Flowing Gold

by Rex Beach

  CHAPTER X

  "Well, well, Mallow!" The caller's face broke into an engaging smile ashe crossed the threshold. "Still wearing dark glasses, eh? I'm afraidyou didn't heed my instructions."

  Mallow spoke huskily, "What the hell you doing here?"

  "Following the excitement, merely. I shall open an office and spend agood deal of my time in Wichita Falls. I hoped I'd find you here, forthis morning I heard you describe your invention and--admirationovercame me. I felt constrained to congratulate you upon yourscientific attainments. Marvelous, my dear Doctor! Or is it ProfessorMallow?" The speaker laughed heartily. "Won't you introduce me tothese--let us say magnetic forces of nature that you have discovered?"He indicated the two partners.

  "What do you want?" Mallow barked.

  "Momentary agitation has robbed our Professor of his habitualpoliteness--a not unusual phenomenon of the preoccupied scientificmind." These words were directed at McWade and Stoner. "My name isGray. Perhaps Doctor Mallow has made mention of me."

  "So you're the lad that threw pepper in his eyes?" Brick Stoner staredat the newcomer with undisguised interest. He rose, as did McWade."I'll say we've heard of you. Your name's getting as common assafety-razor blades. You've been cleaning up, haven't you?"

  "Um-m, moderately." Calvin Gray shook hands with the promoters, then tothe agitated Mallow, who still peered at him apprehensively, he said:"Come, come! Let down your hammer! Uncoil!"

  "Listen, you!" the other burst forth. "I beat that thing out. I'm cleanand I don't intend to go back. You're a strong guy and you got a bunchof kale, and you're a getter, but the taller they come the harder theyfall. You can be had." The speaker was desperate; his face was flushedwith anger, the tone of his voice was defiant and threatening.

  Gray helped himself to a chair, crossed his legs, and lit a cigar.McWade and Stoner neither moved nor spoke.

  "My dear Mallow, you wrong me." In the newcomer's voice there was nolonger any mockery. "I gave you credit for more intelligence. We playedour little farce and it is done--the episode is closed, so far as I amconcerned. I supposed you understood that much. I helped you and I camehere to enlist your help."

  "You helped _me_?" Mallow showed his teeth in a snarl.

  "Precisely. Think a moment. Was it not odd that I failed to appearagainst you? That the case was never pressed, the prosecution dropped?"

  "I s'pose you were afraid to go through. Thought I'd get you."

  Gray shook his head impatiently. "Afraid? Of you? Oh, Mallow! Had Ifeared your majestic wrath, do you think I would have arranged for thatdoctor to see you every day? And paid his bill? Who, pray, sent inthose good things for you to eat?"

  There was a pause.

  "Did you?"

  "I did."

  Again there was silence.

  "Why?"

  "For one thing, I was sorry for you. I really was. I had caused you andTony a great deal of suffering, and I cannot bring myself to inflictactual suffering upon anyone without doing my best to alleviate it.Then again, I had nothing against you personally. We merely clashed inthe course of--business." Mallow allowed himself to sink back upon thedesk; he turned his dark goggles upon his friends in a blind stare ofbewilderment.

  "Well, I'll be damned!" he said, finally.

  "Mallow thought _we_ had helped to spring him." It was McWade speaking."That's why he beat it up here and that's how we happened to put him towork."

  "I don't get you yet," the man in glasses muttered. "I can't understandwhy--"

  "What's the odds why he done it?" Stoner inquired, sharply. "Any manthat can squirt my eyes full of tobasco, and me with a six gun on him,is all right. And him with a bottle of milk duly made and provided!"The field member of the firm slapped his thigh and laughed loudly."Then to forget the whole fracas and shake hands on it! That'shandsome! Mr. Gray, I'm here to say there's a lot of boys going to layoff you like you was a cactus."

  The object of this commendation was pleased. "Gratitude is rare," hemurmured. "I thank you. Now then, I was thinking of making friendMallow a business proposition, but--perhaps I can interest you, also,in doing something for me. I'll pay well."

  "We're live ones," Stoner asserted.

  "It is business of a confidential nature."

  "All the talking we do is on the street. We're promoting wildcats, butI guess we know as much about the good wells as the big companiesthemselves, and when it comes to actual drilling, I've forgotten morethan all these boll weevils will ever learn. What can we do for you?"

  "For one thing, I wish to hire the brightest oil scout in the district,but I don't want him, nor anyone else, for the time being, to suspectthat he's working for me. I will double his salary to watch oneoperator. Perhaps he could appear to be in your employ? Furthermore, Iintend to do considerable secret buying and selling, and I will needseveral dummies--moral character unimportant. All I insist upon isabsolute loyalty and obedience to my orders."

  During the silence that followed, Gray felt the three men staring athim curiously.

  "You're after big game, I take it?" McWade inquired, mildly.

  "The biggest in these woods."

  "One man, did you say?"

  "One man."

  "Some--grudge, perhaps?"

  "Perhaps."

  "A yacht is too expensive for most men, but they don't burn money asfast as a grudge."

  "This one will take his last dollar--or mine."

  "We're a legitimate firm, you know--"

  Gray's eyes twinkled as he exclaimed: "Exactly! If I have caused you toinfer that I shall employ anything except legitimate means to effect mypurpose, it is my error. At the same time, my proposition is not onethat I could well afford to take to the ordinary, conservative type ofbroker. Now then, how about you, Mallow? Would you care to work for me?"

  The latter's pale face broke into a grin. "I am working for you," hedeclared. "I've been on your pay roll now for five minutes. What'smore, if it'll save money to croak this certain party and be done withit, why, maybe that can be arranged, too. My new wiggle stick may notfind oil every crack, but I bet I can make it point to half a dozen menwho--"

  Gray lifted an admonitory hand. "Patience! It may come to somethinglike that, but I intend to break him first. Can I arrive at terms withyou gentlemen?"

  "Write your own ticket," McWade declared, and Mr. Stoner echoed thisstatement with enthusiasm.

  "Very well! Details later. Now, I shall give myself the pleasure ofcalling upon my man and telling him exactly what I intend doing." Thespeaker rose and shook hands with the three precious scoundrels. Whenthe door had closed behind him McWade inquired: "Now what do you makeof that? Going to serve notice on his bird!"

  "Say! He's the hardest guy I ever saw," Stoner declared, admiringly.Mallow spoke last, but he spoke with conviction. "You said it, Brick. Ihad his number from the start. He's a master crook, and--it'll pay usall to string with him."

  Henry Nelson's activities in the oil fields did not leave him much timein which to attend to his duties as vice-president of his father'sbank, for what success he and Old Bell Nelson had had since the boomstarted was the direct result of the younger man's personal attentionto their joint operations. That attention was close; their success,already considerable, promised to be enormous.

  But of late things had not been going well. The turn had come with theloss of the Evans lease, and that misfortune had been followed byothers. Contrary to custom, it was Henry, and not Bell, who had flowninto a rage at receipt of Gus Briskow's telegram announcing a slip-upin the deal--a sale to Calvin Gray; that message, in fact, had affectedthe son in a most peculiar manner. For days thereafter he had beennervous, almost apprehensive, and his nervousness had increased when hesecured the back files of the Dallas papers and read those issues whichhe had missed while out of town. Since that time he had made excuses toavoid trips into the Ranger field and had conducted much of his workover the telephone. Perhaps for that reason it was that trouble withdrilling crews had arisen, and that one well had
been "jimmed"; perhapsthat explained why a deal as good as closed had gotten away, why acertain lease had cost fully double what it should have cost, and whythe sale of another tract had not gone through.

  Be that as it may, it was this generally unsatisfactory state ofaffairs that accounted for the junior Nelson's presence in WichitaFalls at this time. He and Bell had spent a stormy forenoon together;he was in an irritable mood when, early in the afternoon, a card wasbrought into his office.

  Nelson could not restrain a start at sight of the name engravedthereon; his impulse was to leap to his feet. But the partitionseparating him from the bank lobby was of glass, and he knew his everyaction to be visible. He allowed himself a moment in which to collecthis wits, then he opened slightly the desk drawer in which he kept hisrevolver and gave instructions to admit the caller.

  Nelson revolved slowly in his chair; he stared curiously at thenewcomer, and his voice was cold, unfriendly, as he said:

  "This is quite a surprise, Gray."

  "Not wholly unexpected, I hope."

  "Entirely! I knew you were in Texas, but I hardly expected you topresent yourself here."

  Gray seated himself. For a moment the two men eyed each other, the onestony, forbidding, suspicious, the other smiling, suave, apparentlyfrank.

  "To what am I indebted for this--_honor?_" Nelson inquired, with a liftof his lip.

  "My dear Colonel, would you expect me to come to Wichita Falls withoutpaying my respects to my ranking officer, my immediate superior?"

  "Bosh! All that is over, forgotten."

  "Forgotten?" The caller's brows arched incredulously. "You are a busyand a successful man; the late war lives in your mind only as adisagreeable memory to be banished as quickly as possible, but--"

  Henry Nelson stirred impatiently. "Come! Come! Don't let's waste time."

  "--but I retain distinct recollections of our Great Adventure, andalways shall."

  "That means, I infer, that you refuse to close the chapter?"

  As if he had not heard this last remark, Gray continued easily: "It isa selfish motive that brings me here. I come to crow. It is my peculiarweakness that I demand an audience for what I do; I must share mytriumphs with some one, else they taste flat, and since you are perhapsthe one man in Texas who knows me best, or has the slightest interestin my doings, it is natural that I come to you."

  This guileless confession evoked a positive scowl. "What have youdone," the banker sneered, "except get your name in the papers?"

  "I have made a large amount of money, for one thing, and I am having aglorious time. Now that Evans lease, for instance--"

  "Oh! You've come to crow about that."

  "Not loudly, but a little. I turned the greater part of that land foras much as five thousand dollars an acre. Odd that we should have comeinto competition with each other on my very first undertaking, isn'tit? Fascinating business, this oil. All one needs, to succeed, isexperience and capital."

  "What do you know about the business?"

  "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. But I am learning. Luck, I find, is agood substitute for experience, and I certainly am lucky. As forcapital--of course I was blessed in having unlimited money with whichto operate. You inferred as much, I take it. Of course! Yes, Colonel, Ihave the money touch and everything I have put my hand to has turnedout well."

  Nelson burst forth in sudden irritation. "What are you getting at? Youknow I don't care a damn what you're doing, how much money you'remaking--"

  "Strange! Inasmuch as practically every dollar I have made has come outof you, indirectly."

  For a moment Nelson said nothing; then, "Just what do you mean by that?"

  "Exactly what I said. I've cut under you wherever possible. When youwanted acreage, I bid against you and ran the price up until you paidmore than it was worth. That which I secured I managed--"

  "_You!_ So--_you're_ the one back of that!" Nelson's amazementdestroyed the insecure hold he had thus far maintained upon himself.Furiously he cried: "You're out to get me! That's it, eh?"

  "I am, indeed. And half my satisfaction in doing so will be in knowingthat you know what I'm up to. One needs steady nerves and a sure touchin any speculative enterprise; he daren't wabble. I'm going to get yournerve, Nelson. I'm going to make you wabble. You're going to thinktwice and doubt your own hunches, and make mistakes, and I--I shalltake advantage of them. Of course I shall do more than merely--"

  "Well, by God! I knew you had the gall of the devil, but--See here,Gray, don't you understand what I can do to you? I don't want anytrouble with you, but one word from me and--"

  "Of course you want no trouble with me; but, alas! my dear Colonel, youare going to have it. Oh, a great deal of trouble. More trouble thanyou ever had in all your life. Either you are going broke, or I am. Yousee, I have all the advantage in this little game, for I will pay adollar for every dollar I can cause you to lose, and that is too high aprice for you to meet. If I should go bankrupt, which of course Isha'n't, it would mean nothing to me, while to you--" The speakershrugged. "You haven't my temperament. No, the advantage is all mine."Gray's tone changed abruptly. "For your own good remove your hand fromthe neighborhood of that drawer. I am too close to you for a gun-play.Good! Now about that one word from you. You won't speak it, for thatwould force me to utter nasty truths about you, and you would suffermore than I, this being your home town where you are respected. And thetruth is nasty, isn't it?"

  Colonel Nelson had grown very white during this long speech. He rose tohis feet and laid one shaking hand upon his desk as if to steadyhimself; his tongue was thick in his mouth as he said, hoarsely:

  "I'd like to think you are crazy, but--you're not."

  "Almost a compliment, coming from you!"

  "You think you can beat me--Want to make it a money fight, do you?Well, I'll give you a bellyful. Every dollar I've got will go to smashyou--smash you!"

  "Splendid!" Gray was on his feet now and he was smiling icily. "One orthe other of us will be ruined, and then perhaps we can resort to thosemethods which both of us would enjoy using. Of the two, I believe I amthe more primitive, for the mere act of killing does not satisfy me.I've come a long way to sink my teeth into you. Now that they're in,they'll stay. So long as you're willing to fight clean, I'll--"

  "Are you gentlemen going to talk forever?" The inquiry came in awoman's voice. Both Nelson and Gray turned to behold a smiling,animated face framed in a crack of the door.

  "Miss Good!" Calvin Gray strode forward, took the girl's hands in hisand drew her over the threshold. "My dear Miss Good, I have rummagedhalf the state, looking for you."

  "I hope I'm not interrupting.--I recognized you and--" The girl turnedher eyes to Henry Nelson, but at sight of his face her smile vanished."Oh, I'm sorry!" she cried. "Let me run out--"

  Gray held her hands more firmly. "Never. Do you think I shall risklosing you again? Colonel Nelson and I had finished our chat and weremerely exchanging pleasantries."

  "Cross your heart?"

  "Cross my heart and hope to die." Gray laughed joyously and again shookthe girl's hands.

  "Yes. Colonel Gray was just leaving," Nelson managed to say.

  "Colonel? Are you a colonel, too?" the girl inquired, and Gray bowed.

  "I was."

  "And you knew each other abroad?"

  "We came to know each other very well. We were, in fact, commissionedat the same time and place, but Colonel Nelson received his a momentearlier than I received mine, therefore he outranked me. Now then,permit me to retire while you and he--"

  "Oh, there's nothing confidential about what I have to say. It's goodnews for my partner, and I'm sure he'd love to share it." To Nelson sheannounced, "Pete has a showing of oil!"

  The vice-president of the bank murmured something which was lost inGray's quick inquiry: "Partner? Are you a partner of Colonel Nelson's?"

  "After a fashion. We own a twenty-acre lease west of 'Burk'--that is, Ihave a quarter interest and Henry is putting down a well. I drove out
there, and his driller told me it is looking good."

  Gray turned a keenly inquisitive gaze upon his enemy, and what he saw,or fancied he saw, gave him the thrill of a new discovery. It may havebeen no more than intuition on his part, but something convinced himthat his acquaintance with Miss Good deeply displeased the man. If heknew Henry Nelson as well as he believed he did, it was more thandisapproval, more than mere personal dislike, that smoldered in thelatter's eyes. This was luck!

  In his warmest tone he cried: "Congratulations, my dear Colonel.However badly you have fared in the Ranger district, fortune favors youhere. But why only a quarter interest? You put too low a price uponyour blessings. I'll better that arrangement. Why, I was ready to offerMiss Good a full half of all I have, when she played a heartless jestupon me. Ran away! Disappeared! I'll admit I was piqued. I was deeplyresentful, but--"

  Nelson interrupted this flow of extravagance. "'Miss Good'?" he said,curiously. "Why does he call you that, 'Bob'?"

  "A secret! A little game of pretense," Gray declared, nastily. "For thesake of our friendship, Colonel, don't tell me her real name and rob meof the pleasure of hearing it from her own lips. Come, Miss Good!Enough of money making and oil wells and stupid business affairs. I amgoing to bear you away upon my arm, even at the risk of displeasing mysuperior officer. Ha! Lucky the war is over. Now then, your promise."

  Gray's impetuosity, his buoyancy, robbed his speech of boldness,nevertheless Barbara Parker flushed faintly. She was ill at ease; shefelt sure she had erred in interrupting these two men; she was glad ofan excuse to leave.

  Gray lingered a moment, long enougn for his eyes to meet those of thebanker. In his there was a light of triumph, of mockery, as he said:

  "A pleasant interview, wasn't it, Colonel? And now we understand eachother perfectly. A fair fight and no quarter asked."

  Henry Nelson stood motionless as he watched his two callers leave thebank together, then slowly he clenched his muscular hands, and from hislips there issued an oath better left unwritten.