CHAPTER 13. FIRST BLOOD
After Ridgway's cavalier refusal to negotiate a peace treaty, SimonHarley and his body-guard walked back to the offices of theConsolidated, where they arrived at the same time as the news of theenemy's first blow since the declaration of renewed war.
Hobart was at his desk with his ear to the telephone receiver when thegreat financier came into the inner office of the manager.
"Yes. When? Driven out, you say? Yes--yes. Anybody hurt? Followed ourmen through into our tunnel? No, don't do anything till you hear fromme. Send Rhys up at once. Let me know any further developments thatoccur."
Hobart hung up the receiver and turned on his swivel-chair toward hischief. "Another outrage, sir, at the hands of Ridgway. It is in regardto those veins in the Copper King that he claims. Dalton, hissuperintendent of the Taurus, drove a tunnel across our lateral linesand began working them, though their own judge has not yet rendered adecision in their favor. Of course, I put a large force in them atonce. To-day we tapped their workings at the twelfth level. Ourforeman, Miles, has just telephoned me that Dalton turned the airpressure on our men, blew out their candles, and flung a mixture oflime and rocks at them. Several of the men are hurt, though none badly.It seems that Dalton has thrown a force into our tunnels and is holdingthe entrances against us at the point where the eleventh, twelfth, andthirteenth levels touch the cage. It means that he will work thoseveins, and probably others that are acknowledged to be ours, unless wedrive them out, which would probably be a difficult matter."
Harley listened patiently, eyes glittering and clean-shaven lipspressed tightly against his teeth. "What do you propose to do?"
"I haven't decided yet. If we could get any justice from the courts, aninjunction."
"Can't be got from Purcell. Don't waste time considering it. Fight itout yourself. Find his weakest spot, then strike hard and suddenly."Harley's low metallic voice was crisp and commanding.
"His weakest spot?"
"Exactly. Has he no mines upon which we can retaliate?"
"There is the Taurus. It lies against the Copper King end to end. Hedrove a tunnel into some of our workings last winter. That would give apassageway to send our men through, if we decide to do so. Then thereis his New York. Its workings connect with those of the Jim Hill."
"Good! Send as many men through as is necessary to capture and holdboth mines. Get control of the entire workings of them both, and begintaking ore out at once. Station armed guards at every point where it isnecessary, and as many as are necessary. Use ten thousand men, if youneed that many. But don't fail. We'll give Ridgway a dose of his ownmedicine, and teach him that for every pound of our ore he steals we'lltake ten."
"He'll get an injunction from the courts."
"Let him get forty. I'll show him that his robber courts will not savehim. Anyhow, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
Hobart, almost swept from his moorings by the fiery energy of hischief, braced himself to withstand the current.
"I shall have to think about that. We can't fight lawlessness withlawlessness except for selfpreservation."
"Think! You do nothing but think, Mr. Hobart. You are here to act,"came the scornful retort; "And what is this but self-preservation."
"I am willing to recapture our workings in the Copper King. I'll leadthe attack in person, sir. But as to a retaliatory attack--the factswill not justify a capture of his property because he has seized ours."
"Wrong, sir. This is no time for half-way measures. I have resolved tocrush this freebooter; since he has purchased your venal courts, thenby the only means left us--force."
Hobart rose from his seat, very pale and erect. His eyes met those ofthe great man unflinchingly. "You realize that this may mean murder,Mr. Harley? That a clash cannot possibly be avoided if you pursue thiscourse?"
"I realize that it is self-preservation," came the cold retort. "Thereis no law here, none, at least, that gives us justice. We are back tosavagery, dragged back by the madness of this ruffian. It is hischoice, not mine. Let him abide by it."
"Your intention to follow this course is irrevocable?"
"Absolutely."
"In that case, I must regretfully offer my resignation as manager ofthe Consolidated."
"It is accepted, Mr. Hobart. I can't have men working under me that arenot loyal, body and soul, to the hand that feeds them. No man can servetwo masters, Mr. Hobart."
"That is why I resign, Mr. Harley. You give me the devil's work to do.I have done enough of it. By Heaven, I will be a free man hereafter."The disgust and dissatisfaction that had been pent within him for manya month broke forth hot from the lips of this self-repressed man. "Itis all wrong on both sides. Two wrongs do not make a right. The systemof espionage we employ over everybody both on his side and ours, thetyrannical use we make of our power, the corruption we foster inpolitics, our secret bargains with railroads, our evasions of law as totaxes, and in every other way that suits us: it is all wrong--allwrong. I'll be a party to it no longer. You see to what itleads--murder and anarchy. I'll be a poor man if I must, but I'll be afree and honest one at least."
"You are talking wickedly and wildly, Mr. Hobart. You are criticizingGod when you criticize the business conditions he has put into theworld. I did not know that you were a socialist, but what you have justsaid explains your course," the old man reproved sadly andsanctimonious.
"I am not a socialist, Mr. Harley, but you and your methods have madethousands upon thousands of them in this country during the past tenyears."
"We shall not discuss that, Mr. Hobart, nor, indeed, is any discussionnecessary. Frankly, I am greatly disappointed in you. I have for sometime been dissatisfied with your management, but I did not, of course,know you held these anarchistic views. I want, however, to be perfectlyjust. You are a very good business man indeed, careful and thorough.That you have not a bold enough grasp of mind for the place you hold isdue, perhaps, to these dangerous ideas that have unsettled you. Yoursalary will be continued for six months. Is that satisfactory?"
"No, sir. I could not be willing to accept it longer than to-day. Andwhen you say bold enough, why not be plain and say unscrupulousenough?" amended the younger man.
"As you like. I don't juggle with words. The point is, you don'tsucceed. This adventurer, Ridgway, scores continually against you. Hehas beaten you clear down the line from start to finish. Is that nottrue?"
"Because he does not hesitate to stoop to anything, because--"
"Precisely. You have given the very reason why he must be fought in thesame spirit. Business ethics would be as futile against him as chivalryin dealing with a jungle-tiger."
"You would then have had me stoop to any petty meanness to win, nomatter how contemptible?"
The New Yorker waved him aside with a patient, benignant gesture. "Idon't care for excuses. I ask of my subordinates success. You do notget it for me. I must find a man who can."
Hobart bowed with fine dignity. The touch of disdain in his slightsmile marked his sense of the difference between them. He was again hiscomposed rigid self.
"Can you arrange to allow my resignation to take effect as soon aspossible? I should prefer to have my connection with the companysevered before any action is taken against these mines."
"At once--to-day. Your resignation may be published in the Herald thisafternoon, and you will then be acquitted of whatever may follow."
"Thank you." Hobart hesitated an instant before he said: "There is apoint that I have already mentioned to you which, with your permission,I must again advert to. The temper of the miners has been very bittersince you refused to agree to Mr. Ridgway's proposal for an eight-hourday. I would urge upon you to take greater precautions against apersonal attack. You have many lawless men among your employees. Theyare foreigners for the most part, unused to self-restraint. It is onlyright you should know they execrate your name."
The great man smiled blandly. "Popularity is nothing to me. I haveneither sought it nor desire
d it. Given a great work to do, with theDivine help I have done it, irrespective of public clamor. For manyyears I have lived in the midst of alarms, Mr. Hobart. I am notfoolhardy. What precautions I can reasonably take I do. For the rest,my confidence is in an all-wise Providence. It is written that not evena sparrow falls without His decree. In that promise I put my trust. IfI am to be cut off it can only be by His will. 'The Lord gave, and theLord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.' Such, I pray,may be the humble and grateful spirit with which I submit myself to Hiswill."
The retiring manager urged the point no further. "If you have decidedupon my successor and he is on the ground I shall be glad to give theafternoon to running over with him the affairs of the office. It wouldbe well for him to retain for a time my private secretary andstenographer."
"Mr. Mott will succeed you. He will no doubt be glad to have yourassistance in helping him fall into the routine of the office, Mr.Hobart."
Harley sent for Mott at once and told him of his promotion. The two menwere closeted together for hours, while trusted messengers went andcame incessantly to and from the mines. Hobart knew, of course, thatplans were in progress to arm such of the Consolidated men as could betrusted, and that arrangements were being made to rush the Taurus andthe New York. Everything was being done as secretly as possible, butHobart's experience of Ridgway made it obvious to him that thisexcessive activity could not pass without notice. His spies, like thoseof the trust, swarmed everywhere.
It was not till mid-afternoon of the next day that Mott found time tojoin him and run over with him the details of such unfinished businessas the office had taken up. The retiring manager was courtesy itself,nor did he feel any bitterness against his successor. Nevertheless, hecame to the end of office hours with great relief. The day had been avery hard one, and it left him with a longing for solitude and the widesilent spaces of the open hills. He struck out in the direction whichpromised him the quickest opportunity to leave the town behind him. Agood walker, he covered the miles rapidly, and under the physicalsatisfaction of the tramp the brain knots unraveled and smoothedthemselves out. It was better so--better to live his own life than theone into which he was being ground by the inexorable facts of hisenvironment. He was a young man and ambitious, but his hopes were notselfish. At bottom he was an idealist, though a practical one. He hadhad to shut his eyes to many things which he deplored, had been drivento compromises which he despised. Essentially clean-handed, the soul ofhim had begun to wither at the contact of that which he saw about himand was so large a part of.
"I am not fit for it. That is the truth. Mott has no imagination, andproperty rights are the most sacred thing on earth to him. He will dobetter at it than I," he told himself, as he walked forward bareheadedinto the great sunset glow that filled the saddle between two purplehills in front of him.
As he swung round a bend in the road a voice, clear and sweet, came tohim through the light filtered air.
"Laska!"
A young woman on horseback was before him. Her pony stood across theroad, and she looked up a trail which ran down into it. The liftedpoise of the head brought out its fine lines and the distinction withwhich it was set upon the well-molded throat column. Apparently she wascalling to some companion on the trail who had not yet emerged intoview.
At sound of his footsteps the rider's head turned.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Hobart," she said quietly, as coolly as if herheart had not suddenly begun to beat strangely fast.
"Good afternoon, Miss Balfour."
Each of them was acutely conscious of the barrier between them. Sincethe day when she had told him of her engagement they had not met, evencasually, and this their first sight of each other was not withoutembarrassment.
"We have been to Lone Pine Cone," she said rather hurriedly, to bridgean impending silence.
He met this obvious statement with another as brilliant.
"I walked out from town. My horse is a little lame."
But there was something she wanted to say to him, and the time forsaying it, before the arrival of her companion, was short. She wouldnot waste it in commonplaces.
"I don't usually read the papers very closely, but this morning I readboth the Herald and the Sun. Did you get my note?"
"Your note? No."
"I sent it by mail. I wanted you to know that your friends are proud ofyou. We know why you resigned. It is easy to read between the lines."
"Thank you," he said simply. "I knew you would know."
"Even the Sun recognizes that it was because you are too good a man forthe place."
"Praise from the Sun has rarely shone my way," he said, with a touch ofirony, for that paper was controlled by the Ridgway interest. "In itsapproval I am happy."
Her impulsive sympathy for this man whom she so greatly liked would notaccept the rebuff imposed by this reticence. She stripped the gauntletfrom her hand and offered it in congratulation.
He took it in his, a slight flush in his face.
"I have done nothing worthy of praise. One cannot ask less of a manthan that he remain independent and honest. I couldn't do that and staywith the Consolidated, or, so it seemed to me. So I resigned. That isall there is to it."
"It is enough. I don't know another man would have done it, would havehad the courage to do it after his feet were set so securely in the wayof success. The trouble with Americans is that they want too muchsuccess. They want it at too big a price."
"I'm not likely ever to have too much of it," he laughed sardonically.
"Success in life and success in living aren't the same thing. It isbecause you have discovered this that you have sacrificed the less forthe greater." She smiled, and added: "I didn't mean that to sound aspreachy as it does."
"I'm afraid you make too much of a small thing. My squeamishness hasprobably made me the laughing-stock of Mesa."
"If so, that is to the discredit of Mesa," she insisted stanchly. "ButI don't think so. A great many people who couldn't have done itthemselves will think more of you for having done it."
Another pony, which had been slithering down the steep trail in themidst of a small rock slide, now brought its rider safely to a halt inthe road. Virginia introduced them, and Hobart, remembered that he hadheard Miss Balfour speak of a young woman whom she had met on the wayout, a Miss Laska Lowe, who was coming to Mesa to teach domesticscience in the public schools. There was something about the youngteacher's looks that he liked, though she was of a very different typethan Virginia. Not at all pretty in any accepted sense, she yet had acharm born of the vital honesty in her. She looked directly at one outof sincere gray eyes, wide-awake and fearless. As it happened, herfriend had been telling her about Hobart, and she was interested in himfrom the first. For she was of that minority which lives not by breadalone, and she felt a glow of pride in the man who could do what theSun had given this man credit for editorially.
They talked at haphazard for a few minutes before the young womencantered away. As Hobart trudged homeward he knew that in the eyes ofthese two women, at least, he had not been a fool.
Ridgway of Montana (Story of To-Day, in Which the Hero Is Also the Villain) Page 13