CHAPTER XX
_The River Gives up its Prey_
Because Zephyr saw a school of fishes disporting themselves in thewater, this never diverted his attention from the landing of the fish hehad hooked.
This principle of his life he was applying to a particular event. Theriver had been closely watched; now, at last, his fish was hooked. Thelanding it was another matter. He needed help. He went for it.
Zephyr found Bennie taking his usual after-dinner nap.
"Julius Benjamin, it's the eleventh hour," he began, indifferently.
Bennie interrupted:
"The eleventh hour! It's two o'clock, and the time you mention was bornthree hours ago. What new kind of bug is biting you?"
Zephyr studiously rolled a cigarette.
"Your education is deficient, Julius. You don't know your Bible, and youdon't know the special force of figurative language. I'm sorry for you,Julius, but having begun I'll see it through. Having put my hand to theplough, which is also figuratively speaking, it's the eleventh hour, butif you'll get into your working clothes and whirl in, I'll give you fulltime and better wages."
Bennie sat upright.
"What?" he began.
Zephyr's cigarette was smoking.
"There's no time to waste drilling ideas through a thick head. The wagonis ready and so is the block and ropes. Come on, and while we're on theway, I'll tackle your wits where the Almighty left off."
Bennie's wits were not so muddy as Zephyr's words indicated. He sprangfrom his bed and into his shoes, and before the stub of Zephyr'scigarette had struck the ground outside the open window Bennie waspushing Zephyr through the door.
"Figures be hanged, and you, too. If my wits were as thick as yourtongue, they'd be guessing at the clack of it, instead of getting awiggle on the both of us."
The stableman had the wagon hooked up and ready. Zephyr and Bennieclambered in. Bennie caught the lines from the driver and cracking thewhip about the ears of the horses, they clattered down the trail to theDevil's Elbow.
Zephyr protested mildly at Bennie's haste.
"Hold your hush," growled Bennie. "There's a hell of a fight on at theoffice this day. If you want to see a good man win the sooner we're backwith the safe the better."
There were no lost motions on their arrival at the Devil's Elbow. Theactual facts that had hastened Zephyr's location of the safe weresimple. He had studied the position which the stage must have occupiedbefore the bridge fell, its line of probable descent. From these assumeddata he inferred the approximate position of the safe in the river andbegan prodding in the muddy water. At last he was tolerably sure that hehad located it. By building a sort of wing dam with loose rock, fillingthe interstices with fine material, the water of the pool was cut offfrom the main stream and began to quiet down and grow comparativelyclear. Then Zephyr's heart almost stood still. By careful looking hecould distinguish one corner of the safe. Without more ado he startedfor Bennie.
The tackle was soon rigged. Taking a hook and chain, Zephyr waded outinto the icy water, and after a few minutes he gave the signal to hoist.It was the safe, sure enough. Another lift with the tackle in a newposition and the safe was in the wagon and headed for itsstarting-point.
Bennie was rigid with important dignity on the way to the office and wasconsequently silent save as to his breath, which whistled through hisnostrils. As for Zephyr, Bennie's silence only allowed him to whistle orgo through the noiseless motions as seemed to suit his mood. The driverwas alive with curiosity and spoiling to talk, but his voluble effortsat conversation only confirmed his knowledge of what to expect. Whenlater interrogated as to the remarks of Zephyr and Bennie upon thisparticular occasion he cut loose the pent-up torrent within him.
"You fellows may have heard," he concluded, "that clams is hell onkeeping quiet; but they're a flock of blue jays cussin' fer a prizecompared with them two fellers."
As Firmstone turned to leave the office the door was thrust open and thetwo men entered. Bennie led, aggressive defiance radiating from everyswing and pose. Zephyr, calm, imperturbable, confident, glanced at thered-faced Hartwell and at the set face of Firmstone. He knew the game,he knew his own hand. He intended to play it for its full value. He hadan interested partner. He trusted in his skill, but if he made breaks itwas no concern of his.
"Assuming," he began; "that there's an interesting discussion going on,I beg leave to submit some important data bearing on the same."
"Trim your switches," burst out Bennie. "They'll sting harder."
The unruffled Zephyr bent a soothing eye on Bennie, moved his hat alittle farther back from his forehead, placed his arms leisurely akimbo,and eased one foot by gradually resting his weight on the other. It wasnot affectation. It was the physical expression of a mental habit.
"Still farther assuming," here his eyes slowly revolved and rested onHartwell, "that truth crushed to earth sometimes welcomes a friendlyboost, uninvited, I am here to tender the aforesaid assistance." Heturned to Bennie. "Now, Julius, it's up to you. If you'll open thethrottle, you can close your blow-off with no danger of bursting yourboiler." He nodded his head toward the door.
Hartwell's manner was that of a baited bull who, in the multiplicity ofhis assailants, knew not whom to select for first attack. For days andweeks he had been marshalling his forces for an overwhelming assault onFirmstone. He had ignored the fact that his adversary might have beenpreparing an able defence in spite of secrecy on his part. It is a wiseman who, when contemplating the spoliation of his neighbour, first takescareful account of defensive as well as of offensive means. His personalassault on Firmstone had met with defeat. In the mental rout thatfollowed he was casting about to find means of concealing from othersthat which he could not hide from himself. The irruption of Bennie andZephyr threatened disaster even to this forlorn hope. Firmstone knewwhat was coming. Hartwell could not even guess. As he had seen Firmstoneas his first object, so now he saw Zephyr. Blindly as he had attackedFirmstone, so now he lowered his head for an equally blind charge on theplacid Zephyr.
"Who are you, anyway?" he burst out, with indignant rage.
"Me?" Zephyr turned to Hartwell, releasing his lips from their habitualpucker, his eyes resting for a moment on Hartwell. "Oh, I ain't much. Iain't a sack of fertilizer on a thousand-acre ranch." His eyes droopedindifferently. "But at the same time, you ain't no thousand-acre ranch."
"That may be," retorted Hartwell; "but I'm too large to make it safe foryou to prance around on alone."
Zephyr turned languidly to Hartwell.
"That's so," he assented. "I discovered a similar truth several decadesago and laid it up for future use. Even in my limited experience youain't the first thorn-apple that I've seen pears grafted on to. Inrecognition of your friendly warning, allow me to say that I'm only onein a bunch."
A further exchange of courtesies was prevented by the entrance of fourmen, of whom Bennie was one. Their entrance was heralded by a series ofbumps and grunts. There was a final bump, a final grunt, and the fourmen straightened simultaneously; four bended arms swept the moisturefrom four perspiring faces.
"That's all." Bennie dismissed his helpers with a wave of his hand, thenstood grimly repressed, waiting for the next move.
The scene was mildly theatrical; unintentionally so, so far as Zephyrwas concerned, designedly so on the part of Bennie, who longed to pushit to a most thrilling climax. It was not pleasant to Firmstone; but thecause was none of his creating, he was of no mind to interfere with theevent. He was only human after all, and that it annoyed and irritatedHartwell afforded him a modicum of legitimate solace. Besides, Zephyrand Bennie were his stanch friends; the recovery of the safe and theputting it in evidence at the most effective moment was their work. Themanner of bringing it into play, though distasteful to him, suited theirideas of propriety, and Firmstone felt that they had earned the right toan exhibition of their personalities with no interference on his part.He preserved a passive, dignified silence.
As
for Hartwell, openly attacked from without, within a no less violentconflict of invisible forces was crowding him to self-humiliation. Toretreat from the scene meant either an open confession of wrong-doing,or a refusal on his part to do justice to the man whom he had wronged.To remain was to subject himself to the open triumph of Zephyr andBennie, and the no less assured though silent triumph of Firmstone.
Hartwell's reflections were interrupted by Zephyr's request for the keysto the safe. There was a clatter as Firmstone dropped them into his openhand. Hartwell straightened up with flushed cheeks. Pierre's words againcame to him. The whole thing might be a bluff, after all. The safe mightbe empty. Here was a possible avenue of escape. With the same blindenergy with which he had entered other paths, he entered this. He leanedback in his chair with tolerant resignation.
"If it amuses you people to make a mountain out of a molehill I canafford to stand it."
Bennie looked pityingly at Hartwell. "God Almighty must have it in foryou bad, or he'd let you open your eyes t'other end to, once in awhile."
As the safe was finally opened and one by one the dull yellow bars werepiled on the scales, there was too much tenseness to allow of even ashow of levity. Zephyr had no doubts. No one could have got at the safewhile in the river; he could swear to that. From its delivery to thedriver by Firmstone there had been no time nor opportunity to tamperwith its contents. As for Firmstone, he had too much at stake to beentirely free from anxiety, though neither voice nor manner betrayed it.He had had experience enough to teach him that it was not sufficient tobe honest--one must at all times be prepared to prove it.
The last ingot was checked off. Firmstone silently handed Hartwell thecopy of his original letter of advice and the totalled figures of therecent weighing. Hartwell accepted them with a cynical smile and laidthem indifferently aside.
"Well," he remarked; "all I can say is, the company recovered the safein the nick of time, from whom I don't pretend to say. We've got it, andthat's enough." There was a grin of cunning defiance on his face. He hadentered a covert where further pursuit was impossible.
For once Bennie felt unequal to the emergency. He turned silently, butappealingly, to Zephyr.
It was a new experience for Zephyr as well. For the first time in hislife he felt himself jarred to the point of quick retort, whollyunconsonant with his habitual serenity. His face flushed. His hand movedjerkily to the bosom of his shirt, only to be as jerkily removed empty.The harmonica was decidedly unequal to the task. His lips puckered andstraightened. His final resort was more satisfying. He deliberatelyseated himself on the safe and began rolling a cigarette. Placing it tohis lips, he drew a match along the leg of his trousers. The shieldedflame was applied to the cigarette. There came a few deliberate puffs,the cigarette was removed. His crossed leg was thrust through hisclasped hands at he leaned backward. Through a cloud of soothing smokehis answer was meditatively voiced.
"When the Almighty made man, he must have had a pot of sense on one handand foolishness on the other, and he put some of each inside every emptyskull. He got mighty interested in his work and so absent-minded he usedup the sense first. Leastways, some skulls got an unrighteous dose offool that I can't explain no other way. I ain't blaming the Almighty;he'd got the stuff on his hands and he'd got to get rid of it somehow.It's like rat poison--mighty good in its place, but dangerous to havelying around loose. He just forgot to mix it in, that's all, and we'vegot to do it for him. It's a heap of trouble and it's a nasty job, and Iain't blaming him for jumping it."
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