“I don’t care,” began Wilhelmina–but she did, and so she stopped. And then the old plan, conceived æons ago, rose up and took possession of her mind. She followed along behind him, and already in her thoughts she was the owner of the Sockdolager Mine. She held it for herself, without recognizing his claims or any that Eells might bring; and while she dug out the gold and shoveled it into sacks they stood by and looked on enviously. But when her mules were loaded she took the gold away and gave it to her father for his road.
“I don’t care!” she repeated, and she meant it.
A week passed by, and Wilhelmina rode into Blackwater and mailed a letter to the County Recorder; and a week later she came back, to receive a letter in return and to buy at the store with gold. And then the big news broke–the Sockdolager had been found–and there was a stampede that went clear to the peaks. Blackwater was abandoned, and swarming again the next day with the second wave of stampeders; and the day after that John C. Calhoun piled out of the stage and demanded to see Wilhelmina. He hardly knew her at first, for she had bought a new dress; and she sat in an office up over the bank, talking business with several important persons.
“What’s this I hear?” he demanded truculently, when he had cleared the room of all callers. “I hear you’ve located my mine.”
“Yes, I have,” she admitted. “But of course it wasn’t yours–and besides, you said I could have it.”
“Where is it at?” he snapped, sweating and fighting back his hair, and when she told him he groaned.
“How’d you find it?” he asked, and then he243groaned again, for she had followed his own fresh trail.
“Stung!” he moaned and sank down in a chair, at which she dimpled prettily.
“Yes,” she said, “but it was all for your own good. And anyway, you dared me to do it.”
“Yes, I did,” he assented with a weary sigh. “Well, what do you want me to do?”
“Why, nothing,” she returned. “I’m going to sell out to Mr. Eells and─”
“To Eells!” he yelled. “Well, by the holy, jumping Judas–how much is he going to give you?”
“Forty thousand dollars and─”
“Forty thousand!Say, she’s worth fortymillion! For cripes’ sake–have you signed the papers?”
“No, I haven’t, but─”
“Well, then,don’t! Don’t you do it–don’t you dare to sign anything, not even a receipt for your money! Oh, my Lord, I just got here in time!”
“But I’m going to,” ended Wilhelmina, and then for the first time he noticed the look in her eye. It was as cold and steely as a gun-fighter’s.
“Why–what’s the matter?” he clamored. “You ain’t sore at me, are you? But even if you are, don’t sign any papers until I tell you about that mine. How much ore have you got in sight?”
“Why, just that one vein, where it goes under the black rock─”
“They’s two others!” he panted, “that I covered up on purpose. Oh, my Lord, this is simply awful.”
“Two others!” echoed Wilhelmina, and then she244sat dumb while a scared look crept into her eyes. “Well, I didn’t know that,” she went on at last, “and of course we lost everything, that other time. So when Mr. Eells offered me forty thousand cash and agreed to release you from that grubstake contract─”
“You throwed the whole thing away, eh?”
He had turned sullen now and petulantly discontented and the fire flashed back into her eyes.
“Well, is that all the thanks I get? I thought youwantedthat contract!”
“I did!” he complained, “but if you’d left me alone I’d’ve got it away from him for nothing. But forty thousand dollars! Say, what’s your doggoned hurry–have you got to sell out the first day?”
“No, but that time before, when he tried to buy us out I held on until I didn’t get anything. And father has been waiting for his road so long─”
“Oh, that road again!” snarled Wunpost. “Is that all you think about? You’ve thrown away millions of dollars!”
“Well, anyway, I’ve got the road!” she answered with spirit, “and that’s more than I did before. If I’d followed my own judgment instead of taking your advice─”
“Your judgment!” he mocked; “say, shake yourself, kid–you’ve pulled the biggest bonehead of a life-time.”
“I don’t care!” she answered, “I’ll get forty thousand dollars. And if Father builds his road our245mine will be worth millions, so why shouldn’t I let this one go?”
“Oh, boys!” sighed Wunpost and slumped down in his chair, then roused up with a wild look in his eyes. “You haven’t signed up, have you?” he demanded again. “Well, thank God, then, I got here in time!”
“No you didn’t,” she said, “because I told him I’d do it and we’ve already drawn up the papers. At first he wouldn’t hear to it, to release you from your contract; but when I told him I wouldn’t sell without it, he and Lapham had a conference and they’re downstairs now having it copied. There are to be three copies, one for each of us and one for you, because of course you’re an interested party. And I thought, if you were released, you could go out and find another mine and─”
“Another one!” raved Wunpost. “Say, you must think it’s easy! I’ll never find another one in a life-time. Another Sockdolager? I could sell that mine tomorrow for a million dollars, cash; it’s got a hundred thousand dollars in sight!”
“Well, that’s what you told me when we had the Willie Meena, and now already they say it’s worked out–and I know Mr. Eells isn’t rich. He had to send to Los Angeles to get the money for this first payment─”
“What, have you accepted hismoney?” shouted Wunpost accusingly, and Wilhelmina rose to her feet.
246“Mr. Calhoun,” she said, “I’ll have you to understand that I own this mine myself. And I’m not going to sit here and be yelled at like a Mexican–not by you or anybody else.”
“Oh, it’s yours, is it?” he jeered. “Well, excuse me for living; but who came across it in the first place?”
“Well, you did,” she conceded, “and if you hadn’t been always bragging about it you might be owning it yet. But you were always showing off, and making fun of my father, and saying we were all suchfools–so I thought I’d justshowyou, and it’s no use talking now, because I’ve agreed to sell it to Eells.”
“That’s all right, kid,” he nodded, after a long minute of silence. “I reckon I had it coming to me. But, by grab, I never thought that little Billy Campbell would throw the hooks into me like this.”
“No, and I wouldn’t,” she returned, “only you just treated us like dirt. I’m glad, and I’d do it again.”
“Well, I’ve learned one thing,” he muttered gloomily; “I’ll never trust a woman again.”
“Now isn’t that just like a man!” exclaimed Wilhelmina indignantly. “You know you never trusted anybody. I asked you one time where you got all that ore and you looked smart and said: ‘That’s a question. If I’d tell you, you’d know the answer.’ Those were the very words you said. And now you’ll never trust a woman again!”
247She laughed, and Wunpost rose slowly to his feet, but he did not get out of the door.
“What’s the matter?” she taunted; “did ‘them Los Angeles girls’ fool you, too? Or am I the only one?”
“You’re the only one,” he answered ambiguously, and stood looking at her queerly.
“Well, cheer up!” she dimpled, for her mood was gay. “You’ll find another one, somewhere.”
“No I won’t,” he said; “you’re the only one, Billy. But I never looked for nothing like this.”
“Well, you told me to get onto myself and learn to play the game, and finally I took you at your word.”
“Yes,” he agreed, “I can’t say a word. But these Blackwater stiffs will sure throw it into me when they find I’ve been trimmed by a girl. The best thing I can do is to drift.”
He put his hand on the door-knob, but she knew he would not go, and he turned back with a sheepish grin.
“What do the folks think about this?” he inquired casually, and Wilhelmina made a face.
“They think I’m justawful!” she confessed. “But I don’t care–I’m tired of being poor.”
“Don’t reckon there’ll be another cloudburst, do you, about the time you get your road built?”
She grew sober at that and then her eyes gleamed.
“I don’t care!” she repeated, “and besides, I didn’t steal this. You told me I could have it, you know.”
248“Too fine a point for me,” he decided. “We’ll just see, after you build your new road.”
“Well, I’m going to build it,” she stated, “because he’ll worry himself to death. And I don’t care what happens to me, as long as he gets his road.”
“Well, I’ve seen ’em that wanted all kinds of things, but you’re the first one that wanted a road. And so you’re going to sign this contract if it loses you a million dollars?”
“Yes, I am,” she said. “We’ve drawn it all up and I’ve given him my word, so there’s nothing else to do.”
“Yes, there is,” he replied. “Tell him you’ve changed your mind and want a million dollars. Tell him that I’ve come back and don’t want that grubstake contract and that you’ll take it all in cash.”
“No,” she frowned, “now there’s no use arguing, because I’ve fully made up my mind. And if─” She paused and listened as steps came down the hall. “They’re coming,” she said and smiled.
There was a rapid patter of feet and Lapham rapped and came in, bearing some papers and his notary’s stamp; but when he saw Wunpost he stopped and stood aghast, while his stamp fell to the floor with a bang.
“Why, why–oh, excuse me!” he broke out, turning to dart through the door; but the mighty bulk of Eells had blocked his way and now it forced him back.
“Why–what’s this?” demanded Eells, and then he saw Wunpost and his lip dropped down and came249up. “Oh, excuse me, Miss Campbell,” he burst out hastily, “we’ll come back–didn’t know you were occupied.” He started to back out and Wunpost and Wilhelmina exchanged glances, for they had never seen him flustered before. But now he was stampeded, though why they could not guess, for he had never feared Wunpost before.
“Oh, don’t go!” cried Wilhelmina; “we were just waiting for you to come.Pleasecome back–I want to have it over with.”
She flew to the door and held it open and Eells and his lawyer filed in.
“Don’t let me disturb you,” said Wunpost grimly and stood with his back to the wall. There was something in the wind, he could guess that already, and he waited to see what would happen. But if Eells had been startled his nerve had returned, and he proceeded with ponderous dignity.
“This won’t take but a moment,” he observed to Wilhelmina as he spread the papers before her. “Here are the three copies of our agreement and”–he shook out his fountain pen–“you put your name right there.”
“No you don’t!” spoke up Wunpost, breaking in on the spell, “don’t sign nothing that you haven’t read.”
He fixed her with his eyes and as Wilhelmina read his thoughts she laid down the waiting pen. Eells drew up his lip, Lapham shuffled uneasily, and Wilhelmina took up the contract. She glanced through it page by page, dipping in here and there and then250turning impatiently ahead; and as she struggled with its verbiage the sweat burst from Eells’ face and ran unnoticed down his neck.
“All right,” she smiled, and was picking up the pen when she paused and turned hurriedly back.
“Anything the matter?” croaked Lapham, clearing his throat and hovering over her, and Wilhelmina looked up helplessly.
“Yes; please show me the place where it tells about that contract–the one for Mr. Calhoun.”
“Oh–yes,” stammered Lapham, and then he hesitated and glanced across at Eells. “Why–er─” he began, running rapidly through the sheets, and John C. Calhoun strode forward.
“What did I tell you?” he said, nodding significantly at Wilhelmina and grabbing up the damning papers. “That’ll do for you,” he said to Lapham. “We’ll have you in the Pen for this.” And when Lapham and Eells both rushed at him at once he struck them aside with one hand. For they did not come on fighting, but all in a tremble, clutching wildly to get back the papers.
“I knowed it,” announced Wunpost; “that clause isn’t there. This is one time when we read the fine print.”
It takes an iron nerve to come back for more punishment right after a solar plexus blow, but Judson Eells had that kind. Phillip F. Lapham went to pieces and began to beg, but Eells reached out for the papers.
“Just give me that contract,” he suggested amiably; “there must be some mistake.”
“Yes, you bet there’s a mistake,” came back Wunpost triumphantly, “but we’ll show these papers to the judge. This ain’t the first time you’ve tried to put one over, but you robbed us once before.”
He turned to Wilhelmina, whose eyes were dark with rage, and she nodded and stood close beside him.
“Yes,” she said, “and I was selling it for almost nothing, just to get that miserable grubstake. Oh, I think you just ought to be–hung!”
She took one of the contracts and ran through it to make sure, and Eells coughed and sent Lapham away.
“Now let’s sit down,” he said, “and talk this matter over. And if, through an oversight, the clause252has been left out perhaps we can make other arrangements.”
“Nothing doing,” declared Wunpost. “You’re a crook and you know it; and I don’t want that grubstake contract, nohow. And there’s a feller in town that I know for a certainty will give five hundred thousand dollars, cash.”
“Oh, no!” protested Eells, but his glance was uneasy and he smiled when Wilhelmina spoke up.
“Well, Ido!” she said. “I want that grubstake contract cancelled. But forty thousand dollars─”
“I’ll give you more,” put in Eells, suddenly coming to life. “I’ll bond your mine for a hundred thousand dollars if you’ll give me a little more time.”
“And will you bring out that grubstake contract and have it cancelled in my presence?” demanded Wilhelmina peremptorily, and Eells bowed before the storm.
“Yes, I’ll do that,” he agreed, “although a hundred thousand dollars─”
“There’s a hundred thousand in sight!” broke in Wunpost intolerantly. “But what do you want to trade with a crook like that for?” he demanded of Wilhelmina, “when I can get you a certified check? Is he the only man in town that can buy your mine? I’ll bet you I can find you twenty. And if you don’t get an offer of five hundred thousand cash─”
“I’ll make it two hundred,” interposed Judson Eells hastily, “and surrender the cancelled grubstake!”
253“I don’twantthe danged grubstake!” burst out Wunpost impatiently. “What good is it now, when my claim has been jumped and I ain’t got a prospect in sight? No, it ain’t worth a cent, now that the Sockdolager is located, and I don’t want it counted for anything.”
“ButIwant it,” objected Wilhelmina, “and I’m willing to let it count. But if others will pay me more─”
“I’ll bond your mine,” began Judson Eells desperately, “for four hundred thousand dollars─”
“Don’t you do it,” came back Wunpost, “because under a bond and lease he can take possession of your property. And if he ever gits a-hold of it─”
“I’m talking to Miss Campbell,” blustered Eells indignantly, but his guns were spiked again. Wilhelmina knew his record too well, for he had driven her from the Willie Meena, and yet she lingered on.
“Suppose,” she said at last, “I should sell my mine elsewhere; how much would you take for that grubstake?”
“I wouldn’t sell it at any price!” returned Judson Eells instantly. “I’m convinced that he has other claims.”
“Well, then, how much will you give me in cash for my mine and throw the grubstake in?”
“I’ll give you four hundred thousand dollars in four yearly payments─”
“Don’t you do it,” butted in Wunpost, but Wilhelmina254turned upon him and he read the decision in her eye.
“I’ll take it,” she said. “But this time the papers will be drawn up by a lawyer that I will hire. And I must say, Mr. Eells, I think the way you changed those papers─”
“It ought to put him in the Pen,” observed Wunpost vindictively. “You’re easy–and you’re compounding a felony.”
“Well, I don’t know what that is,” answered Wilhelmina recklessly, “but anyway, I’ll get that grubstake.”
“Well, I know one thing,” stated Wunpost. “I’m going to keep these papers until he makes the last of those payments. Because if he don’t dig that gold out inside of four years it won’t be because he don’ttry.”
“No, you give them to me,” she demanded, pouting, and Wunpost handed them over. This was a new one on him–Wilhelmina turning pouty! But the big fight was over, and when Eells went away she dismissed John C. Calhoun and cried.
It takes time to draw up an ironclad contract that will hold a man as slippery as Eells, but two outside lawyers who had come in with the rush did their best to make it air-tight. And even after that Wunpost took it to Los Angeles to show a lawyer who was hisfriend. When it came back from the friend there was a proviso against everything, including death and acts of God. But Judson Eells signed it and made a first payment of twenty-five thousand dollars255down, after which John C. Calhoun suddenly dropped out of sight before Wilhelmina could thank him. She heard of him later as being in Los Angeles, and then he came back through Blackwater; but before she could see him he was gone again, on some mysterious errand into the hills. Then she returned to the ranch and missed him again, for he went by without making a stop. A month had gone by before she met him on the street, and then sheknewhe was avoiding her.
“Why, good morning, Miss Campbell,” he exclaimed, bowing gallantly; “how’s the mine and every little thing? You’re looking fine, there’s nothing to it; but say, I’ve got to be going!”
He started to rush on, but Wilhelmina stopped him and looked him reproachfully in the eye.
“Where have you been all the time?” she chided. “I’ve got something I want to give you.”
“Well, keep it,” he said, “and I’ll drop in and get it. See you later.” And he started to go.
“No, wait!” she implored, tagging resolutely after him, and Wunpost halted reluctantly. “Now Iknowyou’re mad at me,” she charged; “that’s the first time you ever called me Miss Campbell.”
“Is that so?” he replied. “Well, it must have been the clothes. When you wore overalls you was Billy, and that white dress made it Wilhelmina; and now it’s Miss Campbell, and then some.”
He stopped and mopped the sweat from his perspiring brow, but he refused to meet her eye.
“Won’t you come up to my office?” she asked256very meekly. “I’ve got something important to tell you.”
“Is that feller Eells trying to beat you out of your money?” he demanded with sudden heat, but she declined to discuss business on the street. In her office she sat him down and closed the door behind them, then drew out a contract from her desk.
“Here’s that grubstake agreement, all cancelled,” she said, and he took it and grunted ungraciously.
“All right,” he rumbled; “now what’s the important business? Is the bank going broke, or what?”
“Why, no,” she answered, beginning to blink back the tears, “what makes you talk like that?”
“Well, I was just into Los Angeles, trying to round up that bank examiner, and I thought maybe he’d made his report.”
“What–really?” she cried, “don’t you think the bank is safe? Why, all my money is there!”
“How much you got?” he asked, and when she told him he snorted. “Twenty-five thousand, eh?” he said. “How’d he pay you–with a check? Well, he might not have had a cent. A man that will rob a girl will rob his depositors–you’d better draw out a few hundred.”
She rose up in alarm, but something in his smile made her sit down and eye him accusingly.
“I know what you’re doing,” she said at last; “you’re trying to break his bank. You always said you would.”
“Oh, that stuff!” he jeered, “that was nothing but257hot air. I’m a blow-hard–everybody knows that.”
She looked at him again, and her face became very grave, for she knew what was gnawing at his heart. And she was far from being convinced.
“You didn’t thank me,” she said, “for returning your grubstake. Does that mean you really don’t care? Or are you just mad because I took away your mine? Of course I know you are.”
“Sure, I’m mad,” he admitted. “Wouldn’t you be mad? Well, why should I thank you for this? You take away my mine, that was worth millions of dollars, and gimme back a piece of paper.”
He slapped the contract against his leg and thrust it roughly into his shirt, at which Wilhelmina burst into tears.
“I–I’m sorry I stole it,” she confessed between sobs, “and now Father and everybody is against me. But I did it for you–so you wouldn’t get killed–and so Father could have his road. And now he won’t take it, because the money isn’t ours. He says I’m to return it to you.”
“Well, you tell your old man,” burst out Wunpost brutally, “that he’s crazy and I won’t touch a cent. I guess I know how to get my rights without any help from him.”
“Why, what do you mean?” she queried tremulously, but he shut his mouth down grimly.
“Never mind,” he said, “you just hold your breath, and listen for something to drop. I ain’t through, by no manner of means.”
“Oh, you’re going to fight Eells!” she cried out258reproachfully. “I just know something dreadful will happen.”
“You bet your life it will–but not to me. I’m after that old boy’s hide.”
“And won’t you take the money?” she asked regretfully, and when he shook his head she wept. It was not easy weeping, for Wilhelmina was not the kind that practises before a mirror, and the agony of it touched his heart.
“Aw, say, kid,” he protested, “don’t take on like that–the world hasn’t come to an end. You ain’t cut out for this rough stuff, even if you did steal me blind, but I’m not so sore as all that. You tell your old man that I’ll accept ten thousand dollars if he’ll let me rebuild that road–because ever since it washed out I’ve felt conscience-stricken as hell over starting that cloudburst down his canyon.”
He rose up gaily, but she refused to be comforted until he laid his big hand on her head, and then she sprang up and threw both arms around his neck and made him give her a kiss. But she did not ask him to forgive her.
It is dangerous to start rumors against even the soundest of banks, because our present-day finance is no more than a house of cards built precariously on Public Confidence. No bank can pay interest, or even do business, if it keeps all its money in the vaults; and yet in times of panic, if a run ever starts, every depositor comes clamoring for his money. Public confidence is shaken–and the house of cards falls, carrying with it the fortunes of all. The depositors lose their money, the bankers lose their money; and thousands of other people in nowise connected with it are ruined by the failure of one bank. Hence the committee of Blackwater citizens, with blood in their eye, which called on John C. Calhoun.
Since the loss of his mine Wunpost had turned ugly and morose; and his remarks about Eells, and especially about his bank, were nicely calculated to get under the rind. He was waiting for the committee, right in front of the bank; and the moment they began to talk he began to orate, and to denounce them and everything else in Blackwater. What was intended as a call-down of an envious and260destructive agitator threatened momentarily to turn into a riot and, hearing his own good name brought into question, Judson Eells stepped quickly out and challenged his bold traducer.
“W’y, sure I said it!” answered Wunpost hotly, “and I don’t mind saying it again. Your bank is all a fake, like your danged tin front; and you’ve got everything in your vault except money.”
“Well, now, Mr. Calhoun,” returned Judson Eells waspishly, “I’m going to challenge that statement, right now. What authority have you got for suggesting that my cash is less than the law requires?”
“Well,” began Wunpost, “of course I don’tknow, but─”
“No, of course you don’t know!” replied Eells with a smile, “and everybody knows you don’t know; but your remarks are actionable and if you don’t shut up and go away I’ll instruct my attorney to sue you.”
“Oh, ‘shut up,’ eh?” repeated Wunpost after the crowd had had its laugh; “you think I’m a blow-hard, eh? You all do, don’t you? Well, I’ll tell you what I’ll do.” He paused impressively, reached down into several pockets and pointed a finger at Eells. “I’ll bet you,” he said, “that I’ve got more money in my clothes than you have in your whole danged bank–and if you can prove any different I’ll acknowledge I’m wrong by depositing my roll in your bank. Now–that’s fair enough, ain’t it?”
He nodded and leered knowingly at the gaping crowd as Eells began to temporize and hedge.
261“I’m a blow-hard, am I?” he shouted uproariously; “my remarks are actionable, are they? Well, if I should go into court and tell half of what I know there’d betwomen on their way to the Pen!” He pointed two fingers at Eells and Phillip Lapham and the banker saw a change in the crowd. Public confidence was wavering, the cold fingers of doubt were clutching at the hearts of his depositors–but behind it all he sensed a trap. It was not by accident that Wunpost was on his corner when the committee of citizens came by; and this bet of his was no accident either, but part of some carefully laid scheme. The question was–how much money did Wunpost have? If, unknown to them, he had found access to large sums and had come there with the money on his person, then the acceptance of his bet would simply result in a farce and make the bank a byword and a mocking. If it could be said on the street that one disreputable prospector had more money in his clothes than the bank, then public confidence would receive a shrewd blow indeed, which might lead to disastrous results. But the murmur of doubt was growing, Wunpost was ranting like a demagogue–the time for a show-down had come.
“Very well!” shouted Eells, and as the crowd began to cheer the committee adjourned to the bank. Eells strode in behind the counter and threw the vault doors open, his cashier and Lapham made the count, and when Wunpost was permitted to see the cash himself his face fell and he fumbled in his pockets.
262“You win,” he announced, and while all Blackwater whooped and capered he deposited his roll in the bank. It was a fabulously big roll–over forty thousand dollars in five hundred and thousand dollar bills–but he deposited it all without saying a word and went out to buy the drinks.
“That’s all right,” he said, “the drinks are on me. But I wanted to know that that money wassafebefore I went in and put it in the bank.”
It was a great triumph for Eells and a great boost for his bank, and he insisted in the end upon shaking hands with Wunpost and assuring him there was no hard feeling. Wunpost took it all grimly, for he claimed to be a sport, but he saddled up soon after and departed for the hills, leaving Blackwater delirious with joy. So old Wunpost had been stung and called again by the redoubtable Judson Eells, and the bank had been proved to be perfectly sound and a credit to the community it served! It made pretty good reading for theBlackwater Blade, which had recently been established in their midst, and the committee of boosters ordered a thousand extra copies and sent them all over the country. That was real mining stuff, and every dollar of Wunpost’s money had been dug from the Sockdolager Mine. Eells set to work immediately to build him a road and to order the supplies and machinery, and as the development work was pushed towards completion John C. Calhoun was almost forgotten. He was gone, that was all they knew, and if he never came back it would be soon enough for Eells.
263But there was one who still watched for the prodigal’s return and longed ardently for his coming, for Wilhelmina Campbell still remembered with regret the days when their ranch had been his goal. No matter where he had been, or what desperate errand took him once more into the hills, he had headed for their ranch like a homing pigeon that longs to join its mates. The portal of her tunnel had been their trysting place, where he had boasted and raged and denounced all his enemies and promised to return with their scalps. But that was just his way, and it was harmless after all, and wonderfully exciting and amusing; but now the ranch was dead, except for the gang of road-makers who came by from their camp up the canyon.
For her father at last had consented to build the road, since Wunpost had disclaimed all title to the mine; but now it was his daughter who looked on with a heavy heart, convinced that the money was accursed. She had stolen it, she knew, from the man who had been her lover and who had trusted her as no one else; only Wunpost was too proud to make any protest or even acknowledge he had been wronged. He had accepted his loss with the grim stoicism of a gambler and gone out again into the hills, and the only thought that rose up to comfort her was that he had deposited all his money in the bank. Every dollar, so they said; and when he had bought his supplies the store-keeper had had to write out his check! But anyway he was safe, for now everybody knew that he had no money on his person;264and when he came back he might stop at the ranch and she could tell him about the road.
It was being built by contract, and more solidly than ever, and already it was through the gorge and well up the canyon towards Panamint and the Homestake Mine. And the mud and rocks that the cloudburst had deposited had been dug out and cleared away from their trees; the ditch had been enlarged, her garden restored and everything left tidy and clean. But something was lacking and, try as she would, she failed to feel the least thrill of joy. Their poverty had been hard, and the waiting and disappointments; but even if the Homestake Mine turned out to be a world-beater she would always feel that somehow it washis. But when Wunpost came back he did not stop at the ranch–she saw him passing by on the trail.
He rode in hot haste, heading grimly for Blackwater, and when he spurred down the main street the crowd set up a yell, for they had learned to watch for him now. When Wunpost came to town there was sure to be something doing, something big that called for the drinks; and all the pocket-miners and saloon bums were there, lined up to see him come in. But whether he had made a strike in his lucky way or was back for another bout with Eells was more than any man could say.
“Hello, there!” hailed a friend, or pseudo-friend, stepping out to make him stop at the saloon, “hold on, what’s biting you now?”
“Can’t stop,” announced Wunpost, spurring on265towards the bank, “by grab, I’ve had a bad dream!”
“A dream, eh?” echoed the friend, and then the crowd laughed and followed on up to the bank. Since Wunpost had lost in his bet with Eells and deposited all his money in the bank he was looked upon almost with pride as a picturesque asset of the town. He made talk, and that was made into publicity, and publicity helped the town. And now this mad prank upon which he seemed bent gave promise of even greater renown. So he had had a bad dream? That piqued their curiosity, but they were not kept long in doubt. Dismounting at the bank, he glanced up at the front and then made a plunge through the bank.
“Gimme my money!” he demanded, bringing his fist down with a bang and making a grab for a check. “Gimme all of it–every danged cent!”
He started to write and threw the pen to the floor as it sputtered and ruined his handiwork.
“Why, what’s the matter, Mr. Calhoun?” cried Eells in astonishment, as the crowd came piling in.
“Gimme a pen!” commanded Wunpost, and, having seized the cashier’s, he began laboriously to write. “There!” he said, shoving the check through the wicket; and then he stood waiting, expectant.
The cashier glanced at the check and passed it back to Eells, who had hastened behind the grille, and then they looked at each other in alarm.
“Why–er–this check,” began Eells, “calls for forty-two thousand, eight hundred and fifty-two dollars. Do you want all that money now?”
266“W’y, sure!” shrilled Wunpost, “didn’t I tell you I wanted it?”
“Well, it’s rather unusual,” went on Judson Eells lamely, and then he spoke in an aside to his cashier.
“No! None of that, now!” burst out Wunpost in a fury, “don’t you frame up any monkey-business on me! I want my money, see? And I want it right now! Dig up, or I’ll wreck the whole dump!”
He brought his hand down again and Judson Eells retired while the cashier began to count out the bills.
“Here!” objected Wunpost, “I don’t want all that small stuff–where’s those thousand dollar bills I turned in? They’regone? Well, for cripes’ sake, did you think they were apresent?”
The clerk started to explain, but Wunpost would not listen to him.
“You’re a bunch of crooks!” he burst out indignantly. “I only deposited that money on a bet! And here you turn loose and spend the whole roll, and start to pay me back in fives and tens.”
“No, but Mr. Calhoun,” broke in Judson Eells impatiently, “you don’t understand how banking is done.”
“Yes I do!” yelled back Wunpost, “but, by grab, I had a dream, and I dreamt that your danged bank wasbroke! Now gimme my money, and give it to me quick or I’ll come in there and git it myself!”
He waited, grim and watchful, and they counted out the bills while he nodded and stuffed them into his shirt. And then they brought out gold in government-stamped sacks and he dropped them between267his feet. But the gold was not enough, and while Eells stood pale and silent the clerk dragged out the silver from the vault. Wunpost took them one by one, the great thousand dollar sacks, and added them to the pile at his feet, and still his demand was unsatisfied.
“Well, I’m sorry,” said Eells, “but that’s all we have. And I consider this very unfair.”
“Unfair!” yelled Wunpost. “W’y, you doggone thief, you’ve robbed me of two thousand dollars. But that’s all right,” he added; “it shows my dream was true. And now your tin bankisbroke!”
He turned to the crowd, which looked on in stunned silence, and tucked in his money-stuffed shirt.
“So I’m a blow-hard, am I?” he inquired sarcastically, and no one said a word.
There was cursing and wailing and gnashing of teeth in Blackwater’s saloons that night, and some were for hanging Wunpost; but in the morning, when they woke up and found Eells and Lapham gone, they transferred their rage to them. A committee composed of the dummy directors, who had allowed Eells to do what he would, discovered from the books that the bank had been looted and that Eells was a fugitive from justice. He had diverted the bank’s funds to his own private uses, leaving only his unsecured notes; and Lapham, the shrewd fox, had levied blackmail on his chief by charging huge sums for legal service. And now they were both gone and the Blackwater depositors had been left without a cent.
It was galling to their pride to see Wunpost stalking about and exhibiting his dream-restored wealth; but no one could say that he had not warned them, and he was loser by two thousand dollars himself. But even at that they considered it poor taste when he hung a piece of crepe on the door. As for the God-given dream which he professed to have received, there were those who questioned its authenticity;269but whatever his hunch was, it had saved him forty-odd thousand dollars, which he had deposited with Wells Fargo and Company. They had never gone broke yet, as far as he knew, and they had started as a Pony Express.
But there was one painful feature about his bank-wrecking triumph which Wunpost had failed to anticipate, and as poor people who had lost their all came and stood before the bank he hung his head and moved on. It was all right for Old Whiskers and men of his stripe, whose profession was predatory itself; but when the hard-rock miners and road-makers came in the heady wine of triumph lost its bead. There are no palms of victory without the dust of vain regrets to mar their gleaming leaves, and when he saw Wilhelmina riding in from Jail Canyon he retreated to a doorway and winced. This was to have been his high spot, his magnum of victory; but somehow he sensed that no great joy would come from it, although of course she had it coming to her. And Wilhelmina simply stared at the sign “Bank Closed” and leaned against the door and cried.
That was too much for Wunpost, who had been handing out five dollars to all of the workingmen who were broke, and he strode across the street and approached her.
“Whatyoucrying about?” he asked, and when she shook her head he shuffled his feet and stood silent. “Come on up to the office,” he said at last, and she followed him to the bare little room. There270a short time before he had interceded to save her when she had all but signed the contract with Eells; but now at one blow he had destroyed what was built up and left her without a cent.
“What you crying about?” he repeated, as she sank down by the desk and fixed him with her sad, reproachful eyes, “you ought to be tickled to death.”
“Because I’ve lost all my money,” she answered dejectedly, “and we owe the contractors for the road.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” he said, “I’ll get you some more money. But say, didn’t you do what I said? Why, I told you the last thing before I went away to git that first payment moneyout!”
“You did not!” she denied, “you told me to draw a few hundred. And then you turned around and deposited all you had, so I thought the bank must be safe.”
“What–safe with Judson Eells? Safe with Lapham behind the scenes? Say, you’ll never do at all. Have you heard the big news? Well, they’ve both skipped to Mexico and the depositors won’t get a cent.”
“Then what about my contract?” she burst out tearfully, “I’ve sold him my mine and now he’s run away, so who’s going to make the next payment?”
“They ain’t nobody,” grinned Wunpost, “and that’s just the point–I told you I’d come back with his scalp!”
“Yes, but what aboutus?” she clamored accusingly, “who’s going to pay for the road and all? Oh,271I knew all the time that you’d never forgive me, and now you’ve just ruined everything.”
“Never asked me to forgive you,” defended Wunpost stoutly, “but I don’t mind admitting I was sore. It’s all right, of course, if you think you can play the game–but I never thought you’d rob afriend!”
“But you dared me to!” she cried, “and didn’t I offer it for almost nothing, just to keep you from getting killed? And then, after I’d done everything to get back your contract you didn’t even say ‘Thanks!’”
“No, sure not,” he agreed, “what should I be thankingyoufor? Did I ask you to get back my grubstake? Not by a long shot I didn’t–what I wanted was my mine, and you turned around and sold it to Eells. Well, where’s your friend now, and his yeller dog, Lapham? Skally-hooting across the desert for Mexico!”
“And isn’t my contract any good? Won’t the bank take it, or anybody? Oh, I think you’re just–just hateful!”
“You bet I am, kid!” he announced with a swagger, “that’s my long suit, savvy–hate! I never forgive an enemy and I never forget a friend, and the man don’t live that candome! I’ll git him, if it takes a thousand years!”
“Oh, there you go,” she sighed, dusting her desk off petulantly, and then she bowed her head in thought. “But I must say,” she admitted, “you have done what you said. But I thought you were just bragging at the time.”
272“Theyalldid!” he beamed, “but I’ve showed ’em, by grab–they ain’t calling me a blow-hard now. These Blackwater stiffs that wanted to run me out of town are coming around now to borrow five. They took up with a crook, just because he boosted for their town, and now they’re left holding the sack. But if they’d listened to me they wouldn’t be left flat, because I told ’em I was after his hide. And say, you should’ve seen him, when I came into his bank and shoved that big check under his nose! He knowed what I was thinking and he never said: ‘Boo!’ I showed him whether I knew how to write!”
He laid back and grinned broadly and Wilhelmina smiled, though a wistful look had crept into her eyes.
“Then I suppose,” she said, “you’re always going to hateme, because of course I did steal your mine. But now I’m glad it’s gone, because I wasn’t happy a minute–do you think you can forgive me, sometime?”
She glanced up appealingly but his brows had come down and he was staring at her fiercely.
“Gone!” he roared, “your mine ain’t gone! Ain’t you ever read that contract we framed up? Well, the mine reverts to you the first time a payment isn’t made orif the buyer becomes a fugitive from justice! Yeh, my friend slipped that in along with the rest of it, about death or an Act of God. Say, that’s what you might call head work!”
He jerked his chin and grinned admiringly but Wilhelmina did not respond.
“Yes,” she objected, “but how do I get the money273to pay the men for building the road? Because the twenty-five thousand dollars that I had in the bank─”
“Get it?” cried Wunpost, “why you go up to your mine and dig out some big chunks of gold, and then you send it out and sell it at the mint and start a little bank of your own. But say, kid, you’re all right–I like you and all that–but something tells me you ain’t cut out for business. Now you’d better just turn this mine over to me─”
“Oh,willyou take it back?” she cried out impulsively, leaping up and beginning to smile. “I’ve justwantedto give it to you but–well, of course I did steal it. And will you take me back for a friend?”
“Well, I might,” conceded Wunpost, rising slowly to his feet, and then he shook his head. “But you’re no business woman,” he stated, “what I was trying to say was─”
“Well, let’s own it together!” she dimpled impatiently, and Wunpost accepted the trust.