"Well?" inquired Wiley, as Charley paused to take a drink, "and what did Virginia say, then?"
"Oh, I couldn"t repeat it," answered Death Valley virtuously. "She don"t seem to like you now. She says you stole her mine."
"Huh!" grunted Wiley, and looked about the cabin which was littered with bottles and flasks. "Well, where"ve _you_ been?" he went on at last, the better to change the subject, and Charley leered at him shrewdly.
"Over across Death Valley," he chanted drunkenly, "--on the east side, in the Funeral Range. But they put me to work on the graveyard shift so I quit and come back to town."
"Ye-es," jeered Wiley, "you"ve been on a big drunk. What are you doing with this demijohn of whiskey?"
"Why, I got it for the Colonel," replied Charley, laughing childishly, "and I started to take it over to him, but my burros got away at Daylight Springs, so I made camp and drunk it all up."
"But it"s full!" objected Wiley.
"Yes, I refilled it," answered Charley and helped himself to another nip. "Thas second time now I took that whiskey to the Colonel and both times I drunk it up. Thas bad--the Colonel will kill me."
"Yes, and do a danged good job," grumbled Wiley morosely. "You sure got me in Dutch with Virginia."
"She says you stole her mine," defended Charley stoutly. "And don"t you say nothing against Virginia. She"s n.o.blest girl the sun ever shined.
I"ll _kill_ any man that says different!"
"Oh yes, sure," agreed Wiley, "I"d do that myself. But Charley, I didn"t steal her mine. I got it from Blount, and if she wants it back--say, Charley, you tell her I want to see her!"
He leaned over eagerly and laid his hand on Charley"s shoulder, but Death Valley shook him off.
"No!" he declaimed. "The Huffs are poor but proud--they don"t take charity from no one!"
"Aw, but, Charley," he argued, "this isn"t charity. We"ll get it away from Blount!"
"You"re drunk!" declared Charley and turned sternly to the demijohn which was rapidly going down.
"Well, maybe I am," admitted Wiley craftily, "but that"s all right, isn"t it, between friends?"
"Sure thing--have another!" responded Charley cordially, and Wiley poured out a generous portion.
"Here"s to you," he said, "Old Chuckawalla Charley--the man that put the Death in Death Valley. You"re some desert rat, now ain"t you, Charley?
You helped pack the mud to build the b.u.t.te and stoped out the guest chamber down in h.e.l.l! Well, here"s luck!" and he nodded his health.
"Yes, you bet I"m an old-timer," boasted Death Valley vaingloriously.
"I was at Panamint and Ballarat, and all them camps. Me and old Shorty Harris--we used to lead every rush--we was first at Greenwater and Skidoo. But these d.a.m.ned lizzies can beat us to it now--the old burro-man is too slow."
"But crossing the sand, Charley, you"ve got us there; and climbing up these rocky washes. I"ve got a good machine--it"ll take me most anywhere--but when it comes to crossing Death Valley, give me some burros and old Uncle Charley." He slapped him on the back and Uncle Charley smiled doubtfully and took another drink. "You bet," went on Wiley, with method in his madness. "I"d like nothing better, when I get a little time, than to have you take me out across Death Valley. What"s it like, over there, Charley? Is it very far to water? But I"ll bet you know every trail!"
"I know "em all," announced Charley proudly, "but here"s one that n.o.body knows. It"s the trail to the Ube-Hebes. First you go from here to Daylight Springs, but they ain"t no feed around there, so you go over the divide and down six miles and camp at Hole-in-the-Rock. And there they"s good feed and plenty of good water and a tin house where the freighters used to camp; and then you fill your tanks and the next day you follow the wash till it takes you down to Stovepipe Wells. That water is bad but the burros will drink it if you bail the hole out first, and the next day you cross the sand-hills and the Death Valley Sink and head for Cottonwood wash. Many is the man that has started for that gateway and died before he reached the water, but the Colonel----"
Charley stopped abruptly and looked around for Heine and then he poured out a drink.
"He"s dead now," he concluded, but Wiley caught his eye and shook his head disapprovingly.
"Not between friends," he said. "Ain"t we drunk here together? Well, tell me the truth now--where is he? And listen here, Charley; I"ll tell you something first that will make it all right with the Colonel. All he has to do is to come back to Keno and I"ll give him his share in the mine. Then we can throw in together, and, when we get through, old Blount will be left holding the sack. Do you get the idea? I"m trying to be friends, but you"ve got to take me over to the Colonel!"
"The Colonel is dead!" repeated Charley doggedly and then he c.o.c.ked his head to one side. "Don"t you hear "em?" he asked, "it"s them Germans or something----"
"Never mind!" said Wiley sharply. "I"m talking about the Colonel, and I"ll tell you what I"ll do. I can"t give the mine to Virginia because she won"t take it; but the Colonel is a gentleman. He"s reasonable, Charley, and I"d get along with him fine; so come on, now--go over and tell him!"
He patted him on the back and a look of indecision crept into Charley"s drink-dimmed eyes, but in the end he shook his head.
"Nope," he muttered, "the Colonel is dead!" And Wiley threw up his hands.
"Well, then here," he ran on, "you know me Charley; and you know I"m not trying to steal that mine. Now here"s what I want you to do. You tell Virginia I want to see her; and then some night you bring her over and--well, maybe that will do just as well."
"Will you give her back her mine?" inquired Charley pointedly, and Wiley rose up in a rage.
"Yes!" he yelled, "for cripes" sake, what"s the matter with you? You talk like everybody was a crook. Didn"t I give her back her stock? Well then, I"ll give her back her mine! But she"s got to accept it, hasn"t she?"
"That was her I heard coming," answered Charley simply, but when Wiley looked out she was gone.
CHAPTER XXI
THE DRAGON"S TEETH
It is the curse of success that it raises up enemies as Jason"s dragon teeth brought forth armed men. When he was skating around the country, examining mines and taking out options, Wiley could safely count every man his friend; but now that he had made his big _coup_ on the Paymaster they were against him, from Virginia down. If he went to her politely with a thousand-dollar bill and asked her to take it as a gift she would refuse to so much as look at him. And yet, as a matter of fact, he was the same old laughing Wiley--only now he did not laugh. It was not right, but it could not be helped.
A long and weary month, full of vexatious delays and nerve-racking demands from his creditors, left its mark on Wiley"s face; but in six weeks the mine and mill were running. Three shifts of men broke the ore at the face and sent it up the shaft to the grizzly and from there it was fed down through the enormous rock-crusher and then on through the ball-mills and rollers to the concentrating tables below. It was crushed and sorted and crushed again and ground fine in the revolving tubes, and then it was screened and washed and separated on vanners until nothing but the concentrates remained. The tail sluicings were sluiced off down the gulch, to add to the mighty dump that the Paymaster had left there in its prime. But even at its best, when it was working in gold ore that ran three or four thousand to the ton, even then the famous Paymaster had not turned out treasure like this.
The banks were full of gold--they were shipping it to America in lots of ten and twelve million at a time--but tungsten was rare, it was necessary, almost priceless, and the demand for it increased by leaps and bounds. How could iron-masters harden the tools that were to turn out the mighty cannon that this gold had been sent over to buy, unless they could get the tungsten? Molybdenum, vanadium, manganese, and all the subst.i.tutes were commandeered to take its place; but month by month the price of tungsten crept up until now all the West was tungsten-mad.
It had gone up from forty dollars to sixty, and now seventy, for a twenty-pound unit of concentrates--running sixty per cent or better of tungstic acid--and as Wiley resumed his shipments he received a frantic offer of seventy-five dollars a unit. And then once more he smiled.
There had been a time when he had felt the cold hand of Blount closing down on his precious mine--and the other banks had refused to take over his notes. The property was not his, there was nothing tangible upon which to make a loan; and then, Blount had pa.s.sed the word around. Wiley was indebted to him, and heavily indebted, and when he took the apple there would be no core for the rest. But now in a week the whole situation had changed and Wiley"s smile brought forth answering smiles.
The general store in Vegas extended his credit, even his supply-house had heard the good news; and Blount, who had grown arrogant, became suddenly friendly and fawning, trying vainly to cover up his hand. He was like a man who had clutched at a treasure and discovered himself a little too soon. The treasure was still Wiley"s but--well, Blount was used to waiting, so he smiled and extended the notes.
At three dollars and more a pound it would not take many tons of tungsten to put Wiley safely out of the hole, but when he ran over his accounts he was startled by the bills that were piling up against him. A thousand dollars was nothing to these mining machinery houses and his payroll was over two hundred a day; and then there was powder and timber and steel, and gasoline and oil, _and_ the freight across the desert. That went on everything, twenty dollars a ton whether they hauled both ways or one; and with so much at stake he had to treat everyone generously or run the chance of being tied up by a strike. Nor was there lacking the sinister evidence of some unfriendly if not hostile force, and as breakdowns recurred and unexpected accidents happened, Wiley came and went like a ghost. His gun was always on him and he watched each man warily, seeking out his enemies from his friends.
As for Virginia and her mother, he had long since given up hope of stopping their venomous tongues; and Death Valley Charley, finding the pressure too strong, had conveniently dropped out of sight. In all that town, which he had found dead and unpeopled and had changed in a few months to a live camp, there was not a single soul that he could truthfully say was honestly and unquestionably his friend. It was not that they were against him, for most of them realized that their own success was bound up with his; but they were not actively for him, they did not boost and help him, but joined in on the old anvil chorus. He had cheated the Widow, he had beaten Virginia out of her stock, he had taken advantage of Death Valley Charley! But, they added--and this was what galled him--what else could you expect from the son of Honest John?
Wiley gritted his teeth, but he did not speak his mind for the hour of vindication was at hand. When he had paid off his notes and his bills for supplies the first thing he would do, even before he took over the mine, would be to buy in Blount"s Paymaster stock. And with that stock in his hands, with every tell-tale endors.e.m.e.nt to prove the d.a.m.ning story of Blount"s guilt, he would go to these old-timers and make them eat their words when they said his father was not honest. But as far as he was concerned, what difference did it make whether they considered him honest or not? Would they feel any more kindly towards his honest old father when he had proved that he had been faithful to the end? No, they thought they were virtuous and only denouncing injustice, but when that charge was taken out of their mouths they would clack on out of jealousy at his success. It was envy that really poisoned their minds and made them spit forth spleen, envy and chagrin at their own lack of foresight.
The Paymaster dump had lain right at their doorway where all of them could inspect its ore, but no one had noticed the heavy spar. They had called it white quartz and dismissed it from their minds, but he had come among them with different eyes. He had gone to a school of mines, where he had learned to identify minerals, and he had kept up with the mining magazines; and while these poisonous knockers had been lamenting the results of the war he had jumped in and turned it to his advantage.
He had done something practical, to the improvement of industry, something that might change in a certain measure, the very destiny of the world; but the moment he succeeded they had accused him of robbing half-wits and of oppressing the widow and the orphan. Wiley shut down his jaws and smiled dourly.
There was small hope now of changing the widow and her "orphan" but if he could not convert them he could show them. As sure as he knew anything he was convinced that Colonel Huff had simply fled from his wife"s nagging tongue and, when he got the time, Wiley intended to hire a pack-train and set out across Death Valley to find him. Virginia came and went, but always she avoided him scrupulously. Not once since she had returned from Vegas had she met his questioning eyes; and to all his advances she turned a deaf ear, if the statements of Charley could be trusted. The carefully thought out scheme of getting back the Huff stock and then forming an alliance against Blount had died before it was born; or it remained at best in suspended animation, pending Death Valley Charley"s return. He had gone off with his burros but the longer Wiley waited on him the more he saw that Charley was a broken reed. No, the tr.i.m.m.i.n.g of Blount, if it was done at all, would have to be done by him--and all he needed was time.
Two months and a little more lay between him and the day of reckoning--the twentieth day of May. In that short time he must meet heavy obligations, pay off his notes, buy Blount"s stock and purchase the mine; and if anything should happen--if the hoist should break down, the mill blow up, the market for tungsten fail--well, he could kiss the Paymaster good-by. The market and other influences were on the knees of the G.o.ds, but Wiley decided that there should be no more accidents. That was something preventable and no more love-sick engineers were going to use his gearings for a clothes mangle. He engaged two watchmen who were mechanics as well and then he kept watch over his watchmen. Neither by day nor by night did he go down the hill for more than a few minutes at a time and on dark, stormy nights he wandered about like a specter watching the shadows for Stiff Neck George. He was out there somewhere, Wiley knew it as instinctively as he knew that Virginia hated him, and yet he never appeared. He never made threats nor showed himself in the open but, somewhere, he was out there in the darkness; and sooner or later he would strike.
The days dragged on slowly, with cold, March winds and sandstorms boiling in over Shadow Mountain; and then driving rain followed by bright, sunny weather and struggling flowers in the swales. It was spring, in a way, but not the spring of yester-year, with its songs and laughter and high hopes. Wiley felt the old call to be up and away, but his racer remained in its shed. He paced about restlessly, waiting for something to happen, observing the slightest signs--and then he found her tracks in the dust. Virginia had come up the trail in the night and had gone down past the mill. He knew her tracks well and, among the broad brogans of the miners, they stood out like the footprints of a fairy. Wiley"s heart leapt up in his breast--and then it stood still.
Had she come as an enemy or a friend?