CHAPTER XXVII
THE THUNDER CLAP
The broad streets of Vegas were swarming with traffic as Wiley glidedswiftly into town and he noticed that people looked at him curiously.Perhaps it was all imagination but it seemed to him they eyed himcoldly. Yet what they thought or felt was nothing to him then--hisbusiness was with Samuel J. Blount. The mine was unprotected--he hadnot even told his foreman that he was leaving, or where he wasgoing--and there was no time for anything but business. If there wasany trouble for him, Samuel J. Blount was at the bottom of it, and hedrove straight up to the bank. It was a huge, granite structure withmassive onyx pillars and smiling young clerks at the grilles; but hehurried past them all and turned down a hall to a room that wasmarked: President--Private. This was no time for dallying or sendingin cards--he opened the door and stepped in.
Samuel Blount was sitting at the head of a table with other men groupedabout him, but as Wiley Holman entered they were silent. He glanced atBlount and then again at the men--they were the directors of thePaymaster Mining and Milling Company!
"Good morning, Mr. Holman," spoke up Blount with asperity. "Please waitfor me out in the hall."
"Since when?" retorted Wiley and then, leaping to the point, "what aboutthat deed to the Paymaster?"
"Why--you must be misinformed," replied Blount slowly, at the same timepressing a button, "this is a meeting of the Board of Directors."
"So I see," returned Wiley, "but I sent the money by Virginia to take upthe option on the mine. Did you receive it or did you not?"
A broad-shouldered man, very narrow between the eyes, came in and stoodclose to Wiley, and Blount smiled and cleared his throat.
"No," he said, "we did not receive it?"
"Oh, you didn't, eh?" said Wiley, glancing up at the janitor. "Perhapsyou will tell me if it was offered to you?"
"No, it was not offered to us," replied Blount, smiling blandly,"although Miss Huff did make a deposit."
"Of fifty thousand dollars?"
"No, it was more than that--fifty-two, I believe. It was deposited toyour account."
"Oh," observed Wiley, and looked them over again as the directors turnedaround to scowl. "Well, perhaps I can see Miss Huff?"
"She is not here at present," replied Blount with finality, "and so Imust ask you to withdraw."
"Just a moment," said Wiley, as the janitor moved expectantly. "I camehere on a matter of business with you and this Board of Directors and,since the matter is urgent, I must request an immediate hearing. Youdon't need to be alarmed--all I want is my answer and then I'll leaveyou alone. In the first place, Mr. Blount, will you please tell me thecircumstances under which this deposit was made? I gave Miss Huffinstructions to offer the money to you in payment for the PaymasterMine."
"Oh! Instructions, eh?" piped Blount with a satirical smile, and theBoard stirred and nodded significantly. "Well, since you've just come inand are evidently unaware of the wide interest that has been taken inthis case, I'll tell you a few things, Mr. Holman. The people of thistown do not approve of the manner in which you have treated Mrs. Huff;and as for your 'instructions' to Virginia, let me tell you right nowthat we have saved her from becoming your victim."
"My victim!" repeated Wiley, moving swiftly towards him, but the janitorcaught him by the arm.
"Yes, your victim," answered Blount with a venomous sneer, "or, atleast, your intended victim. The people of Vegas had nothing to say whenyou deprived Virginia and her mother of their livelihood--it was yourprivilege as lessee of the mine to board your own men if you chose--butwhen you had the effrontery to send Virginia to this Board with'instructions' to jeopardize her own interests, we felt called on tointerfere."
"Why, you're crazy!" burst out Wiley. "What interests did she jeopardizeby making that payment for me? As a matter of fact it was just thecontrary--I gave her the money to get back the stock that you hadpractically stolen from her mother!"
"Now! Now!" spoke up Blount, "we won't have any personalities, or I'llask Mr. Jepson to remove you. You must know if you know anything thatVirginia herself had over twelve thousand shares of stock; while hermother left with me, as collateral on a note, more than two hundredthousand shares more. Yet you asked this innocent girl, who trusted youso fully, to wipe out her whole inheritance at one blow. You asked herto come here and make a payment that would beat her out of half amillion dollars--_for fifty thousand dollars!_"
He paused and the men about the table murmured threateningly amongthemselves.
"And now!" went on Blount with heavy irony, "you come here and ask foryour deed!"
"Yes, you bet I do!" snapped back Wiley, "and I'm going to get it, too.If Virginia came here and offered you that money, that's enough, in theeyes of the law. It was a legal payment under a legal contract, enteredinto by this Board of Directors; and I call you gentlemen to witnessthat she came here and offered the money."
"She came to _me_!" corrected Blount, "and in no wise as thePresident of this Board!"
"Well, you're the man that I told her to go to--and if she offered youthe money, that's enough!"
"Oh, it's enough, is it? Well, it may be enough for you, but it is notenough for the citizens of this town. We have organized a committee, ofwhich Mr. Jepson is a member, to escort you out of Vegas; and I wouldsay further that your bond and lease has lapsed and the Company willtake over the mine."
"We'll discuss that later," returned Wiley grimly, "but I'll tell youright now that there aren't men enough in Vegas to run me out oftown--not if you call in the whole town and the Janitors' Union--sodon't try to start anything rough. I'm a law-abiding citizen, and Iknow my rights, and I'm going to see this through." He put his back tothe wall and the burly Jepson took the hint to move further away."Now," said Wiley, "if we understand each other let's get right downto brass tacks. It's all very well to organize Vigilance Committeesfor the protection of trusting young ladies, but you know and I knowthat this is a matter of business, involving the title to a mine. AndI'd like to say further that, when a Board of Directors talks amessenger out of her purpose and persuades her to disregard herinstructions----"
"Instructions!" bellowed Blount.
"Yes--instructions!" repeated Wiley, "--instructions as my agent. I sentMiss Huff down here to make this payment and I gave her instructionsregarding it."
"Do you realize," blustered Blount, "that if she had followed thoseinstructions she would have defrauded her own mother out of millions;that she would have ruined her own life and conferred her father'sfortune upon the very man who was deceiving her?"
"No, I do not," replied Wiley, "but even if I did, that has nothing todo with the case. As to my relations with Miss Huff, I am fullysatisfied that she has nothing of which to complain; and since it wasyou, and the rest of the gang, who stood to lose by the deal, yourindignation seems rather far-fetched. If you were sorry for Miss Huffand wished to help her you have abundant private means for doing so; butwhen you dissuade her from her purpose in order to save your own skinyou go up against the law. I'm going to take this to court and when theevidence is heard I'm going to prove you a bunch of crooks. I don'tbelieve for a minute that Virginia turned against me. I know that sheoffered you the money."
"Oh, you know, do you?" sneered Blount as his Directors rallied abouthim. "Well, how are you going to prove it?"
"By her own word!" said Wiley. "I know her too well. You just talked herout of it, afterward."
"So you think," taunted Blount, "that she offered the money in payment,and demanded the delivery of the deed? And will you stand or fall on hertestimony?"
"Absolutely!" smiled Wiley, "and if she tells me she didn't do it I'llnever take the matter into court."
"Very well," replied Blount and turned towards the door, but theDirectors rushed in and caught him. They thrust their heads together ina whispered, angry conference, now differing among themselves and nowflying back to catch Blount, but in the end he shook them all off. "No,gentlemen," he said, "I have absolute confidence in
the justice of mycase. If you stand to lose a little I stand to lose a great deal--and Iknow she never asked for that deed!"
"Well, bring her in, then," they conceded reluctantly, and turnedvenomous eyes upon Wiley. They knew him, and they feared him, andespecially with this girl; for he was smiling and waiting confidently.But Blount was their czar, with his great block of stock pitted againsttheir tiny holdings, and they sat down to await the issue.
She came at last, ushered in through the back door by Blount, who smiledbenevolently; and her eyes leapt on the instant to meet Wiley's.
"Here is Miss Huff," announced Blount deliberately and the light diedin Wiley's shining eyes. He had waited for her confidently, but thatone defiant flash told him that Virginia had turned against him. Shehad thrown in her lot with Blount, and against her lover, and by herword he must stand or fall. She had been his agent, but if she had notcarried out her trust---- "Any questions you would like to ask," wenton Blount with ponderous calm, "I am sure Virginia will answer."
He turned reassuringly and she nodded her head nervously, then steppedout and stood facing Wiley.
"It is a question," began Wiley, speaking like one in a dream, "of theway you paid Mr. Blount that money. When you took it to him first,before they had talked to you, did you tell him it was my payment on theoption?"
Virginia glanced at Blount, then she took a deep breath and drew herselfup very straight.
"No," she said, "I spoke to him first about buying back father's stock."
"But after that," he said, "didn't you hand him over the money and sayit was sent by me?"
"No, I didn't," she answered. "After the way you had treated me I didn'tthink it was right."
"Not right!" he repeated with a slow, dazed smile. "Why--why wasn't itright, Virginia?"
"Because," she went on, "you were trying to deceive me and beat me andmother out of our rights. You knew all the time that father's stock wasstill ours--and that Mr. Blount never even claimed it!"
"Never claimed it!" cried Wiley, suddenly roused to resentment. "Well,Virginia, he most certainly did! He offered to sell it to me for fivecents a share when I took out that option on the Paymaster!"
"Now, now, Wiley!" began Blount, but Virginia cut him short with ascornful wave of the hand.
"Never mind," she said. "I'll attend to this myself. I just want to tellhim what I think!"
"What you _think_!" raved Wiley, suddenly coming up fighting."You've been fooled by a bunch of crooks. Never mind what you think--didyou give him the money and tell him it came from me?"
"I did not!" answered Virginia, her eyes flashing with hot anger, "andwhile I may not be able to think, I certainly wasn't fooled by_you_. No, I took your money and put it in the bank, and I let youroption expire!"
"My--God!" moaned Wiley, and groped for the door, but in the hall hestopped and turned back. There was some mistake--she had not understood.He slipped back and looked in once more. She was shaking hands withBlount--and smiling.
Shadow Mountain Page 27