PEACE--AND THE PRICE
In the justice court at Vegas the Widow Huff met her match in the person
of the magistrate, who warned her peremptorily that if she interrupted
again he would commit her for contempt of court. Then the bailiff smote
his desk a resounding blow and there was silence in the presence of the
law. It was a new thing to her, this power called the law and that
accuser of all offenders, The People; and before she had finished she
learned the great truth that no one is above the law. It governs us all
and, but for the mercy of the courts, would land most of our hot-heads
in jail. But though it was proved beyond the peradventure of a doubt
that the Widow had attempted violence it was tacitly understood that,
being a woman, there would be no actual commitment.
Wiley Holman came forward and informed the court that the defendant had
threatened his life and upon two occasions and had made assaults upon
his person with the avowed intention of killing him. Upon being
questioned by the judge he admitted recognizing a shotgun, and three
buckshot which had been extracted from his leg; but in a voluntary
statement he expressed the opinion that the defendant was hardly
responsible. At the same time, he stated, since his place of business
was not far from the defendant's home, he would respectfully request
that she be placed in custody and bound over to keep the peace. The
testimony of the officer and of other witnesses left no doubt as to the
existence of a threat and after the Widow had made a chastened speech
she was placed in the custody of the sheriff.
To this humiliation was added the greater pang of depositing all her
jewels with her bondsmen and when it was over and she was back in her
home the Widow's proud spirit was broken. She retired to the kitchen and
the balm of a great peace was laid upon tumultuous Keno. For years the
bold ego of Colonel Huff's wife had dominated the very life of the camp,
but the son of Honest John had at last found a way of putting her anger
in leash. Rage as she might in the privacy of her kitchen, or pour out
her woes to the neighbors, when Wiley Holman came by she turned away her
face and allowed him to pass in silence. And Wiley himself never gave
her a glance, nor Virginia when he met her in the street; for the memory
of their insults was still hot in his brain, and all he asked for was
peace.
He was safe, at last, safe to remodel the mill and bring up the ore from
the mine; but as his work grew and prospered the anger died in his
breast and his heart turned back to Virginia. She was quiet now, with
averted eyes and the sad, brooding face of a nun; and she worked early
and late in the crowded dining-room, serving meals to the hard-rock
miners. He had closed down his cook-house to give them some patronage,
when the first mad rush of prospectors was past; but though they fed his
men and took the money that he had paid them, they owned no obligation
to him.
In the Paymaster the pumps were working steadily now, clearing the water
from the submerged passages, and as the first checks came back in
payment for his tungsten he ordered more timbers and men. There was
plenty of ore on the dump for the moment but, while he separated it from
the waste and shipped it to town, he caught up the falling ground in the
drifts and prepared to stope out the scheelite. In the old, dismantled
mill he had a crew working over-time, installing a rock-crusher and a
concentrating plant; and every truck that brought out timbers and
supplies took back its tons of ore. The price of tungsten leapt from
forty dollars a unit to sixty and sixty-five, and rival buyers clamored
for his ore; the mills treated it for almost nothing in order to get
control of it and his credit was A1 at the bank--but when he passed
Virginia she turned her face away and his heart turned heavy as lead.
It was the price of success, and Wiley recognized it, but he rebelled
against his fate. What fault was it of his that her father and his
father had fallen out over the mine? He had shown by the stock that the
treachery had been Blount's and neither of them was to blame. What fault
was it of his that she had a shrewish mother who was bent upon ruining
her life? Had he not endured abuse and suffered grievous wounds before
he had asserted his rights? And with Virginia herself, when had there
ever been a time when he had forgotten his lover's part--except on that
last day, when he had turned like a trodden worm and protested his right
to live? And yet she blamed him for all her misfortunes and for every
day that she slaved; and even took the stock which he had returned as a
peace-offering and hurled it in his face!
Wiley's lips set grimly as he gazed at the certificates for which men
had striven and died. There were some from her father, transferred on
her birthdays when the stock was around thirty and forty; and others
from old prospectors like Henry Masters, who had left it to Virginia
when they died. She had sent it to him by Charley, out of shame for her
harsh words, and he had bought it for four hundred dollars, half the
money that he had in the world. Those had been happy days, in spite of
the anxiety, for he had made the sacrifice for her; and to prove his
devotion--and make a peace-offering against the explosion that was bound
to come--he had given the stock back to Virginia. That was when he was a
prospector, doing business on a shoe-string, a racing car and a diamond
ring; but now when he had made his _coup_ and could write his check
for thousands she threw the stock back in his face.
The stock had a value now for, under the terms of the bond and lease,
one-tenth of the net mill returns were automatically withheld and turned
in to the company as royalty; and if for any reason he failed to meet
the payment when the fifty thousand-dollar option expired, then this
stock and all Paymaster stock would take a sudden jump to five or ten
dollars a share. And the stock was hers--she had received it from her
father when he was the mining king of the West, and from old man Masters
when he was dying in the cabin where she had helped to care for him for
months--yet she would not accept it as a gift. Wiley pondered a long
time and then, as Christmas drew near, he sent for Death Valley Charley.
"Charley," he began, when he came up that night, "did I understand you
to say one time that you were acting as a kind of guardian to Virginia?
Well, now here's a bunch of stock that you sold to me once when you were
slightly off your cabeza. There's over twelve thousand shares and all
you asked was four hundred dollars, when you knew they were worth eight
hundred at least."
"Yes, that's so," admitted Charley, blinking and rubbing his chin, "but
you know them women, Wiley. They're crazy, that's all, and the Colonel
he told me special not to let them lose their mine."
"Well, never mind the mine," said Wiley wincing. "I'm talking about this
stock. Don't you think it's your duty, by George, as guardian, to turn
around and buy it back? You've got five thousand dollars coming to you
on those claims of yours and I'll tell you what I'll do. I'm short,
right now on account of buying machinery, and so I can't pay you much
cash; but if you'll take this stock back in part payment of your claims
I'll give you four hundred more."
"Well, all right," agreed Charley after gazing at him thoughtfully, "but
you ought to give back that mine. The Colonel, he told me----"
"What do you mean, give it back?" demanded Wiley, irritably. "It isn't
my property yet. I've got to pay for it first and get it away from old
Blount before I can give it to anybody. That's fifty thousand dollars
that I've got to make clear between now and the twentieth of May; but
believe me, Charley, if I once get it paid for I'm going to do something
noble."
"That's good," assented Charley, "but you've got to pay me, right
off--there's something going to happen!" His sun-dazed eyes opened up
wide with excitement and he listened long and earnestly at the door
before he tiptoed back to Wiley's desk. "I can hear 'em," he said.
"They're going to blow up the mine and shake the mountains down.
They're boring through the ground, but I can hear them working--it's
like worms eating their way through wood."
"Is that so?" queried Wiley. "Well, maybe we can stop 'em. I'll look
after it, right away. But now about this stock----"
"It's the Germans!" burst out Charley. "They've got boring machines that
eat through mountains like wood. And then, _bumm_, it's them mines,
and the dynamite bombs----"
"Yes, it's awful," agreed Wiley, "but here's your money, Charley; so
maybe you'd better go. And you keep this stock now, until it comes
Christmas; and then, Christmas Eve, you slip into the house and put it
in Virginia's stocking."
"Oh--yes," agreed Charley, still listening to the Germans and then he
became lost in deep thought. "The Colonel will kill me," he said at
last. "It's Christmas, and I ain't brought his whiskey."
"Why, what's the matter?" joshed Wiley. "Why didn't you deliver it? Did
you get caught in a sandstorm, or what?"
"Yes, a sandstorm," answered Charley, solemnly. "It came down the valley
like a wall. And my burros got away; but the Colonel, he found me--I was
digging a hole in the sand."
"Say, where are these Ube-Hebes?" broke in Wiley impulsively. "I'd like
to go over there some time."
"They're across Death Valley," answered Charley smiling craftily, "--on
the west side, in the Funeral Range. The Coffin mine is there--I used to
work in it--but they put me underground with a stiff for a pardner so I
quit and come back to town."
"Yes, I heard about that; but you forgot something, Charley--how about
that graveyard shift? But I'll tell you what I'll do, if you'll take me
to the Colonel I'll help Virginia get back her mine."
He plumped the statement at him, for Charley was an innocent who spoke
out the truth when he was jumped, but for once he detected the ruse.
"The Colonel's dead," he answered sulkily and picked up his hat to go.
"I doubt it!" scoffed Wiley. "I met a man the other day who said he'd
seen him--in the Ube-Hebes mountains."
"He did?" exclaimed Charley, and then he drew back and his eyes flashed
with angry resentment. "You're a liar!" he burst out. "The Colonel is
dead. He never said anything of the kind."
"Yes, he did," insisted Wiley, "and you know the man well. He's got a
little dog like Heine."
"He's a liar!" cried Charley savagely, "and don't you go to talking or
I'll make you wish you hadn't."
"No, I won't," assured Wiley, "but here's the proposition--the Colonel
left a lot of stock. And Mrs. Huff, being crazy, gave it all to Blount
on a loan of eight hundred dollars. But if the Colonel should come back
that transfer would be illegal and he could fix it to get back the mine.
So don't talk to me about giving Virginia her mine--you go out and bring
in the Colonel."
"He's dead!" yelled Charley, scrabbling madly out the door. "You're a
liar--I tell you he's dead!"
"Yes, he's dead," observed Wiley, "just the same as I am. I'll have to
get old Charley drunk."