it came to me for there was no sound I saw absolutely nothing but the empty night There was no moon But somewhere off there over the little valley far off the darkness was troubled that ME that went out upon my thought—out from the Mission garden out over the valley calling for her searching for her found I dont know what but found a resting place—a companion Three times since then I have gone to the Mission garden at night Last night was the third time
He paused his eyes shining with excitement Presley leaned forward toward him motionless with intense absorption
Well—and last night he prompted
Vanamee stirred in his seat his glance fell he drummed an instant upon the table
Last night he answered there was—there was a change The Answer was— he drew a deep breath—nearer
You are sure
The other smiled with absolute certainty
It was not that I found the Answer sooner easier I could not be mistaken No that which has troubled the darkness that which has entered into the empty night—is coming nearer to me—physically nearer actually nearer
His voice sank again His face like the face of younger prophets the seers took on a halfinspired expression He looked vaguely before him with unseeing eyes
Suppose he murmured suppose I stand there under the pear trees at night and call her again and again and each time the Answer comes nearer and nearer and I wait until at last one night the supreme night of all she—she——
Suddenly the tension broke With a sharp cry and a violent uncertain gesture of the hand Vanamee came to himself
Oh he exclaimed what is it Do I dare What does it mean There are times when it appals me and there are times when it thrills me with a sweetness and a happiness that I have not known since she died The vagueness of it How can I explain it to you this that happens when I call to her across the night—that faint faroff unseen tremble in the darkness that intangible scarcely perceptible stir Something neither heard nor seen appealing to a sixth sense only Listen it is something like this On Quien Sabe all last week we have been seeding the earth The grain is there now under the earth buried in the dark in the black stillness under the clods Can you imagine the first—the very first little quiver of life that the grain of wheat must feel after it is sown when it answers to the call of the sun down there in the dark of the earth blind deaf the very first stir from the inert long long before any physical change has occurred—long before the microscope could discover the slightest change—when the shell first tightens with the first faint premonition of life Well it is something as illusive as that He paused again dreaming lost in a reverie then just above a whisper murmured
That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die and she Angele died
You could not have been mistaken said Presley You were sure that there was something Imagination can do so much and the influence of the surroundings was strong How impossible it would be that anything SHOULD happen And you say you heard nothing saw nothing
I believe answered Vanamee in a sixth sense or rather a whole system of other unnamed senses beyond the reach of our understanding People who live much alone and close to nature experience the sensation of it Perhaps it is something fundamental that we share with plants and animals The same thing that sends the birds south long before the first colds the same thing that makes the grain of wheat struggle up to meet the sun And this sense never deceives You may see wrong hear wrong but once touch this sixth sense and it acts with absolute fidelity you are certain No I hear nothing in the Mission garden I see nothing nothing touches me but I am CERTAIN for all that
Presley hesitated for a moment then he asked
Shall you go back to the garden again Make the test again I dont know
Strange enough commented Presley wondering
Vanamee sank back in his chair his eyes growing vacant again
Strange enough he murmured
There was a long silence Neither spoke nor moved There in that moribund ancient town wrapped in its siesta flagellated with heat deserted ignored baking in a noonday silence these two strange men the one a poet by nature the other by training both out of tune with their world dreamers introspective morbid lost and unfamiliar at that endofthecentury time searching for a sign groping and baffled amidst the perplexing obscurity of the Delusion sat over empty wine glasses silent with the pervading silence that surrounded them hearing only the cooing of doves and the drone of bees the quiet so profound that at length they could plainly distinguish at intervals the puffing and coughing of a locomotive switching cars in the station yard of Bonneville
It was no doubt this jarring sound that at length roused Presley from his lethargy The two friends rose Solotari very sleepily came forward they paid for the luncheon and stepping out into the heat and glare of the streets of the town passed on through it and took the road that led northward across a corner of Dykes hop fields They were bound for the hills in the northeastern corner of Quien Sabe It was the same walk which Presley had taken on the previous occasion when he had first met Vanamee herding the sheep This encompassing detour around the whole countryside was a favorite pastime of his and he was anxious that Vanamee should share his pleasure in it
But soon after leaving Guadalajara they found themselves upon the land that Dyke had bought and upon which he was to raise his famous crop of hops Dykes house was close at hand a very pleasant little cottage painted white with green blinds and deep porches while near it and yet in process of construction were two great storehouses and a drying and curing house where the hops were to be stored and treated All about were evidences that the former engineer had already been hard at work The ground had been put in readiness to receive the crop and a bewildering innumerable multitude of poles connected with a maze of wire and twine had been set out Farther on at a turn of the road they came upon Dyke himself driving a farm wagon loaded with more poles He was in his shirt sleeves his massive hairy arms bare to the elbow glistening with sweat red with heat In his belllike rumbling voice he was calling to his foreman and a boy at work in stringing the poles together At sight of Presley and Vanamee he hailed them jovially addressing them as boys and insisting that they should get into the wagon with him and drive to the house for a glass of beer His mother had only the day before returned from Marysville where she had been looking up a seminary for the little tad She would be delighted to see the two boys besides Vanamee must see how the little tad had grown since he last set eyes on her wouldnt know her for the same little girl and the beer had been on ice since morning Presley and Vanamee could not well refuse
They climbed into the wagon and jolted over the uneven ground through the bare forest of hoppoles to the house Inside they found Mrs Dyke an old lady with a very gentle face who wore a cap and a very oldfashioned gown with hoop skirts dusting the whatnot in a corner of the parlor The two men were presented and the beer was had from off the ice
Mother said Dyke as he wiped the froth from his great blond beard aint Sid anywheres about I want Mr Vanamee to see how she has grown Smartest little tad in Tulare County boys Can recite the whole of Snow Bound end to end without skipping or looking at the book Maybe you dont believe that Mother aint I right—without skipping a line hey
Mrs Dyke nodded to say that it was so but explained that Sidney was in Guadalajara In putting on her new slippers for the first time the morning before she had found a dime in the toe of one of them and had had the whole house by the ears ever since till she could spend it
Was it for licorice to make her licorice water inquired Dyke gravely
Yes said Mrs Dyke I made her tell me what she was going to get before she went and it was licorice
Dyke though his mother protested that he was foolish and that Presley and Vanamee had no great interest in young ones insisted upon showing the visitors Sidneys copybooks They were monuments of laborious elaborate neatness the trite moralities and readymade aphorisms of the philanthropists and publicists repeated from page to page with wearying insistence I too am an American Citizen S D As the Twig is Bent the Tree is Inclined Truth Crushed to Earth Will Rise Again As for Me Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death and last of all a strange intrusion amongst the mild wellworn phrases two legends My motto—Public Control of Public Franchises and The P and S W is an Enemy of the State
I see commented Presley you mean the little tad to understand the situation early
I told him he was foolish to give that to Sid to copy said Mrs Dyke with indulgent remonstrance What can she understand of public franchises
Never mind observed Dyke shell remember it when she grows up and when the seminary people have rubbed her up a bit and then shell begin to ask questions and understand And dont you make any mistake mother he went on about the little tad not knowing who her dads enemies are What do you think boys Listen here Precious little Ive ever told her of the railroad or how I was turned off but the other day I was working down by the fence next the railroad tracks and Sid was there Shed brought her doll rags down and she was playing house behind a pile of hop poles Well along comes a through freight—mixed train from Missouri points and a string of empties from New Orleans—and when it had passed what do you suppose the tad did SHE didnt know I was watching her She goes to the fence and spits a little spit after the caboose and puts out her little head and if youll believe me HISSES at the train and mother says she does that same every time she sees a train go by and never crosses the tracks that she dont spit her little spit on em What do you THINK of THAT
But I correct her every time protested Mrs Dyke seriously Where she picked up the trick of hissing I dont know No its not funny It seems dreadful to see a little girl whos as sweet and gentle as can be in every other way so venomous She says the other little girls at school and the boys too are all the same way Oh dear she sighed why will the General Office be so unkind and unjust Why I couldnt be happy with all the money in the world if I thought that even one little child hated me—hated me so that it would spit and hiss at me And its not one child its all of them so Sidney says and think of all the grown people who hate the road women and men the whole county the whole State thousands and thousands of people Dont the managers and the directors of the road ever think of that Dont they ever think of all the hate that surrounds them everywhere everywhere and the good people that just grit their teeth when the name of the road is mentioned Why do they want to make the people hate them No she murmured the tears starting to her eyes No I tell you Mr Presley the men who own the railroad are wicked badhearted men who dont care how much the poor people suffer so long as the road makes its eighteen million a year They dont care whether the people hate them or love them just so long as they are afraid of them Its not right and God will punish them sooner or later
A little after this the two young men took themselves away Dyke obligingly carrying them in the wagon as far as the gate that opened into the Quien Sabe ranch On the way Presley referred to what Mrs Dyke had said and led Dyke himself to speak of the P and S W
Well Dyke said its like this Mr Presley I personally havent got the right to kick With you wheatgrowing people I guess its different but hops you see dont count for much in the State Its such a little business that the road dont want to bother themselves to tax it Its the wheat growers that the road cinches The rates on hops ARE FAIR Ive got to admit that I was in to Bonneville a while ago to find out Its two cents a pound and Lord love you thats reasonable enough to suit any man No he concluded Im on the way to make money now The road sacking me as they did was maybe a good thing for me after all It came just at the right time I had a bit of money put by and here was the chance to go into hops with the certainty that hops would quadruple and quintuple in price inside the year No it was my chance and though they didnt mean it by a long chalk the railroad people did me a good turn when they gave me my time—and the tadll enter the seminary next fall
About a quarter of an hour after they had said goodbye to the onetime engineer Presley and Vanamee tramping briskly along the road that led northward through Quien Sabe arrived at Annixters ranch house At once they were aware of a vast and unwonted bustle that revolved about the place They stopped a few moments looking on amused and interested in what was going forward
The colossal barn was finished Its freshly whitewashed sides glared intolerably in the sun but its interior was as yet innocent of paint and through the yawning vent of the sliding doors came a delicious odour of new fresh wood and shavings A crowd of men—Annixters farm hands—were swarming all about it Some were balanced on the topmost rounds of ladders hanging festoons of Japanese lanterns from tree to tree and all across the front of the barn itself Mrs Tree her daughter Hilma and another woman were inside the barn cutting into long strips bolt after bolt of red white and blue cambric and directing how these strips should be draped from the ceiling and on the walls everywhere resounded the tapping of tack hammers A farm wagon drove up loaded to overflowing with evergreens and with great bundles of palm leaves and these were immediately seized upon and affixed as supplementary decorations to the tricoloured cambric upon the inside walls of the barn Two of the larger evergreen trees were placed on either side the barn door and their tops bent over to form an arch In the middle of this arch it was proposed to hang a mammoth pasteboard escutcheon with gold letters spelling the word WELCOME Piles of chairs rented from IOOF hall in Bonneville heaped themselves in an apparently hopeless entanglement on the ground while at the far extremity of the barn a couple of carpenters clattered about the impromptu staging which was to accommodate the band
There was a strenuous gayety in the air everybody was in the best of spirits Notes of laughter continually interrupted the conversation on every hand At every moment a group of men involved themselves in uproarious horseplay They passed oblique jokes behind their hands to each other—grossly veiled doublemeanings meant for the women—and bellowed with laughter thereat stamping on the ground The relations between the sexes grew more intimate the women and girls pushing the young fellows away from their sides with vigorous thrusts of their elbows It was passed from group to group that Adela Vacca a division superintendents wife had lost her garter the daughter of the foreman of the Home ranch was kissed behind the door of the dairyhouse
Annixter in execrable temper appeared from time to time hatless his stiff yellow hair in wild disorder He hurried between the barn and the ranch house carrying now a wickered demijohn now a case of wine now a basket of lemons and pineapples Besides general supervision he had elected to assume the responsibility of composing the punch—something stiff by jingo a punch that would raise you right out of your boots a regular hairlifter
The harness room of the barn he had set apart for himself and intimates He had brought a long table down from the house and upon it had set out boxes of cigars bottles of whiskey and of beer and the great china bowls for the punch It would be no fault of his he declared if half the number of his men friends were not uproarious before they left His barn dance would be the talk of all Tulare County for years to come For this one day he had resolved to put all thoughts of business out of his head For the matter of that things were going well enough Osterman was back from Los Angeles with a favourable report as to his affair with Disbrow and Darrell There had been another meeting of the committee Harran Derrick had attended Though he had taken no part in the discussion Annixter was satisfied The Governor had consented to allow Harran to come in if he so desired and Harran had pledged himself to share onesixth of the campaign expenses providing these did not exceed a certain figure
As Annixter came to the door of the barn to shout abuse at the distraught Chinese cook who was cutting up lemons in the kitchen he caught sight of Presley and Vanamee and hailed them
Hello Pres he called Come over here and see how she looks he indicated the barn with a movement of his head Well were getting ready for you tonight he went on as the two friends came up But how we are going to get straightened out by eight oclock I dont know Would you believe that pip Caraher is short of lemons—at this last minute and I told him Id want three cases of em as much as a month ago and here just when I want a good lively saddle horse to get around on somebody hikes the buckskin out the corral STOLE her by jingo Ill have the law on that thief if it breaks me—and a sixtydollar saddle n headstall gone with her and only about half the number of Jap lanterns that I ordered have shown up and not candles enough for those Its enough to make a dog sick Theres nothing done that you dont do yourself unless you stand over these loafers with a club Im sick of the whole business—and Ive lost my hat wish to God Id never dreamed of givin this rotten fool dance Clutter the whole place up with a lot of feemales I sure did lose my presence of mind when I got THAT idea
Then ignoring the fact that it was he himself who had called the young men to him he added
Well this is my busy day Sorry I cant stop and talk to you longer
He shouted a last imprecation at the Chinaman and turned back into the barn Presley and Vanamee went on but Annixter as he crossed the floor of the barn all but collided with Hilma Tree who came out from one of the stalls a box of candles in her arms
Gasping out an apology Annixter reentered the harness room closing the door behind him and forgetting all the responsibility of the moment lit a cigar and sat down in one of the hired chairs his hands in his pockets his feet on the table frowning thoughtfully through the blue smoke
Annixter was at last driven to confess to himself that he could not get the thought of Hilma Tree out of his mind Finally she had got a hold on him The thing that of all others he most dreaded had happened A feemale girl had got a hold on him and now there was no longer for him any such thing as peace of mind The idea of the young woman was with him continually He went to bed with it he got up with it At every moment of the day he was pestered with it It interfered with his work got mixed up in his business What a miserable confession for a man to make a fine way to waste his time Was it possible that only the other day he had stood in front of the music store in Bonneville and seriously considered making Hilma a present of a musicbox Even now the very thought of it made him flush with shame and this after she had told him plainly that she did not like him He was running after her—he Annixter He ripped out a furious oath striking the table with his boot heel Again and again he had resolved to put the whole affair from out his mind Once he had been able to do so but of late it was becoming harder and harder with every successive day He had only to close his eyes to see her as plain as if she stood before him he saw her in a glory of sunlight that set a fine tinted lustre of pale carnation and gold on the silken sheen of her white skin her hair sparkled with it her thick strong neck sloping to her shoulders with beautiful full curves seemed to radiate the light her eyes brown wide innocent in expression disclosing the full disc of the pupil upon the slightest provocation flashed in this sunlight like diamonds
Annixter was all bewildered With the exception of the timid little creature in the glovecleaning establishment in Sacramento he had had no acquaintance with any woman His world was harsh crude a world of men only—men who were to be combatted opposed—his hand was against nearly every one of them Women he distrusted with the instinctive distrust of the overgrown schoolboy Now at length a young woman had come into his life Promptly he was struck with discomfiture annoyed almost beyond endurance harassed bedevilled excited made angry and exasperated He was suspicious of the woman yet desired her totally ignorant of how to approach her hating the sex yet drawn to the individual confusing the two emotions sometimes even hating Hilma as a result of this confusion but at all times disturbed vexed irritated beyond power of expression
At length Annixter cast his cigar from him and plunged again into the work of the day The afternoon wore to evening to the accompaniment of wearying and clamorous endeavour In some unexplained fashion the labour of putting the great barn in readiness for the dance was accomplished the last bolt of cambric was hung in place from the rafters The last evergreen tree was nailed to the joists of the walls the last lantern hung the last nail driven into the musicians platform The sun set There was a great scurry to have supper and dress Annixter last of all the other workers left the barn in the dusk of twilight He was alone he had a saw under one arm a bag of tools was in his hand He was in his shirt sleeves and carried his coat over his shoulder a hammer was thrust into one of his hip pockets He was in execrable temper The days work had fagged him out He had not been able to find his hat
And the buckskin with sixty dollars worth of saddle gone too he groaned Oh aint it sweet
At his house Mrs Tree had set out a cold supper for him the inevitable dish of prunes serving as dessert After supper Annixter bathed and dressed He decided at the last moment to wear his usual towngoing suit a sack suit of black made by a Bonneville tailor But his hat was gone There were other hats he might have worn but because this particular one was lost he fretted about it all through his dressing and then decided to have one more look around the barn for it
For over a quarter of an hour he pottered about the barn going from stall to stall rummaging the harness room and feed room all to no purpose At last he came out again upon the main floor definitely giving up the search looking about him to see if everything was in order
The festoons of Japanese lanterns in and around the barn were not yet lighted but some halfdozen lamps with great tin reflectors that hung against the walls were burning low A dull half light pervaded the vast interior hollow echoing leaving the corners and roof thick with impenetrable black shadows The barn faced the west and through the open sliding doors was streaming a single bright bar from the afterglow incongruous and out of all harmony with the dull flare of the kerosene lamps
As Annixter glanced about him he saw a figure step briskly out of the shadows of one corner of the building pause for the fraction of one instant in the bar of light then at sight of him dart back again There was a sound of hurried footsteps
Annixter with recollections of the stolen buckskin in his mind cried out sharply
Whos there
There was no answer In a second his pistol was in his hand
Whos there Quick speak up or Ill shoot
No no no dont shoot cried an answering voice Oh be careful Its I—Hilma Tree
Annixter slid the pistol into his pocket with a great qualm of apprehension He came forward and met Hilma in the doorway
Good Lord he murmured that sure did give me a start If I HAD shot——
Hilma stood abashed and confused before him She was dressed in a white organdie frock of the most rigorous simplicity and wore neither flower nor ornament The severity of her dress made her look even larger than usual and even as it was her eyes were on a level with Annixters There was a certain fascination in the contradiction of stature and character of Hilma—a great girl halfchild as yet but tall as a man for all that
There was a moments awkward silence then Hilma explained
I—I came back to look for my hat I thought I left it here this afternoon
And I was looking for my hat cried Annixter Funny enough hey
They laughed at this as heartily as children might have done The constraint of the situation was a little relaxed and Annixter with sudden directness glanced sharply at the young woman and demanded
Well Miss Hilma hate me as much as ever
Oh no sir she answered I never said I hated you
Well—dislike me then I know you said that
I—I disliked what you did—TRIED to do It made me angry and it hurt me I shouldnt have said what I did that time but it was your fault
You mean you shouldnt have said you didnt like me asked Annixter Why
Well well—I dont—I dont DISlike anybody admitted Hilma
Then I can take it that you dont dislike ME Is that it
I dont dislike anybody persisted Hilma
Well I asked you more than that didnt I queried Annixter uneasily I asked you to like me remember the other day Im asking you that again now I want you to like me
Hilma lifted her eyes inquiringly to his In her words was an unmistakable ring of absolute sincerity Innocently she inquired
Why
Annixter was struck speechless In the face of such candour such perfect ingenuousness he was at a loss for any words
Well—well he stammered well—I dont know he suddenly burst out That is he went on groping for his wits I cant quite say why The idea of a colossal lie occurred to him a thing actually royal
I like to have the people who are around me like me he declared I—I like to be popular understand Yes thats it he continued more reassured I dont like the idea of any one disliking me Thats the way I am Its my nature
Oh then returned Hilma you neednt bother No I dont dislike you
Well thats good declared Annixter judicially Thats good But hold on he interrupted Im forgetting Its not enough to not dislike me I want you to like me How about THAT
Hilma paused for a moment glancing vaguely out of the doorway toward the lighted window of the dairyhouse her head tilted
I dont know that I ever thought about that she said
Well think about it now insisted Annixter
But I never thought about liking anybody particularly she observed Its because I like everybody dont you see
Well youve got to like some people more than other people hazarded Annixter and I want to be one of those some people savvy Good Lord I dont know how to say these fool things I talk like a galoot when I get talking to feemale girls and I cant lay my tongue to anything that sounds right It isnt my nature And look here I lied when I said I liked to have people like me—to be popular Rot I dont care a curse about peoples opinions of me But theres a few people that are more to me than most others—that chap Presley for instance—and those people I DO want to have like me What they think counts Pshaw I know Ive got enemies piles of them I could name you half a dozen men right now that are naturally itching to take a shot at me How about this ranch Dont I know cant I hear the men growling oaths under their breath after Ive gone by And in business ways too he went on speaking half to himself in Bonneville and all over the county theres not a man of them wouldnt howl for joy if they got a chance to down Buck Annixter Think I care Why I LIKE it I run my ranch to suit myself and I play my game my own way Im a driver I know it and a bully too Oh I know what they call me—a brute beast with a twist in my temper that would rile up a newborn lamb and Im crusty and pigheaded and obstinate They say all that but theyve got to say too that Im cleverer than any manjack in the running Theres nobody can get ahead of me His eyes snapped Let em grind their teeth They cant down me When I shut my fist theres not one of them can open it No not with a CHISEL He turned to Hilma again Well when a mans hated as much as that it stands to reason dont it Miss Hilma that the few friends he has got he wants to keep Im not such an entire swine to the people that know me best—that jackass Presley for instance Id put my hand in the fire to do him a real service Sometimes I get kind of lonesome wonder if you would understand Its my fault but theres not a horse about the place that dont lay his ears back when I get on him theres not a dog dont put his tail between his legs as soon as I come near him The cayuse isnt foaled yet here on Quien Sabe that can throw me nor the dog whelped that would dare show his teeth at me I kick that Irish setter every time I see him—but wonder what Id do though if he didnt slink so much if he wagged his tail and was glad to see me So it all comes to this Id like to have you—well sort of feel that I was a good friend of yours and like me because of it
The flame in the lamp on the wall in front of Hilma stretched upward tall and thin and began to smoke She went over to where the lamp hung and standing on tiptoe lowered the wick As she reached her hand up Annixter noted how the sombre lurid red of the lamp made a warm reflection on her smooth round arm
Do you understand he queried
Yes why yes she answered turning around Its very good of you to want to be a friend of mine I didnt think so though when you tried to kiss me But maybe its all right since youve explained things You see Im different from you I like everybody to like me and I like to like everybody It makes one so much happier You wouldnt believe it but you ought to try it sir just to see Its so good to be good to people and to have people good to you And everybody has always been so good to me Mamma and papa of course and Billy the stableman and Montalegre the Portugee foreman and the Chinese cook even and Mr Delaney—only he went away—and Mrs Vacca and her little——
Delaney hey demanded Annixter abruptly You and he were pretty good friends were you
Oh yes she answered He was just as GOOD to me Every day in the summer time he used to ride over to the Seed ranch back of the Mission and bring me a great armful of flowers the prettiest things and I used to pretend to pay him for them with dollars made of cheese that I cut out of the cheese with a biscuit cutter It was such fun We were the best of friends
Theres another lamp smoking growled Annixter Turn it down will you—and see that somebody sweeps this floor here Its all littered up with pine needles Ive got a lot to do Goodbye
Goodbye sir
Annixter returned to the ranch house his teeth clenched enraged his face flushed
Ah he muttered Delaney hey Throwing it up to me that I fired him His teeth gripped together more fiercely than ever The best of friends hey By God Ill have that girl yet Ill show that cowpuncher Aint I her employer her boss Ill show her—and Delaney too It would be easy enough—and then Delaney can have her—if he wants her—after me
An evil light flashing from under his scowl spread over his face The male instincts of possession unreasoned treacherous oblique came twisting to the surface All the lower nature of the man ignorant of women racked at one and the same time with enmity and desire roused itself like a hideous and abominable beast And at the same moment Hilma returned to her house humming to herself as she walked her white dress glowing with a shimmer of faint saffron light in the last ray of the afterglow
A little after halfpast seven the first carryall bearing the druggist of Bonneville and his womenfolk arrived in front of the new barn Immediately afterward an express wagon loaded down with a swarming family of SpanishMexicans gorgeous in red and yellow colours followed Billy the stableman and his assistant took charge of the teams unchecking the horses and hitching them to a fence back of the barn Then Caraher the saloonkeeper in derby hat Prince Albert coat pointed yellow shoes and inevitable red necktie drove into the yard on his buckboard the delayed box of lemons under the seat It looked as if the whole array of invited guests was to arrive in one unbroken procession but for a long halfhour nobody else appeared Annixter and Caraher withdrew to the harness room and promptly involved themselves in a wrangle as to the makeup of the famous punch From time to time their voices could be heard uplifted in clamorous argument
Two quarts and a half and a cupful of chartreuse
Rot rot I know better Champagne straight and a dash of brandy
The druggists wife and sister retired to the feed room where a bureau with a swinging mirror had been placed for the convenience of the women The druggist stood awkwardly outside the door of the feed room his coat collar turned up against the draughts that drifted through the barn his face troubled debating anxiously as to the propriety of putting on his gloves The SpanishMexican family a father mother and five children and sisterinlaw sat rigid on the edges of the hired chairs silent constrained their eyes lowered their elbows in at their sides glancing furtively from under their eyebrows at the decorations or watching with intense absorption young Vacca son of one of the division superintendents who wore a checked coat and white thread gloves and who paced up and down the length of the barn frowning very important whittling a wax candle over the floor to make it slippery for dancing
The musicians arrived the City Band of Bonneville—Annixter having managed to offend the leader of the Dirigo Club orchestra at the very last moment to such a point that he had refused his services These members of the City Band repaired at once to their platform in the corner At every instant they laughed uproariously among themselves joshing one of their number a Frenchman whom they called Skeezicks Their hilarity reverberated in a hollow metallic roll among the rafters overhead The druggist observed to young Vacca as he passed by that he thought them pretty fresh just the same
Im busy Im very busy returned the young man continuing on his way still frowning and paring the stump of candle
Two quarts n a half Two quarts n a half
Ah yes in a way thats so and then again in a way it ISNT I know better
All along one side of the barn were a row of stalls fourteen of them clean as yet redolent of new cut wood the sawdust still in the cracks of the flooring Deliberately the druggist went from one to the other pausing contemplatively before each He returned down the line and again took up his position by the door of the feed room nodding his head judicially as if satisfied He decided to put on his gloves
By now it was quite dark Outside between the barn and the ranch houses one could see a group of men on stepladders lighting the festoons of Japanese lanterns In the darkness only their faces appeared here and there high above the ground seen in a haze of red strange grotesque Gradually as the multitude of lanterns were lit the light spread The grass underfoot looked like green excelsior Another group of men invaded the barn itself lighting the lamps and lanterns there Soon the whole place was gleaming with points of light Young Vacca who had disappeared returned with his pockets full of wax candles He resumed his whittling refusing to answer any questions vociferating that he was busy
Outside there was a sound of hoofs and voices More guests had arrived The druggist seized with confusion terrified lest he had put on his gloves too soon thrust his hands into his pockets It was Cutter Magnus Derricks division superintendent who came bringing his wife and her two girl cousins They had come fifteen miles by the trail from the far distant division house on Four of Los Muertos and had ridden on horseback instead of driving Mrs Cutter could be heard declaring that she was nearly dead and felt more like going to bed than dancing The two girl cousins in dresses of dotted Swiss over blue sateen were doing their utmost to pacify her She could be heard protesting from moment to moment One distinguished the phrases straight to my bed back nearly broken in two never wanted to come in the first place The druggist observing Cutter take a pair of gloves from Mrs Cutters reticule drew his hands from his pockets
But abruptly there was an interruption In the musicians corner a scuffle broke out A chair was overturned There was a noise of imprecations mingled with shouts of derision Skeezicks the Frenchman had turned upon the joshers
Ah no he was heard to exclaim at the end of the end it is too much Kind of a bad canary—we will go to see about that Aha let him close up his face before I demolish it with a good stroke of the fist
The men who were lighting the lanterns were obliged to intervene before he could be placated
Hooven and his wife and daughters arrived Minna was carrying little Hilda already asleep in her arms Minna looked very pretty striking even with her black hair pale face very red lips and greenishblue eyes She was dressed in what had been Mrs Hoovens wedding gown a cheap affair of farmers satin Mrs Hooven had pendent earrings of imitation jet in her ears Hooven was wearing an old frock coat of Magnus Derricks the sleeves too long the shoulders absurdly too wide He and Cutter at once entered into an excited conversation as to the ownership of a certain steer
Why the brand——
Ach Gott der brendt Hooven clasped his head ach der brendt dot maks me laugh some laughs Dots goot—der brendt—doand I see um—shoor der boole mit der bleck star bei der vorehead in der middle oaf Any someones you esk tell you dot is mein boole You esk any someones Der brendt To hell mit der brendt You aindt got some memorie aboudt does ting I guess nodt
Please step aside gentlemen said young Vacca who was still making the rounds of the floor
Hooven whirled about Eh What den he exclaimed still excited willing to be angry at any one for the moment Doand you push soh you I tink berhapz you doand OWN dose barn hey
Im busy Im very busy The young man pushed by with grave preoccupation
Two quarts n a half Two quarts n a half
I know better Thats all rot
But the barn was filling up rapidly At every moment there was a rattle of a newly arrived vehicle from outside Guest after guest appeared in the doorway singly or in couples or in families or in garrulous parties of five and six Now it was Phelps and his mother from Los Muertos now a foreman from Brodersons with his family now a gayly apparelled clerk from a Bonneville store solitary and bewildered looking for a place to put his hat now a couple of SpanishMexican girls from Guadalajara with coquettish effects of black and yellow about their dress now a group of Ostermans tenants Portuguese swarthy with plastered hair and curled mustaches redolent of cheap perfumes Sarria arrived his smooth shiny face glistening with perspiration He wore a new cassock and carried his broadbrimmed hat under his arm His appearance made quite a stir He passed from group to group urbane affable shaking hands right and left he assumed a set smile of amiability which never left his face the whole evening
But abruptly there was a veritable sensation From out the little crowd that persistently huddled about the doorway came Osterman He wore a dresssuit with a white waistcoat and patent leather pumps—what a wonder A little qualm of excitement spread around the barn One exchanged nudges of the elbow with ones neighbour whispering earnestly behind the hand What astonishing clothes Catch on to the coattails It was a masquerade costume maybe that goat Osterman was such a josher one never could tell what he would do next
The musicians began to tune up From their corner came a medley of mellow sounds the subdued chirps of the violins the dull bourdon of the bass viol the liquid gurgling of the flageolet and the deeptoned snarl of the big horn with now and then a rasping stridulating of the snare drum A sense of gayety began to spread throughout the assembly At every moment the crowd increased The aroma of newsawn timber and sawdust began to be mingled with the feminine odour of sachet and flowers There was a babel of talk in the air—male baritone and soprano chatter—varied by an occasional note of laughter and the swish of stiffly starched petticoats On the row of chairs that went around three sides of the wall groups began to settle themselves For a long time the guests huddled close to the doorway the lower end of the floor was crowded the upper end deserted but by degrees the lines of white muslin and pink and blue sateen extended dotted with the darker figures of men in black suits The conversation grew louder as the timidity of the early moments wore off Groups at a distance called back and forth conversations were carried on at top voice Once even a whole party hurried across the floor from one side of the barn to the other
Annixter emerged from the harness room his face red with wrangling He took a position to the right of the door shaking hands with newcomers inviting them over and over again to cut loose and whoop it along Into the ears of his more intimate male acquaintances he dropped a word as to punch and cigars in the harness room later on winking with vast intelligence Ranchers from remoter parts of the country appeared Garnett from the Ruby rancho Keast from the ranch of the same name Gethings of the San Pablo Chattern of the Bonanza and others and still others a score of them—elderly men for the most part bearded slow of speech deliberate dressed in broadcloth Old Broderson who entered with his wife on his arm fell in with this type and with them came a certain Dabney of whom nothing but his name was known a silent old man who made no friends whom nobody knew or spoke to who was seen only upon such occasions as this coming from no one knew where going no one cared to inquire whither
Between eight and halfpast Magnus Derrick and his family were seen Magnuss entry caused no little impression Some said Theres the Governor and called their companions attention to the thin erect figure commanding imposing dominating all in his immediate neighbourhood Harran came with him wearing a cutaway suit of black He was undeniably handsome young and fresh looking his cheeks highly coloured quite the finest looking of all the younger men blond strong with that certain courtliness of manner that had always made him liked He took his mother upon his arm and conducted her to a seat by the side of Mrs Broderson
Annie Derrick was very pretty that evening She was dressed in a grey silk gown with a collar of pink velvet Her light brown hair that yet retained so much of its brightness was transfixed by a high shell comb very Spanish But the look of uneasiness in her large eyes—the eyes of a young girl—was deepening every day The expression of innocence and inquiry which they so easily assumed was disturbed by a faint suggestion of aversion almost of terror She settled herself in her place in the corner of the hall in the rear rank of chairs a little frightened by the glare of lights the hum of talk and the shifting crowd glad to be out of the way to attract no attention willing to obliterate herself
All at once Annixter who had just shaken hands with Dyke his mother and the little tad moved abruptly in his place drawing in his breath sharply The crowd around the great wideopen main door of the barn had somewhat thinned out and in the few groups that still remained there he had suddenly recognised Mr and Mrs Tree and Hilma making their way towards some empty seats near the entrance of the feed room
In the dusky light of the barn earlier in the evening Annixter had not been able to see Hilma plainly Now however as she passed before his eyes in the glittering radiance of the lamps and lanterns he caught his breath in astonishment Never had she appeared more beautiful in his eyes It did not seem possible that this was the same girl whom he saw every day in and around the ranch house and dairy the girl of simple calico frocks and plain shirt waists who brought him his dinner who made up his bed Now he could not take his eyes from her Hilma for the first time was wearing her hair done high upon her head The thick sweetsmelling masses bitumen brown in the shadows corruscated like golden filaments in the light Her organdie frock was long longer than any she had yet worn It left a little of her neck and breast bare and all of her arm
Annixter muttered an exclamation Such arms How did she manage to keep them hid on ordinary occasions Big at the shoulder tapering with delicious modulations to the elbow and wrist overlaid with a delicate gleaming lustre As often as she turned her head the movement sent a slow undulation over her neck and shoulders the pale ambertinted shadows under her chin coming and going over the creamy whiteness of the skin like the changing moire of silk The pretty rose colour of her cheek had deepened to a pale carnation Annixter his hands clasped behind him stood watching
In a few moments Hilma was surrounded by a group of young men clamouring for dances They came from all corners of the barn leaving the other girls precipitately almost rudely There could be little doubt as to who was to be the belle of the occasion Hilmas little triumph was immediate complete Annixter could hear her voice from time to time its usual velvety huskiness vibrating to a note of exuberant gayety
All at once the orchestra swung off into a march—the Grand March There was a great rush to secure partners Young Vacca still going the rounds was pushed to one side The gayly apparelled clerk from the Bonneville store lost his head in the confusion He could not find his partner He roamed wildly about the barn bewildered his eyes rolling He resolved to prepare an elaborate programme card on the back of an old envelope Rapidly the line was formed Hilma and Harran Derrick in the lead Annixter having obstinately refused to engage in either march set or dance the whole evening Soon the confused shuffling of feet settled to a measured cadence the orchestra blared and wailed the snare drum rolling at exact intervals the cornet marking the time It was halfpast eight oclock
Annixter drew a long breath
Good he muttered the thing is under way at last
Singularly enough Osterman also refused to dance The week before he had returned from Los Angeles bursting with the importance of his mission He had been successful He had Disbrow in his pocket He was impatient to pose before the others of the committee as a skilful political agent a manipulator He forgot his attitude of the early part of the evening when he had drawn attention to himself with his wonderful clothes Now his comic actors face with its brownishred cheeks protuberant ears and horizontal slit of a mouth was overcast with gravity His bald forehead was seamed with the wrinkles of responsibility He drew Annixter into one of the empty stalls and began an elaborate explanation glib voluble interminable going over again in detail what he had reported to the committee in outline
I managed—I schemed—I kept dark—I lay low——
But Annixter refused to listen
Oh rot your schemes Theres a punch in the harness room that will make the hair grow on the top of your head in the place where the hair ought to grow Come on well round up some of the boys and walk into it
They edged their way around the hall outside The Grand March toward the harness room picking up on their way Caraher Dyke Hooven and old Broderson Once in the harness room Annixter shot the bolt
That affair outside he observed will take care of itself but heres a little orphan child that gets lonesome without company
Annixter began ladling the punch filling the glasses
Osterman proposed a toast to Quien Sabe and the Biggest Barn Their elbows crooked in silence Old Broderson set down his glass wiping his long beard and remarking
That—that certainly is very—very agreeable I remember a punch I drank on Christmas day in 83 or no it was 84—anyhow that punch—it was in Ukiah—TWAS 83— He wandered on aimlessly unable to stop his flow of speech losing himself in details involving his talk in a hopeless maze of trivialities to which nobody paid any attention
I dont drink myself observed Dyke but just a taste of that with a lot of water wouldnt be bad for the little tad Shed think it was lemonade He was about to mix a glass for Sidney but thought better of it at the last moment
Its the chartreuse thats lacking commented Caraher lowering at Annixter The other flared up on the instant
Rot rot I know better In some punches it goes and then again in others it dont
But it was left to Hooven to launch the successful phrase
Gesundheit he exclaimed holding out his second glass After drinking he replaced it on the table with a long breath Ach Gott he cried dat poonsch say I tink dot poonsch mek some demn goot vertilizer hey
Fertiliser The others roared with laughter
Good eye Bismarck commented Annixter The name had a great success Thereafter throughout the evening the punch was invariably spoken of as the Fertiliser Osterman having spilt the bottom of a glassful on the floor pretended that he saw shoots of grain coming up on the spot Suddenly he turned upon old Broderson Im bald aint I Want to know how I lost my hair Promise you wont ask a single other question and Ill tell you Promise your word of honour
Eh What—wh—I—I dont understand Your hair Yes Ill promise How did you lose it
It was bit off
The other gazed at him stupefied his jaw dropped The company shouted and old Broderson believing he had somehow accomplished a witticism chuckled in his beard wagging his head But suddenly he fell grave struck with an idea He demanded
Yes—I know—but—but what bit it off
Ah vociferated Osterman thats JUST what you promised not to ask
The company doubled up with hilarity Caraher leaned against the door holding his sides but Hooven all abroad unable to follow gazed from face to face with a vacant grin thinking it was still a question of his famous phrase
Vertilizer hey Dots some fine joke hey You bedt
What with the noise of their talk and laughter it was some time before Dyke first of all heard a persistent knocking on the bolted door He called Annixters attention to the sound Cursing the intruder Annixter unbolted and opened the door But at once his manner changed
Hello Its Presley Come in come in Pres
There was a shout of welcome from the others A spirit of effusive cordiality had begun to dominate the gathering Annixter caught sight of Vanamee back of Presley and waiving for the moment the distinction of employer and employee insisted that both the friends should come in
Any friend of Pres is my friend he declared
But when the two had entered and had exchanged greetings Presley drew Annixter aside
Vanamee and I have just come from Bonneville he explained We saw Delaney there Hes got the buckskin and hes full of bad whiskey and dagored You should see him hes wearing all his cowpunching outfit hair trousers sombrero spurs and all the rest of it and he has strapped himself to a big revolver He says he wasnt invited to your barn dance but that hes coming over to shoot up the place He says you promised to show him off Quien Sabe at the toe of your boot and that hes going to give you the chance tonight Ah commented Annixter nodding his head he is is he
Presley was disappointed Knowing Annixters irascibility he had expected to produce a more dramatic effect He began to explain the danger of the business Delaney had once knifed a greaser in the Panamint country He was known as a bad man But Annixter refused to be drawn
All right he said thats all right Dont tell anybody else You might scare the girls off Get in and drink
Outside the dancing was by this time in full swing The orchestra was playing a polka Young Vacca now at his fiftieth wax candle had brought the floor to the slippery surface of glass The druggist was dancing with one of the SpanishMexican girls with the solemnity of an automaton turning about and about always in the same direction his eyes glassy his teeth set Hilma Tree was dancing for the second time with Harran Derrick She danced with infinite grace Her cheeks were bright red her eyes halfclosed and through her parted lips she drew from time to time a long tremulous breath of pure delight The music the weaving colours the heat of the air by now a little oppressive the monotony of repeated sensation even the pain of physical fatigue had exalted all her senses She was in a dreamy lethargy of happiness It was her first ball She could have danced without stopping until morning Minna Hooven and Cutter were promenading Mrs Hooven with little Hilda already asleep on her knees never took her eyes from her daughters gown As often as Minna passed near her she vented an energetic pst pst The metal tip of a white draw string was showing from underneath the waist of Minnas dress Mrs Hooven was on the point of tears
The solitary gayly apparelled clerk from Bonneville was in a fever of agitation He had lost his elaborate programme card Bewildered beside himself with trepidation he hurried about the room jostled by the dancing couples tripping over the feet of those who were seated he peered distressfully under the chairs and about the floor asking anxious questions
Magnus Derrick the centre of a listening circle of ranchers—Garnett from the Ruby rancho Keast from the ranch of the same name Gethings and Chattern of the San Pablo and Bonanza—stood near the great open doorway of the barn discussing the possibility of a shortage in the worlds wheat crop for the next year
Abruptly the orchestra ceased playing with a roll of the snare drum a flourish of the cornet and a prolonged growl of the bass viol The dance broke up the couples hurrying to their seats leaving the gayly apparelled clerk suddenly isolated in the middle of the floor rolling his eyes The druggist released the SpanishMexican girl with mechanical precision out amidst the crowd of dancers He bowed dropping his chin upon his cravat throughout the dance neither had hazarded a word The girl found her way alone to a chair but the druggist sick from continually revolving in the same direction walked unsteadily toward the wall All at once the barn reeled around him he fell down There was a great laugh but he scrambled to his feet and disappeared abruptly out into the night through the doorway of the barn deathly pale his hand upon his stomach
Dabney the old man whom nobody knew approached the group of ranchers around Magnus Derrick and stood a little removed listening gravely to what the governor was saying his chin sunk in his collar silent offering no opinions
But the leader of the orchestra with a great gesture of his violin bow cried out
All take partners for the lancers and promenade around the hall
However there was a delay A little crowd formed around the musicians platform voices were raised there was a commotion Skeezicks who played the big horn accused the cornet and the snaredrum of stealing his cold lunch At intervals he could be heard expostulating
Ah no at the end of the end Render me the sausages you or less I break your throat Aha I know you You are going to play me there a bad farce My sausages and the pork sandwich else I go away from this place
He made an exaggerated show of replacing his big horn in its case but the bystanders raised a great protest The sandwiches and one sausage were produced the other had disappeared In the end Skeezichs allowed himself to be appeased The dance was resumed
Half an hour later the gathering in the harness room was considerably reinforced It was the corner of the barn toward which the male guests naturally gravitated Harran Derrick who only cared to dance with Hilma Tree was admitted Garnett from the Ruby rancho and Gethings from the San Pablo came in a little afterwards A fourth bowl of punch was mixed Annixter and Caraher clamouring into each others face as to its ingredients Cigars were lighted Soon the air of the room became blue with an acrid haze of smoke It was very warm Ranged in their chairs around the side of the room the guests emptied glass after glass
Vanamee alone refused to drink He sat a little to one side disassociating himself from what was going forward watching the others calmly a little contemptuously a cigarette in his fingers
Hooven after drinking his third glass however was afflicted with a great sadness his breast heaved with immense sighs He asserted that he was obbressed Cutter had taken his steer He retired to a corner and seated himself in a heap on his chair his heels on the rungs wiping the tears from his eyes refusing to be comforted Old Broderson startled Annixter who sat next to him out of all measure by suddenly winking at him with infinite craftiness
When I was a lad in Ukiah he whispered hoarsely I was a devil of a fellow with the girls but Lordy he nudged him slyly I wouldnt have it known
Of those who were drinking Annixter alone retained all his wits Though keeping pace with the others glass for glass the punch left him solid upon his feet clearheaded The tough crossgrained fibre of him seemed proof against alcohol Never in his life had he been drunk He prided himself upon his power of resistance It was his nature
Say exclaimed old Broderson gravely addressing the company pulling at his beard uneasily—say I—I—listen Im a devil of a fellow with the girls He wagged his head doggedly shutting his eyes in a knowing fashion Yes sir I am There was a young lady in Ukiah—that was when I was a lad of seventeen We used to meet in the cemetery in the afternoons I was to go away to school at Sacramento and the afternoon I left we met in the cemetery and we stayed so long I almost missed the train Her name was Celestine
There was a pause The others waited for the rest of the story
And afterwards prompted Annixter
Afterwards Nothing afterwards I never saw her again Her name was Celestine
The company raised a chorus of derision and Osterman cried ironically
Say THATS a pretty good one Tell us another
The old man laughed with the rest believing he had made another hit He called Osterman to him whispering in his ear
Sh Look here Some night you and I will go up to San Francisco—hey Well go skylarking Well be gay Oh Im a—a—a rare old BUCK I am I aint too old Youll see
Annixter gave over the making of the fifth bowl of punch to Osterman who affirmed that he had a recipe for a fertiliser from Solotari that would take the plating off the ladle He left him wrangling with Caraher who still persisted in adding chartreuse and stepped out into the dance to see how things were getting on
It was the interval between two dances In and around a stall at the farther end of the floor where lemonade was being served was a great throng of young men Others hurried across the floor singly or by twos and threes gingerly carrying overflowing glasses to their partners sitting in long rows of white and blue and pink against the opposite wall their mothers and older sisters in a second darkclothed rank behind them A babel of talk was in the air mingled with gusts of laughter Everybody seemed having a good time In the increasing heat the decorations of evergreen trees and festoons threw off a pungent aroma that suggested a Sundayschool Christmas festival In the other stalls lower down the barn the young men had brought chairs and in these deep recesses the most desperate lovemaking was in progress the young man his hair neatly parted leaning with great solicitation over the girl his partner for the moment fanning her conscientiously his arm carefully laid along the back of her chair
By the doorway Annixter met Sarria who had stepped out to smoke a fat black cigar The set smile of amiability was still fixed on the priests smooth shiny face the cigar ashes had left grey streaks on the front of his cassock He avoided Annixter fearing no doubt an allusion to his game cocks and took up his position back of the second rank of chairs by the musicians stand beaming encouragingly upon every one who caught his eye
Annixter was saluted right and left as he slowly went the round of the floor At every moment he had to pause to shake hands and to listen to congratulations upon the size of his barn and the success of his dance But he was distrait his thoughts elsewhere he did not attempt to hide his impatience when some of the young men tried to engage him in conversation asking him to be introduced to their sisters or their friends sisters He sent them about their business harshly abominably rude leaving a wake of angry disturbance behind him sowing the seeds of future quarrels and renewed unpopularity He was looking for Hilma Tree
When at last he came unexpectedly upon her standing near where Mrs Tree was seated some halfdozen young men hovering uneasily in her neighbourhood all his audacity was suddenly stricken from him his gruffness his overbearing insolence vanished with an abruptness that left him cold His oldtime confusion and embarrassment returned to him Instead of speaking to her as he intended he affected not to see her but passed by his head in the air pretending a sudden interest in a Japanese lantern that was about to catch fire
But he had had a single distinct glimpse of her definite precise and this glimpse was enough Hilma had changed The change was subtle evanescent hard to define but not the less unmistakable The excitement the enchanting delight the delicious disturbance of the first ball had produced its result Perhaps there had only been this lacking It was hard to say but for that brief instant of time Annixter was looking at Hilma the woman She was no longer the young girl upon whom he might look down to whom he might condescend whose little infantile graces were to be considered with amused toleration
When Annixter returned to the harness room he let himself into a clamour of masculine hilarity Osterman had indeed made a marvellous fertiliser whiskey for the most part diluted with champagne and lemon juice The first round of this drink had been welcomed with a salvo of cheers Hooven recovering his spirits under its violent stimulation spoke of heving ut oudt mit Cudder bei Gott while Osterman standing on a chair at the end of the room shouted for a few moments quiet gentlemen so that he might tell a certain story he knew But abruptly Annixter discovered that the liquors—the champagne whiskey brandy and the like—were running low This would never do He felt that he would stand disgraced if it could be said afterward that he had not provided sufficient drink at his entertainment He slipped out unobserved and finding two of his ranch hands near the doorway sent them down to the ranch house to bring up all the cases of stuff they found there
However when this matter had been attended to Annixter did not immediately return to the harness room On the floor of the barn a square dance was under way the leader of the City Band calling the figures Young Vacca indefatigably continued the rounds of the barn paring candle after candle possessed with this single idea of duty pushing the dancers out of his way refusing to admit that the floor was yet sufficiently slippery The druggist had returned indoors and leaned dejected and melancholy against the wall near the doorway unable to dance his evenings enjoyment spoiled The gayly apparelled clerk from Bonneville had just involved himself in a deplorable incident In a search for his handkerchief which he had lost while trying to find his programme card he had inadvertently wandered into the feed room set apart as the ladies dressing room at the moment when Mrs Hooven having removed the waist of Minnas dress was relacing her corsets There was a tremendous scene The clerk was ejected forcibly Mrs Hooven filling all the neighbourhood with shrill expostulation A young man Minnas partner who stood near the feed room door waiting for her to come out had invited the clerk with elaborate sarcasm to step outside for a moment and the clerk breathless stupefied hustled from hand to hand remained petrified with staring eyes turning about and about looking wildly from face to face speechless witless wondering what had happened
But the square dance was over The City Band was just beginning to play a waltz Annixter assuring himself that everything was going all right was picking his way across the floor when he came upon Hilma Tree quite alone and looking anxiously among the crowd of dancers
Having a good time Miss Hilma he demanded pausing for a moment
Oh am I JUST she exclaimed The best time—but I dont know what has become of my partner See Im left all alone—the only time this whole evening she added proudly Have you seen him—my partner sir I forget his name I only met him this evening and Ive met SO many I cant begin to remember half of them He was a young man from Bonneville—a clerk I think because I remember seeing him in a store there and he wore the prettiest clothes
I guess he got lost in the shuffle observed Annixter Suddenly an idea occurred to him He took his resolution in both hands He clenched his teeth
Say look here Miss Hilma Whats the matter with you and I stealing this one for ourselves I dont mean to dance I dont propose to make a jumpingjack of myself for some galoot to give me the laugh but well walk around Will you What do you say
Hilma consented
Im not so VERY sorry I missed my dance with that—that—little clerk she said guiltily I suppose thats very bad of me isnt it
Annixter fulminated a vigorous protest
I AM so warm murmured Hilma fanning herself with her handkerchief and oh SUCH a good time as I have had I was so afraid that I would be a wallflower and sit up by mamma and papa the whole evening and as it is I have had every single dance and even some dances I had to split Ohh she breathed glancing lovingly around the barn noting again the festoons of tricoloured cambric the Japanese lanterns flaring lamps and decorations of evergreen ohh its all so lovely just like a fairy story and to think that it cant last but for one little evening and that tomorrow morning one must wake up to the everyday things again
Well observed Annixter doggedly unwilling that she should forget whom she ought to thank I did my best and my best is as good as another mans I guess
Hilma overwhelmed him with a burst of gratitude which he gruffly pretended to deprecate Oh that was all right It hadnt cost him much He liked to see people having a good time himself and the crowd did seem to be enjoying themselves What did SHE think Did things look lively enough And how about herself—was she enjoying it
Stupidly Annixter drove the question home again at his wits end as to how to make conversation Hilma protested volubly she would never forget this night adding
Dance Oh you dont know how I love it I didnt know myself I could dance all night and never stop once
Annixter was smitten with uneasiness No doubt this promenading was not at all to her taste Wondering what kind of a spectacle he was about to make of himself he exclaimed
Want to dance now
Oh yes she returned
They paused in their walk and Hilma facing him gave herself into his arms Annixter shut his teeth the perspiration starting from his forehead For five years he had abandoned dancing Never in his best days had it been one of his accomplishments
They hesitated a moment waiting to catch the time from the musicians Another couple bore down upon them at precisely the wrong moment jostling them out of step Annixter swore under his breath His arm still about the young woman he pulled her over to one corner
Now he muttered well try again
A second time listening to the onetwothree onetwothree cadence of the musicians they endeavoured to get under way Annixter waited the fraction of a second too long and stepped on Hilmas foot On the third attempt having worked out of the corner a pair of dancers bumped into them once more and as they were recovering themselves another couple caromed violently against Annixter so that he all but lost his footing He was in a rage Hilma very embarrassed was trying not to laugh and thus they found themselves out in the middle of the floor continually jostled from their position holding clumsily to each other stammering excuses into one anothers faces when Delaney arrived
He came with the suddenness of an explosion There was a commotion by the doorway a rolling burst of oaths a furious stamping of hoofs a wild scramble of the dancers to either side of the room and there he was He had ridden the buckskin at a gallop straight through the doorway and out into the middle of the floor of the barn
Once well inside Delaney hauled up on the cruel spadebit at the same time driving home the spurs and the buckskin without halting in her gait rose into the air upon her hind feet and coming down again with a thunder of iron hoofs upon the hollow floor lashed out with both heels simultaneously her back arched her head between her knees It was the running buck and had not Delaney been the hardest buster in the county would have flung him headlong like a sack of sand But he eased off the bit gripping the mares flanks with his knees and the buckskin having long since known her master came to hand quivering the bloody spume dripping from the bit upon the slippery floor
Delaney had arrayed himself with painful elaboration determined to look the part bent upon creating the impression resolved that his appearance at least should justify his reputation of being bad Nothing was lacking—neither the campaign hat with upturned brim nor the dotted blue handkerchief knotted behind the neck nor the heavy gauntlets stitched with red nor—this above all—the bearskin chaparejos the hair trousers of the mountain cowboy the pistol holster low on the thigh But for the moment this holster was empty and in his right hand the hammer at full cock the chamber loaded the puncher flourished his teaser an army Colts the lamplight dully reflected in the dark blue steel
In a second of time the dance was a bedlam The musicians stopped with a discord and the middle of the crowded floor bared itself instantly It was like sand blown from off a rock the throng of guests carried by an impulse that was not to be resisted bore back against the sides of the barn overturning chairs tripping upon each other falling down scrambling to their feet again stepping over one another getting behind each other diving under chairs flattening themselves against the wall—a wild clamouring pellmell blind deaf panicstricken a confused tangle of waving arms torn muslin crushed flowers pale faces tangled legs that swept in all directions back from the centre of the floor leaving Annixter and Hilma alone deserted their arms about each other face to face with Delaney mad with alcohol bursting with remembered insult bent on evil reckless of results
After the first scramble for safety the crowd fell quiet for the fraction of an instant glued to the walls afraid to stir struck dumb and motionless with surprise and terror and in the instants silence that followed Annixter his eyes on Delaney muttered rapidly to Hilma
Get back get away to one side The fool MIGHT shoot
There was a seconds respite afforded while Delaney occupied himself in quieting the buckskin and in that second of time at this moment of crisis the wonderful thing occurred Hilma turning from Delaney her hands clasped on Annixters arm her eyes meeting his exclaimed
You too
And that was all but to Annixter it was a revelation Never more alive to his surroundings never more observant he suddenly understood For the briefest lapse of time he and Hilma looked deep into each others eyes and from that moment on Annixter knew that Hilma cared
The whole matter was brief as the snapping of a finger Two words and a glance and all was done But as though nothing had occurred Annixter pushed Hilma from him repeating harshly
Get back I tell you Dont you see hes got a gun Havent I enough on my hands without you
He loosed her clasp and his eyes once more on Delaney moved diagonally backwards toward the side of the barn pushing Hilma from him In the end he thrust her away so sharply that she gave back with a long stagger somebody caught her arm and drew her in leaving Annixter alone once more in the middle of the floor his hands in his coat pockets watchful alert facing his enemy
But the cowpuncher was not ready to come to grapples yet Fearless his wits gambolling under the lash of the alcohol he wished to make the most of the occasion maintaining the suspense playing for the gallery By touches of the hand and knee he kept the buckskin in continual nervous movement her hoofs clattering snorting tossing her head while he himself addressing himself to Annixter poured out a torrent of invective
Well strike me blind if it aint old Buck Annixter He was going to show me off Quien Sabe at the toe of his boot was he Well heres your chance—with the ladies to see you do it Gives a dance does he highfalutin hoedown in his barn and forgets to invite his old bronchobustin friend But his friend dont forget him no he dont He remembers little things does his bronchobustin friend Likes to see a dance hisself on occasion his friend does Comes anyhow trustin his welcome will be hearty just to see old Buck Annixter dance just to show Buck Annixters friends how Buck can dance—dance all by hisself a little henonahotplate dance when his bronchobustin friend asks him so polite A little dance for the ladies Buck This feature of the entertainment is alone worth the price of admission Tune up Buck Attention now Ill give you the key
He fanned his revolver spinning it about his index finger by the triggerguard with incredible swiftness the twirling weapon a mere blur of blue steel in his hand Suddenly and without any apparent cessation of the movement he fired and a little splinter of wood flipped into the air at Annixters feet
Time he shouted while the buckskin reared to the report Hold on—wait a minute This place is too light to suit That big light yonder is in my eyes Look out Im going to throw lead
A second shot put out the lamp over the musicians stand The assembled guests shrieked a frantic shrinking quiver ran through the crowd like the huddling of frightened rabbits in their pen
Annixter hardly moved He stood some thirty paces from the buster his hands still in his coat pockets his eyes glistening watchful Excitable and turbulent in trifling matters when actual bodily danger threatened he was of an abnormal quiet
Im watching you cried the other Dont make any mistake about that Keep your hands in your COAT pockets if youd like to live a little longer understand And dont let me see you make a move toward your hip or your friends will be asked to identify you at the morgue tomorrow morning When Im bad Im called the Undertakers Friend so I am and Im that bad tonight that Im scared of myself Theyll have to revise the census returns before Im done with this place Come on now Im getting tired waiting I come to see a dance
Hand over that horse Delaney said Annixter without raising his voice and clear out
The other affected to be overwhelmed with infinite astonishment his eyes staring He peered down from the saddle
Whaat he exclaimed whaat did you say Why I guess you must be looking for trouble thats what I guess
Theres where youre wrong mson muttered Annixter partly to Delaney partly to himself If I was looking for trouble there wouldnt be any guesswork about it
With the words he began firing Delaney had hardly entered the barn before Annixters plan had been formed Long since his revolver was in the pocket of his coat and he fired now through the coat itself without withdrawing his hands
Until that moment Annixter had not been sure of himself There was no doubt that for the first few moments of the affair he would have welcomed with joy any reasonable excuse for getting out of the situation But the sound of his own revolver gave him confidence He whipped it from his pocket and fired again
Abruptly the duel began report following report spurts of pale blue smoke jetting like the darts of short spears between the two men expanding to a haze and drifting overhead in wavering strata It was quite probable that no thought of killing each other suggested itself to either Annixter or Delaney Both fired without aiming very deliberately To empty their revolvers and avoid being hit was the desire common to both They no longer vituperated each other The revolvers spoke for them
Long after Annixter could recall this moment For years he could with but little effort reconstruct the scene—the densely packed crowd flattened against the sides of the barn the festoons of lanterns the mingled smell of evergreens new wood sachets and powder smoke the vague clamour of distress and terror that rose from the throng of guests the squealing of the buckskin the uneven explosions of the revolvers the reverberation of trampling hoofs a brief glimpse of Harran Derricks excited face at the door of the harness room and in the open space in the centre of the floor himself and Delaney manoeuvring swiftly in a cloud of smoke
Annixters revolver contained but six cartridges Already it seemed to him as if he had fired twenty times Without doubt the next shot was his last Then what He peered through the blue haze that with every discharge thickened between him and the buster For his own safety he must place at least one shot Delaneys chest and shoulders rose suddenly above the smoke close upon him as the distraught buckskin reared again Annixter for the first time during the fight took definite aim but before he could draw the trigger there was a great shout and he was aware of the buckskin the bridle trailing the saddle empty plunging headlong across the floor crashing into the line of chairs Delaney was scrambling off the floor There was blood on the busters wrist and he no longer carried his revolver Suddenly he turned and ran The crowd parted right and left before him as he made toward the doorway He disappeared
Twenty men promptly sprang to the buckskins head but she broke away and wild with terror bewildered blind insensate charged into the corner of the barn by the musicians stand She brought up against the wall with cruel force and with impact of a sack of stones her head was cut She turned and charged again bulllike the blood streaming from her forehead The crowd shrieking melted before her rush An old man was thrown down and trampled The buckskin trod upon the dragging bridle somersaulted into a confusion of chairs in one corner and came down with a terrific clatter in a wild disorder of kicking hoofs and splintered wood But a crowd of men fell upon her tugging at the bit sitting on her head shouting gesticulating For five minutes she struggled and fought then by degrees she recovered herself drawing great sobbing breaths at long intervals that all but burst the girths rolling her eyes in bewildered supplicating fashion trembling in every muscle and starting and shrinking now and then like a young girl in hysterics At last she lay quiet The men allowed her to struggle to her feet The saddle was removed and she was led to one of the empty stalls where she remained the rest of the evening her head low her pasterns quivering turning her head apprehensively from time to time showing the white of one eye and at long intervals heaving a single prolonged sigh
And an hour later the dance was progressing as evenly as though nothing in the least extraordinary had occurred The incident was closed—that abrupt swoop of terror and impending death dropping down there from out the darkness cutting abruptly athwart the gayety of the moment come and gone with the swiftness of a thunderclap Many of the women had gone home taking their men with them but the great bulk of the crowd still remained seeing no reason why the episode should interfere with the evenings enjoyment resolved to hold the ground for mere bravado if for nothing else Delaney would not come back of that everybody was persuaded and in case he should there was not found wanting fully half a hundred young men who would give him a dressing down by jingo They had been too surprised to act when Delaney had first appeared and before they knew where they were at the buster had cleared out In another minute just another second they would have shown him—yes sir by jingo—ah you bet
On all sides the reminiscences began to circulate At least one man in every three had been involved in a gun fight at some time of his life Ah you ought to have seen in Yuba County one time— Why in Butte County in the early days— Pshaw this tonight wasnt anything Why once in a saloon in Arizona when I was there— and so on over and over again Osterman solemnly asserted that he had seen a greaser sawn in two in a Nevada sawmill Old Broderson had witnessed a Vigilante lynching in 55 on California Street in San Francisco Dyke recalled how once in his engineering days he had run over a drunk at a street crossing Gethings of the San Pablo had taken a shot at a highwayman Hooven had bayonetted a French Chasseur at Sedan An old SpanishMexican a centenarian from Guadalajara remembered Fremonts stand on a mountain top in San Benito County The druggist had fired at a burglar trying to break into his store one New Years eve Young Vacca had seen a dog shot in Guadalajara Father Sarria had more than once administered the sacraments to Portuguese desperadoes dying of gunshot wounds Even the women recalled terrible scenes Mrs Cutter recounted to an interested group how she had seen a claim jumped in Placer County in 1851 when three men were shot falling in a fusillade of rifle shots and expiring later upon the floor of her kitchen while she looked on Mrs Dyke had been in a stage holdup when the shotgun messenger was murdered Stories by the hundreds went the round of the company The air was surcharged with blood dying groans the reek of powder smoke the crack of rifles All the legends of 49 the violent wild life of the early days were recalled to view defiling before them there in an endless procession under the glare of paper lanterns and kerosene lamps
But the affair had aroused a combative spirit amongst the men of the assembly Instantly a spirit of aggression of truculence swelled up underneath waistcoats and starched shirt bosoms More than one offender was promptly asked to step outside It was like young bucks excited by an encounter of stags lowering their horns upon the slightest provocation showing off before the does and fawns Old quarrels were remembered One sought laboriously for slights and insults veiled in ordinary conversation The sense of personal honour became refined to a delicate fine point Upon the slightest pretext there was a haughty drawing up of the figure a twisting of the lips into a smile of scorn Caraher spoke of shooting S Behrman on sight before the end of the week Twice it became necessary to separate Hooven and Cutter renewing their quarrel as to the ownership of the steer All at once Minna Hoovens partner fell upon the gayly apparelled clerk from Bonneville pummelling him with his fists hustling him out of the hall vociferating that Miss Hooven had been grossly insulted It took three men to extricate the clerk from his clutches dazed gasping his collar unfastened and sticking up into his face his eyes staring wildly into the faces of the crowd
But Annixter bursting with pride his chest thrown out his chin in the air reigned enthroned in a circle of adulation He was the Hero To shake him by the hand was an honour to be struggled for One clapped him on the back with solemn nods of approval Theres the BOY for you There was nerve for you Whats the matter with Annixter How about THAT for sand and how was THAT for a SHOT Why Apache Kid couldnt have bettered that Cool enough Took a steady eye and a sure hand to make a shot like that There was a shot that would be told about in Tulare County fifty years to come
Annixter had refrained from replying all ears to this conversation wondering just what had happened He knew only that Delaney had run leaving his revolver and a spatter of blood behind him By degrees however he ascertained that his last shot but one had struck Delaneys pistol hand shattering it and knocking the revolver from his grip He was overwhelmed with astonishment Why after the shooting began he had not so much as seen Delaney with any degree of plainness The whole affair was a whirl
Well where did YOU learn to shoot THAT way some one in the crowd demanded Annixter moved his shoulders with a gesture of vast unconcern
Oh he observed carelessly its not my SHOOTING that ever worried ME mson
The crowd gaped with delight There was a great wagging of heads
Well I guess not
No sir not much
Ah no you bet not
When the women pressed around him shaking his hands declaring that he had saved their daughters lives Annixter assumed a pose of superb deprecation the modest selfobliteration of the chevalier He delivered himself of a remembered phrase very elegant refined It was Lancelot after the tournament Bayard receiving felicitations after the battle
Oh dont say anything about it he murmured I only did what any man would have done in my place
To restore completely the equanimity of the company he announced supper This he had calculated as a tremendous surprise It was to have been served at midnight but the irruption of Delaney had dislocated the order of events and the tables were brought in an hour ahead of time They were arranged around three sides of the barn and were loaded down with cold roasts of beef cold chickens and cold ducks mountains of sandwiches pitchers of milk and lemonade entire cheeses bowls of olives plates of oranges and nuts The advent of this supper was received with a volley of applause The musicians played a quick step The company threw themselves upon the food with a great scraping of chairs and a vast rustle of muslins tarletans and organdies soon the clatter of dishes was a veritable uproar The tables were taken by assault One ate whatever was nearest at hand some even beginning with oranges and nuts and ending with beef and chicken At the end the paper caps were brought on together with the ice cream All up and down the tables the pulled crackers snapped continually like the discharge of innumerable tiny rifles
The caps of tissue paper were put on—Phrygian Bonnets Magicians Caps Liberty Caps the young girls looked across the table at their visavis with bursts of laughter and vigorous clapping of the hands
The harness room crowd had a table to themselves at the head of which sat Annixter and at the foot Harran The gun fight had sobered Presley thoroughly He sat by the side of Vanamee who ate but little preferring rather to watch the scene with calm observation a little contemptuous when the uproar around the table was too boisterous savouring of intoxication Osterman rolled bullets of bread and shot them with astonishing force up and down the table but the others—Dyke old Broderson Caraher Harran Derrick Hooven Cutter Garnett of the Ruby rancho Keast from the ranch of the same name Gethings of the San Pablo and Chattern of the Bonanza—occupied themselves with eating as much as they could before the supper gave out At a corner of the table speechless unobserved ignored sat Dabney of whom nothing was known but his name the silent old man who made no friends He ate and drank quietly dipping his sandwich in his lemonade
Osterman ate all the olives he could lay his hands on a score of them fifty of them a hundred of them He touched no crumb of anything else Old Broderson stared at him his jaw fallen Osterman declared he had once eaten a thousand on a bet The men called each others attention to him Delighted to create a sensation Osterman persevered The contents of an entire bowl disappeared in his huge reptilian slit of a mouth His cheeks of brownish red were extended his bald forehead glistened Colics seized upon him His stomach revolted It was all one with him He was satisfied contented He was astonishing the people
Once I swallowed a tree toad he told old Broderson by mistake I was eating grapes and the beggar lived in me three weeks In rainy weather he would sing You dont believe that he vociferated Havent I got the toad at home now in a bottle of alcohol
And the old man never doubting his eyes starting wagged his head in amazement
Oh yes cried Caraher the length of the table thats a pretty good one Tell us another
That reminds me of a story hazarded old Broderson uncertainly once when I was a lad in Ukiah fifty years
Oh yes cried half a dozen voices THATS a pretty good one Tell us another
Eh—wh—what murmured Broderson looking about him I—I dont know It was Ukiah You—you—you mix me all up
As soon as supper was over the floor was cleared again The guests clamoured for a Virginia reel The last quarter of the evening the time of the most riotous fun was beginning The young men caught the girls who sat next to them The orchestra dashed off into a rollicking movement The two lines were formed In a second of time the dance was under way again the guests still wearing the Phrygian bonnets and liberty caps of pink and blue tissue paper
But the group of men once more adjourned to the harness room Fresh boxes of cigars were opened the seventh bowl of fertiliser was mixed Osterman poured the dregs of a glass of it upon his bald head declaring that he could feel the hair beginning to grow
But suddenly old Broderson rose to his feet
Aha he cackled IM going to have a dance I am Think Im too old Ill show you young fellows Im a regular old ROOSTER when I get started
He marched out into the barn the others following holding their sides He found an aged Mexican woman by the door and hustled her all confused and giggling into the Virginia reel then at its height Every one crowded around to see Old Broderson stepped off with the alacrity of a colt snapping his fingers slapping his thigh his mouth widening in an excited grin The entire company of the guests shouted The City Band redoubled their efforts and the old man losing his head breathless gasping dislocated his stiff joints in his efforts He became possessed bowing scraping advancing retreating wagging his beard cutting pigeons wings distraught with the music the clamour the applause the effects of the fertiliser
Annixter shouted
Nice eye Santa Claus
But Annixters attention wandered He searched for Hilma Tree having still in mind the look in her eyes at that swift moment of danger He had not seen her since then At last he caught sight of her She was not dancing but instead was sitting with her partner at the end of the barn near her father and mother her eyes wide a serious expression on her face her thoughts no doubt elsewhere Annixter was about to go to her when he was interrupted by a cry
Old Broderson in the midst of a double shuffle had clapped his hand to his side with a gasp which he followed by a whoop of anguish He had got a stitch or had started a twinge somewhere With a gesture of resignation he drew himself laboriously out of the dance limping abominably one leg dragging He was heard asking for his wife Old Mrs Broderson took him in charge She jawed him for making an exhibition of himself scolding as though he were a tenyearold
Well I want to know she exclaimed as he hobbled off dejected and melancholy leaning upon her arm thought he had to dance indeed What next A gay old grandpa this Hed better be thinking of his coffin
It was almost midnight The dance drew towards its close in a storm of jubilation The perspiring musicians toiled like galley slaves the guests singing as they danced
The group of men reassembled in the harness room Even Magnus Derrick condescended to enter and drink a toast Presley and Vanamee still holding themselves aloof looked on Vanamee more and more disgusted Dabney standing to one side overlooked and forgotten continued to sip steadily at his glass solemn reserved Garnett of the Ruby rancho Keast from the ranch of the same name Gethings of the San Pablo and Chattern of the Bonanza leaned back in their chairs their waistcoats unbuttoned their legs spread wide laughing—they could not tell why Other ranchers men whom Annixter had never seen appeared in the room wheat growers from places as far distant as Goshen and Pixley young men and old proprietors of veritable principalities hundreds of thousands of acres of wheat lands a dozen of them a score of them men who were strangers to each other but who made it a point to shake hands with Magnus Derrick the prominent man of the valley Old Broderson whom every one had believed had gone home returned though much sobered and took his place refusing however to drink another spoonful
Soon the entire number of Annixters guests found themselves in two companies the dancers on the floor of the barn frolicking through the last figures of the Virginia reel and the boisterous gathering of men in the harness room downing the last quarts of fertiliser Both assemblies had been increased Even the older people had joined in the dance while nearly every one of the men who did not dance had found their way into the harness room The two groups rivalled each other in their noise Out on the floor of the barn was a very whirlwind of gayety a tempest of laughter handclapping and cries of amusement In the harness room the confused shouting and singing the stamping of heavy feet set a quivering reverberation in the oil of the kerosene lamps the flame of the candles in the Japanese lanterns flaring and swaying in the gusts of hilarity At intervals between the two one heard the music the wailing of the violins the vigorous snarling of the cornet and the harsh incessant rasping of the snare drum
And at times all these various sounds mingled in a single vague note huge clamorous that rose up into the night from the colossal reverberating compass of the barn and sent its echoes far off across the unbroken levels of the surrounding ranches stretching out to infinity under the clouded sky calm mysterious still
Annixter the punch bowl clasped in his arms was pouring out the last spoonful of liquor into Carahers glass when he was aware that some one was pulling at the sleeve of his coat He set down the punch bowl
Well where did YOU come from he demanded
It was a messenger from Bonneville the uniformed boy that the telephone company employed to carry messages He had just arrived from town on his bicycle out of breath and panting
Message for you sir Will you sign
He held the book to Annixter who signed the receipt wondering
The boy departed leaving a thick envelope of yellow paper in Annixters hands the address typewritten the word Urgent written in blue pencil in one corner
Annixter tore it open The envelope contained other sealed envelopes some eight or ten of them addressed to Magnus Derrick Osterman Broderson Garnett Keast Gethings Chattern Dabney and to Annixter himself
Still puzzled Annixter distributed the envelopes muttering to himself
Whats up now
The incident had attracted attention A comparative quiet followed the guests following the letters with their eyes as they were passed around the table They fancied that Annixter had arranged a surprise
Magnus Derrick who sat next to Annixter was the first to receive his letter With a word of excuse he opened it
Read it read it Governor shouted a halfdozen voices No secrets you know Everything above board here tonight
Magnus cast a glance at the contents of the letter then rose to his feet and read
Magnus Derrick
Bonneville Tulare Co Cal
Dear Sir
By regrade of October 1st the value of the railroad land you
occupy included in your ranch of Los Muertos has been fixed at
2700 per acre The land is now for sale at that price to any
one
Yours etc
CYRUS BLAKELEE RUGGLES
Land Agent P and S W R R
S BEHRMAN
Local Agent P and S W R R
In the midst of the profound silence that followed Osterman was heard to exclaim grimly
THATS a pretty good one Tell us another
But for a long moment this was the only remark
The silence widened broken only by the sound of torn paper as Annixter Osterman old Broderson Garnett Keast Gethings Chattern and Dabney opened and read their letters They were all to the same effect almost word for word like the Governors Only the figures and the proper names varied In some cases the price per acre was twentytwo dollars In Annixters case it was thirty
And—and the company promised to sell to me to—to all of us gasped old Broderson at TWO DOLLARS AND A HALF an acre
It was not alone the ranchers immediately around Bonneville who would be plundered by this move on the part of the Railroad The alternate section system applied throughout all the San Joaquin By striking at the Bonneville ranchers a terrible precedent was established Of the crowd of guests in the harness room alone nearly every man was affected every man menaced with ruin All of a million acres was suddenly involved
Then suddenly the tempest burst A dozen men were on their feet in an instant their teeth set their fists clenched their faces purple with rage Oaths curses maledictions exploded like the firing of successive mines Voices quivered with wrath hands flung upward the fingers hooked prehensile trembled with anger The sense of wrongs the injustices the oppression extortion and pillage of twenty years suddenly culminated and found voice in a raucous howl of execration For a second there was nothing articulate in that cry of savage exasperation nothing even intelligent It was the human animal hounded to its corner exploited harried to its last stand at bay ferocious terrible turning at last with bared teeth and upraised claws to meet the death grapple It was the hideous squealing of the tormented brute its back to the wall defending its lair its mate and its whelps ready to bite to rend to trample to batter out the life of The Enemy in a primeval bestial welter of blood and fury
The roar subsided to intermittent clamour in the pauses of which the sounds of music and dancing made themselves audible once more
S Behrman again vociferated Harran Derrick
Chose his moment well muttered Annixter Hits his hardest when were all rounded up having a good time
Gentlemen this is ruin
Whats to be done now
FIGHT My God do you think we are going to stand this Do you think we CAN
The uproar swelled again The clearer the assembly of ranchers understood the significance of this move on the part of the Railroad the more terrible it appeared the more flagrant the more intolerable Was it possible was it within the bounds of imagination that this tyranny should be contemplated But they knew—past years had driven home the lesson—the implacable iron monster with whom they had to deal and again and again the sense of outrage and oppression lashed them to their feet their mouths wide with curses their fists clenched tight their throats hoarse with shouting
Fight How fight What ARE you going to do
If theres a law in this land
If there is it is in Shelgrims pocket Who owns the courts in California Aint it Shelgrim
God damn him
Well how long are you going to stand it How long before youll settle up accounts with six inches of plugged gaspipe
And our contracts the solemn pledges of the corporation to sell to us first of all——
And now the land is for sale to anybody
Why it is a question of my home Am I to be turned out Why I have put eight thousand dollars into improving this land
And I six thousand and now that I have the Railroad grabs it
And the system of irrigating ditches that Derrick and I have been laying out Theres thousands of dollars in that
Ill fight this out till Ive spent every cent of my money
Where In the courts that the company owns
Think I am going to give in to this Think I am to get off my land By God gentlemen law or no law railroad or no railroad I—WILL—NOT
Nor I
Nor I
Nor I
This is the last Legal means first if those fail—the shotgun
They can kill me They can shoot me down but Ill die—die fighting for my home—before Ill give in to this
At length Annixter made himself heard
All out of the room but the ranch owners he shouted Hooven Caraher Dyke youll have to clear out This is a family affair Presley you and your friend can remain
Reluctantly the others filed through the door There remained in the harness room—besides Vanamee and Presley—Magnus Derrick Annixter old Broderson Harran Garnett from the Ruby rancho Keast from the ranch of the same name Gethings of the San Pablo Chattern of the Bonanza about a score of others ranchers from various parts of the county and last of all Dabney ignored silent to whom nobody spoke and who as yet had not uttered a word But the men who had been asked to leave the harness room spread the news throughout the barn It was repeated from lip to lip One by one the guests dropped out of the dance Groups were formed By swift degrees the gayety lapsed away The Virginia reel broke up The musicians ceased playing and in the place of the noisy effervescent revelry of the previous half hour a subdued murmur filled all the barn a mingling of whispers lowered voices the coming and going of light footsteps the uneasy shifting of positions while from behind the closed doors of the harness room came a prolonged sullen hum of anger and strenuous debate The dance came to an abrupt end The guests unwilling to go as yet stunned distressed stood clumsily about their eyes vague their hands swinging at their sides looking stupidly into each others faces A sense of impending calamity oppressive foreboding gloomy passed through the air overhead in the night a long shiver of anguish and of terror mysterious despairing
In the harness room however the excitement continued unchecked One rancher after another delivered himself of a torrent of furious words There was no order merely the frenzied outcry of blind fury One spirit alone was common to all—resistance at whatever cost and to whatever lengths
Suddenly Osterman leaped to his feet his bald head gleaming in the lamplight his red ears distended a flood of words filling his great horizontal slit of a mouth his comic actors face flaming Like the hero of a melodrama he took stage with a great sweeping gesture
ORGANISATION he shouted that must be our watchword The curse of the ranchers is that they fritter away their strength Now we must stand together now NOW Heres the crisis heres the moment Shall we meet it I CALL FOR THE LEAGUE Not next week not tomorrow not in the morning but now now now this very moment before we go out of that door Every one of us here to join it to form the beginnings of a vast organisation banded together to death if needs be for the protection of our rights and homes Are you ready Is it now or never I call for the League
Instantly there was a shout With an actors instinct Osterman had spoken at the precise psychological moment He carried the others off their feet glib dexterous voluble Just what was meant by the League the others did not know but it was something a vague engine a machine with which to fight Osterman had not done speaking before the room rang with outcries the crowd of men shouting for what they did not know
The League The League
Now tonight this moment sign our names before we leave
Hes right Organisation The League
We have a committee at work already Osterman vociferated I am a member and also Mr Broderson Mr Annixter and Mr Harran Derrick What our aims are we will explain to you later Let this committee be the nucleus of the League—temporarily at least Trust us We are working for you and with you Let this committee be merged into the larger committee of the League and for President of the League—he paused the fraction of a second—for President there can be but one name mentioned one man to whom we all must look as leader—Magnus Derrick
The Governors name was received with a storm of cheers The harness room reechoed with shouts of
Derrick Derrick
Magnus for President
Derrick our natural leader
Derrick Derrick Derrick for President
Magnus rose to his feet He made no gesture Erect as a cavalry officer tall thin commanding he dominated the crowd in an instant There was a moments hush Gentlemen he said if organisation is a good word moderation is a better one The matter is too grave for haste I would suggest that we each and severally return to our respective homes for the night sleep over what has happened and convene again tomorrow when we are calmer and can approach this affair in a more judicious mood As for the honour with which you would inform me I must affirm that that too is a matter for grave deliberation This League is but a name as yet To accept control of an organisation whose principles are not yet fixed is a heavy responsibility I shrink from it—
But he was allowed to proceed no farther A storm of protest developed There were shouts of
No no The League tonight and Derrick for President
We have been moderate too long
The League first principles afterward
We cant wait declared Osterman Many of us cannot attend a meeting tomorrow Our business affairs would prevent it Now we are all together I propose a temporary chairman and secretary be named and a ballot be taken But first the League Let us draw up a set of resolutions to stand together for the defence of our homes to death if needs be and each man present affix his signature thereto
He subsided amidst vigorous applause The next quarter of an hour was a vague confusion every one talking at once conversations going on in low tones in various corners of the room Ink pens and a sheaf of foolscap were brought from the ranch house A set of resolutions was draughted having the force of a pledge organising the League of Defence Annixter was the first to sign Others followed only a few holding back refusing to join till they had thought the matter over The roll grew the paper circulated about the table each signature was welcomed by a salvo of cheers At length it reached Harran Derrick who signed amid tremendous uproar He released the pen only to shake a score of hands
Now Magnus Derrick
Gentlemen began the Governor once more rising I beg of you to allow me further consideration Gentlemen—
He was interrupted by renewed shouting
No no now or never Sign join the League
Dont leave us We look to you to help
But presently the excited throng that turned their faces towards the Governor were aware of a new face at his elbow The door of the harness room had been left unbolted and Mrs Derrick unable to endure the heartbreaking suspense of waiting outside had gathered up all her courage and had come into the room Trembling she clung to Magnuss arm her pretty lightbrown hair in disarray her large young girls eyes wide with terror and distrust What was about to happen she did not understand but these men were clamouring for Magnus to pledge himself to something to some terrible course of action some ruthless unscrupulous battle to the death with the ironhearted monster of steel and steam Nerved with a cowards intrepidity she who so easily obliterated herself had found her way into the midst of this frantic crowd into this hot close room reeking of alcohol and tobacco smoke into this atmosphere surcharged with hatred and curses She seized her husbands arm imploring distraught with terror
No no she murmured no dont sign
She was the feather caught in the whirlwind En masse the crowd surged toward the erect figure of the Governor the pen in one hand his wifes fingers in the other the roll of signatures before him The clamour was deafening the excitement culminated brusquely Half a hundred hands stretched toward him thirty voices at top pitch implored expostulated urged almost commanded The reverberation of the shouting was as the plunge of a cataract
It was the uprising of The People the thunder of the outbreak of revolt the mob demanding to be led aroused at last imperious resistless overwhelming It was the blind fury of insurrection the brute manytongued redeyed bellowing for guidance baring its teeth unsheathing its claws imposing its will with the abrupt resistless pressure of the relaxed piston inexorable knowing no pity
No no implored Annie Derrick No Magnus dont sign
He must declared Harran shouting in her ear to make himself heard he must Dont you understand
Again the crowd surged forward roaring Mrs Derrick was swept back pushed to one side Her husband no longer belonged to her She paid the penalty for being the wife of a great man The world like a colossal iron wedge crushed itself between She was thrust to the wall The throng of men stamping surrounded Magnus she could no longer see him but terrorstruck she listened There was a moments lull then a vast thunder of savage jubilation Magnus had signed
Harran found his mother leaning against the wall her hands shut over her ears her eyes dilated with fear brimming with tears He led her from the harness room to the outer room where Mrs Tree and Hilma took charge of her and then impatient refusing to answer the hundreds of anxious questions that assailed him hurried back to the harness room Already the balloting was in progress Osterman acting as temporary chairman on the very first ballot he was made secretary of the League pro tem and Magnus unanimously chosen for its President An executive committee was formed which was to meet the next day at the Los Muertos ranch house
It was halfpast one oclock In the barn outside the greater number of the guests had departed Long since the musicians had disappeared There only remained the families of the ranch owners involved in the meeting in the harness room These huddled in isolated groups in corners of the garish echoing barn the women in their wraps the young men with their coat collars turned up against the draughts that once more made themselves felt
For a long half hour the loud hum of eager conversation continued to issue from behind the door of the harness room Then at length there was a prolonged scraping of chairs The session was over The men came out in groups searching for their families
At once the homeward movement began Every one was worn out Some of the ranchers daughters had gone to sleep against their mothers shoulders
Billy the stableman and his assistant were awakened and the teams were hitched up The stable yard was full of a maze of swinging lanterns and buggy lamps The horses fretted champing the bits the carryalls creaked with the straining of leather and springs as they received their loads At every instant one heard the rattle of wheels as vehicle after vehicle disappeared in the night
A fine drizzling rain was falling and the lamps began to show dim in a vague haze of orange light
Magnus Derrick was the last to go At the doorway of the barn he found Annixter the roll of names—which it had been decided he was to keep in his safe for the moment—under his arm Silently the two shook hands Magnus departed The grind of the wheels of his carryall grated sharply on the gravel of the driveway in front of the ranch house then with a hollow roll across a little plank bridge gained the roadway For a moment the beat of the horses hoofs made itself heard on the roadway It ceased Suddenly there was a great silence
Annixter in the doorway of the great barn stood looking about him for a moment alone thoughtful The barn was empty That astonishing evening had come to an end The whirl of things and people the crowd of dancers Delaney the gun fight Hilma Tree her eyes fixed on him in mute confession the rabble in the harness room the news of the regrade the fierce outburst of wrath the hasty organising of the League all went spinning confusedly through his recollection But he was exhausted Time enough in the morning to think it all over By now it was raining sharply He put the roll of names into his inside pocket threw a sack over his head and shoulders and went down to the ranch house
But in the harness room lighted by the glittering lanterns and flaring lamps in the midst of overturned chairs spilled liquor cigar stumps and broken glasses Vanamee and Presley still remained talking talking At length they rose and came out upon the floor of the barn and stood for a moment looking about them
Billy the stableman was going the rounds of the walls putting out light after light By degrees the vast interior was growing dim Upon the roof overhead the rain drummed incessantly the eaves dripping The floor was littered with pine needles bits of orange peel ends and fragments of torn organdies and muslins and bits of tissue paper from the Phrygian Bonnets and Liberty Caps The buckskin mare in the stall dozing on three legs changed position with a long sigh The sweat stiffening the hair upon her back and loins as it dried gave off a penetrating ammoniacal odour that mingled with the stale perfume of sachet and wilted flowers
Presley and Vanamee stood looking at the deserted barn There was a long silence Then Presley said
Well what do you think of it all
I think answered Vanamee slowly I think that there was a dance in Brussels the night before Waterloo
BOOK II
CHAPTER I
In his office at San Francisco seated before a massive desk of polished redwood very ornate Lyman Derrick sat dictating letters to his typewriter on a certain morning early in the spring of the year The subdued monotone of his voice proceeded evenly from sentence to sentence regular precise businesslike
I have the honour to acknowledge herewith your favour of the 14th instant and in reply would state——
Please find enclosed draft upon New Orleans to be applied as per our understanding——
In answer to your favour No 1107 referring to the case of the City and County of San Francisco against Excelsior Warehouse Storage Co I would say——
His voice continued expressionless measured distinct While he spoke he swung slowly back and forth in his leather swivel chair his elbows resting on the arms his pop eyes fixed vaguely upon the calendar on the opposite wall winking at intervals when he paused searching for a word
Thats all for the present he said at length
Without reply the typewriter rose and withdrew thrusting her pencil into the coil of her hair closing the door behind her softly discreetly
When she had gone Lyman rose stretching himself putting up three fingers to hide his yawn To further loosen his muscles he took a couple of turns the length of he room noting with satisfaction its fine appointments the padded red carpet the dull olive green tint of the walls the few choice engravings—portraits of Marshall Taney Field and a coloured lithograph—excellently done—of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado—the deepseated leather chairs the large and crowded bookcase topped with a bust of James Lick and a huge greenish globe the waste basket of woven coloured grass made by Navajo Indians the massive silver inkstand on the desk the elaborate filing cabinet complete in every particular and the shelves of tin boxes padlocked impressive grave bearing the names of clients cases and estates
He was between thirtyone and thirtyfive years of age Unlike Harran he resembled his mother but he was much darker than Annie Derrick and his eyes were much fuller the eyeball protruding giving him a popeyed foreign expression quite unusual and unexpected His hair was black and he wore a small tight pointed mustache which he was in the habit of pushing delicately upward from the corners of his lips with the ball of his thumb the little finger extended As often as he made this gesture he prefaced it with a little twisting gesture of the forearm in order to bring his cuff into view and in fact this movement by itself was habitual
He was dressed carefully his trousers creased a pink rose in his lapel His shoes were of patent leather his cutaway coat was of very rough black cheviot his doublebreasted waistcoat of tan covered cloth with buttons of smoked pearl An Ascot scarf—a great puff of heavy black silk—was at his neck the knot transfixed by a tiny golden pin set off with an opal and four small diamonds
At one end of the room were two great windows of plate glass and pausing at length before one of these Lyman selected a cigarette from his curved box of oxydized silver lit it and stood looking down and out willing to be idle for a moment amused and interested in the view
His office was on the tenth floor of the EXCHANGE BUILDING a beautiful towerlike affair of white stone that stood on the corner of Market Street near its intersection with Kearney the most imposing office building of the city
Below him the city swarmed tumultuous through its grooves the cablecars starting and stopping with a gay jangling of bells and a strident whirring of jostled glass windows Drays and carts clattered over the cobbles and an incessant shuffling of thousands of feet rose from the pavement Around Lottas fountain the baskets of the flower sellers crammed with chrysanthemums violets pinks roses lilies hyacinths set a brisk note of colour in the grey of the street
But to Lymans notion the general impression of this centre of the citys life was not one of strenuous business activity It was a continuous interest in small things a people ever willing to be amused at trifles refusing to consider serious matters—goodnatured allowing themselves to be imposed upon taking life easily—generous companionable enthusiastic living as it were from day to day in a place where the luxuries of life were had without effort in a city that offered to consideration the restlessness of a New York without its earnestness the serenity of a Naples without its languor the romance of a Seville without its picturesqueness
As Lyman turned from the window about to resume his work the office boy appeared at the door
The man from the lithograph company sir announced the boy
Well what does he want demanded Lyman adding however upon the instant Show him in
A young man entered carrying a great bundle which he deposited on a chair with a gasp of relief exclaiming all out of breath
From the Standard Lithograph Company
What is
Dont know replied the other Maps I guess
I dont want any maps Who sent them I guess youre mistaken Lyman tore the cover from the top of the package drawing out one of a great many huge sheets of white paper folded eight times Suddenly he uttered an exclamation
Ah I see They ARE maps But these should not have come here They are to go to the regular office for distribution He wrote a new direction on the label of the package Take them to that address he went on Ill keep this one here The others go to that address If you see Mr Darrell tell him that Mr Derrick—you get the name—Mr Derrick may not be able to get around this afternoon but to go ahead with any business just the same
The young man departed with the package and Lyman spreading out the map upon the table remained for some time studying it thoughtfully
It was a commissioners official railway map of the State of California completed to March 30th of that year Upon it the different railways of the State were accurately plotted in various colours blue green yellow However the blue the yellow and the green were but brief traceries very short isolated unimportant At a little distance these could hardly be seen The whole map was gridironed by a vast complicated network of red lines marked P and S W R R These centralised at San Francisco and thence ramified and spread north east and south to every quarter of the State From Coles in the topmost corner of the map to Yuma in the lowest from Reno on one side to San Francisco on the other ran the plexus of red a veritable system of blood circulation complicated dividing and reuniting branching splitting extending throwing out feelers offshoots tap roots feeders—diminutive little blood suckers that shot out from the main jugular and went twisting up into some remote county laying hold upon some forgotten village or town involving it in one of a myriad branching coils one of a hundred tentacles drawing it as it were toward that centre from which all this system sprang
The map was white and it seemed as if all the colour which should have gone to vivify the various counties towns and cities marked upon it had been absorbed by that huge sprawling organism with its ruddy arteries converging to a central point It was as though the State had been sucked white and colourless and against this pallid background the red arteries of the monster stood out swollen with lifeblood reaching out to infinity gorged to bursting an excrescence a gigantic parasite fattening upon the lifeblood of an entire commonwealth
However in an upper corner of the map appeared the names of the three new commissioners Jones McNish for the first district Lyman Derrick for the second and James Darrell for the third
Nominated in the Democratic State convention in the fall of the preceding year Lyman backed by the coteries of San Francisco bosses in the pay of his fathers political committee of ranchers had been elected together with Darrell the candidate of the Pueblo and Mojave road and McNish the avowed candidate of the Pacific and Southwestern Darrell was rabidly against the P and S W McNish rabidly for it Lyman was supposed to be the conservative member of the board the ranchers candidate it was true and faithful to their interests but a calm man deliberative swayed by no such violent emotions as his colleagues
Ostermans dexterity had at last succeeded in entangling Magnus inextricably in the new politics The famous League organised in the heat of passion the night of Annixters barn dance had been consolidated all through the winter months Its executive committee of which Magnus was chairman had been through Ostermans manipulation merged into the old committee composed of Broderson Annixter and himself Promptly thereat he had resigned the chairmanship of this committee thus leaving Magnus at its head Precisely as Osterman had planned Magnus was now one of them The new committee accordingly had two objects in view to resist the attempted grabbing of their lands by the Railroad and to push forward their own secret scheme of electing a board of railroad commissioners who should regulate wheat rates so as to favour the ranchers of the San Joaquin The land cases were promptly taken to the courts and the new grading—fixing the price of the lands at twenty and thirty dollars an acre instead of two—bitterly and stubbornly fought But delays occurred the process of the law was interminable and in the intervals the committee addressed itself to the work of seating the Ranchers Commission as the projected Board of Commissioners came to be called
It was Harran who first suggested that his brother Lyman be put forward as the candidate for this district At once the proposition had a great success Lyman seemed made for the place While allied by every tie of blood to the ranching interests he had never been identified with them He was citybred The Railroad would not be oversuspicious of him He was a good lawyer a good business man keen clearheaded farsighted had already some practical knowledge of politics having served a term as assistant district attorney and even at the present moment occupying the position of sheriffs attorney More than all he was the son of Magnus Derrick he could be relied upon could be trusted implicitly to remain loyal to the ranchers cause
The campaign for Railroad Commissioner had been very interesting At the very outset Magnuss committee found itself involved in corrupt politics The primaries had to be captured at all costs and by any means and when the convention assembled it was found necessary to buy outright the votes of certain delegates The campaign fund raised by contributions from Magnus Annixter Broderson and Osterman was drawn upon to the extent of five thousand dollars
Only the committee knew of this corruption The League ignoring ways and means supposed as a matter of course that the campaign was honorably conducted
For a whole week after the consummation of this part of the deal Magnus had kept to his house refusing to be seen alleging that he was ill which was not far from the truth The shame of the business the loathing of what he had done were to him things unspeakable He could no longer look Harran in the face He began a course of deception with his wife More than once he had resolved to break with the whole affair resigning his position allowing the others to proceed without him But now it was too late He was pledged He had joined the League He was its chief and his defection might mean its disintegration at the very time when it needed all its strength to fight the land cases More than a mere deal in bad politics was involved There was the land grab His withdrawal from an unholy cause would mean the weakening perhaps the collapse of another cause that he believed to be righteous as truth itself He was hopelessly caught in the mesh Wrong seemed indissolubly knitted into the texture of Right He was blinded dizzied overwhelmed caught in the current of events and hurried along he knew not where He resigned himself
In the end and after much ostentatious opposition on the part of the railroad heelers Lyman was nominated and subsequently elected
When this consummation was reached Magnus Osterman Broderson and Annixter stared at each other Their wildest hopes had not dared to fix themselves upon so easy a victory as this It was not believable that the corporation would allow itself to be fooled so easily would rush openeyed into the trap How had it happened
Osterman however threw his hat into the air with wild whoops of delight Old Broderson permitted himself a feeble cheer Even Magnus beamed satisfaction The other members of the League present at the time shook hands all around and spoke of opening a few bottles on the strength of the occasion Annixter alone was recalcitrant
Its too easy he declared No Im not satisfied Wheres Shelgrim in all this Why dont he show his hand damn his soul The thing is yellow I tell you Theres a big fish in these waters somewheres I dont know his name and I dont know his game but hes moving round off and on just out of sight If you think youve netted him I DONT thats all Ive got to say
But he was jeered down as a croaker There was the Commission He couldnt get around that could he There was Darrell and Lyman Derrick both pledged to the ranches Good Lord he was never satisfied Hed be obstinate till the very last gun was fired Why if he got drowned in a river hed float upstream just to be contrary
In the course of time the new board was seated For the first few months of its term it was occupied in clearing up the business left over by the old board and in the completion of the railway map But now the decks were cleared It was about to address itself to the consideration of a revision of the tariff for the carriage of grain between the San Joaquin Valley and tidewater
Both Lyman and Darrell were pledged to an average ten per cent cut of the grain rates throughout the entire State
The typewriter returned with the letters for Lyman to sign and he put away the map and took up his mornings routine of business wondering the while what would become of his practice during the time he was involved in the business of the Ranchers Railroad Commission
But towards noon at the moment when Lyman was drawing off a glass of mineral water from the siphon that stood at his elbow there was an interruption Some one rapped vigorously upon the door which was immediately after opened and Magnus and Harran came in followed by Presley
Hello hello cried Lyman jumping up extending his hands why heres a surprise I didnt expect you all till tonight Come in come in and sit down Have a glass of sizzwater Governor
The others explained that they had come up from Bonneville the night before as the Executive Committee of the League had received a despatch from the lawyers it had retained to fight the Railroad that the judge of the court in San Francisco where the test cases were being tried might be expected to hand down his decision the next day
Very soon after the announcement of the new grading of the ranchers lands the corporation had offered through S Behrman to lease the disputed lands to the ranchers at a nominal figure The offer had been angrily rejected and the Railroad had put up the lands for sale at Ruggless office in Bonneville At the exorbitant price named buyers promptly appeared—dummy buyers beyond shadow of doubt acting either for the Railroad or for S Behrman—men hitherto unknown in the county men without property without money adventurers heelers Prominent among them and bidding for the railroads holdings included on Annixters ranch was Delaney
The farce of deeding the corporations sections to these fictitious purchasers was solemnly gone through with at Ruggless office the Railroad guaranteeing them possession The League refused to allow the supposed buyers to come upon the land and the Railroad faithful to its pledge in the matter of guaranteeing its dummies possession at once began suits in ejectment in the district court in Visalia the county seat
It was the preliminary skirmish the reconnaisance in force the combatants feeling each others strength willing to proceed with caution postponing the actual deathgrip for a while till each had strengthened its position and organised its forces
During the time the cases were on trial at Visalia S Behrman was much in evidence in and about the courts The trial itself after tedious preliminaries was brief The ranchers lost The test cases were immediately carried up to the United States Circuit Court in San Francisco At the moment the decision of this court was pending
Why this is news exclaimed Lyman in response to the Governors announcement I did not expect them to be so prompt I was in court only last week and there seemed to be no end of business ahead I suppose you are very anxious
Magnus nodded He had seated himself in one of Lymans deep chairs his grey tophat with its wide brim on the floor beside him His coat of black broadcloth that had been tightly packed in his valise was yet wrinkled and creased his trousers were strapped under his high boots As he spoke he stroked the bridge of his hawklike nose with his bent forefinger
Leaningback in his chair he watched his two sons with secret delight To his eye both were perfect specimens of their class intelligent welllooking resourceful He was intensely proud of them He was never happier never more nearly jovial never more erect more military more alert and buoyant than when in the company of his two sons He honestly believed that no finer examples of young manhood existed throughout the entire nation
I think we should win in this court Harran observed watching the bubbles break in his glass The investigation has been much more complete than in the Visalia trial Our case this time is too good It has made too much talk The court would not dare render a decision for the Railroad Why theres the agreement in black and white—and the circulars the Railroad issued How CAN one get around those
Well well we shall know in a few hours now remarked Magnus
Oh exclaimed Lyman surprised it is for this morning then Why arent you at the court
It seemed undignified boy answered the Governor We shall know soon enough
Good God exclaimed Harran abruptly when I think of what is involved Why Lyman its our home the ranch house itself nearly all Los Muertos practically our whole fortune and just now when there is promise of an enormous crop of wheat And it is not only us There are over half a million acres of the San Joaquin involved In some cases of the smaller ranches it is the confiscation of the whole of the ranchers land If this thing goes through it will absolutely beggar nearly a hundred men Broderson wouldnt have a thousand acres to his name Why its monstrous
But the corporations offered to lease these lands remarked Lyman Are any of the ranchers taking up that offer—or are any of them buying outright
Buying At the new figure exclaimed Harran at twenty and thirty an acre Why theres not one in ten that CAN They are landpoor And as for leasing—leasing land they virtually own—no theres precious few are doing that thank God That would be acknowledging the railroads ownership right away—forfeiting their rights for good None of the LEAGUERS are doing it I know That would be the rankest treachery
He paused for a moment drinking the rest of the mineral water then interrupting Lyman who was about to speak to Presley drawing him into the conversation through politeness said Matters are just romping right along to a crisis these days Its a make or break for the wheat growers of the State now no mistake Here are the land cases and the new grain tariff drawing to a head at about the same time If we win our land cases theres your new freight rates to be applied and then all is beer and skittles Wont the San Joaquin go wild if we pull it off and I believe we will
How we wheat growers are exploited and trapped and deceived at every turn observed Magnus sadly The courts the capitalists the railroads each of them in turn hoodwinks us into some new and wonderful scheme only to betray us in the end Well he added turning to Lyman one thing at least we can depend on We will cut their grain rates for them eh Lyman
Lyman crossed his legs and settled himself in his office chair
I have wanted to have a talk with you about that sir he said Yes we will cut the rates—an average 10 per cent cut throughout the State as we are pledged But I am going to warn you Governor and you Harran dont expect too much at first The man who even after twenty years training in the operation of railroads can draw an equitable smoothly working schedule of freight rates between shipping point and common point is capable of governing the United States What with main lines and leased lines and points of transfer and the laws governing common carriers and the rulings of the InterState Commerce Commission the whole matter has become so confused that Vanderbilt himself couldnt straighten it out And how can it be expected that railroad commissions who are chosen—well lets be frank—as ours was for instance from out a number of men who dont know the difference between a switching charge and a differential rate are going to regulate the whole business in six months time Cut rates yes any fool can do that any fool can write one dollar instead of two but if you cut too low by a fraction of one per cent and if the railroad can get out an injunction tie you up and show that your new rate prevents the road being operated at a profit how are you any better off
Your conscientiousness does you credit Lyman said the Governor I respect you for it my son I know you will be fair to the railroad That is all we want Fairness to the corporation is fairness to the farmer and we wont expect you to readjust the whole matter out of hand Take your time We can afford to wait
And suppose the next commission is a railroad board and reverses all our figures
The onetime mining king the most redoubtable poker player of Calaveras County permitted himself a momentary twinkle of his eyes
By then it will be too late We will all of us have made our fortunes by then
The remark left Presley astonished out of all measure He never could accustom himself to these strange lapses in the Governors character Magnus was by nature a public man judicious deliberate standing firm for principle yet upon rare occasion by some such remark as this he would betray the presence of a subnature of recklessness inconsistent all at variance with his creeds and tenets
At the very bottom when all was said and done Magnus remained the Fortyniner Deep down in his heart the spirit of the Adventurer yet persisted We will all of us have made fortunes by then That was it precisely After us the deluge For all his public spirit for all his championship of justice and truth his respect for law Magnus remained the gambler willing to play for colossal stakes to hazard a fortune on the chance of winning a million It was the true California spirit that found expression through him the spirit of the West unwilling to occupy itself with details refusing to wait to be patient to achieve by legitimate plodding the miners instinct of wealth acquired in a single night prevailed in spite of all It was in this frame of mind that Magnus and the multitude of other ranchers of whom he was a type farmed their ranches They had no love for their land They were not attached to the soil They worked their ranches as a quarter of a century before they had worked their mines To husband the resources of their marvellous San Joaquin they considered niggardly petty Hebraic To get all there was out of the land to squeeze it dry to exhaust it seemed their policy When at last the land worn out would refuse to yield they would invest their money in something else by then they would all have made fortunes They did not care After us the deluge
Lyman however was obviously uneasy willing to change the subject He rose to his feet pulling down his cuffs
By the way he observed I want you three to lunch with me today at my club It is close by You can wait there for news of the courts decision as well as anywhere else and I should like to show you the place I have just joined
At the club when the four men were seated at a small table in the round window of the main room Lymans popularity with all classes was very apparent Hardly a man entered that did not call out a salutation to him some even coming over to shake his hand He seemed to be every mans friend and to all he seemed equally genial His affability even to those whom he disliked was unfailing
See that fellow yonder he said to Magnus indicating a certain middleaged man flamboyantly dressed who wore his hair long who was afflicted with sore eyes and the collar of whose velvet coat was sprinkled with dandruff thats Hartrath the artist a man absolutely devoid of even the commonest decency How he got in here is a mystery to me
Yet when this Hartrath came across to say How do you do to Lyman Lyman was as eager in his cordiality as his warmest friend could have expected
Why the devil are you so chummy with him then observed Harran when Hartrath had gone away
Lymans explanation was vague The truth of the matter was that Magnuss oldest son was consumed by inordinate ambition Political preferment was his dream and to the realisation of this dream popularity was an essential Every man who could vote blackguard or gentleman was to be conciliated if possible He made it his study to become known throughout the entire community—to put influential men under obligations to himself He never forgot a name or a face With everybody he was the hailfellowwellmet His ambition was not trivial In his disregard for small things he resembled his father Municipal office had no attraction for him His goal was higher He had planned his life twenty years ahead Already Sheriffs Attorney Assistant District Attorney and Railroad Commissioner he could if he desired attain the office of District Attorney itself Just now it was a question with him whether or not it would be politic to fill this office Would it advance or sidetrack him in the career he had outlined for himself Lyman wanted to be something better than District Attorney better than Mayor than State Senator or even than member of the United States Congress He wanted to be in fact what his father was only in name—to succeed where Magnus had failed He wanted to be governor of the State He had put his teeth together and deaf to all other considerations blind to all other issues he worked with the infinite slowness the unshakable tenacity of the coral insect to this one end
After luncheon was over Lyman ordered cigars and liqueurs and with the three others returned to the main room of the club However their former place in the round window was occupied A middleaged man with iron grey hair and moustache who wore a frock coat and a white waistcoat and in some indefinable manner suggested a retired naval officer was sitting at their table smoking a long thin cigar At sight of him Presley became animated He uttered a mild exclamation
Why isnt that Mr Cedarquist
Cedarquist repeated Lyman Derrick I know him well Yes of course it is he continued Governor you must know him He is one of our representative men You would enjoy talking to him He was the head of the big Atlas Iron Works They have shut down recently you know Not failed exactly but just ceased to be a paying investment and Cedarquist closed them out He has other interests though Hes a rich man—a capitalist
Lyman brought the group up to the gentleman in question and introduced them Mr Magnus Derrick of course observed Cedarquist as he took the Governors hand Ive known you by repute for some time sir This is a great pleasure I assure you Then turning to Presley he added Hello Pres my boy How is the great the very great Poem getting on
Its not getting on at all sir answered Presley in some embarrassment as they all sat down In fact Ive about given up the idea Theres so much interest in what you might call living issues down at Los Muertos now that Im getting further and further from it every day
I should say as much remarked the manufacturer turning towards Magnus Im watching your fight with Shelgrim Mr Derrick with every degree of interest He raised his drink of whiskey and soda Heres success to you
As he replaced his glass the artist Hartrath joined the group uninvited As a pretext he engaged Lyman in conversation Lyman he believed was a man with a pull at the City Hall In connection with a projected MillionDollar Fair and Flower Festival which at that moment was the talk of the city certain statues were to be erected and Hartrath bespoke Lymans influence to further the pretensions of a sculptor friend of his who wished to be Art Director of the affair In the matter of this Fair and Flower Festival Hartrath was not lacking in enthusiasm He addressed the others with extravagant gestures blinking his inflamed eyelids
A million dollars he exclaimed Hey think of that Why do you know that we have five hundred thousand practically pledged already Talk about public spirit gentlemen this is the most publicspirited city on the continent And the money is not thrown away We will have Eastern visitors here by the thousands—capitalists—men with money to invest The million we spend on our fair will be money in our pockets Ah you should see how the women of this city are taking hold of the matter They are giving all kinds of little entertainments teas Olde Tyme Singing Skules amateur theatricals gingerbread fetes all for the benefit of the fund and the business men too—pouring out their money like water It is splendid splendid to see a community so patriotic
The manufacturer Cedarquist fixed the artist with a glance of melancholy interest
And how much he remarked will they contribute—your gingerbread women and publicspirited capitalists towards the blowing up of the ruins of the Atlas Iron Works
Blowing up I dont understand murmured the artist surprised When you get your Eastern capitalists out here with your MillionDollar Fair continued Cedarquist you dont propose do you to let them see a MillionDollar Iron Foundry standing idle because of the indifference of San Francisco business men They might ask pertinent questions your capitalists and we should have to answer that our business men preferred to invest their money in corner lots and government bonds rather than to back up a legitimate industrial enterprise We dont want fairs We want active furnaces We dont want public statues and fountains and park extensions and gingerbread fetes We want business enterprise Isnt it like us Isnt it like us he exclaimed sadly What a melancholy comment San Francisco It is not a city—it is a Midway Plaisance California likes to be fooled Do you suppose Shelgrim could convert the whole San Joaquin Valley into his back yard otherwise Indifference to public affairs—absolute indifference it stamps us all Our State is the very paradise of fakirs You and your MillionDollar Fair He turned to Hartrath with a quiet smile It is just such men as you Mr Hartrath that are the ruin of us You organise a sham of tinsel and pasteboard put on fools cap and bells beat a gong at a street corner and the crowd cheers you and drops nickels into your hat Your gingerbread fete yes I saw it in full blast the other night on the grounds of one of your womens places on Sutter Street I was on my way home from the last board meeting of the Atlas Company A gingerbread fete my God and the Atlas plant shutting down for want of financial backing A million dollars spent to attract the Eastern investor in order to show him an abandoned rolling mill wherein the only activity is the sale of remnant material and scrap steel
Lyman however interfered The situation was becoming strained He tried to conciliate the three men—the artist the manufacturer and the farmer the warring elements But Hartrath unwilling to face the enmity that he felt accumulating against him took himself away A picture of his—A Study of the Contra Costa Foothills—was to be raffled in the club rooms for the benefit of the Fair He himself was in charge of the matter He disappeared
Cedarquist looked after him with contemplative interest Then turning to Magnus excused himself for the acridity of his words
Hes no worse than many others and the people of this State and city are after all only a little more addleheaded than other Americans It was his favourite topic Sure of the interest of his hearers he unburdened himself
If I were to name the one crying evil of American life Mr Derrick he continued it would be the indifference of the better people to public affairs It is so in all our great centres There are other great trusts God knows in the United States besides our own dear P and S W Railroad Every State has its own grievance If it is not a railroad trust it is a sugar trust or an oil trust or an industrial trust that exploits the People BECAUSE THE PEOPLE ALLOW IT The indifference of the People is the opportunity of the despot It is as true as that the whole is greater than the part and the maxim is so old that it is trite—it is laughable It is neglected and disused for the sake of some new ingenious and complicated theory some wonderful scheme of reorganisation but the fact remains nevertheless simple fundamental everlasting The People have but to say No and not the strongest tyranny political religious or financial that was ever organised could survive one week
The others absorbed attentive approved nodding their heads in silence as the manufacturer finished
Thats one reason Mr Derrick the other resumed after a moment why I have been so glad to meet you You and your League are trying to say No to the trust I hope you will succeed If your example will rally the People to your cause you will Otherwise— he shook his head
One stage of the fight is to be passed this very day observed Magnus My sons and myself are expecting hourly news from the City Hall a decision in our case is pending
We are both of us fighters it seems Mr Derrick said Cedarquist Each with his particular enemy We are well met indeed the farmer and the manufacturer both in the same grist between the two millstones of the lethargy of the Public and the aggression of the Trust the two great evils of modern America Pres my boy there is your epic poem ready to hand
But Cedarquist was full of another idea Rarely did so favourable an opportunity present itself for explaining his theories his ambitions Addressing himself to Magnus he continued
Fortunately for myself the Atlas Company was not my only investment I have other interests The building of ships—steel sailing ships—has been an ambition of mine—for this purpose Mr Derrick to carry American wheat For years I have studied this question of American wheat and at last I have arrived at a theory Let me explain At present all our California wheat goes to Liverpool and from that port is distributed over the world But a change is coming I am sure of it You young men he turned to Presley Lyman and Harran will live to see it Our century is about done The great word of this nineteenth century has been Production The great word of the twentieth century will be—listen to me you youngsters—Markets As a market for our Production—or let me take a concrete example—as a market for our WHEAT Europe is played out Population in Europe is not increasing fast enough to keep up with the rapidity of our production In some cases as in France the population is stationary WE however have gone on producing wheat at a tremendous rate
The result is overproduction We supply more than Europe can eat and down go the prices The remedy is NOT in the curtailing of our wheat areas but in this we MUST HAVE NEW MARKETS GREATER MARKETS For years we have been sending our wheat from East to West from California to Europe But the time will come when we must send it from West to East We must march with the course of empire not against it I mean we must look to China Rice in China is losing its nutritive quality The Asiatics though must be fed if not on rice then on wheat Why Mr Derrick if only onehalf the population of China ate a half ounce of flour per man per day all the wheat areas in California could not feed them Ah if I could only hammer that into the brains of every rancher of the San Joaquin yes and of every owner of every bonanza farm in Dakota and Minnesota Send your wheat to China handle it yourselves do away with the middleman break up the Chicago wheat pits and elevator rings and mixing houses When in feeding China you have decreased the European shipments the effect is instantaneous Prices go up in Europe without having the least effect upon the prices in China We hold the key we have the wheat—infinitely more than we ourselves can eat Asia and Europe must look to America to be fed What fatuous neglect of opportunity to continue to deluge Europe with our surplus food when the East trembles upon the verge of starvation
The two men Cedarquist and Magnus continued the conversation a little further The manufacturers idea was new to the Governor He was greatly interested He withdrew from the conversation Thoughtful he leaned back in his place stroking the bridge of his beaklike nose with a crooked forefinger
Cedarquist turned to Harran and began asking details as to the conditions of the wheat growers of the San Joaquin Lyman still maintained an attitude of polite aloofness yawning occasionally behind three fingers and Presley was left to the company of his own thoughts
There had been a day when the affairs and grievances of the farmers of his acquaintance—Magnus Annixter Osterman and old Broderson—had filled him only with disgust His mind full of a great vague epic poem of the West he had kept himself apart disdainful of what he chose to consider their petty squabbles But the scene in Annixters harness room had thrilled and uplifted him He was palpitating with excitement all through the succeeding months He abandoned the idea of an epic poem In six months he had not written a single verse Day after day he trembled with excitement as the relations between the Trust and League became more and more strained He saw the matter in its true light It was typical It was the worldold war between Freedom and Tyranny and at times his hatred of the railroad shook him like a crisp and withered reed while the languid indifference of the people of the State to the quarrel filled him with a blind exasperation
But as he had once explained to Vanamee he must find expression He felt that he would suffocate otherwise He had begun to keep a journal As the inclination spurred him he wrote down his thoughts and ideas in this sometimes every day sometimes only three or four times a month Also he flung aside his books of poems—Milton Tennyson Browning even Homer—and addressed himself to Mill Malthus Young Poushkin Henry George Schopenhauer He attacked the subject of Social Inequality with unbounded enthusiasm He devoured rather than read and emerged from the affair his mind a confused jumble of conflicting notions sick with overeffort raging against injustice and oppression and with not one sane suggestion as to remedy or redress
The butt of his cigarette scorched his fingers and roused him from his brooding In the act of lighting another he glanced across the room and was surprised to see two very prettily dressed young women in the company of an older gentleman in a long frock coat standing before Hartraths painting examining it their heads upon one side
Presley uttered a murmur of surprise He himself was a member of the club and the presence of women within its doors except on special occasions was not tolerated He turned to Lyman Derrick for an explanation but this other had also seen the women and abruptly exclaimed
I declare I had forgotten about it Why this is Ladies Day of course
Why yes interposed Cedarquist glancing at the women over his shoulder Didnt you know They let em in twice a year you remember and this is a double occasion They are going to raffle Hartraths picture—for the benefit of the Gingerbread Fair Why you are not up to date Lyman This is a sacred and religious rite—an important public event
Of course of course murmured Lyman He found means to survey Harran and Magnus Certainly neither his father nor his brother were dressed for the function that impended He had been stupid Magnus invariably attracted attention and now with his trousers strapped under his boots his wrinkled frock coat—Lyman twisted his cuffs into sight with an impatient nervous movement of his wrists glancing a second time at his brothers pink face forward curling yellow hair and clothes of a country cut But there was no help for it He wondered what were the club regulations in the matter of bringing in visitors on Ladies Day Sure enough Ladies Day he remarked I am very glad you struck it Governor We can sit right where we are I guess this is as good a place as any to see the crowd Its a good chance to see all the big guns of the city Do you expect your people here Mr Cedarquist
My wife may come and my daughters said the manufacturer
Ah murmured Presley so much the better I was going to give myself the pleasure of calling upon your daughters Mr Cedarquist this afternoon
You can save your carfare Pres said Cedarquist you will see them here
No doubt the invitations for the occasion had appointed one oclock as the time for between that hour and two the guests arrived in an almost unbroken stream From their point of vantage in the round window of the main room Magnus his two sons and Presley looked on very interested Cedarquist had excused himself affirming that he must look out for his women folk
Of every ten of the arrivals seven at least were ladies They entered the room—this unfamiliar masculine haunt where their husbands brothers and sons spent so much of their time—with a certain show of hesitancy and little nervous oblique glances moving their heads from side to side like a file of hens venturing into a strange barn They came in groups ushered by a single member of the club doing the honours with effusive bows and polite gestures indicating the various objects of interest pictures busts and the like that decorated the room
Fresh from his recollections of Bonneville Guadalajara and the dance in Annixters barn Presley was astonished at the beauty of these women and the elegance of their toilettes The crowd thickened rapidly A murmur of conversation arose subdued gracious mingled with the soft rustle of silk grenadines velvet The scent of delicate perfumes spread in the air Violet de Parme Peau dEspagne Colours of the most harmonious blends appeared and disappeared at intervals in the slowly moving press touches of lavendertinted velvets pale violet crepes and creamcoloured appliqued laces
There seemed to be no need of introductions Everybody appeared to be acquainted There was no awkwardness no constraint The assembly disengaged an impression of refined pleasure On every hand innumerable dialogues seemed to go forward easily and naturally without break or interruption witty engaging the couple never at a loss for repartee A third party was gracefully included then a fourth Little groups were formed—groups that divided themselves or melted into other groups or disintegrated again into isolated pairs or lost themselves in the background of the mass—all without friction without embarrassment—the whole affair going forward of itself decorous tactful wellbred
At a distance and not too loud a stringed orchestra sent up a pleasing hum Waiters with brass buttons on their full dress coats went from group to group silent unobtrusive serving salads and ices
But the focus of the assembly was the little space before Hartraths painting It was called A Study of the Contra Costa Foothills and was set in a frame of natural redwood the bark still adhering It was conspicuously displayed on an easel at the right of the entrance to the main room of the club and was very large In the foreground and to the left under the shade of a liveoak stood a couple of reddish cows kneedeep in a patch of yellow poppies while in the righthand corner to balance the composition was placed a girl in a pink dress and white sunbonnet in which the shadows were indicated by broad dashes of pale blue paint The ladies and young girls examined the production with little murmurs of admiration hazarding remembered phrases searching for the exact balance between generous praise and critical discrimination expressing their opinions in the mild technicalities of the Art Books and painting classes They spoke of atmospheric effects of middle distance of chiarooscuro of foreshortening of the decomposition of light of the subordination of individuality to fidelity of interpretation
One tall girl with hair almost white in its blondness having observed that the handling of the masses reminded her strongly of Corot her companion who carried a gold lorgnette by a chain around her neck answered
Ah Millet perhaps but not Corot
This verdict had an immediate success It was passed from group to group It seemed to imply a delicate distinction that carried conviction at once It was decided formally that the reddish brown cows in the picture were reminiscent of Daubigny and that the handling of the masses was altogether Millet but that the general effect was not quite Corot
Presley curious to see the painting that was the subject of so much discussion had left the group in the round window and stood close by Hartrath craning his head over the shoulders of the crowd trying to catch a glimpse of the reddish cows the milkmaid and the blue painted foothills He was suddenly aware of Cedarquists voice in his ear and turning about found himself face to face with the manufacturer his wife and his two daughters
There was a meeting Salutations were exchanged Presley shaking hands all around expressing his delight at seeing his old friends once more for he had known the family from his boyhood Mrs Cedarquist being his aunt Mrs Cedarquist and her two daughters declared that the air of Los Muertos must certainly have done him a world of good He was stouter there could be no doubt of it A little pale perhaps He was fatiguing himself with his writing no doubt Ah he must take care Health was everything after all Had he been writing any more verse Every month they scanned the magazines looking for his name
Mrs Cedarquist was a fashionable woman the president or chairman of a score of clubs She was forever running after fads appearing continually in the society wherein she moved with new and astounding proteges—fakirs whom she unearthed no one knew where discovering them long in advance of her companions Now it was a Russian Countess with dirty finger nails who travelled throughout America and borrowed money now an Aesthete who possessed a wonderful collection of topaz gems who submitted decorative schemes for the interior arrangement of houses and who received in Mrs Cedarquists drawingrooms dressed in a white velvet cassock now a widow of some Mohammedan of Bengal or Rajputana who had a blue spot in the middle of her forehead and who solicited contributions for her sisters in affliction now a certain bearded poet recently back from the Klondike now a decayed musician who had been ejected from a young ladies musical conservatory of Europe because of certain surprising pamphlets on free love and who had come to San Francisco to introduce the community to the music of Brahms now a Japanese youth who wore spectacles and a grey flannel shirt and who at intervals delivered himself of the most astonishing poems vague unrhymed unmetrical lucubrations incoherent bizarre now a Christian Scientist a lean grey woman whose creed was neither Christian nor scientific now a university professor with the bristling beard of an anarchist chiefofsection and a roaring guttural voice whose intenseness left him gasping and apoplectic now a civilised Cherokee with a mission now a female elocutionist whose forte was Byrons Songs of Greece now a high caste Chinaman now a miniature painter now a tenor a pianiste a mandolin player a missionary a drawing master a virtuoso a collector an Armenian a botanist with a new flower a critic with a new theory a doctor with a new treatment
And all these people had a veritable mania for declamation and fancy dress The Russian Countess gave talks on the prisons of Siberia wearing the headdress and pinchbeck ornaments of a Slav bride the Aesthete in his white cassock gave readings on obscure questions of art and ethics The widow of India in the costume of her caste described the social life of her people at home The bearded poet perspiring in furs and boots of reindeer skin declaimed verses of his own composition about the wild life of the Alaskan mining camps The Japanese youth in the silk robes of the Samurai twosworded nobles read from his own works—The flatbordered earth nailed down at night rusting under the darkness The brave upright rains that came down like errands from ironbodied yoretime The Christian Scientist in funereal impressive black discussed the contrawill and panpsychic hylozoism The university professor put on a full dress suit and lisle thread gloves at three in the afternoon and before literary clubs and circles bellowed extracts from Goethe and Schiler in the German shaking his fists purple with vehemence The Cherokee arrayed in fringed buckskin and blue beads rented from a costumer intoned folk songs of his people in the vernacular The elocutionist in cheesecloth toga and tin bracelets rendered The Isles of Greece where burning Sappho loved and sung The Chinaman in the robes of a mandarin lectured on Confucius The Armenian in fez and baggy trousers spoke of the Unspeakable Turk The mandolin player dressed like a bull fighter held musical conversaziones interpreting the peasant songs of Andalusia
It was the Fake the eternal irrepressible Sham glib nimble ubiquitous tricked out in all the paraphernalia of imposture an endless defile of charlatans that passed interminably before the gaze of the city marshalled by lady presidents exploited by clubs of women by literary societies reading circles and culture organisations The attention the Fake received the time devoted to it the money which it absorbed were incredible It was all one that impostor after impostor was exposed it was all one that the clubs the circles the societies were proved beyond doubt to have been swindled The more the Philistine press of the city railed and guyed the more the women rallied to the defence of their protege of the hour That their favourite was persecuted was to them a veritable rapture Promptly they invested the apostle of culture with the glamour of a martyr
The fakirs worked the community as shellgame tricksters work a county fair departing with bursting pocketbooks passing on the word to the next in line assured that the place was not worked out knowing well that there was enough for all
More frequently the public of the city unable to think of more than one thing at one time prostrated itself at the feet of a single apostle but at other moments such as the present when a Flower Festival or a MillionDollar Fair aroused enthusiasm in all quarters the occasion was one of gala for the entire Fake The decayed professors virtuosi litterateurs and artists thronged to the place en masse Their clamour filled all the air On every hand one heard the scraping of violins the tinkling of mandolins the suave accents of art talks the incoherencies of poets the declamation of elocutionists the inarticulate wanderings of the Japanese the confused mutterings of the Cherokee the guttural bellowing of the German university professor all in the name of the MillionDollar Fair Money to the extent of hundreds of thousands was set in motion
Mrs Cedarquist was busy from morning until night One after another she was introduced to newly arrived fakirs To each poet to each litterateur to each professor she addressed the same question
How long have you known you had this power
She spent her days in one quiver of excitement and jubilation She was in the movement The people of the city were awakening to a Realisation of the Beautiful to a sense of the higher needs of life This was Art this was Literature this was Culture and Refinement The Renaissance had appeared in the West
She was a short rather stout redfaced very much overdressed little woman of some fifty years She was rich in her own name even before her marriage being a relative of Shelgrim himself and on familiar terms with the great financier and his family Her husband while deploring the policy of the railroad saw no good reason for quarrelling with Shelgrim and on more than one occasion had dined at his house On this occasion delighted that she had come upon a minor poet she insisted upon presenting him to Hartrath
You two should have so much in common she explained
Presley shook the flaccid hand of the artist murmuring conventionalities while Mrs Cedarquist hastened to say
I am sure you know Mr Presleys verse Mr Hartrath You should believe me You two have much in common I can see so much that is alike in your modes of interpreting nature In Mr Presleys sonnet The Better Part there is the same note as in your picture the same sincerity of tone the same subtlety of touch the same nuances—ah
Oh my dear Madame murmured the artist interrupting Presleys impatient retort I am a mere bungler You dont mean quite that I am sure I am too sensitive It is my cross Beauty he closed his sore eyes with a little expression of pain beauty unmans me
But Mrs Cedarquist was not listening Her eyes were fixed on the artists luxuriant hair a thick and glossy mane that all but covered his coat collar
Leonine she murmured— leonine Like Samson of old
However abruptly bestirring herself she exclaimed a second later
But I must run away I am selling tickets for you this afternoon Mr Hartrath I am having such success Twentyfive already Mr Presley you will take two chances I am sure and oh by the way I have such good news You know I am one of the lady members of the subscription committee for our Fair and you know we approached Mr Shelgrim for a donation to help along Oh such a liberal patron a real Lorenzo di Medici In the name of the Pacific and Southwestern he has subscribed think of it five thousand dollars and yet they will talk of the meanness of the railroad
Possibly it is to his interest murmured Presley The fairs and festivals bring people to the city over his railroad
But the others turned on him expostulating
Ah you Philistine declared Mrs Cedarquist And this from YOU Presley to attribute such base motives——
If the poets become materialised Mr Presley declared Hartrath what can we say to the people
And Shelgrim encourages your milliondollar fairs and fetes said a voice at Presleys elbow because it is throwing dust in the peoples eyes
The group turned about and saw Cedarquist who had come up unobserved in time to catch the drift of the talk But he spoke without bitterness there was even a goodhumoured twinkle in his eyes
Yes he continued smiling our dear Shelgrim promotes your fairs not only as Pres says because it is money in his pocket but because it amuses the people distracts their attention from the doings of his railroad When Beatrice was a baby and had little colics I used to jingle my keys in front of her nose and it took her attention from the pain in her tummy so Shelgrim
The others laughed goodhumouredly protesting nevertheless and Mrs Cedarquist shook her finger in warning at the artist and exclaimed
The Philistines be upon thee Samson
By the way observed Hartrath willing to change the subject I hear you are on the Famine Relief Committee Does your work progress
Oh most famously I assure you she said Such a movement as we have started Those poor creatures The photographs of them are simply dreadful I had the committee to luncheon the other day and we passed them around We are getting subscriptions from all over the State and Mr Cedarquist is to arrange for the ship
The Relief Committee in question was one of a great number that had been formed in California—and all over the Union for the matter of that—to provide relief for the victims of a great famine in Central India The whole world had been struck with horror at the reports of suffering and mortality in the affected districts and had hastened to send aid Certain women of San Francisco with Mrs Cedarquist at their head had organised a number of committees but the manufacturers wife turned the meetings of these committees into social affairs—luncheons teas where one discussed the ways and means of assisting the starving Asiatics over teacups and plates of salad
Shortly afterward a mild commotion spread throughout the assemblage of the clubs guests The drawing of the numbers in the raffle was about to be made Hartrath in a flurry of agitation excused himself Cedarquist took Presley by the arm
Pres lets get out of this he said Come into the wine room and I will shake you for a glass of sherry
They had some difficulty in extricating themselves The main room where the drawing was to take place suddenly became densely thronged All the guests pressed eagerly about the table near the picture upon which one of the hall boys had just placed a ballot box containing the numbers The ladies holding their tickets in their hands pushed forward A staccato chatter of excited murmurs arose What became of Harran and Lyman and the Governor inquired Presley
Lyman had disappeared alleging a business engagement but Magnus and his younger son had retired to the library of the club on the floor above It was almost deserted They were deep in earnest conversation
Harran said the Governor with decision there is a deal there in what Cedarquist says Our wheat to China hey boy
It is certainly worth thinking of sir
It appeals to me boy it appeals to me Its big and theres a fortune in it Big chances mean big returns and I know—your old father isnt a back number yet Harran—I may not have so wide an outlook as our friend Cedarquist but I am quick to see my chance Boy the whole East is opening disintegrating before the AngloSaxon It is time that bread stuffs as well should make markets for themselves in the Orient Just at this moment too when Lyman will scale down freight rates so we can haul to tidewater at little cost
Magnus paused again his frown beetling and in the silence the excited murmur from the main room of the club the soprano chatter of a multitude of women found its way to the deserted library
I believe its worth looking into Governor asserted Harran
Magnus rose and his hands behind him paced the floor of the library a couple of times his imagination all stimulated and vivid The great gambler perceived his Chance the kaleidoscopic shifting of circumstances that made a Situation It had come silently unexpectedly He had not seen its approach Abruptly he woke one morning to see the combination realised But also he saw a vision A sudden and abrupt revolution in the Wheat A new world of markets discovered the matter as important as the discovery of America The torrent of wheat was to be diverted flowing back upon itself in a sudden colossal eddy stranding the middleman the ENTREPRENEUR the elevatorand mixinghouse men dry and despairing their occupation gone He saw the farmer suddenly emancipated the worlds food no longer at the mercy of the speculator thousands upon thousands of men set free of the grip of Trust and ring and monopoly acting for themselves selling their own wheat organising into one gigantic trust themselves sending their agents to all the entry ports of China Himself Annixter Broderson and Osterman would pool their issues He would convince them of the magnificence of the new movement They would be its pioneers Harran would be sent to Hong Kong to represent the four They would charter—probably buy—a ship perhaps one of Cedarquists American built the nations flag at the peak and the sailing of that ship gorged with the crops from Brodersons and Ostermans ranches from Quien Sabe and Los Muertos would be like the sailing of the caravels from Palos It would mark a new era it would make an epoch
With this vision still expanding before the eye of his mind Magnus with Harran at his elbow prepared to depart
They descended to the lower floor and involved themselves for a moment in the throng of fashionables that blocked the hallway and the entrance to the main room where the numbers of the raffle were being drawn Near the head of the stairs they encountered Presley and Cedarquist who had just come out of the wine room
Magnus still on fire with the new idea pressed a few questions upon the manufacturer before bidding him goodbye He wished to talk further upon the great subject interested as to details but Cedarquist was vague in his replies He was no farmer he hardly knew wheat when he saw it only he knew the trend of the worlds affairs he felt them to be setting inevitably eastward
However his very vagueness was a further inspiration to the Governor He swept details aside He saw only the grand coup the huge results the East conquered the march of empire rolling westward finally arriving at its starting point the vague mysterious Orient
He saw his wheat like the crest of an advancing billow crossing the Pacific bursting upon Asia flooding the Orient in a golden torrent It was the new era He had lived to see the death of the old and the birth of the new first the mine now the ranch first gold now wheat Once again he became the pioneer hardy brilliant taking colossal chances blazing the way grasping a fortune—a million in a single day All the bigness of his nature leaped up again within him At the magnitude of the inspiration he felt young again indomitable the leader at last king of his fellows wresting from fortune at this eleventh hour before his old age the place of high command which so long had been denied him At last he could achieve
Abruptly Magnus was aware that some one had spoken his name He looked about and saw behind him at a little distance two gentlemen strangers to him They had withdrawn from the crowd into a little recess Evidently having no women to look after they had lost interest in the afternoons affair Magnus realised that they had not seen him One of them was reading aloud to his companion from an evening edition of that days newspaper It was in the course of this reading that Magnus caught the sound of his name He paused listening and Presley Harran and Cedarquist followed his example Soon they all understood They were listening to the report of the judges decision for which Magnus was waiting—the decision in the case of the League vs the Railroad For the moment the polite clamour of the raffle hushed itself—the winning number was being drawn The guests held their breath and in the ensuing silence Magnus and the others heard these words distinctly
It follows that the title to the lands in question is in the plaintiff—the Pacific and Southwestern Railroad and the defendants have no title and their possession is wrongful There must be findings and judgment for the plaintiff and it is so ordered
In spite of himself Magnus paled Harran shut his teeth with an oath Their exaltation of the previous moment collapsed like a pyramid of cards The vision of the new movement of the wheat the conquest of the East the invasion of the Orient seemed only the flimsiest mockery With a brusque wrench they were snatched back to reality Between them and the vision between the fecund San Joaquin reeking with fruitfulness and the millions of Asia crowding toward the verge of starvation lay the ironhearted monster of steel and steam implacable insatiable huge—its entrails gorged with the life blood that it sucked from an entire commonwealth its ever hungry maw glutted with the harvests that should have fed the famished bellies of the whole world of the Orient
But abruptly while the four men stood there gazing into each others faces a vigorous handclapping broke out The raffle of Hartraths picture was over and as Presley turned about he saw Mrs Cedarquist and her two daughters signalling eagerly to the manufacturer unable to reach him because of the intervening crowd Then Mrs Cedarquist raised her voice and cried
Ive won Ive won
Unnoticed and with but a brief word to Cedarquist Magnus and Harran went down the marble steps leading to the street door silent Harrans arm tight around his fathers shoulder
At once the orchestra struck into a lively air A renewed murmur of conversation broke out and Cedarquist as he said goodbye to Presley looked first at the retreating figures of the ranchers then at the gayly dressed throng of beautiful women and debonair young men and indicating the whole scene with a single gesture said smiling sadly as he spoke
Not a city Presley not a city but a Midway Plaisance
CHAPTER II
Underneath the Long Trestle where Broderson Creek cut the line of the railroad and the Upper Road the ground was low and covered with a second growth of grey green willows Along the borders of the creek were occasional marshy spots and now and then Hilma Tree came here to gather watercresses which she made into salads
The place was picturesque secluded an oasis of green shade in all the limitless flat monotony of the surrounding wheat lands The creek had eroded deep into the little gully and no matter how hot it was on the baking shimmering levels of the ranches above down here one always found ones self enveloped in an odorous moist coolness From time to time the incessant murmur of the creek pouring over and around the larger stones was interrupted by the thunder of trains roaring out upon the trestle overhead passing on with the furious gallop of their hundreds of iron wheels leaving in the air a taint of hot oil acrid smoke and reek of escaping steam
On a certain afternoon in the spring of the year Hilma was returning to Quien Sabe from Hoovens by the trail that led from Los Muertos to Annixters ranch houses under the trestle She had spent the afternoon with Minna Hooven who for the time being was kept indoors because of a wrenched ankle As Hilma descended into the gravel flats and thickets of willows underneath the trestle she decided that she would gather some cresses for her supper that night She found a spot around the base of one of the supports of the trestle where the cresses grew thickest and plucked a couple of handfuls washing them in the creek and pinning them up in her handkerchief It made a little round cold bundle and Hilma warm from her walk found a delicious enjoyment in pressing the damp ball of it to her cheeks and neck
For all the change that Annixter had noted in her upon the occasion of the barn dance Hilma remained in many things a young child She was never at loss for enjoyment and could always amuse herself when left alone Just now she chose to drink from the creek lying prone on the ground her face halfburied in the water and this not because she was thirsty but because it was a new way to drink She imagined herself a belated traveller a poor girl an outcast quenching her thirst at the wayside brook her little packet of cresses doing duty for a bundle of clothes Night was coming on Perhaps it would storm She had nowhere to go She would apply at a hut for shelter
Abruptly the temptation to dabble her feet in the creek presented itself to her Always she had liked to play in the water What a delight now to take off her shoes and stockings and wade out into the shallows near the bank She had worn low shoes that afternoon and the dust of the trail had filtered in above the edges At times she felt the grit and grey sand on the soles of her feet and the sensation had set her teeth on edge What a delicious alternative the cold clean water suggested and how easy it would be to do as she pleased just then if only she were a little girl In the end it was stupid to be grown up
Sitting upon the bank one finger tucked into the heel of her shoe Hilma hesitated Suppose a train should come She fancied she could see the engineer leaning from the cab with a great grin on his face or the brakeman shouting gibes at her from the platform Abruptly she blushed scarlet The blood throbbed in her temples Her heart beat Since the famous evening of the barn dance Annixter had spoken to her but twice Hilma no longer looked after the ranch house these days The thought of setting foot within Annixters diningroom and bedroom terrified her and in the end her mother had taken over that part of her work Of the two meetings with the master of Quien Sabe one had been a mere exchange of good mornings as the two happened to meet over by the artesian well the other more complicated had occurred in the dairyhouse again Annixter pretending to look over the new cheese press asking about details of her work When this had happened on that previous occasion ending with Annixters attempt to kiss her Hilma had been talkative enough chattering on from one subject to another never at a loss for a theme But this last time was a veritable ordeal No sooner had Annixter appeared than her heart leaped and quivered like that of the houndharried doe Her speech failed her Throughout the whole brief interview she had been miserably tonguetied stammering monosyllables confused horribly awkward and when Annixter had gone away she had fled to her little room and bolting the door had flung herself face downward on the bed and wept as though her heart were breaking she did not know why
That Annixter had been overwhelmed with business all through the winter was an inexpressible relief to Hilma His affairs took him away from the ranch continually He was absent sometimes for weeks making trips to San Francisco or to Sacramento or to Bonneville Perhaps he was forgetting her overlooking her and while at first she told herself that she asked nothing better the idea of it began to occupy her mind She began to wonder if it was really so
She knew his trouble Everybody did The news of the sudden forward movement of the Railroads forces inaugurating the campaign had flared whitehot and blazing all over the country side To Hilmas notion Annixters attitude was heroic beyond all expression His courage in facing the Railroad as he had faced Delaney in the barn seemed to her the pitch of sublimity She refused to see any auxiliaries aiding him in his fight To her imagination the great League which all the ranchers were joining was a mere form Singlehanded Annixter fronted the monster But for him the corporation would gobble Quien Sabe as a whale would a minnow He was a hero who stood between them all and destruction He was a protector of her family He was her champion She began to mention him in her prayers every night adding a further petition to the effect that he would become a good man and that he should not swear so much and that he should never meet Delaney again
However as Hilma still debated the idea of bathing her feet in the creek a train did actually thunder past overhead—the regular evening Overland—the through express that never stopped between Bakersfield and Fresno It stormed by with a deafening clamour and a swirl of smoke in a long succession of waycoaches and chocolate coloured Pullmans grimy with the dust of the great deserts of the Southwest The quivering of the trestles supports set a tremble in the ground underfoot The thunder of wheels drowned all sound of the flowing of the creek and also the noise of the buckskin mares hoofs descending from the trail upon the gravel about the creek so that Hilma turning about after the passage of the train saw Annixter close at hand with the abruptness of a vision
He was looking at her smiling as he rarely did the firm line of his outthrust lower lip relaxed goodhumouredly He had taken off his campaign hat to her and though his stiff yellow hair was twisted into a bristling mop the little persistent tuft on the crown usually defiantly erect as an Apaches scalplock was nowhere in sight
Hello its you is it Miss Hilma he exclaimed getting down from the buckskin and allowing her to drink
Hilma nodded scrambling to her feet dusting her skirt with nervous pats of both hands
Annixter sat down on a great rock close by and the loop of the bridle over his arm lit a cigar and began to talk He complained of the heat of the day the bad condition of the Lower Road over which he had come on his way from a committee meeting of the League at Los Muertos of the slowness of the work on the irrigating ditch and as a matter of course of the general hard times
Miss Hilma he said abruptly never you marry a ranchman Hes never out of trouble
Hilma gasped her eyes widening till the full round of the pupil was disclosed Instantly a certain inexplicable guiltiness overpowered her with incredible confusion Her hands trembled as she pressed the bundle of cresses into a hard ball between her palms
Annixter continued to talk He was disturbed and excited himself at this unexpected meeting Never through all the past winter months of strenuous activity the fever of political campaigns the harrowing delays and ultimate defeat in one law court after another had he forgotten the look in Hilmas face as he stood with one arm around her on the floor of his barn in peril of his life from the busters revolver That dumb confession of Hilmas wideopen eyes had been enough for him Yet somehow he never had had a chance to act upon it During the short period when he could be on his ranch Hilma had always managed to avoid him Once even she had spent a month about Christmas time with her mothers father who kept a hotel in San Francisco
Now today however he had her all to himself He would put an end to the situation that troubled him and vexed him day after day month after month Beyond question the moment had come for something definite he could not say precisely what Readjusting his cigar between his teeth he resumed his speech It suited his humour to take the girl into his confidence following an instinct which warned him that this would bring about a certain closeness of their relations a certain intimacy
What do you think of this row anyways Miss Hilma—this railroad fuss in general Think Shelgrim and his rushers are going to jump Quien Sabe—are going to run us off the ranch
Oh no sir protested Hilma still breathless Oh no indeed not
Well what then
Hilma made a little uncertain movement of ignorance
I dont know what
Well the League agreed today that if the test cases were lost in the Supreme Court—you know weve appealed to the Supreme Court at Washington—wed fight
Fight
Yes fight
Fight like—like you and Mr Delaney that time with—oh dear—with guns
I dont know grumbled Annixter vaguely What do YOU think
Hilmas lowpitched almost husky voice trembled a little as she replied Fighting—with guns—thats so terrible Oh those revolvers in the barn I can hear them yet Every shot seemed like the explosion of tons of powder
Shall we clear out then Shall we let Delaney have possession and S Behrman and all that lot Shall we give in to them
Never never she exclaimed her great eyes flashing
YOU wouldnt like to be turned out of your home would you Miss Hilma because Quien Sabe is your home isnt it Youve lived here ever since you were as big as a minute You wouldnt like to have S Behrman and the rest of em turn you out
Nno she murmured No I shouldnt like that Theres mamma and——
Well do you think for one second Im going to let em cried Annixter his teeth tightening on his cigar You stay right where you are Ill take care of you right enough Look here he demanded abruptly youve no use for that roaring lush Delaney have you I think he is a wicked man she declared I know the Railroad has pretended to sell him part of the ranch and he lets Mr S Behrman and Mr Ruggles just use him
Right I thought you wouldnt be keen on him
There was a long pause The buckskin began blowing among the pebbles nosing for grass and Annixter shifted his cigar to the other corner of his mouth
Pretty place he muttered looking around him Then he added Miss Hilma see here I want to have a kind of talk with you if you dont mind I dont know just how to say these sort of things and if I get all balled up as I go along you just set it down to the fact that Ive never had any experience in dealing with feemale girls understand You see ever since the barn dance—yes and long before then—Ive been thinking a lot about you Straight I have and I guess you know it Youre about the only girl that I ever knew well and I guess he declared deliberately youre about the only one I want to know Its my nature You didnt say anything that time when we stood there together and Delaney was playing the fool but somehow I got the idea that you didnt want Delaney to do for me one little bit that if hed got me then you would have been sorrier than if hed got any one else Well I felt just that way about you I would rather have had him shoot any other girl in the room than you yes or in the whole State Why if anything should happen to you Miss Hilma—well I wouldnt care to go on with anything S Behrman could jump Quien Sabe and welcome And Delaney could shoot me full of holes whenever he got good and ready Id quit Id lay right down I wouldnt care a whoop about anything any more You are the only girl for me in the whole world I didnt think so at first I didnt want to But seeing you around every day and seeing how pretty you were and how clever and hearing your voice and all why it just got all inside of me somehow and now I cant think of anything else I hate to go to San Francisco or Sacramento or Visalia or even Bonneville for only a day just because you arent there in any of those places and I just rush what Ive got to do so as I can get back here While you were away that Christmas time why I was as lonesome as—oh you dont know anything about it I just scratched off the days on the calendar every night one by one till you got back And it just comes to this I want you with me all the time I want you should have a home thats my home too I want to take care of you and have you all for myself you understand What do you say
Hilma standing up before him retied a knot in her handkerchief bundle with elaborate precaution blinking at it through her tears
What do you say Miss Hilma Annixter repeated How about that What do you say
Just above a whisper Hilma murmured
I—I dont know
Dont know what Dont you think we could hit it off together
I dont know
I know we could Hilma I dont mean to scare you What are you crying for I dont know
Annixter got up cast away his cigar and dropping the buckskins bridle came and stood beside her putting a hand on her shoulder Hilma did not move and he felt her trembling She still plucked at the knot of the handkerchief I cant do without you little girl Annixter continued and I want you I want you bad I dont get much fun out of life ever It sure isnt my nature I guess Im a hard man Everybody is trying to down me and now Im up against the Railroad Im fighting em all Hilma night and day lock stock and barrel and Im fighting now for my home my land everything I have in the world If I win out I want somebody to be glad with me If I dont—I want somebody to be sorry for me sorry with me—and that somebody is you I am dogtired of going it alone I want some one to back me up I want to feel you alongside of me to give me a touch of the shoulder now and then Im tired of fighting for THINGS—land property money I want to fight for some PERSON—somebody beside myself Understand want to feel that it isnt all selfishness—that there are other interests than mine in the game—that theres some one dependent on me and thats thinking of me as Im thinking of them—some one I can come home to at night and put my arm around—like this and have her put her two arms around me—like— He paused a second and once again as it had been in that moment of imminent peril when he stood with his arm around her their eyes met—put her two arms around me prompted Annixter half smiling like—like what Hilma
I dont know
Like what Hilma he insisted
Like—like this she questioned With a movement of infinite tenderness and affection she slid her arms around his neck still crying a little
The sensation of her warm body in his embrace the feeling of her smooth round arm through the thinness of her sleeve pressing against his cheek thrilled Annixter with a delight such as he had never known He bent his head and kissed her upon the nape of her neck where the delicate amber tint melted into the thick sweet smelling mass of her dark brown hair She shivered a little holding him closer ashamed as yet to look up Without speech they stood there for a long minute holding each other close Then Hilma pulled away from him mopping her tearstained cheeks with the little moist ball of her handkerchief
What do you say Is it a go demanded Annixter jovially
I thought I hated you all the time she said and the velvety huskiness of her voice never sounded so sweet to him
And I thought it was that crockery smashing goat of a lout of a cowpuncher
Delaney The idea Oh dear I think it must always have been you
Since when Hilma he asked putting his arm around her Ah but it is good to have you my girl he exclaimed delighted beyond words that she permitted this freedom Since when Tell us all about it
Oh since always It was ever so long before I came to think of you—to well to think about—I mean to remember—oh you know what I mean But when I did oh THEN
Then what
I dont know—I havent thought—that way long enough to know
But you said you thought it must have been me always
I know but that was different—oh Im all mixed up Im so nervous and trembly now Oh she cried suddenly her face overcast with a look of earnestness and great seriousness both her hands catching at his wrist Oh you WILL be good to me now wont you Im only a little little child in so many ways and Ive given myself to you all in a minute and I cant go back of it now and its for always I dont know how it happened or why Sometimes I think I didnt wish it but now its done and I am glad and happy But NOW if you werent good to me—oh think of how it would be with me You are strong and big and rich and I am only a servant of yours a little nobody but Ive given all I had to you—myself—and you must be so good to me now Always remember that Be good to me and be gentle and kind to me in LITTLE things—in everything or you will break my heart
Annixter took her in his arms He was speechless No words that he had at his command seemed adequate All he could say was
Thats all right little girl Dont you be frightened Ill take care of you Thats all right thats all right
For a long time they sat there under the shade of the great trestle their arms about each other speaking only at intervals An hour passed The buckskin finding no feed to her taste took the trail stablewards the bridle dragging Annixter let her go Rather than to take his arm from around Hilmas waist he would have lost his whole stable At last however he bestirred himself and began to talk He thought it time to formulate some plan of action
Well now Hilma what are we going to do
Do she repeated Why must we do anything Oh isnt this enough
Theres better ahead he went on I want to fix you up somewhere where you can have a bit of a home all to yourself Lets see Bonneville wouldnt do Theres always a lot of yaps about there that know us and they would begin to cackle first off How about San Francisco We might go up next week and have a look around I would find rooms you could take somewheres and we would fix em up as lovely as howdoyoudo
Oh but why go away from Quien Sabe she protested And then so soon too Why must we have a wedding trip now that you are so busy Wouldnt it be better—oh I tell you we could go to Monterey after we were married for a little week where mammas people live and then come back here to the ranch house and settle right down where we are and let me keep house for you I wouldnt even want a single servant
Annixter heard and his face grew troubled
Hum he said I see
He gathered up a handful of pebbles and began snapping them carefully into the creek He fell thoughtful Here was a phase of the affair he had not planned in the least He had supposed all the time that Hilma took his meaning His old suspicion that she was trying to get a hold on him stirred again for a moment There was no good of such talk as that Always these feemale girls seemed crazy to get married bent on complicating the situation
Isnt that best said Hilma glancing at him
I dont know he muttered gloomily
Well then lets not Lets come right back to Quien Sabe without going to Monterey Anything that you want I want
I hadnt thought of it in just that way he observed
In what way then
Cant we—cant we wait about this marrying business
Thats just it she said gayly I said it was too soon There would be so much to do between whiles Why not say at the end of the summer
Say what
Our marriage I mean
Why get married then Whats the good of all that fuss about it I dont go anything upon a minister puddling round in my affairs Whats the difference anyhow We understand each other Isnt that enough Pshaw Hilma IM no marrying man
She looked at him a moment bewildered then slowly she took his meaning She rose to her feet her eyes wide her face paling with terror He did not look at her but he could hear the catch in her throat
Oh she exclaimed with a long deep breath and again Oh the back of her hand against her lips
It was a quick gasp of a veritable physical anguish Her eyes brimmed over Annixter rose looking at her
Well he said awkwardly Well
Hilma leaped back from him with an instinctive recoil of her whole being throwing out her hands in a gesture of defence fearing she knew not what There was as yet no sense of insult in her mind no outraged modesty She was only terrified It was as though searching for wild flowers she had come suddenly upon a snake
She stood for an instant spellbound her eyes wide her bosom swelling then all at once turned and fled darting across the plank that served for a foot bridge over the creek gaining the opposite bank and disappearing with a brisk rustle of underbrush such as might have been made by the flight of a frightened fawn
Abruptly Annixter found himself alone For a moment he did not move then he picked up his campaign hat carefully creased its limp crown and put it on his head and stood for a moment looking vaguely at the ground on both sides of him He went away without uttering a word without change of countenance his hands in his pockets his feet taking great strides along the trail in the direction of the ranch house
He had no sight of Hilma again that evening and the next morning he was up early and did not breakfast at the ranch house Business of the League called him to Bonneville to confer with Magnus and the firm of lawyers retained by the League to fight the landgrabbing cases An appeal was to be taken to the Supreme Court at Washington and it was to be settled that day which of the cases involved should be considered as test cases
Instead of driving or riding into Bonneville as he usually did Annixter took an early morning train the BakersfieldFresno local at Guadalajara and went to Bonneville by rail arriving there at twenty minutes after seven and breakfasting by appointment with Magnus Derrick and Osterman at the Yosemite House on Main Street
The conference of the committee with the lawyers took place in a front room of the Yosemite one of the latter bringing with him his clerk who made a stenographic report of the proceedings and took carbon copies of all letters written The conference was long and complicated the business transacted of the utmost moment and it was not until two oclock that Annixter found himself at liberty
However as he and Magnus descended into the lobby of the hotel they were aware of an excited and interested group collected about the swing doors that opened from the lobby of the Yosemite into the bar of the same name Dyke was there—even at a distance they could hear the reverberation of his deeptoned voice uplifted in wrath and furious expostulation Magnus and Annixter joined the group wondering and all at once fell full upon the first scene of a drama
That same morning Dykes mother had awakened him according to his instructions at daybreak A consignment of his hop poles from the north had arrived at the freight office of the P and S W in Bonneville and he was to drive in on his farm wagon and bring them out He would have a busy day
Hello hello he said as his mother pulled his ear to arouse him morning mamma
Its time she said after five already Your breakfast is on the stove
He took her hand and kissed it with great affection He loved his mother devotedly quite as much as he did the little tad In their little cottage in the forest of green hops that surrounded them on every hand the three led a joyous and secluded life contented industrious happy asking nothing better Dyke himself was a bighearted jovial man who spread an atmosphere of goodhumour wherever he went In the evenings he played with Sidney like a big boy an older brother lying on the bed or the sofa taking her in his arms Between them they had invented a great game The exengineer his boots removed his huge legs in the air hoisted the little tad on the soles of his stockinged feet like a circus acrobat dandling her there pretending he was about to let her fall Sidney choking with delight held on nervously with little screams and chirps of excitement while he shifted her gingerly from one foot to another and thence the final act the great gallery play to the palm of one great hand At this point Mrs Dyke was called in both father and daughter children both crying out that she was to come in and look look She arrived out of breath from the kitchen the potato masher in her hand Such children she murmured shaking her head at them amused for all that tucking the potato masher under her arm and clapping her hands In the end it was part of the game that Sidney should tumble down upon Dyke whereat he invariably vented a great bellow as if in pain declaring that his ribs were broken Gasping his eyes shut he pretended to be in the extreme of dissolution—perhaps he was dying Sidney always a little uncertain amused but distressed shook him nervously tugging at his beard pushing open his eyelid with one finger imploring him not to frighten her to wake up and be good
On this occasion while yet he was halfdressed Dyke tiptoed into his mothers room to look at Sidney fast asleep in her little iron cot her arm under her head her lips parted With infinite precaution he kissed her twice and then finding one little stocking hung with its mate very neatly over the back of a chair dropped into it a dime rolled up in a wad of paper He winked all to himself and went out again closing the door with exaggerated carefulness
He breakfasted alone Mrs Dyke pouring his coffee and handing him his plate of ham and eggs and half an hour later took himself off in his springless skeleton wagon humming a tune behind his beard and cracking the whip over the backs of his staid and solid farm horses
The morning was fine the sun just coming up He left Guadalajara sleeping and lifeless on his left and going across lots over an angle of Quien Sabe came out upon the Upper Road a mile below the Long Trestle He was in great spirits looking about him over the brown fields ruddy with the dawn Almost directly in front of him but far off the gilded dome of the courthouse at Bonneville was glinting radiant in the first rays of the sun while a few miles distant toward the north the venerable campanile of the Mission San Juan stood silhouetted in purplish black against the flaming east As he proceeded the great farm horses jogging forward placid deliberate the country side waked to another day Crossing the irrigating ditch further on he met a gang of Portuguese with picks and shovels over their shoulders just going to work Hooven already abroad shouted him a Goot mornun from behind the fence of Los Muertos Far off toward the southwest in the bare expanse of the open fields where a clump of eucalyptus and cypress trees set a dark green note a thin stream of smoke rose straight into the air from the kitchen of Derricks ranch houses
But a mile or so beyond the Long Trestle he was surprised to see Magnus Derricks protege the onetime shepherd Vanamee coming across Quien Sabe by a trail from one of Annixters division houses Without knowing exactly why Dyke received the impression that the young man had not been in bed all of that night
As the two approached each other Dyke eyed the young fellow He was distrustful of Vanamee having the countrybred suspicion of any person he could not understand Vanamee was beyond doubt no part of the life of ranch and country town He was an alien a vagabond a strange fellow who came and went in mysterious fashion making no friends keeping to himself Why did he never wear a hat why indulge in a fine black pointed beard when either a round beard or a mustache was the invariable custom Why did he not cut his hair Above all why did he prowl about so much at night As the two passed each other Dyke for all his goodnature was a little blunt in his greeting and looked back at the exshepherd over his shoulder
Dyke was right in his suspicion Vanamees bed had not been disturbed for three nights On the Monday of that week he had passed the entire night in the garden of the Mission overlooking the Seed ranch in the little valley Tuesday evening had found him miles away from that spot in a deep arroyo in the Sierra foothills to the eastward while Wednesday he had slept in an abandoned dobe on Ostermans stock range twenty miles from his resting place of the night before
The fact of the matter was that the old restlessness had once more seized upon Vanamee Something began tugging at him the spur of some unseen rider touched his flank The instinct of the wanderer woke and moved For some time now he had been a part of the Los Muertos staff On Quien Sabe as on the other ranches the slack season was at hand While waiting for the wheat to come up no one was doing much of anything Vanamee had come over to Los Muertos and spent most of his days on horseback riding the range rounding up and watching the cattle in the fourth division of the ranch But if the vagabond instinct now roused itself in the strange fellows nature a counter influence had also set in More and more Vanamee frequented the Mission garden after nightfall sometimes remaining there till the dawn began to whiten lying prone on the ground his chin on his folded arms his eyes searching the darkness over the little valley of the Seed ranch watching watching As the days went by he became more reticent than ever Presley often came to find him on the stock range a lonely figure in the great wilderness of bare green hillsides but Vanamee no longer took him into his confidence Father Sarria alone heard his strange stories
Dyke drove on toward Bonneville thinking over the whole matter He knew as every one did in that part of the country the legend of Vanamee and Angele the romance of the Mission garden the mystery of the Other Vanamees flight to the deserts of the southwest his periodic returns his strange reticent solitary character but like many another of the country people he accounted for Vanamee by a short and easy method No doubt the fellows wits were turned That was the long and short of it
The exengineer reached the Post Office in Bonneville towards eleven oclock but he did not at once present his notice of the arrival of his consignment at Ruggless office It entertained him to indulge in an hours lounging about the streets It was seldom he got into town and when he did he permitted himself the luxury of enjoying his evident popularity He met friends everywhere in the Post Office in the drug store in the barber shop and around the courthouse With each one he held a moments conversation almost invariably this ended in the same way
Come on n have a drink
Well I dont care if I do
And the friends proceeded to the Yosemite bar pledging each other with punctilious ceremony Dyke however was a strictly temperate man His life on the engine had trained him well Alcohol he never touched drinking instead ginger ale sarsaparillaandiron—soft drinks
At the drug store which also kept a stock of miscellaneous stationery his eye was caught by a transparent slate a childs toy where upon a little pane of frosted glass one could trace with considerable elaboration outline figures of cows ploughs bunches of fruit and even rural water mills that were printed on slips of paper underneath
Now theres an idea Jim he observed to the boy behind the sodawater fountain I know a little tad that would just about jump out of her skin for that Think Ill have to take it with me
Hows Sidney getting along the other asked while wrapping up the package
Dykes enthusiasm had made of his little girl a celebrity throughout Bonneville
The exengineer promptly became voluble assertive doggedly emphatic
Smartest little tad in all Tulare County and more fun A regular whole show in herself
And the hops inquired the other
Bully declared Dyke with the goodnatured mans readiness to talk of his private affairs to any one who would listen Bully Im dead sure of a bonanza crop by now The rain came JUST right I actually dont know as I can store the crop in those barns I built its going to be so big That foreman of mine was a daisy Jim Im going to make money in that deal After Ive paid off the mortgage—you know I had to mortgage yes crop and homestead both but I can pay it off and all the interest to boot lovely—well and as I was saying after all expenses are paid off Ill clear big money m son Yes sir I KNEW there was boodle in hops You know the crop is contracted for already Sure the foreman managed that Hes a daisy Chap in San Francisco will take it all and at the advanced price I wanted to hang on to see if it wouldnt go to six cents but the foreman said No thats good enough So I signed Aint it bully hey
Then whatll you do
Well I dont know Ill have a layoff for a month or so and take the little tad and mother up and show em the city—Frisco—until its time for the schools to open and then well put Sid in the seminary at Marysville Catch on
I suppose youll stay right by hops now
Right you are mson I know a good thing when I see it Theres plenty others going into hops next season I set em the example Wouldnt be surprised if it came to be a regular industry hereabouts Im planning ahead for next year already I can let the foreman go now that Ive learned the game myself and I think Ill buy a piece of land off Quien Sabe and get a bigger crop and build a couple more barns and by George in about five years time Ill have things humming Im going to make MONEY Jim
He emerged once more into the street and went up the block leisurely planting his feet squarely He fancied that he could feel he was considered of more importance nowadays He was no longer a subordinate an employee He was his own man a proprietor an owner of land furthering a successful enterprise No one had helped him he had followed no ones lead He had struck out unaided for himself and his success was due solely to his own intelligence industry and foresight He squared his great shoulders till the blue gingham of his jumper all but cracked Of late his great blond beard had grown and the work in the sun had made his face very red Under the visor of his cap—relic of his engineering days—his blue eyes twinkled with vast goodnature He felt that he made a fine figure as he went by a group of young girls in lawns and muslins and garden hats on their way to the Post Office He wondered if they looked after him wondered if they had heard that he was in a fair way to become a rich man
But the chronometer in the window of the jewelry store warned him that time was passing He turned about and crossing the street took his way to Ruggless office which was the freight as well as the land office of the P and S W Railroad
As he stood for a moment at the counter in front of the wire partition waiting for the clerk to make out the order for the freight agent at the depot Dyke was surprised to see a familiar figure in conference with Ruggles himself by a desk inside the railing
The figure was that of a middleaged man fat with a great stomach which he stroked from time to time As he turned about addressing a remark to the clerk Dyke recognised S Behrman The banker railroad agent and political manipulator seemed to the exengineers eyes to be more gross than ever His smoothshaven jowl stood out big and tremulous on either side of his face the roll of fat on the nape of his neck sprinkled with sparse stiff hairs bulged out with greater prominence His great stomach covered with a light brown linen vest stamped with innumerable interlocked horseshoes protruded far in advance enormous aggressive He wore his inevitable roundtopped hat of stiff brown straw varnished so bright that it reflected the light of the office windows like a helmet and even from where he stood Dyke could hear his loud breathing and the clink of the hollow links of his watch chain upon the vest buttons of imitation pearl as his stomach rose and fell
Dyke looked at him with attention There was the enemy the representative of the Trust with which Derricks League was locking horns The great struggle had begun to invest the combatants with interest Daily almost hourly Dyke was in touch with the ranchers the wheatgrowers He heard their denunciations their growls of exasperation and defiance Here was the other side—this placid fat man with a stiff straw hat and linen vest who never lost his temper who smiled affably upon his enemies giving them good advice commiserating with them in one defeat after another never ruffled never excited sure of his power conscious that back of him was the Machine the colossal force the inexhaustible coffers of a mighty organisation vomiting millions to the Leagues thousands
The League was clamorous ubiquitous its objects known to every urchin on the streets but the Trust was silent its ways inscrutable the public saw only results It worked on in the dark calm disciplined irresistible Abruptly Dyke received the impression of the multitudinous ramifications of the colossus Under his feet the ground seemed mined down there below him in the dark the huge tentacles went silently twisting and advancing spreading out in every direction sapping the strength of all opposition quiet gradual biding the time to reach up and out and grip with a sudden unleashing of gigantic strength
Ill be wanting some cars of you people before the summer is out observed Dyke to the clerk as he folded up and put away the order that the other had handed him He remembered perfectly well that he had arranged the matter of transporting his crop some months before but his role of proprietor amused him and he liked to busy himself again and again with the details of his undertaking
I suppose he added youll be able to give em to me Therell be a big wheat crop to move this year and I dont want to be caught in any car famine
Oh youll get your cars murmured the other
Ill be the means of bringing business your way Dyke went on Ive done so well with my hops that there are a lot of others going into the business next season Suppose he continued struck with an idea suppose we went into some sort of pool a sort of shippers organisation could you give us special rates cheaper rates—say a cent and a half
The other looked up
A cent and a half Say FOUR cents and a half and maybe Ill talk business with you
Four cents and a half returned Dyke I dont see it Why the regular rate is only two cents
No it isnt answered the clerk looking him gravely in the eye its five cents
Well theres where you are wrong mson Dyke retorted genially You look it up Youll find the freight on hops from Bonneville to Frisco is two cents a pound for car load lots You told me that yourself last fall
That was last fall observed the clerk There was a silence Dyke shot a glance of suspicion at the other Then reassured he remarked
You look it up Youll see Im right
S Behrman came forward and shook hands politely with the exengineer
Anything I can do for you Mr Dyke
Dyke explained When he had done speaking the clerk turned to S Behrman and observed respectfully
Our regular rate on hops is five cents
Yes answered S Behrman pausing to reflect yes Mr Dyke thats right—five cents
The clerk brought forward a folder of yellow paper and handed it to Dyke It was inscribed at the top Tariff Schedule No 8 and underneath these words in brackets was a smaller inscription SUPERSEDES NO 7 OF AUG 1
See for yourself said S Behrman He indicated an item under the head of Miscellany
The following rates for carriage of hops in car load lots read Dyke take effect June 1 and will remain in force until superseded by a later tariff Those quoted beyond Stockton are subject to changes in traffic arrangements with carriers by water from that point
In the list that was printed below Dyke saw that the rate for hops between Bonneville or Guadalajara and San Francisco was five cents
For a moment Dyke was confused Then swiftly the matter became clear in his mind The Railroad had raised the freight on hops from two cents to five
All his calculations as to a profit on his little investment he had based on a freight rate of two cents a pound He was under contract to deliver his crop He could not draw back The new rate ate up every cent of his gains He stood there ruined
Why what do you mean he burst out You promised me a rate of two cents and I went ahead with my business with that understanding What do you mean
S Behrman and the clerk watched him from the other side of the counter
The rate is five cents declared the clerk doggedly
Well that ruins me shouted Dyke Do you understand I wont make fifty cents MAKE Why I will OWE—Ill be—be—That ruins me do you understand
The other raised a shoulder
We dont force you to ship You can do as you like The rate is five cents
Well—but—damn you Im under contract to deliver What am I going to do Why you told me—you promised me a twocent rate
I dont remember it said the clerk I dont know anything about that But I know this I know that hops have gone up I know the German crop was a failure and that the crop in New York wasnt worth the hauling Hops have gone up to nearly a dollar You dont suppose we dont know that do you Mr Dyke
Whats the price of hops got to do with you
Its got THIS to do with us returned the other with a sudden aggressiveness that the freight rate has gone up to meet the price Were not doing business for our health My orders are to raise your rate to five cents and I think you are getting off easy
Dyke stared in blank astonishment For the moment the audacity of the affair was what most appealed to him He forgot its personal application
Good Lord he murmured good Lord What will you people do next Look here Whats your basis of applying freight rates anyhow he suddenly vociferated with furious sarcasm Whats your rule What are you guided by
But at the words S Behrman who had kept silent during the heat of the discussion leaned abruptly forward For the only time in his knowledge Dyke saw his face inflamed with anger and with the enmity and contempt of all this farming element with whom he was contending
Yes whats your rule Whats your basis demanded Dyke turning swiftly to him
S Behrman emphasised each word of his reply with a tap of one forefinger on the counter before him
All—the—traffic—will—bear
The exengineer stepped back a pace his fingers on the ledge of the counter to steady himself He felt himself grow pale his heart became a mere leaden weight in his chest inert refusing to beat
In a second the whole affair in all its bearings went speeding before the eye of his imagination like the rapid unrolling of a panorama Every cent of his earnings was sunk in this hop business of his More than that he had borrowed money to carry it on certain of success—borrowed of S Behrman offering his crop and his little home as security Once he failed to meet his obligations S Behrman would foreclose Not only would the Railroad devour every morsel of his profits but also it would take from him his home at a blow he would be left penniless and without a home What would then become of his mother—and what would become of the little tad She whom he had been planning to educate like a veritable lady For all that year he had talked of his ambition for his little daughter to every one he met All Bonneville knew of it What a mark for gibes he had made of himself The workingman turned farmer What a target for jeers—he who had fancied he could elude the Railroad He remembered he had once said the great Trust had overlooked his little enterprise disdaining to plunder such small fry He should have known better than that How had he ever imagined the Road would permit him to make any money
Anger was not in him yet no rousing of the blind whitehot wrath that leaps to the attack with prehensile fingers moved him The blow merely crushed staggered confused
He stepped aside to give place to a coatless man in a pink shirt who entered carrying in his hands an automatic doorclosing apparatus
Where does this go inquired the man
Dyke sat down for a moment on a seat that had been removed from a wornout railway car to do duty in Ruggless office On the back of a yellow envelope he made some vague figures with a stump of blue pencil multiplying subtracting perplexing himself with many errors
S Behrman the clerk and the man with the doorclosing apparatus involved themselves in a long argument gazing intently at the top panel of the door The man who had come to fix the apparatus was unwilling to guarantee it unless a sign was put on the outside of the door warning incomers that the door was selfclosing This sign would cost fifteen cents extra
But you didnt say anything about this when the thing was ordered declared S Behrman No I wont pay it my friend Its an overcharge
You neednt think observed the clerk that just because you are dealing with the Railroad you are going to work us
Genslinger came in accompanied by Delaney S Behrman and the clerk abruptly dismissing the man with the doorclosing machine put themselves behind the counter and engaged in conversation with these two Genslinger introduced Delaney The buster had a string of horses he was shipping southward No doubt he had come to make arrangements with the Railroad in the matter of stock cars The conference of the four men was amicable in the extreme
Dyke studying the figures on the back of the envelope came forward again Absorbed only in his own distress he ignored the editor and the cowpuncher
Say he hazarded how about this I make out——
Weve told you what our rates are Mr Dyke exclaimed the clerk angrily Thats all the arrangement we will make Take it or leave it He turned again to Genslinger giving the exengineer his back
Dyke moved away and stood for a moment in the centre of the room staring at the figures on the envelope
I dont see he muttered just what Im going to do No I dont see what Im going to do at all
Ruggles came in bringing with him two other men in whom Dyke recognised dummy buyers of the Los Muertos and Osterman ranchos They brushed by him jostling his elbow and as he went out of the door he heard them exchange jovial greetings with Delaney Genslinger and S Behrman
Dyke went down the stairs to the street and proceeded onward aimlessly in the direction of the Yosemite House fingering the yellow envelope and looking vacantly at the sidewalk
There was a stoop to his massive shoulders His great arms dangled loosely at his sides the palms of his hands open
As he went along a certain feeling of shame touched him Surely his predicament must be apparent to every passerby No doubt every one recognised the unsuccessful man in the very way he slouched along The young girls in lawns muslins and garden hats returning from the Post Office their hands full of letters must surely see in him the type of the failure the bankrupt
Then brusquely his tardy rage flamed up By God NO it was not his fault he had made no mistake His energy industry and foresight had been sound He had been merely the object of a colossal trick a sordid injustice a victim of the insatiate greed of the monster caught and choked by one of those millions of tentacles suddenly reaching up from below from out the dark beneath his feet coiling around his throat throttling him strangling him sucking his blood For a moment he thought of the courts but instantly laughed at the idea What court was immune from the power of the monster Ah the rage of helplessness the fury of impotence No help no hope—ruined in a brief instant—he a veritable giant built of great sinews powerful in the full tide of his manhood having all his health all his wits How could he now face his home How could he tell his mother of this catastrophe And Sidney—the little tad how could he explain to her this wretchedness—how soften her disappointment How keep the tears from out her eyes—how keep alive her confidence in him—her faith in his resources
Bitter fierce ominous his wrath loomed up in his heart His fists gripped tight together his teeth clenched Oh for a moment to have his hand upon the throat of S Behrman wringing the breath from him wrenching out the red life of him—staining the street with the blood sucked from the veins of the People
To the first friend that he met Dyke told the tale of the tragedy and to the next and to the next The affair went from mouth to mouth spreading with electrical swiftness overpassing and running ahead of Dyke himself so that by the time he reached the lobby of the Yosemite House he found his story awaiting him A group formed about him In his immediate vicinity business for the instant was suspended The group swelled One after another of his friends added themselves to it Magnus Derrick joined it and Annixter Again and again Dyke recounted the matter beginning with the time when he was discharged from the same corporations service for refusing to accept an unfair wage His voice quivered with exasperation his heavy frame shook with rage his eyes were injected bloodshot his face flamed vermilion while his deep bass rumbled throughout the running comments of his auditors like the thunderous reverberation of diapason
From all points of view the story was discussed by those who listened to him now in the heat of excitement now calmly judicially One verdict however prevailed It was voiced by Annixter Youre stuck You can roar till youre black in the face but you cant buck against the Railroad Theres nothing to be done You can shoot the ruffian you can shoot S Behrman clamoured one of the group Yes sir by the Lord you can shoot him
Poor fool commented Annixter turning away
Nothing to be done No there was nothing to be done—not one thing Dyke at last alone and driving his team out of the town turned the business confusedly over in his mind from end to end Advice suggestion even offers of financial aid had been showered upon him from all directions Friends were not wanting who heatedly presented to his consideration all manner of ingenious plans wonderful devices They were worthless The tentacle held fast He was stuck
By degrees as his wagon carried him farther out into the country and open empty fields his anger lapsed and the numbness of bewilderment returned He could not look one hour ahead into the future could formulate no plans even for the next day He did not know what to do He was stuck
With the limpness and inertia of a sack of sand the reins slipping loosely in his dangling fingers his eyes fixed staring between the horses heads he allowed himself to be carried aimlessly along He resigned himself What did he care What was the use of going on He was stuck
The team he was driving had once belonged to the Los Muertos stables and unguided as the horses were they took the county road towards Derricks ranch house Dyke all abroad was unaware of the fact till drawn by the smell of water the horses halted by the trough in front of Carahers saloon
The exengineer dismounted looking about him realising where he was So much the worse it did not matter Now that he had come so far it was as short to go home by this route as to return on his tracks Slowly he unchecked the horses and stood at their heads watching them drink
I dont see he muttered just what I am going to do
Caraher appeared at the door of his place his red face red beard and flaming cravat standing sharply out from the shadow of the doorway He called a welcome to Dyke
Hello Captain
Dyke looked up nodding his head listlessly
Hello Caraher he answered
Well continued the saloonkeeper coming forward a step whats the news in town
Dyke told him Carahers red face suddenly took on a darker colour The red glint in his eyes shot from under his eyebrows Furious he vented a rolling explosion of oaths
And now its your turn he vociferated They aint after only the big wheatgrowers the rich men By God theyll even pick the poor mans pocket Oh theyll get their bellies full some day It cant last forever Theyll wake up the wrong kind of man some morning the man thats got guts in him that will hit back when hes kicked and that will talk to em with a torch in one hand and a stick of dynamite in the other He raised his clenched fists in the air So help me God he cried when I think it all over I go crazy I see red Oh if the people only knew their strength Oh if I could wake em up Theres not only Shelgrim but theres others All the magnates all the butchers all the bloodsuckers by the thousands Their day will come by God it will
By now the exengineer and the barkeeper had retired to the saloon back of the grocery to talk over the details of this new outrage Dyke still a little dazed sat down by one of the tables preoccupied saying but little and Caraher as a matter of course set the whiskey bottle at his elbow
It happened that at this same moment Presley returning to Los Muertos from Bonneville his pockets full of mail stopped in at the grocery to buy some black lead for his bicycle In the saloon on the other side of the narrow partition he overheard the conversation between Dyke and Caraher The door was open He caught every word distinctly
Tell us all about it Dyke urged Caraher
For the fiftieth time Dyke told the story Already it had crystallised into a certain form He used the same phrases with each repetition the same sentences the same words In his mind it became set Thus he would tell it to any one who would listen from now on week after week year after year all the rest of his life—And I based my calculations on a twocent rate So soon as they saw I was to make money they doubled the tariff—all the traffic would bear—and I mortgaged to S Behrman—ruined me with a turn of the hand—stuck cinched and not one thing to be done
As he talked he drank glass after glass of whiskey and the honest rage the open aboveboard fury of his mind coagulated thickened and sunk to a dull evil hatred a wicked oblique malevolence Caraher sure now of winning a disciple replenished his glass
Do you blame us now he cried us others the Reds Ah yes its all very well for your middle class to preach moderation I could do it too You could do it too if your belly was fed if your property was safe if your wife had not been murdered if your children were not starving Easy enough then to preach lawabiding methods legal redress and all such rot But how about US he vociferated Ah yes Im a loudmouthed rumseller aint I Im a wildeyed striker aint I Im a bloodthirsty anarchist aint I Wait till youve seen your wife brought home to you with the face you used to kiss smashed in by a horses hoof—killed by the Trust as it happened to me Then talk about moderation And you Dyke blacklisted engineer discharged employee ruined agriculturist wait till you see your little tad and your mother turned out of doors when S Behrman forecloses Wait till you see em getting thin and white and till you hear your little girl ask you why you all dont eat a little more and that she wants her dinner and you cant give it to her Wait till you see—at the same time that your family is dying for lack of bread—a hundred thousand acres of wheat—millions of bushels of food—grabbed and gobbled by the Railroad Trust and then talk of moderation That talk is just what the Trust wants to hear It aint frightened of that Theres one thing only it does listen to one thing it is frightened of—the people with dynamite in their hands—six inches of plugged gaspipe THAT talks
Dyke did not reply He filled another pony of whiskey and drank it in two gulps His frown had lowered to a scowl his face was a dark red his head had sunk bulllike between his massive shoulders without winking he gazed long and with troubled eyes at his knotted muscular hands lying open on the table before him idle their occupation gone
Presley forgot his black lead He listened to Caraher Through the open door he caught a glimpse of Dykes back broad muscled bowed down the great shoulders stooping
The whole drama of the doubled freight rate leaped salient and distinct in the eye of his mind And this was but one instance an isolated case Because he was near at hand he happened to see it How many others were there the length and breadth of the State Constantly this sort of thing must occur—little industries choked out in their very beginnings the air full of the death rattles of little enterprises expiring unobserved in faroff counties up in canyons and arroyos of the foothills forgotten by every one but the monster who was daunted by the magnitude of no business however great who overlooked no opportunity of plunder however petty who with one tentacle grabbed a hundred thousand acres of wheat and with another pilfered a pocketful of growing hops
He went away without a word his head bent his hands clutched tightly on the cork grips of the handle bars of his bicycle His lips were white In his heart a blind demon of revolt raged tumultuous shrieking blasphemies
At Los Muertos Presley overtook Annixter As he guided his wheel up the driveway to Derricks ranch house he saw the master of Quien Sabe and Harran in conversation on the steps of the porch Magnus stood in the doorway talking to his wife
Occupied with the press of business and involved in the final conference with the Leagues lawyers on the eve of the latters departure for Washington Annixter had missed the train that was to take him back to Guadalajara and Quien Sabe Accordingly he had accepted the Governors invitation to return with him on his buckboard to Los Muertos and before leaving Bonneville had telephoned to his ranch to have young Vacca bring the buckskin by way of the Lower Road to meet him at Los Muertos He found her waiting there for him but before going on delayed a few moments to tell Harran of Dykes affair
I wonder what he will do now observed Harran when his first outburst of indignation had subsided
Nothing declared Annixter Hes stuck
That eats up every cent of Dykes earnings Harran went on He has been ten years saving them Oh I told him to make sure of the Railroad when he first spoke to me about growing hops
Ive just seen him said Presley as he joined the others He was at Carahers I only saw his back He was drinking at a table and his back was towards me But the man looked broken—absolutely crushed It is terrible terrible
He was at Carahers was he demanded Annixter
Yes
Drinking hey
I think so Yes I saw a bottle
Drinking at Carahers exclaimed Annixter rancorously I can see HIS finish
There was a silence It seemed as if nothing more was to be said They paused looking thoughtfully on the ground
In silence grim bitter infinitely sad the three men as if at that moment actually standing in the barroom of Carahers roadside saloon contemplated the slow sinking the inevitable collapse and submerging of one of their companions the wreck of a career the ruin of an individual an honest man strong fearless upright struck down by a colossal power perverted by an evil influence go reeling to his ruin
I see his finish repeated Annixter Exit Dyke and score another tally for S Behrman Shelgrim and Co
He moved away impatiently loosening the tierope with which the buckskin was fastened He swung himself up
God for us all he declared as he rode away and the devil take the hindmost Goodbye Im going home I still have one a little longer
He galloped away along the Lower Road in the direction of Quien Sabe emerging from the grove of cypress and eucalyptus about the ranch house and coming out upon the bare brown plain of the wheat land stretching away from him in apparent barrenness on either hand
It was late in the day already his shadow was long upon the padded dust of the road in front of him On ahead a long ways off and a little to the north the venerable campanile of the Mission San Juan was glinting radiant in the last rays of the sun while behind him towards the north and west the gilded dome of the courthouse at Bonneville stood silhouetted in purplish black against the flaming west Annixter spurred the buckskin forward He feared he might be late to his supper He wondered if it would be brought to him by Hilma
Hilma The name struck across in his brain with a pleasant glowing tremour All through that day of activity of strenuous business the minute and cautious planning of the final campaign in the great war of the League and the Trust the idea of her and the recollection of her had been the undercurrent of his thoughts At last he was alone He could put all other things behind him and occupy himself solely with her
In that glory of the days end in that chaos of sunshine he saw her again Unimaginative crude direct his fancy nevertheless placed her before him steeped in sunshine saturated with glorious light brilliant radiant alluring He saw the sweet simplicity of her carriage the statuesque evenness of the contours of her figure the single deep swell of her bosom the solid masses of her hair He remembered the small contradictory suggestions of feminine daintiness he had so often remarked about her her slim narrow feet the little steel buckles of her low shoes the knot of black ribbon she had begun to wear of late on the back of her head and he heard her voice lowpitched velvety a sweet murmuring huskiness that seemed to come more from her chest than from her throat
The buckskins hoofs clattered upon the gravelly flats of Brodersons Creek underneath the Long Trestle Annixters mind went back to the scene of the previous evening when he had come upon her at this place He set his teeth with anger and disappointment Why had she not been able to understand What was the matter with these women always set upon this marrying notion Was it not enough that he wanted her more than any other girl he knew and that she wanted him She had said as much Did she think she was going to be mistress of Quien Sabe Ah that was it She was after his property was for marrying him because of his money His unconquerable suspicion of the woman his innate distrust of the feminine element would not be done away with What fathomless duplicity was hers that she could appear so innocent It was almost unbelievable in fact was it believable
For the first time doubt assailed him Suppose Hilma was indeed all that she appeared to be Suppose it was not with her a question of his property after all it was a poor time to think of marrying him for his property when all Quien Sabe hung in the issue of the next few months Suppose she had been sincere But he caught himself up Was he to be fooled by a feemale girl at this late date He Buck Annixter crafty hardheaded a man of affairs Not much Whatever transpired he would remain the master
He reached Quien Sabe in this frame of mind But at this hour Annixter for all his resolutions could no longer control his thoughts As he stripped the saddle from the buckskin and led her to the watering trough by the stable corral his heart was beating thick at the very notion of being near Hilma again It was growing dark but covertly he glanced here and there out of the corners of his eyes to see if she was anywhere about Annixter—how he could not tell—had become possessed of the idea that Hilma would not inform her parents of what had passed between them the previous evening under the Long Trestle He had no idea that matters were at an end between himself and the young woman He must apologise he saw that clearly enough must eat crow as he told himself Well he would eat crow He was not afraid of her any longer now that she had made her confession to him He would see her as soon as possible and get this business straightened out and begin again from a new starting point What he wanted with Hilma Annixter did not define clearly in his mind At one time he had known perfectly well what he wanted Now the goal of his desires had become vague He could not say exactly what it was He preferred that things should go forward without much idea of consequences if consequences came they would do so naturally enough and of themselves all that he positively knew was that Hilma occupied his thoughts morning noon and night that he was happy when he was with her and miserable when away from her
The Chinese cook served his supper in silence Annixter ate and drank and lighted a cigar and after his meal sat on the porch of his house smoking and enjoying the twilight The evening was beautiful warm the sky one powder of stars From the direction of the stables he heard one of the Portuguese hands picking a guitar
But he wanted to see Hilma The idea of going to bed without at least a glimpse of her became distasteful to him Annixter got up and descending from the porch began to walk aimlessly about between the ranch buildings with eye and ear alert Possibly he might meet her somewheres
The Trees little house toward which inevitably Annixter directed his steps was dark Had they all gone to bed so soon He made a wide circuit about it listening but heard no sound The door of the dairyhouse stood ajar He pushed it open and stepped into the odorous darkness of its interior The pans and deep cans of polished metal glowed faintly from the corners and from the walls The smell of new cheese was pungent in his nostrils Everything was quiet There was nobody there He went out again closing the door and stood for a moment in the space between the dairyhouse and the new barn uncertain as to what he should do next
As he waited there his foreman came out of the mens bunk house on the other side of the kitchens and crossed over toward the barn Hello Billy muttered Annixter as he passed
Oh good evening Mr Annixter said the other pausing in front of him I didnt know you were back By the way he added speaking as though the matter was already known to Annixter I see old man Tree and his family have left us Are they going to be gone long Have they left for good
Whats that Annixter exclaimed When did they go Did all of them go all three
Why I thought you knew Sure they all left on the afternoon train for San Francisco Cleared out in a hurry—took all their trunks Yes all three went—the young lady too They gave me notice early this morning They aint ought to have done that I dont know who Im to get to run the dairy on such short notice Do you know any one Mr Annixter
Well why in hell did you let them go vociferated Annixter Why didnt you keep them here till I got back Why didnt you find out if they were going for good I cant be everywhere What do I feed you for if it aint to look after things I cant attend to
He turned on his heel and strode away straight before him not caring where he was going He tramped out from the group of ranch buildings holding on over the open reach of his ranch his teeth set his heels digging furiously into the ground The minutes passed He walked on swiftly muttering to himself from time to time
Gone by the Lord Gone by the Lord By the Lord Harry shes cleared out
As yet his head was empty of all thought He could not steady his wits to consider this new turn of affairs He did not even try
Gone by the Lord he exclaimed By the Lord shes cleared out
He found the irrigating ditch and the beaten path made by the ditch tenders that bordered it and followed it some five minutes then struck off at right angles over the rugged surface of the ranch land to where a great white stone jutted from the ground There he sat down and leaning forward rested his elbows on his knees and looked out vaguely into the night his thoughts swiftly readjusting themselves
He was alone The silence of the night the infinite repose of the flat bare earth—two immensities—widened around and above him like illimitable seas A grey halflight mysterious grave flooded downward from the stars
Annixter was in torment Now there could be no longer any doubt—now it was Hilma or nothing Once out of his reach once lost to him and the recollection of her assailed him with unconquerable vehemence Much as she had occupied his mind he had never realised till now how vast had been the place she had filled in his life He had told her as much but even then he did not believe it
Suddenly a bitter rage against himself overwhelmed him as he thought of the hurt he had given her the previous evening He should have managed differently How he did not know but the sense of the outrage he had put upon her abruptly recoiled against him with cruel force Now he was sorry for it infinitely sorry passionately sorry He had hurt her He had brought the tears to her eyes He had so flagrantly insulted her that she could no longer bear to breathe the same air with him She had told her parents all She had left Quien Sabe—had left him for good at the very moment when he believed he had won her Brute beast that he was he had driven her away
An hour went by then two then four then six Annixter still sat in his place groping and battling in a confusion of spirit the like of which he had never felt before He did not know what was the matter with him He could not find his way out of the dark and out of the turmoil that wheeled around him He had had no experience with women There was no precedent to guide him How was he to get out of this What was the clew that would set everything straight again
That he would give Hilma up never once entered his head Have her he would She had given herself to him Everything should have been easy after that and instead here he was alone in the night wrestling with himself in deeper trouble than ever and Hilma farther than ever away from him
It was true he might have Hilma even now if he was willing to marry her But marriage to his mind had been always a vague most remote possibility almost as vague and as remote as his death—a thing that happened to some men but that would surely never occur to him or if it did it would be after long years had passed when he was older more settled more mature—an event that belonged to the period of his middle life distant as yet
He had never faced the question of his marriage He had kept it at an immense distance from him It had never been a part of his order of things He was not a marrying man
But Hilma was an everpresent reality as near to him as his right hand Marriage was a formless far distant abstraction Hilma a tangible imminent fact Before he could think of the two as one before he could consider the idea of marriage side by side with the idea of Hilma measureless distances had to be traversed things as disassociated in his mind as fire and water had to be fused together and between the two he was torn as if upon a rack
Slowly by imperceptible degrees the imagination unused unwilling machine began to work The brains activity lapsed proportionately He began to think less and feel more In that rugged composition confused dark harsh a furrow had been driven deep a little seed planted a little seed at first weak forgotten lost in the lower dark places of his character
But as the intellect moved slower its functions growing numb the idea of self dwindled Annixter no longer considered himself no longer considered the notion of marriage from the point of view of his own comfort his own wishes his own advantage He realised that in his newfound desire to make her happy he was sincere There was something in that idea after all To make some one happy—how about that now It was worth thinking of
Far away low down in the east a dim belt a grey light began to whiten over the horizon The tower of the Mission stood black against it The dawn was coming The baffling obscurity of the night was passing Hidden things were coming into view
Annixter his eyes halfclosed his chin upon his fist allowed his imagination full play How would it be if he should take Hilma into his life this beautiful young girl pure as he now knew her to be innocent noble with the inborn nobility of dawning womanhood An overwhelming sense of his own unworthiness suddenly bore down upon him with crushing force as he thought of this He had gone about the whole affair wrongly He had been mistaken from the very first She was infinitely above him He did not want—he should not desire to be the master It was she his servant poor simple lowly even who should condescend to him
Abruptly there was presented to his minds eye a picture of the years to come if he now should follow his best his highest his most unselfish impulse He saw Hilma his own for better or for worse for richer or for poorer all barriers down between them he giving himself to her as freely as nobly as she had given herself to him By a supreme effort not of the will but of the emotion he fought his way across that vast gulf that for a time had gaped between Hilma and the idea of his marriage Instantly like the swift blending of beautiful colours like the harmony of beautiful chords of music the two ideas melted into one and in that moment into his harsh unlovely world a new idea was born Annixter stood suddenly upright a mighty tenderness a gentleness of spirit such as he had never conceived of in his heart strained swelled and in a moment seemed to burst Out of the dark furrows of his soul up from the deep rugged recesses of his being something rose expanding He opened his arms wide An immense happiness overpowered him Actual tears came to his eyes Without knowing why he was not ashamed of it This poor crude fellow harsh hard narrow with his unlovely nature his fierce truculency his selfishness his obstinacy abruptly knew that all the sweetness of life all the great vivifying eternal force of humanity had burst into life within him
The little seed long since planted gathering strength quietly had at last germinated
Then as the realisation of this hardened into certainty in the growing light of the new day that had just dawned for him Annixter uttered a cry Now at length he knew the meaning of it all
Why—I—I I LOVE her he cried Never until then had it occurred to him Never until then in all his thoughts of Hilma had that great word passed his lips
It was a Memnonian cry the greeting of the hard harsh image of man roughhewn flinty granitic uttering a note of joy acclaiming the new risen sun
By now it was almost day The east glowed opalescent All about him Annixter saw the land inundated with light But there was a change Overnight something had occurred In his perturbation the change seemed to him at first elusive almost fanciful unreal But now as the light spread he looked again at the gigantic scroll of ranch lands unrolled before him from edge to edge of the horizon The change was not fanciful The change was real The earth was no longer bare The land was no longer barren—no longer empty no longer dull brown All at once Annixter shouted aloud
There it was the Wheat the Wheat The little seed long planted germinating in the deep dark furrows of the soil straining swelling suddenly in one night had burst upward to the light The wheat had come up It was there before him around him everywhere illimitable immeasurable The winter brownness of the ground was overlaid with a little shimmer of green The promise of the sowing was being fulfilled The earth the loyal mother who never failed who never disappointed was keeping her faith again Once more the strength of nations was renewed Once more the force of the world was revivified Once more the Titan benignant calm stirred and woke and the morning abruptly blazed into glory upon the spectacle of a man whose heart leaped exuberant with the love of a woman and an exulting earth gleaming transcendent with the radiant magnificence of an inviolable pledge
CHAPTER III
Presleys room in the ranch house of Los Muertos was in the second story of the building It was a corner room one of its windows facing the south the other the east Its appointments were of the simplest In one angle was the small white painted iron bed covered with a white counterpane The walls were hung with a white paper figured with knots of pale green leaves very gay and bright There was a straw matting on the floor White muslin halfcurtains hung in the windows upon the sills of which certain plants bearing pink waxen flowers of which Presley did not know the name grew in oblong green boxes The walls were unadorned save by two pictures one a reproduction of the Reading from Homer the other a charcoal drawing of the Mission of San Juan de Guadalajara which Presley had made himself By the east window stood the plainest of deal tables innocent of any cloth or covering such as might have been used in a kitchen It was Presleys work table and was invariably littered with papers halffinished manuscripts drafts of poems notebooks pens halfsmoked cigarettes and the like Near at hand upon a shelf were his books There were but two chairs in the room—the straight backed wooden chair that stood in front of the table angular upright and in which it was impossible to take ones ease and the long comfortable wicker steamer chair stretching its length in front of the south window Presley was immensely fond of this room It amused and interested him to maintain its air of rigorous simplicity and freshness He abhorred cluttered bricabrac and meaningless objets dart Once in so often he submitted his room to a vigorous inspection setting it to rights removing everything but the essentials the few ornaments which in a way were part of his life
His writing had by this time undergone a complete change The notes for his great Song of the West the epic poem he once had hoped to write he had flung aside together with all the abortive attempts at its beginning Also he had torn up a great quantity of fugitive verses preserving only a certain halffinished poem that he called The Toilers This poem was a comment upon the social fabric and had been inspired by the sight of a painting he had seen in Cedarquists art gallery He had written all but the last verse
On the day that he had overheard the conversation between Dyke and Caraher in the latters saloon which had acquainted him with the monstrous injustice of the increased tariff Presley had returned to Los Muertos white and trembling roused to a pitch of exaltation the like of which he had never known in all his life His wrath was little short of even Carahers He too saw red a mighty spirit of revolt heaved tumultuous within him It did not seem possible that this outrage could go on much longer The oppression was incredible the plain story of it set down in truthful statement of fact would not be believed by the outside world
He went up to his little room and paced the floor with clenched fists and burning face till at last the repression of his contending thoughts all but suffocated him and he flung himself before his table and began to write For a time his pen seemed to travel of itself words came to him without searching shaping themselves into phrases—the phrases building themselves up to great forcible sentences full of eloquence of fire of passion As his prose grew more exalted it passed easily into the domain of poetry Soon the cadence of his paragraphs settled to an ordered beat and rhythm and in the end Presley had thrust aside his journal and was once more writing verse
He picked up his incomplete poem of The Toilers read it hastily a couple of times to catch its swing then the Idea of the last verse—the Idea for which he so long had sought in vain—abruptly springing to his brain wrote it off without so much as replenishing his pen with ink He added still another verse bringing the poem to a definite close resuming its entire conception and ending with a single majestic thought simple noble dignified absolutely convincing
Presley laid down his pen and leaned back in his chair with the certainty that for one moment he had touched untrod heights His hands were cold his head on fire his heart leaping tumultuous in his breast
Now at last he had achieved He saw why he had never grasped the inspiration for his vast vague IMPERSONAL Song of the West At the time when he sought for it his convictions had not been aroused he had not then cared for the People His sympathies had not been touched Small wonder that he had missed it Now he was of the People he had been stirred to his lowest depths His earnestness was almost a frenzy He BELIEVED and so to him all things were possible at once
Then the artist in him reasserted itself He became more interested in his poem as such than in the cause that had inspired it He went over it again retouching it carefully changing a word here and there and improving its rhythm For the moment he forgot the People forgot his rage his agitation of the previous hour he remembered only that he had written a great poem
Then doubt intruded After all was it so great Did not its sublimity overpass a little the bounds of the ridiculous Had he seen true Had he failed again He reread the poem carefully and it seemed all at once to lose force
By now Presley could not tell whether what he had written was true poetry or doggerel He distrusted profoundly his own judgment He must have the opinion of some one else some one competent to judge He could not wait tomorrow would not do He must know to a certainty before he could rest that night
He made a careful copy of what he had written and putting on his hat and laced boots went down stairs and out upon the lawn crossing over to the stables He found Phelps there washing down the buckboard
Do you know where Vanamee is today he asked the latter Phelps put his chin in the air
Ask me something easy he responded He might be at Guadalajara or he might be up at Ostermans or he might be a hundred miles away from either place I know where he ought to be Mr Presley but that aint saying where the crazy gesabe is He OUGHT to be rangeriding over east of Four at the head waters of Mission Creek
Ill try for him there at all events answered Presley If you see Harran when he comes in tell him I may not be back in time for supper
Presley found the pony in the corral cinched the saddle upon him and went off over the Lower Road going eastward at a brisk canter
At Hoovens he called a How do you do to Minna whom he saw lying in a slat hammock under the mammoth live oak her foot in bandages and then galloped on over the bridge across the irrigating ditch wondering vaguely what would become of such a pretty girl as Minna and if in the end she would marry the Portuguese foreman in charge of the ditchinggang He told himself that he hoped she would and that speedily There was no lack of comment as to Minna Hooven about the ranches Certainly she was a good girl but she was seen at all hours here and there about Bonneville and Guadalajara skylarking with the Portuguese farm hands of Quien Sabe and Los Muertos She was very pretty the men made fools of themselves over her Presley hoped they would not end by making a fool of her
Just beyond the irrigating ditch Presley left the Lower Road and following a trail that branched off southeasterly from this point held on across the Fourth Division of the ranch keeping the Mission Creek on his left A few miles farther on he went through a gate in a barbed wire fence and at once engaged himself in a system of little arroyos and low rolling hills that steadily lifted and increased in size as he proceeded This higher ground was the advance guard of the Sierra foothills and served as the stock range for Los Muertos The hills were huge rolling hummocks of bare ground covered only by wild oats At long intervals were isolated live oaks In the canyons and arroyos the chaparral and manzanita grew in dark olivegreen thickets The ground was honeycombed with gopherholes and the gophers themselves were everywhere Occasionally a jack rabbit bounded across the open from one growth of chaparral to another taking long leaps his ears erect High overhead a hawk or two swung at anchor and once with a startling rush of wings a covey of quail flushed from the brush at the side of the trail
On the hillsides in thinly scattered groups were the cattle grazing deliberately working slowly toward the waterholes for their evening drink the horses keeping to themselves the colts nuzzling at their mothers bellies whisking their tails stamping their unshod feet But once in a remoter field solitary magnificent enormous the short hair curling tight upon his forehead his small red eyes twinkling his vast neck heavy with muscles Presley came upon the monarch the king the great Durham bull maintaining his lonely state unapproachable austere
Presley found the onetime shepherd by a waterhole in a far distant corner of the range He had made his simple camp for the night His bluegrey army blanket lay spread under a live oak his horse grazed near at hand He himself sat on his heels before a little fire of dead manzanita roots cooking his coffee and bacon Never had Presley conceived so keen an impression of loneliness as his crouching figure presented The bald bare landscape widened about him to infinity Vanamee was a spot in it all a tiny dot a single atom of human organisation floating endlessly on the ocean of an illimitable nature
The two friends ate together and Vanamee having snared a brace of quails dressed and then roasted them on a sharpened stick After eating they drank great refreshing draughts from the waterhole Then at length Presley having lit his cigarette and Vanamee his pipe the former said
Vanamee I have been writing again
Vanamee turned his lean ascetic face toward him his black eyes fixed attentively
I know he said your journal
No this is a poem You remember I told you about it once The Toilers I called it
Oh verse Well I am glad you have gone back to it It is your natural vehicle
You remember the poem asked Presley It was unfinished
Yes I remember it There was better promise in it than anything you ever wrote Now I suppose you have finished it
Without reply Presley brought it from out the breast pocket of his shooting coat The moment seemed propitious The stillness of the vast bare hills was profound The sun was setting in a cloudless brazier of red light a golden dust pervaded all the landscape Presley read his poem aloud When he had finished his friend looked at him
What have you been doing lately he demanded Presley wondering told of his various comings and goings
I dont mean that returned the other Something has happened to you something has aroused you I am right am I not Yes I thought so In this poem of yours you have not been trying to make a sounding piece of literature You wrote it under tremendous stress Its very imperfections show that It is better than a mere rhyme It is an Utterance—a Message It is Truth You have come back to the primal heart of things and you have seen clearly Yes it is a great poem
Thank you exclaimed Presley fervidly I had begun to mistrust myself
Now observed Vanamee I presume you will rush it into print To have formulated a great thought simply to have accomplished is not enough
I think I am sincere objected Presley If it is good it will do good to others You said yourself it was a Message If it has any value I do not think it would be right to keep it back from even a very small and most indifferent public
Dont publish it in the magazines at all events Vanamee answered Your inspiration has come FROM the People Then let it go straight TO the People—not the literary readers of the monthly periodicals the rich who would only be indirectly interested If you must publish it let it be in the daily press Dont interrupt I know what you will say It will be that the daily press is common is vulgar is undignified and I tell you that such a poem as this of yours called as it is The Toilers must be read BY the Toilers It MUST BE common it must be vulgarised You must not stand upon your dignity with the People if you are to reach them
That is true I suppose Presley admitted but I cant get rid of the idea that it would be throwing my poem away The great magazine gives me such—a—background gives me such weight
Gives YOU such weight gives you such background Is it YOURSELF you think of You helper of the helpless Is that your sincerity You must sink yourself must forget yourself and your own desire of fame of admitted success It is your POEM your MESSAGE that must prevail—not YOU who wrote it You preach a doctrine of abnegation of selfobliteration and you sign your name to your words as high on the tablets as you can reach so that all the world may see not the poem but the poet Presley there are many like you The social reformer writes a book on the iniquity of the possession of land and out of the proceeds buys a corner lot The economist who laments the hardships of the poor allows himself to grow rich upon the sale of his book
But Presley would hear no further
No he cried I know I am sincere and to prove it to you I will publish my poem as you say in the daily press and I will accept no money for it
They talked on for about an hour while the evening wore away Presley very soon noticed that Vanamee was again preoccupied More than ever of late his silence his brooding had increased By and by he rose abruptly turning his head to the north in the direction of the Mission church of San Juan I think he said to Presley that I must be going
Going Where to at this time of night
Off there Vanamee made an uncertain gesture toward the north Goodbye and without another word he disappeared in the grey of the twilight Presley was left alone wondering He found his horse and tightening the girths mounted and rode home under the sheen of the stars thoughtful his head bowed Before he went to bed that night he sent The Toilers to the Sunday Editor of a daily newspaper in San Francisco
Upon leaving Presley Vanamee his thumbs hooked into his empty cartridge belt strode swiftly down from the hills of the Los Muertos stockrange and on through the silent town of Guadalajara His lean swarthy face with its hollow cheeks fine black pointed beard and sad eyes was set to the northward As was his custom he was bareheaded and the rapidity of his stride made a breeze in his long black hair He knew where he was going He knew what he must live through that night
Again the deathless grief that never slept leaped out of the shadows and fastened upon his shoulders It was scourging him back to that scene of a vanished happiness a dead romance a perished idyl—the Mission garden in the shade of the venerable pear trees
But besides this other influences tugged at his heart There was a mystery in the garden In that spot the night was not always empty the darkness not always silent Something far off stirred and listened to his cry at times drawing nearer to him At first this presence had been a matter for terror but of late as he felt it gradually drawing nearer the terror had at long intervals given place to a feeling of an almost ineffable sweetness But distrusting his own senses unwilling to submit himself to such torturing uncertain happiness averse to the terrible confusion of spirit that followed upon a night spent in the garden Vanamee had tried to keep away from the place However when the sorrow of his life reassailed him and the thoughts and recollections of Angele brought the ache into his heart and the tears to his eyes the temptation to return to the garden invariably gripped him close There were times when he could not resist Of themselves his footsteps turned in that direction It was almost as if he himself had been called
Guadalajara was silent dark Not even in Solotaris was there a light The town was asleep Only the inevitable guitar hummed from an unseen dobe Vanamee pushed on The smell of the fields and open country and a distant scent of flowers that he knew well came to his nostrils as he emerged from the town by way of the road that led on towards the Mission through Quien Sabe On either side of him lay the brown earth silently nurturing the implanted seed Two days before it had rained copiously and the soil still moist disengaged a pungent aroma of fecundity
Vanamee following the road passed through the collection of buildings of Annixters home ranch Everything slept At intervals the aermotor on the artesian well creaked audibly as it turned in a languid breeze from the northeast A cat hunting fieldmice crept from the shadow of the gigantic barn and paused uncertainly in the open the tip of her tail twitching From within the barn itself came the sound of the friction of a heavy body and a stir of hoofs as one of the dozing cows lay down with a long breath
Vanamee left the ranch house behind him and proceeded on his way Beyond him to the right of the road he could make out the higher ground in the Mission enclosure and the watching tower of the Mission itself The minutes passed He went steadily forward Then abruptly he paused his head in the air eye and ear alert To that strange sixth sense of his responsive as the leaves of the sensitive plant had suddenly come the impression of a human being near at hand He had neither seen nor heard but for all that he stopped an instant in his tracks then the sensation confirmed went on again with slow steps advancing warily
At last his swiftly roving eyes lighted upon an object just darker than the greybrown of the nightridden land It was at some distance from the roadside Vanamee approached it cautiously leaving the road treading carefully upon the moist clods of earth underfoot Twenty paces distant he halted
Annixter was there seated upon a round white rock his back towards him He was leaning forward his elbows on his knees his chin in his hands He did not move Silent motionless he gazed out upon the flat sombre land
It was the night wherein the master of Quien Sabe wrought out his salvation struggling with Self from dusk to dawn At the moment when Vanamee came upon him the turmoil within him had only begun The heart of the man had not yet wakened The night was young the dawn far distant and all around him the fields of upturned clods lay bare and brown empty of all life unbroken by a single green shoot
For a moment the lifecircles of these two men of so widely differing characters touched each other there in the silence of the night under the stars Then silently Vanamee withdrew going on his way wondering at the trouble that like himself drove this hardheaded man of affairs untroubled by dreams out into the night to brood over an empty land
Then speedily he forgot all else The material world drew off from him Reality dwindled to a point and vanished like the vanishing of a star at moonrise Earthly things dissolved and disappeared as a strange unnamed essence flowed in upon him A new atmosphere for him pervaded his surroundings He entered the world of the Vision of the Legend of the Miracle where all things were possible He stood at the gate of the Mission garden
Above him rose the ancient tower of the Mission church Through the arches at its summit where swung the Spanish queens bells he saw the slowburning stars The silent bats with flickering wings threw their dancing shadows on the pallid surface of the venerable facade
Not the faintest chirring of a cricket broke the silence The bees were asleep In the grasses in the trees deep in the calix of punka flower and magnolia bloom the gnats the caterpillars the beetles all the microscopic multitudinous life of the daytime drowsed and dozed Not even the minute scuffling of a lizard over the warm worn pavement of the colonnade disturbed the infinite repose the profound stillness Only within the garden the intermittent trickling of the fountain made itself heard flowing steadily marking off the lapse of seconds the progress of hours the cycle of years the inevitable march of centuries At one time the doorway before which Vanamee now stood had been hermetically closed But he himself had long since changed that He stood before it for a moment steeping himself in the mystery and romance of the place then raising he latch pushed open the gate entered and closed it softly behind him He was in the cloister garden
The stars were out strewn thick and close in the deep blue of the sky the milky way glowing like a silver veil Ursa Major wheeled gigantic in the north The great nebula in Orion was a whorl of shimmering star dust Venus flamed a lambent disk of pale saffron low over the horizon From edge to edge of the world marched the constellations like the progress of emperors and from the innumerable glory of their courses a mysterious sheen of diaphanous light disengaged itself expanding over all the earth serene infinite majestic
The little garden revealed itself but dimly beneath the brooding light only half emerging from the shadow The polished surfaces of the leaves of the pear trees winked faintly back the reflected light as the trees just stirred in the uncertain breeze A blurred shield of silver marked the ripples of the fountain Under the flood of dull blue lustre the gravelled walks lay vague amid the grasses like webs of white satin on the bed of a lake Against the eastern wall the headstones of the graves an indistinct procession of grey cowls ranged themselves
Vanamee crossed the garden pausing to kiss the turf upon Angeles grave Then he approached the line of pear trees and laid himself down in their shadow his chin propped upon his hands his eyes wandering over the expanse of the little valley that stretched away from the foot of the hill upon which the Mission was built
Once again he summoned the Vision Once again he conjured up the Illusion Once again tortured with doubt racked with a deathless grief he craved an Answer of the night Once again mystic that he was he sent his mind out from him across the enchanted sea of the Supernatural Hope of what he did not know roused up within him Surely on such a night as this the hallucination must define itself Surely the Manifestation must be vouchsafed
His eyes closed his will girding itself to a supreme effort his senses exalted to a state of pleasing numbness he called upon Angele to come to him his voiceless cry penetrating far out into that sea of faint ephemeral light that floated tideless over the little valley beneath him Then motionless prone upon the ground he waited
Months had passed since that first night when at length an Answer had come to Vanamee At first startled out of all composure troubled and stirred to his lowest depths because of the very thing for which he sought he resolved never again to put his strange powers to the test But for all that he had come a second night to the garden and a third and a fourth At last his visits were habitual Night after night he was there surrendering himself to the influences of the place gradually convinced that something did actually answer when he called His faith increased as the winter grew into spring As the spring advanced and the nights became shorter it crystallised into certainty Would he have her again his love long dead Would she come to him once more out of the grave out of the night He could not tell he could only hope All that he knew was that his cry found an answer that his outstretched hands groping in the darkness met the touch of other fingers Patiently he waited The nights became warmer as the spring drew on The stars shone clearer The nights seemed brighter For nearly a month after the occasion of his first answer nothing new occurred Some nights it failed him entirely upon others it was faint illusive
Then at last the most subtle the barest of perceptible changes began His groping mind faroff there wandering like a lost bird over the valley touched upon some thing again touched and held it and this time drew it a single step closer to him His heart beating the blood surging in his temples he watched with the eyes of his imagination this gradual approach What was coming to him Who was coming to him Shrouded in the obscurity of the night whose was the face now turned towards his Whose the footsteps that with such infinite slowness drew nearer to where he waited He did not dare to say
His mind went back many years to that time before the tragedy of Angeles death before the mystery of the Other He waited then as he waited now But then he had not waited in vain Then as now he had seemed to feel her approach seemed to feel her drawing nearer and nearer to their rendezvous Now what would happen He did not know He waited He waited hoping all things He waited believing all things He waited enduring all things He trusted in the Vision
Meanwhile as spring advanced the flowers in the Seed ranch began to come to life Over the five hundred acres whereon the flowers were planted the widening growth of vines and bushes spread like the waves of a green sea Then timidly colours of the faintest tints began to appear Under the moonlight Vanamee saw them expanding delicate pink faint blue tenderest variations of lavender and yellow white shimmering with reflections of gold all subdued and pallid in the moonlight
By degrees the night became impregnated with the perfume of the flowers Illusive at first evanescent as filaments of gossamer then as the buds opened emphasising itself breathing deeper stronger An exquisite mingling of many odours passed continually over the Mission from the garden of the Seed ranch meeting and blending with the aroma of its magnolia buds and punka blossoms
As the colours of the flowers of the Seed ranch deepened and as their odours penetrated deeper and more distinctly as the starlight of each succeeding night grew brighter and the air became warmer the illusion defined itself By imperceptible degrees as Vanamee waited under the shadows of the pear trees the Answer grew nearer and nearer He saw nothing but the distant glimmer of the flowers He heard nothing but the drip of the fountain Nothing moved about him but the invisible slowpassing breaths of perfume yet he felt the approach of the Vision
It came first to about the middle of the Seed ranch itself some half a mile away where the violets grew shrinking timid flowers hiding close to the ground Then it passed forward beyond the violets and drew nearer and stood amid the mignonette hardier blooms that dared look heavenward from out the leaves A few nights later it left the mignonette behind and advanced into the beds of white iris that pushed more boldly forth from the earth their waxen petals claiming the attention It advanced then a long step into the proud challenging beauty of the carnations and roses and at last after many nights Vanamee felt that it paused as if trembling at its hardihood full in the superb glory of the royal lilies themselves that grew on the extreme border of the Seed ranch nearest to him After this there was a certain long wait Then upon a dark midnight it advanced again Vanamee could scarcely repress a cry Now the illusion emerged from the flowers It stood not distant but unseen almost at the base of the hill upon whose crest he waited in a depression of the ground where the shadows lay thickest It was nearly within earshot
The nights passed The spring grew warmer In the daytime intermittent rains freshened all the earth The flowers of the Seed ranch grew rapidly Bud after bud burst forth while those already opened expanded to full maturity The colour of the Seed ranch deepened
One night after hours of waiting Vanamee felt upon his cheek the touch of a prolonged puff of warm wind breathing across the little valley from out the east It reached the Mission garden and stirred the branches of the pear trees It seemed veritably to be compounded of the very essence of the flowers Never had the aroma been so sweet so pervasive It passed and faded leaving in its wake an absolute silence Then at length the silence of the night that silence to which Vanamee had so long appealed was broken by a tiny sound Alert halfrisen from the ground he listened for now at length he heard something The sound repeated itself It came from near at hand from the thick shadow at the foot of the hill What it was he could not tell but it did not belong to a single one of the infinite similar noises of the place with which he was so familiar It was neither the rustle of a leaf the snap of a parted twig the drone of an insect the dropping of a magnolia blossom It was a vibration merely faint elusive impossible of definition a minute notch in the fine keen edge of stillness
Again the nights passed The summer stars became brighter The warmth increased The flowers of the Seed ranch grew still more The five hundred acres of the ranch were carpeted with them
At length upon a certain midnight a new light began to spread in the sky The thin scimitar of the moon rose veiled and dim behind the earthmists The light increased Distant objects until now hidden came into view and as the radiance brightened Vanamee looking down upon the little valley saw a spectacle of incomparable beauty All the buds of the Seed ranch had opened The faint tints of the flowers had deepened had asserted themselves They challenged the eye Pink became a royal red Blue rose into purple Yellow flamed into orange Orange glowed golden and brilliant The earth disappeared under great bands and fields of resplendent colour Then at length the moon abruptly soared zenithward from out the veiling mist passing from one filmy haze to another For a moment there was a gleam of a golden light and Vanamee his eyes searching the shade at the foot of the hill felt his heart suddenly leap and then hang poised refusing to beat In that instant of passing light something had caught his eye Something that moved down there half in and half out of the shadow at the hills foot It had come and gone in an instant The haze once more screened the moonlight The shade again engulfed the vision What was it he had seen He did not know So brief had been that movement the drowsy brain had not been quick enough to interpret the cipher message of the eye Now it was gone But something had been there He had seen it Was it the lifting of a strand of hair the wave of a white hand the flutter of a garments edge He could not tell but it did not belong to any of those sights which he had seen so often in that place It was neither the glancing of a moths wing the nodding of a windtouched blossom nor the noiseless flitting of a bat It was a gleam merely faint elusive impossible of definition an intangible agitation in the vast dim blur of the darkness
And that was all Until now no single real thing had occurred nothing that Vanamee could reduce to terms of actuality nothing he could put into words The manifestation when not recognisable to that strange sixth sense of his appealed only to the most refined the most delicate perception of eye and ear It was all ephemeral filmy dreamy the mystic forming of the Vision—the invisible developing a concrete nucleus the starlight coagulating the radiance of the flowers thickening to something actual perfume the most delicious fragrance becoming a tangible presence
But into that garden the serpent intruded Though cradled in the slow rhythm of the dream lulled by this beauty of a summers night heavy with the scent of flowers the silence broken only by a rippling fountain the darkness illuminated by a world of radiant blossoms Vanamee could not forget the tragedy of the Other that terror of many years ago—that prowler of the night that strange fearful figure with the unseen face swooping in there from out the darkness gone in an instant yet leaving behind the trail and trace of death and of pollution
Never had Vanamee seen this more clearly than when leaving Presley on the stock range of Los Muertos he had come across to the Mission garden by way of the Quien Sabe ranch
It was the same night in which Annixter outwatched the stars coming at last to himself
As the hours passed the two men far apart ignoring each other waited for the Manifestation—Annixter on the ranch Vanamee in the garden
Prone upon his face under the pear trees his forehead buried in the hollow of his arm Vanamee lay motionless For the last time raising his head he sent his voiceless cry out into the night across the multicoloured levels of the little valley calling upon the miracle summoning the darkness to give Angele back to him resigning himself to the hallucination He bowed his head upon his arm again and waited The minutes passed The fountain dripped steadily Over the hills a haze of saffron light foretold the rising of the full moon Nothing stirred The silence was profound
Then abruptly Vanamees right hand shut tight upon his wrist There—there it was It began again his invocation was answered Far off there the ripple formed again upon the still black pool of the night No sound no sight vibration merely appreciable by some sublimated faculty of the mind as yet unnamed Rigid his nerves taut motionless prone on the ground he waited
It advanced with infinite slowness Now it passed through the beds of violets now through the mignonette A moment later and he knew it stood among the white iris Then it left those behind It was in the splendour of the red roses and carnations It passed like a moving star into the superb abundance the imperial opulence of the royal lilies It was advancing slowly but there was no pause He held his breath not daring to raise his head It passed beyond the limits of the Seed ranch and entered the shade at the foot of the hill below him Would it come farther than this Here it had always stopped hitherto stopped for a moment and then in spite of his efforts had slipped from his grasp and faded back into the night But now he wondered if he had been willing to put forth his utmost strength after all Had there not always been an element of dread in the thought of beholding the mystery face to face Had he not even allowed the Vision to dissolve the Answer to recede into the obscurity whence it came
But never a night had been so beautiful as this It was the full period of the spring The air was a veritable caress The infinite repose of the little garden sleeping under the night was delicious beyond expression It was a tiny corner of the world shut off discreet distilling romance a garden of dreams of enchantments
Below in the little valley the resplendent colourations of the million flowers roses lilies hyacinths carnations violets glowed like incandescence in the golden light of the rising moon The air was thick with the perfume heavy with it clogged with it The sweetness filled the very mouth The throat choked with it Overhead wheeled the illimitable procession of the constellations Underfoot the earth was asleep The very flowers were dreaming A cathedral hush overlay all the land and a sense of benediction brooded low—a divine kindliness manifesting itself in beauty in peace in absolute repose
It was a time for visions It was the hour when dreams come true and lying deep in the grasses beneath the pear trees Vanamee dizzied with mysticism reaching up and out toward the supernatural felt as it were his mind begin to rise upward from out his body He passed into a state of being the like of which he had not known before He felt that his imagination was reshaping itself preparing to receive an impression never experienced until now His body felt light to him then it dwindled vanished He saw with new eyes heard with new ears felt with a new heart
Come to me he murmured
Then slowly he felt the advance of the Vision It was approaching Every instant it drew gradually nearer At last he was to see It had left the shadow at the base of the hill it was on the hill itself Slowly steadily it ascended the slope just below him there he heard a faint stirring The grasses rustled under the touch of a foot The leaves of the bushes murmured as a hand brushed against them a slender twig creaked The sounds of approach were more distinct They came nearer They reached the top of the hill They were within whispering distance
Vanamee trembling kept his head buried in his arm The sounds at length paused definitely The Vision could come no nearer He raised his head and looked The moon had risen Its great shield of gold stood over the eastern horizon Within six feet of Vanamee clear and distinct against the disk of the moon stood the figure of a young girl She was dressed in a gown of scarlet silk with flowing sleeves such as Japanese wear embroidered with flowers and figures of birds worked in gold threads On either side of her face making threecornered her round white forehead hung the soft masses of her hair of gold Her hands hung limply at her sides But from between her parted lips—lips of almost an Egyptian fulness—her breath came slow and regular and her eyes heavy lidded slanting upwards toward the temples perplexing oriental were closed She was asleep
From out this life of flowers this world of colour this atmosphere oppressive with perfume this darkness clogged and cloyed and thickened with sweet odours she came to him She came to him from out of the flowers the smell of the roses in her hair of gold the aroma and the imperial red of the carnations in her lips the whiteness of the lilies the perfume of the lilies and the lilies slender balancing grace in her neck Her hands disengaged the scent of the heliotrope The folds of her scarlet gown gave off the enervating smell of poppies Her feet were redolent of hyacinth She stood before him a Vision realised—a dream come true She emerged from out the invisible He beheld her a figure of gold and pale vermilion redolent of perfume poised motionless in the faint saffron sheen of the newrisen moon She a creation of sleep was herself asleep She a dream was herself dreaming
Called forth from out the darkness from the grip of the earth the embrace of the grave from out the memory of corruption she rose into light and life divinely pure Across that white forehead was no smudge no trace of an earthly pollution—no mark of a terrestrial dishonour He saw in her the same beauty of untainted innocence he had known in his youth Years had made no difference with her She was still young It was the old purity that returned the deathless beauty the everrenascent life the eternal consecrated and immortal youth For a few seconds she stood there before him and he upon the ground at her feet looked up at her spellbound Then slowly she withdrew Still asleep her eyelids closed she turned from him descending the slope She was gone
Vanamee started up coming as it were to himself looking wildly about him Sarria was there
I saw her said the priest It was Angele the little girl your Angeles daughter She is like her mother
But Vanamee scarcely heard He walked as if in a trance pushing by Sarria going forth from the garden Angele or Angeles daughter it was all one with him It was She Death was overcome The grave vanquished Life everrenewed alone existed Time was naught change was naught all things were immortal but evil all things eternal but grief
Suddenly the dawn came the east burned roseate toward the zenith Vanamee walked on he knew not where The dawn grew brighter At length he paused upon the crest of a hill overlooking the ranchos and cast his eye below him to the southward Then suddenly flinging up his arms he uttered a great cry
There it was The Wheat The Wheat In the night it had come up It was there everywhere from margin to margin of the horizon The earth long empty teemed with green life Once more the pendulum of the seasons swung in its mighty arc from death back to life Life out of death eternity rising from out dissolution There was the lesson Angele was not the symbol but the PROOF of immortality The seed dying rotting and corrupting in the earth rising again in life unconquerable and in immaculate purity—Angele dying as she gave birth to her little daughter life springing from her death—the pure unconquerable coming forth from the defiled Why had he not had the knowledge of God Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die So the seed had died So died Angele And that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body that shall be but bare grain It may chance of wheat or of some other grain The wheat called forth from out the darkness from out the grip of the earth of the grave from out corruption rose triumphant into light and life So Angele so life so also the resurrection of the dead It is sown in corruption It is raised in incorruption It is sown in dishonour It is raised in glory It is sown in weakness It is raised in power Death was swallowed up in Victory
The sun rose The night was over The glory of the terrestrial was one and the glory of the celestial was another Then as the glory of sun banished the lesser glory of moon and stars Vanamee from his mountain top beholding the eternal green life of the growing Wheat bursting its bonds and in his heart exulting in his triumph over the grave flung out his arms with a mighty shout
Oh Death where is thy sting Oh Grave where is thy victory
CHAPTER IV
Presleys Socialistic poem The Toilers had an enormous success The editor of the Sunday supplement of the San Francisco paper to which it was sent printed it in Gothic type with a scarehead title so decorative as to be almost illegible and furthermore caused the poem to be illustrated by one of the papers staff artists in a most impressive fashion The whole affair occupied an entire page Thus advertised the poem attracted attention It was promptly copied in New York Boston and Chicago papers It was discussed attacked defended eulogised ridiculed It was praised with the most fulsome adulation assailed with the most violent condemnation Editorials were written upon it Special articles in literary pamphlets dissected its rhetoric and prosody The phrases were quoted—were used as texts for revolutionary sermons reactionary speeches It was parodied it was distorted so as to read as an advertisement for patented cereals and infants foods Finally the editor of an enterprising monthly magazine reprinted the poem supplementing it by a photograph and biography of Presley himself
Presley was stunned bewildered He began to wonder at himself Was he actually the greatest American poet since Bryant He had had no thought of fame while composing The Toilers He had only been moved to his hearts foundations—thoroughly in earnest seeing clearly—and had addressed himself to the poems composition in a happy moment when words came easily to him and the elaboration of fine sentences was not difficult Was it thus fame was achieved For a while he was tempted to cross the continent and go to New York and there come unto his own enjoying the triumph that awaited him But soon he denied himself this cheap reward Now he was too much in earnest He wanted to help his People the community in which he lived—the little world of the San Joaquin at grapples with the Railroad The struggle had found its poet He told himself that his place was here Only the words of the manager of a lecture bureau troubled him for a moment To range the entire nation telling all his countrymen of the drama that was working itself out on this fringe of the continent this ignored and distant Pacific Coast rousing their interest and stirring them up to action—appealed to him It might do great good To devote himself to the Cause accepting no penny of remuneration to give his life to loosing the grip of the ironhearted monster of steel and steam would be beyond question heroic Other States than California had their grievances All over the country the family of cyclops was growing He would declare himself the champion of the People in their opposition to the Trust He would be an apostle a prophet a martyr of Freedom
But Presley was essentially a dreamer not a man of affairs He hesitated to act at this precise psychological moment striking while the iron was yet hot and while he hesitated other affairs near at hand began to absorb his attention
One night about an hour after he had gone to bed he was awakened by the sound of voices on the porch of the ranch house and descending found Mrs Dyke there with Sidney The exengineers mother was talking to Magnus and Harran and crying as she talked It seemed that Dyke was missing He had gone into town early that afternoon with the wagon and team and was to have been home for supper By now it was ten oclock and there was no news of him Mrs Dyke told how she first had gone to Quien Sabe intending to telephone from there to Bonneville but Annixter was in San Francisco and in his absence the house was locked up and the overseer who had a duplicate key was himself in Bonneville She had telegraphed three times from Guadalajara to Bonneville for news of her son but without result Then at last tortured with anxiety she had gone to Hoovens taking Sidney with her and had prevailed upon Bismarck to hitch up and drive her across Los Muertos to the Governors to beg him to telephone into Bonneville to know what had become of Dyke
While Harran rang up Central in town Mrs Dyke told Presley and Magnus of the lamentable change in Dyke
They have broken my sons spirit Mr Derrick she said If you were only there to see Hour after hour he sits on the porch with his hands lying open in his lap looking at them without a word He wont look me in the face any more and he dont sleep Night after night he has walked the floor until morning And he will go on that way for days together very silent without a word and sitting still in his chair and then all of a sudden he will break out—oh Mr Derrick it is terrible—into an awful rage cursing swearing grinding his teeth his hands clenched over his head stamping so that the house shakes and saying that if S Behrman dont give him back his money he will kill him with his two hands But that isnt the worst Mr Derrick He goes to Mr Carahers saloon now and stays there for hours and listens to Mr Caraher There is something on my sons mind I know there is—something that he and Mr Caraher have talked over together and I cant find out what it is Mr Caraher is a bad man and my son has fallen under his influence The tears filled her eyes Bravely she turned to hide them turning away to take Sidney in her arms putting her head upon the little girls shoulder
I—I havent broken down before Mr Derrick she said but after we have been so happy in our little house just us three—and the future seemed so bright—oh God will punish the gentlemen who own the railroad for being so hard and cruel
Harran came out on the porch from the telephone and she interrupted herself fixing her eyes eagerly upon him
I think it is all right Mrs Dyke he said reassuringly We know where he is I believe You and the little tad stay here and Hooven and I will go after him
About two hours later Harran brought Dyke back to Los Muertos in Hoovens wagon He had found him at Carahers saloon very drunk
There was nothing maudlin about Dykes drunkenness In him the alcohol merely roused the spirit of evil vengeful reckless
As the wagon passed out from under the eucalyptus trees about the ranch house taking Mrs Dyke Sidney and the onetime engineer back to the hop ranch Presley leaning from his window heard the latter remark
Caraher is right There is only one thing they listen to and thats dynamite
The following day Presley drove Magnus over to Guadalajara to take the train for San Francisco But after he had said goodbye to the Governor he was moved to go on to the hop ranch to see the condition of affairs in that quarter He returned to Los Muertos overwhelmed with sadness and trembling with anger The hop ranch that he had last seen in the full tide of prosperity was almost a ruin Work had evidently been abandoned long since Weeds were already choking the vines Everywhere the poles sagged and drooped Many had even fallen dragging the vines with them spreading them over the ground in an inextricable tangle of dead leaves decaying tendrils and snarled string The fence was broken the unfinished storehouse which never was to see completion was a lamentable spectacle of gaping doors and windows—a melancholy skeleton Last of all Presley had caught a glimpse of Dyke himself seated in his rocking chair on the porch his beard and hair unkempt motionless looking with vague eyes upon his hands that lay palm upwards and idle in his lap
Magnus on his way to San Francisco was joined at Bonneville by Osterman Upon seating himself in front of the master of Los Muertos in the smokingcar of the train this latter pushing back his hat and smoothing his bald head observed
Governor you look all frazeled out Anything wrong these days
The other answered in the negative but for all that Osterman was right The Governor had aged suddenly His former erectness was gone the broad shoulders stooped a little the strong lines of his thinlipped mouth were relaxed and his hand as it clasped over the yellowed ivory knob of his cane had an unwonted tremulousness not hitherto noticeable But the change in Magnus was more than physical At last in the full tide of power President of the League known and talked of in every county of the State leader in a great struggle consulted deferred to as the Prominent Man at length attaining that position so long and vainly sought for he yet found no pleasure in his triumph and little but bitterness in life His success had come by devious methods had been reached by obscure means
He was a briber He could never forget that To further his ends disinterested publicspirited even philanthropic as those were he had connived with knavery he the politician of the old school of such rigorous integrity who had abandoned a career rather than compromise with honesty At this eleventh hour involved and entrapped in the finespun web of a new order of things bewildered by Ostermans dexterity by his volubility and glibness goaded and harassed beyond the point of reason by the aggression of the Trust he fought he had at last failed He had fallen he had given a bribe He had thought that after all this would make but little difference with him The affair was known only to Osterman Broderson and Annixter they would not judge him being themselves involved He could still preserve a bold front could still hold his head high As time went on the affair would lose its point
But this was not so Some subtle element of his character had forsaken him He felt it He knew it Some certain stiffness that had given him all his rigidity that had lent force to his authority weight to his dominance temper to his fine inflexible hardness was diminishing day by day In the decisions which he as President of the League was called upon to make so often he now hesitated He could no longer be arrogant masterful acting upon his own judgment independent of opinion He began to consult his lieutenants asking their advice distrusting his own opinions He made mistakes blunders and when those were brought to his notice took refuge in bluster He knew it to be bluster—knew that sooner or later his subordinates would recognise it as such How long could he maintain his position So only he could keep his grip upon the lever of control till the battle was over all would be well If not he would fall and once fallen he knew that now briber that he was he would never rise again
He was on his way at this moment to the city to consult with Lyman as to a certain issue of the contest between the Railroad and the ranchers which of late had been brought to his notice
When appeal had been taken to the Supreme Court by the Leagues Executive Committee certain test cases had been chosen which should represent all the lands in question Neither Magnus nor Annixter had so appealed believing of course that their cases were covered by the test cases on trial at Washington Magnus had here blundered again and the Leagues agents in San Francisco had written to warn him that the Railroad might be able to take advantage of a technicality and by pretending that neither Quien Sabe nor Los Muertos were included in the appeal attempt to put its dummy buyers in possession of the two ranches before the Supreme Court handed down its decision The ninety days allowed for taking this appeal were nearly at an end and after then the Railroad could act Osterman and Magnus at once decided to go up to the city there joining Annixter who had been absent from Quien Sabe for the last ten days and talk the matter over with Lyman Lyman because of his position as Commissioner might be cognisant of the Railroads plans and at the same time could give sound legal advice as to what was to be done should the new rumour prove true
Say remarked Osterman as the train pulled out of the Bonneville station and the two men settled themselves for the long journey say Governor whats all up with Buck Annixter these days Hes got a bean about something sure
I had not noticed answered Magnus Mr Annixter has been away some time lately I cannot imagine what should keep him so long in San Francisco
Thats it said Osterman winking Have three guesses Guess right and you get a cigar I guess girl spells Hilma Tree And a little while ago she quit Quien Sabe and hiked out to Frisco So did Buck Do I draw the cigar Its up to you I have noticed her observed Magnus A fine figure of a woman She would make some man a good wife
Hoh Wife Buck Annixter marry Not much Hes gone agirling at last old Buck Its as funny as twins Have to josh him about it when I see him sure
But when Osterman and Magnus at last fell in with Annixter in the vestibule of the Lick House on Montgomery Street nothing could be got out of him He was in an execrable humour When Magnus had broached the subject of business he had declared that all business could go to pot and when Osterman his tongue in his cheek had permitted himself a most distant allusion to a feemale girl Annixter had cursed him for a busyface so vociferously and tersely that even Osterman was cowed
Well insinuated Osterman what are you dallying round Frisco so much for
Cat fur to make kittenbreeches retorted Annixter with oracular vagueness
Two weeks before this time Annixter had come up to the city and had gone at once to a certain hotel on Bush Street behind the First National Bank that he knew was kept by a family connection of the Trees In his conjecture that Hilma and her parents would stop here he was right Their names were on the register Ignoring custom Annixter marched straight up to their rooms and before he was well aware of it was eating crow before old man Tree
Hilma and her mother were out at the time Later on Mrs Tree returned alone leaving Hilma to spend the day with one of her cousins who lived far out on Stanyan Street in a little house facing the park
Between Annixter and Hilmas parents a reconciliation had been effected Annixter convincing them both of his sincerity in wishing to make Hilma his wife Hilma however refused to see him As soon as she knew he had followed her to San Francisco she had been unwilling to return to the hotel and had arranged with her cousin to spend an indefinite time at her house
She was wretchedly unhappy during all this time would not set foot out of doors and cried herself to sleep night after night She detested the city Already she was miserably homesick for the ranch She remembered the days she had spent in the little dairyhouse happy in her work making butter and cheese skimming the great pans of milk scouring the copper vessels and vats plunging her arms elbow deep into the white curds coming and going in that atmosphere of freshness cleanliness and sunlight gay singing supremely happy just because the sun shone She remembered her long walks toward the Mission late in the afternoons her excursions for cresses underneath the Long Trestle the crowing of the cocks the distant whistle of the passing trains the faint sounding of the Angelus She recalled with infinite longing the solitary expanse of the ranches the level reaches between the horizons full of light and silence the heat at noon the cloudless iridescence of the sunrise and sunset She had been so happy in that life Now all those days were passed This crude raw city with its crowding houses all of wood and tin its blotting fogs its uproarious trade winds disturbed and saddened her There was no outlook for the future
At length one day about a week after Annixters arrival in the city she was prevailed upon to go for a walk in the park She went alone putting on for the first time the little hat of black straw with its puff of white silk her mother had bought for her a pink shirtwaist her belt of imitation alligator skin her new skirt of brown cloth and her low shoes set off with their little steel buckles
She found a tiny summer house built in Japanese fashion around a diminutive pond and sat there for a while her hands folded in her lap amused with watching the goldfish wishing—she knew not what
Without any warning Annixter sat down beside her She was too frightened to move She looked at him with wide eyes that began to fill with tears
Oh she said at last oh—I didnt know
Well exclaimed Annixter here you are at last Ive been watching that blamed house till I was afraid the policeman would move me on By the Lord he suddenly cried youre pale You—you Hilma do you feel well
Yes—I am well she faltered
No youre not he declared I know better You are coming back to Quien Sabe with me This place dont agree with you Hilma whats all the matter Why havent you let me see you all this time Do you know—how things are with me Your mother told you didnt she Do you know how sorry I am Do you know that I see now that I made the mistake of my life there that time under the Long Trestle I found it out the night after you went away I sat all night on a stone out on the ranch somewhere and I dont know exactly what happened but Ive been a different man since then I see things all different now Why Ive only begun to live since then I know what love means now and instead of being ashamed of it Im proud of it If I never was to see you again I would be glad Id lived through that night just the same I just woke up that night Id been absolutely and completely selfish up to the moment I realised I really loved you and now whether youll let me marry you or not I mean to live—I dont know in a different way Ive GOT to live different I—well—oh I cant make you understand but just loving you has changed my life all around Its made it easier to do the straight clean thing I want to do it its fun doing it Remember once I said I was proud of being a hard man a driver of being glad that people hated me and were afraid of me Well since Ive loved you Im ashamed of it all I dont want to be hard any more and nobody is going to hate me if I can help it Im happy and I want other people so I love you he suddenly exclaimed I love you and if you will forgive me and if you will come down to such a beast as I am I want to be to you the best a man can be to a woman Hilma Do you understand little girl I want to be your husband
Hilma looked at the goldfishes through her tears
Have you got anything to say to me Hilma he asked after a while
I dont know what you want me to say she murmured
Yes you do he insisted Ive followed you way up here to hear it Ive waited around in these beastly draughty picnic grounds for over a week to hear it You know what I want to hear Hilma
Well—I forgive you she hazarded
That will do for a starter he answered But thats not IT
Then I dont know what
Shall I say it for you
She hesitated a long minute then
You mightnt say it right she replied
Trust me for that Shall I say it for you Hilma
I dont know what youll say
Ill say what you are thinking of Shall I say it
There was a very long pause A goldfish rose to the surface of the little pond with a sharp rippling sound The fog drifted overhead There was nobody about
No said Hilma at length I—I—I can say it for myself I— All at once she turned to him and put her arms around his neck Oh DO you love me she cried Is it really true Do you mean every word of it And you are sorry and you WILL be good to me if I will be your wife You will be my dear dear husband
The tears sprang to Annixters eyes He took her in his arms and held her there for a moment Never in his life had he felt so unworthy so undeserving of this clean pure girl who forgave him and trusted his spoken word and believed him to be the good man he could only wish to be She was so far above him so exalted so noble that he should have bowed his forehead to her feet and instead she took him in her arms believing him to be good to be her equal He could think of no words to say The tears overflowed his eyes and ran down upon his cheeks She drew away from him and held him a second at arms length looking at him and he saw that she too had been crying
I think he said we are a couple of softies
No no she insisted I want to cry and want you to cry too Oh dear I havent a handkerchief
Here take mine
They wiped each others eyes like two children and for a long time sat in the deserted little Japanese pleasure house their arms about each other talking talking talking
On the following Saturday they were married in an uptown Presbyterian church and spent the week of their honeymoon at a small family hotel on Sutter Street As a matter of course they saw the sights of the city together They made the inevitable bridal trip to the Cliff House and spent an afternoon in the grewsome and madetoorder beauties of Sutros Gardens they went through Chinatown the Palace Hotel the park museum—where Hilma resolutely refused to believe in the Egyptian mummy—and they drove out in a hired hack to the Presidio and the Golden Gate
On the sixth day of their excursions Hilma abruptly declared they had had enough of playing out and must be serious and get to work
This work was nothing less than the buying of the furniture and appointments for the rejuvenated ranch house at Quien Sabe where they were to live Annixter had telegraphed to his overseer to have the building repainted replastered and reshingled and to empty the rooms of everything but the telephone and safe He also sent instructions to have the dimensions of each room noted down and the result forwarded to him It was the arrival of these memoranda that had roused Hilma to action
Then ensued a most delicious week Armed with formidable lists written by Annixter on hotel envelopes they two descended upon the department stores of the city the carpet stores the furniture stores Right and left they bought and bargained sending each consignment as soon as purchased to Quien Sabe Nearly an entire car load of carpets curtains kitchen furniture pictures fixtures lamps straw matting chairs and the like were sent down to the ranch Annixter making a point that their new home should be entirely equipped by San Francisco dealers
The furnishings of the bedroom and sittingroom were left to the very last For the former Hilma bought a set of pure white enamel three chairs a washstand and bureau a marvellous bargain of thirty dollars discovered by wonderful accident at a Friday Sale The bed was a piece by itself bought elsewhere but none the less a wonder It was of brass very brave and gay and actually boasted a canopy They bought it complete just as it stood in the window of the department store and Hilma was in an ecstasy over its crisp clean muslin curtains spread and shams Never was there such a bed the luxury of a princess such a bed as she had dreamed about her whole life
Next the appointments of the sittingroom occupied her—since Annixter himself bewildered by this astonishing display unable to offer a single suggestion himself merely approved of all she bought In the sittingroom was to be a beautiful blue and white paper cool straw matting set off with white wool rugs a stand of flowers in the window a globe of goldfish rocking chairs a sewing machine and a great round centre table of yellow oak whereon should stand a lamp covered with a deep shade of crinkly red tissue paper On the walls were to hang several pictures—lovely affairs photographs from life all properly tinted—of choir boys in robes with beautiful eyes pensive young girls in pink gowns with flowing yellow hair drooping over golden harps a coloured reproduction of Rouget de Lisle Singing the Marseillaise and two pieces of wood carving representing a quail and a wild duck hung by one leg in the midst of game bags and powder horns—quite masterpieces both
At last everything had been bought all arrangements made Hilmas trunks packed with her new dresses and the tickets to Bonneville bought
Well go by the Overland by Jingo declared Annixter across the table to his wife at their last meal in the hotel where they had been stopping no way trains or locals for us hey
But we reach Bonneville at SUCH an hour protested Hilma Five in the morning
Never mind he declared well go home in PULLMANS Hilma Im not going to have any of those slobs in Bonneville say I didnt know how to do the thing in style and well have Vacca meet us with the team No sir it is Pullmans or nothing When it comes to buying furniture I dont shine perhaps but I know whats due my wife
He was obdurate and late one afternoon the couple boarded the Transcontinental the crack Overland Flyer of the Pacific and Southwestern at the Oakland mole Only Hilmas parents were there to say goodbye Annixter knew that Magnus and Osterman were in the city but he had laid his plans to elude them Magnus he could trust to be dignified but that goat Osterman one could never tell what he would do next He did not propose to start his journey home in a shower of rice Annixter marched down the line of cars his hands encumbered with wicker telescope baskets satchels and valises his tickets in his mouth his hat on wrong side foremost Hilma and her parents hurrying on behind him trying to keep up Annixter was in a turmoil of nerves lest something should go wrong catching a train was always for him a little crisis He rushed ahead so furiously that when he had found his Pullman he had lost his party He set down his valises to mark the place and charged back along the platform waving his arms
Come on he cried when at length he espied the others Weve no more time
He shouldered and urged them forward to where he had set his valises only to find one of them gone Instantly he raised an outcry Aha a fine way to treat passengers There was P and S W management for you He would by the Lord he would—but the porter appeared in the vestibule of the car to placate him He had already taken his valises inside
Annixter would not permit Hilmas parents to board the car declaring that the train might pull out any moment So he and his wife following the porter down the narrow passage by the stateroom took their places and raising the window leaned out to say goodbye to Mr and Mrs Tree These latter would not return to Quien Sabe Old man Tree had found a business chance awaiting him in the matter of supplying his relatives hotel with dairy products But Bonneville was not too far from San Francisco the separation was by no means final
The porters began taking up the steps that stood by the vestibule of each sleepingcar
Well have a good time daughter observed her father and come up to see us whenever you can
From beyond the enclosure of the depots reverberating roof came the measured clang of a bell
I guess were off cried Annixter Goodbye Mrs Tree
Remember your promise Hilma her mother hastened to exclaim to write every Sunday afternoon
There came a prolonged creaking and groan of straining wood and iron work all along the length of the train They all began to cry their goodbyes at once The train stirred moved forward and gathering slow headway rolled slowly out into the sunlight Hilma leaned out of the window and as long as she could keep her mother in sight waved her handkerchief Then at length she sat back in her seat and looked at her husband
Well she said
Well echoed Annixter happy for the tears rose in her eyes
She nodded energetically smiling at him bravely
You look a little pale he declared frowning uneasily feel well
Pretty well
Promptly he was seized with uneasiness But not ALL well hey Is that it
It was true that Hilma had felt a faint tremour of seasickness on the ferryboat coming from the city to the Oakland mole No doubt a little nausea yet remained with her But Annixter refused to accept this explanation He was distressed beyond expression
Now youre going to be sick he cried anxiously
No no she protested not a bit
But you said you didnt feel very well Where is it you feel sick
I dont know Im not sick Oh dear me why will you bother
Headache
Not the least
You feel tired then Thats it No wonder the way rushed you round today
Dear Im NOT tired and Im NOT sick and Im all RIGHT
No no I can tell I think wed best have the berth made up and you lie down
That would be perfectly ridiculous
Well where is it you feel sick Show me put your hand on the place Want to eat something
With elaborate minuteness he crossquestioned her refusing to let the subject drop protesting that she had dark circles under her eyes that she had grown thinner
Wonder if theres a doctor on board he murmured looking uncertainly about the car Let me see your tongue I know—a little whiskey is what you want that and some pru——
No no NO she exclaimed Im as well as I ever was in all my life Look at me Now tell me do l look likee a sick lady
He scrutinised her face distressfully
Now dont I look the picture of health she challenged
In a way you do he began and then again——
Hilma beat a tattoo with her heels upon the floor shutting her fists the thumbs tucked inside She closed her eyes shaking her head energetically
I wont listen I wont listen I wont listen she cried
But just the same——
Gibble—gibble—gibble she mocked I wont Listen I wont listen She put a hand over his mouth Look heres the diningcar waiter and the first call for supper and your wife is hungry
They went forward and had supper in the diner while the long train now out upon the main line settled itself to its pace the prolonged even gallop that it would hold for the better part of the week spinning out the miles as a cotton spinner spins thread
It was already dark when Antioch was left behind Abruptly the sunset appeared to wheel in the sky and readjusted itself to the right of the track behind Mount Diablo here visible almost to its base The train had turned southward Neroly was passed then Brentwood then Byron In the gathering dusk mountains began to build themselves up on either hand far off blocking the horizon The train shot forward roaring Between the mountains the land lay level cut up into farms ranches These continually grew larger growing wheat began to appear billowing in the wind of the trains passage The mountains grew higher the land richer and by the time the moon rose the train was well into the northernmost limits of the valley of the San Joaquin
Annixter had engaged an entire section and after he and his wife went to bed had the porter close the upper berth Hilma sat up in bed to say her prayers both hands over her face and then kissing Annixter goodnight went to sleep with the directness of a little child holding his hand in both her own
Annixter who never could sleep on the train dozed and tossed and fretted for hours consulting his watch and timetable whenever there was a stop twice he rose to get a drink of ice water and between whiles was forever sitting up in the narrow berth stretching himself and yawning murmuring with uncertain relevance
Oh Lord Ohhh LORD
There were some dozen other passengers in the car—a lady with three children a group of schoolteachers a couple of drummers a stout gentleman with whiskers and a welldressed young man in a plaid travelling cap whom Annixter had observed before supper time reading Daudets Tartarin in the French
But by nine oclock all these people were in their berths Occasionally above the rhythmic rumble of the wheels Annixter could hear one of the ladys children fidgeting and complaining The stout gentleman snored monotonously in two notes one a rasping bass the other a prolonged treble At intervals a brakeman or the passenger conductor pushed down the aisle between the curtains his red and white lamp over his arm Looking out into the car Annixter saw in an end section where the berths had not been made up the porter in his white duck coat dozing his mouth wide open his head on his shoulder
The hours passed Midnight came and went Annixter checking off the stations noted their passage of Modesto Merced and Madeira Then after another broken nap he lost count He wondered where they were Had they reached Fresno yet Raising the window curtain he made a shade with both hands on either side of his face and looked out The night was thick dark clouded over A fine rain was falling leaving horizontal streaks on the glass of the outside window Only the faintest grey blur indicated the sky Everything else was impenetrable blackness
I think sure we must have passed Fresno he muttered He looked at his watch It was about halfpast three If we have passed Fresno he said to himself Id better wake the little girl pretty soon Shell need about an hour to dress Better find out for sure
He drew on his trousers and shoes got into his coat and stepped out into the aisle In the seat that had been occupied by the porter the Pullman conductor his cash box and carschedules before him was checking up his berths a blue pencil behind his ear
Whats the next stop Captain inquired Annixter coming up Have we reached Fresno yet
Just passed it the other responded looking at Annixter over his spectacles
Whats the next stop
Goshen We will be there in about fortyfive minutes
Fair black night isnt it
Black as a pocket Lets see youre the party in upper and lower 9
Annixter caught at the back of the nearest seat just in time to prevent a fall and the conductors cash box was shunted off the surface of the plush seat and came clanking to the floor The Pintsch lights overhead vibrated with blinding rapidity in the long sliding jar that ran through the train from end to end and the momentum of its speed suddenly decreasing all but pitched the conductor from his seat A hideous earsplitting rasp made itself heard from the clampeddown Westinghouse gear underneath and Annixter knew that the wheels had ceased to revolve and that the train was sliding forward upon the motionless flanges
Hello hello he exclaimed whats all up now
Emergency brakes declared the conductor catching up his cash box and thrusting his papers and tickets into it Nothing much probably a cow on the track
He disappeared carrying his lantern with him
But the other passengers all but the stout gentleman were awake heads were thrust from out the curtains and Annixter hurrying back to Hilma was assailed by all manner of questions
What was that
Anything wrong
Whats up anyways
Hilma was just waking as Annixter pushed the curtain aside
Oh I was so frightened Whats the matter dear she exclaimed
I dont know he answered Only the emergency brakes Just a cow on the track I guess Dont get scared It isnt anything
But with a final shriek of the Westinghouse appliance the train came to a definite halt
At once the silence was absolute The ears still numb with the longcontinued roar of wheels and clashing iron at first refused to register correctly the smaller noises of the surroundings Voices came from the other end of the car strange and unfamiliar as though heard at a great distance across the water The stillness of the night outside was so profound that the rain dripping from the car roof upon the roadbed underneath was as distinct as the ticking of a clock
Well weve sure stopped observed one of the drummers
What is it asked Hilma again Are you sure theres nothing wrong
Sure said Annixter Outside underneath their window they heard the sound of hurried footsteps crushing into the clinkers by the side of the ties They passed on and Annixter heard some one in the distance shout
Yes on the other side
Then the door at the end of their car opened and a brakeman with a red beard ran down the aisle and out upon the platform in front The forward door closed Everything was quiet again In the stillness the fat gentlemans snores made themselves heard once more
The minutes passed nothing stirred There was no sound but the dripping rain The line of cars lay immobilised and inert under the night One of the drummers having stepped outside on the platform for a look around returned saying
There sure isnt any station anywheres about and no siding Bet you they have had an accident of some kind
Ask the porter
I did He dont know
Maybe they stopped to take on wood or water or something
Well they wouldnt use the emergency brakes for that would they Why this train stopped almost in her own length Pretty near slung me out the berth Those were the emergency brakes I heard some one say so
From far out towards the front of the train near the locomotive came the sharp incisive report of a revolver then two more almost simultaneously then after a long interval a fourth
Say thats SHOOTING By God boys theyre shooting Say this is a holdup
Instantly a whitehot excitement flared from end to end of the car Incredibly sinister heard thus in the night and in the rain mysterious fearful those four pistol shots started confusion from out the sense of security like a frightened rabbit hunted from her burrow Wideeyed the passengers of the car looked into each others faces It had come to them at last this they had so often read about Now they were to see the real thing now they were to face actuality face this danger of the night leaping in from out the blackness of the roadside masked armed ready to kill They were facing it now They were held up
Hilma said nothing only catching Annixters hand looking squarely into his eyes
Steady little girl he said They cant hurt you I wont leave you By the Lord he suddenly exclaimed his excitement getting the better of him for a moment By the Lord its a holdup
The schoolteachers were in the aisle of the car in night gown wrapper and dressing sack huddled together like sheep holding on to each other looking to the men silently appealing for protection Two of them were weeping white to the lips
Oh oh oh its terrible Oh if they only wont hurt me
But the lady with the children looked out from her berth smiled reassuringly and said
Im not a bit frightened They wont do anything to us if we keep quiet Ive my watch and jewelry all ready for them in my little black bag see
She exhibited it to the passengers Her children were all awake They were quiet looking about them with eager faces interested and amused at this surprise In his berth the fat gentleman with whiskers snored profoundly
Say Im going out there suddenly declared one of the drummers flourishing a pocket revolver
His friend caught his arm
Dont make a fool of yourself Max he said
They wont come near us observed the welldressed young man they are after the WellsFargo box and the registered mail You wont do any good out there
But the other loudly protested No he was going out He didnt propose to be buncoed without a fight He wasnt any coward
Well you dont go thats all said his friend angrily Theres women and children in this car You aint going to draw the fire here
Well thats to be thought of said the other allowing himself to be pacified but still holding his pistol
Dont let him open that window cried Annixter sharply from his place by Hilmas side for the drummer had made as if to open the sash in one of the sections that had not been made up
Sure thats right said the others Dont open any windows Keep your head in Youll get us all shot if you arent careful
However the drummer had got the window up and had leaned out before the others could interfere and draw him away
Say by jove he shouted as he turned back to the car our engines gone Were standing on a curve and you can see the end of the train Shes gone I tell you Well look for yourself
In spite of their precautions one after another his friends looked out Sure enough the train was without a locomotive
Theyve done it so we cant get away vociferated the drummer with the pistol Now by jiminyChristmas theyll come through the cars and stand us up Theyll be in here in a minute LORD WHAT WAS THAT
From far away up the track apparently some halfmile ahead of the train came the sound of a heavy explosion The windows of the car vibrated with it
Shooting again
That isnt shooting exclaimed Annixter Theyve pulled the express and mail car on ahead with the engine and now they are dynamiting her open
That must be it Yes sure thats just what they are doing
The forward door of the car opened and closed and the schoolteachers shrieked and cowered The drummer with the revolver faced about his eyes bulging However it was only the train conductor hatless his lantern in his hand He was soaked with rain He appeared in the aisle
Is there a doctor in this car he asked
Promptly the passengers surrounded him voluble with questions But he was in a bad temper
I dont know anything more than you he shouted angrily It was a holdup I guess you know that dont you Well what more do you want to know I aint got time to fool around They cut off our express car and have cracked it open and they shot one of our train crew thats all and I want a doctor
Did they shoot him—kill him do you mean
Is he hurt bad
Did the men get away
Oh shut up will you all exclaimed the conductor
What do I know Is there a DOCTOR in this car thats what I want to know
The welldressed young man stepped forward
Im a doctor he said Well come along then returned the conductor in a surly voice and the passengers in this car he added turning back at the door and nodding his head menacingly will go back to bed and STAY there Its all over and theres nothing to see
He went out followed by the young doctor
Then ensued an interminable period of silence The entire train seemed deserted Helpless bereft of its engine a huge decapitated monster it lay halfway around a curve rained upon abandoned
There was more fear in this last condition of affairs more terror in the idea of this prolonged line of sleepers with their nickelled fittings their plate glass their upholstery vestibules and the like loaded down with people lost and forgotten in the night and the rain than there had been when the actual danger threatened
What was to become of them now Who was there to help them Their engine was gone they were helpless What next was to happen
Nobody came near the car Even the porter had disappeared The wait seemed endless and the persistent snoring of the whiskered gentleman rasped the nerves like the scrape of a file
Well how long are we going to stick here now began one of the drummers Wonder if they hurt the engine with their dynamite
Oh I know they will come through the car and rob us wailed the schoolteachers
The lady with the little children went back to bed and Annixter assured that the trouble was over did likewise But nobody slept From berth to berth came the sound of suppressed voices talking it all over formulating conjectures Certain points seemed to be settled upon no one knew how as indisputable The highwaymen had been four in number and had stopped the train by pulling the bell cord A brakeman had attempted to interfere and had been shot The robbers had been on the train all the way from San Francisco The drummer named Max remembered to have seen four suspiciouslooking characters in the smokingcar at Lathrop and had intended to speak to the conductor about them This drummer had been in a holdup before and told the story of it over and over again
At last after what seemed to have been an hours delay and when the dawn had already begun to show in the east the locomotive backed on to the train again with a reverberating jar that ran from car to car At the jolting the schoolteachers screamed in chorus and the whiskered gentleman stopped snoring and thrust his head from his curtains blinking at the Pintsch lights It appeared that he was an Englishman
I say he asked of the drummer named Max I say my friend what place is this
The others roared with derision
We were HELD UP sir thats what we were We were held up and you slept through it all You missed the show of your life
The gentleman fixed the group with a prolonged gaze He said never a word but little by little he was convinced that the drummers told the truth All at once he grew wrathful his face purpling He withdrew his head angrily buttoning his curtains together in a fury The cause of his rage was inexplicable but they could hear him resettling himself upon his pillows with exasperated movements of his head and shoulders In a few moments the deep bass and shrill treble of his snoring once more sounded through the car
At last the train got under way again with useless warning blasts of the engines whistle In a few moments it was tearing away through the dawn at a wonderful speed rocking around curves roaring across culverts making up time
And all the rest of that strange night the passengers sitting up in their unmade beds in the swaying car lighted by a strange mingling of pallid dawn and trembling Pintsch lights rushing at breakneck speed through the misty rain were oppressed by a vision of figures of terror far behind them in the night they had left masked armed galloping toward the mountains pistol in hand the booty bound to the saddle bow galloping galloping on sending a thrill of fear through all the country side
The young doctor returned He sat down in the smokingroom lighting a cigarette and Annixter and the drummers pressed around him to know the story of the whole affair
The man is dead he declared the brakeman He was shot through the lungs twice They think the fellow got away with about five thousand in gold coin
The fellow Wasnt there four of them
No only one And say let me tell you he had his nerve with him It seems he was on the roof of the express car all the time and going as fast as we were he jumped from the roof of the car down on to the coal on the engines tender and crawled over that and held up the men in the cab with his gun took their guns from em and made em stop the train Even ordered em to use the emergency gear seems he knew all about it Then he went back and uncoupled the express car himself
While he was doing this a brakeman—you remember that brakeman that came through here once or twice—had a red mustache
THAT chap Sure Well as soon as the train stopped this brakeman guessed something was wrong and ran up saw the fellow cutting off the express car and took a couple of shots at him and the fireman says the fellow didnt even take his hand off the couplingpin just turned around as cool as howdoyoudo and NAILED the brakeman right there They werent five feet apart when they began shooting The brakeman had come on him unexpected had no idea he was so close
And the express messenger all this time
Well he did his best Jumped out with his repeating shotgun but the fellow had him covered before he could turn round Held him up and took his gun away from him Say you know I call that nerve just the same One man standing up a whole trainload like that Then as soon as hed cut the express car off he made the engineer run her up the track about half a mile to a road crossing WHERE HE HAD A HORSE TIED What do you think of that Didnt he have it all figured out close And when he got there he dynamited the safe and got the WellsFargo box He took five thousand in gold coin the messenger says it was railroad money that the company were sending down to Bakersfield to pay off with It was in a bag He never touched the registered mail nor a whole wad of greenbacks that were in the safe but just took the coin got on his horse and lit out The engineer says he went to the eastard
He got away did he
Yes but they think theyll get him He wore a kind of mask but the brakeman recognised him positively We got his antemortem statement The brakeman said the fellow had a grudge against the road He was a discharged employee and lives near Bonneville
Dyke by the Lord exclaimed Annixter
Thats the name said the young doctor
When the train arrived at Bonneville forty minutes behind time it landed Annixter and Hilma in the midst of the very thing they most wished to avoid—an enormous crowd The news that the Overland had been held up thirty miles south of Fresno a brakeman killed and the safe looted and that Dyke alone was responsible for the nights work had been wired on ahead from Fowler the train conductor throwing the despatch to the station agent from the flying train
Before the train had come to a standstill under the arched roof of the Bonneville depot it was all but taken by assault Annixter with Hilma on his arm had almost to fight his way out of the car The depot was black with people S Behrman was there Delaney Cyrus Ruggles the town marshal the mayor Genslinger his hat on the back of his head ranged the train from cab to rearlights notebook in hand interviewing questioning collecting facts for his extra As Annixter descended finally to the platform the editor alert as a blackandtan terrier his thin osseous hands quivering with eagerness his brown dry face working with excitement caught his elbow
Can I have your version of the affair Mr Annixter
Annixter turned on him abruptly
Yes he exclaimed fiercely You and your gang drove Dyke from his job because he wouldnt work for starvation wages Then you raised freight rates on him and robbed him of all he had You ruined him and drove him to fill himself up with Carahers whiskey Hes only taken back what you plundered him of and now youre going to hound him over the State hunt him down like a wild animal and bring him to the gallows at San Quentin Thats my version of the affair Mister Genslinger but its worth your subsidy from the P and S W to print it
There was a murmur of approval from the crowd that stood around and Genslinger with an angry shrug of one shoulder took himself away
At length Annixter brought Hilma through the crowd to where young Vacca was waiting with the team However they could not at once start for the ranch Annixter wishing to ask some questions at the freight office about a final consignment of chairs It was nearly eleven oclock before they could start home But to gain the Upper Road to Quien Sabe it was necessary to traverse all of Main Street running through the heart of Bonneville
The entire town seemed to be upon the sidewalks By now the rain was over and the sun shining The story of the holdup—the work of a man whom every one knew and liked—was in every mouth How had Dyke come to do it Who would have believed it of him Think of his poor mother and the little tad Well after all he was not so much to blame the railroad people had brought it on themselves But he had shot a man to death Ah that was a serious business Goodnatured big broadshouldered jovial Dyke the man they knew with whom they had shaken hands only yesterday yes and drank with him He had shot a man killed him had stood there in the dark and in the rain while they were asleep in their beds and had killed a man Now where was he Instinctively eyes were turned eastward over the tops of the houses or down vistas of side streets to where the foothills of the mountains rose dim and vast over the edge of the valley He was in amongst them somewhere in all that pile of blue crests and purple canyons he was hidden away Now for weeks of searching false alarms clews trailings watchings all the thrill and heartbursting excitement of a manhunt Would he get away Hardly a man on the sidewalks of the town that day who did not hope for it
As Annixters team trotted through the central portion of the town young Vacca pointed to a denser and larger crowd around the rear entrance of the City Hall Fully twenty saddle horses were tied to the iron rail underneath the scant halfgrown trees near by and as Annixter and Hilma drove by the crowd parted and a dozen men with revolvers on their hips pushed their way to the curbstone and mounting their horses rode away at a gallop
Its the posse said young Vacca
Outside the town limits the ground was level There was nothing to obstruct the view and to the north in the direction of Ostermans ranch Vacca made out another party of horsemen galloping eastward and beyond these still another
Therere the other posses he announced That further one is Archie Moores Hes the sheriff He came down from Visalia on a special engine this morning
When the team turned into the driveway to the ranch house Hilma uttered a little cry clasping her hands joyfully The house was one glitter of new white paint the driveway had been freshly gravelled the flowerbeds replenished Mrs Vacca and her daughter who had been busy putting on the finishing touches came to the door to welcome them
Whats this case here asked Annixter when after helping his wife from the carryall his eye fell upon a wooden box of some three by five feet that stood on the porch and bore the red WellsFargo label
It came here last night addressed to you sir exclaimed Mrs Vacca We were sure it wasnt any of your furniture so we didnt open it
Oh maybe its a wedding present exclaimed Hilma her eyes sparkling
Well maybe it is returned her husband Here m son help me in with this
Annixter and young Vacca bore the case into the sittingroom of the house and Annixter hammer in hand attacked it vigorously Vacca discreetly withdrew on signal from his mother closing the door after him Annixter and his wife were left alone
Oh hurry hurry cried Hilma dancing around him
I want to see what it is Who do you suppose could have sent it to us And so heavy too What do you think it can be
Annixter put the claw of the hammer underneath the edge of the board top and wrenched with all his might The boards had been clamped together by a transverse bar and the whole top of the box came away in one piece A layer of excelsior was disclosed and on it a letter addressed by typewriter to Annixter It bore the trademark of a business firm of Los Angeles Annixter glanced at this and promptly caught it up before Hilma could see with an exclamation of intelligence
Oh I know what this is he observed carelessly trying to restrain her busy hands It isnt anything Just some machinery Let it go But already she had pulled away the excelsior Underneath in temporary racks were two dozen Winchester repeating rifles
Why—what—what— murmured Hilma blankly
Well I told you not to mind said Annixter It isnt anything Lets look through the rooms
But you said you knew what it was she protested bewildered You wanted to make believe it was machinery Are you keeping anything from me Tell me what it all means Oh why are you getting—these
She caught his arm looking with intense eagerness into his face She half understood already Annixter saw that
Well he said lamely YOU know—it may not come to anything at all but you know—well this League of ours—suppose the Railroad tries to jump Quien Sabe or Los Muertos or any of the other ranches—we made up our minds—the Leaguers have—that we wouldnt let it Thats all
And I thought cried Hilma drawing back fearfully from the case of rifles and I thought it was a wedding present
And that was their homecoming the end of their bridal trip Through the terror of the night echoing with pistol shots through that scene of robbery and murder into this atmosphere of alarms a manhunt organising armed horsemen silhouetted against the horizons cases of rifles where wedding presents should have been Annixter brought his young wife to be mistress of a home he might at any moment be called upon to defend with his life
The days passed Soon a week had gone by Magnus Derrick and Osterman returned from the city without any definite idea as to the Corporations plans Lyman had been reticent He knew nothing as to the progress of the land cases in Washington There was no news The Executive Committee of the League held a perfunctory meeting at Los Muertos at which nothing but routine business was transacted A scheme put forward by Osterman for a conference with the railroad managers fell through because of the refusal of the company to treat with the ranchers upon any other basis than that of the new grading It was impossible to learn whether or not the company considered Los Muertos Quien Sabe and the ranches around Bonneville covered by the test cases then on appeal
Meanwhile there was no decrease in the excitement that Dykes holdup had set loose over all the county Day after day it was the one topic of conversation at street corners at crossroads over dinner tables in office bank and store S Behrman placarded the town with a notice of 50000 reward for the exengineers capture dead or alive and the express company supplemented this by another offer of an equal amount The country was thick with parties of horsemen armed with rifles and revolvers recruited from Visalia Goshen and the few railroad sympathisers around Bonneville and Guadlajara One after another of these returned emptyhanded covered with dust and mud their horses exhausted to be met and passed by fresh posses starting out to continue the pursuit The sheriff of Santa Clara County sent down his bloodhounds from San Jose—small harmlesslooking dogs with a terrific bay—to help in the chase Reporters from the San Francisco papers appeared interviewing every one sometimes even accompanying the searching bands Horse hoofs clattered over the roads at night bells were rung the Mercury issued extra after extra the bloodhounds bayed gun butts clashed on the asphalt pavements of Bonneville accidental discharges of revolvers brought the whole town into the street farm hands called to each other across the fences of ranchdivisions—in a word the countryside was in an uproar
And all to no effect The hoofmarks of Dykes horse had been traced in the mud of the road to within a quarter of a mile of the foothills and there irretrievably lost Three days after the holdup a sheepherder was found who had seen the highwayman on a ridge in the higher mountains to the northeast of Taurusa And that was absolutely all Rumours were thick promising clews were discovered new trails taken up but nothing transpired to bring the pursuers and pursued any closer together Then after ten days of strain public interest began to flag It was believed that Dyke had succeeded in getting away If this was true he had gone to the southward after gaining the mountains and it would be his intention to work out of the range somewhere near the southern part of the San Joaquin near Bakersfield Thus the sheriffs marshals and deputies decided They had hunted too many criminals in these mountains before not to know the usual courses taken In time Dyke MUST come out of the mountains to get water and provisions But this time passed and from not one of the watched points came any word of his appearance At last the posses began to disband Little by little the pursuit was given up
Only S Behrman persisted He had made up his mind to bring Dyke in He succeeded in arousing the same degree of determination in Delaney—by now a trusted aide of the Railroad—and of his own cousin a real estate broker named Christian who knew the mountains and had once been marshal of Visalia in the old stockraising days These two went into the Sierras accompanied by two hired deputies and carrying with them a months provisions and two of the bloodhounds loaned by the Santa Clara sheriff
On a certain Sunday a few days after the departure of Christian and Delaney Annixter who had been reading David Copperfield in his hammock on the porch of the ranch house put down the book and went to find Hilma who was helping Louisa Vacca set the table for dinner He found her in the diningroom her hands full of the goldbordered china plates only used on special occasions and which Louisa was forbidden to touch
His wife was more than ordinarily pretty that day She wore a dress of flowered organdie over pink sateen with pink ribbons about her waist and neck and on her slim feet the low shoes she always affected with their smart bright buckles Her thick brown sweetsmelling hair was heaped high upon her head and set off with a bow of black velvet and underneath the shadow of its coils her wideopen eyes rimmed with the thin black line of her lashes shone continually reflecting the sunlight Marriage had only accentuated the beautiful maturity of Hilmas figure—now no longer precocious—defining the single deep swell from her throat to her waist the strong fine amplitude of her hips the sweet feminine undulation of her neck and shoulders Her cheeks were pink with health and her large round arms carried the piledup dishes with never a tremour Annixter observant enough where his wife was concerned noted how the reflection of the white china set a glow of pale light underneath her chin
Hilma he said Ive been wondering lately about things Were so blamed happy ourselves it wont do for us to forget about other people who are down will it Might change our luck And Im just likely to forget that way too Its my nature
His wife looked up at him joyfully Here was the new Annixter certainly
In all this hullabaloo about Dyke he went on theres some one nobody aint thought about at all Thats MRS Dyke—and the little tad I wouldnt be surprised if they were in a hole over there What do you say we drive over to the hop ranch after dinner and see if she wants anything
Hilma put down the plates and came around the table and kissed him without a word
As soon as their dinner was over Annixter had the carryall hitched up and dispensing with young Vacca drove over to the hop ranch with Hilma
Hilma could not keep back the tears as they passed through the lamentable desolation of the withered brown vines symbols of perished hopes and abandoned effort and Annixter swore between his teeth
Though the wheels of the carryall grated loudly on the roadway in front of the house nobody came to the door nor looked from the windows The place seemed tenantless infinitely lonely infinitely sad Annixter tied the team and with Hilma approached the wideopen door scuffling and tramping on the porch to attract attention Nobody stirred A Sunday stillness pervaded the place Outside the withered hopleaves rustled like dry paper in the breeze The quiet was ominous They peered into the front room from the doorway Hilma holding her husbands hand Mrs Dyke was there She sat at the table in the middle of the room her head with its white hair down upon her arm A clutter of unwashed dishes were strewed over the red and white tablecloth The unkempt room once a marvel of neatness had not been cleaned for days Newspapers Genslingers extras and copies of San Francisco and Los Angeles dailies were scattered all over the room On the table itself were crumpled yellow telegrams a dozen of them a score of them blowing about in the draught from the door And in the midst of all this disarray surrounded by the published accounts of her sons crime the telegraphed answers to her pitiful appeals for tidings fluttering about her head the highwaymans mother worn out abandoned and forgotten slept through the stillness of the Sunday afternoon
Neither Hilma nor Annixter ever forgot their interview with Mrs Dyke that day Suddenly waking she had caught sight of Annixter and at once exclaimed eagerly
Is there any news
For a long time afterwards nothing could be got from her She was numb to all other issues than the one question of Dykes capture She did not answer their questions nor reply to their offers of assistance Hilma and Annixter conferred together without lowering their voices at her very elbow while she looked vacantly at the floor drawing one hand over the other in a persistent maniacal gesture From time to time she would start suddenly from her chair her eyes wide and as if all at once realising Annixters presence would cry out
Is there any news
Where is Sidney Mrs Dyke asked Hilma for the fourth time Is she well Is she taken care of
Heres the last telegram said Mrs Dyke in a loud monotonous voice See it says there is no news He didnt do it she moaned rocking herself back and forth drawing one hand over the other he didnt do it he didnt do it he didnt do it I dont know where he is
When at last she came to herself it was with a flood of tears Hilma put her arms around the poor old woman as she bowed herself again upon the table sobbing and weeping
Oh my son my son she cried my own boy my only son If I could have died for you to have prevented this I remember him when he was little Such a splendid little fellow so brave so loving with never an unkind thought never a mean action So it was all his life We were never apart It was always dear little son and dear mammy between us—never once was he unkind and he loved me and was the gentlest son to me And he was a GOOD man He is now he is now They dont understand him They are not even sure that he did this He never meant it They dont know my son Why he wouldnt have hurt a kitten Everybody loved him He was driven to it They hounded him down they wouldnt let him alone He was not right in his mind They hounded him to it she cried fiercely they hounded him to it They drove him and goaded him till he couldnt stand it any longer and now they mean to kill him for turning on them They are hunting him with dogs night after night I have stood on the porch and heard the dogs baying far off They are tracking my boy with dogs like a wild animal May God never forgive them She rose to her feet terrible her white hair unbound May God punish them as they deserve may they never prosper—on my knees I shall pray for it every night—may their money be a curse to them may their sons their firstborn only sons be taken from them in their youth
But Hilma interrupted begging her to be silent to be quiet The tears came again then and the choking sobs Hilma took her in her arms
Oh my little boy my little boy she cried My only son all that I had to have come to this He was not right in his mind or he would have known it would break my heart Oh my son my son if I could have died for you
Sidney came in clinging to her dress weeping imploring her not to cry protesting that they never could catch her papa that he would come back soon Hilma took them both the little child and the brokendown old woman in the great embrace of her strong arms and they all three sobbed together
Annixter stood on the porch outside his back turned looking straight before him into the wilderness of dead vines his teeth shut hard his lower lip thrust out
I hope S Behrman is satisfied with all this he muttered I hope he is satisfied now damn his soul
All at once an idea occurred to him He turned about and reentered the room
Mrs Dyke he began I want you and Sidney to come over and live at Quien Sabe I know—you cant make me believe that the reporters and officers and officious busyfaces that pretend to offer help just so as they can satisfy their curiosity arent nagging you to death I want you to let me take care of you and the little tad till all this trouble of yours is over with Theres plenty of place for you You can have the house my wifes people used to live in Youve got to look these things in the face What are you going to do to get along You must be very short of money S Behrman will foreclose on you and take the whole place in a little while now I want you to let me help you let Hilma and me be good friends to you It would be a privilege
Mrs Dyke tried bravely to assume her pride insisting that she could manage but her spirit was broken The whole affair ended unexpectedly with Annixter and Hilma bringing Dykes mother and little girl back to Quien Sabe in the carryall
Mrs Dyke would not take with her a stick of furniture nor a single ornament It would only serve to remind her of a vanished happiness She packed a few clothes of her own and Sidneys in a little trunk Hilma helping her and Annixter stowed the trunk under the carryalls back seat Mrs Dyke turned the key in the door of the house and Annixter helped her to her seat beside his wife They drove through the sear brown hop vines At the angle of the road Mrs Dyke turned around and looked back at the ruin of the hop ranch the roof of the house just showing above the trees She never saw it again
As soon as Annixter and Hilma were alone after their return to Quien Sabe—Mrs Dyke and Sidney having been installed in the Trees old house—Hilma threw her arms around her husbands neck
Fine she exclaimed oh it was fine of you dear to think of them and to be so good to them My husband is such a GOOD man So unselfish You wouldnt have thought of being kind to Mrs Dyke and Sidney a little while ago You wouldnt have thought of them at all But you did now and its just because you love me true isnt it Isnt it And because its made you a better man Im so proud and glad to think its so It is so isnt it Just because you love me true
You bet it is Hilma he told her
As Hilma and Annixter were sitting down to the supper which they found waiting for them Louisa Vacca came to the door of the diningroom to say that Harran Derrick had telephoned over from Los Muertos for Annixter and had left word for him to ring up Los Muertos as soon as he came in
He said it was important added Louisa Vacca
Maybe they have news from Washington suggested Hilma
Annixter would not wait to have supper but telephoned to Los Muertos at once Magnus answered the call There was a special meeting of the Executive Committee of the League summoned for the next day he told Annixter It was for the purpose of considering the new grain tariff prepared by the Railroad Commissioners Lyman had written that the schedule of this tariff had just been issued that he had not been able to construct it precisely according to the wheatgrowers wishes and that he himself would come down to Los Muertos and explain its apparent discrepancies Magnus said Lyman would be present at the session
Annixter curious for details forbore nevertheless to question The connection from Los Muertos to Quien Sabe was made through Bonneville and in those troublesome times no one could be trusted It could not be known who would overhear conversations carried on over the lines He assured Magnus that he would be on hand The time for the Committee meeting had been set for seven oclock in the evening in order to accommodate Lyman who wrote that he would be down on the evening train but would be compelled by pressure of business to return to the city early the next morning
At the time appointed the men composing the Committee gathered about the table in the diningroom of the Los Muertos ranch house It was almost a reproduction of the scene of the famous evening when Osterman had proposed the plan of the Ranchers Railroad Commission Magnus Derrick sat at the head of the table in his buttoned frock coat Whiskey bottles and siphons of sodawater were within easy reach Presley who by now was considered the confidential friend of every member of the Committee lounged as before on the sofa smoking cigarettes the cat Nathalie on his knee Besides Magnus and Annixter Osterman was present and old Broderson and Harran Garnet from the Ruby Rancho and Gethings of the San Pablo who were also members of the Executive Committee were on hand preoccupied bearded men smoking black cigars and last of all Dabney the silent old man of whom little was known but his name and who had been made a member of the Committee nobody could tell why
My son Lyman should be here gentlemen within at least ten minutes I have sent my team to meet him at Bonneville explained Magnus as he called the meeting to order The Secretary will call the roll
Osterman called the roll and to fill in the time read over the minutes of the previous meeting The treasurer was making his report as to the funds at the disposal of the League when Lyman arrived
Magnus and Harran went forward to meet him and the Committee rather awkwardly rose and remained standing while the three exchanged greetings the members some of whom had never seen their commissioner eyeing him out of the corners of their eyes
Lyman was dressed with his usual correctness His cravat was of the latest fashion his clothes of careful design and unimpeachable fit His shoes of patent leather reflected the lamplight and he carried a drab overcoat over his arm Before being introduced to the Committee he excused himself a moment and ran to see his mother who waited for him in the adjoining sittingroom But in a few moments he returned asking pardon for the delay
He was all affability his protruding eyes that gave such an unusual foreign appearance to his very dark face radiated geniality He was evidently anxious to please to produce a good impression upon the grave clumsy farmers before whom he stood But at the same time Presley watching him from his place on the sofa could imagine that he was rather nervous He was too nimble in his cordiality and the little gestures he made in bringing his cuffs into view and in touching the ends of his tight black mustache with the ball of his thumb were repeated with unnecessary frequency
Mr Broderson my son Lyman my eldest son Mr Annixter my son Lyman
The Governor introduced him to the ranchers proud of Lymans good looks his correct dress his ease of manner Lyman shook hands all around keeping up a flow of small talk finding a new phrase for each member complimenting Osterman whom he already knew upon his talent for organisation recalling a mutual acquaintance to the mind of old Broderson At length however he sat down at the end of the table opposite his brother There was a silence
Magnus rose to recapitulate the reasons for the extra session of the Committee stating again that the Board of Railway Commissioners which they—the ranchers—had succeeded in seating had at length issued the new schedule of reduced rates and that Mr Derrick had been obliging enough to offer to come down to Los Muertos in person to acquaint the wheatgrowers of the San Joaquin with the new rates for the carriage of their grain
But Lyman very politely protested addressing his father punctiliously as Mr Chairman and the other ranchers as Gentlemen of the Executive Committee of the League He had no wish he said to disarrange the regular proceedings of the Committee Would it not be preferable to defer the reading of his report till new business was called for In the meanwhile let the Committee proceed with its usual work He understood the necessarily delicate nature of this work and would be pleased to withdraw till the proper time arrived for him to speak
Good deal of backing and filling about the reading of a column of figures muttered Annixter to the man at his elbow
Lyman awaited the Committees decision He sat down touching the ends of his mustache
Oh play ball growled Annixter
Gethings rose to say that as the meeting had been called solely for the purpose of hearing and considering the new grain tariff he was of the opinion that routine business could be dispensed with and the schedule read at once It was so ordered
Lyman rose and made a long speech Voluble as Osterman himself he nevertheless had at his command a vast number of readymade phrases the staples of a political speaker the stock in trade of the commercial lawyer which rolled off his tongue with the most persuasive fluency By degrees in the course of his speech he began to insinuate the idea that the wheatgrowers had never expected to settle their difficulties with the Railroad by the work of a single commission that they had counted upon a long continued campaign of many years railway commission succeeding railway commission before the desired low rates should be secured that the present Board of Commissioners was only the beginning and that too great results were not expected from them All this he contrived to mention casually in the talk as if it were a foregone conclusion a matter understood by all
As the speech continued the eyes of the ranchers around the table were fixed with growing attention upon this welldressed citybred young man who spoke so fluently and who told them of their own intentions A feeling of perplexity began to spread and the first taint of distrust invaded their minds
But the good work has been most auspiciously inaugurated continued Lyman Reforms so sweeping as the one contemplated cannot be accomplished in a single night Great things grow slowly benefits to be permanent must accrue gradually Yet in spite of all this your commissioners have done much Already the phalanx of the enemy is pierced already his armour is dinted Pledged as were your commissioners to an average ten per cent reduction in rates for the carriage of grain by the Pacific and Southwestern Railroad we have rigidly adhered to the demands of our constituency we have obeyed the People The main problem has not yet been completely solved that is for later when we shall have gathered sufficient strength to attack the enemy in his very stronghold BUT AN AVERAGE TEN PER CENT CUT HAS BEEN MADE ALL OVER THE STATE We have made a great advance have taken a great step forward and if the work is carried ahead upon the lines laid down by the present commissioners and their constituents there is every reason to believe that within a very few years equitable and stable rates for the shipment of grain from the San Joaquin Valley to Stockton Port Costa and tidewater will be permanently imposed
Well hold on exclaimed Annixter out of order and ignoring the Governors reproof hasnt your commission reduced grain rates in the San Joaquin
We have reduced grain rates by ten per cent all over the State rejoined Lyman Here are copies of the new schedule
He drew them from his valise and passed them around the table
You see he observed the rate between Mayfield and Oakland for instance has been reduced by twentyfive cents a ton
Yes—but—but— said old Broderson it is rather unusual isnt it for wheat in that district to be sent to Oakland Why look here exclaimed Annixter looking up from the schedule where is there any reduction in rates in the San Joaquin—from Bonneville and Guadalajara for instance I dont see as youve made any reduction at all Is this right Did you give me the right schedule
Of course ALL the points in the State could not be covered at once returned Lyman We never expected you know that we could cut rates in the San Joaquin the very first move that is for later But you will see we made very material reductions on shipments from the upper Sacramento Valley also the rate from Ione to Marysville has been reduced eighty cents a ton
Why rot cried Annixter no one ever ships wheat that way
The Salinas rate continued Lyman has been lowered seventyfive cents the St Helena rate fifty cents and please notice the very drastic cut from Red Bluff north along the Oregon route to the Oregon State Line
Where not a carload of wheat is shipped in a year commented Gethings of the San Pablo
Oh you will find yourself mistaken there Mr Gethings returned Lyman courteously And for the matter of that a low rate would stimulate wheatproduction in that district
The order of the meeting was broken up neglected Magnus did not even pretend to preside In the growing excitement over the inexplicable schedule routine was not thought of Every one spoke at will
Why Lyman demanded Magnus looking across the table to his son is this schedule correct You have not cut rates in the San Joaquin at all We—these gentlemen here and myself we are no better off than we were before we secured your election as commissioner
We were pledged to make an average ten per cent cut sir—— It IS an average ten per cent cut cried Osterman Oh yes thats plain Its an average ten per cent cut all right but youve made it by cutting grain rates between points where practically no grain is shipped We the wheatgrowers in the San Joaquin where all the wheat is grown are right where we were before The Railroad wont lose a nickel By Jingo boys he glanced around the table Id like to know what this means
The Railroad if you come to that returned Lyman has already lodged a protest against the new rate
Annixter uttered a derisive shout
A protest Thats good that is When the P and S W objects to rates it dont protest m son The first you hear from Mr Shelgrim is an injunction from the courts preventing the order for new rates from taking effect By the Lord he cried angrily leaping to his feet I would like to know what all this means too Why didnt you reduce our grain rates What did we elect you for
Yes what did we elect you for demanded Osterman and Gethings also getting to their feet
Order order gentlemen cried Magnus remembering the duties of his office and rapping his knuckles on the table This meeting has been allowed to degenerate too far already
You elected us declared Lyman doggedly to make an average ten per cent cut on grain rates We have done it Only because you dont benefit at once you object It makes a difference whose ox is gored it seems
Lyman
It was Magnus who spoke He had drawn himself to his full six feet His eyes were flashing direct into his sons His voice rang with severity
Lyman what does this mean
The other spread out his hands
As you see sir We have done our best I warned you not to expect too much I told you that this question of transportation was difficult You would not wish to put rates so low that the action would amount to confiscation of property
Why did you not lower rates in the valley of the San Joaquin
That was not a PROMINENT issue in the affair responded Lyman carefully emphasising his words I understand of course it was to be approached IN TIME The main point was AN AVERAGE TEN PER CENT REDUCTION Rates WILL be lowered in the San Joaquin The ranchers around Bonneville will be able to ship to Port Costa at equitable rates but so radical a measure as that cannot be put through in a turn of the hand We must study——
You KNEW the San Joaquin rate was an issue shouted Annixter shaking his finger across the table What do we men who backed you care about rates up in Del Norte and Siskiyou Counties Not a whoop in hell It was the San Joaquin rate we were fighting for and we elected you to reduce that You didnt do it and you dont intend to and by the Lord Harry I want to know why
Youll know sir— began Lyman
Well Ill tell you why vociferated Osterman Ill tell you why Its because we have been sold out Its because the P and S W have had their spoon in this boiling Its because our commissioners have betrayed us Its because were a set of damn fool farmers and have been cinched again
Lyman paled under his dark skin at the direct attack He evidently had not expected this so soon For the fraction of one instant he lost his poise He strove to speak but caught his breath stammering
What have you to say then cried Harran who until now had not spoken
I have this to say answered Lyman making head as best he might that this is no proper spirit in which to discuss business The Commission has fulfilled its obligations It has adjusted rates to the best of its ability We have been at work for two months on the preparation of this schedule——
Thats a lie shouted Annixter his face scarlet thats a lie That schedule was drawn in the offices of the Pacific and Southwestern and you know it Its a scheme of rates made for the Railroad and by the Railroad and you were bought over to put your name to it
There was a concerted outburst at the words All the men in the room were on their feet gesticulating and vociferating
Gentlemen gentlemen cried Magnus are we schoolboys are we ruffians of the street
Were a set of fool farmers and weve been betrayed cried Osterman
Well what have you to say What have you to say persisted Harran leaning across the table toward his brother For Gods sake Lyman youve got SOME explanation
Youve misunderstood protested Lyman white and trembling Youve misunderstood Youve expected too much Next year—next year—soon now the Commission will take up the—the Commission will consider the San Joaquin rate Weve done our best that is all
Have you sir demanded Magnus
The Governors head was in a whirl a sensation almost of faintness had seized upon him Was it possible Was it possible
Have you done your best For a second he compelled Lymans eye The glances of father and son met and in spite of his best efforts Lymans eyes wavered He began to protest once more explaining the matter over again from the beginning But Magnus did not listen In that brief lapse of time he was convinced that the terrible thing had happened that the unbelievable had come to pass It was in the air Between father and son in some subtle fashion the truth that was a lie stood suddenly revealed But even then Magnus would not receive it Lyman do this His son his eldest son descend to this Once more and for the last time he turned to him and in his voice there was that ring that compelled silence
Lyman he said I adjure you—I—I demand of you as you are my son and an honourable man explain yourself What is there behind all this It is no longer as Chairman of the Committee I speak to you you a member of the Railroad Commission It is your father who speaks and I address you as my son Do you understand the gravity of this crisis do you realise the responsibility of your position do you not see the importance of this moment Explain yourself
There is nothing to explain
You have not reduced rates in the San Joaquin You have not reduced rates between Bonneville and tidewater
I repeat sir what I said before An average ten per cent cut——
Lyman answer me yes or no Have you reduced the Bonneville rate
It could not be done so soon Give us time We——
Yes or no By God sir do you dare equivocate with me Yes or no have you reduced the Bonneville rate
No
And answer ME shouted Harran leaning far across the table answer ME Were you paid by the Railroad to leave the San Joaquin rate untouched
Lyman whiter than ever turned furious upon his brother
Dont you dare put that question to me again
No I wont cried Harran because Ill TELL you to your villains face that you WERE paid to do it
On the instant the clamour burst forth afresh Still on their feet the ranchers had little by little worked around the table Magnus alone keeping his place The others were in a group before Lyman crowding him as it were to the wall shouting into his face with menacing gestures The truth that was a lie the certainty of a trust betrayed a pledge ruthlessly broken was plain to every one of them
By the Lord men have been shot for less than this cried Osterman Youve sold us out you and if you ever bring that dago face of yours on a level with mine again Ill slap it
Keep your hands off exclaimed Lyman quickly the aggressiveness of the cornered rat flaming up within him No violence Dont you go too far
How much were you paid How much were you paid vociferated Harran
Yes yes what was your price cried the others They were beside themselves with anger their words came harsh from between their set teeth their gestures were made with their fists clenched
You know the Commission acted in good faith retorted Lyman You know that all was fair and above board
Liar shouted Annixter liar bribeeater You were bought and paid for and with the words his arm seemed almost of itself to leap out from his shoulder Lyman received the blow squarely in the face and the force of it sent him staggering backwards toward the wall He tripped over his valise and fell half way his back supported against the closed door of the room Magnus sprang forward His son had been struck and the instincts of a father rose up in instant protest rose for a moment then forever died away in his heart He checked the words that flashed to his mind He lowered his upraised arm No he had but one son The poor staggering creature with the fine clothes white face and bloodstreaked lips was no longer his A blow could not dishonour him more than he had dishonoured himself
But Gethings the older man intervened pulling Annixter back crying
Stop this wont do Not before his father
I am no father to this man gentlemen exclaimed Magnus From now on I have but one son You sir he turned to Lyman you sir leave my house
Lyman his handkerchief to his lips his smart cravat in disarray caught up his hat and coat He was shaking with fury his protruding eyes were bloodshot He swung open the door
Ruffians he shouted from the threshold ruffians bullies Do your own dirty business yourselves after this Im done with you How is it all of a sudden you talk about honour How is it that all at once youre so clean and straight You werent so particular at Sacramento just before the nominations How was the Board elected Im a bribeeater am I Is it any worse than GIVING a bribe Ask Magnus Derrick what he thinks about that Ask him how much he paid the Democratic bosses at Sacramento to swing the convention
He went out slamming the door
Presley followed The whole affair made him sick at heart filled him with infinite disgust infinite weariness He wished to get away from it all He left the diningroom and the excited clamouring men behind him and stepped out on the porch of the ranch house closing the door behind him Lyman was nowhere in sight Presley was alone It was late and after the lampheated air of the diningroom the coolness of the night was delicious and its vast silence after the noise and fury of the committee meeting descended from the stars like a benediction Presley stepped to the edge of the porch looking off to southward
And there before him mile after mile illimitable covering the earth from horizon to horizon lay the Wheat The growth now many days old was already high from the ground There it lay a vast silent ocean shimmering a pallid green under the moon and under the stars a mighty force the strength of nations the life of the world There in the night under the dome of the sky it was growing steadily To Presleys mind the scene in the room he had just left dwindled to paltry insignificance before this sight Ah yes the Wheat—it was over this that the Railroad the ranchers the traitor false to his trust all the members of an obscure conspiracy were wrangling As if human agency could affect this colossal power What were these heated tiny squabbles this feverish small bustle of mankind this minute swarming of the human insect to the great majestic silent ocean of the Wheat itself Indifferent gigantic resistless it moved in its appointed grooves Men Liliputians gnats in the sunshine buzzed impudently in their tiny battles were born lived through their little day died and were forgotten while the Wheat wrapped in Nirvanic calm grew steadily under the night alone with the stars and with God
CHAPTER V
Jackrabbits were a pest that year and Presley occasionally found amusement in hunting them with Harrans halfdozen greyhounds following the chase on horseback One day between two and three months after Lyman s visit to Los Muertos as he was returning toward the ranch house from a distant and lonely quarter of Los Muertos he came unexpectedly upon a strange sight
Some twenty men Annixters and Ostermans tenants and small ranchers from east of Guadalajara—all members of the League—were going through the manual of arms under Harran Derricks supervision They were all equipped with new Winchester rifles Harran carried one of these himself and with it he illustrated the various commands he gave As soon as one of the men under his supervision became more than usually proficient he was told off to instruct a file of the more backward After the manual of arms Harran gave the command to take distance as skirmishers and when the line had opened out so that some halfdozen feet intervened between each man an advance was made across the field the men stooping low and snapping the hammers of their rifles at an imaginary enemy
The League had its agents in San Francisco who watched the movements of the Railroad as closely as was possible and some time before this Annixter had received word that the Marshal and his deputies were coming down to Bonneville to put the dummy buyers of his ranch in possession The report proved to be but the first of many false alarms but it had stimulated the League to unusual activity and some three or four hundred men were furnished with arms and from time to time were drilled in secret
Among themselves the ranchers said that if the Railroad managers did not believe they were terribly in earnest in the stand they had taken they were making a fatal mistake
Harran reasserted this statement to Presley on the way home to the ranch house that same day Harran had caught up with him by the time he reached the Lower Road and the two jogged homeward through the miles of standing wheat
They may jump the ranch Pres he said if they try hard enough but they will never do it while I am alive By the way he added you know we served notices yesterday upon S Behrman and Cy Ruggles to quit the country Of course they wont do it but they wont be able to say they didnt have warning
About an hour later the two reached the ranch house but as Harran rode up the driveway he uttered an exclamation
Hello he said something is up Thats Genslingers buckboard
In fact the editors team was tied underneath the shade of a giant eucalyptus tree near by Harran uneasy under this unexpected visit of the enemys friend dismounted without stabling his horse and went at once to the diningroom where visitors were invariably received But the diningroom was empty and his mother told him that Magnus and the editor were in the office Magnus had said they were not to be disturbed
Earlier in the afternoon the editor had driven up to the porch and had asked Mrs Derrick whom he found reading a book of poems on the porch if he could see Magnus At the time the Governor had gone with Phelps to inspect the condition of the young wheat on Hoovens holding but within half an hour he returned and Genslinger had asked him for a few moments talk in private
The two went into the office Magnus locking the door behind him Very complete you are here Governor observed the editor in his alert jerky manner his black beadlike eyes twinkling around the room from behind his glasses Telephone safe ticker accountbooks—well thats progress isnt it Only way to manage a big ranch these days But the day of the big ranch is over As the land appreciates in value the temptation to sell off small holdings will be too strong And then the small holding can be cultivated to better advantage I shall have an editorial on that some day
The cost of maintaining a number of small holdings said Magnus indifferently is of course greater than if they were all under one management
That may be that may be rejoined the other
There was a long pause Genslinger leaned back in his chair and rubbed a knee Magnus standing erect in front of the safe waited for him to speak
This is an unfortunate business Governor began the editor this misunderstanding between the ranchers and the Railroad I wish it could be adjusted HERE are two industries that MUST be in harmony with one another or we all go to pot
I should prefer not to be interviewed on the subject Mr Genslinger said Magnus
Oh no oh no Lord love you Governor I dont want to interview you We all know how you stand
Again there was a long silence Magnus wondered what this little man usually so garrulous could want of him At length Genslinger began again He did not look at Magnus except at long intervals
About the present Railroad Commission he remarked That was an interesting campaign you conducted in Sacramento and San Francisco
Magnus held his peace his hands shut tight Did Genslinger know of Lymans disgrace Was it for this he had come Would the story of it be the leading article in tomorrows Mercury
An interesting campaign repeated Genslinger slowly a very interesting campaign I watched it with every degree of interest I saw its every phase Mr Derrick
The campaign was not without its interest admitted Magnus
Yes said Genslinger still more deliberately and some phases of it were—more interesting than others as for instance let us say the way in which you—personally—secured the votes of certain chairmen of delegations—NEED I particularise further Yes those men—the way you got their votes Now THAT I should say Mr Derrick was the most interesting move in the whole game—to you Hm curious he murmured musingly Lets see You deposited two onethousand dollar bills and four fivehundred dollar bills in a box—three hundred and eight was the number—in a box in the Safety Deposit Vaults in San Francisco and then—lets see you gave a key to this box to each of the gentlemen in question and after the election the box was empty Now I call that interesting—curious because its a new safe and highly ingenious method of bribery How did you happen to think of it Governor
Do you know what you are doing sir Magnus burst forth Do you know what you are insinuating here in my own house
Why Governor returned the editor blandly Im not INSINUATING anything Im talking about what I KNOW
Its a lie
Genslinger rubbed his chin reflectively
Well he answered you can have a chance to prove it before the Grand Jury if you want to
My character is known all over the State blustered Magnus My politics are pure politics My——
No one needs a better reputation for pure politics than the man who sets out to be a briber interrupted Genslinger and I might as well tell you Governor that you cant shout me down I can put my hand on the two chairmen you bought before its dark today Ive had their depositions in my safe for the last six weeks We could make the arrests tomorrow if we wanted Governor you sure did a risky thing when you went into that Sacramento fight an awful risky thing Some men can afford to have bribery charges preferred against them and it dont hurt one little bit but YOU—Lord it would BUST you Governor bust you dead I know all about the whole shananigan business from A to Z and if you dont believe it—here he drew a long strip of paper from his pocket heres a galley proof of the story
Magnus took it in his hands There under his eyes scareheaded doubleleaded the more important clauses printed in bold type was the detailed account of the deal Magnus had made with the two delegates It was pitiless remorseless bald Every statement was substantiated every statistic verified with Genslingers meticulous love for exactness Besides all that it had the ring of truth It was exposure ruin absolute annihilation
Thats about correct isnt it commented Genslinger as Derrick finished reading Magnus did not reply I think it is correct enough the editor continued But I thought it would only be fair to you to let you see it before it was published
The one thought uppermost in Derricks mind his one impulse of the moment was at whatever cost to preserve his dignity not to allow this man to exult in the sight of one quiver of weakness one trace of defeat one suggestion of humiliation By an effort that put all his iron rigidity to the test he forced himself to look straight into Genslingers eyes
I congratulate you he observed handing back the proof upon your journalistic enterprise Your paper will sell tomorrow Oh I dont know as I want to publish this story remarked the editor indifferently putting away the galley Im just like that The fun for me is running a good story to earth but once Ive got it I lose interest And then I wouldnt like to see you—holding the position you do President of the League and a leading man of the county—I wouldnt like to see a story like this smash you over Its worth more to you to keep it out of print than for me to put it in Ive got nothing much to gain but a few extra editions but you—Lord you would lose everything Your committee was in the deal right enough But your League all the San Joaquin Valley everybody in the State believes the commissioners were fairly elected
Your story suddenly exclaimed Magnus struck with an idea will be thoroughly discredited just so soon as the new grain tariff is published I have means of knowing that the San Joaquin rate—the issue upon which the board was elected—is not to be touched Is it likely the ranchers would secure the election of a board that plays them false
Oh we know all about that answered Genslinger smiling You thought you were electing Lyman easily You thought you had got the Railroad to walk right into your trap You didnt understand how you could pull off your deal so easily Why Governor LYMAN WAS PLEDGED TO THE RAILROAD TWO YEARS AGO He was THE ONE PARTICULAR man the corporation wanted for commissioner And your people elected him—saved the Railroad all the trouble of campaigning for him And you cant make any counter charge of bribery there No sir the corporation dont use such amateurish methods as that Confidentially and between us two all that the Railroad has done for Lyman in order to attach him to their interests is to promise to back him politically in the next campaign for Governor Its too bad he continued dropping his voice and changing his position It really is too bad to see good men trying to bunt a stone wall over with their bare heads You couldnt have won at any stage of the game I wish I could have talked to you and your friends before you went into that Sacramento fight I could have told you then how little chance you had When will you people realise that you cant buck against the Railroad Why Magnus its like me going out in a paper boat and shooting peas at a battleship
Is that all you wished to see me about Mr Genslinger remarked Magnus bestirring himself I am rather occupied today Well returned the other you know what the publication of this article would mean for you He paused again took off his glasses breathed on them polished the lenses with his handkerchief and readjusted them on his nose Ive been thinking Governor he began again with renewed alertness and quite irrelevantly of enlarging the scope of the Mercury You see Im midway between the two big centres of the State San Francisco and Los Angeles and I want to extend the Mercurys sphere of influence as far up and down the valley as I can I want to illustrate the paper You see if I had a photoengraving plant of my own I could do a good deal of outside jobbing as well and the investment would pay ten per cent But it takes money to make money I wouldnt want to put in any dinky onehorse affair I want a good plant Ive been figuring out the business Besides the plant there would be the expense of a high grade paper Cant print halftones on anything but coated paper and that COSTS Well what with this and with that and running expenses till the thing began to pay it would cost me about ten thousand dollars and I was wondering if perhaps you couldnt see your way clear to accommodating me
Ten thousand
Yes Say five thousand down and the balance within sixty days
Magnus for the moment blind to what Genslinger had in mind turned on him in astonishment
Why man what security could you give me for such an amount
Well to tell the truth answered the editor I hadnt thought much about securities In fact I believed you would see how greatly it was to your advantage to talk business with me You see Im not going to print this article about you Governor and Im not going to let it get out so as any one else can print it and it seems to me that one good turn deserves another You understand
Magnus understood An overwhelming desire suddenly took possession of him to grip this blackmailer by the throat to strangle him where he stood or if not at least to turn upon him with that oldtime terrible anger before which whole conventions had once cowered But in the same moment the Governor realised this was not to be Only its righteousness had made his wrath terrible only the justice of his anger had made him feared Now the foundation was gone from under his feet he had knocked it away himself Three times feeble was he whose quarrel was unjust Before this country editor this paid speaker of the Railroad he stood convicted The man had him at his mercy The detected briber could not resent an insult Genslinger rose smoothing his hat
Well he said of course you want time to think it over and you cant raise money like that on short notice Ill wait till Friday noon of this week We begin to set Saturdays paper at about four Friday afternoon and the forms are locked about two in the morning I hope he added turning back at the door of the room that you wont find anything disagreeable in your Saturday morning Mercury Mr Derrick
He went out closing the door behind him and in a moment Magnus heard the wheels of his buckboard grating on the driveway
The following morning brought a letter to Magnus from Gethings of the San Pueblo ranch which was situated very close to Visalia The letter was to the effect that all around Visalia upon the ranches affected by the regrade of the Railroad men were arming and drilling and that the strength of the League in that quarter was undoubted But to refer continued the letter to a most painful recollection You will no doubt remember that at the close of our last committee meeting specific charges were made as to fraud in the nomination and election of one of our commissioners emanating most unfortunately from the commissioner himself These charges my dear Mr Derrick were directed at yourself How the secrets of the committee have been noised about I cannot understand You may be of course assured of my own unquestioning confidence and loyalty However I regret exceedingly to state not only that the rumour of the charges referred to above is spreading in this district but that also they are made use of by the enemies of the League It is to be deplored that some of the Leaguers themselves—you know we number in our ranks many small farmers ignorant Portuguese and foreigners—have listened to these stories and have permitted a feeling of uneasiness to develop among them Even though it were admitted that fraudulent means had been employed in the elections which of course I personally do not admit I do not think it would make very much difference in the confidence which the vast majority of the Leaguers repose in their chiefs Yet we have so insisted upon the probity of our position as opposed to Railroad chicanery that I believe it advisable to quell this distant suspicion at once to publish a denial of these rumoured charges would only be to give them too much importance However can you not write me a letter stating exactly how the campaign was conducted and the commission nominated and elected I could show this to some of the more disaffected and it would serve to allay all suspicion on the instant I think it would be well to write as though the initiative came not from me but from yourself ignoring this present letter I offer this only as a suggestion and will confidently endorse any decision you may arrive at
The letter closed with renewed protestations of confidence
Magnus was alone when he read this He put it carefully away in the filing cabinet in his office and wiped the sweat from his forehead and face He stood for one moment his hands rigid at his sides his fists clinched
This is piling up he muttered looking blankly at the opposite wall My God this is piling up What am I to do
Ah the bitterness of unavailing regret the anguish of compromise with conscience the remorse of a bad deed done in a moment of excitement Ah the humiliation of detection the degradation of being caught caught like a schoolboy pilfering his fellows desks and worse than all worse than all the consciousness of lost selfrespect the knowledge of a prestige vanishing a dignity impaired knowledge that the grip which held a multitude in check was trembling that control was wavering that command was being weakened Then the little tricks to deceive the crowd the little subterfuges the little pretences that kept up appearances the lies the bluster the pose the strut the gasconade where once was iron authority the turning of the head so as not to see that which could not be prevented the suspicion of suspicion the haunting fear of the Man on the Street the uneasiness of the direct glance the questioning as to motives—why had this been said what was meant by that word that gesture that glance
Wednesday passed and Thursday Magnus kept to himself seeing no visitors avoiding even his family How to break through the mesh of the net how to regain the old position how to prevent discovery If there were only some way some vast superhuman effort by which he could rise in his old strength once more crushing Lyman with one hand Genslinger with the other and for one more moment the last to stand supreme again indomitable the leader then go to his death triumphant at the end his memory untarnished his fame undimmed But the plaguespot was in himself knitted forever into the fabric of his being Though Genslinger should be silenced though Lyman should be crushed though even the League should overcome the Railroad though he should be the acknowledged leader of a resplendent victory yet the plaguespot would remain There was no success for him now However conspicuous the outward achievement he he himself Magnus Derrick had failed miserably and irredeemably
Petty material complications intruded sordid considerations Even if Genslinger was to be paid where was the money to come from His legal battles with the Railroad extending now over a period of many years had cost him dear his plan of sowing all of Los Muertos to wheat discharging the tenants had proved expensive the campaign resulting in Lymans election had drawn heavily upon his account All along he had been relying upon a bonanza crop to reimburse him It was not believable that the Railroad would jump Los Muertos but if this should happen he would be left without resources Ten thousand dollars Could he raise the amount Possibly But to pay it out to a blackmailer To be held up thus in roadagent fashion without a single means of redress Would it not cripple him financially Genslinger could do his worst He Magnus would brave it out Was not his character above suspicion
Was it This letter of Gethingss Already the murmur of uneasiness made itself heard Was this not the thin edge of the wedge How the publication of Genslingers story would drive it home How the spark of suspicion would flare into the blaze of open accusation There would be investigations Investigation There was terror in the word He could not stand investigation Magnus groaned aloud covering his head with his clasped hands Briber corrupter of government ballotbox stuffer descending to the level of backroom politicians of barroom heelers he Magnus Derrick statesman of the old school Roman in his iron integrity abandoning a career rather than enter the new politics had in one moment of weakness hazarding all even honour on a single stake taking great chances to achieve great results swept away the work of a lifetime
Gambler that he was he had at last chanced his highest stake his personal honour in the greatest game of his life and had lost
It was Presleys morbidly keen observation that first noticed the evidence of a new trouble in the Governors face and manner Presley was sure that Lymans defection had not so upset him The morning after the committee meeting Magnus had called Harran and Annie Derrick into the office and after telling his wife of Lymans betrayal had forbidden either of them to mention his name again His attitude towards his prodigal son was that of stern unrelenting resentment But now Presley could not fail to detect traces of a more deepseated travail Something was in the wind the times were troublous What next was about to happen What fresh calamity impended
One morning toward the very end of the week Presley woke early in his small whitepainted iron bed He hastened to get up and dress There was much to be done that day Until late the night before he had been at work on a collection of some of his verses gathered from the magazines in which they had first appeared Presley had received a liberal offer for the publication of these verses in book form The Toilers was to be included in this book and indeed was to give it its name—The Toilers and Other Poems Thus it was that until the previous midnight he had been preparing the collection for publication revising annotating arranging The book was to be sent off that morning
But also Presley had received a typewritten note from Annixter inviting him to Quien Sabe that same day Annixter explained that it was Hilmas birthday and that he had planned a picnic on the high ground of his ranch at the headwaters of Broderson Creek They were to go in the carryall Hilma Presley Mrs Dyke Sidney and himself and were to make a day of it They would leave Quien Sabe at ten in the morning Presley had at once resolved to go He was immensely fond of Annixter—more so than ever since his marriage with Hilma and the astonishing transformation of his character Hilma as well was delightful as Mrs Annixter and Mrs Dyke and the little tad had always been his friends He would have a good time
But nobody was to go into Bonneville that morning with the mail and if he wished to send his manuscript he would have to take it in himself He had resolved to do this getting an early start and going on horseback to Quien Sabe by way of Bonneville
It was barely six oclock when Presley sat down to his coffee and eggs in the diningroom of Los Muertos The day promised to be hot and for the first time Presley had put on a new khaki riding suit very Englishlooking though in place of the regulation topboots he wore his laced kneeboots with a great spur on the left heel Harran joined him at breakfast in his working clothes of blue canvas He was bound for the irrigating ditch to see how the work was getting on there
How is the wheat looking asked Presley
Bully answered the other stirring his coffee The Governor has had his usual luck Practically every acre of the ranch was sown to wheat and everywhere the stand is good I was over on Two day before yesterday and if nothing happens I believe it will go thirty sacks to the acre there Cutter reports that there are spots on Four where we will get fortytwo or three Hooven too brought up some wonderful fine ears for me to look at The grains were just beginning to show Some of the ears carried twenty grains That means nearly forty bushels of wheat to every acre I call it a bonanza year
Have you got any mail said Presley rising Im going into town
Harran shook his head and took himself away and Presley went down to the stablecorral to get his pony
As he rode out of the stableyard and passed by the ranch house on the driveway he was surprised to see Magnus on the lowest step of the porch
Good morning Governor called Presley Arent you up pretty early
Good morning Pres my boy The Governor came forward and putting his hand on the ponys withers walked along by his side
Going to town Pres he asked
Yes sir Can I do anything for you Governor
Magnus drew a sealed envelope from his pocket
I wish you would drop in at the office of the Mercury for me he said and see Mr Genslinger personally and give him this envelope It is a package of papers but they involve a considerable sum of money and you must be careful of them A few years ago when our enmity was not so strong Mr Genslinger and I had some business dealings with each other I thought it as well just now considering that we are so openly opposed to terminate the whole affair and break off relations We came to a settlement a few days ago These are the final papers They must be given to him in person Presley You understand
Presley cantered on turning into the county road and holding northward by the mammoth watering tank and Brodersons popular windbreak As he passed Carahers he saw the saloonkeeper in the doorway of his place and waved him a salutation which the other returned
By degrees Presley had come to consider Caraher in a more favourable light He found to his immense astonishment that Caraher knew something of Mill and Bakounin not however from their books but from extracts and quotations from their writings reprinted in the anarchistic journals to which he subscribed More than once the two had held long conversations and from Carahers own lips Presley heard the terrible story of the death of his wife who had been accidentally killed by Pinkertons during a demonstration of strikers It invested the saloonkeeper in Presleys imagination with all the dignity of the tragedy He could not blame Caraher for being a red He even wondered how it was the saloonkeeper had not put his theories into practice and adjusted his ancient wrong with his six inches of plugged gaspipe Presley began to conceive of the man as a character
You wait Mr Presley the saloonkeeper had once said when Presley had protested against his radical ideas You dont know the Railroad yet Watch it and its doings long enough and youll come over to my way of thinking too
It was about halfpast seven when Presley reached Bonneville The business part of the town was as yet hardly astir he despatched his manuscript and then hurried to the office of the Mercury Genslinger as he feared had not yet put in appearance but the janitor of the building gave Presley the address of the editors residence and it was there he found him in the act of sitting down to breakfast Presley was hardly courteous to the little man and abruptly refused his offer of a drink He delivered Magnuss envelope to him and departed
It had occurred to him that it would not do to present himself at Quien Sabe on Hilmas birthday emptyhanded and on leaving Genslingers house he turned his ponys head toward the business part of the town again pulling up in front of the jewellers just as the clerk was taking down the shutters
At the jewellers he purchased a little brooch for Hilma and at the cigar stand in the lobby of the Yosemite House a box of superfine cigars which when it was too late he realised that the master of Quien Sabe would never smoke holding as he did with defiant inconsistency to miserable weeds black bitter and flagrantly doctored which he bought three for a nickel at Guadalajara
Presley arrived at Quien Sabe nearly half an hour behind the appointed time but as he had expected the party were in no way ready to start The carryall its horses covered with white flynets stood under a tree near the house young Vacca dozing on the seat Hilma and Sidney the latter exuberant with a gayety that all but brought the tears to Presleys eyes were making sandwiches on the back porch Mrs Dyke was nowhere to be seen and Annixter was shaving himself in his bedroom
This latter put a halflathered face out of the window as Presley cantered through the gate and waved his razor with a beckoning motion
Come on in Pres he cried Nobodys ready yet Youre hours ahead of time
Presley came into the bedroom his huge spur clinking on the straw matting Annixter was without coat vest or collar his blue silk suspenders hung in loops over either hip his hair was disordered the crown lock stiffer than ever
Glad to see you old boy he announced as Presley came in No dont shake hands Im all lather Here find a chair will you I wont be long
I thought you said ten oclock observed Presley sitting down on the edge of the bed
Well I did but——
But then again in a way you didnt hey his friend interrupted
Annixter grunted goodhumouredly and turned to strop his razor Presley looked with suspicious disfavour at his suspenders
Why is it he observed that as soon as a man is about to get married he buys himself pale blue suspenders silk ones Think of it You Buck Annixter with skyblue silk suspenders It ought to be a strap and a nail
Old fool observed Annixter whose repartee was the heaving of brick bats Say he continued holding the razor from his face and jerking his head over his shoulder while he looked at Presleys reflection in his mirror say look around Isnt this a nifty little room We refitted the whole house you know Notice shes all painted
I have been looking around answered Presley sweeping the room with a series of glances He forebore criticism Annixter was so boyishly proud of the effect that it would have been unkind to have undeceived him Presley looked at the marvellous departmentstore bed of brass with its brave gay canopy the millmade washstand with its pitcher and bowl of blinding red and green china the strawframed lithographs of symbolic female figures against the multicoloured new wallpaper the inadequate spindle chairs of white and gold the sphere of tissue paper hanging from the gas fixture and the plumes of pampas grass tacked to the wall at artistic angles and overhanging two astonishing oil paintings in dazzling golden frames
Say how about those paintings Pres inquired Annixter a little uneasily I dont know whether theyre good or not They were painted by a threefingered Chinaman in Monterey and I got the lot for thirty dollars frames thrown in Why I think the frames alone are worth thirty dollars
Well so do I declared Presley He hastened to change the subject
Buck he said I hear youve brought Mrs Dyke and Sidney to live with you You know I think thats rather white of you
Oh rot Pres muttered Annixter turning abruptly to his shaving
And you cant fool me either old man Presley continued Youre giving this picnic as much for Mrs Dyke and the little tad as you are for your wife just to cheer them up a bit
Oh pshaw you make me sick
Well thats the right thing to do Buck and Im as glad for your sake as I am for theirs There was a time when you would have let them all go to grass and never so much as thought of them I dont want to seem to be officious but youve changed for the better old man and I guess I know why She— Presley caught his friends eye and added gravely Shes a good woman Buck
Annixter turned around abruptly his face flushing under its lather
Pres he exclaimed shes made a man of me I was a machine before and if another man or woman or child got in my way I rode em down and I never DREAMED of anybody else but myself But as soon as I woke up to the fact that I really loved her why it was glory hallelujah all in a minute and in a way I kind of loved everybody then and wanted to be everybodys friend And I began to see that a fellow cant live FOR himself any more than he can live BY himself Hes got to think of others If hes got brains hes got to think for the poor ducks that havent em and not give em a boot in the backsides because they happen to be stupid and if hes got money hes got to help those that are busted and if hes got a house hes got to think of those that aint got anywhere to go Ive got a whole lot of ideas since I began to love Hilma and just as soon as I can Im going to get in and HELP people and Im going to keep to that idea the rest of my natural life That aint much of a religion but its the best Ive got and Henry Ward Beecher couldnt do any more than that And its all come about because of Hilma and because we cared for each other
Presley jumped up and caught Annixter about the shoulders with one arm gripping his hand hard This absurd figure with dangling silk suspenders lathered chin and tearful eyes seemed to be suddenly invested with true nobility Beside this blundering struggle to do right to help his fellows Presleys own vague schemes glittering systems of reconstruction collapsed to ruin and he himself with all his refinement with all his poetry culture and education stood a bungler at the worlds workbench
Youre all RIGHT old man he exclaimed unable to think of anything adequate Youre all right Thats the way to talk and here by the way I brought you a box of cigars
Annixter stared as Presley laid the box on the edge of the washstand
Old fool he remarked what in hell did you do that for
Oh just for fun
I suppose theyre rotten stinkodoras or you wouldnt give em away
This cringing gratitude— Presley began
Shut up shouted Annixter and the incident was closed
Annixter resumed his shaving and Presley lit a cigarette
Any news from Washington he queried
Nothing thats any good grunted Annixter Hello he added raising his head theres somebody in a hurry for sure
The noise of a horse galloping so fast that the hoofbeats sounded in one uninterrupted rattle abruptly made itself heard The noise was coming from the direction of the road that led from the Mission to Quien Sabe With incredible swiftness the hoofbeats drew nearer There was that in their sound which brought Presley to his feet Annixter threw open the window
Runaway exclaimed Presley
Annixter with thoughts of the Railroad and the Jumping of the ranch flung his hand to his hip pocket
What is it Vacca he cried
Young Vacca turning in his seat in the carryall was looking up the road All at once he jumped from his place and dashed towards the window Dyke he shouted Dyke its Dyke
While the words were yet in his mouth the sound of the hoofbeats rose to a roar and a great belltoned voice shouted
Annixter Annixter Annixter
It was Dykes voice and the next instant he shot into view in the open square in front of the house
Oh my God cried Presley
The exengineer threw the horse on its haunches springing from the saddle and as he did so the beast collapsed shuddering to the ground Annixter sprang from the window and ran forward Presley following
There was Dyke hatless his pistol in his hand a gaunt terrible figure the beard immeasurably long the cheeks fallen in the eyes sunken His clothes ripped and torn by weeks of flight and hiding in the chaparral were ragged beyond words the boots were shreds of leather bloody to the ankle with furious spurring
Annixter he shouted and again rolling his sunken eyes Annixter Annixter
Here here cried Annixter
The other turned levelling his pistol
Give me a horse give me a horse quick do you hear Give me a horse or Ill shoot
Steady steady That wont do You know me Dyke Were friends here
The other lowered his weapon
I know I know he panted Id forgotten Im unstrung Mr Annixter and Im running for my life Theyre not ten minutes behind me
Come on come on shouted Annixter dashing stablewards his suspenders flying
Heres a horse
Mine exclaimed Presley He wouldnt carry you a mile
Annixter was already far ahead trumpeting orders
The buckskin he yelled Get her out Billy Wheres the stableman Get out that buckskin Get out that saddle
Then followed minutes of furious haste Presley Annixter Billy the stableman and Dyke himself darting hither and thither about the yellow mare buckling strapping cinching their lips pale their fingers trembling with excitement
Want anything to eat Annixters head was under the saddle flap as he tore at the cinch Want anything to eat Want any money Want a gun
Water returned Dyke Theyve watched every spring Im killed with thirst
Theres the hydrant Quick now
I got as far as the Kern River but they turned me back he said between breaths as he drank
Dont stop to talk
My mother and the little tad——
Im taking care of them Theyre stopping with me
Here
You wont see em by the Lord you wont Youll get away Wheres that back cinch strap BILLY God damn it are you going to let him be shot before he can get away Now Dyke up you go Shell kill herself running before they can catch you
God bless you Annixter Wheres the little tad Is she well Annixter and the mother Tell them——
Yes yes yes All clear Pres Let her have her own gait Dyke Youre on the best horse in the county now Let go her head Billy Now Dyke—shake hands You bet I will Thats all right Yes God bless you Let her go Youre OFF
Answering the goad of the spur and already quivering with the excitement of the men who surrounded her the buckskin cleared the stablecorral in two leaps then gathering her legs under her her head low her neck stretched out swung into the road from out the driveway disappearing in a blur of dust
With the agility of a monkey young Vacca swung himself into the framework of the artesian well clambering aloft to its very top He swept the country with a glance
Well demanded Annixter from the ground The others cocked their heads to listen
I see him I see him shouted Vacca Hes going like the devil Hes headed for Guadalajara
Look back up the road toward the Mission Anything there
The answer came down in a shout of apprehension
Theres a party of men Three or four—on horseback Theres dogs with em Theyre coming this way Oh I can hear the dogs And say oh say theres another party coming down the Lower Road going towards Guadalajara too They got guns I can see the shine of the barrels And oh Lord say theres three more men on horses coming down on the jump from the hills on the Los Muertos stock range Theyre making towards Guadalajara And I can hear the courthouse bell in Bonneville ringing Say the whole county is up
As young Vacca slid down to the ground two small blackandtan hounds with flapping ears and lolling tongues loped into view on the road in front of the house They were grey with dust their noses were to the ground At the gate where Dyke had turned into the ranch house grounds they halted in confusion a moment One started to follow the highwaymans trail towards the stable corral but the other quartering over the road with lightning swiftness suddenly picked up the new scent leading on towards Guadalajara He tossed his head in the air and Presley abruptly shut his hands over his ears
Ah that terrible cry deeptoned reverberating like the bourdon of a great bell It was the trackers exulting on the trail of the pursued the prolonged raucous howl eager ominous vibrating with the alarm of the tocsin sullen with the heavy muffling note of death But close upon the bay of the hounds came the gallop of horses Five men their eyes upon the hounds their rifles across their pommels their horses reeking and black with sweat swept by in a storm of dust glinting hoofs and streaming manes
That was Delaneys gang exclaimed Annixter I saw him
The other was that chap Christian said Vacca S Behrmans cousin He had two deputies with him and the chap in the white slouch hat was the sheriff from Visalia
By the Lord they arent far behind declared Annixter
As the men turned towards the house again they saw Hilma and Mrs Dyke in the doorway of the little house where the latter lived They were looking out bewildered ignorant of what had happened But on the porch of the Ranch house itself alone forgotten in the excitement Sidney—the little tad—stood with pale face and serious wideopen eyes She had seen everything and had understood She said nothing Her head inclined towards the roadway she listened to the faint and distant baying of the dogs
Dyke thundered across the railway tracks by the depot at Guadalajara not five minutes ahead of his pursuers Luck seemed to have deserted him The station usually so quiet was now occupied by the crew of a freight train that lay on the down track while on the up line near at hand and headed in the same direction was a detached locomotive whose engineer and fireman recognized him he was sure as the buckskin leaped across the rails
He had had no time to formulate a plan since that morning when tortured with thirst he had ventured near the spring at the headwaters of Broderson Creek on Quien Sabe and had all but fallen into the hands of the posse that had been watching for that very move It was useless now to regret that he had tried to foil pursuit by turning back on his tracks to regain the mountains east of Bonneville Now Delaney was almost on him To distance that posse was the only thing to be thought of now It was no longer a question of hiding till pursuit should flag they had driven him out from the shelter of the mountains down into this populous countryside where an enemy might be met with at every turn of the road Now it was life or death He would either escape or be killed He knew very well that he would never allow himself to be taken alive But he had no mind to be killed—to turn and fight—till escape was blocked His one thought was to leave pursuit behind
Weeks of flight had sharpened Dykes every sense As he turned into the Upper Road beyond Guadalajara he saw the three men galloping down from Derricks stock range making for the road ahead of him They would cut him off there He swung the buckskin about He must take the Lower Road across Los Muertos from Guadalajara and he must reach it before Delaneys dogs and posse Back he galloped the buckskin measuring her length with every leap Once more the station came in sight Rising in his stirrups he looked across the fields in the direction of the Lower Road There was a cloud of dust there From a wagon No horses on the run and their riders were armed He could catch the flash of gun barrels They were all closing in on him converging on Guadalajara by every available road The Upper Road west of Guadalajara led straight to Bonneville That way was impossible Was he in a trap Had the time for fighting come at last
But as Dyke neared the depot at Guadalajara his eye fell upon the detached locomotive that lay quietly steaming on the up line and with a thrill of exultation he remembered that he was an engineer born and bred Delaneys dogs were already to be heard and the roll of hoofs on the Lower Road was dinning in his ears as he leaped from the buckskin before the depot The train crew scattered like frightened sheep before him but Dyke ignored them His pistol was in his hand as once more on foot he sprang toward the lone engine
Out of the cab he shouted Both of you Quick or Ill kill you both
The two men tumbled from the iron apron of the tender as Dyke swung himself up dropping his pistol on the floor of the cab and reaching with the old instinct for the familiar levers The great compound hissed and trembled as the steam was released and the huge drivers stirred turning slowly on the tracks But there was a shout Delaneys posse dogs and men swung into view at the turn of the road their figures leaning over as they took the curve at full speed Dyke threw everything wide open and caught up his revolver From behind came the challenge of a Winchester The party on the Lower Road were even closer than Delaney They had seen his manoeuvre and the first shot of the fight shivered the cab windows above the engineers head
But spinning futilely at first the drivers of the engine at last caught the rails The engine moved advanced travelled past the depot and the freight train and gathering speed rolled out on the track beyond Smoke black and boiling shot skyward from the stack not a joint that did not shudder with the mighty strain of the steam but the great iron brute—one of Baldwins newest and best—came to call obedient and docile as soon as ever the great pulsing heart of it felt a master hand upon its levers It gathered its speed bracing its steel muscles its thews of iron and roared out upon the open track filling the air with the rasp of its tempestbreath blotting the sunshine with the belch of its hot thick smoke Already it was lessening in the distance when Delaney Christian and the sheriff of Visalia dashed up to the station
The posse had seen everything
Stuck Curse the luck vociferated the cowPuncher
But the sheriff was already out of the saddle and into the telegraph office
Theres a derailing switch between here and Pixley isnt there he cried
Yes
Wire ahead to open it Well derail him there Come on he turned to Delaney and the others They sprang into the cab of the locomotive that was attached to the freight train
Name of the State of California shouted the sheriff to the bewildered engineer Cut off from your train
The sheriff was a man to be obeyed without hesitating Time was not allowed the crew of the freight train for debating as to the right or the wrong of requisitioning the engine and before anyone thought of the safety or danger of the affair the freight engine was already flying out upon the down line hot in pursuit of Dyke now far ahead upon the up track
I remember perfectly well theres a derailing switch between here and Pixley shouted the sheriff above the roar of the locomotive They use it in case they have to derail runaway engines It runs right off into the country Well pile him up there Ready with your guns boys
If we should meet another train coming up on this track—— protested the frightened engineer
Then wed jump or be smashed Hi look There he is As the freight engine rounded a curve Dykes engine came into view shooting on some quarter of a mile ahead of them wreathed in whirling smoke
The switch aint much further on clamoured the engineer You can see Pixley now
Dyke his hand on the grip of the valve that controlled the steam his head out of the cab window thundered on He was back in his old place again once more he was the engineer once more he felt the engine quiver under him the familiar noises were in his ears the familiar buffeting of the wind surged roaring at his face the familiar odours of hot steam and smoke reeked in his nostrils and on either side of him parallel panoramas the two halves of the landscape sliced as it were in two by the clashing wheels of his engine streamed by in green and brown blurs
He found himself settling to the old position on the cab seat leaning on his elbow from the window one hand on the controller All at once the instinct of the pursuit that of late had become so strong within him prompted him to shoot a glance behind He saw the other engine on the down line plunging after him rocking from side to side with the fury of its gallop Not yet had he shaken the trackers from his heels not yet was he out of the reach of danger He set his teeth and throwing open the firedoor stoked vigorously for a few moments The indicator of the steam gauge rose his speed increased a glance at the telegraph poles told him he was doing his fifty miles an hour The freight engine behind him was never built for that pace Barring the terrible risk of accident his chances were good
But suddenly—the engineer dominating the highwayman—he shut off his steam and threw back his brake to the extreme notch Directly ahead of him rose a semaphore placed at a point where evidently a derailing switch branched from the line The semaphores arm was dropped over the track setting the danger signal that showed the switch was open
In an instant Dyke saw the trick They had meant to smash him here had been clever enough quickwitted enough to open the switch but had forgotten the automatic semaphore that worked simultaneously with the movement of the rails To go forward was certain destruction Dyke reversed There was nothing for it but to go back With a wrench and a spasm of all its metal fibres the great compound braced itself sliding with rigid wheels along the rails Then as Dyke applied the reverse it drew back from the greater danger returning towards the less Inevitably now the two engines one on the up the other on the down line must meet and pass each other
Dyke released the levers reaching for his revolver The engineer once more became the highwayman in peril of his life Now beyond all doubt the time for fighting was at hand
The party in the heavy freight engine that lumbered after in pursuit their eyes fixed on the smudge of smoke on ahead that marked the path of the fugitive suddenly raised a shout
Hes stopped Hes broke down Watch now and see if he jumps off
Broke NOTHING HES COMING BACK Ready now hes got to pass us
The engineer applied the brakes but the heavy freight locomotive far less mobile than Dykes flyer was slow to obey The smudge on the rails ahead grew swiftly larger
Hes coming Hes coming—look out theres a shot Hes shooting already
A bright white sliver of wood leaped into the air from the sooty window sill of the cab
Fire on him Fire on him
While the engines were yet two hundred yards apart the duel began shot answering shot the sharp staccato reports punctuating the thunder of wheels and the clamour of steam
Then the ground trembled and rocked a roar as of heavy ordnance developed with the abruptness of an explosion The two engines passed each other the men firing the while emptying their revolvers shattering wood shivering glass the bullets clanging against the metal work as they struck and struck and struck The men leaned from the cabs towards each other frantic with excitement shouting curses the engines rocking the steam roaring confusion whirling in the scene like the whirl of a witchs dance the white clouds of steam the black eddies from the smokestack the blue wreaths from the hot mouths of revolvers swirling together in a blinding maze of vapour spinning around them dazing them dizzying them while the head rang with hideous clamour and the body twitched and trembled with the leap and jar of the tumult of machinery
Roaring clamouring reeking with the smell of powder and hot oil spitting death resistless huge furious an abrupt vision of chaos faces ragedistorted peering through smoke hands gripping outward from sudden darkness prehensile malevolent terrible as thunder swift as lightning the two engines met and passed
Hes hit cried Delaney I know I hit him He cant go far now After him again He wont dare go through Bonneville
It was true Dyke had stood between cab and tender throughout all the duel exposed reckless thinking only of attack and not of defence and a bullet from one of the pistols had grazed his hip How serious was the wound he did not know but he had no thought of giving up He tore back through the depot at Guadalajara in a storm of bullets and clinging to the broken window ledge of his cab was carried towards Bonneville on over the Long Trestle and Broderson Creek and through the open country between the two ranches of Los Muertos and Quien Sabe
But to go on to Bonneville meant certain death Before as well as behind him the roads were now blocked Once more he thought of the mountains He resolved to abandon the engine and make another final attempt to get into the shelter of the hills in the northernmost corner of Quien Sabe He set his teeth He would not give in There was one more fight left in him yet Now to try the final hope
He slowed the engine down and reloading his revolver jumped from the platform to the road He looked about him listening All around him widened an ocean of wheat There was no one in sight
The released engine alone unattended drew slowly away from him jolting ponderously over the rail joints As he watched it go a certain indefinite sense of abandonment even in that moment came over Dyke His last friend that also had been his first was leaving him He remembered that day long ago when he had opened the throttle of his first machine Today it was leaving him alone his last friend turning against him Slowly it was going back towards Bonneville to the shops of the Railroad the camp of the enemy that enemy that had ruined him and wrecked him For the last time in his life he had been the engineer Now once more he became the highwayman the outlaw against whom all hands were raised the fugitive skulking in the mountains listening for the cry of dogs
But he would not give in They had not broken him yet Never while he could fight would he allow S Behrman the triumph of his capture
He found his wound was not bad He plunged into the wheat on Quien Sabe making northward for a division house that rose with its surrounding trees out of the wheat like an island He reached it the blood squelching in his shoes But the sight of two men Portuguese farmhands staring at him from an angle of the barn abruptly roused him to action He sprang forward with peremptory commands demanding a horse
At Guadalajara Delaney and the sheriff descended from the freight engine
Horses now declared the sheriff He wont go into Bonneville thats certain Hell leave the engine between here and there and strike off into the country Well follow after him now in the saddle Soon as he leaves his engine HES on foot Weve as good as got him now
Their horses including even the buckskin mare that Dyke had ridden were still at the station The party swung themselves up Delaney exclaiming Heres MY mount as he bestrode the buckskin
At Guadalajara the two bloodhounds were picked up again Urging the jaded horses to a gallop the party set off along the Upper Road keeping a sharp lookout to right and left for traces of Dykes abandonment of the engine
Three miles beyond the Long Trestle they found S Behrman holding his saddle horse by the bridle and looking attentively at a trail that had been broken through the standing wheat on Quien Sabe The party drew rein
The engine passed me on the tracks further up and empty said S Behrman Boys I think he left her here
But before anyone could answer the bloodhounds gave tongue again as they picked up the scent
Thats him cried S Behrman Get on boys
They dashed forward following the hounds S Behrman laboriously climbed to his saddle panting perspiring mopping the roll of fat over his coat collar and turned in after them trotting along far in the rear his great stomach and tremulous jowl shaking with the horses gait
What a day he murmured What a day
Dykes trail was fresh and was followed as easily as if made on newfallen snow In a short time the posse swept into the open space around the division house The two Portuguese were still there wideeyed terribly excited
Yes yes Dyke had been there not half an hour since had held them up taken a horse and galloped to the northeast towards the foothills at the headwaters of Broderson Creek
On again at full gallop through the young wheat trampling it under the flying hoofs the hounds hot on the scent baying continually the men on fresh mounts secured at the division house bending forward in their saddles spurring relentlessly S Behrman jolted along far in the rear
And even then harried through an open country where there was no place to hide it was a matter of amazement how long a chase the highwayman led them Fences were passed fences whose barbed wire had been slashed apart by the fugitives knife The ground rose under foot the hills were at hand still the pursuit held on The sun long past the meridian began to turn earthward Would night come on before they were up with him
Look Look There he is Quick there he goes
High on the bare slope of the nearest hill all the posse looking in the direction of Delaneys gesture saw the figure of a horseman emerge from an arroyo filled with chaparral and struggle at a labouring gallop straight up the slope Suddenly every member of the party shouted aloud The horse had fallen pitching the rider from the saddle The man rose to his feet caught at the bridle missed it and the horse dashed on alone The man pausing for a second looked around saw the chase drawing nearer then turning back disappeared in the chaparral Delaney raised a great whoop
Weve got you now Into the slopes and valleys of the hills dashed the band of horsemen the trail now so fresh that it could be easily discerned by all On and on it led them a furious wild scramble straight up the slopes The minutes went by The dry bed of a rivulet was passed then another fence then a tangle of manzanita a meadow of wild oats full of agitated cattle then an arroyo thick with chaparral and scrub oaks and then without warning the pistol shots ripped out and ran from rider to rider with the rapidity of a gatling discharge and one of the deputies bent forward in the saddle both hands to his face the blood jetting from between his fingers
Dyke was there at bay at last his back against a bank of rock the roots of a fallen tree serving him as a rampart his revolver smoking in his hand
Youre under arrest Dyke cried the sheriff Its not the least use to fight The whole country is up
Dyke fired again the shot splintering the foreleg of the horse the sheriff rode
The posse four men all told—the wounded deputy having crawled out of the fight after Dykes first shot—fell back after the preliminary fusillade dismounted and took shelter behind rocks and trees On that rugged ground fighting from the saddle was impracticable Dyke in the meanwhile held his fire for he knew that once his pistol was empty he would never be allowed time to reload
Dyke called the sheriff again for the last time I summon you to surrender
Dyke did not reply The sheriff Delaney and the man named Christian conferred together in a low voice Then Delaney and Christian left the others making a wide detour up the sides of the arroyo to gain a position to the left and somewhat to the rear of Dyke
But it was at this moment that S Behrman arrived It could not be said whether it was courage or carelessness that brought the Railroads agent within reach of Dykes revolver Possibly he was really a brave man possibly occupied with keeping an uncertain seat upon the back of his labouring scrambling horse he had not noticed that he was so close upon that scene of battle He certainly did not observe the posse lying upon the ground behind sheltering rocks and trees and before anyone could call a warning he had ridden out into the open within thirty paces of Dykes intrenchment
Dyke saw There was the archenemy the man of all men whom he most hated the man who had ruined him who had exasperated him and driven him to crime and who had instigated tireless pursuit through all those past terrible weeks Suddenly inviting death he leaped up and forward he had forgotten all else all other considerations at the sight of this man He would die gladly so only that S Behrman died before him
Ive got YOU anyway he shouted as he ran forward
The muzzle of the weapon was not ten feet from S Behrmans huge stomach as Dyke drew the trigger Had the cartridge exploded death certain and swift would have followed but at this of all moments the revolver missed fire
S Behrman with an unexpected agility leaped from the saddle and keeping his horse between him and Dyke ran dodging and ducking from tree to tree His first shot a failure Dyke fired again and again at his enemy emptying his revolver reckless of consequences His every shot went wild and before he could draw his knife the whole posse was upon him
Without concerted plans obeying no signal but the promptings of the impulse that snatched unerring at opportunity—the men Delaney and Christian from one side the sheriff and the deputy from the other rushed in They did not fire It was Dyke alive they wanted One of them had a riata snatched from a saddlepommel and with this they tried to bind him
The fight was four to one—four men with law on their side to one wounded freebooter halfstarved exhausted by days and nights of pursuit worn down with loss of sleep thirst privation and the grinding nerveracking consciousness of an everpresent peril
They swarmed upon him from all sides gripping at his legs at his arms his throat his head striking clutching kicking falling to the ground rolling over and over now under now above now staggering forward now toppling back Still Dyke fought Through that scrambling struggling group through that maze of twisting bodies twining arms straining legs S Behrman saw him from moment to moment his face flaming his eyes bloodshot his hair matted with sweat Now he was down pinned under two men across his legs and now halfway up again struggling to one knee Then upright again with half his enemies hanging on his back His colossal strength seemed doubled when his arms were held he fought bulllike with his head A score of times it seemed as if they were about to secure him finally and irrevocably and then he would free an arm a leg a shoulder and the group that for the fraction of an instant had settled locked and rigid on its prey would break up again as he flung a man from him reeling and bloody and he himself twisting squirming dodging his great fists working like pistons backed away dragging and carrying the others with him
More than once he loosened almost every grip and for an instant stood nearly free panting rolling his eyes his clothes torn from his body bleeding dripping with sweat a terrible figure nearly free The sheriff under his breath uttered an exclamation
By God hell get away yet
S Behrman watched the fight complacently
That all may show obstinacy he commented but it dont show common sense
Yet however Dyke might throw off the clutches and fettering embraces that encircled him however he might disintegrate and scatter the band of foes that heaped themselves upon him however he might gain one instant of comparative liberty some one of his assailants always hung doggedly blindly to an arm a leg or a foot and the others drawing a seconds breath closed in again implacable unconquerable ferocious like hounds upon a wolf
At length two of the men managed to bring Dykes wrists close enough together to allow the sheriff to snap the handcuffs on Even then Dyke clasping his hands and using the handcuffs themselves as a weapon knocked down Delaney by the crushing impact of the steel bracelets upon the cowpunchers forehead But he could no longer protect himself from attacks from behind and the riata was finally passed around his body pinioning his arms to his sides After this it was useless to resist
The wounded deputy sat with his back to a rock holding his broken jaw in both hands The sheriffs horse with its splintered foreleg would have to be shot Delaneys head was cut from temple to cheekbone The right wrist of the sheriff was all but dislocated The other deputy was so exhausted he had to be helped to his horse But Dyke was taken
He himself had suddenly lapsed into semiunconsciousness unable to walk They sat him on the buckskin S Behrman supporting him the sheriff on foot leading the horse by the bridle The little procession formed and descended from the hills turning in the direction of Bonneville A special train one car and an engine would be made up there and the highwayman would sleep in the Visalia jail that night
Delaney and S Behrman found themselves in the rear of the cavalcade as it moved off The cowpuncher turned to his chief
Well captain he said still panting as he bound up his forehead well—we GOT him
CHAPTER VI
Osterman cut his wheat that summer before any of the other ranchers and as soon as his harvest was over organized a jackrabbit drive Like Annixters barndance it was to be an event in which all the countryside should take part The drive was to begin on the most western division of the Osterman ranch whence it would proceed towards the southeast crossing into the northern part of Quien Sabe—on which Annixter had sown no wheat—and ending in the hills at the headwaters of Broderson Creek where a barbecue was to be held
Early on the morning of the day of the drive as Harran and Presley were saddling their horses before the stables on Los Muertos the foreman Phelps remarked
I was into town last night and I hear that Christian has been after Ruggles early and late to have him put him in possession here on Los Muertos and Delaney is doing the same for Quien Sabe
It was this man Christian the real estate broker and cousin of S Behrman one of the main actors in the drama of Dykes capture who had come forward as a purchaser of Los Muertos when the Railroad had regraded its holdings on the ranches around Bonneville
He claims of course Phelps went on that when he bought Los Muertos of the Railroad he was guaranteed possession and he wants the place in time for the harvest
Thats almost as thin muttered Harran as he thrust the bit into his horses mouth as Delaney buying Annixters Home ranch That slice of Quien Sabe according to the Railroads grading is worth about ten thousand dollars yes even fifteen and I dont believe Delaney is worth the price of a good horse Why those people dont even try to preserve appearances Where would Christian find the money to buy Los Muertos Theres no one man in all Bonneville rich enough to do it Damned rascals as if we didnt see that Christian and Delaney are S Behrmans right and left hands Well hell get em cut off he cried with sudden fierceness if he comes too near the machine
How is it Harran asked Presley as the two young men rode out of the stable yard how is it the Railroad gang can do anything before the Supreme Court hands down a decision
Well you know how they talk growled Harran They have claimed that the cases taken up to the Supreme Court were not test cases as WE claim they ARE and that because neither Annixter nor the Governor appealed theyve lost their cases by default Its the rottenest kind of sharp practice but it wont do any good The League is too strong They wont dare move on us yet awhile Why Pres the moment theyd try to jump any of these ranches around here they would have six hundred rifles cracking at them as quick as howdoyoudo Why it would take a regiment of U S soldiers to put any one of us off our land No sir they know the League means business this time
As Presley and Harran trotted on along the county road they continually passed or overtook other horsemen or buggies carryalls buckboards or even farm wagons going in the same direction These were full of the farming people from all the country round about Bonneville on their way to the rabbit drive—the same people seen at the barndance—in their Sunday finest the girls in muslin frocks and garden hats the men with linen dusters over their black clothes the older women in prints and dotted calicoes Many of these latter had already taken off their bonnets—the day was very hot—and pinning them in newspapers stowed them under the seats They tucked their handkerchiefs into the collars of their dresses or knotted them about their fat necks to keep out the dust From the axle trees of the vehicles swung carefully covered buckets of galvanised iron in which the lunch was packed The younger children the boys with great frilled collars the girls with illfitting shoes cramping their feet leaned from the sides of buggy and carryall eating bananas and macaroons staring about with oxlike stolidity Tied to the axles the dogs followed the horses hoofs with lolling tongues coated with dust
The California summer lay blanketwise and smothering over all the land The hills bonedry were browned and parched The grasses and wildoats sear and yellow snapped like glass filaments under foot The roads the bordering fences even the lower leaves and branches of the trees were thick and grey with dust All colour had been burned from the landscape except in the irrigated patches that in the waste of brown and dull yellow glowed like oases
The wheat now close to its maturity had turned from pale yellow to golden yellow and from that to brown Like a gigantic carpet it spread itself over all the land There was nothing else to be seen but the limitless sea of wheat as far as the eye could reach dry rustling crisp and harsh in the rare breaths of hot wind out of the southeast As Harran and Presley went along the county road the number of vehicles and riders increased They overtook and passed Hooven and his family in the formers farm wagon a saddled horse tied to the back board The little Dutchman wearing the old frock coat of Magnus Derrick and a new broadbrimmed straw hat sat on the front seat with Mrs Hooven The little girl Hilda and the older daughter Minna were behind them on a board laid across the sides of the wagon Presley and Harran stopped to shake hands Say cried Hooven exhibiting an old but extremely well kept rifle say bei Gott me I tek some schatz at dose rebbit you bedt Ven he hef shtop to run und sit oop soh bei der hind laigs on I oop mit der guhn und—bing I cetch um
The marshals wont allow you to shoot Bismarck observed Presley looking at Minna
Hooven doubled up with merriment
Ho dots hell of some fine joak Me IM ONE OAF DOSE MAIRSCHELL MINESELLUF he roared with delight beating his knee To his notion the joke was irresistible All day long he could be heard repeating it Und Mistr Praicelie he say Dose mairschell woand led you schoot Bismarck und ME ach Gott ME aindt I mineselluf one oaf dose mairschell
As the two friends rode on Presley had in his mind the image of Minna Hooven very pretty in a clean gown of pink gingham a cheap straw sailor hat from a Bonneville store on her blue black hair He remembered her very pale face very red lips and eyes of greenish blue—a pretty girl certainly always trailing a group of men behind her Her love affairs were the talk of all Los Muertos
I hope that Hooven girl wont go to the bad Presley said to Harran
Oh shes all right the other answered Theres nothing vicious about Minna and I guess shell marry that foreman on the ditch gang right enough
Well as a matter of course shes a good girl Presley hastened to reply only shes too pretty for a poor girl and too sure of her prettiness besides Thats the kind he continued who would find it pretty easy to go wrong if they lived in a city
Around Carahers was a veritable throng Saddle horses and buggies by the score were clustered underneath the shed or hitched to the railings in front of the watering trough Three of Brodersons Portuguese tenants and a couple of workmen from the railroad shops in Bonneville were on the porch already very drunk
Continually young men singly or in groups came from the doorway wiping their lips with sidelong gestures of the hand The whole place exhaled the febrile bustle of the saloon on a holiday morning
The procession of teams streamed on through Bonneville reenforced at every street corner Along the Upper Road from Quien Sabe and Guadalajara came fresh auxiliaries SpanishMexicans from the town itself—swarthy young men on capering horses darkeyed girls and matrons in red and black and yellow more Portuguese in brandnew overalls smoking long thin cigars Even Father Sarria appeared
Look said Presley there goes Annixter and Hilma Hes got his buckskin back The master of Quien Sabe in top laced boots and campaign hat a cigar in his teeth followed along beside the carryall Hilma and Mrs Derrick were on the back seat young Vacca driving Harran and Presley bowed taking off their hats
Hello hello Pres cried Annixter over the heads of the intervening crowd standing up in his stirrups and waving a hand Great day What a mob hey Say when this thing is over and everybody starts to walk into the barbecue come and have lunch with us Ill look for you you and Harran Hello Harran wheres the Governor
He didnt come today Harran shouted back as the crowd carried him further away from Annixter Left him and old Broderson at Los Muertos
The throng emerged into the open country again spreading out upon the Osterman ranch From all directions could be seen horses and buggies driving across the stubble converging upon the rendezvous Ostermans Ranch house was left to the eastward the army of the guests hurrying forward—for it began to be late—to where around a flag pole flying a red flag a vast crowd of buggies and horses was already forming The marshals began to appear Hooven descending from the farm wagon pinned his white badge to his hat brim and mounted his horse Osterman in marvellous riding clothes of English pattern galloped up and down upon his best thoroughbred cracking jokes with everybody chaffing joshing his great mouth distended in a perpetual grin of amiability
Stop here stop here he vociferated dashing along in front of Presley and Harran waving his crop The procession came to a halt the horses heads pointing eastward The line began to be formed The marshals perspiring shouting fretting galloping about urging this one forward ordering this one back ranged the thousands of conveyances and cavaliers in a long line shaped like a wide open crescent Its wings under the command of lieutenants were slightly advanced Far out before its centre Osterman took his place delighted beyond expression at his conspicuousness posing for the gallery making his horse dance
Wail aindt dey gowun to gommence den bretty soohn exclaimed Mrs Hooven who had taken her husbands place on the forward seat of the wagon
I never was so warm murmured Minna fanning herself with her hat All seemed in readiness For miles over the flat expanse of stubble curved the interminable lines of horses and vehicles At a guess nearly five thousand people were present The drive was one of the largest ever held But no start was made immobilized the vast crescent stuck motionless under the blazing sun Here and there could be heard voices uplifted in jocular remonstrance
Oh I say get a move on somebody
ALL aboard
Say Ill take root here pretty soon
Some took malicious pleasure in starting false alarms
Ah HERE we go
Off at last
Were off
Invariably these jokes fooled some one in the line An old man or some old woman nervous hard of hearing always gathered up the reins and started off only to be hustled and ordered back into the line by the nearest marshal This manoeuvre never failed to produce its effect of hilarity upon those near at hand Everybody laughed at the blunderer the joker jeering audibly
Hey come back here
Oh hes easy
Dont be in a hurry Grandpa
Say you want to drive all the rabbits yourself
Later on a certain group of these fellows started a huge josh
Say thats what were waiting for the dofunny
The dofunny
Sure you cant drive rabbits without the dofunny
Whats the dofunny
Oh say she dont know what the dofunny is We cant start without it sure Pete went back to get it
Oh youre joking me theres no such thing
Well arent we WAITING for it
Oh look look cried some women in a covered rig See they are starting already way over there
In fact it did appear as if the far extremity of the line was in motion Dust rose in the air above it
They ARE starting Why dont we start
No theyve stopped False alarm
Theyve not either Why dont we move
But as one or two began to move off the nearest marshal shouted wrathfully
Get back there get back there
Well theyve started over there
Get back I tell you
Wheres the dofunny
Say were going to miss it all Theyve all started over there
A lieutenant came galloping along in front of the line shouting
Here whats the matter here Why dont you start
There was a great shout Everybody simultaneously uttered a prolonged Ohh
Were off
Here we go for sure this time
Remember to keep the alignment roared the lieutenant Dont go too fast
And the marshals rushing here and there on their sweating horses to points where the line bulged forward shouted waving their arms Not too fast not too fastKeep back hereHere keep closer together here Do you want to let all the rabbits run back between you
A great confused sound rose into the air—the creaking of axles the jolt of iron tires over the dry clods the click of brittle stubble under the horses hoofs the barking of dogs the shouts of conversation and laughter
The entire line horses buggies wagons gigs dogs men and boys on foot and armed with clubs moved slowly across the fields sending up a cloud of white dust that hung above the scene like smoke A brisk gaiety was in the air Everyone was in the best of humor calling from team to team laughing skylarking joshing Garnett of the Ruby Rancho and Gethings of the San Pablo both on horseback found themselves side by side Ignoring the drive and the spirit of the occasion they kept up a prolonged and serious conversation on an expected rise in the price of wheat Dabney also on horseback followed them listening attentively to every word but hazarding no remark
Mrs Derrick and Hilma sat in the back seat of the carryall behind young Vacca Mrs Derrick a little disturbed by such a great concourse of people frightened at the idea of the killing of so many rabbits drew back in her place her younggirl eyes troubled and filled with a vague distress Hilma very much excited leaned from the carryall anxious to see everything watching for rabbits asking innumerable questions of Annixter who rode at her side
The change that had been progressing in Hilma ever since the night of the famous barndance now seemed to be approaching its climax first the girl then the woman last of all the Mother Conscious dignity a new element in her character developed The shrinking the timidity of the girl just awakening to the consciousness of sex passed away from her The confusion the troublous complexity of the woman a mystery even to herself disappeared Motherhood dawned the old simplicity of her maiden days came back to her It was no longer a simplicity of ignorance but of supreme knowledge the simplicity of the perfect the simplicity of greatness She looked the world fearlessly in the eyes At last the confusion of her ideas like frightened birds resettling adjusted itself and she emerged from the trouble calm serene entering into her divine right like a queen into the rule of a realm of perpetual peace
And with this with the knowledge that the crown hung poised above her head there came upon Hilma a gentleness infinitely beautiful infinitely pathetic a sweetness that touched all who came near her with the softness of a caress She moved surrounded by an invisible atmosphere of Love Love was in her wideopened brown eyes Love—the dim reflection of that descending crown poised over her head—radiated in a faint lustre from her dark thick hair Around her beautiful neck sloping to her shoulders with full graceful curves Love lay encircled like a necklace—Love that was beyond words sweet breathed from her parted lips From her white large arms downward to her pink fingertips—Love an invisible electric fluid disengaged itself subtle alluring In the velvety huskiness of her voice Love vibrated like a note of unknown music
Annixter her uncouth rugged husband living in this influence of a wife who was also a mother at all hours touched to the quick by this sense of nobility of gentleness and of love the instincts of a father already clutching and tugging at his heart was trembling on the verge of a mighty transformation The hardness and inhumanity of the man was fast breaking up One night returning late to the Ranch house after a compulsory visit to the city he had come upon Hilma asleep He had never forgotten that night A realization of his boundless happiness in this love he gave and received the thought that Hilma TRUSTED him a knowledge of his own unworthiness a vast and humble thankfulness that his God had chosen him of all men for this great joy had brought him to his knees for the first time in all his troubled restless life of combat and aggression He prayed he knew not what—vague words wordless thoughts resolving fiercely to do right to make some return for Gods gift thus placed within his hands
Where once Annixter had thought only of himself he now thought only of Hilma The time when this thought of another should broaden and widen into thought of OTHERS was yet to come but already it had expanded to include the unborn child—already as in the case of Mrs Dyke it had broadened to enfold another child and another mother bound to him by no ties other than those of humanity and pity In time starting from this point it would reach out more and more till it should take in all men and all women and the intolerant selfish man while retaining all of his native strength should become tolerant and generous kind and forgiving
For the moment however the two natures struggled within him A fight was to be fought one more the last the fiercest the attack of the enemy who menaced his very home and hearth was to be resisted Then peace attained arrested development would once more proceed
Hilma looked from the carryall scanning the open plain in front of the advancing line of the drive
Where are the rabbits she asked of Annixter I dont see any at all
They are way ahead of us yet he said Here take the glasses
He passed her his field glasses and she adjusted them
Oh yes she cried I see I can see five or six but oh so far off
The beggars run way ahead at first
I should say so See them run—little specks Every now and then they sit up their ears straight up in the air
Here look Hilma there goes one close by
From out of the ground apparently some twenty yards distant a great jack sprang into view bounding away with tremendous leaps his blacktipped ears erect He disappeared his grey body losing itself against the grey of the ground
Oh a big fellow
Hi yonders another
Yes yes oh look at him run From off the surface of the ground at first apparently empty of all life and seemingly unable to afford hiding place for so much as a fieldmouse jackrabbits started up at every moment as the line went forward At first they appeared singly and at long intervals then in twos and threes as the drive continued to advance They leaped across the plain and stopped in the distance sitting up with straight ears then ran on again were joined by others sank down flush to the soil—their ears flattened started up again ran to the side turned back once more darted away with incredible swiftness and were lost to view only to be replaced by a score of others
Gradually the number of jacks to be seen over the expanse of stubble in front of the line of teams increased Their antics were infinite No two acted precisely alike Some lay stubbornly close in a little depression between two clods till the horses hoofs were all but upon them then sprang out from their hidingplace at the last second Others ran forward but a few yards at a time refusing to take flight scenting a greater danger before them than behind Still others forced up at the last moment doubled with lightning alacrity in their tracks turning back to scuttle between the teams taking desperate chances As often as this occurred it was the signal for a great uproar
Dont let him get through don t let him get through
Look out for him there he goes
Horns were blown bells rung tin pans clamorously beaten Either the jack escaped or confused by the noise darted back again fleeing away as if his life depended on the issue of the instant Once even a bewildered rabbit jumped fair into Mrs Derricks lap as she sat in the carryall and was out again like a flash
Poor frightened thing she exclaimed and for a long time afterward she retained upon her knees the sensation of the four little paws quivering with excitement and the feel of the trembling furry body with its wildly beating heart pressed against her own
By noon the number of rabbits discernible by Annixters field glasses on ahead was far into the thousands What seemed to be ground resolved itself when seen through the glasses into a maze of small moving bodies leaping ducking doubling running back and forth—a wilderness of agitated ears white tails and twinkling legs The outside wings of the curved line of vehicles began to draw in a little Ostermans ranch was left behind the drive continued on over Quien Sabe
As the day advanced the rabbits singularly enough became less wild When flushed they no longer ran so far nor so fast limping off instead a few feet at a time and crouching down their ears close upon their backs Thus it was that by degrees the teams began to close up on the main herd At every instant the numbers increased It was no longer thousands it was tens of thousands The earth was alive with rabbits
Denser and denser grew the throng In all directions nothing was to be seen but the loose mass of the moving jacks The horns of the crescent of teams began to contract Far off the corral came into sight The disintegrated mass of rabbits commenced as it were to solidify to coagulate At first each jack was some three feet distant from his nearest neighbor but this space diminished to two feet then to one then to but a few inches The rabbits began leaping over one another
Then the strange scene defined itself It was no longer a herd covering the earth It was a sea whipped into confusion tossing incessantly leaping falling agitated by unseen forces At times the unexpected tameness of the rabbits all at once vanished Throughout certain portions of the herd eddies of terror abruptly burst forth A panic spread then there would ensue a blind wild rushing together of thousands of crowded bodies and a furious scrambling over backs till the scuffing thud of innumerable feet over the earth rose to a reverberating murmur as of distant thunder here and there pierced by the strange wild cry of the rabbit in distress
The line of vehicles was halted To go forward now meant to trample the rabbits under foot The drive came to a standstill while the herd entered the corral This took time for the rabbits were by now too crowded to run However like an opened sluicegate the extending flanks of the entrance of the corral slowly engulfed the herd The mass packed tight as ever by degrees diminished precisely as a pool of water when a dam is opened The last stragglers went in with a rush and the gate was dropped
Come just have a lock in here called Annixter
Hilma descending from the carryall and joined by Presley and Harran approached and looked over the high board fence
Oh did you ever see anything like that she exclaimed
The corral a really large enclosure had proved all too small for the number of rabbits collected by the drive Inside it was a living moving leaping breathing twisting mass The rabbits were packed two three and four feet deep They were in constant movement those beneath struggling to the top those on top sinking and disappearing below their fellows All wildness all fear of man seemed to have entirely disappeared Men and boys reaching over the sides of the corral picked up a jack in each hand holding them by the ears while two reporters from San Francisco papers took photographs of the scene The noise made by the tens of thousands of moving bodies was as the noise of wind in a forest while from the hot and sweating mass there rose a strange odor penetrating ammoniacal savouring of wild life
On signal the killing began Dogs that had been brought there for that purpose when let into the corral refused as had been half expected to do the work They snuffed curiously at the pile then backed off disturbed perplexed But the men and boys—Portuguese for the most part—were more eager Annixter drew Hilma away and indeed most of the people set about the barbecue at once
In the corral however the killing went forward Armed with a club in each hand the young fellows from Guadalajara and Bonneville and the farm boys from the ranches leaped over the rails of the corral They walked unsteadily upon the myriad of crowding bodies underfoot or as space was cleared sank almost waist deep into the mass that leaped and squirmed about them Blindly furiously they struck and struck The AngloSaxon spectators round about drew back in disgust but the hot degenerated blood of Portuguese Mexican and mixed Spaniard boiled up in excitement at this wholesale slaughter
But only a few of the participants of the drive cared to look on All the guests betook themselves some quarter of a mile farther on into the hills
The picnic and barbecue were to be held around the spring where Broderson Creek took its rise Already two entire beeves were roasting there teams were hitched saddles removed and men women and children a great throng spread out under the shade of the live oaks A vast confused clamour rose in the air a babel of talk a clatter of tin plates of knives and forks Bottles were uncorked napkins and oilcloths spread over the ground The men lit pipes and cigars the women seized the occasion to nurse their babies
Osterman ubiquitous as ever resplendent in his boots and English riding breeches moved about between the groups keeping up an endless flow of talk cracking jokes winking nudging gesturing putting his tongue in his cheek never at a loss for a reply playing the goat
That josher Osterman always at his monkeyshines but a good fellow for all that brainy too Nothing stuck up about him either like Magnus Derrick
Everything all right Buck inquired Osterman coming up to where Annixter Hilma and Mrs Derrick were sitting down to their lunch
Yes yes everything right But weve no corkscrew
No screwcork—no scarecrow Here you are and he drew from his pocket a silverplated jackknife with a corkscrew attachment Harran and Presley came up bearing between them a great smoking roasted portion of beef just off the fire Hilma hastened to put forward a huge china platter
Osterman had a joke to crack with the two boys a joke that was rather broad but as he turned about the words almost on his lips his glance fell upon Hilma herself whom he had not seen for more than two months
She had handed Presley the platter and was now sitting with her back against the tree between two boles of the roots The position was a little elevated and the supporting roots on either side of her were like the arms of a great chair—a chair of state She sat thus as on a throne raised above the rest the radiance of the unseen crown of motherhood glowing from her forehead the beauty of the perfect woman surrounding her like a glory
And the josh died away on Ostermans lips and unconsciously and swiftly he bared his head Something was passing there in the air about him that he did not understand something however that imposed reverence and profound respect For the first time in his life embarrassment seized upon him upon this joker this wearer of clothes this teller of funny stories with his large red ears bald head and comic actors face He stammered confusedly and took himself away for the moment abstracted serious lost in thought
By now everyone was eating It was the feeding of the People elemental gross a great appeasing of appetite an enormous quenching of thirst Quarters of beef roasts ribs shoulders haunches were consumed loaves of bread by the thousands disappeared whole barrels of wine went down the dry and dusty throats of the multitude Conversation lagged while the People ate while hunger was appeased Everybody had their fill One ate for the sake of eating resolved that there should be nothing left considering it a matter of pride to exhibit a clean plate
After dinner preparations were made for games On a flat plateau at the top of one of the hills the contestants were to strive There was to be a footrace of young girls under seventeen a fat mens race the younger fellows were to put the shot to compete in the running broad jump and the standing high jump in the hop skip and step and in wrestling
Presley was delighted with it all It was Homeric this feasting this vast consuming of meat and bread and wine followed now by games of strength An epic simplicity and directness an honest AngloSaxon mirth and innocence commended it Crude it was coarse it was but no taint of viciousness was here These people were good people kindly benignant even always readier to give than to receive always more willing to help than to be helped They were good stock Of such was the backbone of the nation—sturdy Americans everyone of them Where else in the world round were such strong honest men such strong beautiful women
Annixter Harran and Presley climbed to the level plateau where the games were to be held to lay out the courses and mark the distances It was the very place where once Presley had loved to lounge entire afternoons reading his books of poems smoking and dozing From this high point one dominated the entire valley to the south and west The view was superb The three men paused for a moment on the crest of the hill to consider it
Young Vacca came running and panting up the hill after them calling for Annixter
Well well what is it
Mr Ostermans looking for you sir you and Mr Harran Vanamee that cowboy over at Derricks has just come from the Governor with a message I guess its important
Hello whats up now muttered Annixter as they turned back
They found Osterman saddling his horse in furious haste Nearby him was Vanamee holding by the bridle an animal that was one lather of sweat A few of the picnickers were turning their heads curiously in that direction Evidently something of moment was in the wind
Whats all up demanded Annixter as he and Harran followed by Presley drew near
Theres hell to pay exclaimed Osterman under his breath Read that Vanamee just brought it
He handed Annixter a sheet of note paper and turned again to the cinching of his saddle
Weve got to be quick he cried Theyve stolen a march on us
Annixter read the note Harran and Presley looking over his shoulder
Ah its them is it exclaimed Annixter
Harran set his teeth Now for it he exclaimed Theyve been to your place already Mr Annixter said Vanamee I passed by it on my way up They have put Delaney in possession and have set all your furniture out in the road
Annixter turned about his lips white Already Presley and Harran had run to their horses
Vacca cried Annixter wheres Vacca Put the saddle on the buckskin QUICK Osterman get as many of the League as are here together at THIS spot understand Ill be back in a minute I must tell Hilma this
Hooven ran up as Annixter disappeared His little eyes were blazing he was dragging his horse with him
Say dose fellers come hey Me Im alretty see I hev der guhn
Theyve jumped the ranch little girl said Annixter putting one arm around Hilma Theyre in our house now Im off Go to Derricks and wait for me there
She put her arms around his neck
Youre going she demanded
I must Dont be frightened It will be all right Go to Derricks and—goodbye
She said never a word She looked once long into his eyes then kissed him on the mouth
Meanwhile the news had spread The multitude rose to its feet Women and men with pale faces looked at each other speechless or broke forth into inarticulate exclamations A strange unfamiliar murmur took the place of the tumultuous gaiety of the previous moments A sense of dread of confusion of impending terror weighed heavily in the air What was now to happen
When Annixter got back to Osterman he found a number of the Leaguers already assembled They were all mounted Hooven was there and Harran and besides these Garnett of the Ruby ranch and Gethings of the San Pablo Phelps the foreman of Los Muertos and last of all Dabney silent as ever speaking to no one Presley came riding up
Best keep out of this Pres cried Annixter
Are we ready exclaimed Gethings
Ready ready were all here
ALL Is this all of us cried Annixter Where are the six hundred men who were going to rise when this happened
They had wavered these other Leaguers Now when the actual crisis impended they were smitten with confusion Ah no they were not going to stand up and be shot at just to save Derricks land They were not armed What did Annixter and Osterman take them for No sir the Railroad had stolen a march on them After all his big talk Derrick had allowed them to be taken by surprise The only thing to do was to call a meeting of the Executive Committee That was the only thing As for going down there with no weapons in their hands NO sir That was asking a little TOO much Come on then boys shouted Osterman turning his back on the others The Governor says to meet him at Hoovens Well make for the Long Trestle and strike the trail to Hoovens there
They set off It was a terrible ride Twice during the scrambling descent from the hills Presleys pony fell beneath him Annixter on his buckskin and Osterman on his thoroughbred good horsemen both led the others setting a terrific pace The hills were left behind Broderson Creek was crossed and on the levels of Quien Sabe straight through the standing wheat the nine horses flogged and spurred stretched out to their utmost Their passage through the wheat sounded like the rip and tear of a gigantic web of cloth The landscape on either hand resolved itself into a long blur Tears came to the eyes flying pebbles clods of earth grains of wheat flung up in the flight stung the face like shot Ostermans thoroughbred took the second crossing of Brodersons Creek in a single leap Down under the Long Trestle tore the cavalcade in a shower of mud and gravel up again on the further bank the horses blowing like steam engines on into the trail to Hoovens single file now Presleys pony lagging Hoovens horse bleeding at the eyes the buckskin game as a fighting cock catching her second wind far in the lead now distancing even the English thoroughbred that Osterman rode
At last Hoovens unpainted house beneath the enormous live oak tree came in sight Across the Lower Road breaking through fences and into the yard around the house thundered the Leaguers Magnus was waiting for them
The riders dismounted hardly less exhausted than their horses
Why wheres all the men Annixter demanded of Magnus
Broderson is here and Cutter replied the Governor no one else I thought YOU would bring more men with you
There are only nine of us
And the six hundred Leaguers who were going to rise when this happened exclaimed Garnett bitterly
Rot the League cried Annixter Its gone to pot—went to pieces at the first touch
We have been taken by surprise gentlemen after all said Magnus Totally off our guard But there are eleven of us It is enough
Well whats the game Has the marshal come How many men are with him
The United States marshal from San Francisco explained Magnus came down early this morning and stopped at Guadalajara We learned it all through our friends in Bonneville about an hour ago They telephoned me and Mr Broderson S Behrman met him and provided about a dozen deputies Delaney Ruggles and Christian joined them at Guadalajara They left Guadalajara going towards Mr Annixters ranch house on Quien Sabe They are serving the writs in ejectment and putting the dummy buyers in possession They are armed S Behrman is with them
Where are they now
Cutter is watching them from the Long Trestle They returned to Guadalajara They are there now
Well observed Gethings From Guadalajara they can only go to two places Either they will take the Upper Road and go on to Ostermans next or they will take the Lower Road to Mr Derricks
That is as I supposed said Magnus That is why I wanted you to come here From Hoovens here we can watch both roads simultaneously
Is anybody on the lookout on the Upper Road
Cutter He is on the Long Trestle
Say observed Hooven the instincts of the oldtime soldier stirring him say dose feller pretty demn schmart I tink We got to put some picket way oudt bei der Lower Roadt alzoh und he tek dose glassus Mistr Ennixtr got bei um Say look at dose irregation ditsch Dot ditsch he run righd across BOTH dose road hey Dats some fine entrenchment you bedt We fighd um from dose ditsch
In fact the dry irrigating ditch was a natural trench admirably suited to the purpose crossing both roads as Hooven pointed out and barring approach from Guadalajara to all the ranches save Annixters—which had already been seized
Gethings departed to join Cutter on the Long Trestle while Phelps and Harran taking Annixters field glasses with them and mounting their horses went out towards Guadalajara on the Lower Road to watch for the marshals approach from that direction
After the outposts had left them the party in Hoovens cottage looked to their weapons Long since every member of the League had been in the habit of carrying his revolver with him They were all armed and in addition Hooven had his rifle Presley alone carried no weapon
The main room of Hoovens house in which the Leaguers were now assembled was barren povertystricken but tolerably clean An old clock ticked vociferously on a shelf In one corner was a bed with a patched faded quilt In the centre of the room straddling over the bare floor stood a pine table Around this the men gathered two or three occupying chairs Annixter sitting sideways on the table the rest standing
I believe gentlemen said Magnus that we can go through this day without bloodshed I believe not one shot need be fired The Railroad will not force the issue will not bring about actual fighting When the marshal realises that we are thoroughly in earnest thoroughly determined I am convinced that he will withdraw
There were murmurs of assent
Look here said Annixter if this thing can by any means be settled peaceably I say lets do it so long as we dont give in
The others stared Was this Annixter who spoke—the Hotspur of the League the quarrelsome irascible fellow who loved and sought a quarrel Was it Annixter who now had been the first and only one of them all to suffer whose ranch had been seized whose household possessions had been flung out into the road
When you come right down to it he continued killing a man no matter what hes done to you is a serious business I propose we make one more attempt to stave this thing off Lets see if we cant get to talk with the marshal himself at any rate warn him of the danger of going any further Boys lets not fire the first shot What do you say
The others agreed unanimously and promptly and old Broderson tugging uneasily at his long beard added
No—no—no violence no UNNECESSARY violence that is I should hate to have innocent blood on my hands—that is if it IS innocent I dont know that S Behrman—ah he is a—a—surely he had innocent blood on HIS head That Dyke affair terrible terrible but then Dyke WAS in the wrong—driven to it though the Railroad did drive him to it I want to be fair and just to everybody
Theres a team coming up the road from Los Muertos announced Presley from the door
Fair and just to everybody murmured old Broderson wagging his head frowning perplexedly I dont want to—to—to harm anybody unless they harm me
Is the team going towards Guadalajara enquired Garnett getting up and coming to the door
Yes its a Portuguese one of the garden truck men
We must turn him back declared Osterman He cant go through here We dont want him to take any news on to the marshal and S Behrman
Ill turn him back said Presley
He rode out towards the market cart and the others watching from the road in front of Hoovens saw him halt it An excited interview followed They could hear the Portuguese expostulating volubly but in the end he turned back
Martial law on Los Muertos isnt it observed Osterman Steady all he exclaimed as he turned about here comes Harran
Harran rode up at a gallop The others surrounded him
I saw them he cried They are coming this way S Behrman and Ruggles are in a twohorse buggy All the others are on horseback There are eleven of them Christian and Delaney are with them Those two have rifles I left Hooven watching them
Better call in Gethings and Cutter right away said Annixter Well need all our men
Ill call them in Presley volunteered at once Can I have the buckskin My pony is about done up
He departed at a brisk gallop but on the way met Gethings and Cutter returning They too from their elevated position had observed the marshals party leaving Guadalajara by the Lower Road Presley told them of the decision of the Leaguers not to fire until fired upon
All right said Gethings But if it comes to a gunfight that means its all up with at least one of us Delaney never misses his man
When they reached Hoovens again they found that the Leaguers had already taken their position in the ditch The plank bridge across it had been torn up Magnus two long revolvers lying on the embankment in front of him was in the middle Harran at his side On either side some five feet intervening between each man stood the other Leaguers their revolvers ready Dabney the silent old man had taken off his coat
Take your places between Mr Osterman and Mr Broderson said Magnus as the three men rode up Presley he added I forbid you to take any part in this affair
Yes keep him out of it cried Annixter from his position at the extreme end of the line Go back to Hoovens house Pres and look after the horses he added This is no business of yours And keep the road behind us clear Dont let ANY ONE come near not ANY ONE understand
Presley withdrew leading the buckskin and the horses that Gethings and Cutter had ridden He fastened them under the great live oak and then came out and stood in the road in front of the house to watch what was going on
In the ditch shoulder deep the Leaguers ready watchful waited in silence their eyes fixed on the white shimmer of the road leading to Guadalajara
Wheres Hooven enquired Cutter
I dont know Osterman replied He was out watching the Lower Road with Harran Derrick Oh Harran he called isnt Hooven coming in
I dont know what he is waiting for answered Harran He was to have come in just after me He thought maybe the marshals party might make a feint in this direction then go around by the Upper Road after all He wanted to watch them a little longer But he ought to be here now
Think hell take a shot at them on his own account
Oh no he wouldnt do that
Maybe they took him prisoner
Well thats to be thought of too
Suddenly there was a cry Around the bend of the road in front of them came a cloud of dust From it emerged a horses head
Hello hello theres something
Remember we are not to fire first
Perhaps thats Hooven I cant see Is it There only seems to be one horse
Too much dust for one horse
Annixter who had taken his field glasses from Harran adjusted them to his eyes
Thats not them he announced presently nor Hooven either Thats a cart Then after another moment he added The butchers cart from Guadalajara
The tension was relaxed The men drew long breaths settling back in their places
Do we let him go on Governor
The bridge is down He cant go by and we must not let him go back We shall have to detain him and question him I wonder the marshal let him pass
The cart approached at a lively trot
Anybody else in that cart Mr Annixter asked Magnus Look carefully It may be a ruse It is strange the marshal should have let him pass
The Leaguers roused themselves again Osterman laid his hand on his revolver
No called Annixter in another instant no theres only one man in it
The cart came up and Cutter and Phelps clambering from the ditch stopped it as it arrived in front of the party
Hey—what—what exclaimed the young butcher pulling up Is that bridge broke
But at the idea of being held the boy protested at top voice badly frightened bewildered not knowing what was to happen next
No no I got my meat to deliver Say you let me go Say I aint got nothing to do with you
He tugged at the reins trying to turn the cart about Cutter with his jackknife parted the reins just back of the bit
Youll stay where you are m son for a while Were not going to hurt you But you are not going back to town till we say so Did you pass anybody on the road out of town
In reply to the Leaguers questions the young butcher at last told them he had passed a twohorse buggy and a lot of men on horseback just beyond the railroad tracks They were headed for Los Muertos
Thats them all right muttered Annixter Theyre coming by this road sure
The butchers horse and cart were led to one side of the road and the horse tied to the fence with one of the severed lines The butcher himself was passed over to Presley who locked him in Hoovens barn
Well what the devil demanded Osterman has become of Bismarck
In fact the butcher had seen nothing of Hooven The minutes were passing and still he failed to appear
Whats he up to anyways
Bet you what you like they caught him Just like that crazy Dutchman to get excited and go too near You can always depend on Hooven to lose his head
Five minutes passed then ten The road towards Guadalajara lay empty baking and white under the sun
Well the marshal and S Behrman dont seem to be in any hurry either
Shall I go forward and reconnoitre Governor asked Harran
But Dabney who stood next to Annixter touched him on the shoulder and without speaking pointed down the road Annixter looked then suddenly cried out
Here comes Hooven
The German galloped into sight around the turn of the road his rifle laid across his saddle He came on rapidly pulled up and dismounted at the ditch
Deyre commen he cried trembling with excitement I watch um long dime bei der side oaf der roadt in der busches Dey shtop bei der gate oder side der relroadt trecks and talk long dime mit one nudder Den dey gome on Deyre gowun sure do zum monkeydoodle pizeness Me I see Gritschun put der kertridges in his guhn I tink dey gowun to gome MY blace first Dey gowun to try put me off tek my home bei Gott
All right get down in here and keep quiet Hooven Dont fire unless——
Here they are
A halfdozen voices uttered the cry at once
There could be no mistake this time A buggy drawn by two horses came into view around the curve of the road Three riders accompanied it and behind these seen at intervals in a cloud of dust were two—three—five—six others
This then was S Behrman with the United States marshal and his posse The event that had been so long in preparation the event which it had been said would never come to pass the last trial of strength the last fight between the Trust and the People the direct brutal grapple of armed men the law defied the Government ignored behold here it was close at hand
Osterman cocked his revolver and in the profound silence that had fallen upon the scene the click was plainly audible from end to end of the line
Remember our agreement gentlemen cried Magnus in a warning voice Mr Osterman I must ask you to let down the hammer of your weapon
No one answered In absolute quiet standing motionless in their places the Leaguers watched the approach of the marshal
Five minutes passed The riders came on steadily They drew nearer The grind of the buggy wheels in the grit and dust of the road and the prolonged clatter of the horses feet began to make itself heard The Leaguers could distinguish the faces of their enemies
In the buggy were S Behrman and Cyrus Ruggles the latter driving A tall man in a frock coat and slouched hat—the marshal beyond question—rode at the left of the buggy Delaney carrying a Winchester at the right Christian the real estate broker S Behrmans cousin also with a rifle could be made out just behind the marshal Back of these riding well up was a group of horsemen indistinguishable in the dust raised by the buggys wheels
Steadily the distance between the Leaguers and the posse diminished
Dont let them get too close Governor whispered Harran
When S Behrmans buggy was about one hundred yards distant from the irrigating ditch Magnus sprang out upon the road leaving his revolvers behind him He beckoned Garnett and Gethings to follow and the three ranchers who with the exception of Broderson were the oldest men present advanced without arms to meet the marshal
Magnus cried aloud
Halt where you are
From their places in the ditch Annixter Osterman Dabney Harran Hooven Broderson Cutter and Phelps their hands laid upon their revolvers watched silently alert keen ready for anything
At the Governors words they saw Ruggles pull sharply on the reins The buggy came to a standstill the riders doing likewise Magnus approached the marshal still followed by Garnett and Gethings and began to speak His voice was audible to the men in the ditch but his words could not be made out They heard the marshal reply quietly enough and the two shook hands Delaney came around from the side of the buggy his horse standing before the team across the road He leaned from the saddle listening to what was being said but made no remark From time to time S Behrman and Ruggles from their seats in the buggy interposed a sentence or two into the conversation but at first so far as the Leaguers could discern neither Magnus nor the marshal paid them any attention They saw however that the latter repeatedly shook his head and once they heard him exclaim in a loud voice
I only know my duty Mr Derrick
Then Gethings turned about and seeing Delaney close at hand addressed an unheard remark to him The cowpuncher replied curtly and the words seemed to anger Gethings He made a gesture pointing back to the ditch showing the intrenched Leaguers to the posse Delaney appeared to communicate the news that the Leaguers were on hand and prepared to resist to the other members of the party They all looked toward the ditch and plainly saw the ranchers there standing to their arms
But meanwhile Ruggles had addressed himself more directly to Magnus and between the two an angry discussion was going forward Once even Harran heard his father exclaim
The statement is a lie and no one knows it better than yourself
Here growled Annixter to Dabney who stood next him in the ditch those fellows are getting too close Look at them edging up Dont Magnus see that
The other members of the marshals force had come forward from their places behind the buggy and were spread out across the road Some of them were gathered about Magnus Garnett and Gethings and some were talking together looking and pointing towards the ditch Whether acting upon signal or not the Leaguers in the ditch could not tell but it was certain that one or two of the posse had moved considerably forward Besides this Delaney had now placed his horse between Magnus and the ditch and two others riding up from the rear had followed his example The posse surrounded the three ranchers and by now everybody was talking at once
Look here Harran called to Annixter this wont do I dont like the looks of this thing They all seem to be edging up and before we know it they may take the Governor and the other men prisoners
They ought to come back declared Annixter
Somebody ought to tell them that those fellows are creeping up
By now the angry argument between the Governor and Ruggles had become more heated than ever Their voices were raised now and then they made furious gestures
They ought to come back cried Osterman We couldnt shoot now if anything should happen for fear of hitting them
Well it sounds as though something were going to happen pretty soon
They could hear Gethings and Delaney wrangling furiously another deputy joined in
Im going to call the Governor back exclaimed Annixter suddenly clambering out of the ditch No no cried Osterman keep in the ditch They cant drive us out if we keep here
Hooven and Harran who had instinctively followed Annixter hesitated at Ostermans words and the three halted irresolutely on the road before the ditch their weapons in their hands
Governor shouted Harran come on back You cant do anything
Still the wrangle continued and one of the deputies advancing a little from out the group cried out
Keep back there Keep back there you
Go to hell will you shouted Harran on the instant Youre on my land
Oh come back here Harran called Osterman That aint going to do any good
There—listen suddenly exclaimed Harran The Governor is calling us Come on Im going
Osterman got out of the ditch and came forward catching Harran by the arm and pulling him back
He didnt call Dont get excited Youll ruin everything Get back into the ditch again
But Cutter Phelps and the old man Dabney misunderstanding what was happening and seeing Osterman leave the ditch had followed his example All the Leaguers were now out of the ditch and a little way down the road Hooven Osterman Annixter and Harran in front Dabney Phelps and Cutter coming up from behind
Keep back you cried the deputy again
In the group around S Behrmans buggy Gethings and Delaney were yet quarrelling and the angry debate between Magnus Garnett and the marshal still continued
Till this moment the real estate broker Christian had taken no part in the argument but had kept himself in the rear of the buggy Now however he pushed forward There was but little room for him to pass and as he rode by the buggy his horse scraped his flank against the hub of the wheel The animal recoiled sharply and striking against Garnett threw him to the ground Delaneys horse stood between the buggy and the Leaguers gathered on the road in front of the ditch the incident indistinctly seen by them was misinterpreted
Garnett had not yet risen when Hooven raised a great shout
HOCH DER KAISER HOCH DER VATERLAND
With the words he dropped to one knee and sighting his rifle carefully fired into the group of men around the buggy
Instantly the revolvers and rifles seemed to go off of themselves Both sides deputies and Leaguers opened fire simultaneously At first it was nothing but a confused roar of explosions then the roar lapsed to an irregular quick succession of reports shot leaping after shot then a moments silence and last of all regular as clockticks three shots at exact intervals Then stillness
Delaney shot through the stomach slid down from his horse and on his hands and knees crawled from the road into the standing wheat Christian fell backward from the saddle toward the buggy and hung suspended in that position his head and shoulders on the wheel one stiff leg still across his saddle Hooven in attempting to rise from his kneeling position received a rifle ball squarely in the throat and rolled forward upon his face Old Broderson crying out Oh theyve shot me boys staggered sideways his head bent his hands rigid at his sides and fell into the ditch Osterman blood running from his mouth and nose turned about and walked back Presley helped him across the irrigating ditch and Osterman laid himself down his head on his folded arms Harran Derrick dropped where he stood turning over on his face and lay motionless groaning terribly a pool of blood forming under his stomach The old man Dabney silent as ever received his death speechless He fell to his knees got up again fell once more and died without a word Annixter instantly killed fell his length to the ground and lay without movement just as he had fallen one arm across his face
CHAPTER VII
On their way to Derricks ranch house Hilma and Mrs Derrick heard the sounds of distant firing
Stop cried Hilma laying her hand upon young Vaccas arm Stop the horses Listen what was that
The carryall came to a halt and from far away across the rustling wheat came the faint rattle of rifles and revolvers
Say cried Vacca rolling his eyes oh say theyre fighting over there
Mrs Derrick put her hands over her face
Fighting she cried oh oh its terrible Magnus is there—and Harran
Where do you think it is demanded Hilma Thats over toward Hoovens
Im going Turn back Drive to Hoovens quick
Better not Mrs Annixter protested the young man Mr Annixter said we were to go to Derricks Better keep away from Hoovens if theres trouble there We wouldnt get there till its all over anyhow
Yes yes lets go home cried Mrs Derrick Im afraid Oh Hilma Im afraid
Come with me to Hoovens then
There where they are fighting Oh I couldnt I—I cant It would be all over before we got there as Vacca says
Sure repeated young Vacca
Drive to Hoovens commanded Hilma If you wont Ill walk there She threw off the laprobes preparing to descend And you she exclaimed turning to Mrs Derrick how CAN you—when Harran and your husband may be—may—are in danger
Grumbling Vacca turned the carryall about and drove across the open fields till he reached the road to Guadalajara just below the Mission
Hurry cried Hilma
The horses started forward under the touch of the whip The ranch houses of Quien Sabe came in sight
Do you want to stop at the house inquired Vacca over his shoulder
No no oh go faster—make the horses run
They dashed through the houses of the Home ranch
Oh oh cried Hilma suddenly look look there Look what they have done
Vacca pulled the horses up for the road in front of Annixters house was blocked
A vast confused heap of household effects was there—chairs sofas pictures fixtures lamps Hilmas little home had been gutted everything had been taken from it and ruthlessly flung out upon the road everything that she and her husband had bought during that wonderful week after their marriage Here was the white enamelled set of the bedroom furniture the three chairs washstand and bureau—the bureau drawers falling out spilling their contents into the dust there were the white wool rugs of the sittingroom the flower stand with its pots all broken its flowers wilting the cracked goldfish globe the fishes already dead the rocking chair the sewing machine the great round table of yellow oak the lamp with its deep shade of crinkly red tissue paper the pretty tinted photographs that had hung on the wall—the choir boys with beautiful eyes the pensive young girls in pink gowns—the pieces of wood carving that represented quails and ducks and last of all its curtains of crisp clean muslin cruelly torn and crushed—the bed the wonderful canopied bed so brave and gay of which Hilma had been so proud thrust out there into the common road torn from its place from the discreet intimacy of her bridal chamber violated profaned flung out into the dust and garish sunshine for all men to stare at a mockery and a shame
To Hilma it was as though something of herself of her person had been thus exposed and degraded all that she held sacred pilloried gibbeted and exhibited to the worlds derision Tears of anguish sprang to her eyes a red flame of outraged modesty overspread her face
Oh she cried a sob catching her throat oh how could they do it But other fears intruded other greater terrors impended
Go on she cried to Vacca go on quickly
But Vacca would go no further He had seen what had escaped Hilmas attention two men deputies no doubt on the porch of the ranch house They held possession there and the evidence of the presence of the enemy in this raid upon Quien Sabe had daunted him
No SIR he declared getting out of the carryall I aint going to take you anywhere where youre liable to get hurt Besides the roads blocked by all this stuff You cant get the team by
Hilma sprang from the carryall
Come she said to Mrs Derrick
The older woman trembling hesitating faint with dread obeyed and Hilma picking her way through and around the wreck of her home set off by the trail towards the Long Trestle and Hoovens
When she arrived she found the road in front of the Germans house and indeed all the surrounding yard crowded with people An overturned buggy lay on the side of the road in the distance its horses in a tangle of harness held by two or three men She saw Carahers buckboard under the live oak and near it a second buggy which she recognised as belonging to a doctor in Guadalajara
Oh what has happened oh what has happened moaned Mrs Derrick
Come repeated Hilma The young girl took her by the hand and together they pushed their way through the crowd of men and women and entered the yard
The throng gave way before the two women parting to right and left without a word
Presley cried Mrs Derrick as she caught sight of him in the doorway of the house oh Presley what has happened Is Harran safe Is Magnus safe Where are they
Dont go in Mrs Derrick said Presley coming forward dont go in
Where is my husband demanded Hilma
Presley turned away and steadied himself against the jamb of the door
Hilma leaving Mrs Derrick entered the house The front room was full of men She was dimly conscious of Cyrus Ruggles and S Behrman both deadly pale talking earnestly and in whispers to Cutter and Phelps There was a strange acrid odour of an unfamiliar drug in the air On the table before her was a satchel surgical instruments rolls of bandages and a blue oblong paper box full of cotton But above the hushed noises of voices and footsteps one terrible sound made itself heard—the prolonged rasping sound of breathing half choked laboured agonised
Where is my husband she cried She pushed the men aside She saw Magnus bareheaded three or four men lying on the floor one half naked his body swathed in white bandages the doctor in shirt sleeves on one knee beside a figure of a man stretched out beside him
Garnett turned a white face to her
Where is my husband
The other did not reply but stepped aside and Hilma saw the dead body of her husband lying upon the bed She did not cry out She said no word She went to the bed and sitting upon it took Annixters head in her lap holding it gently between her hands Thereafter she did not move but sat holding her dead husbands head in her lap looking vaguely about from face to face of those in the room while without a sob without a cry the great tears filled her wideopened eyes and rolled slowly down upon her cheeks
On hearing that his wife was outside Magnus came quickly forward She threw herself into his arms
Tell me tell me she cried is Harran—is——
We dont know yet he answered Oh Annie——
Then suddenly the Governor checked himself He the indomitable could not break down now
The doctor is with him he said we are doing all we can Try and be brave Annie There is always hope This is a terrible days work God forgive us all
She pressed forward but he held her back
No dont see him now Go into the next room Garnett take care of her
But she would not be denied She pushed by Magnus and breaking through the group that surrounded her son sank on her knees beside him moaning in compassion and terror
Harran lay straight and rigid upon the floor his head propped by a pillow his coat that had been taken off spread over his chest One leg of his trousers was soaked through and through with blood His eyes were halfclosed and with the regularity of a machine the eyeballs twitched and twitched His face was so white that it made his yellow hair look brown while from his opened mouth there issued that loud and terrible sound of guttering rasping laboured breathing that gagged and choked and gurgled with every inhalation
Oh Harrie Harrie called Mrs Derrick catching at one of his hands
The doctor shook his head
He is unconscious Mrs Derrick
Where was he—where is—the—the——
Through the lungs
Will he get well Tell me the truth
I dont know Mrs Derrick
She had all but fainted and the old rancher Garnett halfcarrying halfleading her took her to the one adjoining room—Minna Hoovens bedchamber Dazed numb with fear she sat down on the edge of the bed rocking herself back and forth murmuring
Harrie Harrie oh my son my little boy
In the outside room Presley came and went doing what he could to be of service sick with horror trembling from head to foot
The surviving members of both Leaguers and deputies—the warring factions of the Railroad and the People—mingled together now with no thought of hostility Presley helped the doctor to cover Christians body S Behrman and Ruggles held bowls of water while Osterman was attended to The horror of that dreadful business had driven all other considerations from the mind The sworn foes of the last hour had no thought of anything but to care for those whom in their fury they had shot down The marshal abandoning for that day the attempt to serve the writs departed for San Francisco
The bodies had been brought in from the road where they fell Annixters corpse had been laid upon the bed those of Dabney and Hooven whose wounds had all been in the face and head were covered with a tablecloth Upon the floor places were made for the others Cutter and Ruggles rode into Guadalajara to bring out the doctor there and to telephone to Bonneville for others
Osterman had not at any time since the shooting lost consciousness He lay upon the floor of Hoovens house bare to the waist bandages of adhesive tape reeved about his abdomen and shoulder His eyes were halfclosed Presley who looked after him pending the arrival of a hack from Bonneville that was to take him home knew that he was in agony
But this poser this silly fellow this cracker of jokes whom no one had ever taken very seriously at the last redeemed himself When at length the doctor had arrived he had for the first time opened his eyes
I can wait he said Take Harran first And when at length his turn had come and while the sweat rolled from his forehead as the doctor began probing for the bullet he had reached out his free arm and taken Presleys hand in his gripping it harder and harder as the probe entered the wound His breath came short through his nostrils his face the face of a comic actor with its high cheek bones bald forehead and salient ears grew paler and paler his great slit of a mouth shut tight but he uttered no groan
When the worst anguish was over and he could find breath to speak his first words had been
Were any of the others badly hurt
As Presley stood by the door of the house after bringing in a pail of water for the doctor he was aware of a party of men who had struck off from the road on the other side of the irrigating ditch and were advancing cautiously into the field of wheat He wondered what it meant and Cutter coming up at that moment Presley asked him if he knew
Its Delaney said Cutter It seems that when he was shot he crawled off into the wheat They are looking for him there
Presley had forgotten all about the buster and had only a vague recollection of seeing him slide from his horse at the beginning of the fight Anxious to know what had become of him he hurried up and joined the party of searchers
We better look out said one of the young men how we go fooling around in here If hes alive yet hes just as liable as not to think were after him and take a shot at us
I guess there aint much fight left in him another answered Look at the wheat here
Lord Hes bled like a stuck pig
Heres his hat abruptly exclaimed the leader of the party He cant be far off Lets call him
They called repeatedly without getting any answer then proceeded cautiously All at once the men in advance stopped so suddenly that those following carromed against them There was an outburst of exclamation
Here he is
Good Lord Sure thats him
Poor fellow poor fellow
The cowpuncher lay on his back deep in the wheat his knees drawn up his eyes wide open his lips brown Rigidly gripped in one hand was his empty revolver
The men farm hands from the neighbouring ranches young fellows from Guadalajara drew back in instinctive repulsion One at length ventured near peering down into the face
Is he dead inquired those in the rear
I dont know
Well put your hand on his heart No I—I dont want to
What you afraid of
Well I just dont want to touch him thats all Its bad luck YOU feel his heart
You cant always tell by that
How can you tell then Pshaw you fellows make me sick Here let me get there Ill do it
There was a long pause as the other bent down and laid his hand on the cowpunchers breast
Well
I cant tell Sometimes I think I feel it beat and sometimes I dont I never saw a dead man before
Well you cant tell by the heart
Whats the good of talking so blame much Dead or not lets carry him back to the house
Two or three ran back to the road for planks from the broken bridge When they returned with these a litter was improvised and throwing their coats over the body the party carried it back to the road The doctor was summoned and declared the cowpuncher to have been dead over half an hour
What did I tell you exclaimed one of the group
Well I never said he wasnt dead protested the other I only said you couldnt always tell by whether his heart beat or not
But all at once there was a commotion The wagon containing Mrs Hooven Minna and little Hilda drove up
Eh den my men cried Mrs Hooven wildly interrogating the faces of the crowd Whadt has happun Sey den dose vellers hev dey hurdt my men eh whadt
She sprang from the wagon followed by Minna with Hilda in her arms The crowd bore back as they advanced staring at them in silence
Eh whadt has happun whadt has happun wailed Mrs Hooven as she hurried on her two hands out before her the fingers spread wide Eh Hooven eh my men are you alle righdt
She burst into the house Hoovens body had been removed to an adjoining room the bedroom of the house and to this room Mrs Hooven—Minna still at her heels—proceeded guided by an instinct born of the occasion Those in the outside room saying no word made way for them They entered closing the door behind them and through all the rest of that terrible day no sound nor sight of them was had by those who crowded into and about that house of death Of all the main actors of the tragedy of the fight in the ditch they remained the least noted obtruded themselves the least upon the worlds observation They were for the moment forgotten
But by now Hoovens house was the centre of an enormous crowd A vast concourse of people from Bonneville from Guadalajara from the ranches swelled by the thousands who had that morning participated in the rabbit drive surged about the place men and women young boys young girls farm hands villagers townspeople ranchers railroad employees Mexicans Spaniards Portuguese Presley returning from the search for Delaneys body had to fight his way to the house again
And from all this multitude there rose an indefinable murmur As yet there was no menace in it no anger It was confusion merely bewilderment the first longdrawn oh that greets the news of some great tragedy The people had taken no thought as yet Curiosity was their dominant impulse Every one wanted to see what had been done failing that to hear of it and failing that to be near the scene of the affair The crowd of people packed the road in front of the house for nearly a quarter of a mile in either direction They balanced themselves upon the lower strands of the barbed wire fence in their effort to see over each others shoulders they stood on the seats of their carts buggies and farm wagons a few even upon the saddles of their riding horses They crowded pushed struggled surged forward and back without knowing why converging incessantly upon Hoovens house
When at length Presley got to the gate he found a carryall drawn up before it Between the gate and the door of the house a lane had been formed and as he paused there a moment a group of Leaguers among whom were Garnett and Gethings came slowly from the door carrying old Broderson in their arms The doctor bareheaded and in his shirt sleeves squinting in the sunlight attended them repeating at every step
Slow slow take it easy gentlemen
Old Broderson was unconscious His face was not pale no bandages could be seen With infinite precautions the men bore him to the carryall and deposited him on the back seat the rain flaps were let down on one side to shut off the gaze of the multitude
But at this point a moment of confusion ensued Presley because of half a dozen people who stood in his way could not see what was going on There were exclamations hurried movements The doctor uttered a sharp command and a man ran back to the house returning on the instant with the doctors satchel By this time Presley was close to the wheels of the carryall and could see the doctor inside the vehicle bending over old Broderson
Here it is here it is exclaimed the man who had been sent to the house
I wont need it answered the doctor hes dying now
At the words a great hush widened throughout the throng near at hand Some men took off their hats
Stand back protested the doctor quietly stand back good people please
The crowd bore back a little In the silence a woman began to sob The seconds passed then a minute The horses of the carryall shifted their feet and whisked their tails driving off the flies At length the doctor got down from the carryall letting down the rainflaps on that side as well
Will somebody go home with the body he asked Gethings stepped forward and took his place by the driver The carryall drove away
Presley reentered the house During his absence it had been cleared of all but one or two of the Leaguers who had taken part in the fight Hilma still sat on the bed with Annixters head in her lap S Behrman Ruggles and all the railroad party had gone Osterman had been taken away in a hack and the tablecloth over Dabneys body replaced with a sheet But still unabated agonised raucous came the sounds of Harrans breathing Everything possible had already been done For the moment it was out of the question to attempt to move him His mother and father were at his side Magnus with a face of stone his look fixed on those persistently twitching eyes Annie Derrick crouching at her sons side one of his hands in hers fanning his face continually with the crumpled sheet of an old newspaper
Presley on tiptoes joined the group looking on attentively One of the surgeons who had been called from Bonneville stood close by watching Harrans face his arms folded
How is he Presley whispered
He wont live the other responded
By degrees the choke and gurgle of the breathing became more irregular and the lids closed over the twitching eyes All at once the breath ceased Magnus shot an inquiring glance at the surgeon
He is dead Mr Derrick the surgeon replied
Annie Derrick with a cry that rang through all the house stretched herself over the body of her son her head upon his breast and the Governors great shoulders bowed never to rise again
God help me and forgive me he groaned
Presley rushed from the house beside himself with grief with horror with pity and with mad insensate rage On the porch outside Caraher met him
Is he—is he— began the saloonkeeper
Yes hes dead cried Presley Theyre all dead murdered shot down dead dead all of them Whose turn is next
Thats the way they killed my wife Presley
Caraher cried Presley give me your hand Ive been wrong all the time The League is wrong All the world is wrong You are the only one of us all who is right Im with you from now on BY GOD I TOO IM A RED
In course of time a farm wagon from Bonneville arrived at Hoovens The bodies of Annixter and Harran were placed in it and it drove down the Lower Road towards the Los Muertos ranch houses
The bodies of Delaney and Christian had already been carried to Guadalajara and thence taken by train to Bonneville
Hilma followed the farm wagon in the Derricks carryall with Magnus and his wife During all that ride none of them spoke a word It had been arranged that since Quien Sabe was in the hands of the Railroad Hilma should come to Los Muertos To that place also Annixters body was carried
Later on in the day when it was almost evening the undertakers black wagon passed the Derricks Home ranch on its way from Hoovens and turned into the county road towards Bonneville The initial excitement of the affair of the irrigating ditch had died down the crowd long since had dispersed By the time the wagon passed Carahers saloon the sun had set Night was coming on
And the black wagon went on through the darkness unattended ignored solitary carrying the dead body of Dabney the silent old man of whom nothing was known but his name who made no friends whom nobody knew or spoke to who had come from no one knew whence and who went no one knew whither
Towards midnight of that same day Mrs Dyke was awakened by the sounds of groaning in the room next to hers Magnus Derrick was not so occupied by Harrans death that he could not think of others who were in distress and when he had heard that Mrs Dyke and Sidney like Hilma had been turned out of Quien Sabe he had thrown open Los Muertos to them
Though he warned them it is precarious hospitality at the best
Until late Mrs Dyke had sat up with Hilma comforting her as best she could rocking her to and fro in her arms crying with her trying to quiet her for once having given way to her grief Hilma wept with a terrible anguish and a violence that racked her from head to foot and at last worn out a little child again had sobbed herself to sleep in the older womans arms and as a little child Mrs Dyke had put her to bed and had retired herself
Aroused a few hours later by the sounds of a distress that was physical as well as mental Mrs Dyke hurried into Hilmas room carrying the lamp with her Mrs Dyke needed no enlightenment She woke Presley and besought him to telephone to Bonneville at once summoning a doctor That night Hilma in great pain suffered a miscarriage
Presley did not close his eyes once during the night he did not even remove his clothes Long after the doctor had departed and that house of tragedy had quieted down he still remained in his place by the open window of his little room looking off across the leagues of growing wheat watching the slow kindling of the dawn Horror weighed intolerably upon him Monstrous things huge terrible whose names he knew only too well whirled at a gallop through his imagination or rose spectral and grisly before the eyes of his mind Harran dead Annixter dead Broderson dead Osterman perhaps even at that moment dying Why these men had made up his world Annixter had been his best friend Harran his almost daily companion Broderson and Osterman were familiar to him as brothers They were all his associates his good friends the group was his environment belonging to his daily life And he standing there in the dust of the road by the irrigating ditch had seen them shot He found himself suddenly at his table the candle burning at his elbow his journal before him writing swiftly the desire for expression the craving for outlet to the thoughts that clamoured tumultuous at his brain never more insistent more imperious Thus he wrote
Dabney dead Hooven dead Harran dead Annixter dead Broderson dead Osterman dying S Behrman alive successful the Railroad in possession of Quien Sabe I saw them shot Not twelve hours since I stood there at the irrigating ditch Ah that terrible moment of horror and confusion powder smoke—flashing pistol barrels—blood stains—rearing horses—men staggering to their death—Christian in a horrible posture one rigid leg high in the air across his saddle—Broderson falling sideways into the ditch—Osterman laying himself down his head on his arms as if tired tired out These things I have seen them The picture of this days work is from henceforth part of my mind part of ME They have done it S Behrman and the owners of the railroad have done it while all the world looked on while the people of these United States looked on Oh come now and try your theories upon us us of the ranchos us who have suffered us who KNOW Oh talk to US now of the rights of Capital talk to US of the Trust talk to US of the equilibrium between the classes Try your ingenious ideas upon us WE KNOW I cannot tell whether or not your theories are excellent I do not know if your ideas are plausible I do not know how practical is your scheme of society I do not know if the Railroad has a right to our lands but I DO know that Harran is dead that Annixter is dead that Broderson is dead that Hooven is dead that Osterman is dying and that S Behrman is alive successful triumphant that he has ridden into possession of a principality over the dead bodies of five men shot down by his hired associates
I can see the outcome The Railroad will prevail The Trust will overpower us Here in this corner of a great nation here on the edge of the continent here in this valley of the West far from the great centres isolated remote lost the great iron hand crushes life from us crushes liberty and the pursuit of happiness from us and our little struggles our moments convulsion of death agony causes not one jar in the vast clashing machinery of the nations life a fleck of grit in the wheels perhaps a grain of sand in the cogs—the momentary creak of the axle is the mothers wail of bereavement the wifes cry of anguish—and the great wheel turns spinning smooth again even again and the tiny impediment of a second scarce noticed is forgotten Make the people believe that the faint tremour in their great engine is a menace to its function What a folly to think of it Tell them of the danger and they will laugh at you Tell them five years from now the story of the fight between the League of the San Joaquin and the Railroad and it will not be believed What a pitched battle between Farmer and Railroad a battle that cost the lives of seven men Impossible it could not have happened Your story is fiction—is exaggerated
Yet it is Lexington—God help us God enlighten us God rouse us from our lethargy—it is Lexington farmers with guns in their hands fighting for Liberty Is our State of California the only one that has its ancient and hereditary foe Are there no other Trusts between the oceans than this of the Pacific and Southwestern Railroad Ask yourselves you of the Middle West ask yourselves you of the North ask yourselves you of the East ask yourselves you of the South—ask yourselves every citizen of every State from Maine to Mexico from the Dakotas to the Carolinas have you not the monster in your boundaries If it is not a Trust of transportation it is only another head of the same Hydra Is not our death struggle typical Is it not one of many is it not symbolical of the great and terrible conflict that is going on everywhere in these United States Ah you people blind bound tricked betrayed can you not see it Can you not see how the monsters have plundered your treasures and holding them in the grip of their iron claws dole them out to you only at the price of your blood at the price of the lives of your wives and your little children You give your babies to Moloch for the loaf of bread you have kneaded yourselves You offer your starved wives to Juggernaut for the iron nail you have yourselves compounded
He spent the night over his journal writing down such thoughts as these or walking the floor from wall to wall or seized at times with unreasoning horror and blind rage flinging himself face downward upon his bed vowing with inarticulate cries that neither S Behrman nor Shelgrim should ever live to consummate their triumph
Morning came and with it the daily papers and news Presley did not even glance at the Mercury Bonneville published two other daily journals that professed to voice the will and reflect the temper of the people and these he read eagerly
Osterman was yet alive and there were chances of his recovery The League—some three hundred of its members had gathered at Bonneville over night and were patrolling the streets and still resolved to keep the peace were even guarding the railroad shops and buildings Furthermore the Leaguers had issued manifestoes urging all citizens to preserve law and order yet summoning an indignation meeting to be convened that afternoon at the City Opera House
It appeared from the newspapers that those who obstructed the marshal in the discharge of his duty could be proceeded against by the District Attorney on information or by bringing the matter before the Grand Jury But the Grand Jury was not at that time in session and it was known that there were no funds in the marshals office to pay expenses for the summoning of jurors or the serving of processes S Behrman and Ruggles in interviews stated that the Railroad withdrew entirely from the fight the matter now according to them was between the Leaguers and the United States Government they washed their hands of the whole business The ranchers could settle with Washington But it seemed that Congress had recently forbade the use of troops for civil purposes the whole matter of the LeagueRailroad contest was evidently for the moment to be left in status quo
But to Presleys mind the most important piece of news that morning was the report of the action of the Railroad upon hearing of the battle
Instantly Bonneville had been isolated Not a single local train was running not one of the through trains made any halt at the station The mails were not moved Further than this by some arrangement difficult to understand the telegraph operators at Bonneville and Guadalajara acting under orders refused to receive any telegrams except those emanating from railway officials The story of the fight the story creating the first impression was to be told to San Francisco and the outside world by S Behrman Ruggles and the local P and S W agents
An hour before breakfast the undertakers arrived and took charge of the bodies of Harran and Annixter Presley saw neither Hilma Magnus nor Mrs Derrick The doctor came to look after Hilma He breakfasted with Mrs Dyke and Presley and from him Presley learned that Hilma would recover both from the shock of her husbands death and from her miscarriage of the previous night
She ought to have her mother with her said the physician She does nothing but call for her or beg to be allowed to go to her I have tried to get a wire through to Mrs Tree but the company will not take it and even if I could get word to her how could she get down here There are no trains
But Presley found that it was impossible for him to stay at Los Muertos that day Gloom and the shadow of tragedy brooded heavy over the place A great silence pervaded everything a silence broken only by the subdued coming and going of the undertaker and his assistants When Presley having resolved to go into Bonneville came out through the doorway of the house he found the undertaker tying a long strip of crape to the bellhandle
Presley saddled his pony and rode into town By this time after long hours of continued reflection upon one subject a sombre brooding malevolence a deepseated desire of revenge had grown big within his mind The first numbness had passed off familiarity with what had been done had blunted the edge of horror and now the impulse of retaliation prevailed At first the sullen anger of defeat the sense of outrage had only smouldered but the more he brooded the fiercer flamed his rage Sudden paroxysms of wrath gripped him by the throat abrupt outbursts of fury injected his eyes with blood He ground his teeth his mouth filled with curses his hands clenched till they grew white and bloodless Was the Railroad to triumph then in the end After all those months of preparation after all those grandiloquent resolutions after all the arrogant presumption of the League The League what a farce what had it amounted to when the crisis came Was the Trust to crush them all so easily Was S Behrman to swallow Los Muertos S Behrman Presley saw him plainly huge rotund white saw his jowl tremulous and obese the roll of fat over his collar sprinkled with sparse hairs the great stomach with its brown linen vest and heavy watch chain of hollow links clinking against the buttons of imitation pearl And this man was to crush Magnus Derrick—had already stamped the life from such men as Harran and Annixter This man in the name of the Trust was to grab Los Muertos as he had grabbed Quien Sabe and after Los Muertos Brodersons ranch then Ostermans then others and still others the whole valley the whole State
Presley beat his forehead with his clenched fist as he rode on
No he cried no kill him kill him kill him with my hands
The idea of it put him beside himself Oh to sink his fingers deep into the white fat throat of the man to clutch like iron into the great puffed jowl of him to wrench out the life to batter it out strangle it out to pay him back for the long years of extortion and oppression to square accounts for bribed jurors bought judges corrupted legislatures to have justice for the trick of the Ranchers Railroad Commission the charlatanism of the ten per cent cut the ruin of Dyke the seizure of Quien Sabe the murder of Harran the assassination of Annixter
It was in such mood that he reached Carahers The saloonkeeper had just opened his place and was standing in his doorway smoking his pipe Presley dismounted and went in and the two had a long talk
When three hours later Presley came out of the saloon and rode on towards Bonneville his face was very pale his lips shut tight resolute determined His manner was that of a man whose mind is made up The hour for the mass meeting at the Opera House had been set for one oclock but long before noon the street in front of the building and in fact all the streets in its vicinity were packed from side to side with a shifting struggling surging and excited multitude There were few women in the throng but hardly a single male inhabitant of either Bonneville or Guadalajara was absent Men had even come from Visalia and Pixley It was no longer the crowd of curiosity seekers that had thronged around Hoovens place by the irrigating ditch the People were no longer confused bewildered A full realisation of just what had been done the day before was clear now in the minds of all Business was suspended nearly all the stores were closed Since early morning the members of the League had put in an appearance and rode from point to point their rifles across their saddle pommels Then by ten oclock the streets had begun to fill up the groups on the corners grew and merged into one another pedestrians unable to find room on the sidewalks took to the streets Hourly the crowd increased till shoulders touched and elbows till free circulation became impeded then congested then impossible The crowd a solid mass was wedged tight from store front to store front And from all this throng this single unit this living breathing organism—the People—there rose a droning terrible note It was not yet the wild fierce clamour of riot and insurrection shrill high pitched but it was a beginning the growl of the awakened brute feeling the iron in its flank heaving up its head with bared teeth the throat vibrating to the long indrawn snarl of wrath
Thus the forenoon passed while the people their bulk growing hourly vaster kept to the streets moving slowly backward and forward oscillating in the grooves of the thoroughfares the steady lowpitched growl rising continually into the hot still air
Then at length about twelve oclock the movement of the throng assumed definite direction It set towards the Opera House Presley who had left his pony at the City livery stable found himself caught in the current and carried slowly forward in its direction His arms were pinioned to his sides by the press the crush against his body was all but ribcracking he could hardly draw his breath All around him rose and fell wave after wave of faces hundreds upon hundreds thousands upon thousands red lowering sullen All were set in one direction and slowly slowly they advanced crowding closer till they almost touched one another For reasons that were inexplicable great tumultuous heavings like groundswells of an incoming tide surged over and through the multitude At times Presley lifted from his feet was swept back back back with the crowd till the entrance of the Opera House was half a block away then the returning billow beat back again and swung him along gasping staggering clutching till he was landed once more in the vortex of frantic action in front of the foyer Here the waves were shorter quicker the crushing pressure on all sides of his body left him without strength to utter the cry that rose to his lips then suddenly the whole mass of struggling stamping fighting writhing men about him seemed as it were to rise to lift multitudinous swelling gigantic A mighty rush dashed Presley forward in its leap There was a moments whirl of confused sights congested faces opened mouths bloodshot eyes clutching hands a moments outburst of furious sound shouts cheers oaths a moments jam wherein Presley veritably believed his ribs must snap like pipestems and he was carried dazed breathless helpless an atom on the crest of a stormdriven wave up the steps of the Opera House on into the vestibule through the doors and at last into the auditorium of the house itself
There was a mad rush for places men disdaining the aisle stepped from one orchestra chair to another striding over the backs of seats leaving the print of dusty feet upon the red plush cushions In a twinkling the house was filled from stage to topmost gallery The aisles were packed solid even on the edge of the stage itself men were sitting a black fringe on either side of the footlights
The curtain was up disclosing a halfset scene—the flats leaning at perilous angles—that represented some sort of terrace the pavement alternate squares of black and white marble while red white and yellow flowers were represented as growing from urns and vases A long double row of chairs stretched across the scene from wing to wing flanking a table covered with a red cloth on which was set a pitcher of water and a speakers gavel
Promptly these chairs were filled up with members of the League the audience cheering as certain wellknown figures made their appearance—Garnett of the Ruby ranch Gethings of the San Pablo Keast of the ranch of the same name Chattern of the Bonanza elderly men bearded slow of speech deliberate
Garnett opened the meeting his speech was plain straightforward matteroffact He simply told what had happened He announced that certain resolutions were to be drawn up He introduced the next speaker
This one pleaded for moderation He was conservative All along he had opposed the idea of armed resistance except as the very last resort He deplored the terrible affair of yesterday He begged the people to wait in patience to attempt no more violence He informed them that armed guards of the League were at that moment patrolling Los Muertos Brodersons and Ostermans It was well known that the United States marshal confessed himself powerless to serve the writs There would be no more bloodshed
We have had he continued bloodshed enough and I want to say right here that I am not so sure but what yesterdays terrible affair might have been avoided A gentleman whom we all esteem who from the first has been our recognised leader is at this moment mourning the loss of a young son killed before his eyes God knows that I sympathise as do we all in the affliction of our President I am sorry for him My heart goes out to him in this hour of distress but at the same time the position of the League must be defined We owe it to ourselves we owe it to the people of this county The League armed for the very purpose of preserving the peace not of breaking it We believed that with six hundred armed and drilled men at our disposal ready to muster at a moments call we could so overawe any attempt to expel us from our lands that such an attempt would not be made until the cases pending before the Supreme Court had been decided If when the enemy appeared in our midst yesterday they had been met by six hundred rifles it is not conceivable that the issue would have been forced No fight would have ensued and today we would not have to mourn the deaths of four of our fellowcitizens A mistake has been made and we of the League must not be held responsible
The speaker sat down amidst loud applause from the Leaguers and less pronounced demonstrations on the part of the audience
A second Leaguer took his place a tall clumsy man halfrancher halfpolitician
I want to second what my colleague has just said he began This matter of resisting the marshal when he tried to put the Railroad dummies in possession on the ranches around here was all talked over in the committee meetings of the League long ago It never was our intention to fire a single shot No such absolute authority as was assumed yesterday was delegated to anybody Our esteemed President is all right but we all know that he is a man who loves authority and who likes to go his own gait without accounting to anybody We—the rest of us Leaguers—never were informed as to what was going on We supposed of course that watch was being kept on the Railroad so as we wouldnt be taken by surprise as we were yesterday And it seems no watch was kept at all or if there was it was mighty ineffective Our idea was to forestall any movement on the part of the Railroad and then when we knew the marshal was coming down to call a meeting of our Executive Committee and decide as to what should be done We ought to have had time to call out the whole League Instead of that what happens While were all off chasing rabbits the Railroad is allowed to steal a march on us and when it is too late a handful of Leaguers is got together and a fight is precipitated and our men killed IM sorry for our President too No one is more so but I want to put myself on record as believing he did a hasty and inconsiderate thing If he had managed right he could have had six hundred men to oppose the Railroad and there would not have been any gun fight or any killing He DIDNT manage right and there WAS a killing and I dont see as how the League ought to be held responsible The idea of the League the whole reason why it was organised was to protect ALL the ranches of this valley from the Railroad and it looks to me as if the lives of our fellowcitizens had been sacrificed not in defending ALL of our ranches but just in defence of one of them—Los Muertos—the one that Mr Derrick owns
The speaker had no more than regained his seat when a man was seen pushing his way from the back of the stage towards Garnett He handed the rancher a note at the same time whispering in his ear Garnett read the note then came forward to the edge of the stage holding up his hand When the audience had fallen silent he said
I have just received sad news Our friend and fellowcitizen Mr Osterman died this morning between eleven and twelve oclock
Instantly there was a roar Every man in the building rose to his feet shouting gesticulating The roar increased the Opera House trembled to it the gas jets in the lighted chandeliers vibrated to it It was a raucous howl of execration a bellow of rage inarticulate deafening
A tornado of confusion swept whirling from wall to wall and the madness of the moment seized irresistibly upon Presley He forgot himself he no longer was master of his emotions or his impulses All at once he found himself upon the stage facing the audience flaming with excitement his imagination on fire his arms uplifted in fierce wild gestures words leaping to his mind in a torrent that could not be withheld
One more dead he cried one more Harran dead Annixter dead Broderson dead Dabney dead Osterman dead Hooven dead shot down killed killed in the defence of their homes killed in the defence of their rights killed for the sake of liberty How long must it go on How long must we suffer Where is the end what is the end How long must the ironhearted monster feed on our lifes blood How long must this terror of steam and steel ride upon our necks Will you never be satisfied will you never relent you our masters you our lords you our kings you our taskmasters you our Pharoahs Will you never listen to that command LET MY PEOPLE GO Oh that cry ringing down the ages Hear it hear it It is the voice of the Lord God speaking in his prophets Hear it hear it—Let My people go Rameses heard it in his pylons at Thebes Caesar heard it on the Palatine the Bourbon Louis heard it at Versailles Charles Stuart heard it at Whitehall the white Czar heard it in the Kremlin—LET MY PEOPLE GO It is the cry of the nations the great voice of the centuries everywhere it is raised The voice of God is the voice of the People The people cry out Let us the People Gods people go You our masters you our kings you our tyrants dont you hear us Dont you hear God speaking in us Will you never let us go How long at length will you abuse our patience How long will you drive us How long will you harass us Will nothing daunt you Does nothing check you Do you not know that to ignore our cry too long is to wake the Red Terror Rameses refused to listen to it and perished miserably Caesar refused to listen and was stabbed in the Senate House The Bourbon Louis refused to listen and died on the guillotine Charles Stuart refused to listen and died on the block the white Czar refused to listen and was blown up in his own capital Will you let it come to that Will you drive us to it We who boast of our land of freedom we who live in the country of liberty Go on as you have begun and it WILL come to that Turn a deaf ear to that cry of Let My people go too long and another cry will be raised that you cannot choose but hear a cry that you cannot shut out It will be the cry of the man on the street the a la Bastille that wakes the Red Terror and unleashes Revolution Harassed plundered exasperated desperate the people will turn at last as they have turned so many many times before You our lords you our taskmasters you our kings you have caught your Samson you have made his strength your own You have shorn his head you have put out his eyes you have set him to turn your millstones to grind the grist for your mills you have made him a shame and a mock Take care oh as you love your lives take care lest some day calling upon the Lord his God he reach not out his arms for the pillars of your temples
The audience at first bewildered confused by this unexpected invective suddenly took fire at his last words There was a roar of applause then more significant than mere vociferation Presleys listeners as he began to speak again grew suddenly silent His next sentences were uttered in the midst of a profound stillness
They own us these taskmasters of ours they own our homes they own our legislatures We cannot escape from them There is no redress We are told we can defeat them by the ballotbox They own the ballotbox We are told that we must look to the courts for redress they own the courts We know them for what they are—ruffians in politics ruffians in finance ruffians in law ruffians in trade bribers swindlers and tricksters No outrage too great to daunt them no petty larceny too small to shame them despoiling a government treasury of a million dollars yet picking the pockets of a farm hand of the price of a loaf of bread
They swindle a nation of a hundred million and call it Financiering they levy a blackmail and call it Commerce they corrupt a legislature and call it Politics they bribe a judge and call it Law they hire blacklegs to carry out their plans and call it Organisation they prostitute the honour of a State and call it Competition
And this is America We fought Lexington to free ourselves we fought Gettysburg to free others Yet the yoke remains we have only shifted it to the other shoulder We talk of liberty—oh the farce of it oh the folly of it We tell ourselves and teach our children that we have achieved liberty that we no longer need fight for it Why the fight is just beginning and so long as our conception of liberty remains as it is today it will continue
For we conceive of Liberty in the statues we raise to her as a beautiful woman crowned victorious in bright armour and white robes a light in her uplifted hand—a serene calm conquering goddess Oh the farce of it oh the folly of it Liberty is NOT a crowned goddess beautiful in spotless garments victorious supreme Liberty is the Man In the Street a terrible figure rushing through powder smoke fouled with the mud and ordure of the gutter bloody rampant brutal yelling curses in one hand a smoking rifle in the other a blazing torch
Freedom is NOT given free to any who ask Liberty is not born of the gods She is a child of the People born in the very height and heat of battle born from death stained with blood grimed with powder And she grows to be not a goddess but a Fury a fearful figure slaying friend and foe alike raging insatiable merciless the Red Terror
Presley ceased speaking Weak shaking scarcely knowing what he was about he descended from the stage A prolonged explosion of applause followed the Opera House roaring to the roof men cheering stamping waving their hats But it was not intelligent applause Instinctively as he made his way out Presley knew that after all he had not once held the hearts of his audience He had talked as he would have written for all his scorn of literature he had been literary The men who listened to him ranchers country people storekeepers attentive though they were were not once sympathetic Vaguely they had felt that here was something which other men—more educated—would possibly consider eloquent They applauded vociferously but perfunctorily in order to appear to understand
Presley for all his love of the people saw clearly for one moment that he was an outsider to their minds He had not helped them nor their cause in the least he never would
Disappointed bewildered ashamed he made his way slowly from the Opera House and stood on the steps outside thoughtful his head bent
He had failed thus he told himself In that moment of crisis that at the time he believed had been an inspiration he had failed The people would not consider him would not believe that he could do them service Then suddenly he seemed to remember The resolute set of his lips returned once more Pushing his way through the crowded streets he went on towards the stable where he had left his pony
Meanwhile in the Opera House a great commotion had occurred Magnus Derrick had appeared
Only a sense of enormous responsibility of gravest duty could have prevailed upon Magnus to have left his house and the dead body of his son that day But he was the President of the League and never since its organisation had a meeting of such importance as this one been held He had been in command at the irrigating ditch the day before It was he who had gathered the handful of Leaguers together It was he who must bear the responsibility of the fight
When he had entered the Opera House making his way down the central aisle towards the stage a loud disturbance had broken out partly applause partly a meaningless uproar Many had pressed forward to shake his hand but others were not found wanting who formerly his staunch supporters now scenting opposition in the air held back hesitating afraid to compromise themselves by adhering to the fortunes of a man whose actions might be discredited by the very organisation of which he was the head
Declining to take the chair of presiding officer which Garnett offered him the Governor withdrew to an angle of the stage where he was joined by Keast
This one still unalterably devoted to Magnus acquainted him briefly with the tenor of the speeches that had been made
I am ashamed of them Governor he protested indignantly to lose their nerve now To fail you now it makes my blood boil If you had succeeded yesterday if all had gone well do you think we would have heard of any talk of assumption of authority or acting without advice and consent As if there was any time to call a meeting of the Executive Committee If you hadnt acted as you did the whole county would have been grabbed by the Railroad Get up Governor and bring em all up standing Just tear em all to pieces show em that you are the head the boss Thats what they need That killing yesterday has shaken the nerve clean out of them
For the instant the Governor was taken all aback What his lieutenants were failing him What he was to be questioned interpolated upon yesterdays irrepressible conflict Had disaffection appeared in the ranks of the League—at this of all moments He put from him his terrible grief The cause was in danger At the instant he was the President of the League only the chief the master A royal anger surged within him a wide towering scorn of opposition He would crush this disaffection in its incipiency would vindicate himself and strengthen the cause at one and the same time He stepped forward and stood in the speakers place turning partly toward the audience partly toward the assembled Leaguers
Gentlemen of the League he began citizens of Bonneville
But at once the silence in which the Governor had begun to speak was broken by a shout It was as though his words had furnished a signal In a certain quarter of the gallery directly opposite a man arose and in a voice partly of derision partly of defiance cried out
How about the bribery of those two delegates at Sacramento Tell us about that Thats what we want to hear about
A great confusion broke out The first cry was repeated not only by the original speaker but by a whole group of which he was but a part Others in the audience however seeing in the disturbance only the clamour of a few Railroad supporters attempted to howl them down hissing vigorously and exclaiming
Put em out put em out
Order order called Garnett pounding with his gavel The whole Opera House was in an uproar
But the interruption of the Governors speech was evidently not unpremeditated It began to look like a deliberate and planned attack Persistently doggedly the group in the gallery vociferated Tell us how you bribed the delegates at Sacramento Before you throw mud at the Railroad lets see if you are clean yourself
Put em out put em out
Briber briber—Magnus Derrick unconvicted briber Put him out
Keast beside himself with anger pushed down the aisle underneath where the recalcitrant group had its place and shaking his fist called up at them
You were paid to break up this meeting If you have anything to say you will be afforded the opportunity but if you do not let the gentleman proceed the police will be called upon to put you out
But at this the man who had raised the first shout leaned over the balcony rail and his face flaming with wrath shouted
YAH talk to me of your police Look out we dont call on them first to arrest your President for bribery You and your howl about law and justice and corruption Here—he turned to the audience—read about him read the story of how the Sacramento convention was bought by Magnus Derrick President of the San Joaquin League Heres the facts printed and proved
With the words he stooped down and from under his seat dragged forth a great package of extra editions of the Bonneville Mercury not an hour off the presses Other equally large bundles of the paper appeared in the hands of the surrounding group The strings were cut and in handfuls and armfuls the papers were flung out over the heads of the audience underneath The air was full of the flutter of the newly printed sheets They swarmed over the rim of the gallery like clouds of monstrous winged insects settled upon the heads and into the hands of the audience were passed swiftly from man to man and within five minutes of the first outbreak every one in the Opera House had read Genslingers detailed and substantiated account of Magnus Derricks deal with the political bosses of the Sacramento convention
Genslinger after pocketing the Governors hush money had sold him out
Keast one quiver of indignation made his way back upon the stage The Leaguers were in wild confusion Half the assembly of them were on their feet bewildered shouting vaguely From proscenium wall to foyer the Opera House was a tumult of noise The gleam of the thousands of the Mercury extras was like the flash of white caps on a troubled sea
Keast faced the audience
Liars he shouted striving with all the power of his voice to dominate the clamour liars and slanderers Your paper is the paid organ of the corporation You have not one shadow of proof to back you up Do you choose this of all times to heap your calumny upon the head of an honourable gentleman already prostrated by your murder of his son Proofs—we demand your proofs
Weve got the very assemblymen themselves came back the answering shout Let Derrick speak Where is he hiding If this is a lie let him deny it Let HIM DISPROVE the charge Derrick Derrick thundered the Opera House
Keast wheeled about Where was Magnus He was not in sight upon the stage He had disappeared Crowding through the throng of Leaguers Keast got from off the stage into the wings Here the crowd was no less dense Nearly every one had a copy of the Mercury It was being read aloud to groups here and there and once Keast overheard the words Say I wonder if this is true after all
Well and even if it was cried Keast turning upon the speaker we should be the last ones to kick In any case it was done for our benefit It elected the Ranchers Commission
A lot of benefit we got out of the Ranchers Commission retorted the other
And then protested a third speaker that aint the way to do—if he DID do it—bribing legislatures Why we were bucking against corrupt politics We couldnt afford to be corrupt
Keast turned away with a gesture of impatience He pushed his way farther on At last opening a small door in a hallway back of the stage he came upon Magnus
The room was tiny It was a dressingroom Only two nights before it had been used by the leading actress of a comic opera troupe which had played for three nights at Bonneville A tattered sofa and limping toilet table occupied a third of the space The air was heavy with the smell of stale grease paint ointments and sachet Faded photographs of young women in tights and gauzes ornamented the mirror and the walls Underneath the sofa was an old pair of corsets The spangled skirt of a pink dress turned inside out hung against the wall
And in the midst of such environment surrounded by an excited group of men who gesticulated and shouted in his very face pale alert agitated his thin lips pressed tightly together stood Magnus Derrick
Here cried Keast as he entered closing the door behind him wheres the Governor Here Magnus Ive been looking for you The crowd has gone wild out there Youve got to talk em down Come out there and give those blacklegs the lie They are saying you are hiding
But before Magnus could reply Garnett turned to Keast
Well thats what we want him to do and he wont do it
Yes yes cried the halfdozen men who crowded around Magnus yes thats what we want him to do
Keast turned to Magnus
Why whats all this Governor he exclaimed Youve got to answer that Hey why dont you give em the lie
I—I Magnus loosened the collar about his throat it is a lie I will not stoop—I would not—would be—it would be beneath my—my—it would be beneath me
Keast stared in amazement Was this the Great Man the Leader indomitable of Roman integrity of Roman valour before whose voice whole conventions had quailed Was it possible he was AFRAID to face those hired villifiers
Well how about this demanded Garnett suddenly It is a lie isnt it That Commission was elected honestly wasnt it
How dare you sir Magnus burst out How dare you question me—call me to account Please understand sir that I tolerate——
Oh quit it cried a voice from the group You cant scare us Derrick That sort of talk was well enough once but it dont go any more We want a yes or no answer
It was gone—that oldtime power of mastery that faculty of command The ground crumbled beneath his feet Long since it had been by his own hand undermined Authority was gone Why keep up this miserable sham any longer Could they not read the lie in his face in his voice What a folly to maintain the wretched pretence He had failed He was ruined Harran was gone His ranch would soon go his money was gone Lyman was worse than dead His own honour had been prostituted Gone gone everything he held dear gone lost and swept away in that fierce struggle And suddenly and all in a moment the last remaining shells of the fabric of his being the sham that had stood already wonderfully long cracked and collapsed
Was the Commission honestly elected insisted Garnett Were the delegates—did you bribe the delegates
We were obliged to shut our eyes to means faltered Magnus There was no other way to— Then suddenly and with the last dregs of his resolution he concluded with Yes I gave them two thousand dollars each
Oh hell Oh my God exclaimed Keast sitting swiftly down upon the ragged sofa
There was a long silence A sense of poignant embarrassment descended upon those present No one knew what to say or where to look Garnett with a laboured attempt at nonchalance murmured
I see Well thats what I was trying to get at Yes I see
Well said Gethings at length bestirring himself I guess ILL go home
There was a movement The group broke up the men making for the door One by one they went out The last to go was Keast He came up to Magnus and shook the Governors limp hand
Goodbye Governor he said Ill see you again pretty soon Dont let this discourage you Theyll come around all right after a while So long
He went out shutting the door
And seated in the one chair of the room Magnus Derrick remained a long time looking at his face in the cracked mirror that for so many years had reflected the painted faces of soubrettes in this atmosphere of stale perfume and mouldy rice powder
It had come—his fall his ruin After so many years of integrity and honest battle his life had ended here—in an actresss dressingroom deserted by his friends his son murdered his dishonesty known an old man broken discarded discredited and abandoned Before nightfall of that day Bonneville was further excited by an astonishing bit of news S Behrman lived in a detached house at some distance from the town surrounded by a grove of live oak and eucalyptus trees At a little after halfpast six as he was sitting down to his supper a bomb was thrown through the window of his diningroom exploding near the doorway leading into the hall The room was wrecked and nearly every window of the house shattered By a miracle S Behrman himself remained untouched
CHAPTER VIII
On a certain afternoon in the early part of July about a month after the fight at the irrigating ditch and the mass meeting at Bonneville Cedarquist at the moment opening his mail in his office in San Francisco was genuinely surprised to receive a visit from Presley
Well upon my word Pres exclaimed the manufacturer as the young man came in through the door that the office boy held open for him upon my word have you been sick Sit down my boy Have a glass of sherry I always keep a bottle here
Presley accepted the wine and sank into the depths of a great leather chair near by
Sick he answered Yes I have been sick Im sick now Im gone to pieces sir
His manner was the extreme of listlessness—the listlessness of great fatigue Well well observed the other Im right sorry to hear that Whats the trouble Pres
Oh nerves mostly I suppose and my head and insomnia and weakness a general collapse all along the line the doctor tells me Overcerebration he says overexcitement I fancy I rather narrowly missed brain fever
Well I can easily suppose it answered Cedarquist gravely after all you have been through
Presley closed his eyes—they were sunken in circles of dark brown flesh—and pressed a thin hand to the back of his head
It is a nightmare he murmured A frightful nightmare and its not over yet You have heard of it all only through the newspaper reports But down there at Bonneville at Los Muertos—oh you can have no idea of it of the misery caused by the defeat of the ranchers and by this decision of the Supreme Court that dispossesses them all We had gone on hoping to the last that we would win there We had thought that in the Supreme Court of the United States at least we could find justice And the news of its decision was the worst last blow of all For Magnus it was the last—positively the very last
Poor poor Derrick murmured Cedarquist Tell me about him Pres How does he take it What is he going to do
It beggars him sir He sunk a great deal more than any of us believed in his ranch when he resolved to turn off most of the tenants and farm the ranch himself Then the fight he made against the Railroad in the Courts and the political campaign he went into to get Lyman on the Railroad Commission took more of it The money that Genslinger blackmailed him of it seems was about all he had left He had been gambling—you know the Governor—on another bonanza crop this year to recoup him Well the bonanza came right enough—just in time for S Behrman and the Railroad to grab it Magnus is ruined
What a tragedy what a tragedy murmured the other Lyman turning rascal Harran killed and now this and all within so short a time—all at the SAME time you might almost say
If it had only killed him continued Presley but that is the worst of it
How the worst
Im afraid honestly Im afraid it is going to turn his wits sir Its broken him oh you should see him you should see him A shambling stooping trembling old man in his dotage already He sits all day in the diningroom turning over papers sorting them tying them up opening them again forgetting them—all fumbling and mumbling and confused And at table sometimes he forgets to eat And listen you know from the house we can hear the trains whistling for the Long Trestle As often as that happens the Governor seems to be—oh I dont know frightened He will sink his head between his shoulders as though he were dodging something and he wont fetch a long breath again till the train is out of hearing He seems to have conceived an abject unreasoned terror of the Railroad
But he will have to leave Los Muertos now of course
Yes they will all have to leave They have a fortnight more The few tenants that were still on Los Muertos are leaving That is one thing that brings me to the city The family of one of the men who was killed—Hooven was his name—have come to the city to find work I think they are liable to be in great distress unless they have been wonderfully lucky and I am trying to find them in order to look after them
You need looking after yourself Pres
Oh once away from Bonneville and the sight of the ruin there Im better But I intend to go away And that makes me think I came to ask you if you could help me If you would let me take passage on one of your wheat ships The Doctor says an ocean voyage would set me up
Why certainly Pres declared Cedarquist But Im sorry youll have to go We expected to have you down in the country with us this winter
Presley shook his head No he answered I must go Even if I had all my health I could not bring myself to stay in California just now If you can introduce me to one of your captains—
With pleasure When do you want to go You may have to wait a few weeks Our first ship wont clear till the end of the month
That would do very well Thank you sir
But Cedarquist was still interested in the land troubles of the Bonneville farmers and took the first occasion to ask
So the Railroad are in possession on most of the ranches On all of them returned Presley The League went all to pieces so soon as Magnus was forced to resign The old story—they got quarrelling among themselves Somebody started a compromise party and upon that issue a new president was elected Then there were defections The Railroad offered to lease the lands in question to the ranchers—the ranchers who owned them he exclaimed bitterly and because the terms were nominal—almost nothing—plenty of the men took the chance of saving themselves And of course once signing the lease they acknowledged the Railroads title But the road would not lease to Magnus S Behrman takes over Los Muertos in a few weeks now
No doubt the road made over their title in the property to him observed Cedarquist as a reward of his services
No doubt murmured Presley wearily He rose to go
By the way said Cedarquist what have you on hand for let us say Friday evening Wont you dine with us then The girls are going to the country Monday of next week and you probably wont see them again for some time if you take that ocean voyage of yours
Im afraid I shall be very poor company sir hazarded Presley Theres no go no life in me at all these days I am like a clock with a broken spring
Not broken Pres my boy urged the other only run down Try and see if we cant wind you up a bit Say that we can expect you We dine at seven
Thank you sir Till Friday at seven then
Regaining the street Presley sent his valise to his club where he had engaged a room by a messenger boy and boarded a Castro Street car Before leaving Bonneville he had ascertained by strenuous enquiry Mrs Hoovens address in the city and thitherward he now directed his steps
When Presley had told Cedarquist that he was ill that he was jaded worn out he had only told half the truth Exhausted he was nerveless weak but this apathy was still invaded from time to time with fierce incursions of a spirit of unrest and revolt reactions momentary returns of the blind undirected energy that at one time had prompted him to a vast desire to acquit himself of some terrible deed of readjustment just what he could not say some terrifying martyrdom some aweinspiring immolation consummate incisive conclusive He fancied himself to be fired with the purblind mistaken heroism of the anarchist hurling his victim to destruction with full knowledge that the catastrophe shall sweep him also into the vortex it creates
But his constitutional irresoluteness obstructed his path continually brainsick weak of will emotional timid even he temporised procrastinated brooded came to decisions in the dark hours of the night only to abandon them in the morning
Once only he had ACTED And at this moment as he was carried through the windy squalid streets he trembled at the remembrance of it The horror of what might have been incompatible with the vengeance whose minister he fancied he was oppressed him The scene perpetually reconstructed itself in his imagination He saw himself under the shade of the encompassing trees and shrubbery creeping on his belly toward the house in the suburbs of Bonneville watching his chances seizing opportunities spying upon the lighted windows where the raised curtains afforded a view of the interior Then had come the appearance in the glare of the gas of the figure of the man for whom he waited He saw himself rise and run forward He remembered the feel and weight in his hand of Carahers bomb—the six inches of plugged gas pipe His upraised arm shot forward There was a shiver of smashed windowpanes then—a void—a red whirl of confusion the air rent the ground rocking himself flung headlong flung off the spinning circumference of things out into a place of terror and vacancy and darkness And then after a long time the return of reason the consciousness that his feet were set upon the road to Los Muertos and that he was fleeing terrorstricken gasping all but insane with hysteria Then the nevertobeforgotten night that ensued when he descended into the pit horrified at what he supposed he had done at one moment ridden with remorse at another raging against his own feebleness his lack of courage his wretched vacillating spirit But morning had come and with it the knowledge that he had failed and the baser assurance that he was not even remotely suspected His own escape had been no less miraculous than that of his enemy and he had fallen on his knees in inarticulate prayer weeping pouring out his thanks to God for the deliverance from the gulf to the very brink of which his feet had been drawn
After this however there had come to Presley a deeprooted suspicion that he was—of all human beings the most wretched—a failure Everything to which he had set his mind failed—his great epic his efforts to help the people who surrounded him even his attempted destruction of the enemy all these had come to nothing Girding his shattered strength together he resolved upon one last attempt to live up to the best that was in him and to that end had set himself to lift out of the despair into which they had been thrust the bereaved family of the German Hooven
After all was over and Hooven together with the seven others who had fallen at the irrigating ditch was buried in the Bonneville cemetery Mrs Hooven asking no ones aid or advice and taking with her Minna and little Hilda had gone to San Francisco—had gone to find work abandoning Los Muertos and her home forever Presley only learned of the departure of the family after fifteen days had elapsed
At once however the suspicion forced itself upon him that Mrs Hooven—and Minna too for the matter of that—countrybred ignorant of city ways might easily come to grief in the hard huge struggle of city life This suspicion had swiftly hardened to a conviction acting at last upon which Presley had followed them to San Francisco bent upon finding and assisting them
The house to which Presley was led by the address in his memorandum book was a cheap but fairly decent hotel near the power house of the Castro Street cable He inquired for Mrs Hooven
The landlady recollected the Hoovens perfectly
German woman with a little girlbaby and an older daughter sure The older daughter was main pretty Sure I remember them but they aint here no more They left a week ago I had to ask them for their room As it was they owed a weeks roomrent Mister I cant afford——
Well do you know where they went Did you hear what address they had their trunk expressed to
Ah yes their trunk vociferated the woman clapping her hands to her hips her face purpling Their trunk ah sure I got their trunk and what are you going to do about it Im holding it till I get my money What have you got to say about it Lets hear it
Presley turned away with a gesture of discouragement his heart sinking On the street corner he stood for a long time frowning in trouble and perplexity His suspicions had been only too well founded So long ago as a week the Hoovens had exhausted all their little store of money For seven days now they had been without resources unless indeed work had been found and what he asked himself what work in Gods name could they find to do here in the city
Seven days He quailed at the thought of it Seven days without money knowing not a soul in all that swarming city Ignorant of city life as both Minna and her mother were would they even realise that there were institutions built and generously endowed for just such as they He knew them to have their share of pride the dogged sullen pride of the peasant even if they knew of charitable organisations would they could they bring themselves to apply there A poignant anxiety thrust itself sharply into Presleys heart Where were they now Where had they slept last night Where breakfasted this morning Had there even been any breakfast this morning Had there even been any bed last night Lost and forgotten in the plexus of the citys life what had befallen them Towards what fate was the ebb tide of the streets drifting them
Was this to be still another theme wrought out by iron hands upon the old the worldold worldwide keynote How far were the consequences of that dreadful days work at the irrigating ditch to reach To what length was the tentacle of the monster to extend
Presley returned toward the central the business quarter of the city alternately formulating and dismissing from his mind plan after plan for the finding and aiding of Mrs Hooven and her daughters He reached Montgomery Street and turned toward his club his imagination once more reviewing all the causes and circumstances of the great battle of which for the last eighteen months he had been witness
All at once he paused his eye caught by a sign affixed to the wall just inside the street entrance of a huge office building and smitten with an idea stood for an instant motionless upon the sidewalk his eyes wide his fists shut tight
The building contained the General Office of the Pacific and Southwestern Railroad Large though it was it nevertheless was not pretentious and during his visits to the city Presley must have passed it unheeding many times
But for all that it was the stronghold of the enemy—the centre of all that vast ramifying system of arteries that drained the lifeblood of the State the nucleus of the web in which so many lives so many fortunes so many destinies had been enmeshed From this place—so he told himself—had emanated that policy of extortion oppression and injustice that little by little had shouldered the ranchers from their rights till their backs to the wall exasperated and despairing they had turned and fought and died From here had come the orders to S Behrman to Cyrus Ruggles and to Genslinger the orders that had brought Dyke to a prison that had killed Annixter that had ruined Magnus that had corrupted Lyman Here was the keep of the castle and here behind one of those many windows in one of those many offices his hand upon the levers of his mighty engine sat the master Shelgrim himself
Instantly upon the realisation of this fact an ungovernable desire seized upon Presley an inordinate curiosity Why not see face to face the man whose power was so vast whose will was so resistless whose potency for evil so limitless the man who for so long and so hopelessly they had all been fighting By reputation he knew him to be approachable why should he not then approach him Presley took his resolution in both hands If he failed to act upon this impulse he knew he would never act at all His heart beating his breath coming short he entered the building and in a few moments found himself seated in an anteroom his eyes fixed with hypnotic intensity upon the frosted pane of an adjoining door whereon in gold letters was inscribed the word PRESIDENT
In the end Presley had been surprised to find that Shelgrim was still in It was already very late after six oclock and the other offices in the building were in the act of closing Many of them were already deserted At every instant through the open door of the anteroom he caught a glimpse of clerks office boys bookkeepers and other employees hurrying towards the stairs and elevators quitting business for the day Shelgrim it seemed still remained at his desk knowing no fatigue requiring no leisure
What time does Mr Shelgrim usually go home inquired Presley of the young man who sat ruling forms at the table in the anteroom
Anywhere between halfpast six and seven the other answered adding Very often he comes back in the evening
And the man was seventy years old Presley could not repress a murmur of astonishment Not only mentally then was the President of the P and S W a giant Seventy years of age and still at his post holding there with the energy with a concentration of purpose that would have wrecked the health and impaired the mind of many men in the prime of their manhood
But the next instant Presley set his teeth
It is an ogres vitality he said to himself Just so is the maneating tiger strong The man should have energy who has sucked the lifeblood from an entire People
A little electric bell on the wall near at hand trilled a warning The young man who was ruling forms laid down his pen and opening the door of the Presidents office thrust in his head then after a word exchanged with the unseen occupant of the room he swung the door wide saying to Presley
Mr Shelgrim will see you sir
Presley entered a large well lighted but singularly barren office A wellworn carpet was on the floor two steel engravings hung against the wall an extra chair or two stood near a large plain littered table That was absolutely all unless he excepted the corner washstand on which was set a pitcher of ice water covered with a clean stiff napkin A man evidently some sort of managers assistant stood at the end of the table leaning on the back of one of the chairs Shelgrim himself sat at the table
He was large almost to massiveness An irongrey beard and a mustache that completely hid the mouth covered the lower part of his face His eyes were a pale blue and a little watery here and there upon his face were moth spots But the enormous breadth of the shoulders was what at first most vividly forced itself upon Presleys notice Never had he seen a broader man the neck however seemed in a manner to have settled into the shoulders and furthermore they were humped and rounded as if to bear great responsibilities and great abuse
At the moment he was wearing a silk skullcap pushed to one side and a little awry a frock coat of broadcloth with long sleeves and a waistcoat from the lower buttons of which the cloth was worn and upon the edges rubbed away showing the metal underneath At the top this waistcoat was unbuttoned and in the shirt front disclosed were two pearl studs
Presley uninvited unnoticed apparently sat down The assistant manager was in the act of making a report His voice was not lowered and Presley heard every word that was spoken
The report proved interesting It concerned a bookkeeper in the office of the auditor of disbursements It seems he was at most times thoroughly reliable hardworking industrious ambitious But at long intervals the vice of drunkenness seized upon the man and for three days rode him like a hag Not only during the period of this intemperance but for the few days immediately following the man was useless his work untrustworthy He was a family man and earnestly strove to rid himself of his habit he was when sober valuable In consideration of these facts he had been pardoned again and again
You remember Mr Shelgrim observed the manager that you have more than once interfered in his behalf when we were disposed to let him go I dont think we can do anything with him sir He promises to reform continually but it is the same old story This last time we saw nothing of him for four days Honestly Mr Shelgrim I think we ought to let Tentell out We cant afford to keep him He is really losing us too much money Heres the order ready now if you care to let it go
There was a pause Presley all attention listened breathlessly The assistant manager laid before his President the typewritten order in question The silence lengthened in the hall outside the wroughtiron door of the elevator cage slid to with a clash Shelgrim did not look at the order He turned his swivel chair about and faced the windows behind him looking out with unseeing eyes At last he spoke
Tentell has a family wife and three children How much do we pay him
One hundred and thirty
Lets double that or say two hundred and fifty Lets see how that will do
Why—of course—if you say so but really Mr Shelgrim
Well well try that anyhow
Presley had not time to readjust his perspective to this new point of view of the President of the P and S W before the assistant manager had withdrawn Shelgrim wrote a few memoranda on his calendar pad and signed a couple of letters before turning his attention to Presley At last he looked up and fixed the young man with a direct grave glance He did not smile It was some time before he spoke At last he said
Well sir
Presley advanced and took a chair nearer at hand Shelgrim turned and from his desk picked up and consulted Presleys card Presley observed that he read without the use of glasses
You he said again facing about you are the young man who wrote the poem called The Toilers
Yes sir
It seems to have made a great deal of talk Ive read it and Ive seen the picture in Cedarquists house the picture you took the idea from
Presley his senses never more alive observed that curiously enough Shelgrim did not move his body His arms moved and his head but the great bulk of the man remained immobile in its place and as the interview proceeded and this peculiarity emphasised itself Presley began to conceive the odd idea that Shelgrim had as it were placed his body in the chair to rest while his head and brain and hands went on working independently A saucer of shelled filberts stood near his elbow and from time to time he picked up one of these in a great thumb and forefinger and put it between his teeth
Ive seen the picture called The Toilers continued Shelgrim and of the two I like the picture better than the poem
The picture is by a master Presley hastened to interpose
And for that reason said Shelgrim it leaves nothing more to be said You might just as well have kept quiet Theres only one best way to say anything And what has made the picture of The Toilers great is that the artist said in it the BEST that could be said on the subject
I had never looked at it in just that light observed Presley He was confused all at sea embarrassed What he had expected to find in Shelgrim he could not have exactly said But he had been prepared to come upon an ogre a brute a terrible man of blood and iron and instead had discovered a sentimentalist and an art critic No standards of measurement in his mental equipment would apply to the actual man and it began to dawn upon him that possibly it was not because these standards were different in kind but that they were lamentably deficient in size He began to see that here was the man not only great but large manysided of vast sympathies who understood with equal intelligence the human nature in an habitual drunkard the ethics of a masterpiece of painting and the financiering and operation of ten thousand miles of railroad
I had never looked at it in just that light repeated Presley There is a great deal in what you say
If I am to listen continued Shelgrim to that kind of talk I prefer to listen to it first hand I would rather listen to what the great French painter has to say than to what YOU have to say about what he has already said
His speech loud and emphatic at first when the idea of what he had to say was fresh in his mind lapsed and lowered itself at the end of his sentences as though he had already abandoned and lost interest in that thought so that the concluding words were indistinct beneath the grey beard and mustache Also at times there was the faintest suggestion of a lisp
I wrote that poem hazarded Presley at a time when I was terribly upset I live he concluded or did live on the Los Muertos ranch in Tulare County—Magnus Derricks ranch
The Railroads ranch LEASED to Mr Derrick observed Shelgrim
Presley spread out his hands with a helpless resigned gesture
And continued the President of the P and S W with grave intensity looking at Presley keenly I suppose you believe I am a grand old rascal
I believe answered Presley I am persuaded—— He hesitated searching for his words
Believe this young man exclaimed Shelgrim laying a thick powerful forefinger on the table to emphasise his words try to believe this—to begin with—THAT RAILROADS BUILD THEMSELVES Where there is a demand sooner or later there will be a supply Mr Derrick does he grow his wheat The Wheat grows itself What does he count for Does he supply the force What do I count for Do I build the Railroad You are dealing with forces young man when you speak of Wheat and the Railroads not with men There is the Wheat the supply It must be carried to feed the People There is the demand The Wheat is one force the Railroad another and there is the law that governs them—supply and demand Men have only little to do in the whole business Complications may arise conditions that bear hard on the individual—crush him maybe—BUT THE WHEAT WILL BE CARRIED TO FEED THE PEOPLE as inevitably as it will grow If you want to fasten the blame of the affair at Los Muertos on any one person you will make a mistake Blame conditions not men
But—but faltered Presley you are the head you control the road
You are a very young man Control the road Can I stop it I can go into bankruptcy if you like But otherwise if I run my road as a business proposition I can do nothing I can not control it It is a force born out of certain conditions and I—no man—can stop it or control it Can your Mr Derrick stop the Wheat growing He can burn his crop or he can give it away or sell it for a cent a bushel—just as I could go into bankruptcy—but otherwise his Wheat must grow Can any one stop the Wheat Well then no more can I stop the Road
Presley regained the street stupefied his brain in a whirl This new idea this new conception dumfounded him Somehow he could not deny it It rang with the clear reverberation of truth Was no one then to blame for the horror at the irrigating ditch Forces conditions laws of supply and demand—were these then the enemies after all Not enemies there was no malevolence in Nature Colossal indifference only a vast trend toward appointed goals Nature was then a gigantic engine a vast cyclopean power huge terrible a leviathan with a heart of steel knowing no compunction no forgiveness no tolerance crushing out the human atom standing in its way with nirvanic calm the agony of destruction sending never a jar never the faintest tremour through all that prodigious mechanism of wheels and cogs He went to his club and ate his supper alone in gloomy agitation He was sombre brooding lost in a dark maze of gloomy reflections However just as he was rising from the table an incident occurred that for the moment roused him and sharply diverted his mind
His table had been placed near a window and as he was sipping his afterdinner coffee he happened to glance across the street His eye was at once caught by the sight of a familiar figure Was it Minna Hooven The figure turned the street corner and was lost to sight but it had been strangely like On the moment Presley had risen from the table and clapping on his hat had hurried into the streets where the lamps were already beginning to shine
But search though he would Presley could not again come upon the young woman in whom he fancied he had seen the daughter of the unfortunate German At last he gave up the hunt and returning to his club—at this hour almost deserted—smoked a few cigarettes vainly attempted to read from a volume of essays in the library and at last nervous distraught exhausted retired to his bed
But none the less Presley had not been mistaken The girl whom he had tried to follow had been indeed Minna Hooven
When Minna a week before this time had returned to the lodging house on Castro Street after a days unsuccessful effort to find employment and was told that her mother and Hilda had gone she was struck speechless with surprise and dismay She had never before been in any town larger than Bonneville and now knew not which way to turn nor how to account for the disappearance of her mother and little Hilda That the landlady was on the point of turning them out she understood but it had been agreed that the family should be allowed to stay yet one more day in the hope that Minna would find work Of this she reminded the landlady But this latter at once launched upon her such a torrent of vituperation that the girl was frightened to speechless submission
Oh oh she faltered I know I am sorry I know we owe you money but where did my mother go I only want to find her
Oh I aint going to be bothered shrilled the other How do I know
The truth of the matter was that Mrs Hooven afraid to stay in the vicinity of the house after her eviction and threatened with arrest by the landlady if she persisted in hanging around had left with the woman a note scrawled on an old blotter to be given to Minna when she returned This the landlady had lost To cover her confusion she affected a vast indignation and a turbulent irascible demeanour
I aint going to be bothered with such cattle as you she vociferated in Minnas face I dont know where your folks is Me I only have dealings with honest people I aint got a word to say so long as the rent is paid But when Im soldiered out of a weeks lodging then Im done You get right along now I dont know you I aint going to have my place get a bad name by having any South of Market Street chippies hanging around You get along or Ill call an officer
Minna sought the street her head in a whirl It was about five oclock In her pocket was thirtyfive cents all she had in the world What now
All at once the Terror of the City that blind unreasoned fear that only the outcast knows swooped upon her and clutched her vulturewise by the throat
Her first few days experience in the matter of finding employment had taught her just what she might expect from this new world upon which she had been thrown What was to become of her What was she to do where was she to go Unanswerable grim questions and now she no longer had herself to fear for Her mother and the baby little Hilda both of them equally unable to look after themselves what was to become of them where were they gone Lost lost all of them herself as well But she rallied herself as she walked along The idea of her starving of her mother and Hilda starving was out of all reason Of course it would not come to that of course not It was not thus that starvation came Something would happen of course it would—in time But meanwhile meanwhile how to get through this approaching night and the next few days That was the thing to think of just now
The suddenness of it all was what most unnerved her During all the nineteen years of her life she had never known what it meant to shift for herself Her father had always sufficed for the family he had taken care of her then all of a sudden her father had been killed her mother snatched from her Then all of a sudden there was no help anywhere Then all of a sudden a terrible voice demanded of her Now just what can you do to keep yourself alive Life faced her she looked the huge stone image squarely in the lustreless eyes
It was nearly twilight Minna for the sake of avoiding observation—for it seemed to her that now a thousand prying glances followed her—assumed a matteroffact demeanour and began to walk briskly toward the business quarter of the town
She was dressed neatly enough in a blue cloth skirt with a blue plush belt fairly decent shoes once her mothers a pink shirt waist and jacket and a straw sailor She was in an unusual fashion pretty Even her troubles had not dimmed the bright light of her pale greenishblue eyes nor faded the astonishing redness of her lips nor hollowed her strangely white face Her blueblack hair was trim She carried her wellshaped wellrounded figure erectly Even in her distress she observed that men looked keenly at her and sometimes after her as she went along But this she noted with a dim subconscious faculty The real Minna harassed terrified lashed with a thousand anxieties kept murmuring under her breath
What shall I do what shall I do oh what shall I do now
After an interminable walk she gained Kearney Street and held it till the welllighted wellkept neighbourhood of the shopping district gave place to the vicecrowded saloons and concert halls of the Barbary Coast She turned aside in avoidance of this only to plunge into the purlieus of Chinatown whence only she emerged panicstricken and out of breath after a half hour of nevertobeforgotten terrors and at a time when it had grown quite dark
On the corner of California and Dupont streets she stood a long moment pondering
I MUST do something she said to herself I must do SOMETHING She was tired out by now and the idea occurred to her to enter the Catholic church in whose shadow she stood and sit down and rest This she did The evening service was just being concluded But long after the priests and altar boys had departed from the chancel Minna still sat in the dim echoing interior confronting her desperate situation as best she might
Two or three hours later the sexton woke her The church was being closed she must leave Once more chilled with the sharp night air numb with long sitting in the same attitude still oppressed with drowsiness confused frightened Minna found herself on the pavement She began to be hungry and at length yielding to the demand that every moment grew more imperious bought and eagerly devoured a fivecent bag of fruit Then once more she took up the round of walking
At length in an obscure street that branched from Kearney Street near the corner of the Plaza she came upon an illuminated sign bearing the inscription Beds for the Night 15 and 25 cents
Fifteen cents Could she afford it It would leave her with only that much more that much between herself and a state of privation of which she dared not think and besides the forbidding look of the building frightened her It was dark gloomy dirty a place suggestive of obscure crimes and hidden terrors For twenty minutes or half an hour she hesitated walking twice and three times around the block At last she made up her mind Exhaustion such as she had never known weighed like lead upon her shoulders and dragged at her heels She must sleep She could not walk the streets all night She entered the doorway under the sign and found her way up a filthy flight of stairs At the top a man in a blue checked jumper was filling a lamp behind a high desk To him Minna applied
I should like she faltered to have a room—a bed for the night One of those for fifteen cents will be good enough I think
Well this place is only for men said the man looking up from the lamp
Oh said Minna oh—I—I didnt know
She looked at him stupidly and he with equal stupidity returned the gaze Thus for a long moment they held each others eyes
I—I didnt know repeated Minna
Yes its for men repeated the other She slowly descended the stairs and once more came out upon the streets
And upon those streets that as the hours advanced grew more and more deserted more and more silent more and more oppressive with the sense of the bitter hardness of life towards those who have no means of living Minna Hooven spent the first night of her struggle to keep her head above the ebbtide of the citys sea into which she had been plunged
Morning came and with it renewed hunger At this time she had found her way uptown again and towards ten oclock was sitting upon a bench in a little park full of nursemaids and children A group of the maids drew their babybuggies to Minnas bench and sat down continuing a conversation they had already begun Minna listened A friend of one of the maids had suddenly thrown up her position leaving her madame in what would appear to have been deserved embarrassment
Oh said Minna breaking in and lying with sudden unwonted fluency I am a nursegirl I am out of a place Do you think I could get that one
The group turned and fixed her—so evidently a country girl—with a supercilious indifference
Well you might try said one of them Got good references
References repeated Minna blankly She did not know what this meant
Oh Mrs Field aint the kind to stick about references spoke up the other shes that soft Why anybody could work her
Ill go there said Minna Have you the address It was told to her
Lorin she murmured Is that out of town
Well its across the Bay
Across the Bay
Um Youre from the country aint you
Yes How—how do I get there Is it far
Well you take the ferry at the foot of Market Street and then the train on the other side No it aint very far Just ask any one down there Theyll tell you
It was a chance but Minna after walking down to the ferry slips found that the round trip would cost her twenty cents If the journey proved fruitless only a dime would stand between her and the end of everything But it was a chance the only one that had as yet presented itself She made the trip
And upon the streetrailway cars upon the ferryboats on the locomotives and waycoaches of the local trains she was reminded of her fathers death and of the giant power that had reduced her to her present straits by the letters P and S W R R To her mind they occurred everywhere She seemed to see them in every direction She fancied herself surrounded upon every hand by the long arms of the monster
Minute after minute her hunger gnawed at her She could not keep her mind from it As she sat on the boat she found herself curiously scanning the faces of the passengers wondering how long since such a one had breakfasted how long before this other should sit down to lunch
When Minna descended from the train at Lorin on the other side of the Bay she found that the place was one of those suburban towns not yet become fashionable such as may be seen beyond the outskirts of any large American city All along the line of the railroad thereabouts houses small villas—contractors ventures—were scattered the advantages of suburban lots and sites for homes being proclaimed in sevenfoot letters upon mammoth billboards close to the right of way Without much trouble Minna found the house to which she had been directed a pretty little cottage set back from the street and shaded by palms live oaks and the inevitable eucalyptus Her heart warmed at the sight of it Oh to find a little niche for herself here a home a refuge from those horrible city streets from the rat of famine with its relentless tooth How she would work how strenuously she would endeavour to please how patient of rebuke she would be how faithful how conscientious Nor were her pretensions altogether false upon her while at home had devolved almost continually the care of the baby Hilda her little sister She knew the wants and needs of children
Her heart beating her breath failing she rang the bell set squarely in the middle of the front door
The lady of the house herself an elderly lady with pleasant kindly face opened the door Minna stated her errand
But I have already engaged a girl she said
Oh murmured Minna striving with all her might to maintain appearances Oh—I thought perhaps— She turned away
Im sorry said the lady Then she added Would you care to look after so many as three little children and help around in light housework between whiles
Yes maam Because my sister—she lives in North Berkeley above here—shes looking far a girl Have you had lots of experience Got good references
Yes maam
Well Ill give you the address She lives up in North Berkeley
She turned back into the house a moment and returned handing Minna a card
Thats where she lives—careful not to BLOT it child the inks wet yet—you had better see her
Is it far Could I walk there
My no you better take the electric cars about six blocks above here
When Minna arrived in North Berkeley she had no money left By a cruel mistake she had taken a car going in the wrong direction and though her error was rectified easily enough it had cost her her last fivecent piece She was now to try her last hope Promptly it crumbled away Like the former this place had been already filled and Minna left the door of the house with the certainty that her chance had come to naught and that now she entered into the last struggle with life—the death struggle—shorn of her last pitiful defence her last safeguard her last penny
As she once more resumed her interminable walk she realised she was weak faint and she knew that it was the weakness of complete exhaustion and the faintness of approaching starvation Was this the end coming on Terror of death aroused her
I MUST I MUST do something oh anything I must have something to eat
At this late hour the idea of pawning her little jacket occurred to her but now she was far away from the city and its pawnshops and there was no getting back
She walked on An hour passed She lost her sense of direction became confused knew not where she was going turned corners and went up bystreets without knowing why anything to keep moving for she fancied that so soon as she stood still the rat in the pit of her stomach gnawed more eagerly
At last she entered what seemed to be if not a park at least some sort of public enclosure There were many trees the place was beautiful wellkept roads and walks led sinuously and invitingly underneath the shade Through the trees upon the other side of a wide expanse of turf brown and sear under the summer sun she caught a glimpse of tall buildings and a flagstaff The whole place had a vaguely public educational appearance and Minna guessed from certain notices affixed to the trees warning the public against the picking of flowers that she had found her way into the grounds of the State University She went on a little further The path she was following led her at length into a grove of gigantic live oaks whose lower branches all but swept the ground Here the grass was green the few flowers in bloom the shade very thick A more lovely spot she had seldom seen Near at hand was a bench built around the trunk of the largest live oak and here at length weak from hunger exhausted to the limits of her endurance despairing abandoned Minna Hooven sat down to enquire of herself what next she could do
But once seated the demands of the animal—so she could believe—became more clamorous more insistent To eat to rest to be safely housed against another night above all else these were the things she craved and the craving within her grew so mighty that she crisped her poor starved hands into little fists in an agony of desire while the tears ran from her eyes and the sobs rose thick from her breast and struggled and strangled in her aching throat
But in a few moments Minna was aware that a woman apparently of some thirty years of age had twice passed along the walk in front of the bench where she sat and now as she took more notice of her she remembered that she had seen her on the ferryboat coming over from the city
The woman was gowned in silk tightly corseted and wore a hat of rather ostentatious smartness Minna became convinced that the person was watching her but before she had a chance to act upon this conviction she was surprised out of all countenance by the stranger coming up to where she sat and speaking to her
Here is a coincidence exclaimed the newcomer as she sat down surely you are the young girl who sat opposite me on the boat Strange I should come across you again Ive had you in mind ever since
On this nearer view Minna observed that the womans face bore rather more than a trace of enamel and that the atmosphere about was impregnated with sachet She was not otherwise conspicuous but there was a certain hardness about her mouth and a certain droop of fatigue in her eyelids which combined with an indefinite selfconfidence of manner held Minnas attention
Do you know continued the woman I believe you are in trouble I thought so when I saw you on the boat and I think so now Are you Are you in trouble Youre from the country aint you
Minna glad to find a sympathiser even in this chance acquaintance admitted that she was in distress that she had become separated from her mother and that she was indeed from the country
Ive been trying to find a situation she hazarded in conclusion but I dont seem to succeed Ive never been in a city before except Bonneville
Well it IS a coincidence said the other I know I wasnt drawn to you for nothing I am looking for just such a young girl as you You see I live alone a good deal and Ive been wanting to find a nice bright sociable girl who will be a sort of COMPANION to me Understand And theres something about you that I like I took to you the moment I saw you on the boat Now shall we talk this over
Towards the end of the week one afternoon as Presley was returning from his club he came suddenly face to face with Minna upon a street corner
Ah he cried coming toward her joyfully Upon my word I had almost given you up Ive been looking everywhere for you I was afraid you might not be getting along and I wanted to see if there was anything I could do How are your mother and Hilda Where are you stopping Have you got a good place
I dont know where mamma is answered Minna We got separated and I never have been able to find her again
Meanwhile Presley had been taking in with a quick eye the details of Minnas silk dress with its garniture of lace its edging of velvet its silver beltbuckle Her hair was arranged in a new way and on her head was a wide hat with a flare to one side set off with a gilt buckle and a puff of bright blue plush He glanced at her sharply
Well but—but how are you getting on he demanded
Minna laughed scornfully
I she cried Oh IVE gone to hell It was either that or starvation
Presley regained his room at the club white and trembling Worse than the worst he had feared had happened He had not been soon enough to help He had failed again A superstitious fear assailed him that he was in a manner marked that he was foredoomed to fail Minna had come—had been driven to this and he acting too late upon his tardy resolve had not been able to prevent it Were the horrors then never to end Was the grisly spectre of consequence to forever dance in his vision Were the results the farreaching results of that battle at the irrigating ditch to cross his path forever When would the affair be terminated the incident closed Where was that spot to which the tentacle of the monster could not reach
By now he was sick with the dread of it all He wanted to get away to be free from that endless misery so that he might not see what he could no longer help Cowardly he now knew himself to be He thought of himself only with loathing
Bitterly selfcontemptuous that he could bring himself to a participation in such trivialities he began to dress to keep his engagement to dine with the Cedarquists
He arrived at the house nearly half an hour late but before he could take off his overcoat Mrs Cedarquist appeared in the doorway of the drawingroom at the end of the hall She was dressed as if to go out
My DEAR Presley she exclaimed her stout overdressed body bustling toward him with a great rustle of silk I never was so glad You poor dear poet you are thin as a ghost You need a better dinner than I can give you and that is just what you are to have
Have I blundered Presley hastened to exclaim Did not Mr Cedarquist mention Friday evening
No no no she cried it was he who blundered YOU blundering in a social amenity Preposterous No Mr Cedarquist forgot that we were dining out ourselves tonight and when he told me he had asked you here for the same evening I fell upon the man my dear I did actually tooth and nail But I wouldnt hear of his wiring you I just dropped a note to our hostess asking if I could not bring you and when I told her who you WERE she received the idea with oh empressement So there it is all settled Cedarquist and the girls are gone on ahead and you are to take the old lady like a dear dear poet I believe I hear the carriage Allons En voiture
Once settled in the cool gloom of the coupe odorous of leather and upholstery Mrs Cedarquist exclaimed
And Ive never told you who you were to dine with oh a personage really Fancy you will be in the camp of your dearest foes You are to dine with the Gerard people one of the VicePresidents of your bete noir the P and S W Railroad
Presley started his fists clenching so abruptly as to all but split his white gloves He was not conscious of what he said in reply and Mrs Cedarquist was so taken up with her own endless stream of talk that she did not observe his confusion
Their daughter Honora is going to Europe next week her mother is to take her and Mrs Gerard is to have just a few people to dinner—very informal you know—ourselves you and oh I dont know two or three others Have you ever seen Honora The prettiest little thing and will she be rich Millions I would not dare say how many Tiens Nous voici
The coupe drew up to the curb and Presley followed Mrs Cedarquist up the steps to the massive doors of the great house In a confused daze he allowed one of the footmen to relieve him of his hat and coat in a daze he rejoined Mrs Cedarquist in a room with a glass roof hung with pictures the art gallery no doubt and in a daze heard their names announced at the entrance of another room the doors of which were hung with thick blue curtains
He entered collecting his wits for the introductions and presentations that he foresaw impended
The room was very large and of excessive loftiness Flat rectagonal pillars of a rosetinted variegated marble rose from the floor almost flush with the walls finishing off at the top with gilded capitals of a Corinthian design which supported the ceiling The ceiling itself instead of joining the walls at right angles curved to meet them a device that produced a sort of domelike effect This ceiling was a maze of golden involutions in very high relief that adjusted themselves to form a massive framing for a great picture nymphs and goddesses white doves golden chariots and the like all wreathed about with clouds and garlands of roses Between the pillars around the sides of the room were hangings of silk the design—of a Louis Quinze type—of beautiful simplicity and faultless taste The fireplace was a marvel It reached from floor to ceiling the lower parts black marble carved into crouching Atlases with great muscles that upbore the superstructure The design of this latter of a kind of purple marble shot through with white veinings was in the same style as the design of the silk hangings In its midst was a bronze escutcheon bearing an undecipherable monogram and a Latin motto Andirons of brass nearly six feet high flanked the hearthstone
The windows of the room were heavily draped in sombre brocade and ecru lace in which the initials of the family were very beautifully worked But directly opposite the fireplace an extra window lighted from the adjoining conservatory threw a wonderful rich light into the apartment It was a Gothic window of stained glass very large the centre figures being armed warriors Parsifal and Lohengrin the one with a banner the other with a swan The effect was exquisite the window a veritable masterpiece glowing flaming and burning with a hundred tints and colours—opalescent purple winered clouded pinks royal blues saffrons violets so dark as to be almost black
Under foot the carpet had all the softness of texture of grass skins one of them of an enormous polar bear and rugs of silk velvet were spread upon the floor A Renaissance cabinet of ebony many feet taller than Presleys head and inlaid with ivory and silver occupied one corner of the room while in its centre stood a vast table of Flemish oak black heavy as iron massive A faint odour of sandalwood pervaded the air From the conservatory nearby came the splashing of a fountain A row of electric bulbs let into the frieze of the walls between the golden capitals and burning dimly behind hemispheres of clouded glass threw a subdued light over the whole scene
Mrs Gerard came forward
This is Mr Presley of course our new poet of whom we are all so proud I was so afraid you would be unable to come You have given me a real pleasure in allowing me to welcome you here
The footman appeared at her elbow
Dinner is served madame he announced
When Mrs Hooven had left the boardinghouse on Castro Street she had taken up a position on a neighbouring corner to wait for Minnas reappearance Little Hilda at this time hardly more than six years of age was with her holding to her hand
Mrs Hooven was by no means an old woman but hard work had aged her She no longer had any claim to good looks She no longer took much interest in her personal appearance At the time of her eviction from the Castro Street boardinghouse she wore a faded black bonnet garnished with faded artificial flowers of dirty pink A plaid shawl was about her shoulders But this day of misfortune had set Mrs Hooven adrift in even worse condition than her daughter Her purse containing a miserable handful of dimes and nickels was in her trunk and her trunk was in the hands of the landlady Minna had been allowed such reprieve as her thirtyfive cents would purchase The destitution of Mrs Hooven and her little girl had begun from the very moment of her eviction
While she waited for Minna watching every street car and every approaching pedestrian a policeman appeared asked what she did and receiving no satisfactory reply promptly moved her on
Minna had had little assurance in facing the life struggle of the city Mrs Hooven had absolutely none In her grief distress the pinch of poverty and above all the nameless fear of the turbulent fierce life of the streets had produced a numbness an embruted sodden silent speechless condition of dazed mind and clogged unintelligent speech She was dumb bewildered stupid animated but by a single impulse She clung to life and to the life of her little daughter Hilda with the blind tenacity of purpose of a drowning cat
Thus when ordered to move on by the officer she had silently obeyed not even attempting to explain her situation She walked away to the next streetcrossing Then in a few moments returned taking up her place on the corner near the boardinghouse spying upon the approaching cable cars peeping anxiously down the length of the sidewalks
Once more the officer ordered her away and once more unprotesting she complied But when for the third time the policeman found her on the forbidden spot he had lost his temper This time when Mrs Hooven departed he had followed her and when bewildered persistent she had attempted to turn back he caught her by the shoulder
Do you want to get arrested hey he demanded Do you want me to lock you up Say do you speak up
The ominous words at length reached Mrs Hoovens comprehension Arrested She was to be arrested The countrywomans fear of the Jail nipped and bit eagerly at her unwilling heels She hurried off thinking to return to her post after the policeman should have gone away But when at length turning back she tried to find the boardinghouse she suddenly discovered that she was on an unfamiliar street Unwittingly no doubt she had turned a corner She could not retrace her steps She and Hilda were lost
Mammy Im tired Hilda complained
Her mother picked her up
Mammy wherere we gowun mammy
Where indeed Stupefied Mrs Hooven looked about her at the endless blocks of buildings the endless procession of vehicles in the streets the endless march of pedestrians on the sidewalks Where was Minna where was she and her baby to sleep that night How was Hilda to be fed
She could not stand still There was no place to sit down but one thing was left walk
Ah that via dolorosa of the destitute that chemin de la croix of the homeless Ah the mile after mile of granite pavement that MUST be MUST be traversed Walk they must Move they must onward forward whither they cannot tell why they do not know Walk walk walk with bleeding feet and smarting joints walk with aching back and trembling knees walk though the senses grow giddy with fatigue though the eyes droop with sleep though every nerve demanding rest sets in motion its tiny alarm of pain Death is at the end of that devious winding maze of paths crossed and recrossed and crossed again There is but one goal to the via dolorosa there is no escape from the central chamber of that labyrinth Fate guides the feet of them that are set therein Double on their steps though they may weave in and out of the myriad corners of the citys streets return go forward back from side to side here there anywhere dodge twist wind the central chamber where Death sits is reached inexorably at the end
Sometimes leading and sometimes carrying Hilda Mrs Hooven set off upon her objectless journey Block after block she walked street after street She was afraid to stop because of the policemen As often as she so much as slackened her pace she was sure to see one of these terrible figures in the distance watching her so it seemed to her waiting for her to halt for the fraction of a second in order that he might have an excuse to arrest her
Hilda fretted incessantly
Mammy wherere we gowun Mammy Im tired Then at last for the first time that plaint that stabbed the mothers heart
Mammy Im hungry
Be quiut den said Mrs Hooven Bretty soon well hev der subber
Passersby on the sidewalk men and women in the great six oclock homeward march jostled them as they went along With dumb dull curiousness she looked into one after another of the limitless stream of faces and she fancied she saw in them every emotion but pity The faces were gay were anxious were sorrowful were mirthful were lined with thought or were merely flat and expressionless but not one was turned toward her in compassion The expressions of the faces might be various but an underlying callousness was discoverable beneath every mask The people seemed removed from her immeasurably they were infinitely above her What was she to them she and her baby the crippled outcasts of the human herd the unfit not able to survive thrust out on the heath to perish
To beg from these people did not yet occur to her There was no pride however in the matter She would have as readily asked alms of so many sphinxes
She went on Without willing it her feet carried her in a wide circle Soon she began to recognise the houses she had been in that street before Somehow this was distasteful to her so striking off at right angles she walked straight before her for over a dozen blocks By now it was growing darker The sun had set The hands of a clock on the powerhouse of a cable line pointed to seven No doubt Minna had come long before this time had found her mother gone and had—just what had she done just what COULD she do Where was her daughter now Walking the streets herself no doubt What was to become of Minna pretty girl that she was lost houseless and friendless in the maze of these streets Mrs Hooven roused from her lethargy could not repress an exclamation of anguish Here was misfortune indeed here was calamity She bestirred herself and remembered the address of the boardinghouse She might inquire her way back thither No doubt by now the policeman would be gone home for the night She looked about She was in the district of modest residences and a young man was coming toward her carrying a new garden hose looped around his shoulder
Say Meestr say blease——
The young man gave her a quick look and passed on hitching the coil of hose over his shoulder But a few paces distant he slackened in his walk and fumbled in his vest pocket with his fingers Then he came back to Mrs Hooven and put a quarter into her hand
Mrs Hooven stared at the coin stupefied The young man disappeared He thought then that she was begging It had come to that she independent all her life whose husband had held five hundred acres of wheat land had been taken for a beggar A flush of shame shot to her face She was about to throw the money after its giver But at the moment Hilda again exclaimed
Mammy Im hungry
With a movement of infinite lassitude and resigned acceptance of the situation Mrs Hooven put the coin in her pocket She had no right to be proud any longer Hilda must have food
That evening she and her child had supper at a cheap restaurant in a poor quarter of the town and passed the night on the benches of a little uptown park
Unused to the ways of the town ignorant as to the customs and possibilities of eatinghouses she spent the whole of her quarter upon supper for herself and Hilda and had nothing left wherewith to buy a lodging
The night was dreadful Hilda sobbed herself to sleep on her mothers shoulder waking thereafter from hour to hour to protest though wrapped in her mothers shawl that she was cold and to enquire why they did not go to bed Drunken men snored and sprawled near at hand Towards morning a loafer reeking of alcohol sat down beside her and indulged in an incoherent soliloquy punctuated with oaths and obscenities It was not till far along towards daylight that she fell asleep
She awoke to find it broad day Hilda—mercifully—slept Her mothers limbs were stiff and lame with cold and damp her head throbbed She moved to another bench which stood in the rays of the sun and for a long two hours sat there in the thin warmth till the moisture of the night that clung to her clothes was evaporated
A policeman came into view She woke Hilda and carrying her in her arms took herself away
Mammy began Hilda as soon as she was well awake Mammy Im hungry I want mein breakfest
Sure sure soon now leedle tochter
She herself was hungry but she had but little thought of that How was Hilda to be fed She remembered her experience of the previous day when the young man with the hose had given her money Was it so easy then to beg Could charity be had for the asking So it seemed but all that was left of her sturdy independence revolted at the thought SHE beg SHE hold out the hand to strangers
Mammy Im hungry
There was no other way It must come to that in the end Why temporise why put off the inevitable She sought out a frequented street where men and women were on their way to work One after another she let them go by searching their faces deterred at the very last moment by some trifling variation of expression a firm set mouth a serious level eyebrow an advancing chin Then twice when she had made a choice and brought her resolution to the point of speech she quailed shrinking her ears tingling her whole being protesting against the degradation Every one must be looking at her Her shame was no doubt the object of an hundred eyes
Mammy Im hungry protested Hilda again
She made up her mind What though was she to say In what words did beggars ask for assistance
She tried to remember how tramps who had appeared at her back door on Los Muertos had addressed her how and with what formula certain mendicants of Bonneville had appealed to her Then having settled upon a phrase she approached a whiskered gentleman with a large stomach walking briskly in the direction of the town
Say den blease hellup a boor womun
The gentleman passed on
Perhaps he doand hear me she murmured
Two welldressed women advanced chattering gayly
Say say den blease hellup a boor womun
One of the women paused murmuring to her companion and from her purse extracted a yellow ticket which she gave to Mrs Hooven with voluble explanations But Mrs Hooven was confused she did not understand What could the ticket mean The women went on their way
The next person to whom she applied was a young girl of about eighteen very prettily dressed
Say say den blease hellup a boor womun
In evident embarrassment the young girl paused and searched in her little pocketbook I think I have—I think—I have just ten cents here somewhere she murmured again and again
In the end she found a dime and dropped it into Mrs Hoovens palm
That was the beginning The first step once taken the others became easy All day long Mrs Hooven and Hilda followed the streets begging begging Here it was a nickel there a dime here a nickel again But she was not expert in the art nor did she know where to buy food the cheapest and the entire days work resulted only in barely enough for two meals of bread milk and a wretchedly cooked stew Tuesday night found the pair once more shelterless
Once more Mrs Hooven and her baby passed the night on the park benches But early on Wednesday morning Mrs Hooven found herself assailed by sharp pains and cramps in her stomach What was the cause she could not say but as the day went on the pains increased alternating with hot flushes over all her body and a certain weakness and faintness As the day went on the pain and the weakness increased When she tried to walk she found she could do so only with the greatest difficulty Here was fresh misfortune To beg she must walk Dragging herself forward a halfblock at a time she regained the street once more She succeeded in begging a couple of nickels bought a bag of apples from a vender and returning to the park sank exhausted upon a bench
Here she remained all day until evening Hilda alternately whimpering for her bread and milk or playing languidly in the gravel walk at her feet In the evening she started out again This time it was bitter hard Nobody seemed inclined to give Twice she was moved on by policemen Two hours begging elicited but a single dime With this she bought Hildas bread and milk and refusing herself to eat returned to the bench—the only home she knew—and spent the night shivering with cold burning with fever
From Wednesday morning till Friday evening with the exception of the few apples she had bought and a quarter of a loaf of hard bread that she found in a greasy newspaper—scraps of a workmans dinner—Mrs Hooven had nothing to eat In her weakened condition begging became hourly more difficult and such little money as was given her she resolutely spent on Hildas bread and milk in the morning and evening
By Friday afternoon she was very weak indeed Her eyes troubled her She could no longer see distinctly and at times there appeared to her curious figures huge crystal goblets of the most graceful shapes floating and swaying in the air in front of her almost within arms reach Vases of elegant forms made of shimmering glass bowed and courtesied toward her Glass bulbs took graceful and varying shapes before her vision now rounding into globes now evolving into hourglasses now twisting into pretzelshaped convolutions
Mammy Im hungry insisted Hilda passing her hands over her face Mrs Hooven started and woke It was Friday evening Already the street lamps were being lit
Gome den leedle girl she said rising and taking Hildas hand Gome den we go vind subber hey
She issued from the park and took a cross street directly away from the locality where she had begged the previous days She had had no success there of late She would try some other quarter of the town After a weary walk she came out upon Van Ness Avenue near its junction with Market Street She turned into the avenue and went on toward the Bay painfully traversing block after block begging of all whom she met for she no longer made any distinction among the passersby
Say say den blease hellup a boor womun
Mammy mammy Im hungry
It was Friday night between seven and eight The great deserted avenue was already dark A sea fog was scudding overhead and by degrees descending lower The warmth was of the meagerest and the street lamps birds of fire in cages of glass fluttered and danced in the prolonged gusts of the trade wind that threshed and weltered in the city streets from off the ocean
Presley entered the diningroom of the Gerard mansion with little Miss Gerard on his arm The other guests had preceded them—Cedarquist with Mrs Gerard a palefaced languid young man introduced to Presley as Julian Lambert with Presleys cousin Beatrice one of the twin daughters of Mr and Mrs Cedarquist his brother Stephen whose hair was straight as an Indians but of a pallid straw color with Beatrices sister Gerard himself taciturn bearded rotund loud of breath escorted Mrs Cedarquist Besides these there were one or two other couples whose names Presley did not remember
The diningroom was superb in its appointments On three sides of the room to the height of some ten feet ran a continuous picture an oil painting divided into long sections by narrow panels of black oak The painting represented the personages in the Romaunt de la Rose and was conceived in an atmosphere of the most delicate most ephemeral allegory One saw young chevaliers blueeyed of elemental beauty and purity women with crowns gold girdles and cloudy wimples young girls entrancing in their loveliness wearing snowwhite kerchiefs their golden hair unbound and flowing dressed in white samite bearing armfuls of flowers the whole procession defiling against a background of forest glades venerable oaks halfhidden fountains and fields of asphodel and roses
Otherwise the room was simple Against the side of the wall unoccupied by the picture stood a sideboard of gigantic size that once had adorned the banquet hall of an Italian palace of the late Renaissance It was black with age and against its sombre surfaces glittered an array of heavy silver dishes and heavier cutglass bowls and goblets
The company sat down to the first course of raw Blue Point oysters served upon little pyramids of shaved ice and the two butlers at once began filling the glasses of the guests with cool Haut Sauterne
Mrs Gerard who was very proud of her dinners and never able to resist the temptation of commenting upon them to her guests leaned across to Presley and Mrs Cedarquist murmuring Mr Presley do you find that Sauterne too cold I always believe it is so bourgeois to keep such a delicate wine as Sauterne on the ice and to ice Bordeaux or Burgundy—oh it is nothing short of a crime
This is from your own vineyard is it not asked Julian Lambert I think I recognise the bouquet
He strove to maintain an attitude of fin gourmet unable to refrain from comment upon the courses as they succeeded one another
Little Honora Gerard turned to Presley
You know she explained Papa has his own vineyards in southern France He is so particular about his wines turns up his nose at California wines And I am to go there next summer Ferrieres is the name of the place where our vineyards are the dearest village She was a beautiful little girl of a dainty porcelain type her colouring low in tone She wore no jewels but her little undeveloped neck and shoulders of an exquisite immaturity rose from the tulle bodice of her first decollete gown
Yes she continued Im to go to Europe for the first time Wont it be gay And I am to have my own bonne and Mamma and I are to travel—so many places Baden Homburg Spa the Tyrol Wont it be gay
Presley assented in meaningless words He sipped his wine mechanically looking about that marvellous room with its subdued saffron lights its glitter of glass and silver its beautiful women in their elaborate toilets its deft correct servants its array of tableware—cut glass chased silver and Dresden crockery It was Wealth in all its outward and visible forms the signs of an opulence so great that it need never be husbanded It was the home of a railway Magnate a Railroad King For this then the farmers paid It was for this that S Behrman turned the screw tightened the vise It was for this that Dyke had been driven to outlawry and a jail It was for this that Lyman Derrick had been bought the Governor ruined and broken Annixter shot down Hooven killed
The soup puree a la Derby was served and at the same time as hors doeuvres ortolan patties together with a tiny sandwich made of browned toast and thin slices of ham sprinkled over with Parmesan cheese The wine so Mrs Gerard caused it to be understood was Xeres of the 1815 vintage
Mrs Hooven crossed the avenue It was growing late Without knowing it she had come to a part of the city that experienced beggars shunned There was nobody about Block after block of residences stretched away on either hand lighted full of people But the sidewalks were deserted
Mammy whimpered Hilda Im tired carry me
Using all her strength Mrs Hooven picked her up and moved on aimlessly
Then again that terrible cry the cry of the hungry child appealing to the helpless mother
Mammy Im hungry
Ach Gott leedle girl exclaimed Mrs Hooven holding her close to her shoulder the tears starting from her eyes Ach leedle tochter Doand doand doand You praik my hairt I cent vind any subber We got noddings to eat noddings noddings
When do we have those breadn milk again Mammy
Tomorrow—soon—pyandpy Hilda I doand know what pecome oaf us now what pecome oaf my leedle babby
She went on holding Hilda against her shoulder with one arm as best she might one hand steadying herself against the fence railings along the sidewalk At last a solitary pedestrian came into view a young man in a top hat and overcoat walking rapidly Mrs Hooven held out a quivering hand as he passed her
Say say den Meestr blease hellup a boor womun
The other hurried on
The fish course was grenadins of bass and small salmon the latter stuffed and cooked in white wine and mushroom liquor
I have read your poem of course Mr Presley observed Mrs Gerard The Toilers I mean What a sermon you read us you dreadful young man I felt that I ought at once to sell all that I have and give to the poor Positively it did stir me up You may congratulate yourself upon making at least one convert Just because of that poem Mrs Cedarquist and I have started a movement to send a whole shipload of wheat to the starving people in India Now you horrid reactionnaire are you satisfied
I am very glad murmured Presley
But I am afraid observed Mrs Cedarquist that we may be too late They are dying so fast those poor people By the time our ship reaches India the famine may be all over
One need never be afraid of being too late in the matter of helping the destitute answered Presley Unfortunately they are always a fixed quantity The poor ye have always with you
How very clever that is said Mrs Gerard
Mrs Cedarquist tapped the table with her fan in mild applause
Brilliant brilliant she murmured epigrammatical
Honora said Mrs Gerard turning to her daughter at that moment in conversation with the languid Lambert Honora entendstu ma cherie lesprit de notre jeune Lamartine
Mrs Hooven went on stumbling from street to street holding Hilda to her breast Famine gnawed incessantly at her stomach walk though she might turn upon her tracks up and down the streets back to the avenue again incessantly and relentlessly the torture dug into her vitals She was hungry hungry and if the want of food harassed and rended her fullgrown woman that she was what must it be in the poor starved stomach of her little girl Oh for some helping hand now oh for one little mouthful one little nibble Food food all her wrecked body clamoured for nourishment anything to numb those gnawing teeth—an abandoned loaf hard mouldered a halfeaten fruit yes even the refuse of the gutter even the garbage of the ash heap On she went peering into dark corners into the areaways anywhere everywhere watching the silent prowling of cats the intent rovings of stray dogs But she was growing weaker the pains and cramps in her stomach returned Hildas weight bore her to the pavement More than once a great giddiness a certain wheeling faintness all but overcame her Hilda however was asleep To wake her would only mean to revive her to the consciousness of hunger yet how to carry her further Mrs Hooven began to fear that she would fall with her child in her arms The terror of a collapse upon those cold pavements glistening with fogdamp roused her she must make an effort to get through the night She rallied all her strength and pausing a moment to shift the weight of her baby to the other arm once more set off through the night A little while later she found on the edge of the sidewalk the peeling of a banana It had been trodden upon and it was muddy but joyfully she caught it up
Hilda she cried wake oop leedle girl See loog den deres somedings to eat Look den hey Dats goot aint it Zum bunaner
But it could not be eaten Decayed dirty all but rotting the stomach turned from the refuse nauseated
No no cried Hilda thats not good I cant eat it Oh Mammy please gif me those breadn milk
By now the guests of Mrs Gerard had come to the entrees—Londonderry pheasants escallops of duck and rissolettes a la pompadour The wine was Chateau Latour
All around the table conversations were going forward gayly The good wines had broken up the slight restraint of the early part of the evening and a spirit of good humour and good fellowship prevailed Young Lambert and Mr Gerard were deep in reminiscences of certain mutual duckshooting expeditions Mrs Gerard and Mrs Cedarquist discussed a novel—a strange mingling of psychology degeneracy and analysis of erotic conditions—which had just been translated from the Italian Stephen Lambert and Beatrice disputed over the merits of a Scotch collie just given to the young lady The scene was gay the electric bulbs sparkled the wine flashing back the light The entire table was a vague glow of white napery delicate china and glass as brilliant as crystal Behind the guests the servingmen came and went filling the glasses continually changing the covers serving the entrees managing the dinner without interruption confusion or the slightest unnecessary noise
But Presley could find no enjoyment in the occasion From that picture of feasting that scene of luxury that atmosphere of decorous wellbred refinement his thoughts went back to Los Muertos and Quien Sabe and the irrigating ditch at Hoovens He saw them fall one by one Harran Annixter Osterman Broderson Hooven The clink of the wine glasses was drowned in the explosion of revolvers The Railroad might indeed be a force only which no man could control and for which no man was responsible but his friends had been killed but years of extortion and oppression had wrung money from all the San Joaquin money that had made possible this very scene in which he found himself Because Magnus had been beggared Gerard had become Railroad King because the farmers of the valley were poor these men were rich
The fancy grew big in his mind distorted caricatured terrible Because the farmers had been killed at the irrigation ditch these others Gerard and his family fed full They fattened on the blood of the People on the blood of the men who had been killed at the ditch It was a halfludicrous halfhorrible dog eat dog an unspeakable cannibalism Harran Annixter and Hooven were being devoured there under his eyes These dainty women his cousin Beatrice and little Miss Gerard frail delicate all these fine ladies with their small fingers and slender necks suddenly were transfigured in his tortured mind into harpies tearing human flesh His head swam with the horror of it the terror of it Yes the People WOULD turn some day and turning rend those who now preyed upon them It would be dog eat dog again with positions reversed and he saw for one instant of time that splendid house sacked to its foundations the tables overturned the pictures torn the hangings blazing and Liberty the redhanded Man in the Street grimed with powder smoke foul with the gutter rush yelling torch in hand through every door
At ten oclock Mrs Hooven fell
Luckily she was leading Hilda by the hand at the time and the little girl was not hurt In vain had Mrs Hooven hour after hour walked the streets After a while she no longer made any attempt to beg nobody was stirring nor did she even try to hunt for food with the stray dogs and cats She had made up her mind to return to the park in order to sit upon the benches there but she had mistaken the direction and following up Sacramento Street had come out at length not upon the park but upon a great vacant lot at the very top of the Clay Street hill The ground was unfenced and rose above her to form the cap of the hill all overgrown with bushes and a few stunted live oaks It was in trying to cross this piece of ground that she fell She got upon her feet again
Ach Mammy did you hurt yourself asked Hilda
No no
Is that house where we get those breadn milk
Hilda pointed to a single rambling building just visible in the night that stood isolated upon the summit of the hill in a grove of trees
No no dere aindt no braid end miluk leedle tochter
Hilda once more began to sob
Ach Mammy please PLEASE I want it Im hungry
The jangled nerves snapped at last under the tension and Mrs Hooven suddenly shaking Hilda roughly cried out Stop stop Doand say ut egen you My Gott you kill me yet
But quick upon this came the reaction The mother caught her little girl to her sinking down upon her knees putting her arms around her holding her close
No no gry all so mudge es you want Say dot you are hongry Say ut egen say ut all de dime ofer end ofer egen Say ut poor starfing leedle babby Oh mein poor leedle tochter My Gott oh I go crazy bretty soon I guess I cent hellup you I cent ged you noddings to eat noddings noddings Hilda we gowun to die togedder Put der arms roundt me soh tighd leedle babby We gowun to die we gowun to vind Popper We aindt gowun to be hongry eny more
Vair we go now demanded Hilda
No places Mommers soh tiredt We stop heir leedle while end rest
Underneath a large bush that afforded a little shelter from the wind Mrs Hooven lay down taking Hilda in her arms and wrapping her shawl about her The infinite vast night expanded gigantic all around them At this elevation they were far above the city It was still Close overhead whirled the chariots of the fog galloping landward smothering lights blurring outlines Soon all sight of the town was shut out even the solitary house on the hilltop vanished There was nothing left but grey wheeling fog and the mother and child alone shivering in a little strip of damp ground an island drifting aimlessly in empty space
Hildas fingers touched a leaf from the bush and instinctively closed upon it and carried it to her mouth
Mammy she said Im eating those leaf Is those good
Her mother did not reply
You going to sleep Mammy inquired Hilda touching her face
Mrs Hooven roused herself a little
Hey Vat you say Asleep Yais I guess I wass asleep
Her voice trailed unintelligibly to silence again She was not however asleep Her eyes were open A grateful numbness had begun to creep over her a pleasing semiinsensibility She no longer felt the pain and cramps of her stomach even the hunger was ceasing to bite
These stuffed artichokes are delicious Mrs Gerard murmured young Lambert wiping his lips with a corner of his napkin Pardon me for mentioning it but your dinner must be my excuse
And this asparagus—since Mr Lambert has set the bad example observed Mrs Cedarquist so delicate such an exquisite flavour How do you manage
We get all our asparagus from the southern part of the State from one particular ranch explained Mrs Gerard We order it by wire and get it only twenty hours after cutting My husband sees to it that it is put on a special train It stops at this ranch just to take on our asparagus Extravagant isnt it but I simply cannot eat asparagus that has been cut more than a day
Nor I exclaimed Julian Lambert who posed as an epicure I can tell to an hour just how long asparagus has been picked
Fancy eating ordinary market asparagus said Mrs Gerard that has been fingered by Heaven knows how many hands
Mammy mammy wake up cried Hilda trying to push open Mrs Hoovens eyelids at last closed Mammy dont Youre just trying to frighten me
Feebly Hilda shook her by the shoulder At last Mrs Hoovens lips stirred Putting her head down Hilda distinguished the whispered words
Im sick Go to schleepSickNoddings to eat
The dessert was a wonderful preparation of alternate layers of biscuit glaces ice cream and candied chestnuts
Delicious is it not observed Julian Lambert partly to himself partly to Miss Cedarquist This Moscovite fouette—upon my word I have never tasted its equal
And you should know shouldnt you returned the young lady
Mammy mammy wake up cried Hilda Dont sleep so Im frightenedt
Repeatedly she shook her repeatedly she tried to raise the inert eyelids with the point of her finger But her mother no longer stirred The gaunt lean body with its bony face and sunken eyesockets lay back prone upon the ground the feet upturned and showing the ragged worn soles of the shoes the forehead and grey hair beaded with fog the poor faded bonnet awry the poor faded dress soiled and torn Hilda drew close to her mother kissing her face twining her arms around her neck For a long time she lay that way alternately sobbing and sleeping Then after a long time there was a stir She woke from a doze to find a police officer and two or three other men bending over her Some one carried a lantern Terrified smitten dumb she was unable to answer the questions put to her Then a woman evidently a mistress of the house on the top of the hill arrived and took Hilda in her arms and cried over her
Ill take the little girl she said to the police officer
But the mother can you save her Is she too far gone
Ive sent for a doctor replied the other
Just before the ladies left the table young Lambert raised his glass of Madeira Turning towards the wife of the Railroad King he said
My best compliments for a delightful dinner
The doctor who had been bending over Mrs Hooven rose
Its no use he said she has been dead some time—exhaustion from starvation
CHAPTER IX
On Division Number Three of the Los Muertos ranch the wheat had already been cut and S Behrman on a certain morning in the first week of August drove across the open expanse of stubble toward the southwest his eyes searching the horizon for the feather of smoke that would mark the location of the steam harvester However he saw nothing The stubble extended onward apparently to the very margin of the world
At length S Behrman halted his buggy and brought out his field glasses from beneath the seat He stood up in his place and adjusting the lenses swept the prospect to the south and west It was the same as though the sea of land were in reality the ocean and he lost in an open boat were scanning the waste through his glasses looking for the smoke of a steamer hull down below the horizon Wonder he muttered if theyre working on Four this morning
At length he murmured an Ah of satisfaction Far to the south into the white sheen of sky immediately over the horizon he made out a faint smudge—the harvester beyond doubt
Thither S Behrman turned his horses head It was all of an hours drive over the uneven ground and through the crackling stubble but at length he reached the harvester He found however that it had been halted The sack sewers together with the headerman were stretched on the ground in the shade of the machine while the engineer and separatorman were pottering about a portion of the works
Whats the matter Billy demanded S Behrman reining up
The engineer turned about
The grain is heavy in here We thought wed better increase the speed of the cupcarrier and pulled up to put in a smaller sprocket
S Behrman nodded to say that was all right and added a question
How is she going
Anywheres from twentyfive to thirty sacks to the acre right along here nothing the matter with THAT I guess
Nothing in the world Bill
One of the sack sewers interposed
For the last half hour weve been throwing off three bags to the minute
Thats good thats good
It was more than good it was bonanza and all that division of the great ranch was thick with just such wonderful wheat Never had Los Muertos been more generous never a season more successful S Behrman drew a long breath of satisfaction He knew just how great was his share in the lands which had just been absorbed by the corporation he served just how many thousands of bushels of this marvellous crop were his property Through all these years of confusion bickerings open hostility and at last actual warfare he had waited nursing his patience calm with the firm assurance of ultimate success The end at length had come he had entered into his reward and saw himself at last installed in the place he had so long so silently coveted saw himself chief of a principality the Master of the Wheat
The sprocket adjusted the engineer called up the gang and the men took their places The fireman stoked vigorously the two sack sewers resumed their posts on the sacking platform putting on the goggles that kept the chaff from their eyes The separatorman and headerman gripped their levers
The harvester shooting a column of thick smoke straight upward vibrating to the top of the stack hissed clanked and lurched forward Instantly motion sprang to life in all its component parts the header knives cutting a thirtysix foot swath gnashed like teeth beltings slid and moved like smooth flowing streams the separator whirred the agitator jarred and crashed cylinders augers fans seeders and elevators drapers and chaffcarriers clattered rumbled buzzed and clanged The steam hissed and rasped the ground reverberated a hollow note and the thousands upon thousands of wheat stalks sliced and slashed in the clashing shears of the header rattled like dry rushes in a hurricane as they fell inward and were caught up by an endless belt to disappear into the bowels of the vast brute that devoured them
It was that and no less It was the feeding of some prodigious monster insatiable with iron teeth gnashing and threshing into the fields of standing wheat devouring always never glutted never satiated swallowing an entire harvest snarling and slobbering in a welter of warm vapour acrid smoke and blinding pungent clouds of chaff It moved bellydeep in the standing grain a hippopotamus halfmired in river ooze gorging rushes snorting sweating a dinosaur wallowing through thick hot grasses floundering there crouching grovelling there as its vast jaws crushed and tore and its enormous gullet swallowed incessant ravenous and inordinate
S Behrman very much amused changed places with one of the sack sewers allowing him to hold his horse while he mounted the sacking platform and took his place The trepidation and jostling of the machine shook him till his teeth chattered in his head His ears were shocked and assaulted by a myriadtongued clamour clashing steel straining belts jarring woodwork while the impalpable chaff powder from the separators settled like dust in his hair his ears eyes and mouth
Directly in front of where he sat on the platform was the chute from the cleaner and from this into the mouth of a halffull sack spouted an unending gush of grain winnowed cleaned threshed ready for the mill
The pour from the chute of the cleaner had for S Behrman an immense satisfaction Without an instants pause a thick rivulet of wheat rolled and dashed tumultuous into the sack In half a minute—sometimes in twenty seconds—the sack was full was passed over to the second sewer the mouth reeved up and the sack dumped out upon the ground to be picked up by the wagons and hauled to the railroad
S Behrman hypnotised sat watching that river of grain All that shrieking bellowing machinery all that gigantic organism all the months of labour the ploughing the planting the prayers for rain the years of preparation the heartaches the anxiety the foresight all the whole business of the ranch the work of horses of steam of men and boys looked to this spot—the grain chute from the harvester into the sacks Its volume was the index of failure or success of riches or poverty And at this point the labour of the rancher ended Here at the lip of the chute he parted company with his grain and from here the wheat streamed forth to feed the world The yawning mouths of the sacks might well stand for the unnumbered mouths of the People all agape for food and here into these sacks at first so lean so flaccid attenuated like starved stomachs rushed the living stream of food insistent interminable filling the empty fattening the shrivelled making it sleek and heavy and solid
Half an hour later the harvester stopped again The men on the sacking platform had used up all the sacks But S Behrmans foreman a new man on Los Muertos put in an appearance with the report that the wagon bringing a fresh supply was approaching
How is the grain elevator at Port Costa getting on sir
Finished replied S Behrman
The new master of Los Muertos had decided upon accumulating his grain in bulk in a great elevator at the tidewater port where the grain ships for Liverpool and the East took on their cargoes To this end he had bought and greatly enlarged a building at Port Costa that was already in use for that purpose and to this elevator all the crop of Los Muertos was to be carried The P and S W made S Behrman a special rate
By the way said S Behrman to his superintendent were in luck Fallons buyer was in Bonneville yesterday Hes buying for Fallon and for Holt too I happened to run into him and Ive sold a ship load
A ship load
Of Los Muertos wheat Hes acting for some Indian Famine Relief Committee—lot of women people up in the city—and wanted a whole cargo I made a deal with him Theres about fifty thousand tons of disengaged shipping in San Francisco Bay right now and ships are fighting for charters I wired McKissick and got a long distance telephone from him this morning He got me a barque the Swanhilda Shell dock day after tomorrow and begin loading
Hadnt I better take a run up observed the superintendent and keep an eye on things
No answered S Behrman I want you to stop down here and see that those carpenters hustle the work in the ranch house Derrick will be out by then You see this deal is peculiar Im not selling to any middleman—not to Fallons buyer He only put me on to the thing Im acting direct with these women people and Ive got to have some hand in shipping this stuff myself But I made my selling figure cover the price of a charter Its a queer mixedup deal and I dont fancy it much but theres boodle in it Ill go to Port Costa myself
A little later on in the day when S Behrman had satisfied himself that his harvesting was going forward favourably he reentered his buggy and driving to the County Road turned southward towards the Los Muertos ranch house He had not gone far however before he became aware of a familiar figure on horseback jogging slowly along ahead of him He recognised Presley he shook the reins over his horses back and very soon ranging up by the side of the young man passed the time of day with him
Well what brings you down here again Mr Presley he observed I thought we had seen the last of you
I came down to say goodbye to my friends answered Presley shortly
Going away
Yes—to India
Well upon my word For your health hey
Yes
You LOOK knocked up asserted the other By the way he added I suppose youve heard the news
Presley shrank a little Of late the reports of disasters had followed so swiftly upon one another that he had begun to tremble and to quail at every unexpected bit of information
What news do you mean he asked
About Dyke He has been convicted The judge sentenced him for life
For life Riding on by the side of this man through the ranches by the County Road Presley repeated these words to himself till the full effect of them burst at last upon him
Jailed for life No outlook No hope for the future Day after day year after year to tread the rounds of the same gloomy monotony He saw the grey stone walls the iron doors the flagging of the yard bare of grass or trees—the cell narrow bald cheerless the prison garb the prison fare and round all the grim granite of insuperable barriers shutting out the world shutting in the man with outcasts with the pariah dogs of society thieves murderers men below the beasts lost to all decency drugged with opium utter reprobates To this Dyke had been brought Dyke than whom no man had been more honest more courageous more jovial This was the end of him a prison this was his final estate a criminal
Presley found an excuse for riding on leaving S Behrman behind him He did not stop at Carahers saloon for the heat of his rage had long since begun to cool and dispassionately he saw things in their true light For all the tragedy of his wifes death Caraher was none the less an evil influence among the ranchers an influence that worked only to the inciting of crime Unwilling to venture himself to risk his own life the anarchist saloonkeeper had goaded Dyke and Presley both to murder a bad man a plague spot in the world of the ranchers poisoning the farmers bodies with alcohol and their minds with discontent
At last Presley arrived at the ranch house of Los Muertos The place was silent the grass on the lawn was half dead and over a foot high the beginnings of weeds showed here and there in the driveway He tied his horse to a ring in the trunk of one of the larger eucalyptus trees and entered the house
Mrs Derrick met him in the diningroom The old look of uneasiness almost of terror had gone from her wideopen brown eyes There was in them instead the expression of one to whom a contingency long dreaded has arrived and passed The stolidity of a settled grief of an irreparable calamity of a despair from which there was no escape was in her look her manner her voice She was listless apathetic calm with the calmness of a woman who knows she can suffer no further
We are going away she told Presley as the two sat down at opposite ends of the dining table Just Magnus and myself—all there is left of us There is very little money left Magnus can hardly take care of himself to say nothing of me I must look after him now We are going to Marysville
Why there
You see she explained it happens that my old place is vacant in the Seminary there I am going back to teach—literature She smiled wearily It is beginning all over again isnt it Only there is nothing to look forward to now Magnus is an old man already and I must take care of him
He will go with you then Presley said that will be some comfort to you at least
I dont know she said slowly you have not seen Magnus lately
Is he—how do you mean Isnt he any better
Would you like to see him He is in the office You can go right in
Presley rose He hesitated a moment then
Mrs Annixter he asked Hilma—is she still with you I should like to see her before I go Go in and see Magnus said Mrs Derrick I will tell her you are here
Presley stepped across the stonepaved hallway with the glass roof and after knocking three times at the office door pushed it open and entered
Magnus sat in the chair before the desk and did not look up as Presley entered He had the appearance of a man nearer eighty than sixty All the oldtime erectness was broken and bent It was as though the muscles that once had held the back rigid the chin high had softened and stretched A certain fatness the obesity of inertia hung heavy around the hips and abdomen the eye was watery and vague the cheeks and chin unshaven and unkempt the grey hair had lost its forward curl towards the temples and hung thin and ragged around the ears The hawklike nose seemed hooked to meet the chin the lips were slack the mouth halfopened
Where once the Governor had been a model of neatness in his dress the frock coat buttoned the linen clean he now sat in his shirt sleeves the waistcoat open and showing the soiled shirt His hands were stained with ink and these the only members of his body that yet appeared to retain their activity were busy with a great pile of papers—oblong legal documents that littered the table before him Without a moments cessation these hands of the Governors came and went among the papers deft nimble dexterous
Magnus was sorting papers From the heap upon his left hand he selected a document opened it glanced over it then tied it carefully and laid it away upon a second pile on his right hand When all the papers were in one pile he reversed the process taking from his right hand to place upon his left then back from left to right again then once more from right to left He spoke no word he sat absolutely still even his eyes did not move only his hands swift nervous agitated seemed alive
Why how are you Governor said Presley coming forward Magnus turned slowly about and looked at him and at the hand in which he shook his own
Ah he said at length Presleyyes
Then his glance fell and he looked aimlessly about upon the floor Ive come to say goodbye Governor continued Presley Im going away
Going awayyes why its Presley Goodday Presley
Goodday Governor Im going away Ive come to say goodbye
Goodbye Magnus bent his brows what are you saying goodbye for
Im going away sir
The Governor did not answer Staring at the ledge of the desk he seemed lost in thought There was a long silence Then at length Presley said
How are you getting on Governor
Magnus looked up slowly
Why its Presley he said How do you do Presley
Are you getting on all right sir
Yes said Magnus after a while yes all right I am going away Ive come to say goodbye No— He interrupted himself with a deprecatory smile YOU said THAT didnt you
Well you are going away too your wife tells me
Yes Im going away I cant stay on he hesitated a long time groping for the right word I cant stay on—on—whats the name of this place
Los Muertos put in Presley
No it isnt Yes it is too thats right Los Muertos I dont know where my memory has gone to of late
Well I hope you will be better soon Governor
As Presley spoke the words S Behrman entered the room and the Governor sprang up with unexpected agility and stood against the wall drawing one long breath after another watching the railroad agent with intent eyes
S Behrman saluted both men affably and sat down near the desk drawing the links of his heavy watch chain through his fat fingers
There wasnt anybody outside when I knocked but I heard your voice in here Governor so I came right in I wanted to ask you Governor if my carpenters can begin work in here day after tomorrow I want to take down that partition there and throw this room and the next into one I guess that will be O K wont it Youll be out of here by then wont you
There was no vagueness about Magnuss speech or manner now There was that same alertness in his demeanour that one sees in a tamed lion in the presence of its trainer
Yes yes he said quickly you can send your men here I will be gone by tomorrow
I dont want to seem to hurry you Governor No you will not hurry me I am ready to go now
Anything I can do for you Governor
Nothing
Yes there is Governor insisted S Behrman I think now that all is over we ought to be good friends I think I can do something for you We still want an assistant in the local freight managers office Now what do you say to having a try at it Theres a salary of fifty a month goes with it I guess you must be in need of money now and theres always the wife to support what do you say Will you try the place
Presley could only stare at the man in speechless wonder What was he driving at What reason was there back of this new move and why should it be made thus openly and in his hearing An explanation occurred to him Was this merely a pleasantry on the part of S Behrman a way of enjoying to the full his triumph was he testing the completeness of his victory trying to see just how far he could go how far beneath his feet he could push his oldtime enemy
What do you say he repeated Will you try the place
You—you INSIST inquired the Governor
Oh Im not insisting on anything cried S Behrman Im offering you a place thats all Will you take it
Yes yes Ill take it
Youll come over to our side
Yes Ill come over
Youll have to turn railroad understand
Ill turn railroad
Guess there may be times when youll have to take orders from me
Ill take orders from you
Youll have to be loyal to railroad you know No funny business
Ill be loyal to the railroad
You would like the place then
Yes
S Behrman turned from Magnus who at once resumed his seat and began again to sort his papers
Well Presley said the railroad agent I guess I wont see you again
I hope not answered the other
Tut tut Presley you know you cant make me angry
He put on his hat of varnished straw and wiped his fat forehead with his handkerchief Of late he had grown fatter than ever and the linen vest stamped with a multitude of interlocked horseshoes strained tight its imitation pearl buttons across the great protuberant stomach
Presley looked at the man a moment before replying
But a few weeks ago he could not thus have faced the great enemy of the farmers without a gust of blind rage blowing tempestuous through all his bones Now however he found to his surprise that his fury had lapsed to a profound contempt in which there was bitterness but no truculence He was tired tired to death of the whole business
Yes he answered deliberately I am going away You have ruined this place for me I couldnt live here where I should have to see you or the results of what you have done whenever I stirred out of doors
Nonsense Presley answered the other refusing to become angry Thats foolishness that kind of talk though of course I understand how you feel I guess it was you wasnt it who threw that bomb into my house
It was
Well that dont show any common sense Presley returned S Behrman with perfect aplomb What could you have gained by killing me
Not so much probably as you have gained by killing Harran and Annixter But thats all passed now Youre safe from me The strangeness of this talk the oddity of the situation burst upon him and he laughed aloud It dont seem as though you could be brought to book S Behrman by anybody or by any means does it They cant get at you through the courts—the law cant get you Dykes pistol missed fire for just your benefit and you even escaped Carahers six inches of plugged gas pipe Just what are we going to do with you
Best give it up Pres my boy returned the other I guess there aint anything can touch me Well Magnus he said turning once more to the Governor Well Ill think over what you say and let you know if I can get the place for you in a day or two You see he added youre getting pretty old Magnus Derrick
Presley flung himself from the room unable any longer to witness the depths into which Magnus had fallen What other scenes of degradation were enacted in that room how much further S Behrman carried the humiliation he did not know He suddenly felt that the air of the office was choking him
He hurried up to what once had been his own room On his way he could not but note that much of the house was in disarray a great packingup was in progress trunks halffull stood in the hallways crates and cases in a litter of straw encumbered the rooms The servants came and went with armfuls of books ornaments articles of clothing
Presley took from his room only a few manuscripts and notebooks and a small valise full of his personal effects at the doorway he paused and holding the knob of the door in his hand looked back into the room a very long time
He descended to the lower floor and entered the diningroom Mrs Derrick had disappeared Presley stood for a long moment in front of the fireplace looking about the room remembering the scenes that he had witnessed there—the conference when Osterman had first suggested the fight for Railroad Commissioner and then later the attack on Lyman Derrick and the sudden revelation of that inconceivable treachery But as he stood considering these things a door to his right opened and Hilma entered the room
Presley came forward holding out his hand all unable to believe his eyes It was a woman grave dignified composed who advanced to meet him Hilma was dressed in black the cut and fashion of the gown severe almost monastic All the little feminine and contradictory daintinesses were nowhere to be seen Her statuesque calm evenness of contour yet remained but it was the calmness of great sorrow of infinite resignation Beautiful she still remained but she was older The seriousness of one who has gained the knowledge of the world—knowledge of its evil—seemed to envelope her The calm gravity of a great suffering past but not forgotten sat upon her Not yet twentyone she exhibited the demeanour of a woman of forty
The onetime amplitude of her figure the fulness of hip and shoulder the great deep swell from waist to throat were gone She had grown thinner and in consequence seemed unusually almost unnaturally tall Her neck was slender the outline of her full lips and round chin was a little sharp her arms those wonderful beautiful arms of hers were a little shrunken But her eyes were as wide open as always rimmed as ever by the thin intensely black line of the lashes and her brown fragrant hair was still thick still at times glittered and coruscated in the sun When she spoke it was with the oldtime velvety huskiness of voice that Annixter had learned to love so well
Oh it is you she said giving him her hand You were good to want to see me before you left I hear that you are going away
She sat down upon the sofa
Yes Presley answered drawing a chair near to her yes I felt I could not stay—down here any longer I am going to take a long ocean voyage My ship sails in a few days But you Mrs Annixter what are you going to do Is there any way I can serve you
No she answered nothing Papa is doing well We are living here now
You are well
She made a little helpless gesture with both her hands smiling very sadly
As you see she answered
As he talked Presley was looking at her intently Her dignity was a new element in her character and the certain slender effect of her figure emphasised now by the long folds of the black gown she wore carried it almost superbly She conveyed something of the impression of a queen in exile But she had lost none of her womanliness rather the contrary Adversity had softened her as well as deepened her Presley saw that very clearly Hilma had arrived now at her perfect maturity she had known great love and she had known great grief and the woman that had awakened in her with her affection for Annixter had been strengthened and infinitely ennobled by his death What if things had been different Thus as he conversed with her Presley found himself wondering Her sweetness her beautiful gentleness and tenderness were almost like palpable presences It was almost as if a caress had been laid softly upon his cheek as if a gentle hand closed upon his Here he knew was sympathy here he knew was an infinite capacity for love
Then suddenly all the tired heart of him went out towards her A longing to give the best that was in him to the memory of her to be strong and noble because of her to reshape his purposeless halfwasted life with her nobility and purity and gentleness for his inspiration leaped all at once within him leaped and stood firm hardening to a resolve stronger than any he had ever known
For an instant he told himself that the suddenness of this new emotion must be evidence of its insincerity He was perfectly well aware that his impulses were abrupt and of short duration But he knew that this was not sudden Without realising it he had been from the first drawn to Hilma and all through these last terrible days since the time he had seen her at Los Muertos just after the battle at the ditch she had obtruded continually upon his thoughts The sight of her today more beautiful than ever quiet strong reserved had only brought matters to a culmination
Are you he asked her are you so unhappy Hilma that you can look forward to no more brightness in your life
Unless I could forget—forget my husband she answered how can I be happy I would rather be unhappy in remembering him than happy in forgetting him He was my whole world literally and truly Nothing seemed to count before I knew him and nothing can count for me now after I have lost him
You think now he answered that in being happy again you would be disloyal to him But you will find after a while—years from now—that it need not be so The part of you that belonged to your husband can always keep him sacred that part of you belongs to him and he to it But you are young you have all your life to live yet Your sorrow need not be a burden to you If you consider it as you should—as you WILL some day believe me—it will only be a great help to you It will make you more noble a truer woman more generous
I think I see she answered and I never thought about it in that light before
I want to help you he answered as you have helped me I want to be your friend and above all things I do not want to see your life wasted I am going away and it is quite possible I shall never see you again but you will always be a help to me
I do not understand she answered but I know you mean to be very very kind to me Yes I hope when you come back—if you ever do—you will still be that I do not know why you should want to be so kind unless—yes of course—you were my husbands dearest friend
They talked a little longer and at length Presley rose
I cannot bring myself to see Mrs Derrick again he said It would only serve to make her very unhappy Will you explain that to her I think she will understand
Yes answered Hilma Yes I will
There was a pause There seemed to be nothing more for either of them to say Presley held out his hand
Goodbye she said as she gave him hers
He carried it to his lips
Goodbye he answered Goodbye and may God bless you
He turned away abruptly and left the room But as he was quietly making his way out of the house hoping to get to his horse unobserved he came suddenly upon Mrs Dyke and Sidney on the porch of the house He had forgotten that since the affair at the ditch Los Muertos had been a home to the engineers mother and daughter
And you Mrs Dyke he asked as he took her hand in this breakup of everything where do you go
To the city she answered to San Francisco I have a sister there who will look after the little tad
But you how about yourself Mrs Dyke
She answered him in a quiet voice monotonous expressionless
I am going to die very soon Mr Presley There is no reason why I should live any longer My son is in prison for life everything is over for me and I am tired worn out
You mustnt talk like that Mrs Dyke protested Presley nonsense you will live long enough to see the little tad married He tried to be cheerful But he knew his words lacked the ring of conviction Death already overshadowed the face of the engineers mother He felt that she spoke the truth and as he stood there speaking to her for the last time his arm about little Sidneys shoulder he knew that he was seeing the beginnings of the wreck of another family and that like Hilda Hooven another baby girl was to be started in life through no fault of hers fearfully handicapped weighed down at the threshold of existence with a load of disgrace Hilda Hooven and Sidney Dyke what was to be their histories the one sister of an outcast the other daughter of a convict And he thought of that other young girl the little Honora Gerard the heiress of millions petted loved receiving adulation from all who came near to her whose only care was to choose from among the multitude of pleasures that the world hastened to present to her consideration
Goodbye he said holding out his hand
Goodbye
Goodbye Sidney
He kissed the little girl clasped Mrs Dykes hand a moment with his then slinging his satchel about his shoulders by the long strap with which it was provided left the house and mounting his horse rode away from Los Muertos never to return
Presley came out upon the County Road At a little distance to his left he could see the group of buildings where once Broderson had lived These were being remodelled at length to suit the larger demands of the New Agriculture A strange man came out by the road gate no doubt the new proprietor Presley turned away hurrying northwards along the County Road by the mammoth wateringtank and the long windbreak of poplars
He came to Carahers place There was no change here The saloon had weathered the storm indispensable to the new as well as to the old regime The same dusty buggies and buckboards were tied under the shed and as Presley hurried by he could distinguish Carahers voice loud as ever still proclaiming his creed of annihilation
Bonneville Presley avoided He had no associations with the town He turned aside from the road and crossing the northwest corner of Los Muertos and the line of the railroad turned back along the Upper Road till he came to the Long Trestle and Annixters—Silence desolation abandonment
A vast stillness profound unbroken brooded low over all the place No living thing stirred The rusted windmill on the skeletonlike tower of the artesian well was motionless the great barn empty the windows of the ranch house cook house and dairy boarded up Nailed upon a tree near the broken gateway was a board white painted with stencilled letters bearing the inscription
Warning ALL PERSONS FOUND TRESPASSING ON THESE PREMISES WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW By order P and S W R R
As he had planned Presley reached the hills by the head waters of Brodersons Creek late in the afternoon Toilfully he climbed them reached the highest crest and turning about looked long and for the last time at all the reach of the valley unrolled beneath him The land of the ranches opened out forever and forever under the stimulus of that measureless range of vision The whole gigantic sweep of the San Joaquin expanded Titanic before the eye of the mind flagellated with heat quivering and shimmering under the suns red eye It was the season after the harvest and the great earth the mother after its period of reproduction its pains of labour delivered of the fruit of its loins slept the sleep of exhaustion in the infinite repose of the colossus benignant eternal strong the nourisher of nations the feeder of an entire world
And as Presley looked there came to him strong and true the sense and the significance of all the enigma of growth He seemed for one instant to touch the explanation of existence Men were nothings mere animalculae mere ephemerides that fluttered and fell and were forgotten between dawn and dusk Vanamee had said there was no death But for one second Presley could go one step further Men were naught death was naught life was naught FORCE only existed—FORCE that brought men into the world FORCE that crowded them out of it to make way for the succeeding generation FORCE that made the wheat grow FORCE that garnered it from the soil to give place to the succeeding crop
It was the mystery of creation the stupendous miracle of recreation the vast rhythm of the seasons measured alternative the sun and the stars keeping time as the eternal symphony of reproduction swung in its tremendous cadences like the colossal pendulum of an almighty machine—primordial energy flung out from the hand of the Lord God himself immortal calm infinitely strong
But as he stood thus looking down upon the great valley he was aware of the figure of a man far in the distance moving steadily towards the Mission of San Juan The man was hardly more than a dot but there was something unmistakably familiar in his gait and besides this Presley could fancy that he was hatless He touched his pony with his spur The man was Vanamee beyond all doubt and a little later Presley descending the maze of cowpaths and cattletrails that led down towards the Broderson Creek overtook his friend
Instantly Presley was aware of an immense change Vanamees face was still that of an ascetic still glowed with the rarefied intelligence of a young seer a halfinspired shepherdprophet of Hebraic legends but the shadow of that great sadness which for so long had brooded over him was gone the grief that once he had fancied deathless was indeed dead or rather swallowed up in a victorious joy that radiated like sunlight at dawn from the deepset eyes and the hollow swarthy cheeks They talked together till nearly sundown but to Presleys questions as to the reasons for Vanamees happiness the other would say nothing Once only he allowed himself to touch upon the subject
Death and grief are little things he said They are transient Life must be before death and joy before grief Else there are no such things as death or grief These are only negatives Life is positive Death is only the absence of life just as night is only the absence of day and if this is so there is no such thing as death There is only life and the suppression of life that we foolishly say is death Suppression I say not extinction I do not say that life returns Life never departs Life simply IS For certain seasons it is hidden in the dark but is that death extinction annihilation I take it thank God that it is not Does the grain of wheat hidden for certain seasons in the dark die The grain we think is dead RESUMES AGAIN but how Not as one grain but as twenty So all life Death is only real for all the detritus of the world for all the sorrow for all the injustice for all the grief Presley the good never dies evil dies cruelty oppression selfishness greed—these die but nobility but love but sacrifice but generosity but truth thank God for it small as they are difficult as it is to discover them—these live forever these are eternal You are all broken all cast down by what you have seen in this valley this hopeless struggle this apparently hopeless despair Well the end is not yet What is it that remains after all is over after the dead are buried and the hearts are broken Look at it all from the vast height of humanity—the greatest good to the greatest numbers What remains Men perish men are corrupted hearts are rent asunder but what remains untouched unassailable undefiled Try to find that not only in this but in every crisis of the worlds life and you will find if your view be large enough that it is not evil but good that in the end remains
There was a long pause Presley his mind full of new thoughts held his peace and Vanamee added at length
I believed Angele dead I wept over her grave mourned for her as dead in corruption She has come back to me more beautiful than ever Do not ask me any further To put this story this idyl into words would for me be a profanation This must suffice you Angele has returned to me and I am happy Adios
He rose suddenly The friends clasped each others hands
We shall probably never meet again said Vanamee but if these are the last words I ever speak to you listen to them and remember them because I know I speak the truth Evil is shortlived Never judge of the whole round of life by the mere segment you can see The whole is in the end perfect
Abruptly he took himself away He was gone Presley alone thoughtful his hands clasped behind him passed on through the ranches—here teeming with ripened wheat—his face set from them forever
Not so Vanamee For hours he roamed the countryside now through the deserted cluster of buildings that had once been Annixters home now through the rustling and as yet uncut wheat of Quien Sabe now treading the slopes of the hills far to the north and again following the winding courses of the streams Thus he spent the night
At length the day broke resplendent cloudless The night was passed There was all the sparkle and effervescence of joy in the crystal sunlight as the dawn expanded roseate and at length flamed dazzling to the zenith when the sun moved over the edge of the world and looked down upon all the earth like the eye of God the Father
At the moment Vanamee stood breastdeep in the wheat in a solitary corner of the Quien Sabe rancho He turned eastward facing the celestial glory of the day and sent his voiceless call far from him across the golden grain out towards the little valley of flowers
Swiftly the answer came It advanced to meet him The flowers of the Seed ranch were gone dried and parched by the summers sun shedding their seed by handfuls to be sown again and blossom yet another time The Seed ranch was no longer royal with colour The roses the lilies the carnations the hyacinths the poppies the violets the mignonette all these had vanished the little valley was without colour where once it had exhaled the most delicious perfume it was now odourless Under the blinding light of the day it stretched to its hillsides bare brown unlovely The romance of the place had vanished but with it had vanished the Vision
It was no longer a figment of his imagination a creature of dreams that advanced to meet Vanamee It was Reality—it was Angele in the flesh vital sane material who at last issued forth from the entrance of the little valley Romance had vanished but better than romance was here Not a manifestation not a dream but her very self The night was gone but the sun had risen the flowers had disappeared but strong vigorous noble the wheat had come
In the wheat he waited for her He saw her coming She was simply dressed No fanciful wreath of tuberoses was about her head now no strange garment of red and gold enveloped her now It was no longer an ephemeral illusion of the night evanescent mystic but a simple country girl coming to meet her lover The vision of the night had been beautiful but what was it compared to this Reality was better than Romance The simple honesty of a loving trusting heart was better than a legend of flowers an hallucination of the moonlight She came nearer Bathed in sunlight he saw her face to face saw her hair hanging in two straight plaits on either side of her face saw the enchanting fulness of her lips the strange balancing movement of her head upon her slender neck But now she was no longer asleep The wonderful eyes violet blue heavylidded with their perplexing oriental slant towards the temples were wide open and fixed upon his
From out the world of romance out of the moonlight and the star sheen out of the faint radiance of the lilies and the still air heavy with perfume she had at last come to him The moonlight the flowers and the dream were all vanished away Angele was realised in the Wheat She stood forth in the sunlight a fact and no longer a fancy
He ran forward to meet her and she held out her arms to him He caught her to him and she turning her face to his kissed him on the mouth
I love you I love you she murmured
Upon descending from his train at Port Costa S Behrman asked to be directed at once to where the bark Swanhilda was taking on grain Though he had bought and greatly enlarged his new elevator at this port he had never seen it The work had been carried on through agents S Behrman having far too many and more pressing occupations to demand his presence and attention Now however he was to see the concrete evidence of his success for the first time
He picked his way across the railroad tracks to the line of warehouses that bordered the docks numbered with enormous Roman numerals and full of grain in bags The sight of these bags of grain put him in mind of the fact that among all the other shippers he was practically alone in his way of handling his wheat They handled the grain in bags he however preferred it in the bulk Bags were sometimes four cents apiece and he had decided to build his elevator and bulk his grain therein rather than to incur this expense Only a small part of his wheat—that on Number Three division—had been sacked All the rest practically twothirds of the entire harvest of Los Muertos now found itself warehoused in his enormous elevator at Port Costa
To a certain degree it had been the desire of observing the working of his system of handling the wheat in bulk that had drawn S Behrman to Port Costa But the more powerful motive had been curiosity not to say downright sentiment So long had he planned for this day of triumph so eagerly had he looked forward to it that now when it had come he wished to enjoy it to its fullest extent wished to miss no feature of the disposal of the crop He had watched it harvested he had watched it hauled to the railway and now would watch it as it poured into the hold of the ship would even watch the ship as she cleared and got under way
He passed through the warehouses and came out upon the dock that ran parallel with the shore of the bay A great quantity of shipping was in view barques for the most part Cape Horners great deep sea tramps whose ironshod forefeet had parted every ocean the world round from Rangoon to Rio Janeiro and from Melbourne to Christiania Some were still in the stream loaded with wheat to the Plimsoll mark ready to depart with the next tide But many others laid their great flanks alongside the docks and at that moment were being filled by derrick and crane with thousands upon thousands of bags of wheat The scene was brisk the cranes creaked and swung incessantly with a rattle of chains stevedores and wharfingers toiled and perspired boatswains and dockmasters shouted orders drays rumbled the water lapped at the piles a group of sailors painting the flanks of one of the great ships raised an occasional chanty the trade wind sang aeolian in the cordages filling the air with the nimble taint of salt All around were the noises of ships and the feel and flavor of the sea
S Behrman soon discovered his elevator It was the largest structure discernible and upon its red roof in enormous white letters was his own name Thither between piles of grain bags halted drays crates and boxes of merchandise with an occasional pyramid of salmon cases S Behrman took his way Cabled to the dock close under his elevator lay a great ship with lofty masts and great spars Her stern was toward him as he approached and upon it in raised golden letters he could read the words Swanhilda—Liverpool
He went aboard by a very steep gangway and found the mate on the quarter deck S Behrman introduced himself
Well he added how are you getting on
Very fairly sir returned the mate who was an Englishman Well have her all snugged down tight by this time day after tomorrow Its a great saving of time shunting the stuff in her like that and three men can do the work of seven
Ill have a look round I believe returned S Behrman
Right—oh answered the mate with a nod
S Behrman went forward to the hatch that opened down into the vast hold of the ship A great iron chute connected this hatch with the elevator and through it was rushing a veritable cataract of wheat
It came from some gigantic bin within the elevator itself rushing down the confines of the chute to plunge into the roomy gloomy interior of the hold with an incessant metallic roar persistent steady inevitable No men were in sight The place was deserted No human agency seemed to be back of the movement of the wheat Rather the grain seemed impelled with a force of its own a resistless huge force eager vivid impatient for the sea
S Behrman stood watching his ears deafened with the roar of the hard grains against the metallic lining of the chute He put his hand once into the rushing tide and the contact rasped the flesh of his fingers and like an undertow drew his hand after it in its impetuous dash
Cautiously he peered down into the hold A musty odour rose to his nostrils the vigorous pungent aroma of the raw cereal It was dark He could see nothing but all about and over the opening of the hatch the air was full of a fine impalpable dust that blinded the eyes and choked the throat and nostrils
As his eyes became used to the shadows of the cavern below him he began to distinguish the grey mass of the wheat a great expanse almost liquid in its texture which as the cataract from above plunged into it moved and shifted in long slow eddies As he stood there this cataract on a sudden increased in volume He turned about casting his eyes upward toward the elevator to discover the cause His foot caught in a coil of rope and he fell headforemost into the hold
The fall was a long one and he struck the surface of the wheat with the sodden impact of a bundle of damp clothes For the moment he was stunned All the breath was driven from his body He could neither move nor cry out But by degrees his wits steadied themselves and his breath returned to him He looked about and above him The daylight in the hold was dimmed and clouded by the thick chaffdust thrown off by the pour of grain and even this dimness dwindled to twilight at a short distance from the opening of the hatch while the remotest quarters were lost in impenetrable blackness He got upon his feet only to find that he sunk ankle deep in the loose packed mass underfoot
Hell he muttered heres a fix
Directly underneath the chute the wheat as it poured in raised itself in a conical mound but from the sides of this mound it shunted away incessantly in thick layers flowing in all directions with the nimbleness of water Even as S Behrman spoke a wave of grain poured around his legs and rose rapidly to the level of his knees He stepped quickly back To stay near the chute would soon bury him to the waist
No doubt there was some other exit from the hold some companion ladder that led up to the deck He scuffled and waded across the wheat groping in the dark with outstretched hands With every inhalation he choked filling his mouth and nostrils more with dust than with air At times he could not breathe at all but gagged and gasped his lips distended But search as he would he could find no outlet to the hold no stairway no companion ladder Again and again staggering along in the black darkness he bruised his knuckles and forehead against the iron sides of the ship He gave up the attempt to find any interior means of escape and returned laboriously to the space under the open hatchway Already he could see that the level of the wheat was raised
God he said this isnt going to do at all He uttered a great shout Hello on deck there somebody For Gods sake
The steady metallic roar of the pouring wheat drowned out his voice He could scarcely hear it himself above the rush of the cataract Besides this he found it impossible to stay under the hatch The flying grains of wheat spattering as they fell stung his face like winddriven particles of ice It was a veritable torture his hands smarted with it Once he was all but blinded Furthermore the succeeding waves of wheat rolling from the mound under the chute beat him back swirling and dashing against his legs and knees mounting swiftly higher carrying him off his feet
Once more he retreated drawing back from beneath the hatch He stood still for a moment and shouted again It was in vain His voice returned upon him unable to penetrate the thunder of the chute and horrified he discovered that so soon as he stood motionless upon the wheat he sank into it Before he knew it he was kneedeep again and a long swirl of grain sweeping outward from the everbreaking everreforming pyramid below the chute poured around his thighs immobolising him
A frenzy of terror suddenly leaped to life within him The horror of death the Fear of The Trap shook him like a dry reed Shouting he tore himself free of the wheat and once more scrambled and struggled towards the hatchway He stumbled as he reached it and fell directly beneath the pour Like a storm of small shot mercilessly pitilessly the unnumbered multitude of hurtling grains flagellated and beat and tore his flesh Blood streamed from his forehead and thickening with the powderlike chaffdust blinded his eyes He struggled to his feet once more An avalanche from the cone of wheat buried him to his thighs He was forced back and back and back beating the air falling rising howling for aid He could no longer see his eyes crammed with dust smarted as if transfixed with needles whenever he opened them His mouth was full of the dust his lips were dry with it thirst tortured him while his outcries choked and gagged in his rasped throat
And all the while without stop incessantly inexorably the wheat as if moving with a force all its own shot downward in a prolonged roar persistent steady inevitable
He retreated to a far corner of the hold and sat down with his back against the iron hull of the ship and tried to collect his thoughts to calm himself Surely there must be some way of escape surely he was not to die like this die in this dreadful substance that was neither solid nor fluid What was he to do How make himself heard
But even as he thought about this the cone under the chute broke again and sent a great layer of grain rippling and tumbling toward him It reached him where he sat and buried his hand and one foot
He sprang up trembling and made for another corner
By God he cried by God I must think of something pretty quick
Once more the level of the wheat rose and the grains began piling deeper about him Once more he retreated Once more he crawled staggering to the foot of the cataract screaming till his ears sang and his eyeballs strained in their sockets and once more the relentless tide drove him back
Then began that terrible dance of death the man dodging doubling squirming hunted from one corner to another the wheat slowly inexorably flowing rising spreading to every angle to every nook and cranny It reached his middle Furious and with bleeding hands and broken nails he dug his way out to fall backward all but exhausted gasping for breath in the dustthickened air Roused again by the slow advance of the tide he leaped up and stumbled away blinded with the agony in his eyes only to crash against the metal hull of the vessel He turned about the blood streaming from his face and paused to collect his senses and with a rush another wave swirled about his ankles and knees Exhaustion grew upon him To stand still meant to sink to lie or sit meant to be buried the quicker and all this in the dark all this in an air that could scarcely be breathed all this while he fought an enemy that could not be gripped toiling in a sea that could not be stayed
Guided by the sound of the falling wheat S Behrman crawled on hands and knees toward the hatchway Once more he raised his voice in a shout for help His bleeding throat and raw parched lips refused to utter but a wheezing moan Once more he tried to look toward the one patch of faint light above him His eyelids clogged with chaff could no longer open The Wheat poured about his waist as he raised himself upon his knees
Reason fled Deafened with the roar of the grain blinded and made dumb with its chaff he threw himself forward with clutching fingers rolling upon his back and lay there moving feebly the head rolling from side to side The Wheat leaping continuously from the chute poured around him It filled the pockets of the coat it crept up the sleeves and trouser legs it covered the great protuberant stomach it ran at last in rivulets into the distended gasping mouth It covered the face Upon the surface of the Wheat under the chute nothing moved but the Wheat itself There was no sign of life Then for an instant the surface stirred A hand fat with short fingers and swollen veins reached up clutching then fell limp and prone In another instant it was covered In the hold of the Swanhilda there was no movement but the widening ripples that spread flowing from the everbreaking everreforming cone no sound but the rushing of the Wheat that continued to plunge incessantly from the iron chute in a prolonged roar persistent steady inevitable
CONCLUSION
The Swanhilda cast off from the docks at Port Costa two days after Presley had left Bonneville and the ranches and made her way up to San Francisco anchoring in the stream off the City front A few hours after her arrival Presley waiting at his club received a despatch from Cedarquist to the effect that she would clear early the next morning and that he must be aboard of her before midnight
He sent his trunks aboard and at once hurried to Cedarquists office to say goodbye He found the manufacturer in excellent spirits
What do you think of Lyman Derrick now Presley he said when Presley had sat down Hes in the new politics with a vengeance isnt he And our own dear Railroad openly acknowledges him as their candidate Youve heard of his canvass
Yes yes answered Presley Well he knows his business best
But Cedarquist was full of another idea his new venture—the organizing of a line of clipper wheat ships for Pacific and Oriental trade—was prospering
The Swanhilda is the mother of the fleet Pres I had to buy HER but the keel of her sister ship will be laid by the time she discharges at Calcutta Well carry our wheat into Asia yet The AngloSaxon started from there at the beginning of everything and its manifest destiny that he must circle the globe and fetch up where he began his march You are up with procession Pres going to India this way in a wheat ship that flies American colours By the way do you know where the money is to come from to build the sister ship of the Swanhilda From the sale of the plant and scrap iron of the Atlas Works Yes Ive given it up definitely that business The people here would not back me up But Im working off on this new line now It may break me but well try it on You know the Million Dollar Fair was formally opened yesterday There is he added with a wink a Midway Pleasance in connection with the thing Mrs Cedarquist and our friend Hartrath got up a subscription to construct a figure of California—heroic size—out of dried apricots I assure you he remarked With prodigious gravity it is a real work of art and quite a feature of the Fair Well good luck to you Pres Write to me from Honolulu and bon voyage My respects to the hungry Hindoo Tell him were coming Father Abraham a hundred thousand more Tell the men of the East to look out for the men of the West The irrepressible Yank is knocking at the doors of their temples and he will want to sell em carpetsweepers for their harems and electric light plants for their temple shrines Goodbye to you
Goodbye sir
Get fat yourself while youre about it Presley he observed as the two stood up and shook hands
There shouldnt be any lack of food on a wheat ship Bread enough surely
Little monotonous though Man cannot live by bread alone Well youre really off Goodbye
Goodbye sir
And as Presley issued from the building and stepped out into the street he was abruptly aware of a great wagon shrouded in white cloth inside of which a bass drum was being furiously beaten On the cloth in great letters were the words
Vote for Lyman Derrick Regular Republican Nominee for Governor of California
The Swanhilda lifted and rolled slowly majestically on the ground swell of the Pacific the water hissing and boiling under her forefoot her cordage vibrating and droning in the steady rush of the trade winds It was drawing towards evening and her lights had just been set The master passed Presley who was leaning over the rail smoking a cigarette and paused long enough to remark
The land yonder if you can make it out is Point Gordo and if you were to draw a line from our position now through that point and carry it on about a hundred miles further it would just about cross Tulare County not very far from where you used to live
I see answered Presley I see Thanks I am glad to know that
The master passed on and Presley going up to the quarter deck looked long and earnestly at the faint line of mountains that showed vague and bluish above the waste of tumbling water
Those were the mountains of the Coast range and beyond them was what once had been his home Bonneville was there and Guadalajara and Los Muertos and Quien Sabe the Mission of San Juan the Seed ranch Annixters desolated home and Dykes ruined hopfields
Well it was all over now that terrible drama through which he had lived Already it was far distant from him but once again it rose in his memory portentous sombre ineffaceable He passed it all in review from the day of his first meeting with Vanamee to the day of his parting with Hilma He saw it all—the great sweep of country opening to view from the summit of the hills at the head waters of Brodersons Creek the barn dance at Annixters the harness room with its jam of furious men the quiet garden of the Mission Dykes house his flight upon the engine his brave fight in the chaparral Lyman Derrick at bay in the diningroom of the ranch house the rabbit drive the fight at the irrigating ditch the shouting mob in the Bonneville Opera House The drama was over The fight of Ranch and Railroad had been wrought out to its dreadful close It was true as Shelgrim had said that forces rather than men had locked horns in that struggle but for all that the men of the Ranch and not the men of the Railroad had suffered Into the prosperous valley into the quiet community of farmers that galloping monster that terror of steel and steam had burst shooting athwart the horizons flinging the echo of its thunder over all the ranches of the valley leaving blood and destruction in its path
Yes the Railroad had prevailed The ranches had been seized in the tentacles of the octopus the iniquitous burden of extortionate freight rates had been imposed like a yoke of iron The monster had killed Harran had killed Osterman had killed Broderson had killed Hooven It had beggared Magnus and had driven him to a state of semiinsanity after he had wrecked his honour in the vain attempt to do evil that good might come It had enticed Lyman into its toils to pluck from him his manhood and his honesty corrupting him and poisoning him beyond redemption it had hounded Dyke from his legitimate employment and had made of him a highwayman and criminal It had cast forth Mrs Hooven to starve to death upon the City streets It had driven Minna to prostitution It had slain Annixter at the very moment when painfully and manfully he had at last achieved his own salvation and stood forth resolved to do right to act unselfishly and to live for others It had widowed Hilma in the very dawn of her happiness It had killed the very babe within the mothers womb strangling life ere yet it had been born stamping out the spark ordained by God to burn through all eternity
What then was left Was there no hope no outlook for the future no rift in the black curtain no glimmer through the night Was good to be thus overthrown Was evil thus to be strong and to prevail Was nothing left
Then suddenly Vanamees words came back to his mind What was the larger view what contributed the greatest good to the greatest numbers What was the full round of the circle whose segment only he beheld In the end the ultimate final end of all what was left Yes good issued from this crisis untouched unassailable undefiled
Men—motes in the sunshine—perished were shot down in the very noon of life hearts were broken little children started in life lamentably handicapped young girls were brought to a life of shame old women died in the heart of life for lack of food In that little isolated group of human insects misery death and anguish spun like a wheel of fire
BUT THE WHEAT REMAINED Untouched unassailable undefiled that mighty worldforce that nourisher of nations wrapped in Nirvanic calm indifferent to the human swarm gigantic resistless moved onward in its appointed grooves Through the welter of blood at the irrigation ditch through the sham charity and shallow philanthropy of famine relief committees the great harvest of Los Muertos rolled like a flood from the Sierras to the Himalayas to feed thousands of starving scarecrows on the barren plains of India
Falseness dies injustice and oppression in the end of everything fade and vanish away Greed cruelty selfishness and inhumanity are shortlived the individual suffers but the race goes on Annixter dies but in a far distant corner of the world a thousand lives are saved The larger view always and through all shams all wickednesses discovers the Truth that will in the end prevail and all things surely inevitably resistlessly work together for good