"_Would_ he? It was his idea, and all that kept us off of it last year was the fact that the oil would have to be hauled about thirty miles, and we didn"t have the price between us to hire a truck."
For some time the trio discussed the various angles of Stoner"s proposition, endeavoring if possible to devise some natural way of intriguing the interest of Henry Nelson. On this score McWade had fewer apprehensions than did his companions, his contention being that it mattered not how the matter was brought to the banker"s attention so long as the property would stand investigation. Nelson was bound to be suspicious, anyhow, and a sale depended entirely upon the character of the oil showing. McWade"s coolness toward the enterprise, it transpired, was occasioned not by a loftier sense of rect.i.tude than his a.s.sociates displayed, but by lingering doubts as to the profits involved.
Not until Brick declared that his tubercular friend would accede to any arrangement he saw fit to make did the junior partner fall in with the proposal. "If it"s a fair, square deal all around, I"m for it," the latter finally agreed. "But we can"t afford to have any guy squawking that we did him up--especially if he"s only got one lung to holler with. We"re a legitimate firm, and we"ve got to treat our clients right. I think a fifty-fifty split would be reasonable."
Stoner, too, thought that would be about right, and so it was left.
Mallow was highly enthusiastic. "This will be a great surprise to Gray," he said, with animation. "It"s mighty lucky he"s got a gang like us to help him."
CHAPTER XVII
To learn that her mountain retreat had been invaded and that she had been spied upon filled Ma Briskow with dismay, but when Allie found fault with her behavior the elder woman burned with resentment.
"We"re queer enough," the girl said, "without you cutting up crazy and making folks talk. If you want to dance, for goodness" sake hire somebody to lear--to teach you, same as I did."
Mrs. Briskow had silently endured her daughter"s criticism up to this point, but now her lips tightened and there was a defiant tilt to her head.
"Who says I want to dance?" she demanded. "I can dance good enough."
"What was you up to the other day? That Delamater man said you was acting plumb nutty."
"I wasn"t doin" anything."
"Where do you go every day, Ma? You stay around nice and quiet till Miz" Ring or I look the other way, then--you"re gone."
"I kinda--visit around."
"Who d"you visit with? You don"t know anybody. n.o.body ever speaks to us. You ain"t in earnest about those fairies and things, are you?"
"It ain"t anybody"s business where I go or what I do," Ma declared, in sullen exasperation. "I ain"t bothering anybody, am I?"
"Don"t say "ain"t," say "isn"t.""
For once in her patient life the mother flamed into open rebellion.
"Don"t "don"t" me!" she cried. "You"re gettin" the "don"t" habit off Miz" Ring an" nothin" I say or do is right any more. You mind your own "isn"ts" an" I"ll handle my "ain"ts." I got places where I go an"
things I do an" I don"t bother n.o.body. I guess we got enough money so I can do things I want to, as long as I don"t bother n.o.body."
"Why don"t you take Pa along? He"d go, then people--"
"Mind your own business!" the old woman snapped. She flounced out of the room, leaving Allie amazed and indignant at this burst of temper.
That day Ma Briskow abandoned her mountain fastness. She took her faithful retainers with her and led them farther up the ravine to a retreat that was truly inaccessible. She moved them, bag and baggage.
Of course, there was a scene; the children cried, the women wailed, the men wept. But she told them that traitors had betrayed their hiding place to the dastardly Duke of Dallas, and any moment might bring his cutthroat crew upon them. Some of the younger bloods were for remaining and selling their lives dearly, but Ma would not hear to it.
It was quite an undertaking to move a whole nomad tribe, for there were all the household belongings, the cattle, the sheep, the goats, the milk-white Arabian steeds, the b.u.t.ter and eggs and homemade preserves, and all the paraphernalia of a warlike people. It is surprising how stuff acc.u.mulates in a mountain fastness. But she managed the retreat with conspicuous ability. Ma led the long caravan into the bed of a running stream, so that there would remain not a single footprint to guide pursuers, then she sat in her saddle and gazed back at the silent camping place.
Trap her, eh? Come upon her unprepared, would they? Ha! ha! She laughed scornfully and tossed her head of midnight hair as she pictured the duke"s rage at finding he had been foiled again, and by a mere slip of a girl!
This was a good game and exciting, too. Fetch Pa Briskow along, indeed!
Why, these wild mountain folk would kill him; in their present mood they would rend a stranger hip from thigh. If they dreamed, for instance, that she, their queen, was married--
Here was a new thought, and Ma"s imagination leaped at it. If these pa.s.sionate people suspected that she had contracted a secret marriage with the--the Earl of Briskow, their jealousy would know no bounds.
They would probably slay Pa. Ma shuddered at the horrid vision of what would happen to Pa. This was truly thrilling.
Later on in the morning Mrs. Briskow discovered that she possessed another amazing accomplishment--_viz_., the ability to walk on a ceiling, upside down, like a fly. It was extremely amusing, for it enabled a person to see right into everything. Pa and Allie looked very funny from above.
The next day, when she stealthily slipped out of her French window, she found Calvin Gray idly rocking on the veranda. He welcomed her appearance and pretended not to see her embarra.s.sment at the meeting; he was glad of this chance for a visit with her alone. Perhaps she was going for a walk and would take him along?
Ma was annoyed and suspicious. She liked Gray, but--she was as wary as a trout and she refused to be baited. She would allow him to walk with her--but lead him to the retreat? Well, hardly.
The man was piqued, for suspicion irked him. It was a tribute to his patience and to his knack of inspiring confidence that Ma finally told him about Allie"s criticism and her resentment thereat.
"I got my own way of enjoyin" myself, an" I don"t care what people think," she declared, with some heat.
"Quite right. It"s none of their darned business, Ma."
"She thinks I"m kind of crazy an"--I guess I am. But it comes from livin" so long in the heat an" the drought an" allus wantin" things I couldn"t have--allus bein" sort of thirsty in the head. When you want things all your life an" never have "em, you get so you _play_ you"ve got "em."
The man nodded. "You had a hard time. Your life was starved. I"m so glad the money came in time."
"You see, I never had time to play, or a good place to play in, even when I was a little girl. But this is like--like books I"ve read."
"Are these mountains what you thought they would be?"
"Oh, they"re better!" Ma breathed. "It"s too bad Allie"s got to spoil ever"thing."
"I shall speak to her. We won"t let her spoil anything. Now tell me how you play."
But Ma flushed faintly, and for some time longer she refused her confidence. It didn"t matter; it was all an old woman"s foolishness; n.o.body would understand. Gray was not insistent; nevertheless, before long they were on their way toward the glen.
It was a glorious morning, the forest was beautiful, and as the two strolled through it Ma"s companion told her many things about trees and flowers and birds and bees that she had never dreamed of. Now Gray"s natural history was shockingly inaccurate, nevertheless it was interesting, and it was told in a manner both whimsical and sprightly.
He made up outrageous stories, and he took no shame in seriously recounting experiences of his own that Ma knew were wholly imaginary.
She told him, finally:
"Sakes alive! You"re as crazy as I am."
This he denied with spirit. Forests were enchanted places, and trolls dwelt in the mountains. There was no question about that; most people never took time to see them, that was all. Now as for him, he had actually beheld naiads and dryads, nixies and pixies, at play--at least he had practically been upon the point of seeing them. Ma, herself, must have come across places they had just left, but probably she had lacked the patience to await their return or the faith to woo them into being. There were little woods people, too, no bigger than your thumb, whose drinking goblets were acorn cups, and whose plates were shiny leaves. He showed her how to set a fairy tablecloth with her handkerchief and with toadstools for seats.
In a reckless burst of confidence Ma told him how it felt to walk upside down, like a fly, and to go bounding through the woods like a thistledown. Gray had never tried it, but he was interested.
Then, finally, alas! the inconsistency of woman! she told him all about her hidden band of mountaineers.
Now this was something he _could_ understand. This was more his speed.
He insisted upon making the personal acquaintance of those bold followers of hers and upon hearing the whole sad story of the Princess Pensacola. The history of her struggle against the wicked Duke of Dallas moved him; he wove new details of his own into it, and before Ma knew it he was actually playing the part of the duke.
The duke, it appeared, was a hard and haughty man, but at heart he was not all bad; when he had listened to the story of his victim"s wrongs and more fully appreciated the courage, the devotion of her doughty followers, he was touched. For her sake, and theirs, he proposed a truce to this ruinous struggle. What kind of a truce? Well, he refused entirely to renounce his claim to the throne, but--they might share it.