Jack looked around frankly and dispa.s.sionately.
"To save Little Rivers from you! I understand that you have secured the water rights."
"Well, then, I have!" declared Prather, confidently, "and I mean to have the rights for the whole valley!" and he struck his fist into his palm.
"You see," he went on, with another flash of satire, "it is not exactly fair that you should have the store and Little Rivers, too. I had heard of the possibilities here from my friend Leddy, who was also at Goldfield. A useful man in his place! He got his sixth notch there. When I came and looked around and saw that here was the opportunity I wanted, I wired father that in any fair division of territory everything west of the Mississippi belonged to me"--he was showing some bravado in his sense of security now, when he saw that Leddy and his men were returning through the cotton-woods to the water-hole--"and I should like to have you out of my way. I told him you were the picture of health, even if you didn"t have anything in your head, and if you were ever going to learn the business it was time that you began. But father is always careful.
Naturally he wanted to check off my report with another"s; for he didn"t want you back if you were ill. So he sent Dr. Bennington out to get professional confirmation of my statement."
"And you told Jasper Ewold that you wanted the rights only to turn them over to the water users" a.s.sociation and then bring in capital to build a dam, with everybody sharing alike in the prosperity that was to come."
"Yes, and Jasper Ewold was so simple! Well, what I told him was strategy--strategy of which I think father would approve. When you have a big object in view the end must justify the means. Look at the situation!
Two hundred thousand acres of land waiting on water to be the most fertile in the world! Why, when I rode up the valley the first time and saw what could be done, I was amazed to think that such an opportunity should be lying around loose. Little Rivers was so out of the way that other promoters had overlooked it, and everybody had sort of taken it for granted that Jasper Ewold and his water users" a.s.sociation really had legal possession. It was my chance. I thought big. That dam should be mine. I had the money I had made in Goldfield, but it was not enough for my purpose.
"Where should I turn for outside capital that would not demand a majority interest in the project? I concluded that it was time father did something for me in return for giving up the store. Besides this call of justice I had another influence with him. I was sure that when he told my mother that you knew the truth he was making a statement that suited his purpose. I was sure that you knew nothing of my story and that father did not want you to know it. I was ready to tell if he did not meet my demands.
"Well, you know how he can talk when he wants to gain a point. I fancy that I talked as well as father when I showed him how that dam would pay for itself in five years in tolls and twenty per cent on the capital after that; when I showed him how a population ten times that of his store would have to take their water from me; when I showed him all the side issues of profit from town sites and the increase of values of the big holdings which Leddy"s men would take up for me. You ought to have seen his eyes glow. He could not withstand his pride in me. "You have the gift, the one gift!" he said. I told him yes, it was in the blood; and I struck while the iron was hot. I got an outright sum from him; and he could not resist a chance to share all that profit when capital was to be had in New York for three or four per cent. He went in as silent partner, as I was in the saloon at Goldfield; as a partner with a minority interest."
John Prather paused to laugh to himself over his victory, while the movement of palm on palm was rapid and prolonged.
"Our arrangement amounted to the commercial division of territory for the family, which I had suggested," he went on with appreciative irony. "You and he were to have the east side of the Mississippi and I was to have the west, and you were never to know my story. Publicly, father and I were strangers and quits, and we came to this agreement in the room of a down-town hotel.
"The day before I started West I simply had to have a look through the store--the store that I loved and that I had to lose. Yes, the store is far more to my taste than this rough western life. Naturally, as my existence was to be kept a secret from you, when you followed me to the elevator and tried to get acquainted I couldn"t have it."
"But as the elevator descended you pointed to the mole," said Jack.
"Did I? I suppose that was an involuntary, instinctive pleasantry. The previous evening father and I had had a farewell visit together. We went into the country."
"The night after the scene in the drawing-room!" Jack thought.
"I knew that father was worried because he had to make an effort to show that he was not. Usually he can cover his worries perfectly. He said that he might have a fight in order to keep you and that he very much wanted you to stay. But he did not succeed," concluded Prather, fist driving into palm. "You came on the express after me."
"Because, fortunately, you went to the house to have a look at the ancestor!"
"Yes," said Prather. "But I did not see you."
"However, I saw you from the landing and overheard what pa.s.sed between you and father!"
"No matter!" cried Prather harshly. "I am prepared for you!" He looked toward the water-hole significantly. "And the concession is mine! The dam will be mine!"
"The dam could be built and all the valley might bloom without so much power pa.s.sing into the hands of one man," said Jack.
P.D. scenting the pasturage and feeling the pangs of thirst was starting forward at a smarter pace; but Jack held him back to the snail"s crawl of Prather"s pony.
"Who would do it? Jasper Ewold? Jim Galway?" Prather demanded. "What these men need is a leader. They don"t realize what I am doing for them.
Do they think I want to put in ten years out here for nothing? For every dollar that they make for me they are going to make one for themselves.
That"s the rule of prosperity. I am not robbing them. I am taking only my fair share in return for creative business genius. The fellows in Little Rivers who sulk and don"t get on will have only themselves to thank."
"But they lose their independence," Jack was arguing quietly, as if he would thrash out the subject. "There are other things than money in this world."
"There"s nothing much money won"t do!" said Prather.
"It will not give one self-respect or courage or moral fibre; it will not bring the gift of poetry, music, or painting; or turn a lie into truth; or bring back virtue to a woman who has been defiled; or make the courage to face death calmly."
"It will do all I want!" Prather answered. "Father not having been true to his agreement by keeping you in New York, why should I keep his secret? He breaks faith; I break faith. It seems to me as if there were no escaping the penalty of my birth. I no sooner arrive than I find the whole town knows of your return; and not only that, but a wire comes from father saying that we had better not meet until he comes."
"Until he comes! Yes, go on!"
"Well, as you say, you are here to save Little Rivers and that meant an interview with me, and--well," again the palms in their crisp movement, "before I started out I told Pete Leddy that if you came after me I should look to him for protection, and it seems he is on time."
"Yes," said Jack, without looking at Prather. All the while he had kept watch on the water-hole, and he received Prather"s announcement stoically as a confirmation of his suspicions.
"So, if you will take my advice, brother, the best thing for you to do is to ride back before we reach the water-hole, unless you prefer Leddy"s company. This time he will fight you in his way."
"My horse is tired and there is neither water nor feed for him except there." Jack stated this quietly and stubbornly, as he nodded toward the cotton-woods. Then he looked around to Prather. Suddenly Prather found himself looking at a face that seemed to have only the form of that face by the side of which he had been riding. It was as if another man had taken Jack"s place in the saddle. The ancestor was rising in Jack.
Prather saw an electric spark in Jack"s eyes, the spark of the high voltage that made his muscles weave and a flutter come in his cheeks.
"No, I am not going back until I have recovered the rights that you have taken from Little Rivers!" he said.
Prather in sudden confusion realized that he had let his feelings go too soon. They were not yet at the water-hole, and he was within easy reach of that hand working on the reins in a way that promised an outburst.
"You think of physical violence against me--your own flesh and blood!" he said defensively.
He saw Jack shudder in reaction and knew that he was safe for the moment.
When Jack looked away at the water-hole Prather"s fingers slipped to his own six-shooter and rested there, twitching nervously; and in the rear Firio was watching both him and Nogales shrewdly.
From any outward sign now, Jack might have been starting on another journey with quiet eagerness; a journey that might end at a precipice a few yards ahead or at the other side of the world. Of this alone you could be sure from the resoluteness of his features, that he was going straight on; while Firio, in the telepathy of desert companionship, understood that he was missing no developing detail within the narrow range of vision in front of P.D."s nose. Trusting all to Jack, Firio was on wires, ready for a spring in any direction.
They were coming to the edge of a depression of an old watercourse that wound around past the cotton-woods to the ridge itself and included the basin where Leddy and his followers had tethered their horses. But this part of it was dry sand. The standing figures around the water-hole had sunk down. Jack could see them as lumps in a row. A blade of flame from the setting sun fell on them, revealing the glint of rifle barrels.
"Firio! Quick--down! P.D., down!" Jack called, dismounting with a leap; and as though in answer to his warning came the singing of bullets about their ears.
P.D. had been trained to sink on all fours at a word and he and Jack together dropped into the cover of the _arroyo_, below the desert line.
When he looked around Firio was at his side, still holding the reins of Wrath of G.o.d. But Wrath of G.o.d"s st.u.r.dy, plodding nature had little facility in learning tricks. A tiny stream of blood was flowing down his forehead and he lay still. At last, all in loyal service, he had reached the horizon. His bony, homely, good old face seemed singularly peaceful, as if satisfied with the reward at his journey"s end. Jag Ear was standing beside P.D. and Prather"s burro next to him, both unharmed.
Nogales"s horse had also been killed, but its rider was safe. Prather was crawling down the side of the _arroyo_ on his belly, digging his hands into the dirt, his face white and contorted and his eyes shifting back and forth in ghastly incomprehension. His horse followed him and sank down in final surrender to exhaustion.
By common impulse, Jack and Firio seized the rifles from Jag Ear"s pack, while Nogales, a spectator, squatted beside Prather.
"What--what does it mean?" Prather gasped, spasmodically. "I--I--was it Leddy that fired on us?"
"Yes," said Jack over his shoulder, as he and Firio started up the bank of the _arroyo_ facing the water-hole. "No doubt of it."
"It was you they wanted--not me--not me! I--I--"
"I don"t know. At all events, I do not mean they shall rush us!" Jack answered, as he and Firio hugged the slope with their rifles resting on top and only their heads showing above it.
"No! It couldn"t be that they recognized me. They will let me by! They expect me!"
"Yes, you belong on their side!" Jack called back.
"I will send out a flag of truce!" said Prather, brightening with the thought. "You, Nogales, take my handkerchief and go and explain to Leddy!"