Silver Rock

by Luke Short

  Alec waited until Tully was finished with his smoke and then said, “Want to look at the other hole?”

  For answer Tully rose and Alec took off along the ridge. A quarter of a mile west they came to the second Russel workings. These were not as extensive but showed ore just as rich. It was a reasonable assumption that all along the fissure between the two workings, and no one knew how far west of the second, about the same quantity and grade of ore could exist.

  When Tully was through with his look, he joined Alec again, but this time he did not sit down. Standing before Alec, he asked, “Is the timber on that slope we came up as thick everywhere as it was at that spot?”

  “Not everywhere. Why?”

  Tully said, “I’m just curious. Let me go ahead going back. I’m going to try and hold a twelve per cent grade on the way down.”

  Alec caught it immediately and grinned. “You building the road already?”

  Tully shrugged. “It wouldn’t be the first one I’ve built. I’m just curious, is all.”

  Alec passed the hand axe over to him and rose, and Tully set out in the lead.

  Because of the grade Tully held to, the descent was not difficult. As he moved down, he mentally noted the places that would need powder work, but for the most part he observed the road could be built with a bulldozer and a minimum of shoring with timber at hand. When they reached the bottom of the gully a mile below the point at which the jeep was parked, Tully hauled up and said, “Now you find the jeep.”

  Alec regarded him inquiringly. “How did it look?”

  “Well, it’d take money, all right—money nobody’s got, I guess.”

  Darkness overtook them when they were just short of the caved-in shack and the remainder of the ride back to town chilled them both. As they pulled up in front of the hotel, Tully said, “Got time for a drink? Maybe two?”

  “Always,” Alec said.

  “Lead the way.”

  Alec swung his leg over the side of the jeep and Tully climbed out. He could feel the telltale signs in his tired legs and he prayed silently, Please, not now. The bar was next to the hotel entrance and part of the hotel. It was an old-fashioned saloon with tile floor and light maple-wood back bar. Booths were a modern addition and Tully, with kind of panicky haste, headed straight for the closest one. Alec, cutting for the bar, observed Tully’s course and changed his own.

  Tully sank onto the seat and said, “That was quite a walk for a city boy. I’ve got to sit down.” He could feel the numbness creeping down his legs and a small triumph was in him. He had made it and nobody noticed it.

  Alec slid into the seat opposite him. “That was a long walk even for a country boy.”

  The bartender took their orders and afterwards Tully looked about the room. A scattering of men stood at the bar and at the far end facing the door, arm on the bar top, was the man Tully had seen with Sarah Moffit last night—Ben Hodes.

  They looked at each other briefly and then Tully’s attention was diverted by Alec’s talking to him.

  “It looks like some of the boys are getting an early start.”

  “For what?” Tully asked.

  “The dance tonight at the Elks.” Then he grinned at Tully. “Want to come?”

  “I’m not an Elk.”

  “I am, and you’ll be my guest.”

  “Sounds good,” Tully said.

  At that moment the waiter approached with the drinks. Tully ordered another round of the same, and when the waiter was gone he and Alec hoisted their glasses.

  “Here’s to crime,” Tully said.

  “By the county commissioners,” Alec said. And they drank.

  All feeling in Tully’s legs was gone by now, and oddly it was a pleasant sensation. In a few minutes, according to past performance, they would be all right again, with nobody the wiser. He was slapping his pockets for a pack of cigarettes when he saw Alec glance up and at the same moment he heard sharp footsteps on the tile floor advancing. Looking up he saw the towering figure of Ben Hodes halted beside the booth.

  “Hello, Ben,” Alec said not very enthusiastically.

  Hodes didn’t bother to answer; he was looking at Tully and his heavy, handsome face was scowling. He wore the stained leather jacket and muddy boots of a working miner, but Tully noticed that his big hands were clean and uncalloused and he thought, Who’s he kidding?

  “Aren’t you the joker I talked to last night?” Hodes demanded.

  Alec cut in swiftly, “Lay off, Ben. You never saw him in your life before.”

  “Ask him.”

  “Has he?” Alec asked Tully.

  “If he could see last night, he did,” Tully said. He wondered what was coming.

  “Look,” Hodes said heavily, “Sarah is no pickup. Get that through your head right now.”

  “I never thought she was.”

  “Then what the hell were you doing annoying her at the courthouse this morning?”

  Faint anger touched Tully. “Who said I was?”

  “Never mind, you were seen at her office.”

  “Annoying her?”

  “Don’t get salty, friend,” Hodes said levelly. “I’m Mr. Trouble himself if you’re looking for him.”

  A wild anger rose in Tully then and, unthinkingly, he put both hands on the edge of the table to lunge erect, but he had forgotten his legs wouldn’t respond. He settled back into his seat, his lips white with anger, and he was aware suddenly of both Hodes and Alec watching him.

  Hodes laughed softly. “What’s the matter? Did you take a second look and change your mind?”

  Hodes’s jibe combined with the embarrassed look in Alec’s dark eyes brought a blush to Tully’s face.

  “No, I didn’t change my mind. I picked up a pair of broken legs a while back. When I’m tired they cave in on me. They’ve caved right now. I can’t stand.”

  “Nice timing,” Hodes observed.

  The approach of the waiter with the second round of drinks eased the tension. The waiter said, “You’ve got a highball cooling down there, Ben. Want me to bring it up here?”

  Hodes grunted. “I like it better where I was.”

  He turned and tramped back down the tile floor to his place at the end of the bar.

  Tully paid for the drinks and only then looked at Alec. Alec wouldn’t look at him. Tully knew then that Alec didn’t believe him, that Alec believed he’d ducked the fight.

  CHAPTER 2

  After a lonely supper at the same restaurant in which he had eaten last night, Tully moved out into the street. Alec had said he would pick him up at nine o’clock and there was time to spare. He stepped out into the town’s quiet Saturday night and walked slowly down the cracked sidewalks, his course aimless and time-killing. An occasional car hurried past and couples, arm in arm, called to each other across the street on their way to the party.

  Tully’s mood was foul. Try as he might he could not shake the memory of the scene in the barroom, and of Alec’s shame-filled eyes. Each time he remembered it, he silently cursed his injury. The sudden pleasant friendship with Alec was ended now. He knew this was an unintelligent, uncivilized and adolescent conclusion, but that was the way the world was. He would have to accept it. Put in different words, he supposed that it was every man’s duty to fight a bully even if he had to take a beating. He thought this and he knew Alec thought this—and he also knew Hodes thought this, which was what galled him most.

  He tried to put his unpleasantness from his mind and think of what he had accomplished today. At the moment it seemed little enough and only added to his depression. Kevin had a prospect, all right, but Tully Gibbs didn’t have any part of it and he wouldn’t have.

  His circle around the block brought him to the hotel door. Looking through the glass, he saw Alec seated in one of the wide lounge chairs. Alec saw him, rose and came out. Sight of him gave Tully a sudden lift of spirits, for Alec was transformed. His sports jacket was a shouting green of four-inch herringbone; paler green slacks were matched by
a wallpaper tie of the same tint and Tully knew Alec’s clothes were a pretty fair estimate of himself. His own outfit of dark slacks and blue flannel jacket seemed sedate and colorless beside that of his smaller friend.

  “What, no girl?” Tully asked.

  Alec made an engaging grimace and said, “Too early to pick yet. When I look them over, I’ll have one.”

  They headed up street and Alec was full of talk about the dance, the orchestra, the club rooms, the weather, the night—in fact he talked of everything except the day together and the incident with Hodes. He’ll never mention it, Tully thought grimly.

  The Elks club rooms were on the first floor of the big brick building in the center of the next block upstreet. The ballroom—the converted lodge meeting room—was to the left of the entrance, but Alec passed it with barely a glance and led Tully down the corridor to the small bar at the rear. The barroom was jammed with couples and Tully was introduced to a dozen of them before they reached the bar.

  His highball was half finished when the orchestra started playing. The barroom emptied except for a few stags, and presently Alec said, “Want to go in?” They went back to the ballroom which was decorated in a harvest motif. Here Tully joined the stag line and had his look at the girls. He cut in on one of the married ones he had met in the barroom, had a sedate turn around the room before he was cut in on, and fell back in the line beside Alec.

  Suddenly he caught sight of Sarah Moffit. She was dancing with Ben Hodes, but it took Tully several seconds to realize it, since he looked only at her. Her gown was black and clung in the right places and she had done something to her hair which Tully couldn’t immediately identify. He never did; he just liked her figure, which he would have described to someone else as slim, long-legged, just top-heavy enough, and with a beautiful face.

  Hodes’s presence didn’t register immediately. When it did, Tully dismissed it and headed across the floor. He touched Hodes’s elbow and said the required words, looking meanwhile at Sarah.

  Her smile at sight of him was a forgiving one. He saw Hodes’s arm tighten about her as he half turned away, as if refusing to give her up. Sarah, however, moved determinedly out of Hodes’s arms and into Tully’s and they danced away, leaving Hodes standing sullenly for a long moment in the middle of the floor before he sought the door.

  Tully said, “What have you done to your hair?”

  Sarah looked up at him, almost startled. “Do you like it?”

  “Sure. What am I saying? I liked it before.”

  “You’re much more pleasant than you were this morning,” Sarah said.

  “That was my business scowl.”

  “Business?”

  She had picked up the word instantly and Tully inwardly cursed his slip of the tongue. “Maybe you don’t call a fifteen-mile hike straight up in the air business, but I do. You know—business, like gangsters, meaning let’s give the guy the ‘business.’ “

  Sarah smiled. “Did you look at the claims?”

  Tully nodded. “Yes, I guess they’re all Jimmy thought they were.”

  “You talk as if you knew.”

  “I’m a miner by trade.”

  Sarah was quiet a moment. Tully was beginning to appreciate what an expert dancer she was when she said, “Do you mind if I ask an impertinent question?”

  Tully said he didn’t.

  “Are you going to help Kevin?”

  Go easy, Tully thought. Remember she’s Hodes’s girl. “Does he need help? He looks like a pretty rugged character to me.”

  “Oh, I don’t mean that, I mean are you going to help him mine it?”

  Tully held her away from him for a free second so that she could see the mock surprise in his eyes. “What gave you that idea?”

  “Jimmy’s letters to Kevin, for one thing. More than once he wrote that he was going to bring you home with him when he got well.” She smiled faintly. “I’ve read them, so I know.”

  Tully felt a creeping shame within him, and he thought More than once I wrote, you mean. “That’s news to me,” he said uncomfortably, aware that she was still watching him. He drew her to him, so that she could not see his face, and went on. “No, I came to see old Kevin because Jimmy asked me to. It’s kind of a holiday, too. Jimmy had told me about the claims, and being a miner, I wanted a look.”

  There was a kind of relief in Sarah’s voice as she said, “I suppose that’s reasonable.”

  Tully had control of himself now. “Why, are you a friend of old Mr. Russel’s?”

  “The best.”

  “And you want to protect him from me?”

  The music stopped and Sarah stood before him, a slight frown on her face. “Maybe. I—I just don’t know what you want, is all.”

  Tully grinned swiftly. “Another dance from you later.”

  The crowd moved off the floor, Tully and Sarah with them. Sarah halted by the door and spoke to a passing couple. Tully waited until they were out of earshot and then said, “I’m trying to add up a few things, but I can’t seem to get the right answer.”

  Sarah looked at him inquiringly and Tully went on, “Remember last night when you wanted to get away from that big, bad man?”

  Sarah nodded.

  “Remember this morning when he was mentioned again?”

  Sarah was watching him and did not answer.

  “They both add up to a date with him tonight. That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

  Sarah said, “Have you looked at the men here?”

  “Sure. What’s the matter with them?” he asked, and began shaking his head.

  “Why are you doing that?”

  “You’re going to say something I’ll hate you for, but go ahead.”

  “Well, isn’t he more attractive than any of them?”

  Tully snorted, “If I were a buffalo hunter, I might think so.”

  Sarah laughed, but Tully regarded her soberly and said, “That’s no answer.”

  “Well, I can handle him, where other girls can’t,” Sarah said with a kind of mockery in her voice. “He’s a change from dusty ledgers. He’s exciting, too. Have you ever thought what fun it might be to go everywhere with a not very tame gorilla? It’s wrong, but it’s fun to watch him scare people; it’s exciting to watch him break things; it’s fun to watch him get exactly what he wants in the most direct way. If he ever had a thought, it would injure his brain. Every time I go out with him, I manage to forget that 1910 typewriter waiting for me in the office.”

  “That’s still no answer.”

  “All right, he likes me. He’s not bad looking, he dresses well, he’s almost civilized and he’s got a standing in the community, like it or not. Besides that, we grew up together and I understand him. If you could find twenty other men in town you could say the same things about, I’d go out with them.”

  “I wish you would.”

  Sarah only laughed. “Don’t take him so seriously, I don’t.”

  Tully sighed. “Well, the Chinese have opium and you have him.”

  The music started again just as Sarah laughed. Tully put a hand on her elbow and steered her toward the floor, a kind of bafflement on his face. She’d been frank. He had halted and Sarah was coming into his arms when he felt a rough hand on his elbow. He was half spun around by the force of it and was brought up facing Hodes. Ben had his other hand on Sarah’s elbow and now he said, “I want to buy you two kids a drink. Come on.”

  Tully removed Hodes’s hand from his arm gently but firmly, and Hodes seemed willing enough to let go of him. Tully glanced at Sarah who said, “Oh Lord, that will make seven cokes since we got here.”

  Hodes looked almost genially at Tully. “Come along.”

  Hodes and Sarah moved down the corridor ahead of Tully, and he wondered what was coming. There was a kind of animal jauntiness in Hodes’s gait and in his broad shoulders.

  The bar held only a few couples, and Hodes gently propelled Sarah to one of the leather-covered seats. Tully sat on one side of her and
faced Hodes, who sat on the other side across the table.

  Hodes said presently, “I don’t want a drink and neither does Junior here, Sarah. I just want to talk.” Elbow on the table, he raised a big fist, extended a thick finger and pointed it at Tully. “Break out your hearing aid, Junior, I’m going to say it all over again.”

  “Say what all over again?” Sarah asked.

  “I told this character this afternoon you were no pickup. Now he’s trying it again.”

  Sarah looked at Tully, who was watching Hodes with a still attentiveness. Tully did not look at her. He leaned both elbows on the table and said, “Has anyone ever called you a slob? Because if they haven’t, I am now.”

  A kind of delight welled up in Hodes’s dark eyes. “Lots of people, Junior, but only once.”

  “You’re a slob. That’s twice for me.”

  Sarah said softly, “Oh, Lord.”

  Hodes leaned back in his chair and glanced amusedly at Sarah, but he spoke to Tully. “Every time I wreck a place she won’t give me a date for ten days. Have you any objection to the night air?”

  Tully stood up. “Not at all. May I have this dance, Mr. Hodes?”

  Ben laughed and stood up, too, a look of animal pleasure in his eyes.

  Sarah said imploringly to both of them, “I wish you wouldn’t. Please, please, don’t!” She looked now at Ben. “Beth is right there at the bar, Ben. Don’t do it.”

  Tully glanced over his shoulder and saw a slight, dark-skinned girl wearing a pale blue dress in conversation with a bespectacled, balding man. They were at the far end of the bar, but even at this distance Tully could see that Beth must be Hodes’s sister. He felt Sarah’s hand on his arm and looked back at her.

  “Please don’t,” she begged.

  Tully said, “Remember? It’s fun to watch him scare people.” He waited until he saw the deep flush rise into her face and then he turned and followed Hodes into the corridor.

  There was a door at the back of the hallway that led out onto a cinder-strewn alley. The light above the door cast a bright and wide circle of light. Hodes halted in the alley and looked at Tully. “How’s this? These cinders will probably dirty your shirt, but so would a barroom floor.” He was methodically shucking out of his expensive sports coat which he tossed on a trash crate beside the door.