"Seems like the only way left."
"It's what we should have done in the first place, maybe. But after
what's happened it would be too raw. We'd have the railroad down on us,
the county sheriff up here. No, for the time being well play Tesno's
game."
"That means a clean-up."
"We'll go through the motions. We'll enforce a curfew for a while,
send a few gamblers packing. The important thing is for us to do it,
not him."
Madrid scowled, as if he didn't understand or didn't agree. Mr. Jay
walked to a window and stared out, hands behind his back.
"In the meantime," Mr. Jay said, "you're to get along with him. He's
top-dogged you, and you're going to have to live with it. Do you
understand that?"
"I try to get along with everybody," Madrid said. "It makes things
easier."
Mr. Jay turned his back to the window, moving in the quick irritable
way that he had. He studied the marshal a moment, then he sighed. His
manner suddenly became paternal.
"You're young, Pete--which is a polite way of saying you're a fool.
Pride, being top dog, paying off a grudge, these things are a waste
of energy unless there's money involved. Maybe you'll learn that some
day." Mr. Jay faced the window again, looking across the patch of woods
toward Vickers' camp. "If you live long enough."
* * * * *
Tesno found Ben Vickers at the tunnel. Ben had heard about his jailing
the marshal and was in a jubilant mood. After he had slapped Tesno's
back innumerable times, they entered the portal and he enthusiastically
explained his method of tunneling.
There were a lot of niceties to it, but the basis was the digging of an
eight-foot heading in advance of the lower part of the bore. Shoring
was put in behind the heading crew, then replaced by another set of
timbers as the bench was removed.
"Most expensive procedure ever devised for tunneling through rock,"
Ben said, grinning. "But damn it, it's the fastest, too. At least
in theory. In practice--well, we have to get those Ingersoll drills
working, that's all."
When they emerged from the dim, dust-filled chamber, the world had
taken on a strange new vividness, Tesno thought. The panorama of men
and horses at work on the side cuts seemed a distant creation. The
sunlight itself and the nagging mountain wind had a foreign quality.
It was as if he had strayed onto some unsuspected reality that he could
observe but never be a part of.
He noticed that the slashing was in progress in the timber high above,
and he remembered hearing that the railroad would use a switchback
over the mountain till the tunnel was completed. He asked Ben who was
building it.
"Three different contractors," Ben said. "I have a piece on this side.
Mr. Jay has one of the far sections."
It seemed a cumbersome, impatient bit of railroading. And in that
curious moment of detachment, Tesno felt that he was watching a race of
madmen at play. Obsessed with money and mechanics, they wouldn't rest
till they had driven steel toys over this ragged sea of mountains to
a remote corner of the land. And why? Was it really an accomplishment
to bring the thing called civilization to Puget Sound? "All this to
reach a little bay tucked away between the fingers of land on the West
Coast." The thought amused him and he laughed aloud.
"What's funny?" Ben demanded.