CHAPTER XVI
A TALK WITH JUDGE RILEY
Dr. Wilkes investigated the naked torso of Angus Mackay with skilledfingers.
"Two ribs cracked," he announced, "and you're lucky at that, young man.The scalp wound is nothing. The ribs will be all right in a few weeks,if you give them a chance. Mind, you, Angus, no hard riding, no lifting;move gently and rest all you can."
"But the fall work--" Angus began. The doctor cut him short.
"Work!" he exploded irritably. "There's that word again. By heaven, youall say it! It's 'I can't go away, doc, I can't take a holiday, I can'trest. I've got to work.' Lord knows how many times I've heard it, andfrom men who wouldn't work a sick or lame horse on a bet. You'd thinkhealth was the least important thing on earth, something to be fixed upin a day or two with a Blaud's pill. Work is a fine thing to keep folksout of mischief, but it isn't the chief end of man, and it isn't adamned fetich that demands human sacrifice. Who'll do your work whenyou're dead?" He glared at Angus ferociously beneath shaggy,red-and-gray brows.
"Well, I won't worry about that," Angus laughed. "I hope it's a long wayoff."
"It missed your head by about an inch yesterday," Wilkes told him."There you stand, over six feet, and nearly two hundred pounds of asfine bone and sinew and flesh and blood as I've ever seen, every organof you, as far as I can tell, as sound as clear pine. And you may begood for seventy years more--or seventy hours. A long way off! Yourhorse steps in a hole, or a team bolts and you happen to fall wrong, ora little drop of blood clots somewhere. And puff! away you go like apinch of dust on the trail, which is exactly what you are. A long wayoff! Of all the blasted but blessed cocksureness of youth!" And hegrumbled and growled as he strapped up the injured side.
But Angus paid little attention to the doctor's homily. From thelatter's office he went to see Judge Riley who, much to everybody'ssurprise, had cut his drinking down if not out, and in consequence wasmuch busier than of old. Before him Angus laid the puzzle of FaithWinton's property, Godfrey French's connection therewith, and Braden'sattempt to sell part of it.
"There may be a perfectly good explanation," said the lawyer. "Forinstance, there may have been other properties or other transactionsinvolved. Then as to Braden's attempt to sell to Chetwood, he may havebeen acting for French, who may be Winton's executor. In any event, ifhalf of this land could be sold for as much as was paid for the whole,nobody but the purchaser would be apt to make subsequent objection."
"But if French paid only about three dollars for the land and split thedifference with somebody, couldn't Miss Winton claim the difference?"
"Undoubtedly. But you have no evidence of that. If you like, I'll searchthe title and find out who sold the land and what consideration isstated in the conveyance to Winton. Drop in some time next week."
Angus waited the week with impatience. Convinced that there had beencrooked work somewhere, he was anxious to get at the facts. Also hechafed at the comparative inactivity imposed on him by his injuredribs.
"Well," said the judge, when Angus sought him again, "I haven't foundout very much. But Braden apparently owns this property."
"Braden!" Angus exclaimed.
"Yes, he is the registered owner of a large block of land which seems toinclude this. So far as most of the land is concerned, he is theoriginal grantee. As to the Tetreau land, Tetreau was the originalgrantee of that. Five hundred acres was granted to Tetreau, and sold byhim to Braden for an expressed monetary consideration of one thousanddollars and certain other considerations not specified. When he acquiredthat land from Tetreau, Braden then had a compact block, and apparentlyhe has it still."
"But there must be a deed to Winton."
"If so it isn't registered. Braden can convey and give a good registeredtitle. There is nothing to show any interest of Winton's. Are you surethis is the property his daughter meant?"
"From her description, it can't be any other."
"Then probably there is an unregistered conveyance from Braden toWinton, or to French as the latter's trustee. As to the price paid, itmay have been high, but it does not prove nor even raise the presumptionof fraud. You can't tell the girl your suspicions, when they are meresuspicions, especially while she is under French's roof."
"I believe both Braden and French are crooks. I never liked Braden, butup to a little while ago, I thought he was straight. And I alwaysthought old French was a gentleman."
"So he is."
"Not if he is a crook."
"Nonsense!" the judge returned. "Gentlemen have been pirates, outlawsand highwaymen. A gentleman may be a blackguard, just as a well-bred dogmay be a sheep-killer, or run wild with wolves. It's one word, not two.It's a name for a breed, not a descriptive term for qualities such ashonesty, courtesy or the like."
"If a man has those qualities, isn't he a gentleman?"
"No," said the judge, "though he may be something a good deal better.I'm as democratic as they make 'em, but it is an undoubted fact thatthere are strains of men, just as there are strains of animals.Considered as a strain of mankind, a gentleman is a gentleman, no matterhow big a rascal he is. The Frenches are all gentlemen--that is, all butBlake."
"Why not Blake, if it is a breed?"
"God knows," the judge replied. "Blake is a full brother to the rest,but he's not the same breed. He's a throwback to something that crept insomehow, maybe a century or so ago, when nobody was looking. He has thebody, but not the heart. He is a cur, while the rest are--wolves." Hedrummed on his blotter. "In confidence, Angus, I am going to tell youone or two things: The first is that the Frenches have little or nomoney left. They have been going down hill steadily for years. Thishorse racing and gambling is not amusement, but their living. Theirranch is mortgaged for all it will stand, and more. So you see, it's notlikely French could repay the girl, even if we proved he cheated Winton.
"And now for Braden:" He paused for a moment, and his bushy brows drewdown. "If there is one thing I despise," he said with emphasis, "it is ahypocrite. More repulsive to me than even sordid crime is hypocrisy,snivelling righteousness, a lip-and-broadcloth service of the Almighty,the broad phylacteries of the Pharisee. All my life I have hated suchthings. And Braden, mark you, is a hypocrite. Outwardly, he is full ofgood works. Your father was deceived in him, and I told him so when hewould have made Braden his executor, but I had merely my own opinion.
"Well, when your father died, Braden conceived an ingenious plan to gethold of the ranch, knowing that it would increase in value very much,eventually. The first step was to get you children off it, to putsomebody else on, to allow the rent to get into arrears, to let theplace run down a little. With the accumulating interest on the mortgage,ownership would involve a heavy financial burden. Then a straw man wouldhave made an offer for the place, d'ye understand me? And to get moneyfor your education and maintenance Braden would have accepted, and tokeep his skirts clean he would have got a court order approving thesale. Afterward the straw man would have transferred to Braden. Is thatclear to you?"
Angus nodded, amazed.
"Also absence from the place would have weaned you youngsters away fromit," the judge continued. "When you came to me for advice I went toBraden and read his mind to him, and his face told me I had read itaright. Since then he has hated me for knowing him for what he knowshimself to be. So, in course of time, he laid a trap for me with apretended client and monies for a certain investment. The idea was thatthe man with whom I was to invest the monies was to deny it, and theythought they had it arranged so that I could not produce evidence ofwhat had become of it. But they were wrong. I had evidence, and with avery little more I'd have had a clear case of conspiracy against them.However, I fell short of that and let it go. But one thing it did forme: It showed me that I needed a clear head, and it gave me the will tofight the habit that had a grip on me. So there's information inconfidence for you, Angus. Now Braden and French are working together.French and his sons get the confidence of young fellows with more moneythan experienc
e, steer them to Braden who sells them land, and thecommissions are split. Perhaps that is what happened in the Winton case.Only we can't prove it."
"No," Angus admitted. For the first time he told the judge of the moneyhe had borrowed from Braden. The old jurist whistled softly.
"What with that and the mortgage arrears, you are not in good shape, myboy. If I were you, I should make every effort to get clear as soon aspossible."
"The hail hit me badly, but next year, with a good crop and all the newland I have broken, I ought to be able to make a good payment. Then youthink nothing can be done to help Miss Winton?"
"Braden tried once to find a purchaser for part of it, and he may tryagain." The judge's eyes twinkled. "In that case would you consider ityour duty to warn the intending purchaser?"
Angus grinned, flushing a little. "If it would help Miss Winton I wouldconsider it my duty to mind my own business."
"It seems to me about the only chance she has to get back part of themoney," said the judge. "While that chance exists, it is just as well tosay nothing to anybody."
The Land of Strong Men Page 16