Thady Shea was on his way to Number Sixteen. The sheriff was on his way
to Silver City with Mrs. Crump, Gilbert, and Lewis. In the ordinary
course of events, Thady Shea would have encountered them in the canon
north of No Agua. The ordinary course of events did not obtain, however,
because of Ben Aimes.
Having sustained nothing worse than a broken wrist and a sore head, Ben
Aimes upon being revived at once telephoned the store and post office at
No Agua to stop Thady Shea. No Agua was the jumping-off place at the
edge of the bad lands, and it was nothing but a long frame building from
which radiated all the canon trails to north and west.
When Shea arrived, he found a reception committee awaiting him in the
shape of a dozen men, most of whom were mounted upon horses or mules as
if they had convened for a Sunday holiday. Shea needed no information
upon the subject of his reception. He had previously observed the
telephone wires and had drawn his own conclusions. As he drew near to No
Agua he was the recipient of a bullet that finished off the windshield
and sent a sliver of glass slithering across his forehead.
What next happened was wild and incoherent in all subsequent reports.
Shea cared absolutely nothing for results, so long as he got through.
When he found his path barred by mounted men, he opened up the throttle
wide, shut his eyes, and gripped hard to the wheel. General opinion was
that the first bullet had killed him and that the car was running wild;
for blood was trickling over his face from his slashed brow, and he was
a fearsome sight.
The dust-white flivver smashed head-on into the mass of men and horses.
It paused as though for breath, then went ahead. The radiator was
boiling over; and when that red-hot projectile began to bore its way,
things happened. The steam seared into a big mule, and the mule
instantly began to plunge and kick. Two horses went down and the flivver
climbed over them and their riders. A vaquero was pitched across the
hood and with screams of anguish managed to leap away to earth. A horse
sat on the right-hand fender and toppled over upon his rider as the car
went ahead.
After a moment Thady Shea opened his eyes and looked back upon a scene
of wonderful confusion. Men and horses strewed the ground or were
plunging in all directions. With a sigh of relief Thady Shea found that
he was still going forward; so, in order to avoid the bullets that came
swarming and buzzing after him, he aimed for the nearest canon, which
was not his proper road at all, and followed the trail blindly.
An hour later this trail petered out at an abandoned mine in the bad
lands. With a vague general idea of his directions, Shea went plunging
off through the sand, winding his way past huge, eroded masses and amid
weird pinnacles of wind-blown rock. Somewhere past noon he was in the
lava beds, and was apprised of the fact by his tires blowing out one by
one.
Lack of pneumatic cushions did not trouble Shea in the least. He
punished the poor flivver unmercifully, and by the eternal miracle of
flivvers the car kept going. Shea climbed rocky masses, shoved through
sand, rolled over jutty fields of volcanic rock, and when the afternoon
was half gone, came upon automobile tracks. He had found his road at
last. From the tracks, he could tell that the sheriff's automobile had
lately gone that way--but in the direction of Silver City.
When, late in the afternoon, Shea came to Number Sixteen, it was
deserted. Upon the door of the shack which Mrs. Crump had occupied was
pinned a brief note. It read:
Thady: Set rite here till I get back. We are pinched but not for
long. My gun is over my bunk. Set tite. Yours,
---- M. CRUMP.
Methodically, Shea went to the other shack and began to wash the dried
blood from his face, plastering the cut on his brow.
In front of him he propped the note and studied it, tried to read
between the lines. It had been written, he thought grimly, as a forlorn
hope, a desperate chance that Thady Shea might yet save the day. Mrs.
Crump had not been aware of his culpability; or, if she had been aware
of it, she had mercifully indulged in no recriminations.
"Well, I'm here," said Shea, then glanced quickly around. The sound of
his voice in that solitude was startling.
He felt in no mood for theatricalisms, and that morning he had given
vent to none; but now, when he tried to express himself otherwise,
homely words failed him. So long had he mantled himself in the
braggadocio rhetoric and rounded phrases of The Profession, that he
could not rid himself of the bluff which had bolstered up his years of
miserable failure. Therefore, he held his peace and tried to face facts
squarely. The lesson of primitive silence was another thing that he
learned in this strange land.
Now, for the first time, he became aware that he had not come off
undamaged that morning. His body was bruised, his face and head were
much cut about by hard knuckles. Also, he had not eaten since the
previous night, and hunger was beginning to ride him. So he took
temporary possession of Mrs. Crump's shack and began to prepare a meal.
The single room of the shack was fairly large, since it had to serve not
only as living quarters for Mrs. Crump, but as a dining room for all
hands. The walls were rough and bare; like the bunk in the corner, they
were formed from hewn timbers, unchinked. Gilbert had knocked together a
big mess table; the seats were puncheon stools; in the lean-to adjoining
was the kitchen, consisting of a small sheet-iron stove, frying pan, and
a kettle. And yet, about this primitive bareness Mrs. Crump had
contrived to throw a fragrance of femininity--a rag of curtain to the
unglazed window, a faded photograph of the late departed Crump, a
battered clock decorated by a scarlet cactus flower, an ancient, white,
mended lace counterpane that covered her bunk. And upon the table, a red
cloth that was always spick and span. Only a Mrs. Crump would have
bothered to bring such tag ends of womanly presence into this bare and
rugged spot in the wilderness.
Contemplating these things, Thady Shea sighed; he sighed at thought of
Mehitabel Crump, doomed to live in such a place, destitute of all things
her woman's heart must have craved. He ceased his sighing, suddenly
aware that his bacon was burned.
Thady Shea knew more about prospecting for tungsten than he did about
cooking. His coffee was miserable and wretched in spirit. His bacon was
brown and hard as wood. Trying to get the beans warmed throughout, he
forgot to stir them until unpleasantly reminded of his remissness.
However, by the time he had to light the oil lamp in order to see his
food, he had managed to make a fair meal, in quantity if not in quality.
Afterward, he filled his pipe and sat in the doorway, staring upon the
empurpled masses of the mountains that were piled into the evening sky,
and trying to conclude what he must do next.
Mrs. Crump's scribbled mention of her revolver drew a whimsical smile to
his lips. He could not remember having fired a revolver in all his life,
except with stage blanks; and he had not the slightest intention of
learning the art at this time.
He was slightly surprised at his own lack of feeling in regard to the
men whom he had hurt. His one uneasiness was lest he be arrested--or,
rather, lest someone try to arrest him. He did not intend to leave
Number Sixteen until it was safe to do so; until he was certain the
place was secure. Therefore, if any officers appeared, a fight must
ensue. Consequences did not matter. Thady Shea was quite willing to face
any ultimate dispensation of justice so long as he kept Number Sixteen
intact for Mrs. Crump.
"I must make up for what I've done," he reflected. "Then I can go. I am
a failure, a sodden wreck upon the shoals of self. Once let my
reparation be established, and I shall go forth into the world again to
seek the dregs of fortune with the bent diviner's rod of Thespian
mimicry."
He broke short off, smiling at his own language.
Shea knew inwardly that the old life was gone from him forever. He
looked up at the looming mountains and felt a sudden savage joy in
himself; a joy that frightened him, so primitive and sweeping was it. He
had fought with men--had conquered them! In a measure he was done with
all self-recrimination for his weakness and failure. Those were things
of the past. He would not be weak again! Remorse fell away from him, and
peace came.
The more he thought about arrest, however, the less probable it seemed.
Ben Aimes had given him liquor, which was in defiance of law. Shea
already knew that Mackintavers et. al. were not desirous of getting into
court unless they had an ironclad hold upon the other fellow; this was
proven by Mrs. Crump's having "shot up" Dorales with impunity. If the
proceedings of the past twenty-four hours were given a public airing,
sundry matters might require explanations which would be uncomfortable
for Mackintavers.
No, upon that count he was perhaps safe enough; but there would be other
counts. They would try to get him--how? No matter. Here was another
reason why he must leave Number Sixteen. He must lose himself from those
enemies, and he must not involve Mrs. Crump in the mix-up.
Thus deciding, it must be admitted rather vaguely, Thady Shea knocked
out his pipe and sought his bunk. He was not so ill pleased with
himself, after all; he would yet save Number Sixteen for Mrs. Crump!
The following morning, for the first time in the weeks since Mrs. Crump
had picked him up, Thady Shea relaxed in blissful indolence. He had no
idea of how the vein or veins of strontianite should be worked. There
was little to do about the cabin. So he climbed the long hogback and
settled down to smoke and watch the road that wound down from the canon
toward the lava beds, the road that led into the world.
The day passed idly and uneventful. With its passing, Shea felt more
assured that his theory was correct; that he was not to be arrested. So
convinced of this was he, that when, toward sunset, he discerned a dusty
streak betokening the approach of an automobile, he made certain that
Mrs. Crump was returning.
Thady Shea sat where he was, resolved to tell her frankly the whole
story of his disgrace, then to pause for no argument, but to go. He did
not so misjudge her as to think that she would kick him out; still, he
felt that he had been false to her trust, and as a part of his penance
he must go away, until he might be able to come back a man renewed. A
most indistinct idea, this, but strongly persistent. Besides, he would
now be a marked man and he must not involve her in his possible danger.
Somewhat to his surprise and uneasiness, as the approaching flivver drew
up the canon Shea could not recognize the gigantic figure of Mehitabel
Crump aboard. He saw only three men in the car, and he knew none of
them. Two in the rear seat were evidently natives; from the dirty and
heavily laden appearance of the car, Shea deduced that these men had
come upon no errand of the law. They seemed, rather, to be prospectors
or campers.
Near the dust-white flivver the car came to a halt. The driver alighted,
and having previously made out the motionless figure of Thady Shea on
the hillside above, waved a hand and started upward. The two natives
climbed out and began to unstrap bundles.
As the visitor came near to him, Shea saw that the man was powerfully
built, roughly dressed, and possessed striking gray eyes beneath black
brows and hair.
"Howdy, old-timer!" greeted the new arrival, pausing with outstretched
hand and a frank smile. "My name's Logan, Tom Logan. We got lost over in
the lava beds and struck your auto tracks. We're prospecting. You don't
mind if we camp out here for the night?"
Shea rose and gravely shook hands.
"Not a bit, my friends," he said, then pointed a hundred yards beyond
the halted car. "You see that big rock down the valley? Instruct your
comrades to make camp at that point or below it."
Logan gave him a puzzled look. That word "valley" was strange in these
parts.
"Eh, partner? You're not joking?"
"Sir, the habiliments of jest do not become me," returned Shea, his
cavernous eyes piercingly steady.
"But this is all free country, isn't it?"
"It is not. No person may intrude upon this property, sir. You are
welcome to water and food if your needs be such, and I am fain of your
company. Kindly instruct your knaves to move as I have said."
For a moment Logan met the gravely firm gaze of Shea, then turned and
lifted his hands to his mouth. He shouted something in the patois, to
which the two natives waved assent. They turned their car and took it to
the rock that marked the limit of Mrs. Crump's location in the canon.
Logan began to roll a cigarette with deft fingers.
"Prospecting hereabouts, I presume?" he inquired. "I didn't get your
name."
Shea found himself warming to the cultivated accents.
"My name, sir, is Shea."
"W-whew!" A long whistle broke from Logan, whose thin lips parted in a
smile. "So you're the man! I heard about you at Zacaton City last night.
They say you cleaned up Aimes and his crowd for giving you a drink, and
that you threatened to do worse to any man who offered you one again!
Good thing I didn't do it, eh? Glad to meet you, Shea. I'm set against
liquor myself. You've sure become famous in this part of the country!"
Thady Shea did not altogether like the swarthy features and the odd
contrast between steely eyes and coarse black hair, but he did like
applause. He took the stranger down to the shacks and when Logan set
about cooking an excellent dinner, Shea was delighted.
Over their meal the two men conversed at length, chiefly on the subject
of mining. Tom Logan asked no questions about Number Sixteen, but he
formed the private opinion that Thady Shea was earnest, upright, and a
simpleton. Two thirds of this diagnosis was correct. The other third was
destined to make trouble for Tom Logan.
At last, over their third pipe, Logan yawned.
"This here is a queer country," he observed. "You're prospecting for
gold hereabouts, of course. But d'you know, Shea, the old prospecting
business is changed? Yes, it is. Nowadays two thirds of the prospectors
turn up their noses at gold. There are new things in the field, things
that pay better than gold.
"Platinum, for instance; or tungsten or manganese. Take my own case--I'm
one of a dozen men sent out by a big New York chemical house. I'm after
strontium. It comes in two forms, celestite and strontianite. Celestite
brings about twenty dollars a ton at seaboard; but strontianite, when
converted into nitrates, brings five hundred. The average old-time
prospector hasn't the chemical knowledge to find such things as those."
"Maybe," said Shea, reflectively. "But yonder hillock, black against the
stars, holds in its deep heart veins of mineral; and in those veins, my
friend, there runs an ichor bearing the self-same name as that you
seek."
Logan stared over this for a moment. Then:
"By jasper! D'you mean that you've got strontianite here?"
"So they do tell me," averred Shea, modestly. He added with frankness,
that while he held a third interest in the claim, he knew little of
minerals.
Logan displayed a cordial and friendly interest, and asked to see
samples. Shea found one or two and set them forth, telling what he knew
of the veins. The interest of the visitor grew and waxed enthusiastic.
Logan examined the samples closely, and then his gray eyes suddenly
struck up at Shea.
"Look here!" he exclaimed, eagerly. "Would you, provided the veins and
so forth run as you describe them, accept ten thousand dollars cash for
your interest in this location?"
To Thady Shea this offer came like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
"You see," pursued Logan, "a deposit like this would answer my company's
purposes admirably. We might never find another like it. Ten thousand is
not a large offer, but it would be a year or more before you'd begin to
pull money out of the property. Say yes, and I'll examine the location
to-morrow; if it's what you say, I'll buy your right and interest in the
property, sign the papers, and before to-morrow night you'll cash my
check."
Shea rose to his feet. He wanted to get away from the influence of this
man's personality. He wanted to ask counsel from the friendly stars.
"I'll think it over," he said, unsteadily. "By myself----"
"Sure," Logan agreed, heartily. "I'll make out the papers, eh? We're not
the kind of men to haggle and fight each other for price."
Thady Shea stalked forth into the darkness, his soul a riot of emotions.
"Ten thousand dollars!" he murmured, staring up at the blazing stars.
What a sum to turn over to Mrs. Crump upon leaving! With that sum, Mrs.
Crump could at once begin development work, independently of Logan's
company. With that sum, she could set trucks at work hauling ore to the
railroad. With that sum, she could do--anything!
It never occurred to him that he might keep the money for himself; it
never occurred to him that he was actually one third owner of the mine,
and could sell out any time. Never had he thought about money in
connection with Number Sixteen; he had not mentally placed his
partnership with Mrs. Crump upon any financial basis. It was because of
this very simplicity of thought that Mrs. Crump had felt drawn to him.
It was because of this, too, that she had instructed Coravel Tio to
record the entire property in the name of Thady Shea, in order to
camouflage her ownership from the many eyes of Sandy Mackintavers. But
this Shea did not know.
Thady Shea came to the big gray bowlder that marked the limit of the
canon location. He stood against it, gazing upward at the stars, lost in
his dream. The rocky mass shut off from him the flickering fire, built
by Logan's native companions. Behind, the light in the shack was as
another star. He was alone. He was alone, and in the valley of decision.
Ten thousand dollars--for Mrs. Crump! Never had Thady Shea visioned so
much money all in one lump. Nor did he now vision it as his own.
Shea did not know that he was technically and legally the owner of
Number Sixteen. But the fact was on record, and Tom Logan knew it
perfectly well. Back in the shack, under the oil lamp, Logan was already
chuckling over the cleverly drawn papers which would make him the sole
owner of Number Sixteen--for the comparatively unimportant sum of ten
thousand dollars! He had persuaded Sandy Mackintavers to gamble that
sum, to play it as a table stake.