and beyond to the billowing grass-lands of Arcadia Park, and the shrewd
old eyes lost something of their militant fire when he said:
"I reckon I was right selfish about that, in the beginning, Mistuh
Ballard. It's a mighty fine range, suh, and I was greedy for the
isolation--as some otheh men are greedy for money and the power it
brings. But this heah little girl of mine she went out into the world,
and came back to shame me, suh. Here was land and a living, independence
and happiness, for hundreds of the world's po' strugglers, and I was
making a cattle paschuh of it! Right then and thah was bo'n the idea,
suh, of making a sure-enough kingdom of Arcadia, and it was my laying of
the foundations that attracted Mr. Pelham and his money-hungry crowd."
"Your idea!" ejaculated Ballard. "Then Pelham and his people were
interlopers?"
"You can put it that way; yes, suh. Thei-uh idea was wrapped up in a
coin-sack; you could fai'ly heah it clink! Thei-uh proposal was to sell
the land, and to make the water an eve'lasting tax upon it; mine was to
make the water free. We hitched on that, and then they proposed to
_me_--to _me_, suh--to make a stock-selling swindle of it. When I told
them they were a pack of damned scoundrels, they elected to fight me,
suh; and last night, please God, we saw the beginning of the end that is
to be--the righteous end. But come on in to breakfast; you can't live on
sentiment for always, Mistuh Ballard."
They went in together behind him, the two for whom Arcadia had suddenly
been transformed into paradise, and on the way the Elsa whom Ballard had
first known and learned to love in the far-distant world beyond the
barrier mountains reasserted herself.
"What do you suppose Mr. Pelham will say when he hears that you have
really made love to the cow-punching princess?" she asked, flippantly.
"Do you usually boast of such things in advance, Mr. Ballard?"
But his answer ignored the little pin-prick of mockery.
"I'm thinking altogether of Colonel Adam Craigmiles, my dear; and of the
honour he does you by being your father. He is a king, every inch of
him, Elsa, girl! I'm telling you right now that we'll have to put in the
high speed, and keep it in, to live up to him."
And afterward, when the house-party guests had gathered, in good old
Kentucky fashion, around the early breakfast-table, and the story of the
night had been threshed out, and word was brought that Otto and the car
were waiting, he stood up with his hand on the back of Elsa's chair and
lifted his claret class with the loyal thought still uppermost. "A toast
with me, good friends--my stirrup-cup: I drink to our host, the Knight
Commander of Castle 'Cadia, and the reigning monarch of the Land of
Heart's Delight--Long live the King of Arcadia!"
And they drank it standing.
THE END