CHAPTER XIX
TAINTED MONEY
A month passed by and the haze above the Sink lifted its shroud andrevealed the mountains beyond; the soft blues and pinks crept back intothe distance and the shadowy canyons were filled with royal purple. Atdawn a silver radiance rose and glowed along the east and the sunsetsstained the west with orange and gold; there was wine in the cool air,and when the night wind came up the prospectors crouched over theirfires. The first October storm put a crown on Telescope Peak and tippedthe lesser Panamints with snow, but still Wilhelmina waited and Wunpostdid not return from his mysterious trip "inside."
The time was not ripe for his notable revenge and he had forgotten JailCanyon and her. Yet at last she saw his dust, and as she watched himthrough her glasses something told her that his thoughts were not ofher. He was on his way, either seeking after gold or searching out themeans of revenge; and if he came that way it was to find his dog andmules and not to make love to her. Their ranch was merely his half-wayhouse, a place to feed his animals and leave them when he went away; andshe was only a child, to be noticed like a fond dog, but not to be takenseriously. Billy put up her glasses and went back to the house, and whenhe arrived she was a woman. Her hair was done up gracefully, her nimblelimbs were confined in skirts; and she smiled at him demurely, as if hermind was far away and he had recalled her from maidenly dreams.
"Well, well!" exclaimed Wunpost as he limped up to the house anddiscovered her on the shady front porch; "where's the trustybib-overalls and all? What's the matter--is it Sunday, or did you see mydust? Say, you don't look right without them curls!"
"We're thinking of moving away," she explained quite truthfully, "and Ican't wear overalls then."
"Moving away!" cried Wunpost; "why, where were you thinking of going to?Has your father given up on his road?"
"Well, no--or that is, he's working on a trail to pack down the ore hehad sacked. And after that's shipped, if it pays him what it ought,we're going to move inside."
"Oh," observed Wunpost and sat down on the porch, where he rumpled hishair reflectively. "Say," he said at last, "I've got a littleroll--what's the matter if _I_ build the road?"
"Shh!" she hissed, moving over and speaking low; "don't you know thatMother wouldn't hear to it? And poor Father, he feels awful bad."
"No, but look," he protested, "you folks have been my friends, and I oweyou for taking care of my mules. I'd be glad to advance the money to putin an aerial tramway and you could pay it back out of the ore. That'sthe kind of road you want, one that will never wash out, and I knowwhere you can get one cheap. There's one down by Goler that you can buyfor almost nothing--I stopped and looked it over, coming up. And all youhave to do, after you once get it installed, is to feed your ore intothe buckets and send them down the canyon and the empties will come upwith your supplies. It's automatic--works itself, and can't get out oforder--just a long, double cable, swinging down from point to point andsupplying its own power by gravity. Some class to that, and I tell youwhat I'll do--I'll lend the money to _you_!"
"No!" she said as he reached down into his pocket, and she gazed at himreproachfully.
"What do you mean?" he asked after a minute of puzzled silence, and sheshook her head and pointed towards the house. Then she rose up quietlyand led off down the path where the hollyhocks were still in full bloom.
"You know what I mean," she said at the gate; "have you forgotten aboutthe cloudburst?"
"Why, no," he returned; "you don't mean to say----"
"Yes, I do," she replied, "they think your money is accursed. Fathersays you didn't come by it honestly."
"Oh, he does, eh?" sulked Wunpost; "and what do you think about it?"
"I think the same," she answered promptly and looked him straight in theeye.
"Well, well," he began with a sardonic smile, and then he thrust out hislip. "All right, kid," he said, "excuse me for living, but I wouldn't bethat good if I could. It takes all the roar out of life. Now here I cameback with some money in my pocket, to make you a little present, and thefirst thing you hand me is this: 'My money ain't come by honestly.'Well, that's the end of the present."
He shrugged his shoulders and waited, but Billy made no reply.
"I went up into the hills," he went on at last, "and discovered a veinof gold--nobody had ever owned it before. And I dug it out and showedthe ore to Eells and asked him if he thought it was his. No, he said hecouldn't claim it. Well, I took it to Los Angeles and sold it to ajeweler and here's the money he paid me for it--don't you think thatmoney is honest?"
He drew out a sheaf of bills and flicked the ends temptingly, but Billyshook her head.
"No," she said, "because you don't dare to show the place where youclaim you dug up that gold--and you told Mr. Eells you _stole_ it!"
"Heh, heh!" chuckled Wunpost, "you keep right up with me, kid. Don'treckon I can give you any present. I was just thinking you might like totake a trip to Los Angeles, and see the bright lights and all--takingyour mother along, and so forth--but it's Jail Canyon for you, for life.If this thousand dollar bill that you earned by saving my life isnothing but tainted money, all I can do is to tender a vote of thanks.It must be fierce to have a Scotch conscience."
"You mind your own business," answered Billy shortly, and brushed away afurtive tear. A trip to Los Angeles--and new clothes and everything--andshe really had earned the money! Yes, she had saved his life and enabledhim to come back to dig up some more hidden gold. But it was stolen, andthere was an end to it--she turned away abruptly, but he caught her bythe hand.
"Say, listen, kid," he said; "I may not be an angel, but I never go backon a friend. Now you tell me what you want and, no matter what it is,I'll go out and get it for you--honestly. You're the best friend I'vegot--and you sure look swell, dressed up in them women's clothes--but Iwant you to have a good time. I want you to go inside and see the world,and go to the theaters and all, but how'm I going to slip you themoney?"
Billy laughed, rather hysterically, and then she turned grave and hereyes looked far away.
"All I want," she said at last, "is a road up Father's canyon--and Iknow he won't accept it from you. So let's talk about something else.Are you going back to your mine?"
He sighed, then glanced up at the ridge and nodded his headmysteriously.
"There's somebody after me," he said at last. "They follow me up now,every place. In town it's detectives, and out here on the desert it'sPisen-face Lynch and his gang. But I don't mind them--I'm looking forthat feller that shot me in the leg last month. It wasn't Lynch--I'vehad him traced--and it wasn't none of those Shooshonnies; but there'ssome feller in these hills that's out after my scalp and I've come backto get him. And when I find him, kid, I'll light a fire under himthat'll burn 'im off the face of the earth. I'm going to kill him, bygrab, the same as I would a rattlesnake; I'm going to----"
"Oh, please don't talk that way!" broke in Wilhelmina impatiently, "itgives people a bad impression. There isn't a man in Blackwater thatisn't firmly convinced that you're nothing but a bag of hot air. Well, Idon't care--that's just what they said!"
"Ahhr!" scoffed Wunpost, "them Blackwater stiffs. They're jealous,that's what's the matter."
"No, but don't talk that way," she pleaded. "It turns folks against you.Even Father and Mother have noticed it. You're always telling of the bigthings you're going to do----"
"Well, don't I _do_ 'em?" he demanded. "What did I ever say I'd dothat I didn't make good, in the end? Don't you think I'm going to getthis bad _hombre_--this feller that's following me through thehills? Well, I'll tell you what I'll do. If I don't bring you his hairinside of a month--you can have my mine and everything. But I'm going to_git_ him, see? I'm going to toll him across the Valley, wherehe'll have to come out into the open, and when I ketch him I'm going toscalp him. He's nothing but a low-down, murdering assassin that oldEells or somebody has hired----"
"Oh, _please_!" she protested and his eyes opened big before theyclosed down in a su
dden scowl.
"Well, I'll show you," he said and packed and rode off in silence.
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