The Fighting Shepherdess

by Caroline Lockhart

  CHAPTER XXVIII

  THE SURPRISE OF MR. WENTZ'S LIFE

  After an absence from Prouty of several weeks, Kate stepped off thetrain alone one afternoon and furnished the town with the liveliestsensation of its kind that it had known since the Toomeys had gone "onEast."

  Through the cooperation of the telephone and of breathless ladiesdashing across lots and from house to house, the town, by night, had adetailed description of the clothes which had altered Kate's appearancebeyond belief.

  Mrs. Abram Pantin expressed the opinion that Kate's Alaskan-seal coatwhich, in reality, represented the price of a goodly band of sheep, wasmerely native muskrat rather skilfully dyed.

  This verdict rendered before the Thursday afternoon session of the Y. A.K.'s, which had gathered to hear a paper by Mrs. Sudds upon the MingDynasty, afforded its members immense relief. Their fears, too, that thesmart ear-rings Kate wore might be real pearls were assuaged by Mrs.Neifkins, who declared she had seen their counterpart in Butte forseventy-five cents.

  But the fact had soaked into the average citizen that Kate had"arrived."

  Among those who admitted this was Mrs. Toomey, who lingered at thebreakfast table the morning after Kate's return, thinking of many thingswhile she absently clinked her spoon against the edge of her cup. Japhad just left after an animated argument as to whether policy demandedthe entertainment at dinner of the barber and his wife, who contemplatedbuying a sewing machine of a make for which Toomey was now the agent.Recalling the time when they had refused invitations right and leftbecause there was no one in Prouty whom they had cared to know, a smileof bitterness came to her lips. Since then, she had eaten the pie ofhumbleness to the last crumb. She had become a self-acknowledged toady,a spineless sycophant, and for what? For the privilege of being invitedto teas, bridge whists, of being sure of a place in the local sociallife.

  This morning she was doubting the wisdom of her choice. Kate's sincereunswerving friendship might have been compensation enough for theanguish of being "left out." Yet she could not exactly blame herself,for who could have foreseen that things would turn out like this? It wasnot remorse that Mrs. Toomey felt, but regret for not arraying herselfon the side which ultimately would have brought her the most benefits.

  Mrs. Toomey never had been able to gather anything from Kate'sexpression upon the few occasions that they had met since the girl hadcalled her a "Judas Iscariot" and left the house, but she recalled thatat each later encounter she had experienced the same sense ofuneasiness.

  Was the feeling due to a guilty conscience, she asked herself, or was animplacable hatred that was biding its time, concealed by Kate'senigmatic face?

  Mrs. Toomey concluded that this theory was farfetched--that it was nothuman nature to retain resentment for even a real wrong through such alapse of years. Time took the keen edge off of everything, including thebitterest enemy. And yet, in spite of this comforting reassurance, thereremained an inexplicable feeling of disquietude when she thought of thewoman to whom she had proved an ingrate and a cowardly friend.

  While Mrs. Toomey's mind was thus engrossingly occupied, Jasper washaving his own troubles in the Security State Bank.

  Stimulated by three cups of strong coffee, Toomey had left the housefull of hustle and hope--a state which was apt to continue until abouteleven o'clock when the effect wore off, and then he might be expectedhome with another iridescent bubble punctured, and himself gloomy to thepoint of suicide.

  To-day Toomey's feet as a means of locomotion seemed all too slow as hecovered the distance intervening between his home and the bank. Hisblack eyes were brilliant with caffeine and the excitement attendantupon a large and highly satisfactory idea which had come to him in thenight.

  Having obtained a hearing, he rolled a cigarette with tremulous fingerswhile he unfolded his plan to Mr. Wentz. The banker listened withequanimity as he sat on the back of his neck with his fingers interlacedacross his smart bottle-green waistcoat. Wentz's lack of enthusiasm onlyincreased Toomey's eagerness. He leaned forward and declared with allvehemence:

  "Look at the territory I could cover, if I had an automobile! With asideline of fruit trees, I can get an order of some kind out of everyfamily in the northern part of the state. It's a cinch, Wentz. I'mgiving you a chance to make a good loan that you can't afford to letpass."

  Mr. Wentz yawned with marked weariness.

  "What's a bank for if not to encourage legitimate enterprises in thecommunity upon which it depends for its business? There isn't a flaw inthis proposition, Wentz! Can you show me one?"

  "It's perfect from your side," Wentz agreed, "but where would we get offif every family in the northern part of the state didn't happen to needfruit trees or a sewing machine? We'd have a worn automobile on ourhands and another of your familiar signatures on our already too largecollection of promissory notes. Can't see it, Jap."

  Disappointment as well as Wentz's words stung Toomey more deeply than hehad been touched for a long time. A rush of blood dyed his sallow faceas he grabbed his hat and started for the door. Opening it partly, heturned and flung a retort over his shoulder.

  "I'll tell you what I think, Vermin!" Mr. Wentz winced. This perversionof his name had darkened his childhood days and he never had outgrownhis antipathy to it. "I think," Toomey went on, "that you're shaky asthe devil--that Neifkins' big loss put such a crimp in you that anhonest bank examiner could close your doors! I'll bet my hat against awhite chip that even a boys'-size 'run' could shut your little two bytwice bank up tight as a drum!"

  It was a random shot, but the president's face showed that it went home.He gathered himself immediately, but not before Kate who, on coming inbrushed shoulders with the departing Toomey, had heard the speech andnoted its effect.

  So Neifkins had had a big loss! She grasped the full significance of itat once and exultation filled her heart.

  Wentz looked at the "Sheep Queen" hard as she advanced. Astonishment andadmiration were in his eyes when he recognized her at last. It wasbeyond belief that a mere matter of clothes could effect such atransformation as this. She looked the last word in feminine elegance.Filled with the wonder of it, he forgot for a moment the specter whichhad been his sleeping and waking companion for some weeks past and whichhad confronted him with the substance of reality at Toomey's taunt.

  The banker went to meet Kate with an outstretched hand.

  "You've been gone a long time; I've been wondering when we'd see youback."

  "I've been east," she replied, casually.

  "The trip's did wonders for you. You look--well, bloomin' isn't hardlystrong enough. Miss Prentice, I want you to meet my wife--you must."

  "Thanks--so much." A certain dryness momentarily disconcerted Mr. Wentz.

  With a shade of chagrin Mr. Wentz returned to his desk, telling himselfinelegantly that she was "feeling her oats."

  Kate filled out a check in a deliberate and careful way and passed it into the cashier, who had been noting the details of her appearance withunqualified interest. Her eyes had an increased brilliancy and there wasa faint flush on her cheeks, but otherwise there was nothing in herimpassive face to show how fast her heart was beating as she waited inthe silence to learn if the blow she meant to strike had been well-timedor not.

  She was not kept long in suspense. The swift consternation which madethe cashier's color fade when he grasped the fact that the check was forthe full amount of her deposit told her all she wished to know. Theshadow of her enigmatic smile rested on her lips.

  She was curiously aware of every sound--the ticking of the flat clockagainst the wall, the scratching of Wentz's pen, the steps of passersbyon the sidewalk--as she waited for what seemed an unconscionable timefor the cashier to speak. Panic was in his eyes when he finally raisedthem from the check. He stood uncertainly for a moment, then turned andwalked quickly to the president's desk.

  Wentz read it without lifting his head as it lay before him. Hecontinued to stare at it as though he had been stunned, while Kate
withher eyes fixed upon his face thrummed lightly on the counter with herfinger tips. He had pictured something like this a thousand times, yetnow that it actually had come he seemed as little prepared to meet it asif it were a crushing and complete surprise.

  He lifted his head as though with an effort.

  "Will you step here, please?" His voice sounded thick.

  The cashier quickly withdrew while Wentz arose slowly and opened thegate.

  As Kate sank slowly into the depths of a leather covered chair, themuch-discussed coat, a fitting garment for a princess, with its amplecut and voluminous unstinted hem, swirled gracefully about her feet. Hergloves, her close-fitting hat with its well-adjusted veil drawn over hercarefully-dressed hair--everything, to the smallest detail of thesubdued elegance of her toilette--suggested not only discriminatingtaste but unlimited means with which to indulge it.

  The Sheep Queen toyed idly with a gold mesh-bag suspended by a chainabout her neck, and her face was sphinx-like as she waited for Wentz tospeak.

  The check fluttered as the banker picked it up at last and held itbetween his two trembling hands.

  "Is it necessary, Miss Prentice, that you have this money at once?"

  Kate replied evenly:

  "No--I can't say that. Why?"

  He hesitated and the color swept hotly over his face.

  "It will be an accommodation to us if you will wait a few days."

  "In what way?"

  Her calmness reassured him and he replied with a little less constraint:

  "This is a large sum for a small bank, and I don't mind telling youconfidentially that the payment of this check will leave us alittle--er--short."

  Kate raised her beautifully arched eyebrows and questioned:

  "Yes?"

  Wentz drew a deep breath of relief.

  "You see, I inferred that you would be leaving this with us for aconsiderable length of time and, anyway, I was sure that you would beconsiderate if it was not quite--not quite convenient to pay the fullamount at once."

  "What made you think that?" she asked softly.

  "Oh, our friendly relations, and all that," he replied more easily.

  "Aren't you taking a great deal for granted, Mr. Wentz?"

  The timbre of her voice--the deadly coldness of it--made him start. Hehad the sensation of an icicle being drawn slowly the length of hisback.

  "Why, I--I don't know," he stammered. "Am I?"

  "Do you recall any reason, as you look back, why I should grant thisfavor that you ask?"

  Mr. Wentz distinctly squirmed.

  "N-no."

  "Quite the contrary, if you'll recollect."

  "I hope," with a deprecatory gesture of his white hand, "you are notlaying that up against us, Miss Prentice? Surely you can understand thata bank must protect itself."

  Kate's eyes which had been violet were gray now.

  "But not to the extent that you did when you tried to put the screws onme for Neifkins' benefit. With every means at your command youendeavored to take advantage of my necessity. And yet"--she gripped thefat arms of the leather chair as she threw off her mask of impassivityand cried in a voice that was hoarse with the emotion with which sheshook--"that's not the real reason that I'm going to close your doors,that I'm going to wreck you and your bank and give the finishing blow tothis already bankrupt town! It's for a woman's reason that I am going totake my revenge.

  "You weren't content to make a pauper of me. No, you couldn't besatisfied with that, but you must hurt my woman's pride--you must cut meto the quick with your studied insolence, the disrespect of your eyes,your manner, your tone, your speech, every time that business brought mehere!

  "You couldn't resist the temptation to hit me when I was down. It was soeasy, and there was so little chance of being hit back. Besides, it gaveyou an agreeable feeling of importance, after having been so longignored or patronized yourself. That's why, Mr. Wentz," the wordssounded sibilant through her shut teeth, "you're going to honor my checkto-day--_now_--or suspend."

  Wentz listened dumbfounded. The slight question which once had been inhis mind as to whether or not she harbored resentment had long sincebeen removed by her continued patronage and her even courtesy. He neverhad dreamed of such a vindictive, deep-rooted animosity as this.

  When he could speak he half started from his chair and cried sharply:

  "Miss Prentice! Kate! You won't do that!"

  "Won't I?" Her short laugh was hard as with a nervous movement she gotup, and walking behind it, laid her folded arms on the back of the bigleather chair. "Do you think I've been planning and working to this endall these years to weaken at your first outcry? To watch you squirm is apart of the reward I promised myself, Mr. Wentz."

  He thrust out a supplicating hand:

  "Give us time--just a little time--that's all I ask! We'll tide oversomehow if you'll--"

  Kate interrupted bitterly:

  "There's a familiar ring to that. My own words exactly, if you willrecollect--and you sneered in my face." She looked at him with narrowedeyes and her voice was flint: "The time you'll get is the time it willrequire for me to go before a notary and swear that your bank isinsolvent--twenty minutes--a half hour at most."

  "For God's sake--" His face was chalky when he sprang out of his chairas though to stop her forcibly when she laid her hand upon the gate."Isn't there some other way--some concession that we can make?"

  Wentz did not breathe, in the tense moment that she seemed to hesitate.

  "Yes," she flashed, "there is one way to save your bank; turn over to meyour and Neifkins' stock, which will give me the control."

  Wentz stood mute.

  She demanded imperiously:

  "Yes or no?"

  "You--you would retain me as president?" he asked, heavily.

  Her answer came with the decisive snap of a rapid fire gun.

  "Certainly not. You demonstrated your unfitness to occupy a position ofsuch responsibility when you allowed yourself to be influenced by a manof Neifkins' stripe, to say nothing of the lack of knowledge of humannature which you have shown in your dealings with me.

  "The man who enabled me to block your game when you thought you had medown and out--not through any particular kindness of heart or chivalry,but because he had the gift of insight into character--the discernmentto recognize a safe loan--will take your place. Abram Pantin, if hewants it, will be this bank's next president."

  Wentz looked his amazement.

  So that was the source from which her money had come! The bank's ancientenemy had taken what any other man in Prouty would have considered anextremely long chance. Wentz never had blamed himself, but this newsmade him wince. Pantin--the fox--rather anyone else! A rebelliousexpression came over the man's face. With Abram Pantin in his chair hishumiliation would be complete.

  "I won't do it!" he blurted.

  "Then you'll suspend. I don't bluff. There isn't a plea you can make, ora single argument, that will have any weight. There's but this one wayto save your reputation and your bank. Do you quite realize what failuremeans, coming at this time? It means the finishing touch to a nearlybankrupt town. It means that the temper of your depositors will be suchthat you're liable to be lynched, when they learn that you might havekept the bank open and did not. Think twice, Mr. Wentz."

  "God, but you're cold-blooded!" He groped for the chair and sat down.

  "You pay me a compliment," she answered, mockingly. "I take it youconsent?"

  He muttered sullenly:

  "There's nothin' else. Yes."