CHAPTER XIV
THE EXPLOSION
There are moments when his great secret rises to every man's lips andflutters to wing away; but a thought, a glance, a word said or unsaid,turns it back and he holds it more closely. Wiley Holman had a secretwhich might have changed Virginia's life and filled every day with joyand hope, but he shut down his lips and held it back and spoke kindwords instead. There was a look in her eyes, a brooding glow ofresentment when he spoke of his father and hers; and, while he spokefrom the heart, she drooped her dark lashes and was silent beyond herwont. He gave her much but she gave him little--and the reason she wassorry to leave Keno was the parting with six suffering cats.
There were girls that he knew who would have gone the limit and saidsomething about missing Wiley Holman. So he gave her back her stock andput the cats in sacks and burnt up the road to the ranch. The next daythe news came that he had bonded the Paymaster, but Wiley was far away.He caught the Limited and went speeding east, and then he came back,headed west; and finally he left Vegas followed by four lumbering autotrucks loaded down with freight and men. The time had come when he mustput his fortunes to the test and Keno awaited him, anxiously.
A cold, dusty wind raved down through the pass, driving even old Charleyto shelter; but as the procession moved in across the desert the city oflost hopes came to life. Old grudges were forgotten, the dead past wasthrust aside, and they lined up to bid him welcome--Death Valley Charleyand Heine, Mrs. Huff and Virginia, and the last of ten thousand bravemen. For nine years they had lived on, firm in their faith in the mightyPaymaster; and now again, for the hundredth time, the old hope rose upin their breasts. The town was theirs, they had seen it grow fromnothing to a city of brick and stone, and they loved its ruins still.All it needed was some industry to put blood into its veins and it wouldthrill with energy and life. Even the Widow forgot her envy and heranger at his deception and greeted Wiley Holman with a smile.
"Well--hello!" he hailed when he saw her in the crowd. "I thought youwere going away."
"Not much!" she returned. "Bring your men in to dinner. I'm having mydishes unpacked!"
"Umm--good!" responded Wiley and, shrugging his shoulders, he led theway on to the mine. There were other faces that he would as soon haveseen as the Widow's fighting mien, and he had brought his own cookalong; but Mrs. Huff was a lady and as such it was her privilege toclaim her woman's place in the kitchen. The town was part hers and therestaurant was her livelihood; and then, of course, there was Virginia.Having bidden her good-by, and taken care of her cats, he had reconciledhimself to her loss, but not even the smile in her welcoming dark eyescould make him quite forget the Widow. She was an uncertain quantity,like a stick of frozen dynamite that will explode if it is thawed toosoon; and there was a bombshell to come which gave more than evenpromise of producing spontaneous combustion. So Wiley sighed as he firedhis cook, and told his men that they would board with the Widow.
The first dinner was not so much, consisting largely of ham and eggswith the chickens out on a strike; but there was plenty of canned stuffand the Widow promised wonders when she got all her boxes unpacked. Yetwith all her work before her and the dishes unwashed, she followed thecrowd to the mine. That was the day of days, from which Keno would datetime if Wiley made his promise good; and every man in town, and womanand child, went over to watch them begin. Up the old, abandoned road theauto trucks crept and crawled, and the shed and the houses that had beenprepared by Blount now gave shelter to his hated successor. Only one manwas absent and he sat on the hill-top, looking down like a lonelycoyote. It was Stiff Neck George, that specter at the feast, theharbinger of evil to come; but as Wiley ordered the empty trucks to backup against the dump he glanced at the hill-top and smiled.
"We'll take back a load of tungsten," he announced to the drivers andthe crowd of onlookers stared.
"Just load on that white stuff," he explained to the muckers and therewas a general rush for the dump.
"What did you say that stuff was?" inquired Death Valley Charley, aftera hasty look at his specimen; and Keno awaited the answer, breathless.
"Why, that's scheelite, Charley," replied Wiley confidentially, "and itruns about sixty per cent tungsten. It comes in pretty handy to hardenthose big guns that you hear shooting over in France."
"Oh, tungsten," muttered Charley, blinking wisely at the rock whileeveryone else grabbed a sample. "Er--what do you say they use it for?"
"Why, to harden high-speed steel for guns and turning-tools--haven't youread all about it in the papers?"
"How much did you say it was worth?" asked the Widow cautiously, andWiley knew that the bombshell was ignited.
"Well, that's a question," he began, "that I can answer better when Iget a report on this ore. It's all mixed up with quartz and ought to bemilled, by rights, before I even ship it; but since the trucks are goingback--well, if it turns out the way I calculate it might bring me fortydollars a unit."
"A unit!" repeated the Widow, her voice low and measured. "Well, I'djust like to know how much a unit is?"
"A hundredth of the standard of measure--in this case a ton of ore. Thatwould come to twenty pounds."
"Twenty pounds! What, of this stuff? And worth forty dollars! Well,somebody must be crazy!"
"Yes, they're crazy for it," answered Wiley, "but it's just a temporaryrage, brought on by the European war. The market is likely to break anytime."
"Why--tungsten!" murmured the Widow. "Who ever heard of such a thing?And it's been lying here idle all the time."
"How much would that be a ton?" piped up someone in the crowd, and Mrs.Huff put her head to one side.
"Let's see," she said, "forty dollars a unit--that's one hundredth ofa ton. Oh, pshaw, it can't be that. Let's see, twenty pounds at fortydollars--that's two dollars a pound; and two thousand pounds,that's--oh, I don't believe it! I never even heard of tungsten!"
"No, it's a new metal," replied Wiley ever so softly, "or rather, it'san acid. The technical magazines are full of articles that tell you allabout it. It's found in wolframite, and hubnerite and so on; but this iscalcium tungstate, where it is found in connection with lime. The othersare combined variously with iron or manganese----"
"Yes, manganese," broke in Charley importantly. "I know that well--andwolfite and all the rest. It certainly is wonderful how they build thembig cannons that will shoot for twenty-two miles. But it's tungsden thatdoes it, tungsden in connection with electricity and the invisible raysof raddium."
"Oh, shut up!" burst out the Widow, thrusting him rudely aside andseizing a fresh handful of the rock. "I just can't hardly believe it."She gazed at the glossy fragments and then at the muckers, industriouslyloading the trucks; and then she cocked her head on one side.
"Let's see--two times twenty--that's forty dollars a ton. No--fourhundred! Why, no--four thousand!" She stopped short and made a hurriedre-calculation, while a murmur ran through the crowd, and then DeathValley Charley gave a whoop.
"Four thousand!" he shouted. "I told ye! I knowed it! I claimed she wasrich, all the time!"
"You did not!" snapped the Widow, putting her hand under his jaw andforcibly stifling his whoops. "You poor, crazy fool, you knew nothing ofthe kind--you sold out for five thousand dollars!" She pushed him awaywith a swift, disdainful shove that sent him reeling through the crowdand then she whirled on Wiley. "And I suppose," she accused, "that youknew all the time that this dump here was nothing but tungsten?"
"Well, I had a good idea," he admitted deprecatingly, "although it's yetto be tested out. This is just a sample shipment----"
"Yes, a sample shipment; and at two dollars a pound how much will itbring you in? Why, nothing, hardly; a mere bagatelle for a gentleman anda scholar like you; but what about me and poor Virginia, slaving aroundto cook your meals? What do we get for all our pains? Oh, I could killyou, you scoundrel! You knew it all the time, and yet you let me sellthose shares!"
She choked and Wiley shifted uneasily on the ore-pile, for of c
ourse hehad done just that. To be sure he had urged her to sell them to hisfather for the sum of ten cents a share; but the mention of that fact,in her heated condition, would probably gain him nothing with the Widow.She was gasping for breath and, if nothing intervened, he was in for thescolding of his life. But it was all in the day's work and he glancedabout for Virginia, to seek comfort from her smiling eyes. She wouldunderstand now why he had given her back her stock, and advised her fromthe start not to sell; but--he looked again, for her dark orbs wereblazing and her lips were moving as with threats.
"You knew it all the time!" screamed the Widow in a frenzy, but Wileybarely heard her. He heard her words, for they assaulted his ears in aseries of screeching crescendos, but it was the unspoken message fromthe lips of Virginia that cut him to the quick. He had expected nothingelse from the abusive Widow; but certainly, after all the kindnesses hehad done her, he was entitled to something better from Virginia. Notonly had he warned her to hold on to her stock, at a time when one wordmight ruin him; but he had bought it from Charley and then given itback, to show how he valued her friendship. And yet now, while theothers were shouting with joy or rushing to stake out more claims, shestood by the Widow and with cruel, voiceless words added her burden tothis paean of hate. And she looked just like her mother!
"You shut up, you old cat!" he burst out fiercely, as the Widow rushedin to assault him. "Shut your mouth and get off my ground!" He drew backhis palm to launch a swift blow and then his hand fell slack. "Well,holler then," he said, "what do I give a dam' whether you like the dealor not? You'd be yammering, just the same. But it's lucky for you you'rea woman."
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