X: WANTED--A HUSBAND
Departures are usually cheerless affairs, but the morning sun loosed aflood of gold into the _patio_ where the party was in process ofdissolution. William Benson had left with Jake and Sliver, when theywent out on the range, so Bull sat and smoked alone.
It was very pleasant there. His after-breakfast pipe was always thesweetest of the day, and while puffing contentedly Bull observed with anindulgent grin two small brown _criadas_, darting with needle and threadand pins from room to room with first-aid-to-injured habits; thetransparent flirtations, stealthy glances after the girls came out; thebeauty of innocent sex, of youth in love--set his big rough heart aglow.The girls, with keen instinct for honest feeling, felt it. The youngmen, with natural respect for quiet power, admired his kindliness andstrength. Their farewells and invitations were hearty and sincere.
"You've promised and promised and never come yet--that is, for a realvisit," Phoebe and Phyllis rebuked him.
The young men earnestly charged him, "We look to you to take care of ourgirls till we're in shape to look after them ourselves."
Not till the Icarzas bid him good-by did that kindly glow fade. Evenwhen Isabel slid a small soft hand into his huge paw and turned on himthe full power of her big Spanish eyes while uttering lovely felicities,he remained non-committal. He frowned hearing Lee accept an invitationfor a visit in the near future. But when she came in, after they left,the hostile look had faded.
"Oh, didn't we have a lovely time?" She patted his arm. "And it was alldue to you."
"And now I'll take my pay. I want to go up to El Paso."
"Oh, I'm so glad!" Darting into her room, she came running back with afat roll of bills. "I felt dreadfully, yesterday, because you and Mr.Sliver and Mr. Jake had to wear your working-clothes. While you are inEl Paso I want you to buy a nice suit apiece."
Now fine raiment, even of the vogue of the Western cow towns, was thelast thing in the world that Bull's heart desired. But she looked sopretty in her earnestness, he found it hard to refuse. His laugh rumbledthrough the _patio_.
"Now that's real nice of you. But back up at the mine we've all gotstore clothes to burn. One o' these days, when the work ain't sopressing, Sliver kin ride over an' get 'em. Fifty'll be all I'll need."
"Oh _dear_!" she gave in, with a little disappointed sigh. "I did wantto do something; you've all been so kind."
But she made up for the disappointment by busy preparations for hiscomfort. She packed her own suit-case with socks and clean shirts, thenbossed the job while her _criadas_ brushed and curried and sponged him.After tying one of her father's cravats around his neck she turned himround and round like a mother inspecting a school-boy, finally dismissedhim with a gentle pat.
On the Mexican Central, trains were running, as Bull put it, "be how an'when," but fortune favored him. Catching a mixed freight and passengerat the burned station that midnight, he camped down on the rear platformto avoid the fetor of unwashed bodies and tobacco smoke exhaled by themixture of _peones_, revolutionary soldiers, and fat Mexican_comerciantes_ that jammed the only first-class car. When he fell asleephe could make out the dim outlines of another form that evolved underthe light of the following morning into an American war correspondent.
"'Morning, friend," he greeted Bull, cordially. "My name is Naylor.Yours? Glad to meet you, Mr. Perrin. Now if you'll tip this water-bottlefor me, I'll do the same by you, and we can take off at least one layerof dust and cinders."
The operations placed them at once on terms that would have taken yearsto establish in civilization's cultured circles. Before it was over,Bull had learned that his companion was "on a little _pasear_ betweenrevolutionary battles," and had given, in return, some inkling of hisown affairs. The young fellow's lithe, spare figure, clean face,fearless gray eyes, impressed him strongly, and while the train ambledalong through the scrubby desert of sand and cactus toward Juarez, heeyed and estimated and measured him with a care that attracted, at last,the other's attention.
"Hey!" he demanded. "Is my nose out of plumb, or what?"
Bull warded off offense with the truth. "I happened to be looking for aman about your size. Any chance of your changing your job?"
"That depends." The correspondent answered, breezily, but with caution."Without being what you could call wedded to this sandy, thirsty,cutthroat business of Mexican revolutions, I like it better thananything else in sight. But what's your lay? Ranching?" He repeated itafter Bull. "In central Chihuahua? Forget it, friend."
Bull eyed him wistfully. He fitted so closely to specifications.Finally, in desperation, he opened his simple heart; was explaining hisquest when the young fellow burst out laughing.
"I beg your pardon." He raised a protesting hand against Bull's blackglower, then went on with sympathetic seriousness: "But you'll have toadmit that one doesn't see a man of your build every day in thismatrimonial business. So there's a damsel in distress, hey? That altersthe case. If it wasn't for a little girl up in San Francisco that Iexpect to marry some day when I become very rich and famous, I'd try andhelp you out, for I know just how you feel. It would be a damned shameto have her throw herself away on a Mexican. But you've laid yourselfout some job. Not that you won't be able to find men, good-looking chapsat that. But to get the right one calls for some picking and choosing.But I tell you what I will do--I shall be up for a week and I'd love togive you a hand."
"Sure you kedn't tackle it yourself?"
The young fellow denied the wistful appeal. "Hombre! a million wouldn'trelease my girl's mortgage."
With a regretful sigh Bull struck hands on the compact. While they weretalking the train had ambled through the brown adobe skirts of Juarez,the squalid Mexican town across the Rio Grande, whence they werepresently shot by automobile over the international bridge into thespacious bosom of El Paso's largest hotel. Bull had calculated to goout, at once, on his search, but while they sat at breakfast theredescended upon them a host of reporters and correspondents, ravenous fornews and aching to dispense hospitality.
"Might as well put it off till to-morrow, Diogenes." His friend hadalready named Bull after the person who had such a deuce of a timehunting an honest man among the grafters and ward heelers of ancientGreece. "We'll devote to-day to the irrigation of our desiccatedsystems, then go to it manana like hungry dogs. But safety first! Take aten out of your wad and give the rest to the clerk."
Instead of one day, however, three passed during which Bull's huge bulkupreared alongside a hundred bars. In all that time he never went tobed, for, intensified by long abstinence, the outbreak proved unusuallyvirulent. Generally the conclusion of his debauches found him broke.But, thanks to the correspondent's prevision, he awoke on the fourthmorning, in bed at the hotel, with the bulk of his money still in theoffice safe. While he was draining the water-jug according totime-honored precedents, his friend appeared in the doorway of theadjoining room. His own head was swathed in a wet towel that almost hidhis rueful grin.
"One never knows what one is starting. You certainly went the limit,Diogenes. Are you quite sure you're through?"
Bull nodded and put down the jug with a satisfied sigh. "It's a bit of astrain, this fathering an' mothering a lone girl, a feller's gotter keepso straight." He added, apologetically, "I was jest plumb ripe for abust, but I reckon this orter hold me for another three months."
"Very well, then, let's get down to work. At intervals, while I couldstill see, I kept one eye open for possibles. But it's like looking forgold or diamonds; the supply doesn't touch the demand. The few prospectsall proved to have attachments in the shape of sweetheart or wife. Goodones, I suppose, are so rare that the girls grab them at sight likemarked-down waists on a bargain-counter."
After two days of vain search through the plazas and parks, hotellobbies, streets, and bars of El Paso, Bull was almost driven to thesame conclusion. Short men, tall men, thin men, broad men; some thatwere ugly, others handsome; well and ill clad from all walks oflife--passed under his observation
. The few he trailed were eitherengulfed within the sacred precincts of some bank or met at the doors ofsuburban bungalows and there warmly kissed by young and pretty wives.Without fulfilling the specifications called for in the potentialhusband, it would have been difficult enough to have enlisted anordinary ranch hand for service across the line. At the close of thesecond day Bull reported as much to the correspondent when they met inthe hotel lobby.
"Guess I'll have to give it up."
"Now if _that_ was only free." The other bowed, just then, to a youngman who had just walked in from the street. "Look at him! Five-eleven inhis socks, hazel eyes, brown hair, good strong jaw, flat shoulders andflanks, deep chest; walks the earth like he owned it. Some dresser, too.That mixed plaid cost a hundred at his New York tailor's."
"Some banker's son, I'll bet you," Bull grumbled.
"That or better. I had a little chat with him this morning. A 'varsityman by his accent and manner. Seemed to know the Mexican situation downto the ground from the Wall Street end, so papa's probably a broker.Holy snakes! Look at that! Neat work! Neat work!"
Walking up to the counter, the young man had held out hishand--evidently for the key of his room--while his indifferent gazetraveled around the lobby. The clerk, who departed in no wise from thecasual specifications of his supercilious breed, glanced at the handcontemptuously. Turning, the young man spoke. Then as, without glancingup, the clerk answered, he snatched, hauled that superior person acrossthe counter, and slammed him down hard on the floor. Next, as they cameon, he felled one large door porter and three oversized bell-boys whohad answered the clerk's yell. This done, he waited, expectantly,quietly surveying the wreck, the hazel eye admired by Naylor transmutedinto hard steel flecked with dots of brown light.
Jaw, eyes, pose, all said, "Next!" But the "wreck" was complete. Theoversized bell-boys ran off to answer imaginary calls. An automobileparty at the door called for the porter's attention. Deserted, the clerkswiftly retreated behind his counter, behind which, from a safedistance, he issued defiant mutterings. With a slight nod that expressedcomprehension and satisfaction, Hazel-Eyes sauntered across the lobbyout into the street.
All had passed in the time required for the correspondent to reach thedesk. He was back again in five seconds. "He's broke--owes two weeks'room rent. Clerk told him to get out; hence the scrap. Diogenes, we'rein luck! Venus and Cupid are in the ascendant. He's our meat."
Grabbing Bull's arm, he hustled him outside, where they spied the quarryturning up a cross-street that led to the plaza. When he finally settleddown on an empty bench, the correspondent nudged Bull in the ribs.
"Look at them!" He indicated the hundreds of men idling on the benchesor sprawled out on the turf. "Last refuge of the broke, home of theout-of-works. That settles it. Bet you he hasn't the price of a meal.But, say! he's plucky. The beggar is actually smiling."
From the way in which the young fellow's glance wandered around theassembled out-of-works, it was easy to see that he rather enjoyed thenovel situation. When Bull had noted and commented on the fact, thecorrespondent went on:
"Now, Diogenes, we must proceed with due regard for the traditions. Whengrand dukes, princes, and caliphs in disguise befriend some worthyperson, they invariably begin by testing his honesty--see _ArabianNights_ and other authorities. Split a couple of tens off your wad anddrop them as you stroll past him. I'll stay here and watch lest he befound wanting."
Bull managed it, too, quite cleverly, scraping the bills out of hispocket along with his tobacco-pouch. Watching closely, the correspondentsaw the young fellow look, pick them up, then run and tap Bull'sshoulder. Leaning back, he shook with silent laughter.
"And they say romance is dead," his thought ran. "_Dead!_ while thisbig, black giant stalks around like a knight of old seeking a perfecthusband for a girl he's known only a few weeks. Diogenes, my friend, DonQuixote had nothing on you. Of all the lovely, fine pieces of idiocythat ever helped to raise us out of the muck of commercialism, this isthe very finest. And wouldn't it be queer if it worked? It's almost toogood to be true, and yet--a girl that can move a man to do things likethat must be remarkably worth while. Quien sabe? Perhaps it will endlike all true romances, with a happy marriage."
Till the two settled down side by side on a bench, the correspondentwatched. Then with a satisfied nod he rose and walked out of Bull's lifein the same casual way he had entered it; to return once more, however,at a critical juncture, many months later.
Thus left to his own devices, Bull carried on the campaign withdiplomacy quite foreign to his Goliath makeup. From thanks and casualobservations anent the weather, he led by gradual stages to laborconditions as exemplified by the surrounding out-of-works. His simulatedastonishment when the young fellow claimed community with them wasremarkably well done.
"_No-o-o!_" he protested.
"Sure!" the other nodded. "I was turned out of my hotel only half anhour ago."
Quite in the fashion of grand dukes and caliphs, Bull still pretendeddoubt. "Broke, mebbe, but you don't belong with these. What was it?Wine, weemen, or cyards?"
The young fellow grinned a little ruefully. "A woman, yes, but not inthe usual way. What would you think if I told you--But, pshaw! what'sthe use? It would sound to you just like any other out-of-workfairy-tale. Well, it may amuse you. If you really want to know, I'mhere, busted and broke, because I refused a hundred thousand dollars'worth of gilt-edged securities and real estate."
"A hundred thousand!" Bull's financial acquaintance having rarely risenabove the sixty-a-month class, he could not repress his surprise.
"There, I told you. Nevertheless, it is true. I am here because Irefused a hundred thousand--with a girl attached."
Bull's face fell. "I see. Folks wanted you to marry her an' you refusedbeca'se you'd already picked one for yourself."
The young man nodded. "Correct except in one or two particulars. Idisliked the girl so much that her money couldn't tempt me. As for theone I'll marry, I haven't picked her yet. But I mean to when I'm takenthat way."
Bull's face lit up with hope again as, with naive frankness, the youngfellow went into details; told how his father had set his heart on amarriage that would unite the wealth of two families. The girl, an onlydaughter, was desirable; pretty, accomplished, played, sang, and allthat! They had been brought up almost like brother and sister, and therewas the hitch!
"For a fellow doesn't want to marry his sister," he explained. "I knowher so well she hasn't a surprise in her hand. When I hook up, it willbe with a girl that can bowl me over at first sight and keep me guessingforever after. But the Relieving Officer"--he broke off, laughing atBull's puzzled look--"that's my name for my father. He was always comingthrough when I got in debt at college, hence the title. He's a good oldscout, but obstinate as--as--"
"--yourself?" Bull suggested.
"Right-o! Well, you know what happens when the irresistible force hitsthe immovable obstacle--something busts. That was me. Without even thelast check the stern parent presents to the undutiful son in melodrama,I got. Of course the dear old gentleman wouldn't have me suffer. Hesupposed I'd presently come home to partake of the fatted calf; and justfor fear that I might, I took my last money and bought a ticket West. Sohere I am, without money and without friends. Add it up and subtract theresult--pick and shovel. I see them looming in the future."
"Oh, shore!" The caliph--that is, Bull--was proceeding very cautiously."You'll get a job in some bank."
"Don't believe it. You see, I'd just come home from Princeton and had nocommercial training. Anyway, I'd rather work in the open, ranching, orsomething like that. If I had a little capital, I'd buy in. As Ihaven't, I'm open for any kind of a job. But there, again, I've got noexperience further than the fact that I can ride a horse. I'm afraidit's pick and shovel."
The abused and hackneyed psychological moment had arrived! The net wasspread, the twigs limed, the cage door open! With great artfulness Bullproceeded to shoo the bird inside. He knew of a job--in fact, it was
onthe same _hacienda_ where he worked himself! Of course it had thedisadvantage of being located in Mexico, across the line where nothingwas certain but death and "requisitions"! And there was always thechance of a scrap! He, Bull, wouldn't advise any one to try it that hadtoo strong a grip on this life, for there was no saying just when onemight be launched into "Kingdom Come." But for a man who liked actionand would take a fighting chance--so forth and so on.
A disinterested listener would have thought these and kindredinducements were eminently fitted to scare the bird away. If so--Bulldid not want him. But, sizing him for a lad of spirit with the romanticoutlook of his years, he counted on their appeal. Nor was he mistaken.He had finished telling of Carleton's death at the hands of theColorados, and was relating the accidental manner in which he and his_companeros_ had assumed the guardianship of Lee, when the young fellowthrust out his hand.
"Say, that's fine, old man! I'd be proud to have you take me in. My nameis Nevil--Gordon Nevil, at your service. When do we start?"
"Whenever the train goes, an' that's be guess an' be God. It's billed topull out from Juarez this evening, but we'll be lucky if it leavesbefore morning. But sometimes they do make a mistake an' start almost ontime. So we'll go aboard to-night."
"What about clothes?" The recruit glanced down with distaste and dismayat his fashionable tweeds. "I can't punch cows in these."
"Hardly," Bull grinned. "You'd come out from your first bunch of pearchaparral naked as on the day you were born. Come on an' we'll see aboutan outfit."
It was found without any trouble in a convenient Jew store, and Gordonchanged into it there and then. In cord riding-breeches, a brown armyshirt, shoes, and leather puttees, topped with a conical cowman's hat,his length of limb, flat flanks, deep chest, appeared to even betteradvantage. Bull's expression, looking him over, would have fitted amatch-making mama surveying a pretty daughter arrayed for her debut. Hiscomment, "You'll do," would have surprised the recipient could he havedivined all of its implications.
Thoroughly satisfied, Bull was producing the money to pay, when Gordonstopped him. "Here, you can't do that!"
"But you're broke."
"I still have these." He held out the tweeds. "How much boot do I get,Father Abraham?"
Already the Jew had felt with secret rumblings of the material, but hestood for his tradition. "Only vot iss on your feet. These ain'd muchgood. But you are a nice young veller. I make it an even trade."
"You'll chuck in that pair of chaps?"
With the customary grumblings that he would be ruined by his owngenerosity, the Hebrew eventually complied. While his customers werestowing away the _chaparros_ and a few extras in a slop-bag, he made outa ticket for the suit, and pausing on their way out, their late ownerread the legend which announced to the world that it was to be had verycheap for twenty-nine dollars and ninety cents.
Gordon burst into a merry laugh. "Father Abraham isn't on to realclothes. They stung me a hundred and ten for that in New York."
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