CHAPTER XXIX
TOOMEY DISTINGUISHES HIMSELF
It had not been possible for Prentiss to go with Kate to Prouty but hehad promised to come as soon as he could arrange his affairs. This hadrequired something like two weeks, and in the interim the excitementattendant upon Kate's return had simmered down. She had not been inProuty since, but Prentiss, having notified her of the day of hisarrival, was now awaiting her appearance with an impatience thatevidenced itself in the frequency with which he looked at his watch.
As Prentiss stood at the window of the Prouty House looking down MainStreet, his face wore a smile that was at once amused and kindly.
So this was Kate's environment, or a part of it--where she had grown towomanhood. The very pavements seemed invested with a kind of sacrednessbecause they had known the imprint of her feet.
It was little short of idolatry--this man's love for hisdaughter--representing as it did all the pent-up affection of his life,and as he had poured that out prodigally so he had lavished his wealthupon her, laughing in keen enjoyment at her dismayed protests.
"Why, girl, you don't understand at all! What is money for, if not tospend on some one you love?"
The weeks they had spent together had been a wonderful experience forhimself as well as for Kate. There were times when he still could notquite realize that this astonishing young woman was his own flesh andblood.
With the experience and intelligent comprehension of a man, she yet wasone of the most innately feminine women he had ever known--in hertastes, her small vanities, her quick and comprehensive sympathies;while her appreciation of all that was fine and good, whether in humanconduct, the arts, or dress, was a constant marvel. Her childishenjoyment of the most ordinary pleasures was a constant delight and hefound his greatest happiness in planning some new entertainment,receiving his reward in watching her expression.
But there was one thing about Kate that puzzled Prentiss, and troubledhim a bit: he had observed that while she talked freely of her motherand the Sand Coulee Roadhouse, of Mullendore and the crisis which hadsent her to Mormon Joe, of the tragedy of his death, of her subsequentlife on the ranch, of her ups-and-downs with the sheep, of anything thatshe thought would be of interest to him, of her inner self she hadnothing to say--of friends, of love affairs--and he could not believebut that that a woman of her unmistakable charm must have had a few.Furthermore, he found that any attempt to draw her out met a reservethat was like a stone wall--just so far he got into her life and not astep beyond.
She reminded him, sometimes--and he could not have said why--of aspirited horse that has been abused--alert for blows, ready to defenditself, suspicious of kindness until its confidence has been won.
Kate had expanded and bloomed in the new atmosphere like a flower whosegrowth has been retarded by poor soil and contracted space. Her lips hadtaken on a smiling upward curve that gave a new expression to her face,and now her frequent laugh was spontaneous and contagious. Her humor wasof the western flavor--droll exaggeration--a little grim, while in herunexpected turns of speech, Prentiss found a constant source ofentertainment.
He had told her of the Toomeys and the circumstances in which they hadmet; also of the letter endeavoring to interest him in the irrigationproject.
"Do you know them?" he had asked, and she had replied merely,"Somewhat."
When questioned as to the merits of the project, she had answeredevasively, "Of my own knowledge I know nothing." But he could not failto observe the sudden stillness which fell upon her, the inscrutabilityof expression which dropped like a mask over her animated face. The nameof Prouty alone was sufficient to bring this change, as if at the soundof the word a habit of reserve asserted itself.
Prentiss thought of it much, but contented himself with believing thatall in good time he would have his daughter's entire confidence.
The afternoon train had been extraordinarily late, bringing him in longafter dark, so the news of the arrival of this stranger of undoubtedimportance had not been widely disseminated as yet. In any event, it hadnot reached Toomey, who banged the door violently behind him as hestrode into the office of the hotel. His brow was dark and it did notbelie his mood. He was indignant, and with reason enough, for he hadjust learned that he had dined the barber futilely, since the ingratehad purchased elsewhere a sewing machine of a rival make.
As Toomey was about to take his accustomed seat, his glance chanced tolight upon Prentiss's distinguished back.
He stopped abruptly, staring in a surprise which passed swiftly fromincredulity to joy. "The 'Live One!' Prentiss, at last!"
If he had followed his impulse, Toomey would have cast himself headlongupon the newcomer's prosperous bosom, for a conventional handshakeseemed inadequate to express the rapture that sent him to Prentiss'sside in a rush.
"Mr. Prentiss, as I live! Why didn't you let me know?" It did not for amoment occur to Toomey that Prentiss was in Prouty for any other purposethan to see him.
Roused from a slight reverie, Prentiss turned and responded vaguely:
"Why, how are you Mr.--er--"
"Toomey," supplied that person, taken somewhat aback.
"Ah, to be sure!" with instant cordiality. "And your wife?"
"She will be delighted to learn you are here. I wish you had come directto us."
The reply that he was going to his daughter's ranch was on his tongue'send, but something checked it--the recollection perhaps of the singularchange which had come over Kate's face at the mention of the Toomeys'name; instead, he expressed his appreciation of the profferedhospitality and courteously refused.
Glad of the diversion while he was obliged to wait, Prentiss sat down inone of the chairs Toomey drew out and listened with more or lessattention while he launched forth upon the subject of the project whichwould bring manifold returns upon the original investment if it washandled right--the inference being that he was the man to see to that.
It was the psychological moment to buy up the outstanding stock. Thefinances of the town and its citizens were at the lowest ebb--on theverge of collapse, in fact, if something did not turn up.Furthermore--he imparted the information in a voice lowered to aconfidential pitch--he had it from a reliable source that the bankitself had been caught in a pinch and had been obliged to transfer itsstock to a depositor to save itself.
Toomey expatiated upon the merits of the proposition and the subsequentopportunities if it went through, until a feverish spot burned on eithercheek-bone. And the burden of his refrain was that never since Noah cameout of the ark, "the sole survivor," and all the world his oyster, as itwere, had there been such a chance to "glom" everything in sight for asong.
If Prentiss's eyes twinkled occasionally, Toomey was too intent uponpresenting his case in the strongest possible light to notice it; nordid he desist until Prentiss displayed signs of restlessness. Then, notto crowd his luck, he let the subject drop and sought to entertain himwith a running fire of humorous comments upon the passersby.
Toomey excelled at this, forgetting, as is frequently the case, that noone of those whom he lampooned was as fitting a subject for ridicule ashimself.
During a pause he observed:
"By the way, there's a woman of your name living about here."
"So I've heard."
"No connection, of course--different spelling, but not apt to be in anycase." There was a covert sneer in his voice.
"How's that?" casually.
"She--" with a shrug--"well, she isn't up to much."
Prentiss stirred slightly.
"No?"
Toomey detected interest and lowered his voice.
"In fact, she's no good."
Prentiss sat quite still--the stillness of a man who takes a shock inthat way.
"They call her the 'Sheep Queen,' but we Old Timers know her as 'MormonJoe's Kate.' She shipped a while back, and just come home all dolled up.Made a little money, no doubt, but any pinhead could do that, the wayprices are. She'll never get 'in,' though."
> "'In' where?"
"In society. For a little burg," with pride, "you'd be surprised to knowhow exclusive they are here." The speech showed what, among otherthings, the years in Prouty had done to Toomey.
A half-inch of cigar burned to ashes between Prentiss's finger-tipsbefore he spoke.
"So--the Sheep Queen is ostracized?"
"Well--rather!" with unctuous emphasis. "My wife tried to take herup--but she couldn't make it stick. Found it would hurt us in ourbusiness, socially, and all that."
Prentiss raised his cigar to his lips and looked at Toomey throughslightly narrowed lids which might or might not be due to smoke as heasked:
"Just what was her offense?"
Toomey laughed.
"It would be hard to say as to that. She came here under a cloud, andhas been under one ever since. She has no antecedents, no blood, andeven in a town like Prouty such things count. Her mother was Jezebel ofthe Sand Coulee, a notorious roadhouse in the southern part of thestate; her father was God-knows-who--some freighter or sheepherder, mostlike."
"Interesting--quite. Go on."
Toomey did not note the constraint in Prentiss's voice and proceededwith gusto:
"She followed off a fellow called Mormon Joe, and trailed in here inoveralls behind the little band of ewes that gave them their start. Hetook up a homestead back in the hills and they lived on about as nearnothing as anybody could, and live at all--like a couple of whiteIndians sleeping in tents and eating out of a frying pan.
"A chap that was visiting me one summer brought her to a dance here atthe Prouty House--did it on a bet that he hadn't sand enough. She camedownstairs looking like a Christmas tree. Everybody gave her the frostymitt and they had to leave."
Prentiss watched a smoke ring rise before he asked:
"Why did they do that?"
"So she wouldn't make the same mistake again."
Toomey laughed, and added:
"They took a 'fall' out of her every time they could after that. Therewas something about her that invited it," he added reflectively, "theway she held her head up, as if she defied them to do their worst, and,"chuckling, "they did."
Prentiss thrust a forefinger inside his collar and gave it a tug asthough it choked.
"This Mormon Joe--what became of him?"
The gleeful light went out of Toomey's face.
"He was killed in a shack down here."
"How?"
"A trap-gun."
"By whom?"
Toomey recrossed his long legs and sought a new position for his handswith the quick erratic movements of nervousness. He hesitated, thenreplied:
"They suspected her."
"Why?"
"She was the only one to benefit."
"There was no proof?"
"No."
"What do you think?"
Toomey deliberated a moment:
"I believe her innocent, myself," he finally replied.
"So she grew up out there in the hills without any friends or sociallife," Prentiss commented, musingly.
"There was always a camptender and a sheepherder or two about," Toomeyanswered with slurring significance.
Prentiss brushed the ashes from his cigar.
"And Prouty had no sympathy with her in her loneliness, but consideredher a legitimate target--somebody that everybody 'took a fall out of,'you say?"
There was a quality in his voice now which made Toomey glance at the manquickly, but it was so elusive, so faint, that he could not be certain;and reassured by his impassive face he went on:
"Why shouldn't they? What would anybody waste sympathy on her kind for?"His thin lips curled contemptuously.
Again Prentiss sat in the stillness in which not a muscle or an eyelidmoved. He seemed even not to breathe until he turned with an impressivedeliberateness and subjected Toomey to a scrutiny so searching andprolonged that Toomey colored in embarrassment, wondering the while asto what it meant.
"I presume, Mr. Toomey," Prentiss finally inquired with a carefulpoliteness he had not shown before, "that it would mean considerable toyou in the way of commissions on the sale of stock if this project wentthrough?"
Toomey's relief that he had not inadvertently given offense was so greatthat he almost told the truth as to the exact amount. Just in time herestrained himself and replied with elaborate indifference:
"I'd get something out of it for my time and work, of course, but,mostly, I'm anxious to see a friend get hold of a good thing."
This fine spirit of disinterested solicitude met with no response.
"I presume it's equally true, Mr. Toomey, that the completion of theproject means considerable to the town?"
"Considerable!" with explosive vehemence. "It's got where it's a case oflife or death. The coyotes'll be denning in the Security State Bank andthe birds building nests in the Opera House in a year or two, ifsomething don't turn up."
"How soon can you furnish me with the data you may have on hand?"
"About six minutes and four seconds, if I run," Toomey replied inhumorous earnestness.
Prentiss's face did not relax.
"Get it and bring it to my room--at once." His voice was cold andbusinesslike, strongly reminiscent now of Kate's.
CHAPTER XXX
HER DAY
Kate stood before a teetering knobless bureau reflecting upon thesingular coincidence which should place her in the same room for hersecond social affair in the Prouty House as that to which she had beenassigned upon her first. The bureau had been new then and, to herinexperienced eyes, had looked the acme of luxurious magnificence. Sherecalled as vividly as though the lapse of time consisted of days, notyears, the round eager face, that had looked out of the glass.
She had been only seventeen--that other girl--and every emotion that shefelt was to be read in her expressive face and in her candid eyes. Itwas different--the face of this woman of twenty-eight who calmlyregarded Kate.
She turned her head and took in the room with a sweeping glance.
It was there, in the middle of the floor, that she had torn off andflung her wreath; it was in the corner over there that she had thrownher bunting dress. On the spot where the rug with the pink child and thered-eyed dog used to be, she had stood with the tears streaming down hercheeks--tears of humiliation, of fierce outraged pride, feeling that themost colossal, crushing tragedy that possibly could come into any lifehad fallen upon her.
It came back to the last detail, that evening of torture--the audibleinnuendos and the whispering behind hands, the lifted eyebrows and theexchange of mocking looks, the insolent eyes of Neifkins, and the finaldeliberate insult--she lived it all again as she stood before the mirrorcalmly arranging her hair.
And Hughie! Her hands paused in mid-air. Could she ever forget thatmoment of agony on the stairs when she thought he was going to failher--that he was ashamed, and a coward! But what a thoroughbred he hadbeen! She could better appreciate now the courage it had required.
Afterward--in the moonlight--on the way home--his contrition, hissympathy, his awkward tenderness. "I love you--I'll love you as long asI live!" Her lips parted as she listened to the boyish voice--vibrating,passionate. He had come to her again and she had sent him away for thesake of the hour that was shortly to arrive. She had reached her goal.More than she had dared hope for in her wildest dreams had come to herat last. She had money, power, success, a name. A choking lump rose inher throat.
It was no longer of any use to refuse to admit it to herself--she wantedHugh. She wanted him with all her heart and soul and strength, nothingand no one else. She threw herself upon the uninviting bed, and in thehour when she should have been exultant Kate cried.
Throughout Prouty, among the socially select, the act of dressing forthe function at the Prouty House was taking place. This dinner given toPrentiss by the members of the Boosters Club was the most importantevent from every viewpoint that had taken place since the town wasincorporated. It would show the bankrupt stockholders where they were"a
t," since Prentiss had reserved the announcement of his decisionregarding the irrigation project for this occasion. In addition, he hadasked the privilege of inviting a guest, which was granted as readilyas if he had requested permission to appear in his bathrobe, for theyhad no desire to offend a man who in their minds occupied an analogousposition with the ravens that brought food to Elijah starving in thewilderness.
Prentiss had been investigated and his rating obtained. All that Toomeyhad claimed for him was found to be the truth--he was an indisputablemillionaire, with ample means to put through whatever he undertook. Theeffect of Prentiss's presence was noticeable throughout the town, andinnumerable small extravagances were committed on the strength of whatwas going to happen "when the project went through."
But in no person was the change so marked as in Toomey, who felt that hehad come into his own at last. As an old and dear friend of Prentiss'shis prestige was almost restored. He fairly reeled with success, while,with no one daring to refuse him credit because of the influence he waspresumed to exert, he ate tinned lobster for breakfast--to show that hecould.
If Prentiss suspected that he was being made capital of, exploited andexhibited like a rare bird, there was nothing in his manner to indicatethat he entertained the thought. While it was true that his firstfriendliness towards Toomey never came back, his impersonal,businesslike courtesy in their intercourse was beyond reproach.
A report had been current that Kate and "Toomey's millionaire" knew eachother--some one in the Prouty House had seen them meet--but as shereturned almost immediately to the ranch and had not been in town since,the rumor died for want of nourishment. No one but Mrs. Toomey gave it asecond thought. But she gave it many thoughts; it stuck in her mind andshe could not get it out.
To her, the resemblance between the two was very noticeable, and anothermeeting with Prentiss made her marvel that no one observed it butherself. In spite of the different spelling of the name, was there,perchance, some relationship? The persistent thought filled her with avague disquietude. It was so strongly in her mind while they dressed forthe affair at the Prouty House that Toomey's conversation was largely asoliloquy.
Surveying himself complacently in the glass, it pleased Mr. Toomey to bejocose.
"Say, Old Girl, how long will it take you to pack your war-bag when Iget this deal pulled off? It's a safe bet that this cross roads can'tsee me for dust, once I get that commission in my mitt." He turned andlooked at her sharply. "What's the matter now, Mrs. Kill-joy? Where's ithurting the worst?"
Mrs. Toomey continued to powder the red tip of her nose until it showedpink.
"You're about as cheerful as an open grave--takes all the heart out ofme just to look at your face. Speak up, Little Sunbeam, and tell Papawhat you got on your chest?"
Mrs. Toomey laid down the powder puff.
"What if there should be some slip-up, Jap? We're letting ourselves infor a dreadful disappointment if we count on it too much."
He shook off her hands from his shoulders with an exasperated twitch.
"You're the original Death's Head, Dell! Don't you suppose I know whatI'm talking about? It'll go through," confidently. "What's made youthink it won't?"
Mrs. Toomey hesitated, then timidly:
"I can't get it out of my head, Jap, but that he's related to Kate, andif that should happen to be so--"
"Good Lord! So you've dug that up to worry about? Look here--if he'd hadany interest in her he'd have knocked me cold the first day he arrived."
"What do you mean?" Mrs. Toomey asked quickly.
"Just that. Her name happened to come up, and I didn't mince my words intelling him about her past."
"Oh, Jap! Whatever made you do that?"
His thin lips curled.
"Why shouldn't I? Damn her--I hate her, somehow. The upstart--thegutter-snipe!"
She laid her hand across his mouth.
"You--shock me, Jap! I don't understand why you are so--venomous towardKate. Sometimes," she looked at him searchingly, "I've wondered ifyou've injured her."
"What do you mean?" He breathed hard, in sudden excitement.
She stood for a moment twisting a button on his coat--her eyes downcast.Finally:
"Nothing--much."
In the office of the Prouty House, redolent of the juniper and spruceboughs which took the bareness from the walls, the guests hungrilywatched the hands of the clock creep towards the fashionable hour ofeight.
"Among those present" was Mr. Clarence Teeters, circulating freely in afull dress coat and gray trousers--the latter worn over a pair ofhigh-heeled cowboy boots and the former over a negligee shirt, beneaththe cuffs of which two leather straps for strengthening the wristspeeped out. Fresh from the hands of the barber, Mr. Teeters' hair,sleek, glossy, fragrant, and brushed straight back, gave him a markedresemblance to a muskrat that has just come up from a dive.
With a sublimated confidence that was sickening to such citizens as hadknown him when he worked for wages and wore overalls, and particularlyto Toomey, who took Teeters' success upon the ranch where he himself hadfailed as a personal affront, Mr. Teeters flitted among the ladies, asimpartial as a bee in a bed of hollyhocks, tossing off compliments withan ease which was a revelation to those who remembered the time when hisbrain stopped working in the presence of the opposite sex quite aseffectually as though he had been hit with an axe.
Toomey not only resented Teeters' presence but the informality of hismanner toward Prentiss, which Toomey regarded as his specialprerogative. He already had had an argument with Sudds as to theadvisability of including Teeters among the guests, and now during alull his judgment was fully verified.
Mr. Teeters with a proud glance at the gaily draped room and at thetable decorated with real carnations and festoons of smilax, which werevisible through the double doors opening into the dining room, inquiredof Prentiss with hearty friendliness:
"Say, feller, don't this swell lay-out kinda take you back to Chicago orNew York?"
What further indiscretions of speech Teeters would have committed onlyhis Maker knows, for at the moment the clerk at the desk called his namein an imperative voice. As the recipient of a telegram, Teeters had theattention of everybody in the room, and none could fail to observe hisexcitement as he folded the telegram and returned it to its envelope.
"I got me a dude comin' in on the train," addressing Sudds. "Could youfix a place for him to eat? The train bein' late like this, he won't gitany supper otherwise. I wasn't expectin' of him for a month yet."
With an invitation thus publicly requisitioned, as it were, there was noalternative but to assent.
The hands of the office clock were close to eight when, as though on asignal, the hubbub of social intercourse ceased and eyes followed eyesto the top of the stairs where two white-slippered feet showed throughthe rungs of the balustrade and a slim hand sparkling with jewelsslipped gracefully along the polished rail. Then she appeared fulllength, in a white dinner gown--clinging, soft, exquisite in itssimplicity and the perfection of its lines. With pearls in her ears andabout her throat, her hair drawn back in a simple knot, Kate looked likeone of the favorites of fortune of whom the Proutyites read in theillustrated magazines and Sunday supplements. The least initiated wasconscious of the perfect taste and skilful workmanship which hadconspired to produce this result. Kate descended slowly, with neitherundue deliberation nor haste, upon her lips the faint one-sided smilewhich was characteristic.
The moment was as dramatic as if the situation had been planned for theeffect, since there were few present to whose minds did not leap to thepicture of that other girl who had come bounding down the stairs,grotesque of dress and as assured and joyous in her ignorance as afrisky colt.
In a continued silence which no one seemed to have the temerity or thepresence of mind to break, the Sheep Queen turned at the foot of thestairway, and the various groups separated on a common impulse to lether pass. She went straight to Prentiss, whose greeting was a smile ofadoring tenderness.
<
br /> "Am I late, father?"
The sharp intake of breath throughout the room might have come from onepair of lungs. "Father!" The rumor was true then! Amazement came first,and then uneasiness. What effect would the relationship have upon theirpersonal interests? Had she any feeling which would lead her to use herinfluence to their detriment?
Kate and her father would have had more than their share of attentionanywhere, for they had the same distinction of carriage, the same graverepose. Either one of them would have stood out in a far more brilliantassembly than that gathered in the Prouty House.
The social training Mrs. Abram Pantin had received at church functionsin Keokuk now came to her rescue. Gathering herself, she was able tochirp:
"This _is_ a surprise!"
"You know my daughter, of course?" to Mrs. Sudds, whose jaw had dropped,so that she stood slightly open-mouthed, arrayed in a frock made in thefashion of the Moyen age and recently handed down from a great-uncle'srelict who had passed on. Since this confection bulged where it shouldhave clung and clung where it should have bulged, it was the generalimpression that Mrs. Sudds was out in a maternity gown. Mrs. Neifkins infourteen gores stood beside Mrs. Toomey in a hobble skirt reminiscent ofher Chicago trip, while a faint odor of moth balls, cedar chips andgasolene permeated the atmosphere in the immediate vicinity of all thisancient elegance.
"We all have met," Kate replied, and her glance included the group.While there was no emphasis to suggest that the sentence contained anyspecial significance, yet each of the ladies was conscious of anuncomfortable warmth, and the wish that dinner would be announced wasso unanimous that their heads turned simultaneously towards the diningroom; and, quite as if the concentrated thought had produced the result,the proprietor of the Prouty House conveyed the information to Sudds ina whisper from the corner of his mouth that all was in readiness.
After some embarrassed uncertainty as to who was to conduct whom, andwhich arm should be used, the guests filed into the dining room at anhour when, commonly, they were preparing to retire.
In the confusion Mrs. Toomey found the opportunity to say:
"Jap, our goose is cooked!"
Adversity had sharpened her intuitions, developed her sensibilities;what others might fear, she knew, and this commonplace held all herdisappointment, all the chagrin and hopelessness that in an instant haddissipated the roseate dreams she had again dared to entertain.
Toomey was too dazed to reply. What did it mean, he was asking himselfin bewilderment as he found the seat at the table which had beenassigned him. When he had disparaged and insulted Kate, why had Prentissnot resented it verbally, knocked him down? Why had he made a secret oftheir relationship?
Notwithstanding Gov'nor Sudds's best efforts, ably supported by Mr.Scales and Hiram Butefish, the banquet did not promise to be anunqualified success. There was a tension which did not make for a properappreciation of the excellently prepared food. In truth, nobody wasentirely at his ease save Prentiss and Kate--and Abram Pantin. Thecomplacency of the cat who has eaten the canary was discontent besidethe satisfaction upon Mr. Pantin's face as he sent triumphant glances athis wife. It was well towards the end of the banquet that the belatedtrain whistled and Mr. Teeters excused himself--first reaching for astalk of celery which he ate as he went, and looking, as Mr. Butefishobserved to fill a pause, "like a pig with a corn husk hanging out ofits mouth."
When the several courses had passed in review, the tension increasedwith the realization that the moment which meant so much to everyonepresent had arrived at last.
So many times they had allowed themselves to hope only to knowdisappointment. But Prentiss inspired a confidence they never had had inthe prospective investors who had gone before. He was of quite adifferent sort.
But the most adroit questioning had failed to extract the slightest hintas to his intentions. In any event, they would soon be out of theirsuspense, and they waited with an impatience not too well concealed forGov'nor Sudds to finish his labored speech.
Toomey was called upon next but he begged to be excused, intimating thathe was a man of deeds, not words.
Mr. Butefish then recounted the natural resources of the country with aglibness that carried the suggestion that he could do the same in hissleep, and Mr. Scales arose to affirm his confidence in the day whenProuty would be heralded as "the Denver of the State."
Noting the growing signs of restlessness, the Gov'nor ignored theexpectant looks of other prominent citizens and called upon Mr.Prentiss, admitting, as though he were conceding a disputed fact, thatthe decision they were anticipating was a matter of interest--even ofconsiderable concern--to the town.
So general was the appreciation of what Prentiss's speech meant that thecook came out of the kitchen and the waitresses hovered within hearingas Prentiss crumpled his napkin and slowly got up.
He looked thoroughly the man of affairs and of the world in hisfaultless dinner clothes, while the air of power which emanated from himseemed to be something concrete--definite. In the pleasant voice andwell-chosen words of one accustomed to thinking on his feet, he thankedthe Boosters Club graciously for their hospitality and courtesiesextended during his short stay in the town. Then, without furtherpreliminaries, he went direct to the subject which was uppermost inevery mind.
The project had merit, he was convinced of that. It would takeconsiderable capital to enlarge the ditch and to put it in perfectcondition, but the returns would warrant the outlay in time. Thenumerous failures had complicated the affairs of the company somewhat,but patience and the desire to be just would straighten theseentanglements out.
The loosening of the tension as he talked evidenced itself in audiblebreaths and growing smiles upon every face. The encouraging words actedas the stimulant of a hypodermic in sluggish veins, eyes brightening andcheeks flushing at the mental pictures conjured up by the prospect ofgetting their money back.
"It is a proposition," Prentiss went on in his agreeable voice, "which Ishould feel justified either in taking up or letting alone. While it islegitimate and safe, in so far as I can see, I have on the other handinterests which claim a large share of my time, and this undertakingwould be an additional demand.
"Therefore," his gaze traveled the length of the table and back to whereToomey sat, "I have concluded to determine the matter by a somewhatunique means. I shall leave the decision to my daughter here. Prouty,one may say, is her home. She has grown up among you. Many of you, nodoubt, she numbers among her friends. At any rate, she has the finalsay. I have informed her of my intention, but I have no more notion thanyourselves what her answer will be, and," he added, "I have quite asmuch curiosity."
Blank surprise was followed by the exchange of startled, inquiringlooks. Abram Pantin was perhaps the only one who did not find somegrounds for uneasiness.
The swift transition from relief to their former state of suspense wasmarked, and their feelings found an outlet in a sudden nervous movementof hands and feet. The town had given her rather a hard deal in someways, all were ready to admit that, but had she felt it? Did sheentertain resentment because of it? She looked so young, so feminine, soexquisitely soft that, somehow, they thought not.
Toomey's sallow skin had taken on a saffron shade, and Mrs. Toomey satwith her thin hands clenched in her lap, a strained smile fixed on herface, waiting for--she knew not what.
Turning in his chair, Prentiss laid his hand upon the back of Kate's,and his keen worldly eyes shone with the peculiar satisfaction whichhuman nature finds in its own flesh and blood when it reflects creditupon themselves. Immeasurable pride was in his face as he looked at her.
The miracle of clothes and an altered frame of mind had done wonders forKate. The austere expression, the tense lines which came fromresponsibility and unhappiness had been smoothed out, while much of thetan of her years in the open air had vanished in a few weeks in themoist climate of the east. She looked not more than twenty-two or threein the soft glow of the shaded lights, and of the awkward self-consciousg
irl whom they remembered on that night in this same dining room, therewas not a trace.
She had the quiet assurance of authority, the poise of self-reliance andreserve force, but there was not a shade of triumph in her face, at thepower with which her father had vested her.
There seemed not to be even heart beats in the tense silence while Katesat with her eyes downcast, clinking, with her jewelled fingers, a bitof ice against the sides of her drinking glass. Even when she spokefinally she did not look up, but began in a low, even voice:
"A fable that I read long ago keeps coming to me to-night--the story of aking, powerful and cruel, who, when his time came to appear before theGreat Judge, the single entry in his favor that the Recording Angelcould find was the whim which had induced him when walking one day tohave a pig that he saw suffering in the gutter put out of its misery.
"The story is applicable in that as I sit here I realize that in all theyears I have been among you there is only one," she raised her eyes andindicated Teeters's empty chair, "who ever has done me the smallestdisinterested kindness.
"Until I got beyond the need of it, I cannot remember one unselfish,friendly act, or, at a time when every man's hand was against me, onesympathetic word or look. It sounds incredible, but it is the truth. Itseems the irony of Fate indeed that this decision, which means so muchto you, should rest with me."
She stopped and lowered her eyes again to the glass which she twirledslowly as she deliberated, as if choosing the words which should mostexactly express her thoughts.
She began again:
"You will excuse me if I speak much of myself, but there is no other wayto make clear what I have to say." She paused for a breathless moment,and went on: "We all have our peculiarities of temperament and mind,our individual idiosyncracies, to distinguish us, and they are as markedas physical characteristics, and it happens to be mine that either akindness or an injury is something to be paid in full as surely as apromissory note, if it is possible to do so.
"The debts I owe to you are for acts of wanton cruelty that one wouldhave to look to Indians to find their counterpart, for deliberateinsults that had not even the excuse of personal animus to justify them,but were due solely to the cowardice which likes to strike where it issafe--the eagerness to hurt, which seems to be the first instinct ofsmall minds and natures. I have no taste to rehearse my grievances, butit is necessary, that you may quite understand why it is that I feel asI do towards you."
Somewhat in the tone of a person reciting a lesson she continued:
"I was a young girl when I first came among you--to the dance here, intothis very room. I was ignorant, unsophisticated. I met you with my handoutstretched, yearning for your friendship; and you would as well havestruck me in my upturned face as do what you did.
"I had no mother, no woman friend to tell me that I was absurd in mypaper flowers and the dress that I had made with my inexperiencedfingers, and you could find no excuse for my ridiculous appearance, butenjoyed it openly.
"When you laughed in my face you had not yet inflicted pain enough tosatisfy you--you had to turn the knife to see me quiver. And youdid--mercilessly--relishing my humiliation when I had to leave.
"There was not one among you generous enough to make allowance for myyouth and inexperience, and spare me. You saw only that I was absurd inmy fantastic clothes, and overly anxious to be friendly. I was thedaughter of 'Jezebel of the Sand Coulee' and the protegee of a'sheepherder.'
"I did not know you then as I do now and your pose of superiorityimpressed me; I took you at your own valuation and overestimated you; soI was all but crushed by your condemnation. I was like a child that iswhipped without knowing for what it is being punished."
She paused a moment before going on.
"Worse things came to me afterwards, but none from which I suffered morekeenly--in a different way, perhaps, but not more acutely. The woundsyou inflicted that night left scars that never have healed entirely.
"The turning-point in my life came when 'Mormon Joe' was murdered. Hewas more than a guardian and a benefactor--he had been father, mother,teacher, to me, but with no other grounds than that I benefited by hisdeath, the stigma of murder was placed upon me. There was not evidenceto hold me, so I remained a suspect, proven neither guilty nor innocent.
"The murder was little more than an agreeable break in the monotony tomost of you, but it revolutionized the world for me--changed the wholescheme of my life--and," with a smile that was tinged with bitterness,"demonstrated to my entire satisfaction the extent to which character isaffected by environment."
She went on thoughtfully:
"I have come to believe that to know human nature--at least to know itas its worst--one must be the victim of some discreditable misfortune ina small community. Moral cowardice, ingratitude, the greed which isready to take advantage of some one unable to make an effective protest,the gratuitous insults offered the 'under dog' because he is helplessto fight back--he discovers it all, and when all is done he has littlefaith in human nature left.
"This experience I had at your hands, to the last ounce. I know the'friendship' that couldn't 'stand the gaff' of public opinion, theingratitude that makes no count of personal sacrifice, the rapacity thattakes it to the border of dishonesty to attain its end. Yet, curiouslyenough, after the lapse of years these things shrink into comparativeinsignificance beside the uncalled for insolence, unwarranted affronts,which were offered me by many of you with whom I had not even a speakingacquaintance.
"My friendlessness aroused no pity in your hearts; I was only anunresisting target at which to throw a convenient stone. For years Istood out in the open, as it were, with the storms to whip the life outof me, and not one of you offered me a cloak.
"Upon any nature this experience would have had its effect--most women,I think, it would have crushed. In me it developed traits that in othercircumstances might always have lain dormant. Along with a pride thatwas tremendous, it aroused a desire for revenge that was savage in itsferocity. I've lived for some such hour as this--worked, and sacrificedmy happiness for it.
"If it could have been of my own planning I could not have conceived ofa more gratifying situation than this.
"I know how much my decision means to you; I know that there isn't onehere who would not be affected directly or indirectly by the collapse ofthis project; that it will take years for you to get back even to theposition you were in when you came, quite as well as I realize that itscompletion would put you on your feet."
She stopped again while they waited for her to go on in a silence thatwas painful.
"When I've visualized 'The Day' in my waking dreams, I've wondered if Ishould weaken and forgive my enemies as they always do in books--if anyargument could move me to relent--if any impulse would soften me towardyou--if I might not even pity you.
"One never knows, but I thought not. And I was right. The desperation ofyour situation isn't the sort of pathos that appeals to me. I find thatin my nature there is nothing 'noble' that pleads for you. I neitherpity nor forgive you.
"Yet this moment is a disappointment. Instead of the sweetness ofrevenge, I feel only indifference, for I realize as never before how Imagnified your importance, that I looked at you through the wrong end ofthe telescope; and along with my apathy is a feeling of dismay that Ihave spent all these years working to retaliate upon foes that are notworth what it has cost. The worst thing one could wish you is to beyourselves, for there isn't one among you who has the qualities to lifthim above his present level of mediocrity."
A resentful movement to go was initiated by Gov'nor Sudds.
"Wait a moment!" Kate raised her hand imperiously. "I presume you thinkyou have your answer?" She shook her head slowly. Then, with increaseddeliberation: "I told you that I always pay my debts. I owe my successto you. It is my enemies who have given me the patience to sit hourafter hour and herd sheep--not for weeks nor months, but for years. Itis my enemies who have given me the courage to stagger on through coldand s
now when the blood in my veins was ice. It is my enemies who havegiven me the endurance to work in emergencies until I have dropped; toendure poverty, loneliness, derision--and worse. When failures haveknocked me down, it is you, my enemies, who have given me the strengthto pick myself up and go on.
"Because of you, I am the better able to appreciate true friendship,integrity, the many qualities which go to make up greatness of mind andheart, and that in happier circumstances I have learned do exist. So yousee, if you have taken much, perhaps you have given more, and I have anobligation to discharge. Therefore," she turned to her father with aslightly inquiring look, "if the decision still remains with me, Ishould like to know that the project will go through."
The tense and pent-up feelings of the guests found an outlet inlong-drawn breaths and indignant but unconvincing murmurs that "they'drather starve," which did not prevent all attention focusing uponPrentiss, whose face wore a forbidding grimness from which all semblanceof friendliness had long since fled.
"If I had known--if I had dreamed of half of this--I am frank to confessthat you could not have interested me in this proposition for thehundredth part of a second. But it will be completed because it is mydaughter's wish. However," with cold emphasis, "upon my own terms.
"You may, or may not know, that the involved affairs of the projectleave it practically optional with a new company whether they recognizethe claims against former companies or repudiate these debts.
"The local claims amount to something like sixty-five thousand dollars,which is a sum of considerable importance, distributed in a town of thissize. I had intended to pay these claims in full, largely as a matter ofsentiment, presuming that among those affected there were at least afew of my daughter's friends. What she has said to-night gives thematter a new face. It is now a business proposition with me. I am nophilanthropist where my interests or affections are not concerned.
"The offer I am about to make you can take or you can leave, but I've anotion self-interest will prevail over your temporary pique, since youno doubt realize that unless something is done almost immediately thissegregated land will revert to the state.
"I will not pay any debts of former companies, and I will take over thecontrolling stock--not at the figure at which you are holding it, but atwhat I consider a fair price. I will enlarge the ditch and complete theproject so that it will meet every requirement of the state engineersand turn it over to the settlers under it when it has been demonstratedto be a complete success."
They thought he had done, and again looked at each other with deep-drawnbreaths, when he resumed:
"There is one more condition upon which I insist: It is that in thepurchase of the stock I deal with the stockholders direct. There shallbe no commission paid to a go-between." He looked at Toomey as he spoke."My reason for this is purely personal, but nevertheless my offer restsupon this stipulation." There was no mistaking the finality of his toneor the cold enmity of his voice.
In a night of surprises this seemed the climax. What did it mean, sincethere had not been the slightest hint that Toomey and Prentiss were notthe warmest of friends? In the dramatic silence each could hear hisneighbor breathe.
Toomey looked stunned, then, as he recovered himself, the vein in histemple swelled and his sallow face darkened to ugly belligerence.
"I don't understand this!" he cried, raising his voice as he endeavoredto return Prentiss's steely gaze with one of defiance. "But I'll servenotice now that I'll have the commission to which I'm entitled, or I'llsue for it and tie the whole thing up!"
Gov'nor Sudds started to his feet to voice a hot protest, as did otherleading citizens who saw the chance to rehabilitate their fortunesvanish at the threat, but they were overshadowed, overborne by the morevigorous personality of Mr. Teeters, who suddenly dominated the scenefrom the door of the dining room where he had been listening intently.As if no longer able to contain himself, Teeters strode forward, shakingat Toomey the finger of emphasis:
"Then," he cried, "you'll do your suin' from a cell! If I hold in anylonger I'm goin' to choke! I'm goin' to speak, if she won't." Hemotioned towards Kate. "I want these folks to know what that yella-backhas been keepin' to himself all these years for some reason that onlyhimself and the Almighty knows. _He_ owned the gun that killed MormonJoe! _He_ sold it to the 'breed,' Mullendore! _He_ could have provedKate Prentiss's innocence any time he wanted to--and _he kept his mouthshut_! I'm no legal sharp, but I won't believe there ain't some lawthat'll put the likes o' him where he belongs."
Toomey shrank under the attack as though beneath actual blows; he seemedto contract beneath the focused gaze of eyes that contained anger,scorn, in some instances, incredulity. He looked for a moment as thoughhe were going to faint, then he clutched the edge of the table cloth ina convulsive grip, and shouted with an attempt at his old braggadocio:
"It's a lie!"
"It's the truth!" Teeters thundered, opposite. "Mullendore confessed.Anyhow, I've got other proof--the original owner of the gun who left itat your house when he was a kid. Feller--come out."
"Disston!" Toomey gasped as Hugh stepped from the semidusk of thecorridor into the light. The thing he had feared most since some uglyperversity of his nature had kept him silent because of his dislike ofMormon Joe and Kate had come to pass.
In the swift movement of events, matters of more interest weretranspiring than Toomey's nervous collapse. With a cry that has nocounterpart save as it comes straight from a woman's heart, Kate hadsprung to her feet and gone to Disston with her hands outstretched.
"Hughie! Hughie! You've come back. Speak--say something so I'll knowthat I'm awake." The Boosters' Club and its guests did not exist forKate.
"Katie--Katie Prentice, is this wonderful girl you?" His face wasradiant with admiration and amazement as he held her at arms' length.
"For months and months, Hughie," she said softly, "I've wanted to tellyou that I was wrong and you were right. There is nothing of any greatimportance except love. _Without it success is empty--empty as a gourd!_Tell me, Hughie--tell me quick that it isn't too late to make amends formy mistake!"
Her answer was already in Disston's eyes so his whisper wassuperfluous--"I told you it was _for always_, Kate."
THE END
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