CHAPTER XXV.
WILLARD HOLMES ON TRIAL.
Scarcely had the train with Jefferson Worth aboard passed beyond theyard limits of Republic when the Manager of The King's Basin Land andIrrigation Company in Kingston was called to the telephone by thecashier of the bank in the Company's rival town. Ten minutes later aWestern Union message in cipher went from Mr. Burk to James Greenfieldin the city.
The afternoon of the following day Willard Holmes, at the Dry RiverHeading, was called to the telephone. Mr. Burk was at the other end ofthe line. "There is a telegram here from your Uncle Jim ordering you togo to the city on the first train. If you can make it, catch thefour-twenty at Frontera. I'll pack your grip and give it to you whenyou go through."
Mr. Greenfield met the engineer at the depot in the city the nextmorning and escorted him to his rooms in a hotel. "I was almighty gladto get Burk's wire that you were on the road," said the older man. "Iwas afraid that he would not be able to find you in time; you gogadding about the country so. Where did he catch you?"
"Dry River Heading. My gadding takes me mostly there or to the intakeheading these days. Just now I am trying to patch up the spillway whichthreatens to go out at any time altogether, and the heading itself isso shaky I'm almost afraid to touch it for fear it will fall down ontop of me. No one ever dreamed that these structures would ever becalled upon to stand the strain they are under now. I wish--"
"All right; all right, my boy; I think I've heard you say somethinglike that before. I called you in to help me on a little deal that willput us in shape to build all the new structures you want."
"You mean that the Company is at last going to make the appropriation Ihave been begging for?"
"Not exactly. They will if we can handle one individual."
"Who?"
"Jefferson Worth."
"Jefferson Worth? What under heaven has he to do with the Company'sappropriations?"
"He has a lot to do with the Company's profits, which amounts to thesame thing."
At this Holmes was silent and his uncle was forced to continue: "Youknow what Worth has been doing to the Company, don't you?"
"Yes; and I know what the Company has been trying to do to him."
"Exactly. And do you know his present situation?"
"Only in a general way."
"Well, in a definite way then: he is here in the city trying to raisefifty thousand dollars. He must have it before the first of the monthor go to smash. If he goes to smash the Company will be able to gethold of his interests, which will give us control of the whole King'sBasin project as we planned in the beginning. Then we would be able toput what you want into the system. If Worth gets the fifty thousand heis safe to make a million or two that would otherwise go to the Companyand we wouldn't feel justified in spending any more money on newstructures."
"But Uncle Jim, what on earth have I to do with all this?"
"It happens that you have a whole lot to do with it my boy, or Iwouldn't have called you away from your beloved headings. You rememberold George Cartwright, don't you?"
Willard Holmes had grown to manhood with Cartwright's sons and hisearliest memories were of boyish good times at the old gentleman'shome. With James Greenfield, Mr. Cartwright had been one of hisfather's oldest and warmest friends. The engineer listened with amazedinterest as Greenfield told him that his old friend was spending thewinter on the coast, and that some one, the general manager of the S. &C., probably, had introduced Jefferson Worth to him.
"And," Greenfield finished, "they have him all lined up to furnishWorth with the capital he needs to go ahead. If he gets that money wewill never be able to block him."
"But why don't you get Cartwright into your crowd, if he is so ready toinvest in reclamation projects?" asked the engineer.
"I can't on account of White and some of the others. You know howcranky the old man is. Besides, we don't want him in the Company. Whatwe want is to block Jefferson Worth from getting hold of that money. Isent for you because you can do more with Cartwright on thisproposition than any man living."
"You mean that you have sent for me to influence Mr. Cartwright againstJefferson Worth's interests?"
"I mean that I expect you to use your influence in the interests of theCompany--in my interests. Surely, Willard, that is not asking anythingunreasonable."
"But Uncle Jim, you just said that if Worth gets this help he willclean up a million or two. That looks like it would be safe enough forMr. Cartwright."
"Yes, and I said also that if Worth did _not_ get that money theCompany would acquire his interests in The King's Basin."
While the Company president was speaking a messenger boy knocked at thedoor. Greenfield read the note and handed it to Holmes, who in turnread: "Mr. Cartwright left this afternoon for San Felipe. Will probablyreturn in a week. Worth is still in town."
"That means you must take a little vacation, Willard."
"But I can't, Uncle Jim," protested the engineer. "My work is in suchshape that I--"
The older man interrupted. "Your work! You seem to think that there isnothing of importance to The King's Basin Land and Irrigation Companybut drops and headings and intakes and canals, and the Lord knows whatelse, you mess around with! If you handle old Cartwright in theinterests of the Company it will be the best week's work you ever did.He is likely to return any day, and you've got to stay right here andsee this matter through."
All that day the engineer roamed about the city, striving to finddistraction in the amusements offered but feeling strangely alone andout of place. Under other circumstances he would have keenly enjoyedthe brief vacation and the change from the desert life and work, butnow he could think of nothing but the situation in which he sounexpectedly found himself.
Once he would not have hesitated an instant to do Greenfield's bidding.Why should he hesitate now?
Why, indeed; save for this--Willard Holmes knew that it would be betterfor the people in the new country if Jefferson Worth continued hisoperations.
Willard Holmes's conception and understanding of his work as anengineer had changed materially in the years since those first dayswith Barbara in Rubio City, even as, under his hand, the desert itselfhad changed. It may have been that in his long, lonely rides across thegreat plain in the white light of the wide, cloudless sky, something ofthe spirit of the slow, silent ages that had wrought in the making ofthe desert had touched his spirit as it could not have been influencedby the smoke-clouded atmosphere and crowded highways of the East; orthat in the lonely nights under the stars the weird, mysterious voicesof the desert had taught him truths he had never heard in the noisycries of the great cities. Perhaps, as he had looked day after dayacross the wide far-reaching miles with their seas and scarfs and veilsof color to the purple mountains, the very greatness of the unpeopledlands forced him to a larger thinking and planning and dreaming thanwould have been possible in the limited views of his eastern homeland;or that the spirit of the hardy settlers awoke the blood of his ownpioneer ancestors to a feeling of fellowship; or his constant strugglewith the river aroused the old conquering spirit of his race. Or againit might be that some powerful chord, deep-hidden and silent in hisnature, had been touched by the spirit of the girl who had bidden himlearn the language of her country and who had said that she could neverforgive one who was untrue to the work itself.
On the other hand there was the training of his whole professionalcareer. Up to the beginning of The King's Basin work the engineer hadknown no other creed than the creed of those corporation servants whohave no higher interest than that of the machine they serve. There wasalso his intimate relation with Mr. Greenfield and the debt ofgratitude he owed the man who had, in every way, been a father to him.And there was the prejudice of class, the instinct that holds a man tohis own peculiar people, and the argument cleverly advanced byGreenfield that the protection of The King's Basin project would besecured.
As the engineer was wandering, in the aimless and preoccupied manner ofone whose
mind is not on his task, through one of the city parks, hesaw just ahead a man whose figure seemed familiar. With arousedinterest he quickened his pace. There was no mistaking that form, sostrongly upright, so instinct with vigorous power; nor those broadshoulders and the finely poised head. It was the Seer.
Overtaking the older engineer, Holmes greeted him eagerly and the browneyes of the old Chief shone with pleasure while he returned the youngman's greeting heartily.
Had the Seer any engagement that afternoon?
None at all. He had just arrived from the North Country and was loafinga day or two. And Holmes?
The younger man laughed. He was a stranger in a strange land, forced bycircumstances to do nothing.
Good. They would find a quiet corner somewhere and Holmes could tellhis old Chief about The King's Basin work. Also The King's Basin mancould tell the Seer about Barbara.
So they found a seat and Willard Holmes told how splendidly the Seer'sdream was coming true, and in answer to many questions talked ofBarbara and her life in the new country, of Jefferson Worth and hisoperations, and of some of his own professional difficulties andproblems. And the Seer, as he led the younger man on and studied thestrong bronzed face that was all aglow with enthusiasm over the work,smiled quietly as he remembered the tenderfoot who had once threatenedto report his Chief to the Company.
Brave, great-hearted, generous Seer! There was in all his questioningnot a hint of any feeling against the younger man who had been giventhe place that should have been his. He fell to wondering if after allthe Company had now in Holmes the man they thought they had, or the manthey did have, indeed, when they made him their chief engineer. If thetest were to come now--The Seer did not know that Willard Holmes waseven then undergoing that test.
The two men dined together that evening and afterwards over the cigarsin the Seer's room the old engineer talked of the progress and futureof the great Reclamation work, of its value not only to our own nationbut to the over-crowded nations beyond the seas, and of its place inthe great forward march of the race. Then gravely he spoke to theyounger man of his own efforts to bring the work to the attention ofthe people, of disappointments and failures, year after year, until atlast the work in Barbara's Desert had been launched, and following thatseveral other projects until now at last reclamation had become a greatnational enterprise. And Willard Holmes knew that out of the millionsthat would be realized from these reclaimed lands this man, who hadseen the vision, would receive nothing. The Seer had not even aposition with an irrigation company or with a reclamation project.
As he listened to the man who had literally given the best of his lifeto a great work, the Company engineer felt as he sometimes felt whenalone in the heart of the desert itself he heard its call, the callthat was at once a challenge, a threat and a promise; or as when he hadfelt the sweet power of Barbara's presence.
At his hotel Holmes found the president of The King's Basin Land andIrrigation Company anxiously awaiting him: "Look here!" wasGreenfield's greeting. "This thing is approaching a climax."
He handed the engineer a telegram from Burk. Willard Holmes glanced atthe yellow slip of paper.
"Strike on the K. B. C. Looks serious."
"Jefferson Worth left for San Felipe this afternoon," Greenfield saidquickly. "There's another train in thirty minutes. We mustn't miss it!"
The Winning of Barbara Worth Page 27