With a laugh, Marvin shut the door. "It's all right," he said, winking
at Harper. Smiling, he went up to Bill and swung him around to face him.
"Hello, Lightnin'!" he exclaimed. "I'm mighty glad to see you. What do
you mean by staying away from me all this time? And you were so quiet
and mysterious outside there that we thought some one was spying on us!"
"I was a spy once--with Buffalo Bill," said Lightnin', conversationally.
He stared interestedly at Harper. "Friend of yours, John?"
"This is Lightnin' Bill Jones, Mr. Harper. This is the gentleman I sold
that timber to, Bill." The two men acknowledged the introduction.
"Have you had any supper, Bill?" Marvin asked, resuming operations at
the stove. "If not, you'd better stop and have it with me."
Bill shook his head with an air of importance. "No; can't stop. Got to
be home at the hotel at supper-time to see that everythin's goin' right.
What time is it now?"
"Seven o'clock."
Bill shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, meditated, and announced:
"Well, maybe they can get along without me. I got everythin'
sys-sys-matized."
Marvin glanced at him quickly. "Bill, I'm afraid you've been having a
drink or two?"
"Nope. Nope!" Bill repeated, with the debonair innocence of a
mischievous and prevaricating school-boy. "I was just sayin' good-by to
the boys out there." He signified with a jerk of his head that the
lumberjacks were responsible if he seemed in any way elated. "You see,
they're breakin' up camp--an' I didn't want to hurt their feelin's, as
they're all friends o' mine."
Harper, who had resumed his seat in the chair, glanced at Marvin.
"Does our friend Bill know--what we were talking about?"
"Everything!" said Marvin, readily. "Rest easy, Mr. Harper--you'll never
find a better friend, nor a more trustworthy one, than Lightnin'. But,
surely, you have heard of his hotel, haven't you?"
"I'm afraid not."
"Then I guess you're the only man what 'ain't!" said Bill, emphatically,
and gazing at the ceiling and thoroughly enjoying the fact that he was
the subject of the conversation.
Rapidly Marvin sketched the conception and success of the Calivada
Hotel. "It was a real idea--"
"It was my idea," put in Bill, conversationally.
"It certainly was, Bill!" Marvin went on. "And the new hotel is a big
success! You see, the state line runs right through the middle of the
house--through the center of the lobby, in fact! There are two separate
desks, one on the California side and one on the Nevada side. Women
began to arrive, and they all wanted rooms on the Nevada side--and they
wanted them for six months!"
Harper roared with laughter. "The Reno divorce brigade!" he exclaimed.
Bill fairly beamed at the attention his affairs were drawing. He sat
down on the corner of the table and grinned at Harper, while Marvin went
on:
"Exactly! Everybody knows what a woman goes to Reno for, but at Bill's
hotel she can get a room on the Nevada side and still make her friends
believe that she is at a California resort!"
Again Harper laughed. "A corking good business idea!" he said. "And so
it was your idea, Mr. Jones? I congratulate you! I suppose you have been
out West here a long time?"
"Sure--came out in the gold excitement," replied Bill, calmly.
Harper stole an amused glance at Marvin. "Why, the gold excitement was
away back in forty-nine!"
"Well, they was still excited when I got here!" Bill gazed up at the
ceiling, his half-shut eyes hiding their twinkle.
"It's too bad you didn't happen to be one of the lucky ones," Harper
consoled him, arising from his chair.
"Lucky?" Bill scratched his head under his ragged slouch-hat. "Say, I
located more claims than any man what ever came out here! I been a civil
engineer."
The table was not a sufficient throne for Bill, so he slipped down from
it and went close to Harper, peering up at him.
"You ought to be a rich man, Mr. Jones!"
"Always cheated out of my share." Bill shook his head sadly. "Crooked
partners was the reason."
"Couldn't you do anything to them?"
"I shot some, put all the others in the penitentiary--all but one."
"What happened to him?"
"He died before I got him."
"Died of fright, perhaps?"
"I guess so."
Harper took his hat from the table, clapped Bill on the back, and said,
laughingly, "I think I'll get out before you tell me any more!"
Marvin urged him to have a bite of supper, but Harper declined,
explaining, as he went to the door, that he had to be in Truckee in two
hours, and that it would take him fully that time to make it in his car.
Bill, anxious to retain his audience, added his entreaty to Marvin's.
That failing, he followed Harper to the door, searching for an excuse to
hinder his leaving.
Harper paused at the door. "Well, Marvin," he said, "I'm going to send
the trucks down here to-morrow and start hauling. And you might as well
disappear from here for a while; then, if there's any kick, no one here
will know anything about it. I'll keep you posted. Are you sure you
don't want that eight hundred now?" He took out his wallet and again
tried to make Marvin take the money, but again Marvin refused.
Bill had been listening to every word. Now he seemed to have hit on a
way to detain Harper and at the same time prove his own personal
importance. As Harper shook hands with Marvin, Bill took an envelop from
his pocket. Drawing a paper from it, he offered it to Harper.
"If you want to get rid of some of that money," he remarked, easily,
"maybe you'd cash that check for me."
Harper, examining it, saw that it was a government check. "Oh, a pension
check! So you were in the war?"
"First man to enlist!"
Smiling, Harper handed him the check to "indorse"--which happened to be
a new word on Bill.
"Write your name on the back of it," said Harper.
"I always do that," said Bill, as he complied. Then he held the check up
to the light, pointing to the signatures on its face. "See all them
names," he asked, "Secretary of the Treasury, and all of 'em?"
Harper nodded wonderingly.
"Well, they ain't no good at all--not unless I sign it!" said Bill,
triumphantly.
Harper laughed; handed Bill the money for the check, and, with a final
"Good-night!" hurried out of the door. Bill poked his head out, watching
him crank his machine and drive away in the moonlight.
When the car was out of sight Bill turned back into the middle of the
room and stood watching Marvin, who had sat down and was eating his
delayed supper.
"Better join me, Bill," Marvin again invited, and at the same time
noting a change in the old man's manner, now that they were alone.
"No," Bill said; "I had mine with the boys outside, as I told you--but
I'll have a drink with you, John," he added, hesitatingly, knowing
Marvin's disapproval of his drinking.
"I haven't anything in the house, Bill," said Marvin, as he went on
eating. "You know that."
Bill edged slowly toward the table, his hand in the back pocket of his
baggy, slouchy trousers. "Yes, you have," he remarked, producing a
half-filled flask.
"You mean you have," Marvin replied, trying not to smile. "And you've
had enough for to-night. Put it away, Bill, and promise me not to drink
any more to-night."
"All right, John," said Bill, unconcernedly, and putting the flask back
in his pocket. "I promise--an' I 'ain't never broke a promise yet! I'll
keep this for--for emergencies. Say, Oscar told me the railroad had the
sheriff after you. You remember the last promise what I give you?"
"What was that, Lightnin'?"
"That if they goes to court, I'll come an' be a witness. I can swear
them trees was cut when you sold the property, an' I'll--"
"No, Bill!" said Marvin, putting down his knife and fork and staring at
the old man, whose half-shut eyes had the suggestion of a flash in them.
"No; I couldn't let you swear to anything like that."
"You can't help yourself--I got a right to swear to anythin' I want!"
There was an unexpected finality in Bill's usually drawling voice.
"But I haven't got to prove when those trees were cut," said Marvin.
"I know it," Bill responded; then, catching the smiling doubt in the
other's eyes, he added, "I was a lawyer once."
"Then why don't you practise?" asked Marvin, inwardly chuckling.
"Don't need no practice." And Bill resorted to his bag of tobacco and
papers, rolling himself a cigarette. By this time Marvin had finished
his meal.
"Look here, Lightnin'," he said, as he cleared the table, "you seem to
have something on your mind. How are things going up at your place?
Anybody at home know that you are here?"
"Not unless they're mind-readers."
"I thought so. Well?"
"It's a wonder you 'ain't come up to take a look yourself," Bill
countered. "You 'ain't even been up to--to see Millie," he added,
thoughtfully.
Marvin flushed. "That's true, Bill," he said, slowly. "But I've been
mighty busy with this timber here, as you know; and, besides--well,
Millie seems to be a bit interested elsewhere."
"That's just the trouble, I guess," said Bill, settling himself on the
corner of the table.
Marvin looked at him quickly. "What do you mean, Bill?" he demanded.
Lightnin' crossed his legs, took a final puff of his cigarette, and let
it drop from his fingers.
"Oh, there ain't nothin' much to that, John!" he replied. "Nothin' to
worry about. But it's what lays back o' that."
"For the Lord's sake stop talking in riddles, Lightnin'!" Marvin
exclaimed. "What lies back of what?"
"Well," said Bill, looking up shrewdly, "this here Thomas has shown his
hand--an' we gotter admit, John, that he plays a mighty smooth an' slick
game! He wants to buy our place, waterfall an' all."
"So that's it!" Marvin knew that Thomas had been buying up property in
the section, and he knew from experience what sort of treatment the
sellers were likely to get. That old Bill and his family should now be
involved filled him with concern and anger.
"But surely you're not going to sell, Bill!"
Lightnin' looked up, then down. "The property belongs to mother, John;
an' this here Thomas person sure knows how to go after what he wants!
He made himself solid with mother an' Millie some time ago, as you know.
They think he's Santa Claus, or somethin'. Why, he's got mother an'
Millie all het up so's they don't know whether they're standin' on their
head or feet! Mother's kinder simple about some things, John--but Millie
oughter have more sense! He's been tellin' them that this here hotel
idea won't pay for long, an' that he's willin' to buy the place at once
for a good price. He tells 'em as how they can enjoy themselves an' live
comfortable on the proceeds--an' I can have a nice, easy old age! He
'ain't said much to me, o' course--I don't give him a chance to find me
around, much. But he's got the womenfolk all fed up, eatin' out o' his
yaller gloves, an' crazy to sell. An'--an' mother an' Millie is kinder
sore at me 'cause I ain't takin' much interest in the proposition. Say,
what was the name o' that feller what acted as agent for the railroad
an' bought your property from Thomas when he done you out of it?"
"Hammond, Everett Hammond," said Marvin. "Go on, Bill--I'm listening!"
"Hammond, eh? To--be--sure. Well, Mister Everett Hammond is up at the
hotel now, John, with Thomas--Hammond come up in a hurry, an' they got a
deed to the property all ready fer mother an' me to sign. Mother's crazy
to sign, but I ain't--not yet. An' it seems they gotter have my name on
it, to make sure."
"What--you mean to say it has gone that far!" exclaimed Marvin.
"Sure thing," said Bill, rolling another cigarette. "An' say, I happen
to think them two--Hammond an' Thomas--has been in cahoots fer some
time--got an idea they is actually partners."
"What makes you think that?"
"I was a detective once," said Bill, with a sudden return to his usual
manner, as he lighted the cigarette.
Marvin made an impatient gesture. "Hang it! This is really too bad,
Bill! Look here, I'll see if I can do anything! I'm going to come up to
the hotel to-morrow as soon as I can get away from here! You're not
going to sign that deed, are you, Lightnin'?"
"No," replied Bill, slowly, a little nervously; "no--but mother an'
Millie is kinder hot on my trail fer to make me do it. Them two fellers
has sure got 'em goin', John! Well, I guess as they'll all be in bed by
the time I gets back now, so I'll be gettin' along. You'll be up
to-morrow, John?"
"I'll come--don't worry, Lightnin'," said Marvin. "Better go now, Bill;
you've got a long walk ahead of you, you know."
He dropped into his chair and reached thoughtfully for one of his
law-books. Bill opened the door; then turned back for a moment.
"Studyin' them books?" he inquired.
"Trying to," Marvin remarked, turning a page.
"That's right--that's how I got _my_ start!" said Bill, as he went out.