"It's impossible!"
Roger was too stunned to grasp the true significance of the situation
at once.
"The Senator's company wouldn't have sold me this land if there was a
suit on it."
Then, little by little, the facts began to clarify in his mind.
Connors, the lawyer, was Senator Fairclothe's law partner; Fairclothe
had been anxious to see the tract drained.
"Oh, my God!" he groaned, "Are they that rotten!"
"But you had the title searched before you bought?" said Higgins.
"Of course. Right back to the first Spanish land grant, and there
wasn't a flaw in it."
"Then those fellows are stung."
"Pooh! Those cheap toughs. They're nothing but tools. There's
probably been a false transfer made to their names, but that's all;
they were picked because they were fighters. Well, whoever picked them
hasn't got the least suspicion of what he's started."
"Land titles are rotten things," growled Higgins. "Specially when land
sharks are juggling them."
"They waited until the ditches were dug," mused Roger. "They didn't
know it would make good land. And then they struck! Higgins, I'm
going right down to Garman's and have a little talk with Senator
Fairclothe."
"Bet you won't find him. Bet he's away selling this tract again to
some other sucker."
But Higgins was wrong. Senator Fairclothe had not gone away. As Roger
entered Garman's grounds, he saw Garman, the Senator and a man in long
black coat and broad-brimmed black hat in conference upon the verandah.
At his appearance Garman, lolling in a lawn chair, chuckled lazily; the
Senator became as cold and pompous as the statue he hoped some day
would commemorate his services to the Republic, and the black-hatted
stranger closed his eyes to mere slits.
"Lo, Payne!" drawled Garman. "Come up out of the sun. You look all
heated up."
He looked down at Roger, a smile on his lips as he noted the tenseness
of the young man's expression.
"Worrying about something, Payne? Ideals been shattered? Ambition,
love-- Where's Annette, by the way?"
His chuckle rose to rumbling laughter.
Senator Fairclothe caught the black-clad stranger's eye and nodded
stiffly. The man rose.
"You are Roger Payne?"
"Sit down!" In one leap Roger was upon the verandah facing the
stranger. "Sit down!" he repeated. "My business is with Senator
Fairclothe."
"My business----"
"Sit down," said Roger softly, and the stranger sat.
"Senator Fairclothe," continued Payne, "there seems to be a little
misunderstanding about the title to the land I bought from you."
"You bought no land from me, young man."
"You are president of the Prairie Highlands Association?"
"I was. I severed that connection some months ago."
"Before you wrote me those letters?"
"No, the day after I wrote you the last letter of our correspondence.
I had no connection with the company you mention at the time you made
your purchase. I had discovered that the Prairie Highlands Association
was not upon a firm basis. Of the land which they sold not a foot was
owned by them. Their original title was false and invalid. The
company now is defunct."
"I see," said Roger after a pause. "And knowing that your
recommendations as a United States Senator would influence people to
purchase this land, and knowing the title to be invalid, did you take
any steps to warn them?"
"A United States Senator, I assure you, young man, has other and more
important duties than nursing the petty interests of persons stupid
enough to purchase land without seeing it. In fact, it might be
considered a duty not to interfere. For the welfare of the country, it
is desirable, in fact, that such money as such helpless persons may
possess be transferred to the possession of the shrewd energetic men
who constitute the vital portion of our population."
"Bravo, bravo!" rumbled Garman, applauding. "Senator, I congratulate
you on your logic. Payne, there's the philosophy of our era in a
nutshell. Now let us hear how star-eyed youth, inspired by ideals,
controverts the wisdom of the togoed sage? Annette, dear!" he roared.
"Come out! Come out and have some sport!"
"Miss Annette is not in the house," responded a maid.
"What? She was a minute ago."
"She is not now."
"All right. Too bad; wish you could see her, Payne. She's changed.
She's grown up now. Senator, it just occurred to me: Annette is
rapidly becoming her father's daughter."
"Well, young man," said Fairclothe complacently. "Have you anything
more to say to me?"
"I'm going to keep that land, Garman," said Roger, ignoring the
Senator. "Going to keep it in spite of all your tools, whether they're
city gangsters, United States Senators, or"--with a glance at the
stranger--"your deputy sheriffs."
"Senator!" cried Garman in mock horror. "He slanders the honor of your
sacred office!"
"Better keep a-hold of your tongue, young feller," warned the deputy.
"I'm a little interested in this, too."
"Well," said Roger, "I think there is something in this that will
interest people bigger than you or I or the state of Florida. I think
the United States Government is due to become interested down here."
The suspicion of a smile curved the corners of Garman's mouth. There
was a moment of pregnant silence; then Senator Fairclothe said
impressively:
"I represent the United States Government, sir."
"Do you really?" laughed Roger bitterly. "Then the poor old United
States Government is in a bad way indeed. But I deny your claim, sir;
I don't think you represent the United States Government, because the
United States Government consists of about a hundred million working
people like myself; and all you represent, sir, are the few rich men
and the few hundred millions of dollars which constitute the power that
put you in the Senate."
"Do I understand, sir, that you mean to impugn the honor of the august
body of which I have the honor to be a member?"
"No; I'm a busy man; I haven't any time to waste like that. But
there's going to be something said about using the mails to defraud
before this is over. That's Federal business."
"Be careful, sir; I am a member of and represent the Federal
Government, and I shall take care that nobody casts any aspersions upon
its honor or mine."
"What are you going to do about it?"
"What? Sir, do you mean to defy----?"
"Consider the aspersions cast. What are you going to do about it?"
"He calls," chuckled Garman; "show your cards."
"I shall----"
"Hm," interrupted Garman, and the Senator obediently hesitated.
"I shall not state here and now what means I shall utilize in meeting,
as befits it, this defiance of our sacred Government. Nor shall I
continue any communication or intercourse, or any association
whatsoever, with the party or parties guilty of such defiance."
"I reckon this young feller has tooted his horn long enough," drawled
the deputy sheriff. "Roger Payne, I----"
Roger turned his back deliberately and went down the stairs.
"Here! Come back here!"
Roger was walking across the lawn, bound for the path that led to his
camp. He heard the click of a revolver being cocked on the verandah,
but he did not look up.
"Oh, put that thing up, you ass!" said Garman disgustedly. "And go
back to Flora City and draw your time--Payne, you're a big, bold buck.
There's only one bigger in the country; and you and I are going to have
a lot of fun before we're many days older."
Payne did not pause to look back or reply. Garman's taunts had driven
him close to the point of explosion. The wretched situation in which
he found himself in regard to the land he had paid for and drained was
a muddle in his mind. Senator Fairclothe's brazen confession was a
confusion. The one thing that was clear to his comprehension--as a
touch of white-hot steel is clear to its victim--was Garman's assertion
that Annette had changed and was becoming her father's daughter. And
when he came upon her--rather when she stepped out before him--in the
hidden path near the edge of the wild apple trees, Roger saw that
Garman had spoken the truth.
She had changed. She had grown older. Her beauty was as great as
ever, but it was now the beauty of a sophisticated, disillusioned and
hardened woman, rather than that of the buoyant girl he had known. He
could not define the change that had taken place in her, so subtle was
it; but as he looked at her he instinctively flung out his hand, a
gesture of pleading for something gone, and cried out in youth's agony:
"Annette! Annette!"
And then the miracle happened. At the sight of him, at the heart throb
in his tones as he called her name, she seemed to shiver, then to
awaken. She seemed to change before his eyes; though it was only he,
seeing with the eyes which that moment had given him, who could have
been sensible of the change. She seemed to grow and freshen as a
parched rose at the touch of life-giving water. Her eyes gleamed with
the old, frank look, her cheeks were rosy, and she walked girlishly as
she came forward.
"Ah! Goody, goody!" she cried, clapping her hands. "Somebody likes me
the other way--the way I want to be!"
"Annette!" he said again, and stretched out his hands and touched hers
and held them.
"You--are happy again now, aren't you?" he stammered.
"Don't I look it?"
Her eyes were brimming with soothing tears.
"Happy?"
"Yes--for a minute."
He drew her hands against his breast. He held her so, and she looked
up, her wet eyes close to his. He put an arm about his shoulders, and
she nestled against his strength with a little sigh of content. And
then he drew her closer to him, and they kissed once, instinctively,
naturally; and she threw her head back and cried, "Ah, God! No, no!"
"Annette! Annette! What is it?"
"No, no! Let me go--let me go, dear. Please--you must, you must!"
She tore herself out of his relaxed arms and pressed her fists against
her eyes to shut out the sight of him.
"Go away!" Her voice was flat and heavy. She turned and crossed her
arms against the vine-clad trunk of a wild-apple tree and leaned her
head upon them. "Don't come near me. You must not. You won't if
you--if you play fair."
"Forgive me!" he said miserably. "I forgot--I didn't think----"
"Don't! Don't apologize--to me."
She waited a moment longer, then turned and faced him. The girlhood
was gone from her eyes once more, and her mouth was hardened. She did
not meet his eyes, she did not look at him, but stared off into the
jungle as she spoke.
"I came out here on purpose to meet you." Her tone was cold and
precise. "He--Mr. Garman--told me the truth about those three men last
night. It is a lie--about your title being a false one. Your title is
the good one. The other title is false. They intend to get possession
of the land and entangle it in a lawsuit which will ruin you."
"What does it matter?" he cried pleadingly. "What does that matter?"
There was no response from her. She looked steadily off into the
jungle.
"That is just what does matter," she said. "You must not let them get
possession of your land."
"I don't intend to. But that----"
"I don't want to see them gobble you up like"--she laughed
bitterly--"like they're doing to me."
"No! They haven't done that. They can't. I saw it a moment ago."
"Don't! It hurts. No, they haven't gobbled me up yet, but I don't
think they'll delay much longer. They're too strong for me, you see:
Aunty, and father, and--him. Aunty trained me for it; poor father
cries: he's in his power; and he--it's a terribly strong array against
one girl--all alone."
"Not quite alone."
"Yes, quite alone. That's the horror of it. I've told you before; you
couldn't understand; but it's myself, only my own soul, that can settle
this--it's very strange."
"You can't tell me--what it is?"
"I've told you too much now. But you must take care of yourself. No
matter what happens you must take care of yourself."
"I don't know if that's so important," said Roger. "I confess I've
lost considerable interest in just myself."
"I've--made you--do that?"
"I want to take care of you."
She smiled a smile too old, too cynical for her youthful lips.
"That was a kind thing to say, but----"
"I love you," said Roger bluntly. "I believe you care a little----"
"Don't, don't, don't!" She turned a face toward him full of pleading.
"Do you want to torture me? Can't you see----?" Her voice failed her.
She struggled a moment and turned round; holding back tears and smiling
by sheer force of will, and held out her hand frankly.
"Good-by!"
"I love you," repeated Roger doggedly.
A low chuckle in the jungle startled them.
"Ah, youth, youth, youth!" Garman's huge face was peering at them from
behind a mask of flowering moon vine. "'I love you.' Ho ho! Poor
Payne!"
"You cad, Garman; you mucker!" cried Roger.
"Go!" Annette flung herself upon him, seeking to push him away, but he
stood like an oak.
"Eavesdropping! Fine work, Garman."
Garman roared with laughter.
"Do you really love me?" whispered Annette, suddenly, her lips closed
to Roger's.
"You know that now."
"No, not yet; but I will soon. If you love me, you'll do what I ask.
Go away. Please, please at once!"
"I can't leave you here, Annette, helpless among all this devilishness."
"I am not helpless. Not if I know you really love me. Can you
understand that--it will mean so much to me--it will be the one way you
can help me--the only way. Help me to save myself, dear, by showing me
I have your love. Go!"
He looked at her. Then he bowed his head and went.