THE RETURN OF TIA JUANA
"I tell you, Starr, it's all very well to play a waiting game, but
we've got to start something and start it soon, or we'll be up against
the worst fix we've ever struck in our lives, and that will be going
some!" Harrington Chase paused in his restless pacing of the private
office to regard his partner with troubled eyes. "We've got to make a
big killing or we're due to go under, and you know what that'll mean."
Wiley flung himself around in his chair to face the other.
"I've moved heaven and earth to find that old she-devil!" he exclaimed.
"The biggest obstacle is out of our path now, as you very well know,
and if Tia Juana would only turn up, we could put it all over her.
Gentleman Geoff's Billie is no longer in a position to interfere if she
wanted to, thanks to my fortunate discovery of the adoption papers in
Arizona, and when I get my hands on the old woman----"
"You've been saying that for the last month," Chase observed, adding
with a sly smile: "I'm not undervaluing the lucky chance that put those
documents in your way, my dear fellow! What has happened, anyway, in
regard to that affair? Until the Halsteads and North have proved the
validity of the papers they won't make any premature announcement, of
course, and I'm only supposed to share the knowledge, common in their
circle, that Willa Murdaugh has gone to spend the winter in the South."
"Oh, they'll spring the news about the beginning of Lent, I imagine,
when the social calendar is clear and they won't have so many
explanations to make," Wiley responded carelessly. "It's bound to be a
nine-days' wonder, but things move rapidly in this town and she'll be
almost forgotten by Easter."
"What's become of the girl herself?" asked Chase. "Where did she go
when she took herself off in that high-handed fashion?"
"Search me!" Wiley shrugged. "She's eliminated, anyway, from the
scene."
"Not if we happen to shift the scene to Mexico!" retorted the other.
"What if she has gone back to Limasito?"
"Well, she hasn't." Wiley announced briefly. "Our men down there have
their instructions to keep a lookout and let us know the minute she
appears, but there hasn't been a sign of her. Personally, I didn't
expect it."
"Why not? Where else would she go?"
"My dear Harrington, if you had made as close a study of feminine
psychology as I have, you would know that she would rather go anywhere
else in the world than return to Limasito in defeat. With her pride it
would be intolerable after the eclat of her departure as an heiress to
slink back as merely Gentleman Geoff's Billie once more."
"That's some satisfaction," Chase muttered, resuming his nervous tread.
"But granted that she is finally eliminated, what good will it do us as
long as Tia Juana remains under cover? Do you understand the
situation? We're overcapitalized right now to the limit; we've watered
the stock until it would float a fleet of battle-ships and we're
dangerously near the line----"
"Well, what can I do?" Wiley ran his hands through his hair. "I've
banked everything on this Lost Souls venture, and God knows I've gone
the limit to put it through!"
"Have you?" Chase turned at the window. "Just what did you mean to
do, if you had succeeded in locating Tia Juana?"
"I should think that would be obvious." Wiley laughed shortly. "We've
threshed that all out; I'd get her signature to a bill of sale of the
Trevino hacienda where the Lost Souls' Pool is situated, record the
deed with the Notary Public at Victoria, and then proceed to develop
and advertise the well. What on earth are you driving at, Harrington?"
"Just this!" His partner strode quickly to the desk and bent down,
staring significantly into Wiley's eyes. "That's your program, is it?
Well, go ahead and carry it out!"
"Sounds good!" Wiley chuckled, sneeringly. "Perhaps you'll be good
enough to produce Tia Juana, so that I can start the ball rolling!"
"I will," Harrington Chase responded quietly.
It was Wiley's turn to stare.
"Hope you'll have better luck than I have had, that's all," he said at
last, shrugging. "When you find her----"
Chase interrupted him with a gesture.
"I _have_ found her!"
"What!" Wiley sprang from his chair. "When? Where? Good Lord, why
didn't you tell me before? How did you find her?"
"Wait----!"
Chase straightened and tiptoed to the door leading into the outer
office. The next instant he had flung it wide, but no eavesdropper was
in sight and the whole suite appeared deserted. He closed the door
once more and thereafter ensued an earnest and protracted conference.
As a result, Starr Wiley failed to put in an appearance that night at a
dinner to which he had been invited and his excuse pleaded a sudden
business trip. Days lengthened into weeks, and when he did not return
there was a ripple of surprise and conjecture at his abrupt
evanescence, but the varied festivities of the approaching holiday
season ousted him from his rather negligible place in the thoughts of
his acquaintances.
Christmas came and passed, and the New Year was nearing the end of its
first month when he reappeared in the city, and simultaneously a
sensational rumor spread like wildfire through the financial circles.
It concerned a marvelous new oil well, the "Almas Perderse," which had
just been discovered in the richest part of the Mexican petroleum
fields, and which was reputed to be the greatest potential producer
since the famous "Dos Bocas" itself.
Excitement ran high and the offices of Chase and Company were besieged
by the curious and speculative among the smaller fry, but the moneyed
interests still held aloof in spite of the artfully conservative bait
dangled before them, and for a time developments were at a standstill.
It was during this period that one day Winnie North and Vernon Halstead
found themselves compulsory room-mates at an overcrowded stag
house-party in Westchester. The events of the preceding autumn had
chastened and matured both of the genially irresponsible young men and
the resultant change edified their immediate relatives even while it
caused them to exhibit unflattering astonishment.
Winnie was making a determined effort to learn the intricacies of the
brokerage game and Vernon had enrolled himself at the university on the
Heights for a post-graduate course in mining and petroleum engineering.
It was natural, therefore, that the subject which arose for discussion
between them over a night-cap and cigarette was that of the Almas
Perderse well.
"It sounds mighty good, I admit," Vernon remarked. "If anybody but
Starr Wiley stood sponsor for it I should have more faith in its
possibilities, I suppose, but somehow I can't figure him in a bona-fide
deal."
"The governor doesn't share your prejudice, nor does your own father,"
Winnie remarked. "I've heard them talking and I've a hunch that
they're both going to invest pretty heavily in the Almas Perderse stock
when it is issued. They have faith in Wiley's knowledge of a good
thing when he sees it, and I fancy it's sound, at that. He's been more
than ordinarily successful in the past with other propositions, you
know, and whatever your opinions of him personally, you'll have to
admit that Wiley's reputation on the Exchange is second to none as far
as judgment and efficiency and a thorough comprehension of the oil game
are concerned."
"Yet the big investors are holding off, I understand," Vernon observed
thoughtfully. "I wish my father wouldn't monkey with it. What's the
game, Winnie? What are Chase and Wiley doing to launch the Almas
Perderse?"
"Well, they've recently increased their capitalization to twenty-five
million and they told the governor they want to raise ten million more
at once. They're offering a million shares at ten dollars, par value,
and they claim a jump to one hundred or better is inevitable within a
few months, as soon as the development starts. The governor thinks
he's being let in on the ground floor."
"It would look like it, if the thing is on the level." Vernon shook his
head. "They're liable to bring in a gusher that'll send the price
soaring."
"Whatever that means!" Winnie laughed. "You'll be some little
petroleum engineer yourself one of these days! I don't know anything
about it myself, but it seems to me the figures that Wiley stated to
the governor as the initial cost of development were pretty steep;
twenty-five million, including an eight-inch pipe line to Limasito and
tankage equipment there."
"No, that's not excessive," demurred Vernon. "The pumping stations
every ten miles will average fifty thousand alone, and every foot of
the pipe must be transported by peons--laborers, you know--on their
shoulders through the swamps. Moreover, now that it seems inevitable
that we shall get in the war ourselves, it's going to be next to
impossible to get tankers at any price to bring the oil up from
Mexico.--But I'm only a tyro yet; Kearn Thode can give you the details
far better than I can. What's become of him, by the way?"
"He's out West, somewhere." Winnie ground out the stub of his
cigarette. "He went soon after your cousin----er----"
"By Jove!" Vernon rose. "I'd give anything to see Willa again!
Wasn't she the most wonderful little thoroughbred that ever lived!"
"She was," Winnie responded, his voice very low. "We'll never know a
girl just like her, Verne. There's not another in the world."
Vernon glanced with unusual keenness at his friend and when he spoke
his tone was roughly sympathetic.
"Hard hit, Winnie? Well, so was I, for that matter. Not that she
would ever have looked at me, of course, but if she'd stayed another
day I meant to ask her to stay always. She put me on the road to
making a man of myself; some day I'll tell you how, maybe. It has a
good deal to do with my distrust of Starr and his 'Almas Perderse'."
At an ungodly hour the next morning Winnie North was summoned to the
telephone.
"Hello! What the deuce is it?" he demanded sleepily, but the voice
which came to him over the wire speedily dispelled his somnolence.
"That you, Win? This is Kearn Thode."
"What! Gad, old man, it's good to hear your voice!" Winnie exclaimed.
"When did you get in?"
"Just last night. I tried to get hold of you, but your father told me
you were up there at Stoney Crest----"
"Come on out! Jim would have asked you if he'd known where you were.
I'll tell him----"
"No," Thode interrupted tersely. "Sorry, but I can't waste a day!
I've got to see you at once, this morning if possible."
"All right," Winnie responded. "Tell you what I'll do; I'll grab Jim's
speedster and meet you at the Bumble Bee Inn. I can make it in an hour
and so can you, as it's about half way out. Nobody'll be around in the
morning and it's deserted anyway this time of the year, so we can have
it to ourselves. I say, what's the racket, Kearn?"
"Tell you when I see you. Don't fail me, Win. Good-bye."
When Winnie drove up to the road-house an hour later, a lone taxi'
stood outside and a familiar figure was seated at one of the tables in
the otherwise empty restaurant. As it rose he saw that the two months
had brought Kearn Thode back to what he had been before the fever laid
him low in Mexico. He glowed with the old health and strength, and in
his eyes was the triumphant fire of achievement.
"Hello, old man! You're looking wonderfully fit again, thank the Lord!
Did you find that important something or other that was worth more than
the pot of gold?"
Thode smiled as they shook hands.
"I found what I went after," he replied quietly. "And you? I hear
you're settling into the harness in great shape."
Winnie flushed.
"The governor would boast, I suppose, as long as I succeeded in keeping
out of jail," he observed. "It's a horrible responsibility to be an
only son! But what's the big idea? You didn't chivvie me out of bed
in the cold gray dawn for nothing!"
Thode beckoned to the solitary waiter, hovering in the pantry doorway,
before responding.
"We'd better have some coffee and a bite first. Then I want the news;
remember I've been out in the wild and woolly since before the
holidays."
When their order had been given, Winnie observed:
"I suppose you've heard about Wiley. He's been down in Mexico and
grabbed off a new oil well, the Almas Perderse----"
"The Lost Souls!" Thode's hands clenched, and he drew a deep breath
between set teeth. "So he pulled it off, did he? By Jove, I
wonder----"
"What?" asked the other after a pause. "Did you know about the well,
too?"
Kearn Thode laughed.
"I'd heard of it," he acknowledged. "I wish him joy of his discovery!
Is he making headway while the going is good?"
"Rather! I say, it isn't bunk, is it? I mean, this Almas Perderse is
the real thing, a good financial proposition?"
"If it is really the Almas Perderse and he holds a clear title, it's
the greatest prize in the oil fields to-day." Thode's face sobered.
"Why do you ask?"
"Because the governor and Ripley Halstead are going into it heavily,"
explained Winnie. "I don't know how much stock Halstead's subscribed
for, but the governor is going to take about fifty thousand shares at
par, ten dollars. He's bugs about it; thinks he's going to make his
everlasting fortune."
"Win, tell him to drop it!" Thode said earnestly. "I can't explain now
for there's more at stake than the Lost Souls, but I know what I'm
talking about. He might as profitably sink his money in a bottomless
pit as in that oil well!"
"Look here, I don't understand!" Winnie's voice shook. "You said just
now it was the greatest prize in the oil fields to-day. What's wrong
with it?"
"I told you I couldn't explain," Thode responded doggedly. "You've
simply got to take my word for it, that's all. I'm not sure enough of
my ground to make a definite statement yet or I would warn your father
myself, but I'm so far convinced of coming trouble that I wouldn't see
a friend of mine put a dollar in it if I could persuade him not to. I
don't mind admitting that my own trip to Mexico last fall was made in
the hope of locating that well myself, but it isn't sour grapes now
with me. I give you my word of honor, Win, that whatever your father
invests in the Almas Perderse well under the present conditions will be
irretrievably lost."
"I wish to the Lord you would go to the governor yourself!" exploded
Winnie. "He wouldn't listen to me in a million years, and even you
would have to show him! He has looked thoroughly into the proposition
according to his judgment and he has the utmost faith in it or he
wouldn't plan to back it at all. Are you sure, Kearn?"
"Which means that you are not; I haven't succeeded in convincing you."
Thode shrugged. "What chance would I have of convincing your father?
I'm warning you, Win, I can't do any more. It's up to you now;
remember that I am as earnest in this as I have ever been in my life,
and it is only because of our old friendship that I have dropped you a
hint. Whether your father acts upon it or not, beg him to respect my
confidence, at any rate for the time being. I asked you to meet me
to-day----"
"Yes?" Winnie's tone was absent, his mind still grappling with the
quandary into which the other's warning had plunged him. "What is it,
Kearn?"
"Do you remember our last meeting before I went away, when you picked
me up in the Park?" Thode pushed his cup aside and leaned forward over
the table. "You told me you knew where Miss Murdaugh went when she
left the Halsteads. I want you to take me to her at once, without
delay."
Winnie shook his head.
"Sorry, old man. I saw her within an hour after dropping you at the
Park entrance and found her on the eve of departure. She told me she
was leaving New York that night, but she wouldn't tell me her
destination. I called again the next day and found she had gone; I
haven't heard anything of her since."
"That's a facer!" Thode groaned. "I had counted on finding her here.
Could she have returned to Limasito?"
"No, I've made inquiries. You see," Winnie explained hastily, "we'd
grown to be pretty-good friends and naturally the governor felt
responsible for her, in a way. He's been in constant communication
with Jim Baggott down there--the man who runs the hotel----"
"I remember."
"The governor located her first through him, you know, and he seems to
have been the one she trusted most after her foster father died, but
even he has heard nothing from her, or pretends he hasn't." Winnie
paused. "The governor has done everything possible to find her and
satisfy himself that she was all right, but she has dropped completely
from sight. He has aged over the whole thing, I can tell you! I think
he would give half he possesses to know that all was well with her."
Thode beckoned once more to the waiter, and, throwing a bill upon the
table, rose.
"If Miss Murdaugh has gone, I'm off to-night," he announced. "It was
to see her that I returned to New York, but since there's no chance of
that now I must take the trail again."
"I say, you haven't stumbled upon anything that would be to her
advantage, have you?" Winnie demanded suddenly as he followed his
friend to the door. "Anything about the past, I mean----?"
"No, Win." Thode spoke without turning. "It was just a--a little
private matter."
"And you're really off to-night? When are we going to see you again,
old man?"
"I don't know." He wheeled about swiftly, then held out his hand.
"Don't forget to repeat what I have told you to your father and make it
as strong as you can. I'm playing a game of my own, and when we meet
again it will be cards on the table. Good-bye, Win."
"Good luck!" The other hesitated wistfully. "If--if you should happen
by any chance to run across Willa in your wanderings, will you tell her
for me that I'm still waiting, as I said I should be; that I am still,
as always, at her service?"