Chapter V
The Good Old Sport
The Longstreets remained several days upon Desert Valley Ranch, as thewide holding had been known for half a century. Also John Carr and hisyoung retainer, Yellow Barbee, prolonged their stay. It appeared thatCarr had come over from some vague place still further toward the eastupon some matter of business connected with the sale of this broadacreage; Carr had owned the outfit and managed it personally for adozen years, and now was selling to Alan Howard. It further devolvedthat Barbee had long been one of Carr's best horsemen, hence afavourite of Carr, who loved good horses, and that he had accompaniedhis employer merely to help drive over to the ranch a small herd ofcolts which had been included in the sale but had not until now beendelivered. Carr was a great deal with Howard, and Howard managed tosee a great deal of the Longstreets; as for Barbee, Helen met hisinsolent young eyes only at mealtimes.
'My business is over,' Carr confessed to Helen in the _patio_ the nextmorning. 'There's no red tape and legal nonsense between Al and me.To sell a ranch like this, when you know the other chap, is likeselling a horse. But,' and his eyes roved from his cigar to a glimpsethrough an open door of wide rolling meadows and grazing stock, 'Iguess I'm sort of homesick for it. If it was to do over I don't knowthat I'd sell it this morning.'
Helen had rested well last night; this morning she had thrilled anew tothe world about her. She thought that she had never seen such asunrise; the day appeared almost to come leaping and shouting up out ofthe desert; the air of the morning, before the heat came, was nothingless than glorious. Her eyes were bright; there was the flush ofjoyousness in her cheeks.
'How a man could own this,' she said slowly, 'and then could sellit----' She shook her head and looked at him half wonderingly. 'Idon't see how you could do it.'
'You feel that way about it, too?' He brought his eyes back soberly tohis cigar.
Howard, whose swinging stride Helen had learned to know already, cameout from the living-room, hat in hand, carrying a pair of spurs he hadbeen tinkering with.
'What are you talking about?' he laughed. 'Somebody dead?'
'Miss Longstreet was saying,' Carr said quietly, his eyes still grave,'that she couldn't understand a man selling an outfit like this, oncehe had called it his own.'
'Good for you, Miss Helen,' cried Howard heartily. 'I am with you onthat. John, there, must have been out of his senses when he let metalk him out of Desert Valley.'
'I don't know but that I was,' said Carr.
Howard looked at him swiftly, and swiftly the light in his eyesaltered. For Carr had spoken thoughtfully and soberly, and there wasno hint of jest in the man.
'You don't mean, John,' said Alan, a trifle uncertainly, 'that you aresorry you let go? That you are not satisfied----'
Carr appeared to be considering the matter as though it were enwrappedin his cigar. He took ample time in replying, so much time, in fact,that Helen found herself growing impatient for his reply.
'Suppose I were sorry?' he said finally. 'Suppose I were notsatisfied? Then what? The deal is made, and a bargain, old-timer, isa bargain.'
Now it was Howard's turn for silence and sober eyes. He lookedintently into his friend's face; then with a lingering affection acrosshis broad lands.
'Not between friends,' he said. 'Not between friends like you and me,John. I've hardly got my hooks into it; you had it long enough for itto get to be a part of you. If you made a mistake in selling, if youknow it now----' He shrugged and smiled. 'Why, of course it doesn'tmean as much to me as to you, and anyway, it's yours until I get all mypayments made, and if you say the word----'
'Well?' asked Carr steadily.
'Why,' cried Howard, 'we'll frame a new deal this very minute and youcan take it over again!'
'You'd do that for me, Al?'
'You're damned well right, I would!' cried Howard heartily. And Helenunderstood that for the moment at least he had forgotten that she waspresent.
A slow smile came into Carr's eyes.
'That's square shooting, Long Boy.'--he spoke more impetuously thanHelen had thought the man could--'but I never went back on a play yet,did I? I'm just sort of homesick for the old place, that's all.Forget it.' He slapped Howard upon the shoulder, the two friends' eyesmet for a moment of utter understanding and he went on down to thestable, calling back, 'I'm going to take the best horse you'vegot--that would be Bel and no other--and ride. So long.'
'So long,' answered Howard.
Carr gone from sight, Howard stood musing a moment, unconscious ofHelen's wondering eyes upon him. Then he turned to her and beganspeaking of his friend: big and generous and manly was Carr; a man totie to, and, though he did not say it in so many words, a man to diefor. He explained how Carr had taken the old Diaz ranch that had beenSpanish and then Mexican in its time and had made it over into what itwas, the greatest stock run north of the Rio Grande and west of theMississippi. Helen's interest was ready and sympathetic, and Howardpassed from one point to another until he had sketched the way in whichthe ranch had been sold to him. And the girl, though she knew littleenough about business methods, was startled to learn how these two mentrusted each other. She recalled what Carr had said; between him andHoward a deal involving many thousands of dollars was as simple amatter as the sale of a horse. The two, riding together, had in a fewwords agreed upon price and terms. They had returned to the house andHoward had written a cheque for seven thousand dollars as firstpayment; all of his ready cash, he admitted freely, saving what he mustkeep on hand for ranch manipulation. There was no deed given, no deedof trust, no mortgage. It was understood that Howard should paycertain sums at certain specified dates; each man had jotted down hismemoranda in his own hand; the deal was made.
'But,' gasped Helen, 'if anything unforeseen should happen? If--if heshould die? Or you? If----'
'In any case there would be one of us left, wouldn't there?' hecountered in his off-hand way. 'Unless we both went out, and then whatdifference? He has no one to look out for; neither have I. Besides,'he laughed carelessly, 'John and I both plan on being on the job a goodfifty years from now. Come out here and I'll show you a real horse.'
She went with him to the porch. Carr was leaving the stable, ridingBel. Helen knew little enough of horseflesh and yet she understoodthat here was an animal to catch anyone's eye; yes, and Carr, sittingmassive and stalwart in the saddle, was a man to hold any woman's. Thehorse was a big, bright bay; mane and tail were like fine gold; the sunwinked back from them and from the glorious reddish hide. Carr sawthem and waved his hat; Bel danced sideways and whirled, and for aninstant stood upon his rear legs, his thin, aristocratic forelegsflaying the air. Then came Carr's deep bass laugh; the polished hoofsstruck the ground and they were off, flashing away across themeadowlands.
'Some day,' said Helen, her eyes sparkling, 'I want to ride a horselike that!' She turned to him, asking eagerly, 'Could I learn?'
'If with all my heart I wanted to be a first-rate Philadelphia lawyeror a third-rate San Francisco politician,' he announced with thatsweeping positiveness which was one of his characteristics, 'I'dconsider the job done to start with! All you've got to do is to want athing, want it hard, and it's as good as yours. Now, to begin with,you love a horse. The rest is easy.'
Helen saw her father, accompanied by young Barbee, emerge from behindthe stable, and sighed.
'I don't believe you know what failure means,' she said.
'There isn't any such bird,' he laughed at her.
'Not really.'
'Then,' her eyes still upon the pair talking together by the stabledoor, 'dear old dad should find his gold-mine. He wants it with allhis heart, Heaven knows. And he has the faith that is supposed to movemountains.'
Howard scratched his head. Within the few hours he had come to likethe old professor, for Longstreet, though academic, was astraight-from-the-shoulder type of man, one of no subterfuges. And yethe did not greatly inspire confidence
; he was not the type thatbreathes efficiency.
'Tell me about him,' Howard urged. 'What makes him so dead certain hecan nail his Golconda out here? I take it he has never been out thisway before, and that he doesn't know a whole lot of our part of thecountry.'
Confidence inspires confidence. Howard had hardly finished sketchingfor her his own plans and hopes; he had gone succinctly and openly intodetail concerning his deal with John Carr. Now Helen, glad to talkwith some one, answered in kind.
'The University elected a young president, a New Broom,' she saidbitterly. 'He is a man of more ambition than brains. His slogan is"Young Men." He ousted father together with a dozen other men of hisage. I thought father's heart would be broken; he had devoted all ofthe years of his life, all of his best work, to his University. Butinstead he was simply enraged! Can you imagine him in a perfectlytowering rage?'
Howard grinned. 'Go ahead,' he chuckled. 'He's a good old sport and Ilike him.'
'Well,' said Helen, without meeting his smile, 'father and I went intobusiness session right away. We had never had much money; father hadnever cared for wealth measured in money; had always been richlycontent with his professor's salary; had never saved or asked me tosave. When the thing happened, all we had in the world was a littleover seven hundred dollars. I was right away for economizing, formanaging, for turning to some other position. But father, I tell you,was in a perfect rage. When I mentioned finances to him he got up andshouted. "Money!" he yelled at me. "What's money? Who wants money?It's a fool's game to get money; anybody can do it." When he saw thatI doubted he told me to pack up that very day and he'd show me; he'dshow the world. The new University man named him an old fogy, did he?He'd show him. Didn't he know more than any other man living aboutgeology? About the making of the earth and the minerals of the earth?Was it any trick to find gold? Not in the dribbles, but such a mine asnever a miner drove a pick into yet?'
She sighed again and grew silent. Howard, toying idly with the spursin his hands, could at the moment find nothing to say.
'Dear old pops,' she said more softly in a moment. 'I am afraid thathis heart-breaking time is coming now--when he learns that it isn't soeasy to find gold, after all.'
'No,' said Howard slowly. 'No. It doesn't break a man's heart, for heis always sure that it is coming the next day and the next and thenext. I've known them to go on that way until they died, and then knowin their hearts that they'd make a strike the next day--if only theLord would spare them twenty-four hours more.'
'I wanted father to bank our money,' went on Helen, her eyes darkening.'I wanted to go to work, to earn something. I can teach. But hewouldn't hear of it. He said--he said that if the time had come whenhe couldn't support his own daughter it was high time he was dead.'
Howard nodded his understanding. 'He's a good sport, I tell you,' hemaintained warmly. 'And I like him. Who knows but that he may makehis ten-strike here after all? Or,' as he marked the droop of thegirl's mouth and understood how she must be thinking of how little wasleft of their pittance, he added briskly, 'this is a better place thanthe East any day; there are more chances. If a man is the right sortthere is always a chance for him. If you want to teach---- Well,we've got schools out here, haven't we?'
Helen's eyes rounded at him. 'Have you? Where?'
'And bully good schools,' he insisted. 'There's the Big Springs schoolnot over ten miles off, over that way. You could have a job thereto-morrow, if you said the word.'
Her eyes brightened. 'There is a vacancy, then?'
'Well,' he admitted, 'I'm not so sure about that. There's a teacherthere, I believe. But,' and now it was his eyes that brightened, 'itcould be fixed somehow. Just leave it to John and me.'
She laughed at him and all her gaiety came surging back.
'Here I've been drawing a face a mile long,' she cried lightly, 'wheneverything's all right as far as I can see in all directions. I amgoing down to see what father is up to; he and Mr. Barbee look to melike a couple of youngsters plotting trouble.'
A look of understanding flashed between Yellow Barbee and ProfessorLongstreet as the two came down from the ranch-house. ThereafterLongstreet beamed upon his daughter while Yellow Barbee, his hat farback upon the blonde cluster of curls, turned his insolent eyes uponher. Helen, deeming him overbold, sought to 'squelch' him with a look.Instead she saw both mirth and admiration shining in the baby-blueeyes. She turned her back upon El Joven, who retaliated by turning hisback upon her and swaggering away into the stable, whistling throughhis teeth as he went. Howard went with him for his horse.
'Papa,' said Helen after the stern fashion which in time comes naturalto the girl with a wayward father, 'what are you two up to?'
'My darling,' said Longstreet hurriedly, 'what do you mean?'
'I mean you and that young scamp. He's bad, papa; bad all the waythrough. And you, you dear old innocent----'
Longstreet glanced hastily over his shoulder and then frowned at her.
'You mustn't talk that way. He is a remarkably fine young fellow. Weare in a new environment, you and I, Helen. We are in Rome and mustlearn something of the Romans. Now, Mr. Barbee----'
'Is Roman all the way through!' sniffed Helen. 'You just look out thathe doesn't lead you into mischief.'
In the stable Howard was saddling two horses, meaning to invite Helento begin her serious study now. He, too, was interested in the oddfriendship which seemed to be growing up so swiftly between two men soutterly unlike. He turned to Barbee to ask a question and saw theyoung fellow stoop and sweep up something that had fallen into thestraw underfoot. Howard's eyes were quick and keen; it was only aflash, but he recognized a ten of spades. He turned back to the latigohe was drawing tight. But before they left the stable he offeredcarelessly:
'What do you think of the professor, Barbee?'
And Barbee answered joyously:
'He's a reg'lar ring-tailed old he-devil, Al.' He winked brightly.'One of these days him and me is going to drift down to Tres Pinos.And, say, won't the town know about us?'
'What do you mean?' demanded Howard sharply.
Barbee considered him a thoughtful moment. Then he shrugged.
'Oh, nothing,' he said.
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