And yet he insisted; in the beginning of his relationship with his employer, his soul swelling with grat.i.tude, his imagination touched by the splendors into which his fate had led him, awed by the dominant Packard, he had wanted always upon an occasion like this to demand stiffly:
"You rang, your majesty?"
Packard had cursed and threatened and brow-beaten him down to----
"You called, m"lord?"
But not even old h.e.l.l-Fire Packard could get him any further.
"Yes, I called," grunted the old man. "I hollered my head off at you.
I want to know what you foun" out. Let"s have it."
Guy Little made his little butler-bow.
"Your word is law, m"lord," he said, once more rigid and unbending.
Although Packard knew this very well without being told and had known it a good many years before Guy Little had been born, and although Guy Little had repeated the phrase time without number, the old man accepted it peacefully as a necessary though utterly d.a.m.nable introduction.
"It"s like this," continued the mechanician. "Not knowin" what you thought an" not even knowin" what you wanted to think, an" figgerin" to play safe, I"ve picked up the dope all over. Which is sayin" I bought drinks on both sides the street, whiskey at Whitey Wimble"s joint an"
more of the same at Dan Hodges"s. An" I foun" out several things, m"lord. If it is your wish----"
"Spit "em out, Guy Little! What for a man is he?"
"Firs"," said Guy Little, shifting his feet the fraction of an inch so that his chin bore directly upon Packard, "he"s a sc.r.a.pper. He beat up Joe Woods, a bigger man than him; later he took part in some sort of a party durin" which, like is beknown to you, somebody gouged Blenham"s eye out; after that, single-handed, he cleaned out your lumber-camp, fifteen men countin" Blenham. Tally one, he"s a sc.r.a.pper."
For an instant it seemed that all of the light there was in the swiftly darkening room had centred in the blue eyes under the old man"s bushy white brows. He drew deeply upon his pipe.
"Go on, Guy Little," he ordered. "What more? Spit it out, man."
"Nex"," reported the little man, "he"s a born gambler. If he wasn"t he wouldn"t of tied into a game of buckin" you; he wouldn"t of played seven-an"-a-half like he did in at the Ace of Diamonds; he wouldn"t of took them long chances tacklin" Woodsy"s timberjacks before breakfas".
Sc.r.a.pper an" gambler. That"s tally one an" two."
The old man frowned heavily, his teeth remaining tight clamped on his pipestem as he cried sharply:
"That"s it! You"ve said it: gambler! Drat the boy, I knowed he had it in his blood. An" it"ll ruin him, ruin him. Guy Little, as it would ruin any man. We got to get that fool gamblin" spirit out"n him. A man that"s always takin" chances never gets anywhere; take a chance an"
you ain"t got a chance! That"s the way of it, Guy Little! Go on, though. What else about him?"
"He"s a good sport," went on the news-gatherer, "an" he don"t ask no help from n.o.body. He stan"s on his two feet like a man, m"lord. When he sees a row ahead he don"t go to the law with it; no, m"lord; no indeed, m"lord. He says "h.e.l.l with the law!" Like a man would, like me an" you . . . an" he kills his own rats himself."
"That"s the Packard of him! For, by G.o.d, Guy Little, he is a Packard even if he has got a wrong start! Rich man"s son--silver-spoon stuff--why, it would spoil a better man than you ever saw! Didn"t I spoil my son Phil that-a-way? Didn"t Phil start out spoilin" his son Stephen that same way? But he"s a Packard--an"--an"----"
"An" what, m"lord?"
The old man"s fist fell heavily on the arm of his chair.
"An" I"m still hopin" he"s goin" to be a d.a.m.n" good Packard at that!
But you go on, Guy Little. What else?"
"Sorta reckless, he is," resumed Guy Little. "But that"s purty near the same thing as havin" the gamblin" spirit, ain"t it? Nex" an"
final, m"lord, he"s got what you might call an eye for a good-lookin"
girl."
"The devil you say, Guy Little!" The old man, beginning to settle in his chair, sat bolt upright. "Is some female woman tryin" to get her hooks in my gran"son already? Name her to me, sir!"
"Name of Temple," said Little. "Terry Temple as they call her, an" a sure good-lookin" party, if you ask me! Cla.s.sy from eyes to ankles an"
when it comes to----"
"Hold on, Guy Little!" exploded old man Packard, leaping to his feet, towering high above the little man, who looked up at him with an earnest and placid expression. "That wench, that she-devil, that Jezebel! Settin" her traps for my boy Stephen, is she? Why, man alive, she ain"t fit to sc.r.a.pe the corral-mud off"n his boots. She"s a low-down, deceitful jade, that"s what she is, sired by a sheep-stealin", throat-cuttin", ornery, no-"count, worthless cuss! The whole pack of them Temples, he an" she of "em, big an" little of "em, ought to be strung up on the firs" tree! The low-down bunch of little prairie dawgs, tryin" to trap a Packard with puttin" a putty-faced fool girl in their snare. I say, Guy Little, I"ll make the whole crowd of "em hunt their holes!"
And he hurled his pipe from him so that on the hearthstone it broke into many pieces.
Now that was a long speech for old man Packard and Guy Little listened interestedly. At the end, when the old man went growling back to his chair, the mechanician took up his tale.
"She"s purty, though," he maintained. "Like a picture!"
"Doll-faced," snorted the old man, who had not the least idea what Terry Temple looked like, not having laid his eyes on her for the matter of years. "Dumpy, pudgy, squidge-nosed little fool. I"ll run both her and her thief of a father out of the country."
"An"," continued Guy Little, "I didn"t exac"ly" say, m"lord, as how this Terry Temple party was after him. I said as how he was after her!
That is, as how, roundin" out what I know about him, he"s got a eye for a fine-lookin" lady. Which, against argyment, I maintain that Terry Temple girl is."
"Guy Little," cried Packard sharply, "you"re a fool! Maybe you know all there is about motor-cars an" gasoline. When it comes to females you"re a fool."
"Ah, m"lord, not so!" protested Guy Little, a gleam in his eye like a faint flicker from a dead fire. "There was a time--before I set these hoofs of mine into the wanderin" trail--when----"
The rest might best be left entirely to the imagination and there he left it. But the old man was all untouched by his henchman"s utterance and innuendoed boast for the simple reason that he had heard nothing of it.
"Those Temple hounds," he muttered, staring at Guy Little who stared butlerishly back, "are leeches, parasites, cursed bloodsuckers and hangers-on. They think I"m goin" to take this boy in an" give him all I got; they think they see a chance to marry him into their rotten crowd an" slip one over on me this way! That simperin", gigglin" fool of a girl try an" hook my gran"son! I"ll show "em, Guy Little; I"ll show the whole cussed pack of "em! I"ll exterminate "em, root an"
branch an" withered leaf! By the Lord, but I"ll go get "em!"
"He"ll do it," nodded Guy Little, addressing the invisible third party in order not to directly interrupt his patron"s flow of words.
But for a little the old man was silent, running his calloused fingers nervously through his beard, frowning into the dusk thickening over the world outside. When he spoke again it was softly, thoughtfully, almost tenderly. And the words were these:
"Break a fool an" make a man, Guy Little! That"s what we"re goin" to do for Stephen Packard. He"s always had too much money, had life too easy. We"ll jus" nacherally bust him all to pieces; we"ll learn him the big lesson of life; we"ll make a man out"n him yet. An" when that"s done, Guy Little, when that time comes-- Go send Blenham here,"
he broke off with sharp abruptness.
Guy Little achieved his stage bow and departed. The door only half closed behind him, he was shouting at the top of his voice:
"Hey, Blenham! Oh, Blenham! On the jump. Packard wants you!"
The door slammed behind him. His back once turned on "m"lord," Guy Little did not wait to get out of earshot to become less butler than human sparrow.
Blenham needed but the one summons and that might almost have been whispered. He was fidgeting in his own room, waiting for this moment, knowing that he was to receive definite instructions concerning Stephen Packard. Over his right eye was a patch; his face was still a sickly pallor; his one good eye burned with a sullen flame which never went out.
Guy Little was the one human being in the world with whom the old man talked freely, to whom he unburdened himself. With his chief lieutenant Blenham he was, as with other men, short, crisp-worded, curt. Now, seeming to take no stock of Blenham"s disfigurement, in a dozen snapping sentences he issued his orders.
Their gist was plain. Blenham was to go the limit to accomplish two purposes: the minor one of making the world a dreary place for certain scoundrels, name of Temple; the major one of utterly breaking Steve Packard. When Blenham went out and to his own room again the sullen fire in his good eye burned more brightly, as though with fresh fuel.