"Will you be so kind as to come here?" Mr. Menocal inquired of Bryant.
It was an afternoon in late January, and the banker, bundled in a
great overcoat and numerous rugs, had reined his team to a halt at the
spot where he found the engineer. The air was cutting. Steam in sharp
jets came from the nostrils of his pair of bays, as from those of the
horses straining at the plows and scrapers in the stretch of partially
excavated canal near by.
Lee went forward to the buggy, slapping his gloved hands together to
quicken their circulation.
"What do you want of me, Mr. Menocal?" he asked. "You're picking a
frosty day to look at the scenery."
"Well, there's a matter that's been troubling my mind for some time
and I decided to let it go no longer. We have our differences, Mr.
Bryant, but I wouldn't wish you to believe me responsible for a number
of annoyances to which you've been put. I am a gentleman; I fight
fair. For instance, I was quite within my rights in suggesting those
men take homesteads down yonder along the base of the mountains,
though I was wrong in my guess. Also, in taking advantage of the law
under which you were limited by the Land and Water Board, I wasn't
stepping out of bounds. But I've learned that some time ago a man
introduced whisky into camp against your rules, and I wish to tell
you that I knew nothing of it at the time and would countenance no
sort of disgraceful act like that."
"I judged that you wouldn't," said Lee.
"Then again last summer someone killed your dog, I understand. That
was a bad deed. I am fond of dogs, and had I been able to learn who
did it I should have informed you so that you could have had Winship
arrest him. Since that time, too, there have been other things, many
of them--men cutting your telephone wire, removing your survey stakes,
and the like. All making you angry. Well, I was angry when I heard
that those things were being done. Resorting to questionable and
criminal tactics against any man is the worst possible course a person
can follow. I do not do it in your case; I will prevent any one else
from doing it if I can. You have the right to work undisturbed."
"I never connected you with these underhanded acts," the engineer
stated.
"Thank you, Mr. Bryant. It pleases me to hear you say that. I should
like to see you lose your water right, of course; it would mean much
money in my pocket; but I'll not do contemptible things or crooked
things to get possession of it."
Lee glanced at the speaker's face. It was sincere, earnest, and now
relieved. He felt an increase of respect for the man, opponent though
he was. Menocal appeared, to be sure, unable to comprehend the ethics
involved in seeking to thwart Bryant, but he was scrupulous and
honourable within his understanding. Far more so than Gretzinger, for
instance. Or Charlie Menocal. The thought of the banker's son pulled
Bryant up. Should he mention his conviction that Charlie was the
instigator of the mischief discussed? As he was still in doubt when
his visitor turned the subject, he let it rest.
"The way you're going ahead with your canal, I'm afraid that my chance
of retaining the water is poor, very poor," Menocal said, with a
lugubrious sigh. He drew his fat chin deeper into his coat collar,
tugged at the ice on his big white moustache, and ran his eyes up and
down the long line of moving teams. "And it will cost me a lot of
money." Again the sigh. "I didn't think you could do it; I didn't
think any man in the world could do it. In cold weather, in ninety
days! I said it was impossible. Charlie said it was impossible.
Everyone said it was impossible."
"Everyone except my contractor and me," Lee interjected, smiling a
tight smile.
The other nodded. "Except you, yes. And you're showing us that after
all it's not impossible. I shall never say again that anything is
impossible. If I ever have a big ditch to build, I shall insist, Mr.
Bryant, that you take charge. Then I would say, 'I should like to have
it built so and so, and by such a time,' and sit down at my desk and
think no more of it, knowing it would be built."
Bryant laughed softly. He could not help doing so. That naïve avowal
from the one whom he considered his chief enemy tickled his fancy. And
presently Menocal, catching the humour of it, himself began to smile.
"I shouldn't be surprised if we have had a misconception of each
other," Lee stated.
"Ah, _cielos!_ That is nothing less than the truth. What a pity, too,
my young friend, that we could not have found it out earlier. Our
affair, perhaps--we might have reached a satisfactory agreement. This
winter work, it is costing you something."
"A good many extra thousand."
"And, alas, costing me even more! But it is too late now." He made a
tragic gesture. "It has gone too far. Within two or three weeks it
will be settled one way or the other. For you if the weather remains
good; for me if the weather becomes stormy." He again studied the
moving horses along the canal. "For me then--perhaps. You might not
allow even a great storm to stop you, in some way. This winter is
remarkable; there seem to be no storms to happen. You're very lucky."
"Yes, I am in that respect."
"Well, I've done all that I shall do in the matter. I've become quite
calm, fatalistic. There's nothing else to be." He gathered up his
reins.
"That's a good team you have," Lee remarked.
"Of the very best. I disliked to use them in this cold, but Charlie
had gone with the car to Kennard. Va! He is never at home any more. It
would be well if I made him drive a team on your ditch."
"Send him along; I'll give him a job," Lee said.
The banker shook his head.
"He would say I was crazy and he wouldn't come. He doesn't even attend
to matters that require attention. This winter he has been running too
much with idle men in town and spending money as if it took no effort
to get it, as if it could be picked off of weeds. It's very
perplexing. I am too easy with Charlie, I let him have his way too
much. I should put him in a pair of overalls for a while and say, 'You
are going out with a band of sheep; you have to work.' Several times
I've made up my mind to do that, but when the moment came I couldn't
say it. He isn't robust, he has always had the best of everything, and
he's been educated in a college."
"Cut off his allowance and take away his automobile. He would stay at
home and attend to business then," Lee offered.
"But it would shame him. He isn't a little boy any longer; he's thirty
years old. The trouble is that he isn't like me, particular and
careful; he's wild and impatient and reckless. His mother wasn't that
way, I am not that way--I don't know where he got that nature."
Menocal senior drove off and Bryant turned back to his work. The pity
of the thing was, as the banker had stated, that they had been hasty
in the beginning, that they had not sought to come to an
understanding, some arrangement. It was another mistake. To Lee his
whole past here was beginning to appear a record of oversights,
incredible misjudgements, blinded blunders, and ghastly mistakes.