The bar in the Oklahoma village kept by Dick Wrinkle was in the centre
of the place. It was a narrow, one-story shanty built of undressed
boards, the roof of which sloped from the front to the rear. It was
devoid of the conventional door-screen, the rough, unpainted shutter,
with its padlock and chain, swinging back against the inner wall.
It was early in the morning. The proprietor, a fat, partially bald man
of forty years, without a coat, his shirt-sleeves rolled above his
elbows, was sweeping into the cracks of the floor the tobacco-quids,
stubs of cigars, and remnants of matches left by his carousing customers
the night before. He had just tossed his broom into a corner of the room
and was looking out of the door when a dust-laden, travel-worn
individual with a familiar look slouched around a corner and said:
"Hello, Dick! Don't you know a fellow?"
"By gum!" Wrinkle cried. "Where the hell did you blow from?"
"Georgia--from back home, Dick. Just got here on the night mail-stage.
Gosh, what a ride! My windpipe is lined with dust. Quick! Gimme
something to wash it out. Three men on the stage, and not a drop in the
bunch. I'm burning up."
"By gum!--by gum!" Wrinkle muttered, as he slid behind the counter and
set out a long bottle and glasses. "Help yourself, but I'll tell you now
it ain't any o' the simon-pure moonshine we used to get in the old red
hills. And you say you are direct from there? My Lord! It seems funny to
see a man in this God-forsaken place fresh from them old mountains.
Since I clean cut myself off--burnt my bridges, as the feller said, I
kind o' realize what I lost. Say, Hank, you didn't give me away, did
you?"
Bradley drank a half-tumbler of the whiskey, and took a sip of water and
cleared his throat. "No, I kept mum, Dick. I said I would, and I did. It
wasn't anything to me, nohow. I ain't no gossiper. That was your game,
and I saw no reason to spoil it. Shucks! you needn't worry; you are
deader back there than a door-nail. Where is that old pal of yours?"
"Dead." Wrinkle raised his hand warningly. "Don't talk about him. He was
a good chap, and stuck to me like a friend and a brother."
"Gee! then you must be lonely, away out here--"
"Don't talk about it. Cut that out, Hank. I'm blue enough as it is."
Wrinkle moved the bottle and glasses to a crude table near the door and
took a chair. Bradley drew up another and sat down. The rising sun
blazed in at the open door, and flared like flame in the gilt-framed
mirror back of the bar.
"All right. Out she goes. I didn't mean to touch on a sore spot, but I
didn't know. You didn't write often."
"I was afraid my letters might be opened by somebody else. I wanted all
that to stay wiped out, Hank. I didn't care so much for Het as I did for
the old man and woman."
"I wrote you about your wife marrying again?" Bradley said. "I reckon
that ain't news?"
"Oh no." Wrinkle had inherited his nonchalant smile and care-free tone
from his father. "The damn fool was welcome to 'er. In fact, I owed him
that dose. He's the only man I ever had a grudge against, and I was
glad he got her. He thought she was exactly the thing he was looking
for; I reckon he knows what he got by this time. Marrying her was the
foolishest thing I ever was guilty of, and I think I done it to spite
him. I ought to have let 'im marry 'er an' then 'a' took 'er away from
him. I could 'a' done it as easy as falling off a log. She was plumb
daft. I reckon she cut up considerable when the news was spread that I
was done for."
"It was the talk of the county, Dick. Folks thought she'd have to be
sent to the asylum. Her uncle, Ben Warren, who was so rich, you know,
took pity on her and made her come visit him so she could get her mind
off her trouble. When she got back, Henley made a dead set for her. But
while he got her, Dick, she never cared for him. I reckon you never
heard about what she done last summer."
"I haven't had a line from home in two years, Hank. She didn't quit 'im,
did she?--she didn't throw 'im clean over, after all, did she?" And
Wrinkle laughed expectantly as he pushed the bottle toward his
companion.
Bradley's eyes shone; the neck of the bottle in his unsteady hand
tinkled against the edge of the tumbler as he poured out another drink.
"No, but she come nigh to it. She drove him off to Texas, where he
pretended to have some business or other. Dick, she erected a monument
to you that cost a stack o' money. You can see it from the Chester
square, looming up like a ghost."
"The hell you say!"
"Not only that, but she sent off for a silver-tongued preacher and had
your funeral preached in bang-up style."
"Good Lord! What did she do that for?" Wrinkle groaned, and his mouth
set rigidly.
"Because the notion struck her," Bradley smiled. "She made a mark for
herself. She's the pride of all the women in that section. Whenever a
woman is accused of being changeable, your wife is pointed at to give it
the lie. You knew she was looking after your father and mother, didn't
you?"
"Yes, yes, you wrote about that," the barkeeper answered, his eyes
sullenly averted. "I thought she'd do something of the sort."
"And she has done it right, Dick; they are as rosy as two babies. Henley
makes plenty of money in one way and another, and he foots all her
bills, or did till--till--well, I haven't told you all the news yet.
Dick, neither one of us likes Henley. He's crossed me several times in
his high and mighty way, but he's got us both down now and he can sneer
at us all he wants to. No wind ever blowed that didn't blow profit to
him. You thought you was handing him a gold-brick when you left him your
wife, but, la me, Dick, you done him the biggest favor that one man ever
done another."
"What the hell you giving me?" Wrinkle raised a pair of wondering eyes
to Bradley's design-filled face, and fixed them there anxiously.
"Dick," Bradley toyed with the tumbler, turning it upside-down and
stamping rings of liquor on the table--"Dick, Ben Warren died and left
her every dollar of his estate. She's as rich as cream, and Henley--huh!
he's so stuck-up he can't walk. His lordly strut fairly shakes the
ground when he goes about. That fellow's as deep as the sky is high.
Folks think now that he knew she would come into that money away back
when he first set out to catch her. They don't know how he got onto it,
but it looks like he had a tip from some source or other."
With the lips and throat of a corpse, Dick Wrinkle swore; the pupils of
his eyes dilated; his yellow fingers, like prongs of dried rawhide,
clutched the edge of the table, and the tremor of his body shook it
visibly.
"I see it all now," he gasped. "He must have known it; he was crazy to
get her, and--and he took her as soon after--after I left as he could
possibly manage it. The Lord only knows what means he used, for, as you
say, she still loves me."
"Folks say Henley turns up his nose at common folks now," Bradley went
on. "He's planning a great stock-farm, and going to keep fine-blooded
race-horses, and him and his wife is going to travel about and see the
world. Things certainly run crooked in this life." Bradley laughed
significantly, his studious eyes on his victim's tortured visage. "Here
you are, all alone away out here in a measly little joint like this when
your old enemy is living like a king in the bosom of your family. Why,
he's even robbed you of your daddy and mammy. You are dead, buried, and
laughed at, Dick. I reckon you are not making much out of this thing?"
Bradley swept the meagre stock and cheap fixtures with a contemptuous
glance.
"Don't make my salt!" Wrinkle groaned. "Nothing is coming in, and no
prospect of a change. New town, Citico, drawing all the trade. I've
thought of selling out. There's a fellow here that has made me a cash
offer for the whole shooting-match--a thousand dollars down. He's a
gambler that is at the end of his rope; his wife says she'll quit 'im
and marry another man if he don't get into something more steady. She's
willing to put up the money if he'll buy me out. He's crazy for a deal.
He's got friends and can make it go. His wife's kin live here and she
won't move. He's in every hour of the day, shaking his wad in my face. I
saw him just now as I come down to open up. I'd let him have the dang
thing, but I don't know where to go. I'm sick o' the game, Hank. I've
had enough of the wild and woolly West. I've laid awake many and many a
night, by gosh! mighty nigh crying for the old life in the mountains.
Lord, Lord, I set here sometimes when there ain't anybody about except a
drunk Injun or cowboy and git so blue and lonely that it leaks out of me
like sweat and drops on the floor. I reckon it is kinder natural for a
feller to want what he's been brought up on, especially if he has, by
his own act, cut it out and signed his death-warrant. Oh, that was a
fool thing, Hank--a blasted fool thing! It seems to me that I dream o'
them damn mountains and blue skies every night hand-running--and the
good, old-fashioned grub we used to have! And, Hank, I hain't just a
dead man--another feller has took my place and, as you say, is gloating
over me."
"Oh, well, as for that matter," and Bradley looked idly out through the
doorway, "you ought to settle his hash--pull 'im down from his perch."
"Yes," ironically, "now that would be a good idea, wouldn't it?"
"The easiest thing on earth, Dick. Alf Henley ain't legally married to
your wife. He's living with her, but they hain't been tied by law."
The barkeeper stared blankly; his features worked as if he were trying
to solve a mathematical problem. He started to speak, but his mouth fell
open and remained so; his lower lip hung wet with saliva.
"Why, no," Bradley went on. "No woman can legally marry another man
while her husband is alive. She didn't get no divorce. She's your wife
yet, and Alf Henley has simply slid in and taken possession of all you
got on earth. I know what I'd do; I'd hike back there and walk in as if
nothing had happened, and I'd kick that skunk out, too, or shoot the top
of his head off. Dick, she never loved anybody but you; she'd be so glad
to have you back she'd throw her arms round your neck and hold you
tight. It is the talk of the whole county about how true she is to your
memory. It has driven Henley mighty nigh crazy."
Wrinkle stood up. He was shaking like a man with palsy. He leaned over
the table and gazed almost tearfully into the designing eyes before him.
"Yes, old Het's a good girl," he muttered. "She was always the right
stuff. I know in reason that she'd be the--the same as she was. I know
her through and through and exactly how to manage her, but, Hank, they
all think I'm--- dead!"
"Folks have made mistakes before," Bradley argued, in a tense and yet
plausible tone. "You was hit in the head by a falling beam in that
storm. You told me so. You was laid up with a lot of others in the
hospital, and for a solid month didn't know your hat from a hole in the
ground. That's how the report went out that you was done for. Why, Dick,
there have been no end of cases where men have not known where they
belonged for half a lifetime, and then got it all back in a flash.
Nobody would doubt that you was in that fix. I'll help you work it. I'm
your friend, and I want to see you get what is due you. That man's
robbing you, choking the life-blood out of you. You've simply got to go
back and claim your rights."
"I couldn't do it, Hank." The barkeeper sank back into his chair, and,
with his elbows on the table, he ran his blunt fingers through the
fringe of hair around his glistening pate. "I'm in a hole. I'm clean
done for. I wouldn't be good at such a racket as that. I wouldn't know
how to fix it. I'd forget my tale; I ain't got much memory. Hush, I saw
that gambler turn the corner. He's headed here."
"Dick, you'd better take my advice and sell out," Bradley advised.
"You'll be a damn fool if you don't. It's the chance of a lifetime."
"Sh!" Wrinkle hissed, warningly, as a shadow fell athwart the floor and
a tall, middle-aged man, with dyed mustache and whiskers, sauntered in
at the door. He was jocularly called "the Parson," owing to his
dignified and clerical appearance. His trousers were neatly folded into
the tops of his very high boots, and his shirt-bosom was broad and none
too clean, and his flowered silk waistcoat was cut so low that two
buttons sufficed to keep it in place. He wore a flowing, black necktie,
glistening foil-back studs, and rings of the same quality.
"I'm up early," he laughed, nodding to Bradley as a stranger might. "My
wife pulled me out o' bed. She has got Shanks to agree to sell me his
grocery, part cash and part on tick, and she wants me to watch and see
what sort o' early-morning trade he's got. She knows I don't know as
much about that line as this, but she thinks I kin learn, and maybe keep
better company. I reckon it will be a deal betwixt now and ten
o'clock--that is, unless you make up your mind to sell out."
Dick Wrinkle was looking into the speaking eyes of his old friend across
the table. He knew well enough that the gambler's remark was merely a
poker bluff, and yet it stirred certain natural fears within him.
"You can't root me out of a good thing with a little wad like that,
Parson," he said, rising and going behind the counter and briskly wiping
off its surface more from habit than necessity. "I've just met an old
friend of mine from back in God's Country, and we was just talking over
old times. What'll you have?"
"The one next the jug," the gambler said, and Wrinkle set the bottle
before him, watching him fill the glass with unsteady eyes.
"I don't think Dick is in a trading humor," Bradley informed him with a
cordial smile. "We've been talking over old times, and he's hot under
the collar. He's got an enemy back home that has been throwing dirt on
him. If I was in Dick's place I'd go back and call him down."
"I don't know anything about that," the gambler said, and he drank,
wiped his lips on his hand, and stepped to the centre of the bar and
peered out. "I see Shanks in front of his shebang now. If I make him an
offer and he accepts it, it is all off between us, Wrinkle--you
understand that. I've got to settle down at something, and I'll do it
without delay. What do you say?"
"Oh, I've said all I'm going to." Wrinkle tossed his head and applied
himself to restoring the bottle and washing the glasses beneath the
counter.
"All right. Good-day." He stepped out of the doors
Wiping his hands on a towel, Wrinkle came round to the table and leaned
on it.
"You damn fool!" Bradley cried, in disgust. "That's all I've got to
say."
"It's gone too far, Hank," Wrinkle groaned. "It was my own doings; I've
got to take my medicine. He's gone, anyway."
Bradley stared at the floor and pointed grimly at the gambler's
tell-tale shadow. Then he whispered: "Don't be a fool; close with him.
Secure his money, and I'll help you get your rights--don't lose this
chance. A thousand dollars is a lot of money back home. Call him in."
A change crept over Wrinkle's visage; he glided back behind the counter,
picked up his towel and began wiping the counter's top till he was in a
position to see the gambler. He caught the man's eye and laughed
tauntingly:
"Hey, Parson, you are always making your brags," he called out. "I'll
bet you haven't seen a thousand dollars in a month of Sundays."
"You think not, eh?" And the tall man stalked back into the room,
whipped out a roll of bills, and tossed them on the table in front of
Bradley. "Say, stranger, umpire this game--count it. I'm ready, but I
won't be ten minutes from now."
Bradley smiled easily and counted the twenty fifty-dollar bills.
"It's all right, Dick," he said. "You don't know what to do. I'm going
to close it for you. He'll take it, stranger." Bradley's eyes were on
the startled gambler. "I'll act for him."
There was a pause. Wrinkle's face was set under an expression of blended
fear, doubt, and half-willingness, but he said nothing, simply staring
at Bradley as a subject might under the spell of a hypnotist.
"Yes, he'll take it," Bradley repeated. "Get your hat, Dick, and leave
the gentleman in possession--the agreement sweeps everything, doesn't
it?"
"Yes, lock, stock, and barrel." The gambler was trying to conquer the
look of elation which had captured his features.
"All right," Wrinkle gave in, doggedly, and he reached for the money and
counted it. When he had finished he took his hat down from a nail on the
wall and extended his hand. "Luck to you, Parson," he said. "I reckon
I'll shake the dust of this place off my feet. I've got work to do at
home."