SANDY INVESTS TWICE
The coming and departure of the girl was dramatic enough to leave all
of assembled Two Palms transfixed with astonishment, until Piute
Tomkins gave vent to his feelings, forgetful that Mrs. Tomkins and Mrs.
Smithers were present. The indignation of Mrs. Tomkins at the language
of her spouse quite absorbed the attention of Piute pro tem., and in
this brief interval Deadoak Stevens got in his thoughtful work.
Sandy Mackintavers caught a murmur at his elbow and turned to find
Deadoak addressing him in lowered tones.
"You're the mining gent, ain't you?"
"Aiblins, now," hesitated Sandy, "ye'll not consider----"
"Tut, tut!" exclaimed Deadoak, winking. "I understand things, pardner;
a friend o' mine over to Meteorite sent me word that two gents were on
rout here with a minin' sharp. Now, let me warn you not to give ear to
these here desert rats all around, but step over to one side with me.
I got a confidential communication----"
"Keep it, then," said Sandy brutally, "until we get settled here! Come
up to the hotel to-night."
"And ye won't talk mines to nobody else first?"
"Nary a soul," returned Mackintavers. "Hey, Hobbs! You goin' to come
out o' that place?"
Bill Hobbs scratched his head and considered his position.
"If you guys will drag the corpse out of the way," and he gestured
toward the flivver. "I'm goin' to give this joint the once over, Mac.
Join you over to the hotel later. Gee! You ought to see this joint,
Mac! Where did Doc go to?"
Willing hands removed the flivver from the doorway. Deadoak, being
rebuffed by Sandy, remained to scrape an acquaintance with Bill Hobbs
and elucidate the kidnapping of Murray; while Piute Tomkins, taking in
hand his guest, performed the same office to Mackintavers, en route to
the hotel.
That evening, Deadoak sidled cautiously to Mackintavers's room,
knocked, and slid inside as the door opened.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, breathing more freely. "Ding my dogs, but I had a
stiff time eludin' that pirootin' son of a gun, Piute Tomkins! He
suspects somethin'."
"So do I," said Mackintavers, grimly eyeing his guest. He did not know
that Deadoak had just come from a long and involved conference with
Piute, wherein property had changed hands and other arrangements had
been made; he did not need to know all this, however, to realize that
his visitor had not come for philanthropic purposes.
Deadoak, blissfully unconscious that he was introducing a new game and
a cold deck to the gentleman who had invented that game and patented
the cold deck, sank into a chair and blinked solemnly at the lamp.
He produced a battered corncob pipe, filled and lighted it, then
straightened out his legs along the floor and blew a cloud of smoke.
"If I had money," he prologued dismally, "I wouldn't ask odds o' no
man----"
"Me the same," struck in Sandy. "Aiblins, now, I'd wager there ain't a
man in this country who couldn't develop a promising hole if he had
money. Go ahead."
Slightly daunted by the grimly sophisticated front of his host, Deadoak
took a new pull at his pipe and began afresh.
"It's a right queer yarn, this story I got on my mind," he observed
dreamily. "Up north of here is the Dead Mountains, and it's a good
name. If there's anything deader'n them hills, I'd admire to see it!
Ye go out the good road along to where Piute an' me has got pear
orchards an' wells. After that, it ain't no road--it's an excuse. I
don't reckon anybody has traveled that way sinct ol' Hassayamp Perkins
got stove in by the cave-in."
"How long ago?" queried Sandy seeking facts.
"Two year. I ain't been that-a way myself, and nobody else ain't got
right good reasons for doin' it, except that there crazy chink. He
went that-a way this mornin', and he ain't got back yet. Another hill
fell on _him_ I reckon. After ye get through the marble cañon, there
ain't only volcanic ash and rock till ye come into the basin. I been
over in Death Valley an' the Aztec Fryin' Pan, and they don't hardly
show up alongside that basin to speak of. It ain't big, however, and
from there ye go into Morongo Valley."
"Sounds lively," commented Mackintavers without great interest.
"It is. If ye take two steps in any direction, there comes such a
buzzin' ye can't hear a man shout at ye twenty feet away--that's how
many rattlers there is! Well, as I was sayin', Hassayamp homesteaded
Morongo Valley. It ain't but a few hundred acres, and he'd located a
spring o' water big enough for all he wanted--he didn't wash much,
Hassayamp didn't."
The shaggy brows of Mackintavers were bent upon the speaker in a silent
but forbidding fashion that somehow discouraged the careful narrative
which Deadoak had built up in his mind--a narrative with cunning
discursions and excursions. He decided to throw it all overboard and
to reach the point at once.
"As I was sayin', Hassayamp homesteaded that valley to keep out other
folks----"
"'Twouldn't protect his mineral rights," shot in Sandy shrewdly.
"Mineral rights belong to the state. Did he homestead the valley an'
lease the mineral rights?"
"I was comin' to that if ye give me time," said Deadoak plaintively.
"Yep, he done so. Reg'lar five-year lease. Now, Hassayamp was Piute
Tomkins' father-in-law by marriage, savvy? Well, when the shaft fell
in and wiped out Hassayamp, Piute fell heir to the homestead, which
same had been proved up all correct, and the mine."
"Piute owns it now, then?"
"He do. I'm comin' to that if ye give me time. But here's somethin'
Piute don't know! A spell before Hassayamp got stove in, he come to
town needin' money. Piute Tomkins, whose repytation for pinchin' the
eagle into a sparrer ain't laid over by no one this side o' Phoenix,
didn't have no faith in him; but I did. So Hassayamp comes to me,
quiet, and gives me samples an' eloocidates how he'd got a road up to
the mine and had rigged up a hand crusher and done other work there,
and needed money to see her through. I give him five hundred an' took
out a mortgage on the hull prop'ty."
"Homestead and minerals?" queried Sandy casually.
"Certain! I took in everything, you can bet!" Deadoak tapped his
pocket.
"You got the papers to prove it, of course?"
"Comin' to that if ye give me time. Ding my dogs, ain't you got no
patience? Well, me an' Piute don't hitch extra well. After Hassayamp
cashed in that-a way, Piute always figgered on takin' over the place,
but he never got time. I figgered on takin' it over, but never got
around to it, rightly, so let her drift. Piute don't know yet that I
got that mortgage, which same can be foreclosed any time a-tall, it
bein' two year old. So I got her sewed up plumb legal, ye see."
"I see." Sandy's shrewd eyes narrowed. If there was anyone in the
Southwest who knew mining law down to the ground, it was Sandy
Mackintavers. "What's in the mine?"
"Ding my dogs! I'm comin' to that now. Hassayamp got gold
there--struck a lode o' quartz that runs about twenty-five to the ton
and promises to get richer quick. Here's the samples he brung me."
Deadoak had now reached the apex of his elaborately conceived edifice.
Producing a buckskin bag, he emptied it on the table. Specimens of
very average gold quartz littered the table. Among them were several
pieces of a reddish crystalline substance.
"That don't look so bad," commented Sandy, fingering the quartz. He
indicated the glassy red samples. "What's that stuff?"
"Volcanic bottle-glass, I reckon--how it come with the samples I dunno,
unless Hassayamp thought it was pretty. This here quartz, like you
say, ain't bad; I'd say it was pretty dinged good, if ye ask me!"
Sandy's eyes glinted at the red-glass specimens, and suspicion filled
his heart.
"Uh-huh," he grunted. "What's your proposition?"
"Well, I don't want to sell outright. That there lode is goin' to pay
big when she's developed. Looks to me, the way them specimens shape
up, like she'd run into rotten quartz an' free gold; ye can see that
for yourself. Sooner'n sell the hull thing, I'd hang on a spell
longer. But here's my idee: You an' your pardners buy the mortgage an'
give me a one-fourth int'rest in the mine. You'll have to foreclose
the mortgage----"
"Is it recorded?"
"Sure--I recorded her after Hassayamp cashed in an' Piute got his
title."
"Uh-huh."
"Bein's you'll have to settle Piute, an' develop her an' so forth, I
ain't aimin' to stick ye none. Say, you buy the mortgage for five
hundred, go ahead an' foreclose her, keep the homestead if ye want it,
and give me one-fourth int'rest in the mine. Ain't that fair?"
Sandy frowned thoughtfully. He knew that on this basis he was going to
be stuck somewhere--and he believed that he knew exactly where.
Deadoak was trying to unload upon him a worthless mortgage. Since that
mortgage covered the mining rights and the improvements
thereon--property of the state and not subject to mortgage--the
document was illegal.
Mackintavers had made a fortune because he knew men, could probe into
their minds and motives, could find their weak points and utilize them.
He had lost that fortune because he had tackled the wrong man, and he
had no intention of repeating the mistake. He sized up Deadoak for
exactly what that gentleman was--a shiftless desert rat planning to
take in the innocent stranger, without any very deep or well-laid plot.
It aroused all the predatory instinct in Sandy. Forgotten were his
virtuous resolves and high aspirations. Before his mind's eye unfolded
a simple but beautifully perfect scheme by which he might grab this
property entire.
Being tempted, he fell. He could not well be blamed, for those
red-glass samples on the table, those carelessly lumped pieces of
"volcanic bottle-glass," showed the richest ruby silver Sandy had ever
seen outside Nevada!
Sandy had already weighed the possibility of those samples not having
come from Morongo Valley; he had decided that they had done so. He was
staking his game now upon his judgment of Deadoak Stevens, who was
palpably a weak stick. Swiftly weighing things, he decided that
Deadoak was trying to rid himself of a worthless mortgage upon an
ignorant stranger. And having so decided, he gambled.
"Aiblins, now," he said at length, "I'll tell ye! Want to look over
the ground first, ye understand. I'll give ye ten dollars cash for
that mortgage, and my note for the balance, ninety days, includin' in
the note that the title is clear except for this mortgage, and that the
samples ye got there come from this mine in question."
"A note?" exclaimed Deadoak in obvious dismay. "Why, I was figgerin'
cash----"
"Well make the note thirty days, then. I ain't buyin' a mine from a
set o' samples!"
"Oh, that's fair enough, I reckon," said Deadoak. "Sure, fair enough.
You can pick up that lode five minutes after ye get there, and match up
them samples with the outcrop! That quartz sticks out o' the surface,
Mac! If Hassayamp hadn't got ambitious to strike the rotten streak,
he'd ha' been rich now."
"Where's the nearest State Land office?"
"Meteorite--that's the county seat, too," replied Deadoak, entirely
unconscious that Sandy wanted that bit of information very, very badly.
"Here's the mortgage--it ain't a mortgage, it's the other thing, the
one that lets ye grab a place the minute payments ain't made, with no
legal notice or nothin'. I had a cousin oncet that cleaned up a lot o'
money over in California, usin' them things instead o' mortgages, so I
used it too."
Deadoak handed over a much thumbed but entirely legal deed of trust,
Mackintavers inspected it carefully, then calmly jotted down the
details as to the location of the defunct Hassayamp's property.
"Aiblins, now," he said, rising, "I'll just run down and see Piute
Tomkins' deed to that property--make sure it corresponds with this
location, and is clear otherwise. Ye don't mind, o' course?"
Deadoak looked up in weak protest, then yielded.
"O' course not," he said with dignity. "Bein' a stranger, it's natural
that ye should take precautions; but when ye've been here a spell,
ye'll find out that----"
"Ain't doubtin' you," said Sandy. "Not a mite! Now, you write out
that note to suit yourself, but make it contingent upon the facts bein'
as you say. And write out a conveyance o' that mortgage to me."
Leaving the room, Mackintavers slowly descended the stairs toward the
office, where Piute Tomkins and Haywire Smithers were engaged at their
nightly cribbage. He paused on the landing, to chuckle to himself.
"This mine is comin' cheap!" he reflected. "Volcanic
bottle-glass--that's a good one! Aiblins, now, it's a gamble. Should
I do it to-night or wait? If Deadoak had paid the least attention to
the ruby silver--but he didn't! Not a mite. He was all afire over
selling me that mortgage. I'll do it!"
He went on down stairs. His whole scheme of action, which promised to
work with the beautiful precision of a machine, demanded that he
conclude the deal to-night and get Bill Hobbs off to Meteorite within
the hour. Reaching the hotel doorway, he saw a bobbing light across
the street in the newspaper office. His voice lifted in a bellow.
"Bill Hobbs! You there?"
"Want me?" came the reply. "Is Doc back? I been lookin' over this
joint----"
"Get over here in a hurry. I need you."
Sandy turned to the office, where the two cribbage players were gazing
up at him. He jerked his head slightly to Piute.
"Can I see ye a moment in private?"
"Certain, certain!" Piute rose with almost suspicious alacrity. He
had been waiting and praying for just such an invitation. "Step into
the back office, will you?"
When the two men were alone in the inner office, with the lamp lighted
and the door closed, Sandy Mackintavers brushed aside all preamble and
came direct to the point. He held in his hand the deed of trust, which
he had not returned to Deadoak.
"I understand ye have a homestead in Morongo Valley. I'll offer ye a
hundred cash for it." Piute's leathery complexion changed color.
"A hundred!" he repeated in injured accents. "Why, that there
homestead is the very pride an' joy of my heart! She sure is. I aim
to lay out pears in that there Valley next Jan'ary. Got water, she
has----"
"Here's a mortgage on the property," and Sandy brutally tapped the
paper in his hand. "I've bought it. It's two years old. Sooner than
foreclose, I'll buy your title. Aiblins, now, ye have a price?"
Piute looked a trifle staggered, but shook his head firmly.
"Nope. Nothin' under a thousand takes that there place! I dunno 'bout
this mortgage--ain't heard of it----"
"Look at it," struck in Sandy. "I'll go to law and take the place if I
want! Give ye two hundred cash, not a cent more."
"Nope," said Piute, bristling. "I got a few rights my own self, and I
know 'em! If it's the minerals ye're after----"
"Minerals!" exclaimed Mackintavers with scorn. "I'm done with mining.
I want a homestead."
"Well," proposed Piute, "that's diff'rent. I'll give ye an option on
the homestead for a thousand. Ye look her over, and if she's what ye
want----"
"Nothing doing," rejoined Sandy. "I'm offering cash down, here an'
now. And I won't listen to a thousand."
Piute hesitated. He had not glimpsed Sandy's roll of travelers'
checks, these three pilgrims looked none too prosperous, and he began
to think that he had set the ante too high.
"Tell ye what," he said, "I wa'n't figgerin' on selling, but cash is
diff'rent. And this here mortgage thing--well, say seven hundred!"
Sandy thought of that ruby silver ore, and fished for his check book.
"You show me clear title an' give me a deed, and I'll give you five
hundred. Take it or leave it! That's the last word out o' me."
"All right," said Piute.
Mackintavers signed up checks to that amount. Bill Hobbs arrived in
time to join Haywire Smithers in witnessing the transfer, then
accompanied Sandy to the upstairs room where Deadoak awaited them.
Hobbs was mystified, but Sandy refused explanations.
"I brought Mr. Hobbs along," said Sandy, "as his money will be
partially concerned. Aiblins, now, if you've got the note and
conveyance made out----"
"Here they be," said Deadoak, trembling with concealed joy.
Mackintavers read over the papers carefully, while Deadoak explained
the situation to the bewildered Bill Hobbs.
"Ten dollars cash--here ye are," said Mackintavers. He signed the note
and returned it with a ten-dollar bill. "When Doc Murray gets back,
we'll go out and look over the place."
"Suits me," and Deadoak sidled to the door. "Good luck, gents! See
you later."
Left alone, Sandy Mackintavers pressed Willyum into a chair and set
forth exactly what he had accomplished. He took up the samples of ruby
silver ore.
"I never saw anything to beat that ore--anywhere!" he said. "And these
desert rats never heard of such a thing; all they know is gold. Can ye
run a flivver, Bill?"
"I can't," said the bewildered Hobbs, "but I guess I can. Why?"
"You got to run back to Meteorite to-night--right now!"
"Gee!" breathed Willyum, his eyes bulging. "What's the rush?"
"Shut up and listen!" roared Sandy. "Aiblins, now, ye think I'm a
fool. Well, I'm not! If a minin' lease ain't worked, it lapses; if
proper reports ain't made, it lapses; if it's mortgaged, with
improvements, it's illegal. Deadoak's deed o' trust ain't worth the
paper it's written on, and he knew it!"
"But--but you bought it----"
"I gave him ten dollars as a free gift. That note, now--when he comes
to collect, he'll get nothin'. But I got hold o' the mortgage to save
trouble, that's all."
"You ain't goin' to pay the note?"
"Not hardly!" said Sandy with a grim smile. "My property will all
belong to you an' the doc. I guess I can trust you men with it! Now,
I bought Piute's deed in order to have clear title to everything.
Savvy?"
"Not--not yet," murmured Willyum dazedly. "Who owns the mining rights?"
"The state! The lease has lapsed long ago, and ain't been renewed.
I'm goin' to write out a bill o' sale, givin' you an' Doc all I own, so
Deadoak will have nothin' to sue on when he presents that note. After
he's out o' the way, we'll settle things. You beat it for Meteorite
right off, and when the land office opens in the morning--be there!
Take out a mining lease on this entire Morongo Valley homestead
land--in your own name. Get it for five years, under the precious
metals clause. I'll convey the mortgage to you. Record that in your
own name and let her go. We don't need to foreclose on that worthless
paper. It simply clinches everything in our name, clear."
"But listen! Wait till Doc comes home and----"
"Wait for nothin'!" shouted Sandy furiously. "Aiblins, now, d'ye know
what this Deadoak scoundrel will do? He knows as well as I do that his
mortgage is illegal. About to-morrow night he'll be in Meteorite
expecting to lease mining rights on that valley, meaning to stick us
later on. Savvy that?"
"How d'you know none of these guys ain't done it already?" asked the
worried and still bewildered Hobbs.
"I'm gambling on their general shiftlessness. Men of that stamp, not
expecting us to arrive and not expecting me to buy the place without
seeing it, will think they have lots of time to work the double cross.
Now, ye'd better run some gas out o' my flivver and fill up your own
tank."
"But this--this ain't on the square, is it?" protested Bill Hobbs
weakly.
"On the square!" repeated Sandy, stifling his own doubts with a
ferocious mien. "Of course it is! I bought a worthless mortgage with
a worthless note--ain't that even?"
Bill Hobbs declined to struggle further with the problem, and gave up.
Meantime, Deadoak Stevens was closeted below stairs with Piute Tomkins
in the inner office. Deadoak was just pocketing two hundred and fifty
dollars.
"Fall for it?" said Deadoak. "Piute, ding my dogs if he didn't fall
clear through the crust and he ain't stopped yet!"
"Well, we got a good price, I'm bound to admit," said Piute
thoughtfully. "As a beginning, it's good. But I'm a bit worried over
them minin' rights, Deadoak. If we'd knowed a couple o' days ahead
that them pilgrims was on the way, we could ha' renewed the lease or
took out a new one. You got to tend to that pronto."
"Yep," agreed Deadoak. "I'll take that cayuse o' your'n and ride over
to Meteorite in a couple o' days. Then I'll lease them mineral rights.
Might's well try to shave that note over to town, too; mebbe somebody
will know who Mac is."
"Don't wait no couple o' days," said Piute sagely. "You light out on
that cayuse 'fore daybreak! When them pilgrims gets tired o' lookin'
for ruby silver in that there prop'ty, they'll most like go to workin'
Hassayamp's gold lode. Then we trots out the minin' lease on 'em, with
threats o' prosecution for workin' without no lease."
"She listens good," and Deadoak nodded. "Ding my dogs, Piute, if I
ain't sure glad them pilgrims come to Two Palms to-day!"
"I'm sure glad," corrected Piute, "that we knowed they was coming! But
I wisht we'd knowed it a few days earlier.' I didn't allow they'd bite
so quick an' sudden, without even lookin' over the place. Them ruby
silver samples was what done it."
"Them," admitted Deadoak modestly, "and the way I played my hand."
"Well, you get them rights, and get the lease sewed up quick!"
admonished Piute. "But don't advertise it none. Go to the newspaper
office and stick a piece in the paper about them wise men from the east
alightin' in Two Palms an' buyin' property reckless and regardless.
Say the printin' office was sold for two thousand, and Hassayamp's
homestead for five thousand, and there's a big boom comin'
this-a-way----"
"But, Piute," protested Deadoak, "they'll know we're plumb liars, them
Meteorite folks will!"
"They know it anyhow," and Piute Tomkins grinned as he closed his safe.