THE ALARM
At the dam Weir found Meyers and Atkinson anxiously waiting his
return. The sudden concerted melting away of workmen from camp had
been warning to his subordinates that the danger of a general spree
had taken definite form, which the report of a pair of young engineers
confirmed when they followed a group of laborers to the old adobe
house and beheld the beginning of the debauch.
"Get out all the staff, Meyers, and you, Atkinson, all the foremen and
sober men left, then go down the road and put that joint out of
business, taking axes and whatever is necessary."
"And if they fight?" Meyers asked.
"Try first to placate them. If that fails, some of you draw them off
in order to permit the others to enter the house and destroy the
whiskey. It's a tough job, but you may succeed. If the crowd turns
ugly as it may, being drunk, come back. No need to take the risk of
broken heads or being beaten up. See, however, if you can't outwit the
outfit. Possibly you could push that mud house over from the rear by
means of a beam; that would do the business. I leave it to you to
decide what's best to do, men, after you've examined the situation."
"The camp will be unguarded except for you and the two men with you,"
Weir's assistant suggested. "If the crowd drinking down at that place
should take the notion to come here and tear things up, there would
be nothing to hinder them. A few should stay, anyway, I imagine--half
a dozen, who can use guns."
"Well, pick out six to remain," the other agreed.
For Meyers' suggestion had raised a disagreeable possibility. It was
never safe to ignore precautions when a gang of two or three hundred
rough, active laborers, however loyal when sober, were made
irresponsible and crazy by liquor; and one stage of drunkenness in
such men was usually manifested in a wild desire for violence. The
scheme of Weir's enemies might comprise using this very act for
wrecking the camp.
Six men, to be sure, would offer little resistance to stemming the
movement once it was started, but the sight of steel in the guards'
hands might cause even a reckless mob to pause long enough for an
appeal. If the men should be brought to listen, they could probably be
diverted from their purpose, as impassioned crowds are easily swayed
by men of force.
In any case the camp and dam should be defended to the last. That went
without saying.
Meyers and Atkinson had little more than departed with their muster of
engineers, foremen and sober workmen, some fifty in all, when the two
cars driven by Dr. Hosmer and Janet arrived at headquarters. To the
occupants of both machines the camp appeared singularly dark and
silent, the office building and the commissary shack alone showing
lights.
The four visitors entered the main room in the former building, where
they found Mr. Pollock and Martinez.
"Mr. Weir stepped out for a moment to make a round of the camp and the
horse corrals," the easterner replied in answer to an inquiry from the
doctor. "Will you be seated?" And he politely placed chairs for Janet
and Mary, while his look scrutinized the party with discreet
interest.
"Oh, Mr. Martinez, you've escaped!" Janet exclaimed, after a surprised
stare at the lawyer.
The Mexican smiled, bowed and drew one point of his black mustache
through his fingers.
"I have indeed, Miss Janet," said he. "Not without an unpleasant
experience, however. I understand you secured the paper concerning
which I telephoned you, and though I understand it has since been
lost--through no fault of yours--I desire to express my thanks for
your excellent assistance in the matter."
"But it has been found again; we have it with us."
Martinez gave a start, none the less sincere for being dramatic.
"What! Saurez' deposition? Weir thought it burned. Why, this is the
most wonderful luck in the world! It gives us the whip-hand again."
Janet nodded.
"Mary Johnson here found it in a crack in the rocks when she and her
father went up to the cabin to bring Ed Sorenson down. Father has it.
That's one reason we're here. But there's another; Mr. Sorenson has
learned of his son's accident, has seen him, talked with him, been
told lies and now is in a dreadful rage, threatening every one
concerned. He was at our house and made a scene. He's coming here, or
so he said, to kill Mr. Weir and obtain the document. So we hurried to
the dam to give warning."
At this juncture Mr. Pollock stepped forward.
"Mr. Sorenson hasn't yet appeared, and I assure you he will be
prevented from harming any one if he comes. You are Miss Janet Hosmer,
I judge, of whom I've heard so much that is praiseworthy. Will you
allow me to introduce myself? I'm Mr. Pollock, a company director,
and to a degree in Mr. Weir's confidence."
Janet expressed her pleasure at his acquaintance and in turn
introduced her father and the Johnsons.
"Mr. Weir spoke of you to us, but we weren't aware he had informed you
of the paper." Then she added, "But he would wish to, naturally."
Weir's voice, without, in conversation with some one caused them all
to look towards the door. In the panel of light falling on the
darkness before the house they perceived the engineer's tall figure by
a horse, from which the rider was dismounting. Letting the reins drag
and leaving the horse to stand, the latter walked with Weir into the
room.
"Why, this is a delightful surprise!" the engineer exclaimed on
beholding the four who had come while he was out. "And unexpected."
His eyes rapidly interrogated the different faces. "I suppose it's
business, not pleasure, that brings you."
"That's so," said Johnson, the rancher, nodding.
"Well, Madden is here on business, too, it seems." He glanced at Mr.
Pollock. "Mr. Madden is our sheriff and he has a warrant for my
arrest." He turned back to the officer. "You come at a bad time for my
affairs. You saw that big show at the old house half way down the
road? That crowd is made up of my workmen, who are being entertained
with free whiskey, and there's no telling but what they may come here
to tear things up. The whiskey is furnished by Vorse, I suspect, and
is being served at Vorse's place. Your warrant is inspired by Vorse
and others, isn't it? The two circumstances coming at the same moment,
the free drunk and my arrest, look fishy to me. What do you think? I'm
in charge of a property here representing a good deal of money and I
should hate to be absent if the men took the idea into their heads to
turn the camp upside down, especially if the idea was inspired by
Vorse and his friends."
"I haven't served the warrant yet," Madden replied.
"And you know that I'm not going to skip the country at the prospect
of your serving it?"
"No. There's no hurry; I'll just sit around for a while. And
understand, Weir, this arrest is none of my doings, except officially.
I take no stock in the yarn about your having attacked the greaser you
killed. Martinez' and Miss Janet's testimony at the inquest satisfied
me in that respect."
Mr. Pollock now drew Weir aside for a whispered conference. When they
rejoined the others the engineer made the lawyer acquainted with the
sheriff.
"Mr. Weir has agreed to my suggestion to take you into our confidence,
Mr. Madden," he stated. "There may be other warrants for you to serve
soon, and I'm sure you will respect what we reveal. All of us here
except you know the facts I'm about to relate; indeed, have shared in
them to an extent; and in addition to our word we'll present proof.
You know Dr. Hosmer and his daughter certainly, you probably know Mr.
Johnson and the young lady with him, and are aware whether their
statements are to be relied on."
"They are," Madden answered, without hesitation.
"You're already convinced of the truth of Weir's innocence in the
charge of murder now being preferred against him. Well, now, a friend
at court is worth something; and we propose to make you that friend."
"I'm not against him like most of the town, anyway," was the sheriff's
answer.
"Go ahead with your explanation," Pollock said to the engineer.
Thereupon Weir briefly sketched out events for the officer as they had
occurred and as showing the motives which had inspired his enemies in
seeking to destroy him:--the original plot against his father, his
determination to uncover the four conspirators, the episode at the
restaurant in Bowenville, the discovery of Ed Sorenson as the hirer of
the dead Mexican assassin, the obtaining of Saurez' deposition and
Martinez' imprisonment in Vorse's saloon cellar, Janet's abduction and
rescue and the loss of the paper.
"But the paper isn't lost," Dr. Hosmer interrupted. "Mary Johnson
found it and here it is." With which he drew the crumpled document
from his breast pocket and laid it on the table.
"You have it again!" Weir exclaimed. "You found it, Mary!" He stepped
forward and took the girl's hand in his for a moment. "You're a friend
indeed to bring this back to me."
"I owed you more than that," she said, coloring.
"But Mr. Sorenson has learned about his son and the paper and
everything that happened, except Ed Sorenson told him lies instead of
the truth," Janet put in. "He's terribly angry at all of us. He said
he would kill you for crippling Ed."
"Sorenson is welcome to try," Weir responded, with a quick blaze in
his eyes.
At this point Mr. Pollock interposed.
"You didn't finish your story, Weir. Relate for Mr. Madden's benefit
what occurred at Judge Gordon's house."
This tragic conclusion to the afternoon's happenings the engineer
told, though remarking that the company director should be the true
narrator. At his announcement that Judge Gordon had taken his own life
by poison his listeners remained dumbfounded.
"He's dead, then?" Madden asked, at last.
"Yes. And the transfer of property made to Mr. Pollock amounts to an
acknowledgment of his guilt. Now, I should like to have Martinez read
this deposition, for I've never heard its contents myself."
This the Mexican did, translating the Spanish paragraphs into English
with fluent ease, ending by reading the list of witnesses. Martinez
gave the paper a slap of his hand.
"And old Saurez was found dead in Vorse's saloon by me an hour after
he had signed this," he said. "Draw your own conclusions."
Madden shifted on his seat. He glanced at the document and at the
others and then gazed out the door at the darkness.
"Looks like a clear case; I always imagined if these men's past was
dug into there would be a lot of crooked business turned up. But
granting that everything is as shown, with Lucerio the county attorney
under Sorenson's thumb and the community as it is there's a question
if Saurez' statement even will be enough to convict them."
At that Janet jumped up, her eyes gleaming.
"That is not all the proof, not all by any means!" she cried.
"What more is there?"
"Mr. Johnson's evidence."
"Johnson's!" came in surprised tones from all four of the men
uninformed of the rancher's story.
"Yes, he saw the man Dent killed and the plotters make your father,
Mr. Weir, believe he had done the killing."
Steele stared at Johnson dumbfounded.
"Just that; I saw the whole dirty trick worked, looking through the
back door of the saloon."
"Then you were the boy!" Weir gasped. "The boy who looked in! After
thirty years I supposed that boy gone, lost, vanished beyond
finding."
"I stayed right here," was the reply. "Of course I kept my mouth shut
about what I had seen. I worked on ranches and rode range and at last
got the little place on Terry Creek and married. Nothing strange in my
remaining in the country where I grew up, especially as I only knew
the cattle business."
Weir swung about to Madden.
"Here's a live witness," said he. "With the other proof his evidence
should be final."
"Whenever you say, I'll arrest the men. As for this warrant I have,
I'll just continue to carry it in my pocket," the sheriff stated. "I
must remark that I never heard of a more villainous plot, taking it
all around, than you've brought to light."
"And the charges must cover everything," Pollock said sternly. "From
Dent's murder to the conspiracy against the irrigation company."
"I'll stay here in case you need me to stop any trouble with your
workmen," Madden remarked.
But trouble though imminent was coming from another direction, as was
suddenly shown when a man, dust-covered and hatless, rushed into the
office.
"They're on the way," he cried.
"Who? The workmen?" Weir demanded.
"No. I don't know anything about the workmen, but a bunch of Mexicans,
fifty or more, are headed this way to blow up the dam. I saw and heard
them."
"Where?"
"At the spring a mile south. I was watching down there, where Atkinson
had sent me after supper, relieving the man who kept lookout during
the afternoon. That was where the booze was dealt out last night, you
remember. I was sitting there when I heard a crowd coming. At first I
thought it was our men, but when they stopped to drink and smoke, I
saw by their talk they were Mexicans. But there was one white man with
them, a leader. He and a Mexican talked in English. They're to raid
the camp, crawling up the canyon, to dynamite the dam first, then fire
the buildings."
"Then they're on the road here now?"
"Yes." The speaker licked his lips. "I cut along the hillside until I
got ahead of them, but it was slow going in the dark and stumbling
through the sage. They must be close at hand by this time, though I
came faster than they did. The white man said to the Mexican that they
wanted to reach the dam just at moonrise, and that will be pretty
quick now."
"Go to the bunk-house and call the men waiting there, and get a gun
yourself," Weir ordered. "The storekeeper will give you one." When the
messenger had darted out, he looked at the others. "You must take
these girls away from here, doctor, at once."
"But I don't go," Johnson snapped forth, drawing his revolver and
giving the cylinder a spin.
"I never could hit anything, and haven't had a firearm in my hand for
years, but I can try," Pollock stated. "This promises to be
interesting, very interesting."
"Very," said Weir.
For a little he stood in thought, while the others gazed at him
without speaking. His straight body seemed to gather strength and
power before their eyes, his clean-cut features to become hard and
masterful.
"Up the canyon he said they were coming, didn't he?" he remarked at
last, more to himself than to them. "Very well, so much the better.
Johnson, you and Madden take charge of the men when they come and line
them along the hillside this side of the dam. Put out all lights."
With which he strode out of the building.
They looked after him in uncertainty.
"I'm not going; you may be hurt, and need me," Mary stated, with a
stubborn note in her voice.
"Then keep out of reach--and run for town if the ruffians get into
camp," was her father's answer.
"I stay too," Janet exclaimed, resolutely.